Addy's Newborn & Ben's 2 Year Old Photo Shoots

New Addition...

Ladies and Gentlemen: she's here!!! FINALLY!

Miss Adalynn Grace Mofley was born Friday, April 15th at 3:53pm

THE BIRTH STORY

(If you don't care to know all the details... then just don't read it ;)

I had some pretty serious braxton hicks for a few nights prior to labor. I know what real labor is, and let me tell ya- they really had me fooled a couple of times... so I'm sure I made some progress with those. But at 7am on Friday morning I awoke with contractions about 10 min. apart- & this time they didn't subside. I tried to rest for a couple more hours and finally woke Nick up at 9:30am. I told him I was in labor and had him call his parents to come get Ben (who was still sleeping soundly between us.) (For those of know who don't know: we go to bed and wake up pretty late due to Nick's work hours so I'd had about 5 hours of sleep- but hey, better than NONE which is what happened with Ben's labor.)

The Mofleys came to get Ben around 10:30 and my contractions were still only 5-6 minutes apart. I knew I shouldn't go in to the birth center until they were coming at 3-4 min. but these contractions were pretty intense & I felt like I was getting somewhere- I was right. Even at 5 min. I was having to  do some vocalizing and rock on my hands and knees. I couldn't talk through them. Nick just put pressure on my lower back for me and helped me breathe. I told him I'd labor at home for awhile longer. I called my midwife to give her a heads up since it was daytime, and she suggested that I get in the shower to encourage progress. I did, and it was a great pain reliever. When I got out, my mind kept telling me I should walk around the house or something to speed things along, but I just wanted to rest between those difficult contractions. So, instead, I stayed on the birth ball and my hands & knees (I knew her back needed to turn a little from my last exam and that position will do the trick.)

Me and Nick watched tv together between my contractions and at about 12:30pm I finally had one come after 3 minutes. It felt a little different and more intense. Even though I didn't have an established pattern at 3 min. yet I told Nick it was time to go. I did surprisingly well on the ride over. Maybe because I wasn't as freaked out as the first time. My contractions slowed back down with me in that sitting position- I knew they would. But, lo, and behold- when I arrived at the center and got checked- I was almost a 7!! I thought I was probably a 5, so that was a nice surprise.

I was glad my water still hadn't broken because I was GBS positive this time. I opted not to do the antibiotics and instead did a colloidal silver cleanse for about 7 days prior to labor and had Hibiclens ready for use during labor. (Turns out they use the Hibiclens for GBS in Europe quite a bit.) The midwife also sprayed a mixture of essential oils called Claraderm (w/ antibacterial properties) on her glove before checking me. (This was the first and only time I got checked.) I got in some side lying positions to continue turning her, then after having a contraction that pushed the pain to the next level, I headed over to the tub. That was the rough part. That last hour in the tub was the part where I really wanted to give up & wasn't sure if I could keep going- even though I knew I had to. I'm sure you guys know what I'm talking about... if you've experienced natural childbirth, that is :)

Then, during a horrible contraction, my water broke! It was the weirdest sensation for it to happen under water. (I realized later that this was a blessing from God. My water breaking in the tub when it did very much minimized any chances of her contracting the GBS- even if I had taken absolutely no precautions. He answered my prayer about this.) As soon as I could speak, I told my midwife. She let me know the baby's head would be descending with the next contraction due to that cushion being gone. She crowned with the very next one. The birth assistant reminded me that that (awful) pressure was there to stay. I was thinking to myself that I REALLY didn't feel like pushing for 2 hours like I did with Ben- when I heard the birth assistant saying, "Would you like to feel..." her sentence trailed off and I heard her say, "oh!" I knew she was going to ask if I wanted to touch the top of her head... "why did she stop?" I was wondering. Then, I realized I was pushing, and she was coming! "Oh my God! Oh my God! I'm pushing!!" I yelled. I very nearly lost control, but my midwife got close to my face and regained my focus. "Brittney, listen to me! We are going to blow this baby out okay?" I nodded in agreement, and with my midwife Rena on one side and Nick on the other coaching me to "blow, blow, blow" I was able to slow myself down and out came her head! "Her ears are out" I heard Rena say. And with the next urge to push came the rest of her. 5 minutes! I couldn't believe it! I had pushed her out in 5 minutes! AND... here's the clincher... are you ready for this??? I DIDN'T TEAR!!!! I did everything "right" the first time with Benjamin. I did my perineal massages, drank my red raspberry tea.... everything. And I still tore something awful even after blowing through the burning for like, 30 minutes. But this time, I wasn't as faithful with any of those things and I was sure I was doomed. And I didn't even tear.

Well, her head WAS 2 1/2 centimeters smaller, so that helped. As she slid out they placed her on my chest and she began to wail. I was in that euphoria state and kept alternating between saying "I'm so glad it's over!" and "I didn't tear!" :) She was totally covered in vernix (Ben was not.) It was so thick and sticky feeling I had this intense urge to scrub it all off, but they continued to tell me it was good for her skin and to just rub it in. We took our herb bath together about a hour later, and about an hour after that I was walking to the kitchen table to eat the food Courtney and Amy got me from Jason's Deli.

It felt like a "drive-thru" baby to me. I still can't believe we were only at the center for 3 hours before she came! She nursed beautifully right away- as most alert, non-drugged up babies do. It was just awesome. Don't get me wrong, it was awesome the first time too, but trading a 21 hr. labor in for a 9 hr. one is pretty sweet. And, as you may have guessed, my recovery has been so much quicker and easier this time around. I feel so blessed and so in awe of these 2 gorgeous children God's given me. They are amazing!

Our first picture as a family. I look so sickly and pale here- my coloring has improved since was taken!

Love, love LOVE putting bows on her head!!!

Benjamin and his "baby Ahhh"

Living room curtains

I am SO excited that I finally got around to these curtains!!! I've had the fabric FOREVER, but for some reason other projects kept coming first...

I knew I wanted to do pinch pleated panels. But, that is the only detail I didn't end up changing from my original plan.

Since I didn't wanna dish out a bunch of $$ for a long curtain rod, I did the dual curtain rods on either side of the window. (I already had these rods so it worked out perfect.)

The center part is a $6 black panel from Walmart that I hung horizontal on a 1x2 board. My sister helped me sew all these pinches in by hand. (THANK YOU Courtney!! It would've taken me awhile!)

Here are my awesome funky pillows I got at Ross to match the drapes. I wanted to add in bright colors in a modern style & I LOVE LOVE LOVE the pillows I ended up finding!

Our kitchen, dining room & living room is an open space that connects together so I made these for my 2 kitchen & dining room windows to match. (I used another $6 panel from Walmart, cut it in 2 & used half on each window. Already had these rods- it's the same ones as Ben's room I found on clearance... just spray painted them BLACK!) Talk about cheap window treatments!

We just changed out this chandelier from the generic silver one the house came with. This pic doesn't do it justice at all, it's really beautiful. It is NOT centered though (why do builders do that???) It's awfully noticeable from the kitchen- so, we're about to swag it over on a hook.

Thanks for looking!

Our Master Suite- (we MADE a headboard!)

Ever since switching to a king mattress last year, we've been sleeping on just a bed frame- searching around for a bed/headboard that we liked (and could afford.) Finding a bed I actually like is not an easy task. Combine that with the fact that furniture stores don't even carry everything in king size... and talk about being frustrated. 

Well, about 6 months ago, I saw THIS Pottery Barn headboard that was *PERFECT* -and $800 bucks. Yeah- not happening! So I waited awhile, then went searching online- hoping someone wanted to sell one used or something. Instead, I stumbled across plans for making your own replica.

(When I originally saw the bed I DID think, wow- that'd be so easy to make... but didn't want to tackle a project like that not knowing how it would turn out.)

Well, these plans were so simply laid out... and all the tedious stuff like measurements were taken care of ... SOOOO.....

We decided to DO IT!

Wanna make this bed???

Click HERE for the Twin & Full sized plans

Click HERE for the Queen sized version

And HERE for the King modications

The pre-stained version

We stained it a little lighter than the pottery barn version- we used 1 coat of  Minwax Special Walnut, topped off with 1 coat of Minwax Polyshades in Pecan. (The polyshades contain a poly based glaze within the stain to seal for the finished product- saves a step!)

Now, I just need to find the perfect artwork to go above the bed... :)

It cost us under$100 to make this bed- and most important of all: it's EXACTLY what I wanted!

Some other projects...

Here's my curtains that I made. I cut down a large cardboard box down to the size I needed, stapled quilt batting, then hot glued my fabric around it to make my shadow boxes. I then hung the boxes with L-brackets, and hung curtain rods underneath with my sheer panels. Our master bedroom is ALMOST finished now.

I was going for: hotel luxury with just a little bit of an rustic earthy-ness. I still need to add some accesories with a little more color to the space.

As you can see, we did 2-tone walls (which TOTALLY made the room look larger.) Nick picked this gorgeous dark color called Anise from Lowe's Valpar collection, & we paired it with a neutral creme shade on the oppostite walls.

We put our electric fireplace in the room which adds a lot of coziness. We had some extra brick in the garage which I used on each side to hide cable cords & such... and add an urban element to the room.

And... here's the master bath. I added cedar trim to the mirror and wood knobs to the cabinets. (Both of which are about to be stained to match the headboard.)

As you see, I'm trying to keep VERY busy until the big day arrives. Hopefully this baby will be here SOON!!!!!!!!!

Hope you enjoyed the tour!