Colby Beckham Smith

Born 5.29.2013, 8:38am
7 lbs, 7 oz
20.5 inches

"Children are a gift from the Lord..." Psalm 127:3

After being told by my doctor at 32 weeks that I was beginning to dilate and was told to "take it easy," we went ahead and decided that I would get steroid shots in case our baby made an early arrival to help the progression of lung development, a decision we are very thankful for. We prayed that the Lord would keep our sweet baby in my belly to full term, but trusted that he would see us through, even if it meant another NICU stay. After experiencing lots of back pain, without sleeping for a couple weeks and experiencing levels of discomfort I hadn't known in previous pregnancies, I went into labor at 34.5 weeks, on the morning of Wednesday, May 29.

My water broke at 6:50am (for having such spontaneous deliveries, turns out I'm actually quite predictable, as the timing was nearly exactly what happened with Grayson and Camdyn). Despite having friends and family on stand-by for weeks, the morning of, no one was answering their phones (Didn't they know I was in labor? :)) Ultimately, I ended up walking next door (yes, I walked) to our neighbors house while Brad packed to ask them to come stay with Grayson and Camdyn for all of ten minutes until our sweet friends, the Hollands, from our community group could get there to stay with them until Grandma and Aunt Whitney could get there from Dallas. It was truly a team effort of watching our older two as our neighbor, the Hollands and our friend Carrie all took shifts for the day (Thank you God for wonderful friends & neighbors!)

We got to the hospital and immediately I started feeling intense contractions (I felt nothing before that). They checked me and I was 5 cm dilated. I said, "Yes, I can get an epidural!" as I'd always been 8 cm at my first check with Grayson and Camdyn. Due to my history with fast labors, I was "somewhat" mentally prepared in case I had to do it naturally. But, since I was only 5 cm, I was hopeful that there would be enough time. As the contractions got even more intense and I began feeling the pressure, it became apparent pretty quick that it wasn't going to happen. In fact, my doctor and the anesthesiologist walked in when I was 9 and 3/4 cm dilated and they both looked at me with that sympathetic look of, "Sorry, honey, it's not going to happen." Since I thought the idea of taking a natural child birth class or reading some encyclopedia thick book after going through labor twice was pretty silly, I had asked my friend Liz to give me some scripture she memorized when she did it all-natural.

I began praying, "Strengthen my inner-most being with the power of your spirit," based on Ephesians 3:16 and reminding myself that "I can do anything through Christ who gives me strength," based on Philippians 4:13. Despite my silent reminders to myself, I was still screaming, "I can't do this!" over and over again :) It felt like the ultimate battle between the flesh and the spirit!

After the longest six minutes of my life pushing, our beautiful son was born at 8:28 AM at a whopping 7 lbs 7 oz, an hour and forty minutes after my water broke, 55 minutes after we arrived at the hospital. Although we didn't find out the sex of the baby this time, we were both so confident that it was going to be a boy, I don't think we were the least bit surprised when we saw that it was a boy.

After feeling the guilt of my water breaking that morning at the realization that I wasn't going to make it to term which would likely mean a NICU stay, that guilt immediately vanished when I heard 7 lbs, 7 oz. They immediately handed me our sweet boy. In fact, for a moment, we thought they might not even take him from us. But, as he began grunting, they knew he was under respiratory distress and wheeled him away to the NICU. It's a horrible feeling to have your baby taken away and be left with only the pain you feel after child birth. Thankfully, after an X-ray we found out that his respiratory distress was caused not because he was a preemie, but because there was fluid on his lungs due to my quick delivery, something he worked out within 24 hours after birth. We spent five LONG days in the NICU before we were able to take our boy home. Thankfully, he never had a single "preemie" issue, only normal newborn issues (jaundice, reflux).

There was lots of conversation about the possibility of my due date being a couple weeks off because of his size and the fact that his development tested more like a 38-week-er. In truth, no one will ever know for sure. While it's easy to try and analyze it all with science, we have been overwhelmed with the truth that God was preparing our little boy for an early arrival all along and he ordained every single tiny detail in advance! He is always faithful! It has been a sweet and precious reminder that he already has a perfect plan for this sweet baby's life!

Unfortunately once you go into the NICU, it seems you can never get out (but I'll save my doctor/hospital/NICU soap box for another time!) :) But, by the grace of God, we brought our little boy home Monday night (on a heart monitor which our pediatrician took us off of that Friday). He has already been a perfect and welcome blessing in our family! In many ways, it feels like he has been with us forever. He has a big brother and big sister who adore him and a Daddy and Mommy who look at him with awe in how the Lord has blessed us!

Moments, Milestones and Miracles

This is me trying to cram what should be multiple blog posts into one big one.

To start off, here are some funny family moments from our kiddos who always keep us laughing!


(Camdyn is frustrating Grayson)
Grayson: "Someday, when you're not looking, I'm going to sell her!"

Grayson: "Come on truck. Let's get a move on. What's your problem?"
(He gets his road rage from his Daddy)

Brad: "Grayson, what should we name the baby?"
Grayson: "Let's name him nugget!" (In case you're not a Veggie Tale fan, that one comes from "Moe and the Big Exit")
Me: "That sounds like a great nickname for the baby."
Grayson: "Not a nickname, I want that to be the real name. Nugget Smith!"

Me: "Grayson, will you please bring me the trash from your bathroom?"
Grayson: "$10 Mommy"
(Another wonderful catch phrase he picked up from his Daddy)

Grayson: "Daddy, what do polar bears eat?" (as we're watching a documentary on polar bears)
Brad: "Well, they eat other animals made of meat."
Grayson: "Do they eat people?"
Brad: "They can."
Grayson: "I don't want a polar bear to eat me!"

(Grayson got a new tape measure and was measuring everything. He stretched it across Brad's rear end.)
Grayson: "Man, Daddy, your bottom is pretty big!"
(In case you've ever seen my husband, his bottom is pretty much non-existent which made it all the funnier)

Brad: "Let's get out of this joint!"
Grayson: "What's a joint?"
(If he was a little older, this conversation could have gone in a very different direction)

(A kid was getting pretty physical with Grayson on a bounce house recently. Because of a thousand conversations of "do not hit," Grayson was just trying to get away instead of defend himself. Brad was on his way to intervene when an older child got involved and helped Grayson up.)
Grayson: "Daddy, he was beating me up. That was the first time that ever happened before."

Grayson: "Grandma, are you old?"
Grandma: "I'm getting there."
Grayson: "Because if you're old, you can park in those special spots at the front." (pointing to the handicap spots)

Camdyn: "nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, Ba-Man" (running around the house with Grayson's Bat-Man action figure)
Can you tell she has a brother? Poor girl has no chance of being a girly girl!

Our little miracle achieved a major milestone recently: Graduating from Pre-School!

I should really begin the story of pre-school graduation with earlier in the day. After hearing from my doctor that things were progressing quicker than we'd like and the chances of an early delivery were likely, it had been an emotional roller coaster of a day as we contemplated how we might handle another stay in the NICU. As I'm holding back tears on the way to graduation...

Grayson: "Mommy, why are you crying?
Me: "Mommy is just scared this baby is going to be born too early and we're going to have to leave him or her at the hospital the way we had to leave you at the hospital. But, you know what, we need to just pray and trust God with this."
Grayson: "Mommy, maybe we can pray now?" (followed by the most precious prayer ever uttered for his little sibling to be)
Somewhere along the way my 5-year-old became smarter than me and I couldn't be more blessed!

I remember the music minister's wife at our church in College Station joking that she always got more out of the children's sermons than she did out of the real ones. And that's pretty much exactly what happened to me at pre-school graduation.

As our boy and his classmates sang song after song about God's love, I found tears pouring down my face as I listened to the lyrics of songs like, "Oh what a Miracle am I" and "Come to Worship," as the Lord reminded me of his faithfulness and of the Grace he poured out on us and used to mold us as parents through Grayson's birth and NICU stay. And that he was standing ready to pour out Grace on us over and over again no matter what trials and tribulations came our way.

Five years after his surprise birth, our boy, who we've always considered a miracle, continues to be a constant reminder of God's faithfulness in our family! I'm sure I'll be crying the same tears at his high-school graduation which my husband so kindly pointed out in the midst of my tears is only 13 years away!

Meet Baby Samantha

Samantha Marie Ponder

Congrats Uncle Josh and Aunt Elaine!

We already love our little niece! And the kids love their new cousin!

Family Funnies

(Just a couple Easter shots)


Grayson attended his first Rockets game a couple months back with his Daddy. But, he didn't come home talking about basketball, he came home going on and on about how people got pies shoved in their faces in the blooper videos.
"Mommy, it was so larious, so larious!"

Grayson: "Mommy, I don't know how I'm going to take care of two babies!"
(This is something he has said to me multiple times now; you would think I leave Camdyn with him by himself or something)

Grayson: "Mommy, this dinner isn't too bad."
(Uh...thanks???)

Me: "Camdyn, where's the baby?"
Camdyn takes off running to her room and brings me her baby doll :)

(Our little diva!)


Grayson: "Mommy, are you going to push the baby out of your bottom?"
Me: "No buddy, mommy has another place where I'll push the baby out of."
Grayson: "What's it called?"
Me: "It's called my vagina."
Grayson: "Haha...vagina...that's funny....vagina, vagina, vagina."
(What is it with boys and that word?)

Me: "Grayson, I'm taking you to get a haircut."
Grayson: "Oh good, I want to look sharp again."



(Grayson rips one very loudly at dinner)
Brad: "Whoa, what was that Grayson?"
Grayson: "It was just a little thunder Daddy."

Me: "This is by far the most active baby I've ever had in my belly."
Brad: "Oh crap!"



Brad: "How many weeks are you now?"
Me: "27"
Brad: "Man, so you still have a lot of time to get bigger."
(Thanks babe!)



And in case you missed my post on Facebook or Instagram, Grayson decided both he and his sister needed haircuts. So, Camdyn now has bangs-ish and Grayson has a nice little bald spot on the top of his head. We had a very long discussion about sin and forgiveness, but about how even after we receive forgiveness, there are still consequences to our actions :) But, I guess now we have to laugh about it or else I might cry.

Our 2012 Family Photo Album

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The First of the 2013 Family Funnies

Grandma: "We're going to freeze our tails off."
Grayson: "What??? I don't have a tail!!!"

(Brad farted in the car)
Me: "Ewww....Brad, that's disgusting!"
Grayson: "Mommy, that's what boys do and they're allowed."



Great Me Maw: "Grayson, what did Santa bring you for Christmas?"
Grayson: "Me Maw, the real Santa is in heaven and the ones at the mall are just pretend."

(I did something really scatter brained, which happens too often to remember what particular thing it was.)
Brad: "Haley Michelle....."
Grayson: "Daddy, it's the baby doing that to her." (Glad to know my four-year-old understand the concept of pregnancy brain)

(Camdyn standing over the dog bowl shaking her finger at it)
Camdyn: "Unh-Unh, No Ma'am! Unh-Unh, No Ma'am!"
(At least she's understanding the concept of not eating dog food, now whether she actually obeys this rule is a whole other story)



(Driving home during half time of the Cotton Bowl, thinking Grayson is asleep in the back seat, Brad reads a text out loud from his dad.)
Pops' Text: "By the look on Bob Stoops' (the coach of OU) face, someone might want to give him some of Camdyn's diaper rash cream for his chapped butt."
Grayson: "HaHa Chapped Butt, Chapped Butt."
(After repeating it for the fifteenth time, we explained that it wasn't very nice to say "butt," only bottom or behind, and Grayson immediately called Pops to repeat the lecture and inform Pops that we don't say "butt")

Grayson: "Camdyn, stop climbing on me, you're going to make my tee-tee fall off!"

(Pointing to Tag stretched out on the couch)
Grayson: "Look, Mommy, Tag is being lazy like you!"

Grayson: "Mommy, you're just going to get bigger and bigger until you pop!"
Me: "Yeah, that's pretty much what's going to happen."
Grayson: "And then how will the baby come out of you?"
(The one time in life when you wish you actually had a C-section so you don't have to answer these embarrassing questions.)

(Brad is leaning over to pour Tag's food in the dog bowl and farts -- is anyone noticing a trend in the stories involving Brad?)
Camdyn comes right up behind him and mimics the exact same sound with her mouth :)

(Grayson brings his Dallas Cowboy helmet in his school show and share bag on "D" day. His class gives him a hard time for not being a Texans fan.)
Grayson: "I cheer for the Dallas Cowboys! (with hands on hips in a determined voice)"
(Good to know we're not raising a fair weather fan!)

Brad: "Do we want to eat inside or outside? There's a terrible lounge singer inside."
Me: "It's kind of cold, let's eat inside."
Grayson (inside the restaurant at the top of his lungs): "Daddy, where's the terrible lounge singer?"

We recently realized it was time to ditch the high-chair when Brad and I separately found Camdyn in her high-chair after leaving the room for less then ten seconds realizing we hadn't put her there. If it's possible, our second little monkey is even more of a climber than our first. She's trouble, I tell you! Don't let her cute little dimples fool you!

Family Photos