Happy Ash Wednesday!!!

There isn't much sweeter than your babies marked with ashes...

2 Months Old

2 Month Old stats:
24 1/2 inches tall
10 lbs. 15 oz.

Baby Girl's Baptism

She's officially Catholic and we could not be prouder parents! It was a busy and wonderful day. We are so blessed to have such amazing family and friends that all attended to help us celebrate this spiritual day for our sweet girl! God bless you sweet baby! Click below to see more pics.

Baptism

Random pics over the last month or so

Junior and baby



Nap time with Daddy


Nap time with Mommy


Nana over for a visit


Junior wearing Great One's hat


Trying to hold up her head


Cousin M and baby girl

A few 1st's

First bath with Junior


First stroller ride


First smile on camera (her first smile was on January 6th)

1 Month Old

1 Month Old stats:
23 1/2 inches tall
10 lbs.

Baby girl newborn pics

Professional Pics

Baby girl's room and quilt

Baby girl's room before:


During:



And after:



Baby girl's quilt during...it took 4 generations to put it together (my grandmother, my mom, me and Junior)



And after:

Christmas Week 2008

A week after baby girl was born Junior was getting a nasty sinus infection. To prevent baby from not getting sick, Daddy and Junior moved upstairs for the time being. They only came down to eat and left baby and me to ourselves. It made for an unfortunate Christmas. Baby and I went to Daddy's grandparent's house and then to my family's house. Daddy wanted me and baby to get out of the house and also for all our family to see her. Daddy decided it was not good for Junior to be out and about while trying to recover and also by chance of getting anyone else sick. Junior felt spunky enough Christmas morning to enjoy opening his gifts. It sure was nice to see the smile on his face. That whole week his smiles were few and far between. :(

We were actually able to celebrate Christmas with Daddy's family the Sunday before Christmas and before Junior became sick and had Christmas with my family the Saturday after Christmas. Junior was still feeling a little under the weather that Saturday but still enjoyed opening all the gifts and asking for "more" after each one! Below are a few pictures from that week of Christmas.

Present opening at Daddy's family's house


Junior getting a much desired fire truck


Inspecting his scooper truck


Mimi with baby girl and Junior


Grandad with baby girl


Christmas at Daddy's grandparents house...baby girl with Meemaw and Aunt J


Christmas morning...Junior's new bike




New tee ball set


Me and my babies


Christmas at my parent's house...Great Grandma with baby girl


Baby girl with Aunt K

Introducing Our Newest Family Member

Our sweet baby girl has now arrived!!!
December 16, 2008
4:58pm
8 lbs. 1 oz.
20.5 in.

The morning of December 16th started out like any other morning before my doctor appointment. I was one day shy of my due date and I had no signs/feelings of going into labor. Ice had accumulated on the roads during the night and it made for a slow drive to the doctor's office for Junior and me. My appointments usually only last 30 minutes including wait time so Junior always comes with me. As soon as we reached the office, I took one step out of the car and slipped and fell on the ice. I am talking really FELL...all the way down. I was lying there thinking to myself...first, I hope no one saw me and second, does anything hurt? I felt fine and slowly got up and proceeded to get Junior out of the car. While inside we were waiting for the nurse to call my name and when she did Junior went up to her as I gathered our stuff and started telling her something and pointing outside to our car. I told her that I think he was trying to tell her that I fell when I got out of the car. She then told me that the doctor would probably want me to go to the hospital to be monitored for a few hours to make sure the baby was fine. I told her that wouldn't be a problem. Sure enough the doctor did order for me to go over to the hospital. She had checked me as she usually does and I was 4cm dilated. I was excited about that. She then wanted me to get a sonogram in the office first before I went over. The doctor suggested that I start being monitored in the office while I waited for the sonogram tech so I would not have to be monitored as long in the hospital. Within 5 minutes of being on the monitors in the office, Junior was turning off the machine, rolling chairs around and messing with anything he could in the 6 x 6 room we were in. I then started to realize that he was not going to listen to anything I told him while I lay there not being able to move. If he could not last 5 minutes, what was I going to do at the hospital with him for a few hours! I called Daddy and told him what had happened and that I needed him to come up to be with me and also try to control Junior. I told him that it would only be for a couple hours and that he could get back to work after that. Daddy made it there while we were in the sonogram room. They said that everything looked fine and we were then ready to go over to the hospital. All the while I might have had three contractions, but they felt like all the other ones I had at home throughout the pregnancy. We made it to labor and delivery and I was hooked up to monitors at 1pm. Within a minute of being hooked up I started contracting every 2 minutes. Most of them felt just like the ones at home and I started thinking that they sure are close together and consistent, but that's all I thought. I requested to be able to drink water to see if that slowed them down any and it didn't. The nurse continued to check on me and told me to keep drinking the water. I still was oblivious as to what could potentially be happening. Meanwhile, Daddy and Junior were out roaming the halls and visiting the nursery I work at. Nurses from there were popping in to say hi and see how I was doing. I told them I was fine and that I was trying to get my contractions to slow down so I could finish up the monitoring and go home. Junior had not had lunch yet and it was getting close to nap time. I was talking with the nurse and asking her when I would be able to go home so Junior could get his nap and Daddy could get back to work. She said that if my contractions didn't slow down then I wasn't going anywhere. It was at that point that I think I started realizing I wasn't leaving without a baby in my arms. I started to panic thinking about not having any of our overnight stuff or camera with us. It was probably close to 3pm when we were deciding if Daddy should go home to get everything and then come back up. About 10 minutes later I had a contraction that I felt like I was going to fly off the bed. I got out of the bed to go to the bathroom and when I came back the nurse was in the room and saw my last contraction on the monitor. She had been telling me that if my contractions were getting stronger then to let her know and she would check to see if I was dilated anymore. She asked me if I wanted her to check me and I said YES! I still was not expecting much but she had to have one more nurse come in to check me because she too could not believe that I was dilated 8cm. This was at 3:20pm. During this time I had been in a C-section recovery room. The labor and delivery was really busy that day normally they would have put me in a regular delivery room, but they were all full and I was only supposed to be there to get monitored. From this point on everything started happening fast. They had a room open now and asked if I felt like walking down there. I said sure and up we went to the delivery room, which happened to be the same one that Junior was delivered in. I called down to the nursery and asked if they could come get Junior and watch him while I gave birth! I never expected to have him there with us. One of my nurse friends down there just happened to have her camera at work with her and let us borrow it for the delivery. Thank goodness! I would have been devastated if we didn't have any pictures. We called our families and my mom was on her way from work. I wanted her to be in the delivery with us. I also put in a call to a good friend of mine that I work with that prepared me for a natural, drug-free delivery. She convinced me that I could do it and that it was the best thing for me and the baby. She asked how it was going and even though it had gone smoothly thus far, I knew I needed her support with me in case I were to cave in to the pain. So she said she was on her way. I still was in disbelief that it was all happening and so fast too. I think I had one more contraction that was horrible but all the other ones to me were minor. I was expecting to be in a lot more pain if I was in labor and dilated so far. I remember looking at the clock when I was getting situated in the new room and into the rocking chair...4pm. I told Daddy and my mom, who had just gotten there, to look at the time. Junior was born at 4:58pm and we were getting close to it. We all thought that would be interesting if they were born at the same time, but what are the chances! As we were moving rooms they had already put in the call to the doctor and she said that she would be on her way soon. At 4:40pm she arrived and I was put in the bed for her to check me. I then felt an overwhelming sense to push. I was 10cm, 100% effaced and +1 station...meaning she was ready to come out! I couldn't believe it! At 4:44pm the doctor broke my water which they were surprised was still intact. My urgency to push then subsided and we were waiting for it to come back. I was lying there having contractions but no urge to push. I told the doctor I didn't feel like I had to push, but asked her if I should or not. She said that with the next contraction I could probably go ahead and start pushing. At 4:50pm I had my first push and then everything drastically changed! The pain I felt was like no other I had ever felt. It's a good thing that I only pushed for 8 minutes because I don't know how much more of it I could have handled. Finally, at 4:58pm, exact same time as Junior, the newest addition to our family was born! Click on the picture below to see the pictures of the delivery. Beware that some may be a little graphic, most are edited!

Baby #2