Created for Christ's Glory Molded to His Will - Homeschool Blogger

Going along good

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 13:23:01 -0600

So far I have no regrets about enrolling my daughter in the charter school. The best part is the help both finacial and from the ES we get. We are going through Excel math and "Teach your Child to Read in 100 Lessons". My girl loves doing the lessons and I love the fact that all the lesson plans are already there for me to use with out much planning on my part. My time is extremely tight right now with the new baby and so using pre-made lesson plans is a true God sent. I just want my girl to learn to read on her own asap because I know that will open up the whole world of learning to her. She can do the math on her own after I explain what she needs to do. So far so good!

1cm, 50%effaced -2 station

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 12:12:00 -0500

That's as of this morning! I have other signs that baby Nick is getting ready for take off like spotting and other's that are a bit more graphic to say here. Contractions are coming about every half hour to 45 minutes and my lower back feels like someone is sitting on it.

I was washing the dishes and I kept getting the most awful shooting cramps on my thighs. I'm going to vacum and finish doing other chores, maybe that'll get things cranking more.

I'm also shooting for natural birth (yes, I sure am!) so that'll be interesting.

Keep us in your prayers. We are very excited!!! Baby Nick will be here soon!

funniest thing I've heard in a while

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 11:58:00 -0600

I heard a lady say that she gets bored staying home with her kids? WHAT THE HECK! She must have a maid and a few other servants cause there aren't enough hours in my days or years in my life to do a quater of the things I need and want to do and then when I do finaly finish something by days end I have to do it all over again! Boredom for me is a luxury I haven't had since I was a kid.

It must be nice to have nothing to do, LOL!

Free USA?

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 11:55:00 -0600

I met with the Education Specialist from the charter school we homeschool through. It's part of the public school system. When I told her that part of my daughter's education included belonging to a Christian Club called AWANA she agreed to add it to the list of things that count toward her education because it teaches her several life skills. However the thing that got to me was that she had to get "creative" in how she wrote it down for the record. She couldn't put it as AWANA because it is a Christian club, she had to write it down as just a "kids' club" so it could count . No goverment funds are going toward her membership in the club by the way.

ARE WE STILL IN THE USA?!!! I never thought I would ever have to hide my kids' faith to appeace the goverment like if this were some communist society or something like that!? What is this place comming to? In the name of political correctness freedom and constitutional rights are slowly but surely being disstorded and diminished.

4 hour trip

Sat, 20 Jan 2007 11:39:00 -0600

Yesterday I drove 4 hours with my babies to visit my in-laws, all by my little lonesome self! I felt like such a big girl, ha ha. The drive was real nice and the kids were very good to my pleasant surprise. My oldest helped me with both the other little ones, she's such a good girl! I loved driving through the desert, the views were incredible. No matter how many times we come here God's creation in this area never ceases to amaze me. The only downer is that my hubby couldn't come. I miss him so much already !
I know we'll have a nice time here. I just pray the drive back is just as plesant a the drive here.

Finally Enrolled at Eagle's Peak Academy

Sat, 25 Nov 2006 11:21:00 -0600

We finaly got Rosie enrolled at Eagle's Peak Academy. We have our first meeting with the ES on Wendsday. I look forward to the help I'll get from the charter school with the lesson planning and organising. I've herd nothing but good things about it and I hope that they do allow me the flexibility they boast. As for what we've been doing so far on our own we have been following an unschooling type of strategy for the past month. I've been teaching Rosie according to the life experiences we've been having instead of formally sitting down and doing workbooks. Things have worked out that way because having the new baby has taken up most of the time I used to spend planning lessons and executing them with Rosie. She also loves to play educational computer games. She's learning how to read playng a reading and phonics game over the internet. We haven't been able to go to the library as often as we used either. I know that as soon as we start working on the curriculum we will recieve from EP it will allow us to get back to a more formal routine once more. Since I homeschooled through out the summer and only took about 3 weeks "off" to plan this year I'm not to worried about this past month of not having a formal teaching schedule. I actualy expected it knowing I would have a newborn to care for.

I keep asking the Lord for wisdom and guidance as I continue to eduate our children.

Still the same! =(

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 11:18:00 -0500

I went to the doc today and he said everything is still the same! I can't believe that after a week of contractions and even some bleeding nothing has changed (except I'm 1/2 cm more ). I was sure I'd made more progress, SIGH! Oh well, I know this baby will come when God wills, the thing is that I don't want to be induced, not again Lord!! I'm going to pray so much that doesn't happen. I hated being induced with my first two girls, plus I realy wanted to have a normal and natural birth. Yeah, I know all that matters is that baby is healthy but the healthiest way to have him is natural. This is a trial for me because I need to not be anxious about it and instead just give it to the Lord since it's something that is absolutely out of my hands. The doc sais that he'll wait until a week after my due date to consider inducing which gives me 2 weeks to go into labor on my own. The Lord's will be done!

Yay at last some progress! 3cm, -2, 60% effaced.

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 11:17:00 -0500

I went back to the Doc's today and he told me that I've finaly made more progress! He doubts that he will have to induce and I'm praying he won't. I told him about my fears of hemorrageing a third time and he agreed to wait until the 42nd week. He did a stripping of membranes (procedure to try to induce labor) and I pray that works.

I was remembering that 6 years ago today at 7am I was inudced to have my first baby girl! I didn't have her until 1:45 pm the next day (total of 32 hours labor!). It would be so cute if I have this baby tomorrow on my first girl's birthday. She won't mind since she sais this baby boy is her birthday present from God.

The Lord's will be done!

Baby Nichola's Borthday Story

Sat, 25 Nov 2006 11:14:00 -0600

It's hard to believe that it's been almost a month since I gave birth to our beautiful little Boy! That's why I decided that I better write down his Birthday story now before more time passes by and I forget many of the details.

As I wrote in previous blogs his actual birth began weeks before he came into the world. I was in what is called pre-labor for about a month prior to his birthday. On the one hand that was a good thing since it made the toughest part of labor very fast, but on the other hand I belive that quickness caused one of the two complications we experienced at his birth.

The morning of the 29 of October began like any other I've had for the past few weeks. I had a very restless night because I was so anxious from being 3 days past my due date. As I've writen before my greatest fear was that I would have to be induced. At my last doctor's apointment he said I was 3cm dialated and had effaced to 60%. I was a bit relived that I was progressing some but at the same time by then I was growing tired of the slow progress. I had asked the doctor that previous Tuesday if I could do anything on my own to induce labor. He was adament about me not trying any home induction teqniques including castor oil and he told me to just keep walking.

That Sunday morning however I decided to ignore his instructions. I went to Church that morning and afterward I went to the drug store to buy a small bottle of castor oil. I didn't even tell my DH Nick that I had done that because I knew he would get mad that I had ignored doctor's orderes. After the birth I confessed and apologies to Nick for that, we never keep secrets from each other and I wasn't going to start then. Many people I knew had recomended castor oil to me to induce labor and I had tried it a couple of weeks before with no success other than getting very clean bowels!

In my desperation I decided to try castor oil just once more but only 2oz which is half of what I'd tried two weeks before. The rest of the day went on as ususal until my oldest girl asked if we could pray for the baby to come out that night. I told her that God will have the baby born when he is ready (although in my mind I also hoped it was that day!!!). So we prayed that if God willed the baby would finaly be born that night healthy and happy.

A few hours latter at about 7pm I began to feel some contractions. I felt a mixture of hope and of caution since I didn't want to get dissapointed if those were just false labor pains again. One hour passed, and then two and the contractions kept coming although they didn't seem very regular yet. They were from 8 to 30 minutes apart varying times with each one. At about 9pm with mild to medium contractions still coming my mother in law advised me to call my DH Nick at work to tell him that my contrctions have been non stop for the past 2 hours (my previous false labor contractions would stop at about one hour). So I called Nick and I told him. He seemed a bit skeptical too and I told him not to come home until I knew for sure this was the real thing. He kept calling me through out the evening to check up on me. At about 10:45 pm Nick got home from work and my contractions had become more regular at about 8-10minutes apart and had become a steady medum strength. I called the hospital but they told me to just wait until the contractions got so painful that I couldn't stand it anymore. I was dissapointed that they didn't tell me to come in but by that point I was getting used to dissapointing news. I decided to go to bed with some hope this was it, but at the same time atticipating another night of nothing.

Then at about 11pm I had a rude awakening. I remember I was just begining to dream as I drifted off to sleep when I felt a pain as if someone had punched in in the stomach. After that pain subsided I had only a few seconds of rest before another one struck me just as suddenly and strong. I went to the bathroom and noticed heavy bleeding. I went into the living room where Nick was and I told him that I thought it was time for us to go. I had a few more contractions but those were not as strong anymore. I prayed that they would not continue to subside. My prayer was answered because just as we were ready to leave I began to have contractions so strong that I litterally had to stop in my tracks and couldn't even utter a word from the intensity. Quickly we said goodbye to my mother in law who had been staying with us to help me out and also waiting for baby to be born and said goodbye to a groggy Rosebud who had been awakened by our hurried voices.

I had fantasised about that drive to the hospital dozens of times before in my head whenever we would drive the same freeway we took to the hospital, specialy because this would be the first time I had taken that drive while being in actual active labor! However, now that it was realy happening I barely got a chance to enjoy the midnight drive since I had my eyes closed most of the way due to the intensity of each contraction.

When we got to the hospital we had to park far away because there was some construction going on there. Every step I took felt like an eternity and every few steps I would get a contraction so I had to stop. Nick would patiently and lovingly hold on to me as we waited for each contraction to pass. Finally we got to the ER where I had to wait another few minutes (it felt like hours!) as I got admitted. I was wheelchaired into the maternity ward triage room since all the regurar LDR's were full. I was told that as soon as an LDR was free I would get it. It was a promise they never fulfilled. The nurses told me that they would keep me in observation for an hour to make sure I was in real labor. I almost slaped someone because if this crazy pain I had wasn't real labor than I must have been going nuts! There was no way I was going home no matter what they said!

After an hour I had gone from 3cm to 4cm which caused the nurses to conclude it was indeed real labor (duh!). We called my mom and she rushed to the hospital to be with me during the birth. In the mean time the pains got more and more intense. Just when I though they were a strong as they could be the next one seemed worse!

I vowed to myself not to have an epidural and I had told Nick a few weeks before that no matter how much I begged for it that he would not let me get one. He did his job well. The nurse offered me another type of drug that, as she explained, would take the edge off the pains but would make me feel drunk and drowsy. It wasn't an epidural so in my moment of weakness I agreed to take some of that drug. She was right when she said that it would make me feel drunk and drowsy, I felt as if I had at least a 6 pack of beers, however and regretably it did nothing for the pain. So now besides the intence sensations from the contractions I also had a major buzz and I could barely keep my eyes opened from feeling so sleepy. With evey contraction I remember asking Nick to pray that God would give me strength because I felt mine draining away fast. I felt bad for my poor mom who had to witness me in that state but having her there deffenately gave me more comfort.

I don't know how much time had passed but I had enough of the pains and asked the nurse about an epidural, as soon as Nick left the room for some coffee of course. She checked me and said I was already at 7cm so an epidural was out of the question. I'm extremely glad I didn't get a chance to get an epidural and I thank my amazing DH Nick for his loving support in that decition. I know it must have been hard for him too seeing me that way and having to be the one to remind me of my resolve like I asked him to. He is my best coach and motivator after God! I love him so!

Also, when the nurse checked me she said that I had a bulging bag of waters and that although she wasn't allowed to break it (only the Doc was allowed to do that) she had pinched it in hopes that would weaken it and it would pop with the next contraction. After she left the room all I remember is my eyes involuntarily closing from that drunk drug's drowsy effect when suddenly I felt an amazingly intence and strong feeling with the next contraction! I had just a couple of seconds before another one just like it happened and I felt a pop and then a hot gush of water. That's when I had one of the most surreal moments of my life! I heard myself let out this great yell and I fell a tremendous amout of preassure. My mom ran out to call the nurse. When the nurse came back in I saw her eyes open wide and she told me not to push (I HATE WHEN THEY TELL ME THAT!), the baby was crowning! I barely managed enough strength and breath to tell her that I couldn't stop. I felt all consious control over my own body completely dissapear as it took over the work on it's own. Nothing my body did after that was my own will, it just did what it was created to do as if some other force had totaly taken over it. It was both amazing and terrifying at the same time specialy since that didn't happen to me with my two other babies. Even my emotional reaction wasn't voluntary. I heard myself yell out, yet in my mind I was thinking to myself "This is so ridicuous, I wish I could just shut up, how dramatic!" but I couldn't stop that reflex reaction!

After the pop and the gush I felt a sting as if I were being ripped in half. I though for sure I would need corrective surgery after that birth. In the mean time more nurses came in and they finaly realised that no matter how much they begged me not to push that my baby was coming and that they better be ready to catch him. Panic filled the room once more and I heard them say that the baby had shouler distocia which means that his showlders were stuck in the birth cannal in my pubic bone. Latter on after the baby was born I heard the nurse explaining to the doctor that she had to put her hands inside me to turn baby around. She also said that in her 30 years of being a nurse and delivering babies that was the first time she had delivered a baby with showlder dystocia. What a way to be remembered! I belive that he got stuck because he poped out like a cannon ball so he didn't have time to plac himself properly in the birth cannal. That must have been when I felt like I was going to rip in half! I even thought about my little girls and what would happen to them if something realy bad happened to me right then and there! Finaly after what seemed like an eternity that Monday October 30 at 4:23 am my precious baby boy was born! Just then as I saw him laying on my bed with his cord still connected to me I felt the greatest high! All those sensations just a few seconds ago which had made me feel as if death was imminent for me had in a moment completely dissapered and were replaced by complete euphoria. I felt as if I was floating on air. Even that annoying drunk feeling the drug had given me went away as soon as Baby Nick came out of me! They took my baby away because like my body traditionaly likes to do I began to hemorrage. The poor nurses paniced once again. Latter on Nick told me I was the talk of the maternity ward since my labor was so interesting, to say the least. I even had a student nurse interview me for a paper she had to do because of that.

The same nurse who delivered Baby Nick worked fevershly to stop the bleeding. She had told me before she was a Christian but at that moment the way I heard her expressing herself verbaly from the situation at hand did not morror her faith, poor lady! She massaged my uterus and gave me a shot that burned (just when I thought the pain was over). She ordered the other nurses that I be given pitocin to cause my uterus to contract.

Then the doctor finaly showed up. The nurse explined to the Doc everything that had happened and asked her to sign the ok for all the drugs she had given me (RN's are not allwed to prescribe medications which she had to do to save me from bleeding to death).

By the time the doctor got there all she realy had to do was make sure that I was ok and that the bleeding was under control. All the real chaos was over before she even got there.

My poor mom had been kicked out of the room since it was too small for her to be there during the actual birth. I ended up delivering it the triage room instead of the LDR I was promised when I first came in. Not having my mom there to witness the birth of our third child was upseting to me specialy since she had been there for the previous two. Of course the presence of my precious husband there was a tremendous comfort for me like always.

An hour or so latter the nurses finaly gave me my Baby Nick back. Just as with my first two little Angels he seemed even more amazing and beautiful than I could ever have imagined and just as my first two it was love at first sight (the only love at first sight I do believe in). It's moments like that one that I feel closest to Heaven and that have convinced me beyong a shadow of a doubt that a loving, mercyful and graceful God does exsist!

Thankful to my mercyful Lord I didn't even as much as tear and I recovered completetly and perfectly from bringing our third miracle our Baby Nicholas into the world! And I'm already looking forward to my next birthing experience, and yes I will attempt natural birth once more. This last experience prooved to me that my body indeed has the amazing ability to do what God created it to do and it gave me renewed love, respect and pride for that Female body of mine!

To my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ be all the Glory and Praise!!

4 days and still no baby!

Sat, 14 Oct 2006 11:20:00 -0500

It's been 4 days since I went to my Doc's and he told me labor had begun but as of this moment still no baby. Well at least not in my arms instead of my belly. I'm still contracting although those are random and unconsistent. There are other things going on which like I said before are abit too graphic and personal to divulge here . In my anxiety I've gone as far as to try Mexican old wives remedies for a lazy labor! I've drank more Te de Manzanilla than I've ever had in my life (not to mention all the extra trips to the bathroom besides the usual 100 trips I take from being pregnant!). I've eaten more Comino than there is in an Indian food buffet! I've walked more miles in the past week than my swollen feet cared to walk. Yet, I'm still here with my bulging belly trying with all of my heart to be patient. What realy gives me the warm and fuzzies is seeing my whole family so eager to see this baby born too. I think they are actualy more anxious than I am!! From my dad in Spain who has called me everyday, to my family in Mexico who is praying for me, to my in-laws who drove from Laughlin in a rush Tuesday night, to my family here in California, I guess I could say this baby has the whole World in pins and needles! Wow, so much love for my baby who noone has even met yet makes me feel blessed beyond what I could even ask for!!

So this will be a long weekend as all eyes are on me and baby as we all wait for his birth. Oh great, now I'm getting performance anxiety!

The Lord is good!