Our Newest Addition:

We found out we were expecting in February of 2011. I was kind of hoping for a girl so that Kyla would have a sister that was not too far apart from her in age, but I would have been completely happy with another boy. This picture is me at 18 1/2 weeks. The next week we found out we were having a GIRL. Considering I had already bought several new girl things, I was pretty happy. This is pretty much the only "pregnancy picture" I took, and for good reason.

I'll include my L&D story below so you don't have to read it to look at the pictures. This is when I had just arrived at my room in the hospital.

This was about 2 hours later. Look at all that hair!

Makaida Cielle Poyfair

5 pounds 11 ounces

19 1/2 inches

Born 11:30 am on 9/26/2011 (2 Weeks early)

Kyla meeting new baby sister

Kash greeting new baby sister

Aunt Trina and Uncle Tyler

Grandpa Topham

Aunt Camille

Aunt Alisha

Makaida was known as "Baby Girl Poyfair" in the hospital because we never could agree on a name while we were there. She was actually named one week after she was born... which was really weird.

Going Home! So tiny. Still known as "Baby Girl"

Proud big sis

Hanging out with Grandma Topham...

who she gave her first big smile to AND I caught it on camera - can you see that massive dimple? I love it!

Studying with Dad. Brandon was still going to his classes and taking his tests throughout the whole thing.

My parents came down to help with Kyla and Kash. It was beyond wonderful to have them. I love every moment with my parents. My mother spoils the kids. She does crafts with them and takes them to the park and on walks every day. They are always sorry when she leaves and they are stuck with boring old mom again.

Makaida's first bath

I love the little ribbon they put in her hair at the hospital

When we left the hospital, Makaida was even tinier than when she was born. She weighed 5 pounds 3 ounces. This was a completely new experience for me since my first two babies were over 8 pounds and had no problem gaining weight. Makaida was also my first baby with jaundice. So we did some sunbathing...

and a whole lot of weight checks. We went daily for over a week to check her weight and her billiruben levels. She had heels that looked like pin cushions. So sad. After one week, she was back up to her birth weight and I finally stopped being worried to death, well, mostly. I don't think moms ever stop worrying.

Birth Story:

Makaida was due on October 11th, 2011 originally. Then we were thinking October 10th. Brandon had an MBA conference, NSHBA, in Anaheim, California and was planning on being gone from October 13th through the 16th. Needless to say, I was a little stressed about when Makaida would make her appearance. Not only were we trying to plan around Brandon's trip, but I also needed to get my ganglion cyst removed from my right wrist sometime in October. I did not want to pay another month of COBRA insurance and, after I had Makaida, I would have met my deductible for the year, so the surgery would be free. We were trying to work a birth, an MBA trip, a surgery, and Brandon's week off of school (the week after the conference) - all into one nice schedule. I didn't know how we would make it all work with my parents coming to help and everything. I was really worried. We wanted to set up an induction date for October 7th - a Friday. Brandon does not have classes on Friday. It would be ideal for him not to have to miss classes and then he would have the whole weekend to be with me and Makaida before he left for California. I was worried about inducing 4 days early since inducing early with Kyla had been really hard. My body knows when it is ready to have a baby and when it is ready, it goes so fast, but when I force it, it is painful and slow. I did not really want to induce. Then I found out that the one doctor in the practice that I was using who I had been warned about, happened to be the doctor on call on the 7th of October. The doctor that I really loved, Doctor Reed, was on call the day before: Thursday, October 6th. SO, I decided to induce even one day earlier, 5 days early, I was nervous. I was so nervous, in fact that I decided to start praying that Makaida would just come early on her own. I remember praying about it one night specifically - Sunday, September 25th. I prayed that night that Makaida would come early. The next morning, I woke up at 8:00 am (how nice of my kids to let me sleep in!) and got out of bed to shut the blinds over the sliding glass doors in the master bedroom. As I was closing the blinds, my water broke. It was 2 weeks and one day before Makaida's due date. I seriously thought that I had wet myself, since you always need to go the bathroom when you are pregnant AND especially first thing in the morning. It was completely out of the blue. I had had ZERO contractions. Plus, I had not even been checked that week at the doctors office for dilation because I never dilate until right before I have the baby so we didn't think it was necessary. Brandon had just left for school. I immediately called Camille since her water broke with both her boys. I told her I thought my water had broke, but I was not sure. She asked if I had contractions and I said "no". She still told me that with our track record, I had better head to the hospital RIGHT AWAY. I told her I had to take a shower first, I was NOT going without a shower. She said she would come right over to watch my kids (isn't she the best?!). I texted Brandon to let him know I thought my water had broke (he was in class), then I hopped in the shower. In the shower, I started having contractions, but they were not too bad. Camille got to my house after I had climbed out of the shower. She told me I needed to leave right then. I said I needed to wait for Brandon to come get me and then I called Brandon and told him to come home. I also said, I was not leaving until I had blow-dried and straightened my hair. Brandon got there, I finished doing my hair, grabbing my bag (that I had thankfully SORT of started), and getting dressed. We headed to the hospital around 8:45 - I had been having contractions for about 15 min, but they were still at the point of just being uncomfortable. I loved that the hospital was only 5-10minutes away. We parked the car and walked in. We told the lady at the front that I usually had my babies fast, but she still made us sit and  wait 15 minutes in the front area before she took us back, I was ticked. She was sitting and talking to a couple for 15 minutes while I sat in labor. It is not like THEY were having a baby. AHHHH! When we got back to the room, I told them again, "I have my babies fast. How fast can I get an epidural?" The contractions were still not very bad, but I wanted to cover all my bases because I thought I would have to wait an hour, at least, for my epideral. They said they would hook me up to an IV and the anesthesiologist would be right in to give me an epidural. I was ecstatic - REALLY? I thought I had to have 2 bags of IV fluid before I could get one! I had my epidural within 15 minutes of getting into my room - around 9:20/9:30. I was dilated to a 4 when I got to the hospital, how perfect is that? A 4 and not much pain. I'll take it, every time. The first hour, I only dilated to a 5, one centimeter in one hour. I was pretty surprised. I started regretting that I told the nurses that I had my babies fast. What if I was there for hours??? I was thinking something was wrong with my epidural because I could still feel all the pain of contractions on the left side of my body. Around 10:45 the anesthesiologist came back and did some adjustments to try and get the epidural to work on both sides... no luck - I was still feeling everything on my left side. I was not too happy, if I get an epidural, darn it, I want it to work! They checked me around 11:15 and I was a 6 - a little better, one centimeter in 45 min. I was still having quite a bit of pain on my left side and I told the nurse it was hurting pretty bad. They said that epidurals sometimes will not work if you progress too fast - because even the meds cannot stop pain that comes too fast. The nurse thought she better check me again - 6 minutes later - because I kept saying the pain in my left side was really bad. Sure enough, I was a ten. I had gone from a 6 to a 10 in 6 minutes. The doctor came in - lo and behold, my favorite doctor was on call - which is amazing since there are about 12 doctors in the practice! -and had me push twice. I pushed her right out, I did not even rip at 11:30. When they pulled her up I saw that she had a FULL head of beautiful dark hair, that was the first thing I noticed, the next thing I noticed was that she was TINY!! I was fully expecting another 8 pounder and she was so tiny. I yelled, "She is so tiny!" Brandon thought I was crazy, he thought she was the same as our other two. The nurse said, "Yep, she is tiny, probably 6 pounds" - then the other nurse said, "Maybe even 5!" I could not believe it! They weighed her and sure enough, she was 5 pounds 11 ounces and 19 1/2 inches. One TINY little thing. And she was gloriously beautiful too. She was pretty fussy for the first hour and I was really worried that she would be a fussy baby. But after she got her bath and all wrapped up, she barely made another peep! She slept most of the time. She has been such an easy- going, sleepy, good baby ever since. She is seriously an angel from heaven. Which is why her middle name is Cielle - it is French for "From Heaven." After having two births that were a little less than ideal, I could not have asked for a more perfect birth - well, I guess if the epidural had worked right, it could have been even better, but I am not complaining. It was EXACTLY the birth I was hoping for. My water broke, within 3.5 hours she was born and I was only having contractions for about 2.5 hours, bad contractions for only about 2 hours. You cannot ask for a better birth than that. I feel so blessed. Not just because she came early, which worked perfectly with all our timing concerns, but because labor was great, recovery was great, and in the end, I had this perfect, beautiful, sweet, miracle of a baby girl.