So Thankful!

This year is a rare treat for us.  We are going home to FL for Thanksgiving AND Christmas.  I am beside myself with joy!  We have not spent both holidays with family since before we were married and moving all over the place.  Since we don't know what next year holds (we may be overseas) this could be our last chance for a few years to be home for both holidays.  I have to admit that I am looking forward to shopping with my mom on Black Friday almost as much as the yummy food we will eat Thursday!  Zack has been a great sport and has gone with me the last few years (including when we were in Korea and there was only one store to go to, but we were still there waiting in line at 6 AM and received $100 in gift cards because of it!) and last year my sister-in-law ventured out with me too, but it will be so fun to go with my mom like we did all growing up.  I can't wait!!!  

Needless to say, the last two days have been filled with craziness.  I am so thankful for Zack because he has helped me get our fall decor put away, Christmas put up and the house clean.  I hate leaving a dirty house when we go on a trip because that means I come home to a dirty house.  It has been hard to get ready for this trip and get everything done because I have been suffering from the same cough that my little girl had last week.  I am functionally sick but I just feel like all my energy is gone.  Thankfully all I have left is some packing and we are set to fly out tomorrow!  I will update my blog with pictures after we get back.  I hope each of you enjoy your Thanksgiving and time with family.  I will leave you with the top five things I am thankful for...I had to limit it or my blog would be never ending, God is so good!

1. Salvation- not a day goes by that I am not reminded of how blessed I am to be saved by grace.  Thank you Jesus!

2. Family- I have a hubby who really loves me completely and continues to demonstrate his love for me everyday.  Sigh, I am such a blessed wife.  We have a beautiful daughter who just lights up our life and can't wait to meet our little boy in March.  I am also blessed with amazing parents who taught me about God and his grace since I was a little one.  They are an amazing example to me of how to have a Godly marriage and raise your children to serve the Lord.  I have a sweetheart as a Granny who is an awesome prayer warrior and two grandparents who keep me laughing and playing cards.  Not to mention my brothers, sister-in-law, niece, soon-to-be nephews, aunts, uncles and cousins who are just so wonderful!!!  I could go on and on about each of them.

3. Friends who are like family.  I know I have blogged about this before but we are so blessed with amazing friends who treat us like family.  Being moved and far away from family and support is so hard.  Everywhere we have lived though God is faithful in providing us with friends we can count on.

4. Laundry soap and dryer sheets.  So after my three typical, but sincere, things I am thankful for I decided to think about what has helped me through today.  And let me tell you, I am SO thankful for laundry soap and dryer sheets.  Without these two things my home would stink and be a mess.  Whoever invented them, mad props!

5. My cell phone.  Mine looks the same as Zack's and this morning he took mine instead of his.  Never knew how thankful I was for a cell phone, with all my needed numbers, as when I didn't have it.  Thankfully I did have his phone to use when I was out and we met for lunch and switched.  Thanks AT&T for your services!

Happy Thanksgiving!      

24 Weeks and Going Natural

It is hard to believe that I am almost 6 months along.  I am not sure if it is because this pregnancy seems to be going smoother than Moriah's did or because I am chasing a toddler around, but time has flown!  This past week we have made some big decisions about where and how to have this little guy.  

If you would have told me last year after having Moriah that I would have a goal to give birth to my next child without medication I would have told you that you were NUTS!  We had a great birth experience with Moriah.  We were in a hospital (the President's hospital, so you know it was a good one!) and I had an epidural.  There were no complications and she was a happy healthy little sweetie.  So, why change when things went so well?  God has truly brought me on a journey the past couple of months.

To start with, the hospital where I had Moriah is a 45 minute drive with no traffic, and 2 hours if there is traffic.  The thought of having to spend an entire day in the car and at the doctor's office with a toddler for every appointment did not sound appealing.  The only other option I knew of was to switch to have OB care closer to my home and have the baby in the county hospital.  I did my research and talked to other moms-to-be who were seeing the OB I was thinking about going to.  They all had great things to say about him.  My next step was to talk with moms I knew who had delivered at the county hospital.  They all had great things to say about their experience so we made the switch.  I have to say I was not totally thrilled about my OB, only for the typical doctor's office reasons.  I have had two cancelled and rescheduled appointments, waited for an hour past my appointment to see him and felt rushed out of my appointment and unable to really communicate to him what my desires for birth are.  Not too horrible, I have time and many more appointments to try and discuss these matters.

Then a friend of mine had her baby at the county hospital.  Since I did my mom survey they have changed their hospital policies.  They actually removed her nursing, hour old infant, from her breast for tests.  She didn't get her infant back for several hours and in the mean time her infant received formula from the nurses instead of being nursed.  WHAT?!  As I looked at her baby through the glass, I was shocked to hear a tour guide say to a group of expectant moms that this was STANDARD!  Are you kidding me?  That is my friend's baby and she is fully capable to feed her and the nurses are fully able to preform their tests on the baby in her room.  It was also sad for me to see a little baby behind the glass whose diaper had come undone.  I stood there for 5 minutes and no one even noticed.  How sad.  He was in there all exposed for anyone to see.  These tiny gifts had mommies and daddies who were aching to snuggle them and get to know them and they were being left alone, seemingly neglected.  It broke my heart and I decided then and there that my baby would not be born in that hospital.

Thus I began my search for an alternative hospital with better policies and who were fully supportive of me breastfeeding and keeping my baby in the room with me.  (For those of you who don't know, I had MAJOR issues with Moriah and nursing and she ended up on formula.  She is happy and healthy and I am just so thankful that there are good formulas out there for those who can't or choose not to breastfeed.  That being said it is VERY important to me to have a good beginning for breastfeeding and hopefully have better success this time.)  At this point I was still trying to figure out if I wanted an epidural again and was interested in finding out more about natural childbirth and a birthing center I heard about.  Long story short, I did more research (it's a big decision, so I wanted to be educated in all my options) and began to think that having this baby naturally was the best option for me and him.

We toured a birthing center this week and I LOVED it!  The hospital is right down the street from the center so if anything happens we are just a five minute ride away.  It is not the same county hospital either, so if I did for some reason have to go there my midwife would come with me and my little boy would not be taken from me after delivery.  I am very nervous about the whole no drugs thing but I know this is what God has called me to do for this birth so I know I can do it.  

I highly encourage all of you who are expecting to be educated in all your options.  Looking back on Moriah's birth, I was not educated in my options and what the risks were.  As I said, we ended up having a great experience but I know now that it wasn't the best one we could have had.  Some of the things I have become more educated about are delayed chord cutting, risks of medication to me and the baby, how to lower my chances for a c-section, relaxation techniques for managing pain during labor, and alternative pushing positions.  

Anyway, we are looking forward to our little guy arriving and what his birth will turn out to be.  God knows exactly how it will go and I am trusting in Him to give me the strength to bring our baby boy into this world.  I can't wait!!!  

Also, we still have not agreed on a name.  My vote is for Levi but we aren't unified in that yet.  Anyone have any great baby boy names you want to share?  We are open for suggestions, as long as you don't feel offended if we don't pick yours. =)  Names are very important to us and we pray long and hard about which one is right and what the meaning is behind the name, so it takes us more time to decide.  I will keep you posted!        

  

Elpa!

Moriah's new favorite word is "elpa." What she is trying to say is help and it is adorable. She also tries to do the sign for help and comes close but not quite. All morning today she has been asking for "elpa." I love that we are beginning to be able to communicate successfully. If she wants the door open, she says "elpa." If she wants on her little car she says "elpa." The only tricky part comes when I don't know what she wants help with. Then we both get frustrated, but more words will come in time. I can't wait to see what she is saying when she speaks to me in gibberish. She says the same phrase over and over and even uses her hands to talk when she says it. It is hilarious, but we have no idea what in the world she is saying. She seems to think it is quite important, though, and gets pretty emphatic. Maybe one of these days I will figure out exactly what she means.

Relief

Praise the Lord, Moriah made it through the night with out vomiting!!  My aunts, mom, and friends gave us some awesome advice.  Last night Moriah slept with the humidifier right at her head, a vapor plug in, vick's on her feet, head propped up, and a dose hyland's homeopathic cough syrup.  She still woke every so often to cough and get a drink but there was no body wrenching coughs or vomiting.  She sounds worse today as far as congestion but I am assured by the best pediatric nurse practitioner I know (my aunt, who's awesome) that this is a good thing.  It just means her congestion is breaking up, yay!!!  Now we are just praying that she continues to get better so we can travel home for Thanksgiving with a happy, healthy baby.  

Exhausted

Well, this week has just crawled by really.  Moriah is sick, thus making everyone in our house so tired.  She does ok during the day but as soon as she goes down for the night the body wrenching coughs start.  My poor baby wakes up about 3 times in the night just coughing and coughing until she vomits.  Then we begin the clean up process and putting her back down.  I think the past 5 or 6 nights the most sleep I have gotten in one night is 6 hours, of course not consecutively.  Between the midnight showers to get vomit out of my hair and the soothing a sick baby, there isn't much solid sleep going on at our house.  

The doctor seems to think it is just allergies since she isn't showing any signs of infection.  Her lungs are clear and she hasn't had a fever at all.  So, benadryl was recommended.  We tried it and it scared me so badly!  Moriah zonked out so hard from the meds that she slept through coughing, vomiting, being cleaned and changed and her bedding being changed.  I totally couldn't sleep the rest of the night for fear of her throwing up again in her sleep and choking on it.  People die from aspirating!  She wont be having benadryl again any time in the near future.

Nothing seems to help.  We have tried cutting down her milk intake, humidifier, vick's baby chest rub, honey and lemon (which she promptly rejected and gaged), propping her head up, etc...  We are at a loss of how to help or little girl feel better and get over this whole coughing thing.  Anyone have any ideas?  They would be well received!  For now I am going to get started folding the mound of laundry that has accumulated from all the night time (and a few daytime) sickness and pray for some relief for my little Mo tonight, right now preferably.  

Best Weekend Ever, and still going...

The past few days have been so much fun. Just a quick run down...

Saturday we had a wonderful family breakfast at Chick-fil-a. We then dropped Moriah off at a friends and Zack and I had a much needed adult date day. It was WONDERFUL! Major thanks to Jen for keeping our baby while we had some time together. We saw a movie (Eagle Eye, very good) and strolled the mall. Two totally peaceful activites that were so relaxing. We then proceeded to dinner at Houlihan's. Just the thought of eating without rushing and stopping to feed a toddler or entertain her was so appealing.  When the food came I decided I had a new favorite restaurant, it was DELICIOUS!!!

Sunday was a surprise girls day. Zack watched Moriah and I got to spend some girl time chatting over lunch, shopping and getting Starbucks. Another totally relaxing day that concluded with seeing my dad. He came up for business and stopped in for dessert and a quick hi.

Today I started the day off with a nice, but cold walk. Then I spent some precious time with my friend Kaylyn and her baby Aven. It was so good to see them and see Aven and Moriah interact. They didn't really play together but I had fun chatting with Kay. It is always good to get another mom's perspective on things and trade info and ideas. Kay lives down south so we only get to chat in person a couple times a year. I cherish the time!

Tomorrow is Veteran's Day so Zack isn't working.  We have a family day planned but we aren't sure what we will be doing yet.  I can't wait to spend the whole day just the three of us hanging out and being a family.  No time schedule, no chores tomorrow, just being together.  SO EXCITING!  I will post on Wednesday what we ended up doing.

I hope your weekend was as fabulous as mine was, and really continues to be...

How Does She Know?

Today I am in my room finishing blow drying my hair, something I rarely get to each day.  Moriah is happy playing in my room and her room and seems to be going back and forth freely, which is totally fine with me, I just needed a couple more minutes to be finished.  All the sudden I hear...nothing.  So my mom radar goes off.  I know she isn't sleeping so if I hear nothing I am positive it is one of two things going on.  She has either stopped breathing or is doing something she knows she isn't supposed to do.  I turn the corner to discover her in her closet with a box of tissues.  She is taking them all out and tearing them up.  First, I must stop myself from laughing and telling her how cute she is, because she totally is!  I must focus on the fact that she knows she isn't supposed to be playing with tissues and she has chosen to disobey.  I then have a heart to heart with my one year old about obedience.  She seems unflustered by the whole event and goes about her playing.  

I am so glad I only had to clean up tissues today, well, I have to clean up tissues today (they are still on the floor in her room where she is currently sleeping, I'll get to them later).  Anyway, she could have easily been into the flour or something much messier or dangerous.  What I want to know is how does she know, at one year old, that she needs to be quiet when disobeying?  Who taught her that?  This is a topic I have been thinking on for the past week after discussing it with my cousin.  I can only come to one conclusion: My baby is a little sinner.  It is in her DNA to disobey.  I didn't have to teach her to be quiet, sneak and get into things.  I have to teach her to obey and not touch things that aren't for her.  

It is sometimes frustrating trying to mold her and get her to obey, even in the little things like tissues.  It would be far easier to just let her go to town and rip the tissues up, after all what is it hurting, right?  But it would be hurting her.  I would be failing to teach her boundaries and to obey.  I have already told her not to touch the tissues so if I just let it slide, how would that benefit her?  In the long run it would make things so much harder for me to get her to obey.  Anyone else have any thoughts?  Anyone willing to answer differently?  How does she know to be quiet when she disobeys?  Where does she learn that behavior?

Meanwhile enjoy some adorable pictures of my little tissue lover.

 Fleeing the scene of the crime...