Ayla's Birth Story

Ayla Mae was born Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 1:17 p.m.  She was 7 pounds and 19 inches long.

Jake and I had gone to bed late, around 11, which seldom happens with us especially on  a Saturday night.  We don't like to be groggy at church, but this Saturday our 3 year old had a fever of 101 prior to bed time.  He had fallen asleep on our bed and we decided not to move him because he felt so yucky.  So Jake slept in his bed.  At 1 a.m. I woke up to go to the bathroom and noticed a little show.  This excited me because with our first it happened at 3 a.m. and he was born the next day at 9:30 pm.  If it were not for the accompanying wetness that kept dribbling I would have gone right back to sleep, but I suspected contractions would begin soon.  After deliberating with myself thinking that Jake would need to sleep I held off telling him until 1:30. How nice of me to give him an extra half hour sleep. haha!

I decided to call my mid-wife.  Certain intuitions in me thought that I'd have the baby before noon. Perhaps I was just being hopeful.  Our midwife said to try to get some sleep and call her in the morning.  She acted as though it was nothing.  2 a.m. came and so did the contractions. They were clockwork contractions every 10 minutes right to my hips! Because they were so clockwork I knew it was real and this baby was coming. I felt much urgency to get our 3 year old to my mom's, but Jake said we should wait until morning.  I'm thinking "the baby isn't waiting for anyone!  Who knows how long the labor will take?"  I did not want to assume a long labor, who does?   So at 4:30 am I called my mom because she usually wakes up about then on weekdays. Jake's dad came at 6 a.m. and brought Berrit to my mom's.

Jake and I just stayed in the bedroom mostly. Every time I would get up to walk around a contraction would come.  This told me that they could just as well be 4-5 min apart if I'm moving around!  I called the midwife at 7 a.m. and she says to check back at 11.  At this point I'm worried that she doesn't seem urgent, and I feel very urgent that this baby could come soon, but I also trusted her experience of delivering over 2000 babies.

By 10:30ish the contractions started to hurt more. Some would say this is where true labor began. (?!) Whatever.  So we're still at 10 minutes apart and randomly sometimes 7 minutes.  At 12 noon they really started to get hard and I'm whining to Jake to call the midwife.  He dials her at about 12:30 and I'm  practically crying on the phone saying "I need you!!"  She says she'll start off in 15 minutes.  That means she'd be here in 45 minutes and I'm freaking out on the inside.

Jake runs the tub and after seeing how I was screaming and groping for relief he calls the midwife's beeper. This tells her to drive faster. I get in the tub and at this time I have the major bearing down pains and I know the baby is so close. Jake calls her number again.  I guess by this time she said she was just down the road. Later we learned she was going 90 on the highway.  Apparently if you like driving fast you should become a midwife!

I push more (thankful for the warmth of the water) and the baby's head comes out.  Jake says something to the affect of "This would be a great time for her to get here!" and she walked through the bedroom door, took her coat off and immediately starts coaching me and asking Jake for supplies.  The  baby comes out and she puts her on my chest and a warm wet towel on top of her.  I'm supremely relieved and very suspicious if we have an Ayla or a Korban.  Our midwife tells me to look and I discovered I had a little girl!  My heart melts and I just breath and cry and talk to my little girl and I wait for her to cry and she does. After about 10-15 minutes of letting the cord pulse she clamps it and Jake cuts it.  She wraps Ayla Mae in a warm dry towel and hands her to Jake.

At this time I wasn't paying attention to Jake or Ayla because I know it's almost placenta time.  I did glance over to see her eyes open staring at her daddy and a huge rush of happiness just flowed through me!  Jake told me later that he did cry at seeing his little girl and it was like a different part of his heart opened up to have a little girl. It means something different to have a girl to protect as a father.

Then the placenta was delivered and our midwife actually showed us what it looked like. She showed us where the baby was sitting, like one of those hammock hanging chair things. Then she helped me out of the tub and onto the bed.  I nursed Ayla for the first time and gained a little energy before tidying up.

Some family visited that night knowing that visitors really encouraged me and I realized that all the family January birthdays were in the room!  Me, Ayla, Jake's Dad, and my mom.

Now she is almost 3 weeks old and growing very well. SO many people have given her lots of girly things and there has been so much generosity with people knowing Jake is on unemployment. It is really encouraging and inspiring to see the love, sometimes even sacrificially.  I have had some breastfeeding difficulties, but we are glad to see a light at the end of the tunnel with that! She is a very normal little baby and we are so grateful for our health and to have had her at home. We would do it at home again should God see fit for us to have another little one.

Guess Baby's Stats!

Click HERE to guess our baby's stats!  The button "Enter a guess" is on the right of the page.

Pregnancy Milestones and Life Changes

I am glad that I have reached week 35!  Though I am not considered full term I could  mostly likely safely have the baby at home. Monday I had my midwife appointment and all is well with baby. My iron level is good, I am measuring and weighing normal.

My husband lost his job so we are really tightening the reigns on any spending, even food spending.  I am going to have to get really creative as to how I'm going to make healthy cheap meals. It's easy to make unhealthy cheap meals, but healthy, well balanced meals is a challenge. Beans, rice, veggies.  They say there is so much you can do with them, but I lack creativity.

We are grateful that we no longer have a mortgage. We have a small bit of debt left over from the sale of the house, but thankfully that will be able to be paid over time (as much as we wanted to just throw big chunks of payments in there, that is not an option right now.)  Plus Jake is out from under a very stressful job that was becoming too much pressure for him to perform as his boss desired and he hated to see all the poor decisions being made that have made the company go into this place of detriment. I am happy to have a hard working husband that does the best he can to provide for our family.

Time to get the birth kit together as we anticipate baby coming.  My list is big, but I think everything will come together nicely. God knows our needs and we have so much family surrounding us if we get in tight spots. Plus, our midwife is so understanding regarding financials with the birth of the baby. If our health sharing network does not pay for 100% of the payment then we will need to make a couple payments to her. We are confident that things will work out just fine.

Christmas is just around the corner and we are looking forward to being with family, having fun, eating good food and being grateful for our eternal gift of life that Jesus brought to earth.

update on pregnancy - 32 Weeks

Exact Weeks/Days Pregnant:  32 as of yesterday
What size is the baby right now?  Bigger than yesterday.. I am bigger every day.
Weight gain/loss: Last monday I was at 148 so 18 lbs.. probably 19 or 20 after this last week.
Maternity clothes? transferring from cute maternity clothes to balloon clothes
Stretch marks? Yes, the ones from my first pregnancy are showing up and my skin is getting super tight.
Sleep? Sometimes good sometimes bad. Up about every hour to pee until 1 a.m. then I usually will sleep 3-4 solid hours.
Best moment this week? Going to three thanksgivings. Ate at two.
Food cravings: Salads are so yummy right now. Sad that I have not had a leftover turkey salad sandwich.
Gender: Unknown
Belly button in or out? In
Movement?  Kicking, rolling, punching.. all the typical stuff.. especially when I lay down at night.
What I miss?  No crazy nerve back pain. 
What I'm looking forward to: Getting the birth kit put together, the lightening phase (hoping it will be sooner than later) and just having baby!!
Milestones: Half of my maternity clothes are too small for my belly. I think I am officially bigger than I was last pregnancy at this time. I think I was 152 lbs when B was born. I will easily pass that up with this baby.


I also just realized, after 7 months of pregnancy, that both my first and second due dates land on the 22nd of the month.  First was due on 22nd of April, born on the 17.  Second is due January 22. hmmm, maybe the 17th will be the day?

Catch up post

Has it seriously been since August that I posted?  What a shame!

We are settled into our new home and enjoying it quite a bit.  I'm still trying to find places for things. Going from a larger home to smaller is a challenge, but one we joyfully welcome. It feels great to get rid of things!

We closed on our short sale on Wednesday this week!  Yay! We no longer have to think about the old home with the exception of all the special memories we had there. :)

I am now 27 week pregnant, 28 tomorrow, and the same exact back pain I had with B is back for this one too.  If I don't stand or sit in one place for a while I do fine, but if I'm super active or do too many dishes at once I can feel my back tensing up.  It probably has a lot to do with the stress of my day as well. I always try to get in a cup of raspberry tea with honey and my vitamins in the morning with a good protein for breakfast.

My little B is growing like a weed and it is a challenge for me to keep him busy.. the evil temptation of computer games and tv wins mommy over too often, but we are striving to take less and less time a day to get off the terrible addiction. We are learning a letter a week. This week was E and next week will be F.  That sounds like it would be a good post in itself showing our specially activities we do every week.

We are so excited for baby #2 to come.  We are tirelessly looking for a boy name!  We are picky on meaning and we both have specific desires on it being unique, but not weird.  Both of our definitions of "weird" seem to be different though. HAHA.

Financially we are so blessed.  We are not out of debt, but if Jake keeps his job for the next year we are very confident that we will easily be out of debt completely in a year. We are so looking forward to that, but we know new life challenges will come along as usual. :-)

It is hard not to start drooling over land yet.  We do desire to have a place out in nature, but we need to enjoy the transition time we are in.  Right now we are transition to go from 1 to 2 children, which, from what I have heard, is a big step!  Mama will need to learn even more selflessness!  Children are so good for our adult character development.

This is probably a good place to close for now.  I will try to make my posts more frequent and short and include pictures!

Kicking Enjoyment

Parts of pregnancy can be difficult (physically and emotionally), but I do love the first strong kicks from baby. I had forgotten what they were like.  The startling juts and rolling and churning make it all so real. All my suspicions early on were correct, he or she loves hanging out on the left side.  Being as busy as we are it is nice to sit and enjoy some baby today.  It is a great reminder of what life is all about and to sit back and enjoy these little miracles.

Also, as much as I feel obligated to post belly pictures, I really don't want to.  There really hasn't been much of anything accept my fat being pushed around.  I tend to think of the physical changes as biological and for lack of a nicer word, gross.  Mind you I do believe that all of this is amazing, the way God created our bodies to work in this way and the way he uses this for His glory in creating life.

Busy Life Update

1) I am now 18 weeks pregnant!  :)  I am hungry a lot and trying to pace my energy.  I hope to be making homemade contour diapers like these to prepare for baby.

2) We are selling our house by short sale. It is coming along slowly but surely. The bank is being sure to drag its feet, but we have a great negotiator who knows what to do to make the process move as quickly as possible.

3) We bought a mobile home for $4000 and it wasn't a major junker either. It was dirtier and grimier as I'll get out, but as far as condition, very nice. It has a pantry and a walk-in master closet and also a sunroom. Three things I don't have in our current 1200+ sq foot house.  It is in a nice park right near both our parents. They do not allow felons or sex offenders as residents in the park so we know it will be a safe place for our children. We are fixing it up and should be moving in soon. We need to paint the kitchen and put floors down in the living room, hallway, and Jake's office.  We also need a master bathroom vanity.  I'm looking forward to having time to settle in before the baby comes in January.

4) I will be trying to keep a Montessori approach to homeschooling this year for my 3 year old, but also adding materials and books that interest him while encouraging shapes, colors, numbers and letters.  Right now he has spurts of "I need to learn my letters!", but when I start to teach him he gets extremely playful and imaginative and loses site of the actual letter. (probably because he is an overly entertained child.) I will need to focus on one letter a week and find different applications and activities for that letter. He is also big into learning about his skeleton. My friend and I are also planning some field trips for a small group of mommies and preschoolers. I'm very excited to get B out on a regular basis for social interaction and learning!!

5) I hope to do 2 bible studies this fall!  One is an inductive study on Revelation and the other is a book study on Nancy Leigh DeMoss' book "Choosing Gratitude" which my sister is leading at her house.  I just need to find someone to watch B while I'm at my sister's Friday Mornings. My main desire in bible study this year is that God would give me a heart change that will change my thoughts and behaviors, not just my head knowledge. And not just a temporary change, but a real change that will last more than a week or two! It is easy to learn something new. The real challenge is living by that new knowledge. It takes work. Knowledge does not produce immediate and automatic life change. We have to act upon what God compels and convicts in our hearts.

What does your fall look like? What are you planning? What goals are you setting for yourself?

About my Bun

Exact Weeks/Days Pregnant:   14 weeks, 1 day
When did you find out?   5 or 6 weeks?
What size is the baby right now? The size of an orange
Weight gain/loss: about 10, our scale is broken so I didn't have a beginning weight, but I started around 125-130ish and I'm probably around 135-140ish. We need a scale!
Maternity clothes? Yes, please.  I rocked two thrift store $1 clothing sales and scored a total of 13 items for $13!! That includes a nice black maternity dress, jeans, stretch grandma shorts for summer, and some shirts, even a couple nice blouses!!
Stretch marks? only leftovers from the first pregnancy, but I'm sure to have a bigger belly this time so I will be oiling and lotioning a lot to avoid what I can.
Sleep? It is rare that I go the bathroom less than 3 times a night. It is often 4 or 5 times!  One night it was every hour from 11 p.m. to about 5 a.m. No wonder pregnancy brings fatigue! 
Best moment this week? My in-laws made grilled ham and cheese for supper last night and I thoroughly enjoyed much of the bag of bbq potato chips. Did you know Lays BBQ chips don't have soy or HFCS or any bad nasty additives?  LOVE IT.
Food cravings: terrible food like french fries or anything salty. Earlier on Fruit was the thing, but now anything that sounds good is a winner and must be obeyed because who knows the nutrient in it that is needed. I've heard that cravings for specific things are due to a certain nutrient in it that you need. I'll go with that. :)  I must need a lot of potatoes' nutrients. 
Gender: We are being surprised so who knows! My friend and I are preggers together, she's due in March and we want to try all the wives tales on both of us to see which ones might actually work. 
Belly button in or out? Please stay in!!! That grosses me out totally. I know it's normal, but it just seams so strange and foreign to me.
Movement? At this point it is really hard to tell if its gas or baby rolling. I'm pretty sure I've felt a couple churnings and movements. Sometimes I pray it is gas because I need a good one.. TMI? LOL
What I miss? Nothing. I'm so happy and grateful to be pregnant. The mood swings could go away though. My family is so patient!
What I'm looking forward to: Having names picked out, but not the process. Also, having the baby at home with our midwife. :)  Oh and of course this afternoon's appointment where we will hopefully hear the heartbeat!!!
Milestones: I consider the process of waiting for this pregnancy a milestone, something I will always remember. Faith trials are so purposeful and it is awesome to look back and see God's timing is ALWAYS perfect even in all the research, confusion, and decisions we made.

I'm Pregnant!!!

We are 12 weeks pregnant as of Sunday (tomorrow)!  It has been an interesting year of hoping and trying.  I have learned how thankful I am for new knowledge of human health and people who promote natural remedies.  It was about 7 months after trying that I really started to think "am I as healthy as I think I am?"  and started to read about cycles and fertility. Boy have I learned A LOT and have also discovered what mysteries still are out there in the medical/health arena.  Even the experts don't know everything about the amazing work of the creation of human life!

Anyway, I do not want to drag this post on, but the two books that impacted me most were "Taking Charge of your Fertility"  by Toni Weschler and "Fertility, Cycles, & Nutrition" by Marilyn Shannon

Some bullet points that I remember from these books:



Taking Charge of Your fertility:
-Many women are unaware of just how their cycles work (I was one of them!)
-The importance of charting and seeing your own body's patterns during your cycle
-The amount of things you learn about yourself from charting!
-How to take my BBT (Basal Body Temperature) and check cervical mucus (not my thing.. I did not do this consistently and eventually gave up.)
-Although this isn't a Christian based book I learned more detail as to how God created our bodies as a reproductive system and was fascinated by how intricately and specifically we are designed! If one thing is off it throws the whole system out of whack!



Fertility, Cycles, and Nutrition: (My Favorite!!)
-Food plays a big role in our bodies function, especially as women.  We really need to watch how much synthetic stuff we are putting into our bodies.
-This book also taught me about charting and taking my BBT in a very simplified and understandable way. It was not wordy or full of medical information and was also written in such a way that inspires the reader to do what is best for their body.
-Through this book and charting I realized I was progesterone deficient. It was so obvious. I had every symptom in the book. Literally. I did not go on the cream without first checking with my midwife. She said most women are progesterone deficient.
-I learned that spermiglutination (clumping of the sperm) is solved by vitamin C... needless to say my hubby started eating an orange a day, just to be safe. (Is that TMI? Sorry) Who knows, maybe his swimmers were clumping and that's why we weren't getting results. hehe Let's not ALWAYS blame the women. :)
-This book inspired me to make the changes I needed.  Less sugar, no caffeine, and lots of healthy food. I did all these things about a month prior to starting my natural progesterone cream.  The month after I started the cream I was pregnant! Who knows what did the trick, but ultimately I praise God for the little life inside of me! We are so excited.

I wish I had read these books years ago! I would recommend both to anyone who is having a hard time getting pregnant or plans to have more children soon.

Soon, hopefully tomorrow, I will start taking belly pictures. I kick myself for not getting one early on, but we'll start this week!

I have to give a big thanks to my friend Christy over at onelittlewordsheknew for lending me both of these books.  You are a gem, Christy!! <3