Jastef

This has been quite an eventful day for me! And, it started around 3am!!

My very good friend Gina (also our Bradley Instructor) graciously invited me to be present at the birth of her daughter and little Sonja made her entrance this morning at 3:07! Other than my 3 kid's births, I've only seen one other birth and that was my nephew Sam, 9 years ago. Sonja's birth was very different because it was at her home and in the water, but both were equally amazing and miraculous. I am in total bewilderment that there are OB's and midwives out there that deliver babies every day (several times a day) witnessing one of God's most amazing miracles and yet they still don't believe in Him as the Eternal Creator God. It completely mind boggling!

When I arrived at Gina's house, I figured we'd wait a bit for her to hit transition and then get to see her push the baby out. To my amazement, I was there less than 10 minutes when Sonja made her arrival! She has the sweetest and healthiest cry and made me cry just hearing it. I love getting to watch Mommy and baby meet and bond for the first time. Its so sweet to see the two look at each other in the outside world and get to see the face to match the voice and kicks. Gina did awesome. I wasn't there long, but I was there at that crucial point, when most women fall apart and make you want to leave the room (believe me, I've heard some women that have made me want to run from the hospital I'm in!) Gina was obviously in pain, but handled it all like a champ! I found myself holding MY breath while she was pushing and kept thinking "Oh boy... I know that look and those sounds all too well". I think only another Mommy can fully sympathize with a woman in labor. ;-)

I think one of the sweetest parts of watching her birth, was getting to see how excited her 3 brothers were to welcome her into God's world. Her oldest brother, Jozsef (9) has been praying for a sister for many years and so to him, this was God's direct gift to him; an answer to his faithful prayers all those years. When I saw the smile on Jozsef's face when Sonja was first born, it made me cry like a baby. Such a tender moment! Nikolas (6) was beaming ear to ear and then follows Connor, just turned 2 and yet totally understood what was going on. I would ask him "is that YOUR baby sister?" and without any hesitation he would answer "Dah!" (which means "yeah") So cute! I got home around 5am to Ethan crying with an earache. He told me he could feel water in his ear and it hurt down to his neck and in the back of his head. Being quite familiar with my own ear issues as a child, I knew exactly what was wrong with him - swimmers ear! :( I took him to Kaiser and that was the exact diagnosis. He's getting ear drops twice a day for 10 days and can't go swimming for the duration of July, which he's very sad about. We had to go buy some ear plugs for him to wear in the shower or when he runs through sprinklers. Poor guy - he had this same thing happen last summer because he had just had surgery. While I was there with Ethan, I told our Dr. that Kara had been up with a high fever around 1am that morning and that she seems to still be pulling on her ear a lot during the day. He was concerned that her Antibiotics aren't working (since she's had so many since being born) so he asked me to bring her in later on that day (she was at home sleeping when I was there with Ethan). So Kara and I ventured back around 3pm and sure enough, her ear has not completely healed yet. He thinks it didn't heal up due to all the swimming we've been doing. The water and moisture around an already sick ear probably just made it worse. So he put Kara on a heavier antibiotic and we're going to try and kill this thing once and for all. Now we're home and getting ready for the party tomorrow! I'm exhausted. I think I slept a grand total of 1.5 hours last night, so I'm running off of some freaky amount of adrenaline right now. :) I want to give a welcome to the 3 babies that our friends have welcomed over the past few weeks!

Peter Leonheart Jacob Handel "Leo" -- June 27th

Parker Robert Green -- July 2nd

Sonja Brianne Bartok -- July 10th

Welcome to God's world, sweet ones!