Labor Recap

March 7th came and went and still no baby. Each day i would think ok, this has to be it, only for the day to end with no baby. Then came saturday. Some things started happening that morning that led me to believe it might be the day, but I still wasn't feeling much at all; no consistent contrations, just some aches here and there. I went on a long walk with jill t and was hoping that would get that baby moving on out. Gill and Debbie, Adam's parents arrived from Oklahoma around noon, which ended up being so perfect. Debbie is a teacher and had to wait for her spring break to visit and so they were thinking the baby would be about a week old by the time they got here, but lo and behold their daughter-inlaw was still with child when they showed up. We had a bbq lunch and just hung out most of the day. Still not any baby action, just some cramps here and there throughout the day. Around 5 o clock though i started having some braxton hickish contractions that were just slightly more intense than normal. but we weren't sure yet. so i continued to just hang out with the family, but around 7:00, i went back to my bedroom because i was just feeling pretty crampy and getting a little uncomfortable. once i was alone in there i started writing down when i was getting these cramps or what i now know were contractions. my mom came back to my room about twenty minutes later to check on me and looked at my paper and said "evan, these are like 2 or 3 minutes apart!" ooops! i was writing them down but not looking at how close they were! when she said that i thought, okay, maybe i should get my stuff together and tell adam we might need to think about going to the hospital. at this point i was still unsure that it was the real thing and didn't want to have a false alarm, but they were close and getting to the point where i had to lean over when i was having one. anyway, i went and told adam we needed to go (because i do have a history of quick labors) and everyone told me the third would be even quicker. So we hopped in the car told the kiddos bye bye and left them with Grandmommy and Granddaddy. This was about 8:00pm. I checked into the hospital 10 minutes later and was 6cm. The baby's heart rate was low so they were concerned because of the heartrate and the fact that i was about a week overdue. The dr. miraculously got there in like 5 minutes and checked me, i was 7 cm then. and she broke my water to check for meconium to see if the baby was in distress. sure enough there was meconium. The Dr. called for the pediatrician to get there asap, which just happens to be her husband. The nurses were running around getting everything ready and it was very intense. They were afraid the baby's heartrate was dropping because she possibly ingested the meconium. They were going to take me to the operating room to do a c-section to get the baby out if i didn't get to 10cm quick enough. So they rolled me down there, put me on the operating table and everything was pretty chaotic around me and i just couldn't believe what was happening. The nurses were scooting me around and getting me ready...but Praise Jesus, I had the urge to push and thankfully one of the nurses said i could push and then about 30 seconds later out came Haddyn! No need for a c-section, the Lord intervened and brought her into the world so fast, i had to ask adam, "did she just come out?!!!" I couldn't believe it. It was all so intense, i thought we would get to the hospital, labor for a few hours, call some friends, have an uneventful birth with no drama. I didn't think we would show up and see her within 45 minutes! She was perfect and we were so thankful everything turned out okay. She had swallowed the meconium but it didn't get in her lungs and the cord was around her neck. But other than that everything was fine. And now a week later, she is doing great and I am starting to feel back to normal again. This one took me a little longer to recover from for some reason. But i am feeling good today. She's a great baby and eats well and is sleeping good too. Well there you have it, that's my labor story!

Haddyn Joy Luton

Well as it turns out we don't have to take down the letters we had put up...much to my relief because it was quite the process to get those letters on the wall! So Haddyn Joy Luton it is and it fits her perfectly! Haddyn was born Saturday March 13 at 8:49 pm. She weighed 8lbs and was 20.5 inches. I'll give the labor recap later. We are all doing great and the big sisters are loving every minute of this experience! They are such good little mamas. I will write more later but just wanted to get some pics up and such.

So much for due dates!

March 7th came and went and I am still pregnant! What is the deal? I really can't believe it, i think i thought for so long that she'd be early that this is just totally unexpected. But God is in control and maybe he's just trying to teach me to have some patience! I go back to the dr tomorrow for a quick check-up and to see if i have progressed any. Please pray that i have :) On another note, i am getting to just enjoy hallie and harper and make the most of this special time with them. They are so excited and it's fun to watch them ask the baby to PLEASE come out because they want to meet her. We still haven't completely decided on a name, but i'll let you know when we do. Hallie's blood test on monday came back looking good, so that was a relief. When they do the treatment it can cause them to have low blood counts, and while we do want the treatment to work and cause some things to lower, we needed to watch her platelets closely due to her being on blood thinners, and praise God they didn't get too low. But please continue to pray for her. She is due for her next treatment next weekend. She is also still getting pretty high fevers in the evenings that just make her lay around and not feel so good and it's just not any fun for her. So all your prayers are always appreciated! well,
I hope my next post is telling you all about our new baby with pics and all!

Still pregnant...

For those of you who have asked for a belly shot, there you go. Well I went to the dr. again today and I am STILL 2cm and 50% effaced. No change from last time :(. But baby is doing well and I am enjoying the anticipation. However, the tossing and turning at night, is getting a little bothersome. She really doesn't have much more room in there. I thought for sure last night she was going to break my water with her forceful kicks. Anyway, she's still in there apparently content as can be. And it might be a good thing, because last night at dinner, i asked adam, "so are we settled on the name _______?" and he says, "i don't know, i've always kind of thought ______ isn't it." WHAT!?!!?! but he did say it could be it, i just don't know! So now i am doing the whole "annoy your husband with okay well what are we going to name her" game. He doesn't like this game much, but hello it's 2 days before her due date and he throws the "i've always kind of thought that wasn't the name for her" card! So i guess we will just have to see this baby face to face and pray the Lord gives us her name when we meet her. I mean her name is already hanging on the wall and i have things monogrammed! Most of you know how indecisive I can be...can you imagine me holding my baby and trying to decide between names like the way i debate over ordering a cheeseburger or a salad at a restaurant? oh this is totally throwing me for a loop. We have three names as of now that we will be picking from. Let's hope we go with the one that is beautifully displayed above her crib :)

Hallie update

Just wanted to give a Hallie update to all of you out there to keep you posted and also to ask for prayers for her as her sweet little body endures all of this. I will try to make it short...Hallie has started chemotherapy treatment, not for cancer, but for lupus or a lupus like syndrome they think she might have. Some tests have revealed that there are certain markers in her immune system that are upregulated and inflamed, which is causing her to have these daily fevers, fatigue, and now pain in the evenings. So the doctors believe that there is an auto-immune process going on in Hallie that was contributing to the strokes. Her blood had already tested positive for having some clotting tendencies, so this is a secondary factor that could be the root cause of these strokes, they think the auto immune response is causing inflammation in her blood vessels making the blood have even more trouble getting through. So Praise God for some answers. I don't like scary answers, but we had been seeking Him hard for an answer and a solution for little miss Hallie, so we sought the Lord and at this time believe the treatments to be that solution for her. She has had 4 strokes in her 4 short years, and that's just 4 too many for any kiddo to have. Thankfully, she has recovered what the strokes have tried to take from her. The most recent stroke was a smaller one that affected the muscles of her face, this happened 4 short weeks ago. I think most of you all knew about the other ones. So for now we are on the chemotherapy path of trying to suppress Hallie's immune system enough so that it will stop attacking itself and creating inflammation. She is such a trooper and is handling all this heroically. She is feeling fine most parts of the day. The evenings are harder on her, but she still trys to be trooper. We will be doing these treatments for 3 to 6 months and then go from there. I am a firm believer in the power of prayer, so all you believers out there are welcome to join me in praying for a complete healing for her and for the enemy to keep his hands off of her! Thanks friends! Well, i said i would try to make it short. On a different note, I got my moby wrap in the mail today and can't wait to put our new little bundle of joy in it when she arrives. Baby H is going to be joyful distraction for our whole family, especially Hallie. The girls keep asking when she is coming and I keep reassurring them "soon" because mama's tummy can't get any bigger! Bye friends :)

I'm going to try....

With much encouragement from my husband, I have decided to start a blog. Hence, the word start. We'll see if I follow through with it (hehe). But hopefully I will. Just thought it'd be a good way to keep friends and family updated on our busy lives and to keep everyone updated with Hallie's medical stuff and so on. So here's to blogging!
I'll start with a quick update of our life right now...Adam and I are parents to two precious little girls, Hallie(4) and Harper(almost 3) and baby girl #3 is expected to arrive any time now, actual due date is March 7th. So I'm doing the whole shave your legs every night thing and playing out every possible scenario in my head of the dramatic "rush to the hospital" scene! Needless to say, I'm in full anticipation mode and loving every minute of it. I am a stay at home mom and feel happily overwhelmed with the family the Lord has given me. I am so grateful to Him for allowing me to walk this path as a mother. Lately as we sit around in the evenings and I watch Hallie and Harper "perform" songs, dances or what not for us, I have these "hallmarky" feelings of love i can barely contain. And now knowing we are about to be blessed with a third little one, just blows me away. I can't wait to see the personality she has and how she will fit in with Hallie and Harper. Hallie and Harper are so different, it's going to be fun to see how this one turns out. So I will keep you guys posted on the arrival of baby #3. Keep us in your prayers!