Sleep when the baby sleeps?

We are now getting close to Wyatt's 2 week birthday! Time is flying by. I feel like my own days and nights are getting confused. I'm constantly up at night feeding, changing diapers, ect. This is Wyatt's day time. By 6 am I am exhausted, Wyatt is handed to Levi and for some crazy reason just falls asleep until 9 when of course, he eats again. How on earth Levi has the gift of making him sleep during his time I have no idea! Sometimes I feel like the moment I get within 2 feet of Wyatt, he realizes that he is hungry! We as crazy parents thought we had him on a schedule the first week because he was waking up every 3 hours to eat. Now his appetite has increased and he is waking up a lot more! During the day only 3 hours still. But at night, it is like every hour and a half! Passifiers do not satisfy this boy at night and neither does any amount of cuddling with mom. It is milk or let me throw a fit! So, I am now the dairy cow in this house and it is crazy how exhausting it can be! The problem is, the moment I scream for my independence and let little Wyatt know that his mama is not meant to be "this type of mother" that I am meant to live overseas and change the world, he looks into my eyes and suddenly I am reminded that this little man is my world. That I would lay it all down for him. That my life is different forever and that is not such a bad thing.

14 hours and you want to do what?!?

Well, as many of you may know by now, our birthing experience was far from blissful! It all started when the doctor noticed a small level of amnionic fluid in the last ultrasound (on his due date) so she said I needed to induce. She would see me again on Monday (this was a Thursday) with a major possibility of being admitted. So Monday morning we all went to the hospital with our bags and the doctor said we would wait until Tuesday night. They would admit me then and on Wed. start inducing. For some reason, I was so sad about this. I really wanted to know what it was like to feel contractions and get excited and everyone go to the hospital. I had seen it on the movies and really for some reason pictured this to be the best way. So that night while I was sleeping, Levi prayed that the Lord would bless this strange desire to go into labor naturally. At 4 am I woke up feeling like I had food poisoning. The day before I drank some water that I thought tasted weird so I just knew that I was about to be sick for a few days. My stomach was really sick and I kept having pretty intense cramps. It didn't hit me that it could be labor until about 6. Then the pains were coming every 8 minutes or so. At 7:30 I thought I better wake up my mama just to see. She started timing and by 8 the contractions were 5 minutes apart. Levi woke up at 8:30 and wanted to call the doctor right away. I didn't really want to because I knew she would want me to come right in and then if it took too long she would want to do a c-section. But, Levi couldn't wait and he called her. She did want me to come in because she was going to be at another hospital all day and wanted to see where I was in the process so she could know when to come in for delivery. So around 9 or 10 we head to the hospital. Levi and I think this hospital is one of the nicest in all of India. It is totally fancy in our minds. My mom, on the other hand, had a different opinion of the delivery room. She was not impressed to say the least. By 12pm my contractions were under 2 minutes and were intense. I had real bad back labor. Levi was on one side holding my hands while mama was on the other pushing a wet rag into my back. They never offered an epidural, and I never asked. I really wanted to try it without any pain meds and felt that I could. I had no idea how to breathe but my mom told me to find a focal point and beat the contractions by breathing so that was my game plan. I had seen people breathing on t.v. so I copied them and did the exact same thing! If I so much as groaned, my mama was there to remind me to breathe and beat it and that is how that time went. At 2 someone came and checked me and told me I had only dilated 2 cm. I felt that the baby could come at any time, they said not likely. The contractions slowed down and I got a small break before the doctor came at 4, broke my water, and said I had only dilated 4 cm. Then it was back to really intense labor. At this point for some reason, I feel like I had a total "out of body" experience. The pain, the exhaustion, ect. led to me gagging after every contraction and throwing up all that I had in me. The doctor came in and out at that point and I began to hear conversations going on but not really understanding them. Someone was putting oxygen on me which I didn't want until my mom told me that it would help the baby. I took it and continued breathing (feeling like this was not "beating" the contractions anymore but not knowing what else to do). Then a little while later I heard talks of a c-section. I couldn't make any decisions. My mama pleaded for me because she knew how much I didn't want this. It didn't help. Levi didn't want to make such a decision and I finally said that if we were going to have to do one anyway, we better do it now than let me stay in intense labor a few more hours and do it anyway. My mama made doctor Grover promise to check me one more time before the surgery to make sure I wouldn't dilate any more. And she did.
This is the worst part. Levi and my mom couldn't go in with me at first for the c-section so as they are prepping me for surgery I am still in major labor with contractions every minute or so. The anesthesiologist is yelling at me to be still, the nurses won't touch me, there are no bed rails and I feel like I am going to die right there. They are taking their dear sweet time getting ready while I am begging them to hurry or to help me or something. Keep in mind that I never made a sound (besides breathing) during the whole labor thing until now. Then I became slightly dramatic hoping my performance would earn me some much needed help. It didn't and after about 4 or 5 contractions, they finally gave me shots in my spine. This is not an epidural. It requires for you to lay flat on your back and not move your head but from side to side for 24 hours. So, the next 24 hours while everyone got to enjoy our sweet Wyatt, I got to look at the side of his face while a nurse propped him up beside me.
Overall, I would say that I'm so thankful I went into labor on my own. I really loved that experience. And I'm so glad I did labor naturally. It was hard and painful and I'm sure my mama and Levi would never want to experience it again but the next day I can honestly say that I didn't remember the worst of labor. As far as the C-section goes, Wyatt was face down in the birth canal and could not fit. A cord was wrapped around his neck and his body and according to Dr. Grover he was not in the position to deliver properly. If we continued, it would have been very dangerous. So I am so glad we did the C-section. I am still dealing with the results of that decision, but I have a perfectly healthy baby who I would now do 50 c-sections for if it meant keeping him well. So, here is our little one a day old.

Rest and Renewal

This time in Delhi has been a blessing for us, but also has been a retreat of sorts. We've been separated from our work in Shimla and Himachal Pradesh but have been able to use this time to reflect and fix some of the issues that have arose in our own hearts. I believe that everyone needs a time to sit back and just listen to the Lord as he shows us little hidden issues that we have not seen in a long time. We will not only return to Shimla with a baby, but with a renewed vision and passion. I know that we are in a rare circumstance to completely pack up our lives and move for a month, but I do pray that you will find rest this Christmas. The kind of rest that renews your heart and your soul and leaves you fulfilled with a purpose that comes only from the Lord.

that big ole' belly!

well, we are coming near the end and i think it is hilarious the way my belly looks. I feel like you can't get the full effect unless you see the belly itself...I really hope men don't look at this site because that would be pretty embarrassing. As you can see, I got the line and I hope it goes away. Levi always laughs at me when I am changing because he says I look so funny...and I must say that I agree with him. I praise the Lord for no stretch marks so far! Only like a week or two to go and hopefully this big ole' belly will shrink a little!

Saying Goodbye

One of the hardest things to do here is to say goodbye. We have never had to say that word so many times. It feels like we live a life of hi's and goodbyes...and I must say that is one of the hardest things about this job. This week we had a party and said goodbye to two couples. The first one is a retired couple from the states who had planned on staying for another three years and then last year found out he has Lou Gehrig's disease...it has progressed and they must go home. So sad. We will miss them as she has been the nurse when we were stressing over sickness and he has booked tickets for us when we couldn't make it to the mall to get them. They are major servants, Mississippi born and bred, and have been special to us.

The next couple is an even harder goodbye. We met at FPO and have hung out ever since. They spent last Thanksgiving with us, we stay with them when we pass through Delhi, and now their 2 years are up. Amberley found out she was pregnant just months after I did and we have had so much fun being pregnant together. It is almost like a dream for them to be leaving. I can't let it take root in my mind that they won't be coming back in a few weeks. But their families are in Arkansas and that is not far at all from MS so we have already made plans to meet again. We love them and will not be able to replace this sweet friendship that will now be separated by much more than an 8 or 9 hour journey to the city.

Christmas time is coming!

We are staying in an older couple's house while we are here in Delhi. They are not "old" just older. They retired in the states and can afford some of the "finer things in life" here in Delhi so we have enjoyed their nice house and nice furniture. For us, Delhi has been a whole new world. We are just country people who can sit on the front porch for hours and dream about our kids growing up with animals of all kinds, sports, and lots of time outside. The city has definitely given us a change of pace. We are shocked that we like it so much! We really miss our "home" in Shimla and just the village life, but it has been so awesome to be amongst so many western things while here. There is an awesome export store here where I have racked up on house stuff, and at least 4 shirts for pregnancy. The malls are decked out with Christmas and there are times where Levi and I are frozen in awe! I don't think Wyatt will show up before Christmas, we are hoping he will wait until after Christmas is over so we can still have a big Christmas breakfast and a good lunch with my mom and our friends here in Delhi. Here are some pics of what our place looks like for Christmas this year.

 I love the stockings! So cute!

 I've gone crazy shopping this year. Levi (AkA Scrooge) has handled buying stuff pretty good. As long as I can space out the buying by a couple of days, he doesn't have too many melt downs! ;) I have to make sure I buy him something almost every time and then he is happy. Pitiful!

 This is a German advent calendar. It has chocolate in it for each day until Christmas

I got these decorations at the export store. I definitely love that place! I brought the candles from Shimla. They came last year from America for Christmas. Nothing better than the smells of Christmas!

Christmas is coming!

Well, I'm not enjoying preggo pics of myself these days. I'm 36 weeks here! But I had to post a picture of the German Christmas Mela's gingerbread house in Delhi. Levi and I were in Shimla last year for Christmas and didn't see many decorations at all. It didn't really feel like Christmas. This year we are in Delhi and are experiencing a totally different feel. We get to go to an English speaking church where we can sing Christmas Carols and we get to go to malls and see all kinds of Christmas decorations. There is even an export store here with tons of Christmas stuff for sale. We are loving this!