The Pilfered Coffee Card

I received a $20 gift card to a coffee shop on a day when I felt particularly sour. It really hit the spot. The next morning I discovered that Sally had been sifting through my wallet. I found my driver's license nearby and nothing else was missing... except that coffee gift card. I was heartbroken. I searched all around, behind things and under things and everywhere it seemed. I was very discouraged and distracted with other needs. A few hours later I humbly asked God to help me find it. And instantly I knew where it must be. He doesn't usually send the answer so quickly like that. He had mercy on His coffee-loving daughter!

Welcome, Rosemary!

God is so good, so gracious to those who trust him! For some reason this third labor/delivery was giving me much more anxiety than the other two did. I felt unreasonably scared of the experience and how it might unfold. God was my rock. I had to keep leaning on him and the comfort of knowing that he had this. Whatever happened, he was there and taking care of us. And he didn't mind me requesting all the scenarios that would ease my mind--like a quick and easy birth with enough forewarning to make arrangements for James and Sally--and an arrival later in the day so I could still get a full night's sleep beforehand. God is gracious, he answered those prayers! There were still some curveballs I wasn't expecting, but he proved trustworthy to help me through it all. I love that I can trust him implicitly. 

Getting There

Friday morning I woke up early with constant cramps and a couple irregular contractions that stopped when I got out of bed. Just a couple hours later, I was laid up in bed with a fever and cramps and unable to move. This is when I started having visions of being carried off on a stretcher by paramedics taking me to an emergency c-section because I was too weak and useless to deliver a baby. Contractions started coming regularly about 11:30.  Fortunately Bryan had stayed home from work and was able to take care of the kids. I called for mother to come over to help with them, and she arrived about 1:00. I was finally able to get out of bed at that point, but still had a slight fever. Contractions slowed, but I was feeling well enough now to eat and drink a bit. I walked on the treadmill for an hour and that kept the contractions coming long and quick, but they would slow down dramatically anytime I got off. Finally decided to leave for hospital about 6:30pm just as Shmo showed up to help mother with the kids. We breezed down the hospital's long corridor to the maternity wing at a snail's pace. We walked up to the L/D nurse's desk and they all just looked at us. "I'm here to have a baby!" One replied, "Well maybe tomorrow but not tonight!" ...I'm still not sure what she meant by that. They continued to just look at us expectantly. "Soooo, uh... do you have some papers I need to sign to get checked in?" Turns out they don't do patient admitting there. We would have to go back to the ER entrance to get checked in. But they gave us a wheelchair and let us leave our bags there. Back at the ER, they need to see my photo ID. So Bryan makes another trip down to maternity to get it from our bags. Finally checked in, a nurse wheels me back to that L/D nurses' station where I wave my wrist at them saying "I've got the bracelet this time!" This prompts them to do more than just stare at us, and I get taken into the triage room. 

Bryan's Prayer

I'm only at 3cm. So deflating! All those contractions since 11:30am did nothing?! They keep me there to check again later since the contractions are mostly 2-3 minutes apart now. They also give me a large cup of ice water because my urine sample showed I was dehydrated from the fever. Still have a very slight fever at 99. Turn on the tv and Twilight Breaking Dawn was just beginning. It was distracting for a bit, but I started to feel nauseous from the ice water so I asked for an IV of fluids instead. The nurse would have to ask the on-call doctor about that, so she was going to go ahead and check my dilation again since it'd been almost an hour. I was up to 4cm. Well that wasn't encouraging, but at least it was something. After being checked I used the restroom and before I got back on the bed Bryan put his arms around me and said a prayer. It was a short prayer asking for an easy delivery and for things to progress quickly. He said Amen and my water broke. The nurse seemed surprised—maybe even skeptical—when we told her it had just broken. But the evidence was there so they directed me to the delivery room across the hall. I opted to walk there, and in that short distance to the new bedside, my contractions intensified immensely. The nurses took me to the bathroom and wiped down my “watery” legs. I suddenly felt queasy. "I'm going to throw up" and I promptly did. It wasn't much, but I never vomited with my other deliveries. I learned later that is a common sign of transition to the final stages of labor. I was guided to the bed to lie down for another check. Sitting on the edge of the bed I asked if it was too late for an epidural. No, it wasn't too late they would just have to get some paperwork and prepare some things. But right after asking, I knew it was too late. I had the first pushing contraction on the edge of the bed. It took all my resolve to get one, two legs up on the bed while trying to warn the nurse that the baby was coming. She checked for dilation, "The baby's head is right there." By this time I was all-out pushing with each contraction. I couldn't help it! The nurse told Bryan to open the door and call out for anyone in scrubs to come help. She pulled at my perineum (to reduce tearing?) which hurt worse than the contractions. The nurse who answered Bryan’s call popped her head in and casually asked "Is the baby coming?" The nurse at my feet retorted, "No, I'm holding it in!"  But she wasn’t holding it in for long. The entire pushing phase lasted just a few minutes before Rose was born into the reluctant nurse's hands. I was so relieved and happy to be done and happy that nobody told me to lie on my back and hold my knees (which I've always refused to do--it feels so unnatural). She was placed on my stomach where she contentedly cuddled down under some swaddling. To put all this in perspective, I was 4cm at 8:00 when my water broke, and Rose was in my arms at 8:20. The on-call doctor showed up about 15 minutes after her birth. He delivered the placenta and stitched my slight tears. 

More to the Story

I was strep b positive for the first time with this pregnancy. It’s not a big deal, it just means they have to give you antibiotics after your water breaks so you don’t pass it to the baby during delivery. Things progressed so quickly for us that they didn’t have time to give me the antibiotics. Rose was monitored for an extra day in the hospital to watch for signs of the infection but she was cleared to go. Looking back on things now, I think God gave me that unexplained fever earlier in the day to kill the strep b in my body since He was planning to indulge my desire for a quick delivery. 

Although obviously painful, this labor/delivery still didn't hurt nearly as bad as it did with Sally. And I guess I'm kinda glad I didn't get the epidural so I could instead enjoy a quicker recovery and cheaper bill. Rose didn't get the comment her siblings both got from nurses "My, you have a good set of lungs there!" But she already shares their excellent nighttime sleep patterns. I didn't sleep at all that first night though--still too much adrenaline and joy coursing through me! My fever never returned. Rosemary is such a sweetheart baby. Sally initially was not impressed with her, but James immediately adored her. For the past several months in my nightly prayers with James and Sally, I've been asking God to increase our family's joy and patience. So I shouldn't be surprised that Rose is the most happy and patient baby I've ever seen. I wasn't expecting God to answer my prayers through our new daughter, but her addition to our family has already been a wonderful blessing to us!

The Final Countdown

Well here I am again, very pregnant with another baby girl! I used to think I wanted four kids... but now that I'm 33 years old and 36 weeks pregnant with baby #3... well I'm thinking 3 is a good number. I already feel too old to be here mucking through another third trimester, and I can't imagine how difficult it would be to do it again when I'm a few years older! We're not tying any tubes yet, but it's looking like this will be our final countdown to a due date.

My body was very eager to get pregnant with our first two, I think each time only took a couple months to conceive. But baby #3 held out for a solid six months before gracing us with her presence in my womb. That week I sent Bryan a text that said, "I had a little nausea this morning and I just bought five breakfast burritos from Braums. I think I may be pregnant." We waited a few days later to take the pregnancy test on Bryan's birthday, and sure enough it was positive. At the time we were living with my parents while our house was being built, but life was good with James and Sally at really great ages--so good that I had decided maybe our family was already complete and we didn't need a third child. I was ready to get back on birth control the following month, but God had other plans for us. Thankfully His ways are better than ours! We are so excited to have another strand twisted into our family cord. Life is all about relationships, and I am so happy that I'll get to share my home and future with not just 3, but 4 of my favorite people!

The first few months of this pregnancy were similar to what I had with Sally, so I was already thinking this may be another girl. I had some nausea (but nothing as debilitating as I had with Sally), my face was breaking out, and I was craving sweets. All signs pointing to another daughter since I didn't have any of those symptoms with James. At 18 weeks I was feeling the first little flutters of movement. At 19 weeks we had the big ultrasound. We wanted to do something different for the gender reveal this time around, so Bryan and I decided that we would discover the sex at the ultrasound and then have an announcement party later. So it was really exciting for us going to that appointment! And we found out we had another girl. We were both kind of hoping for that! But then we also found out she had a transient arrhythmia, or "a hitch in her giddy-up" as the tech described it.  Her heart would just skip a beat every once in a while. It wasn't regular or predictable, but we had to go to a level 2 ultrasound two weeks later so a specialist could give it a closer look. He didn't seem too concerned with what he saw, and said these things usually work themselves out before the baby is born. We had prayed about it, and we weren't overly concerned with it either. God gave us a peace to accept that her heartbeat may soon self-regulate or the arrhythmia may be something she just learns to live with. It was in His hands and He would take care of her either way. All the subsequent ultrasounds and doppler-checks since then have not shown any heartbeat irregularity, so it seems to have gone away.

We had a gender reveal party with a large group of extended family. Only Bryan and I knew the gender. I made two dozen cupcakes and hid pink frosting inside just one of them. When it was time for the reveal, everybody got a cupcake and nobody knew who had the one filled with the gender color. They all bit into the cupcakes at the same time. My brother-in-law Chris then threw his arms up in victory as he realized his cupcake had the frosting inside. Then he turned it to show my sister and asked, "What color is it?" Ha! Chris is color blind and he couldn't tell if the light-colored filling was pink or blue!

I know I said I craved sweets when I was pregnant with Sally, but now I question if I ever had cravings at all before this pregnancy. I basically only want to eat sweets and nothing else. And if I try to be good and deprive myself, the cravings just intensify. But despite not doing any jogging or Centergy at all, I'm still in the average weight gain range. Although you wouldn't know that by looking at me. My belly is just growing straight out with this one--prompting my grandma to ask me not once, but TWICE if I'm sure it's not twins in there. Currently at 36 weeks pregnant, I feel uncomfortable ALL the time and I'm ready to be put on bedrest just to shirk all responsibilities for the next few weeks.

We didn't have names already picked out for this one. When we knew it was a girl, I prayed about what her name should be. I asked God to make it obvious to me. He soon answered my prayer by repeatedly drawing me to the name Rose. Bryan was on board with that, but he was adamant whatever her first name, her middle name should be Jane so that she had a namesake like the other two. (Jane is a middle name for women in both of our families.) But "Rose Jane" just didn't sound right. It needed another syllable or two. We began brainstorming longer names that could be shortened to Rose, and Bryan proved to be very frustratingly opinionated about those options, until he came upon Rosemary. He really liked how "Rosemary Jane" sounded like an homage to his sister, Mary Jane. I admit I wasn't sold on "Rosemary", but at that point there was no changing his mind. It will grow on me, and she will always be my little Rose.