Welcome Emma!

This post is long overdue...

On August 3rd sweet Emma Grace Swain was born weighing 4 pounds 3 ounces and 18 inches long. We found out when we went in for an appointment with the doctor when I was 36 weeks that I would be induced the following Monday night because Emma wasn't getting what she needed because the placenta was starting to break down. We went in Monday night to be induced and after being in labor most of the day Tuesday, my blood platelet counts kept getting lower and lower and my body was not progressing, so the doctor decided it would be best to get Emma out right away. So, Tuesday, August 3rd, at 5:43 pm Emma was born.
Because she was 3 weeks early and small due to the issue with the placenta, she had to go straight to the NICU. It was really difficult not having her with us, but she received really great care in the hospital. I was discharged on Saturday night and we couldn't bring Emma home until Tuesday, but it was so wonderful to have her home after only one week in the NICU. We just praise God for Emma doing so well that she could come home when she only weighed 3 pounds 15 ounces!

Here are pictures of her in the NICU





Here is a picture of one of her first smiles around 8 weeks

36 weeks

I am 36 weeks along and getting very close to being considered full term! At my 34 week appointment I was measuring small again and it was somewhat concerning, so they scheduled me for an ultrasound a few days later. My mom was able to come down for the afternoon (it was the first time she had ever seen an ultrasound because they didn't do them when I was born), so she and Aaron both came with me to the ultrasound. They checked Emma all over and checked out her organs, etc.; and thankfully everything looks healthy, she is just small. So, they sent us to a maternal fetal specialist for them to check and see if they could verify the same thing. After ultrasounds at both places they have determined that everything looks healthy – she is just very small. This could be because she is just a small baby or it could be because the placenta is not working properly and she is not getting everything she needs. So, all this means is that they will be monitoring me at least once a week if not more, and if they see that it is an issue with the placenta they will induce early so that she can come out and get the nourishment she needs. They have already told me they will typically induce by 39-40 weeks (before August 24 because I have the gestational diabetes, but this could mean even sooner. As best they can tell by ultrasound, she is right around 4 pounds, and an average size baby would be between 5 and 6 pounds by now.

We would appreciate it if you would pray for us. We are so grateful that I am already 36 weeks along, so even if she comes sometime soon she will hopefully be close to full term and healthy; but, because she is so small and you can only tell so much from the ultrasound she could be in the NICU for a while too. Please pray for her growth and development over the next several weeks!

On another note - we have almost everything we need for Emma's arrival, we are just waiting for the furniture to arrive. I have been working on some nursery projects, so I will hopefully put up pictures soon.
My next appointment is Friday, so I will post an update when we find out how she is doing this week. Thanks for your prayers!

35/35 and a new cousin!

Today I am 35 weeks pregnant with 35 days (or less) to go! According to babycenter.com Emma is now as hefty as a honeydew melon at 5 1/4 pounds, doesn't have much room to maneuver in my belly. (Length: more than 18 inches, head to heel.)
At my 34 week appointment last week everything was looking great except that my belly is measuring small, so I will have an ultrasound tomorrow so we can check and make sure everything is okay - so please be praying that she is healthy and developing like she should!
Next week will be my 36week appointment and I will start to go every week, which makes everything seem really close!

In other news, Aaron's sister Carmen and her husband Carlos welcomed their baby girl, Chloe, into the world this weekend. Everyone seems to be doing well and we are thrilled that Emma is going to have a cousin close by and close in age to play with.

32 Weeks!

Today I had my 32 week appointment and everything is going well. What a blessing these last two months have been without sickness and with good reports from from my appointments.

According to babycenter.com: Emma probably "weighs as much as a large jicama -- about 3 3/4 pounds. (Length: about 16 3/4 inches, head to heel.) You're gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, she'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up in preparation for birth."

The big news (at least news to me) is that Emma will be arriving on or before her due date. My sister-in-law is being induced early because she has gestational diabetes and since I have it too I thought I would check with the doctor to see if they typically induce women with GD early. Well, sure enough, they will not allow me to go over my due date so this means baby Emma will be here in 7.5 weeks or less - WOW! It really hit me today how soon that is and I am getting more and more nervous and excited. Please continue to pray for Emma, Aaron, and myself as we are getting ready not only for labor and delivery, but also for the adjustment that is going to come with having a baby.

This week our church has been having Vacation Bible School. I have been able to help out with snacks and nursery and Aaron has been helping teach the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. It has been wonderful to see so many children coming and I am so grateful that our teachers have been faithful to teach them the gospel. We have been meeting outside at the new location in downtown Wake Forest (hopefully we will start having our regular meetings there at the end of August when all of the construction is finished), and we have had lots of kids from the community coming out too. Tonight is the last night and we will having a block party for all of the kids and their parents. As Aaron has said, hopefully this week has been a small taste or what God has in store for our church when we move to Wake Forest!

Next week Aaron is taking our youth to Creed Camp! This is the first year I won't be able to go so I am a little sad about that, but we have some awesome chaperons coming along and I know that the kids will have a great week with them. Please pray for the churches as they are traveling back and forth this week, for the chaperons as they look for opportunities to share the gospel, for the youth as they will be hearing the gospel, and that God would be glorified through what takes place this next week. Aaron will be preaching to the students on Tuesday night too, so please pray for that as well!

Oh, and please pray that Emma will not try to make an early appearance while Daddy is out of town! :o)

2 months from today!!

Today is June 24th, and it really hit me today that Emma's due date is exactly 2 months from today!!! Although we are preparing for her as best we can, I am starting to feel very overwhelmed at the list of things we have yet to do before she comes. I started to include a list of a few of the things we have left to do to prepare for Emma's arrival and just listing them made me a little stressed out, ha! So... I decide not to include that here, but I do plan on knocking out several of those items this weekend. In the meantime, my goal is to not get caught up in the stress of how overwhelming this time can be, and instead, concentrate on enjoying this time with my husband and our growing baby inside my belly, to pray diligently for her as she grows and develops, and most of all to thank God for blessing us with this child!

As you can see in the picture, at 31 weeks Emma should be weighing about as much as 4 navel oranges and is 16 inches long - amazing!
We also had our second and final baby shower this weekend with my family in Charlotte and were incredibly blessed by everyone's generosity!! I do not have any picture because they are on my mom's camera, but here are a few big items that we received:



We really received so many wonderful gifts and I cannot say thank you enough to my family for everything and for my aunt Betty and cousin Lesley for hosting - THANK YOU!!

30 Weeks

According to babycenter.com Emma rivals a good-size cabbage in weight, tipping the scales this week at 3 pounds. (Length: about 15 3/4 inches, head to heel.) This means just 10 more weeks (give or take) until her arrival!! We had a hospital tour last night, so we now know where to park and are a little more familiar with the hospital and what will go on during our stay. We have a baby shower in Charlotte this weekend and look forward to visiting with family there. Please continue to pray for safe labor and delivery and a healthy baby!

Don't Waste Your Summer...Read a book!

Each Summer, I (Aaron) tell the students in our church, "Don't Waste your Summer....Read a book!" It is amazing how many students have never read a book outside of their assigned reading at school. Even worse, without prompting, students might never read a book about Jesus, the gospel, or Bible doctrine. So each summer at Grace Baptist, the students are encouraged (read: required) to read at least one good Christian book. My hope is that they would 1) come to believe the gospel, repent of their sins, and trust in Christ, and 2) come to love reading about the gospel and about Jesus.

I thought it might be fun to share with you what books I will be reading this summer.

1. Dear Timothy: Letters on Pastoral Ministry. by Tom Ascol + others.

2. Evangelism Handbook. by Alvin Reid.

3. The Master Plan of Evangelism. by Robert Coleman.

4. God's Big Picture: Tracing the Storyline of the Bible by Vaughan Roberts.

5. Don't Make Me Count to Three: A Mom's Look at Heart-Oriented Discipline (This is a good book for Fathers, too) by Ginger Plowman.

6. Stop Dating the Church: Fall in Love with the Family of God. by Joshua Harris.

7. What is the Gospel? by Greg Gilbert.

As I read these books this summer I might post updates and some pertinent quotes or summaries. For those of you looking for a good book to read, I would recommend #4, #6, and #7 for starters.

Wake Forest Baby Shower

This Saturday the ladies from my small group at church hosted Emma's first baby shower. We were so blessed by the generosity of all of the ladies that came!!! Thank you all so much for everything and a special thank you to the ladies in our LifeGroup that did such a wonderful job of hosting - we are beyond grateful! I haven't had a chance to upload my photos, so these are a few that Caroline took.
We received several hand-made gifts like the one above. Caroline used her artistic skills to make Emma this beautiful name picture. We also received a hand-made diaper bag from Mrs. Ruth and Mary made us several burp cloths and a blanket as well. Thanks all you crafty ladies for using your talents to bless us in this way. We received lots of cute clothes for Emma and many other things we needed as well.
This dress is one of Tori's dresses that she picked out especially for baby Emma - too sweet!
And here is a picture of myself with all of the gifts we received. Thank you ladies again for blessing Aaron, Emma, and myself with these wonderful gifts - we are so very grateful!
I hope that I can upload a few photos soon to show you the beautiful spread of food and decorations and some of the ladies at the shower as well. I hate that I did not get a picture with the hostesses, but I want to especially thank Jenny and Nicole for all the planning that you did even down to the smallest details - everything was wonderful, and Dawn and Caroline for everything you did to help with the shower as well.
My mom was also in town for the shower and Saturday night she helped to get all of Emma's clothes, blankets, sheets, etc. washed - so I am very thankful for that as well.

On the baby front - I will be 30 weeks officially tomorrow, we have a tour of the hospital tomorrow night, a doctor's appointment on Friday, and I can no longer see my feet when looking straight down,ha!

Show Us Your Life - China Patterns

This week on Kelly's Korner people are posting their favorite china patterns and dishes. Aaron and I decided before we were married that we wanted more everyday-use dishes and decided not to pick out china. My favorite dishes that we have are these white square dishes below. They are so great because they match anything and food always looks so good displayed on them. I also have some platters I use in this white square look and they are fun because you can stack them by turning a bowl upside-down. I secretly feel like I am on Iron Chef America when I am using these dishes because I love to try and make the plating look so fun and fancy - HA!

The other set of dishes we have is like the set below but with more of a brown color on the inside instead of gray. They are very sturdy and I really enjoy using them. They are very deep and can hold lots of food, but because they are so deep sometimes the food will slide to the center.

Finally, I don't have the set below because it was not out when we registered, but I just love the pattern. I usually prefer to eat on solid colored dishes, but I think these are so fun and would love to have a small set of these some day.

29 Weeks

According to babycenter.com: "Your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 pounds (like a butternut squash) and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel. Her muscles and lungs are continuing to mature, and her head is growing bigger to make room for her developing brain. "

There isn't a lot of news this week, but as far as we can tell baby Emma is doing great. She continues to kick a lot and it has gotten so hard that other people can see it when she is really active. We went to Burgaw this weekend to visit with some of Aaron's family and had a great time! I haven't been able to travel since December when I started having really bad sickness, so it was great to be able to take a quick trip and see some family since we may not get to until after Emma's arrival. Some of the highlights of the trip were visiting with family, eating at grandma's seafood restaurant (check out D&B Seafood if you are traveling through Burgaw), getting some farm fresh blueberries, and worshiping with Aaron's home church, Forest Hills Baptist Church, on Sunday morning. We also received some baby gifts from Aaron's dad and Nellie, and his sister Kim - thank you all so much! We are so grateful for family and are continually encouraged by their support.

28 Weeks

As of Tuesday I am 28 weeks pregnant and officially in my third trimester! According to babycenter.com our baby is equal in weight to a Chinese cabbage -- about 2 1/4 pounds. (Length: almost 15 inches, from head to heel.) We had our 28 week appointment today and everything is looking good. Emma's heart rate was good, in the 140's, and they said my belly measured just right as well. We are so grateful for such a blessing and ask for your continued prayers that the rest of this pregnancy will go well.
Since Aaron had a few days last week before he started his new job, he was able to clean and touch-up the paint in the nursery. Other than a small bookshelf we set up and a glider, the nursery is still pretty bare; but, the furniture should arrive in the next few weeks and we have some showers coming up, so hopefully Emma's room will start to fill up in the coming weeks.

27 weeks

Yesterday marks the beginning of pregnancy week 27! So far I am continuing to feel much better as long as I stay on my nausea medication. The last two weeks have been so fun for us because we can now see Emma moving in my belly. Before now we could just feel the kicks with our hands, but if I am laying still at night you can see her moving around, or as we like to think giving us high-fives.
We have continued to see God provide for our growing family in the last two weeks as well. We have been praying that Aaron would be able to leave his part-time job delivering pizza and find something full-time. Just last week he was offered a job doing security/front desk work several nights a week. We are beyond thrilled because this will not only provide for our family, but he should be able to use some of the time to get work done for school and church as well. Of course there will be some adjustment with working a job at night, but we are thankful that we can adjust to this schedule before Emma's arrival.
Next week will be my 28 week appointment, so we are looking forward to hearing little Emma's heartbeat and seeing if my belly is continuing to grow at a good rate.
We do covet your prayers for a healthy baby and a healthy rest of this pregnancy along with easing my fears about labor and delivery!!

And to at least include one picture, we got to finally have dinner with Brian and Heather Fleming and their son Isaiah on Monday night and since I forgot my camera I am posting a picture from their blog to show you how cute this little boy is! Emma and I look forward to many play-dates with you guys in the future!

Show Us Your Life - Favorite Children's Books

Over at Kelly's Korner, she often does a Show Us Your Life post about different things that people can include their blogs in and I thought I would participate this time. This Show Us Your Life post is about your favorite books, or children's books. Since we are currently preparing for our first child and my husband is very passionate about starting Emma off with a great library, I thought I would include some children's books that we have bought or would like to get for her.

The Jesus Storybook Bible is one of the best children's Bibles out there for younger children. We have already started reading this book to Emma at night and love the way each story points to Jesus. I would highly recommend this book.

The Big Picture Story Bible is another great children's Bible that we are still hoping to get. This one also does a great job of showing how unified the Old and New Testament in pointing to Christ and the Gospel.
We already have Big Truths for Little Kids as well. This is basically a book of catechisms for children that uses short stories to teach them biblical truths.
R.C Sproul writes some great children's books and we are hoping to get some of these for Emma's little library soon.
And of course, I had to include one of my favorite books from childhood, Anne of Green Gables. I can't wait until Emma is old enough for us to read through these books together.


These are just a few of the many books we have or would like to get for Emma. We are looking forward to reading a lot of books with her and hope that she loves reading as much as we do (especially Aaron)!

Week 25

This week will mark week 25 for baby Emma and during this 6th month she will be about the size of the eggplant above, at least that's what the Bump.com says. Here are a few things the Bump says that we can look forward to this month:

"Let your spouse put an ear to your belly -- he might be able to pick up baby's heartbeat (no stethoscope required). Inside the womb, the formation of tiny capillaries is giving baby a healthy pink glow. Baby's also soaking up your antibodies, getting the immune system ready for life outside the womb. Eyes are forming, and baby will soon perfect the blink -- perfect for batting those freshly grown lashes."

Every time I read about how Emma is growing and developing each week it makes me so amazed at the work of our Creator and the way he forms us in the womb!!

My aunt Jane ordered our crib, mattress, and dresser this weekend, which we anxiously await the arrival of around mid-July. Aaron and I have cleared out the spare room and will hopefully be getting it cleaned up in the next week or so to begin setting up the nursery, and we also finished (we think) registering for what we need at Target. Hopefully this week I will begin some projects for the nursery and I will post pictures when they are complete!

Chapel @ SEBTS

Aaron was selected to preach in chapel at Southeastern for student preaching week. This is an honor because only a few students are asked to submit a tape/link of a sermon and only two are selected to preach in chapel. He preached on Tuesday out of Galatians 6:1-5, and I think God was able to use him in a mighty way. If you want to listen to it check out this link:
SEBTS Chapel and scroll down to Tuesday, May 4th to download or listen to it.

24 Weeks

We had our 24 week appointment today and everything looks great! This is such a gift from God because, as you may not know, from the time I was about 8 weeks pregnant onward I have had severe sickness and had to get several IVs at the doctor's office and the hospital due to dehydration. In the last 2-3 weeks I have finally started feeling better and been able to do more things. But most of all we are praising God that baby Emma had a strong heartbeat and seems to be a healthy baby!!!

This month has been great because we found out we were having a girl and were able to see her with an ultrasound, Aaron and I have both been able to feel her kicks, and we are finally starting to clear out the office/spare room and turn it into a nursery!!
Since I don't have any cute belly pictures to post, I thought I would post some pictures of what we have planned for the nursery

Since we can't paint we're considering getting some removable wall decals such as these dots and putting them around the room or possibly a tree.


This is a picture from www.kellyskornerblog.com. I love reading her blog and this painting is in her little girl's nursery and I absolutely love it. I have asked my friend Caroline to help me paint something similar to this, so I will post a picture when that project is done.

This is the bedding we have registered for at Target. It was affordable and really cute, plus tulips are my favorite flower - so hopefully Emma will love them too.

And finally, this is most likely the crib we will have. My aunt Jane has graciously offered to provide for us a crib, a changing table, and a mattress and we are O-So-Thankful! This has been our favorite crib and we hope to order it soon!!

Our family is growing... by 2 feet!

This announcement is long overdue, so i thought it was definitely time to start updating the blog again. For those of you that don't know, Aaron and I are having a baby!!! We found out at the beginning of December and were able to tell our immediate family during our visits home at Christmas. Of course we gave them a small gift to open of either UNC booties or socks to share the news (our little one will definitely be raised to be a Carolina fan)! On April 8th we went in for an ultrasound and found out we are having a GIRL and we couldn't be happier.
When we were choosing names we kept having trouble agreeing on boy names, but when we talked about names or a girl there was only one name that we really loved. With that being said, our little girl's name is

Emma Grace Swain

Emma is due to arrive at the end of August, so we are busy trying our best to prepare for her arrival. We are praising God for blessing us with this child and would greatly appreciate your prayers for Emma as she continues to grow and for Aaron and I as we know so little about how to raise her. We are truly blessed with family members, church family, and friends that have already come along side of us during this time through their prayers and generosity. But most of all we are grateful for a faithful God that has created Emma and pray that He will be glorified.

For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.Wonderful are Your works Lord, and my soul knows it very well. -- Psalm 139:13-14