The Pauls

Potty time?!?!

2012-02-03T10:16:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Emily is 18 months old and already starting to go in the potty! Way back in the day they were always trained BY 18 months, but I think everyone was in cloth diapers back then, too. I figured being in disposables would surely mean we'd be waiting to start until at least 24 months. But this mama is thrilled that we might be moving out of diapers earlier than planned!!!

I have an "on the potty" seat with stair step attached in E's bathroom right now, so that is the only place we've been going so far. She waves her hand in front of her face if she's starting to need to poop. She grabs at her diaper and grunts and squats if she needs to pee. Sometimes I whisk her upstairs and other times she holds it and walks upstairs herself after I ask if she wants to go on the potty. The thing that has amazed me the most so far is that she is actually needing to go by showing me a sign and then holding it for awhile until we make it upstairs, get the diaper off, and sit down.

I had wanted to wait until 1) I got to a store or borrowed an on the floor potty for her to have more independence and to have one downstairs where we spend most of our time and 2) when she wanted to tell me out loud with words that she needs to go. But she's been so interested in going and so relaxed about the process that I've just taken her when she shows me she needs to. She peed 3 times this morning and then we went up to the potty right after lunch today and she went again! I think her Gerber cookies are strong motivators, haha. She refuses to accept a broken/smaller cookie as a reward, so I am going to need to pick a smaller treat as a reward or we will have one sugared-up kiddo on our hands. She hadn't had a BM yet today and we had beans as part of our lunch, so I was hoping to catch the right timing on the potty for her to really need to have one. She's been peeing on the potty happily all week but had yet to have more than a tiny poop this morning in the potty and was very apprehensive about it. My biggest fear in this process so far has been that she'll freak out about pooping both in the potty and the diaper and then get constipated. But sure enough, she had to go after lunch and plopped a big one right in!! I don't think she was as excited as I was, but hopefully having a successful and not very strained attempt will motivate her to do it again!!

I am still not sure how fast I want to train her out of diapers, especially when going out of the house. But she seems to be taking to it really quickly and easily, so I probably should be willing to try taking it all the way and see what happens. We are in a peaceful, happy stage of life with no trips planned and no baby on the way. It is also nice in a way that it is still winter, because we don't have tons of fun outside activities to distract us from staying at home for awhile to learn.

So proud of my little girl for taking these big steps!!

The week's highlights

2012-01-21T17:41:00.000-08:00

Just so I can remember here on this online scrapbook of mine :-).... Emily measured 35 inches tall and 23.5 lbs at her 18 month appt. Crazy!!! She is over 100% for height and is 45% for weight. And her head circumference inched forward a bit to finally be 25% instead of the 10-15% it had been the first 15 months.

Praise God that all the fluid drained from her ears after the ear infection, so I no longer have to worry about that leading to tubes or causing hearing difficulties.

Cutest thing of the week? Emily wants all her dolls and animals to experience her normal routines. So many of them have "gone to the potty", sat in her booster seat, played in the (dry) bath tub, laid down in her crib with a blanket over them, and been rocked in her rocker. Love it!! Had no idea imitative or imaginative play would begin at this age.

Funniest / grossest thing of the week? We had the inevitable poo smearing party in the crib today! And luckily this mama had made a quick trip back to the grocery for one item I forgot this morning....so daddy discovered the disaster zone! He said she had pants and diaper off, and it was all over her and the bed. After a thorough bath and lots of laundry, both of them survived. Hehehe.

Second grossest event of the week? Emily and I flushed an upstairs potty after her doll pretended to go potty. Thankfully the bowl was clean, but something had apparently clogged the drain earlier, so all the water came flooding up! I started yelling "uh oh! uh oh!!" and Greg came running upstairs. We were throwing towels down on the floor to keep the water from making it to the carpeted hallway. Then as he was trying to get the water shut off on the toilet, I heard rushing water downstairs, too! Another flood of "uh oh!!" and I wisked Emily downstairs with me only to see water pouring out of the light fixture in the laundry room. At least that floor is linoleum! Luckily a plumber was able to come that night and fix it all and we amazingly had no water damage to the sheetrock or flooring. Phew! Not a fun night!

18 months!

2012-01-14T10:43:00.000-08:00

Our sweet girl turns 18 months today! We've catapulted from being content to sit and play to being busy, busy, busy! Climbing everything she can find, including finally mastering getting onto the couch, window seat, and rocking chair. She announces her victory with her hands up in the air to say "so big!"

I am feeling better that we are doing just fine with verbal expression now and are probably "right on track" with around 15-20 attempted words. She tells us dad, mama, ball, dog, bread, more, book "buh", bubble "buh buh", okra "o-ra", up "uhhhhh", down "doooon", neigh neigh for horse, baby "bebe", vacuum is "va", embarrassed to say she knows "bra" perfectly hahaha, hi, bye, all done, boot, lala (for aunt lauren) and NO! :-) along with many animal sounds. She is trying to mimic sounds, so when I say a word and ask if she can say it, she will often try to repeat part of it. I've tried not to do too many more signs, because she won't even attempt many of the words that she's learned as signs. And if we do a gesture with any word, she seems more inclined to only repeat the gesture. So when I have said "beep beep" about cars and motioned a beep, she will only do the motion.

She has been very interested in the potty this past month, so we are slowly working our way into that process! She tells me every time she is about to have a poopie by waving her hand in front of her face like it stinks. :-) She still doesn't want to sit on the potty to actually poop or pee, but she does like sitting there and going through the process of getting toilet paper, wiping herself, closing the lid, flushing the potty, and washing her hands. Not sure exactly how she feels about her big girl potty seat that arrived this week. She seems to like climbing up and sitting down on it frequently, but she does not want to stay there for long. We are starting off with a toilet seat reducer with a step ladder attached. Since she really likes the big potty but just can't sit up there alone, I thought I'd try her out on there with a supportive seat and handles to see how it goes. Would be nice so I don't have to clean a chamber!! :-) She's totally bent on taking off her diaper at naptime, so I've resorted to duck taping her diaper on at naptime after giving her a clean one and a chance to tinkle on the potty first. Without the duck tape, we've had 5 instances in the last week where she took off her diaper and proceeded to pee on the bed. Sigh... So she's definitely telling me she doesn't want to be dirty anymore, but we haven't connected it to the joy of going on the potty yet and feeling clean. I'm sure when she's ready and not a day before, that connection will come.

Some favorites right now are books, painting, scribbling, accessorizing (this girl loves her bracelets and bags!), and feeding and caring for dolls and stuffed animals. And going outside! She is oblivious to the freezing cold weather and asks to go outside often.

We are getting an upper canine tooth breaking through this week with another one really close, so foods have needed to be soft. E is also telling us her preference to have all of her foods separate on her plate. Nothing can be mixed together or she refuses to eat it and starts to fling it on the ground! Flinging food has not been a problem up until the last couple weeks. But she's also battling fluid in ears after her first ear infection, so I think that combined with the teething pain is making her a little less patient with things being less than perfect in her little world. :-) She's doing awesome using her spoon each day to eat her cereal and yogurt. That is also an area where she gets easily frustrated, though. She is now not content if a cheerio falls off her little spoon on the way to her mouth. We all lose a few cheerios along the way, haha, but she really really wants everything to make it to her mouth now. Clean little girl. :-)

I got a little insight into her today that I wasn't expecting. She's been cuddling dolls and stuffed animals tons lately, but I saw the first sign today of recognition of treating things with care without my prompting. We have this little bowling pin set that has animal faces on the pins. I brought it out for the first time and showed her how you roll a ball to knock down the pins. She started wimpering when all the animals got knocked down! She quickly went over and grabbed one and hugged it. Greg laughed and said, "Difference between boys and girls!" So true!

She's having fun learning to socialize and recognize her friends a little more now. She smiles really big when I say we are going to play with friends. And E's gotten pretty good at trying to say her friends Ben and Aubree's names.

We go in for her 18 month appt next week, so I don't know her stats, but she's comfortably in 2T shirts and still in 12-18 month pants. Looong torso. Pray with me if you think about it that the fluid in her ears will be gone by the appt on Wednesday. They said on Thursday that it is common to have this after an ear infection, but that if it doesn't go away on its own it can affect her hearing and speech and also might mean we need tubes. :-( I thought since we'd never had an ear infection before that getting one this late in the game would mean we were free from the need for tubes. But you never know, I guess.

Christmas Blessings

2012-01-04T11:16:00.000-08:00

We were on the road (ok, air) this year and made it back to Houston for a great visit with family! This is the last Christmas to only buy two plane tickets, and we were so happy to be able to get back home this year. It was a whirlwind trip going from Greg's parents to my dad's to my mom's, but we managed to really soak in the time and have lots of fun. All three of us were filled to the brim with yummy food and sentimental gifts and left with a feeling of fullness of heart and soul. It is good to be surrounded by loved ones over the holidays. I have to confess that with all of the traveling and watching after a busy toddler in full exploration mode, I did not take the time to let Christ's birth saturate my heart. That is the cornerstone and chief concern of Christmas, but it did not have a central place in my day to day celebrations this year. I hope that as I round the bend and look toward Easter I will be able to focus my eyes upon the cross and worship my Savior.

16 months

2011-11-16T19:20:00.000-08:00

Another month has come and gone and somehow they seem to be flying by faster than I can breathe now. I've blinked and we are already to 16 months!

Emily, you are amazing me and delighting me in new ways, sweet girl. I find so much joy in watching you discover how things work and seeing your face light up about things you enjoy. You are showing yourself to be strong willed, opinionated, and determined, skills that will serve you so well in your future! (I know because I passed that gene right on down to you!) At the same time, I feel like you are also incredibly obedient. I see you wrestle in you mind with your desire to do one thing and yet deciding to obey our instructions instead much of the time. I pray that as your sweet toddler years begin that we will be consistent, kind, and wise parents to help instruct the bold heart God has given to you.

Some of your favorite things this month have been: perfecting your undressing prowess, blankie, any picture of a horse, your little people's farm, books/books/books! especially about animals, blowing kisses, learning how to scribble, finger painting, brushing your teeth, looking at family photos, putting tops on and off of jars over and over again, pretending to drink tea with your teaset, feeding your baby doll a bottle, accessorizing (with supervision) with mommy's bracelets and necklaces, cookies & milk before bathtime, your daily breakfast banana, and recently learning how to get in and out of a cozy coupe by yourself.

Things you'd rather skip: Getting dressed, changing your diaper, getting into the carseat, eating veggies (at least peas and brussel sprouts (??) still seem to be faves), teething, deep chest coughs, and mommy being on the phone.

You still prefer to sign your needs or point, but I can tell you are forming more sounds that will eventually turn into words. Tonight I got a taste of toddler speak at dinner with you. You were emphatically saying "me me me me me" and I wondered if you wanted your milk instead of your water. When that didn't stop the waterfall of me me's, I realized your little people's cow was right next to my plate. You were trying to moo! Once I handed you the cow you looked so relieved. :-) Sorry sweetie that I haven't translated much yet! Your favorite word is Neigh and you burst into "neigh neigh" whenever you see a horse, which is actually pretty often.

You started walking confidently this month, and now I don't worry about you taking falls anymore unless you don't see a step in front of you. You love to climb the stairs and go down them feet first on your belly. As soon as I see your little legs get tall enough, we'll work on taking big girl steps up the stairs.

I am amazed that at 16 months you are fitting most comfortably in 2T shirts! Anything else comes up too short on you now. Pants on the other hand are still best in the 12-18 mo size and even a few stretchy 12 mo ones.

You now have 12 teeth-- 12!!! Crazy! The bottom molars have just cut through your gums, and I pray that means your teething pain is almost over. Thank goodness for ibuprofen, because you have refused frozen washcloths and teethers to help with this. These teeth have given you a couple weeks of fitful sleep even with the ibuprofen, but overall I am super happy that your sleeping seems to be going swimmingly now. You are thrilled to start your nap and nighttime routines most of the time and now lay down without a peep. I think you are starting to love sleep! Yay! I also think walking all over the place has helped you get tired enough to love sleep.

Happy 16 months, Emily Katherine! We love you!


This is your "cheese" face. I LOVE IT!!!!


Being silly with your friend A

Our first attempt at a sensory box...black beans and oatmeal. I think it was a good start. You crawled in a few minutes later!

I love this picture.

Snow play take 2. You liked it this time because it wasn't falling on your face!

Totally not a fan of riding the donkey. But what a cute ladybug. :-)

Fun w/ Grandaddy when Gigi and he visited for a couple days

Feeding your baby. Amazing the entertainment a disappearing milk bottle from the dollar store can provide!

Raking leaves with Daddy!

Playing in the leaves. More like picking them up and handing them to me one at a time like they were pieces of trash, haha.

Tuckered out :-)

Sponge painting for the first time. Yay for a linoleum floor and washable paint!

Highlights of the week

2011-10-26T07:29:00.000-07:00

I like to write down my blessings whenever I can so that when I'm having a hard day, I can look to the Lord and look at His sweet gifts as reminders that life is so wonderful! I'm not having a hard day, but I thought I'd write out some fun moments from the past week or so anyway.

This morning was a sweet start! Emily has been sick for a couple days, and last night she conked out (thanks to the doc's nod of approval to give a little Benadryl). She slept 11 hours without a peep or a cough!! Woke up happy at 6:30 this morning, and I woke up rested and happy at 6:30 this morning, too.

Because it is a little colder in the house and probably because she was still a little drowsy from the Benadryl, Emily wanted to snuggle a lot this morning. Oh what a heavenly gift to Mama! E was not a snuggler at all as a baby, and I felt I missed out on something not getting to have many times where she was content in my arms. Lately she's been very affectionate with lots of hugs throughout the day but still hasn't wanted to curl up and rest with me. This morning we snuggled for at least 10 minutes in the rocking chair, and she kept nuzzling,sighing, and saying "mmm". :-)

Got a box of hot chocolate packets from the grocery for $1.25. Well spent :-)

Visited Philly for the first time with Emily last Friday, and got to see one of my favorite people in the whole world-- Allison! Allison was up from Texas for a conference, and we got to spend a day hanging out, touring the city, and catching up. Such a treat! Also made me want to go back and do some of the children's sights next summer with Greg and Emily. The children's museum and the aquarium would be sooo fun for her by next year. While we were there, Allison and I tried our first "official" Philly cheesesteaks. I have to say that though it was tasty, I don't think I'd feel compelled to do it again. Cheez Whiz and steak-- really? This is world famous? Haha.

Was blessed to have some me and Jesus time on Saturday when I went to a morning women's retreat. The speaker had some powerful words to share about walking in the footsteps of Christ. I have been reminded this week by some events that God is well aware of my heart and delights to be the leader and Lord of my heart. Isn't it so good when we can see our hearts in light of God's goodness and his careful covering? When He adjusts our thoughts, plans, and ways to be in agreement with His? Isaiah 55:8 says "I don't think the way you think. The way you work isn't the way I work" (The Message translation). Such a treasure to me to put my life in His hands again and ask for the opportunity to align my ways with His.

15 months

2011-10-15T18:24:00.000-07:00

Emily turned 15 months on Friday! Our baby girl is quickly turning toddler on us, and it is fun to see her soak up life and show her personality each day. We don't have her well check until next week, but I did get to weigh her on Friday and she's 22 lbs 9 oz. We've really slowed down on the weight gain (she weighed 1 pound less 3 months ago), but she still eats a ton, so I guess that's fine. When I get her height standing up, I'm coming up with 30 1/4" so she's definitely grown taller in the last few months. She's now almost exactly half my height. I know that's not saying much, but it still amazes me, haha.

Things she's discovered this past month:
* Found those sea legs!! Walking can now get up to about 25 steps at a time before losing her balance. Still have lots of 5 step moments, too, but she's determined to get back up and keep walking now.
* Pointing to her head, eyes, nose, ears, mouth, belly, fingers, feet, toes, knees, and arms.
* We got pat-a-cake down! She always wanted to just stare at me and not participate, but now she heartily jumps in.
* Animals sounds/motions: duck, rabbit, dog, sheep, horse, elephant, monkey (once), alligator (we clap for the snapping sound), and pig. I really am not sure how we arrived where we are, but she only wants to do the actual sound of the animal and not the word, if that makes sense. So a duck is the actual quacking sound and not the word "quack", a dog is panting not "woof", etc.
* Blowing the air when I say the word "wind" or "blow"
* Following directions really well. She's got great comprehension and follows most single or two step commands as long as she isn't wanting to resist what you are asking.
* Thanks to Greg finding fun ways to teach her, Emily is great about sharing!! I know this will change, but it is coming in handy when we need what she's holding or she needs to give a toy back to a friend.
* Climbing- very into climbing the stairs and going back down and climbing on the couch and into her toddler chair.
* Giving hugs and kisses, blowing kisses, waving hi and bye-bye. Up until today her wave was always squeezing her fist facing toward her (sooo cute). But today when she was waving to a man in the checkout line at the grocery, she was doing an open palm, outfacing wave side to side like we all normally do. Surprised me!
* Drinking from an open cup (with a steadying hand from us) and eating w/ a spoon and fork if we help her scoop. I need to be better about letting her just go at it with the utensils, because that's the only way she'll get good at it, but I've been resisting the mess. About time to give in, though!
*Experimenting with undressing. She can't quite get the shirt off, but she's got the wiggle out of it down when I get it started. Somehow knows how to get the pants off in the crib, haha. And very not into socks and shoes, so those come off frequently! Not good considering it's about to get super cold for a long time here, but I guess her toes will figure that out. Who can blame her, though. I'm a barefoot kind of girl, too, any chance I can get.
*Pointing to objects. This might seem trivial, but this only started this past week, and I was ecstatic when it did! We've had more than a few meltdowns from a lack of expressive language, so I am hoping that her new-found interest in pointing will help ease some of that frustration.
* Sign language: please, thank you, eat, all done, milk, and bath. I'll lump her water signal in with this, too. If she wants water, she slurps the air like she's taking a big sip, haha.
* The word list really hasn't grown, and I plan to ask the doc next week if I should be doing anything differently than I am to help her with verbal expression. It seems like there is such a HUGE spread of what kids are doing verbally at 15 months. Lots of friends near her age are right with her...less than 5 words...but there are equally as many with long lists of them and learning new ones all the time. She likes to babble whole sentences throughout the day, but none of it is coherent and if I ask her to identify an object by naming it, she falls silent and moves onto the next thing. So maybe she's sensing pressure. And it might be that all this walking practice has consumed this past month. I do believe there's a link between gross motor development and the onset of talking, so I'll be interested to see what the next month holds since she's really started walking more this past week. I know that her babbling took off when she started crawling, so we'll see!

What Emily loves right now:
*blankie at nap time
*peanut butter, bread, gold fish, yogurt, oatmeal, bananas, sweet potatoes, any cheese, turkey sausage, and avocado. She still eats her veggies but with much less enthusiasm than she used to.
*buddy! buddy gets 10x more kisses than mommy and daddy
* her best friend, Ben. :-) She now recognizes a friend and is happy to see him when they play.
* the stairs. we spend a lot of time at the stairs.
* puzzles- she is starting to place the matching piece on top of the spot it goes in. She doesn't get it into the slot, but she does correctly place it on top of the spot.
* books- interest in books has really soared this past month. She now seeks them out often, sits with them turning the pages for a long time and will respond to something she recognizes (laughs at a baby smiling, pants when she sees a dog, bounces when she sees a frog, pats her head when she sees a hat). It is fun to watch her from a distance and know which page she is on in a book based on how she's responding.
* the camera-- this girl knows how to flash a cheesy smile! I am often too slow to capture that first big grin, but it is so adorable that she knows to ham it up when the camera comes out.
* brushing her teeth, brushing her hair and washing her hands.We all sit down on the floor together many mornings and brush our teeth together. She thinks she's such a big girl!

* finger painting. she loves to get messy with it and smear the colors.
* a cool breeze. it's been breezy and cool the last few days and each time the breeze hits her face, she smiles and laughs. she also does this with light rain showers. so cute!

Things she's not a fan of right now:
* Sleeping in, although we've been blessed with some almost 6:30 mornings lately.
* When we leave the room for sleep time. Still puts up a protest no matter how happily she snuggles into that crib.
* Fish, eating veggies if she can see/smell a carbohydrate at the same time.
* Socks, shoes, and pretty bows in her hair (sigh :-) ).
* The front door closing.
* Having to wear a bib at mealtime (and yes, we very much need one!)

Such a long post, but this will help me remember what's been going on lately! We love her to pieces and are so blessed she's been given to us!

Annual trip to Charlotte, NC!

2011-10-13T13:17:00.000-07:00

We've officially got a tradition going in our family now where the girls (+ George, my aunt's second half-- they are both equally wonderful :-) ) get together at the end of September for a girls' weekend. So. much. fun. Emily has been to Charlotte three times. Once in my belly, once as a newborn, and once as a toddling, babbling little girl. We had a great time soaking up the beautiful, cool weather, all quacking like ducks because Emily's quack is so funny to hear. We also had the joy of having one of my dear childhood friends drive up from Charleston to spend the weekend with us, too. I hadn't seen Taylor since Emily's baby shower in 2010 and now Taylor is expecting a little one! We checked out the local farmer's market, where we got pics with the pumpkins and E discovered how much fun indian corn is to play with. We also had a great lunch over at my grandmother's retirement community where Emily got oodles of attention from everyone. Mostly about how much she can eat, haha. Yes, she does impress everyone with her eating prowess! All in all a great, quick visit and I can't wait to do it again. Here are some pictures from the trip!

Pay it forward

2011-10-11T09:21:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had an experience where you just knew that God was orchestrating everything and waiting for you to have the "aha" moment He'd planned for you?? I had one of those today. Emily and I were starting out on a lovely drive this morning to go to Toddler Gym time at a local church. I was so excited about it because I loved meeting these sweet mamas and kiddos for the first time last week and I had a friend coming to it for the first time who I was going to introduce. We were plugging along when I decided to look over to the passenger seat to put my cell phone into the bag. BAM. Our right front tire hits the curb and then bump bump screech I realize in a matter of seconds that this was not just a little side swipe of the curb. My tires on our Accord have been through their share of minor curb kisses, but this one was a doozy. I think it took about 10 seconds for me to gather my thoughts and pull into a driveway to get us stopped and to look at the damage. It was worse than I thought. :-( The tire had completely flattened out and the rim was bent up as well. $$$$. Could I really have messed up my car twice in a matter of months?? I shakily called Greg to break the bad news and he was, thankfully, very calm on the phone and came right over. We were only a mile or so from our house.
Before long the owner of the house where I had pulled in came out to see what had happened and if he could help. He was incredibly nice and offered to let us sit inside his house and enjoy some coffee or hot chocolate. I was too embarrassed about everything to come inside and figured the tow truck would be there soon. I didn't want to be an inconvenience. This man had come out of the house seconds after my tears had started flowing as I'd apologized to Greg and let the weight of the problem hit me. I told him we were on one income and that this was just not what we needed to have happen and I wasn't even sure how it had happened but here we were. He encouraged us that it wasn't as bad as it looked and that we were more than welcome to come inside while we waited.

We decided to wait in the CRV, but before long he was pulling out of his driveway heading to work and stopped at our car first. We rolled down our window and he said, "You happened to pull into the right driveway today." He handed us his business card with the words "Good for one tire and rim. Pay it forward" and his signature on the back. With jaws dropped, we listened as he shared that he wanted to be able to cover the cost of the new tire and rim we would need in exchange for us paying it forward to a person we saw had a need. W.h.o.a. He shared that this is the way he lives his life and that this is the way the world should work. He knows the owner of a local car repair company and said all we needed to do was show that man the business card and it would be taken care of.

We both teared up as he headed off to work and realized that God never lets one moment of our days out of His sight. He moves His people to incredible things. The man shared that he was a stay at home dad for awhile and that he was glad to see that we were doing the best thing for our family even when we see so many families around us earning two incomes and having the financial ability to do more than we could. What a blessing and encouragement!!!

We are excited to see how the Lord asks us to pay it forward to someone else. What a privilege to pass on this act of kindness and be the hands and feet of Jesus.

I would LOVE to hear more stories like this-- anyone have one to share?

Check it out!

2011-09-28T13:04:00.000-07:00

Hi friends! I don't have much time to sit and type today, but I wanted to point you over to my friend's blog at Long Distance Lobsters ! I am thankful for the opportunity I had to do a guest post about long distance relationships--- that includes many of you who read this blog! :-) Check it out and leave me a comment on there to answer the questions I posted. So very thankful for all of you sweet friends-- near and far!

This is life

2011-09-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

I had written a post a couple hours ago about how hard the last week had been in the sleep and crankiness department, but I have decided that was just not something I needed to leave out there in blogland. Not really the topic you'd want to read about, ya know? Ask me how you can pray for me, and I will gladly fill you in about my need for God's grace in this parenting thing.

Anyway, it led to another thought that was a little less hostile and that is that days like I've had today are just life sometimes with a little one at home. And that it's ok. It's ok that today Emily didn't want to sleep more than 20 minutes at naptime when I was too tired to get up off the couch after I'd only been sitting 5 of those 20 minutes.It's ok that I had to cry about the short nap and confess my selfishness to the Lord. It's ok that I have 3 clean loads of laundry strewn around my house un-ironed (at least they are clean). It's ok that the dishes are piled up, the floors are also covered with toys, I haven't eaten well myself today (pretzels and chocolate have been my mainstay on the run). It's ok that a 4:20am cry out woke mommy up enough for the rest of the morning, a 5:50 wake up for Emily, and a 20 minute nap might sabatoge our plans for a super rare night out with friends at 6:00 tonight. There are going to be days like this many times over, and I need to surrender to the fact that life with a little one (at least with my little one who doesn't know there's a schedule in my mind I'd absolutely love for her to follow)...is just going to be this way for awhile.

Do you have times when you think, "Wow, here we go. This is life whether I am ready for it or not today"?

Here is my favorite song right now by Aaron Shust- every time I hear it on the radio I am like, "YES! AMEN! My hope is in you, Lord!" One of the best lines is "I wait for You and my soul finds rest, in my selfishness you show me grace." Enjoy a moment of worship in your day- whatever life has brought you today.

Happy thoughts for the day

2011-08-29T09:46:00.000-07:00

I tried out Pioneer Woman's iced coffee recipe this morning and oh my word it is amazing!! We cut the recipe in fourths because we didn't have a big storage container, but it still made almost 2 liters of coffee concentrate using 1/4 lb of grounds. YUM!

I am very thankful that Irene did not affect us too much. She came overnight and stormed while we slept (except when she woke Emily up...) and the only damage we witnessed was a large tree that fell toward the street on a neighboring property. The second half of Sunday was beautifully sunny and today has been even more pleasant. Enjoyed the cooler, sunny weather with Emily this morning on a stroll.

Had a great chat with a far away friend last night. Don't you love those? Seems hard to schedule them anymore, but it is so worth it. Friends are such a blessing for encouragement, sharpening, and celebrating.

Fall is just around the corner here. I probably write about this every year around this time, but I love a good seasonal and semester transition to get me on a fresh new schedule. Things we have in store around here this fall: free toddler gym times at local churches, women's retreat mornings once a month for moi :-), library singing and story times starting again, trips to North (science) Museum, pumpkin patches, and sweaters.

What have been some of your happy moments so far today?

a little slice of the pie

2011-08-25T20:29:00.000-07:00

I have been apt to often see grass growing more beautifully on the other side of the fence. A few more cows in the pasture over there. A whiter, cleaner fence over there. A manicured, orderly garden down the road. You get the picture. Comparison often does become the thief of joy!

So I thought one antidote to my wishful thinking about drifting back to Texas or even just living in a different, more "convenient" location in Lancaster County would be to chronicle things that I absolutely love about living in Millersville.

* I see a sunrise coming over a hill in the distance when I look out my back porch every morning (because, yes, Emily is up with/before the sun and we are usually eating breakfast together when the sun rises).

* Our neighborhood has beautiful, wooded walking paths. I literally walk out my back door and I am dropped onto a maze of walking trails draped with pine needles and tall trees.

* Our neighborhood has a huge pond with a fountain and swans who take up residence there part of the year. I love seeing this as I round the corner near home.

* Although a time and traffic inconvenience, I love that I have to drive through MU's campus just to get from my neighborhood to pretty much anywhere else in town. Seeing the college students reminds me of my college days and also reminds me that my husband is here for these kids. Part of his passion is helping these students learn.

* Greg's office is literally 1 mile from our doorstep. How amazing is that? Emily and I can stroll (when I'm up for all the hills both ways!) over to surprise him in his office. He can do an 8-5 day and leave the house at 7:58 and then be home at 5:02.

* Although not equipped with comfy couches and free wifi, there is a Starbuck's in the dining hall at MU. And that's within strolling distance also. :-) I have to really want the coffee since I definitely work off the calories during the stroll, but it is great to know it is there. Especially since the next closest one is 15-20 minutes away and not really on any of my normal routes.

* I just discovered a back road out to farmland that is enchanting and makes me want to stop in my tracks and just worship God for His handiwork. All this only a 5 minute drive from my house? Amazing. How did I not know about this before.

* Pine View Dairy is only a 7 minute drive away. We have now gone even more retro and have moved from buying our milk in glass jars to buying it in plastic bags that we then empty into our own pitchers. It is the freshest, yummiest milk and it is so healthy for you! And cheaper than what we were buying in glass jars and what you can get at the grocery store. They also sell to die for fresh ice cream. Not good for my waistline, but oh so good for my heart!

* We are only 10-15 minutes from Lancaster City. That's not a bad drive and there is tons to do in the city. I feel like living this close to the city has helped keep me connected to a bit of downtown culture, which is super important to me coming from the 4 million + city of Houston. Not that little Lancaster has much in common with a sprawling Metropolis, but just having access to fine dining, operas, and a library is a good thing.

*There are some great parks for Emily close by. I did always envision having my children grow up within walking distance to a park and we don't have that right now. But we can get to a huge one with many different playgrounds and a winding creek in less that 10 minutes. And one that is all rubber and plastic (good for staying clean!) and seems whimsical and creative to me.

* Millersville itself is on the old and slow side, but is has a certain charm to it. Stunning old homes with wrap around porches (there is one for sale only 10k more than we paid for our little townhome...oh right, this is the antidote post to the grass always being greener :-) ) and a quaint mom and pop grocery store.

* Being 25-30 minutes away from the closest Target, all the good restaurants, the outlet malls, and Gymboree classes means we save more money not shopping. See, I put a positive spin it!

I look forward to coming back to this list over time to appreciate my little slice of the world that God has provided during this time and to add to the list as I find new things to appreciate.

What do you love about your little slice? What is something new you've noticed this week about it?

Spotlight: Long Distance Lobsters!

2011-08-25T09:09:00.000-07:00

Did I catch your attention?? :-)

I have a little treasure I want to share with you today, friends! A dear friend of mine named Zoe has teamed up with a dear friend of hers named Emily to write a fun, witty, and insightful blog about long distance friendships and all things in between that they wish they could experience together. Long Distance Lobsters -- You have got to check it out!

I have been so blessed to have shared many years in person with Zoe as we grew up in middle school and high school. We were two of the very few committed Christians in our school and that made us fast friends. Zoe was(is) also one of the few people I knew who could dish out more wisdom in one good chat than a whole book could hope to afford. I relished coffee chats at Diedrich's Coffee House and prayer times at school over lunch break. Oh and going on and on about our boy crushes, haha. We both had a knack for falling hard for these friends of ours, although she normally got the boy she liked, too. As the years have passed (goodness, the years have passed! High school graduation was 10 years ago!!), we have found ourselves in new experiences miles apart, but the Lord brought us back in touch as we experienced the journeys of pregnancy and motherhood overlapping. So few of our friends from childhood have had children yet, so it has been a joy to share the experiences along the way!

Be sure to check out her latest cooking adventures and Emily's movie review of The Help (amazing movie, btw!!!) and how to surviving a long distance move with an infant

Let me know what you think! :-)

Birthday!

2011-08-16T12:17:00.000-07:00

Aren't birthdays so much fun?? I am reminded that one of God's sweet gifts to us is the discipline of celebration. We are called to "Rejoice in the Lord always" and "Be thankful in all things". And birthdays are a great time of reflection and thanksgiving for the precious family and friends the Lord brings our way.

This past Sunday was Greg's 30th birthday!! Can't believe my hubby has been on this earth now for 3 whole decades. He has grown and changed so much through the different seasons of life. We were marveling at the fact that this coming January will mark 10 years of friendship for us-- 1/3 of his entire life! It has been amazing to watch what God has sovereignly and faithfully done in Greg's life these last 10 years. From a spiritual perspective, he's had the blessing of being baptized as a believer (and not just as an infant), planted and led a grad student ministry at A&M for a bit, served in leadership with the Newlywed/Young Married class at Grace for a few years, grown in knowledge and wisdom concerning God's teaching on forgiveness and how this can change our world and our workplaces for the better, and is now on his second round of teaching at Newsong in a School of Discipleship class. These are more front-runner things, but he's often been found quietly in the background as well, serving in the coffee ministry, praying fervently for needs he hears about, or giving sacrificially to those in need. From a social perspective, he's grown rich in love towards me and others around him. I've seen him open up in love toward his family in new ways, show a whole new side of affection and protection with Emily, and intentionally cultivate friendships. And in his work, he has accomplished so much in so little time! 3 degrees and two years under his belt as a prof. Wow! I see him caring deeply about how his research and teaching can help others achieve their goals and grow beyond where they think they can. He's making a difference in the field of restorative justice, something that seems so inherently biblical and yet is so rarely practiced. Here's to 30 amazing years that the Lord has given to Greg!

Parenting Book Poll

2011-08-04T06:17:00.000-07:00

Alright readers (the handful of you who visit this blog) :-) -- I would love to hear what parenting books you have read and, for the moms with older kids than I, what has really worked great for your kids so far? What techniques do you use for handling tantrums and/or whining? What techniques do you use for discipline when they disobey? What was the overall parenting philosophy that made the most sense to you?

We are just entering the whining and testing limits stage. Definitely not too bad yet, though I know this sweet girl has it in her to give us a run for our money, as most toddlers do. She still responds well to limit setting and obeys almost every time. Our loose end has been oodles of whining, so that is what we are getting creative with right now. I think part of this stems from Emily still being a bit behind on communication and the fact that toddlers in general can get frustrated as they try to communicate. But I keep thinking that when she gets the pointing thing down, it will help considerably for her to tell me what she needs or wants. She's picked up the all done and more signs at mealtime a few times this past week, so it is all getting there!

I'll start with my review first: Greg and I are going through the book Love and Logic for Early Childhood with a couple of friends in the neighborhood. It has already given me some great ideas that at least are helping me be a better parent. The first is that I need to go hard of hearing when the whining begins. In other words, I need to detach myself from the frustration and escalation that "tuning in" to the whining can bring. This has helped tons!! Another tip has been to have a phrase that I repeat with empathy whenever I'm responding to her tantrums. I have picked the phrase "I know", and it is helping me to actually feel empathetic as I help her work through her frustration. When doling out consequences for disobedience, I have ended up saying "How sad..." before I explain the consequences and remove her from the situation. This wasn't my favorite phrase in the book, but it is rolling off my tongue, so I guess it is going to stick! We are not really to the stage where I can offer many choices to her yet, since language and pointing haven't come in much, but that is a huge thing with Love and Logic. Lots and lots of choices where kids learn to exert control (in areas where we are comfortable with them having control) leads to self-confident, independent thinkers. I totally agree with this! I am excited to do this more with her as she gets older. The more control I allow her to have in the small things, the more respectful she might be of the limits I set on the things that matter. The book emphasizes that the early years can be very fun and rewarding if you have an action plan in place for diffusing tantrums and building the child's confidence. The only thing I see missing in this book so far is a scriptural framework to pull from. It is not that the book is anti-scripture by an means, but it doesn't give me a way to weave God's truths into the childrearing experience. And that is extremely important to me! I think there are some other books out there that can speak to that overall goal and will hopefully fit together well with some of the practical suggestions from Love and Logic.

Ok- your turn! What should I read next and why?

Two painless transitions!

2011-08-03T18:36:00.000-07:00

No, not done with the bottles yet. :-) I wish I could say that I snapped my fingers this week and that one was accomplished, but we are going to take that one nice and slow. I greatly appreciate my friend Brittany's wise suggestions about talking through the change with E, heaping loads of patience and love on her during the change, and simultaneously hyping up the cups of milk as I make the bottles less attractive. Thanks, friend!! I will also wait til her two teeth finally poke through and her first ever diaper rash goes away. Poor girl!

In the last two days, though, I am super happy to say that Emily has moved out of sleep sack mode and onto a blanket with NO fuss! In fact, most naps and bedtimes the last 2 days have happened much faster and with less "talking" than before. And she's been sleeping great at each nap and nighttime as well! I had been afraid to lose the sleep sack because I thought it had become a cue for sleep for her and I was worried she might get cold (especially napping in a tshirt, shorts, and no socks). But she hasn't missed it at all. Woohoo! She had outgrown the sack we had been using, and I couldn't bring myself to buy yet another new size. And I figured a warm summer would be a much better time to get her used to a blanket than when it was already cold here.

The other success is that I think we've found a lovey in the last two days as well! I pulled out a super soft, thin, small white blanket to drape over her during naptime yesterday morning. She ended up balling it up, biting on it, and falling asleep almost instantly! I have given her many other soft items this size, but she'd always chunk them away. I tested my theory yesterday afternoon when she was fussing to see if this had indeed been a comfort to her. She beamed when I brought it downstairs and handed it to her! She lets us hold it while she has her bottle before bed, whereas the other items I was offering as a lovey she would toss aside. I am a little bummed that it is white since it will be impossible to keep clean. And I will have to hope that Bering's in Houston still sells this little blanket so we have a backup. But yay for finally having something to transition away from the comfort of bottles!!

Today has reminded me that though we have one sticking point in this household at the moment, there have been so many things to rejoice over as well!

On flexibility (or lack thereof....)

2011-08-01T11:34:00.000-07:00

Today I came home from the dermatologist office with my back covered in stickers and tape. I was not sure what exactly I was getting into going to get "patch tested" for common chemicals found in soaps, creams, shampoos, etc. I guess I thought it would be like the scratch testing you get at the allergy office. Painful little scrapes that turn into itchy welts and two hours later you know the results. Patch testing didn't hurt at all :-) Just little stickers each covered in their own chemical compound all stuck on my back and covered with a big layer of tape to hold them on. I am supposed to 1) not bend over until Wednesday so the stickers stay put and 2) not itch and 3) not wash my back until Friday! Lovely. I was not planning to be limited with flexibility for 5 days or two have to take a bath instead of a shower (I hate baths...) Anyways, it has given me a little clarity on the other area of inflexibility in our lives right now and I hope the new perspective will give me an opportunity to respond to it with wisdom.

I'm sure back in the blogosphere somewhere I shared our early struggles with introducing the bottle to Emily. Her answer was a firm "no" until we tried again at 7 months. At that point she looked like she'd won the lottery every time you presented her with a bottle. Success! A little freedom for Mama! Our baby girl has learned a new skill! Little did we know that her attachment would lead to weaning from nursing before a year and now to this development of the bottle as her only soother. I'm sure it was a mistake to incorporate it into the afternoon nap routine (we survived the morning one without ever introducing it), but it was working like a charm to wind her down that way. Now I've dropped one of four daily bottles entirely (the one after her morning nap) and she whines intermittently from 10:30-2 until she gets the pre-afternoon nap one. She also throws a fit before her morning nap even though she never did this before and we've never had a bottle at that one. Doc says I need to get down to just the bedtime bottle and ideally get rid of that one, too. But I can't imagine how to do that if she is so frantic about the easiest one being gone. She's not *great* with her cups yet, either. She'll drink some from straw cups and sippies, but not nearly enough to hydrate her for the day. Do I hang on to the bottles awhile longer and see if she weans from those to a lovey for soothing and cups for milk on her own like she did from nursing? Do I set a deadline soon because the older she gets the harder it will be? Do I try the sports bottle sippies because they resemble a bottle or is that perpetuating the same drinking method and that's bad? What worked for you if your child was attached to the bottle?

What I've taken from my experience today is that being thrown off by change that is unexpected and uncomfortable can be hard. It can leave you reaching for something else but not knowing what you need to feel better. Perhaps that is a little of what Emily is feeling. She knows she used to wake up and have a bottle and it isn't there anymore. How can I encourage flexibility when communication is still in the beginning stages and her struggle with expression leads to meltdowns? I'm pouring on the love as much as I can and trying to hold firm with the change that's been made while brainstorming how to keep moving forward.

A very merry (one)birthday to Emily!!!

2011-07-21T06:51:00.000-07:00


The first smash cake- at home without clothes on (good idea!)


Notice the butterfly-shaped fruit tray (way to go, Greg!)


Todd is on Emily's top 5 list. He's been getting smiles out of her from day one.

Jess, Ellen, Rachel, and me catching up (not sure why we sat down around the toy?)


Erin and Kylee letting their boys play on the floor


Sean and Thomas finding fun "big kid" uses for the toddler toys

Happy birthday time! :-)

Immediately fascinated by her cooking pot (thanks, Mann's!)

and her giraffe pillow (thanks, Heath's!)

Big girl stats:
Weight: 21 lbs 4 oz (55%)
Height: 29 1/4" (55%)

Wow!! We have a one year old! What a blessed, magical, insanely tiring, insanely exciting, steep learning curve year this has been! One year ago today (the 19th), we were finally checking out of the hospital room that I was very glad to leave and were heading home with our 5 lb baby girl. She slept, we cried tears of relief and joy, we carefully maneuvered every pebble on the road back home, and life as a family of 3 began. Hard to believe that this little girl came home weighing 5 lbs and is now more than 21 lbs and full of energy, spunk, and curiosity.

We had a GREAT time celebrating her birthday (twice!) - once with Lauren, Mom, David, Nicole, and Paul and once with Greg's mom, my mom, us, and a whole host of wonderful friends. The party was up at our church in the fellowship hall. Wish so much that we had enough parking available to throw a party at our place, but sadly all the residents take the spots designated for visitors on our cul-de-sac, so we knew we had to have the party elsewhere. All the kids had plenty of toys from our house to play with up there (and they had each other, which of course provides plenty of entertainment). Food was good, cake was yummy, and the fellowship was a blessing as well. I think Emily had a great crawling around and checking everybody out. She was much more cautious at the party about her little homemade cheesecake cupcake, but the shots we got of her at home with it showed that she didn't shy away from the mess.

I missed her 11 month update on here, so lots has changed since her 10 month update! Let's see....

*just started clapping with her hands together instead of up and down last week
*lots of mimicking now- if you cough or laugh, she follows with one a few seconds later. She is such a social butterfly and really wants to join in when you are having fun laughing with someone.
*started waving awhile ago but only to Daddy! This past week she started waving to more people. She only waves "hi", and I think it is because it is exciting to wave when someone enters the room. She is sad when you say bye-bye and walk out the door, so I don't think she wants to wave because she's not happy when you leave.
* Words so far are "mama", "dada", and "hi"...and I'm pretty sure that "mmmmm" with a whimper is her attempt at saying "milk". She babbles everything else in long sentences with lots of vocal inflections. We have no idea what she is saying, but she is expressing that she has a lot of thoughts to share. :-)
*Last week (it was a big week for her!) she started to sign "eat" to us consistently. She might be starting to show us "all done" but I'm not sure if that's really what she is doing yet.
*Still crawling quickly all over the place and wanting to climb up and down on low areas; pulling to stand at walls, doors, legs, and furniture; and cruising about 3-4 steps along furniture when she's motivated. But no walking yet or solid standing unassisted. Although over the past couple of weeks, there have been times where she's stood on her own for 2-4 seconds at a time. But she prefers to be on her knees to move and will quickly kick her feet behind her in the air so she's dangling if you try to hold her hands up to help her walk. We are happy to have her crawl as long as she wants (both for our sanity and for her mental and fine motor development that comes from lots of crawling).
* Sleep has hopefully recovered now. We took a quick out of town trip for a few days that had her waking up b/w 4:30-5:30am again (ugh....), but last night she fell back into her 7:30-6 routine that she had been doing for about a month before the trip. I don't think we're going to get her to sleep longer than that until she changes to one nap a day. She flirted with that idea a few times on the trip, but once we were home she gladly went back to two naps a day. I'm happy with this!
* Still on formula in bottles at the moment, but we're planning on moving along to cow's milk and cups as soon as possible. I was pretty adamant about sticking it out with the formula until a year since the vitamin mix in formula is what she really needed through the first birthday. We've introduced 1-2 oz of milk into the formula a few times over the last week. She has been on straw cups for water since about 8 months old, but she still loses a good amount of what she sucks. It is sooo messy and wet when she drinks from a straw. I think she just doesn't care to change the habit, but the thought of doing this with milk is not exciting. She is getting much better at tilting her take n toss sippies back far enough to drink without my help, so that might be our milk cup for the time being. But I am hoping we are not using sippies for too long. After such a battle in the beginning with the bottles, it is now a very comforting thing for her. It will be difficult to wean her off of them. The times I've tried the last month or so have resulted in about an ounce of milk being consumed and a very unhappy baby. Any advice from a mom whose kid didn't like the transition??

Now you know way more than you ever wanted to about Emily's life at a year. :-) Thanks for reading!

What we're loving right now

2011-06-29T06:51:00.000-07:00

My happy places:
*Having Greg around so much this summer! So fun to be a family of 3 for a good part of the day. Professor life is a blessing.
* Starbuck's~ I can have it now! Whatever kind I want! With milk? Check. WIth caffeine? Check. Happy place! This is not an oft-visited happy place, but it is a welcome gift when I do have it.
* Dannon Fruit on the Bottom yogurt. It is a morning snack that I look forward to every day. Especially when the flavor is strawberry cheesecake.
* Today is one of those "perfect weather" days in my book. Sunny, deep blue sky with no clouds, gentle breeze, 72 degrees. And we already have a park playdate scheduled!
* Long emails with friends. I know they say that email is already a dying art, being quickly replaced by twitter, facebook, and texting. But I do love a long email with a dear friend! I love phone calls, too, but those seem harder to come by when juggling everyone's work and/or baby sleep schedules.
* Sleeping til 6am!!!! Emily's done it 4 out of the last 5 nights!!!! Please oh please keep this trend up! I never thought I'd be thankful for 6am, but it is all in what you have to compare to. 6 is infinitely better than 4:30 or 5. :-) AND I've been waking up on my own at that time and hearing her a minute or two later. My day starts much happier when I wake up on my own. :-)
* Family time is just around the corner!!!!! We are about to have 6 weeks off and on of family time. I am so stinkin excited to finally get to see everyone again. It has been since March!
* Making new friends and cherishing the old. I am SO thankful for this season in life with Emily. Getting to watch her make new friends and actually recognize other babies she is happy to see. Getting to make new friends up here and stay connected with friends afar. I know that if I was working full time and trying to care for her this would be so hard to do!

What Emily's loving:
* Her new obsession is Buddy's leash. It is so random and hilarious! As soon as she hears the jingle, she comes bolting down the hall to grab it and hold it before he goes out. She almost comes out of her skin, she gets so excited. If we let her play with it afterwards (which she will happily do for a LONG time if we let her), I have to have something pretty captivating to keep her from a meltdown when I take it away.
* Bananas! She gets one every morning with breakfast, and she now recognizes the actual banana before I peel it. Again, elation that only a baby can show!
* Broccoli- (ewww!!) I can't stand this veggie, but she will eat her weight in broccoli. Daddy's happy about this- it means more meals with broccoli for us!
* Her bottle. Sigh... no transition to a cup for milk around here! She will have a meltdown as soon as she takes her first sip if it's in a cup. I'm offering it in a cup once a day and a bottle the other 3. We'll get there soon enough!
*Stacking cups and bowls
*Shape sorters
*Cruising - ok, she's not loving cruising yet. But at least she's trying it! And she does look so proud of herself when she can get to something on the other side of the couch this way.
* Waving "hi" to dada- and only dada. Hehe. Lucky guy!
* Giving mama and dada zerberts on our bellies. You have to be on the lookout if you are laying on the ground nearby. She's quick!
*Sharing!! I know this one won't last for long, as the "mine" stage is on it's way in the next year, but it is SO cute to see Greg and her share his sunglasses back and forth. It is their special game. Greg puts the glasses on his head, she pulls them off, she plays with them and then holds them out for him to take, he thanks her, puts them on top of his head, and the process repeats. She loves it!

A few fun pics

2011-05-30T17:32:00.000-07:00

Her new thing is sticking her tongue out. So cute!


Cuddling up next to Daddy

Pulling J back after he blew her a kiss. They are so funny.

Loving jumping time

Standing up so well!

Picnic after strolling with B

Haha :-) Didn't like her first bite of watermelon!

A.l.m.o.s.t. there!

Another watermelon pic. So juicy!

Thoughts for Thursday

2011-05-26T11:48:00.000-07:00

I so wish I could put this blog somewhere up on the priority list, but it falls down to the bottom day after day. After all, talking with/emailing/calling the people I love is so much more satisfying than just sending my thoughts out to the crowd. And then there are the piles of dishes, laundry, and toys to clean each day as well. It's a long cycle! But I will try to catch up on a few fun things through this blog today.

In no particular order...

* My sweet friend, Ashley, and her son Connor and husband Ryan are moving near Chicago over the next couple weeks... :-( sad day!!! Ashley and I met through our Bradley childbirth class last year. Little did we know that Emily's early arrival would only separate Connor and Emily by 2 1/2 weeks in age! We have had a blast sharing this first year of their lives together and learning from each other's experiences (and experiments, haha). You will be dearly missed!!! But I am thrilled that this new adventure has come your way.

* Having surrounded Emily with some children close to her age, we are now entering birthday season! I think we have a birthday party to go to almost every weekend through her own party in mid June. I guess this is what you do on Saturdays when you have kids- go to lots and lots of birthday parties! It is so amazing to think that all these sweet babies are turning one this summer. Wow!

* I caused a fender bender last week. Sigh... Ok it was a little more than a fender bender on our particular car. It was scary to know that Emily was with me and to nervously open her door to see if she was ok. She was smiling at me and hadn't noticed anything, of course. Phew, breathe. The car will be in the shop for 2 more weeks but she should be good as new by then. I have vowed to be better now about not stealing a glance at Emily in the rear view mirror while I'm driving.

*I'm about to enter a busy season with data entry. I am happy to have more work! But I hope I have the diligence to keep after it each day. It also goes on the back burner sometimes.

* I just finished Beth Moore's study of Daniel with my friends Jess and Ellen and LOVED it. It was so informative and challenging! It made me look at my place in American culture with new eyes and challenge me to walk with integrity in an enticing world. It also gave me great excitement to read all the prophecy in Daniel and know what more of it means. Now our church small group is going through the book of Daniel, so I will get a double dose this year! This is going to really help solidify what I learn.

* We are really enjoying the beautiful weather this week and trying to get to the park and take strolls outside. Emily and I are now going strollercising (haha what a word!) every Thursday with some moms at a nearby park. It gets her some sunshine and burns some calories for me. Much needed!

* I am also enjoying getting to watch different documentaries with Greg on Netflix. It is a low key way to continue learning new things! We've watched stuff about wars, American history, research about dogs, the planets, the NSA, etc. And I can multi-task during it, which is something I can't do while reading a book. Thanks, Netflix!

* Emily is getting close to cruising now! She is very interested in climbing up the stairs and the platform entryway and all she wants to do is pull up to standing everywhere. Today she was squatting and standing back up (holding onto things) and I marveled at how strong her little legs must be to do that! Looked like she was practicing plies. She'll take 2-3 steps along the couch and she'll walk about 10 with me holding her arms up. So exciting!!

I think that's all I have! And naptime is most likely winding to a close. Glad I got to jump on here today. :-)

I have a 10 month old!

2011-05-14T18:36:00.000-07:00

Emily has had quite an exciting and eventful month! I guess I'll be saying that from here on out. :-) It is so much fun to watch her learn new things and enjoy life. I feel like everything has grown this month with her - her hair, her belly, her mobility...it is all coming along now!

We are getting out a bunch now that the weather is nice. Playtime at the park has been a great chance to get some sunshine, discover the joys of swinging and strolling, and meet with friends (mommy likes the meeting with friends part, too! ;-) ). I thought we might be stuck with only a modestly interesting local park in Millersville, but there are two other ones that are awesome only 10 minutes away. One is all rubber on the ground, which will be great once she's wanting to run around. The other has beautiful trails, creeks, and plenty of bucket swings as well as pavillions for picnic lunches. We are going to start a weekly strollercise at that one this week with some friends nearby. I am a little nervous about "exercising" again, even if it is just power walking. I know I need to, though!

The biggest new thing from this month, which I promptly already shared, is that Emily started crawling on April 26th! She went from not moving an inch to all 4's traditional crawling in a split second. It was amazing and even more amazing that I got her first little crawl on video!! By the end of the day she was able to move a few feet and was sooo proud of herself. That has totally opened up her world and has made her much more interested in her toys now. Before I had to keep handing her things, but now she can initiate if she sees something she wants to go get. We are having fun playing hide and seek with musical toys. I'll hide one under the carpet or slightly under the couch and she'll scramble over to uncover it. She is fascinated with pulling up the living room rug and her bathtub mat. It is funny to see her bypass a bunch of toys in the living room only to settle down at the edge of the rug and pull it back to feel the bumpy underside. Love it!

It didn't take long for crawling to turn into pulling up and trying to stand. We spent 3 1/2 months just sitting and in two weeks we are crawling to things and pulling up to standing. Wow!

Emily's top two teeth have broken through now. The bottom two came right on her 8 month birthday and were at the same pace coming through. Her top two have been staggered. One is halfway down and the other one broke through for the first time today. I think she's been handling it amazingly well considering the top two middle ones are usually pretty bothersome for most babies. No screaming- just a super runny nose and a run of nights where she was just "up" in the middle of the night.

Finger feeding has come along this month as well! She is doing GREAT handling finger foods now and prefers them over the purees. But mealtime goes much faster and she eats more if I can keep a puree or two in the mix at each meal. I know they say that you can't tell handedness at this age, but I swear she is a lefty just like me! She will only eat her food with her left hand. If she picks it up with her right, she will grab it out of her right hand with her left before bringing it to her mouth.

On that note, we had to do blood tests this month to screen for food allergies since she had reacted to carrots, oats, and barley. All the results came back negative. They even said they found 0 allergic response to these foods and the major ones like milk, wheat, soy, etc. So they encouraged me to re-introduce the suspect foods. I did do the carrots and oats and she reacted to each within 30 minutes of introducing them again. Big rash on her belly- poor girl! The good thing is that the rash wasn't itchy and it was gone within a few hours. So it's not a life threatening or even an uncomfortable response. It certainly has left me confused! I did the tests through the pediatrician and we finally will have our allergy appointment with an actual allergist this Wednesday. I know any allergy testing before the age of 2 can be wildly inaccurate, so I wonder what she will recommend for us. Carrots and oats are in lots of commercial baby food products!! But I am sooo thankful she can tolerate milk and I am pretty sure she didn't react to plain wheat.

Emily is still a fairly quiet child, especially when there is a crowd. But now that she's mobile, she has started to babble and squeal more frequently. Her first word was spoken this month- "mama!" Out of the blue- no random "ma-ma-ma" before that day. And from the get-go it was deliberately directed at me. What a joy to my heart!! She is also showing me now that she understands some of the words/signs that we say so much throughout the day. If I say and sign milk around the time for her to nurse or get a bottle, she will get super excited. When she is eating and I sign "all done" and she really is all done, she will smile really big and sigh (as if to say, "Oh good, you understand!!") I still don't get an excited response for "more" but I figure if she keeps opening her mouth then she's still hungry.

Favorite things this month are a shape sorter cookie jar, a piano/drum/cymbals toy that plays 50's music, her Mr. Bear that lives in her crib now, her banana toothbrush, her vibrating star teether, her boat in the bathtub, and her toy bar for the carseat (thanks, Aunt Kim!).

Here are a few pics of our little angel~

Playing at the park on Mother's Day


My best proof of my first 3 teeth!


Standing with my buddy, Connor!


Fixated on the best toy in the house- Buddy!


Girly girl!


Happy!!


Ooooh I like your hat, Daddy!


My little cowgirl :-) :-)

My first Mother's Day

2011-05-12T06:48:00.000-07:00

My first Mother's Day was a weekend to remember. I am super thankful for a loving and thoughtful husband who went above and beyond to bring me a weekend of relaxation and celebration. Saturday morning he prepared a bottle and got up at (before) the crack of dawn with Emily to start the day. I got to lay in bed instead of getting up to nurse and play! Then he had arranged for a surprise manicure and pedicure that afternoon. 2 blissful hours to myself... :-) That night we had a babysitter come over (rare occasion) and had ourselves a great date night. Went to Barnes and Noble to peruse the aisles and then indulged in a romantic Italian dinner complete with gelato. It was sooo nice to get out of the house just the two of us an not feel rushed to get back. That is the one perk about Emily ending her day by 7pm. We can now have a good amount of time for a date without feeling like we're out too late. Eventually we'll be able to leave her with a sitter while she's still awake and they can put her down for the night, but for now she still seems to need mommy to do this.

Sunday morning started in with getting to sleep in, too! And this time I actually did sleep in for awhile. Yay! I came downstairs and was greeted by the smell of freshly bakes waffles and scrambled eggs.

We stayed at home to watch the church service in our pj's, allowing us to continue to take it slow and allowing Emily to have a good morning nap. Then we all enjoyed the beautiful day outside at the park!

My mom also blessed me with a cookie bouquet on Friday! Needless to say those cookies didn't stay a bouquet very long. Yummy! What a fun surprise. :-)

It was such an awesome weekend!!

My heart is full

2011-04-28T10:57:00.000-07:00

Watching Emily start to crawl this week has brought me so much joy! She is so happy now to be able to explore her world and reach so many (sometimes off limits) things she has been eyeing all these months. It has only been 2 days and already she is clipping down the hallway, changing direction, and starting to pull up on things. I know that the fast forward button just got turned on in our lives, but I couldn't be happier right now. I am so thankful for the PT time we've had to help me learn how to help her. The PT said she would have learned it eventually, but it would have taken much much longer had I not known how to encourage her through some tough spots.

This is the video that I posted on Facebook, but I wanted it here for safekeeping, too. :-)

And a few more 9 month stats...

2011-04-17T06:32:00.000-07:00

We took Emily in for her 9 month check-up on Friday and were surprised to hear that she is already 28 1/2 inches long (75%) and weighed in at 17 lb 11 oz (~40%). She is growing well and the doc said we definitely needed to cut out the night nursing habit. She had been putting up a huge fight about it all week (we have all three been super sleep deprived!!!) but the doc was clear that she was also nap deprived and needed to go to bed much earlier than I'd been putting her down both for naps and bedtime. So Friday night we put her to bed at 6:30 instead of 7-7:30 and, though she did wake up 3-4 times, she never screamed and I didn't have to feed her to get her back to sleep. Woohoo! Last night she was in bed by 6:30 again and only woke up briefly twice last night, again no screaming or eating. She's also been taking really good morning naps the past 2 days. Still need to work on the afternoon nap(s), but we'll get there. Even though the schedule is a lot earlier than I want it to be (down for bed at 6:30 and up for the day at 6...ugh...) we have been completely unsuccessful at getting her to sleep past 6am or go back to sleep after nursing at 6 with the lights off. So keeping her up later in hopes that she'd go back to sleep til 7 or later just hasn't worked. And it has created a sleep deficit for her that has impacted her ability to stay asleep throughout the day and night. We just have an early riser on our hands, I guess. One blessing is that it does give Greg and me lots of time together at night.

Doc was also proactive on our food allergy concerns. I already have an appt with my allergist on May 18th to go over her possible allergies to oats, barley, carrots, pumpkin, and parsnips (yes, we got a rash with all of these...) But the pedi wants to go ahead and draw blood work before that appt so that I have a starting point at the May appt already. I could be seeing something that is not allergy-related, but it only popped up within 30 minutes of eating these new foods then it would fade away within an hour or two. Who knows?? I sure hope she's not allergic to wheat!!!

9 months!

2011-04-14T17:19:00.000-07:00

I had good intentions of posting during the past month!! But wow has life gotten busy with this little girl! It is amazing that she has been with us now for 9 months. Every week there is something new to celebrate, and I know the discoveries have only scratched the surface. Here are a few things that have happened over the past month:

Just this morning, Emily figured out how to get from being on her belly to sitting up!!!! She made it look like she'd been doing it forever and didn't even look up to me for help. I am so proud of her!

On Sunday she started getting really ambitious to move out of sitting and into all fours and back. Now she's spent a few days busying herself with this and has gotten very confident with it. When the PT came over last Friday, she said that the biggest key for getting ready for mobility and independence is getting into and out of sitting. I can tell you that last Friday I was not sure how long it would be before we'd see her pivoting onto all fours and I definitely thought we were a long way off from getting off the ground and into a sitting position. She proved me wrong! Buddy is Emily's biggest temptation and he has been a willing participator in this whole learning to move business. I am so glad he is so calm around her! I think he's in for it once she gets going, haha.

She has also gotten really steady being able to stand and hold onto things. She doesn't want to step yet, but I feel comfortable letting go and allowing her to hold the couch, toys, and windowsills now for a bit until she turns toward me and wants to plop back down. And one big surprise was her pulling up onto her knees from sitting a few times this week! So it is all coming together and we are getting prepared to finally need a baby-proofed house. I do have to admit that no mobility has the perk of keeping your house the way you want it for longer.

This week Emily has also been very interested in trying to feed herself and work on her pincer grasp. Last week it all seemed very frustrating and difficult for her, but she has managed to feed herself a few yogurt melts on her own recently, and I find her pinching the air all the time. It is so cute! We also have some great puzzles from her Aunt Nicole and Uncle Seth that have little pegs on them. I thought they'd be way too small for her little fingers to manipulate at this age, but she is addicted to pulling these little puzzles pieces out over and over again. I guess babies just know what they want to work on when!

Another new thing this month has been babbling. It has really taken off (finally...), and it is so fun to hear her get excited and "talk". Da-da is her favorite, followed by goo-goo and ga-ga. I have heard ma-ma only once and baba a few times. She also does la-la and ya-ya a lot, which the speech instructor said are unusual at this age. She is having fun making silly faces and is fascinated by looking at herself in the mirror. I keep one leaning against the dresser in her room on the floor so she can catch a glimpse whenever she wants. Emily is also laughing a little more this week and squealing, both things I thought we'd get oodles of months ago but never did. She gave Daddy her first big laugh for him this week. So fun . :-)

At 9 months, we are just settling into 6-9 month clothes and will probably be here for a while. I get her official weight and length tomorrow, but last week her weight was 17 lb 3 oz. So...we have a ways to go til that 20.5 lb change to 12 mo clothes. Hope we get into some of those beautiful summer 12 mo clothes before it turns cold again around here!

We are halfway between bottles and nursing at this point and will likely stay that way for a little while. She bit me a few weeks ago and I seriously thought I was completely done with nursing, but we have managed to finally shift to 4 feedings a day (plus one at night most nights...) so I am hanging on to the morning nursing and 3pm one. Once my supply seems lower at the afternoon one, that'll be an easy bottle replacement. But for now we'll save a little money and pass on those good nutrients to Em. She LOVES her bottle now, though....go figure. Complete rejection til 6 or 7 months and now she practically leaps out of my arms when we go to get it. She is also enjoying having a little juice each day out of her straw cup. I am happy that we are skipping the sippy cups since straw cups teach her a lifelong drinking style and also help later on with speech development.

I am so incredibly blessed to be this little girl's mom. She is beautiful, inquisitive, sensitive, observant, and determined. I pray that the Lord will continue to direct our steps and give us grace as we lead her and love her.

8 months

2011-03-17T18:13:00.000-07:00

What happens when life gets super busy? The blog takes a back seat for too long! There are oodles of updates to give, but I will just post about Emily's 8 month happenings first. Next post can be about our trip to Texas!

8 months sounds so old. Like we are officially out of little baby stage and into "big baby / not yet toddler" stage. I'm sure every parent has an age determined for when these transitions happen, but I always thought 8 months sounded like we were on our way into something new. And so far I think that has proved true. Emily is more interactive than ever and is starting to "talk" more and study what I do. This week she mimicked me patting over and over during dinner and might have tried a clap once. When I changed from patting to clapping she furrowed her eyes brows and brought her hands together in her mouth. Too cute!

I also felt her first two teeth for the first time on her 8 month birthday on Monday. They keep scooting up ever so slightly this week and are sharp little suckers. She is handling it so well! I am thankful that she is getting them now when she is more able to use teethers than when she was younger.

Emily is also getting better at moving from sitting to supporting herself on her arms and seems delighted that she can reach more toys this way. Last Friday she stayed up with her arms extended all the way for a few seconds for the first time and she's been doing it more and more every day. Way to go, Em! She is also wanting toys that are out of reach when she is on her belly now and is fussing and kicking to try to get them. Once those muscles develop to catch up with her motivation, we'll be in business. I give it 2 months max til she's crawling and probably sooner. She also said "baba" a couple of times while we were in Texas and is vocalizing and squealing more (usually when she is getting tired and is fighting it!)

The unfortunate new development is a delight in spewing food everywhere! It has made mealtime interesting and has given me the first real reason to try out the word "no" with her. Recent food introductions since the last post have been green beans, plums, peaches, and summer squash. The only one she wasn't too enthusiastic about was peaches, so I have decided she doesn't like tart flavors too much. But really I have been impressed with how well she has accepted everything. We have a good little eater so far! Not sure what will be next on the list. We are entering the age when I can start trying a lot more things like meats, eggs, puffs, corn, and wheat. When those teeth come through a little more we might be able to do cheerios or crackers and cheese. This is all assuming there is no gluten intolerance. She reacted to oatmeal, so there is a chance that she has that. I am praying that is not the case, though! Gluten is even harder to avoid than milk and if you can't handle gluten, it is a lifelong problem. We'll just have to be brave and try wheat and see how it goes.

Sleep has been going well many nights also, and she did amazingly well considering all the changes we had while in Texas. Now that daylight savings has moved us forward an hour, Emily is going to bed around 7:45-8:15, eating once around 4-6 and then sleeping til at least 7. Woohoo! I know most people adjust their kids back to their original schedules with a new time change, but I was ready to move her forward an hour. This mama is much happier if I can see my baby at 7am and not 6am! Em still takes 3 naps a day most days, 1 at least an hour and the other two 30-45 minutes. I'm thinking we might be able to stretch it to 2 pretty soon, but since that would mean an earlier bedtime and possibly an earlier wake up time, I am in no rush to change things yet.

Thank you, Zantac

2011-02-22T13:18:00.000-08:00

I really thought we'd made it to the end of reflux when Emily hit 6 months old. She even had a GREAT sleep week the week after we took her off the meds. I think it was a coincidence, though. After that, I started to see the spit up return, and the little gulping noise she gets when it all comes up and goes back down became rampant last week. Poor girl! Many times when I would lay her down on her back for a diaper change or to go to sleep, she would start crying. And she slept horribly last week. So I decided to get her back on Zantac just to see. It has taken 3 days to kick in, but we are back in business now! No tears yesterday or today at all, lots of long naps, and a 10 hour stretch last night with only brief, happy peeps in between! So nice....

We also tried bananas for the first time yesterday, and she likes them! The winners so far have been sweet potatoes, rice cereal, oatmeal, pears, peas (when I mix Gerber ones with my fresh ones), bananas, and butternut squash. She did not seem enthusiastic about apples or carrots, but she didn't reject them either. And the losers are avocados and acorn squash. I got her to accept the acorn squash, though, by mixing it with the butternut. Good thing, too, b/c I made a ton of the acorn squash and would like to use up those cubes. :-) Next up will probably by yogurt! Then I want to try the puffs and see how she does with those. She is just now working on a pincer grasp, and it would be nice to give those to her as safe items she can put in her mouth.

Tomorrow will be our first visit to the library for baby story time and also our first visit from the communication instructor.

Rolling, rolling, rolling!

2011-02-21T07:24:00.000-08:00

Well a lot has happened since my last post! One being shorter naps by the little munchkin, so that's one reason for less posts, haha. Within one week, Emily figured out how to roll back to belly and belly to back!!! Yay!!!! Although, as my friend Summer says about her daughter, this means it will be almost impossible to keep her on her belly now to work on her arm strength. She is almost immediately rolling back over once she is on it. I have been amazed how much this has opened up her curiosity in the world around her. She also in the same week started getting her bottom up in the air and her knees under her a little bit. So I do see much hope for her motor development!!!

We still had Early Intervention come to evaluate her. They actually came on Tuesday, before she was able to do tummy to back. I am glad that they came because they did find that she is behind in all areas except cognitive development. The only one that was significantly behind was gross motor. She has qualified for assistance, and even though I am seeing progress, the physical therapist pointed out ways that Emily has compensated and put herself into non-ideal positions to get comfortable. For example, when she's on her belly, she will frog her legs out instead of laying them flat and keeping her feet close together. I am excited to have a PT coming to visit us every 2 weeks to show me how to help her play and use her muscles appropriately. I think even the few suggestions they gave on Tuesday helped her to be able to roll over by Thursday. Amazing! I just didn't know how to help her until they pointed out what was holding her back. I don't think we'll need too many visits from the PT to catch her up, but I am SO thankful that they are coming to help. I also requested a special instructor for communication development. Emily might just be a very quiet little girl, but she is not babbling with vowel consonant combinations yet. Most of the time I hear "aaaa", "mmm", and "ga" and sometimes "ba", but not "bababa" or "mamama" or anything. The communication instructor comes for the first visit this Wednesday and the PT on Friday.

Another big change is that I was able to start Emily on a bottle last week! She LOVES it! Go figure :-p. Wouldn't take it at all for months and now she acts like she's been taking one the whole time. Right now I am combining breastmilk with formula to keep the taste a bit familiar, and I think she hasn't had a problem with the cow's milk formula- hallelujah! I so don't want this girl to be restricted in her diet like I was. She has been having one bottle in the middle of the day and last night was the first night to give her one at bedtime. I know they say that the last nursing of the day is a baby's most prized one, but it didn't seem to phase her. I think her favorite one is when she wakes up from her morning nap. If I try to sneak a diaper change in before her post-nap feed, she lets me know that wasn't her plan!!

Sleep is still a mess at night, but it is a little better. She is going down around 6:30-7:30 (depending on if she'll take her third nap) and wakes up an hour into sleep and cries for a bit. Then she's usually out til about 2ish. From there it is a party in her room until either 4:30 or all the way to when she is ready to be up for the day (sometimes 6...ugh!) Could be teething, could be reflux, could be that she was working on rolling over and is now excited about that. Last night it was that her legs kept getting out of the leg holes of her sleeper and two legs would get caught in one hole. Lovely. Sometimes she cries hard and is really awake and other times she just seems to moan out loud off and on for an hour even though her eyes are closed when we go in there. I started her back on Zantac on Friday, so hopefully that will kick in this week and we can see if that helps!

Greg and I had a fun date afternoon on Saturday. Our friends Rachel and Brent have a 9 month old daughter named Aubree and they graciously had Emily over for an afternoon so that we could run some errands and hang out together. I was able to find new glasses!!! :-) It might seem like a silly errand to run on a prized date afternoon, but that would be an almost impossible task to do with Emily right now. I wanted Greg to give me his input on which glasses he liked, and I wanted to take my time. The ones I picked out in a panic last summer when my glasses broke and I had no contacts were just not "me". I have hated those glasses from the day after I bought them. I LOVE my new glasses!! They actually look a ton like my old pair from before the summer pair. I sighed and thought to myself, "There you are. I've been looking for you." I wish so very much that I could wear contacts, but my eyes dry out by about 4 hours into the day. It is just not worth it.

I am heading over to a lady's house down the street this afternoon to trade out baby clothes. Emily is still comfortably in 3-6 month pants, but the onesies and sleepers are getting a bit tight. And I am ready for something new for her! We've been in 3-6 months for more than 4 months now! It is a great ministry this lady has. She has boxes and boxes of donated clothes, toys, bottles, bibs, etc. at her house and she gives you what you want for free and asks you to bring stuff you are no longer using. Love it!! :-)

Well, Emily is getting up from her nap, so I better hop off. We are trying bananas for the first time today- yum!

2011-01-29T07:13:00.000-08:00

A few updates...

I got a date set with Early Intervention for the developmental evaluation! February 18th will be here before we know it. And who knows? Maybe I won't need the appointment anymore by then!

Emily has a cold and that is why she was soooo cranky with her tummy time earlier this week. She wasn't running a fever that morning but by the afternoon it was 101! And I was making her get all that exercise. Poor girl! She is no longer running a fever and seems much happier now. She had a cold at 3 months old and now this one, so it had been awhile since we'd had any sickness in our house. I should have known that clinginess equals sickness! Thankfully it has not turned into an ear infection.

Yesterday was GREAT tummy time! I placed her on her donut rings and she stayed content playing with her toys and pushing up on her arms for 20-30 minute stretches throughout the day. I was so surprised! Usually 10 minutes is our absolute max before a meltdown. I think we just had to push through those first few days and now she is stronger and can do more. She still needs the donut ring to take the pressure off her belly, but I will use it as long as it keeps helping her! She rolled off of it twice yesterday when she lost her balance! So progress is being made, and I am feeling much better about it all today.

Here is a picture of the crazy snowfall we had this week:

A new start

2011-01-27T12:41:00.000-08:00

I am humbled and challenged by some realizations lately about some of my choices in parenting so far. We all set out to be the best parents that we can be and then exhaustion mixes with learning your baby's personality and to top it all off you can throw in a bag of medical issues and a bag of "expert" books and you have one hot mess! :-) (I realize that was not a very cohesive sentence). Anyway, I have realized finally that a big part of Emily's inability to roll and bear weight on her arms has been my failure to give her adequate tummy time. The excuses started with her colic and the fact that tummy time always resulted in lots of screaming and lots of spit up. I was so afraid that she was losing all her milk each time she was on her belly. And yes, it was a ton of spit up! She still spits up quite a bit when she's on her belly no matter how long it has been since her last meal. We had so much crying associated with every other activity of life the first 4 months that I just really didn't want to listen to or cause the crying on purpose. My worries about her arm strength started at her 4 month appt. The doc said not to worry at all and that it would just happen. No questions about tummy time habits. No advice on how long to do it every day. Nothing. So I complied and just waited and worried until Christmas. Then I called again and asked. They said they wanted to wait til her 6 month appt in January to address it and that I'd probably (magically) see her rolling by then. The appt comes and goes and they are still not concerned. Now we are to the end of the month and I sense a growing weakness in her arms and an even more present fussiness when on her belly. I started to panic that we've missed the boat!

Thankfully I have a sweet friend here who is an OT. She doesn't specialize in infant therapy but she has a friend with experience in this area. So I have the advice and the knowledge now to move forward. I am so grateful. For starters, Emily needs 2-3 hours of tummy time a day. WOW! That might not seem like a lot, but when you factor in a total of 8 awake hours and divide that by nursing every 2-3 hours, solid food 2x/day, sitting practice, exersaucer and jumper time, language play (which can only happen when she's happy), back time to play with her feet, bath time, and carseat traveling to have new experiences throughout the week...there is not much free time now. I also learned that the last 4 weeks in utero are when babies really hone their "flexion" (I think?) which helps their muscles to work and tone after they are born. No one told me this earlier!!! And I think I've read almost every book there is out there by now. So we were behind the eight ball for muscle ability from the start and should have been focusing on tummy time even more.

This is mostly a venting post about my errors to not push it more and about my frustration that things didn't get turned around earlier. We have had "Operation Tummy Time" for 2 days now and I've noticed a few things. One is that changes are happening quickly! She is using her arms more and bearing more weight. She is spending some of that time with a soft donut ring under her chest to take some pressure off her tummy and lessen the spit up. This has resulted in her rolling over twice. So the more she does it, the more she'll get used it. She is also just now starting to rest her head to the side when she's on her belly instead of face planting the whole time. She even conked out for 5 minutes on her belly with her head to the side when she was exhausted this afternoon. But the sad part of this is that she has cried almost her entire awake time and only stops when I am holding her. The 10 minute bursts of tummy time are so upsetting to her that she can't sit or lay or doing anything with enjoyment after it. That is not going to work for very long! She needs playtime and she needs to have more to her day than just a muscle workout and a bunch of tears. Hopefully this is only a short phase and the stronger she gets, the more she might come to enjoy playing on her belly.

Please pray for her muscles to develop well, for creativity for me on how to make this fun and enjoyable in some way for her (I have music and light toys, mirrors and tons of manipulatives to change out but they don't seem to matter to her anymore), and for our sanity as we adjust to a new dynamic of our relationship (mommy makes me do things I don't like and my baby is crying right in front of me and I'm not rescuing her). I had to do this with sleep training and it paid off, but this seems harder in some respects because she's awake and I'm right there with her.

Half a year!

2011-01-20T10:40:00.001-08:00

Oh my goodness. I am not sure I can face the reality that a half a year has come and gone since Emily graced us with her sweet presence. I am so much the better for having her in my life!

The past month has seen many new adventures. Emily is now sitting well without support and loving having a better view of the world. She is blowing bubbles all the time and adding some babbling in there every once in a while. She talks the most when she is frustrated about something- whole sentences of jibberish come flying out! I am glad she is trying to express herself. :-)

Sleep has seen a huge improvement in the last week or so. I will not be surprised if we backtrack many times again, but we have been blessed now with 8 hour stretches at night for 3 of the last 6 nights and 6 hour stretches for the other 3. She goes to bed around 6:30/7, so it still means I'm feeding her once in the middle of the night...but once is much better than the 3 I was doing the week before!! I thought we'd had a growth spurt already, but I don't see the fruit of that in weight gain, so perhaps that is still to come.

We also have a nap schedule now- woohoo!! Only took us 6 long months to get there. :-) Emily naps from 9-10:30, 1-1:45/2, and 4-4:30/45 most days. Some days if I am driving back from somewhere in the 12-1 window, she will fall asleep in the car and take an extra long afternoon nap. But either way, the morning and late afternoon naps are pretty consistent now. It is soooo helpful for planning our days and also knowing which tasks to try to accomplish at which nap times. I am sure that now that we are predictable, something will change that, haha. But for now I am enjoying it!!

We started food- finally!!! I am trying to "go by the book" when it comes to allergy prevention for Emily, so I've only breastfed and waited the recommended 6 months for introducing food. It was so hard to wait when I saw all the other babies lapping up cereal, veggies, and fruits many months ago and growing by leaps and bounds. But I do think that this was the best decision for Emily given her genetic "gifts" from us, and I hope and pray that she doesn't suffer from allergies, asthma, eczema, or food allergies in the future. She LOVED rice cereal and sweet potatoes!! She keeps grabbing at the spoon and trying to feed herself. I am trying to go slowly with her and not feed her too much too quickly. But I have yet to see a closed mouth when I have offered a spoonful. She must have my appetite and my metabolism. :-) Tomorrow we are trying oatmeal and next will be carrots.

Emily weighed in at 14 lb 13 oz and was 26 inches long (25% and 50% respectively). I freaked out when I heard that her weight % dropped, but the doc is not concerned at all. She said as a preemie that I saw her start under the chart, whiz way up to 50% when she was bulking up to catch up with her peers, and that she has now most likely settled into her own %. She said I should expect to see 25% or thereabouts from here on out. As long as the doc is ok with it, I am too!

Our new adventure today was sitting up in the grocery cart! Emily is getting too heavy for the front carrier I am using, and I figured she is now sitting up well enough to stay that way for a grocery run. She LOVED it!!!! I plopped her in and she got a huge smile on her face. She twisted and turned to look at everything in the store and got to interact with lots of people. This will make grocery runs much more entertaining for both of us now. :-)

I wanted to post videos here, but I couldn't get it to work. Anyone with a Flip camera know how to properly upload videos onto a blog??? Check my facebook page for videos for the time being.

Wow, this is long. Nap should be ending right about now, so off I go!

Tabletop Truths!!

2011-01-10T16:48:00.000-08:00

I might have moved away from Texas (tear...), but I love that I still have connections to some pretty amazing women down there who have big hearts for Jesus. I recently came across a blog post about Tabletop Truths and just had to share about their fun placemats, especially so my friends here in PA can check them out!

I remember always having placemats on the table while I was growing up. My favorite one was a map of the U.S. It had the names of the states and the capitals, and my sister and I always worked hard to memorize which capital matched which state. (It was about as excited about geography as I ever got...)

But I would have LOVED to have a placemat like this:

or this:

What a great way to teach our children about God's truths! I am excited to poke around their site more and decide which ones I might like to have for Emily in the coming years. :-)

Glad tidings

2010-12-27T06:38:00.001-08:00

As we take down the Christmas decorations around the house, finish off the leftovers, and move along in our thoughts toward the new year, I want to pause and reflect on the fact that Christmas really is "glad tidings". The word tidings means news or intelligence. So when we sing "Glad tidings we bring to you and your kin" we are we saying, "Hey! I have good news to bring to you!" Christmas is about the very good news of God coming to the earth to bring salvation to us lowly, sinning, hopeless people. And He did it because He loves us so much! I can think of no other thing to be more thankful for.

Greg and I have so much to be thankful for. My heart is just bursting with thankfulness right now. My love language has been gifts the last few years, so my love tank gets refilled around times like this when presents galore show the thoughtfulness and creativity of loved ones. When every Christmas card I get to place on my fridge is a precious gift and reminder that we have friends around the world with whom we share a sweet relationship. But above and beyond all these gifts is the treasure of the good news of Jesus Christ. He is my pearl of great price. He is the treasure that is worth selling all for and holding on tightly to. Jesus never disappoints. His love never fails. Hallelujah, what a Savior!

5 months already??

2010-12-19T09:19:00.000-08:00

We have now passed 5 months! Emily is so stinkin' cute. :-) Things are really getting fun now as she plays with her toys and interacts with us, "talking" to us about everything going on her little world. I think she got her mom's gift for gab. She also got my sensitivity, as she still likes to express her displeasure in many things as well. Typical baby stuff, but I long to mold her as she gets older into a girl who can get past the negatives in life (I struggle a lot with this myself!) I've often heard that it is very convicting to be a parent, because you are trying to train your children to do things that you are not good at yourself. We are not necessarily into the "parenting" and training realm per se, but I can already see so many things about myself that need to be refined before I expect Emily to follow my lead. Better get started now!

Over the past month, Emily has had many family visitors in town loving on her. She has also had many outings to the grocery store, my allergy office for weekly allergy shots, my workplace where I still do data entry part time, and the mall to see Santa! We have also made a few new friends along the way who we hope to spend more time with after the holidays.

We are having fun learning to sit and playing with anything and everything that Emily's little hands can grasp. Her favorite object is still a plain old burp cloth. The moment her fingers touch one, she swoops it up into her mouth and gives me a big smile! As soon as this girl can have a lovey, I am sure it will become a staple item in our house. She LOVES Buddy now. Aside from Daddy, Buddy's mere presence gets the most smiles out of her. He can be sitting on the couch and she catches a glimpse of him and just floods with joy. Amazing. I hope these two get to be best of friends in another year! Emily loves when we nuzzle our heads into her belly and she gets to pull our hair or touch our faces. She still much prefers being on her back and kicking over any other position, but lately she has become more content to play with toys while on her belly and while sitting in a chair. I think she wants to move, but she hasn't figured out how to roll yet. She'll get there when she's ready. :-) My guess is that she'll do back to tummy first, but we'll see.

We are still exclusively nursing. The bottle has held a little bit of success, but frankly it is a whole lot of work to pump, attempt the bottle, and clean it all up, so I've succumbed to just sticking with nursing for now. She will get her first bites of rice cereal around 6 months, and I am thinking about just skipping the bottle and working on sippy cups from here on out. We are waiting on the solid food since we have a history of food allergies (and every other allergy imaginable!) in our family. Hopefully delaying the introduction will give her the gift of an open diet throughout her life. :-)

I am thinking that teething has begun, although I see no fruit from all this discomfort yet. She is drooling, has a stuffy nose, cries fitfully as she bites down on teethers or my finger in the late afternoon or middle of the night, so I think that must be what it is! A friend at church today said that her son had painful teething symptoms for 2 whole months before he cut his first tooth- and he cut 6 at once! What a tough 2 months!

Sleeping has gotten better in many respects. Emily often has a 2 hour nap in the morning now, which has been such a blessing to help me ease into the day! It also makes her a happy camper for an outing in the late morning most days. Afternoon naps are variable. Sometimes they are long and others are short. Sometimes it takes 3 30 minute naps through the afternoon to get her to bedtime, but we are making it work! We had a rough week of night sleep about a week ago, but the past few days she's only woken up 3 times at night. I've fed her 2 of those each time. I think we are getting into a rhythm with that now. I am sooo ready for her to sleep "through the night"...as in blissfully giving me those 10-12 hours so many people already enjoy, but as I continue to watch her, I don't think she's quite ready yet. I am fighting the urge to enforce it myself. We'll see what happens over the next month or so. It is hard to hear comments from well meaning people like "Is she sleeping through the night yet for you?" As if good babies sleep through the night and don't bother their parents and bad babies need to eat or need comfort in the middle of the night. I try so hard to have a smile and a nice reply to this question, especially for the older ladies who ask.

All of this to say, we are so thankful to the Lord for these 5 months with Emily! She is more beautiful, fun, and precious than we could ever imagine. I am trying to savor every stage and every moment along the way.

Making progress

2010-12-12T17:01:00.000-08:00

I am happy to say that our sweet girl has grown leaps and bounds in the sleep department. She is now able to go down in her crib drowsy but awake and simply "talk" herself to sleep and use her thumb for comfort. This is a big deal for us! We felt that during the colic stage the only way to get her to sleep was to swaddle her, nurse her, and ever so carefully lay her in the crib asleep. It got us through the colic stage, but I knew at 4 months that things had to start to change. She was never staying asleep anymore when we'd transfer her from our arms to the crib! It took a few weeks with quite a few tears, but I think she has the hang of it now! We continued allowing her to nurse to sleep at bedtime, mostly because she'd fall asleep nursing anyway no matter what I did and it also seemed like it might put her into a nice deep sleep right off the bat. Tonight I let go of that and nursed her with the light on and waited to swaddle her (with one arm out so she can find a thumb). She got drowsy right off the bat, but one burp later she was much more awake. She nursed a good 20 minutes rather than falling asleep after 10 and she took to the new routine really well. I finished feeding her then did our "nap" routine. She talked for about 10 minutes, but no tears! And she's been asleep for over an hour without a peep!

Emily is still waking up multiple times a night, and I have been feeding her at least 2 of those times and sometimes 3. That has been very difficult. It has been hard to know if she's really hungry or if she's just wanting the comfort that nursing provides. Patting and shushing her back to sleep rarely works..and if it does she is up an hour later instead of 3 or 4 hours later if I nurse her. Because she doesn't take the bottle well, it is futile to offer that to her as a source of food in the middle of the night. In the middle of the day with 45 minutes free, sure. But not at night. So....we have had a confusing month or so of trying to let her cry a little to put herself back to sleep but also still feeding her when we think she might be hungry. I continually ask Greg in the middle of the night, "What should I do?" It is hard to think clearly in the middle of the night! I am hoping that weaning her off of the nursing to night sleep routine will possibly help. But in reality we might need to cut out the night feedings entirely and just see what happens- so we can all 3 start to sleep more. It's been a long month in the crying department for naps, but it has paid off. She does great with that now. I want to give Emily the gift of learning to fall asleep on her own and putting herself back to sleep peacefully at night. Pray for our sanity as we embark on this sometime over the next month or so. It is one thing to walk downstairs and have the monitor turned off for naps. It is another to hear crying (in our case, screaming sometimes) across the hall or in our arms at 12, 2, and 4am! Parenting 101- making little decisions with big impacts every single day. This is one of the harder ones we have faced, I think.

Tis the season

2010-12-09T07:53:00.000-08:00

I absolutely love this time of year! There really is a mysterious beauty about the Christmas season. I know that for many it can be a time of loneliness and sadness, and my heart breaks for that. For me it is the warmest time inside my heart even when it is blistering cold outside. Singing carols, drinking apple cider and hot chocolate, putting up the tree, seeing winter flurries come and go, giving and receiving gifts. And most of all spending time with my Savior, thanking Him for coming to the earth as a helpless baby boy to experience our humanity and to overcome sin once and for all. The mystery of that miraculous gift never eludes me. I am jaw-dropping amazed at God's love for us. The Almighty God sending His Son into the womb of a young girl named Mary and stepping back providentially to allow humanity to clothe deity for 33 years. Jesus Himself choosing this path willingly and even joyfully out of love for us. Wow! It still boggles my mind. God in the flesh. The Word with us- walking, talking, healing, loving tangibly on the earth. If only all people's eyes could be open to the healing power of forgiven sin and the adoption as sons and daughters into the family of God. How different this world would be. How different American culture would be! As I drink my cider and drink in this beautiful season, I am longing to pour out God's love on the people around me. I am praying for opportunities to share the good news- the real Christmas story- with others.

A very very fun November!

2010-12-01T12:26:00.000-08:00

We have had such a blast having so many family members here in November. I think I have forgotten what it is like to have a "normal" day alone with Emily. This time has been such a blessing for all of us. We had new people to play with Emily, which she thoroughly loved. And it gave Greg and me so many opportunities to run around town and get stuff done. He made a few trips to Lowe's last week, we had a great date night to grab dessert, I got a one hour massage, and we had lots of yummy treats over the holiday, too. Nursing can't erase all of those calories, but I sure am glad I have that crutch right now so I can still eat freely!

We also got to have some professional photos taken!! Emily was such a trooper and gave us lots of smiles. We had a meltdown in the middle, but a little nursing got her back on her feet for one more round. I posted the slideshow on Facebook, and I hope that posting it here will work, too, at least for a couple weeks. There were so many good ones! We are excited that we will have some really nice framed photos of our family for our walls now. Check it out here:

http://cbportraits.myshowit.com/emily

Emily enjoying her exersaucer!

E with her Aunt Kristy!

Checking out the Christmas tree with Grandma

In her Thanksgiving Day outfit

With her Great Uncle Gary (my dad's brother):

4 month addendum :-)

2010-11-18T05:23:00.000-08:00

4 months:

Weight 13 lb 8 oz - 50% (we keep getting higher on this % each time!)
Height 24 1/2 in - 50% (she's been this the whole time)
Head 15 1/2 in - 10% (she's been this the whole time and the doc said that's perfectly ok)

Emily handled her shots really well this time, only crying a little while it was happening. She was asleep in her carseat before I even walked out of the doctor's office and then she slept for 3 hours in her carseat. That was a much needed nap! The only problem with the shots this time is that the nurse we got was a newbie and she really bruised her right thigh with the two shots she got over there. So nursing on the right is really not happening until that leg stops bothering her. I will be requesting our usual nurse from now on- she was much much better with the 2 month shots!

Sleep training has really gone well overall. Thank you, Jesus, for getting me through this initial stage! There are still times when I am confused about how to help her navigate this. I am not always consistent yet about when and whether to go to her. And sometimes her hunger coincides with her drowsiness so I find her falling asleep while nursing. I am really trying hard to break that habit and have a different wind down ritual. So now I don't let her go completely to sleep at least. I make her at least get to the 10 minute mark before she gives up eating and I lay her down in her crib still a little awake. Those are the times when she is most upset. But I would rather feed her and have her be full for her nap than be battling hunger and fatigue at the same time.

This morning I rocked her and sang her a song 3 times, she whimpered a tiny bit in my arms, then I laid her down and she went right to sleep! Not a peep at all!! Woohoo!! It won't always be this way, but the morning nap has been my biggest struggle so far. Yay for a good start to the day. :-)

More to come later...

4 months!!

2010-11-14T09:42:00.000-08:00

Oh my the time is flying by now! Emily is 4 months old! We have entered into a wonderful stage, and I am so thankful for all of the encouragement from so many who have gone before- it does get better! I love this girl so so much and am enjoying getting to see her happy little personality come out.

Emily will go in for her 4 month appointment on Tuesday, but I did take her to a weight check on Friday. She weighs 13 lb 4 oz! She has really started to slow her eating down this past week. It makes me a little worried because I am so used to big weight gains and feeding every 2 hours during the day. I have been hoping that she would space it out...and she has! Now I just have to trust that the slow down is really an ok thing and be thankful for it. :-) She still gets up twice a night to nurse, but she usually goes right back to sleep.

So many changes have come in just the past week!! She enjoys sitting up in my lap now and looking around everywhere. I have a crinkly book with fuzzy animals on it and she has been grabbing it for the last few days and bringing it to her mouth to explore. She likes looking at and feeling the different textures on the animals, too. It is fun to finally see her showing interest in a book!

I am pretty sure that she is teething now! There is a bump on her bottom gums, and I think I see a white patch underneath there. It is not erupting yet and we don't have much drool, but she is definitely wanting to bite and gum anything that she can get into her mouth. I want to ask the pediatrician about it on Tuesday, because it is not an incisor, so I am kind of confused. She seems to be handling it ok so far. I think it might be part of why she isn't nursing as often.

I think that the reflux medicine has been helping her. I hear the gulping sound a lot less in her sleep now and the spit up is less. She is much less fussy when she is awake and when she is nursing. She is also spitting up less now!

She is cooing up a storm and loves it when we talk with her. She has all sorts of different vowel sounds coming out and the typical "ah-goo". I think she is going to be a big talker!

Her favorite toy is still a music star that hangs from her playmat and flashes blue and green lights. I think she could stare at it and smile all day. It is my go-to toy when I need to run to the restroom or pull something out of the oven while she is awake. I lay her on her back where her feet can touch one of the bars that holds all the toys up and she just kicks over and over again and watches the toys shake over her head! She knows that she is causing the shaking and just loves it.

Emily is holding onto many different toys and teethers now, studying them, and bringing them to her mouth. She loves tags and is starting to reach and show a preference for them. When she is on her tummy she will look around the room. If I place a small toy in front of her during tummy time, she will study it with her eyes and then try to scoop it toward her face with her hands. It is so amazing to see what she figures out from day to day!

We have loads of smiles during the day, which is an incredible blessing. After so many tears and day after day of a lone smile here or there, it is so nice to see that my baby girl is enjoying herself and taking in the world around her. A friend of mine shared that she thinks that the first 4 months were the hardest and least fun with both of her children. It is nice to know that things are going to get more fun from here!

We have been having a rough time in the sleep department, and I decided on Wednesday that we just had to try letting her cry. We had gotten into some unhealthy habits for her sleep because we just needed to try anything that might work to get us through the colic stage. Since the end of September she had been swaddled, sleeping on a boppy pillow inside her crib (I know that is bad, but she never once had a breathing problem with it), and I had been nursing her to sleep each time. It worked like a charm for a while (even though I was super exhausted from all the nursing and having to wait each time until she was asleep enough to move.) Lately she was waking up each time I got up from the rocking chair and she was able to wiggle off her pillow and out of the swaddle fairly quickly. All of those things were waking her up prematurely and frustrating her. I ended up often holding a screaming, kicking, 13 lb baby who didn't seem consoled or lulled to sleep by my rocking arms or shushing sounds. We seemed to outgrow the 5 S's overnight.

On Wednesday we changed everything at once. The boppy went away, the swaddle went away, and I put her down in her crib drowsy but awake. Thankfully I had a friend over at the house with me to get us through the first crying period. She cried 37 minutes and slept for 25. Not too bad considering the stories I had heard for other babies. The next nap didn't happen. She cried for more than 40 minutes, and I figured she might as well get up at that point and we'd try again later. The third nap she was so tired that she didn't cry at all and slept for an hour! That night she cried for 15 minutes and slept beautifully, only waking up twice to nurse. I would finish nursing her and lay her flat on the crib while she was still kind of awake and she fell right to sleep. The next few days she has done awesome...less than 10 minutes of crying most of the time and really it has been more like fussing and not crying. We also discovered that she takes a really great nap in her carseat if I make a lot of noise and talk to someone once we get home. I think she likes knowing that I am there and it helps put her into a pretty deep sleep. Overall it has worked well and worked very quickly with much less crying each time than I anticipated. This afternoon has been rough, though. She slept a lot in the car this morning when I took my mom back to the Baltimore airport. I took a break on the way back to have her up to play and nurse for a little while. This afternoon she seemed ready for a nap but cried like crazy before falling asleep. She only cat-napped on the way home so I think that she is overtired. I knew we'd have a bad day eventually, but I do think that it has been a huge step in the right direction for her to transition to being unswaddled and flat in the crib. Now she has her hands available to soothe herself and she can move around. It might give her more of a chance to get roly poly now, too. Pray for consistency for us this week, for wisdom on how to handle each crying time (i.e. is she hungry or dirty, do I need to go to her after a certain time and just try again later, when to go to her for feeding at night, etc.), and also for her to feel love from us and security while she is awake. This is a really hard thing to do, but I think it is going to help her to sleep better and that this is the right time for her and for us to be doing this.

We are into size 2 diapers now and just starting to get into the 3-6 month clothes. She is a long, skinny baby. The 3-6 month sleepers are the perfect size (they probably won't last til 6 months), the pants alone are long, and the onesies are a little puffy but right in the arms and length. She is built a lot like me but longer- small shoulders, long torso, shorter legs. I still think she will get more of Greg's height but she has the proportions that I do. Her super kissable chubby cheeks have elongated quite a bit in the last week and it made her look much older. I can't believe Emily has been with us for 4 months now!

First cold

2010-11-03T06:33:00.000-07:00

Mommy and Emily both have sore throats, coughs, and stuffy noses. Guess it had to happen at some point! Neither of us are running a fever and she is usually able to fall back to sleep every time she coughs. Wish I could do that, too! Emily has had her cough for over a week now, so hopefully she is on the tail end of it. Mine started Sunday. Praying that Greg doesn't get it, because he is presenting 2 papers at a conference in a week and a half!

Emily's dedication

2010-11-01T05:36:00.001-07:00

We had the blessing of publicly dedicating ourselves to raise Emily in the fear and love of our Lord and also praying for her future salvation and desire to know the Lord. It was a wonderful moment in the life of our family to be able to stand before the body of believers and boldly declare that we commit to praying for her and telling her about her Savior, Jesus.

Emily was dressed in an exquisite handmade christening gown that her Mema (my mom) bought for the children that we will have and that my sister might have one day. Though we don't have an actual christening service and our church is pretty casual, it was really special to have her in that dress on her special day. Thanks, Mema!

Aunt Lauren!

2010-10-27T11:52:00.001-07:00

We got a treat this past week! My sister, Lauren, came to visit for 4 days! We miss her already. She had fun getting to hold and play with Emily :-) She even gave Greg and me a date night out, and she weathered the storm when Em only drank an ounce from the bottle and had to cry it all out. What a great gift to us to have a little break amid the busy days and also to have some good time catching up with her. Emily gave her lots of smiles!

Here she is in her little pumpkin costume enjoying one of our last cool (not cold!) breezy days:

What we've been up to

2010-10-19T05:43:00.001-07:00

A VISIT

A couple of weeks ago, we had fun getting to introduce Emily to her third set of grandparents! Grandaddy and Gigi (my dad and step-mom) came in town for a few days. They were so nice to allow Greg and me to have a date night, and I used a gift certificate that my friend Dana gave me for a one hour massage. Both were heavenly and much needed! I think they had a good time, too, getting to love on their granddaughter. While they were here, we had a great Carolina BBQ meal at their bed and breakfast. The owner had attended cooking school and really knew how to cook! They were a couple who had orinally lived in Tennessee, so I relished getting to hear her accent. There was also a young couple staying at the B&B that week who were originally from Austria and had also lived in Australia for some time. They were on the tail end of a 4 month road trip across the US. They started in Seattle and were ending in NYC. How fun is that?

A WEDDING

The following weekend we attended my friend Jen's wedding. Jen and Mark were our next door neighbors when we first moved up here. They decided to get married in the small old church where she grew up. It is an hour drive from Millersville through breath-taking farmland and rolling hills. Emily did really well considering the drive and all the activity. This is not the greatest picture, but it is the only one we took that day.

JOB

Good news on the job front. I am going to be doing data entry for the school I worked for the past year. It probably won't be very many hours, because there isn't that much to enter each month. But it is something that I can easily do from home, and it will be just a little income to either put in retirement for me or to help us save for a car when the time comes for getting another one. I am thankful that the Lord has allowed me to be at home full time and has also provided this avenue for a little income and a way to stay connected to the school.

BIBLE STUDIES

I have been very happy to get connected to two studies this fall. The first one is with a group of about 15 ladies at the church every other Wednesday morning. We are going through Nancy Leigh DeMoss' book "Gratitude". Oh how timely!! When I step back and look at the goodness of the Lord to me, I am overwhelmed and grateful for my life. But I do let the sin of ingratitude sweep over me during the day to day challenges that I face. I don't know if it is my personality, or if I just learned the bad habit along the way, but I do struggle with being a complainer. This book is helping me to focus on the importance of being grateful in every circumstance and how that unleashes joy and a strong testimony in my life. I am enjoying the book and enjoying meeting with these ladies!

The other study I am doing is with two sweet friends every other Monday night (and possibly a third gal I have not yet met). We are starting to go through Beth Moore's "Daniel" study. We have only watched the first video session, but I am already hungry for more. It focuses on the similarities between the excessiveness of Babylonian culture and our American culture, and it will dive into the prophecies of Daniel as well. I am so glad to have this challenging and Word-focused study to dive into! And I am so happy to be doing it with ladies I am excited to get to know better, pray for, and support.

3 months and lots happening!

2010-10-14T12:01:00.000-07:00

This past month has certainly flown by more than the first two. Emily is smiling up a storm now (in between cries ;-) ), and she is able to enjoy so much more around her. I am guessing that she weighs about 12 lbs now since she was at 11.5 at the end of last week. She is too cute. Her cheeks are still round and chubby, and the rest of her seems longs and muscular. She loves moving those muscles, too! Every time she is awake, we have fun practicing pulling up to a sitting and standing position. She has made so much progress with tummy time also. Now we can go 2-4 minutes at a time with her head at a 90 degree angle as long as I have something interesting for her to look at. We got a car mirror for her that plays music, but it didn't attach well in either car. Now I prop it up on her crib for tummy time, and she loves looking at herself and listening to the music play! Her favorite position is definitely still flat on her back to wiggle around and look at the toys and music box on her exercise mat or the mobile in her crib.

Em is starting to be able to grasp a rattle when we place it into her open fist. Sometimes she inadvertently brings it to her mouth and starts to try to lick it. But mostly she is still content to just look at things.

Bath time, diaper changes, and clothing changes are no longer battles. Yay! I think she does like bath time now, but I still haven't seen any smiles yet. My biggest challenge is keeping her warm from the bath to getting dressed. I hate coming into a cold room after a warm shower, too. And the winter just makes it worse. Maybe I'll get a portable heater to turn on when I change her. I've tried warming up her towel in the dryer, but it doesn't help once the towel has to come off and clothes have to come on. Any ideas to help this??

Sleep has been so unpredictable! I think she's been going through her growth spurt since last Friday. Her "average" nap is only 45 minutes and her "average" night sleep lately has been 5-6 hours, 3-4 hours, 2-3 hours between meals. She goes to bed between 7 and 8 each night and is up by 7-8 usually each morning. But the past week we got 6 1/2 hours as our first stretch (in between meals, not actual sleep) two different nights. 2 other nights we've had a crazy time of her being unable to stay asleep- up every two hours, or just not staying asleep after we put her down in her crib. Naps have either been 30 minutes (def not long enough so she feels cranky after that) or 2 1/2 hours. So....maybe after this week we'll get into a pattern again! Even though a 7pm bedtime means I definitely have to get up twice at night to feed Emily, it has been nice to have some down time with Greg after the witching hour and to be able to clean up dinner and ease my way into bed instead of crashing. We are still going to bed around 8:30-9 each night because we need the sleep!

I am doing better handling the crying now. She still seems to have tummy troubles (more reflux/not burping than gas now), but we are learning how to better care for her in this. We've still got her propped up to sleep, but at least she is in her crib now and not in her rocker seat. We have an herbal supplement called Colic Calm that works well. I try to only use that as a last resort. And most of all, I am trying to get burps out of her as much as possible! That seems to lessen the spit-up and reflux issues in her sleep, which eventually will help her to sleep for longer stretches.

Next update: my dad and step-mom's visit, a wedding I was in, a job update, and Bible study update. :-)

E's first trip!

2010-10-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

4 generations! From left: Aunt Sue, Mema, Great-granmama, Emily, Me, Aunt Lauren

Gush. :-) Love this pic of Lauren cuddling with Emily

Happy to be in Mema's arms!

Practicing standing- E loves to bear weight on her legs.

Play time! She loves her giraffe (thanks, Taylor!) She is super happy on her back on the floor when she is awake. I just wish I could say the same for tummy time.

Captivated by Great-granmama. :-) They became best buds quickly.

Nap time with Mema! The best!

Yes, we start things early in this house! Emily and I traveled to Charlotte, NC last week to have a girl's weekend with my granmama, aunt, mom, and sister. It was so wonderful! And Emily did super with both plane trips!! I couldn't believe it. She's growing up. ;-) I decided to nurse her during take off and landing to help her ears stay unplugged. It was only the second time I had nursed in public. It was a little awkward, but really it wasn't that bad. The Lord was so good to seat me beside a kind lady on the trip over there. She is a speech pathologist for children birth through 3 years old. So she emphatically encouraged me that nothing (ie nursing, a crying baby, spit up, etc) was going to bother her. That helped me feel better. E nursed on the take-off and then conked out for the 1 hour flight and woke up with just enough time to nurse a little and take a pacifier on the way back down. It was tough carrying her in the carseat with the base attached, so next time I will definitely be lugging a stroller along with me. And next time I'll hopefully have Greg with me, too!

It was such a gift to see Emily with her Great-granmama. There was so much joy there. Granmama taught her how to stick out her tongue!!! I had been trying this trick a little the week before with no luck, but I guess she was ready last week. Granmama would tell her "Stick out that tongue!" and show E hers, and a few seconds later E would let hers slide out a little. It was adorable! She could tell that this was getting her lots of attention, because she would look around the room and smile when she was done.

Granmama also was able to get Emily to become completely relaxed by sticking her belly down across her legs and rocking her for a couple minutes. It was amazing. I have tried this a bunch at home now and it hasn't worked for me. I think my lap is too small or my chair doesn't have as smooth of a rocking motion. I'll keep trying, though.

Aunt Lauren and Mema were a huge help at night. Part of the reason for the trip was to give me a break at night and to give Greg a couple days at home alone to sleep. Unfortunately I couldn't seem to pump much out for bottles, so we only had one bottle for them to give her. But at least at night all I had to do was feed her around 1 and 5 and they both would take her when I was done and get her good and tired and put back to bed. That was sooo nice. I also got a few day naps in as well.

Everyone doted on Miss Emily for a couple of days, and it was a blessing to be around family again. She spends so many days alone with me, and I liked having more people and personalities for her to interact with. She really handled all the extra attention very well considering she's only 2 1/2 months old.

We also went clothes shopping for her while we were there. It wouldn't be a trip to Charlotte without some shopping! Her (great) Aunt Sue got her an adorable winter outfit with a jacket that has ears on top of the hood. I can't wait to get her in it when it gets cold!! Mema got her two cute headbands (so people will finally know without a doubt that she is a girl!), and a beautiful cherry colored flowery dress for next summer. Aunt Lauren got her an adorable dress with hand stitched fairy princesses on the smocking that will be good for the summer as well. And I picked out a few outfits myself. So fun!

I can't wait to make the trip again, and it already has me thinking about a spring trip to Texas.

2 month stats

2010-09-16T10:48:00.001-07:00

We took Emily to her 2 month appointment today, and everything went great. She got her shots at this appointment, and thankfully Greg held her and asked me to leave the room. It was still so hard to hear her cry, but it was easier for me to hear it on the other side of the door than to be looking into her eyes. Greg said he had to fight back his own tears when he saw her turn red and cry with the first shot. She was hungry and due for a nap, so I nursed her right afterward in the room and that calmed her down and put her to sleep. We are not giving her pain relievers unless she gets a fever because the doctor's office said that studies have shown that Tylenol actually reduces the immunability of the vaccines. We stopped by Rite Aid to get some Children's Tylenol just in case we need it, but apparently Children's Tylenol has been recalled for some reason. We found another brand of acetaminophin for children, but it was really surprising that Tylenol could get recalled. I will have to look into that!

Emily is growing so well! Her 2 month stats are:

Weight: 10 lb 6 oz (45%)
Height: 22 1/2 (50%)
Head: 14 1/2 (10%)

Her height is the same % from her 1 month appt, but her weight has jumped from 15% to 45%! I guess she is a very average sized baby now. I think part of the jump in weight gain has been that she still nurses very often around the clock. We are not putting her on a 3 or 4 hour schedule, only doing demand feeding. And she demands it (:-) ) about every 2-3 hours during the day. We should *hopefully* see some longer stretches of sleep in other week or two when 1) she passes 6 weeks adjusted age and 2) gets closer to 11 lb. I read in "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" that when a child reaches 11 lb. they are metabolically capable of going 5-6 hour stretches without needing to eat. That doesn't mean she'll sleep that long without waking up and wanting to out of habit or comfort, but it does mean that if we can soothe her back to sleep without nursing for some of those then she actually can go that long and be fine.

Last night was proof of that starting to happen, I think! She was SUPER fussy from 5:30-8 last night. It was awful. We kept handing her back and forth, taking her on car rides, etc. But by 8:30 she gave it up and slept til 12:45. Then til 4:45. Then til 9:15!! The 9:15 part was the biggest surprise. We decided to have her sleep downstairs and alternate us sleeping on the couch next to her. It really helped to be next to her again to match the sounds we were hearing with her sleeping habits. We've had her in her own room for awhile now. Whenever she fussed she was still keeping her eyes closed for the most part and would go back to sleep on her own. She almost woke up at 6:30, but I rocked the rocker just a bit and shushed and she went back to sleep until 9:15. So we dropped an entire feeding! Maybe that can become a habit!!! It would give me time to sleep a little after putting her back to bed at 5 and then have time to shower and eat breakfast before she was up again. That would be so nice. I am SUPER thankful that Greg calmed her to sleep last night and let me go to sleep upstairs by myself without hearing Emily on a monitor or hearing Greg snore or having Buddy snuggle up next to me. I am an extremely light sleeper (even more so now that I'm a mom) so it takes a lot for me to fall asleep. I know I got a pretty good chunk of sleep last night. Praise the Lord! Just in time. Now I'm off to try and take a nap, or as my grandaddy would always say "just rest my eyes."

2 months!

2010-09-12T14:27:00.001-07:00

Wow, our baby girl is now 2 months old! The Lord has been so faithful to us every step of the way. Each day we are learning something new about Emily and adding to our knowledge as much as we can about how best to care for her and love her. She is certainly keeping us on our toes!

At two months, Emily, you are...

smiling!!! Your first smile was one that Daddy saw you giving to Mommy last Friday at a party. Later that night, you gave yourself lots of smiles when you looked in the mirror! Haven't seen many more after that, but it did happen, so I now know what that gorgeous smile looks like! :-)

lifting your head up and sometimes your chest during tummy time. You still don't enjoy tummy time yet, but you now are able to tolerate it for about 5 minutes at a time and look around for something to entertain you. Mostly you love sucking on your fist that is conveniently placed next to your head.

a voracious eater! We are still averaging more than an ounce a day of weight gain. You do not eat on a set schedule but it is 2-3 hours during the day and 2-4 hours at night depending on how deeply you sleep. You love to nurse both for food and for comfort. You often fall asleep best after nursing. You chow down and are often done in 5 minutes during the day, but at night you are sleepy and often stretch it to 20 minutes. You now weigh about 10 lb., and we will know for sure what your weight and height are at your check-up on Thursday. Mommy and Daddy are pretty sure you have hiked off the 15% for weight and toward 35%, but we'll see.

tolerating baths now! Bath time is a lot more enjoyable now that you sit in a little bit of warm water instead of getting sponge bathed. We usually make it through the bath before the tears start during the drying off time.

still hating the swaddle. We try and try but usually to no avail. You sure do love your freedom. We now swaddle with a swaddleme that you can't escape easily, but you spend the whole time either wailing in protest or drowsily grunting and wiggling to fight it. The 5 S's have not worked that well for us, sadly. If we do manage to successfully swaddle you and get you to sleep, this gives us the longest stretches between feedings. Not sleep for us, mind you...we are holding you or shushing for a good hour. But you'll then sleep longer most times. Unswaddled you are often calmer and easier to put back down after nursing, but you wakes herself up 2 hours later.

You are challenged by a sensitive stomach. :-( Perhaps being a month early has given you an immature digestive system. Or maybe you're ultra sensitive. Either way we know that your tummy hurts at some point each evening. We can see it on your precious face as you work through it all. Gripe water, gas drops, bicycle legs, tummy pressure all work intermittently to get us through this period. Hopefully this is one thing that you will out grow over the next month!

You are quite the spitter! Mommy and you change clothes multiple times throughout the day when the burp cloth is not strategically placed. Your doctor said that some babies are just spitters, and we are lucky enough to have one! I used to worry and worry that you weren't getting enough to eat since some always seems to come back up. But those worries are gone. You definitely eat enough, even if you often only eat for 5-10 minutes!

You have the most adorable airy laughs when you are contently cuddled and drifting off to sleep. I love them. It gives me a glimpse into what a full laugh might sound like in another couple months. To see you peacefully resting, even if you aren't fully asleep yet, brings me so much joy.

You sometimes like the swing(s) that we got you off craigslist. I didn't like the first one that I bought you, but it actually has worked out better than the nicer, newer swing I got the second time. If you are calm but not asleep yet, I can sometimes put you in the swing, let you look around for awhile, and then drift off.

You also curl your toes just like Mommy and Mema! Love it!!!

Mommy and Daddy are crazy about you! Happy 2 month day! :-)

I will survive!

2010-09-06T09:23:00.000-07:00

That about sums up how I've been feeling most days! I am sure most mommies feel this way around the 8 week mark. Combine 8 straight weeks of barely any sleep, a baby who doesn't like to nap anywhere but my arms, who is easily overstimulated, and who gets colicky b/w 5 and 8 each evening, and that's where you end up! Exclusively breastfeeding and not baby-wising also leads to very unpredictable days. Add to that the fact that Em came 4 weeks early and we get to add 4 weeks on to any "normal" "sleeping through the night" benchmark. We are looking toward the 10 week mark for sleeping and the 12-16 week range for fussiness to die down.

In the meantime, I will rejoice and give thanks for all of the sweet moments of bonding that Emily and I are having. We get in tons of cuddle time every day, and I am thankful that when she needs this, I am able to give it to her! I am thankful for her vigor for life and her curiosity. She loves to look around her now and see what is in the room. She loves to wiggle and use her hands to grasp things, especially our shirts and my hair. I love to watch her grow and change every day! Her head, her finger nails, her little tummy- all these are getting bigger by the minute. She now tolerates bath time and diaper changes, and this has led to a lot more trust in us and more interaction during the day, too. I love that she chows down for meals just like I do. That has got to be hereditary.

I am thankful that over the course of the last week, we have had some good night sleep compared to the norm! Greg is starting to give Emily a bottle of breastmilk every night whenever she eats b/w 10 and midnight. Some nights she takes it like a champ and some she really gets upset about it. We have started transitioning her to bedtime and nighttime earlier and getting her good and tired by 7 or 7:30 each night. For a couple of nights, she has stretched her feeding out to 4 hours in between meals!! Still, at least one of those involves a diaper change which wakes her up and the bottle feeding usually gets her good and riled up, so we often have a long time before she's calm enough to fall back asleep. But when she is able to soothe more quickly, these longer stretches between feedings will mean a lot more sleep for us! These longer stretches might be attributed to us deciding to swaddle again. She still hates being swaddled, but it definitely works to calm her down and get her sleepy. We can hear her grunting throughout the night off and on, but we are learning that she does that regardless of whether she is swaddled or not. And what it does do is prevent her from flailing her arms and really getting good and awake before her tummy wakes her up instead. Hopefully as her tummy is able to take in more at one time, she'll be satisfied for a longer stretch of time. But 4 hours ain't bad though. We know her days and nights have mostly gotten switched because she still eats every 2 hours on average during the day. Some stretches are 3 hours and during the 5-8 witching hour, she likes to nurse a little every hour. It keeps her the calmest of anything we've tried, so I'm fine with that for now.

It's amazing how many nuances there are to parenting and how many little decisions you have to make in response to your own child's needs and temperament each day. No one book or friend can offer exactly the right formula for you to try. I've found that I'm soaking in as much advice and guidance as possible and then trying out different things to see what works for Emily. We really do feel a lot more confident today than we did a week ago.

I love the fall

2010-08-29T13:32:00.000-07:00

We are right on the brink of the fall season here in PA, and I couldn't be more excited. The fall is always a season of expectation, of new energy, and one last season of enjoying the outdoors to the fullest before hibernating for a few months (at least I hibernate- I can't stand being cold!)

We are already seeing mornings in the 60's and highs in the lower 80's. These are the days that I relish. Emily and I try to get out for a morning stroll if I am awake enough to manage it. The fresh air usually helps to pull off those sleepless night cobwebs and gets me going for the day.
I am looking forward to apple cider, football games (albeit from the tv set this year instead of in the stands), sweatshirts, hot chocolate, pumpkin patch pictures with Emily, and in general going through this beloved season in a whole new season of my life.

Greg starts back to school full swing tomorrow. A new semester, new classes, new students. We'll see what this one holds for him. Thank goodness he's had these last 6 weeks to work on the class preps here and there. If Emily had been born full term, I kind of doubt that he would be "ready" to walk into the classroom by now!
We had a fun week last week trying to get out and see more of the world and see more people! On Wednesday, we made the drive to Hummelstown (about an hour away) to see Ryan and Ashley, a couple who took the Bradley classes with us. We had a great time getting to meet each other's kiddos and scarfing down burgers in between nursing, photo shoots, and tears :-) Oh, welcome to parenthood! Ryan and Ashley have an adorable little boy named Connor, who was born 2 1/2 weeks before miss Em arrived. Connor was right on time, so he is much bigger than Emily by now. He had some precious smiles for us, and he warmed right up to Emily (as you can see by the "love pats" he gave her!

On Thursday, we had our last big small group party. Our group is birthing into 2 smaller groups now, and I am really sad about losing my bi-weekly time with half of these sweet friends. Greg and I have never been a part of a small group birthing experience. I guess that the groups at Grace Bible in College Station always "birthed" by half of the people either moving out of town or moving to the first-time parents class. We were always saying goodbye to people each semester there. At least as this group births, it is not a goodbye. We will still see the other group at church on Sundays and hopefully still keep up in other ways like game nights or dinner together. I do look forward to having a smaller size (11 instead of 20). It will allow for more intimacy, more participation in the study by everyone, and for a more welcoming environment for new people to join the group. That's what the birthing process is meant to do. And I anticipate that much fruit will come from this.

On Friday, Greg and I committed to having a date night, and we went half way with it. I fed Emily and then dashed out on my own to pick up pizza and a red box movie. We enjoyed our Papa John's on the couch and watched the movie Invictus, which was amazing. I would highly recommend it!! It is about South Africa's struggle to transition during the end of apartheid and how the national rugby team's world cup win actually helped to foster that transition. It is based on the true story, and I thought it really captured a lot of what Mandela and others faced during that time. Emily kindly slept through our date night, so we did end up having a good time trying to have an old "typical" Friday.

Last night we tried out the bottle feeding for the first time in a long time. Emily has had maybe 5 bottles total since she was born. It has been at least 2 weeks since the last time that she had one (a third of her life!) Greg tried to give her one at 4am, and she was having none of it. I am frustrated that all 4 bottle nipples that we have seem like they have a fast flow even though they are labeled slow flow. We have 2 from the hospital, 1 Medela brand, and a Born Free brand. I think I might try Avent next. It's been hard to discern when to introduce a bottle. We haven't needed to so far. I have been around, my milk came in enough eventually, and I just haven't wanted to risk nipple confusion. But now I wonder if we have waited too long and if she'll always reject it. We'll just have to keep trying.

This is already super long, so I'll leave the update at that for now! Emily is starting to rouse from her nap, too, so my time is running out. :-) I'll be praying for all the teachers and students out there as y'all begin classes tomorrow.

Settling in

2010-08-19T08:39:00.000-07:00

This week is the first week that I feel like I finally have some semblance of a routine back. Not that we do the same things at the same time everyday. But I at least kind of know what to expect the day to look like now. Greg went back to the office this week. So now I have long stretches of the day with just Emily, Buddy, and me. We've been out strolling in the neighborhood 2 mornings in a row (before it gets too hot). I've given her a bath by myself twice now. Poor girl hates bath time! Hope that isn't always the case. Today we are venturing out just the two of us. It will be the first time that I've driven since the day that she was born. I managed to do laundry (iron even!), clean up all the dishes, and shower (at least 2 out of the 3) every day this week. We had friends over for dinner and a game last night for the first time. Even though I was barely able to keep my eyes open at 9pm, I was so glad that we had them over. We've managed to watch The Closer every week on the computer. So I think that things are starting to get back to normal- a new normal. A normal filled with 1 hour naps in the middle of the night in between feedings, changing my shirt and Emily's at least 3 times a day because the spit up misses the burp cloth, rejoicing over a 5 minute shower, and finding absolute joy in getting to spend the day holding my precious daughter close. She seems to change daily, and I am soaking in these newborn days as much as I can! By the end of the week, she should be about 8 lbs. We are quickly working our way out of newborn clothes and newborn diapers. And I thought we'd never make it to the 0-3 pile of clothes or the size 1 dipes. Time flies!

Nursery Pictures!

2010-08-16T12:38:00.000-07:00

After much delay, here are a few pictures of Emily's room! It is still very much a work in progress- still need photos in there and want to put some scriptures up...but it is looking good! It killed me that I hadn't finished her room when she arrived. But now that I can go upstairs without restrictions, I am starting to spend more time with her in there and love it!

Greg is 29 AND Emily is 1 month today!

2010-08-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GREG!

Today is Greg's 29th birthday! So much has happened over the course of the last year. Exactly one year ago today, Greg was getting his PhD! We were surrounded by so many wonderful family and friends as we celebrated this huge accomplishment in Greg's life.
Since that day, Greg has completed his first full year as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Paul has been his title for a year now. :-) He has jumped into the professorial role with gusto, teaching 4 classes each semester, serving on multiple committees in the department and around campus, and getting his FIRST publication accepted for a journal just 2 weeks ago!! Way to go, babe!

This past year also saw us buy our first home, and Greg has been AWEsome with all of the updates that he has done around the place. It is definitely a more valuable piece of property now compared to when we purchased 6 months ago. He has blown insulation into the attic, installed a fan in our bedroom, installed window film in the nursery and guest bedroom, laid pavers outside to make a beautiful path, and installed custom drapes throughout the house. It looks great and the energy bills have stayed low thanks to all the improvements he has made!

Greg also experienced a whole new wife for 8 months of this past year. Pregnancy definitely brought lots of changes to our conversations, how we spent our time, how I acted and felt from month to month, our grocery bills, etc. He was an incredible support to me through thick and thin, and blessed me by being totally present in the entire pregnancy experience. He celebrated the joys and prayed through and encouraged me through the challenges. He talked to Emily while she grew in the womb and prayed fervently and diligently for her well being. He had infinite patience with me as I had my emotional days and as I complained about aches and pains or worried about everything there could ever be to worry about. And he spent 12 Mondays of his life sitting in a birth class, watching videos he didn't want to watch and helping me practice relaxation techniques we wouldn't end up using after all.

Which brings me to the biggest month of all this past year- one of the biggest months of all of Greg's 29 years- the birth and life of our sweet baby Emily. I've fallen head over heels for this man in a whole new way! Greg has been an incredible dad from the moment that Emily was born. I've watched him hold her tenderly, sing to her, talk to her, calm her, change a million poopy diapers, and gently give her baths. His prayers are all the more fervent now as he watches her grow and change before our eyes. I trust him implicitly in his opinions and instincts about how to care for her. And he encourages me tons each day as I learn to walk in this new role of motherhood. We have been super blessed that Greg has been able to take a significant break from his job this past month. It's probably the most time that we have ever been able to spend together at one time. Every day, he has been here with us. He'll start transitioning back to the office this week, but these last 4 weeks are irreplaceable moments of bonding - and a time when I needed help and care and he was able to provide that. I am forever grateful that his work schedule allowed for this and that he was willing to set it aside to invest in our family like this.

This next year will bring many new beginnings as well. A full year of being a parent and the second year into the new job. Hopefully new house projects as well (we're thinking new floors in the kitchen/dining, a backyard fence, new cabinet fronts...but who knows...). And the adjustment of having a wife at home full time instead of doing the 9-5. I pray that I will be able to bless Greg during this season by keeping the house cleaned up, having meals ready to go, by being a great mom to our daughter, and by continuing to be his best friend and companion in this journey. It's going to be a busy 29th year, but also an unforgettable one!

Happy birthday, sweetheart! I LOVE YOU!!

EMILY IS 1 MONTH OLD!!! :-)

Baby girl, you are already 1 month old! You are our sweetest blessing and a pure joy. I am fascinated by everything about you! We have loved holding you close and learning all your different faces, smells, and sounds this month. We have watched you go from a tiny 5 lb preemie to a whole 7 lb 3 oz today! You have worked really hard at eating well and have managed to amaze us with your weight gain! You are spunky and opinionated and you like to "talk" to us while you eat, get your diaper changed and get new clothes. My favorite color on you is purple. Your eyes are still a deep blue gray and I love that you are opening them a lot now to gaze into our eyes. You just started grabbing at things around you, although you aren't ready to hold anything that I hand to you. Your favorites are Daddy's cross necklace and my hair. You like looking at your face in the mirror. I'm not sure that you like tummy time, but you amaze me with your ability to lift your head off the mat and turn it from side to side. You are learning to enjoy being fully swaddled and tend to sleep better this way instead of with your arms out. You looove your hands! Even on the u/s pics we knew you liked your hands being near your face. It has been great that you can use your hands to suck on when you need comfort and our arms aren't available yet. You are now eating anywhere between 1.5 and 3 hours during the day and 3.5-4 hours at night. We are blessed to be your parents and look forward to this next month's discoveries with you!

All the little things

2010-08-08T10:53:00.000-07:00

It is all the little things that make me so fascinated by this little girl. The little smiles she gives that aren't directed at anything yet (just her own secret contentment...or passing gas...). The arms stretched over her head. The little sighs as she sleeps. Her pleasure in finding her hands or sucking on her thumb. Watching little rolls of fat form on her legs and arms and rejoicing that she's getting enough to eat. Seeing her try tummy time and switching her head from one side to the other and scooting along the mat. And this is just the beginning :-) She still primarily sleeps and eats all day. I am so blessed to be her mom! And I am so blessed that Greg is my husband and her dad. He is so loving toward her and gentle with her. It melts my heart.

Emily's birth story

2010-08-02T12:45:00.001-07:00

I wanted to be able to share with everyone a little more about how Emily came to be born a month early. Though things definitely did not go the way that we had hoped (full term, natural childbirth, vaginal delivery, etc.), we can now look back upon that day's events with utter thankfulness and joy that the Lord's hand was over every minute of that first day and every day since.

I think it all started with the night before. On Tuesday night, I noticed that my ankles and feet were no longer just 3rd trimester swollen; they were now on their way to being watermelons. I thought that was weird. I stayed up all night drinking water and keeping my legs elevated, hoping to drain the swelling. I weighed myself at home that morning, knowing that I'd be weighed at the midwife appointment that afternoon and dreading the lecture. I was shocked to see that I'd gained 3 pounds over 3 days. What was wrong with me?? I didn't suspect that I was pre-eclampsic. I just thought I must have messed up along the way somewhere. That morning at work I had a little headache and felt like a train wreck from lack of sleep the night before, but I just kept pushing through the work and thinking "4 more weeks and I'll start feeling better."

I went to my midwife appointment at 2:30 on July 14th. They checked my urine and said the magic words "you have protein in your urine." I dropped my jaw. They checked my blood pressure. 170/110...yikes! I started tearing up. I was so confused. They checked my weight. 147. I'd gained 6 pounds since my appt. 2 weeks ago. They set me up in an exam room and I bawled my eyes out for a minute while I waited for the midwife to come in. My first thought was to blame myself for doing something wrong. Did I overeat? Should I have tried to sleep the night before? Should I have exercised more? The midwife came in and calmed me down and said they wanted to monitor my protein levels in my urine for the next 24 hours to see if I was heading toward pre-eclamsia. (Looking back now, she probably should have been a little more proactive with my blood pressure being as high as it was). She asked me to head down the hall to the hospital to have my blood drawn and to get a big jug where I was supposed to catch all my urine for the next 24 hours (lovely...).

While I was sitting in the exam room, I started to feel a burning pain in the middle of my chest. I had thankfully been spared heartburn the whole pregnancy, but I figured it was starting up along with everything else that day. I looked at the midwife and told her that I had just started to feel heartburn and that it really hurt. She looked a little perplexed and said I could just take some Tums for that and that I should take the rest of the work day off and go home and rest. By the time I made it to the checkout area, I could hardly sit still in the chair. I begged that lady to find me some Tums before I left the office. She gave me 3 of them, and I prayed it would act quickly. I managed to hobble down to the hospital and get my blood drawn. I called Greg along the way and asked him to come pick me up because the heartburn hurt too much to drive home. The lady who drew my blood told me to go back to the doctor's office and tell them I was in a lot of pain and demand to get some help for it. I hobbled back to the doctor's office and saw the medical assistant who had taken my blood pressure coming up to the waiting room. She took one look at me and said "You don't look ok." I said "I'm not ok. This hurts so badly. I think I need to go to the hospital." She got a wheelchair and took me over to Triage.

They had me sign some papers for a minute and then took me in a room and hooked me up to the external fetal monitor and told me to lay on the exam table. Ha. By this point the pain was completely intolerable and I was having a hard time breathing, much less laying still. I glanced up at the screen often to check Emily's heartrate. Thankfully it was normal every time I looked. At least she was ok. This whole time I kept thinking I had heartburn and that I must be a weakling. I was also completely confused about why the nurses kept coming and going without communicating a plan for taking away the pain. It turned out this pain was not heartburn and was not going to go away unless Emily was born and they got a spinal going on me.

Greg first arrived at my doctor's office thinking I'd be waiting for him there. They told him I'd been taken to Triage in the hospital. He came in my room and I reached out for him. I am sure he was not at all prepared to see me flopping around on the table trying to get comfortable. We got our heads together and worked on the relaxation exercises that we'd practiced in the Bradley classes. The only position that gave me any relief was hands and knees, but that messed up the fetal monitor, so the nurses would come back in and make me lay down again.

They came in and drew my blood again. They ordered an ultrasound to check my gallbladder. They canceled the ultrasound right before it was going to start, because the blood results were back in. I had H.E.L.L.P. syndrome. This is a rare and potentially fatal form of pre-eclampsia. It combines many different rapidly forming problems, and the only cure is to deliver the baby and stabilize the mother. It stands for hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, low platelet count. Basically it means that my iron levels plummeted, my liver grew enflamed and started shutting down, and my platelets plummeted (what allows blood to clot). It also made my blood pressure sky-rocket. The pain I was feeling in my chest was my liver.

The doctor came in and explained most of this to us (I at least comprehended "You are in bad shape and you need a c-section within the hour"). I was so thankful that the Lord gave me that particular doctor that day. She was very calm, caring, and simply seemed trustworthy. I had complete peace about the delivery that moment and trusted that Emily would be alright through it all. I probably was in shock at that point, but I know that as they wheeled me toward the OR, I had no doubts that this was what needed to happen.

The c-section went without a hitch. The spinal wasn't painful at all, and it brought immediate relief to my chest pain. I breathed my first deep breath and within a couple minutes Greg was by my side, holding my outstretched hand. We of course had no hospital bags packed, no video camera, etc. But Greg had his i-phone, and I remembered that our friends Summer and Isaiah had decided to photograph their daughter's c-section birth. I asked him if he could handle watching it and taking some pictures. He was awesome and did. So I have a picture of her coming out! I heard the doctor say "We've got a head" and before long I saw her tiny little body being carried over to the warmer. I kept saying "She's so small. She's so small" and crying both tears of joy and worry, hoping that she was going to be ok. I gave her a quick kiss and off she went and Greg, too. That was one of the hardest parts. I had so wanted that instant skin to skin, irreplaceable first few minutes. It would be at least another 20-30 minutes before I saw her again, maybe longer.

This is already super long...I will try to be shorter with the rest. Emily was absolutely perfect when she was born. She scored 9's on her Apgars and didn't have to go to the NICU for anything. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when they told me that. They said she weighed 5 lb 9 oz. That sounded so small, but I quickly recalled many friends who had babies that size and whose babies were now perfectly normal sized, healthy kiddos. Because of her blood type and mine, I was told she would probably be jaundiced and need to go under the lights for 24 hours. They checked her bilirubin levels and each time it came back borderline. We decided to go ahead and let her get treated for it so that we didn't have to come back to the hospital after I was discharged and have her do that. The nurses said she loved getting to be a wiggle worm under the lights. Now that I see how much she likes to kick and move, I bet she did have fun having the freedom to both move around swaddle-free and be warm under there.

I had to stay in the hospital for 5 days. My vision was blurry until a couple days after I got home. Even now it might not be back to 100%. My blood pressure continued to spike, so they put me on blood pressure medication. They said to expect my blood pressure to remain high for 6 weeks after delivery. (Usually with pre-eclampsia, your blood pressure will stabilize quickly after delivery. With hellp, it remains high for a longer time.) I was tanked up on loads of pain meds. Because of all the dizziness, blurred vision, and anti-seizure medicine, I didn't get out of bed for 56 hours. The nurse on duty at 56 hours was shocked that I hadn't stood up or walked yet, so she got her drill sargeant face on and got me to take a few steps. The goal was a shower. I blacked out before we could get to the shower and she helped me come out of it before walking back. But at least I'd gotten up. That was one of the hardest days. Thanks to her, though, I was out of the special care unit by the end of Saturday, able to stand up, and catheter free. She was tough, but I needed that.

How far we've come in 2 1/2 weeks:

Emily has regained her birth weight and more- she was born 5 lb 9oz, dropped to 5 lb, and is now 6 lb 1 oz. Way to go my little eater! We got the green light from the pediatrician this morning that we can now feed on demand when she wants to eat and not force her into a round-the-clock 2 hour feeding schedule. This means we can wait up to 4 hours at night and 3 hours during the day. Although so far today she's woken up and rooted at 2 hour intervals. ;-)

All of my vitals have returned to normal levels!!! Praise the Lord! My platelet counts had dropped all the way to 32,000. Your blood stops clotting at 30,000. Not good with a c-section. I got one platelet transfusion and the rest my body built back on its own. I'm now back at 145,000 which is within the normal range. I got a ton of bruising around my c-section incision from the platelet deficiency, but that is healing up pretty well. My liver enzymes finally as of Friday are basically back to normal. That took the longest to recover. My blood pressure was the biggest surprise. We were expecting it to take 6 weeks for that to stabilize. I was taking meds 3 times a day to keep me safe. That dropped to 2 times a day 3 days after I left the hospital. Then on Saturday they took me off the meds completely because my readings were coming back very low. Now my readings are coming back normal without any meds. All that's left for my recovery is for the c-section to continue to heal. I can live with that. :-)

In all of this, there were times where I did ask the Lord, "Why me?" I don't shy away from the fact that I questioned Him about this whole ordeal. That's where I was in all my hormone shifts and expectations. I've had to grieve the loss of a desire for a different birth experience. I've had to grieve losing that instant contact with my precious daughter. And I really did look death in the face and had to ask God, "Why'd you let me get so close to the edge at 27 years old and with a new baby? Didn't you know that would be too scary for us to handle? What does this mean for future children for us?" But as the days have gone by and Emily and I have bonded, I have healed, and the hormones have stabilized, I have been able to praise God for His incredible miracles every day through this. For His goodness toward us. For His tender Fatherly love for both me and Emily. I remember thinking in the hospital as I held Emily close, "God, I need you to hold me just like this more than ever." And He did. And He gave me Greg's strong, steady arms and tender love as well. He also gave us an incredible support system. My mom and sister got the call at 5:30 pm Houston time that we were having the c-section soon. They got on a plane 2 hours later (yes, in Houston rush hour traffic- lots of tears at the boarding gate and finding the right supervisor), and we saw them in the recovery room at 2:30 am (only 7 hours after she was born). Wow! They were AMAZING at caring for Emily, Greg, and me, and getting the house cleaned and ready for us (remember how we weren't planning to have a baby that day? :-) ) Our church small group was a huge help bringing us preemie diapers, newborn clothing (I'd thought we'd start out in 0-3 month clothes), and other helpful gifts. And now Greg's parents are here to help cook, clean, and love on Emily. All is well.

I leave you with Psalm 16:

Keep me safe, O God,
for in you I take refuge.

I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord;
apart from you I have no good thing."

As for the saints who are in the land,
they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.

The sorrows of those will increase
who run after other gods.
I will not pour out their libations of blood
or take up their names on my lips.

LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.

The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.

I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.

I have set the LORD always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,

because you will not abandon me to the grave,
nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Kaboom!

2010-07-30T17:42:00.000-07:00

Poor sweet Emily has had to suffer a lot of gas today, because her Mommy had momentary amnesia and ate broccoli with last night's dinner. ( I knew this was a no-no long before I was ever pregnant, but no sleep = no memory). So she's had a lot of interesting noises and faces today, along with a few more than normal poopy diapers.

Greg had the pleasure of changing a soaking wet diaper, putting a new one under her as she peed again, switching that one out and then getting splattered with mustardy goodness that even made it's way across the pack n play to the corner. The first of many of these experiences, I am sure. You should have seen her face afterwards. A look of pure joy. :-) Me too. I can always use a good laugh. Of course, I am probably next! But my indoctrination came yesterday when I decided I didn't need a burp cloth on my shoulder and she spit up all over my freshly washed hair. Lesson learned. :-)

Loving our new little discoveries!

Introducing Emily

2010-07-29T13:38:00.000-07:00

As you all know, our precious baby girl arrived a month early on July 14th. Big surprise! I was exactly 36 weeks along. She weighed in at 5 lb 9 oz and was 18 inches long. One day I will get all the details of what happened that day written here, but for now, I just want to tell you about Emily. :-)

Emily is a beautiful mix of sweetness and contentment with a spark of stubborness and strong opinions (that's my genes for sure) . She rarely cries unless you take too long to change her diaper (we are amateurs, so that happens a lot), try and get her tiny onesie off, or give her a bath. Otherwise, she is happy being held, being fed, or even sleeping in her pack and play. The feistiness has really come through during nursing. She knows what she wants, and that is not always what Mommy and Daddy have been told that she needs. Sometimes she'll nurse for 5 minutes, unlatch, purse her lips together and furrow her eyebrows. Other times she unlatches early and goes limp and asleep like a possum who plays dead. You know she can't possibly go from fierce nurser to deep sleep instantly, but that's what happens and there's no changing her mind after that. I wonder what 13 years old is going to look like. ;-) She has these wonderful, peaceful smiles that she shows when she is sleeping. Her favorite thing so far besides a good meal is discovering her hands. Even on the ultrasounds, she always had her hands by her face. That never changed. She loves to suck on her fingers when she is telling us that she is hungry. And when she gets excited, her hands both go up on her cheeks. It is so fun to watch her move around. I don't have other newborns to compare her to, but her little muscles seem so strong to me. She hates getting her diaper changed, and she locks her legs together so that you can't undo the diaper easily. I can't say that I blame her. A blast of a/c and a cold wipe don't sound like fun to me either. Right now she nurses every 2 - 2 1/2 hours so that we can pack a little weight on her. I never imagined how exhausting the schedule would be. I never imagined how guilty I would feel if a nursing session didn't go as long as the doctor said that it needed to go. I never imagined that my mothering instincts would make me bossy when others try to do things differently with her than I think best. It is a strange combination of feeling helplessly inadequate as a parent and yet fiercely opinionated about her care. That' s normal, right?

We are exhausted, at times unsure of our ability to do this, but we are loving getting to know our little peanut and getting to care for her. She is an absolutely beautiful, wonderful little girl. Praise the Lord for allowing her to be born healthy and strong despite my illness that led to an early birth for her.

Nesting and more BH

2010-07-07T07:07:00.000-07:00

I think nesting encompasses way more than me cleaning the house and getting the nursery ready. Greg has had major nesting compulsions, too! All of a sudden, house projects have taken on a new priority and focus. We finally got most of the pictures up on the walls where we wanted them. We re-arranged some furniture in our bedroom. Greg's mom made us some gorgeous custom curtains that we now have installed. They also very graciously weeded our flower beds and planted some pretty flowers for us. (If I'm still walking around with Emily inside at 40 weeks, I will be the one weeding the flower beds!!). The house is looking much more homely and it already is feeling cooler inside with the added insulation of the curtains. Our 22 year old windows are still well insulated, but they don't have Low-E glass. So the heat from the sun comes pouring through and bakes the house each day. We are in the process of choosing some UV window film to coat the windows on the front side of the house. That way we can open the curtains once in a while and not live in a cave. :-) Pictures of the newly transformed rooms soon to come! The nursery is not ready yet, so you'll have to wait for pictures from that! I am getting clothes washed and put away and toys and books compiled and organized. But I still don't have any decorations on the walls yet. Still...it's essentially ready for her and she'll be staying in our room in the pack n play for a bit anyway.

We had a little excitement a couple nights ago (although I was NOT excited at the time). I started having some pretty intense cramping and BH around 3am. I knew for sure that I wasn't dehydrated, because I had been downing water all night. But I got up anyway and drank my 3 glasses of water at one time and laid back down to see if they'd subside. They didn't. Around 3:30 I started my first attempt at timing contractions. It's really hard to tell when they start! I had an underlying crampy ache the whole time and needed to try and discern when the belly was tightening on top of that and when it subsided. Eventually I started noticing a pattern of it instensifying every 6 minutes. That really freaked me out. Patterned contractions = not good this early! That lasted til around 6am. I decided after laying down until 4:30 and nothing changing that I needed to get up, walk around, eat something...anything to see if I could change the pattern. None of those things helped. When I got in the shower at 6, though, they stopped. Yay for an effective distraction! After that, I had a really upset stomach the rest of the morning. I had a few more contractions around 7:45 when I was busy running around the office, and those stopped by 8:30 and never came back. I called the nurse line at my midwive's office around 1 just to check in and see if I needed to come in. I didn't think I would since I wasn't having any more contractions. She said the upset stomach was probably a 24 hour stomach bug that is going around. 3 other women had called in within the last day with the same symptoms as me paired with BH and she thought we all had the bug. I went on the BRAT diet for yesterday through breakfast this morning and I've had no more problems. I slept soundly last night and my stomach is fine now. So we think that all the stomach stuff triggered the BH. I'm only at 35 weeks and really want to make it at least a couple more weeks!! I've heard from a few people that if you have lots of BH leading up to the big day that it could mean a shorter labor. I know everyone is different, but I sure hope that it is true!

34 weeks!

2010-06-30T18:37:00.000-07:00

Still GROWING! Emily is now filling out underneath my rib cage, and it is harder to breathe and move anywhere. 6 more weeks of growth?? Oh goodness! I also continue to fill out in my face and legs. I look at pics of myself last summer and I seriously think my face has doubled in size. But this too shall pass all in good time.

Like my new glasses? I don't! What a pregnancy purchase. My wire frames broke on me so I had to make a new purchase super quick since I can't do contacts. I opted for plastic frames for the first time ever because I have had breakage problems with my last two wire frames and I hoped that Emily wouldn't be able to break plastic frames as easily when she gets that grasping reflex going. I am trying to give myself time to adjust to the new look, but it is really different. Just like they say you shouldn't get a drastically new haircut while you are pregnant, the same holds true for glasses!

The midwife appt was pretty good today. I only gained 1.25 lbs the last week and a half, so that is back on track thankfully. Em's heartrate was mostly hanging around 143, but I saw the 150's up there a couple times. She doesn't like the Doppler they use to check that. The last few times they've done it, she kicks really hard when it starts going! My blood pressure was normal. So those are all praises!

My one prayer request for y'all is this: pray with me that by my next appointment at 36 weeks that she will be back to head down! For the first time I was told that she was head up. The midwife reassured me that this is not a problem at 34 weeks and that she still has room and time to turn head down. But if she's not down at the next appointment, they will need to do an ultrasound to better determine her position and will try to manually turn her around. If that doesn't work, we will probably be looking at a C-section whenever labor day rolls around. I want to visualize her being able to turn around in there and go head down. She is still very active even though it feels really squished. I just have a mental block right now that there is actually enough room for her to turn like that. Let's hope!

So happy to have made it to 34 weeks!!!

Ashley's visit! :-)

2010-06-28T08:22:00.000-07:00

I had the sweet gift of a whole weekend of fun with my long-time friend, Ashley! She happened to have a conference for work over in Philly earlier in the week, so it worked out perfectly for her to come over to Lancaster for the weekend to soak up a little Amish experience and see where I live. We had such a great time getting to sight see, catch up, and work on the nursery together. I wish I could hold on to weekends like these and be able to transport dear friends up here whenever I can!

Friday night, Greg and I took Ash to Iron Hill Brewery, a regional place that brews its own beers on the premises and serves up amazing steaks, seafood, salads, and sandwiches. It was a great start to the weekend, and it took us straight into the heart of downtown by Franklin & Marshall College. I love downtown in the evenings.

Saturday we had a lazy morning and then ventured over to Central Market (if you come visit me, you will always get to see Central Market :-) I never get tired of it!) We filled up a backpack with fresh fruits, veggies, and glass bottled milk and stopped at the herb shop for some super inexpensive and yummy dried oregano and cumin. I have figured out now that when I have an herb jar from the grocery store that runs out, I just need to get a baggy of that herb from the herb shop, and I can refill my jar. It is sooo much cheaper this way!

From there we visited a museum next door that has an old printing press room with people who are trained to use the printing press models that mimic ones that were made in the 1700's and 1800's. There was a really nice man in there who talked our ears off about how the presses worked and sharing with us all sorts of sayings that have come into existence b/c of the printing press. We learned where the word "font" comes from, why the terms Upper Case and Lower Case originated, why flyers (one sided brochures) are called flyers, etc. All very fascinating. He also let us try out two types of printing presses ourselves. It's nice to be in an area that values history so much. I am learning to appreciate it more.

We still had our milk in the backpack, so we decided it was time to head back home. We made a quick run by my office (not for much longer!!) and then stopped at Rita's Italian Ice to cool off. Ashley knew all about Rita's because her husband is from Pittsburgh and raved about it. We checked that one off the list with happy bellies and headed back home.

The afternoon was spent grabbing a quick nap and working on the nursery. And guess what? The complete non-engineer (ME) finally figured out the crib problem!! Woohoo!! Greg and I were super frustrated on Father's Day when we were putting the crib together and the spring was installed at an incline. We had ordered another crib and were waiting for it to come in. When Ash and I were looking at it, I discovered that one of the two stabilizer bars would simply be flipped over and the screw holes would then be at the correct height for the springs to attach to. Greg was in D.C. for the day, so we decided to pull out the tools and just fix it ourselves. It turned out great, and we were able to decorate the whole thing- dust ruffle, mattress, sheet, bumper, and mobile! I'm not taking a picture until I have the room complete, I think, but I was SO excited to have it done. We were then able to organize some other stuff in the room and start washing some of Emily's clothes so that they could be put away. I can't tell you how much better it feels to have the crib done, the changing pad ready to go, and some clothes cleaned and put away. Nesting has definitely begun. :-)

After that, we made a mad dash out to Amish country to visit an outdoor shopping center called Kitchen Kettle Village. They have lots of fun stores including a homemade jam, dips, and salsa store that is sooo good. We each found a few items there. I also found a cute butterfly windchime that I think will go great in Emily's room. From there we went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries for dinner (my first time to finally make it there). It is really famous up here and has all sorts of awards for best fries and best burger. We got the obligatory burger and fries. The fries were awesome, the burger wasn't anything special. But it was good to finally say I've been there! I hear it is starting to infiltrate the south, so some of you might be able to try it sometime!

All in all a wonderful weekend that wasn't quite long enough!

Next post: Liz, Greg's mom, is here for the week! We have already started having fun getting curtains ready to hang all over the house. I am taking off a day of work tomorrow to hang out with her, and I'm really looking forward to that. YAY for friends and family being in town! What a comfort. :-)

Ouch!

2010-06-24T05:18:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that my time has come in this pregnancy where the discomforts and changes are enough to say it hasn't all been a walk in the park (and it really in truly has been so far!) I had the easiest 1st and 2nd trimesters and thought this whole thing was a breeze. I certainly can't compare to others' experiences, and I think that I still have it super easy compared to most. But one thing threw me for a loop last night. I have been having Braxton Hicks contractions on and off throughout the day most days and they don't hurt, just feel tight. That sounds pretty textbook to me. But a few times I have gone to lay down in bed and it turns into full-on cramps instead or back pain. Last night was by far the most powerful of these that I have experienced. I was surprised by the pain and frustrated that I couldn't relax well through it. Part of my struggle was fear that the pain level was a new intensity, and I worried that it could be early labor. Part of it was exhaustion- I had laid down to go to sleep and was instead greeted by pain. We have been doing relaxation practice for our Bradley classes and now I feel really motivated to practice it consistently, because I think I am going to need it. My midwife office had told me before that if I get cramps it can mean dehydration and I need to drink 3 full cups of water all at once and then lay back down for an hour and keep drinking another cup every 15 minutes. So that kept me up for the next 2 hours going to the bathroom every 15 minutes. But thankfully it worked. After about an hour the cramps and contractions subsided. I guess I am just doubting my ability to handle labor naturally now that I am starting to get a tiny taste of it. They say some people don't feel much pain- they progress quite a bit without even knowing that they are in labor. Will I be in the throws of cramps and back pain from the get go? If so, it's going to be really tough for me mentally.

Anyone else experience cramping or back pain with contractions weeks before your due date? How did it compare to what you felt when labor really started?

I think we found the culprit

2010-06-20T18:09:00.000-07:00

If you read my post from yesterday, you'll see that I was pretty upset about the mysterious extra weight gain I showed at my midwife appointment yesterday. She told me to drink a ton of water and get out and take a walk and try to eat healthier. So I did just that and realized that almost every meal this past week that we had at dinner was very high in salt. I also hadn't been doing a stellar job each day with my water intake. Yesterday's meals were very low salt and what do you know? The difference between my morning weight at home on Saturday and my morning weight at home on Sunday was 2 1/2 lbs! I didn't expect to lose anything and wasn't trying to, but I am convinced that all the salt was holding a lot of water everywhere. I feel noticeably better today. My face feels back to normal and my legs look a little better. So..... no more Chinese, Mexican, or Italian dishes for me! Especially Chinese. Somehow this past week we had 3 meals with soy sauce. No bueno. The 2 1/2 lb difference puts me back on track with where I want to be. :-)

We attempted to put the crib together today. Sigh :-) It is a beautiful crib! Only problem is that the pre-drilled holes seem to be off by 1 1/2 inches when you compare where the side rails go into the headboard versus the footboard. What that translates to is a spring that has a 1 1/2 in. incline, which is obviously not safe to lay on. BabiesRUs is being really accommodating and ordering a new crib free of charge (which they should do, but I was nervous that they wouldn't). It should be in a week from now hopefully and we can start the process over again. I was really hoping that we could have the room put together by next weekend, but at least we still have time to work out all the kinks. Hopefully the next one that comes in won't have the same problem!

A few changes

2010-06-19T16:59:00.000-07:00

Today I'm in the middle of my 33rd week. I had a midwife appt this morning and got a good blood pressure reading and Emily's heartrate looked good. She's also head down still, which I am thankful for. Unfortunately my weight gain over the last two appointments has been less than optimal to the point that the midwife had to have "the talk" with me today. I cried all the way to the grocery store after I left her office. I'm still in the normal range, but I have really put the pounds on in the last month and I have no idea how it has happened. I'm not eating any more than I was earlier in the pregnancy. In fact, I feel like I'm eating less. But what she said confirmed what I could already see in my face and my legs. To add to that, I've been getting comments lately about "you look so much fuller, your face is fuller, etc." It wouldn't be bad if someone said, "look how your belly is growing!" I'm supposed to grow there. Sigh. It has been a humbling day. I think I was proud of how well I was managing the weight gain and these past couple weeks I have felt like I had no control over it. But Greg and I are going to start taking nightly walks around the neighborhood and I'm cutting out all drinks but water and an occasional glass of soy milk and OJ (I'm taking calcium supplements). And I will trrrryyy to eat chocolate in moderation. :-) I can't and shouldn't lose the pounds that I've put on, but the goal is to get back on track now and hold it to 1 lb or less a week from here on out. 1/2 a pound a week will go straight to Emily for the next month or so. I've asked the Lord to help me with self control as I navigate my relationship with food during the home stretch.

Another change has been lots of Braxton Hicks contractions over the last couple weeks. It is good to know that my body is practicing for the real deal. But it still gives me pause each time one happens. These sometimes are hard to distinguish from Emily's movements now. All of a sudden since around 31 weeks, it has felt like she doesn't have any more room in there. She's got tons more growing to do, but she feels squished in there already. I no longer get kicks all over my belly; it's more like strong pushes in the same place over and over again like she's trying to stretch out but can't. She also gets hiccups quite a bit, which feels so weird!

Other than that, I have noticed that I am still carrying super low. It has probably been a blessing, because I still breath easily and have rarely had a bout with heartburn. I just wonder what it will feel like when she "drops" before labor, because I already feel like she's so low. I guess I'll find out eventually!

Pics of nursery progress should come sometime in the next couple weeks! Greg painted the room a beautiful yellow today, and it turned out great! We are going to attempt to put the crib together tomorrow. So exciting to start getting these things done. :-)

Day trip to Annapolis!

2010-06-13T16:33:00.000-07:00

I had my last out of town adventure yesterday, and it was so much fun! 6 of the ladies from small group were able to take a day trip down to Annapolis to hang out by the bay, enjoy authentic seafood, take in the beautiful old architecture, and walk through the city's first annual arts and crafts festival. The festival could have been better, but it was neat to see vendors there with so many unique and beautiful pieces. We saw photography, oil paintings, pottery, jewelry, woodworking, metalworking, clothing, and glasswork. There was a stand with delicious flavored olive and grapeseed oils to sample. Everything was super expensive, so we didn't buy anything there, but it was still neat.

The bay area was beautiful and the weather was perfect. It was hot and sunny, but at least by the bay the breeze provided a nice respite. Tons of boats were out on the water, and we saw a few kayaks come in as well.

Lots of fun little coffee shops and seafood restaurants. There was also an adorable ladies consignment shop where a few of my friends found some great deals on clothing that totally fit each of their personalities. I don't think anyone expected to go clothing shopping on this trip, but as soon as everyone started casually thumbing through the racks, tons of things got pulled off and tried on. That was fun. I, unfortunately, am a whale at the moment and have no idea what size I will return to. So I resisted picking anything out. Soon though. :-) I hope. :-)

We walked a TON, which made my hands and feet swell and my joints loosen, but thankfully I didn't get any contractions from it. I think in the end that walking was just really good for me. I am a little sore in my back today, but nothing too bad.

I was so so blessed to have this time with these precious friends. Our small group is "birthing" at the end of the summer into 2 groups since we've gotten so big. Though I know it is the best thing for being able to develop the small groups effectively and to openly incorporate new people (like they did for us last year), it is still making me sad that I won't have consistent time with each of them. I guess that just means I will have to be more intentional once Emily comes along and I get my "routine" in place.

I just spend way too much time posting the pics onto Facebook, so I don't feel like creating a slideshow to post here. If you want to see pics, you can find the album on the left column of my FB page!

3 great things this week

2010-06-11T18:31:00.000-07:00

Three really great things happened this week:

1) Our friends Amanda and Andrew had their baby boy, Reynen!!! He is really precious (from the few pictures I've seen), and I've gotten an update that everyone is doing wonderfully and that the birth went really well. Praise the Lord for answered prayer! Each time a friend has a baby I have an unexhausted (is that a word?) amount of joy. It is so amazing every time!

2) We went to a baseball game for fun on Thursday night! I decided to buy the tickets earlier this week and surprise Greg with a trip to the game. It was his early Father's Day present :-) We were surprised when we got there to see that they were in the middle of the game already. Apparently Wed. night's game got rained out, so they scheduled a double header for Thursday. So we watched the second half of the first game and the first half of the second game. It was SO fun to be at a game again! The weather was beautiful, too.

3) Greg and our friend Todd installed a ceiling fan in our bedroom!!!!!!!!!!!!! Little me who is always cold is now HOT every night from all this pregnancy stuff. I love it, and I think it'll be one thing that gets me through these last 2 months. It also makes our bedroom look more grown up. :-)

This and that as June begins

2010-06-06T14:08:00.000-07:00

We are glad to be official "participating members" at Newsong now! After completing all but one "Discovery class", finding a ministry, and being plugged into a small group for awhile, they decided it was ok for us to become voting members of the church. Wahoo! We went to our first church annual meeting tonight and got to vote on new elders, approving next year's budget, and purchasing a new building for office space so that the children's ministry can take over the office areas of the church. This little church is growing rapidly even after planting two churches in the last few years where some members have gone to assist in planting. Greg got to share a testimony at the beginning of the meeting about how God has used Newsong in our lives in the last year. It is starting to feel more like our church family now, and it was nice to be a part of the meeting.

One random thought I had this week- our small town of Millersville is growing on me. Though big city me still despises having to drive 5 minutes to get out of the neighborhood before I get on my way to any sort of modern shopping experience (which is usually at least another 10 minutes down the road)...there are some things about the small town that are a treat. One is our local grocery store. It is in a really old building and it is a family run business. The high school boys there are well-trained to meet you half way into the parking lot to grab your emptied cart from you so that you don't have to walk it back. They still use paper sacks instead of plastic bags. And everyone there really does have a smile on their faces. It reminds me of my local little grocery store in West U called JMH. We don't always shop at this place b/c it can be a little pricey on some of the brand name items, but it sells great meat and it's the closest place I have when I run out of something.

Another special part of our community is our little family of swans (geese?) that live on the golf course. I need to remember to stop and take a picture of them sometime. They cross the road that we take to get home frequently throughout the day. It's a momma and daddy and their 5-10 little babies. It's the cutest thing ever, and we get to enjoy this little family in our neighborhood.

Not too much to report on the pregnancy front except that - wow - now that Emily is putting on weight, my belly is noticeably changing each week. My midwife said on Saturday that we are still measuring perfectly on schedule for size. Her hr was 151 bpm, my bp was 122/85, and my weight was.... still in the normal range :-) I think I've reached my limit on reporting my weight gain, haha. Greg and I enjoyed getting to see her have some majorly powerful kicks and rolls on Saturday while I was laying down. That whole alien moving inside you description makes sense to me now. We could literally see things (elbows? feet?) punching out my stomach and rolling across. Totally amazing.

That's it for now! I should probably be sleeping already. :-)

Our little "staycation babymoon"

2010-06-02T10:48:00.000-07:00

Trendy, I know :-)

29/30 weeks might have been a little early for a babymoon, but we took advantage of the 3 day weekend and had a little fun while I am still energized enough to get out and about. We opted to stay in town and have our own comfy bed and use the otherwise-budgeted hotel money for other things. It was great, and I plan to try to implement a little Memorial Day staycation tradition now. Who wants to pay the extra holiday hotel fees anyway?

We dropped Buddy off at the kennel Saturday morning so that we (=Greg) could have a few days to not have to wake up early to feed him and we didn't have to get back home at a certain time to take him out for a walk. Saturday morning we hit the sales at the outlet mall! Greg found a few items at Eddie Bauer and I (hopefully) finished out my maternity wardrobe with a few more shirts. We also picked out 2 little outfits for miss Emily at Carter's, though she is pretty well stocked from all the generous gifts from friends and family. Then we headed out to Amish country, and I got a wonderful massage at a bed and breakfast (not run by the Amish). We ate out at a casual italian restaurant and changed the after-dinner plans from going to the movie theater to see Robinhood to going home and renting Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian on redbox. I still want to see Robinhood, but it was so nice to come back home and veg out early instead.

Sunday we did get up and go to church, and we were so glad that we did. Greg was really blessed by the praise and worship time, and we both felt like we got a soaker-hose of scriptural teaching on the history of Israel and God's purposes for His people. It was a great overview that I will enjoy referring back to. We meant to stay for our Sunday School class, but I had forgotten to pack a snack and none was provided that day (normally someone from the class brings something), so we were bad and skipped the class and opted for a lunch out instead. We went to one of our faves- Grand Central Bagel. Sunday afternoon consisted of a loooong nap and watching some old episodes of 24 on Netflix. Then it was off to our splurge dinner. We went to a downtown place called The Pressroom for the first time. I thought the place was a little loud and way too casual of an atmosphere for the price tag, but my food was pretty good and Greg said his food was amazing. Might be our last fancy dinner for a long time, so I was glad that we went!

Monday we slept in late and went to BabiesRUs and Target to grab the Memorial Day sales there. We restrained ourselves from going crazy and getting everything on our list (after all, we don't need all of it quite yet or even before Emily arrives and there might be good sales later on) but we did have fun getting a few things that I wanted to have ready. From there I got to spend a little while just sitting in Emily's room organizing things and being in complete awe of 1)how amazing and generous our family and friends are and 2) how much stuff comes with a baby.

We ate at home Monday night, fell asleep early, and started normal life again with a dog and jobs Tuesday morning. It was a blissful, fun, and restful weekend that I know will soon be a luxury that we will no longer have. We were happy to see that though we shopped and dined all weekend, we came in under our vacation budget, too!

Overwhelmingly blessed!

2010-05-30T14:25:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure where to start with how much last weekend's trip to Texas meant to me. I had been looking forward to seeing everyone for months and the memories that I have now from such an awesome trip will stay with me forever. Greg and I were blessed with not one but two baby showers! Emily is stocked now with many beautiful clothes, blankets, books, nursery items, and toys. And I am ready for her with bottles, pacifiers, a breast pump, first aid kits, diapers, a crib, a stroller, and a carseat. On top of that, we were so overwhelmed by all of the gift cards and cash that will help us to complete our list of necessities before she arrives. Thank you all so much who gave above and beyond - your love is felt deeply. I kept wishing that I could have 2 hour blocks of time with each person to sit down and have a hearty conversation. Thank goodness for phones and email to still keep in touch!

Here are a few pictures from the trip!

28 weeks!

2010-05-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday hit 28 weeks, so we are now officially by all calendars into the third trimester. Whoop! I had a midwife appointment today and everything checked out great. Blood pressure is still low, weight gain hovering at 19 lbs (yikes!!! That's dead in the middle of the range, but still crazy to me), and her little heart was pitter-pattering at 145 bpm. The other cool thing was that the midwife could tell that she is head down. She still has room in there to change position, but it will be reassuring any time I hear that she is head down from now on. A new change is that I'll get midwife appts every 2 weeks now instead of every 4. That'll be nice. I am a feedback-hungry kind of girl.

I also had the 1 hour glucose test today. It was not bad at all. Maybe my place orders a good brand of orange drink, but it tasted like Fanta to me. It even had a little fizz to it. My only complaint is that I did feel a little sick to my stomach by the end of it. I find out tomorrow if I failed, but I am pretty confident that I am in good shape. Glad that is over! :-)

Surgery went well!

2010-05-16T12:29:00.001-07:00

Granmama had her hip surgery this morning, and it went great. Thank you, Lord, for answering our prayers for safety and going beyond our expectations. The surgery was a quick 30 minutes where they made a 2 inch incision and placed 3 pins in her hip socket. They decided that she would be fine with a spinal instead of general anesthesia, and she has had an amazing recovery from that so far. By noon she was awake and talking. Yay! From what I hear, the surgeon, anesthesiologist, and all the nurses were blown away by her strength and her healthy lifestyle. At 92, she still walks a mile almost every day! Because of all the walking, her bones are full of oxygen and the healing from the fracture will be a lot easier on her than it would be on most older people. We all thought that she would be in a rehab hospital for a few weeks doing physical therapy, but the doctor has said that she will be released to go home with a walker in 2 days. I am so amazed. If you read my previous post for prayers, I thank you for praying for her. This all went much better than we could have imagined.

Please pray

2010-05-15T15:21:00.001-07:00

Would you mind saying a prayer for my granmama? She is going to have emergency hip surgery tomorrow (Sunday). She took a fall a week or two ago and thought that everything was ok, but the pressure of walking has caused a fracture in the socket joint of her hip. If all goes well, they will only need to put a pin into the socket and the surgery will be done. They are just not sure how badly it is fractured until they get in there and take a look. It will require anesthesia, of course, and that is what I am most worried about. It will also mean some fairly intense physical therapy afterwards. That is hard on anyone, but at 92 it is especially difficult. Granmama is one of the sweetest, strongest, most loving people I know. I wish that I could be by her side right now. Thanks for praying with me for everything to go smoothly.

Like sands in the hour glass...

2010-05-12T06:01:00.001-07:00

Lots of changes happening lately. I don't like change that others bring upon me (who does?), but I definitely have learned that I am a person who enjoys changes when I am in control or when I know that they are coming. In college I always looked forward to a new semester that had a different schedule, different classes, and new activities. I'm still like that with Greg's semester schedules. It feels refreshing to change things up sometimes.

One big change today is that we are now entering the 3rd trimester! Wahoo!! Although I am saying goodbye to the more comfortable 2nd trimester, I am so excited to hit this milestone and know that we are one week closer to full term. Emily should be weighing in a little over 2 lbs and should be about 14 inches long. Over the next 13+/- weeks, she'll be adding lots and lots of pounds and I will start to really stretch out. I have a cute bump right now, but I still don't feel that big. No stretch marks on my tummy or linea nigra, but the little spider veins are starting to mess with my legs. I am loving sleeping right now. I've noticed it is a little more uncomfortable and my legs frequently threaten to cramp up, but in general I have never enjoyed restful sleep like I have these past few months. My body is finally taking a break from overdrive and is slowing down to give Emily the attention she needs to grow. That's been a great change.

Another big change is my notice to my boss that I will not be returning to work full time after she is born. My plan is to work through the end of July and then have a few weeks before Emily comes to nest and rest to my heart's content. I am very thankful for a boss who has been incredibly supportive of our decision. She is looking into the possibility of me doing tele-marketing for the admissions office from my house once I feel up to it. There is also a potential for me to get involved with a new online program that the school is starting up. All of this is such an answer to prayer. I really wrestled with the decision about work. I know that my heart firmly desires to be at home full time, but I also had fears about not adding to my meager retirement savings and us not having extra each month to save toward our next car. I also worried about how butchered my resume will look with my short term jobs. But the Lord reminded me that following His plans for me always results in enough provision, and He will take care of that part. Just yesterday Greg got invited to participate in a 12 hour training session that will pay him $400 for his time. And it looks good on his CV (resume) to do the training also! If I were to continue working for my current employer from home, then it would be a little monthly income for retirement and maybe car savings. We've taken the leap of faith and are trusting that the opportunities will come when we need them.

Her name :-)

2010-05-04T19:20:00.000-07:00

After much prayer and discussion and re-discussion, and EXCITEment, it is our joy to share that our daughter's name is.....

Emily Katherine Paul

We love calling her Emily and Em and Emi as we talk to her now, and it is great to be able to call her by name. Emily means "to be industrious, excel, or emulate". The name Katherine means "pure". We pray that Emily will strive to emulate her Maker as she comes to know Him and that she will excel as she learns new things (though humility is also a virtue that is a blessing we all experience as well!). We also pray even now that she will have a strong desire to live a life of purity and that as she grows up, she will look to Jesus for her self worth and identity.

Buddy has a phobia

2010-05-03T06:45:00.000-07:00

Have I ever told you that our dog is DEATHLY afraid of little flies? Afraid of big doberman pinchers? Nope. Armadillos? No siree- they looked like ideal playmates to him in CS. Flies. And let me tell you that flies are not easy to catch/kill/silence, especially when you have a belly and you aren't supposed to be jumping or climbing on cabinets.

We saw this phobia when we first moved into the townhome last summer and the movers kept the door open all day to get the boxes and furniture in. It took us forever to clear out the flies. During that week, Buddy refused to eat and would dock his tail, run upstairs, and hide under the bed. It seemed crazy! His entire body would be shaking when you held him.

Yesterday I ducked out of a ministry mobilization meeting at church so that I could run home and feed the little guy around his usual time. Unfortunately one little fly decided to follow me into the house. As soon as Buddy could hear it buzzing in the kitchen, there was no hope for getting dinner down at that point. He ran into the powder room and cowered in the dark right next to the toilet. I didn't know whether to laugh or scoop him up and hold him. I think I did a little of both. I tried to get him to eat by the couch in the living room, but he must have still been able to hear the buzzing. He wriggled out of my arms and ran upstairs to get under the bed. So much for mommy being a comforting place!

Do your pets have strange phobias?

another first

2010-05-01T06:34:00.000-07:00

In addition to a Braxton Hicks contraction this week, I had another first very early this morning. I woke up at 5am to go to the bathroom (that's definitely not a new thing) and when I went back to lay down I had intense hunger pangs. I rolled over and thought "there's no way I'm getting up at 5am to eat breakfast on a Saturday!!" But I only lasted about a minute before my stomach led me downstairs to get a bowl of Raisin Bran. Its a good thing we had that in the kitchen, because come heck or high water, that was the only food I wanted at the moment and I needed it asap. Haha. It held me over til we had to leave the house at 8, and I was super hungry again. Guess I am getting trained that when she is hungry, I need to feed her! Just hope this doesn't happen every night til birth in addition to the 1-2 bathroom runs each night.

Right now I've got worship music on the laptop, and I am laying down while she kicks up a storm. These days are rich blessings to me! I can't wait to meet her! :-)

Name reveal coming soon! We've leaked to a few people, so in the coming week I'll get it up here on the blog. It makes such a difference to me to be able to talk to her with her name.

2010-04-28T15:07:00.001-07:00

We had so much fun a couple weekends ago when our friends asked us to watch their 7 month old boy for a few hours. I think Greg's got this part down. :-)

And here I am at 25 weeks, feeling very stretched. Belly button hasn't popped, but it might want to in the near future. My co-worker said today that when I first wore this shirt a month ago I was way too small for it. She thinks I fill it out now. Wonder how long I'll be able to wear it, though! I also felt my second Braxton Hicks contraction today, I think. It is both scary and exciting to know that my body is already practicing a little for the big day. At 25 weeks, our little girl probably weighs around 1 3/4 lbs and is around 13 inches long. We are set for a major growth spurt over the next month, and I am trying very hard to eat lots of protein and get enough calcium. She can hear a lot now, especially mommy's voice. I try to remember to sing when I'm in the shower and in the car. :-) She is also growing herself some eyelashes this week and starting to put on a little fat. I'm also starting to put on some fat, too. ;-) It all comes off later, right??

Ponder anew what the Almighty can do

2010-04-26T05:23:00.000-07:00

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear, now to His temple draw near;
Praise Him in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord, who over all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen how thy desires ever have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?

Praise to the Lord, who hath fearfully, wondrously, made thee;
Health hath vouchsafed and, when heedlessly falling, hath stayed thee.
What need or grief ever hath failed of relief?
Wings of His mercy did shade thee.

Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work and defend thee;
Surely His goodness and mercy here daily attend thee.
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,
If with His love He befriend thee.

Praise to the Lord, who, when tempests their warfare are waging,
Who, when the elements madly around thee are raging,
Biddeth them cease, turneth their fury to peace,
Whirlwinds and waters assuaging.

Praise to the Lord, who, when darkness of sin is abounding,
Who, when the godless do triumph, all virtue confounding,
Sheddeth His light, chaseth the horrors of night,
Saints with His mercy surrounding.

Praise to the Lord, O let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before Him.
Let the Amen sound from His people again,
Gladly for aye we adore Him.

24 week update

2010-04-23T05:42:00.000-07:00

We made it! If I went into labor right now, our little girl would have a chance at survival. I was hoping and praying to make it to the 24 week mark and beyond. And praise the Lord- everything is still looking good! I had my 24 wk check with a midwife yesterday, and our little girl's heartrate was 156. Nice and strong! Even without any caffeine whatsoever :-) I'm so proud of myself for giving that up these past ~ 6 months. My blood pressure was fairly low at 114/76 even with a somewhat stressful schedule yesterday. Gives me even more encouragement that I will probably not be subjected to pre-eclampsia during these last 16 weeks. 16 weeks?? That seems like nothing now! August seems far away, but when I look at that number it seems just around the corner somehow. I've enjoyed our 3 Bradley classes so far and feel much more aware of the labor process.

Every time someone has asked, "How are you feeling?" I have responded with a resounding, "Great!" I have truly had such a comfortable 2nd trimester so far. Just yesterday I did have a rough day with heartburn and other stomach issues. The midwife said I might even have the stomach bug that has been going around. She reassured me that baby girl is just fine even if I don't feel that way and that I just need to stay hydrated. If you think to pray for us for a full recovery, I would greatly appreciate it! A long night's sleep last night has left me feeling better today already. And having a gracious husband who would go out to dinner with me to meet my food craving instead of having bacon and eggs was a blessing as well. Who could stomach bacon and eggs when you are sick? Yuck! :-)

Happy Friday everyone!

A Brenda Lee moment

2010-04-20T09:39:00.000-07:00

Greg and I affectionately compare me to the character Deputy Chief Brenda Lee Johnson on the TV show The Closer. She is both skillful and Type A at her job and clumsy and forgetful in her life outside the office. I love how much the writers have developed that character.

I'm not as good at my job as she is at hers, but I do get feisty at times and Type A when I know that I am in charge of something. And I like to come across very knowledgeable and pulled together. Unfortunately I can't help being clumsy in everything else!

Today I was heating up my lunch in the break room and talking to 2 ladies in there. Before I could stop it, I had tumped over my tupperware full of fajita meat, onions, peppers, beans, and avacado. Luckily half of it stayed in there so I did still get my lunch, but I was so embarrased. One even asked "How did you manage to do that?" It was all over the counter, floor, and my new shirt. Great.

I watch The Closer and cringe when she does stuff like that and today that was me. I wish I could blame it on pregnancy, but I know that these clumsy days are here to stay. Let's hope our baby girl doesn't get that part of her mama's dna.

:-)

Made the transition...

2010-04-15T19:03:00.000-07:00

...to maternity clothes!

First Bradley Class!

2010-04-08T08:13:00.000-07:00

It seems to be quite a popular thing now for expecting couples to take Bradley classes for preparation for natural childbirth. I know quite a few people that are taking them this year. It is something that I heard about 2 years ago and always knew I wanted try if we ever got pregnant. For me, natural seems like a more rewarding experience and obviously has some benefits for our baby as well. The tendency is that labors go faster, there is less need for intervention (C-section, vacuum, forceps), recovery is quicker for mom, and breastfeeding often happens more quickly and successfully (although I don't think my epidural friends have had more trouble than my non-pain meds friends have with breastfeeding).

We've got our eyes wide open going into the process, however-- if the need for intervention comes (induction, C-section, episiotomy, etc.) we'll just have to roll with it and let the training do all that it can to help us anyway. We have great midwives set up to help with the birth at a top notch hospital with a NICU, so it is the best of both worlds in my opinion. The midwives will be patient with the labor process and provide more support for natural childbirth. But there are doctors and anesthesioligists on call in the hospital if the need for intervention arises. Both sides of the coin give me comfort.

Our first class was this past Monday night. It was really interesting to learn the background on Dr. Bradley and some of the foundational principles that the Bradley method is based upon. But I think that the best thing that I took away from this is how involved Greg is going to be both in these last 18+ weeks of pregnancy and in the birth itself. He has to help me do strength building exercises and relaxation exercises daily. We have to plan our meals carefully to account for my daily protein and calcium needs. Basically, we'll be doing this prep thing together and it ends up being such a team effort to bring our baby into the world. A little intensive and very time consuming? Yes. Our days just got a lot busier. A little hippy-ish? Yes. But worth it for our marriage relationship and for the baby? Definitely. I'll be curious to see if I have one of these "amazing", calm, joyful birth experiences that they rave about. I know it will be the most amazing moment ever no matter what the process looks like. But this just sounds like a neat way to do it. I am looking forward to learning more!

Surprise!

2010-04-06T05:51:00.001-07:00

Easter weekend just happened to be the perfect time to pull a few surprises on my side of the family. For one thing, Granmama's 92nd birthday is a big excuse to celebrate, and all the girls decided we needed to see her on such an important occasion. Aunt Sue orchestrated getting Lauren, Lauren's bf Paul, Mom, and me onto staggered flights so that one by one we could surprise Granmama- and each other! Lauren and Paul's trip was planned and announced from the beginning, but Mom and I both surprised them and Granmama when we popped around the corner. And I wasn't expecting Mom!

We had an awesome weekend catching up, watching basketball (more on that in a minute), touring the beautiful cabin in the mountains that is only a couple months away from completion, and having a huge Easter lunch at Aunt Sue's best friend's house (think perfect Southern veggies). The weather was a comfortable and sunny 80 degrees, and I got to wear a t-shirt and flip flops for the first time in 6 months!

The ladies all decided it would be fun to shower Greg and me early with some adorable baby girl clothes!! I haven't taken pics of our collection yet, but I'll put those up soon. Lauren didn't know I was coming to Charlotte, so she mailed hers earlier in the week. I love this girl- she's got style and she's not afraid to go to the right stores to find the perfect thing. I can't wait to dress our daughter in the clothes that she found!! Granmama got to pick out the perfect "lovey" blanket for her that is a super soft white and has pale pink polka dots along the border. My niece and nephews have had the same kind of blanket and all loved it. I know it will become one of the favorites. And Mom and Aunt Sue stocked us full of cute dresses, sleep outfits, winter clothes, and matching hats for different times throughout the year. I know it'll take a lot of clothes to dress this girl, but they have helped us tremendously and have found some of the items that will be extra special along the way. We are so so so so thankful for the love and the help that has already been poured out - after only knowing for a week that she is a girl!

Oh and back to the basketball thing-- Greg and I entered 3 brackets. He did one at church with the small group guys. We both did my current workplace bracket. And I did my last year's office bracket. Greg won both of his entries and I *might* have won at my last year's office. Last I'd heard, I was in the lead, but it all changes so much after the Final Four. So we'll see!! Lauren won at her office, too. So yeah....I think our family likes basketball :-)

Here are some pics from the weekend!

Growing!

2010-04-03T06:45:00.001-07:00

U/S pics of our baby girl!

2010-03-25T16:30:00.001-07:00

Sucking her fingers

Profile

Face pic - I think that's the umbilical cord right below

Hard to tell, but she flashed us a peace sign 3 times in a row! Sooo cute!

Another face pic. We love our little girl!!

It's A...

2010-03-24T06:08:00.000-07:00

GIRL!!!!! :-) We got to see our precious little girl moving A LOT this morning. She was sucking her fingers, flashing peace signs, and moving all about during the entire ultrasound. We didn’t get too many pictures because she was facing my back and kept raising her arms to her head, but we were still able to see quite a bit. Everything checked out fine: 147 bpm, 11oz, and on the 27th percentile on the growth chart. Her heart, brain, spine, and everything else looked good. We're still brainstorming a name for her. More pictures & updates to come later! EXCITING!!!!!

Social butterflies in spring

2010-03-22T06:16:00.000-07:00

We have had beautiful, perfect weather for the past week (finally!!) I got out and walked the walking trails in our neighborhood almost every day and found myself refreshed and energized by the sunny days and the green grass everywhere. Spring is a haven of new life. I keep telling myself that this won't be what the next three months look like (even today we are expecting heavy rains and dropping temperatures), but to at least have tasted it and know that it exists up here has been wonderful. It was pretty crazy to hear that we had a high of 73 yesterday while Dallas got snow.

To go along with the happy days, we were really busy spending time with friends this weekend! I kind of went into hobbit/feel-sorry-for-myself mode early last week when I realized how much I deeply missed hanging out with people in Texas. And I still miss that- every day. But we were intentional this weekend and got out of the house and also had people over. What a difference that has made on my outlook! :-) I am just as much extrovert as I am introvert, and a girl needs her friends, plain and simple.

Friday night we went to a St. Patrick's Day party where everyone wore green, we had some yummy food, and we played lots of games. We only knew the host/hostess, but it was great to meet a few new people and to get to know that couple better. On Saturday we went to meet Dana and Lowery's sweet new dog, Barkley, and have dinner with them. What a cute dog!! He is a small German Shepherd mix. Reminded me of the dog that lived in my college house for a year. And they made us a cajun chicken dish that was to die for (they moved here from Mississippi). We left their home feeling like we were really leaving a friend's place and not just an aquaintance. Then on Sunday we invited a couple from church over for lunch and to see our new place. Ryan and Brooke are such a fun and God-filled couple. They have welcomed us into the church so easily and we are blessed to be in small group with them. We had a great time laughing hard and also sharing more about our backgrounds. That meal was turkey burgers, asparagus, fruit salad, and brownies (yum!).

After that, Greg and I headed over to the church to go to a ministry and spiritual gifts workshop. We had already been to one in the fall, but this one was re-vamped and helped me to figure out my gifts better and also where I might best plug in to serve. I don't know why it is taking me so long to figure out where I would best be used, but it has been hard for me this go-round. I think I am leaning towards leading a women's study as some point or getting involved with the programming for the women's ministry. You would think that at this stage in my life, I would be all about the children's ministry. But it's not me at the moment, and I am ok with that. I will have plenty of time in the coming year to minister to children, whether in a formal ministry position or not. :-)

Ok I think this post is long enough for now. :-) 2 more days til the ultrasound!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A recap of a big weekend

2010-03-15T17:19:00.000-07:00

Greg and I really enjoyed getting to spend time with one of my youth group buddies this weekend! Amanda now lives in Pittsfield, MA only 5 hours away from us! She was nice enough to make the drive down in the rain to spend a wonderful weekend taking in some of Lancaster County and breaking in the guest room in our home. We had a homecooked meal of Dijon Rosemary Chicken and broccoli on Friday night and went to one of our favorite local Italian restaurants- Fiorentino's on Saturday night. The highlight touristy item was once again Central Market. You just can't get enough of this place. It was fun to rediscover some of the hidden stands that I so easily over look on my routine grocery runs there each week.

One of Amanda's greatest gifts is her overflowing generosity and her love for others. She came stocked with baby gifts and house-warming gifts and even a little chocolate for Greg to have all to himself. There was a precious stuffed panda (Amanda's all time favorite collection), a really cool stuffed buffalo that could also turn into a pillow and a blanket, baby books, baby magazines for me, our first onesie outfit with duck feet, and a door jamb protector in the shape of a panda. Wow!

She also gave me a copy of her dad's book, "Physician, Heal Thyself" that I can't wait to read. Her dad was an incredible neurosurgeon who practiced in Houston at MD Anderson. He was faced with a diagnosis of glioblastoma (an aggressive form of brain cancer) and was able to live a few years past that. He bravely faced many experimental trials in order to pave the way for others to hopefully have more successful treatments down the road. He called himself a "human lab rat". He went home to be with the Lord in February of 2008, a victorious child of God who gave so much of himself here.

We also had some loss and some sickness on both sides of our family this past weekend. My great Aunt Sammy passed away last Thursday at 94 years old. She was the oldest of 13 children (I think). My mom, aunt, and granmama went to the funeral in Tennessee on Saturday and Mom said that the funeral was such a sweet time of remembering and honoring Aunt Sammy. She was a very humble and giving person who lived simply her whole life. She was famous for her amazing sweet tea and for always having food on the stove for visitors who would come by. I remember her sweet tea. I also remember going to her house a few times when I was a child, and Uncle Virgil and she had the largest tree in the entire county standing in their front yard- something they were also famous for. They had geod rocks sitting at the base of the tree, and one time I got to pick one out that had the sparkling inside showing. I kept that rock in my bedside table for years, and I know that it is still in one of my memory boxes somewhere. Aunt Sammy is with her Savior now, but she will be missed by her large Tennessee family and especially by my granmama who was the second child in the family.

Greg's sister, Kristy, had a surprise surgery this past weekend to remove her gall bladder. We were really worried about her on Saturday when Greg's mom called to tell us that she was on a morphine drip and they were unsure when or if surgery would be performed. Thankfully, the surgery went great to remove it on Saturday and she was able to come home Sunday to rest. Providentially, this was her spring break in nursing school, so she will have time to recover and will not risk having to lose a semester of classes. It is so hard to hear when family members are hurt and you are too far away to give them a hug!!!

18 week appointment

2010-03-10T05:18:00.000-08:00

All is going well so far in babyland! I had my 18 wk appointment yesterday. Got to hear the heartbeat again (it had been a whole month since my last appointment!) and it was sweet music to my ears. 160 bpm. The midwife said he/she was really squirming around. I couldn't feel anything, so it was reassuring to hear that they are active even though the flutters I feel are few and far between. My blood pressure was a perfect 120/80. I have always been on the low blood pressure side of the scale, so this was actually higher than I had expected. Your blood pressure drops at this point in pregnancy and that can lead to dizziness. I am thankful that I haven't experienced that side effect.

I had lots of questions for the midwife and she had good answers to all of them. I am thankful for a practice with lots of caring women! One of the most encouraging things out of this visit was learning that the hospital where I will give birth supports a lot of "midwife philosophy" accomodations during L&D that aren't offered in a lot of mainstream hospitals. Two things that she mentioned are being able to move during labor and get out of bed (even with a pitocin drip) and also being able to eat and drink if that's something you feel that you need. Those were two things I was worried about being denied. I know that I won't be getting out of bed if I have an epidural and that many women throw up anything they eat or drink during labor. I guess it was just comforting to know that the options are there if I want them. They also have jacuzzi tubs that you can use during contractions if that is helpful! It's a good mix of birth center accomodations and hospital equipment/medicine availability.

2 weeks from today we go in for our 20 week ultrasound and hope to know boy or girl! I am starting a poll on the right side of the page...feel free to cast your vote! Compelling evidence so far: u/s tech guessed girl at 12 wk u/s, my grandmama and Greg's mom guess boy by how I am carrying...oh and because Granmama said the 12 wk pics showed big feet and "that has to be big boy feet". :-)

I promise they're coming...

2010-03-08T09:03:00.000-08:00

Pictures of the new casa. This has been by far the slowest unpacking process I've ever had...and I have done this moving bit too many times to count! Remind me not to move again during a pregnancy (especially once a toddler is added to the mix!) I am out of camera batteries, but I plan to get some this week and take some progress pics of the house. We still can't decide which pictures are going where on the walls, but the furniture is where it needs to be. I really like how our living room turned out! It feels very cozy and relaxing to me. Not loving the master bedroom yet, but I'll get there. I am so excited that Greg's mom has graciously gifted us new curtains for the living, dining, and m. bedroom windows! We selected the fabric and she is making them. By April we should have those up and then I think it will feel more homey. :-)

Double Squash Pasta Toss

2010-03-07T14:54:00.000-08:00

This recipe is from the Holly Clegg cookbook "Trim and Terrific". I haven't posted any recipes because I am unsure about copyright laws, but I just have to share this one with you. And I strongly recommended buying this cookbook!! We've gotten to the point now where we go straight to this book for meal planning each week when we want to add a couple of fun dishes to the menu. They have been easy and amazingly delicious every time.

Double Squash Pasta Toss

2 T olive oil
1 T minced garlic
2 c thinly sliced zucchini
2 c thinly sliced squash
2 c coarsely chopped red onion
1 t dried basil
1 t dried oregano
2 c coarsely chopped tomatoes
3 T balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
1 16 oz package ziti or other tubular pasta
1/4 c grated parmesan cheese

Makes 6-8 servings

* We used 1 - 1 1/2 cups of each veggie and bought a large can of diced tomatoes instead of using fresh. I liked the extra juices from the canned tomatoes. It definitely makes a difference to thinly slice the veggies....much better this way! It does make a huge batch, so it's great for having guests over for dinner or for making leftovers for the week. The flavors grow with time.

Directions:

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat, and cook the garlic, zucchini, yellow squash, and onion until very tender, about 5-8 minutes. Add the basil, oregano, vinegar salt, and pepper; lower the heat and cook 2 minutes longer, or until well heated.

Meanwhile, prepare the pasta according to the package directions, omitting any oil and salt. Drain, and add to the squash mixture. Add the parmesan cheese, toss, and serve.

YUM!!!!!

OOPS! To those of you who have commented on the blog...

2010-03-05T19:42:00.000-08:00

I just realized tonight as I was changing up the blog that I had 21 comments from the past 2 months that were "waiting for moderator approval". I have no idea when that feature got flipped on my blog, because I used to be able to see comments and never moderated them before. I was starting to wonder if anyone was still reading the blog anymore! I am so sorry that I haven't responded to ANY of your comments about our baby and new house news. I feel really dumb. :-/ Thank you all so much for your encouragement, excitement, and prayers. I have fixed that feature of the blog so that they are posted now! My bad!

The bump :-)

2010-03-03T15:28:00.001-08:00

I've reached 17 weeks today and can now say that the bump is here to stay! So funny that last week I was wishing for the belly to grow and it certainly did this week. Baby is supposed to be going through quite a growth spurt from last week through the end of this month!! I've felt a few more flutters this week here and there. Here are some new pics:

16 weeks!

2010-02-23T13:50:00.000-08:00

Wednesday marks 16 weeks for Baby Paul. Wow!! It seems like only yesterday that I was 8 weeks along around Christmas and now the time has doubled. We still have a long way to go and much growing to do, but every day has been such a wonderful blessing.

A few new things:

Sleeping is not as easy anymore! I am supposed to sleep on my side and I am very much a tummy and back sleeper (I love to stretch out!) I have been padding each side with pillows the last week, but this may have to give way to a full on pregnancy pillow in the coming weeks.

I caved and got a Bella Band. Most of my pants still fit, but some of the cuter work clothes are on the smaller side in the waist area, and I really want to wear them for another few weeks. The Bella Band is really comfortable, but I don't know that it's that hidden. It makes a nice line under my shirt that they claimed it would not make. I'm sure once I have a belly to show for this thicker waste that I won't care about that anymore. :-)

My arms are falling asleep quite a bit at night and my legs threaten Charlie horses frequently. So I guess the pressure of a growing uterus is starting to affect things. And I think I've felt the first pangs of round ligament pain.

I *might* have felt our sweet baby's movements!!! As a first timer, I think I'll only be able to determine this in hindsight. It definitely feels like bubbles and rumbles and I usually feel it when I am sitting in the car or at my desk at work. Over the next month I should be able to tell if that was really baby or not. Pretty exciting!

Things I am excited about over the coming weeks:

Really knowing that I am feeling him/her move!

Being able to talk to him/her, sing to him/her, and play music. He/she should start being able to hear soon.

Finally getting a belly. Haha I might wish this away later, but I am ready to see that!

Putting on weight. I know that's weird, but try as I may to eat the house down, I am not gaining any weight. And I didn't throw up any the first trimester. It is kind of bothering me that I am supposed to have gained at least 3-5 lbs by now.

In four weeks, we'll go in for another u/s and will hopefully find out boy or girl! Counting the days!

Maybe next week I'll have changed enough for another new picture. But for now, nothing to report compared to the 14 week one on my FB profile.

Painting progress

2010-02-21T17:22:00.000-08:00

This is not a long post, because I am ready to take Buddy outside and hit the hay. But here is a link to the painting pics we have so far! We really like it!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/libbyapaul/PaintingOurHome?feat=directlink

Remembering Charlotte

2010-02-18T05:59:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how a little life can turn your own upside down. And how pregnancy can make you feel attached to all babies everywhere. Today I am grieving as one sweet child has been called home to Heaven after 6 days on this earth. Charlotte Jane was a beautiful little girl whose parents went to A&M with me. I lived in the same dorm as her mom, Angela, and have been touched by Angela's contagious joy and faith. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever met anyone else who radiated so much joy and genuine kindness. I have read their blog with so much anticipation of Charlotte's birth and life- to know that yet another girl would join this sweet family and learn so much about Jesus at a young age and be loved so fully. Little did we know that Charlotte would know Jesus more intimately and quickly than any of us have yet. Please pray for this family as they are brought to your mind- Justin, Angela, Elizabeth (3), and Elaine (almost 2?). They have been so strong and have glorified the Lord in this time, and I just pray that they will find comfort and rest in the midst of a pain that is sure to be a part of their lives now forever. And if you think of it, pray for Greg and me to be growing in our dependence upon and love for the Lord every day during our own pregnancy. I can't imagine facing a loss like this.

Almost homeowners!

2010-02-16T10:29:00.000-08:00

We are now 3 short days away from owning our townhome! We walked through it today with the realtor and everything looks to be in good shape. I can't wait to get some paint on the walls and start to put together a "home". It's going to take a lot of work- this place screams rental property basic, but with a little TLC it will be wonderful. Please pray for the closing to go smoothly on Friday from 12-1. And pray for our nerves this next week as we finish packing, cleaning, start painting, and moving. It's a lot to do while you both work full time! We are so excited though and so thankful that the process has truly been an easy one.

Valentine's Day!

2010-02-14T13:11:00.000-08:00

As cheesy as the day can be, I am thankful for a day that is dedicated to reflecting on love and telling those that you love how much they mean to you. It is biblical to celebrate and uplift love- every day- and to have one day to set aside and focus on it is so helpful and fun.

Greg and I started out the day worshiping the Lord this morning and diving into His word. It was a very meaty time in scripture both in the church service and in Sunday School. We were refreshed and challenged in new ways! Then we made our way over to a quaint downtown restaurant called Carr's for a Valentine's brunch. It was much more cost effective to celebrate over brunch than over dinner :-) Greg got an omelette that looked to die for and I had a unique and delicious apple and bacon stew that was cooked in a cider glaze with white and sweet potatoes and topped with scrambled eggs. Yum!! Here's a picture at our table:

After that, we decided to use the rest of a Starbuck's gift card for dessert. Today has changed the rest of my winter days (watch out wallet!)... I decided to ask if their chocolate syrup was milk free in hopes that I could get a hot chocolate for once instead of a steamer (no caffeine for me right now besides chocolate)....and it turns out I can have their chocolate!!! I had my first hot chocolate of this winter season and never has that tasted so good. I am a happy girl now. :-)

As for the rest of our day, we are busy finalizing paint colors for the new townhome and which washer and dryer we'll be buying tomorrow. We close on FRIDAY!

Here are some things that I love about Greg:
1) He loves the Lord and is dependent upon Him to guide us and teach us
2) He gets up early to help me get out the door on time by making my lunch, taking Buddy out, scraping the car, pouring my cereal, and reminding me of the time.
3) He prays for us every day with powerful and humble prayers.
4) He is an awesome cook!! And he loves to try new things with food. And he knows all the fancy culinary terms. It's cute.
5) He is a great daddy to Buddy. I see glimpses of the care and affection and fun that will eek out when our little one makes his/her debut.
6) He is opinionated and stands up for what he believes.
7) He is such a great planner. He manages our money really well and frees us up to spend, save, and give wisely. He is a budgeting genius!
8) He loves me and encourages me even when my skin looks like a nightmare.
9) He is patient with my quirks.
10) I think he's hot. ;-)

Happy Valentine's Day! I love you all!

Snowed in = no work today!

2010-02-10T08:47:00.000-08:00

Well, we are getting totally indoctrinated into the northern winters this year. The snowfall over the past 5 days is poised to break some records...even back to 1884 when they started tracking the snowfall! Last Friday and Saturday we got pummeled with about 27 inches. Today we are expected to get another 12-18 inches (looking like 18 to me) on top of the 27 that didn't have a chance to melt. That's 3 1/2 feet of snow, people! And when you move it off the sidewalks and driveway, it makes stacks that are getting to be 5 and 6 feet tall. Here are some pics of what we saw Sunday and are seeing today.

Matt Chandler

2010-02-09T07:44:00.001-08:00

The news has been out for quite some time now that Matt Chandler is battling brain cancer. It is an aggressive tumor, and he is doing everything technology and science allows for at this point to treat it-- and praying to his Sovereign God in the midst of each day. My friend Angela shared this article with me that the AP wrote about him. http://ow.ly/12jQm Please pray for this spiritual giant and for his family!

Day by day life seems more fragile to me and God seems, paradoxically, bigger and more sovereign through the weakness of it all. How could we ever live in this world without believing that God is very much alive and moving in the midst of this broken world? "In Him we live and move and have our being." I was really touched by that article- moved to tears to see him balancing the picture of God's immoveable faithfulness to him and yet also longing to see his children grow up and to grow old with his wife. To think of all that Jesus felt and experienced in the garden when He asked, "Take this cup from me; yet not My will but Yours be done." The sanctified and holy and the flesh co-existing.

I am thankful for Matt's influence on my life through his talks at retreats in my youth. He is one of those preachers who doesn't mince words, and I think that youth need to hear that. You need to hear as a teenager that God's Word is to be taken seriously and that following Christ cannot be a halfway deal. He burned that truth into me. It sounds like he continues to teach that same message at Village Church today.