Mom Confession #1

When we go to the bank and use the drive thru the person at the window sees the kids and sends a lollipop back through the tube. The kids don't know it's in there, and I don't want them to have it, so I just put it in the console.

Highlight of last week

Well, we had an interesting week last week. Started off normal and Ladies Bible study started again...yeah!! Wednesday I had planned to have a couple of friends come over with their kids to play. That morning Sonya had complained that her tummy was hurting, but I didn't think much of it since she did the same thing the day before, threw up, and was all better. This time though she pointed to a specific place on her left side. She was pretty low key all morning and one of my friends (Jennifer) showed up with her little boy (Sage's age) after lunch. I thought that when Sonya's other friend showed up she would perk up and be fine. While we were waiting on the other friend (Amanda) to get there Sonya starts crying out in pain with what I assumed was cramping. I immediately called the doctor's office and they could only fit me in with another doc and not our primary one. Sonya is still crying in pain and I'm rushing around trying to get shoes on and out the door and wondering what to do with my company and Sage! My lifesaver Jennifer tells me to go on and that she would watch Sage. By this time Amanda shows up with her two girls and there is quite the commotion going on. I leave everyone at my house and rush to the doctors office. By this time Sonya has quieted down. The doctor feels around her tummy and abdomen, tests her urine for anything kidney related and finds nothing. He notices that her breathing is abnormal which I had noticed that day too, but thought she might just be a little more congested than usual. The doc orders a breathing treatment to open up her airways and see if it helps. Apparently he wasn't satisfied and Sonya ended up getting two more breathing treatments. He said that sometimes pneumonia can cause pain in the abdomen and wanted to open her lungs up so he could hear better what might be going on. After the third breathing treatment her oxygen saturation was still very low so he wanted her further evaluated in the ER.....well this is when I start to get nervous. Then he said we usually call the ambulance in this situation to take kids there! That's when I really got nervous! While I am trying to compute everything and it seems the doc has already made the call all of a sudden there are loud sirens outside. Four or five paramedics start filing in the room and hanging out in the hall, the doc is in the room, and one of the paramedics starts asking me what's going on. The doc is in there and I'm wondering why he doesn't ask him! I try explaining, but I'm looking at the doc so he says "do you want me to tell him??" I'm thinking "you're the doctor aren't you?" After all explanations are given the paramedic asks if I want to put Sonya on the stretcher or if I want to get on the stretcher and hold her. Oh my word I can't believe what's happening! I figured Sonya would handle it better if I just held her so I got on the stretcher and they strapped us on! They wheeled us out the back door and into the ambulance we go! The paramedics get all her stats which seem to be normal by now except for a low fever. I'm wondering why in the world we are in an ambulance. Anyway, away we go to the hospital! We get there and find out for some reason Sonya has spiked a 104 temp. They immediately give her some Motrin. In the meantime I had called Daniel before we left the doc's office. He had come home from work early to relieve Jennifer. He called his mom to come pick him and Sage up to take him to our car still at the office so he can come to the hospital and she can watch Sage. I am thankful his parents only live a few miles away. Sonya is doing good, she had to change into a hospital gown (she looked so cute, I wish I had the camera to document the experience) and they gave her some coloring sheets so she loved that! Daniel shows up at the hospital and the ER doc comes in to get the story and orders an x-ray. Finds out she has pneumonia and writes us a prescription for an antibiotic. We are free to go! The nurse asks if Sonya can have a popsicle so she is happy as a clam. Kids are amazing. She was a totally different person that night than when we started out that morning. What a day! Did I mention that I hadn't eaten since noon?? It was about 8:30 when we got home. Thankfully I had put chili in the crockpot that morning!! :)

Sage's story

I guess while I am on the subject of birth stories I will get Sage's out there since I didn't do it on her birthday blog. My baby girl made her appearance rather quickly as well :)

Sage was due around Thanksgiving of 2006 so when Daniel was invited to a Mavericks game on the 14th we didn't give much thought about it, but half jokingly said "I hope I don't go into labor while you are at the game." That night while he was gone I was sitting at the computer and could tell something was going on in my body, but not completely sure what it was. It didn't feel like contractions so I wasn't alarmed, but started wondering... I keep anticipating the first signs of labor because I know I have to get to the hospital ASAP with my history of rapid labor. Earlier in the evening, Daniel's sister had called me asking if I was feeling anything, and I think I told her no since I didn't think anything was going on. Well, Daniel gets home and we go to bed, nothing exciting. At 5:15 a.m. I wake up having to go to the bathroom and feeling a little bit of abdominal discomfort similar to but more so than the feelings from the night before. I lay back down only to have to go to the bathroom again and realize that my body is "cleansing" itself as it does before giving birth. This time I wake Daniel up and tell him that I think I'm in labor and it's time to go. We start to get ready and call Daniel's parents at about 6 so they can come over since Sonya is still asleep. In the meantime I also call my parents and Daniel's sister. By now I am actually experiencing contractions very close together and I'm very nervous. Having given birth before I kind of knew what to expect, but also knew it could be very different and just wondering about it all made me nervous. I had been anticipating this for a long time and now the unknown is unfolding. I then call my friend Trina who just had her second baby 3.5 weeks before and knew she would probably be awake. I'm so glad to have her as a friend. I told her how nervous I was and asked if she had been nervous with Luke. She said yes and was very reassuring for me. Did I tell you how blessed I am to have her as a friend?? So Daniel's mom gets to the house and we leave about 6:30 (just before rush hour, whew!) Arriving at the hospital close to 7 a.m. we go to Maternal Observation, they ask a couple of questions and ask me to sign in. I immediately tell them that I have a history of rapid labor and they start to move a little quicker. I get hooked up in the obs room and checked for dilation. I'm at 8 cm!! Then we head to labor and delivery where things are a bit calmer than they were with Sonya's birth. I was able to speak like a normal person, they got me hooked up to everything and the doctor was even there just waiting for me to have a baby. I have a few more painful contractions then I could feel "the bathroom feeling" except this time I know it's Sage ready to come out! Those are hard contractions! My water still hasn't broken at this point. I tell the doctor that I feel like the baby is ready to come out, and she tells me that she can break my water, have the baby and put me out of my misery. I decline. At that next contraction though I AM READY TO GET HER OUT! The doctor checks me and at that time my water breaks. Now I start pushing through the contractions (it was only a few) yelling GET HER OUT! Then, there she was!!! My beautiful baby girl at 7:47 a.m. 6 lbs. 8 oz. and 18.5 inches. If you have done the math yet you have probably figured out that it was only 2.5 hours start to finish and within about 45 minutes of arriving at the hospital. I can only imagine what the next one will be like! We might be having it on the side of the highway!

Sonya turns THREE!

(This is a long one, let me know if you make it all the way through!)

Three years ago, yet it only seems like yesterday, that the most beautiful baby girl I have ever seen was born. At just the right time, on just the right day, Sonya R. D. came into this world and changed my life forever. It was Sunday, the Lord's Day, and it started like any other. She wasn't due for another week. During worship at church I felt what I thought was a contraction, but dismissed it thinking it must be those Braxton Hicks that everyone talks about :) Fifteen minutes later another one came, but I still wasn't giving it any serious thought. We made it through worship and went to class, the feelings still coming and going. At the end of class we gave our prayer request that I had been feeling some type of twinges and just keep us in your thoughts. I think we went out to lunch after that, then visited Curtis and Trina at their new house, and then proceeded to go house hunting with David as well as see his and Haley's new house. The whole time I'm getting these contractions, but they don't seem too bad. We finally made it home about 5 ish and I heat up leftovers for dinner. As I'm sitting there trying to eat, the pain starts to get a little worse and a little more frequent. I tell Daniel I can't eat anymore and that I'm going to find the book to see how far apart contractions are supposed to be before going to the hospital. Well, by now they have gotten a bit more intense so I say forget the book, I'm calling the nurse! When I call, she asks if I had been walking around a lot that day (which I had) and that can cause contractions. She told me to lay down and drink some water for about an hour and see if they subside. I did for an hour and a half and they did nothing but intensify! At this time they were only a few minutes apart and about a minute and a half in length. I called her again and she said I better go to the hospital. By now they are really bad and I still have a few things to pack! I try going down the hall to our bedroom to finish, but I double over in pain with every contraction. Daniel is getting a little panicky now and keeps telling me to stop through the pain, but I was determined to get packed and out of there! We are finally ready when Daniel says he's going to tell our neighbors that we are leaving (we lived in the apartment then and had made good friends with the people across from us). Well, the man that lives there is quite a talker and I kept waiting and waiting, more pain and more pain. Finally I went outside and said WE NEED TO GO!! It was about 10 pm by now. So we headed to the car, it was so hard to sit still for the 25 minute drive. Daniel tried to comfort me by rubbing my belly with one hand and drive with the other, but I was in no mood for comfort! I looked at him and said "JUST DRIVE!!!" We get to the hospital, Daniel parks in the circle drive (valet is gone by now) and we go to maternal observation. I got changed into a gown and went to the restroom, it was then that I lost my mucous plug. I get put in one of the obs rooms and get strapped to a monitor. The nurse asks me to fill out some paperwork (at this time security has asked Daniel to go move the car). I had to ask her what today's date was and she said "January 9"." January 9??" I asked. She said "yes". I told her that on this day last year I had a miscarriage. She was totally amazed as was I. I was convinced, though, that I would be in labor for hours and we wouldn't be having a baby before this day was over. Boy, was I wrong!! She checked my cervix and I was dilated 7 centimeters with "a bulging bag of water." She was ready to get me out of there and to labor and delivery because if my water broke that baby was coming out!! We made it to L and D and as I was transferring to the other bed my water broke. I don't even think Daniel was back yet. My L and D nurse introduced herself to me and started getting me hooked up to everything. A paperwork lady was sitting in a chair across the room trying to ask me questions and by now the contractions were very intense. I was breathing hard and lightly screaming through them :) I couldn't hear her and with all the commotion it was hard to pay attention. Finally my L and D nurse rattled off all the questions and I said yes or no to whatever she was asking. She said "Okay we have verbal! Let's go!" The paperwork lady came over, I scribbled a signature in between contractions. By now Daniel is back and trying his best to make me feel better. Part of the time I didn't want him even touching or talking to me and the other I was clinging to him because I hurt so bad and conveying a little bit of fear. The contractions are so intense, the nurse checks me and tells me it's time to push. I said "I can't push, I have to go to the bathroom!!" She said "That's not bathroom, honey, THAT'S BABY!" They haven't called the doctor yet, she has me push once to see how far I go, then tells me not to push through the next contraction and they would call the doctor. WHEN YOU HAVE THE URGE TO PUSH IT'S NOT EASY GETTING THROUGH IT! I managed to hold it that time, but with the next one she told me not to push, there was no way I couldn't! Sonya was on her way out!! The other nurses weren't paying attention so Daniel started to dive over there to catch her, but the charge nurse stepped in and said "no, I've got it" and proceeded to "deliver" my baby. What an incredible feeling to give birth! I was so amazed, the first words out of my mouth were "It's a baby!" I could not believe that I had just grown a baby in my body and delivered it. 5 pounds 14 ounces and 18.5 inches long. The other amazing thing was that she was born at 11:27 pm. January 9. Thirty-three minutes shy of the day being over....God is amazing, isn't He? What had been such a painful, sad day the year before was now replaced with new memories and joy.

Being the naive people that we were, thinking I would be in labor for hours, Daniel had left our cameras in the car. It wasn't until a few minutes later when his sister and mom showed up that we got pictures of our new little bundle. They didn't even know we had had her yet when they walked in (that's how fast it went). They were in transit the whole time we were having a baby. As they walked in, Daniel says "Well, you missed it!" His sister in disbelief said "nuh uh." Sonya was covered up as I was nursing so I pulled the blanket down and they were shocked! They stayed for awhile and we got moved to a regular room.

I had so much adrenaline going that I didn't sleep a wink that night. It was so hard not having anyone to talk to because Daniel had no problem sleeping, and I couldn't call anybody in the middle of the night. I watched the clock move so slowly all night and finally when it hit 4 something I called my mom knowing she'd be up because she was catching the earliest flight out to see us. What a day!!! I was so excited.

And now I have a beautiful three year old little lady that I am so blessed to have on loan, entrusted to me by the Lord. Me, of all people, given such a beautiful gift, and be called Sonya's mother. She is such a delight, very intelligent, and very independent. She loves to sing and dance and praise the Lord. She's a great big sister and mommy's helper.

Coming Soon...

An update near you!!!

I know it's been awhile, but Sonya's birthday is two weeks after Christmas and I've been busy trying to get that palnned. After that is over I hope to feel like I have time to sit down and blog. I will definitely post tomorrow because it's Sonya's actual birthday.....3 years old!!!