I'm still here....

...Just very busy lately. I realize it's been months since my last entry and am hoping to once again start blogging somewhat more regularly. With three little ones it's hard to find time to sit down and organize my thoughts.

Here is a quick review of what we've been up to:

After Keira's arrival on Oct 28th we spent the next couple of weeks adjusting to having a newborn again and getting her to sleep a decent stretch of time at night. She caught on really quickly which we were all thankful for.

In November we took a road trip to Pennsylvania to spend Thanksgiving with my brother and his wife. The kids did great in the car and we all had a very fun time with them. (for those of you with Facebook accounts you can see some pictures and videos of our time).

After getting home we started gearing up for the Christmas season and Ethan's birthday. We planned to have a birthday party for him the Saturday after his birthday. As with so many things in life, God had other plans and we received an ice storm instead. We lost power and decided we needed to find another place to stay that had heat. My older brother and his wife graciously opened their home to not only our family but also my sister and her family. Ethan was able to still enjoy seeing and playing with his cousins and I brought the cupcakes and cheesecake we were going to have at his party for everyone to enjoy. It wasn't "as planned" but was still a nice time and a lot of fun for the kids. We were very happy though to only have to be away from home for two nights. We came home and over the next couple of weeks my husband worked diligently to get as much done on our kitchen remodeling project as possible before Christmas. Thanks in part to the help of a friend we were able to have most of the cabinets installed before Christmas day.

We hosted my whole family for Christmas day. It was once again a lot of fun to have all 9 cousins together and to also have my brother and his wife up from Pennsylvania. We had a great day visiting.

So far January has been a month of getting back into a routine after the holidays and finishing up the kitchen remodel. It's been very nice to have a working sink again and I'm very grateful for all the hard work my husband put into the project and how much better the kitchen functions now, compared to how it was. Just as we think things will slow down they seem to get busy again. We have several birthday parties to attend and also have been working to get back to our usual level of involvement at church.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying the start to 2009. I have a few blog posts rolling around in my head that I hope to get posted over the next week or so. One is to show some crocheting that I've been doing and another to tell about a great book I'm reading and studying.

Keira's birth story.

I thought I would post her birth story for those that are interested. I went in on Tuesday morning to be induced due to being 10 days overdue. Got to the hospital at 7:30am. Was supposed to start Pitocin at 8am but they had a hard time getting the IV in (blew a vein and had to try 4 times to get it in). My midwife checked me and I was 4cm and 80% effaced. I told her that I'd like to do the pitocin until I was 5-6cm and then have my water broken because I knew I could make it from 5cm because I had done it before with the other two. They started Pitocin at 9:30, very low dose. I took a nap and they kept upping it until about 2pm when my MW checked me again I was 5cm and just about 100% effaced. She broke my water (babies head was right against the bag so it was hard for her to break it).

After my water was broken labor really picked up. She turned the pitocin way down to let my body kick in. A little after 3pm I decided to get into the shower to labor for awhile. At this point the pitocin was completely turned off and my body was on it's own. I labored in the shower for awhile and the contractions were really picking up and I was having a lot more pressure. After two contractions that felt more like a pushing pressure I got out of the shower. I labored leaning over the bed for a bit but I was getting tired so I got into the bed and knelt (leaning on the back of the bed that was raised) then I sat for a bit and pushed thru a couple contractions but just felt like I wasn't getting far and was starting to feel like I wasn't handling the contractions well. Baby was also still pretty far up. With the next contraction I said I HAVE to stand up again so I stood up and leaned on the bed again. In the next couple of pushes she was crowning and shortly after she was born at 5:01pm. My midwife said she loved the fact that I delivered standing up and that's all it took for the baby to come down was the change in position and help from gravity.

I'm not sure of the total "pushing" time as I lost track of time, etc. She's a very aware baby and hardly cried when she came out. She was just looking all around and taking everything in. Her apgars were 8 and 9. She does have her sleep a little switched around but I'm hoping she'll sleep better at night within the next week or so as that's how long it took Hailey to figure it out.

We're all very glad that she's here. Hailey and Ethan love her and are so curious about everything. I asked to be released early from the hospital because I just wasn't getting much rest and really wanted to be home. The pediatrician was a little concerned because although Keira had had a bowel movement she had not urinated. The did agree to discharge her as long as I brought her to her regular pediatrician ASAP if she still hadn't urinated by this morning. Thankfully that happened last night so all is well and she sees her regular pediatrician for the first time tomorrow morning.

Thank you so much for all your thoughts and prayers. We really appreciate them. Here is a picture of our newest addition:

Another quick update.

I know it's been awhile since I've written here. Life has been busy. We are still waiting for this baby to arrive; it seems God really wants me to learn the lesson of waiting on His timing. :)

I had an appointment with my midwife today. After discussing my options and concerns with her we have decided that if I haven't had the baby by Friday then I will have an ultrasound to check on the baby and she will do some light interventions to see if that sends me into labor. If, by next Tuesday, I still have not had the baby then I will be induced. I really do not want to be induced so I am praying that this little one arrives this week.

Other than waiting for the baby we have been doing some more work on the kitchen. It is nice to see it coming along. We primed the walls the other night and once we had them all white we discovered a few spots that needed a bit more work so Matt is working on fixing those spots and then we will paint.

The cooler weather has also been nice for baking. The kids and I have made a couple of apple crisps and a pie. It's a little different having to do everything in the dining room but we are managing. I also have 4 pumpkins that I need to roast soon and get in the freezer for making pies and other desserts for the holidays.

So that's my update. Hopefully I'll be able to post a birth announcement in the next few days.

The pictures I promised :)

Here are the t-shirts that I made for the kids. The baby's onesie says Pixie because that is what Hailey has nicknamed her. I also included a picture of the sweater that I crocheted for Ethan. He loves it and calls it his camoflauge sweater. With the carpal tunnel pain I've been having I haven't been able to crochet any more, hopefully I'll be able to start again after the baby is on a routine.

A pregnancy update.

I thought I'd write a quick update on how things are going. It seems hard to believe that I only have 24 more days until my due date; although, if she's anything like her big sister she'll make me wait longer to meet her.

I had my midwife appointment today and everything was great. My blood pressure & weight were fine. Baby is measuring right on, has a good heartrate and is still very active. I now start weekly visits, I can't believe how fast time has gone throughout this pregnancy.

This past weekend we worked on the nursery/girl's room and got all the furniture moved around and set up. Today Matt hung the curtain rods and I was able to hang the valances so the room is officially done. Yesterday I pulled the carseat out of the attic and got that all washed. It feels nice to have things ready for her.

As for me, I'm still having issues with the carpal tunnel syndrome but it has been better this week so I've been able to get pretty good sleep. Other than feeling really large I'm actually doing well. I've been having a lot of braxton hicks and after I drink some red raspberry leaf tea I notice they get much stronger and more frequent so I'm hoping all that uterine exercise will make things more effective when it's real labor.

The kids are still very excited and have started asking when the baby is coming out of mama's belly. I made some T-shirts for them (big brother/big sister) and put them in the hospital bag. Hailey was disappointed that she had to wait until the baby is born to wear hers (they'll get them the first time they come to visit). I'll try to get pictures of the shirts and post them. I'm actually really pleased with how they came out. I had priced some online but the cheapest I could find were $15/shirt so I found some clipart online and some sayings I liked and designed my own. I was able to get the shirts for $2/each at AC Moore so for three "custom" t-shirts (I made a little sister onesie for the baby from a onesie I had) it cost me less than $5 (that's counting the ink I used from the printer, I already had the iron-on transfer paper).

A lesson in Waiting on God.

"God has a time for everything and He works in us what needs to be done to prepare us for what is ahead. Having a sense of God's timing brings the peace to wait on the Lord for it" - Stormie Omartian

The quote above is one the struck me this morning as I continue my study thru the book "The Power of a Praying Wife". So often it is easy for me to get caught up in trying to fix or change things rather than waiting on God's perfect timing and resting in the fact that He is using every situation to prepare me for what is to come next.

This theme of waiting on God is one I have noticed as I've also been reading thru the Psalms. Here are a few recent ones I've read.
Psalm 37:7 "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass"
Psalm 37:34 "Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut of, thou shalt see it"
Psalm 39:7 "And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee."
Psalm 40:1 "I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry."

Another book that I have is called "Tea Time with God" and is one that I actually keep in the bathroom. It is full of scripture and short 1-2 page stories that are a great "pick-me-up". Today's reading was entitled "Which way is up?" and the theme verse was Hebrews 13:5 "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee" The author related the story of a speedboat racer who was in a terrible accident and was thrown from his boat. When he was under water he had spun so much that he had no idea which way was up.

"He had to remain calm and wait for the buoyancy of his life vest to begin pulling him toward the surface to know where it was." "Life can put us in a tailspin at times, making us wonder, 'Which way is up?' We can lose our sense of direction and the focus which keeps us on course. How do we recover our bearings? The answer may be as simple as that discovered by the speedboat driver: Stay calm and let the 'upward pull' bring you to the surface. The upward pull in our lives is that which looks beyond our finite selves to the greater reality of God."

It is so easy to get caught up in life and all of it's demands that I forget to patiently wait on God for His timing and direction. It's easy to get impatient when things aren't going according to my timeline or to start to panic when I can't see how a situation will be resolved. What a gift though that God has given us in His Word. To remind all of us that He is in control and that we only need to rest in Him and trust in His timing for every situation.

A quick update.

I thought I would just do a quick update. We are doing well, I had my 32 wk appointment yesterday and both the baby & I are doing well. I do have some water retention and have started having pregnancy induced carpal tunnel again (I had this when I was pregnant with Ethan also). I have been trying to increase my fluid intake and am once again wearing my wrist brace at night.

This week has been nice as it's been much less busy than the last few months. I've really enjoyed being home and just spending some relaxing time with the kids. I have started to work at the projects on my "to-do" list also. So far I have made alot of progress on the hoodie sweater I'm making for Ethan, I had my car inspected, froze some meatballs & sauce for after the baby is born, and have kept up with the housework. I plan to really get busy on making the rest of the meals in the next week or two. I'm planning to make a big pot of chicken soup tomorrow and freezing half of that for after the baby is born.

So that is what we've been up to. Oh, and I wanted to share a quick story of how God has provided. After having Hailey we weren't planning on having any more kids so I sold all my maternity and baby clothes on E-bay. When I found out I was expecting again my sister offered me her maternity clothes, our taste in clothes can be very different so I took some but not all. I spent some money on some more clothes (mostly off of E-bay) so I had "enough" but not a huge selection. A few months ago my pastor's wife (who just had a baby in June) gave me a bag of her maternity clothes which included several nice summer dresses (something I was very much lacking). As for the baby clothes, my neighbor is big into going to yard sales so she had brought me a bag of baby clothes several months back and I had picked some up at the few yard sales I had been to this summer. I washed all the clothes and realized how few I still had, I had been watching several auctions on E-bay but the ones I liked went for way more money than I really wanted to spend. Once again, my pastor's wife offered me clothes, she said I could have all of the clothes that her baby girl has outgrown. So now I'm going to wait and see what I still need but I think this little girl should be set at least for the first couple of months (and I already know she's getting some clothes for Christmas!!).

I have realized how blessed we truly are and how perfect God's timing is for providing all that we need and how He truly does more than we could ever ask.