Amelia Kathryn Bybee Has Arrived!

Amelia Kathryn Bybee made her debut into this world on Tuesday August 20, 2013 at 4:46pm. She is beautiful! Here is her birth story with a few pictures.

We chose to be induced on Monday night the 19th when I was 39 weeks 1 day pregnant. We chose induction then because she was getting quite big and Jonathan starts the fall semester on Aug 26th. We wanted to have time to adjust to a newborn, me to have someone to help for a few days, and him to get to spend time with her before going to school again. The plan was for us to go to the hospital on Monday night between 9 and 10pm to start the induction process and have her on Tuesday. When we got to the hospital we had to sit in the waiting room for over an hour because there were so many babies being born they didn't have a room for us (or a friend who was being induced the same time). When we finally got put in our room I was 3cm dilated and contracting on my own but not regularly enough to have a baby so they started a low dose pitocin to help me have more consistent contractions. Soon I was contracting about 4 times in 10 minutes and they increased my medicine to make me contract every 2 minutes (5 times in 10 minutes is the goal). Around 5:15am I was found to be 5cm dilated and they broke my water to help things along a little more. I was being monitored during this time and Amelia was doing fabulously. My goal was to have a natural birth without pain medicine and I was doing well handling the pain. Around 7am I went for a walk around the halls with my sister to help pass the time and hopefully help me progress a little more. I was then checked again and was at 7cm. I was now having quite a bit of pain with each contraction and they were getting stronger and closer together. They turned off my pitocin because I was contracting so well and my labor continued on it's own without any medicine. My nurse was amazing! She helped me get in the shower at the hospital to labor with the hot water hitting me and it made all the difference in the world. Jonathan was a great labor coach. The contractions continued to get stronger and more painful and we thought I was getting closer. However when they checked me again around 11am I was still only at a 7. About an hour later I was still at a 7 and chose to get an epidural. I had been awake all night at that point and wasn't progressing. I was hoping that if I got the epidural I could rest and let my body relax a little and it would help me progress. The epidural went in great and Amelia was still doing wonderfully. I was able to rest for a while when things started getting a little scary. The monitors were showing that Amelia was having trouble with each contraction and wasn't recovering very well after some of them. Her heart rate was dropping and staying too low. They had me lay in different positions and put some oxygen on me and she was doing better. I laid on my right side, where Amelia was doing the best, for what seemed like forever. When they checked me again I was at an 8 and she was still not dropping down much into the birth canal. She then started having a few more heart rate drops so they put monitors on her head to watch her more closely, put some fluid back into the amniotic sac (hoping it would help her handle the contractions better) and we continued to watch. She was still doing ok and I was doing better with the epidural. Around 4:30pm they checked me again and I wasn't even at a 9 yet and she was still high. Then her heart rate dropped into the 40s and she wasn't recovering very quickly even with changing my position and putting me back on oxygen. Her heart rate did come up back to normal but she wasn't handling contractions well. We decided to go with an urgent c-section at that time to prevent needing an emergency c-section if her heart rate dropped and wouldn't come back up. Our only goal was to have a healthy baby and we didn't want to jepordize that just for a natural birth. The anesthesiologists and OB doctors rushed in and prepped me for surgery. Amelia was born at 4:46pm by c-section. When they were trying to get her out they discovered that her head was stuck in the birth canal. Someone actually had to push her back up into my abdomen to get her out. She did great! My recovery is now a little more complicated and I am very sore from laboring all day and then needing a c-section but we are doing well.

Amelia Kathryn Bybee
Born August 20, 2013 at 4:46pm
8lbs 7oz, 19 inches
She has her brother Grant's nose, her dad's hands and feet and my mouth and she is absolutely perfect.

Right after she was born! So alert!

My new favorite picture! Today getting ready to come home.

Getting ready for her first car ride.

Hanging out on the couch tonight.

Maternity Pictures

Here are some of my maternity pictures done by my amazingly talented little sister.

These are the ones we took Easter weekend to announce her coming arrival to the world!

These are some my sister took June 29th of just me and Amelia.

Here are the ones she took a few weeks later with both of us!

Me reading "Guess How Much I Love You" and him reading "Because I'm Your Dad"

Reading the book he picked out for her. So sweet!

This is in our living room. Love it.

Baby Showers

Our first baby shower was in May and our last one was in June. One was here where we live with friends and one was in Dallas with friends and family from there. We are so blessed to have so many people who love us and this sweet girl. Here are a few photos from each shower.

Temple, TX Friend Shower May 18th

Her invitation

My mom and I

Sarah, Me and Allie (2 of the 3 Hostesses)

The cake (delicious and beautiful!)

Dallas, TX shower June 29th

Me and the cake. Once again, pretty and delicious!

Yum, cake!

My Beautiful Grandmother making onesies.

Onesie making station

Her Just Born Onesie. We have one made for each month for the first year. It was fun to be able to do these at the party.

The Nursery

Here is Amelia's nursery. I am in love with it. I love going in there and sitting in her chair and just dreaming. It is calm and soothing and everything I wanted it to be. It's pretty and girly but not pink and "fru-fru".

Wreath on her door, made by a good friend!

View from the door. That's Grant's bear on the shelf in the corner :)

View from the crib.

View from the closet. That chair is sooooo comfortable!

A closer look at her bookshelf. The penguins are because we have called her Baby Penguin since our first ultrasound. That silver frame says "Me and My Big Brother." Can't wait to put a picture of her and Grant bear in it!

Her dresser/changing table. The blank space by the mirror will eventually have something hanging there, it's just not done yet.

Our dog Kira. She follows me everywhere and loves being in the nursery with me.

Close up of her crib. Jonathan picked it out :)

Bows and headbands on her bow holder I made.

Close up of her quilt!

I had so much fun picking out her fabric and making her curtains, bed skirt, crib sheets, changing pad cover and quilt. A good friend did the actual quilting after I pieced it all together. I even had enough of the curtain/bedskirt fabric left over to make the cute pillow and bow holder.

Frozen Yogurt With a Friend

Last week I met a good friend to chat and enjoy some frozen yogurt. I love anything "ice cream" and that love is even more while I'm pregnant. This friend understands me so so well. She too lost a son just last year. She even just had another baby this past spring, almost exactly 1 year after she lost her son. We don't get to hang out often enough because life is busy but when we do it is so amazing. I love spending time with her and sharing life together. We hung out and chatted for a few hours and it was nice to be able to openly talk about the fear that comes along with being pregnant after a loss. This pregnancy has gone so well. Amelia is healthy and so am I but I am still scared that something could go wrong. I told myself at the beginning of this pregnancy that I would thank God for everyday that I get with this baby and that is exactly what I do. I am not guaranteed tomorrow and I am determined to be thankful for today. It doesn't matter how tired I am or how badly something hurts, I am so so thankful for this time with her. Feeling her squirm and wiggle is the greatest reminder that there is life growing inside of me and that I am blessed.

I think that we've handled the stress/anxiety of pregnancy after loss pretty well. I have my moments where I begin to freak out that something is wrong with her if she doesn't move as much as I think she should but I am able to calm myself down by talking with God and sometimes calling my OB. Can I just say that my OB is the best doctor any woman could ever ask for? She is AMAZING! I seriously love her. She has been so understanding this whole pregnancy and has offered to do more monitoring anytime I am nervous. Our Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist has done more ultrasounds than normal because he knows that it will make me feel better to know that she is ok. Our team of doctors is wonderful and I am so thankful to have such caring people on our side.

I am so looking forward to the day that I will hear this little girl cry for the first time and see her sweet face. I am also a little scared. I don't know what to expect with my emotions. I know the day will be bitter-sweet. I know that the future will be bitter-sweet at times also. I miss Grant all the time and wish he was here but if he was here this little girl wouldn't be. It is such a conflicting feeling.

A Little Bit of Everything

I've been gone from here for a while. Life is so crazy busy right now and I am exhausted at the end of most days. I'm going to do a bullet point type post today to update and then I will try to keep this thing updated.

- I am now 31 weeks and 1 day pregnant with Amelia Kathryn. She is doing wonderfully and is growing well. At my appointment last week I was measuring about 2 1/2 weeks ahead. We know she is measuring quite long on ultrasound and have another ultrasound scheduled for July. I am going to the doctor every 2 weeks now and love hearing her heartbeat. That sound never gets old.

- I have my next baby shower this coming Saturday and we are so excited.

- Work is going well but man am I tired at the end of each week. Working nights is always exhausting by the end of the week but now I feel like I could sleep for days come Saturday morning. I go back to work tonight. As of right now I plan on working until I go into labor or my last shift that is scheduled 2 days before my due date. I want all of my time off to be with my sweet girl.

- Jonathan is taking summer school this summer and is taking about 7 hours. He is taking 20 hours in the fall! I'm so proud of how hard he is working to get done. Only 3 more full semesters and he will have his college degree!

- We got to spend the weekend with Destiny and Adrik this weekend. We picked them up on Thursday night and took them home on Sunday. It was so much fun getting to hang out with them for the whole weekend. We realize that we are blessed to still have this relationship with them and to continue to build a relationship with their parents. We went bowling, to the water park, saw Monsters University and hung out at home. We were really busy but had so much fun. I realized today that I didn't take a single picture this weekend but we were so busy enjoying time with them I didn't even think about it.

- My mom came down this weekend also. I loved getting to spend some time with her. We stayed up too late at night and got up too early in the morning but it was nice to sit and talk. On Sunday she helped Jonathan hang the curtain rod in Amelia's room. We also arranged the furniture the way we wanted and put her rug down. Soon I will have her room put together and organized and then I will show it off!

- We paid someone to paint a mural on Amelia's wall recently and I LOVE IT! It is so sweet and I will show it off when I show pictures of her completed room.

- I have made a to do list of things I need to get done before she arrives and last week I was able to cross off a few things. Mostly the ones crossed off are things I am making for her. I still have a few things to sew and hope to work on them this week.

I think that's it. I'll make sure to take pictures of the things I've made for her room and for her and do a post of those soon. I'll also do a combined baby shower post after this weekend.

House Happenings

We have lived in this house for almost 2 years now. We decided just over a year ago that we really like this house and that we would try to buy it this spring. We closed on our first home a few weeks ago! Buying a house is incredibly stressful but it was made a little less so by the fact that we didn't have to move. This is the house that Grant and Amelia were conceived in. It's the house that we came home to after we said goodbye to Grant and will come home to when we bring Amelia home for the first time. It's the house that Destiny and Adrik spent the majority of their time with us in. We live right down the street from an amazing school as well as from great friends. We have a huge yard that the dogs love. This is the place for us for the next 5 years at least. One day we will outgrow this house and need one a little bigger but that day is in the distant future. When we moved in here our house had white carpet, white/off white walls, white lineoleum floors and white laminate counter tops. There was white EVERYWHERE! We have painted a few rooms before we bought the house and painted even more right before closing. The only rooms that still need to be re-painted are the kitchen/laundry room and both bathrooms. The week after we closed we had new floors installed in the entire house (except for the bathrooms). We no longer have any carpet! We put laminate hardwood in the bedrooms, hall and living room and we put tile in the kitchen/laundry room. We also had our old white laminate countertops and white backsplash removed and replaced with granite counters and a new tile back splash that is tan. The house looks amazing! I'm so glad to have it all completed and fresh before Amelia comes. Here are some photos. I didn't take any of the counters before and only took one of the carpet. Next up....new stove and washer/dryer to be delivered next week.

Kitchen Floor Before

Living Room Floor Before

Kitchen Floor After

Kitchen Floor After

Amelia's Room

Laminate Wood!

Living room After

Entryway After

New Countertops, Dishwasher and Back Splash

New Countertop and Sink!