First trip to the lake

A couple of weekends ago we went to Lake Cumberland and stayed on Anthony and Jenny's houseboat. They have a ton of baby stuff there so it was nice not having to lug everything down there. I was hesitant about going at first, but so glad we went. It was really nice weather and Kate slept the best she ever had! Plus, Addie had a great weekend with hardly any meltdowns, attitude, etc. Addie adores her "Aunt Jen Jen" and Uncle Anthony so she hung out with them more than us. :) I couldn't get in the water but still enjoyed a relaxing weekend. We kept the houseboat at the dock, but I guess the slow movement made Kate sleep well. Kate usually sleeps until about 2 or 3 a.m. but then has a hard time going back down to sleep. She went right back down there! Yahoo! The drive home went MUCH better on the way home than on the way to the lake. On the way there we had way too many stops, but I guess that can happen when traveling with a newborn and a three-year-old that can get carsick. :) Enjoy pictures from Kate's first trip to the lake.


Taking a dip in the lake

Swimming in the lake at the dock. Addie was pretty timid last year in the lake water, but now she loves to swim on her own in her life jacket.

I love this picture with Layton and Addie fishing off the fishing boat with Jeremy

Abigail really likes Kate

We ended up taking the fishing boat to a shore so the kids could play and swim. I was really nervous at first taking Kate out, but Jenny assured me she had a newborn life jacket. Who knew they even made life jackets this small? We didn't go very fast or very far and Kate didn't mind the jacket at all. She is so little in it!

Hanging out on the boat while the kids swim

Love her!

Addie loves to collect rocks and play in the dirt. She is not always all girl!

Cute Abigail...she is such a peanut!

You can just tell in this picture how much she loves going to the lake

Jeremy and Addie fished Sunday morning. Apparently all Addie did was throw the bait in the water! Ha!

I think these two have seen the dogs do this too much

On the way back to the dock on Sunday. Can you tell the kids were ready for a nap?

First trip to the zoo

A couple of weeks ago I took both girls to the zoo. It was my first real outing with both girls without Jeremy. We met up with Jenny, Abigail and Layton along with Jeremy's cousin, Ashley, and her two kiddos. Kate slept through her first trip to the zoo. :) I forget how easy newborns can be when you are out and about. It was beautiful day and a lot of fun!

The bigger kids in the wagon...

Kate was awake when we got there, but soon fell asleep

I LOVE this photo of Abigail. She is so cute!

Addie playing with Abigail at the splash park at the zoo

Mommy and daughter

Melia, Layton and Addie posing

Weekend update

The first weekend of August we went to Randy's daughter's wedding party. Jennifer and Chris got married in early July in a small ceremony and had a party in August to celebrate. I was feeling pretty good so I decided to go as well. Kate was not even two weeks old so we kept her in the car seat almost the entire time so strangers wouldn't touch her. :) It was a fun evening!

Love this photo of our peanut

Cutting a rug!

So cute! Abigail loved dancing!

Addie LOVES Abigail!

On Sunday we went to church. It felt great to be at church and see so many people. Once again Kate didn't get passed around, but everyone loved seeing her.

After church the Klines came over from Evansville to visit. It was so nice to spend time with them! We don't seem them enough. Brooke is pregnant with a baby boy due in October and she looks fabulous! Here Garrett is practicing holding a little baby.

Look at these two...

Addie and Garrett played outside. Garrett didn't seem to mind the pink princess car too much. :)

I think this photo should be in Garrett's wedding video. Ha! What do you think, Brooke?

When did she get so big?

That evening we gave Kate her first real bath. Addie loves to help out with bathtime.

That Sunday, August 7th, we celebrated 7 years of marriage. We didn't get to do much of anything to celebrate, but I think both of us were very content spending time with our new family of four! When I married Jeremy I knew I was marrying my best friend and hoped we would get to have children together. I did not know what an incredible father he would be (I once again hoped so) at that time! I have had many people over the years tell me just from observing him they can tell he is a great dad. I couldn't agree more. I am blessed to call him my husband! To many more years...

First week home

I'm trying to catch up on posts and photos. It's been quite a crazy week for us (more to come).

We have had lots of visitors over the past few weeks. Below are a few pics of some from the hospital.

Jeremy's mom, Betty, and Randy soon after delivery

Addie got a princess sleeping bag for being a big sister. She loves anything to do with Disney princesses! It has already come in handy! Addie's room is also the guest room now so my mom stayed in her room and she slept in her sleeping bag.

My parents came in town for a couple of hours to meet their new granddaughter.
Tara and her boys were in Tell City and came to the hospital for a quick visit on their way back home. Brady loves babies!

Kelly came to meet Kate. Kelly helped us out by coming to our house at 3:00 a.m. when we to the hospital (second time). She was there in the morning to hang out with Addie and get her to daycare. Kelly said Addie was super excited to hear that her baby sister was coming. Addie wore her Big Sister shirt to daycare, brought her babydoll for practice and told everyone "My baby is popping out today!" :) Thanks for all of your help, Kelly!

The first week home went really well. My mom came in for the week and our Sunday School class brought meals every other day. My recovery was still going well and Kate was doing well with feedings and sleep. Addie adjusted well, except for us dealing with the typical 3-year-old girl tantrums, attitude, talking back, emotions and not listening! Ha!



I love baby feet!

It has been sooooo nice to get out of the house in warmer weather (compared to Addie being born in February). Here is Kate's first walk. Her hair looks red when she is outside. We'll see what it ends up looking like and if it will be curly.


Hanging outside on a nice evening

Love this photo!

And I had to get one of her crying...:)

Labor and delivery story

Apparently my body likes to labor for a long time! My labor with Kate was just as long with Addison. It all started Sunday night/Monday morning when I thought my water had broken. We held off for a little bit, but decided to go into the hospital around 3:00 a.m. I was checked and was only 1 cm. My water had not broken despite having a lot of fluid. I had contractions, but they weren't very close together. They decided to send us home and we got back to the house around 6:00 a.m.

During one of my contractions at the hospital the baby's heartbeat had dropped so the doctor wanted me to come into the office to get an ultrasound to check on everything. I continued to have contractions, about 40 minutes apart, up until the late morning appt. Everything looked great with the baby at my appt. so they sent me home to continue to labor. Fun times! I was 2 cm at the office. I had contractions all day long, still not close together, but around 11:00 that night they really started to kick in. I had to take a long hot shower in the middle of the night to help with the pain, especially because I was having back labor. My contractions were about every 10-20 mins by then, but the intensity and pain was like nothing I had experienced before! We called the doctor even though I was supposed to wait until they were 7 minutes apart. We went back to hospital around 3:00 a.m. again. I was NOT going to be sent home this time if my life depended on it! When they checked me I was about 5 cm. No wonder I was in so much pain!!!

As soon as we got to the hospital the contractions got a lot closer together. By the time I was in my labor and delivery room I was 6 cm. The anesthesiologist finally got down to my room, but had a really hard to time getting the catheter of my epidural in. I had several contractions while she was doing it. Jeremy said the last contraction before the epidural kicked in was really high on the monitor and lasted a minute long. Ouch!!! She finally got it to work and I was 7 cm around 5:00 a.m. I went quickly to 8 cm. We thought I would be pushing soon and I would be having a morning baby again. Unfortunately my blood pressure dropped and my contractions almost stopped. We waited for hours for things to progress. Finally after several rounds of Pitocin they finally broke my water and I was eventually ready to push. I didn't have to push
very long and she was here!

They did kangaroo care at the hospital where they keep the baby in the delivery room for quite some time and encourage the mom and baby to be skin-to-skin for an hour. So nice! After they cleaned her up they brought her to me for skin-to-skin, but they quickly realized she was taking quick breaths. The nurse had to pat all over her chest and back until she "transitioned". Her coloring was much better along with her breathing.

We hadn't named Kate until after she was born. We were down to a few names and I told Jeremy it was his turn to name the baby since I had the final say on Addison Grace. He shocked me with "Kate" about 20 minutes after she was born, even though we both liked it, because he has loved the name Reese for years. Ellen is my middle name, my mom's middle name and my great-great-grandmother's middle name.

After Addie's delivery I got really sick to my stomach so they gave me medicine that made me pass out for a few hours. It was nice to enjoy some time in the delivery room and afterward with family this time around. Once I got up to my room I had immediately since it had be about 20 hours sent I last ate.

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to write this down to document it all. Enjoy pictures below of the first hours of Kate's life! More updates and pics to come.


Here she is!

Much smaller than Addie. Addie was 8 lbs 7 oz while Kate was 7 lbs 4 oz. That surprised me! You can tell here that her coloring is bad.

Although her coloring wasn't right here yet, I think she looks a lot like Addison here.

Smitten already!

Cute feet!

She started sucking her thumb pretty soon after delivery. Too cute!

Big sister meeting her little sister

So sweet! It's crazy how much they look alike, well at least as babies.

Me and my girls!