Ivy's birth story

Monday night, September 27th, Ian stayed with Nana and Papa, because Jason and I had to be at the hospital by 5AM. Why 5AM, I have no idea...because things didn't really get moving until about 9AM. However, we walked right in, I had my lovely hospital gown on and was in the hospital bed by 5:15AM. Then, Jason and I just sat there and talked until the nurses came in and started my IV and and hooked up all the monitors. Dr. Pereyo came in around 8:45AM and asked me if I wanted him to break my water before or after the epidural. Remembering how strong the contractions got with Ian after he broke my water, I opted to get my epidural before. About 9:30 or so I had the epidural and about 10 Dr. Pereyo came back in and broke my water and said that I was at a 3. Then, it took me until about 1:30 to get to a 7. By 2:00, I was at a 10, and Ivy was born at 2:18PM weighing 5 lbs 12 oz and was 18 inches long.

She and Ian were both exactly 5 days early...and they were exactly 2 lbs different in weight. Miss Ivy was a little thing...and I remember saying, "She's SO small." Two weeks prior, they estimated her to be 6 lbs. 7 oz...but I know that they can be off +/- 2 lbs.

Ivy's delivery was MUCH MUCH, did I mention MUCH, easier than Ian's. It took me all day to get to a 10 with him and then took 2 hours of pushing to get him out. I didn't even have to push with Ivy. In fact, Dr. Pereyo was across the room setting up when one of the nurses had to tell him to come back over to me...Ivy was not waiting!

We are SO very excited that she is finally here!

The "baby book"

Mrs. Carol Mundy at our church let us borrow a book “The New Baby”, that she read to her son Daniel 20+ years ago when she was expecting her 2nd child, Erin. The book is about a little boy, Mike, whose mom was expecting a new baby…a baby girl. How sweet of Carol to let us borrow it in these last few weeks leading up to the arrival of our daughter and Ian’s baby sister, Ivy.

What makes it even more special is that it has become Ian’s favorite book. Each night, we let Ian pick out 1 book to read before bed. Last night made the 4th night in a row that he chose the “baby book” as he calls it. He LOVES it! It is so sweet…he crawls into his bed…props up his pillow…and then I hoist my 9 month pregnant self into his bed with him…he lays against my belly and just rubs it and kisses it as I read. It really melts my heart. It is evident that he loves his sister very much already. Although I know they will fight at times, I truly believe they will have a special relationship. Ian is such a loving child…and I think he is going to make a great big brother to Ivy.

Thank you Carol for letting us borrow this book…it has truly been a blessing!

"Love never fails" - Brandon Heath

I was an emotional wreck this morning driving to work. I was listening to Brandon Heath's "Love never fails". As I was singing along, I was just overwhelmed with the love that I have for my son & unborn daughter...and thinking about how much more our Heavenly Father loves each one of us.

NEW closet, NEW bathroom, NEW nursery OH MY!!

First of all, I just have to say, I have THE MOST awesome, talented hubby in the world. He can do ANYTHING and I love him so very much!

So, what have we (ok, mainly Jason, but I did help some!) been up to these last few weeks...resting as much as possible? Not hardly...Jason has spent lots of hours and has worked very hard on several projects around our house over the last few weeks. Jason, thank you!

Project #1: Walk-in closet in master bedroom

As we started to prepare for Ivy's arrival, we realized that the closet in her soon-to-be nursery was slam FULL. We have a walk-in closet in our bathroom that Jason and I have been sharing. We also had a seating area in our master bedroom that we really didn't utilize...so Jason had the idea of turning it into a walk-in closet. What a GREAT idea! It is SO nice to have the extra closet space! So, I moved into the new closet, Jason moved his tri gear and stuff out of the closet in the nursery into the closet we were sharing, and now we have room for Ivy's clothes in her closet!

Project #2: Ian and Ivy's bathroom

We had not done anything to Ian's bathroom since we moved in over a year ago. We have been wanting to take down the wallpaper (which my dad did, thanks daddy!) and turn it into a more kid friendly bathroom. So, here are the before and after pics of Ian and Ivy's new bathroom.

Project #3: Ivy's nursery

It's kind of simple...and we still have yet to put up the curtains...but I LOVE how it turned out!