7.14.2013

you know you're a mom when....

you forget to get dressed in the morning.

I made it all the way to a baby shower in Bowie before I realized I was in shorts and a ratty t-shirt.

So classy.

7.12.2013

ramblings

Nothing makes you appreciate time like having a baby.

You get less than 9 months to enjoy time with you and your spouse. Before you know everything is going to change.

The time it takes to get through one intense contraction, can feel like a life time.

I never appreciated sleep like I do now. Pretty sure I was asleep BEFORE 9pm last night.

Having time to not just take a shower, but wash one's hair and you can forget about shaved legs.

Mascara? Thats something singles wear.

Forget having the time to go to places like Chipotle, Panera, or any place without a drive through.

I can't even work as long as I'd like to in the office because of child care. So I spend a lot of nights working from home, once JT is down.

The average span of a life time is 3,744 weeks.  From birth to age 18 is just 936 weeks.

936

936

That's it. That's all. That's all I get.

Every moment counts. Every smile, and so does every tear.

And when he gets older, so will every prayer. Every chance to share The Gospel. Every teaching moment, to respond in love and grace.

 I couldn't imagine trying to spend these next 936 weeks without being in dedicated prayer. Not only is raising a child a literal matter of life and death, but also eternal life and death.

Time. We only get so much time to make a difference. To teach them about Jesus and the fact that he died so we could live. The fact that he was perfect and yet still died for OUR crap. Because THAT is the only the that matters.

I pray I use my time wisely.

I pray you will also.

I know absolutely nothing about parenting. But I know I can't do it without Christ.

Thats all for now
- J & and a sleepy little boo

6.30.2013

It's a Baby, not a Baby Registry.

I was recently encouraged to start blogging again especially about being a new mother. Because we all know I can be painfully honest and sometimes people like that. Other times.. not so much. BUT I thought I'd go for it.

Most of my friends are either pregnant, just had a baby, or want babies. I guess I'm at that stage in my life. That and Bible college students do things 5 years earlier than the rest of society.

When Brian and I got married I tried hard to focus my attention on preparing for my marriage more than my wedding. And I Praise God I did.  I wish I had had enough brains to do the same when John Thomas came along. Instead I was more caught up in America's wonderful marketing lies that I needed  thousands of dollars worth of merchandise, and the beautiful art of denial that I was actually have a human being.

As long as I focused on what crib to buy, which car seat was safest and what outfit made me look less like a hippo, I didn't have to face the reality that one day I'd have to be a parent. I didn't have to think about my baggage and sin being passed on to my child. As long as I wore earrings that pulled the attention away from my belly (which works BTW) I didn't have to think that Brian and I would have to pray even harder against the Devi's attacks.

I wish I cared less about Babies R Us sales and more about preparing myself to be a Godly mother.

I think the Devil hides behind the dreams of perfect wedding photo's and cute cuddly babies. He takes our focus off of the seriousness of the life changes and puts it on cute little boy polos (I mean seriously is there anything cuter than a 3 month old in a polo).

Christ.

Christ needs to be my focus. Praying I allow him to chip away and make him the woman and mother of God he wants me to be.

I wish that was my prayer from the start of this journey, and praying it's yours.

3.04.2013

Not My Baby-Birth Story

From the beginning of this pregnancy, it was clear to me that this was God's baby.

To set the record straight I WAS on BC and had been taking it the same way for 2 years. Not consistently, but enough.

My pregnancy was super easy, I never had morning sickness. I didn't have any complications. For the most part he was a good baby. 

God was very gracious.

JT was born on Feb 6 ( a wednesday- go figure)

The Friday before, Brian and I went to the hospital. My feet and face got very swollen very fast. My Dr. told me to go to the emergency room to have my BP checked (because his office was full). Well there weren't any issues but while I was hooked up to a monitor the nurse told me I was having contractions.

I thought it was just the giant child inside of me stretching.

We went home that night and I continued to have contractions.... Consistant contractions. So Brian and I packed all of our things and waited. We went to bed and woke up saturday and I was still having contractions. They were getting worse. So We continued to wait. They were consistent, close together, and getting worse. So I went to bed expecting to wake up screaming.

No such luck.

Sunday came and went with no contractions.

Monday. We went to a specialist to see how the baby was doing. She said to not go past my due date because of the amount of fluid around the baby and how big he was. 

Monday afternoon we went to the dr.'s office. As the appointment was coming to an end the Dr. said "Go talk to my office assistant about when to be induced"...... uhh ok. I wasn't down for that but whatever.

We walked into the ladies office and she said "Oh yeah, you're on the schedule for tomorrow night".... um excuse me? I laugh. I straight laughed in the ladies face. I thought she was joking, because there was no since of understanding in her voice. Nope- she was serious. and i was PISSED.

I did NOT want to be induced. That was not how I wanted it to happen. I wanted it to come naturally. I was worried something was wrong. I cried. Cried my eyes out. After a bath and a LONG talk with Jesus. I was ok. 

Tuesday after some Red Robin, we made our way into the hospital.

I was admitted at 6 pm.
and the induction started at 8. Which by then I was already in labor. ... again.They gave me cervidex.  I was just chilling. 

Altho I will tell you. The IV was the worst part about all of it.

Brian left to go home about 10 maybe 11pm ish. One of us at least needed sleep.

3am. HELLOOOOO labor not the labor i'd been having since 8. like Holy H-E double hockey sticks labor.. 
4 am. Cervidex removed
5 am. Brian comes back and the nurse says "the dr. WILL break your water when he gets in at 7. And right now is the best anesthesiologist on staff and he's leaving at 7.
6 am. Drugs. glorious drugs.

The dr. came in at 7 and decided to wait on breaking my water. JT wasn't far enough down for it to be a safe deal.

8am patocin because my labor had slowed down.

anyway. blah blah blah.

All this time I was praying. I didn't want them to break my water. Something just didn't feel right about it.

My water broke naturally and i'll spare you details.
 
thats when the dr. put a fetal heart monitor in JT. which if you dont know they screw into thier heads. well naturally the kid freaked out and his heart rate started to drop. So they make me turn all these different ways and I have oxogen on and it was super scary but thankfully he calmed down.


JT was born at 2pm with 40 minutes of pushing. GO ME!
HOwever...
HAD the dr broke my water before time.
1. His umbilical chord was around his neck and 
2.  i'm not EXACTLY sure, but the way the chord was, it was split into sections up by the placenta and some how went through the membrane.

This means that it could have easily detached. Which if he broke my water I'm pretty sure I would have been rushed into surgery. For those of you who saw me in the last couple weeks know how big I was. That was all fluid. Which the dr.s told me was bad. However. The fluid was actually keeping JT "floating" and thus alive so the chord wouldn't detach.

This is not my baby. This is soo totally Gods baby. He worked it all out so both of us would be ok. 



He was 6.15. they thought he was going to be 8 something. 

Birth was easy compared to recovery. But the good news is my stomach is flat again (mostly). WHOO HOO!

Thank you to every one who prayed and is continuing to pray for us. We need it.

Thats all for now.
-j & jt... who is currently passed OUT.