Chasing Coles

Twenty two days. It has been 22 days since my life has been flipped upside down by the arrival of the newest member of our family. He is a precious bundle of joy who's entrance to this world changed so much of my preconceived notions about what birth in a hospital looks like. But our journey started long before 22 days ago. You can read about my difficult pregnancy and transition out of midwifery care into medical care  here.  I felt from the very beginning of the pregnancy and all throughout that this baby was going to bring peace to me & our home, even when it was so challenging! The end of Archie's pregnancy was my hardest yet- the first of the three where I felt so DONE so early on. There were days where I cried to Justin and my best friend that I couldn't keep going. It was, hands down, the most difficult pregnancy I've had yet. And on top of it, I had no clue what to expect when it came to his birth.  I started having prodromal labor (a type of labor th...

I t's been two and a half years since I last gave birth which was in our home, in my bedroom and unassisted, then four and a half years since I gave birth to our first baby in our little duplex with the help of a midwife. They were both wonderful and tough births in different ways and home birth became my passion. They were thought out, prayed about, researched, planned and we were prepared for both of those births. I was the odd woman out for having home births in such a conventional, small town in rural Texas but I felt so normal in those choices anyway. Having babies at home became part of who am and proudly made their way onto all of my social media bio's and into conversations with my mom friends. But I've always said that each pregnancy and birth requires prayer and an open mind, and if something different needed to happen, I wanted to be open to it. That's where baby number 3 comes in. I got my positive pregnancy test at the end of November in 2016 and rig...

So excited to finally get to share my birth story! I will give as much detail as I can remember! Friday, October 5th was homecoming for the Perryton Rangers football team and Justin and I took our last date (unknowingly) as a married couple without kids to the game that night. We came home and watched tv until about 1:00 am. Terrible decision. 4:30am of October 6th gets here and my water breaks. I was 40 weeks and 3 days pregnant. I wanted to be sure it was really my water so I laid back down for a while and timed my contractions. They were about 30-45 seconds long about about 2 minutes apart but definitely feeling different than the Braxton Hicks contractions that I had gotten so used to. After I decided I was probably in real labor, I got up and spent some time on my birth ball and called the midwife. She is 2 hours away so she said she would head over soon. I let Justin sleep until about 6:00am because I wanted to make sure he had SOME rest for the journey we had ahead. I went int...

Scarlett Cherie is six months old. Half of the hardest year yet has passed. To be totally honest, the transition from one to two has been astoundingly difficult. Our daughter is beautiful and wonderful and at the same time, she is definitely high needs. As a relatively still new homemaker, I'm not at all in a routine yet like I would like to be and sometime's it is so frustrating. We are all growing and learning and changing as we go. I just have to remember to be patient and give myself more grace. Little Miss got rolling over down at three months, learned to sit up on her own at 5 months and around 5 1/2 months, started crawling and pulling up. No teeth yet. These milestones come one right after another and it blows me away how much babies grow and change and learn in that first year. Big brother Silas is adjusting well- but still adjusting nonetheless. He loves to come in our room every morning and with a big smile, say "Good morning, Sister!!" (very loudly...

Our little love was born on a Monday and Justin got to stay home with us the first week. We spent our first days resting and taking herbal baths together, just getting to know one another and learning to breastfeed.  Scarlett got to celebrate her first Christmas at only two days old! We went to our family's houses on Christmas Eve and again on Christmas Day. Silas had a blast and the rest of us....well, we made it! Ha! I was so exhausted that I hardly remember the holiday. I told Justin... Summer babies from here on out!  Since our surprise gender baby ended up being a girl, we needed lots of girl things! We made a trip to Amarillo the Saturday after she was born to pick up pajamas, blankets, bows & other girly necessities. It was an exhausting trip for Mama! Once the following week started, we began making calls to start the process of getting her birth certificate and ssn. The local courthouse told us we would need to go to Amarillo to ...