Grandma Leta always makes sure to give Noah lots of attention when they are in Colorado, so that little Noah will remember her. Well, today I heard a precious surprise that consisted of Noah saying "Mommy, I need to go see Grandma Leta and Opa." I grabbed the camera and got it on video.
(Just so you know Grandma and Papa in Oregon... when daddy came home after work yesterday, he walked right to him and said "Daddy, I need to go to Oregon and see Grandma and Papa." He has actually been bringing that up over that last week randomly. He talks about his uncle Shaun's cars and getting to play with Tasha. It makes him very excited! We miss you guys!)
It's snowy here in CO, so everyone enjoy the warmer weather for me!
As I sit here watching Noah recreate the movie Cars on our dining room table, I start thinking about how exciting it is going to be with a little infant here with us. I continue to have mixed feelings about the arrival of Ezra. Sometimes I am ready for her to be here now, and other times I think... another three months isn't that far away and EVERYTHING is going to change once she's here.
I am beginning the scary journey of mentally preparing for labor again! I got the old Bradley Method book out, and I am reading about the lovely pleasures of my baby moving her way down and making her presentation into the world. "The pain is good" they keep reminding me... "It just means she is closer and closer to being here!" I completely trust and believe this process is true. If not, I wouldn't have made it through Noah's labor!
This time around is VERY different! For one, I know exactly what it is going to feel like! So I can't just pretend that maybe, miraculously it will be entirely pain-free like I hoped for with Noah. Secondly, chances are that it is going to be faster than Noah's birth. SWEET! However, discussing this with a woman that is going on her third all natural delivery, I can't help but worry now since I see that even after having two, she still stresses about the labor.
I have started the process of pondering all of this in the middle of the night when I can't sleep... not so good. BUT I am starting to think about it again, and preparing myself for it. No use in waiting for labor and hope it goes well. Labor takes a lot of mental preparation! So I read about First Stage Labor yesterday... and I CAN do it. I will use my relaxation techniques and keep myself under control. Ben is an amazing coach, and now that we both know what it is going to be like, we can make improvements to our birth plan and it will be SO sweet when she does arrive.
Here is our little Noah right after his birth... there is nothing sweeter in life!
Next post... my fears on having a hospital birth after the home birth.
I know it is only 9:00 a.m. right now, but I am writing about my Monday morning from 12:00 a.m. on so it has already been quite a bit of time!
Ben and I have been watching bits and pieces of Evita in bed with our laptop occasionally, and that is what we did last night until about 9:30 before I was out. I don't know if it is normal to have scary dreams during pregnancy, but that is exactly what it has been for me. At least 3 times a week, I wake up with a racing heart terrified about what I was dreaming about. It ranges with a lot of things from Ezra and complications to last night's example about my brother and me losing teeth!
Unfortunately or fortunately maybe, I always wake up from these dreams, and it is so hard to get back to sleep because all these new issues come into play... like "oh! yes I have to pee as well" or "baby, I can't fall asleep if you are going crazy in there!" My biggest issue is that when I do have to pee, I need to check the time because if it is within a couple hours of Ben having to get up for the day. If I wake him up by going, and he can't get back to sleep right away... I get Mr. Grouch! Now, in his defense, he tells me I should absolutely go if I need to and not hold it just because of him, but he tells me that once he's had his full nights sleep and some tea/coffee in the morning. What would he be saying at 3 in the morning huh??
So, I woke up to a messy head of hair, ready for some coffee! Thankfully Noah slept in an extra hour and I am very thankful for that!
I am excited to start my week! I start bible study and exercising again! I will leave everyone with Noah pretended to sleep. Have a great week everyone!
We had a wonderful holiday season this year! Ben was blessed to get two weeks off from work, so we really took advantage of spending that time together. We had a lot of friends in town for Christmas and the New Year, so we also spent some quality time with them.
We missed our family in Oregon though... we hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year! Thank you all for the cards and gifts! Noah loves his truck Grandma and Grandpa. He especially likes that he can make it move all by himself! He really enjoys watching it make its way across the hardwood floor.
We didn't realize how many of our friends live out of town until just recently! It was great to see all of you, to catch up a bit, and to show you how much our little Noah is growing up.
Christmas day was great! We have spent the last two of our Christmases living with my parents. (Not that I regret that mom and dad!) But since this was Noah's third Christmas, it was the first time we got to spend it as a family! It was amazing! Noah was thoroughly excited for the first time, and we really enjoyed spending that time with him. Between gifts from his Oregon family, Colorado Springs family, and mom and dad, this kid wasn't bored for days!
More big news... we got to celebrate our other family coming 'home' to CO. Tom and Rachel have been our BFF's for... 6 years now! WOW! We have watched each other get married, have kids, change jobs, and grow. We love 'em. The kids play really well together, and it has been really fun to watch them interact. Welcome home friends!
Our New Year was great too! We had dinner with said BFF's, Ben and I took Noah to spend the night with Grandma and Papa, Ben and I went to the Sherlock Holmes movie, and watched the ball drop in our jammies while drinking sparkling cider. I must say, usually our New Year's parties flop, so this year we didn't want to do anything big... just hang out.
Updates on the family:
Ben enjoyed his time off work! He greatly enjoyed having friends in town over the past few weeks. He is still a web-developer for House Party, and we are very grateful for that. He is still working away at MB, and to be honest... not quite sure how all that is going. You'll have to ask him. :) He has been reading like crazy, and his big gift this year was the Kindle. We'll see how quickly I lose time with him once that gets here!
Noah is doing great. He is growing so fast, I can hardly keep up. I am dearly holding on to his baby phase, but he is running away from it fast! He is testing me ALL the time, but I just have to keep telling myself that it will pass, and I am so thankful that he is healthy and 'normal'. Right now we are working on his new clock puzzle. Learning the shapes for each number, and familiarizing him with recognizing those numbers when he sees them.
I am doing good too. Right now, I am associated with this little baby growing inside, and that's okay with me. I had a partial placenta previa at my 20 week ultrasound that could have been dangerous, so I spent that last 4 weeks a little stressed. Right after Christmas, I had another ultrasound to see if it corrected itself, and praise the Lord, it did! I am healthy, she is healthy, and I will most likely have the natural delivery I wanted! She is growing fast now. She weighs over a pound, and I am feeling kicks now! This pregnancy has been a stressful one, but God has truly blessed us with a healthy baby and healthy mommy. We can't wait for our little Ezra Raye.
As for ME me... I am doing good. I am trying to spend as much time as I can with my Noah. I am going to miss this one on one time I have with him now. I am trying to eat healthy, take my vitamins, exercise, and get rest along with cleaning the house, doing laundry, entertaining Noah, and giving myself some personal quiet time! Life is busy, but good!
