Announcing...

Lydia Lynn Walburger

8 lbs. 10 oz.

20 3/4 in. long

October 18, 2011

October 18th came bright and early as we had to be at the hospital at 5 am and needless to say I didn't get to bed the night before until after midnight, that along with anxiety kicking in didn't call for a great nights sleep! My Mom was kind enough to come in the day before and stay with Drake, so Jordan and I were off bright and early. I don't know why they have you come in 2 hours before surgery, I swear all of the prep could be done in 45 mins or less so there was alot of just waiting. There were two things that I was nervous about, or just did not want to experience again after my last two c-sections. The first was having to drink this little shot of I don't know what, but I guess it reduces stomach acid? It is the most horrible drink ever. When the time came I think my nurse was getting annoyed at me because I was taking forever to drink it! But I knew how horrible it was! Yuck, Yuck, Yuck. The second thing that I was really nervous about was getting the spinal block. Me and pain do not mix well and knowing what was to come probably made it worse than not knowing. So the time finally came, it was birthday time!

Here I am in my hospital get up...

and Jordan in his "bunny suit" as they like to call it.

I said bye to Jordan and it was time for that spinal block. I think I almost clawed a hole in the blanket I was holding while I was getting it, just waiting for the pain to come. I have to say it was the best one I have gotten, the anesthesiologist that I had was awesome, very minimal pain on this one. At that point Jordan and my doc came in and in about 10 mins we heard Lydia loud and proud! To hear a baby's first cry is indescribable, such an amazing experience. She weighed in at 8 lbs. 10oz. and 20 3/4in long.

I was in recovery for a little bit where my Mom hung out with me and where I really got to hold little Lydia. My Mom left to go get Drake and we were taken to our room.

This picture is so gross of me, that morphine is horrible! But I had to document this special moment of Drake meeting Lydia for the first time. It was such a tender experience, one that I will always remember. I remember just thinking how lucky I was to have been blessed with these two children and knowing that Maddie was looking down on us as well. He walked in the room, washed his hands, and ran up to the bed asking to "pet" her. He just silently sat with me and stroked her face and kept giving her kisses. It was like he already knew her.

Proud Grandma! I was so happy that my Mom could be there with us, so very happy.

More loves from Drake.

Proud Daddy.

Happy Birthday to Lydia!

This was the next day after I was unhooked from everything!

Thursday we were ready to be discharged and go home.

It was our first glimpse to how crazy our life just got. I had to be in a wheel chair, with the nurse pushing me, Jordan had all of our bags and Lydia, my Mom's sandal broke so she couldn't chase after Drake and Drake was off running all around the hospital while my Mom and Jordan were trying to get a hold of him all the while Drake screaming NO! and not minding and I am trying to threat him from the wheel chair. I am sure the nurse was thinking we were crazy!

Can you tell Drake is unhappy as I have a strong hold on him? Ha

But as soon as we were home he wanted to hold Lydia and took this great picture!

He is so super sweet to her. Always calls her cute and loves to kiss her eyes, then nose, and hands and always wants to "pet" her. After about 2 minutes or less of holding her he will say "all done" and will start passing her off.

Lydia has been such a joy in our life these past 2 1/2 weeks. Gosh I couldn't ask for another perfect baby. She eats really well, sleeps 3-4 hours at time and I swear never cries. I love just holding her. She has her own look to her as well. I thought she would look like Maddie or Drake since they have their own distinct looks but she doesn't. My parents say she looks like me which I am really excited for because Maddie and Drake took after Jordan! We are very blessed to have her in our family and I love having another girl in the home!

Tomorrow's the Big Day

I can't believe the day has finally come! Tomorrow I have a scheduled c-section at 7:30 in the morning and I can't be more excited. Ok maybe not for the surgery part but I can't wait to meet this little girl that is all up in my ribs and already giving me sleepless nights! Lydia Lynn we can't wait to meet you! Like I have said before this has been a great pregnancy, besides being hot 24/7, I have felt great the whole time. I am so excited to have another girl, I can't even explain! It has been so fun preparing and pulling out all of Maddie's old clothes and blankets. I am just so curious to what she will look like. Will she pull all of the dark features like Maddie or be light complexed with blue eyes and blonde, curly hair like Drake? All I know is that I can't wait to have her in my arms.

A lot of prep has taken place for the arrival of this little one. First it was moving Drake into his new room and the fun makeover that took place with that and then it was onto the nursery. To say I bit off a little more than I could chew would be correct but would I change that?....probably not! because I absolutely LOVE how her room turned out. So let's get to the details!!

So if you remember, this is how the nursery used to look like when it was Drake. I loved it the whole 2 1/2 years he was in it.

Now onto the PROJECT. I knew I wanted to do another accent wall, like Drake's and my initial thinking was to buy this neat Moroccan wall stencil and have that be the accent. But it was $50 and I was unsure if it would actually turn out since I have textured walls and didn't want to be out the money if it didn't work. So I did a little more research and found this cool way of doing "painted wallpaper". All you had to do was print out the decal and trace it on the wall and then paint over your tracing. It looked awesome in the pictures and it was free, even better right? So I began tracing...and tracing... and with 10 ft. ceilings it took me days. To make a long story short it took a loooong time, tracing was actually the easy part. Then it was time to start going over my pencil marks with a 1/4 in. paint brush....double coated. I got 3/4 of the wall done and then when my fam came for my birthday my sweet sister finished the rest for me. My legs had had it. She was a life saver and finished the job. It does look awesome and I LOVE it but it took a long time!

So here is Brittney (and Drake) finishing the wall for me.

My family was such a great help when they were here. My Dad was the handy man, of course, and hung everything we needed him to.

And my Mom made the valance, the bedding, the pillow and the blanket that you see on the chair. I love every piece.

And here is the final result...

We found the dresser on craigs list. I sanded it, primed, painted and then added hardware. The clock is from my kitchen. I found the cute "You are my sunshine" print off of etsy and just nailed in silk flowers into the wall.

Here is a good view of the wall. Again, hand painted..and painted....and painted!

Her newborn pics will obviously go in the frames.

I painted the rod iron and made the bow board.

Here is the beautiful bedding my Mom made. The fabric is actually a duvet cover I found at Bed Bath and Beyond that she took apart to make the bedding with. I made the crib sheet with fabric I bought online. Seriously sooo easy. I can't say that for the bumpers but the crib sheet was so fun to make.

I made this little art piece. Can you guess what the flowers are made of? Toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls that I collected. Again a great, cheap idea I found online. I just spray painted them and hot glued them to the white canvas I bought at Hobby Lobby.

This name frame was another idea I found online. I painted a backless frame and cut out letters out of all the fabrics I used in the room, backed them with interfacing and ironed them on.

So many fun projects that kept me busy this whole pregnancy and a lot of help from my family. I love how it all turned out and can't wait to have Lydia in there! I love going into the room, a smile just comes across my face every time.

Tomorrow is the day. Nerves haven't gotten to me yet but I am sure it will be a sleepless night! I am also excited to introduce Drake to Lydia and have that special moment with him. It's been a long 9 months but tomorrow it will all be worth it. Pictures will be up as soon as we can!

Golden

Last week I was lucky enough to have my parents, Brittney and Micah all come in for the week of my "Golden"birthday, turning 28 on the 28th. I am kicking myself because I don't have alot of pictures of the week but it was so fun to have them here and we are already missing them. They made my 28th birthday a special one by getting me balloons, we went to lunch at Mighty Fine and dinner at Maggiano's...

then I opened presents with Drake's help of course...

and had delicious cupcakes to end the day. Drake helped Grandma make them in the morning and allllll day long he asked for "cake" so was so excited when if finally came time to sing and blow out candles.

I love the delight on his face in this picture.

It was a great birthday and I loved having my family with me to celebrate. I got so many phone calls, messages and texts that made my day. Here's to two more years till the big

3-0!!!

Sunny California

This post is a little out of order but I decided to finally post even though I don't have all the pictures yet. Back in August we were welcomed by the 70 degree weather of southern California and by all of the Walburger's! It was the first time in 6 years that all of the Walburger clan has been together and it was a sweet reunion. We had a blast with all of Jordan's brothers and families. Everywhere we went we had 10 adults and 13 children. It was such a fun trip and we were so glad we could make it out there to be with everyone! Judy and Gary have carried out a tradition for a number of years now to have a "cousins camp" with all of their grandchildren. It was our first and every day was planned out to a tee of fun activities for all of us.

The first day of Cousins Camp we headed out to San Clemente and spent the day at the beach, which I don't have any pictures from unfortunately, but the kids had a blast. That night we headed out to San Diego to spend the next day at Lego Land! It was a great park for all ages and Drake even got to go on a couple of "big" rides. He was so excited about this roller coaster. We would ask him what he was going to do when he got on and he would hold up his arms and softy scream and he really did hold up his hands the whole time!

The fam took up the entire ride, plus another!

At the end of the day Drake and Eliza just wanted their own space to run around and do their own thing and this dino sand pit was great. The two blondies!

Lego Land also has a water park in it so we spent some time there. Unfortunately it wasn't the warmest day but the kids still seemed to enjoy it! I was in a jacket just watching!

We took a big group picture, which I also need to get, but this was taken before we left for Lego Land. Yes I am large and in charge prego lady.

Another tradition of Cousins Camp is to have a backwards dinner. The cousins LOVE it, what kid wouldn't love eating their dessert first!? A couple of cousins taught Drake to say "Oh yeah baby!"

We came home from San Diego, on the way we stopped at the beach again, and then headed to the country club for some swimming the next couple of days. Drake even went off the high dive and loved it! We also had some great dinners out on the back porch and Drake absolutely LOVED playing with all of his cousins.

It was a great Walburger family reunion and Gary and Judy did a lot of planning to make it such a fun week. We loved being able to see all of Jordan's brother's families that we don't get to see that often and hope for more Cousins Camps!!