The Birth Story

For those of you that are interested in the 'birth story' - read on...

To preface the story - Kyle was scheduled to teach an all day long seminar on the constitution Saturday January 16th. For awhile it seemed like I'd go early and it wouldn't be a problem. The closer to the date the more nervous we got. I spent the earlier part of the week doing what I could to get the baby here! Including taking down the Christmas decorations by myself, cleaning, walking & Kyle caught me vacuuming the stairs. He tried to post the video but it didn't work. :) Then when nothing happened, I was basically on bed rest Friday & Saturday.

Of course, as soon as the class was over... Saturday night I started waking up with contractions - Real ones. However, I knew I wasn't in 'active' labor. So Sunday morning I decided to go to church and hopefully keep things moving along. They went from 20 min apart to 10 to 15. There were those I had to breath through but I was doing fine. I came home and took a nap, again I would wake up but still not convinced it wouldn't stop. I started timing at 5 pm. They were 8 minutes apart until midnight. Then 5 min apart, my water started 'leaking' around 12:15. Last time it POPPED - and sounded just like that. This time I kept waiting for it to pop. I knew the water I lost wasn't nearly enough to be my water popping so I kept waiting. I stayed at 5 min until around 2:00 am. They started to move to 3, 2, 1. I was going to call my midwife but I wasn't convinced it was really close, and then it became hard enough that I wasn't thinking about calling her, just getting through. Kyle finally called her, she got to my house around 3:45. I was ready to push right after she got there. I probably pushed for about 15 minutes. Then the midwife literally had to catch her. It wasn't here is the head, now push out the body... it was ok I can see the head & then she was catching her. Basically I was exhausted & ready to be DONE. So I just did whatever I could to get the baby here! Needless to say, I ended up with some stitches. She was born at 4:06 am.
Here is the best part about doing it at home. Laylah was immediately handed to me. Anything that needed to be done right away could be done in my arms. We kept the cord attached until it had stopped pumping. Then I moved into a big comfortable chair, held my baby & tried to nurse her. After about an hour I really just wanted to go to bed. I handed her off to the midwife's assistant to be weighed & checked out. I was stitched up. Then I got changed and ... climbed into MY OWN BED! Ahhh, nothing like it. Of course the minute I did - what did I hear? Kalel crying for his Mommy. We brought him in to meet the new addition. We told him the baby sister came out. He said no, not yet. I told him yes she did, see Mommy's belly. (not too convincing right after birth...) He looked at me and then the baby and said. "Oh baby sister, I LOVE HER!" It was adorable. All in all everything went well. We are so blessed to be given this beautiful, healthy baby girl! We are all in love with her.



She was very alert. This was maybe 20? minutes after birth.

Laylah Eve Roberts

Our angel finally arrived! Laylah Eve Roberts was born at home 4:06 a.m. January 18th. She was 7 lbs 6 oz & 20 inches long. She is beautiful and thus far very calm & happy. We are both healthy and doing well - sleeping as much as possible. I will give more details and pictures sometime... later. We are off to bed. :)

Recent Crafts & Such

So I have been wanting to start a blog of crafty things (mainly to show my family) but I haven't been able to come up with a name that isn't taken that I like. So I will just post a few here for now.


This is a 'bow holder' I made the other day. I will have to take another picture with bows actually on it. But it a fun little decoration for the wall. :)


These are a few burp clothes I made with scraps from my sister. Thanks Corinne! They are just cloth diapers with some cute fabric. They are the best for burp cloths, my aunt gave me a couple when I had Kalel and they were my favorite. They absorb so much!


Before...


After! I used a tutorial online to make pajama pants out of an old shirt. I think they turned out cute, and they are really comfortable. I could make these in about 10 min. Really easy & really fast!


This is the shirt I made to go with them. Kalel loves trains. He calls this his Thomas the Tank Engine shirt. As soon as he finds it out of the wash, he wants to wear it again. :) I just used a $3 shirt from Wal-Mart and some scraps & buttons to applique on the train. Great price for new pajamas.


Ok, not a very good picture. I'll post a better one later. But I made my first quilt! It was pretty time consuming because I was learning from my mistakes - but so worth it. I love it! I put a hot pink paisley print minky on the back. I'm in love with that stuff! And this is the crib & changing table my Mom bought for us! Thanks Mom, we love them!


For Christmas this year I wanted to make most of my gifts. I learned how to make beanies from old sweaters, and the dollar store here had some - Perfect! So I made hats for my nieces & nephews on my side.


I learned how to make these cute flowers from an online tutorial. So I made different versions for the girls hats, they are just on clips so they can switch them around or wear them on shirts, headbands etc.


Here are Macie & Lily wearing theirs.


I made NY Yankee hats for the boys. The black ones are sweaters & the blue one is fleece. I used felt (.25 cents a sheet) to applique the symbol on. They loved them. I heard that Logan even sleeps in his. :)




They cost around 50 cents a hat. Because I bought the sweaters from the dollar store and I have some left over that is usable, but some I only had enough for two. And the red ones were a sweater I already had. Everything else (fabric scraps for flowers & felt) I already had. Not bad, right?


Lastly I made some more flowers for my sister-in-laws. I just made up a bunch and let everyone choose. They have pins & clips on the back. I like to wear mine in my hair when it is pulled up, or on a coat, shirt etc.

That's all for now. I will post more later, unless I go into labor. Which I would gladly welcome. :)

If anyone wants to know how to do any of these things, let me know. I can post links, or make tutorials.

Christmas Day

We started out Christmas morning with talking to Kevin. We actually talked via Skype. It was so fun to be able to see & talk to him. He is doing well.



Kalel got a choo choo train for Christmas that he is absolutely thrilled about. :) It was so fun to see him walk out Christmas morning and see it. We couldn't get him to open anything else he just said, "no, I'm playing with my choo choo."



We spent the day with the Roberts' family. We ate, talked, exchanged gifts, played in the snow, played games etc. A fun family filled relaxing day.



The day after Christmas we headed back up North for a Richards Christmas party. It was great to see family. It has been a while because Kyle & I haven't lived so close that it has been hard to make it for the parties. We are glad to be back!

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house this year. We got together and had a wonderful dinner. We spent some time talking & tried to keep the kids out of the presents. :) Then we exchanged gifts and watched a movie my Mom got for us. It was a wonderful night.



Here's my little family.

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And here is my big belly. :) 37 weeks here.





I made my nieces & nephews hats for Christmas this year. They are made from old sweaters. It was a fun project. For the boys I appliqued a NY Yankees sign on and I made flowers for the girls. I think they turned out pretty cute. :) I didn't get pictures of all the kids with them on.



Kalel gets lots of love from our family.