Isabella Grace-A Birth Story

It brings me to tears to try and express the miracles that have occurred in our lives these last few days! She is here! She is perfect. She has changed me. She is everything I never knew I always wanted!

Wednesday morning came just as it should have, like any other day, Addiston woke us up. My parents were here and we all sat around the kitchen table as I made pancakes-that I wasn't allowed to eat. We took longer showers than we usually would, knowing they would be the last of their kind, and got ready to head to the hospital.

Last shot as a family of 3!


Ready to be a big sister!


Jared and I spent a little time alone with Addy and we all prayed together for Isabella and myself before we had to leave for the hospital. We got the hospital in true fashion-20 minutes late! We were ushered through the regulatory processes of gowns, vitals, and pre-op procedures. After the commotion died down Jared and I had a little down time to ourselves before they wheeled me back.



We talked about our fears of adding another baby to the mix, and making sure we balance time between both girls. I expressed my fears of undergoing major surgery and we prayed for peace, safety and a healthy girl.

We headed back to the OR and Jared sat in the hall while I became a floating head.



I had worked tediously on a birthing playlist when I had Addiston and subtly tweaked it for Isabella's birth. Little did I know that the doctor gets to pick the music in the OR and Isabella was born to a bluegrass mix from none other than steve martin's band. (father of the bride is my favorite movie so it could have been worse) I had 2 of the same nurses this stay as I did with Addiston as well as the same anesthesiologist. And can I just say that after 14 hours of hard labor with Addiston, Tom-the anesthesiologist looked like a knight in shining armor, this time when he walked in my room a little voice in my head said-what were you thinking?!?

20 minutes into surgery she was born, She is Perfect. Weighing in at 7lbs, 2 oz and measuring 20 inches long, she was bigger than I thought she would be considering how sick I was this pregnancy and that she was born 6 days before her due date. When they were taking her out the doctor exclaimed "woah, look at that cord" nothing else was said and I didn't think much of it. Later I was told that the umbilical cord was wrapped around Isabella's neck twice. Thank the Lord for a scheduled necessary c-section!

The first time I got to see my girl.



The hardest part for me of having c-section babies is that when they are born they are taken away. She was quickly passed over my head, wiped down and I was allowed to kiss her forehead and let my tears fall from my cheek to her shoulder. However I believe that God knows what he's doing and that my sweet, shy, husband needs this alone time with his girls before I swoop in and hog them. Its a beautiful thing to witness, Jared falling in love with his daughters.

Jared and Isabella were escorted to the nursery for a more thorough inspection and I spent the rest of the surgery, about an hour praying and thanking God for another miracle baby and a healthy one at that. I can't believe that I am so blessed as to have 2 perfect, healthy girls, when 5 years ago doctors questioned my ability to have children at all.

Roughly and hour after she was born I got to hold her for the first time.



I spent some time in tears of joy while Jared told me how perfect she was and how beautiful we both were. We both were so overwhelmed with joy that things had gone smoothly! After a bit Jared went to the waiting room to fetch the big sister who was waiting with my family.



Addiston loves her little sister, she exclaimed "Isabella came out to see you" and was thrilled that we let her hold the baby.  The rest of the family came in, to meet her and then rather quickly left so that I could nurse and recover from being sliced in half.

I am so thankful for God's grace and goodness to us and blessing us with our girls.  He knew exactly what I needed when pairing me with Jared, that he is the perfect daddy to our girls and exactly what I need. It was just the three of us, alone in quiet, Jared and I amazed and grateful for our girl. Her tiny perfect features, and her beauty.

Last day

Today was bitter sweet!

Tomorrow morning we'll wake up, and carefully prepare to head to the hospital to welcome our new little to the world. We'll double check the camera batteries, brush our teeth, take an extra long shower (as we all know it's the last one of it's kind for a while) and I'll probably attempt to in some sort of naive vanity to put on some makeup before I head into surgery.

Tomorrow is planned, we have known for months what our second girls birthday will be. Bags have been packed, meals made and frozen for after the family help heads home, and the house cleaned, and cleaned again.

In all of my preparation for tomorrow I overlooked today. My last day alone with my girl. For today my only girl. As we sat said goodbye to the daddy this morning it dawned on me that this would be our last time to do that for a while and it would be her last time getting all his attention before he left. As she climbed on his lap in his car and rode up the driveway to the front of the house I choked up. He knew the look on my face and smiled that knowing smile that only he can.

Over breakfast I listened a little closer to her tell me about her dreams of slides and grandmas, and let her sit on my lap instead of in her own seat.





We did all of her favorite things today! Built towers and houses out of her giant lego's, colored in her veggie tales coloring book, read just about every book in the house, and watched her letter video. We jumped on the beds, blew bubbles, played dolls, had a dance party, and pushed buttons on the washer and dryer.





She requested a grilled cheese for lunch and I obliged. We called papaw and daddy and hammered things in the garage. Stayed in our Pj's until the Daddy came home from work, and at his request had an ice cream date, even though she didn't finish her peas!




Tomorrow morning we'll wake up, and carefully prepare to head to the hospital to welcome our newest little to the world. But today we celebrated being a family of three! I know that years from now she'll have no idea that we tried so hard to make today special for her, and memorable. But we did and it was! And it made me love her all the more! 

Single Digits

In exactly nine days we will have another baby girl!

Nine days from this minute she'll be about 5 hours old and will have met a few family members and a friend or two. I'm excited to meet her, and almost just as excited to not be pregnant anymore. I've reached the I'm too big to enjoy sitting or standing or laying down stage. Isabella has run out of room and the familiar feeling of a small person pushing against my rib cage has returned. I don't know what it is about my girls but they have both loved camping out under my right ribs during the end of their stay in utero! I'm fully embracing nesting and even recruited Jared to help me wipe down doors and woodwork yesterday while Addiston took a nap. He had planned on having a nice relaxing afternoon of video games, but he obliged... I think he likes me!

With the to-do list about complete and the bags packed, the house ready and me feeling like I swallowed a watermelon whole things are pretty interesting around here. I hate to admit it but I feel like my fuse gets a little shorter the more uncomfortable I become. Jared has been a champ about telling when I've done enough and need to go rest or that he'll take over, and Addiston continues to amaze me with her genius (that she gets from her dad) and sweet spirit, but I know there are days when I am too harsh on her, or am to strict, to demanding about potty training, or finishing all of our vegetables. I know this is a phase (for both of us) and I remind myself of that often! Jill Churchill said, "there's no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one."Sometimes, we will mess up. We'll flub up responses, reacting too harshly or not harsh enough. We'll yell when we should have hugged, lose our cool when we should have sighed and smiled, or retreat behind our bedroom door praying the kids won't find us when we should have faced our problems. But amidst all the chaos Addiston is at such a sweet stage and I don't want her milestones and sweet quirks to get overlooked through everything thats changing.

So just as much for myself as you I wanted to have a list of some Addy things, before she becomes a big sister!

-She's obsessed with stickers! They are golden. We used to give her a graham cracker for going on the big girl potty (she thought they were cookies) but now the best prize for potty success is glittery stickers.

-She has a little umbrella and has developed an obsession! Whenever it's even drizzling she requests one and disappears underneath it.



-The girl hates messes! On herself and in the house, if she's eating and gets food on her fingers she instantly puts down everything and asks for a napkin. It's precious! The other day Jared took her down in the toy room to watch veggie tales and she told him they had to clean up first because there were toys everywhere. She totally gets that from me, and while we both agree it's nice that she picks up he thinks it's a little crazy that she'd opt to clean before she gets to watch t.v

-She's a cuddler (and she gets that from the daddy!! I am NOT) every morning when the sun's up we let her come into our bed so she'll sleep/rest an hour or so longer and you better believe that whole hour she's attached to Jared.

-She loves cereal, she has it every night before bed, most mornings and if she spy's anybody in the house eating it she climbs up in your lap to steal some.



-She loves to sing & music of all sorts, some of her favorite songs are ABC's-which she can sing all by herself, Wheels on the bus-with motions, itsy bitsy spider, twinkle twinkle little star, and Jesus Loves Me. Sporadically throughout the week she asks for music and we dace around her room and ours.

-We read, A LOT! Probably 3 hours a day are spent reading. She has favorite books and books that she'd rather you just make up a story to because she likes the pictures, I get a crack out of her when she "reads" the story with me because she knows the book by heart. Some of her favorites right now are "I'm a new big sister," "Where's my truck?" The Bible-seriously, it's the sweetest thing! "Rise & Shine" and "I love you through and through"-we all have that one memorized, Jared can "read" it to her over the phone when he's on a work trip. 

-She still loves outside, it's been over 100 more days than I'd like to count the past month and our time outside has grown slimmer and slimmer but she loves it! 

-She's smart, like I'm her mom and I think she's of course the smartest kid there ever was but when random people who encounter her at church and out mention it I tend to believe them! She knows her ABC's, and can recognize all the letters individually, she knows all the colors, shapes, and fruits/vegetables, animals and their sounds, she can count to 14, she knows how to start a car-not that thats a good thing, she's grasping the concept of opposites and rhymes. 

-She loves to pray. The other day she prayed all by herself, for no reason, just sat down, folded her hands and muttered something I couldn't understand and shouted AMEN. It was by far the sweetest thing she's ever done. We pray before every mean and recently during meals as well. One morning we prayed between every bite of breakfast-it took an hour to finish the meal. She's discovered that prayer is one thing I won't say no to and when she's suppose to be in bed but not wanting to be she'll slip out of her room and ask me to "pray more"

We still are pretty stingy with what we let her eat. She rarely gets sugar, and never gets deep friend things. She gets to watch t.v once a day for less than an hour-except when I'm sick then she can watch a whole disney movie-if her patience allows. We're pretty firm on listening the first time you're told and she's no stranger to the time out chair. She has gotten one spanking-for running into the street. She can get pretty much anything out of Jared, he's a softy and knows it when it comes to her. 

I think she's going to be a great big sister. She's at a great stage, but I know that there will be an adjustment period. I know I'm going to have to remind myself that she's only two and not expect too much of her. But like Jill Churchill said, "there's no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one."

Addiston's big girl room

Well as many of you probably noticed and as my husband pointed out we took all most of Addiston's stuff to make Isabella's room. He was left feeling pretty guilty about the whole situation, where as I was excited to turn her room into a big girl room that I knew she would love.

It didn't happen in one fair swoop as I'd hoped it would, but isn't that how life goes? We plan for something, make preparations and then everything gets thrown all out of kilter?!? With the nursery being delayed in it's completion the nesting crazy mom-to-be in me wanted to get everything done I could. First things first we got rid of the crib, Addiston was so ready to be in a real bed and it really has made our lives a lot better (for those interested-NO she still doesn't sleep from the time we put her down till morning, she usually gets up at least once during the night but will simply come in our room to say "hi" and then Jared walks her back to bed-where she stays till sunrise, upon which she climbs into bed with us, since her room faces east and ours is completely blacked out!) At first we just threw a mattress on the floor and let her get used to the concept before we hoisted her 3 feet off the ground.



She is sleeping in my first "big girl bed" a day bed that my sister Heather and I shared at my dad's house and the bed that I slept in until the night before my wedding. My parents offered to upgrade my bed when I was in high school but I love that bed, and I love that Addiston loves it too. It did have it's fair share of dings and paint chips from being moved three or four times so I touched up the white parts and those bronze parts on the posts used to be brass, so it has had a minor facelift!

The second thing to go was her dresser, I was anxious to start washing baby clothes that had been in storage for nearly two years while I still had energy and could carry and laundry basket up and down stairs. I needed a place to put all these clean clothes so one afternoon we pulled the ol' switch-er-oo.
This dresser is low and Addiston loves that she the top, and see in all the drawers. We found it online and I refinished it to match her room.



Jared's parents got Addiston this sweet rocking chair for her 2nd Birthday. She loved to sit in the glider rocker with me and read and I knew that was going to be her biggest adjustment at having her room redone. Luckily she is in love with this little "addy sized" chair and I find her sitting in it several times a day reading to her dolls.

The rest of the room took some careful matching of shades of pink, Addiston's room was very carefully painted to match the nursery bedding and I didn't want to change it or move her to a new room and while I love the shades of pink in there, they are more of a dusty rose and peony pink as opposed to the bubble gum-hot pink that is so easy to find in little girl decor.



She loves her new room and hasn't once gone into Isabella's room and said or even eluded to the fact that just about everything in there used to be hers. We've worked really hard to try and squash the m-i-n-e word that she picked up from her cousins. I don't know if her easing going-ness will change once there is actually a baby sister here using all of the furniture but for now we're happy, and so is she!

Oh and she got a new chandelier too...gotta love the vaulted ceilings that let me do frilly stuff to my girls rooms!