Our First Days At Home

*** So sorry if you stopped by and we didn't get a picture, so many pictures have been taken and I am sure some are missed or are on my mom's computer and not mine. I didn't back up to hospital visits, I started when we got home....more to come! I am going to attempt now that we have a "routine" and I have some free time to catch up...somedays there may be multiple post from the past!

12/19 So we walk into the door Saturday for the first time as a Mommy and Daddy, after spending several minutes trying to unlatch the car seat and Lacey screaming by this time the girl is starving so I nurse her before we even begin to settle in. Garrett's parents are here waiting for us to arrive home. My family is in town, but out and about. Teresa, Garrett's mom has broccoli noodle soup waiting and helps with Lacey and allows me to shower. The shower was so refreshing at home, but overall I was feeling really good!! We unpacked, set around just looking at her, I was so surprised climbing the stairs was so easy!! My mom came in and she had already been to wolf camera and was stuffing photo albums, man was I thankful for her to think of going out and getting started on that while we visited with Garrett's family.

Lacey after getting home from hospital

Visitors stopped by and my precious friend Amanda came to stay a few nights.

My cousin Denice and her husband Bill

As we left the hospital Saturday we were told to make a pediatrician appt for Monday because Lacey's bilirubin was up and she had a touch of jaundice. Even though I am a nurse, I had no idea what to expect the next several days. Lacey had a good feeding at midnight Saturday and then just became lethargic. My mom chose to keep her in her moses basket down stairs and text me to come down when it was time to feed. Hours would pass and I was getting good sleep, but Lacey was not waking up to eat. When she would arouse she would not latch on and would not stay awake for long.

12/20 Sunday arrived, more visitors came and family was still hanging out. One of our closest couples Amanda and her husband Mitch

My hairstylist and very special friend Stephanie, and her family

My cousin Donna and her daughter Kendall came to stay the night. I had a really uneasy feeling about Lacey, she had not had a good feeding in over 12 hours. She was jaundice on her face, lethargic, and just limp at times. I made a phone call to the pediatrician for the first time as a mother. She was wonderful and informative and recommended I give her some milk via a syringe and come in as scheduled on Monday.

Cousin Donna and her daughter Kendall

Part of the Reeves Family came for visit!!

With the help of some family and visitors it took an hour at least to get 15ml of milk down her and then wondering if the majority of it ran down her neck. I felt better just that the Dr. was not overly concerned or freaking out that she was not eating. Sunday night was uneventful just a sleeping baby.

12/21 Monday came Kristin arrived to see our precious girl. With everyones help we got Lacey dressed, packed diaper bag, loaded in carseat and Mom, Garrett, and I headed to Dr. office.

My sweet friend Kristin

Lacey and her daddy!! I ADORE THIS!!!

He is not mentioned much in this post, but please know he has been such a support and encouragement!! He shows us so much how he loves us, there just isn't much happening for him to be involved in yet!

She had a weight check, she was 5lbs15oz when born and that morning she 5lbs3oz. The Dr. said that was expected. Lacey was still just "out of it", she had a heel stick for her bilirubin level and I have heard most babies go crazy and she did not even wimper. As her mommy I wanted her to scream and cry to let me know she was okay. We will follow up 12/30 for a weight check if no problems before then! We left there awaiting a call with the results to find out if bili light therapy was necessary. We got back home, Kristin and Amanda were waiting and ready to assist me in trying to get more down Lacey. We were choosing to do a syringe to avoid nipple confusion. I began to pump, up until this point I had just been doing manual expression. The doctor's office called and said her level was normal, PTL!!! When Amanda and Kristin were holding Lacey her eyes would roll back in her head, she would get in this blank stare and not blink, then she would just go to sleep again. I was scared to death, tears were running down my cheeks. I was able to talk to a girl I know who works in Baptist nursery and she said I was describing a storybook jaundice baby. I felt much better after talking to her, she explained to me the goal would be to push as much fluids as I could. During the night she just was letting the milk I had pumped run down her neck when we would do the syringe. So I decided to give her the bottle. I pumped and mom fed her the bottle, her tongue just seemed to quit it stayed rolled back in her mouth and the challenge was to get the nipple around it. During bottle time she seemed to still be very lethargic even though she did a pretty good job sucking.

12/22 Tuesday morning arrived and after an emotional night with attempting to nurse and not being successful I knew the goal was to get Lacey to eat, so...was still giving her the bottle. I was calling the pediatricians office because I was so concerned that they told me her level was normal but she seemed even more lethargic and jaundice than before. In the midst of waiting for triage nurse I was attempting to pump. When I picked up the tubing and realized the $300 pump I had borrowed from a friend had a part that had broken off from it over night, I had BREAKDOWN #1. Whew I cried and hung up phone and cried and cried!!!! Mom was just looking at me pretty much crying herself, as she held my little baby I felt like such a little baby. I have never in my life cried so hard. Now in my mind I was going to have to go spend $300 to replace my borrowed pump and give it back to my sweet friend Lauren(who has let me borrow so much). Mom said "Leah you needed to cry", well I did and I showered and cried even more during it. It felt good to cry after it was all over, however I was still sick about the pump situation. My cousins were coming over this day so I dressed myself and got control! LOL!! I spoke to the nurse finally and the issue was Lacey's level had gone up since discharge from the hospital but it was in range where no treatment was needed, which explained her symptoms worsening.

The sun seemed to be shining so we placed Lacey in her moses basket next to the window.

Cousin Jim

Jim's wife Jill and little girl Allie ( a little over 10months)


Their son Aden (4 1/2 yrs)



Jim and Aden


Jill feeding Lacey or attempting :)

Later in the day more visitors came! Lauren stopped by and we realized there was a customer service number on the pump and they agreed to overnight the part free of charge! :) I was feeling much better!!
My sweet friend Holly, she came over with several premie outfits since I was not prepared for this little peanut!

Deanna, a friend from the village. She just had a baby 2 weeks ago. They brought over dinner.

It was still a struggle with the bottle, but that night a friend Lacy was here and we had a very successful feeding, she took the 1oz bottle in 10mins!!! This was a record. Afterwards my mom returned from errands and we bathed her for the first time. She seemed to like it and she was more alert!!!

Our precious friend Lacy

Look at these hands, guess Lacey was joining Mommy in praying for her jaundice!!

First bath time! She finally began to open her eyes a bit!

12/23 Lacey began to nurse and we were not even having to offer the bottle.

My sweet friend Kelley came over, brought dinner and a very special gift..it is a framed print with Lacey's name across the top and a prayer calendar.

Kelley, Emma, and Georgia

Next post Christmas time!!!

Lacey Ruth Arrived December 17th, 2009

The most incredible experience and amazing day of our lives thus far!!!

Us on Easter weekend 2009 when we found out we were expecting!!

Preparation of the Nursery

On our way to the hospital to deliver our little girl!!

Well we arrived at 6:15am to the admitting desk at the hospital. We were all smiles!! Our parents were at our house and the hotel so it was just Garrett and I taking it all in. I felt good considering it was the end of my pregnancy. God blessed me with such an amazing complication free pregnancy, I would do one like this again in a heartbeat, well I pray I get to do it again regardless. We are blessed also to have the relationship with our doctor and his family, knowing them before the pregnancy made this experience extra special to us.

Warming table all ready for her

At 7:15 he broke my water and Pitocin was started. I arrived at the hospital dilated to 3 and 40% effaced. Dr. Presley told me to get the epidural whenever I was ready, I asked him his opinion and he said probably ask for it in about an hour. Well the next two hours was the worst pain I have ever experienced, not that I have experienced alot in my life. I made the choice to take advantage of the recommended medical interventions to make this experience more comfortable, and I am so glad I did. After my supportive husband holding my hand and letting me be emotional by 9:00am the epidural was in and I was saying "I feel good!" I am such a family and friend lover, so I was so glad I felt so great and could visit. Thanks to everyone who came and called on delivery day and after, I hope to get some pictures up eventually of some of our visitors! At this point the baby had not dropped yet and so he was not promising me a vaginal delivery. I for sure would go with whatever would be best for us both, but really wanted to be able to birth in the room and family be with me. I was checked pretty much every hour making progress each time, which I felt was a positive sign. By noon, Dr.Presley said we will probably have a baby by 4:00pm whichever way she decides to come out. A special friend Kelley chose to follow God's leading, I am sure after she noticed my emotion, to lead us in a prayer. At that point I remembering peace coming over me and I was reminded that God had a perfect plan. She still was not dropping like he wanted, a couple hours later blood was noticed in my catheter and the nurse said we need to get it out sometimes that is a sign that the baby is dropping. Well by 2:30 I was at a 10 and starting to push for the nurse off and on. They spoke of my birth canal being narrow and was not sure if her head would mold through. Well by 3:30 the nurse said we are going to have a vaginal delivery!! Praise God!!!! Here came Dr. Presley! I had such wonderful coaching and support from Garrett, our moms, the nurse and Dr. Presley. At 4:09pm Lacey Ruth McElroy was delivered, such a healthy little miracle! How can people ever question if there is a God??

Our "First Moment", nothing I can put in words!

Our first family photo!!! So thankful!!

The hospital visit was wonderful!! To many things I am afraid I will miss if I back track so just jumping our going home!



All ready for her first car ride to her home!


We are home!! IT'S A GIRL!!!

Thankful For Our Thanksgiving Break!!

As I sit here on Sunday afternoon while Garrett is watching Titans game, tears are just flowing. I have always been an emotional person and I am so surprised the few times I have cried since being pregnant. I can't really put my finger on why tears are flowing right now, I am just experiencing a whirlwind of emotions mostly good, some bittersweet!

To update you on the latest progress I am going to go back a couple weeks..... My pregnancy has been out of this world amazing with no problems at all!!! Praise God!!! It has allowed me to continue working full time hours, for those of you that know I only get paid when I work, no paid time off for the position I am in. I have been able to travel, enjoy all of our showers, giving showers, visiting family, cleaning, really do anything I wanted to. So at my 35 week appt. a couple weeks ago I was told I was dilated to 1 and 20% effaced. He said I was good to go back home that weekend to give a shower for a friend. I went and felt pretty good. I could tell the car ride about got me on the way home as my spine and hips ached pretty bad. We were going to be faced with the decision to go to Birmingham with Garrett's family for Thanksgiving the following week. I was supposed to go to see Dr.Presley the Tuesday before and he said we would discuss it then. My mom just happened to be in town and went to my appt. Tuesday with me for no particular reason and my pressure just happened to be elevated. Everything else in his office checked out great and no progress had been made, but he wanted to send me over to Labor and Delivery Triage to be monitored for a couple hours and for lab work. So thankful God placed Mom there that morning, we just hung out as I was monitored, which allowed Garrett to just hang tight at school unless something occured that caused him to come to the hospital. By the time I was admitted and hooked up my pressure was already down, I kinda had the "why am I here and how much is this costing?" feeling. All was fine! At this point I am probably having some Braxton Hicks contractions, but nothing painful and she hadn't dropped much. The bottom line of that visit was no trip to Birmingham and no work for that week!

So Tuesday night started Garrett's Thankgiving break after a win over FRA. It was a bittersweet feeling, we wanted to see family and be with family, but to know I did not have the car ride ahead of me was wonderful. Everyone was so understanding of course putting Lacey's health a top priority. We just got in the mindset that we were really going to enjoy these 5 days of no agenda and remember our life is fixing to change, for the better of course!! But in a way that we will never have this feeling of "just the two of us" again. It has been wonderful....sleeping late, cooking breakfast, watching movies, hanging things, washing Lacey's clothes, putting together gadgets, organizing drawers, napping, early suppers, late night snacks, sleeping on the couch til 1 or 2am, then crawling in the bed to do it all over again the next day. Oh how I love my husband!!! And oh how God has blessed these last 4 1/2 years of our marriage!!! It is so bittersweet as I laid there last night thinking about today being our last day of break and school starts back for him Monday, memories played over and over in my mind and how much we cherish our "couch time"! I know that greater days are ahead!!! But choosing to be very transparent I can say I cannot phathom this love that people speak of that is just going to take over our lives, and probably safe to say he can't either. Saying all that to say that is where the whirlwind of emotions are because I would love to meet her tonight!!! We are so excited and so blessed that God chose to give this life to us so quickly, knowing so many people struggle to conceive and not understanding why. I also am filled with the conviction of knowing how days go by and I let time pass not taking the moment to realize how amazing the work of God's hands is!! I pray so hard to be a spirtual godly example to my daughter and to be that godly wife I desire to be on a daily basis!!! You can get so overwhelmed with thinking about tomorrow and the future and the obstacles and the what ifs, but I have to remember God is with me every step of the way as much as I allow Him to be!! I am thankful for this outlet to empty my thoughts and would appreciate any readers out there to pray as we make this transition into a family. As of today I still am not feeling much different, a little more pain in the groin area/spine..but not much action occuring. Trusting Gods timing is perfect and praying for patience and peace as I wait! Going back to the doctor Tuesday, will try to update our progress!!!

BabyShowers

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We Are Back!!! See Slideshow Above!!

Well alot has been going on and life is crazy!!! I am trying to get back in the swing of things now that our computer is in its permanent place and our precious arrival is coming soon! I do hope to use this as a journal for our life and hope our family and close friends enjoy it. Some days I hope to use to write about what God might have layed on my heart our taught me and other days I hope to share pics of some of our happenings. Hopefully I will be able to keep up and not wait 8 months to post again. I have been playing around on shutterfly and think I have figured out an easy way to post pics, slideshows, videos etc. This is a test below of some of my showers with some precious friends and the start of the nursery. Hope to update more soon! Thanks for stopping by and all your prayers will be appreciated in the coming months!!!

GUESS WHAT THE EASTER BUNNY BROUGHT!!!

After months of praying and conversations with Garrett we decided in February to start NOT preventing pregnancy. Being a women and so aware of the many issues I have reminded Garrett of the unknown fertility and any other issue that could arise. I wanted to make sure he was aware it wasn't like we start trying and BAM we are expecting!! Garrett was at a basketball game and I was just running around by myself. I had made stops and Barnes and Noble, Lifeway, and Books-a-Million. I was looking for a Christian based book written for couples who were at the point in their life where they thought it was time to start a family. I found parenting books, step parenting, adoption, infertility, multiples, pregnancy, every thing you could think of but a little Christian insight on making the decision. I know God's Word is the ultimate form of wisdom, but I believe He uses His Christian authors to assist in guiding His children through some decision making. So on Monday April 6th I went a common blog I read Kelly Stamps, she is doing a giveway on this book below!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness I just sat there at the computer tears streaming, being so aware of God's presence in our situation. My mind was saying I am going to register to win 1 of the 5 books, however if I don't win it I will just go by it. I was so anxious to see if it would just fall into my lap. She was going to draw Friday April 10th, so I just waited till Friday afternoon. We were back in Milan-our home town- and I signed on Friday and out of 264 entries my name was drawn as one of the five!!!!!! I couldn't believe this!!! Not that I won a contest but how I felt God was providing that desire right in my lap!!!

So on this Friday night I new it was a possibility I could be pregnant. Since we were home for Easter I was anxious to take a test because we had all the family in person!!! I had already decided especially for our first experience we would probably tell immediately. I am the type that is very close to my family and friends and don't think I could hold it in. If things were great we would have lots of excitement and if things were bad we would have lots of prayer and support!! I took a test and the positive line was so faint, it was hilarious, Garrett and I were getting the instruction paper out and seeing if it said anything about a faint line. It didn't, so we just decided I would retest Saturday morning. So I just went to bed wondering is this the time???? I tested again Saturday morning at 6am and it was another faint line! AAAAAAAHHHH!!! I ran to Walmart and got a digital, took it and it said the word PREGNANT!!

Garrett was still asleep, I ran and said you have to open your eyes and look at this!!! He was excited as he could be waking up from a dead sleep. I knew I wanted to tell our parents that afternoon. So I got easter eggs and put pacifers in them. See pictures below!!! My mom is not in the picture because she had that mother instinct and guessed it before I even could give her an egg!! Everyone had tears and laughed and were so supportive!! So I guess this is the beginning of an exciting journey!! Please pray for us and the health of our baby!!! Our first appointment is April 30th! Easter weekend we celebrated two wonderful miracles: Our Risen Lord! and the News of our coming baby!!!

Garrett and I on Easter

My Family on Easter

Anthony and Missy on Easter

God has been doing some amazing things in my life, I can't wait to share with my readers some of the things He has brought to my attention and taught me. However it has been busy the last month so I am trying to get all my thoughts together on paper first!! Todays my 25th birthday and my mom is here, so we are going to enjoy the day! Hope to post more this weekend!!

Time is Still Flying By!!

Whew, Praise the Lord for a job and continuing to provide. I have been working alot, at the time when I know the next day is overtime, I would prefer to be on call; however, I am very thankful when the check comes. Trying to recap all that has gone on over the last month.

My mom came for a night and the next day we went and kept Aden and Allie. Is this not so precious!!! Aden is so much fun and at such a good age to play with. He and I did not stop that day.

This is Kortney and I in Flordia last summer. We had a nice time to catch up a few weeks ago she was coming through Nashville and we met for lunch. The more time passes the busier we get and the harder it is to get together. We needed this I was very thankful the timing worked out.

Then I got to keep Hudson by myself one day while his mommy had to run errand. He is so precious and growing and smiling more everytime I see him. For those of you who read often, be praying for Lauren she has to start back to work next week and is really seeking God's direction on making some decisions.

Thats about all that has happened over the past 4 weeks. Maybe I will do better this next month keeping up!!!

Just FYI, you will see in the next post at Garrett's Birthday party I was trying to grow out my hair, Oh well, not happening. I have an appointment today to get it cut, first time since October. At least I know I tried but I cannot handle it!!

Happy Birthday to The Love of My Life!!!

After much planning and anticipation our surprise party happened!!! Garrett's family and I have been planning to surprise him and bring all of them here this past weekend. He was shocked all he could say was Wow! Wow! He had come home from school Friday afternoon and decided before we went to eat he was gonna shower and shave, to make a long story short when he got out of shower I had laid a shirt and shorts there and told him make sure to dress because Lauren had come in. When I heard him drying off I said "Come in here I want you to see something" and all his grandparents, parents, brother, brother's friend, cousin, and myself said Surprise!!!! He honestly had no idea. Our wonderful weekend started there. I had Pizza Hut bringing pizza, pasta, and wings and I had made some cupcakes. We just hung out and played some games with the fam.

Garrett and his Dad enjoying pizza

Anthony and Missy, first time for her to meet all the fam

Saturday came and I took the grandmothers and Teresa, Garrett's mom, to Cheesecake Factory and several little shops at GreenHills. They loved it, we could have eaten alot more, but we were trying to save room for our grill out planned for Saturday night.

Teresa and I

Grandmother Edith and Grandmother Shirley

Dinner Saturday was so fun!! I loved being hostess and having everything prepared. We had a salad and potato bar, fried okra, four cheese rice, rolls, 5 NY strips, and 4 Ribeyes. It was great!!! Even went all out and had paper plates and bowls!!! LOL! They were so precious and complimentary. I can't wait to have all of them again. This was the night we were going to celebrate Garrett's Birthday.

I loved his ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins.

Anthony and Shirley grabbed a cone.

Garrett hugging his momma after opening presents.

Us with all the grandparents

Garrett's fam before me!!

Then after all of the family left for the night our friends "The Johnston Family" came over for leftovers and I popped in a rotisseree chicken to add to them. They cleaned their plates I was so glad the came we had so much leftover. We just hung out played cards, Garrett and Lacy had a dance off, Joe and I were scraping wallpaper in the kitchen at 2am. Man fun times!!!

We are so thankful God allowed everything to fall into place. In the past when we have had some family time it has seemed like something has always gotten in the way such as health issues, car wrecks, scheduleing, etc. We cherished this weekend so much and hope we are allowed much more time all together.