Pregnant no more!

Well hooray for a new baby and the return of sleeping on my stomach! Phew - that was a long nine months but our Jackson is HERE and we are sooo excited! He came into the world last Sunday, March 16th crying his lungs out, weighing in at 8lbs 11oz - yikes! That's a big baby!

It started Sunday morning at 4:30am - I was awake walking around the house when I bent over to get my phone - a gush of something nasty came out and I said "uh oh." Tony then said, "what's 'uh oh'?" I said, "I think my water broke." Well, I then proceeded to take a shower, shave my legs and then do what any pregnant mama should do when they think their water breaks - wait for Trader Joe's to open at 8am so I could get some grocery shopping done before we went to the hospital. So I stuck a pad on (sorry for all of this TMI stuff) and waddled around a grocery store. Ha! I am an idiot sometimes. But I really needed to go to the store!

So we get to the hospital and they ask if I've been having contractions. "Yes, sometimes - maybe every 20 minutes or so." So I get hooked up to the monitors and it turns out I am having contractions but not every 20 minutes - more like every 4-5. So they tell us we will be admitted to the hospital. Hooray!

 I ended up having a c-section (I had one scheduled for the next day anyway) and since then, everything has been just awesome. The recovery from surgery this time seems easier, breastfeeding is WAY EASIER, and you just know more about how to care for a human being the second time around - MUCH MORE RELAXING!! With your first child, it's like "here's your child - good luck to you!" and you try to tackle breastfeeding, figuring out if you should pump between feedings, do you change your child's diaper if they are sound asleep, etc - very overwhelming. So this time around - ahhhhh, much easier in many ways. A little tricky though too since there is another child in the mix who still has a jog-a-thon at school, school picture money to turn in - and oh yeah, a birthday party to attend (to name a few). Luckily, that has all gone well too. Phew, what a juggling act. I don't know how people with more than two kids do it - I have the utmost respect for those of you out there! Seriously.

 We seriously though could not have done any of this without help from family. My mom and Tony's mom seriously saved the day with taking Ava to and from school, feeding her, cleaning up dishes, feeding us - it was freaking awesome to just BE and only have to focus on feeding a baby, spending time with Ava, eating, showering, and sleeping. Then my sister came to visit which was great - Ava got to play all day with her cousins, my sister jumped to get me water or anything else I needed - again, FREAKING AWESOME. 

Praise the Lord though that it is Ava's spring break this week and Tony is still off work. It is 11am and we are all still in our pajamas. So that will be the big task next week - can we get our child to school with some food packed, looking decent all before 8am? Hmmmm, we will see.

But seriously, perfect timing from the Lord when our Jackson would arrive - He knew we would need some time to adjust and spring break for Ava was the answer! Seriously. Love it. So my heart is full and our family feels full and I am just so in love with Tony, Ava, and Jackson. My cup runneth over.

-Emily

Just a couple more days . . . :)

It's soooo quiet in my house right now. It's 4:29am and I am just sitting in the living room finishing up some things I wanted to get done before our new baby arrives. I paid some bills, updated my young living oil autoship order, and even laid out Ava's outfit for Monday since it will be Saint Patrick's Day and she needs to wear green.

Because this baby will be here Monday at the latest. I have a c-section scheduled if I don't have him between now and Monday. And seeing that it is already 4:31am on Saturday morning, I don't see myself spontaneously going into labor in the next two days. So Monday it is! We will have a Saint Patrick's baby.

Everything is ready to go - like, literally everything. From Ava's Big Sister gift being wrapped and ready to be opened to the money we will pay Monday morning for my c-section.

It's so wonderful the way God works. And you can see Him working when you seriously hand everything over to Him to arrange - not that we just then sit back and do nothing - being prepared, active, and wise etc is huge too. But to constantly look to Him and then not have that WORRY is one of the greatest feelings ever.

He seriously arranged so many things this past week just to make it that much easier for us to move forward with peace and security. We received a generous gift in the mail of four gift cards which was AMAZING and totally out of the blue. One of our tax returns was just deposited into our checking account today. AMAZING. And I love watching all of this come into play - because I literally smile or tear up and immediately think, "Thank you, Lord." And I relax even more and even laugh a little thinking back to all those years when I would worry about finances or how things would be - and of course things would be stressful because the Lord was not included in the equation. So what a comforting and secure feeling to wait and see everything unfold so perfectly. My cup runneth over.

So our little boy will be here very soon. And we are ready. And soooo excited. We have waited and waited and waited for this day. And my heart will grow again when he is born as I will have another baby to love.

"If I am thinking correctly," said Pooh, "a new baby is probably, undoubtedly, the grandest gift that ever could be."

-Emily

Moms Just Know

Mom's just know - or they should know probably, or maybe they don't know so if that's the case, then I don't know and just forget it.

But, I just knew that Ava needed an antibiotic yesterday and I was not leaving urgent care until I got it from the doctor. I seriously was not leaving. My huge uterus was staying put in the chair until I was handed the prescription. Which is seriously a little weird for me because I have always just listened to doctors, did what they said, and didn't speak up. But this is what I did last year when Ava got pneumonia - I just went along with the doctor even though her temp kept rising, and even though I kept calling them to give them updates, and even then they still told me it was just a virus and "let it run it's course." And look where that got us? A trip to the ER with a child who had a 106.2 temperature - yes you read that right! 106.2! And how did they treat it? With antibiotics.

So naturally my anxiety started to rise when the doctor wanted to just send us on home yesterday and told us Ava had the flu and to just rest. I will have to say I am proud of myself for remaining calm at 9 months pregnant but also clearly explaining my case and advocating for Ava. Ava had puss pockets on her throat and was coughing up awful green phlegm! And was now running a temp! In my head, I'm thinking "this is an infection." And an infection she has had before that cleared up beautifully with antibiotics and then we were all on our merry way in life. So she listened to what I had to say but then said that she would prescribe Ava tamiflu and cough medicine - not an antibiotic. NOOOO!!! - is what I was shouting in my head. But out of my mouth came something very tame but also very clearly showed that I did not agree and yes, me and my huge uterus are still sitting here until you change your mind.

Now, I'm totally not saying we just always need to battle the doctors we see because most are wise and helpful - not saying this AT ALL. I have tons of respect for the doctor's we have for our family and are great! But I just felt like once this doctor honed in on "it's the flu," it blinded her to see anything else. So hooray to the doctor who took the time to listen to me even though she might have thought I was one of "those moms."

So last night, she took the antibiotic, and after that, didn't cough once, went to school today and is jumping around. It was not the flu. She is doing wonderful!

So listen to your instincts mamas! And when we need to be an advocate, I believe there is a way to do this with grace, manners, but some firmness, etc. Now of course, I have sucked at this on many occasions and just ended up sounding mean and degrading. So I am still working on it. But I want to show Ava it is okay to disagree with people but we can still be kind. Man, this whole parenting thing is so amazingly intricate! But it is the best job in the world!

- Emily