Uncle James cereal

This is for my sister...

Every morning I wake up to a quiet voice by my head asking...

"Uncle James cereal?"

It's pronounced Jay-mess, which is short for her Uncle Jameson.

THIS is Uncle James cereal.

While visiting her Uncle James, Tiffany was exposed to her first bowl of Lucky Charms. Since then, it is the ONLY cereal she will eat. She'd rather skip breakfast that eat a different kind of cereal. And, if I don't get out of bed immediately to get her Uncle James cereal, then I have to deal with a major meltdown.

Since Tiffany is the only one that eats marshmallows for breakfast... This is the cereal that I buy. She found it herself at the grocery store right after we got back from visiting Uncle James. Tiffany had grabbed it off the shelf herself, walked up to me and asked, "Buy Uncle James cereal?" I couldn't refuse.

Of course, this isn't the only time I hear the words "Uncle James" come out of Tiffany's mouth. There's Uncle James:
-Baby
-Phone
-House
-and then her toddler ramblings I don't understand include a random "Uncle James."

She sure loves her Uncle James.

Addie Kay Ashby

Birth story and a few pictures.

On Monday, March 14th, I posted this on facebook:

"I told my husband I'd wait until Monday to have a baby so he could finish his lectures, paper and start his March madness picks contest. I am hoping that since I was so kind to wait until today that my wish would be granted. Only one week left today."

Some might argue that the picks contest was the most important task on his Spring Break to-do list.

My wish came true! Addie Kay Ashby was born at 8:43 p.m. on Monday, March 14th.

My contractions started sometime around 11 a.m. on Monday. I was working on a baby project and was down on the ground cutting material when the contractions started. I figured they were labor induced and would go away once I stopped working. They weren't that painful and I decided to work through them to finish my project. I didn't even mention them to Blake who was sitting on the couch working at the time.

After resting a bit, and having the contractions get closer, I decided that this was the real thing. I quickly made some mac-n-cheese and put on some make-up. Around 1:30 p.m. my contractions were 8-10 minutes apart and I decided to call my OB office. I hadn't progressed any from my appointment 4 days prior and was still 3 cm dilated and 100% effaced. My OB told me I didn't look like I was in enough pain and told me to go home since I wasn't in active labor yet.

We thought about going to the hospital anyways, but eventually decided it would be better to just go home now then to be sent home later. I was told to head to the hospital when my contractions were at least 8 minutes apart. We get home and my contractions completely stopped. Then about an hour later they started again and were consistently 9 minutes apart. Over an hour later, around 5:00 p.m. I had one contraction at 6 minutes and then they jumped down to being 3 minutes apart. We decided that NOW was the time to head to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital shortly after 6:00 p.m.

We get there and I am STILL 3 cm dilated and 100% effaced. I was in so much pain that was the last thing I wanted to hear. I was so irritated at this point and just wanted my epidural so that my pain would go away. To add to my frustration, EVERYONE in hospital insisted on talking to me. Nurse #1 asked me 100 questions, nurse #2 asked me the SAME questions, the hospital on-call doc with her med student asked me the SAME questions, the med student on her own asked me the SAME questions and my OB asked me the SAME questions. Do they not talk to each other? I was so annoyed and in so much pain at that point.

My nurse did do her best to work as fast as possible so I could get the epidural I wanted. Around 8:15 p.m. I was finally ready to get the epidural, but suddenly felt the need to start pushing. My nurse checked me and told the anesthesiologist to hurry. While getting the epidural my leg went completely numb and I thought it was starting to take effect. I mentioned how good it felt and I guess the anesthesiologist got this terrified look on her face. Apparently, I had not yet received the epidural but she had hit a nerve while inserting it. I hated having to stay perfectly still while having this overwhelming urge to push. I DID NOT want to deliver a baby without it. I got the epidural at 8:30 p.m., my water broke on it's own at 8:32 p.m., Addie Kay Ashby arrived at 8:43 p.m. and the epidural took effect at 8:45 p.m. I got the epidural but still had to deliver a baby without any pain medication.

What I learned during labor:

1. I have no patience for EVERYONE talking to me while I am in labor.
2. I have an awesome husband that allowed me to forcefully rub his hand during every contraction for almost 2 hours straight.
3. I never want to deliver without an epidural ever again.
4. I have heard of "the woman next door" screaming during her labor and I am officially the woman next door.
5. After it was finally over, the pain didn't seem so bad. Even minutes after the delivery I completely forgot how much pain I was in because Addie was perfect in every way. I still don't want to do it without an epidural.

Now for some pictures.

This is the only belly picture of me. We took this right before I went to the OB office.

Many hours later, in the hospital, when I was still happy.

The proud daddy.

Me with Addie. I look pretty darn good considering what I just went through.

Tiffany and her little sister.

Tiffany started giving her kisses without us telling her she should.

Addie in her going home outfit.

Mommy Daughters time at home.

The following day.This girl sure loves to cuddle and would rather sleep with me than anywhere else.

Daddy Daughter Time

Like Mother, Like Daughter

While we were in AZ we took Tiffany to the Wildlife World Zoo.

One place we stopped was at the flamingo habitat.

If you can tell, most of the flamingos have their heads turned the same direction. While we were there the flamingos were making a funny noise and turning their heads back and forth to the rhythm.

Tiffany commented that the flamingos were singing a song. Not wanting to feel left out, Tiffany started to conduct the flamingos in their beautiful (some what annoying) song.

I'm starting to wonder if Tiffany is going to follow in my musical footsteps. Tiffany LOVES music. She always gets quiet at church during a musical number at church, she loves to dance to the radio, and any word I say can be turned into her favorite song.

After I posted this and was checking to make sure it looked good...Tiffany came up to me and said, "Sing song, Sing song." She even remembers now a few days later that the flamingos were singing.