annie's birthday!

so i updated the

so i updated the name of my blog to billingsleynest.blogspot.com clearly it can't just be lainey and beau anymore! our sweet annie arrived early in the am on friday may 8th. i had been having to go in for stress tests at porter's office for several weeks. on thurs. kalea said if she didn't see better numbers she wanted to do an ultrasound. i still didn't think anything major was happening. she said after the stress test she wanted to do the ultrasound. once she got into the ultrasound she found fluid accumulating around annie's heart which was a sign of distress and that the placenta wasn't getting her everything she needed. she quickly said, "abbey, im going over to talk to dr.porter. but prepare yourself your going to have this baby today." i immediately am like what? b/c we knew she was still so tiny and i wasn't ready to have a baby 5 weeks early not to mention mike was still out of town. i'll never forget laying their in her ultrasound room raising my hands to the ceiling and crying out to God. literally i was crying out for peace and more of His presence than i had ever experienced in my life. I have to say He is faithful and His peace was truly felt in the midst of a very hard circumstance. i then went over and met with porter who confirmed he wanted me at the hospital in a couple of hours. i asked him to give me 24 hours and he said i didn't have that long. that they would let me try and labor as long as annie could tolerate it but they needed to get her out of my womb as soon as possible. there is more to my convo with him but i'll spare the details on the blog. it was a very hard conversation. i ended up calling matt bonner for another medical opinion. before i could look up after talking to matt i guess emily was on her way to the hospital to see our good friends the castros and she stopped off at porters office. i really believe that was God's provision of peace and His presence to me at that moment. in she walks totally unexpected to me and just gave me a huge hug and reassurance that everything was going to be okay. so from there i left and began making preparations to get back to the hospital that night to have sweet annie. mike got back into town. my sister liz, allison and emily called several women to come over to my house that night to pray over me and annie before we left for the hospital. i have to tell you that was one of the sweetest prayer times i have experienced in my life. i think every women should have a group of ladies (and my sweet husband and dad) were there to pray over her before birthing new life! so many amazing words were spoken over me and annie. sarah even shared the very verses out of psalms that God had given me just 3 hours earlier. God is so amazing and in every detail. so from there we went to the hospital and who was already there...almost all my siblings and their spouses. not kidding they were all there waiting for us. it makes me teary thinking about it. i felt so loved and so supported its unbelievable. they were all there camped out waiting for us. you guys are amazing! so from there the story is quick they put me on monitors. i had been having some mild contractions for several weeks. but everytime i would have a contraction annie's heart rate would dip way down. they hadn't even started the induction at that point. they called porter who was basically already on his way. he got there moments later and came in and said he was 100% i was going to have a c-section. somehow i know it sounds weird but in my spirit it was like God has already told me that, His peace was already surrounding my emotions, feelings, etc when porter said it. he said we could wait a little bit but as we sat there i had 2 more mild contractions (not even really laboring) and annie's heart rate really dipped way down. he said abbey we need to get her out now! within 3 minutes i was in the OR couldn't feel my lower body and the anestesiaologists said mam, i can give you whatever you need for your pain, emotions, whatever. i said, "i know it sounds weird but i really feel an unusual amount of peace right now." and i really did. God is so faithful and so good. how i felt peace in that moment is only evidence of our God Almighty. so annie was born seconds later. all 3lbs 5oz of her. she was immediately wisked off to the NICU. she was breathing on her own...praise Jesus! but she was born with what they call CMV which to a normal adult is like a basic flu virus. 80% of the population are carriers. once your body has it you then have an immunity built up for it. but for whatever reason i was in the 20% and had not had it yet. not a big deal at all. but to a little baby it can be dangerous. later as i was talking to porter. (it took me about 48 hours to build my grid as to what was going on, terminolgy, etc) he said if someone would have asked him before he would have said i'd be more likely to get struck by lightning than have this happen. i was like man, God this is a great opportunity for you to show your amazing healing power! one of my favorite quotes of the last month was in a conversation i was having in the hall with dr. porter my mom walked up and in a very peaceful way said "dr. porter do you know what happens when a virus comes into contact with the blood of Jesus?" he said, "it gets anialiated?" he goes on to say "they don't call him the Almighty for nothing." my mom was one of the first people to touch her right when she got into the NICU. she said she layed hands on her and i truly believe God healed my annie's body. annie was in the NICU for 19 days. it was a super challenging period of time in our lives. it was a time we truly saw God move, speak and work. i am grateful to everyone who helped with lainey and beau morning, noon and night for almost 3 weeks. i got to start nursing her which was so great. she is such a good little nurser! she never had to be tube feed which was a huge praise to God! thank you Jesus for giving her such a great suck! she gets bigger and stronger everyday! and we are so grateful!

this was beau meeting annie for the first time. he was so precious with her! he is going to be such an outstanding big brother!

it was so hard being seperated from lainey and beau but knowing they were being loved on by the people in their lives who love them most helped tremendously. we are so grateful to be at home together enjoying each other so much!