Fearfully and Wonderfully

 Over 24 years ago, a woman named Pam and her husband Bob were serving as missionaries to the Philippines and praying for a fifth child. Pam contracted amoebic dysentery, an infection of the intestine caused by a parasite found in contaminated food or drink. She went into a coma and was treated with strong antibiotics before they discovered she was pregnant. 

Doctors urged her to abort the baby for her own safety and told her that the medicines had caused irreversible damage to her baby. She refused the abortion and cited her Christian faith as the reason for her hope that her son would be born without the devastating disabilities physicians predicted. Pam said the doctors didn't think of it as a life, they thought of it as a mass of fetal tissue.

While pregnant, Pam nearly lost their baby four times but refused to consider abortion. She recalled making a pledge to God with her husband: If you will give us a son, we’ll name him Timothy and we’ll make him a preacher.

Pam ultimately spent the last two months of her pregnancy in bed and eventually gave birth to a healthy baby boy August 14, 1987. Pam’s youngest son is indeed a preacher. He preaches in prisons, makes hospital visits, and serves with his father’s ministry in the Philippines.

 

He also plays some football. You may have heard of him; his name is Tim Tebow.

The University of Florida’s star quarterback became the first sophomore in history to win college football’s highest award, the Heisman Trophy. His current role as quarterback of the Denver Broncos has provided an incredible platform for Christian witness. As a result, he is being called The Mile-High Messiah.

Tim’s notoriety and the family’s inspiring story have given Pam numerous opportunities to speak on behalf of women’s centers across the country. Pam Tebow believes that every little baby you save matters.

 

Every time I see a story like this, I think of Jerimah 1:5

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart."

I praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14

 

And so is Tebow :)

Go Broncos!

Surgical Musings

Today's surgery went well. I was quite nervous of course, because I do not like to go under general anestesia. But I woke up with no problems and am feeling much better than the last time I had surgery. I had a D & C today just over 6 weeks after giving birth to Nola. There was a 2cm piece of placenta that remained behind in my uterus. I had a pretty scary episode of bleeding over the weekend and went to the Doc on Monday. She did an ultrasound and scheduled me for surgery the next morning. I am now sitting on the couch after several naps pondering what I would like to eat next. I go back to work in less than two weeks, and I'm wishing it was later...or never. Guess we'll see how things pan out. In the mean time, I'm thankful I was still off when I had to have this surgery. And very thankful my husband was able to get a few days off work to take care of me and Nola.

Nola is Here!

So happy to announce that Nola Irene has finally made it to the outside world! She arrived on 9/24 at 5:28pm at 8lbs, 7 oz and 21 3/4 inches long.

12 days after my due date, my OB decided it was time to give this little girl a kick in the rear to evacuate, so I was scheduled for an induction at Methodist Hospital on Saturday morning at 7am. We arrived about 6:45 after having breakfast at McDonalds. I was anxious, nervous and jittery. We checked in at Labor and Delivery and they told me that they were just working to turn over the room for me because they'd had a pretty busy night. So we went downstairs and bought Ryan a cup of coffee and sat in the L&D waiting room for a while. Finally, about 8:30 am, they told us that they had 2 other women check in that were already in labor, so all of the rooms were now full. The charge nurse had spoken with my doctor and gave me the option of going to IU North to deliver (30 minutes away) or coming back to Methodist at noon and "hopefully" they would have a room available for me. I decided I didn't want to spend the day waiting around, so we set off to the northside of town.

I was now pretty overwhelmed and much more nervous because I hadn't even been inside the hospital - had no idea what their policies were or what would happen during/after delivery (The original hospital I was scheduled to deliver at was considered "baby friendy", so they had a lot of different procedures than other hospitals) I really hate not knowing what to expect, so this was really throwing me for a loop. We arrived at IU North just after 9:30 am. When we arrived at the information center, the woman on duty was so nice and personally escorted us up to L&D, where the nurse greeted me by name and led me to my L&D room. They had already done the preadmission paperwork, so I only had to sign a few forms and away we went. The nurse checked me and I was 3cm dilated and 90% effaced...same as I had been at my last 2 OB appts. They started me on pitocin at 10am and penicillin since I tested positive for Group B strep.
The next 2 hours were pretty uneventful. I was having regular contractions, but they were not painful in the least. Dr. Soper came in at 12:15 and said she was ready to start making things more painful. (I had been watching TV and eating jello up until this point.) She broke my water and then things really took off. I started having pretty severe back labor, so I spent some time on the birth ball looking for relief. At some point after that (time was pretty much obsolete to me at this point) the nurse felt the contractions had really kicked up, so she made me get back in bed to check me. I was almost 8cm dilated. I hadn't had any pain meds at all, and knowing I was so close to 10 really gave me a new burst of willpower.

Around 3pm, my body was starting to push on its own, and I was breathing thru every contraction like I was blowing bubbles thru a straw to attempt to stop the pushing. After about 20 minutes of this, the nurse checked me again and I was at 10cm. Dr. Soper came in at 3:30pm and I started pushing. The nausea from my first trimester came back and I threw up with every contraction. After 2 hours of pushing, we were right on the brink. I ended up with an episiotomy, but finally at 5:28 pm, Nola made her way into the world. They put her right onto my chest, and Ryan cut the cord. She started crying right away, so she got to stay on my chest for about 10 minutes before they took her to do the standard cleanup and evaluations.

Then the fun really started. My placenta wasn't detatching, so Dr. Soper spent quite a few minutes kneading my stomach. They brought Nola back and let me nurse for a few minutes in the hopes that would make the placenta get a move on. I nursed for about 20 minutes while Dr. Soper stitched me up (lucky me had a 3rd degree tear), but the placenta still hadn't made any moves, and I was still bleeding pretty badly. At that point, she looked at me and told me she was gonig to do a manual extraction. She apologized and told me it would probaby hurt more than the birth. She was absolutely correct. Ryan held Nola, and I yelled a bit and crushed the bones in the nurse's hand, while wishing I had gotten the epidural. She finally got it removed and stopped all the bleeding, and I got a lovely cocktail of narcotics in my IV. Nola got her bath and Ryan was busy making tons of calls and sending pictures.

Scott, Jenn and the girls came to visit about 9 that night, and Ryan went out to bring me a Steakburger and milkshake since I hadn't eaten since 6 am. The nurse then told me that the recovery floor was full so I was going to spend the night in my L&D room. They ended up coming in around 1am and telling me they had discharged someone, so they wanted to move to up to the post partum floor. Ryan was already sleeping, so the nurse woke him up to get our stuff together. After we were settled in on the 4th floor and I fed Nola, we sent her to the nursery for the a little while so I could get a little more rest. On Sunday they checked my hemoglobin levels, and they had dropped from 11.8 (from the blood they drew when we started the induction) down to 7.7. I was feeling pretty weak, but got started on an iron supplement, and in a few weeks everything should be back to normal. We were discharged on Monday afternoon, exactly 48 hours after delivery.

I am so happy to be home. We are still working on finding a new normal, and sleeping thru the night. We had some trouble with feedings at first, and had to supplement a little bit on day 2 and 3, but now Nola is latching well and is off formula! I'm happy to have the next few weeks off to spend with my beautiful daughter. She is honestly the most beautiful baby in the world. :)

I have a Procrastinator on my Hands

I'm 6 days overdue, and this little girl hasn't made her appearance yet. I'm so frustrated and uncomfortable and am really just so ready to have her out!!  Apparently she didn't get the memo that she was supposed to come out on Monday, and that this family has little tolerance for non-punctuality. Oh well, I guess that's just one thing I'll have to teach her - if she ever decides to show up - :(

Eviction Notice

I am 39 weeks today, and with only 7 days left to go, I am officially putting this little girl on an Eviction Notice! I am so huge and clumsy and acutely uncomfortable. I feel like I'm having contractions all the time (I'm not really, of course, but am having pretty frequent Braxton Hicks). I can't get comfortable no matter what position I'm in. SO I'm really just ready to get the next part of this whole adventure....ready to change this inside baby to an outside baby.

So, Baby Girl, consider this your notice - you have 7 days to evacuate the premesis! :)

Of course, today is Labor Day...maybe she'll get the message and come on out today (keeping my fingers crossed on that one)

Tomorrow is the first official day of my Maternity Leave. I will be off work until the Monday before Thanksgiving. It was weird on Friday when I left to think that I don't have to go back for 11 weeks. This week I'm planning to get some rest and get the house cleaned up a bit and maybe do some scrapbooking. And hopefully get this baby out before her due date. I'm a punctual person, maybe she'll catch on.

My Life as a Hippopotamus

Amy and Inga are coming over today. I am having maternity photos taken. I am going to have Ryan in most of them. I have been envisioning kind of like a re-do of our engagement shoot, except for the fact that I'm 32 weeks fat pregnant.
Everything takes so much more effort at this point, which is an odd and new experience for me. It is kind of intimidating to think that I STILL have 8 weeks to go...and grow!
I am excited that I have only 7 more weeks of work before my maternity leave starts. I'm ready now!

Thumping and Rolling

I am feeling very. . . . conspicuous.
Which is very odd for me because I have always been a person who fades into the background. People don't remember be. People don't notice me.
Until now.
Perhaps because I take up twice as much room as I used to.
And I still have 99 days to go. Yikes.
The best thing has been feeling Little Miss thumping and rolling around. I keep telling Ryan with kicks as strong has hers, she's just destined for Soccer. :)
We went to a birth class yesterday, which actually made me feel a lot more confident about everything. I figured it would really overwhelm me, but we went over a lot of information that I already knew the answers to, so I guess my reading has been worthwhile.