Kolt at 3 months

I love this picture! This is Kolt's face when he is about to get upset. He sticks his lip out & tries to hold his cry in. About 10 seconds after this picture was taken, his face was beet red & he was wailing. How can you not give him what he wants when he makes this face! We went in for Kolt's 3 month checkup this week and he is a healthy boy! He now weighs 15.4 pounds and is 25 inches long! He is such a happy & laid back baby. He smiles all the time & loves to coo & sing. He gets so excited everytime he sees Kelton & Kelton now says, "hey brudder" when he sees him. He usually also says "he's soooo tyute (cute)"! The other day my sister asked Kelton who his best friend was and he said "my brudder, Kolt"! Life is good!

My Sweet, Sweet Boys

Poor Kelton has a carpet burn on his little nose & remnants of supper on his face, but I thought it was a cute photo. Now, if I could only get them to smile at the same time!

Halloween 2008

Kelton wanted to be a fireman this year & Kolt had 2 costumes. He was both a dragon and a horse (or a "colt", if you will). This is the only picture I got of the 2 boys together & you can tell Kelton is much more interested in playing with his friends than photography. Oh well, it was a fun night!

Kolt's Birth

James and I went to the hospital at 7:30 a.m. on September the 9th for an induction. They started me on pitocin around 8:00 and we waited for contractions to start. Dr. Sawyer checked me around noon & I was still only 1 cm dilated. Even though I was only a 1, I was having some serious contractions every 3 to 4 minutes so I asked for an epidural. I don't see the point in being in pain when you don't have to be. I had the hardest time sitting still for my epidural because of my contractions. James kept reminding me to breathe because I have a bad habit of holding my breath when I am in pain. They told me that the epidural should start working within 30 minutes. Funny, I thought, with Kelton it worked instantly. Anyhoo, 30 minutes came & went and nothing. No relief at all. The doctor came back and re-threaded my epidural and still nothing. It was at this point I began to panic. I was already in so much pain & I now knew that an epidural was not going to work at all. Blast!!! They gave me some phenegran so that I could hopefully "sleep through the pain". Good one. All that did was make my eyes heavy. I could not sit still. I literally went from lying on the bed to sitting up & trying to hold myself off the bed with my arms over and over. I was dilated to a 3 at 3:00 p.m. & the nurse told me that we probably wouldn't have a baby until later that night. At that point, I started crying & moaning. I have never felt pain like that before and it is absolutely impossible to describe. Finally, Dr. Sawyer came in at 5:00 p.m. and I immediately started begging her to knock me unconscious & just pull the baby out. I was completely irrational. I felt like Elizabeth McGovern from She's Having a Baby when they are telling her to calm down & she won't listen. Fortunately, I was dilated to a 10. Hooray. Wait, did that mean I was actually going to have to push this thing out with no pain medicine. All the sudden that hit me & I started telling everyone that I was not going to push & they could not make me. As if that could be avoided. I was trying to think up every possible excuse as to why I could not do this. I couldn't really come up with a legitimate excuse so I finally started pushing. I was assured it would feel better to push than just sit there. Whatever. It hurt even worse. James, my mom and my 2 sisters were in the room with me. Poor Aubin, I looked up at one point and she was at the foot of the bed with tears streaming down her face. She said I made noises she had never heard a human make. Thankfully, I only had to push for 15 minutes. At 5:22 p.m. Jeffrey "Kolt" made his debut at 9 pounds & 1 ounce, 21.5 inches and with a head measuring in at 15.5 inches. Yikes. The weird thing was that as soon as he exited my body, I felt completely fine. Sore, obviously, but the pain was gone instantly. Well, I was able to deliver a large baby naturally, but I would never choose to do that again. Seriously, if my epidural does not work next time then I may take my own hammer to knock myself out. Every contraction, every wave of nausea, every bit of fear...it was worth it because now I have Kolt! WHAT A BLESSING!!!

Baby Kolt

Jeffrey "Kolt"
9 pounds & 1 ounce
21.5 inches
September 9th, 2008
5:22 p.m.

My Little Kelton

Kelton is getting so big and it would seem the older he gets, the bigger mess he makes. He speaks so well and is so funny. Ever since the Olympics he enjoys lining pillows up and racing from one end of the room to the other while jumping "hurdles". The other day he said "dad, I am so fast because I have fire in my diaper"! We've been trying to potty train him and have even resorted to bribing him with stickers. Last week he pooped in his diaper & I caught him dumping the poop in the potty. When I asked what he was doing he said, "I get a sticker now, Mama". He loves to sing and entertain everyone and revels being the center of attention. Last week Mothers Day Out started back up. When I dropped him off he hid behind my legs and I feared he was about to have a bad case of separation anxiety. However, he jumped into the room and shouted "taa daa, here I am!" I have really tried to soak in the last few days I have with just Kelton and part of me is almost sad that I will no longer be able to hang out with just him. Don't get me wrong, we are thrilled to have another little one, I just hope I will be a good enough mother to take care of a newborn and make sure that Kelton doesn't feel left out or threatened by the baby. My mom & sister said they felt the same way right before they had their other kids so I guess this is pretty normal! It's just crazy to think I could ever love another child as much as I love Kelton. He has been my best bud the past 3 years and we've had a blast. He is so much fun & I cannot believe that in 24 hours I am going to have another precious baby!

Kelton's Birth

***Being that this time tomorrow I will be in labor with my 2nd child, I've had babies & labor on the mind here lately. It occurred to me that I've never actually blogged about Kelton's birth so now is as good a time as any. This is a long story, but I wanted to write every little detail down so I didn't forget it. Also, there are some graphic descriptions, but I've never been one to hold back much. So, here it goes!

Let me first start by saying, James & I didn't want to find out ahead of time what we were having. I'm all about surprises & to me there is no greater surprise than waiting 9 months to find out whats been kicking you the whole time! I get ragged about this a lot. "How on earth can you wait...that would drive me up the wall"! Well, I absolutely love the fact that I've waited. I understand why some people find out, that's just not me, I'm old-fashioned & love that James got to be the one to tell everyone (including ME) what we had! Anyway, the baby was due August 12, 2005. By the time July 26th rolled around, the doctor already guessed that I had a 9 pound baby inside of me. It had been over 100 degrees every day the previous week & we hadn't even hit August yet. Both my pediatrician & obstetrician were leaving town right around my due date. After lots of begging & pleading my doctor finally agreed to induce me on August 1st! Amen! James & I arrived at the hospital around 6:00 a.m. the morning of the induction. It's kinda funny, I remember going into the bathroom to put on my hospital gown because I didn't feel like I knew the nurse well enough to be disrobing in front of her. (which cracks me up b/c the same nurse would be checking my hoo-haa through out the entire day & by the end of labor, you couldn't care less who has seen you naked...so much for keeping your privates private during labor & delivery)! They hooked me up to an IV & started the potocin drip. All was smooth sailing. I made all of my family promise to be there by 10:00 a.m., because I just knew that I would deliver really fast, like in the movies. At one point I looked around the room & there were 12 people in the room & that was all immediate family. Yes, I have a large family. I was having so much fun! Everyone was laughing & joking & having a grand time. The doctor came in & checked and told me I was 1 cm dilated! Hmm, okay so maybe this was gonna take longer than I thought. I'm pretty sure my dad, brother & brother-in-law decided it was safe to go to work for a couple of hours, but all the gals stayed & hung out. Around 1:00 that afternoon, I was having some painful contractions, but more than anything, my back was killing me. Every time I exhaled it literally felt like someone was hitting me with a metal bat. Because I like to avoid pain at all cost, I got my epidural around 2:00 ( I think I was dialated to a whopping 4 cm at this point)! Seriously, I'm sure I could deliver a baby naturally if I had to, but that makes about as much sense to me as going to the dentist and saying "hold the novicane, doc...I think I can handle it". An epidural is the greatest invention since Dairy Queen's Blizzard & my anesthesiologist was never far away. I think I fell in love with him. By mid afternoon, I began running fever & became so nauseated that they gave me some phenegran, which was good because I never slept the night before due to nerves! I looked over at one point & poor James was covered with a blanket from head to toe because I had the AC so cold in our room! What a sweetie. He never left my side. He just sat there watching ESPN & freezing all day long! About 8:00 that night the doctor came by & announced I was an 8. I wanted to avoid a c-section at all cost. Again, I'm not big on pain & I just wanted to try & do it myself. Around midnight, I was a 10 & it was time to push. I think I faked the first few pushes because I had no idea what to do. I just figured if I held my breath & pretended to push they would never know the difference. Wrong, Dr. Sawyer said "okay, Amber I really need you to push this time"! That was kinda embarrassing. My mom was also in the delivery room, which was really comforting, even though at one point she began to chant "push it out, push it out...way out"! I wasn't amused, nor was I amused when James said "Okay, Amber, make this push count", as if I'm trying to hold the baby in longer just to build up the suspense. Finally, at 12:59 a.m., I gave one final push & heard the sweetest cry I've ever heard. The doctor let James tell me & with huge tears in his eyes he said, "babe, it's a boy...IT'S A BOY"!!! I couldn't believe it. I was so excited. James "Kelton" weighed 9 pounds & 11 ounces and was 21 inches long. I gave birth to a toddler. They handed him to me & I immediately said "take him, I don't feel right". I handed him to James & then I passed out. I awoke awhile later to James holding my hand & my mom rubbing my forehead. I felt her playing with my hair long before I realized where I was or what was happening. It's strange, I knew something was wrong, but I knew I was safe because I could feel James & hear & smell my mother (for anyone that knows my mama, you know what I mean...she has worn Estee Lauder Private Collection for 30 years). I drifted in & out of consciousness several more times, but finally was able to open my eyes & ask about the baby. He was healthy as could be & apparently he had a very large head. 15.5 inches to be exact. I was later told that Kelton was born with his soft spot already fused. So, when passing through the birth canal, there was no overlapping of the skull, as normally happens when babies are born. So basically 15.5 inches came through something that was dilated 10 cm. You can imagine what that did to my body. I lost a tremendous amount of blood & the doctor was stitching on me for the next 1.5 hours, much of the stitching was way up inside of me. All that to say, all of our family piled into the room around 2:30 in the morning. By this time, there were probably 15 people piled in there, including Aubin's boyfriend at the time & somehow my dad's business partner was even in the room. James was holding the sweetest little baby in the world & he was the one to tell everyone "it's a boy"! Everyone screamed & jumped up & down. It was the hardest & best night of my life. We named him after James' grandpa so that's where Kelton comes from. In all seriousness, how can anyone ever witness the birth of a child and question God's existence? I feel like this was one time in life when I truly got to assist God in a miracle. I was on an IV for the following 3 days & they checked my blood pressure every 30 minutes for the following 24 hours. Being that I once again passed out the following day, fell off the commode & tore some of my stitches, they decided to keep me in bed until I was finally allowed to go home Thursday night! Kelton was worth every bit of discomfort & pain. All that to say, I would also be very happy if this time around I delivered a 7 pound baby with a smaller noggin. ***Okay, I just re-read this and I'm not sure if I am more scared or excited about having a baby tomorrow. Well, I guess it's too late now so I better go ahead with the induction, as if I have a choice!

Kelton's 3rd Birthday

I cannot believe my little Kelton is 3 years old! I feel like I just brought him home from the hospital. He has been such a joy. He's got so much energy & personality and he's endlessly amusing to us. We had a fun birthday party out at Mamasue & Big Daddy's house filled with presents, swimming & cake! Everyone had lots of fun & the birthday boy got lots of goodies.

His Aunt Aubie gave him a cool "Super Teton cape so he can fwy (fly)"!

Baby Belly

Kelton kissing Mama's big baby belly. Seriously, can it get any bigger? I've still got a month to go!

Miss Lyla

Well, we finally decided to get a dog. We thought Lyla was a nice southern & motherly sounding name. (Though honestly, we mainly named her Lyla b/c James loves Lyla Garrity off of Friday Night Lights)! She's a Great Pyrenees, which are the kind of dogs I grew up with. They are so good with kids & they are not hyper. Plus, they are fiercely protective of their family. According to vets, they are very intuitive & can sense whether or not someone has good intentions. Sounds goofy, but I believe it. Like I said, I grew up with this breed of dog & they are friendly to pretty much anyone. However, a worker showed up at my parents' house one day & instead of sniffing & greeting them as they normally would, Bear & Oso (my parents' dogs) immediately jumped up, got in between my mom & the worker and began growling. My mom tried to settle them down, but they would not let the worker in the house. When Bear began to show his teeth, the worker decided to leave. Anyway, my dad later found out that particular worker had a pretty shady past. By the way, Bear weighed 120 pounds & Oso was a whopping 160 pounds. Hopefully, Lyla will only weigh around 100 pounds. I highly recommend this breed of dog to anyone who wants a kid friendly & protective dog. My folks got another one right after Kelton was born & that dog let Kelton climb all over it & pull at his tail & ears all day long!
Kelton & Lyla are already best buds. She follows him all over the house & plays with him. First thing when he wakes up Kelton says "where's 'Yila'"? Anyway, enough about my dog!

Update & Pics

The first picture were taken in my parents' back yard. Check out the storm damage to the trampoline from the previous night. The other pictures were taken out at the golf course with Daddy. We played a couple of holes. I'm pretty sure Kelton will be out driving me by next year (though that's not exactly an impressive feat)! Speaking of Kelton, he's now 2 1/2 years old & full of ENERGY! He is like a little boy now. I can carry on conversations with him now, though there is still lots of interpretation on my part! He speaks so well for the most part. Horses are no longer "horny's" & 6 is no longer pronounced sh*t. However, he does call strawberries, "strawboobies". He is the sweetest little thing, but as stubborn as they come. I like to think he got that from his daddy, though some might argue it's all from me. I've had a really hard time disciplining him lately because nothing seems to work. Time out is for the birds as far as Kelton is concerned. He does things like say "sorry mama", as he colors on the wall with his crayons. Last week at Children's Place he was trying to wiggle out of his stroller and as I attempted to tighten the lap harness, he began screaming "HELP!" at the top of his lungs. I guess they've heard that before, b/c everyone just looked at me & laughed! I wasn't happy about it at the time , but I laughed about it later! It's hard being pregnant & keeping up with him but he's worth all the exhaustion!

Baby Sonogram

This is from my ultrasound last month. I'm not sure why these are so blurry. They were so clear in person. I'm now 5 months along & feeling much better. Still get pretty nauseated in the morning but it's usually gone by noon, so that's a huge improvement. I haven't thrown up in over a month so things are definitely looking up! By they way, if some of you are trained to read sonograms, please do not let me (or anyone else) know what the sex of this baby is. We love surprises & are looking forward to September!

Is that Scarlett O'Hara or Kelton?

 

I couldn't resist posting this picture. Nothing goes better with cammo pants than a pink hat adorned with roses!

James' Family Reunion

This past weekend we went to Lawn, Texas for a family reunion on James' side of the family. We had lots of fun. We were able to catch up with lots of cousins, many of whom had never met Kelton. As you can see, Kelton's favorite thing to do while there was to throw rocks into the pond where he carried on conversations with the sticks that were poking out of the water. Poor Papa & Uncle Jeff were probably worn out after taking him to & from the pond all weekend. Kelton also enjoyed playing with his cousins' Cy & Fyn all weekend. We stayed in a really neat ranch house that housed the whole family. Special K decided that the walls were too white so he decided to color them with a black crayon. It was everywhere. Luckily Uncle Jeff was going to Abilene to get something so he was able to buy some Mr. Clean Magic Erasers while there. Those things are amazing. Who ever invented those needs to be commended. That invention creation has saved my house from Kelton.

Guess What?!?!?

Yes, I am alive! I just haven't felt like blogging here lately. If you haven't already heard, I'm 14 weeks pregnant! Once again, I have been extremely sick this pregnancy, though the doctor put me on some anti-nausea meds that are usually given to chemo patients. I'm still nauseated 24 hours a day ( I'm even sick in my dreams), though the vomiting has improved. All that to say, we are thrilled to be adding to our little brood, even though we weren't planning on trying until this summer! You see, I really wanted to avoid being big & pregnant in the summer like I was with Kelton. So much for my plans, this one's due in September!!! Here are some pictures of Kelton the last couple of months.


P.S. Every time my dad or James call & ask me what I'm doing, I always reply, "thinking of you", which my dad loves! Anyway, the other day I asked Kelton what he was doing because he looked very mischievous. He replied, "finkin' of you"! I just about died laughing. It didn't even matter what mess he'd just made, I was putty in his hands!

What's In a Name?

This is a silly little game, but hey, I like silly little games!
1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME (first pet, current car): Puffy Accord
2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME (fave ice cream flavor, favorite type of shoe): Chocolate Fudge Reef
3. YOUR NATIVE AMERICAN NAME (favorite color, favorite animal): Red Dog
4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name, city where you were born): ElPaso (i have no middle name)
5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 of your first name):Rusam, though I prefer E-Boo Won Kenobi
6. SUPERHERO NAME (2nd favorite color, favorite drink): Blue Tea (unsweet)
7. NASCAR NAME (the first names of your grandfathers): Fred Caskey
8. STRIPPER NAME ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent,favorite candy):Amarige KitKat (really? my name is amber-which hasn't always been, but now is commonly used by strippers)
9. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME (your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Turbeville Tuscon
10. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower): Winter Peony (right up there with Jason Bourne)
11. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing rightnow):Pink Lady Apple Shorts
12. HIPPIE NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree): Donut Texas Live Oak (it's my birthday & James surprised me a chocolate crunch donut - my favorite)!

Christmas at the Rockin' H Ranch 2007

Since we were in New Mexico on actual Christmas day, we didn't get to open presents with my side of the family until the 28th. All of my siblings live within a 20 mile radius of my parents. We get to see several times a week. Nonetheless, my mom likes for all of us to pack and head out to their house in the country to spend the weekend with them. We always have so much fun eating, opening presents, playing games, watching movies, playing outside, feeding the horse, etc. We didn't make it back to our house until Sunday afternoon. Monday night we headed over to my aunts house for New Years Eve. Between 16 adults & 9 kids under the age of 9, we had a packed house!