Life with 2 kids

Well, the fact that I haven't written since Amelia was born tells you how busy I am. The main reason though is that I use Eric's work laptop and he has that during the day so the only time I have is after he gets home from work. But, when he gets home is when I finally feel like I can get some things done around the house. It also takes a lot longer to get two kids ready for bed so my evenings are pretty full.
Really though, I love my little family. It seems so complete now and I love being home with them all day. I actually took them both to WalMart earlier this week and survived! We were only there 20 minutes but there were no tears involved. I was so proud of myself. I'm torn though because sometimes I miss work too. Well, I miss my friends at work. I know it will still be hard to go back in a couple of weeks. I'm mostly loving having the evenings to spend with Eric eating dinner together and watching American Idol.
Gabe is adjusting o.k. He really loves Amelia and isn't showing any anger or anything like that. He can't stop kissing and touching her and sometimes I get tired of telling him to leave her alone. We have noticed though that he has become more whiny and throwing more tantrums. I think he's just frustrated because mommy isn't there for everything like before and life as he knows it has changed drastically.
So far she is such a good little baby. We haven't seen any signs of colic yet but we aren't getting too excited because Gabe was 2 weeks old before he started it. She just sleeps, eats, and poops right now. She looks a lot like Gabe did when he was a newborn. She already has a dimple in her right cheek. Hopefully she'll use her dimple powers for good and not evil like her daddy did when he was young. Love you all,
Britt

Amelia Pics

New Arrival

Amelia Joy Sivertson was born @ 8:34 last night. She weighed in at 8lbs and 2 oz and was 19 inches long. We will post pictures and write more later. Love you all.

An update

O.k. sorry for being gone so long. It's been a stressful week. I last left off with our whole hospital and contractions ordeal. The tuesday after I was continuing to take it easy and trying to not have anymore contractions when I got a phone call from my sister Kelly. She had some pretty sad news for me. Ruth died last Tuesday morning in her sleep. They are pretty sure it was a stroke. Obviously the news didn't help the contractions and I was up most of the next morning with them. Once Eric got up though I took a shower and got another hour of sleep and that helped them a lot. We then went to my doctor's appt. and she told me to stop taking the medication and that if I go into labor, it's o.k. now. So, on that topic I am still having contractions, although not bad ones, and still dilated to 3 but nothing much is happening.
Now about Ruth. I still can't believe it. I just so badly want to be with Kelly and W.T. right now and it is killing me that I can't. If I knew the baby might not come any day, I would. I'm also mad at myself because I was going to call her the day before and let them know what was going on and ask her how to make her delicious rice crispy treats and I didn't. I didn't get to say goodbye. I hadn't talked to her since Christmas. Eric was great though and he helped a lot to calm me down and make me feel better. It helps so much to know that she is definitely in heaven and not in anymore pain. She's suffered from migraines for decades, has had high blood pressure, and a year and a half ago she had a minor stroke that left her memory not the best. She's been on so many medications for so long that I just know she has to be feeling so good now. I just feel so bad for W.T. I couldn't talk to him for a couple of days because I knew I would break down. Finally, I couldn't put it off anymore and we talked on Fri. He's devastated and said that half of him is missing. They were married for 38 years and she was his world. We all thought that if one of them had to go first it would hopefully be him. I know that sounds bad but his life revolved around her and I know that he is probably so lost now. I'm so happy we were able to go down the Thanksgiving before last and see them. They got to meet Gabe and we got some pictures. Eric is so sweet. He came home yesterday with a surprise for me. He had ordered the pics. at WalMart and bought me some frames to put them in so now I actually have some printed out and not just in the comp. I was doing pretty well until Sunday during church. All through worship I bawled like a baby. We had a special band up from Portland which had a violinist in it. Well, at one point, he starts to play Amazing Grace with just the violin. I was like, "Are you kidding me! I can't take this!" They were happy tears though too because I know she loved the Lord and believed every word of that song. Usually as I sing the songs, I am thinking how they apply to me but that morning I just kept looking at them through her eyes and how she must be singing them now in heaven. So, that's what's going on here. If you happen to remember please pray for W.T. and Kelly. They are having a pretty rough time.
Love ya all
Britt

Close but no cigar

Well, I thought we were going to have a baby this weekend. I'm going to try and make a long story short, which is very difficult for me. This past week Gabe got the flu and so I had a puking kid to deal with. Plus, I had been having contractions but they were just Braxton Hicks and I didn't think much about them. Wed. night I noticed I was having a lot at work so I started timing and they were between 5 and 15 minutes apart. So, I went home and relaxed and didn't think much about them. I got them the next day but they were like 2 every hour so again, I didn't worry. Then Thursday night they got closer again. Plus, when I got home from work Eric said he wasn't feeling well and went to bed early. When I went to bed finally he was laying there shaking with chills and trying to get warm. So, he decided to go take a warm shower and try to warm up. Shortly after I hear the shower start, I hear him throwing up - in the shower. I felt so bad for him. He got out and tried to clean it up as much as possible but apparently the drain was clogged. By this time it was about midnight and I told him to leave it till the morning. So, I was up late with that and he didn't sleep well, which meant I didn't sleep well. Then Gabe decided to wake up at 4:45. I usually let him lay there when it is that early but my hope was that I could get him real quick and we could both fall asleep in the living room in the recliner. I was wrong. Plus, now I wasn't feeling well. Eric got up shortly after and tried cleaning out the shower. He finally succeeded but had to drag out the shop vac. Meanwhile my contractions are getting stronger and pretty close together. I decided when my doctors office opens I would call them and probably go in to just get checked and see if I am dilating at all. Well, then at about 6:45 I start throwing up. Now I get scared that this isn't good for the baby so Eric calls the on call nurse helpline. I talk to her and she said that since I was pre-term and I was having more than 6 an hour I had to go to the hospital. Now, the contractions are stronger and about 3 minutes apart. I'm convinced that I'm going to have her. I pack a bag real fast for Gabe, Eric finishes cleaning out the shower which has been soaking in bleach water and takes a shower. Then he takes Gabe to a friends house and we make those arrangements. We finally get to the hospital a little after 8. Oh ya, I threw up again on the way there. They check me and I'm dilated to 2 so I think they are just going to let me have this baby. No, the next 13 hours they continue to give me shots and pills to try and make the contractions stop. They would stop for a little bit but come back. They weren't very strong though so they weren't making me dilate so it was creating this vicious cycle of nothing happening. I couldn't go home till they were completely gone and they couldn't let me have the baby unless I was dilating in spite of all the meds. Eric is the one I feel sorry for though. He got one hour of sleep the night before, was also sick, and had nothing but this uncomfortable chair to sit in this tiny little room. There were some points that he was lying on the cold floor with my purse as his pillow. At least they gave me anti-nausea meds and stuff to make me sleep. Plus, a bunch of bags of IV and antibiotics. They definitely hydrated me! So, finally they stop and we get to go home. Thank God that Gabe was staying at Eric's parents because we have never been so tired in our lives.
So, now I am on these meds to stop the contractions but I am still having them. I'm supposed to go in again if they get to be 6 in an hour again. I am not doing that! The only thing that really works is lying down so I'm doing a lot of that. I'm almost 36 weeks and I think they'll just let me go at that point. I want to make it to my baby shower next weekend though. My fear is that we will do all this stuff to make me wait and then I'll end up going past my due date. I will be so mad if that happens! So, please pray that I make it at least a week.