Lyndi's birth story

I am so thankful that I had a sensitive and understanding doctor. It's uncommon for Doctors to induce labor here in Germany, but Dr. Dudenhoff recogonized that it was a good idea for me to be induced.

Saturday Feb 21st Justin and I showed up at the hospital at 8:30 in the morning. We waited around for a couple hours and after lunch we finally began. The birthing center was amazing! It had a room for guests, a birthing tub and a couple of birthing rooms. This would be a perfect place for a natural labor.

At 12:15 they gave me some oxytocin it did very little to my body and after an hour we decided it would be good to break my water. However, I decided an epidural would be in my favor.

As I was receiving the epidural my blood pressure dropped and the room began getting grey. My attentive midwife had me lay down and get lots of fluids before we proceeded with the epidural. I didn't realize I was that afraid of needles!

At 3:15 she broke my water and for the next couple hours I took a nap and enjoyed hearing about my midwives adventures living in New Guinea for 5 years. At 5:15 I was dialated to a 10 and three pushes later Lyndi Nadine was born at 5:20.

Lyndi is perfect in every way, I love the bonding after birth and I love holding a new child covered in varnix. What an amazing miracle child birth is. We are so happy to have our little Lyndi in our arms. What a blessing.

My last shot of my belly. That big smile means that I knew I would be holding a bundle of joy shortly.

This is our family picture before little Lyndi came into this world

Lyndi was born in Sulzbach Germany at St. Anna's Hospital. This is a view of the city from the hospital.

Minuets old with lots of varnix

I held and nursed Lyndi for awhile and aftewards our midwife took her cleaned her up and weighed her.

Our midwife also gave her a bath. Justin did get to cut the cord.

One of my friends said that "Justins lot in life is to be surrounded by beautiful women." You can tell that he already adores Lyndi.

Lyndi all bundeled up in German style

Pardon the terrible picture. However, I thought my first meal after giving birth was hillarious. This is my meat in some type of gelatin. I was so hungry I didn't mind.

Keanna and Lyndi

Ayla and Lyndi

Lyndi all dressed up for her big arrival home. Justin had a beautiful bouquet of flowers and brownies waiting for us.

Lyndi's first time in the carseat

Lyndi waving goodbye to the wonderful hosptial staff.

Brand New Baby

On 21 Feb, Lyndi Nadine Bingham was born in Sulzbach, Germany. Here are some photos shortly after she came into our world.

Minutes after the birth, she came out screaming and with a lot of vernix. Her face is slightly swollen and somewhat black and blue.

Few things are as beautiful as a newborn and her loving mother. Both did very well during the labor and delivery and both are healthy and doing good.

Although I couldn't believe how small she seemed at first, she was actually our heaviest baby. She weighed 8 lbs and 1 oz, and was 21 inches long.

Emily and Lyndi should be home tomorrow (Monday afternoon). I'm sure she will have a much more detailed blog posted soon.

100 Days

Keanna's class had a special day to celebrate 100 days being in school. They dressed up as old people and then went on a parade througout her school. It was hillarious to see all the kids dressed up. Below is a picture of her class.

Below is Keanna and her good friend Hailey.

In conjunction with the 100 day parade Keanna had to bring 100 items and put them into 10's. We found 100 pennies for her to bring.

What an adorable little granny she makes.

Long Waited Arrival!

Finally, after waiting for several very cold months, we received enough snow to actually play in. I have been excited to play with my girls outside in the snow.

Me and the girls in front of the snow cave we built. Keanna was a good helper and played outside for quite a while, but then wanted to go inside and confessed that she can't wait until spring.

With the help of some of the girls' playhouse and all of the snow in our front yard, we were able to make a cozy snow cave. While digging out the snow, I began to remember my experiences in snow caves as a Boy Scout and wondered if I could make it large enough to lay down in. Soon I became curious to see if I could trust my cave enough to stay the night in it. Once I was certain it wouldn't fall down on me, I then realized I needed to prove to myself that dentistry, Europe, and the big 30 hadn't made me so soft and delicate that I couldn't stay an entire night in my snow cave. After several days, I decided to give it a try.

Here I am emerging from the snow cave following my winter slumber. Although I slept okay, the above photo makes it clear that there wasn't much beauty rest going on inside the cave. I think it is cute that the girls were watching from the window, curious to see if I survived. The main problem I had was the lack of space for my 1 sleeping pad, 1 quilt, 2 pillows, and 3 sleeping bags.

Ayla was excited to ride her bike.

Keanna and Ayla in front of the snow cave. Keanna keeps asking me when we can both sleep in the snow cave.

By the way, Emily hasn't shown too much interest in spending much time in the snow cave. However, I think it might serve me well to have a "doghouse" just in case I say or do the wrong thing during these final days of the pregnancy.

V-Day

Justin and I hoped I would be in the hospital for V-day, silly us. We didn't plan anything. However, it was still a nice day. For dinner we made heart pizza. The girls made their own pizzas and Justin and I shared a bigger one. All in all it was a nice day.

2 cuties

My girls are just too adorable. I can't wait to see what #3 looks like.

Thank you for all the encouragment to eat the chocolate ice cream! I had a couple bowls...

Nothing :(

Today I had a Doctors Appointment and it was a dissapointment. I am 36 1/2 weeks along and really NOTHING has happened. I was dialated to a 1 at this point with both of my other pregnancies, so this was a real bummer. I will try to resist the urge to fill my dissapointment with a bowl of chocolate ice cream.

P.S. you gottta love Keanna's mad photography skills!