Her Smile

I have a lot of blogging to catch up on... and this is not "in order" but this is just one of those things I never want to forget.
Yesterday morning after Elli's "breakfast" feeding, I spent some time talking to her and playing with her (aka her awake time).  She began to yawn and fuss a little bit, cuing me that it was time for her to go back to sleep.  I swaddled her up, held and rocked her in my arms just for a few moments.  All of us Bishops are fighting a little something so I decided to take a little nap as well.
I laid my baby girl down in her little crib, eyes still wide open and I got in my bed beside her.
Being the new mom that I am, I could not help but lay there and look at her.  She looked so sweet.  She was just laying there looking up at the ceiling fan, then all of the sudden she turned her head, looked right into my eyes and smiled.  I froze and melted all at the same time.  She wasn't supposed to see me, what if she starts crying now that she knows I'm right here, but that smile.  Did she mean to smile?  Was it just gas? I laid there and wondered.  But then she did it again only seconds later.  Our eyes locked and she smiled. It must have been intentional. At least that is what I am telling myself. 

Oh how I love my little girl's smile.  

I am convinced that none of these smiles were caused by gas.  I know when she is gassy and I know when she is genuinely happy.  And these are genuinely happy smiles.  

Don't argue with me.

I'm her mom :)

Enjoy!!!

8 days old

11 days

4 1/2 weeks

6 weeks

6 weeks

6 weeks

7 weeks

8 weeks

SHE'S HERE!!!

We welcomed Elli Faith Bishop into the world October 31st, 2012 at 3:57pm.

She was 7lbs 10oz and 19 1/2 inches long.

She came out with a full head of brown hair and a wide awake/alert, sweet spirit that hasn't left yet.  (Of course I know she also came with a sinful nature, she demonstrated this by her strong will not to nurse for 8 hours after she was born, which made me so worried....).

Anyways...

The Birth-Day Story

I am going to preface this whole thing by saying, if you can hear my husband tell the story in person, that is so much better than reading this :)

Tuesday, October 30th=DUE DATE

I carried on as "normal." Went to visit the ladies at work. Did some last minute laminating for the class. Ate some of Mrs. Peggy's yummy chili. Went to Wal-Mart and Aldi's. Talked to my Aunt Jeany. Worked on a scrapbook for Jordan. Did 4 or 5 laps in Patterson with Matt. Double step up three flights of stairs then back down, 4 or 5 times...

From what we had learned in our Bradley classes and I had heard from other mom's and my family history with my mom (7 days "late" with me, 10 days "late" with BK), we were all expecting it to be another week....

Middle of the night Tuesday/Wednesday, October 30-31
Feeling "constipated." Nothing happened. Got up 3-4 times in the night. Nothing happened.

Wednesday, October 31st

7am

Tried to wake up the husband. No success.
I got up and tried to go to the bathroom again. Nothing happened, but I was in a bit of pain.
Tried to wake up husband again. Still not up.
Finally, used the bathroom a bit. Still hurting.
Decided to take a shower. All is going well.
Shaved right leg.
Ouch. Pain.
Must use bathroom. Immediately.
Used the bathroom. Pain increasing.
Husband, please wake up! Starts stirring...
I go have a bowl of Grape Nuts. Standing up. It hurts to sit down.
I start timing the pains on a contraction app Matt bought,
Husband is up! Hooray! (Looking back, I'm glad he got some extra sleep).
As he is getting dressed I say something to the effect of, "I don't know what contractions are supposed to feel like! I feel like I need to take a really big poop and I would feel all better!"
Sort of start to cry, just for a sec, then I suck it up and carry on.

9am

I call my parents.
"I think things are getting started. Contractions are continuing even when I eat and shower. Time to try going for walk and laying down."
I called our Bradley instructor, Susan.  She talked me through it. Said she thought it was the real thing.
Called the birthing center. They suggested I take a bath and call back in an hour. I wanted noting to do with the bath, but we did call back later.

9:30am

Matt suggests we go walk around Patterson a little bit more.
We bundle up and go do 2 laps.

10-11am

We get back to the house.
I try to lay down. It hurts so bad!
Contractions are getting closer and more painful.
"Babe, we need to get this car packed! It's time to go!" I say with urgency.
We start gathering things.

11am

I call my mom and tell her things are amping up and she needs to leave soon!
(Meanwhile she is voting, packing last minute things etc...)
As mentioned above, none of us thought things were going to progress this quickly!
Matt is racing back and forth from the house to the car, car to the house loading things up.
I am trying to make sure we have everything... oh contraction... I stop, find a wall, beat it, and moan for the duration of the contraction... ahh... ok back to gather all our stuff... this happens a handful of times until, hooray, everything is ready to go!

11:20am-12pm

Contractions consistently 2-3 minutes apart and extremely painful.

12pm

We leave for the birthing center.

12-12:44pm

Most intense drive of our lives.

Picture this: An exercise ball in the back seat of the car, laboring woman leaning over the ball in between contractions to rest, then hugging the back seat of the car, while beating it and moaning.
Apparently, I am a very vocal/violent laboring woman. Watch out.
Matthew did a perfect job driving through the lunch hour traffic.
He said he used his flashers sometimes.
The worse part was going over bumps on bridges during contractions... ouch!

12:44pm

Arrived at Women's Birth and Wellness Center in Chapel Hill

Had a super intense contraction in the parking lot.
Couldn't remember where we were supposed to go when we got inside.
I'm in pain. Matt is trying to be patient and help me make a decision.
"I don't know if this is the right place or not..."
"Well, we have two options we can either call and find out or we can just knock and go in."

We chose the second option.  Thankful, they had our room ready.
The midwife, Mariah, checked me.
(We chose not to know "how far along" I was because I didn't want to be discouraged if I wasn't as far along as I thought I should be.)
I got up as soon as she was done checking me because I felt so much better on my feet than laying down, plus Susan (birth instructor) said to stay on my feet as much as possible.
Gravity helps.

Side note: For those of you who don't know me very well, I am a task oriented person.  So in my mind birthing my baby girl was a task set before me.  I was going to do what it took to accomplish it in the most efficient way possible!

Ok, so I found a counter to lean against/stand next to.
I am making very vocal noises, squeezing my husband's arm, and I keep asking, "Has my mom left yet?" "Is mom on her way?" "She better hurry!"

1pm (about 15 minutes after arrival)

The nurse, Helen, comes in and asks me if I want a tens unit on my back, because it was hurting pretty bad.  I loved that thing, not only did it feel good, but I could control it.  I could tell it what kind of feeling I wanted and how hard I wanted it.  Even though I could not control my contractions, I could control this puppy!
Helen was so sweet and encouraging.  As she was putting the tens unit on my back she says, "You're doing great honey, you're already 8 centimeters dilated..." As Mariah walks in and says, "Oh I was just coming to tell you that they didn't want to know..."

BUT that information totally helped me.  It provided me so much knowledge and motivation.
1. I had already been through transition, in the car mind you.
2. This is what the most intense part of labor feels like, ok, I can handle this. It's "down hill" from here. We just need to work through these and get to the pushing stage.
3. Shoot, my mom better hurry up! This baby is coming faster than any of us anticipated.

Ok so if you want more details about the rest you can ask in person....
basically I got in several different pushing positions.

2:45ish My water broke

3:20pm My mom got there. 

They didn't let her in right away because they had to check with me. As soon as they said, "Your mom is here..." I said, "Get her in here!"
Right when I heard my mom's voice a new motivation took over! It was time for this baby to come!
Before I had not been giving the pushes all I could because, well I wanted my mom to witness the birth of her first grandchild.  So I had been "half-heartedly" pushing.  But that was over! Time to finish the job!

3:57pm 

Our beautiful baby girl entered this world!

Matt caught her and brought her up to me.
He also cut the cord after it stopped pulsing.

It was definitely in the top 3 most amazing days of my life!

See pictures below:)

Daddy holding Elli while Mommy gets stitched up

Our Family

Proud, tired Mommy...Sorry Dawn no time for make up ;)

So happy she is finally here in our arms!

Getting weighed and measured by nurse Helen: 7lbs 10oz 19.5in long

Can't stop looking at her

Yay! You're a Grammi!

One of my favorite pictures of the night (photo credit to my sweet husband) I love you Mommy and I'm so glad you were there! I wouldn't have wanted it any other way!

Our birthing team! Nurse Helen on the left and Midwife Mariah on the right! They were awesome!

Grammi and Elli

Nana and Elli

Pa, Elli, and Daddy

First check up

Our little beauty

My amazing family!

Profile... looking like her Dad:)

Kisses for his Little Sweetie

So adorable!

Happy, tired Mama!

My coach! I couldn't have done it without you Babe! Thanks for all your support and encouragement! I LOVE YOU!!!

TEAM BISHOP!

Matt feeding me:)

Adoring my baby girl

Matthew and the proud Bishop grandparents!

The Bishops

Pa and Nana with their first grandchild!

Grammi with the Bishops:)

Elli's first diaper change by Mommy and Daddy

Ready to go home... we left about 11:30pm

At home....

....still can't believe she is here...

...looking down at her... we are parents! Wow!

Looks so much like her Daddy

My sweet girl with her eyes open

Sweet dreams Elli Faith... We are so thankful Jesus blessed our lives with you

How Could We Forget.... Pt. 2

Continued.... (Read first part here)

***Warning this may be a little gruesome for some.  Not trying to be, just trying to tell the story.***

The accident happened around 8:30pm and we were down at the ER in Asheville by 9:30pm.  

Sounds like a long time, but we were all the way up on the Blue Ridge Parkway, so we made very good time.  Although it didn't really matter all that much because we waited about 2 1/2 hours before we saw anyone :)

Everyone was very nice, but I was getting frustrated, like,

"Don't you all see my husband's thumb is gone and he is bleeding all over the place?!  Doesn't that concern anyone??"

Looking back I know they wanted to help us, but that is just the way the ER works.
(I have a picture of him sitting and waiting, but I think it might be too much to put on a public blog. If I can figure out a way to edit it I will put it up).
A lot of different things happened to get Matt ready for surgery.  But I'll spare you all the details!
Dr. James Thompson was the doc to do the work on Matt's thumb.

Dr. Thompson was the real deal.  Hands were his specialty.  He had worked and taught at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.  He knew what he was doing.
I got to stay in the room with Matthew, which I was glad about.  He was wide awake through the whole thing.  He said the part that hurt the worst was the numbing shot given to him right in his thumb/wound.

I can only imagine.

Dr. Thompson told us that there was a 50% chance of the tip of Matt's thumb taking back to the rest of the thumb.  This was the highest percentage he could give us.  Normally in adults they would not even try to reattach, but since it was such a clean cut (thank you, brand new Gerber Axe), and since Matt was healthy and not a smoker, Dr. T decided it was worth a try.  But he did not want us to get our hopes up.  We thought for several days that he had missed the bone, but we received wrong information in the ER, some bone had indeed been severed, which was an additional challenge for the reattachment.

So, the entire time Dr. T is working on reattaching the thumb, Matthew is sharing the gospel.  He is not mincing words either.  I was praying the entire time, not saying much, also worrying that Dr. T was going to sow the thumb on backwards or something because of Matt's straightforward comments!
There are many more details, but this blog is getting way too long...

It was a long month or so of waiting to see if the thumb had accepted the other piece.  

Matt's dad was wonderful to take him to all of his appointments in Asheville, about 45 minutes from home.  It was nearly impossible for me to take him as I was in my last semester of my senior year, doing Student Teaching.  Basically working full-time as a teacher, just not getting paid.  But I'm not complaining, I had the most amazing C.T.=cooperating teacher (and assistant and one-on-one!) ever and I learned so much from all 3 of those lovely ladies!  My C.T. was also incredible with the accident, letting me leave early some days to go to certain more important appointments with Matt.

We are so thankful for Matt's parents and others helping us out so much during this time!  We had church family making us meals and people coming out to visit and pray.  We were so blessed!

Most of all....

We give the LORD all the thanks and all the glory, because the months prior to the accident we felt like we were barely holding on with both of us working full-time and me going to school.

I remember depending on Matthew to do most of the housework and cooking, especially on his days off because when I wasn't working at my school, I was working at home to complete lesson plans for my first graders and all of my university assignments.

It was impossible to think about not having his help, but for several weeks, even a couple months after the accident, he was really unable to keep doing all the things he had done previously to serve and help me.

It was completely and totally the grace of God that we made it through those times.  

As we look back, we honestly cannot say how we got everything done that we needed to be done and that I still graduated with honors and we still made it to seminary the following January.

God is faithful.  

He carried us.  

He sustained us.  

He provided our every need.  

He was our Rock.

Some photos of the journey....

This is where Matt spend the majority of his time... I called it "the cockpit."  He had the computer connected to the TV so he could watch movies and teachings.  He had the wireless keyboard and mouse pad on the little table where Snoopy is, he had drinks, and pillows and blankets, and books all around.  I think it was at this time that he/we decided to go to Imago Dei Church when we moved to Raleigh/Wake Forest.  We had been looking online and praying about where to go and were leaning that direction, but it was during this time that he was able to watch almost all of the Galatians teachings and we were blessed and encouraged and felt at home without even being there.  We are so so thankful to be a part of this church family now!  Another one of God's gifts!

Meal Time, at the table.  This was an accomplishment!
Poor guy was so drugged up the first couple of weeks.
I was so glad when his pain meds went down and he could feel more like himself.

He was supposed to keep his hand elevated, so we called him "The Tour Guide."

November 9, 2011.  Right before going into surgery to remove the "dead" piece and reconstruct the best thumb Dr. Thompson could make.
I was sort of a wreck this day because he had to "go under" and that always comes with certain risks.  But everything turned out fine.  There are actually some really funny things that happened this day.  As mentioned in the first post, we were trying to conceive at this time so one of the things Matthew said after coming out of surgery was,
"When can we have baby making sex?!"
He repeated this question ever so loudly to all the nurses, doctors, and other innocent patients and family members.  I am sure I was beet red the entire time.  I was also praying that his parents could not hear him in the waiting room, because we had not told anyone we were trying.  Ahh... I received a lot of sympathetic looks that day.
It's ok Babe, I know you were quite drugged :) xoxo

The Bandage

He has a great sense of humor....
Thumbs up for us!
With the Lord on our side we made it through my graduation and Matt's injury and we were still headed to SEBTS!
Thank you family and friends for all the support and prayer!
We love you!

Caleb Parham and my funny guy
Nov. 26, 2011
Chelsea and Andrew Zimmerman's Wedding:)

The shirt my brother bought Matt for Christmas...
A big dog with an axe.... haha... funny Josh:)
Matthew is a pretty hilarious guy and he doesn't even realize it.
That is one of the things I love most about him.
I also love the fact that he never takes himself too seriously:)

***Warning***

The next couple of pictures might be a little more than you want to see.... Please progress with caution.  

This is what his thumb looked like before the 2nd surgery.... that blackness is deadness... no life there... maybe some spiritual analogy though ;)

What his thumb looked like a week or so after the final surgery....

We praise God for being our all in all!

We know He was with us, behind and before.  What a good and gracious Lord.

"You hem me in, behind and before, and lay Your hand upon me." 

Psalm 139:5

We know He has and will continue to keep His promise:

"The LORD will fulfill His purpose for me; Your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever.  
Do not forsake the work of Your hands."  
Psalm 138:8