Brothers

Caden has been so sweet with his new little brother. It makes me realize how big and grown up he is getting! How do I freeze time?!

 



 

Asher Brooks

The newest Simmons babe has arrived! Asher Brooks Simmons was born on September 21, 2012!

For those interested, here is a quick birth story...

 

On September 20th, a 10:30am sonogram found him to have actually lost weight since the sonogram three weeks prior. The doctor said the aging placenta was most likely the cause and it was not getting enough nutrients to the baby. So, she decided to induce labor.

 

We took Caden to stay with Kristi and JoeBob, ate lunch at Olive Garden, and arrived at Labor & Delivery at 3pm. At 5pm they inserted Cervadil and I had to stay still for two hours while it worked to thin my cervix. They let me eat dinner (woohoo!) and gave me an Ambien to sleep (woohoo!). At 5am they took out the Cervadil. I started feeling contractions start about 5:20am. I was hooked up to monitors for a consistent 30 minutes before they started a level 2 pitocin at 5:45am.

At 8:30am I was dialated to a 3 and they started my epidural. I was first to jump in line for that! The nurse said that it was a good idea to get it early, especially since the doctor made rounds around 9am, breaking everyones water and then the epidurals are in high demand! At 9am the doctor broke my water. They increased pitocin all the way up to 22 throughout the day and put me on oxygen since the baby had "lates". Lates is when their heart rate drops late, at the end of the contraction. The oxygen helped his lates though and I was relieved after stressing some!

At 1:30pm I was dialated to a 7-8 and he was born at 2:04pm! The doctor ran in just in time to catch him and I didn't even have to push! Seriously. The doctor was nowhere to be found and the nurse had to HOLD HIM IN with both hands while Brian was digging in her pockets for her cell to keep calling/paging the doc!

He was a healthy 6lbs 3oz and 19.5inches and had a perfect apgar score of 9.9! So blessed!

 

 

It's That Time Again!

To take a guess on the baby's arrival day and time! My official due date is September 18th. We are so excited and ready to meet him! Caden is, too. He seems to have a better understanding now and even picked out a toy to give to his new baby brother once he arrives. Won't be long now!

My friends talked me into taking maternity pictures since I didn't get any done with Caden. My friend Meredith Holland took these and I am so happy to have them! She is really talented. Thanks, Mere!

Ready, set, GUESS!

 

 

 

Last Days of Summer

Although it doesn't feel like summer is ending due to the highs still in the 90s, Labor Day weekend has already passed and my due date of September 18th is quickly approaching! We had a great visit that weekend from Brian's sisters Meghan and Amanda, and Amanda's husband Ryan. We went to the beach every day, ate TONS of food (including lots of Pioneer Woman's "Knock You Naked Brownies"!), and just enjoyed spending time together. It's rare that Amanda and Ryan get a day off at the same time, let alone a three day weekend off together (they are doctors), so they were excited for a mini-vacation! Also, we recently found out from Amanda and Ryan that we are going to have our 1st nephew in January! Yay for more boys! Family gatherings are going to be so much fun!

Yesterday, we ate lunch in Port Aransas on the way to this small water park in Aransas Pass. Caden loved riding on the ferry for the first time! We enjoyed playing in the cool water all day. It felt so good, especially for me since I have been so hot and a little swollen lately!

 

New Faces, New Places

Wow. An entire summer went by without a single blog post. There is no way I am going to catch up on all that went on this summer, so I am going to start fresh! I changed the name of the blog, too. We are no longer "The Simmons' in Japan", but are in Corpus Christi, Texas for the next few years! I figured that since there is a good chance we may move again, I would just change it to "The Simmons Scoop" instead of something more location specific. We are extremely blessed to be stationed near family and are settling in and waiting on our first home to be built and our 2nd baby to be born!

I am currently working on publishing a family blog book from all of the 800+ blog posts while we were living overseas! I am really excited to have a physical copy and story of everything we have done over the past four years. My plan is to make a blog book after each duty station as a sort of family yearbook.

Stay tuned!

Mini Vacation

Due to a last minute cancellation at Okuma, we were able to get a room for the weekend! We went up there and took the scenic route on the east side of the island due to some crazy Golden Week traffic. We made it up in 2 hours instead of the 3 it took our friends who went ahead of us! We played in the sun and had a great little family trip!

For a couple months I have had a girls' trip to Okuma planned. So, Caden and I ended up spending a lot of time at Okuma this week! It was fine by me though, the weather was perfect. We stayed in the biggest condo they have. It has 7 bedrooms! We had 7 adults, 8 kids, and a newborn baby! It was so much fun!

Love Okuma!

Baby Hudson! Only 5 weeks new! 

Audrey ready to relax!

I got a ton of kids in this shot!

Andromache, Hillary, and Carolyn (aka Grill Master!)

Baby dance partayyyy!

Didn't get a picture in time, but this is Matt filling up the DEEP hole they dug!

Andromache, feeding Caden grapes! 

After family Okuma time, Brian went to San Diego for a 2 day water training course. He almost didn't make it in time and almost had to just turn around and come back home. Poor guy had a rough flight and frustrating delays, but he finally made it and is one tough Marine for doing the class on just a few hours of sleep. Pretty much a nap. Anyways, he did great and even squeezed in a surf session and dinner with some Corpus friends who live there now! He is coming home tonight, but United Airlines was delayed AGAIN and he just landed in Tokyo at the exact time his connecting flight departed. Poor guy. I hope he makes it home to us tonight! We miss him!

Little Brother? Little Sister?

The cake turned out so cute! Thanks, Carrie! 

Setting up FaceTime and Skype with the fam.

If you don't know the gender yet, watch this video before you scroll down!

HOORAY!!! We are super excited and blessed beyond words.

It was so much fun and waaaay better than the way we found out last time! Thank you to Mom, Dad, Hannah, Kathi, and Jimmy for sharing in our special moment even though we live on the other side of the world! XOXO Can't wait to meet our son in September! 

Aircraft Commander!

Congratulations to my awesome husband! He just finished his upgrade syllabus and is an Aircraft Commander!

He had his "cherry flight" last week to the Philippines and it went really well! I am so proud of him. I made these cherry cheesecakes for him to come home to after his first flight as an AC!

As if that isn't enough of a reason to be proud, he came home with this award last week! Way to go, babe!

It's a...

BABY!

We had our 19 week ultrasound yesterday and it was just as exciting the second time around to see that little growing baby move around on the screen! The level of detail amazes me, especially when it comes to seeing the heart chambers fluttering and the complex spine and bones. Baby was moving around a lot and kept opening their mouth, sticking out their tongue, and putting their hand by its mouth. Here are some pictures that we got!

Waving, or hiding from all the pictures!

I can't wait to meet you!

Looks like a gigantic tongue, but I think it's a hand at its mouth.

And to answer the burning question, GIRL or BOY?! Come ON!

We don't know yet. Our friend makes cakes on the island and she offered to make us a "gender reveal cake". What is that?! I had to google it myself. Apparently it's a growing trend and people even throw "gender reveal parties" for their friends and family to join in on the excitement of finding out the gender.

You just tell the radiologist that you don't want to know the sex and they put the results in an envelope for you to deliver to your baker. Then, they bake you a cake that is either pink or blue when you cut into it! I thought it was a fun idea, so she is making ours now and we will cut into it this weekend with all of our family on Skype/Facetime! Much more exciting than finding out in a dark room with a stranger. I can't wait! The anticipation is killing me.

Self control. Self control. Self control.

 About a month ago, we did go out in town to a Japanese clinic to try and find out the sex. We don't like to wait. If pregnancy tests came with gender tests, that would be awesome! We found out Caden was a "boy" at this same clinic. And that is all the radiologist said that time. "Boy". Guess his English was pretty limited or he wasn't very chatty! But this time around, we had a guy who's English vocabulary was much more extensive. He was really outgoing and nice, but said he couldn't tell and that it was too early. Even with the Apple Tea I drank to get the baby moving... nothing! Oh well, now we have the chance to do the cake thing.

Here are some pictures from that attempt!

Drinking my Apple Tea, as per my friend Audrey's recommendation! 

Brian in his tiny slippers you change into at the door.

Hoping to walk in this room and find out! 

Waiting to go in the exam room.

I went to the restroom (for the 14th time) and saw this room in the hallway and just thought it was funny.

I have a feeling it is a boy, and Brian doesn't have a guess. He just wants the baby to be healthy, as do I! Do you have a guess?? Stay tuned!