Eric, Hillary, Q & A

What better time then 4 am to update the blog! Well we added a new family member to our little family. Audrey Jane was born on August 13, 2015. She weighed in at a whopping 6 lbs 14 oz. and was 20 inches long.

For those of you that care about the birth story you can keep reading. If you dont and just want to look at pictures scroll down.

I made it to 39 weeks with Audrey, although I think they miscalculated my due date and I should have been at 38 weeks. But thats ok! I was SOOOOOO over being pregnant! With Q I only made it to 36 weeks, so this was the longest I had been pregnant. I was miserable. I had no energy to chase around Q, I wasn't sleeping very well and I had terrible heart burn. I went to my foot zoner with the soul purpose to put my into labor. She was awesome and while I was there I started having contractions, however these felt different then Q so I wasn't sure if they would stick around. I drove home from my appointment still having twinges of pain but again it didn't feel like my contractions with Q so I ignored them. About an hour after I got home I called Eric and told him he needed to come home immediately. These contractions/twinges were really really painful and I couldn't hide it from Q. Every time I winced he kept asking me what was wrong, and kept petting my head. He is a super sweet little boy. I was trying to brush it off and play with him and laugh so he didn't get too concerned. But i was super relived when Eric got home. He had called his mom who was on her way over, so she could take Q while we went to the hospital. I got him all excited for his fun day at Grandma and Grandpa Dolders house, and he basically ran out the door when she got here.

Eric and I then headed to the hospital, which is about 25 minutes away. At this point I knew I was in labor, it was still feeling different then Q, mostly that it hurt a LOT more. I mean I couldn't talk through the contractions and it was like an intense stabbing pain. Q's contractions were just more annoying then anything. Got to the hosptial, got all hooked up to the monitors, started my IV (in the car I decided I wanted an epidural... I was thinking of trying to go natural but this was really painful). Doctor showed up, said I was dialated to a 3, I knew I dialated fast so she said she would stick around.

Here is where the story gets awful. My epidural took 2 hours to kick in. I'm not sure of all the details, but the anesthiaolgist was trying to get it to work for 2 hours! I almost started crying. At first one of the needles wouldn't push the medicine in, so he had to start all over. Then it was only working in my legs. There were a lot more problems, but I wasn't really aware of them, because my water had broken right before he came in, and I'm pretty sure I passed out. Once my water broke my contractions were continuous. There was only about a 30 second break between each one. I dont really remember the labor aspect very much. I remember being in a ton of pain, and asking why the epidural wasn't working, I then getting really hot and thinking I was going to throw up, so I asked for a fan. At some point I was put on an Oxygen mask that I was told to keep breathing into.

At some point the pain went away, and I was able to relax a little. My doctor rechecked me and said I was now at a 10 and could push whenever I wanted. I however was exhausted from those 2 hours and just wanted to rest. But the baby had other plans, and I couldn't stop the need to push. Thankfully my doctor was still in the room, so when I said I wanted to push she had everything ready to go quick. 2 pushes later Audrey was born. Eric said it was literally a minute and a half of pushing. Remember at this point we still had no clue if she was a boy or girl. We had decided to be suprised so we were super excited to find out. She wasn't breathing when she was born so she was wisked away and Eric didn't get to see if it was a boy or girl, so he went over to where they were checking on her and said it was a girl! Then he was able to hand her to me, cause she was crying at this point, and again, I almost started crying! I knew the instant I held her that her name was going to be Audrey. That wasnt the name I thought we were going to name her, but when I held her it just came to me and I knew she was Audrey.

She has been a super sweet baby ever since. She doesn't cry nearly as much as Q and all I want to do is cuddle her! Q got to meet her on Friday and seemed to like her, although he was more excited to play with his grandmas and grandpas. My mom and dad flew in on Friday and hung out with us.

We were able to go home on Saturday, and my parents took Q to the zoo so we could relax and do nothing once we got home.

For our 6th Anniversary we went extra special and went to John Howie. Neal and Michelle had been raving about it, so we were excited to try it! The fried bacon was pretty amazing!! It has a special maple syrup spicy sauce that goes on it. Could go there just for the bacon and be happy.

Before dinner though Eric and Q had a little golf practice. Eric ordered these golf balls that glow in the dark. They are pretty sweet. At night it is fun to watch Mike and Eric hit the balls from their deck onto the green.

Q got tired so he decided he wanted to watch. He is so funny where he picks to sit and watch.

A few days later Q woke up coughing, so we gave him a little more of his breathing treatment, but as the day went on it seemed he kept getting worse. By the time Eric got home from work I knew we had to take him to the ER because he was only breathing if he was crying to grunting. When it comes to struggling to breath they have a scale from 1 - 12. 1 is breathing fine and 12 is really struggling. When we first got there Q was ranked at an 11. So they immediately put him on a nebulizer. Unfortunately nebulizers take a lot longer for Q then most kids. They should only take about an hour from start to finish, but because the medicine makes Q's heart rate increase to really high levels we have to keep stopping to let his heart rate get back down to a lower level. Since he was so high we were really worried that he would have to stay the night. We said a lot of prayers and gave Q a blessing, and luckily when they came back to re rate him, he scored a 3! So we got to go home!

This last week has been SO HOT! My apartment still doesn't have air conditioning and being pregnant it makes the heat unbearable. So we went to a splash pad with a playgroup from church. He had so much fun!

Then that night we went to the Lake with Eric and the Bastians. They have an inflatable little boat that we took out. Q thought it was a blast. We may have to buy one!

Then we went up to Lake Stevens and enjoyed the lake as well. This water was a lot colder then Lake Washington. Q still had a ton of fun playing in it though, and we did bring a little inflatable tube that he thought was amazing. He just like floating around in it. My kind of day at the lake.

We also found a townhome to rent! Eric officially got his job in Bothell so we found a fabulous place near by. We got the keys on June 1st and will slowly move in once Eric is done with school. We are excited to move to a HUGE townhome... its like 3x the size of our current apartment. We are going to miss all of our friends but luckily we can still come visit anytime we want.

Q and I went to San Jose to visit my mom. My dad was going to be in Chicago all week, and she wanted company. Q and I were happy to help.

We went a few days before my dad had to leave though so we could spend some time with him too! On Friday we went to the Monterrey Aquarium. My cousin Liz and her 3 kids came down from Tracey to join us. Q LOVES her daughter Anna. I think the feeling is mutal because she was with him at all times.

While looking at the Hammerhead Sharks he only would let Grandpa hold him. He was a little scared of such big fish, but Grandpa got him smiling. I love this picture!

Q is making a Fish Face here. He was trying to talk to the Fish.

See what I mean by Love?

The next day, Saturday, my Dad had tickets to the Giants game in San Fran, or "The City" as the locals call it. We were kinda just expecting decent seats.

No, no- we got like 15 rows behind home plate. With our own eating area! Also it was Metallica Day so we were able to rock out with Metallica!

The stadium has the cutest little area for little kids. They have a place where they can hit and run the bases. Q was pretty excited, however when it was his turn to hit the ball and run, he hit the ball then ran into outfield and rolled around. We may need to work on what you do AFTER hitting.

On Monday, my mom and I took Q to a petting zoo/kid amusement park.

He was terrified of both the Carosel and feeding the goats. It was super funny. His favorite activity was playing on the slides and just running around.

The rest of the week we just hung out around my moms house, did some shopping and played. We were both super sad to go home, but excited to see Eric. Cant wait till we get to go back and do it all again!

WARNING: This will be picture overload since I have 5 months of activities to catch up on.

Basically since Christmas I feel like life has gone non stop! We spent Christmas in San Jose at my parents new house. It was awesome, we went on adventerous, exploring this new area that my parents now call home.

First thing we did, was take Q on a train. As you can see from the picture he was pretty excited.

Q loves his cousin Ellie.

We then went with Donald, Emma and Ellie to Half Moon Bay. Donald and Eric dreamed about when they could play the course.

Then we had to do a Christmas Train ride. Next year we are going to do the Polar Express. It will be awesome. Q still loves the train whistle Santa gave him. I tend to hide it.

My Dad got a Ricochet car for Christmas so we went to the church parking lot and played with it. Q both loved it and feared it. He liked when it would drive away and hit the curb, but if it was coming back at him he had to run away or be held. He loves his Grandpa!

We couldn't make a trip without going to Pebble Beach. It was SO beautiful! We had lunch there and again, the boys dreamed about playing the course.

Another day we all went to Monterey to walk to boardwalk and play in the ocean! It was pretty cold since it was December, but so beautiful!

After Christmas, Eric and I went on the company cruise I had been planning. There were over 500 people on this cruise that I was in charge of! I had been planning it since August, and was so excited that it was finally here! We went to the West Caribbean, which was tons of fun. The trip included activities every night, like Disco Parties, Formal Night, White Out Party. During the days we went on Zip Lining excursions, Cave Tubing, and just days and the coolest beaches. Writing about it now makes me want to go back!

Don't mind the picture. This was taken just after we watched the Seahawks play to go on to the Super Bowl. There were only 4 people in the entire bar rooting for the Seahawks. It was super intense. While we were celebrating the other 2 people accidentally spilt their beer on me, but since we were late for formal night, I only had time to change my clothes and run to dinner. Oh man, that game was amazing.

We also went to a Seahawks game in January! We are already making plans to go to another one.

Right before we went on the cruise we found out we were pregnant. Had no clue. I know I'm one of those didn't know I was pregnant annoying people. We decided not to find out what we are having. We figure since the pregnancy itself is a surprise we are going to keep everything about it a surprise.

For my Birthday Eric got me an overnight stay at Salish Lodge with a massage. It was amazing! Eric's parents watched the little monster for us.

For Erics Birthday, his dad dropped the cake on him, and I got him tickets to the US Open Golf tournament in June. He is going to have so much fun!

The rest of the time has just been going to Mariner Games with Neal and Wilson. They are the cutest buddies.

Playing with Trains

Trips to the Zoo

Trips to St. George to visit cousins and attend baby Showers. St. George was SO much fun! We played in the pool and went to the park. Also went to the Sand Dunes!