Maverick's 1st Christmas...and My Life in Pictures

Being only 1 month old, Maverick didn't quite have the holiday buzz. But it was awesome to have our first Christmas with our son!


We hope everyone out there in Bloggy land had a wonderful time with their families too!!


Today, December 27th, is my birthday...and I'm now closer to 30 than 20. Okay, so I'm 26. :)

This birthday has been wonderful. I got to hang out with the coolest people in the world--my family. And eat LOTS of ice cream cake (my faaaaaavorite!). There was ice cream cake awaiting for me at both my parents' house and Robbie's parents' house!!

Plus, it snowed all day!!

I loooooooove having my birthday 2 days after Christmas. Most people think it would be awful. But I love it. My family has always accomodated a special party separate from Christmas for me. :) And I love that my birthday is smack dab in the middle of the holidays.

Here are some pictures through the years. Have a good laugh!


December 27, 1983: my "birth" day!


Christmas 1985: My sister Stacey is holding me, and my sister Robyn is showing how excited she is to open presents. :)


My sister Robyn and I chilling at Grandma's house. 1987


My preschool picture. 1988


My sister Robyn and I swimming!! I'm in the blue lifejacket, Robyn is in the orange lifejacket. Circa 1994


My 8th grade picture. 1997-1998


My first car. A 1993 Geo Storm. It was awesome!!!!!!!! 2002


Prom, 2002


High School Graduation 2002 with my BFF Rachel. Nevermind the ridiculous face I'm making!!


The infamous picture of all time! The first time Robbie and I danced together, and it was TOTALLY set up by our friends. It was our friends' wedding; both Robbie and I were friends of the bride and groom. Robbie came over and asked for the next dance. Which just happened to be the worst slow song of all time ("I swear" by All 4 One). Just as the music started the ENTIRE dance floor cleared. It was just me and him. And all our friends watching from the sidelines. VERY awkward. But the rest is history. 2003


Our first "real" date. We went to the Fox Theatre and saw "Oliver". 2004


All gussied up for a date with Robbie. 2005


Robbie proposing marriage to me in the Starbucks where we had our first date. I was on my cell phone because Robbie wanted to have one of my favorite bands (Calibretto 13) play for me during the moment. However, the band was broken up by then and the lead singer wasn't able to fly out. So he sang to me over the phone. August 2006


College Graduation, 2007. Bachelor's of Elementary Education, with an emphasis in Middle School Science. Magna Cum Laude from the University of Missouri-St.Louis.


Our Wedding Day: May 26,2007


We bought our first house in the fall of 2007.


We rescued Belle from the Humane Society on December 1st, 2007


Christmas 2008


The day we learned we were going to be parents: April 5th, 2009. I actually had no reason what-so-ever to take a test, and Robbie didn't know I was going to take it. To this day, I still don't know why I took it when I did. We were actually trying NOT to get pregnant; and we didn't know for sure if we could have kids because of Robbie's testicular cancer. You can imagine our suprise when it turned positive!


My first moment as a Mommy. November 26,2009


I've been ridiculously blessed with an amazing life filled with the best family and friends. I don't know how life can get much better, but I'm looking forward to it!

Information Overload

They say kids don't come with an instruction book...so why have so many people tried writing one?

At the risk of sounding way too cheesy and overdone, I must say that Robbie and I look to the Bible as our "instruction book" for life. (anyone else picture the bumper sticker on a Crown Victoria?) There, I've brought the cheese! Granted I've never read a passage about teething or soothing diaper rash in there. But I have read that God will give you wisdom if you ask.

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. James 1:5-7 (NAS)

My inspiration for this post came from some self-induced stress. During the many (many!) moments I spend feeding my son, I often need to entertain my brain. That sounds awful because I know that feeding time is bonding time. Lots of bonding going on, no worries!

I'm referring more to feeding time that occurs between 12 am to 6 am, when I need to keep myself awake. So I usually flip on the tv for some ambient noise, and I often grab a book too. Over the past few weeks I've read books on parenting styles and what to expect raising an infant. The result: feeling more confused and insecure than ever.

Going into the parenting world I've never really had crazy expectations for myself. I figured that I'd learn as I go. And I am. But I thought it wouldn't hurt to educate myself on techniques other people have tried, hence the reading material.

Let's pick the topic of crying. One very popular parenting style says "you will teach your child to control your life forever if you pick them up when they cry; from day 1 you should let them cry themselves to sleep as to not let them become dependant on you".

Another very popular parenting style says "from birth to 3 months you can never spoil your child; crying is their only way to communicate--when you ignore their cry they are deprived of their sense of security".

No wonder new parents go crazy! I'm as new at this parenting thing as you can get, so I'm not claiming to be any source of wisdom yet. But I do believe with everything in life, it's all about moderation. Extreme is extreme for a reason. I think it will be possible to discover what works for your child without compromising your sanity or your child's development.

With that said, I am kinda proud that Maverick is "sort of" sitting with his head up! He loves to sit in his Bumbo seat and stare at the ceiling fan. He also much prefers to be held so that he has to use his neck muscles, rather than lay sideways in my arms.



Although I should mention this was our first attempt, ha! I snapped the picture just as his head sunk forward. Once I tucked a blanket in the back of the seat he was able to balance himself better. :)

Robbie vs. The Garbage Disposal

About a week ago we noticed that our garbage disposal stopped working. We figured something must have clogged it, but it turned out to be "its time". It was kaput, working no more, on its way to the appliance heaven in the sky.

Last night Robbie went out and purchased a new garbage disposal and got to work replacing the old one. As with most home improvement situations in our house--things are always worse than first anticipated. In this case it was discovering that the old disposal was rusted badly, so all the parts were stuck together.

As Robbie was trying to get the old disposal detached, it fell unexpectedly and his hand wasn't ready to catch it. I was in the other room when I heard the loud "thunk" quickly followed by a teeth grinding growl. The edge of the rusty disposal pinned Robbie's hand to the floor, specifically landing on the middle finger knuckle.

Oh the amount of pain he was in!!! Poor Robbie was concerned about waking the baby by yelling, but I told him to let it out!! The gash in his finger warranted waking the baby if needed. However, Maverick was completely unfazed (as expected) by the whole scene.

I didn't take a picture of his finger, which is probably a good thing. The gash went to the bone and he probably broke his finger. Robbie treated it with alcohol and antibiotic ointment so it wouldn't get infected. He waited until this morning to get it seen by the doctor but by then it was too late to get stitches because it had started to heal.

Tomorrow he gets an x-ray to see if its broken, or if its tendon damage. I know this sounds funny, but hopefully its broken because that's easier to deal with than tendon damage.

After all that, he still got the new disposal installed last night. Thankfully our brother-in-law was already stopping by, so he helped him. Plus Robbie's dad also came over to help remove the rest of the old rusty parts.

Never a dull moment around here!

Measuring Maverick

So life has been super crazy! I don't even know where to begin, or what to write. Maverick pretty much has me tied to the house 24 hours a day. I am going crazy being inside this much. Maverick's doctor was pretty adamant about not taking him anywhere unless absolutely necessary for a few more weeks since it's the middle of cold and flu season.

You would think being home this much would give me time to write more on the blog. But free time is precious! When I get the chance I don't know whether to load the dishwasher or read a magazine. It's usually spent trying to catch a nap. Cumulatively I'd say I'm getting about 4 hours of sleep each day.

Mostly because Mav has to eat every 2 hours, and then it takes another 30 minutes or so to get him back to sleep. So by the time he is hungry again, I've barely caught a wink.

Going to sleep at night has been harder than I expected. I was ready for the lack of sleep for the usual reasons (the baby is hungry, needs to be changed, etc). But I find that I just cannot relax when Maverick is sleeping. I am constantly waking myself up to make sure he is still breathing. I have to make sure his face isn't covered, and make sure he is on his back (he already likes to turn on his side).

I am really trying to focus on the verse "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6

This verse helps me to take all my fears to God and find comfort that He is watching over Maverick.

I decided to have fun and track Maverick's growth by taking his picture next to his favorite stuffed animal. Well, we've decided it's going to be his favorite because it's a siberian husky just like his "older sister" Belle. This is his one week photo:


Here is the photo I took on his 2 week birthday. He looks longer, and he actually is because at his follow-up doctor appointment he had grown 1/2 inch in 4 days! But he also looks longer cause he is stretching out his anger. :) I tried, but I couldn't get a happy face for this week's picture.


I plan on doing a weekly photo only for his first month. After that I'm just going to take a monthly shot. I'll leave you with a picture of Maverick and his real life husky. Belle loves to sleep on the couch with him.

The Best Thanksgiving EVER!

I would like to introduce our son:

Maverick William
November 26, 2009
3:25 AM
7 lbs 6oz
20 1/4 inches



Wednesday (11/25) morning around 10 am, Robbie and I had just sat down on the couch to plan out our day of errands. Go to the bank, the store, clean the house, etc, etc. It was then that I realized my water had broken...but I didn't say anything for a few minutes just to make sure. I didn't want to prematurely freak Robbie out. We were just talking about how he still needed to pack his hospital bag. But he figured it out when I got up to go to the bathroom for the 3rd time in 10 minutes. :)

We were alot more calm than what my mind rehearsed in anticipation. Robbie packed his bag while I got a shower. And then Robbie got a shower. We sort of tidied the house and made sure things were okay to leave for a few days. Then we left Belle, our dog, with my parents. Although--we did sort of fib to my parents as to why we needed to drop her off. We didn't want to sound all the alarms until we got to the hospital and for sure knew that I was in labor.

Our dog Belle goes to hang out at my parents' house all the time, so she loves to jump out of the door when we pull into their driveway. But Belle knew something was up this time! Instead of getting out of the back door, she climbed into the front seat with me!! She curled up on my lap with her ears and head down. It was soooo sweet! And once she got inside, she stood at the top of the stairs and watched Robbie leave.

The drive to the hospital was sooooooo surreal. The sky was crystal clear blue and the sun was shining bright. Almost no traffic on the highway. Even though I wasn't even feeling contractions, Robbie decided to speed on the way there. His reason: to actually have an excuse to be speeding. :)

We did stop in the McDonald's drive thru before getting to the hospital. I was hungry and I knew that as soon as I got there, food would be off limits. So we both munched on chicken nuggets and french fries for the ride. Unfortunately the drive thru attendant wouldn't give us an "I'm in labor" discount.

This is me in the triage room. I looooooove ice chips, so I was quite happy. Oh and I wasn't in any pain yet either.


We finally got into our labor and delivery suite, and I was still feeling okay. My goal was to go as long as possible without an epidural. I was feeling quite confident that I could do it.


I made it to 6cm dilated, with contractions being 30 sec apart before I was in the most excruciating pain of my entire life. It was so crazy how much the pain intensified in just a few minutes. I couldn't breathe or relax between contractions at that point. So I went ahead and got the epidural. Looking back, I feel I did the right thing. I wasn't able to focus on breathing and felt my energy dwindle. The only thing I wasn't prepared for--no one ever told me, or I hadn't read it--was the vomiting! During the last couple of hours of labor I was vomiting quite frequently. I think it was a mix of an empty stomach and the stress. My doctor said that it's actually quite common for women to vomit frequently when the baby is descending. It's like the body is trying to help push him out.

After the epidural I progressed roughly 1cm per hour, and by 2am the doc asked if I was ready to do some practice pushes. Her original plan was to let me get to 10cm and still wait an hour before pushing. But after the practice pushes Maverick was (sort of) ready to come out.

An hour and a half of hard pushing later, Maverick arrived! He sort of got stuck actually. I could definitely feel him stuck in the right side of my pelvis. The pain actually ended up helping me push, otherwise I wouldn't have felt anything. There was talk of having to use a couple devices to get him out, but thankfully we didn't have to. This is the first time I saw my baby boy:


When he first delivered, all I wanted to hear was him cry. But he didn't, and it was the longest moment of my life. I kept asking Robbie if he was okay, but the nurses wouldn't let him near the warming table yet. After a couple minutes, Maverick finally gave a small whimper. By then they had called in a pediatric doctor for Maverick. His 1 minute APGAR score was a 5, but by 5 minutes it was up to a 9. Maverick just had a little trouble breathing after being stuck in the birth canal a while. It turns out though, that Maverick isn't much of a crier anyway.

Once the nurses gave the green light for Robbie to come over, she asked if he wanted to feel his heartbeat. So Robbie reached out to feel Maverick's chest, and Mav grabbed Robbie's hand and stopped crying. It was their first "moment". :)


The rest of the night is pretty much a blur. I remember being wheeled past the nursery where all of our family was watching Maverick getting the "once over" by the staff. And I remember our families briefly coming to the recovery room with us, but I quickly passed out from exhaustion.

About 8am, I woke up as the nurse wheeled Maverick into our room. Robbie was passed out on the little couch next to my bed. The nurse briefed me on all his tests and that he was nice and healthy. She put Maverick in my arms and I spent the next couple of hours internalizing that he was our baby--and the cutest one ever!

Maverick joined me in my first meal after delivery: pancakes, sausage links, and a blueberry muffin. I hadn't had pancakes in FOREVER because of the gestational diabetes. It was the best breakfast ever! Probably because our little family was all enjoying it together. :)

All clear for arrival!

I'm so happy for my dad! He harvested the biggest buck he's ever taken this weekend. We don't care that much about the size of the rack. It's more about the amount of meat! From what I hear, he was a Big'un! It took 3 of them to load the buck on the ATV. Can we say, "Deer sausage!!!!" Yum, yum, yummy!!!

I love eating wild game instead of the over processed meat from the grocery store. I wish it was more like the "olden days" of fresh farm meat. No antibiotics and steroids and stuff in the meat. The best chicken I've ever eaten was clucking an hour before I ate it.

Okay, so now with my dad's successful hunting trip over...and my sister-in-law is home from the Philippines...Maverick is clear to arrive any time now!!! LOL!

Of course now that there is no worry about all the family being home, Maverick is going to take forever getting here. Ha ha!

Nah, I'm actually not in too big of a hurry. He will get here when he's supposed to.

Although, last night I was having some pretty regular contractions for a couple hours, and then they completely stopped. And nothing since. They weren't painful at all...more weird than anything!!! My entire stomach would get really, really hard and oddly shaped for 20-30 seconds, and then stop. Crazy!

On the set of "Scrubs?"

As I sat on the examination table this morning for a routine prenatal visit, I was woken out of my morning fog with a gentle tap on the door and greeted by a young woman who couldn't have been a year or two older than me (mid 20s). Having to go to a free/reduced cost clinic at a major metropolitan hospital, I'm very used to seeing a different doctor every visit so it wasn't a red flag to see a new face. However, I could immediately tell she was very unsure of herself.

In a small voice she introduced herself as a medical student, and was very quick to say that the resident doctor would be in after her. I think she was afraid that I would be scared by her inexperience and would demand to see a "real doctor" and storm out of the room. But I couldn't be more happy to be her first patient without a doctor over her shoulder! I was excited that she would probably remember me out of the thousands of potential patients to come in her career.

On her clipboard she had written out all of the questions she was supposed to ask in these neat little bullet points. (Later, the resident doc would let her put this information into the computer system after she double checked it.) Then she grabbed the hand held doppler to measure Maverick's heartbeat. I felt sooooooo bad for her because she couldn't find his heart! She felt my tummy and quietly said, "I think his head is up here" pointing up toward my rib cage. I didn't have the heart to tell her that it was really down in my pelvis.

I could almost feel her wanting to shrink in height after struggling to find his heartbeat for 10 minutes without success. Part of it was that she didn't have the wand in the right place, and she wasn't pressing very hard either (afraid to hurt me I suppose). She kept apologizing profusely, and I kept reassuring her that I was glad to help her learn. After I explained to her that I was a science teacher who thrives on hands-on learning, she relaxed more and we had fun conversations about college biology lab classes.

After measuring a few more things with uncertainty, she got up to get the resident doctor and the poor thing stubbed her toe on a doorstop and almost smashed her head into the door. We both just laughed and blamed it on being Friday the 13th. :)

Fortunately the resident doctor was awesome about trying to boost her confidence. I was afraid that the doc would come in and take over with lots of rolling eyes or something. The doc had her measure everything again (heartbeat found this time with a little guidance!) and was very calm about directing her through it all.

Granted, by the end of the appointment I did sort of feel like one of the helpless creatures I watched being dissected from my chair in a college lecture hall. But that's okay. I hope I was a good first patient for her!

By the way the exam showed that I'm about 2cm dialated and about 60% effaced. The doc wants me to take it a bit easier because she wants to slow my progression only for the reason that the closer we can get to 40 weeks, the better. No long shopping trips for me!

Tick-tock!

It's so weird how excruciatingly slow time passes, but at the same time, you're not in a hurry for it to pass either. Ever feel that way???

I've been feeling like that since Saturday night. I've been having some contractions, so I'm anxious to get this whole labor thing going. We're sooooooo excited to meet our son, and curious as to what he's going to look like. How he's going to act, etc.

But at the same time, it's terrifying to think we're going to have a baby! You would think that 9 months would be plenty of time to prepare your mind for this. But it doesn't! Are we ready? The answer is no. But who is ever ready to be first time parents?? Nobody I know!!

So back to being excited!

During my NST this morning the nurse administering the test kept glancing at the printout from the contractions monitor, and asked me how I was feeling. I was like, "Ummmm....fine. Am I supposed to be feeling something else?" And she showed me that I was having pretty regular contractions that weren't huge or anything, but enough that I should be feeling them.

When I had another contraction, she let me know so that I could be aware of what it should feel like. I was like, "Oh! I've been thinking that was the baby moving or something!" She almost called my doctor to see if I should go get checked out at the hospital. But they weren't quite that bad yet.

Now back to waiting!

My gut feeling is that he's not going to arrive for at least another week or two. That would be good because the closer to 40 weeks, the better.

Plus--I've been given specific instructions to wait until Sunday night (at earliest) for 2 reasons:
1) This coming weekend is opening rifle season for deer hunting, and my dad is an avid hunter who doesn't want his grandson's birthday interfering. LOL! :)

2) My sister-in-law Johanna is out of the country until Sunday night. She had to go to the Philippines for work. Maverick needs to wait!

And I think he will. :)

Oh Internet, where for art thou, Internet?

Isn't it funny how something can be so frustratingly important one day, and then no big deal the next? And what makes it even more worse is when the situation is completely trivial. I'm talking about not being connected to the internet. Yesterday our modem wasn't working, therefore my glimpse into the outside world and my boredom cure for bed rest was gone. It was like living in 1995! (gasp!) :)

I guess it wasn't so much the fact that I had no internet at my fingertips. I have plenty of other activities I do during the day (see below). It was more about the time I spent on the phone with our internet service provider trying to figure out why our modem stopped working. To spare you the agony, I will sum it up by saying that I spent over an hour on the phone talking to 4 different people who probably live halfway around the world. And NONE of them could help me. Needless to say they suffered the wrath of an emotional almost 9 month pregnant woman!

So we ended up scheduling a service tech to visit the house today to fix the problem. You know how that goes--they say they will be there between the hours of 8am and 4pm. And they show up at either 6:30am or 5:30pm.

But now...as you can see...we woke up and the modem is working fine. I wanted to call and try to cancel the service tech visit, but Robbie still wants him to stop by just to make sure everything is okay. Easy for him to say! He doesn't have to stay here!

...oh wait...I was going to be home all day already! :)

Here is one of the activities I've chosen to help make bed rest time pass. I'm really excited about them, but at the same time I sort of regret the commitment to making my own birth announcements because I'm already thinking about if another baby should come along--I most likely won't have the time to make special announcements for them too. Can you tell I'm the youngest of 3? I'm not bitter... :)

I'm just gonna show you the cover. I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise!

Expect the Unexpected

There are 2 pieces of advice about becoming parents for the first time that I've taken to be the best. The first: expect the unexpected. The second: be as spontaneous as possible, because planning takes too much time and effort.

Trying to keep my mind open about all the unexpected things possible, I have to admit that I wasn't expecting to get sentenced to moderate bed rest until the baby is born. My boss once asked me, "When do you think you'll begin your leave from work?" My reply was, "When my water breaks."

Needless to say that won't be the case. Having experienced some symptoms of possible early labor last weekend, Robbie and I went to the hospital upon our doctor's advice to make sure everything was okay. Thankfully I wasn't experiencing contractions (and haven't since). But I was a teeny bit dialated. So the attending doctor put me on bed rest all this past week until my next regular doc appointment, which was yesterday.

My hope was that my doctor would give me the green light to at least go back to work. But we found out that I am about 1 centimeter dialated, so she would like me to stay on moderate bed rest until the baby is born. Yuck. We weren't planning on me leaving work at least until the end of November, possibly the first week of December. (but that might have been pushing it!)

So having said all that, I'm really looking at all the positives to outweigh the negatives.

1) I work in a school. Maybe God is protecting me from getting exposed to H1N1.
2) I now have TONS of "me time" before the baby is born. TONS of it.
3) Moderate bed rest doesn't mean I can't leave the bed...I just get to walk to the couch. :)
4) I get to relax. A lot.
5) I can enjoy catching up/starting various activities and projects. See #2.
6) I don't have to wear uncomfortable maternity pants all day. Sweatpants do just fine at home.
7) I have more time to blog.

8) MOST important of all--Maverick is doing wonderful, and if it takes bed rest to keep him that way, then that's what needs to happen, no doubt about it!

I'm trying not to think of it as bed rest anymore. It's a mini-vacation. Minus the travel size shampoo and beach. :)

Encouragement

Having been ordered by the doctor to take it easy this week, I've had plenty of time on my hands. Isn't it funny how when we're overloaded with our normal schedules, all we beg and plead for is just some time to relax?? I think it's funny because now that I've been forced to do nothing all day, I'm craving to do the littlest things. Robbie doesn't let me get away with much, so I've caught up (and then some) on books to read and unfortunately I'm quite knowledgeable of the reality t.v. circuit. I could tell you who was voted off and why for just about any show. :)

This past weekend my family and friends threw the most wonderful baby shower ever for me. I will never, ever be able to say "thank you" enough to them. One of the many amazing gifts I received was from our pastor and his wife. It is a book called "The Complete Book of Christian Parenting & Child Care".

I have to be honest and show a bit of my inner cynic when I say that I'm not one to run to a book for advice about parenting. Not that I have any clue about parenting, but having a Bachelor's degree in Education and working as an educator has proven one thing to me: no book can ever prepare you for the real life situation! That's why I think all colleges should change their education degree programs to all practicum experience rather than waste everyone's time in a lecture hall. (steps down from soap box)

I just wanted to share an excerpt from the book that really encouraged me, and calmed my fears about becoming a parent:
"You will be a good parent. Many of us start our mothering and fathering careers wondering, "Will I be a good parent?" "How will my child turn out?" "Will I be able to raise a godly child?" At this point, don't immediately think of turning to books, classes, or advisers. Tune into yourself--you will realize it is comforting to know that God would not have given you a child without the built in means to raise that child to love and serve the Lord. This would violate the concept of "Creator." God designed within every mother or father the necessary tools to parent their individual child; for example, God would not have given you a child with a temperament that you cannot handle. The key is to discover these built-in tools and use them to develop your skills according to the plan and design that God has for you and your child [...]"

It's scary to think about the world that Maverick will grow up in, and how we will handle that as parents. But really, hasn't sin always been sin? The world is not any more quickly "going to hell in a hand basket" than it was 50 or 200 years ago. But Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. :)

I had some fun (from my chair!) today capturing some of the things I want to remember about the days right before Mav arrives. Here are some of the cards from his baby shower:



I will save my other photos for later, as I will have more time than usual to blog. :)

Listening to the awesome

I don't quite like that my posts are mostly about Maverick, but at the same time it is such a huge thing that is so wonderful! We have lots of other things that define our lives and I want to write about those more too...but it's easiest to blog about all the new and exciting stuff happening with the baby, especially as his arrival time quickly approaches. So bear with me as I try to balance things out. :)

Yesterday I went to have my first NST (non-stress test). I knew that the test procedure itself wasn't a huge thing to worry about. I was more concerned about how long it was going to take and how bored I would get. Silly huh?? It turned out to be one of the most amazing experiences of my life and I'm actually looking forward to having them done every week.

So the nurse brought me back into this dimly lit room and strapped 2 monitors to my belly. One is to measure the baby's heartbeat, and one is to measure contractions (should there be any). I suppose any lady who has had a baby has had this done at least once--maybe the only time being while they were in labor. It was so wonderful because I laid back in this comfortable reclining chair in the dim room and listened to Maverick's heartbeat for 45 minutes. He was so squirmy that he kept bumping the sensor, and the nurse kept having to adjust it. :) There was a tv in there, but I didn't want to watch because it was more enjoyable to listen to the heartbeat. I also took that time to pray for Maverick.

The reason why I have to get these done weekly is because of my gestational diabetes. With GD the placenta can mature too quickly, and the oxygen and nutrient supply to the baby can diminish. So the test monitors the baby's heartbeat and movement, and makes sure that when he moves around his heart rate increases.

Yesterday I also had an ultrasound. It's actually been a couple months since my last one, so I was excited to see how much he had changed. This time the picture was a little more blurry, but that is a good thing! The nurse said as the baby grows, the sound waves have a harder time traveling through denser bones and muscles.

Overall the results were fantastic. It was so exciting that I've kinda blurred all the details that I wanted to remember. But that's probably because I wanted to remember them all! We watched the 4 chambers of his heart move. We watched him play with his feet. We could see his fingers and toes. We saw a clear shot of his eyes, nose, and mouth. The nurse took one look at his legs and said, "Wow! Look at those leg muscles!" So Robbie is very excited about his cycling future. The nurse also showed us that he already has a head full of hair.

I don't know why, but I got so excited about hearing that--that I got light headed. I've been trying to picture what he's gonna look like and I've been hoping that he would be born with a good amount of hair. I don't know why though. It's not like I need to worry about putting bows in his hair or anything.

He currently weighs 4 lb 11 oz. And the funny thing is (funny because I have GD), that's actually a little small for how far along I am. (according to the nurse) So she bumped his due date out to December 10th instead of December 1st. My dad will be happy because he was concerned about Maverick arriving during opening weekend for deer hunting, which is the last week of November. :)

Here is a shot of his face! Tilt your head to the right and you should see his eyes, nose, and mouth. His arm is slightly blocking the view.


Tomorrow is my baby shower, and I'm super excited about seeing everyone! I actually hate being the center of attention to open presents, but I'm sure that feeling will go away with the first "awwwwww!" look at an outfit. Yay!

Happy Birthday Robbie!

Agh, so much to catch up on! First and foremost, yesterday was Robbie's birthday!!! Despite the feeling of this being his last year in his "20s" he said he had a wonderful birthday. Unfortunately he had to work (I don't care how old you get, I think you should always take a day off work for your birthday!). But he enjoyed a nice birthday lunch with his co-workers, and I stopped by with a surprise cheesecake and his favorite drink from Starbucks: a venti, non-fat, no water, Chai tea. We were also hoping that the Cardinals would deliver a win for his birthday too...but that is a rather sore subject to bring up today. After the game we watched our favorite show "Project Runway" and enjoyed yummy german chocolate cake that my dad baked for Robbie.

I know that Robbie doesn't like all the mushy stuff, but I really do want everyone to know how thankful I am for Robbie. He is the best husband and the most best friend ever, ever, ever. Ever. It's not enough to say that God blessed me with him! (okay Robbie, the mush is over)

Let's see, what else...I've been in super nesting mode. I spent many hours this past weekend cleaning out closets, re-filing our filing system, and throwing out anything we haven't touched in a year. This craziness started when I was reading one of my many books/websites on pregnancy and they all advised that by 32 weeks you should have everything ready because the baby could come sooner than you may think. Maverick's room is just filled with his stuff in piles right now, but not organized into an actual nursery. This weekend's goal is to build the crib. (yaaaaaay!!) I think seeing the crib put together will be so awesome and wonderful. The reality will hit that a baby will be sleeping in there soon!

By the way, here are my 32 week photos:



I went to the doctor today for a routine visit. I'm going every week now, which is a little earlier than usual to start doing that, but they want to monitor Maverick's heartbeat and growth rate because of my gestational diabetes. I get a non stress test and ultrasound every week, starting next week. The interesting thing is that I've actually lost weight for the 3rd week in a row. We're only talking 3 pounds total, but when you're supposed to be gaining a 1/2 pound every week by now on top of being diabetic (in which the greatest danger is having a large baby), I find it all rather peculiar. With that said, he had an awesome heartbeat today and his size measured good too.

Okay, so the last topic of the day is about the upcoming holidays. Every year at this time I get bitten by the holiday bug!! I just want to skip over Halloween (which is a fun holiday) but Thanksgiving and Christmas are tied for number one in my book of the most wonderful things in life. I start listening to Christmas music this time of year and don't stop still it's here. Now that it's getting dark earlier (and a lot colder--frost advisory tonight!!!), it always brings back the warm fuzzy feeling of Christmas Eve church service. It's always dark out by the 5:30pm service, and I love looking at all the Christmas lights on the way to church. After service our tradition is that we get to open 1 gift and eat lots of goodies. :)

As if the holiday season couldn't ever get better, it will this year knowing that Maverick will be here by then. He will be so tiny and oblivious to it all, but we can't wait to share it with him!

Nothing is too small!

In college I took a World Religion class, and it was fascinating. My professor for this course was even more fascinating. He was about 5 foot 4 inches tall, had a mop of white hair on top of his head, and his beard was full and white as well. You could only see these beady little eyes peering at you through his rectangle glasses.

One of the things I remember most about his class was something he said on the first day. He said that God (Allah, Buddah, god, or the gods, etc) doesn't care about the small stuff (edited for a "G" rating). When we pray about insignificant things, it is a waste of time for us and them. The specific example he used was finding a parking spot. He was referring to the crazy drama that occurs on college campuses across America (specifically commuter schools). You really only know what this is like if you've been a commuter student.

Anywho, this statement from the professor stuck with me for 2 reasons. First--that particular morning I was reeeeeally behind schedule and it was all snowy/icy outside. As I pulled into the parking lot I prayed for God to give me a close parking spot to avoid being late and/or freezing to death before getting to the door. Just as I finished praying, someone started backing out of a parking spot worthy of being reserved for the college chancellor. For whatever reason God decided to allow me to get to class on time, and not die from hypothermia (even though it was my fault for being late).

The 2nd reason it stuck with me is because since that day, it has been proven over and over to me that God does care about the small stuff. I often think about how insignificant I am while I'm outside staring into the horizon. I exist as only one person in this vastness of the universe. And yet, God loves me and cares about everything in my life. He wants me to talk to him about everything from parking spots to cancer. Because for Him nothing is a surprise, He just wants us to open up to Him and share it with Him.

Whew, so believe it or not this is all just background story for what I really wanted to write about. I just wanted to share how awesome God has been to Robbie and I. (Well, if I did that it would take a while!) I'm just talking about something that was relatively tiny, and yet so huge to us.

Robbie's jeep license plates expired in August. He went to get it inspected for safety and emissions to renew the plates, and the report came back very pricey. Since the check engine light is on (it has been on for 2 years, and we know why it's on--it's not a big deal) the inspector said that we needed a new catalytic converter and to repair the fuel line. Oh, and new wiper blades. His quote was $700 for everything. Soooooooooooo, we can't afford to pay $700 to anyone right now. We were trying to figure out how to buy generic parts and pay someone to install them for a cheaper price.

On the way home from church on Sunday, Robbie noticed that the check engine light was off. What????????? That light hasn't turned off for 2 years!! For real?????

Robbie went and had the jeep re-inspected today and the inspector passed the jeep with flying colors. Only costing us $60 for the inspections. ("Only" being relative to $700)

Can I get an "Amen"?

God does care about the small stuff. Or in this case, small to the rest of the world, but huge to us.

It's a good thing needles don't bother me

I went back to the doc again today to get the specifics on my gestational diabetes. Not fun. My numbers weren't too crazy, but enough to require some action. I'm actually feeling overwhelmed right now about all the things I'm going to have to keep track of, but I'm sure this will go away as the routine sets in. Thankfully (well, hopefully) the diabetes should go away once the baby is born. Here is my daily routine starting tomorrow:


This is my snazzy new glucometer. I wish I could've at least picked the color (they come in pink!). I have to check my blood sugar 4 times a day: before breakfast, 1 hour after breakfast, 1 hour after lunch, and 1 hour after dinner. I have to record all my readings in a log. Not sure yet how I'm gonna pull this off at work.

And here is my new "diet". I hesitate to call it a diet, because I'm not really changing a whole lot of the food content. It's just a matter of the time of day and amount. I of course have to write all of this down too. It's not like I can cheat and not write something down because the glucometer never lies. Dang it!!

Categories of food (such as milk, meat, starch, etc) are all defined by my new snazzy "Choose Your Foods" book by the American Diabetes Association.

Breakfast, 6:30 am
1 Milk
1 Starch
1 Meat
1 Fat

Morning snack, 9 am
1 Starch
1 Meat

Lunch, 12 pm
1 Milk
1 Fruit
1-2 Vegetables
2 Starches
2-3 ounces Meat
1-2 Fats

Afternoon snack, 3:30 pm
1 Fruit
1 Starch

Dinner, 7 pm
1 Milk
2-3 Vegetables
2 Starches
3-4 ounces Meat
1-2 fats
1 Free food (pick from list given)

Evening snack, 10:30 pm
1 Milk
1 Starch
1 Meat

Can you see how this could be slightly overwhelming?? I never have meals planned out, so to be this specific everyday is going to be crazy. But I can do it! And again, hopefully this will only be for the next 2 1/2 months until Maverick gets here.

In the meantime, no sugar!

This week I was given some pretty suprising news: I have Gestational Diabetes. This was sooooooo shocking and out of the blue for me. I have had none of the tell-tale signs: irregular increase in weight gain, unusual thirst, increased urination, and fatigue. The last 2 symptoms crack me up because those are nearly impossible to distinguish as anything other than normal for preggos.

This news was also very shocking for me because I'm not a super sugar eater. Of course I love ice cream and cookies as much as the next person, but I would say that my daily intake of sugar is right on average with everyone else. Feeling completely guilty for Maverick, I asked the nurse if my diet could have brought this on. She said that GD can develop in healthy women when there is a strong family history of diabetes. Ah hah, that must be the culprit. Adult onset diabetes is very strong in my family.

I meet with a dietician next week to get a more personalized diet plan going for the rest of my pregnancy. But the funny thing is--I'm not going to have to change much according to the GD diet plans I've read about online. Even before I was pregnant, I only eat whole grain pastas/breads, fresh veggies/fruit, and lots of lean meat.

You know how everyone has the "staple" dinner at their house? The when-in-doubt-and-in-a-hurry-never-fail trusty dish? Ours is a pasta recipe that I made up a couple years ago that will be perfect for my GD diet. It is: organic whole wheat pasta, extra virgin olive oil, basil, parmesean cheese, cooked chicken breast, and whatever vegetable that might be lying around (usually red peppers and onions). Yummmmmmmmmm! Of course this famous pasta has a bazillion versions because its based on whatever meat and veggies are in the house.

Anywho, I've decided to completely cut out sugar. I realize that sugar is natural in some foods, but I'm talking about the usual culprits such as soda, desserts, and the sort. The hardest part is the no soda. I've been doing the caffiene free soda during the pregnancy. But to cut it out completely????!!! Maverick may never know what sort of sacrifice this is for me. :)

"Pretty Girl" the Husky

Robbie and I were driving home Saturday night on a pretty busy road, when Robbie spotted a stray dog. We are such dog lovers, and whenever we see a lost or stray dog we stop and make sure the dog is okay and try to get it to it's owners. So when we saw this dog it terrified us to see that this dog was in great danger of being hit by a car. She was walking with a limp, and she was quite dazed--so we're pretty sure she had already been hit.

We finally got this dog to our Jeep and out of the street by walking along side her and "guiding" her. Otherwise, she kept trying to go back out into the road. Upon closer inspection we noticed that she had no collar, was soaking wet, her fur was greatly neglected, and she was very disoriented. We didn't see anyone around out looking for her. So we took her home until we could take her to the Humane Society in the morning.

We started calling her "Pretty Girl" because she is beautiful, and so mild mannered. Once we were home we checked for more signs of trauma and watched closely to make sure she didn't go into shock. Thankfully she made it through the night, and even ate a few bits of food.

"Pretty Girl" has either been lost for a while, or was abandoned by her owners (if there is a better one, we'd hoped for the latter). You could tell by the shape of her coat (matted, chunks of hair coming out). Her eyes had a lot of drainage, and her teeth were quite yellow. And the way she walked with a limp indicates she was either injured or was suffering from hip displaysia.




We took her to the same Humane Society where we rescued our Siberian Husky, Belle. The first question they asked was the same we struggled with all night: "Do you want to keep her if the owners aren't found?" (she was microchipped, but no info came up in the computer) It was very, very, very, difficult to say no. She is an awesome dog. And we would have loved to rehabilitate her just like we did with Belle. But the timing isn't right.

From experience with Belle we know what it takes to rehab an abandoned dog, even when they are so sweet and mild. They need to be socialized and house trained. It took a few months to get Belle up to par, and with the new baby coming in just a few months that would be too much for everyone, including Belle.

So while we sat in the parking lot after taking her in, the thoughts that comforted us was the hope that someone else like Robbie and I would have the opportunity to give her a good home. "Pretty Girl" can be the awesome rescue story for someone else like Belle was for us.

The Big Dig

The great excavation has begun!!

When Robbie and I first bought our house, we knew that someday we would need to replace our fence. Unfortunately that day came sooner than we thought. We're pretty sure the previous owner was taken advantage of because whoever built the fence did an awful job. The wood is rotting and warped, they used nails instead of screws, and the concrete bases (if there at all) are below ground (so the wood rots even faster). I thought I took more pictures of how awful the fence was, but I could only find these two from this past winter.

Many sections began leaning over, eventually falling.


Eventually we shared a backyard with our wonderfully understanding neighboor. He didn't even mind that Belle roamed over there in his beautiful gardens.


So this week Robbie and my dad began the Big Dig to replace the fence. Unfortunately this long holiday weekend was supposed to be a great opportunity to get a lot of work done, but alas--as I type it is pouring down rain. And its supposed to rain all weekend. Here are a few snapshots of what they've done so far.

Except for the corner posts, these are all the old posts still. It was A LOT of work to get the posts out of the ground. (I say this like I dug them out--but at least I helped keep them hydrated!) They used the Jeep to pull the posts out of the ground once they were dug out a bit...which ended up giving the Jeep a flat tire after rolling over a piece of metal.


The other obstacle that ended up being more of a hassle than planned was our jungle of weeds. The plan was to rip out everything and start fresh with our landscaping, so we just let it all go...and it overtook the yard!


This is my husband--the lumberjack. And no, that's not a tree...it's a weed. Yikes!


Right now our yard looks like a tornado disaster zone. Literally.


I am ever so thankful for all the hardwork Robbie and my dad are doing. My dad comes over to work on the fence even when Robbie has to work late. (He's gonna kill me for typing that too.) And they both work on the fence in the evening after a long day at work. They are awesome!

This wouldn't be a blog post without mention of our impending arrival of Maverick, so I'll end with that. :)

This week we were completely suprised with a HUGE blessing: over 1000 diapers! We can't even express how thankful we are for this gift. Someone sent us 7 boxes of diapers ranging in size from newborn to 30 lbs. Many blessings to the person who sent this gift!


Last but not least, an updated belly pic. My friends are always begging and pleading for more belly pics, so being the good friend I am, I will oblige. :) This was taken at 27 weeks-ish.


I can't believe that Maverick will be here in 3 months. I can't wait!!