Tate Christopher

Cheerful carrier of Christ. Tate Christopher. Honestly I just had to look up what his name meant. We chose family names for our guy. But I wanted to know what his name meant, and I can only hope and pray that Tate is cheerful and takes Christ with him wherever he goes.

Now, it has been years since I blogged, and honestly I think this post is more for my sake than anyone else's. I want, I need to write out Tate's story and I keep thinking I will get a journal to do so, but here we are 2 months pp and no journal has been started. So here is Tate's story, from his older sibling I can't wait to meet to when we got to bring our sweet rainbow baby home.

Christmas 2016 we traveled to Texas after moving from Florida to South Carolina. We were excited to be back home for many reasons, but the big one was that we were telling our family we were expecting! I was 8 weeks along and everyone was so excited! We made them promise to keep it a secret until we announced it once I had made it through the first trimester. Well they never got to share that secret. January 13th I learned our sweet babe no longer had a heartbeat. We were broken. We clung to each other and to God. I knew God had spoken the promise of motherhood over me and it was all I could do to cling to that and trust.

Then comes summer. Summer 2017 was full of excitement and was looking like it would be a breath of fresh air. Gabe would be graduating from the first part of school and all of our family was coming to celebrate! Plus we were pregnant again...or so we thought. I had gotten multiple positive pregnancy tests, missed a period and was feeling rough. I had scheduled my first appointment for right after everyone left as I would hit 8 weeks when they were in town. But then we were in downtown Charleston exploring and I started bleeding. I went home to put my feet up and rest and pray that we weren't losing this baby. I went to my doctors appointment the day after everyone left and while I got another positive pregnancy test there, there was no proof of life on the ultrasound. Nothing that showed there was ever a baby. So was there a baby in one of my tubes or was this a chemical pregnancy? Lots of blood work happened over the next 2 weeks and a couple more ultrasounds. It was determined that it was a chemical pregnancy and I was never actually pregnant. I didn't know how to feel. Thankful that we didn't lose another baby or sad because we weren't pregnant. It just seemed like this year was against us but we kept believing that we would be blessed with a sweet babe in God's timing.

Fall arrived and my Nannie was spending her time back and forth between her apartment and the hospital. It seemed like things would get bad and then she would bounce back, but come October she wasn't bouncing back and she ended up being put on hospice. So I flew to Texas. The thing is, I was pregnant, and struggling with morning sickness. With our pregnancy history Gabe and I had decided that we weren't telling anyone we were expecting until I got through the first trimester. However I was only about 9 weeks along and there was no way I could hide how I felt when I would be sharing a room with my mom. Thankfully I was able to get some meds to help some, but we decided that since my mom was going to find out, Gabe's mom should also be in on the secret. Nannie passed away at the beginning of November and my heart broke. She was the grandparent I was the closest to, and I had so looked forward to introducing my baby to her, but that just wasn't going to happen this side of heaven. I'm so thankful Tate was sticking around because I needed a bright spot going into the holiday season. We told the rest of our families on Christmas that we were expecting a summer babe, and then announced it to the world on New Years. Our secret was out and we couldn't have been more excited!

My sneaky announcement post picture :)

Pregnancy with Tate had a rough start with morning sickness, which for me was really at night, that lasted for roughly 16 weeks. Then we had a little bit of just enjoying being pregnant, but then things got crazy. We were moving across the country, but we didn't have an exact date! Talk about stress. Thankfully my mom was able to help us move, so around 34 weeks along we made the trek from Charleston to Bremerton. With help from my mom we got almost completely settled in pretty quick and then it was time to meet my new OB and do last minute prep before Tate arrived. Tate's due date of June 18th came and went...with no signs of his arrival. He was perfectly content where he was. I was trying everything to get him to come but nothing. So we scheduled an induction, and then things started happening. It was like Tate was making sure we fully realized he was in charge.

Friday morning (June 22nd) I woke up and thought my water broke, but wasn't feeling any contractions. Gabe was only scheduled for a half day so we decided he should go in and then I would get ready to head to the hospital and we would go when he got back. We get to the hospital around 1pm and I was just barely dilated and my water had not broken. So we got sent home. Pretty soon after we got home I started feeling contractions, so Gabe started timing them. They were all in my back and it was rough from the beginning. I bounced on the ball, took a bath, and thought I would lay down and try to get some sleep. But my contractions were getting closer together and more painful, and standing was becoming the only comfortable position to be in. It was around 10pm that we decided to head into the hospital. My contractions were consistently getting closer and closer together and the pain was quickly escalating. The ride to the hospital was ROUGH. Sitting through contractions was not fun. At all. When we got to the hospital, I was only about a 2, but I was in so much pain they gave me some meds and decided to see where I was in an hour. Well an hour later I was at a 4 so they admitted me. Thank goodness because I was NOT getting back in the car and going home.

So early Saturday morning (June 23rd) we were checked into the room where we would eventually welcome Tate into the world. It was finally here! I had really wanted to labor naturally as long as possible, but those back contractions were killing me and rest wasn't really happening. So when I was offered an epidural I took it, hoping I could somehow get some rest before our world changed forever. Saturday was a complete blur. Every time the nurse or doctor came in something else was wrong with me. I ended up being diagnosed with pre-eclampsia and I spiked a fever. So my plan of giving birth as naturally as possible, quickly changed to having an IV rack full of meds. All those meds were interacting and causing my labor to be all over the place but before I knew it it was time to push. Tate had been measuring ahead essentially the entire time, plus he was 5 days overdue, so I knew he wasn't going to be a small baby. I pushed for 2 hours and he was not coming out. Since it was the weekend I had the on call OB, who of course was not mine. BUT I am so thankful I had Dr Christen for Tate's birth because he wanted to do everything we could to avoid a cesarian. (Not that my OB wouldn't have done the same, but according to the nurses Dr. Christen was the best for my case.) We tried the vacuum and Tate didn't budge. So he told me Tate was in the textbook perfect position for forceps and within the first 2 seconds he would know if Tate would come or if I would have to have a cesarian. Thankfully the forceps would work, unfortunately my contractions just stopped. WHAT. THE. HECK. The nurses were feeling my stomach to help determine when a contraction was happening and NOTHING. So it was me and Dr. Christen and what felt like minutes later Tate was born! 5:26 pm on June 23rd our lives changed forever.

Because of all the meds I was on we knew Tate was going to have to be observed for a bit after birth, but because he was stuck in the birth canal for apparently only 19 seconds (felt WAYYYY longer to me) he was whisked away immediately. He was not moving his left arm at all, if the nurse picked it up it just fell limp. They also put a mask on him that provided pressure to help clear his lungs. I barely got to see him, and I definitely didn't get touch him before they took him from the room. Thankfully Gabe got to go and be with him. Dr. Christen and my nurse (who I feel AWFUL that I cannot remember her name because she was amazing) were doing all kinds of things to distract and assure me that Tate was fine. We all guessed on his size and the nurse was spot on for his weight and Dr. Christen was the closest on length. Before I knew it Tate was being wheeled back in and handed to me. He was perfect. 10 pounds 22.5 inches long, and his left arm was totally fine. I nursed him and then it was time to move to the recovery room. We had to stay an extra day because of my meds but it worked out well because our friends Cardin and Christina were up in the area visiting and they got to be the first to meet Tate! We were discharged Monday late afternoon and were sent on our way, ready or not, with our rainbow baby.

Y'all I started writing this post when Tate was 2 months...he is 5 almost 6 months. If that isn't proof of how crazy life with a newborn is, than I don't know what is! It's not perfect, but its here for me to remember how faithful God is and how crazy Tate's arrival was. So here we are, almost halfway through the first year with our babe and I am FINALLY getting this posted.