Ivy Jane's Arrival

Ivy Jane Braman is HERE! She made her debut at 11:24 AM on Thursday, August 5th. She weighs 7 lbs 15 oz and is 20 3/4 in long...despite the fact that she was actually considered premature by 3 days! She came 3 1/2 weeks early and I am SO THANKFUL! My doctor thinks that she would have been about a 10 lb baby if I had gone full term!

So the few days leading up to her birth I was feeling really good...we got all of our "things to do before baby arrives" done and Mom, Georgia & I went shopping on Tuesday. Mom wanted to get Ivy Jane's baby book because she thought she could be coming at any time-guess she was right! =) Wednesday night I went to church, feeling great, and helping move our GA's to our new classrooms. That day Shelby had taken a day trip to Tulsa, OK with his boss for work. His boss is a pilot & they flew up and back in one day...we decided it would be ok. He got home Wednesday evening about 7:00 and we talked about what was going on Thursday. He was scheduled to go on another day trip (about an hour and a half away) but I told him I was feeling "different" and I didn't know if he should go or not. I told him, "This baby could come tomorrow or it might be 4 weeks! We don't know but I would hate for you to be an hour and a half away and me to go into labor."

He felt the same way, so he called his boss and come to find out, his boss felt the same way...said he was nervous about him going to Tulsa on that day! Just another way God protected us through all of this!

Thursday morning about 2:00 I woke up and my water had broken! I laid back in bed and woke Shelby and said, "I'm not sure but I THINK my water just broke!" He then said, "WHAT?! Are you serious?!" He later told me his heart started racing. I called my doctor's office and talked to the doctor on call and he told me that we had time to pack our bag & take a shower, etc. SO, we started packing and getting ourselves ready...both in a state of shock, but very excited! I called my sister Kathy & she came over so that Georgia could sleep. We both immediately became sad about Georgia...we wanted to hold her and love on her before we left but we knew that she needed to stay asleep. We told her bye and gave her a kiss, had a prayer with Kathy before we left and made our way to the hospital by about 5:30.

One last picture before we left to go to the hospital...

Because my water had broken but my contractions were not very close or strong, they started me on pitocin about 7:00. I thought we were going to have an extremely long day ahead of us, but the contractions started coming stronger and stronger and closer and closer. Here I am just after the pitocin started...

I won't go into the details of the birth, but after 45 minutes of pushing, Ivy Jane was born at 11:24 AM. Here she is just minutes after...

Proud Daddy with Ivy Jane...
First picture of the family of four!
My parents, my sister Kathy, Shelby's parents, his sister Heather, and Georgia Claire were all there...waiting in the hallway! Our family did great with trying to keep Georgia on her schedule. Wednesday night I stayed up to about 10:30 working on information about Georgia's routine & details about her schedule, etc! SO glad I did!

After we got moved to a private room, Georgia came back for a visit...here she is getting to peek at Ivy Jane!
Grandma & Paw Paw...
We came home on Friday...the hospital discharged us about 3:00! We had decided early on that we would stay one more night but Shelby's parents stayed another night to help with Georgia Claire and we decided that sleeping in our bed sounded much more appealing than the hospital beds for another night!

One last picture at the hospital before going home!
In her carseat, ready to leave!
Once we got home, Shelby's mom made a delicious supper & one of the first things I did was make a gallon of sweet tea. Yes, it was good to be home!

You can see that Georgia is glad to have us all home, too! Here she is talking to Grandbarry & her new little sister... Mimi...
Baby burrito in her bassinet...
Our first night at home we were up a lot...we knew that was to be expected, though. I ended up calling the hospital nursery and they told me I could supplement with formula so that she would be more satisfied, and would hopefully sleep for longer periods of time. Well, that did the trick...she did great after that and we had a much better night Saturday night. Last night was good, too...up at midnight and then again at 3:30.

Shelby told me Saturday that he was going to take Georgia to church Sunday morning so that Ivy Jane & I could rest...I love him so much! Here they are on their way out the door, both wearing pink, of course! Georgia's shirt says, "BIG SISTER" in bling. I had ordered this shirt from a boutique in the DFW area a couple of weeks earlier and it came in the mail on Friday. I had intended to let her wear it to the hospital, but it was not here in time. Instead, Kathy bought another Big Sister t-shirt & she wore it for Ivy Jane's birthday.
And here is the Big Sis...being a big cheese ball for the camera!
A little over 13 1/2 months ago, we brought Georgia Claire home and knew that she was a miracle. We have had the best time with her! She is SO VERY happy! Of course we were blown away when I found out I was pregnant and even happier to find out that Georgia Claire would have a baby sister. She has done much better than we thought she would do. She has stayed in her little routine and is happy to be getting so much attention from Daddy. Shelby was able to take off a few days from work. He has been a lifesaver with Georgia because I am not supposed to lift her for a few days. She doesn't quite understand why I can't pick her up, but I am trying to give her as much attention as I possibly can. We know that the best thing we could do for her is give her a sibling, even though she doesn't understand right now. She will giggle at Ivy Jane and touch her and usually wants to get on top of her...we're working on the words "easy" and "careful"!

October of 2008 was the month that we got the devastating news that my last round of InVitro had not worked. We were so sad but we KNEW that God would answer our cries for children. Now, here we are in August of 2010 with not one miracle baby, but TWO! God is SO GOOD! Shelby and I are OVER-THE-MOON with happiness...I have been crying tears of joy at least once a day. We are just so happy! Getting to experience the miracle of adoption and now the miracle of pregnancy & childbirth...my cup runneth over! Thank you, Lord for our little miracles that are such a huge presence in our life. It is our prayer that we would be examples of your love to Georgia Claire & Ivy Jane as they grow and mature. We are so excited about the future for our new family of FOUR! =)