Happy Birthday, Curtis!!

So today my little man turns five and I am happy and sad at the same time. He will be going to school in a couple of weeks and I am having a hard time letting go. Part of me wishes he was still a baby, but I love watching him grow and seeing how sweet and compassionate he can be. I love talking to him about Jesus and we have great conversations together. In honor of his birthday, I will be telling his birth story.

Curtis was my worst pregnancy and birth of the three. Kevin and I think it was in part because I got pregnant with him six weeks after the end of my miscarriage. I got sick as soon as I got pregnant and started bleeding at eight weeks and continued bleeding all throughout the pregnancy. Between the bleeding, bedrest, and throwing up, it made for a very long pregnancy. At 29 weeks, I went into labor and thankfully the doctors were able to stop the contractions. That was also when we found out we were having a boy. At 35 weeks, I went into labor again, but asked to be sent home because they couldn't induce since I wasn't 37 weeks and wasn't progressing. Then he ended up being five days late. At 2:45 the morning of August 29th, I got up to go to the bathroom and as soon as I got into the bathroom, this gush of water came out. I was like, "Oh man, I just peed myself." So I changed my clothes and went back to bed. A short time later, it happened again and I knew that I couldn't have wet myself again. I woke up Kevin and told him that my water broke, but he didn't believe me and went back to sleep. I lied down and tried to go back to sleep, but 15 minutes later I started getting these really bad contractions that just radiated from my spine all the way around my belly. I started timing them and they were seven minutes apart. I lied there for about half an hour then I decided to get up and walk around to see if they would stop. Kevin came out to check on me and I told him about the contractions, but he still wanted to wait and see what happened. So when walking around didn't help the contractions, I sat down and watched a little t.v. That didn't help either, so I told Kevin that this was the real deal and we were gonna need to go to the hospital. Kevin putzed around for awhile then decided to take a shower and I went into the kitchen to get a drink of water. As soon as I reached the kitchen a contraction hit me so hard, it brought me to my knees. So when it was over, I went into the bathroom and told Kevin that we needed to go to the hospital NOW!! Again he just kind of blew me off and took his time getting ready. My contractions were now four minutes apart and getting stronger. We finally headed to the hospital around 4:45 and my contractions kept stopping me in my tracks. Kevin took his sweet time driving to the hospital, he didn't even reach the speed limit! I will be honest, I wanted to rip his head off. I still give him a hard time about the drive to the hospital. Once we got there, I thought he was going to drop me off at the ER entrance while he parked the car...no, he drove around looking for a parking spot and found one quite a distance from the entrance. Thankfully, the security guard saw me wobbling around and grunting, so he ran inside and grabbed a wheelchair and ran out to me. When we got to the L & D floor, I got put into the triage unit so that they could check me out before they put me in a room. The nurse confirmed that my water had indeed broken and I was 6 cm dilated, so they got me into a room. The contractions were so bad and my blood pressure was getting high, so we decided to have an epidural. Once I had been given the epidural, which was around 6 a.m., the nurse checked me and I was fully dilated and ready to push, so she called my doctor and we waited. He got in around 6:30, so I started pushing. Two hours later, I was still pushing and he wouldn't come out. The doctor gave me an episiotomy and was trying to pull him out, but he was stuck. The doctor determined that his head was stuck on my tailbone and tried to wiggle him out, but it didn't work and he started getting distressed. The look on the doctors face when he told us that and that we needed to get him out asap was so frightening and I was so tired, I didn't know if I could push anymore. I prayed that God would give me the strength to push this baby out and that the baby would be okay. The doctor asked me if he could use vacuum extraction to get the baby out and I told him that he needed to do whatever necessary to get the baby out safely. The next part I don't remember because I was so focused on pushing, but Kevin told me that the first attempt at the vacuum extraction didn't work, so the doctor had to pull it off and readjust it on Curtis' head. The second attempt worked and Curtis came out at 8:39 a.m. screaming and flailing his arms. Ooohh was he mad, but he was so beautiful and perfect and I was so thankful that he was okay. He weighed in at 8 lbs. 4 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long with red hair. Thank you Lord for blessing us with Curtis, we are honored to be his parents.

Life Is But A Vapor

This is Joey Balistreri who was killed in a horrendous car accident just a few blocks from us exactly one month ago. He was laid to rest last Friday since his dad was in the hospital with serious injuries. We do not know this family, but Kevin and I have been effected greatly by this accident. Part of it because we would have been right there when it happened. We were grocery shopping and it was past the kids' bedtime and I was trying to get Kevin to hurry up so we could get home. Curtis and Lauren kept having to go to the bathroom and then Claire dropped her Care Bear and I had to search half the store looking for it. I wasn't very happy at the time, but now I can see that God kept us from being involved in that accident. When we came upon the accident about 15-20 minutes after it happened, I just knew that there were fatalities (as it turned out, the only fatality was Joey). I started crying and praying and have been for this family ever since. The mom Pam has been keeping an amazing online journal at www.caringbridge.org/visit/geoffbalistreri I really encourage you to read it and see how God's grace, mercy, and love is shining through in this tragedy. Last Thursday, when we put the kids to bed, we all prayed for the family and then sang worship/Bible songs. I always have the kids pick the songs that we sing and the first song that they wanted to sing was Jesus Loves Me, so I told them that we should sing it for Joey. The second song they picked was Jesus Loves The Little Children which Curtis said we were singing for Joey's family. We sang a couple more songs then I asked Curtis to pick out the last song and he chose He Has Made Me Glad. So I start singing and Curtis says, "Mom we need to sing this loud for Joey, he's with Jesus." I lost it and couldn't stop crying. My son is so sweet and I am so thankful to have been blessed with him. Just remember that life is a vapor, here one minute and gone the next, so make the most of each day.

Happy Birthday Lauren!!

So today our Lauren turns three. Time is just going by way too fast! I made her a Strawberry Shortcake cake and we brought it to church and everyone sang Happy Birthday to her. We will be taking Curtis and Lauren to Chuck E. Cheese next weekend to celebrate their birthday's. In honor of Lauren's birthday, I will be writing her birth story...We decided to induce a week early because the doctor was saying that Lauren was going to be bigger than Curtis and after what happened with Curtis we were trying to avoid a c-section. So on Tuesday, August 14th, when I had gone in for my doctor's appointment we decided to induce the next day since I was already 4 cm dilated. Now let me just say that Lauren was my best and easiest pregnancy. I didn't have any morning sickness and had a lot of energy. In hindsight, we shouldn't have induced because it didn't work and Lauren was our smallest baby. Oh me of little faith! Anyway, we got to the hospital at 7:30 a.m. so that they could start the Pitocin at 8 a.m. When they checked my cervix, I was 5 cm so we thought things would go rather quickly. Wrong!! At 10 a.m. when the doctor came in to see how I was doing, I still hadn't progressed any. They were going to give me until noon since he had to do a couple c-sections and if I hadn't progressed then they would break my water. So noon rolls around and I'm now 6 cm, so he breaks my water to a pop and a big gush. That was a very weird feeling. So we just wait. About 1:20 p.m. the doctor comes back in to see how I am doing and it's progressed a little, so he leaves and asks them to page him if anything changes. Not long after that I started to feel a lot of pressure and felt like I needed to push so we called the nurse and she came in to check me and sure enough the head was crowning and I was told not to push until the doctor got there. That's a lot easier said than done! So the nurses pages the doctor and he doesn't answer the page so she tries again and he still doesn't answer. She calls his office and he's not there, so she comes in to me to make sure I'm not pushing and let me know that they can't find the doctor. Are you kidding me!! This baby is coming with or without him. After about 5 minutes they finally found him and told him to get to my room asap. He shows up about 5 minutes later to my relief and we get things going. After two pushes, Lauren slid right out and we were in love. Our little peanut was 7 lbs. 7 oz. and 18 1/2 inches long. So Happy 3rd Birthday Lauren, we love you!!

14 Months

I can't believe that our youngest is 14 months old. My baby is gone and toddlerhood is in full swing. She runs all over the place and climbs on everything. She is our little monkey. She is a little spitfire and loves to throw tantrums with the best. She is also so sure of herself and will walk around with her hands behind her back like she is inspecting things. She loves to talk and I think we have another Curtis on our hands. She has an amazing sense of humor that keeps Kevin and I laughing. We look forward to watching her grow. Here are some of her 1 year pictures that I haven't had a chance to post yet, so enjoy!