Happy Birthday, 4 year old!

One of the top five best days of my life was strongly in motion 4 years ago right now!

My son, Stephen, was making his way into the world.  He was a thoughtful child, taking his time and letting his Mommy get adjusted to the “oh my gosh I am really in labor” thoughts.  The day was filled with laughter (Thanks, Mom and Dad, for being there with us), fabulous nurses at Miles Memorial Hospital (thanks, Sandy- you are GIFTED at what you do), and at 4:34 pm, my little peanut, who is now a BIG 4 year old, was born.   7 lbs 9 oz, and 19 3/4 inches long, his cries melted my heart, and his presence changed our lives forever!

Every new stage brings excitement and joy, but the most beautiful thing has been watching him fall in love with his baby brother.  He has a protective side that truly looks out for Jonathan.  The first time that I used the baby monitor and Stephen didn’t know where Jonathan was showed me just how much he loves his littler brother.   Jonathan is first person he wants to see in the morning, but he always asks if he is sleeping, so that he knows whether or not he can be loud and shout “Hi Jonathan!!”   This adoration is completely mutual – the smiles that Jonathan gives his big brother are just adorable — Stephen usually has already moved on to his next project and misses them, though!

To my 4 year old boy, who is sitting on the floor figuring out the crane on one of his trucks, I am so proud of you and can’t wait to watch you take the world by storm!  I love you!

Our Little Easter Egg!

I don’t often have long chunks of time to write more than a few sentences while at the computer- but at the moment, Stephen is occupied playing with his mountain of cars, trucks and fire engines, and I can tell you about the adorable little boy sitting happily in his car seat after the three minute walk we took outside in the double stroller.  (The wind was so fierce that NONE of us were having a good time, although I would have kept going for the sake of exercise!!)

On Easter morning, 1 day shy of being 39 weeks pregnant, I found my cute pink maternity dress, and had a dear friend lined up to watch Stephen during the early service for us, since they don’t have childcare for that service, and I knew that I would not be able to handle the crowds of the late service on Easter morning.

So, here we are, as a family of three on Easter morning.

After church, we came home, had some nice family time, a nap, and my daily phone call to my mother, at which I had come to near complete peace with the fact that I would be pregnant forever.

However, when I had my first strong contraction at 4:30 pm, I realized that maybe I WOULDN’T be pregnant forever! Yay!  Right away I knew that this was almost definitely the real thing, because these contractions HURT!  And they were happening FAST!

Short story even shorter, we called the midwife and eventually got the okay to head to the hospital. Called our friend who watched Stephen at church that morning, who was our plan for watching him while we were in the hospital as well, and as soon as she arrived we loaded into the car and were off.

We got to the hospital around 6:45, and on the way there, I was calculating the likelihood of actually having an Easter baby.  I didn’t think we would make it– possibly we might sneak in before midnight, but April 5th was sounding like a pretty good birthday to us!

Well- after an extremely intense couple of hours laboring at the hospital, I was shocked to realize that it was indeed time to push (which made sense because I REMEMBERED that pain!!!) and 12 minutes later at 9:07 pm, adorable Jonathan Timothy  entered the world.

He was NINE pounds .09 ounces,  and 21.5 inches long — although they mis-measured him, and told us he was 22.5″ long!!

It was extremely overwhelming, exhilarating, and unbelievable experience that I have ever had!  Recovery has been great, and Stephen has been adjusting very well.

The boys are so cute together!  Stephen LOVES his little brother, and Jonathan wants to smile at him SO badly!!

So- that’s our family of FOUR! 

We are blessed beyond belief!

countdown?

So this is my last week before my sub starts with me.

I feel terrible this morning. I was sick in the middle of the night — don’t exactly know why, but it was pretty vile.

I am drained and tired this morning, and I have no energy. But, I have had no caffeine either, because I was sick again THIS morning as well.

I am officially 35 weeks. Next week, the baby could come at any time, and they would not stop it. Between now and the end of my sanity I have two concerts, and the high school band is playing at the Pirates game on Saturday night.

This brings an interesting question. Does a nearly 36 week pregnant woman ride the bus an hour and a half away without any other means of transportation? Do I drive myself? What if I go into labor?

Argh.

Happy Socks

Happy Socks

My adorable son already loves to spoil me, something that he has learned from his father.

A few weeks ago, on their weekly sojourn to Target (also known as “The Car Store,” Stephen saw these socks, looked at his Daddy and said, “I want to get these for Mommy.”

This was the sweetest surprise.  I LOVE socks.  In fact, that is exactly what I wanted for Christmas, much to the dismay of my sister.  She got me about 12 pairs of crazy fun socks, and I adore them, and she grumbled the whole time!!

So, my son has said to me several times since getting me the socks in the picture, “Mommy, you need to wear the SPECIAL socks!!”  He doesn’t really understand color schemes, or holiday themes, so he didn’t really understand why I was waiting.  So this morning, I got dressed, and I found him and pulled out the SPECIAL socks, and he was SO excited!!!

I love my family!

overrated…

I am SO sick of having morning sickness. Why did it have to come back? AND why, whenever I DO have it, why do at least seven blood vessels in my face have to break?

I am also sick of heartburn. I don’t think that I really need to go into details about this one.

I am tired of my back hurting — but I do have a prenatal back brace now that is really helping. I am so scared that I am going to have back labor.

I have to teach for two months, and I am wondering how I am going to make it.

Preparing for the weekend.

I cried this morning for the first time in over a week. Believe me, 8 1/2 days is a LONG time for this pregnant woman to not shed a tear.

What broke the dam today?  The thought of leaving my son and husband all weekend to stay at my parents while I perform in the Nutcracker.   I was giving my snuggly little, still tired from just waking up boy, bye-bye hugs this morning and I just fell apart.

Every stage is better than the previous one!  Yes– there are things that are equally challenging as the joys that come with each new development, but watching him become a beautiful, caring, thoughtful little boy is just amazing.

Not a good day….

What I think is happening is that all of the drama since Friday is just catching up to me and I am seriously not equipped to handle it.

I am sitting here at my desk at school, crying, crying and crying. This is all I have been doing since 11:45. I get myself together, and then when I have a break in thinking about holding myself together I start crying again.

Chronology of the weekend.
(Preface – I was invited to conduct the High School Honors Band at the Washington County Honors Festival in Eastport, Maine)
Friday morning.

We began packing for the weekend. We packed up Stephen’s suitcase, and I was packing up mine when I noticed that TWO of my THREE pairs of work maternity pants (other than the jeans that I can wear on Fridays) were ruined. And OF COURSE the black pair that I had intended on wearing for the concert was among the destroyed.

I freaked out. There was yelling, crying, sobbing… a frantic call to my father, and things like that. Not my best hour.

10 minutes later, my mom calls and tells me that she had just received part of my christmas present, which happened to include a lovely pair of black, dressy, maternity pants.

End crisis.

We get to my parents house to drop Stephen off, I get the pants, we set up the pack and play and off we go.

6 hours later, we arrive in Calais, where the cell phone begins to pick up the Canadian towers, and switch time zones every three minutes. That was fun.

We met at Heron’s house, and met his wife, Lindy. We sat and chatted for a long time- it was SO nice. They are very fun. They also have a little three year old boy!

Then we headed over to the Bed and Breakfast where we stayed, and the room was lovely. We planned the times for the next day, and then Randy and I took advantage of the DirecTv and the Food Network.

Saturday:
Got up in plenty of time, except I didn’t factor the quarter of my LIFE that I would need to iron all of my clothes for the day. (thank you, suitcase, for messing everything up.)
Frantically remembered to put on makeup, and bring my heartburn medicine, as well as the ocean drum, the scores and the baton.

We got to the school, set up the respective areas for the groups, and waited for the kids to arrive.

The day was so amazing. We added another piece before lunchtime that was so fun, I am planning on ordering for my own high school band! One of the teachers told me that a student said: “When I grow up I want to be a band teacher, and I want to be just like her, because she gets excited about everything!!”

The concert was amazing, dinner after the concert was amazing, and the whole experience was just life-changing.

However, I couldn’t call to check on my son because of the Canadian towers, and there was no wi-fi at the B&B, so I couldn’t really connect with anyone about how amazing the day was.

Sunday-
We pack up, and get on the road, and 4 hours later saw our little man again! Who, of course, didn’t want to say goodbye to Auntie. But, eventually he remembered that he loves us and was excited to go home again.

That night, we saw on facebook that friends of ours did indeed use the name Micah for their new little boy. We knew it was a possibility. Now we are back to the drawing board, but it is heartbreaking because Stephen is already calling him Micah. Now– he will probably adapt better than we will if we do change.

Today:
I have been crying ALL day. ALL day. I must be seriously overtired, or over-emotional or something, because all of those things should not turn me into a hot mess, but that is exactly what I am.

And… I feel completely alone, even though I know that I am not.

I hate pregnancy hormones.

Yesterday.

Two things happened.

1) It was the first time that taking my wedding band off was a little bit hard, so rather than taking any chances and having to get my ring cut off AGAIN (like I did with Stephen) I kept it off and am now wearing it on my necklace with my cross pendant.

2) Stephen can now pronounce his first name correctly. It started as “Stee” then became “Stee-yen” and yesterday morning became “Stee-ven.” Our little man is growing up. Yay, but at the same time!!

Headaches, and more headaches.

So for weeks I had been battling with very bad headaches. Pounding at the temples, throbbing at the top of my head kind of headaches. They didn’t feel like sinus/allergy headaches, so I didn’t think taking Zyrtec would work.

BUT after weeks of hearing me complain and feeling powerless to help, Randy went out and bought some Zyrtec for me, and the next day I was headache free for the first time in a LONG time.

We went to Target and I bought a package of the generic, and after two days, on the generic, my headaches are back just as bad as before. Ugh.

Thank goodness I have a few of the brand name Zyrtec left still. It makes my thrifty self angry that the generics really don’t work as well as the brand names.

Arrgggh!!

I can’t believe I forgot to mention-

Our Big U/S is NEXT TUESDAY (November 17th)!!!

We are just a little bit excited!