I've fallen in love.....

It is such a blessing to fall in love once...It is gift from God and it is something to be cherished and treasured. I continually thank God for the gift of Shawn and what a servant he is. He is definitely my other half. It is a double blessing to fall in love twice...and I have with our son!
It has been a long road with this pregnancy. I had many worries that I continually had to lay at the feet of Jesus. He constantly assured me that He had our little boy in his hands.

(Here I am in pre-op! Very excited, can you tell?!)

When we got the call that his lungs were ready, it was so surreal! I could hardly believe that we were going to meet him on Tuesday, Nov. 11. We had to be at the hospital at 7:30 am and I actually got up at 2:30! I stayed in bed and layed there until 4:30 then got up to get ready. I was just too anxious! We actually got right in to the pre-op area and they wheeled me down to the operating room right at 8:45am. The spinal went in the first time which I was SO EXCITED about because there was going to be less chance of a spinal headache. They had him out by 9:17am and I can't tell you how amazing that first cry is! Those of you who have had babies know! My doctor said "Wow, he's a bruiser with a nice round head!". He didn't stop crying the whole time we were in the operating room! Shawn got to hold him first and cut the cord. They brought him over to me and as soon as I touched him he calmed down! That was the greatest feeling! My doctor said they c-section went better than expected especially for the 3rd time around. That was encouraging!

Introducing:
Caleb Eric Steven Gurk
Born at 9:17am November 11th, 2008
9lb. 7 oz. 21 inches

His name means faithfully and powerfully blessed.
The name Eric is in honor of my older brother who died when he was 2 days old. Steven is in honor of both of our dad's.

Blissfully happy with our new little son!
He was just perfect.

Shawn went up with him to the birthing center so they could give him a through check-up. He only had to be in the incubator a little while and the heating pack for a short time. I was able to recover in the birthing center so I got to experience everything they were doing to him. He cried the whole time there too! I think he came out hungry because he wanted to suck right away!


He is a happy, content, little man! He even has eyes that open! Adrianna and Eliza didn't open theirs until they were a month old!








Daddy finally has his little boy!








The girls absolutely love him! They came over right away and Eliza said she wanted to kiss him! Adrianna said "Mommy your tummy is small now!". They were loving on him right away and didn't seem concerned that I was in a hospital bed.
I can hardly believe we are a family of 5! They kept asking to hold him over and over!





If you look closely you can see how long his fingernails were!
Some of them were folded over! Hmmm...makes me re-think his actual due date of December 1!







We were supposed to come home on Friday the 15th. Caleb had actually lost a whole pound which they were a little concerned about so they said he would have to stay until Saturday. I guess because he was not eating so well and that he was 3 weeks early, they wanted to make sure he was okay. We worked so hard on getting him to nurse. He finally was okay with the SNS system. It is kind of a pain to prepare but it is helping him latch on better. He just wanted instant satisfaction!
So, on that Friday I started having ear pain. I told the nurse and she said "That's weird". Okay..so DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Anyway, it got progressively worse as the day went on and I kept telling the nurses about it. They told my doctor and said he would be in when he was done with a delivery. I waited and waited. They discharged me at 11:30pm but I was able to stay because Caleb was still a patient. Well, my doctor forgot to come in so they called him and he prescribed Sudafed. Mind you I was already on Vicodin and Motrin. That did nothing to stop the pain in my ear!

At around 3 am I told the nurses I needed someone to look at my ear because it was so unbearable. They thought since they couldn't treat me because I was discharged that they would send me down to the ER. So....they wheeled me down in my nightclothes so they could take a look at it. They diagnosed me with a severe ear infection. My ear canal was almost swollen shut so they inserted a wick to help me get some antibiotic drops into the ear. They also gave me an oral antibiotic. Well, they didn't tell me not to take it out so on Saturday morning I was thinking that the drops were not getting down into my ear with this wick in it. So...dumb me took it out. Well, I wasn't supposed to take it out and I had to go back to the ER to see if they would insert another one.
The doctor looked at it and said I didn't need it and should be able to get the drops in.

I went home Saturday in excruciating pain. It was not fun at all, and I didn't even get to enjoy the homecoming. Thanks to my sister Sarah for decorating our house and having it all clean! That was nice!
On Sunday we had to take Caleb back for a weight check. So we drove to Zeeland again....
He had gained a little bit but they wanted him to come back Monday.
I got in to see my doctor on Monday and he couldn't even look in my ear to see the infection because it was so swollen. My face was actually distorted! I could hardly open my mouth and it was so plugged I couldn't hear a thing. So, he referred me to an ENT so they could check it out.
I went to that on Wed. morning and he said it was a very bad infection. He reinserted a wick and said the other drops were probably not getting to the infection. He gave me stronger drops and vacuumed out tons of fluid and said I should be getting better by Friday.
So we are heading back to Holland tomorrow for a re-check.

If the nurses would have listened to me, things would not have gotten this bad! They even charged me a $50 ER visit! If they would have had me looked at while I was admitted, I would not have been charged that either! Shawn has called the hospital and told them our sad sob story and they are not making us pay it!

Needless to say, it has been a very difficult week. Eliza also came down with the stomach flu on Monday so we are praying we all don't get it!
I am on the mend but it has been very slow. The pain in my ear was so intense that I didn't pay much attention to my incision and now that is very sore!
I am trying to be positive and take this as an incredible incentive to rest. I probably would have been making Christmas cookies or something!

You often wonder why God causes these painful things to happen. It is just frustrating because I have had to come back to the hospital after each of our kids have been born and I have always had some painful health issue after my c-sections. My doctor said my body and pregnancy don't do well together!
Even so, we have been blessed by 3 incredibly amazing children that I'm sure will bless us abundantly as they grow up.

Caleb has been doing 2 4-5 hour stretches at night which has been a huge blessing so that I can heal. I just hope he keeps doing it even after I am better. He is such a good baby. We are able to put him down and he is content to just look around or fall asleep. We could hardly ever put Eliza down! I am praising God for our most recent blessing and pray his divine healing will come over our house.