Busy weekend.

Friday I had to go back to our local hospital to have Micah's PKU screen re-done due to a non accepted first go at it, I felt soo bad for him and he had to have it taken out of his arm instead of his heel. Thankfully my Mom offered to come watch the 3 older kids so I could take him alone, which was such a blessing because I was there for an hour and a half waiting for them to get their act together.  We came back, he got fed and we went to lunch. Pretty sure we keep Chick-fil-a in business. ;) Did a little shopping in Old Navy, indulged in Starbucks then had pedicures(and an eyebrow wax for me, cause yeah...its been a LONG time and I was looking rough). A luxury I only seem to take with Mom..haha..Kate had her toes done too and was so big about sitting there in the chair perfectly still having her nails painted. Thankful for my girly girl and the time I know she and I will share treating ourselves in the future(Gotta figure out what Livvy enjoys, cause its not pedicures! haha). Managed to get home and we had a single Brother come over and hang out with us for the evening.

Saturday we went grocery shopping, then headed over to some friends house for a cookout for most of the day. Did I mention, I made brownies and cake balls to take with me, whew!

Sunday, Luke mowed our lawn(poor guy, its huge and we have a push mower!), then we went to Best Buy. We have had the same computer for 7ish years and its a 50/50 shot on it working most of the time and its memory was all used up, so we kept having to move stuff onto an external hardrive.  We decided it was finally time to upgrade...ended up getting a Gateway, which totally takes me back to my childhood and the cow printed boxes. We are enjoying it a lot and its crazy to have it work so well..:), Then we had to go get Noah a new carseat cause his was too big to sit next to Olivia's in the back seat, so he has graduated to a high back booster..such big stuff. ;) Ah, the joys of fitting 4 carseats in a minivan, then we got frozen yogurt...it really hit the spot on such a hot day and something we haven't done in forever thanks to my gestational diabetes when pregnant.

So yeah, it was busy!

Today Olivia and I finished off Phonics and Language Arts, so all we have left in school is 3 lessons of History and we are DONE for the school year. So happy and ready to enjoy some down time without school looming over me every day. We should be able to finish those all tomorrow..hooray!

We finally got a renter for our house! Our last one moved out early and we were very close to having to let the house go, but thanks to some help from a friend and the Lord, we have someone moving in June 1st. SO thankful.

Did I mention I weigh less now then I did when I got pregnant? All that eating healthy during my pregnancy paid off apparently. Giving myself 6 weeks to enjoy eating without calorie counting, then I'll be back to making much healthier choices and accounting for what I eat.  Its just amazing to me, because I haven't weighed less then Luke for a long time! haha..

Micah's birth story.

 (Some details may have been left out because I simply don't remember them..haha..Photo's by my friend Kelly Hardee)

Thursday(5-3-12) morning I woke up earlier then normal, and decided to make the most of it and get started with school..we finished super quick..during school I noticed my Braxton hicks were different feeling, but nothing that said "labor's coming". . Made the kids a nice big lunch, got my house re-cleaned since Luke and I had cleaned on Wednesday night, and played some Wii with the kiddos. As my usual routine, around 2 I laid down Kate for a nap, busied my older two, and laid down myself. Played on the iPad for a while before deciding to turn over in bed and watch whatever Baby story type show was on. I had also just talked to Luke about trying not to push getting home so late in the day.

It was 2:30 and I flipped over and went to tuck my big maternity pillow into its comfy position when I felt a pop, it started getting warm "down there" and for some reason I thought I'd peed myself, but as soon as I thought that, it started getting really wet and I realized what had happened, my water broke! I jumped out of bed and rushed to the bathroom..it was gushing out..I had a ton of fluid so I knew it would just keep coming.

I called Olivia and asked her to retrieve my cell phone, called Luke back and told him to come on home because it was going to be baby day! Called my Mom/midwife and she just happened to be with her apprentice and said they would be on their way. Called my friend/photographer and she thankfully was wrapping up at work and was going to get her camera and come. Wasn't really having any contractions, so I wasn't sure how long it would take for those to start. I laid back down in bed and waited and around 3:30 I called both Luke and Mom back because contractions had started and they were already very painful and meant business. Luke was 15ish minutes out and Mom was getting Chick-fil-a down the road from us. Photographer friend showed up just as the rest did.

Luke immediately started up filling the pool, and Mom and apprentice started stats on me, 6 cm's fully effaced and 0 station for those that care for serious details. Labored for a while with Luke by myself waiting for the pool to fill some, finally it was deep enough and it felt sooo good to get in, but wasn't as pain relieving as I remembered it being last time, but it was better then nothing and the idea of delivering out of the water made me nervous for some reason.

I wasn't in the pool long before I noticed I had some pressure..nothing I felt a couldn't breath through, but it was there. I had this fear about pushing before I was really ready, so mom suggested I pant/breath through a few more before deciding whether to push or not. By the time those 2-3 contractions were over, my body was pushing..I pushed one good time and didn't feel like anything happened..next push and suddenly he was crowning. I heard them saying, "His ears are out, his head is out,there's one arm, there's the other".. At that point I just yelled "pull him out" as I gave one final push and he was out! The relief you feel at that moment is amazing, and I was soo happy to finally be seeing this sweet face after so many weeks of not so patiently waiting for him.

After placenta came, and having a nice shower, we weighed and measured him. Baby Micah David was born in about 2 hours(once contractions started) weighing 9 lbs. 14 oz. 22.5 inches long.
14.75 head and a 14.5 chest.

So happy to be done!

The scene in our dining room. :)

Olivia helping Daddy cut the cord.

Mom with her special role as Midwife AND Nana.

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Micah with a carrot cake I'd made and froze a couple weeks before.

Its April 16th..

As of this coming Wednesday, I will be 37 weeks. Normally, this date would come and go and not effect me at all aside from normal pregnancy complaints..but when you put off labor for 8 weeks and then NOTHING happens after a week of being off meds and bedrest...its a little disappointing. I know its still early, and I know he needs the time to bake obviously..but its still sad, when I kind of thought he'd be here by now. Please spare me the "it'll happen" comments. As a mama who's expecting her 4th..I recognize he WILL eventually come, and I only have a matter of like 3 week even if I went full term...but this pregnancy has SUCKED..and I'm just flat out done,done, done. Pretty sure he'd be better off on the outside of me, then in at this point.  As you can see, I apparently have not laid this down yet to the Father, who I know controls his birthday...it will come, the laying down...but today, here I am complaining, because He can handle it.

We are pretty ready for his arrival though! Got the birth pool blown up so we wouldn't have to do that in the middle of the night, the rest of the stuff in one location, and diapers and clothes ready to clothe his body. 3 VERY excited siblings who ask every day if today is THE day. We have baked him a birthday cake to enjoy on his big day(Mommy is very happy about that since I haven't had dessert in 2 months)..and its in the freezer wrapped up and ready to go. I have really cleaned my house and am doing my best to maintain that clean with Luke's help..

Just need a certain baby boy to join in on the fun..:)

Favorite right now..

When we had an apostle of sorts come and help our little body of believers, one "assignment" as we called them was to change all the "Love"'s in 1st Corinthians 13 to "Jesus" since they are the same...it was so great to see it that way, not just an emotion or feeling, but a Person..

Heard this song on Pandora the other day and it was so moving...both as is, and with Jesus replacing the loves...

Hoping it encourages you as it did me.

Love Never Fails by Brandon Heath

Love is not proud
Love does not boast
Love after all
Matters the most

Love does not run
Love does not hide
Love does not keep
Locked inside

Love is the river that flows through
Love never fails you

Love will sustain
Love will provide
Love will not cease
At the end of time

Love will protect
Love always hopes
Love still believes
When you don’t

Love is the arms that are holding you
Love never fails you

When my heart won’t make a sound
When I can’t turn back around
When the sky is falling down
Nothing is greater than this
Greater than this

Love is right here
Love is alive
Love is the way
The truth the life

Love is the river than flows through
Love is the arms that are holding you
Love is the place you will fly to
Love never fails you

You can't out do His grace.

I know that a lot of us are going through season's in our lives where stuff feels too much..While I quote to myself that His mercies are new every morning, I have often complained that I got short changed on my daily amount..The Lord has just been reminding me gently about something He showed me a while back.

Last year when Luke and I were invited to spend some time with his family and their ministry board at a lake house one weekend, we readily took them up on it. It was spring and pollen was everywhere. On the last day that we were there, we all went and sat outside on a big deck and worshiped together. Our wonderful host was apologetic that she had just wiped all the surfaces down out there but it didn't seem to help as the pollen just kept coming. While worshiping, it became so obvious..The Lord was clearly revealing Himself in the pollen. I was looking up and watching the trees, sometimes the pollen was just somehow there on the surfaces and you never saw it land there, other times a big gust of wind would blow and you would see this huge cloud of pollen burst forth from the tree and blow around.

He reminded me then, and now that just when I think I've gotten rid of/wiped it away, or used up all the grace He has provided me, there is ALWAYS more, and its pointless to even try to use it up so to speak. I can't...Sometimes its there, and we didn't see it show up..sometimes we get huge gusts of it and its more noticeable..but it is there all the same.

2 Corinthians 12:9
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 

 

I seem to be..

An every 2-3 week blogger(sometimes more, eek!)...I apologize. Life is kind of crazy right now. Between trying my best to lay down as often as I can, homeschooling and caring for children, and everything else life entails, even my down time is busy...haha..

I'll be 32 weeks on Wednesday. Which means just over 4 weeks till we are in the safe to deliver zone...he may or may not come then, but at least I can be off meds and resume normal activity then which will improve my outlook quite a bit. Though, even with meds, I contract regularly(just not patterned and constant like before), so I'm thinking it may not take too long once I'm off the meds and up and moving for him to come..but we shall see. Either way, the end is in sight and that is something I am clinging to right now.

My gestational diabetes is going ok, I have only had 2 abnormal readings in the almost 4 weeks I've started eating properly...I consider that pretty successful. Both were because I ate something for breakfast I knew would probably send my numbers to the higher end..I'll be soo happy when I don't have to come up with a different way to make eggs every morning...I miss my morning cereal like mad crazy! In fact, I usually have some sort of soup right after delivery..and a bowl of cereal is what I want! haha..(along with a plethora of other higher carb/sweet goods)...:) Although I will say, its opened my eyes to how much food I can eat without tons of calories and will help me in the long run when I can eat higher calorie foods, to eat them in moderation...

Olivia is being quite helpful, she has taken on the task of unloading the dishwasher daily(occasionally loading it if I ask), moving laundry from washer to dryer and bringing me what was in the dryer so I can fold while on the couch, and making breakfast for the two younger ones(nothing cooking, frozen waffles and bowls of cereal..haha..). She may be mad high energy, but she's been a serious help to me. So thankful for such a big helper and for her willingness to serve and help..recognizing a need and meeting it.

Kate has been clingier then ever lately. I wonder if she knows it won't be long before her "baby" status will no longer be...guess its hard to explain to her at her age that she will always be my baby, and having a smaller baby will not "De-throne" her so to speak. I know it will just mean I will have to be extra careful when Baby Boy comes to give her extra lovins'...

Don't have much to report about my current middle child. He's kind of one of those fade into the background if allowed types. Though, I will say, he's been helpful too...but he's also going through a little not-a-big-fan-of-Kate phase which is challenging...handling it the best I know how..which isn't much! ;)

Till next time.

Eventful times..

Almost 2 weeks ago I had a really normal lazy day, but as night came around I realized that my normal braxton hicks were coming very close together...after timing them for an hour and having 20!, I tried every thing in the book I knew, my herbs, a bath, water, laying down, walking some..we finally decided that enough was enough and called a friend to come sit with the kids while we headed to the hospital. Upon arriving, I was tachycardic with a heartrate of 240...thankfully it came down pretty quick even though its stayed high..but contractions were showing up on the moniter of having one almost every minute. I was given a test called a Fetal Fibronecton test and it apparently picks up a chemical that you put off when you are heading towards labor..thankfully, mine came back neg! I was given a dose of Procardia and that didn't seem to help too much...they decided to keep me since I was contracting so often. I was moved from triage to a antepartum room and they decided to give me Mag sulfate which is kind of their go to med for labor stopping...well after being catheterized(NO fun, and I still don't quite understand why, but something to do with the meds) they started it but my blood pressure plummeted into unhealthy numbers, so they quickly shut that off..Luke said I looked dead, and after getting some oxygen he said I started looking better...

So that was off the table of a treatment method. Was given another med called Indocin which thankfully spaced them out a little bit. We were sent for an ultrasound to see how big Baby Boy was, had lots of blood work ran, and given an EKG because of my heart rate issues.. After the Indocin, they gave me a higher dose of Procardia and that helped to just about get rid of them all together with only one here and there. I was also given a gestational diabetes test while there and failed..boo. First time ever..

I was released on bedrest orders and on my meds which I am to take every 6 hours round the clock. I'm on a diabetic diet right now, and just careful to make sure my heart rate doesn't get too high. 

I am very thankful we were able to stop them mostly, and very thankful that I didn't have a 28 week old baby born..but I'm so fed up with being pregnant at this point. I'm 30 weeks in 2 days and then I just need to make it to 36 so I can have a normal birth like I want sans hospital....

So thankful for Church family who have taken my kids for afternoons, fed us and been so wonderfully supportive and for my real family..specially my mama, cause she's had to work out so much for me in terms of getting the help I need medically and watching kids so I can see those people.

Hoping the rest is pretty uneventful!