First pics of Mary Grace

Our beautiful baby girl was born today at 3:51pm, weighing 6 lbs 14oz. She is a VERY squirmy, active one! Here are some first pics...

Progress!

This will be my last update until our baby girl arrives.  My water was broken around 10 am and I had dilated to 5cm by 12:30pm.  At that time the nurse asked me if I wanted her to call anesthesia and have them pump up the dose of my epidural. I was begining to feel the contractions more, but they weren't too intense and so I decided to hold off. I told her that a part of me was just a bit curious and so, I decided to wait. About 10 minutes later, after she left the room, I had a couple of really good contractions and then pressed the nurse call button. When she came back, I told her that my curiosity had been satisfied and I was ready for a larger dose on the epidural! 

At 2:30, the nurse came back and checked me. I had dialated to 8cm and was all the way effaced. The baby had dropped to zero station and she figured that I'd be ready to push in about an hour. It took me 2.5 hours to push Sarah out, 13 minutes to push Hannah out, and I'm hoping that I can just sneeze this baby out! We shall see. Details to follow, but that's the latest. Signing off until our baby girl is here... 

Off to the races...

We are here at the hospital and ready for this party to get started. Unfortunately, I could barely sleep last night so I'm not incredibly well rested for today's big event. I remember looking at the clock and seeing every hour from 10pm until 4:45am, when I finally just got out of bed. John and I arrived at the hospital at 6am and got into our labor and delivery room shortly thereafter. The nurse got my IV going after 2 attempts (I'm so thankful for local anesthetics) a bit before 7am. After my veins were filled with a couple bags of IV fluids, the anesthesiologist came in around 9am to put in my epidural, which was completely pain-free. Dr. Fogwell (my O.B.) broke my water at about 10am, and so now we continue the waiting game. I've already had a few contractions since he broke my water, but nothing too terrible since I do have the epidural on a low dose for the time being. As soon as contractions pick up, you can be sure I'll be calling anesthesia to come back and pump up the dosage!

When I went in for my O.B. appointment this past Tuesday, I was about 2 cm dilated. Now I'm about 4 cm dilated, 50% effaced and the baby is at the -2 station, which basically means she hasn't dropped down very far yet. Since this is my 4th baby, however, everyone here thinks that this labor should progress pretty quickly. I sure hope so because I'm getting hungry and the only thing they're letting me ingest are ice chips. I'm trying to pretend that they're laced with protein, but my imagination isn't affecting my growling stomach so far.

So that's the latest. We'll try to keep you all updated as much as possible!

Close call...

Today I had my last OB exam for this pregnancy before the induction this Thursday. My mom told me on the phone last night that I ought to pack and bring my bags with me "just in case." I assured her that nothing was going to happen until Thursday, to which she responded, "you never know..."

Well, wouldn't you know that the baby's heart rate registered a bit on the low side (about 108 bpm) when the nurse practitioner was listening for it, then went back up into the normal range shortly after that. My O.B. walked in to check for himself and the baby's heart rate stayed in the normal range. To play it safe, he sent me across the hall to have a sonogram and make sure everything looked normal. If the baby passed the biophysical exam, then I could go home. If not, then I would be marched straight downstairs to Labor & Delivery, which is exactly what happened the day Hannah was born. Needless to say, I was getting nervous.

I called John to be "on alert" and then called his mom, who was watching my kids to also be prepared to watch the kids a little longer. John called back and wanted to stay on the line during the sonogram so he could hear the play-by-play. Thankfully, our baby girl passed 10 out of 10 tests (measurements, fluid levels, heart rate, activity level, etc.) with flying colors. Judy, my sonographer, even said that she seemed more active than most babies at this stage. This is probably an indication that the increased activity trend in my children is going to continue. Oh dear. But I was very thankful for this baby's high activity level today! Judy said the only thing she could see that might be the culprit for the slight dip in heart rate was that our little girl was squeezing the umbilical cord in her hands. We actually got to watch this on the sonogram and I wish I knew how to upload the video from the sonogram DVD onto the blog because it was very cool to see her little fingers opening and closing around that cord. There's nothing else to play with or squeeze in there, so it's no wonder she grabs what's right there in front of her! No wonder babies like to squeeze their parents' fingers and clench tightly to rattles.

So I am home and relieved that I didn't end up in Labor & Delivery with an emergency c-section or worse yet, a baby in distress. Yes, I have finally packed my bags and am ready for what I hope will be a textbook labor and delivery this Thursday morning! We are indeed thankful to the Lord for our healthy and highly active baby girl.

What a baby shower looks like for the 4th child...

This is the last pregnancy profile shot I'll be getting before I go into the hospital this coming Thursday at 6:00a.m.
Today my small group from church threw me a baby shower (or a "baby wash" as my friend's 4 yr old daughter called it). Since this is our 4th baby and our 3rd girl, I insisted on consumable items only (i.e. diapers, wipes, creams, soap, etc.). My goodness, did they ever deliver!


Stacked here are the diapers and wipes that should keep our little baby girl clean and dry for MONTHS to come! What a blessing!


Martha (Nana) was the only one who broke the rules and bought non-consumables (she's the grandmother, what do you expect?!). Draped over the changing table and the crib railing are some new cute newborn outfits, pjs for mommy, and burp clothes with decoratively sewn pink ribbons.

I would say that we are WELL prepared for this baby to arrive! Now if I could just get around to packing a bag for the hospital...

Our 8th anniversary...oops!

We've been a little silent on the blogosphere since we've been home from vacation. This is probably because we came home, unpacked and essentially hit the ground running. We got home late on a Friday night, and then Saturday was spent unpacking and getting our house in order so that Sunday, we could host one of our favorite missionaries (Dan Iverson - Japan) who was preaching that Sunday and spending the night at our house. We probably should have let someone else in the church host him considering the circumstances, but we insisted on hosting him because we wanted the extra time with him...and we had a wonderful visit with him, as usual. Then our denomination's General Assembly was the following week, where all of the pastors and ruling elders in the PCA gathered in Dallas. Then the next week (THIS week), was our church's vacation Bible school (VBS), where I've had to get all 3 of my kiddos up to the church every day by 9:00a.m. and where I've been in charge of teaching the Bible story to the 3rd through 5th graders. It has been a lot of fun, but pretty exhausting as you can imagine.

This hectic pace from vacation until now is probably the reason why John and I both forgot our 8th anniversary yesterday!! What's funny is that yesterday morning, John turned on the computer and I asked him to check my email before I ran off to VBS. While he was pulling up my email, we both saw a notification from my facebook calendar that today was our anniversary! We simultaneously let out a slight gasp, looked at each other and said, "Uh...happy anniversary!" Where would we be without our facebook birthday/anniversary calendar?? Gotta love technology...

These are not our professional pics, but a couple of the only digital ones that I have from one of my bridesmaids. After John got home from a pretty busy day at work, we ate a normal dinner, got the kids in bed early and then spent the remainder of the evening reflecting on the last 8 years of our marriage - how MUCH has happened, how far we've come, and in what ways we need to grow. What's funny is that this isn't the first time we've forgotten our anniversary! Believe it or not, we BOTH forgot our 1st anniversary for the same reasons! We had just gotten back from vacation, John had just been installed as senior pastor at Trinity, we were in the process of packing, moving and, in the meantime, commuting from Dallas, and our anniversary fell on Father's Day, which is a Sunday...a day that John had to get up and preach. So it wasn't until one of my in laws came over to me and whispered, "Happy anniversary" that I nearly fell over. John said that he remembered right in the middle of his sermon. We always joked that it would be really easy for us to remember how many years we've been married since we got married in the year 2000. Now if we could only remember the date!

Here we are, walking happily down the aisle...finally able to relax and enjoy the moment! The pastors who married us (look behind us) were Peter Lillback and Michael Easley.

Here is our bridal party. My matron of honor was my sister, Melanie, and my bridesmaids were Hien Nguyen-Le (my best friend from college), Lillian Campbell (a dear friend who went home to be with the Lord a little over a year after this picture was taken), Lizabeth Swayne (a dear friend of mine from Proclamation PCA in Bryn Mawr, PA who is now with RUF), and Kim Starr (one of my neighbors with whom I became very good friends). John's best man was Joe Gage (his best friend from college and now one of the ruling elders in our church!), and his groomsmen were Mike Emlet (one of his roommates from Westminster and now a counselor with CCEF), Jake Yohannan (another great friend from seminary who became one of our church's associate pastors and has now gone on to plant a church in northern NJ), Claude Taylor (another great friend from seminary who is now the pastor of an OPC church in NJ), and Rick Shurtz (a great friend from Baylor U. who is now an assistant pastor at Gateway church in Austin, TX).

A bit surprised...

Here's another fun snapshot that was taken earlier the same day we received all of that snow...

For those of you unfamiliar with sonograms, that's a profile shot of the latest addition to the McCracken household. You can see the little eyes, nose and mouth facing upwards (on the left), the body to the right and the little hand above. Pretty amazing - and all of that is visible at 11.5 weeks gestation. And yes, we just found out about this little life less than a week prior to this sonogram!

I know some of the women reading this are thinking, "How on earth could you get to the end of your 1st trimester and not even suspect that you're pregnant??" Yeah, I'm wondering that too. I guess February was a pretty busy and distracting month with sick kids, sick mommy, traveling, busy schedules, etc. that I just kept dismissing the tell-tale symptoms as leftovers from the flu, not getting enough sleep, running ragged, and catching whatever the kids had. I actually did wonder a few times here and there, but then brushed it off as nothing since my symptoms were so inconsistent. Then last Thursday evening (not this past Thursday, but the one before) as I was sitting up in bed reading a book, I looked down at my tummy and noticed that it was a little rounder than usual. It was then that I started connecting the dots, realizing that I had actually been feeling rather lousy for over a month.

So the next day while John was at work and the kids were taking their naps, I took a test and it was as positive as it could be. After connecting all of the dots the night before, I knew it was going to be...but I was still pretty surprised and overwhelmed. I couldn't even bring myself to tell John until that evening after the kids were in bed. I started by saying, "Well, it's a good thing we got that minivan...because we're gonna need that extra seat." His head jolted upright, his eyes got as big as saucers and he said, "You're pregnant???"
"Yes."
"When did you find out?"
"This afternoon."
"But...I hadn't decided on whether or not I wanted a fourth yet."
"Um, John...it's a little late for that."
"But..."
"John...it's not like I did this behind your back!"
Needless to say, he was even MORE surprised and overwhelmed. But after the initial shock wore off, he said, "Well, I guess I was leaning towards having a fourth...I just wanted a little more space between Hannah and the fourth! But obviously, this is God's will." Now that we've had several days of knowing go by, a sonogram that confirmed a healthy baby at nearly 12 weeks, and the excitement of sharing the news, we've all gotten a little giddy at the idea of having yet another baby in our Christmas family photo this year! My estimated due date is September 21st.

So there you have it. The cat's out of the bag, so why not post it on our blog? Hannah turns 1 year old by the end of this month, and I'll already be 3+ months pregnant. This baby and Hannah will be about 18 months apart. Christopher and Sarah were a little more than 19 months apart and I wouldn't change that age difference for anything because I love how close they are. So now Hannah will have a buddy as well. Of course, they're all pretty close in age - that's 4 kids in 5 years. We're very prolific...

What a day!

Well, since Mindy is feeding and I can't sleep, let me give a quick summary of our day. Mindy had her 39th week appointment this morning at 10:00. We packed bags and took them with us just in case she were to be induced. Upon arriving, Dr. Fogwell began by listening to the fetal heartbeat. A concerned look came over his face as his watched the second hand on his watch. Cool as a cumcumber, he looked at Mindy and said, "Well, you're going to Labor and Delivery right now. I don't like the way this heart beat sounds, so let's go downstairs and check it out. Go straight there and do not stop at the admissions desk and I'll meet you in a L&D room." So we booked it downstairs and by the time Mindy was hooked up to the fetal HR monitor, the baby's HR had come back up to a normal level. Dr. Fogwell said that it was distressingly low when he first listened to it. So he monitored Mindy for several hours, but she was 4cm and 80% effaced by this point (10:15ish).

We had another fetal HR scare around 2:30. The nurse and the whole calvary came rushing in the room and got the HR back up within a few minutes. That of course was a little disconcerting. But things stablizied for the rest of the day/evening after that. Around 3pm Mindy got an epidural and at 6:15, Dr. Fogwell broke her water.

By 10pm she was ready to have a baby. She pushed for 13 minutes and at 10:43, Hannah Elizabeth was born. 6 pounds 11 ounces and 18 3/4 inches long. We were sooo thankful for a short labor, since Mindy was in L&D for almost 30 hours and pushed for 2.5 hours with Sarah. This was a huge blessing for us. The Lord brought us not only safely through the day, but gave us extra mercy tonight to be done by a reasonable hour.

Hannah has been eating tonight like a horse. This child has a McCracken appetite, no doubt!
Alright, I'm going to try to get some sleep now. Mindy is dozing hard on her bed and I'm about to dive into my cot. More tomorrow...

What you've been waiting for... pictures!!!

in labor

just a note to say that Mindy was admitted to labor &
delivery at 10 am this morning. things are progressing
slowly but all is fine so far, tbough we had a few
scares with the babys HR dropping a few times today.
more later...

Any day now...

Any day now, baby #3 will be born. Mindy is about in the middle of her 39th week of pregnancy. We took this picture last night. Doesn't she look great!? I definitely married up! There is a chance that she will be induced tomorrow as well. We don't know the sex, but if it is a boy, it will be Samuel David and if it is a girl it will likely be Hannah Elizabeth. We'll keep you posted!

31 weeks pregnant

Here is Mindy's profile shot at 31 weeks pregnant. She doesn't look 31 weeks pregnant to me! Our due date is April 4. Christopher was born April 2, 2003. We don't know the sex and aren't going to find out until the baby comes.