Shine your light

Today Wes reminded me of something so important without even knowing it.  Well, maybe it was more like God using Wes to speak to me.

Wes was riding in the car and he just HAD to take his flashlight.  He loves shining his flashlight and watching where it shines.  It's how we got him to stay in his bed last night. Anyways, back to the point.  The sun was shining pretty bright so Wes was having trouble seeing his flashlight shine.  He kept saying "ugh, it's not working."  My quick response to him was this..."you can't see the light because it's already light. You have to shine it in the dark" He just said "okay". And that was the end of it for Wes.

But not for me.  Right then God said "you're right Emily, your light can't be seen where it is already light. You need to shine in the darkness." I need to be sharing the joy, peace, grace, and forgiveness that only Jesus can provide to people who are living in fear, shame, and guilt.  Not that it's bad to shine my light with others' lights.  In fact, that community makes my light stronger and brighter. But I should really be looking for those in the dark to share my light with. So that they can feel the warmth and mercy of the one true light Jesus.

life with boys

Life with boys......is WONDERFUL!  Exhausting, but full of joy.  I've been back to work for about 3 weeks now and we are getting the hang of this life as a family of 4.  This does not mean that I haven't yelled, screamed, cried, and laughed...a lot.  We have had some looooonnng nights, where we weren't sleeping and days that all we wanted was a nap, but we survived and we are enjoying watching these sweet boys grow.

Will is still sleeping in our room and for the past few weeks, Wes has ended up in our bed.  I guess we only need a house with 1 big bedroom and one HUGE bed.  But, at some point these boys will be sharing a room.  And look how cute it is. :)

At some point all the pictures will be of the boys together

above Wes's bed

I promise, I will put some pics in those frames soon

Will is 2 months old and such a sweet boy.
Right now, he LOVES:

• being swaddled
• eating-he eats every 3-4 hours during the day and goes anywhere from 8-10 hours at night.
• smiling-he seriously has the best smile and loves when he is talked or sang to
• his hands-they are in his mouth whenever he isn't swaddled to sleep
• his big brother-I often catch Wes "playing" with him and Will has the biggest grin on his face.  Melts this momma's heart.
• his paci

Right now, he does NOT Love:

• being burped-throws a nice little fit every time you stop feeding him to be burped
• the carseat-unless he has the paci
• evening time, around 8:00-can't decide if he wants to eat or sleep
• too much love from his brother-Wes can get a tad bit too close to Will sometimes

Wes is still adjusting to all the change.  He is a very loving big brother, but is having a hard time sharing mommy and daddy sometimes.  He also didn't like me going back to work.  But, I only have 4 more weeks and then we get to spend the summer together. :)  Will is currently sleeping better than Wes.  Wes ends up in our bed most nights.  I've realized it's just a phase and to enjoy waking up with both boys in my room. Although I am ready to sleep a night without being kicked.

the sun was a little bright

my big boy

"I hold you Will"

Well, time to go, I hear a baby crying for me...

And the moral of the story is...Boys rule!

my first surgery

10 days after Will was born I had my first surgery.  I made it 30 years before needing any surgery. :)  Not at all how I pictured my maternity leave, but isn't that how life is?  Completely different than what you have planned.

I seemed to be healing from Will's birth just fine. About a week later, I thought maybe I had some kind of infection.  I woke up and didn't feel very well.  I had a fever around 100 degrees.  I was supposed to be home with both boys for the first time by myself.  Jonny decided to take the day off and stay home with me.  Thank God!  I called the doctor and got an appointment for 3:30.  I felt ok most of the day, thanks to ibuprofen.  I headed to the doctor about 3:00 and took Will with me, since he would need to eat while I was there.  Upon arriving at the doctor's office, I started bleeding quite heavily.  I ended up having to wait a while since my doctor was delivering a baby.  I have the most awesome mom, who came up to the doctor's office to be with me and help with Will.  Once the doctor examined me, he said there was no infection, but that the bleeding was "new blood" and he needed to check it all out.  He told me I needed a D and C and that he needed to do it that evening.  And then, I started to panic.  The only time I have been in the hospital is for giving birth!  I had never been put under, which is what I was really scared about.  But, it needed to be done if I didn't want to bleed to death!

So, my dad came to the rescue and spent the entire night with Wes.  I was sent directly to the hospital to prepare for surgery.  I was able to nurse Will before thankfully.  I didn't have any milk stored up yet so they had to give him formula while I was in surgery.  He did fine. :)  While waiting for a wheel chair to take me up to the surgery floor, the bleeding became very heavy.  They told me that I ended up losing over a liter of blood!  Thankfully, I didn't need any blood transfusions.

I was so very scared and nervous to be put under, but it really wasn't bad at all.  It happened very quickly.  I remember feeling a little nauseous coming out of anesthesia, but never got sick.  They then explained to me that the D and C did not stop the bleeding. Ugh.  He had to place a balloon, filled with fluid, in my uterus.  Basically like putting pressure on a wound to stop the bleeding.  This immediately worked.  I had to keep this balloon in for 24 hours and then they would slowly drain it and remove it.  If this didn't stop the bleeding, I would need a hysterectomy.  So, with lots of faithful and prayerful friends and family, we faced the days ahead.  Due to a medication I was on, I was unable to nurse Will. So, I was pumping and dumping.  So sad.  If you've ever nursed before, you know that milk is like liquid gold!  Will did great taking a bottle and I was able to keep my supply up.  I stayed in the hospital 3 nights and Will was able to stay the whole time.  Jonny stayed the first night with me.  My mom stayed the next 2 nights with me, while Jonny stayed with Wes to give him a little bit of normalcy.

Praise God, the balloon thing worked!  I went home still nervous that I could hemorrhage again, but happy to be home with all 3 of my boys.  Unfortunately, I was on lifting restrictions, which was very hard for Wes and me. :(  My dad came over to help a lot.  I'm so thankful for him!

The best part of all of this, is that I was able to get 2 extra weeks leave!  After a check-up 2 weeks after the surgery, the doctor said everything looked good.  The sight where the placenta attaches to the uterus may not have healed correctly, which is what my doctor believes caused the hemorrhaging.  

I'm incredibly thankful to all the friends and family who prayed for me, brought us food, and visited me at the hospital.  I'm also thankful for God's protection and timing.  

And here's a few pictures, just because they're cute!

my sweet boys

bath buddies

And the moral of the story is...Prayer is powerful!

Introducing....

William Timothy Foerschler

He arrived on Friday, February 7th at 3:10 in the afternoon.  He weighed 7 pounds and 13 ounces (the same that I weighed when I was born) and was 19 inches long.  Perfect!

So here's how it all went down...
I was 40 weeks and 3 days when I went in for my weekly check-up with the doctor.  I had been having contractions for about 2 weeks, but nothing that continued.  I would lay down and they would go away.  I was huge and quite miserable by this point.  I could hardly take care of Wes.  I was ready to meet my little boy.  The doctor gave me 2 options: be induced the next day, or wait it out over the weekend to see if anything happened and then probably be induced at some point the following week.  I voted for the 1st option.  I was ready to evict the little guy and I was also guranteed to have my doctor there to deliver.

                         

So, I of course balled my eyes out putting Wes to bed that night.  The last time he would be my only baby.  And of course didn't sleep much at all.  Way too excited.  We headed into the hospital at 5:30 am (Jonny was not too excited about that).  Everything started to get going around 6:00 or 6:30.  I was dilated to 3 centimeters when I arrived, which was great.  They started the pitocin "nice and easy".  I started having regular contractions, moving right along.  They started increasing the pitocin and dang, it started to hurt!  Once again, I had quite a bit of back labor.  I was hanging in there for a while and then they started to get really close together and really intense.  Time for the epidural!  It seemed to take forever for them to get there.  The epidural helped so much, but it wasn't taking on my left side.  I tried laying on that side for a while, but no luck.  I was still in lots of pain (mostly in my back) so they gave me some more and it kicked in just in time.  They broke my water and before I knew it, I was ready to push.  I decided to watch in the mirror this time, which was so amazing!  I pushed for maybe 4 sets and out Mr. William came.

We enjoyed a very peaceful hour of skin to skin time.  Best thing ever!  The little guy latched right on the first try.  I thought maybe he had been born with teeth. Ouch!

We had a little bit of a scare after we got moved into our post partum room.  While nursing, I noticed Will wasn't swallowing and started to choke.  He started turning blue.  Luckily, the nurse was there.  She grabbed an oxygen monitor, checked it, and then whisked him right out of the room.  I knew that wasn't good.  They ended up having to give him oxygen.  His oxygen level was 38, when they should be above 95. Yikes!  After that, someone was there to monitor during feedings just in case.  We didn't have any other issues and he has been a great eater since!

Wes got to meet his little brother and did a great job.  He was mostly nervous seeing mommy with all the cords and in a wheel chair.  In his sweet little voice he said "you hurt?" "You ok?"  I of course cried and said "yes, mommy's ok".

What a blessing Will has been!  We are so thankful that God blessed us with another beautiful baby boy!

And the moral of the story is...On February 7th, we officially became the FOURschlers!

Christmas 2013

Christmas was wonderful, but very busy.  We had a such a great time watching Wes's excitement and just being together with family.

One of my favorite memories this year, was lighting the JOY advent candle at church with my family and singing Labor of Love with Jonny at church.  It's such a beautiful song and was even more special singing it as I felt my little boy move inside.

So, here is Christmas 2013 in pictures...

Started off with meeting Santa Clause the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Then we decorated our home and enjoyed lots of Christmas movies.


We celebrated Christmas just the 3 of us on Christmas Eve morning.

His new bed!

His new suitcase for trips to grandma and grandpa's

Then we headed up North to spend a short time with Jonny's family.

Don't let her fool ya, she's really in control of those 2

Check out that smile

 

Then we headed back down to spend some time with my family.



"helping" Drew

Wes LOVES Jake

giving baby Hannah something to drink



Christmas snuggles with Daddy


What a wonderful Christmas we had!