Happy 3rd Birthday Olivia!

Because Cora's due date was so close to Olivia's birthday, we had to plan something spur of the moment. G &G Froehlich, Justin, Jes & Caden, Dan & Bella had all come for the day Sunday to celebrate-G Driscoll & Heath & family were already here. Olivia chose to have a Dora theme-her favorite character.

Our sweet baby girl, Cora Lea, has arrived

Welcome to the world, our beautiful new baby girl-Cora Lea Froehlich! It was a little rough labor-but worth every ounce of pain. (I need to detail it out here so when I get the time to get back to my scrapbooking & baby book, I'll have it all written down) On Sunday, I woke up with contractions, but I had almost stopped getting anxious when I got these, b/c they had been ongoing since Tuesday. But, these seemed a little different. By 9:15 AM I started recording them since they were about every 10 to 15 minutes apart, sometimes closer, and had a little "kick" to them. At 1 they were even a little closer so I called the hospital & they told me to wait until they were even much closer together, and lasting for 60-90 seconds apiece. About 3 I decided to take a nap since every night prior when I went to bed they seemed to disappear. But, I slept in and out of them for 2 hours, and knew that something must be developing b/c they weren't going away with rest. I got up about 5:30 and couldn't move once I got one- yup- it was time to go in. We scrambled getting everything together. We already had plans for Olivia to go to our friends, the Gilles's (and Olivia's favorite-Dr Steve's). Olivia couldn't have been more excited to go stay with them and play with the girls. We dropped her off-she jumped out of the car when she saw the girls and had to be reminded to come back to the car to give us a kiss good-bye. It was very comforting knowing that she wasn't going to miss us! By the time we got to the hospital it was about 6:30. At this time I really couldn't walk through my contractions. Once I got to a room, the nurse came in-I was only dilated to a 2-3 (which I was a 1-2 for the past week). She kept asking-are you sure this is it? "um...&$*!@ yes this is it!" I don't think she thought I was all that ready to go b/c I wasn't dilated very far. I kept insisting that I get the epidural ASAP. They paged my doctor in, which seemed to take forever, but probably wasn't, and I still wasn't getting started with the IV drip, which was required before the epidural. Once Dr Khayat did arrive at about 8, I was a 4-5. He then broke my water, and the IV drip was finally started. I was told that I had to go through half the bag before I could be administered the epidural. I had already about broken all of Pat's fingers by this point (he even had to take off his wedding ring), and didn't know how I could make it through another 1/2 hour - hour before getting the drugs. Well, a few contractions later, and I could feel the baby coming-I shouted out that I was pushing, and it was like all hell broke loose in the room. No one was ready for me to go this early. My bed hadn't even been broken down into the delivery bed yet. The nurse ran out to get the Dr and the scramble started. I pushed for 3 contractions, and Cora was born. During the delivery, the umbilical cord was tied quite tightly around her neck, which was a huge scare (Dr said it was one of the tightest he's seen) and she required oxygen for about 7 minutes after, but everything turned out perfect. I can't thank my Dr and the nurses enough for their quick reaction and especially to my Dr for his professionalism and expertise when it was such a critical situation. I didn't get the epidural, but looking back, I'm kind of glad to have the experience of going all natural. Can't say I'd do it again, but to have been through it once and to feel everything of a new life being born is quite amazing. We named our baby girl Cora Lea- Cora I had gotten from a baby's names list and was popular in the 1890's. We had a couple names picked out previously, but once I saw this, I instantly knew that that was what I wanted to name her, and Pat agreed. It is a beautiful name, and fits her perfectly. Her middle name, Lea is after Pat's dad-Lee, and is also Pat's middle name. Cora was born at 8:29 PM and was 7 pounds, 6 ounces, and 19.5 inches long.

Just shortly after delivery. I couldn't wait to get my hands on my new baby girl

2 proud parents

Olivia didn't come to the hospital until the next morning. She was so excited & loved holding her new baby sister.

Our family-what a perfect addition Cora is.

Dr Khayat walked in just in time for a picture

More hospital pics

-A few more pics from the hospital Aunt Molly came right away to meet her new niece and to help out with Olivia the next day...thank you!!

Grandma Driscoll with Cora- she was in her car leaving for New Ulm before we even went to the hospital! After driving almost 6 hours-she made it to the hospital at about midnight. We were very fortunate to have her stay with us until the following Sunday. I can't thank her enough for everything she did to help out with Cora, and especially Olivia. It made adjusting so much easier!
Grandma Kathee with Cora-thanks for spending the day with us & helping with Olivia!

My girls and I. Olivia just adores her new baby sister!

The girls and their Grandmas!

Daddy and his girls

Olivia found a stethoscope and was having lots of fun with it.

Pat, Cora, and I leaving the hospital.

We're "finally" hoping to be done with the paci

Olivia had just starting getting way too dependent on her paci and needing it all the time. We couldn't wait for our plan that she was going to give them to baby sissy. So, we decided that she could cut her own paci. We were just going to cut the tip off, but she wanted to keep cutting. Each cut she found it more hilarious than the previous, until it was cut completely to the bottom. When she tried putting it in her mouth and couldn't, it wasn't so funny after all. She completely flipped out that her paci was all gone. So much in fact, that we had to take one of the baby's and cut the tip off. As I'm writing this 3 weeks after the fact, she still uses the cut off paci-but I do have to say it's not as much of an addiction as it used to be. We're getting there.

Baby showers

This past week, I had two absolute wonderful baby showers. Wednesday my friends Mary and Amanda in New Ulm gave me one, and Thursday my friend/co-worker gave me one with all the ladies at work. Baby Sissy was very spoiled-shows how special she is and she hasn't even made her grand entrance into the world yet! Thanks to all for the nice gifts and especially for coming to the party to make it a special celebration.

Angie and I with the diaper cake she gave. She threw a baby jungle theme (to go with the Baby Nursery).

Olivia helping out with the presents.

Olivia, Sam, and Ella keeping busy

Amanda, Mary, and I The flowers and balloons given by them

All the girls together for a pic

I had to take a pic of all the nice gifts given b/w the two showers. It's nice to have such wonderful friends. Baby Sissy will be sporting a new outfit everyday! She also got lots of toys, onsies, blankets, pacies, bows, hats, diapers, diaper bag, socks, booties, Dreft, more outfits, rattles, tutus, and more clothes. I am set! Now all I need is for this baby to come -only 15 more days to the due date :)

Happy 4th!

We spent the weekend pretty low key b/c I had to work on Saturday. But Monday we went to Okoboji for the day. My friend Heather and her family were back from NY visiting her family. I hadn't seen her since she and Scott visited us in NM where he proposed to her. They now have a 1 year old-Ella- so this was the first time meeting her. What fun to get our girls together! We had lunch at Bracco's and then spent the afternoon on the boat. We're now hoping for a vaca to visit them in NY next year-my absolute favorite place to go :)

Heather and Ella are dressed very patriotic-my pregnancy brain forgot that I bought Olivia an outfit to wear

35 weeks & 5 days...

First I have to thank Pat for taking the picture-it's a nice angle- b/c I certainly look & feel bigger than this! It was taken yesterday--I had just gotten back from registering at Target for a baby shower some co-workers and friends are throwing for me. The guy at customer service that was helping me get started (who was about 40), asked me if I was going to be registering for a wedding. REALLY???!! Does it look like I'd be getting married soon?? Only a man would ask that!
But on a different note-things have been going well. I've had a few bumps in the road lately but overall am feeling ok-as good as can be expected for this stage of pregnancy I guess. I was spoiled by our cool & rainy June month b/c summer is definitely here now & the swelling has already started. Olivia is still excited for her Baby Sissy to come-I'm hoping she'll be just as excited once she finally arrives & will have to share the attention!

Wisconsin Dells

Last weekend we went to the Wisconsin Dells with Pat's family-Grandma and Grandpa, Andy & Michaela's, and Bill & Lilly. G & G had a time share there for a week and we had a blast joining them for 4 days. We took in so many things-lots of swimming, go-carts, Noah's Ark Water Park, a little fishing tournament at the resort, a Duck ride (a boat that goes on water & land) paddle boats, golfing, shopping, you name it! Thanks for a wonderful time & vacation!

The picture we got suckered into buying at the end of the Ducks ride
Grandma and Olivia at the resort pool

Olivia had said "I so excited" about having some of her cousins there!

Chloe, Lilly, and Olivia

Pat and his little racing buddy on the go-carts

Olivia flying by us!

Olivia and Pat's first catch at the tourney-Team McNeese's won with 7 (we weren't surprised-they had Kaden) and Team Beef- Olivia, Pat, Bill, & Lilly got 2nd with 6 fish

The whole crew fishing in the tourney Olivia burying my feet in the sand while I take a break!