Our Big News!

I once heard that when you look for growth, you find it in the valleys.  As breathtaking as the view is from the mountaintops, they are barren.  That has been true for our family as God has asked us to walk through this valley of unemployment.  As God has asked us to trust him, more than finances, more than the security of a job, even more in the uncertainty of the future, we have grown more into the image of his Son.  He has been incredibly faithful, gifting us with more of himself, and sustaining us in surprising, and unexpected ways.

Nate's last official day as an employee with Verizon Business was December 22, 2015.  It has been a long, wearying journey to finding a new job!  Preparing for interviews, then waiting with bated breath to hear back, only to be disappointed with no job, has been a very hard emotional roller coaster to get on and off of.  I am new to the corporate interview process, but apparently it is normal to go through two or three interviews per job application.  Again, a very emotionally trying process!  Sometimes we would go more than a week between interviews.  So it could take over three weeks from the application process, to the final interview, and then the "we've decided to go in another direction" phone call.

At some point, I believe God put it on Nate's heart to begin searching for employment in Milwaukee. As strange as it sounded at first, (I mean, what is there in Milwaukee?  No family, friends, or church to attend . . . what's the appeal?) eventually the idea sounded intriguing to me as well.  After one interview "cycle" that fell through, he found another, better company to apply at.  The first interview went well!  Then the second . . . and then he was asked to come in for a third, face to face interview.  Certainly encouraging!

Only a few days after his in person interview, he received the phone call we'd been waiting six months for:  he was HIRED!

Immediately I started reeling.  Obviously Milwaukee sounded like a promising, exciting idea when it was only a possibility, now that it was reality, it began to sink in that we were leaving home.  I certainly had mixed emotions.  We were out of town when we got the news, so once we got home, it was full fledged chaos!  We wanted to get our house listed as soon as we could, which meant getting all the house "projects" or as many as could be managed, finished.

There was so. much. painting!  haha.  Nate patched up several holes in the walls, thanks to the dog and the kiddos, and we touched up or painted just about every single room in the house.  We also went through closets, moved a bunch of stuff that doesn't get used as often out into the garage, and went through "staging" the house.

We signed the papers to list it with a realtor, and the house went live July 5th.  We left with the kids and took a little hiatus up to Milwaukee, as I had never visited, and we wanted to get a feel for where we will be moving to as a family.  When you only see it as a dot on the map, it's pretty abstract.  ;) It was a whirlwind couple of days driving, driving, driving around the city looking at houses, and checking out neighborhoods, etc.  We did enjoy a little diversion time in the awesome hotel pool with the kids, and Julia's first time in a big pool was a success!  That girl is part fish, I think!  :)

After our one night stay in the hotel, we spent an entire day driving around Milwaukee, and then driving back home.  We were in the van, with the kids, from 10 am that morning until nearly 10 pm that night.  It would not be the understatement of the century to say that the day felt like an eternity.

The next morning, we got a phone call from the realtor's office that they would like to schedule a showing for that afternoon.  The chaos continued!  The day after that, the realtor had hired a photographer to come take pictures of our home.  This is when the phrase "picture perfect" hit home for us!  While ultimately, our trust was in God, and not in the realtor to get our home sold, we still wanted to do our best.  Saturday morning came with another showing.  We had to be out of the house (including the dog) by 9 am.

Sunday came (July 10th), and we thought we were safe for a "breather" day.  We got a phone call soon after church asking "would we be available for a second showing in the evening?"  Wow.  A second showing already?  This is encouraging!  Since we had the dog, and it was raining off and on, we opted to just, um, drive around for an hour?  haha  Since we had no plan, we ended up driving back by the house about ten minutes before the showing was scheduled to finish just to see if by chance we could go back in.  We saw the realtor out front, with a young person and their parents (hugging, no less!).  Definitely a good sign.  This morning, (July 11th) after the house has been on the market for six days, we woke up to a message from our realtor that we had an offer!  We've accepted it, and we will be closing in just over a month.  

It is absolutely clear to us that God has had this planned, and He has been preparing the way for us all along.  Down to our current Pastor who "just so happens" to know of a solid church in the Milwaukee suburbs.  We are thankful!  Talk about a whirlwind two weeks!

Now the process begins of packing up everything that's left after "staging" and finding (QUICKLY) a new home in Milwaukee.  More adventures to be had!

It will be hard to leave behind all the people we love so much, as well as our incredible church family!  We have lived so much life in this house.  We went from newlyweds when we first moved in, to pet owners (with a puppy!), and then we brought home our three babies to this house.

We are so thankful for the way this house has served us well, and for the many precious memories we've made here.  If you want a little tour, you can watch the video below:  :)

God is so faithful!  I am praying for lots of grace during this time of transition, and for the energy to keep up!  Hopefully my next post will involve something about finding a new home!  Until then - 

Grace and Peace,

Amanda

Peaches & FPIES: Progress!

I've been meaning to write an update for a long while now - it's been nearly six months since Julia's diagnosis of FPIES.  Honestly, things have been going so exceptionally well, that I was beginning to feel like it might just be a bad dream!

We've introduced food gradually - usually one food item per 10 days, and Julia can eat many of the same foods we do.  Which is a tremendous relief to me!  We have gone easy on introducing her to grains, but she can eat beef, pork, and chicken, as well as many fruits and veggies!  A huge victory for us was that she doesn't seem to have a problem with dairy - she loves Kefir, and Greek yogurt!  Then we gave her cheese, and that might be her favorite thing to eat right now.  :)  We've been going to see the Pediatric specialist at the University Children's Hospital every six-ish weeks for updates, and she is very pleased with Julia's progress.  She is growing!

Eating "modified" taco salad!

After her appointment the end of April, things had been going so well, I decided to be a little adventurous.  The older kids were eating PB&J for lunch, so I gave Julia a tiny bite of their sandwich.  A few minutes later she began to cry, and I thought, "Oh no!  Here we go again!"  This time, however, her reaction was quite different.  She must have gotten some peanut butter on her hand and then rubbed her eye - she had this angry red swollen rash on her face.  She kept crying harder, and then about 45 minutes later, began throwing up everywhere.

Initially I was alarmed - she has never had a rash like that before!  However, after about an hour, it had started to subside.  She got a bath to clean her up, and then, similar to an FPIES reaction, she was lethargic and clingy.  I rocked her for a while, and then she took a long nap.  When she got up, the rash on her face had disappeared, so I was confident that she had recovered.  I watched her the rest of the night just to be safe!  We kept the peanut butter FAR away after that!!  Talk about Mommy guilt!  :-/

Just before her nap - her rash was almost gone.

We just had another follow up with the specialist this past week, and because of the way Julia reacted to the peanut butter, the Dr. felt that we should come back to follow up with an allergist to do skin patch testing for a peanut allergy (this would be an Immunoglobulin E [IgE] reaction, which is a hyperactive immune system reaction, vs. an FPIES reaction, which is caused by cell mediated reactions).

After meeting with the GI specialist, we were scheduled to meet with a Pediatric Nutritionist.  It was very encouraging to hear that many of the foods she was recommending lined up with what we had been introducing to Julia.  She gave us several recommendations for the future - (for instance, egg substitutes to possibly use in baked goods after we've introduced wheat, etc.), as well as some recipes!

While we were in the room with the nutritionist, the nurse came in and asked "what's your day look like today?" and said it would be a long shot, but there was a possibility we could get in with the allergist that day instead of coming back.  Miraculously, it worked!  We had about a half hour window to explore the skyway of the hospital, and let Julia get down and walk a little bit.  Having already been at the hospital for almost 2 1/2 hours by this point, she was grateful to get down and move!  Also, the poor girl was missing her morning nap.  There is lots of construction going on down there, and the skyway provided the perfect view to watch the tractors and workers busy with their work.  Julia attracted lots of attention, and she was hamming it up quite a bit!  I was amused.  She is not my shy child!  :)

The office had given us a buzzer similar to the ones you get at restaurants, so that we would be alerted when the allergist was ready to see us.  When it lit up and started buzzing, Julia was delighted!  She was not pleased that she had to give it back to the nurse's station.  ;)

By this point, I was really struggling to keep my overtired girl happy and quiet enough to talk with the Dr.  She was very understanding, and actually left the room and came back with some toys!  One of the advantages of having these appointments at the Children's hospital are that they are tremendous at catering to little ones.  When it came time for the patch test, they brought in a person called a "Child Life Specialist" whose main job was acting goofy, and keeping Julia distracted.  She brought bubbles, and more toys.  I was impressed!

At this point, Julia was so tired, and sick of getting poked and prodded, that keeping her still for the patch testing was no easy task (who wants to get what feels like a whole bunch of mosquito bites on their back, and then not be able to touch or scratch them?).  Then we had to wait 15 minutes for the reactions to show up, before they came back in to measure the size of each mark.  Poor girl was such a trooper.

Waiting for the patch test to complete  

At least because she was so tired, she was wanting to snuggle in Mommy's lap anyway.  I sang softly to her, and just kept talking about the surroundings, trying to keep her awake and distracted.  The test showed that she does, in fact, have a peanut allergy.  Thankfully, it looks like it's just peanuts, and not tree nuts, but we're avoiding all nuts just to be safe.  The Dr. ordered blood work so that we can monitor her allergy yearly, as sometimes kids can outgrow it!  Also, we had to re-test her hemoglobin and iron levels.  Thankfully, they had lidocaine cream that they could put on her arms beforehand to numb them, so that would hopefully make getting blood drawn less painful.

While we were waiting for the lidocaine cream to take effect (it takes half an hour) they had a clinical pharmacist come in to explain how to use an epic-pen, should the need ever arise.  They also had a "trainer" pen there, so that I could practice with it and hold it, see how to remove the packaging, etc.  Then on to the last stop, the lab.

Again, being at the Children's hospital made the lab look less scary, with ceiling tiles that looked like aquariums or clouds, wind chimes hanging from the ceiling, and a TV playing Frozen (joy!), but it was a traumatic process nonetheless.  By then, Julia started to cry if anyone came within 10 feet of her with a stethoscope.  I was grateful to at least be able to hold her throughout the blood draw, and they tried to pacify her by giving her sugar water, and also this handheld bumblebee therapy toy that vibrated,  when she held that in her other hand, it seemed to soothe her.  That last hurdle was almost more than my Mama heart could handle!  I was sitting in the chair crying right along with her!

Are we done yet, Mama?

By the time we got done, we had been at the hospital for six hours.  It was a very long day.  Because I had not originally anticipated meeting with the allergist Dr that day, I had not planned on bringing lunch or anything - thankfully I always keep a few safe snacks in the diaper bag for Julia, and she is still nursing, so she wasn't too hungry.  She was asleep before we even left the parking garage, and then proceeded to take a four hour nap!  By the time she woke up, she was her happy, perky, Peaches again.  It's amazing how resilient children are!

I feel very fortunate to have access to such a great care team, and that they are so close to home.  While I understand that for a lot of kids, these allergies can be life threatening, and the Doctors need to prepare you for that possibility, every kid's tolerance levels are different, too.  By God's grace, it seems to us that Julia's allergies have been very manageable, and easy to accommodate.  We have never felt her life to be in danger!  The doctors continue to be thrilled with how well Julia is growing and thriving, and we know it's because of all the prayers that have been lifted up on her behalf.  Thanks be to God!

A Year of Peaches

I can't even believe that my baby is one year old today!  How time flies . . .





Look at how much she had filled out by two months!  She was our little chubba wubba.  <3



And this is about the time I started calling her "peaches".  Look at that adorable fuzz!

That round little face melts my heart!

I remember this day . . . she would NOT smile for me - no matter how crazy I acted!  haha!

Another serious picture.  I must look weird with a giant black thing in front of my nose.  ;)

This girl NEVER holds still anymore!  I had to call in reinforcements - and then she wanted to go chat with my assistant.  ;)

She also kept wanting to walk over to where her favorite toy was.  :)

She is the sweetest little ray of sunshine for our family.  We just adore her, and are so grateful to God that he chose to gift us with her life!  What a treasure to be tasked with the privilege of raising her up in the Lord!

Happy FIRST Birthday, my sweet little Peaches!

Julia's Birth Story

I guess I've been feeling a bit wistful these past few days, since we'll be celebrating my baby girl's first birthday on Wednesday!  I've been reminiscing lately about this time last year, and I just can't even believe that it's already been a YEAR ago!  If you like birth stories, read on.  :)

Julia's birth was definitely the hardest to wait for out of my three babies.  I think partly because both of my older kids were a few days early . . . and that trend looked like it would continue with this baby.

I was especially anxious to find out the gender of this baby, as we wanted to be surprised!

February rolled around, and I had convinced myself that I only had a few weeks left (my actual due date was March 6th)!  Which just meant I had to really work on my patience when the baby didn't share my timetable.  ;)

God placed amazing people in my life to keep reminding me to savor the last days of being a mommy of two, and enjoying each day, whether it involved going into labor, or waking up still pregnant the next morning.  I had night after night of steady, uncomfortable contractions, and then, nothing.  I was convinced that this baby would never come.  

NE-VER.

I have never struggled with the irrational "I-will-truly-be-pregnant-forever" mindset until I was waiting for this baby to be born.  My older two kids were easy on me.  Olivia was born one day before her due date (especially nice for a first baby!), and Levi was born six days before his due date. I now understand why so many sweet pregnant Mamas have been a breath away from losing their sanity.  I have been there!  ;)

I tried everything I could think of to "naturally" induce labor.  Raspberry leaf tea (I found out later, this really has nothing to do with inducing labor - don't fall into the same trap I did!), Mom and I would go to the mall and "mall walk", climbing stairs two at a time, building a snowman with my kids, my doctor even stripped the membranes twice, to no avail.  Let this be a cautionary tale to all you desperate-to-just-give-birth-already Mamas - babies really do come when they're ready to come.  God had this little one's book of days numbered before she would ever arrive, and there wasn't anything I, or any doctor could do to force his hand.  It did make me feel a little better though to think that maybe one of my attempts would be the time God would give the green light!  ;)

Finally, my doctor offered (for the second time) to schedule an induction for March 9, when my baby would be officially overdue.  I gratefully accepted this time, and spent the next few days in restless anticipation.

At last, the big day arrived, and I was up before dawn.  I had such conflicting emotions that morning. This was such a completely different experience for me.  It was nice to have time to shower, and get ready for the day, as opposed to a middle of the night "this is it!" type of situation.  But I was apprehensive that labor would stall, and because of the induction there would be more hospital interventions - and there were so many "what if's" associated with that.  I really, really wanted to have a quick, natural delivery like my other two had been (Levi's was only two hours, unmedicated!  I'd take that any day!!).   I had so many butterflies!

Checking in this time was so surreal!  Instead of arriving at the hospital in full blown hard labor, we casually walked in with our suitcase, and it was more like checking into a hotel!  Instead of being hooked up to a fetal monitor in triage, we were taken directly to the birthing suite.  We arrived at around 7:30, and by the time I was admitted, changed, and had my hep lock started, it was pushing 8:30 before they were ready to break my water, and get the party started.

If you notice, our nurse's name was Julie this time.  She was phenomenal.  She said she had been doing this for (I think?) around 25 years.  I loved her to pieces!  We had another nurse who was helping out and learning the ropes, and she was also very gentle and respectful.  I really don't have enough good things to say about the staff at St Luke's.

Even little things like writing down the sibling's names, so all the staff know who to expect and who to congratulate when the baby arrives.  :)

After they got me all hooked up to the fetal monitor, I was ready for the nurse to start labor (we hoped!).

No matter how many times I have heard it before, there is always something so precious about hearing my baby's heartbeat on the monitor.  That little whump whump whump sound is music to my ears.





Then it was just on to waiting for contractions to begin!  By this point, I was literally ready to do jumping jacks if it came to it to get the show on the road faster - I just wanted to meet our baby!!



By about 9:15, contractions were starting to come fairly regularly, and the doctor stopped in and cheerfully quipped "Hopefully we'll have a baby by lunchtime!"  I prayed she would be right!  Since this wasn't my first rodeo, I knew that labor tends to go better for me if I am up and moving.  The nurses were more than happy to let me get up and walk the halls, in hopes that we could get labor moving well.



Nate is absolutely wonderful.  He is willing to do whatever he can to help me through labor and delivery.  He is gentle, compassionate, and brave.  I could not have gotten through my deliveries without him!  Speaking of lifelines, my Mom is an incredible doula!  She is calm, knowledgable, and especially since she's my Mom, she is a comfort I could not do without.  I was so thankful for these two!



It was so interesting to be walking around the hospital while in labor!  Again, this was a new experience, since with the other two, I had either labored at home the majority of the time, or given birth very soon after arriving at the hospital.



Contractions were coming about 5 minutes apart, and getting steadily stronger.  I was encouraged!  It was also nice to have the diversion of exploring the hospital wing.  We actually bumped into our Pediatrician making her rounds, and she was cheerfully surprised to see us there!  "I hope I'll see you guys later - that will mean I'll be checking in on a baby!!"  :)



Contractions continued to get stronger, and come closer together - they were about 3 minutes apart when I would have to pause, and focus through them.  Again, Mom was there with gentle, quiet direction - "Spread your legs apart a bit more to really open up your hips . . . it might help if you sway.  Nate, try to put pressure here on her back . . . " etc.  So helpful.

Really though, between contractions, I was feeling good!

Julie was so respectful and quiet - and really just let me labor on my own so long as I was feeling up to it.  She would check in with me periodically, and occasionally she'd have me stop back into the room to check the baby's heartbeat.



I was drinking lots of water - as dehydration can really slow things down with labor.  Also, I had read somewhere that a full bladder can slow labor as well!  I was so paranoid about labor stalling, that I was doing everything I could think of to keep it progressing nicely.  I stopped in the room to use the bathroom, and after that, contractions were coming about 2 minutes apart or sometimes closer, and getting pretty intense.  Julie wanted to check me to see where we were at, and she said "I think you're around 5 centimeters."  To which I exclaimed in dismay, "That's it?!?"  She hurriedly said "Well, you might be at a 6 - maybe close to a 7 . . . " I think she was trying to make me feel better.  ;)  That was about 10:30.



I joked with Nate that the only times I could ever get him to slow dance were on our wedding day, and when I'm birthing his children.  ;)  At this point, contractions were coming so close that I lost track of how far apart they actually were - and I was also starting to feel pretty nauseous, which to me was an indicator that I was going into transition.  I asked Julie if it would be okay for me to get into the tub, as riding out the hardest contractions would be largely alleviated by the warm water!

I made it back into the room, and had a contraction that literally brought me to my knees.



My Mom was quietly coaching me to breathe, and I was just praying for God's grace to get me through this contraction, and the next - and to please bring my baby safely into the world.  Things were rolling along at a pretty good clip though - and I was so relieved and thankful that I could avoid Pitocin for the time being!



Being in the water is still, in my opinion the best part of labor.  They don't call it a "midwives' epidural" for nothing!  :)  Again, Julie was so accommodating and respectful as I labored - she kept popping in every few minutes to check the water temperature (since I'd had my water broken, we had to monitor the temperature carefully for safety), or to see if I needed anything.  And of course, Nate never left my side.  <3



After being in the tub for about 20 minutes, I began to feel a lot of pressure.  I called to Julie that I was ready to get out, and she agreed that it would be wise to check my progress.  As I laid down on the bed, I felt the baby shift, and commented, "Whoa, something just happened!".  I think I gave poor Julie a heart attack!  She quickly checked beneath the sheets afraid she was going to find the baby's head popped out!  Did I mention that I was ready to meet my baby??



As this was my third time giving birth, I knew what was coming, and I was dreading it.  Julie checked me and mentioned to Meredith (our other nurse) that she could call the doctor.



Those last contractions are a beast.  It took every ounce of courage I had to focus on the task, and not shrink from the final hurdle I had to clear: pushing.  I dread pushing with every fiber in my body.  I am not one of those Moms who feel an "urge" to push, nor do I find relief in pushing.  It just hurts. Like the Dickens.



My doctor laughed when she came in - "Wow, when I said by lunchtime, you really meant it!"  She checked me, had me push once, and then talked me through it.



There is no "easy" part of labor, but for me, this is the worst part.  I started to succumb to the pain - I had reached my "I don't know if I can do this anymore" threshold, and my doctor saw it.  She reached through my fog, and pulled me back to reality.  I love her for it!  One more push, and our baby was here!

There are no words in the English language to describe what is emblazoned on your heart in this moment.  It is a powerful, spiritual thing to behold life beginning - flesh of your flesh, and bone of your bone.

And the moment we had all been waiting for . . . 

It's a . . . GIRL!!

Joy.  Relief.  Shock!  Love.  Thankfulness.  My heart swelled with so many emotions all at once.

The nurse asked us what her name was.  I looked at Nate.  Julia?  He nodded.  Julia.  Julia Elise.

And she was here.  At last!  Our precious baby girl.  I just marveled that God would choose me to be the vessel He so skillfully wove her together inside.

I held her close to my heart for a long time before the staff weighed and measured her.  This hospital really is incredible at births!  

Our sweet Julia Elise came in at 7 lbs 6 oz, and 21 3/4" long.  She was my smallest, and longest baby of the three!  Born at 11:13 am.

About an hour after the birth, I got up to move to the rocking chair, so that the staff could "turn the room" and I felt great!  I ate lunch, and my Mom left to go back and give my big kids the good news. My sister arrived to meet her littlest niece, and I enjoyed hearing how my big kids had fared with her over the course of the morning.

After eating lunch, I stood up to use the bathroom, and lost a lot of blood.  Now, having just given birth, I didn't think too much of it - they had had a bit of trouble getting the placenta out, however, so I figured I should at least let our nurse know.

Things got a little crazy after that.  She began kneading my stomach, and called in another nurse.  Julie's shift had ended, so we had a bunch of new nurses.  They called in more nurses, who called in the doctor.  I was in a lot of pain by this point, as they were pushing as hard as they could, and I hadn't had any pain meds during the birth - and I was still losing a lot of blood.

My doctor let me know that they would need to get me back to the OR, and that it was most likely just a stubborn piece of placenta that hadn't come all the way out.  They had to start another IV line, and since I had already eaten, the anesthesiologist had me drink some really bad tasting magic potion that would prevent asphyxiation once I was put under if my lunch decided to make another appearance.  One of the nurses started pushing forms at me to sign, and at one point, I heard "the worst case scenario is that we would need to do a hysterectomy . . . " and at that point everything else started to become a blur.

I just remember thinking, "what about my baby?  Who is holding my baby?"

Nate was worried, understandably, and trying to remain calm and supportive as they wheeled me back to the OR.  The nurse said, "Give her one more kiss!" and at that point, we both lost it.  I remember whispering something to the effect of "go snuggle our new baby" and that I loved him, and then it was into the OR and under the anesthesia I went.

All in all, the whole procedure was very fast, and successful, and they were able to bring me back to the room a couple of hours later.  My sister (bless her heart!) had stayed the entire time to be with Nate, who was pacing the floor and furiously texting updates to my Mom, who was at this point back at home with our kids.

Although feeling at that point like I'd been hit by a train, I was so. thankful.  Thankful that it was over, and that I was holding my healthy baby safely in my arms.   I was thankful for my husband's warm embrace, and thankful that God had mercifully brought me to the other side of yet another delivery.

She is absolute perfection.

And honestly?  Worth every single moment of that labor.  I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies, for the love which from our birth, over and around us lies.  Lord of all, to Thee we raise - this, our hymn of grateful praise.

Thanks to Today Everlasting Photography for the priceless photos!