29 week belly shot!

I missed documenting 28 weeks and was QUITE concerned that I would be posting pictures of our baby at this point and not another belly shot! Here we are at 29 weeks though, safe and sound in utero!

I thought we better get a Christmas tree shot too!

I am praising the Lord for each day we make it at this point! I am trying to be patient and remember that God has a plan and is in control. My wonderful husband is keeping me focused on this and trying to keep me calm!

Lord, thank you for the days and hopefully weeks more that this little one will be inside me! I know you have a plan for him or her and I pray you continue to give me peace and help me trust this plan. Thank you for your precious gift, YOUR son, and giving us a reason to celebrate this season! Thanks for wonderful friends and family who have been loving us as I take it easy. In your precious name, Amen!

My two sons

How can I be so blessed to call these two little boys my sons?

How can I be so blessed to have these two little boys call me mommy?

How can two little boys teach me so much about patience, humility, selflessness, sacrifice, and love? How can two little boys drive me so crazy one minute and make me feel completely inadequate as a mother and wonder if I should be checked into the pysch unit STAT...

...and the next minute make me so thankful that God has given me the privilege of raising them and being called their mother that my heart just melts looking at them?

I wouldn't give up the sleepless nights, sticky kisses, completely chaotic days, snuggles together, the good, bad and the ugly for anything.

I love these days of superheroes, trains, legos, and wrestling. I love the snuggles on the couch while reading books, our naps together, and our adventures. I love having two little helpers when I am cooking, cleaning or trying to tackle a new project. I love the trips to the park, open gym, and our "dates" to Starbucks or McDonalds. I love watching you both learn so much each day. I also love watching you become the little guys God created you to be!

Thank you for stretching me to new heights, challenging me each day, helping me appreciate each day together and helping me grow to be a better mother. I love you both and thank you for being my sons. I pray God continues to help me learn daily how to be a better mother for you and help prepare you for life. Thanks for being patient and loving me through it all! You are growing up too fast and I am trying to cherish each moment.

Love Your Mommy

Happy Anniversary to Nikki and Tom!

One year ago my little sister Nikki married her best friend Tom. One year ago we had a wonderful time celebrating with them as they said "I do" and made a promise to each other to spend the rest of their lives together. It was a perfect wedding and we can't believe it has already been a year. They are happily married in Bozeman, Montana.

We miss them lots and wish Montana was a little closer or at least that they were ;0) They are coming home for Christmas and we are looking forward to seeing them, even if it will be a quick visit!
Happy Anniversary you two love birds! We pray for many more wonderful years together. We pray for God's plan in your lives to continue to unfold and that you will grow stronger and closer as you walk this path of marriage together. We love you so much and are so blessed to call you family. Cheers to Nikki and Tom, we love you!

Oh Christmas Tree, How I Love Thee

Last week we went and picked out a Christmas tree finally! We were hoping to go cut our own down at a tree farm, but due to the frigid temps and lack of time we ended up going to the same place we went last year to get one. However, we were disappointed to discover that they only had 5 trees left! So we ended up picking one up at Menards for $15 and it is actually a very nice tree. Richard and I decided that if it wasn't at least we didn't spend much on it! The boys thought we were a little crazy when we set it up inside to warm up and open up. They didn't believe us until they saw it open for themselves.

We decorated the tree the next night and had a little party to celebrate. We are thinking we will make this a tradition each year. We had sparkling juice, cheese, summer sausage and crackers and some chex mix. The boys had their church Christmas program that day so it did get a little late when we finally got around to getting it up and we had no naps that day so it was also a little tricky with that.

This is probably one of my least favorite pics of myself, but I took one for the team so you could see our spread from our "tree decorating" celebration.

Poor Elijah missed out on most of it by sleeping on the couch since he missed his nap from the church Christmas program. Fortunately he woke up later and was helping us out, but unfortunately he was up a little later due to his cat nap.

Jonah took my spot helping Richard decorate the tree lights so I could be the photographer.

Then Elijah woke up and had to help too of course!

Putting ornaments on the tree was an adventure! We have quite a few and I was trying to control which ones went up and stop the little fingers from opening all the boxes and breaking any. It was fun to watch the boys remembering some of them and for Richard and I to be able to tell them about some of our favorites.

I was able to put a few on myself, and we had to document "Bruce" helping too!

Then it was time for the star and we let both boys have a turn putting it up! I still remember my dad lifting me up to put the star on. My sisters and I rotated each year so when it was your turn it was a BIG deal!

Now it's Elijah's turn.

The final product! We haven't decided on a name yet...we (or at least I) name the tree each year. Last year our tree was Sophia and the year before it was "Evie" so my vote is for Lucy this year. Jonah doesn't like it though so we'll see.

After getting the decorations up we sang some Christmas carols together and put the boys to bed. We are looking forward to celebrating Christ's birth in less than one week! We are praying you are able to slow down and focus on the reason for the season.

29 weeks and contracting in the hospital

Update: I was discharged this afternoon after having my contractions stop for about 6 hours and being taken off the magnesium sulfate. My cervix still hasn't changed too! Praise the Lord! I am home resting and thanking the Lord for more time inside for this little blessing!

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Yesterday we were officially 29 weeks and our little peanut must have gotten confused by all the excitement and thought it would be fun to have a little party in the hospital with pre-term labor!

As many of you know this little bugger has been giving us a run for our money since 20 weeks with contractions continually since. However, they have never been anything we were too terribly concerned about until last night. I had gone into work to help out after a whole bunch of babies decided to be born all at once!

I got there at 5pm to help work and was doubled over in pain with tears at 6pm with contractions. My WONDERFUL co-workers wouldn't allow me to persuade them to let me be and personally delivered me to labor and delivery to be evaluated.

Fortunately, they did that because shortly after being placed on the monitors I was contracting quite significantly ever 2-3 minutes. It became a whirlwind as I was being examined, tests ran, and medications given hoping to stop them quickly.

The first drug they gave me (terbutaline) would hopefully stop the labor and then I was given betamethasone (a steroid) to help the baby's lungs mature a little quicker if he or she did decide to arrive so early. When the terb didn't work they added nifedipine (another med to stop labor) and when that didn't work we went to the big guns...magnesium sulfate. Wow, that is some fun stuff, if you have ever been on it I am sorry! Yuck!

That finally did the trick. At about 430 in the morning they slowed from every 2-3 minutes to every 5 minutes. Then now this morning to every 10-15 minutes. I was quickly reminded how painful labor is and how grateful I am that it does work (when it should). I am a little nervous now that I have been reminded of it, but very thankful that God has stopped the contractions and let our little one have a little longer inside!

Please pray for the contractions to stop, and for wisdom with bedrest and work. My physician is wonderful and is confident that we have found the right cocktail of meds and that I won't need to be bedridden for the remainder of the pregnancy, but may need to take it a little easier. We are going to play it by ear and see how it goes.

I will update if anything changes and appreciate your thoughts, prayers, calls, and emails! They are very encouraging and help me keep my focus on God's plan and not my own!

Not me Monday...

It has been awhile since I have participated in Not me Monday! If you are lost, check out MckMama for the details...and the following did NOT happen to me at all! (Due to the length of the story I am going to exclude all the statements that I did NOT do the following, but just know that is the case!)

So a few weeks ago the boys were both in desperate need of a bath. They were both in the tub and I was putting clothes away frantically in their room, trying to finish before there was more water on the floor than in the tub.

Earlier in the day Elijah had been complaining of a stomachache and I had written it off for not wanting to finish any of his meals because he was just too excited to play with whatever toy was waiting for him. However, when he said it again at supper I was a little concerned that he may in fact be getting the dreaded stomach flu! So, when he refused to finish his chicken pot pie we allowed him to be done and saved the rest for him to eat later if he was hungry. I also had been having a horrible day contracting all day and was in quite a bit of pain from the constant tightening of my uterus and nervous about these continuing contractions.

The boys were in the tub all fresh and clean having a grand old time when I heard some coughing and then silence. Now, I must tell you that they have this disgusting habit of drinking the bath water or at least letting it run into their mouths and then out again. We have discouraged this and explained why it is a little gross to drink water you have been bathing in, but they often forget this minor detail when having so much fun playing.

So I heard the coughing and silence. I waited for a few seconds to hear more coughing and recovery, and asked if they were ok. Instead I heard Jonah's very nervous voice calling for me. I ran into the bathroom and saw Elijah standing in the tub with big eyes and blue lips trying to cough out the water but not making any noise or breathing. I grabbed him from the tub, around the waist, and lifted him out and over to the toilet and gave him a few good blows to the back.

I think the combination of my squeeze on his tummy and bending him over the toilet caused him to cough up the water and loose his supper into the toilet. As he is puking and having some even come out his nose he asks me in between gasps for air if he can go back into the tub. What a trooper! I then said what any loving mother would, "Just finish throwing up honey, then you can go back into the tub."

In case you forgot, our older son Jonah (who is still in the tub) has a VERY sensitive gag reflex. So sensitive that a stinky fart, sound of a gagging brother, etc can cause him to throw up. As I hear him gagging behind me I yell for Richard to come and distract him while I restrain Elijah from jumping back into the tub while he is puking.

I also yell at Jonah to cover his ears, plug his nose and think of a happy thought. He somehow manages to do all these things and recites "Grandma's house, Grandma's house, Grandma's house" for his happy thought.

By the time Richard came to our rescue, the emergency was ending and things were under control so he returned to our bedroom where he was putting clean clothes away.

After getting them settled back into the tub I started to walk down the hall towards our bedroom and realized my sweatpants were soaked from my waist to my knees.

Since I had been having such bad contractions that day I immediately thought my water had broke. My mind went into panic mode and I immediately start thinking the worst. Like that we aren't even 28 weeks yet, or would I be shipped to Fargo and put on bedrest, or would I have to deliver and have our baby on a ventilator and be in the NICU for months, or would our little fighter succumb to the numerous complications premies face like a bleed in the brain, retinopathy of prematurity, necrotizing enterocolitis, or have horrible lungs as a result from being born early.

As I am rambling off my fears to Richard, he is trying to comprehend what I am saying and asking me if we need to go to the hospital or if my water truly did break. There was definite fear in his eyes.

At that moment I was brought back to reality and realized how badly I had to pee while I was putting the boys clothes away and that I had decided to finish doing that before going to the bathroom. Which was right before Elijah started chocking and turning blue on me.

So fortunately I only peed my pants and just didn't realize it because I was more worried about my child who was not breathing and not my lack of bladder control.

After realizing this I was able to breathe a little easier, but continued to amaze Richard that I could pee my pants that bad and not realize it for so long! The beauty of having a weakened bladder after having kids I guess and being pregnant!

I hope you haven't peed your pants while reading this and that at least you got a good laugh for the day. We all certainly need them and I am more than happy to allow you to laugh on my behalf!

So what did you NOT do this past week?

One of my favorite rooms

We moved into our home in July of 2008 and quickly realized that there is always something we can be doing to "improve" our home or make it more our own. Richard has done an excellent job doing all the jobs himself. He continues to amaze me with his endless list of skills and talents related to fixing and working around our house. One of the projects he recently finished was the trim in our living room and hallway.

When we moved in we tore the carpet up and Richard refinished the beautiful hardwood floors that lay under it. During this process we had to take the trim off and realized it wasn't in any shape to be reused. Richard picked out some beautiful trim and crown molding to replace it but we (or I suppose I should say he) hasn't had enough time to finish it.

He worked very hard over his Thanksgiving break and the last few weeks to finish it and it looks BEAUTIFUL. I am so proud of him and impressed. He also helped me (well mostly he did it and I helped him) hang some pictures that I have been waiting to put up for a long time.

The room has always been one of my favorite rooms in my house for a few reasons. One because it is very cozy and two because it has a wonderfully large picture window to look out while relaxing. Now that it is almost "finished" I like it even more!

Here is my wonderful hubby measuring and making sure the pictures are level and straight. (You can even see the beautiful trim and crown molding in the background).

Here are the pictures we had taken last June by Stacy. She did a great job and it is fun to be able to display them for all to see.

Here is the final product. Doesn't it look inviting? Don't you just want to come over and join me for a cup of coffee and a chat? The door is always open...