The Hickman Family: February 2011

*After reading this post several people have asked if we got the plans off of Ana White's website and yes we did. We love it! Check it out here.

Just like any other manly man, Jared has been wanting to build something for a long time. We've just never had the tools or a garage. Well we've had a garage for a couple of years now so finally Jared invested in some new tools this past black Friday. He decided his first project was to build a bed for Alexis. I was a little hesitant at first, because I had never seen Jared build anything before and our child would be sleeping on this bed. Needless to say he did an awesome job and it turned out really cute. I've already got his next 5 furniture building projects lined up!

I can't believe Greyson is already 2 months old! Finally, the Lord listened to my prayers and gave me a good new born! He's so laid back and puts up with so much from his emotional, but well intentioned big sisters.

I wanted to record Greyson's birth story before he got any older. WARNING: if you have suffered from a hard labor and delivery you may not want to read this because you will be extremely jealous!

On December 6th I woke up and got ready just like any other day (I'm still cursing myself for not washing my hair that morning). My due date wasn't for 3 more weeks so I definitely wasn't expecting the crazy day to come. I dropped Kaitlyn off at pre-school, ran over to walmart to pick up a site to store order and then headed off to the doctor for my 37 week checkup. I had to schedule this checkup a day earlier than usual because she happened to be booked on my normal day. While waiting in the waiting room I kept having my normal uncomfortable Braxton Hicks contractions, but I definitely was not in labor. I kept saying "I've had two kids, I know what a contraction feels like". Finally, after waiting for an hour I was called back. I brought Lexie with me to my appointment - again not thinking I was going to give birth in the next couple of hours. My doctor starting discussing moving my induction date up a day or so and then she checked me to see how dilated I was. All I remember was looking at her face between my legs and seeing a look of surprise on it. She says to me, "uh, you're 6 centimeters dilated. You're not going home today". I looked at Lexie and started to cry. My first thought was, "you're not going to be my baby anymore". Then, my second thought was, "man, I knew I should have washed my hair"!

I told my doctor to please let me go home and I promised to be back in one hour. She said it was up to me, but if my water broke I probably wouldn't make it back to the hospital. I was determined to go home and make sure the kids were taken care of and get my hospital bag. We have no family in the area, or on this side of the country, so my best friend met me at my house and picked up Lex, while Jared and I headed to the hospital. When I got to the hospital an hour later I still wasn't in labor, but I was dilated to a 7. My doctor wanted to break my water so I told her to give me an epidural. A short while later they gave me the epidural even though I wasn't having any painful contractions. Then, she broke my water and 30 minutes and 3 pushes later Greyson was born. 7 lbs 11 ounces and the sweetest little guy in the world. The BEST labor EVER! It only took a couple of hours, I never felt a thing and I didn't tear.