snuggles

 Everyone loves to snuggle the baby. It is a race after school to see who gets to him first and then we have to set a timer so everyone has equal time!I am realizing I do not have a picture of Makayla with Gus, no worries. She has snuggles every night after the others go to bed. I just do not think to grab the camera....

 It is so sweet to watch the interaction between the kids. They are all so willing and happy to help when it comes to Gus. Any position works as long as he is being snuggled.

Auntie Jacie was near town so she stopped by for a quick snuggle. It was fun to show him off to my oldest sister.

sunbathing

 We have a history of our babies turning a little yellow. So we started to use the sunshine right away. My little bird spent many days sunning and sleeping.

 It did not take long before the thighs started to fill in and the yellow coloring faded and our sweet little white baby skin returned.

Nothing like yellow eyes to accent the red colored hair!

hospital time

First hospital bath was not his favorite time.Snuggling with daddy after was a warm treat. Just a sweet, kissable face! those cheeks are beautiful!

 Getting dressed to go home. When I explained what we were going home too this is the look he gave Pete.

It was just the three of us leaving the hospital, though we did have an extra rider. Dr. Shawn gave Gus the largest stuffed animal he could find, it fit in Brie's carseat perfectly! We made it home before the kids came home from school.

Augustine Walter

 Jill came to the hospital the following day and captured more precious pictures of our little man. the many faces of Gus!

siblings meeting baby???

 It was such a LONG day for us, but so so long for the kids as well!! I really thought after school Pete would go get them and meet baby. My mom stayed with them and we kept calling her, go pick them up, take them to dinner, go ahead and give them a bath... more waiting.... Finally we were able to call her at 750 and said head up even though I was still in the delivery room, but it was already so late. My nurses said they would clean up quickly and to have them come. We had made a plan ahead of time that baby would be in blue or pink pants depending on gender. That way Brie at age 5 would understand as soon as Kayla at age 12 would.
They were so excited to finally be able to come up to the hospital. It was too hard to decide which picture was my favorite so I included most of them. The true emotion is exactly what Jill caught for me on camera and I could sit back and enjoy the moment, truly a priceless gift!

 tada the baby has BLUE pants on! it was only seconds but each kid reacted almost simultaneously! grandma, there on the side was happy as well. Brie wanted a girl so her reaction is a bit guarded but before the night ended she was in love.

 one of my favorite pictures from the day, relief, joy, excitement and pure love for a little person they have only known minutes!

 hugs all around

our little boy came out with red hair and curls! we have not had a red haired baby before, we will see if it stays!

 meeting the siblings, so precious and so much love already!

We could finally start making phone calls after the kids meet him as we wanted them to be the first to know.  Makayla helped by calling some of the family for us.  So fun!!

 The room was all a buzz but the kids had school the next day so this visit was cut a bit short, everyone said their good byes 2 and 3 times and then they were off to dream of their new baby.

 Welcomed with love
Augustine Walter, with the blue pants! we are so excited!!

 A BIG THANK YOU to my photographer niece and Gus's Godmother Jill!!! thank you for hanging out with us, support, love and photography skills!! you have given us a priceless gifts, we are forever grateful!

Sept 8, 2015 birth day

 September 8th came up very quickly! This was the fastest 39 week pregnancy I have ever had. It was supposed to be a text book delivery, with 4 previous successful deliveries it should have been an easy day. My wonderful niece was bedside with camera in hand to capture all the beauty of the day.
We dropped the kids at school and checked in to the hospital at 830 or so. Our nurse we were to have was not working due to a funeral, however we were matched with a very talented and patient nurse who had just passed her nurse midwife boards 2 weeks earlier.

 We strolled the halls throughout the morning waiting for babies arrival....
By mid afternoon baby was giving us signs that delivery was not going to be textbook style.... It was 230 and I was not dilating as quickly as we expected. So we continued to hang out, changed positions and ate ice...

 we had some good laughs as the day went on....there was a raised counter that simply was a cupboard for all the needed supplies..my little photographer niece hopped right up there and made her nest for the day, she had a great spot for catching wonderful pictures! she got looks from every single person that entered, apparently no one had done this before.

Things turned stressful when baby dropped its heartbeat to low levels.... We did many position changes, oxygen and through tears eventually the heart beat would recover... not knowing why we did an ultrasound, everything looked fine. Unfortunately I have done labor and delivery in the past and so the thoughts I had throughout the day were very scary at times.  The whole pregnancy had gone so well for the previous 39 weeks that I did a ton of praying for us to have a beautiful ending to this pregnancy. Lots of questioning of God on my part, did I really deserve 5 beautifully healthy kids.....Pete put out a prayers requests because about 630 the heartbeat dropped and did not want to come back up no matter what I/we did. Flipping, turning, breathing, pushing, nothing was helping. With the nurse, and extra nurse, anesthesia, my OB Dr. and his resident plus a host of NICU staff we had to get the baby out. About 7 pm I overheard conversation of get the OR ready, 710 my Dr. came to my ear and said here we go, one more round of contractions, pushing and my help we HAVE to get this baby out, otherwise we are going to have to go...(to the OR) looking through eyes full of tears I completely agreed and scared because all I wanted was a healthy baby I started pushing and did not stop. Thankfully my anesthesiologist placed an excellent epidural and I did not feel a thing, however I could completely move! With the help of all the people in the room the baby finally was born at 731. I had closed my eyes at 645 and had no idea my room was so full of people. In the end the baby was trying to come down with the right ear instead of the crown of the head, hence not opening the cervix and not allowing the head to engage. The NICU staffed checked the baby out completely and drew blood for all the stress labs(they all came back normal!! praise God!) all I could do was cry when I heard the baby cry, such a relief to hear! nothing is more precious than those cries and meeting this little person for the first time.

 A hug from the best doctor around and nothing but tears of joy as he helped us succeed in yet another miracle. Thank God for his patience, and all the wonderful people with us this day! Without the wisdom of my doctor or the knowledge of my nurse we would have ended up with a c-section at 230.