Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Ummm... Wow

This rocks beyond... words...

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Food for Thought

I have multiple posts in the works only partially finished. But as I was reading this morning, this jumped out at me and really made me think.

From the book Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health by Donald S. Whitney.

"Just because a man longs for something that can be found in God alone doesn't mean he's looking for God. A man may pine for peace yet have no interest in the Prince of Peace. Many who claim they are questing for God are not thirsting for God as He has revealed Himself in Scripture, but only for God as they want Him to be, or for a god who will give them what they want."

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Making Dinner the Boo Bear Way

I have been letting Boo Bear help me more as I cook and she really enjoys it. A little too much! Lat night I had put 2 cans of soup in a bowl and I let her pour in some milk and then add some pepper and stir it together. I set the bowl aside and was working on the pasta. I turned around for just a second and when I turned back around, I turned just in time to see Boo Bear pour my orange juice into the bowl. Yum! Cheddar Cheese soup, milk, pepper and OJ! The perfect combination. So we had to go to Plan B for dinner.

I couldn't get mad because it was just too funny!

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

The Birth Story: Grace Dancer

I know most of my readers that came out of the wood work for the birth of baby Grace have long since dissappeared, but I am going to right this birth story. Probably not in one sitting, as I am pulled in many different directions these days. But here goes...



Wednesday, March 26, 2008

1:00 a.m.

I woke at my normal time, but this time it wasn't to go to the bathroom. I had a painful contraction. From about 1 to 2 I tried to sleep through them and finally got up. I started timing them as I read through blogs and falsely told the internet I might be in labor. By 4:30 am the contractions were consistently 10 minutes apart and pretty painful. My doc had told me to call her when they were 10 minutes apart because we are 30 minutes from the hospital. We got to the hospital about 7:00 am. They put me on the monitor and my contractions were inconsistent, not even the 10 minutes apart that they had been. They had me walk around for awhile. I was starving the whole time. I had been scared to eat anything because I didn't want to throw it up. After about an hour, they put me back on the monitor and my contractions were about 16 minutes apart. I had them more frequently walking around, but I didn't want to walk anymore.



They discharged me from the hospital and we went to eat. Ironically, or not so ironically, we parked in the Expectant Mother's parking spot and took some pics of my standing under the sign. Too funny.



After we ate, we came home and took a nap. My contractions had all but disappearred. Hubby and I ran some errands even. I took a Blue Cohosh to see if that might help things along. This was about 5 pm. By 7:30 my contractions were 4-5 minutes apart and we called the doc and she told us to go in again and not to let them send me home. I was sure I was in labor this time as I was not hungry at all! I had a fish taco and a bowl of mac and cheese to eat all day.

I am not sure how fast hubby was driving on the way to the hospital as I was in quite a bit of pain and was laying down, but we seemed to get there fairly fast. He also had his flashers on, which clued me in to the fact that my husband, who normally goes exactly the speed limit at all times, was speeding! I am sure at the time, it felt like an eternity before we got to the hospital.

We arrived and finally made it to the desk. We filled out the check in paper work for the second time that day and the triage nurse came to get me. Her words, "you look like a keeper." Ya think! They had to triage me to check me so we went to a room and she checked my dialation and I was a 5-6. Yippee!!! Sign me up for an epidural! Things are a little vague from there, but I think I got put into a room pretty quick after that. They basically had to draw blood and put an IV in and give me a bag of fluid before I could get my epidural. It all happened as quickly as those things can late at night and when the anesthesiologist came in, boy was I happy to see him!

Wiht Boo Bear, they let hubby stay in for the epidural, but apparently this is dependent on the doctor and this one didn't allow it. Bummer, but I had a wonderful nurse who stayed with me. With Boo Bear, I had been in so much pain for so long and it was complete back labor, so I didn't feel a thing when I got my epidural. This time, I could feel it all and it didn't really hurt, but it didn't feel great either. Of course I felt fabulous after it kicked in. I told the nurse that we would be having a baby soon. My doc came in to check me and I was 8-9cm and she checked my ability to push and said once again, let's have a baby! The nurse hardly had time to call a second nurse before I started pushing. She was holding my leg in one hand and trying to call the nurse with the other hand. I knew from my first labor that once I get my epidural, it generally relaxes me enough that I progress very quickly. For this birth, we chose to allow our family in the room to see the birth. I really wanted to give them the gift of seeing a grandchild be born.

I pushed 2 times and I could feel the head stuck. The doc had to cut me this time to free the head. I pushed one more time and out she came. Of course we were all waiting to hear if it was a he or a she! She was beautiful and they placed her immediately on my chest. I was crying, I am sure others were too, but I was enamored with my newest daughter.

She looks just like her sister, but with blond hair and of course she didn't weigh near as much as Boo Bear. She is precious and 3 weeks later we are so blessed with her!

The first couple weeks were a little tough with adjusting to the lack of sleep, but she is a great kid, sleeping well, getting up 2-3 times a night, usually just 2 to eat and going back to sleep. We have already moved her into her room to sleep most of the time, this way we all sleep better. She is a grunter and makes a lot of noise so I couldn't sleep and usually would go pick her up which would disturb her sleep. We also discovered that she sleeps much better on her stomach. Since she can already lift her head and because she is my second child, I have been okay with her sleeping on her stomach, especially because she sleeps great this way and that's makes us all happy! Her digestive track is still getting up to speed and this makes her a little cranky, mostly at th eend of the day, but other than that, she only cries when she is hungry, tired or has a dirty diaper.

It feels like she has been around forever and I can't wait to watch her and see how her personality and her appearance changes as she grows! Having the experience of seeing Boo Bear grow has only made me more excited to see it happen this second time with a different child.

Boo Bear loves her little sister and the adjustment has been easy so far. She wants to hold her and squeeze her and yells her name in her face, but we are still working on quiet and gentle in general so that is to be expected.

Some days are easier than others, but in general, it's not so bad. The hardest part is of course the lack of sleep, but we get by. Some days I can get them to nap at the same time so I can nap.
I go back to work in just 2-3 short weeks and I am dreading that and still not sure how I am going to do that, but I know God will give me the grace and endurance I need to make it through.