Life in 2010

2010 was an amazing year with a lot of great adventures. I started off the year being 22 years old, married to a wonderful husband for 3 years, working at a tattoo shop as an apprentice, serving at Anchor Church and 4 months pregnant.

Not long after the year started I made the decision to leave the tattoo shop due to differences that I had with how it was run and also so I could focus on taking care of myself and the baby. So I stepped away from that part of my life to move into a new season. As the beginning of the year continued to progress and God started speaking to Troy and I, we realized that God was telling us that it was time for us to move to Austin and start our church. This was a really tough and exciting thing to hear because our family is here and we have been with Anchor since it first started 4 years ago. But God continued to give us confirmation through different people that have prayed and spoken into our lives. We decided that we would finish out our lease and that we would move in February of 2011.

As we prepared ourselves for the move and starting the church, we also had to start preparing ourselves to be parents. We had a great support system in both Troy and I's family as my due date (July 3rd) was quickly approaching. My beautiful, sweet sister through me a wonderful shower with all of my friends.

My due date came and went and I wasn't even dialated at all. I was really upset and didn't want to have to be induced, but the doctor said that if i got to be a week late she would want to induce me. My due date was July 3rd and the appointment I had to talk about induction fell on Wednesday, July 9th. It was the day before my appointment and I as really frustrated because the only signs of labor that I had was some Braxton Hicks contractions and the baby had dropped, but I wasn't dialated or anything. I was doing anything and everything to try and get him out, but nothing was working. I was walking everyday, eating spicy food, and everything people were telling me, but nothing was happening. I started having some contractions at about 6 pm on July 6th right before we went to church, but I didn't think anything of it, because I thought it was just Braxton Hicks. I didn't time them or anything, but they continued throughout the church service. After church we went to dinner at Dennys and the contractions continued, but I still didn't time them or pay attention to them. At 10:45 pm, while we were still out to dinner, my water broke.

Troy and I headed to the hospital where we were met by my mom and my sister shortly after that. They got me all checked in and I was already 1 close to 2 cm. dialated. I decided to hold off on any sort of pain medicine to see if I could try to do it naturally. It was the most intense thing that I have ever experienced. I hadn't slept in the days leading up to my water breaking, so I was so exhausted already, which is not a good way to start your labor. By the time 2 am hit I had decided to get an epidural so that I could rest and regain energy before I had to start pushing. I was continuing to dialate at a pretty fast pace.

I continued to labor and there were a couple of complications, the baby's heart rate kept dropping and I had an allergic reaction to the antibiotics they had me on for Group B strep. We were able to keep his heart rate up by continuing to change my position and I just delt with having hives while i was laboring. Finally at noon on July 7th it was time for me to start pushing. I felt so empowered during this part of the labor. I felt like a superhero. After pushing for 2 1/2 hours, at 2:24 pm we had the most beautiful baby boy.

Elijah William Parish: 8 lbs 13 oz, 22 1/2 inches

Date of Birth: July 7, 2010

Troy and I fell in love with him as soon as we saw him. He was absolutely perfect. I had some tearing, but other than that Elijah and I seemed to be completely healthy.

The first night we were in the hospital Troy and Jamie stayed with Elijah and I in the room. We started to notice that Elijah was breathing really quickly. We told our nurse, but she didn't really take it too seriously. We knew that he had an arrhythmia and murmur in his heart so I was still quite concerned when I realized his breathing was off. Finally, my lactation consultant said something to the nurse and they started running tests. He was taken directly to the NICU because his oxygen levels were extremely low and his heart rate wasn't good. After many tests they realized that along with the arrhythmia and murmur, he also had fluid in his lungs and was missing a vessel in his aorta. They put him on a heart monitor and oxygen and we ended up staying in the hospital in the NICU for a week.

His murmur, arrhythmia, and the fluid in his lungs corrected themselves and his missing vessels wasn't causing him any problems at the time, so they let us go home. We are suppose to keep an eye on it at check ups. Since then we have been dealing with ear infections and croup and we have also found out that he has asthma. But he handles it so well. He is such a great and happy baby. Most of the time when he is sick, you can't even tell because he is so happy. He has been strong since day one. He lifted his head within the first few hours of his life and he started crawling and sitting up at 5 months old. He is so smart and so strong willed. We are so lucky to have such a great kid.

The rest of my year was filled with learning how to balance being a wife and mom, my spiritual life, family, having a part time job and preparing my mind body and heart to move and start the church. I also made the decision to go to school to become a yoga teacher when we get to Austin so I have also been researching that too.

It has been a great year and such a great adventure. I am looking forward to what this new year has to bring and what God has for our family in Austin.