Introducing.....

Ava Lynn Parnell

Miss Ava was born Sunday August 23, 2009 at 5:28pm. She weighed 8lbs 11 1/4oz and was 21in long.

We went to the hospital Sat night hoping it was actually time to have a baby and not false labor. They kept me overnight to see how things would progress on their own and then Sunday around noon started pitocin. It didn't take long after that before it was time for our little girl to enter this world. I will spare everyone the details on the labor and delivery. All in all it went well with just a few pain management issues. I was lucky to have my Mom be here with me especially since Adam has not been able to make it home yet. We are expecting him within the next few days hopefully. Andrew has been doing well adjusting to having a sister. He likes to love on her, we just have to remind him to be gentle (not an easy task for him). We'll have to see how he's doing in another month or so once the newness wears off. I know he's going to be a good big brother and Ava is a lucky little girl to have him in her life. As of right now we are all doing great resting at home. As soon as I get some energy back I plan to get out and start walking. That probably won't happen until after school starts next week. Here are just a few pictures from the day she was born and the day we came home.

Andrew seeing Ava for the first time (that's my Mom with him)

holding his baby sister

getting ready to go home

part of our little family, all we need is Daddy

38 weeks and 1 day

I had another check up today. The baby's heart rate was in the low 150's which is good and everything else seemed to be fine. She has "dropped" quite a bit in the last week and it was obvious at my appt today. I am 1-2cm and 50% effaced. Hopefully this means it won't be too much longer before she comes. All I know is that I am more than ready for her to get here. These past few weeks have been very uncomfortable for me and it is getting harder and harder to find ways to sit and sleep without hurting. At least there is a light at the end of the tunnel.


On a more upsetting note, the Army has messed with Adam's leave again and now it is looking like he will not be here for the delivery. He is scheduled to leave Afghanistan a few days after my due date and it can take anywhere from 2-5 days for him to reach the US. So we have changed plans a little. My mom is planning on flying up here to be with me during the delivery and my dad will drive up the following week. At some point during that time Adam should get home (hopefully in time for Andrew's 1st day of kindergarten). We will see how it all works out.


One last note......Please keep Adam and his unit in your prayers. There have been several incidents so far this deployment and all of Fort Drum is taking a hit. We have lost 19 soldiers since the first of May and many others have been injured. So far we have been lucky and Adam has escaped any harm, but the risk is always there. Thanks so much!

A trip to the fair

This past week was the county fair. On Saturday my friend Jessica and I decided to take the kids and have some fun. Lucky for us the fair grounds happen to be right across the street from my house. I know what you're thinking...How did I keep Andrew from wanting to go every day? Well it's simple, our house faces the parking area so you can't see any rides from our front windows :-) The boys had such a good time, rode lots of rides and played a few games. Here are a few pictures from our day.

How sweet is this??

Andrew really enjoyed looking at all of the farm animals

Andrew, Jessica and her son Zander looking at baby chicks

I just love that smile!!

Showing off his tickets. He thought he was soo big b/c I let him hold on to his ride tickets

Driving the candy land train

they loved riding the whales

riding motorcycles....their daddy's would be so proud

He looks scared in this picture, but Andrew LOVED going down the big slide

Overall it was a good day. We spent about 3 hours there walking around which I paid for later that evening, but it was well worth it. Andrew is still talking about the "carnibal".

FINISHED!!

.....sort-of. Today I finished and submitted my finals for this block of classes. That means I am officially done with school...for the next 2 months. I am taking a 60 day leave of absence so I can have the baby and then adjust to life with 2 kids without having to worry about school at the same time. When I start back in October I will only have 4 classes remaining and I should graduate the end of February. Just wanted to make that little announcement. I have been really worried that I would go into labor before I finished my classes so I am very thankful the baby waited until I was done. However now I wish she would just hurry up and get here. I'm done being pregnant and I'm just ready for her to be here. Only 2 weeks to go!

She's almost here

I can't believe it is almost time for our baby girl to be here. It seems like yesterday that we found out I was pregnant and Adam left for his deployment. Now here we are almost 7 months later preparing for the birth of this sweet girl and for Adam to return home for his 2 week R&R. Where has the year gone?!?! There are so many things I still have to do and I am quickly realizing that they are simply not going to be done. I am actually ok with this, however I don't want Adam to feel as though he needs to spend his entire time home working on my projects. I'm hoping to keep him confined to the list of things I can't do and leave the rest for me to finish once he's gone. We will see if that actually happens since he's a little obsessive :-)

Tuesday of this week I went back to the doctor. There isn't much to report at this point. Her heartbeat was good and strong like always and everything seems to be going just fine. Next week we will see if I am even close to going into labor. I am hoping not to go early at all. As of now Adam should be home on my due date, but weather and of course the Army can always change those plans. My plan is to hopefully be able to induce within the first day or two that he is home. I want to give him as much time as possible with both kids before he has to go back.

Andrew is doing fine. He stays in trouble most days, but I guess that is expected. After my doctor appt Tuesday we were invited to go to a friends house for a BBQ and hanging out by the pool. It was so nice to relax on a nice day and watch the kids play in the water. Sadly I was a bad mom that day and didn't think to take my camera along so I have no pictures of him swimming. I do however have a picture of him from today. Andrew decided to try on a pair of his little sister's pants. They are size 24month that we got from a friend. I'm not sure what to think about the fact that he was actually able to pull them all the way up (but not button them). Are they made a little big or does he just need to gain some weight? Who knows, but it sure was funny to see.

Baby girl update and pictures

Today I went for another ultrasound. Because I keep measuring big my doctor decided we should check her growth again to make sure she isn't getting too big. Everything checked out great and she is right on track falling into the 69 percentile for growth. The tech estimated her current weight to be 6lbs and 5oz. If she keeps gaining the way she should then I am looking at having an 8 to 8.5lb baby girl. Considering Andrew weighed 8lb 13oz at birth this is about what I was expecting. Below are the ultrasound pictures I have. The only one that is missing is from my 20 week appt when we found out she was a girl. The reason I am not attaching them is because they did not turn out well. She just simply would not be still that day so that we could get a clear picture. Oh well, I think the rest more than make up for those few bad ones.

7 weeks

29 weeks

35 weeks.....she looks like she's pouting here

35 weeks.....rubbing her face with her arm

Look who decided to dress himself today

34 weeks and 3 days

That is how far along I am as of right now. This pregnancy is going by so fast! I don't know if it's because this is the 2nd time around, or because of the deployment, or because I have a 5yr old to deal with too. For whatever reason I know she will be here before I can turn around. I had my 34 week check up today and everything seems to be going fine. Of course I am STILL measuring too big so they are sending me for yet another ultrasound. This is funny to me because I just had an ultrasound a little over a month ago for the same reason and they found nothing wrong. Of course they should also consider how big Andrew was when he was born (8lb 13oz). I think I just have big babies, but I'm going to be a good little patient and have the other ultrasound :-) Any excuse to see the baby again, right? ha ha

This picture goes against everything in me. I HATE posting pictures of myself, but I figured it was time to show how big I'm getting. I took this today after my Dr appt. As you can see I am very big and all belly!!

Life here in NY is going pretty good. Andrew has been asserting his attitude, opinion and independence quite a bit lately which tends to keep him in trouble, but I guess that's just the 5yr old in him. It also doesn't help that this summer has been about 10 degrees cooler than usual and VERY rainy. This makes it hard to want to get out and do much of anything. Hopefully it will warm up soon and we will be able to do more outdoors. Adam was doing pretty well the last time I talked to him. This deployment has definitely been harder than the previous two, but so far his company hasn't taken any major hits. Now that we are over the half way mark I think it's safe to say we are all getting anxious about him coming home for good. Of course there are always rumors going around about the return date, but I am sticking with the end of January. Yes there is a chance they will come back earlier than that, but I would rather look at the "worst case scenario" that way I'm not upset or surprised when it happens. Well that is my update. My ultrasound is scheduled for next week so I will post the results of that when I get them.

Mountainfest

Every June Fort Drum has a weekend they call Mountainfest. This is a weekend of airshows, a concert, playing for the kids and fireworks. Saturday Andrew and I joined some friends and headed over to the airfield to enjoy the festivities. We were there for about 7 hours so needless to say it was a long day, but fun just the same. When we first arrived there was so much to do Andrew didn't know where to start. We went over to the area with all of the bounce houses and slides. One thing you have to love about Mountianfest is that all of the activities are free. After going down a few slides we headed over to the food tents to find something to eat. There was so much food to choose from and although it isn't free at least I know the money is going to a good cause. Food and drinks are provided by different groups affiliated with Ft Drum and they sell them as a fundraiser to I was happy to give them my money. After eating and visiting with friends we went to find seats for the concert. Each year there is an artist who comes to perform for the troops at no cost and this year is was country musician JoDee Massena. Unfortunately we did not get over to the stage area early enough to get good seats so I don't have any pictures of her on stage, but it was just as nice sitting towards the back watching the kids run around and dance. After the concert everyone went back over to the seating area for the twilight air show. I got some pictures but because of the dark all of them didn't turn out well. Andrew loved the airshow!! He kept worrying that the planes were going to crash. It was very cute watching him react to everything. Once the airshow was over they closed out the night with a fireworks display. We did not get home until 11:30 at night! It was such a good day and I am so glad I decided to take Andrew.

waiting for the concert to start with his cotton candy

dancing to the music

being silly while waiting for the twilight airshow

i thought the sunset that evening was pretty, especially since it had been raining off and on all day

if you look at the smoke pattern you can tell the plane on top was looping around the other

yumm.....M&M's

this was 6 planes flying VERY close together

a parachutist

after everything was done. He was sooo tired by this point, but still going strong

Last week of school and Pre-K graduation

This was Andrew's last week of school. On Monday his class took a field trip to the local library for story time.

Andrew's class

walking to the story area

listening closely

playing the Farmer in the Dell





Tonight was his Pre-K graduation. All of the kids were so cute and looked so big standing up there. It's hard to believe I officially have a Kindergartner!

singing songs about Kindergarten

shaking hands with Father Rocker

getting his certificate and hugging Ms Rice, his teacher

Andrew looks so much like his daddy in this picture

showing off their certificates

getting some love from Ms Mullins, his art teacher

My little man is growing up so fast! It's hard to believe he will be going to school all day 5 days a week in just a few months. Andrew drives me nuts on most days, but I couldn't be prouder of him. He is becoming such a big kid and I can't wait to see what happens next