welcome to the planet, madeline marie!

baby madeline is here and is lookin' a lot like big sister penelope, but with dark hair! when i went to see her when she was just a few days old, i held her for over an hour and never saw her eyeballs! what a tiny, sleepy baby. i'm sure she is like this all the time and her parents are getting tons of good rest. ha! madeline is just a little ball of baby goodness and she might be giving me a little bit of a fever, if you know what i mean. i'm just absolutely sure that it must be some weird biological thing that make babies smell so good, and forces you to want to cuddle them all day long, but geez. luckily for the pierces... i did not kidnap their baby, i just only thought about it. congrats to margaret, pat, and penelope on your precious new family member!

madeline marie pierce

april 26. 2015

7 pounds 14 ounces

20.25 inches

welcome to the planet, keller robert!

hurray! another little baby is here! and it's another boy! natasha just clearly doesn't like to do things like the average person because keller is a first baby who came pretty quickly a few weeks early! when she started texting about her contractions and how they were pretty painful i thought to myself, "ha! she is going to be in for a real shock when she gets real contractions in a few weeks." there you have it... i'm a monster. she showed me by delivering a baby (naturally!) a few hours later. gah. this little baby is sweet as can be and we are so happy for the mears. i am also so happy for heath to have another little friend to add to the guy club! boyz for dayz! ha. welcome tiny, cute face!

keller robert mears

february 4. 2015

7 pounds 3 ounces

19 inches

hello new faces!

some visitors who came to meet brand spankin' new heath. the pictures are not great because we were using whitney's camera and we are terrible with it, as it turns out. 

whitney!

our baby photographer! thank you thank you thank you for coming in the earliest morning hours and hanging out and being there for ALL of it! heath just really likes you... you can totally tell.

auntie saige!

i was so happy to have saige in the room this time (they wouldn't let anybody in with beckett!) and for her to get to meet heath the moment he was born! i hope she thought it was cool and not traumatizing. i think she was fine about it. and she videoed! yeah! heath of course loves his auntie so much.

yiayia!

yiayia was boarding an airplane to seattle as heath was being born... since he decided to come a little early. this made her go a tiny bit insane, but she got here just a few hours after he was born! heath found time with yiayia very relaxing right from the beginning.

natasha!

natasha spent the morning with a confused and dramatic beckett, while heath was being born. thank you natasha for hanging out and being so sweet with our boys.

lonnie!

heath is so appreciative that lonnie took a picture with him! lonnie got our meal deliveries organized so we wouldn't have to cook when we got home. we just have a lot of really great friends. we are thankful!

jennifer, grace, and jane!

i think jane maybe thought about kidnapping heath. she just loves babies so dang much. it really is pretty much the cutest. mike (jennifer's hubby and the girls' dad shares a birthday with heath!)

i look like a slug in this picture, but i'm over it.

thanks for coming to meet heath on his first day of life!

hey brother

beckett was the most, most precious meeting his brother for the first time. saige brought him down to the hospital and he just walked right in, in his big brother shirt more than ready to introduce  himself to heath. when he got to hold him, he was nothing but smiles. i think beckett (like the rest of us) couldn't believe that this new baby was actually here after such a long wait. also, seeing beckett stare at his new baby brother made me feel like maybe my heart would explode. it is crazy to think that now they will just always have each other, a special lifelong relationship created just like that. this people... is why i want 100 children. anyway, beckett brought heath a new ugly doll for his room and heath considerately had brought a gift (from the womb?!) for beckett. and now we have two boys that will hopefully become best friends and our little family is feeling a bit more complete. it's lovely.

a baby delivery story

we are officially a family of four and it is officially insanity! i was scheduled for an induction on may 6th because i was over being pregnant, but heath had plans of his own and i got to experience going into labor naturally. yeah! i love that it happened that way! warning: this post is looooong. you might need to get a snack or take a power nap part way through. 

on may 4th (practically the 5th) at around 11:30pm i started having some contractions. i was downstairs (blogging!) and everybody else was in bed, sleeping. i had been having quite a few braxton hicks with this pregnancy, so i didn't think too much about it and decided to finish my blog post on the nursery. i locked up the house and headed upstairs at around 12:15am. when i got upstairs, i woke up matt and told him i was having some contractions and they were a little more intense than usual. at 12:45am matt called the hospital and told them about my contractions and where i was at in the pregnancy (39 weeks and 5 days and 4cm dilated) and they told us to get packed up and head on in. gah! i was terrified to be one of those women who rushes to the hospital in SO MUCH pain and then at the hospital they are like, "are you serious right now? you're not in labor... go home." i also did not want to wait too long and not make it in time for an epidural. i was praying for my water to break as a nice "i'm definitely in labor" sign, but no luck. we got dressed, packed up the car, woke up saige (who said, "are you joking right now?!") and headed to the hospital. 

we got to the hospital at around 2:15am and after two big breaks where i had to stop walking because of contractions, we got to labor and delivery. they took me to the triage area to check me out. my contractions were pretty consistent and i was 5cm dilated. the nurse (theresa) checked with the on-call doctor and then checked me into the hospital for delivery! yeah! we got to my delivery room at around 3:15am. once we knew that it was for sure go time, matt called natasha (to go to our house to be with beckett) and whitney (to come to the hospital to photograph). what super great friends we have, yes? theresa checked me at 4:15am and i was 6cm dilated aaaaannnnnd ready for the sweet joy that is the epidural. the anesthesiologist was headed to a c-section and my nurse pressured him to come and do my epidural first. theresa is my new best friend for getting junk done! my epidural was placed by 4:45am and it was a real goodie. right after i got the epidural, saige got to the hospital. at 5:45am, my water broke... and at 6:00am whitney got to the hospital. i pushed for five years with beckett, so i was really hoping this time was going to go faster, and saige and whitney wouldn't just have to sit and stare at me forever. at 6:30am i was 9cm dilated. 

at 7:00am my nurses switched. i said bye to theresa and hello to jennifer. at 7:30am my doctor got to the hospital and came by to check on me. i was 10cm dilated and ready to start pushing! yikes. i felt pretty tired, which was too bad because i hadn't even done any real work yet, but i luckily really wanted to meet my new baby, so that was motivating. i started pushing and tried different positions, and was weirdly the most productive flat on my back. i was more productive than my nurse anticipated, and after an hour of hearing "push harder...just a little harder!" i heard, "stop pushing right now!" um. yeah. that's easier said than done. literally every part of my body wanted to keep pushing. it's like i couldn't not push. the baby was seriously ready to come out, but my nurse did not want me to deliver without my doctor there so... are you ready... she pushed him right back in! ahhh! it was the weirdest feeling ever! and it made me stressed out about all the work i had done, but she assured me that at my next big push he would come right back out. my doctor rushed back in at about 9:00am and frantically got gloves on just in time to deliver heath. my doctor yelled at me to sit up on my elbows and then said, "grab him! pull your baby out!" uh... i didn't know how to feel about this. we hadn't discussed me doing that and everything felt really fast... so i just grabbed heath and pulled him onto my stomach and that was that! heath kos pennebaker was born! may 5th at 9:02am, weighing 7 pounds, 15 ounces and 19.5 inches long. he had a super short umbilical cord, that matt got to cut this time (things were too crazy with beckett) and saige and whitney got to see it all and everything felt weirdly calm and peaceful for being such an insane thing to have happen. i know babies are born every second, but it's still the most amazing and i cry every time somebody i know gives birth.

i'm so happy to have heath here, sweet and healthy, and to have another birth story to share. i'm especially happy to have an easier, faster story to share. yay for second babies being easier to get out. we are so blessed and excited to transition into a life with two boys. just like with beckett, i already can't imagine a world without baby heath in it. he is the best!  

welcome to the planet, clayton zachary

we are so, so happy for kate and zac, who welcomed a new baby boy into the world! he is just too precious and i am just too sad to be so far away and not able to travel. hopefully i will deliver a little cousin bestie for this sweet boy and they can meet very soon! i am so thrilled for kate and zac and really excited to watch them take on the new role of parents; they are going to do a great job! and i am only a little jealous of kate and her outside of her body baby. i can't wait to meet him in person! congratulations to kate and zac and your beautiful family of three!

clayton zachary bruner

april 17th, 2014

8 pounds 10 ounces

20 inches

welcome to the planet, maisen elle

the robbins family welcomed their 4th baby at the end of july, another girl! they all thought it was going to be a boy, but no sir. we brought them dinner a few days after she was born and i just can't believe how teeny tiny new babies are! so precious. oh man, i've got a fever and the only thing that will cure it is a new baby. although i may be slightly disillusioned. holding somebody else's new baby for 20 minutes is slightly different than bringing your own newbie home, i suppose. anyways, i digress. maisen is just the sweetest and we are so happy for the robbins and their full home!

ahhh! so tiny!

maisen elle robbins

july 29. 2013

6 pounds 14 ounces

19.5 inches

welcome to the planet, marin maisie!

hurray, hurray! marin is here! and she shares a birthday with her aunt geri... fun! i am so sad to be so far away from the thelen family (why did you have a baby on an island in the middle of the pacific...why?!) i talked to jenni though and that little girl just came right out, easy peasy! second babies sure do seem nice to deliver. we are so happy for jenni, wes, and big brother coen. welcome sweet marin, we can not wait to snuggle you!

marin maisie thelen

october 30. 2012

7.9 pounds

19 inches

welcome to the planet, madison grace and victoria faith

so, i finally got the chance to hang out with sweet madison and victoria while lonnie, whitney, and i attempted to do a 4 baby photo shoot. amber delivered them on friday, june 8th... just one day after their siblings. brian flew to indiana to get the little ladies and the baker home is now overflowing with baby love. what a crazy, fun time they have ahead of them. i don't want to give away too much from the photo shoot... so i'll just show you some outtakes. in the lion king pose below... hope is being held up. matt was quite unnerved that it wasn't connor... you know, the future king. it just makes me laugh and think of modern family. 

 madison grace baker

june 8th, 2012

5 pounds 14 ounces

20 inches

 victoria faith baker

june 8th, 2012

5 pounds 15 ounces

19.5 inches

welcome to the planet, connor william and hope elizabeth

on june 7th (my oma's bday!) the first two baker babies were delivered by misty via c-section. raise your hand if you are shocked that misty delivered before amber. i am raising my hand. connor and hope were both almost six pounds and totally ready to be welcomed into the world. they came early, early in the morning and the bakers spent thursday at the hospital recovering and were taking visitors starting friday. of course i wanted to go visit on friday... right away. sad story though, the family that i nanny for had a nasty bug that was hitting them one at a time. i was nervous that b and i had probably been exposed. and i couldn't be the monster that exposed a family with two brand new itty bitties to a flu bug. so i waited... until sunday. it was torture, but good news, we did not get sick and somehow jane avoided it too. matt went to the hospital on friday and met them and took pictures and i cried at home, full of jealousy. we took them dinner on sunday (minus brian who was off to get madison and victoria who were born on june 8th) and i died over their tiny cuteness. they are the most precious and misty is a very natural mom and i just love the whole situation. we haven't met madison and victoria yet, but no worries... i am fixing that tomorrow. pictures of them to come. i can't wait to see the whole family together! eeeeeeep. so many baker babies! i love it!!!

 connor william baker

june 7th, 2012

5 pounds 13 ounces

19 inches

  hope elizabeth baker

june 7th, 2012

5 pounds 14 ounces

18.5 inches