Angelic Mothers

Well, Camille just left to take her mom to the airport after being with us for 2 1/2 weeks. Having had both of our mothers present to support us in this hard time of life I just want to give a shout out to mothers.

Elder Holland once said, "...when we speak of those who are instruments in the hand of God, we are reminded that not all angels are from the other side of the veil. Some of them we walk with and talk with—here, now, every day. Some of them reside in our own neighborhoods. Some of them gave birth to us, and in my case, one of them consented to marry me. Indeed heaven never seems closer than when we see the love of God manifested in the kindness and devotion of people so good and so pure that angelic is the only word that comes to mind..."

After being helped in a way that we could not help ourselves, I must say thank you to the angels who took care of us for this last month of our lives. Thank you Mom (Camille's and my own) for being there when we needed you most. We have felt God's love through your tender kindness.

We love you

She's a Champ

I (Mike) would also like to add that Camille was a champ. I am a pansy when it comes to medical things (some would argue in others areas as well...but that's not the point). She was amazing, she had some pretty hard contractions (I watched the spike in the graph, they were pretty high) and she held on the whole time. I could tell that the nurses loved her. She wasn't stressed out, she didn't yell at them, or call them names; on the contrary, she was very kind to everyone and held her cool despite the pain. She thanked everyone for everything. It was actually pretty cute, the nurses and others kind of smiled at her gratitude...it made me think that maybe they weren't always appreciated by others. I'm very grateful for the Holy Spirit that calmed our hearts about the epidural. Everything went well in the end, and the most painful parts were fortunately mostly painless! Thank goodness for modern medicine.

Anyways, I just wanted to give a shout out for my awesome wife who has a stronger stomach and a bigger heart than her husband. I love you Camille.

Birth Story

I love me a good birth story, so I thought I'd write about Finley's birth for you! Is it your best day or what?

As an introduction, Benson came to us through a C-section. It was not expected, not wanted, but really needed in the end. We prayed and really felt good about it. I originally went in to be induced with him, but after several large contractions his heart rate went too low and the doctor had to get called in specially from his golf game. We know that because he was still in his golf clothes when he walked in to give us our options. That being said, this time I was anxious this whole pregnancy to have a VBAC (vaginal birth after C-section). I talked with my doctor about it at every appointment and she constantly reassured me that I was a good candidate for it (ps...I went with a practice with 5 different female doctors. It was nice to have a woman, but didn't really make that big of a difference for me. I honestly wish I could have tried a midwife, but I was too nervous being a VBAC. I just wanted the baby and I to be safe. Maybe in the future) Anywho, the appointments were wonderful, everything was great. I was told that they don't induce VBACs unless I showed some sign of progress (my cervix had to get into a certain position, I had to be a certain amount effaced, a little bit dilated, and my cervix had to be almost fully ripened on it's own) before they would induce me. Did you know they don't typically induce VBACs without these signs first? I didn't, and it made me nervous because if I went over (which I had with Benson) and I wasn't showing any progress they automatically had to give me a C-section. Something I was avoiding at all costs. I got pretty desperate at the end and tried just about everything to get the baby out on his own, but he was stubborn. At the last appointment I almost cried when she told me I made enough progress to get induced instead of waiting for the c section so we scheduled the induction for the 21st. I was terribly nervous that everything was going to go wrong again, especially because I was convinced that I had to have the c section with Benson because of my epidural. I had low blood pressure already and it affected me funny the first time. Which was why I was going to try to go natural. Ha. Mike's mom arrived the night before, and that night I got a blessing that everything was going to go great. I felt peaceful. We got to the hospital and hour late, but come on, she scheduled us for 6:30 AM and I knew they wouldn't deny me if I arrived late so we took our time. When I got there they did the normal prep work and then hooked me up straight away to the medicine. Contractions weren't bad for a while, but then they came and broke my water (which, by the way, was PAINFUL. Mainly because she had to stretch me out to a 3 manually before she could break my water. Ouch. Wouldn't recommend that everyday) Contractions got really painful after this and combined with the medicine, it was just getting worse and worse. I tried listening to that stinkin Hypnobabies at this point but I just couldn't stand her telling me that I was having a pain free calm birth and that I was feeling absolutely no pain when I most certainly was in a lot of pain. Plus, she was way too calm and all I wanted to do was punch her in the face...so we turned off the hypnobabies CD. I would totally recommend that course for the first part of labor, just not when it gets hard. Anybody who tells you childbirth doesn't hurt at least a little bit is lying. There is some degree of pain involved. But I digress. At this point I was really wanting the epidural so we called in the nurse and then it was just a waiting game for that wonderful wonderful anesthesiologist to come in. Those guys are miracle workers, heroes of our day. Meanwhile, I had told my poor husband before we walked into the hospital that under no circumstances should he let me get the epidural. But, the moment I said I wanted one he was calling the nurse for me telling her to get in there. Atta boy, Mike. I'm glad he did. The epidural was instantly relieving and awesome, so we played some games, watched some movies and took a nap while we waited for Finn to make his arrival. We had a great time, we felt like we hired a babysitter for a date or something. I don't remember how long later but the nurse came back in to check me and said I was at a nine and to wait to push because she was going to get a doctor. At this point the baby was already crowning and about ready to come out. My poor doctor was running around like mad trying to deliver three babies at once (It was literally like Father of the Bride part II, when the doctors were running around to the different rooms) This next part is my favorite part of the story. Pushing was easy and fast, about fifteen minutes. I never got this experience with Benson so I was LOVING it. What an awesome and spiritual experience (it sounds weird, but it truly was) to see one of your kids being born. To be the first person in the world to hold him and talk to him. To hear his first cry. It was a deeply personal and amazing experience and that's about the only way I can describe it without lessening it. I will always have that ingrained into my memory. That's about it at that point. I will write about the hospital later but thought I would give you some quick details. I know I wanted natural labor, but I am so grateful that the epidural worked and everyone was healthy. I'm grateful for an awesome nurse who talked me into the epidural and said my experience was just a freak accident, and that would almost never happen again with the second one. Anyways, I will write more later but that's how it all went down. We love our new little family of four!

what he really looks like

My sister came and captured a few shots of what Finn really looks like. Here is one for preview. And for the record, his name is Finley Michael DeVries.

Meet the Bub

We had a baby! And not just any baby, a DeVries baby. We think he is rather wonderful and we are having so much fun just cuddling with him and trying to enjoy every minute with him as a newborn because, as we found out with Benson, they turn into two year olds before you know it! He was 8 lbs 6 oz, 21 inches (big baby, I know. Was it a result of all of the chocolate I consumed during pregnancy? I guess we will never know.) He looks a lot like Mike and has his eyes and dark hair. I can now say that I am madly in love with three different boys. And its awesome. Here are some pics.

Boring

Sorry our blog has been so boring of late (though, was it ever that exciting?) But I have an excuse, I am growing a baby that we are due to meet in one week. Exciting, isn't it? As recompense for having neglected the blog in all of my tiredness, here are a few forgotten pictures of October. We dressed up as bacon, toast and eggs for Halloween (TOTALLY stole the idea from the Freemans, who were in our ward a few years ago. Forgive us?), made a trip to Goebberts (local pumpkin patch) to play around as a fam, and Mike and I carved pumpkins and roasted pumpkin seeds after Benson went to bed one date night. It was a GREAT month and I'm so glad we took advantage of the fun local events going on.

Just a quick update

Okay, these pictures aren't amazing and I don't have a ton to say, but here are two goodies from the past month. Our little Benson Dean turned two on November 2nd. We love him more than ever and think he is wonderful. More updates to come on the magical world of two. There is also a picture of me included. I have been very opposed to pictures this time around, mainly because I am HUGE! But, you can't help but laugh at yourself once in a while. Yesterday I was shopping with Benson and I turned around to the sympathetic face of a complete stranger. All she said was "You look really uncomfortable" I didn't know how to respond. Ummmm, thanks? I guess? What I really wanted to do was yell, "If one more person makes a comment about my size, I will punch them" Okay, not really punch, but give them a stern talking to. Maybe that's the eight month pregnant lady hormones talking in me. See guys, this is why I haven't posted in a long time. I'm a pregnant roller coaster of emotions. Annnnnnd with that being said, enjoy the pics.

Sickie

Benson Dean got pretty sick about two weeks ago. It started with a fever and a really, REALLY swollen lymph node in his neck. So big that I took him into the doctor just to check the lump on his neck. Then he wouldn't eat anything, then his eyes got puffy. It was weird. After many trips to the doctor, lots of prayer, and one almost trip to the hospital, it was declared he had strep throat. Thank goodness! It was a crazy two weeks and we were absolutely exhausted, but mainly we were worried for our little guy. This is what he looked like those two weeks, just slept on our chest and cried about how much he hurt. So sad (I added a picture of what he looks like normally so you can compare)

3 years

3 years ago today, we got hitched! 2 years ago in October, we we a few days away from meeting Benson for the first time. Last year around this time, Mike was graduating and we were a few months away from moving to Chicago and this year we are a few short months away from meeting Baby Brother. Time flies when you're in love :)







Such a happy life :) Happy three years to my awesome husband! Three years, two college graduations, one and a half kids later and one big move across the country, our adventure is just beginning! I love that handsome guy I got married to three years ago.

An in case I forgot to announce it here...

Baby DeVries number two is all boy! We are excited to have two little boys running around the house. Benson is excited to have someone he can beat up on other than his mom. Cheers all around!

Wisconsin State Fair

You'd think growing up in Texas I'd have seen my fair share of cowboys and hicks, you were wrong. We had the delightful opportunity to attend the Wisconsin State Fair with my sister Brooke and her husband Tyler and their two kiddos, Tanner and Katelyn a few weekends ago. We had the best time walking around and looking at the animals and sampling fair food. We were a little bit nervous to attend because the day before quite a few people were attacked as they left the fair grounds when it was closing. 26 people were arrested. Crazy. Our favorite quote from fox news about the subject "People come to the fair to see chickens and pigs, not get beat up". So true, so true. Happily, no one in the DeVries or the Hedin families got beat up that day. We did get to sample delicious fried Milky Ways, Fish and Chips, Lemonade and flavored milk. Our two favs were probably the fried milky way and the cherry vanilla milk. More of that please! We had a great time and I felt very loved as Katelyn wanted me to hold her hand the whole time. I loved it! Sometimes you forget how fun it is to be an aunt when you have your own kid begging for attention. It was extremely hot, so by the end of the day we were exhausted and needed to go home. My sister is also pregnant and so we commiserated with each other as we walked back to the car. Aching hips, sore feet, etc. Thanks Hedins for the great day at the fair! We loved it.

White Sox Party

Mike and I have been talking about how much we wanted to go to a White Sox game this summer...but after looking up ticket prices it pretty much needed to go unspoken that neither of us wanted to blow that much dough on one baseball game. So, imagine my surprise when Mike calls me out of the blue one day and asks me to get a sitter for the next night cause we were going to a game! That husband o' mine. Sure do love him. It turns out he had entered a raffle at work and won, not just two regular tickets, but two box suite seats, with dinner and parking included! We felt like kings as we had all the drinks, gourmet dinner, snacks, gourmet dessert carts, Ice cream sundae carts and everything else you could think of, that we could possibly want right there in that suite! We loved it! The weather was perfect, and even though the Sox lost we had an awesome time. We were mostly paying attention to the food and the drunk people anyways. Perfect date night with the perfect man! Thanks Blewitts for watching Benson for us!

PS

I have a few family shots that I will post later, but they are currently in the possession of my siblings. And, the picture of the three boys in the bathtub and the one below it of the three boys sitting on the bench are of Benson and his cousins. The one in the bathtub is of the boys last year at my mom's house about a year ago and the one on the bench is of the boys this year. See how much they've grown? They were all born within a few months of each other. They have another cousin, Tyson, who wasn't able to make it either time who was born two days before Benson that should be in the pictures too. I love seeing these boys grow up!

Nauvoooooooo

Here are a lot of pics people! Last week my family got together in Nauvoo for a little family reunion. It was awesome and everyone made it but Michelle and Jared and their four kiddos. We missed them! The vacation was so very fun and it was so nice to be with my family. It was crazy to see all of the nieces and nephews again, they are so big and are getting to be such big people. I love them so much, I wished I lived closer! The only complaint, it was stinkin' hot the whole week. Really, really, hot. We were sweating buckets, but true to form, the little kids still ran around like crazy with pink cheeks and all and had a blast with each other. My favorite part was when the adults all took turns babysitting each other's kids and attending a session at the Nauvoo temple. It was beautiful and peaceful and amazing being in the temple with some of my sisters. We got to attend the Nauvoo pageant (gotta admit, not the best for kids so we all took off early to get them to bed)and the games that started before. The kids loved the games, the oxen rides and the kids playground area.

I looooooooove being around my siblings. The girls are all moms I want to be like. They are patient, loving, forgiving and such great teachers. When I tell them that I am having problems with Benson throwing tantrums, they smile nicely and with all the wisdom and experience they have, they just tell me to be consistent and give it time. Babies and kids go through stages. That's all. Not an earful of advice, just a few nudges in the right directions. When it comes to role models, my mom and my sisters (this includes you Shauna) are who I want to be like the most. They are amazing and I love their kids.

Okay, enough of that. Here are the pictures:

Fievel DeVries

Benson likes wearing hats. As he wore his daddy's hat from Russia, I couldn't help but think about Fievel in An American Tail...


Fievel


Benson

Choo Choo!

Darth Vador is a train...at least that's what Benson thinks, cause when he sees a picture of him he says "Choo Choo!" Just thought that was worth sharing.

4th of July

The 4th of July was awesome here! Mike knows its one of my very favorite holidays to celebrate so he made sure to plan something fun. We went to Silver Beach, a beach on Lake Michigan. This is where Mike's Nonnie and Papa live, also his Aunt Sheri and Uncle John and their kids. Now, I grew up living fifteen minutes from a lake. We went there all the time. This was NOT a Texas lake. It had real sand, cool and refreshing water and it really did feel like the ocean. Benson was not happy about the cold water and sand all over at first, but he warmed up to it and had fun dragging me through the water later on. We built sand castles, buried Benson in the sand (pictured below...he really did have fun that day, I promise. He was just freezing and shivering and probably his body was shutting down from hypothermia at this point. Not the best parenting moment on our part) The beach was crowded crowded crowded, but that just added to the fun. Who doesn't like to be sitting down staring at the beautiful beach and turn around only to find a giant bum in your face? Mike and I had a few good laughs over that one. Especially because we had Mike's 14 year old brother there and 14 year old cousin with us and they weren't as comfortable with the bum-face situation as we were. It was funny. After the beach, we took Benson over to the gigantic splash pad just a minute or two walk up from the beach and it was fun! Every fifteen minutes they have 4 fire engine hoses spray water into the center of the circle and everyone just groups together and gets hosed. Really really fun, and only a little painful for sunburned bodies. After that we all went and got delicious ice cream at a little ice cream shop and headed home for dinner with nonnie, papa, uncle john, Aunt Sheri and cousin Elizabeth. Three words: Silver Beach Pizza. Yum-a-li-cious. Watermelon for dessert (couldn't have asked for anything more) as we sat on the front porch watching the sunset and getting crazy messy stuffing our faces with gigantic pieces of watermelon. Benson was in heaven. Did I mention Mike's Nonnie and Papa live right on Lake Michigan? The view is incredibly gorgeous and it really was a perfect end to a perfect day. We skipped fireworks (party poopers, don't judge) because we wanted to avoid the crowds on the little over 2 hour drive home. The awesome thing was that as we were driving there were firework shows going on in every city by the highways, so we saw about fifteen different show. Benson stayed awake the whole time pointing them out to us. We had such an awesome day, thanks Nonnie and Papa for having us!

PS... the last picture or whatever order it's in, is of Benson in his new car. The smile on his face does not even begin to express his Euphoria as he realized the car was his when we got it home. I've started parking in the driveway so that he doesn't see the car and insist on driving it around for two hours before we go anywhere (tantrums, I'm doing it to avoid tantrums). Best part is, I found it for three dollars! Go garage sale me!

Days off and Holidays

I've been really bad about posting what has been happening lately, mainly because so much of it has been going on! I think I'll tell about it in pictures...

Benson has been learning a lot of new words, dance moves and tricks lately. Here is one of them:



Sometimes we will be driving around in the car and I hear him laughing, and turn around only to find him with both fingers up his nose. Must have learned that one from his daddy.

Mike had memorial day off, and so we celebrated a three day weekend recently. We started out by bowling:




(I know I look awful in the top picture, but it was so cute I had to post it. This was right after Benson lovingly said "ball" and put his head on it and hugged it. Why doesn't he do that with us?)

Saturday we woke up fairly early and headed out to the Field Museum in Chicago. We had a blast just searching through the different exhibits. Benson was our little angel kid and had a great time just chillin in the stroller all day. Bless him.

I think I need to add more pictures in an above post, hold on...

Oh baby...

Probably most of you either already knew this or were expecting it fairly soon, but we are currently expecting baby Devries number two! I have my second appointment next week (14 weeks) and I haven't really been sick at all! Exhausted and tired, yes, but not sick. The first ultrasound looked great and the new little bub was squirming and kicking like a champ. We are very excited to meet Benson's younger sibling on December 17th. They had to induce me after I was a week late with Benson, so I'm hoping to convince the doctors this time to either induce me on my due date or let me go two weeks after my due date. I don't want to have a baby on Christmas day! We shall see.

I know this is completely random but another reason I am so excited is because my best friend from high school is expecting her third on exactly the same day. Awesome right? And did you know (I'll bet you did not) that Benson and her second son are only a month apart in ages? Too bad they have never met each other because I live in Chicago and she moved to Cananda, but it's still fun to think about.

Pictures speak at least 10 words...

Here are some fun pictures of the boy formally known as "Benson"