Life with our girls

Well, where to begin...First of all I will start with how unbelievably exhausted we are these days. Izzy is a great sleeper. She goes to bed a little on the late side and then Ben and I are up about another hour or so recovering from the day and preparing for the next and then she's up a few hours later and then Ellie is up a few hours afte that. Averaging us about 5-6 hours a night...mine is in chunks though. Everyone in our house has been sick for going on 3 weeks now too. We even took Ismylah to the doctor last week for congestion. Ellie had a fever and green snot and a really bad cough for a week I had a sinus infection and Ben now has an ear infection in both ears making him DNF for 10 days. Britt left us for 10 days to go back to Seattle which was of course when we were all our sickest making for a very interesting week on our own...or I should say my own. But I got Ellie to school on time with food in her tummy, clean clothes on her back, a kiss goodbye and a bath before bed (teeth not always brushed though), what more could you ask for at that point right?

Izzy is almost 5 weeks old! It's insane how fast it has gone so far and she has gotten so big. SHe loves to be snuggled and held and does not like to be alone. She'll take about 10-15 mins in her infant seat and then you pretty much have to hold her until it's time to lay her down. She has a period of time every night now from about dinner until she goes to bed for the night (between 9:30 and 10) where she has to be held and will not fall asleep on her own. So it's pretty much the whole night from when Ben gets home until she goes to bed. Ben and I take turns dealing with the girls throughout the night. The tiem we get to ourselves with each other is usually on the couch while Ben studies (for his Masters class) and watches Glen Beck DVR from earlier and I fold laundry and clean the kitchen and get things ready for the next morning. Then we carry oursleves off to bed and manage a kiss goodnight and not a peep from either of us. We just keep telling each other that it won't be this way forever and that we will eventually get caught up. But I really wonder if we ever will get caught up. If it is possible I've got about 100 or so hours of sleep that I'm behind on and the dishwasher just can't get unloaded before there's another pile waiting to go in and get washed just to get unloaded again while the other pile stacks up...it's just insane!

On a lighter and much more positive note we are happy, working on getting healthy, drinking lots of coffee (decaf for me though), having a blast discovering and getting to know our newest daughter, falling more in love with each other (probably in our sleep) and delighting in all the new things that Ellie is learning and how she grows and changes everyday...

The latest family pics

The Delivery (photographed by Blessings Photography)

Our dear friend Autumn who has started a photography business in the last year was able to meet us at the hospital to capture the play by play of the moments leading up to Ismylah's arrival. She has taken many of the wonderful pictures that I post on the blog and we are so blessed by these pictures and will treasure them forever.

Ismylah Grace Buchta is here!!!!!!

Cami's water broke a little after 0830L hours this morning. I was still in bed thinking about how I was not going to be able to go look at tools at Sears this afternoon. BUT...on the other hand I was finally going to meet my brand new arrow for my quiver! So when the words "yeah, that was my water", came out of Cami's mouth, I jumped out of bed looked in the mirror and realized I needed a shower. I don't know what Cami started to do...I think she went and ate some Cheerios. Took a combat shower, grabbed our 15 pre-packed bags, loaded them up, told "Bricky" I wasn't going to be able to change Ellie's diaper, shoved some Cheerios down my throat, kicking dogs out of the way, and drove 35mph towards the hospital. "Yeah Ben, you need to drive faster". "Got it, just keep breathing Babe".
Dropped her off at the Emergency room, and parked the car 800 meters from the nearest entrance because Friday mornings at the hospital is the place to be apparently. Hauled our 15 bags through the rain to find Cami in the exact same place in a wheel chair where I left her. "All right people, let's go! I've got a woman that is probably 8 cm here we need to get this party started!"....that's what I wanted to say. Instead..."yes ma'am, we'd like to go to a delivery room".
DELIVERY ROOM:
Just keep breathing, breathing, breathing...good job Babe, you're doing great, do you want ice? is it to cold? (Oh man I am just so PUMPED right now!!! I just held her) So, then comes out of the mouth of the Mom, "Nope, give me an epidural, not worth it, can't do it". I say, "Cami, you are doing really good, I know you can do this, you want to do this, you want to be able to feel what your doing"... all that stuff that the Coach is supposed to do. I guess it worked, thank you Yahweh. Because I was seriously expecting physical backlash against my face or eyes. FACT: wisdom is a man who knows to choose his words wisely with a woman in labor. When your looking into the face of a contraction you're looking at the face of life and simultaneously your potential demise. So that's a pretty cool rush. Speaking of cool, it's snowing in south Georgia! Anyways, where were we...So we hurdled the epidural, then comes the demoral question...that was an EASY kill, I simply asked, "do you remember how you felt last time? You just need to breathe and relax, I will just push on your tailbone, we're good to go". BAM! She's gonna do it! Then Lauren the Midwife arrives, Cami says, "I have to push, my body is pushing and I can't stop it". Lauren says, "ok girl, just push and we'll do this" so after we got the trashbag in place, we breathed and pushed and breathed and pushed and relaxed and breathed and breathed, then PUSHED and PUSHED. And Camilla Grace did SO GREAT, she ROCKED that birth she did absolutely AMAZING!!! I am SO SO SO PROUD TO BE HER HUSBAND because she just hung in there and was so strong through all of it and I watched her face and determination and she moved that baby out of her in no time. 1 hour 40 minutes from water breaking to the 1016L birth of Ismylah Grace: 7lbs 14oz 19in tall. I got to cut the cord, and without trying a whole bunch of tears came out of my face then I was just happy. That's all there is to it. I had a good time...I think Cami did too. Izzy, or Mylah (either is cool) looks just like Ellie did, except she has tiny little ankles and long feet. She is quiet, and got a delicious snack immediately upon her phenomenal entrance. She just got bathed and will be getting her checkups the next couple hours, so here are the very first pictures of our newest addition. Oh yeah, and Ellie, "I baby nose, yeah?" So Ellie blew the baby's nose for us.

Still waiting on a baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well as of today I am 39 and a half weeks pregnant still! I feel amazing! I've had this crazy burst of energy since Saturday. We've taken advantage of it and cleaned the house like crazy all weekend. This week I've started baking in the afternoons too. Don't really know what all that means...I almost feel like I'm not pregnant sometimes throughout the day.

In the mean time we've got Ellie saying "I'm the big sister" and kissing the baby and telling it to "herup" (hurry up) and helping me rub oil on my stretching skin as I fear this baby is getting bigger by the day...YIKES!

Air drums

Looking forward and reflecting backwards

We had such a full house this year! We are so blessed to be able to spend time with family this time of year! Our house has definitely never felt smaller, but we managed. Scott came back from Afghanistan for a month and then Jessica arrived Christmas Eve and then My mom arrived Christmas Day. Everyone was gone within a week and a half since then. So pretty much since BEn has been home...we have been sharing our home! It had it's ups and downs but ultimately was full of memories and blessings! We are so looking forward to what this year holds. Brittany will be here still with us until about October, which will come in so handy when the new baby arrives. Which by the way I am 36 weeks as of tomorrow and this kid has finally dropped! I have been severely out of breath for the last month. Now I feel like i have a bowling ball between my legs. You just can't win with pregnancy.

Now that our house is empty (well not really). Ellie is getting used to not getting as much attention. SHe seems to be adjusting well. She got so many new toys for Christmas it's hard to know what to play with. She says a new word about everyday and makes up her own words for things which we call "Ellie language." Brittany is "Brickey", Scott is "Hawk", my mom is "Nonni". These are names she has given people in the last few weeks. We all find ourselves speaking in Ellie language quite often.

We finally have names for this baby nailed down and we're not telling! We got our bags packed and a bunch of last minute items ordered online in the mail! Ben is going through his second to last big upgrade here wich is kind of stressful. He's got two flights next week and then he'll be done and then it will be time for the baby to be here and he'll get some leave then and then all of a sudden he'll be off again this summer! So I'm startingto feel like this is the Christmas letter part II. So on that note I'm wrapping it up...here's a look at the last few weeks!