Picture OVERLOAD!!! It's been awhile!!

Ok, these pictures were loaded from newest at the top to oldest at the bottom. Also, I wrote a blurb about each from the bottom of the blog to the top. I know, it almost doesn't make sense. Enjoy!!!

There's my smiley girl!!

smiling for Daddy

Worn out from oncoming cold.

This is one of her preferred styles of sleeping on me.

Cuddling with Daddy

He is such a proud Great Grandpa!!

Great Grandpa with Aidan and Brooke

Helping me clean a bowl after making cake

One of 2 of his favorite ways to swing!!!

My adorable girl!!! I can't get enough of her!!!

Aidan's latest obsession.....swings!!!

Look at the size difference!!

Checking each other out

This is what I looked like after we were done....I was in need of a serious shower to get off the sticky finger paint.

Having fun.

We did this with all our names. We didn't name her until we saw her though.

What we fondly referred to baby girl as!

John chose NOT to get messy and opted to be the cameraman!

Messy hands boy!!

Making a creation on my extremely large belly!!

Belly painting!! Aidan loved this so very much!!

The last prego picture taken at home...I felt as huge as a house!!

One of the many snow pictures we took!! It was just incredible how much snow actually fell here in the Northwest!! We never get much more than MAYBE an inch and this time we got over 2 feet!! John and I never measured more than 18 inches but we were measuring packed down snow too, so there was technically more!

The picture I took with my camera. I have the actual photo and it turned out really well!!

My studly husband shoveling Nana's driveway only to have it get covered yet again. Dave was helping him too!!

Helping to shovel Nana's walkway. This was when we celebrated Christmas early with everyone. Katie, Dave and Alexis were in Colorado for Christmas so we celebrated early. Dave was really sweet and went out probably about 5-6 times over the course of the night to shovel snow from around my car in case I went into labor and needed to head to the hospital. What a sweet brother-in-law!!

He absolutely loved it and I wish I could have played with him in the snow a bit more but being SO very prego I didn't have the energy to get dressed in snow clothes that didn't fit, go outside, get soaked, play, come in, get undressed, warm up and do it all over again in a few hours. It was exhausting to think about!!

Our first official snow day of the year!! We got about 18 inches this day. Over 2 feet total during this storm alone. CRAZY!! But so much fun!!

Aidan wrote his name for the first time!! It is under the darker letters!! He's growing up so fast!!

Brooke's first cold...

Hello!! It's been awhile. John is still not working and its not looking like he will be working anytime soon. The economy stinks right now. Anyhoo, we have not been home for literally the last 7 weeks!! We stayed with my mom and then moved home for a week, or rather more like 5 days, then off to housesit again. We moved home this past Saturday night for good!! Nothing else is lined up as of now!!

Aidan has had a cold for the last 3 weeks and it started to get worse at the start of our last housesitting job. We took him into the doctor because he clearly wasn't himself. They put him on antibiotics which helped him get better from the effects of the cold. Well, now it seem's that Brooke has picked that bug up. Poor girl. She has been crying off and on all morning long. She slept until almost 11am when she woke up and ate and nestled back down on my chest (I was at work at the time too) and fell asleep. She started getting fussy there and I have been suctioning her nose like crazy for the past day or so. SHe hates it but she isn't fighting to much.

I called the doctors because knowing that Aid had been on antibiotics for his cold, I wanted to make sure that they didn't want her to come in not to mention that she was in the NICU for sever congestion and not able to nurse and such. Nursing at night is a challenge for her and first thing in the morning, but otherwise she manages nicely. I feel awful for her but right now there is nothing I can do other than suction when I see something that is blocking her nose, humidifier, warm bath, saline drops, and make sure she is comfortable. To make matters worse she has, as I would describe it, a big kid cough in a babies body. So in other words, a crackly cough. I didn't know it was possible!! I hate hearing her so congested.

So that is the update on Brooke. I need to upload some current pics of the precious angel. I have been trying to get moved back into our apartment and clean up the incredible mess we have managed to make. UGH!!!!!!!! Not fun especially while loving on a sicky girl and trying to keep the promise of taking Aidan on a date for Mommy/Aidan time. Oh and working on baby announcements!! So much to do these days!! H0pe you all are staying healthy and enjoying your Februrary!!

Brooke's 1-month appointment!

So, I know I have been HORRIBLE about posting for the last month but we were at my mom's for the entire month (from January 11th-February 8th). She was great!! She was an awesome help for the first two weeks after my surgery/Brooke's birth. She even spent the night at the hospital the first night. I will tell the entire story after I get a few minutes or more to type it up. It is quite the story. We didn't have Internet access on our laptop at my mom's house so I am playing catch up now. After the first 2 weeks, mom went to Eugene to visit her dad (my grandpa) and her siblings and was there for 2 weeks and we "house sat" or rather we lived in her house where we had tons more room than our dinky small apartment.

Well, Brookesters had her 1 month check yesterday and John and I took her. John has worked one day this entire month and won't work for at least another 2 weeks if not longer (I am anticipating LONGER). Not good. But he is doing lot's with us and we are having a lot of great family time and we haven't killed each other yet. So, at the appointment we had them re-check her jaundice because the corners of her eyes still appear slightly yellowish. Our doctor, Dr. Schmitz, who is FABULOUS, thought it looked fine and then the more she looked at Brooke's eyes, and the more she thought about she wanted to be safer than sorry and did the heal stick and the bilirubin blood test. It came back just fine.

Her baby acne is getting better then worse then better. This should be gone by 3 months of age. It is 10X worse than Aid's ever was. My mom got home and commented on how bad Brooke's acne was and I told my mom that it was actually better. She thought it looked painful for Brooke. It is on her upper back/shoulders and upper chest areas in addition to her face. Otherwise Brooke is a healthy baby girl who is starting to get her days and nights back to normal.

So her stats....Brooke is 10 pounds exactly, 21 3/4 inches long, and her head is 38 1/4 cm around!! She is in the 75% for weight and height and I believe the 75-90% for head circumference. Just to compare....Aidan's BIRTH weight was 9 pounds 6 ounces, 22 inches long and HC was 38 cm. So our baby girl is about the size that Aidan was at birth!! CRAZY!! She is eating great, sleeping great during the day and is a very easy going baby!! I enjoy every day with her and can't wait for the next day we have with her!! So I thought I would update!! Enjoy the pics!!

Look what our cat's left us...

So, we got home from having dinner at my mom's (we were suppose to eat with my Grandpa, but he was feeling under the weather with a cold so it was just Aid, John and myself eating, mom was in Seattle at something). I started walking into our family room and just outside of our washer/dryer area, I stopped abruptly when I saw this on the ground....

I couldn't figure what it was. I thought the cat's were expressing their annoyance at another little, crying, pooping, eating, sleeping, attention taking thing in our house. Either that or a massive hairball. Either way EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So on further inspection, we realized it was our fabulous beef jerky that my mom brought up from Eugene at our most favorite custom meat store. It is seriously the best beef jerky in the entire world and I don't like jerky. So John turned to me and said, "We SO need to write a blog about this!!" He never has spoken those words to me in his life. I got the impression he never really understood the reasoning behind blogging and such. So, yea, hope you get a good laugh out of the cat's finding the jerky and nibbling on a piece. They don't even like tuna!! CRAZY cats!!!

Brooke Kathleen Parkinson

She's here!! We have been staying at my mom's and the two other times I have come home since Brooke was born have been for me to weed through the 100+ emails that I have received and to pay bills. So, without further ado, I will give you the stats, a picture or two and will update when we are officially home from my mom's. We were suppose to be home on the 26th but mom asked us to house sit while she went to Oregon for 2 weeks, so we might be home this weekend or in a week from now!! I have a lot of blogging to catch up on. I can't connect to the Internet at her house because we have two different programs that aren't compatible. Bummer for me and for everyone else!! So, here she is!!

Brooke Kathleen Parkinson

1-8-09

12:25pm

8 pounds 1 ounce

20 inches long

Healthy as can be, had a NICU stay (we were both discharged the same day and I WILL tell all about it when I can blog next-I am working on a HUGE blog on my laptop since I can't do anything else such as be online).

We are thoroughly in love with our little Princess. Aidan can't seem to get enough of his sister. We are getting in the routine of no sleep....or rather I am. It is definitely worth it. We are truly truly blessed!!!!!

Tomorrow is B-day!!

So, I can't believe it already is here!! Baby day!! I am nervous, anxious, irritated, excited, annoyed, overwhelmed, frustrated, and every other emotion I can imagine. Nervous, anxious, frustrated are because of the c-section and that baby girl didn't come earlier for me to attempt a VBAC and because the docs won't let me go longer to try for that VBAC. Irritated, annoyed, overwhelmed, frustrated because my hubby has been working so many hours lately that nothing has gotten done around the house and I have had NO motivation or energy to do anything. Also, John has been promising me he would do things around here and get our place clean and that NEVER happened. FRUSTRATING!!!

Oh well. John has been working 12-13 hour days and is pretty beat by the time he gets home. I feel for him and am SO thankful he's willing to work as hard as he does on a daily basis and then comes home to deal with my hormonal self. I am hoping that once all the hormones relax that I will too. I am getting pretty tired of all the hormones going crazy too.

Anyhoo, I am hoping and praying that everything goes smoothly and on time tomorrow although I wouldn't mind having another week to get everything taken care of. Our weekend (last weekend) flew by. I scrapbooked with a few friends for the last time in awhile probably and John hung out with Aidan and watched movies. Needless to say we were pretty lazy all weekend.

So, keep your eyes on the blog I am hoping that the Internet will work at the hospital with my laptop and that my laptop will work (its been on the fritz lately). I really want to be able to post pics of baby girl for everyone to see and for everyone to know that she is here!! We will be staying with my mom for about 2 weeks or so while I recover and for her to help out with Aidan. So I need my laptop to be working there too. So, if I am a bit MIA for the next 2 weeks its probably because my laptop is not working. Can't wait for you all to meet our beautiful daughter!!!

An update........

Ok, I give up...I am not going to promise to upload pics. I have to much on my plate. If you really want to see pics, I am going to attempt to upload to dropshots which is actually a bit faster anyway to upload to. So there you have it.

So we are officially T-4 days until baby girl (or less if she listens to her momma and comes out before the c-section date). My c-section is at noon on Thursday Seattle time. For those of you who are anxiously awaiting her arrival (which is most of you) I will have my laptop at the hospital and will probably update the next day, MAYBE that night but don't count on it. We'll see how I feel at that point. My mom will be helping out in her very well adapted role of Nurse Jane Fuzzy Wuzzy. John will also be with me obviously at the hospital and will be running home here and there. I am giving him a hard time because I keep asking him to pack his bag and he still hasn't. Procrastination!!!!! He has been working a lot and we finally just started on our hurricane zone (our apartment). It isn't much better which is frustrating for me, but I can't change that at this point.

Baby girl is pretty darn cozy and I seriously don't think she wants to come out. Which is pretty disappointing for me because I was really hoping to accomplish a VBAC this time around. If she isn't here by Thursday, they are slicing and dicing. I had a horrible experience (in my opinion) with the first c-section, and had a nightmare last night and so now I am even more anxious about the impending c-section. Keep your fingers crossed and send vibes to baby girl that she WILL come out before the c-section, via VBAC.

Oh and one last thing before I go make something to eat, again, we finally have a list of names, although it is fairly short (not to many to choose from). The names in no particular order are..........Brooke, Faith, Lillian (Lilly)-not sure on how many ll's we would put in this name yet. We'll figure that out later, or Sydney. So, if you get a moment vote on your favorite and then check back (assuming my laptop is working) on Friday to see what we chose. I figure I will have plenty of time where I am just laying around in bed at the hospital to watch TV, bond with baby girl, blog, and be bored, and catch up on sleep...or rather try to. So, hope you are all doing well. If I don't post before Friday, doesn't mean that she has come yet, I will post FOR SURE on Friday and let everyone know what is going on!!! ; )