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.

We did it!

I feel like singing the Dora song and dancing! We did it - we made it to the end of this separation and Wes is home and now we just have to wait on the baby to get here and we can move down to GA together, as a family. There still might be a few days where Wes has to go on down there before me, but overall, we've made it to the end, and it seems unreal to me almost. I keep thinking, well, today is Friday, and Wes has to leave Sunday or Monday, but no, not this time! He's here and I couldn't be happier. Next update? Might be about baby boy, we'll see!!

Soon this precious little girl will be THREE!!!

Yep!

We are sooo very close to this chapter being over in our lives! This week will mark the last week of Wes being gone and after that, it's baby time! Induction is currently set for Friday, May 6th. My appointment went well on Thursday - I found out I am dilated 1cm, but he still has a long way to drop, much to my disbelief. I pray he waits until either next Thursday or after, or if we have to wait until the induction that will be fine too. I can't believe we are so close!

There are some other things going on too - the job situation is looking promising, and we might might might have someone interested in buying our house - but we'll see how those two things pan out. For now I'm thankful for the events that took place so very long ago that give us reason to live today. I hope you all have a wonderfully blessed Easter, and don't forget the reason we are celebrating!

Getting Closer!!

This morning Wes left for Los Angeles, and he will be back Friday - I was sad to see him leave after only being home a day and a half, but when he gets back, we'll only have about 2 more weeks of living apart! Yippeeeeee!! I will be 37 weeks this week - and I go back to the doctor Wednesday to start weekly appointments. I have no clue if I am dilating or not, but I've definitely felt a lot more pain and pressure this last week or so. I will update you guys and let you know how things are progressing! Overall I am feeling great though, aside from just having to bend over so much with Abbie and being pretty worn out at the end of each day. On the job front, I had a phone interview Friday for one of the two sales positions opening up with Eaton down in Atlanta. I think it went well, and I am just holding out hope that they will hire me for one of the openings! I am not sure at this point if I will know before I have the baby or not, but we've waited this long so what's a little longer???!! And Abbie's babysitter is off this week so I've got family coming here to help out with her, so that will be awesome! I think that's about all the news I have for now! I will try to update after my appointment Wednesday. Hope all you locals are enjoying this beautiful spring weather!

4 weeks!

Yep, that's how much time we have left until we have this little baby boy! As long as I'm progressing a little bit, the plan is to induce me on May 5th or 6th! We are doing this because Wes is living in Atlanta and we don't want to risk him not being here, and also because I didn't want the kids' birthdays to be on the same day or that close together, if I could help it. I would love to go a little earlier on my own but we'll see. Of course the baby's health is most important. I seriously can't believe though that it's only 4 weeks away! I am very ready to not be pregnant anymore. Just the last few days I've gotten pretty miserable, waking up more at night, and just being worn out by the end of the day. Bending over is sooo difficult, and having an almost 3 year old makes it pretty impossible to not bend over a lot! We are still set to move in our new house May 1st, and Wes will begin taking stuff down there then, and about 2 weeks after I have the baby the rest of us will go. Just in the last two weeks a couple new positions have come open with Eaton down in Atlanta, which is really exciting. While I don't want to get my hopes up too high, I'm completely qualified for at least one of these, so if the timing works out and they like me, I could possibly get a position down there and be able to start after my maternity leave. That would be ideal. That is what I'm praying for. It's the same position I had in Salt Lake w/ Eaton, which I loved and always wish I could do again - so please pray with me that it works out! The next couple weeks will hopefully go by fast - Wes is travelling to Florida this week for a few days, then he leaves for Southern California on Easter for a few days! I'm jealous, of course, and wish I could tag along! But I'm also very proud of him because both of these trips are great opportunities for him in his position. Abbie is doing great - today we went to the Parris' kids b-day party, and she must have gone down the huge inflatable slide about 25 times, and then proceeded to NOT take a nap! I couldn't believe it. Tonight we took the front part of her crib off so it's like a day bed, which is kind of a big step, but I really think she will do good with it. My only fear is that she will fall out, because we don't have a rail there at all. I think I might have to go get one tomorrow so I can rest easy! We had been planning to transition her into a "big girl" bed when we moved but now it's several months later and we still haven't moved, so we figured we'd better do it now before we get into a new house (change!) and before the baby gets here (less sleep for us, more change for her!) We have had more showing activity on our house the last couple months, but still no offers or anything, which is very discouraging. So we've just placed it up for rent through a property mgt company. It's hard to believe we've had it up for sale for 7 months now with NO offers! And I think for now that's about it - we are getting closer to all of this separation coming to an end and I'm so happy for that! I will try to post again before the baby gets here!

Lots of stuff < 8 weeks away

So at this point, there are a lot of things that are about 8 weeks away:

1) Our baby boy is due in less than 8 weeks!

2) Our sweet Abbie will be 3 in less than 8 weeks!

3) AND we are set to move in our new rental home in Atlanta in less than 8 weeks, provided no one else snags it from us this week!

4) And all of the above means that in about 8 weeks our family will finally be under one roof again permanently! AHHHHH! That is probably the best part of all.

Now whether or not I will actually be in our new house in 8 weeks remains to be seen, but May 1st is the date we can move in, so Wes will be able to move in either way! Exciting stuff. The plan is still for me to have the baby here in NC and then go down to GA as soon as I'm physically able.

We've had some activity on our house here but no offers yet - I'm still holding out hope that something will happen, but if it doesn't we are planning to rent it out through a property management company...

AND I still don't have a job yet but at least I have my position here with Eaton now which I will hold onto until my maternity leave runs out -

So yes, there are a lot of unknowns but I know that everything will work out as it's supposed to.

Sometimes this whole process of being apart seems to crawl, but lately the weeks have really flown by so as much as I hate to wish away the days, these are days that I pray go by quickly so we can be a real, normal family again!

Baby boy is doing great, and I just had my 32 week check up on Friday. Now I start going back every 2 weeks. There really isn't anything to report on that end, except that we have had very uneventful appointments (a good thing) and I am of course getting bigger and bigger and a little more uncomfortable, but I'm not to the misery stage yet!

Abbie is a crazy almost 3 year old, with her own mind and independence and of course the attitude sometimes...but she is really doing good and for the most part doesn't give me too hard of a time when Wes is gone. We took her to Disney a few weeks ago and she had a great time. It was a short trip over there but it was still worth it to see her get really excited about her favorite space ranger - Buzz Lightyear.

So that's about it I think - once we get the house in GA for sure I'll let you know more details and I will post some pictures of it soon! I think we are really going to love the location and the house itself!