Whittington Ellis Richey is born!

So, here's the story...  The Thursday after Easter (April 24) I started having some pretty intense and painful contractions.  Jon came home from work and took me to the clinic to be checked.  My doctor was out of town so I saw someone else.  He said I wasn't dilated and sent me home.  Jon took off the next day so I could rest and I spent most of the weekend lying around and trying to stay hydrated.  The contractions eased up a little, but all the following week I continued to feel pretty horrible.  I'd have painful contractions that would wake me up at night and I barely slept all that week.  On top of all that, the girls had dance recital practices nearly every day that week.  It was exhausting so I was mostly contributing my discomfort to that.  I went back and forth on thinking I was about to go into labor or thinking I was just tired from chasing around two active little girls.

On Saturday, May 3, the girls had their final dress rehearsal for dance from 9:30-noon.  During that time, my contractions were getting consistently stronger, but I tried to just ignore them.  When I got home, I ate lunch, laid down on the couch and starting timing them.  They were around 4-5 minutes apart.  My parents and Jon's mom were on their way into town for the dance recital that was going to be on Sunday.  As I was lying on the couch, timing my contractions and becoming more and more uncomfortable, I made up my mind to go into labor & delivery when our parents arrived.  I thought it was the perfect time to go since our parents would be here to stay home with the girls and I knew my doctor was on call that day.

Within 30 minutes of my parents arriving, Jon and I were headed to the hospital.  However, since it was still two weeks before I was supposed to be having him, I was in denial that it would actually happen that day.  We didn't take anything but my purse and camera with us.  We sat in labor & delivery for three hours being monitored and routinely checked by the nurses.  I wasn't dilating at all, but my contractions were getting closer together and stronger.  I was in pretty severe pain.  Finally my doctor came by, looked at all my charts and said, "let's do this!"  I was so relieved.  At that point I was telling Jon that we were NOT leaving there without a baby.  I was miserable!  My doctor also said, "I can't send you home having contractions like this.  You're likely to bust open your old c-section incisions."  Talk about scary!  Within an hour we were in the OR, bringing little Whitt Ellis into this world.  As my doctor was cutting me open, she said, "I'm glad we did this today.  Things are pretty thinned out down here."  Meaning, I guess, that my old incisions were stretched to the max.  Whit was born kicking and screaming and off he and Jon went to the nursery.  A few minutes later, the nursery called in to the OR to tell us his weight.  Eight pounds and three ounces!  My doctor said, "Now I'm really glad we did this today.  If we'd waited until the 15th he'd have been over 9 pounds!"  Boy, was I glad, too!

He was born May 3, 2014 at 5:58pm.  He weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces and was 20.75" long!  My biggest baby and at 37.6 weeks.

The only little hiccup we had, was Whitt's blood sugar was a little low at birth.  That turned out to be a bit of a blessing because I got to hold him and nurse him as soon as I got out of recovery, before he'd even had his bath since they were concerned about getting his blood sugar back up.  They checked it several times over the next 12 hours and it was higher each time, so no worries there.

I'm so glad that his grandparents (minus Big T) happened to be in town when he chose to arrive.

I love this door-hanger a lady at my hometown church made for me.

The girls were excited about their Bitty Baby big sister gifts.

The next day the girls and their grandparents were there bright and early.

Jon's quiet time turned into nap time.  Nobody ever gets any sleep in the hospital.

That night the girls had their dance recital.  I hated to miss, but I'll get a dvd and I'm glad everyone else could still go.

Shannon came to the hospital to keep me company while everyone was at the recital.  She thought Whitt was cold so she bundled him all up.

I had little gifts for the girls to give them after their recital.  I was afraid they'd start expecting a present every night after the two previous evenings.  

The dancers brought pizza and cookie cakes back to the hospital after the recital for us all to enjoy.

And the next day we got to go home!  When we left the hospital, his weight was down to 7lb 12oz, which is pretty normal.

We were so excited to bring our little man home to the world of princesses and dress-up.  He is going to rock our world and we can't wait for all the "boy" he'll bring to the mix.

Pre - Whitt's Arrival

We celebrated Daddy's 32nd birthday the Monday after Easter.  The girls insisted that he have balloons, so I let them pick them out.  He got a Mickey Mouse and a red star.  

I took maternity leave from teaching AWANA on Wednesday nights since Spring Break.  It gave me a break, and also afforded us some alone time with Annabel since Adeline was still attending AWANA.  One of those nights we sprung for some sno-cones.  Don't tell Adeline!

Daddy spent a lot of time taking the girls fun places like this so I could rest toward the end of my pregnancy.

We spent one Saturday morning watching Peter Pan and doing our nails.

Then later on that day we took the girls bowling for the first time.  Unbeknownst to us it was our last fun family outing before adding Whitt.

I love sweet linen dresses.  I found these both at consignment stores.  Pink is their color.

That Sunday afternoon, Adeline and I attended Jamie's bridal shower.  Adeline refused to smile for the camera.

That evening, Adeline's pre-school choir performed at church.

Annabel is fairly easy-going most of the time, but she has displayed some two year old behavior here and there lately.  This was a text from her teacher at school one day.

The last week of April was pre-recital week for dance.  We had practice almost every day that week.

And one morning the girls and I went to the library for story & craft time.  They were most impressed with the snacks.

Annabel helping me with the weekly pose.  She's holding up two fingers because we thought it was going to be two weeks before Whitt's arrival.  However, it turns out that it was really two fingers for two DAYS!

Shannon and her kids came over to play one morning.

More dance practice pictures..

And Whitt's high-chair arrived that Friday night.  When you've done the whole parenting thing before, you become really picky about certain baby products.  The high-chair was my thing this time. I wanted one that the cushion was either all hard plastic, therefore easy to wipe, or could easily be removed and tossed in the washing machine.  You wouldn't believe how disgusting a high-chair seat cushion can get.  I also wanted it to have wheels on it because we roll it from the kitchen to the dining room and sometimes into the living room.  I also wanted the tray to be able to fit in the dishwasher.  I started searching for this holy grail of high-chairs as soon as I knew I was pregnant.  Finally, finally found one on Zulily a few weeks ago.  I'm so happy with it.  I know it'll be a while before Whitt uses it, but I think it's going to be perfect.  It's a Zuma brand.

The girls tested it out on all their babies.  (It's adjustable height which I also wanted since our dining table is pub-height while our kitchen table is a standard table.)

And those are the occurrences before Whitt's arrival!  He came the following day, on May 3.  Those details coming soon....

Easter Weekend

We started off our Good Friday with visiting our friends at a local nursing home.

Annabel is telling the lady here that her bucket is empty and she doesn't have anything for her.

Since Easter fell so close to my due date this year, our family was sweet enough to come to us, rather than us travel to Texas.  What a blessing!  We got to go out to eat with my parents and cousin Kasey on Friday, then Kasey and the girls got to swim in the indoor pool at the hotel.  I found these suits at Walmart and I'm pretty sure they're the only ones my girls will want to wear this summer.

I asked my dad several months ago if he'd build a shelf to hang above Whitt's dresser.  Anyone who knows my dad, knows he's a perfectionist, and he didn't disappoint when it came to this shelf.  It's probably the nicest piece of furniture we now own.  I know only a carpenter would appreciate what went into this, but y'all, it's awesome.  I still need to find a few things to put in it and on top of it, but this wall is pretty much done, now as well.  (That's an antique tool box my dad bought Whitt sitting on the very top.)

The print hanging on this wall is a prayer I've been praying over Whitt pretty much since I found out he's a boy.  It says, "Lord, let Whitt grow into a mature man whose stature is measured by Christ's fullness."  It comes from a passage in Ephesians chapter 4.  The Holy Spirit fell all over me one morning in my quiet time as I was praying for my children and I just knew this was the life verse for Whitt.

The girls received one of the most exciting pieces of mail we've ever gotten on Saturday.  It was an Easter basket full of goodies with a note from our dear Ms. Kalee asking them to be flower girls in her wedding!  We are so excited!!!

Saturday night we celebrated Jon's, Shane's, and Emil's birthdays at Shane & Juliet's house, but I didn't take any pictures.  It was such a nice night with our families, enjoying bbq on their deck.

Easter morning the girls were surprised with their Easter baskets.  And I realize that the background of this photo is very "keeping it real."  Don't judge.

And now we're all put together like the picture-perfect family we always are...hah! (extreme sarcasm there)

And after church, everyone came to our house for lunch and an egg hunt!

Sweet little cousin Margot.  We wish she didn't live all the way in Dallas!

Murry Bell excited about her finds!

And we deemed Annabel the hands-down winner of the egg hunt.  She was so proud of herself.

Juliet brought some fun confetti eggs.  Adeline had a blast cracking them over her Nana's head.

Uncle Emil pushing two of his nieces on the swings.

Annabel showing her grandparents how she can climb the rock wall.

And Happy doing more swinging..

Everyone left to go back home after egg hunting, and we all took a nap.  When the girls got up, we finally got around to dyeing eggs.  The weekend had been so busy we had never gotten a chance until this point.  I found these cool egg holders at the Dollar Tree.

What a fun weekend!  We are so blessed with such a loving family, but even more blessed by our loving God who sent His Son to die for our sins!  Wow!  How awesome is that?