And baby makes five ....

Well, life certainly has changed for us again!  Very early Sunday morning (5/17/09) at 12:16 am we welcomed Aaron Patton into our family (yes, that's his middle name!).  After over a week of false labor days, he was nice enough to bless me with a quick delivery at Samaritan Hospital.  Many of you have inquired about how things went so I'll recount our story here.  I began having regular contractions that were 10-15 minutes apart around 9:30 pm on 5/16.  By 10:30pm the contractions were a little over 5 minutes apart and getting stronger.  We called the doctor at 10:55pm and were on the road within 10 minutes.  The hospital is only 15 minutes away but we sped down Rt. 7 (passing 3 cars in the turning lane and running 2 red lights) because my contractions were coming 4 minutes or less apart and very strong.  We arrived at the hospital at 11:25 (ish) where the nurses told me I was 7-8cm.  After several more contractions  (they were coming 1-2 minutes apart now) my water broke, I was 10 cm and the nurse was telling me that she "could delivery the baby if needed" since the doctor wasn't there yet!  As soon as I heard the doctor's voice I began pushing, which was somewhere around 12:05am and within a couple of pushes, Aaron was born!  He was 8 lbs., 2 ozs. and 21 inches long.  I was so surprised as, given my pregnancy size, I was sure he'd only be 7 lbs.!  The doctor was able to get some cord blood into the collection kit and the courier arrived to collect the cord blood within the hour!  I am so thankful to have our new baby boy finally here with us!  He is healthy and, so far, has been relatively easy-going (I know, it's early still!).  We arrived home yesterday from the hospital at 4:30pm and are getting settled in!  People have asked who we think Aaron looks like and I would have to say he looks a lot like Alex when he was born.  Both Alex and Emily have been SO happy to have a baby brother and have been so well behaved throughout the last couple of days!  We are truly blessed!  

As many of you know, we are most likely going to be moving to Ireland for about a year beginning this summer (probably July).  I've been informed that the job of documenting our travels has been officially given to me so I'll use this blog as a primary sounding board and resource for getting info out to friends and family.  

As I look back on the years we've had together as a family, I originally thought that 2007 was a crazy year of change with the construction of the house and job changes for both Tim and myself.  Little did I know that 2009 would trump that year ten-fold!  Thank you to everyone for your continued support and prayers for us as we continue on our journey. 

Keep checking back in the coming weeks for more photos and stories of our new adventures as a family of five.  

The latest Preggo Pic!

Well folks, here it is.... I'm about 15 weeks away from the end of my last pregnancy and here's a picture of me and my baby bump!  The four of us are all getting excited about our impending arrival and I think it's been more pronounced lately because the belly's more noticeable now than ever.  Let the stretching begin!

Change is in the air.....

Yesterday was an historic day for our country, as we elected our first African American President.  And although I didn't vote for Barack Obama, I hope that he make decisions for our country that will not negatively impact our own futures.  

So it seems as though change is upon us, and for my family, in more ways than just one.  Today I accepted a position as a per diem PTA with the Samaritan Hospital Physical Therapy department.  I absolutely love being a stay at home mom and, particularly with the impending arrival of a new family member, am looking forward to hopefully continuing to stay at home with my children.  Although I did miss working with patients over the last year, my primary motivation in searching for work has been a financial one.  Extra income from this position will afford us a bigger cushion to our budget and allow us to live a little more stress-free (in the money department).  I anticipate that I'll mostly be working Saturday and Sunday mornings, but not every weekend, and possibly some hours during the week while Emily is in school.  

Chaos vs. Control

You have to check out this video that I made! It's about a subject matter that is very near to my heart and I think you'll find it interesting and fun!

Moxie's closed... (frown)

I know I had read somewhere recently that Moxie's would be closing near the Labor Day weekend, however, I guess I assumed in my mind that they'd be open still today, being the Saturday before Labor Day.  Wrong!  We mistakenly told the kids that we had a surprise for them after dinner and the only hint I gave then was that we were taking them to a place where they could play.  We were all disappointed when we pulled in and saw that they were closed until next Mother's Day.  We ended up stopping at a little corner stand near Bubie's Garage in Poestenkill and enjoyed some hard serve ice cream.  And since the children were looking forward to being able to "play", we took them to Tamarac's playground for a 1/2 hour of play afterward.  The sun was setting, so we decided to stop at Blockbuster and pick up the original Willie Wonka movie.  All in all, despite the lack of fresh homemade ice cream, it was still a very nice evening with the family.  Now off to watch the movie! .....