To my Charleigh, for your 3rd Birthday.

To my Charleigh...

My sweet Char. Where to even begin.

Tomorrow, April 26th, will be your 3rd Birthday. We have had three whole years being your parents. I have had three whole years of being your mama. Each of your siblings hold a special place in my heart, and birthdays always remind me of where I was in my life when God gave each of you to us.

You were the most beautiful baby ever. I partially named you after our sweet friend Leigha, who was a big part of our life when you were born. Leigha was sick and went to Heaven since your last birthday, and while we miss her dearly, we know she is one of your guardian angels. :)
Since your last birthday, we got to have a sweet visit with your "milk mama" Anne and "milk sister" Millie over the summer last year.

These two will always hold such a special place in our hearts, and I love knowing that you and Millie will be bonded for life over such an amazing God story. You may only be turning three, but you already have more tangible evidence of a loving, heavenly Father, and are such an amazing example of a precious testimony for Christ and His love for the little children.

Your health in the beginning of your life brought a lot of challenges our way and unfortunately, those challenges also brought some heartache along as well, but your birthday is always a reminder of the strength that we have within us from Christ, and what all we have overcome together as a family.

 Since your last birthday, you were diagnosed with an auto-immune disease and while it has been a struggle at times, I know that you feel so much better now that we know how to treat it. You have been so brave while we were trying to figure it all out, and you continue to amaze me in how you handle it all. I am so proud of you sweet girl!! We joke that you are going to grow up and be a vegan that eats bacon. You LOVE bacon, pancakes, biscuits, goat milk & cheese, and "apple sauce" which is what you call juice boxes. You rarely ever argue with me about what you can't eat if it will hurt your tummy. You love dinner time around the table at home, and making us all laugh at your silly ways. You love saying the prayer for us. 

Your favorite prayer that you say the most often is always, " Dear Dog. neh neh neh neh neh. MEN."

You finally have hair!! :) 

Just as a typical daughter of mine, your hair finally is starting to lose the baby-hair look and you have more of a short hair style. It still has a long way to go, but we are excited that we can play with it, braid it, and brush it each day just like your big sisters.

You are, in true third-child fashion, fierce when it comes to what belongs to you and what does not belong to others. You make us laugh daily with the way you cut your eyes at anyone and anything, regardless of how you actually feel about them/it. You are such a tough little cookie, yet you are probably our most emotional child yet. You don't really throw temper-tantrums as much as you get heartbroken over the smallest things and therefore punish us by hysterically sobbing about it for about 30 minutes.

You love to change your mind. A lot.

You love your Daddy so much. So, so much. You love to announce when he's home as soon as you hear the garage door opening. You love to run and play with him, and tell him all about your day.You love climbing all over him and letting him make you cackle over and over. You like telling jokes with him and riding places with him any chance you get. You love to sit in his lap in the big chair and goof off. You also know that you can sometimes get away with more from Daddy, so you like giving him a visit or two every now and then after bedtime. :)

You are eager to be just like- AND polar opposite- of your sister Callie. You love to compete with her, you love to beat her in competition, and you ask for her a dozen times a minute any time she's not with you.

You always to refer to her as "Cow-ey Wedders!!" any time you're bossing her around.

You love for Camryn to protect you, help you when you need it, and also stand up to Callie for you, in case you're losing in the current competition.

 You love for Cam to read to you, braid your hair, and help you get water from the fridge. You love to let her kiss your boo-boo's, you love to hold her hand, and you love to have her sleep right beside you in your bed, between you and Callie, on your Friday Night Sister Sleepovers. :) 

Oh, and during those sleepovers, you love to make her scratch your back until you fall asleep. ;)

You don't mind one bit being the youngest sister. You loved having the baby in the family role for 2.5 years, but you have embraced being a big sister to Preston and very well. You still have a bit of the baby role, as you are the youngest of the big girls, so you haven't struggled being jealous. We are so proud of you!!

You love to climb up on the chair in his room and talk to him in his crib.

 You love to call him Bud Bud and rub his head while you kiss him a thousand times. He looks the most like you, and I have a feeling you two are going to be best friends one day. 

He loves it when you sing the mickey mouse clubhouse theme song to him (the only song you're ever willing to sing period) and he loves it when you say to him " It's okay Bud Bud, it's okay..." if he's crying. You are such a sweet sister!!

You love Mickey Mouse. Since about November, you have said to us about ten times a day, " Hey mama! Guess Shwat? My Birt-day is MICKEY!".

You also love Clifford. And dogs, cats, and animals. You love to say " Oh, SO CUTE" when you see one.

You love our dog, Ollie. My, how you love him. You love being his boss and loving on him, and playing with his tail.

So today you were over the moon excited to have a Mickey mouse birthday party at Truett's Luau. Nana made you a cute " I can't keep calm, it's my birthday!!" t-shirt and you loved it. 

You loved having your friends Jackson, Logan, Isabelle, Brennen, and cousin Titus there to celebrate your big day. 

You loved all your presents, and your favorite present was from mama and your family. It was a boys red Mickey Mouse t-shirt. You insisted on changing shirts right then and there in the restaurant. 

You loved your Mickey & Minnie sugar cookies and you loved playing with your new guitar.

You have grown so much over the last year, Charleigh. The little girl who quietly rode in the middle row of the car by herself, separate from her big sisters, has quickly changed into a big girl who insists on riding in the third row right in the middle of both of them, so you can't miss a beat of conversation.

You love to chat and repeat what we all say. You love to politely say "Mama, pwease turn it up." over and over and over again until I do.

You are so polite and well-mannered for a girl your age, and you rarely get into something that you haven't asked to do first.

You love to ask me, " Mama I need to hold you!!!" if you want me to pick you up. You love to come up and tap me real hard on my arm if I am sitting down somewhere or feeding your brother and you want to ask me something.

You are quiet and we have to check on where you are- a lot. You tend to wander off pretty easily and we have to check often where you are. You love to not answer back when someone is calling for you, leaving mama always wondering if you've escaped the house or not. We usually find you playing quietly somewhere when that happens, knowing we were calling you, but just choosing to ignore it. :)

You have the longest, most beautiful dark eye lashes, and your bright blonde hair makes your eyes pop even more. You are beautiful.

You love to tell us " I love too, mama." when you give the biggest hugs in the world.

You love pointing out colors and shapes, and you love shouting " I DID IT!" every time you go potty.

You are a wonderful blend of both of your big sisters and we LOVE seeing the three of you play together so well every single day.

I am writing this after having said goodbye to the two-years-old Charleigh when I put you to bed. I am really going to miss her. I have loved seeing the wonder in your eyes as you've taken in and experienced the world so quietly up until this point. Your little life has taught me so much in such a short amount of time. I am so thankful for your individual spirit, and it reminds me daily that no two of my children are the same. You made me feel confident as a mother. You helped teach me to always listen to my own intuition, to trust my inner-voice, and the important lesson in the power of prayer. You are my visual as a constant, daily reminder that God is with us and you help drive me to always have a heart of gratitude, and to praise Him in the good times and in the bad times.  I am so thankful that God trusted us to be your parents.  I am thankful that God gave us you when He did. You have been such a joy to raise from a baby until now, and I am so excited at what kind of little girl you are going to become over the next year of your life. We love you, Char!!!

Preston's Birth Story {part 2}

This post is LONG! But so many fun details that I don't want to leave any out. :)

So, as mentioned in my earlier post, It was a little after 10pm when I was waking up my husband, Kyle, telling him my water had just broken and I was definitely in labor. Our youngest daughter Charleigh was wide awake enjoying the show of mommy shavingherlegs making preparations for labor and daddy running around all over the house getting the birth pool supplies up and running.

I gave my phone to Charleigh while I was having contractions and she took this picture of me while I was pacing the floor. So funny! and yes, our Christmas tree was half lit and un-decorated. TRUE LIFE! Plus, it was still a week out from Thanksgiving, so no rush. :)

Up until this point I hadn't been totally set out either way about having a water birth. I know some women are extremely passionate about having their babies in the water, but I was sort of straight down the road about it. I didn't mind if I delivered the baby on the bed, but just in case I wanted to lessen the labor pains, I knew that I would want to have the birth pool ready to go for me to get in whenever the time came. 

About 10 minutes into Kyle gathering everything, he noticed that the sink adapter (the part that you hook the water hose up to the sink with, in order to fill the pool with warm water) was not attaching correctly to our sink, therefore not working. He caught this glitch quickly, and was in the basement going through his tools trying to correct the problem.

At this point, around 10:30, I was in active labor. My contractions were coming every 4 minutes, lasting about 30-40 seconds. At first, they were just a little annoying, but completely bearable still. I should make note that apparently I have an extremely high tolerance for pain, in general. I don't enjoy being uncomfortable, but when it comes to pain, I'm really good at keeping it mind-over-matter and not freaking out. 

I had been in touch with my midwife, Tanya, who told me to just keep tracking them and to get back in touch with her in thirty minutes, and she would probably leave home to come over at that point, as long as everything continued. At this point, I honestly thought I would probably not deliver the baby at least until 5-6am at the earliest. This was my first start-to-finish natural delivery (I ended up having a natural delivery with Charleigh, but it was unplanned and I was unprepared, so it was super frustrating and I promised myself then that I would never try to depend on an epidural again). I really truly thought, especially since I was going to be at home, that my labor would be longer than any of my others. In my past experience, my longest labor had been about 5 hours start-to-finish. But that was with medical assistance, so I wasn't counting it. ;) 

Well, once I realized Kyle was sort of panicking - silently - that there was an issue with the birth pool stuff, I knew he wasn't going to be coming around me any time soon, and that my contractions were slowly beginning to get more and more uncomfortable. So walking around during each contraction with my 2-year old following me, repeating the phrase " What'd you do? What'd you do, mama? Where you goin, mama?" was not going to cut it much longer. So, I picked up the phone, called my mom and informed her that although Kyle was being extremely helpful for the big picture, I needed actual help, since CJ was wide awake with no sleeping in the near future at all. She told me she would grab her things and head down in 15 minutes (they live 15 minutes away). Perfect. I actually tried to distract myself and decided to try to keep watching tv in between contractions (still thinking I had 6+ hours to go), so I turned on the next recording on our DVR, The Goldbergs (funniest show ever). However, our basement door is near our family room (where I was), and the birth pool was planned to be in our bedroom on the top floor, so Kyle was constantly coming in and out of the room, heading up and down the stairs working on his project to get things fixed and running. Bless his heart. He realized he was going to need to go to the store (walmart was the only thing open at this time) to simply replace the part that wasn't working. I didn't want him to leave me home alone, so I had asked him to wait until my mom got here so he could go then. So in the mean time he was still trying to fix it with things at home.

Within about 15 minutes maybe, I was uncomfortable enough that all of his commotion was starting to really annoy me. I just wanted him take and deal with Charleigh, but I also wanted the birth pool for the soon-to-be hard contractions, so I also wanted him to keep working, so I was torn at how I felt about him running around. Ha!

 I finally looked at the clock and realized it had been 45 minutes since I had spoken to my mom, and my parents still weren't here to get the kids. I called her and she informed that their car broke down on the way! Thankfully they were still in their neighborhood, but they were walking on foot back to their house to get their other car and drive down. I knew it would be at least another 20 minutes before they could get here (and save me from the toddler!), but I was so over waiting. So, I stopped Kyle in his tracks and said, " Okay, clearly this is not working and you need to just go get a new part to replace the one that isn't working. Now either you can go to Walmart, and have Chris or Lana stay here with me(our best friends who live about a mile from us that were our back-up in case my parents couldn't make it to help), or you can call Chris and have him go to Walmart and you stay here with me. Those are your choices, we're not waiting on my parents anymore." Kyle, again, bless his sweet, still-groggy heart, stared for a minute in silence and finally said "Just call Chris and have him go."

So I picked up my phone and called Lana. What's funny is she knew I was in labor, as she coincidentally sent me a text message within 5 minutes of my water breaking just checking on me. Chris had been out for a run during that time, so Lana called him and told him and they were sort of just waiting for news from us. 

What is even more funny, is that the entire pregnancy, once my home birth was official, Kyle had half jokingly said to Chris that he had no desire to witness the birth and that once I was in labor, he was calling Chris and the two of them were taking off to Longhorn to eat and "wait for the call" together. 

We joked about this the entire time I was pregnant but I really did not think they would play such a big part in the big day. What's sweet is that they were the friends who told us that Preston was a HE and not a She, after I had the gender ultrasound and we had a big dinner that night with a fun reveal sign that Lana made for us. I wish I would've blogged this day! But we were about to move into our new house and life was crazy busy. Regret! But here are some pictures from that night. Sad we didn't take any with Chris and Lana themselves! 

This is Chris and Lana Parker :)

Okay, so back to the story.

Lana ended up sending Chris over to the house to grab the part so he could head to walmart and get a new one.

A few minutes after Chris came and left, my parents arrived. My dad got the big girls out of the bed, and all three of them loaded into my van to take them back to their house. I said goodbye to them, but I guess I acted fine since it was in between contractions, so my kids had no idea I was in labor and I guess my dad didn't mention it to them. So fun :)

So, it was finally time to focus on the fact that I was really in labor. About this time I spoke on the phone to Tanya, and she said she would head down to my house within 15 minutes. A lot of what she had told me previously to being in labor was that midwives can tell in the sound of the tone in your voice if you're pretty far into your laboring or not. She wasn't in too big of a hurry, since I seemed fine on the phone. That was at 11:15.

My mom and I came upstairs to my bedroom, and I labored upstairs for a while, continuing to walk around during each contraction, and my mom was my typical mom, straightening up and making everything perfect. She swapped our linens out for the ones we had waiting to use for labor, bed sheets, and towels, and was a caretaker to me when I needed something. At one point, maybe around 11:50, I was thirsty and hungry, so I had her bring me up a glass of grape juice. Within 5 minutes I felt sick from that, so I took two tums. Within a few minutes from that I ran to the bathroom to vomit. So, apparently I was far enough along into labor that food/drinks= no bueno. But I still thought I had HOURS to go, as my contractions were still anywhere from 2-4 minutes apart, and I just was naive I guess. 

Somewhere around then, Chris returned after being gone quite a while to Walmart, with no luck of having the part. So him and Kyle were downstairs trying to rig something to make it work. Poor guys. I should have let them off the hook at this point. :)

At one point around this time, my mom was downstairs helping the guys when my contractions took a turn for the worse. I had to really use my thoughts to get me through each one. 

I had a playlist of praise music ready to go on my phone and I just sat on my bed for a few minutes taking it all in during a contraction. I remember reciting the verse over and over again in my head, "I can do ALL things through Christ who gives me strength." I was listening to one of my favorite songs by Christy Nockels, Revive Me, and it brought me to tears. Even though downstairs it was sort of chaotic, I just tuned it all out and really thought about the miracle that I knew was about to happen. Even though I was in probably the worst pain of my life, I couldn't help but be so grateful and thankful that I was getting to be a part of that miracle. I knew no matter how bad it was going to get, that I could get through it with God's help. I'm not sure I've ever felt closer to God than in that moment! I was so vulnerable, almost helpless, but getting through each part of it with His words written on my heart. I really felt His presence with me. So thankful for that sweet moment with Christ before I got to meet my sweet Preston!

Unfortunately, that moment didn't last very long. But I'm just so happy I had it!! Since the birth pool was in my bedroom, my assistants came in to continue fixing the problem. I must mention that the entire time I was pregnant, I really pictured my home birth differently. I wanted it to be calm, serene, music... just laboring the time away. I did not picture the Goldbergs on in the background, Chris Parker and Kyle becoming tool men, me rushing to shave my legs, and my two year old being my birth partner for more than half of the time. But, it kind of matches my life, unfortunately. I always try to prepare and have things *just right*, just like everyone else, and it never fails that I end up having some crazy, chaotic, HILARIOUS event instead. I think I've finally accepted that I just can't be normal even when I try. It's probably time to stop fighting it and just embrace my crazy already. :)

I remember looking at the clock at 12:09 and Tanya still had not arrived, and thinking "Okay, when is she going to get here? Not sure how much longer I can do this without her". Not because my mom wasn't helping, but mostly because I had not done a single thing to prepare for natural childbirth.

 #procrastinatingatitsworst. 

I had intended on it, but never did. Ha!

 So I wasn't sure if there was something I could be doing other than walking... and I was curious how far dilated I was, and in general just wanted her for emotional support, since this was it!

Well, exactly a minute later she arrived. She calmly came upstairs and I had another contraction. I tried to use the restroom in between contractions as much as I could, so I wouldn't have any distractions when it counted. For some reason I STILL thought I had hours to go though!! The contractions were completely painful by then and I remember telling Tanya in between them, " I'm not saying I want to quit. But I must admit that during these I have had thoughts of 'why can't I just use drugs like every other woman in the world?! why do I have to make my life so much more difficult than it has to be?! why can't I just be NORMAL!" hahaha

During one of them I said to her, " What am I DOING?!" (meaning this hurts so bad) and she was so sweet, she brought me back down to reality and said "You're having a baby. It's worth it." I'm so thankful she was there to remind me of what I was doing. It's easy to get caught up in the hard and forget the wonderful prize at the end that's coming!

Tanya and my mom were chatting away in my bedroom, while I was in the bathroom trying not to vomit from the pain. At one point, I got another contraction and apparently my tone of voice changed and Tanya came in, and said " Um.. do you feel like pushing?!!!" I said "I think so!" and she immediately began setting everything up.

JUST IN THE NICK OF TIME the guys fixed the sink adapter! I was still having that same contraction when Tanya said to me, "Okay, we can go ahead and fill up the pool but it MIGHT cover your ankles at the most." I STILL didn't comprehend that this was it, I don't think I really heard what she was trying to tell me when she said that. Her point was that there wasn't enough time, I think I took it as it wouldn't work properly. So I pointed at my bathtub and agreed to just use it instead. Around this time I started sweating and remember kind of feeling not myself. I even asked my mom "Is Chris Parker still here??! Tell him I'm sorry he has to hear all of this! and make sure the door is closed!" (As if he was even going to THINK about coming up the stairs?!) haha! Because at this point I definitely couldn't keep silent through each contraction. 

I still wasn't set out on INSISTING on having a water birth, I just wanted my pain to come down. I guess I had it in my head that birth pool = no more pain. I figured water was water, so my bathtub was good enough, even though I really wanted the birth pool to work out. Once I gave her the green light to fill up the tub, Kyle appeared out of no where and had the water running right as another contraction came. They were much closer together now, maybe 1 minute apart? I don't think I had seen or spoken to him since the "call Chris" conversation we had last, a good hour and half earlier.

Here's where the "Everybody Loves Raymond" moment happened. Poor Kyle.

He was running my water, and held out his hand and said "Are you okay? Can I get you anything?" and wanted to hold my hand through the contraction. I went all mean on him and said, "NO! and I'm PISSED at your for ruining my water birth!!!!!!!!! You should have made sure that part would work correctly weeks ago!! DON'T even try to help now!!"

Bless his heart. {insert laughing-til-you-cry emoticon here}.

He was a good man and didn't try to argue with me. Just as the tub was nearly full, I had another contraction that was so painful I sort of yelled through it. That's when Tanya very quickly gave me my orders to GET IN THE TUB, NOW.

I practically dove into the water and immediately had about 20 seconds of relief. THANK GOODNESS!! I used those 20 seconds to just breathe, but I remember sweat pouring down my face. 

Then it happened. I had one contraction so bad that I screamed, just like in the movies. I closed my eyes and I swear to you it was an out-of-body experience. It's like my body just took over and I remember thinking "This hurts SO BAD I don't think I can handle more of these!". I was pushing and figured, as with my other babies, I would have a few more pushes to go before baby. (At this point I knew it was time, and not going to be hours and hours more, but with my other children I pushed a few times. My shortest amount was with my first, I pushed twice. My longest one being with my third, Charleigh, I pushed for about 10 minutes. A lot of that was my unpreparedness for being able to feel EVERY SINGLE THING (unplanned) and I was so upset that I could feel it that I didn't really focus on what I was doing.)

Well, I was wrong! That boy came out during that one single push!! My midwife did not even have on her other glove, and she had to catch the baby with one hand in the water. 

I couldn't believe it. But apparently neither could Kyle. He gets a little squirmy around childbirth. In past babies, he stood behind me in the delivery room, so he couldn't see anything, just be there to hold the baby when it was over. I've never had an issue with it, because I've witnessed him nearly passing out fainting due to having a glimpse at what was happening. So if I wanted him to be present, I had to let him be behind me. haha! 

When I started screaming during that first and last push, he took off. He couldn't take it! I didn't notice in the moment, but learned later that he literally ran out of the bathroom, slammed the bedroom door behind him, and ran down stairs to Chris, skipping every 3 stairs. When he came into the room with Chris, he greeted him with the words, "There are just some things men aught not to see, and that is one of 'em." HA! If you know Kyle, I'm sure you can hear him saying it. 

I don't think he meant to miss the actual birth, he just knee-jerk reacted and took off during the screaming. Well, if I had to guess, probably right as he was slamming the bedroom door shut behind him was the exact moment Preston was born. He literally missed it by half a second! Silly boy.

Once he was out, Tanya put him on my chest and I remember it taking a few minutes for it all to register with me. I couldn't believe I had only pushed once and it was done! It all happened so fast, the whole night. My water broke at 10, my labor began around 10:30, and he was born at 12:36am.

Tanya had only been in my house for 26 minutes before he was born. We didn't even get a chance to call my friend and  birth photographer to get here. Tanya's business partner  and fellow midwife was on her way and Tanya had to call her to tell her not to come, it was too late. :) We all had no idea it would happen so quickly.

We all called Kyle back upstairs and he got to hold Preston. He was probably 2 minutes old. :) 

I stayed in the tub for a few minutes before getting out and taking a shower (my choice, not Tanya's :) ), and I immediately crawled into bed to nurse my new baby!

It was amazing. and crazy. and next time I will have the birth pool sink adapter hooked up to my sink for WEEKS before the baby comes, to make sure none of that happens again.

Or maybe I'll just deliver in the bathtub again :) 

I nursed Preston for a good hour and enjoyed some skin-to-skin contact before we found out his birth weight, height, etc. He was 7lbs 5oz, and 20 inches long, and perfect!

checking out his vitals! And yes, those ARE leopard-print bed sheets. I didn't want to possibly mess up my good linens, and had to buy an extra set to use during birth, so you better believe when my mama called from walmart one day saying they had leopard sheets on clearance, that I was like um YES PLEASE! I'm a leopard lover. I have no shame. :)

I loved that hour of nursing him and just sitting and chatting about the entire experience with my Kyle, my mom, and Tanya. So amazing. We all just sat and laughed!

I took this around 5:30am.




Like I said above, we all just sat and laughed and shared the joy of the miracle that had just happened. Tanya checked Preston, then checked me, and around 3am everyone left to go home. Kyle and I just turned out the lights, and went to sleep, with our new baby in between us. When the lights were out, just before we passed out, I remember we said to each other, "Can you believe he's here? Can you believe that just happened? So amazing."

It really was. I am so thankful to God for giving us Preston. Our first boy. I loved giving birth at home, despite all the funny things that happened. I love that my story is so unique and unlike even my other births. I love that I had such a great midwife to take care of me. I love that Christ gave me the strength to get through it, and for that sweet moment of clarity I had just before the birth.

Preston is now 8 weeks old and we fall more in love with him with each day. I want to document his first few days, and how even more awesome having a home birth was during that time, so I'll try to write up a separate post soon on his first week of life, before I forget it all!

Couldn't be happier!!!

Preston's Birth Story {part 1}

On November 20th, 2014 our very first baby BOY, Preston Colt Weathers was born at home, joining us as the 6th member of our family, and I can hardly remember life before him. We are so in love!!


Here is the story of his birth. As always, you may feel free to run for the hills at any given moment. If you do not wish to read a long, detailed story of how our fourth baby came into this world, at home nonetheless, then click X now! :)


First off, let's answer on here the questions I've been asked tons of times already by nearly every person I know, most likely since this was my first home birth and fourth baby... :)

yes, my home birth was planned. 
No, Kyle did not "catch" the baby. far from that, too.

And neither did my mother. Although I feel confident she's fully capable. After all, she tends to be a fabulous DIY-er.

No, the girls were not there to watch. Although, that very easily could have ended up happening!

No, I didn't deliver the baby by myself. We (just barely!) had a professional midwife, who in fact had been my caretaker for all of my prenatal care. 

Yes, we were prepared to give birth at home, and had all of the necessary items that help insure a safe delivery. Although, if you read on, you'll learn that, at least in OUR life, clearly that doesn't seem to matter much.

Yes, as mentioned above, I had professional prenatal care throughout my entire pregnancy, had ultrasounds all throughout, and even had an OBGYN to back my home birth. 

Home Birth is not unusual these days, but I'm now aware that to most of the people that we know, I was one of the first they had heard of having a planned home birth. 


I believe wholeheartedly that the Lord has fully equipped ALL women to give birth to the child He has blessed them with all by themselves. Is every birth completely successful without added medical care that the hospital can provide? No, therefore I also fully believe that women should fully take advantage of the care that is offered to them, if that is what they feel is best for them and their family. However, in my case, with having never had a miscarriage, any pregnancy issues, and three completely successful deliveries before, I felt very confident that I would be fine giving birth on my own. Some have asked why I chose not to just have a natural birth at the hospital, for safety precautions. Well, my answer to that is simple. The odds of being able to stand your ground at the hospital, on their time clock (which totally exists!), and not end up being convinced into using drugs to "help move things along" are extremely low. So, I did my research, found a home birth midwife, and planned to give birth at home. My home birth was hands down THE best experience of my life. So unique and unlike the routine hospital births that I've done three times before. I really wish that I would've been open to the idea sooner. I wonder what those births would've been like had I been willing to try. As with most things in my life, I literally say out loud, to someone at some point, that "I would never ___", and then TOTALLY end up doing it (home birth, homeschooling, ministry, and more).

 I urge those of you who aren't as familiar with home birthing to do a little research before you assume it is the "scariest" choice. There is a ton of information out there proving that, statistically, the death rate among women giving birth is actually higher for those that give birth in hospitals than at home. If you want a little up-close and personal information, you can also watch the home birth documentary that is currently on Netflix, called The Business of Being Born. It is definitely worth watching, regardless of your stance. :) 

Now, on to the actual birth story. 

I was within a week of my due date the day I went into labor. I woke up that Wednesday morning feeling great, but had a few back spasms (not contractions) that made me wonder if that day would be the day. The spasms went away after an hour or two, so as usual during that time, I immediately thought it would be another two weeks. (ha!)

Camryn and Callie spent the day riding horses with a friend for her birthday and ended up being gone all day. So I got to spend my very last day as a mother of three , with my baby Charleigh. :) It was perfect. We went to Target and strolled around for 2 hours (for real), and went home, had lunch, played, and napped...a little too long. I was enjoying the peace and quiet so much that I accidentally let Charleigh nap for 4 hours!! Oops. A big oops, but an enjoyable one at that! :)

My friend Mallory, who the girls were with all day, lives in Peachtree City by my parents, so I arranged for my mom to pick them up for me and meet us at bible class at church that night.Kyle ended up getting home around 5:30 (which is rare for him), and I had no energy to cook dinner. Since there were only three of us to eat, we decided to go out to eat instead. After listing a dozen places, I finally agreed to go to the Dwarf House Chick-fil-A for their breakfast buffet. We loaded up in the car and went, and as I was driving I was having more braxton hicks contractions that I told Kyle I was starting to get really annoyed by. Not annoyed in pain, just annoyed that they weren't the real thing and I was tired of having them in general. We had a nice dinner, but didn't really stay long to talk, as I was just uncomfortable and ready to get back home. Being uncomfortable was not uncommon for me at this point in pregnancy. But, what rushed us even more was the fact that Kyle had been running all day on about 2.5 hours sleep the night before. He had trouble falling asleep, and finally did around 2am, then got a call at 3:30 to be at work at 5 to run an early route. I on the other hand, had slept great the night before. Another indicator that morning that had me wondering if today was THE day. So, he was tired and ready to go get the girls and go home and go to bed. That was the plan, at least, but after spending the day in the freezing cold outside, Camryn ended up having a headache and not feeling well, so my mom called me and said she was driving them home instead of meeting us at church.

We got home and got everyone, including Kyle, in the bed around 8. I knew Charleigh would be wide awake, since she had taken such a long nap that afternoon, but chose to put her to bed anyway with hopes and prayers that maybe the consistent schedule would help. In case it didn't work and she got out of bed, I opted out of my usual early bedtime routine and stayed up downstairs catching up on some DVR'd shows. Not a bad way to spend the last hours that I'd be alone for a while ;)

I was relaxing on the couch when I actually choked a little bit on the water I was drinking, and had to get up and cough a ton. I remember laughing inside thinking "well, wouldn't it be so crazy if this broke my water" as I was coughing really, really hard. I really didn't think it would, just thought it would be funny it if happened that way.

Well it did, sort of. A few minutes later, I was sitting on the couch still watching an episode of New Girl, when a really funny scene came on that I laughed out loud at. It was Winston trying to measure his smile with a ruler.
(Ignore the spanish captions, but here's the clip that had me cracking up!)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDWYj8oUio0

It was then that my water broke, right at about 10pm! I jumped up and within seconds, as in maybe 5 seconds, was on my phone calling my mom telling her I was "pretty sure" that my water just broke.I laugh at this now because I remembered exactly what it felt like when it broke with Callie, but for some reason when I am that far along in my pregnancies, I tend to actually think that I will never really go into labor, and the baby is never going to come out. It's like I tell myself it just won't happen since I want it to so badly. A minute or two later, and sure enough, there was actual evidence that my water had indeed broken during that laugh. But, in my past experience, I had a few hours until any real action was going to occur, so my mom and I both agreed for her to stay home a while longer, for me to leave the girls asleep in bed, and wait for the labor to pick up before her and my dad came to get them. 

I sent texts to two of my closest friends, and headed upstairs to wake up the husband.

By the time I reached the top of the stairs I was practically high off of adrenaline. No pain had set in yet, and with this being my fourth baby, I was just so excited to actually be in labor! I knew the upcoming hours would be life changing ones, and I was just thrilled that it was actually here! I turned on the light, and quickly said, "Kyle! Wake up! my water just broke."

He was in the deepest sleep ever. EVER. Probably the deepest sleep he's ever been in in his entire life. Figures!

He sat up and slurred said "Okay, what do we do next" and I quickly responded with " well I need to shave my legs and paint my toes and you need to get the birth pool stuff ready!". I laugh at that as well, I know it sounds crazy that those were my first go-to thoughts once I knew I was in labor. But I really thought, or had myself convinced, that this baby was going to be 2 weeks past his due date, so I thought I had 3 weeks until baby time. ha! Boy was I wrong. 

Shortly after that, a cute little blonde headed two year old meets us in the hallway, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed ready to play. The girl was wide awake, my husband was far from that, and I was in labor. 



Well, that is how it all went down on the last full day leading up to Preston's arrival. Check back soon for Preston's Birth Story {part 2}!

A New Place to Call Home

In the words of my very own mother...

As some reading this may know, In Grace & Kisses is not my first attempt at documenting my thoughts and the occasional story of my children's lives. I've started and stopped. And started again. And stopped again. I can honestly say this (one time) is actually not because of commitment issue. This I know for sure, I'm more of a creative thinker. Not to say that I am not smart, I'm just more creative than I am brainy. The problem with my being creative is that I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my creativity.

The truth is, I stopped writing because I couldn't stand the actual design/look of my blog.

This sounds so silly. It IS so silly. But hey! If you're going to blog, you have to fully accept and acknowledge that the visual is 95% part of the fun for the reader. And I never felt like the visuals associated with my blog previously were a true representation of me and my personality.

So I decided I would just have someone design one for me.

The second problem, and next reason for going so long before writing again: I'm extremely indecisive. The first part of having someone design your blog for you is to tell them what you like. But I like EVERYthing! I can tell you tons about what I don't like, but I could never narrow down my personality to one single "look" to represent myself forever and ever, amen. I mean, I don't even have a favorite color for cryin' out loud. I have a lot of favorite colors, my most favorite color being straight up glitter.

So, this delayed my writing process for quite some time, because I just couldn't get past the borrowed templates from the blogs around the corner, or whatever those sites are called.


Also, blogging, to me, is an easy way for me to document my thoughts and the all the little details of my every day life. For some it is time consuming, but I'll be straight up with ya'll. As much as I would love a custom made beautifully designed blog, I just don't have the time for that yet. I've let that exact decision hold me back from continuing to blog for far too long now, and I'm tired of caring about it so much that I end up not documenting a cool memory of the kids because of it. I still want to get a pretty look, but for now I plan on just sitting down and typing it all up, and pressing the publish button instead. I can tell you, there will be little, if any, editing done beforehand. I also tend to make spelling and grammar mistakes, and I like to use smiley faces. A LOT. So just a warning for all you teachers reading this! Pretend I'm a brilliant writer instead!

I will probably end up writing mostly about my kids, homeschooling them, all of the "firsts" for our newest baby boy Preston, including the Home Birth I had with him, and probably some of the funny stories of things that happen to me along the way. I can assure you, I do NOT plan on writing any "__ reasons you should ___" or anything even close to it. There are plenty of those things all over Pinterest as it is. 

example. 

 what???!!!!! Is this really necessary?!?!

 (sorry for the crude humor but ya'll know this is crazy!)

I also will try to keep my blog upbeat and positive. I want it to be a place I can come back to and show to my children, and it not bring up or remind me of every little trial life throws our way. I want this to be like a digital scrapbook, with details written along the way. :) 

If none of the topics listed above interest you, then this is your chance to run for the hills, my friends! No offense will be taken. Just don't slam the door on the way out ;)

Thanks for reading!!