Christmas and Other Things!

It's late here at the Whitlow house so this will probably be short. Just wanted to do a quick update and let ya'll know how things are going around here.

The most exciting thing has been waking up to a white Christmas this morning! It hasn't snowed on the holidays in years so it was alot of fun to enjoy that experience with the kids. Unfortunately, we've all had colds or something so Blake was too sick to get out and of course Darcey is too little so they both stayed in where it was warm and cozy while the kids and I played out with my parents and brother. (and since Dathan and Delancey have some of the symptoms as well I'm hoping and praying it doesn't make them worse...I just couldn't stand to not let them go out though!) Mostly Christmas has been pretty laid back this year with things being so hectic with Darcey, but it turned out being okay really. I'm just thankful for my family and all God has blessed us with.....the best gift being His son and the reason we were able to celebrate this holiday in the first place! It might not have been as planned or what we expected, but it's still good just because of Him.

In other news, Darcey turned 2 months old yesterday and is growing and changing all the time. I still fully intend to do some more posts about her and how life has been since she was born, but once again it will have to be another day. For now I'll just share how thankful I am that she's a part of our family and how special she is even on the really rough days. I'm also grateful that she slept laying down by herself, propped up on a little pillow this week for the first time. Anyone who's ever had to hold a crying, sick baby almost 24/7 for weeks on end, knows exactly how big of an accomplishment (and relief!) that is.

As for her two older siblings, they are growing and changing as well. I think they are sprouting up right before my eyes every day and are starting to look so grown up! It's sad to see your babies get older, even if it is a natural part of life. :( 
They are both great helpers with Darcey and love giving her attention. They are also as of right now most interested in football and princesses....although after getting some other toys for Christmas those might change soon! I'm pretty sure a camera and sewing machine are on Delancey's top favorite list and Dathan got alot of spy equipment so I'm seeing some new hobbies developing around here.

And for me and Blake, we're just staying busy and trying to keep sane while living life with 3-D's. lol Oh, and we were also engaged to be married 9 years ago on the 22nd and are wondering where the time has gone?! I think that about wraps it up for now though. I'll try to post some pictures and update on some other things soon. Until then hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and continue to enjoy this holiday season as we get ready to start a new year!

Darcey's Birth Story #2

*if you haven't read the first part of the story yet then click here*

I obviously still wasn't able to get comfortable enough to sleep since the contractions were harder than ever(which by the way the midwife told me were probably not real and just a product of an over-stimulated uterus)and made even more so by me trying to go to bed. I ended up deciding to try a warm bath around 11 and Blake was up with me so we could talk about things and try to decide what to do. He was timing the contractions and they were still just all over the place, but really starting to hurt even more. I was still second guessing it so much though because of all the midwife had told me that I hadn't even called her back again yet because I just didn't want to be told that it didn't sound serious or she didn't think it was the real thing until I was totally convinced it was. As I was getting out of the bathtub I ended up having a couple of contractions about 7 minutes apart that just felt different than before and was actually a stranger and worse pain in some ways than what I rememberd with my last birth. I suddenly got this feeling like I wanted to be seen now and not wait to call the midwife, try to talk her into coming, and then wait at least another hour and a half for her to make the drive. At this point, I was also so tired and hurting so badly that I wasn't sure if I could make it much longer if this was going to keep on like that indefinitely. As determined as I was to not use any medicines because of how badly I reacted before I was willing to try something if I thought it would be best for the baby and help me relax enough for her to come sooner if need be.

So Blake and I talked about it a couple of minutes and checked in with the hospital and decided that it was probably best just to go there and find out what was going on rather than dealing with the midwife again at this point. I woke up mom and let her know what we were doing and then started getting a few things together. I knew I was hurting pretty badly at this point, but just wasn't saying much about it or timing the contractions anymore. Mom came into the bedroom to see if we needed her to do anything and to discuss what they were going to do about coming to the hospital if I ended up staying, etc. She had only been in there a few minutes before she asked was I not having several close together and I realized that I hadn't really thought about it! She said we could just go ahead and she would bring whatever else we needed later so we kinda just dropped everything and headed out. I think we made the drive in a little over 15 minutes and I ended up counting 4 contractions during that time so they were definitely closer and more regular now!

We got there and had to go through the crazy process of trying to get someone to listen to us and then actually do something about getting me into labor and delivery. Then we get upstairs and the nurse makes me lay flat down on my back so she can hook me up to a moniter and sits down at a computer where she proceeds to ask me a million crazy questions that honestly had nothing to do with me giving birth that I could tell. I kept trying to ask about getting checked, getting up and then finally said that if they weren't going to do any of that then just GET ME SOME PAIN MEDICATION!! Unfortunately for me they didn't take me seriously either and thought I was probably just in the early stages of labor, although they should have known something was going on from the way I started acting.....I mean, who would be that upset unless they were close to giving birth??!!  They tried calling the anethesiologist and couldn't get him. They also tried calling the doctor and didn't get her either, but they weren't seeming all that worried about it because they thought we had plenty of time. You know since they weren't bothering to check me and make sure!

Finally she finished up asking me everything and said she would see how things were going. At which point she looked very stunned and said that we probably weren't going to need the anethesilogist anyway since I was already a 10. Her next words of course were that I couldn't push because the doctor hadn't gotten there yet, to which I replied, "That's not my problem!" Let's just say that I was not my normal nice speaking self at the moment. In fact, I'm pretty sure at some point that I slapped the nurses hand away from my stomach and told her not to touch me again.....and that is so unlike my usual behaviour! lol That could have also been partly due to the fact that she was the one who had the moniter straps done around me too tightly and wouldn't take them off and it was pure torture to have them on during a contraction. I wasn't entirely happy with the whole situation at the moment and was just ready for somebody to do something to help me! The doctor made it about that time and another nurse(who happened to be a man which was a little strange at first)and everything was ready to go. I was still horribly uncomfortable being on my back and was practically begging to just be able to do something different. The male nurse asked me what I wanted to do(yes, he was actually the only one who listened and tried to help me!)and I replied that I wanted to try squatting on the bed while pushing so it wouldn't hurt as much. To my utter amazement he was totally fine with the idea and the doctor didn't seem to have any objections either! Unfortunately that only lasted for about 2 pushes and they had to lay me back down because the moniters were messing up and the baby's heartrate seemed to be dropping. Thankfully I only had to push through a couple more contractions while laying down though and she was there!! My water actually broke while pushing right before she came out which was kinda neat since I wasn't sure if it had yet or not. I think if I'd had to push a little longer I would have perfected the whole grunting type scream that helps you push better as opposed to the shrill, bloody murder type screaming that doesn't really do anything except make you hoarse afterwards kind. (I wish I was kidding, but I really am not.....besides, that kind of pain really isn't anything to joke about! At least until several years after the fact.;)  

To sum it all up, it was a crazy day/night and more than a little stressful but we're just thankful that Darcey was born safely and that things went as well as what they did. She actually did have the cord around her neck,which is what I figure kept the contractions so sporadic and her movement and my pain so odd for that long but of course don't know that for sure. They had to give her a little oxygen right after birth but it was nothing serious and she was otherwise perfect! I was a little dissapointed to not have another home birth since we loved the experience of that with Delancey, but I think after the way things went we ended up in the best place we could have been. Especially seeing how she was born in a little over an hour from when we decided to go to the hospital and the midwives probably wouldn't have made it! I can only imagine how stressful that would have been. All in all, the hospital experience ended up being okay too I guess even if it wasn't what we expected. So there it is finally....the wonderful, unforgettable story of how Darcey Ella came into the world! Hope you enjoyed reading about it. I'll try to share some of what's been going on since then soon. :-)

Darcey's Birth Story #1

The moment I know you've all been waiting for.....when I finally get around to writing about what happened when Darcey was born. But first let me say that I can't believe it's already been over seven weeks ago...this year has flown by so quickly it doesn't even seem real that it's almost Christmas again! And then again some of the days with her being so sick and crying all the time have seemed to last forever. But that's a post for another day I think. Okay, now that's been said, on to the story.......

As most of you probably already know I had been having contractions for several weeks, some of them strong enough that we actually thought she might come early.(HA!) There were more than a couple of times that I honestly thought it was the beginnings of the real thing, but it always slacked off and eventually stopped after awhile. Needless to say though I was getting worn out by how my body was doing and the lack of sleep I was able to get. Then comes my due date and we were just sure it would be any time now....but were we ever wrong! The days creeped slowly by and with each one I woke up and went to bed wondering if this would be it? Not to mention that I begin trying just about everything I'd heard of to naturally induce labor to no avail.

Let me back up for a second to mention that although I had seen a doctor in Huntsville for most of this pregnancy, my heart was still wanting another homebirth like we were able to have with Delancey. Our only concerns with that were that I had some health issues that I didn't then which we weren't sure if the birthing process would cause to worsen and also that I went so quickly the last time that if it this one was any quicker we might not be able to drive to Tennessee. (which is where most midwives are certified to give birth) As it turned out one of the midwives who is not technically certified by the state agreed to come here to our house whenever I went into labor and see how things were progressing instead of us making the decision to drive alone to TN and Blake have to deliver the baby by himself in the car! And then of course we were all kinda expecting to just end up giving birth here if it went as quickly as we thought and things were going normally....which was fine with me since I thought it would be great to just stay home. We also knew that Dr. Cimino would be willing to deliver in the hospital as a back-up plan if something went wrong or we changed our minds so we were pretty comfortable with the whole idea.

Back to the whole waiting game....the due date has come and gone several days past and I'm starting to think Darcey is never going to show up! Then I wake up at 12 am the morning of the 23rd having a contraction that hurt. Alot. It just felt different than the ones I had been having before. I ended up getting out of bed and walking around thinking of things I needed to do if this was the real thing. Then I leaked some fluid and started having a bloody show so I was pretty convinced she would be coming soon! I woke Blake up just to let him know and called the midwife just to give her a heads up and ask a couple of questions. We ended up trying to lay back down but although my contractions were still pretty far apart and sporadic when they did come the pain was bad enough that I just couldn't sleep. (needless to say it was a really long night!) Dathan was supposed to play his last game of flag football that morning and I was torn between wanting to go and worried that things would start progressing too quickly once we got there. At this point some of the contractions were 10 minutes apart and still pretty hard but just didn't stay regular enough for me to think it was close to being serious yet. So we figured I could go ahead and try going as long as I was able to get ready.

Fast forward through the game and the awards ceremony after it was over and I've now been in what I was pretty sure was labor for several hours. And totally confused as to why the contractions were so hard at times but never staying consistent for long. I talked to the midwife a couple more times and was more than a little dissapointed in her reaction to what I was going through. (and the fact that she actually had the nerve to suggest I come to her for a checkup...an hour and a half away from my house!) She just kinda kept acting like she wasn't so sure it was the real thing and telling me I didn't sound like I was labor yet.....although at 11 days overdue I'm not totally sure what else she thought it could be?! We told her we weren't comfortable with getting on the road for that long in case it did turn into something quickly and although she said offered to come to us she also acted as though it would be a wasted trip and mentioned that she'd have to charge us extra to do so. At this point I was getting a little irritated and even more so just confused by some of the things she was telling me. I felt like I was really in labor and wanted them here to keep a check on things(which was what they got paid for!)and she kept acting like we should put off them coming for as long as possible and wait until I showed more obvious labor signs. But my question was, what if there aren't any until too late for you to get here??!!

She had suggested I try laying down and resting that afternoon and then we'd talk about them coming over and seeing if we could do some more things to encourage the labor along, but was also adamant that I not try anything by myself in case it did cause something to happen quickly. My contractions still weren't any more regular at that point, but I was still feeling them enough that I couldn't fall asleep.(they actually got alot harder if I tried to lay down at all) I waited until about 6 and called my parents to come over to watch the kids and then the midwife to let her know I was feeling like they were getting harder even if they weren't close or regular yet and I was more than ready to try some stuff. But unfortunately for me she had decided that maybe it was best if we kept waiting to see what would happen on it's on and since I hadn't slept and she was really tired too then we should probably just try to go on to bed if nothing happened by 9 or so. On top of that she even told me a couple of things I should do to try to relax me and actually STOP the contractions! Needless to say I was not only shocked, but even more confused than before since I was getting such mixed signals from her than what I felt like myself. I ended up getting so upset that I just agreed and didn't insist on her coming anyway... which looking back is what I definitely should have done.....

*don't miss reading the rest of the story on the next post! click here to finish*

3 Weeks!

Can't believe Darcey turned 3 weeks old yesterday! I know I am so behind on posting and pictures, but hopefully I'll get to them one day soon when things are a little more normal around here. Please keep her and the rest of us in your prayers in the meantime. Having a newborn and adjusting to all the changes that come with it is hard anytime, but when the baby is sick it makes it extra challenging. We are definitely struggling right now and would really appreciate you praying. We see a couple more doctors tomorrow so pray that we'll have wisdom to know what's best for her! Thanks so much. :)

Just Checking In...

to say that I will hopefully be posting again sometime. Just as soon as I have the use of both of my hands for more than a couple of minutes at a time that is! ;-)

Tired and Thankful

I know the plan was to write about the birth in more detail this week, but to be honest the past few days have just been overwhelming and blogging hasn't exactly been on the top of the priority list. I am utterly exhausted and have realized that I had completely forgotten what a big job having a newborn is. To be honest, I've had my moments of being so tired that it's been hard to be in good spirits and keep a good attitude,(I'm sure no one else ever has that problem, right?) but all in all I am still very thankful that our little girl is finally here and realize how greatly God has blessed us. And I want to keep reminding myself even through the hard times that these moments will pass so quickly and I need to cherish every single one of them. So although I do want to write Darcey's birth story some time in the future, for now I'm just gonna focus on catching up on sleep when I can and making memories with my baby girl. I figured ya'll would understand. :-) Oh, and just to hold you over til then, here's a picture or two....

She's Here!

As most of you probably know by now, Darcey Ella was finally born at 4:29 am on Sunday! Things didnt exactly go as planned, but we're just thankful that she's healthy and here. She weighed 8 lbs. 6 oz. (our biggest baby yet!) and was 20 inches long. Has a head full of dark hair, which we were all wishing for, and we of course think she's beautiful. :-)

I'll be posting some pictures and more of the story when things settle down a little more around here. But until then thank you all for the prayers and please continue to pray as we adjust to life with a new little one!

Natural Ways To Induce Labor (or not)

For those of you who might be wondering (and I'm sure there's alot of that going on at this point. lol) I figured it would be good to give a quick rundown of the things I've tried so far to help this baby along when it comes to being born. Now obviously none of them have actually worked for me so I'm still not sure how valid the ideas really are, but they should be interesting reading regardless, right? And just maybe if you happen to be 8 er, make that 9 days over your due date one of them just might work for you! :-)
So here goes the list......

1. walking (of course, that one's probably a given to most)
2. taking herbs (which resulted in maybe a slight increase in contractions, but mostly made me nauseated I think)
3. rubbing various acupressure points (same as the herbs, minus the nausea...although I think these really do work well for some people)
4. more walking (which so far has still only proven to cause my feet to swell and make me tired and sore)
5. eating the core of a pineapple (now this one is probably by far the most unusual I've tried this time, but it actually is supposed to help move things along...for me it just seemed to be really tough to eat and I spent awhile picking pieces of it after my teeth, which I guess at least managed to get my mind off of other things for the moment. lol)
6. real acupuncture (yep, the actual needles...by a professional of course. now seriously I would've thought this one would work hands down, but no other than a few stronger contractions since having it done yesterday I really can't tell much difference)
7. strange positions (I'm sure that looks funny to read, but it's really just me trying different poses to try and help her turn in a good way to be born. these seem to just be uncomfortable for me and not really working for her. hmmmm, maybe that's a good sign I should just not do them!)
8. even more walking (okay, so I'm sure this really is doing more than what I realize, but I'm still not totally sure if it's a good or bad thing yet. it seems to cause progress in some ways but sometimes stop it in others so the verdict is still out as to whether it's all actually worth it.)

So there's my tried (and, um, unfortunately failed) methods of not self-inducing labor. I hope you all got at least some enjoyment out of it, cause so far I sure haven't! lol

All kidding aside though, I had an ultrasound yesterday and Darcey looks great. Everything looked and sounded fine and there's plenty of fluid. Honestly it just seemed like she should be coming anytime, which I'm sure is true that she will be. And considering that none of the above things have worked in causing her to be born by now then there is obviously a good reason why she hasn't been. One which I will probably never know of course, but it still helps to tell myself that at this point. haha I'm really just trying to trust that God knows best and that as long as things turn out okay the when she's born doesn't really matter much. Although I have to admit that in my humanness(don't think that's actually a word)it's sometimes hard not to worry and fret over things going wrong or question if the reason she isn't coming is a bad one....but I'm not the only one that does stuff like that, right? Please just continue to pray that I'll have peace about it all and that whenever something does happen that things will go smoothly and safely for us both. I really can't wait for her to get here so I can finally write a post about that! :-) Until next time.....

Quick Update

First of all, no Darcey has not made her grand entrance into our lives yet and secondly, yes I am officially a whole week overdue today. I think that wouldn't have bothered me near as much had I not had a really rough night of little sleep and just felt kinda rotten this morning. I did manage to pull it together enough so that we could meet the family for lunch and celebrate dad's birthday. Then while my parents let the kids play at the park I went for a walk to hopefully help things along some. I actually have been having irregular contractions for awhile now, but it just doesn't seem like the real thing yet. Which of course is super dissapointing in so many ways. But I guess that's about it for now. Please keep praying for mine and Darcey's health and that she will be delivered safely and soon!

Can't Believe That...

....I'm still just sitting here waiting and there's still NO BABY!! ('nuf said I guess)

Happy Fall, Ya'll!!

I've been meaning to post some pictures of our autumn decorations, but just haven't gotten around to it before now. It seemed like this morning was the perfect time though since it's turned so cool and actually feels like fall weather! (which is a relief for me since the heat while being so big was more than a little miserable) We love doing a harvest scene this time of year and I think these kind of decorations are quickly becoming my favorite. The colors are just so pretty and all the things about harvest and giving thanks serve as a great reminder of how much we've been blessed! Hope you enjoy the pictures......

(p.s. by the way, hobby lobby already has most of their fall decorations half off so if you're wanting to pick up some stuff now's the perfect time!)

Making Choices

So today is the big due date. The one you kinda plan you're whole pregnancy around as you countdown and look forward to when the baby is approximately supposed to come. The one which you are more than a little fearful of when it looks like labor starts too far ahead of it. And also the one which you tiredly sigh from the seemingly never-ending feeling of it all when labor hasn't started on or around it. Me, I'm obviously experiencing the second of those scenarios at the moment, although surpisingly enough we had more than one of the first scenarios this time as well. Obviously the Lord has more than answered our prayers for her to be born full-term tho and I am now trying to make sure my petitions are more along the lines of please let it be today....you know, just to be sure everything is clear. ;-)

All kidding aside, I am thankful that things have and still are going good and Darcey seems to be fine. My body is sore and tired and the miserable stage has seemed longer this time than I remember with the others, but I know that things could be so much worse and try to remind myself to keep that in perspective on the days when I'm discouraged. And as for today, I decided before even going to bed last night(or I should say early this morning since I couldn't really sleep)that I could choose to either let it be bad because I was dissapointed she hasn't come yet or I could choose to make it the best day possible in spite of that same fact. Thankfully the Lord seem to help me choose the latter and I can honestly say that overall it's been a really good day!

The kids and I started out with breakfast and then each of them picking something seperate they wanted me to do with them. Delancey chose for us to paint each others fingernails and Dathan chose a game to play. Both of those things turned out to be fun and we then moved on to doing schoolwork. They've been extra interested in math this week for some reason so that's what they wanted to start out with, following up with a couple other subjects. All in all it was a great morning and then my parents came to spend some time with the kids while the weather is still nice. We ended up eating at Grandmother's House for lunch (which by the way if you're in the area and haven't tried you really should!) and then visiting the Safari Zoo that's nearby....another place you definitely need to go to if you haven't been.

The evening has been good too and I've ended up having a much better day than I have in awhile in pretty much every way. We mentioned the fact that the baby hasn't come yet some today(especially the kids since they had seen this date marked on the calender) and of course it's crossed my mind a couple of times that after today I'm technically 'over-due', but I have to admit that considering how good the day ended up turning out just from me deciding to try to make the best of it I really can't have too many regrets. (and yes I think that was probably a major run-on sentence but hopefully it at least made sense!) So anyway that's what today was like for us, even though it could have turned out differently I guess and maybe before I would've thought I wanted it to. I'm thankful God gives us the freedom to choose what we'll make of our circumstances though and that at least for now, I was able to choose just to enjoy where we're at and be content. It was amazing what a difference it made! :-)

But I will wrap up this impossibly long post for now with the hope that the next one will have an announcement in it........if it's supposed to of course!

Still Waiting

I have to be honest and say that I write this post with no small amount of dissapointment. The last few days have been more than a little rough for me physically and added to that the continual wondering of when I'll actually go into labor makes for some up and down emotions as well. I am tired, miserable, and having some 'not-so-sure-what-it-is' symptoms that cause me to just be more ready than ever to have the birth over with and my body hopefully getting back to normal. (whatever that is too!) So anyway all of that to say that obviously she didn't come this weekend, we're still waiting, and I'm having a little bit of a hard time not being upset about it! Whew, now that I have all that off my chest let me also add that I am still thankful she seems to be doing good as far as we can tell and that since there must be some reason why she just isn't coming yet then I am sincerely trying to be okay with it for her sake. Some days that's just easier said than done....ya know, me being human and all. :-)

As for other things, it has been nice for Blake to be home four days in a row and we've enjoyed doing some fun things together as a family....as much as I'm still able to do anyway. Our van is currently being worked on so that the air conditioner will actually be in working order when Darcey gets here and Blake can finally have his truck back! (although the fact that it's still so hot in the middle of October and we even need so much air is pretty crazy really) Nothing much else to speak of is really going on at the moment. For now we're all just....well, waiting! And no one as much as me of course. Please pray for better health and strength for myself in the coming days and a quick and easy delivery time for us both, whenever that's supposed to be. And hopefully that will be what my next post is all about! Until then.....

Random Thoughts

I can't believe it's Friday already! Well, in some ways I guess this week was a little slow but then in others it seems this month of October is already flying by. As I'm sure you've guessed by now there is of yet no baby arrival to report, but I'm actually doing okay with that for now. Not that I'm not still miserable and ready for when it does happen, but just that I feel more at peace about it just not being time yet. Make sense?
Since we're speaking of babies though, my heart goes out to several mothers I know of at the moment who have either lost one recently, are about to give birth too early, or have given birth and are dealing with them being sick. I know all of that is in God's hands and He knows best but I sincerely ask for your prayers for them as they all face the hard times that each situation brings with it. And that I'll be able to trust in Him as well and not fret over what could be in our own lives. It's so easy to worry and want to try to control things....even when I know I really can't anyway! But please just remember to pray for each one of these I mentioned that they would feel God's grace.

We really haven't had alot else going on this week since I had some rough nights and was tired. Just tried to get some things done around the house and mostly rest. The kids are of course loving the weather still and getting to play outside every day. We had my parents and brother over last night for supper and just enjoyed visiting for awhile. And today Blake stayed home from work to get a jump start on the long weekend. But although we'd had some plans originally, we actually ended up just staying here and not doing any of it! It was nice just to take it easy though and just be home for a change. Now I'm needing to head for bed so we can get up early in the morning for another flag football game. They're short some players and the head coach is out of town so Blake is taking his place and Dathan will be playing the whole time....should be exciting to watch! :-)

Everyone is still rooting for Darcey to be born this Sunday so she'll have the cool birthdate of 10-10-10, but I'm not really getting my hopes up at this point. Although if she's supposed to come then I definitely wouldn't object! I'll be sure to let all of you know if that happens of course. So until then....

My Heart's Desire

Just wanted to share the words of this little song with ya'll today. And thank the Lord for touching me with them as I sang and played it earlier. It never ceases to amaze me how good the God of everything takes time to be to me. No matter what my circumstances, I truly want my hearts desire to be for Him. Hope it blesses you.....

"As the hart panteth for the water, so my soul longeth after Thee. You alone are my heart's desire, how I long to worship Thee.
 You alone are my strength and shield. To you alone may my spirit yield. You alone are my heart's desire, how I long to worship you.
 You're my Friend and you are my Brother, even though you are a King. I love You more than any other, so much more than anything.
 You alone are my strength and shield. To you alone may my spirit yield. You alone are my heart's desire, how I long to worship you."

Weekend Recap

It would be great to be writing this with the wonderful news of Darcey's birth, but alas once again it is not to be yet. Although I did begin to think last night that it would be what with the amount of hard contractions I was having before bed. Hmmmm, is it just me or am I beginning to sound like a broken record repeat myself alot when it comes to talking about this? Actually though I'm okay for the most part that she isn't coming....other than being kinda miserable and tired I truly do want her to be born when it's time and not just because I think she should be. We did get a good laugh Friday after someone mentioned that she was obviously going to be born in October now instead of September like we'd been thinking. To which Dathan replied, well maybe she will be. I was like, uh, no that is definitely something we're sure about! lol

We're still enjoying spending time together with just the four of us until the big day does arrive, although I have to admit some days are harder than others when I'm so tired and somewhat irritable at times from lack of rest and being in pain. Seems like I'm constantly having to remind myself to look for the good things and be thankful for them instead of focusing on the not so good....which to be honest, sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Surely that's not just me though, right?

Dathan had another flag football game yesterday and the weather was perfect for it! (finally) It's been so fun seeing him get to play and have fun, without having to spend alot of time doing it each week or it being made into something too important. I'm really gonna try to do a post soon and put some pictures of him playing on here. But please don't judge them too harshly as I find myself totally unable somewhat struggling to take very good ones while trying to watch him play at the same time. :-)

This morning Blake was preaching at a church in Guntersville so it was nice to be able to hear him again. Since we were over that way we decided to visit my momaw for awhile and see how she was doing. We ended up staying there until this afternoon and then made a trip back home, where I decided to just stay for tonight while Blake went back and preached again. Dathan went and kept him company while Delancey stayed here with me for some girl time. (and actually for me just to take it easy) I hated for us not to all go together again, but the baby has been pressing on the nerve in my leg alot today for some reason so I've been pretty uncomfortable at times and didn't think I could sit through another service.

All in all this weekend was pretty busy (although maybe not quite as much as the last one) but good too. I'm hoping once again to get some rest in the next few days and hopefully have a smooth, easy delivery to write about soon! Oh, I almost forgot one crazy thing that happened last night after we went to the grocery store. We were driving the truck and had put the groceries(and some other things from earlier)in the back. On Friday the front of the truck and the windshield had gotten covered in bugs so it was really needing to be washed. Blake decided to make a quick stop at the drive-through carwash so it would be clean for today....both of us totally forgetting all the stuff in the back! Thankfully as we were just beginning to pull in Dathan looked back and saw everything and managed to warn us before it got too wet. We then jumped out and piled it all into the front with us so we didn't waste the already paid for carwash. And got a really good laugh out of how entirely scatterbrained we've both been lately!! It's kinda scary to think about what it's gonna be like after we actually have this 3rd child. Now you can understand part of the reason behind the name of the blog. :-) Until next time.....

The Whitlow's

Checkup and Other Things

Just checking in with a little update on how things are going. Saw the midwife this afternoon and am definitely making progress(although not as much as I'd like to have seen considering all these contractions!). She said hopefully I'll have her sometime within this next week, but once again we just can't know for sure so it's still a wait and see game. I'm kinda thinking with all the independent, stubborn type tendencies that run in the family that Darcey is gonna prove to be no different.... and she's making sure to start extra early! lol Anyway, I'll definitely be sure to let you all know if there are any changes, but as for now just keep praying for strength and rest for me and that she'll get here soon.

In other news, the kids have been great at helping out and entertaining themselves more this week since I've been feeling so rough. I know they're gonna be an amazing big brother and sister when the baby does arrive. But hopefully she'll be healthy and a good sleeper so that things aren't too crazy around here!

Dathan's been having fun picking different animals and things to study this week and then finding everything around the house or on the computer that he can on each subject. It's fun to see him wanting to learn like that and having the flexibility so that he can! Delancey's working on her reading and can hardly wait until she's able to do it 'all by herself'. (remember the independence I mentioned earlier?) They've both been drawing like crazy lately as well and are just so good at it that I don't even hardly notice the amount of paper and other writing things that gets strewn around all over the place in the meantime. ((ahem)) All kidding aside though, it's good to see them use their imaginations that way....and to be honest a perfectly clean house isn't all that important compared to alot of things anyway. (although I have to admit if I go into labor tonight that my next thought after "thank goodness she's finally coming" will probably be about needing to clean up this mess!) But I suppose that's enough about all that for now.

I think we finally have all the baby stuff bought that we need and I finished putting binding on a quilt I was making for her yesterday.....well, technically it was quilted material and putting the binding on was all I had to do. And if you see me out in town I will not be showing you how I did it so please don't ask! lol Sewing is something I'm still working on and definitely need lots of practice in. But all that aside it's nice to know that we're basically just waiting for Darcey's grand entrance. And I for one can't wait until it gets here. Well, actually I think Blake is pretty ready for it too since it'll be a great excuse for him to take off work instead of having to kill himself with all this overtime he's been putting in! Hmmmm, I'm not sure if that's really gonna give him much of a break though come to think of it. For now we'll just have to both be patient I guess. So until the next update.....

Another False Alarm

Well, since my last post on Sunday I honestly haven't felt that good I think due to the rainy weather so it was actually a little bit of relief that I wasn't having the baby....I didn't really think I'd have the energy! Last night I seemed to be doing a little better though and ended up starting to have contractions again before going to bed. They seemed very much like the real thing and even got about 4-6 minutes apart for about an hour and a half. But by then I was sleepy and decided to just lay down for awhile....I figured if it was the real thing then it would wake me back up! And I actually did around 3 feeling achy and still having some contractions, but with them farther apart.
Needless to say, it was a long and hard night in which I didn't get the greatest rest, but here I am this morning with no baby to show so evidently it was just another 'gearing up' session for when she actually does decide to arrive! I'm still have occasional contractions, etc but nothing else new to really report today. ((sigh))
That being said I'm still just gonna try to focus on getting some more things done this week around the house and enjoying my time with Dathan and Delancey since I know I won't have as much to spend with them after Darcey gets here. Now if I can just manage to forget how tired I am.....

Crazy Days

I seriously thought my next post would be to tell you all about Darcey being born, but alas it was not to be after all. My contractions did get harder and close together for awhile on Thursday(and have a couple of times since then as well), but eventually went the other way and ended up not being the real thing. Which while to be honest was a little dissapointing, when looking back was probably for the best since we weren't entirely prepared for it, I was very tired, and we've had a busy couple of days since then. Still I know she's only getting closer to actually coming so I'm gonna try to be ready for it anytime!!

As for the other craziness in our lives, Friday I got up and checked my email only to realize we were supposed to be meeting the homeschoolers after a show and tell to take pictures of the kindergarten graduates for this year. (of which Delancey is part of!) So I was gonna need to kinda rush around to get things done to make it in time for that. Then Dathan decides it might be fun to actually be in the show and tell so we had to leave even earlier! I was surprised that he wanted to try it, but very proud of him for getting up in front of all those people and taking part. Although he did say afterwards that he got so nervous his throat hurt and he wasn't sure if he wanted to ever try that again! lol He did a great job though and I think it helped for him to see the other kids taking part as well.
We also found out they were doing a field trip tour of the Nina and Pinta replicas after the pictures were taken so I decided to go ahead and go all out since I was already out of the house anyway. The kids really enjoyed it, but needless to say that in 90 degree weather after all of that I was ready to come home and just crash! I keep trying to remind myself that once the baby gets here we won't have any opportunities to do stuff like this together for awhile though so it's worth it to push a little and make some final memories with just the three of us. :-)

Yesterday was another flag football game for Dathan(which I really need to do a seperate post on sometime)and it RAINED! That was definitely a fun experience, especially since we had free tickets to the space and rocket center and had planned a trip there afterwards....and being soaked wasn't exactly part of the plan. We ended up making a quick stop by Target for the guys to get some dry stuff since they were so wet! Then on to the museum, which we hadn't been to for awhile (and never all of us together) so we had a good time there as well. We actually ended up staying out for most of the day and spending time with my parents in town. So another long day, but one which I'm sure the kids won't forget anytime soon so even though I was super tired by the time we made it home I'm still glad we did it.

That's about it for an update for now though. Blake and I ended up with headaches this morning (maybe the strange weather?) so we're enjoying a day here at home just having devotion, singing, etc and spending time together. So even though these past few days have yes been extremely busy and crazy.....I wouldn't trade them for anything else!

Happy Birthday, Blake!

It's hard to believe that we're celebrating his birthday for the ninth time since meeting each other. Where do the years go? I was just sitting here thinking about the first one we spent together where some friends we were with tried to talk me into playing a prank on Blake by asking him to marry me. (I almost did it too, but chickened out at the last minute....we had only been dating a little over 2 months after all! lol)
Now all this time later and many more birthdays past, I'm sitting here thinking about having our 3rd baby. And if she just might possibly be born on her daddy's birthday?! (which will be a post for later of course, if that actually happens!)
But for now here's wishing a wonderful day to my sweet husband who is off keeping long hours at work these days. I'll be sure to post some pictures later of the birthday supper we have planned when he gets home. :-)

It's New!!

Hello and welcome to our new family blog! We're the Whitlow's and look forward to sharing with you a little about us. Please bare with me while I figure everything out and get some other things added on. And be sure to come back often for a visit! :-)