Recently in Samuel Category

I keep a journal for each of my kids...how strange it is to say, "kids." I thought I'd share a bit about why the name Samuel is so special to me. It's a family name from Kirk's dad's side of the family which I think is awesome but that's a different story that maybe Kirk will tell sometime. I'm going to talk about the other reason I love the name Samuel. Actually, I'm just going to copy out what I wrote in Samuel's journal b/c I'm in a rush and need to straighten up my house before my in-laws arrive. :)

Samuel means more to me than just following family tradition. I had a pretty hard pregnancy with you. I was really nauseous at the beginning, and a little nauseous the rest of the time. I also struggled a lot emotionally. During my pregnancy I was in a women's Bible study. Some of what we studied was about how God provided for the Israelites on a day-by-day basis (while in the desert). And in the "Lord's Prayer," Jesus taught us to pray and ask God for our "daily bread." God taught me, through your hard pregnancy, to rely on Him for what I needed one day at a time. And that God promised to always give me what I needed for each day...and He was/is faithful. I learned to pray so much more. This is why I love the name Samuel because it means "heard by God." God hears our prayers - what a privilege to be reminded of that by my son's name!

So my grammar is not perfect and the flow is non-existent...that's how journals are supposed to be. But you get the point, God is so amazing that He listens to the prayers of these tiny, insignificant, selfish people.

Samuel Paul Ward arrived at 1:42 am on Wednesday, March 26th. He weighed 8 lb 2 oz and was 21 1/2 inches long. We went into the hospital around 2:00 pm on Tuesday to be induced. After a long boring day of "laboring," boring because I decided to get an epidural earlier than I did with Joanna (I waited until I was in excruciating pain). Around 1:00 a.m. we (Kirk, my mom, and me) were sleepy so turned off Fellowship of the Ring and took a nap. Fifteen minutes later the nurses came in to check on me because the baby monitor had slipped and wasn't picking up Samuel's heartbeat. Then put one on his head and the nurse decided to check my progress...I was fully dilated. So they wheeled in all the delivery stuff (I labored, delivered, and recovered in the same room), called the OB and I did a "practice push." My OB arrived, got herself ready and we did a real push which welcomed Samuel's head into the world and on the next contraction welcomed his body. I guess those kegels really do work. :)

Our recovery is going well. I hardly tore at all. My mom is here to do all the work she can and give Joanna all the attention she can. Samuel's doing awesome. He sleeps a TON! The first night home was rough, the next night he woke up twice and last night he woke up once. Who knows what tonight will bring.

Thanks for all your prayers.