Preparing My Head and Heart for Baby #2

In case you haven't seen it, I wanted to share with you the "Family Chatter" column I got to write for the July edition of Little Rock Family. It's a column we run each month on the last page of the magazine, where various parents/grandparents get to share what's going on in their lives and hearts concerning their family.

As soon as I knew I was going to do it, I knew I wanted to write about Baby #2. I had to be quiet and still for a while and just think. I had to think about the new baby entering our family and process the feelings that came with that news. This piece is that process.

Click here!

But the bottom line is this: I am SO excited about having a second child. Tyler and I both are. Like I said in the article, I know there's room in our hearts and home for another one. And I know God will work out the not-enough-hours-in-the-day, not-enough-arms-on-my-body, not-enough-money-in-the-bank issues. He always does.

I can't wait to watch the rest of our story unfold.

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Yesterday I had my first ultrasound for Baby #2.

Seeing our baby on the monitor was no less remarkable this time than it was with Eden. It was absolutely amazing.

There is something about seeing your baby in an ultrasound that just makes the pregnancy so much more REAL. There is a real, live, beating-heart baby inside of me.

I have always been a supporter of Pro-Life issues, but being pregnant makes me want to be one even more, if that's possible.

As of tomorrow, I'll be 12 weeks along. That means, according to Babycenter.com, my baby is the size of a lime, has fully formed arms, legs, fingers, toes, eyes, nose and even reflexes. Its kidneys are functioning, its nerve cells are rapidly multiplying, and synapses are furiously forming inside its brain.

To me, that sounds like so much more than a "fetus"! You can call me crazy, but I even think I've already felt this baby move a couple times, which the doc told me is possible. And judging by how much the little stinker was kicking and flinging around on the ultrasound screen, it's likely!

Bottom line is that I will never comprehend how we can, as a society and a nation, "OK" the practice of aborting babies. Tyler and I talked about it later and could only shake our heads in disbelief and disgust. That baby we saw kicking around on the screen was just as alive as the one sitting with me on the exam table.

I read that 84 percent of women decide against an abortion after having an ultrasound. (That's why they are so important) And that makes perfect sense to me after seeing how very ALIVE those little babies are.

But even more than to me, I know they are very alive to God.
 

Psalm 139:13-16 "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

She's Diagnosed; I'm...Delusional?

We just got back from the doctor. On top of not sleeping, Eden developed the runniest nose ever and a horrible hacking cough. So I relented and took her in again.

And I'm glad I did. Double ear infection. Again. Or *still*

Apparently drugs didn't do the trick two weeks ago. So we got a stronger round of antibiotics, and I'm hoping/praying these do the trick. And we can all start sleeping again.

And speaking of sleep... (lame segway into a totally mostly unrelated topic)

My sleep these days is filled with some INTERESTING dreams. They say that's normal for us pregnant ones. And I've always had frequent, vivid dreams. But these lately are just STRANGE.

Here's the latest. The other night I dreamed Tyler came home FULLY tattooed. Like from his neck to his fingers to his toes.

And the best part? It was all NEON. Everything except his face was a huge splash of pink, orange and green tye-dyed disgustingness.

Something like this.


credit: BodyPaintZone.com


only BRIGHTER!

Anyway, as soon as I saw him I literally fell prostrate on the floor, buried my face in the hardwood and bawled my eyes out.

But then, to save the day, Tyler told me The Good News: it washed off! Most of it...

There were only two tattoos that were permanent. One on his back was a huge eagle with a computer in the middle of it. He told me it symbolized..........................

wait for it................................

Online Witnessing!

bahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaa

This still makes me laugh at its ridiculousness.

The other *permanent* tattoo on his body was one on his ankle. And it, thank goodness, was just his dad's name. Except it wasn't his dad's name at all. It was something crazy like "Merlan" (I apologize if that's your dad's name), but it's definitely not his, and it was just WEIRD. Even weirder though was that, once again, this tattoo was all neon and girly, in BUBBLE LETTERS no less!

Oh well. I guess I'd take a man with a weirdo religious symbol and a girly looking grandpa name tattoo over one who was FULLY tattooed.

Just for kicks, here's the picture again.

He seriously thinks he's bad to the bone, huh?

Oh, also, Kat has crazy pregnancy dreams too! Read and laugh.

The End.

I Don't Miss This

Ever since we got back from vacation a couple weeks ago, Eden has not been sleeping well. Actually she didn't sleep well on the trip either. But I attributed that to the fact that we were in a strange place, she was sleeping in a pack-n-play, and everything was out of routine. So I figured when we got home it might take a little while for her to get back in her routine and start sleeping through the night again. But after a few nights of her waking up several times, we had a REALLY bad night. It was some early morning hour; she was awake again, and she sat crying on my lap. And then she pulled her ear.

Duh, Mother of the Year! Your child has an ear infection!

I (mentally) slapped myself on the forehead and made her a doctor's appointment the next morning. Actually her daddy had to take her because I was babysitting, but sure enough, the doc said she had an infection. But he called it a "slight" infection, which I immediately found hard to believe considering the last week of sleepless nights we had had.

But alas, I faithfully gave her her antibotic for the five or so days it was prescribed and trusted it to take care of the problem.

But it didn't.

At least not the sleeping problem. I am assumming her ear infection is gone now. I mean, surely. But she is still waking up at night. Also, I noticed that she is cutting FOUR new teeth. So that could definitely be part of the problem.

I am thinking it's actually a combination of all the problems. Part "I got out of my routine," part "I got out of my routine more when my ears hurt," and part "My teeth hurt."

Which is really making night time no fun for mommy. Or daytime for that matter. She is so much more whiny and cranky when she doesn't sleep well at night...

All that to say... I do not miss those first 12 months of Eden's life when we were up all night every night.

I'm over it.

(And I'm choosing not to think about the fact that in seven months I'll be doing it all again.)

Babysitting...at least it makes for good pictures :-)

Well, yes, I am still babysitting two days a week. And yes, sometimes I do feel like pulling my hair out. But lately I've been pulling out the camera instead. When the babies get into mischief, I snap a picture and it helps relieve the stress, at least for a minute! Here's some pics from our crazy days lately.

First, I have to show/tell you about what sweet friends Eden and Brylee have become. When Brylee gets to my house in the mornings, she goes into Eden's room with me to wake her up. And you have never seen two more excited toddlers!

"Bylie!" "Edie!" they exclaim.

Of course, within a few minutes they're stealing each other's toys and pushing each other out of her chair. But they also make-up quickly!

One cute thing is watching the girls love on Luke. I'm sure Brylee does it all the time at home, but I think it's especially sweet to watch Eden do it. I think she is going to love being a big sister!

But then, there is that blessed mischief I was talking about. I thought Eden was a daredevil until I started keeping Brylee. The girl is scared of nothing. She will jump, crawl and climb onto, into and over anything. I have found her in some interesting places!

Yes, they are in this pool with their clothes on. It has been sitting in our yard with water for a week. Until today, Eden would walk up to the edge and stick her hands in it and splash. But today Brylee showed her, "Look Eden, you don't have to wait on a swimsuit to go swimming!" So they just plunged in :-)