To My Precious Boys

Who care for fame or fortune

Who care for wealth or gold

Because I find a fortune

Within my arms I hold

A tiny turned up nose

Two cheeks just like a rose

So sweet from head to toes

That little boy of mine

Two arms that hold me tight

Two eyes that shine so bright

Two lips that kiss goodnight

That little boy of mine

No one will ever know

Just what his coming has meant

Because I love him so

He's something Heaven has sent

He's all the world to me

He climbs up on my knee

To me he'll always be

That little boy of mine

And when he lays his head

Upon his pillow so white

I pray the Lord above

To guide him safe through the night

In dreams I see his face

And feel his fond embrace

There's no one can replace

That little boy of mine

By Bonnie Owens

Ty's Birth Story

Ty Douglas Barnhart

October 16, 2007

6 lbs 11.5 oz

18 inches

It occured to me as I was writing Dallas' birth story that I should post Ty's birth story as well, so here it is.

My pregnancy with Ty (as well as with Dallas) was overall a very pleasant experience. I had no real morning sickness with either one. With Ty I had quite a bit of swelling in the last trimester and I began to develop preeclampsia at 38 weeks. I went for my regular doctor visit at 38 weeks and my blood pressure was 140/90. The doctor told me to go to labor and delivery to be monitored for a while. So, quite nervous, I called Justin who immediately came to the hospital from work. After an hour or so on the monitor and a blood draw my BP went down some so the doctor sent me home on limited bed rest. I had still been working up to this point, but was told that I was done working at this point. I thought I would be happy about that, but if there's one thing I learned that week it was that bedrest is BORING! I would have so much rather been at work. Anyway, after that long week was over I went back to the doctor on Monday for my 39 week visit, at which point my blood pressure was 150/100. The doctor said we were done messing around and that I was going to be induced. Soooo, I called Justin to come to the hospital and went straight to labor and delivery.

At this point I was not dilated at all so I was started on meds to ripen my cervix at about 1pm on Monday. A little while later they started some pitocin. It wasn't too long before I started having contractions every minute. Luckily, though, I couldn't feel them. I don't know why not. The nurses kept saying those should hurt, but they didn't. About once an hour someone would come in to draw my blood and check my reflexes (hyperreflexia is common in patients with preeclampsia). Eventually the decided to start some magnesium to help with my blood pressure. Man, is that some nasty stuff! I immediately began to feel out of breath and HOT as fire! Poor Justin was freezing for the next few days while I had fans blowing on me. Also, I wasn't allowed to have any food or water (except ice chips) so I was thirstier than I've ever been in my life. At least I can say I wasn't feeling labor pains on top of it.

Well, long story short, after a very long night of no sleep and no progress in labor the doctor said they were going to have to do a c-section. I have to say I've never been so relieved. I was so miserable laying in that bed all night not being able to sleep or even get comfortable. I wasn't even nervous about the surgery. I was just happy that there was finally an end in sight.

When we got back to the OR and they were doing my spinal I started to get a little nervous that I wouldn't be able to hold still for it. The numbing shots that they did hurt and it was hard not to move so I was nervous for the "big needle". When the doctor put it in I felt an "electric spark" sensation go down my right leg to the tip of my big toe, and it scared me and made me jump a little, but luckily everything turned out fine. They got everything ready and started the surgery. I thought they were going to forget to get Justin so I asked if anyone was going to get him and they said he was on his way. They seemed to be in a hurry to get Ty delivered, but Justin made it in plenty of time. I thought it was a bit strange that the doctor didn't talk at all during the surgery to say what they were doing so I only knew he had been born when he started to cry, which made me start to cry. I remember asking Justin if it was a boy (just to be sure) because nobody had said anything. They let me see him for a few seconds and then Ty and Justin left for the nursery. After that I remember the doctor saying to give me some more pitocin because I was really "Boggy" (whatever that means) and the anestesiologist asked me if I wanted something to sleep for a little bit, something for which I was more than grateful.

The next thing I remember was being back in my room and the nurse bringing Ty in for me to nurse him for the first time. And I've been smitten with him ever since....

Dallas' Birth Story

Dallas Matthew Barnhart

January 8, 2010

7 lbs 9.5 oz

19 inches

Well, here I am 39 weeks and 3 days pregnant with Dallas. This picture was taken in our hospital room just before he was born. Here is the story of his birth. Since I found out I was pregnant with Dallas, I intended to have a scheduled C-section. I had a C-section with Ty, and it didn't seem all that bad to me so I decided it would be best just to have a repeat. So we picked the date of Friday, January 8, 2010. We picked this date because a Friday was the most convenient day for everyone to take off work for his birth. This was particularly important because Ty wasn't allowed to visit at the hospital due to the H1N1 scare. So we had to have grandparents available to keep him for the weekend.

I worked up until Jan 5 when I started having some contractions, or at least what I thought were contractions. I left work early that day and went home to relax. That made the "contractions" go away, so it must have just been a false alarm. You can never be sure, though, so I didn't go to work the next day like I had intended. It was for the best, though, because it gave me an extra day to get some chores done before the birth. And it gave me another day with just Ty and me at home. I went for my last prenatal appointment on Thursday and we scheduled the surgery for 2:30 the next day. It snowed about 6 inches on Thursday, so I was a little nervous that people would have trouble getting down to us the next day. Luckily, though, by the next morning the roads were pretty clear. Mom, Jim, Trista and Elisha came to our house in the morning around 11:00. We had to be at the hospital at 12:30 so they all took Ty and got some lunch when Justin and I left for the hospital. Christy came to our house and stayed with Ty during my surgery so that Mom and Trista could be there.

When we arrived at the hospital they immediately started getting me prepped for surgery. It was a strange sensation going in with no labor whatsoever and knowing the baby would be born in just a matter of a couple of hours. We had a bit of a scare that they were going to delay the surgery because I had eaten breakfast that morning. The day before the doctor told me that I couldn't eat for 6 hours before the surgery, but when I got there they said it should have been 8 hours. So the nurse wasn't sure if they would proceed with the surgery, but when she talked to the doctors they said I would just have to drink some medicine to make me digest it faster and everything would be fine. It was some NASTY stuff, but worth not having to wait another 2 hours to meet my baby.

I went back to the OR at about 2:30 and got my spinal. This is the part I was most nervous about, but it went fine. After they got started they brought Justin in and went to work in earnest getting Dallas out. It was a much more relaxed pace this time than it was with Ty, presumably since I had such issues with preeclampsia before. I remember feeling a lot of tugging and pressure as Dallas was delivered at 3:09 pm. I remember hearing his first gurgly cries, which made me cry too. Justin kept saying how much he looked like Ty as they were cleaning him.

I got to see Dallas and give him kisses before they took him to the nursery. He was so beautiful! The first things I noticed about him were his chubby cheeks, cute lips and his strawberry on his left eyelid; exactly opposite of his big brother's strawberry on his right eyelid.

Justin did such a good job of reproducing Ty's nursery pictures with Dallas. He took about all the same shots this time as last time.

I vaguely remember them bringing Dallas into the room after he was cleaned and I remember getting to nurse him for the first time. Here's his first picture with Mommy.

First picture with Mommy and Daddy

What an angel.

We spent the next 2 days in the hospital recouperating and introducing Dallas to his new family. We had many visitors including Mammaw Risch and Jim, Aunt Trista and Uncle Elisha, Mammaw and Pappaw Ogden, Mammaw Christy and Aunt Kaygan, Great Grandma and Grandpa Farr, Grandma and Grandpa Barnhart, Pappaw Taylor and Nana, Pastor Ray, Stacie and Sharon, and Shalon and Amy (Mommy's friends from work). Everyone was so happy to meet Dallas.

While I prefer the recouperation from a C-section to labor, don't let anyone fool you. It's no cakewalk. The worst parts are the itching from the morphine (and from laying in a bed on itchy padding) and the gas pains I would get in my shoulders. It's worth it, though. No doubt about it.

We went home on Sunday at about 6pm. Here is Dallas in his carrier all ready to go home.

Here is his nursery.

I missed Ty so much while I was in the hospital. On Friday night Mom and Jim stayed at our house overnight with Ty. They also kept him at our house on Saturday during the day. Saturday night Justin spent the night at home with Ty so he would know we didn't abandon him and so Mom and Jim could get home. He went to Mammaw Christy's house on Sunday during the day and she brought him home to meet his brother that night. Here are some pictures of Ty and Dallas meeting for the first time.

I was so happy with Ty's reaction to Dallas. I figured he'd look at him for a second and then lose interest and go play with his toys. But he was really interested in Dallas and was so happy to meet hime and wanted to hold him right off the bat. A little while later Ty went into his room for a few minutes. When he came back to the living room, he had a small toy horse that he tried to get Dallas to hold. He brought it out just for him to play with. How sweet!


Our first picture as a family of four

Mommy and her boys

Daddy and his boys

Christmas 2009

This year was one of the best Christmases ever! I don't really know what it was about this year, but I just had the best time! Everything seemed to just go perfectly. This was the first year that we woke up at our house on Christmas morning with our little guy and SANTA CAME! He brought Ty lots of new toys (probably too many, in fact). Some of his favorites are his camera, gears, walkie talkies and bath crayons (which a few days later were used to color on the wall in the hallway when Mommy wasn't looking....luckily they wipe off easily, but not before Mommy about had a heart attack!)

Daddy got ShamWow's (as a joke), jeans, and a watch from his boys.

Mommy got birthstone earrings from each of her boys and a pearl ring from all 3 boys.

Ty lost interest in opening presents at several points throughout the morning. As would be expected when he got a toy that he found particularly interesting he didn't want to do anything but play with that. Soooo, we found ourselves bribing him with the fudge covered Oreo's that I got in my stocking to open more presents. Poor kid...has to get cookies in order to open presents. So mistreated.

This is one of the cooolest presents that Ty got this year. Justin's mom made him this hideout. As I've mentioned in previous posts, he's very in to hideouts right now and he absolutely LOVES this one! It came complete with fish, canoe, mailbox, and treestand. He fell asleep in it for his nap the other day...too cute!

Santa also brought him this potty seat. It makes truck sounds when you potty in it, but so far it hasn't been used for anything other than a cool chair or stepstool. One of these days....

Ty's biggest gift from Santa this year was his official big boy bedroom, complete with boat bed. I have to say, Santa's elves were very sad as they took down all the baby stuff off his walls to put up the new big boy decorations. It doesn't seem possible that it should be time for this.

Off to Mammaw Ogden's house...

3 more great grandkids due soon.

Grandma and Grandpa Barnhart's

Ty got the cutest little welder's set so Grandpa can teach him how to weld.

Pappaw Taylor's house

We had a little trouble with Ty not wanting to open presents again at Dad's and he eventually had to get a time out...discipline never takes a holiday.

Owen got this football uniform and kept saying he was Peyton Manning...so cute.


Mammaw's Christmas at Aunt Trista's house.

the 3 musketeers.

Ty got this rubber frog in his stocking and apparently he was convinced that it was real (it did feel a bit slimy) because he absolutely would not touch it and whined if you got it too close to him or one of his toys.

Boys at work.