1 Month Birthday!

Addison, we can't believe a month has passed already it really seems like just a few days ago we were headed to the hospital! We are so excited to see you growing a little each day, even though we want you to stay little and snuggle in our arms forever we are also excited to see what new thing you will be doing today or the next day. We almost have some smiles out of you! You give Mommy the sweetest little sleepy grin when we get up in the morning, and you think Daddy is so funny when he tickles you! We are both still learning eachothers schedule, you like to eat all the time! And you are so good with your nights ( most of the time) last night you must have know how tired we were from the night before, because once you finally fell asleep at 10pm you slept til 3:30am! We were so happy for the sleep but we woke you up to eat and change you. Everyone keeps telling us to never wake a sleeping baby, but we want you to eat and be healthy so we wake you up for now.
You hate your tummy time, but we can already see that you are getting stronger each day with it. You have been holding your head strong since you were born and it's just getting better and better. You like to follow the sound of our voices with your eyes. When Daddy comes home at night he is anxious to get cleaned up and hold you and I think your just as anxious to see him, your eyes get really big and flow him around the room. I just love to watch your daddy and you together. We can't believe how much you have changed our lives so much in just a month and we are so thankful that God blessed us with such a sweet and precious gift.

2 weeks!

We sure can't believe that our little girl has been with us for 2 weeks already! And she's already changed so much!
The first week home we had major help from my Mom, she took the week off of work and was able to help with the housework and cooking us dinner and grocery shopping for us. All the things that we thought we would have time for and didn't she was able to do for us and it was such a big help! We even got some good naps in while she was here which were much needed! Josh's parents were also able to help on the weekend, so neither of us had to step in the kitchen til Wednesday after Josh went back to work. He was able to be home for about 10 days which was wonderful. He has stepped into fatherhood perfectly!
Addison has made it so easy to adjust with a new baby at home. We were dreading the nights, but she would actually let us sleep for about 5 hours at a time if we wanted to, but we wake her up every 2-3 hours to feed her. The days are the hard part, I hear that's she's just like her father was and wants to be held and eat all the time. So I don't get hands free time until we get a visitor or Josh gets home. But we are both loving parenthood so far!
Addison had her first photo shoot when she was 1 week old. The photographer had said that with every shoot the baby will poo and pee atleast once, we were anxiously waiting on a poo for about a day since the dr still had us keeping track of all these things. Well she had her set up naked in one of the cutest little tea cups and Addison was giving the sweetest little smiles, sure enough she was also leaving a great big surprise in the bottom of this tea cup.I can't say the photographer was too happy about it, but Josh and I were and the picture turned out to be our favorite of all that were taken.

She's Arrived!

We are sure you all know by now, Addison Jean Hogue was born on February 26, 2012 at 6:23am weighing 8lb7oz and 21 inches long. After being told that I would be induced on Sunday morning, I was getting nervous about the contractions and having to be on pitocin. Josh and I were praying that I would go into labor on my own, and our prayers were answered. About 3:30am on Saturday morning, I woke up with contractions and just let Josh sleep as I stared at the clock to see how close they were together. They were getting more painful and closer together so at 5:30am I decided to get in the shower I woke up Josh and let him know that I was in labor, his response was "really, are you timing them" I told him that I was pretty sure this was it! After my shower I laid back down and started timing. The contractions were getting close to 5-7 min apart. I told Josh to go into work and finish up what he needed to in order to have the following week off. He left and I laid in bed continuing to time the contractions. We were on the phone with eachother every 30 min. I called him at 9:00am and told him he better come home because the contractions were now 4-6 min apart. He came home checked on me, and got in the shower. He picked up around the house and started packing the car with our suitcase and the camera bag. At 10:43 He decided to eat a sandwich and as soon as he was opening the fridge I was getting out of bed to use the bathroom, and GUSH! My water had broken! I just stood there by the bed, in excitement and fear...This is REALLY it! I yelled at Josh,
"I think... yep...my water just broke!!" he came rushing back "are you serious?!" Josh called Labor and Delivery, and let them know that we would be on our way in, and the nurse told him that there were no beds available and that we could wait it out at home for about an hour. Josh started "nesting" as I would call it, and cleaned up the kitchen and bathroom. And I just stayed in bed til
it was time to go. We hadn't called any of the family yet to clue them in on what was going on. So I called my mom while Josh called his. They were both shocked and excited to hear the news. I tried calling my sister 2x and didn't get an answer so I called Matt, and asked to speak to her. She got on the phone and I said "don't you know I'm 9 months pregnant" she said "yeah" and I said "my water broke we are leaving for the hospital!" she didn't believe me as I had previously been pranking our mom for about a week every time I called her house mom would answer with anticipation in her voice. So I told Katie about the mornings events! We let them all know that we would keep them updated but there was no need for them to rush to the hospital.
We got to the hospital at 1:00pm. They gave me a room in the post pardum wing and hooked me up to the monitors. Checked me in and we waited it out continuing with the contractions for a few hours. Once they moved me into labor and delivery around 4:30pm. I continued to breath through the contractions Josh was such a great coach, watching the monitor letting me know when they were peaking and when they were starting to go away. He would rub my back and massage my shoulders trying all that he could to keep me focused and calm. I hadn't decided if I wanted the epidural or not. The nurses told me that if I didn't start to have more contractions closer together that I would have to start the pitocin. I had heard that this would make my contractions closer together and stronger, and I was in so much pain already that I didn't know how I would handle the pain. So I told the nurses that I wanted to progress as much as I could on my own then get the epidural and then after that get the pitocin. So that was our plan...Around 7pm I got I.V. pain medication and that didn't help with the pain for more than just taking some edge off. I worked through as many more contractions as I could. The nurse came in and told me that the anesthesiologist was in the next room and could come in to give me the epidural next. I said okay, as long as I was progressed enough. I was so I got the epidural and was sooo nervous to have the needle in my back. I was trying to focus and breath through that as best I could. It actually hurt less than the I.V. The pitocin started next and the contractions did pick up and they got stronger. But I didn't feel a thing!
Josh called the family and told them all that they could come down to the hospital at this point it was close to 10:00pm. They all came in and checked up on us. I started to have problems with my blood pressure because of the epidural and was put on oxygen and ephedrin. Things would smooth out and then drop again. But Addison's heart rate stayed normal.
And now the real waiting game began! The nurses periodically cheked in and checked my progress and things were still moving a bit slow so they upped the pitocin and let me "labor down". It was 3:30am before I began pushing I pushed for 3 hours before the nurse called the Dr. When Dr. Nordeen came in they had already informed him that I was not progressing quickly. He left the room to change into his scrubs after mentioning plan B...But they didnt say what plan B was. So as he left, the nurse slightly mentioned C section. I looked at Josh and he looked at me and we were both so scared and after all these hours of labor, I was not going to have surgery. I pushed 3 more times with a lot of determination, and was able to progress just enough. When Dr. Nordeen got back into the room, he was willing to let me give it a few more tries before we would have to move to the operating room. He hooked up the Kiwi Vaccume and with one more push she was Born! After 27 hours of labor! That part of it was way faster than I thought it would be and I was so happy that it was all over and so overwhelmed with the whole experience, I can't even describe the excitement and joy that Josh and I both felt. It was the BEST moment of our entire life!
God has truly blessed us and continues to do so everyday!