As I mentioned in the previous post, we spent Memorial Day weekend at my grandparent's home in the mountains! Travis was in Georgia for a Bow Shoot, so we took off to the mountains!  My Granddaddy said he thought "the mountain air was good for Blakely." She enjoyed being outside and was really grinning!  She got to meet most of my cousins and almost all of her great aunts and uncles. It was her first overnight trip away from home and she did okay. Mom and I had to take turns holding her as she slept at night because she would not sleep in her "play yard" at this point.  Here are a few pictures from our trip.

First time meeting her Great Granddaddy

"Gigi"- Great Grandma

With her "first cousins once removed"- Emma, Blake, Zach, BR

4 generations

Her Great Granddaddy kept saying how "proud he was of her."

It was a great trip and we can't wait to go back and visit again soon! 

Peace and Love,

Kristen

Mother's Day

Have  I mentioned how difficult it is to have time to blog with a newborn? It's my goal to blog once a week, but I haven't done a great job so far...I would much rather be playing with her! I will do better....

Our first Mother's Day together was so special. We went to church and I received the "Mom with the Newest Baby" award- a beautiful bouquet of calla lilies!  This was our first time back to church since Blakely was born and she did great! She slept through the whole service and Sunday School!  After church we had a nice late lunch at Mickey and Mooch! Monkey did great there, too! She is growing so fast and I feel so blessed God chose me to be her Mommy!  Here are a few pictures from the day : 

 I love kissing those cheeks! 

 Our sweet family

 Picture with Nana

Mimi and Papaw

For Mother's Day, Travis gave me a hilarious card telling me what a "hottie" I am. It was really funny and cute! On the back, he wrote a sweet note and then wrote that we were going for a weekend away to the Lodge on Lake Lure. Blakely has had serious colic and her first couple of months of life have been special, but also a challenge for Travis and I.  He asked my mom if she would keep Blakely so that we could have a weekend away to rest and get refreshed. We just went for our weekend and it was so nice! The Lodge was beautiful, the food was delish, and our time together was wonderful. We hiked to Chimney Rock, spent some time on the lake in a canoe and just relaxed. We sure did miss our Monkey Girl though! We couldn't wait to get back Sunday to kiss those sweet cheeks and hold her!  She is the biggest blessing in our lives and we are so grateful for her! 

 Lots of fun canoeing!

View from breakfast

View from our bathroom

Blakely and I also recently went to visit my Grandparents in the mountains. That will be the next post! :-)

Peace and Love,

Kristen

Newborn Pictures

Decided I would add Blakely's newborn pictures today. These were taken at my house and then outside at my mom's house! I can't believe how much she has grown since then! These are a few of my favorites....

Peace and Love~

Kristen

Catch-up

Since I'm playing catch-up, I thought I would add a few more hospital pictures and coming home pictures today! :)

 Love her folded hands!

Beacon's first view of our sweet girl! He pretty much ignores her most of the time. Every now and then he will give her a kiss!

Here's her first bath! My mom came over to help with this...I've never given an infant a bath and didn't want to do anything that would hurt her! 

and one more for good measure...Blakely's Aunt Jo bought her these little stickers to take her picture in every month. She is actually 2 weeks old in these pictures, but like I said...we were playing catch-up! 

Peace and Love,

Kristen

Finally blogging again..

I have not blogged in almost a year....time does fly...

However, pregnancy is draining and so I decided that I would wait until after Blakely was born to start blogging again...mainly to chronicle the sweet events of her life and what's going on in ours. So, I thought I would begin restart again with her birth story and a few pictures.

My due date was April 4- my birthday- and when that day came and went I was quite frustrated. Being huge at 40 weeks and not sleeping was not really my thing.

We went to dinner on April 5th for my birthday with all of the family- even my sis and sweet niece, Penelope, were able to join us! We joked that me eating the crab cakes and the jalapeno cornbread (my favorite!!!) would put me into labor...well....it did! At 2:00 in the morning!

My water broke and I was kind of startled because I thought I peed myself...I woke Travis up about an hour later and told him we needed to call the doctor. We did and they told us to head to the hospital. By the time we got to Presbyterian (great hospital and care!) I was having full on, crazy-strong contractions. They admitted me quickly and due to a wonderful miracle, I received my epidural super fast! I was soooo thankful! 

The doctor was sure that I would deliver pretty soon because of the strength of my contractions, but...it didn't happen that way. We rested some and continued to monitor the baby and as time went on, my contractions seemed to lessen in strength. The doc came in and said that we could continue on like this (Blakely was beginning to stress a bit) for another 12 hours or we could go for a c-section. She said if we went with the c-section it would be labeled the baby "Failed to progress."

Honestly, I was mortified at first because this was not MY plan. Amazing, isn't it how God's plans are so different than our own and He chooses the most interest times to remind us of that.  Travis and I prayed about it and decided that the c-section was the best way to go. We had a great peace about it and let the doctor know. 

The quickly wheeled me into the operating room and Blakely was born at 2:14 am. What a blessing! She was 7 pounds 8 ounces and 21 and a 1/4 inches long. Travis held her to me and then they took her to be bathed. We were in recovery for a couple of hours, but then headed to a room to spend time with our new bundle of joy and see our family. 

Happy "Welcome to the World" day Blakely! Mommy and Daddy love you..every ounce of you!

More to come soon :)

Peace and Love,

~Kristen