Care for an update?
It's been a minute. So take a seat.
We live in Florida now. We have 4 (precious) children. Graham is almost 11 and in 5th grade (gasp!). Jackson turns 9 on Sunday and is in 3rd grade. Savannah just turned 6 and started Kindergarten. And Juniper turns 3 tomorrow. I know.... we are a herd. I love our herd!
I'll back up a little bit.
We moved to Gainesville, Florida in December of 2016 for Matt to be the Creative Director at Parisleaf. They are a small branding and design agency here in Gainesville and are such a great group of creative friends that truly feel like family. We have also found an amazing church family here and have been so blessed to jump into life with them. They definitely loved us hard and helped ease the early haze of homesickness!
Now - the real reason for this post. To document the birth story of our sweet baby Juniper.
As Savannah turned 2 in 2015 I decided to follow a long buried desire to work in a hospital setting taking care of patients. There was a lot of things going on in our work and personal lives at that time. Way too much to even try and summarize here. But me returning to work was for me and also for our family. In another life I would've gone to nursing school! I worked nights taking care of patients and supporting the real nurses in the Neuro unit at Mercy Hospital. It was everything I envisioned would be involved with nursing and extra patient care time. It was also crazy and insanely hard on our home schedule and my body as I was working 2-3 night shifts a week.
So imagine our surprise when we found out about our baby Juniper! As we think back on those days we were confident in the Lord's timing and gift of that sweet babe and we FOR SURE can't even begin to imagine our family without her. But it was still a lot of a surprise! We were thrilled when we found out we were having a girl... and bonus points for my sister sharing her pregnancy news and we were able to be pregnant together and have a set of cousins only 3 weeks apart!
(38 weeks...)
Circumstances led Matt and me to pack our daily life materials and move in with my parents while he worked and pursued full time employment. We made the arrangements for the boys to start at a new school... we trusted the Lord with all the fibers of our beings... We packed ourselves up, moved into my parents home on Saturday, August 13th which was also my due date.
While we were doing all the moving and walking all the stairs, and carrying all the things.... we joked about it sending me into labor. Ha! We had previously planned to send the kids to church with my parents and sleep in the next day. For sure my body would need it!
I had some serious labor signs during that night and a few more indications that things were happening on Sunday. I have pretty unremarkable pregnancies from outsider perspective. And although my belly doesn't get too big.... I have big, regular sized babies. They just take up every teeny inch of my insides. So I'm pretty uncomfortable for the last 3 months... And my labors were fast and furious for my boys and (I guess normal length?) for Savannah. All that to say by this point of hitting my due date, in August of a mid-west summer.... it was time.
(Juniper Martha, 8 lb 8 oz. 5:38 am)
I can safely say that Matt and I were equally thrilled when I jumped out of bed at 3 am Sunday night with a massive contraction. And immediately another. He knew what to do...
There were no smiles, it was immediately serious labor business. We arrived at the hospital around 4:30 I think. In all the heaviness of life decisions and changes I had completely ignored the reality of impending labor. Who knows how I thought this would go down. I've been able to deliver all my babies naturally and drug free... So I should've known what was coming... But it wasn't pretty. I whined and cried and probably stomped. I did not labor calmly or peacefully. The labor nurses and my favorite doctor were truly amazing and I could never thank them enough. There were several moments when I wanted to quit. But is there anything every truly worth living for that doesn't come with some pain? Matt was amazing as always. And maybe a little scared of me? Either way, he never left my side.
What felt like an eternity later but was likely only 5 minutes I had my precious Juniper on my chest. She was NOT happy about her change of scenery and cried oh so loudly. It was like a little preview of her almost 3 year old temperament! It was a whirlwind of emotions giving birth for the last time. Life and birth is truly a miracle and it is not lost on me what a gift I have been given in these 4 sweet babies.
(There are just so many of us!)
(My matching blondies...)
(This big sister loves her baby SO much!!!)
(look at those smiles!)
Juniper was a very mild and serious baby from the beginning. She was almost constantly held thanks to all the eager big siblings and rarely cried. She was quite literally sweet as sugar! She had big, curious blue eyes just like our Jackson and her hair was definitely blond but with a little hint of red.
(S in preschool, G in second grade, J in Kindergarten)
Matt accepted the new job and moved to Florida at the end of September. I stayed in St. Louis to finish out the semester before we all made the long drive on December 30th.
(Just before mom and dad left town.... I think we all wanted to act like Savannah!)
(The family all together on Christmas 2016 before we moved)
It was hard to leave the only home our little family has ever known for a new town full of only unknown! But the Lord has been so kind and gentle with us. He has provided endless support and provision and so much joy! We miss our out of town families and I can't imagine having to do this without modern technology... wow!
These last pictures were taken for Juniper's first birthday. Sooooo, we definitely need some new family pictures!
As Juniper has grown into her own little person over the last 3 years we just love her more and more. Until recently she was our most quiet child and we were almost convinced we were going to have at least one mild mannered child. Nope. As she has begun to talk over this last year we have been able to laugh at her stubbornness and persistency as she yells and stomps and does all the things you'd expect a 4th baby to do to make herself known in a big family.
As Juniper has grown into her own little person over the last 3 years we just love her more and more. Until recently she was our most quiet child and we were almost convinced we were going to have at least one mild mannered child. Nope. As she has begun to talk over this last year we have been able to laugh at her stubbornness and persistency as she yells and stomps and does all the things you'd expect a 4th baby to do to make herself known in a big family.
Thank you to so many friends and family who have prayed and supported us to get us to this place. We know and appreciate you so very much. God is so good!
Happy 3rd birthday to our sweet girl! We can not imagine our lives without our lovie loving, curly headed, snack loving baby girl. She is a master lounger and can get her big siblings to do her bidding way better than I'm able to. She owns us all and I'm thinking we're all ok with the arrangement!
No comments:
Post a Comment