My 2nd born child

!haha i serisely got just passed around from house to hosue while my mom was in the hospital having becca....one day it was my brothers and then the next day it was my uncles!!!! it was just becasue becca was so hard to bring into this world...the see section and all but i was a purfect 7 pound baby who just came right out!!!!!!lol
Well after reading this from my daughter, I've decided to write something about her birth.
After waiting many years to finally get pregnant and carry through the pregnancy full term, the day finally came when I went into labour. I had to call my husband at work and ask him to come home. We were both excited as we had been married for 11 years, and despite our attempts to have children, I either couldn't get pregnant, or when I did I miscarried usually early in the first term. We had gone the route of trying various things, and medications, and I'd been on Clomid to increase our chances of fertility. I did get pregnant a few times during that period but never seemed to be able to get very far into the pregnancy before I suffered a miscarriage. Eventually we stopped all the extra efforts, and we decided that if it was meant to be then it would happen. I never stopped praying about it, and asking God to bless us with a child. While I had many miscarriages, I finally found a doctor who was able to give me hope. He felt my body was not producing enough progesterone which was necessary to carry a pregnancy full term. When I became pregnant again, and was able to find out early, they started me on progesterone, which I continued for a certain period. It worked! While I was sick alot during my pregnancy, I did manage to carry thro' full term.
I can't begin to even describe how happy and blessed I felt that God had finally answered my prayers to have another child. I really didn't care if it was a girl or boy so long as the baby was healthy, although I must admit, I was secretly hoping and praying for a beautiful little girl. As my labour progressed, I worried about what I might have to go thro'. The birth of my first child had not been an easy one, and I almost died. Despite that, I was prepared to take that risk, and desperately wanted another child. As the labour progressed, so did the pain. I had a lot of back pain, especially in my lower back. At times the pain thro' my back was so bad I hardly knew what to do with myself. As things progressed, I tried my best to keep things as natural as possible. Finally the baby was born, and I was so happy to find out it was a beautiful, healthy 7-pound 14-ounce girl. I got to see her briefly before they whisked her off to check her and hand her over to her dad. Almost immediately I felt like I was drifting away, and they were working fast to take care of me as I had hemhorraged. It was awhile before I was able to see & hold her, but eventually I did have that opportunity and I was so thrilled to finally hold my new baby daughter in my arms. God let me be ok, and blessed us with a healthy child after all the years I'd waited. My firstborn son was 17 years old, so it had been awhile, and I was elated. My greatest and most heartfelt prayer had been answered.
I was anxious to breastfeed this baby, and determined that I was going to do that. Unfortunately my daughter had other things on her mind, and unfortunately had already been given a bottle while I recovered after the delivery. She wasn't nursing properly. Anxious to succeed, I spoke to the nurses & health nurse, and was given several methods of trying to encourage the nursing, via a few different types of tube feeding, and pumping my milk. I was allowed to go home 3 days after her birth, on my birthday, and it was a wonderful birthday present. I'd like to say that things changed overnight, and she started nursing right away, but it took quite a number of weeks of pumping milk and trying to feed her again and again, till she finally latched on. She was also colicky during those first 5 or 6 months, but I didn't care. I was so just so happy to have my precious little girl that I was just happy to hold her & cuddle her and take her everywhere. Her daddy seemed pretty happy to have her here as well, and seemed to delight in holding her and checking on her at night time. My parents were delighted and thrilled with the birth of their first
grandaughter. My mother had fun knitting for her, and going out and buying some adorable little dresses for her. When the day came that I had to return to work, my parents offered to help us out by looking after her. That worked out great, until the day my mom's health worsened and she stared suffering with congestive heart failure. At that point I was forced to look for someone else to look after her, and was fortunate to find a wonderful Christian lady who seemed to enjoy caring for children. During those days and times, I was always so happy & delighted in spending time with my precious little girl, and feeling so blessed with such a wonderful and amazing gift. She was indeed a true miracle from God, and worth every bit of pain & work that I had to go thro' to have her. Love you so very much Jen. One day,(and I hope it's many years from now) when you are older, I hope you will know the joy & blessing of holding your own precious bundle & miracle in your arms. xo xo xo xo

My daughters birthday

Yesterday was my daughter's birthday. I let her choose where she wanted to go for dinner, and we ended up at A&W. The food was ok, but it sure has changed a lot from the days I remember it from. Anyway, that was her choice, so that's where we went. I can't believe she is already 11 years old. Only one more year and she'll be officially old enough to babysit. Wow, that's so hard to believe. She's my last born, and 'my' baby, and she's getting so grown up, just like her big sister.
When we were done eating supper, we decided to go up and walk thro' WalMart to get a few things. The girls decided they really wanted to go over to our Pastor's house to see his family, and most of all their newborn baby daughter Esther who was born only 6 days ago now. I didn't want to just land in on them, so I got Jen to call and make sure it was ok, then went looking for a little gift for their other two adorable children. I figured since we were taking a gift for the baby, it was important for the kids to know we hadn't forgotten about them. Isn't it amazing how a little baby doll, and a toy jeep can hold their interest for awhile?
My girls were so thrilled to be able to hold this little newborn girl. I just can't imagine where they got that fascination for newborns...lol Hmmm, I've always loved and enjoyed holding a newborn baby and marvelling at the miracle of such a wonderful and amazing creation. They are so innocent and perfect and tiny at that time, and I can never seem to get enough of holding a newborn in my arms and cuddling them close as I watch their little chests go up and down and marvel at their tiny little fingers & toes. God certainly gave us a beautiful and amazing gift with the creation of our children.
I remember back to 11 years ago when Becca was born, and I was so thrilled at the precious gift & miracle of life that I was blessed with. Now there were times when I doubted that I would be here to share her life with her, after I hemhoraged badly even after the C-section, and I also had a bad reaction to the epidural. While I hemhoraged, they handed my newborn daughter to her father, tied my tubes, and closed me up and gave me the medication I needed to stop me from hemhoraging. That first day I was unable to even get out of bed, or change her diaper, but despite how I felt, I insisted I be allowed to nurse her. When they tried to get me up the following day, I found I couldn't even sit up or hold my head up without terrible pain. As I continued to get weaker, they ended up trying several proceedures as they felt I had fluid leaking from the spine. When I continued to get worse, and slip in and out of consciousness, they finally realized I was not in very good shape. My husband called our family doctor in an effort to get something done, as I was not doing too good. I truly felt I was sinking away, and not going to make it. Turns out I was indeed going downhill. When my family dr. came in and saw what was happening, he arranged to give me blood transfusions, and my Christian friends held me in their prayers. By the grace of God I did survive, and was able to finally come home with my newborn and be with my other daughter who had been passed around amongst my family and friends who took good care of her. What a welcome relief that was, and certainly an answer to prayer. I am truly thankful for both of my daughters, and so glad that I have been given this time to be with them.

This past weekend my family went to help some friends with their roof. I'm afraid I wasn't very much help as I'm not able to do a whole lot. It was really cold and damp, and that only helps add to my pain and stiffness. Unfortunately there was a lot to do and those who were out working were trying to do all they could despite the cold damp weather, and the rain the following day. Time is becoming an issue, as the weather continues to get colder.
Saturday I came back home and got some food, and picked up a friend then went back to attend a ladies potluck dinner which we were supposed to be going to. Part way thro' the evening, someone informed us that it was snowing outside. YUCK...it's just too early for it to be snowing. It's still October. It can't be. Despite the ground being snow covered, and the snow falling down rapidly all around them, a number of the ladies put on their swim suits, and braved the elements and ran outside in their bare feet in order to enjoy the pleasure of the hot tub. I didn't take my suit, so I sat and spent a little time with my knitting, and waiting till someone decided to come back in. When my friend came back in, we decided to get ready and head home before things got too bad. Well there was much more snow than I had expected, and it was still coming down quite hard. I wasn't sure if I should go down the highway, or one of the back roads, but since the visibility was getting worse I didn't waste any timd, and decided to head down the back road. Between the driving snow, and the darkness of the night, it was really difficult to see much of anything in front of me. There wasn't much of a choice but to keep on going so that's what I did. I drove slowly, and just kept my eyes on the middle line. When someone wanted to drive past, I slowed down and let them pass me. It was a little scarry at times esp. since you could hardly see anything at times. It took us a lot longer than normal, but we needed to both get home, so I just kept my hands on the steering wheel, and kept driving. I can't believe we had all that snow so early in the year, but it happened. Thankfully most of it was gone by the following day, but it was a reminder of the snow that is to come....one that I did not need and one that I can certainly wait for. Perhaps it won't come for awhile!

Plans change as we take things one day at a time

Sometimes the best of plans are changed overnight, and we never quite know what to expect in life.
Recently my eldest daughter came down really sick and complaining of stomach pains. She was unable to keep anything down in her stomach, and the pain was getting worse, so I ended up taking her to emergency at the hospital around midnight one day. Since my husband was away, I had to get my youngest one up out of bed, and we headed off to the ER. Once checked in, she ended up having to have a variety of tests done, was given different medications for the pain, and also for infection. Since nothing would stay down, they finally ended up giving her some needles, and also putting her on an IV in order to try and settle things down. This seemed to do the trick and she was able to finally doze off and get a little rest while we sat there with her. At 6am they decided to send her home as they couldn't really seem to find anything wrong. My youngest came back and grabbed a little sleep, then went off to school, while I layed down for a few hours. By the afternoon, Jen was back up with a fever & still in pain, so I went to get a prescription filled to try it. The following day brought more pain, that just wasn't going away, so off we headed for the ER again. This time we had to wait 6 hours in order to be seen by someone, and all the while Jen's pain was getting worse, and she's had nothing to help it. When they finally took her in, and checked her out, they had to order more tests, and call in another doctor. At that point in time, they finally decided her appendix was the problem and wanted her admitted, with surgery scheduled for the following day. This time at least, her sister was at least with friends and getting some sleep. I decided to stay with Jen, and went with her to her room. She was on IV and given pain medication, and an antibiotic as well, so we both decided to try and get some rest.Unfortunately her pain was not improving at all and she was in a lot of pain, and really couldn't rest. Around 3am, she was up in tears complaining that the pain was worse than ever, and unable to get comfortable. We called the nurse, who in turn contacted the doctor, and she was given more pain medication. Then they checked her temp. and discovered it had gone way up to 39.6 oC, which I understand is pretty high. The nurse didn't waste anytime calling up to the surgeon, and I knew something was up, and her appendix had likely burst...and I was right. The surgeon was just finishing up with another major surgery, and didn't end up wasting time having her sent up to surgery to have her appendix removed. Between surgery and recovery, she was gone for 2 hours. I was left to wait by myself in the front lobby till the doctor came out to tell me that the surgery was over and had gone well. I was told to go back down to her room to wait for her so that's what I did. She was back in her room before 5:30am, and was awake, and complaining about the tube that ran down her nose to her stomach. I'm sure it had to be pretty uncomfortable. With surgery over, I stretched out on the chair that folded out into a bed, and tried to sleep with little success. Jen tried to rest, but with the nurses coming in and out, and the noise in the hall, we were both lucky to doze off for a few moments. Jen is pretty sore, and in pain, and running a fever but she's doing ok,and had a few visitors over the afternoon. Someone whose name I won't mention, came in and took her picture with the tube still in her nose, so she wasn't very impressed. Hmmm, I'm not sure why! Ok guess I wouldn't like that either, but it does seem interesting when it's someone else. Hope I get to see that picture. Her father happened to show up in the evening, when he got home early and found a note so he came over to the hospital.
With the evening came the reality that I wasn't going to be able to go away for the weekend with the rest of the ladies as planned, but as much as I'm sad to have missed my weekend away, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else when my children are ill. They are my life and I hope they know how much I love them. I'm just glad that I was still at home and not away when she took sick and had her appendix burst.
We are certainly blessed to have some amazing friends and very caring people in our lives. Many came to visit, or called to see how Jen was & brought in or sent little gifts, and spent time praying for her.
The doctor decided to release her earlier than we had expected, so she was home on her 4rth day there, and a few friends still came to visit her at home when they found her checked out of the hospital.
She's doing better, however still in pain, and very tired & weak, but at least she's eating something, and moving around a little better. Later on in the week she will have to go to get her stitches removed, then we will see what the doctor says about her returning to school. I understand that she won't be allowed to do anything strenuous for at least 4-6 weeks now, so that means she won't be allowed to take gym at school, or do any sports for now. I'm sure there will be a few things she will be disappointed to miss out on, but for now she needs to take care of herself and get better.
Hopefully she is on the mend and will never have to experience that kind of pain again!