a few thoughts...

So hat's off to Heidi and Erin K. How in the world you keep up your blog with 3 kids is beyond me, as you can see from the lack of posts.





Ethan is doing much better and has now surpassed his birth weight, which is wonderful! Not that he was too little to begin with. Daphne brought up a good point: both her twins together weighed less than Ethan! So I guess it was all right if you all thought I was carrying twins! =)





I'm getting sleep in 3 hour increments. It's been so wonderful to have Aaron's mom here with me so I can sleep in with the baby in the mornings.



I will try and get some more pictures up this week. Ethan is getting cuter by the day! He is even trying to smile at me!

We're Home!

Just wanted to let you all know that we got home Wednesday from the hospital. Ethan is doing much better. Thank you all for your prayers!

He hasn't gained any weight yet after losing some from being on glucose only. He's been eating well so I'm not too worried about that, but the doctor wants to see him again to make sure he is gaining weight.

Last night Joel woke up with some tummy troubles. Now we are sanitizing everything!!

Baby is Here!

We are so happy to have baby Ethan with us!

His name is Ethan Richard. Ethan means "firm or strong". In the Bible, Ethan the Ezrahite wrote Psalm 89. The Ezrahites were known for being wise men.

Psalm 89:1 I will sing of the LORD's great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.

The middle name, Richard, is named after my grandfather and brother.

10.1 lbs

22 inches long

12/2/07 10:43 am

So Micah was sort of right. If you remember, Micah asked God when the baby was coming and God told him (repeatedly) that the baby was coming Saturday. Well, he started to come on Saturday night. I started contractions Saturday night, but when I went to bed they went away. (Aaron meanwhile had started praying the baby waited until after the Big 12 Football Championship game!)

On Sunday I woke up about 4 am with contractions, then slept on and off until about 7am. I called the midwife at 8am when they were about 3-5 minutes apart. We headed off to the hospital about 9:00 and shortly thereafter the midwife broke my water. Ethan was born at 10:45 am. It was very fast, which was an answer to prayer.

However, since he was born so quickly, that didn't give him much time to squeeze out the fluid from his lungs when he was born. He had to be taken to NICU Sunday night because his breathing rate was so fast. I came home today (Monday) but Ethan has to stay in the NICU. We're hoping we can bring him home Tuesday. I haven't been able to feed him since Sunday night because they are afraid that he might aspirate the food into his lungs. Fortunately I was able to feed him before we left today because his breathing has improved.

We aren't worried about him; the doctor said that the fluid would just be absorbed into his body and we just have to wait 1-2 days. It's just very hard to leave the hospital without your baby!

Please pray that his breathing would continue to improve and we can bring him home tomorrow!

First Snow

The calendar flipped to December and look what we saw when we woke up!

This morning it was just a light dusting. This afternoon it started snowing again and now its been snowing hard for a few hours. Fortunately its not too cold so the roads are not icy. However that will change by tonight, I'm sure. Makes me VERY thankful we decided to get the Sequoia with 4WD. Especially with the possibility of making a 1am trip to the hospital any day now.

Humble Faith

So the morning began with a bang, so to speak. (see post below about vortex.) But by the middle of the day I was humbled by my 4 almost 5 year old.

We have been praying with Micah that God would heal his eyes (he has strabismus, a form of lazy eye) and that God would heal his milk allergy. Today at the grocery store he looked worried and in thought. I asked him what he was thinking about. He said, "Mama, when God heals my milk allergy, can I eat things with milk in them?" (emphasis mine) Not if, but when. To him it is a reality, not wishful thinking, that God will heal him. My son can teach me a thing or two about faith.

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Yesterday Micah asked me what day the baby was coming. I told him only God knows, so he should pray and ask him. He did, then I asked him what God said. Micah said God told him the baby was coming on Saturday. Now, I didn't ask him to specify WHICH Saturday.

The Vortex

We have reached a vortex in our house here because of 3 things:

1. New baby coming
2. Birthday
3. Christmas

... all happening within a 30 day period. Not good. Not that I had any planning in the matter. God knew what he was doing when he set #1 and 2 in motion for our family, but I'm still getting a headache. I'm enjoying a moment of silence while they watch Curious George upstairs. Away from me.

ahhhhh
its beautiful.

Indoor Camp-Out

On Saturday night, Micah, Joel and Daddy had their own indoor campout. We made soy hot chocolate and Dad pitched the tent in the living room.

It was quite a big tent for the 3 of them! They read a chapter from Prince Caspian and Aaron told stories to the kids. Right now he is making up stories at bedtime from "The Forest of Aberkazan". Which strangely sounds like "Lord of the Rings". Micah gets really into it.

Even with camping inside they got cold! Thank goodnes for electric blankets!

Update on baby

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We are so thankful that soon we will have a new baby!

Due date is a week from tommorow. Too bad babies don't come with a set time and timer like a turkey. For all the trouble of a c-section, that would be nice to be able to plan. I was having a lot of contractions on Monday night and they were regular. But, they went away. My midwife says that 3rd pregnancies tend to have more "false labor".

I love my midwife practice. I see a group of about 3-4 midwives that work in a office with a group of OB doctors at the hospital. They are all Certified Nurse Midwives, meaning they have taken extra training in Midwifery. If you face any kind of complication they can consult with the MDs in the office. I have been so very fortunate to not have any kind of problem. I am VERY thankful for this. I will have the baby at the hospital. This makes me much more secure than a birthing center just for the fact of the baby's health. When Micah was born his lungs had to be suctioned quite a bit.

The difference with having a midwife is she is with you the entire time you are at the hospital. She reads and follows your birth plan, and is with you the whole time as a buffer with the hospital staff. The midwife that delivered Joel (her name is Deb) is very encouraging. I saw her on Tuesday and she was just so positive saying I'd have a quick, easy delivery with no problems. You just go away feeling great. She told me to not have the baby over Thanksgiving because she'd be out of town and she wanted to deliver the baby again! She's delivered something like 4000 babies in her career. When it was time to push Joel out, she told Aaron that baby would be born in 15 minutes. We looked at the camera and I think it was 14:58.

So now we are praying that Deb can deliver this baby too. Thinking about having the baby without my mom to see it brings back lots of sad feelings. Having Deb there would be nice since I am already familiar with her in the delivery room.

Have a great day of thanks!

Non Dairy Pumpkin Pie

From Whole Foods:

Pumpkin Pie

1 unbaked pie crust (9 inch)
2 cups cooked pumpkin (about 1 can)
2 eggs
1/3 cup maple syrup, honey or rice syrup
pinch of salt
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 package silken tofu

Preheat oven to 425 F. Blend all filling ingredients in a blender. Pour into unbaked pie shell and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 and bake an additional 45 minute or until set.

I have also seen recipes where you make this vegan by deleting the eggs and adding more tofu.

We have made this for a few years now and I honestly cannot tell the difference. We have had both: traditional made with milk and the tofu version. I have tasted both and you can't tell.

It has about 100 calories less per slice than traditional pie and about 7 g less fat.

249 calories, 9 g fat, 6 g protein (doesn't list the fiber)

Keep the guesses coming below for baby! I can't wait to see who is right!

The Contest

Today marks 38 weeks. And every time I call anyone I get "oh I thought you were going to tell me you were in labor!" No, I don't think I would be calling you with such a cheerful demeanor if that was the case. So, if I call you please don't make that comment. Why? Because my babies have a habit of being late.

So... in the spirit of filling time before baby... because everyone knows I have absolutely nothing to do except wait for baby.. . (except find the carseat, bouncy seat, the swing, pack bags for the kids and for myself, register at the hospital and oh, yah there's Thanksgiving too!).....I'm decided to have a little contest.

Leave a comment if you want to play along with the following information:
1. Your guess as to the birthdate.
2. Your guess as to the sex.
3. Tie breaker: time of day baby is born.

Some of you may or may not know this info that could help you out:
My official due date is nov 30
Both my boys were about a week late.

Micah's 5th birthday party

This past weekend we had Micah's birthday party at the Children's Museum. He calls it "my favorite museum". Micah's real birthday isn't until early December, but I wanted to have his party early before baby comes. He had been talking about having his birthday party here for about a year. He was so very excited to have all his friends with him to play at his favorite place.



We then had lunch in the jungle party room. The chairs were all animals.



Erin made the cake. What a great job she did! It was wonderful to have such a great cake for Micah--that was dairy free! THANK YOU!

Micah's favorite spot; the Mexican restaraunt. "Welcome to Taco Time, can I take your order?"

37 weeks!

37 weeks, 4 weeks to go. Both boys were about a week late.

White board tip

I have lots of pictures to post from Micah's birthday party which I will try to get up today. I've been busy cleaning out Joel's old clothes and getting out baby clothes. Makes it seem more real! I'm getting excited for baby!


In the meantime I wanted to share a tip I learned yesterday.

If you have a white board and little people in your house this will happen to you eventually. Permanent marker on it. All you have to do to get it off is take a dry erase marker and trace over the permanent marks on the white board. Let it sit for awhile. Then erase it. Magically the marks will come off!

What would I do with out the web for information??

Halloween 2007

This year we had two cowboys. I tried to get them to be Buzz and Woody from Toy Story. Micah had decided early on that he wanted to be a cowboy. Like last year. And the year before that. He has a costume and its a cowboy. End of discussion. Last year he had a cowboy birthday party where he wore his cowboy costume. Now he thinks every year for his birthday he has to wear his cowboy costume. Wow, talk about a boy set in his ways! Since there would be no talking Micah out of a cowboy, I thought Joel could be Buzz.

My plan did not work because Joel decided that he wanted to be Woody too. "Micah be Buzz Wightyear and I be Woody", is the refrain that I heard over and over. Mostly in the car, which is always lovely. With Micah arguing back that he lay claim to Woody as he wanted to be a cowboy. So I ended the argument by saying they could both be Woody. But I was NOT going to be buying a Woody costume. We have enough cowboy gear around the house. So when I got Joel up from his nap on Halloween and started putting on his "costume", he argued that his cowboy hat: "That not Woody hat, that horsey hat!" Somehow I talked him into it and hence you see the two happy cowboys.

Here are some pictures of Micah as a cowboy over the years:

Age 3 1/2







Age 22 months

I forgot that when Micah was 2 1/2 he was a pumpkin. You can see how that turned out:



This picture is as good as it got. I'm surprised to see Micah with a happy face. I remember lots of negotiation to get him into this costume. The thing was he said he wanted to be a pumpkin since Joel was going to be a pumpkin. Ahhh, 2 year olds. I also don't think the stem on his head didn't stay on very long.


Maybe next year we will be able to branch out a bit in the costume department. Joel has a train conductor hat that he likes to wear around the house. Maybe Sir Topham Hat will make an appearance next year. But if he does at least he'll have a cowboy for a brother to protect him.

Judson

A while back a posted about 2 1/2 year old Judson. It seems as though his battle is near an end unless God chooses to heal him here instead of Heaven.

Please keep the family in your prayers as I can only imagine what they are going through now as well as the next weeks, months and years.

Freecycle

I wanted to let you know about one of my favorite websites/online groups: Freecycle.

It is an online group based on geographic location a la Craig's List. The only difference is that everything offered is free. The purpose of the group is to find new uses for things that might otherwise hit the landfill. I hate to throw things away. And sometimes I just don't make it to the thrift store very often. So usually if I only have 1 or 2 items to get rid of, or I don't think Goodwill will take it, I post it on freecycle. If someone is interested in it, they will email you and you can set up a pickup time. I have also found some great things to use around the house off of freecycle. For example I've received a couple of trikes to use outside.

When you go to freecycle, it will direct you to your local group. I think most of them are yahoo groups. You will need a yahoo id first (which is free and easy to get).

You never know what you have sitting around that someone else might need or want. Especially if you just want to get rid of it and don't want to pay to drop it off at the dump.

What is your favorite?

On this day of candy... what is your favorite candy to raid from the kid's stash?

I can't resist snickers, kit kat, twix, m&ms and skittles. I detest anything with coconut or "nougat". Whatever that is. You can see I have too many favorites. All the more reason not to allow candy into the house!

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Okay rant: I don't think I'll be able to handle this. Our Christian music radio station, The Fish, I mean Spirit has now become Christmas Spirit. On Oct 31. If I have to listen to Felice Navidad from now until Dec 25 I think I will go crazy. I have enough things that drive me crazy. Time for a new station.

Shower for Baby

This weekend, some friends hosted a shower for Baby. Its such a blessing to be able to welcome baby #3 with friends. An extra blessing is that everyone brought us a pack of diapers!

They made all the yummy scones, tea sandwiches and treats. Doesn't the spread look so beautiful?

My sweet friends who hosted, Sarah, Ruth and Traci.

scone vs. biscuit

So we had a little discussion around here about a scone vs. biscuit. Certain members of our family claim that a scone is just a biscuit. To me they are distinctly different, but similar.


Scone: made with cream, sweet, usually with bits of dried fruit.


Biscuit: not sweet, flaky and buttery.


What do you think?

"Carving" Pumpkins

This year we found "Mr. Potato Head" pieces for our pumpkins. Micah made a Pirate.
And Joel made a clown. They are both very proud of their creations.

Notice the look on Joel's face? That is such a "Joel" face. He does this when we pray too. He folds his hands and bows his head. But he then knits his eyebrows and looks up and around at everyone to see if he is doing everything right. We need to get a picture of this.