what a week!!

Shortly after I blogged last Thursday Gary called me from work. He should have been on his way home so I assumed he was calling to tell me he was on his way, but he said to sit down, he had news. Thankfully I was already sitting down and of course about 10 scenarios went through my mind... not a good thing to tell a woman 14 hours before she goes into the hospital to be induced! Turns out we got an offer on our house in Mansfield.

Yup, you read that right! After living here 3 years we finally got our first offer. It wasn't just an offer, it was an offer for what we owe on the house, and it was in CASH!!! Gary flew home with the faxed paperwork which we signed and faxed back as quickly as we could. We were THRILLED!! We don't have to wait for a loan to go through and the amount we have to bring to the table at closing is totally manageable. To say we're thankful would be an understatement! That news alone would have made the month a good one, but God continues to pour out his blessings!

We went into the hospital at 5 AM on Friday. We made great time, even stopping for Gary to get coffee because, lets face it, 4:30 AM is not a high traffic time of day. We got in and they got me settled in my room {No Jen, not the one with blood on the ceiling. For those who may not know, Grace was born in a room with blood on the ceiling and 10 months later her friend Zeke was born in the same room- blood still on the ceiling. I should have snuck into that room to see if it was still there. :) }. I had group B strep and needed antibiotics so they got my IV going (NOT my favorite part!) and that medicine going and the pitocin going. This all happened around 7 AM. The monitors were showing contractions before they started the Pit so I hoped i would be progressed further and looking at a fast labor.

My doctor was scheduled to be there at noon and we wondered if we'd make it that long. Our little girl was not quite ready though and I had progressed very little. After several hours trying to regulate the pit to get my contractions 2-3 minutes apart I had still not progressed. My contractions were either right on top of each other or 3-4 minutes apart I assumed at that point I'd have a very long day, and maybe even night ahead of me. For the zillionth time I wondered if induction had been the right choice.

My doctor called the hospital and asked that all his patients get their epidurals and waters broken so my turn came at 12:30pm. I'd just been checked (no progress- still 2-3) and my contractions had been getting worse so I was trying to figure out when to get the epidural. I knew they'd get worse with the water breaking so I asked for it. I was waiting to get to 5 if I could knowing that the epidural could possibly slow my labor down. With the breaking of my water my contractions went from very painful to excruciating in about 5 minutes. I was shocked!! Paula came and did the epidural just before 1 and it was VERY hard to breathe through those contractions and stay still. I just kept telling myself I could not do this for another 8 hours or more and that I needed to get it and pray for the best. I prayed that my body would progress and if it didn't and I needed a C-Section that God would just work it all out. I sent Gary to get some lunch. The epidural would take 20 or so minutes to fully numb me by that point and then they were going to be back to do my catheter so I told him go ahead- that someone would be back if I needed something and I had my call button. It would be hours so he needed to eat but to be back in a half hour to sit with me.

He left about 1:15, a nurse cam to check me and do a cath at 1:30 and I was complete. They started to ready me to push!!! I was in shock. I actually asked her what "complete" meant figuring I MUST have heard her wrong!! At that point people flooded the room, Gary was paged and showed up and I think I was pretty much in shock. My nurse got me set up and asked me to do a practice push "to see how you do" and about a third of the way through my push she made me STOP and I knew she was coming. Then MORE people came into the room including my doctor who basically ran into the coat thing they were holding for him and came over to me. A push later they unwrapped her chord, and two more pushes later she was born!

At 1:56 pm, Friday October 23, 2009 we welcomed Esther Joy Bush into our family. She is beautiful.

Several hours later she weighed in at 7lbs (and a quarter of an ounce) and 19 and a half inches long.

Now, home a week later I can honestly say it's been a whirlwind. Our little angel is perfect but she's not so keen on eating. :) She prefers to drag out the time between feedings which stresses mommy out. They want her to be eating every 2-3 hours and we're lucky if we can get her to eat in 4. I'm trying to look at it as extra sleep right now and be thankful, but it's hard. You can't force a baby to eat. All signs point to her getting enough so we'll see how much weight she's re-gained this coming Wednesday. This past Wednesday was her first Pediatrician appointment. She weighed in at 6 lbs 8 oz which is only a half pound weight loss overall which she said was good. Another praise is that her bilirubin numbers were good enough in the hospital that she did NOT have jaundice (The other two did) and did not have to have any repeat blood tests done!!

Having Gary home this week has been nothing short of wonderful. I"m so in love with that man!! He's just amazing and the best dad in the world. I can't thank him enough for taking this time to be with us and be such a support.

The kids love her. They want to know where she is all the time and are quick to alert us if she's crying and offer suggestions on how to make her stop. Neither of them has said a single thing about her crying at night (though I know it disturbs their sleep because they are both napping every day and clearly need it). They love to watch her and kiss her and love to help out bringing things to mommy or helping daddy. They have also been playing together wonderfully the entire week. I"m so glad they have each other. This first week, in that way, was easier than my first week with Grace when Tyler was lonely for someone to play with.

God is so amazing.

Pictures of Esther with Family.

Click here to view pictures.

Pictures of Esther

Pictures from the Harvest party at Silver Park.

Gary putting BB3's (What's her name's) crib together.

Tomorrow is the big day!

At my appointment last Wednesday my doctor confirmed that I was scheduled with the hospital to be induced on Friday the 23rd at 5 AM. There are many doctors in the practice and he will start his on-call day at noon. The doctor on call until noon is the same one who began my induction with Grace. We're very excited to have the date and know what is going on, and praying we can be up by 4am to get there in time! We're also so very blessed that it worked so well into our friend Paula's schedule to work that day since she does the epidurals. :) She has the most important job of the day in my opinion!

I've been trying to be more active this past week, walking more and working on projects around the house so that things are off to a good start when we get home. It seems I've blogged about it previously. I've not been sleeping well and the baby is definitely preparing to come. I wouldn't say I've had contractions but I hope the things i AM feeling mean that my body is progressing and this induction will go just as well as with Grace.

My mom comes in tonight after work to stay with us. She'll be here while we're in the hospital to watch the kids and everything is in order and ready for her to take over. The kids are very excited to have her coming and excited to know that most likely their Papa, Grandma Bush and Pops will be dropping in this weekend too. Grace understands more than I thought she would and Tyler is following every detail carefully. He's very much like me wanting to know exactly what is going to happen and what to expect and wanting no surprises. He's upset about not getting to come to the hospital to see us but is taking very seriously his role of Grandma's helper and Grace's helper while we're gone. We're also starting to discuss his quickly approaching birthday more so he's allowing himself to get excited about that too.

It's a big several weeks for us with the baby, Gary's birthday and his birthday all coming up. In addition Halloween is in there. We're not sure what we're doing for trick-or-treat yet, but the Bush's will probably try to take them or we'll do something special. I'd like to try to do pumpkins this year since we haven't in awhile but we'll see how things go this weekend before we make too many plans!

I'm still struggling with the hospital's policy of not allowing the kids to come. It was so important to me to let the kids see the baby first and for the 5 of us as a family to have special time before introducing the baby to the rest of the family. I still can't quite pinpoint exactly WHY it's so important to me or why I'm so emotional about it (well, the emotion part would be explained by the hormones on top of my already overly emotional personality). Gary hopes to set up a video conference between our home computer and the laptop we plan to take with us to the hospital. I'm praying that it works so the kids can see us and we can see them, and so they can see the baby. I'm also choosing to look forward to the time we will have next week just the 5 of us when we are home and Gary's off of work. Things can't always go the way you want them to and while I'm still upset and disappointed, I'm choosing to accept it and make the best of it.

I'm very nervous about being induced... nervous she's not ready or I'm not ready and things will get complicated. I'm nervous about being a mom to three in addition to balancing my other roles- wife, daughter, sister, friend. It's a bit overwhelming to think on! Nursing one while two run amok, and keeping up with the daily things that being a mom bring from patience and discipline to attention, love and laundry! The overriding feeling through this all though is a simmering peace knowing my Lord and Savior has me, and those I love, in the palm of his hand. Things don't go the way we want them to. We're surrounded by hurting family and friends and the burden is just too great, what a joy we have to know the burdens are not ours to carry. We can't carry our own burdens or the burdens of others but we must, out of obedience and for survival, hand them over to the Lord. I'm relearning that daily. I wish I could say I'm "practicing" it daily but in truth I'm not. I'm trying though! As hard as it is to see those around me struggling and hurting and living with worry and doubt, it's also been a blessing. Not quite the "Pure Joy" James talks about, but a blessing. We tend to spend more time with our Lord and allow the opportunity to know Him and ourselves better and more deeply when we have things to bring before him. So to those of you who might read, know I do pray for you and share in your burdens with you. Know that I'm thinking of you and know that through you, my relationship with Christ and my faith are strengthened.

May God always be glorified in the things we say and do. Thank you to those who are praying for us and this baby. We ask you to continue to pray over this weekend as we welcome our newest gift from God into our family. We hope you'll check back here for updates and hopefully photos!

~The Bush's

Tyler and Grace dressed for the harvest party at Silver Park

2 weeks to go!!

Happy Fall everyone! We've had a very NOT busy month so far and I'm loving it. I'm not enjoying the cooler weather but am thankful it's not 100 degrees or snowing. My due date is still Oct 28 but we are looking at being induced on the 23 which is a Friday. I see the doctor the 14th to decide for sure. Our are has an "epidemic" of the Swine flu and so the hospitals are under quarantine. I found out yesterday when the lady from the Birth Center called to say the older siblings class for next week was cancelled because they are not allowing any children under the age of 18 into the hospital. This means the kids can't come see me or meet their sister until we come home. I"m very very upset and downright angry about this. I do understand why they make such decisions but it robs me of the sweet moments of us being a family of 5 before letting others meet the baby. It was so important to me and special beyond words to get to have Tyler come into the room with us and meet Grace and spend some time letting him get to know her before grandparents and other family came in. If I stick to the desire to do this, then none of our family will get to meet the baby until we come home from the hospital, and I'm not sure I want that either. I'm so torn and saddened by the whole thing. I hate telling my family- you can't come see me at the hospital- and I hate the thought of everyone seeing her before Tyler and Grace. It's a no-win situation. I'm grateful the hospital takes measures to ensure the health and safety of it's patients but I also don't see how my kids walking through a hall, up and elevator, through another hall and into my private room puts anyone in danger. Like I told Gary- it's not like they'll be licking the bassinets in the nursery. :) I'm just praying that they'll let the kids come anyways and I won't have to worry about it, and if I do that whatever I decide will be understood by everyone. Gary is hoping to rig something so that we can video conference from the hospital to home so we can talk to the kids and show them the baby through the TV. It's not ideal but it would be a great compromise if we went that route... and if the hospital allows it of course. :)

We've recently been fading out the summer clothes and fading in the winter clothes. As you can imagine, things that fit Tyler last April just don't look quite the same! We had a great trip to Goodwill over my birthday and got him some new jammies- youth size 6 and they should fit him for at least this year and hopefully next year. He's got plenty of length to grow into them and he can still wear them now. We also decided the kids needed jackets so we went again. Gary needed one too and he's impossible to buy for. He never wants to pay more than 10$ for any article of clothing so Goodwill is a good start for him. :) We got him a jacket, Tyler a jacket, Grace two dressy "church" jackets, a dress for Grace and shoes for me for $15. They have colored tags that are $1 and another color 50%off each week and we took advantage of that! We went again last night hoping to find some fall pants and a long sleeved white shirt for Grace. She has many cute summer dresses and jumpers that she could wear if she had long sleeves underneath. I'm also hoping to find Tyler some play tennis shoes so his nice ones last a little longer. We tried the Salvation Army in Belden. We didn't have much luck but I did find two more jumpers and a onsie for the baby for $3 total. They have a larger selection and I plan to go back after Christmas if the kids need more winter clothes. We can always get Tyler shoes for his birthday. I had some gift cards I'd been given for Old Navy so we decided to use those to get Grace what she needed. I was appalled at how expensive that store has gotten!!! I'm anxious to see how the quality is because I believe I'm right to assume it's not improved with the higher prices. I know I can get better quality things at Carter's or Kohl's on sale for much cheaper. Oh well. It'll be awhile before I"m buying myself anything from Old Navy so better to use free money than keep shopping around. We got her two long sleeved white shirts (one a turtleneck) and three pairs of pants and it was $44. Ouch! It physically hurt me until she rang up the $17 jeans and they came up $7. Then of course paying with gift cards makes the pain go away slightly. Then we finally hit Baby's R Us which I'd been wanting to do for ages. I just love that store. We sat in the $500 glider rockers and had a lovely conversation with the sales associate who assured us that now was the time to buy b/c they were 15% off. Gary politely told her it was the remaining 85% that concerned us! We did find the baby a brand new sleeper (even though she has 30 of them) to be her going home outfit. It was half off. :) We also splurged and got her a baby book which I hope to be better about filling out than I was the other two!!! And of course we got her some pacifiers. We looked at a lot of other things but decided everything else could wait till she came. Gary really wanted to look at the double strollers and I said we should wait till Christmas. If we find in her first two months we wish we had one, then we know what to ask for, if not, why waste the money and have the thing taking up all that space? Really, how often am I going to go out with the 3 of them by myself this winter? Grace is fully capable of walking everywhere or she can be in the grocery cart. :) If we're both there we can just use two strollers. Gary studied the gates too which we are keeping in mind as a possible future purchase. we have two nice ones but neither fit between our playroom and living room which might be something we look into. I looked at all the fun stuff, the cute sheets and other things. We have everything we need, but it was still fun to look. :)

Tonight we are taking the kids to Alliance for a harvest party. I hope the kids will enjoy it. We don't think they will get to trick or treat this year so i'm glad we found out about this in time to take advantage of it.

We have had a quiet month. Some shopping here and there and visiting Grandma and Pops. Church activities and helping Daddy at work fill up a few evenings too. Grandma Sandra came down for a day to help me wash the walls. The Kelloggs came up and over for a day to visit and spend time together. It's been nice to stick close to home and just rest. Tyler is going to story hour at the library on Wednesdays which has been a nice time to get out of the house and also hit Aldi and get it all done so daddy doesn't have to come with us. :) He's really enjoyed it and brought home some really cute crafts. Grace loves the time with mommy looking at books and playing with the frog puppet they have there. Bible study has started back up as has MOPS. I missed this month but look forward to making December and maybe even November, Lord willing. We've kept busy and enjoyed increased family time. It's nice to have evenings of just the four of us and even weekends! We've also gotten a lot of projects done around the house getting ready for the baby. The basement has been cleaned out and the play area expanded, all the woodwork and walls in the house have been cleaned. Closets and bedrooms cleaned out, the kitchen cleaned out (the garage not so much!). The baby's crib is up and made, the clothes are washed and put away and Gary installed the car seat today. I made space for bottles and bibs and they are all washed and put away. Toys are washed and in a basket and a space has been made for the mini-crib my mom hopes to bring with her when she comes to meet the baby. I think all we need to do now is pack my bag! And of course keep things picked up.... The kids have been playing very very well together and getting very into pretending. Grace seems mostly content to let Tyler lead, which he's happy to do. Her language has exploded the past few months and while I miss her being my baby, it's wonderful to get to talk to her and have conversations with her and continue to see her grow into her personality. Having this baby right around the corner makes Grace's maturing a little easier. Tyler is growing up too. He's very smart but also very content which I appreciate. He has picked up Grace's stubborn streak and they prefer to join together to aggravate us than to do it alone. They stick together and really are wonderful friends. I'm thankful they are so close and hope they remain that way with the baby coming.

Gary and I are doing well too. He's been overly stressed with work and I've been overly emotional and the two do not always mix well, but we're working on it. We're also learning already to team up better in dealing with the kids as they team up against us. I figure this will be good for us as head into life with 3 kids and needing to take the Zone Defense approach. :) We know our renters still plan to move out, but we've not gotten a date yet. We did get a rent check the first of the month which was a huge blessing. They are often unable to pay on time which can throw a wrench in our finances and cause us to wonder and worry. Getting it right on time was wonderful this month knowing we've got another month of them paying the mortgage and utilities. We had also hoped not to be needing to be over there a lot doing work this month. We're, as always, waiting on the Lord and his timing!

I hope to post more often as things get busy and exciting again here but know better than to promise. Continue to enjoy the photo's Gary is able to post and watch for Baby Updates and Photos coming soon!!

Tyler playing with a stick outside.

Grace relaxing outside at Grandma and Pop's house.