It sounded like a good idea at the time....

Have you ever noticed that kids, particularly boys, don't think out their ideas very well? They may think something is a good idea, but they don't consider what could happen because of it. They don't have the ability to foresee the consequences of their actions. I've witnessed it firsthand, many times.

Here's one great example:

The other night seemed pretty normal. Tim was at school, the kids were playing and I was nursing the baby. Isaiah said he needed to go potty. I asked Elijah to help him get on the potty. No problem. Life is good. :)

A few minutes go by. I hear Elijah walk out of the bathroom and close the door. I thought he was just giving Isaiah some privacy. Then I hear Elijah tell Isaiah to unlock the door and come out when he is done. Here's where the ability to foresee the consequences of his actions would have come in handy.

I realized he had locked the door and thought Isaiah would be able to unlock it. I'm not sure why he decided to lock the door. It sounded like he was going to make a game out of it. Well, my 3 year old doesn't know how to unlock the door.

My daughter found out what was going on and she and Elijah were trying to explain to Isaiah how to unlock the door. It wasn't working. Time for an intervention.

I put the baby down and see if I can save the day. I try to explain how to unlock the door, but he didn't get it. We have lever door handles and I couldn't find the "key" they give you to unlock the doors from the outside. Time to get creative.

I try the end of a large paper clip. No luck. I try a small screwdriver. No luck. I was beginning to panic inside and thought I might have to call my husband to come home and help me. I decide to keep trying a little longer.

Elijah is very worried and tells me he is going to go to his room. A few minutes later we hear Elijah sobbing. My daughter tells me he's crying and wonders why. I told her he probably thinks he's going to get in trouble for locking his brother in the bathroom. She decides to go talk to him.

I continue trying to get the door unlocked. Isaiah is being pretty patient. He whines a couple of time. Overall, he's pretty calm though.

I find a smaller screwdriver and pray it works. Finally I get it unlocked! I open the door and laugh at what I see. Isaiah is sitting on the floor reading a book. He looks over his book at me and says, "You got it open?!"

The older 2 come back down and were very excited to see the door open. They were very impressed by their moms handy work. I ask Elijah why he was crying. He said it was because he thought we were going to have to bust down the door to get his brother out. I think he was pretty relieved that I got it open without having to damage anything.

Well, that was enough of an adventure for one night! Life with 3 boys is definitely going to be an adventure!

Isaiah's Birth Story

We always wanted to have four children. Tim and I both come from families with four siblings and that is what we wanted for our family as well. It took awhile to adjust to life with 2 kids. I had heard the adjustment of going from 1 to 2 kids is much harder than going from 2 to 3. We hoped that was true.

After successfully doing the Natural Family Planning method for 3-1/2 years to avoid pregnancy, we were ready to use it to get pregnant! Again, we conceived right away. What was cool about Natural Family Planning is that I knew when we conceived too! My due date would be September 17th, 2008.

I was homeschooling Mikaela for Kindergarten when I first got pregnant. She was in a program at the local Charter School that supplements homeschooling. So part of her schooling came from me at home and the other part from the school. It was a wonderful experience!

I had morning sickness all day again like I did the first two times. I still didn't want to take anything for the nausea though. It was helpful that the first 2 were older. (Mikaela was 6 and Elijah was 4) I finally started feeling better by 4 months. Then I was sick again in the 3rd trimester.

I didn't want to find out what we were having this time because we already had one girl and one boy, so we were prepared. But, Tim wasn't game this time. So, we found out and we were having a boy!

In August of 2008, Mikaela started 1st grade. We were still homeschooling and doing the program with the Charter School. I wasn't sure how it would go with homeschooling and having a newborn. It's actually easier to have a baby when you homeschool because you go at your own pace. You can adjust the school schedule to meet the needs of the family and still finish the school year successfully.

Toward the end of August, I kept thinking the baby might come a little early because I had been having so many contractions this time. Mikaela was born at 38 weeks. Elijah was born at 39 weeks. I hoped this baby wouldn't follow the trend and wait until 40 weeks.

Since I was now living in a different state and had a new doctor, he tested me for group B strep. Thankfully, I tested negative! So, we didn't have to rush to the hospital this time! 

The morning of Sunday, September 14th was pretty normal. We got up and were getting ready for church. I couldn't believe I was still pregnant! I was only 3 days away from my due date. (And only one day away from my adjusted due date from the ultrasound, but my doctor didn't change the date.) As I was getting ready, I went to the bathroom and saw a little bit of blood. I was almost giddy! Since I wasn't having regular contractions, we went ahead and headed to church.

While sitting in church I started having regular contractions. I was very thankful that they were normal contractions and not back labor! I remember looking at the clock timing the contractions while listening to the Pastor teaching. Toward the end of service (a little after 10 am), they were getting regular enough that we decided to go ahead and leave. We had no idea how long this labor would last, so we wanted to be ready.

A couple of friends of ours had offered to watch the kids for us while I was in labor and at the hospital. After going home to pack up the kids stuff, Tim dropped them off at their house.

By 2pm, I thought the contractions were close enough together for us to head to the hospital. We let our parents know we were going and we'd call them if I was admitted.

Once I got into triage, the nurse checked me and said I was only 2 cm. I cried. I couldn't believe the contractions weren't doing enough to be more dilated. They sent us home and told Tim not to bring me back until I wasn't smiling anymore. Tim called our parents to let them know. They were disappointed too.

We decided to see how the afternoon would go. We left the kids at our friends house and invited our parents to meet us at our favorite Italian restaurant, Carinos. I kept having contractions during our meal. I had salad, a little bit of pasta and a couple Cherry Italian sodas.

After our late lunch, we thought it would be good for me to do some walking. We ended up at Target and stayed until they closed at 9pm. I walked around the store for hours and stopped during contractions. The baby had turned and the contractions were now in my back. We bought some tennis balls to try on my back since I was now having back labor.

When we got home, we decided to watch a movie. I chose one of my favorite comedies, Hitch! About half way through the movie I ended up on my hands and knees trying to deal with my back labor. At midnight, I was no longer smiling.

We called our parents and went back to the hospital. The triage nurse checked me and I was still only 2cm. I cried again. The nurse said my doctor was on call for the night so she would call him to see if I could stay for observation. He said yes, so we walked the halls. My mom and sister walked with me while Tim and my dad rested in the waiting area.

I squatted during the contractions, hoping it would help dilate my cervix. It seemed to hurt more if anyone tried to rub my back this time. After an hour of walking (it was about 2am), it was time to check my cervix again. I prayed the walking and squatting had worked. The nurse said I was 4-1/2cm! Yay! I was admitted and taken to the labor/delivery room in a wheelchair.

When we got to the room I changed into the hospital gown. The nurse called the anesthesiologist to come give me an epidural. The contractions were coming on so hard and strong that I wasn't getting much of a break in between. I was practically hyperventilating. My face was tingling and my eye was twitching. I felt completely out of control. The nurse told me to slow down my breathing.

While we waited for the anesthesiologist to come, the nurse tried to get the IV started. For some reason it's difficult to get an IV in me and she was having a hard time. She found out that the anesthesiologist was prepping a cesarean section for my doctor and he would come when he was done. In the meantime, the nurse was trying to see if anyone from the Flight for Life team was available to start the IV.

The anesthesiologist finally arrived and got the epidural started. After a few minutes, my pain subsided and I was freezing from the fluids rushing into my body. It was around 3:30am when the doctor came in to see me. He checked me and I was about 5cm dilated. He went ahead and broke my water to get things going (he was on call until 7:30am and then he would be off and he knew I really wanted him to deliver).

After he broke my water, he left to go do the cesarean section. Tim laid down to settle in and take a nap. According to the previous deliveries, we would still have a several hours before it would be time to push. Well, this did not go like the previous deliveries!

Shortly after the doctor left, the baby's heartbeat dropped and my blood pressure tanked. The nurse rolled me onto my side and put an oxygen mask on me. She called the doctor to let him know what was going on. She also got several nurses to come into the room to get ready for the baby. They wanted to get an internal monitor on the baby so they would be able to monitor him better. The nurse checked me again and I was 10cm! I went from 5 to 10cm in less than an hour! Now the nurses were scrambling! They kept saying they were going to have to deliver the baby! Nobody expected me to dilate that fast. Even the doctor was surprised.

We had a very full room. Tim, both of his parents, my parents, my sister and about 5 nurses were all in the room with me! I was pretty out of it during this time. Someone had to wake up Tim to let him know what was going on. He was couldn't believe what was going on!

The nurse told me to go ahead and start pushing. I was still on my side and could not push effectively. The doctor came in a few minutes later. The nurse gave him an update and asked if he wanted the forceps. (I didn't think they used forceps anymore, but we have it on tape!) My mom heard that and told my sister to tell me about it and to push as hard as I could so he wouldn't use them. (The doctor used forceps when I was born and we think my crossed eye was a result of it). The doctor told the nurse no, he would give me a chance. Then he told me I could start pushing, but if I wasn't progressing he would have to help me out because the baby was in distress.

I tried to push while on my side again, but it wasn't working. I told my doctor I couldn't push in that position. He said I could sit up. Now I was able to push more effectively. I remember actually being able to feel while I was pushing instead of being completely numb. I was surprised and happy about it. The doctor told me to keep pushing, even if I wasn't having a contraction so we could get the baby out. After a few pushes, his head was out. He told me to stop pushing because the cord was around his neck. Then he was out and was just fine!

It was such a whirlwind at the end! Thankfully, he was healthy! He was born at 4:35am on Monday, September 15th.

Everyone kept talking about how much hair he had and how dark it was!

Mommy holding her new baby boy for the first time!

Proud Papa!

Later that day, the kids came to meet their new brother. They were very excited!

We had pretty much decided that his first name would be Isaiah, but we hadn't decided on a middle name yet. I wanted it to be Graham because that is Tim's middle name. Tim didn't really want to do that though.  He thought it should be Joseph after my dad. He wanted to name him after a man with honor, integrity, kindness and generosity. A name carries with it a legacy. And like my dad, Joseph from the Bible served the Lord. Now we had two boys with strong Biblical names (both Prophets) and very special middle names!

Since we didn't live in the same state anymore, The GG's were not able to meet Isaiah right away. They came out a few weeks later to visit and then again for Thanksgiving.

Discoveries of Fertility

When Elijah was about 6 months old, I had a long time friend tell me some disturbing information about birth control pills. I spent quite a bit of time doing my own research and came to the same conclusions she did. It was then that I knew God had opened my eyes to this realization for a reason and I could no longer take the pill.

When you've always been on the pill, you're not really concerned with what your body is doing. You just know that your chances of getting pregnant are very slim. I was always told that you don't ovulate when you take birth control pills. One of the things I learned is that's not 100%. In the event that you do ovulate (which is very likely) and an egg does get fertilized, the pill works to make sure that the baby cannot implant in the uterus and survive. I believe life begins at conception and taking a pill that would prevent that life from living was unacceptable.

We knew we wanted to have more kids, so doing something permanent was out of the question. Out of all the options we had, we chose to become educated on Natural Family Planning. We took classes at the local hospital and met with a nurse for the first few months. We were even able to get our insurance company to pay for it (minus our copay). I was in complete amazement of my body and my fertility! This was the first time I was being educated in depth on how my fertility cycle works. This may sound strange, but I was excited about it! 

I received a lot of opposition from people when I told them we were doing Natural Family Planning. Most people laughed and joked saying, "You know what they call people who do Natural Family Planning, right? They're called parents!" Those who didn't laugh at me, yelled at me. The nurse at my obgyn was the worst. I couldn't believe how many people were against a natural form of birth control! I was determined to prove them wrong.

It was a leap of faith to give Natural Family Planning a chance. What if I messed up and didn't chart properly? That was my main concern. We weren't ready to get pregnant again yet. If you've read my first two birth stories, then you know I'm pretty fertile. But, I felt educated enough to know what I was doing and trusted that this was the path God wanted us to take.

We did Natural Family Planning successfully for 3 1/2 years to avoid pregnancy. We then used it to get pregnant with baby #3, and did so in the first month we tried. I'd say it works just fine :)

Next up: Baby #3's birth story!

Surprise in the garage

Last night we encountered a surprise in our garage. Elijah came in the house and announced that a dog had wandered into our garage! Tim went out to see what was going on. Sure enough, an old "well nourished" female basset hound was snooping around. Tim said she was cute and Kayla ran outside to see. I was hesitant to go look, but I ended up looking anyway. Yes, she was cute. The kids were loving on her already!

She didn't have a collar so Tim and Elijah went around the neighborhood to look for the owner. No luck finding the owner. So, Tim had to call the Humane Society to come pick her up. We kept the dog inside while we waited for them to arrive. She followed us around the house and loved the kids. The baby was in the swing and the dog was checking him out. We could tell that this dog was well taken care of and would be missed by her owner.

The kids were sad when the lady arrived to take the dog.  After she left we sat down with the kids and prayed that she would be reunited with her owners. Kayla decided to call her 'Madison' for the sake of having a name for the dog to pray for. It was very sweet.

Even though we didn't try to keep 'Madison', it was nice to have her around for a little while. I am thankful that she wandered into our garage last night and we were able to get shelter for her. The weather was quite cold and snowy last night and she may not have survived.

It was interesting having a dog in our house again. We had two dogs when we were first married. One was a little scottish terrier/poodle mix named Lucy, who was about 10 years old. The other was a black Lab named Ricky, who was 2 years old. (Yes, their names are from I Love Lucy :) ) We chose not to have Ricky neutered because he was a purebred and we had grand plans of having him be a stud dog.  Young Labs are hyper as it is, but when they're not neutered it's another level of hyper!

After we had our first child, it became more difficult to give the dogs the attention they needed. Lucy was old and grumpy and nipped at Kayla. Ricky would chew anything in site! Thankfully, we found really good homes for both of the dogs! It was difficult to say goodbye to them, but it was what was best for our family.

The kids have often asked when we'll get another dog. We've got enough to take care of right now that having a dog would be more stressful than fun. When the kids are a little bit older I'm sure we'll get a dog. It was a great experience to grow up with dogs and I want my kids to experience that too. Someday.  :)