Our New Addition

We made it home safe and sound before the WI snowstorm. So, I know Ben wrote a quick note on the birth, but here's a bit more.

I was scheduled to have an induction at 7:00am 2-24-09. Drew had other plans in mind. I was finishing Eliana's bath on Monday night and just before we left the bathroom to head upstairs for stories and songs before bed I felt the gush of my water breaking. Ben was gone to a meeting at church, so I was able to get ahold of his colleague who sent him home right away. He helped me put Eliana to bed and then we rushed around re-packing the bags we had already packed as we had packed them so long ago. Mom came to stay with Eliana and we were off to the hospital.

We got to the hospital at 8:30pm and I was admitted and received an epidural at 10:30pm. Soon after my epidural my blood pressure dropped as well as Drew's heart rate. There were some really tense moments, we could tell it was serious, but the Dr. and nurses were trying to keep their composure. As Ben said, my MD used the vaccuum to assist me in getting Andrew out as his heart rate had dipped into the 50s. He was born a happy healthy boy at 12:54am, 2-24-09!

We are proud to announce the birth of Andrew William Berger. He was born at 12:54am on 2-24-09. He is 7 lbs 12 oz and 21 in. He came out face up, with the help of Doc's vacuum. Thankfully Heather only had to push for 25 min (while Dr pulled). Heather's BP and Drew's heartrate were both low. Both are doing well now. We're having trouble uploading pics through the hospital's wireless internet so you'll have to look at my facebook album for now . More pics to come.

Induction

Eliana has been really into playing with her babies lately with the new Berger scheduled to arrive tomorrow. I'll be going in at 7:00am for my scheduled induction tomorrow. I'll update as soon as I get the chance. Both Ben and I are so excited to find out if it's a little boy or girl and we can't wait for Eliana to meet him or her.

No News

The title says it all. Anyway, my mom got Eliana some new dresses for Valentine's Day. They are all soooooo cute, I can't decide which one to put on her first. This is what she wore to church today.

Fun Words

Like every child Eliana has some words that we make her say over and over again because we love the way she says them. Two of them are Octopus and Hospital. She actually let me record her this time, otherwise it's a fun two year old game :)

As for me, I'm still pregnant and the baby is due today. It doesn't look like he/she will be coming today. I had my final MD appt. before the induction date of Feb 24th. I am currently 3cm dilated, 70% effaced and the baby is at -1 station. All the numbers make it look like this little one will be coming soon, but I have a feeling he/she is going to wait until Tuesday. The most frustrating thing is that I have still been having some pretty intense contractions that just don't get consistent enough to put me into real labor. Although physically you feel like tired and exhausted I think the worst part about being "overdue" is the emotional part.

Play Date

We made our final Wednesday play date with Evan and Melissa at the Children's Museum. The kids had a good time even though poor Evan was battling an ear infection. We hope he gets better soon!

They had to hold each other's hand to go across the bridge.

She loves pretending to do the dishes like her daddy does. That's right, Ben does all the dishes in our house :)

Dinner Out

We took our little Eliana out for pizza tonight, even though we're in the middle of yet another Wisconsin winter storm. It will probably be the last time we'll be going out to dinner as a family of three if this baby ever decides to join us.

More Valentine's Day

She's her daddy's girl.

Valentine's Play

Ben and I took Eliana to play at the play area in the mall and ran into her best bud Evan! I wish it were Valentine's Day every day, I just love her little outfit.

Valentine's Candy

Eliana and I made some Valentine fudge and Rocky Road Clusters. She just loves wearing one of her three aprons and asks for the mixer. Unfortunately we didn't need it for the candy making.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Eliana was quite excited about the day. I took her to the Children's Museum this morning to have breakfast with Little Nutbrown Hare of the book Guess How Much I Love You. She shook his hand but he didn't get the hug that Curious George got. Unfortunately I had a pregnant mom moment and brought the camera and went to take a picture and realized that I didn't put the memory card back in the camera.

After Eliana's nap we took her to the mall and let her play in the play area where she ran into her friend Evan. After playtime we had our heartshaped pizza for supper. Here's a video of her saying Happy Valentine's Day and telling you who her Valentine is.

(Sorry about the sneezing and nose blowing, that's my dear husband)

As for me....I'm still pregnant. Ben and I were really praying we would have the baby today as we already have one holiday baby and Ben's mom's birthday was Valentine's Day. God didn't have it in his plans though. I just pray we won't have to wait until the 24th to have the baby.

Playing at the gym

We try to take Eliana to the gym to play and run off some of her energy, especially since it's been such a long winter. Here's a little clip of her playing.

Update

I had my 39 week check-up today. Baby is doing well, I'm about 2-3cm dilated, which in all truth doesn't tell you much. I have an induction date that is set up for Feb. 24th, so I know there's a light at the end of the tunnel (even if it is 4 days post due date). Eliana came with me today and was such a good girl at the appt. She got a big smile on her face when she heard the baby's heart beat and when I sat up on the table again she said..."mommy's all better". Ben and I are both getting quite impatient with the waiting process, mostly because my back and hips have been a mess lately. I still have just about everyone who asks me my due date tell me "you're not big enough", my back begs to differ.

I recently got Eliana some "princesses" hair bands and she wanted her picture taken with them, she's so proud.

New Moves

Ben has been teaching Eliana some of his dance moves when he give her a bath. Enjoy, I only got a small segment of the many moves this girl has :) I really have always thought Ben was a good dancer.

Shower Time

Eliana's imagination has really taken off. She likes to run behind her basketball hoop and pretend it's a shower. She likes to give her baby a shower too and of course she and her babies have to have their clothes off when they get a shower. (sorry about the red eyes, I didn't edit the pictures)

Made it home....early

Well we had an interesting night/early morning. On Saturday after going to dinner we settled into our room and watched Apollo 13 before we thought we were going to go to sleep. My contractions began to become more regular(every 12/15 minutes) and were getting tighter. So, Ben and I decided at 10:00pm to skip out on the last day of the retreat and head for home as we didn't really want to have a baby in Dubuque or in Madison. We ended up making it home around 2:15am and today I've still had contractions, but they have become less consistent. So, we're now back to the waiting game. It was nice to be home though and see Eliana as we both missed her terribly. We love going to the marriage retreats (this is our second one), but we also miss being with our little girl.

Eliana was tickling her daddy's feet.

Date Night

Ben and I had our date night tonight as part of the marriage retreat. We spent some time checking out downtown Galena. There are several blocks of unique little shops. Of course we didn't get to all of them with the way my back has been and of course we're doing all we can to prevent labor this weekend.

We then found Frank O' Dowds Irish Pub and restaurant which was inside the Irish Cottage Hotel. We had a wonderful meal and then were entertained by four grade school girls' gaelic dancing.

I've been having quite a few more contractions, but of course nothing consistent enough to make us head to a hospital. We just keep telling our little one, "it's only X number of hours until we're home and we can meet you".

We have a private balcony off our room and this is the beautiful view we have of Lake Galena.

We Made It!

I had my 38 week check up this morning at 8:15. I didn't tell my MD though that Ben and I were still planning on making the 4 hour trip to Galena, IL for our marriage retreat. He checked me and then told me I was 2cm and he did something called "stripping the membranes" meaning he slightly seperated the amniotic sac from its attachment to the uterus. Ahhhh! I didn't know he was going to do that. He said that if anything happens from the stripping it will be within the next 24 hours. We ended up making it to Galena no problem and pretty much know where every hospital is on the way from Galena to home. I've been having contractions, but they're not regular, but I've also been having contractions for at least a good week. I'm just praying that we have the next 48 hours to enjoy each other's company before our little one decides to arrive.

We ended up bringing the carseat, bags, etc for the hospital just in case. Eliana just loves playing in the seat. Just wait until we get out the bouncy seat, swing, and exersaucer. It's a good thing she's such a peanut.

Play Date

It's so fun to watch Evan and Eliana interact. They had a great time playing together, there were endless giggles. Can you tell they're both expecting a sibbling in a couple short weeks.