Jesse Grayson

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Tyler and I had Parker at Labors of Love Birth Center. We had such a good experience we decided go all natural again and have Jesse at the same place.

This time around my midwife asked me not to wait so long to head to the birth center when I started labor, since this would be my third delivery.  She told us to plan on heading to the birth center when contractions were five minutes apart, just to be on the safe side.

Well my due date came and went. Tyler and my mom were both calling or texting two or three times a day to check up on me, despite my insistence that I would let them know as soon as anything happened.

On October 4, Annley got up at 2AM and asked me to take her potty and to get her some water.  I had just walked her into the bathroom when I felt a contraction that made me double over.  I thought hmm...that really hurt. I'm pretty sure they started out easier last time. I guess I'll wait and see I have anymore. 

I had another painful contraction before I got Annley into bed so I woke up Tyler to give him a heads up.

Contractions were about seven minutes apart and lasting about 45 seconds so he said he'd go back to sleep for a couple of hours.  I walked and tried to "rest" for the next two hours.  When I woke Tyler up at four in the morning, my contractions were all over the place but very painful and still only 30-45 seconds.  Tyler went ahead and called my mom and the midwife to let them know what was going on.  The midwife told him that we could head to the birth center, but that I probably wasn't even ready since my contractions were so short.  Tyler passed the word on to me, and I wondered if we should just wait a little longer.  He, being a good, coach insisted we leave right away.

The birth center was over an hour from where we live and by the time we'd gotten close I felt like my contractions were still really strong but getting shorter.  I was worried we'd driven all that way only to be in false labor.  Once we got there I told the midwives what I thought was going on. They checked me and said "Well, you're at 6cm. Would you like to get in the tub?"  

It still didn't seem real.  I was so excited and still talking between contractions which were getting closer together.  We were only there for 24 minutes before I felt like it was time to push. I was given the go ahead and 6 minutes later Jesse Grayson was born. Total time of Labor and delivery 4 hours and 30 minutes. I'm really glad Tyler insisted we leave when we did otherwise he would have had to deliver a baby in the car.

Tyler's mom came and brought the kids to see us at the birth center.  Annley was so excited to see her new baby brother. Parker was pretty interested too, until he got distracted by a train set in the waiting room, and went to go play. We were back home by 10:30 the same morning.

Who?

 

Annley has imaginary friends.  Sometimes they're princesses.  Well, usually they're princesses.  Lately, though, Annley has been talking about some imaginary girl named Cara.

The funny thing about Cara is that she's not like most imaginary friends.  Usually imaginary friends show up to play.  Cara is someone who has yet to arrive.

Annley loves church--I promise this relates to Cara.  When Annley talks about church, she talks about God.  She wants to see God.  She talks about that all the time.

"I need to go to the woods to say a prayer and see Heavenly Father!"

Ok.

But lately when she talks about God, she talks about Cara.

"Cara is with Heavenly Father.  She's going to come down to be my friend!"

Ok.

"Cara is going to come down from Heaven to be with me.  She has blonde hair and blue eyes!"

Hmmm...

"Cara is going to come to be my friend after Jesse Grayson is born!"

Uh...

One day Nana asked Annley to help her draw a picture of Cara.  Annley described Cara and Nana colored.  Pink dress.  Blonde hair.  Blue eyes.  Finally, Nana asked Annley if the picture was done.  It was.  Nana asked Annley if she should write Cara's name on it.  She should.  She asked Annley how Cara was spelled.

"K...E...R...A..."

Kera?

So far, Annley has only ever been able to read small words like pot and cat.  But spelling words?  And spelling a name she's never seen before?  Where did she learn to do that?

And, more importantly...who is Kera?!

Annley Says...

One night, after dessert, Annley sat down on the couch next to Tyler and sighed.
"It's been a good day. I had cake."

Here's a conversation between Annley and Nana about watching a movie. She usually only gets one movie a day.  (Annley, not Nana).

Annley: "I want to ask my Mommy if I can watch."
Nana: "You already watched."
Annley: "I watch to watch Diamond Princesses."
Nana: "But you already watched."
Annley: "I watched The Ocean."
Nana: "Yes, you did."
Annley: "I think my Mommy will say no."
Nana: "Yes, I think so too."
Annley: "But in the end she will say "yes".

I wish I'd known about this conversation before she asked me if she could watch a movie.  Because I would have said no.


Last week I got my hair cut. My hair is now about 10 inches shorter than it was. When I got home, Annley started sobbing.

"Mommy, why did you have to cut your hair?!  Can I brush it?!"

Then, on Sunday...
"Mommy, I like your hair now."
"Thank you!"
"But Abbie will laugh when she sees it."

Ouch!

And then, on Monday...
"Mommy, who cut your hair?"
"Maggie."
"Why did she cut your hair?"
"Because I asked her to."
"You shouldn't have asked her to do that. Your hair just needs to stay long. Don't ask Maggie to do that again."

Thank You- From Annley

Annley's thank you to the family Tyler has been living with.

Annley's thank you to Tyler's boss at Comcast.

Faith and Forest Prayers

 Annley is learning and growing so much. She is also now has her own interpretation of things, pictures and phrases. This  has caused a little confusion and drama in our family the last two weeks.

Sunday, we went to church, came home, enjoyed the day, went to bed and voila Monday was here.
Monday, morning Annley wakes up and looks out the window.
"Mommy, I see a forest! I need to go in it and pray so Heavenly Father can see me."

My first thought oh, they learned about Joseph Smith and the First Vision on Sunday. Nope, I talked to the nursery leader. They learned that Heavenly Father has a physical body just like them. She did however show a picture of The First Vision to show that Heavenly Father does indeed have a body like them. She put the rest together on her own.

"Oh, um ok but we can't right now because Parker is sleeping. Did you know we can say a prayer right here in the house and Heavenly Father can still hear us and see us."
"But I want to see him. Will he come see me in the house?"
"I'm not sure. Heavenly Father doesn't make appearances for very many prayers."
Drama ensues... "But he will come see me pray in the forest!"

Next day, we go to my friends house.
"Guess what Mrs. Autumn? When we get in Phoebe (our van) and leave here we are going to see Heavenly Father."
"What? I never said that. Honey we can't just get in the car and just drive to see Heavenly Father." "He lives too far away."
"In Seattle?"
"Um No. We can't exactly get to where he is right now."
"When?"

Great, now I have to explain life and death to my 3 year old.
"Annley, do you remember Tuff? He got really old and died so Heavenly Father took Tuff to live with him. Heavenly Father gets to choose when we see him for now that is usually after we die."
Silence... followed my my sigh of relief. I should have known better. Apparently she was just analyzing what I said.

Wednesday, the next day.
"Grandpa, Tuff got really old and he died so now he lives with Heavenly Father."
"Yep, that's right."
"And you are going to get really old and then you'll die and go see Heavenly Father."
"Yep, that's true too."
"And then I'll get really old and die...then I can go see Heavenly Father."
"Yes, but that won't happen for a very very long time."
Short silence followed by loud sigh, pouting and tears...
"I don't want to get old! I don't want to die."

It was a long few days.  She is still asking to go pray in the forest so I'll be taking her to do that sometime this week. She's not upset about dying or at least she isn't talking about it but she is still talking about Heavenly Father seeing her pray and wanting to see him.

I really don't know what else to say at this point other than Heavenly Father decides who gets to see him while we live on Earth.

Annley in Nature

One of my goals this summer is to expose Annley to lots of nature and by nature I mean bugs and living things. Some of my favorite summer memories are of catching lighting bugs, frogs, turtles, going fishing etc...

Annley's first encounter was with a toad her cousin caught while we were on a walk.  Annley loved looking at the toad but she refused to get close to it or touch it. I guess maybe it was too ugly for her highness to touch; I'm not sure. She still asks to go for walks and look for frogs so I guess she likes them to some extent if nothing else she thinks they are funny when they jump.

The second "outing" was to catch lighting bugs. I bought her a bug box that she could put them with the condition that she touch one of the lighting bugs. She readily agreed. We waited with great excitement for it to get dark enough for the lighting bugs to come out and off we went. Annley loved the chase and opened and closed the box as her cousins and I caught the bugs.  Did she touch a lighting bug? Um no.

                                         
The third outing was a fishing trip. Annley has been begging to go fishing since we got back to my parents' house last week. Last night we finally got to go. It was a family affair. Even my mom and Parker went. Luckily there are some wonderful people in our ward who have a playground not too far from the pond on their property. This is where Parker and my brother's girlfriend spent most of their time.
Annley told me that she was going to catch three fish,  put them in a white box, then I could clean them and cook them but not the big one.
Well, I caught a couple of little fish and guess what? She touched one and I have proof.

It's a...

This morning my mom, Tyler's mom and I drove to Greenville Technical College for an ultrasound to find out what this baby is.

Greenville Tech offers free ultrasound for the women who are between 19-33 weeks pregnant and its free.
The ultrasound took 2 hours partially because the student does the ultrasound first and the instructor comes in afterwards to go over everything the student did and because the baby kept flipping around every time the student tried to get a picture of anything.

It was a lot of fun getting to watch the baby move around so much.

So, what gender is the baby?

It's a BOY!