Welcome Home Brantley

More of Brantley's Debut

Super Dad

Well, all I can say is that I am married to an amazing man, and my kiddos have Super Dad for sure!! Most of you know that Jason is not your typical man-he always helps me out around the house and with the children, but I had no idea he would be so amazing for all of us after Brantley arrived in our world!

Jason was so great before, during, and after the delivery! He just amazes me! The kids decided they wanted to stay with us in Jackson the whole time, and Jason and I thought it might ease the transition of adding a new little person to our family, so they stayed at the hospital with us. Sounds crazy, I know, but somehow it worked out perfectly!! The kids zonked out early Thursday night because we had been up so early that morning to check in for the delivery. For those of you who have not delivered at Baptist, it is pretty much like a nice hotel room, especially the bathroom, so that was wonderful for everyone. Friday morning the kids ate breakfast with me and hung out with Brantley for a little while! Jason took them to Chic-fil-a to eat lunch and play on the playground. After that he took them to the Museum of Natural Science. They had such a fabulous time!! Then they went for ice cream, and he even took them to Belk in Dogwwod Market just to let them ride the escalator-haha! I mean what a super dad! We all ate supper together and then went home the next morning! It was such a wonderful and memorable experience for everyone, especially Grayton and Riley Kate! I just love that man more and more every day, and my children are so very blessed to have them as their daddy!!

He's Here!!!

Ready to go to the hospital at 5am and still all smiles!

Hanging out with mom just waiting on Brantley

Epidural......such a wonderful thing!!

Getting very excited!!

Yay!! 10cm and ready

Picture of me with Brantley in the background!

Proud Big Sister!

Giving little brother some good love and kisses

Riley Kate wanted a picture of Brantley and her baby doll

Our first photo together

LOVE all my babies!!

Our family of 5!!!!

Grammy and the crew

Grammy and Grampy

Sweet, sweet little sleeping angel!!

Well, our sweet little man has arrived! I cannot express the love and joy I feel to be able to hold him along with my other two little blessings! Even though he just came into our lives yesterday, we all feel like he's just always been here! We all love him so much!

All four of us spent the night in Jackson prior to the delivery since we were scheduled to check in at 5:30am! We had a fun afternoon in Jackson together! Everyone had a little trouble going to sleep due to all of the excitement, but we all popped right out of bed bright and early at 4:45am ready to go get Brantley out of mommy's tummy!

Once my IV was going, everything started out well! Upon admission, I was 1.5cm, but that quickly changed!! My labor was not bad at all! I got to 4cm in no time, and didn't even require any pain medication prior to the epidural! My epidural was soooooo wonderful! I couldn't feel anything! Not long after lunch, my doctor stopped in to check on me and discovered that I was 10cm and ready! She left the room while the nurse prepared for the delivery! Which, by the way, I had the sweetest little nurse--we loved her so much!!

Everyone had left the room to go eat, so it was just Jason, the nurse, and myself! Well, while she was gathering supplies, Brantley decided that he was ready to come NOW! I never did the first push! Poor Jason had to start running around the room gathering the supplies for the nurse to deliver Brantley! I was holding the baby's head and trying to help the nurse! Luckily, Dr. Travelstead had come back down the hallway and heard the commotion. She ran into the room with the delivery cart and barely got her gloves on to catch Brantley--she didn't have time to suit up!! AND boy, are we glad she showed up! His umbilical cord wrapped around his little neck at the last minute, so she cut it very quickly! Poor Jason didn't get to cut the cord-he was functioning as a delivery nurse at the time-haha!! Within 10 seconds the room was filled with people taking care of both of us! I was a little scared because he didn't start crying right away, but after a few seconds and a little oxygen he showed us that his lungs worked perfectly!!! Praise the Lord, everything ended up fine! I didn't even get to push though!! My doctor just laughed and said "Somehow, I knew you were going to do that!"

Anyway, it was quite a day, and I can't wait to tell Brantley the story of his birth one day! We have all fallen madly in love with him, and I feel so very blessed to have this precious little family!