"Jesus is With Me!"

I wanted to share a story about my 7 year old daughter, Riley. From a very young age, Riley has heard the Lord speaking to her and had an awareness and understanding of Jesus that most kids her age do not. The other night, Josh was putting Riley to bed and she said, "I think the Devil is trying to take over my body." He asked her what she meant by that and she went on to explain that she felt like she heard the Devil trying to tell her that Jesus isn't with her. She told us that she just kept saying, "Jesus IS with me!" (Are you tearing up yet?! I sure am!) Josh told her that she is exactly right and Jesus is with her and the Devil tries to get to us like that sometimes. He told her that speaking the name of Jesus is incredibly powerful! He told her the story of how the soldiers fell to the ground at the name of Jesus...she was in awe! She asked him to pray for her and asked him to tell me and our good friends, Mark and Lezlie to pray for her. Josh prayed with her and came to tell me the story. I immediately went in there to pray over her, she said, "I knew you would come in and pray with me!" Josh and I told her that we thought she was going to do amazing things for the Lord during her lifetime. She then told us she wanted to be like her aunt Amanda (who is a ministry in Africa) and travel the world to tell people about Jesus! 7 years old...amazing!

Photos of Ezra's Birth

I am so thankful to have these photos of Ezra's birth! During contractions...ouch! My first time to hold Ezra! Minutes after he was born! All 6 of us and meeting and holding Ezra! The girls had asked if we could unwrap him so they could check him out! They said, "I want to see his whole body!" Getting weighed, his head measured, all those stats! Having an herbal bath with mom and getting his hair washed!

Ezra is here!

On May 1st, we welcomed our sweet Ezra Potter into our family! I am about to share my birth story...keep in mind this is a BIRTH STORY...there will be details! If you don't want to know them, stop reading now :) I had an appointment on Monday, my 39 week appointment and had no more progression at all. It was quite disappointing. She told me I probably at least had another week or so and to get myself a project to keep my mind off of it. I did just that. I decided to let it all go and focus on something else. Tuesday and Wednesday morning, I had tons of contractions. Painful, but not timeable or anything like that. I was pretty frustrated about it and was thinking I was just going to have to deal with contractions for who knows how long...the longest early labor ever. I was 4cm already and 90% effaced, so all of this was so confusing to me. I couldn't understand how I was so close, yet things seemed so far away. My cervix was still posterior, so that is why she felt my body wasn't ready. Wednesday around 11am, I went to my chiropractor and had an adjustment, acupressure, and acupuncture done. I didn't really think it would work since she said my body didn't seem ready. I had 2 strong contractions during the acupuncture. I ran a few errands after that, nothing seemed to be happening. A few hours later, the contractions started back up, but seemed all over the place. I tried to just go about my day and ignore them. We went to Missional Community at 6pm. Around 7pm, the contractions were very uncomfortable and noticeable. I started to try and see how far apart they were while trying to not seem like I was in pain. They seemed about 4 min apart. I kept having to go to the bathroom...both #1 and #2. Around 8:30pm I was very uncomfortable and told Josh we needed to leave. He asked if we needed to go straight to the birth center, I said I wanted to go home and lay down and see what happened. My water broke with Zeke around 5cm, so I just kept thinking that would happen. The contractions were bad in the car. We got home around 9, put the kids to bed, I was back and forth to the toilet and in lots of pain. Josh had been trying to call my midwife, she wasn't answering because she had a mom pushing a baby out. At 9:30, Josh came into the room and I was sitting on the bed, he had already texted my midwife and said, "Jo is definitely in labor, we are on our way to the birth center." I didn't even know at this point that I was in labor, I think I was just so focused on getting through the contractions that I wasn't even processing anything. My contractions were very painful and 2 min apart at this point. He said to me, "We are getting in the car, NOW!" He popped the kids out of bed (PJ's and all!) and off we went. About 15 min down the road, I said, "I think this is it." Josh said, "Um, yeah!" We had a 40ish minute drive to our birth center and I told Josh he needed to hurry...that he did! Flashers and 90mph, we got there in 20 min. We arrived at the birth center around 10pm, I had one contraction in the doorway and my midwife says, "I think you are about to push your baby out." My water still hadn't broke and I told her I didn't think I was quite that close. She disagreed and she was right, she checked me and I was 9cm! The mom that had just had a baby was in the big room with the tub and we didn't have time to blow up a tub, I was so distraught because I was set on a water birth and didn't think I could do it without the water. After complaining about it several times, my midwife said, "You have to move past this, you can do this without the water!" I labored on the bed for a bit and then started feeling more pressure, so I got up on my hands and knees, leaning over the birth ball. A few minutes later, I felt like I needed to push, I literally swatted that birth ball off the bed and began pushing. After 3 pushes, his head came out, it was in the bag of water and my water broke then! This was actually the best thing that could have happened because I was strep b positive and (obviously) didn't have time for the antibiotics. The bag of water protected him through the birth canal-God is good!!! One more push and his body was out! He had pooped in the womb and was covered in it. The cord was also wrapped around his neck a little bit, so overall, he was a very strange color and he wasn't crying, his eyes were closed and he was very still. I kept saying, "Is he ok, what is wrong with him?" over and over. He was breathing and they assured me of that. They told us to pick him up, he began crying...turns out he was SLEEPING!!! Haha! He cried and then fell back to sleep when I cradled him...what baby comes out of the womb sleeping and completely un-phased by labor?! Sweet boy! After that, we had a few hours at the birth center before going home around 3am. He nursed well, we cleaned him up, had an herbal bath, met the few people who were there, and then headed home! It was awesome to get to sleep in my own bed! I haven't even uploaded photos to my computer yet, so I will share those some other time! Ezra Potter Brock was born at 10:30pm, weighing 7 pounds and 10 ounces, 20 inches long, and 14 inch head.

Stiiiiiiilllllll Waiting...

Well, I am 38 weeks and 5 days pregnant. I have never made it past 38 weeks and 3 days, so to me, I am feeling overdue. I am not going to lie, it is emotionally and physically exhausting. We have everything done and ready for this baby, so I pretty much just wake up every day and wait and hope that that day is the day...so far, no luck. At my appointment on Monday, I was mostly thinned out (90%) and 3cm dilated. She stripped my membranes and I had contractions all day...they fizzled out by bedtime. I am praying he is coming soon. I am so done. This is my 38 week photo! We went out to a festival at Good Records on Saturday, The Vintagemobile was there that our friends run. Kelsey and I are due just days apart! She is having a sweet little girl named Eden! This photo we took on Monday evening. We had a time where we all prayed over Ezra. All 5 of us had our hands on my belly and each said a prayer! It was a really sweet time. Everyone is anxiously awaiting this boy's arrival! This last photo was taken yesterday! Yesterday was the official "I have never been this pregnant before" day! This was my "I am completely unamused by this" face. Ezra, it's time! Come out and meet your family! Here's to hoping he is born before Friday because my midwife is out of town this weekend. Praying hard!!!

Preparing for Ezra

I have obviously had to be doing a lot of preparing to have this new sweet boy in our house! I am 37 weeks, full term, and he can come any day now! As I have mentioned before, I had some pre-term labor issues and started progressing at 33 weeks. Bed rest helped and at my 36 week appointment, hadn't progressed too much more! 36 weeks, I was 90% effaced and 1cm dilated. Our goal of course was to get to 37 weeks and we have! I am so thankful! I have been having a lot of pains and early labor symptoms. I am really hoping this means he is coming soon...I am so ready to meet him and be done with this pregnancy...it has been one of a kind for sure! Because we live in a smallish 3 bedroom house, Ezra will be bunking in our room for a while and then will eventually share a room with Zeke! We set up this little dresser with his stuff in it in our room. While I was on bed rest, there wasn't a ton I could do, but I did manage to make and do a few things! I made a blanket, burp rags, potato printed some onesies, and sterilized pacifiers. During the 4 weeks I was on more serious bed rest and doing this a lot... Josh had to take on a lot. He did a great job taking over and taking care of us all. It was very difficult for me to have to not do anything and not help out. The kids learned to be quite helpful and sometimes, things got a little out of hand... All in all, he did awesome! Needless to say, it was great to hit full term and start being able to be up and in the land of the living! We got the car seat in the car and bags packed. We have also been doing some walking to try and encourage Ezra to come on and join us out here!!! This photo of me is at 36 weeks. Last night, we celebrated hitting full term and went on our last date before this baby gets here. We got pedicures, went to dinner, and attempted to go sit on a blanket at the park with ice cream, but sitting there was so uncomfortable for me we left after a few min!

April so far

Aydia turned 6 this month! She is such a sweet, tenderhearted, silly girl! Right now, she loooooves art and is really good at it! She is very creative and loves animals! We got her an etch a sketch for her birthday, it was the perfect gift for her...she is really good on it! She is shy and though she likes when people recognize her, she gets really quiet...we saw this when we were singing her happy birthday! The girls got to go to one of Aydia's friends birthday party from school at Celebration Station. They had a blast, but let me tell you, not really the place one wants to go 9 months pregnant!

March 2013

At 31 weeks, I was taken off bed rest! I was so excited and went crazy with nesting and trying to get things ready for our Ezra! Little did I know, it would only be for 2 weeks...but I got a lot done in those 2 weeks! During those 2 weeks, we went to Austin for a wedding, we took the kids with us! We went to the wedding on Friday and then spent all of Saturday shopping, eating at Home Slice Pizza...it was a blast! We were planning to stay for 2 nights, but being 31 weeks pregnant, I really just wanted to go home and sleep in my bed the second night! That same weekend, my awesome friends threw me a baby shower for sweet Ezra! It was amazing, my friends outdid themselves! Also in March, our sweet Riley turned 7! I cannot believe she is so old! Right now, she loves Lalaloopsy, prefers wearing pants or shorts over dresses and skirts, she is very outgoing, affectionate, does well in school, is such a joy to be around! Because I was put back on bed rest at 33 weeks, Josh had to take the girls to the nail salon to get their nails done with their friends! What a good dad he is! Easter also fell in March, rounding this busy month out!