2 Weeks

Today marks 2 weeks since our Son's birth and he has certainly changed our lives! Scott remarked on that fact this morning and he mentioned how one of those changes is that we're less lazy. And it's true, we don't have time for laziness, we have to take advantage of any extra moments we get. I am finally starting to do more. I'm still being careful about lifting anything that weighs more than Andrew and I still have to be extra careful when going up or down stairs, but it is nice to be able to move around more and do more! This morning I made us breakfast with Andrew in the sling. I am already discovering just how much I love my sling, it's awesome!

I am so in love with my little family! God is so good! When I was in labor, God met me out in our driveway. I had been just trying to endure labor, and I was trying to do it on my own. But when it got to the point of things really needing to get moving, all I could do was turn to God, and He met me and carried me further than I knew I could go. God is good!

Here is Scott and Andrew earlier this week (I must admit, I've never taken my camera out so frequently in 2 weeks as I have, these last 2 weeks).

Let's see, what are some of our achievements over the last 2 weeks? Well, I tried a cloth diaper yesterday. Of course, not long after was when Andrew decided to "mess" and seeing as I haven't quite gotten the hang of just how to properly put the cloth diapers on yet, let's just say, it was pretty disgusting as not only did I have to clean off the diaper in the toilet, but his blanket as well. Needless to say, I decided to do a load of wash right then! I am not giving up on Cloth diapers yet, but I am going to be a little more careful about how I put them on. Also, Andrew is finally wearing clothes. As you can see in the pictures in this post, he has only been wearing receiving blankets since he's been born. Mostly due to the fact that he got a rash 2 days after he was born, and the more air (less coverage) he got, the better it got. His rash is not completely gone yet, but it is so much better now.

Here he is, trying out his swing! He seemed to be entranced by the fact that as he moved, the back leg stayed. :)

Saturday, after breakfast, Andrew and I went out on the deck to get some fresh air.

Until today I had not been anywhere in 2 1/2 weeks since I was sick before I went into labor and then I wasn't allowed to leave the house for 2 weeks. So, today, in honor of Andrew being 2 weeks old, we took a ride to my parents' house and watched a couple episodes of Chopped (a cooking show that we enjoy). Oh, how I love fall! Driving along, with the windows open, was so refreshing!

Andrew's first car ride. He did very well. :)

I am working on straightening my house and getting things back in order seeing as I've been sort of "out of commition" for the past 2 weeks. So now I'm taking every few moments I get to do something. Tomorrow, some very special friends (from the Seven Sisters blog) are coming and I am so excited about their visit!!!!! You may remember when we visited them on our book tour, we had so much fun, and hopefully they'll have as much fun visiting us. :)

Well, *someone* is trying to get my attention, I think he wants to eat (again!). This little boy eats more than I thought possible. I mean, I knew he'd eat this frequently, but I just didn't fully understand what that meant. :)

Our Little One's Story (and some pictures)

I enjoyed getting everyone's comments with their guesses. Everyone who didn't already know the weight were pretty off. Keep reading for the details...

On Friday September 10th I was having strong contractions throughout the day and by 3pm they seemed to be getting closer together. Scott had gone to work and I called my Mom and asked her to come at 3:30 as the contractions were becoming 7-10 minutes apart. I kept myself distracted by doing laundry, straightening the house, cleaning the kitchen, making Taco Salad, and then cleaning the kitchen again. All that in an hour. I called Scott at 5 and told him this was it and I needed him. By then the contractions were 5 minutes apart. Mom and I started to fill the birthing pool as I was planning a water birth. We let the midwives know what was happening and by 7:30/8:00, they were here. By that time I was finding some relaxation (but no relief) in the pool. To make a really long story/post, just long, I spent about 7 hours laboring in the pool. I did get out for a while and walk around, but then I was back in the water.

However, the water, although it felt nice, didn't seem to be helping move things along so I got out and didn't ever end up back in it. Saturday morning came in went and right about the 24 hour mark my Dad and siblings brought us over some dinner. My sister came over to me and asked me how I was doing and at that moment I said "I don't know why I ever wanted to have a baby!" Now, I can't even fathom how I could have said that (and that was not the first time I had voiced something similar) but that's the stage I was at. The contractions were still raging strong, but they didn't seem to be doing anything and it seemed like they were just going to go on forever.

Again, to keep this semi-long (instead of really long)... Around 9:30ish, my midwife told me she had a prescription for me that I was not going to like. She wanted me to put my shoes on and go stomp up and down our driveway for 30-45 minutes. Now up to this point any "walking" (if you could call it that) I did was very small steps as I was in so much pain and so uncomfortable. I asked her "can't I stomp around inside?" She told me that if we didn't really get things moving we were going to have to seriously consider going to the hospital. That thought scared me so much (I'm not afraid of doctors or hospitals, I just didn't want to have my baby in a hospital), that I immediately became a changed, determined woman. No more trying to make it through each contraction so I could rest for a few minutes, I was going to work as hard as I could to get this baby moving. So Mom, Scott and I went outside (after a prayer) and started STOMPING. Not only were we stomping, but we were praying and praising God and with every contraction, as I hung on my Mom, I prayed "Lord, move this baby dddoooowwwnnnnn." After a good 30-40 minutes of that we came back inside and I tried to rest between a couple contractions as I was way past tired and exhausted. During which time I was praying and asking God to just fill me with His strength to birth this baby. After about 20 minutes the midwives turned all the lights back on and said, "come on, you don't want to stop now." (The contractions were finally changing and things were moving.)

God gave me the strength I needed and the endurance to keep going and to make every contraction count. I don't remember when I started pushing other than that it felt like I was pushing for hours (although I wasn't really, at least not for more than 2), but at 4:46am (making it 37 hours of labor) on Sunday September 12th, my Little One was born. Throughout the entire pregnancy I kept thinking the baby was a girl, but trying not to focus on that in case it was a boy. Even Friday, the day I went into labor, I was convinced the baby was a girl, but when the baby was born and I saw that it was a boy I said "it's a boy! Oh, I love him, I love him!!!" Scott was thrilled to peices as he desperately (I hadn't realized just how desperately) wanted a first-born son.

Now remember, we still didn't have any boy names picked out. There were names I liked, names he liked, but not a single name we both liked! After he was born and I was sitting on the couch with him, Scott said, "you can name him" he was just so thrilled it was a boy. My first thought was "what?" and then I knew, "Andrew?" I asked. He said "yes!" I asked him "are you sure?" and he said, "yes, I like Andrew. How about Stephen for the middle name?" (After my Dad) and I said, "Perfect! Andrew Stephen, our little Andrew!!!" Just as I had hoped and prayed, God gave us the perfect name when he was born!

So Andrew Stephen was born on September 12th, and he weighed (are you ready???) 9 pounds and 10 ounces! He was also 21 3/8 inches long! He is the darlingest little boy and I love him to peices!!! I am so thankful for him and so thankful that God would choose to entrust him to our care. I know that he is just a gift for a time as faster than I know I'd like, he will grow into a man and have to go his own way (hopefully, prayerfully) following after God's Will. So I am trying to make the most of every moment I have with him now (hence why it has taken me a week to do this post) especially as I know he is constantly growing and every day brings little changes that I don't want to miss! Here is a picture of our little Andrew (or Andy, as Scott nicknamed him) in one of his favorite sleeping positions (doesn't it look like he's thinking, or something?).

And here is the first nice picture of Andrew and I!

This is one of my absolute favorite pictures so far. This was when Andrew was only a few hours old. Look at that happy, happy look on Scott's face!!! He is such a proud Daddy!

My Mom finished making me a sling (by Elizabeth Lee Designs) this week and so today I tried it out for the first time (I didn't go anywhere, I just tried it out). I love it and I love the brown material with little hearts all over it!!!

My Mom was invaluable to us over the past week and a half! She came on Friday and stayed all the way until Wednesday morning only going home once for 3 hours on Monday. She was so helpful with everything and we are so grateful to her! I am not allowed to leave the house for 2 weeks and must continue to take things slow and easy (which is harder than I thought!).

I must say, it is nice not being so pregnant anymore! I can now lay on my back for more than 2 minutes, and it doesn't hurt at all anymore! :) YAY!!!!! I have already lost 28 pounds and am beginning to wonder what non-maternity clothes I will be able to fit into soon. In the meantime however, my maternity clothes are nice and comfy and I think look nicer on me now than they did before! :)

Anyway, I could go on and on, but I will stop here for now and give all my readers a break! :)

NOTE: I started out this post typing one-handed while Andrew was nursing, and now this is where he is, sleeping peacefully on my lap! He is just so adorable!!!! :)

Baby is HERE!!!!!!!!

Baby is here!!!! We are so delighted with our new, precious, little gift from heaven! God is so good!!!!!

September 12, 2010 at 4:46am I gave birth to a beautiful little BOY!!!!! There is a long story behind his birth as I'm sure you must guess, and I will keep you in suspence until I have a few more minutes to write it out.

So, in the meantime, let's play a guessing game! :)

Let's see who can guess the closest to how many hours I was in labor, how much did the baby weigh, and what did we name him!

Leave a comment with your guesses and I'll be updating the blog with a long story and lots of photos very soon!!!!!

41 Weeks, 1 Day

I wanted to update all my readers real quick. There is still no baby. However, I am thankful the baby hasn't come yet because Monday night I started getting a sore throat and by yesterday, it had turned into a full blown cold! So, now I'm taking herbal tinctures around the clock and eating lots of homemade Chicken Noodle soup (that my sweet sister made for me) and trying to get as much rest as possible (which isn't easy when the only comfortable position to sleep is sitting up on the couch)! I would appreciate any and all prayers that God will heal this cold quickly and that Baby will come shortly after! Thank you!!!

40 Weeks, 4 Days, and counting!

As you can see by the title of this post, I am still pregnant. Earlier this week I was on an emotional roller coaster ride, it seemed as I just so badly wanted this baby to in my arms. But over the last two days, I have been the opposite and am fully determined not to have this baby until late Saturday night, or anytime thereafter! You see Scott is photographing a wedding this weekend and obviously I don't want to go through labor and have the baby without him here, so baby and I are content to wait until after he's done with the wedding! In the meantime, we've gotten much accomplished over the last couple days.

We finally got a bed frame for our bed! If you recall this post you may have noticed that our mattress and boxspring was on the floor. They have been like that every time we've used them (as there were 4 months that we didn't use them/during our trip) since November of last year when we left our apartment. You see we somehow decided to throw out the old frame (why, we can't really remember) when we left our apartment and so have been living without ever since. As you can imagine, it is not easy for a 7, 8, or 9 month woman to get out of a bed that is lower than her knees, especially when said woman has to get up 3-6 times a night! I had finally let go of the thought of getting a frame for our bed, but then Thursday morning I was sitting in bed reflecting on the near future and all of a sudden I realized that once this baby is born, I will be spending most of the first 2 weeks in my bed! And seeing as that puts the cradle so high up, I'd have to get out of bed just to put down or pick up the baby, and let's remember, that that will be just after giving birth, which means my body will be doing some serious recovery! So after mentioning my thoughts to Scott, my darling husband and I decided to go out in search of a frame. Just a metal frame as our room isn't big enough for (and we're not ready to invest in) a real bed frame.

However, as a result of the new bed frame (which is AWESOME! We finally are sleeping in a "real" bed!) my Kleenex, water, crackers, etc. (a.k.a. anything else I need) could not be reached if left on the floor as they had been before. So temporarily we put a chair beside the bed for my "nightstand". See picture below:

As you can see, we also have a LOT of pillows! Eight, to be exact (one of which is a full length, body pillow). I generally use between 4 and 5 to sleep and then Scott uses what's left to prop himself up to write when I go to sleep at night!

So, back to what we've been up to... Friday night Scott and I went on a mission to Walmart. We needed: some produce, Rice Dream, water crackers (my favorite), batteries, a travel case for wipes (you know, the flat cases that go in the diaper bag) - as we didn't have one and I hadn't even thought of it until a few days ago - diapers (I've been stocking up whenever I get hold of a $3.00 off coupon), and an end table! We found all that we needed (including a table for under $50) and Scott started putting the table together as soon as we got home! Here he is getting down to the end of putting it together:

Then something was wrong with the drawer, so he had to do some more work on it... I just love watching him!!!!

Not to interrupt, my story here, but you may notice our Pack 'N Play all set up behind Scott with the Winnie the Pooh mobile! It's so cute, we just love it (and can't wait to put it to use)!

Here is the table all done and in it's "rightful" place! I'm sure I'll find more things to put on it, but the drawer and shelf will help keep everything organized! :)

I'm signing off for now. Must get some much needed rest!