Lucy Katherine

She's here!!

Lucy Katherine Mason
5 lbs 12 oz
17.5 in
Born 6:34pm
12.26.12

Thank you for all your prayers! We felt them for sure. The dr tried several times to flip her and she just wouldn't budge (def most painful thing of my life) so we stayed at the hospital and had a c section. It all went really well. Lucy came out crying hard and even though she's pretty little she's doing great!! We couldn't feel more blessed! Marks whole family was already here for Christmas and my parents made it here tonight. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

please pray for our baby girl!!

Well it looks like our sweet baby girl will be coming into this world in the next few days!!! So crazy. 

Friday I went to the dr (and praise the Lord somehow Mark got to come too!) and it was quite eventful. The normal checkup went fine. all levels and measurements were good and on track. Then we talked about how Reese was breech and we did a version with her and at my last appt we found out that this baby was breech too. 

So, we did another ultrasound today and sure enough she is still breech. We scheduled a Version (when the dr filps the baby externally) for today!! Wednesday (Dec 26th) at noon. Please oh please join us in praying that she will flip.

So, Friday when the ultrasound lady starting doing all her measurements during the ultrasound she kept noticing our sweet girl was measuring a little small. She checked my due date (Jan 16th) and then my gestational age (36 weeks 2 days) and then said the baby was consistently measuring at 33 weeks. ? about 4lbs 11oz. She visited with the dr and he wanted me to do a non-stress test - which again came out normal and the babys heartrate and contractions looked good and normal. He said I should come back in on Monday to do another non-stress test, just to stay monitoring her (which I already did and it looked great!)

but then came the big news... he said he had visited with a perinatologist and they agreed that babies that are this small on the charts at this point in my pregnancy have several risks and there are a lot of un-knowns but that the best option is to get the baby out at 37 weeks. (mostly to avoid a still birth). They don't really know why she is so small - could be she is just genetically small, could be she isn't getting enough blood flow, could be about a million things. 

We're praying that she is just a sweet little girl. That her lungs are developed. That she won't have to stay in the NICU even though she'll be three weeks early. That she will be strong. That our hearts will be strong. that we will be ready to add another girl to our family - when we thought it would be at least three or four more weeks. lots of things to pray for. mostly just that she will be healthy and that the drs will have wisdom and that our mighty God would hold her in His hands and continue to form her 'fearfully and wonderfully'.

So... if the version goes well and she flips then they'll keep me in the hospital and induce me TODAY!! If the version doesn't work then we'll do a c-section Thursday morning. Cannot believe we'll be holding our sweet girl in a few days. can't wait to kiss her sweet face.

Lord, this is in your hands and in your plan. Give me strength. I'm scared.

thank you so so so much for your prayers.

merry christmas.

thanksgiving in Branson

We were unbelievably blessed at Christmas to be able to go to Branson and be with my family for 5 days! Mark was working nights last month and just happened to have those days off (we left the morning of thanksgiving as soon as he got off and drove all day to be there). My brother drove from Nashville and we had the best time being together as a family. Here's our trip in pictures:

R is very into musical instruments these days so naturally I broke out my flute from 7th grade and she thought it was pretty much the greatest thing ever :) 

probably she was super excited about the 7 layer jello on her plate.

one night we had a campfire in the backyard and roasted smores. yum!

she loves her pajoe!!

 first smore. what a mess!

I got to meet my dear friend, Kristen's, sweet new baby girl, Arden. What a doll baby!

Sic em bears! Reese is getting so good at doing a sic em! {on another note... why does no one in Iowa know what that means?? We may or may not have gotten license plates that say Sic Em and no one gets it. So sad. can't change how proud we are of Baylor though!}

and of course we cheered for the LSU tigers with Gigi too.

headed to Silver Dollar City
(see the post below for lots more family photos by my super talented brother)

R is STILL talking about all the christmas lights, seeing Santa and riding on the train. Love this tradition of taking her here every Thanksgiving/Christmas :) 

 in the words of  reesieboo "lets decoration the tree!"

such a special time with family! love them more than words.

family photos

{by eric staples photography}

my super talented brother. 

here's his website:

 http://ericstaples.net

truly, he's amazing and so famous :)

bff's

{just for the record... I learned from Shelbi that if I sign in under Mark's name then I can post more pictures :) I will also be using photobucket when that runs out :) thanks for all your comments!!}

The weekend before Thanksgiving Reese and I took a road trip down to Columbia to play with our friends - the Snyders. It just melts my heart to watch the way Reese loves Sam and truly considers him her very best friend!! (even though we hadn't seen them in 5 months or something) they didn't even skip a beat. She was so so so excited to play with him and do everything with him. What a treat. We had a blast just doing everyday things with our friends! and it was fun to be back in Columbia, see lots of fun people and go to small group and church at the Crossing. Wish we could go back to play once a month! It was just so good for my heart. Here are lots of pictures of these little besties :)

mealtimes were so much more fun with friends!

  

reese thinks this is just about the best thing in the world to sit next to Sam in the car.

Santa!!! A little improvement from last year, maybe??

 Candy canes from Santa's elf

a little Jesus Calling devo time before bed :)

donut date before we had to head home.

We love you Sam, Kara and Charles!!! Thanks for letting us bombard your house and play! See you soon dear friends!

i need blog help...

apparently our blog is now full. I'm sure it's because I post way too many pictures. but lets face it, that's not going to change. so what do I do?? Anyone? Do I open a flikr account or something and somehow upload pictures there and then does it link to your blog somehow?? how do I figure out how to do this? would LOVE your advice :) thanks!