When I was fourteen-ish I made the choice to live my life set-apart. I wanted to wait for God to bring the man who was going to be my husband into my life.
Not date.
I know that sounds crazy…and yes, it is crazy. I knew God had someone really special for me. Someone HE created just for ME. Why waist my time and feelings on anyone else? I wanted my heart to be fully his. Now, I will say that it was way easier said then done.
Every girl has that longing/desire to be loved. It’s a good thing. That’s the way God created us. When we take that longing/desire and place it in anything or anyone other then Jesus Christ, it fails. You get broken hearted and feel all alone. That’s why we need to make Jesus the lover of our soul. Keep him as our foundation and build off that.
While waiting I had ups and downs. Sometimes it was easy to surrender and other times it sucked! Seeing friends have boyfriends and dating looked so good because they had someone there with them. I felt alone at points but then I had to remind myself I wasn’t alone. The enemy was trying to creep in my head telling my lies. Replacing lies with truth was something I did on a daily basis. Reminding myself about the one prince God had for me, His princess. I am so loved and cherished by God. Not only was God preparing my husband, he was also preparing me. Looking back on it now, I am thankful for the choices I made.
4 years after I made that choice to pursue Christ with all my heart, I started to go to a church that my youth pastor started, Mosaic Church. While there, I met Christopher James Bryant and his super cool car ;) During the 4 years of waiting, whenever I met a new boy, I would ask myself if this was “the one”. Dork right!! Well, when I first saw Chris I thought the same thing. I told God I wouldn’t be mad if this was my husband. After months of going to Mosaic, Chris started hanging out with some of my inner circle friends. Shortly after that I found out how old he was and it pretty much squashed all my thinking of him being “the one”. He was 9 years older then me! How could he ever like me? I was 18 and he was 27.
A couple of more months went by and he asked to be my friend on Myspace!!!! Oh those were the days :) My heart was fluttering! Chris asked if I wanted to go to a Sun’s game with him. I of course said YES!! He also said he couldn’t get anyone else to go so he called me. That made me feel great….Nothing says husband like last resort! Hahaha
That was the beginning of us hanging out as friends. I was starting to get the feeling he was liking me. Again, heart fluttering! Chris asked me if I wanted to go to dinner with him because he wanted to talk. AAAHHHHH I was freaking out! A million things were going through my head and I’m thinking he’s going to tell me he likes me. Well long story short, he said he wanted to make sure we were…..JUST friends. Ugh…my hearts fell to my stomach. I felt so stupid. I put a smile on my face and said. “ Oh ya, we’re just friends!” I was super bummed but knew God had someone for me.
Couple more months went by and our “friendship” seemed to be growing. I was starting to like him. I could also feel something in him too. I knew we need to have another talk. We were outside of my second parent’s house and we both agreed that we like each other. He knew where I stood and respected that. I loved that! Shortly after that we were labeled.
Boyfriend and Girlfriend.
When we both told each other we liked each other, in my head that was him saying I could see you as my wife. He knew I didn’t want to date. I just wanted to be with the one God made for me. So by him saying that….I knew, He was the one. We started dating, officially, in December of 2006 and were engaged one year later to be exact. Engaged for 7 months and then tied the knot on July 27, 2008.
I love my love story not just because it’s mine but because God gets Glory out of it. He is the one who carried me through the years of waiting. Preparing my heart, as well as my husbands’ heart to be one. Go though this journey of life together, pursuing Christ with all we’ve got.
All that to say….I love my God….I love my Husband….I love the story we get to share together!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Evey's RSV Story
I'm feeling burdened to share this story. I am not a writer at all. I'm sure there are a million spelling errors.
When Evey was 4 days old, I noticed she was getting a really nasty nose and starting to cough every now and then. I thought, Oh great, my newborn baby has her first cold and she’s not even a week old yet. The next day she had more snot and you could hear her breathing through a stuffy sounding nose. I went out that day and bought an automatic nose sucker (which I HIGHLY recommend, best 20 bucks spent so far) because the bulb sucker I had wasn’t getting enough stuff out of her nose. That night she was really fussy and super stuffy. She was starting to gag and choke on her boogers. She woke up around 2:00am gagging and, what looked like to me, her trying hard to breath. I woke Chris up and we took her temp. It was 101.2 I was starting to get worried about her and was debating on a trip to the E.R. I called our on call pediatrician and she said it’s up to us if we want to go to the E.R. or wait until 9:00 that morning and let the Doctor see her. I was torn trying to decide what I should do. I wanted to go to the E.R. but it was in the middle of the night. We would have to call and wake up friends to watch Ezekiel and Chris had to be at work in a couple hours. I felt bad for him being up and losing sleep because he works so hard. I also didn’t want to be the over paranoid mom that brought their kid in for a cold and she would be fine. I decided to wait until 9:00 am to see her PED.
Evey and I didn’t sleep at all. Got to the PED's and they diagnosed her with RSV or Respiratory Syncytial Virus. My heart sunk to my chest because I have 2 friends who's babies just got out of the hospital with RSV. I didn’t really talk to them about there experiences but I did know it was one of the hardest things they have gone through at that point in their life. He told me I didn’t really need to go to the hospital with her and that he would set me up with everything they would do for her at the hospital, just with out all the poking a prodding. I did a breathing treatment with her there, got a prescription and some steroids for her and was back at home.
She is 6 days old now and getting worse as the day goes by. He did let me know that it gets worse before it gets better. She is looking pitiful and I just didn’t have a good feeling about it in my mama gut. Chris got home from work and I decided to call our PED again and let them know how I felt. She said to do another breathing treatment and give her a dosage of the steroid, wait 30-45 minutes and call her back. I did and nothing helped or got any better. I was really feeling like we needed to go to the E.R. so we call my second mom and dad to get Zeke and have him spend the night with them and we will let them know what is up.
We got to the E.R. around 10:30 pm and were put back in a room right away. They took her temp and it was 101 still. They also took her oxygen level and it was at 86. Obviously, normally your Oxygen level is at 100, so that freaked me out! They put her on oxygen.
At this point she is working really hard to breath. You can see her rib cage cave all the way in to take a full breath. Also, her neck was caving in at the bottom from her working so hard. She was breathing like she just ran a marathon trying to catch her breath. It was so hard to see my new baby that was just born 6 days ago having trouble breathing,coughing and then gagging on the mucus that is in her chest. She would gag and cough so much that she would stop breathing for seconds at a time. For me it felt like forever waiting for her to take her next breath. I know it was super hard for Chris to see her like that too. I was feeling completely helpless for my baby girl. This is not how I planned the first weeks of my baby's life to be.
Since she had a fever they wanted to make sure she didn’t have any other infections. The Doctor said he wanted to do a septic work-up on her. Now, just like you, I had no idea what the heck that was. So here is a breakdown.
This septic work-up typically includes a:
•complete blood count
•blood culture
•urinalysis and urine culture
•spinal tapp so that doctors can order an examination of the spinal fluid, including a spinal fluid culture
•chest x-ray (although this is often left out if the child lacks respiratory symptoms)
•stool studies if the baby has diarrhea
•viral test or culture, such as an RSV prep or flu test
Aaahhh right!! They did all of that accept the stool study because she didn’t have diarrhea. I was ok with all of them except the spinal tapp. It freaked me out and scared the poo out of me!! The doctor talked us into doing it because that was the only way to see if she had meningitis. I felt pretty confident she didn’t have it because one of the symptoms of RSV is fever. You can refuse it, but in the moment, I was just so scared out of my mind. I wanted my little girl to get better. He explained to us how it works and what will be done. Chris didn’t want to be in the room, I don’t blame him but I couldn’t leave my sweet girl. They laid her on her side all the way on the edge of the bed. The nurse held her in a C shape and I was there by her little head trying not to fall apart and praying that the spinal tapp would go smoothly. Then they needed to put in an IV for her antibiotics. They tried for an hour to get a good vein and poked her 3 different times. Her little arm and legs were bruised from that stupid rubber band thing they use to cut off the blood circulation. Got all of that done and we were waiting to be taken upstairs to her room.
Evey is still struggling to breath and at this point really hungry. She hadn’t nursed since 5:00 that day. Obviously when babies nurse they breath through their noses, but Evey couldn’t. She was rooting like she was hungry but anytime I tried to feed her, she wouldn’t latch on. It broke my heart. The only thing I could physically comfort her with wasn’t happening. I was super worried about her starving and then I was super worried about my milk supply. We finally get up to our room and they hook her up to the oxygen machine and up to the monitors. It monitored her oxygen level, respiratory rate and heart rate. They also deep suctioned her nose which was the craziest thing. It’s a nose sucker on steroids! They did a chest suction too which was a long skinny tube that goes from her nose all the way to her lungs and suck out the mucus. So gross and hard to see but what a difference it made. After they did that I wanted to try and nurse her since she could breathe a little better. I nursed her for like 3 minutes and 4-5 nurses come rushing in, pulling her off of me and checking her out. They said her oxygen level was really low and her respiratory rate was really high so they didn’t want me feeding her any more. WHAT?!?! I can’t feed my newborn baby? She got enough food to fill her belly I guess because she fell asleep right away. She didn’t sleep all day and was slap wore out from working so hard to breath.
Chris went home to get some sleep so he could go to work in a few hours. He left and I was, all alone, with my 7 day old baby, who looks so pitiful sleeping with wires all over her IV in her arm and an oxygen tube in her nose. I really have no idea how I felt because I had so many feelings. Scared for my little girl, guilty for letting her get sick, mad that God let this happen, scared she might not make it, feeling guilty/responsible for her not making it, felling bad for pawning my son off on other people, etc, etc. I was beyond tired so I just lost it. Bawling my eyes out over my little girl, Begging God to make her better.
I tried to sleep but I couldn’t. I had to make sure she was breathing. Even though she was hooked up to machines that would notify the nurses if anything was happening, I couldn’t sleep. I couldn't take my eyes off her. The what if’s filled my head nonstop. Morning came and I met the Doctor that would be taking care of us. I say us because he not only took care of my little girl he was there for me too. Informing me of everything they were doing and why they were doing it. He was the best.
They came in almost every 2-3 hours to suction out her nose but her breathing was getting worse. They brought in a respiratory therapist and they hooked her up to a high flow machine. What that is, is a machine that pushes the oxygen harder into her lungs so she doesn’t have to work so hard. It wasn’t breathing for her but it was helping her breath. They put her on the highest setting, which was a 6, and was on 4 liters of oxygen. They didn’t want her to have anything orally while on the machine because she could aspirate and choke. She didn’t have anything to eat for 5 days! She was on an IV so I wasn’t worried she was dehydrated. I was worried that she wouldn’t want or know how to nurse when she was able to. The worst part was when she was hungry and I couldn't do anything about it. It broke my heart knowing that I had everything she needed right here and I couldn’t give it to her.
On day 2 Evey’s IV went bad so they had to put in another one. That was crazy!! I don’t even know how many times they tried to get one in her. After an hour of trying, they finally got one in her foot. The very next day her IV went bad again! They had to call a special person to come and do it because they were having trouble, again. They lady got there 2 hours later and got it in only after2 tries. She was taping it off and as she was pulling away the tape got stuck on her glove and pulled the IV right out…..It was silent in the room for a minute. The lady, nurse, Chris and I all looked at each other. She felt SO bad you could see it all over her face. You have got to be kidding me I thought! I know she didn’t mean to. I couldn’t get upset with her. I did want to scoop my baby up and run away at that point though. Two days later at 6:00 in the morning, the nurse came in to give Evey her rounds of antibiotics and noticed her IV was bad again. This time I was so over the IV thing it wasn’t even funny. They called a nurse from the NICU to put in a new one. She was amazing!! Got it the first time and was super fast. I told her that if this happens again I only want her to do it!
Days 3,4 and 5 were her worst days there. They were my worst days there too. She was getting worse at one point and the doctor said if she continues to go that way she will be in the ICU on a breathing machine. My heart sunk. I thought right then and there that was not going to happen. I was mad at God for letting this happen to MY girl! She is band spanking new to this world, she doesn’t deserve this. She's just a little baby. Then I realized she is not MY baby but Gods baby. God blessed me with her and he can take her if he wanted to. I'm not in control of her life at all. Who am I to be mad at you, God? From that point on, I was beating on God's chest, begging him to make this little girl better. If she wasn’t going to get better, help me to be ok with that. Hold me in your loving arms. I knew I couldn’t do or get through this with out him. That is the truth for sure!
By day 6, Evey was still on the high flow machine. Not getting any worse but not any better either. They tried to bump her flow down one but she got bad right away. I just kept on holding onto God’s promises. He is my solid rock on which I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
I had been pumping the whole time and wanting to at least bottle feed her but they were still nervous about her choking. They let me give her pedisure an ounce at a time. She chugged it down the first time. I was so happy! My little girl still knew how to eat. It was 1 ounce every 4 hours at first then bumped up to 2 ounces every 4 hours. Finally on day 7 they let me give her some mama’s milk! She was eating 2 ounces every 3 hours. Sometimes I would lie and say it had been 3 hours when it had really only been 2 and feed her. She was hungry and I was going to give her what I thought was best.
Day 7, she was bumped down on the high flow machine and was responding well to it. Day 8, tried to bump it down some more but it was a no go. As soon as they bumped it down, she started working hard to breathe again. It was crazy. Waiting for her to get off the high flow was so hard. She was getting better but as soon as they bumped it down, she started working again. The high flow machine was at a 2, which is the lowest setting, and she was stuck there. Barely needing it but when it was gone she was breathing heavily. So frustrating.
Day 9 came and they took her off the high flow!! I was so excited because that was one step closer out the door. She was still on oxygen at this point but they were going to try and wean her off through out the day. They did and she was responding great to it.
Day 10 came and she was wire, IV and oxygenless! Before she could go home they needed to watch her for at least 12 hours to make sure she was truly ok to go home. She was still sick and would probably continue to be sick for another week. She didn’t need the breathing assistance though and that’s all that matters. By 6:00 that night we had our discharge papers in hand and packing up shop. We were going home!!
I’m so thankful for every Doctor, nurse, nurse assistant, friend and family member who brought food up to the hospital. You all made such a huge impact in my life during that time and I’m truly grateful for it all. I learned so much and grew in my walk with Jesus. For that I’m thankful and will share my story.
When Evey was 4 days old, I noticed she was getting a really nasty nose and starting to cough every now and then. I thought, Oh great, my newborn baby has her first cold and she’s not even a week old yet. The next day she had more snot and you could hear her breathing through a stuffy sounding nose. I went out that day and bought an automatic nose sucker (which I HIGHLY recommend, best 20 bucks spent so far) because the bulb sucker I had wasn’t getting enough stuff out of her nose. That night she was really fussy and super stuffy. She was starting to gag and choke on her boogers. She woke up around 2:00am gagging and, what looked like to me, her trying hard to breath. I woke Chris up and we took her temp. It was 101.2 I was starting to get worried about her and was debating on a trip to the E.R. I called our on call pediatrician and she said it’s up to us if we want to go to the E.R. or wait until 9:00 that morning and let the Doctor see her. I was torn trying to decide what I should do. I wanted to go to the E.R. but it was in the middle of the night. We would have to call and wake up friends to watch Ezekiel and Chris had to be at work in a couple hours. I felt bad for him being up and losing sleep because he works so hard. I also didn’t want to be the over paranoid mom that brought their kid in for a cold and she would be fine. I decided to wait until 9:00 am to see her PED.
Evey and I didn’t sleep at all. Got to the PED's and they diagnosed her with RSV or Respiratory Syncytial Virus. My heart sunk to my chest because I have 2 friends who's babies just got out of the hospital with RSV. I didn’t really talk to them about there experiences but I did know it was one of the hardest things they have gone through at that point in their life. He told me I didn’t really need to go to the hospital with her and that he would set me up with everything they would do for her at the hospital, just with out all the poking a prodding. I did a breathing treatment with her there, got a prescription and some steroids for her and was back at home.
She is 6 days old now and getting worse as the day goes by. He did let me know that it gets worse before it gets better. She is looking pitiful and I just didn’t have a good feeling about it in my mama gut. Chris got home from work and I decided to call our PED again and let them know how I felt. She said to do another breathing treatment and give her a dosage of the steroid, wait 30-45 minutes and call her back. I did and nothing helped or got any better. I was really feeling like we needed to go to the E.R. so we call my second mom and dad to get Zeke and have him spend the night with them and we will let them know what is up.
We got to the E.R. around 10:30 pm and were put back in a room right away. They took her temp and it was 101 still. They also took her oxygen level and it was at 86. Obviously, normally your Oxygen level is at 100, so that freaked me out! They put her on oxygen.
At this point she is working really hard to breath. You can see her rib cage cave all the way in to take a full breath. Also, her neck was caving in at the bottom from her working so hard. She was breathing like she just ran a marathon trying to catch her breath. It was so hard to see my new baby that was just born 6 days ago having trouble breathing,coughing and then gagging on the mucus that is in her chest. She would gag and cough so much that she would stop breathing for seconds at a time. For me it felt like forever waiting for her to take her next breath. I know it was super hard for Chris to see her like that too. I was feeling completely helpless for my baby girl. This is not how I planned the first weeks of my baby's life to be.
Since she had a fever they wanted to make sure she didn’t have any other infections. The Doctor said he wanted to do a septic work-up on her. Now, just like you, I had no idea what the heck that was. So here is a breakdown.
This septic work-up typically includes a:
•complete blood count
•blood culture
•urinalysis and urine culture
•spinal tapp so that doctors can order an examination of the spinal fluid, including a spinal fluid culture
•chest x-ray (although this is often left out if the child lacks respiratory symptoms)
•stool studies if the baby has diarrhea
•viral test or culture, such as an RSV prep or flu test
Aaahhh right!! They did all of that accept the stool study because she didn’t have diarrhea. I was ok with all of them except the spinal tapp. It freaked me out and scared the poo out of me!! The doctor talked us into doing it because that was the only way to see if she had meningitis. I felt pretty confident she didn’t have it because one of the symptoms of RSV is fever. You can refuse it, but in the moment, I was just so scared out of my mind. I wanted my little girl to get better. He explained to us how it works and what will be done. Chris didn’t want to be in the room, I don’t blame him but I couldn’t leave my sweet girl. They laid her on her side all the way on the edge of the bed. The nurse held her in a C shape and I was there by her little head trying not to fall apart and praying that the spinal tapp would go smoothly. Then they needed to put in an IV for her antibiotics. They tried for an hour to get a good vein and poked her 3 different times. Her little arm and legs were bruised from that stupid rubber band thing they use to cut off the blood circulation. Got all of that done and we were waiting to be taken upstairs to her room.
Evey is still struggling to breath and at this point really hungry. She hadn’t nursed since 5:00 that day. Obviously when babies nurse they breath through their noses, but Evey couldn’t. She was rooting like she was hungry but anytime I tried to feed her, she wouldn’t latch on. It broke my heart. The only thing I could physically comfort her with wasn’t happening. I was super worried about her starving and then I was super worried about my milk supply. We finally get up to our room and they hook her up to the oxygen machine and up to the monitors. It monitored her oxygen level, respiratory rate and heart rate. They also deep suctioned her nose which was the craziest thing. It’s a nose sucker on steroids! They did a chest suction too which was a long skinny tube that goes from her nose all the way to her lungs and suck out the mucus. So gross and hard to see but what a difference it made. After they did that I wanted to try and nurse her since she could breathe a little better. I nursed her for like 3 minutes and 4-5 nurses come rushing in, pulling her off of me and checking her out. They said her oxygen level was really low and her respiratory rate was really high so they didn’t want me feeding her any more. WHAT?!?! I can’t feed my newborn baby? She got enough food to fill her belly I guess because she fell asleep right away. She didn’t sleep all day and was slap wore out from working so hard to breath.
Chris went home to get some sleep so he could go to work in a few hours. He left and I was, all alone, with my 7 day old baby, who looks so pitiful sleeping with wires all over her IV in her arm and an oxygen tube in her nose. I really have no idea how I felt because I had so many feelings. Scared for my little girl, guilty for letting her get sick, mad that God let this happen, scared she might not make it, feeling guilty/responsible for her not making it, felling bad for pawning my son off on other people, etc, etc. I was beyond tired so I just lost it. Bawling my eyes out over my little girl, Begging God to make her better.
I tried to sleep but I couldn’t. I had to make sure she was breathing. Even though she was hooked up to machines that would notify the nurses if anything was happening, I couldn’t sleep. I couldn't take my eyes off her. The what if’s filled my head nonstop. Morning came and I met the Doctor that would be taking care of us. I say us because he not only took care of my little girl he was there for me too. Informing me of everything they were doing and why they were doing it. He was the best.
They came in almost every 2-3 hours to suction out her nose but her breathing was getting worse. They brought in a respiratory therapist and they hooked her up to a high flow machine. What that is, is a machine that pushes the oxygen harder into her lungs so she doesn’t have to work so hard. It wasn’t breathing for her but it was helping her breath. They put her on the highest setting, which was a 6, and was on 4 liters of oxygen. They didn’t want her to have anything orally while on the machine because she could aspirate and choke. She didn’t have anything to eat for 5 days! She was on an IV so I wasn’t worried she was dehydrated. I was worried that she wouldn’t want or know how to nurse when she was able to. The worst part was when she was hungry and I couldn't do anything about it. It broke my heart knowing that I had everything she needed right here and I couldn’t give it to her.
On day 2 Evey’s IV went bad so they had to put in another one. That was crazy!! I don’t even know how many times they tried to get one in her. After an hour of trying, they finally got one in her foot. The very next day her IV went bad again! They had to call a special person to come and do it because they were having trouble, again. They lady got there 2 hours later and got it in only after2 tries. She was taping it off and as she was pulling away the tape got stuck on her glove and pulled the IV right out…..It was silent in the room for a minute. The lady, nurse, Chris and I all looked at each other. She felt SO bad you could see it all over her face. You have got to be kidding me I thought! I know she didn’t mean to. I couldn’t get upset with her. I did want to scoop my baby up and run away at that point though. Two days later at 6:00 in the morning, the nurse came in to give Evey her rounds of antibiotics and noticed her IV was bad again. This time I was so over the IV thing it wasn’t even funny. They called a nurse from the NICU to put in a new one. She was amazing!! Got it the first time and was super fast. I told her that if this happens again I only want her to do it!
Days 3,4 and 5 were her worst days there. They were my worst days there too. She was getting worse at one point and the doctor said if she continues to go that way she will be in the ICU on a breathing machine. My heart sunk. I thought right then and there that was not going to happen. I was mad at God for letting this happen to MY girl! She is band spanking new to this world, she doesn’t deserve this. She's just a little baby. Then I realized she is not MY baby but Gods baby. God blessed me with her and he can take her if he wanted to. I'm not in control of her life at all. Who am I to be mad at you, God? From that point on, I was beating on God's chest, begging him to make this little girl better. If she wasn’t going to get better, help me to be ok with that. Hold me in your loving arms. I knew I couldn’t do or get through this with out him. That is the truth for sure!
By day 6, Evey was still on the high flow machine. Not getting any worse but not any better either. They tried to bump her flow down one but she got bad right away. I just kept on holding onto God’s promises. He is my solid rock on which I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
I had been pumping the whole time and wanting to at least bottle feed her but they were still nervous about her choking. They let me give her pedisure an ounce at a time. She chugged it down the first time. I was so happy! My little girl still knew how to eat. It was 1 ounce every 4 hours at first then bumped up to 2 ounces every 4 hours. Finally on day 7 they let me give her some mama’s milk! She was eating 2 ounces every 3 hours. Sometimes I would lie and say it had been 3 hours when it had really only been 2 and feed her. She was hungry and I was going to give her what I thought was best.
Day 7, she was bumped down on the high flow machine and was responding well to it. Day 8, tried to bump it down some more but it was a no go. As soon as they bumped it down, she started working hard to breathe again. It was crazy. Waiting for her to get off the high flow was so hard. She was getting better but as soon as they bumped it down, she started working again. The high flow machine was at a 2, which is the lowest setting, and she was stuck there. Barely needing it but when it was gone she was breathing heavily. So frustrating.
Day 9 came and they took her off the high flow!! I was so excited because that was one step closer out the door. She was still on oxygen at this point but they were going to try and wean her off through out the day. They did and she was responding great to it.
Day 10 came and she was wire, IV and oxygenless! Before she could go home they needed to watch her for at least 12 hours to make sure she was truly ok to go home. She was still sick and would probably continue to be sick for another week. She didn’t need the breathing assistance though and that’s all that matters. By 6:00 that night we had our discharge papers in hand and packing up shop. We were going home!!
I’m so thankful for every Doctor, nurse, nurse assistant, friend and family member who brought food up to the hospital. You all made such a huge impact in my life during that time and I’m truly grateful for it all. I learned so much and grew in my walk with Jesus. For that I’m thankful and will share my story.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Evey June's Birth Story
Since I’ve been absent, lots of things have happened in our lives. For one, we had our second baby!!
Evey June Bryant was born January 26, 2011 at home in our bath tub. She weighed 8 pounds 2 ounces and was 21 inches long.
Here is the way she came into the world.
I woke up at 3:50 am early Wednesday morning to go to the bathroom, as many pregnant women do, and felt nothing except this huge watermelon pushing on my bladder. Went back to sleep and woke back up a little after 4:00 am with the crampy/go to the bathroom feeling. I was so excited and knew this was it. I tried to go back to sleep or at least lay there until I couldn’t anymore.
It got intense pretty quickly and I guess I was breathing hard because I woke Chris up. Told him this was it and he got up, made coffee, called his work and started calling people I wanted there for support other then my Midwife and husband. At this point I rushed to put my contacts in because I hated having my glasses on while in labor with Zeke. I brushed my teeth as well and was going to attempt to put some make up on but never made it that far. They were like 2 minutes apart almost lasting a minute. We are about an hour into it and Kim Reeves, Jen Polk and my mom got there like 15 minutes after Chris called them. They were getting my bed ready and making sure everything was in the right place. My mom I wanted there mostly for Zeke. He usually doesn’t wake up until 7 but I wanted her there just in case he wakes up earlier or if I was going to be in labor all day. I’m glad she was there because he woke up like 20 minutes after my they got there; I guess he was excited to meet his little sister.
Oh, at this point I had never been checked so I have no idea if I was dilated before going into labor.
I had to really breathe and moan through the contractions now. I was praying for God to just get me through this contraction. I knew that if I could make it through this contraction, I would be ok. One step closer to the finish line and one step closer to holding my baby. One contraction at a time is what I focus on in my head. It was probably 5:30 am at this point and we decided to call the midwife. Sharon called us back and wanted to talk to me and in my head I was thinking, how am I supposed to talk on the phone? I got the phone said hello and said it hurts really bad and gave the phone back to Chris because I was having a contraction. She was headed our way!
I tried to sit on the birth ball but that was NOT comfortable. I couldn’t sit or even stand up all the way so I ended up laboring over a dining room chair with a trash can on the seat just in case. I didn’t want to get in the tub yet because I knew Sharon was going to check me when she got there and I didn’t know if she would make me get out to do it. It's about 6:30 am and I was “feeling it” as I say when I’m in labor. Sharon was not there yet and I told them to make sure the front door was unlocked so she could come right in. I had a contraction and felt like I was going to throw up and go to the bathroom all at once so I rushed to the potty and sat down. Sharon came in at that moment and my water broke on the toilet. Good timing right? As soon as my water broke, my body was pushing like a crazy machine! I thought I was going to have her in the toilet right then. I reached down and felt her head bulging. I started freaking out in my head because it was all happening so fast. At this point I had only been in labor like 2 hours and 20 minutes!! I just started labor and now she is poking her head out!!
Sharon listen to her heartbeat when that contraction was done and said ok lets get in the tub. I said I can’t get up…I don’t think I can. She said “yes you can Brittany, It’s not very glamorous to have a baby on the toilet!” I got up right away and shuffled to the tub. That tub felt AMAZING!!! It was so hot and helped me to really relax. Get my head in the game if you want to say. Talking to God telling him he is going to have to help me do this. I started to get really scared and didn’t want to push. A couple contractions came and I fought them off. Sharon could sense that something was up. She asked me what was wrong and I told her I was scared. She said, “I know it’s scary, I know it hurts but focus on your baby. You can do this!”
The song How Great Thou Art, sung by Carrie Underwood, came on and it was just what I needed to hear at that moment. Sat there for a minute praying and thanking God that I get to do this at home with people I love. Thanking him for a great pregnancy. Thanking him for his son to die for me. Thinking about all the pain and suffering He went through. It made my pain worth it. How great thou art to get me though this!
Contraction came, I pushed with all my might and out came her head. Now with Zeke’s labor, my body kept on pushing when his head came out but this time it did not. I told them to get her out. To pull her out! Haha Sharon said if I pull your baby out, I get to keep her. Contraction came and so did the rest of my sweet little girl. She went right in my arms and onto my chest. That moment is indescribable. Pure bliss!
My labor was 2 hours 44 minutes long. I was not expecting it to be that short. Zeke’s labor was 6 and a half hours so I was thinking it would be around the same or maybe longer. You just never know. Every labor is so different. I’m just super thankful for the short one!
Evey June Bryant was born January 26, 2011 at home in our bath tub. She weighed 8 pounds 2 ounces and was 21 inches long.
Here is the way she came into the world.
I woke up at 3:50 am early Wednesday morning to go to the bathroom, as many pregnant women do, and felt nothing except this huge watermelon pushing on my bladder. Went back to sleep and woke back up a little after 4:00 am with the crampy/go to the bathroom feeling. I was so excited and knew this was it. I tried to go back to sleep or at least lay there until I couldn’t anymore.
It got intense pretty quickly and I guess I was breathing hard because I woke Chris up. Told him this was it and he got up, made coffee, called his work and started calling people I wanted there for support other then my Midwife and husband. At this point I rushed to put my contacts in because I hated having my glasses on while in labor with Zeke. I brushed my teeth as well and was going to attempt to put some make up on but never made it that far. They were like 2 minutes apart almost lasting a minute. We are about an hour into it and Kim Reeves, Jen Polk and my mom got there like 15 minutes after Chris called them. They were getting my bed ready and making sure everything was in the right place. My mom I wanted there mostly for Zeke. He usually doesn’t wake up until 7 but I wanted her there just in case he wakes up earlier or if I was going to be in labor all day. I’m glad she was there because he woke up like 20 minutes after my they got there; I guess he was excited to meet his little sister.
Oh, at this point I had never been checked so I have no idea if I was dilated before going into labor.
I had to really breathe and moan through the contractions now. I was praying for God to just get me through this contraction. I knew that if I could make it through this contraction, I would be ok. One step closer to the finish line and one step closer to holding my baby. One contraction at a time is what I focus on in my head. It was probably 5:30 am at this point and we decided to call the midwife. Sharon called us back and wanted to talk to me and in my head I was thinking, how am I supposed to talk on the phone? I got the phone said hello and said it hurts really bad and gave the phone back to Chris because I was having a contraction. She was headed our way!
I tried to sit on the birth ball but that was NOT comfortable. I couldn’t sit or even stand up all the way so I ended up laboring over a dining room chair with a trash can on the seat just in case. I didn’t want to get in the tub yet because I knew Sharon was going to check me when she got there and I didn’t know if she would make me get out to do it. It's about 6:30 am and I was “feeling it” as I say when I’m in labor. Sharon was not there yet and I told them to make sure the front door was unlocked so she could come right in. I had a contraction and felt like I was going to throw up and go to the bathroom all at once so I rushed to the potty and sat down. Sharon came in at that moment and my water broke on the toilet. Good timing right? As soon as my water broke, my body was pushing like a crazy machine! I thought I was going to have her in the toilet right then. I reached down and felt her head bulging. I started freaking out in my head because it was all happening so fast. At this point I had only been in labor like 2 hours and 20 minutes!! I just started labor and now she is poking her head out!!
Sharon listen to her heartbeat when that contraction was done and said ok lets get in the tub. I said I can’t get up…I don’t think I can. She said “yes you can Brittany, It’s not very glamorous to have a baby on the toilet!” I got up right away and shuffled to the tub. That tub felt AMAZING!!! It was so hot and helped me to really relax. Get my head in the game if you want to say. Talking to God telling him he is going to have to help me do this. I started to get really scared and didn’t want to push. A couple contractions came and I fought them off. Sharon could sense that something was up. She asked me what was wrong and I told her I was scared. She said, “I know it’s scary, I know it hurts but focus on your baby. You can do this!”
The song How Great Thou Art, sung by Carrie Underwood, came on and it was just what I needed to hear at that moment. Sat there for a minute praying and thanking God that I get to do this at home with people I love. Thanking him for a great pregnancy. Thanking him for his son to die for me. Thinking about all the pain and suffering He went through. It made my pain worth it. How great thou art to get me though this!
Contraction came, I pushed with all my might and out came her head. Now with Zeke’s labor, my body kept on pushing when his head came out but this time it did not. I told them to get her out. To pull her out! Haha Sharon said if I pull your baby out, I get to keep her. Contraction came and so did the rest of my sweet little girl. She went right in my arms and onto my chest. That moment is indescribable. Pure bliss!
My labor was 2 hours 44 minutes long. I was not expecting it to be that short. Zeke’s labor was 6 and a half hours so I was thinking it would be around the same or maybe longer. You just never know. Every labor is so different. I’m just super thankful for the short one!
It's been TOO long
Well I'm back. I know all you cyber people were waiting on the edges of you seats for me to come back. Wait no more friends:)I have like 50 million things that I want to blog about so over the next couple days I'll be blogging it up.
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