Amber's Story

The new addition to the family with Dr Pilkington that delivered her

Proud new Daddy

Amber already sporting the Army hat

Baby Amber

Big sister with Amber

Mommy and Amber ready to go home

Amber ready for the ride home

For some reason it didn't surprise me that Amber had plans of her own for her birthday. As everyone knows the plan was that I was going to be induced Tuesday afternoon, but things quickly changed.
I woke up several times Monday night to either go to the bathroom or just being uncomfortable. This was pretty normal and I didn't think much about it. Then when I woke at 4:35am I knew something was not right. I have not moved that fast out of my bed in a long time (lol). As soon as I stood up my water broke. I was shocked, because with the other two they had to do it in the hospital. Matt woke up asking what was wrong and quickly realized what had just happened. We tried to clean it up the best we could at that point. I tried to lay down for a little bit, but then the contractions started. I got up took a shower and got dressed. Then I proceeded to make the kids their breakfast, pick out their clothes for the day and get them up. Then I packed the kid's lunches and snacks for the day. Then I fed the dog and cat. At this point I told Matt he needed to get up. He then called our neighbor to see if she could watch the kids, because our other friend lived to far away to take the kids there. Then Matt got up and got ready. He asked at one point how far apart the contractions were and I told him I was ignoring them so I could get stuff done. The kids were upset that they weren't going to their friends house, but they were ok with the change once they had their bags in hand. Once we were ready to go my contractions were about 5 minutes or less apart.
The one advantage when we got to the hospital was that they already had my chart ready, because I was suppose to be there that afternoon. We got there at about 9 am and I was 4cm. As we waited for the epidural Matt watched all the contractions on the monitors. At one point he told me that one of the contractions was a really good one and I promptly told him I didn't need a stupid monitor to tell me that.When I got my epidural at 10 30 I was 6cm. Within 30 minutes of getting the epidural I was 8cm. I was so excited this time that my epidural completely worked! Then I was 10 cm at 12:00pm. They told me that my doctor was in surgery and one of the other doctors from the practice was going to delivery the baby. I quickly said I didn't care and whoever wanted to play catch was fine with me! Matt and the nurse thought that was hilarious. I was thinking I just wanted it to be done. It seemed like forever for the doctor to get there. Then again being in labor every minute seems like an eternity anyway. I only pushed for about 10 minutes and she was here.
She was so precious when they placed her on stomach after she was born. No matter all the pain it just vanished the moment I looked at her and it was all worth it. I couldn't believe when they said that she was 8lbs 2oz and 20in. She just didn't look that big to me. They really had to work to make her cry. Then she was just content being with her Mommy and Daddy.
She is a really good baby so far. Although I think she has days and nights a little mixed up. She also does not believe in missing out on any food either.
The kids are very excited about their little sister and are doing their best to help.

Amber Renee Has Arrived 4/28/09

Born at 12 42pm 4/28/09 8lbs 2oz 20in

Amber Renee had plans of her own for when she should join us. Everything went very well and we are all doing good. I will update more later with the story, but I know everyone wants some pictures.

39 weeks and we have reached the end 4/27/09

I have survived the pregnancy : )!

I went to the Dr again today. I have gained a total of 29lbs. The heart rate was 138. Everything looked great. The Dr said that I am already 3cm, so I think that baby Amber didn't plan on waiting another week to join us anyway. I have to be at the hospital tomorrow at 4pm. He said that he expects everything should go well and she should be born sometime early in the morning. The children will be going to spend the night at a friends house. Then they will come to hospital sometime on Wed to meet their new little sister. I should be home on Thursday. We will let everyone know as soon as we can when she arrives.

Happy Birthday

There seems to be a lot of birthdays in our family right now.
Happy 6th Birthday to my niece Eliana 4/24
Happy Birthday to my niece Jessica 4/25 I hope you and the family have a fun birthday weekend at Disney!
Happy Birthday to our friend Annee (Shayne's other Mommy) 4/26
Happy Birthday to my sister-in-law Chrissy 4/28

Then will have baby Amber's birthday on April 29th

Casey gave herself a hair cut 4/24/09

Casey's version of a hair cut

Her nice long hair in the back

The super short side

The other side

The pile of cut hair

The new hair cut

As Casey said "She went to the fix a hair cut place and they fixed her right up"

The short side

Other side

The back

Well I have come to the conclusion that if it wasn't for bad luck at this point I would have no luck. Either that or I just can't catch a break to save my life at this point.
Casey got up this morning and came downstairs to tell me good morning like always. She told me that she was going to watch cartoons in her room. This is pretty much normal so I didn't think much of it. Then about 30 minutes later she came downstairs to ask for her breakfast. I was in complete shock as I looked her. She had cut her hair. I asked her if she had scissor and she said yes in Shayne's room. I asked where was her hair and she said it was in Shayne's room. I told her to go get it right now and I just started crying. I just could not believe what she had done to her hair. When she came back down I tried to brush it to see if it was fixable, but it wasn't something that I could fix. Which just made me cry more.
We got ready to go find somewhere to fix it. Then I called Matt to tell him what his daughter had done. He was really mad until I told him her reason for doing it. She told me that she cut her hair, because Mommy never takes her to get he hair cut. Matt found this hilarious and said I should have taken her more often to get her hair cut. Then he found it more entertaining when I told him that hair reminded me of a mullet.
The girl at the hair place was really nice. The best that we could come up with was to cut her hair short to balance it out. The one side is shorter then the other, but I didn't want to go that short. Hopefully it will grow out quickly. I guess its ok, but it doesn't look like my Casey to me right now.
Needless to say all scissors will be out of reach of children in my house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Matt update

Matt injured his knee last week on a friend's 4 wheeler. Him and his buddies went out for the day to play. At some point Matt went to take a hard left and the 4 wheeler was going to flip. Matt decided to stick his leg out to keep it from flipping instead of just rolling off and letting it go. Needless to say this was not the smarter of the two options. Immediately upon doing this he heard two loud pops from his knee and felt extreme pain. He went to the ER where they said that he had sprained his knee. They placed him in a knee immobilizer and referred him to an orthopedic doctor. While waiting for Tricare to approve the referral his primary doctor ordered an MRI. We got the results yesterday which shows he has a complete tear of his ACL, a cyst from the ACL rupture, bone bruises from the injury and swelling. This will require surgery to repair. I spoke to one of the doctors back in NC and he said that they have to wait 4-6 weeks before surgery can be done for all the swelling to resolve. In the meantime he has to be extremely careful on it, continue the knee immobilizer and only partial weightbearing on that side. Tricare has just approved today for him to go see the orthopedic doctor here.
We are an interesting pair at the moment with neither one of us able to get around very well. So the next few weeks should interesting to say the least.

38 Weeks 4/22/09

38 weeks

Casey and Mommy

I went to the Dr again today. I gained another pound, so we are at 28lbs now. Her heart rate was 145 and all the other measurements look good. We are scheduled for the induction on April 29th. Right now though I will actually go to the hospital Tuesday night to get it started and she should be here by noon on Wed. My Dr is actually going out of town Wed night, so that is why he wants to start the night before. I go back for another appt on Monday and he will let me know then what time to be at the hospital Tuesday night. Hopefully this all goes as planned.

Happy 1st Birthday Princess Brianna 4/21/09

Princess Brianna is 1 : )

Brianna said she is going to find Tx herself, because she wants to see Aunt Colleen...lol

Mckayla and Brianna

YUMMY...and its all mine! Good job baby girl!

I can't believe that Brianna is already a year old. I can't wait until we get to see her.
Happy Birthday with lots of love from Aunt Colleen Uncle Matt Shayne and Casey

Baby Update 4/14/09

This is a profile of her face

I had another Dr appt today and an ultrasound to check on the baby. The ultrasound did show that she is head down and in position. She is 6lbs 9oz and her heart rate was 138. Everything measured normal for her. I didn't gain any weight since last week. I go back to the Dr on April 22. Then we should finalize the induction for April 29th or atleast I think that should be the last appt. That is if she doesn't have plans of her own...lol
Everyone will be very excited to know that we finally decided on a name for her. Her name is........ Amber Renee Lee.

Easter Cards From The Brushy Hill Gang 4/13/09

Cards from Ms Deber and Mr John

Wow $5 ...we are going Mcdonalds when it is nice out so we can play on the playground : )

Cards from Ms Robbie-Dobbie and Mr Charlie

Thanks Brushy Hill Gang We love and miss you guys bunches!!!!!!!

Happy Easter 4/12/09

The best part of the day....

Apple pie with cool whip and a cookie

Yummy!

Goodies from Gra Gra

Goodies from Gra Gra

Skittles and M&Ms : )
Thanks Gra Gra we love you bunches!

Presents from Aunt Cheryl

Tootsie rolls : )

Puzzles

New outfits

New outfits

Thanks Aunt Cheryl (aka "The Bomb") We love you!
Thanks for all the stuff for the baby too : )!

The kiddos had a nice Easter. The day before we went to cookout and the kids got to have their Easter egg hunt there. Which was for the best, because it turned really cold and rained most of Easter day. They got lots of goodies and had a great time.

Easter Gifts from Nana & Pop Pop 4/9/09

Casey and her dress that all the granddaughters got including the new baby. Now if we can get them all together before any of them out grow it for a picture

New shoes

New dress

Shayne super excited about new flip flops

New outfit

The kids talked me into letting them open their Easter gifts early. Actually they saw the box and there was no getting out of it...lol

Thanks Nana & Pop Pop for the presents