Luke Daniel

February 24th, 2017

The day we welcomed our son. A son. I'm still in shock that we have a son! 

We didn't find out if we were having a boy or girl during our pregnancy, and much to our surprise our two girls had a little brother. We were totally expecting to have three little girls based on the family track record of having all the same gender children. 

The end of my pregnancy had a bit of extra drama to it. Mostly because Jordan deployed when I was about 30 weeks pregnant and came home 5 days before our due date. I wasn't really worried about having our baby early, but at the end I was more nervous than I'd like to admit. So, on a Sunday, when I was 39+ weeks pregnant Jordan came home from his deployment! We couldn't be happier! He had quite the adjustment to go through with the time zone changes, and we were so grateful Luke decided to wait a few days after Jordan got home to make his appearance. 

On Thursday morning the 23rd I was in the office for my non-stress test. I was having a few minor contractions here and there. Later that afternoon I realized I was having a few more minor contractions than usual, so I decided to start timing them. They were about 5-7 minutes apart, but didn't hurt. So I just carried on about my day. We had dinner as a family and I decided to take a bath after dinner to see if that would slow down or stop these minor contractions. Boy was I wrong! They not only got more consistent, they started to be more noticeable. 

We decided to call Jordan's parents to head over to our house from across the state to watch the girls for us. By this time, it was time to get the girls in bed - about 8pm. Jordan's parents would be to our house around 10pm, but I wasn't sure we should wait that long for them. The contractions were still just about 4-5 minutes apart, but they were increasing in intensity -- still very managable, but just getting stronger. So we called our awesome neighbor, Michelle, over to hang out at our house while the girls slept. We had a 40 minute drive to the hospital, so Jordan and I got on our way.

After waiting for a triage bed, three IV attempts and sitting on the most uncomfortable bed while  having consistent painful contractions, we finally got over to our birthing center room. Beaumont's Royal Oak hospital has this AMAZING birthing center that is beautiful and perfect for a natural birth experience with the security of a large hospital and all that comes with it. A natural birth wasn't always in my plans, but after two failed epidurals and having quick labors, I decided to go for it. The design and calming atmosphere of the birth center sold me on it to be honest. I figured I'd been stuck in bed with a 'natural' delivery with the girls, so I wanted the freedom to do a natural delivery how I felt it was right. I didn't have any expectations or a plan. I figured my body would know what do to and boy did it ever. I was able to walk around, take a bath, sit with Jordan. Speaking of Jordan, the poor guy was still adjusting to the time zone changes and was completely exhausted by this point.

Anyway, we were back in our room just before midnight. At midnight it was officially my due date. Of course contractions continually got more intense as time wore on. Jordan was completely and utterly amazing through all of this. He said things I needed to hear to focus through contractions, he let me squeeze him, yell in his ears, and he gave me everything I needed in those moments.  By 1:30 I was starting to lose my focus and Jordan and I needed backup. Our wonderful nurse came in (she had been in periodically before this) to be an extra support. Her voice was like speaking from the heavens during a contraction giving me guidance and support through the rough moments that I lost control. I started to feel the pushing urge, so we called the midwife back in and they had to coach me to keep me from pushing for a bit because I wasn't totally dilated and my water hadn't broke at this point.

At this point the contractions SUCK. Like really, really suck. I'm pretty sure some swear words and yelling were happening at this point. I have no concept of time at this point, and I remember getting into a hypnotic type state between contractions and almost sleeping in the short time between. After I was fully dilated and they had broke my water they finally let me push. I felt the terrible "ring of fire" and thought - HECK NO - this sucks, lets get this baby out! So, in one contraction, our baby was born!

Jordan looked down and said "IT'S A FREAKING BOY!!!!!!!!"

Content snuggling with my boy! 

At 2:14am, weighing 7lbs 6oz, our son was born. I couldn't believe it. I asked at least 5 times in the first minute if it was really a boy. They even turned him around at one point for me to see he was indeed a boy! A part of me knew all along he was a boy, I just had a feeling the whole pregnancy.

Jordan and I weren't ready to decide on his name yet, so Jordan fell asleep (he literally passed out on the couch in the middle of the room) and I snuggled with my new, fresh little boy for a couple hours. He made one little squeak when he was born and then settled right in to his mellow-I'm-the-third-kid status.Those first few hours were amazing. No extra visitors, delayed weighing and all the medical business and it was just us. It was great. Natural delivery really only sucked and was hard for the last 45 minutes, and having a supportive husband and a great nurse made it possible. All in all, it was everything I could have imagined or wanted.


After Jordan and I both got some rest, and we could really look at him. Another baby with a full head of thick, dark hair!

We decide to name him Luke Daniel. Our little boy! 

Breaking Radio Silence

Well geez. Its been a while.

So many times my brain wanted to come to this place to be able to sit and write about what is/was happening in our lives. And so many times pure exhaustion and busy-ness got in the way of sitting down to get my thoughts out. Life has been exciting, tiring, busy, a little rough at times & full of love since. Lets catch up some, shall we?

We found out we were expecting baby #3 last June and things got busier and busier as we got closer to our due date. Summer went by in a flash, especially as I headed back to work last August. I am back in the workforce as a NICU nurse at a local hospital in a contingent position that works out so well for our family dynamic. I am so lucky to have landed this job. Its a small, close knit NICU and I work 1-2 days a week depending on the needs of the unit. It was so great to be welcomed so kindly by my new co-workers and its a good "break" for my mental state to be doing something for myself and my career on the days I'm at work. I was also fortunate enough to take a lactation counselor course, and am now a CLC. I hope to be able to continue on to get my IBCLC soon and work in that realm as it relates to NICU families, I'm super excited about it!

Jordan has been hard at work expanding his career and gaining experience. He had the opportunity to apply and interview with Delta, and he got his dream job! He will be starting work with them within the next year, and I'm beyond proud to see him working so hard and achieving his goals for his career. On a stinky note, he had his first deployment with the Air Force for two months over the holidays. It was quite the adjustment for all four of us, but we somehow managed. We made it through colds, teething babes, sleep anxiety, the holidays, me being in my third trimester of pregnancy & Jordan dealing with being alone and away from his family. Thankfully we don't have to face another deployment for some time, but I'm glad the first one went pretty smoothly by all accounts!

Evelyn started preschool last fall and absolutely loves it. She is learning so much and making friends. She's still a little shy and sensitive about certain things, but she is more empathetic than most adults and a joy to be around.

Natalie is our little spitfire still. She keeps us on our toes and has us laughing daily. Its crazy how a 1.5 year old knows when she's being funny and how to get a positive response out of us. She is silly and sweet and she is so much fun to be around.

And some of the biggest news to have happened in our family is that we welcomed  A BOY into our world at the end of February!! We didn't find out gender this time around, so we were all shocked. Jordan returned from his deployment 5 days before we had our son, so it was perfect timing on all accounts! Stay tuned for another post about his arrival & all things pregnancy & baby.

All in all, life has been beautiful. We have our challenging days and our beautiful days. We take each day as it comes and laugh in the chaos that is this season of life. We're adjusting to life as a completed family of five, and we can't be any happier about the journey we all have in front of us!

Adding Another

Preface:: I wrote this the day I found out we were pregnant with baby #3. I love the perspective, the excitement and the newness of it all.

Wow - today June 15th, 2016 -the most amazing, beautiful, random thing happened.

Earlier in the week, coupons for pregnancy tests popped out of the coupon machine at Meijer. I figured its a good idea to have them around the house. So today I went and got two packs of them (they were on sale on top of the coupon!) and I don't know why but I figured I should take one this afternoon. The girls were sleeping and I literally had ZERO inkling of being pregnant. So I took it and there it was. A faint, hardly can see it, are my eyes playing tricks on me line. Serioulsy, SERIOUSLY?!

I called my friend Kate totally FREAKING out. Is this real life? She urged me to take another one and the other box I had picked up happened to be digital tests. It was mid-afternoon, and the line was so faint there was no way the digital (less sensitive test) would be positive. But 3 minutes later, there it was PREGNANT in big real words. Ahhhhh! This is crazy to me.

 I was shaking the rest of the day. I had butterflies the rest of the afternoon and felt like a crazy person. Jordan was of course at work when I took the unsuspecting test and I had to quick think of a way to tell him since the announcement of Natalie's pregnancy was more uncertain with just moving to Oklahoma.

SO off to Pinterest I went. Evie was doing a fun craft project with golf balls for fathers day and it got me thinking. I have some colored golf balls that my father in law had picked up for me a few years back and I dug up two pink ones. I wrote Evelyn and Natalie on each ball. I found a cute note that went something like...Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, I have a surprise and here's the clue.....

I was visibly shaking waiting for him to be home and he walked in I had the video rolling. And he didn't even notice it on the counter for a bit. And then he was confused. Oh so confused. He kept thinking we were going on a golf trip as a family since fathers day is this weekend. I had him open the card which had a heart with Baby S. 3.0 and Feb/Mar written on the inside. Behind the card I had a white golf ball with a ? on it. He was still clueless. At this point I'm laughing, crying and just laughing some more. He looks at me and finally gets it. He was truly just as shocked and surprised as I was.

Its amazing how early pregnancy can change your thinking and change your life in a few short days. By some Godly intervention here I was with random pregnancy tests, totally unsuspecting, finding out we are expected our third baby! Its amazing!

Evelyn and Natalie are 22 months apart, and this little bugger will be 21 months from Natalie. We honestly love, love, love the spacing of our girls and were hoping to get that spacing again, but maybe more like 23-24 months ;) But, here we are. Happy, surprised, excited and anticipating what this third child will bring to our family. Evelyn has brought sweetness, Natalie has brought hilarity, and I can only imagine what this little one will bring :)