Edith Charlene {a birth story}

My oh my.... baby number six is finally here and what an entrance she made!
I planned on having this post up a few weeks ago, but life with four kids five and under (not to mention traveling to another vintage show with a newborn) hasn't made it easy! Its always amazing to me that with each additional child I have to totally rework when and how I can get things done. I sort of miss the old days of just one kid...hah! Just kidding! I love my little BIG tribe!

(This is a birth story, so be advised that I might use terms that make you uncomfortable, so proceed with caution! You've been warned.)

37-39 Weeks

So, little Miss Edee was hanging out pretty contently as I approached my due date of June 5th and I was convinced she would be late like Elynn . I was not feeling great, could barely walk and down right emotional. I cried for no reason at the drop of a hat which I'm sure Justin was loving. To encourage progress we were walking a lot (mostly at Home Depot!) but I could tell nothing was changing. At my 37 week appointment they did my Group B strep test and the doctor decided to check me. I was about 1.5 cm dilated, but she wasn't very optimistic that the baby was coming anytime soon so at my next appointment I opted not to be checked. Why bother, I know what labor feels like and I know what false labor feels like too. Each night I'd have plenty of contractions but they would always fade away by early morning. Super fun.

Tues May, 31 

After a long Memorial Day weekend and still no baby, I was starting to feel anxious because Justin was due to leave for Army Annual Training at the end of the week. We made another trip to town and this time I was having some pretty good contractions while we were out. I was't thinking much of it, but as they continued throughout dinner I thought maybe this IS it. That evening I texted my mom to let her know what was going on, but I also told her that most likely they would stop. Either way she was on alert.

Wed June 1

I woke up that next morning after a long night of mild contractions and indeed they had stopped. COMPLETELY. I wasn't happy. I texted my mom again complaining that I was going to be pregnant forever and she encouraged me by telling me she spent 3 weeks having nightly contractions when she was pregnant with my little sister. Thanks mom. #sohelpful

So, there I was completely pissed that I was still pregnant after being awake off and all night with contractions that I did the only thing I could. I cleaned the house and rearranged all the rugs upstairs. I even pulled out the couch and cleaned behind it. It felt great to get stuff done.

Proof in these pictures  I sent to Justin...(the rug I bought for the boys room is now in the office/family room and the old blue rug moved to Ellery's room...)

12:30 pm

The kids were happily zoned out with a movie so I sat down to do some computer work and all of a sudden I got the worst stomach pain ever! Just like that out of the blue. It did not feel like a labor pain, so I deiced we would head down for lunch. I got another sharp pain while I was making sandwiches, but again it did not feel like a labor pain. So I did the dishes while the kids ate. Then I got another one and I thought...hmmmm....maybe something is going on here. I messaged Justin at work to let him know something MIGHT be up, but that I was going to get the kids down for a nap and take a shower to see if any of that would make the pain stop.

1:30 pm

As I was getting the kids down for a nap I could feel pains coming pretty consistently, but even tho they were painful they were far apart. My aunt texted me to see if she could come by to look at some signs and I told her I was going to shower first. She agreed to come by around 4 instead. I then took a long hot shower and proceeded to get ready for the day.

2:00 pm

While doing my hair and make up I decided to start tracking my contractions with an app on my phone. Again, they hurt,but they were kinda random 4-7 minutes apart and only 30-40 secs long. I let Justin know my status, but I wasn't feeling a sense of urgency so we decided we would touch base after the meeting he was headed into.

3:00 pm

Justin was out of his meeting and I told him he batter head this way. My contractions were still short, but stronger and a little closer together. Since my Aunt was coming at four, I knew I could have her stay to watch the kids while we headed to the hospital. In my mind I knew we still had several hours of waiting ahead of us. I also messaged my mom to let her know to head my way as well, thinking even with a 5 hour drive she had plenty of time to make it before the baby came.

3: 15 or so

My Aunt texted me to say she got done early and could she come by? I messaged her back and said yes and that she would need to stay since I thought I was in labor, but she never read the message, so she walks in and I'm like "hi! I'm in labor, Justin is on his way and can you watch the kids?" I totally caught her off guard. Sorry Aunt Carmen!! While we waited for Justin to get there I helped her pick out signs (the reason she was actually there) in between contractions. Again, I was just pretty chill because I knew I had several more hours of labor to get through.

3:45 pm

Justin gets home, changes his clothes and looks at my contraction tracker and basically tells me to get my butt in the car and we are going NOW. I was just sitting chatting with my aunt and he couldn't figure out why I wasn't thinking we should get going. As we loaded up I told him that it was a good thing we were going in early because I need antibiotics for the group B strep.

3:50 pm

We get to the hospital and we accidentally parked at the main entrance, instead of Emergency entrance. The receptionist asks where we are headed and Justin says "we're having a baby!" and another receptionist tells us to head right up to Labor & Delivery. When we get there, the nurses are all surprised because they were not expecting us. I had a big long contraction right after getting off the elevator and they all looked at each other and decided they would deal with admitting me later.

4:00 pm

As soon as we got in our room I quickly got changed and into the bed so they could start tracking contractions. The nurses are rushing to get my IV in and hooking me up to the monitor because I was begging for the epidural. Once that was done the nurse decides its time to check where I'm at. She starts checking me and shes in there forever because she says she can't feel anything except my bag of water. Then I had a contraction and shes like "oh! I feel it now, your at an 8 and you won't have time for drugs!"  I looked at Justin and started crying because I really didn't think I could handle the contractions for much longer. It freaked me out!

4:08 ish...

I am in tons of pain and I am crying because I don't get drugs and then my next contraction starts and I say to Justin and the nurse, "this one isn't going to be good" and the nurse says, "if you have to push its okay"... and so I did. Or my body did. I had absolutely no control over the urge and pretty soon I hear Justin and the nurses talking... "there's her head"..."the cords wrapped around"..."its off, give us one more push!" (Justin says the nurse had super ninja skills and had the cord off in one swift movement.)

4:10 pm

Just like that I had a baby laying on my chest. I looked at Justin in shock because, what the heck!? We had literally been in the room 10 minutes. TEN. It was chaos. There was no doctor yet, so I just laid there with my baby and kept repeating over and over "what just happened?"  When Justin messaged the below picture to our family mere minutes after she was delivered and they all thought we were joking. It was that fast. No one except my Aunt knew we were even at the hospital.

Edith Charlene

8lbs 9oz

19.5 inches 

After...

Eventually the doctor did make it in the room, delivered the placenta and did some other doctor things while I was laying there in shock. Edith needed a bit of blow by oxygen due to the cord being wrapped around her right after she was born and we had to stay a few days extra due to jaundice, but other than that she is a perfect little baby!

So that's it. I've officially documented Edith's birth story. Crazy thinking its the last one I will ever write. I can't even imagine attempting to have more babies after how close we were to having this one at home (not shooting down home births at all, its just not for me). Seriously...I was in active labor from 12:30 to 4:10. That's the shortest ever for me!

The Bigs meeting Edith

First family photo

Our little Glo-worm!

Thanks for stopping by to meet our new addition! Come back later this week for her newborn photos!

My Favorite Projects of 2015 + Looking Forward to 2016

This year has been one wild ride!

I know that tradition is to look back on the most popular posts of 2015, but honestly, sometimes my favorites and what gets traction on social media & Pinterest aren't always the same thing. So I'm doing things a bit differently this year. I'm choosing to look back on some of my favorite projects and moments of 2015...they are the things that tell my story the best and help explain what 2016 will look like (or at least what I think it will look like!)

So first lets look at some of my favorite DIY projects of the year (in no particular order)....

Project Kid's Bathroom Reveal :
We finally wrapped up this little bathroom makeover and its still one of my favorite projects in the house! That sliding barn door window covering...um, yea...the most awesome thing EVER! 

Fireplace Makeover :
Now this project...it was my first ever featured on Apartment Therapy and also the first to totally get ripped apart by the general public. It taught me A LOT about how to tune out the negativity that can come from being a blogger in a world full of opinions.  In the end it comes down to how I feel about projects we do around here and guess what!? I happen to love our fireplace...and it looks a million times better to me than it did before! Although, the fireplace and the wall surrounding it are on our list of things we want to readdress in 2016! I can't wait to share more about that!!

DIY Concrete Counters Poured Over Laminate:

Talk about challenging ourselves to do something we had never seen done before. We decided to try pouring concrete over our existing counter tops! What!? Pretty much crazy talk! It worked...mostly...but we definitely would do things differently next time. 

DIY Reclaimed Wood Counters:

We also tackled our island using reclaimed wood from North Idaho. So far, they have been a dream. I STILL have a finish coat to do, but that will happen in 2016 - along with finishing up our new floating wood shelves (I haven't even talked about  those yet!!!) Also on the kitchen list: replacing the almond colored outlets, repairing and re-painting the island, and touching up paint. Then we should be able to call the kitchen DONE!

Master Bedroom Makeover:
Yay for taking the time to focus on our bedroom! My favorite bloggy thing to do every year is participate in the One Room Challenge. For the spring challenge I chose our Master Bedroom. Things have since changed a bit in here since, but I still love our room and I am super happy we took the time to do it! Our Master Bathroom is 100% on the list for 2016!

Now the next thing on my list of favorites was not really a DIY, but has quickly become a huge part of what I do.

Vintage Shows featuring Averie Lane Boutique:
I have always talked about wanting to have a booth at vintage shows. I grew up with a mom who loved to antique and I married a man who grew up running auctions. I love vintage stuff and we incorporate it into our home decor, but I only have so much room, so turning my love of auctions and yard sales into a side gig seemed like a logical next step. I also wanted a place to showcase my artwork. I paint a lot of arrows, but I knew I was capable of SO. MUCH. MORE! Boy, I could never anticipated how amazing these shows would be! It is hard work, but its a dream come true. I already have 5 shows booked for next year!!!

Speaking of next year, that brings me to one project I'm most excited for in 2016....

oh yes.... baby #4 in the Koogler clan is on its way! We are due June 5th and will get to find out the gender sometime in January! The kids are excited, my husband keeps making "what were we thinking" jokes and I'm over here just trying to keep my shit together! Ha! This might help explain the lack of post towards the end of year. I always suspect a blogger is preggo when the posting derails, don't you? Super true in my case! It was all I could do to keep up with Christmas shows and holiday orders let alone work on house projects and blog!

Being that this is my 6th  (and LAST) baby, I am soaking it up...the good and bad, because its such a precious time and a beautiful miracle! I will do some posts updates after I survive the New Year, so look forward to those!


So there you have it! A look back at 2015 here at Averie Lane. Thank you for hanging in there with me as I navigate some new terrority with my life and this blog! My goal in 2016 is to be better about showing whats going on in all aspects of our life...not just DIY. I'll talk more about those when I put my goal list for 2016 together!

Custom Baby Gate

This post was first published Jan, 2014. 

I have since revised it and added a cut list and graphic to help aid in building the gate! 

I hope you find it helpful! 

Thanks!

aka... "let's try to keep Little Man from plummeting down the stairs"

Elynn's Photo Project

Where does the time go?

These first few weeks with a newborn have been a whirlwind!

We spent two weeks up at my mom's in Western, WA, while my husband did his National Guard Annual Training (AT) then we came home for 3 days and then decided to take a last minute trip to North Idaho for the 4th to see family and to escape the 100 degree weather here.

In case you are wondering, that puts us in the car for approximately 1,900 miles or 32 hours with 3 kids, three and under, all before our newborn was 5 weeks old.

WE. ARE. CRAZY.

Since this means computer time has been limited, I have been doing Elynn's photo updates via good ol' Instagram and I really like how that is going...

(in case you are curious, I use three apps to get this look... Instagram, DoodleSnap, and Instacollage)

Cute Right!!

I'll have the real 1 month photos up tomorrow, plus I will be updating this page monthly and will add it to the menu bar (when I get a moment to clean up my blog!)

You can catch up on past photo shoots here...

Elynn's 1 week photo shoot

Elynn Coleman - one week photoshoot

I really wanted to carry on the tradition of taking monthly photos of the new baby like I did with Ever.

Starting with his 1 week photos. 

This time around I chose to keep it very simple - using our bed/headboard for a backdrop and a simple swaddle blanket for scale purposes. (tutorial on swaddle blanket coming soon! I PROMISE!)

I love keeping the poses simple too. 

(this photo ended up one of my favs even tho it was just an iPhone shot that I edited with an app called Doodle Snap)

I'll carry on this style of adding his age from here on out (only I will be doing it in PSE)

 There is one exception to my "keep it simple" rule...

I have to photograph this cute little baseball outfit that my sister bought for Ever...

Here is Ever in the same outfit... Do they look alike?

I think they do...especially with the hat hiding the hair!

It"ll be fun watching him change and grow over the next year!

You can read all about Elynn's birth story here:

Part 1 - The Name

Part 2 - Birth Story

Elynn Coleman {birth story- part 2}

Yesterday I talked about our name choice for Elynn and today I will tell you a little about his actual arrival.

From this point on, if you are not interested in a birth story stop reading and just look at the cute baby pictures ...

You've been warned.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that this was my longest pregnancy to date...as in I have never ever made it to my due date in my last four pregnancies. 

Until now.

My due date came and went on June 1st and I had scheduled a doctor appointment at 4:20 for that Monday.

My doc gave me the option to be induced the next day, but I had strong reservations about that. 

Primarily I hate Pitocin. 

Together we decided that he would strip my membranes to encourage labor (at this point I had 3 solid weeks of daily contractions). His guess was we would have a baby within 48 hours if it was going to work. 

I was at 3 cm when he did the stripping and almost immediately I began having contractions and felt incredibly sick. We left the office with no expectations and headed to Costco to do some grocery shopping and walk a bit. We also managed to fit in a haircut for little Ever and a walk around Gordman's. The whole time I was having contractions, but they were only every 10 mins or so. 

Finally we headed home.

We warned both our moms that the contractions were pretty regular, but neither of us thought baby would be here before the next afternoon. So both moms planned on heading our way in the morning. 

As the night went on, I tried to stay busy puttering around the house and finally decided if this kid was going to come I better get some rest. I watched the rest of a Mariners game and then we headed to bed.

I manged to sleep off and on despite getting some strong contractions now and then. I was still sure they were going to stop like they had been doing and even told my mom that I wasn't sure she need to come unless she wanted to. 

Then around 3:40 am I woke up to use the bathroom and realized I was having pretty strong contractions every 3-5 mins. I woke up my husband and had him start making calls. We had to wait for my Aunt to get to our house before we could go to the hospital which gave my husband plenty of time to take a shower and eat breakfast. 

It was kind of torturous!

Finally we headed to the hospital and were checked in by 5 am. 

I was measuring a 5 at this point and all I could think about was getting some relief from the pain. I knew I wasn't going to play super hero like I did with my last birth. 

At 6 am the epidural was in!

Sweet relief!

Well for all of 20 mins or so...

I was checked again and was at a 7 and then shortly after that I told them I could tell I was feeling lots of pressure. They checked me again and I was already at a 9. 

The doctor broke my water and after letting a couple contractions pass, I knew I was ready to push.

In less than one and half contractions we had our baby at 7:08 am!! 

After only being at the hospital two hours!

Smooth, uneventful and way quicker than we were expecting!! 

We are so in love with this little guy!!

If you missed Part 1 - go HERE

Elynn Coleman - all about the name... {birth story- part 1}

Let's clear something up, right off the bat...

Elynn is pronounced "ee-lynn". 

Not Ellen.

For those of you who are curious about why we picked such a potentially confusing name, I'll give you the back story.

First we wanted another "E" name to go with our daughter, Ellery and son, Everett.

I even asked you all for suggestions, and there were some great names thrown into the pool ...like Easton, Emmett, Elijah, Ezra... etc..., but either they didn't fit my criteria (unique, unpopular and not the same beginning sound as the other two kids), were already being used by friends or family, or we just didn't like them.

I was at my wits end and ready to nix the whole "E" name idea. I actually even started Googling names of TV characters from one of our favorite shows Justified. One name that popped up was Raylan. 

Some how my mind made the jump from Raylan to Lynn, which happens to be both my mother-in-law AND father-in-law's middle names. 

Then I thought, what if we put an E on the beginning of it.

(because that's the logical thing to do when your no longer searching for an E names...)

E + Lynn = Elynn

Low and behold its a real name too.

Albeit a Swedish girl's name.

On a shot I suggested it to my husband.

AND HE LIKED IT.

We debated the spelling,...

Do we double the  E to make it clear how its pronounced? 

-No, it just looked weird to me.

Do we leave off one N to make it look more boyish?

-No, we wanted to keep the family part of the name intact.

Basically it kept coming back to the fact WE liked the name as it was.

Plus, it paired really well with Coleman - my husband's little brother's name.

It was a perfect fit. 

Who cares that he already has been called Ellen by the nurse at our first well-baby checkup. 

Better get used to this kid...

You can find Elynn's birth announcement HERE

and

PART 2 of his Birth Story HERE

Introducing...

I can't get enough of this little guy. 

His hair, especially!

Since I will be soaking up all the snuggle time I can get in these next couple weeks, the blog will be taking a back seat for awhile.

Don't worry, I still have some fun things headed your way (just slowing down a smidge.)

They are only this little for such a short time, ya know!?

Stay tuned for Elynn's birth story and more squishy baby photos!

-Thanks-

Amber

Burlap and Sweater Stocking {tutorial}

I am super duper excited to be linking up with Naptime Creations today in her "A Crafty Christmas" Blog tour! I'm part of the Gifts/Wrapping - Sewing , so I decided to dust off an old post, take some new pictures and share with you what I feel is the ultimate in gift wrapping- THE STOCKING!

Seriously, its the FIRST thing most kids open up on Christmas morning...at least that's how it was when I was growing up...and then we would wait and wait and wait until our parents got up so we could open everything else! 

Happy Thanksgiving + what I'm thankful for today...

I am thankful for so much... but today I am super thankful that God is blessing our family and allowing it to grow!

That's right!  Baby Koogs #3 coming in June!!  I will 14 weeks on Sunday and finally feeling great! I will get some bump shots on the blog when I actually have a bump! I hope you all have a fabulous Thanksgiving! May God Bless you!!