Update on Samuel

We had an appointment last week for our 32 week checkup.  I was 31 weeks 5 days on the day of the appointment.  We were scheduled for an ultrasound so that Dr. Cole could check Samuel's growth.  Since I have mild hypertension (and have for about 3 years - controlled on medication) she wanted to be sure his growth wasn't being restricted.  I was very pleased to find out that he is head down!  I could have sworn he wasn't, but apparently that is his little booty pressing into my ribcage, not his head..  The tech looked around and measured his head, abdomen, and length of his femur.  He was measuring a week ahead, and an estimated 4 lbs 4 oz!!  She then took some pictures of his little profile.  Such a handsome guy I think :).

Profile shot at 31 weeks 5 days

After a minute, she began to check his umbilical cord.  She stayed in the same spot for a while, and then she asked if she could go bring in another tech to take a look at something.  That was enough to get my heart racing.  I wanted to know if everything was alright with our baby boy.  The other tech came in and they both looked for a minute before saying anything.  It felt like forever!!  Then our tech assured us that the blood flow through his cord was great, so that wasn't their concern.  Apparently they saw what appeared to be excess Wharton's Jelly in his cord.  I wasn't sure what that was until I got home and googled it, but apparently it is the lubrication that keeps everything in the cord from crimping or rubbing together.  So it's a necessary part of the 'stuff' inside the cord, they just saw an area that had a little too much.  The rest of our appointment went wonderfully, and Dr. Cole scheduled us for another ultrasound this past Wednesday (a week later) to check Samuel's cord. 

We went in this week for our ultrasound, and the tech immediately checked to make sure he was still head down.  Then she took lots of pictures and measurements of the cord.  Great news - excess Wharton's Jelly was gone!!  She took a few shots of his profile for us, and even got this sweet one of his nose and top lip :).  You have to use your imagination, his leg is in front of his face.  His nose is the triangle looking thing above the leg (you can see his two little nostrils in it). 

Front view shot of nose and lip (covered by his leg) at 32 weeks 5 days

Dr. Cole said that everything looks great with me as well!  My blood pressure is still doing good, still no signs of pre-eclampsia or other complications.  From the beginning of this pregnancy, I have had pre-eclampsia or some other blood pressure related issue in the back of my mind.  I've tried not to worry about it and to give it over to God (and for the most part I have succeeded).  I watched my best friend have some terrible complications and eventually develop HELLP Syndrome with her first pregnancy so I have been pretty aware of the possibility of that the past 8 months.  I really think that after this week's appointment I finally felt some relief from that worry.   God is blessing us with a healthy pregnancy, and we both look forward to holding our precious baby boy in our arms!!!

-Lessa

Baby Showers!

We have been very blessed to have been offered a total of 4 showers for our little guy!  You read that right, FOUR!  The first was given by Ben's work (Julep Restaurant), so it was hosted by the Julep Catering crew.  It was on Sunday, March 4.  This was a fun shower, and since Ben was able to be there I wanted to be sure that we invited some other dudes too :).  It ended up being a cool mix of folks and I think that Daddy-to-be had a good time.  At least, I hope he did!  They had the room decorated in blues and yellows, with rubber duckies floating in bowls of water for the centerpieces.



Julep's Catering Room all decked out for Samuel's first shower!

Cute duckies floating in their 'pools'

 The food was amazing, and Ben did a great job of handing me gifts to open (as well as making sure they didn't fall off of my lap in the process). 

Samuel's first MSU apparel!

Daddy and Mommy to be!

We were so blessed by everyone who attended, and we're so glad we got to see everyone! 

That following Tuesday, my Bunko group held a shower for us on our monthly Bunko night.  Beverly hosted March at her house, and she had a big spread of food and yummy cupcakes!  These ladies were so kind and giving that they pooled their resources and got us the bedding for Samuel's room!!!  Beverly also made some 'cupcakes' and 'lollipops' out of onesies, receiving blankets, and washcloths.  Super cute idea and very useful!  I just can't seem to bring myself to take everything apart just yet :).

Precious 'lollipops' and 'cupcakes' along with Samuel's super awesome bedding!

The next shower was the following Saturday, March 10.   My very first best friend, Melissa, offered to give this shower for me as soon as I told her I was pregnant.  I am very honored to call her my friend still after all these years! 

Melessa and Melissa :)

She had some help from several other ladies (Amanda, Audie, Ms. Celeste, Janine, Mrs. Judy, K'Anna, Laura, and Maxie) and they hosted a wonderful shower for me!  I didn't have to move from my chair and they catered to me the whole time.  I truly felt loved by these ladies as they sacrificed their time and energy on mine and Samuel's behalf!

My wonderful hostesses

It was a great shower, and again we were so overwhelmed with the love shown to us by all who attended!  

Opening Samuel's gift from Auntie Em, who couldn't be there bc she had
baby Garrett the day before!! Well, that and they are stationed in Hawaii...

Who doesn't need a giant elephant?  So fun!

Mimi, Mommy, and Nana B



Aunt Emma, Me, and Aunt Nell.  They will be Samuel's Great-Great-Aunts!

When I got home with all of the wonderful gifts, Ben and I went through everything again so that he could see it.  It was really sweet watching him 'open' everything again! 


The fourth and final shower was our church shower.  It was given by Mrs. Patti Hauser, our pastor's wife.  Mrs. Patti is our pastor's wife, but I also am grateful to call her my friend!  She is one of those people who I think God placed in my life with a specific purpose.  I am so grateful that He chose to do so!  She hosted this month's ladies lunch/my shower at her house on Saturday, March 17.  I had no idea what the theme would be, so when I walked in and saw Dr. Seuss everywhere I was so happy!  We love Dr. Seuss at the Redditt house :). The decor was just perfect, and like always, Mrs. Patti thought of every little detail.  She had some help from a couple ladies from the church, and also from Heather Ross, who was my maid of honor back in the day (which was almost 9 years ago..) when Ben and I got married!   Again I was overwhelmed that these sweet ladies would work so hard to make this shower absolutely perfect!  I had the best time, and didn't want it to be over!  Here are a few pictures from the shower.  I took so many pictures of the cute decor that it was hard to narrow them down!

Super wonderful cake, made by one of Heather's friends

LOVE this table setup!  So creative and fun, it just makes me smile!



Cake pops!  Yum :)

The side of the card you can't see says 'Pretty soon you'll be a mother!'

Notice the transformer in the bottom right..  That was a contribution
from Brock, who is Ben's best friend and happens to be Mrs. Patti's son :)

Since our nickname for Samuel is peanut, there were buckets of roasted
peanuts on the patio tables where we ate!  So cute!

Mrs. Patti loves to talk to Samuel :)

Mommy to be and Nana

Now that our showers are over, we have a huge task ahead of getting all of Samuel's new things washed/organized/put away.  We are still getting his room ready, and I feel time is ticking!  Or maybe that is just my nesting instinct kicking in  :).  Whatever it is, I know that we have about 2 months until he should be here, and I can't wait to get his room ready for him!   I am sure there will be a blog post when it is all done. 

Thank you again to everyone who hosted and attended our showers!  We love and appreciate you all and can't wait for Samuel to meet each of you!

- Lessa

How Baby Redditt got his name

We had been going back and forth between three names since we found out we were having a boy.  Had Baby Redditt been a girl, we had a name locked and loaded ready to go.  But alas, God decided that our first child would be a bouncing baby boy!  We wanted a name that would not be too crazy, but also one that wouldn't limit him in life.  Choosing a name for another human being is really hard!!  So much pressure to pick a name that sounds good now and also when he's older, and also a name that people can pronounce without much difficulty.  He's already going to have to spell his last name, so we didn't want him to have to spell both.  We also wanted at least one of his names to be a family name, but I think giving him a first name that was unique to him was also top of our list.  We narrowed the list of three down to two - Josiah Fox or Samuel Fox.  We love Fox, and since it is a family name from Ben's side we decided to use it as the middle name.  Then we were left with the connundrum of what Baby Redditt's first name should be!  We really liked both names because of their meaning:  Josiah means 'God has healed', and Samuel means 'asked of God, heard by God'.  Both of these meanings have tremendous weight in our lives, so it was hard to choose!  Ben kept leaning more toward Josiah, but for some reason I kept thinking of this baby inside my body as little Samuel.  We prayed and prayed for God's will in whether or not we would be able to have a child, and I just felt (and still feel) like the meaning of Samuel speaks to what God has chosen to do for us.  We prayed to God, and He heard us.  Ultimately, here is how we decided:   I was at home for day 2 of a nasty stomach virus.  I was around 25 weeks pregnant at the time and that silly virus just hit me out of NOWHERE.  I guess I should feel blessed that it was the first time this whole pregnancy that I lost my dinner, but that was kind of hard to think about during the middle of the sickness.  It was BAD.  Ben was checking on me and texting me while he was at work.  We somehow got on the subject of the baby's name (we have called him Peanut since the very beginning, and decided that we probably should actually call him by a name instead of Peanut at this point).  In his texts, Ben pretty much told me he thought I should get final say on Peanut's first name since I am carrying him and all.  I thought that was a good compromise :) but was almost afraid to make the decision to name him.  What if Ben really wished I had chosen the other name?  I decided to go with my heart and so Peanut got named via text message:  Samuel Fox Redditt!  I can't wait to meet our little Samuel and watch him live out the path that God has for his life.

Baby Redditt gender reveal

We decided to keep baby Redditt's gender a secret for a few days after we found out - ya know, make all the family squirm for a bit before they found out.  It was much harder than I thought it would be to not let it slip!  I mean, once you've waited almost 18 weeks to find out if the human growing inside you is boy or girl, it's hard not to shout it to the rooftops once you finally know.  But, we successfully held it in for a total of 5 days!  We found out on a Tuesday, December 13 and planned a reveal at the restaurant Ben manages that following Sunday the 18th.  Our youngest niece, Elizabeth, had a part in a ballet that day and so the whole family was together.  After the ballet we went to Julep and got ready for the reveal!  The catering staff at Julep put together a wonderful spread for us and we had chicken bites, mashed potatoes, and butter beans for our meal.

  The pastry coordinator made us a special 'reveal' cake that was white on the outside and colored either blue or pink on the inside.  We tortured everyone more, making them wait for dessert until after dinner :).  Before we cut the cake, we gave out plates to everyone, letting them choose between 'It's a Girl' and 'It's a Boy' plates.

  I wanted to see what they guessed, just because I was curious.  The suspense finally ended when we cut the cake to reveal - BLUE!  Baby Redditt is a BOY :)).

And no, we did not intentionally wear blue!!

  It was a really good day, and we were so grateful to be able to have our close family with us to celebrate this new beginning in our lives! 

The crew, minus Mom and Uncle Doug.  Somehow they missed this picture..

Me and my sweet Mama :)

- Lessa

PCOS - a diagnosis, not a dream crusher

Disclaimer:  If you are embarrassed by normal functions of the female body, just go right ahead and skip over this one..
This is probably the first time I have really discussed some of these things publicly and it while it may be difficult for me to bring old feelings back, I feel like I need to share this part of my history.  I think it will help shine some light on just how truly amazed I am at the miracle baby I am carrying.  I want anyone who reads this to know that even if your situation is different from mine, GOD HAS A PLAN.  Sometimes it unfolds quickly, sometimes it takes years.  If it does take time, BE PATIENT.  I promise it is worth it.
Here is my story:
After 4 years of marriage, in 2007 I was diagnosed with PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) and told that when we wanted to start a family it would probably be a long road in which fertility meds would be necessary.   I was also told my PCOS was most likely caused by being on the depo provera birth control shot.   I was devastated and very discouraged as I researched what that diagnosis could mean.  I hadn't learned at that point just how far faith in God and in His plan could take me.  We didn't think we were ready for a family at that point, so we just went on with the day to day and my diagnosis sort of lingered in the back of my mind.   In my mind, PCOS was who I was.  I didn't see myself as truly a woman, since I didn't have monthly cycles like all my friends.  They complained of PMS symptoms, while I longed to have a reason to buy feminine products at the store.  I would go 6 or 9 months without a period.  After a while it became normal for me, but still a painful thought.  I  began to doubt that I would ever hold my own child in my arms.  For someone in their early 20s, that is a crushing blow.  In late 2010, after a short round of birth control to try and regulate cycles, I had a couple of normal 28 day cycles.  It was right after I went to a chiropractor and had my back aligned.  I got thrown from a horse in 1999 and apparently the part of my spine that was affected was the part that contains nerves that control my reproductive system.  Who knew?  I thought that maybe the adjustments had 'fixed' me since the first period was exactly a month after I started my chiropractic treatment.  But after the second period came and went, there was not another period that year.  At the beginning of 2011 I decided to make some changes to my health.  One of the causes of PCOS is being overweight, but PCOS also makes it difficult to lose weight since it makes your blood sugar all out of whack.  I had gained 40 lbs on the depo shot (in 9 months of using it) and almost 5 years later at the beginning of 2011 that weight was still hanging on.  I also had some prompting by my hypertension specialist that she thought my elevated blood pressure was more lifestyle related than genetic.  I assumed that just because my dad was on BP meds at 21, I was destined to a life of medication to keep my blood pressure in a normal range.  After an appointment with the hypertension specialist in late January 2011 I began to make changes.  I started going to Zumba, and then began Weight Watchers.  Women with PCOS are usually told that any decrease in weight even if just 5 lbs, will most likely kick start cycles again.  Well for me that seemed to be true.  I was amazed when in February of 2011 I had my first period in 4 months!  Then another in March!  When April came around, I waited and waited and never started a period even though by that point I had lost about 15 lbs.  Then came the familiar devastation and fear.  What if I was destined for a life of never knowing when or if I would start?  I was amazed when I had another period in May.  That was 3 in 4 months without the help of any kind of medication, which hadn't happened since high school!  I decided in June to start charting using a basal body thermometer.  Because I had never had normal cycles, there was no reason to try and chart.  But since it seemed like I might just keep having them I wanted to chart.  Mostly I think I wanted to do it so I could learn more about how my body functioned over the course of a cycle from start to finish.  I also felt in my heart that God's plan was not for us to have to use fertility meds, and I figured charting would be a good place to start in terms of starting our family.  By charting, I could pinpoint if and when I ovulated which was something that most people with PCOS aren't able to do.  I had another cycle in June, another in July and one in August!  By August of 2011 I had almost reached my goal of losing 40 lbs.  I was at the 34 lb mark and smaller than I had been in almost 4 years!  By the end of my August cycle I had been able to chart for three consecutive months.  I can honestly say I was, and still am, amazed by being able to pinpoint ovulation just by reading the temps on my chart over the course of the month.  By this point, since I had experienced 6 cycles in 8 months, I was considered to not have PCOS.  It's still a mind blowing thing to me.  I truly feel like God has a plan, and I feel like it was His time for me to get healthy and lose the weight, therefore helping me overcome the PCOS.   At the beginning of September I knew that I should be starting my period any day so I decided to take a pregnancy test.  I have taken many over the years, always with the same result.  The morning of September 9, 2011 is one I will forever remember.  I glanced at the test, expecting to see the usual result.  Since it was digital, there was no mistaking the word PREGNANT.  I lost it, and ran to tell Ben.  He says I actually woke him up because I was shaking so hard I couldn't get my words out.

I share this journey openly with you for two reasons.   1.  I want anyone who may be experiencing a similar situation to know that you are not alone.  Even though the fear of never having children can be overwhelming, and the disappointment of negative test after negative test can feel crushing, know that there is a reason for what you are going through.  It may not be made clear to you until much later, but it will.  Nothing much helps the pain inside, especially when everyone around you seems to be able to procreate at the drop of a hat.  However, try to remember when that happens that it is their time, and to be happy for them.  Your time will come, and it will be so amazing and so much more special than you could have ever dreamed.  You will also be able to cherish it more because of the time you have waited!  2.  I want to give credit to God for the miracle that is happening in my body as I type this.  You see, I believe He was waiting for us to turn our fertility struggle over completely to Him.  We had a hard time doing that.  We held on to our fear and uncertainty.   Until one night in July when Ben prayed over us.  It was one of the most genuine prayers I have ever heard, and we just cried and cried.  After that moment I didn't worry again about the fate of our family.  I just knew that God was in control.  He provided for us, and continues to provide every day.  For that, there are no words of gratitude grand enough. 

Thank you for letting me share my story with you.

- Lessa

A little history on us..

I figure it's only proper to start out a blog with a little background, especially since we are over 8-1/2 years into our marriage at this point!  I know I won't be able to go back and recap all the wonderful memories we've made over the past 8-1/2 years (although from time to time I am sure you'll get to read a 'throw back' post), so I figure I can give you as condensed version of the history of Ben and Lessa as I can.  Disclaimer:  THIS COULD GET A LITTLE LENGTHY!  :o)
Ben and I first met the summer of 1996.  I walked down the hill to my cousin Luke's house to go swimming.  He had a friend over and they were already in the pool.  I don't remember much about that first meeting except that I wore a tweety bird one piece swimsuit.  Cut me some slack, I was 12.  Ben can tell you all about the second time we met.  It was the next summer, 1997, at our church's Junior High summer camp.  He still tells me to this day how the first thing he noticed on my was my legs.  I guess I didn't get the memo to wear longer shorts to church camp.  Oops.  We became 'boyfriend and girlfriend' that summer via phone, with Luke as the moderator.  It was pretty cute, looking back on it.  We were a summer couple and broke up before school started back.  The next 3 years we remained close friends, and dated some.  Ben even took me out my first official date (insert 'awww' here).  The summer of 2000, we began to date again.  On July 30 of that year we were sitting in my driveway listening to the sounds of a summer night, and Creed's With Arms Wide Open, when Ben asked me to be his girlfriend.  That was right before my junior year and his senior year.  We have been together since!  He asked me to marry him on July 6, 2002.  His proposal still takes the cake for originality in my book (he had a slide of pictures of us displayed on the big screen at our local theater before a movie was supposed to start - took me totally by surprise, and was the sweetest thing EVER!).



Picture of the slide that was on the big screen :)

 We got married on June 14, 2003 in the back courtyard of an antebellum home in downtown Jackson.  Our ceremony was short and sweet since it decided to rain that afternoon, but it was everything I could have dreamed of (complete with a ceremony under a live oak-under a black and white golf umbrella to keep the rain off of us, and a horse drawn carriage ride). 



Our wedding day - June 14, 2003


Since our wedding, we have lived in a townhouse apartment, a duplex close to where I attended college, and finally our first little house in a quiet lake community.  I finished college with a degree in Interior Design (minor in German).  Ben graduated XRay school as a registered Radiologic Technologist, then went on to get certified in CT scans.  We both no longer work in those fields, but are very happy with our current careers.  
After being married this long, one would think that things sort of settle into a routine and I think to an extent they do.  But the past two years, I truly believe that God has begun to work diligently on us, working to show us His path and plan for our family and our future.  I feel that every day.  I am grateful that He chose us to be together, and that He chose us to walk a path that hasn't always been easy.  We are on a new path now.  And while the first part of our marriage was a starting point of our journey, I marvel and how incredible it is to have the opportunity to create a new path from here.  This is the beginning of our journey as a family of 3!

Cades Cove, TN - October 2011 (I was just over 10 weeks pregnant)

- Lessa