Jack's Birth Story

      On Tuesday, June 26th (4 days after my due date), I went to the hospital to be "induced" (cervidil). The doctor thought that Jack was anywhere from 8lbs-10lbs and he was ready to come into the world to join us. At this point I had been in labor on and off since Sunday, but nothing that was steady enough to be admitted into the hospital. We arrived at the hospital around 7:00pm and the medication was placed, I was unable to walk for 12 hours due to the placement. My body responded to the cervidil, which doesn't always happen for some, and I started regular contracts that were anywhere from 2-3 minutes apart. Around 4pm on Wednesday, my water broke and it had meconium (Jack had a bowel movement in utero) in it. Because of this, the NICU team would be in the room when he was delivered so they could clean out his lungs and make sure he didn't swallow the meconium. I believe my water breaking was premature because Jack was still "floating" and not quite engaged, which allowed for his umbilical cord to become wrapped around his neck. Due to the fact that my water broke this gave baby Jack anywhere from 12-24 hours to make his appearance into the world on his own. The doctor's were more fond of 12 hours than the 24 due to the bowel movement.
   
     The  contractions went on for approximately 10 hours (2-3 min) and then my body started to slow down and they became 3-5 minutes apart at approximately 8 pm on Wednesday night. At this point I was beyond the point of exhaustion and just wanted to go home, but unfortunately you can't throw in the towel in the middle of labor. This led to the painful decision of starting pitocin, which I worked so hard to avoid. The pitocin pushed my contractions back to 2-3 minutes apart, and then anywhere from 1-2 minutes apart. At this point I was still only dilated to a 4, and knew that I had a long way to go. After many rounds of tears and struggle I gave into the pain medication that I vigorously denied for the last 29 hours of my labor. The anesthesiologist came in a placed the epidural around 12:00am on Thursday morning. At 1:00am the whole team of nurses were in my room telling me to turn off my right side, Jack's heart rate had dipped to 40, because his cord was pulled tightly around his neck. For the remainder of labor, I layed on the left side of my body, this was where Jack's heart rate was steady, which cause my epidural to pool in the left side.

     At approximately 7:00 am, 35 hours into labor, I started pushing. This took about 1 hour and 45 minutes, and at 8:15 on Thursday morning I got to meet my little boy. He came out with the cord tightly around his neck, the doctor had to cut it off of his neck, because it was too tight for her to unwrap. Because his umbilical cord was wrapped so tightly he wasn't able to breathe full breaths and had to be pumped with oxygen by the NICU team that was present in the room. The good news was that he didn't swallow any of the bowel movement, but the bad news was that he wasn't quite breathing on his own. The team rushed my little boy to the NICU and gave me just a glance of his handsome face before they swept him away. This was extremely gut wrenching and confusing for me, all I wanted to do was hold my little baby, touch him, kiss him, and love him, and his was gone in a flash.

    During the next 2 hours, I couldn't walk because of the epidural, I was flooded with emotions, and wanted to know what was going on with my baby, but no one knew yet. Then the NICU doctor finally came back and said that Jack was doing great, but he had a pneumothorax, which is a pocket of air in the chest that prevents the lung from being able to rise. Jack was in the NICU for the entire 3 days that we were in the hospital. On the last day of our stay a nurse came into our room at about 4:30am and told me the Jack's XRAY did not look good and she didn't think that he would be able to come home with us that day. This was devastating, I did not want to leave the hospital without my boy, this was an awful feeling. I went to the NICU as soon as the doctor was in that morning so I could get the final word on if my baby would be coming home with us, in a moment of joy we found out that our beautiful baby was strong enough to join us! This was one of the best feelings in the world!

my first time holding jack.

 
 

Law of Love

It is easy as New Covenant, Grace believing, Christians to get swept up in the "Gospel of Grace" and lose track of some instructions Jesus gave us to make our lives better and more valuable in reaching the world with the Gospel.

Some Grace believers have translated popular teaching topics on rest and freedom to; no more need to reach God's people and show them who you are through your actions.  Paul knew this when he instructed some of his disciples to live the kind of life that would not paint them as hypocrites or harm the powerful Gospel through misconceptions of their actions.  Today, we can know that we are free in Christ but also choose to limit ourselves so our choices aren't a distraction to those that may want to know about the beautiful Gospel of Grace.

Jesus was all about making things simple through examples and stories.  I appreciate it because I have a very simplistic mindset when it comes to the Gospel.  I don't think Jesus was big on titling things but I call what he commanded us to do the "Law of Love."  Jesus made it very simple in John 15:12 when he said "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you."  We also can acknowledge that our love for His people will never meet His Love for His people. However, we know that the main focus of Jesus' ministry, and Paul's ministry was to simply follow Jesus.   We can see this in Matthew 11:30 when Jesus says "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."  A yoke was used to guide an animal but Jesus makes it clear that He is pulling the load, when he says "for your burden is light"!  Loving people is not a burden, for Jesus does not instruct you to do things that will burden you. 

When Jesus says "Love each other as I have loved you" He isn't telling us to carry the load, he is simply asking us to return to our true nature, in other words, the way it should be.  When God (Love) made us, He made us in His image.  The core of His image is Love.  We must understand as New Creation Christians that it is more natural for us to love each other than any other emotion.  When I am angry at someone I can feel it sit on my heart, this is because my heart was never made to hold this anger.  My heart was crafted to love! 

Our Christian walk is very simple.  When Jesus said "repent for the kingdom of God is near" He is literally begging you to rethink who you are.  Rethink your position with God as a believer.  Rethink what it means to be a "new creation."  Everything that we are to do is simply going back to the way it should have always been.  

Today, remember that loving your family, friends, co-workers, and the slow driver in front of you is your true nature.  Jesus told us to return to this person because it is who we naturally are.  When you get to the person you were intended to be you are going to see your life change and the people around you change.  People are going to wonder why you are always happy, and it going to open up doors to share the wonderful Gospel.  Jesus loves you!

Jack-2 weeks

       My Jack boy is 2 weeks old today! Time seems to be going so fast, I am already not looking forward to having to go back to work :(.

      Jack is doing great and according to our scale he has gained about 2lbs since he was born, which puts him at a whopping 10lbs! He has already outgrown his newborn clothes and is in 0-3 month clothing! I am so proud, blessed, and overjoyed to be able to witness this beautiful life that God has given us. Its so incredible to see the culmination of love that Ryan and I have for each other in such a little human being. 

      We started using our cloth diapers/wipes when Jack was about 5 days old, it has been going well, although we do have a heavy wetter and have to change Jack's outfit about 2 times a day/night. The nurses in the hospital said that they thought he holds his pee, lets just say that their theory was right. We have to wash the diapers once a day, and we have about 16 in our stash. It's been nice knowing that we don't have to go out and buy diapers.  We are coming as close as possible to establishing a "routine". Jack eats about every 2-2.5 hours, sometimes 3 depending on the day. He generally sleeps all morning and is up from 1:30pm until 4:30pm or even until daddy comes home at 5:30. I try to keep him awake so Ryan can see him with his eyes open, but sometimes that isn't always possible.


     I have been documenting a few of the cute things that he does daily, its been awesome watching a new life grow and flourish! Yesterday, Jack and I went on our first "trip" to visit daddy at work in Elkhart, he did great, and slept the whole time. Before we left for Elkhart, I changed Jack's diaper, and while i was in the midst of changing him he decided to make business happen. We use cloth wipes and I had an empty container sitting at the end of the changing mat and I was able to catch all of the pee in the container! I never would have guessed what life would be like with a little boy, I have a feeling that this is only the beginning of our adventures!

   

One Month After Fast

Today, July 11th marks one month from when I finished my 10 day juice fast.  I received an unbelievable amount of support during my fast and even encouraged a few people to think about doing a Juice Fast.  If I was someone watching my juice fast and saw that I lost 22 lbs in 10 days I would probably be skeptical of the thought that someone could keep the weight off.  So, here is an update of what has happened over the past 30 days.

Immediately after I finished my fast I started eating better.  I had 2-3 meals in the first week that I was craving during my fast but for the most part my mind and body had been changed enough during my fast that I felt better when I was eating better foods (how it should be from the start).  I planned on gaining 7-10 lbs in the first week simply because I had food in my stomach.  It is important to remember that I did not drink as many calories as I was supposed to at the end of my fast because I couldn't find a mixture that I enjoyed.  This made it so that I lost more weight than what I should have so I was assuming my body was going to put it back on much faster than what would be considered typical.  If I would have continued a strict eating schedule I most likely would have gained 3-5 lbs for the first week after the fast.  Since I had some meals that were strictly to fulfill my cravings I ended up gaining about 8 lbs.  I watched my weight gain/loss very closely for those first two weeks and without any scientific research outside how I felt I would say that I didn't feel like my body was completely out of starvation mode, and back into its regular mode until 7 days after the fast was over.  I could tell for these 7 days that my body was trying to store as much food as possible in case there was another "drought."

Over the past month the maximum weight (in the morning) that I have reached is 259 and my lowest weight was 252 (2 lbs more than where I finished the fast).  This was very surprising because at my worst point over the past month I was still 13 lbs lighter than when I started my 10 day fast.  I only tell you all this because I know the weight is what everyone is so concentrated on.  Allow me to tell you about what has really mattered.

I have felt great!  I started running again almost immediately after my fast but it took my body 1-2 weeks before I felt better than I did before the fast.  I assumed that doing a juice fast would benefit your body during and possibly immediately after since you are providing your body with needed nutrients that it is not used to having.  However, the weight loss mixed with whatever the juice fast did to me has given me a drive when working out that I haven't had since I was training for basketball.  I am finally excited about working out again!

I have not changed my eating patterns 100% but I have changed.  I have tried to change my mind/eating patterns in the past but it has always been so painful.  This time it is easy and natural because my body craves and enjoys the good stuff rather than the crap I was constantly putting in my body before my fast.  This part is hard to explain but I guess you have to trust me on the fact that I feel better in almost every area of my life.

I can't end this update without mentioning the best thing that has happened in the past 30 days which is our new baby boy Jack!  He is the best, and I am so glad that I decided to make a lifestyle change before he arrived so I can have as much energy as possible for him.  Also, I am excited that I had this life changing experience before britt had Jack so we can work together to lose weight and become the healthy, and active parents that Jack deserves.

If you are debating if you should do a juice fast or not, know that God's Grace will give you the ability to change your life at the rate that you choose.  God Loves you so much that he sent his Son (God in the flesh) so that you can live an Abundant life (best life you could ever imagine).  I knew that I was preventing myself from living this life because of my eating and I can honestly say the Juice fast helped.  The juice fast by itself won't do anything for you but a desire to improve your mind and body along with God's Grace can/will radically change your life.

Cheers to better health!

Juice fast- It is Finished!

It is Finished!

It is finally the moment of truth.  True revelation is nothing without a changing of our minds.  I have not only went on a radical physical change but also mental.  I feel supercharged, like I can literally do anything.  For the first time in years I feel like running, biking, swimming, and doing all the stuff I used to love to do.  I feel like eating nutritious foods because they are good for my body instead of because they are low in Calories.  My friend Bryan Weisweaver told me a quote once that the ancient Greeks believed that food were our real medicine (I'm butchering it).  This is so true.  Providing our bodies with the fruits and veggies that it is craving is so much more powerful than any medicine you can put in your body.  So, onto what everyone wants to know, how much did I lose?

Before that, here are some other things you might want to know:

Total cost of the 10 day fast: $185

Total lbs of apples eaten: 24 lbs

Total lbs of strawberries: 10 lbs

Total bunches of Kale eaten: 15 bunches

Total bunches of Spinach eaten: 10 bunches

What else? Celery, Carrots, Chart, Ginger, Beets, Kiwi, Lemon, Lime, Sweet Potato, Pears, etc.

So, how much weight?

I lost a total of 20.6 lbs. in 10 days!

So, what was my first meal?  Apple!  I also had 2 eggs and a piece of wheat toast with nutella on it because I have been craving it for 10 days!

Thanks so much for all of you that supported me through this.  Your support has meant everything to me.  If you are questioning if you can do it, know that through Christ all things are possible!

Cheers to Better Health!

Day 10 "Last Day!"

Day 10

It's finally the last day.  I woke up this morning like every other morning and made my breakfast and dinner.  We went to church for worship and left early so I could go with Mike Coble for a golf scramble in Syracuse.  This was a little scary because britt is getting into the last stages of pregnancy and I was over an hour away.  I ate as much as I could and braced myself for the 91 degree weather.  I drank plenty of water and somehow made it through 18 holes.  I went to drink my dinner drink and it sucked!  This was supposed to be my last juice but it was so bad that I couldn't stand to drink it.  This meant that I had to live on 30oz on my last day.  Please note that this is neither healthy nor part of the fast.  So, I made it home to see my beautiful wife and ended the night resting.

I couldn't sleep because I hadn't ate hardly anything all day and all I could think about was eating the next day.  I finally got to sleep after laying there battling my mind for about 2 hours.  I thought about getting up at midnight but I decided that would be for someone that was doing a diet, not a lifestyle change.

So, tomorrow is the first day of the rest of our lives.  This has been an amazing experience and I am so glad that I accomplished it.

Cheers to better health!

Day 9

Day 9

To see how Day 9 went you can see day 8.  I am still a little tired but I have found ways to keep myself satisfied.  We watched "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" again and it inspired me to continue to change my life style after my 10 days are long gone.  I know now that the day after 10 days is not the end but really the beginning.  

The fast has been great for losing some quick weight and working on changing my mind.  Not being able to eat allows me to have some time where I don't have to worry about eating 3000 calories in one meal and I can focus on seeing what causes me to overeat.  

So, tomorrow is the last day.  I am really excited and happy that I made it to this point.  I can't wait start fresh on Monday with a new body and mind.

Cheers to healthy living!