Ivory Jade

(3 days old)

Ivory Jade Bird is here!!!!! She was born on October 15th, 2010 at 3:23 pm. Ivy was 6lbs 13 oz, 20" long. She has quite the story of how she got here too. So here ya go, here's her birth story.

As most of you know, I was scheduled to be induced the morning of October 15th. So all day Thursday I did what any mother would do, I cleaned ALL day! Doing many things that I probably shouldn't, but I knew that it would be weeks before I could get to them after the baby came. It was actually a really lonely night because Rayce had class until 7:30, then he had meetings until 10:30. But of all the things that I needed to get done, the most important thing was for us to pick out a name for our soon-to-be-arriving bundle of joy. I was set on the name Raymielle, and Rayce was set on the name Saloris. We both equally hated each others names, and didn't even have a middle name picked out (we both LOVED the name Jade, but without a first name, we weren't really thinking about the middle name yet). After nearly 2 hours of debating, and not agreeing, I happened to mention that when Shylee was born, it was between that name and Ivory. I blurted out "what about the name Ivory Jade". We both just kinda sat there for a minute with smiles on our faces. I said that I think that we had figured it out, that would be her name. We also decided that we wouldn't share it with anyone until she was born.
So, with my body aching everywhere from all the cleaning I did, we went to bed. And (of course) I couldn't sleep. Between the excitement of finally meeting our new angel, and being in lots of pain, I only got about 2 hours of sleep by the time my alarm went of at 5:45 am. By 6:15, I woke up the kids so that I could get the girls ready for school, so Rayce could get them on the bus. My friend Cina was coming to the hospital with me to watch the birth (she's in nursing school to be a labor & delivery nurse). Cina picked me up at 6:45, and when I headed out to her car I saw that my Dad had drove through the night to be at his 7th grand babies birth. (I knew he was coming, but I didn't think he would drive through the night.) Cina and I went over to the hospital only to find out that my doc told me 7 am, and the hospital 7pm, but regardless of the time, they were too full, and that I couldn't come in until Monday. (They have to save a certain amount of beds for women who come in actual labor). Sadly I went home. My dad was still sleeping, so I put the kids on the bus (who were way more pissed off than me) and layed down for a nap. About 10 o'clock, I woke up to go tell my dad the news. I was still in bed stretching my body when a bird slammed into my window, making me jerk, and ultimately breaking my water (although I didn't know it at the time). I went in to go to the bathroom as any preggo woman does, and I realized my water broke. In a panic, I hollered at Rayce to come and help me. Rayce didn't believe me for like 30 minutes. He kept saying "Are you sure you aren't just peeing your pants?" I could have killed him!!!!
We finally made it to the hospital, and the nurses didn't really believe me, but it didn't take long seeing that I was leaking water EVERYWHERE!!! And so the battle begins:
My contractions weren't very consistent or strong once they started monitoring me. At one o'clock, my doc came in and had them start the pit. Now my plan all along was to withstand the pain as long as I could, then get an epidural if I couldn't stand the pain (which secretly I really didn't think I would last very long, I am pretty much a huge wuss). By 2 o'clock, I had asked Rayce to have my friend Michelle come get the kids (because for some reason he had her drop them off at the hospital...men, I don't understand them.) because I couldn't fake not being in pain anymore. By 2:45, I was really starting to progress, and demanded an epidural. Screaming in pain, the anesthesiologist came about the time I was an 8, and I turned down the epidural and any other pain meds. At this point, I thought I was going to die. With all the pain and pressure, my contractions coming every 45 seconds, lasting about a minute, I thought for sure I was having a 12 lb baby! I had an amazing nurse, and she kept me completely focused (or as much as a person can focus in shock). My doctor came in just as her head delivered, and my doc pretty much just had to catch the baby's body. I couldn't believe the immediate relief! She was beautiful, and it felt amazing to hold her on my chest, and call her by name: Ivory Jade Bird. So all in all, I went from a 5 to a 10 in about 45 minutes. I am so glad that I can say that I delivered one of my baby's with absolutely no pain meds, but I tell ya what, I will NEVER do that again! It wasn't worth the scary pain that went with it! She was also born with TONS (at least in my book) of dark brown hair. I couldn't believe it! (My other three kids were pretty much bald!!!)
Ivory is such a beautiful baby, and we are so happy to have her in our family. It has been two weeks already, and I can't believe how perfectly she fits into our family. The other three kids adore her to death, and are constantly smooching and hugging on her.
We love you Ivory, and hope that you continue to stay healthy and happy.

(4 days old)

(about 3 hours old with Shylee Cayge and Icelynn)

Last thoughts

On being a mom of 3...

So tomorrow is the big day. Baby #4 arrives. I am so excited, and yet, I can't believe that it is time already. Be even more so, I can't believe that I will have four kids, and my oldest is almost 9!! Truly, I don't know where the time has gone. So what I decided to do was to talk a little about the older three, as I am sure most of my next few posts will pertain very little to them.

Cayge:
What an amazing kid. Cayge was born November 6th, 2001 at 6lbs 4oz. He has been as sweet as an angel since the moment he arrived. He has always been a "schmoozer", and is really quite good at it. He was such a brilliant baby. The nurse was holding him soon after he was born, and he was so content just looking from person to person, as though he knew who each person in the room was. Cayge continued to be that way through infancy. I was a very fast developer: rolled by 2 months, hardly crawled, and went straight to walking by 7&1/2 months, running by 8. He could talk in sentences by 12 months. He could count at a very early age, and was doing math by the age of 2. This kind of thing goes on and on. He is a very dedicated boy, and LOVES school. He is very caring, especially to his sisters. Is #1 love in life is his Dad, followed closely by sharks and football, with wrestling close behind. I LOVE this kid, and couldn't imagine life without his beautiful blue eyes and dashing smile.

Icelynn:
Lets just say DIVA! She is constantly wanting to wear dresses, is always singing, and bossing her sister around. She was born October 27th, 2003 at 6lbs 2 oz, and turned our world upside down! She had a birth defect in her stomach that doctors didn't find for 4 months. She was such a miserable little thing. She was always screaming because she was hungry, but if I fed her she'd scream because it hurt her stomach. But once we got things figured out, what an angel she turned into. She has always been a very beautiful little girl, and the older she gets, the more she looks just like her Aunt Brianna (Rayce's older sister). She is such a happy go lucky girl with a constant smile on her face. Icee suffers from migraines, but she still smiles her way through them. She is also a very smart little girl, and cries when there is no school. Her favorite thing to do at school is read. She loves to play with both her brother and sister, but is also very content at just playing by herself. Icelynn came in this world rocking our boat, but now, she seems to be the one that keeps us level. We love every inch of this little beauty.

Shylee:
Key word for Shylee: DRAMA! Shylee was born August 14th, 2005 weighing a whopping 7lbs 3oz, and was such a mellow little (and by little I mean plump) thing. Now I say whopping because Shylee was nearly a month early!!!! But Shylee was never fazed by anything. She had two older siblings constantly in her face. She had a life threatening hospitalization when she was 6 months old and the nurses would come in and say that there was no way she was as sick as they said she was because she was just too happy. But Shylee completely has lived up to her name because she is very shy! She is by far the loudest in our family, but step outside our door, and she hardly says a word to anyone, and if she does, you most likely wont hear it because all of a sudden she becomes very soft spoken. Shylee is very dedicated to her lifes work: bugging her brother and sister. And she is quite good at it too. She constantly is teasing and just plain torturing them. But she does have a soft side, and luckily she saves it for me. Her favorite thing is coming home from school; yes, she HATES school. I feel bad, but hey, she needs to go. I love my little baby, and can't believe after five whole years, that she is not going to be the baby anymore.

I love my children, and being a mother is the most amazing thing that anyone can do. Every day I think to myself how lucky I am to have three healthy children, who are so amazing. I am so excited to bring home this new bundle of joy to share with Cayge, Icelynn and Shylee.

Busy, Busy, Busy

(Just not busy enough...)
& sorry, it's a long-en
As most of you know, I NEED TO HAVE A BABY, AND SOON!!!! I have been doing so much walking, exercising, and spicy food eating (and more unmentionable things) to get this darn baby to wanna come out, but she is stubborn and is apparently waiting till the last minute to greet the world. In so many ways, I just wanna get her here so that I can get back on my feet and running with our super busy schedule. But on the other hand, I am trying to find a way that I can have a baby and keep the schedule that I am on now. Here's what it is like for us right now:
Monday & Wednesday:
Wake at 6am: shower, get kids up and breakfast started, get ready, get kids ready, wake Rayce and have him take us to school, all by 8:30am
Get out of class at 11:30 (Rayce picks up Shylee at 11 from Kindergarten). Have lunch, Rayce leaves for school around noonish. ( I usually try and fit a nap in soon after this, at least for a little while). Kids arrive home at 3:45, they have a snack, we get homework done, have another small snack and get ready for sports. By 4:30, I drop of Cayge to Rayce at class (because Cayge has football practice, and I can't get him there, plus it's on campus). Get the girls to Soccer; watch their two games, hurry and run over to Cayge's practice to pick up the boys, then head home, have dinner, shower up the kids, and get them in bed by 8pm. I clean up dinner, then get homework done, and usually in bed by 10ish.
Tuesday & Thursday:
Same mornings as Monday and Wednesday, but the nice thing is I don't have class and I send the kids on the bus, then come back and nap for a little while. Pick up Shylee at 11. By 5 we go to Cayge's football game, then home by 7 and dinner, shower, then bed.
Fridays are a little more laxed, and we do have our weekends.
Rayce works a lot of nights, and we don't get to see him much.
Some days I feel like I run nonstop, but it is 100% worth every second of it. Wrestling starts soon, so we will have practice 3 nights a week and a tournament every Saturday for the next two months. Some call me crazy, others call me brave, I call me a Mom. I want my kids to be active and healthy, so I will do what it takes to keep them in some kind of activity. Days like today when I think about all the things that I have to do in one week, it feels so overwhelming. But as long as I just don't think about it and just keep my schedule, it doesn't feel that bad.

One other thing that is DRIVING ME CRAZY is we still haven't decided on a name for this little girl. I have decided that maybe that is why she refuses to come out. We have a huge list of names, and just can't seem to narrow it down. Hopefully we can get that figured out before she is born.

I promise to post some sports pix soon :)