Welcome Baby Silas Paul!

Last Wednesday morning, August 8th, I went to the doctor's office for my weekly pregnancy check up.  My blood pressure was high again... 170/112.  My doctor decided to send me on over to the hospital to monitor my blood pressure again, and check on baby to make sure he/she was okay.  We headed over to the hospital got checked in and waited for the doctor to come on over and check on me.  (In the meantime Eric took our girls home to stay with some relatives and friends, and to get a few things he thought we might need.)  When the doctor arrived we talked a little and decided because I was already having some contractions, and I was 38 weeks to the day, and baby was looking good, he would go ahead and break my water.  (Yay!)  He broke my water between 1:00pm-1:30pm.  I was dilated to a 4 then.  Labor progressed quickly.  Soon I was at a 5, and having contractions every 2-3 minutes.  I asked for an epidural  and after having it, my contractions slowed down to about every 4-8 minutes.  Doctor decided to give me some pitocin.  After about 3-5 minutes of it going in my IV, I was checked and was dilated to a 10!  The doctor was called and everyone jumped into action!  When the doctor arrived I started pushing at 6:12pm.  I pushed 3-4 times and our baby was born at 6:17pm!

Welcome baby boy, Silas Paul Hendrickson!  We are so happy that you are here and healthy.  It is amazing how fast a baby just slips into your heart.  He weighed in at 7lbs 7oz, and was 19 inches long.

Our first hospital visitors after Silas was born... Ras and Nancy, Sarah and Phoebe (the Big Sisters), Charles and Wyonna, and Johannah.  Sarah and Phoebe both wanted to climb up on the bed to hold him and touch him.

Our family of five.... The Hendricksons... 3 Girls, a Guy and a Little Fella.

Silas has lots of dark hair.  This is different than our girls.  They both had very little hair and it was very light.

The next day (Thursday) in the hospital Eric's Grandma Dorothy and her friend Mike came to visit baby Silas and to help us watch the girls during the daytime.

The big sisters already love their little brother!

Eric took the girls to the store and let them each pick out a special toy for their new baby brother.  Sarah picked a colorful ball with a rattle on the inside and Phoebe picked a colorful stuffed dog for him.

In the hospital Silas had periods of being wide awake.  So cute and alert!

On our second full day (Friday) in the hospital... getting ready to go home... Daddy got him dressed in his special frog outfit that Sarah picked out for him.

In the carseat and ready to head outside to our van and drive home!

The girls and our friend Ras were waiting to welcome us all back home!  

I want to give a special "THANK YOU" out to all of those who helped us last week while I was in the hospital... THANK YOU, Ras and Nancy, Charles and Wyonna, Jessica and Andrew, Johannah, Dorothy, and Mike.  Our girls enjoyed their time with you and we appreciate everything that you each did for us.  It is great to know we have such amazing friends and relatives that we can call and count on in pinch.

Cool In The Pool

We had a great time yesterday swimming with some of our good friends.... Thank you Carol for sharing your pool, your house, and your time with all of us!  All of the adults and kids had a wonderful time and cannot wait to do it again.  It was just what we all needed on yet another hot Kansas day!

We took a life jacket for Sarah to wear if she wanted to.  I am so glad that we did because she wore it a lot of the time and was able to go into the deep end unassisted and jump in numerous times without an adult catching her.  I even talked her into jumping off of the diving board for the first time!  After she tried it, she did not want to stop jumping off of it!

Here is our friend Carol with three of the kiddos.  Phoebe had a good time playing with water guns and spraying everyone with Daddy.

Mary gave a lot of motor boat rides around the shallow end of the pool...

We tried to get these three to line up on the edge and jump all at the same time... 1, 2, 3, JUMP!

a few more attempts at jumping in at the same time....

Eric did a lot of jumping and diving in too.  Here he is jumping and catching the football over and over....... Show off.

The kids left to right: Ian, Abigail, Sarah, Elizabeth, Afton, Anna, Eli, Lydia, and Phoebe

Our good friends, left to right top row: Michelle, Rick, Melissa, Elizabeth, Nathan, Eric, and Stacee

left to right bottom row: Ian, Abigail, Sarah, Afton, Anna, Eli, Lydia, and Phoebe

Ready For A Baby

We have the baby's room set-up, decorated and ready... My dad actually made this crib for Eric and I before Sarah was born.  All of our babies will get to use it.  It also converts to a toddler bed.  My dad made the cradle for for my mom before I was born.  It has been used for myself, my sister, my brother, some of our relatives babies, and our babies.  (Have I mentioned that my dad is an amazing woodworker!)  We are set, and just hope this baby is a good sleeper like Sarah and Phoebe were and still are....

I picked out our new diaper bag and monitor... also got some of the essentials....

We have these cute "First Year" frames for both of the girls.  We hung up a new one for our baby too.

We all went to the store a few weeks ago to pick out a "coming home" outfit for our new baby.  Because we do not find out whether we are having a boy or a girl.... we always get a surprise baby, we needed to pick out an outfit for a boy and a girl.

Sarah picked this "boy" frog outfit because she likes to go frog catching with her Daddy.  She thought it would be perfect if she gets a little brother....

 We all agreed on this cute pink zebra outfit for a little "girl". Girls can never have too much pink.

We are ready... none more than me.  I have been having some issues with high blood pressure and swelling.  I went to the hospital last Monday with high blood pressure and they ended up keeping me to monitor it for 24 hours.  I came home Tuesday evening with orders of bedrest from my doctor.  It is very hard to "rest" or lay around with a 5 year old and a 2 year old.  Plus, I am not really a lay around person... I think I always need to be doing something... a project, or something around our house, or something with our girls.  Oh well, not much longer now... This Wednesday will be 38 weeks so ready or not, mostly ready, we'll keep on going and waiting, and being READY!