Coaching!

Friends, I have something EXCITING to share! As you may or may not know about me, I have been a lover of health and fitness for a long time. I enjoyed playing sports in high school and health was my major in college! I had dreams and goals of being a physical therapist, or an athletic director, or a personal trainer. Before I was able to finish college and get into a career, I got pregnant with my oldest daughter! While I was VERY excited (and let's be honest, nervous) about being a mom, it changed my plans and goals for a while. I got pregnant with our second daughter fairly soon after the birth of our first and my health and fitness kind of took a back seat. I was busy being a young mom of these 2 girls and did NOT want to eat healthy or exercise...it was WAAAYYYY down on the list. After we had our 3rd baby, I had a moment that I want to share with you: I overheard an older man ask my husband if I was pregnant. Our son was almost a year old, but I was NOT pregnant. This moment in my life was a make or break moment. It was then that I decided I needed to make a change. I was sad, I was unhappy with my body, I was not confident, and I was uncomfortable. I cried almost daily while getting dressed because I felt so uncomfortable in my own skin. My journey has had it’s up’s and down’s, but I am proud of where I am today and I am proud of the choices I have made to change. Not only have I had changes in my physical appearance, I have had changes in my overall health mentally and emotionally as well. An internal transformation and personally, I think THAT is the most important part. I am happier, I am healthier, I am more confident, and I am able to get dressed tear free! One thing that has helped me so much in my health journey has been surrounding myself with people who are on the same journey as I am. Having this community has been great because we can look to each other for support, accountability, help, motivation, tips, and even complain to each other when our journey is hard! I have been drinking Shakeology and have done several of the workout programs from Beachbody (P90x3, T25, PIYO, and Insanity Max 30) for quite a while now and have fallen in love with them! I have seen such a difference in my overall health and physical fitness by using these products and being a part of online groups that I want to help others in achieving their health goals! If I can help even just ONE person who has struggled with some of the same things I have struggled with, it would be an honor! I became a COACH because of the changes I have seen in myself and because I truly believe EVERYONE can live a healthy, happy, and fulfilling life and I would LOVE to help with that!!! I am hosting my first online support and accountability group on October, 19. I would LOVE to be a part of your health journey and help you achieve your health goals, whatever they may be! If this sounds like something you are interested in, please let me know by commenting below, shoot me a private message, or send an email to jobrockhealth@yahoo.com. I am really looking forward to this and hope you will join me!!!

All in One Sentence...

2 years ago on March 18th, I lost a baby. A baby I didn't even know I was carrying. A baby we were not trying for, as we were done having kids. It was a Sunday, I was photographing my first set of mini sessions. I started cramping up really bad and having horrible back pain, I kept going up to the bathroom (which was a loooong hike uphill) because I was in so much pain. I began bleeding. I thought surely I had a kidney infection. The pain kept on, all day Sunday, all day Monday. I called Monday to get an appointment with my doctor and they didn't have anything available until Tuesday morning. I went in Tuesday morning and they took blood work, a urine sample, and I am sure ran a few more tests. Then they told me it appeared I was having a miscarriage. I sat in that room and found out I was pregnant and loosing a baby all in one sentence. I cried. Somehow I managed to wait until we got into the car, but as soon as I sat down in the passenger seat, I cried. I cried and don't think I stopped for days. I wondered what I would have thought if I had known I was pregnant, what would the other 3 kids have thought? I didn't even get to have the excitement and celebrate that baby before it was gone. Before my body was contracting and shedding this baby, I didn't get to have the excitement. I kept it mostly to myself. Why? I don't know. I have thought a lot about why I kept this mostly to myself and why as a society, I think miscarriage is usually something we don't talk much about. I think we are too afraid of causing other people to be uncomfortable talking about it. The truth is, I have 5 kids, and it is ok for people to know that! One of them got to go straight to the arms of Jesus, how can I be sad about that? Yes, I want to meet my baby, but how cool that the first face my baby got to see was Jesus! I think about my baby and how old it would be (16 months right now), what it would look like (me or Josh or one of it's siblings?), what their personality would be like? I can't wait to embrace my baby in my arms one day, oh how glorious that will be! For now, I know that our baby is safe in the arms of Jesus and that is comforting. The journey drew me closer to Jesus and gave me an eternal bond with all other mothers who have experienced this loss. It truly is something you don't understand and can't comprehend until you experience it. I don't know what compelled me to share this, but I know that I am not alone, and knowing that when I lost my baby was very comforting. So, here I am letting you all know that I lost a baby, and it is ok to talk about, and it is ok to share! Thanks for listening...er, reading!

"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!