Oh my goodness

OK- so the routine around here is Joe takes the last feeding of the night for Owen around 11:00p.m. Then I take the middle of the night shifts which has been like 2:00a.m. and about 6:00a.m. since day one. I thought that was pretty good for a new baby however, last night I didn't have to get up at all. Owen slept until 6:30a.m. I know I am probably blowing my horn too soon but that was so nice. Hannah, Isaac & Avril never slept all the way through the night until they were about 1. Avril still gets up about every 3rd night and has to be ushered back to her room. Wouldn't that be something if he decided to sleep thought the night already.

With that said he is a wonderful baby and everyone has adjusted to him very well. Half the time life is no different then it was before.

1 week old

Well after all that wait Owen is already a week old. Now the time is flying. We have somewhat found our routine around here and everyone is really helping out. Owen only gets up about every 3 hours at night which is wonderful. But I do wish they would make better diapers for boys because about every other changing we have to change his entire outfit due to leaking. Anyone else with boys knows where I am coming from.

Aside from that we are now getting into our busiest months as a family. Joe turns the big "28" tomorrow. Then on Easter Joe and I will be completing our religion classes that have taken up every free second of our life for the past 6 months. And 2 days after that we have our convalidation ceremony. Which really is the final step towards becoming true members of our church. And to wrap it all up on April 6th is Isaac's 5th birthday and on April 13th is Hannah's 1st Communion.

After that life is almost going to be too easy but, I think we're ready for it.

Owen William

The wait is over! Now that Owen William VanHoorik is here it seems almost unreal.

On Saturday at about 6:00p.m. I thought I was having contractions but they weren't timable at all so we went to Joe's home away from home Menards to walk around a bit. However, at 11:00p.m. all the pains stopped so I got a little frustrated figuring that they were just braxton hicks and went to bed. Well low and behold at about 1:00a.m. I woke up with those same pains but, this time we were looking at about 4 to 5 minutes apart so after about 3 sets of those I woke Joe and my sister up and said lets go.

We got to the hospital at about 2:30a.m. and I was already dialated to a 5/6. What a relief! So this time around I opted for an epidural at around 4:00a.m. and my water broke about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes after recieving it. Then I dialted to a 9/10 right away so we did a couple trial pushes and they called the doctor right in. I only had to push about 6 to 8 sets and he was delivered at 6:06 a.m. on Sunday. (I have to note that all of our beautiful children were born on a Sunday) He suffered severe brusing on his face from coming out so fast and the whites of his eyes are blood red but other then that he is perfectly healthy and is doing great. They couldn't believe how big the little guy was - a wopping 9lbs 13.9ozs, 21 1/2" long and I didn't recieve a single stitch.

I feel great and it is so good to be home with everyone. The kids adore him and are pretty helpful and Buddy has taken his command post right next to him 24/7. I guess after sniffing him for about 1/2 a day he decided to be the protector.

I can't believe we are now a family of 6. I truly feel like the most blessed person in the world.

Baby update

Just a quick update. As of today this little guy is 2 days overdue. I went in for an ultrasound this morning and all fluids look great and he should be about 8 1/2 pounds. He's stubborn but pretty cute. We have one more doctor appointment on Monday and then next Wednesday they will induce me. I truely hope he doesn't wait that long.

Joe's happy little home is about 1/2 done. I just can't wait until he can move in. :) HA! No but I give props to anyone that builds a whole house this way. There is so much that goes into a project like this that you never realize. Like the window frames come in like 1 million different colors. Who Knew! I would also like to have the yard cleaned up. We have to bring Buddy out to the front becuase of the huge mess he gets himself into.

On another note the baby has not yet arrived. We had one false alarm last Monday and since then nothing. Dr. said that after next Mondays appointment he will do an ultrasound to check his size and go from there. I told my doctor that if this baby doesn't come before next week he might want to take the day off on Monday because I am not going to be very happy. I know our due date isn't for 1 more week but, this is sooooo uncomfortable.

Hopefully we will have an update real soon on that situation.

Well we only have about 3 1/2 weeks to go until we are officially due. This last month of pregnancy is making me a little crabby. So I want to thank everyone who has just dealt with me lately.

On another note Joe's garage addition is coming along very well. We didn't think it would happen this year due to the fact that the city sat on approving our permit for almost 3 weeks. The colder it gets the harder it is to dig a hole so we are thankful all that got done before this horribly cold week. (For those of you in the warmer states we are looking at -0 tempratures for about 3 days straight)

Other then that it's been pretty uneventful around here so I will update everyone soon on anything else comes along.

Hello

Hi All,
I hope you are all having a wonderful start to the new year. I can see already that ours will be a busy one. We have buddy our 11 month old dog going in for training. He just needs to stop jumping on anyone who comes through the front door. Avril will celebrate her 2nd birthday on January 29th, then we will have the new baby (Owen - so long as he comes out a he) around February 12th. (Which is also Buddy's birthday) Hannah will be starting gymnastics again in March or so and Isaac is sooooo excited to turn 5 this year so he can be in baseball this summer. Joe and I are going to be finishing up our adult religion classes and convalidating our vows all before April.
Hannah is going to be receiving her 1st Communion this year too.
We feel very fortunate to be blessed with such a great family that being so busy doesn't bother us at all. I actually haven't done much outside of the house lately and have been going stir crazy. I need the ciaos to function sometimes. Especially right now at 8 months pregnant - if I stay home all I think about is when the baby is going to come. It's enough to drive a person mad! Well thank you to all of our support and the wonderful group of people we have in our lives. Happy 2008 to everyone!