Windy Days in IF

Hello Family and friends. I think we have moved to perhaps the most windy place on earth. It was finally a little sunny today, but the wind was so bad that we couldn't stay outside for very long. I decided to take some pics of the kids and a video of William trying to roll over. He has done it twice now, but it was almost a week ago. He doesn't do it in the video, but he sure looks cute. Brant is giving him words of encouragement in a very strange voice. ENJOY!

William Update

I finally took some more pictures of William - the first since he has been home from the hospital. He is such a GREAT baby. He eats well and sleeps as good as you could hope a newborn would sleep. He weighs over 10 pounds already at 2.5 weeks. Brant and Cloe were about 3.5 or 4 months old when they were that big.

William Has Arrived

William is here! I will post some pics and then later tell about his birth.
Here is me about a week and a half before he was born.

Here are some pics right after he was born.



Here are some pics of when Brant and Cloe came to visit their new brother at the hospital.




Here is the story of how he came into the world. Last Tuesday I had my last doctor's appointment. They told me I was dialted to a 1.5 and could have my water broken the next day if I wanted to. Because I had a c-section last time and we were going for a normal delivery this time (called a VBAC) there are some extra guidelines as far as what can be done to induce labor. Danny's mom flew in at 11pm Tuesday night and at 2:30 AM on Wed. morning I started having contractions. At about 5 AM we went into the hospital. I still wasn't dialated more than a 1.5 so at 8 AM they broke my water. Because they wanted to make sure my contactions wouldn't die down once I got an epidural they wanted me to wait until I was dialted to a 4 before giving me one. This didn't happen until about 1 PM. So I labored "naturally" from 2:30 AM to 1 PM. It wasn't too bad until the last hour or two when I thought that the next contraction would probably make me vomit everywhere and make me pass out.
Once I got my epidural things were great, but still very slow. My labor and contraction length finally met the criteria where they could give me some pitocin. By 8 or 9 PM I was dialated to a 5. The next 3 hours passed and I dialated the rest of the way. They let me contract for one more hour to let the baby descend more on his own. Or at least that is what they told me - part of me thinks it was because my doctor was delivering 4 other babies that night and they were trying to schedule things out. Whatever the reasoning it worked becuase I only had to push through 4 contractions and he was out! 8 lbs. 5 oz. 20.5 inches long. He is perfect! We came home Friday night and all is going well - at least with the baby. We are trying to help the kids (mostly Cloe) adjust still.

Fun in the Snow

We got quite a bit of snow the last few days so we got the kids some new snow gear and a sled and went out and had some fun.

Christmas

We spent Christmas with Lynlee's brother Reeve and his family in Bismarck, ND. Here are some pics of the holiday.

Getting ready for the Nativity
Here are some pics from Christmas morning.



These are other pics just playing around.

Christmas for Grandma and Papa in Russia

This is part of the kids Christmas present to Grandma and Papa in Russia.

Brownies for Dad