Baby #4

9 short months(yes I said short!) of pregnancy, 19lbs gained, a ton of energy burned, and 1 scheduled C-section later our baby is here! Noah Thomas, 8 lbs 15 oz and 21 inches long.

Baby Noah Thomas!  You are PERFECT! Perfect in every way imaginable! How could you not be? You are a wonderful gift from God! A true blessing to our family!

 Psalms 139:13 "For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb."

I cannot believe that God would count us so blessed to add you to our ever growing family. Daddy and I are head over heels in love with you.  You have stolen our hearts with your little squeaks and funny faces! Daddy and I have been loving on you every second since you arrived.  This is your week to get truly loved on! For this week only it is just Mommy, Daddy, and you.  We are having amazing quality time getting to know you, and all your little noises(and you do make a lot of noises).

What we have learned about you so far:

• You are much bigger than we expected, we were guessing you were around 7lbs, man did you surprise us!
• You make quite a bit of noise-not bad noise, just little grunts, groans, and squeaks.  ALL of which are adorable beyond belief
• You are content. 
• You love to snuggle up close to mommy and daddy
• You are a good eater!
• You don't cry! You kind of squeak, and grunt when you need something.
• You are a good baby, take that back a GREAT baby!

I know there is much more that could be said about you, and what you have added to our lives in just your short time here! And I'm sure I will write more in the days to come!

We cannot wait for your siblings to be able to meet you in person.  You did get to skype with them(although you slept through it!), and they thought you were sooo tiny, and sweet!  Your big brother is so excited to meet you, and hold you.  He sang songs to you, and played with you every day while you were in my belly.  He couldn't be more excited about having YOU as his little brother!

We should get to go home on Wednesday evening, and then you will get to meet your doggy.  He loves babies, and is sure to shower you in kisses when we walk in the door.  I can't wait to see your reaction to that.  All your siblings love the dog, and loved even those first kisses! You will also get to meet the cats-although to be honest they don't really care about babies too much.  They like them when they can't move-so they will LOVE you. BUT as soon as you are mobile, you can forget about it.  Since that usually means you will try and pull their tails, and chase them around the basement.

We have so much going on in our lives right now, that we are blessed that you arrived safely, and are doing so well.  Mommy and Daddy have really enjoyed the down time we are able to have with you.

We LOVE you sweet boy!

It's A...Part 3

I promise this is the last post(at least I think it is), it is a long birth story, but it is something that I learned a lot from and I just feel so refreshed and I feel like a new person.  Something I was not expecting to feel like after going through surgery and being on an emotional roller coaster!

It's time for surgery! Yeah.  I'm getting prepped and everything is going into place.  Epidurals they are a wonderful thing-but they hurt like crazy(in my opinion) going in when you are not currently in labor because you feel everything.  If you are having contractions then guess what, you feel the contractions and not the extra pressure on your back, no contractions equals a lot of pressure and pain. I might also add here that I am a total wimp when it comes to pain.  I absolutely hate pain in any way shape or form and can be a baby. Plus today I seem extra emotional since I am learning so much, and have been told we can't follow through with the plans we had made. I think that makes the pain a bit worse and something I didn't really want on top of everything else.  But trust me, so worth it, because then you are awake for the birth of your little one, and when you are done they give you some morphine through it so you are nice and numb for a good while after surgery.

I'm laying on the table-relaxed as can be(honestly really relaxed, the medicine tends to put you in that state of mind).  The anesthesiologist leans down and says "baby time, are you ready?" I told him yep!  He keeps his eyes glued over the drape so he can let me know as soon as it arrives.  I love that they give you a play by play if you want them to.  I always like to know what is going on.  I don't necessarily want to see it as it is happening, but knowing is kind of fun.  Maybe it's the medical person in me.  I then hear the Dr say "that's not a foot, that's a head" I look up to the anesthesiologist, and then I look over at Greg-just to make sure I am hearing things correctly..a HEAD, no that should be a butt or a foot, this baby is breech remember, you should not be pulling out a head first.  Then I hear the other Dr say "ha, and it's face down" WHAT!  My baby is head down and face down-exactly the position that we needed it to be in so we could induce that morning, but that morning this baby was breech.  Again I am a bit taken a back but everything happens so fast, I mean this is surgery and they do hurry to get the baby out.  Greg looks at me and says "what did they just say?" I look back, smile and shake my head "the baby is head down, face down, it is ready to be delivered naturally, it is how we needed/wanted it to be this morning-go figure huh?" God does have a sense of humor doesn't he.  I am reminded of this quite often especially with little ones running around.  I'm glad I had accepted the day the way that it was and was fine with the surgery, and over the disappointment-otherwise at this point in time I may have just broken down and cried. 

It's a girl!! What fun words to hear(honestly it would have been fun either way), I love that this baby was a surprise it made the suspense so much fun and all the waiting so very worth it(although, it is worth it even when you know what it is)!  We are so blessed to welcome this wonderful baby girl into the family.  Greg got to go over and take some pictures while they were weighing her, they even asked if he wanted to cut the cord. He quickly said no and came and sat back down behind the curtain with me(blood and him don't quite mix)!  He said "Ashley she has a lot of hair and it's dark." I say "well all our kids had dark hair when they were born and they were born with hair they just lost it all" "No really," he says "it's really dark."  Here she comes, my baby girl.  I got to give her a small kiss and hold a little hand, the took off her hat and OH my goodness! She has a lot of DARK hair, I mean like black hair.  I have no clue where that came from. What a sweet bundle of goodness she is!  8lbs 7ozs and absolutely perfect, chubby little arms, and jet black hair! There is no denying she is ours, she looks just like her older siblings...she has the same tiny little facial features like her big sister Athaiah, and she has chunky arms and thighs like her brother. A perfect little combo is what we got for baby #3.

Avery Grace you are a wonderful gift from God.  We pray you will grow up to know the Lord and that you will be strong and courageous for him.  We pray you get along well with your older siblings.  Your brother has already taken on the role of the big protector.  If you start to fuss or cry he demands we get you a binker.  If you are squirmy, he says you need a blanket.  If your big sister gets to close, he holds her off and says "careful with baby sister" Your big brother screams if we try and take our turn holding you, because you are HIS baby sister and he just wants to rock you and smooch on you all day long! You are blessed to have a good big brother who loves you.  Your big sister, well she is still pretty little.  She comes and gives you kisses, she looks at you, but mainly she is busy all the time and doesn't have the time to sit and hold you.  She did just learn to walk, so give her a break-we know she loves you, she just wants to explore.  She is interested in you, and not quite sure about you at the same time, after all, you do get a lot of mommy's attention, and she is a mommy's girl.  You fit in so perfect and add so much to this family!  We all love you and couldn't have asked for a better or sweeter baby!

It's A...Part 2

The decision has been made-this new baby will come via C-section because God knows what is best and we are going to go ahead and do it today, rather than wait until tomorrow.  We are all excited.  I was hoping they would let me go home for a bit-no such luck.  I get to hang out in the hospital all day.  Good news-no one is scheduled for any surgeries so we can go in whenever everyone can get here.  Bad news- I obeyed Dr's orders and ate a light breakfast, this means we have to wait 8-10 hrs from my last meal before we can go ahead with the surgery. This will put the surgery somewhere between 3 and 4 in the afternoon.  Not too bad-but what on earth am I going to do in a hospital all day.  Greg decided to go home and relieve our wonderful friend-who got up at the crack of dawn so we could go in for the x-ray.

Here I am stuck in a hospital all day by myself.  I decided to look on the bright side. By this afternoon I would have 3 children 2 and under, so today would be my day of rest and relaxation before the chaos begins.  God gave me a day of rest-what a wonderful thing and what wonderful timing.  Working full time and having small children can really drain your energy some days.  I dozed off and on all day and really enjoyed the time that I had to myself.  I really didn't do anything all day-how often can I say that.  I will tell you how often NEVER! There is always something to be done, but today my job was to eat nothing, rest, and then go in for surgery and have a baby.  My anticipation grew all day...we waited to find out what this baby was going to be and it made the day seem long at some points as I would daydream about what it would be or who it would look like.

I was reminded all day long that God was in control and that He knew the plans for my life and for the life of this new little one.  He knew why we needed the surgery.  He knew I needed a day of rest.  He knew I needed some naps uninterrupted by children or phone calls from work.  He knew!  That was all that mattered.

I talked on the phone with family, I got to know the nurses a bit better, and I got rest.  Notice I am so excited about the rest.  I thought I would be bored out of my mind and go stir crazy, especially since I am the type of person that likes to stay really busy all the time. But I didn't, it felt so good to just do nothing all day, and to know that I wasn't expected to do anything.

Thank you God for allowing me to rest.  Thank you that in your perfect plan YOU alone knew a day of rest for me would be beyond needed.  YOU knew it was what I needed.  It was in your perfect plan that you allowed for me to have a day to spend just the two of us.  Reflecting on life, on decisions, and on where we are going.  You are so good to just reveal one step of the way at a time. You never give us more than we can handle and you give us enough information to get us to the next step and that is it.  We don't need to see the big picture, and although I love to see the big picture, I know it is sometimes best to just trust in you and your wonderful promises. You grant us a peace like no other, a peace that can only be found in you, and I could not be more thankful to you for that wonderful gift of peace!

It's A.... Part 1

As many of you saw via facebook, we welcomed our latest new one into the family yesterday at 4:23, SHE came via C-section.  Yep, that is right we were blessed with another little girl yesterday!  Elijah and Daddy are going to have their hands full keeping the two of them in line and chasing all the boys away.  Avery Grace is a wonderful "little" addition and so far has been pleasant and an absolute joy to us all.  She came into the world making a lot of noise, weighing 8lbs 7oz and 20 inches long.  She is a chunky, healthy baby.  This makes her the biggest of our babies(by a whole 2 ozs), and she is right in the middle on her height!  We could not be more thrilled.  Now onto her birth story for those that care to know(this will be done in several parts as it would make 1 horribly long post if I put it all together), I'm hoping it is no inclination that she is going to be stubborn her whole life-but if she is may God grant us the patience!

We arrived at the hospital at 7am on Wednesday morning, we were supposed to get an x-ray to check fetal position and make sure she was face down.  Avery had been head down for a good 2 months, so we were not worried about her being the correct way at all, just wanted to make sure her face was down so she could come out the birth canal. IF all went well and she was face down-we were going to go ahead and induce that am(my Dr is going out of town this weekend and wanted to be here for the birth because of my history). All checked in and x-rayed we head up stairs to the OB unit to wait for the Dr to come in and tell us what is going on and how things look. Instead of waiting for the Dr's report they decided to start me on an IV right away. A small grip from me-I told the nurse what arm to go in because the vein in my left arm rolls, but not in my right.  Did she listen? NO! So now I'm in tears because she had to move that huge needle around in my arm.  Finally she got it in the vein, so she gets a new needle to insert the IV, and uses the old needle to hold the vein in place while she gets everything set-SO NOT FUN! Any way there is my complaining for the day-sometimes the patient does know best!
OK back to the story...IV is now in and I'm hooked up to the baby monitors so they can see what the baby is doing and how my contractions are and if there is anything regular with them.  In walks the Dr. laughing.  Now I don't know about you but when the Dr walks in giggling you know something must be up, right? She says "well God is laughing at us and with us today! You want to know what happened, that baby is breech." Yep you read that right BREECH-it has been head down for 2 months, it wasn't supposed to just flip over night.  I was just in the Dr's office and she was head down-how on earth is she breech.  Now what are we going to do.  I will tell you the truth at this point in time I just wanted to break down and cry-but I resisted the urge, put a smile on my face that I'm sure everyone could tell was fake, and said "so what are our options." She explained there were a couple of options 1. take the baby today via C-section, 2. take the baby tomorrow C-section, 3. go to a specialist in Wichita and see if they can turn the baby but not only was the baby breech it was also face up, so it needed to do a flip and turn 180 deg. NOT very likely that would be able to happen especially at almost 40 weeks pregnant.  She also told us that on occasions they can turn on their own but if they are turned the wrong direction 2 days before the due date it is HIGHLY unlikely that it will turn itself back around.  Now it is decision time, she tells us what she would do if it were her, and then the nurses and her leave.

Greg and I stare at each other-I don't think I quite knew what to say.  He had a smug smile on his face and I honestly just felt defeated!  You have plans and I wasn't set on having to have a natural birth but I had prayed all nine months to be able to have it naturally so Greg wouldn't have to take care of 4 people for a week or two until I can lift things.  Besides we were planning a trip home and you can't very well drive 16 hrs after major surgery. So now what? My wonderful husband in all in patience says I think we just need to do the C-section today.  We are already prepared and it doesn't sound like they will be able to get the baby in position any way.  We are here and God knows what we are supposed to do and at this point it looks like a C-section is our plan...so we then have 2 options today or tomorrow. I say today, I was in agreeance since we were already at the hospital, and I already had that darn IV in my arm that hurt like crazy-no point in leaving now.  I am finally excited...a bit disappointed that things didn't go as planned, but excited-we will have baby #3 by the end of the day and everything will be just fine! 

I am reminded of the verse in Jeremiah "I know the plans I have for you..." for some reason just that phrase really stuck out to me today.  God knows that plans and he knows what is best for us.  Who am I to question him? Who am I to not trust in what his plans are, and to put my own wants above what he knows?  I am no one-so I need to accept that He knows the plans and knows why it has to happen this way! I am finally at peace and excited! Thank you Lord for bringing me just the right scripture when I need it most.  You truly do know the plans that you have for me, and I can trust that everything will be ok, if I just put my trust and faith in you and YOUR plans! Thank you for being such a kind and patient Father, for letting me throw a mini tantrum and then reminding me of your truths and promises! Thank you Lord for blessing us with Avery's presence-may we raise her up according to your word.