For those who like to hear birth stories :)

Oh what a delight to have our little guy in our arms!  Especially after all the waiting :)  A few ladies  have asked about my birth story so I thought I'd share...
We went in early on the 22nd to be induced.  We were only at the hospital a few minutes when we saw (Keith says we were tackled) Cheryl, a nurse in the mother/baby unit who we know from our church.  She was just getting off her shift but said she'd be back at 7 that night.  A wonderful greeting to begin our day :)
We chose Friday the 22nd for a few reasons, one being my favorite doctor (Dr. Jones) in the practice I go to would be on call that day.  She thought I would just need to have my water broken to get things going.  So after my round of antibiotics (I was positive for strep B) she broke it at 9:30.  Things got going but I was making no progress after a few hours (stuck at 2 cm just like the past almost two weeks), so pitocin was started and the contractions quickly got stronger.
Keith was just wonderful through the whole thing, and I remembering commenting that I'm glad I don't have to watch him do this :)  God is certainly wise in assigning our roles!  Before I started pitocin we had alternated walking 40 minutes and monitoring 20 minutes, so at least we weren't stuck in the room, but after pitocin began I was stuck.  Keith read aloud from a book on Jonathan Edwards, and though I have no idea what he was reading, it was soothing to hear his voice.  And he kept me laughing when I wasn't in pain.  As he shared on facebook, the funniest moment was when he pretended to read the ingredients on my IV bag and said high fructose corn syrup was the first ingredient :)  This after we laughed about the nutritional value of all the Popsicles I'd been downing!

Dr. Jones was such an encouragement, even as I made no progress and the hours dragged on.  She was certain I would just progress all at once, which was exactly what happened.  I got an epidural around 5, when I couldn't take the pain anymore and I was still only 2 cm.  The nurse checked me again around 6:15 and I was still 2 cm.  Dr. Jones came in shortly after that, just before her shift ended, and was stunned to hear I still hadn't progressed.  At this point I'm beginning to think I'm going to end up having a c-section because this kid just doesn't want to come out :) but she encouraged me again that she really thought I would go all at once. 
Around 6:45 the nurse checked me again--8 cm!!  Oh, I was so happy!  And within another 15 minutes the nurse had called  the doctor and he was on his way because I was 10 cm.  The doctor now on call was one I had never met and was completely opposite of Dr. Jones. She's very animated and talkative.  He is a much older, quiet, stoic Jewish man.  But he got the job done well!  After about 10 minutes of pushing, there was our precious little BOY!  It really was fun to not know what they would announce.  Since it was after 8, our friend Cheryl was back on duty and she came in to ask if she could take care of us--I was so glad to have her as our nurse! 
We called the grandparents and then I was able to let him nurse.  Then Keith was off to get me some food!!  A huge burrito from Chipotle wouldn't fit in my stomach when I was pregnant, but it was no match for my hunger at the end of that day!   And a Krispy Kreme doughnut too :)  We won't talk about the nutritional value of that :)
Sometime the next day we were about settled on the name Luke.  When Keith brought the kids up just before dinner and Samy says out of the blue "I love Luke!" in her sweet voice, it sealed the deal!
We were discharged Easter Sunday.  Made it home before 1 pm!

Here we are a week later, and I'm feeling good.  Luke is sleeping well, though we had a few really tough nights.  The kids frequently just stop what they're doing and come give him hugs and kisses.  They love when his eyes are open and they talk to him and wave at him.  My mom arrived Monday night and has been a HUGE help!  Don't know what I'd do without her :)

Pictures of Luke

Sorry for the long wait for pictures, been a little busy. I was afraid all those grandparents would be calling to yell at me if I didn't get some up today :) Without further ado...

It's a boy!!!

Our newest addition arrived Friday, April 22nd at 8:09pm--one really big boy weighing in at 9 pounds 8 ounces and 21 3/4 inches long.  And thankfully he was my fastest labor (unless you count the last 2 weeks of contractions!).  I'll have to give the full low-down on all the wonderful way God answered our prayers in my next post, just wanted to get the announcement out there and a picture or two.  Oh and I think we've settled on Luke Jerome (after my dad) but I guess it won't be official until we've signed the forms :)  here are a couple pictures...

Awaiting baby

Since mom and dad came up a week ago yesterday, I've certainly been more desirous for this baby to come sooner than later! But God had other plans. It was wonderful to get my parents here for a week without a newborn to take care of :) My dad and Keith got most all the electrical in the house fixed, and Mom and I got to go to the tag sale! They left after lunch today and my mom will return after baby comes, probably on Monday. Oh, that's the big news for now: if I don't have the baby by this Friday morning I'm going to the hospital and the doc is going to break my water to get the ball rolling! The end is in sight!
So for now we just wait and enjoy the last two nights of sleep without nursing and diaper changes. Oh my, that really is going to happen isn't it!  Yikes :)

All this waiting certainly has been revealing of my heart--a desire for control, impatience with God's timing, thinking I know better how things should go, fear of what others think about me and my false alarms, anxiety over what we'll do without my parents to take care of the kids, etc. etc.
Nothing like a good squeeze to get some sin out of your heart :) But all that sin was met by God's grace and I am the richer for it! I know He will meet all our needs for child care and meals. I know He has the perfect birthday planned for our little one. I know He holds this baby in His hands and me as well. I know His grace is sufficient for today, and that will be true tomorrow as well.

We will try our best to keep you updated! We would appreciate your prayers as the waiting ends and labor begins :)

Samantha's Fourth Birthday and Easter Egg Hunt

Our little girl turned four yesterday!  Hard to believe it's been that long since we had her and we are so grateful the Lord put her in our family!  She is snuggly and gentle, tender and caring, inquisitive and observant.  She can remember every detail of stories we read.  We laugh that she knows her Sunday school answers :)  The story of the Sunday school teacher asking the class "What is small, brown, furry and gathers acorns?"  And the class answering "Jesus!"  That would be Samy :)  But she also has such a tender heart and growing faith in the Lord!  One day after being corrected for her bad attitude, she asked me without prompting if we could pray for her.  She is frequently aware of how her sin hurts her Heavenly Father.

We celebrated with cake a week early just in case we were at the hospital for her real birthday.  Our neighbors came over to enjoy the cake with us.  And Saturday we had ice cream sundaes and opened presents.  She's so opposite of her brother, who is VERY expressive.  She on the other hand didn't crack a smile while we sang, but was concentrating fully of blowing out the candles.  And even opening presents, I saw very few smiles and certainly no squeals of excitment like her brother (or mom for that matter!).

We also had our egg hunt with Grammy and Papaw since they're here and we are still awaiting baby.  Here's some pics...

Home again

A very disappointing night for Keith and I as we rushed to the hospital around 7, but got sent home at midnight.  I started having contractions appearing to me to be real labor on Monday evening.  I was certain that night we would be going in the next day.  My parents drove up Tuesday.  I continued to go in spurts of contractions, some really painful, but in the morning they would always subside.  Yesterday they were getting super strong and had been 8-10 minutes apart for an hour, then 3-5 minutes apart for another hour and it was getting really intense.  I was so certain "this is it!"  I shouldn't have said that :)  So after dinner we headed down to the hospital, got checked in and put on the monitors.  By then the contractions were already a little less intense, but continued to be close together.  The monitor was picking them up every 2-3 minutes, but I was only 2 cm and 50% effaced (which is what I had been the day before when I got checked by the doctor at the office).  So the doc had us walk around for an hour and come back to the monitors.  I was up to 75% effaced, but still no more dilated.  My contractions were further apart, but more intense.  After about 20 minutes (just when the nurse was coming to tell us we could go home), the baby's heart rate dropped below 100 (normally 120-160) for about 30 seconds or so.  So the doctor wanted me to get an ultrasound just to make sure everything was OK.  So we got to see little baby's face and tiny hands and wiggly body :)  we made sure we didn't see the sex!  Everything was fine, they figure baby just grabbed the cord and then let go.  Back to the monitor, then got checked again...no progress, so home we came at midnight. 
I was definitely disappointed not to be holding my baby, struggling with pride too after four days of false alarms.  The contractions continued as we drove home and went to bed, but have subsided this morning. 
No matter how you slice it, it can't be long now with my due date this Wednesday!  We will keep ya posted.