Here's just a taste..... of sweetness!!!!!

I recently went throught a bible study with my dear friend Cheryl Scruggs. Most of you know she and her husband, Jeff, have played significant roles in mine & Kipp's relationship. They were also part of our wedding ceremony in Mexico, that's how much they mean to us. Cheryl & her friend, Mona, led a women's bible study where we read Jen Hatmaker's book "A Modern Girl's Guide to Bible Study", if you struggle with how to read/study the bible, I highly recommend this book. I met some amazing girls in this study, one of which is Avery. She is an amazing photographer and offered to shoot maternity pics to add to her portfolio. Due to the insane amount of rain we received in October, we got rained out for most of the times we set. Since Ryan's arrival came before we shooting, she offered to do a newborn setting here at the house. She was sweet enough to capture a few of Kella (she got to jump on the bed for this, which is a big no-no in our house..... remember the monkey's?!?!?!)

Visit her blog for a few more AMAZING pics of the girls! Did I mention she is amazing???

www.photographybyavery.com

Today was "observation day" at Kella's dance class. I have had to miss the past 2 weeks of class as I recovered from Ryan, and was more than ready to get back and see my little dancer in action. We also got fitted for our costumes for our upcoming recital in May. So, so fun! We are in such a great class with the best little girls (and mom's!) We both love the new friends we've made!

Making our mark!

We had Ryan's 10 day visit a week ago, here is a pic of the hallway upstairs at the Birth Center. I love that these walls, door frames and windows are covered with little footprints of all those born here! I am excited to be a part of such an amazing place!

We found Kella's footprints in, what is now, an upstairs office. What memories! I still remember the day we brought her in for her 10 day visit. As a tradition they stamp any siblings under the previous child. I love to read all the names of each child.


Here is Cherie (our midwife) stamping Ryan's feet!

It's official!!!!!

Little beauty!!!!!

Smores please!!!

Kella has done a great job adjusting to Ryan, so far! Give us a few weeks... we have been trying to do "special things" and Kipp came up with a great idea to make smores one night after dinner! Way to go dad!

Halloween!

Heather was our first visitor and was a life-saver. She handed out our Halloween candy as I could only wave from the couch to our friends & neighbors.

Sweet Minnie!!!

Kella's dance class got all dressed up!

Kella & Ryan meet!

Like I said earlier, the whole process of having Ryan took 2 hours. Mom & Aunt Martha arrived at our house around 9 pm. My SWEET, SWEET friend Allison had been staying with us the previous week in case I went into labor during the night. That way we wouldn't have to worry about where to take Kella. This was such a relief to know she was here. She was also my timer for contractions. As I made the numerous laps around the living room she would document my contraction progress. She and Aunt Martha stayed at the house while we headed down. They require us to stay 4-6 hours after the birth before coming home, which ended up being 6:30 am. Skip & my cousin Casey left Sallisaw at 11pm and had only made it to Atoka when Ryan arrived. I loved that everyone got to share the experience with us. I laugh at Allison, she couldn't get over how we left and came back home 6 hours later and had a baby! What a special night (or morning)!

This is Kella meeting Ryan for the first time! We waited for her to get up on Friday morning and was immediately thrilled because of all the company. When she came in our room I showed her my belly and said "mommy went to a special doctor and look! Ryan isn't in mommy's belly any more!" Of course this created nothing but a puzzled look on her face!

They brought Ryan over and she really didn't have anything to say except, "put her back in the crib!" Guess it was going to take a little more soaking in!

Ryan's arrival !!!!!!

So it began... while having dinner on Thursday night I felt my contractions start to begin. After steadily progressing (and many laps around my living room) my midwife said to head down to the birth center to see where I was at. My water still hadn't broke, but I knew I was in labor. Mom, Kipp & I arrived at the birth center about 10:45pm to find I was only dilated to a 2!!! Ugh!!! That's when midwife discovered that the scar & scar tissue on my cervix from a previous surgery was keeping me from dilating. She broke my water and took me to a 4 on my next contraction!!! Yeah, now we're kickin'!!! We were sent to the park next door to do some "power walking" to push through the contractions. I was only able to make it for about 30 min and needed to head inside. As you can see I didn't make it very far... this is the chair in the front room of the birth center, "waiting area" if ya wanna be technical!

Soooo.... an hour later Ryan arrived. The whole process only took 2 HOURS!!!!!!!!! I could not have been happier. This is her fresh from the oven!!! She's got daddy's lips!

This is Cherie, our midwife, and one of my favorite people! She was amazing. So encouraging and can even make you laugh while in the midst of labor! Natural labor!!!! I love the whole process of the birth center. You can see the setup of the room where we never left. Kipp delivered her, just like he did Kella. From the moment she popped out she was on my chest and nursed immediately within 30 minutes because of my bleeding. She continued to camp out there for about 2 hours, it was awesome! This little thing that I have taken care of for 9 mo. was now helping me recover! God really knew what he was doing =)

Part of the process is giving them a bath after a few hours. Floating in the water really relaxes them. Mom said she loved it! When she would get to the edge she would push off and float to the other side. I love this picture - she is so alert and checking out her daddy!