1 Month Old!

Alethea is 1 month old today! Tuesday November 14, 2011.  (I apologize this is late but I'm having a hard time keeping up with writing and posting on time.)

Our Dear Alethea,

I can not believe that you are already 1 month old! It seems like only yesterday we were anxiously awaiting your arrival. You have brought so much joy and love to our lives that I can not even begin to explain. It amazes me that you know your mommy and daddy. Sometimes I can't believe that you are the little child that was inside me for so long.

You are such a laid back baby girl. Although you are fussy at times when not being held, you are generally happy. You have done great with letting people other then mommy and daddy hold you. (I really hope that is something that stays) One of my favorite things is when you are upset when someone else is holding you and how you calm down immediately when I pick you up. You already know your mommy and prefer me to other people.

When you were first born you looked a lot like your daddy and now you look like a perfect mixture between the two of us. You have you daddy's ears, eyes and feet as well as his "go with the flow" personality. You did a great job switching between nursing and bottles from day one in the hospital which gives mommy a break and allows daddy to feed you. Daddy feeding you has been such a great bonding experience. You also amazed us when you were the perfect angle (not crying at a well, and taking formula) the whole time mommy was in the hospital and recovery (you were 3 weeks old). We have already been through a lot as a family this past month and you have handled it wonderfully! We are so thankful to have you as our daughter.

You are such a tiny little thing! At your 1 month doctors appointment that doctor said  that your are a tiny feisty little baby. You only weighed 6.89lbs but had grown to 21.5 inches. Mommy and Daddy are now working very hard to get more meat on your bones. We spend a lot of time feeding you and are enjoying the special time to bond while you are staring into our eyes and eating. Although you are not sleeping through the night, most of the time we get a good 3-4hours stretch of sleep. You love to be held in the middle of the night and look at mommy and daddy as you fall asleep. As tiring as it is for us to be up with you so long rocking you to sleep, I know these times won't last forever and are treasuring them.  You are eating every 2.5-3 hours during the day and every 3-4 hours at night. You are still in newborn clothes, although they are fitting you more snug and are also in newbonr diapers. You are our tiny little girl and we thank God every day that you are in our life.

We love you so much and could not imagine our lives without you. Our family feels more complete with you apart of it and I can't remember what life was like without you. We would do anything to provide and care for you. We are treasuring the time we have now when you are this little and just learning to see the world around you and are also so excited for the future! You have recently started smiling at us and we can't wait to see more smiles as you grow. We love you!

First 2 weeks

Today (Friday the 28th) you are 2 weeks old. I meant to write a post about your first week outside the womb, but things got a little crazy taking care of you. Now that you are more on a schedule, I am able to tell you about your first two weeks at home, but more particularly your 2nd week outside of the womb.

After a few days in the hospital we were both able to come home. While we were in the hospital 2 of your aunts (Pamela and Kaleigh) came to visit. They were both so excited to hold you and get to be the first people outside of your parents to hold you. Your nana also came to the hospital to meet you. She wasn't planning on driving down to St. Louis until you were released to go home, but when she heard you were born she couldn't wait to come down. She packed the car and drove the 10 hours straight to the hospital. You got to meet your grandpa on your 2 week old birthday. He was unable to make it as soon as you were born because of work but came as soon as he could. He was so excited to meet you and hold you. You always stopped crying and calmed down as soon as he held you. I have a feeling you will have be a daddy and grandpa's girl.

Your daddy and I are so happy and thrilled to have you in our life. Even though you may keep us up all night and sleep all day we love you dearly. We have had so many great firsts with you these 2 weeks such as; your first bath, first car ride, first diaper change at home, your first doctors appointment and your first trip to someone's house. It is so exciting sharing all these first with you and we can't wait to share even more!

2 Weeks old

1 week old

Praise God for His Mercy!

Thank you all for your prayers and intercessions on our behalf. Amy, Alethea, and Jacob are all home and resting. I am sure a more detailed posting will come later, but for now prayers may be shifted from intercession to praise.

This afternoon Amy had successful surgery to help with the problem she was having. The last few days have taken quite alot out of us between 2 ER trips, a surgery, and way too much time in STL hospitals. Thank you all so much for your support, prayers, phone calls, and emails.

We already are setting up visits with family, friends, and helpers. If you would like to help, or contact us in any way, please email Jacob @ toman.jp@gmail.com.

Prayers Please!!

We are currently at the hospital as our little family grows and learns about life. Amy has had a few complications during her recovery from birthing and will shortly have a little bit of surgery to help her recover further. Please be in prayer for Amy as her body goes under this procedure, pray for Alethea that she would be able to rest and grow during this time, and pray for Jacob to be a loving support in this time.

We will update here as soon as we are able.

Thank you for your prayers,
Jacob and Amy

First's

Here are some of Alethea's First... (sorry they are not in order of her age)

First trip to someones house (we went to Pamela's house 10-23)

First Held by Aunt Pamela (10-15)

First held by Aunt Kaleigh (10-15)

First held by Grandma C. (10-16)

First bottle fed by daddy (10-16)

First time as a family of 3 (10-14)

First Car ride (ride home on 10-18)

First diaper change at home (10-18)

First Visitor (10-20)

First Walk (10-21)

First Sponge Bath (10-22)

First time meeting Wallace (10-18)

First Bow (10-18)

First time in your swing (10-18)

First held by Grandpa (10-28)

First "toy" 

Welcome Alethea Rose!!!

We welcomed Alethea Rose into our arms on Friday, October 14th 2011 at 11:31pm. She weighed 6.2 lbs and was 19.5 inches long.

We are both so thankful to have Alethea here and hold her in our arms. She is such a precious gift from God that we love so much! We wanted to write a post about her birth mainly so she would always know the story and have a record. This blog will change now that Alethea has come and will focus more on stories that we would like her to know about her life and letters from us to her. Please be aware that this story may be graphic or too descriptive for some. We go into ALL the details.

The best place to start this story would be early in the week on Tuesday. I went to my normal doctors appointment at the hospital to be monitored and to check Alethea's growth. I have been going to this hospital twice a week for the last month or so to have fetal monitoring done. During my routine ultra sound to check my amniotic fluid levels they found that my fluid was around 5. (It should definitely be over 5 and they like to be more around 10) This wasn't too big of a surprise to me since my fluid tends to be low on Tuesdays and increase by Fridays. I was told to go home and spend the next few days drinking lots of water and resting as much as possible.  We spent Thursday night joking about how I could get induced on Friday (because my fluid was low) but didn't truly believe they would induce me on Friday. Well low and behold I get to the hospital on Friday and my fluid was at 3, the magic number! Low enough that they wanted to induce me right then.

Now I said I was already at the hospital, but I was at the wrong hospital. There are SO many great hospitals in St. Louis and the one I was at was not the one where we planned to deliver Alethea. Although it is a great hospital it was not the "baby" hospital and was farther away from Jacob's work/school and our church family.  After receiving the news that they would induce me, I called Jacob to let him know so he should turn in his paper at school and get home. I spent the next hour waiting around to get the "ok" from my primary OBGYN that I could leave the hospital and drive to the one where we intended to give birth. During this time, Jacob was able to get home, walk Wallace and quickly clean up the kitchen.

Once we arrived at the hospital we got checked into our room, were hooked up to penicillin (I tested positive for Group B)  and waited. We had to wait about an hour before they started the pitocin, around 1:30pm. Even thought\ I was dilated to 3cm when we checked in, they were unable to break my water until I had 1 bag of penicillin in my body which would take about 4 hours.

4 hours later......

After 4 hours of sitting, watching t.v and just hanging out without much pain, the nurse and resident doctor came in to break my water (5:30pm). After breaking my water my contractions instantly got intense and could be felt.  I was able to talk through some of these contractions and had to just breathe through the rest. Around 8:00 the nurse came in to check me and see how the pitocin was doing and found out that I was 5cm. (I was so happy. After hearing how long people can get stuck at 3 or 4 I was dreading hearing her say I was still 3cm). Jacob and I continued to be able to talk in between contractions and joke around.  At 8:40 we wanted the nurse to check again since contractions were getting more painful and found that I was 6.5cm. dilated. Again we were thrilled! In about an hour I had progressed 1 and 1/2 cm yay!! We figured we would have little Alethea somewhere around 2 or 3am Saturday morning. (based on the norm that most people dilate a cm an hr)  Now was the point when I really needed to stop thinking/talking/walking and work through the contractions. Previously I had been laying on the bed breathing through contractions, but now I had started to walk around and used the pregnancy ball. I LOVE the pregnancy ball. I firmly believe I wouldn't have been able to have a drug-free (other then pitocin) birth without the pregnancy ball. Contractions began to get VERY painful and I began to feel the urge to push and of course was told not to since I wasn't anywhere near 10cm. Finally, it got to the point where I really needed to be checked. There was NO WAY that I was going to continue with this pain or worse for another 4 hours; I NEEDED to know if i had progressed at all. Well Jacob called the nurse and we proceeded to move to the bed. Once I moved to the bed I involuntary began pushing. Jacob called the nurse and said "umm we are going to have a baby in here" (he had to call cause she had not come in the room yet). When the nurse came in at 10:40 I fully dilated and ready to push. I started "officially" pushing at 11pm; my doctor came in at 11:10 and Alethea was born at 11:30.

She was perfectly healthy and so beautiful. I was able to pull her up to my stomach and hold her for a few minutes before they took to wrap her up. Alethea stayed with us in the delivery room for about 15minutes and was then taken to the nursery to get admitted and cleaned up. While she was being cleaned I was finally able to eat! (I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast at 8am that day and only had a piece of toast) I was so excited to have a turkey sandwich. It was delicious!! We were then moved to the recovery room and got to spend time holding Alethea and even breastfeeding. It was wonderful!

Something to think about

I have been meaning to write an update about the baby and me and how we are all doing, but honestly i'm just too tired and don't know what to write. Little Alethea is healthy and we are just waiting any day now for her arrival. We will schedule an induction date at our doctors appointment next week, but we are hoping she will come before then.

In the mean time, I have been reading and thinking on a lot of blogs and preparing for Alethea. Today this blog about ministry stood out to me, particularly because I am one that has trouble accepting help. Take the time to read and think about your thoughts on ministry.

http://lifeisabowlofwedgies.blogspot.com/2011/10/faces-of-ministrypart-two.html