Two Pictures of Andrew

80 Cents and a Pair of Tweezers

My children have been doing more than their fair share of watching videos lately. Of course, before having kids, I was totally convinced of the evils of television and "electronic babysitters." Ha ha. That fell by the wayside pretty quickly with the arrival of the twins and my subsequent overwhelm-ment (is that a word?) Things started to go bad about a week before Andrew was born. The DVD player was being fussy and the VCR upstairs wouldn't take any tapes. Finally, Scott and I decided it was time for some new equipment. As we unhooked the old electronics, we would hear rattling inside them. All told, we rescued 80 cents and a pair of my tweezers from them. There is still some rattling, but we can't seem to get anything else out. Unfortunately, this did not improve any of the operations. Oh, well. It was time for some new technology anyway.

Joseph Turns 4!

Happy 4th birthday to our Joseph. We're proud of you for being such a good kid and good big brother!

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We only had two weeks to claim having four children under four years old. It was fun!

Baby Mary

Check out my sister Shannon's blog to see the newest family member! (yes, even newer than our Andrew!) Congratulations to Shannon, Jeff, big brother Kolbe and big sister Libby.

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http://kdandliberty2.blogspot.com

A very special Mother's Day

It was a particularly touching Mother’s Day for me this year with a new baby. Something about a newborn really brings out the mothering feelings – maybe it’s all of the hormones. But, I was also realizing the sacrifices of mothers just don’t end when your kids leave home. My own mother is using most of her vacation for the year to help us out for a few weeks. She also has to miss the birth of my sister’s third baby. Shannon will be induced on Tuesday. This is quite a sacrifice, not just for her, but for Shannon as well. We’ve been able to be around for each others’ births (at least with in a few days), but we won’t be able to see each other for a few weeks.

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After Andrew's first bath at home. He was a little mad about the whole affair, but calmed down once he got dried off.

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Proud brother Joe
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Patrick trying his hand at burping Andrew.
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On Thursday, I started to notice that I was having an alergic reaction to my pain killer. Half a bottle of Benadryl and three days later, I was feeling better and not so itchy. It was kind of a crummy way to spend a few days, but all is well now, and a little batch of hives is nothing compared to the issues we've had in the past!

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Happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderful mothers in our lives: Great-grandmothers Rita and Lois, Grandmas Kathy and Judy, Godmothers Shannon, Kelly and Katie (and soon-to-be Janelle) and all of the other wonderful great aunts, cousins and friends that inspire us to be the best mothers we can be! We love you all!!

Coming Home

Luke, Joe and Patrick inspect baby Andrew to make sure he's acceptable.

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Andrew does a little inspecting of his own. He loves to look at Grandma!

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Andrew sports his super cute coming home outfit that Grandma bought him. The shoes were just precious dangling from those little birdy legs. We got to go home Monday morning. We could have stayed another day, but everything was healing well, and we thought Grandma needed a little rescuing after three days with the big boys.

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When we drove up, the boys were enjoying a picnic outside. We couldn't even get into the house without being swarmed by curious big brothers. They were SO excited that Andrew was home.
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We'll have to get a better picture, but the green poster in the window is a welcome home sign that Joe, Patrick and Luke made. Daddy had a much more beautiful (and readable) poster in mind when starting the project, but Andrew and Mommy loved it.

Andrew James

Andrew James

Born May 2nd at 8:15am

8 lbs, 15 oz

22" long

Thank you everyone for the prayers.

Mom and Baby are doing great!

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The Delivery

In the interest of documenting baby Andrew's birth, I thought I should post some shots from the delivery room. They're not exactly flattering, that's why I'm hiding this post a little.

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The c-section was scheduled for 8 am and we had to arrive at the hospital at 6 am. They were just about to hook me up to monitors and start the IV, so Scott took one last belly shot.

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I walked down to the operating room with the nurse and Scott. He had to wait outside for about 10 minutes while they gave me the spinal and were about to start the surgery.

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Within just a few minutes of starting, baby Andrew made his appearance. He came out crying right away and the nurses were giggling because he peed on one of them as they were carrying him over to be wiped off. Apparently he peed two more times before they handed him to us. The above picture is the very first one of Andrew.

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Getting his heart and lungs checked out.

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"Too loud in here!" Andrew had just gotten his foot prints made. He put his feet in this position a lot the first few days.

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This is one of those unflattering pictures. Apparently, the "happy juice" is kicking in. Seriously, though, having a little something to take the edge off is what got me through this surgery without losing my mind. After the twins' section, I never wanted to have kids again I was so traumatized. My good doctor assured me they would take care of me this time around and he was right. What a difference a little drugs make.

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Check out that crying face! We immediately noticed how much he looked like Joseph. This face is one that Joe still makes when he's very upset!

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Daddy gets in the shot. The beautiful caps we had to wear were awesome. Scott's made him look like a conehead - mine was a lovely shower cap model.
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Proud papa holding his fourth boy for the first time. It really was a much better experience than all of the other births. All of the doctors and nurses were wonderful and very caring. Andrew got to nurse in the recovery room. The first night, I didn't want to sleep that much. He was just so much fun to cuddle and look at. You would think that after having three others, this newborn thing would be old hat. However, there is just nothing better than snuggling a precious new baby. He was so soft and helpless. And when a newborn stares at you, there is nothing more mesmerizing. Babies truly are a miracle!