Hair Donation

Before

After

Three braids ready to be donated to make wigs for cancer patients.

Merry Christmas!

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First Sibling Pics

Hope Annette Bilodeau

Twelve days ago we finally got to meet the newest member of our family. Hope Annette was born Sept 12, at 1:13pm at one of the local hospitals. We had hoped and planned for a home birth, but God had other plans this time around. For most of a week, I was sure I was going into labor with lots of cramping and regular contractions. Finally Sunday morning, it looked like things were really happening. We called the midwives and our other support people. Contractions were getting very close and powerful before everyone arrived and we started to worry that the baby might come before the midwives! I decided to try resting to see if that would slow things down. It worked, to well in fact. My labor seemed to have stopped. When the midwives arrived, they tried to determine the position of the baby and quickly realized that she was no longer head down ready for delivery. When I sat down to rest, she had turned sideways into a "transverse" position. Everyone gathered around and prayed with their hands on my belly for God to turn her if that was His will. We tried several techniques to get her to move back into a good position, but she seemed quite content where she was. By now strong contractions had returned putting both the baby and I at risk if my labor continued to progress with her laying sideways across my belly. We decided to head to the hospital. An ultrasound confirmed that baby was laying with her spine over the birth canal. There was no way she was coming out naturally that way. The Dr. explained and the midwives concurred that the only safe option was a cesarean delivery. In about a half and hour, we were prepped and ready for surgery and once in the operating room, it was only a matter of minutes before the baby was out. Her cord was wrapped around her neck and leg. This might be the reason she turned when she did.

We spent four days in the hospital. It was good to come home to familiar surroundings.

Recovery from a C-section is very different from the others births. Definitely not my favourite way to have a baby! But I'm so glad to have her here safe and sound! And thankful that we live in a place where we have access to the technology to have an emergency surgical delivery.

Hope is a good baby. She started nursing well soon after birth and hasn't slowed since! She is a good sleeper too. One night she slept five hours straight!

We are slowly, slowly trying to get back into our routine. We have been blessed by family and friends bringing meals and offering to help. My mom spent a few days with us this week emptying the garden by canning tomato soup, salsa, and hot pepper jelly. The big kids are working hard to help with extra chores and meals. Brian has had work off, but will go back this coming Monday. So that will be the real test of how helpful the kids can be! I am still hurting alot and very slow at getting anything done, but everyday I try to do a little more. Someday I might be back to normal! I hope!

Overall, we are so thankful for this precious little bundle! She is such a blessing already! More pictures to follow...

Due Day

The meals are in the freezer, the baby things are washed and ready, the house is clean (more or less...) What to do on THE DUE DATE except mope around and wonder if labor will ever start? Go to the beach of course! Brian's work canceled for the day, it was to be a record heat wave, and most beaches should be relatively uncrowded since school is back in session and most people are at work. Actually, it was surprisingly busy the places we passed, but we found plenty of room at the state park we ended up at.

I figured it was a pretty good plan to do all the work and packing to get to the beach because surely I would go into labor and we would have to rush back home...

Well, instead of rushing back home to have a baby, we spent a leisurely day enjoying the big waves and slightly warmer than normal water.

Brian and I looked through name books and still did not settle on the perfect name for this little one. Maybe that is the hold up, the reason she isn't here yet. You can all pray that we decide on something soon!