Welcome Penn Rye Melder!

Most of you blog readers have already seen an email, text or Facebook post, so it's overdue that I finally introduce all of you to Penn Rye Melder on the blog.  


Penn Rye Melder was born at 6:26am on 6/26/2012.  He weighed 7 lbs., 6 oz. and was 20 and 1/2 inches long.  It was a super fast delivery.  I was up in the night with contractions and back pain, but not really sure if it was the real thing, eventually I woke up Doug at 4:40am and he quickly came to and was convinced it was labor and rushed me to get out the door.  I'm never sure what is going on, so I tried to hang back, but thankfully he was insistent that we make our exit as quickly as possible.  It's a good thing!  We walked the few blocks to the hospital which I think just made the labor progress if not speed up.  We were met in the ER by the awesome team of nurses that took care of us in Labor & Delivery.  They already were aware that I was at least 5 cm from my appointment that morning and that my previous labors had been quick.  We all walked up to the L&D and they wasted no time in getting me hooked up to monitors and checked out.  At that point I was 6cm.  After a few more contractions they checked again and I was 9cm.  They called the doctor, when he got in I was 10cm and it was time to push.  Crazy how fast it went.  It was the most manageable labor I've had yet.  Don't get me wrong, it hurt, but I wasn't quite yet feeling like I was going to die.  I've preferred in the past and with this labor to not use pain drugs.  I was so thankful that the labor was very smooth and I was able to go that route again.  And this time, the staff, nurses and the doctor from my practice were more understanding and encouraging then I've experienced in the past, so that was a huge praise!  Doug was a great support in that he rubbed my back and managed not to pass out when things really got going.  After 25 minutes approximately of pushing, baby Melder was out and we found out that yes, indeed, we were to carry on the Melder tradition for this generation of having 3 boys!


And the meaning of the name you ask?
Penn: a boy's name of German origin meaning "commander"
Rye: the name of the town where Doug and I got married in NH
If you don't know already, Koen and Tavin are both German names as well (the Melder family is German, Doug is 3rd generation).  Koen means "priest" or "wise advisor" and Tavin comes from the name Gustav which means "royalty" or "king."  So, now we have a Priest, a King and a Commander.  May God truly raise them up to be amazing leaders in His Kingdom!


Now what you've all been waiting for...pictures!!  Enjoy...

Having Fun with Grampa & Gramma

Well, I'm still having a problem staying on top of the photography, but I did get a few cute pictures today.  Koen is at our church's equivalent of VBS, Kidz Gig.  So that means that Tavin gets the fun of hanging out with me, Gramma and Grampa all day!  He is loving all this special one-on-one time.  I had a baby appointment this morning (yep, now I'm 5 cm, don't know what this baby is waiting for!), so Tav hung out with his grandparents.  Later after I got home Tavin and Grampa went on a walk to the playground.  I visited to see what they were up to - they looked happy!

We had a pretty normal day (I felt terrible most of the morning, but apparently it's not labor as I'm feeling more normal tonight...when will this baby come?).  After naptime, Gramma and I took Tavin on a walk while Koen and Grampa had some quality time together.  When we got home in time for burgers, steak fries and salad in the backyard, Grampa was waiting for some fun with little Tav again.  Here they are playing "airplane."  He's so happy!

Grampa is planning on heading home tomorrow.  Plans, of course, are a little up in the air as things would change if baby came before his departure time (or even a few hours into his trip).  I actually have an ultrasound appointment in the morning as I was measuring small and the doctor just wants to make sure everything is looking good.  I'm hoping I don't make it to the appointment, but I've been very off with all of these hopes and expectations, so I'm guessing I'll wake up very pregnant tomorrow.  Oh well.  The baby will come when it comes and that's OK.  Stay tuned...

Special Family Visit 3 of the Weekend

I've been so bad at taking pictures this weekend.  You can tell that I am so preoccupied with what's going on inside of me.  When will this baby come?  Why do I always feel so weird, but nothing is happening?  Anyways, it's been overwhelming, which explains my lax photography of our everyday lives.


I have no pictures to share, but had to complete my trilogy of family visits we received this weekend.  Part 3 was that my cousin, Stacey, and her husband, Mike, came down to Pittsburgh from the Buffalo wedding.  They live in California, so they flew in and out of Pittsburgh.  We had visited them last August in San Fran and they made plans to check out our lives and city a little while they were here.  It was so great!  They drove down in time to attend the 11am service at North Way Oakland with us.  Then Koen and Doug went to the 1:30pm Pirates Game at PNC Park with them.  They had a blast!  They actually stayed for the whole game and Doug said Koen was amazing!  After the game, they walked through downtown back to the car and then went up and down the incline for a little sight-seeing adventure.  After their time on the town, they all came home and we had a cookout in the backyard.  Stacey and Mike loved our city and getting to see our church, community and home.  It was such a blessing to share it all with them.  Thanks so much for all your time and letting us entertain you.  It was a fun day and I'm actually kind of glad the baby hasn't come yet so that we could have that time together.  

Happy Birthday to Me, Just Me

Since baby hasn't arrived yet, many people thought this baby would arrive today, on my birthday.  Well, there's only about 3 hours left to the day and baby seems to be letting me keep my birthday to myself.  I wouldn't have minded sharing the day, but having it all to myself is nice too. =)

This morning Doug had a wonderful plan even though he was only home with us for a few hours.  He told me to stay in bed until he got the boys up, so I did. =)  He got Koen up early and they made a delicious breakfast feast.  Then they got Tavin up and finally, me.  Here's the lovely table-set that Koen worked on while Doug did a lot of the cooking.  How cute are my little guys?

My mom got this picture of the birthday girl...

After a delicious breakfast of omelettes, blueberry whole wheat apple cinnamon muffins and fresh fruit, there was more!  My boys brought in a chocolate orange zest pound cake.  Doug had to cram all the birthday celebration into this meal, so we went with it.  Who doesn't like a huge breakfast anyways?  

After our meal, we had presents and cards.  Douglas is such a sweet, giving husband.  I'm so blessed.  Thanks for a lovely morning, babe.  You spoil me just in how much you think through these things and put in so much effort.  Thanks for doing all this before your busy day.  

The rest of the day was easy-going, which I always enjoy.  My dad had to go to a wedding and Doug was out at work all day, so mom and I took the boys on a long walk to the library and Whole Foods, then back home.  Unfortunately, Tavin came down with something this morning and was not himself.  He almost fell asleep on our walk home.  He barely had an appetite at breakfast or lunch.  Then he asked to go to nap right after lunch, so I let the poor, sad thing just go to bed a little before 1pm.  Turns out he needed it as he slept all afternoon.

Tav's early naptime and Mom being here allowed for me to spend some special time with Koen.  I took him out for a bike ride (me, just walking of course) before his rest-time.  Then we read extra books before he hung out in his room.  I love one-on-one time with Koen.  He was in great spirits today and having extra time with him in this mood was a birthday gift in itself.  Tav was still asleep at 4pm, so Koen and I again got to go out for another bike ride.  This time we hung out at the playground for awhile.  He was great again.  Double dose of Koen - great!  When we got home a little after 5pm, Tavin was snuggling with Gramma reading books in the living room.  Precious.  The Tylenol I gave him mid-way through his nap really made a difference and he soon was acting like himself playing in the backyard with Koen.  They played so well in the sandbox tonight and did pretty well in the yard.  Then we had dinner with Gramma, then I took Tav up to bath and bed.  Gramma helped get Koen laid down and then after that Mom and I took another walk to run a quick errand.  So, my birthday is pretty much over, but I'm feeling very blessed.  A lovely, special morning with my parents, husband and beautiful boys, 4 walks in one day, Koen in great spirits and Tavin feeling more like himself by bedtime.  A great day.

Special Family Visit 2 of the Weekend

Well, we've been having so much fun with Gramma and Grampa here, I've barely taken any pictures!  Here's what we've been up to in a nutshell since they arrived...

Thursday night they arrived.  Tavin was already in bed, but Koen got to stay up to say hello. I realized Tav was still chatting in his room, so I actually let Mom and Dad peek in and say a quick goodnight to the little man.  He was a little surprised, but still gave Grampa and Gramma some sweet loves before I laid him down again.  After getting Koen down to bed, Mom, Dad and I had a yummy pizza dinner (so fun to get food delivered instead of cooking!). Doug got home a little later on after that to say hello to everyone.  

On Friday, Dad went in with Doug to take Koen to his last day of VBS.  When Dad got home he spent some special one-on-one time with Tavin.  Doug returned after some errands and then he and I went on a nice morning/lunchtime date!  I got to have a swim at the gym and then Doug took me out for lunch and gelato in Shadyside.  Then we picked up Koen.  Doug had to leave to do a rehearsal for a wedding in Wexford that he's officiating today.  The boys took their naps/rests.  At 4pm, Koen got up from his rest time and he and Grampa went down to to the Heritage Trail for a great bike ride.  They got back in time for a little playtime in the backyard with Tavin before dinner.  Both boys were exhausted last night and went to sleep right away.  Mom and I got to slip away for some errands for a few hours.  I rarely go out in the evenings and I love any time with my Mom, so that was great!

You are probably getting the idea that we make the most of pretty much every moment when Gramma & Grampa are here.  You'll hear about our day today in my next post (my birthday).  Here are the only two pictures I've grabbed thus far of this visit that is off to such a great start!!

Grampa helping Koen with his VBS verses (and Tavin totally started chiming in, so cute!) while eating homemade smoothie popsicles...

 Gramma reading Thomas stories to the boys at the library...

I'll work on getting some better photos!  We are just having too much fun. =)

Special Family Visit 1 of the Weekend

My cousin Steven is getting married this weekend in Buffalo, NY.  Since my due date is so close to the wedding date, we had to regretfully decline the invitation.  But due to the fact we are located right between many relatives and this NY location, we are still getting to see some relatives that we only see every few years.  Today was the first of such visits.  My cousin Heather, her husband, James and their three sweet girls dropped in on their way through Pittsburgh from South Carolina.  Koen was at VBS, but the rest of us got to spend some special time catching up and meeting the girls.  I think the girls were happy to be out of their car seats and playing with new toys.  Tavin was great at sharing and just enjoyed having other little ones to play with (he also really liked snack time...muffins and fruit).  Heather and I chatted pretty much every moment and could've definitely filled up a few more days catching up and discussing motherhood and all that comes with it.  Here's a picture of the family plus my busy-eater...

It was a very special morning (it's been almost 3 years since I saw Heather and James!).  Thanks so much to Heather, James and the girls for stopping in, it was such a special morning.  We'll be praying for your weekend to go smoothly!  


Next visitors stopping in are frequent favorites...Gramma and Grampa!  They are due to arrive around 6pm or so.  Counting the minutes!  Later this weekend, more cousins.  How special!

Content Tavin

Tavin is so much fun at this stage.  It's great to spend one-on-one time with him (as I'm spoiled with this week with Koen at VBS every morning) so that I can see his unique personality.  His true colors get clouded by big brother's influence often when they are together.  This one-on-one time is always very eye-opening to me as Tav continues to grow and develop and I try and keep up on knowing his great little spirit and personality.  Today he was Mr. Content.  We had plans to set up the baby pool in the backyard since temperatures were getting into the 90's and plenty humid and Doug needed the car today.  Our friends, Hilary, Delia and Huxley, texted us this morning seeing if we were free, so we invited them over.  We ended up spending two hours with them in the backyard.  I was impressed that in the small space with limited toys/options the three kids lasted so long.  Hilary and I had such a nice time chatting in the shade while the kids entertained themselves quite well.  I think if Koen had been there, it could've been more intense.  I felt bad he missed out on seeing Delia, but it was definitely a much more low key morning this way.  After Hilary, Huck and D left, Tavin still wanted to play in the pool.  Here are a few shots of my adorable poolside buddy...

Before going back into the house, we watered all the plants (Doug will be so happy, he's always so concerned about the well-being of the plants!).  Tavin still didn't want to go in, but with the temp at 90 and the fact he had been out almost 3 hours, I figured it would be a good idea to get inside out of the elements.  We had a sweet lunch together and then Koen got home a little after 1pm.  Thankfully, big brother was in great spirits today upon his return.  We had an easy time before nap and Tavin is of course passed out (Koen is singing songs he learned at VBS over the monitor for me to hear amidst playing in his room - awesome).  Thanks for a great morning, my content little Tavin.  I love hanging out with you.  What a blessing that baby has given us these extra few days.