Henry's Newborn Pictures

I am in love with Henry's newborn pictures.They were taken by the fabulous Jennifer Davenport Photography.

She has a studio at her house and is just so amazing and patient with babies. 

Sorry for picture overload but there are just so many great ones!!

Henry's Birth Story

I wanted to record Henry's birth story before the memory gets hazy in my head. Leading up to the due date, Henry was measuring small. Sally was a small baby too (5 lbs. 3 oz.) so I wasn't expecting a big baby. The Dr's were slightly concerned so they had sent me to a specialist to make sure everything looked good. The specialist did some tests and some ultrasounds and determined that he thought I just make small babies. My OB still wanted to induce me at 39 weeks. I went for my 39 week appt and had an ultra sound and baby was sideways (he had been head down for weeks). This created a problem. I did NOT want a c section so they sent me to the specialist this next morning to try and turn him. I gave him a pep talk that night and low and behold....when I went to get him turned the next day, he had gone back head down. I was supposed to be start the induction process that evening so we were all set to go. We met up with some friends for dinner at our favorite Mexican place. They were keeping Sally for the night. 

Our last picture as a family of 3. 

Joe and I headed home to gather up our stuff before heading to the hospital. 

  We checked in around 9:30pm. They brought us to our room and we got all checked in. I was expecting them to give me the cervadil to thin my cervix (like last time) but they had other plans. The told me to put on the hospital gown because we were getting this party started tonight. I was a little disappointed. I was looking forward to one more night of good sleep. 

I got another type of medicine that was inserted and then I had to lay flat for 2 hours. This was super hard since I had been going pee about every 15 minutes. I was literally looking at my phone waiting until the 2 hours were up so I could go to the bathroom. We did 2-3 rounds of this with them checking me all during the night. My contractions were all in my back and it didn't help that I couldn't lay on my side. 

Early the next morning they decided to break my water. I remembered this being one of the most painful parts of my experience with Sally so I asked them if I could go ahead and get my epidural. No since in being in pain right?!  The epidural went well and I was feeling great pretty quickly. Want to check my cervix? Sure! Want to put in a catheter? Of course! OI seriously didn't care what they were doing down there. I was so happy to not feel any of it. The whole time they were checking me for progress. At one point I was a "5". I started feeling a lot of pressure and told them. They said they didn't think I could be ready but they would check again. I was a "9"...wow! They said it was almost time so they called the Dr to come over from the other hospital. I started feeling more and more pressure and was literally squeezing to not push Henry out. They checked again and said that the baby was coming whether or not the Dr was there or not. Luckily the whole time they had been prepping the room for delivery and the dr walked in just in time. 

I pushed 5 times and he was out! As soon as his head came out, you could hear him crying! He was a little bit...5 pounds and 7 ounces and 19 inches long. 

We were in love!

Another easy delivery in the books. Joe said people should start paying me to have their babies...lol! I'm just really good at it!

With our sweet Dr :)

A few hours later, Sally got to come meet her brother. She was so smitten with him and immediately kissed his head and said how cute he was. 

 Our little family :)

Sally and her cousin made signs for the room...so sweet!

We spent a few days in the hospital before going home. 

I took several pictures...just wanting to remember what he looked like right after birth. He was a good baby...only crying here and there when he was hungry. 

I was an emotional mess...crying when the breastfeeding Natzi's came in and shamed me for wanting to supplement with a little formula at 2:30 am....and then again the next morning when it was time for the circumcision. We made it though....

Sally was so excited to bring baby brother home. 

Look how little he is in his car seat!

Sally's Four Year Old Pictures

I am in love with the pictures we had taken of Sally a few months ago. They were done by Livy B Photography and I highly recommend her if you are in the Memphis area. She is super talented and her prices are very reasonable. Check her out on Facebook here.

Dear Us, 10 Years Ago

Joe and I celebrate our tenth anniversary today. We were both established in our jobs but still pretty clueless about a lot of things in life. I often think about those two crazy kids, in love and determined to make the best life for themselves. Sometimes, I wish I could go back and tell them a few things, but then again, its much more fun to figure them out on your own.

Dear us, ten years ago,

Today you will say I do. You will probably never feel more beautiful then you do today. Cherish the moments with your family. Dance on that table at the reception! You wont remember much of the day....its just too exciting. I remember when you said you didn't want a videographer because you wanted to remember it a certain way in your head and who watches those silly wedding videos anyway? Get someone to videotape! Look around at all the people who are there to love and support you. Some of them won't be around 10 years from now...whether due to death or friendships lost or a falling out between family members. Enjoy every minute!

All those people standing beside you? You'll grow closer to some of them. The opposite will have with a few too. That's ok. Everyones on their own journey living their own life and you will see that the most important people will still be in your lives 10 years from now.

You are going to have so much fun making a home together and trying to figure out all the stuff: how to decorate the christmas tree, having opposite work schedules, who is in charge of the bills, who does that yard work. This is part of creating a family unit. It will be hard some days. Just because it is "how we did it at my house" doesn't mean that is how it needs to be now. Compromise and make your own traditions. Remember when you were asking your mom about how to obtain accessories for the house? Ha! She told you would collect them over time and boy was she right. Be happy that you both have the same taste when it comes to home decor.

Embrace the simple days. Life gets crazier down the road. Death, friends getting divorced, job changes...its all going to happen. Prepare! One day you will be so busy with life and babies and you will long for the days when the biggest decision you had to make was Pottery Barn or Restoration Hardware.

Enjoy your first house together. It will be the place where you have parties, create memories and bring your sweet baby home from the hospital too.

Enjoy moving to a bigger house. I know you are sad to be leaving your first home, but think of all the memories you will make in the new house.

Travel, travel, travel.....as much as you can. Go on adventures and don't think twice about spending money when it comes to this. It's so very important!!

There will be days where you are angry and hurt at each other. You’ll make a promise together to never go to bed angry, and you’ll keep that promise even on nights when you’d rather face the wall silently crying. Make sure to keep the lines of communication open. You’ll learn that you’re much stronger together, on the same page. You both have strong wills, let them work for you, or you’ll let them work against you.

 You'll teach each other many things over the years. You will grow up together, you will have babies and become parents together, you will love each other fiercely. Make sure you don't forget to put each other first. Make God the center of your marriage. 

It won’t always be perfect, but I can say with confidence, you’ll love to learn from and embrace those times.

You’ll write this letter to yourself, with a smile on your face as you think about those past ten years and look forward to the next ten years.

Be careful with each other. Let go of things quickly. Apologize when you mess things up. Support and encourage each other. Above all, love each other well.

Love,

us, ten years later

P.S- Take a look, it’s a beautiful life…

School's Out For Summer!

Knowing I was going to have Baby Henry any day, I tried to be prepared and get things ready for the last week of school. 

I always love seeing the difference between the first and last day of school. Sally learned so much this year...everything from the pledge of allegiance to letters, numbers and all kinds of social skills. 

Free printable found here

We made the cutest bubbles for her class. The idea and free printables came from Dixie Delights blog here.  The bubbles are from The Dollar Tree. 

The free printable to put with the book found here. 

Sally and her sweet teachers. We had such a great year and will miss our Hope Preschool family next year since Sally is going to big girl preschool. 

On the last day of school I presented Sally with a Summer Fun bucket full of lots of treats: bubbles, sidewalk chalk, a new beach towel, art kit, coloring books, stickers, etc. She loved it!!