Dedicating Jordan!

Do you promise to pray for and with this child for her growth in knowledge of God and the spiritual life? "We do" 
Do you promise to train this child in body, mind and soul for fellowship with God and service to God? 
"We do"
Do you promise to do all you can to lead her at the proper age to confess her faith in Christ? 
"We do" 
Do you promise to provide a home characterized by unconditional love and encouragement and godly discipline where your child can develop character and confidence? 
"We do" 
Do you promise to build a strong marriage, loving and respecting your spouse, so that if your child imitates your example she will become a God-honoring spouse? 
"We do"

The Highlights:

Josh and I:
-anticipating news of what's next for us in the Army...lists come out in 3 weeks or so!
-really really enjoying our family, everyone is at such a fun age :)
-loving Savannah weather, the trees are starting to bud and the tulip trees are blooming

Renae:
-learning people's names and doing something fun with them is her new thing. She'll come home from church with names of these kids and stories about silly faces they made, or games they played.
-loves math. if it's a math game, she wants to do it. Count, sorting/categorizing, shapes, adding she's pretty good!
-she loves her chores (I know this phase of life is short-HA!) she clears the table, and gets the mail, and helps me with laundry
-always good for a hilarious one-liner. You never know what she's going to say.

Jack:
-one of his favorite people is his Sunday School teacher. He copies everything he does, the way he talks, his facial expressions--it's crazy! Just goes to show how much of an impact you can have on a child (even when they're only 2!)
-if you ask Jack how old he is, he will always say 3. "No, Jack, you're 2" goes in one ear and out the other. HA
-if something has wheels Jack wants to know what it is. And then he wants find a small version of it and play with it. He will roll his cars around and talk to them for hours. 

Noah:
-learning new words everyday! Mommy, Daddy, Nae, Jack, Jordan (Dordo-hahaha), baby, all done, amen, byebye, night night, please, I did it, bath so cute listening to them copy sounds.
-speaking of, Noah is a sound copier. You can hum a few notes any way you want to and he will try his hardest to repeat it back. He copies sirens, songs, words, crying...he tries to mimic it all.
-he is QUICK! Even with only 1 month of walking under his belt, he is very fast. The fact that he's 16 months old (today!) doesn't hurt anything in the coordination department.
-he is so smiley. So very quick to smile and show that adorable gap between his front teeth! I love it! :)
-learning body parts! So far he's got tummy, belly button, and mouth down. Eyes, nose, and ears are close.

Jordan:
-growing growing! 8 lbs 11 oz yesterday at her appointment, 20 3/4th inches long.
-she's now 2 weeks past her due date and already doing well in her gross motor skills development.
-today she looked AT me! This is so neat because a lot of premies have retina development problems, it's pretty common. She has a referral to an ophthalmologist because she really never looks at anything. She will look a direction, but her eyes wouldn't practice focusing, or stay on the source of what she was looking for--kind of like the dazed/glazed over look. But, today I had her facing me and she stared right in my eyes--first time! It's fun to see her learning how to interact!
-AND, SHE SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT! The last two nights she has slept from 10 to 6, and 10 to 7!! Yay!

Check back for pictures and more fun to come!

A NEW YEAR!

Well, the last time I posted (Nov 6th), I had no idea that in 6 short days our lives were going to be drastically changed. I plan on posting Jordan's story here soon, and back-dating it to fill the gap. So look out for that! Funny stuff of late: Renae called Jack "Sparky" When driving passed where we get our hair cut, Renae told Josh that's where she got her bottom hair cut. HA! (She was holding up her hair and pointing at the ends..."It used to be right here, Daddy!") Noah says a few words on purpose now. He says Bye Bye, All Done, Baby Dorda (Jordan), 'Nae (Renae), and Please. We spent last Saturday morning watching home videos...hilarious! Wish it was easier to share them with you! Two weeks ago our friend that runs the 2's Sunday School class told Josh (who works across the hall with the 3's) "come look at your son". Josh goes over there and Jack is sitting in a chair with his feet propped up on the table with a book in his lap. Every so often he would tilt his head and then turn the page. HAHA!

Jordan - Part 3

This is the story about the adventure of Jordan!  This is a birth story!  If you don’t like reading things that you end up thinking… “that was waaay too much information” stop here.

So there I was home again. December 2nd.  Within 24 hours I started bleeding again.  I passed several golf ball sized blood clots, and started having actual in labor painful contractions. Another middle of the night phone call to friends to stay with the kids and we were through the ER back into Labor and Delivery again.  By this point I was pretty miserable.  When the doctor checked me, there was so much blood that she couldn't accurately measure if my cervix was dilated or not.  My OB was there, so they got him (he maaaay have been sleeping) and he came in, assessed the situation and said that I was going to be having the baby very soon!  This was our face when he left the room to prep for the C-section.  Notice my smile of relief :)  That was a long 3 weeks!

Jordan Elizabeth was born on December 4th at 6:30ish in the morning.  The C-section went well.  I got to have a spinal (they didn't give me one with Noah--just an epidural--and that was awful) and things went relatively quickly.  There was a lot of scar tissue from the previous 3 C-sections so they ended up having to make a T shaped incision to get her out.  And they still could not find the cause of the bleeding.  It was a mess.  HA!  But everything went well.  The only down side was that since Jordan was so small they whisked her out of the room immediately.  Josh got to stand up and take pictures of her being born, but she was taken straight to the NICU cart which was outside the main operating room doors.  Josh went with and took pictures to bring back to show me, but I didn't get to see her.  Just heard her squeaky lungs :)  This was one picture I had to tide me over for the next 14 hours till I could see her!

Josh was able to go down to the NICU and take more pictures for me.  She was so tiny!  One of the hospital receiving blankets could nearly encircle her whole body!

Meanwhile I was waiting hemoglobin level checks and getting IV's and all sorts of tubes removed before I could wheelchair it down to see her.  Here's a shot of our reunion 14 hours later :)

On the 5th, I had my first blood transfusion.  My hemoglobin levels had dropped to around 7 (remember, supposed to be 12.0) so they gave me the transfusion which would boost the levels 2 points.  When they rechecked my levels 24 hours later, they were still around 7 which means that I was actually about a 5 when I got my first transfusion.  (Hemoglobin levels are sometimes very slow in accurately reflecting the truth...they were still in the process of dropping when they originally checked it so I was much lower than the result they received.) 

Another transfusion was looming, but in the meantime we got to hold Jordan for the first time!

Since she would have been in my tummy un-pestered while she grew, they had limited time for us to hold her.  She had designated 'touch times' every three hours when they would feed her and change her diaper.  We could go at that time and hold her for a bit :)  Here she is under the lights, soaking up the sun :)

Her isolette

I got my second transfusion on Dec 7th and was discharged after it was finished (which was 1:30 in the morning on the 8th but we begged to go home and they let us)  Jordan was moved 2 days later to a step down unit (a little less intensive care) and then 3 days after that she was moved another step down.  Here she is :)  Her isolette helped her maintain her body temperature by keeping her surrounding temp at higher than room temperature.  She was usually wrapped up but I had just finished changing her diaper here:

She was off breathing help.  She got to start oral feedings instead of all tube feedings. She was getting one bottle a day for a few days (the other 7 were tube feedings), then 2 bottles and 6 tube feedings...each small step spaced out by 72 or so hours.

Skin to skin :)

I got to feed her!

Teeny tiny!  This picture shows how skin and bones she was...I have a burp cloth under her chin that makes her midsection look much more filled out than it was.  And that hat (adorable!!) hides the teeny tiny head well, too.

Sooooo cute :)

She got to the point a few weeks later where she didn't need tube feedings any more!  (This was a psych moment by her because it was put in a few times during the rest of her stay but she would use it a meal or two then yank it out.)  This was the first picture of her cheeks free of tubes and tape!

And she gained weight.  REALLY well.  This was the day she crossed the 4 pound mark!

Then this happened.  I think it was December 18th she got moved to the Newborn Nursery. The NICU and ISN was over capacity and Jordan was voted most likely to succeed and so she was out of her isolette and into a bassinet, completely bottle fed and having to self regulated body temperature.

This meant the kids could meet her!  And she could wear her own clothes :)

The Newborn Nursery was short lived, December 23rd she was back in the ISN.  This was mostly at Josh and I's request.  She hadn't been doing nearly as well in the nursery.  She had to be under the warmers often and wasn't being fed on her strict schedule because they were so busy.  This made it hard for me to go up to feed her and the irregularity was not helpful for her either.  She was still gaining weight, and she passed her car-seat challenge while she was there which were great things.  (Car seat challenge--sit in car seat for 90 minutes without losing O2 levels in the blood to ensure safety riding home from hospital)  Her neonatologist agreed to move her back for all the reasons we were concerned about and because her hematocrit levels were low as well.  This is common in premies and even more not surprising since my hemoglobin levels were so low before and when she was born.  So on December 24th she had her transfusion. 

Her Christmas present from the hospital :)

Her transfusion went well and we were anticipating her getting discharged but a new problem surfaced.  She started having these chocking episodes when she was being bottle fed (which I was never there for, I went up twice a day to breastfeed and she never did that for me).  She would stop breathing a little bit and her heart rate would drop.  The episodes were short and corrected quickly but they weren't going to send her home while that was still happening because she would have to get 2-3 bottles a day with calorie booster formula in it to help weight gain.  So the waiting game continued.

She hit 5 lbs!

The cheeks!

Then on January 5th, 33 days old, Jordan got to come home!  We were so so so excited.  God had blessed us beyond belief on this incredible journey.  We experienced His love and peace and comfort in ways we never had before.  It was a tough version of wonderful :)

We are all in love!! What a precious girl!

Jordan - Part 2

This is the story about the adventure of Jordan!  This is a birth story!  If you don’t like reading things that you end up thinking… “that was waaay too much information” stop here.

So there I was on bed rest.   We have such wonderful friends!  Josh had to work half days until his big event (the Division Ball) was complete, so I had friends at the house all the while he was at work so that I wouldn't have to lift things or be on my feet much.  Friends brought meals, drove me to Dr appointments, cleaned the house…all sorts of things!  I had a Dr appointment Monday right after my discharge from the hospital so I had a weekend full of questions to ask.  How much bleeding was too much?  What would be the tipping point where I would have a C-section right then and there?  What were the chances I would make it to 34?  The answers were helpful.  And honest- I was not likely to make it that long without having the baby.  So Josh and I planned and prepped for a preemie.  I would have weekly appointments and non-stress tests for the baby till the baby come.  I made it that whole week without incident.  The Division Ball was on Saturday and I really was feeling pretty good, Josh really wanted me to go with him to the Ball, I had a ticket and a dress of course because before all this happened I was going.  I actually thought about going.  But I was a smart patient and didn't.  After that Josh was home.  He worked a little from home when the kids were sleeping or playing well, but it was the week of Thanksgiving so not a lot was going on.  A good time to be out of the office!  We had more meals, friends drive from Atlanta to spend time with us, we ordered our Thanksgiving meal from Cracker Barrel so that we didn't have to cook anything. 

Monday night of Thanksgiving week I hit 30 weeks pregnant.  I was having almost no bleeding at all.  My weekly Dr appointment went well.  Just keep doing what I was doing because we were both doing well.  Then that night I started passing large blood clots. And the nights following.  Only at night, and the rest of the day I was perfectly fine.  By Thanksgiving I was getting a little nervous about that, but I was still not in any pain.  Then after our wonderful Cracker Barrel meal, the contractions started.  And regular bleeding.  It wasn’t to the level where they told me to go in immediately, but it was increasing.  That night I continued having steady contractions (still non-painful) and passing not only clots but large amounts of blood again, so we called some friends to stay with the kids and went into the ER in the middle of the night.

By the time I got there the bleeding had subsided, I got checked and wasn't in labor, my cervix was closed, and so I was just hanging out feeling good.  Contractions stopped. 24 hours passed. I had nothing to show the doctors and nurses about what had been happening.  Typical.  Then Friday in the middle of the night I got up to go to the bathroom and what happened next was classified as “Impressive Bleeding” by the Doctor when they got called into the room.  The next couple hours was back and forth to the bathroom and I got my blood drawn to check my hemoglobin levels.  12.0 is normal, mine came back 9.9 so not too bad.  They wouldn't really think about doing a blood transfusion until lower than 7. The next 48 hours passed with nothing to report (except my birthday—which by the way they let Josh bring the kids up to visit me!!) so I got to go home, the night of the 2^nd of December.  They told me that they trusted my judgment on when to come in, and we didn't live too far away so we could get there quickly if we needed too.  Whoo hoo!

Home again Home again J  

Stay tuned for Part 3!

Jordan - Part 1

This is the story about the adventure of Jordan!  This is a birth story!  If you don’t like reading things that you end up thinking… “that was waaay too much information” stop here.

It all started on Wednesday, Nov 13^th.  I was 29 weeks pregnant and at BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) helping in the children’s program. A regular day.  About 90 minutes into playing with 1 year olds, I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom and when I got there saw lots of blood.  Not good.  I made it about half way back to the room when it happened again.  At this point I called the nurses line and left a message with my high risk OB.  I went back in to help with the kids, made it another 15 minutes and spent the remaining 10 minutes or so in the bathroom.   Time for a plan.  I knew I needed to get to the ER, but wanted to ask my friend who is a nurse for sure.  I also knew I couldn't have the kids with me, so I was going to ask another friend (who only has  1 child…since I only have 1 seat open in the van for a car seat) to switch me cars and take the kids home for me.   As soon as the lecture was done and Moms were going to start picking up their kids, I went in and the two people I needed to talk to were sitting in the first two chairs in the door.  God orchestrated this in so many ways, let me tell you.  1.  BSF is held at a church that is TWO BLOCKS away from my hospital.  2.  A lot of my friends go to BSF, so coordination for me getting to the ER was easy.  3.  I honestly was more worried about coordinating all of this part, and once that was taken care of I was breathing a lot easier.

I could still feel the baby kicking a lot, my nurse friend told me to get to the ER, and my other friend handed me her car keys and got mine and the two of them loaded up the kids and got them home and fed.  All the while I drove 2 blocks, parked, and was checked into Labor and Delivery within 15 minutes.  They immediately found baby’s heartbeat and found there to be no signs of stress on the baby.  Huge relief.  I then called Josh and filled him in (don’t worry he’d gotten a few texts from me prior to this, but I didn't really have any info to tell him up until this point).  I sent out a mass text asking for prayer and within 5 minutes had another friend coming up to sit with me in the hospital until Josh could get there (Ft. Stewart is a good hour+ drive away).  She also brought me clean clothes (because I of course thought I would be going straight home ?!)  Julie stopped by the house, dug through my laundry piles for clothes that would fit me (ha!) and when she arrived, she stopped by our friend Angela Maria’s room (she had just had her baby ((6 weeks early)) and was 2 doors down from me) and we had a good time waiting for more answers.  I had an ultrasound  (in which both Julie and Angela Maria saw the gender of the baby—WHICH WE DIDN'T KNOW—and kept the secret J) that showed possible partial abruption of the placenta (where it comes unattached from the uterine wall).  They decided since I was having regular contractions and the bleeding was still happening that they would start me on some steroids and magnesium, both would help the baby (lungs and brain) if I would end up having an early C-section.  By the time Josh arrived I had gotten the steroid shot and had an IV started with the magnesium.  We knew then I would be staying at least 24 hours.  The next several were spend coordinating child care for the next few days.  Josh couldn't completely miss work because he had a big event coming up.

I had another ultrasound the next day and another steroid shot.  The longer I was on the magnesium the more my brain got fuzzy and eye sight was cloudy.  But I didn't a lot better on it than most.  The worst part was I was SO overheated.  The AC was on full blast and I was sweating ridiculously. HA!  When my Dr came in, we talked about a plan.  We didn't know why I was bleeding, there appeared to be a blood clot at the bottom of my uterus and the presence of blood near the cervix causes contractions.  The goal was to make it to 34 weeks.  The health of the baby would be significantly less at risk if we could make it that far.  A month and a few days.  Bed rest was certain.  Whether they would let me go home was not.  They have a high-risk long-term stay section of the Mother-Baby floor, I could wait it out there, or if I was going to be wise and a good patient I could do bed rest at home.  We were really praying for that option because we were told that since it was flu season that the kids would not be able to come see me.

The Dr agreed that I could try bed rest at home and after another 48 hours I was home.

Stay Tuned for Part 2!

The Last 2 Days

Because it's funny therapeutic, here are the last few days in our house. :)

Monday the kids started getting colds. No biggie.

Tuesday they were getting worse. We are praying for health, and I specifically am because the two Bible Studies/Women's Groups I'm a part of meet on Wednesdays and Thursday mornings and I LOVE being there.

Wednesday morning, the kids wake up hacking up stuff and sneezing everywhere...and then...nothing. So, I think, YES! We can go! Get everyone dressed, out the door, in the car... (what actually happens is someone loses shoes, can't find their drink, oops isn't wearing underwear (TRUE STORY), someone else needs to potty, three trips for diaper bag/purse/search for phone. Break up fights over who sits in what car seat, drop the hammer on throwing toys, readjust the rear view mirror and turn off wipers and blinkers from the child who 'drove' while another kid was in the bathroom)...and on the road. Jack names every vehicle we pass while simultaneously counting school buses, and then it begins. An insane chorus of sneezing, coughing (the productive kind that has a disgustingly audible swallow afterwards), and intermittent crying. OK so we are not better, we are nearly there, and the kids know where we are going. So now what. I stop out front of the church to drop off a few things and pick up my lesson for next week and then give the kids a brief chat about how we're being kind to our friends by not spreading our germs and we head home. Turns out Renae has violent tendencies when she is not feeling well. Immediate tears, and then aggression. Poor Jack. But not really cause he's a wrecking ball in every action so he without meaning to dishes out plenty of payback. If she vacates a toy for even one second if someone even looks at it=LOOK OUT. WOW. Obviously, this kind of reaction is not good and needs lots of correct and discussion, but it really is so ridiculous it's kinda of comical.

Get.Thru.The.Day.

Then of course Daddy comes home and the world is perfect and happy. Then starts the "My ear really hurts" from Renae.

Thursday morning. Mommy inadvertently did not check the volume on the baby monitors and wakes up ON HER OWN to realize 2 children are standing by their closed doors hysterically crying. Great. Renae can work baby proof doorknobs so we have her door locked from the outside to prevent night time wandering and playing with phones (if you've ever gotten a 1:00am-4:00am phone call from Josh or me, this is why the door is now locked). I'm sure Jack would have been totally content demolishing his room if Renae had not been crying first but either way, I let them out and try to calm the chaos. Daddy walks in from finishing his run outside and walks into his absolute favorite situation...hahaha. But, it's helpful because Daddy is here so now everyone is mostly happy. Renae's choruses of "my ear hurts" and "my ear kinda hurts" and "my ear is a big giant owie" etc. continues. So I call the appointment line to make an appointment thinking that since she can actually tell me honestly about her issues that the other kids probably have the same thing. If you ask Jack if his ears hurt he will show you a car, or tell you about his bug bites. Helpful.

Ok, so we make the appointments. Only for Renae and Noah because Jack seems pretty good. I should know by know that his insanely sunny personality can mask nearly anything, but hey. He wasn't upset or bothered so I didn't make him one. So we say goodbye to Daddy, change our clothes, we eat breakfast (except Renae because she only wanted water--also BOMB attitude returns...she had a meltdown because Jack LOOKED at her blanket...?!?! Girl was not feeling well), and repeat the same get out the door process as yesterday. We get to the doctor, which thankfully the kids love going to. We get through the double doors, Jack bee-lines it for the toys. I roll Noah in the stroller to the front desk to check in, Renae trailing a few feet behind when I hear it. Puke on tile. Yup. Good one big R. The reception ladies spring into action while me and pregnancy brain is thinking about which kid I have to check on first and how I'm going to leave 3 unattended littles long enough to get paper towels/clean up, what Jack is actually up to since he is out of sight, and a tiny part of my brain is processing how many people are watching horrified with greenish faces. And somewhere in there I am wiping Renae's mouth and having a flashback to some creepy horror movie commercial I've seen sometime in my life with some creepy little girl with stringy hair and an extremely pale face staring blankly into space while standing completely straight and still. The reception ladies somehow break through my clean up fog to tell me (the giant pregnant lady with a sick baby in a stroller and 2 others in various places in the clinic) that I can't help because it's clinic policy that they have to ensure everything gets sanitized, so I can just go take a seat. And then my thoughts all switch from mild embarrassment/fight or flight, to "Wow, she timed that right, not at home, not in the van, I don't have to clean it up...this is working out pretty well!" Terrible I know.

So an hour later we leave with the news. Renae= almost bronchitis and an ear infection. Noah= TERRIBLE ear infection. Jack=a little mild version of both. (The doctor checked him also after seeing the results of R and N's ears). Also the nurse is very worried Noah weighed 26.8 lbs at his one year appointment 2 weeks ago and today only weighed 26.2 lbs. (!??! seriously!?) So we stop at the pharmacy: 5 medications for Renae, 4 for Noah, and a nasal spray and a nebulizer which I have to go pick up at a different pharmacy down the street.

Go to the new pharmacy--Praise God there's a drive thru! But, she tells me that I have to sit down with a pharmacist and get a run down on assembly and fill out some paperwork. She hears the ruckus in the car and goes to check to see if it's absolutely necessary that I come in. It is. So this isn't just a pharmacy, it's also a touristy gift shop. Weird combo I know it. So there in the middle of the over decorated CHRISTMAS TREES and little toys and gadgets she has me fill out paper work. And tells me how to assemble and run the nebulizer while I chase Jack all over and remind Renae and Jack about 35 times to only look and not touch things other people are going to buy. I hope she didn't feel slighted because to be honest, I was too busy trying to stop a massive disaster to listen at all. I figure I can figure it out in the safe zone of the house with much more focus and ease. I'm only partially sure no ornament or figurine was broken during the filling out of paperwork then we got back in the van and went home. EXHAUSTION.

Annnnnd it's 11:00.

I just had to give this snap shot for several reasons:
1. It's humorous.
2. Some time in the distant future I'll need to be reminded just how much I can endure accomplish in a morning.
3. I will most definitely forget most of this phase of life.
4. I was seriously just laughing at myself. WOW. If you would have told me 5 years ago that this would be life...