Silas Asher Baggott born June 11th at 5:26 am in South Africa - 6 lbs 13 oz 20 inches long

Okay so here is my birthing experience in Africa: sorry for it being so long : )

2 nights ago I woke up around... ? not real sure, anyways I woke up to some contractions. Since I have been experiencing contractions the whole pregnancy I didn't think - oyeah this is it so I just layed there thinking okay if they get harder i will wake spencer up. so after about an hour and after debating on waking him up spencer woke up to me tossing and turning and i said okay after the next big one i will decide if it was time or not. So this was about 2am... i think. the next one was harder so we called our missionary friend Maria and she came over. we got to the birthing clinic at about 3:45am. it was about a 25 minute drive (in the middle of the night).

the midwife was waiting there at the door and she showed us to our room. The room was great and ready for us. The bath had water in it and candles around the huge tub. The room was also dimly lit and very relaxing. So I sat on the bed and she put these electric thingys on my back for an electric massage when i had a contraction. It was only on there a bit since the contractions started to come closer and closer and Henny (the midwife) said okay time for the bath. Oyeah when I arrived at the clinic i was dilated to 8.

I got in the warm relaxing bath and chilled out.... until it started to come. O my - labor hurts!!!! It was too late for meds! although i had already decided against the epidural. so we tried the laughing gas but it really just made me feel like i couldn't breath with the mask on. it did not make me laugh lol plus i think the doula was new and not so great about giving it to me ... anyways back to the pain. It hurt! lol Spencer said during the really bad painful part i asked for an epidural and Henny said no. I said are you sure she said no you can do it and it is too late. and then a couple minutes later I said get me the epidural NOW. I really can't remember that part...lol I do remember pulling on her shirt and yelling. I never thought i was a yeller but I screamed. I was thinking during the screaming."Why am i screaming?" Owell i guess i am a screamer!

During the labor Henny did an awesome job talking me through it. She would say things like... April God designed your body to do this and your baby is not a big baby he is a 2.9 kilo baby... he is small. she was awesome!

Praise God it didn't last long and Silas was here. After we arrived at he clinic he was born 1 hour and 45 minutes later.

Spencer was instructed to take off his shirt and was able to hold Silas while I finished the labor and took a shower. Yes i took a shower right after. It was great! I remember with the other births just laying in the bed for a long time afterward and not ever get to see the baby until after they were cleaned and weighted etc. This birth was all about me and the baby. So cool! There is nothing quite like holding your baby in the tub and being the first one to touch, smell and hold your baby.
So after all the fun Silas started nursing and soon after we had our breakfast.
Later that day spencer left to pick up the kids (locked the keys in the car at the regional office) and came back to pick me up. We got home at about 9pm that night. Wow what a fast delivery!

Luke and Abby love Silas. Luke is really in love with him. He wants to look at him all the time and help with whatever. he also can't stop smiling at him. Okay so last night when we were having our family prayer time luke usually gives me a hug and kiss afterwards. Never on the lips. But last night he kissed me on the lips 2 times. It was the sweetest thing. Abby does love Silas but i think may be a little jealous at this point. Today she played outside all day. Luke was by my side.

Okay so here are a few things funny that the kids have said:
* Luke - I hope he isn't brown... this was said before Silas came. I think because we live in africa maybe he thought he would be african. : )
* Abby - first thing abby said was "aww i like him"
* Abby - his hand is the size of a potato chip
* luke - his pinky finger looks like a Cheeto

Okay now i am so tired i can't remember all the funny things they have said. Owell maybe later.

okay so gonna finish watching the USA vs. England game and then go to bed.

i love all yall and remember... God is good.... I praise him for little fingers and little toes! Kiss your babies tonight!
april

a yummy find!

so we found a few fun items yesterday. Dr. Pepper, Root beer, liquorish straws, hubba bubba gum, mounds and a couple of other things. the kids were as excited as I was... okay maybe not : )
today we are off to the Doctor. humm I wonder what he will say????
Right now I am sitting in a conference that our regional SDMI director for Africa is holding for our countries. I am actually at our house in South Africa. Spencer is at the regional office with the speaker. Right now we have people attending live via the internet in Reunion, Madagascar, Rwanda, Burundi, DR of Congo, Zambia and Congo Brazzaville. Isn't technology awesome! God is good.
Okay so i think my kids are great. I know everyone probably thinks that but they really are good. they just offered the gardener for the compound water since he was mowing the grass. I love how willing they are to serve others. i just hope they are willing to help with the baby comes!!! lol - just kidding i know they will be great helpers.
okay all for now.
i love all yall and remember.... drink 8 glasses of water everyday!

got flood insurance?

I can't believe that in a few weeks we will be starting over. Seriously, Luke and Abby can now take adult medicine (for the most part), bath themselves, get their own drink from the fridge and many other things. Now we will be back to diapers, feeding in the middle of the night and all those other things that require our full attention. Praise God for his blessings. Although we are like starting over we are very thankful to be able to expand our family. We are still working on the name however. You can email any suggestions :) We are 99.9% sure on the first name but still working on the middle.
Anyways - we are living out of 4 suitcases which is very different than living with a house full of furniture and nick nacks. Sometimes it is easier to just live simpler but i do miss some things. It is amazing though all the things back in Rwanda that i have forgotten about. Even Luke and Abby are doing good with the little toys they have here. Although I do allow them to get the happy meals at McDOnalds here just so they can have a junk toy to play with during the day.
The weather here is starting to get cool. Well... haha at least spencer says it is. I am 8 months pregnant and am very hot. Sometimes i have to step outside to cool down. lol
Oyeah did i tell you about the very cool swatch i got for my birthday? It is turquoise! love it... do you remember swatches? who ever you are! lol
okay i know this blog isn't so exciting... but i am trying to do something to not go crazy. I am having too many contractions to be doing anything so I am bored!!!
okay love all yall and remember.... get flood insurance (especially if you live by a river in TN)

april

we are in South Africa.... for now!

So today I noticed it has been 2 months since my last blog. oooops my bad : )
okay i will try to catch you up in just a couple of paragraphs. I am sitting upstairs in our flat in South Africa. We arrived about a month ago because I was experiencing some pregnancy issues that we thought would be best treated here. After a visit to the Rwanda hospital we were on the next plane here. God was so good to get us all on the place together.
The pregnancy is going well. We are excited about the place where we will deliver and as of today I am 33 weeks and 5 days pregnant. If we can just hold out until 36 1/2 weeks our midwife can deliver. Luke and Abby were both born at or around 36 1/2 weeks. The health care is great here and we have enjoyed being in a place where there are malls and fast food! good thing i am pregnant... i can eat all kinds of stuff : )
with all that said I am starting to miss home... Rwanda! I have always wondered what it would be like to leave here but now that i am for a few months I am missing the things that seemed challenging before. I miss going to the market or small stores. I miss everything being homemade and I especially miss my kitchen aid mixer!!! I miss our guard and his family and i miss every window in the house open.
God has been so good to us over the past few years. He has given us children that love changes and that are very flexible. luke and Abby are doing so good. I pray that they will continue to grow in the Lord and continue to be flexible. actually i'm not sure if they realize how BLESSED they are. they are experiencing life that most kids will never experience. God is good and we feel blessed to be missionaries for HIM!
our work continues here in south africa. since spencers job is mainly in front of the computer he is able to continue here. my job (other than being a mom) is going well. I am working of developing resources for our children's departments across the field.
not sure if all of you readers know or not but our home assignment is coming up. We should be home in Jan. through April ahhh it will be cold i am sure.
okay i will try not to wait too long before i post again... but can't promise anything, i am about to have a baby!!!! lol

okay i love all yall and remember... mothers day is sunday.... if you live close to your mother love on her.... you are blessed to be near her! i would love to take my mom out for lunch. boohoo

an almost fire

I almost caught my new maternity dress on fire. yesterday at the Chinese restaurant. i was in the bathroom and there was no power. So they had a small candle to use. The room was really small and dark and i had to carry it with me into the stall. I sat in on the ground and there almost went my dress. Luckily the dress just swooped over the fire and all was good. I would have been pretty upset if it would have caught on fire. I love this new dress : )

Speaking of maternity clothes. i have been able to find 2 pair of pants, 2 pair of jeans and 1 pair of shorts at the local market. Sooooo excited! I can now feel comfortable in clothes. I am 24 weeks today. Larry (not really his name) is getting big and I can feel him all the time. I still can't believe how hard it has been to find a name. Girl names are so much easier for me to decide on. Okay so here are some names we are thinking about.
Silas, Seth, Elijah, Ezekiel, Titus, Asher, Judah and everyday we think of another. What do you think?

Things have been really busy here. New volunteers that moved in next door, Spencer finishing up a demanding class with NNU, homeschooling, first theological class taught via the internet and keeping up with every day life.

I have begun the process of trying to find and/or create Sunday school/discipleship materials for our children on the field. There are 4 main languages that these materials need to be in so it is a challenge. But God is good!

There is a Sara Groves concert this friday night Our house help is staying late so spencer and i can go. it will be a fun time.

Okay all for now, i know this one wasn't so exciting... hey there's always tomorrow :)
I love all ya'll and remember..................when you know it is going to rain while you are sleeping, go ahead and lay out the towels!

April

got a name?

For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever." 1 Peter 1:23-25 (NIV)
Today i read this and began to Praise God that he does stand forever and hasn't failed me!. Even though i may get discouraged from this world I can always stand on the word. Not saying it is always easy but when you actually live in the spirit life is just better!

Today i woke up to the kids coming in my room. Usually on school days i have to get them out of bed. Someone must be praying for me. The reason i say this is because spencer is out of town and you know the joys of getting the kids ready for school by yourself. Not exactly fun. So we all got ready and it wasn't bad at all. Although I did give in to giving Luke frosted mini-wheats. We were waiting to open this box of cereal until we finish at least one of the other open boxes. Ha o-well the things we do for a little peace and not hearing the boohooing from kids. lol

Spencer has the truck so I had to call James the taxi. he actually got here a little early so i was pleased. So today i need to clean my house, do laundry and take a nap.lol i love the excuses of being pregnant.

So the other day we finally got our christmas packages in the mail. After a whole 2 months that it took. They arrived in fairly good shape. After getting the ants off of my laffy taffy and scrapping them off of my Velveeta cheese life was good. Yes i still kept the cheese and candy - I figured hey - ants can't be that bad, i once ate a chocolate covered ant and survived and cheese is way more important than chocolate. :)

Spencer is with the General Superintendent for the Church of the Nazarene - Dr.Graves. We ate a late dinner with them the other night and really enjoyed being with them. Him and his wife are here for a conference with our field. That is where spencer is today and yesterday and tomorrow.

Okay all for now I am online about to watch the conference.
Love all yall and remember... still looking for that one of a kind, cool name for our baby boy! : )

thanks for bringing fruit roll-ups Blake and Lindsey!

So it is raining cats and dogs here... well maybe monkeys and giraffes. Seriously it is raining here like never before... or at least we have never seen it rain like this before. We have a million leaks in our house. Okay okay maybe about 20 or so.
Okay so I got the weather conversation out of the way.

Tomorrow we go for our ultrasound to measure the baby and ya know see what we are having. A boy or girl that is :) I am just about 19 weeks along. I am beginning to start to feel the baby although not very strong yet.
We will have to taxi there because our truck is in the hospital... i mean shop. Not sure exactly when we will get it back. Hopefully Monday or Tuesday. Not fun being without wheels. But i guess i am getting more exercise this way.

Life here seems to be getting easier. It is nice to have new missionaries on the compound with us. As i think back on how far we have come I give all the Praise to God. Moving and transitioning life into yet another culture is... well hard to explain. Life is different but also the same. I serve the same God in every culture. Although the worship maybe different in our churches I serve the same One and only God.
Continue to be on this journey with us. Be in prayer for us and with us. To God be the Glory!

Okay love all yall and I do promise to get back into blogging more often. Really I do!
and remember...... make sure you take all the paper off the fruit roll-up before you start eating the yummy part.... the plastic isn't so yummy.

april