Where theres a William, theres a way!

So we did it again!

William decided to come right on time. Sept 27th was his original due date and he showed up right on schedule.

At 9am I had my first contraction and felt a little unsure whether to call Ryan out of work just yet. We had been told that second babies tend to come a little faster than the first and since James' delivery was so quick, we were a little worried William might just fall out at the first sign of labor. I waited and had another contraction about 10 mins later and then a another 10 mins after that. I figure at this point that labor was a GO! so I called Ryan and Rachel, our doula, so we could get our ducks in a row. Next my mom was called so she could watch James while were at the birth center. Ryan came home around 10am and Mom arrived shortly after.

We left for the birth center around 11am with contractions coming about 5 1/2 mins but they still weren't really intense just yet. We got set up in our room and the midwife checked me out. I was 6-7 cm dilated. She couldn't believe I wasn't having more intense contractions. We just hung out in the room while they got the tub set up for us and I knitted through my contractions.

I decided around 1:30 I was ready to relax in my birth tub. I got in and after about 25 mins my contractions started to get a little rough. Now was time to focus at the job at hand. Luckily I had a great husband, doula and team of nurses at my side to cheer me on. It wasn't long before I was pushing and the midwives could tell by the sounds I was making that William's arrival was close at hand. 

I began pushing at 2:10 and my midwife predicted William would be there by 2:35. She was only off by 4 mins. 30 minutes of grunting and pushing later, baby William popped into the world and was safely resting on my heavy beating chest at 2:39pm. 

Within seconds he let out a yell to let us know his lungs were working and he was healthy as can be. He weighed in at a whopping 9lbs 3oz and was 21" in length.

The water tub was best! My labor was so relaxing and smooth. I felt so focused and in control of my contractions and got through them gracefully. While it hurt, of course, it was a much better experience overall. I dare say it hurt about half as bad as the first time around. If I ever talk Ryan into another baby, I would definitely do it again. :)

Later James came to visit and he was excited and very helpful. 

As usual, our stay was very short and it wasn't long before we had William dressed and we were ready to go home.

Now we are all peacefully at home and doing great. We couldn't be happier to have him here finally!

Big Knox Venture Race

Hey fans!

Ryan and I competed in an "Urban Adventure Race" today and had a blast! We ran all over downtown Knoxville, stopping to complete tasks along the way.

Here is our route:

Along the way we had to test a car battery, remember facts and answer questions, observe artwork and answer more questions, walk a tight rope, and do dizzy bat and complete different challenges. Here's Ryan and me after I had to find a gumball in a plate of whipped cream!

We also had to take a picture of us at a historical marker:

We had so much fun working together and helping to benefit a great cause: Big Brothers Big Sisters! We will definitely run again next year and try to beat our time of 2 hours and 25 mins.

Adventures In Grilled Pizza!

So after a delicious lunch at Hard Knox Pizza, Ryan and I decided to give it a go on our new grill. My brother and sister-in-law, Donnie and Sue, had us over for grilled pizza one night at their house it was awesome! So we bought the cookbook, headed to the grocery store and then home, and got to work. 

Here I am mixing up my homemade pizza sauce: fresh vine ripened tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt, and basil.

 This is the yeast, water and oil mixture for the dough. The foam is the yeast being activated by the sugar.

 This is my flour mixture of flour and salt.

  Here is the dough ball after I mixed it with yeast and water, before it rises.

I placed it in the sunshine and let it rise for about 45 minutes while our new grill preheated.

 After the dough has doubled in size...

 I patted it out and stretched it flat.

 I placed the dough on the hot grill and let the bottom get nice and brown and crispy.

 YUM!

 I topped the grilled side of it with my fresh sauce...

 ...And fresh mozzerella...

 ...And back on the grill it went until the cheese was all melty and good!

 I topped it with some fresh basil..

 ...And we dug in!

It turned out pretty well so we are gonna keep it up and try it with new and exciting toppings.

Week One to Week Five

So its been a minute since we've been able to find the time to update the blog! Here are some pictures that have accumulated over the last month.

This is his "O" Face

3 Weeks

Father and Son

James' first Brandywine concert

Wide awake- 4 weeks old

Afternoon snuggle time!

Cool Baby!

Getting ready for a nap

The guys relaxing: Week one

Mama getting her hands free

Happy baby: week one

We'll keep you posted with more photos soon! He gets cuter everyday!

Labor Play by Play by Ryan

Just to preface this, I have not read Angie’s blog on the delivery yet. I didn’t want her version of the story to affect the telling of my version.

So without further ado…here’s how it happened.

4:30am  I’m waken up by Angie. She tells me that she’s just had three contractions. “These are different” she says, referring to the Braxton-Hicks contractions she’d been having on and off for the past week. “This is it, I think this is it.”

We sat in bed for a bit and talked about what we needed to do. I mentioned I was hungry and asked if she wanted a bowl of Lucky Charms. She did. I went downstairs, made us each a bowl and came back to bed. As we enjoyed out breakfast I thought things seemed to be going fairly smooth. She’d had a few more contractions, but nothing too major. She had an app on her iPhone for timing contractions and we knew we were supposed to wait until the contractions were 4 minutes apart, lasting for 1 minute for 1 hour before we would go to the Birth Center.

5:15am I got up and took a shower. By now Angie’s contractions were getting stronger and much closer together. They were about 10 minutes apart lasting 45-60 seconds. I still didn’t think much of it. During all the pre-natal classes and in all the books we had read, early labor was supposed to last hours- 6, 8, 10 hours perhaps. I thought we had plenty of time. Boy, was I wrong.

Angie's Birth Story

-From Prenatal Care to Delivery at

the Lisa Ross Birth Center-

Background and Prenatal Care

One of the questions I was frequently asked while I was pregnant was: Where are you delivering? It strikes me odd that people even asked this because most of them were pretty shocked to hear that I did not plan on delivering at a hospital, but rather a birth center. A lot of the reactions were "You're crazy!" "Don't you want an epidural?" and "So a home birth?" 

Delivering at a birth center is a lot like a home birth, but I would imagine quite a bit more safe and secure. They have all the same equipment as a hospital (warmers, crash carts, etc) and more, such as the option of a water tub to labor and deliver in and the helpful staff of Certified Nurse Midwives whose sole purpose is to deliver babies.

Before I even knew I was pregnant, I knew I wanted a water birth. Now with a water birth and any labor at a birth center, epidurals are not an option. You have to do it all natural. I was more than okay with option. I wanted to experience my birth. I wanted to earn my healthy baby and feel like I made the passage into motherhood the way nature intended me to, not with drugs. So when I discovered on May 7th, 2010 that I was carrying our baby, I called the Lisa Ross Birth Center and told them to sign me up! I was having my baby there!

I started my prenatal care and I'm pretty sure it was the same care given to any pregnant woman. I had regular check ups where they listened to baby's heart beat, took my blood pressure, measured my uterus, and recorded my weight. I joined a group called CenteringPregnancy where I met regularly with other women due around the same time as me and we learned how to be healthy in our pregnancies and what do to prepare for natural child birth. I really enjoyed the classes and thought the prenatal care was great.

During ninth month we made the decision to hire a doula. A doula is a labor and birth coach. She does not do anything medical, but rather is there for the emotional support of the mom (and in our case the dad too). Her name is Rachel Chandler and she is an angel. If you are reading this and plan to become pregnant, contact me so I can give you her information. She is the best decision I have ever made (after James that is!).


Delivery Day Finally Arrives!
(Some of this might be graphic, proceed with caution)

My due date came and went and the wait continued. Ryan and I were so anxious to meet our son! Two days after my due date, they did an exam and stripped my membranes: a procedure to help induce labor, and I was told that I was 3-4 dilated. The midwife was sure I wouldn't make it much longer without going into labor.

She was right! At 4:30 am on Friday morning, I awoke to a sharp cramp, my very first contraction. It wasn't as intense as what was to come so I laid there for a while longer. About 10 minutes later, along came another, and then 8 more minutes later there was another. This was enough to get me to wake Ryan. I told him I thought it was going to be the day and we slowly woke up and had a bowl a cereal and talked about what we needed to do before we headed to the center to deliver.

At 5:30, the contractions were getting closer together so I called Rachel and told her to get ready. She said she would meet me at my house and we hung up and I took a shower. By 6:15 the contractions were so close and so intense (about 3-5 minutes apart) that I was barely making it from one to the next. It was time to go the the center, I just knew it. Ryan called Rachel and rerouted her to the birth center and we shoved things in bags and raced out the door.

We arrived at the center at about 7 am and were greeted at the door by a nurse who promptly took me to an exam room and confirmed that I was now 7 cm dilated. Only 3 more to go! Even they were shocked at how fast I was progressing. Now the only bad thing was that upon arriving I discovered that there was another mom in the only water tub room. I wasn't going to get to have the water birth that I had planned on having for so long. Oh well though, there was no time to worry about that, because James certainly wasn't waiting around for them to get done in there!

I was escorted from the exam room to a birth room, and the nurses decided to try to make up for my lost tub by running me a bath in a regular bath tub so I could at least relax in some warm water for a while. It took them a while to get it full and they got me to walk to the bathroom and get in. As soon as I got my feet wet, I had a contraction that broke my water. The nurse saw it and we all turned around and went to the bed where I assumed a position on "all threes": my face and my knees. At this point I was pushing, which hurt, but felt way better than not pushing. That is until James started to crown. Holy Crap, did that ever hurt! I didn't think I was going to be able to finish, but with Ryan and Rachel by my side, I had the encouragement to get through it. I labored like this until 8:50 when sweet James Matthew finally emerged from my body. Feeling literally deflated, I rolled over and took my boy in my arms and said "Well that wasn't so bad!" and smiled at my staff of nurses.

Six hours later, after stitches, newborn and mommy check ups, a cheeseburger, breast-feeding consultation, and discharge education, we were allowed to go home. I labored, delivered and returned back to my bed at home all in under 12 hours. Pretty impressive, I think!

Today is the end of day four and I am absolutely loving motherhood. After 4 days of getting no longer than 3 hours of sleep at time, I am simply ecstatic to hold him, feed him, and snuggle him. It makes me cry like crazy to know that he's going to grow up and these days will be over before I know it.

So I'm signing off here so I can get back to staring my amazing little creation! Thanks for reading!

James Matthew 1-14-11

James Matthew is here!

Well, the big day finally came. Friday January 14, 2011 at 8:50am James Matthew Hardison was born. He came out 7lbs 15 oz and 21.5 inches long. Mom did a great job during the completely natural labor. Contractions started at 4:30am and less than four and half hours latter her little boy was in her arms.

Here he is just 5 minutes old on his Father's lap.

Here's our doula Rachel saying goodbye. She was awesome during the delivery.

And of course Grandma Tracy stopped by.

Giving birth at a Birth Center was great. Not counting the great job by midwifes, one of the best parts is only having to stay a minimum of 6 hours after the birth. James was born just before 9am and we were home before 4pm.

Doesn't Angie look great!  That's what a quick labor and no drugs does for you.

Here's some pictures of our little guy on day 2. Sleeping, dreaming, probably pooping his pants.

And here's one proud Father.

And a super happy Mom and two older brothers.

If we can find time over the next few days (which may be hard), Angie and I want to write a blog each, recounting our experiences during the delivery. I'm sure we both have very different perspectives.