Thankfullness and sadness...

There are so many things I am thankful for in life. I am thankful for my parents and the way they raised me. I am thankful for my friends that I have had my entire (or most of it) life. I am thankful for the safety God has given me in my life. More personally I am thankful for my husband. I am thankful for the love he shows our family. I am thankful for the things that he does for me and the way he leads our family. I am thankful that he is the Spiritual leader in our relationship and that he helps me grow in my relationship with Christ. I am thankful for the love he shows our son. I am thankful for the father that he is and the father that he will continue to be as our kids grow and as we have more, Lord willing. I am thankful for Donovan and the joy that he is in my life. I am thankful for the ways he is pushing Caleb and I to mature and grow, but also to love and nurture. I am especially thankful for my baby girl Abigail. I know that she is no longer with us and that still hurts tremendously, but I am thankful for everything she gave to Caleb and I. Through her Caleb and I became dependant on each other. We grew together so much and we are continuing to grow together every day. We learned to make decisions on our own and to stick by them. We learned to depend on God for our every need and desire. We learned that communication is so important.

Through all of this it brings me to the fact of sadness. Abigail's birthday is in 10 days. I think that is enough said.

Rainy days...

I thought I would update briefly while Donovan is sleeping. Things are going well-I absolutely love having a son. I love being a mother-although sometimes it is still quite hard to adjust. I love cuddling with him and loving on him and just watching him as he sleeps. I am so thankful for him.

My mind keeps wandering though because it is almost August 4-Abby's birthday. I keep thinking about what it would be like to have her instead of Donovan or how life would be different with two. I am not quite sure really what to think about everything. I just hope to get through the next couple of weeks still sane. I just get overcome sometimes with a deep deep sadness. I guess that is to be expected, but it just hurts terribly. I am very thankful for Caleb also-without him beside me this whole time, I think I would be a bigger mess than I am sometimes!

I am trying to keep up with housework. I think the hardest part to keep up with is laundry. I wonder what it would be like if my washer and dryer was on the main floor instead of the basement. I really dread having to go down there to do laundry, so I put it off until everything is basically overflowing! (Like now) So, I am going to go start a load and get that going-hopefully I can get it all done in 2-3 loads. I am debating when Jeremy moves out to see if Caleb will turn that back closet into the washer and dryer area. I think that would be nice, but I don't know if I want to lose that closet space. I guess we will see.

Not too much else is happening. I would like to ask some prayer of you all if you think about it. I am currently struggling with keeping up with my Bible reading and such because it seems that my plate is full. But I know I have time because I am using some right now! For some reason I am just choosing to do this instead. If anyone has any helpful advice on how to handle everything in one day in an organized manner, that would be great!

Shh...Donovan is sleeping!

Well, while my little man is sleeping, I thought I would update real quickly. (Since I actually have two hands right now!) Things are going well. We are adjusting to parenthood really well. There have been a couple bumps in the road and some things haven't gone quite like we expected, but I am sure it will all work out. We went to the doc on Thursday and he is growing, however I was talking to him about how after I would feed D, about an hour to an hour and a half later he would be screaming and wanting to eat again. I told him how this has gone on for a few days. He told me to pump a bottle and see how much I produce, so after I did that, I learned that I wasn't producing near enough milk to make the little guy not hungry, really I was just pacifying him. The doc said that we would need to supplement with formula after everytime I feed him. Our goal was not to have to buy formula, but since we are going to have to anyway, we just switched totally to bottle. I really didn't want that to happen, but you got to do what you got to do I guess. And little D is so much more happy now that he is getting fed in good quantities. He is only waking up twice during the night and after he is eating he is going straight back to sleep, so that is nice. It is still a little exhausting though, but I am sure my body will adjust to it.

Everything else seems to be doing well. We had lots of rain come down today, I am glad we got the mowing done yesterday! We also put an ad in the paper for Bo. Caleb and I agreed that having him and the baby is just too much for us right now. So, if you want a free house-trained, neutered dog that is just 1 year old, let me know! I suppose I should make use of the rest of my time to do some laundry and other things. Thanks for checking in on us!

Welcome Donovan Cotham Lynd!

Last Tuesday, Donovan came to join the world! He was born at 12:26, weighing 5 lb 14 oz, measured 19 1/4 in long. He is absolutely adorable! With a head full of hair and the perfect complexion, I just want to hold him all day long. But alas, there are other things that need done too! Currently he is sleeping, so I thought it might be a good time to update.

A quick recap of last week:
-Monday-went in to the hospital to have an amniocentesis done to make sure his lungs were mature enough to be induced. I can honestly tell you right now that I will never have that done again! It hurt, and it made me sick, and if they had come back to tell me that his lungs were not mature, it would not have been worth it. The only reason it is worth it now is because I have a little boy to love on! Anyway, about 5 pm they came back and said that he was ok to come out, so they gave me some medicine to soften my cervix and told me to go to sleep for the night.
-Tuesday the nurse came in at 5 in the morning, told me I was dialated to 2 and that at 6 they were going to start the pitocin. They didn't really start it until 6:30, and at 9:30 the doctor, whom I highly reccomend, came in and broke my water. At that point I was 4 cm dialated. They told me that when the contractions get unbearable to let them know and they would call for the epidural. About 10:30 I told them that I needed the epidural and I needed it now. So they called and came back and told me that the guy would be in soon. So, I waited and waited, and waited some more. At this time my contractions were coming very strong at every other minute. Finally about 11:15 the epidural man came and gave me the medicine. After it finally kicked in, I was doing much better. The nurse checked again right after he put the epidural in to see how far I was and her response was "oh my". I was 9 cm and fully effaced...this baby was coming. So she ran off to call the doc and to get everything ready. I laid there happily carrying on a conversation with Caleb, after all, I couldn't feel a thing! She came back in about 10 minutes later and told me the doc would be here in 5 minutes. I said ok, but I am feeling a little bit of pressure, can you check this out. She checked and she immediately put on her gloves because she thought she was going to deliver a baby right there. She poked her head out the door and told a nurse to call the doc to come now. As I lay there peacefully waiting on the birth of my boy, I can feel him inching his way out. The nurse gets herself into position to deliver as the doc comes running through the door! (Meanwhile I am watching a pretty good show on TV) He tells me to push once and the doc replied with, "Wow, this baby is ready to come right now!" I pushed three more times and heard the jubilient cry of my baby boy. I was so happy to hear that sound it made me cry. (Caleb did too!) And the rest of the story is nothing more than your normal clean up of the baby and things like that. Now we are home and I am so thankful for my little man. Even if he does get me up in the middle of the night.

I am still working on the nursing thing. It is terribly painful right now, but I am hoping that eases.

Well, I hear him crying, so I am off to rescue and feed him! I will update again soon, but here is a pic so you can see him!