Lydia will be 5

We threw Lydia's birthday party today instead of on her birthday because as you all know she shares it with a bunch of other celebrations.  I decided to throw her a fancy Nancy party because if she reads books she mostly likes to read them. I had been thinking about her birthday for about a month because of Clay's due date being between her birthday and Seth's.  I decided to make it Bonjour Butterfly and Beauty Spa together in one party.  So we painted nails, painted faces, made tiara's and most of all just had fun being together. I am thankful for all of the mommies that jumped in and helped out.  My amazing mother in law helped me shop and decorate and we both feel exhausted but we had so much fun. Lydia shared her birthday party with her friend Isabel because today was actually her birthday. Lydia you are one amazing little girl.  You are so loving and compassionate.  I am looking forward to seeing how you will grow and change this new year and I am thankful for the love you have for your family. Most of all I am praying that this is the year you come to know Christ as your Saviour.  I pray this for you every day. Love you little munchkin.

Seth is 3

I have been blogging a lot lately, but I couldn't help but share about our little buddy who turned 3 yesterday.  He is one spirited little boy.  His favorite things right now of course starts with his sister, although sometimes I think he hates her.  His second favorite thing is cars and then legos.  He is such a love bug.  Daddy is his favorite person and looks forward with eagerness for him to come home from work.  Seth, daddy and mommy are so grateful you are in our lives and we look forward to a new year with you.

Clay David Leineweber

This makes for my birth story Part 2. July 22nd I celebrated my 30th birthday. My goal was to make it past my birthday before I gave birth to our sweet little man. I was super excited at church that day because I knew that labor was near. Up until this day I had been struggling with high blood pressure.  They had asked me to monitor it and to keep a close eye on the bottom number because that was the one that kept being really high. They had also up until this point basically put me on bed rest because i was already dilating very rapidly and then i stayed 4 centimeters dilated for 4 weeks. I also had contractions pretty frequently for the past 4 weeks so by Monday morning, July 23, I was 37 weeks and pretty much ready to have this baby.

I went to my appointment and my blood pressure was still pretty high but not high enough for them to do anything. So I came home deciding that it was good for me to keep the baby in as long as I could.  Within a couple of hours I started to experience some intense contractions that were about 5 to 6 minutes apart and thought “what in the world did the doctor do to me?” But oh well and here I was contracting and trying to breathe through them. I wanted to stay home as long as possible because I didn’t want them to send me home. I waited until Joel came home and made dinner through my contractions. We said that if they did’t go away within the hour we would go to the hospital.

I wanted to go out to with my friend Candace that night so I was determined to wait it out. She was taking me out for my first ever experience at Orange Leaf. By the time she came the contractions had pretty much gone away. I thought well at least I didn’t go to the hospital. I spent all night wondering if they would start up again, barely sleeping due to being so uncomfortable.

Sure enough about 4 am they started back up again only this time they were a little closer together. I asked Joel if he would run some errands with me so that I could walk to see if these contractions were here to stay? We went grocery shopping and had run some stuff to the OB and then came home. The contractions never got stronger or closer together so off to work Joel went. I was pretty tired out by this time after being up all night and then having contractions through the morning always wondering whether I should go or not.

My contractions started up again around 2 and I called the doctors and they told me to come in. I was 4/5 centimeters dilated and I was well on my way to having this baby. After being admitted and getting my epidural I stalled out. I got stuck at 6 centimeters and even went backwards a couple of times despite my ongoing contractions. Around 2 the started Pitocin and I was finally ready to have my water broken. Soon after that I pushed 6 times and the baby was out.

Clay David was born July 25th at 9:32 am and weighed in at 6 pounds, 3.5 ounces with perfect feet. I had never seen such a more amazing miracle of perfect feet than I did that day. I am so grateful for all of my kiddos and I am thankful that Clay is another blessing added to our family.

Birth Story part 1

This blog post may be kind of long but I want to remember all I can about this story. Back in the beginning of April or May I am not exactly sure the date, I read a blog post where a person had invited a good friend into the birthing room to take pictures and write a story about the birth of their daughter.  During this same time we found out that our precious baby who was unborn could have a small birth defect called club foot. As I read the birthing story that this person had written I thought how awesome it would be to have someone be there to remember things that me or my husband wouldn't.

So I began to consider allowing someone in the birthing room while I gave birth to our baby boy, because God has already worked so many miracles in this baby’s life that I wanted to remember it all.  As I considered it I wondered how Joel would feel. I just threw the idea out there and said what if I invited someone into the room while I was laboring and giving birth? At first he was like, “Really? You want to do that?”

Up to this point we had never let anyone in the room with our other two kiddos because we wanted it to be just the two of us. So as he thought about it we thought about what friend we could ask that has already had kids and would be willing to do it.  So we asked our good friend Candace to be a part of this birth to which she agreed. She was amazing. From the time she stepped into the birth room till we had our baby she was an amazing coach and a wonderful encourager. She was even joyful all the way till 1:30 in the morning, and then again at 7:30 am. until I had the baby at 9:32 am.

I wouldn't trade making the decision to have her in the room for anything. Thank you, Candace, for making labor and delivery so much easier for me. I will always remember how your encouragement kept me going.

WOW it is almost time

These days I am starting to have a harder time walking up and down stairs and doing laundry isn't the easiest thing in the world.  But as I sit here in my discomfort I can't help but think about in less than 7 weeks we will once again have a baby in our house.  I have been feeling very nostalgic as I have been thinking about bringing Lydia home from the hospital and how in 5 short years she has grown so much.  One of her favorite things to do is talk, kiss, and hug my belly waiting anxiously to meet her new little brother.  We pulled the baby clothes out from Seth and she helped me go through them picking out all of the newborn to 3 months clothes.  She asks me daily, Mommy how many days until poppy comes out?" I love the fact that she is already taken with her little brother.  5 years seems so short but yet that is how old she will be.  Then there is Seth, who in the past few months has been fully potty trained and getting ready as well to except his little brother into his room.  I told Seth that when the baby comes he was going to share his room with the baby.  So he anxiously awaits the day he can share his room with his baby brother.  Joel and I well, we have been busy getting close out, cleaning the car seat, setting up the basinet and trying to get a little bit of rest.  I however, anxiously await to meet this little miracle that God has given us.  Remembering to be thankful for the short time we have left with just a family of 4.  Also, I am looking and thinking about pictures and these are 2 of my favorite pictures of our growing kiddos. 

What if Healing comes through Tears

Many of you will recognize this post title from the song by Laura Story called Blessings.  The reason that I titled this blog this way is Joel and I have experienced blessings through tears.  My last post I was able to share with you how our baby boy had club foot and how God has been using it in my life to change who I am and How I perceive His blessings.

I must admit that not knowing what God had in store for us and this little boy caused me to cry out with tears to God to show me that He is an ever present help in time of need.  God has taught me that He is a God full of Love and Truth and one of His greatest attributes is Healer.

When I think about miracles I think about all of the miracles in the New Testament and how Jesus raised people from the dead and He makes the lame to walk again or the blind to see.  When I think of miracles today I don't really think I see them as much.  God is however a God of miracles just by breathing life into my body and the miracle of carrying a baby in my womb and how God is knitting together our baby boy for His glory.

This past Friday Joel and I went to have my second high risk ultrasound done to make sure that the baby is continuing to grow and to check on his foot one more time so as to further look into what we would need to do once he is born.  As the technician was going through the different measurements and looking at his head and the rest of his body she looked at us with a questionable look on her face and asked "What foot was clubbed again?"  We both answered her and said his right foot. She said "Hmmm, everything looks normal to me I am going to go get the doctor to double check."  The doctor came in and asked us if we had been told about his club foot and to which we answered yes, she said ok lets take a look around.

When she found his feet she looked at the ultrasound machine and looked at the technician and said do you see those toes they are pointed straight at us.  The question in my mind was well it was probably his left foot the one that isn't clubbed.  Then she said I need to really look at this as she turned on the 3d image of his feet. She turned and looked at us and said I am pretty sure that his foot is straight he doesn't have club foot.  It was then at that moment I realized that God had healed our little boy.  We have proof from other ultrasounds showing us his club foot and it was very clear to us that God worked a miracle in our little boy's life already and he isn't even born yet.  She looked at us and said congratulations on a perfectly healthy little boy.  I cleaned myself up walked out of the room with Joel and was in awe of what God had done for our little boy and for us.

Deuteronomy 10:21 says He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen." I can honestly say I have seen God in this and He deserves all the praise because we know that God has take care of our little boy but not just our little boy but us.  So praise be to God our Healer and blessings do come through tears.  So as Jesus made the lamb to walk He has made our son able to walk and hopefully proclaim one day that his God healed him.

In Trials

Sometimes I wonder why it takes trials for me to be dependent on God's grace and mercy in my life.  I have been meditating on 2 Cor 4:7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.  This verse was spurred on by the fact that we just recently learned that our unborn baby boy has a small deformity.  I got a call on a Wednesday night at 7 from my OB doctor telling me that she has just received the ultrasound pictures of our anatomy scan of the baby.  She said she was requesting a follow up ultrasound, because she was pretty sure there was something wrong with his right leg.  So as I started to panic I said can you tell me something more specific and she said not really it could just be the angle of the ultrasound picture.  I had an appointment the next day for my regular 4 week checkup, she said just go ahead and make the appointment for the ultrasound then.  I went in the next morning only to have the doctor call me back into his office instead of the regular exam room where they listen to the heartbeat.  He proceeded to show me the pictures of little boy's foot and he said there are several things that could be wrong with his leg but not limited to that he may have a chromosome disorder that would take his life once he was born.  So of course now in sheer panic i try to keep my composure and he said I am making you an appointment today to have an ultrasound done with a high risk doctor.  I went out with him to the counter and the receptionist began to make the appointments for me to see the high risk doctor, a genetics counselor, and have a high risk ultrasound taken of him.  It turned out that they couldn't get me in until the following Monday.  So as I drove back to get my kiddos from my good friends house, I just started to feel incredibly alone and had no idea what to think or do.  So I started praying that God would work a miracle in this baby and just show me that I wasn't alone in this.  So as I went through the rest of Thursday and the weekend I just kept trying to keep myself busy trying not to think about all the stuff that could be wrong with the baby, Still feeling as if I had to walk this road by myself.  Monday morning came and Joel and I both prayed God please help us to be willing to except whatever He had for us and whatever we were about to face and learn about our baby.  I then all of the sudden didn't feel alone anymore, I felt God saying Hey, I got this and this is for your good and my Glory.  From the time we walked into the doctors office until the time we left we both felt so comfortable and knew that God had put these specific people in our lives for his good.  We learned that yes indeed the baby's foot is turned in but it is very moderately turned in and from what they could see on the ultrasound no other problems were causing this so no down syndrome or no Trysonomy 13, 14.  So the gave it a term which is club foot and they said here is the plan here is what you need to do and the baby will most likely wear a cast on his foot/leg until the doctors feel like it is back to where it should be and then he will wear a brace at night until he is 2 or 3 while going through some physical therapy.  So back to the verse showing that the surpassing greatness belongs to the Lord and not to me.  We are still praying that God would heal his foot but we know that God's got this and we don't have to fear the unknown because the power belongs to God and definitely not to me. I also realized that having a turned in foot is the least of baby boy's problem.  His biggest problem is they need to know our Saviour so outside of praying for a miracle I am also praying that God would save him and his sister and brother.  As I explained this all to Lydia she said, Mommy its ok if he can't walk we will just carry him.  I realized at that very moment that God is carrying little baby as well as his mommy, daddy, sister, and brother.