Her arrival on December 8, 2009 at 12:33pm!

Here we are as a new family!! I think I was definately still scared of what my life was just changing to be!!


I was holding her for the first time in this picture!! I was crying, she was crying! It was sincerely the most special moment of my life thus far! Words can't describe it! I get teary eyed looking at this picture!



I thought she looked so scared in this picture!! I think it's amazing how God is trusting me to raise one of his children!! I hope I make him happy!!



She wanted to go back inside but her momma said no!! She's got a little conehead there...they had to vacuum her out! She was as stubborn as her momma when it came time for her to come out! Boy, i can just see her teenage years! Thank goodness we have Josh to referee! :)

And here we are AFTER my epidural had kicked in!! I am glad we don't, but part of me wished we had a picture of the BEFORE epidural look to put beside this one! Actually, no one should have had to witness that or see me during that time. Not even my husband. I'm still embarrassed to this day what I was like before the epidural. And I thought I could handle pain pretty well. Contractions proved me WRONG! Pitocin is the devil!

Oh my goodness, I have to play catch up!!

Soooo...as everyone who probably reads this knows that our daughter has arrived!! As new mommyhood took a toll on me for a while, my blog got neglected! I am going to try to catch back up! I will do monthly updates on my little one with a cute new pictures and new things that she is able to do that month! Please enjoy as you watch our daughter grow and learn all about this new world she has entered!! It's going to be a great year!

Chubs!

So I went back to the doctor today for the SECOND time this week! I went Monday and I hadn't dilated anymore, so he made me come back today and get an ultrasound and another check. He wanted to get an ultrasound to get an estimate on how much she weighs. They say at this point that the ultrasound weight isn't very accurate, up to a pound difference either way, but oh well, wasn't going to argue getting to see her! The ultrasound weight is showing around 7lbs 10 oz!! hahahahaha, so i'm hoping we're on the smaller end of the scale, but oh well. Dr. Howell also said that I was a very loose 1cm. Which didn't perk me up too much. So he said that an elective induction could be scheduled. I was concerned on the induction about whether it's bad for her, or bad for me, but he said that he believes that everything will go just fine. He is on call this weekend and said that it wouldn't surprise him at all if I ended up coming in. So let's hope and pray for that!
The plan right now is to go in Monday night at 8pm, and to get two doses of cervadil, and then start the pitocin at 6am. He said that the cervadil can speed the labor process along faster and that alot of times the pitocin isn't relied on as much, which means it won't be turned up as high, which is what I wanted to hear! :)
So here's my little princess!! Look at those cheeks!! :) She's leaning against her arm or hand or something. Just like I thought....she's nice and cozy....and her momma isn't!! I'll let you guys know if something happens sooner! Looks like her birthday just might be December 8th, 2oo9! YAY!

36 weeks and 2 days!

Hello again! Time is flying! It's crazy to think that in 5 days she will be considered a full term baby! This year has gone sooo fast, but I'm so glad! Here on the right is what we have over her crib. My wonderful good friend Brandy from back home ordered one similar for her new baby and I was like, "oh my gosh, where and how do you get one of those!??!" It's one of the sticker wall decals off of etsy.com, and we absolutely love it!! Everyone that has walked into her nursery has thought that someone painted it! We are very pleased!

Well if any of you guys have facebook, know that we've had a little excitement the past couple of days. I went to see Dr. Howell on Wednesday. I thought that he would check me but he did not. He said he wanted to wait until next week. At that point in time, i was a little bummed, but oh well. Everything looked great. Too much halloween candy got to the scales, but oh well. The way I look at it, i'm almost done! But other than that, a great visit, with excitement for next week. Then Friday came....

I woke up Friday and while I was getting ready for work, I was having this really uncomfortable back pain and just felt like I was about to start my period. Well, as perfect timing would have it, Josh was leaving that morning for "deer camp" and he was PLANNING on being gone all weekend until today. We had prepared and I had gotten almost every number of everyone that was going to be there, and I told him on Thursday to go and have fun b/c this might be his last guy time for a while. All I told him on Friday was to check his phone that I wasn't feeling the greatest. So I went to work and nothing changed. Later we got ahold of the doctor and they told me that they recommended me coming into triage to get checked. I called Josh and told him what I was going to do but told him to stay at the deer camp, that if something was going on, i'd let him know so he could come...other than that, i'd probably go home and hang low for the weekend.

They put me on the monitor and sure enough I was having contractions. One nurse came in and said that I was having them every 4 minutes. The nurse that received me checked me and said that I was dilated "a dimple" hahahaha, whatever that was suppose to mean. AND LADIES...if you have never been checked...OMG!! No one warned me what being checked felt like!! I am sooooo over the excitement of being checked. I flat out dread that part now! It hurt...really bad!! Regardless, after the UA and all came back...apparently I was really dehydrated. My temp was up, tons of ketones in the urine, yada yada. So they hoped to give me a liter of fluid and send me home, but after the first liter of fluids my contractions strengthened, and so they took my food away and everything, wondering if I really was going into labor instead of just being dehydrated. I did end up coming home after 2 1/2 liters of fluid and put on bedrest over the weekend. She said that I was probably having the most steady contractions out of anyone they were watching at the desk, but they weren't progressing me. Which was fine by me! I had a panic moment after the first time they checked me! I was like, "oh my gosh, I can't do this, i can't do this!" hahaha.

So hopefully Jaycee will be here soon!! Josh came to the hospital and even though there was nothing he could do for me all weekend, he stayed home by my side and tended to my every need!! So sweet!! (He even cleaned the house and ran my errands for me!!!) So here I am, just waiting until Thursday when I go back to see Dr. Howell. I'm still having the contractions, but the back pain is not near as bad, and that was what was hurting me. So maybe, just maybe I'll be dilated more than a dimple on Thursday!! Say a prayer for us. I want to wait until she's ready, but I don't want to feel like this for 3-4 more weeks either. A nice compromise would be nice! :)

Needless to say, my bags are definately packed now, and her clothes are currently in the process of being washed! Talk about me having a list a mile long once I realized all this was going to happen sooner than I thought! All I could think about in the hospital was that her clothes weren't washed yet!! hahaha. Hope all of you guys have a great week!! I'll keep you guys updated with Thursday's visit, or if something happens sooner! :) Love you all!

Layne and Josh

33 weeks and 3 days!

It's been a long while since my last blog and I apologize. I don't know how so many people keep up with these things like they do! But for those of you who are reading that have been pregnant before, life gets pretty busy about this time and that's exactly what i've been. As you can tell, my eyes in my picture are like, "oh my gosh, i can't believe i'm getting a picture taken of myself this large!" hahaha. Well, since my last post, I've had two showers and they were absolutely wonderful. Thank you to all of you guys for the wonderful gifts for myself and Jaycee. She is completely "hooked up!" I couldn't ask for better friends and family.

I go back to see Dr. Howell this Wednesday. I now go every two weeks and then after this appointment, I will go every week. It just makes the anticipation so much stronger when your appointments get closer and closer together. Yay!! When i was there two weeks ago, i asked him if he could tell if she was still breech. He didn't want to push on her too hard, but he told me to come into this other room where he had one of his dads old ultrasound machines, and sure enough she has turned HEAD DOWN! He told me that she could still flip flop for a few more weeks and I said, "well at least she knows how to get there!" hahaha. I'm so scared of a c-section if you can't tell.

We have also gotten her room pretty much ready since my last post. At the end of this, I have a bunch of pictures that I'm just going to put up of her room and closet! It's so pretty. I could just stand at the doorway of it all day everyday! I don't have anything on the walls yet. I have something ordered off etsy.com to go above her bed and then initials to go over her dresser and my mom and dad have gotten me the glider that i wanted, it's just not in yet. When Josh and I were putting EVERYTHING together, the best part of it all was the carseat/stroller travel system. Josh learned how to use it first and then he TRIED to teach me. As simple as those things are to use....let's just say that I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. I was standing in the middle of the hallway crying b/c he could work it and I couldn't, and i felt like a horrible mother!! hahahahahaha. Needless to say, Josh just laughed at me the whole time i was crying. But I do have the hang of it now, so if we NEED to go out, I feel like I just might be able to do that now.

I think that is it for now. I am going to post all of the pictures of her room at the bottom. I still feel pretty well. I have cut my days down to two days a week, which is working out perfect. I am starting to get pretty swollen, pretty often now. My wedding ring doesn't have a prayer of coming off anytime in the near future. And after I work, I look like i have 5lbs of fluid, not at my ankles, but in all of my toes!!! Which Josh just thinks is a gorgeous site! :) But I will let you guys know the update from the doctor's office. Now that her room is essentially ready, I will be able to keep up with this thing better, I promise!

Quick question....what do i pack for her at the hospital besides clothes?!?! diapers?? pacifiers?? I don't know. And do you guys have any recommendations for something that I absolutely cannot go to the hospital without for myself?!?!

Love you guys and I will update you with Wednesdays appointment!

Layne and Josh!

Doctor Update!

So I don't have a picture for this week, sorry!! Even though, I keep hearing how large I'm looking!!! So apparently, i'm large. I was at a gas station today and some VERY rough man came up to me and said, "dang girl, you gonna bust that out in a couple of weeks or what?!?" I could have turned around and hit him!! And then when I said I have 10 weeks or so left, he said, "you sure there's not two in there?!?!" Once again, if I wasn't a christian, he would have been in trouble!! In my favorite words from full house, "how rude!"
Anyways, I told you guys in the last blog that I was scheduled to see the doctor yesterday. Well that appointment ended up being sooner. I ended up at the doctor last Wednesday instead of yesterday. I don't know if i had overdone it the day before getting her closet ready or if I had done too much that day, but last Monday was not a good day for me. I went about my business, but after Josh and I got home from taking walker for a walk last Monday, contractions started! At first I didn't think much of them, and even tried to play them off, but they were very consistent and VERY regular. After about a half hour of them being every 10 minutes on the dot, i brought it up to Josh. Well goodness gracious if that wasn't a mistake. He acted like a freak of nature!! I mean, i'm being serious, this was a side of my husband that I had never seen before in 6 years of being with him! Long story short, contractions stayed very steady at every 10 minutes for abour 4 hours. They never intensified, so i never called a doctor or went in, but they sure weren't comfortable. And that's all I could tell Josh. I kept saying, I don't hurt, I'm uncomfortable. I kept telling myself and Josh that it was the real deal, surely it would hurt more, but at the same time, both of us didn't have a clue what to do.
So i drank about 3 bottles of water like I read to do if you have alot of braxton hicks and surely enough before 11pm that night, they started spreading out further and further, and before you knew it, i had fallen asleep trying to time them. So thank goodness!! Answered prayers!
Josh was hysterical...he took the clock away from me, sat right beside me, pushed the water bottles down my throat, and would not take his hand off my belly so he could feel when I was having one, and he would start timing them himself. At one point even, when i was laughing at something on tv, he completely freaked out and yelled for me to stop laughing b/c it tightened my stomach muscles!! hahahaha. So funny looking back at it, but it was a reality check for him I think. He's become stricter and stricter on what I can and cannot do since then!
So I went to the doctor last Wednesday, since i informed them of all this on Tuesday and they wanted to just make sure that having that many contractions didn't start thinning me out. Sure enough, everything is still closed up, and I even lost a pound!! whoo, hoo!! He did prescribe me medicine to take to stop contractions should I get them like that again...I haven't even filled it yet, in hopes that I don't need it! :)
So that's my latest update!! I have a shower in madisonville not this weekend but next, so I will definately upload pictures from that! I'm so exicted! Keep praying for this little girl!! We definately can't wait to see her, but we can sure wait until she can make a healthy arrival! :) More to come next week!! Love you guys!
Layne and Josh!

27 weeks and 2 days!!

Hey you guys, sorry it's been so long since the last post. As you can tell by my picture, my belly is getting larger by the day!! Josh and I just got back this past Tuesday from taking our last vacation before this little ones arrives!! We went to Destin and it was soooo needed!! I knew I was getting too stressed out before I went, and I feel so much better after going. Nothing better than laying on the beach, laying by the pool, sitting on the balcony and then laying in bed with no alarm clocks! Not to mention, tons of eating! :)

Jaycee is a kicking fool! Thursday was my first day back to work after being off for 8 days and she let me know that she wasn't happy about it. I was uncomfortable at work all day long. I kept having those braxton hicks contractions and then it would feel like my stomach would never even really loosen up. It didn't hurt, but my stomach feeling like that all day was not a comforting feeling. I finally started joking around that she was letting me know she wanted to go back to the beach and quit this work stuff. hahaha.

So i spent all this evening, getting her closet ready. I had bought a ton of different stuff and then what I had gotten as samples and going to that babypalooza thing a long time ago, and all the freebies there, I had her stuff all over the house. So Josh and I finally got all of his hunting clothes out and all the other junk that had accumulated in there and after getting that hunting smell out of there, i moved her stuff in!! I loved it! After I had everything in there as best as it could be right now, i was just standing there. Josh goes, "layne, it's a closet!" I was like, "I know, but it's actually for someone this time!" I was imagining her in there with me a couple of years from now telling me what she wanted to wear that day! It just makes it seem like it's fastly approaching!

Here is a picture of her closet with her outfits!! And then I got this diaper bag in Destin and I absolutely love it! I'm going to take it somewhere tomorrow to get her name put on it!! And I don't know why, but to me the cutest things in her closet are her little newborn shoes!! :) Like her little stride rite black shoes for church and her first pair of white tennis shoes!! awwww, they just kill me everytime i look at them! Well, I guess that's all for now! I go to the doctor a week from tomorrow, so I will put an update on here! So the gap between this one and the next won't be as long! Keep praying for this little girl! :) Love Josh and Layne!!