The Announcement

For those of you whose mailing addresses I don't have.

After hours in Light Room and even longer in Photoshop, I finally settled on this... 

P.S. The printed card is in the shape of the inside design, but I wasn't able to post it here without the white border.

Babyville

Wells Jacob

Born May 23rd at 5 lb 2 oz

I have a new nephew! Welcome to the world, Baby Wells. You are quite possibly the most adorable little thing I've ever seen!

Kaitlin was amazing and actually really fun during delivery. For all of the stress that they went through for the pregnancy, it was such a relief to see her have such an incredible labor. Less than 12 hours from start to finish (about five hours at the hospital) and only 20 minutes of pushing. Her and Sam both handled it like absolute pros! And though he's tiny, Wells is a healthy, feisty little guy with a full faux hawk.

It was such a special, emotional day to be a part of. My mom and Andria were there too, so we had a cheering block in the corner. I think we were almost as tired as Kait when it was all over. I'm so glad the doctor let me stay in the room with Cetty during the delivery, who thankfully slept liked a baby until her cousin had safely arrived. 

We love you, Wells!

Two Months

What Cetty Has Been Up To...

+ "Talking," cooing, singing along with us, and all-around making the most adorable little baby noises possible

+ Wrinkling her nose when she smiles at us (she may have inherited that from me)

+ Sleeping longer at night and hitting a record of 7.5 hours

+ Spitting up, and then spitting up again...especially if I've just changed her into fresh clothes

+ Kick, kick, kicking her strong little legs nonstop and trying valiantly to stand when we're holding her

Poppy Quote of the Day

While feeding Cetty, Poppy asked me for yogurt. I told her to be patient and wait until I was finished. She managed to wait a couple of seconds before politely requesting,

"Please...get it with your left hand."

I suppose that's how it goes when you have more than one little one. And apparently, though I don't remember teaching her, Poppy knows the difference between right and left now. 

Anyway, I'm glad God gave us two hands.

Here's the little mama with her own handful of babies...and a rabbit mask, of course.

New Girl in Town

 Prim Ashton

Born May 3rd

Adopted May 5th

What a crazy, incredible journey. My sister Jenny and her husband Luke now have a beautiful little girl. And I now have a beautiful little namesake. Oh my goodness. I'm in love with her already and I haven't even met her yet!

Luca has been waiting for this baby girl for a long time, and I'm pretty sure he's going to be the best big brother ever. Look at that smile.

Hurry up and move home guys!

Another Drama Queen?

(Preview of newborn pictures to come soon)

We love Poppy and all her craziness, we really do. However...this time around, I was sort of hoping for a baby who likes to eat and sleep and cuddle. A nice, calm little girl. And while so far it seems that Lucette is very sweet and she does like to eat and sleep and cuddle, she has definitely already added her fair share of drama to the mix.

To start things off, when she was born her shoulder got stuck during the delivery...after her head was already out. When an episiotomy didn't work, the nurses had to stand over me and push down on my stomach while the doctor tried to rotate her enough to get her through. When they handed her to me she was purple and wasn't crying. No one answered me while I was asking if she was OK, and they quickly took her away and started blowing extra oxygen into her face. She was in shock from the rough delivery and had swallowed some fluid. It was all over pretty quickly, and I didn't think it was that big of a deal until the doctor told me afterward that a shoulder getting stuck is the complication he's the most scared of during delivery. Apparently it's called shoulder dystocia, and if it isn't handled correctly nerves can be damaged which can result in paralysis of the arm or one side of the face. Not cool. If the pressure on my stomach hadn't worked then he would have had to break Cetty's clavicle. Also not cool.

The next day in the hospital, the pediatrician came in for the initial check-up and found a heart murmur. After having her go through an echocardiogram, he told us that Cetty had a VSD. Ventricular Septal Defect. Basically, she has an extra hole in her heart. It looks small and most likely it will heal on its own by the time Cetty is a year old. But still, no one wants to hear that their already fragile little baby has a hole in her heart. It just doesn't sound good. Prayers for that would be much appreciated.

And now I'm pretty sure she has an umbilical granuloma. She's six weeks old and her belly button still hasn't healed correctly. So now I'm worried that she's going to get an infection and die from sepsis...or have a weird looking belly button all of her life.

So many issues that I've never even heard of. Poor thing. Hopefully this isn't a sign of what's to come. I don't think I like learning all these medical terms.