The Handmade Dress

UPDATE: The second round of storms weakened and we were able to have a peaceful night with no tornadoes or scary stuff! Praise God! Thanks so much for the prayers!! We are safe! Tornadoes ripped through our town last night. Birmingham, AL is now 3rd in the nation for deadly tornadoes. So, we prepare! The best we can anyhow. Last night I was more scared than I ever remember being in my life. Ben as an emergency worker, was at the fire station. I was with my seven babies, soaking wet, in my neighbors basement. Fear gripped me as the "freight train" passed over us. I started telling my kids to pray and that I loved them, I was losing it! Then Maddie lost it and I had to get a handle on myself! I looked at Molly and she said as calm as anything "God's got this." I looked at the others and said "Just pray!" All of you! Pray out loud! And they did! God protected us, it touched down not far from us but didn't stay on the ground, it just skipped throu...

For those babies that wake up with a frizz ball, but have the sweetest curls after it has been wet, combed, and tossed a bit...I keep a bottle of this where I dress the babies for a fast fix. :) And their little heads smell so good after too!! Swap up the oils for different smells. xo, Sam   Posted with Blogsy

Oh friends! I survived! She was five weeks old this Wednesday! I would love to paint this beautiful picture of motherhood for you, but it wasn't quite that way. It was real, and hard, and it made me stronger, and it was completely perfect all at once. There were beautiful moments, and I'm so thankful for those, they kept me alive! When my little "Lottie Pop" arrived we were still not in our home. My baby things were in boxes that I couldn't find. Ben was using his time off of work, working constantly to get us back in our house. I was experiencing my worst recovery after any birth so far. Lyric was having a tough time adjusting to sharing her mama with a new baby (which broke my heart). I can't even describe how grateful I felt, only my closest friends and family knew that Lottie's heart was showing signs of distress in the weeks before birth. Ben and I gave it to God, and when my love was born into that room full of waiting professionals, we found that...

Our precious Charlotte Renee Caffee! Yes it's a girl! She came gently into the world today at 1:44pm after a fast and easy natural labor, weighing 8lbs &1oz and measuring 20" long. We will call her Lottie for short! She is such an angel!! I'm already playing with those long, lovely, Lottie locks! Can you believe that hair?! What a terrific day in the middle of this "life storm" we have been in! I officially made it to 36 weeks and 3 days and oh she was so worth the fight! My doula, Ben, was pretty terrific himself! He has perfected his skills over all of these natural labors, sweet man. The nurse was even super impressed with him. This was our "We are having a baby today selfie!" Ahhhh! I'm so happy friends! What a beautiful day!! Xo, Sam   Posted with Blogsy

Want to hear a crazy story? Buckle up! Alabama had a little ice storm Tuesday (Jan 30) the week before last that SHUT US DOWN. I'm sure you heard something of it on the news, well that was the very night that baby Caffee decided to bust ou eight weeks earlyt! Ben was at the fire station and the roads were completely impassable, and I was home with the kids in labor. There was NO WAY I could get to the hospital. I knew this for a fact because my very pregnant sister was spending the night at the hospital, in our doctors on-call bed, because she was stuck there after her appointment that day. So I waited. By the next morning I was in trouble. Luckily the roads were better and could be driven on in a 4 wheel drive. It was a pretty close call friends! I was 1/2 cm away from what they refer to as "the point of no return". Thank The Lord!! It took them three days to make the preterm labor stop. Well the hospital was also in quite a pickle, they were running out of food becau...

I was going to write a long post today about what's going on here right now, but I can't. The words aren't there yet. So I'm going to tell you this: I miss you all desperately! And I miss being here. Baby Caffee is still hanging in there, I'm trying to cook this little one for 5 more weeks (that will get me to 37 weeks). I'm doing bedrest the best I can with these precious littles underfoot and God is pouring out lots of grace!! My little Lyric will be with us a while longer, we have custody of her until May. She is so sweet and learning and growing fast! She is my first baby to sit up in the first week of her 5th month. Little stinker! She fits in perfectly with these little girls, Penny and Claire adore her and I can tell already these three are going to be a hot mess in a few more months! Claire has taken to the roll of "big sis" perfectly and can boss the life out of them! Ha! My big kids are so much help, I couldn't do it without the...

  Oh wow. That was one more Christmas. We haven't actually had Christmas yet, so it was just a day really. The mother of all flu bugs hit my house and our extended families on the Monday before Christmas, and we are just now coming out of the fog! We haven't even had a bite of Christmas food yet! Now that I have had the real flu, I can honestly say that I think that's the first time I've ever had the flu in my 34 years! I couldn't even walk for two days! Praise God that Ben only had a touch of it or this place would have certainly fell apart! All 6 kids were taken out and mama got the worst end of it. Bless that man! He ran his own little war hospital out of our living room. There were mattresses and sick children everywhere. He even did laundry!! Y'all, I have never been so glad to be better in my life!!! I'm still struggling with a bad cough and sinus issues, but I don't feel like I may die anymore! The kids have recovered much easier that their b...