Lily Suzanne Hopkins

I'm not sure how many people actually want to read this post it's more for my records, but I wanted to write about Lily's labor/birth before I forget all the details. I will put pictures at the end. Adam and I had the kids go to Kevin and Holly's last night so that we could have a good sleep and be ready for the big day. My induction was scheduled for 7:30 yesterday morning and we got to the hospital at about 7:15. I was nervous, but not as nervous as I was with the other kids, and not as nervous as I thought I'd be. It came more in waves and most of the time I felt okay. It took until about 8:00 to get checked in and get everything started. They checked me sometime after 8 and I wasn't even dilated to a 2 yet. I started getting worried that either the induction wouldn't work or that they wouldn't even try and they'd just send me home. They decided to give me a medicine that would start things progressing without actually using pitocin. They gave that to me at 9:00 and not long after I started having pretty regular contractions. The contractions weren't painful but at least they were every 3 min and so I was hoping they were doing their job. When I got checked at 1:00 I had dilated to a 3 so they decided to start the pitocin. That got the contractions stronger, but they still weren't too painful. They hurt, but it wasn't too bad. The worst part was just how long it was taking to get things moving and how sick I was of being tethered to monitors. By 5:15 I hadn't made any progress (still at a 3) but they decided to go ahead and break my water. With Samantha and Paul that got things moving much more quickly and I was hopeful that it would be the same this time. Almost immediately the contractions became much more painful and I quickly asked for the eipdural. I got the epidural around 6:15 or so. My blood pressure dropped so I was feeling pretty sick for a few minutes. Right at 7:00 I started feeling better and the nurse checked to see if I'd made any progress. I was at a 4. I was starting to get discouraged since I had been in labor for about 10 hours and had only made 2 cm of progress. Granted, most of the time the contractions weren't painful but I was still worried about how long things were taking. Right after 7 a new nurse came on shift and was checking my vitals. I was worried because I was starting to feel the contractions and a little pain on my left side and I didn't want the epidural to not work when it came time to push (that happened with Paul, I felt EVERYTHING). After pushing the booster and having the pain only get more intense the nurse decided to check me and then call the anesthesiologist to get the epidural working. When she checked it was 7:50 and I was at a 10 and ready to push. I decided to go ahead and try to wait for the anesthesiologist to give me a little booster before pushing, which also gave my doctor time to get to the hospital. All of that happened in about 15-20 min and I was ready to go.

One push later and Lily was born! I couldn't believe that I went from a 4 at 7:00 to a baby at 8:16. Since I only pushed through one contraction Lily was born looking perfect, the nurses keep saying she looks like a c-section baby since her head isn't misshapen at all.  She got a 9 Apgar (both times) and has been an absolute angel. I have been feeling pretty good and have recovered fairly quickly. It took a couple hours for the epidural to completely wear off, but right after that I've been able to move around pretty well and am not in terrible pain. I certainly hurt, but it's not unbearable and I am hopeful that the recovery won't be too bad.

Lily Suzanne Hopkins
Born Aug. 19, 2011 at 8:16 pm
6 lbs 13 oz
20 in

Grammie Camp

We were lucky enough to have Kim's kids out to visit for the last two weeks. The first week Kim was at girls camp back in Chicago handling all the food, then she got to come out and hang out with us. Holly told the kids it was Grammie Camp while she was in charge and was nice enough to invite us to join in the fun. My kids just love their cousins, all of them. Absolutely love them.  Samantha has always been attached to her cousins, but I was surprised by how much Paul wanted to be with everyone. Samantha played with all of them, but she still asked for Max the most...he has just always been so nice to her. Paul worshiped Spencer and every morning would ask "See 'Pencer today?" He played with Blythe quite a bit too. I was so impressed with how nice all of Kim's kids were to Samantha and Paul, even when my sweet angles were being complete boogers. We kept pretty busy and had a lot of activities. Unfortunately I was really hit and miss with remembering my camera. 

The first day they were here we went up to Cripple Creek and rode a little train. After the train ride we went over by the Crags and had lunch/played in a stream. We ended the day with a trip to McDonalds for ice cream. The kids were exhausted, but had A LOT of fun. It is so fun for me as a mom to watch my kids have a great time. It's worth all the headache getting them places when I hear them laughing and telling each other that "this was just the best day ever." Luckily that was one of those days.

Adam, Spencer, and Grant

Samantha, very excited about having her own camera

Grammie and Blythe

Paul is a bit goofy

Max looking thrilled to have Samantha all over him

All the kids minus Lauren who wouldn't get in the picture

At the stream

It's hard to tell just how filthy Paul was but he was a complete mess

The rest of the week consisted of playing in the back yard, painting pots for Bailey swimming (which I am super bummed I didn't get pictures of), a garage sale, and a lemonade stand. Samantha rocked the lemonade stand. She was the only kid out there the whole time and she was absolutely dedicated to selling that lemonade. I was glad she made some money because that has been one of the activities she wanted to do all summer. She and Blythe were waving at all the cars, yelling "lemonade and cookies for sale, come and get them!" and dancing. It was super cute.

After Kim got here there was a lot more playing, going to the mall, pizza and fun. The best day for the kids (other than Cripple Creek) was Santa's Workshop. I wasn't sure if we would be able to make it this year, and we were so excited that Kim was able to go with us. Max told me a couple times "this place is better than Six Flags, this is the best place ever." It was another day that the kids were just exhausted but thrilled to be alive. None of the kids wanted to leave, they would have lasted another couple hours but the adults were worn out.

Thanks Kim & crew for coming out and spending time with us, it was great and we miss you already!

Oh Baby

I have reached that point where I am huge. Approximately the size of a small whale. Maybe a large one. When people tell me I look great all I can think is that they are liars. Liars. I am hoping when I look back I'll realize that I m not in fact that huge, I just feel big. I felt pretty good until about 2-3 weeks ago, and then I started getting uncomfortable. I think part of my problem with this pregnancy is that my back is KILLING me. It started really hurting 4 or 5 days ago. It's getting to the point where it's making me sick to my stomach and making me sleep only 4 or 5 hours at night. It didn't feel anywhere close to this painful with the other kids. Luckily Adam is a huge, huge, HUGE help and I only have 2 weeks to go (I'm being induced on the 19th). Hopefully I can hang on until then!

Me at 35 weeks

Sky Sox Game

We took the kids to a Sky Sox game a couple weeks ago.  We went on $2 Tuesday so we were able to go for about $10 including parking which was nice because it took the pressure off of staying the whole time to get our moneys worth. Paul had a lot of fun and was really enjoying watching the game as well as the planes that were on their way to land at the airport. Samantha didn't like it quite as well (at all). We did luck out that it was a double header and started at 5:00. That meant a lot of people didn't start coming until later so we weren't fighting crowds and worrying about the kids bothering people. I was especially glad when Samantha started howling and telling everyone she was a coyote. We ended up leaving after about 5 innings, too long for Samantha and too short for Paul. The funniest part was as we were leaving Adam was telling Paul that they could go again just the boys and Samantha started crying and asking why she couldn't go. She said "why can't I come, I was just bored the whole time!?" I told her she and I could go to a movie while Paul and Adam went to a game, that seemed to work for everyone.

Paul having fun

Samantha's position

Camping Part II

The kids had so much fun camping the first time that we decided to take them one more time this summer. We went up with Adam's best friend and his family. The kids had a great time again and now are asking to do it in the backyard (I've told them I can't take them up in the mountains again, it's too hard).  One nice thing about this site was that there were rocks to climb. Samantha had a great time climbing and actually did a good job of getting up and down on her own. She did a good enough job getting up high that Adam told her she wasn't allowed to climb anymore because it made him nervous.

The cute kids (as you can tell Samantha wasn't thrilled about stopping her exploring so I could take a picture)

Bowling

One thing we tried this summer was bowling. We went last summer and while we had a good time, it was super chaotic. I think Paul was just a little too small. This year Holly took the kids a couple times and Paul LOVED it and kept asking to go again so I finally broke down and took him. It was a little difficult with 4 kids (Samantha, Paul, Alex, and Caity) but we still had a great time. I was using my old camera so the pictures didn't turn out too great, but I love the video of Paul's technique. 

The bowling ball under my shirt :)