Visions Photography

where I have been……

I have kinda been missing for the last several months. I have been hard to get a hold of and just not run my business well at all. Not trying to give excuses but wanted to let those who are not followers on Instagram or Friends on Facebook get an idea of what has been going on in my life.

I'll start with I am due with baby #8 in just a few days which I could not be happier about.

So thankful the Lord chose to bless our family with another little gift, we are expecting a little boy around August 10th.

Quick history about me… I have always wanted a large family I grew up with several friends from large families and loved watching how the families bonded together. I knew I wanted this some day for myself. Several months after Bryce and I got married we were ecstatic about finding out we were expecting our first little one. He was great and everything I had hoped for. It took over three 3years for me to conceive baby #2 and I had almost given up hope and was thinking maybe I heard God wrong and I would just be a mom of one. Now looking back I am grateful for the large span between 1 and 2 and loved that time with just Evan. Well about every 21 months for the next several years our house was blessed with a new little one. The more babies the HARDER the pregnancies have been on me. Baby #5 something was different I have had some normal rough things in my previous pregnancies but it went away by 16 weeks or so. This baby was a whole different story…. SO much sickness not just mornings, but well all day and really , really bad in the evenings.Not just feeling sick , but migraines that would even last for several weeks at a time. My bigger kids who were still rather young were taking on responsibilities and helping out with things I had no idea they were capable of. Blessed, Blessed , so Blessed by these little people. Bryce obviously had a huge plate to take care of as well as there were many days this mom could not get out of bed due to the sickness or migraines. This overly exhausting hard time on all of us … got us talking and thinking and seriously considering #5 to be our last baby. He was perfect, so sweet, super cute, we all still fit in our mini- van , the pictures on the wall Even looked perfect with 5 sweet faces. We were praying and I spent the next several months trying to convince myself that our family was complete, that 5 was a large family, right? No matter how hard I tried I knew to convince myself I did not have peace with my decision . Well, when Fletch was only 9 months old the poor little guy had to have an emergency surgery due to aspirating a small rock into his lung . It was super scary but should have been an easy fix and the lung part was but while in the hospital my poor baby contracted a very bad Staph infection ( staph is like mersa just a different strand of the virus) it was one of the most awful things I had ever dealt with and after that he just kept getting them . He was so sick and in so much pain and just a baby. well, little did I know that I was pregnant again and this time with our very much surprise baby . I really did plan the first 5 and God definitely planned #6 . I found out that I was also susceptible to Staph and contracted sever infections during my Pregnancy with Sam, baby #6 . I had never felt so bad or so sick or so much pain in my life. This happened several times throughout the pregnancy . The normal sickness, migraines were still there as well . My immune system was shot, my body was weak and felt damaged. This pregnancy felt like pure torture…. oh and then to top things off my sweet Sam was fully engaged and in the ready to be born position for 7 very long weeks and was overdue by two very long, vey tear filled weeks. The second I saw him I just cried and thanked the Lord I had made it and he had given me such a sweet gift. That if it were up to me I would have never chose to have another baby .Every ounce of pain and suffering were worth giving this sweet soul a life that will last all of eternity. I literally teared up for the first 6 months of his life every time I would put him to bed , Thanking God this sweet child was no longer on the inside of me and that God chose to bless our family with him. I was getting stronger and healthier and thought hey why not have another we have the full size van we should fill it …. and when Sam was just 15 months old baby #7 joined our crew! his pregnancy had many of the same things as Sam's. less normal pregnancy symptoms but so so so many Staph infection. I had a total of 14 and many trips to the doctor and antibiotics that was a last resort for me ( I am not a big go to the doctor fan and especially not an antibiotic fan)My immune system was completely gone this time and almost any time I left the house I would within a few days be sick, flu, cough, cold….. Then right before his due date my family came in contact with a state confirmed case of whooping cough. so my entire family had to get put on crazy strong antibiotics and this was the first time 4 of my kids had ever even had an antibiotic . I was also told that I needed to pray that the baby not come early because we all needed to have this in our systems for at least 3 days before we would not contract or pass this on to others. Praise the Lord he was born on that 3rd. day on his due date and we were all safe and spared form the disease. I still hate we had to take the medicine and had to pay over $300.00 for it…grrr. Also i had never had a fussy baby before and this poor guy screamed for so long after every feeding for 3 solid months. Finally we realized it was because the z-pac had killed all the good flora in his digestive system and he was not able to properly digest his food. we quickly got him on a great regimen and he was oh so happy after that. I tried hard to not feel sad and bitter that the first 3 months of his life felt like they were stolen from me.

Ok here we are to now.. so close to baby#8's arrival . This pregnancy has topped them all when it comes to misery!! Even though everyday is hard an oh so painful I am learning to lean and rely on others and my sweet and faithful Heavenly Father to meet all my needs… I won't go into all the details of what is happening this time . Pretty much all of the above plus my body is just to weak to handle what it takes to grow an almost full term baby. That kind of toll is to much for my body. See the staph infections can have lasting effects they actually kinda suck the life out of you. Praising God I have had NONE this whole pregnancy but the weakness, pain, constant shaking, and utter exhaustion are all side effects from the previous ones. So if you would like to pray for me as I finish out this journey I would be blessed. I want to finish and finish strong even if I am stuck n bed!!!

I feel much more of a peace that baby #8 is supposed to be the last baby I ever give birth too. I am ready for a new stage and to learn how to serve my family again and just be a mom again too. I am excited to get healthy and strong and be able to be a blessing to others as they have been a blessing to me. if anyone has questions about any of the above we have done much study and would love to help answer any questions you might have if you have ever experience Staph or Mersa .