Wednesday, January 26, 2011

January 13, 2011

Induction Day is here!!  I woke up at about 3:30 AM feeling a couple contractions on and off.  From then on I couldn't go back to sleep.  I tried to get some sleep since we would be leaving for the hospital soon, but my tummy would not quit grumbling...I was hungry!  I think I finally dozed off for a little while and then woke up at 5:00 AM, called the hospital and got the go ahead to come in.  Woohoo, it was finally here.  I was going to be holding my sweet little girl in just a few hours.  But good grief with the hunger pains!!  I got up and got dressed and ready.  I let Joseph sleep a little longer and got all of our bags out in the living room.  I woke Joseph up a little after 6:00 AM.  He pulled our car down to mom's drive way and loaded our bags.  While getting ready to go out the door, Josiah wakes up asking for Mackenzie.  We tell him we were going to "get" her today!  He's upset, but thankfully Aunt Gabby and Abui (my mom) are there to comfort him.  

We get to the hospital and we are ready to get this show going!  My nurse is super nice and we find out we both went to Brenau and I worked with her husband at Sam's Club.  Paperwork is filled out, IV is put in and we are hanging out waiting on Tiffany to come and break my water.  My nurse starts pitocin at a low drip since I was already 4-5 cm.  She goes ahead and orders my epidural and the anesthesiologist comes in not too much longer after that.  I tell her everything that went wrong with my other two epidural and she promised to do what she could to make this one a good one!  Well....it was.  She was really good about watching my blood pressure, making sure it did not drop and talked me through it.  They sat me back in the bed and I immediately started to feel my legs going numb.  I finally got a good epidural!  While they were making sure I didn't have any crazy side effects Tiffany came in ready to go.  She went ahead and broke my water and asked our nurse to check me every 30 minutes and call her with an update.  She had a feeling this was going to be pretty fast.  I figured by about 12 or 1 I would have a baby.  So as everyone was coming in and getting settled my nurse checked me and I was at 6-7cm...wow this is going pretty fast!  At that point we called Joseph, he had gone with Papa Rob to get breakfast, and tell him to come on!  He points out that my contractions are pretty intense and about 3 minutes apart and I happily answer "I can't feel a thing!"  By this point I am STARVING.  Epidurals work great on labor contractions, but not so much on hunger pains.  So next check and I am at 8cm.  Yeah...still can not feel a thing!  So the waiting continued we took a couple of pictures...well if you know our family...we took LOTS of pictures...

                                               
Waiting...


Waiting...

And finally last check 10:30 AM and I was 10cm...still could not feel ANYTHING!! We wait on Tiffany to come.  She comes in and we are ready!  She tells me to push and normally I can feel the contractions coming and know it's time to push, but this time I was like ok...  So I push....I get done pushing and say "I can't feel anything!"  She tells me to push again and I do.  Then she says "ok stop pushing."  and I think I said "stop pushing, like don't do anything...?"  She tells me to grunt and I grunt twice and she's out at 10:44 AM!  Could not believe how easy that was!  I remember thinking..."Did I just have a baby?!"  Oh, but she was beautiful!!  They laid her on my chest and I think I was still in shock of how fast and easy that had been.


6 lbs 13 oz and 20.25 inches long 

 She was finally here!  Alive and healthy and perfect, absolutely perfect...  Thank you Lord!


Look at those toes


Gorgeous


Proud Daddy and Amazing Husband


Parents of 3 kids....yikes :)


My girls... wouldn't want to share this with anyone else 


God is so good

Let me take a minute and thank my awesome midwife Tiffany!!!  She now has delivered all three of my kids.  She was so amazing during this tough journey.  Thank you Tiffany!!!  Her exact words right after I had Mackenzie were "Let's do this again next year!"  Ha!...nah... 3 is GOOD!


So there it is Mackenzie's birth story.  She's my miracle baby and after 14 weeks of bed rest, 20 ultra sounds, many scares, fears of losing her, trusting God with my entire life, learning to accept His will even when I didn't like it, she has already changed my life.  Thank you God...Thank you...



20 Ultrasounds...I think my insurance company probably hates me ha!


"For this child (Mackenzie Faith Eterno) I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition..." 1 Samuel 1:27





oh....and those hunger pains....finally gone....mmmmm....




January 10, 2011

Everything was set to go...  January 10, 2011 was the BIG day.  Bags were packed, fridge was stocked, house was cleaned, plans for where the kids were going to be were made, and we were off to my mom's.  We were spending the night with them on Sunday and then Monday we were off to have a baby.  Well...then...this....happened...


and this...


and this...!!!!!


Talk about being so angry!  We got the dreaded call that evening from my midwife letting us know that all inductions were cancelled.  Not what I wanted to hear, but in all reality how in the world were we going to get there anyways.  So....for the next few hours or really the next day I was upset and frustrated.  Everything was all planned out.  Who the kids were staying with, Joseph's days off and it all fell apart.  I am a planner...I hate surprises, well let's say dislike.  I really like surprises as long as I don't know about them...anyways.  I started to worry about who the kids would stay with,  when I would be induced, and on and on and on.  Finally I had to stop and just trust God that it was all going to work out.  FAITH I needed FAITH!  I quit being so angry because in reality who was I angry with?  The snow???  Could I really be angry at snow?!?  Not so much because snow doesn't care if I'm angry, then why should I be angry and make everyone else miserable.  Instead for the next few days we enjoyed my mom's home cooked meals and time to just hang out.  

As much as I didn't enjoy the snow, these guys sure did!  





And after being cooped up for three days we finally got the call!  Induction was scheduled for Thursday, January 13, 2011...Praise. God!!

An Unforgettable Night in Atlanta


Friday night Joseph and my sister Gabby took Josiah and Mary Elisabeth to the Hawks game.  A little part of me was upset because this was Mary Elisabeth's first time going to the game, but I was pretty content to spend a night alone with my newest little baby girl.  The upset part quickly turned into "thank goodness I didn't go" when Gabby and Joseph came home and told me all about their night.  I'm going to try to recap their night for you...

Joseph hates being late for any kind of sporting event.  He usually makes us leave hours before the game begins. Of course with work he knew he couldn't leave so early so him and Gabby decided that 6 would be a good time to leave.  Nonnie and I started getting the kids ready pretty early.  They were so excited!  That is all Josiah could talk about since Joseph told him they would go.  So after they woke up from their naps, I gave them baths and Nonnie helped me get them dressed.  She also fed them dinner while I got all of their stuff together.  Then the waiting began... At about 6:30 I think, Joseph came in and ran upstairs to quickly change.  They got everything together, took a quick picture, and hurried out the door.  I remember texting Joseph at around 8:30ish to see how it was going and when his reply was  "good, we just sat down,"  I was a little confused. When they got to Atlanta Joseph parked where we always park our car ran across the street to pick up the tickets only to find out that the doors to the ticket place were locked.  He called the representative and she told them they were now in a different location about three lights down from the arena. While he is on the phone, my sister had the kids stand inside the swinging doors because it was freezing outside.  They ran down to the ticket place, I can't remember the name....stub hub maybe?...  Joseph carrying Josiah and Gabby carrying sissy.  But let me tell you, carrying sissy is not an easy thing.  You see the girl eats and she weighs more than her brother!  So they get to the ticket place, get the tickets and venture out into the cold.  Gabby said that when they were leaving the ticket place sissy said, "no....cold!"  She didn't want to leave because it was so cold outside (my poor baby).  All while running back to the arena she kept saying "cold, cold."  They finally go in and get to their seats and half time is just about to start!  Well....the Hawks were not doing so well...  But Joseph said that sissy was in awe of the lights and sounds!  She and bubba had a great time!  In the end...the Hawks lost...bad...really bad.  As Joseph said "It was the Worse home loss, fewest points ever by the hawks AND the first time in NBA history that a team at least 10 games over 500 lost by 41 points at home."  Bummer...oh well... time to get in the car and head home...yeah it was not that easy...  They get to the car and find that someone (I will refrain from calling them what I really want to call them!) broke the back passenger window and broke into the car.  Why?????  I have NO idea!!!!  My husband the cop always says "do not leave anything out that will atract a theif!  Not even keys"  The kids freaked out when they saw the busted window and Josiah kept saying "they broke my mommy's car."  Gabby and Joseph put the kids in the front seat and got the heat going while they cleaned up all of the glass.  Then came the next question of the night..."what am I going to cover the window with so that the kids do not FREEZE?"  My hubby, he's a smart one...  He used the rug from the back of my car to cover the window...let me show ya!


Isn't he so clever?!  

Thankfully this kept them warm and they made it home safe and sound.  My sister said it best on Facebook... "Me, Joseph, Josiah and Mary Elisabeth came to the Hawks game...they got the record for least points in a game... we get back to the car and the window is shattered on sissy's side.  They didn't take anything just went through books and bibles hope they at least read the Word and found Jesus!"

A special thanks to my sister for going with Joseph and the kids.  Although it wasn't your normal Hawks game the kids had a blast and in the end that's all that mattered!  But I think it will be a while before Gabby goes to a Hawks game, but for us???  March 8th baby!!!!  Hawks vs. Lakers!!!!  Go Hawks!!! 



Sunday, January 23, 2011

Mackenzie Faith Eterno


Watch out world...here comes another Eterno.  Mackenzie Faith was born on Thursday, January 13, 2011.  She weighed 6 lbs 13 oz and measured 20.25 inches long.  She is absolutely perfect.  I can't wait to tell you all about her birth story!  As soon as I'm able to upload more pictures I will...




Welcome Home Little Miss...



"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."  Hebrews 11.1

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The End of 2010 in Pictures

So much went on towards the end of the year... My computer got a virus and left me without the ability to post.  Here are a couple of pictures from the end of the year...



We put up our tree a couple of days after Thanksgiving.  We like to put it up and let it "breathe," if you can say that an artificial tree breathes ha!  But anyways we put it up a couple of days before we set all the decorations on it so that the leaves can fall into place.


I think it was two weeks before we started to decorate  


Being full term I was just too tired to do it all myself.  The kids really enjoyed helping me decorate.  Yes they stayed mostly to the lower left side of the tree, leaving my tree to look like this...


If you know me I am a hands on do it my self kind of girl, so letting them do the majority of the ornament hanging was a little difficult for me.  I remember thinking I can not wait for them to go to bed so that I can fix the ornaments.  In the end, I left it alone.  It grew on me! 


I bought this ornament the year after Joseph's dad passed away.  We miss Papa Vince so much...


I think Fritz was running out of places to appear at....daddy told the kids Fritz had a cold ha!



The week of Nonnie's birthday we all went to Applebees....after a couple of shots I think I finally got a good one!  Happy Birthday Nonnie!


This was Christmas at my parents... My kids are totally spoiled thanks to my parents, brother, sister and JRob.  Josiah went crazy when he opened these two.  He opened Woody and said "I wanted this!"  




Christmas Morning at our house


Merry Christmas Bubba!


Merry Christmas Sissy


Christmas at Nonnie and Papa Rob's house


We just keep on growing...


Nonnie and Papa Rob with the grand kids


Nonnie and Sissy :)