We're Home!

What a crazy last few days! We are now home safe and sound and more than a little bit weary. Here's how it went:

I got the call Thursday that my sister was going in to the hospital Friday morning for a version to try to turn her transverse baby, or she was going to have a c-section. (She had already decided that she wanted me there if she did have a c-section, just based on my experiences.) So after lunch, we packed up and headed to Fort Polk. We arrived a little after 10 pm, and after getting our stuff in, and settled, we got to bed around midnight. My sister and I got up at 4:30 am (well, she was up most of the night with contractions) to head off to the hospital at 5 am (not so great for the anti-morning person in me!). She got all settled into her room and the OB/GYN came in to discuss the procedure. The anesthesiologist came in a little later to get things started for the epidural (they only do the version with an epidural). We discussed the options for pain management if she went into a c-section. Then she got the epidural, and was wheeled into the OR for the procedure. The OB did an ultrasound to verify postion before they started and she had turned on her own after the epidural! What a blessing! She was back in her room around 8:30 am and they began the pitocin. The family practice doc came in to monitor labor. He took a VERY hands off approach, didn't break her water, and just let her labor and only checked on her after lunch, and then again before he turned her care over to the OB on call for the weekend. We had the strangest nurse for the day shift...it was almost like she was trying to remember how labor went and what she was supposed to be doing. At 7 pm, we got the new staff. The doc was great and so was the new nurse. They tried to hold her off until her hubby got there from Kansas, but he didn't make it...he was an hour away when the baby was born. She was born at 8:05 pm, weighed 8 lb 10 oz, and 20.75" long! I took some pictures, cut the cord, took more pictures and then handed the camera off to one of my sisters friends so that I could go get my kids and get them to bed. I think we got into bed around 10:30 that night. The next day, we took a morning nap before we went up to the hospital. We were able to visit for a while before the nurse from the day shift the day before remembered that there weren't supposed to be any kids under 14 in the rooms. So, we left and I honestly can't remember what we did for the rest of the day Saturday! On Sunday, we went to the commisary to shop for the ingredients I needed to prepare meals. It was so crazy, there were 5000 troops that came home from Iraq, and there was almost no food left there! By the time we finished that and dinner, it was 9:00 pm, so once again...a late night! On Monday I finished the ingredient shopping at Walmart. Then we began preparing meals and we put together 10 dinners and the one we ate that night before calling it a day! We finished dinner around 8:30 and then I had to get the kids baths before bed...so another late night! Today, we checked out of our hotel and went to my sisters house for school before leaving to come home!

We had a very busy, action packed few days! It will be a rough few days I am sure getting back into our routine. We did manage to stay up with school while we were gone. It did help that the older cousins had school to do too!

I have a few other thoughts that I am trying to put together that I will post later. But I will leave you with a sweet baby picture!

My Niece

The TD Family has a new niece and cousin. My sister had her baby last night around 8 pm. Both mom and baby are doing wonderfully! Thank you for all of the prayers, they were answered and everything went smoothly and relatively quickly. I am off to see them again and if it's ok with my sister, I will post pictures.

Going off the Radar

OK, not really, but I will be out for a few days. My sister, Missy, will be having her baby tomorrow and the TD children and me are heading over there for a few days. Please pray for everything to go smoothly...things are looking a little rough right now. I will post more when I know more.

A Big Weekend

We had a fun and very eventful weekend at the TD house! We went on a family hike at Jesse Jones park. I am not sure how far we walked, but we walked various trails for almost 2 hours. The kids played in the park and we had a picnic lunch. I can see that we will be having a few nature field trips there when the plants start blooming. There were so many things that we talked about even in winter, that I wish I would have had a nature journal ready for the kids to take along. I will be better prepared next time.

Examining the Cypress bark with Daddy.

Following Daddy down the trail.

One of the highlights of our trek was seeing 4 deer feeding on the side of the trail. We crept as slowly and quietly as we could closer and closer to the deer. From my perspective, they appeared to be does, but one, maybe two were fawns.

This shot is when we first spotted the deer on the trail edge.

Relaxing at the end of the hike.

Since my sister has not yet had her baby, I was called into duty as the best Aunt ever (OK, it's really just because I live in Houston), to get my niece and nephew to their gymnastics meet in Katy. So, N & C came in on Saturday afternoon to stay the night with us so I could get them to their meet on Sunday. It was a great venue and a fun time. It was the first time I was able to see them compete. N started competing first. She had sprained her ankle at Fridays practice, so she was only supposed to compete bars and beam. Well, she made the decision to compete all events. I guess it was good she did...she placed 3rd on floor! C did very well too. He competed all events and received medals for 3 of them. I don't remember the places, but he got a medal for vault, parallel bars and either rings or horizontal bar, I can't remember which. Unfortunately during his medal ceremony, I was trying to keep my eye on the two crazy girls, Princess TD and N. Here they are displaying their medals.

While Princess TD and I were gone at the meet all day, Mr. TD and Little TD got Little TD's bike ready for him to ride. We got it from our neighbor when he outgrew it last year. It is still in great shape, so we were grateful for the gift. Little TD's tricycle broke last week while he was riding it. It no longer turns the wheel when you pedal (it did go through 3 kids, so I guess it's just worn out), so we had to do something else. We thought we would try the "big" bike before we purchased a smaller one. Well, he LOVES it! He is doing great riding up and down the street, down driveways and up to the sidewalk. It's like he's been riding for ages! I guess he's a big boy now!