She's Here!

After waiting 37 weeks and 3 days, our baby girl has finally arrived!  She was born on November 20 at 2:04 pm.  Weighing in at 7 lbs 3 oz, our baby girl has a head of black hair and she looks a whole lot like her big brother.  What a blessing to have this little one join us right in time for Thanksgiving!

I wish I could say that Baby G's birth was without drama, but births in our family are always a little crazy.  When I went to my OB for my 37 week appointment, I pretty much experienced deja vu when they told me that afternoon that I had preeclampsia and would need to be admitted to the hospital sometime in the next 24 hrs.  (This all happened with pregnancy #1.)  Anyway, I was admitted on Tuesday morning, started on my day's worth of Magnesium (can you say one permanent hot flash?), and Baby G was born a few hours later.  Thankfully, my blood pressure and labs were stable this time around, so Baby G and I were able to move to the Mother-Baby unit the next day.  That's when the craziness happened.

I got a phone call that evening from my mother informing me that my youngest son had somehow reached onto a shelf and had ingested someone's prescription medication.  Per my school nursing instincts, I requested that she call poison control and follow their advice.  Poison control then directed my mom to take my son to our local children's hospital for further care.  As a result, Dear Husband left the baby and me at our birth hospital and drove across town to spend the night at the children's hospital with our 2 year old.  Poor daddy got very little sleep as they monitored our little one all night long and had to restart his IV 3 times (thank you nurses for catching the infiltration and saving his arm!).  Anyway, on Thanksgiving morning, Dear Husband called and said that all was well and that he and our little guy had been discharged and were heading home. 

So as it turns out, we had lots to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.  We didn't get to enjoy a big family dinner with turkey and stuffing.  And we didn't get to enjoy a day of relaxation and football like we had hoped.  What we did get was a reminder of how precious life is, how precious children are, and how wonderful it is to be a family of 5.  Watching my healthy 2 year old bounce off the walls of my hospital room on Thanksgiving afternoon while my 4 year old posed for pictures holding his baby sister was priceless.  

A Better Day

"And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you unto myself, that where I am you may be also." John 14:3

I'm officially 37+ weeks pregnant at this point.  That means that I'm safely within the "full term" parameters and will be allowed to deliver Baby G should labor progress.  I say progress, because I've been having contractions for approximately 15 weeks now and am looking forward to seeing those contractions turn into real active labor.  Oh how the waiting is killing me.

Sometimes I just sit around and talk to Baby G about what fun she's missing on the outside.  I tell her about her brothers and how they're about to give me a coronary.  I tell her about her pink and green room with all the flowers and frills.  I tell her about the fun outfits, hair bows, and shoes that I've been collecting for her.  And I tell her how much fun it's going to be when we get to do girly things together.  Despite all of these conversations, as of right now, she seems to be content where she's at.

Thinking about how exciting it is to prepare for a new baby makes me think about the conversation that Jesus had with his disciples prior to his death when he told them.  "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you unto myself, that where I am you may be also." John 14:3. As is evident from their behavior prior to the crucifixion, the disciples had no concept of what Jesus meant by this verse.  They couldn't fathom the greatness of their home in heaven that Jesus had prepared for them, because they were too comfortable with their earthly home.  And yet, Jesus, knowing full well what the future had in store for his followers, repeatedly told them about the joy set before them in heaven.

It has occurred to me that I am too often "comfortable" with life on earth and, like the disciples, am not really getting Jesus' point.  Just like Baby G, I get comfortable knowing that my parent is there, yet I don't get to experience the joy of being in the glorious, physical presence of my Father.  Yes, God has given me an earthly existence with glimpses of Himself through His Word, His creation, and His Holy Spirit.  But in Heaven, I will finally get to see and be with my Creator.  It is there that I can fully enjoy Him.

At the latest, my doctor has promised that I will finally get to hold Baby G on November 30.  And when she's in our arms and can finally cuddle with her Daddy, I will not forget how glorious it will be to someday be in my heavenly Father's presence when He allows me to enter my eternal home.  Until then, let me not grow complacent and comfortable with my life on earth.

While meditating on John 14:3 this morning, I just wanted to sing this song as I contemplated the future that my Heavenly Father has prepared for me.  Oh what a day that will be!

My Very Own Curious George

I've heard that the Curious George type of child really does exist.  And now I believe what I've heard, because I have one.  My "middle child" is adorably sweet and charming, but he gets into EVERYTHING.  Whereas my oldest child is a thinker and has learned to follow rules extremely well, his little brother is a doer and likes to be a helper by doing things without being asked.  Unfortunately, his helpfulness usually results in a huge mess for Mommy to clean up.

For example, the boys aren't supposed to mess with Mommy's cleaning supplies or Lysol wipes.  But a few weeks ago, my 2nd child decided he would "help" mommy by cleaning the refrigerator.  Unfortunately, he just coated everything in my fridge with a layer of carpet cleaning solution--the brand that I happen to be allergic to.  As a result, we had to clean out and throw away almost everything being refrigerated AND Mommy's arms broke out into a painful itchy rash. Ugh!

This same child is very fascinated by the baby things that Mommy has purchased and organized for his new baby sister.  One day, I actually found this boy crying inside the crib with his chocolate milk.  To this day, I have no idea how he managed to climb inside the crib.  On another day, he took it upon himself to change the diaper on one of his sister's dolls (the same doll that I played with 28 years ago).  When I went into the nursery, he had the doll and all of my baby supplies laid out on a big cardboard box.  And of course, he had covered the doll in baby lotion.

The older he gets, the more discoveries my little guy seems to make.  I probably have hundreds of stories I could tell about things he has "innocently" done around our house.  Sadly, it just occurred to me that I haven't done a very good job actually documenting his little interventions.

That said, last week I made a discovery that made me laugh and laugh.  While I was sitting at my desk, my little guy was busy turning himself into a monster with Mommy's make-up (see below).  Thank goodness he got into the box of eye shadow that I was about ready to throw away.

Every day is a brand new adventure with my little guy--kind of like watching a new episode of his favorite show, Curious George.  But you know what?  I wouldn't trade the headaches and the crazy hours I spend cleaning up after him for anything.  It's all part being a Mom!

It's a Surprise!

I should have known something was up when Dear Husband called to see how I was feeling on Wednesday afternoon.  Don't get me wrong, he regularly calls me to say "hi" but he doesn't usually call me at my hair appointments to ask how I'm feeling.  Anyway, since Baby G "dropped" on Tuesday, I was feeling a lot better on Wednesday.  Until the contractions started.  So I called him back an hour later to inform him that my contractions had started back up and were every 15 minutes apart.  He told me to pack a bag and agreed to meet me at church 3 hrs later.  This seemed like an odd response, but I was a little too distracted to argue.

Anyway, I eventually made it to our Wednesday Bible study at church and was running late thanks to the fact that my youngest child took a really long nap.  I noticed that my pastor's wife was waiting for me in the toddler drop-off room, but since she has a toddler I didn't think much of it.  But when we headed upstairs, I was in for a big surprise!

Our sweet friends at church threw me a surprise baby shower!  There was food, an amazing homemade cake, a fancy diaper cake, balloons (despite a local helium shortage), paper flowers, and a box full of goodies and gift cards.  It was so much fun and really special to get to enjoy the experience with Dear Husband who has never experienced a baby shower.  We were overwhelmed by the kindness of our church family.

It's amazing to think that it was about this time a year ago that we were given an ultimatum by our former church leadership--either plan on helping the church move to west Texas or find a new church.  I remember being in shock and being depressed during the entire holiday season wondering if we would ever find a new church "home," let alone find new church friends whom we could trust. 

Wednesday night was a great reminder that God can use those bad experiences in our lives to lead us to a new place for ministry and fellowship.  I'm so thankful for our new church family.  Baby G already has so many people who love and care about her.  It's really exciting to bring a new life into this world knowing that she's surrounded by all this love!

Tomorrow we're at 36 weeks!  It won't be long now...