So Many Changes

June 28, 2019April 14, 20245 Comments

Have you ever felt like so many changes were happening around you that it was difficult to catch your breath? Well, that’s how I feel right now. If you follow me on Instagram, you probably know exactly what I’m talking about!

Two big life changes are taking place right now. Change #1 is that were having another baby! Our baby boy is due in November and will be our ninth child. We are so excited. After three girls in a row, it will be a fun change to be having a BOY! I’m tired, and am so grateful to be in my second trimester, especially since my nausea has subsided.

Finding out that we are expecting has led to another big change. We decided to move back to our home state of Georgia. We are so grateful for our time in South Carolina, especially since our finances really turned around there. We paid off $117,000 worth of debt while living in South Carolina from September 2017 through May 2019.

We thought my mother in law would be moving to our area, which never happened. We never really got connected with the community, and when I became pregnant, I really wanted to move back towards home. I do feel badly about the move at times because my husband left a really good job to move us back to Georgia.

Everything has fallen into place, and we’ve moved into a really cute little cabin. I thought it would be way too small for us, but surprisingly, we fit well and I really love it. I do miss our land so much, though. Privacy is very important to me, and our cabin is much less private than our South Carolina home.

Our SC home is currently on the market, and we are praying that it might sell before long. Once it sells, we probably will reach mortgage freedom within a year.

We are settling in and love our new mountain town. It seems like a lovely place to raise a family, which is very important to us.

Oh, and our oldest daughter is preparing to attend college out of state this fall, and was just gifted her first car from her grandfather. This has been hard on my mama heart!

I hope everyone has had a nice beginning to your summer, and I also hope to pop on here more often.

Our Eighth Child’s Birth Story

September 14, 2016April 13, 202420 Comments

It’s been awhile. I’ve been reveling in sweet baby snuggles, and the month before that, dealing with pregnancy in the late summer was a bit much for me. Blogging was the last thing on my mind! Our air conditioner broke on three separate occasions, and my husband eventually purchased a window unit for our room while it was repaired again…and again…and again, ha! Thankfully our upstairs unit was functioning well (mostly), and we even moved our mattress up a flight of stairs during one of the outages. We persevered and everything has been working well since about a week before our baby was born.

During the last month of my pregnancy I was measuring 2-3 weeks large, and my midwife wanted to induce me on August 31st. My due date has fluctuated from August 22nd to the 30th based on dates and scans, but as time went on I was pretty much certain that I was in fact overdue. I was a worried about being induced (I never had been before), but I was ready to have this sweet baby! I had had contractions off and on for weeks now at this point, and I was just so tired.

To my delight, my water broke at around 5:40 am on August 30th, so the induction was not necessary! I called to my husband who had just started getting ready for work and then we jumped into action. My fifteen-year-old daughter wanted to come along, and my sixteen-year-old opted to stay home with the little kids while my mother in law was in route. (She said that she did not feel comfortable watching a birth.) At this point I realized that I was losing a LOT of water, which was a bit concerning to me. I thought that possibly Mabrey was small after all, and that I was measuring big due to amniotic fluid. At this point it really didn’t matter, because she was on her way!

I was thankful that I wasn’t really contracting because my midwife told me that she thought I might go fast since this was baby #8. (One of the reasons she wanted to induce me.) Once we arrived I pushed to get an epidural as soon as possible, because I have had babies come really fast after my water broke. I was able to get an IV started, be assigned to a room (#34) and have the epidural within about an hour and a half. While I wasn’t thrilled that a student was shadowing the anesthesiologist (she went super slow and explained EVERYTHING in great detail…too much detail for my liking), it went pretty well and I was pain free. After a natural delivery with my sixth child, I decided that I was an epidural girl all the way if delivering in a hospital, ha! I’ve had hemorrhaging issues with my last babies, so home births are not something I’m comfortable with. I again lost a large pocket of water, and my nurse said it looked to be the amount that a normal woman lost in it’s entirety. This was the third time this happened, and I became a bit concerned. What if my baby had a swallowing issue, or something else was wrong?

When I arrived at the hospital I was a four, after my epidural I was a six, and it wasn’t too much longer before I was ready to push. Mabrey was almost born with one contraction, but she didn’t quite make it. My body decided to pause and didn’t contract again for a few minutes so I pushed her out after waiting in limbo for a few minutes. She came out with the sweetest cry, and was absolutely perfect. All traces of fear left me, and I was just so thankful to God that all was well. She weighed in at 8 lbs. 8.5 oz. (my biggest baby to date) and was 20 inches long.

After a few hours we were moved to a more permanent room for the next few days. Our kids visited, and then Rusty and I settled in. Mabrey passed each of her tests with flying colors, and our only real concern was that she pretty much refused to wake up during the first 24 hours. After that point however she woke up hungry, and she now weighs over nine pounds.

We are just so thankful for this precious gift! She is the sweetest little miracle, and is so very easygoing. We are still in the “adjustment” phase (our almost 2-year-old still isn’t quite sure about her little sister), and I’ve been dealing with slight nursing issues (on my end, not Mabrey’s), but I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world. Hopefully I’ll be back on a more consistent basis soon. Right now we are concentrating on enjoying every sweet ounce of Mabrey Hannah!

Twenty Week Pregnancy Update with Baby #8

April 12, 2016April 13, 202412 Comments

Has it been twenty weeks already?

Seriously, I feel like this pregnancy is just flying by. And it is so bittersweet. On one hand, I can’t wait to meet my new baby, but on the other, I really enjoy being pregnant.

Especially when sweet baby flutters come into play.

We held off on going to the obstetrician until after the first trimester had passed. My plan was to make an appointment at around the 12 week mark. Our three-year-old ended up having eye surgery during this time frame though, so I held off until 14 weeks. And then they were super busy and were making appointments two weeks out. Oops. Anyhow, at 16 weeks I made my way into the obstetricians office, and I learned firsthand how “advanced maternal age” appointments can be frustrating.

It’s like when I turned thirty-five something magical happened, and all of a sudden I’m no longer able to birth healthy babies. (Just kidding.)

After refusing genetic testing an ultrasound was set for the 18-week mark. While I couldn’t wait to see our new little one, I winced, because every time I have an ultrasound at 18 weeks a choroid plexus cyst is found on the baby’s brain. This is investigated further, at which point it has dissolved and all is forgotten. So far, whenever the anatomy scan is completed at 20+ weeks no cysts are found and all is well in the first place.

This 18 week scan was no exception, and a choroid plexus cyst was found, along with an amniotic band. We also received the exciting news that we are having a girl!

At this point I was referred to a specialist, and I searched the internet regarding amniotic bands while I waited. Big mistake! Amniotic bands in theory were not what the doctor described seeing, and so I took some solace in this.

Well, I’m happy to say they found…NOTHING! Absolutely nothing. No trace of a CPC. And absolutely no trace of an amniotic band. The sonographer said everything looked perfect.

After the sonogram my husband and I met with the specialist. He changed my due date to August 30th, which matched up with my suspicions much better than my original due date of August 21st. He was an older man with a hefty dose of common sense, and really, a breath of fresh air compared to my previous two appointments.

We discussed the procedure of amniocentesis for a few minutes, and his words were like music to my ears. He said he didn’t like the procedure and didn’t recommend it. Since there is nothing that can be done in utero if a child did have a genetic defect (besides termination), why risk your child’s life to have the procedure done? Is knowing your child has a defect before birth worth this risk? He said it would be one thing if the test could lead to treatment, but it doesn’t.

He likened it to his dog. He said while it was the type to have it’s ears clipped, he figured it foolish to do so. Should he clip the dog’s ears and put his pet in jeopardy just so he’ll feel better about the situation? No. He called it selfish.

I know that for me, I would never forgive myself if something happened during the procedure. While there are no indicators of a genetic problem, just because I’m thirty-five, my OB has suggested it.

Sure, there is a 1/200 chance my child might have a genetic disease due to my age, but how is the 1/200 chance of miscarriage supposed to make the procedure worth it? Would I rather risk not knowing about a genetic disorder, or risk causing my daughter’s death?

It’s a no-brainer, really. No matter what, I plan on accepting my children with a grateful heart.

Today, I am just so thankful.

Now we are onto names…and this might be a tricky situation. All of our children’s names begin with “M,” and since this is our sixth girl I’m running out of favorites! I want something feminine and southern.

So far, I’m favoring Mabrey or Molly-Rose.

My husband’s not so sure, ha! {His faves are Milah and Mercy}. So we shall see. I do think I should hold him to the specialist’s suggestion of nightly back rubs since I’m expecting my eighth child. It only seems fair. 😉

Thanks for stopping by. We are so happy for this fabulous news!