Gaming with the baby!

The other night I walked into my bedroom to find this exact scene!  Preston LOVES his new baby sister and is always cuddling into her!

He is also teaching her how to game on mommy's iPad!

I thought this was a sweet picture of Dorothy holding little Ruby!

I wear sunglasses at night...

The kids found Dorothy American Girl doll's sunglasses and started putting them on, then we put them on Ruby and they actually fit!

Ha ha ha!

The 'Chickens!'

When each baby is born one of my favorite things is their tiny skinny legs.  We affectionately call them "The Chickens!"  Here are some pictures of my baby's cute little chicken legs!

These were taken after a sponge bath and I should have used a pink towel!

Gifts from the baby!

When Ruby came home she gave each kid a bubble wand and all three kids the book 'The tickle monster' with the tickling gloves!  They loved playing with the bubbles and getting the book read to them every chance they get!

Playing with the bubbles!  

Bringing home Ruby!

After 4 days in the hospital mommy and Ruby were ready to go home!  We got packed up and were welcomed home with a show!

Dressing her to go home!

Packing up

Getting Ruby out for the show!

Dorothy was the pianist during the show!

Lots of Visitors!!!

In the hospital Ruby had lots of visitors, I only got pictures with some of them.  We enjoyed having lots of people come during our 4 day stay!

The beautiful flowers I was given!

Ruby's born

After being in labor for NINE days, 3 trips to the hospital and having the C-Section almost happen once, I finally broke down and decided to go back to the hospital on Sunday afternoon.  I had been 3 times before to be told that I was not dilating at all but was having regular contractions anywhere from 1.5 minutes to 5 minutes apart.  I was EXHAUSTED and emotionally spent.  My mom came over everyday and stayed all day babysitting me since I was suppose to be on bed rest.  I felt awful and was a mess!  I was crying all the time and pleading that whatever I needed to learn from this I would hurry up and learn because I was done!  Early Sunday morning the contractions got a lot stronger and I lost my mucus plug and had my bloody show.  I called my mom and she wanted me to go to the hospital to get checked out but I wanted to wait.  James took the kids to church and I stayed home and cried and prayed that it would soon be over!  (I had an amniocentesis scheduled at 9 am on Monday morning and the section was scheduled at 5:30 Monday night.)  After church James was concerned that I was contracting a lot harder and called my Dr (who is AMAZING) he said we should head up to the hospital and he would come up and meet us.  I called my mom and we dropped the kids off at Evan and Kelly's and we went. Once Dr Warner got there he said let's just do it today... I was so HAPPY!  He called in another partner and they prepped me for the C-Section.  This pregnancy was very difficult emotionally and physically.  I had been praying about whether or not to get my tubes tied the entire time.  After fasting and a lot of prayer James and I felt like it was the right decision.  We signed the papers at the hospital (nothing like waiting for the last minute).  The C-Section took a little over an hour and they had to do some serious renovations from previous C-Sections.  Once they opened me up they discovered that my placenta had already torn away from the uterine wall and if we had waited a day the baby would most likely not have made it.  When she was born she could not breath I got to see her for about 1 second before they pulled her away because she was BLUE!  James rushed into the other room with her and they called in a code and had the NICU team in the room within seconds.  They had her breathing in no time and she spent a few hours in the NICU being monitored.  Her lungs were not 100% developed and she was not quite ready to come out.  This was when I realized how in tune with the spirit my Dr's were on Monday night July 2nd they had decided that after the baby failed a non-stress test that we should do the C-Section a few hours later.  I went up to the hospital got all prepped including my IV and half the med's and my Dr came in the room.  At this point the baby's heart rate was perfect and she seemed fine, he strongly felt we should wait.  I was really frustrated because I was all ready to go!
The baby ended up being fine and so was I.  The two Dr's doing the C-Section both felt that I needed to tie my tubes because next time we would most likely end up with a still born or something worse.  I am still really emotional about this decision I know it was the right one but I am mourning for the loss of another baby I really wanted to have five kids but am finding peace knowing that we made the decision with the help of Heavenly Father.  We are enjoying every moment with this sweet little spirit Ruby and feel so blessed to have her in our lives!  Here are pictures of her birth...

Coming out!

After the NICU in Mother baby getting ready to go meet Mommy for the first time!

A bath

All clean and ready to go!

The first time I got to hold my sweet little Ruby!

Proud Daddy!

My amazing mom!

She's here!

She is here:

Ruby Grace Thomas

July 8, 2012 @5:30 pm

 7 lbs 2 oz. 

19 inches long

adored by all who meet her!

The 4th of July!!!

The 4th of July was a little overrated this year since we have been under SEVERE fire warnings and there was also an arsonist on the loose.  Long story short; there were no fireworks this year.  The kids were ok with it since they saw non-stop smoke coming from all around us.  I was more than happy to not have to do anything because I was in labor (yep that's right I was lucky enough to labor for over a week before the baby was born!)  We went to Evan and Kelly's and enjoyed steak, salads and desserts!  The kids had a blast with cousins and did not even remember there were no fireworks!  Here are pictures of the kids....

The reality of our CRAZY lives!!!