My Testimony and My Warning

Hello, everybody. This is Kenny Moake, Melissa's husband. I have had the honor to be invited to contribute to this blog and be part of our family record-keeping. 

I have felt strongly about this subject, and I felt I needed to say something so that all could hear. Please read.

To ask me to sit back and watch or approve the government and other powers that be legislate homosexual marriage into existence is asking me to condone and give my seal of moral approval on this practice. This is something that I cannot and will not do, as I do know through the power of God that this practice, if continued or expanded, will lead to judgments similar to those rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah and  I will not be silent, nor will I buckle under pressure. I know what I know, and it is no act of love on my part to simply "let people do what they want," or "let it all take its course." I will be part of the course this country takes, even if I'm one voice in the distance, or the only voice, pleading and crying for sanity. The responsibility and the privilege is mine while I live in an America which resembles the America I know. So long as I am able to draw breath, I will plead to God in heaven and men on earth that this nation may follow correct principles, which cannot be changed, cannot be argued or theorized out of existence. This is something so much greater than I am, or that any one of you are, that I will not hesitate to state the truth of this matter. The Lord said, "It becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor" (D&C 88: 81). I have been warned.

To the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reading this, I remind you of your covenants. I remind you that exactly one thing can keep you from the glory you have been promised by the Lord your God. And that is infidelity to Him. Are you actively advocating what the Lord and His Church has stated on this issue? Do you even know what that position is? If you are not so prepared and so occupied, you need to sit down, you need to ponder and you need to read, and you need to take up your sword in defense of what is true and right. Do not make excuses, do not seek to bandy words on this subject, or seek to sit on the sidelines. You know what is right and you know what you need to do, or you ought to. Make no mistake, I and every other faithful Saint will testify against you at the judgment bar if you do not. And more than this, every child who comes into this world after it has suffered the consequences of the debate now at hand will accuse you, because you withheld your voice. I have seen far too many members forget or even betray their covenants lately.  For you I can have no sympathy, and I can make no apologies for my words, for you do know that I speak the truth.

To those who are not members of this Church, I understand that all that I have stated thus far may appear ridiculous or overly emotional. Let me assure you that the emotion is appropriate. This is an issue which, perhaps more than any before, is a wolf in sheep's clothing. The danger is subtle. It is something that will be manifested, at first, mostly in the private lives of men and women, but also children who have come into this world without the kind of home and family support that God has pleaded with us to provide them. It will manifest itself later as a degradation of society as these children grow up, not having the leadership and example of both a mother and a father. This is my testimony, and as this Lord stated in Doctrine and Covenants 88:71,  "[L]et those whom [the Elders of the Church] have warned in their traveling call on the Lord, and ponder the warning in their hearts which they have received, for a little season." Do at least this. Ponder honestly in your hearts on what the real issue is here. Read the scriptures and the modern revelations you can find here and here on this subject. Ask God what His will is in the matter. And see if your understanding is not increased. 

Milestone!

So Matthew hit a milestone the other day! at 2 months 1 week and 1 day, he rolled several times from front to back!!!!!

AMAZING I KNOW!! and I was fortunate enough to catch it on film :)

I have a few other really fun videos that I am also going to upload in a later post because these videos take a LONG time to put up. One of these days I am also going to do a photo dump on here but not today...

Have a great day!

Matthew Kenneth Moake

Wow!! Things happened so fast that I wasn't able to keep blogging. Now that I am kind of in a routine now I think I can start blogging again.

So first off, Matthew Kenneth Moake was born into the world on January 17th, 2013. Crazy that 2 months have already past!! Here is a picture of him and then I will go on to describe the details of what happened after my last blog post.


So in my last blog post, I was told I would need to be induced. Lucky for me, Matthew decided otherwise. On Wednesday the 16th I was about to give up… I had tried everything to get him to come; spicy food, exercise, etc. and nothing was working. Well I decided to try one last thing and it worked! My mother had been telling me that maybe he wasn't coming because I hadn't finished everything for him. So I thought about it and remembered that I had one more sewing project left… my nursing cover. We had gotten all the supplies for it but I just had not started it yet. So about 10 am, I set to work cutting and getting ready to sew it. Matthew must have sensed what I was doing and started getting ready to come because I started to have contractions a little after I started.

I was talking to my mother-in-law at the time and was describing to her what I was feeling and we both came to the conclusion that I was in labor. Since it was a Wednesday though… Kenny was in class till 1. I had tried before to get a hold of him to tell him what we thought was going on but he had been unavailable the whole time! So I talked with his mother to get some comfort and advice because she had done this before.

Another funny thing is, is that I had planned to do maternity pictures with my sister Laura at 2 because I hadn't had time to get together and do them sooner. I finished the nursing cover quite easily and the contractions were coming really quite hard by then. Kenny got home at a little after 1 and we were trying to get a hold of Laura so we could find out where to do the pictures and when to pick her up. It took us a while to get a hold of her so Kenny and I made some lunch before we were going to head out. It was now about 3:30 pm or so and my contractions had just been getting worse and worse so we decided to call the midwives to see what we should do and the nurse on call told us that from what I was describing, I should probably head to the hospital to get evaluated.

So we called Laura and told her what was going on and that we couldn't do the pictures. We then called my mom because I promised I would because she had offered to drive so I wouldn't have to (since Kenny couldn't after suffering a seizure in November) but my mother lives 20 minutes away and I didn't think I could wait 20 minutes for her to get here and then 20 minutes for her to take me back up to the hospital, so I told her I was ok and could drive alright.

The contractions were getting closer and stronger but I was holding out. I told myself I could do it and that I could make it. My plan was to see how long I could hold out without the epidural so I told myself it was only going to get worse and to get used to it.

I made it to the hospital OK and got checked it about 4 pm for observation. They checked my cervix when I got there and told me to wait an hour and they would check me again to see if I had dilated any more. So we waited the excruciatingly long hour and found I had gone from an almost 2 cm to a definite 3 cm so I got to be checked in and situated… the baby was coming soon!

It was then the long process of seeing how long I could go without the epidural. They would check me every two hours or so to see how I was progressing and by 8 pm I couldn't stand the pain any longer. I broke and asked Kenny to have them give me the epidural. We had to wait another 40 minutes or so for the anesthesiologist to come (I think he was at home at the time). When he got there, I was still nervous of the needle, but was so done with the pain of the contractions that I didn't care. It was actually really fast and really rather painless. I then got to lie down and be pain free.

After the epidural I was still having very timely contractions but no pain :). It was quite the relief. The only thing that would have made it any better was if my legs weren't all tingly/itchy. At least I could still feel them though and that was alright. I was so hungry throughout the night because I couldn't have anything but clear liquids. I ended up eating a lot of Jell-O because there was nothing more substantial than that that was on the cleared eating list.

As the night wore on the nurse would continue to check me and tell me I was at about a 4 cm, but I had been stuck at a 4 for so long that they decided to put me on Pitocin around 2 am. They came in at 1 am to tell me what they decided and they had actually wanted to start me right then on it but I didn't want to start it right then. I had heard that it hurt and made the contractions worse and I feared I might feel it through the epidural. I asked if breaking my water might help at all because they kept telling me that it was so bulgy but they said that wouldn't be the best thing right now. So they waited an hour and with my permission, started me on Pitocin.

The Pitocin was moving me a long well in that I rose to a 6 pretty quickly but there was still a little problem. My water sac was inhibiting Matthew from moving down into position! So at 5 am they decided to break my water. It was the weirdest feeling… don’t know quite how to describe it but after breaking my water I really began to get ready. By about 9 am I was a 10 and ready to push but my midwife decided to let Matthew do some of the pushing so I wouldn't have to push so hard. A little before 10 am though I noticed I could feel my legs a little better and knew the epidural was wearing off. I tried pushing the little button that would give me another dose but it didn't seem to be working. They asked the anesthesiologist to come back in and give me a top off and then I was better :)

A little after 10 am they told me it was time to push. I was so excited but at the same time wasn't sure what I was suppose to do. They had Kenny take one of my legs and the nurse took the other and then the midwife stood in front of me. Every contraction (except two) I was told to push 3 times for 10 seconds each. I was worried that with the epidural I wouldn't feel when I needed to push but there was a nice little pressure at the top of my tummy that didn't hurt... this told me when I needed to push :)

About 55 minutes later, Matthew Kenneth Moake was born into the world!!! I tore in two places so I had to sit still as they sewed me up. The nice thing was was that they didn't ever take Matthew from the room! I could see him the whole time as they weighed and measured and cleaned him right up. The first thing he did after they laid him down to do all the checking was to stretch really big. Poor guys had been cramped for so long that he loved the stretching :) Here are his stats

Weight: 7 lb 10 oz

Height: 20 inches 

(He had a cone head though so two days after he was 19.5 inches)

Here is Matthew after birth

  

Little Matthew

 They let me hold him while I was being sewn up and he was sooooo cute!!!

Kenny's family showed up not long after he was born and they got to hold him and and see him.

 

Sharon, Scott, and Ardis holding Matthew

My little family

 Kenny and his family then got to go supervise his first bath while I got cleaned up. Kenny and I had been deliberating between Michael or Matthew for the name but it wasn't until after his bath that I knew he was a
Matthew :)

 

He hated the bath but loved getting his hair washed! 

 Kenny's family left not long after and then my family showed up!

    

Tom looking silly, Matthew looking grumpy in Kenny's arms, my mom with Matthew, and Matthew looking like a stud :D

     

Matthew looking cute, Matthew and Anna, Kestra holding Matthew, and Anna holding Matthew

 I got to stay in the hospital for 48 hours after Matthew's birth, so I had some friends come visit me... aka The Butlers :)

 

Kristen and Matthew, Kristen passing Matthew to Sarah

  

Sarah holding Matthew, Shelly peeking over Sarah's shoulder, Shelly holding Matthew and Kristen peeking over at Matthew

 My mom (Grams) and dad (Papa) decided to bring Kenny some food and me a Jamba (I think it was their way of coming back to see Matthew :D)

 

Papa and Matthew, plus me (for some reason the picture flipped and I can't fix it...)

 

Grams and Matthew

We watched Netflix on Kenny's computer for a while and then slept most of the time. Matthew scared us Thursday night by choking on some amniotic fluid so we sent him to the nursery that night and the next.

We then got to check out and take him home Saturday morning. And the parenting began!

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed all the pictures and videos!