Alanna's Birth

On the evening of Thursday, July 29th, I started having fairly regular contractions. However, they were easy to talk through, weren't really getting any stronger, and by the time I had taken a shower before bed, they had subsided. Great, I thought, I will get to go back to my class tomorrow! At 2:30 in the morning, I woke up feeling like I had peed myself...sorry, too much information, I'm sure! With the other 2 boys I had never had my water break on its own, the doctor had always broken it for me, so this was a new, and very strange experience.

We got up and called the hospital right away. They questioned whether or not it was my waters...not sure why, I don't regularly pee myself, but anyway, we headed to the hospital after taking the boys to Leia and Ryan's house.


Here I am, nervously waiting....

After 2 hours of walking the Labor and Delivery floor in the middle of the night, my contractions were actually subsiding again! I felt ridiculous. If my water hadn't had broken, I would still be home waiting for the contractions to get more strong. I think that I was only dialated to 1 cm.

Finally, Dr. Hintz started pitocin and that's when things started happening. Slow at first, and then very, very suddenly!! I swear it took me FOREVER to reach 3 cm, but then I think I went from 3 cm to 9 in only a couple of contractions. I got an epidural, which only numbed my left leg and by the time the anesthesiologist tried to fix his mistake, I was ready to push. Dr. Hintz was doing a D & C procedure...I heard him tell the nurse that he would be done in 10 minutes and he would be back. Ha! He almost missed my delivery! Adam and the nurses were actually trying to get me to NOT push....seriously, NOT push??? Come on people, there isn't any way you can NOT push.

And here is the result, I'm finally writing about it:) Alanna Rae Thilges was born on July 30, 2010 at 1:20pm, 5 pounds 15 ounces, 19 inches long. What a dolly! :) She wasn't due until August 18th, but I would going to be induced on August 5th.

Her face was covered in angel kisses, or stork bites as others would call them. Adam said she looked like Wolverine. Nice daddy. They have already faded quite a bit.

Aunt Kate with cousins Gabbie and Paxton.

Aunt Jamie.

Big Brother Bennett.

Big Brother Ethan.

Leia and Ryan's daughters, Delphina and Arabella.

Aunt Brooke.

A proud daddy and his little girl.

Nana Thilges.

I can't believe I have a beautiful daughter to love. How blessed can I get??!! Thank you God, allow Adam and I to raise her to know how fearfully and wonderfully made she is. She is a gift from you.

Fall 2009

So, now it seems as though I am only a seasonal blogger. I got sad when I wrote the title of this post...is it really getting to the point that I am only blogging once a season? :(

During October at daycare, Leia sets special days aside for the kids to wear fun outfits. One of the days is favorite sports team day. This picture made me laugh, Bennett looks like one mean, fighting Viking!:)

This was Ethan's first year going trick-or-treating. We practiced trick-or-treating at home and Leia practiced it at daycare, but Ethan didn't say a word all night. He looked just like this all evening long...stunned.

A sweet dragon and a little punkin.

Grandma Smith gave the boys "scary eyes" for Halloween!

Halloween loot! Bennett's first sucker, he's hooked!

Ethan gets to paint a pumpkin each year at Leia's house to celebrate Halloween. He did a fantastic job painting his this year!

Playing in the leaves is what fall is best for!

Bennett walked nearly around our entire block with his favorite walking toy. He was exhausted but thrilled that he could do something all by himself! You could just see the joy on his face as he walked beside his big brother.

We picked out a few pumpkins at the local Pumpkin Patch this year.

Bennett and my cutie husband.

Isn't my ear cover fashionable on Ethan?! :)

Boo!

3-5-8 and a Bunch of Words

Bennett went from 3 teeth to 5 last week, and by the end of this week he will have 8, I'm sure of it! I feel awful for him, his mouth looks like a bumpy, swollen mess. Bring on the tylenol!

Also, Bennett's speech is blossoming so much right now. Some of his new words are: yuck, down, I want that, car, duck, kee (for kitty- or anything that comes remotely close:), and pup.

I have tons of cute fall and Halloween pictures to put on here, I'm getting there.

Oh, and I forgot to put on here that Bennett took his first steps!!!! I put it on my Facebook page, but not here. Anyway, his physical therapist is letting Leia borrow a small bench for him to do exercises on. He was sitting on the edge of it last weekend, stood up, and took a couple of steps towards me. He did that several times, but hasn't attempted anything like it since. He is such a chicken! :)

18 Months!

Bennett turned a year and a half last week! We are so proud of him...little sweetie:)

He finally cut his 3rd tooth, his 3rd tooth!!! I was starting to wonder again if he had anymore than just 2 in there! But now we can see that his top chiclets are about to pop through too. I'm pretty sure there is just going to be an explosion in there soon. Poor thing.

Elmo's getting smaller and smaller, isn't he?! Bennett weighs around 21 pounds right now...we know because we have frequented the doctor PLENTY lately. He has now had 6 ear infections. He has been on antibiotics 30 out of the last 40 days!:( I don't even want to imagine what that has done to his system, although, I don't really want him to get tubes yet either.

Tooth-less grin!:)

Favorite face he dishes out...

Yeah, I'm cute, so what?

Bennett is making progress towards walking too. He can walk fairly well holding onto one of our hands and then an object in the other hand to give him security. I see him getting stronger each day, but am getting impatient for him to start walking! He wants to be able to keep up with his big brother in the worst way.

New words: hot, pumpkin, balloon, apple, up. We know he is saying a lot, we just can't understand it all.

Signs: all done, more, drink (on a good day)

Favorite toys: anything that Ethan is playing with at the moment...I'm pretty sure just the "act" of stealing the toy from Ethan is play enough for him. He loves the stereo equipment, VCR, DVD player, cell phones, and Playstation too. That's what we spend the majority of our time distracting him from right now anyway!:) When he isn't stealing toys from his brother he is imitating him, so I would say that Ethan is his best favorite toy of all!

Bennett is quite a firecracker, which I wouldn't imagine him any other way based on the way he came into this world. He has a quick temper and almost appears as if he is going to literally blow up when he wants something or is trying to communicate something. I love this about him, it just reminds me what a fighter he is.

I'm sure there is a ton I'm forgetting to mention about how fantastically wonderful my second born is. We love you to bits Bennett!

2 Teeth!

Bennett has officially cut his two first teeth- his bottom front ones. Finally! :)

Pulling to Stand

Yesterday Bennett was having difficulty falling asleep for his afternoon nap, and when I finally went upstairs to check on him I found the light on in his room and him standing up against the back of the crib! Needless to say, I immediately set up the pack and play in his room so that I knew he could be safe to sleep (although he ended up not sleeping at all!) and lowered his crib all of the way down! I was so proud of him, but a little freaked out as well...what if he had pulled himself up on the other side!!!!

I wish I could get Bennett to actually smile for a picture....

Like his big brother! :)

Only one feeding left!

For the last two nights I have tried to nurse Bennett before bed and he has refused it. He still adores his morning nursing session, but that means we are now down to one feeding a day. My baby is growing up so fast- I know, I know, he is almost 14 months and it may be time, but it still makes me a little sad. I have loved nursing both the boys- Ethan for 13 months (I got pregnant with Bennett while nursing him) and now Bennett for around 14 months (I secretly hope he wants his morning session for at least a little bit longer:)

Ethan's New Bed!

Ethan has finally moved to a new bed. We are super excited. He slept in it for the first time last night and did a great job despite the storm. I thought for sure that he would get up with all of the thunder and lighting!

I won (it felt like a battle!:) his comforter set on ebay for $40 dollars. It is absolutely adorable and his LOVES it. All that we need to do now is some wall art- a summer project!

Here is his new room with his "comfy" bed- that is what he likes to call it.

Golfing With Dad

Ethan went golfing for the first time last weekend. He had a blast! The even saw a train which Adam captured on video and Ethan talked about the rest of the day! (The videos are on the bar on the side)

The beautiful choo-choo!

A note for me to remember: Ethan has been having a difficult time with being scared of bugs for about a month now. I have read that this is completely normal for his age- at around 3 years old a child's imagination really grows- and with a big imagination, things can seem bigger/scarier/more exaggerated than they really are. We are just trying to expose him to bugs in a safe, non-threatening way, and comfort him without putting him down, and hopefully he will work through it soon!

Getting Stronger Each Day

Look at Bennett standing on his own! He is now pulling himself to a kneel and has even pulled himself to stand a couple of times. We are so proud of him, of course. He looks so adorable standing next to Ethan. Bennett is also waving and saying bye-bye!

Go Bennett! Sorry this video is side-ways!:)