George Thaxton!

(hours old on June 18th)

George Thaxton Vaisey

Born June 18, 2012 @9:20 a.m.

8 # 7 oz

Lots of you know him by now, but he needs a formal introduction here I suppose.

He's the first baby I cried over while still in labor because I COULD NOT wait to finally meet him. I was so overwhelmed and so anxious to begin the next stage, with a newborn. I have never felt so desperate to have a baby in my arms than hours before his birth.

He was named after a Vaisey family corner stone, Jeff's grandmother, Dorothy Ann Thaxton Vaisey and he has simply been the sweetest baby and addition to our family and we are all completely smitten by him. No surprise there.

He was born right before the end of the school year so we got an entire lazy summer to get to know him and love on him all day. He has large cheeks and a sweet little round head and fat squishy pink lips I enjoy kissing 50 times a day.

I feel like I owe the success of my transition from 3 children to 4 to my mom (who cleaned, organized, watched children, spoiled me), babajuje (sleepovers!) and many friends who took Lena and Simon for play dates, brought treats and meals and neighbors who let my children run ramped at their house for hours on end. 
Honestly, I'm waiting for the out of control crazies to set in, but they just haven't. They appear in moments for sure, like that one time I took them all to Target(!!), and dinner time (I definitely know I have four children around dinner time!) but nothing like I had imagined. Life is unbelievably good right now. Just so so good.

When George was about 10 days old my good friend, Jeannette came over to the house with her camera goodness and did a quick little session:

(baby in a bowl!)

I look back at these photos and already wonder where my tinyish baby went.

Because he's bigger now. A lot bigger.
You'll see;)

Well Here They Are:

the THREE BOYS!!!

My Dog Ate My Keyboard But Actually It Was Other Reasons Altogether

Roughly the last pictures I took when it was still fall outside and still November

I'm not sure how it happened. A 5 weeks hiatus. Record lows. 

I appreciate the comments and emails in my absence, although I must say my personal favorite came from Chelsey who said she looked me up on Facebook to make sure she didn't see any "RIP Kelly". HA! 
Because if it's been 5 weeks and I haven't uttered so much as a single inter web posted word I must be dead. 
Or pregnant.
with a baby...
for the fourth time.
May the heavens open up and send us the best they've got! And if that doesn't solicit at least 20 comments of "hang in theres" and "everything will be great" or "sanity is over rated anyway" maybe one or two, "who needs cleanliness and order?" then I'm leaving forever.
And If you saw this coming, you should have anonymously phoned in your warning. 
That's what friends do;)

It's Photos Like This One

the pumpkin patch fall 2010

that insure there will in fact be a fourth baby Vaisey born eventually.

What a face! I will be needing another one. 

Eventually. 

Probably. 

Maybe.

A Birth Video

After we celebrated his first year with family yesterday afternoon,

we sat together and watched the events that unfolded one year ago today.

And no matter how many times I watch it, I can't seem get to the end without crying.

What a day. What a year.

Every Morning Is Like I've Died And Gone To Baby Heaven

I'm Back With A Riddle Just For You

What is small and sweet, weighs seven pounds, sleeps, cries, smells like a slice of heaven, and has a head full of red (yes, that's right) red hair?

You give up?

It's a Baby Boy!

Our Baby Boy-

who showed up on May 1st at 2 in the morn.

And oh how we are in love with a little Calvin...

Just In Case This Baby Is a Little Girl

Because it can't hurt to be prepared.

(adorable knit booties from here)

In hopes to raise some serious excitement about this little baby I am declaring Saturday,

"Baby Saturday"

Things like setting up the co-sleeper, washing the appropriate gender neutral first-days clothes/blankets (the itty bitty white and cream stuff.....oh how I love babies in white and cream), buying all the essentials for the homebirth, re-visiting the car seat situation (three across will be happening, my friends- do any of you do the three across thing?), and I think buying "gifts" for the baby from Lena and Simon will also be a part of Baby Saturday. I'm thinking new la las from Lena and one of these sweet swaddling blankets from Simon.

Because, what do you really need for baby no. three?

A Blog-Induced Labor

On the afternoon I was posting the entry of Jeff and Lena in the snow, I started swaying back and forth while posting and talking to my mom when I experienced the first low dull pain, and realized I actually might be in real labor. At first I hesitated and tried to make myself believe it was another round of falsies (which had been happening every few nights for a while) but as soon as I felt the uncontrollable urge to walk walk walk, and began doing laps throughout the house I knew it MUST be real. YEA! This was actually going to happen.
I called Jeff, to get him home from work, the midwife, to get her to the house, and Julie, to come pick up my mom and Lena. In the mix of everyone coming and going the contractions got a LOT more intense, so I went upstairs to try to concentrate. It was getting more and more difficult to talk through them, and I headed for seclusion in my room (and hallway because I still had the STRONG need to walk walk walk).
After saying goodbye to Lena and kissing her big fat sweet cheeks and welcoming the first midwife on the scene I was feeling great that I was truly in real labor and that the baby was going to be OUT of me in the very near future. It might have been around 6-7ish that the contractions became longer and stronger, I'm still not sure of a timetable because I yanked the alarm clock from our bedroom out of the wall around this time.
Midwife no. 2 arrived a while later and things were definitely in business. They set up shop in our bedroom and headed back downstairs to give us some privacy and space. (I feel very independent when I am in labor and don't really want anyone to touch or talk to me). This gave Jeff the important duty of siting in the room with me with a look on his face like "I'm here if there is anything I can do!" He made for a great labor companion once again.
Some more time passed...must have been a couple of hours. In the far off land of labor, time is so irrelevant. It's amazing what a different world you enter. By now my very dear and amazing midwife, Meg, came up to sit through a few contractions with me to see how I was progressing. She must have thought baby go time was near because soon the other two birth attendants followed and labor picked up by 1 million percent.
Transition was extremely INTENSE. I mean far more intense than with Lena, which during the whole labor I was comparing the two. BIG mistake. Walking around for the past few weeks at 4cm, we all thought labor would progress very quickly, but it turned out to last almost as long as labor with Lena. I didn't know the work I had cut out for me.
By about the point when I literally thought I couldn't go on anymore, (a point I barely reached with Lena's) I asked Meg to break my water. After she did, pain I didn't think could get stronger, did in fact do just that. I paced around frantically, yelling "I can't do this!, I don't want to do this", when finally I felt the urge to push. This was the difficult part of Lena's labor, this time was not easier but different. It lasted for 20 minutes or so I am guessing. Pushing began in the bathroom and moved to our bedroom where at roughly 10:18 p.m. they laid him across my chest and I looked down at his thing-like hands and couldn't stop saying "he's here! he's here! I can't believe how big he is!"
How truly amazing and powerful it was. At 8 pounds 15 ounces, (a whopping 2 pounds bigger than Lena!) 21 1/4 inches he is perfect. His name is Simon.