Garrison's first black eye

On Sunday, Garrison took a spill in the youth room at church and received his first black eye. We're not sure what he hit, but whatever it was he hit it just right. When Thomas first brought him to me I kind of freaked out (oops) which freaked Garrison out. (the pictures were taken hours after it happened and some of the swelling had gone down) I thought at first it was broken, but Thomas assured me that it was too high to be broken. Garrison hasn't even been affected by the ordeal. I'm sure they'll be many more events like this in the future.

birth story

I can finally tell Josiah's birth story. For nine months I wondered what Josiah's birth would be like. Would it be similar to Garrison's or completely different? The birth is the one thing that makes me nervous during pregnancy. It's one of those things that you can't control no matter how hard you try.

It all started on Wednesday. I had a doctors appointment that day. (You'll remember that I was 3 centimeters dilated and my doctor thought that I would go into labor on my own. But we had scheduled an induction, just in case.)

After my appointment I had been having pains, but nothing that was consistent. I tried to get some sleep Wednesday night into Thursday morning, but it wasn't very easy. Somehow I managed to fall asleep for a little while. I woke-up at 4 am experiencing very consistent contractions. I began writing down the times and tried to fall back asleep, but it was pretty impossible to do.

I woke Thomas up around 6 am and told him that I was in labor and that we should probably start getting ready for the day. I went to take a shower while Thomas went and started getting Garrison ready for the day.

I called my sister at 6:30 and asked her if she could come over and spend the day with Garrison. Then we started packing. Yes, that's right. I hadn't packed yet. Luckily, I made lists of everything that I needed to bring so I wouldn't be scrambling trying to figure out if I got everything.

My sister, Joanna, showed up at 7:30 and Thomas and I headed to the hospital.

By 8:30 I was in my lovely gown and ready for Josiah to arrive. I met my nurse, who was the same nurse that helped deliver Garrison. That was such a relief for me because I was not a fan of the first nurse that came in. By this point I was having contractions about 5 minutes apart and I was at 4 centimeters.

Since I had group B strep my nurse needed to start me on antibiotics right away. I had to have the entire bag of antibiotics enptied before they could start the drip that you get normally during labor. And until I emptied half the bag of the drip I couldn't get an epidural. So until about 11 am I squeezed Thomas' hand as hard as I could during every contraction. The contractions were coming so close together and so intense that I was having a very hard time concentrating. All I could do was squeeze Thomas' hand and close my eyes.

At around 11 am the epidural lady came in and gave me the greatest drug ever. She also gave me the strongest dose of it and my legs became instantly heavy. To the point where I could hardly lift them. At the time of the epidural I was at 5 centimeters. The drug worked so well that I was able to take a small cat nap while Thomas made phone calls and looked stuff up on the internet.

At 12:15 my nurse and the resident came in and checked me. I was a 10!! It was so funny. Thomas and I were not ready for it to happen that fast so he was still on the internet. (I had gone from 5 centimeters to 10 in only an hour.) As soon as they said they were going to call the doctor Thomas started putting the computer away as fast as he could.

Mu nurse had told me that I probably wouldn't need to push that much with Josiah since with Garrison I only pushed for 42 minutes. While I got ready for the doctor to come my nurse told me that they were going to wait until the doctor came before I pushed at all because they were pretty sure that I would only be pushing a few times.

When the doctor came in and got all ready she told me to try and push on the next contraction. I was a little afraid because I couldn't feel anything and I was afraid that I wouldn't know if I was pushing or not. With the next contraction I pushed, feeling absolutely nothing. Everyone kept telling me that I was doing a good job, but I thought they were kidding because I didn't even know I was doing anything. Then we waited for the next contraction and on that one he came out. It was so fast!

When Garrison was born I wasn't able to have him put on my belly because he had pooped before he was delivered. Which meant that he would be have to go to the incubator and get his mouth and nose suctioned before he sucked up anything yucky. With Josiah he didn't poop so as soon as he was born they put him on my stomach. That was so weird. He was so slimy and the darkest purple ever. I didn't want to let him go because I felt like he was going to slip right onto the floor.

At 12:49 pm on September 24, 2009 we had our handsome little man, Josiah Thomas Bush. Here is the first picture of Josiah.

Our first week

I'm not sure how I'm finding the time to get on here and update everyone, but somehow here I am.
Josiah is doing great. We had to take him back to the birthing center on Sunday to test him for jaundice. I couldn't get him to wake up for his feedings and he was very limp most of the day. Thomas and I wanted to make sure everything was ok, so we took him in. After they tested him they found that he is in the normal range for jaundice. To get him to eat they sent us to a lactation nurse who worked with me so that Josiah would have a easier time nursing. It has been so much better since then. We're learning that Josiah would sleep all day and not eat if we let him. So I have to be intentional about getting him to eat. Somehow we have two very laid back boys.

When the lactation nurse weighed him, on Sunday, his weight was 8 lbs. We had an appointment with the aftercare department on Tuesday and we were going to be seeing the same lactation nurse as we did on Sunday. She wanted to see that Josiah had gained at least 2 ounces from Sunday to Tuesday. When we took him in on Tuesday he weighed 8 lbs 6 oz. He had gained 3 times what she wanted him to gain. Yeah! That was super exciting for me because I didn't want him to get dehydrated like Garrison did. Yeah! We are doing things right!

Other than that we are all trying to find time to sleep and get into a routine. I must say that I'm very thankful for a husband who has a job that is flexible. He was able to take 2 weeks off and has been an absolutely amazing help. I think without him I would have had a break down by now. He still goes to youth group, church and today he's going to be heading to soccer practice, but for the most part he's around all the time.

Garrison is loving Josiah. He wants to help get his diaper, push him in the swing and hold him. He loves giving him kisses and putting his head against Josiah's. There are moments that he doesn't care for Thomas and I, but that's understandable. It's an adjustment for everyone.

He has arrived!

Welcome Josiah Thomas!

God has blessed us with another beautiful and healthy boy. Josiah Thomas Bush arrived on September 24, 2009 at 12:49 pm. (12 days after his daddy's birthday). He weighed 8 lbs 9.5 oz and was 20.4 inches long. (I love it! Garrison was 8 lbs 9.5 oz and was 20.2 inches long)

waiting

"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord." Ps 27:14

Waiting! It's one of the hardest things to do in life. Especially in a world where we can get almost anything we want within minutes. Don't want to cook, fast food. Don't want to send a letter to a friend, e-mail. Don't want to call someone, text or facebook. Don't want to wait for movies to come onto dvds, download them. Don't want to wait for the news to tell us the weather, internet.

Yet God reminds us every now and then that we must wait. We must wait for him. No matter how much we ask or plead for something, sometimes the answer is wait.

Maybe he has planted a seed in us that needs time to grow. Maybe we aren't ready for the answer. Maybe if we wait a little longer he'll show us why we he had us wait. Maybe he needs us to help someone else in our struggle and we need to wait for that person. No matter what the reason is it's sometimes incredibly hard to wait.

There are many things in my life that I'm waiting for. I'm waiting to meet my baby. I'm waiting for marriages to heal. I'm waiting for a miracle. I'm waiting for soccer season to be over. I'm waiting to meet my niece. Some are more serious than others, but still I wait.

I heard this song a while ago on the radio and it touched me. (you may have to scroll all the way to the bottom to get it to play) I have a very hard listening to it without crying, but it says exactly what I'm feeling. Even though I'm waiting I will still worship and serve God. I know that I wait because God is doing something wonderful in my life and in the lives of others that I'm praying for. I wait because I have faith that matters not on what I can see, but on what I hope for. (Hebrews 11:1)

I will keep waiting and while I do I'll be singing this song at the top of my lungs.

_____________________________________________________

Baby Boy Bush

Today I had another doctors appointment. This would be my 40++++ week check up. :) And I cannot believe that I'm not in labor. I am 3 centimeters dilated and my water is swollen and "right there" (words from the doctor). Shall I start doing jumping jacks to pop that baby or what? I've also gained no weight since my last weeks appointment. Weird!

Here's the plan:
My doctor thinks that I should be going into labor on my own. Since I'm so stinkin' close and I went on my own with Garrison (who was also a week late). However, if I don't go into labor on my own we have an induction date set up for this coming Monday. Thomas and I will be heading into the birthing center at 6 am that morning and they are going to break my water. So even though nothing is happening now at least we have an end in sight and that someday we'll be able to meet our baby. I'm almost crawling out of my skin with excitement at being so close to meeting him, but I'll wait for God to bring him into the world. Apparently he's not done cooking yet. :)

pregnancy update

Thirty-eight weeks and counting!

Yesterday I went in for my weekly doctors appointment and things are looking good. I saw a nurse practitioner that I'd never met before and she was wonderful. She spent so much time with me and asked me all kinds of questions. I love nurse practitioners, I wish that they were the doctors.

One reason she spent so much time with me (besides asking questions) was because she couldn't find the heartbeat. She kept putting the machine on different parts of my stomach trying to hear it. I didn't realize that she wasn't getting a heartbeat because I could hear "swooshing" noises the whole time. She asked me where they normally hear the heartbeat and I told her on my right side. She then went on to say that the noises that were coming from the machine was actually the placenta moving around. But eventually she found it, though it was very faint. She said that there was nothing to worry about. She could hear the placenta and baby moving, but for some reason the way he was positioned along with how my placenta is now sitting it was difficult to hear his heartbeat. When she did find it she said it was 138 beats per minute.

Since I'm new to the whole Group B Strep I asked about the timing of the iv during labor. I'd been asked by a few people if the antibiotics needed to be in my system for a certain amount of time before I'm able to deliver. The answer: No. She told me that since it's an iv it works really fast. As soon as the iv is in I'm able to have the baby at any point. She joked and said, "If you come in and have the baby in 10 minutes and they haven't been able to put the iv in. Then you're in trouble." Good to know.

Since my last doctors appointment, a week ago, I've gained 2 pounds which brings me to a total 50 pounds gained thus far. I've effaced from 50% to 80% and have dilated from almost 1 cm to 1 cm. Things are moving right along.

It's crazy how fast this pregnancy has gone and that shortly I'll be holding the newest member of our family. The other day I was lying in bed trying to sleep and I thought to myself, man I could really use a change. Then it dawned on me. Duh, you're about to have a big change. Sometimes I forget I'm pregnant. I'm not sure how that's possible, but I manage to do it.

Garrison's dedication

On August 29th we invited all our family to come and join us for a weekend of celebration, as we were celebrating Garrison being dedicated at our church on Sunday. Thomas and I reserved a couple of rooms at The Edge water park in Duluth for our families to come, hang out and have some fun. It ended up being a great weekend!

The kids (Iva, Reed, Brody and Andrew) loved the water park. Garrison, however, did not. Thomas tried to take him to the kiddo part, but Garrison didn't like it one bit. Oh well, everyone else had fun. We found the arcade area and that's where Garrison wanted to hang out. So I spent lots of time watching Garrison "drive" the car arcade game.

Saturday night we ordered Little Caesar's pizza and hung out in the hotel rooms for awhile. The rooms were a nice set up. On one side they had a bed, flat screen tv and bathroom. Then on the other side they had a bunk bed, bathroom, couch and table. While the adults finished eating and chatting the kids went to the side with the tv and watched Sponge Bob Square Pants. Here is a picture of them watching the tv. Can you tell they're related? They were all hooked.


Here is everyone else hanging out on the other side of the hotel room...



______________________________________________________


Garrison's dedication

We taped the dedication with our video camera and not with our digital camera (which we normally do because it's much easier to download onto our computer.) I'm not sure if we'll ever be able to find the time to get the video on our computer so I thought that I would type out what Pastor Mark said at Garrison's dedication.

What is dedication?

We get dedications from the bible. Jesus' parents took him to the temple to be dedicated.

In the bible it says "Train up a child in the way he should go..." (Proverbs 22:6) The word "train up" literally means "to dedicate". The picture is we've been given children as gifts. Every child is a gift. An incredible and amazing gift from God. The act of dedicating is really us (parents) saying, "God you've given us this gift and now symbolically we give this gift back to you. We wouldn't have all the activity if God didn't give us this gift.

Not only is it a dedication of the child, but it's a dedication of the parents too. It shows that us, as parents, will raise our child with biblical principals and according to what God instituted.

It's a dedication of the child, the parents and the church family to say that we're (the church family) going to help. In dedicating, the parents, are asking the church family to stand and say in ways of teaching Sunday school, being involved with kids programming and just encouraging the child when they need encouraging and rebuking when they need rebuking.

After saying this Pastor Mark took Garrison and prayed for him.

In this middle picture Garrison saw all our family sitting in the front couple of rows and started pointing at them. He was getting super excited that he could see them. It was really cute!