Introducing Ryleigh!

Meet our new baby girl, Ryleigh Renae. Ryleigh means valiant; defined as boldly courageous, brave, heroic, she definately earned her name. Ryleigh was a scheduled c-section on Valentine's Day. Once she was born she cried then we cried. At my request, the doctor immediately gave her to the nurses to have her lungs suctioned because our son was born with retained fluid in his lungs and we did not want to go through that again. They suctioned and suctioned and after all of her vitals were assessed they placed Ryleigh in her daddy's arms. She was noisy, constantly "purring" and grunting. I felt relieved that her first apgar score was an 8 and that I was able to see her (something I haven't been able to do with the first two). They even placed her on me while I was being stitched up from the surgery and I couldn't believe how beautiful she was. The entire time I kept worrying, praying for the best, but fearful something would go wrong. The maternity level was full, so Ryleigh and Jonathan came with me into a recovery area. I was able to hold Ryleigh and try to feed her. She weighed in at a healthy 8 lbs 8 0z! She continued to make noise and I thought she'd never stop. The nurse then said something I will never forget, "it's time to take her to the special care nursery and have her checked out." I was terrified that she would be taken to another hospital like Leighton and I wouldn't be able to see her for four or five days. Xrays showed that she too was born with excess fluid in her lungs, and she was started on IV antiobiotics in case it was pneumonia. She was kept on oxygen because she was unable to breathe properly on her own. Her first two days were spent in the special care nursery, but the nurses were great at helping me down there to see her. She was very difficult to calm down and although she would improve a little each day, they just couldn't give her the proper care there. On her third day the neonatologist came in and said that she too would be transferred to Children's Hopsital. Although I knew in my heart it was for the best, I couldn't help buy cry. My doctor was incredible and let me out of the hospital for a few hours so I could go and see her. I was also discharged the following morning so I could spend as much time with her as possible. They did an xray at Children's and it turns out she had cried so hard the night before that she ended up getting a small hole in her lung and filled her chest cavity up with air. That created yet another obstacle she needed to overcome before she would be able to come home. It was quite a juggling game finding people to take care of Mady and Leighton and to spend time with them and Ryleigh. She did very well at Children's, was much more calm, and ate like a horse! By day 4 she was off oxygen and her xrays had improved dramatically. On February 19, she was finally done with her antibiotics and doing well. She got to come home on her daddy's birthday and we were extremely happy to finally have her home. She is adjusting well, and tolerates her brother and sister very well. She has been a great baby, only fusses when she is hungry or getting changed. She has even gave us 8 hour stretches of sleep at night! We all love her like crazy! Here are some hospital pictures and a few from when she came home.

Build-A-Bear!

Sorry I haven't been posting recently like I had hoped. I have just been exhausted and swamped! We only have 3 days to go until our new daughter arrives! That makes for a very excited and nervous household! Mady has been begging to go to Build-A-Bear Workshop to make an animal for her baby sister. We finally took them last week and together they made a limited edition Valentine's Day dog to bring to her in the hospital. They were both so excited and haven't taken it out of the box. It's in there waiting until Thursday!

Here's Mady picking out the dog:


Here's Leighton being his reserved self! Had to make sure it was okay before he went with the lady to stuff the dog:


Here they are getting the dog stuffed:


Hugging the dog to make sure it was fluffy enough:


Getting hearts for the dog (ours has 2 because they each put one in):



Rubbing the hearts on their heads to make the dog smart:


Rubbing the heart on her heart to fill the dog with love:


Giving the dog a bath:


Naming the dog and getting a birth certificate:


And finally, bringing the dog home:


Soon I will be posting a link to my all new website!!! Not to mention picture of our new baby girl!

Oh boy...

how will I ever get a shot with all 3 kids when just 2 give me such a hard time? In an effort to take more pictures, capture more memories, and push myself I am attempting to post more often. I am trying not to worry about the "perfect" shot and just get more of my kids being my kids. Please bear with me if you see a lot of posts that can only appeal to the "mommy" in me while I am on maternity leave. Today we decided to take some pictures for our Valentine's Day cards. I don't want to share all of them an ruin the cards for family, but here are some. I'll save the color versions for the cards, but have to include one so you can see the bold colors we decided to go with. Tomorrow we begin our 10 day countdown until our new baby

Beautiful Baby Girl!!

And no, she's not mine! We still have about 12 days to go! This is my cousin's newest addition, Emersyn. Isn't she the most precious thing?! She has a head full of hair and the sweetest little features. She seemed so tiny next to all of the "big" kids! Here are a few of the pictures I took of her when we visited yesterday. There will be many more in the months to come!