Tinley Joy

Our little peanut finally arrived! To say the wait was worth it would be a tremendous understatement! I do not even know how we could be so amazingly blessed by her in our first three days. The kids absolutely adore her and are amazing at holding, talking and helping out with her! But it's not only the kids... Rob and I seem to spoil her rotten wanting to hold her ALL of the time :) Yes, she's the baby of the family and is already getting a little special treatment!

I have to share our labor story because it was truly an answer to prayer! I'll try not to draw it out too long, but bear with me... It began on Tuesday, February 21st (41 weeks) when I had a NST scheduled along with a possible dose of Cytotec (a drug that can be used to help begin contractions which often lead into labor). Leading up to Tuesday I felt more and more like I really wanted labor to begin on its own and wanted to avoid inducing drugs if at all possible. When I shared with the nurses that I decided not to do the Cytotec, you could tell that they were somewhat surprised... likely because most people at 41 weeks are anxious to be done. But to be completely honest, I was still feeling fantastic (even ran that week!).

Anyway... NST went great, skipped Cytotec and went on my way home. Next NST was scheduled for Saturday with the option of Cytotec again. Following that, I would be scheduled for an induction (with Cytotec) on Monday night followed by Pitocin on Tuesday, if necessary. Needless to say, I was seriously struggling with the decision. I really wanted to avoid Pitocin, but I honestly still was hoping that something would happen on its own. I prayed and prayed and prayed (and so did the kids, bless their hearts... they really wanted to meet their little sibling). I've never wanted pain so badly!

Friday early morning, I began having occasional contractions that woke me up. Finally, around 4:00, I figured that it was time to get up and see if this was the real thing. I timed them and they were 4-5 minutes apart... YEAH! I hopped in the shower, woke Rob up around 5:00 and called the in-laws to come and watch the kiddos. I told them to take their time, so they got here around 6:00 (both kids had woken up from the noise and were tremendously excited to hear that we were headed to the hospital) and Rob and I made it through the crazy snow storm (that closed the kids' schools) by 6:30.

By 8:00 I was fully admitted, dilated to 4 cm, 60% effaced, and was given the opportunity to request my epidural. I felt okay, but knew that I wanted it before too long, so gave the go-ahead. By 9:00 I had it and was ever so grateful (I was now 8 cm and 80% or 90% effaced)! I had been to the point that things were getting quite painful (I have no idea how you women do it without!). And speaking of my epidural, my anesthesiologist was a guy that I've gone running with! I don't know him well, but recall one run that we did from Hudsonville to Wealthy Street Bakery in Grand Rapids last year. Anyway, he did a phenomenal job :)

After that I think I was ready by 10:00 or so, but the nurse waited until 11:00 to check me and sure enough, we were more than ready! My wonderful doctor came in and two contractions later we had our perfect baby girl! In fact, she was born at 11:09 am :) She was 8 lbs. 12 oz. (one ounce bigger than her big brother was), and 21" long. She's a lengthy little thing!

I am still amazed at how He answered our prayer so perfectly!

The snow!

Happily in labor (thank you epidural)

Proud Daddy

Big brother!

Big Sis!

Holding her never gets old!

Daddy and his baby girls!

Out of order Valentine's Post

Although I have plenty of backlogging to do yet, I'm feeling in the Valentine's spirit and therefore feel the desire to post pictures from this month. One of the greatest things that we did this month was write "love" letters to each other and put them in these cute little mailboxes (from Target dollar spot, thanks for the tip KT!), which I added vinyl letters to at one of our monthly craft nights (thanks KT & Theresa!). The idea came from a friend at our MOPS group and several of our friends jumped at the cute idea.

"Daddy I love you. This is LD. Love, LD"

"I love you so very much so much. I love you. I hope you are going to have fun at school tomorrow. I love just so much. Love, Madisyn Dykema XOXOXOXOXO"

To Madisyn, from Landon,"Madisyn Landon I love you" (picture of monkey)

"Mommy, I love you. Thank you for making food. LD"

"Mommy, I love you so much. I miss you 'cause you are on the treadmill. Love, Madisyn XOXOX" My favorite are the letters between Madisyn and Landon, they are just so sweet! They have even written the baby (white mailbox) some! I may just have to pull these out in six months or so, because we all seem to love it so much!

Hot Chocolate 15k

Who would have known that there is a 15k race out there?! What a perfect distance! I hope that I can do it again this year! This race was one of my favorites of 2011, not because of the chocolate fondue or hot chocolate following the race, but because it was fun to go down to Chicago with some of my running group friends (Cindy, Tammy, Kristin H., Kristin L., Heather) and run the entire race together! Aside from the 1/2 in October (where I ran with Rob, Doug, David, Rudy), I don't recall a road race where I've run with a group of friends the entire time! Not to mention, some of my dear other friends (KMac, KT & Theresa) were down there running it for the first time too! Hopefully they'll run it again this year too :)

38 w 2 d

For the few of you who aren't on FB, here is the most recent belly picture! I still have plenty of backlogging to do, but I figured if I posted this when the baby is four months old, it may not be relevant anymore. So far, so good! I'm feeling better at this point than I did with either of the other two, so I'm planning on at least a week late and if baby arrives anytime before then, it will be a wonderful surprise! In fact, Rob is more anxious than I am! I was still able to run this week (3 miles, with a few walking breaks), but I have yet to determine if there will be anymore running in my future :)

Backlog II: Madisyn's marathon

Last fall, as a 6-year old, Madiysn completed her first marathon!  Well, kids marathon actually... but what an amazing feat it was!  I honestly could not have been more proud of her!  To complete the marathon, the kids were to run a total of 25 miles prior to race day and complete 1.2 miles on race day for a total of 26.2 miles (official marathon distance)!

During her training she ran distances of one mile to two miles without stopping!!! Seriously, she may have distance running in her future!  But that's really not what made me so proud and excited for her.  The true test was getting those miles in when it started getting boring and at times was dark outside!  Even though she wasn't always jumping for joy to go out and run, she still did it!  It would have been easy to quit, but she toughed it out!

Nana and Madisyn, pre-race

Beginning of the race!

Nana, Papa, LD & Madisyn, post-race

Madisyn and her proud Mommy, post-race

I'm hoping that lesson taught her more than you can keep running further than you think...  Hopefully she learned that sometimes you make commitments that are not always easy to keep, but it's important and worth it to keep your word and more importantly, that many goals in life are not easy to achieve, but the payoff is always worth the time and effort put into it!  Aside from anything she learned, I think my favorite part was that we got to spend so much one-on-one time together!

And of course, Madisyn's stats :)

Backlog... Landon's Zoo Date

I'm going to try to keep things in chronological order, for my sanity.  Landon got a special day at the zoo with Papa and Nana Dykema last fall.  He certainly loves any one-on-one (or three-on-one) time that he gets with just about anyone!

Here are a few fun pictures from the day...

Our years together

We celebrated our 7th anniversary running this year!  I somehow talked Rob into running the Grand Rapids 1/2 marathon with me!  I was excited about it, but didn't really realize the significance until afterwards.  It was the first time that Rob has run that far (and we don't often get to run together since we usually take turns with watching the kiddos) and the last time that I'll run that far during this pregnancy.  Both of us felt fantastic the whole race!  We have always celebrated our anniversaries, but unlike most of them, we both agreed that this will be an exceptionally memorable one where we will always recall what we did on the day of our anniversary... versus several days and/or weeks earlier or later in order to celebrate it.

I honestly never thought we'd be where we are today, and yet I couldn't be happier!  First of all, I never saw myself as a SAHM and yet, the past two years being home with the kids has changed and blessed my our life more than I could have ever imagined!  Secondly, for years we were certain that we were complete with two children, but God knew all along that he'd change our hearts.  It was almost like the kids always knew, but we just hadn't caught on!  Needless-to-say, the past seven years of my life have been more filling,  rewarding, exciting and unpredictable than I could have dreamed!  I can't wait to experience what God has in store for our eighth and every year beyond!

Here are a few pictures of us from the years past.

Dating

Night we got engaged

Wedding (2004)

At Dan & Marriane's wedding a month after we had Madisyn (2005)

(2006)

(2007)

Boston (2008)

(2009)

Dave Matthews Band Concert

Rob's surprise birthday party (2010)

Whitecaps Game

Zeeland Zoom 5k

(2011)

GR 1/2 marathon, pre-race

GR 1/2 marathon, end of race

We don't get out very often...

And when we do, we always forget to take pictures... but not this time!

The rare picture of the two of us.

Cliff, Bob, Mike & Rob (all co-workers of Robs)

A little golf...

In the backyard (thanks to Aunt Shell) :)

LD & Aunt Shell

Mickey Mouse made by Madisyn

Madisyn & Aunt Shell

Daddy getting in on the game

Landon perfecting his stroke

I am amazed at how much the kiddos LOVE these clubs!