Another Wedding!

This past Saturday, Jeremy's little sister got married. Kennedy and Ansley were both flower girls again, along with our niece Chelsea. They made the cutest little trio of flower girls! We were just happy that Ian and I could attend, considering that Ian's due date was the day before the wedding! We are very glad he came early! Although he had no job in the wedding, he did look awful cute in his "tux."

Kennedy and Ansley sure do love their little brother. Today Ansley and I were looking at Ian together and she put her arms around me and said "I really like Ian. He's my very best boy!" They are constantly smothering, I mean, kissing and hugging him, and always asking if they can hold him. We have found many papers around the house that say "I love Ian" written by Kennedy.

Speaking of Kennedy, her last day of school before break is tomorrow, and then Thursday we are heading up to Peoria for just under a week. My entire family will be together for Christmas this year, so we are very excited for that!

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Not only do we have our first Christmas as a family of five to celebrate, but December 30 is Jeremy and my ten-year anniversary! How time flies! Then shortly after that I will celebrate my birthday, followed soon by Ansley's third birthday! Lots of fun times ahead!

He's Here!

Despite all the changes my doctor made, Ian decided he would be the one to pick which day he would be born. Around 11:oo Sunday night the 28th, I started having contractions every 4-5 minutes or so. They came out of nowhere, and I tried to ignore them, but they kept picking up. We decided to call the nurse at the hospital who told us we needed to come in so I could be monitored. Luckily, Jeremy's mom was already at our house, so we didn't have to figure out what to do with the girls.

We arrived at the hospital and they gave me an IV hoping it would stop the contractions. However, they continued to get stronger and closer together. Finally around 1:30 am, they gave me a shot that stopped the contractions and told us we would have a c-section around 6 am.

The surgery didn't get started until about 7:15 and by 7:38 am, our little guy was here! He weighed 8 lbs. 6 ounces, and was 21 inches long. Initially, I thought he looked a lot like Kennedy, but many think he looks like Ansley. We don't get to go home until Friday, so we are just hanging out and recovering for the next few days. He's doing well, and I'm feeling pretty good too! Here are a few pictures from our week.

This is from Sunday morning. Wowzers, I was huge! We had no idea what was coming that night!

Do you think they are just a little excited?

Yet One More Change...

Well, our baby will be here one day later than we had planned due to a change in the hospital's schedule. Our c-section is now at 11:30 on Tuesday, November 30th. Not a huge deal, but it was kind of a bummer to have to add a day onto our countdown! Jeremy took an awesome picture last night of what we think was a knee sticking out in my belly. It was crazy! However, I will not share that with you, due to the fact that my belly looks like a road map with all the stretch marks all over it. It grossed me out to see it from the angle he saw it, so I will not put my blog readers through that!

We had a very untraditional Thanksgiving at Cracker Barrel today with Jeremy's grandma and great-aunt. The food was actually fantastic and came complete with yummy pie! Now we are at home relaxing and napping, while watching gigantic snowflakes falling from the sky! Our deck already has a nice little coating on it! Hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving day!

Update to the Update

Wouldn't you know, not long after I posted the last blog, my doctor called with our c-section date. It's actually even earlier than we expected. Our baby boy is scheduled to enter this world on Monday morning, November 29th! Guess I better get off the computer and start getting busy!

Baby Update

Since I know you are all sitting around checking my blog daily just wondering what is going on in our lives, I thought I would give you a baby update. I went for my 36 week appointment on Monday to get a final sonogram to check things out. We learned two things at this time:

1. We have a very big boy on our hands (his measurements show he is already over 8 lbs.)

2. Due to my placenta previa, we have to have a c-section.

I know a lot of people are unfamiliar with placenta previa, but in a nutshell, it means that the placenta is lying too low and covering my cervix, meaning that if I had a normal delivery the placenta would come out first, leaving the baby with no oxygen, and causing a large amount of blood to be lost by me. Obviously these are all very dangerous things. I actually had placenta previa with both girls, but often times when the baby grows it causes the placenta to shift up higher, which is what happened in those cases. However, we did have quite a scare after I delivered Ansley, in which the doctor had trouble controlling the bleeding due to how low the placenta actually was. I definitely would not choose a c-section, however, I was a bit nervous to have a normal delivery after what happened with Ansley. We'll all be much safer this way.

Placenta previa is still a dangerous situation and my doctor has asked me to change my preference of hospitals to one that he would feel more comfortable with me being at. In extreme cases even following a c-section, the doctors have trouble stopping the bleeding and a hysterectomy is required. My doctor plans on having a team of doctors prepared in case this were to happen. Obviously, we are praying it doesn't, and there are no complications.

We are still waiting on a date, as my doctor has to get it scheduled with the hospital and make sure the other doctors that he would like to be there will be. The goal is 10-14 days earlier than my due date, which is December 17th. We are hoping to know by tomorrow what the date will be. Until then, I am getting more and more uncomfortable by the day, sleeping less and less by night, and right now am dealing with an awful cold. Two weeks ago, Kennedy had strep throat, and this past Sunday Ansley woke up throwing up, so we are hoping all of our sick germs will be gone before Ian gets here!

Halloween Party

This is a little late, but last Thursday I got the pleasure of helping Kennedy's class with their Halloween Party. I had signed up to be a volunteer, but only two other moms besides me had volunteered as well, so I think I became a "room mom" by default--which is totally fine, I just hadn't signed up to be one given the fact that I will be out of commission soon and then will have a 2 year old and newborn to look after. Luckily the other two moms were super organized and had some great ideas, so I just had to help with some of the preparation of treat bags, etc. We had a pirate-themed party and the kids seemed to have a blast! I love being able to spend time in Kennedy's class with her and see how she interacts with the other kids. She's really growing up! Here are some pictures from the party:

Walking the Plank

We went on a treasure hunt and Kennedy found the treasure!

The treasure was hidden in the music room and the music teacher made the students have a "dance-off" to see whether he or the students were the better dancers. Whoever danced better got to keep the treasure...the kids won! :)

Look at my cute pirate!

Enjoying the snack

Report Card and Other Things

Today was our first parent/teacher conference for Kennedy this year. She's doing great, and her teacher had nothing but wonderful things to say about her. We are very proud of how well she is doing, and how much she is adjusting socially. We were so worried about her shyness, but she seems to be breaking out of her shell more and more each week! She also got her first report card and got all M's and +'s. I know what you're thinking--what the heck does that mean? Basically it's the best "grades" she could get. Her P.E./Art/Music teachers use M's and her main teacher uses +'s. She got to eat dinner on the "special plate" tonight in honor of her awesome report card.

We are excited for Halloween this weekend. There's no school this Friday, or the following Monday, so we have a nice long weekend with not much to do. We trunk or treated this past Sunday as the Scooby Doo crew, and had a lot of fun, and are ready for even more fun this Sunday! Here's a picture of us from that night: Velma, Shaggy, Daphne, and Fred!

And finally, one last picture for you. Jeremy took this of Ansley the other night. The girls were taking a bath and he asked Ansley if she was ready to get out. This was her response. I'll let you be the judge as to what it meant!