Pregnacny Randomness

1. My son might be born on leap year. This was slightly distressing for me for about a millisecond before I thought, “That would be really neat!” Thanks for the encouraging comment from Kim about her own leap year baby.  My dear hubby says he knew a few leap year kids when he was in elementary school and he thought it was SOOO cool that they were born on leap year. So, there you go, my son is cool even before he is born! :)
2.My Mom WILL be back in town on Friday morning, so should be around before or after the baby arrives. Yeah! My Dad will stay on with my Grandma, who is not doing well, but continues to hang on.
3.They have moved me to an earlier time on Friday to deliver, but I am not revealing it here, because there is a good possibility that they will push me back again, so we’ll just have to see if little Joshua WILL be a leap year baby or not!
4.My To-Do list is almost done. I actually even have the carpet cleaner coming tomorrow, so besides getting the taxes done (which means ugh…we still have to do them…) I think we got everything completed. Whew! It’s been work!
5.Here are a few pics of Joshua’s room. I still have colored letters to hang on the walls and a blanket and some pictures to hang, so I’ll post it again when the room is REALLY all done, but at least you can get an idea.

 

 

 

6.One more day of being pregnant – I’ve become SO used to this little guy moving inside me at all times of the day and night. I’ve even become used to the size of my belly and how to walk, etc… is it really only ONE more day?
7.I am starting to feel a cross between excitement about his coming and wondering if I can handle it all….I love my girlies SO much and I have struggled even these last few weeks with feeling like I am spending enough time just loving on them. As a matter of fact, I think I am going to finish up this post and go cuddle on the couch with them while we watch Curious George. One of my last times as a Mom of two

COUNTING ON YOUR PRAYERS AND LOVING YOUR SUPPORT!
Stacy

Undeserved

 

What can I say? I am aware every day of the fact that I, Stacy, do not deserve the love that is so lavishly poured out on me...

even if I do look really cheesy in this pic...:)

First and foremost, by my Heavenly Father, whose love I cannot ever fully grasp – how wide, how long, and how deep is His love! His love reaches to the heavens. His deep calls to my deep. Everyday I have the chance to drink in new mercies and to live a day that will bring me closer to Him and bring glory to His name.

Secondly, by my family and friends. I have a husband who has loved on me every step of the way of this pregnancy, and two beautiful, fun, and fabulous girlies who bring me joy and delight every day. I believe I have the best friends anyone could ever be blessed with – couples who love my dear hubby and I just the way we are, and girlfriends who care deeply about me. These women encourage me, love me, and pray for me in this journey of life.

SO….that being said, I wanted to say a great big THANK YOU to everyone who has loved us through this pregnancy – it has been a journey - NOTE: it's a rather lengthy post, but I wanted to make sure to include all I could remember.

1.Thank you to everyone who helped to plan, put together, and organize our baby shower on February 17th. It was a VERY fun afternoon, and I LOVED all of the wonderful decorations (especially the cute football field Trace!) and the food. A special thank-you to the ladies (Tracers, Andrea, Jess, Lindsay) who gave up time on their Sunday to show-up early to set-up and decorate and a big thank-you to Lindsay and her husband for helping to organize and provide all of those tables and chairs!! Thank you to Nickle-Pickle for her amazing macaroni and cheese, and everyone else who brought food to share that day. Thank you to all of the families who showed up to support us, and those who supported us even in their absence. It was a perfect baby shower for us, and we were blessed with so many things that we needed.
2.Thank you to my Sisterchicks for SUPER surprising me with an amazing diaper and wipes shower. These chickies brought me sugar-free treats to munch on (thanks girls!) balloons to decorate the house (my girlies have been LOVING the ballons, by the way) and enough diapers and wipies to last us for a while. And even though I was in my pajamas (like I said, I was very surprised) and my house was less than perfect, these ladies still loved on me in such a special way. Thanks to ALL of you for giving up Monday night time with your families to come and surprise me.
3. A BIG Thank-you to Andrea for the use of her highchair and swing for our little guy, and another BIG thank-you to Jen for letting us use your bassinet and other various baby things. Also, to Linds, Jules, and Brand as you have lent me maternity clothes to cover my belly in all of its various sizes.
4.Thank you to all of our doctors, nurses, and specialists who have helped us through nine months of first trimester super-sickness, second/third trimester gestational diabetes, and every other part of this hormonal time. It is safe to say that I truly adore my OB, Dr Mystie Johnson, and her staff has been more than kind to me.
5. Thank you to all of my friends who have encouraged me that I can have this little boy and be OK with being a Mommy to a boy as well as girls.
6. Thank you to the WONDERFUL offers of help - Miss Angela has offered to do everything from painting in my house to watching the girls when I went into labor! You rock Angela!
7.So many others I’m sure I’m not even putting down…my bloggity friends like Tab who have been so encouraging...others who have sent their love and prayers from afar...Carmen, Scott, Margo....and I'm QUITE sure they are more that I am missing.

Tick, Tock...

Well, they called me this morning with my time for Friday.....

Are you ready for this? 10:00 o clock

P.M. At night....

Craziness! I told the nurse I was going to probably keel over this Friday from the sheer anticipation of having to wait until 10:00 p.m that night.

I understand though. My OB wants to be there to deliver, so it needs to be after office hours and it has to work with the hospital's schedule as well.

AND....I have to call at 9:00 p.m. to make sure that they can still get me in at that time, because the hospital may be too full to take me (LOTS o babies being born I suppose). If the hospital IS too full, then I will be rescheduled for another time this weekend.

With the time being so late, there is very good chance that baby Joshua won't be a leap year baby after all, although I did deliver my last daughter within an hour of being induced, so it's hard to tell...

It's hard to tell, all the way around, exactly what will happen. Thank you ALL for your continued prayers and love. The adrenaline is definitely going and flowing for me, and I am forcing myself to slow down instead of speed up as we get closer.

Today the girls and I dropped off some items at Salvation Army and took the van to be washed and cleaned. Later tonight my dear hubby will install the car seat base and we will do some housecleaning.

I'll get the swing tomorrow and the bassinet sometime this week. I've been washing, scrubbing, and disinfecting everything in sight. (I know my friend Brandie can appreciate this one)

I have my bag packed, the diaper bag packed, and an working on a schedule and grocery shopping for the girls while we're away.

Oh,and sleep, guess I need to schedule that in too. I'll savor my last few days of a full night for a while....

We Have A Date!

My OB’s first words to me today were “We’re inducing you next week. How does Friday sound?” Although she’s not sure all of the reasons why our son is so big (she seems surprised that the diabetes would be playing a big part, as my blood sugar has been well-controlled by diet), but in any case, she doesn’t want him to have to be cut out via C-section

…and believe me, I don’t either…..

so we will be inducing sometime on Friday, February 29th. It sounds like it will be late afternoon or early evening, but I won’t know an exact time until Monday. I am also dilated to two centimeters already, so if labor happens this week, we will obviously just let it come.

I think I felt a little overwhelmed at first – one week away. Both of my girls were born about a week before their due date, so knowing that I will be induced at 37 weeks feels so early to me.

My parents may or may not be back in town, as they are still in Texas, where my Grandma is still hanging on, although not doing well overall (thank you ALL for your prayers, by the way). But knowing in advance that they will induce on that date gives us the chance to set up some childcare for the girls, and gives my dear hubby a chance to notify his school and our church about taking some time-off.

We have gotten many of the projects on my to-do list crossed off, and we will focus on the essentials this week – packing my suitcase, posting pictures of his nursery on the blog (okay, okay, so that may not be essential, but the room does look cute!), and possibly getting the van and the carpets cleaned.

More importantly, we will pray and ask God to cover us and be with us every step of the way as we prepare for baby Joshua’s arrival. Lord, please give me wisdom, and may our family bring glory to You and Your name, as we prepare to bring this miracle into the world.

We appreciate all of your prayers and support more than you know – everyone from family, to our amazing friends, and to all of my bloggity friends as well.

I will post more once I know an exact time, etc…. the countdown begins now!

Also, my dear hubby has exactly one week to pick a middle name for our son. I think he’s decided on one, but I’m still having fun giving him a hard time and offering bogus
suggestions (I should probably stop though – what if he actually picks Artimus or Leo?...hee,hee)

36 Weeks And Waiting....

Hello All! Just wanted to give you a 36 week update. I tried to get a picture of my big belly, but was unsuccessful. Trust me, my tummy has continued to grow in size. The OB specialist I saw on Tuesday commented “that really is a big belly for a small lady”. If the OB thinks I’m big, I must be a sight to behold. But I can’t really behold myself sooo…I must rely on other’s comments and reactions.
That’s Ok – I’ve still got my natural cuteness to fall back on….ha,ha,ha….

*Ahem*

Anyway, I went and had a follow-up growth ultrasound at the Arizona Perinatal Care Center, and while our boy had his hands in front of his handsome face the entire time, my dear hubby and I got to see plenty of other body parts, looking healthy and strong. Joshua’s heartbeat is strong, my amniotic fluid is measuring great, and he is in the head down position (this is something I already knew because I can feel it), ready to go.

They measured his size on Tuesday and it turns out by their best estimate, Joshua is weighing in at 8lbs, 5 oz. And this is at 36 weeks!!

So, my brief talk with the OB specialist after the ultrasound revealed three things:
1.My son is big
2.He (the OB specialist) feels they will induce me sometime soon
3.I will talk with my personal OB during my appointment TODAY to figure out when that might be (this is because it took a few days for the results to get from one office to the next)

My blood sugar has been well-controlled by diet, so while my gestational diabetes is playing a part in the baby’s size, he could also just be naturally big.

I have been in pure TORNADO mode for the last week and a half, and I am finally at that point where I feel like if I have to be ready sometime soon, I can be.

There are, of course, a few more things on my list, but if they don’t get done, it will be alright. Except for the bassinet – have to find time this week to grab that from my friend Jen……and maybe the swing too, from my friend Andrea, and get the van cleaned, and the carpet cleaned….etc

I will let everyone know what my OB says at my appointment this afternoon. :)

Prayers Please.....

Some of you may know that my Dad has been back and forth between Arizona and Texas many times this past year, as he has been helping to care for my Grandma Icie. She is in her late eighties and not in good health. He went two weeks ago to care for her in the hospital with pneumonia. Surprisingly (it was pretty bad according to the doctors) she rallied and recovered, and my Dad made all the arrangements to move her over to a nearby nursing home. I talked with her several times by phone, and although she seemed confused at times in our conversation, she still had her spunk and was optimistic and feeling good overall.
Last night, he received a call that she was back in the hospital, and the nurse on duty told my Dad that she was not expected to make it through the night. She has kidney failure, and her old body is just not going to recover.
My Dad took the first flight out this morning, and thankfully, she did make it through the night, and my Dad is with her now. My Mom took a flight out this afternoon to go and be with my Dad. We are told to expect a phone call sometime in the next 48 hours, and my parents will be there for an undetermined amount of time (a week more or less).
Although I have peace about my Grandma’s passing, and I confident that she will go to be with Jesus, I will still grieve her loss from this world, and my own inability to go and be with family as they make preparations for a funeral, etc.
The hardest for me is watching my Dad grieve so much and so hard. He was very close to his Mom, and he has been an emotional wreck since he received that phone call last night.
Please pray for my parents as they go and deal with all the week will hold ahead, and for us, as we pray and support and grieve from afar.
There is also the possibility that I will have a baby before my parent’s return, and I know that they felt torn about not being able to be here. Please pray for our family, as we accept God’s timing and make alternate plans for child-care, etc. “just in case”
Here is a picture of my brother and I with my Grandma in December 2006. We took the girls to go and meet Grandma that year. I’m so thankful she got the chance to meet them!

 

Here is my Grandma with Lorelin during that same vist.

 

Valentines: The Warm-Up Blog

Well, it’s that time of year again – my favorite time of year. Time for VALENTINES!!!!!!!

I love everything about this holiday, and although I enjoy the romance I share with my husband now (and the special story we share…that’s another blog), I have loved Valentine’s Day since I was young.

I used to get the Highlights magazine in the mail, and every year I would do EVERY suggested Valentine’s craft inside. I also made a homemade Valentine’s card for my school-teacher - which, since I was home-schooled, was my Mom - but I did it anyway, just because I thought it was FUN!

When I started my job at Hallmark at the age of seventeen, I loved the fact that there were literally rows and rows of cards for me to look at, and aisle after aisle of Valentines “stuff” to buy. I loved helping the bewildered boyfriends and husbands who rushed in the day before or the day of looking for something to give their girlfriends and wives. As a matter of fact, we had longer lines during Valentines Day than we did at Christmas!

On a deeper note: For me - Valentines Day has always represented a day that I remember my Savior’s deep, wide, amazing, overwhelming, and intimate love for me. And because of HIS great love, I am able to love others. Simple as that. The fact that I love the hearts, and the glitter, and the chocolate doesn’t hurt either…. {smile}

Valentines: The Party

So because of my o-so-great love of this Valentines holiday, some friends of mine agreed to let me plan a Valentine’s Day party for our kiddos. My dear, dear friend Lindsay agreed to host at her house, and everyone else pitched in to bring food, decorations, cookies etc.

 

I brought my guitar and we had some music time with the kids, singing, of course, all about love (God’s love for us and our love for each other). My friend Julie brought a Valentines book that she read to the kids, and my friend Brandie brought cookies, which the kids decorated with sprinkles and icing. The kids had a messy, but yummy time decorating and eating their cookies.

 

We then had the kids decorate some bags with stickers - here's Loreline with hers!

 

We then delivered Valentines to each bag. My girls’ favorite Valentines were the red hearts with sweetheart candy in them, courtesy of adorable baby Jett and his Mom, Missy
And although there was the usual skirmishes between the kiddos (mostly having to do with which person had which toy first…), there were also lots of sweet hugs and kisses too.

 

We ended the morning with a peanut-butter-and jelly lunch for the kids. My girls have both continued to talk about their “very fun Valentines party”, and I loved participating with my girlies in the morning of fun!

The Contraction Machine

I’ve definitely had my share of those tight, squeezy, painful moments lately.

I contracted often and early (at nineteen weeks to be exact) during my last pregnancy with Lorelin, and was put on some medication to help control them. Anyway, this pregnancy has been a little different in that department – no real contractions to speak of, save a few Braxton-Hicks here and there.

That all changed on Saturday, February 2nd, when I started off my day with grocery shopping. I took both the girls by myself, and had SO many contractions in the store that I found myself stopping the cart at every isle, and basically just trying to “get through” my shopping as quickly as possible.

I knew it was more contractions than I normally had, but I told myself it was because I had attempted a shopping trip alone, where I had to lift kids up and out of the cart, bend down to get things, etc.. I cam home, put the groceries away, and laid down for a nap when the girls did that afternoon.

My dear hubby came home from his morning of church responsibilities, and although I contracted on and off throughout the afternoon, he took of any “heavy lifting” and encouraged me take it easy with lots of water on the couch.

The evening rolled around, and my dear hubby and I went to watch a UFC event at our friends Dan and Kelly’s house. From the moment the event started, I realized that my contractions had kicked into a new gear. They were definitely becoming more painful and closer together. I spent my evening drinking water, trying to find a comfy position on my chair, and running to the bathroom. We didn’t get home until around 11:00 p.m., at which point I actually started to time the contractions.

They were consistently five minutes apart, and I knew that although I DIDN’T want to, we needed to head toward the hospital. So, my Mom camped out on the couch (she was already there anyway to babysit), we packed up and carefully wound our way to the Emergency Room at Estrella Banner Medical Center.

The ER was a sight to behold – I thankfully did not have to spend more than a few minutes in there before I was sent back around to OB triage. (those were some poor SICK people – all manner of coughing, sneezing, and throwing-up……I wanted those germs far away from me!!)

In OB triage, our super-nice nurse, Amy, got me hooked up to a monitor, and commented that sure enough, I was having nice, strong contractions close together. She called the OB on call, and gave me a shot of terbutaline in the arm. After some more monitoring to make sure the contractions had stopped, we headed home around 4:00 a.m. in the morning.

My dear hubby got up at 7:00 a.m. to lead worship for church the next morning, and although I had to drop off supplies at the church, I did so in my pajamas and promptly came home. We spent Super Bowl Sunday at home, sleeping…

Although I did have to make one MORE trip to OB triage that next Monday afternoon, I am thankful to report that since that time, my contractions have calmed down to their more occasional pattern.

A Week "Off"?

So, my week of abstaining from internet use was a lot tougher than I thought. And I am going to admit to you that I cheated a few times in order to send and/or check some e-mails.

And I wish I could tell you that my times of intense prayer with my husband were wonderful and fulfilling. But to be honest, our week was intense with home projects and when we sat down to pray together we were usually either really cranky or really tired (or both!). 

I look back and believe that I have no-one to blame but myself for that. God desires to know us intimately, to listen to us, and to have us know Him. The fact that I gave him my “leftover” energy, instead of the best parts of my day, shows me that I still have some work to do in my goal to make quiet time/prayer time a priority in my life.

And yes, we still have no “super-clear” answers about some of the things we’ve been praying about – things like selling our house (to move where? Good question….), things like our current work within the church, and yes, do we still want and/or are we called to move out-of-state?

These things are all on our heart, but our thoughts and actions are definitely in this moment, where I am 35 weeks pregnant, with projects needing completion before this little one’s birth.

Thank you for your prayers and understanding during my week “off”.

A Quick Break

To my dearest bloggity friends....
As my hubby and I pray about some decisions that God is leading us through, I will be taking a break from blogging and internet for exactly one week. If I don't check in on your blogs or leave comments this is why....please don't give up on me. I'll be writing my "posts" on a Word document so that I can post lots when I get back!!! Thank you for your prayers!

Safety Bubbles & Your Neighbor

Don't you hate it when something happens that breaks into your personal bubble of "safety"? I remember how violated I felt when my dear hubby's and mine's first car was stolen TWICE and broken into TWICE at the apartment complex we lived in as newlyweds (a word of advice - if you have a Saturn, please make sure to invest in an alarm system....:)
So, this afternoon, there's a ding-dong at the door, and my dear hubby opens it to find a young woman (looked to be in her early to mid twenties). We immediately assume she's a salesman..er...saleswoman...of some kind, but she introduces herself as our neighbor - a single lady living down at the end of our street. She was knocking on doors just to inform her neighbors that her house was broken into yesterday. There was a neighbor next door who saw the car, and perhaps the suspects, but didn't know that anything was wrong. They broke in through her front door and then opened her garage to cart away her valuables.
We expressed our surprise and our sympathy, and she expressed a desire to "get to know" her neighbors better, so that we could start to keep an eye out for anything suspicious going on.
The sad part is that she has lived in her house down at the end of the street for as long as we have lived in our house - five years. And we've never met or seen her before. There is nowhere to point the finger except myself. I'm ashamed to say that I've never taken the time or the opportunity to deliver Christmas cookies to my street or to foster that sense of community that I so long for.
I may not be a big fan of Phoenix, and yes, things like this make me want to pick up and move somewhere "safer" as fast as I can. But....in the meantime, while God has planted me here - I want to be a light to my neighbors.
Lord, move in me, fill me, enable me to be that light....