Friday, May 25, 2012

bringing hallie home

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after a couple of days in the hospital, we were ready to bring our baby girl home on may 8th! (if i would have known how little she was going to sleep that first night at home, we may have opted for another night with nurses! ha!) seriously though, we were definitely ready for our family to be together again and to start this journey as a family of 6!

it's tradition for us to have a picture taken of us with our baby as we leave the hospital... but we forgot to emphasize the with our baby part to the nurse who took our picture. yeah, i know she was in a hurry... i'm sure she had things to do, patients to take care of, but come. on. she could have included more of THE BABY in this picture.

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we just had to laugh that hallie was chopped out of the picture... oh well. so while brian was loading up the car, i snapped about 50 pictures of her. she's just so squishably squeezable.

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after stopping at 2 pharmacies for my medication, we finally pulled in the driveway. and here was the scene on the front porch...

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seeing those kids jump for joy over their new baby sister just brought tears to my eyes. and then i saw the precious sign that they made for her.... loved, loved, loved it. it's still hanging in our foyer. i loved watching the kids ooh and awe over hallie before we could even get in the door.

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we finally made it inside, and caroline and amelia wasted no time loving on baby hallie...

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and ethan got straight down to business: showing her his newest lego creation!

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this picture cracks me up! doesn't it look like brian is saying, "don't you dare leave me here with all these kids!"? ha! yep honey, i'm going to target! have fun!

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the kids are still doting on hallie as much as the day we came home with her. praise God for these precious blessings!

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Tuesday, May 22, 2012

naptime? never heard of it...

well, hallie girl, if you are not going to take a nap, i have no other choice than to shove my camera in your face...

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Sunday, May 20, 2012

two weeks ago

has it only been two weeks since hallie was born?! i guess those middle-of-the-night feeding parties with little miss priss are skewing my perception of time right now! i thought her two week birthday would be a perfect time to share some pictures of the day she was born...

aunt kristie snuck up during sunday school to say good morning! here's one last shot of my big ole' belly... (and the hideous green gown does not help things whatsoever!)

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my sweet friend kim and my mom also came up that morning, but by the time they were there, i was on oxygen and on my side with my leg hiked up in the air (trying to get hallie's heart tones to chill)... so not exactly picture-taking material!

fast forward a couple of hours, and here is hallie marie at 3 minutes old!

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i love this one of her wrinkly feet

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measuring her big ole' head...

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but the ironic thing is that hallie had the smallest head of all my babies. and ethan was a very close second. yes, you read that right. my 2 c-section babies had the smallest heads. go figure.

our first picture with hallie.

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and quite a bad one at that! hallie looks like she is mad at brian, and i am a wreck... because of the anesthesia for the c-section, i felt like i could not swallow. it was truly a horrible feeling, and i was pretty panicked about it. the anesthesiologist continually assured me that i was fine as he wiped spit off my face (because I COULDN'T SWALLOWWWWWW IT!), and eventually they gave me some morphine to shut me up.

another one of hallie's first pictures... this sweet swollen baby doesn't look much like hallie to me! it's amazing how much babies change in the first few days.

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while i was in recovery, hallie got some special time with gram.

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hallie also had her first bath while i was recovering. i love mad bath pictures!

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look at all that hair! she'd better have a head full of hair after all of my late-night heartburn!

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the kids came up to the hospital with nana and pappy after church and lunch... and they waited and waited while i was in recovery... finally, after i'd fed hallie and we were settled in our room, the children got the green light to come meet their sister!

brian peeked out in the hallway to see this excited bunch coming our way!

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i love these smiles... and they haven't stopped smiling at baby hallie since!

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my four sweet kiddos! and doesn't amelia just look so old and gigantic now?

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my girls...

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and last but not least that day.... nana and pappy got their hands on baby hallie for the first time.

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we got a little bit of sleep sunday night, and then we had the same cute visitors monday morning! :)

this is one of my favorite pictures from the hospital. caroline has been so joyful about her little sister's arrival, and i can see some special times with them together in the future.

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me and my crew!

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a little later, uncle jeff, aunt kristie, and cousin karina came for a visit! (and brought us lunch!) karina loved the special time she had holding hallie. and hallie is wrapped up in the sweet sweet blanket that aunt kristie made for her!

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my dad and grandma came to visit monday afternoon, too. we are so thankful to live so close to family!

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we almost forgot to get a picture of us with hallie at the hospital! can you tell i'm a wee bit sleepy??

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in addition to family, we were blessed to have several sweet friends come to visit us at the hospital. i am ready to go to bed, so i'm not going to put all of their pictures in this post. when everybody came to visit, it was fun to compare the kids' baby pictures with hallie!

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thanks to heather for snapping this shot of us! i saw a similar picture on pinterest and wanted to try it once hallie arrived... so heather got out her fancy shmancy camera and squeezed into the corner of our room to make this happen.

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we stayed at the hospital until tuesday evening, and we were so ready to be home! be back soon with hallie's homecoming pictures.

Friday, May 18, 2012

the ten newest little toes

DSC_0336 hallie's ten little toes, one day old

(i'm working on hallie's birth day post... but i'm also working on sleeping whenever she will let me!)

Sunday, May 13, 2012

one week old

hallie's first sunday at church! 24 minutes short of being one week old.

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Friday, May 11, 2012

to tide you over...

we are home and are starting to get into a routine with baby hallie here... ohhhh, who am i kidding?! let me start over...

we are home, and we are tired! but it has been a good first few days at home. the kids are loving watching and doting on baby hallie, and i am loving every chance i get to sleep. :) i am thankful to be up and moving around pretty well-- probably doing too much, but that's just the way it is! brian is quick to remind me to take it easy, and he's been super awesome taking care of things around here.

we gave hallie her first bath tonight, and i just can't stop smelling her sweet little head.

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i have loads of pictures to go through from this past week, so hang tight... but i took this one tonite and had to share. caroline was telling hallie good-night after her bath, and i grabbed the camera to snap a picture of brian with them. caroline quickly put her arm in brian's and said, "i'm marrying daddy!"

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check back soon for more pictures of sweet hallie's first days!

Sunday, May 6, 2012

hallie is here!

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hallie marie was born today at 1:04 pm! she weighed 9 lbs, 6 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches long. she has a beautiful head of hair and looks like a great little combination of her big siblings.

i ended up needing a c-section because she was just not coming down (thanks to her big ole' head), and her heart rate was telling us that she wasn't going to tolerate all the pushing much longer. so while i would've loved to have avoided the c-section, everything is fine. she's already nursing well and loves filling those diapers. :)

can't wait to share more pictures of her soon, but i'm falling asleep as i type this... so i'm gonna try to catch a nap while i can!

Saturday, May 5, 2012

tomorrow! tomorrow!

sing with me!

oh hallie's coming ouuuuuuuut
tomorrow!
bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow
she'll be here...

just thinkin' abouuuuuut
tomorrow
supermoon or not,
just one more dayyyy
and we'll cheer...

tomorrow! tomorrow!
i love ya tomorrow!
'cause it'll be hallie's birrrrthdaaaaaaay!

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taken this morning at 39 weeks and 5 days...
the kids can't wait to meet their little sister!

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

bug watchers

the kids were enjoying a nice saturday morning outside while i was enjoying a quiet saturday morning inside. i peeked out the window to see them deep in contemplation over their favorite bug: the roly-poly. (i still remember a two-year-old ethan calling them "ro-pee-oh-ee-oh-ee-ohs" like it was yesterday.)

i couldn't help but grab the camera and waddle out there for a quick picture or two...

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three hours later, they came inside completely filthy from head to toe. yep, it was a good day.