Category Archives: Pregnancy

Garin Theodore – One of God’s Little Surprises

Garin Theodore
born 9/23/10
11#  22″

Many of you know I was scheduled for a c-section on September 23.  I had finally managed to resign myself to never VBACing again and I was ready to meet this new little one that morning at 11:30 am.

God had other plans.

At 10:10pm on the 22nd, the irregular, not-so-hard contractions I’d been feeling for a week, the same contractions that had dilated me to a 4 just a few days earlier, suddenly began to HURT.  By midnight, I told Ty I thought we should probably head to the hospital; however, skeptic that I am, I decided to continue to wait.

At 12:30 am, I told Ty I was going to time 2 more contractions before making a definite judgment call.  Those 2 were doozies…3 minute apart doozies!

So, to the hospital we went, the pain intensifying with every single mile.  Once in the room, the contractions were every 2 minutes apart, I was a 6-7, 100% effaced, and baby was at a -1 station. I wondered how long I would need to labor like this.

Because of my diastasis, we had decided I should labor reclined to encourage my uterus to tip back and for baby to come down.  I knew fairly quickly there was NO WAY I could labor reclined without some sort of pain meds.  So, we called anesthesiology in for an epidural since I was sure I had hours to go.

With the epidural in place a whopping 2 minutes, they laid me back, and my water broke, baby crowned, I pushed, and little Garin was born…talk about efficient!  I had been in my hospital room 45 minutes!

My doctor didn’t make it, but thankfully, her colleague was able to jump into the room last minute.  She was great!  She calmed my fears when there was obvious meconium in the water, she told me what a great pusher I was, and in the end, she checked my 2 old c-section scars from the inside and declared you couldn’t even tell I’d ever had c-sections!  Praise the Lord!!!

So, without further ado, I am proud to introduce you to Garin Theodore!

Journaling Garin's birth story

Blake is thrilled to meet his new baby brother!

The "little" boys

Mommy Megan

Daddy picked out Garin's outfit (a family tradition)

A tired mommy is ready to take her new little guy home!

Mommy's favorite baby part

Crash Course Parenting – Guest Post

Today’s guest post is by Stef Layton from Layton Family Joy.  Stef went from knowing the pain of infertility to the joy of motherhood with no place to catch her bearings in between.  I hope you find her story of God’s providence encouraging and inspiring!

I never really thought about being a mom – I guess when you’re a little girl you just naturally assume that is what will happen to every little girl. All girls grow up to be mommies, right?! I had barbie dolls and cabbage patch kids – two actually – so I was very well versed in babysitting stuffed animals.

So when I was told at eighteen it was not going to be a possibility in my future I was not really sure what was left for me. I felt I had lost some value because there must have been a mistake from the manufacturer’s company. Surely all female models had functioning reproductive organs.

By design I was a woman – but with what I called “rotten guts”. I believed a lie that no man would ever want to marry me because I could not do the simplest of body functions – I could not reproduce and give him children. Although I lacked a relationship with Christ I was still aware that God told all the animals to “go forth and multiply” to “fill the earth”. What use was I to God?
Even when they removed endometriosis I was again informed by a “fertility specialist“ I would not have much luck getting pregnant. Due to a septated uterus (heart shaped), even if I did get pregnant I would not even be able to carry a baby to full term.

You can imagine my surprise a few years later when I found out I was pregnant. Being a mom had long passed my dreams and desires. I was 6 years behind the curve of anticipating growing a family!

What type of mom would I want to be – what were my values, my vision, my goals?! I had to figure that all out but found not crash course parenting classes just the book, What to Expect When You’re Expecting.

The surprise pregnancy we were told would end in a miscarriage, and then later informed a premature pregnancy really lasted 38 weeks long!

Not to put God in a box and constrain Him to just one miracle child – my second son had to be induced at 40 weeks!

My parenting training mostly consisted of late night readings and learning from many many mistakes. Mistakes of seeing my poor children’s face contort and give way to tears because I had shouted, again. Mistakes of seeing hurt feelings because I became frustrated with a slower pace. Mistakes of always saying “no” and stamping out excited dreams because I personally was not interested in seeing little hearts fly.

Seven years later – my maternal instincts definitely need to be fine tuned, but I have been given two precious gifts from the One who has always known better! And on days I feel like I do not deserve them – He reminds me – He chose them for me!

Stef and her boys

Stef Layton lives in Florida with her husband and their two boys. Stef is a homeschooling, thesaurus toting, knock knock joke connoisseur. Stef writes transparent experiences about her faith at Layton Family Joy and created The Homeschool Village

Baby Day

I won’t be “live” blogging a minute by minute update of birth.  I won’t be updating at all until I am home and feel like opening up this laptop and sharing our new little one with all of you. { Yep, I’m just a wee bit selfish in that way! :) }

However, while I am enjoying my BabyMoon, you will find some excellent guest posts here at Raising Arrows.  Feel free to comment and interact with the authors and other readers.  There will be some meaty, some practical, and some just plain fun posts for your reading enjoyment.

And thank you all so much for praying all these weeks for myself and this little one.  What a blessing all of you are to me.

Yet Another Baby Update

You know you’ve gone overdue when your father-in-law calls every day to check on you. ;)

Overdue isn’t really anything new for me.  But overdue, no matter how prepared you are to be there, isn’t exactly the place any expecting mama really wants to be.

Yesterday at my dr’s appt, we had a LONG discussion over options and where to go from here.  I have the most laid back OB ever and I love that about her.  She just let me talk it out until I came to a place where I was comfortable with all that was going on.  So, here is the plan…all dependent upon God’s plan…as it should be.

I am dilated to a 3, so progress is being made.

Baby is head down, something I didn’t think was possible considering my last two babies had the tendency to enjoy the breech position.

I feel comfortable going one week overdue, but no more.  Not because of my own comfort level (which by the way, is quite under control at this point!  yay!) but for a myriad of other personal reasons.

If I do not go into labor by this coming Monday, I will go to my dr’s appt that afternoon and we will discuss plans for a c-section.

One way or another, baby will get here, and I am so very excited to meet this new little one!  I want to know if he/she has hair and what color.  I want to see who he/she looks the most like.  I want to nurse a newborn again, bathe a newborn again, diaper a teeny-tiny hiney again!

And oh the pictures!  I cannot wait for photos to be focused on baby, rather than a sleepy mama who looks like she stuffed a beach ball up her shirt! ;)

A sleepy mommy gets loves from her girls.

Thanks so much for all the love and encouragement and prayers!  I have been so blessed by them!

Sometimes All You Can Do is Let Go

I’ve been there before…

That place where you let go of expectations, where you let go of who you *think* you are, where you let go of needing to be superwoman, and you realize that sometimes the plan isn’t what you thought it was…

and that’s okay.

My OB sent me to Labor & Delivery yesterday because it was more likely they could get me faster relief than the dr’s office could.  I ended up on a narcotic.  Coming from a woman who rarely takes meds (even for a headache), this was a tough call.  But as I said, sometimes you do what you have to…this was a “have to” situation.

And this is where the letting go comes in.  All too often we look down our noses at people who do things differently or make choices we wouldn’t make.  I’m not talking fundamental Christian beliefs or something like that…just regular every day life decisions.

Honestly, I even hesitated to say I was taking a narcotic to kill the immense pain I am in.  I didn’t want to open myself up to people telling me how I should have tried this or that and how bad this is for me and for the baby.  It sounds silly to even write that, but I know I’m not alone in feeling this way about difficult decisions.

All too often passion over an issue ends up coming through as passing judgment instead.  It’s a fine line that we’ve probably all crossed at some point or another.  Ultimately, we all need to show a little mercy.  Mercy towards those who feel so passionate about an issue they end up sounding harsh and mercy towards those making decisions we do not think we would choose if in their shoes.

The circumstances of the last few days forced me into a decision I would not normally have made.  Later today, I will be in my OB’s office weighing even more tough decisions.

Life is full of decisions.  Some easy.  Some not.  Some that happen exactly as we expect them to.  Some that require us to dig deep and let go, and then find peace with those decisions.

For now, I am at peace.  My pain is tolerable.  My children have their mommy back.  I am able to concentrate once again on this little life within me.  I am certain your prayers and the Lord’s provision have afforded me this level of peace.

Thank you and Praise God!

Crying Out to the Lord

I had no post scheduled for today.  I was just going to let it slide.  It made sense to slow my pace a bit.

However, I need prayer.  I am in pain.  No, it’s not labor pain…that would be welcome.  Modesty keeps me from telling EXACTLY what kind of pain this is, but suffice it to say I have never been in this much pain outside of transition in labor–in which I knew I would be holding a little one soon.  The pain I am feeling now feels futile to me and difficult for me to bear.  To be perfectly honest with all of you, I would gladly go into labor this very second for the sole reason of being able to get an epidural to stop the pain I am feeling.

So, I am crying out.  There is really nothing left for me to do.  God knows my every tear, my every painful moment.  He knows the timing of this little one’s arrival as well as He knows every hair on this child’s head.  He knows I don’t feel like I can keep going.  He knows whether or not my doctor will be able to squeeze me in today and whether or not there is anything more she can do for me.  I continue to cry out to Him moment by moment.

I am so grateful to all of you who are already praying.  In fact, I am even rather leery of saying anything here for the simple fact I feel like I am forever fussing…something I’m not used to.  So, I am humbling myself and asking for your continued prayers.  Prayers for the pain to cease.  Prayers for stamina.  Prayers for this precious little life waiting patiently inside of me.

Thank you all so much.