Happy 3rd Birthday Rhycherd!

You have increased the volume in our home :P and in our hearts :) We love you Rhychie!

My Kiddos For Halloween!

 Kaedence is a skeleton :)

 Rhycherd is Batman :)

 Laneah is Aurora :)

Bo and I cheated :)

Happy Halloween!

Latest Pics of Kids - Ready For Church :)

I am such a blessed mommy :)

Kaedence 6 weeks

This is my little beauty on her blessing day :)

She is such a good baby! She sleeps from 10-10 every night with only 1-2 feedings! I am one very blessed and happy mom!

I had made it 5 1/2 weeks of breastfeeding her on my boob! The longest I have ever made it! But I have an overactive letdown and she would just squirm and pull off and swallow lots of air which caused her gas :( So I decided to exclusively pump. She loves her feedings again :)

She will squirm on her tummy a few inches! It just blows our minds! She has tried to roll from back to tummy several times too :) She is now talking a little and batting at toys out of excitement :)

I love my Kae Kae :)

Kaedence Marie Thomas

 This little beauty joined the outside world at 7:50 am on July 11th :)

Laneah and Rhycherd both ADORE her :) Nay always wants to hold/play with her and Rhych always says "She's so adornable" :)

Birth Story:
I had been having prodormal labor for weeks, so when contractions would come on I would not get overly excited and time them for a while. But the little boogers would always go away. At 3:00 am I woke up to the most painful contraction I had felt. It lasted about 1 1/2 min. Then another one came 5 minutes later. They kept coming every 5 minutes and lasting 3 minutes each! All the "exercises" we had been practicing for labor pains (rubs, massages) made me mad! They made the pain worse! So I had Bo put a hot washcloth on my back during contractions while I was in bed or had him pour the hot bath water on my back, stomach, and thighs while I was in the tub. I tell you, I did NOT want to be touched! We timed the contractions for about 2 hours before calling the midwife. She asked if she should come or if we wanted to labor alone for a while longer. We wanted to be alone. At this point I am groaning through these things. They HURT! We called our friends to come get the kids. They live about an hour away and have 4 kids to get ready so we knew it would be a while before they could make it. About 7 am I got into the tub again and felt a new pain, only what could be described as transition contractions. Oh my heavens, I couldn't even get enough oxygen to moan they hurt so bad! Thank heavens, I only had to endure 4 of those before I felt like I had to go to the bathroom, got up, sat on the toilet, and my water broke! Immediately I looked at Bo and said, "Call Rhoda, I feel like I need to push!" Bo called her and she was on her way... But no amount of speeding could get her here in time :P 10 minutes of me saying "Honey, I can't do this!" and Bo calming me down saying "Yes you can honey. It is almost done. You can do this!" and little Kaedence was delivered by her daddy in our bed with her siblings in the next room :) Needless to say, Bo called our friends and told them nevermind :) My midwife and her nurse showed up a few minutes later :) The kids were not freaked out at all, they were actually in awe when they saw her :)

I am so proud of myself for having made it through all natural. It was amazing to feel and see how God has this process happen, BUT I have also realized I am a woman who does not mind being numb from the waist down (I have never had complications from an epidural) and will NOT do childbirth natural again :P

Some Great Labor Quotes!

Throughout this whole pregnancy I have watched TONS of natural labor videos on youtube. Today I watched one with some AMAZING quotes I wanted to share:

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding - Khalil Gibran

Birth may bring you face-to-face with your insecurities, doubts, inadequacies, and fears. It may also bring you face-to-face with your joy, determination, willingness, and courage. -The Pink Kit

The power and intensity of your contractions cannot be stronger than you because it IS you -Unknown (I agree this is true with NATURAL contractions...)

Nay's Recital Photos!

Laneah had her first ballet recital a few weeks ago :) She got to wear some light make-up (Powder, mascara, lip stick) and that made her day! She looked absolutely gorgeous! We are so proud of her :) I will post the videos once we get them put into a format appropriate for our computer :)