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Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Asa Joel
Sunday October 23
11:53am
8lbs 13oz
21.5inches
The story: Saturday, Andrew and I took the boys to the zoo. It's a ton of walking and lots of hills, so I was hoping it would speed labor along - and it did! I felt very normal the rest of the day, though. Around 11:30pm, I woke up with an upset stomach and bad nausea. I was up for probably an hour with a few hard contractions and then went back to sleep. I woke up a little after 1am feeling the same way. When I laid back down, the contractions got harder - 10 minutes apart. I woke Andrew up on the third one because I couldn't handle the pain of the contractions in my back. I got up out of bed and they got closer together - like 4 minutes apart. I knew this had to be real! We talked to the on-call nurse in Labor & Delivery (Andrew talked, I couldn't talk) who said to come on in. I tried my hardest to talk Andrew through what we needed to take while not falling on the floor in pain. :) Thankfully, my bag was already packed. Our sweet neighbor came to stay with the boys and off we went. On the way, the contractions went to every 2 minutes ... I thought I was going to die from the pain. When they first checked me, I was still a loose 1cm and 80% effaced. I was devastated!! I couldn't believe what a wimp I felt like, but all the pain was in my back. So the OB on call said to admit me around 5:30 or 6 and I got some pain meds that just made me feel drunk. They did mostly take the edge off the pain. We got in a room around 7, I think and I got the epidural around 8am. Right after that, I was 3cm and they broke my water (I changed to 4cm then). Less than 2 hours later, I was at 6cm and an hour after that it was time to push! I couldn't believe how fast it went. I think we started pushing shortly after 11am and it didn't take even an hour to get Asa out. He was much bigger than the OB and nurse thought he'd be!
I had wanted this whole time to go into labor on my own so that I'd have a chance at a VBAC. I'm so thankful that God gave me this opportunity. I had a million reasons for not wanting to be cut open again and, after just a few days of recovery, I can say I feel very justified in ALL of those reasons!! I'm still amazed at how fast he came and how fast we got to come home. Asa is such a sweet blessing and Aidan & Jordan are really doing pretty well with having him here (it's still early, though!). More pictures later!
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Dry spell
I'm not going to apologize for not blogging any more! I'm just going to trust that you all know that I have kids to keep up with. :)
Right now, I'm praying the 3rd comes any day (minute) now. Asa is measuring a week ahead and last week (at 36 weeks) he weighed in at 7lbs 3oz. So he's done cooking and we're ready for him to be here in our arms! My belly is tired :) Friday at the OB, I was 1cm dilated and 25% effaced. I had an appointment today, but had to cancel because Jordan woke up early this morning throwing up. He's seems better this afternoon, so I'm calling it a bug (and a thankfully short-lived one) and waiting to see if Aidan does it tomorrow. Anyway, about Asa... I'm pushing my OB for a vbac, so I have to go into labor (or at least significantly progress on my own) before the 39 week mark. Otherwise, it's a repeat c-section and I'd really rather not. I cannot imagine not being able to pick up A & J for 6 weeks after Asa comes. I think that would devastate all of us.
I wanted to post before Asa comes because I know I've totally neglected this blog in keeping updates about the boys! Here are my favorite sayings right now:
Aidan: "uh-oh! what gonna do now?" -- usually talking to a car on the edge of some surface, hilarous!
Aidan: "bye-bye! have a good day!"
Jordan: "um, nope" which has developed "uh, wah" which means 'yes' or 'uh, yeah'
Jordan: "Aidan Jordan get out their beds, Mommy lock door" -- ok, longer explanation... We had been locking their door for months because they were coming out just to come out in the middle of the night. Then they started laying in front of the door calling for us or just banging on it (thankfully, not in the middle of the night, but at bedtime and at early-wake-up-brother rising). So we switched it to a baby gate with the door partially open. We spent many weeks with them hanging out in front of the gate calling us or just standing there waiting to see us walk by before they understood they were really supposed to stay in bed. So then the gate came down and we would just pull the door to (ok, I don't know how to type that - "pull it to" - do y'all say that? pull it to what? it means that I don't actually shut the door, I just leave it mostly closed...). Which, by the way, is what I've been doing at naptime for months! And it worked well for a week or two and now we're back to night-wakings and sometimes just rebelling at bedtime. Well, we have 2 year olds - can we really expect much more? Spanking is not worth it at bedtime and I don't want to leave a day on that note, so we threaten to lock the door instead of spanking if they get out of bed. So there's the long explanation. I just was amazed that he used the word "their" last night. And Aidan doesn't use 's' if it's at the beginning of a word. So we don't swing, swim, or slide... we 'wing, 'wim, and 'lide!
Our dynamic of which twin is in charge is so weird. Aidan now has at least an inch on Jordan, maybe an inch and a half, and I think he knows it. He's been pushing a lot lately. He pushed Jordan down yesterday because he was frustrated with him. Usually, he just likes to mess with Jordan - tackling and roughhousing - but we've got to work on not using our strength against our brother. Jordan, on the other hand, bosses Aidan constantly. He's the more verbal one, so it's "no, Aidan, do this" a lot. The other day at Andrew's parents' house, Jordan was fussing at Aidan about being in "mine" car. And while we were trying to explain that we share everything and both cars are just fine for either boy, Aidan got out of his car and got in the other one. I'd love to know what his motivation was. I mean, I'm all about keeping the peace, if you really don't care which toy you have. But I don't want Aidan doing what Jordan says just because Jordan said it. And it doesn't make sense when Aidan can form-tackle Jordan the way he does. It's a very interesting relationship.
Jordan stealing Mommy's laptop
J & A at the Botanical Gardens in Hsv with my family
gotta love tire swings
Aidan laughing at Jordan being a gnome
We had a day where we just played in Mommy's old dance shoes and Aidan clearly didn't like the flash on my camera. He started smiling like that in all the pictures because I was laughing at him :) And then he wore those yellow ballet slippers the rest of the morning.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Kids' Scripture Memory
Our church just brought a children's pastor on board this summer and he is raising expectations for all the kids. We no longer have just "childcare", we have children's worship and large group assembly and small group discussions. We also have an hour where the kids are led through stations of crafts, songs, lessons, and scripture memory (there might be more, but I forget). It has been a pretty big undertaking to get all this going as right now we are a mobile church - meeting in a high school with only the gym for the kiddos. And I felt like my boys were young to be participating, but LOVE the first "artwork" they brought home, of course... It was about Abraham's descendents being numerous as the stars and they just stuck star stickers on the page (but Jordan lined his up like a rainbow across the page). AND they have totally learned the scriptures! Unfortunately, they're a bit timid (I guess that's what they got from me) and won't actually say the verses when they are supposed to during Bible study hour. But they will do the motions. But we say them every night before bed after we say prayers, so we know they can do it. so here is the proof!! I apologize if you can't understand their words... they are only 2, after all. But here is John 3:16 ~ For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life; and Genesis 1:1 ~ In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Jordan is on the left, Aidan is on the right)
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Chicken Buckets
making a tent with furniture and a bedsheet is a new favorite game of theirs, but they call it "under"
playing with Daddy in the "under"
Before I forget, I wanted to say that my new favorite thing the boys say is "chicken nuggets" because it comes out "chicken buckets"!! Too cute. They have all kinds of new words that I don't remember teaching them... Almost everyday they come out with something new, it's amazing! Right now, though, everything is "me do it". Aidan actually says "I" most of the time, but Jordan says "me". The best is when I hand him something at supper, like a fork; he'll say, "me have lellow fork." I mean, that's a whole sentence right there. It has helped some with a potty training slump we're in... I think it's partly getting over a sickness we had, but they just don't want to go (Aidan especially). So I've been playing up the "you're a big boy and can do it all by yourself" thing. And if they sit on the little potty seats, I don't have to pick them up (which helps me not have contractions). They associate things that I don't anticipate. Like Saturday, we said we were all going to the farmers' market and we would see the fire truck (there's a fire station right there and the door is almost always open). Jordan told me that Mimi & Grandpa would be there to see the fire truck, too (because they were visiting when we last went). It's just such a miracle to watch them grow and learn and develop skills and language and imagination. And potty training is a day-to-day struggle. I'm trying to (and not doing a great job) make it less of a big deal without losing my enthusiasm for them doing a good job - it's hard! They are still so young, but they clearly know what they're doing. Parenting is such a hard (but rewarding) job and sometimes I forget that tomorrow is just another day of the same. This is just my life right now, there is not really a "next thing" that I just need to be done with this in anticipation of. I'm not sure why that is so hard to grasp, but I know I'm not alone. And being pregnant doesn't help much :)
Aidan wearing Daddy's shoes
Jordan riding his "bike"
They are playing more together now than they ever have. They wrestle and chase and yell most of the day, actually. And along with developing imagination, we've been having some bad dreams. We were all sick a couple weeks ago with fever virus, ear infections, sinus infections... kept us down for more than a week. And we thought Jordan's sleep crying started back up then as part of the earaches. But it continued after everyone was well and I was confused about it. (He doesn't wake up as far as I can tell, but he whimpers and cries in his sleep. It's awfully pitiful.) And then finally, one night after our bedtime prayers, he wouldn't get in his bed. He kept saying "mommy daddy bed". I didn't let him, of course, but it was so heartbreaking to see that face! So after talking with my discipler about it, we've started teaching him to say the name of Jesus when he gets scared in bed at night. Andrew was at a meeting one night and so I taught them both to say "Jesus, protect me." And they remembered! And two days later, Aidan was laying in bed while Jordan went potty and he said to me, "prayers. talk God." I was so excited!! I told him that yes, we talk to God when we pray! I know he's young to understand the concept of God completely, but wouldn't it be awesome if they started to get it at this age?! And I think we've successfully countered the bad dreams with talking to God! I'm sure we'll have more rounds of bad dreams, but Jordan's definitely been sleeping better.
during the sick week, Aidan slept so much better sitting up - this was nap on the worst day
like Jordan would really sleep in his room alone... we'll have to work on that, I guess. but this day it was the couch with his favorite new "lovey" - a giant elephant pillow
Baby Asa: My last appointment was 2 1/2 weeks ago and I passed my glucose test. whoohoo! I asked Dr. P when the next ultrasound would be since I don't know what a normal pregnancy is like and she said there usually isn't one. I was a little bit devastated, but she said after the anatomy scan, they don't usually do any more unless there is a good reason. I told her that was fine, that I had just been curious since he was measuring so big last time and I was/am getting so gigantic and uncomfortable this early in the game. So she listened to his heartbeat on the doppler (always around 150-160) and then measured my belly to see what it was measuring. She didn't tell me what that measurement was, just agreed that I was getting big and said well, let's go ahead and get a growth scan. I took that to mean that I was measuring huge - and I was right :) The ultrasound tech said Dr. P wrote down that I measured 30 weeks. I was 25w3d. Fabulous. So then I got to see Asa on the ultrasound and he's a chubby little thing with plenty of fluid around him. He measured 26w6d. 10 days ahead. I have no idea what this means... but the first time we saw him, it was 3 days ahead, then 5 days ahead, now 10 days ahead. I'm 28 weeks today and still feeling gigantic, although the week of sickness knocked me back about 3 lbs. Asa is a very active little thing (well, big thing) and kicks just as hard as A & J ever did. Because my placenta is anterior (in the front), I feel more kicking inside than I did with A & J. It doesn't really make a difference, it's just more uncomfortable for me. But I still feel plenty of good strong kicks on the outside, too. I go back this Thursday, so I'm interested to see what Dr. P thinks about Asa's size and growth and whether or not we'll get any more ultrasounds! I'm thinking we may get to meet him in person a few weeks before his actual date :) We'll see.
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