XMAS 2011

Still Believing Religious

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So slow, yet so fast.

It is December! I can't even begin to explain how this makes me feel! Our boy joined our family in July and I think I have done two posts since his birth, this is so horrible so here I am trying to play catch up! We have had such an amazing 4 months since he was born, trips, milestones and wonderful family moments.

Bel is such an amazing sister, she works so hard to entertain him, care for him and love him. I think back to her wanting a sister and though I understand where she is coming from I am so grateful that her younger sibling is a boy. Seeing them together is so wonderful, their similarities and their differences. He is for sure his father and she is me which is fun to watch. She is growing leaps and bounds both physically and as a person. She loves her friends at daycare and looks forward to playing dolly's on a daily basis while she is there. She also learned how to do a somersault recently and enjoys doing them at home. Bel also started learning how to play the piano, she has lessons once a week with "Auntie" Diana, DH's cousin, and her enthusiasm is wonderful I just hope those feelings continue! She also is swimming once a week and is doing freestyle and backstroke, I hope the other strokes will be as wonderful and let me tell you how proud this momma feels watching her swim!  She has started her second year in faith formation at our parish and she loves it, projects, games, songs and talking and learning more about God! We are excited to watch her grow in her faith, she loves to ask questions as well as explain Him in her own way. One question we often ask at dinner is where did you see God today? Though she struggles sometimes she knows that he is ever present in her life.

The little man is such a wonderful addition to our family, he makes all the suffering of another loss worth it! Both of our children have followed losses of our angel babies and its amazing to know that through all that you encounter the minute you hear that first cry it is eased. He smiles can melt the hardest of hearts and his snuggles are also amazing! He roles, has roles and loves to play! His favorite thing besides eating would be watching every move his big sister makes and every word that she says he pays great attention to. He recently learned of his toes and has endless amounts of entertainment time built into them! His favorite toys are Sophie his giraffe teether and Neptune the turtle from Baby Einstein. He also is a future water baby, he has gone swimming a couple of times some while we were at the Log Home Retreat and while we went to California. He started daycare with Bel this week and seems to be doing well, he does what babies do and I can't ask for more than that!

The husband has continued to be the strength of our family, especially while I have been off of work. He has had an amazing year and he and his partner are pleased with the year end results, the company has grown and he continues to make a wonderful contact for his clients. We have been fortunate to be apart of his clients growth and celebrate with them as they see success. On top of working he is always home for dinner and as we sit all together each night it is wonderful to hear about each others days even with sassy running around or not eating. He is looking forward to picking up some workout time and maybe some racquetball this winter with his cousins hubby Joe (Baby boys' Godfather).

Then there is me. Well Going from a complicated pregnancy to a healthy baby has been wonderful! I fully recovered from my c-section (a couple of set backs at the beginning) and I am able to play with Bel again, lift her and not worry about all the rotten things that can go wrong while in a high risk pregnancy and recovering. I was blessed with an extended leave from work and have just returned this week. I enjoyed every minute of being home, loving on my boy the same as I was able to with Bel, cooking for my family, enjoying my favorite cleaning and laundry! Now back to work I am struggling, mentally I am trying to jump back into my job (I have been off since June!) and emotionally dealing with being away from the boy. Its draining even the second time around. I can' t complain too much though because he sleeps through the night :-) I love my job and my coworkers so in time I will be fine, but I miss my kids which I have every right to!

I hope our pictures fill in the blanks of the last four months, I suppose I will need to keep up a tad bit more!

Summer's End

Summer has come to an end, not technically but as all Minnesotans know The Great Minnesota Get Together marks the end of freedom for kids and summer outings for families and Labor Day marks the end of summer cabin fun...even though we can continue after the weather cools down.



Up high at the State Fair

Full from the State Fair ;-)

With such a quiet beginning of the summer waiting in anticipation for our boy to arrive we tried to get some fun in while the summer was ending. We have had a couple of cabin trips where we get to watch Bel and her cousins fall in love with cabin life, a State Fair adventure with lots of yummy food and a belated friends birthday party for Bel and her friends, and with that summer is ending! Doing these things as a family of four is so different than what it was with just one, we have to have more time to get ready to go out, we have to find quick stops in order for me to nurse little one and even more daunting than that we need to find lots of things to keep Bel busy as baby boy is having his needs met. I am so blessed to have the partner in life that I have because without him these things would be almost impossible tasks!

Snuggle with Mason at the Cabin

With Griffin at Pump It Up

Birthday Party with Griffin, Grayson, Emmalee and Addie!

We have discovered early in our son's life that he is an outdoor kid already, this weekend at the cabin any time he was upset just taking him out to the waterfall or even just rocking on the deck he would calm right down and fall asleep. Bel too loves the outdoors and she too kept busy by playing in the water and sand with her cousins, had s'mores and ice cream... there isn't anything better than cabin life!

It doesn't get any better than this!

Beyond our adventures this is the second time in my teaching career that I will not be headed back to school with all of my co-workers, I have taken an extended maternity leave through early December. I am looking forward to the quality time I will have at home with my little guy and on occasion keeping his big sister home too have some fun too! We are also looking forward to other adventures soon like heading to the North Shore with Uncle Andy as well as heading out to California with little Grandpa and Grandma. And of course more time at the Cabin with Big Grandpa and Grandma! Life is wonderful!

New Life...It's So Beautiful

What do you say about a child you wondered about, one that you never thought was going to be. Words cannot explain what it has been like over the last two years wanting another baby, the heart ache that goes with a loss, and the joy that comes with a simple sign on a stick. This journey has brought us through an amazing roller coaster of emotions and physical challenges... but in the end, we received an amazing miracle, our son.

We knew that he would arrive near his sisters birthday, but his birth story is one that I didn't see happening to us. Our original due date was August 8th, but because of a number of complications that were a possibility along with having a previous c-section we were scheduled to have him about a week earlier. He however had other plans. Early in the morning on the 28th of July I wasn't sleeping as well as I had been,which wasn't all that great to begin with. Around 3:15am I woke up to an uncomfortable feeling, but I chalked it up to being 9 months pregnant and feeling exhausted so I fell back asleep. I woke up again around 4:20am to something I heard in my sleep but also felt, it was my water breaking! This all on Bel's 4th birthday! I woke DH up about a minute later when I was sure what had happened, he quickly got ready and we woke Bel up and started dialing the phone. This was all happening a week earlier than anticipated so our plans for who would have her during delivery and who would be at the hospital were all not going as planed. I got a hold of my parents and they met us at the hospital about 45 min. after my water broke. In the mean time I called our clinic who got a hold of our Dr., she called me back and met us at the hospital. Less than an hour and a half after my water broke we were in the OR waiting for our son to arrive. He was born at 6:31am, July 28th weighing in at 8lbs 6oz. and he was 20". Only 2 weeks early, 1 week earlier than planned, and sharing a birthday with his big sister... which runs in the family as DH was born on his oldest brother's birthday also.

The rest is standard, we stayed in the hospital for 3 days, came home and have now begun our lives as a family of 4... or 5 if you ask Bel because you cannot forget about the dog :-) We are feeling truly blessed by all events. About a month ago after a standard appt., one that covered all the complications that were being anticipated, after being told about the who the 2nd surgeon would be, and how fast they would have to work we stayed in the room for a couple of minutes to talk, just DH and I. We handed our fears, our anticipation and anxieties over to God, because without him, we wouldn't have been expecting at all. All complications were avoided, our Dr. delivered our son, and we are all happy and healthy.

Summer Already...

I have no idea where the time has gone! The last post I did was after our last major hospital visit in February! Well I need to be better about keeping up with posting, as soon enough we will be welcoming our baby boy into the world! As you can see from the countdown at the top of the page we are really in the home stretch! Our next appt. will be an exciting/informational appt. in which we will pick a day an learn what if any complications can be predicted. I am growing, which means he is growing... for those that want a good laugh and know us well, this baby is predicted to be bigger than our beautiful Bel was at birth... Lord have mercy on me!

Outside of the anticipation of our son coming into the world we have been keeping very busy. My wonderful husband as always continues to work and provide for our family, be home every night for dinner and spends endless hours playing with Bel. As for myself, I have just finished my 7th school year teaching (which I have no idea how it has already been 7 years) and I still love my job as much today as I did when I was first hired! I will not be returning to work until this winter and I am excited about the opportunity to be home for an extended period of time.

As for Miss Bel she is becoming even more independent by the day and yet still enjoying being a little girl. We lost our beloved daycare in February and had to make a transition to a new home. Thank GOD this went well and Bel seems to feel at home there and is thriving in the care of her new daycare mom. The little brother will join her there this winter. Bel has also began new adventures and continues with old passions. She started playing soccer this spring... she isn't thrilled, but she tried it... has started preschool and continues to swim one night a week. She even got her ears pierced! She loves being at the cabin, fishing with her daddy, playing in the sand with Grandma and helping Grandpa in whatever way she possibly can! We are looking forward to her 4th birthday coming up next month and all the new adventures she will have!

Life is wonderful, what can I say.

The News

Well of course our family and friends know, but we are excited and blessed to be expecting a baby this summer. For those whom we spend lots of time with we shared the news early, but because of past experiences we waited for the "special" week 13 marker set by our Dr. to share with everyone our news. Not long after the anniversary of our last miscarriage we were blessed with a new life. In true form of all of my pregnancies nothing has come without incident, with a couple of trips to the hospital under our belts already and appointments with our OB every two weeks we are well on our way to feeling further along, but in reality we are 14-15 weeks. High risk pregnancy is our way of life and right now I am currently serving the 3rd day of my 4 day "bed rest" that my Dr. has asked for after the latest trip to the Dr/hospital this weekend. The results of everything this weekend are all fine with both baby and I, but our Dr. said I needed to give myself some rest. For those that know me very well as you can imagine this is hard. I am not to lift much or even move much so this has taken away some of my household loves of cleaning and laundry. For those that do not know me as well, this is very difficult and not a joke, I described this to my mom as feeling useless. Logically I know that there is nothing more important than listening to the Dr. to protect myself and our child, but for the type A that I am it is difficult. For our Bel learning the news of being a big sister with a new baby joining our family she is over the moon excited... though we will see what happens when the new baby joins us. DH and I are filled with joy and anticipation and taking this new journey one day at a time.