Waiting Well

Waiting on God.  

I'm an extremely impatient person, so learning to wait has been hard for me, especially waiting on God and His timing in my life.  The hardest waiting periods of my life so far have been waiting to meet and marry my DH, waiting for God to grow our family with a child, and waiting for loved ones to recognize their need for God and return to Him and His Church.

The 3rd waiting example is a little different than the first two, and I will just speak to those two.  In the first two cases, I can still clearly remember the angst, jealousy, and fear that would crop up as I spent months and then years waiting to see what God had in store for me regarding marriage and children.  The waiting would grow harder as I looked around to see those friends and family members all around me doing the things that my heart longed to do (get married, have kids).  And that was what I found interesting...the more I would look around at others, the more I would grow restless and uncomfortable in that current season of life.  The more I would look up at God, trusting Him in that season, the more tolerable my current season of life would be.

I have so many more thoughts on waiting as I find myself again waiting on God.  Waiting to see what He has in store for our family regarding this move (which in no way compares to the above two long seasons of waiting that I had to endure.  I want to make sure that is clear.  There are different kinds and lengths of waiting; some are definitely harder than others.), but I want to encourage each of you in a waiting season of life right now to head on over to this blog, In its time.  The author is posting every day in October about some aspect of waiting.  She has such amazing things to say about waiting- worship and waiting, God's promises and waiting, learning how to wait, waiting well, etc.  I have no doubt that if you find yourself in a season of waiting, at least one of the 31 posts she does this month will touch your heart and speak to you.  I know they have for me already.

Her 1st Flight

***Posting this now as-is since we've already taken a 2nd trip as a family and I haven't posted details about the 1st one. Time to get these posts out of the draft stage!

We were gone Thursday-Monday, and if you remember, this was for an on-site interview for a potential new job for DH.  This is a job that came out of the blue.  We weren't looking to move; the opportunity was just sort of placed before us.  And while we aren't necessarily looking to move right now, there really wasn't a reason to say no to their request for us to come visit.  Sure, it wasn't very convenient to travel with an infant, nor was it  enjoyable to fly 1,500 miles, but we did it and I'm glad we did.  Turns out R is quite the little traveler.

We left Thursday morning, after feeding R, with an hour and a half drive to the airport.  She dozed a little bit on the way down, then I put her in the Ergo to walk around the airport.  We boarded our flight during the pre-boarding because she was hungry.  I was able to nurse before many of the people got on board, and we were able to make sure there was space in the overhead bin for our luggage.  The nice thing about the plane was it was 2-3-2 for the seating configuration, which meant I had a window seat with R and DH had the aisle.  We were near the back of the plane, so DH could step to the back and rock R when she became fussy.  That made the 3 1/2 hour flight much more bearable.

With a full belly, R quickly fell asleep on take-off.  Woo hoo!  This was working great...until 20 mins. into the flight- she filled a diaper.  Stinky!  We had to wait until the seat belt sign was off to go and change her.  Did you know most planes don't have a changing table in any of the bathrooms?!?  I didn't know that.  We took a blanket from the airline, put it on top of the toilet seat and attempted to change the diaper.  It was a 2 person job.  And of course, it was a diaper blowout..complete with a new clothing change as well.

Phew.  At least we got that taken care of.  She should fall back asleep now, right?  Wrong.  30 mins. later we hear that familiar sound....another diaper filled!  Off the 3 of us go to the back of the plane to maneuver another diaper change in the teeny bathroom...one person holding the baby and the door open, another changing the diaper.  Man. That's a lot of work.

Back to our seats to relax and 30 mins. later...guess what?  A 3rd diaper change was needed.  Now I realize this blog is dealing with way too much poo lately, but seriously...3 poopy diaper changes on one airline flight was too many for me.  I wondered if it was some kind of "you're on candid camera" kind of joke.  And surely the people sitting behind us must have wondered what was going on after we got up 3 times with a diaper in hand.  I'm guessing it was something to do with the pressure of the ascent because rarely does she have 3 messy diapers a day, and I can't remember ever having 3 so close together.  Well, by this point she was getting fussy and not wanting to sleep, so DH took her back to try and rock her to sleep before returning to the seats.

All in all, not too bad for R's 1st flight.  We survived, and I'm so glad I had DH along to help. 

The flight home was less eventful.  She slept for 2 1/2 of the 3 1/2 hours on my lap, so while various parts of my lower extremities were tingling and numb from not moving, it was relatively easy to survive the 2nd flight.  The filling of the diaper came on the descent, which meant we were able to change the diaper in the "luxury" of a bathroom on the ground.  Ahh...it's the little things.

Next up...her 1st road trip!

Saturday Snapshots

1. It's been rough trying to get back into somewhat of a routine since returning from GA.  My motivation is severely lacking...no...it's absent since we've returned.  I'm not sure why...perhaps I'm just tired.  I'm working on a recap of our trip, but since it's taking longer than expected, I wanted to at least get something up here since I haven't posted in awhile.  Overall, our trip went well.  R traveled amazingly well...she's going to be a little world traveler just like her Mommy:-)

Here's our best attempt at a family photo on her 1st flight.  Excuse our strange attire...burp cloth on DH's shoulder, nursing cover on me, etc.  I think I had just finished nursing her.  The flight attendants were so sweet when they found out it was her 1st flight.  They gave her her "wings."

2. It was so great to see our friends.  Even though we had just seen them in June for R's baptism, it was fun for them to be able to see how she has grown.  And we always love spending time with our Goddaughter.  Things with the prospective job went ok as well.  We're still not sure what's going to happen, but we will know more in the coming weeks.  Still, I can't help continuing to add to the pros and cons list that I have running in my head.  Cons: terrible traffic, humidity, big city; Pros: MOPS groups, more things for R and I to do like play groups, Christian preschools and day schools, better shopping choices, etc.  Praying God makes His direction clear to DH and I as to where He wants us to live and serve Him.

3. As a result of being passed around so much and/or the flight home and/or the change in weather here, R came down with her 1st cold this week.  Poor little girl.  She's been so congested.  We've been doing nose drops every 4 hours and running the humidifier in her room, but it's so awful to have her wake up from sleep with thick boogers coming out her nose.  And then to hear her trying to sniff it down or push it out of her nose is simply awful.

4. The best part of the trip to GA, however, is that R no longer naps in the swing, she is done with the swaddle, AND....ready for the big one...she puts herself to sleep in the crib ALL THE TIME!  Amazing.  Simply amazing.  I cannot tell you how incredible it is to see that she's sleepy, and then put her in the crib and she goes to sleep!  Most of the time, she's asleep within 5-10 minutes.  Sometimes she will cry/wimper for a few minutes.  Other times she will play.  But regardless...she puts herself to sleep!  Wahoo.  I feel like a new woman.  Thank you, Jesus.  I hope to have a separate sleep update done sometime.

5. The trip to GA started our trifecta of fall travel.  We have a quick trip to CO and another to MN coming up this fall.  I'm so glad she traveled well on this first trip, since it was the longest one.  I'm hopeful the others will go equally well.

6. The fall colors are really starting to pop around the hillsides here.  It's just so beautiful.  I'm thinking we're going to try and take some more family pictures with the beautiful mountains.  I'd love to have some shots of us in the mountains...especially if we do end up moving in the near future.  I made DH stop the car on the way home from the airport.  I just had to get out of the car and snap a few photos.

Little cheapy camera, as I affectionately call my travel camera, hardly does justice to the beautiful sights we saw, but still, at least you get some idea.

Have a great weekend y'all!  Hopefully I'll be back to complete some of my other blog posts soon. I think I have 8 or 9 drafts of posts that need to be completed!

The Birth Story: The Final Push

In case you missed it, Part 1 and Part 2.

When they first checked me at the hospital, after trying to do all of the annoying paperwork and questions, I was at a....7!  I looked at my DH in shock.  I couldn't believe it.  I had only been in labor for 3 or 4 hours at home.  And here I was at a 7 already!  I did not think that was possible.  The nurse quickly picked up the pace on things and stopped asking questions.  I got a heparin lock put in (I didn't even feel it) and a bag of fluids for hydration and then our doula arrived.  I can still picture her eyes bulging out of her head when we told her I was at a 7.  They put a fetal heart monitor on to check the baby and then took it off to let me move around, changing positions, doing whatever I could to get comfortable.  

I started getting really hot- I needed my hair pulled back because it was driving me crazy, I needed chapstick for my dry lips, and the doula was great to ask for ice chips and put a cool washcloth on my forehead.  I also had tons of pressure on my belly and um....I don't know a nice way to say it, sorry....my but.t hole.  Oh, so much pressure.  I kept talking about the pressure over and over.  DH and I laugh about it now, but I kept saying over and over how much pressure I had on "my  ...hole."  If you knew me IRL, you would know this is not how I talk in public.  But for whatever reason, I felt it ok to constantly be talking about my ...hole.  

I was constantly shifting positions in the bed and nothing felt good.  I ended up laying on my left side, trying to focus and breathe through the contractions.  DH was using the pasty roller on my legs because they were so tight and crampy (had been all morning).  I just could not get my muscles to relax and I had pain shooting down my legs almost constantly.  It was about at this point that I asked for pain meds and was told there wasn't enough time.  I really wanted something to take the pain away.  The doula was great getting me through that time when I desperately wanted relief from all the pressure and pain I was feeling.

In 45 minutes (by 12:50) I had gone from a 7 to a 9 and my water still had not broken.  In my birth plan, I had said I wanted my water to break on it's own, but the doula agreed this was the only thing keeping me from getting to a 10.  With her advice, I agreed to let them break my water, so that I could progress to a 10.  They grabbed one of the OBs in the hallway (not my OB) to come in and break my water.  Hello, random Dr. sticking a big metal hook thingy up there.  I didn't even care. As soon as he broke my water... sweet relief.  It was such a weird feeling to have all that warm water coming out of me, but it felt so good to have the bag of waters broken.  I instantly had so much relief from the intense pressure on my belly, and I didn't even feel a thing when he broke it.

I started to feel the urge to push, but when they checked me, I wasn't quite at a 10 yet.  There was just a tiny lip of the cervix in the way, so I tried getting on my hands and knees and then laying on both sides to get that lip out of the way and complete the dilation process.  I probably did that for 30 minutes or so.

By 1:20 I still felt really strongly that I needed to push.  My OB came in and said it was OK to try one push to see if I could get past that lip (I still wasn't quite at a 10).   When she felt that I could, she gave me the OK to continue pushing as I wanted to.  She did warn me at that point though, I still had a lot of work ahead of me pushing and it would probably still be an hour.  An hour more!  What!  She left to let me work on the pushing.  (Little did I know I'd have to push for 1 1/2 hours!  Good thing I only thought it was an hour left.)

I was no longer feeling all the pressure and pain that I had before, however, which was nice.  I actually had a little break between my urges to push, and I needed it.  I quickly became tired from the intensity of the pushing.  The doula was invaluable at this point, suggesting different positions that might be effective for pushing. I started with the semi-reclined position with DH and the doula each holding one of my legs, and then she suggested I try adding a birth bar to the bed.  I spent a lot of time in the squat position.  This felt more natural to me, despite the fact I was up squatting up on a hospital bed.

You don't practice pushing before the baby comes, but I just knew how and when I needed to push.  That was the wonder of not being on pain meds.  I was just following what my body was telling me to do, and my instincts guided me through.  Evidently, I was a great pusher.  In addition to trying to push the baby out, I also pushed out everything in my bowels.  That was lovely.  I'm squatting on the bed, trying to get this baby out, and I'm smelling my own poo.  They don't tell you these things before you have a baby!  The nurse kept having to change out the towels or whatever was under me.  Lovely.

Pushing was hard, but DH and the doula were great in helping me use various position to get that baby out.  I also had to take a break between each push because I was quickly tiring out.  In addition to squatting, I also pulled on a towel that was wrapped around the birth bar.  Evidently, I was too strong at this one because they only let me do a few pushes this way before they made me stop!  The doctor was called to come back around 2:30 because the head was crowning.  They broke down the bed and DH and the doula each hold a leg while I pushed when I wanted to.  I thought the head crowning meant the baby was coming in a few minutes, but she was sort of stuck in there a bit.  

I just knew I was going to tear based on how things felt while I was pushing, and I didn't want to feel that.  I thought feeling myself tear down there would be an obstacle to pushing; as in, I didn't think I could push much harder or longer knowing that I was going to tear and feel it.  So once the OB arrived, I asked her immediately to numb the area down there with a local numbing agent.  Out comes this huge needle full of stuff and I didn't even feel it go in.  Maybe I would have been OK without the numbing agent?  I didn't know, but didn't want to take any chances.

The doula asked me if I wanted them to bring a mirror over for me to look at (and hopefully motivate me to keep pushing).  I surprised myself by saying yes.  I saw this head of dark hair...my baby!  She has so much hair the OB was playing with the hair!  Can you believe that? I also saw the blood from the tear, so I told them to get the mirror away after a quick peek!  My girl had dark hair.  I kept thinking of that image of her head almost coming out and I pushed like a mad woman for another 20 minutes.  Her head was stuck/pushing up against my rec.tum, so I had to push her past that.  The OB kept saying, "one more push and she's here."  And I'd push, and push, and push (I was getting 3 pushes in in a row) and nothing.  The OB even tried to stretch my vag. walls with her fingers to see if that would help get her out.

This played out until....finally...at 3:05pm, one final push and she actually did come out.

She was born exactly 3 hours after we had checked in at the hospital!  I couldn't believe it.  What a day and whirlwind 1st birth!  I had successfully (and surprisingly) made it through an entire pregnancy and delivery without throwing up!  Thank you, Jesus.  I hate throwing up, but was fully prepared to endure the worst when pregnant.  I was pleasantly surprised that nausea was the closest I came to vomiting.

They immediately placed her on me and DH got to cut the umbilical cord.  She looked so blue to us, but was screaming up a storm from the get-go, which told me she was perfectly healthy.  One look at her and she was just perfect.  I finally breathed a sigh of relief because even up until the delivery, I was still worried that something was going to be wrong with her.  After our miscarriages, it was still impossible for me to believe that I was going to be a mom and have a healthy child.

When I was ready to have her cleaned up, they took her and cleaned her up.  They did not give her a Hepatitis B shot like they routinely do because I chose to delay that.  They did have to give her a Vitamin K shot and the eye ointment, but when I had asked my OB about it at my last appt., she had said I could just wipe the eye ointment off after it was applied!  But because it was a state law, they had to apply it.  Since I don't have gonorrhea or other STDs, I was quite comfortable wiping the eye ointment off immediately after they applied it!

DH got to hold her for a bit before giving us skin to skin time together and our first attempt at nursing.  She had a strong suck and a decent latch from the beginning.  How did she know how to do it?  That amazed me.  I did need the doula's help to start nursing.  I had no clue what to do, and I had even taken a bre.astfeeding class at the hospital!  

Her apgar scores were 8 and 9...perfectly healthy.  She was 19.5 inches long and 7 lbs 3 oz.  Just a perfect size!  She was so alert, and as she stared into my eyes, I could hardly believe it.  My daughter, our daughter...was looking back at me.  It was almost as if I was dreaming, except I knew I wasn't and this was really happening.

The OB pulled the placenta out.  That was a weird feeling.  It looked weird too...sort of flat, like the size of a paperback book.  That is what kept my baby alive for 9 months?  The OB also stitched me up with needles and "thread" that were entirely too long and course, but I tried not to think about it because I was holding my baby.  They also massaged my uterus...ouch!  That was extremely uncomfortable.

I was surprised R came out quite clean; I expected her to be much more covered in blood, but she wasn't.  Her hands and feet were pruney, but she looked "well-baked" they said.  The rest of her skin was tight, not wrinkly.  We nursed for a bit and then they made us move upstairs at 4:30pm, which was annoying.  I would have preferred to finish nursing before being moved, but our "hour" in Labor and Delivery was up, and I needed to be moved out.  I actually stood up with help and sat in a wheelchair.  They placed my bundled baby on my lap and away we went...down the hallway to the bumpy elevator and up to our mother and baby room.  I could have done without the wheelchair and bumpy ride!

We entered our room where we would stay for the next 2 days.  And it was there that the "adventure" began.

Stay tuned for more about our hospital stay in the next edition of "The Birth Story."

Brain Dump

I have so many random thoughts floating through my brain, I thought I'd "dump" them here and see if that helps.  I can't quite focus enough to finish the next installment of the birth story, but I'm working on it with lots of details.  In the meantime, a bunch of random thoughts by me:

4 months: We had R's 4 month appt. in early Sept.  Her height is 25.5 inches and her weight is 13 lbs 5 oz.  She jumped from 52nd to 89th percentile for height since her 2 month appt. and 27th to 41st percentile for weight!  She's definitely growing, though she still looks slender.  She's taking after her Daddy in the height dept. for sure. He was 5' 11'' in 6th or 7th grade, and then never grew more after that.


Watermark on photos: Does any one know how to do a watermark on pictures I've taken?  I want to upload some new ones of R, but I'm getting more sensitive about protecting her privacy.  I don't want to make this blog private, so I'd rather figure out how to put something on all the pictures I post, so some weirdo can't do stuff with them.  Maybe I'm overprotective, but it's what I'm comfortable with.


House hunting: It's so weird to be looking at houses to get an idea for what's available in a new place.  I'd like to drive around some neighborhoods when we make the on-site visit, so I'm checking them out now and having my BFF drive around to narrow down the choices for once we are in town.  Such a weird feeling.  I don't want to assume DH will get the job and we decide to move, but at the same time, since we're going to be in the new place for a visit, it makes sense to look at what is available, and since it is a large metro area, there is a lot available.


Prayer: My prayer is that "God's direction for DH and I becomes obvious so it becomes an easy decision to make."  It's in quotes because this is what someone else emailed me that she was praying for us.  I thought it was the perfect prayer, so I've shared it with others asking to pray regarding the visit and potential move.


Peaches: The last several weeks the peaches have been fabulous around here.  Oh my!  They are so incredibly juicy; I just can't get enough.  We bought a 1/2 bushel and ate or froze most of them.  Now I'm wishing we had gotten more because the season is almost done.  They just don't compare to store bought peaches at all.


Fall: Fall is quite possible my favorite season or at least right up there with late spring when everything is green and all of the flowers are coming up. I love the cool fall nights (we've been in the 40s here) and warm days (80s), the changing of the leaves, the fall smells and tastes, and more.


Hair loss: My hair stylist warned me that 3-6 months post-partum would bring lots of hair loss, but man, it's a little crazy.  Evidently, my hair is making up for the time that it didn't shed during pregnancy.  Now it's losing a ton.  Wonder when it will stop falling out?


Stockpiling on hold: I'm big into couponing and stocking up on things when they are on sale.  I'm currently exercising restraint not to buy any more toiletries and pantry food items at the moment.  If we do move in the near future, I don't want to lose that.  It's killing me though to pass up on some great deals for deodorant, contact solution, men's razors, etc.  Plus, we've been trying to actually eat through our pantry, so our grocery budget has been under budget (probably the 1st time ever), which means it would be the perfect time to stock up.


Working part-time: It seems to be going OK.  I won't say I love it, but we're making due.  On Mondays and Wednesdays, I leave the house by 10am, drive to the building I teach in (bought my 1st ever faculty parking pass!) and am back home by 11:45.  R does well with DH giving her a bottle if she needs it.  She's started taking a long morning nap (Hallelujah!), so sometimes she just sleeps the whole time I'm gone.  On Fridays, I leave at 10am, teach, and then go to the office to print out all the papers and activities for the following week.  The rest of the planning and grading papers I do at home.  I'm tired on the days I teach, but it has made me be much more disciplined with my time at home, so as a result, I feel like I'm getting a lot more done.  I'm glad it's going well, but I'm still undecided if I will teach a class next term or not.


Photo mania: It's been photo mania around here.  I had a bunch of photo cards for a Ritz camera store, and since our affiliated one just announced it's going out of business in town (along with a bunch of others), I was strongly encouraged by the store manager to use them all up ASAP.  So what did I do last week?  Had 825 4 x 6 prints made.  Yep...I needed a large bag to carry all of them out of the store!


I think those are all of my random thoughts for the week!  Hope y'all had a great weekend.

The Birth Story: Part 2: The Impending Signs

Thanks to Jenny for letting me know one person still wants to read the rest of my birth story.  I actually wrote down thoughts and events from our birth story right after it happened, so here are some of my thoughts and more details.

In case you missed it (or forgot since it's been so long):
The Birth Story: Part 1: Preparing for Labor

A few days before R was born, I slept fabulously...like the best sleep in a long time during the pregnancy.  I also rested and took several naps in those days leading up to the delivery.  It was as if my body knew what was coming and was starting to prepare.  It probably also helped that I finished the teaching term on Friday and the work in our basement was completed as well, so I could finally relax.  I went for my 39 week appt. on Tuesday and was only dilated to 2 cm and effaced 85%.  This wasn't much change from when I had been check at my 36 week appt. (dilated 1.5 cm, effaced 80%).  I was actually disappointed more progress hadn't been made in 3 weeks because I felt like things were moving along.

So I had 2 great nights of sleep and several naps on Monday and Tuesday, and then I had energy like none other on Wednesday.  DH and I did a photo shoot for a local jam company that day, and I really went to work organizing the laundry room Weds. night.  I went to bed that evening just feeling different.  The baby was moving differently.  Not differently in a scary, bad sort of way, but just different.  Though I couldn't quite put my finger on it, she seemed more active.  I told DH I wasn't sure what would happen the next day....

I woke up at 4:00 am to use the bathroom and saw pink spotting.  This wasn't so alarming because I had had pink spotting periodically for the past 3 weeks.  But it did seem to be a larger amount of pink mucus.  I tried to go back to sleep and woke up at 6:00 am with back pain.  I thought I had overdone it working in the laundry room the night before.  Again, the back pain was not anything unusual because my back had been bothering me most of the pregnancy.  I'd put a heating pad on and it would usually get better.  But this time the back pain seemed to be coming and going and my usual remedies didn't seem to help.  As I continued to lay in bed and rest, I started asking DH what time it was.  Finally, after a few times of doing that, he figured out what I was doing.  I was timing my back pain.  It was coming in approximately 10 minute increments.  Maybe those were contractions?  I wasn't sure.

I decided to get up and get ready for the day.  DH went to work and I emailed our doula at 7:30am to tell her what was going on and to be on alert that day.  She said to go about my daily routine, do what I had planned to do that day (not much since I was done working), and to go for a walk.  I did a few things around the house and then decided to take a bath and see if I could get my back to relax.  I still wasn't sure I was having contractions or in labor at this point.

Well, the bath didn't seem to help.  I was worried because DH was at work, and I couldn't really concentrate or focus enough to try and time my back pain again.  I started to panic a little bit.  I called him around 9:00 am and told him to come home.  I needed him at home with me.  By this point, I think I had finally figured out I was in labor.  I was still feeling it mainly in my back, but sometimes the pain would come around to the front.  We timed contractions and they were coming closer than every 10 minutes, but they still were at unpredictable intervals.  I made him call our doula again around 10:00 am because it was no longer comfortable for me to walk, and I could not relax enough to make the back pain go away.

The doula came over shortly after and tried to help ease my back pain through her comfort measures and relaxation techniques.  I used the exercise ball a lot and also had them both massage my back with a foam roller.  I was also laying on my left side and kneeling at the couch at times as well.  She also made me eat a little bit (peanut butter toast with a banana) as I hadn't eaten anything that day.  She said it was probably going to be a long day because at my last OB appointment 2 days prior, I'd only been dilated to 2 cm and 85% effaced.  The doula guessed I was at a 2 1/2 or 3 at that point.

I increasingly felt myself beginning to focus more on myself and not talk to others through the contractions.  I knew this was the next part of labor, but I remember thinking to myself, "Am I faking this to pretend I'm farther along in the labor process than I really am?"  Funny what thoughts go through your head, huh?  I actually spent time analyzing whether my thoughts were real or fake.  Ha, ha.  I then began to just sense that I needed to go to the hospital.   I can't explain why, but I just had this instinct.  I was actually thinking I needed to go to the hospital 30 minutes prior to when I actually said something though.  I delayed speaking up because I didn't want them to think I was a wimp about pain, and surely labor was going to be hours and hours long, right?

It seemed liked the contractions started coming closer and closer together where I hardly had a break between them, yet they were still at pretty irregular intervals and still in my back.  It finally got to the point where I couldn't imagine sitting in the car for 10 minutes, so we agreed to head to the hospital.  Right before we left for the hospital, I had to use the restroom again.  I passed a big, red mucusy strand thingy (maybe my mucus plug?  Still unsure on that one).  I told the doula and she said it was time to go.

Originally, DH and I had a plan to let friends and family know we were on our way to the hospital, so they could be praying, but everything happened so quickly we didn't have time to do that at home!  I had even planned to update my blog before heading to the hospital, but that just seemed like too much work with DH and the doula there.  I didn't even have the energy or focus to turn on the computer.

Our doula had to run home and get her overnight bag, and DH drove me to the hospital, in what quickly became the most uncomfortable car ride ever.  At one point, I unbuckled my seat belt because I just couldn't get comfortable, and DH thought for sure I was jumping out of the car.  ha, ha.  Uh no...that would only lengthen the amount of time it would take to get to the hospital, dear.

We parked and slowly walked into the hospital.  I had to stop a few times to get through the contractions, and I remember thinking, this is how it is in the movies!  Again, I questioned myself in my head if I was being overly dramatic.  It was 12:05pm when we got to the hospital and checked in.  Actually, DH checked me in while I walked back to a room.  They took me back to a room and started the long, slow process of asking what seemed like a million questions.  I just wanted the nurse to hurry up and check me as I was so extremely uncomfortable.  She noted my stats from the OB appointment 2 days before, that this was my 1st baby, etc.  We also made sure she had a copy of our birth plan at this point, and she was extremely receptive to following it.  (Even though the birth plan was in my file, we came prepared with extra copies:-)

Finally, the nurse could tell I was quite uncomfortable and decided to check me.  I was at a......

Stay tuned for Part 3!  Coming soon, I promise.

Last Labor Day Weekend

I've been doing a lot of reflecting this Labor Day weekend, for you see, it was Labor Day weekend last year when we found out we were expecting.  It was Sunday morning.  DH was already at church, and for some reason, I woke up and thought I should take a HPT test.  I really wasn't thinking we had great timing that month.  We had only returned from Russia less than 6 weeks prior, and I had quickly jumped into my work routine of preparing for classes and starting back at work.  My heart was heavy starting another school year and my mind couldn't stop thinking about the previous 2 Septembers when we had found out we were expecting.

It was with all of these thoughts in my mind that I woke up and took a test.  And to my great surprise, it instantly came up positive.  I was absolutely shocked (still am when I think about it today).  I tried to call DH, and he didn't answer.  I took a picture of the test strip and sent him a text message asking what he thought about the picture.  I was dying to talk with him about the positive test.  I was completely and totally amazed and in awe.  God caught me by surprise.

That positive test sent me on a whirlwind of emotions as I saw the HCG double, the progesterone plummet, and an early ultrasound confirm a heartbeat.  I went back and re-read some of my blog posts from that time along with all of your supportive comments and prayers.  I could not have made it through the pregnancy without your continued support, encouragement, and prayers.

And here I sit- one year and one day later from that life changing Sunday.  That 3rd pregnancy stuck.  Aside from the progesterone woes throughout the whole pregnancy, everything else went fairly smoothly.  No major complications at all.  Another surprise.

Never would I have dreamed at that time that I would be a mother to a daughter.  A daughter that is now 4 months old and growing like crazy.

And while I'm uploading photos, here are a few of her 3 month shots:

A daughter whose beauty constantly stuns me.  What did I ever do to deserve this?  Nothing.  That's what is so amazing.

So, I still sit back in awe and wonder over God's surprise.  What was different with the 3rd pregnancy?  Why did that one stick?  Why did 2 miscarriages have to precede a complication-free pregnancy?  Why did 3 Augusts in a row all end up with a pregnancy?  Why me?  Why then?  Why not others?

So many questions and so few answers.  Our God is a God of surprises.  He surprised me then.  I pray He surprises you as well as you continue to follow Him, serve Him, and love Him.  Who knows what surprises may be in store for next Labor Day weekend!