My boys

For real

2012-02-15T21:43:00.001-08:00

It is midnight and I am posting on my blog. Yes, I should be going to sleep. But for some reason I'm not, and since apparently my two year old posted a blank post from my phone (his new favorite hobby is anything on my phone) I figured I would post a real one. Since I can't figure out how to write captions on the pictures when I post on my phone, I'll just say what they are now. Evan is obsessed with pretzels (or really just food in general) and seriously all day long he is taking my hand leading me into the kitchen to the pretzels saying "num-num-num" wanting me to give him one. He also is obsessed with whatever his brother is doing. I've said this before, but he just wants to do whatever Emmory is doing, and definitely learns a lot from him and imitates him. So when they go outside and Emmory plays in the dirt, Evan is right there with him. The last pic is from when I took them grocery shopping a few days ago. I almost forgot how hard those car carts are to push, because typically I shop without them...you know, so I can actually think while I shop and end up getting what I came for :) They did great though, just give them something to eat and they are happy. That's my wonderful parenting tip of the day :)

Seattle

2012-01-12T19:09:00.001-08:00

We got back just over a week ago from our annual Seattle Christmas trip. It makes me tired just thinking about it! Not the actual part in Seattle, we were so thankful that the boys adjusted to the new time zone immediately this time, Evan did so great and we were spoiled with them sleeping until 8 most days and sometimes even 9. We have been really fortunate in the past to not have any big delays or cancellations when we have traveled, partly because a lot of times we have taken a non-stop out of Charlotte. But this year our flights both ways had delays, and other challenges as well. When we got to the airport to fly out to Seattle we found out our flight was delayed...but supposedly only 30 minutes. While we were waiting, Evan fell and split his lip really badly, there was blood everywhere, it was so gross I couldn't look at it (I am a bit squeamish). There were so many kind people there who jumped to help us, bringing us towels and ice, etc. So now we are sitting there with our plane supposedly taking off in an hour trying to decide what to do...his lip really looks like it needs to be stitched, people are telling us it needs to be stitched, Mark is considering sending Emmory and I off and staying with Evan. We decide to call the pediatrician before we made any decisions, and while I was on the phone with them Mark happened to run into a doctor who took a look at him and they both said the same thing, they don't usually stitch the lip unless the bleeding won't stop, which it had at that point. We were so relieved to hear that! However our flight ended up being even more delayed to where we were going to miss our connection, so we had to figure out what to do about that as well. We really wanted to get out that night since the next day was christmas eve and we had plans for that day, and thankfully they were able to put us on a different route with a few different airlines, we would just have to leave even later that night. So, after even more waiting we finally got on a plane, and after a layover in Chicago we made it to Seattle just before midnight (3am our time). Needless to say everybody was very tired, but we were so happy to have made it there! We had an awesome time in Seattle, it's always a joy to see my parents interact with the boys, and it was so great to see my nephew again, out of the hospital! (I flew out to see him in Nov. two weeks after he was born and when I left he was in the nicu, that was tough).
However, the flights back to Greenville weren't uneventful either. We were stuck in the Cleveland airport for a long time waiting for our flight to Greenville, and Evan got sick right before we left...we were told it was tonsillitis because his tonsils were bright red and there was some pus (eew) but we found out when we got back it was actually hand, foot and mouth disease, which I didn't know you could get more than once. So anyways, he was in a lot of pain, drooling like crazy and wouldn't eat hardly anything because he had huge blisters in his throat, and he also refused to take any medicine which made it even more difficult. So the trip back wasn't fun either, and Evan was waking up in the night pretty much inconsolable, and we were just exhausted. But God is faithful and rest came when we truly needed it.
Oh, and I can't forgot to mention how amazing Emmory did both travel days. Even with all the waiting, with the commotion of Evan getting hurt, traveling so late at night, he handled it all great and has turned into quite the little traveler. He just sits there and watches his DVD's and is just super excited about flying on a plane and seeing all the other planes. I am so glad we ended up getting on a plane that same day on the way out because it would have broke his heart to have had to go back home. I am so proud of that boy! And it was just so much fun to see all of his joy and excitement over flying and going to see "nama and papa".
Here are some pics I took on my phone while we were in Seattle.

Outside fun

2011-12-19T08:35:00.001-08:00

My boys love to be outside. We have been so lucky to have some really nice weather in December, although to be honest we will be outside this winter no matter how cold it is as long as it is dry. We'll just bundle up because they love it so much. Emmory had to wear his pretend work goggles outside as he pushed his dump truck all around the cul-de-sac and Evan went back and forth between pushing the mower and running all over the place into our neighbors yards.

Evan

2011-12-16T11:14:00.001-08:00

I really wish I could keep up with this blog. It just doesn't always seem possible...how can I sit down and blog when my house is a mess? But I got a new blogger app for my phone which is going to make it a whole lot easier to blog so maybe I'll do it more often now. I just wanted to do a quick post on Evan. I never did a post for his first birthday and I always intended to. He turned one over a month ago, on November 2nd. His first year was by far the fastest year of my life, it just flew by. I barely even remember him being a baby. I have a lot of regrets about his first year, especially the first several months. I've never really blogged about this before, for different reasons, but I will just say when I got pregnant with Evan, Emmory was only 9 months old and I definitely wasn't ready to have another. I was not excited about the pregnancy and it really took several months for me to start enjoying him. I'm just being completely honest here. It's not that I didn't love him, I would have given my life for him in a heartbeat, but I was just too focused on how hard things were and how they didn't happen how I wanted them too. Just completely selfish thoughts. But God is so good. He has used Evan in my life to show me my weakness, my sin, and bring me to the end of myself. I am constantly shown my complete inability to do anything right. And that drives me to the cross. It makes me thankful for my Savior and his righteousness that is mine. Because that is the only righteousness I possess. God has brought me to the point where I am thankful for my weakness. I am so thankful for evan in my life right now. Not just because of those things. There are lots of lovable things about him. His big blue eyes, his adoration of his brother and how he tries to do everything he does, his big smile, when he comes up to me and throws his arms up at me and says "mama", how excited he gets when his daddy comes through the front door home from work, how he tries to shove everything on his high chair in his mouth, the way he says doggie (Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaw-geeee), the way he runs all over our house always having to carry something around in his hands, the way he takes your hand and moves it to whatever it is he wants (he is a great non-verbal communicator), the way he sucks his two fingers backwards, the way he snuggles with you right after his nap, and there are so many more. He is very into feeding himself right now. It's good and bad. It's messy but I know it will make things easier in the long run, and already it is kind of nice that I can put a bowl of food and a spoon in front of him and he can get about 3/4ths if it in his mouth by himself while I do a few other things in the kitchen. He has had a bit of a rough patch recently with sickness which has lead to him being more cranky, but I know it will pass. Having two toddlers is challenging especially two loud, messy, busy boys (which I'm sure will never change) but I am thankful for my boys and for what God is teaching me through being a parent. And I am especially thankful that I am able to stay home with them every day and be the one who gets to train them.

August Fun

2011-08-17T09:08:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics from this week....

We made finger paint with vanilla pudding and food coloring. He had a good time with it, and didn't figure out you could eat it until the very end :)

I introduced Evan to the water table for the first time. He loved it and of course ended up soaking wet because all he does is splash.

Differences

2011-07-27T23:27:00.000-07:00

Right now we are at one of my favorite places in the world, Cannon Beach, Oregon. I grew up coming here every summer. In my opinion, the Oregon Coast is some of the prettiest landscape I have ever seen. I have yet to see a more beautiful place. Of course, coming here with my own kids now is a totally different experience. No longer free to come and go as I please. Spending much more time in the room than I would like with a napping or sleeping child. But that is just the season of my life right now. And it is a joy to be able to share this place with my children. Emmory loves the beach. Absolutely loves it. And he hasn't even gone in the water yet (and probably won't be since it's freezing cold). He is perfectly content to play in the sand with his dump trucks and diggers. He would stay there all day if we let him. We have to make him leave each time we are on the beach, and whenever we aren't on the beach, he is asking to go to the "deach". This is pretty amazing for my son who is so busy. I can't think of one thing he loves more than the beach. He will be sad when we have to leave.
But, that isn't the reason I wanted to post tonight. I wanted to post about the differences in my two children. I always knew once I had Emmory that when we had more kids, they wouldn't be the same. But it was just hard for me to picture in my mind what another kid would be like, since Emmory was all I knew. But this trip has been the perfect example of the differences in my kids, and it is amazing how early you can see it. Emmory is so laid back. You might not think so because he is a busy kid, but he is laid back. He goes with the flow, he's very adaptable, very easily distracted, etc etc. Evan is not the same. He is going to be more stubborn, he gets his mind on something and he wants it and doesn't forget. He is more bothered by things. Of course they both could change, but Mark and I are predicting how their relationship is going to be. And we think as soon as Evan gets a little older and can hold his own, he is going to give it to Emmory once, and that'll be the end of it. No more picking on Evan. Emmory will just find a different way to go or something different to do rather than cross Evan. We think he'll push his older brother around and control the relationship. But who knows, that's just our prediction. But here is a perfect example of the differences between these two. At the hotel we are staying at, there are only two bedrooms to be shared between us, the boys, and my parents. It was not going to work out to put the boys in the same room because Evan has been waking up early and we didn't want Emmory getting up at 6 also....not to mention naps. So we decided Emmory would sleep in my parents bathroom, since he sleeps later, and Evan is in the bedroom with us. So, the first night we got here, I went in our bedroom to put Evan to sleep, and immediately he started crying as soon as I walked in the room. I laid him down and he continued to cry (and scream) for an hour. He never does this at home. It was all because he was in a new place. However, when we went back to put Emmory to bed, we showed him the pack n play in the bathroom (which is a much stranger place to be sleeping than a bedroom), and he said "that's Emmory's room", and I put him down and he went right to sleep without a peep. After this happened I thought, that is a perfect example of the differences in my two boys.
Evan is the second child that I needed. He will test me in ways that Emmory won't. So between the two of them, I should be covered all around with opportunities to grow :) That's the reason we have kids anyways, right? God certainly uses them to humble us, grow us, change us.

Catch up

2011-07-10T15:48:00.000-07:00

Obviously my plan to update more often didn't work out :) So I'll play a little catch up with what's been going on the past few months.

April
Besides Emmory's birthday which I already posted about, we went to Folly Beach near Charleston for a long weekend with Mark's family. We had a great house right across from the beach, and the beach was really nice. There were actually some waves too, which is rare for the east coast, and there were almost always surfers out right where we were. Emmory LOVED the beach. It was actually warm enough to go in the water, and he would go out there with no fear, even when he would get knocked over and go under the water, he would just pop right back up with a smile on his face. When we got back home he kept asking to go to the "deach". Here are a few pics from the trip.

May

Two weeks after our first beach trip, we headed to Kiawah Island with my Mom, Dad, sister, and brother-in-law who came into town. Kiawah is a beautiful island with lots of nature. Our house was on a lagoon, and we had our very own alligator, which was very exciting for Emmory (and everyone else too). And it was only a two block walk to the beach, so we would load up the wagon with beach toys and Emmory and head on over.

Watching the alligator

Running on the Ocean Course (practice greens), the 2012 PGA

Evan loved the swing on the porch

Mother's Day

June

As I think back to June, I really can't believe it's already over! It went by so fast. We didn't do any traveling in June, just stayed around home. Here is a brief update on what is going on with the boys.

Evan: Is 8 months old! I cannot believe it, it has been the fastest 8 months of my life. He started pulling up to stand in the middle of June, and now that is all he wants to do! He will be an early walker no doubt. He also stopped nursing. It was rather sudden, or at least seemed that way to me. He just started refusing to nurse. Had it been just me and him, I might have been able to work with him all day long to get him to, but after two days of him going 6+ hours without eating, and having to take care of Emmory too, I had to start giving him bottles. And then there was no turning back. Was it earlier than I wanted to? Yes. I have always wanted to be able to nurse a baby as long as I wanted to, and be the one to decide it's time to stop. But that's just not how it's been with both boys, and maybe that's what will always happen. It broke my heart. But I am okay with it. What I feed him is not what is important. It's what I live out before him. That's what I'm trying to focus on. He is doing great. He likes to move, likes to watch his brother, likes to pull up on everything. He is happy most of the time. He is driven. Seems like he will probably be a little more strong-willed and stubborn than his brother. But oh, he is so much fun!

Emmory: Is very much a two year old. I am amazed each day at how much he has grown, and the things he picks up on. He is so smart. The memory of a toddler always amazes me. He is a big helper (you know, relatively speaking for a two year old). He is still very much dependent, but there are a lot of things he can do on his own. And he is potty training! We attempted potty training a while back, he wasn't even two yet, but was very interested and would ask to go. So I decided to give it a try. But he wasn't ready. There is a big difference this time compared to last time. He pretty much initiated it again. I didn't just decide one day I was going to potty train him. And it has been surprisingly very easy. He goes on his own and pretty rarely has an accident at the house. However, we still put pull-ups on him when we go out, and for nap time and nighttime. He would need to be moved to a bed he can get out of in order for him to not wear a diaper while he sleeps, and we are not ready to do that yet. We like containment :) He still wets heavy at night though, so he's not ready for that yet anyways. And I just haven't wanted to deal with accidents when we are out and about yet. But that is the next step.
He is very much a boy. He loves dirt, water, and any kind of vehicle, but especially garbage trucks and construction vehicles.
Here are some pics from the last month.

This is Emmory's "garden". This is where he spends most mornings. He loves to play in the dirt, as I said earlier. And he is either naked or doesn't have pants on because like I said, we are potty training

I walked in and Evan was so proud of himself for pulling up. And yes, we lowered the crib after this

This is my attempt to blockade him in the living room

TWO!

2011-04-26T13:50:00.000-07:00

Emmory is two today! I cannot believe it! It is such a small number, but seems so big. He is such a big boy, there isn't really much baby about him anymore. Today I made him blueberry pancakes for breakfast, we played outside in his water table, and we went to see the horses (his favorite) with one of his favorite people, his cousin Rilynn. Tonight we are going to Chickfila, which he loves, and will let him play in the play area which he has just now recently discovered, because he can climb all the way to the top now. I took a little video of him this morning. He seems to be catching on to this birthday thing really fast, and enjoying it because it means he can eat pretty much anything he wants to :)

Neglect

2011-04-13T11:15:00.000-07:00

So obviously this blog has been a little neglected....having two kids now of course leaves me with even less time to spend on this, and I'm always waiting for a big chunk of time to do a big post, but from now on I'm going to try and just do smaller, more frequent posts so those of you on the west coast don't go through Steenback boy withdrawal :)
This blog isn't the only thing getting neglected though, today I was clearly a little distracted with Emmory, and didn't realize Evan needed to go down for a nap until I came out and saw this.

I also got a video of it, thought it was funny how he was still bouncing even though he was asleep

So that's all for today. We are getting ready to have an eventful month of April, including a beach trip, family coming to visit, and Emmory's 2nd birthday! We are excited!

Evan's story

2011-02-02T19:30:00.000-08:00

Our lil pork chop (as he is affectionately called by my little sister) is already two months old (now three months, I started this a month ago!), so I thought I'd better write down his birth story before I forget. It is a total blur in my mind right now, almost like it didn't really happen....really the first month of his life is a blur, and we are definitely glad it's over! The first two weeks with him were rough, he had his days and nights mixed up and didn't sleep well at night...but big brother Emmory did of course and was up in the morning ready to go. Thankfully my parents stayed with us and helped out so much, I honestly don't think we could have survived without them. However, looking back two weeks of no sleep isn't really so bad, because he has done really well since then, and sleeps all night now.
Anyways, on to the story. I love birth stories, because each one is so unique, and I think it's fun to hear all the different experiences that people have, so I want to record mine so I can look back on them and remember. This experience was so different than Emmory's. With Emmory I basically had no action until the day I went into labor. I didn't dilate beforehand, and I didn't have Braxton Hicks contractions until a few days before I went into labor. Because of this my labor with him was REALLY long. With Evan, I started having Braxton Hicks probably halfway into the pregnancy, and continued to have them until I went into labor. I also dilated 2cm beforehand, and had a few nights of contractions where I thought I was going to go into labor, but then they stopped. Two nights before Evan was born, I had contractions throughout the night. I was able to sleep on and off, but I was pretty sure that by morning they would become more regular and stronger, and I'd go into labor, but as soon as I got up, they stopped completely. Then that night, Mark and I started watching our Office DVD's, and I started having contractions again. At first it was just one every episode, which last about 20 minutes, but they were stronger than they had been the night before. I didn't really get my hopes up too much, since I had already had a few false alarms, but they started coming faster and stronger. Then I started having a lot of "butt pressure" as I called it. There was just a ton of pressure down there, not at all like it was with Emmory, and the contractions started getting stronger and more intense. They were about 5-7 minutes apart when I was sitting down, but when I was standing up and moving they were 2-3 minutes apart. We started to get things ready because we were pretty sure this was the real deal. Around midnight (I think) I decided maybe we could lay down and try and get some sleep, hoping that the contractions would let up or slow down when I did that....well that didn't happen and I ended up getting up shortly after, but left quietly hoping Mark could still sleep. I got something to eat and sat in the chair in the living room breathing through contractions, but I don't think I was out there for more than 30 minutes when I had to call for Mark because it was getting really intense, and I was feeling so much pressure. After a while of him being out there with me he called his mom to come over so we could go to the hospital. The contractions were so painful on the way to the hospital that I decided I was getting an epidural right away. It took a while to get up to the floor and get checked in because I kept having to stop for contractions. Finally I got checked in, found out I was 6cm, and got moved to a room. All I wanted to do was get an epidural, and waiting for the IV and fluids, etc felt like forever. I progressed another cm, got the epidural, and then all was well. It was a really good epidural, I could still move and feel my legs but I couldn't feel any pain at all. I had to get antibiotics in me before he was born, because I was beta strep positive (I think that's what it's called), they really wanted to get two rounds in me, but they have to be four hours apart and I was progressing so fast they didn't think it was going to happen. However, since I got the epidural, things were able to slow down a little, and they were able to hold me off by waiting to break my water until they got the antibiotics in me. So we basically just waited four hours until I could get the second round in, trying to get some sleep (since it was the middle of the night), but were pretty unsuccessful in that. Once the second round of antibiotics were in me, they broke my water, and within an hour of breaking my water they checked me and I was fully dilated. I started pushing and within 30 minutes Evan was born! And when he was born he gave everyone a surprise, as he came out looking up at the ceiling instead of facing down. So that probably explains all the intense pressure I was feeling, and why it seemed more painful than the contractions when I was in labor with Emmory.
I am so thankful for the safe delivery of Evan with no complications, and a really good epidural :)

Shutterfly

2010-11-23T12:11:00.000-08:00

I am fairly new to ordering photo cards for Christmas, last year was the first year that I did it, mainly because before then we didn't have kids, and I figured no one really wanted a picture of just Mark and I :) But after we had Emmory, I figured family would definitely like a picture of him, and it would be fun to save the cards each year and look back on our growing family. So, I definitely plan on ordering cards again this year. I was pleased with the cards that I ordered last year, but since then I was introduced to Shutterfly. I was told they have really good quality products, and when Emmory turned one I wanted to do a photo book of his first year, so I had it made on Shutterfly. I was extremely happy with how it turned out, I thought the quality was excellent and it had a lot of different options for backgrounds, format, etc. So this year I decided to look into Shutterfly's photo cards for Christmas, and wow, do they have a lot of options! I am definitely planning on using Shutterfly to order this year's Christmas cards. I love that there are so many options, and since we just had another baby three weeks ago, this year I am going to combine the birth announcement with the Christmas card, and because there are so many options for cards, there are a lot that have a lot more space for writing so that I'll be able to do this, unlike many other websites and stores that offer Christmas cards. I highly recommend Shutterfly for their quality photo products, and you can check out their Christmas photo cards here: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards
They also have standard photo cards that you can order for any occasion here: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery
I am very excited about creating this year's Christmas photo card on Shutterfly!

18 months

2010-10-27T18:09:00.000-07:00

Emmory is a year and a half, and that is the age he will be when his baby brother is born! Hard to believe that time is already here, but I am due in one week! I was very excited at my last doctors visit last week because I am 2 cm dilated....the reason this excites me is because 1) I never had any dilation with E before I went into labor, and i was late with him, and 2) When I got to the hospital in labor with E I was only 3cm dilated, and that was after having contractions for almost 12 hours, so I'm hoping this will cut out a few hours of labor anyways.
E had his 18 month checkup today, we moved it up so we could get it in before the baby is born, and also wanted to have his ears checked since he'd been sick a week or so ago, so we thought we would kill two birds with one stone. Thankfully his ears looked good, I am hoping he is moving out of the stage of getting constant ear infections. He is a big growing boy, 97th percentile for height and 90th for weight. We already knew this, as he is as big or bigger than many kids that are older than him. He's still a good eater and has a good appetite most of the time, although sometimes I think he would rather get down and play rather than eat. There are three things that Emmory is really crazy about right now, the vacuum, the moon, and tractors (which is really any vehicle that makes loud noise in his mind). He says those three words most frequently, and when we are home he is constantly begging me to vacuum (I guess he realizes how dirty our house is, haha). It is nice because I can always get that chore done really easily when he is awake. He will just run back and forth to the vacuum and away from it while I use it, pointing and saying "vacuum". About a month and a half or so ago he discovered the moon. He walked outside, and just stood staring and pointing at something in the sky. We realized he was looking at the moon, and told him what it was and he started saying it right away, which is amazing because he doesn't use a lot of words. That is when we realized he has the ability to talk, but only bothers saying the words that mean a lot to him. Now we always look for the moon outside, and he loves reading his "Goodnight Moon" book because of the pictures of the moon. He also realized his love for loud noise-making vehicles about a month or so ago. We were at the park, and there were some construction vehicles working there. Emmory grabbed my hand and led me away from the playground over to where the vehicles were working, and just stared at them for probably at least 20 minutes. Also at that same playground a lot of big trucks go driving by, and he was always fascinated when they did, and learned the word truck. Then about a week ago we were at a harvest party where they were doing tractor pulled hayrides, and of course he loved to watch the tractor, and we taught him the word tractor which he caught onto right away, and the whole ride home he kept repeating it over and over again, it was so funny. However now he calls any truck or vehicle a tractor. This boy loves anything that makes noise!

Here's a video of him from earlier this month. He thought of this game all by himself. You will notice his bad habit of not looking where he is running.

16 month-old fat face

2010-08-26T20:08:00.000-07:00

Today Emmory is 16 months old....wow! For some reason 16 months seems so much older to me than 15 months, I'm not sure why. I was determined that I would do a post today, since I have been so bad at posting lately and this would give me a specific day to do it so maybe I would remember. He is getting so big, and in roughly two months he is going to look a WHOLE lot bigger, because his baby brother will be born! I just know that is going to make Emmory look like a 3 year old to me, it makes me sad, but I know he can't stay little forever. But I'll spare all of you all the sentiments I am feeling about all the big changes that are coming, and get on to the title of this post. Unfortunately I don't have a picture, but this morning when Emmory woke up, I noticed that the right side of his face looked swollen. I didn't do anything about it right away, but after his morning nap it still looked pretty swollen, and I could feel something hard underneath his ear and around his jaw. He has a history of ear infections, and just had one two weeks ago, and I thought maybe it was a lymph node that was swollen from that infection, so I called the doctor and they said they should probably check him out since he had recently had an ear infection, and also had a low-grade fever off and on the last few days. So I took him in, and he did end up having a lingering ear infection that never completely healed from the last one, but the swollen part of his face ended up having nothing to do with that, it's a swollen salivary gland (I think that's how you say it) from a virus. Right now there is really no treatment except to give him sour things to eat to try and help the gland drain. So right now we have a fat face little 16 month old, it looks pitiful to me but I don't think it's causing him a lot of pain right now, I think it was worse when it was swelling up because the last two days he was very fussy but he was much better today. The poor guy also is cutting two molars at the moment. It's been a rough month for him, as he got sick on both of our vacations and now this. He is a trooper though and can still have fun and play. So that is what has been going on here, we got back from all of our traveling two weekends ago and are still trying to get into a regular schedule/routine....all last week Emmory slept in until 9, which was wonderful for me, but made our days kind of unpredictable, and this week he has not been napping well, probably due to everything that's going on with him, so hopefully by next week he'll be feeling better and things will get back to normal.
Here are a few things that Emmory loves at 16 months:
1.Flashlights. He loves lights in general, and one day he found Mark's flashlight and just loved turning it off and on, and then it was even better because our dog is obsessed with chasing lights, so Emmory figured that out and waves the flashlight on the wall for Tillman to bark at and chase. It is lots of fun for both of them, and nice that they can both be entertained by each other. So I went to Walmart and got Emmory his very own little flashlight, and I think it is the best $5 I have ever spent on him.
2. Climbing. For as mobile as he is, it took him a while to figure out that he can climb on things, but now he has definitely figured it out. I have often found him sitting or standing on top of various boxes around our house.
3. Running. This child loves running more than anything. When we take him to the mall to play at the kids play area that is perfect for his age, he plays for a maximum of five minutes and then just tries to run out of it and run the corridors of the mall. If he can be let somewhere to run free, he is in heaven.
4. Phones. He loves to imitate talking on the phone, whether it be one of his play phones, my cell phone, or anything else he has that he decides to pretend is a phone.
5. Doggies. He continues to love dogs, especially Tillman, and he calls almost every living creature a doggie as well. Our doctor's waiting room has a fish tank, and he runs up to it pointing and saying "doggie". We're working on that one.
6. Reading. He is starting to rediscover books. He used to love it when I would read to him before he was mobile, and we would lay in my bed each morning reading books, which is one of my favorite memories of him. Then, when he started crawling and especially walking, he lost interest in books because you have to sit still to read them, and he isn't interested in sitting still. However, recently he has started to like to read again, and will have me read the same book over and over and over again. Once it's over and I say "the end" he will say "gain", wanting me to read it again. Right now his two favorite books are one about sleep and one about pets.
7. Our bathroom. This is probably his favorite room in our house, and if I let him he could probably stay in there all day getting into everything that is in there in all the cabinets and drawers, bathtub, etc and have a grand old time making a huge mess and who knows what else. No matter how many times I organize the cabinets, they are constantly getting "un-organized" by Emmory when he is able to get in there, I am always walking in there to find lotions and shampoos lying all over the floor.

I could go on....the boy loves to explore, and of course get into things he shouldn't be getting into, and he is getting really smart and is able to communicate very well (without very many words) and understands most of the things we say to him even though he can't talk, things are definitely a lot different now than they were when he first started walking...being smart + being very busy=a lot more work for us! But he is also a sweet boy, he gives kisses freely and still wants to be held and when we get him out of bed he will put his arms around our neck and it is oh so wonderful.

Here are some random pics from this summer:


Helping Mommy sweep

Playing with the fan

Watching Daddy mow the lawn

Fun with the hose

4th of July

Cheesin it up!

Burying Daddy's foot at Cannon Beach, OR

Running on the beach

Having fun at the pool

Love the expressions on their faces-having so much fun!

Enjoying his first Henry's root beer-Daddy was so proud

Riding the fun cycles on the beach with Papa

This is when we first discovered climbing

We also like to sit on boxes

And sit inside of them with our toys

On top again

Trying on Daddy's shoes

Riding around in the laundry basket

This was all his idea to have Tillman get in with him. We had to give Tillman treats to stay in.

You can tell how much Tillman enjoys it :)

Playing with our sand/water table on the deck. He converted Tillman's water bowl into a bucket.

Video

2010-06-10T17:24:00.001-07:00

Obviously, I have been horrible at updating this blog....it's just become less of a priority for me, although I do still want to do it for those of you on the west coast and just to have some things saved for memories sake. Fortunately, my sister-in-law updated her blog with something about Emmory, so now all I have to do is copy and paste a link to that.....thanks Susan! So click here to see a video of Emmory cheesin' it up for the camera. You can also see his sign language that he has become quite good at....he'll do anything for food so it was easy to teach him please. And hopefully I'll get back on here sometime soon to put up some long overdue updates, I can't even believe I haven't put anything up about his birthday!

Lately

2010-04-10T07:08:00.000-07:00

There has definitely been a lot going on lately, and I think it will be easier to use bullets so that this post stays somewhat organized. So..

Emmory is going to be a big brother! We've known for a while but I just haven't gotten around to posting about it. It was a surprise to me, but I am truly thankful for life. So sometime around November 4th, when Emmory is just over 18 months old, we'll have another Steenback baby.
We went to the beach last week. We stayed in a house with Mark's family just south of Myrtle Beach, and had a great time. We were able to take Emmory to the beach a lot and he loved it, he loved the sand so much that he just had to eat it :) I am really looking forward to our beach trips this summer now that we know he likes it and hopefully he will be out of the "put everything in your mouth" stage so we won't even have to worry about him eating sand. We took pics and videos so I will have to do another post about the trip.
Emmory is going to be the big ONE in just over two weeks! I cannot believe how fast it has come up, hard to believe it was almost a year ago that I gave birth to him. My family is coming into town to celebrate and we are so excited about that. I haven't really done any preparation at all because it has just been hard to believe it's actually happening, but now I realize how soon it is coming and need to get to work! We aren't really doing anything big but I need to practice making his cake, and I'd like to get a few decorations.
Emmory's preferred mode of transportation these days: Walking! He took his first steps on March 17th, but now he is really good at it and is pretty much all he does unless he falls down, and when he falls down he just crawls over to something he can pull himself up onto and then starts walking again. It is a really fun stage, I think I may be one of the only parents out there who feel this way but I really prefer walking over crawling....and it is so nice now not to have to hold his hands all the time so he can walk. Now I just have to follow him everywhere :) He has the cutest walk ever, he holds his hands in the air and kind of waddles and it is just precious.
Clingy: Emmory has definitely entered the clingy stage, he now cries when we leave him in the nursery, he cries when Mark and I leave him with somebody else, and he even cries if Mark leaves when I am still with him, and vice-versa. Thankfully right now the crying doesn't last long, it is just initially when we leave. He is definitely not afraid of strangers though, we were at a baseball game last night and he was walking around by himself going right up to people he didn't know, smiling at them and hanging onto them. I think it's funny that he is fine going to other people on his own, but if we are holding him and try to hand him over to someone, he wants nothing to do with it.
Just a few other things I love about my boy: When he sucks his thumb he runs his fingers through hair with his other hand, either his hair or our hair, he does the same thing when he drinks his bottle; when I get him out of his crib after a nap he wraps his arms around my neck and gives me a hug, and usually gives me a big open-mouthed kiss; when he picks up something new he holds it out in front of himself to examine it and turns it over, then he shakes it.; sometimes he will pick up a book or magazine and start "reading" it to himself, it is so funny to watch and listen to the sounds he makes as he "reads"; he can be a big flirt, and really try to get other people's attention; frequently throughout the day he will grab a toy or object, walk over to me with it, and try to put it in my mouth, whenever he is with his cousin he also tries to put toys in her mouth too, either that or he will bounce it on her head in a not so gentle way; his smile, I have always loved that smile and he's always had such a great one; how he will walk over to a light, look up at it, and say "off", although it sounds more like "ahh", wanting us to turn the light on and off, and when we do he just stares at it and smiles with delight; when he plays now he is really into manipulating things, he loves to put things inside of other things even if they don't belong together; he has a toy where you press a button and music starts playing, so he will walk/crawl over to that toy, press the button, then turn and look at us smiling and start swaying with the music. I could go on and on, but I will stop now because this post is getting really long! Here are a few pics I took of him last month:

Love this face

One day he decided to put all his toys on top of the storage bench

"Daddy, please don't go"

Sleepyhead

2010-03-22T18:01:00.000-07:00

This is how we found Emmory when we had to go in and wake him up from a nap one day this weekend. I don't see how anybody can sleep like that, but he was sound asleep!

My crazy boy

2010-02-21T18:50:00.000-08:00

I was finally able to upload a video after we plugged our computer directly into the cable rather than using our router. This is Emmory in his walker making some of his crazy noises, and I was hiding behind the chair and would jump out at him and he would start laughing, then go right back to his noises, as you will see.

February

2010-02-21T18:07:00.001-08:00

If there is one word that I could use to describe February, as it relates to Emmory, it would be movement. He is constantly on the go, crawling, standing, and getting close to walking. I will be shocked if he isn't walking by his first birthday (which is only two months away, how can that be?) I got his walker out of the attic last week, and he loves it, except he doesn't walk mostly he runs and rams into things. It has been nice to having something where he can move but be contained at the same time. The only problem is he loves to chase me in it so on more than one occasion I have gotten my heel run into or my foot run over. He loves to walk around with our help too, whenever I am holding him on my lap he will grab my hands and slide his body down to the ground letting me know he wants to walk around. He is still eating like crazy, not as much his bottles but solid food. He loves it and if he is ever around food he isn't happy unless he can have it....something we need to work on. We were at the doctor last week to get a shot and he weighed 22 lbs, 5 ozs (with his diaper on). He is also teething like crazy right now, working on tooth #3,4,5, and 6. I think all but one have broke through the surface of the gums so hopefully once #6 breaks through he will get some relief. Thankfully it hasn't affected his nighttime sleep this time, but it has seemed to affect his naps. Well the main reason I wanted to post was to put up some new pictures, so here they are. There was also one "first" this month that you will see in the last pictures....I'll make you wait to see to keep you in suspense :)

Standing up on the footrest

If anyone wants to know what to get him for his birthday, how about a big package of socks? I don't know why but he loves them.

On his riding toy that we got with his Valentine money from Nama and Papa. It also doubles as a push toy/walker which he loves to do, except he tries to go too fast and falls down

We finally got snow! I can't wait for next year when he can actually play in it, we took him out for a few minutes this time

Chasing his doggy whom he loves....I don't think the feeling is mutual, I've noticed that Tillman tries to avoid Emmory now...I guess he's had his ears pulled one too many times

Taking a bath in the big boy tub. He LOVES bathtime, he splashes like crazy with his hands and feet and everything is soaked once we are done

Oh that sweet, beautiful, long brown hair...

Which is now about to be cut off...that's right in this pic we are waiting to get his hair cut!

This is what he did the entire wait time, he sat still for 20 or 30 minutes (a record for him) and just chewed on this thing

He was not happy once she started combing his hair

Funny expression

I think this picture is so funny, this is how I kept him happy and "somewhat" still while he got his hair cut...I fed him puffs

Not thrilled

All finished with his first hair cut! I hated it at first, I thought I wanted it cut but when she was cutting it I wanted to yell "stop, don't cut off one more piece of that hair!" But I am happy with how it turned out, she did a good job and I am getting used to it...it just makes him look like a little boy and not a baby anymore, and I do miss that beautiful long baby hair, but it had to happen sometime, and he does actually look like a boy now so maybe he won't be called a girl anymore all the time. It is a lot lighter now too, all the long hair was the darker hair so now it looks not only like he got it cut but lightened too. I promise it is all natural, no chemicals were put on his head :)

Nap protests

2010-02-01T12:42:00.000-08:00

Emmory is going through a really tough time right now....well tough for me probably not so tough for him! He has always been a good sleeper, he learned to fall asleep on his own at an early age, so naptime has always been easy, I lay him down and he falls asleep. Well, now that he knows how to stand up in his crib, that is all he wants to do at naptime. He just stands up and cries and cries. You would think he would get tired of this after a while, but there is no wearing him down, apparently our child is extremely stubborn. I've tried leaving him in there without going to him at all, and I've tried going in, laying him down, and immediately leaving; neither of which have worked so far. When I rock him before his naps, all he wants to do is play, he doesn't act tired at all, although he does yawn quite a bit. It's just amazing how things can change so fast, he is really growing up fast lately and having so many developmental changes. Honestly sometimes I wonder if he will ever nap again...most people told me this only lasted a few days with their child when they learned to stand up in their crib, I think we are on at least on day 4 with Emmory. We shall see how he is doing by the end of the week.

9 months and so many changes

2010-01-27T13:03:00.000-08:00

Once again, I haven't blogged in a while. I just feel like I have less and less time for it, there are so many other things I need to do whenever I have any free time. And Emmory requires much more attention now then before, because he is now crawling and can get anywhere that he wants to. That is one of the big changes that's happened somewhat recently. He has always been a "mover" even when he couldn't actually move himself, so now that he can move himself he is everywhere! It is so much fun to watch him though, he loves to explore. Another recent change is he is now pulling himself up in his crib, and he can sit up all on his own from a lying down position. He is a strong little boy and I'm sure it won't be long before he is walking. Another change we've experienced is he is pretty much no longer nursing. I'm really not sure what happened, I don't know if it was a supply issue and I just couldn't keep up with his growing body (He's 21 lbs 10 ozs!) or if he was just no longer interested in nursing, but he just kept dropping one feeding after another refusing to nurse so I had to give him a bottle, and now I'm only nursing him once first thing in the morning. I am thankful that I can still do that at this point though. It was very sad to basically wean him, it's our first huge milestone of him growing up and becoming a little boy, but I know that it is okay. I'm making his baby food and he is getting great nutrition out of that, and he loves it! He has recently started eating oatmeal, brown rice, and yogurt. He loves the yogurt and oatmeal, and is still getting used to the brown rice, but he eats it. We went to his 9 month well checkup today, and found out he has an ear infection. He hadn't been acting like himself the last couple days, and was really fussing for his naps and just restless and discontent which is not like him. I had a feeling there was something wrong with him, but I figured it was his teeth or something, not an ear infection. So he is taking antibiotics and hopefully that will clear it up soon so he doesn't have to be in too much pain. Even with his ear infection, Dr. Song said at his appt that he is the happiest boy, so he is still doing pretty good, it really just affects him when it's time to sleep. He cried five different times last night between 8 and 10 pm, but it was only for a few minutes each time and he went back to sleep on his own, and then he was quiet all night until he woke up at 8. Hopefully he'll do okay tonight.
I haven't gotten around to putting up pics of our time in Seattle during Christmas, but here are a few recent pics since we've been back. The pics are actually out of order, but oh well...

Look what I found mama!

I love to take my socks off and eat them

This is right after he fell backwards while he was standing up in his crib, he bumped his head on the side of the crib

Look at what I can do!

Look what I did Mom, is this okay?

This is what I saw when I opened his door after he woke up from his nap

This was taken the very first day he stood up...unfortunately I didn't think to get the camera until he had already fallen down

It's been a while

2009-11-28T13:24:00.001-08:00

I know it's been a long time since I have updated with pics of Emmory, and a lot has happened in the last month or so. It was definitely rough for a while when Emmory was cutting his two teeth and was sick, but thankfully after the second tooth broke through he has been as happy as can be. He turned 7 months on Thanksgiving, which completely blows my mind, I don't know how he got so big so fast. While we were in Seattle he started saying the "d" syllable and would just carry-on constantly saying, "dadadadada". It was so sweet, even though he doesn't know what it means I love hearing him say "dada". He has since added "m's" and "b's" to his vocabulary, and I think I have also heard him say "n". He is just so much fun right now, so interactive and responsive. He's sitting up really well on his own, he only loses his balance when he leans way to the side to reach for something. He's doing really well with his solid food, for a while there while he was teething he didn't want to eat anything, but since then he's doing great and eats 12 or more ounces of veggies/fruits and at least 2 ounces of cereal. Just like his nursing he is a fast eater with his solids as well, which I am thankful for because it doesn't usually take long to feed him. I've been making his baby food which I love doing, it's really simple and it saves us money, plus I know exactly what is in the food he eats. Here are some pics from October and November, including our trip to Seattle.

First time eating green beans...was not a big fan

My lil husky fan

This was taken in Seattle, right before we went to the pumpkin patch for E's very first trip there

E and Papa at the pumpkin patch

At the pumpkin patch

All of us, minus Dad who was taking the picture

Probably one of the strangest places a baby has been nursed....on a pumpkin :) (Although for some reason you can't see the pumpkin in this pic, but yes, I was really sitting on a pumpkin)

Uncle Kyle had diaper bag duty, and he was thrilled about it :)

With Aunt Christy, we wanted to get a pic of him in the wheelbarrow with the pumpkins, but that didn't work out so well

A group shot with my Dad in it this time instead of my Mom

Nama had the magic touch gettin E to sleep at our fav breakfast place, Wild Wheat

He really started sucking his thumb a lot on this trip...it's so sweet he will suck his thumb and with the other hand put his fingers in his hair

The fam at Wild Wheat

Aunt Kimmie and the lil pumpkin

Our lil penguino

He was such a cute lil penguin for Halloween

Me and my lil boo on Halloween

Carving pumpkins

I gave E a bath right before naptime, and this is what his hair looked like when he woke up

Husky fans (Unfortunately they did terrible that weekend, but we still love em)

Having a bottle on the plane ride back home

Back home, a day at the park with Nama

Had to get a shot of poor Tillman in here

Our family at the park, Emmory trying to grab Tillman as usual

He found a leaf, and of course it went straight to the mouth

Nursing on a park bench...my Mom decided to take a pic of allthe different places I nursed him

Our fav ice cream place, Spill the Beans

Of course he fell asleep on the way home, because he wouldn't fall asleep in his stroller

He is getting so long!

His favorite sleeping position now, with his thumb in his mouth

We went to visit Mark's Gpa Burton who was in town for the Clemson game, this is his first time meeting Emmory

3 generations....getting all three of them to cooperate for the camera was difficult!

All of us who went

Double trouble

2009-11-04T19:20:00.001-08:00

Well we are back home now. At the tail end of our visit in Seattle, Emmory started to get sick, and also his two front teeth started to work their way up and out of his gums. This has not made for a pleasant experience. The trip back to Greenville definitely did not go as well as the trip to Seattle, although it wasn't horrible. He just got pretty fussy in the middle of the flight to Atlanta. Since we've been back home, it's been more of the same. He seems fine during the day, but at night he is a different baby, very unhappy, we are both not getting very much sleep. I think I have the same thing as Emmory, as I have been feeling sick as well. To add to the teething and cold, E also got his shots yesterday at his 6 month checkup, and has had a low-grade fever as a result. It is definitely miserable when a baby is sick, there just isn't a lot you can do. I guess we'll just have to tough it out these next few days/weeks and hope things get better soon.
On a positive note, Emmory's 6 month check-up went well. The dr said he looks great and is doing everything she wants him to be doing developmentally. Since he's gotten more active with his jumperoo and rolling around on the floor, his weight gain has slowed down a tad bit. He is 18lbs, 13ozs, down to the 70th percentile. However he continues to grow longer at an incredible rate, and is up to the 95th percentile in length. I have no idea where he gets this from, but I'm sure it doesn't mean he's going to be tall later in life.
I'd like to get some recent pics up of Emmory eating solids for the first time (which at the moment he is completely disinterested in, hopefully just b/c of either teething or his cold and it will get back to normal soon), our trip to Seattle, Haloween, etc, but I don't have time for that right now.
All in all, I have so much to be thankful for even though things have been a little rough lately, and I need to choose to dwell on these things. My mom is here with us until November 13th, and it has been so great to have her here for her company and an extra set of hands.
We had a great visit in Seattle with family, one of the huge blessings of being able to stay home with Emmory is that I have the flexibility to be able to do that. I hope it is something we will get to do many more times, since my family lives so far away.

In Seattle

2009-10-26T16:03:00.000-07:00

Well the dreaded flights to Seattle with Emmory by myself are over, we made it! I know I had many people praying for me, and I am so thankful for those prayers. It was very comforting knowing people were praying, and there were many answers to prayer along the way. God's grace was evident in so many ways, the day we left I had a calm and peace that was not of myself. The night before I was able to have a wonderful last night with my husband, whose words of wisdom helped me to be calm the night before as well. We got to the gate in Greenville with no problems, boarded the plane, started to taxi to the runway, and then were told we were going to have to sit on the plane for 40 minutes before we took off for Atlanta because of weather. This may not seem like a long time, but when you are travelling with a baby even ten extra minutes on a plane can seem like forever. However once again, God's grace was there, and instead of panicking I was able to pray and not be anxious. On both flights, my baby who has a really hard time falling asleep anywhere but his bed, fell asleep with ease in my arms. When we landed in Atlanta, a kind man offered to take Emmory for me while I got my bags from the overhead bins, and then carried him off the plane for me. After we waited for his stroller, we booked it to our connecting gate, as we only had a 1 hour layover to begin with, and with the 40 minutes delay is was going to be really close, especially being in a huge airport like ATL having to go to another terminal very far away. We made it the the connecting flight 5 minutes before they closed the door, with everybody already on board. The flight to Seattle was a long one, 5 hours of flying time, but Emmory did so well, he didn't cry the entire time on the flight. He slept a little, and while he was awake I was able to keep him entertained with toys and walking around the plane. He also was a huge flirt, trying to get everyone's attention and smile at them. It was exhausting having to hold him the entire time, not really able to eat or drink much or even go to the bathroom by myself, but I am so thankful that he did well and we made it to Seattle with no problems. My little boy is definitely a trooper!
It has been so great to be here with my family, I am enjoying every moment of it, and pretty much all I have to do as far as taking care of Emmory is feed him, as his nama, papa, aunts and uncles are very eager to hold him and spend time with him. It has also been very sad though. My uncle's graveside service was on Saturday, and his memorial service on Sunday. The services went really well, they were honoring to God and I pray that God uses Dave's and his family's testimony to save souls, but it is also just so sad. His family is of course grieving and it is hard to see. But I also came away from the services encourged, because while they are grieving, they are handling it in a way that is honoring to God. They truly have hope. Even in this time they are able to say, "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD."
There will be pictures to come when I get back to Greenville. We'll be in Seattle until Monday November 2nd. My mom is flying back with us this time, which will be so nice. I'll actually be able to go to the bathroom without a baby in my lap! (Sorry if this is tmi, but that's life with a baby)

A time to mourn

2009-10-14T12:24:00.000-07:00

It is a time to mourn in the Moor family right now, as we have suffered a great loss. My Uncle Dave passed away yesterday, after battling lung cancer for over a year. He will be greatly missed by many, his life touched so many people. He was a loving husband, father, son, uncle, and friend. His smile was contagious, he had a wonderful sense of humor, always one to joke and tease, and he was an incredibly generous man. I am so thankful to have had him for an uncle, he took me to many sporting events with my cousin Ben, and growing up I was at their house a lot, as Ben and I were (are) good friends. There were a lot of good times that were made possible by him. My heart breaks for the family, for my cousin Ben, and his brother and sister and each of their spouses and their children, for my Aunt Virginia, who has been so strong and lovingly served her husband and sacrificed herself for him while he had this illness. Yet I also rejoice, because each one of them has a relationship with Christ; and thus has hope. Titus 2:13-14 says, "our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works." I rejoice that my Uncle Dave had this blessed hope, and is now with his Savior, enjoying his glory, in a state of perfection, where there are no tears, no pain, no suffering, no sin!
People often talk about God and heaven when somebody passes away, often as a way to cope and get through the tough times; however I do not speak of this as a way to cope, or as a "quick fix" way to feel better, I speak of this because this was my uncle's life. Christianity is not something that you can just use at certain times in your life when it makes you feel better, Christianity is a way of life. 2 Timothy 1:12 says, "I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day." When my uncle was on this earth, he knew whom he had believed, and he knew his soul was safe in God's hands, and that changed his life. Dave's family knows whom they have believed, and it changed their life. It's what enabled my Aunt Virginia to persevere, to stay strong, to serve her husband even when it was so hard, and it's what enables her to have hope now, even in a time of grief. It does not make things easy, it is still sad, there is still "a time to mourn", but God's all-sufficient grace enables you to get through the hard times, to come out on the other side a stronger person who is more like Christ, and all the while to have a "blessed hope".
They know whom they have believed. I know whom I have believed. Do you?

5 months

2009-09-26T16:26:00.000-07:00

I honestly feel like I just posted about Emmory being 4 months old, I can't believe how fast this month went by! There have been a few exciting things happen recently, the first being the birth of Emmory's cousin, Rilynn Falefou Sene, and second we gave Emmory cereal for the first time today. He really didn't have a big reaction to it, and he seemed to like it. When we first gave it to him he held the spoon while it was in his mouth, and he would not let go of it, we had to pry it from his fingers. We'll probably just continue to give him a small amount once a day, until he really seems to take a big interest in wanting more. Emmory and Rilynn haven't been able to meet yet, because children aren't allowed in the hospital because of swine flu, but hopefully they'll be able to meet soon after they get home from the hospital, and I can post some pics.

I uploaded a video of Emmory "talking" this morning. Its from our cell phone b/c we can't upload videos from our camera on here for some reason. He starts talking more towards the end of the video.

Ready for food?

2009-09-19T18:44:00.000-07:00

We think Emmory may have figured out what food is. It is true that he is very "grabby" in general, but whenever Mark and I are eating or drinking something, he is incredibly desperate to take what we have and try to eat it. Mark was drinking from an open bottle a week or so ago, and Emmory grabbed the bottle and started making sucking movements with his tongue, as if he knew what it was and was trying to drink it. And when Mark was giving him a bottle one night he went to get it out of the fridge and Mark said he immediately knew what it was and grabbed it out of his hands to try to eat it. Now it doesn't matter what it is we are eating or drinking, he decides that he must have it. The first pic is from when we met Mark for lunch one day, and he was trying to get his drink and hamburger the whole time. The second is when he was sitting on my lap trying to drink my drink. This Saturday he'll be five months old, and that is when the dr said we could give him solid food. I think this boy is going to be very happy once this happens. I can't wait to see what his reaction is.

4 months

2009-09-08T13:22:00.000-07:00

The 4 month old

I know every parent says this when their kid has a birthday or reaches some sort of milestone, but I really can't believe my boy is four months old! Actually he has been four months for a couple weeks now, I meant to post sooner, but just didn't have the time. I really feel like Emmory has really made some huge changes over the past month; he is starting to show his little personality and moving around so much more and grabbing at anything he can. He's definitely becoming more of a "person" than a little helpless baby. We took E for his four month check-up the other week, and once again found out that he is growing like a weed. He was 17 lbs, 5ozs, which is in the 87th percentile for boys his age. His length was 26 1/2 inches, which is in the 91st percentile. I never would have thought that it would be that exciting to find out how much somebody weighs, and before having a baby I would have probably thought parents were wierd for making such a big deal about it, but that seriously is the highlight of every trip to the doctor; I can't wait to find out how much he has grown! He impressed Dr. Song with his progress; he really seems to like her he was putting on quite a show and trying to play with her the whole time she was examining him. We are so thankful for another good report from the dr about his health and progress! He even did really well for his shots, he cried for maybe 20 seconds and then he was fine. The dr told us we can start giving him some rice cereal when he is 5 months, so we shall see how that goes! So, about his progress, here are some pics to show some of the things he has been doing lately.

He loves his little seat...this was the first time I put him in it.

He also enjoys talking on the phone now! Actually, its more like he enjoys eating my phone, but he does grab it out of my hand whenever I am holding it.

He is loving his tummy time! And he rolled over from his tummy to his back. Didn't act surprised at all either, it's like he knew exactly what he was doing.

Tummy time is especially fun when we have toys to look at!

At first this seems like an ordinary picture, until you find out that this was when he woke up from his nap, after I put him down the opposite direction in his crib. Somehow he managed to move himself so that his head is where his feet were.

Snuggling in close to Daddy

We like to suck on our feet! Usually when we come in after he has woken up, he is playing with his feet...althought lately he is enjoying his bumper as well.

In his little seat doing his favorite thing, eating the toy

He still really likes his play gym. For a few days there he would get mad everytime we put him in it, because the toys wouldn't reach his mouth and he wanted to pull them down, but we have since solved that problem.

A new toy, a jumperoo! This thing is the greatest baby toy ever, it's like a johnny jump up and exersaucer combined, and it's freestanding. From the very first time we put him in it, he LOVED it. I knew he would, b/c he loves to move those legs of his. He just bounces away in the thing, and I haven't even put batteries in it yet so it makes noise.

This is the day he rolled over from back to front, only a day or two after he rolled over front to back.

Emmory,

Mommy can't believe you are four 1/2 months already! I remember on the way home from the hospital thinking that I never knew I could love somebody so much, and I still think that now all the time. You are an amazing, fun, happy little boy. Your smile lights up the world, and brings such overflowing joy to my heart. You have been really good to Mommy and Daddy so far, you have always slept so well at night, starting at 6 weeks where you started sleeping 6 straight hours, and you have continued to stretch it out, now sleeping 11 hours. You really don't cry much at all, you get fussy when you are bored, tired, or hungry; but pretty much if you are moving or have something/somebody to play with, you are happy. You are making some funny noises now, Daddy calls them your dolphin noises because they are such high pitched squeals. Sometimes when we are all riding in the car together, and you are making your little noises, your Daddy and I just look at eachother and smile, b/c it is the best sound in the world to listen to you and it makes us so happy. You are also laughing a lot now, and it is music to our ears. Right now your favorite toy is your fisher price rainforest jumperoo, you just love to bounce like crazy in that thing. It entertains you so much, and the noise part doesn't even work yet! You also love watching tv with your Daddy, especially sportscenter. You watched your first Clemson football game the other night, you loved laying on the floor, going in between playing with Mommy and turning to look at the tv, but there was a scary moment for you when Daddy yelled really loud because something exciting happened in the game. You didn't like it at all and started crying. That is another thing you are doing now, you get scared at loud noises and start to cry. You are really enjoying our daily walks, you just sit there perfectly still not making a sound; I think you are just looking around and taking everything in. You are such a joy to us Emmo; while things definitely aren't the same around here, and I have just accepted the fact that the house will never be as clean as it used to be, I am okay with that, because you are far more worth it, and I would so much rather spend time with you than have a spotless house. Your Daddy and I can't wait to see how you continue to grow and change, we are loving every minute of this roller-coaster ride of being your parents, and we only hope that we can take the time to savor every moment of it! I love you so, so much baby boy.

Love, Mommy

Pawley's Island, SC

2009-08-25T06:57:00.001-07:00

The day after we flew back from Seattle, we drove to Pawley's Island to spend the week at an awesome beach house with friends from church. As soon as we got to Pawley's Island we loved it, our favorite beach on the SC coast by far. It was a great week of beach and fellowship, however there were a few bumps in the road, as E didn't sleep as well on this trip and woke up pretty early some mornings, and we had to take him to the doctor while we were there because he woke up from a nap basically screaming with a big red puffy eye. The rest of the afternoon he wasn't himself, he would cry hard anytime we would lay him down. As an answer to prayer, there was a pediatrician nearby who was on our insurance, and we were able to get an appointment really quickly. We took him in and it ended up being that he scratched his eye, the dr said it would be better by the next morning, and it was, which we were very thankful for. Here are some pics we took on our trip.

This is the view from the back dock. The back of the house was right on the marsh, which was really cool because we could fish from the dock and kayak the creeks. The front of the house faced the beach, which was right across the street, which was so nice to be able to just walk to the beach.

The marsh straight ahead of the dock

To the right of the dock

Mark "crabbing"....there were a ton of blue crab in the water, and to catch them all you had to do was tie string to a stick and attatch a chicken neck to the string, put it in the water and the crabs would clamp on with their pinchers and not let go until you lifted them to the surface and put a net underneath them to lift them out of the water.

Look at all the crab they caught in one morning. I was unsuccessfull in catching one crab, which was pretty sad b/c people were catching them all around me.

Taylor caught a big crab

Sun setting over the marsh

"Boogie boarding"...I put parenthesis because the waves here are nothing like the waves on the west coast...however there were some waves that were decent enough to catch and ride for a while, but just not the same.

Waiting for a good one

Mark is helping one of the kids try to catch a wave

Haha, I was taking a pic of the beach to the right of us, and didn't even realize I got Will's face in the pic

The beach to the left

There's a decent wave

The ladies lounging in the sun

Storm clouds a-comin

Not exactly sure what this bird is called...anybody know?

E's first time on the Atlantic coast

Daddy and son

The family

This was so funny when we put his feet down the tide came up and rushed over his feet and he immediately jerked them up away from the water

The three of us

Once again

Emmory's second day on the beach. We were so thankful for a few days of really nice weather, not too hot and mostly cloudy so the sun wasn't blazing down on us, so E was able to come out for a lil bit

Me and E hanging out on the blanket

I love my lil boo!

Close up

Daddy and son again. Thank you John and Christina for a great trip!

Cannon Beach, OR

2009-08-19T06:42:00.001-07:00

Here are the pics from our first trip to Seattle and Cannon Beach, Oregon. Unfortunately we only took pics at Cannon Beach.

This is E in the car at our first stop, to feed him at a rest area

Mark decided to take a pic of me feeding him

Mom and Dad at the rest stop

On the road! It's about a 3 1/2 hour trip from Seattle to CB. We drank lots of Henry's rootbeer on the trip since we can't get it in SC.

Mom in the backseat, keeping E happy when he was awake

We're here!

Mark's "we're here" pose

E was sleeping when we got there, and he had used his burpcloth as a blankie haha

View from our room

We laid E on our bed to continue sleeping once we got in the room

Outside the room ready to go on our first walk

On our first walk on the beach! It was cold that morning

Mom and Dad with sis Christy and bro-in-law Kevin outside our fav breakfast place The Lazy Susan in town

Eating breakfast, Grandma and Aunt LouAnn joined us

Mark took pics around the table

Dad decided to stick out his tongue

Mom and Nama

Grandma

The classsic Lazy Susan muscle shot, except I forgot I was supposed to make a serious face

E looking cute in his beach outfit

E's first time swimming! He neither hated it nor loved it, just had a straight face pretty much the whole time

In the water

Love the expression on his face, "I'm not so sure about this"

The family in the water

Me and my lil boo

More family pics

E and Aunt Kimmie

E and Uncle Kyle

The whole swimming crew

E on the beach in the pack n play with his toys

Happy boo on the beach

Mark and Kyle relaxing on the beach

The beautiful Oregon coast in the morning looking towards Haystack Rock

Looking towards Twins

The Twin Rocks

Starfish are all over the rocks

From Twins looking back towards Haystack

E and Aunt Kimmie. Kimmie was the only one who didn't get to see E right after he was born, so she was pretty much glued to him the whole trip.

Grandpa Gifford, Mark and E before we went on a walk

Heading towards the beach

The three of us on the beach

If you are wondering why we are often bundled up, it is cold in the morning and evening here on the Oregon coast, it isn't like the south.

The crew on the walk

The Rock in all her glory

E walking with Daddy

Kimmie and I

Dad and I

Sweet pic, E fell asleep towards the end of the walk

In town before we head back to Seattle

Sleeping E

A few pics of our fav places in town...this is Pizza Afetta

This is Osburne's, not Osbourne's (haha inside family joke, I would explain but it probably really wouldn't be that funny to you)...really good ice cream

Bruce's Candy Kitchen, best saltwater taffy ever, and many other yummy sweet treats

The town of Cannon Beach...it is the cutest town ever!

That completes all the pics from the first leg of our travels this summer, will start working on the pics from Pawley's Island next. Thanks Mom and Dad for a great week!

Northwest traveler's

2009-08-06T18:34:00.000-07:00

Our ten days in the beautiful Pacific Northwest are almost coming to an end, and we have much of the travelling behind our belt. The first leg of our trip consisted of driving to the Charlotte airport, which besides a semi-truck's tire blowing out right next to us and scaring us to death, went very smoothly. We managed rather easily to get all our gear, stroller and car seat included, into the shuttle at the parking lot and unloaded again at the airport, had to wait probably ten or fifteen minutes to check our bags, and got into a rather lengthy line with a hungry, fussy 3 month old when we realized one of the greatest things about airport security lines, they have a seperate family line. There was absolutely no one in the family line so we got to zoom right past everybody and start the process of breaking everything down and getting it through the detectors, which was definitely tricky but manageable. We got to our gate with plenty of time to spare, I fed Emmory and Mark went off to hunt down dinner for us (Our flight didn't leave until 7pm). Thankfully our flight was scheduled to leave on time, and right before boarding started, Emmory fell asleep in my arms. He stayed asleep until the plane started to take off, and then I fed him again so his little ears weren't bothered by the pressure, which they weren't. He was awake after I fed him, and after a little while he started to get a little fussy. This is when I realized something about my son, that I always kind of knew in my head, but didn't fully realize until being stuck in a tiny plane with him-he is a really active little guy. If he isn't sleeping or drowsy, he is moving. Unfortunately there isn't much room to move and play sitting on my lap with another seat a foot in front of me, and this lead to an unhappy baby. He likes to be able to spread out and kick his legs and move his arms, and he just wasn't able to. There is one more thing about my son that doesn't go well with flying, and that is that he falls asleep best on his own in his crib, and if he is anywhere where there is anything going on, he will fight sleep and try to stay awake. The first flight was about 2 hrs 3o mins, and for the first hour and a half E was awake, and he began to get really fussy towards the end, because he was tired but was fighting the sleep. Finally I decided to use the one thing I knew would put him to sleep, I nursed him. He fell asleep, and woke up when we had about 30 or so minutes of the flight left. We had a pretty short layover in Dallas, about 40 mins, but luckily our gates were close together. That gave us just enough time to go to the bathroom and do a diaper and clothing change, and then board our next flight, which was going to be just under 4 hrs long. By the time we landed at Dallas, it was past Emmory's bedtime, and I knew this would either work greatly in our favor, or would be a disaster. Fortunately, it worked greatly in our favor, and after I fed him on takeoff again, he fell asleep and didn't wake up until we landed in Seattle, even with the extremely loud flight attendant who would come ask us if we wanted a drink in the loudest voice possible even when Emmory was sleeping right there in plain sight. So all in all, we had a pretty good first flight experience with a baby. Compared to travelling alone, it was ten times harder, but for travelling with a baby I think it went about as well as it could. The next day we headed to Cannon Beach, OR, which was about a 3 in a half hour drive, and compared to flying across the country that was a breeze. E did great in the car and we arrived without incident. We had a really good time with family at Cannon Beach, and E still slept through the night even with the time change, so we actually got some sleep which was very nice. Cannon Beach is my favorite place in the world, it is gorgeous, and I have so many wonderful memories there b/c we went there every year growing up. My parents have actually gone there every year since they got married. It was still beautiful, and while I didn't get to come and go as I pleased this year, my family took care of Emmory a lot so we could still go out and do things, which was sooo nice. I will definitely post pictures when we get back to Greenville. We will be in Seattle until Saturday, then we fly back to Greenville, have a day of laundry and rest, and then drive to Pawley's Island on Monday. We are so thankful to have the opportunity to do so much travelling and have so much vacation time this summer.

Skype

2009-07-21T16:57:00.000-07:00

So the new exciting thing in our house is that we got a camera for our computer so we can communicate with my family via skype, so they can see us (well, lets face it, they really just want to see Emmory, haha :) and we can see them. I am so thankful for modern technology, so that even though we live so far away my family will still be able to see him as he grows. We were talking to my entire family last Friday night while they were all over at my parents house for a BBQ, and Mark snapped a pic of the computer screen which I thought turned out quite good. It ended up being a close up of my moms face, haha, and in the bottom left corner you can even see Mark taking the pic in the box that shows our video.

Here's a pic of Mark and Emmory playing after church one Sunday. I love this outfit that my Mom bought for him, and I love his big happy smile even more!

This is a pic I took this week, all three of my boys together, being very serious. Actually I think they are just watching tv; which we have recently discovered that Emmory loves. One day he was on the couch watching tv with Mark, and then Mark laid him back so he couldn't see the tv anymore and he started to fuss, then when Mark brought him back up so he could see it he stopped.

I took this pic today, E was playing with his play gym and he started batting at the toys above him, then I noticed that he had grabbed hold of one of the toys. He's learning and growing so fast!

We are starting to get very excited for our big trip to the Pacific Northwest. We'll be leaving a week from tomorrow, Wednesday the 29th and flying to Seattle, then the next day we are driving to Cannon Beach, Oregon for vacation with my family. We will probably stay there til Tuesday or Wednesday, then come back to Seattle for a few days and head back to SC on Saturday, August 8th. We can't wait to see my family and spend time with them, and for them to see how much he has grown; and also introduce him to all the extended family who haven't met him yet. But that's not all, when we get back from Seattle we will have one day to recover and then we are heading to Pawley's Island, SC to spend the week at the beach with friends from church. We are excited about this trip too, I've never been to Pawleys Island, and we are going to be staying at a house right at the beach. It's going to be a crazy couple of weeks, and would appriciate your prayers as we travel. I know it will be a little trickier travelling with a baby, but it's important to us to be able to do that so we might as well start him early.

Happy Clemson boys

2009-07-09T16:34:00.001-07:00

2 months

2009-07-08T10:00:00.001-07:00

Here are the two month pics I promised, plus some other recent ones. Some were taken on the 4th of July, as you'll see by E's festive outfit. I was so excited about his outfit because I had bought it at Mark's store (.25 baby!) before he was born and had to guess that would be the size he would be wearing, and I was right! We had a fun 4th, different than ever before of course with a baby, we didn't go watch a big fireworks show like normal, but we went to Mark's parents house to eat some yummy food and hang out, then when they all left to go watch the fireworks show we went home to put Emmory to bed, then right afterwards the neighbors started shooting off fireworks so Mark and I went outside to watch and hang out with them. We sat on the tailgate of his truck, beverages in hand and watched the show, and Emmory didn't even wake up with all the noise. After watching the fireworks we went inside and watched a movie, then went to bed. It ended up being a great day.

Emmory has started doing some new things; yesterday for the first time he grabbed a rattle and started shaking it around, he had a lot of fun with it. He also was able to bat the toys up above him on his bouncy seat. He is getting a little bit better with being able to move those hands where he wants them to go, but still has a lot of progress to make in that area. He still hasn't gotten the thumb thing down perfectly, and he still loves to try and shove his whole hand in his mouth and suck on it, and makes very loud smacking noises. I have a video of him with the rattle, but I can't get it to upload...we may try to get a faster router to see if that will help make uploading things a lot easier.

Emmory's two month appointment went really well, he weighed 13 lbs 11 ozs, and was 24 1/4 inches long...in the 86th percentile for both length and weight. The doctor said he looked really good, and she told us we can put mineral oil on his cradle cap, and that has helped a lot with it. He had to get some shots :( but he did really well with them and wasn't fussy at all afterwards this time, like he was after his first shots at his one month appt. He is currently wearing 3-6 month and 6 month clothing, which I can't believe, and he is still in size 2 diapers but I can tell we are soon going to be moving to size 3. It still blows my mind how fast they grow! It is so fun to watch him grow and change and do new things and interact with us more; he is such a happy boy, he smiles all the time and loves to play; but I do miss that teeny-tiny newborn we brought home from the hospital, I truly can't believe how fast he grew out of that newborn stage. I really need to slow down and just take in every moment with him, because he is changing every moment and I will never have it back...plus the next time I have a baby like this I'll also have toddler running around, so I won't be able to savor and enjoy every moment like I can now.

Okay enough blabbing...here are the pics!

Two month pics

Mark snuck a few pics of E and Tillman while I was sleeping

This is how Mark did his hair after a bath

Snuck in his room and took a pic of him sleeping; this is his typical sleeping pose, arms sprawled back like that

Our two boys

Fourth of July

This is when he grabbed the rattle

Some recent pics

2009-06-24T11:42:00.000-07:00

I started this post a few days ago, but because my computer can be extremely slow at uploading pics, it has taken a while to finish. Today Emmory is two months old, and I had planned on doing another post today with some pics I am going to take today, which I am still going to do, but it may not end up happening today, but hopefully soon. But here are some recent pics of him, taken around 8 weeks old. Recently, he has really been into his hands. He loves to play with them, and he brings them to his mouth a lot. I would watch him very intently when he was doing this to see if a thumb or finger would make it into his mouth, but he would always pull his hands away before it could get all the way in and he could start sucking. Well, earlier this week, he got his entire thumb in his mouth for the first time and started sucking! It was still kind of akward because he doesn't quite know what to do with his fingers when his thumb is in his mouth, so I guess that will be the next step. I was able to sneak in his room when he was settling in for a nap and get a pic of him with his thumb in his mouth, unfortunately you can't actually see his mouth because his head is turned the other way, but at least I got something!
We celebrated Mark's first Father's Day on Sunday, and it was a fun day. We went to Mark's parents house and had lunch with his family, then went to church, then came back to our house to have our lil family celebration. I made BBQ salmon, asparagus, and brownies, we ate and then Emmory and I gave Mark his cards and present.

Here are some pics of a lil photo shoot of Emmory and Mark on the bed...

Here are some pics I took while we were playing with some rattles. He still doesn't grab the rattle yet, still waiting for that milestone!

Father's Day pics...

I thought these jammies were so cute on him!

I especially loved the pants.

Here are the thumb-sucking pics!

Day at the lake

2009-06-20T08:30:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday Mark, Emmory and I went with my mother-in-law to spend the day at Lake Jocassee, where my brother & father-in-law were camping. We were slightly hesitant to go, since we weren't exactly sure how a 7 week old would do at the lake, but we finally decided to just go for it. We figured if it goes really bad, it's just an hour forty-five minute drive back home and we can leave. Well, thankfully lil E did so well, he was perfectly content in his pack n play and ended up playing and sleeping in there the whole time. Mark and I even got to do some kyaking, which was a lot of fun. Here are some pics of the trip.

Mark took Tillman out on a kayak ride...notice the lifejacket, that's right our dog LOVES the water, but he is not built for it and could drown himself if he didn't have it on.

Swim water dog, swim!

The lake was beautiful, with the hills in the background. In SC they are considered mountains, but I consider them hills...if you wanna see a mountain come to WA :)

E sleeping in the pack n play

E playing in the pack n play

We put him inside the tent where it was a lil quieter and shaded

About to go for a ride

Tillman is a lucky dog, my mother-in-law took him out too

Off I go

Pretty

The many faces of Mark...

...

...

Finally a good one!

Taking care of my boy

My father-in-law taking in the scenery. It was such a great campsite, right on the lake.

Septtro making a fire, with Suka's help of course

Photo shoot sneak peek

2009-06-14T15:49:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday we took Emmory to get some pics of us and him, I was so excited for the opportunity to do this, it is something that I really wanted to do but didn't really know where to go to get it done, or anybody who could do it for us. Well, one day my mother in law called me up to ask me if we would be interested in getting pics done of Emmory, she knew someone through my sister-in-law that has a photography business. It worked out so well, the couple that did the photos were super nice and very talented...and they have a few sneak peak pics up on their blog if you wanna go look at them here

6 weeks and Mark's bday

2009-06-10T13:50:00.000-07:00

This Sunday, June 7th, Emmory turned six weeks old. We took him to church for the third Sunday, but we put him in the nursery this time, since the last two weeks we took him one of us ended up having to take him downstairs at some point, and Mark was preaching this Sunday and I really wanted to be able to hear him with no interruptions. Well, of course the day we put him in the nursery he slept the entire time! Here are some recent pics of him, taken right around 6 weeks.

On his changing table...this is a great place to get pics of him because he loves his changing table. He loves getting his diaper changed and he loves to look around. Our boy really enjoys being naked...we think it's because we used to take his clothes off to eat when he was younger and sleepy.

On Saturday we got out his baby einstein play gym, and he loved it. He just loves to look at things and listen to the music. He was also able to hit a few of the toys hanging above him.

The following pics were taken on Sunday right before we left for church...see he was even sleeping before church too. He is exactly six weeks in these pics.

Emmory and I did a little photo shoot on the chair, wearing his basketball outfit that Namma (my mom) bought him, because everybody was buying him all baseball stuff. He is a very active little boy, loves to move those arms and legs, the last shot is an action shot. He also is smiling A LOT now, and his smiles are getting really big, he opens his mouth really wide it is the cutest thing. I was able to get a shot of him smiling in the second picture.

Mark's birthday was Monday, June 8th. To celebrate he chose to go to Quaker Steak and lube for his birthday dinner, a place that is famous for their wings. Of course Mark never cooperates for pictures.

Finally got him to smile

This is what Emmory did the first part of the dinner. He takes a new paci now, and he is able to keep it in all by himself which is really nice.

A pic outside the restaurant

We took a family pic outside the restaurant in front of a Nascar car

Emmory in his swing back at home. We had strawberry pie for dessert, per Mark's request.

Daddy and son on his birthday, aren't they the two cutest boys you've ever seen :)

The next day, having some playtime with Mommy. He loves his little cow toy.

He also loves to stick out his tongue

I think he's getting tired here.

My labor story

2009-06-01T10:46:00.000-07:00

It has been five weeks (as of last Sunday) since I gave birth to Emmory, and I realized that I haven't recorded the story yet of how it all happened. Everybody knows that every mama loves to share her labor story, and I wanted to write mine down before I forget things about it, because there are probably things I have already forgotten (which may be a good thing, haha). So...mine begins on April 24th, 2009, it is a Friday and Mark has a baseball game in Landrum that night, so my mom, mom-in-law, and I decide to go up there a little early to look around the town, because I had heard it was a cute little town with cute little shops. Before we left, I had a fairly big nesting spurt, I was dusting everything in our bedroom, moving the furniture around, getting underneath the bed, etc (I was concerned about our room because that is where E was going to be sleeping at first), and then after we got back, at ten or eleven at night, I was back to cleaning. All afternoon while we were in Landrum I was having fairly frequent braxton hicks contractions, I could feel my uterus tighten and harden much more often than I ever had before, and it continued during the game. Later that night after we made it back from the game without me going into labor, and after I had stopped cleaning (by my husbands request) Mark and I were sitting on the couch and I told him I was going to go into labor during the night. Now I am definitely not one of those people that gets those "gut feelings" and then are convinced that is the way it is going to be, I didn't even have a guess as to whether Emmory was going to be a boy or girl, but for whatever reason I just knew I was going to go into labor (actually I guess the reason was the events described above). Mark laughed and when he went to bed he told me, sarcastically, "wake me up when you start having contractions". I could not sleep and laid on the couch watching tv, and from about 12-2 Emmory was moving around inside of me non-stop like crazy, he had never moved that much for that extended period of time before. I finally got tired enough to go to bed, however I was restless all night; I just felt strange. Then, at some point in the early morning I started to feel something, but I tried to ignore it and keep sleeping. However I couldn't ignore it for too long, and at 7:28am when I felt what I thought was a contraction, I looked at the clock to see what time it was, laid back down, and waited for it to happen again. I felt it again, looked at the clock, and it was 7:38. This happened two more times, each time ten minutes apart, so I sat up and woke Mark up and told him. I was soo hopeful that this was the real thing, because I was scheduled to be induced that next Tuesday morning and I really wanted it to happen on its own. I didn't want to get too excited though in case it wasn't what I thought it was. However the contractions kept coming at regular intervals, so we started to prepare for it being the real thing. Mark left to take care of a few quick errands he needed to, I woke my mom up and told her, did some laundry and other tidying up, and tried to eat and relax. At some point during the day the contractions got a little closer together, but then the got farther apart again, although when they got farther apart they got stronger. Meanwhile my mom had packed food for herself and Mark for the hospital, and packed a bag for herself to bring, and set it all by the door. I mention this because I will always remember us getting ready, thinking we were going to be going to the hospital soon, at least in a few hours, but that is not what happened. The contractions just would not get closer together, and time kept ticking by. Finally around 5pm Mark and I decided to go for a walk (our 2nd of the day) and the contractions got closer together, about 6 minutes apart, and stronger. When we got back I decided to go out to the backyard and keep walking around, because I did not want the contractions to slow back down again. I walked around in the shade (it was pretty hot that day), and then when I would have a contraction I would sit in the rocking chair and rock, and txt Mark and let him know. He was at the computer timing the contractions, and after doing that for about an hour, they were 5 mintues apart the entire time, finally we could go to the hospital! We left at 6:30pm, totally excited that this was finally going to happen after waiting all day! When we got to the hospital and the nurse checked me to see how dilated I was, I was only 3cm. I was very discouraged because I thought, if it took this long to dilate three cm, this is going to take forever! Well it turns out I was right. The doctor decided to admit me, but the labor just continued to progress really slowly. I don't think being stuck in a hospital bed with the annoying fetal moniter strapped around me helped, thankfully I convinced them to let me move around in the room every once in a while, and every so often the nurse would come in and have me get hooked back up to the moniter to check Emmory's heartrate. When I was able to move around I got to sit in a rocking chair when I would have a contraction, which for whatever reason was the most helpful way for me to cope with the contractions. When I got checked again, I think around 11 or 12 that night, I was only 4cm. The nurse told me that the doctor planned to start me on pitocin the next morning, and that I should try and get some rest because it was going to be a very long day tomorrow. She suggested I take a sleeping pill, which I was hesitant about, but Mark thought it would be a good idea, so I ended up doing it. The sleeping pill did help me relax a little and I was able to sleep for a few hours, I would just wake up during each contraction, then doze off in between. At some point during the night the contractions got too strong for me to be able to sleep through, and thankfully during that time I got a new nurse (the first nurse I had was neither helpful nor friendly, and she blew out my vein when she put in my IV, but that's another story) and she was very helpful and told me if I wanted I could move the rocking chair next to the fetal moniter so that I could sit there the entire time without having to get back in the bed. I labored in the rocking chair for a while, and then at 6am the nurse checked me, and I was 7cm! She told me she could ask the doctor if he would let me not get the pitocin if I didn't want it, since I was 7cm. I didn't want it so she asked and he said I didn't have to have it. A few more hours passed and the doctor came in to check me, and I was 8cm. He also broke my water as it hadn't broken on its own. A few more hours passed, it was around 11am now, the contractions were very frequent and intense, I had been feeling it in my lower abdomen, around my back, and down my thighs the whole time, and I was definitely very, very tired and worn out. I made it the whole time up to this point without any pain meds, my husband was an incredible coach and the breathing really did help get me through it. Suddenly, with one of the contractions, I felt the urge to push. The nurse saw my face during it and knew that's what was going on, so she came over and checked me. When I felt the urge to push I was so relieved, I thought, I've finally made it! Well, when she checked me, I was still only 8-9 cm. At that point I lost it mentally. I had labored in transition for over two hours and hadn't even dilated 1 cm. At this point I really wanted an epidural. I decided to wait it out a few more contractions just to make sure things didn't progress really fast, as after the nurse checked me she had me empty my bladder because I hadn't in a very long time. While I waited it out I had them start the fluids for the epidural in case I decided to get one, so I wouldn't have to wait a long time once I decided to. Once I got the needed fluids in me, I still didn't have the urge to push again, so I got the epidural. This was definitely one of the hardest parts of the labor, because in order to get the epidural I had to sit up on the edge of the bed and be completely still the entire time, while I am having intense contractions that are basically one on top of the other...not an easy thing to do. I basically had to blow air out of my mouth to keep myself still while a needle was going through my back that could possibly paralyze me if I moved. Thankfully it went well, I didn't move nor get paralyzed, and the epidural worked really fast, once I laid back down I didn't feel another ounce of pain, and it was the most wonderful thing in the world! However I did end up getting nauscious and throwing up twice during the rest of the labor, I'm not sure if it was from the epidural or from the labor, because they say nausea is a sign of being in transition. Anyways, the labor continued to progress slowly after getting the epidural, (big surprise there), and after a few more hours the nurse started me on pitocin so I could get to 10 cm and push this baby out already. She was really nice and gave me the most she could in the fastest time she could, because she knew it had been a LONG couple of days for us. Finally, 3 hours after getting the epidural, I was 10cm and was able to start pushing. I was so thankful for having the epidural because with the high dose of pitocin I was having MONSTER contractions, but I had no clue unless I was looking at the moniter. Once I was able to start pushing I was determined that I was going to push this baby out as fast as I could, since this was the one thing about the labor that I could kind of control, and everything else had taken forever. Thankfully, the time between the first push with the nurse and when the doctor caught Emmory was only 30 minutes, the only part of the labor that went faster than the average first time childbirth. Emmory William Steenback was born at 2:20 pm on April 26th, weighing 7 lbs 12 ozs, 21 1/2 inches long. It was definitely one of the most exhausting, painful experiences of my life, however it was also THE MOST incredible, amazing experience of my life. And for those of you who have not yet experienced this but are going to in the future, this may make you feel better...a few days after Emmory's birth I was wearing a tshirt from college from my basketball team that said "I survived The Master's College woman's basketball preseason conditioning", and my dad commented that now I need a shirt that says, "I survived labor and delivery"; I stopped to think about it and said, "actually I'd rather go through labor and delivery again than preseason." I think that would make my basketball coach feel good too, haha.
Well that's it...whew this ended up being long, but hey that should be expected when the labor is 31 hours long!

One month

2009-05-27T10:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Emmory turned one month old. I know that isn't very much time, but I still can't believe he is already that old. The sentimental mama in me keeps thinking, only 11 more of these until he is one, wow, I really need to cherish this time with him. He has already changed so much, he is not the same baby I brought home from the hospital, he really doesn't seem like a newborn anymore. It's definitely been a challenge to cherish the time with him this past month when I feel like I've been in a fog....learning to breastfeed, getting little, broken sleep, just getting the hang of being a mom and having a child to take care of 24-7...I've realized I need to stop focusing on just getting to the point where he is sleeping through the night, and just enjoy him. And he is so enjoyable, he is the most amazing, precious gift and I am so in love with him. I started to compile a list of the things I love about him so far...
I love...
-The way you stare at me with your eyes wide open when I am holding you and talking to you
-The way you reach up and touch my face when I am talking to you
-When you grab my hair
-Your sweet smile
-Your double chin
-The little noises you make when you are ready to eat
-The way you coo when we are laying down playing with your little cow
-How you are the most happy when you are naked
-The face you make when you are on the changing table looking up at me
-The loud noises you make when you eat or suck on your paci
-How you stare at the mobile when you are in your swing
-Your little complaining noises when you are in your bed by yourself falling asleep
-How you love getting a bath and having the water run down your head
-The birthmark on your leg
-How you love to stick out your tongue
-Your precious, smooshed, peaceful face when you are sleeping on your daddy's chest
-The way you bob your head when you are rooting for food
-The way you flail your arms and legs when you are having your alert awake time
-Your dark spiky hair, that you got from me
-Your milk tongue
-The way you smell
-How soft your skin is

Weeks 1-3

2009-05-22T20:31:00.000-07:00

Here are a few (yes, there are only a few compared to the amount of pictures I had to narrow it down from) pics of the first 3 weeks of Emmory's life. He'll already be one month old this coming Tuesday, so hard to believe! There are way too many pics for me to have time to write captions on all of them right now, so just enjoy the pics!

Emmory's stats

2009-05-11T14:42:00.000-07:00

I forgot to put this on the last post...

Emmory William Steenback

Born April 26, 2009 at 2:20 pm

7 lbs 12 ozs, 21 1/2 inches long

The second love of my life

2009-05-02T13:31:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics of the day Emmory was born and the two days following in the hospital

Mark said he was going to take progression pics throughout the labor...however this was the first and last one he took haha

This was taken the next day after we got to the hospital...the labor lasted 31 hours, and we were at the hospital for 20 hours of it. Whew!

Mark seeing Emmory for the first time

Myself seeing Emmory for the first time

Our lil boy got a scored a 10 on the apgar scale...we were so proud :)

Holding him for the first time

My absolute favorite picture in the world, I will never forget this moment when they first laid him on me and those lil eyes were just staring at me

Proud daddy

Proud Grandma (my mom)

Proud Grandma (Mark's mom)

Me and my sweet baby boy

The grandparents

Aunt Susan

Of course Mark is goofing off even in the delivery room

Aww look at that face

In daddy's arms

Apparently labor was hard on Mark too...haha j/k he was an incredible coach and support I never would have made it without him

Daddy's hand on his boy

All swaddled up

On his tummy

Mama and son

Daddy and son

Emmory has the most amazing daddy...he helps feed him, change him, burp him, dress him, swaddle him, etc etc.

Can't hold him enough

In his going home outfit

It was quite a process to get him all dressed and he did so well

Grandpa flew in the day after he was born to see him

The lactation consultant at the hospital gave Mark the golden nipple award, she gave him an actual award because he said the breastfeeding session we were going to have was more important than having Emmory's picture taken by the photographer

Getting ready to go home

All snuggled in his car seat

Leaving our room

Leaving the hospital

In front of the car, you can see Emmory in his car seat in the background

More pics to come...

Waiting...

2009-04-25T12:38:00.001-07:00

So I woke up this morning with contractions, they were fairly mild and short, and pretty consistently ten minutes apart. I have continued to have them all afternoon, and they are definitely getting stronger and longer, but they are not getting closer together yet. I was told by the nurse not to go to the hospital til they are 5 minutes apart for at least 30 minutes....so now I wait. There was a period of time where they were around 7 minutes apart, but then when they got even stronger and longer they went back to ten minutes apart.....ugh. It is definitely taking FOREVER for this first phase to end and to get to active labor, we are going on 8 hours now. I'm defintely having to learn to be patient, and hoping they start to get closer together soon so we can go to the hospital and get this baby out!

Due date pics

2009-04-22T19:10:00.001-07:00

Well today is Emmory's due date and so far he hasn't shown...and since it's only the 22nd for two more hours it is extremely doubtful that he will. After taking some pics of the nursery we decided to take some pis of us to mark this special day, even though his real birthday will be the real special day. You can also see that I have gotten quite large, there is no more room in my belly so it's good that he will be out of there very soon. Of course it took a few pics before we got a real smile from Mark, he isn't a big fan of pictures but for some reason the way he shows that is being difficult for them, which ends up prolonging the process for him which doesn't make much sense to me, but he has a good time doing it :) And we had to get a few pics with our "baby" for a few more days, poor lil Tillman's life is going to be changing any day now, so I hope he is soaking up all the attention now.

Before/After

2009-04-22T19:02:00.000-07:00

This is the closet in our office turned nursery before, when the room was our office....

And this is the closet now, after clearing it out and organizing all of Emmory's things in it.....

Just thought I would share because it was quite the project!

Nursery pics

2009-04-22T18:45:00.000-07:00

Finally, the nursery is completely done!!! It has pretty much been done for a while but there were a few finishing touches I was waiting on, and now it's completely ready. It feels soo good to have it 100% ready, now he can really be born :) I'm really happy with it, I would have loved to be able to add more decor and such but I did what I could with what I had to work with and I really like the way it turned out.

One more week!!!

2009-04-21T14:50:00.000-07:00

I had my last dr appt today. Tomorrow is April 22nd, the day I've been repeating in my head and to others over and over again for the last nine (ten) months, and it is now finally here! I can't believe it! At my exam this time there was a slight change since last week, I dilated a "fingertip" since then; how much that is I'm really not too sure. The dr. said my cervix was still pretty far back, but I was just excited to hear that at least something had happened in the last week. She asked what I wanted to do, whether I wanted to go ahead and be induced or wait longer. After discussing the options, I decided I definitely wanted to wait through the weekend to see if I go into labor on my own, because it's usually a lil easier, and she said it would probably be a long inducement if we did it now because of the way my cervix is. We did set up a day for me to go to the hospital if it doesn't happen on its own though, I'll go in this next Monday night, and be induced Tuesday morning (the 28th). That means that I'll be holding lil Emmory in one week from today at the longest!!! I'm not excited about being induced and I really hope that I go into labor before then, but I definitely don't want to wait any longer than 41 weeks, and the doctors don't want me to either. If I do go into labor before then I'll try and have my mom put up an update on my blog so that at least everyone will know that it happened. We've been having a great time together going shopping and eating lunch out, just enjoying the time before everything gets crazy and we can't do those things anymore (for a while anyways). So I'm so thankful that Emmory has been stubborn up to this point, but now I hope he decides to show up on his own, before he is forced out!

39 weeks

2009-04-14T14:07:00.000-07:00

Well I changed the name of my blog just in case you didn't notice, not that it really matters what it's called but I thought the name was appropriate, I am already outnumbered and am about to be outnumbered even more when Emmory is born...but I love boys and it is fun to be able to say that. I think Mark still counts as a boy even though he is grown...any of you who know him know that he is still very young at heart and likes to do boy things, and I am confident that especially when Emmory is a little bigger, it will be like having two boys around the house :) I know they are going to have so much fun together going fishing, camping, playing sports, and things like that, and it makes me happy to think about and look forward to that.
There really isn't much to update this week, I had my appointment this morning and still nothing had changed. The doctor said that is not uncommon, and he's definitely not saying that my cervix is so unfavorable that we need to start talking about inducement; I'll go back next week and we'll see if anything has changed then. He did say they won't let me go past 41 weeks though, so I'm really hoping he comes before then because I do not want to be induced. I don't quite understand the need for that anyways, I mean I do if there is a danger in continuing the pregnancy, but if everything is going along fine then possibly the due date was just off and the baby isn't really late at all and will come when it is the right time...at least that's the way I look at it, but I know they are professionals and know what they are doing so I'll just have to trust them. I continue to be thankful that I can trust the sovereignty of God in this situation, along with every situation in life, it is a HUGE comfort, I don't have to worry or wonder because it's all in His hands.
My mom gets here tomorrow! It definitely looks like she'll arrive before Emmory does, which I am very thankful for! And it looks like we'll have some time to spend together and do some things before he gets here, so that will be nice as well because I know it won't quite be the same once he's born, I definitely won't have the freedom and flexibility that I have now. I can't wait to be able to take him places with us though, I'm not sure if I've mentioned on here before or not but we have a busy summer planned for our little family and I am so excited about it, at the end of July we are flying to Seattle, and then driving to Cannon Beach, Oregon for vacation with my family. Cannon Beach is my favorite place in the world and I can't wait to take Emmory there, and I'm so glad he'll be able to meet my relatives so soon after he's born. Then after we get back from Seattle we are going to the opposite coast, to Pawley's Island, SC with some friends from church. It will definitely be crazy travelling like that with an infant but I'm so glad we are doing it, as long as we live here we are going to be travelling back and forth a lot so we might as well get used to it right off the bat, and hopefully starting Emmory early will just make it second nature for him.

38 weeks

2009-04-09T18:57:00.000-07:00

This week marked the beginning of my 38th week of pregnancy, it's so hard to believe there are only two more weeks til the due date. I'm not sure why it's so hard to believe though because I honestly feel like I have been pregnant for a VERY long time, it's hard to even remember what it's like to not be pregnant, and I look forward to being reminded very soon! I'm definitely ready to not be pregnant anymore, but at the same time I don't want him to come before my mom gets here next Wednesday, and there are still things on my "to do" list that I want to get done before he comes...I guess it's just the nesting instinct that makes me feel like I have to have all these things accomplished and ready before he gets here, because honestly there isn't anything left to be done that REALLY has to be done before his arrival. I had my checkup on Tuesday this week and they checked my cervix again this time...and everything was still the exact same as two weeks ago, 50% thinned and that's all. That made me feel pretty calm about having time to accomplish more things, and about the chances of him being born before my mom got here. I'm probably the only pregnant woman near the end of the pregnancy who is relieved to hear she hasn't started to dilate at all. The dr. said again that she thought he would probably be born closer to the due date, not early. However I know that anything CAN happen at any time, he's going to be born whenever God has planned for him to be born regardless of what any doctor says. Yesterday was a great day, Mark surprised me by taking the day off, he needed a break because he has been going non-stop so much lately, and last week was especially busy as he had games almost every night and all day Saturday and he preached in church on Sunday, and he wanted to spend the day with me. It was a beautiful day and we took Tillman (our boston terrier) to the park downtown and just walked around and hung out down there. Here are some pics of our time at the park and of my 38 week pregnant self.

Falls Park, downtown Greenville

Mark and Tillman

Tillman finally stood still and looked at the camera

Trying to get Tillman to look

38 weeks!

Baby belly pics....finally

2009-03-27T18:45:00.001-07:00

So I finally uploaded some of the belly pics I've taken over the course of the pregnancy and took a recent one, so my family can see what I look like now with my big belly as requested. Enjoy!

15 weeks

24 weeks

31 weeks

31 weeks

36 weeks

First exam

2009-03-24T18:54:00.001-07:00

So I had my first exam at my 36 week appointment this week...I was very excited for this, for the possibility of having made some progress, and the fact that it means we are really in the home stretch! I hadn't dilated at all, still closed shut, and the dr said I'd probably be pregnant for at least another 3 weeks, which I was actually glad to hear because I really don't want him to come too early. He said I had started to thin out, about 50%, so I guess that's something.
When I had an exam in the very beginning of the pregnancy, around 12 weeks, the doctor told me that I had a "tight" bone, and that at 36 weeks they would check me to see if it had stretched at all. Well apparently it stretched because this time the doctor said my pelvic bones were normal and I have just as good a chance as the average person for him to fit through there...that was good to hear. I also asked him if he could tell how big he was, and he said he was probably just under 6 pounds now, and would probably be 7 pounds and change when he's born....of course he said not to hold him to that because it's obviously not that easy to tell, but that was his educated guess.
Emmory's nursery is really coming along, it's all painted and all the funiture is up and in its place. I've started washing his clothes and other misc. items and organizing them, and I still have to finish that up and then get the finishing decorative touches up. I'll definitely post pictures when it's all done...it feels so good to know how close that is to being done. I'm also going to be getting my hospital bag ready, Mark wants me to have that packed by the end of this week...I thought it was so cute that he wanted me to get that done.
This is all so exciting and scary at the same time...I'm so thankful for our son and cannot wait to see him for the first time, which is the exciting part, but I know I am about to embark into the unknown in so many different ways, which is the scary part. I just pray for God's grace for me to be a godly wife and mom, and handle all of this new change in a way that glorifies Him.

The unexplainable pregnant body

2009-03-18T08:54:00.000-07:00

My doctor appt on Monday went well, my blood pressure and urine were good, heartbeat and measurements were all good, and the results from the gall bladder u/s were all normal, no gallstones. It is such a good thing that there are no gallstones, but that still leaves the elevated liver levels unexplained. The doctor was not concerned at all though, and he said I didn't need to come back before my weekly appt unless I started to feel bad. I have been feeling good this entire time, the only thing that doesn't feel good is the pain in my upper abdomen, it hasn't been even close to as bad as it was that one morning, but it does still come and go. I think the best explanation for all of this is something a friend said in an email, the pregnant body just does crazy things that often cannot be explained. That is so true! Only five more weeks to go though, I am 35 weeks this week! Mark and I just cannot wait for him to be here, I think one of the biggest things that I am so excited about for him to get here is that it will be so much more real for Mark and he will be able to experience everything the exact same way as me, rather than now where it's my body that is feeling everything and changing. I can't wait to truly be able to enjoy him together, as a family, and I can't wait to see the look on his face the moment he lays eyes on his son. What an amazing, life-changing moment that will be.

Since last Friday...

2009-03-14T18:51:00.000-07:00

A lot has happened in the last week since I experienced that pain last Friday. I ended up going to my family practice doctor that afternoon because the pain came back again, and my OB closes at noon on Fridays. Mark wanted me to see a doctor and made me an appt...I was there for almost two hours, the doctor checked me over and said everything looked and felt fine, but she had me get some bloodwork done just to be on the cautious side. My blood pressure was slightly high (which the nurse said was probably just from being anxious about everything that had happened that day) and I had a slight fever, which they never really explained. The doctor thought the pain was probably from my abdominal wall seperating with all the stretching that is going on in there, but said they would call the next week when they got the bloodwork results. Tuesday morning I got a message from them that said they were concerned about some of the results and wanted me to call them, but didn't give any info at all as to what was concerning and what could possibly be wrong...not exactly the best kind of message to leave for a pregnant woman but oh well, more sanctification opportunity there :) I called them back and they said some of my levels were elevated, and that they were going to fax the results to my OB and have them call me. I finally talked to the OB nurse later that afternoon, and she told me that my kidney enzyme levels were slightly elevated, but it was nothing alarming and that actually can be normal during a pregnancy. She asked me some questions to make sure I didn't have any other symptoms of preeclampsia, because high blood pressure and the elevated levels are two symptoms of that, but I didn't have any of the others, such as protein in the urine and severe swelling. She said there was no reason for me to come in right away, just come to the appt I already had on Thursday. At that appt my blood pressure was normal, and still no protein in the urine, but the doctor wanted me to have the blood work repeated again to see if it had changed over the week, so he sent me to the hospital to have it done so the results would come back that day in order to avoid having to work around the weekend. The nurse called me later that day and told me the results came back and they looked fine, so they wanted me to have a gallbadder ultrasound to see if the elevated levels and pain were a result of gall stones. So I had the ultrasound that next morning, yesterday, and hopefully will find out the results of that the beginning of this week. I'm going back to the OB on Monday because as a precaution they want to keep a close eye on me to make sure my blood pressure stays normal, so hopefully I'll have some answers by the appt.
I keep thinking in my head that I've had the most uncomplicated complicated pregnancy...no that wasn't a typo what I mean is there have been a lot of extra things that have come up and I've had to have checked out or had further testing and bloodwork for, but so far each of those further tests has turned out to be normal and not a pregnancy complication (being Rh negative, fifths disease exposure, failing first glucose test, etc) I am so thankful that everything has been fine up to this point, and I'm thankful that I know Emmory is doing well in there right now and still moving and growing like he should be. Even if I do have a gall bladder problem, it won't affect him and they won't even deal with it until after he is born because I am so late in the pregnancy. Yes I would probably have to have surgery to have it removed sometime after he's born, but there are a LOT worse things to have to deal with than that.
I'll try and write an update as soon as I get the results from the ultrasound, which will hopefully be Monday!

The worst pain of my life...

2009-03-06T07:54:00.001-08:00

Okay so it probably wasn't the worst pain of my life, but definitely the worst of the pregnancy so far. I woke up this morning after sleeping in my chair all night (my mom and dad-in law were so very gracious to lend me one of their special back-saving chairs to put in our bedroom for me to sleep in if need be) and moved to the bed to get a little more comfortable because while sleeping in a chair is the best thing when food is constantly coming up my throat, it's not always so great on my neck and the rest of my body when I wake up the next morning...so anyways as soon as I laid down in bed and turned over I got a really sharp, burning pain on my right side, the same area that has been sore because of that sweet little boy inside of me. I immediately tried changing position but it just kept getting worse, so I stumbled out to the living room to be next to Mark in case I ended up collapsing and dying or something like that. The pain just would not go away, it was extremely intense and for some odd reason the only thing that I felt might make it better was putting an ice pack on the area, I think because of the burning sensation. However I did refrain from doing that because I figured it probably really wouldn't help. After about half an hour or so the pain finally did get better, it still hurts now but not with the same intensity as before. I still really have no idea what it was or what caused it...I called the nurse this morning in desperation to find something I could do to make it better or at least to be reassured that it wouldn't last forever and it wasn't anything to be concerned about. When she called me back it had already gotten better, and she said she honestly didn't know exactly what would have caused that, she said it was probably either because I slept wrong or maybe because I am bruised from the baby, but that as long as it did get better that it should be fine. She said to call back if it happens again, and especially if I have trouble breathing or anything like that. I didn't have any trouble breathing while I was in pain, but I did feel like I could throw up...that was probably just a result of the pain though. I am just praying that it doesn't happen again, and that I am still able to enjoy my massage today because it is too late to change the appointment. Hopefully I'll be able to find a comfortable position to be in.

8 months

2009-02-28T20:43:00.000-08:00

As of this past Tuesday I am in my eighth month of the pregnancy! 32 weeks, woohoo! Only two more months to go (which to me seems like that makes the average pregnancy last 10 months, not 9, but oh well). I had another checkup on Wednesday that went well, and this doctor also agreed with the last doctor I saw that there isn't any medicine that can make my food not come up, so I have just accepted this as a normal part of my life and am moving on...only two more months I can definitely put up with it for that short amount of time. I also had another blood draw because apparently the hospitals have a new rule that if the mom hasn't been tested for HIV, then when the baby is born they will do unnecessary testing on the baby in the hospital, which I wanted to spare Emmory from having to go through.
I have been experiencing a few new discomforts, the first being pain around the rib cage area. Emmory has found a nice little spot for his foot in my right ribcage, and he is continually either kicking me there or lodging his foot in there to stay. It is definitely sore and feels like I was involved in a punching match. I told the doctor about it because I wanted to see if he could tell what part of his body was where, and he confirmed that his head is down low, which is why I often feel pressure down there, and a foot is in the exact spot where I am sore. He said it could vary whether it's a foot or his little bottom that is pressing up against that area since he does move around, but that it's definitely something from the waist down.
I think that one of the coolest things about my belly getting bigger, and Emmory getting bigger, is that I can actually feel him inside of me from the outside, and I can see parts of his body roll across my belly. It's not to the point where I can actually distinguish which body part it is, but I can definitely tell that it's him. And even though it is causing more and more discomfort, I love feeling his movements change and get stronger and being able to tell that he is growing in there, it's almost like I am able to experience some of his development in there...my little boy is growing up :)
The second new discomfort I'm experiencing is back pain. It's nothing really sharp or excruciating, but I just have a constant discomfort and it doesn't matter what position I sit or lay in, it still hurts. Maybe it's because I have bad posture, and with the weight I'm carrying up front now I am experiencing the effects of that bad posture....maybe it's simply just because of the extra weight up front and there is nothing I can do about it, I'm not sure. Last night I did ask Mark if he would massage that area and that did help relieve the pain enough so I could fall asleep in a comfortable position, so maybe I just need to be pampered every day :) I am very excited because I was given a gift certificate to a new spa downtown for a prenatal massage and I'm going to use it this coming week I think, so that will be a really, really nice treat. The last time I had a massage it was the most relaxing experience I've ever had, and I'm hoping that it will also help relieve some of these discomforts I've been experiencing.
As of tonight I have started work on the nursery, I cleared out the bookcase that was in there and moved it into the guestroom, and I put the glider rocker in its place. At the shower I had last Saturday my mom and sister in law gave me the cushions that I wanted for the rocker, and I love the way they turned out! I hope to take pictures of the progess I make as I clear everything non-baby out of the nursery/office, and organize all the baby stuff in its place. I am so excited for it all to come together!

Hiccups and such

2009-02-16T07:54:00.001-08:00

I really don't feel like recently there has been a whole lot to write about...I've been going to the doctor every 2 weeks now and the checkups are all just routine, which is a good thing because if it wasn't routine that means the doctor notices something that is out of the ordinary that he wants to check out. So thankfully all of mine up to this point have been routine, I've always measured right on schedule and his heartbeat has always been strong. It has definitely slowed down since that very first sweet time we heard it, when it was in the 180's-wow!, at my checkup last week it was in the 140's. So I won't be having any more ultrasounds unless they find a reason to do one...I really want to see him again, but just keep telling myself it's a good thing if I don't get to see him again until he is born, it would mean everything looks good and they don't see any problems. I also found out that there pretty much isn't another acid reflux medicine I can take that will work any differently than the Prilosec I'm taking now. She told me progesterone causes the sphincter, which is supposed to stop food from coming back up, to relax and basically not function like it is supposed to, so the only solution to that is to get the progesterone out of me, which will happen in approx. 9 weeks, give or take a few of course :) So sleep has been difficult, I am extremely tired at night but that doesn't mean that I'm going to be able to fall asleep. It doesn't seem to matter whether I eat like they say you are supposed to when you have problems with reflux or not, my food still comes up either way.
One new thing that happened last week was Emmory got the hiccups for the first time! I started to feel this regular little spasm in my belly, and it finally dawned on me that it was most likely hiccups. I've felt it three more different times since then, one time when Mark was with me so he was able to feel them too. It was pretty neat.
In the last week I feel like my belly has doubled in size...it just seems so much bigger, and I've been having some occasional discomfort in my lower abdomen, nothing major just an achy, crampy feeling which I know is a result from everything being stretched so much down there. Emmory has definitely been stretching a lot too, I can simultaneously feel him digging into my ribs and sitting on my bladder at the same time. Sometimes when I stand up I feel so much pressure and have to go to the bathroom immediately...and often times after I go I still feel like I have to go...he is definitely growing and I'm sure beginning to run out of room in there.
Lately I have been feeling overwhelmed and panicked that somehow Emmory's room isn't going to be ready before he gets here. Right now the nursery consists of our office with a bunch of baby stuff shoved in a corner. His crib is up and put together, and his bassinet is put together also, which I know is all that really matters because he's going to be sleeping with us in his bassinet for probably the first 3 months of his life, so his room really doesn't need to be ready when he gets here, but for some reason that just doesn't register with me, all I can think is, "I want it done and I want it done now!" I probably won't be working much longer so that will give me a lot of time to be home working on the room and the other little projects around the house that I want to accomplish before he gets here, so that will be nice. I just can't wait til the room is blue and everything is set up the way it's going to be and I can go in there and just know "this is my baby's room", and I can sit in there and imagine what it's going to be like having him here...I don't know for some reason it just makes it more real if we have his room all ready, that there is a room in our house that is his and only his.
So that's what has been going on and been on my mind lately. Oh, and I'm having a baby shower this Saturday. Jesslyn, Cydney and Audrey's mom (the girls I nanny for) is throwing me one at her house, so I'm really excited about that, it was so sweet of her to want to do something for me. Hopefully I'll be able to update my blog with some pics soon, I have a lot that I have been wanting to put up here for a while now, I just need to remember to have Mark help me with it.

2nd time's a charm

2009-02-06T06:15:00.000-08:00

Well the dreaded 3 hr glucose tolerance test is now behind me, and I am so glad! I was at the lab Wednesday morning from 8:15 am til 11:45, and that 3 and a half hours felt very long. After waiting a little bit in the waiting room the nurse brought me back and took my blood, then I had to drink a horribly sweet drink (twice as sweet as the one in the doctors office the first time) in five minutes, then wait an hour and have my blood drawn again. From the time I was halfway finished with the drink until the one hour blood draw I felt very sick and weak, the nurse told me that if I felt sick or wierd at all to come and tell her, so after a while when I really thought I was gonna lose it I went out and asked her if she knew of any tricks to make it better, she said the only thing I could do was take tiny sips of water, and also that if I threw up I would have to come back another day and start all over. Well great! That is the absolute last thing I wanted to do, so with every ounce of willpower in me and lots of prayer, I managed to keep it down. After I made it to the 1 hour blood draw I started to feel better, still didn't feel great but not as nauscious. I had two more blood draws every hour, and I made it to the very last one! And I found out from the dr office yesterday that the results were normal, so I don't have gestational diabetes. Praise God!

Appt update

2009-01-31T12:58:00.000-08:00

So I had my big long appointment on Wednesday, and a lot happened so I figured I'd better document it, just in case at some point in the future I want to remember. It started out with all the usual stuff, and amazingly I didn't gain any weight since my last appt, probably because of this heartburn and indigestion I don't feel like eating very much, but anyways it was a pleasant surprise (not that I am trying to not gain weight, I am not crazy and I know that is just part of pregnancy, but I figure the least unnecessary weight I gain the better). After all that I drank the glucose drink for the glucose tolerance test, which wasn't too horrible, I chose the fruit punch flavor and it just tasted like really sweet hawaiian punch. Then I had to wait an hour before having that test taken, so I had blood work done for the two antibody screens I was having. The first is because I am Rh negative so they have to test to make sure I hadn't developed any antibodies from that, and also as a precaution I was tested for exposure/immunity to fifths disease because there were 3 kids in our church who had it. I got good results from both those tests, I hadn't developed any Rh antibodies, and I will get a shot on Monday that will ensure I don't develop any the rest of the pregnancy; and the fifths disease results showed that I have had previous exposure to the disease and that I have immunity to it now.
After all the blood work I went back to hear the heartbeat and see the doctor. Lil Emmory was moving around like usual I could hear all the movements on the doppler thingee, and his heart was pumping away in the 150's. I honestly think I could sit there for hours just listening to that lil beat. Anways the visit with the doctor went really well, I measured right at 28 weeks, and he said my weight, blood pressure, and urine were all great. I also got to talk to him about my heartburn problem and he had me take prilosec and told me if that didn't work we would try some other prescriptions, which was such a relief to me to know that there was more I could do. I am so thankful to report that the prilosec has really made a difference, it has completely taken away the acid and ball of fire coming up my throat feeling that I would frequently experience. It hasn't changed the feeling of food being stuck in my throat and wanting to come back up rather than go down where it is supposed to, but this is probably more of a digestive issue that no acid reducer pill is going to fix, so I will continue to take the prilosec and talk to the doc about that issue at my next appt. So, back to the appt, after seeing the doc I went back out to wait until it was time to take the glucose test, which didn't end up being too long. This test is taken to test for gestational diabetes, a type of diabetes that some women develop when they are pregnant and they really don't know why. If you fail the 1 hr. test in the dr's office then you are sent to a lab for an extensive three hour test, and if you fail the 3 hr test then you are diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Well I failed the 1 hr test, the levels in my blood were over 140, so I have to go to a lab on Wednesday morning for 3 hrs of blood work and no eating or drinking...I can't eat or drink anything after midnight on Tues. Upon initially finding out that I failed the test I was pretty upset about it, I definitely made a much bigger deal about it than it needed to be. Sure it isn't going to be any fun to have to fast for so long, I don't know why you would give a pregnant woman any kind of test where she can't eat for an extended amount of time, but I have so much to be thankful for, I got good reports on everything else, the baby is doing great and I am doing great, and even if I have gestational diabetes I'll just have to be on a special diet and exercise program, it really isn't a major complication or anything like that. So after my initial "freak out", with the help of my husband I realized that I need to not dwell on having to take this 3 hr test, but rather "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

Bye-bye 2nd trimester

2009-01-27T16:39:00.001-08:00

So today I officially (or maybe more likely unofficially) begin the 3rd trimester. Wow! In one sense I feel like I've been pregnant forever, the first 15 weeks especially went by very slow, but at the same time I can't believe there are only 3 months left before we meet our boy! I have to be honest and say that I am kind of sad about the 2nd trimester being over...I am a BIG fan of the 2nd trimester. It's funny because I couldn't wait to see the end of the first trimester, and I know I won't be able to wait to see the end of the 3rd, but the 2nd for some reason I am all sentimental about. Besides the heartburn and indigestion and some of the pain I had, the 2nd trimester has been great...the sickness went away, the energy level went way up, and I wasn't so huge that I wasn't comfortable or anything like that. I also think just the realization that my time with my boy inside of me is drawing to a close makes me just a tad bit sad...don't get me wrong I would much rather have him outside than inside, and I can't wait until I get to see him face to face, but it is definitely a special time having him growing inside me.
I also must be honest about the fact that I am not really looking forward to the 3rd trimester. I can already feel my energy level going down, down, down, and I know the discomfort is going to go up, up, up. But I know it is such a small thing to endure for what I'm going to get in three months, and completely worth it. So crazy cravings, swollen ankles, and insane nesting here I come!

Letter to Obama girls

2009-01-25T09:49:00.000-08:00

I usually watch the Today show each morning as I eat my breakfast, I only get to catch the beginning before I have to leave for work, and they almost always start out with politics which isn't usually my favorite subject, but I watch it anyways to try and stay informed and because really there is nothing else on anyways. However when I watched one morning this past week they played something that really caught my interest, a recording of the Bush girls, Jenna and Barbara, reading a letter to the Obama girls, with their advice and reflection from their time in the White House. I was really moved by the letter, it brought tears to my eyes (which doesn't take much nowadays) and I just thought it was such a precious letter and a thoughtful gesture by the Bush girls. It also really reminded me that we need to be praying for the entire Obama family, and especially those girls as they encounter such a HUGE transition at such a young age. Here is the video in case you are interested in hearing what they had to say. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/28809961#28809961

Pray for Uncle Dave

2009-01-22T07:31:00.000-08:00

My uncle has lung cancer, he found out this past summer, 2008. Since then he has undergone surgery where his entire right lung was removed, and after recovering from that has just finished chemo treatment. He will begin radiation as the next step probably in February. He recently had a CT scan of the lung area after he finished the chemo, and they found a thickening on the right side where the lung was removed. The doctors think it is probably ok, most likely scar tissue, but he is having a PET scan today that will make it clear one way or the other. I ask that as you read this you say a prayer for my uncle and his family, obviously this has been a huge trial for all of them, but their response to this has been an incredible testimony and encouragement to myself and I know everybody else around them. This is an excerpt from Dave's caringbridge journal, right after they found out about the thickening on the right side, and it exemplifies their incredible faith in God during this time, as well as what they have asked prayer for. "We will choose to Praise Him. Right Now for both of us, this is not easy news, as we wanted a totally Clean report. Yet, we Know that God Holds us in His Hands. Please pray for that wisdom, that spiritual maturity for us, and for each one of you. We pray that in All of our lives that God is Glorified!"
I just cherish this family so much, Uncle Dave and Aunt Virginia have always been very special to me, my cousin Ben and I are less than a year apart and we have always been close, and growing up I was over at their house a lot, and Dave would often take us to Mariner games and fun things like that....so many fun memories. I was able to see them when I was in Seattle for Christmas, and am so thankful for that.
Please pray that the PET scan will reveal that the thickening is scar tissue, and ultimately that no matter what the outcome that they would experience the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, and that the God of all comfort would be their comfort, as they trust Him with their lives.

Thankful

2009-01-10T21:59:00.001-08:00

Just having a moment while I sit here at the computer, feeling my little sweet pea move around, realizing how incredibly blessed I am to have this precious gift from God. I am so thankful for this miracle growing inside me, although it is so hard for me to truly fathom the reality that there really is a living human being in there. Experiencing this makes me wonder, how do people who experience this same thing not believe in a Creator? The creation of a new life is truly a miracle, how can this come about any other way than what the psalmist says,

"I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them." Psalm 139:14-16

I am so thankful that I know the Creator of life, so thankful that I can put my trust and hope in Him. I am often overwhelmed by emotions, it is incredible to me the emotional attatchment of a mother to her child, I remember being surprised by that when I had the miscarriage, and as I sit here now I am acutely aware of it. My feelings for my boy are so strong, yet I haven't even met him yet. I know that when he is brought into this world, I will experience a whole new side to it, and I know the love I have for him will be so strong that it will be so hard to battle the fear and anxiety for his health and well-being, and ultimately his soul. Yet I am comforted by God's Word, which describes how intimately God knows my boy, and says that his days are already formed, God already knows exactly what is going to happen with his life. I don't have to worry because it is in the hands of the Creator of the universe.

Thank you God for this blessing, please help me to honor you and trust you with each day of his life, whatever your plan for him may be.

25 weeks

2009-01-07T14:02:00.000-08:00

I am trying to get pics up of the baby shower I had in Seattle and other pics from the trip, but won't be able to get them up until my hubby can help me because I am having trouble doing it for some reason, so in the meantime, here is an update on what's been going on with the baby and pregnancy. I am 25 weeks as of yesterday, it is hard to believe that in just three short weeks I'll be in my third trimester...scary and exciting at the same time! This week baby S is 9 inches in length and weighs more than 1 1/2 pounds. The most major thing that is forming right now are air sacs lined with capillaries are developing in his lungs. His nostrils are also opening up this week enabling him to take practice breaths, and his vocal cords are functioning which lead to occasional hiccups...which I haven't felt yet. I had an appointment yesterday which was very routine, did the usual weight, blood pressure, pee in a cup thing, heard the heartbeat which is always amazing every single time, and saw the doc for a few minutes, he said everything looked great. My next appointment will be very busy and long...that is when I take the test for gestational diabetes. I'll drink the special drink and wait for an hour and then be tested to see if I have developed that, and I also have to have blood drawn because I am Rh negative so they have to check and see if I have developed any antibodies, and then when I get the results from the blood work back if they are negative I will get a shot to prevent any from developing the rest of the pregnancy. I've already had one shot for this after the miscarriage and I must say it is quite unpleasant (especially because of where they give you the shot) but totally worth it to protect my baby of course. If antibodies were to build up they would begin to attack the baby.
So all of that excitement will take place in three weeks.
I have been feeling pretty good since recovering from being sick and from the flights back from Seattle to Greenville (wont go into detail but the combination of pregnancy horomones and flying were not good). Really the biggest pregnancy discomfort I'm experiencing is the heartburn, it has started to affect my sleep, on more than one occasion I have fallen asleep and then woke up because my food is coming back up my throat and into my mouth (yes I know disgusting) and I have to sleep most of the night sitting up as much as I can. This kind of scares me because I had always heard that at the end is when the heartburn really gets bad, so I can't even imagine where I will be then! Also, I have been finding it more and more uncomfortable to bend over...and am going to stick to slip on shoes only from now on because it takes way too much effort to tie my shoes!
I am feeling the baby move even more frequently now, and I can tell he is getting bigger and stronger because those movements are much more intense than they used to be! It is still by far my favorite thing about pregnancy, even though it is not always comfortable. It is visible from the outside too, one morning Mark and I were laying in bed, and I hadn't even mentioned to him that the baby was moving it was so obvious he noticed my stomach moving on his own! It seems that recently he has been kicking and then rolling, because I will feel a sudden jerk and then a rolling movement like an earthquake in my stomach. It is the coolest thing and I love that it is something that Mark can enjoy and participate in too, since most of the things about the pregnancy only I get to experience.
Well that is what has been going on recently, hopefully I'll get those pics up soon!

We made it!

2008-12-24T19:01:00.000-08:00

So just in case anyone was wondering, we did make it to Seattle! Praise God! The second leg of our flight from Atlanta to Seattle was an hour late, but we are here and I am so thankful! The flight was pretty miserable because I am sick with a bad cold and have lots of pressure in my sinuses and head, and both landings were really painful, the pressure in my head was incredible and my ears hurt so bad, I really thought something might explode inside of me. But on the descent in Seattle, where I experienced the most pressure and pain, I was able to be thankful for the thing that I was most concerned about-the snow. As we made our way closer to the ground and looked out the window, the scenery was just gorgeous, as everything was covered in snow. I was able to be somewhat distracted from the pain as I studied the winter wonderland below.

Off to Seattle

2008-12-22T09:22:00.000-08:00

Mark and I are going to Seattle for Christmas again this year and I cannot wait, we leave tomorrow!!! I am so thankful for a husband who loves to take trips back home as much as possible, and am so thankful that he enjoys spending time with my family too! This will be our last trip there with it being just the two of us, which I am definitely feeling sentimental about. It is sad yet exciting at the same time...just another "last" in this stage of life we are in right now being married without kids. As much as we so strongly desired to have a baby, I am still definitely feeling sad about seeing this time in our life pass. The time before you have kids and it's just the two of you is definitely a special time and there were so many memories made and fun times had together; things we were able to do and have the freedom to do that we won't necessarily get to do anymore.
Yet although it is sad to see this stage of our life get closer to the end, there is much excitement and anticipation for our next stage of life. I am really looking forward to having a family and being able to do fun family things together with the three of us, and Lord-willing more down the road. I know our lives are about to change tremendously but I also know that once we get to meet and know our little boy we won't want to go back to where we didn't know him and have him. It is definitely bitter-sweet.
Now if only I can get to Seattle without getting sick on the plane :) Actually what I really hope is that we get to Seattle at all...it has been snowing there since last week, and they got a whole bunch of snow yesterday as it snowed basically all day, which is really unusual for it to snow this much in Seattle. Two different sets of my relatives have each had flights cancelled, one going out of Seattle today and one that was supposed to land in Seattle yesterday. Please pray with me that we'll be able to land in Seattle tomorrow, and please especially pray that I will have the right response if we don't. As previously mentioned I am soo excited for this trip to be able to spend time with my family again and for all the fun Christmas traditions that we are going to do, and I'm going to have a baby shower the Sunday after Christmas since this is the last time I'll be there before April which will be soo much fun...so obviously it would be extremely disappointing if our flight was to get cancelled.

Names

2008-12-15T10:11:00.000-08:00

So usually one of the first things people ask you when you are pregnant (after the due date of course) is whether you know if it's a boy or a girl. Then after that they usually ask you whether you have a name picked out or not, and if you do are you going to tell people before the baby is born. Well just so everyone knows we are going to tell people the name when we know, and we do have a pretty good idea what it's going to be. When we went in for the u/s to find out what we were having, we both honestly didn't really care which one it was, we just wanted a healthy baby. And I, like most people, want to eventually have both, so with the first one it really didn't matter. However, the whole time I think we both knew that if it was a boy, the name thing would be a lot harder, so it would be nice to have a girl for that reason alone. We have always pretty much liked the same girl names and the top ones on our list we both agree upon, but the boy names were a different story. The only name Mark has ever really liked or talked about for a boy is Wyatt, ever since we got married and started talking about kids names just for fun he has liked that name, and I have not. The one boy name that I came up with since we found out we were pregnant is Cooper. I really like the name and it is a family name, it's my Grandma Gifford's maiden name. At first Mark said he liked Cooper, but as time went by I guess the likeness factor wore off a bit and he didn't like it as much. Of course we aren't going to name our kid a name that Mark doesn't like, and Mark doesn't want to name our kid a name that I don't like, so that basically left us with nothing. Until....
Mark and I went to Pennsylvania with his family for Thanksgiving to visit with his Dad's side of the family. We stayed at his Aunt Robyn's house, and she has a Steenback family tree on her computer that goes way, way back, and I was able to scroll through it and look at all the names while we were there. One name caught my eye, but I didn't say anything at the time. Other than that there weren't a lot of names that I thought "ooo I like that". Our u/s was scheduled for the day after we got back from Pennsylvania, and it wasn't until that day that I said something about that name. We were having "brunch" together and out of the blue I said, "What about the name Emmory?" Immediately Mark said, "I like it", which is pretty amazing because usually when we run boy names by eachother the other person doesn't like it, hence the problem we had been having. What's even stranger though is that Mark began to like that name more than Wyatt, all he has done is talk about that name since I brought it up. We contemplated spelling it Emery, Emory, and Emmory, but are pretty sure we would spell it Emmory because that is the way the family name is spelled, and Mark especially liked that because it got absolutely zero hits on babyname.com...he wants a unique name that not a lot of people have. So, right now we are thinking Emmory William...William is my dad's name, and both Mark and I have grandpa's named Willard. It's definitely not set in stone and when we go to Seattle for Christmas the 23rd I want to look at the Moor family tree just for fun, but I think Mark is pretty sure we are gonna name him Emmory...especially since that is what he calls him now! I told him if we keep calling him Emmory it's going to be really hard to name him anything else if we find something we like better, but he seems to be fine with that.

Catching up

2008-12-12T11:29:00.000-08:00

So I've never been much of a blogger, I have never started one because I figure it will be something I'll do at first and then after a while will never update, just like any other share page I've ever had. However, there are two main reasons why I have decided to give it a try now, number one because I am past the halfway point of my pregnancy and haven't recorded a single thing about it; number two since we are having a baby soon and my entire family lives across the country from us, so I want to create a way for them to always be updated on what is going on and be able to see lots of pics and videos of their lil grandson/nephew/etc. So hopefully I will do a good job of keeping this updated, especially once the baby comes.
Well since I'm already 21 weeks pregnant I'll just try and recap some of the "highlights" of what has already happened. Mark and I found out that we were pregnant on August 15 (had to go look at the calendar for that date!) When we found out for me it was a complete mix of emotions, so happy and excited and amazed that it FINALLY happened again, but anxious and fearful about what would happen with this pregnancy, wondering if the same thing was going to happen again. For those who don't know our history, I was actually pregnant almost exactly a year before we found out we were pregnant this time, we found out very end of July 2007, but when we went in for the first ultrasound around 8 weeks they detected a problem, and the next week we found out for sure that it was indeed a miscarraige. It was such a sad and hard trial, but God is Good and His grace was sufficient and we experienced so much growth along the way. We continued to learn and grow for the entire year after that, as we just weren't able to get pregnant again right away like we so deeply desired. I could go into so much detail about this experience, how much we learned from it, and how blessed we were to have our awesome families and our sweet church body supporting and encouraging us through it, but because of space and time I won't. If anyone would like to know more please feel free to contact me about it though. I will just summarize by saying that it wasn't easy, but it was for our good to make us more like Christ, and He is faithful.
So, when we found out we were pregnant this time, we were just so incredibly thankful to God for choosing to bless us with this baby at this time, knowing that this pregnancy is also for our good to make us more like Christ. However as I said before it was a tremendous struggle to not be anxious and fearful about it, especially going in to the first ultrasound. Once again God's grace was sufficient though, enabling me so many times to be able to trust Him and be at peace knowing that this baby is completely in His hands, and if it is His will for this baby to grow and thrive and be born into this world then NOTHING can stop that, and if it isn't His will He will give me to grace to endure, as He did before. Not that I didn't fall short and give in to fear and anxiety and have to repent, because that happened as well, and it is still a temptation now, and I'm confident it will always be a temptation for me to be anxious about the well-being of my child as long as he is on this earth, but I have seen small areas of growth and I have seen that if I discipline myself to do my part and meditate on the Truth, He is absolutely faithful to do His part, it is not something that I have to struggle with. In fact Christ died so that I dont have to struggle with it but can have victory over this sin, along with EVERY other one.
So as far as highlights of the pregnancy go, the first part was definitely filled with that battle against anxiety, and we were definitely very careful and guarded with our emotions not to get ourselves overly excited about it, but to just work on the things that we need to be working on. We had the first u/s at 10 weeks, where we saw the baby and heard the heartbeat, and everything looked great. We were just so overwhelmed with joy and thankfulness to God for this. We had our second u/s last Monday, December 1st, where once again everything looked great and we found out we are having a BOY! Again, our hearts were filled with joy and thanksgiving, and I have thoroughly enjoyed being able to finally buy things b/c I know what to buy for.
As far as the physical part of it, the first trimester was filled with sickness. I was sick everyday, but I am so thankful for the perspective that I had, because had we not lost that first baby I believe I would have grumbled and complained every day and wished that I never got pregnant, because it just isn't easy being sick all the time. But because of what happened last year I was able to be thankful for the sickness, because it meant that there was a precious baby growing in there. Not that I never complained, I am ashamed to admit that there were times that I did, but for the most part I had a completely different perspective on the sickness than I normally would have. The everyday sickness slowed down and pretty much ended at 15 weeks, and that made such a huge difference in my days as far as how I felt and how much energy I had. Not that I haven't been sick at all since then, because one thing I have realized with pregnancy is you can never count on never being sick again, because those horomones are strong!
In the second trimester the main thing that has happened as far as symptoms go (that I am going to mention on here) is round ligament pain. I have realized in pregnancy that there are so many different symptoms and something can happen to you that you never knew was a part of pregnancy, but it turns out to be just another "normal" pregnancy thing. On more than once occasion I have had incredibly sharp, shooting pain usually on my lower right side, to the point where I can barely walk. It ends up going away after a while, sometimes right away sometimes longer.
I have also had heartburn like crazy this entire time. Acid reflux is something that I have had medication for pre-pregnancy, but it has definitely gotten so much more intense since I've been pregnant.
Another "milestone" I want to note is around 18 weeks I first started to really feel the baby move. I had felt a little something here and there before that, but never was sure if it was the baby or something else, but at 18 weeks what I felt was definitely the baby. That is probably one of the coolest things of pregnancy, and Mark has also been able to feel him move twice now, which he was so excited about!
Well this has been a long post, there was lots to catch up on that I wanted to record for myself, and anyone else who was interested. Hopefully I will make this a regular thing!