Progress...slowly.

Nurse just checked Jennifer. She is progressing just slowly. She is at 5-6cm dialated, 70% effaced, and at 0 station. She's doing good, just hanging out and talking. Right now we have 9 people with us. Girls 7, Boys 2. All the moms have now made it to the hospital.

We just talked to the kids to say good night and told them they were most likely not going to get to see their new sister until tomorrow. They are soooo excited and have wanted to be at the hospital right after she was born. I hope they can get some some good sleep tonight.

What not to do during wife's contraction!

Warning to you guys who have expecting wives or might have one in the future. Do not play Antoine Dodson's interview on you tube during a contraction. This will cause your wife to laugh hard, which will cause the contraction to hurt worse, and you in turn might possibly be accussed of being insensitive. Possibly, just possibly.

Moving on...Dr Conrad came by and said he would like to start a low dose of Pitocin to keep the contractions regular. Some time after 7pm she will get an epidural and then Dr Conrad will come in and break her water. Contractions are about 2-3 minutes apart. Talk with you later.

We're at the hospital to stay!

Hey its Wes here. I will be writing for most of this evening on behalf of Jennifer. We have gotten into a room and they are keeping her! She is 4cm dialated and about 70-80% effaced and contractions are between 2 and 6 minutes apart. Dr Conrad is going to come by after his clinic to check on her and probably break her water.

Everything is going great. Jennifer and Elizabeth are doing great. Jennifer's already made friends with her nurse, Monica. She is wonderful and taking great care of Jennifer. No epidural just yet! Im telling Jennifer to do a little walking in the hall way but she's not interested. I'll give you an update a little later. Please pray for Jennifer and Elizabeth that everything goes well.

Are We Having A Baby Today????

So this morning I got up with an agenda!! I've only slept about 3 hours the past 2 nights. When I did wake this morning, I decided it was time. Wesley was going to be home in the morning, so I took to walking. And I walked hard in our neighborhood!! When I returned back home, sure enough I was having contractions. Very strong contractions. So I decided to keep pushing and start getting ready. My contractions have not stopped all day. They've not always been extremely intense (although much of the time they have been), and they are not extremely predictable. But, I'm still having them and they are getting closer together. So here's my dilemma. If I were to stop moving and lay down and rest, would they stop? It's totally possible. But, I don't want them to stop. I've talked to the my doctor who has given me the green light to come on in to the hospital anytime I get ready. I just don't want to have any regrets. I don't want to look back and feel that I manipulated the situation too much. If I get to the hospital and everything completely stops, it's still very likely that my doctor would won't to go ahead and keep me. So I'm taking a minute to sit down and evaluate the situation. I'm praying that God will make clear to me that this is the right time.

On another note, my countdown prayer request for today is actually not for me or Elizabeth. Today I am praying and asking you to join me in praying for all the people we know for whom childbirth can be bittersweet. There are many in my circle of family and friends who rejoice over a new birth while inwardly suffering from the pain of a loss, miscarriage, or from infertility. You know who you are, please know that I love each of you and I'm praying for you today!! I've been the one who genuinely looked lovingly on a new mother and a newborn baby with great joy while my heart felt like it was breaking into with my own grief over losing my baby. I love you, Dear Friends!! No matter what your situation, God knows. He loves you. And He has a good and perfect plan for you!!

Additional as mentioned before pray for wisdom for me this day!

More to come...

Still Counting, Prayer, and Pictures

If money were no object, I would so totally have professional maternity pictures made. Since money is an object, I'm so glad that I have other options! These are my maternity pictures. Taken today at home in my back yard by amazing amateur photographers. Yes, "photographer-s" as in plural. That's because, Luke took some of these pictures, and then Grace wanted to take some more. Like I said, amazing photographers!! My mother bought Luke, Grace, and Mary Ruth nice real digital cameras for Christmas 2008. I'm so glad that she trusted me when I said they were ready and could accept the responsibility. Giving a kid a delicate adult item like that was a risk, but I felt like we could teach them to use them carefully. It has been one of their favorite gifts ever. They've gotten so much use out of them, and as you can tell they've gotten pretty good at using them. We considered the nearly break proof kid cameras, but I thought they were overpriced and the quality of the pictures was just so very bad. So I suggested getting real cameras at a great price off Ebay. She actually got them for less money than the kids cameras. Like I said earlier it was a risk, but if somehow one got broke tomorrow I would feel like we got our money out of them. (Thanks, Mom! You're the best!!!) OK, sorry for that serious derailment! I love these pictures!! I can't decide which is my favorite!!!





OH, BABY!!! This one makes me remember my prayer about Elizabeth not being too big! My belly looks HUGE!!! Maybe it's the angle?!?!!!


My 2 favorite guys on Earth! Aren't they so handsome!!


A boy and his dog


Now it was Grace's turn. So pretty! We didn't get any pictures with Mary Ruth and Bella Peace. She should have, but they were really enjoying the swing set.


We all enjoyed an awesome morning of worship together as a family at church. It will be my last Sunday for a few weeks. We keep new babies at home for the first several weeks of life for my recovery, to bond, to adjust to nursing, and to avoid germs. I will miss being in church with the family, but I'm looking forward to my time with Elizabeth. Fortunately we can take in sermons on TV. Our church is on TV. The sermon is always one week behind, but that's OK.

Today's sermon was based on Revelation 2 and was about returning to our first love. A very brief summary is, "remember how it was when you first came to know Christ, remember your joy, your zeal, your passion, repent of those things that have come in and distracted you, and return to the Lord." As always it was a very good sermon! I hope to get in a habit of recapping each sermon here on my blog as a way to remind myself and help seal it in my head. You know the idea of hear it, read it, write it, see it, and repeat it. One other thing that I loved about today's sermon tied into a song that we heard by the choir called, "Not Guilty". It had a line that said something like, "I know you. I love you. I died for you." Verse 2 of text today starts with, "I know thy works, and thy labor (there we go again!)..." I love being reminded of the fact that "He knows" and He loves me so much anyway!!! Awesome!

OK, so my countdown prayer today is not very spiritual. It's just a desire of my heart. Please join me in praying that God would allow me to go into labor on my own before I am admitted Wednesday night. I'm not scared or worry and have no reason for this request other than it's just a preference. I want to go in on my own. I'll be perfectly content if that's not what God has planned, but it sure would be "peachy" if we let me have my way on this!!! As always, thanks for praying! I can't wait to introduce Elizabeth on here!!!

Countdown Prayer, 5 Days or Less!!

Tonight will be short. Here's my countdown prayer:

I'm praying tonight for "EASY". I'm praying for safe, fast, and easy delivery in the hospital. I'm praying that Elizabeth will be an easy baby (like I mentioned last night - calm spirit). I'm praying that nursing will go well and be easy. I'm praying for Elizabeth to be a good eater, sleeper, and yes even "pooper" (may sound strange, but it's hard on babies when they struggle with constipation some of you understand this all too well). And I'm asking for the transition to be easy on all fronts - easy for our family especially the other children to adjust to having a new member and easy to resume school/work/life soon after Elizabeth comes home.

OH, I just can't wait for her to get here!!! Thanks again for checking in and for praying with us!

Prayer Countdown, Lessons, and Fun Family Night

Today I had a couple moments where I felt almost overcome with emotion, both good and not so good. Fear is trying to creep in. Ever since losing my first baby boy, I have these times when I'm pregnant where I imagine and plan out my response should something go wrong again. I don't do it often, and it usually starts rolling around in my head before I realize it. Today that happened. I imagined what I would do, say, how I would respond if something went wrong, if Elizabeth dead during or soon after birth. I found myself trying to decide if I wanted company or if I wanted to be left alone. Things like that. Then my thoughts turned into what if something were to happen to one of my other children. As much as it has hurt/still hurts to have lost three babies, I think losing a child that I have had the pleasure of getting to know would be even harder. Then I started thinking about what if something happened to me. I started thinking about how much I want to live, how much I want to do, how I want to see my children grown, how I want to grow old and share grandchildren with Wesley, how I want to know that all my family members are going to be with me in Heaven one day.

In the Bible, Paul speaks of how being absent from the body is to be in the presence of Jesus and of how to die is to gain. I know that this absolutely must be true, but let I find that I cling to the things in this world. I want to be here. It's interesting, because it seems that everywhere I turn this past week I hear a message on Martha and Mary. As my thoughts were running away in my mind today, they were interrupted by the fact that in this way too I am like Martha. Lately I have been painfully aware of how much of a Martha I have been with my massive to do list. I realized that I find myself clinging to my life here on Earth instead of imagining how awesome eternity in Heaven with Jesus is going to be. Something else that has struck me is how my motives behind the to do list aren't what they should be either. At least with Martha as far as we know, she was toiling, worrying, fussing out of a desire to serve. I find that my labor is more out of my desire to look good for family and friends who will be visiting after Elizabeth is born. I do have some good motives too, but if I'm being honest the real reason is pride. Not such a pretty picture, my Friends!

I'm thankful that because of the recent lessons on Martha and Mary, I'm at least more aware of it. The Holy Spirit is at work, and I clearly recognize His prompting in me to relax and take time to enjoy and appreciate the Lord and the great blessing He has bestowed on me once again!! It's still a struggle, but I'm grateful that He's working on me. I have to add that last Sunday when I walked into church and realized what the sermon was going to be on I thought, "OH, NO!!! I remember also saying in my head to the Lord, "OK, Lord this is a low blow. I don't need this right now. I still have to get this list done!!" I looked at Wesley during the sermon and he looked at me and we both just smiled the biggest smile. We actually had at a "tiff" last week about the to do list. He said pretty much all the same things that Bro. Greg said in the sermon, he just didn't add the scripture references. Ha!

I'm trying harder to enjoy these last days of pregnancy, after all I'm not promised another pregnancy. I'm trying to enjoy the last days of being a family of 6. To enjoy the fact that I have more time to devote to the 4 awesome children I already have. Having a newborn will demand a lot, I need to enjoy these last days. To just enjoy and appreciate my blessings in general. To be grateful. To be content. I need to get over my pride and focus on what really matters.

So I started by mentioning that I had some moments where I was practically overcome with emotion, both good and bad. Now for the good. Although I did have a moment where I let my fears run wild in my head, after the Holy Spirit got my attention I took those thoughts captive. I thanked God that no matter what He has a good and perfect plan for me and each of my family members. I allowed myself to dream of the sweetness of the miracle that I will meet very soon. I asked the Lord to continue to complete the good work that He has began in my life. To grow me. To help me deal with my pride and discontentment. I imagined how much sweeter Heaven will be. I prayed that I would be His servant, that I would glorify Him, that I would be the wife and mother He has called me to be, and that I would not waste so much precious time worrying over things that really don't matter.

Today was good. Busy, but in a good way. The kiddos and I didn't just rush out the door. We had our devotion and prayer time before leaving for the field trip. (BTW, we actually went on 2 super good field trips to the newspaper and the news station!) We typically have a devotion and prayer each day, but today was different b/c of where my heart was as I led them. We came home and spent time napping instead of toiling. Then we had a awesome family night. It wasn't planned. It just sort of happened! Don't you think sometimes those are the best!!!

We received several restaurant gift certificates last year at Christmas time mostly from parents of Wesley's athletes. (Boy am I going to miss that this year now that he's in a different position!) We've had just one left for quite a while. I've been saving if for just the right occasion. So with that and a great coupon I downloaded, tonight was the night to cash in! We enjoyed what I consider could be somewhat of a "last supper" as a family of 6, then we redeemed some free bowling coupons that I've also had all summer long and took the kids bowling for the 1st time ever!! It was so much fun!!! Everyone was all smiles!! I hugged, kissed, and cheered on my hubby and babies all night long! Wesley could have bowled all night. He's pretty good too! Luke did quite well for his fist time. Grace was so funny and awkward. She has a blast trying, but oh my is her name ever fitting. "Grace". Enough said! Poor girl is just like her Mommy!!! Mary Ruth had a blast and smiled all night long! She was kind of in the middle of Luke and Grace in her skill set. Less awkward, but still needed a lot of help. It was so fun to watch and enjoy their reactions! And Bella Peace. There aren't words. She was so keyed up. There is nothing she won't do or try to do. N-O-T-H-I-N-G!!! She loved that her feet would slide around so easily. She also demanded to hold and throw her own bowling ball. We of course demanded otherwise! Fun, fun!

Now for my countdown prayer request:

In addition to safety and good health for me and Elizabeth during childbirth and after, I'm praying for the spiritual health of me and Elizabeth. I asking the Lord to continue to grow me into the woman God wants me to be, and that I will allow Him to have His way in me. I want to be a Godly wife and mother. I want to teach the children what really matters - to love God and to love others. I'm praying that Elizabeth will grow to know and love the Lord, and that she will not grow up with a spirit of rebellion or unbelief. I'm praying that she will be a calm, content baby and grow to have a meek and quiet spirit. Thanks again for praying with me!! Now here's some pictures to make you smile! Enjoy!!

Seriously, don't you just love bowling shoes!! So cute!


Daddy showing 'em how it's done! STRIKE!!!


Did I mention, he LOVED it as much as the kiddos did!


Luke getting schooled


Giving it a try...


Oh, yeah! Good thing he takes after his Daddy!


I can't help but smile! Look at her leg!!! I think Wesley may have just saved her from falling. Too bad, she gets her coordination from me!!


Making progress, getting better!


So cute!! Trying so hard to get it just right!!


All smiles!


Oh, my!!!


Her words, "I doed it, myself, Daddy!"


Fun times!! "Can we do this again, sometime? Pleeeeease?!!!"