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

Christmas Day

We purposely didn't put any presents under the tree until after James went to bed on Christmas Eve so he would be surprised on Christmas morning. And, we got the reaction we were hoping for! James kept pointing at the lighted tree, and staring at all the presents. He did not want to open any of his presents (strangely), but he was really excited about them once mama and dada opened them. We took lots of video of the gift opening, but no pictures. I'll have to sort through the video and will hopefully post some soon.

Dave and I decided to have an Italian themed Christmas in terms of food this year. We found some wonderful recipes from Giada on the Food Network that filled our bellies from breakfast to dinner. We started the day off with a delicious French toast made from an Italian Christmas bread called Pannetone. Our lunch was a very simple pasta with cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic, olive oil, Parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese. For dinner we had a pot roast with minestrone soup and cheesy polenta. And for dessert, we had tiramisu made by the Central Market bakery. Everything was delicious, and we will definitely be using all the recipes again!

We spent the day eating, playing with James' new toys, and enjoying the company of Dave's family. We could not have asked for a better Christmas!

Family photo after all the presents were opened

James is vacuuming the house with his new vacuum! Thanks little buddy!

Daddy trying to teach James how to bowl

Uncle Mike and James jamming out on their guitars

Aunt Amanda, Uncle Mike and Nana

Christmas Eve night

We went to the family Christmas service at our church on Christmas Eve. Nana, Uncle Mike and Aunt Amanda made it up from Austin just in time to join us. We decided to bring James to the service instead of taking him to the nursery, and he was so well behaved! He was fascinated by all the lights, decorations and music in the worship hall. It was such a joy to have James with us for Christ's birthday celebration!

This picture is a little deceiving because James looks grumpy. He was actually quite happy while we were at church, but was not pleased at our insistence that he pose for a picture. I think he was getting hungry too as it was dinner time.

Christmas Eve day

On Christmas Eve, we had lunch with Aunt Karyn, Uncle David, Tristan and Isabella before they headed out of town to spend Christmas with other family. The kids exchanged gifts, and each were very pleased.

A couple photo ops with our little man before lunch...


Cousins! This is the best picture we could get. It's amazing how hard it is to get 3 kids to cooperate for pictures!

And, somehow, we missed out on a group photo with all the adults. I promise, we were all there!

Christmas season with The Stoners

We put our Christmas tree up and decorated the mantle on the first weekend of December. James was fascinated by the lights on the tree, and he pointed at it constantly pointing out each "ball" (ornament) on the tree. He loved the ornaments and did a great job being gentle with them. We had so much fun preparing James for Christmas this year. We baked Christmas cookies all month long, sang Christmas carols often, and did an Advent calendar with James everyday. He didn't quite understand what was happening, but he knew it was something exciting.

James and Cole

James is at an age now where he is interested in playing with other kids. Over the past few weeks, we've had the pleasure of spending some time with our good friends Matt and Lauren Warner. Their son is Cole (he's been known to make an appearance on our blog from time to time), and they just had a beautiful baby girl named Kathryn (Kate) Grace!

James and Cole are best buddies these days! They build with blocks together, sit at the piano together, give each other hugs and kisses at random, wrestle and laugh hysterically at each other. Their interactions are so fun to watch. Here are some recent pictures from a Christmas pajama potluck party at the Warner's home...