Birth Story and Pics

Well, with a new baby at home, we have lots of stories and lots of pics.

For now, here's Aaron's first pics from the hospital and coming home. There's still lots of adjusting going on, but we've also been enjoying lots of lovin' on this little guy!

It's not much of an exciting birth story. The cool thing was it happened on July 3rd, Angel and I were both off work because of the 4th holiday. I tried staying home as long as I could. I woke up twice early in the morning and wondered if it was because of contractions. I told Angel I thought it was happening, but still wasn't sure. When we finally got out of bed and going for the day, I started telling him everytime I had a contraction and he would write it down. They were about every 10 minutes at 9:30 (am). A few hours later Angel kept loosing the paper and pen, so Alisia took over recording them. They were't very hard, but they were consistent, so we knew it was happening and rejoiced that I wouldn't be getting induced!

While we were home, I tried to stay distracted and threw in a load of laundry, did some dishes, Angel mowed the yard, Alisia and I played a card game, updated the blog, we walked around Wal-Mart and stopped by my parents house. By that time, around 5:00, they were getting harder and every 4-5 minutes. We went home, Angel grabed a shower, got the suitcase, and headed to the hospital. We checked in about 7:45. When we got up the floor it was about 8 pm and I was at 5 cm. I was discouraged because I had been going through this all day. I was hoping I would be closer. We spent two hours breathing through contractions and different positions. By 10 pm I was so tired and ready for some Meds. Everyone was happy when I started to get angry at the way Angel was holding my hand. They said that's a "good sign" and I was almost done. They checked me and I was already at 9 1/2 cm and decided I could make it to the end. Me, my mom, Angel, a midwife-in-training, the midwife observing, the doctor observing, and the labor delivery nurse were all just waiting for the next contraction. 2-3 contractions later I was pushing him out. He was born at 10:24 pm.

First pic: They placed him right up on my belly when he was born.

Yup. 8.12 No Meds. :)

Proud Papi:

Proud siblings! Love at first sight!

Proud big sister! And proud Grammy (who helped me SO much in the delivery room)!

Caleb was SO curious about everything they were doing to the baby and mommy! He kept asking tons of questions, the good thing was the nurse was patient enough to answer most of them. She thought he was so cute. "Why does the baby have to be in that cart, Where are they taking him, why is his face have that stuff on it, why do you have those things hooked up to you, did you scream" And so many more!

He was also so proud of his little brother and very eager to hold him.

In awe and in love:

Birth record:

My mom had to work while we were in the hospital and came to check on us every chance she got:

Have to fight her down if you want to hold him:

Right after delivery the nurse asked me "what did you have? A boy or a girl" I guess I'm not use to that question yet because my responce was "I have one of each" after she looked at me strangly, I realized that I have one girl and two boys. Then I responded "no, I had a boy."

Happy Mommy with her three kids!

On Sunday, Uncle Jarrod and Aunt Stephanie came to meet their new nephew:




And help us back up to go home:

Yay, going home!

Angel was scheduled to give the message on Sunday. I had to miss it, but I heard he did great!! Right after church, we all went home.

First car ride. Those things sure don't help keep their head up like they're supposed to.

At home:

Still in Awe:

Hanging out with Aunt Stephanie:

And many more adventures to come!

Aaron Samuel Garcia

Born: 7/3/09 at 10:24 pm
8 lb 12 oz
19 1/2 in

"Yet you brought me safely from my mother's womb and led me to trust you at my mother's breast. I was thrust into your arms at my birth. You have been my God from the moment I was born."
Psalm 22:9 & 10

Counting Blessings

Caleb woke up on Tuesday and reminded me that it was the last day of June and said "the baby has to come today because you said he'd come in June."

I had an appointment this week with the midwife and we talked about inducing on Monday if he doesn't come by this weekend. I don't know how I feel about being induced because both Alisia and Caleb came a few days before their due date. But we also talked about the risks involved with going past 42 weeks. We're just praying he'll decide to come out on his own. And yes we are trying every trick in the book.

Waiting has been challenging. But God has revealed himself in so many ways these past few days. Since my due date, God has showered down so many blessings unexpectedly and shown me that He really does has every detail under his perfect control. These blessings have been reminders to me of His amazing love.

Blessing #1: Compared to how I was feeling this time last month, God has definitely filled my spirit with peace and I'm so ready to bring this little guy into the world!

Blessing #2: We just finished cleaning up our old house and turned the keys in Tuesday night. I don't know how that would have gotten done if we were in the hospital.

Blessing #3: We've been able to settle into our new house and set up the baby's room! This has been so exciting! And again, God providing! Take a look at what we have started so far:

Blessing #4: These clothes are from the bin I found during the move from when Caleb was born.

Blessing #5: Last week we sat down to seriously discuss names. Angel prayed before we began our discussion. It took only a few minutes for us to agree! It's not even a name that were considering before. We wrote it down and sealed the envelope!

Blessing #6: My parents. I haven't had childcare lined up for this week well, because I thought I wouldn't still be pregnant and working. My parents have been great working with our schedules and watching the kids. They also have freely given up many evenings to help us finnish cleaning our old house.

Blessing #7: These two have been playing so well together with all our crazy schedules going on. They keep eachother entertained and pitch in to help when or before they are asked. They are both so excited to meet their new sibling and have been so patient waiting.

Blessing #8: Don't laugh, but AFLAC. I signed up for AFLAC knowing we wanted to get pregnant. I signed up the end of August and the man said I'd have to wait 10 months from September 1st to have the baby. That put us right at July 1st. With a due date of June 26, I worried we signed up for it for nothing. But now it looks like it'll go through without any problems.

Blessing #9: God's people. We've had a lot going on at our church recently and it seems this is just not a good time to have a baby because every one is busy planning mission trips (including us). There's so much going on in the life of the church, and it's so easy to feel drowned out by it all. But through it all, God has faithfully brought people to our side to support us in so many ways. This has really helped me see the body of Christ as a whole body- globally, not just the people we worship with on Sunday's. We have been blessed countless times by fellow believers, not only from our own church body. This has also helped me be more aware of how I can help others.

All of these things have happened just since my due date. How Great is our God!

Here's another shot of my belly recently. It's not so clear, but you can really see how round it is and sticks way out there.

UPDATE:

BLESSING #10: Even more exciting than my round belly, we've been timing contractions today! Will this be a July 3rd baby or a July 4th?

Waiting

My due date was June 26th.

Today is July 1st.

Enough said.

I'll update more soon. For now, enjoy these most recent shots.

Dear God

Thankyou for our new house. Help the baby to come soon and be safe. Thankyou for my birthday and help it to be here soon too. And Alisia's birthday. And Mommy's. Thankyou for my new friends and my new room and I hope I can get a sports lamp soon.
Amen. (then kisses my tummy)

Someone has alot of thankfulness in his heart!

Father's Day Treasure

Thanks to Alisia, we have pictures from Father's Day! Last week she inherited a camera from Uncle Jarrod and Aunt Stephanie since they are leaving to Korea soon. She's been using it every day since then. It's so nice to have a camera around. And it sure came in handy for Father's Day since my camera is still missing.

We went out for lunch with my parents to wish my dad Happy Father's day and then we just relaxed and spent the afternoon together. Relaxing at our new place really helps make it feel like home! It was a beautiful day.

Alisia and Caleb sent him on a treasure hunt to find his gifts!


This card was great for Papi! It's one of those music cards and on the inside it says "you're the whole enchilada" and sings "hot,hot,hot."


This one was from ME, one of his most recent cravings!

Here's a family pic from yesterday. I'm 39 weeks!

We have been going through Exodus at church, a book that is most often referred to in the rest of the scriptures. God is very clear for his people to pass on His promises and stories of deliverance from generation to generation. He does not want generations to forget His mighty power.

Psalm 78:5-7
"He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands."

The rest of the book goes on to talk about the specific things that God did in delievering his people over and over again. I'm so thankful that my kids have an example of this through their dad. Angel is an example of sharing God's power with his children. In good times he is quick to praise and thank God and in hard times, he is quick to ask for prayer. He often reminds them of how God was so gracious to take him from his old ways and open his eyes to the truth. And how thankful that he is no longer who he used to be. He does not want our kids to forget about where we were, and just as the Israelites were to remind their children, Angel does that with his kids.

"...we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done."

Psalm 78:4

Labor Pain

When I was pregnant with Alisia, all my labor was in the front. My water broke and then the contractions started regularly and I knew it was time. Everything was by the book. With Caleb, I had a lot of back pain during labor. My water slowly leaked, but the contractions were felt both in back and front. With this one I'm not sure what to expect. The past day or so I have been having back pain if I sit too long. I'm very fidgety and it's just hard to just be comfortable.

I finally pre-registered this week at the hospital. Talk about putting things of until last minute. Maybe I should go ahead and pack a overnight bag for the hospital? I am a week away from my due date which is June 26th per the ultrasound. Tonight we are going to stop thinking about moving and enjoy having some friends over for the first time at our new place!

As I anxiously think about birth pain and how it was previously, I cannot seperate it from the joy from after the birth. I ran across this verse in John and confirms this. The joy that God allows us as parents to experience when we first see our child that we worked so hard to bring into the world. The joy of holding that precious gift from him.

"Whenever a woman gives birth to a child, she remembers the hard work no more, for the joy that a child has been born into the world."
John 16:21

That's what I'm clinging to as I think about this week!

Missing from the Move

Yikes. The one thing I can't live without. My camera. I hope I can find it before this baby decides to come. I knew I didn't want to loose my maternity clothes and my camera. My maternity clothes are hanging up nice and neat in my closet. I thought I put the camera somewhere "safe" so I wouldn't miss place it! I just can't remember where that safe place is. I have some pics to upload and am getting behind, so I hope it shows up!

However, so far, that's the only thing "missing" that I've really noticed. Just curious if anyone have any good stories of missing items from moving? Not that it'll help make me any more thankful the only thing I'm missing is my camera, but it might. OR what's one thing you can't live without?

The LORD is my Banner

Last week, I couldn't even imagine getting through the weekend and our big move! By Thursday I was already wiped out from working, kids out of school, painting, packing, cleaning and getting ready for it all. Honestly, I didn't know if I had anything else left in me to keep going. I didn't know how I was going to make it until Saturday, let alone survive the day at 38 weeks pregnant! Whew! But guess what, in all of my weakness, I turned to God. With nothing left, I fell on my knees before Him.

God Answers Prayer. God hears our cries and knows our every tear. God uses his people.

But it wasn't how I thought he would. I was hoping to be full of energy and just buzz around getting tons accomplished. That didn't quite happen though. But tons got accomplished. God sent his people. Everyday. Friends. Family. The church body. I literally felt like Moses, who was completely tired from lifting his hands in the battle and "Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset." Ex 17:12

God used his people. I'm sure God could have just as easily given Moses the strength needed for the entire battle. But God wanted to provide strength for Moses by sending His people to sustain his weary arms. He wanted his people to win the battle together. The extra help we had was great motivation. Angel had to work a few hours that morning and God gave him strength and extra hands to keep going. I was able to help minimally and not feel bad if things didn't get done perfectly. We were thankful that Sunday is a day of rest, cause we needed it! Thank you to everyone who helped and to those who prayed! Here's a picture of Alisia and Caleb on Palm Sunday in front of OUR HOUSE! (At the time it was still my parents)

We are now mostly moved in! We have our rooms set up and not much furniture left at the other house. We still have to clean out closets, then clean the place up. But I am so thankful that we are starting to feel settled. I'm starting to feel ready to have this baby now that we have a place to bring him home and call home! Good thing too, because my feet are swollen almost all the time and I'm starting to waddle! Doesn't that mean it's close?

"Moses built an altar and called it The LORD is my Banner. He said, 'For hands were lifted up to the throne of the LORD."

Exodus 17:15

Strength

What are your reasons for persevering?
Where do you go to fill you up when you are dry?
When all else fails, where do you turn?
How do you keep going when there's nothing left?
Where do you find strength?


"Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice. Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always. " Psalm 105:3-4

"The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with peace." Psalm 29:11

"I love you, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." Psalm 18: 1-3

"O LORD, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress." Isaiah 33:2

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13