My Mother's Request

It seems like a day doesn't go by without me sharing some hysterical story with my mother and friends about something one of the kids has done or said. I know I could never possibly remember all these stories and my mom keeps telling me I could write a book just on the daily adventures with these 3 lovable but extremely entertaining babies.
As most of you know, We are HUGE Auburn fans and the words Roll Tide might as well be a potty word at our house. This past weekend, my parents kept the children while Brother and I went to the Georgia Dome for the Chick fil-a kick off bowl. Right after Auburn looses, my mother sends me a video of JT saying Roll Tide.
Jon Thomas has a fabulous vocabulary, and there isn't a word he can't repeat, but he absolutely will not say War Eagle. This is killing my husband and the kids. Everything about him is so totally different from Rollins and Grady, so I have come to accept the fact that he might not be the auburn fan we all expected. But then again, I think we can bribe him into it;)

God Will Provide

My how time flies! It was 6 months ago today that Jon Thomas made his big arrival into this crazy world. He has brought so much joy to our family, and I absolutely could not imagine our lives without him. He is our "miracle" baby. For those of you that don't know, I Found out on October 8, 2009 that the baby I was carrying was not a viable pregnancy. I was absolutely devastated-it had already taken us almost a year to conceive this child. Then, one week later, my grandfather passed away. I was still going for blood work every other day, and after a trip to Gatlinburg to take a break from the blood work, my labs showed my levels had actually doubled meaning the baby was still growing, however, it wasn't growing where it should be-it was in my Fallopian tube. My wonderful doctor knew we wanted more children and were already having a difficult time conceiving that he made the decision to do a form of chemotherapy known as methotrexate instead of removing my tube. It was not guaranteed to work, but he wanted to give it a shot. Part of this treatment was you could not try to conceive until all the methotrexate was completely out of your system. I don't want to say I sunk into Depression, but I definitely was not me for the next few months. I grieved more than I thought was possible for a child I never even saw. One of my best friends had a baby a few days before Christmas and it took me one month to even see the baby. I have never hurt like that before, and as I sit here typing this, all the same emotions and tears are coming back. Then, in February, I went to the doctor to see if it was ok to start trying again. I was so ready to move forward and get my old self back. They did a sonogram to make sure everything looked ok, and I was completely shocked when they told me I was 6 weeks pregnant. Certain things have to happen for someone to get pregnant and those things never happened. I was 100 percent sure that God has placed that baby there because there is no other explanation for it. What came next was just as shocking-the due date was October 8, 2010. That's the same day I found out I was miscarrying the year before. God had suddenly replaced what would have been a day of mourning for me with a day of new life. God must have really big plans for Jon Thomas!

Tonight, I told Brother that when I was pregnant with Jon Thomas, I worried I wouldn't love him as much as rollins and Grady because I just didn't know how I could find that much more love inside of me. I am absolutely amazed now, by the depth of my love for that sweet little boy. There are not words to describe just how much I love him. If there is one thing I have learned in life, it's God will provide.

On another note, Brother and I were eating at KFC today, and I wAs feeding Jon Thomas mashed potatos on my finger, and I felt something on his gum-it was his first tooth! I think I got more excited about that than rollins and grady's first tooth. That's the little nub on the left side.

Jon Thomas's Little Surprise for me

After raising two babies, you become pretty familiar with developmental skills and milestones. Rollins was sitting up at 5 months and walking at 8 months, while Grady walked at 11 months. I always knew that not all babies walked that early, but I thought they were all sitting alone by six months. So, I have been concerned about Jon Thomas and his ability to sit up or should I say lack there of. I work with him everyday, but he just falls right over. This afternoon, I got my little baby newsletter, and wouldn't you know, it was on "signs that your baby may have developmental delays". I thought, ok, this is a sign. Of course the newsletter stated that a baby should be sitting alone by 6 months, so as soon as I got home, I told Brother maybe it was time to take JT to the doctor about his development because he couldn't sit up. I said watch how he falls over, then I proceeded to sit him on the bed. To my shock and amazement, he just sat there. he was looking all around like "what's the big deal?". I ran and got my phone to get a picture and he was still just sitting there when I got back. If you all could have seen him yesterday when i was working with him, you wouldn't believe it. I guess this is just JT's way of telling me to chill out because he has this thing under control.

My Little Piece of Heaven

I feel like most days I take my life and family for granted. I get so tied up in daily routines and trying to get orders filled that I don't take the time to enjoy my wonderful family God has blessed me with. I had a full day planned today and was stressing over how I was going to get everything done, and on the way home from car line, Grady asked me to play outside with him-normally, I would have said, not today, mommy has lots to get done, but before I could think about it, something inside me blurted out, "I would love to!". It wasn't until Grady said, "will you really?" that I realized just how much I was focusing on things that didn't really matter and was missing out on precious time with my children.

There is nothing in this world that makes me happier than those 3 precious babies. They are my heaven on earth, and I vow not to take them for granted and to make the most of every minute God gives me with them.

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The Big Addition

So, I went for my weekly checkup on September 22. I didn't sleep the night before because I had stayed up finishing my collegiate orders for Kennedy James, so I just assumed that was why I felt so bad. I was 37 weeks, and I was hoping that my doctor would schedule an induction for the next week. They were going to do a sonogram to check his size and see how much longer I needed to wait. I still had so much to do--my house needed a good cleaning, bags needed packing, and the baby needed a name. I thought surely I could get it all done in a week.

I had been having headaches, dizziness and swelling, but I contributed all that to being on my feet too much and over exerting myself with all the sewing and mommy duties. For all of you who have had a baby, you know the first thing you do when you get to the doctor is pee in the cup then have your weight and blood pressure checked. As I am sitting there having my BP checked, I notice my nurse's eyes get real big and a look of concern covers her face. She asked if I was feeling ok, and I said, I am just really tired and I have a headache. She checked it again--I had been through this before with Rollins, so I knew what was coming next. She looked at the protein strip in my urine and said, "it's loaded". I immediately started crying. I wasn't ready to have this baby. There was no sonogram, just the doctor telling me to go home and get my bags--I begged him to let me wait a few days because my brother and sister-in-law were having their baby the next day, and I still had so much to do, but he reminded me of the seriousness of my situation and said there were no other options.

So, Brother and I make a mad dash home to try to clean what we could, pack bags for 5 people, eat dinner, get the kids situated for the next couple days, and get back to the hospital. I had so many mixed emotions--I am a planner by nature and I don't like losing control of a situation. I was scared about the health of the baby and myself and worried about the children feeling left out with the new addition.

We had one last family picture made as we left the children at church with my parents on the way to the hospital. This picture has come to mean so much to me now, and I am really thankful we took the time to smile one last time as a family of 4.


Once we got all the monitors on that night, my nurse asked me if I was feeling anything, but I wasn't. She said I was having regular contractions and was already in labor. I called my mom and told her to come first thing in the morning because I didn't think this would take long since i was already contracting without pitocin.

The next morning, Rollins missed school and my mother brought her and Grady to the hospital. Rollins had been asking during the whole pregnancy if she could be in there when he was born, and I had no problem with it at all. A boy in her class kept telling her that my stomach was going to bleed and i was going to cry, so she was very worried. I have very easy deliveries, so I wanted her to see that my stomach wasn't going to bleed and it didn't hurt. She was such a sweetheart and sat by me to hold my hand. She has such a big heart to be so little!



I still wasn't feeling my contractions, but according to the monitors, they were getting very close, so my doctor said I better go ahead and get the epidural. As soon as I got it, I told all my family to go get some lunch because I was just a 4 and it would probably be a while. About 30 minutes later, I started feeling the contractions and they were pretty bad so I told my sweet nurse that I thought I needed a booster in my epidural. She said she would get the anesth., but checked to see where I was dilated to first. To our surprise, the baby had crowned! I called Brother while she called the doctor. The doctor made it to the room first, and I told him I was not having the baby without Brother being there, so he said he had another one to deliver and would be right back. Finally Brother arrives, along with my grandparents and the kids. My dear friend Valerie, who was also my nurse, kept telling me to breath through the contractions and not push--which was very hard to do. The other labor was taking longer than normal and I was begging Valerie to go ahead and deliver him herself. Evidently, the doctors don't want the nurses to deliver so she made me wait.
Finally, he arrived and all it took was 3 good pushes. It all happened so fast once he got there, that I didn't even realize that my mom, my grandmother, my husband and both my children were there to witness this little miracle being brought into this world. It was so special to have them all in there. Also, in the middle of me pushing, my Brother calls to tell us his daughter had been born. They ended up being 16 minutes apart. Harlie Kate was born at 12:30, and Jon Thomas at 12:46.

The cord had been wrapped around his abdomen cutting off his oxygen, which caused him to be so purple. I didn't even know it til later that night when Brother told me how scared he was when he saw them. I went back and looked at these pictures and it took my breath away.

Once they gave him oxygen, all his color came back, and he looked absolutely perfect!

Our baby, who at this point still didn't have a name weighed 8lbs 2 ounces and was 20 inches long.

Rollins and Grady were so excited to finally see him!

Our first family picture!

A Little Update

Ok, so yes, once again I have failed in my attempt to update my blog, but since we are about to become a family of 5 in a few weeks and so much is going on, I want to, yet again, try to do a better job. I guess what has really prompted my desire to write is Rollins. She started Kindergarten in August, and she comes home with so many stories, concerns and interesting thoughts. How else to share them, but through here?

So, everyone that knows Rollins, knows about her heart. She is quite possibly the most caring and loving child I have ever seen. Now, that's not to say that she doesn't have a mean streak in her-especially when it comes to Grady, but for the most part, she is very nurturing and kind hearted. She has gone to my mother's nursery school since Jauary 2007, and everyone there comes from similar backgrounds and all have loving homes to go home to after school. With the start of kindergarten, Rollins noticed immediately that there were kids who didn't have everything they needed. One day she came home and said, "mommy, there is a boy in my class and his mother won't get him a nap mat, so can we make him one?" When we are packing her snack, she always wants to pack extra for the kids whose mommies forget their snack, and just recently, she has me sending her with a dollar for water everyday. Water is only 50cents, but she says there is a little girl in her class who doesn't have water and she buys her water. Now, might I remind you that she is only 5, but she has already become a cheerful giver. She absolutely loves helping her classmates and I think it's something most adults can learn from.

Today, Rollins comes home and says, "mom, school isn't for me." She had this pitiful look on her face and she just tucked her head in my arm. Holding back the tears, I asked her what had happened to make her so unhappy with school. She said, "mom, my friends are being mean to me." I asked her what she meant, and she just shook her head and cried. We crawled up in her bed, and I tried to explain to her that some of her friends had a lot more to deal with than she did. I told her how some of them only have one parent and some don't get to eat supper or have toys to play with or have new clothes to wear. I also explained to her that not everyone got to go home to a mommy and daddy that were nice to them. I said sometimes that makes the kids sad and not nice, but we should always be nice to them, because we might be the only person that is nice to them that day. What happened next, is one of the reasons I absolutely adore this little girl. She asked me if she could get some of her clothes and toys and take them to the kids in her class to help them be happy. I told her we would talk to her teacher and see who needed anything and we would give it to them. This made her smile, and she said, "they will really like that." Now, yes, it does hurt me that she gets her feelings hurt by kids being mean, but I have comfort in the fact that she now understands why everyone isn't nice, and hopefully, she won't let it affect her like it has been. I am so proud of the little girl she has grown into and I pray everyday that she keeps that innocence and caring heart.