how great is our god

the last week has left me overwhelemd by the blessing of a sweet baby girl. i truly cannot get enough of the adorable little precious, putting her down to be productive is just about the most difficult thing about my days. (note the usage of just about, my days are oft still full of beautiful baby adoration and two little boys' naughtiness).

here is the story of our little girl's arrival:

once upon a time, friday, aug 20th at 3am, i started having contractions every 10 min. i had many, many braxton hicks with this pregnancy, so i knew there was a difference and the second my mind thought, it could be today that we meet this baby, there was no rest, only adrenaline. so i painted my toes and fingernails, did some laundry, watched some reality tv, and paced until the rest of the fam sensed the excitement and got up for the day.

we were especially thrilled with the possibility that our babe could be born on aug 20th, brad's dad's bday. what a sweet legacy and reminder of austin jay meiste, to have a grandbaby born on his birthday. just in case, our girls' name, ayla jo, utilized the same intials as austin jay, so both would be ajm. special.

so, by noonish, the contractions had intensified and were now every 3-5 minutes. after taking the boys for a hard walk, i called brad and sandy to come on over, thinking i should be at the hospital with plenty of time for the group b strep antibiotic. we arrived at the hospital, next door to our super friends the legwaters who had just had baby elliot, and got checked out. i was dialated to a whopping 2 cm. boo. under the guidance of nurse vicki, my dad's old girlfriend from highschool, and the very same nurse who labored with maxwell, we decided to wait it out and check in an hour or so. during that time, we visited with the legwaters and met baby elliot. so sweet! after two hours, my hard contraction work resulted only in slight progress, vicki assured me i was now measuring 3 cm, but i think she lied in effort to keep me in the hospital.

we made a plan with dr taylor to start the antibiotics, followed by some pitocin, aka go juice. antibiotics in at 4, pitocin began at 8:30. brad and i spent the entire day together chatting, anticipating, reminiscing, and playing card games. it was some nice quality time together just the two of us while awaiting the newest fam member. finally, i asked to be checked at 11 pm, exhausted after laboring all day. bad news, nothing had happened since 4! boo.

dr taylor stopped in and suggested two paths for us to choose from:

1. go home, sleep, and hope labor progresses in a couple days. then come back to the hospital and redo all the antibiotics. umm, no. or

2. take sleeping pill, continue to increase pitocin and hope progress is made during the night.

we went with the second option. after two LARGE sleeping pills, i was a loopy doop. at one point, i asked brad how many tvs were in the room. brad took the liberty to go ahead and insist on an epidural at that time. he was way concerned about the whole passing out due to my proclamations of pain and dying again. i recall getting the epidural, being checked again around 5 (and at a 5 at this point), and then jolting awake at 6 with intense pain. after pushing the epidural juice button several times, connie the nurse assured me she would check me while putting in a catheter. after the check, she calmly dialed dr taylor and demanded he get here immediately. no catheter, baby was ready to be born.

about 10 minutes later, we hear dr taylor running down the hall. he arrived, sat down, gloved up and told me i could push whenever i felt the need. while i needed, after like one push, dr taylor announced it was a girl!

he handed her over,

we fell in love,

dr taylor departed,

and our life was forever changed by the 7 lb 3 ounced, 19 inched bundle of joy: ayla jo

jelly man

many summer days are spent playing out on the swingset in our backyard. maxer and bear create mini farms in the sand, swing, slide, hang out in the "fort" and otherwise expend lots of energy and happy hours. during their adventures, i leisurely sit in a lounge chair reading and exclaiming about the boys antics every now and then. oh how i love these days.

the location of above described "park" warrants some occasional visitors of the amphibious variety. frogs. or toads. either way, those little yuck ribbiting squishy things find their way into our sandbox, much to the delight of my boys. there is much ruckus while maxer procures a pail and attempts to catch a frog. the end result is sometimes a captured toad, and sometimes a squashed remnant of frog- the result of a miss with the bucket.

earlier this week, maxer was successful in catching a toad and became very attached to the thing. when i asked max what the toad's name was max responded, "uhh, jelly man". up to this point, maxer typically named stuffed animals, bugs, etc just what they are. so previous frogs had been named frog. to have come up with jelly man is so adorable and a complete breakthrough in the imagination.

jelly man is one lucky toad. max and bear took turns taking it down the slide, pushing him on the swings, and showing him their fave things in the house. at long last, when jelly man was showing signs of fatigue, we released him back to the wild.

love how my kids make my life such an adventure!

we went, we camped, we are happily at home

our last camping trip of the season ended yesterday. how we will miss camp life-where we go outside as soon as we are awake, and camp food-the longest dinner preparations took like 20 minutes and the days are full of grazing on snacks, and camp friends- seriously some of the greatest people i know all gathered together as neighbors. we remain comforted in knowing our summer adventures will continue with the arrival of a baby (someday...), and plenty of good times outside still to come.

this trip was at dutch treat, just in case babe wanted to come early- we were even closer to zeeland hospital than at home. baby decided h to the no, so the proximity to captain sunday was more useful. those dutch treat peeps are not such big fans of the meiste camping group. we were literally yelled at or strongly spoken to every day for breaking rules such as riding bikes on paved roads, digging in the dirt near our camper, and riding bikes in the dirt. thankfully, val and steph graciously dealt with the lady more often than i did, i mostly shouted things back to her when she would whir by on her bike shouting instructions. not my finest moment, but the hormones are raging and she yelled at my kid.

other than that minor downfall, we had a super fun time complete with gorgeous weather and happy healthy children. one memory to be forever cherished is the creative usage of jason kline's remote control truck. i believe there is a more fitting name for his automotive wonder, but it is a big truck that jason can control remotely, so there ya go. after impressing my boys with the maneuvers and noise, jason got the idea to utilize the power of the truck to drive the wagon.

bear started things off, riding bravely in the wagon steered by a large truck. then jason tested the strength by putting older children in the wagon. finally, he himself rode in the wagon pulled by his big truck. it was a sight to behold.

now that we are home, i am again so grateful for the time spent with amazing friends and so behind on laundry :)