Friday, May 15, 2009

For you Mom.....

Some of you don't know the story of Nolen's birth. When he was born my Mom kept telling me..."write it down because if you don't you will forget the details". Well, she was right. I am so glad that I listened to her because when I read through it yesterday--all the fear and excitement of that day came flooding back. It is a little long....but worth the read. My little miracle baby is 2 already.....


I knew that labor was coming soon. The last Doctor’s appointment that I had, I was told I was 3 centimeters dilated, 50% effaced and “she could feel his head”. My Mom had come up knowing that it would happen sometime soon. I woke up with contractions early Saturday morning. Eric and I timed them for over an hour and then decided to head to the emergency room. So, I called my Dad, him and my sister Krista decided to go ahead and leave from Florida. When I got to the hospital I was 4 centimeters dilated, 75% effaced but my contractions were no longer consistent, so they sent me home. We were very frustrated at this point, knowing that my Dad and Sister were traveling seven hours expecting a baby on the other end.
Another day went by and then on Sunday night we went to bed; I had been having a contraction here and there but definitely not a pattern of anything significant. Suddenly, I woke up about 3:00 in the morning and it was almost like I felt something pop. I thought my water had broken. I stood up and felt a big gush; I told Eric that my water had broken. When I got to the bathroom and turned on the light, I realized that it wasn’t water….it was blood, more blood than I have ever seen and there was a very large clot. Eric went and got my Mom, she came in and told Eric to call the Doctor. The on call Doctor called back and told him to get me to the hospital immediately. I was the most scared I had ever been. We got in the car and Eric literally drove 100mph the whole way to the hospital. It was one of the most spiritual moments I have ever experienced in my life. My Mom, who is a “Prayer Warrior”, prayed the entire way there. There were a few moments in which she prayed in tongues. It was so powerful.
We finally got to the hospital and Eric put me in a wheelchair and rushed me up to labor and delivery. I was still bleeding at the time, but not as bad as I was at home. They hooked me up to the monitors and immediately found the baby’s heartbeat which was a huge relief. We immediately gave God all the glory. It wouldn’t be until later, where we saw the real glory God had intended. The nurses were downplaying the situation and acting like it wasn’t a big deal. They told me that Dr. Walker should be in around 8:00. Finally they moved me from triage to a room, where I had another gush of blood along with another clot. The nurse took the clot and put it in a bag and placed it on the counter. At this moment, contractions were getting pretty consistent and intense. The nurse came in about 5:30 and said that Dr. Walker had called and would be in shortly.
At about 5:45 Dr. Walker came rushing into the room. Imagine your doctor with wrinkled scrubs on, bed head, and her eyes barely opened. She literally had jumped out of bed. She said that she had called in and they told her I was there. She seemed very upset and had tears in her eyes. She immediately did an ultrasound to check my placenta and could not see anything that looked unusual. She checked me and I was 7 centimeters. She said that she was going to let me labor but if I started to bleed again then she would immediately perform a c-section. I had Gavin naturally and I really did not want a c-section. I told her that I understood and that I had passed a few large clots and that one of them was in a bag on the counter. She walked over to the counter, opened the bag and immediately turned around and said that we were going to do a c-section. She said that she was simply not “comfortable” with this amount of blood. I agreed but was very upset. Eric and I shared some tears at this moment and we were so scared for our baby, but we knew that he was in the hands of our Lord. Things progressed very quickly from there. I got the epidural and was in the operating room within half an hour. Within a few minutes we were under way. As Dr. Walker pulled him out she said “Allison, it was meant to be, the cord is wrapped tightly around his neck twice, he wouldn’t have made it”. We rejoiced, knowing that our son was O.K. He was perfect. But still, God had not revealed his perfect plan just yet. Nolen weighed 7lbs. 9oz., was 20” long and was born on January 8, 2007 at 7:26 am (2 weeks and 4 days early).
One week later Eric and I went back to see Dr. Walker to have my staples removed. She asked me how I was doing. I told her “Honestly, I am traumatized.” She asked me why. I said “I have never seen so much blood and I don’t know why I was bleeding like that. (I later found out that it was my placenta that had caused all of the bleeding. I had placenta previa at the beginning of my pregnancy...it had moved but was still considered "low lying".) I felt a lot of pain during the c-section and I am scared to ever get pregnant again or have another c-section.” She said “Allison, don’t be scared. It was God. God sent the blood and blood clots to make me feel uncomfortable, so that I would do a c-section. The cord was wrapped so tightly around his neck, that if you would have started pushing then your baby would have went into distress and then we would have had a real emergency. She went on to add “God woke me up out of a dead sleep and told me to call the hospital.” So, she did, and the rest is history. She then reassured me that next time would be much different.
It was just so amazing to me and Eric the way God worked through this whole situation. I was so upset about having to have a c-section and God revealed to us exactly why it needed to be that way. He was actually protecting me and our baby. His perfect will was finally revealed to us. We lift our hands in praise and give him absolutely all the glory.

So....there you go.

Happy Anniversary to US!!!

Eric and I celebrated our 8th anniversary on April 28th. We were in Florida (more on that later) and we got to pawn the kiddos off on Nanu and go out on the town. We had a fabulous dinner at Ruths Chris and were literally soooo full that we could not move. It was a great night!!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Happy Easter!!!

Well, we had a fabulous Easter!
The Easter bunny was soooo cool-he brought Gavin boardshorts, and Florida Gator "comfies", and Nolen pajamas and Pinnochio....oh yeah and some candy too.

We went to Church where we had the BEST service EVER!!!! Seriously, it was awesome. We did cardboard testimonies (if you don't know what those are--look it up on youtube...amazing).
Then we went to lunch at PF Changs (yum) with Eric's family. Gavin was pretty much the happiest kid ever sitting in between 2 of his favorite people on the planet--"cool" cousins Kellen and Wyatt. (As you can tell by the HUGE smile on his face)
After lunch, we went out to Eric's parents house where the kids got to participate in an Easter egg hunt and had so much fun. Eric's parents always out do themselves....no really, you should have seen all the eggs they hid.
So, we had a great day. The only frusterating part was trying to get good pictures of my family. We have a certain two year old who is not really into the picture thing right now. Here are some pictures of our day....hope you all had a great one too!!

Yes, Gavin is scared to death in this picture. He thought he was gonna fall out of the tree.....but he was smiling.

Nolen being Nolen

Gavin and Nolen with Papaw.

Wyatt, Elliott and Kellen....adorable!!

My sweet boys!

Papaw and Nolen

Mamaw and Gavin

Daddy and Gavin

Daddy and Gavin

Mommy and Nolen

Daddy and Nolen


Mommy and Gavin

Our Family.....

Friday, April 3, 2009

I made another blanket!!

I made a blanket and 2 burp clothes today....I am pretty excited about how they turned out! I am definitely improving on my quality. It is a gift for the baby in the video that I posted yesterday. Here are some pictures.






I also ordered my fabric today to start my quilt for our living room. I have a quilt that Eric's great-grandma made that I love. It is covered with holes and we still use it. Eric's grandma found the same backing that it has on it and so I am on a mission to make a really fabulous, soft quilt. I'll keep you posted!!!

Same hospital, different kid!

We have had a rough month around here with sickness. First, we all got some 24 hour virus--on different days--Eric got it twice. It was not fun! Then, Eric got a sinus infection.
Then the fun really started. Gavin started coughing and wheezing and he did not stop. I called the Doctor and took him in. By the time we got to the Doctor...I was starting to freak out. We waited in the waiting room for a few minutes and then I just took him back and found a nurse. She checked his pulse-ox (?) thing and it was pretty low. So, she went and got the Doctor. They gave him a breathing treatment which basically did nothing. Then came the oxygen. At this point I was pretty sure that we were going to the hospital....and I was right. We spent Saturday night at Children's Hospital. Gavin won the hearts of all the nurses and ate like 20 popsicles. We played games and watched movies and actually had some fun "Gavin and Mommy time."
I cannot end this post without telling a little story. Gavin had to get an IV for steroids. A child we have never seen before came out of him. He screamed at all of us--Eric, me and the 3 nurses it took to hold him down. He said "Mr.--you let go of me right now, Mr!!" followed by "I am going to count to 5 and you are going to let go of me. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5--THAT'S IT!" followed by "Daddy, you let go of me right now. I said NOW!" and on and on and on. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.....so I laughed.
He got out on Sunday afternoon. Diagnosis....not really sure. They ran every test under the sun on him and everything came back normal. They said it was probably caused by something environmental like mold, pollen, etc. Good to know, right??

Our Trip to Florida!

Ok....a long time ago, after Nolen got over rotavirus...me, Gavin and Nolen took a little trip to Florida. It went something like this.
*We got to hear a tornado siren for the first time in our lives. That was fun. We were taking a bathroom break in Montgomery...when all of a sudden it sounded like someone was blowing a horn in my ear. Freaked out, called Eric and drove as quickly as possible south. Thirty minutes later, Gavin informed me that he was "scared half to death and his legs were still shaking."
*Got to the construction zone, I mean Mom's house. Don't get me wrong...I knew exactly what I was getting myself into. I needed to get out of town so bad that I honestly didn't care. BUT, when I woke up Sunday morning and it was 30 degrees in the living room--not exaggerating--I thought for a quick second, WHAT WAS I THINKING??? So, we got dressed really fast and we sat in the warm car while I put my makeup on. Did I mention that it hardly ever gets down to 30 degrees in Florida?
*Went shopping ALL day with Krista and 3 kids. I mean all day.....like 8 hours. Krista got a horrible migraine. Dropped her off and went back out to Mom's (which was much warmer)....fed the boys dinner. Mom accidentally gave Gavin vegetable chips that had milk in them. He ate like 2 of them before we realized. Mom prayed for him and nothing happened...thank you Jesus (more on that later).
*Haven't worked out...well pretty much ever and for some strange reason I decided to go to Mama Elsie's bootcamp Tuesday. Totally asked for it....almost died--was sore for 5 days.
*Drove home, got McDonald's...Nolen took a drink of Gavin's tea after eating chicken nuggets which have milk in them. Gavin informed me later, "Mommy, I know that my sweet tea had chicken nuggets in it, but I prayed and asked Jesus to take them out of my body and he did." LOVE that kid!
So, even though it doesn't sound so great....we had a pretty good trip. No one was sick, we avoided the tornadoes and we got to see family and all in all it was a great trip. Glad we went.


Heres a few pics from our trip. Honestly, I didn't take very many.

Trouble!!

Cousin Alexa, Cousin Ayla and Gavin


Jeremy, Me and Krista! This picture doesn't happen very often!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Amazing Story!!

I know, I know....I haven't posted anything in like a month. I am gonna update soon....things have been a little crazy around here.
Anyways....you have to watch this video!!! This is a couple that we go to church with. Up until about a month ago, Jeny taught Gavin's class on Sunday mornings. She is so great with kids and we love her.

http://www.vimeo.com/3906123