So much has changed.... :)

Introducing our little miracle

Sarah Joan Snyders

Born September 20, 2010
Weight 7lbs. 9oz.
Length 18.5 inches long

Enjoyed my beautifully miraculous pregnancy for 37 weeks & 4 days...



36 weeks!!! :D

Wow I am just so excited about how well baby has been doing! We had a little scare on Sept. 2nd when I had to be admitted to the hospital due to low fluid around the baby :( only 3.5 cm or something. I was on an IV all night and couln't eat or drink anything after midnight just in case we needed to do a cesarean... Steve was able to get off work early and be with me though so that made things much better :) I even got visitors! (Amanda, Jordon, & Ava - Grandma J. & Jeff - then mom & dad) it helped pass the time although I think some people were disappointed I got to go home the next day :)... oh well!

I've been on bedrest since then. I have to go to the Dr. & have ultrasounds twice a week & do non-stress testing twice a week. I guess its good we're nearing the end cuz that's a lot of driving! Only 1 week until we're considered FULL TERM!!! That's the most exciting part since we were told baby would probably be early, low birth-weight, etc... we know God answers prayers tho, He is so faithful : ) Preparing ourselves for baby - the baby room is definitely NOT done yet, but Steve finished the cradle & we made it to our baby shower so that's a couple steps in the right direction! We bought a car seat & have our hospital bag packed now since we were so caught off guard last week... guess we're ready for the real thing now!

34 weeks & nervous...

Had a rough afternoon a couple days ago. Was doing some reading on cesarean births and just reading through the details of it made me feel so anxious & concerned I actually started to cry. When Steve got home from work I was sitting on the couch staring at this book with tears streaming... of course he helped me through it, but I just really REALLY did not anticipate the likelihood of a cesarean. I've dreamed of having a baby & being a mother my whole life... surgery wasn't really part of that dream :( I know the health of baby is the most important thing... but the delivery IS still important to me. My greatest fear is probably that they won't allow me to hold our baby immediately after the birth because of some lame hospital protocal... I told Steve we had better bring our own kleenex along so my nose doesn't fall off... Still praying for baby to flip and the doctors to say I can deliver naturally! I have a Dr. appointment and an ultrasound tomorrow morning so we'll see how baby is presenting (please God...)

Words U Don't Want To Hear

I guess my ultrasound tech has been trying to get ahold of me since my last appointment. We were there August 10 & I asked her if we needed to schedule another appnt.... (since they made it sound like they wanted to keep an eye on things) & she said no. She even asked why my Dr. wanted me to have this appnt. in the first place... we were thoroughly confused because that appointment had been scheduled at our last one where they measured my cervix.

I explained this to one of her nurses today after being told that I actuall DO need to come in for another ultrasound... What??? Her reasoning was 'oh she just forgot that you had that uterine anomoly'.... she FORGOT?!?!? Wow.... Lord help me... :P Oh well, at least my 32 weeks pic is cute!

30 weeks prego pic! :D

Momma Pics!

More Photos :D

*Maternity Shoot*

Had my first maternity shoot July 24, Steve took some of me & amanda as well :D I'm at 28 weeks & manda is at 36! More Soon, YaY!!! :D

Name Crisis.... :)

Alright so I really wish I could say that names are 100% set in stone right now for boy or girl..... but we keep changing our minds! We've decided to just write down the names we love & see how we feel once we see our little love in person :D

I've had the name 'Sarah' on my heart a lot lately, but that could just be because God is calling me that = (Sarah was an older woman in the bible who was way past the age of having babies, but God helped her have one anyway!). It's really simple but very pretty - so I'm not opposed to that being the name for our girl if that's what we have.

I think our boy's name is pretty concrete: either James Gavin or James Xavier.... or James Alexander (hehe)... ok so we have the 1st name chosen, still thinking about the middle name :D I just think that names are SO absolutely important... I mean, Jesus is their true identity but even in bible times names were seen as a sort of 'inheritance' in themselves... I love researching name meanings... I want our baby to have a name that means something, but isn't embarrassing or awkward! Able to fit in, but still unique in a way :)

*sigh*  Lord let me know what you think, that'd make this super easy :D

28 weeks! Doing Great :D

Had an appointment with Dr. Wirtz this morning. I'm 28 weeks along, 181#, & baby is at 147 bpm. She said we're right on track developmentally so that's good news :)

Have been keeping real busy with youth camps, the alvord wagon train, visiting my friends from New Zealand, & going to a Fjord horse-show! phew! I'm 7 months pregnant with my first photo shoot by Amanda coming up this Saturday :D Oh yeah, & then my friend Danielle's bachelorette party is tomorrow with a wedding coming up soon! Never a dull moment :D Life is good :D

24 Weeks Prego Pics :D

Prophetic Words For Our Family

My journal is at home so I'll have to fill this in better later on, but basically Steve & I went with my mom & Judy to Jane & Dawn's to hear a couple speak on the gifts of the Spirit. They had a lot of good things to say and ended it with a word for every person there (around 15 people).

Lana = Gifted in Discernment of Spirits, will be a useful tool

Steve = Gifted in Healing, tender heart

Baby = Is a girl she feels! Will be a blessing to us all our lives :)

It was a great experience for us both & I'm glad we were together for it. There was an opportunity to ask questions so we took advantage of that since we had been talking about a lot of these things the previous night ironically enough :)

24 Weeks! & an extremely boring apnt.day!

Yesterday I had an 11am appointment with Dr. Sulanc to check on my Thyroid (blood drawn)... waited in the waiting room forever & then waited in an extremely boring exam room for another ever!!! lol :) My Dr. was really nice though & eventually I was able to escape to McDonalds for Lunch!

My appointment with Dr. Wirtz wasn't scheduled until 2:15pm & I didn't have a cellphone to call my sister to hang out so I wandered aimlessly around Lewis Drug for awhile then sat in the parking lot at McKennan in my parent's truck & started organizing cubby holes! Around 1:30pm I gave up on entertaining myself & decided to sit in the waiting room to read baby magazines :D

Someone finally acknowledged me around 2:45pm & told me to just go to the lab & then come back when they were done with me... so I went to a different floor to wait in the lab waiting room for a good 20 minutes listening to crazy disrespectful kids... (AHHHRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!)... I stayed very calm :) Finally I was called in & asked about my glucose... I stared blankly at her until she asked if I'd had anything to drink yet (it dawned on me what she meant then). She asked if I preferred orange or fruit punch. I got the fruit punch & she warned me that it was very very sugary & said I had 5 minutes to drink it all.

Well I just happened to be thirsty so I chugged the whole thing in less than 30 seconds & handed it back to her. She just looked at me and laughed and said wow, you handled that better than anyone I've ever seen! I just shrugged & said I like sugar :) So now I was finally on my way to see Dr. Wirtz - weighed in at 181 (was 179.4 at my morning apnt!) so I've gained around 20lbs. altogether now. The Dr. measured my tummy & we heard the heartbeat of our little mover :D asked her some questions about my cervix... (word is I will 'more than likely' deliver by cesaerean now...)  :(

Ok so then after that appointment I had to wait another 45 minutes before they could test me since the fluid had to be in my system for an hour. Had more blood drawn & had to P in a cup (woohoo). Praying I don't have that gestational diabetes crap & that everything is ok! Went on my final errand to walmart to get a prescription & some groceries... didn't get home until 6pm!!! THEN I found out that Steve had taken a half day to cut down our pine tree in the front yard & then drove 4 neighbor boys to the Inwood pool & went swimming all afternoon.... he's so sweet, but I wish I could've been with him instead of bored out of my gourd in Sioux Falls all day. oh well.... 

Camp #2 & Ultrasound :)

Well the weekend is gone & camp went really well! We had 6 younger girls & 3 teens come & each one of them was so precious, their faces are still stuck in my head :) Went riding on Friday & Saturday, but weren't able to on Sunday because of all the rain & mud. This camp was a little hard on some of the helpers because rodeo bible camp ended right before camp started so some of us were lacking sleep & patience... but we made it through & I'm hoping that next time we'll have more helpers available so a heavy workload doesn't fall on any one person. I edited a whole bunch of photos last night to prepare for the camp d.v.d. & there are so many cute memories captured!

This morning I had an ultrasound at McKennan to check up on my cervix (both of them..) & thankfully they're both the same size & they shouldn't have to see me for another 8 weeks! As of right now baby is breech but he still has some time to move around.... unfortunately the Dr. said that 'more than likely' I'll deliver by ceasarean, but there's a possibility to deliver naturally so... I'll keep praying :)

Oh yeah! We stayed in S.F. the night before manda's baby shower & I felt baby move for the first time (in the wee hours of the morning!) 6/6/10. Go figure, we were laying down to go to sleep 'at manda & jordon's in their nursery/guest room'.... which is where we stayed the night we found out we were pregnant! Steve was already asleep & I was just laying there & I felt movement on my left side, a little higher than I thought it would be... but it lasted for several seconds so I knew it wasn't just my tummy this time :D I told Steve about it later and tried to explain what it felt like & he said 'yeah you felt baby' :) hooray!! :D

AND it was our 2 year anniversary June 7, 2010 :D I love my man!!! Life just keeps getting better :)

Week 21 - The Mysterious Inner-Workings of My Womb....

So Steve and I went to our 20 week appointment with Dr. Wirtz on my birthday (this past Thursday) & there was some sort of mix up and they didn't have us scheduled for our ultrasound! I was so upset because Steve had taken the day off for my birthday & to see baby and now they were telling us it wasn't going to happen that day! I was really fighting the tears & I think my Dr.'s receptionist felt bad so she called them again and they said someone had cancelled and they could weasel me in yet that day..... *PHEW!*

We then proceeded to the ultrasound area of the building where we filled out paperwork/family history stuff and then went back. We saw our little baby on the screen while she was measuring everything (wasn't very good at explaining what we were looking at unfortunately, guess she was 2 busy), but she kept asking me all these wierd questions like 'so... you aren't having any cramping you said?' & then 'ok you just stay here and the Dr. will be right in' ...I'm thinking, what do I need a Dr. for?? & then I started to panic thinking it might be a male Dr.! I told Steve if a guy walked in that we were leaving... lol. Well it was a girl thankfully, but the first thing she said after introducing herself was 'have you ever heard of a uterine anomoly?' or something like that... I was just like oh great what now? She proceeded to explain that I have 2 cervix & my 'heart-shaped' uterus that I was informed of back in the day is actually more like 2 halves of a uterus with a wall down the middle! Chalk up another birth defect for Lana! She said my one kidney makes sense because kidneys & reproductive organs grow at the same time for babies.

(side note: it is storming like crazy right now! i'm at the office watching the rain..)

Anyways, this Dr. proceeded to explain that this just means the baby doesn't have a whole lot of room to grow so it could have low birth weight, be born early, or become breached & have to be delivered by ceasarean. I guess I can handle that... what I found amusing was how odd Steve & I are and how even more miraculous it is that I'm pregnant right now!!! It was nice to get a few pictures, although only 1 really looked like a baby because I guess 'he' (don't know the gender) was tucked down on my left side & facing my back so it was hard for her to get a good shot of his profile (little stinker)... we told her we were keeping the gender a secret so I don't think she tried too hard to find out, but probably wouldn't have been able to find out anyways cuz he moves like crazy! (cousin Katherine told her mom Ginny that her mom's baby was 'kickboxing' in their ultrasound ...they must be related!)

Having Steve home Monday was really nice (Memorial Day). We visited Grandpa J in the hospital (possible blood clot/difficulty breathing) :( & ate with mom & dad at mcdonalds afterward. It was really nice out so we stopped in Rock Rapids on the way home & wandered around the park & saw a cute baby goat at the little walk-by zoo they have by the pool. I wiped out when we got home cuz I think the sun wore me out... went to bed early (which is a rare occurence indeed)... starting to get uncomfortable & I keep forgetting to stay on my sides. Steve will wake me up if he notices me on my back, guess I'm not supposed to lay like that cuz it restricts blood flow to baby or something. 

They want another ultrasound before i go in for my 24 week appointment to keep a close eye on baby I guess & I might have to do weekly injections of progesterone... yay :P Oh well, whatever helps baby :D ...more later!

Week 19 - "Are You Expecting?"

So this past weekend my little sister Rebecca graduated from High School! Don't know where the time has gone & here I am expecting a baby!!! At her grad party someone approached me & asked if I was expecting, lol... I couldn't decide if he was trying to confirm a rumor he'd heard or if he saw the pooch & thought he should ask, haha! Oh well, I got a lot of congrats from people :) I think the best baby comment though was on Sunday in church Becca asked if she could borrow my shirt when I was too fat for it... nicely put, lol! Right now baby should be the size of a large tomato (6 inches long head to bottom) & weighs about 8 1/2 oz!

Found a new Endocrinologist at Mckennan (Dr. Sulanc), she's from Turkey & really sweet so that was cool. I'm praying our insurance will cover that visit ..eek!

My 23rd birthday is a week from Thursday so I'm going to see if I can get a crew together to go out to eat at Pizza Hut. I'm pretty laid back so I'm not offended if its a small crowd, but at least it gives everyone an excuse to go out & catch up :D

Oh yeah, & last night I squeaked out of Steve a couple names before he fell asleep (hehehe!). As of right now we like Wilhemina Faythe for a girl or James Gavin for a boy! At least having 'something' set in stone will make me a little less ancy :) Of course these may change, but it was nice to agree on both :)

Busy Week!

Baby is now at 16 weeks, I have my next appointment tomorrow afternoon to listen for the heartbeat again :) Great-aunts from Arkansas are here this week... it was fun to say hi to everyone and hear them all call me mama & steve daddy, lol! Eithel was so cute... she just kept saying how exciting it was and reminding us of what a miracle this was :'D

This week is already 100% better than last week... a week ago today my precious gelding, Jasper, was put down due to.. what I believe, was heart failure & old age :'( He had just turned 26 on April 11. I'm so thankful for the time I had with him.. he was an amazing old boy & he taught me a lot. I guess the biggest hurt was that I was really hoping for our baby to meet him, but at least I can say baby got a ride on him (while I was pregnant... hehe!). I think having Onyx made it easier.. and having time to say bye of course. I figure the absolutely only redemptive quality in his death will be that I'll have more time for Onyx & in essence, our child this fall... but God I miss him :'(

*Second Trimester* .... 14 weeks & counting!

Very happy to say we've made it to the second trimester of pregnancy! I'm feeling so much better lately, much to my own & Steve's relief :) Really frustrated that we can't find our camera right now :P really wanted to take a progress photo at 12 weeks, whoops. Well there isn't much to see yet anyways I guess... Had a lot of fun rummaging in Rock Valley this past weekend. Found some cute neutral-colored clothes :) Dr. says we'll be able to have an ultrasound once I'm at 20 weeks... which means we can find out the gender!... which means we better decide if we want to know that yet :D lol! Of course my family really wants to know, and we all know what Amanda is having.... but I don't know, I think it'd be fun to have a surprise. Maybe its one of those things where if you're in doubt, it'd be better to wait? Its been fun to go to babycenter.com and read how baby develops weekly. Here's a photo of what baby kinda looks like right now:

8 Weeks!

Our first sighting of baby! Heard the little heart beating & it was so precious : )

Valentine's Day!

Steve & I had a very nice day today :) Visited Grandma & Grandpa Johnson & spent time with them, Jeff, Amanda, & Amara - Had yummy pot roast & watched 'couples retreat' (a little funny, but mostly vulgar)... Then we had time to be alone, watched Ever After & opened gifts :) Was a fun, relaxing evening... our last V-Day as empty nesters so I thought it deserved mentioning ;) Still So In Love!

Too Much Too Soon?? Naaaah! :)

So the past couple days I've been enjoying my time on babiesrus & target.com... registering (haha!). Hey now come on, a girls gotta know what her options are! lol. Anyways, I wanted you to see what I decided for the 'official' nursery theme :) ...and to my complete shock & joy, after showing this to Steve, he told me to buy what I wanted of the themed set....!!! SWEET!!! So now I have bedding, curtain, border, wall stickys, mobile, & a blankie on the way to begin my very early & exciting nesting phase :D Enjoy! (cuz I know I will!)

Nursery Plans

Maybe this pregnancy has something to do with my mom finding out I wanted a 'Noah's Ark' theme for the nursery when we had a baby someday... & gave us Noah's Ark prints for Christmas this past year! Then there's a pacifier that belongs to Krista that has been at our house for over a year I swear!... all these little symbolic baby things lingering in our home was bound to stir things up :)... Although obviously this miracle was completely God's handiwork, I just find the above humorous...! The more I look at nursery ideas I think the room will have a Noah's Ark/Jungle/Wild Animal theme :) I love animals :) & our kids certainly will as well if we have anything to do with it... Let's see.... 3 cats, 2 dogs, 2 horses... they're doomed :)

First Doctor's Appointment

Ok so technically it wasn't my 'birthing dr.' or anything, but i just had to hear from a medical person that i am, in fact, prego :).... I AM!!! & Due October 8, 2010

Alright baby here's the deal, mommy needs you to stay strong & grow to be healthy so you can come into the world & meet your parents who love you oh so much!!!

Not A Big Secret :D

I'm too excited to keep secrets so I'm just going to go ahead & post everything that's going on :)

Lets start with names:

I think we'll have a baby boy, in which case his name would be James Gavin Snyders :) Steve's middle name is James & he has always wanted to name a son that whereas I have loved the name Gavin for years & thought these 2 names sounded good together :)

We would be equally blessed at receiving a baby girl in which case her name would be Coranna Nevaeh Snyders. Coranna 1st of all because I had a dream after Steve and I were married of a little girl named Coranna calling me mommy & her baby brother was nearby. 2nd because it is like Corilee & Lana in one name :) 2 wierd names of mother & daughter creating an equally wierd, but unique baby name! Nevaeh comes from a baby girl I babysat at JoyHouse in downtown Denver, CO (a place for at-risk moms & their children/ywam outreach) & when spelled backward says 'Heaven'...& certainly babies come from Heaven!

God Is Still In The Miracle Business...

Every now & then an incredible thing happens...

What was once thought to be impossible becomes possible...

When placed in God's Loving Hands... :)