Luke Thomas Youngblood

I started this blog over 4 years ago as a way to record my kids' birth stories and current happenings in our family.  I've been mostly silent on here the past year, so though I will not go back to catch up on everything, I do want to catch up on Luke's story and the big things that have happened in our family this year.
In late April, we were shocked to learn we were expecting baby #5.  Unlike all my other pregnancies, I did NOT have low progesterone this time, which was the biggest shock of all.  I'd had 3 early miscarriages in a row before Jack, so we thought without the extra progesterone before having a positive test would not allow for a successful pregnancy.  But God had other plans for us!  So, from the beginning this pregnancy was a surprise that defied everything else that we'd experienced before.  Here is the first ultrasound I had at 6 weeks.

We already had plans to put the house on the market in a couple of years due to our family outgrowing the house.  SO- with this new addition coming to our family, we decided to move up our plans and we put the house on the market in June.  It was an exremely stressul summer keeping the house show ready while being exhausted from pregnancy and the demands of 4 children.  The summer was mostly a blur- somewhere in there I had this ultrasound at 12 weeks.  We could have found out gender at 10 weeks with a blood test, but we declined really wanting a surprise this time.  But in my heart, I already knew- I just knew from having 2 of each gender what this one was even from the beginning.  

Long story of having the house on the market that I will skip, however, we were ever grateful when it was all over and in the end we pulled the house off the market in mid- August knowing we didn't want to move twice or compromise that house we wanted to buy.  We are going to have to put the house back on the market now in the spring with Luke as a newborn, which I am not really looking foward to, but it was good to take a break from the stress this summer.

We had our 20 week ultrasound the day after we pulled the house off the market.  It had been a stressful day, and it was nice to have something new to focus on.  For the first time, I wanted to plan for this new baby whereas before I would forget almost every day that I was even pregnant. Either that or I was just too preoccupied.  It was sweet to see our new little one.  A new start and a new chapter.

Foot

At this point, we started planning for how we would squeeze another baby in the house until we could try to sell it again.  We had the storage pod delivered to our house to pull a few things we needed out of there (including our coffee maker and king bed!) and reorganized our master bedroom so that we could fit the rocking glider and pack n play in there.  

We also bought a new van that would hold 5 carseats.  It is a 2011 Honda Odyssey, and it fits our family MUCH better and easily holds the extra carseat.  

I had sold or given away almost ALL the baby things over the past year, so I spent some time picking up things here and there at the consignment shops, and I was thankful for some items given to me by friends.  What a true blessing.  I had Jack's clothes from 12 months and up and a few newborn baby clothes I had saved to make a quilt in the future.  I didn't have any girl things between the newborn things and size 4T, but again- I really did know what we were having from the ultrasound- confession time on that one!  No one really asked me and since we told everyone it was a surprise, I just kept saying it was a surprise and the kids and no one ever knew.  Felt a bit like lying through withholding the truth at times, which I didn't like, but I also liked having the secret between Jon and I.  I made a few things that could be gender neutral anyway as a way to prepare for the baby.  

Here is the carseat canopy I made and the used double stroller we bought off craigslist, which works perfectly with Jack still being too young to walk long distances.

I only took a handful of pictures while pregnant this time--oops!

28 weeks

30 weeks

34 weeks

36 weeks

These last few were just a few days before I went into the hospital to have Luke.  My blood pressure had gotten high, so my dr. put me on bedrest until I was 37 weeks then wanted to induce me.  I was already 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced, however, so he only ended up having to break my water and i didn't need pitocin.  I had wanted Jon to take one last picture of me that morning in the hospital, but the nurse gave me the gown to chance into and I didn't remember until after I had already changed, so that is one regret I have that I didn't get more pictures.  

He was born so fast- it took 2 hours after he broke my water to get regular contractions, then it was only 1 hour after that before he was born at 12:58pm.  I had been feeling so miserable the week before with a terrible head cold/congestion/coughing/not sleeping.  I felt exhausted at the point I was 5 cm (only the hour before he was born) and thought I would have several hours left.  I couldn't breathe and the contractions were much harder to work through since my water was already broken- it didn't have the cushion that I had with Jack at the same point.  So, I told Jon I wanted the epidural and it was only 15 mintues after I got the epidural when I told the nurse and Jon I knew he was coming and sure enough, she checked me and I was 10 and ready to push, so she had to rush off to find Dr. K.  I am thankful to have gotten the epidural this time, though, because it did help me to relax even though it wasn't fully working and I can truly say it was a nice birth experience.  He was gorgeous even though very purple from having the cord around his neck 1 time and he was the largest of all our babies at only 37 weeks 3 weeks early he was 7lb 14 oz (Jack was the next largest at 7lb10oz at onlyl 1 week early and Lilly was the smallest at 6lb15ozat 2 days overdue)

He was great at nursing right away and did not have a short frenulum like the other 2 boys.  I wanted to remember the kids meeting him in the hospital, so my great friend, Amanda McQuade took photos of us in the hospital.  

Here are a few:

Ok, that was more than just a few- sorry!  But now I'm caught up with through his birth, and hopefully I can soon do a post on our Christmas with more of the other kids.  I miss keeping up with our family on here so that I can go back and look at what they've done every year.  Happy 2015 everyone!