Zuri's Full Name

After a week of trying to decide Zuri's middle name, we finally have it: Drum roll please...

Zurishaddai Alexander Lawton

As with all of our names it does mean something. It means "Rock of the Almighty, Defender of People"

Airsoft BB's and Ears Don't Mix

On Sunday night, Gil was on the floor with Talitha. She found a green Airsoft BB and the next thing Gil sees is Tally pulling her hand away from her ear. Sure enough, she put it in her ear. This was not an emergency as she was not in pain.

Later that evening, she fell asleep on the couch and then Gil and I started working to get it out of her ear. We tried sucking it out with a straw. Then Gil used the outside casing of a pen to try to suck it out. We attached a hose to the end of the pen and still we could not suck it out. We did try to glue the ink part of the pen to it that night and it did not work. After many attempts of sucking, we decided that we sucked at sucking and we gave up for that night.

Yesterday, Monday, I looked and it was still in her ear canal. But since she wasn't in any pain we did not do anything to try and get it out. Both Gil and I continued to think about ways to suck it out. One of my thoughts was to use my milk machine vacuum to suck it out.

Today, Gil brought the milk machine in and we tried to suck out the BB with it. It did not work. We tried some different modifications for the suction but since we didn't want to hurt her eardrum either we were very careful about the amount of vacuum used and tried it on ourselves before tryng it on her. We really needed a better end attachment to suck to the BB. There may have also been a suction between the BB and her eardrum making it need more suction than we were willing to use. When that didn't work, we decided to try to glue something to it again. This time though, Gil used alcohol to clean and dry the BB before we tried to superglue a stick to it. Talitha also fell asleep on the couch so she was still and wasn't moving around.

A few issues we needed to make sure happened. One, when using super glue, we needed to make sure the glue did not come in contact with her ear canal. We also needed to be able to see what we were doing. Here is what we used.

A clear outershell of a pen with some of the end cut off. We were able to stick the pen casing into Talitha's ear and have it reach the BB. We first used it to try and suck the BB out on Sunday. Please note that we were extremely careful not to push on the BB at all as we did not want to lodge it further in the ear canal or even possibly rupture the eardrum.

We used a wooden paint brush with the end of it cut off to glue to the BB. This paintbrush fit perfectly into the pen case so that as we inserted the tip with super glue on it there was no way it would touch anything but the BB. Talitha was a sleep and so she was not squirming which would have made it hard.

This picture shows how the paintbrush fit inside the pen casing.

We also had a otisscope with the light shining on the side of the pen casing which allowed Gil to see what he was doing. We prayed to the Lord asking that we would have success in getting the BB out this time. Then as Tally slept we inserted the pen casing into the ear so that it was just touching the BB. I shined the otisscope light on the pen casing, then Gil put the glue on the paint brush and inserted it down the pen casing to the BB. He held it there until Tally started moving and he pulled out both the pen casing and the paint brush and the BB was stuck to the end. Initially, Gil thought it didn't work because she started moving, but the Lord was gracious to us and allowed the procedure to work.

This picture shows the BB on the end of the stick. We were so grateful for the success. The Lord's goodness indeed never fails.

I did use the otisscope to check her ear to make sure there was no damage to the ear drum.

A few vistors for Zuri

Aunt Margaret with her new nephew.

Grandma Lawton holds her 13th grandchild

Raluca and Alina check out baby Zuri

Great-Grandma Barron holds her 16th great-grandchild at the age of 88.

Rebekah brought some yummy food and got to hold Zuri too.

Pictures of Zurishaddai

Looking at the new baby.

Checking out the new baby with big sister looking on.

The siblings meet Zuri for the first time.

Dressed and ready to go...to sleep.

The Birth of Zurishaddai Lawton

NOTE: This is a birth story, though I have not been overly graphic, it may not be suitable for some people. Birth is natural and a great time to see the hand of God as He allows a women to bring life into this world. It is amazing.

Zurishaddai was born at 6:04 AM or there abouts on October 21, 2011.

Yesterday I was tired and after morning Bible study I came home, feed the kids and went and took a nap from 2:20 to 4:30 in the afternoon. Thinking I would have this baby late, I was dreading the next two weeks of waiting. My due date was determined to be October 31, 2011. Last night for the first time I was miserable and ready to be done being pregnant. Usually I don't feel like that this early before my due date.

I have been feeling great in this pregnancy with lots of energy since changing our diet the first of September. I have also been doing 20 squats a day. So, for me to take a nap yesterday and feel tired like I did was a little unusually. Two things went through my mind as to why I needed a nap. 1) It was due to the fact that I ate a very expensive and "good for you" dark chocolate bar from the health food store on Wednesday afternoon. This was the first time in six weeks that I had any type of candy. 2) It did go through my mind that maybe my body was trying to get ready to have a baby and I needed a nap because I would be up all night. This thought was fleeting wish.

This morning at 2 AM I woke up and after getting a drink and using the restroom I could not get back to sleep. Then at 2:30 AM I had some twinges of pain. These fit the description of true contractions as they were low on my abdomen. However, having had Braxton-Hicks before I also know that if you change positions and they stop then it isn't true labor. So I started seeing how often they came. About every 10 minutes and they lasted for 15 seconds or so. I still thought they were Braxton-Hicks and would stop so around 3 AM I got up again went to the restroom because a full bladder has made me feel like I was in labor when I wasn't. I also got another drinking knowing that dehydration can also cause false labor pains. There was no bloody show, but there was mucus from the mucus plug at this time.

I went back and laid down again and tossed and turned trying to get comfortable and go back to sleep. I still didn't think I was in true labor. So I continued to see how often the contractions were and they now ranged from 10 to 6 minutes apart and I could not sleep through them only rest between them. At 5 AM I finally gave up trying to sleep and got up. Now I was thinking, I think I am going to have this baby. I estimate that I was 5 cm dilated at this point, but still no bloody show which has always been present with my other five births. The babies head was still floating above my pubic bone too. At 5:30 AM I told Gil he needed to get the birth tub set up and ready, I also called the midwife who lives 1.5 hours away. The midwife said he would be on his way. I then called the lady who is also a midwife who was assisting at the birth at 5:45. She lives less than 10 minutes away and needed to get dressed. She asked how the contractions were and I told her they were heating up...little did I know. I told her it would not be two hours before I had the baby and it would be good if she could be here in 20-30 minutes. I then squatted through a contraction which I think helped get the babies head in position. Gil was still setting up the birth tub. I tried to help but was in to much pain when I stood or moved.

He finally started filling the tub about five minutes before the baby came out so no birth tub for me this time. After having five I was very aware of my body and the fact that the signs were pointing to the fact that my body was going to want to start pushing any minute. At this point I told Gil to get the bags off the top of the dyer which had sterilized towels in them for the birth. He realized that it was time also and the tub was a total none issue. So he abandoned his tub efforts and helped get me the few things I asked for. I got off the couch and went and stood on the linoleum of the kitchen. I put the towel down, squatted and at the next contraction my water broke. I felt for a prolapsed cord (this occurs when the cord comes down the birth canal in front of the babies head. It is then pinched and cuts off the life support to the baby.) I said "There is not prolapsed cord, babies head is crowning..." then with the next contraction I gently pushed the baby's head out into my left hand and the rest of his body came out which I took with my right hand. I was holding him over the clean towel with his face towards the floor and his head slightly below the rest of his body to help any mucus in his airway flow out and not in. I asked Gil to get the bulb syringe from the birth kit and then we suctioned him a little, but he was already crying and looking pink and good. My guess for time of birth is 6:04 AM. The midwives and my husband were harassing me because I didn't look at the clock the moment he was born like I usually do. Gil said that I am always multitasking and I should have been able to do that too. We all had a good laugh about it. So I made the guess of 6:04 because that last time I looked at the clock before I started pushing it was 6:00 AM.

Side Note: (You may ask, "Why the kitchen of all places?" Our house is very small. The kitchen and living room are one room about 16' x 17'. The bathroom is not very large and we only have one. So the kitchen linoleum was only four feet away from the couch I had been sitting on and I didn't want to have the baby on the carpet. So while calculating in my head what needed done in those few minutes before I had him, I decided the kitchen floor would be the best place to be. Since towels were down it really wasn't that bad.)

I then stood up, Gil gave me a dry blanket to wrap Zuri in and I took the phone and called the midwife. I didn't want him to rush to get to the house when there was no need. He asked me if I had delivered the placenta and I said no but would after getting off the phone with him. I hung up with him, squatted once again and the placenta was ready to come out so I gently grabbed it and pulled it out into a bowl Gil put on the floor. We did not worry about the cord because we wait until the cord goes limp and white before we cut it so all the blood and stem cells from the placenta are transferred to the baby as a boost for the start of his life on the outside. It was a picture perfect birth. Aside from the pain, it could not have been better.

I then handed the baby off to Gil so I could take a quick shower to get cleaned up. The assistant showed up while I was showering. She walked in, looked at Gil and the baby and it took her a minute to realize that she had missed the birth. It was only 20 minutes after I called her that I gave birth to Zuri, and I didn't even have time during that 20 minutes to call her and tell her to hurry up, she would have missed it anyway. The only way she could have made it was if she had left the minute I called her and at that time I didn't realize I was as far along as I was.

It was not scary in any way, I have had all my children at home with a midwife and all my births have been wonderful experiences. This was another planned home birth, I just didn't call the midwife in time. All my babies have come easy and without any complications so at the point I realized it would just be Gil and me I started going through what needed to happen. Gil was great and did exactly what I asked. He was calm and a great support.

I have cut the time the midwives have had to arrive at my births with every birth, this obviously was the shortest, though not intentional. It would have been nice to be in the tub because it really does help with the pain of contractions. The only other bummer is that Gil wasn't able to take any pictures of the actual birth since we were both a little busy at the time.