Welcome to the world Logan Jeremy!!

Excited to meet our son!

8lbs. 1oz. 20 inches

Excuse my hair! It was all fixed, then I started pushing and was sweating like crazy!

Proud Daddy

Our little family!

On July 13, 2011 our lives changed drastically once again, we welcomed our son into our family. It was definitely a wild, crazy, unexpected day. I had a doctor's appointment on July 1st and was found to be 2.5 cm dilated and 50% effaced. When I was pregnant with Izzy, I had an appointment on a Monday, was 2 cm dilated and had her that Saturday. I was thinking we'd follow the same path with this pregnancy, but he stayed in a little longer than Izzy did. Since that July 1st appointment, I had some lower back pain off and on and definitely more and more Braxton Hicks contractions, but nothing regular. Everyday I kept thinking, today will be the day!! Work was getting harder and harder on me, so I would pray every night before work that I would go into labor so I wouldn't have to go to work that next day! On Tuesday, July 12th, I had a pretty busy day. My mom and I took my nephew Robert and Izzy to an indoor bouncy place (karli was sick), and you better believe I joined them on those bouncys to try to get things going!! Later that day, I went outlet shopping with my mom and that night we had a baby shower at our lifegroup meeting. It was a long day, but I didn't feel any different than I had been feeling.

I woke up Wednesday morning around 6:45 am with some pretty strong cramping pain in my abdomen. I didn't think too much of it, but quickly realized it was coming at pretty regular intervals. I woke Jeremy up and we started timing them and they were coming about every 8 to 9 minutes. We already had an appointment with our OB that morning at 9:30, so we just decided to go ahead with the appointment and see what was happening. However, in those next few hours leading up to the appointment, my contractions were getting progressively stronger and closer together. It wasn't long until I realized that today was going to be the day! We got ready and put the bags in the car, we were pretty sure we wouldn't be coming home. By the time I got to the office I was in pretty bad pain and contractions were coming every 3-5 minutes. I went right up to the window and said, "is he backed up at all, because I'm pretty sure I'm in labor." Needless to say, they brought me right back! Within minutes the doctor checked my cervix and I was 5 cm dilated, 100% effaced and had a bulging bag of water! He told us to go straight to the hospital and I better not sneeze on the way because we'll have wet seats!

I was settled into my room by 10:00 am and let them know I was definitely ready for my epidural. My contractions were 2 minutes apart and getting stronger and stronger. My mom, sister and Jeremy were in the room with me. At first I was talking and laughing with them in between contractions, but eventually I was curled up and in tears with pain. They kept telling me they had put a call into the anesthesiologist and he was on his way, but he just wasn't showing up!! Around 12:15 my doctor comes in and is pretty upset I hadn't gotten my epidural yet. He checked me and I was at 7 cm. at this point and in a tremendous amount of pain. He went and got the doctor himself and by 12:30 I had a spinal done. It was supposed to work faster than an epidural, but only lasts about 3 hours, but my doctor was certain I would deliver before then.

I finally was getting some relief, and I was 8 cm. about 30 minutes later. I was resting comfortably, until I started feeling a lot of pressure. I let the nurses know and when they checked I was completely dilated! By 2:00 I was pushing and my doctor was in place. We knew pretty quickly this was going to be a bigger baby than my 6lb 4 oz. little Isabelle!! However, I gave it my all and he was born at 2:20. My spinal was wearing off right at the time that I was delivering so I felt a lot of pain. However, it probably helped me to know when to push. The doctor had to use a little bit of vacuum to help with his shoulders, but he came out healthy and crying! On one hand I was surprised that he was 8lbs. 1 oz., but on the other hand I wasn't surprised since I was soooo huge!

In any case, we were in love at first sight. We are so thrilled to have our precious baby boy in our family. We are thankful to the Lord for a safe and healthy delivery and baby...God is so good!!!

Life Group Shower

For the past two years, Jeremy and I have been involved with a lifegroup through church. We meet on Tuesday nights at the home of Charlie and Holly. We have a pretty large group and lots of kids. We also have a babysitter who watches the kids upstairs as we meet. This past Tuesday night, July 12, our group surprised us with a baby shower. Everyone brought gifts and there were baby boy cupcakes and cookies. Holly also had packets of Pop Rocks out with little tags that said "Amber is about to.." and then the next word was the big POP on the packet, lol. We had a great time, and who would've thought the very next day I would actually pop!!

36 weeks!

As I write this I'm almost 38 weeks, but I'm trying to catch up from not having our computer for a while! Anyway, my last month of pregnancy has been pretty typical. I've been pretty tired, back aching, heartburn, swelling, etc. However, I am thankful that I've only been dealing with normal pregnancy ailments and we have otherwise been doing great! Can't wait to meet our little man!

Weekend in Charlotte

Memorial Day weekend, I got to visit a couple of my very best friends. Casey lives in Charlotte, and Danielle and her family came down for the weekend to check out the city, and are thinking of moving there. So, Jeremy and I took the opportunity to see both of them and headed up with Izzy for the weekend. It was a quick trip, but we really enjoyed it. We stayed with Casey and her husband Chuck. Danielle and her family came over for a barbecue. Danielle and James have a precious baby girl, Madison that we got to meet for the first time. It was definitely overdue and we had a great time with great friends (and great food too!)

Almost a big sister!

Isabelle has started her summer gymnastics program and she LOVES it! The last session was a mommy and me, but since she's potty trained she goes to a class where I drop her off and pick her up. It's only an hour, but I'm proud of her for being such a big girl and following directions in her class. I have a friend whose son is in the class and we get some mommy time to hang out for an hour! Afterwards, we usually go out to lunch with the kids.

She's such a helper girl! She loves to help us cook and clean. I really think she's going to be a big helper when baby brother comes along.

So prissy!!!

This is Izzy with her new toys the "paci fairy" left her in the morning after her first night without her paci. We had been talking about leaving her pacis for the paci fairy to take to give to all the little babies who needed them. We picked the day this was going to happen and kept talking about it until the day arrived. She would listen intently as I explained that she's a big girl now who doesn't need pacis so she needs to leave them for the paci fairy to take to give the little babies. Afterwards, she would start protesting saying "No, Izzy's pacis!!" So, needless to say, I was nervous when it was really going to happen. We were doing our normal nighttime routine, when she remembered her pacis and actually ran out and grabbed one out of the basket we had put them in. Jeremy and I laid in bed with her for a little while and talked some more about it. She then took a few more sucks, handed her paci to her daddy, and followed him as he brought it back to the basket. She came back to bed and with a big smile said "No Izzy need pacis no more!!" She was proud of herself and we were too :) She mentioned her pacis a few times the days following , but not anymore. So proud of our big girl!! We had three goals before the new baby arrives...potty train, switch to a big girl bed, and get rid of pacis. Our sweet Izzy accomplished all three!

Izzy vacuuming with Mommy!!

I know Isabelle is going to be a wonderful big sister. The baby's not even here yet and I'm already feeling the guilt of not being able to give her as much attention!! However, I'm confident it will all work out and she will feel just as loved as she always has.

We're still here!!

We've had problems with our computer and it's currently being worked on. We haven't had it in several weeks now so there's so much to catch everyone up on! I'm currently using my mom's computer and don't have the software loaded on here to upload my pictures. My belly is growing like crazy and I have pics to post when we get our computer back. I'm currently almost 36 weeks and feeling every bit of it! Work has been so incredibly busy that I come home barely able to walk, and it takes me the whole next day to recover. Hopefully, it won't be too much longer. My weekly appointments have begun. My blood pressure is creeping up and I'm retaining a lot of fluid, but we're just keeping an eye on it for now. Besides a few little things, we pretty much have everything ready for baby Logan. I'm definitely in nesting mode and determined to have the whole house organized before the baby arrives. As far as Isabelle, her little world is about to turn upside down! I think she'll do great though. She's enjoying the summer and loves swimming in the pool and going to the beach. She's in the summer gymanstics program and she loves it as well. Basically, Jeremy and I have been busy working, doing house projects and trying to spend as much time as we can with our Izzy. We've had family in town which is nice too. Anyway, hope to be back up and running soon with our computer. Hope everyone is well and we miss you all!

Payne family visit to Myrtle Beach!

A few weeks ago my big brother, his beautiful wife and their two precious kids came

to Myrtle Beach for a week!

This is Isabelle, Leah, and Thomas Mother's Day morning before

church.

Two peas in a pod!

One day I had the family over our house for dinner, the kids played

outside afterwards.

Sweet girls!!

Checking out the fish at Ripley's Aquarium

Fun times at the pool!

The guys hanging out in the hot tub

Uncle Thomas wrestling with Isabelle

The night before they left, the kids decided to break

out in a dance party!

We had such a blast the week Thomas and his family came down for a visit. I took the whole week off from work and was able to spend lots of time with them at the beach, pool, aquarium, having cookouts, and going to the ride park. Even though we don't get to see them very often, we always have fun when we do. It's so important that all of our kids spend time together and have memories playing together. We love them so much and can't wait to see them again!