Introducing....

James Henry Ledford!!

This post is way overdue, about 2 weeks actually, but wow, life with two kids is busy!!

Henry was born on Friday, May 6th at 4:48pm. He weighed 7lbs, 12 oz, and was 21" long. He is absolutely perfect in every way and we are loving him so much!

So here is how the day of his birth went - I had a scheduled induction for Friday, the 6th, because of Wes and I's situation of living apart, plus the fact that I really didn't want Abbie and Henry to have the same birthday. So anyways, I went in at 6am, and it took a good couple hours to do paperwork, bloodwork, get my iv in, etc. So by the time they started the pitocin it was about 8:30 or 9. They also put the line in for the epidurral but I opted to not get the medicine in until I made some more progression(when I got there I was between 1-2 cm dilated). I started having pretty good and steady contractions almost right away, but wasn't making a lot of quick progression with dilation, so they broke my water around noon. It wasn't much longer after that until I got the medicine going for the epidurral - I was about 4cm at that point and the contractions were getting much stronger with the pitocin. I think the next time they checked me I was about a 5, and then, just like with Abbie, I progressed really quickly to over a 9 and it was about time to push! From there it went so fast! I pushed through about 4 contractions, and he was here! I couldn't believe how much quicker the pushing part went with Henry, it literally took no time at all once he was ready. Oh and also the epidurral had numbed me up a ton, like too much, and they had turned it off about an hour before I started pushing, so thankfully I could feel enough to push. They layed him on my chest, and my first thought was he looked just like Abbie when she was born. I was able to nurse him right away, and he had no problems and was really in picture perfect health! I immediately fell in love with Henry, just as I had with Abbie.

This time around it was just Wes in the delivery room, but my grandmother and Aunt Debbie were at the hospital all day waiting, and then Wes's parents were taking care of Abbie, and they brought her to meet Henry later that evening.

Since Henry's birth, things have been a little crazy, but we've made it through! We were able to come home on Mother's day, which was a wonderful present in itself, and then we had a few days before we started packing up our stuff and getting ready for our move to Atlanta! We celebrated Abbie's 3rd bday on the 13th, and then the following day made the move down here to our new home. We had soooo much help from family, and couldn't have done it without them.

So now we've been in our new home for a week, and things are great. We are loving the area, Wes is back to work and is so happy to not have to drive to NC every weekend, and just be able to come home and have a normal life again, and I'm adjusting to being at home alone with two kiddos!! Henry is a great baby, he hardly ever cries! Abbie is doing great with him. She loves him so much and wants to hold him and kiss him all the time. I do think she goes a little stir crazy being here at home with us so I try to get out and keep her as busy as possible. She's used to going to Pam's house every day, so I have to keep reminding myself this is a big change for her too. Thankfully we live in a kid-friendly neighborhood and town, so there are parks and all kinds of things for kids to do. I've also enrolled her in a preschool that starts in August, and she'll go to a couple morning camps in June and July.

So that's about it for now! We are truly so thankful that our family is together again and that everything went so well with Henry's birth! Enjoy the pictures and I'll try to be better about posting!

Oh and just for a stat update too - Abbie went for her 3-year check up Friday and weighed 30 lbs and I believe was 3 foot 2" tall. And Henry, at 2 weeks, weighed in at 8 lbs 9 oz.