Henry: 6 Months

Today is Henry's half birthday, although Brett says we don't celebrate half birthdays (for mommy at least).  This past month has been busy for Henry.  He was dedicated at our church.  Brett and I committed to raising Henry to know God's love and the precious gift He gave us in Jesus.  It is our prayer that Henry comes to know Jesus as his Savior at an early age.

Henry has started to sit by himself pretty well the past week.  He still leans a little to one side, but he is getting much better.  If something is out of his reach, he is starting to put his legs under him to try to get to it.  It ends up that he does a small face plant into carpet like a seesaw.  He's one tough kid and doesn't seem to mind.  He continues to roll across the floor and loves to lay or sit next to Piper.  Piper has been our saving grace when Henry is fussy.  He looks at her and just starts to smile or laugh. 

We started some solids this month.  His favorite has been rice cereal, followed by sweet potatoes and carrots.  He doesn't seem to like fruit yet.  He has tried pears, apples, and bananas.  Henry is teething like crazy.  I think his teeth are getting closer to the surface, but still no breaking through.

Henry has his 6 month appointment in 1.5 weeks so I will update on his weight and height when that happens.  In the meantime, enjoy some pictures from Henry's sixth month!

This is what month pictures looks like with a 6 month old

This picture is hilarious to me. Henry kept on eyeing Chris while he ate these chips. And of course, Chris teased him.

Henry's Birth Story

Now that our little one is two weeks old, I feel like I can somewhat get my feet under me.  I want to capture Henry's birth story while it is still fresh in my mind.  I apologize in advance if this is a long post, but it's one of the most important days of my life.

I had mentioned in my 39 week update that I thought I was going into labor early on Mother's Day.  It ended up being really bad Braxton Hicks contractions.  I went about the day as normal, although I was more tired than usual.  Around 10:55 pm on Mother's Day, I had this horrible pain in my back and lower stomach.  The doctor had said that I would be able to tell what real contractions were because they would hurt really bad.  Well this one was definitely one of those.  For the next hour, I timed how far long my contractions were and the amount of time between them.  The contractions lasted anywhere from 45 seconds to 1.5 minutes, with between 4 and 6 minutes between. 

By midnight, I knew it was time to head to the hospital.  I woke up Brett and told him this was the real thing.  We finished packing our bags and took out Piper, who was so confused.  I felt horrible leaving her, but I knew we had to get to the hospital.  The nice thing about going into labor in the middle of the night was there was absolutely no traffic on the two lane road we had to drive on to get to the hospital.

Upon our arrival and registration, we were put in a triage room.  This is the first of three rooms we would see while at the hospital.  To my disappointment, I was still 1 centimeter dilated, which I had been for almost three weeks.  Brett thinks the nurses didn't think I was in labor.  They hooked me up to fetal and contraction monitors and watched me for the next 3 hours.  By 4 am, I was 3 centimeters dilated.  They moved me to the labor and delivery room.

I know a lot of people who opt for a birth without any pain medicine.  I am not one of those people.  By the time they moved me to the labor and delivery room, I was asking if there was any pain medicine I could have.  They gave me some medicine in my IV, but prefaced it by saying it may cause hallucinations.  Boy, did it ever.  Within a minute, I was in a daze and could hardly open my eyes.  The pain was definitely less intense.  I think I may have gotten a little sleep, but I don't really know (remember I hadn't slept in over 24 hours because I went into labor early in the night). 

At 6 am, they came to check me again.  I was 4 centimeters.  I could now get the epidural.  They ordered the epidural for me and administered it around 7:30 am.  It took some time to kick in, but when it did, it was glorious.  No more pain.  I could only feel the hardness in my upper abdomen during a contraction.

I was relaxing until all the sudden, the nurses came in my room like a swarm of bees.  There were probably six or seven that rushed into the room.  All I could gather was I had two contractions at once and Henry's heartbeat dropped to 67 bpm.  Thankfully, they were able to move him around until his heart rate returned to normal. 

Within 2.5 hours of the epidural (by 9:30 am), I had gone from 4 centimeters to 9.75 centimeters.  The nurses were in touch with the doctor because I had progressed so quickly without any help or medicine.  As I watched the contraction monitor, some of my contractions were so strong that they wouldn't even register. I was told that I couldn't push yet because I still had 0.25 centimeters to go.  The nurses looked to gravity to do its job on getting me to 10 cm.  I stayed at 9.75 centimeters for almost 3 hours. 

By 11 am, my epidural was wearing off.  The anesthesiologist administered a second dose, which kicked in right about when I was told to start pushing, which was around 12:15 pm.  Because I didn't go to any classes, the nurse was able to coach me through how to push.  I did 7 rounds of 3 pushes for 10 seconds each.  By that point, Henry's heartbeat was dropping into the 60s again so they got out the vacuum and vacuumed him out. Henry was born at 12:38 pm.

There was our little cone head, head full of hair, little boy.  I was relieved that he was alright, but I didn't cry.  Brett told the nurse that after witnessing what he did, there is no way you can deny God, the Creator.  The nurses whisked Henry away to get him cleaned up before I could see him.  Brett had to tell me what he looked like.  He measured at 7 pounds, 0.5 ounces and 21 inches long. Basically, perfect. 

Our little guy after his first bath.

Unfortunately, I obtained three tears during the process.  I lost quite a bit of blood, and it took about 30 minutes to stitch me up. While they were doing that, Brett went to share the good news with his parents, who arrived 10 minutes before Henry was born. 

While the epidural wore off, I found out that I had a fever of 100.  An hour after I took Motrin, the fever had risen to 101.4.  It was decided that I would be on two antibiotics for 24 hours.  To be sure Henry was fine, they drew some blood from him.  Man, was that heart-wrenching hearing him scream as they squeezed his foot. After I was able to walk, they transferred me to the room I would be staying in for the next two days.

Henry was up for almost 5 hours after he was born.  I should have realized then that he wouldn't like sleeping.  Hindsight in 20-20 I guess.  The nurses kept on telling me to rest when he was sleeping, which wasn't often.  Even if I wanted to rest, there were people coming in my room probably every 30 minutes to switch my antibiotics, draw more blood, give me food, run tests, or just to see how I was doing.  The hospital we were at keeps the child in the room with the mom unless the child is having health problems or needs some newborn tests.  To say the least, it wore me out.

My parents made it to the hospital the day after Henry was born.  My mom and Gail, my mother-in-love, just gushed over Henry.  Brett's and my dad were pretty excited too.

Grammy

Papa

Pops and Nana

Because I was on antibiotics through my IV, we had to stay until Wednesday morning.  I was so ready to go home and see Piper.  People told me I wouldn't miss her, but I missed her something terrible.  When we got home, Piper wasn't sure what to think of Henry.  She actually stayed away from me for most of the day.  It broke my heart.  Now, things are great with Henry and Piper.  More on that later though.

Our family

I hope you enjoyed reading about our Henry John's entry into this big world.  Be on the lookout for more pictures and posts about how we're doing.

Baby Showers Galore

A couple weeks ago, the Gardner-Webb football wives decided to host a baby shower in honor of our little Henry.  Brett's and my parents were wonderful enough to make a day trip to go to the shower.  I didn't expect either to come because it is at least 7 hours of driving in one day, but we are very thankful they could make it. It made the day that much more special having our parents there.

Almost all of the wives were there, along with the oldest GWU child (teen actually) and the two youngest.  In true GWU wives' fashion, there was a great spread of food.  Y'all, these women can COOK!  While I ate almost everything, I gravitated to the desserts.  So good.

The weather was so nice that we were able to eat in the screened-in back porch.  We socialized, opened presents, and played some shower games.  The wives all pitched in and bought us the Ergo carrier that was on our registry.  I was shocked!  Brett and I were going to buy it if we didn't receive it because having something to carry Henry will be really beneficial when walking Piper, during football season, and while I do household chores.  There were plenty of other cute gifts and necessities that we received too. 

Quanza came up with one of the games that we played.  She filled three sippy cups with the punch that Angel made.  Whoever drank it the fastest won the prize. As the game went on, no one could get any punch from the cup!  Little did we know that the pineapple from the punch was clogging lid.  Lots of laughs were shared over the struggle.

Thank you to the wives for hosting a wonderful shower.  I'd be hard-pressed to find a group of women who are more giving, selfless, and loving than this group of women.  We are blessed.

I may have gotten seconds...and thirds. So good!

It was a beautiful day to sit outside and socialize.

Can't believe this little boy is walking!  Henry is due a day after Daniel's 1st birthday.

Such a cute onesie from Britney: Chicks are all over me.

One of the shower games. Seeing who could drink the punch from the sippy cup the fastest.

Henry's mama, Grammy, and Nana

My GWU family

While the women were at the shower, the men (Brett, my dad, and Yogi) stayed at home. Yogi and Brett watched the Masters.  Dad ended up fixing our lawn mower, which hadn't worked this season, and mounted our monitor to the wall.  Seriously. I don't know what we do or our house would look like without him.  Plus, he has saved us a ton of money.  Before they left, we got some pictures, as this is the last time we'd see them before Henry comes!

Henry's Nana, Daddy, Mommy, Pops Man, and big sister

My dad (still trying to figure out a name for him), Daddy, Mommy, and Grammy

My little family

This past Sunday, our Sunday School class at First Baptist Church - Shelby threw us another shower!  We walked in from service to such a sweet display of (amazing) food, onesies, and gifts.  The shower was so much more than Brett and I expected.  We spent the first 30 minutes or so of Sunday School eating (I see a trend here), opening gifts, and fellowshipping.  We received a lot more of the essentials, like diapers, wipes, bottles, and shampoo.  You can never have too many of those things. Thank you to the wonderful women in our class who were so thoughtful in each of the details!

Katie, one of our Sunday school leaders, said that Henry must be special.  I would have to agree with her, but not for the reason that you may think (him having awesome parents like Brett and me).  He will be extraordinary because of the people who will be in his life and their influence on him.  From actual family to our GWU football family to friends and fellow church members, I know that Henry will be taught about the Lord from an early age. He will be taught to value God's Word, think of others first, be respectful of authority, be teachable, love those who aren't like him, and cherish family and friends.  We are so thankful for everyone who has been supportive during my pregnancy and our soon-to-come little boy.  We love you!

Cuteness Overload

Since the view from our driveway was so pretty, Laura said that she wanted to get some pictures of Laney in one of her patriotic outfits by this cute little red barn.  I was more than willing to take some with my "fancy" camera.  Unfortunately, it was so bright outside that I didn't notice that my shutter speed wasn't correct for some of these pictures.  Regardless, Laney is a beautiful little girl.  I love how you can see her personality in these pictures.

Since the traffic in Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg was going to be insane, we decided to stay at the cabin on the 4th.  We went to this cute little general store in town to get some homemade ice cream.  I love being in a small town on 4th of July because the residents are so proud to be Americans.

All across the Valley that night, people were shooting off fireworks.  We were able to walk to the field by our house, look up at the mountains surrounding us, and see the show.  It was awesome seeing Laney's face light up with each firework.  Something I'll never forget.

After a fun-filled week, we headed home on July 5th.  Thank you Will, Laura, Yogi, Gail, and Laney for making that week one we will never forget.  Love y'all!

Adorable

Sweet girl posed on her own.

Sad that my shutter speed wasn't right, but she's still beautiful.

Exploring

Can't. Handle. It.

She leaned by herself.  She's like a little model.

Family.

Vintage America outside the General Store

I love Gail's reaction to Laney leaning on her.

She loves her Nana.

I think Laney likes ice cream.

I LOVE this picture

Uncle B, Auntie Sara, and Laney

Kisses for Laney

Can't handle the cuteness

Thanks Laura for our awesome sunglasses

Mommy and her dog

God's beauty...the view from the end of our driveway that week

My baby girl

Great vacation (excuse how tired I look)

Exhausted on her way home