A Southern Mama: what life looked like in...{February 2016}

It started of with a bang ;) let me tell you! But it ended with the most beautiful baby who we are just loving to pieces over here! February 2016 is one for the books!

I've never gone all the way to 40 weeks with any of my pregnancies. Some might call me spoiled, and I'm not complaining about that at all...lets just get that straight. The problem with it is, I can go into labor any time between 37-40 weeks and I typically start having contractions weeks before I actually have my babies so it is hard to know when it is the real deal. With Drew, my water never broke, with Susanna it did, and with Jillian and Will, I thought my water broke 3 times (between the 2 of them) mistakenly. I won't go into detail but just know that it is possible to mistake something else for breaking water. The doctor on call even told me this time that you'd be surprised at the amount of women who come in with that same experience. Anyway...it happened to me twice this time, thankfully the 2nd time was just a few hours before I actually had him...but the first time was the week before.

We got all checked in...

just to be sent home...and it was hard not to be embarrassed and disappointed.

The next day, we went to the mall with my parents, who had come in the night before thinking I was going to have a baby...I think my dad was more disappointed than any of us ;)

We took some bike rides around the neighborhood enjoying the beautiful weather!

The next week was Mardi Gras and we went to the church for a family dance. I was seriously uncomfortable that night and hardly danced but when they announced the "mother/son" dance, Drew came and grabbed me and said "Mom! We HAVE to dance!" He took it seriously and was asking me if he was holding my hand correctly. Sweetest 6-year-old boy EVER!

The next night, our friend Steven brought us Cane's for dinner so I wouldn't have to cook...so sweet! And I went to New Beginnings. When I came home, this was such a treat! And it happened to be the last meal I ate before...

...we had Mr. Will!

Quick labor story...I woke up Wednesday morning having real contractions every 35 minutes on the dot that continued to come that far apart pretty much all day. Sometimes they would be closer together but overall, they were exactly 35 minutes apart. I went to New Beginnings at church that night and I came home to Cane's for dinner, went to bed after a discussion with Mike about how tired and disappointed we both were because those dang contractions hadn't turned into real labor (which was almost identical to the experience I had with Jillian 2 years before)..we were exhausted and just emotionally drained. I fell asleep and woke up at 12:45 with a headache so I got up and took tylenol. At 2:15, I thought my water broke so I got up, showered, and dried my hair, walked around tidying up and washed the few dishes that were in the sink. Then I tried to go back to sleep because apparently I had been wrong about my water breaking. At 3:30, Jillian woke up crying so I brought her in bed with us. At 4:30, I woke up to put her back in her own bed and by that time I got back to our room, I was SURE my water had broken. I woke Mike up, he showered, and I tried to waste time because I was not going in just to get set home again. My contractions got harder and closer together so I called our neighbor who happened to be awake and asked if she'd come stay with the kids so we could head to the hospital. We finished getting ready, I did my hair, put on make-up, cleaned the bathroom, made our bed...I was trying to waste as much time as I could but then I started really hurting so once she got to the house, we left. We checked in around 6:30, I got my epidural at 7:30, they broke my water (which had not, in fact, broken at home!) and he was born 2 hours later after only 4 pushes! Hallelujah!

We came home from the hospital 2 days later and were able to FaceTime with Mike's paw paw on the way. When we arrived home, Drew and Susanna were waiting!

Valentine's day was really low-key! My mom was staying with us, Jillian was having a hard time adjusting and we were all kind of sleepy but I got some "cute" pictures of our FOUR babies!
My mom went home that Wednesday, the same day Paw Paw Bill passed away. We had Thursday to ourselves, Friday Aunt Kathy came to help and bring dinner and then Mrs. Donna, Ashley & Caleb came in town.

1 week old!

The following Saturday was Paw Paw Bill's funeral and afterward, we spent time with family at Aunt Jennifer's beautiful home on the river.

2 weeks old!

Jillian and I had lots of one-on-one time while the big kids were at school and have continued to do so! She seems like she's grown a ton since Will's arrival.