Happy Birthday to our oldest caddie!

Today we are celebrating the birthday of our oldest caddie.  Jacob is turning 14!.  It doesn't seem possible that my baby who was 2 months early and entered this world so quickly is now a young man!  He is such a helpful, smart and funny guy, that we have enjoyed watching grow.  Birthdays at the Clubbhouse are not too fancy, but are special.  Jacob's birth was a surprise in so many ways.  First of all we were "not ready" to start having children when we found out that he was on his way.  Obviously, God's plan was a little different than ours.  Anyhow, we moved into our home in Oct and Jacob was due in Jan.  We had plenty of time, right?  Well, I sat in the waiting room of the doctor's office for the second time that Thanksgiving week. The first was my regular check up, the second was to check things out.  I had a feeling when I went into the Dr on Tues that there was something not right.  God gives us these mothers instincts for a reason.  We should always listen to them.  The doctor came in to the room and hooked me up to a monitor where I sat with this belt around my belly and a jeopardy style beeper button in my hand.  My instructions were to push the button when I felt Jacob kick.  I sat there for 2.5 hours.  When the Dr came back he noticed that Jacob's heart beat was dropping periodically. 
     With this drop in heartbeat he sent me across the street for a stress test at the hospital.  They were going to give me pitocin to induce a contraction or two and see how Jacob responded.  Of course I called Joe who happen to be off work that week.  He was at home and came right away (we lived 45 minutes away from the hospital).  When Joe walked in I was hooked up with an IV and was getting ready for my first very small dose of pitocin. I was terrified that this would put me into labor, even though the Dr said that it wouldn't be enough to induce labor.  We waited, and waited and after about 5 hours I hadn't had one contraction.  Not one!.  So the doctor said that we should do a sonogram.
  I was so worried that there was something wrong with Jacob.  Joe was by my side as we watched the sonogram.  We saw the little heartbeat and I felt relieved, however I didn't know what was going on.  The Dr said that I was out of fluid.  He said that Jacob had to be born that night because it wasn't safe for him to stay with no fluid.  I was immediately put into panic mode.  It was too early, we hadn't done our Lamaze classes.  How long would it take? Did I want the drugs?  There were a lot of thought going thru our minds as anyone can expect.
  Little did we know that Jacob would be born a few hours later.  It was 4:53am on Thanksgiving Day that Jacob Robert came into the world at 4 lbs 12 oz and 19 inches long. I didn't have any drugs either!  He was so tiny, but he was our miracle, our gift from God.  I don't need to tell you how precious babies are...However when you have your little one bundled in your arms, it is nothing short of a miracle from God.
  So tonight we celebrated Jacob's birthday with his meal of choice.  Bacon wrapped steaks, broccoli and cheese and baked potatoes.  Topped off with an ice cream cake!  That is how we do birthday's on the farm.  You get to have your favorite dinner and your choice of cake.  What a perfect day with family. Happy Birthday to our little sweat pea!

                                                                     Blessings from the Clubbfarm!

Caddie #4 Update

     Well, I do have an update on our youngest caddie. I am happy to report that the infections disease doctor that our pediatrician referred us to has found.....NOTHING wrong.  Now, don't get me wrong, I am so excited that he didn't find anything seriously wrong!  Thank You Jesus!.  I do however have alot of unexplained questions.  The first of them being, Why does she still have a fever?  She has had a fever for a month!  Now her fever is not as high as it was in the beginning of 104.8, however it has a pretty big range of 99.8-102.    He said that she is not contagious unless she developes other symptoms and is no more seceptible than the others.  So with that info I am praising God that there is no bad news.  I am praying that her fever does go away and leave her alone soon.  The specialist does want us to keep a fever log and if things don't resolve them in 2 months I am to bring her back.  I think that is a little crazy, but I completely understand that they can't treat something they can't find.  They have cultured and tested her enough as far as we are concerned.  So I am logging her fever and planning on going back in Jan.!

                                                                    Blessings from the Clubb Farm!

Caddie #4 down...

     There are many reasons why we homeschool.  One of them being a flexible schedule.  We have been grateful for that over the last month.  Our youngest caddie in training has been under the weather.  She has ran an unexplainable fever off and on for a while.  We even spent one night at our Children's hospital.  Now our children's (Cincinnati Children's) is supposedly one of the top 3 in the nation.  We unfortunately have not had good experiences over the last decade when we have had to deal with them.
  Anyhow, we found ourselves (our daughter and I) at children's for a night.  During the night the team of doctors and nurses ran tests and came in the room every few hours to monitor her vitals and fever.  What you would expect from a hospital, right?  Then in the morning we were shocked...we were sent home and told that there was nothing found. We were told it was a virus.  Viruses don't hang around as long as her fever has nor do they come and go like this.  There is no explanation whatsoever, that they have been able to find so far.  A trip to the pediatrician again turned up with we can't find anything wrong.  She looks healthy.  We are to call the infectious disease department at children's tomorrow.
   "We don't know what is wrong with your child", is probably by far the worst thing that you can be told at the moment.  It is scary.  Probably not as scary as a diagnosis of Cancer, but the unknown is scary.
  It is all in the hands of our heavenly father, I know. I have added to my prayers that God guides the doctors to find what is wrong with her.  She is such a trooper.  We have had about 15 blood draws, chest x-rays and a blood transfusion and most of the time she takes it like a trooper.  I am sure that she is getting tired of it all.  I pray that we find the answers/cure soon.  As for now we take our schooling with us when we can.  One of the benefits of homeschooling and trust that God is guiding the doctors into the right direction.

                                                         Blessings,
                                                         From the Clubbhouse