Road Trip

Over July 4th weekend Baby G went on his first road trip. It was a 6-7 hour drive to Springdale, Arkansas where we were meeting some friends, not counting stops and I had no idea how he would do. He wasn't quite 4 weeks old and is breastfeeding every 2 hours or so, but he is a very good baby so I had high hopes.

Baby G did absolutely wonderful. We went through a lot of rain and so he enjoyed watching the rain drops slide across the window. He also enjoyed staring at Mr. G and I, and he took many naps. We made it to our destination on July 3rd at the exact time everyone was shooting off fireworks. It was an amazing site.

When we made it to the hotel Baby G just wanted to stretch out so we propped him up in the bed. He ended up loving their bed.

The bed was so much bigger than him, but it made for a cute picture. I must admit that their beds were really comfy.
He was out like a light from his long day of traveling.
The next morning Baby G got caught up on his reading, made a few calls on his cell phone, and had a few cups of coffee.

Then we hit the town and met up with our friends who just happened to have a baby boy 8 days after us.
We ate at an amazing restaurant and had great fellowship.
We were blessed that my folks got to go with us. Technically, the trip was for them to check out a few vehicles from our friends. It was a whirlwind trip that Baby G won't remember, but I will. We are so blessed to have such a good baby who is a joy to take on even a 7 hour trip.

On our way back home we stopped by and saw some of the devastation in Joplin, Missouri.
We were amazed at how buildings were completed gutted. You couldn't even tell what had been there before.
I can't even imagine how scary it was to be in these buildings when the tornado went through.
We assume this was a restaurant but all that is left is the playground. Absolutely no sign of the building that once stood next to this playground.
It was a humbling experience to see what could happen in a blink of an eye.

Thank you, Lord, for keeping us safe on our trip and may you bless all those still recovering in Joplin.

Amazing Grace

I have to tell you two stories that show God's mercy and grace in full effect.

Story #1

It started right after Baby G was born and we took him for his 1 week appointment with the doctor. After the appointment we found out that our doctor and pretty much all the doctors in our area would not accept "All Kids" insurance, which is what we were applying for since I resigned from my job to be a stay at home mom. This meant we needed new insurance but we knew we couldn't afford much, so after the appointment Mr. G and I prayed. We then decided to ask Mr. G's boss for advice. As soon as Mr. G told his boss the situation his boss, without hesitation, decided to provide insurance for me and Baby G....a blessing straight from God.

His job sent the required information off to the insurance company but it was a few days after the deadline for the insurance to take affect in July. As a result it would not start till August leaving Baby G without insurance for a whole month, a scary thing in this day and age. Well, we found out yesterday that the insurance company is going to grant us insurance starting in July despite when we turned it in....a blessing straight from God.

So yesterday was Baby G's last day without insurance. If we could make it through the day without any major problems then we would be good to go. Well, God had to save the day twice in order for that to happen.

Story #2

First, Baby G and I were driving to my mom and dad's house in town, and I was about to turn at the busiest intersection in town when my car ran out of gas. Let me clarify that my gas gauge doesn't work and really hasn't worked since about a month after we got the car. Anyway, I ran out of gas and, of course, when that happens you not only can't drive anywhere you also don't get any air conditioning. It was about 2:30 in the afternoon when Baby G and I got stranded and according to my car thermometer it was 95 degrees. It took me a couple minutes to realize that it was getting really hot in the car and then I turned and looked at Baby G and his face was starting to turn red. Mr. G and my dad were both on their way after I told them on the phone I needed help. I kept assuming that some one would stop and help me. Maybe they could push my car out of the road, but no one came. They all honked their horn in frustration and then drove on by. Unfortunately, I am not one of those women who handle situations like this in a cool, calm, and collective manner. I was crying my eyes out and repeatedly saying, "Why won't anyone help us?" I called Mr. G and told him that he needed to hurry because it was too hot for Baby G. I kept watching my son get more and more red and start sweating. Finally, Mr. G got there and he grabbed Baby G and took him into his air conditioned truck parked not too far away. I then saw a cop driving by so I flagged him down. Unfortunately, because I had backed traffic up he was unable to get to me. FINALLY, a 75 year old man got out of his car and asked if he could push me out of the way. I said, "Yes, and thank you so much." This poor old man pushed me probably 50 yards out of the way. He asked if I had anyone coming to help me and I told that I did and I repeatedly thanked the man again. Then that sweet man limped back to his car. My dad and the cop pulled up not long after that and helped. I took Mr. G's truck and Baby G back to my mom and dad's house and I just cried. Baby G's clothes were soaked from sweat and all he wanted to do was lay flat on his back and cool off. Somehow through all of that we did not get hit by a car and Baby G did not get sick from being over heated....a blessing straight from God.

I just found out this morning that Mr. G was telling one of his clients at work about what had happened to us and how nobody would help us. It frustrated the client so much that he has decided to pay for our car's gas gauge to be fixed. Mr. G told him that he didn't have to do that, but the sweet man insisted....a blessing straight from God.

Then later last night when I was driving home with Baby G we had another close call. We were turning onto our street and about that time I started hearing screeching tires behind me. They were so loud that even Mr. G could hear it and he was at our house, a quarter of a mile away. I continued turning onto our road, then I looked back to see the car that was right behind me drive on, but the car that was behind it had swerved to the left then back to the right trying to miss the car in front of it. They went air born into the ditch right next to us and then fish-tailed back onto the road. Somehow we did not get hit....a blessing straight from God.

Through it all we made it home safely, but I fully believe the only reason we did was because God was watching out for us. Without Him, Baby G could've been seriously hurt in an accident or worse.

Thank you, Lord, for giving us safety yesterday when we did not deserve it. You are amazing and having amazing grace.

Firsts

To My Dearest Baby G,

From those first few precious moments in the hospital until now we have seen you go through many firsts. We have seen your first sneeze, your first yawn, your first frown, and your first smile.

You have had your first bath,

first car ride,

and gone for your first walk.

You have pooped, peed, and puked on both me and your daddy. You have had your first sleepless night (or maybe that was me).

You have had milk come out through your nose, cried your first fit, and I think I saw your first booger. Already, in just 3 weeks, you have won the hearts of all who have met you. You have had your first bad hair day, gone to your first birthday party, and heard your first Cardinal game on the radio. You have had your first bad dream, gone through your first major thunderstorm, and smelled your first dead skunk. You have gone on your first shopping trip, been to church for the first time, and had your first kiss (by mommy, of course).

I can't believe it has been 3 weeks since that first amazing moment I laid eyes on you. Thank you for making parenting so much fun. I can't wait to share in many more firsts with you. I love you!

Love,

Momma G

Photo Shoot

We had almost constant commotion in our hospital room following the delivery. Nurses for Baby G, nurses for me, doctors, lactation consultants, and even a lady wanting to give Baby G his first photo shoot. We decided to wait till Baby Gs second day because his face was so red from delivery. Right before we headed for home the lady stopped in and when the photo shoot was done we paid the $132 for the pictures and headed on our way. Super duper expensive but to a proud mama these pictures were priceless.

This is our family now. It is good that Baby G is in the middle of Mr. G and I because he is definitely the center of this family. Everything we do is centered around if it is best for Baby G. God has blessed us with this precious gift and we are taking that responsibility very seriously.

This picture melts my heart every time I see it. I have never seen my hubby so happy or cry so much. He is one proud Papa.
We ended up getting this picture in a 10x13 black and white as a free gift from the hospital. It is precious.
There is no way to describe how I felt holding my lil boy for the first time and the feeling is still there each time he lays in my arms. I know that he won't stay little long so I am enjoying each moment we have to snuggle.
He is one happy and content lil boy.
Aww...here you can see his precious eyes. I love this picture.
Sweet dreams lil man!!!
This picture shows off one of his dimples. I am afraid his adorable smile is going to have a lot of pull on my heart.

God is so Good!!!

BABY G IS HERE!!!

After what seems like the longest and shortest 9 months of my life we were introduced to Baby G on June 7 at 11:46 pm. I will never understand how someone could not believe in God after giving birth. Baby G is perfect in every possible way and he has already won over the hearts of his mom and dad. The first few days it was not uncommon to find Mr. G and I in tears just from pure happiness and thankfulness to God.

The delivery was a bit more dramatic then I had planned. Mr. G and I attended childbirth class once a week for 12 weeks trying to learn how to have a natural childbirth. We would drive an hour and a half once a week for class. We wanted to go through labor with Mr. G as my coach and then my mom was our assistant coach. She even had to attend class with us one week so that she would know her role. So when my contractions started I felt ready.

Contractions started about 11pm on June 6. They weren't really bad but they were strong enough to wake me up every 15-30 minutes. At that point I didn't know if this was the real thing or not, so I wasn't getting my hopes up. I was over due and was beginning to wonder if God had any intention of letting this baby live outside of my body. Apparently he did because around 7am on June 7 I got hit with a really strong painful contraction. I went to the bathroom and had bright red blood. At that point I knew this was it. I did as my birthing instructor told me and started doing different things to see if the contractions continued and if they got stronger. I took a shower, I laid down (not sleeping) and I went for a walk. I actually got a mile in, but trust me when I say it wasn't very fast. At this point my contractions were every 10-12 minutes and stronger than before. I called my husband around 8:30 and told him that I think I am in labor. He finished up with the client he had at that time then hurried home. I called my mom to inform her to pack and get ready because I am pretty sure that I am in labor.

Around 10:30 we decided to go ahead and pick up mom and head to the hospital because my contractions were every 5-6 minutes and our hospital was an hour and a half away. The drive there was miserable. At first I was ok, but the contractions were getting stronger and by the time we got to the hospital they were 3-4 minutes apart. We knew that the labor was moving quickly.

When I got checked at the hospital I was 5 cm and 100% effaced. My doctor believed I would have our baby by 6pm that night. My contractions continued to get stronger and closer together. My mom, Mr. G, and I tried to walk around the labor and delivery floor to help things along. We wanted to walk down to the nursery thinking it wouldn't take us that long. We had 45 minutes to get back to the room so that the nurse could check the baby's heart rate again. It took us all of 45 minutes to simply walk down the hall. I could only take about 5-10 steps before a contraction would hit. Then I would lean up against mom or Mr. G and the other one would massage my lower back. My lower back ended up being a thorn in my side through the whole labor. The back pain during each contraction was so bad that I had Mr. G massage a tennis ball into my back as hard as he possible could. He was doing that while my mom was massaging the top of my back. I continued to tell them to push harder and harder. Come to find out, Mr. G seriously thought if he pushed any harder he was going to break my back. I also had him doing counter pressure where he pushed in on my hips as hard as he could. I knew he was struggling because I could feel his arms shaking with each contraction. The problem was my contractions were now coming every 2 minutes or less and lasting a minute and a half or more. This left me with at most 30 seconds of a break between contractions. Sometimes I didn't even get a break as one contraction would go right into another one.

About that time I was moaning with each contraction, something I swore I would never do, but making the noise seemed to help distract me from the pain. About that time the doctor suggest breaking my water to speed things up. At first we said no because we wanted things to go naturally, but after a few more hours we went ahead and had my water broken. When they broke my water I was 6-7 cm and my water bag had already been bulging. At that point the contractions picked up even more. At times the pain would get so bad that I would throw up. This wasn't good because I didn't have an IV and I was struggling keeping fluids down. Then I got a new nurse who suggested I went in the shower and let warm water rest on my back and stomach. I thought she was absolutely crazy for asking me to move, but she believed it would help move along the labor. Only for that reason did I agree to it.

Lucky for Mr. G and my mom it gave them a break from having to rub my back constantly. The shower actually helped a lot. I was able to cope with the pain a lot better. My new nurse, Stephanie, started talking me through how to handle the contractions better. I became better about not tensing up with each contraction and letting the contraction do its job. Around this time is when I basically zoned out. I stopped making noise through the contraction. You couldn't even tell if I was having a contraction except that I couldn't talk back. My mom said that it was a eerie time for everyone because I didn't look like myself and was showing absolutely no emotion. I had to get out of the shower because they needed to check the baby's heart rate again. They checked my cervix again and I was still at 6-7cm. This was very disappointing. I tried sitting on the bed, which was my second most comfortable spot. Then the nurse suggested I go sit on the birthing ball. Was this lady crazy? I did as she said, again only because I thought it would speed labor along. On the birthing ball my contractions were the absolutely strongest. I tried to relax but since I was still getting less than 30 second breaks between contractions I was struggling. This had been going on for 5 hours now. It was about 9:30 and my doctor called and talked to me on the phone. He informed me that something is not right and that I should've already delivered by now. I had been in labor 24 hours and had been stuck at 6-7 cm for 5 hours having extremely hard contractions. He suggested I get an epidural to relax myself and and to allow the baby to come down better. He also wanted to give me pitocin. All of these interventions were not what Mr. G and I wanted but we were not making progress and I was exhausted so we decided to go with what the doctor suggested.

The hardest part was trying to sit absolutely still while the epidural was being administered. I was having contractions almost constantly at that point. Once it was finally in I was still feeling the contractions so the anesthesiologist gave me more medicine in my epidural. I had absolutely no pain at that point and I was back to my usual self except for the uncontrollable shakes that I had gotten. Come to find out I was extremely dehydrated from throwing up and not drinking enough. This caused me to have stronger contractions that lasted longer, but because of that I did not end up needing pitocin like the doctor thought. Within the next hour I progressed to 10 cm but through out that hour Mr. G, my mom, and I began to notice something funny with all the doctors and nurses. Many people kept coming into my room looking at the monitors. Everyone seemed concerned. They put an oxygen mask on me and kept saying that everything will be okay.

When my doctor showed up around 11:10 he was happy to hear that I was fully dilated, but informed me that my baby's heart rate is dropping seriously low with each contraction. He said that even though I don't have the urge to push we need to deliver this baby now. With that he went on to inform us that if I am unable to get the baby out myself that he will have to use forceps or a vacuum, both of which are very hard on the baby. He explained the risks of both and said that forceps usually are harder on the mom than on the baby, so we decided that if he had to, to use the forceps over the vacuum.

I began the pushing process during each contraction. I still had absolutely no feeling and I didn't know how hard I was pushing or if I was pushing in the right area. Each time I pushed the baby's heart rate would drop, sometimes even into the 40s. The doctor told me that I need to push this baby out now. I continued to try with no results. Then the doctor said that he had to intercede and he turned around to get the forceps. Right at that moment God stepped in and filled me with the strongest sensation to push. I quickly told the doctor that I feel like I need to push. He gave me the green light even though I wasn't having a contraction. With that I pushed lil Baby G out in 3 pushes and no forceps were needed. Praise God!!

They put him on my chest right away and there was not a dry eye in the room. My mom, Mr. G, me, and even the nurse was fighting back tears. Our lil man made it safe and sound and he was perfect. He weighed 7lbs 13 oz and was 21 inches long. He barely made it on June 7 being born at 11:46. He received a 9 on his apgar test and was perfectly healthy.

It has already been a week since his delivery and I still find myself looking back at that day and all it took to get Baby G here. Despite all the pain it was definitely worth it and I could do it a thousand times over if it meant that I would get Baby G.

I will show you a few pictures from the delivery that my mom was able to take during all the commotion. But let me finish by saying:

THANK YOU, LORD, FOR THIS MIRACLE YOU HAVE GIVEN US.

This is after the epidural. We are all keeping a close eye on Baby G's heart rate.

You can kind of see the oxygen mask on my face hoping that will help with Baby G's heart rate.

We were fighting the clock hoping that Baby G would come before midnight.

And he did.

This is Mr.G cutting the cord.

It was an emotional time for all of us. We could not of been happier!

Looking at our lil boy for the first time is something we will always remember. What a miracle from God.

He was healthy and I was thrilled.

How could this precious being just have been in my belly a few minutes earlier? Only God knows!

Mr. G finishing his cut. Look at all that hair!!

They rounded up and called Baby G 7lbs 13oz. Perfect healthy size.

Youth Night

This was not the first Youth Night event at Nashville Christian Church but it might have been the first time the congregation got so involved. Mr. G and my mom and I thought it would be a good idea to show our church family just what we do every Sunday morning with our youth. What better way to do that then to ask the crowd to join in. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

We start every Sunday morning church service with what we call "The Ball Game" where the kids see how many times they can pass the ball around our circle before the song is over. This time we did it a bit different.The crowd had to pass the ball from one person to the next up and down the rows. Here is a church elder and his wife quickly passing the ball. We have some competitive people in our church family.

Here are the kids along the side helping out as everyone watches.

This picture is from a song called "The Butterfly Song" and here the kids are acting like crocodiles. You can see my mom sitting up front holding one of our youngest in the group who had just fallen off the stage onto her head. Good thing prayer time was right after that.

This song is both inspirational and a leg work out. It is "Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam" and every time the word "Sunbeam" is sung you have to hop out of your seat. It is a VERY long song so by the end our congregation was tired.

Here is our kids showing the adults just how it is to be done. Oh to have that kind of energy.

And then "The Train." According to the lyrics of the song 'this train is bound for glory'....

But unfortunately one of the elders has seemed to have fallen behind, but you know how those elders are.


Then we finished the evening with one of our finest. This young man is a junior in high school and is always eager to fill in at the pulpit when needed. He did another fabulous job. Unfortunately, we thought it would be a good idea to provide the congregation with popcorn during the preaching just like we usually do on Sunday mornings with the kids. Remind me next time not to use paper bags. Apparently the popcorn was really good because you could hear the crinkling of paper bags all through out the church.

And that concluded our Youth Night. Until next time....

Back Rub Time

I have been doing all I can to interact with Baby G who is due in about 13 weeks. I will sing to him and talk to him but today I read where babies can feel it if you rub or scratch your tummy. I had always figured that there was no way Baby G could feel me rub my tummy since he was so well insulated, but I guess I was wrong. So today I tested it.

I started rubbing my belly non stop for about 10 minutes. Nothing too vigorous. Just a nice comfortable rub. I didn't have any signs that Baby G was feeling this rubbing so I stopped for a minute and the next thing I knew he started kicking me like crazy. Apparently he liked the rubbing and wanted me to keep going (at least that is what I assumed the kicking meant). I quickly resumed my belly rubbing and the kicking stop. I was amazed.

I continued rubbing to make Baby G happy when I all of sudden realized this huge ball had formed on my belly right where I had been rubbing. It was hard as a rock and I knew right away what it was. Baby G had positioned himself to where his back was pressed up against my belly so he could get a back rub. How funny is that? He is already just like his daddy who absolutely loves his back to be scratched.

So if you run into me somewhere around town and you noticed that my hand is rubbing my belly please understand that I am a crazy pregnant lady who believes that her baby is wanting a back rub.