Hello again, yes we are alive!

Here are some updated photos of Drew over the past several months. Sorry it has taken me so long to post! It's difficult finding the time when you work a full and part-time job and have a family. Love to you all!

This was his Halloween outfit!

This was at Aunt Laura & Uncle Wes' house, just driving around.

Just a happy boy.

This was at Grandma G's house and I was riding on the sweeper while she was sweeping.

This was my first ever frozen strawberry, yum!




This was Drew's dedication in January.

Catching Up!

Ok, so I'm trying to catch up on pics and events so here you go!!! Daddy look at my muscles!


He fell asleep at the edge of his mat after he scooted there.

Mommy & me, a day at home.

This is the cradle I slept in for 8 weeks, it is over 100 years old.

I'm ready to fight anyone who doesn't agree with me!!

My first Parade in LaPorte.

Grandpa and I sat on the front porch and just hung out.

And then I laid down on his lap

And then I decided I was hungry

Let me just touch it


This is Aunt Laura and my cousin Faith walking around at the ballpark.

My first baseball game, the Sox vs. the Cubs!


This was my first taste of cereal at 1 month and I slept really well but then mommy took it away because the lactation consultant said I wasn't ready for it.
























Grandpa and I took a nap.




This is my room!

These are a lot of my clothes, but I also have a dresser full.

Working from home...

I had him sitting in the lazy boy rocker in his room and I think he was about to fall over. He's just so cute! He's all boy!!!




This is our favorite picture of him. The store thought this was a professional and they didn't want to print it. I had to prove to them that it wasn't. It was funny. A compliment I guess. He did this on his own.






This was the shower that Mom Drake & Laura threw for us with Forestbrook Missionary Church and the Drake family from Pennsylvania and the Huffman family.

There is always something to do whether it's Bethel work or home work. Being a new mommy and learning how to balance everything is definitely a learning and balancing act. :) Things are going pretty well working from home for Bethel, at least I think so. Last week I was a little stressed, but I feel better about things this week. I am basically learning a whole new job at Bethel because my previous boss, Steve Matteson is working in a different area of the college now. So my new boss is Jeanne Fox, whom I love but she is taking over Steve's job so I'm basically taking over her job. I like learning new things but what I'm doing now is very critical, not that my work wasn't before it was but this is very important stuff. What I'm doing now is evaluating transcripts. So if anyone transfers in a course to Bethel from another college I am the one who decides whether or not we will accept it and what we will accept it for. Crazy!!! I just don't want to mess things up. Students already take a risk when they transfer to a different college and I would just like to make it as easy as possible for them, if I can. :)

Today I worked from home and Drew slept from 11am-3pm, that was great! He hasn't done that in a long time! I was able to put the spring schedule into the computer and make changes since he slept so long. Thanks Drew!

There will be more changes to the spring schedule to come, lots more, but for now that project is finished.

The pics I am including are his 1 month pictures that I took.

New Mommy Continued...

So... at some point during the night Drew's heartrate dipped to 60 (which is not good), and all of a sudden 6 or 7 nurses came running in and gave me oxygen and were checking the monitor and told me that I was about 3 seconds away from a c-section. Well they moved me to a different position and his heartrate went back up so we were good then. A little later I was having back pain from my torn muscle, well the nurse thought that maybe Drew was upside down so she had me roll over onto my stomach! Do you know what it takes to roll a pregnant woman onto her stomach with no feeling in her legs. A LOT!!!! Well at that point I was in so much pain that I couldn't stay that way very long and I had to roll back over onto my back. So we found out later that because of all that Drew only made it half way around and was then coming down the birth canal sideways! :(

Finally about 7 or 7:30am on Friday, May 9th I started pushing. At one point the nurse asked me if I wanted to look in a mirror and watch and I told her "no." I said no because I knew that Drew was not as far out as I thought he was. The nurse then proceeded to ask me another 2x and I told her no another 2x, but I'm thinking "what part of NO didn't you understand!"

So we pushed for 3 hours. At some point Dr. Lyons came in and asked how things were going and the same crazy nurse said "well she hasn't asked me to have you pull him out yet." The nurse was joking, but I thought she was serious, so from that point on I just kept looking at Andrew and my mom and saying "just have them pull him out", "can't they pull him out?" Well I know now, that no they could not pull him out. :(

So finally Dr. Lyons thought I was far enough along to join us in the room and I was pushing. Let me tell you that Dr. Lyons was the last Dr. that I wanted to deliver Drew. We just didn't connect in the office. Well let me tell you that God knows exactly what he is doing. I was so tired and so out of it and in so much pain from my torn muscle that if I would have had any other Dr. I don't know that I would have listened. He looked me right in the eye and said "PUSH!, you do not want to have a c-section after pushing for this long!" I'm not sure how long I pushed with Dr. Lyons but eventually he realized that Drew was not coming. They could see his head and his full head of dark hair but for some reason he just wasn't coming down any further.

So at this point Dr. Lyons decided to try suction. He tried 4x to pull Drew out with the vacuum but it didn't work. Because he was having to use the suction they had to take the internal monitor off of Drew's head so they didn't know how he was doing and whether or not his heartrate was dropping or not, so after 4 tries with the vacuum, Dr. Lyons decided we were going for an emergency c-section.

They wisked me away off to the surgery room and they gave Andrew scrubs and 3 minutes to get dressed. They got me in there and the anathesiologist told me that they were going to numb me again for surgery especially since I was going to be awake. They pinched me after a few minutes where they were going to cut and I told them that I could feel it. They said "are you sure it's not just pressure?" I said "no, it hurts." They waited 2 more times at 2 minutes each waiting for me to go numb and it never happened so they put me out because they couldn't wait any longer since they didn't know how Drew was doing. The nurse went back to our labor and delivery room and told Andrew that he couldn't come in since I wasn't going to be awake. He was very upset. :(

About 15 minutes later Andrew (Drew) James Drake II was born at 8lbs. 3 oz and 20 inches long! They then reversed my anathestic and brought Andrew in and then they brought Drew in to us so that we could see him together for the first time. We then spent the next 1 1/2 together in the recovery room, just the 3 of us. It was wonderful!!!

So after the c-section Dr. Lyons went and told Andrew that everything was fine and that once I was awake he could see us. He also told Andrew that I am just too narrow and to schedule c-sections from now on. Wouldn't you know that the skinniest place on my body is somewhere no one ever sees! How pathetic.

Well that's it for now, hope you enjoyed my story. Check out the pics above!!! Sorry it took so long to post them!

New Mommy

Well hello everyone! Some of you have been asking about my blog and I am finally getting around to it. Today is my first day back at Bethel and so far it is going well and that is why I have time to blog. I am on my lunch hour. So the past 6 weeks have been crazy!!!

Drew is growing like a weed! He left the hospital measuring 20 inches long and two weeks later he was 22 1/2 inches!!! We go back in July for his next appt. so we will see what he is then. He is already up to 9 lbs. 14 oz.

I guess I should really start with...Drew was born May 9th, 2008 at Memorial Hospital. He weighed in at 8 lbs. 3 oz. and measured 20 inches long. He came after a long and painful birth. Andrew and I went into the Dr.'s office on Thursday for a non-stress test. The machine kept showing that Drew's heart rate was dipping so they sent us over to triage at Memorial around 4pm. Once in triage they hooked me up to the monitor again and Drew was doing really well but right before they were going to come in and release us his heart rate dipped so they then decided to do an ultrasound. We waited 2 hours for the ultrasound because she was with other patients. Finally she came in and did the ultrasound and that took 45 min. After the ultrasound the Dr. came in and said since I was already 5 days overdue and my fluid was a little low that they were going to go ahead and induce me. Andrew had convinced me that we were probably not going to stay so I told him he had to buy me a purse if we didn't stay. Lucky for him we did. :)

So it was now about 9pm. They gave me pitocin (to induce labor) at about 9:30pm and they broke my water at 10:30pm. The nurse didn't want the Intern Dr. to break my water, she wanted to wait and see if it happened naturally but the Dr. didn't want to wait. Well somewhere around midnight I wanted to get in the tub because my contractions were getting worse, but the nurse told me that since my water had been broken I couldn't get in the tub because of the risk of infection. I was so mad at that Dr.!! I love the tub and it was a jacuzzi tub!!! At that point I asked for an epidural. But we had to wait 2 hours because the anathesiologist had just gone into surgery.

Finally around 2-2:30am the anathesiologist came in to give me my epidural. It was wonderful!!! And the Dr. did a great job and he was really nice!!! So after that I got a little bit of rest and sleep which was nice for Andrew and my mom as well.

Oh yeah I almost forgot. A few years back when I was working for Nelson's Chicken I ripped a muscle under my left rib cage and it has healed since then but for some reason after a while the epidural would wear off in just that one spot. We later found out that there was scar tissue there and so the medicine could not get to the muscle completely. So basically once the contraction would wear off, it wouldn't wear off in that one spot. At one point I had a 7 minute contraction it was nuts!!!!

Well I need to stop for now, but I will post the rest of the story later. :) And pictures too!!!

TaDaa!

Well hello! So here is my first ever blog, I've come to the dark side. So it's Tuesday April 29th, and I am due in 4 days! I can't believe it's here already. I know this may sound weird but we are hoping he (Drew, our baby) holds off until next week sometime. Andrew has an awards night that will go late tomorrow night and I have graduation at Bethel this weekend. So...we would love it if he would wait to come until next week sometime. But I'm sure he will come when he is ready.

So in case some of you don't know, this is our 3rd baby but the first that we will have. Our other 2 babies are in Heaven already, having a party without us. :) We had our first miscarriage October 2006 and our second March of 2007. It was hard but we know that God has a plan and a reason for everything. We are so excited to meet our little boy in just a few short days. Please pray that labor and delivery goes well.

Well I suppose that's it for now, I will post again once Drew is born!