I hosted a little brunch for my mom and sister this year for Mother's Day.  Like me, breakfast is my mom's favorite meal, so I knew this would be the way to her heart!  It was nice to have everyone together, minus my dad and LC, and I think good times were had by all - certainly by the cousins!

It's hard to see the menu items from this picture but here's what was on the menu:

Blueberry Muffins (thanks Nicole!)
Pumpkin Scones
Roasted Asparagus with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
Fresh Fruit with Granola topping
Frittata with Bacon and White Cheddar
Frittata with Red Peppers, Mushrooms, and Goat Cheese
Hash Brown Casserole (not worth repeating)
Mimosas
Fresh OJ
Southern Pecan Coffee

My sister and her beautiful girls!

And her handsome ham!

Our attempt at getting the whole family together.  I forgot to switch the setting to automatic for Wes, so it's a bit blurry, but a great photo nonetheless!

I hope you had a terrific Mother's Day as well!

Christmas Eve

This was the first Christmas Eve in many years that I haven't had to work.  It was a real treat to wake up and get to spend the entire day with my family.  After 8 hours though, I was ready for a change of scenery. We headed over to my mom and dad's for dinner.

After a yummy, belly-filling dinner, we exchanged gifts with my sister and her family.  It was organized chaos as paper flew, boxes were ripped open, and thank you's were exchanged.  It was all over in a matter of minutes and the kids were off playing with their new toys.  I prefer the one-at-a-time routine but there was none of that going on.

Everyone had a good time though and before we knew it, it was time to head home to get in bed so Santa could come.

Here are a few pictures from the melee, I mean festivities.

My beautiful nieces.

Colin with one of his favorite people, Grandpa!

Sawyer enjoying his after dinner snack - daddy's thumb.

Elise showing Foxx how to ride his new bike/car.

Sawyer fighting to stay awake on comfy Buff.

Au Naturel, Part 2

We get to the doctor's office and I literally run in.  I bypass the front desk, the waiting room, and everyone in between to find my sister.  She has the NST hooked up and I immediately have a contraction.  She says that was a "good one" and I want to hit her because no contraction should ever be classified as a "good one".  After looking everywhere, she couldn't find any doctors or any nurse practitioners to check my cervix but the office manager, my doctor's wife, had seen me and said to take me on over to the hospital (right across the way).

After the bumpiest ride of my life, I get to the hospital and am quickly reminded how lucky I am that my sister works in the capacity that she does.  I bypass registration and go straight to Labor and Delivery.  They immediately get me into a room and I get undressed.

The first nurse checks me and tells me "she doesn't feel my cervix" but wants to get another opinion.  At this point I thought she meant I was still like 1-2 cm dilated and I was not happy.  A second nurse comes in and agrees, adding that she feels a bulging bag of water.  I look up at Megan, my sister, to ask what that means.  She says, "Um, like you're a 10 and you're going to have this baby soon!"

All I could think was, "NO EPIDURAL?"  I began to cry, saying that I couldn't do this.

Megan said, "Yes you can!" and that was just the motivation I needed.  I knew I could, I just also knew I would have never chosen this method.  One of the nurses asked me if I'd like an epidural and I said "YES".  She never answered and I'm sure that's because the only thing she could have replied with would have been, "nanny-nanny, boo-boo, you don't get one!"  I'm sure it was the bitty.  As a matter of fact, she said that she wasn't even going to do an I.V. because there was just no time.  Now that didn't bother this needle-a-phob too much.  I was going to get to have a baby with no needles?  Fantastic.  Of course they took blood right about that same time.  So much for my needle-free birth.

As I was still waiting for the doctor (and Wes for that matter) I look over and see my mom facing the wall.  I ask one of the nurses to ask her to leave.  My sister overhears and asks my mom to wait outside.  I later apologized to my mom and she said she understood and that mothers shouldn't watch their daughters give birth - she and I are a little ore sensitive and emotional than others though.

My doctor finally arrives and begins suiting up.  Each contraction is getting more intense but I know I just have to keep my eye on the prize.  I had 2 nurses that couldn't have been more different.  One was younger and a great coach, supporter, teacher.  The other was older, told me I was doing everything wrong, and was not a good encourager.  The younger girl doesn't even have any children but she could teach the old bitty a thing or two about catching more bees with honey than vinegar!

The doc checks me and says the baby is facing the wrong way and that's why I've been having so much back labor.  He breaks my water and then tries to flip the baby.  He wasn't successful and said he'd do it once I started pushing (He later told me it was probably a good thing that he was turned around or I probably would have delivered the baby in the car on the way to the hospital!).  Once my water was broken I was told to push when I felt the urge.

For a while, all I could think about was how that big baby was going to come out of me and how was I going to live to tell about it.  I reassured myself that plenty had done it before me and I wouldn't be the last either.  Several pushes later one of the nurses asked me if I had had a lot of heartburn.  I said no.  She said, "Well wait until you see this hair!"

A few more pushes and I heard the most beautiful cry.  Next I saw the most beautiful face and knew all my hard work was worth it.  Suddenly the pain disappeared and all I could feel was sheer joy and love.  My reward was to get to hold him immediately on my chest, cheese and all.  My doctor handed me the scissors and said I got to cut the umbilical cord.

Where was Wes you ask?  Well he didn't make it in time to see any of the delivery.  He had Colin and they had to park on the roof of the parking garage.  Unlike my doctor, who had literally thrown his car in park in the emergency lane, with his flashers on, Wes doesn't break any rules.  There would be no way he'd park anywhere like a fire lane, a handicap space, make up a space, etc.  Gotta love his honesty.  He got there about 1 minute after Sawyer was born.  He felt bad, I know.  And now that just adds to our story!

So that's it.  I labor alone at home, get to my doctor's office about 8:20 the next morning, get wheeled to the hospital about 8:30, start pushing about 8:45, and have the baby at 9:06.  All in a mornings work.  Now that's the way to do it!  I'm not sure I'd advise anyone cutting it quite as close as I did but it all worked out in the end.  I never would have thought I'd be able to pull off an au naturel delivery but I'm super proud that I did and have little to no recovery because of it.

For those of you who have stuck with this incredibly long post, here's your reward - another picture.  I thought I'd post one with Wes since he got dogged a bit in this story.  There's nothing sweeter than seeing such a wonderful daddy getting to hold his son for the first time!

Au Naturel, Part 1

As promised, here's the birth story of precious little Sawyer.  It's a good thing he's so handsome because there were definitely some questionable moments on that fateful Tuesday morning.  Back to the story...

My actual due date was Monday, July 12th.  I had an appointment that morning and was hooked up to the NST monitor to make sure we were getting good movements.  All was well on that front.  Then I went for an ultrasound to check the fluid levels and again, everything was just fine.  We briefly talked about induction and I was told to call on Wednesday if I wanted to schedule for Thursday or Friday.  My sister looked at me and told me there was no way I could wait until Wednesday and expect to get on his schedule the next day.  So after much debate back and forth between Thursday and Friday, Wes and I ultimately decided Thursday would be the big day.

Off I go to work.  I joked with everyone that I was still there and as I left for the day, I said I would see them all tomorrow.  Fast forward to Monday night around 9:30pm.  I had my first contraction.  I didn't think anything of it.  If anything, I was excited because my sister had been asking me for weeks whether or not I had experienced any yet and I always had to reply "no".  As a side note, I never experienced the first contraction with Colin until I was induced so I really didn't know what I was waiting to feel.  So I continued to have sporadic contractions about every 30-45 minutes for the next couple of hours.  I kept hoping in my mind that I didn't go into labor in the middle of the night because I didn't want to have to wake my mom, my sister, or my doctor.  Then I began to wonder if any of them would even hear the phone ring if I did call.  I think I must have drifted off to sleep dreaming of all the possibilities because I don't think I woke up again until 1ish.  I recall getting up like every 30 minutes to go to the bathroom but that wasn't that far off track from any other night.  Every time I woke up it seemed I was having another contraction but they weren't bad enough for me to want to do anything about them.

About 4:30am I woke up and tossed and turned trying to find a comfortable position.  I began talking to myself again (apparently I do this a lot) and told myself that I would wait until 5am and then go make Colin's lunch for school that day.  I had forgotten to make it the night before and I guess I didn't think anyone was competent enough to make it in my absence.  

So at 5am, I trek downstairs and realize standing up actually felt better and eased some of the discomfort.  Now would be a good time to mention that I felt every contraction primarily in my back and then it would round around to the front - I later learned this was because he was facing the wrong way.  I make Colin's lunch and decide to spend the next hour on the couch watching the morning news.  Did you know they tell the weather about a dozen times over the course of an hour?  Maybe it was just a slow news day but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to recite the forecast for July 13th for the rest of my life!  

I decide to try to tough it out on the couch until 6am, at which time I decide to go back upstairs to bed.  I prop my pillows up and again begin talking to myself.  I convince myself that I'll wait until 6:30 to wake Wes up to tell him about my contractions.  Yes, you read that right, he knew nothing of what was happening up until this point.  I figured if I really was in labor a) there was nothing he could do and b) we would both be sleep deprived in a matter of hours and so I thought I'd let at least one of us sleep through it.  

At almost 6:30 on the dot, I had another contraction.  This one was a little more intense and he woke to me breathing through it.  He asked if that was me having a contraction or if it was "him"?  I said it's a contraction and he asked if I thought today might be the day.  I said I didn't know and he rolled back over and went to sleep.  Apparently that wasn't how I should have answered that question!  I laid there a little longer and then decided to get up to get ready.  

I was pretty sure I wasn't going in to work, at least right away, but I wanted to at least be presentable in case I did end up going to the hospital or perhaps work later.  I washed my hair, put my makeup on, and dried my hair, all while Wes was still in bed.  I think I finally came out and told him I was pretty sure we were going to have this baby today.  That got him out of bed but Wes doesn't exactly move stealthily - EVER!  Actually while I was getting ready, the contractions had slowed down and I thought maybe I would go to work and just see how the day went.  I came out and took Colin downstairs to fix his breakfast.  I'm pretty sure this was the point where I knew there was no turning back.  

I called my sister at 7:30am and she didn't answer.  She called back in a matter of minutes and I told her I was having contractions.  She asked how far apart they were and I said they were sporadic and some were 2-3 minutes and some were more like 5.  She told me to come on into her office and they'd check me and hook me up to the NST again to monitor the contractions.  I then called my mom and told her that I needed her to come on.  

Unlike Wes, my mom is fast.  I swear I no more than got back upstairs and she was already here, wet hair and all.  She immediately took over tending to Colin, who was a tad nervous at the way Mommy was acting, but being a very good boy nonetheless.  I went to try to light a fire under Wes and pack some kind of bag for myself.  He casually asks me if there's anything else I can think of for the bag and I mutter something about not caring and hurry up.  Finally I had had enough and right in the middle of a contraction yelled for him to HURRY UP!  He knew I meant business after that.

He calls down to my mom and asks if she will take me on to the doctor and he'll stay behind and get his bag packed and finish getting Colin ready for school.  Mom says, "Whatever you want me to do, I'll do."  So she pulls her car up in our driveway and I attempt to get in.  I had a little difficulty actually sitting down but I finally managed (my sister said later this was probably because it was Sawyer's head!).  I could tell she was a nervous wreck but I didn't have time to worry about that.  I had a couple of contractions on the way but was talking lucidly to her (I think) in between.  I was trying to calm her down as much as I was myself.

To be continued...

Christmas: Part 2

Christmas Eve we all went to my Mom and Dad's for dinner. My mom is a wonderful cook and I always look forward to getting to eat a home cooked meal from her. It's always good and best of all, I didn't have to make it!

We also opened presents with my sister and her family. My nieces are 11 and soon-t0-be 7 and are no strangers to Christmas and opening gifts. Within 5 minutes it looked like a tornado had passed through the family room, leaving behind nothing but paper scraps and boxes. They had a great time though and Colin enjoyed playing with the baby's toy - why do I even try?!

Everyone had a great time and had to get home to get in bed in time for Santa. I really enjoy being with family and wish the night didn't have to end so soon! Here are some pictures of the bedlam. As the camera woman, I managed to escape it all but Wes, the videographer, reassured me that he zoomed in to get a closeup of my bum on camera. Gee thanks!

Foxx doing a little light reading.

Elise, the diva.

Kiara, with her beautifully newly straightened hair.

Buff, cheesing about something.

LC, Foxx, and Colin all looking thrilled to be there.

Colin opening his baby doll (he requested it multiple times).

Playing with the baby's toy.

Foxx showing his mad arm skills and his 3 new teeth!

Deep thoughts with Megan - she's going to love me for this picture!