Cel-e-brate Good Times, Come On...

February has been one big birthday party for us! Every weekend we have celebrated Audrey's 1st birthday in some form...Fossil Rim trip, opening presents at home, taking 1 year portraits, and for the finale, a big Cowboy/Cowgirl party last Saturday with cousin Layton who will turn 1 in a few weeks.

She loves the table and chairs we got her. Can you tell? I love them, too!

We got beautiful flowers from Josh's parents celebrating her first year...and the arrangement was almost identical to one we got in the hospital when she was born. So sweet! And she loved all of her Elmo and horsey and bear cards :)

One of her favorite gifts was this cute little $2 dog that barks from the Dollar Store.

Her Mimi and Pop gave her an awesome fort/slide/playhouse. She shouldn't be big enough for things like this yet!

These are scenes from her actual birthday. Her grandmas, aunt, and cousin came bearing gifts. She was so sweet enjoying each item that came out of the gift bags. She got a little rooster because she LOVES to crow!

Then for the February finale...We had the big birthday for Audrey and Layton! His actual birthday is March 12, so we split their days, and it was so fun! Here's a picture from her Cowgirl invitation. It read, "Saddle up your horses and come join the fun...Our little cowgirl and cowboy are turning one!"She loved this little frilly purse from Nanny!

Typical gender roles...she pinched daintily at the icing while Layton stuck his whole face in!

Very good times...

An Audrey Birth Story

It was about this exact time last year that we started our drive to the Brownwood Hospital to start the process of bringing our little girl into the world! Here's the wonderful story of that day...

I waddled into my classroom that Monday morning feeling fairly good considering I was due in exactly one week to have our first little girl. It was not until about 8:30 after I had taken roll and said the pledges that I noticed that my vision was very blurry on the right side. It was a little odd not being able to see half of my class! I decided that I should probably just eat something and sit down for a while. I made sure to alert my friend Amy down the hall in case I went to passing out or something. She was my voice of reason and told me that I should get my blood pressure checked in the nurse's office. So I threw worksheets at the kids and waddled down there to find that indeed my blood pressure was pretty high! I shouldn't have really been surprised considering I had already checked into the hospital with other blood pressure spells just a couple of weeks before. So the doctor told us to bring our stuff and away we went knowing that the next time we drove down that road and walked into our house, our lives would be quite different!

When we finally saw the doctor, I was drained from the ups and downs of crazy blood pressure...and very emotional. He decided that it was best to induce labor, so we started all of that around noon that day. To make a long day short, I never progressed beyond a 1 or 2, and the baby's heartrate began to show signs of distress as I contracted. After labor was started and stopped several times with no change, it was decided at midnight that I needed a C-section. It almost happened right then, but luckily Audrey's heartrate settled so we could wait until the next morning. So after technically 21 hours of labor (don't worry...I had an epidural most of the time so it wasn't bad!), I was wheeled back to have a C-section. I really did not have a hard time at all (except being hungry!) until we were prepping for surgery, and then some anxiety hit. But I prayed through it, comforted by the fact that I would soon see my sweet baby girl!

The operation was fast, but the intense part came when they pulled her out. The doctor said, "It's a girl...and she's got a full head of dark hair!" followed by the sounds of nurses slapping baby skin saying "Breathe, baby!" This seemed to go on forever with no response from baby. "Come on, baby!" Then finally, "We have to take her now." My head was still behind the sheet, so I could only hear all of this until I glanced over to see my new baby's head-full-of-hair being whisked out the door followed by my husband. I have never felt so alone as I lay on the operating table unable to move and not knowing what was happening to the little person I had had attached to me for the last nine months. Thankfully, the anethesiologist stroked my hair and said kind things as the doctors stitched me up. Finally after many minutes and prayers, the report came that my baby was breathing fine and I could see her in a little while.

A little while turned into almost two hours. Josh and the rest of my family would bring me pictures of her into my recovery room, but we were both too fragile at that moment to be able to see each other. Finally, as the nurses took me to my room, I met my baby girl in the hallway, and it was the happiest, most overwhelming moment of my life. Even as I type this a year later, I can barely see through my tears.

This was the very first picture I ever saw of her. And this was the very first time I actually laid eyes on her.

Audrey had to stay in the nursery for the remainder of the day since her oxygen levels were still low. I was still very impatient to see her and hold her longer...and frankly, I was mad that everyone else was getting to after I did all the work! So finally, after both of us seemed stable, Josh and I made the short trek to the nursery where I finally got my much needed mommy time!

We stayed in the hospital two more days so I could heal up, but meanwhile, Josh was getting sicker and sicker. I didn't mention that a week prior to delivering our baby, Josh had an emergency appendectomy! He was still healing from that...or so we thought. He began to feel very sick and looked very green. Finally he went for a blood test and was immediately admitted into the Stephenville hospital for an internal infection from his surgery. He checked into the hospital within hours of when we checked out to go home for the first time. Let's just say it wasn't how we had it planned and it wasn't very easy for us. But with the help of family and friends and faith, we were all happy and healthy at home together about 5 days later.

And a few days after that, the birth announcement joyfully read, "Audrey Lynn Deal was born on February 5, 2008, at 8:54 a.m. weighing 7 pounds, 9 ounces, measuring 19 inches."

Fossil Rim Fun

Audrey is turning 1 this week, so we took her to Fossil Rim in Glen Rose where you drive around feeding all sorts of wild animals! She absolutely loved it! Take a look...

Another giraffe actually stuck its head inside the car and we got to pet it. We got that on video!

Ostriches are really freaky up close...and mean!

She loved sticking her head out the window and feeling the wind blow her hair!

Look out!

We mostly just yelled "Horsey! Deer! Bird! Kitty!" the whole time (all of which sound like "Dada" when she says it).

Such a great day...