And so the journey continues...

It's been awhile since I have blogged. Obviously, my last blog post was when Caleb was born, and now here I am announcing that baby #4 is on the way! I am due the beginning of February! This was not planned, but a true blessing indeed. I wanted to let you know about my new blog where I will be blogging during my pregnancy: ajourneytovbac.blogspot.com

I also hope to get back up to date with my family blog, so stay tuned! Here are a couple of pictures of our precious children, plus the newest additions to our family:












Meet Custer (white male) and Shiloh (brown female) our new puppies! The kids are absolutely in love with them!



Carter and Sydney are taking swim lessons together this summer!

Caleb Asher's birth story

Well I think we have established that I am the world's worst blogger! But here I am finally to share the story of our third child's birth! It all started on Monday, August 30th when my parents arrived from Lynchburg, VA. We were so thrilled that Grandpa was able to come, since he had his bypass surgery only a couple of months ago. He has had such a great recovery and was given the green light to come. We were all thrilled to have him here and the kids took advantage of every minute with Grandma and Grandpa!

I think by the end of their week here, my parents were exhausted from reading books to my children! But these were precious photo moments for sure!

Grandpa and Carter also enjoyed putting a puzzle together!

Here I am, my last evening being pregnant! Last time just sitting with two of my children, I would soon be the mother of three...

The next morning, we had to be at the hospital by 6 am to prep for surgery.

At this point, I was just ready to get the show rolling and be done with all of this!

Sydney ended up being with us that morning even though she was supposed to be spending the night with our friends. We ended up bringing her home late that night because she woke up crying and wouldn't go back to sleep. Then we had to wake her up early to go to the hospital with us. She was a trooper, but it looks like she is about to fall asleep here!!

It was the third time I was having a c-section in this hospital, but everything was very different from the start. For starters, my previous two c-sections had been around 6:30 pm on a Thursday evening. This one was at 7:30 am on a Wednesday. I had a different anestheologist this time, and was in a different OR this time as well.

Surgery was supposed to start at 7:30 am, but there was an issue with the epidural... as in, it wasn't working! As they were prepping me for surgery and testing to see if my legs were numb, the anesetheologist kept getting worried when he would ask if they were numb, and I would say, "No!" Surgery was delayed about 30-40 mins because they finally had to re-administer the epidural! You know, once is fun enough, really! But once it was put in a second time, I began to get numb, and we were well on our way.

Before I knew it, I heard my baby boy crying, and so I began to cry! Tears of joy, and just thankful to be done. It was a fairly easy pregnancy, but the last couple of months, being the hottest summer on record in Texas... were not fun to say the least!

He was perfect, in every way...

Our precious baby boy! He was finally here!

Steve and I couldn't have been more thrilled! Okay, maybe Mommy was the most thrilled... but Daddy was pretty thrilled as well!

Soon we were rolled into the c-section recovery room and were allowed to have visitors.

Proud Grandpa Blackburn was the first to hold Caleb!

Then of course Grandma Blackburn had the honors.

Sydney surprisingly took to the new baby right away. She is going to be such a wonderful mother someday!

All this passing around, and I finally realized that I hadn't held my baby boy yet!! So we had a little bonding time!

Then he was whisked away to the nursery to be weighed and measured. And the verdict was...

8 lbs even! Actually at first, the scale said 7 lbs 15.9 oz and the nurse began to say that he was 7 lbs 16 oz! But another nurse quickly responded that didn't quite add up right! So they weighed again, and it was officially 8 lbs. He was also 19.25 inches long.

We were soon taken to my room to wait the several hours before they bring the baby to me... yes, it is a torturous few hours! But once they brought him up and we had our first nursing session, our guests began to arrive.

Our friends brought Carter and he finally got his first peek at his new baby brother. He wasn't quite sure what to do with him at first.

But he finally warmed up, a little... Carter takes time adjusting to new situations, and this was a big one for him!

Here our friend Alex is holding his new little pal!

And then proud Grandma Westdyk...

And proud Grandpa Westdyk!

Later on our good friend Robyn stopped by to say hello!

We spent three days in the hospital and were well taken care of. By Saturday though, I was ready to go home and be with my children and parents. Fortunately, Steve had been there with me most of the week but I just really needed to be home again. Upon discharge, I was checked out by the on call Doctor and she told me that I had gotten an infection in my c-section incision. She wanted to keep me another day. She could tell by the look on my face that I really didn't like that option! So I was given a shot with an antibiotic and a prescription and was told to come back if the infection got worse.

Caleb passed the seat check...

And he was given the green light to go home as well! Our Pediatrician said he was just perfect in every way. Even didn't get jaundiced at all, which he said that 95% of babies do get it! He was also our tiniest baby. By the time we left the hospital, he was 7 lbs 8 oz. We have never had a baby go below 8 lbs!

So now, our little angel is at home! The first week was really rough, I'm not going to lie. I was feeling really sick from the infection and was having a rough time with nursing at first. I was exhausted from the lack of sleep and overwhelmed with now having three children! I began to wonder how I would ever make it... but it got easier with time. The infection began to heal up, and nursing became easier. I learned that I needed to sleep every chance I could and take advantage of the fact that my husband works from home!

The kids were definitely adjusting, but doing well. Little Sydney is definitely a mother at heart. Every chance she gets, she likes to pretend her doll is her baby and put her in the baby's swing or carseat...

Caleb is a sweet, and sleepy baby! Unfortunately a little too sleepy during the day and less sleepy at night... but we are working on that! When he had his first bath, he didn't even cry!

So now we are two weeks in, and he is doing great! Nursing is going really well and we are slowly but surely getting back into gear. Today at his two week check up, he had already gained back to his birth weight and then some... he was 8 lbs 9 oz, a full lb in one week! Guess that milk really does work! We are so happy with our little family of 5 and enjoying every moment!

Our newest little Westdyk...

"For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them."
Psalm 139:13-16




We went in as a family this week for my routine 18 week check up. We were so blessed to see our little baby on the screen once again! This time there was so much more to see and it was so fun to watch Carter seeing his little brother on the screen and even hear the heartbeat!

We were also surprised to learn that our Doctor's office now offers free 3D images along with the typical ultrasound pictures! How fun it is to see a close up of our newest little Westdyk!

He truly is beautiful already. What a blessing to experience this as a family.

And once again, I have a thumb sucker in the womb. Neither of my children suck their thumbs now, so we will see if this one does. We are still deciding for sure on a name, but will let you know once we make the final decision.

They say three's a crowd...

So I realized it's been awhile since I have posted about the family and thought of three things to share with you. Two good, one not so good. Can you guess?

1. SNOW!!

Yes, this was the sight we woke up to one morning! My first real snow since I've lived in Dallas! They had gotten snow once on Christmas day, but since I was in VA with my family, I had missed it. And it didn't just snow...

It snowed....

And snowed... all day and night. In fact, it turned out to be the MOST snow Dallas has EVER gotten! Woohoo!! About a foot total. In Carrollton I think we got about 10 inches, but it was close for us.

This is what we woke up to the following morning.

So we decided it was time to let the kids go outside and play in the snow. After all, when will this ever happen again? When they are teenagers? Sydney was not too happy about being bundled up! We usually can go out in sweaters and a hat and just be fine. But not on a snowy day like today!

Here I am with my two little snow bunnies!

Sydney didn't like the snow when I first put her down in it, so we stayed on the porch area. But she got close and started to think that maybe she would give it a try...

Sydney and I watched on the porch while Daddy and Carter made a snow fort that ended up turning into a snowman.

Carter definitely didn't mind the snow at all!

Yes, my son is wearing two different gloves. We couldn't find the match to either, so we used them together! And here, Sydney actually ventured out into the snow finally!

And here we have the finished product...

The world's weirdest looking snow fort that turned into a snowman!

2. Lice!

Yes you heard it right, the not so good news was that Carter came home with an awful case of head lice! Here I am working hard to get it out of his hair. This was probably the longest night of my life. It took several hours to work on his hair... and then we had to worry about our own! I had a very slight case and lucky Steve had none! Sydney didn't have any until several days later we found a few. So we had to treat her too, which was pure torture! But we are finally lice free, and happy about that...

3. Did you guess right? Well yes, they say that three's a crowd! So I guess in September we are going to find how crowded it is going to be! Presenting... baby Westdyk #3!!

We are very excited about this new addition!

Now that I am almost 12 weeks, we are finally letting the world know! My due date is September 9th. So far this has been the sickest and most tired pregnancy, but I guess that just means that things are going well so far! Now we can't wait to find out in a couple of months if we are having a boy or girl!