Faith Anna Phelps

We welcomed Faith Anna Phelps into the world at 11:35pm on Wednesday, May 21st. She weight 7lbs, 7oz and was 20.5" long.

I went into Labor on Wed. AM having the first contraction at around 6:30 (as Mike was pulling out of the driveway to go to work). Since I didn't know how long it was going to be I just told him to go and that I'd call him when he needed to come home. The Contractions quickly went from 10min apart and 1min long to 5min apart and 2min long. At 9:30 Mike came home and at 10:30 we went to the hospital to get monitored for a little bit as Rachel wanted to see how Faith was handling the contractions. I was only 3cm dilated, but decided to just stay checked in since they had a jacuzzi tub. At 2:30 I was at 4cm and 6:30 I was complete at 10cm.

Unfortunately my labor stalled then and my contractions started getting further apart. I never got the "pushing" contractions that everyone talks about, where I would have gotten relief by pushing. We couldn't figure why I wasn't progressing and by 10:30pm Rachel told me that if she didn't come out soon I would have to have pitocin (which would probably lead to an epidural and c-sec if it went too long).

Since I truly desired an all natural birth I didn't want that to happen. At a bit past 11 Rachel gave me my final chance before she intervened. Since my contractions were 8 min. apart I didn't really have a choice and I had to push her out on my own without any contractions. The cord was wrapped around her neck twice and we think that was what was holding her back, and the fact that her nose what hitting on my pelvic bone.

Mike was an amazing labor coach and gave me an amazing pep talk when it came down to the wire. I couldn't have done it without him. My mom and Sister were able to be there too. There presence was a comfort even though they stayed in the background. Our Doula, Audra, really helped out a lot with the little things and positioning. It was so nice to have some guidance through this.

So...it was painful, but totally worth it. Next time I want a water birth at the midwifery center though. I had a happy healthy baby who was beautiful from the start! Sometimes I just sit here and cry over this blessing that God has bestowed upon us.

Kid Safe email accts.

I just helped my sister set up a safe email account for my nephew. It's through Gmail and only emails from people on the approved list get through. All others get automatically forwarded to her. Since a lot of my friends kids are old enough to be on the computer and communicating through email I thought I would share.

Here's how:
After creating an account for your child, giving them the choice of the address, add people to your child's contact list.
then do settings --> filters --> create new filter
in there fill in these blanks:

to: your childs email address

Doesn't have: list peoples email addresses that you allow them to get email from UNMONITORED (here is where you type in the addresses to yourself, family memebers and kids that she/he is best friends with.) put OR between them so it looks like this : grandma@grandma.com OR mommy@mommy.com OR bstfriend@bestfriend.com OR bestfriend2@bestfriend.com

Then go to "next step": (If an error code shows up just keep retrying)

check all of these: (These three steps set the commant that any email sent to the childs adress will skip the inbox, be forwarded to your email address and deleted from their acct completely)

Skip the Inbox (Archive it)
Forward it to: youremail@youremail.com
Delete it


This will send YOU all the email that is not approved. You child will never get a Viagra ad or an email from a stranger. Their spam folder will always remain empty. If you get something that you want them to see you can forward it to them from you instead if it showing from the original sender. You can always add more approved people later.

Optional and very helpful: and in the quick Contacts list you can run your mouse over the name and it gives an option to "change picture" I have pictures of her friends in there so she is sure she is emailing the right person.

This is a great way for children to practice language skills, spelling, sentance structure, communication and typing.