Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Our growing baby...

I can't believe Ava is 4 weeks old today! Time has FLOWN by and she is growing by leaps and bounds! She doesn't even seem like new born to me anymore, which is so sad!! She was in the hospital a couple of weeks ago for some emergency testing... More on that later (I even have some sad little pictures...). She is doing great now, no major problems were found, thank goodness! Now we are just trying to keep her away from all 3 of her very sick big brothers! I can't until everyone is healthy!!

I thought I'd just pop in really quickly to show you a more current picture of our sweet babe. This photo was taken by Josh on Mother's Day. It's one of my favorites! Thanks, Josh! :)


Isn't she the sweetest little thing?! I know, I know, I'm biased, but I can't help it! She's my first and only girl and I think she's perfect! :) hehehe!

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Baby Ava

Our sweet Ava Rose joined us on April 21st at 6:45 pm. She weighed 6 pounds, 15 ounces, and was 18.5 inches long. It was a REALLY fast delivery, 2 hours and 45 minutes start to finish, which Mommy was VERY happy about! :)




She is doing really well and her big brothers ADORE her! They wake up every morning wanting to give her hugs and kisses, each of them taking a turn to hold her. I couldn't ask for a better bunch of boys! Noah is so cute, always asking, "Tan I hode her? Just for a setund?" So I'll lay her in his arms and we hold her together for a few seconds and he'll say, "O'tay, I'm done." Such a sweet boy!



It is such a relief to have her here and healthy. The doctor delivered her 2 days before our planned induction because her movements had slowed and he was concerned. So he sent me straight from my regular check up to the hospital and they were going to induce. However, just minutes after they hooked up the fetal monitor, I started having contractions! Talk about good timing! So they only used a minimal amount of pitocin and I flew through labor. In fact, I went from a 5 to 10 in 15 minutes, causing the nurses to rush the doctor from the O.R. (he was about to start a c-section). They JUST had enough time to get the doctor to the room and in a gown before Ava was born. I was so nervous she would come before he could get there. It all happened SO fast. It turned out to be a blessing that the doctor took her early. The cord was wrapped around her neck, so during labor her heart rate kept dropping, and that was also the reason her movements had slowed so much. The Lord was definitely watching over her and guiding the doctor, for which I am eternally grateful.



I can't tell you how humbled I am to have been blessed with this new, amazing spirit. I pray for the Lord's continued blessings to help me guide and direct her in a way pleasing to Him, as I do with all my children. What a gift to be entrusted with, that of sweet, innocent beings to love and cherish throughout my life. I am honored to have been chosen as Mommy for these young souls and hope and pray I can live up to the responsibilities that come with it. Welcome to the family, Ava, we adore you!!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

New Page!!

I can't believe it's actually true, but I finally finished a scrapbook page!  Woo hoo!! :)  This is from our trip to the "punkin" patch last October.  The boys - even Noah! - had a BLAST searching for that perfect pumpkin!  It was so fun!!


Full credits HERE.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Drumroll please...

For those of you who know, we have been incredibly blessed with 3 amazing kids.  All of whom are boys.  Last summer we found out we were pregnant again!  Wow!  4 boys?!  5 if you count Dad...  hahaha! How on earth am I gonna handle 5 little men in this tiny little house?! Yikes.

So, to catch up to current day, I had a doctor's appointment yesterday, just the routine monthly checkup.  Ben, Isaac and Noah all came (for the first time this pregnancy) so they could hear the little heartbeat.  And they heard it!  Not for long cause it was moving around, but they heard it and thought it was so cool!!  The doctor asked if I had been feeling the baby kick.  I said I think so, but that I was a bit nervous because I felt the others much earlier.  He then informed me that I was measuring a week or 2 behind my original due date.  Shock waves stung my spine.  What do you mean??  I measured just fine last month, what's going on?  (Of course this was all in my head!)  I started freaking out.

The doctor said I was due for my ultrasound, but that the tech wasn't scheduled to come in for another week and a half.  So I had the choice to wait for December 4th, or he could call in a prescription so I could go to the hospital.  Uh, duh.  No brainer, Doc.  So they made an appointment for me to have the ultrasound the next day, which is today, in the AF hospital at 2:00 pm.  However, Ben was scheduled to work today, so after deliberating, I went back into the doctor's office and very sweetly asked if they wouldn't mind seeing if I could go to UVRMC, where Ben would be today, so he could sneak over and go with me.  It took a little time, but they did and I was able to get an appointment for 9:30 today.

So last night rolls around, and wouldn't you know, Ben's supervisor called and informed him that he was being sent to work at the AF hospital today because they were short handed.  Are you kidding me?!  After I made them switch the appointments?!??!  Blah!  Needless to say, I wasn't about to ask them to change it again!  And at this point I am completely freaked out thinking that something is horribly wrong, that the baby has stopped growing, there wasn't enough amniotic fluid or some other awful thing, and I wasn't about to postpone the ultrasound.  I had to know what was wrong, if anything.  So my awesome sis-in-law came to stay with the youngest 2 boys and Mom went with me to the hospital.

We checked in and waited.  Of course.  It actually didn't take too long and we were back in the ultrasound room.  I asked if they could record it for me so Ben could see everything too, and she did.  In fact, I had taken a tape for her (that's what I'd always taken with the other 3) and she informed me that with their new equipment (3D machines!!) they can make DVD's.  Woo hoo! :)  So she got that all set up and we started.

She started trying to figure out where the baby was and what position it was in, and briefly scanned the little body.  At first I thought it looked small, but then remembered it was about the same as the others.  Am I panicky or what!?  Then I thought I saw it!  Yes, that ever present boy part that seems to be a trend in our family.  But it was a quick shot.  So I said, "Oh, I have a feeling it's a boy!"  And she said, "Really, I was thinking it looked like a girl."  My heart stopped.  Not possible.  After all, when we had the ultrasound with Noah, the tech said the same thing, but he was just basing that on how I was carrying, soon to find out in pictures that um, yeah, he was a boy! :)  

Anyway, she found a little shot of the legs and little bum and I turned to Mom and said, "There's nothing there.  There's nothing there!!!"  I was in shock!  How could there not be anything there?!?!?!?  We looked and looked and looked and nothing popped out, or came out from behind the cord or anything.  Could this really be happening!?  Michelle (the ultrasound tech) said, "Yep, looks like a girl to me!"  HOLY COW!!  HOLY COW!!  Are you kidding me?!  Nope, folks, it looks like it REALLY is a girl!  Wow.  Wow.  Wow.

She kept checking everything to see if all was well, the brain, all 4 chambers of the heart, the lungs, kidneys, stomach, diaphragm, bladder, spine, head, arms, hands, legs, feet, everything.  And all is well so far!!  She is measuring at 18 weeks, and I thought I was 19, so we're not too far off.  The placenta looks good and in tact, there's enough fluid for the baby and my kidneys look good.  (Don't know why she checked them, but she did it deliberately!)  We even had time to try and get some 3D shots.  This little child didn't really want to cooperate very well, she kept moving all over the place and changing positions like mad, so it was really hard, but we did end up with an adorable 3D image of her (yes, HER!  ahhhh!!) hand, and a pretty good one of her leg.  It was completely amazing and SUCH a blessing!  To be able to see your baby's little fingers at this stage is remarkable.  Let alone from inside the womb.  It was an experience I will never forget.  Wow.

On the way to the car I called Ben.  He asked how everything went and I said fine, that everything looked good and we couldn't see any problems.  "So, another boy, eh?"  "NOPE!"  "OH...  MY.... GOSH..."  He was as shocked as I was!  It was too funny!  :)  He's very excited and, like me, thrilled that there are no apparent problems with this new little baby.  Phew!

So there you have it.  Baby GIRL Rodriguez is scheduled to make her entrance sometime in April.  We'll have to wait and see if the doctor changes her due date based on this new info, but she's coming!  That's for sure!  

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

N is Famous!!! Ok, sorta.

Thanks to the ever talented photographer Nicole Hill, our sweet Noah is on the cover of the new Discovery Toys catalogue!!  Woo hoo!!  (Click here to see it.)  Nicole did a photo shoot with Noah ages ago for RubberBall, the stock photo company she works with.  Apparently, Discovery Toys purchased his photo from RubberBall's inventory (I believe this is how it works), and used it for their catalogue.  How cool is that!!  I can't believe how much he's grown in just over a year.  Wow!!  (He's the cutie on the left.  He's has the biggest photo on the page cause he's just that cute! hehehe!)


Monday, October 6, 2008

Sup.

Yes, it's been a very long time since my last post.  Bad blogger, bad.  I really don't mean to neglect it, but when there are only so many things to be done in a day, or month, um, or summer, ugh, then something has to give, and it's been the blog.  Sorry! :)  I hope you are all well and haven't missed us too much!  ha!

Ok, so there have been SOOO many things happen since last time we talked, trips to Texas and Washington, Matthew having his first eye exam and needing some sweet-awesome glasses (photos to come as soon as the glasses do...), babies being conceived, Isaac's traumatic trips to the dentist, Noah learning to talk like a CHAMP!! and on and on!  OH! And Ben passing his last national board exam to become an official RRT (registered respiratory therapist) YYYYEEEAAAAHHHH!!!!  Holy cow, that was a long time coming and soooo worth it!  We're so proud of you, Daddy!!

Anyhoo, I just wanted to drop by and let you know we're all alive and doing well.

Here are a couple of photos from our most recent trip, visiting Natalie, Dan and fam in Washington.  Thanks, guys!  We had a BLAST!

Dad and boys on the beach... Super cold water,
but that didn't bug the boys!

"Sleep over" with the cousins.
Emma, Isaac, Erika, Noah, Lauren and Matthew.


Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Discovery Park

We decided to take a quick trip to Discovery Park this morning (Isaac's been asking to go to the "wood park" for weeks, so I finally gave in!).  We got there a bit before 10 and the kids had a BLAST!  But by 11 it was getting pretty hot, and all that wood started to heat up and get musty, so we left and bought some Daylight Donuts for breakfast.  It was a fun morning!

Here are a few quick shots I snapped.  Not the best, but I thought they were kinda cute!  

Here is Noah working his way UP the slide!
He actually did it, over and over again!  He thought he
was pretty cool!

They have a really awesome "rocket" with 2 "captain's chairs"
so Matthew and Isaac decided to take a trip to outer space!  Too fun!

This is Isaac as he's coming into the rocket.

I was able to get Noah to turn around and look down the slide
when he got to the top, and I caught this cute grin!

And I think this might be my favorite shot.
Just playing with the shadows a bit! :)

Hope you are all having a groovy day!  Hopefully I'll be back to post more soon! :)