Missouri Trip Spring 2014

Trying to catch up today on the blog! After the baby was born we were lucky to have Mark home for another two weeks...I honestly can't remember much at all now from that...probably not too much to remember really....just a lot of time spent at home with the new baby! It was great. We were able to have the baby blessing before he left though which was good! She looked so adorable in Evelyn's blessing dress! Mark's parents were able to come up for that and my mom, niece Sierra, and her little boy Sawyer arrived the day before too. (They stayed with me after Mark left.)

 On March 25th Mark unfortunately had to leave! :( It always sucks to have him leave but it was nice to actually have this deployment start! We've known about it for so long (almost a year before it happened) so it felt like forever til it came but thank goodness it's begun! Now just counting down til it's over! :) We did take a couple family pics, courtesy of my niece Sierra, before Mark left.

After Mark left we spent some time here at home with my Mom, Sierra, and Sawyer...we didn't really do much cuz 1)not much to do here, and 2)there's not much to do with 4 littles including a newbie! :) We did take the kids to the jump house place one day and the beach another but that's pretty much it. We were all talking one night though and made a last minute decision for me to drive back with them to Missouri and stay for a few weeks! So we spent a few days getting everything in order to do that and a week after Mark left we started the drive! We drove it in two days, which was crazy, but we did it and survived!

I took a few pics of Sierra and Sawyer at the beach when we went :)

Sawyer meeting teh Easter Bunny....Evelyn wouldn't go near him but Sawyer wouldn't leave him! :)

two little trouble makers!

First trip to the beach!

Some of the fun weather we had to drive through....yuck!

The trip home was fairly uneventful...or at least just the normal chaos that is involved in going home :) We spent a lot of time with the family, which the kids loved...well at least Evelyn loved it...she played all day with her cousins like every day we were there. Andrew had a bit harder time of it all...the new baby, Mark leaving, and us going somewhere new was all a bit too much for him. He was starting to be a little rough before we left but while we were there was definitely acting out there...mostly pushing around other kids and pulling Evelyn's and Elizabeth's hair...super fun...(he's gotten better since we got home though thank goodness but still working on him).

One other good thing about us going home was I got to see some of my amazing friends! I was able to see my good friend Jeanie and meet her little 4 month daughter, who is so adorable! Next I saw my good friend Shauna in KC, who is expecting her first baby, a little girl, which is super exciting! We got some good KC BBQ and had fun with the kiddos. It was great! I also saw Rori and Cheryl one day...we got pedicures and had dinner and talked....man I do miss these girls when I'm gone!

Lastly I got to see my bestest friend Sarah, who I was not expecting to see but she came to Missouri on a kind of last minute trip too so I was SUPER excited that the universe aligned and we were there at the same time! :) Anyway, she had a little girl in January so I was able to meet her too! Our little girls are already besties ;)

baby besties! 

and my bestie! :)

I took a few pics of Miss Olive when she visited me on Easter :)

Our last day in Missouri was Easter so here's some pics from that! (Carmen stole my camera for the day so all of these were taken by her...she should move out here and become my second shooter ;)

Love my Momma and Daddy!

Super cute lil' momma here! 

adorable :)

best Easter dinner! Smoked Ribs!

I didn't get to do any photo sessions at home like I wanted, didn't try too hard anyway...except for some pics for the family! So here's a couple from that...

Beautiful Brinlee!

Super gorgeous Jerica :)

The Rivas'

The Combs'

It was really nice to go home and see all the fam and my friends, but I was really glad to go home! Being out of our normal environment and routine is hard, especially with three kiddos! My dear little niece Carmen (who is 17 now...holy cow! all my nieces and nephews are growing up so fast!) drove home with me, thank goodness! We took our time going back though....we drove outside of Nashville the first night and stayed at another friends house, Robin, who I've known since 2nd grade and is actually married to Sarah's brother. We went out to dinner and watched Mean Girls so super good night there :) The next day we drove the short drive to Nashville and took the kids to the zoo for the morning, which was fun. It was a beautiful day for the zoo and a nice stop to get out! After that we drove another short drive to Huntsville to Micheal and Jessica's! We were too close not to stop by :) We stayed there two nights and enjoyed some time hanging out with them. Then we drove the last stretch in one day...which wasn't too bad but the kids were definitely starting to lose their patience for the car, especially the baby! :( She was so good in the car before the trip and on the way to Missouri but really started to dislike the car on the way home and even now doesn't like it much. :( :( :(

Robin's little girl, Jocelyn (who was born on my bday!) and Evelyn! They were instant BFF's!

at the zoo!

I think Evelyn slept more than Andrew in the car!

Carmen was only able to stay with us for a week, which sucked! I wish she could have stayed longer!!! I've been doing ok on my own this past week but it's super nice to have another pair of hands and eyes around! She is such a sweet, spunky, fun girl and I love her! :) So proud of all my nieces and nephews and love seeing them grow up into adults! Weird, but wonderful. :)

Introducing Elizabeth Rose Erwin!

I'm SOOOO annoyed right now! I had this ENTIRE long post written up, saved it, and came back and it's gone....SO FRUSTRATING! I really don't want to retype it! but here we go...

SO after my last post I had my next appt...which I had no progress, which was disappointing but not altogether a surprise since I hadn't felt much going on that week previous. They did an ultrasound...again...to check her growth...still measuring big they said...always nice to hear ;) So the next few days we just fiddled around, waiting waiting waiting...I got some projects done and did our usual stuff. Then Friday, my due date, I had another appt...I can't really remember exactly what they said, I think there was some progress but can't remember now. But nothing that said I was having her anytime soon. Afterwards Evelyn and I went and got pedicures to get out of the house and do something, which was fun. She had never had one before and was a little bit nervous about it all but loved it after the fact.

Saturday was the Navy Seabee Ball, which we didn't go to because 1: we didn't know Mark would be home, and 2: we were hoping the baby would have been there by then! Since she wasn't, I went over to my friend Bev's house where a lot of them were meeting up/finishing getting ready. I got to see everyone all dressed up fancy and took some pics for them while I was there :)

Sunday, I was pretty frustrated by now...I was SO more than ready to be done with this pregnancy! I tried everything I could to help things along but nothing seemed to be helping much. I went to bed that night with nothing happening, then woke up at 2am feeling uncomfortable, went back to sleep...but couldn't stay asleep and by 3am I just decided to get up and do some things while tracking my contractions, which were fairly regular and decent feeling, before I decided to wake Mark up and take a shower. By 4 I called my friend Morgan, who was my night on call girl for the kiddos ;) She came over and at 5:15, which by then the contractions were longer and stronger.

By the time we got to the hospital, checked in, got checked (I was 5cm! woohoo!), got admitted and settled...my contractions slowed down and were pretty non-existent at least to my feeling anyway. By 8 things were still pretty slow and the dr. wanted to break my water but since Andrew came within an hour of breaking my water last time I thought getting my epidural first would be a better idea. :) So I had to get a certain amount of fluids in me before I could get the epidural so between 8 & 9 Mark and I walked the hallways trying to get things going...in that whole time I only had a few contractions that I could feel.

Despite all that I got the epidural done at 9:30, rested a bit, and at 10 they broke my water, which didn't do much so around 11 they checked me and decided to start pitocin to help things along. Every 15 minutes they'd check and up it a little each time cuz I still wasn't feeling too much/they weren't picking up anything strong. But despite all of that, when the dr. checked me at 12:30, I was 10cm! crazy...so she asked me to do a "test" push and then said I was good to go!

They got everything for them ready and I started pushing...which seriously was such a crazy/surreal/weird experience! I still felt nothing, which after Andrew's experience wasn't entirely expected by me cuz I TOTALLY felt the need/pressure that I had to push. I told THEM I was ready to push and this time it was all them telling me....I couldn't tell when I was having a contraction at all! So they'd tell me when one would start, and for each contraction I'd do 3 pushes and after 5 or so contractions there she was! It realy was just so weird! Both Mark and I afterwards were going on about how crazy an experience that seemed because it just went so smooth and nice and painless for me! Yay for good epidurals! ;) I remember kinda laughing while it was happening because I honestly felt kinda dumb pushing when I felt nothing...not that I'm complaining! It was the best birth ever!

So anyway! She was finally here! Weighing in as my biggest baby at 9lbs 5 oz, measuring 21 1/4" long. She was born on Monday March 10th at 1:05pm and was/is perfect! She wasn't as chunky as I was expecting, except for her cheeks :) but was a nice big baby! I got to hold her for a long while after, just like with Andrew, which was so great! Then she went up to the nursery to be cleaned up and everything (she was totally covered in that white stuff! kinda gross...) and I was able to eat and go off to my recovery room. We stayed in the hospital two days, everything went good there...I had great nurses, both for delivery and after, which was wonderful!

My friend Maren, who watched the kids after Morgan, brought the kids up and they got to meet their sister! It was so cute and sweet...Evelyn was SO excited and happy to see her! Andrew was excited too but got distracted by the hospital room :)

So anyway, this is all I'm gonna do for now! Here's a few pics! I'll have to wait til I get home (I'm in MO right now :) to finished up this past month! :) I just gotta say lastly how grateful I am for my beautiful little family and the beautiful new little girl we have! I am SOOOO grateful too that Mark was able to be there for her birth and first couple weeks of life...we definitely got lucky with whoever made the decision to let him come home and I"m so beyond glad it worked out!