An Ahhhhhhh Moment...

I feel like I must be glowing from the inside out! My very first massage was a marvelous experience :-). A massage therapist from our church gifted me with a massage for myself and Jonathan. And Jackie, I have to say thank you from my head to my toes!

This was the perfect occasion for videos, and I set up the children to watch some great educational programs downstairs. Jackie brought in her mobile massage table with the donut shaped face pillow inserted at the end. First we massaged Jonathan with lotion, and then put him in the swing with some Baby Mozart playing on the stereo. Then I lay down on my tummy, put my face in the donut and settled down to the most relaxing hour of my life! Honey, can we spring for a massage every once in a while?

Preparing...
This weekend we are traveling back to Iowa to visit my family and our friends back home. I haven't seen my mother in over 2 years! We are staying at a hotel with a pool and the kids are so excited about the water slide which my friend tells me is soooooo fun :-).

We actually finished most of our cleaning this week (it's Thursday too - who says you can't change?). Tomorrow I just need to finish up the packing. How nice it will be to see everyone!

A Glimpse of Heaven

This may sound silly, but for me it was one of those moments you could just curl up inside of and stay awhile :-). I was reading this verse in my Bible:

"And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth." -Genesis 9:16

And it occurred to me that everytime I am looking at a rainbow, my Heavenly Father is gazing at that same rainbow! That sense of togetherness with God, which sometimes eludes me, suddenly took form. I don't think I will ever look at a rainbow in quite the same way. :-)

Update

Almost 6 weeks old....
The baby is getting bigger! I keep telling everyone: "his diapers are tight :-)" Indeed his newborn swaddlers were definitely tight. Now we have him in size one. Last night he slept until 3am and then guzzled his milk so fast that he spit up all over me (a first!). Then he immediately wanted to nurse again :-). He is definitely showing signs of jaundice, which is unusual because I thought this was supposed to show up earlier on. It is quite disconcerting to find that the whites of your baby's eyes are tinged yellow. Frequent nursing is supposed to help. If only I can keep myself awake (big yawn!). One of these days I'm going to take control of my blog and make it cool like everyone elses. I'm sure there must be a yawning emoticon out there somewhere...

On a practical note....
We are finally getting back into our everchanging routines. I am trying out Candy's cleaning schedule, and so far I really like it :-). Today we clean the bathrooms and the kids do their own laundry - yay! We have been continuing to use the Robinson Curriculum and I have taken to having the kids do a math worksheet as part of their morning routine (before breakfast). David writes an essay everyday, and he is writing all about George Washington right now (from Josephine Pollards "Life of George Washington").

I am so excited! Today we are going to order blinds for our dining room and the kids bedrooms. :-) It has been a major problem in the dining room at mealtimes because of the glare of the setting sun in the evenings. And the kids rooms get soooo hot on summer afternoons, making naptimes difficult. I can't wait to put them up!

Hope

"Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." -Romans 15:13

This scripture has blessed my life, and been an anchor for my soul this past year. It's the only one that I know of that combines the essential ingredients of joy, peace, faith and hope. I have prayed it often for myself and others. Knowing that "hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost!" (Romans 5:5) Hope properly anchored, that is :-).

This morning I am

SO THANKFUL

for the Word of God! Lord, may it permeate my life today. Increase my faith I pray.

ANNOUNCING...

Jonathan Frank Tippy

Born on Friday March 3rd, 2006 at 2:51 am.
Weighing in at a whopping 5 lbs 5 oz, measuring 19 inches long.

Mom and baby are home and all is well :-). For any who may have heard about the problems he was experiencing, please know that everything has been resolved. He was just perfect at birth and he nursed beautifully for me and stayed with us for quite a while.

Later on in the nursery he was unresponsive and found to be oxygenating poorly. As a result, he was on oxygen for 24 hours and antibiotics for 48 hours. His blood test came back negative for infection, and then we were able to take him home on time. It was a bit worrisome at first, but the procedure was a routine one for some babies who are born a bit early. And now he is thriving!

Click HERE for more pictures.

Scroll down for the story of his labor & birth...

I Was Wrong

"What are you doing here?"

I considered asking him the same thing. Nathan and I couldn't believe our luck; to get this doctor who was asleep on his feet. He was from Mexico and his accent was thick. He looked like he hadn't slept for a week, and I had to ask him again and again what he was saying.

"Well, I am pregnant with my fifth child and having regular contractions less than 5 minutes apart...." I patiently explained my condition. They found that I was 3 cm dilated and told me they would leave me on the monitors for 2 hours, then check and see if the contractions were dilating me further.

Meanwhile, they gave me a big hospital mug of water with instructions to chug; hoping to halt the labor until I was a little further along (I was 36 weeks and 2 days). So, I chugged, while my husband and I chatted and made goo-goo eyes at each other.

I wondered if maybe I had been "premature" to come to the hospital (hehe). My pregnancy complications put me at risk for preterm labor, and I had gone pretty fast with Josh, so I was anxious to avoid a homebirth which noone was prepared for, but I certainly wanted to avoid the circus of traveling to the hospital multiple times.

The water slowed my contractions, though they seemed to be slightly more intense. Soon they brought a young gal into the same room to monitor. This was her first pregnancy, and her water had broken (I was transported back to my first labor, to the "DOING" sound of my water breaking :-)). We hid behind our little curtain of the room and waited for the doctor to return. And found out that I was still three cm. So they sent us home.

I waddled painfully out to the car, following Nathan slowly. I wondered what all this was for and felt very insecure. After all, this is my fifth child. I should know when I'm in labor. We went and sat at Hardees for awhile, just to make sure that the contractions weren't getting stronger. We had bacon, egg and cheese biscuits. And shivered. It was very cold there. Then we went home and went to bed. We slept as well as we could while Grandma engaged the children in a housecleaning mission :-).

During the next two days, I continued to contract about four times an hour. And these were not Braxton Hicks, but serious, cervix-centered pains which were very similar to having a miscarriage.

On Thursday, I went in for my regular monitoring appointment. The baby looked great, but my amniotic fluid had decreased quite a bit from the prior week. They were not overly concerned, and the ultrasonagrapher thought they might order a recheck in a day or two. Who knows? Perhaps a leak was the cause for my early labor.

Thursday night Nathan and I sat down to watch Jeeves and Wooster. He brought me a bowl of ice cream. I lay on the couch and dozed through it. I had noticed that movement seemed to bring on more contractions so I did not want to move upstairs to go to bed. But I finally made myself trudge up the stairs. When I complained to Nathan that the pains were a little worse, my poor exhausted husband (who was fast becoming very sick with a cold) stated emphatically: "YOU ARE NOT GOING TO HAVE THIS BABY TONIGHT." Then he promptly rolled over and went to sleep. ;-)

Well, being the submissive wife that I am, I proceeded to fill up my water cup and chug it down. I was uncomfortably full of water and I lay down to wait for my contractions to go away, trying to sleep.

Unfortunately, it didn't work this time. I waited until I was almost in tears, and the contractions were less than five minutes apart. Then I woke him up, and we drove to the hospital as fast as we could. Nathan wanted to go right up the road to the Medical Center, but I persuaded him to drive a little further to the hospital. It was a bit nerve-wracking; the contractions were on top of each other and I tried to push away the thought of having the baby in the car.

We finally arrived around 12:30 am and they found that I was 7-8 cm, and moving fast. They called the doctor and we settled in to wait through the contractions.

They continued for another two hours. I was fully dilated, but my bag of waters hadn't broken yet and that was all that was holding back my little blessing from making his appearance. Then I began to feel very nauseous. They brought the bedpan and I lost my roast beef and icecream. The pressure of vomiting was enough to break my water, and then I was really in pain (that bag is a great cushion!).

Three contractions later he was here! I remember breathlessly reminding everyone that I wanted to see his first breath, and then that last push... He came out with a pain that caused me to yell as loud as I could. Nathan shushed me. :-) And then I saw him...

Not dressed, mind you, but our camera broke last week so we weren't able to get pictures of him right at birth :-(.

Why was I wrong? Well, if you've been reading my blog, you know that I was pretty sure that I was going to go all the way to (or near) March 27th. But my little peanut had other plans :-).

Update

Five more weeks and we'll be through!

I am beginning to tire of being called "round one" by my beloved. And, Lord willing, I will become much less round about March 27th. All of my babies have been born right on time :-), and I hope that this one will be too.

This week has truly been a rush. From one emergency to the next, it seems.

On Monday, you wouldn't have wanted to be male in our house. Nathan "broke" his toe at 5:00 am, Joshua bit his tongue (gushing blood for a long time) as he leapt from the blanket covered coffee-table-house, and David took the gold with his "graceful" slide down the side of his bunkbed. He reportedly forgot to turn his head, as was his custom, and his chin was the unfortunate victim. After my primitive ministrations of blood-mopping and anti-bacterial scrub, I observed that it hung open (not his mouth, mind you), and became very woozy. Then I began barking orders to the children to get their shoes on and get in the van. I was sure he needed stitches, and so we zipped to the emergency room with David holding his chin together with an ice-pack. I now I realize that while I have been busy changing diapers and drilling math tables, super-glue has morphed into something called "Durabond" which many times is able to take the place of stitches. David had his owie glued shut. Imagine that. While the rest of us watched Sesame Street and ate cheeseburgers ;-).

On Tuesday, I had the great privilege of attending a wonderful bridal shower for my good friend Jeana. Deborah and Rebekah accompanied me, with pony tails and beautiful modest dresses. I was the only one who didn't wear a dress, because I lack maternity tights.

On Wednesday, it was a beautiful day outside, so I parked my folding chair in the garage and watched the kids ride their tricycles around the driveway. I was being so good :-). Truly taking it easy.

It wasn't long before the older ones began to eye their bicycles, which were hanging neatly (thanks to Uncle Benjamin) from the ceiling of the garage. They wanted to get them down themselves and were insisting they could, but I knew they would need help. This was when I should have prayed for wisdom. And the obedience to heed it. But when do I ever listen? I rationalized...it's only a little kids bike....it can't weigh more than Joshua...I lift him up to the drinking fountain all the time. And of course it was a cinch to get them down from the ceiling once I had the kitchen step stool. But when the bleeding started soon thereafter, it became aparent that there may have been a reason that all of the doctors I have seen have given the same advice: "take it easy, and no heavy lifting!" Reluctantly, and with a red face, I heeded my doctor's instructions to go in and be monitored, even though I was sure everything was ok. So, once again I rounded the troops and we zipped off down to the hospital.

On Thursday, I would have preferred to stay home (I never could get the hang of Thursdays ;-)), but this was my regular weekly ultrasound/monitoring appointment and the doctor encouraged me to keep it. So we made a day trip out of it and went to the library, the park and finally the appointment. This baby boy is continually showing signs of being a text-book baby, so sometimes I wonder what all of this is for. Yet I am thankful to be in a position to be able to monitor him so closely in light of the complications.

Tonight was our family movie night, and we watched Popeye together. It was very good and we all enjoyed ourselves thoroughly :-). Even Joshua. Though Rebekah did get a little scared of the octopus at the end. I am so thankful that there is good, wholesome entertainment out there that I can watch with my family.

Tomorrow morning I get to drive out and visit my dear friend Jenny for breakfast. I have to leave at 6:30am so I had better hit the sack. G'night all!