Spring Weather in the Winter

The past two days have included temperatures in the 70's, which means we've been getting more outside time than usual. And I love it! (Aside from when Noelle complains about it being too sunny and how's she's so sweaty.) Yesterday the kids didn't even watch TV until 7:00- huge win for us in the winter time!

After we dropped Noelle off at school yesterday, Jonah and I headed to MOPS at our church, where thankfully he didn't cry when I dropped him off in MOPPETS, and I got some time with a few of my mom friends. Once we picked Noelle up, we took our picnic lunch to a nearby park and enjoyed the playground and sunshine for a bit.

After a quick stop at home, we headed to the library for a library time play date with our other MOPS group. The librarian who lead it read some silly books, sang songs, played with bubbles and shaky eggs, and we made a kite for the craft. I loved hearing Noelle and Jonah laugh at everything- I want to remember their little voices and laughs from this stage of life!

After checking out some new books, we headed home to meet our neighbor getting off the bus. The kids ate popsicles and played outside for over an hour until dinner time. I am most definitely looking forward to being able to do this daily in the spring and summer!

And we had Holden with us on Wednesday and got to enjoy some time outside with him. I love that little baby SO much!! So thankful for this little nugget!

Sharing a Room and Weekend Fun

The littles have now been sharing a room for a week and a half. And not only that, Jonah was evicted from the crib and now sleeps on the crib mattress on the floor. He now has a lot more freedom, and a partner in crime to stay up late with. And an older sister to emulate on everything- including the whining and phrases she uses ("you're taking too long to come check on us", "actually mom, I'm going to miss you".)

We're hoping that 4+ months will be enough time for them to get used to sharing before the baby takes over Noelle's old room.

It seems that if one of them goes to sleep, the other is still awake. Last night, Luke and I were both in bed super early because that's normal for me and Luke's been sick. Jonah wandered in and just stood there looking at us. When I walked him back to his room, Noelle was conked out. Another night last week, Noelle kept coming into our room while I was reading and eventually she said "mommy, Jonah's not talking to me when I say things to him because he's asleep. I'm going to go wake him up." I quickly told her no, but of course she went into their room and started yelling his name. Thankfully, he slept right through it, and she eventually went to sleep!

Their typical stall tactics and excuses for not being asleep: cold water, I miss you hugs, we need a flashlight (how they seem to have misplaced all 10 they got for Christmas, I do not know!), the sound machine is too loud, Jonah took the night light out of the socket, using the potty, too hot, too cold (Jonah's been requesting to wear his Thomas the Train robe to bed), and Jonah's nightly request- "I need something from downstairs."

We keep telling ourselves the novelty will wear off eventually, they'll get used to it, and will hopefully be getting to bed at a decent time by the time baby gets here!

The last two weekends have been full of fun things! This past Saturday, Noelle had a birthday party for her little boyfriend at school at a trampoline park, and then more fun and food at his house afterwards. When we first got there, she played shy, but once the kids were all out bouncing, she joined right in with her pre-k buddies. Meanwhile, Luke stayed home with Jonah and attempted potty-training. All six pairs of underwear were soaked through in the first part of the day, and the next morning, Jonah wanted a diaper, so that was the end of pushing that for now.

The Saturday before, Noelle and I had a date with some other mommies and their girls to see Disney on Ice with all the princesses. We carpooled into Baltimore with one of our friends, found our seats, and pointed out all the princess dresses that all the little girls in the audience were wearing. Noelle chose to wear a little pink dress she has with Belle, Tiana, and Cinderella on it.

The show was well-done and incorporated some of our favorite songs from the different princess movies. Most of the second half was devoted to scenes from Frozen, and you could tell that Elsa and Anna were the most popular princesses in the room. Noelle was cheering and clapping her hands, and you could hear so many little voices singing along with all the songs. I enjoyed it, and was thankful for some one on one time with Noelle!

Valentine's Day 2017

Valentine's Day started with the kids waking up just as I was finishing getting ready for the day. I hugged them tight while saying "Happy Valentine's Day!" And that was just the reminder they needed about it being a "holiday." Noelle said, "you know who I love mommy? Aunt Lyd!" And then Jonah chimed in and said he loved Aunt Lyd, too. I love the little moments of hearing their hearts.

They told me they wanted to go to Chick Fil A, and since I'd been planning on taking them somewhere and we hadn't used our Chick Fil A calendar deal yet (which happened to be a breakfast item this month), I told them we could go. We got them dressed in their Valentine's Day outfits and headed out for breakfast (chicken minis and lemonade!) We had fun sitting and eating, and then they played in the play area for a bit.

After we were done, we headed to Walmart to buy our supplies for the day: chocolates, flowers, balloons, strawberries, and streamers. At one point I knelt down and asked Jonah if he wanted to "buy" his sister some flowers, which of course he went and picked some out, and then wanted his own little bouquet. Hopefully he'll grow into loving on his sister as he gets older! Once we got everything home, Noelle was so excited to help me decorate. We strung up pink and red streamers, threw a pink tablecloth on the table, and made heart shaped sugar cookies to give to our neighbors. I also used a cookie cutter to cut their peanut butter sandwiches into the shapes of hearts. Not super creative, but they liked it!

Luke picked up some Frank's pizza for us on his way home from work, and brought roses for me and carnations for Noelle. So sweet! We sat down to our yummy cheese (and tomato- don't tell the kids!) pizza, with a carton of strawberries to split between us. The kids were excited to eat their Paw Patrol Valentine's Day chocolates, and they ran around the house with their heart shaped balloons (and continue to do so!) Definitely a successful 2017 Valentine's Day!

20 Weeks! And some other fun stuff

We got to see baby at our 20 week ultrasound on Tuesday! The little heart was fluttering away at 145 beats per minute, and baby was head down, knees to nose, and wouldn't budge to let the sonographer get a good look at everything. She did measure the legs, and got a cute profile shot of the head, but she couldn't get a good enough angle to look at the face/lips, the brain, kidneys, heart, and diaphragm. Everything on the lower half looked great though! She had me pee, drink juice, lay on my side, poked the baby with the doppler, and baby just wouldn't shift positions. If we have another lazy one on our hands, I'm leaning towards girl. But there's also a chance it's a boy. :)

And how are we already at 20 weeks?? I think the first trimester felt slow because of how awful I felt, but things are flying now. After my appointment yesterday, we scheduled 3 more appointments which takes us to the third trimester. We'll have another sono at the next appointment to finish looking at baby, and then the glucose test at the appointment after that. I'm trying to just live in the moment and enjoy Noelle and Jonah, and relish being pregnant.

19 week bump and my messy closet

Noelle came with us to the appointment because she wanted to see the baby (she didn't quite understood what that meant), and she spent most of the hour of the sono holding my hand, telling me she loved me, and drumming her fingers on the paper covering I was laying on.

Earlier this week we had a MOPS play date at the Rainbow Play Systems store. Noelle cried when she got to the top of one of the play sets and was scared to come down the slides, and Jonah ran around from one thing to the next. The most popular item for them: the air hockey table.

Holden joined our craziness on Wednesday, and it ended up being a gorgeous day! After picking Noelle up from school and eating lunch, the kids ran around out front for awhile and Holden just sat there watching them. After his nap, we all walked to the playground along with my neighbor's daughter. It felt wonderful having an over 60* weather day in February. Of course we had a winter storm warning for the following day, which amounted to a slight dusting of snow, but at least we had some warmth for a little while!

Last weekend was the Sykesville Ice Festival, and even though there were a bunch of ice related activities (ice sculptures, ice skating, food), Noelle and Jonah spent the most time playing at the train table. They know what they like!

Insomnia, Holden, and a Play Date

Insomnia is the name of the game, and now with a cold (sinus infection??) I'm getting very little sleep. Prep for those newborn nights, am I right? I think I had a grand total of three hours of sleep last night. I can't breath through my nose, and when I wake up my lips and mouth are so dry, I can't get comfortable enough to fall back asleep. Some day I'll be healthy again and will be able to sleep!

On Friday last week, my mom hosted Luke's parents at her house for our annual dinner with the Perraults and Wiedemans, and it was so great to have everyone together. When we all sat down at the table for dinner, Jonah leaned over to me and said "there's two grandpas!" in his sweet, little, almost three year old voice.

                       

As of yesterday, I was officially 18 weeks pregnant. I'm finding this pregnancy to be a struggle with body image, but I'm also continually reminding myself of this little miracle growing away inside me. I'm at a heavier weight than I was with either of my other two at this point (at least I think so), and of course I stress about losing the weight after baby is here. But I also need to keep in mind that I never really "recovered" from the hypothalamic amenorrhea, and will need to make sure I don't over exercise and eat enough once baby does come. Granted, eating ice cream every night certainly isn't helping my weight. :)

Last night I just laid in bed with my hand on my belly praying over this sweet babe, that he or she would come to know Jesus, and that the anatomy scan in two weeks will go well. After much convincing from a few friends, we decided to not find out the gender. It's our chance- we have all the clothes and we're not having any more babies after this. Everyone who has waited keeps talking about how special that moment is when baby is born.  Bring on the surprise!

We've had Holden a couple of days a week over the last few weeks, and he has been such a good baby! I feel like he fits right in to our crazy, and I'm extra thankful I'm pregnant, because Holden makes me want another baby right now! He's come to pre-k dropoff/pickup and ballet class, he's been napping like a champ, and he really only seems to cry when he's tired or hungry. So very different from Jonah, and I'm praying that Holden is teaching the one in my belly his good, easy-going baby ways. :)

a bump and a baby

We had some friends over yesterday morning for a play date, and that's the first time in awhile I've had any one over. It was SO good to catch up with my friend, and watch our kids play and fight (ha!) I know that compared to a quite a few of my friends, my house is not the cleanest, but I'm resisting the urge to feel like my house has to be perfect in order for anyone to come over. The bathroom wasn't even freshly cleaned yesterday (sorry, Natalie!), so hopefully that's a step in the right direction. Just keeping it real, and sharing life honestly.

Getting Out

Winter, as I've always said, is hard for me with the littles. I don't know what to do with them, and after we've read books for an hour, I'm often left wondering what we'll do for the 6 hours left in the day until Daddy gets home. They got a slew of new toys for Christmas, which keeps them occupied for a bit, but then they start asking for T.V., and I really don't want to cave into that too early in the day!

Our go to outings are the mall (for the play place and carousel) and Chick Fil A. The kids have been sick for the past week (Jonah is still battling a cough, and Noelle woke up with a snot fountain over the weekend) so we've barely left the house. Most winters, I'm willing to risk getting sick because I can't stand being cooped up for long, but with this bout of sickness, and with friends sharing that their families are getting struck by the norovirus, I'm nervous to go anywhere!

But all that being said, we have been doing some fun things, and I know that sickness is a part of childhood. We're just building up their immunities for later, right? At the end of last week, I left sick Jonah at home with Luke working in the basement to go celebrate Noelle's birthday at school. She chose oreos as her snack to share, and My Little Pony napkins. It was so fun seeing her in her school environment, and singing happy birthday to her with all her little school friends. And I loved how excited she got when she saw me walk through the door!

We also like to venture out to Dunkin Donuts, but that was more fun when my body could handle caffeine and I could get free coffee after the Ravens won. And it was more fun when Heather wasn't working and could meet us there. BUT I did get a Dunkin Donuts gift card for Christmas, so since Luke is limiting me on our Chick Fil A visits (it was needed!), I figure we'll go spend gift card money at Dunkin Donuts. Plus these two love their strawberry sprinkle donuts.

And after getting a good amount of money to Starbucks for Christmas, Jonah and I have been doing the drive thru, or going in more than once a week over the last few weeks (decaf skinny cinnamon dolce latte for the win!) I do enjoy the one on one time with him, and it's good to be out of the house, even for just a short bit.

coffee for me, cake pop for J

Only a little over two months left of winter, right? It will fly by and be spring before we know it, and I'm going to try to enjoy it as much as we can!

Finding Out

I originally wrote this post on Wednesday, September 19th, the day I went in for my blood test at Shady Grove!

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Yesterday I peed on a stick. I knew I was going in today for a blood test to find out if I was pregnant or not after our IUI at the beginning of the month. I wanted to know- to at least know if it was negative. I wanted to be a little more mentally prepared, and be able to mourn if we weren't pregnant, and start gearing myself up for another cycle.

My alarm went off at 5:00 so that I could workout (a.k.a walk on the treadmill) before the craziness of the day started. I grabbed the pregnancy test that I had secretly stuck in the medicine cabinet the night before and sat down to do the deed. Immediately the test line filled and remained blank. No second line. The test was negative.

Even though I had geared myself up expecting it to be negative, the sinking feeling of sadness crept over me that I've felt over almost every pregnancy announcement in the last two years. But I pep talked myself into finishing getting ready, and as I was brushing my teeth, I glanced down and saw a faint second line.

Wait, what??

There was a barely there line, but just enough to give me hope and make my heart skip a beat. It was positive!! I went from feeling down, to elated. I couldn't stop smiling.

I decided to wait until the blood test confirmed it today before telling Luke. I knew that if it was a really low number, it could mean an early miscarriage. But our number was 306 (measuring hCG, which is made from the cells in the placenta), and our nurse told me they like to see a minimum of 100. So a great number, and such an answer to prayer! When my nurse called and told me, I squeezed Noelle and told her we were having a baby, and we would have to celebrate with daddy tonight (aka, I got sushi- nothing raw for me!)

What a blessing that our first IUI worked! Even though the last few months have included setbacks, and doing things I never thought I would have to do, it has been such a sweet time of seeing and feeling God at work in my life. Learning again and again to lay down my dreams for His bigger and better dreams.

This IUI did not "help" God get us pregnant, but rather it shed even more light on the fact that God is the giver of life.

He chose the right time.

He chose the right way.

He chose life for this baby- however brief or long that may be. God is good, all the time!