Baby Cooper #6

So as most of you have just found out, we are expecting baby #6!!  Nathan and I found out in December right after I had my 3rd miscarriage last year.  I wanted to keep it quiet until I knew everything was okay so we decided until I have an ultrasound and see the heart beating no one can know.  It was so hard to keep it quiet that long, every time I am pregnant I want to yell it from the roof tops and celebrate, but I just was a bit hesitant after so many losses last year.

I decided that this time I would go with a midwife instead of an OBGYN.  All the others I had with an epidural and under a doctors care, but this time I wanted something that was a little more fitting to my lifestyle.  I visited a local midwife about a month ago and absolutely loved them!! I had my first actual visit on Tuesday for an ultrasound and she spent at least 2.5 hours with me, just making sure I had all my questions answered, doing the ultra sound, and talking with my family.  It was seriously the best experience with a medical professional I've ever had in my life!  We brought all the girls to the appointment, she was very kind and told me how it doesn't bother her at all and how she has 4 kids herself!

When we went in for the ultrasound I finally told the girls why we were there.  I explained to them that God put another baby in my belly and that we were there to make sure the baby is healthy!  They were ecstatic!!  And were even more excited that we got to see the baby!!  The baby looked healthy, had two feet buds, and two arm buds, and a beating heart!

After seeing this I felt like I could breathe a bit.  I had been on edge for the entire 8.5 weeks expecting that something would happen at any minute.  While we aren't still out of the woods yet I just couldn't keep it to myself anymore.  The baby was alive and well and deserved to be celebrated!!  So I formed a plan to announce the baby.  I've learned over the previous 5 babies that any baby over 2, and our families tend to show concern.  Each pregnancy after 2 they had legitimate concerns that we could financially handle things, or maybe we should get a larger house and while those are legitimate concerns, these things are the easiest for me to trust God for.  God has always allowed us to have enough money to pay all our bills, plus extra, God has always provided clothes for our children, diapers when needed, and food.  God will also provide us with a larger house when its His timing.  So for me those things aren't important because God controls all that anyways, just like he controls how may children we will have.  So in order to get our families past those concerns I've learned that we have to announce the pregnancy in an exciting way!  So this time I decided to send flowers with a balloon to the grandma's at work that said "congratulations"  Then on the card I wrote "Congratulations on grandbaby # 17 (11), Due 9/6/13.  Love Nathan, Toneka, and The Minicoopers.

Overall our response was great!  I think everyone was pretty excited to have another little one on the way!  Especially our girls!

The baby is due on Nathan's birthday!  Which is very exciting!  So we will be spending the next 7 months trying to find a new house, and a 12 passenger van!!    So prayers that God's timing will come soon!!! ;)

Circles of sickness....

It seems like 2013 has been a lot longer than just a mere 14 days!  I seriously feel like I haven't see the sun in weeks, and if I do happen to get out into the sun I may just start to sparkle!! ;)  Life here in the Cooper house has been full of sickness since Thanksgiving.

This year has been the worse for us in the sense of sickness.  Prior to this year it was almost like clockwork.  When the weather changed from Summer to Spring we got sick; after a long early winter and once we hit mid January we ALL get sick, and then of course once we went from cold to warm in the spring...the girls got sick again.  This year has thrown me for a loop!  

We bought a membership to a local pool this summer.  We went swimming for an entire month and at the end of that month- we were sick the rest of the summer- ALL of us!  Everyone has been sick off and on.  One will get sick then all will be well for a week and then someone else will get sick.  We've seemed to hit our peak right now and haven't been able to get a break.  

Right before Thanksgiving I was sick, as well as a few of the girls with colds.  Then a week before Christmas we got the stomach flu!!  My poor husband was a saint!  We were all sick at the same time except for him.  He had the girls laying in a circle in the living room with blankets and pillows and a puke bucket beside their heads.  I was in my bed also with a puke bucket!  One bucket would get full, he would go wash it out and another would get full.  It was continuous for over 14 hours!!  He did nothing but wash out puke buckets!!  He slept for two  days after that !!  lol

We were all well a few days before Christmas (I have no idea how long it lingers though) and seems like we ended up spreading it around a bit on Christmas Eve to family:/.  We also had a visit after the New Year from my Brother in law and his family- again they also go the virus two weeks after we had all been well!!  Of course they could have picked it up anywhere but you never know.  

Then we were hit with strep, and cold viruses that we were told we can't do anything about but wait it out and let the whole family contract and get over.  And then Nathan's back started acting up.  In the last two weeks I've never seen him in as much pain before.  He has been in such severe pain that his medication isn't working, he can't stand up, he is constantly having to alternate between hot and cold compresses and the pain has caused him to get sick to his stomach, and become dizzy.  At first we couldn't understand what was going on with him getting dizzy and sick-we thought maybe it was a virus, and then we finally put together that it was happening every time he was in severe pain.  So-  we are again contemplating surgery and will be calling his pain management doc this afternoon.  

Friday night Sweet-pea came down with a high fever of 103.5.  I gave her a bath- ibuprophen and tylenol every few hours, the normal "get the fever down" routine.  I decided to take her to Kidmed but when we got there they were closed!  I went to another urgent care facility but they didn't take our insurance so I ended up back at home with hopes that we would make it through the night.  She went to bed only to wake up again a few  house later at 103.5 again.  We went through the routine again and this time it went down to 102.5 and within an hour it was back to 103.5.  We called the doc and they seemed to think she was okay; however, after watching her continue to have rapid breathing and congestive cough I was convinced she had pneumonia!  We took her to the ER and that was her diagnosis!  She was a little better today.  Her fever was down, but still there and she was a cranky mess, but she was on the mend.  

Somewhere between Saturday and Sunday Hobble-Bobble, Little Bear, Goobies and Pumpkin have all come down with some type of respiratory problem that has needed a nebulizer.  When we tried using it, it wouldn't work!!  We pulled out our back up and it still wasn't working!!  So we called all over town trying to get new parts for it and NO ONE had parts that were accessible this weekend for them!  Thank God that they weren't horribly severe!!  Until tonight!!

Pumpkin got up at 3am gasping for air.  She had severe croup and her chest was tight and heavy and hurt.  We have dealt with her and croup since she was a baby and until the last two times she has had it, it hasn't been this bad.  Tonight was the worse.  I put her coat on her and stuck her head in the freezer like the doctors suggest.  She sat there for a while and was still wheezing desperately!!  Nathan and I started to make plans for who should take her to the ER sense our nebulizer wasn't working, and there was no way we could let it go.  After an hour of giving her water and sitting her in the freezer, I decided to pray over the nebulizer.  I plugged it in and it WORKED!!  Now after three treatments she is still not sounding very good.  I gave her some benadryl in hopes that it will help, but if not we may end up at the ER or Doctors office sometime again today anyways.      

In the midst of all of this, I started my classes on Saturday!  It has taken everything I have to not drop my classes this semester!  All I want to do after they go to bed, is going to bed!!  I just have to keep telling myself - it will be over before you know it!!!  Until then-  I'm going to continue pressing on because it will one day be worth all the sacrifice-  right?  

Oh and just to clairify-  this is not a post of me complaining, but me just sharing what life is like with you.  In the midst of our worse day-  all of us puking in circles- I would not trade my life for any other!  I have more love than I know what to do with at times!  I am a very blessed person!   

2012 Overview

2012 was probably on the list of Top two hardest years of my life.  However, it is probably also one of the top two years that has changed my life for the better.  I have experienced more loss in the last year than I have in my short 30 years on this earth, but I have also experienced more life lessons this year than any other year as well.

I feel that the Lord has used 2012 to clean out my life, fertilize the soil, and get it ready for all new seeds to start sprouting in 2013.  I'm looking forward to many things this year: new friendships, continuing my college courses, finishing out the school year homeschooling my girls, and waiting on any new blessings that God would want to throw my way.  

Pumpkin will be 7 feb. 5th this year.  I cannot believe she is going to be so big already!  In 2012 she learned how to swim, joined the swim team, was a cheerleader for upward, and started the second part of 1st grade.  She is reading well now, and  loves horses, my little pony, video games and spending time with friends.  

Little Bear was 5 this past May (2012).  Little Bear swim lessons this year, she finished out her ballet class in June, and also was a cheerleader for upward this fall.  She started Kindergarten this year and is starting to read now.  She really loves dress up and anything that has to do with fashion!  

Hobble-bobble was 3 this past June, She was too young to do anything with her sisters this year so far as activities, but she loves Veggie Tales, Spiderman, Larry boy, and My little pony.

Sweet-pea was 2 this past August, she loves pinkie-pie pony, and my little pony.

And Goobies was 1 in September.  She is talking a bit now and has, for some reason, decided once she turGooned a year old that she wanted to start taking a passy!  I have NEVER had a child have a passy past a year old so I'm a bit worried about her teeth.  I try my best to hide it but she somehow ends up finding it or one of the other girls gives it to her.  She is very loving and is always hugging and loving on her sisters!  

Nathan and I have been waiting on an answer to a contract we put on a short-sale for the last 90 days.  We have been praying for God's will in the situation.  I would love to have a larger house for  all of us, however I do love our little ranch in the summer time.  With spring coming up and I am about to start planning for our garden, part of me doesn't want to leave our house, BUT if God did give this house to us I would not be opposed either.  

The shop down town moved locations this past fall as well.  Nathan and his dad moved the shop into the James Center which was just a block away from the old location.  It is so beautiful down there and we are so excited to see how God blesses the shop this year in the new location. 

Nathan's back is still about the same.  He was doing really well when we went to the doc back in August.  They told him to not schedule the surgery and put it off longer, however, the minute the cold weather hit he has been in severe pain again.  Of course some days are better than others, but we are looking forward to the warmer weather so that his pain will decrease.  

I start my classes back on the 14th this month.  I have changed my program to Religion with a Minor in Christian Counseling.  I take my first Counseling class this semester so I am very excited about that.

We are all looking forward to see what 2013 holds for our family and praying that whatever it holds that God will be able to use us all for His Glory.  

HAPPY NEW YEAR!