Playing catch up again...

This is a picture from just the other day... The order of the pictures are backwards from most recent to past ones.

I didn't think I would be one to match there outfits but it's harder than I thought not to.

Charity at her graduation party.

These three pictures were the first week home.

We've had a fairly busy summer so far. We've been gone from Belvidere for the last three Sundays with being in Morton on my birthday, baptisms in Elgin, and my cousins wedding in Quincy we went to this past weekend.  We were able to spend a long weekend with Josh and Colby which was a lot of fun.  We plan to go to Krista's proving tonight and baptism tomorrow.  In August we will be going to Alex and Mindy's wedding and the Friday and Saturday before we are staying in Indianapolis and doing things with chad and heather.  We are thankful to God for the fellowship we have with loved ones.

Have a blessed weekend.

Bryer Douglas

Warning to all those people out there who don't like birth stories...this is one of them!  Although I'm fairly detailed; I'm not overly descriptive (hopefully).

Bryer Douglas Steffen finally arrived.  6 days after my due date I scheduled to be induced.  The whole week before we were hoping I would go into labor on my own.  My midwife thought I would go into labor on my own considering I was 3 cm dialated and 50% effaced at my last appointment. Well that didn't really happen so we went into to the hospital 8:30am Wednesday morning May 14. 

 It always feels kind of odd walking into the hospital without having regular labor pains in order to have your baby.   I was able to shower that morning and remember everything it's actually pretty great. So anyway we got in our room and my nurse came in to get everything set up. She checked how dialated I was then and I was already 5cm dialated. She thought is was in early labor but I wasn't having regular contractions just some (what I thought were Braxton hicks contractions).  Anyway that was exciting news halfway there without any pain! 

So probably around 10 they started me on a low dosage of pitosin.  So from then till12 I had not bad not super regular contraction ( they wanted to get my body use to the contractions).  So over my midwife's lunch she came and broke my water, at which point I was still 5 cm dialated.  But then the nurse uped my pitosin to get the contractions more regular. So from 12 to 1:15 I was have stronger contractions and at 1:15 I had her check me again because they were hurting bad so we need to decide if I wanted something for the pain.  I was 7 cm dilated now and I decided to do th Nubian shot which just makes you more relaxed but doesn't take the pains away because I thought I would dilated fully in the next 2 or so hours.  So I got the Nubian around 1:30 and my 2:45 I was in agonizing pain but feeling the urge to push.  The nurse checked me and I was almost 10 cm so she had me to a trail push.  But then wanted me to wait for 10mins or so.  10 mins btw when your in that much pain is a very long time. So my midwife was across the building and on call for when the nurse told her when to come and deliver me. So the next 10 mins were kind of a blur I was ready to push I couldn't control what my body was doing at this point or the sounds my mouth was making.  The nurse started setting up the bed and everything for delivery while I was pushing.  My midwife walks in and the nurse says "hurry put your gloves on she's about to deliver" so my midwife got there just in time to catch the little guy.  I believe the nurse said I pushed him out in about 6 mins.  

So he was born at 3:02pm May 14, 2014.  I guessed on our way in he'd be born at 3:04pm (haha pretty close). But I was way off with is weight I guessed 7 Ib 4oz, but he came out at a whopping 8 Ib 5 oz, which is big compared to the 6 Ib 13oz Cyrus was.  We are thankful to God that we had a safe delivery and a wonderful healthy baby boy.

If your wondering if Cyrus and Bryer look alike ... Here's a picture on Cyrus right after he was born.  You can decide for yourself.

Any day now...

Well I haven't written in a while.  And now with the baby coming I will hopefully write more but it could write less with less time and all but at least I can keep up with posting a few pictures so anyone reading this can see our boys as they grow and develope.

So the count down to my due date is 9 almost 8 days ( considering it's the afternoon).  I've been having Braxton Hicks contractions and some cramping the last 2 days.  Actually last night I timed some 10 min apart but of course they didn't amount to anything.  Today has been fine except Cyrus got no nap at all, but thankfully Shayla brought us supper so I can just relax.  Also my last check up Friday the doctor said I was 2 cm dialated and 50 % effaced.  So there's hope I won't be in this state of pregnancy forever.

This morning I was thankful for my devotional I did was on how we can be okay with uncertainy because our certainty is in God or another way of say it is we will have troubles and trials but we have the promise and assurance that God will deliver us through those.  Sorry if that didn't make sense to you but all I know is that God provided me with this to reassure me during the coming weeks.  

This Fall

 Here is a little catch up from this fall...

Cyrus riding horsey at Grandma Steffen's. He didn't want to let any of his cousins ride it.

This past Saturday we rack A LOT of  leaves and Cyrus enjoyed helping...

Cyrus turned 1 year old!!!!!!!!!!!!! on Nov 2, 2013! We spent the weekend at mom and dad Hoerr's house making applesauce and Cyrus getting a lot of Cat gifts.  It was great!

Here's a great picture from a while back of Cyrus at our local orchard riding one of those old tractors.  Isn't it so cute?

Sorry for the quality... but I made a shirt for Cyrus that has only child penciled out and it says BIG brother.  Yeah...we are expecting child #2 on May 8, 2014.  They will be about 18 months apart. 

That same weekend we announced our pregnancy Daniel and Wendi, Nathan and Michelle and Kendra and Aaron Came up for the weekend.  Seth also came along too and Saturday night Larissa came over from camping with her family near our house.  And also Darcy, Charity, and Kayla came over on Saturday night.  We had such an enjoyable time.  Thanks so much for coming everyone and blessing us so much with your friendship!

Here's a picture when we were church camping in September.

Have a wonderful Day! And Happy Thanksgiving assuming I won't be posting before that.

Cyrus' Birthday party

So Shayla and I decided a joint birthday party would make it easier and more enjoyable. So Adler and Cyrus had there 1st birthday together at our house this the Steffen Fam.  Adler's b-day is the 16th of Sept and Cyrus is Nov 2nd.  So we did it somewhere in between.  They both did great and had a lot of fun and really happy with their new toys.  Also a side note 2 hours before supper our drains backed up and Troy tried to fix but we ended up calling someone and thankfully we where able to get it fix for a tidy sum of money.  All was well again by 6 that night; we where able to go the bathroom, shower do dishes, and even wash our hands. It was interesting trying to get ready for the party without being able to do any of that. Thankfully Shayla come early and help be host for me.  So here's some pictures... (btw I think this is the soonest I've ever got pictures up before)

Our fam pic for mom Steffen

Charity though this would be a great place to lay down right in the middle of our small hallway!

trying to take a Christmas picture for Mom Steffen 

opening gifts which Cy did good with.  He love all his toys!

one of Cy toys Elaiah wanted to play with

Adler is officially walking! Good job bud!

took a while to figure how to dig in but they both got it

bath after stuffing himself with cake

A few recent happenings

This is a cutting board Troy made me. Love it!

My family except Seth came up last Saturday and Sunday we went to Wild West town which beck and dela LOVED.  when we first walked in there was a carousel and dela starts getting super excited and saying please can I ride on it!  Beck had a similar reaction to the train which we are riding in the pic below.  They stayed at a hotel near us because we sadly could keep the, all but we had 4 meal on that new big table Troy built it was great.

Cyrus in one our laundry baskets...Troy put him in there he didn't do it himself.

He looks sad there but he actually really enjoyed it.

Peeking through the bars.

Troy stand Cyrus in his crib and then he does various silly things to make him laugh like crazy and get really excited.

Messy from supper!

Cyrus' lap full of spaghetti