Showing posts with label Celebrating Sadie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Celebrating Sadie. Show all posts
Monday, July 4, 2011
Sunday, July 3, 2011
The Story of Sadie's Name
I have always liked the name Sadie for a few reasons:
When I looked up the meaning of the name, it is a diminutive form of the name "Sarah" and means "princess." In addition to knowing a slew of Sarah's, and loving every one of them, I also can relate to the story of Sarah in the Bible. I love that God changed her name when she went from barrenness to fruitfulness. It seemed appropriate.
It was an easy decision when we found out we were having a girl what her name was going to be. That is, until we started telling our students, friends, and family what her name was. I can understand why people wait to reveal names until their baby is born...so many people have opinions!
I can vividly remember the day when I told some of my seniors that her name is "Sadie."
"Is that like the words 'sad' and 'die' put together?" one of them asked.
"No!" I said emphatically, brows furrowed, nosed scrunched. "No, it's not!"
(I love my students, by the way, and their inability to filter their inner-monologues.) :o)
And then I couldn't stop thinking about it. All I could imagine was my goth little teenage girl one day with black painted fingernails and dyed hair and black lipstick. I didn't want her growing up thinking I shrouded her with a name that was filled with thoughts of sadness and death. Just in case, the name needed a little sunshine added to it.
...Which is why we chose the middle name "Joy." Just in case Sadie relates her name to darkness, "Joy" balances it out a little bit. I liked giving her a virtue name anyway. Molly's middle name is "Grace" and I felt like "Sadie Joy" goes with "Molly Grace" without it being too matchy-matchy.
All that being said, I felt like the lessons God has taught me through both sadness and joy during this pregnancy have made her name so sweet and precious to me. This is what I wrote about this season in a post a few weeks ago...
It is in recognizing that both sadness and joy can coexist that makes me feel like I can be a good mom to the new blessing that is our baby girl. And its not just that these two feelings coexist, I see one informing the other. I see that as God consoles, He also transforms. I think it is impossible for the nearness of His presence not to change us completely. I am a better mom, a better student of the Word, a better teacher, a better artist, a better friend, wife, sister, daughter, .... because I have experienced real sadness and real joy.
It is also through this season that God has been teaching me that in sadness He is close to the broken-hearted, mourns with those who mourn, and consoles my heart with the promise of His presence. And it is through joy that He teaches me He loves to bless me with knowing all good things come from Him for the greater purpose of
1- giving Him the glory for it
2- conforming me more into the image of His son and
3- giving me a glimpse into the complete fulfillment I will experience in Heaven when I am with Him.
And that is what I hope to teach you one day, Sadie Joy. I will teach you that life will be hard and sad and painful because we live in a fallen world. But life will also be filled with fun and laughter and sunshine. And through both of these times, though your feelings will change, God remains the same.
- It is simple
- Old-fashioned
- Not too popular, but not too weird (ranked #111 in U.S. births this year)
- 2 syllables
- Easily pronounced
- Won't be shortened
- She will be called what she is named (Being a middle-namer (Laura Megan) and resenting my parents for it every time I'm at the doctor's office or have to sign a check, being named and called the same thing is important to me)
- And just like the name"Molly," I can't say the name "Sadie" without smiling
When I looked up the meaning of the name, it is a diminutive form of the name "Sarah" and means "princess." In addition to knowing a slew of Sarah's, and loving every one of them, I also can relate to the story of Sarah in the Bible. I love that God changed her name when she went from barrenness to fruitfulness. It seemed appropriate.
It was an easy decision when we found out we were having a girl what her name was going to be. That is, until we started telling our students, friends, and family what her name was. I can understand why people wait to reveal names until their baby is born...so many people have opinions!
I can vividly remember the day when I told some of my seniors that her name is "Sadie."
"Is that like the words 'sad' and 'die' put together?" one of them asked.
"No!" I said emphatically, brows furrowed, nosed scrunched. "No, it's not!"
(I love my students, by the way, and their inability to filter their inner-monologues.) :o)
And then I couldn't stop thinking about it. All I could imagine was my goth little teenage girl one day with black painted fingernails and dyed hair and black lipstick. I didn't want her growing up thinking I shrouded her with a name that was filled with thoughts of sadness and death. Just in case, the name needed a little sunshine added to it.
...Which is why we chose the middle name "Joy." Just in case Sadie relates her name to darkness, "Joy" balances it out a little bit. I liked giving her a virtue name anyway. Molly's middle name is "Grace" and I felt like "Sadie Joy" goes with "Molly Grace" without it being too matchy-matchy.
All that being said, I felt like the lessons God has taught me through both sadness and joy during this pregnancy have made her name so sweet and precious to me. This is what I wrote about this season in a post a few weeks ago...
It is in recognizing that both sadness and joy can coexist that makes me feel like I can be a good mom to the new blessing that is our baby girl. And its not just that these two feelings coexist, I see one informing the other. I see that as God consoles, He also transforms. I think it is impossible for the nearness of His presence not to change us completely. I am a better mom, a better student of the Word, a better teacher, a better artist, a better friend, wife, sister, daughter, .... because I have experienced real sadness and real joy.
It is also through this season that God has been teaching me that in sadness He is close to the broken-hearted, mourns with those who mourn, and consoles my heart with the promise of His presence. And it is through joy that He teaches me He loves to bless me with knowing all good things come from Him for the greater purpose of
1- giving Him the glory for it
2- conforming me more into the image of His son and
3- giving me a glimpse into the complete fulfillment I will experience in Heaven when I am with Him.
He is good.
Sadie's Arrival
For those of you who care about birth stories, and for future me, I wanted to recount Sadie's joyous arrival into the world. (And if you are neither of those people, I'll add some photos of our sweet girl, because who doesn't love baby pictures, right?) Right now I'm at the hospital waiting for the doctors to come in before we can get discharged and I've already uploaded all my photos to facebook. What else is there to do? ;o)
Contractions began to get stronger Thursday afternoon into the evening, and by Friday morning I was convinced that that was the day Sadie would be coming. However, I had 1 more morning of Science and Art camp to teach for the week, which ended up being a blessing to keep my mind off of pain and my eyes off of the clock. By the afternoon, contractions were getting heavy but sporadic. (12 minutes apart, 17 minutes, 14, 7, 9, 11, 3....it was annoying.) By 2:45, they were every 3-6 and I called my doctor. I may have jumped the gun just a bit, but with Molly I went from having contractions every 5 minutes to every 3 by the time I called my doctor at the end of one hour. By the time I was finally admitted to the hospital with her, she came like a whirling dervish.) I ran around the house like a crazy person packing last minute items, an overnight bag for Molly, and repacking all of my bags that I had packed already. In addition to, or course, taking a few minutes to snap a few last photos...
By 3:45 I was in the hospital waiting to see if I would be staying. Because most of my contractions were in my back and the fact that I only have a right sided uterus, they hardly show up on the monitor, which is so frustrating. I kept telling Justin that I want some proof of the pain that I was feeling. He told me that when a baby shows up, everyone will know I was having contractions. Yes, thank you, dear husband.
After an hour of only being 2 cm, I was afraid they would send me home. They made me wait another hour, checked again, and I was 4. I was officially admitted by 6:00. The next hour, I was 6 cm and got a lovely epidural. This time, I got an epidural early enough to enjoy it, and let me tell you... as far as I'm concerned the anesthesiologist man and I can be BFF's. Pain was close to non-existent and I was able to have conversations with our nurses and relax a little bit. One of my student's moms is a labor and delivery nurse and came in especially for us. She was such a blessing!
At 10:00 I was fully dilated and it was time to push. 2 pushes later...1 for her head, and 1 for her body and Sadie was here at 10:07. I didn't need an episiotomy or any stitches.
I joked with my nurses that I don't know why women complain about child birth so much. They told me to be careful what I say or I won't have any friends anymore :o) I figure, my pregnancy history has been hard in many other ways. Non-laborious labor has been God's gift to me.
During "labor" the song that kept going through my head was a little chorus that I learned when I was young. It comes from Jeremiah 32:17. These are the words...
Ah, Lord God, thou has made the heavens and the earth by Thy great power.
Ah, Lord God, thou has made the heavens and the earth by Thine outstretched arm.
Nothing is too difficult for Thee.
Nothing is too difficult for Thee.
Great and Mighty God,
Great in counsel and mighty in deed.
Nothing
Nothing
Absolutely nothing.
Nothing is too difficult for Thee.
What a great experience to have the knowledge of the sovereignty and power of God in the forefront of my thoughts as my daughter entered the world!
Contractions began to get stronger Thursday afternoon into the evening, and by Friday morning I was convinced that that was the day Sadie would be coming. However, I had 1 more morning of Science and Art camp to teach for the week, which ended up being a blessing to keep my mind off of pain and my eyes off of the clock. By the afternoon, contractions were getting heavy but sporadic. (12 minutes apart, 17 minutes, 14, 7, 9, 11, 3....it was annoying.) By 2:45, they were every 3-6 and I called my doctor. I may have jumped the gun just a bit, but with Molly I went from having contractions every 5 minutes to every 3 by the time I called my doctor at the end of one hour. By the time I was finally admitted to the hospital with her, she came like a whirling dervish.) I ran around the house like a crazy person packing last minute items, an overnight bag for Molly, and repacking all of my bags that I had packed already. In addition to, or course, taking a few minutes to snap a few last photos...
Sadie bag all packed
38 weeks 5 days
By 3:45 I was in the hospital waiting to see if I would be staying. Because most of my contractions were in my back and the fact that I only have a right sided uterus, they hardly show up on the monitor, which is so frustrating. I kept telling Justin that I want some proof of the pain that I was feeling. He told me that when a baby shows up, everyone will know I was having contractions. Yes, thank you, dear husband.
After an hour of only being 2 cm, I was afraid they would send me home. They made me wait another hour, checked again, and I was 4. I was officially admitted by 6:00. The next hour, I was 6 cm and got a lovely epidural. This time, I got an epidural early enough to enjoy it, and let me tell you... as far as I'm concerned the anesthesiologist man and I can be BFF's. Pain was close to non-existent and I was able to have conversations with our nurses and relax a little bit. One of my student's moms is a labor and delivery nurse and came in especially for us. She was such a blessing!
At 10:00 I was fully dilated and it was time to push. 2 pushes later...1 for her head, and 1 for her body and Sadie was here at 10:07. I didn't need an episiotomy or any stitches.
I joked with my nurses that I don't know why women complain about child birth so much. They told me to be careful what I say or I won't have any friends anymore :o) I figure, my pregnancy history has been hard in many other ways. Non-laborious labor has been God's gift to me.
During "labor" the song that kept going through my head was a little chorus that I learned when I was young. It comes from Jeremiah 32:17. These are the words...
Ah, Lord God, thou has made the heavens and the earth by Thy great power.
Ah, Lord God, thou has made the heavens and the earth by Thine outstretched arm.
Nothing is too difficult for Thee.
Nothing is too difficult for Thee.
Great and Mighty God,
Great in counsel and mighty in deed.
Nothing
Nothing
Absolutely nothing.
Nothing is too difficult for Thee.
What a great experience to have the knowledge of the sovereignty and power of God in the forefront of my thoughts as my daughter entered the world!
Sadie Joy is such a sweet baby! She amazes us with her calm spirit and eagerness to nurse and sleep when we want her too. (I hope that lasts!) Big sister, Molly, has been here twice to visit her and is quite excited that her new sister has toes and ears that she can tickle.
I can't wait to go home and start enjoying our time together as a family of four!
Thank you so much for so many of your well-wishes and congratulations. It has been a blessing knowing how many people have been praying for us!
:o)
Saturday, July 2, 2011
She's HERE!!!!
Sadie Joy Benson
6 lb. 13.8 oz
19 inches
July 1st, 2011
10:07 pm
Welcome to the world, sweet baby girl! You are such a blessing!
More pictures forthcoming, I promise :o)
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