Audrey Kate's birth story

Audrey Kate was born on February 18, 2011 at 6:31 pm. She weighed 7 lbs. 10 oz. and was 21.5 inches long.

I had my 39 week check-up on the morning of Audrey's birth, and my doctor didn't seem to think I was too close to going into labor. My cervix was soft, but I was only about 2 cm dilated. I was disappointed as I had been feeling pretty miserable in the last couple weeks of this pregnancy. Later in the day, I took a nap while James napped. Dave went to work for only a few hours because it was an off Friday, and he needed to make up some time. He came home around 3 pm. I started doing some laundry, and Dave started doing the taxes. James woke up from his nap, and was a little grumpy because mama and dada were busy trying to get some things done.

At 4:45 pm, I had what felt like a contraction- it was very short, but very intense. 15 minutes later, I had another one. And then 5 minutes later, another one. Each contraction was extremely painful but only lasted a few seconds. Surely I wasn't in labor! With James, my contractions started out very spread out and minimal in pain, and gradually got closer together, longer in duration and more painful over an 8 hour time period before we went to the hospital. This time, the contractions were right on top of each other, very short, and very painful. I called my sister, Karyn, and let her know I was having contractions, but thought it could be false labor. I also called my good friend, Erin, to let her know as well. The plan was for James to go to Erin's house when we went to the hospital. Karyn was going to head in our direction a little later, and Erin was going to come get James after she had dinner just to be safe.

At 5:15 pm, I sent Dave to the grocery store with James to get some milk. I finished packing my hospital bag and James' overnight bag... just in case. At 5:30 pm, I called my doctor to see if they recommended I go to the hospital. This time was so different than James that I just couldn't make the call. Surely I wasn't in true labor. It came on so fast! The nurse said I should go to the hospital to get checked out. By this time, I was in severe pain, and was starting to think Audrey was coming soon! Dave had just gotten back and was still under the assumption that it was false labor and we would need to head to the hospital for a few hours of monitoring. So he heated us up some dinner (I told him previously that I wanted to eat before going to the hospital because they wouldn't let me eat once going there until after the baby was born). James was eating and coloring. I called Erin to let her know we were going to the hospital and to meet us there to get James, and I called Karyn to tell her as well. I told Dave I couldn't eat, and we needed to go. He started to help James pick up his crayons, and I had to firmly tell Dave it was time to go. "Honey, leave the crayons, put your shoes on, and let's go! I am in serious pain!" I think this is when it clicked for Dave that this might be the real thing.

We got to the hospital at 6:00 pm (it's less than a mile from our house). The nurse checked my cervix as soon as we got there, and I was dilated to 9 cm! I immediately knew this meant no epidural, but I asked the nurse to make sure. She confirmed my fears. The next thing I knew, several nurses charged into the room with all the equipment needed for delivering a baby. The doctor was on her way. James was still in the room for all of this. You could tell he was concerned, but he handled everything very well. He kept saying "mama" in a very concerned tone.

Erin arrived at 6:15 pm and took James out. Dave gave her the bags I packed for him. I immediately double checked with him that he gave her all 3 bags, including the one with his dinner in it. The nurses started teasing me because my concern was for James' dinner while I was having excruciating contractions. Dave did forget to give Erin 1 bag, so they waited in the waiting room. I had a sudden urge to push, so I did. The doctor wasn't there yet. She did arrive just in time for me to push 4 or 5 more times, and Audrey was born at 6:31 pm. We were at the hospital for 30 minutes! I had only been in labor for 1 hour and 45 minutes! It was such a whirlwind!


James got to meet his little sister just a few minutes after she was born. He was so excited to see her and said "baby" quite a few times. He gave her some really sweet kisses too. He was a little leery of me though. I think the IV in my arm and the hospital bed scared him. It took him a while to want to come to me, but he finally came around. Our little boy is a big brother!


Oh, Audrey is beautiful! She has a full head of dark brown hair. Otherwise, she looks just like James when he was born. What an amazing and surreal experience Audrey's birth was! We fell in love instantly!

January recap

January was an interesting month in the Stoner home... there were some good changes and some bad sickness.

One of the biggest changes is that James has switched to a big boy bed (aka twin mattress on the floor). About 3 weeks ago, I put James down for his nap and a few minutes later he came walking into the living room and handed me a book! He was so proud- I've never seen him smile so big! I had the baby monitor right next to me, and I didn't a hear a thing when he was making his climb out. He didn't do it the next day, but then climbed out 2 more times the following day. For safety, we decided to make the switch. It was so nice of James to give up his crib in time for his baby sister to use it (although, we weren't in any hurry for him to give it up)! The first night, James went to sleep quickly, slept for 3 hours, and then cried at his door for the entire night. The second night, he cried initially, but eventually went to sleep and was fine for the night. Since then, there hasn't been a lot of crying, just lots of playing! For a couple weeks, James was clearly not getting enough sleep, but it seems we've reached a turning point and he's sleeping much better these days.

James is talking with real words more and more. The words James says now are: dada, mama, bubbles, nana (banana and Nana), thank you, bye-bye, shoe, cup, bowl, dog, dance, gentle, yellow, green, blue, red, black, yeah, no, all done, ball, and down.
He tells us almost everything is yellow, and when we correct him, he'll repeat the right color. Also, he uses down for up and down. He still has full conversations with us in pure gibberish, and it's obvious he is telling us something because he uses a lot of hand gestures.

I got really sick in mid- January with pleurisy (inflammation of the lining of the lungs). I have never been in so much pain (especially when I coughed), nor have I ever had such a difficult time breathing. I went to the ER one night because I couldn't catch my breath. Turns out that when you're pregnant, there's not much that can be done. I took two different antibiotics and went through one bottle of Tylenol and three bottles of Robitussin. 2 weeks later, I am finally feeling better. James got sick during this time too. He had probably one of his worst ear infections (at least based on his behavior). He also had a mild case of RSV, which is basically a chest cold. Mama gave him that one. Fortunately, Dada managed to escape illness, and took amazing care of Mama and James while we were sick.

We've been working on Audrey's nursery since Thanksgiving, and it is done! We also made some changes to James' room since we moved the crib and glider out. Both kiddos have pretty fun rooms! Dada gets all the credit for the work...

James' room




Audrey's room