Counting to 10

Today Sammie counted to 10 all by herself. It started because she was "yelling" at Dash to come here. She started to count to 3 like I do when the kids are not listening. Except she kept going. It was pretty funny watching her me "mother-like" but also pretty cool to hear her count to 10!

Tammie

Sammie has been learning to say her name over the past few months and I have been meaning to get this up,

When Sammie says her own name it sounds like she is calling her self Tammie. It is pretty cute.

Alicia Grace~Birth Story

Born 6-16-09 at 5:50pm

Weighing in at 7lbs and 8oz measuring 20 inches

We arrived to the hospital at 7:30am on 6-16-09 to be induced. At 8am we started the pitocin and penicillin drips. I had to have the penicillin because my group B strep test was positive. I needed to have the anitbiotic in my system for at least 4 hours before they would break my water. They started out uping my pitocin every 30 minutes to get the contractions going and consistant.

Grandma and Grandpa Cohan had arrive to the hospital at 9 am after spending the morning with Dash and Sammie. Grandma Kitty(my mom) and Aunt Tabby arrived to the hospital at 12:30pm. Grandpa Mikesell arrived to the hospital at 1:30pm. (they were not in the room when my water was broke until after my epidural had kicked in)

My 2nd dose of penicillin was given at 12 and I was still on the pitocin. The contractions were picking up around this time but nothing I could not handle. Dr. Sponagle arrived around 2 and my water was broken at 2:15pm. At this time I was measuring 3cm. My waterbag was difficult to break and they were done around 2:30pm. The contractions did not take their time picking up and becoming very very very difficult to breath through. I was having a lot of back labor, something I had not experianced yet. At 2:45 I was checked again and was already at 4cm! I did not last long with these contractions before I requested my epidural. I had my epidural at 3:45pm and was measuring 4+cm. Ryan and family were watching my monitor commenting that since I had the epidural my contractions were very low and everyone was getting impatient! I was telling them that they were wrong! Even though I could not feel the contractions, I could feel lots of pressure below. The nurse came and around 5:15 and told me that Dr. Sponagle would be in around 5:30 to check me. At about 5:25pm I was feeling lots of pressure and felt the need to push. I was about to have Ryan go get the nurse, but I thought this cant be time, I can wait a few more minutes for the Dr. We had everyone clear out to be checked and I was told I was complete....time to get ready to push! We had everything ready and everyone in position to push at 5:40pm! I had only pushed 6-7 sets of 3 before the uterus took over and pushed her out all on its own! Welcome baby Alicia Grace at 5:50pm. She was born to the movie, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything with Grandma Kitty, Daddy, 2 nurses, and Dr. Sponagle in the room. All in all it was a pretty easy birth.

Today is the day!

Today is the day where at some point Alicia Grace Cohan will enter the world outside of her mommies tummy.

I have all sorts of feelings going on inside of me. I am excited like Christmas so much so I couldnt sleep too well(not so good for whats in store) all while not looking forward to the day because I know what lies ahead of me. Yes it will all be worth it in the end and I know once we get there and things get started and underway I will feel better. It is the uncertain that is making me feel this way.

I was able to spend some quiet time with Jesus this morning and that has helped. Please pray for Ryan and I to work together as a team today!

My next visit back should be with picutres and details. Enjoy your week!

Time to Pack

Tomorrow is my induce date. I will be 39 weeks exactly and I am being induced to make sure that baby Ali is not that big of a baby to deliver. She is for sure head down, I could have told you that at around 30 weeks. Last week, June 9th I was measuring 50% and 1.75cm. With this you would have thought I would have been able to put myself into labor. Unfortunately all my tricks did not work. Does this mean she is not ready? Are we forcing things tomorrow? I feel ready and I dont feel like I could get much bigger, all though I know I could :(

I feel very uncertain about tomorrow. I feel lost and out of control. Which in theory I am out of control. Yes I know we as women are very out of control when it comes time to give birth, but now there is a Dr. in control. I trust my OB and I have agreed to the induction, but I am nervous about how the whole thing will shake down. (I honestly was hoping to induce myself before tomorrow so that I would not have to worry about it.)Dash was overdue and my first so it is to be expected to be nervous and have no clue. He was a long and hard birth. Sammie was 10 days early and right on "my" schedule. She was a quick and easy birth to say the least. What will Ali be like. Will she be a long labor? Difficult? Big? How can I deal with my labor pains at the hospital compared to at home? So many questions ponder my head tonight as I get the house ready and the bags packed like we are going on vacation. I know Jesus is in control ultimately and things will happen as He allows, but then again I am human and strugle with not knowing what is to come.

Dash, Kiyah, and Hope

Terry and Bethany

Kiyah

Kiyah pushing Daddy on the swing just before leaving the park.

Terry and Bethany were in town for Matt's Graduation party. It was nice to see them and nice that the kids could play together. Dash kept trying to say Kiyah's name but it kept sounding like Kyle. It was pretty cute! It was also nice that they were down for a non-holiday event which means that things were not necessarily about them. That was not said to mean or rude, but it simply meant that we were able to enjoy eachothers company without contantly being disrupted by other adults in the house or having to watch the kids. There were plenty of people available to keep an eye on the kids and for the others to talk to that we got to talk and hang out. Like I said, it was nice :)

37/38 Weeks

Pregnant with Dash at 37 weeks. I gained 63lbs with him.

Pregnant with Sammie at 38 weeks. I gained 35lbs with her. This picture was actully taken the day before I went into labor with her and 2 days before she was born.

Pregnant with Ali at 38 weeks. So far I have gained 40lbs with her.

Here are some pictures of me pregnant with each of the kids. I kinda dont see a differance other than my fat face with dash. What do you think?

One Year Ago Already!

Sunday Afternoon!

Saturday night Ryan and I had checked the basement and we had flowing rivers to the drian. So at 10 we went to bed thinking, what more can we do. Then Sunday morning we woke up with 6-8 inches of water in the basement. Ryan not wanting to do anything about it said, "let's just go to church. What more can happen?"
Well with him and his Cohan luck, after church we came home to 2 feet of standing water in the basement!

That afternoon some Seth Roberts, Carmen Sanford, Rachel Price, Beth Strutz, Abbey Conn, My dad, and Daniel(sorry if i forgot anyone) all came over to help move things out of the basement. Things that were wet and a things a bit above. This was all the things we pulle from the basement.

I let Dash play. Why not?!?

Dash and I went for a walk down our street to play in the water. This is our neigbors driveway.

This is what things looked like on Sunday afternoon. As things were taken out, the water level conintued to rise!

Monday Morning!

We did end up with 2-3 inches of water in the garage!

Sunday night we spent the night at my dad's house because we were getting no where with pumping the basement and the rain was coming down in buckets! For our safety and the safety of the kids we chose to leave. Ryan stopped by the house on Monday morning on his way to work and this is what he was greeted with. By time I made it out there the city was blocking off the bridges to get to our house! It was very scary! I had hit panic mode. As soon as I saw our street I think I had a slight panic attack. I was able to find a WE energies truck up the road and have him cut the power before we went in. He actually did it from the street. Betsie and Molly came to help me figure out what to pack from the house and help with the kids. As a mom, I had to joy of doing this with the kids. At just 2 years old and 9.5 months, Dash and Sammie handled things pretty well. I was able to keep myself together until Molly had arrived. I was in survival mode and she brought the tears for me! After my breakdown, Betsie and Molly just packed the house for me since I had no ability to make a decision! My dad came over later to help pack up the house! Once I saw him I did tear up again too! Thank you Betsie, Molly, and Dad for helping me get things out of the house and being my brain for that day!

This is what our street looked like. The neighbors and us joked we had a boat house!

The backyard. Can you tell we have a high spot

For obvious reasons we were unable to go down stairs when the basement was at it's highest point, but here you can see the waterline above the hotwater heater.

Here you can see the waterline in the cedar closet that was downstairs.

On Wednesday of that week, things started to calm down and the river went down a bit. When we were flooded we were at only 4.5 rocks showing. So even just half a rock height made a diffearance.

The height of the river a few days after we were flooded. Thankfully the river never came over the edge across the street from us....otherwise we would have been in more water than we already were.

This Spring Ryan and I have been waiting for flood number 2! We have been watching the river heights and the rainfall. So far God has kept us pretty dry(other than our traditional wetness) this year. I cannot believe that a year has come and gone since we had to start cleaning up this mess! Things are looking quite differant now than a year ago! The river across the street is at normal levels, the river at Frame Park is at a semi-normal level! I do find it ironic that we find ourselves with a rainy day today! It always ammuses us to see God's humor!