Journey to Health

Our house has gotten a little healthier in the past month. We have had to flush out all gluten, dairy and refined sugar. With that comes a healthier lifestyle.

The reason we have changed our eating habits is Clark's recent MS diagnosis. 

It started over a year ago when Clark lost vision in one eye. We were concerned at that time, but none of the tests they ran were conclusive, so we were hoping it was just a random incident. The doctors called it optic neuritis, an inflammation of the optic nerve that could cause a complete or partial loss of vision. We were satisfied with that. 

Then it happened again; but it was much different this time. He was now experiencing double vision, a numbing of the entire left side of his body and a lot of pain, especially when he was tired. So he went to the doctor again. After this MRI, they found two lesions on his brain. From this, they determined that he has a 95% chance of having MS. 

So we will have more testing and more appointments, but at least we have an action plan. 

For now, until we have more information and have more tests done, we can be changing our lifestyle to be a little healthier. Clark has been going to the chiropractor, which seems to be helping immensely, as well as changing our diet, managing stress and visiting a naturopath. This episode he was in is over now and we are hoping that all these changes can keep the next one from happening as soon or being as severe. He has definitely felt better with the way we eat now and can feel the pain return any time he eats dairy or gluten. 

I'm starting to look at Clark's MS as a blessing, in a way. It is really forcing us to get healthy; to look at labels and take a deeper look at what is in the food we are eating. So far this is working for us. We are learning to cook and shop differently.

It is really only by God's grace that we have such peace about this diagnosis. I was talking to a friend today about how much God can teach us when faced with difficult situations. I can't really speak for Clark here, but I am feeling much better about this whole situation and I appreciate that we have our Saviour to rely on. 

The Story of Brynlee's Birth: Part 3

By 6 that night, my water still hadn't fully broken. I was already about 9 cm dilated and my body was telling me to push. So I spent the next 4 hours breathing through the urge to push and telling myself that if I gave in I could do some real damage to my body. The nurses told me that if I allowed myself to push, my uterus could tear. So after dealing with this for far too long, they finally decided it was time to get things going by breaking my water.

This is when things got interesting. When the nurse broke my water, I immediately went to 10 cm and started pushing. Although this is also when she found out there was meconium in the amniotic fluid. So when I got closer to having Brynlee, the NICU team came in. With the doctor and the two nurses I had in my room, I think there was about a dozen of us in that little room.

It was 11:39 when Brynlee finally entered the world at a whopping 9 lb. 2 oz. and 22 inches. What a long day, but the most amazing day of my life! I had my little girl in my arms.

They only let me hold her for a minute before whisking her away to get all the meconium out of her lungs and do a bunch of tests. This gave me a chance to talk to the doctor about how everything went while she stitched me up, only 3 stitches though.

Clark came back from the NICU to tell me how everything went and grab a bit of sleep. It sure wasn't easy sleeping after all that. I got about an hour of sleep before they brought Bryn back to me. I fed her and cuddled her. I just couldn't believe this was my baby!

The Story of Brynlee's Birth: Part 2

We got to the hospital and I was 3 cm dilated. They checked me out, got me on antibiotics because I had just found out the week before that I had Group B Strep. They wanted me to be a bit further before admitting us, so we went for a walk, big pole for antibiotics and all. We were stopping every few minutes for a contraction, of course. By the time we went back to triage, I was 4 cm, so they got us in a room. At this point, I was ready to try anything to ease the pain of the contractions. I guess I should say, anything but drugs. Clark and I came into this pregnancy and labour convinced we were going to have a natural birth, and that's exactly what we did.

This picture shows just how tired I was

I tried a warm shower, a jacuzzi bath and eventually the birthing ball. I think I spent 80% of my labour on that ball. Eventually I wanted something to curb the pain, so I started on nitrous oxide. This stuff was great, but only for about an hour. I was so loopy and tired while taking the gas, the nurse was in and out of the room and I had no idea. I remember asking Clark if the gas would hurt Brynlee, and the nurse answered; that was a little surprising. 

So I got a bit of sleep during that first hour of using the gas, which was good because the hardest part was yet to come. 

Part 3 yet to come...

The Story of Brynlee's Birth: Part 1

With Brynlee's 3 month birthday coming up in a couple days, I thought it was time to share my birth story.

I should start with the reason Brynlee was so overdue.

My first due date in my pregnancy was August 7th. When we went for an ultrasound, that date was changed to August 21st. Clark and I decided we would stick with the original date, being fully aware that Bryn could be quite late. So to spare us the hassle of telling people a long story when they asked my due date, we just said the 7th. This caused much confusion when Brynlee was born on September 1st. So Brynlee was 11 days overdue but she felt like almost a month overdue. How exhausting for this gigantic mama!

The doctors were planning to induce me on September 3rd, so you would not believe how happy I was to be going into labour on September 1st. At 4 a.m. I felt my first contraction. It was much like all the false labour I had been having, but somehow I just knew this was it. I tried to sleep for a while, but got out of bed around 4:30. This wasn't unusual for me at this point, I never slept the night through anymore. 

So, I thought I would let Clark sleep for a while longer; it was going to be a long day for him too. He got out of bed around 9 and I told him we were having our baby today. He was surprisingly calm about it, almost uncaring. Here I was thinking, 'Shouldn't you be jumping around excited? Or at least crack a smile??' I guess he had just woken up, what can I expect? 

At this point, my contractions were getting much closer, almost 5 minutes apart but only about 40 seconds long. So I had a nice bath, braided my hair, got everything together, even watched an episode of Lost. By 11 we thought we should get going. 

Part 2 of this story coming soon :)

Lectio Divina

I've been doing a bible study through church. It's called Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Haley Barton.

In the study, Ruth goes through six different spiritual practices.

My favourite of all these is lectio divina, literally translated, divine or sacred reading. If you have never heard of lectio divina, it is a practice of reading a passage of scripture through four times and meditating on it between readings.

I had experienced this practice many years ago as a counselor and Red Rock Bible Camp. I loved it then, but had pretty much forgotten about it and thought it only worked in a group setting.

Having Ruth talk about this practice as something you can do at home has changed that mindset for me. I went home after that bible study and did a lectio divina reading on my own. I loved it.

I'm the kind of person who can't focus on one thing at a time. So when I read my bible, I miss big sections because my mind wanders to laundry or dishes or Brynlee and suddenly I realize that I have no idea what the last chapter was about.

Lectio divina changed that for me. The repetition is what keeps me focused and the meditation is when God teaches me.

I know that everybody learns differently, but I encourage you to try this. And if you already do this, let me know what you think about it. I'm sure not everybody loves it as much as I do.

What are your favourite spiritual practices? I would love to hear how other people learn and experience God.

Three whole years

Today is our anniversary.

I can't believe it has been 3 years already. And it just keeps getting better :)

The last 3 years has been challenging yet amazing.

We went to Ireland

We lived at Redberry Bible Camp

We bought a house

And we had a beautiful baby girl

Sometimes I can't believe how blessed I am with such an amazing husband and daughter. God knew exactly what I needed in a husband when he brought me Clark. There are so many things I love about him.

He is a great father to Brynlee

He is always the first to apologize (even when it's not his fault)

He knows my love languages and loves me the way I need him to

He puts God first and leads me to do the same

His deepest desire is to provide for his family

He treats me with love and respect

What a great life!

A Fresh Start

Well, here I am starting a blog. This is something I've thought about a lot in the past few months. I'm not sure if it's something I just never got around to or if I didn't think my thoughts were valuable enough to share, but here it goes and we'll see what happens.

There are a few reasons I wanted to start a blog.

1. I love blogs. I love reading other peoples blogs and think, 'if I like reading other peoples blogs, there must be people out there who would want to read my blog.'

2. I have lots of thoughts/experiences/struggles that I would love to share with people. But how often do I actually talk about those things with others? Probably not as much as I would like.

3. I have lots of time now, why not start a blog. Being at home with my sweet baby girl gives me lots of time to ponder new things and experience a whole lot of new things. Some might be worth sharing.

So tune in to read my posts, hopefully something will meet you where you are at, or challenge you, or encourage you. That really is my goal with this. That I would be able to reach somebody, even if it is just one person. That would be totally worth it.