Giving Thanks

As I have been trying to rock my son to sleep for the past 45 minutes, I figured I should write a thankful post to counteract frustration.  Today, I am thankful for:

47. My son whom I get to rock to sleep no matter how long it takes…some women can’t have children, so I am incredibly blessed

48. Raindrops on fall leaves

49. Furnaces

50. Big smiles

51. Pianos

52. Watching Kiera enjoy chocolate milk with her Daddy

53. Sleep

54. Fall colors

55. Baby monitors

56. Clean drinking water

57. Watching Kiera try on hats

58. That God doesn’t give us more than we can handle and that He is there to help us every step of the way

59. Sunshine

60. A soft bed (which I am planning on climbing back into now)

Kiera’s 2-year Photos

My Mom-in-law took Kiera’s 2-year pictures at the end of October.  Once again, they turned out amazing!  Here are some of my favorites.

The next picture is one of my favorites

This next one makes me laugh

Dancing + singing with the necklace?

This next one is my other favorite

Life With 2 Kids

Kiera is starting to learn the words to her favorite songs. Here she is singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" a couple of weeks ago. She's gotten better at it since I took the video, but she still often skips "like a diamond in the sky."

Blake continues to be a dream baby. He's 10 days old now and he slept through the night last night!! I prayed that he would have a really good sleep and God answered more abundantly than I expected! He slept from 11:30 p.m. - 6:30 a.m. and then from 8 a.m. - 11:15 a.m. My Mom came over this morning to help me out since this is the first day that Jared is back at work. It was so wonderful to have him home for 10 days! This morning I showered, fed Blake, gave Kiera a bath, managed to eat both breakfast and lunch, washed some of the dishes (my Mom washed the rest) and did 3 loads of laundry! I feel so productive! One thing I'm not used to is that Blake spits up semi-regularly. Kiera only spit up 2 or 3 times in her life. That's one of the reasons why I've had so much laundry to do since Blake was born. I use a blanket while burping him, but sometimes it goes onto his clothes or my clothes. Oh well, that's life. A relaxed baby with lots of laundry is WAY easier than a fussy baby with little laundry. So far, he is Kiera's opposite. Everything is going much better than I ever could have expected! Thank you, Lord!

Kiera + Blake

Here's a short video of Kiera meeting her brother for the very first time.

It was very interesting when Kiera came to the hospital. Blake had too much mucous in him and that was causing him to choke at times and he didn't want to eat properly, so they took him out of the room to give him saline water which cleared out his stomach. They started to take him out of the room and Kiera yelled, "NOOOOOO!!" I said, "It's ok. He'll come right back." Then once he was out of the room, she started crying! It seemed as if she knew this was our baby because she has never reacted that way before to any other baby. I'm so glad she loves him!

The health nurse came today and weighed him and he is now heavier than his birth weight! He weighs 8 lbs. 3 oz. I'm so glad my breast milk is good! Last night, he was only up twice to feed at 1:30 and 6:00, so I got 9 hours of sleep! Praise the Lord for His goodness + mercy! We also weighed Kiera and she is 28 lbs. She is so big and heavy compared to Blake! I'm so thankful for healthy children. :)

IT'S A BOY!!!!

Our son, Blake Ryan, was born on Friday, Nov. 6th at 1:13 a.m.!! Weight: 7 lbs. 15 oz. Length: 21 1/4 inches Here's the story:

I had false labor on + off all week that started on his due date, Nov. 2nd. It usually started at night and sometimes the contractions would get up to 5 min. apart and then they would stop after a couple of hours. That was really frustrating for us. On Thursday, Nov. 5th, I had a doctor's appt. All of that false labor was not for nothing...I was 3 cm dilated at my appt. She asked me, "Do you want me to do a membrane sweep?" I quickly said, "YES!" I went home and by 2:00 that afternoon, I was having contractions again. They were about 5 min. apart, but I wasn't sure if it was real this time. I was GBS positive, so I was supposed to go to the hospital either when my water broke or when my contractions were 5 min. apart. They were pretty steady all afternoon and by 5:00 I figured we should go to the hospital. We got ready and dropped Kiera off at my parents' house and arrived at the hospital at 7 p.m. When I got there, I was 5 cm dilated. My doula came and we got moved to a really nice LDRP room where you labor, deliver, and recover, so you never have to move! I went into the jacuzzi tub almost right away and labored in there for a couple of hours. By 11:00, the pain was getting pretty bad, so I said, "I want an epidural." They measured me and I was 7 cm dilated. The nurse tried to talk me out of it because she figured the labor would go quickly after that and that the epidural would hardly have time to take effect. I was getting frustrated with her and she said, "Why don't you try the gas?" and I said, "Ok." I tried it for a bit and I really didn't like it. It made me very dizzy. I was still in the jacuzzi room at that time and said, "I still want an epidural," so they moved me back to my room and checked me again. I was 8 cm dilated and they said, "It's too late." I was like, "WHAT?! I have to do this naturally?" They hooked up some fentanyl to my IV, which helped a bit, but not much. Shortly before 1:00 a.m., I was 10 cm dilated and ready to start pushing and was in the WORST pain of my life. I said, "I feel like I'm going to die!" I was writhing around on the bed, not knowing how I was possibly going to go on. They broke my water, I pushed for 15 min. and out came Blake! While I was pushing, I had NO drugs...totally not what I had planned for! The burning I had while pushing was incredibly painful and combined with the pain of the contractions it was almost unbearable. When he came out, they didn't announce what the gender was. The doctor held him up and said, "Look!" I half sat up and said, "A penis?! Oh my goodness! We have a boy!! Thank you Jesus!" After that, Jared cut the cord. We had really wanted a boy and just felt so blessed that we got the genders that we wanted both times! I had 2nd degree tearing, which makes sitting painful, but it's slowly healing. Blake hardly ever cries...basically just when he's hungry or getting his diaper changed. He's been sleeping very well and we're just so incredibly blessed! Blake means "forgiven" and Ryan means "youthful heart." Here are a few pictures:

Still Waiting

Yes, I'm still pregnant. I am now more overdue than I was with Kiera. I'm feeling more encouraged today, though. I saw my OB this morning and I took a friend along. We found free parking (YAY) and my previous appts. with this doctor I had to wait 2 1/2 hours the first time and half an hour the 2nd time. Today, I had just walked in the door and sat down when they called my name. I think my jaw almost hit the floor! My friend came in with me and got to hear the heartbeat! She doesn't have any kids, so this was her first time hearing a baby's heartbeat. :) The OB felt the baby and said that they should be a similar size to what Kiera was, so I really hope that's true! Kiera was 7 lbs. 1 oz. The baby is sitting very low which is also good. I'm just amazed that I am still wearing my wedding rings and I can still close my jacket! I couldn't do either of those things at the end of my pregnancy with Kiera. After the appt., we went to the mall and just walked around and browsed. We had a really good time. Kiera was at her grandparents' house for the night again, so I was able to relax and not have to worry about the extra work of bringing a toddler shopping. I was actually just at the mall last night, too, with my Mom. I've just been sitting at home waiting for this baby to come and yesterday I desperately needed to get out of the house and do something. She needed to exchange some shoes, so I gladly went with her after dropping Kiera off for the night. Here I am at 40 weeks + 1 day pregnant.























Baby, I'm ready whenever you are!

Brian Regan on Flying

This is a comedian that my brother-in-law and sister-in-law showed us on youtube. He is really funny and completely clean which I very much appreciate! I haven't felt like blogging lately because I've just been very focused on wanting to get this baby out! I don't like that I've gone overdue, but at the same time I'm thankful that I've gone overdue instead of having the baby too early. I went into labor one day after my due date with Kiera, so I was really hoping for something similar with this one. A lot of people have been asking me how I'm doing and whether or not the baby is coming yet and I'm thankful that people care. I've found that most people are definitely not as excited about a 2nd baby as they are about a 1st baby, which kind of doesn't seem fair, but I suppose I can understand. I'm SO curious as to the gender of this baby. With Kiera, we had a feeling that it would be a girl and we were hoping for a girl, but with this one we have no inkling one way or the other. I keep trying to tell myself that we'll know sometime in the next 13 days, which in the big picture, isn't a very long time. God has already picked the day, so I need to wait on Him. Hopefully we'll have some news for you very soon!