Meet the family....

I have combined all of the blogs except Baby Jay's blog to this new space. This will be the family blog. As long as I can keep it updated. :)

So if you haven't met me yet here is a little about me and my family.

 Here is me and my husband of 7 years in August. We met in 2001 at Kmart where I worked for his dad. Have been together ever since. He is my rock and he keeps me grounded through almost anything. I wouldn't be here today without him.

 This is our 5 year old black lab, Shelby. She joined our family July 4, 2007. She wondered up to our front porch after her owners kind of abandoned her. We took her to our local shelter the next day and I cried the whole way home. There was something about her. I felt she was supposed to be in our family. We called the shelter the next day and they told us we had to wait 1 week in case her owners came back to claim her they could. If they hadn't by then, then we could come back and adopt her. Of course we waited and we came back to pick her up that Saturday. I never will forget the moment they brought her through the doors to us, she took off running when she saw me across the room, yanking her leash out of the volunteer's hands. She tackled me knocking me to the ground and licking me excitedly. If you have read the book "Marley and Me" she was exactly like Marley as a puppy. Crazy as ever. This dog dug holes in the walls of our home! This is how nuts she was! But we would not trade her for anything. She is our first child. 

 This is Jay, he is our first son. He was born May 15, 2008. Stillborn. The night my life ended. I woke up to contractions. We sped to the hospital, not expecting anything to be wrong. After being monitored for an hour or so they were going to send me home because I was at 1-2cm dilated and not progressing enough to stay. I mentioned that I didn't remember feeling him move much that day so they did further monitoring to find that an ultrasound was needed. Some how I knew in my heart he was already gone. Ultrasound confirmed my worst nightmare. I was 37 weeks pregnant. We decided to go ahead and let the contractions run their course and he was born that evening at 8:20pm. Beautiful in every way weighing 5lbs 15oz 20in long. There are so many things I wish I would have thought to do when he was born. That haunts me to this day. I never imagined that I would ever have to leave the hospital without any of my babies in my arms. He is my angel, my light and my first love. I miss him dearly and can't wait to see him again one day.

 This is our second son Jacen. He is our rainbow, our sunshine and our little adventurer. He can put a smile on your face in a second. When he was born was another day I will re-live over and over again in my head. It was one of the most scariest days of my life. We had decided to induce at 38 weeks due to our previous pregnancy loss. We went in everything was going smoothly. Pictocin was started around 5pm and around 11am the next morning something was going wrong. I began vomiting and his heart rate began to drop. In a matter of seconds there was a horde of nurses around me, trying everything to get his heart rate to stabilize. Nothing was working. I remember one of the nurses calling my doctors office, I remember hearing her say "I DO NOT CARE IF HE IS WITH A PATIENT, GET HIM HERE NOW! SHE NEEDS EMERGENCY C-SECTION NOW!!!" My doctors are so awesome I have to tell you. This man beat the anesthesiology (who was on the floor above me) to the OR. He had me put under and Jacen out of me in less than a few minutes. When he was born they told me he was already blue. His apgars were a 2 (i believe). They put him on oxygen and he immediately began to get his color back and he began breathing on his own and has been perfect since. The first time he almost made my heart stop. I wouldn't still be breathing without him.

This is our little ladybug Kayleigh. She is our princess. She makes your heart melt with her beautiful smile and her contagious laugh. She is simply amazing. Her birth could not have been more perfect. I never imagined after our first 2 children that I would ever get to hear any of my children cry at birth. She changed all of that. I had to have a c-section with her due to the emergency c-section with Jacen. I asked if I could be awake during hers, at first they weren't sure if I would be able to for some reason I don't remember. They asked why and I had to re-live the boys' birth and they agreed that this was an experience I needed to witness. I am grateful they agreed. It was such a surreal moment, we had my 2 doctors, my nurses and another doctor( who was going to fix my belly button after I was stitched up from the c-section), 2 interns the Ped and the nurse from the nursery in the OR and they were all talking and listening to music and just so relaxed I felt I was having an out of body experience. When they pulled her from my body she immediately began to cry, the most beautiful sound I have ever heard. I began to cry. One of my doctors (the one who delivered Jay) peeked over the curtain and said "Misty, I remember Jay and that is a night I will never forget. Let it out baby. That is the most beautiful sound and you deserve to hear it more than anyone I know." A perfect birth. I felt complete but still broken at the same time.

So there you have it. My family and a little bit of our story. We aren't perfect but we love deeply, laugh and cry together. I never thought it possible to feel happy again but I can't imagine life without any of my children.