My Baby is 7!

Yes, today is the day. Today is the day my baby turns 7! Where did they years go? It seems like yesterday I was giving birth, and ecstatically yelling "It's a Baby! It's a Baby!" As my husband always comments, "What did you expect?"

I want to take this time to tell the story of my first birth. After "trying" to become pregnant for so long, I was finally pregnant! When I first found out I was pregnant, I screamed and cried. Warren kept asking me if I was happy, DUH! I guess he didn't expect the tears! Three weeks later we had the scare of our lives! I started spotting. The doctor did an ultrasound and said that everything looked good, but to take it easy. Sunday nights while we were at the seminary, we were a part of a wonderful Bible Study group. We took turns meeting at each other's homes. The group was coming to our house that week, since I wasn't supposed to get out and about. About 5 minutes before our group was to arrive, I felt a gush. I was bleeding...very heavily! I immediately started crying and called our doctor. He said to meet him at the ER. Our friends arrived while we were waiting for him to call us back. They all wanted to stay at our house to pray for us. Not only did they stay, but they cleaned my kitchen (I had been on bed rest for about 2 weeks by now...my kitchen needed a good cleaning!)

When we arrived at the hospital, the first doctor I saw was SOOO insensitive! He said that with the amount of blood I had lost, there "was no baby." No baby??? No baby? Just like that???? But the wonderful nurse kept asking if he was SURE he didn't want to get an OB consult. Thank God for that nurse! The consult came down and did an ultrasound...there was our little jelly bean, jumping and wiggling...heartbeat flashing away! My doctor came down before I left (he was delivering a baby upstairs). He said to continue to take it easy, but that they didn't know why I was bleeding, but that the baby looked great.

That night, while laying in our bed, Warren and I cried because we were afraid we were loosing our baby. We prayed, talked, and just held each other. He did the sweetest thing that night! He talked to my tummy (the baby) and told her all about Jesus. He said that if we lost her, he wanted to be sure we would get to hold her in heaven. Just the memory of that brings tears to my eyes.

Anyway, fast forward to 7 months later...Warren had graduated from the seminary, and we moved to Iowa where he would serve his first congregation. We found an awesome midwife to help us in the delivery! As I posted the other day, I had "false" labor 3 days before the "real" labor. My parents came when I was in "false" labor, but dad had to leave to get back to work on Sunday evening. Mom thought it would be soon, so she decided to stay. It's a good thing she did! About 5:00 the next morning, I woke up with contractions. I took a shower about 6:30, and then we left for the hospital around 8. Belinda (the midwife) checked me and said that I was only dilated to about 4, my water hadn't broken, so she said sometime in the afternoon, we would have a baby. An hour later, they checked me again and I was now at a 6-7 with a bulging bag...but the nurse said that I would probably close up a bit when the bag of waters broke. Warren said that I gave her a look of death about the closing up comment. Right when the nurse was finishing that comment, the water popped, after getting things cleaned up, they left me to "rest up." Fifteen (yes, 15!) minutes later, I told Warren and my Mom that I had to push. Warren looked at me and said "It's not after lunch yet!" TOUGH! My mom looked at me and said she was going to get the nurse. The nurse came in and lifted up the sheet, didn't even come close to me. Dropped the sheet, ran into the hall and yelled at the other nurse "Call Binky (the midwife's nickname) and get your catchers mitt, NOW!" Belinda arrived about 1 minute later (the clinic was attached to the hospital) and two pushes later, little Abbigail Grace was born. So tiny. 5 pounds 10 oz, 18 inches long. Such a little cutie, full head of dark brown hair. Oh, what an experience! From the first contractions until she was in my arms was a total of about 5 1/2 hours. About 5 minutes after she was born, I looked at my mom and said "I want to do this again!" Everyone started laughing!

My baby is now 7 years old. 7..7...7...are you sure? She can't be that old! She's a wonderful, delightful, sensitive, beautiful, caring, smart, loving, fun little girl, and I wouldn't trade her for the world!

Abbigail, thank you for being my "biggest girl." Thank you for helping me with everything, and being so patient with me while I'm still trying to figure this whole mommy thing out. Thank you for loving me, daddy, Andrew, & Bethany. I'm so proud of how much you love everything, from ladybugs and caterpillars, to small children, and especially Jesus. You are so beautiful, outside, but most importantly, inside. You have the most caring heart I have ever known. I love you!

Love-Mommy

PS...what did I expect when I said "It's a baby!" I had had 3 dreams while pregnant that I gave birth to a kitten...even dreamed about nursing it (OUCH!) So I was very relieved it was a human child...and the best little girl ever! (until Bethany came along, now they both share that title!)

Don't you just love her long hair? About a month after this picture was taken, she had her hair cut into a short bob...and donated her ponytail to locks of love. What a big heart she has! Cute with long hair, cute with short hair!

Happy Birthday Bethany!!!

Three years ago today was one of the saddest and happiest days of my life. The day started at 4:00 in the morning. When your phone rings at that time of the night, you know it's not good. It was my brother-in-law. My husband's father had just died. My husband's family lives about 13 hours (by car) away from us. How were we going to be able to go to be with the family when I was ready to pop??? I was scheduled to be induced 4 days later. There was no way I could travel. My husband said that he was not going to leave me here alone. He would not be going to his father's funeral. He decided that since it was still the middle of the night, he was going back to bed to try to get some rest. I couldn't sleep...I finally got up around 5:30 and called the hospital I was to deliver at and asked their advice. They called my doctor and she called me right back. She said that she considered this a family emergency and that she would induce me as soon as I could get to the hospital so that my husband could still travel to be with his family. We called my parents (they live about 4 hours away) and my mom packed and was probably on her way to me before we were even out the door. Some wonderful friends came and got our two older children so that we could go have #3.

The doctor came in and broke my water, and nothing. She started pitocin...LOTS of contractions, but the baby's heart rate kept dropping, so they would have to stop the pit. What a day!!! I was so scared. One nurse kept talking about having a c-section. That was NOT going to happen!! Warren and I had studied the Bradley Method of child-birth and both of our previous births had been completely natural. The pitocin was started on and off throughout the day, but each time, baby's heart rate would drop, and they would stop it. About 6:00 in the evening, the doctor said that we were just going to do this. So, the pit was turned on again, and this time they didn't turn it off. I was put on oxygen to help the heart rate, and it always came back up after the contractions. At 7:00, my doc said that the baby would be here before 8:00. She was right! Bethany came at 7:56. What a miracle. I was so happy, thankful, and sad at the same time. Bethany would never get to meet her wonderful Papa. The nurse wanted to take her and clean her up, but I just couldn't let go.

Our friends arrived at the hospital about 30 minutes after Bethany was born...with big brother and sister! They had no idea when the baby would be coming, they just thought they would check on us and let the kids tell us good night! My mom took our kids home and put them to bed. Warren stayed with us in the hospital until about 11:00, then we said goodbye. He went home to sleep a bit and left early the next morning to go to his family. Finally, all was quiet, and at about midnight, the nurse finally got to wash Bethany! I just couldn't let he take her away. I felt like I had lost part of myself that day, he was only my father-in-law, but he was such a wonderful man. I went with her to the nursery to "help" with the bath and the newborn tests that had to be done. Then we went back to our room to sleep (as much as you can at the hospital!).

One of the nurses told me that she had never seen a woman deliver on Pitocin without pain control. She also said that it had been a very long time since she had seen a couple work together that well during labor and delivery.

The next morning, the doctor came in to check on us and said that we could go home....WHAT!!! I thought I had to stay in the hospital for 2-3 days like I had with my other two. But this doctor said that with all that was going on with my family, and the stress of being apart, we would recover and be better off at home! He said we had to stay until that afternoon, but could go home about 3:00! My mom brought my two other children and they all picked us up when Bethany was less than 20 hours old. If we had known that we were going to be released that day, Warren would have stayed home, and we all would have traveled together. It would have been so hard, but at least we would have been together. I felt so bad that he had to drive all that way by himself, to attend his father's funeral, without his wife or children.

That Sunday, my mom and the kids and I went to church (Bethany was not even a full 2 days old at this point). One of the elders read the sermon that Warren had written for that Sunday. And as it turned out, all the songs for that Sunday seemed to have a "funeral feel" to them. I sat in the back row with my newborn babe, crying my eyes out. I has having my own little personal private goodbye time.

So, forever, Bethany's birthday is a wonderful day, with a bitter remembrance as well. I can't forget that this is the day that my husband lost his father, my mother-in-law lost her husband, and my children lost their Papa.

This year, Bethany is turning THREE!!! What a BIG girl she has become! She is nearly toilet-trained, and she really has a mind of her own! She loves all thing princess, and baby. Whenever she sees a baby, she says "Awww, cute little baby baby." She pretends to feed and tickle her own babies (which she is collecting quite a few!). She received another Cabbage Patch baby this morning, that makes 4! One blond-haired, green eyed, Katie. One brown, curly-haired, brown eyed, Lucy. One little Asian baby, Jojo. And today's addition, blond-haired, hazel eyed, Zoey. I'm on the lookout to get her a little African-American baby for Christmas! Quite the multi-cultural little family she has! I tried to get her the African one for her birthday, but we live in a very rural part of the state, not a lot of diversity in our population, so Wal-Mart doesn't carry a lot of diversity in their dolls!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BETHANY!!! YOU'LL ALWAYS BE MY BABY!