A Baby Story

On Thursday March 19th around 10pm I started feeling a bit of contractions....needless to say Id been feeling contractions off and on for over a week...so when I had the contractions on Thursday night I didn't think much of them. I had them for an hour every 10 minutes but then after that hour they stopped. Around 2am on Friday March 20th I felt contractions again, but once again nothing that concerned me. Then again at 3:45am I felt some more contractions...nothing to concern me again:). At 10:10 on Friday morning I had a OB appt. I explained to my OB about the contractions I had had that morning and the night before and she asked if I had had anymore that morning. I told her maybe a couple while waiting to see her, but nothing strong. She continued to check me and I was dialated from a 3 to a 5 in one week so that was encouraging. Still 70% effaced. She suggested I go over to the hospital to be monitored for my contractions and told me that if I was having them regularly that they would go ahead and admit me. Thankfully nick and I had packed the van with our overnight bags, because 20 minutes later I was admitted to the hospital! That was around 12 noon.

In the next hour and a half my contractions were getting more regular and strong. So my OB came over during her lunch break at 1:38 and broke my water. The nurses advised her not to go to far as it might be a quick labor. She said she could be back to the hospital from her office in 5 minutes so she went back to her office. At 2:45 the nurses called my OB back over and to hurry. She made it just in time because at 2:52 Liam Nicholas was born into this world. She is my first OB who has made it to my delivery!!!

Nick twiddling his thumbs as he waits in anticipation for our little boy to arrive (No...my contractions weren't strong yet:))The happy parents with their new little boy minutes after he was born!!Weighed in at 7 lbs 15 oz! My biggest boy yet!
All soaped up....I think this picture is just precious....of course I am somewhat biased.
Of course the big brothers wanted their turn in holding Liam. Family photo taken at the hospital. Liam is a day old here.

Introducing......

Well, some of you are probably anxious to see a picture of our newest addition and some of you may not have heard yet, but our little bundle arrived early. He and Mom are doing well and we just arrived home today. Introducing.......

Liam Nicholas Waibel

March 20th, 2009

Weight: 7 lbs 15 oz.

Height: 20 inches

Time: 2:52pm

P.S. We have a winner.....I guess my mother knows me best, because she guessed the closest date which she said he would be born March 26th (that's my brother A.J's birthday). Her guess on weight was 7 lbs 12 oz....wow...very close!!! Congrats mom....I'll give you your gift card when I see you tomorrow:)

Thought It Would Be Fun

Well, with only 5 weeks left of my pregnancy I thought it would be fun to give away a 5$ gift card to Starbucks. Its my first giveaway and Im pretty excited about it. There will be one lucky winner. All you have to do is leave your best estimated guess on when my little guy will arrive and how much he will weight at birth. The person who picks the closest day and weight without going over will be the winner. Just for the record my estimated due date is April 6th. Of course the winner will be announced after I deliver my baby boy.

I know, I said I would not post a picture of myself on here being so pregnant but thought it might give you some idea of how to guess for weight.

Happy 29th Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my dear husband who turned a big ol' 29 yesterday!! He think's he is old:) which I find kind of funny. Makes me wonder what he is going to feel like when he turns 50?? I doubt he will be doing any of the below picture.

I love you babe!!

Surgery

Ok, I know I should have updated this sooner, but its been a hectic week and I have a few minutes to spare so will quickly inform all my prayer warriors how Nick's surgery went.
Nick was wheeled away at 2:20pm and I went to sit in the waiting room. At about 2:45 I was called to the front desk to be informed that surgery just started and they would let me know when it was complete. I was told about 1.5 hours. So I played some spider solitare, talked to a friend on the phone and tried to keep myself busy so my mind wouldn't dwell to the "what if's". At 3:45 my in laws showed up with the boys and we sat and talked and waited for the surgery to be over. At 4:15 I was called to the front desk where I saw Dr. Miller who was the neurosurgeon. He had a smile on his face and at that moment I knew God had answered all my prayers and all your prayers....a perfect surgery. Dr. Miller said he was very surprised to find that the Herniation of the disk had more or less turned into a big buldge. (this means that it was not so big that it was touching the spinal cord causing the nerve to be pinched), but that it was still a good thing to have the surgery done as you never know when it could flare back up and cause pain again. So come to find out this explains why the friday before surgery nick commented "I dont' seem to have as much pain...what should we do...go ahead with the surgery"??? Even though we didn't have a second MRI we decided we would go ahead with this surgery since you never know when that pain may reoccur. Dr Miller continued to say nick did well and was in recovery and would be moved up to a room within the next two hours. So we continued to wait and about an hour later we were told he had a room. So we headed up to his room just as he was being moved onto his bed. We went in and he looked like he had just come out of surgery. Its a bit disturbing seeing the one you love to much look in pain and groggy and out of it. The boys were extremely quiet but oh so sweet. Caden walked up to him and started patting his arm and head and saying "you ok daddy". Elijah stood back quietly and looked quite sad. I soon noticed that his IV was bleeding out the end of the tube and so I called in the nurse. She proceeded to change the tubing and I think that was when Elijah got worried. Seeing daddy's blood was maybe a bit to much for him. I told him what was going on and told him it was ok and if he needed to cry that was ok too, but that daddy was fine. Elijah stuck his fingers to his eyes and held them over the corners of his eyes to keep from crying and then he came and sat by me and hid his face. I thought how precious it was that he was so concerned. Soon the tube was changed and the bleeding was done and the boys became their normal self.
Nick had not eaten all day and they offered him food and of course he was hungry but unfortunently he over did it and ate to much and threw it up later on that night. He slept like a log as he snored all night long:) I slept(or should I say tried to sleep in a hard pull out chair) as best as I could at 7 months pregnant. I was glad to see the sun rise in the morning:). Nick was dismissed the next day by 11:00am and we were home by 11:30. The doctor gave orders for him to not go back to work for 6 weeks....WHAT??? Nick said "that is not possible", you never told me I couldn't work for 6 weeks. Well, nick got him to drop it down to 2 weeks. Im not 100% sure he is going to follow doctors orders at this point. I think nick is hoping to go back late next week which only puts him at staying away from work for 1 week. I can't make him stay home, but I sure hope he doesn't over do it!!!!!
Anyway, thanks so much for your prayers and support thru this journey we had to take. We are both so thankful he is pain free in the leg with no sciatic nerve problems what so over...now he just has to let the incision heal and become pain free (that is the only pain he has). He still has 6 weeks of a 10 pound restriction which he must follow and he says he will. That puts us at 3 days before I am due....oh this could be interesting:)

Hope this wasn't to confusing...I tried to explain the best I could.

Snow Storm

Ok so a few weeks ago I posted about our snow day....well, I thought this would top that post! Now Im sure I will get a few laughs still at the amount of snow we all get excited about here, but trust me...this is quite a bit for Knoxville. In fact its the most snow they have had in 5 years!! So the most snow the boys and I have seen since living here. School was dismissed early on Monday due to all the snow, slush and slick roads and today school was cancelled due to dropping temperatures and all that slush out on the roads is now frozen. We are to get some more snow this afternoon and perhaps some more on Wednesday morning so Im not sure if the Elijah will be back in school tomorrow or not. I kind of hope so...

Even though it was an extremely WET snow they had fun none the less and came in with EVERYTHING wet!! Our back yard hill really comes in handy for this type of thing. Here is our front drive and its still snowing out when I took this picture.

Caden on the backyard hill....kind of tough to climb this hill since the snow was so wet as soon as you touched it it turned slick, but it made for great body sleds. No sled needed they soon found out.Elijah attempting the sled, but always seemed to slid sideways. He soon gave up as well and was belly sliding. Elijah and Caden made this snowman...I watched from the window:) I think they did a good job for their first snowman ever!! Below is a video of the boys body sledding down our hill in the back yard. Enjoy!!

God Answers Prayers

Recently I've been asking for prayers on behalf of Nick and his back and that we would know if the Dr Miller that he had an appt with today would be a good Neurosurgeon. When moving to a new area finding random doctors is always hard and you never know who you can trust and who is good.
(*this could become long*)
Ive been asking around for recommendations and have never gotten any and in fact was advised to go to Nashville for a great Neurosurgeon for nick. Well, we couldn't get into nashville's Vanderbilt Hospital for 2 months so nick looked up the UT Medical Neurosurgeons here and took the first available doctor. (dr. miller)
On Monday I help teach a class called "just moved". Its for those who are new to knoxville and its a great class that helps you meet knew ladies and find different things going on around town. Monday was our first class for this semester and a gal named Christy walked in (been here 3 months). She overheard me talking about nicks back and how we are seeing a neurosurgeon here. She got into the convo and to make this portion of my story short basically said "I know of one neurosurgeon here that would be a good fit. He is very conservative and doesn't do surgery unless very necessary and he is a christian man". I simply asked for his name so incase Dr. Miller didn't work out we had another name to fall back on. Well, much to my surprise his name was Dr. Miller!! I was simply thrilled that one day before nick's appt I find out that Dr Miller is a great doctor... so she says.
Well, at the end of this class we are able to give prayer requests. So I brought up my prayer request that we would know if Dr. Miller was a great doctor and that we could trust him and that we want to know for certain if surgery was the way to go for nick's back....thats when Dana(who has lived here for several years and helps teach the class spoke up). She said that two semesters ago we had a lady named susan miller in our class and that she was certain her son was a neurosurgeon here. No one knew for certain so that night I called Susan Miller (I had her phone number from when she was in the class) and I talked to her on the phone last night with much excitment as I found out that Dr. Joshua Miller was indeed her son. Found out that he was the top of his neurosurgeon class and has won awards for being a great neurosurgeon!!!
Thank you LORD for showing us all this prior to our visit today. God truly is amazing and answers many prayers.
The visit went well today, he was extremely nice, and encouraged us that since nick has already taken the conservative treatment approach by seeking chiropractic help and has tried other measures of healing like prednisone and traction that surgery was probably the best choice of action to take at this time. So on Feb 9th nick will be having his back surgery and we can't wait for that day to arrive so he can be instantly pain free!!!
Side note #1: of course I told dr. miller that I had spoke with his mother on the phone the night before and that I know who she is. He seemed thrilled to know we knew his mom.
Side note #2: one of nicks questions to the doctor was..."will I be able to ski and do water sports this summer?" Doc replies "of course"!!!! Nick smiled from ear to ear!!!
Thanks one and all for your prayers. They have been answered! We are now praying for a safe, successful and uneventful surgery on February 9th.