Clara Avery Richards

O.K. So our new addition is almost five weeks old now, and the only reason I am taking up my precious time to do this is for all my great and wonderful family and friends who I never get to see or talk to much. I love you all!

So here is the story:

I went into labor the night of the 19th being almost overdue by a week! It was awful being that overdue, the wait was killing me!
I knew that it was time, because I was finally feeling sick and very irritable!
So I started to have REAL contractions around 8:30 pm. I decided to labor a while at home because I was going to try for a natural birth and of course then the hospital did no good for me up until I needed the baby delivered. So we waited it out until 12:30pm and by then the contractions were getting intense, and I wondered if I was going to make it!
We arrived at the hospital and luckily my midwife was already there with another delivery because 20m min after we got there my water broke. I went from being dilated to a 5 all the way to a 10 in just a few minutes.
YES the labor was extremely intense! I have never in my whole life experienced such pain. I breathed through and used my months of practicing hypnobirthing to survive what I could. Near the end I was hyperventilating a bit, because my hands and feet started to tingle and go numb. But luckily my body was a champ and knew what to do and to do it quickly I pushed two times and she was out.
Never feeling what it felt like to actually have the urge to push was incredible! My body took over and the adrenalin kicked in. I felt everything! I felt my body open up, change, cope with more pain then it has ever felt and give birth to this beautiful baby girl! That is what I wanted out of all this and that is what I got, I got to FEEL my body naturally do what it was intended to do .
I am not saying it was by any means easy, and I am glad I did it on my last child. But none the less I am truly grateful for the experience.

California trip

I know that it has been a whole 6 months since I last updated my blog. And I was trying to figure out why I got so burt out and did not want to do it anymore. So I came up with a few good excuses: 1.Hadley did not take naps anymore and that is when I usually did it. 2: I have an I Phone now so I usually get on that to look at the internet and facebook. 3: Does anybody really look at it? But I thought to myself if nothing else I should update it even if it is just for me, kind of like a scrapbook of sorts. So here I am!
This is our trip to California, we went in May and it was wonderfully cool and beautiful! We had a lot of fun and stayed in a very nice house that we found for such a good deal!

Have a holly Jolley Christmas!

Hadley LOVES that song and sang it all through Christmas time! It was so cute! And the last time I would let her listen to it was New Years eve, so she sang and did a little dance to it for all of us to enjoy!
Hadley got a lizard. I mention that because she is into the reptiles more than dolls!
Caden got a really cool remote control car, that I must confess that I think I like to drive it more than him!
Steve got Guitar lessons and a new office remodel that we have been working on....pictures will be coming soon.
And as for myself, I got a new desk, and a few kitchen things that I have been needing.

We had a great Christmas this year.....And I hope that you all did too!