Time flies....

It is amazing how having a baby, moving and starting a new job manage to suck up all of my time! I keep thinking things are going to calm down soon, and they never do....so here's the cliff notes version of the last few months-

Payton will be 5 months old in 2 days! I really have no idea how that has happened. She is now rolling over when she wants to, giggling like a pro (especially at her big sis and chin tickles from daddy) and has just about mastered sitting up on her own. She started purreed food about a week ago, and so far has had squash, carrots, and green beans and seems to enjoy them all. She seems to love school, her teachers love to put her hair into pig tails on the top of her head, that are way too cute. Her current mode of locomotion is to lay on her back and scoot across the floor. She has a smile that is infectious and shares it quite regularly!

Emily has adjusted amazingly well to the chaos that was our lives these past few months. She started at her new school in August with Miss Sue and loves it! School is at our church, which is only a block away from our house, so in the mornings she walks there with daddy and mommy walks to pick her up in the afternoon. She is learning all sorts of fabulous things, currently she is working on cutting and writing her name. She also seems to really love calendar time and telling us the day and month. It never ceases to amaze me the things she absorbs.

Her current favorite tv show is Phineas and Ferb, which daddy also enjoys so they spend lots of time cuddling on the couch watching it. She was in her first wedding about a month ago when Aunt Martha and Uncle Nick got married, she did a fabulous job as flower girl and then was the queen of the dance floor at the reception. She still absolutely loves books, and looks forward to our trips to the library. She is a master at using daddy's ipad and can read books, watch movies and play games on it.

She went to her first birthday party yesterday for a boy from school, according to his mom he refers to Emily as his girlfriend....they had a roller skating party and watching 3 and 4 year olds roller skate was really quite entertaining.

The girls both seem to love dady's new job working with the college kids and have a great time spending Sunday nights at the Foundation playing with the "big" kids. We will definitely be in big trouble if Chuck ever leaves ministry...the girls won't know what to do without all their grown up friends!

That is the quick recap....I really need to be better about blogging because I feel like there are so many other things I don't want to forget that I am going to if I don't put it down soon!

The end of summer....

and the beginning of our new adventures. Summer has been crazy to say the least--here is the cliff notes version-

May 25th-Payton Charlotte is born--perfect and beautiful.

June 3-5-Chuck interviews for a job near Nashville, TN (I spend the weekend freaking out trying to figure out how we are going to move to TN if they offer him the job)

June 9th-Chuck interviews for a job in Macomb, IL (I'm much happier about this prospect)

June 9th-We all head to Living Springs Camp for a week of Marked Leadership camp (all means Chuck, Sarah, Em and Payton)

June 14th-Chuck accepts the job in Macomb and is scheduled to start July 1st--meaning we are officially moving to a new house this summer.

June 24th-27th-The girls head to St. Louis for Martha's wedding shower and other wedding preperations.

July 1st-Chuck starts his new job and we start bi-weekly trips to Macomb to get the house ready to move in July 14th.

July 9th-The girls go to Decatur for another shower for Martha.

July 14th-We move to our new house in Macomb.

July 15th-We head to Peoria to meet friends for dinner and find out our wonderful friends dream of parenthood has been fulfilled through adoption.

July 16th-19th-We head to St. Louis again. Chuck continues on to Nashville for training while the girls stay and play with Aunt Martha and Uncle Nick.

July 23-We go back to Geneseo for Payton's dedication and Martha's final shower.

July 24th-Chuck leaves for Nashville again, the girls stay in Geneseo for a few days to get the house ready to sell and take care of some odds and ends.

July 30th-We are all back in Macomb for a few days.

August 4th-We leave for our final trip of the summer and spend 4 days at a Lakehouse near St. Louis with all our friends and their many babies!

Wow--it's even more overwhelming when I put it in list form than it was in my head! Next up, a Payton and Emily update....and then a picture post of our many summer adventures!

Lots of newness in our life!

Since Payton' birthday there has been lots of craziness in the Hilman world...so there is lots to blog about! That post will be coming later though....this one is just to announce the new blog www.hilmanfamilyadventures.blogspot.com. I decided after P was born that it would make more sense to combine Emily and Payton's blog into one, since most of our adventures would be done together, and sadly it has only taken me 7weeks to figure out how to make that happen! Well here it is...and the next post..hopefully soon...will have everything that has kept me from figuring that out :) via pictures...lots and lots of pictures!

Emily's new role!

Emily took on a new role this week....the role of big sister...and after watching her, I am pretty sure she was made for it! Her little sister, Payton Charlotte, was born on Wednesday, May 25 (more details over here-www.asiblingforem.blogspot.com). Emily came to visit Weds. night and during the day Thursday. She loves to hold her little sister, and cover her with blankets, but her most favorite thing is to try and give her the binkie. Anytime Payton moves, or makes a noise, Emily is immediately hunting for the binkie to make it all better for her.
While they were here yesterday the hosptial photographer came to take pictures. They put baby in a basket naked and just cover them with a white sheet. Well, Emily was just insistant that Payton was going to be cold and tried repeatedly to cover her again and again. It was cute, but I am sure slightly frustrating for the poor photgrapher.
Emily also helped gma change a diaper yesterday. She was quite the helper, getting out the diaper and wipes, and of course, trying to give Payton her binkie when she cried.
She very much does not like Payton crying, and wants to make it all better for her. It will be interesting to see how this plays out when we get home. Hopefully things will continue to go as well as they did at the hospital and Emily and Payton can grow into bestest of friends.

Here is a pic from the prof. photographer. Chuck added the words with all of his photo editing savyness.

Pictures!!

The rest of the story....

Things got busy after my last post yesterday, and I didn't have a chance to do anymore updates so here is the rest of the story.

11 a.m. Starting to get uncomfortable, the nurse offers up the whirlpool tub. I never had the option of this with Emily, so I figured I would give it a go. I hang out in there for about 45 min. while Chuck goes to get lunch and decide it's probably about time to put in my request for an epidural before things get really uncomfortable.

12 p.m. I get out of the whirlpool tub and the nurses check me before anesthesia comes. I'm up to a 7 and "baby is right there". This was very exciting since it was after dinner time before I made it this far with Emily. Anesthesia comes in shortly thereafter, and the contractions are definitely starting to get unbearable. He gets all set up, gets it in and relief. Almost...for some reason there was a pocket on my right hip that didn't take and I'm pretty sure every ounce of pain radiated to that spot. Fortunately I was able to move around enough that we managed to get the drug to take there after about an hour.

1ish (I don't remember exact times anymore) The nurses come in and ask if I am feeling any pressure or urge to push. Nope...nothing at all. Baby's heart rate is decelling with each contraction so they are pretty sure I'm getting close. They check me again and I was completely dialated but still no urge to push. They decide to let me labor down for a while to see if the urge comes, and put a call in to Jen the midwife to let her know we are ready.
Jen comes over and we start pushing about 1:45ish. Of course at this point contractions slow down, so we probably spent more time waiting in between contractions than actually pushing.
The last two contractions we were very close to delivering, I had done my 3 pushes and the midwife encourages me to get one more in before the contraction ends....so I start to push again and the nurse says something (sadly I don't remember what) that makes me laugh. So then they decide that I will just laugh the baby out. Next contraction that is pretty much how it went...easy peasy...love the epidural :)

2:27 (or 2:28 depending on which nurse you ask) Ninja became Payton Charlotte.
Weight 7lbs 14 oz.
Height 21 inches
Full Head of black hair

I will put pics up later when I can get the good ones from Chuck's camera.

Baby day!

It's baby day :)
I'm going to try and keep a running record of baby day...more for me...and someday for Ninja to look back on. But feel free to follow along!

4:45 a.m. woke up to take a shower and finish getting ready

5:00 a.m. got out of the shower and realized the thunderstorm had woken Emily up and she was cuddling with Chuck on the couch. I was sad that she was up so early, knowing what that means for her day...but secretely a little happy that I would get to see her before I left.

5:45 a.m. Left the house to head to the hospital.

6:10 a.m. Arrived at the hospital and started the check in process. The nurse said they were short staffed until the 7 a.m. shift arrived and they were missing a paper from my dr. so it might be a little while before they get things going.

7:15 a.m. Lab comes in to draw lots of vials of blood. Shortly thereafter nurse Jess comes in to get things going. Starts the IV for fluids and then her and the other nurse do internals to compare notes. Jess says 3, Rosalinda says 4....I like Rosalinda's thoughts better :)

8 a.m. Start pitocin at "2". Will up it every 30 minutes, until I have 5 good contractions in 10 min.

8:45 a.m. Pit is up to "4". Midwife just came in and broke water. Starting to feel contractions a little more painfully...but nothing horrid yet. Said I am definitely a 4. Debating how long to go on before I get the epidural...since I know what is coming, I'm guessing I'll go with it a little earlier than last time, but we'll see.

10:10 a.m. -Pit is up to "10". Contractions have definitely gone from annoying to painful, but nothing I can't handle yet. Contractions are about 3 every 10 min. They want it up to 5 before they quit upping the pitocin.

And we wait!