New home, new school year, and new baby. Life's greatest blessings are life's greatest stresses.

I haven't been able to write in a long while. Life has been chaotic. Really. Not kidding. Two weeks before my due date, my husband and I were informed that our rental house was sold and that we needed to move. Well, there is no where to rent in this little town. We felt trapped. We had no idea what to do. Well, there was a miracle and someone took their house that was for sale off of the market so we can rent it until next summer. Yay! Miracle. So, the week of my due date we pack up our whole house and move. I wanted the kiddo to come, yet not because of the move. It was hectic. 

Here is a picture of me in our new house. (hence the mess in the background.) This was August 7.

Also, while waiting for our little one's arrival, we were steadily approaching school starting. With that, Marcus was not too keen on taking days off from the first day of school, on top of mandatory trainings for new teachers. Well, she held off and he was able to attend the mandatory meetings.

Wednesday, August 10 finally came. My doctor decided to induce, mostly because how large I got. Well, we arrived at the hospital at 7am. They started the induction at 8. Let's just say now, labor=no fun. but I am sure most of you already knew that. For some reason I always figured the delivery part would be the hardest... I am pretty sure labor beats that. I thought I was going to die. Good thing I didn't. It kinda reminded me of Braveheart at the end when his intestines were being ripped out from his body and he yells "FREEDOM!!!" only I didn't yell freedom. I had some choice words instead that would be inappropriate to post on this blog. :P Any who... labor went more interesting than it needed to be. I was not progressing like I was supposed too, the baby wasn't dropping, and every contraction I had made the baby's heart rate drop. Near the end the baby's heart rate dropped below 50 beats per minute.  Also, I had to be put on oxygen and I needed a breathing treatment. My doctor finally decided that it was too dangerous for the baby to keep going. (Which I TOTALLY get...) I mean something HAD to be going on when there are two anesthesiologists, three nurses, and my doctor within 15 feet of me for over an hour watching the monitors. So, we went in for a c-section.

Lydia Elaine Price arrived into the world at 7:35pm. She ended up having the umbilical cord wrapped around her next. With every contraction it would squeeze the cord causing her heart rate to drop. The doc said if I actually delivered, it would not have gone  or ended up well. Yay for a great doctor! 

Marcus holding Lydia. She was an hour old?

Proud Grandparents. :)

This was me and Lydia the next day. After a shower and such. I will spare you the "first family pic" photo because EVERYONE knows how flattering those pictures are... not. 

Lydia all wide awake. This was the day after we came home from the hospital. All bright eyed! 

This baby girl is truly a blessing in our lives. It is crazy that we are parents now! Honestly, it still hasn't really set in for me. Besides the nursing part, I don't feel like a mother yet. It is just surreal. Maybe it is due to lack of sleep at night. 

Here is a video of her at 9 days old doing Tummy Time. I can't believe how well she is holding her head up! I hope the video works. I am not so good at this whole movie and web stuff yet. If you want you can find it on Facebook too.

Life has been really stressful and hectic the past few weeks. Kinda insane really. But honestly, life's greatest blessings come from the stresses of life. I wouldn't change a thing. And I would do anything for my baby girl. 

Karin 

Blessings are found through Challenges right?!

Even though I am sure there are blessings all over the place, life seems exceptionally difficult right now.

The landlord put our house on the market this summer when they said they weren't going too. They also said it probably won't sell. Well, guess what. It did. We weren't even told an offer was made on it. There for we had 30 days to get out of our already new home. We just got settled. Goodie...

So life was really stressful because of that. EVERY REALTOR around said all the rental houses were full. I also learned that many rentals are through word of mouth. I called around town and again nothing. Even if we had a lead we would call a day too late and just miss it. But, there was a blessing of eventually finding a house. It was for sale and they are friends from school who had to move away. They heard of our situation and told us we can rent it for 9 months. Then they would have to put the house on the market again. But hey, guaranteed home for at least 9 months. Woo!  And rent is cheaper too. I will post pictures of our again new home when we actually move. Which should be this Friday. A week to pack up our house and get going. YIKES!

Along with the whole stress of moving, I am now in my 40th week of pregnancy. My due date is this coming Sunday, August 7. I am wiped out beyond belief. And I can't even afford the time to take a nap because I have to much to do. Sad face. :(  Anyway, Lydia is being stubborn and hasn't even dropped yet. Hopefully she comes soon. Mostly because Marcus starts school on the 9th for teacher in service and  school actually starts on the 15! So Come on Lydia! We need you to come soon!!

Marcus is also uber stressed due to some wonderful things at school. Besides needing to inventory all of his sheet music, his computer was stolen by a student. It was recovered, but most of his work from the last few weeks has been wiped clean off the computer. So he has to redo a lot of his work he has already done this summer, on top of that adding on his sheet music inventory and just getting ready for school in general.

Also, this is more for a vent... but I really think more people should have heard "The Law of Consecration and the Law of Sacrifice" lesson that we taught the Young Women this past Sunday. I am not going to go into much more, but it makes me upset that people are not willing to sacrifice for you when you have sacrificed for them. Especially during an extremely stressful time in life.

Venting Over.

Anyway, I know there are blessings. I mean we were blessed with a new home very quickly. My daughter is still healthy and strong, even though she makes Mommy feel miserable.

Another blessing is that Marcus and I have a great grasp on communication. Stress levels are super high right now. We are both exhausted from lack of sleep (mostly because he is freezing from the thermostat being turned WAY down and his wife tossing and turning all night long because she can't get comfortable). We are both stressed with this moving stuff, and his computer being stolen, and school starting, and blah blah blah. Anyway, the blessing is, is that since we both know we are stressed, if we snap at each other it is forgiven pretty quickly, or not even bothered with at all. We have started asking each other if we are "open" meaning, are we in a mood we can discuss something without getting offended. And if we aren't we say so, and we bring the topic up at another time.

We also needed a washer and dryer for our new place. Which we have no money to do. Well, we were blessed with one. Thank God!!

I am blessed with an amazing doctor. She really knows her stuff. She is amazing. Love her very much.

Also, I am blessed with a great community. Many people have offered their help. Thank you!

I am also blessed with the people of the church. They are willing to drop everything to come and help us move at the last minute.

I am also blessed with a loving family who lets me call and complain to them so I can get things off my chest. They are super supportive.

Blessings usually come from challenges. I kinda just wish they would just come on their own. But I guess then you don't learn either. The best lessons in life are from the challenges we face, which turn into the biggest blessings we can ever receive. Just need to be strong enough to see it and just keep trucking.

Karin Marie