Pre-school graduation!

Today was a very big day for Caitlyn...she had her pre-school graduation! She was very excited and was trying to show us how she had been practicing the day before at school. Caitlyn personally invited everyone to her "gradulation" as she called it, even our new neighbors. Bear was even able to get off work for a little bit, so that made her day! When we came into the classroom, all the kids were sitting down on their chairs very quietly. As Caitlyn told us ahead of time, they weren't supposed to get up and say hi to everyone, but they could wave from their chair, so Caitlyn waved like crazy when she saw us.

Her teacher Ms. Pickerell talked a little bit about what the kids have accomplished throughout the year and then it was time for them to show us what they learned. They stood up and and said the Pledge of Allegiance, sang a song about the colors of the flag, and then sang the 5 songs they learned while making their maps of the world. Caitlyn's favorite one is about the countries of South America...she can show you where all the countries are and tell you their names! It was just too cute to hear all the kids sing the songs with their squeaky little voices. My eyes were a little teary, but I was fine until her teacher turned around while she was talking about all the kids and saw me with teary eyes, and she said she couldn't look over at me because she was going to cry too...I swear that leaky eye syndrome is contagious! Then it was time to call up each student to get their graduation certificate and progress report.
Caitlyn did a great job walking up to get her certificate and remembered to shake everyone's hand that she was supposed to. Our neighbors came to watch her "gradulation" and even made a cap for Caitlyn out of construction paper with a ribbon as the tassel that said "star student"...too cute!
Caitlyn wanted to get a picture of her with her teacher and Ms. Mary, the teacher's aide. I know that Caitlyn will miss her teacher, but she is very excited to start kindergarten in Kansas.

It's hard to believe that Caitlyn is already done with pre-school, but she learned a lot and is eager to start reading. We all love you Caitlyn and are so proud of how well you have done this year!!!

Our first week as 5

How time is already flying by...! We have survived out first week as a family of 5 with not too much stress. Caitlyn and Allison are loving having their new baby sister at home to help take care of. Every time Lauren makes any noise, both of them are right there wanting to know what's wrong and what they can do to fix her. Well, Caitlyn wants to help and Allison just covers her mouth and says oh my gosh over and over until Lauren is done crying. One of our fears with bringing home Lauren was that Allison would digress with her potty training and stop using the toilet. We are extremely happy to report that Allison is still doing wonderful! Every now and then she still has accidents, but no more than before. And for some reason, as soon as we brought Lauren home, Allison seems to have tripled in size! I know she hasn't grown that much, but Allison just seems so much bigger now. Caitlyn too of course. She does so well holding her baby sister and loves to every chance she gets! Bear and I are getting used to being parents of a newborn again. But Lauren is a pretty good baby. She has been nursing very well and usually sleeps 3-4 hours at a time. She has been staying awake more throughout the day which everyone gets a kick out of. Her cord came off a couple days ago, so the big girls were very excited to help give Lauren her first bath. The water scared her a little at first, but she calmed down quickly and enjoyed it a little. Here are a few pics from her first week...there would have been more but the camera died.



More to follow soon.

Love
Bear, Erin, Caitlyn, Allison and Lauren

Lauren Rene

Our baby girl has finally arrived!!! Praise God for a very healthy baby and a great delivery! I had an OB appointment Wednesday afternoon and at that appointment, my water broke! We were all just grateful to have made it this far in the pregnancy, but were more than ready to have the baby out. Luckily Bear was able to come to this appointment with me and the girls were staying with a friend of mine, so we just had to make the short walk to the labor and delivery ward next door and get admitted. After getting my first round of antibiotics (I'm a group B Strep carrier) we were able to get out and go walk around for a bit. That was a first for us, so we were excited to not have to stay stuck in our room. I was contracting pretty regularly right off the bat. They were coming every 3-5 minutes, but were tolerable. After getting the second round of antibiotics, the contractions started to dwindle down and talk was initiated about using pitocin. When that came up, I finally said that I was ready for an epidural because I know how pitocin intensifies things. After 2 somewhat painful tries, the epidural was in and we were ready to start pitocin. Shortly after they started the pitocin, they decided to up the dosage to get things going a little better. Then I started getting contractions piggy-backed...2 at a time, back to back, every 30 seconds! Even the epidural couldn't take the edge off those! They turned down the pitocin by half and when they checked me, we were ready to start pushing! After just 4 sets of pushes, she finally made her appearance! Lauren Rene was born at 2:57 AM on 08 May 2008. She weighed exactly 7 pounds and was 19 1/2 inches long. She has a little bit of hair which has sort of a reddish brown color to it, and blue eyes of course! This little turkey has the longest fingers and toes I have ever seen on a newborn! And boy was she hungry right away too! She is doing great with nursing which is a relief for me.



Caitlyn and Allison were more than excited to meet their baby sister! Allison insisted that it was her baby and didn't want to share with Caitlyn initially, but eventually decided that it was okay to share her. Bear's lap is rather full with all his girls to hold these days, but he wouldn't have it any other way!

Now that we are at home, we can all relax a little bit and enjoy Bear having a week off work to spend with all of us. And I was excited and surprised to be able to wear regular clothes...not maternity pants or sweats just 2 days after she was born! Yeah me!!! Our family has truly been blessed again, and we look forward to watching Lauren grow into her own person (with lots of help from her other 2 mothers, Caitlyn and Allison)! Thank you to everyone who kept us in your prayers through this journey!!!