Hey!

I know it's been forever since I've been back to post. Let's see. Last I posted, we thought Noah had allergies. He didn't. He had reflux, but not the throwing up kind. He basically had severe heartburn. Poor baby. We put him on some meds and he did great. Then he started solid foods and hasn't needed it since. Now he's six months old and doing wonderfully. Currently working on pushing his first two teeth in. His therapy is going really well (for those that don't remember or don't know if you go back to May or June you can find the posts about it.) He only has to go every other month now. He has full range of motion and has for some time. We're really only working on putting weight on it. In October his therapist said she thought he would crawl in a few months. He rocks on his hands and knees, but can't support his weight on his left arm for long. Getting better everyday, though. He started sitting up before he was 4 months old. He pulled himself up to stand around 5 1/2 months and still does this occassionally. Boggles my mind.

Mady Grace is doing wonderfully. She is busy being a big sister. She loves to help *handsome* or *big boy*, those are what she calls Noah.

Sam and Savanna are busy with school. Both excell in their classes. Sam is the class clown, but his teacher loves it. He was being picked on during the morning recess with the older grades, but it seems to have stopped. During this time he was very agressive and acting out at home. He's back to my loveable, energetic boy. Savanna was excited to find she had all A's again on her progress report. She's such a good help at home, I don't know what I would do without her.

I'm so way excited that Cassandra and I have been contacted by our brother, Jared, whom we have met once when he was a baby. He is our biological father's son from his second marriage. I've always wondered about him and it's nice to get to know him. Hopefully we will be meeting sometime this summer.

I think we will be getting our internet back up by Feb. I hope!

checking in

Things have been crazy busy. Most of my here and there online time has been devoted to researching food allergies and breastfeeding. So no tiem to post. We think Noah is allergic to cow's milk. Right now we are doing a total elimination diet for me. It's oh so much fun. I didn't really know how much stuff I normally eat has some type of cow's milk protein in it. The hardest part is finding things with no casein or whey. It took me ten minutes of reading labels to find a dairy free butter type spread. It was grossly expensive for the amount I got. Same thing for bread. Now i think I'm not eating enough calories and it's affecting my milk supply. *sigh* It's been very stressful. Noah had finally stopped screaming at every feeding, but now he's doing it again and I haven't had anything for over a week. No eggs, either. I'm kinda at a loss for the moment.

The rest of us are wonderful. Well, except for my severe lack of sleep. Bryan is working. Kids are doing great in school. Mady is having fun. I'm beyond tired of listening to her sing Jonas Brothers songs, but what can you do?

Randomness

Boy, it sure starts early.

Savanna is 7 and obsessed with all things Hannah Montana, High School Musical, Camp Rock, etc. Basically all that stuff on Disney Channel. Mady is 3. I turned the speakers on when I pulled my blog page up. Jonas Brothers Burning Up was playing and she ran in from the other room screaming *JONAS BROTHERS, JONAS BROTHERS* *sigh* already. Now she wants a Jonas Brothers sandwich for lunch.

Here are some random pics from yesterday.

My kids as we were leaving for church. Sam was so excited because this was his new white shirt and tie.

Savanna and Madalyn are best friends. See the freaky glowing eyes?

Auntie Nay Nay with her nephews, Sam, Noah, and Aden.

I had to lighten this one to be able to see the boys. They were making silly faces. Aden I think is trying to Dino Up from Dino Squad.

MIA

I will be MIA for awhile. Due to some financial strains we will be offline for awhile. I don't know how long, hopefully not too long.

And can you believe my baby will be 3 months on Friday?

First Day of School ~ Sam Edition

Sam is at his first day of Kindergarten today. We have full day Kindergarten here. When we got there we showed him where Savanna's class was, then she went with us to his class. As we were walking to his class I got a bit teary eyed, but I kept it in. He sat at his desk and got pics, then his teacher was going to show the few kids there where to go to get to the playground. He was all excited. I told him to give me a hug and I got the fastest hug I have ever gotten. He turned around to run off and I told him to give me a kiss. He did, but barely. He just wanted to go play. He didn't even care that Savanna wouldn't go out the Kindergarten door he just ran off. So I left, I made it to the office where a friend of mine was standing. She asked how it went and I started crying because he didn't want to give me a kiss. I got her crying. I got many sympathetic looks while walking out of the school with tears running down my face. I hope he has a great day!







Here is a pic of Noah and my cousin, Connor. He was born 13 weeks early and is only 1 week younger than Noah.


Here is Connor all by himself. My mom hasn't seen him yet because he was still in the hospital when she left.

Noah giggling

My mom is in Canada, so this is the only way to share with her. Here is a short video of Noah giggling. Please ignore the crappy videoing and just listen to the giggling. Some places you have to listen hard.

First Day of School ~ Savanna Edition

I took Savanna to school today. I must say it was pretty uneventful. Took her in, snapped a few pics, and she kissed me and said good bye. It's such a difference from the last two years. Here are some pics of this morning and then a few pics of her. A birthday tribute.

Savanna's Birthday

Yesterday Savanna turned 7! I can't believe how fast time flies. It seems like just yesterday I held her for the first time. She is such a special girl and we are so blessed to have her in our family.

We got to go to Dixie Stampede in Branson. It was girl scout day so we got discounted tickets. Her friend went with is and we all had a blast. They were mesmerized by the show and enjoyed the food, but we had a ton left. Some other family members went and we sent left overs with them, too.

I left Bryan with four kids (I took the baby) and the camera to take pics of horses and kids in front of horses, while i went to get our tickets. He says the kids all took off so he didn't get to get any pictures. He conveniently forgot to tell me this until after we left, so I only have a few pics.
Here is the only picture of a horse we have


The only pic that really turned out.



And something I couldn't resist taking a picture of. Where else, but Arkansas, would you see a live bait vending machine?

Noah is not a happy man, so the photo montage of Savanna will have to wait until tomorrow. It's probably best, because then I can include first day of school pics.

Savanna's Open House

We went to Savanna's open house tonight. She is kinda excited, but she's so shy. Her class is right beside the teacher she had last year and she says she plans to spend lots of time there. Her First grade teacher has moved up to teaching Second grade. Savanna was not one of the lucky 6 who had her last year to be placed in the same class. Mrs. Masingale said she told the principal she would love to *lube* (have all the same students as last year), and he said that was fine, but he had to call all the parents and ask if it was ok. She decided against that because she said it would break her heart for a parent to say no. I see where she is coming from, it would break my heart, too, but we so would have loved to have her again. I'm trying not to be paranoid and think there is some reason she didn't want Savanna in her class. She said she loves Savanna, so I don't think it's her. Hopefully it's not because I was a sucky class parent. My mom is probably rolling her eyes, but we all know that's how I think. Anyways, Sav's new teacher is very nice. She got all choked up talking about how much she loves all her students, how she gets so close to them and year later still cherishes them. Just a few more days and school starts!

A pic of my cute boy

A message for Great Grandma

Here is a message for my grandma from my kiddos.

Bittersweet excitement

Sam had his Open House tonight. I have been so excited for days. Didn't know which of us was more excited. All of a sudden as we're driving to the school I get all choked up. I'm going to be a basket case next Tuesday. My baby is getting so big, well, they all are, but Kindergarten is such a big thing. Sam was all excited to put his pencil box in his desk, but he wanted to put all the rest of his supplies in there, too. The baby wipes and Kleenex, too. We asked him what name he wanted to go by since his desk has Samuel on it. He doesn't want Samuel, or even Sam, he wants to be called Sam Burton Chandler. I told him that was too many names and we should just stick with Sam. He likes his teacher and was excited when he saw her picture in the hall as we were leaving. I'm a bit nervous about one of the boys in his class though. Apparently he was in this class last year and he got held back. The mom of a girl in class, had her son in this class last year. The kid who was held back is a bully and has a real problem with choking other kids. One turned blue! I'm so afraid Sam will be made fun of because of his speech disorder. I don't want that for him. I'm hoping it won't be an issue, but I'm such a worrier. Seriously though, no parent wants their kid to get their feelings hurt.

My grandma

My Grandma is very sick. She had a heart attack. She is having surgery Monday. My mom, aunt, and uncle have all flown to where she is. Please pray for Marrian Smith.

Scary news

You know it's never fun to get a phone call asking how a member of your family is doing when you know nothing is wrong. My mom's friend called yesterday to ask how my uncle was. She saw on the news that he and his four girls were in a car accident. Mom and I heard about this accident yesterday morning. It was bad. Mom then proceeds to call every extended family member she can think of to find out how everyone is. They were very blessed. Just come cuts bruises. The police have said it was the worst crash without a fatality that they have ever seen. A head on collision caused by a 16 year old driving 65 mph (in either a 55 or 45 zone) while texting. The two things that saved my family is that they were in their big white truck and were all buckled. They are all home now resting. One a brighter note their baby is supposed to come home tomorrow. He was born a few days after Noah. He was 13 weeks early.

My grandmother is also in the hospital. She had a heart attack, but she is ok.

Oh, and Bryan has what the girls had.

A fun day

Mom and I went shopping today. I got a new camera since Sam broke my old one. The older kids are at Grandma Chandler's house, so Noah got to be the solo model for the test. Here are some cute pics of him. He will be 10 weeks told tomorrow. Here are some pics of his super cute smiles. You can see his little dimples.

Give me a break

WHile Bryan was at work last night he decided to log onto our bank account. Small problem. He forgets the password. Does he stop? Nope, he just keeps trying until they lock him out. Now I can't get on it. Normally this isn't an issue, but there was something I needed to check. So I call customer service and they can't reset it until Bryan tells them to. He's asleep and has a fever. It's not like I can just go give him the phone, he wouldn't be coherent enough to talk to them. *sigh* Why couldn't they just do it for me?

My husband is wonderful!

I love my husband! He surprised me this morning with everything I need for a read a thon, Dr. Pepper, Peanut M&M's, and Breaking Dawn! It was so sweet of him! Now if only that had included a cook, a maid, a nanny, and a wet nurse, it would be perfect. :) I'm reading a bit, then doing something productive for a bit. I had to tell Brinae (my lil sis) that she needed to go to the library and get my copy that's on hold because it's probably going to take me a bit to read it. I have a two month old that requires lots of attention. Ok, off to read some more before the dishes get me.

Do people really think this way still? Oh and a super big YAY!!

My baby can roll over from his front to his back! I can't actually witnessed it, but twice now we have laid him on his stomach and left the room to come back to him on his back. Once he was all alone in the room and the other time my other kids were in there, but they were all asleep. It's exciting, but bittersweet. He's only 2 months old.

This is a vent about my in laws, so people who do not wish to read it, don't got further. :)

Things have been pretty great with the in laws since last November. I was just telling Bryan over the Fourth of July weekend how I still am apprehensive when we go over there. 8 months of niceness doesn't negate the previous 7 years. I have enjoyed the last 8 months immensely, but at times felt I was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Bryan's sister Sarah and her family are visiting from Utah. Today Sarah, Celia (Bryan's twin sister), and I ran to the store. Noah had just eaten and we weren't going to be gone long, so I left him with Bryan. The only child we took was Celia's Anna, who is just a bit older than Noah. While we were gone my mom was dropped off at my house by a co-worker. She called my in laws to see if I was there. My Father in law told her *She just ran off somewhere and I don't know where she is. If you talk to her, tell her to come back and take care of her kids.* I told her Bryan was there and she was surprised. Why would he have this reaction? Afterwards Bryan said it wasn't just me, he mumbled about *Moms needing to be home with their kids* a few times. Ummm.....My mother in law offered to watch Celia's boys and the other kids were being taken care of by their dads. Last I checked dads were just as capable as moms. Mom asked why we didn't get the ice cream we had planned on getting (one of two things Savanna can eat without being in pain) and I told her what my mom said. Apparently dad got upset because Sam asked him to put butter on a bagel while the other adults were watching kids in the pool, which he wouldn't do. I guess I just don't get it. I'm a mom yes, but I'm not the only parent. The only thing Bryan can't do that I can is breastfeed Noah. In fact, in many things he is better than I am.

Tomorrow will be better right?

It's fixed!!!!

The a/c thing is fixed!!!!!!! My very best friend since high school surprised me last night with the parts to fix everything. I have lost count of the number of times she has saved my butt over the years. I am so grateful to have such awesome friends! I am also grateful for my honey. He is so incredibly tired. He worked a 12 hour shift last night, plus he's working another tonight, but he stayed up after he got home to put the new fuse block in so that I can take my kiddos and go home tonight. I am so excited to sleep in my own bed! I will have to think of something awesome to repay these special people.

UGH!

It's 8 am and I am so tired I can barely see straight. The kids and I spent the night at my mom's house last night and I spent all night fighting the dogs off her bed so they wouldn't bother Noah. Why did we spend the night here when we have a perfectly nice house to sleep in? Becauase when it rains it pours. Last night Bryan was getting ready for work in the back bathroom. He usually isn't back there, so this was unusual. He smelled something burning and went into the backyard. The fuse block to our central a/c unit had caught on fire. I am so incredibly grateful it happened when he was home because he knows how to shut off the power to the thing. If it had happened 30 minutes later I wouldn't have known until the back of the house was on fire. Or if we had been sleeping. I shudder to think. ANd now we have no a/c *sigh*

Round two

Savanna has what Mady has. The last week has been oh so pleasant, I just can't wait to repeat it.

And we're off

to the Dr again. I swear we keep this office in business ourselves in the last year. Between Sam being sick so much before his surgery and Noah and his arm, we have spent several hundred dollars there, out of pocket. Savanna has a fever now. Lowest it's been is 101.5, highest is 102.8. Sometimes she says her tongue hurts, but usually she says her throat hurts. Strep is going around here. I told her i'm thinking about having the Dr give her an antibiotic shot if she needs antibiotics. After the drama last night just trying to get her to take a liquid or a chewable I dread doing it again. Now i am a mean mommy for wanting her to get a shot. Oh well.

YOU KNOW YOU ARE IN ARKANSAS IN JULY WHEN. . . .

YOU KNOW YOU ARE IN ARKANSAS IN JULY WHEN. . . .



The birds have to use potholders to pull worms out of the ground.



The trees are whistling for the dogs.



The best parking place is determined by shade instead of distance.



Hot water now comes out of both taps.



You can make sun tea instantly.



You learn that a seat belt buckle makes a pretty good branding iron.



The temperature drops below 95 and you feel a little chilly.



You discover that in July it only takes 2 fingers to steer your car.



You discover that you can get sunburned through your car window.



You actually burn your hand opening the car door.



You break into a sweat the instant you step outside at 7:30 a.m.



Your biggest bicycle wreck fear is, 'What if I get knocked out and end up lying on the pavement and cook to death?'

You realize that asphalt has a liquid state.



The potatoes cook underground, so all you have to do is pull one out and add butter, salt and pepper.



Farmers are feeding their chickens crushed ice to keep them from laying boiled eggs.



The cows are giving evaporated milk.



Ah, what a place to call home. .

God Bless Our State of Arkansas

A funny

My mom and I were at Wal-Mart this afternoon and one of their employees stopped me so she could look at Noah. Here is our conversation.

Wal-Mart employee: Boy?

Me: Yes

WE: How old?

Me: 8 weeks.

Insert astonished look here ( we get this a lot)

WE: He looks at least 1 1/2 to 2 months old to me.

Me: Just smiling and nodding thinking *Isn't that what I said?*

My poor Mady Grace

She is sick and so grouchy! Of course I would be, too, if I had blisters in my mouth. This sounds so nasty, because what it is, is never what people first think of when they hear it. She has a herpes infection in her mouth. Herpes Simplex 1, Oral herpes, meaning cold sores. The primary infection either has no symptoms or blisters in the mouth. My baby girl was so lucky enough to get the blisters. She has at least 5. She can't eat, barely drink, and is so not sleeping well. She wakes up several times a night whining. There isn't much I can do for her and there isn't really anything she wants to do. She went swimming at Grandma's and spent half her time there crying. Poor baby.

Free DVD

Sam loves Planet Heroes and Fisher Price is offering free DVD's. THe website says 12-14 weeks for delivery, but I don't think it takes that long. http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=5477&e=dvd

Another Noah update

Are you guys tired of them yet? I just can't resist. He had pt yesterday. We are at the moment on a once a month schedule and I do the range of motion exercises at home. So we went yesterday and as I laid him on the table Miss Adele asked how we were doing. I told her I hoped she would be as excited as we were. Barely letting me finish my sentence he pulled his arm up and bent his elbow. Her eyes got HUGE and she just kept saying *OH OH OH* She was caught very off guard and very very excited!!!! She said she did not except such a big improvement in only 4 weeks. She was so excited she had tears in her eyes, as did I. It really and truly is such a miracle. Interestingly, his improvement started speeding up after his blessing (like a Christening for you non-LDS folks), where he was promised he would have full use of his arm. So now we have new exercises to do and another appointment at the end of August.

Noah's 6 week check up

He is growing so quickly! He lost a bit of weight after he was born, just like all babies. His first trip to the pediatrician was the Monday after he was born. Since then he has gained exactly 4 lbs! He's grown 2 and 1/4 inches. People do double takes when I tell them he is only 7 weeks old, they all think he's at least 3 months old. He also has great head control and has since he was two weeks old, so that adds to them thinking he's older. I wonder how this will play out when he's over 6 months old. If he will still be this much bigger and not be crawling because of his arm. Hmmm....... Oh well, I think he's perfect!

I just couldn't do it

The picture made me cringe every time I opened my blog. I had to take it down. I will take a new one soon to put up.

Some personalization

I've been trying to add some stuff to my blog, pics and stuff. Still learning how. I just realized how incredibly awful I look in the top pic. Sadly I'm not changing it until I get a better pic of our family or one of the kiddos.

An Aden update

Apparently while swimming he was running and fell. He only complained about his stomach hurting, not his head so my sister didn't think he hit his head despite the presence of a big red spot on his forehead. He has a small concussion on top of aspirating the water.

Does anyone else ever want to wrap their kids in bubble wrap just for a little while?

A very scary thing

Noah and I just spend four very long hours in the ER with my sister and nephew. He almost delay drowned. You can read about it here. http://www.snopes.com/medical/disease/drydrowning.asp Had he not thrown up before we got to the hospital it could have had a different ending. He's home now and fine, but so scary!

YAY!

Noah is moving his elbow! Ok, so he still doesn't move it much, but he can and he does sometimes! I am so beyond excited. It's such an accomplishment for him. That means everything works exactly how it should and it's just a matter of time before he has complete mobility!

I've kinda been avoiding this lately

There are a few blogs I read occasionally and a few I read quite often. I have been doing some thinking and i think I feel inadequate, but that's not exactly the right word. My blog is mostly about my kids. Others post about other things, politics, things going on in the world, stuff like that. I must be either very boring or one dimensional. I'm not into politics, I can't vote, so I mostly don't pay a whole lot of attention. The news usually ends up making me cry, so I don't know much that's going on. I guess i have my head buried in the sand. Is it a bad thing that I write about my family? They are my life, this is the time and season to be a mother. Is that the only thing my life revolves around? No. I have my knitting (which includes my doing it at home on my own, a weekly stitch n bitch I attend, and the class I am teaching at the library), I have a scrapbooking group I go to once a month. I read. I do have my own interests. Although, truthfully, they do get put on the back burner when something come up for the kids. So, I guess I feel like my blog is painfully boring, and then I wonder why it bothers me because I only know one person that really reads it and I'm not sure she does often.

My middle of the night miracle!

Calling Bryan's cell phone repeatedly at 2:30 am makes for a frantic ,usband! but I could not contain my joy. Noah woke up to nurse. I fed him on one side and he was kinda asleep so I laid him on his side so I could run to the bathroom while he woke himself up enough to eat. Before I got up I watched him. His hurt arm fell behind him and I reached to put it in front of him. I didn't think he was awake enough to use his shoulder to drag it in front of him like he sometimes does. I didn't reach his arm before he did something that SHOCKED me. He pulled his arm up sideways! Like he was reaching for the ceiling. He only has about a 100 degree range of motion that direction and he got it almost up to that. I just sat there and cried I was so excited! THen I thanked Heavenly Father. I'm so excited!

Noah was blessed Sunday June 22.

Noah in his blessing outfit. Both he and Sam were blessed wearing this outfit and wrapped in the blue blanket I made.
Here is a close up of Noah.
Noah, Bryan, and Serenity
Our family. Savanna, Sam, Bryan, Madalyn, Serenity, and Noah.
My family. Back row is my dad, Donnell, nephew Aden, sis Brinae, bro Josh. Second row, sis Cassandra, mom Bridgette, me, Noah, Bryan, and Mady. Front row, niece Abby, Sam, and Savanna.

Here are Noah and Anna. Anna is 6 weeks older than Noah. It looks like they are holding hands. Bryan and his twin sister Celia and their babies.

I guess we must be doing something right

We were talking about Locks of Live with my bil and sil the other day. Savanna later asked more about it. Yesterday she decided she wanted to donate her hair, so today we went and did that. She is so excited and can't wait to mail it off so another child can get it. I'm so proud of her!

Before. It needs to be brushed.
Holding her ponytail.
After. She looks so grownup now!

Noah's Physical Therapy Evaluation

Ok, the physical therapist is WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!! She was so nice and she showed Bryan and I several range of motion exercises to do a few times a day. She said basically right now we are providing his pt and she is tracking his progress. She was very encouraged by how well he is moving his hand and shoulder already. She said an adults range of motion is 180 degrees (to lift the arm from your side straight up in the air) she said a newborn has a bit less than that, but Noah's is about 100 degrees. She talked a bit about surgery, but said it is way too early to tell if he will need it. She's leaning towards him not needing it.

He so did not like her touching him. The first time she was moving his arm to check his range of motion and it hurt him. After he let out that hurt cry, he cried anytime she touched him. After I got him calmed down we laid him down and she had me practice the exercises. He did fine, didn't cry at all. After that she would guide my hand if she needed to so she wouldn't touch him. It was really funny.

So all in all I'm very pleased with the Kistler Center and very excited for Noah.

Who knew

Who knew life as a mother of four would be so busy? Just kidding. I just don't seem to find time to get on the computer as much lately. There is always so much to do and I still haven't gotten around to doing any housework at all. I'm finally healing better and can move without being in severe pain. Noah should have an app for a physical therapy evaluation sometime this week or next. It depends upon how long the waiting list is. Savanna has decided she has found a nickname for Noah. He's Nemo because he has a *lucky fin* She's so cute! Mister man is fussy, must be time to eat. Maybe I'll get back here before another entire week has passed.

Two week check up

Mr Noah is officially a piggy. We went for our two week check ups today. Last Monday he was down to 9 lbs 14 oz. Very normal to go down a few oz. He's now 10 lbs 15 oz! That's 1 lb 1 oz in 8 days!!! I don't have to worry that he's getting enough to eat! His arm is also doing much better. He's moving his shoulder kinda a lot. I'm so very grateful!

More yummy baby pics

Here is my sleeping Noah Bear.

Here we are all dressed up for our first day of church. He just woke up so not such a happy boy.

It's hot out here!

It's been so hot here. Around 100 with the heat index. So we broke out the kiddie pool today. Here are some pics.
Such a diva!



Noah at 6 days old! Isn't he a cutie?

Noah's birth story

I spent every day of May wondering *Is this it?* *Is this it?* Starting May 2 I had contractions every single day, sometimes for hours on end. May 23 I went into labor, only to stop 36 hours later at 4 centimeters. It was all very disheartening.

Finally at 4:02 am May 29 my water broke. I was so excited I cried. Contractions started about an hour later coming every 5 minutes. The midwife, Debbie, came out around 9 am . Contractions started slowing down. I went walking around the block several times, but it didn't really do much. Debbie suggested we go driving down some bumpy roads, so my mom drove me. It was horrible. The contractions started coming two minutes apart and were very painful. Debbie checked me and I cried when she said I was only 4 1/2 centimeters. I got in the birth pool and it helped. I was able to find some sort of Zen and talk to myself through my contractions. I just kept telling myself they were almost over. It helped a lot, plus squeezing Bryan's hand was nice, too.

At around 4:30 pm things started getting really intense. Debbie checked and I was 7 1/2. We thought things would go very fast. She had to leave at 5:30 to attend her sons high school graduation. Robin, the other midwife, would stay with us. Debbie and I both talked about how sad we were that she would miss the birth. She said she would be back around 9 ish to check on us. She did not miss the birth. I had a very small part of my cervix that would not move. Debbie called it my bubble. It prevented Noah's head from coming through the cervix completely. We spent hours trying to get it to g away. I went though endless contractions fighting the urge to push hping it would help the bubble go away. It didn't. They massage it and pushed it. Nothing helped. We changed positions, nothing. Finally I pushed while Debbie pushed it back over his head. That didn't help either. Debbie finally suggested I try to use the bathroom and then we were going to try something else, but now I don't remember what it was. While I was on the toilet the bubble moved and all of a sudden his head was right there. I barely made it to the couch. I started pushing and boy it sure took longer than I remembered to push his head out. Finally I did. In reality it probably wasn't that long, but it felt like it. It turns out it was a very good thing I did not get back into the birth pool because right about then all hell broke loose. That really is the only way to describe it. Debbie looked at me and said we needed to get the baby out in the next contraction. It didn't work. I was pushing as hard as I could. I wasn't sure exactly what was going on and asked and Debbie said he was stuck on my pelvic bone. He needed out NOW. I cried that I couldn't do it and she said I had to. My mom started screaming at me that I needed to do it now. She was crying. Bryan, Debbie, and Robin were all down there (Bryan was supposed to be delivering himself before Noah got stuck). One was pushing my vagina back as far as they could while the other two pulled. My poor little Noah has perfect finger bruises. Finally we got him out. They put him on my chest and Bryan told me we had a boy. He was born at 9:46 pm. He was a bit blue. He did not start breathing or crying and got more blue. Debbie rushed for the oxygen while Robin started rubbing him trying to stimulate him. He was still attached to the cord, so still getting oxygen through it, but he needed to breathe on his own. It took four minutes for him to breathe or cry. During those four minutes I heard the word transfer whispered. Luckily we didn't have to. Noah started crying and breathing and pinked right up, but those four minutes were a bit scary.

Now we're both doing well. My pelvic bone is bruised, but other than that I feel fine. Miraculously I did not tear at all, even with all the pulling and pushing. Noah has an appointment with a pediatrician today because he has a bruised nerve in his arm from being stuck and being pulled. He moves his hand and grips, but doesn't move his arm much. Hopefully we can fix it. I feel horrible guilt over his injury and hope it isn't permanent. I have a friend whose son had the same thing, only worse, he couldn't move his hand or fingers at all. In less than a year you couldn't tell that anything had ever been wrong. I hope we have the same blessing.

Oh, and my boy got stuck because he was huge. 22 inches long, 14 5/8 inches head, and 10 lbs 6 oz!!!

He's finally here!

Noah Calvin Chandler was born Thursday May 29, 2008 at 9:46 pm. He is 22 inches long and weighs in at a whopping 10 lbs 6 oz!!!!! Here are some pics. Here's my BIG boy!!!!!


Beside cousin Anna who is six weeks older!Another pic with Anna

With my big brother Sam.
With my big sister Savanna.

With my big sister Mady!
My boys are sleeping!
A close up of Noah