Our Little Rose

By now, I'm sure all of you who read this are well aware that we have had our little girl~Makaela Rose. And you have probably all seen pictures on facebook, but in the slight chance that you missed those, I will post some here.
Here is the Labor and Delivery story :) I was called by the hospital on Thursday morning around 8:30 to come in and be induced. We got there around 10--did all of our checking in and got nice and comfy in our room. I was started on a pitocin drip around 11:15am to get contractions going. You'd think that the fun all started here, but it didn't really. We sat around with our mothers for most of the day watching TV, chatting and having a grand old time. I was not really feeling any of the contractions. Every time the nurses came in they always asked for my "pain level" to which I would reply, "I'm supposed to have pain?" They continued to up the pitocin drip, but I still rarely felt anything. Our parents left around 7:30 or so to go have dinner, and sure enough while they were gone my water broke.... now let the games begin :) My water broke around 8:15 and I felt the very first contraction after that... no doubt in my mind it was a contraction!! I said "oh thats what these are supposed to feel like." After about an hour and a half of Nathan helping me through them, I told him I didn't know how long I would have to do this, but if it was going to be like 6 more hours, I couldn't do it without an epidural. I feel like I tried as hard as I could to go through, and Nathan continued countless times to say "just one more contraction" until I reached the end of my pain tolerance level. Had I known the amount of time that would pass before I actually got the epidural, I probably would have requested it sooner :) I had to go through a bag of fluids first to be well hydrated, and then the anesthesiologist was in a c-section. It was about an hour before they were actually there to give me the epidural.

The most joyous nurse came through our door... her name was Daisy and she was from England (or somewhere over there) and had the greatest accent. I never thought laboring could really be fun, but I will tell you she made it just that... not even kidding. She was so light-hearted, yet very blunt and always just got right to the point about what was going on. She prepped me for the epi. and said as soon as the anesthesiologist came in he would only be about 5 seconds and it would be done. I must say, I was nervous about getting it because i have heard such horror stories about people getting it, or having to get it multiple times, or it not working etc., however once she informed me that I was lucky enough to have the chief of anesthesiology I was much more calm. He came in and when she said 5 seconds, she meant it. He had that thing in my back before I even knew anything was going on and it did seem to kick in right away. I should say at this time that I was at 6cm before they gave it to me which I believe is as far as you can be before you can't get one. I am pretty sure that once you move into the 7cm or transition phase, you can no longer get an epi. Within about 5-10 minutes of getting it, I remember saying something like "I'm sure this is too soon, but I just feel a lot of pressure." They said thats normal (since you can no longer feel contractions) but said they would check me whenever they put the catheter in, which they were doing right then. Daisy checked me and sure enough, I had shot to 10cm and was ready to start pushing. They had to wait a little bit for my doctor to get there, so she said "try and hold of as much as you can" to which I replied "thats really hard!!!" So she said I could push if I needed to and let me tell you... I needed to. I started pushing and my doctor got there within about 10-15 minutes. I pushed for about 30 minutes total and we had beautiful Makaela Rose in our arms. The nurses said she came out surprisingly alert, and Daisy said she had a "hairy bum." :) Makaela was 8 pounds and 21 inches long and was born at 11:48pm on Thursday, February 11th.

All in all, I was in hard labor for about 3 1/2 hours which is great to think about for the next time because I keep hearing the labor time cuts in half with your next child :) I don't know if this means I'm built for having babies or not, but I am a pastors wife and I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to eventually be driving one of those 15 passenger vans around full of kids. I don't think we'll have quite that many, but I am so thankful for how the process all went. The Lord was so good to me and to us, and He poured out his grace and strength in exactly the right amounts of what we needed at the current time.

My beloved husband was.........I'm not really even sure what word is best, and I don't feel like Awesome even comes close. He was just so so wonderful and great! Once my water broke and I responded to the first contraction, he knew it was go time. My body was shaking uncontrollably at first and tensing up all over the place. We had just read about the importance of not tensing up and that began his job of working to help me release tension in my body anywhere he saw it (which at the moment was everywhere). He faithfully watched the monitor and would tell me when a contraction was coming, then he would faithfully watch my body, especially my hands and face, to make sure I was not tensing any of my muscles, and he always told me when I was coming down off the contraction. I don't know how many times he said "release tension here" as he lightly touched my hand or my forehead, and he was so calm. He might have been a little too calm in fact as I could hear his little fingers madly texting family/friends what was going on in between contractions :) He just poured himself into me wholeheartedly and fully devoted every ounce of his love and attention to me. I saw him (even though I had my eyes closed the whole time concentrating through contractions) take on a new form of leadership in our relationship and it seemed to come to him so natural. I know Christ had prepared him for this role and he stepped in and with the grace of God he led me through each and every contraction in the most loving and tender way. I am so thankful for my loving husband and thankful for his desire to serve and glorify Christ through this process. He did just that, and helped me to strive to do the same and in the end we were rewarded with the precious blessing of life that the Lord has given to us to care for.

More about our new parents experience to come...

Blogging Made Easier

So how many of you (maybe 4 or 5) people who read this blog were drawn in to think that I have truly come up with an easier way of blogging? I'm sorry to say, it is a bit misleading. It really is only blogging made easier for me because we finally have internet at our house!! YAY!!!! So now instead of having to always try to figure out when I can blog on Nathan's computer at the church, I have the freedom to do it at home anytime I want... for about 2-7 more days that is. Then the freedom/anytime part will change :)

Speaking of that, a brief update for those of you who care to know...I'm very close to the end here. 40 weeks tomorrow to be exact (or as "exact" as they can be). My last appointment showed I was 4 cm dilated and 75% effaced. The baby is pretty much supposed to fall out at that point, right? I guess not. Baby is still a little too high so we are waiting (ever so patiently I might add) for to engage a little more. My next appointment is on Friday--the 5th of February--yes the day AFTER my due date. I'm quite convinced I will be going to that appointment, and I'm very anxious to know what they will say. I would imagine I will still be more dilated, so that leaves me hoping they will send us to the hospital to have our little girl~ I know you aren't all on the edge of your seat as much as we are (except the grandmas who read this) but we will be excited to let everyone know the news. :)

Lastly, here are a few of the decorations pictures I promised from my shower. Again just another sign of how adorable and precious everything was, and how wonderful all the ladies are who worked so hard to put everything together for me. They can officially all be hired for all future birthday parties :)

Incase you can't read this it says--

"A Little Bit of Mom and a Little Bit of Dad makes the Sweetest Baby the World's Ever Had."

This cake was the most absolutely precious cute cake.

I didn't want to cut into it at all!!

One Final Hurrah

This past weekend, Nathan and I went on a small extravaganza down to "The Americanas" in Glendale. We went to celebrate his birthday a week early and also have one more big date before little baby fogde comes :) It had been rainy all week and Friday had finally cleared up...so we thought. No, we expected rain, but probably not as much as we got. We did drive through sleet and some snow (I guess that just goes to say how much we wanted to get out!!). We got a little dressed up and headed down for a night out on the town which included a movie, then dinner and dessert. We did start our little adventure the right way with a stop at Sister Sister Coffee House. Once that necessity was taken care of, we headed down to the Americanas (a place very similar to the Grove, but newer and not as far away). We walked briskly (I waddled as brisk as I could) to the movie theater. It was raining and we were both trying to fit under this small umbrella which was definitely intended for 1 person. We saw "The Book of Eli" and then went for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. It had been many years since either of us had been there, and we had only gone for dessert, so this time we went for dinner and dessert. We had such a great time together and despite the unsatisfactory travel conditions, the weather did eventually clear up and we got to meander around for a while after dinner. Here are a few pics from our excursion... our last hurrah before our lives are changed and BLESSED dramatically.

Sister Sister was a very intricate part of this date.

Plus it had already been a busy day, so we needed a little "pick-me-up"

or "nap in a cup" as I like to call it.

It's so sad...Nathan's drink is in the way of his cheesecake. He ordered a peanut butter something cheesecake, and I (choco-holic that I am) ordered a chocolate cheesecake with chocolate mousse... of course :)

Showered with Blessings

This past Saturday, I was blessed to have my baby shower. To be perfectly honest, I'm not really even sure where to begin posting about this because I was truly blessed beyond what words could even describe. But I will give it a shot. I feel like my shower was a little out of the ordinary in that because Nathan is on staff here at Wayside, my shower was open to all of the ladies at church. That is where the blessing part begins...dear sweet Bethany asked me about planning/hosting my shower. She knew that it would involve planning/hosting for any lady from the church who wanted to attend which made the scale of everything a little bit bigger. More room was needed, more snacks were needed, and overall more organization was needed. Good thing she is the queen of organization :) She gathered help from many willing hands and the shower was just the most precious time for me. The theme at the shower was ladybugs to go with our Nursery theme. There were ladybugs everywhere, a ladybug cake, black and white and red balloons, super cute signs, ladybug themed table decorations etc. Everything was so absolutely cute I felt like it was impossible to capture all of the moments! I cannot express how thankful I am to Bethany for spearheading everything as well as all the girls who helped out. There were a good 7 or 8 girls who were all participating in pulling this event off. If that's not enough blessing, there were about 50+ ladies who came and went throughout the time of the shower. It was a drop-in shower so ladies could come and go as they pleased. I was truly showered with many gifts all of which I know will be so helpful. I got many many many cute clothes, several items for bath time, photo albums and frames, and loads and loads of diapers. I think we have enough diapers to get us through the first few months that baby joins the world :)

I am constantly overwhelmed with the love and generosity of our church. It seems as though anytime there is anything going on (good or challenging) someone is there pouring love out on you. Such was the case again at the shower and I don't know how I can truly express how thankful I am to all of these women and their families for everything they have done for us and given us. We are so excited to welcome Baby Fogde into the world whenever she decides to come join us. And we know that she will be showered with love as she gets to meet everyone at church.

The Lord has continued to bless my pregnancy even through the increased discomfort of the last 2 months or so. Everything is still looking great and its just a matter of waiting now until she is ready do come. I'm sure there will be more updates to come as we go to the doctor every week now... and hopefully before too long there will be pictures of Baby Fogde!!

This was the first of many faces of extreme excitement and "Oh my goodness... cuteness!"

This little outfit which is for 0-3 months is dying to take the place of what we already picked out to bring baby home from the hospital in... I'm inclined to stick with what we bought for her but this one is so cute it is quickly gaining ground on the other outfit and may just win in the end.

I will post some more pictures of the decorations when I get them. My sister took lots of candids for me, and I'm going to get some more of the decorations from the party planner extraordinaire... Bethany.

Lets Recap, Shall We?

Let's back up to Christmas, or Christmas Eve I should say. Christmas Eve marked my 34th week and we started our morning with a routine check-up. That phrase makes it sound like something exciting happened... but alas no. It was truly only that... routine. I was back to measuring right on and they said "we'll see you again in 2 weeks." In the evening we had our Christmas Eve service which was packed out with almost 500 people there. It's always so fun to see every one's families all together and spend some time together as a church body remembering the birth of our Savior and praising Him for coming into our world to ultimately receive the punishment for all our sins--all so we can have a personal relationship with Him. That is such a wonderful truth to dwell on as we focused our time over the Holidays. After the service, we made the long trip (all 15 minutes) down to Nathan's mom's house for Christmas Eve dinner and a few presents. It seems inevitable that one of the nieces or nephews in Nathan's family gets some kind of music gift and typically Nathan ends up playing with it more than the kids do. Here is evidence that Nathan is completely entertained while our niece, Emma Fogde, just sits and looks at him.

Nathan playing with Emma's gift.

I do have video of this, but will have to upload it later.

Christmas Day we had a lazy morning (oh so wonderful after the busyness of Christmas musical etc. at church). We hung around our house and eventually opened a few presents we had gotten for each other. Nathan got me a really cute and comfy nightie and robe from motherhood maternity that is made for easy nursing during the wee hours of the morning :) He also got me some body spray and lotion--it was really special because the scent was what I started wearing the day we got married and whenever I wear that scent the smell brings back memories of our wedding. Aw :) I got Nathan 2 sweaters and a body spray that he had said he liked. After we opened our gifts, we spent the rest of the day at his dad's house hanging with the rest of the family.

Us in front of our Mantle

Let's fast-forward to New Years (aka Board family Christmas). New Years Eve we headed up to my parents. Our family had decided to do Christmas together over New Years. Typically my family eats Mexican food on Christmas Eve, but since a few of us were with our in-laws for Christmas, they waited and we all had our big Mexican meal on New Years Eve instead. After that we did our traditional gift exchange with our cousins--there were 17 of us total. It was, as always, super fun with lots of laughs and much envying. Just kidding, but there was a whole lot of stealing going on. Nathan and I ended up with a game called "The Last Word", a Starbucks gift card, and an Olive Garden gift card. After much conniving, we each managed to steal the gifts we wanted and have them frozen so no one else could steal them.

17 gifts for 17 people... let the fun begin.

I would say this is when everything was all said and done, but my brother had that drill stolen from him, so this was not the end. I think the whole process of picking gifts and stealing gifts lasted about an hour anda half.

New Years Day was the Board Family Christmas. We again took it easy for most of the morning as some of my family scurried around trying to finish wrapping gifts and such. We watched A LOT of football (good thing we all like it!). Then we got to some gift opening. Baby fogde received some very cute and very comfy things that I am sure she will enjoy! After the gift opening was finished, I'm hoping what we did next will turn into a new tradition. We had a "build your own Calzone" for dinner. We had all the makings for delicious calzones and we all made our own. There was supposed to be a contest, however, the process of transporting the calzones from put together station to the cook them station was quite rough. Consequently some of our calzones turned out looking very mangled... good thing that was not an indicator of how they tasted. It was tons of fun and I really hope we do it again in the future!

Emma decided to play us a little tune on the piano :)

The beginnings of Build Your Own Calzone...

whoever thought of this was a genius! (my mom)

Nathan's finished product turned out pretty well...

it didn't look quite as mangled as some others did (like mine).

He was very proud because he truly did it all by himself

including rolling out the dough and sealing it all up in the end.

Good Job Honey! Now you can make them at home :)

It's tricky to all eat together when there are 8 calzones to cook and only 1 oven so some people BBQ'd theirs. They were just as tasty with a bit of a BBQ flavor to them.

Preparing to enjoy all of the finished product.

Overall, we had such a wonderful time with both of our families enjoying the different traditions of each side. We were blessed to have it work in our schedules to be with both sides over the holidays. Here we are now into a new year, and we have very exciting things on the very near horizon!!

8 Weeks and Counting

I am now in my 32nd week (about halfway through, actually). I had my doctor appointment this past week where little Leah or Makaela seemed to be a little more on track. I only measured at 33 instead of like 57 or something :) So my due date is still February 4 which was a bit of a relief and a let down all at once :) I'd be lying if I said that part of me didn't want them to move my due date up, but that is such a trivial thing that it doesn't even matter. What matters is that she is healthy, and very active :) We've been very entertained by watching my belly morph around. It hasn't been so intense that we can see an elbow or foot come out and move across, but we can see some limb moving from one side to the other. Nathan usually just laughs and says "thats freaky." We've also been playing with her and feeling her various limbs trying to figure out what they might be. We are so thankful that she is healthy and that things are all going well. The doctor also said that she is head down which is a huge blessing, and we are praying that she will continue to stay in that position--although I'm also praying that God will allow me to know His sovereignty should any of that change.
I get to sleep in a sitting up position now which is just fantastic! (sarcasm added:)) It has been a bit of a struggle to even be able to sleep much less sleep well, but even a lack of sleep is so trivial compared to all of the potential problems pregnancy can present... so again I find myself trying not to grumble or complain about the aches and pains or the lack of sleep, because the Lord has been so gracious already through all of this that certainly these small things are nothing to complain about.
We are anxiously awaiting her arrival and get more and more excited as the days pass. It is crazy to think that in just 8 short weeks (ok like 4 short weeks and 4 really really really long weeks, I'm sure;)) she will be here! Our schedules are busy and we keep moving right along which is helpful, but she will be here before we even know it! We can't wait for what the Lord will continue to teach us through the next weeks and especially for what He will teach us as we learn how to be parents to this blessing of life He has given us. All Praise to Him!

Playtime

I feel like we are using our new dog as practice for our new baby on the way. Whenever we are home, we are always playing with her and we always seem to have the camera close by because she just does some hilarious things. On this particular night, I was playing with her as she was trying to catch my feet. It kindof reminded me of that arcade game with the alligators and the big hammar you used to smash their heads. The alligators would pop out and you had to try and hit their heads. With bella, you'd taunt her with your feet until she popped out and you had to try and get them away from her. We are having a ton of fun with her... most of the time :) I will say, we have to work on learning how to go outside to go to the bathroom even when its rainy. On Monday, the weather was cold and rainy, and she decided that she did not want to step on the wet grass so instead she did all her pottying inside. Needless to say, she spent much of the day in her kennel in trouble which is really sad because it was her half birthday :) Anyway... here's a video of us playing.