Silas James

On May 5, 2015, around three o’clock in the afternoon (2 days after my due date), I started feeling some contractions. I didn’t think much of it because I'd been having false labor regularly for weeks. The contractions continued sporadically into the evening. Around seven o’clock they became more regular and intense (again, something that’s been routinely happening).

Zach had a council meeting to go to so my mom graciously came to help put the girls to bed and stay with me. As the night progressed the contractions became closer and more painful, but I still didn’t think it was the real deal. My mom and I distracted ourselves by watching a t.v. Duggar special on births (very fitting).

Zach came home around 10:45 p.m. (late council meeting!) and as soon as he got into the house, I suddenly had a contraction much more painful that brought me to tears. Even still, I didn’t believe it was the real thing, so we said “goodbye” to my mom and started to head upstairs to try to get some sleep. Only five minutes later I had another incredibly strong contractions that brought me to my knees.

Just then, we saw the headlights of my mom’s car coming back up our driveway. She had gone only five minutes down the road and instinctively turned around and came back to our house. When we opened the door to greet her, she told us that she really thought this was it and that we needed to go to the hospital. At that point, I began to feel another intense contraction so we agreed! We grabbed our hospital bags and headed out.

We arrived and Zach dropped me off and I walked to triage while Zach parked the car. When they checked me, they found I was eight centimeters dilated – yikes! The contractions continued to come about every 3-4 minutes and they quickly moved me upstairs to delivery. We got into the room and started praying that we would have time to get an epidural. It felt like the contractions were coming right on top of each other at this point. Thankfully, only a few minutes later we heard a friendly knock at the door and I was thrilled to see it was the anesthesiologist. She quickly gave me an epidural and…bliss, sweet relief!

At that point, we could have tried to have the baby, but Zach and I asked if we could rest a bit and just enjoy the relief the epidural gave. The doctor said that was fine, so we did. After a bit of rest I realized I couldn’t hold off pushing anymore, so we called the nurses who called the doctor- it was time!

We said a prayer with our delivery team and after about seven minutes of pushing, out came our beautiful baby boy, Silas James! He came into the world at 3:44 am, weighing 8 lbs. 6 oz. and was 21 inches long. I got some skin-to-skin time with him and we said a prayer of thanksgiving with our delivery team. We were (and are!) exhausted, but overwhelmingly thankful to God for the gift of this precious baby boy!

Skin to skin...

Here we are with our awesome delivery team. Blast from the past: I coached the nurse standing in front 10 years ago in softball.

 Daddy and son...

 First family shot!

 Si's older sisters looking after him.

May 1

Happy first day of May! The weather was predicted to be in the 70's and I don't know how many days I'll have left before our baby comes so we jumped at the opportunity to get out and enjoy the weather! We started the day with a walk and playdate with a neighborhood friend and her three daughters. Then we headed to my parents house to go swimming! 

After a nice afternoon nap we headed home, had dinner and then went to a carnival that recently arrived near our house. We couldn't believe how great the girls did on the rides!

After about an hour we had had enough fun (plus it was time to get ready for bedtime). 

False Alarm...

This past Sunday marked 39 weeks with Baby #3. Zach and I have been nesting and preparing for the baby for weeks and we both feel very ready to meet this little guy or gal, which we thought was going to happen on Tuesday.
I woke up and started having contractions around 7:30. (I've been having Braxton Hicks contractions for weeks but these were more intense and coming more consistently.) I was pretty excited so I started to time them and discovered they were coming every 5-12 minutes. They continued at this pace and even became more consistent (only 7-8 minutes apart) after a couple hours. I called the doctor and they told me to come in. The contractions were continuing to become stronger as well so we thought this was the real deal. We made it to the hospital and after 2.5 hours of monitoring me they told me I wasn't progressing enough to be admitted. So they told us to go eat dinner and that they would probably see us again later that night. We did as we were told and the contractions continued to become more painful all evening. I went to bed at 10:00 and suddenly the contractions stopped! 15 hours of contractions and no baby- Grrrrr!!! It was super disappointing, but we know that this baby will come in God's timing, not ours. So now I'm just 3 days to my due date and we'll see if we make it!

We're going to the zoo!

Yeah for warmer Spring weather...finally! We were thrilled to wake up to a beautiful blue sky and sunshine this past week. I called up my parents and asked if they were interested in a morning at the zoo with me and the girls. They gladly agreed which I was very thankful for since I don't have the energy needed for outings without a little help these days.

Below, Grandpa is helping Carrie see the monkeys. :-)

 The tigers were out and very active. They kept walking right in front of the viewing area.

 "Whoe!"

 My mom got a picture of me, 39 weeks and 3 days, pushing Lyddi around.

The hit of the zoo every time we go is the tree house play area for the kids. Lydia LOVES it and Carrie got into it this summer too. 

Gotta get a picture at the John Ball statue!

What a fun morning! Feels so great to be outdoors after a long winter.

39 Weeks!

39 weeks! Come on baby, we are ready to meet you!

Air Zoo!

We spent a morning at the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo with my sister, her boys, and my dad. It was a super-cool place to visit! It had many old war planes on display with interesting information and facts about each one.

The Air Zoo was very educational, although I didn't get to read most of the info. due to keeping up with the kids. Here we are enjoying a mirror closet in the DaVinci exhibit.

Exploring some of Da Vinci's inventions...

There was also this toddler room for the little ones to play. We spent a good chunk of time in there.

They even had a few kid rides! I was shocked to see Lyddi get jump right in- she did awesome! And a big thank you to Grandpa for taking the kids since I couldn't.

What a fun morning!

38 weeks and counting!

Here I am at 38 weeks.... countdown is ON!

Misc. April Pics

Lydia recently found my make-up bag and had a little fun with the eye liner... :-)

 For Zach's birthday weekend we traveled Port Huron to meet up with some friend for Jarvis. We enjoyed a delicious lunch and had an awesome time catching up for a couple hours.

 Lydia having a tractor ride with Grandpa!

 My friend, Julie, came over with her three boys for a playdate one morning. The weather was beautiful so we attempted a short walk with 5 kids.

 I got to get together with some great high school friends for a lovely dinner. It was so fun catching up and enjoying lots of laughs together.

 Eating lunch at Costco with cousins. The girls were enjoying their lemonade. :-)

 Lydia's first drawing of a person!

That's April in a nutshell!

Zach's Bread Debut!

Zach was recently asked to provide the bread for a soup supper at a nearby church. He was very eager and excited to spend the day baking and giving his bread away for others to enjoy!

 After about 7 hours of baking, he came away with 15 pounds of bread! He made roughly 80 rolls and 8 baguettes from scratch!

37 weeks!

Homestretch! So, talk about preggo-brain- the sign says 36 weeks but I am actually 37 weeks along. Still lots to do to prepare for another baby in the home, but we're getting there. We are feeling super excited to meet this little one in just a few weeks!

Happy Birthday Zach!!

Zach turned 34 this month- wow, hard to believe he's in his mid-thirties! His birthday landed on a Sunday so I had to get a picture of him with his little ladies before church. 

His birthday was a pretty typical Sunday with church, lunch, rest and evening church. But we did get together with some good friends from Canada earlier in the weekend in Port Huron, which was a lot of fun. And we plan to enjoy a delicious steak dinner on Monday- kind of nice to spread out the birthday festivities. :-)

Happy Birthday Zach! Lydia, Carrie, Baby and I love you so much and feel so grateful to have such  dedicated, loving, supportive Daddy/husband! 

Getting Ready for Easter!

We had an early Easter egg hunt with the cousins since some of them will be away on Easter Sunday. It was a cold afternoon so we quickly fit the egg hunt in before dinner. Lydia is all ready to go!

 The whole crew before being released.

A friend of mine recommended these Resurrection Eggs (by Family Life) for helping teach the Easter story to children. The little book tells the awesome truth of Easter in a simple, Biblical way and after each page, your child gets to open an egg containing a little symbol from that page. It's really great and holds the attention of our 3 year old extremely well- she wanted to read the entire story 3 times in a row! She's been asking to read it as her bedtime story every night since we purchased them! I highly recommend this for Moms out there.

35 weeks!

So, I must apologize at my horrible ability to post preggo pics this time around. I've been meaning to take a picture each week on Sunday before heading out for church. But in the rush of a busy morning getting everyone ready I have forgotten again, and again, and again. So I got smart and put a post-it on the counter reminding me to do it and alas...here it is! I figure I may be forgetful in the future so I posted 2. :-)  I am feeling pretty good overall. This baby is a mover so it's a lot of fun to feel the little guy or gal making his/her presence known!

5 weeks to go for Baby #3!!!

Misc. March Pic

What a fun month. Here are some random shots from the month of March. Below the girls are enjoying a play date with their friend, Daena. As you can see, Lyddi got really into her baker outfit.

 Ready for church!

 Decorating some Easter eggs.

 What's so funny?!

 Brushing teeth is the best!

 Mamma and Care all ready for church!

 One morning I had to drop the girls off at church so I could go to a doctor visit. Zach watched them in the nursery. Here they are enjoying a snack in the little house.

 One morning we woke up to a light rain. Lydia was so pumped to get outside with her raincoat and umbrella. The simple things.

Bath time giggles!

 Some friends of ours, Steve and Rachel Swets, were in town for a wedding so they came to our church and then to our house for lunch. They live in British Columbia so visits are far and few between. It was great to visit, even for a few hours.

 Cool rider!

 Sweetie pie!

Here we are at a small group dinner. Dan (the man holding Lyddi) took her downstairs to see his drum set. Pretty cool stuff!