Our first Easter as 3 & other things

Sunday was our first Easter as a family, and I cannot express just how lucky and blessed I am. Not only do I have an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, and awesome pup, I have the most loving family (near and far). Although I wish our far away family was much closer, I can only be grateful for our family close by. They have really been such a blessing since I've gone back to work. We honestly could not do it without them.




I was so hesitant to go back to work because I didn't want to leave Kinsley, but it has brought my mom and I closer together, I wouldn't trade it for the world. Not only has it done that, but it has made Kinsley a much more independent little lady. She is learning to self soothe, entertain herself, and sleep through the night (yay)!!! Yesterday (Monday), Josh and I were in the kitchen cooking dinner and Kinsley was laying in her pack n play. I went to check on her and found her rolled over, well almost, she had gotten all the way minus one arm. I could not believe it. She is just so active. This morning we she woke up, she was at the head of the bed, all the way against the post and turned with her head facing the door. She is such a little wiggle bug.

2 Months

This is how I found her when we were going into Men's Wearhouse

One of the many funny faces

The cutest 2 month old ever!

Today was Kinsley's 2 month check up, along with a day full of so many other things. It all started at lovely 5 am when Miss Kinsley decided to wake me up for some food. I COULD NOT, for the life of me, fall back asleep. I watched Good Morning America and the news (yep, that's a sure sign that I am now a momma for sure). At 9:30, Kinsley and I went to Asheville Women's to get my IUD put in, yay for no more babies for a while! After that we went to the DMV, Men's Wearhouse, and the bank. Haven't ran around like that since before Kinsley was born. I didn't know what to do with myself. After that, we headed to ABC Peds for Kinsley's 2 month check up and shots. Dr. Errico said she looks absolutely perfect, and also got to enjoy quite a bit of her baby blabbing and PRECIOUS smiles. She is now 12 pounds 1 ounce and 24 inches long! I was beside myself when I saw the scale! What a chunk! I am just so glad that she is healthy and thriving in this big ol' crazy world!

On the not so exciting part, I go back to work tomorrow! It is such a bittersweet feeling! I am not looking forward to being away from Kinsley, but I am excited that I will be helping provide for our family. That's about the only thought that is getting me through all this!

Welcoming Our Baby Girl Into This Crazy World

This is probably the one post that I really wanted to write simply because the day our beautiful daughter was born, was the best day of my life (and I'm sure Josh's, too). Our induction was scheduled for January 25th, 2012 at 9 am. We had to be at the hospital at 8 am so that we could get checked in and so our nurse could get us all set up and ready to go. My birth plan was pretty simple: natural birth, but if there was ANYTHING wrong with the baby, then do whatever was needed. We dropped Zoe off at Ganny and Papaw's and then headed to the hospital. I have to admit, I was SO ridiculously nervous, but I tried to hide it because I didn't want anyone to get worried, especially Josh. I mean, our lives were about to change forever, and that is just a tad bit scary.

We got into our room at about 8:10 am and our nurse Sheila (the BEST L&D nurse EVER) got us caught up on what was going to happen and what we had to look forward to. I changed into my laboring clothes and then she went ahead and put in an IV line port, just in case they needed to give me any type of meds or anything of that nature during the delivery. Once that was good to go, we just hung out with my mom, Ganny and Papaw until Dr. Hunt got there. Around 9:05 am, Dr. Hunt and Amy (our nurse practitioner) came in, examined me (6 cm dilated and 85% effaced), and then broke my water, that was our plan, since I wanted to go natural. We were going to keep our fingers crossed that we would not have to use any pitocin or any drugs to jump start labor. Around 9:15 am, we were heading out the door to take a walk to try to get the contractions going, but once I stood up out of the bed, Baby K dropped and I was in active labor. I had never felt a pain like that. I mean, I had been having contractions off and on for a good 4 weeks, but none of them felt like that, probably because I was feeling contractions and pressure since she dropped so much.

My contractions were definitely tolerable for the first hour, and of course, Josh had a lot to do with that. He was helping me move around, keeping me laughing (when needed), making me drink my water (which made me so nauseous but I knew it was necessary), and just making me feel like I was really in control. Around 10 am, Dr. Hunt and Amy came in to check me and I was 7 am dilated and 90% effaced. I was making progress really quickly, so we were pretty certain we would be able to labor through without any pitocin. My contractions started getting much stronger and much closer together at this point. I was contracting every 2-3 minutes and they were probably an 8.5/10 on the pain scale. I just kept breathing like we learned in baby class and kept focusing on getting Baby K out so I could finally find out if we had a baby girl or baby boy!

At around 11:15 am, I started feeling A LOT of pressure and was in A LOT of pain! I felt like I needed to push, and about 15 minutes later, Amy came in to check on me. Thank goodness she did. I was 10 cm, fully effaced and ready to get Baby K out. Dr. Hunt was actually getting ready to go to the OR for a scheduled C-section for twins, but obviously, I wasn't going to make it much longer, so Amy sent Dr. Hunt a text telling her that we were ready to have this baby. I tried a practice round of pushing and Amy said she could see a big head full of black hair. We waited for Dr. Hunt to get to the room before we continued pushing. She got to the room around 11:40 am and we started right into pushing. Pushing was probably the most intense pain I have EVER in my life felt. It was almost an out of body experience. The funniest thing about the whole delivery was me asking them if my butt was okay. I had them place a mirror so that I could see the delivery and let me tell you, things just look so weird during all of this. They were completely amused by me. I pushed so hard that I busted tons of blood vessels in my face. I think I pushed through 4 contractions and at 12:00 pm on the dot, Miss Kinsley Nicole Spriggs was born. Seven pounds 11 ounces and 21 inches long. She was absolutely beautiful, even with her "cheesy" white skin. I was so overwhelmed with feelings that I honestly cannot describe what exactly I was feeling at that moment. All I remember was Josh telling me "it's a girl" and I immediately started crying and just looking at her in total awe. I felt such a huge feeling of accomplishment because I was able to deliver this beautiful baby girl with no medication, just like I wanted.

I will say that labor and delivery was NOTHING like I had expected. I never knew your body could endure pain like that. It was so worth feeling every little pain and soreness for her though. She was so alert, took to feeding RIGHT away, and I had no problems with recovery at all.

(Josh cutting the cord)

(fighting through a contraction...i think i was crying at this point)

(Josh helping me with the labor pains)

(enjoying my nice popsicle before the labor pains got REALLY painful)

(Dr. Hunt's arrival (: )

Preggo Days

((40 weeks))

((29 weeks))

((26 weeks))

((21 weeks))
Well, today is the day I have FINALLY entered the world of blogging, and I am so excited. I wish I would have started at the beginning of my pregnancy, so I could remember all the lovely and not so lovely things I went through, but hey, better late than never. So here goes nothing...

We found out that we were pregnant at the beginning of June, I only remember this because it was around the time of Riley's birthday, and Sarah was one of the first people I told. I called her to tell her that Josh and I had gotten Riley a birthday gift, but she was going to have to wait 9 months until she could get it. I loved her delayed reaction, it was priceless.

We were definitely not trying to conceive, but it was definitely one of the best things to have ever happened to us. I mean, I always wanted to be super traditional in the whole process of baby making, but hey, Josh and I are not your most traditional and conventional couple out there, so it works for us.

First trimester: I was super nauseous the entire time, from sun up until sun down. I had to constantly snack throughout the day. I lived off of Rita's cotton candy gelatis and hard ginger candy. The worst thing was working at Red Robin and smelling all sorts of foods being cooked and the smells mixing. I was especially nauseous when I would smell malt vinegar being used. I swear I could smell it from ANYWHERE in the restaurant. Gross! I could fall asleep mid sentence, and did almost every night. I felt so bad for Josh, too, because I would always have this elaborate meal that I would crave for dinner and he would ALWAYS cook it, no matter what. Unfortunately, I would typically take two or three bites and get nauseous or grossed out by something. Poor Josh!

Second trimester: I was still really sick up until about 15-16 weeks, but after that came and went, I felt like a new woman. If I could have felt like this the entire pregnancy, I would have had it made. I ate ice cream like it was going out of style, especially Red Velvet Cake by Blue Bunny. Delicious! I had most of my energy back and was loving life. However, this is when we decided to move back to NC, which took a toll on me. It was exhausting, but I am so thankful that we had the opportunity to do so.

Third trimester: This one was the tricky one! I was feeling great up until about week 30-31ish. That's when I started to gain weight pretty consistently and I became so uncomfortable. I was so thankful that I did not have to deal with swollen feet or hands, though. The biggest challenge for me throughout this trimester was probably the amount we had to travel. We traveled up to PA for Christmas, stayed there for 5-6 days, drove back to NC for 1 night ONLY, and then to Atlanta for New Years, and then back to NC. This happened all while I was 36 weeks pregnant! I mean, really, my VERY LARGE body was NOT having all this traveling. At one point I kicked Zoe out of the backseat and made her sit up front with Josh because I was in so much pain.

Looking back, however, I would not change all the traveling we did to save my life because at my first pregnancy exam at 37 weeks, we got great news. I was already 4 cm dilated and about 70% effaced. I swore we were going to go in there and I would be MAYBE 2 cm and 50% effaced, but I was wrong. Dr. Hawes swore that I would not make it to the due date, but of course, I proved him wrong. 38 weeks rolled around and I was 5 cm dilated and still 70% effaced. Again, Dr. Hawes swore I would not make it, and actually almost sent us to the hospital for an induction because I was having pretty regular contractions, but since I wanted to go natural, he just sent us home. 39 weeks came and I was 6 cm dilated and 75% effaced. This time I got to see Dr. Hunt (my primary) and she was in shock that I was still walking around like this. At this point, I was so ready for Baby K to come. I was eating spicy food, jogging around, walking up and down the stairs, doing squats, and many other private things (use your imagination) to get her to come on. Of course, nothing worked, and 40 weeks came and I was 6 cm and 80% effaced. At this point, we had to schedule a time for induction because Dr. Hunt will not leave the baby in much longer past 41 weeks. We decided on Wednesday, January 25th at 9 am for our induction time because that was the only time she would be working that we could keep Baby K inside.