4 weeks old today, More visitors Saturday...

Evan is 4 weeks old today. Isn't he precious?! We sure think so!

We had several guests come visit us this past Saturday. This is Aunt Judy with Evan.

Gramma Glupker with Ethan & Evan

4 Generations of Glupkers

4 Generations again

Bart's cousin, Kelly, with Evan. Her brother Jeff came to visit also.

Uncle Lance played with Ethan quite a bit. Thanks for entertaining him, Lance! ;-)

Uncle Lance and Evan

Uncle Lance, Evan & Papa reading our note from Senator Jason Allen welcoming Evan to our family.
Nana & Ethan playing with his Leap Frog alphabet toy on the refrigerator.

Thanks for coming, everyone! We enjoyed your visit!

3 weeks old...

Well, today Evan is 3 weeks old! He is growing SO fast already! His facial features are already changing. Evan is looking a little bit less like Ethan, in some ways. For one, Evan's baby blue eyes are definitely lighter than Ethan's were at this age. I think he may have blue eyes, or maybe green like his Daddy! We'll have to wait and see... He hasn't been back to the doctor since his 1 week check-up, but at home (on our digital scale, in just a towel) he weighs about 11 pounds already! So he sure is gaining weight quickly! Evan is doing pretty well. He goes about 2 1/2 - 3 hours at night between feedings. (I know we've gone backward since that first week, when my Mom was here. He was going almost 4 hours between feedings then.) So, Mommy still tries to take a nap once a day....tries to, but doesn't always get one... maybe a couple of times a week.) He is truly a blessing though and we are thankful again for the blessing of him being in our family!

Our sweet baby boy!
There are those beautiful blue eyes (and a smirk too)! :-)

Here is Evan's birth announcement that we sent out.

In his first little sweat suit ("Pow," Uncle, Chadd!) ;-)

Laying on his floor mat, checking out the black and white bar with animals.

The bright blue eyes, again... too cute!

Hanging out on Daddy's shoulder

This was one of Ethan's favorite positions when he was this age too! (Look at that cute pup on his butt! ;-) )

Sleeping... outside the box?

Ethan finally fell asleep for his afternoon nap ... in this position though. I'm not sure it looks very comfortable, and it is not his normal sleeping position, but he is sleeping well, thankfully!

21 months...

Ethan is 21 months old now. He is getting so big! He seems HUGE next to Evan now. :-) He weighs about 30 pounds, and is 33 3/4 inches tall. He is quite a big helper to Mommy. He loves to help sweep the floors, vacuum, throw things in the trash, help do laundry, etc. He is not saying too many more words yet, although his comprehension is quite amazing (we think). Reading books, he points out SO many different things, including some colors, shapes, and miscellaneous objects. He LOVES being a big brother, and loves being around him. His separation anxiety from Mommy & Daddy (at church mainly) is much more pronounced though. He has a real hard time going to his class on Wednesday and Sundays right now. But, hopefully he will get over that soon. He has to get used to it, because we are there a lot! :-)

Here he is coloring in his coloring book, from Grandma Haase.
Hanging out in his high chair after breakfast...

This morning, we had blueberry pancakes with strawberries for breakfast. Ethan is licking his plate clean apparantly. :-)

Ethan loves his new hat from Uncle Lance! He wears it frequently.

Ethan using his new vacuum from Uncle Lance, and wearing his hat. Thanks Uncle Lance for these GREAT Christmas gifts! He loves them! :-)

1 week old today!

Evan is one week old already today!
Evan is doing so well. He is such a good baby. He is quite laid back and a happy boy. He is a good sleeper too. He sleeps in about 4 hr. shifts at night, allowing Mommy to get some good rest in between feedings.

Grandma Haase is here helping us out for the week. We appreciate her help!

Evan getting a bath. He doesn't really like them, but he did manage to settle down and feel the nice warm water for a few seconds.

Family huddle time

My three sweet boys

Evan had his 5 day check-up on Monday. He weighed in at 8 lbs. and 13 oz. He came home from the hospital weighing 8 lbs. 8 oz. So he's gaining his weight back already.

Ethan is SUCH a good big brother and a big helper to Mommy. He loves his "baby" brother! Ethan is really adjusting very well to having a new baby in the house.

Our new little "tax deduction" by 1 hr. 53 mins. :-) (The Onesie was part of our gift bag from H&R Block for being the last baby born in 2008 at Munson Hospital in T.C.)

Our write-up in the TC Newspaper.

Nana & Evan sharing some snuggle time. Nana & Papa were here helping out with Ethan while we were in the hospital, and then for a couple of days after we got home. Thanks for all of your help, Nana & Papa!

Our big boy!

Sweet baby, Evan.

Introducing Evan Mark Glupker!

Here he is: Our second son, Evan Mark Glupker. He finally made his grand entrance into this world on Wed., Dec. 31st, 2008 at 10:07 PM. He was "officially" the last baby born in 2008 at Munson Medical Center in Traverse City. So, H&R Block gave us a nice bag of goodies including a coupon for tax services, for being the last baby born in 2008! (Cool, huh?) Not to mention, we get to claim him on our taxes, for the whole 2 hours we actually had him in 2008. :-) Anyway, enough about that... here he is!

Evan's delivery was much quicker than Ethan's (Praise the Lord!). I only had to push for about 40 minutes for him! Because he came out so quickly, he had quite the mucus in his mouth yet when he came out, but his Apgar's were good: 8 & 9. Oh, one other cool thing, I was able to pull him the rest of the way out when I got to my final push with him! He was quite slippery though, I thought I was going to drop him! :-)

Mommy enjoying meeting her precious newborn son!

Evan weighed 9 lbs, and was 22 1/2 inches long! He is a big boy!

Mommy & Daddy with our new little son, Evan.

He did not like his bath much. He didn't like the cold, I'm sure. I don't like being cold during my baths either.

Welcoming in the New Year just about 2 hours after he was born!
Grandma holding baby Evan, about an hour after he was born.
Grandpa holding Evan Mark (Mark is my Dad's name).

Nana & Evan

Mommy & Evan all ready to meet some visitors on New Year's Day. (I am just praising the Lord, because I feel GREAT today! SO much different than after Ethan's delivery!)
Mommy, Aunt Alisha & Evan

Gramma Brenda & Grampa Don Wilson visiting with Evan

Papa & Evan sharing some snuggle time.

And of COURSE... the NEW BIG BROTHER, Ethan (giving kisses to his little brother)!

A new picture of our Family of Four!

For those of you who are interested... Here is my "Labor Story":

We went in to the hospital in SNOW covered roads, pretty bad condition and arrived there about 7:30 AM on Wed., Dec. 31st. My doctor checked me right away and gave me some disappointing news, that I was still only dialated to a 1 and only about 50% effaced. So the doctor suggested we try a pill to help soften the cervix. He put that in around 8:00 AM, and waited to see what it would do. At about 12:00 noon, he came back to check me, and "NO PROGRESS!" Talk about Disappointment! I was crushed. I was afraid this day was going to be a long one, and that continued to be confirmed. Becauses I hadn't dialated, he couldn't even get to my water to break it, but we did begin the Pitocin shortly after then. So we waited again for about 4 more hours. My contractions continued, fairly regularly even, but were not getting too intense yet. My nurse called the doctor to give him an update and he said, "Well, if nothing has progressed, we could just send her home and have her come back on Monday to try again." Once again, I was CRUSHED! In my mind, I was NOT going home today! I was going to have this baby, even if it meant asking him to do a C-section, which I didn't really want, but was desperate enough for at that point. He did come back to check me though, and I was dialated to a 4 now, and about 75% effaced now! Praise the Lord, he was able to break my water at that point, around 4 PM! Shortly after that I had an epidural as the contractions were beginning to come stronger. Around 5 PM, they checked me again and I was dialated to a 5. So slowly, but surely we were making progress. I asked the Resident Intern, "How much longer do you think?" She said, "Well, you will probably be able to begin pushing around midnight. MIDNIGHT?! I was hoping to have this baby BEFORE midnight! Once again, I was discouraged, looking at the clock, but knew we were on our way to having our baby. With the epidural, we were able to get some rest and let the contractions do their work. We waited until about 8 PM, when they checked my cervix again, and I was now at an 8. That was GOOD news, FINALLY some GOOD progress! Things would probably begin going faster now, they said, which they did. By 9 PM, I was getting quite uncomfortable. The contractions were getting stronger and lower. She felt and I was at a 9, almost completely effaced, and baby was at station -1. Around 9:25 PM, I began to push, and about 40 minutes later, Evan was born! I was able to pull him out of the birth canal too, How cool?! (The nurse had reassured me that I would probably only be pushing for about 30 mins. this time, as opposed to the 3 hours with Ethan. That was again some good news!) I thank the Lord for a relatively good labor and delivery, all things considering! It was an induction after all, and it took my body awhile to respond, but once I got going with the actual labor/delivery, things went pretty smoothly. I thank the very MANY of you who remembered us in your thoughts and prayers throughout the long day! They were definitely felt, appreciated, and ANSWERED! God is GOOD and we are SO thankful that he chose to bless us with another beautiful baby boy!