It's been a while....

Wow, more than a year gone and nothing to be said for it on this blog. I gave it up for loss but maybe there is life in this old gal yet.

Up to date:

August of 2010 we were blessed to get a house sitting position in East Dundee that took care of our finances enough to save for a home of our own! Jordan had to take a pay cut to get health insurance for us and that was a major cut in our lifestyle. Alas we prayed and God prevailed. We had been living in this arrangement until March of 2011.

As all of you who read or will be reading this blog a tragedy befell our family on December 6th. Dad Ferrell had a fatal sudden heart attack and went to be with our Lord that night. It has been the most devastating time in my life personally and to have such a major person ripped away is something I would never wish on my worst enemy. This has been the turning point in our lives thus far. We went from house sitting to owning in a matter of a month to be closer to mom and more accessible for her as well. We are handling and helping her with her financial affairs and seeing to it that we are able to squeeze the most out of our resources for her as possible. We are also still in charge of seeing the house sitting agreement through and are trying to set up home in our new place as well. We have our hands in many new responsibilities right now.

I am not going to lie. Life has been difficult. More so than I ever imagined. We always have had hard times but this trumps anything life changing. Positive life changes are hard, but ones like this you never fully recover from. You learn a new type of normal. And, somehow you have to figure out a way to not hate that new normal for not being the old normal way of life.

I often look on our new normal and think what would Dad say about how we are doing? Is he proud? Sad? Would he do it all better? "Of course," I hear whispered to me, "But alas he isn't here to do it", is the resounding answer I always get to my questions. So I pick myself up by the bootstraps and move forward.

I thought I was grown up when I got married. Then I found out I was a fool once I gave birth to my first and second child. Then again I was tempted to call myself a grown up and Dad passed away. I have fully given into the fact that I will never be a "grown up". Because saying that in my mind means that God is finished teaching me. I will never be there. I will never have the right answer. And I now know that it is only through the grace of God that I make it through my days unscathed. I have no idea how God has been so patient with me all these years to hear all my prideful talk, thinking I was a grown up and responsible. I must have sounded like a brat.

I can at least say that is no longer the case. I am on my face daily and pride is no longer in my vocabulary. It is a scarry and sad thing to have Dad gone from our lives. There are times of utter panic when something fails in my home or we have a financial crisis. Dad was our handyman, financial advisor, biblical scholar, advice columnist... you get the picture. He is missed and needed more than ever right now. We have no idea what we are doing half the time but praying along the path that God protects us from wrong decision making and guides us to the path he deems appropriate for us.

I often wonder how I would be doing if I had no faith. And the answer is too scary to contemplate for more than a minute. I can not imagine life without a fail safe. At the very least each night Jordan and I can say, "Well, at least we have God. He'll always have our back." And that is also at the very most of which we can boast. We are learning what faith means.

It is not to dumbly walking in a way we think is right, but prayerfully and painstakingly tiptoeing carefully, asking God all along the road, "Is this right?"

Gone are the days of frivolity. They lay in waste to responsibility and fear of doing something wrong or out of God's favor. We cross our T's and dot our I's and at the end of each day thank God for giving us the will, determination, and stamina to handle each new day. Really if you think about it that's all we can do. It is all in His hands and who are we to say otherwise?

So if you are reading this and thinking on our family, pray for us. We are fearfully and prayerfully taking on each new day and need all the prayers of hope and support you can give. They are the most welcome gift anyone could give us.

Pipers arrival

So it has been a rough road from having Piper:

We went into Delnor at 6am to be induced. We started pitocin at about 7:30 and they double the dose every 15 to 30 minutes. Needless to say I was getting really uncomfortable FAST.

I was at 3cm coming into the hospital and by 8am I was four. The doctor broke my water (which was surprisingly relieving...go figure). Then I had to stay in bed for one hour to avoid cord prolaps. The contractions went from a five to a ten within an hour. The nurse kept pushing me to get an epidural, but I put it off because I was handling it well and getting that epidural thing hurts a lot, so until the pain matched the pain of the contractions I was going to hold out. BIG FRIGGIN MISTAKE. (FYI to other potential mothers, get the epidural BEFORE you enter transition, it'll work WAY better!)

So my contractions started getting to be every 60 seconds and I was not able to relax at all so i asked for the epidural. I was still four, by the time the finished giving me the epidural I was a 6-7. That was within 20 minutes people! After the epidural I started getting sweaty and wanted to throw up, which means transition...fun. I kept feeling the pain thogh and was hitting the stupid button for the epidural sauce like every two seconds...it works much better when you get it earlier! So I was really dissappointed in THAT aspect.

Within twenty minutes I was at 8-9 and had to call my sisters back from their jog to Meijer to tell them that I would be pushing within ten minutes. Ask them about that later, funny.

I went from 4 to ten within an hour people, it isn't so much fun, and she was a big girl! I started pushing at 12:45 and Piper was born at exactly 1:00.

She did get stuck with shoulder distocia wherein they had two other nurses come in and one was pounding on my stomach while they held my legs back as far as they could go, the doctor pulled and I pushed. All GREAT fun, NOT. She finally came out and they rushed her away to the other side of the room to check her shoulder to make sure it wasn't dislocated. She was fine.

Then I heard her cry. A strong beautiful cry! They wrapped her up and finally gave her to me after over 15 minutes of stiching me up, it was a rough ride...but we made it.

Piper was born at 1pm sharp weighing 9lbs 10oz, and at 20inches long. She was a biggin, and I felt every extra ounce! Major differnce from a seven pound son to a nine pound girl. BIG DIFFERENCE. Plus match that with an epidural that sucked, it was a rough time.

But she is here and beautiful. We came home on the first and have been recovering since. Here are some pictures of Piper:




Sorry if the story was bland but I am sleep deprived and not nearly as elloquent as my better half!

Coming Contractions

Well, we went to the hospital on Wednesday night. I was having steady contractions from 1:30 in the afternoon and they were lasting two minutes and coming between 4-10 mintues apart, mostly 6 minutes apart. By 5:30 I thought going to the hospital might be a good idea.

So we went, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited... you get the idea.

I was having steady contractions, but nothing else. They sent me home. I wasn't dissappointed or anything. I just found out that I am a luck y girl that contracts.. ALL THE TIME.

The nurse said I'd probably be in and out of the hospital until the baby arrives. I'm the type that, "Comes in dilated to 1, is sent home, then comes back dilated to 10 an hour later ready to push." I am going to be like this until she arrives, so we can't plan on going to the hospital with timed contractions. I have to wait it out until I am in a lot of pain.

So I just gotta hang in there. Because I am 36 1/2 weeks they won't induce me because I am still a little early, but too far along to give me anything to stop the contractions. Everyone is fine though and we are really okay with God's timing. It can still be a matter of weeks so don't get too excited or start rushing to hospital if we post this type of news again. It can still be awhile.

My theory is that I talked with God earlier, and we discussed having to have a c-section. I don't want one. I think this is God preparing my body for a larger baby to avoid c-section. So if that's the case I am totally okay with contractions every 15-30 minutes. She'll be worth every bit of it!

Jordan's Demo Reel!

Check out this site to view Jordan's newest completed demo reel!

http://vimeo.com/6407250

If it skips turn off the HD. The vimeo website makes things fun with their weird HD button. Jordan has been working on this for more than a month now and I am so excited to see what you all think. Months of work, time away form family and fun, and multiple migranes later he's finally finished, sorta. He wants to post more projects but the reel is finsihed.

Check it out!

Piper's New Arrival

We went to our doctor yesterday and spoke about the problem that Piper is so big. And that last time we met the doctor mentioned doing a c-section, which we do NOT want. So I asked about being induced. She was more than willing to do that instead to try to avoid a c-section.

We are scheduled to be induced September 29th at 7am!!!

We are so excited and hopeful that she is small enough still for me to deliver her normally. Please pray to that effect! But since we are being induced we will need to keep the revolving door of visitors closed for a bit until we get things under control and get a handle on how the doctor views a lot of visitors.

So as of right now, unless we go into labor sooner, we are asking that immediate family only visit us in the hospital while we are in labor. However feel free to call Jordan's cell to check in and see if we can have more visitors as we progress. We need to get a feel for how well (or poorly) the medication works for us to see what we can handle as far as visitors goes.

We, as always, will keep you posted!

When Piper comes

People have been asking me what we are wanting when we actually go into labor. Who can come, what time, etc.

We are more than okay with people coming while we are in labor. Jordan and Talitha are going to be the only ones in the room with me though while I actually deliver. T is being amazing and taking all the labor pictures. Just like last time as far as that goes. We just need to be curteous of others delivering in the same area and of the nurses, they were overwhelmed last time, so maybe not too many people in all at once. But there is a waiting area that is plush and inviting a few yards away from the labor and delivery rooms.

We can have visitors immediately after she is born, but the following days we will have to be more strict on who and when we can see people. We found that we had a ton of visitors at all times of the day and perhaps this time we can schedule visitors. We had a hard time breast feeding Noah and we needed to rest more last time. We also had a hard time with children visiting. Well, I did. Nothing against the little tykes, they for some reason overwhelmed me really easily last time. So we are asking no kids for a while until we can get Noah adjusted and us adjusted to Piper.

I guess all this is to say, we'll determine as we are in labor when we can get visitors since she could be born in the middle of the night and the next day could be interesting....

And as always, just call before you come. We need the heads up and we might have to tell some people that now's not a good time. The hospital has a "nap time" of 1-3pm that is enforced, so regardless during those times of day we cannot have visitors, even if they let us, we have to say no just for peace of other recovering mothers around us.

We learned a lot from last time, and hopefully Piper doesn't have the feeding problems we had with Noah. If she doesn't, we might be very open to having many visitors, but we'll play it by ear until then.

Lastly, if we have to have a c-section or are induced early, we ask that we have only immediate family as visitors then. We will need to focus on recovery for me and extra hurdles that these situations bring forth.

We love you all and just like last time Jordan will keep you all posted here and on Facebook once we go into labor in case you want to know but can't come!

The Latest Piper pictures

That's our girl! Sweet smile and all =)

We went to the ultrasound today to get her measured. Since I have a thyroid problem the doctors were concerned. YEAH, LOTTA GOOD THAT WAS! You know that your kid is huge when the sonogram tech proclaims, "Wow, she um....she has a rather large head. And a large torso. But hey! Her legs are normal!" She is supposed to weight at the large end 4 and a half pounds right now. SHE WEIGHS 5 1/2 POUNDS! Two weeks ahead of schedule! The doctor was like, "I love delivering chunky babies!" I was like, "I DON'T!"

The sonogram tech said she is very very large for her age, hhmmmm, remind you of anyone else as a baby? Maybe...JORDAN! The measurements added up to two weeks ahead of normal. That doesn't mean anything besides the fact that she is big, so don't necessarily bank on an early arrival.

Then the doctor said something no pregnant woman wants to hear, "Well, the worst case scenario is that she is 11 pounds and we do a C-Section."

YEAH! THAT IS THE WORST CASE! I don't want to get cut open! Please pray that she comes early so that doesn't happen!

I thought to myself, well they said the same thing about Noah and he was totally normal. Then she measured my belly. I am 32 weeks along. I measured 35 to 36. There is no mistake....she is huge.

So yes everyone, I look big because my child is huge! And the doctor mentioned c-section, and I have to go in every week sooner than 36 weeks because she is so big. Little freaked. And also really excited that Piper could very well get here sooner since she is so far along. Pray that is the case instead of humongo baby. The doctor said to not get my hopes up, but it is a possibility since Noah came early too and she is so big.

But freak out aside, isn't she cute? Well, what you can see of her that is. Cute button nose and sweet sweet smile. She kept rooting at the placenta whenever it came near, so hopefully that means good eating habits early, since Noah really struggled with latching on and eating. That smile made the whole fat baby issue non existent. I forgot how much I love her for a second there, then she goes and melts my heart with that smile!

Or maybe she is smirking...in that case she is much more evil than I thought.....