Christmas Card Link Up

Welcome! I am so excited to be linking up with my adorable friends Brettni, Lyndsey, and Amanda to share my family's Christmas card with all of you.  This Christmas season has been such a treat for our little family as we welcomed Lydia in August. A new baby makes everything so magical!

I am a family photographer, but because of the little one (who will NOT take a bottle) I lightened my work load dramatically. With all of my free time, hahaha! who am I kidding, I have a 5 year old and 3 year old, we were able to have our own family pics done. I couldn't be happier with them!

This years Christmas card theme, Gold foil! It is so pretty and shiny in person.

Thank you for stopping by. I can't wait to see all of your pretty cards and families!!

Lydia is Two Months Old!

My sweet baby girl is two months old!! At her doctor's appointment she was 23-1/2" long (90th precentile) and 14.8 pounds (greater than 98th percentile). She wears 3-6 month clothes or 6 months.

She is an abolstule delight! She only cries if she is hungry, not even for a dirty diaper! She is the smiliest thing and all I have to go is look at her to get her to smile! Such a Momma's girl already! 

I love these bathtub pcitures. I love seeing her sweet tummy grow and add rolls to those thighs! She gains about a pound a week, so she quickly grew out of baths in the sink! 

Sweet Daddy cuddles!

This is thelast time I bathed her in the sink. Not a lot of room! 

You are sleeping anywhere from 5-8 hour stretches. You eat every three hours during the day. You fall asleep or fuss during tummy time, you are just not a fan! You love bing held and that is what you get 90% of the time!

I love you fancy pants!!

Lydia's Baby Dedication

We had Lydia's baby dedication on September 21 at our church. It is such a special time for us because we are not only dedicating her to the Lord, but we arealso pledging to raise her to know and love the Lord. It is so important for us to teach her, guide her and be an example so that one day she will give her life to God and accept Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior! Talk about a big responsibility we have as parents.

Our family came to church that morning to be there and share in our special morning.

We stand at the front of the church and are introduced and then our preacher prays over all of us. Then we are all introduced and we are supposed to hold our baby up in the air for everyone to see. 

I was told it reminded people of the Lion King when I lifted her up! I just wanted to do a good job, and since she was only a month I could lift her high! 

We came back to our house and had lunch and all the cousins played and had a good time. I love my little family!!

Lydia slept through the dedication and through all of church, so when we got home she was ready to eat and was not so into taking pictures! Oh well, Momma was!!

Lydia's First Month

Becasue we got to leave the hospital when Lydia was a day old, we had to go to our pediatrician when she was three days old. We got all dolled up and headed to the doctor. 

My milk hadn't come in, it has always come in on day 4, and her jaundice numbers were a little elevated so the doctor told me to put her in front on the window without a shirt on to get some sun and hopefully break up the billirubin. She said is her poo was yellow by day 5 then I wouldn't have to come in. With all that we went through with Layla and her jaundice, I was going to do everything I could! My milk came in and one day 4 at 10 p.m. her poo was still that dark tar-like stuff. Finally at around midnight she had 5 poop diapers and it turned yellow!! I was so happy I cried!! We didn't have to go back and my baby didn't have to go under the lights!

My Mom and Dad came down and Mom stayed 4 days to help me get in to the swing of things with Ella starting kindergarten. It was nice not to have to take all the girls and Ella and I were able to go to her first day of kindergarten all by ourselves!

Her cord fell off when she was two weeks old so she got to take a big girl bath! She also decided to suck on her thumb and finger. She is the cutest! 

Caleb had his birthday party, so off we went to Waxahachie to celebrate. Lydia, as usual, slept the whole time!

The big girls had a fantastic time. Layla went down this slide approximately 100 times! Her face each time was priceless!

We went back to her pediatrician at two weeks old and she weighed 10 pounds (90th%) and 21-1/2" (95%). She is a good baby! She sleeps great, wakes up to eat and goes right back to bed.

Lydia's Newborn Pictures

As if it isn't stressful enough being a new mom, I also had to get Lydia's newborn pictures done. I have done A LOT of newborn photos. I love them! They take a lot of work, but they are probably my favorite. I just love sweet babies!!

I took these when Lydia was six weeks old. She did really great, I just find that I am overly critical (and overly emotional!) when it is my own baby. Once I got into the groove of it though I was loving what I was seeing. It is also fin when it is your own baby and you aren't on any time table to experiment with different poses and setups. 

My sweet girl was extra smiley this morning and I just LOVE them!

Of course I had to get pics with all of my sweet girls! I can't wait to print this HUGE on a canvas!

Lydia Calhoun is here

Lydia Carol Calhoun is here! She arrived Friday, August 15 at 1:02 PM.

I went for my 38 week check up on Wednesday and had a horrible cold and felt awful. They took my blood pressure and it was higher than normal, then she took it again and said let's just go ahead and get that baby here. I was only dilated to a one, so she said I needed to check in to the hospital Thursday night to get medicine that would help speed things up.

Trey and I checked in Thursday night at 8:30. The nurse started the medicine at 10 and we both slept on and off until 6 o'clock in the morning when they took me to labor and delivery to start Pitocin. (Really he slept and was on my phone trying to fall asleep, but I was uncomfortable.) At that point I was 3 cm dilated.

My doctor came to see me and they broke my water at 8:30 a.m. I got my epidural at 10 a.m. and while that is never pleasant, I felt great afterwards! At 11:00 a.m. they came in and asked if I was feeling the pressure to push. I told them I wasn't and the nurse explained to me that Lydia's heartrate was dipping and typically when this occurs they are heading into the birth canal and preparing to come on out. They watched it closely and came back in about 5 minutes later and had me lay on my side with my leg up in the air on a stirrup. After a little bit she then made me roll over to the other side. They were trying to get Lydia to turn. Her heartrate stabilized and I had to stay laying on my side.

About that time I started feeling my contractions and asked the nurse to give me more medicine. It worked, so well that I couldn't move my legs at all. The next time I was checked I was at an 8 and the doctor told me I was 100% effaced and would be ready to have a baby before long. They checked me again at 12:30 and said I was ready to push.

I had been having really bad pains, so they upped my medicine again. By the time I was ready to push I could not move my lower body at all. It was funny bc the nurse would tell me to put my leg up and I couldn't even wiggle my toes. Talk about a weird feeling!

I pushed one big push and Lydia was crowning. She was still slightly turned and the doctor told me not to push again. She told me she could see Lydia turning and told Trey to come look. She said "Isn't this so amazing that she knows exactly what to do." She turned and I was told I could push again. Then the doctor told me to stop pushing immediately. The cord was wrapped tightly enough around her neck that Dr. Speight told Trey she was sorry to steal his moment, but she had to cut the cord right then.

One little push later and Lydia was here. She had a little bruising on her face, but other than that she was perfect! She was put on me immediately and then taken to be wiped off and then I got her back.

They don't take your baby to the nursery anymore so I got to hold her and feed her for over an hour before we were wheeled to our room. I loved that part of it just being Trey and me and our new baby before everyone came to see her. Now, I HATE wearing the hospital gown so I asked my nurse if I could change. My family was about to come to my room and I wanted to make sure I was covered and nothing was hangin out. I was so hot and was sweating and in the gown I would have had to have been under convers and I couldn't stand it! She told me she didn't want me to stnad up because of the epidural, so as soon as she left the room I threw on my old clothes! I felt so much better! She walked in though as I was changing and wasn't happy. Oh well, I was! 

My Mom and sister had the girls so they all came in. Caleb and Trey's parents came as well. (Don't you love Layla's smile! Hahaha!)

I was on about 3-4 hours of sleep and was soooooo tired. Lydia had not had a bath yet because they wanted her temperature up so we had to do skin to skin for an hour. She finally got a bath at 8 at night. 

We were worn out and went to sleep.

We got to go home the next day after Lydia saw the pediatrician and had her hearing test. I just hate being in hospitals and love the comfort of my own home. My doctor was awesome and made sure I got to go home as quickly as possible! Our sweet baby girl was healthy and perfect inevery way. Ella and Layla were in love and constantly want to hold her, kiss her and love on her.