...and B is for Brayden

God has to help me, cause I know I can't do this on my own. I have one of "those" kids. The ones that throw fits in the middle of a store and cause everyone to stop and see what parent isn't doing their job. The ones that hide cookies under their beds so that they can have them later. The ones that find markers and decide to put their own brand of graffiti on their great grandma's walls. Yep, that's my kid. And the thing is, he is NOT undisciplined. He is NOT allowed to have his heart's whim with the throwing of a tantrum. But yet he behaves as if those things were so. I have a friend that has said that youth ministers make horrible toddlers. If that's so, my kid is going to be the youth minister to head all youth ministers. But seriously, John and I pray constantly that these things that make us pull our hair out right now will be gifts for our oldest in the future. God gave Brayden this trying personality, and we have a job to mold it, but like I said, God help me!!! I have no idea what to do with a kid like this. I can't constantly be monitoring every single thing he does all day long... Well, I COULD, but I'd have one starving child, and I'd probably smell bad. He manages to even get into things in his sleep... *sigh*

But in deeper thoughts.......

I was sitting in bed last night after dealing with a fussy baby, a sick toddler and a typical Brayden and the thought came to me about what love is... Paul says that love is patient, kind and keeps no record of wrongs (among a list of other things). I guess I have some work to do on figuring out how to truly love my big boy. I tend to be short tempered with him, a little on the rough side when he's misbehaving, and have a running tally of how many things he's gotten in trouble for that day so I can complain to John about it all later. Thank goodness that God loves me with a true love. I can't even imagine how similar I can be in my life to that of my trying child. God help me; God love me. Thank you for teachable moments.

Logan Andrew's Birth Story

Yes, Logan is now here!! He made his arrival on September 9th as "scheduled." Here's how everything went down...

**WARNING: I try not to be graphic, but I also want you to realize that I don't water things down and this could be a little too much information for you if you aren't comfortable with that kind of stuff...**

(the following takes place on)
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9th, 2009

MIDNIGHT
John and I arrive at Norman Regional Hospital to get checked in for our induction. As we pull into the parking lot (and we got a VERY good spot), I notice another car pulling in beside us. I jokingly told John that they were probably here for induction as well. Come to find out, they were. Anyway... We get up to the desk and sign all the papers and they put us in our room (3516 - which I really think is the room we had Brayden in, but I can't be sure). I get the gown on, use the bathroom, and get all "hooked up." John and I are both already kind of tired (it IS midnight, you know), but my adrenaline is keeping me going. The nurse checks me and verifies that I am still at one centimeter and goes ahead with the Cytotec (a little pill thingy that is used to soften the cervix and get contractions going). This is a three dose thing that will be done every four hours and THEN we'll start the Pitocin. Almost immediately contractions get regular - 3 to 5 minutes apart - and I'm breathing through them conciously. It's not really HARD, but it is uncomfortable, and I'm having to remind myself to relax. The nurse keeps telling me to get some sleep, but with the monitors on my belly, I just couldn't really get in a comfortable position. Finally I turned on my iPod and for some reason, that really worked, and I went to sleep by the 2nd or 3rd song. So I slept off and on until about 6:30ish...

6:30 AM
My nurse came in to check my progress... By this time I was about 4 cm and she was going to put in another dose of Cytotec, but decided that she should call Dr. Waterman and find out if maybe we could just go ahead and start the Pitocin. She comes back in a little later to let me know that we are gonna just go with the Pitocin and checks me again... This time while she's checking, Logan kicks and my water breaks. Meanwhile, I'm still having fairly hard contractions and decide that maybe I DO want the epidural at this point. So I tell my nurse that and she calls the man with the relief. He gets to my room about 7:30ish. The actual putting IN of the epidural is NOT fun, but I survive by reminding myself that it's gonna make things a lot easier. I ask him to not make it very strong, but he says that he always starts it at a "set" level and then later, if I'm not liking it, he can up it or back it off. So I settle with that answer.

8:15ish am
Epidural is in, Pitocin is running, and I'm feeling pretty good - but the epidural has made my legs kinda more numb than I'd like (at least I'm not feeling the contractions, though). John has been up for a little bit now and is waiting for the room to clear so he can take a shower. In between people in the room, I tell him that I can feel things changing and maybe he might wanna go ahead and get in the shower. So he starts getting all his stuff together for his shower and heads in there. I call Mom and let her know that I am doing pretty well and still think it'll be around noon when Logan comes.

8:30 am
The nurse comes in to check me right after John's gotten into the shower. She informs me that "there is a little lip of cervix left... OH, wait, nope - it's gone. Time to push!" Um. Okay. So the scrambling begins right as I'm thinking - yeah, I think she's right, I can feel the pushing sensation coming on. I ask the nurse to let John know; I call Mom real quick like to say they better hit the road. As I'm on the phone with her, I get the urge to push, so I hang up quickly. I notice John's out of the shower and dressed with a kind of dazed look on his face - like "is this really happening RIGHT NOW?"

8:45 am
Dr. Waterman gets there to "catch" Logan. Seems like the room is full of people. There are two nurses at the warmer, two more for I don't know what, my nurse and Dr. Waterman. Plus John. And me, of course. My legs are still SUPER numb so they have to lift them up for me. The nurse lets me know that I'm having a contraction and I can push... I kind of had this thought of, "Well, I can't FEEL the contraction, but whatever - sure, I'll push."

8:51 am
So I give one push and Dr. Waterman says, "Well, there's the head!" Seriously??? So one more push and wham, I have a baby on my tummy. I'm shocked. Completely and totally. First, I really didn't think I'd have Logan so early in the day. Secondly, I never in my wildest thoughts would've imagined him coming out in TWO pushes (John says it's more like one and a half, really). But I come out of my little shocked world when I hear them ask John to cut the cord... I piped up and requested that I get to do it. John's done it twice and I kind of wanted to get to see what it was like. So I awkwardly cut Logan's cord and then they take him to weigh and measure him. He's 7 lbs, 13 oz, 19.5 inches long and got an 8/9 on his APGARs. He looks JUST like Tyler.

9:00 am
I get Logan back to nurse him. None of our family has made it to the hospital yet because everything happened so quickly. John and I actually get about an hour with Logan - just the three of us. John gets a few pictures and a little cuddle time. I'm still sitting there in shock.

10:00 am
The nursery nurses come to take Logan and give him his first bath. Neither family has arrived yet!! I'm kind of not wanting them to take him, but we have no idea how long it'll be before everyone gets here. So I turn the precious little bundle over. And wouldn't you know - everyone gets there like 10 minutes later. They all go to the nursery to watch Logan get his bath. I get reports that Logan did NOT like the bath at all.

10:45ish am
Logan comes back and the pass-around begins. Brayden is actually the first one to hold him. He is a VERY proud big brother. Tyler on the other hand is tired and is just sitting on my bed with a very worried face. I ask him what's wrong, but he doesn't answer. Finally I ask him if he's scared and he nods yes. I ask him if he's scared that he's gonna get taken away - he nods and repeats, "Taken away" in the most sad, pathetic little voice I've ever heard. So I let him crawl up beside me and I cuddle him so he doesn't feel left out. About this time, Andy & Amy show up with Paige & Abby - and a Papa John's pizza!!! They all get to see Logan and Brayden & Abby run around the room. It's a riot in there, I'll tell ya.

Noon-ish
Tyler is now sleeping on me in my bed (as is Logan). Everyone else takes off to eat some Braum's for lunch. I enjoy my Papa John's and the peace and quiet.

4 pm
The boys are getting restless and are getting in trouble more often than naught. So Greg & Rhonda start packing them up and take them home. Mom & Dad head off to walmart to get some stuff and get us some dinner.

6 pm
Mom and Dad leave and it's just John, Logan and me. We all just have a nice peaceful night of watching tv and cuddling. It's been a long day, but a very, VERY good one. I can't believe I'm the mom of THREE boys.

No Baby

So I'm resigned to the fact that I'm gonna go until Wednesday. Which is fine, I guess. I told John I just really want to have that "THIS IS IT!!!" moment when I get to tell him to grab the bags cause my water just broke or what have you. It seems like everyone on TV (like on Baby Story) and in the movies (although it can't be a more laughable farce about how most movies portray labor) gets to have that moment... I just wish I could. It's not that I don't appreciate the scheduled induction - I mean, my doctors COULD just let me go a few extra weeks trying to see "if..." Thankfully that's never been the case. But there seems to be some part of the birth excitement that I've missed out on with my last two pregnancies. And on top of all that, I'm just so darn uncomfortable and these contractions are killing me. I went for a solid TWO HOURS yesterday with contractions being 10 minutes apart. They weren't necessarily hard ones, but they weren't exactly light either. I kept thinking that sooner or later they'd pick up, get closer together, and we'd be having a baby. Which I was REALLY hoping for since we'd had such a bad night with football... I kinda thought having a baby would releive some of the pain (how's that for irony?).

But we're still here. With no Logan. But it's nice to have a peacefully quiet house that is actually CLEAN (minus the dirty dishes that really just need to be put in the dishwasher, but I have to empty the dishwasher first, and I haven't yet found the motivation to do step one of two). Not to mention the fact that there is a sense of profound enjoyment in knowing that it's going to STAY clean. But I've got my bag packed (mostly), and I would welcome a birth day at any given moment. I'm just sooooo ready to have my little baby in my arms. It's been a super long nine months. But I can now almost count down HOURS... If this labor is as quick as both Brayden & Tyler were, less than 72 hours from now, we'll be third time parents. EEEEKK!!!!!! How exciting is that?!?!?!?!?!?

The Big Fletcher Parade

Every year for Labor Day weekend the massive town of Fletcher has a fair. We also have hugely impressive parade to celebrate the occasion. Of course, we don't have our own marching band, so we "borrow" Elgin's. And until about 12 years ago, we didn't really have floats... But that's all beside the point. It's a fun chance for the entire school - K through 12 - to walk (or ride as the case may be) down Main Street. Growing up, I remember being a lightbulb, a soldier, an enticing female, and Thing (that hand from The Addam's Family). I know I was a ton of other things, but those are what I think of off the top of my head. If I had pictures here at my house, I'd share. But alas (and thank goodness), I do not. Every year our parade has a theme. Sometimes fairly vague (like "heroes") and sometimes fairly specific (like "musicals"). If there's something big going on, you can bet the fair parade will revolve around that - like the state centennial or the Olympics. The floats have gotten more and more impressive as the years have gone on... But this year they put some major restrictions on them - they had a budget and actual RULES!! Eeek. The floats turned out okay, but the parade just didn't have that fun pop it usually has. Not to mention the theme was "candy." (Huh?)

Okay... SO... Not that I really wanted to see the grade school kids walk down the street. Or the not-so-expensive floats. I really wouldn't have gone at all. BUT... Mom and Dad were honorablly named Mr. & Mrs. Fletcher (i.e. the grand marshals of the parade). So even being only a few days from my due date, I did not want to miss the pictures. Erin & Alan kind of stink at taking pictures and documenting things. I guess I got Mom's camera-obessive gene (why did THAT have to be the one thing I got from her?? lol). I was supposed to be meeting the folks later in the day to drop off the boys anyway - they're staying in Fletcher until Logan's arrival... So I just packed up early and took off. I'm so glad I did. The boys really had a good time. I took their little lawn chairs, and they had bags to put all their candy in. Plus, we got them there early enough that they got an extra night at the fair (which, sadly, I didn't stay for so - you got it - no pictures).

I feel SOOOO blessed to have the opportunity to live close enough to "home" that my boys are getting to grow up experiencing some of life's little joys that I had my entire growing up years. It's an amazing thing to know in your head that the Fletcher Free Fair would be a big joke to anyone outside of our little town (you can ask John for his opinion), but to be committed to attending nonetheless. It's a Fletcher thing... And we take it quite seriously - so seriously that I remember writing a paper on the irony of it all during my college composition class. haha!!! So anyway... Here are some of the pictures that were captured during the big day.... Enjoy!

Triage Adventures

Yesterday was my last OB appointment until we go in for induction!! HURRAY!! It's been a fast AND slow 9 months. It's an absolute amazement to me how time can completely slow to a crawl when you are the most wanting it to speed up. This is no more true than at 1:30 in the morning when your hips hurt and you're having trouble getting back to sleep and you really just want the night to pass normally. I'm really looking forward to this hip pain being reduced soon. But anyway... Back to the appointment.... I've had protein in my urine for about 3 months now. Just traces, and it's really honestly because I drink too much pop and not enough water. My doc has scolded me about this, but has just kind of written it off as me being a bad patient. (lol) But this week I've been having low grade headaches (which could very well be sinus junk), and a touch of swelling (which is probably just the weight gain catching up with me), and then my blood pressure was just a tad elevated for my normal rates - 139/90. So all this combined, my doc decided it was better to be safe than sorry and sent me to labor & delivery for some preeclampsia bloodwork. I figured this was an in and out type thing. No way jose. Nothing in pregnancy is EVER that easy. I actually got ADMITTED for a non-stress test and the bloodwork. An hour and a half later, I find out everything is absolutely fine. My BP stayed around 118/72 during that entire time, Logan's heartrate had great rythmn, and the bloodcounts were completely within the normal range. So I was discharged.

This entire time, though.... John, my poor, wonderful husband who was just trying to be supportive and come to our last appointment, was stuck with the two wild children. This probably would've been okay if we'd had any idea how long things were gonna take, but as it were, he didn't want to go anywhere with them (besides to get lunch) because he didn't want to deal with the getting them out of the car only to put them right back in. So he spent the hour & a half in the minivan with the boys. I commend his patience and commitment to being a good daddy - both boys are still alive. haha

So all that said... We are still counting down to induction. No more dilation progress has been made, even with all the contractions (which makes me want to just scream, but whatever), so I've just resigned myself to living out the next week in a state of contentment. The boys are headed to my parents' house tomorrow... I still don't know how I'm getting them there or when. The fair parade is around 1ish I think and Mom & Dad are Mr & Mrs Fletcher this year - so they're actually IN the parade. Which of course I would LOVE to see, but I don't know if I want to handle the boys for the entire parade... add into the equation that I'd be an hour from my hospital... Hum... I just don't know if I'm gonna wait and take them later or WHAT! But no matter what happens, tomorrow night I will be child free and able to relax for a few days. There's not a WHOLE lot that still needs to be done around the house - I've been a major nester this past month - so more than likely I'm just gonna do NOTHING. Sounds absolutely GLORIOUS.

Well, anyway... we're heading to Norman to help Andy & Amy move apartments, so I need to get in the shower and get the boys dressed and ready to go.

One Heartbeat

So I was sitting here the other day working on something or another... I think I was making my new desktop wallpaper? Anyway - I had Pandora Radio on in the background. Firstly, let me just share how magical that website is for me!! I have a few stations set up to reflect my daily moods. They are almost all based off of a singular artist that has a style I enjoy with my moods - There's some John Mayer for my secular "just wanna hear some good music" mood; there's John Williams for my cinematically instrumental moods and Hans Zimmer for my more mellow instrumental mood; Frank Sinatra for my classic crooner sound; Broadway for my "belt it out and sing along" days; and finally, Steven Curtis Chapman for the best that's out there. I can't begin to say how much I LOVE SCC's music. I told John the other day that I don't know if I've ever heard a song of his that I don't like. Some are a little more "eh" than others, but there has never been one that I've just shunned.

All that said... Pandora was running in the background and the second song that shuffles up is one I've never heard before. But the lyrics caught me right away - "You're up all night with a screaming baby..." Um... yeah, I was! Two of them, actually!! And so I sat back to listen. And wound up in pouring tears. Tyler wandered in at one point and got worried about me, but of course, his little face being concerned for Mommy made the moment even more intense.

I just wanted to take a minute to put these lyrics out there for my mommy friends. I hope they touch you as much as they did me. (And of course, you can get the song right now, as I did, on iTunes for $.99...haha!)

You're up all night with a screaming baby
You run all day at the speed of life
And every day you feel a little bit less
Like the beautiful woman you are

So you fall into bed when you run out of hours
And you wonder if anything worth doing got done
Oh, maybe you just don't know
Or maybe you've forgotten

You, you are changing the world
One little heartbeat at a time
Making history with every touch and every smile
Oh, you, you may not see it now
But I believe that time will tell
How you, you are changing the world
One little heartbeat at a time

With every "I know you can do it"
Every tear that you kiss away
So many little things that seem to go unnoticed
They're just like the drops of rain over time
They become a river

You, you are changing the world
One little heartbeat at a time
Making history with every touch and every smile
Oh, you, you may not see it now
But I believe that time will tell
How you, you are changing the world
One little heartbeat at a time

You're beautiful
You're beautiful
How you're changing the world
You're changing the world

Positive Thinking

So last night I was trying to go to sleep, and I realized that lately, I've been nothing but complaints about being pregnant. So I decided I'd try to be a little more positive and try to enjoy these last few days of pregnancy. Mainly because I am not 100% sure that they won't be my last for good. So here are some key points I came up with...

-- Being pregnant means you can eat what's in front of you and people don't judge.
-- The clothes are actually pretty cute for the most part - and I can wear sweat pants or athletic shorts and have great reason to!
-- The feeling of a moving baby in your belly is a very unique thing that is actually quite reassuring.
-- I can actually say, "Hey I NEED a nap" and usually get one at some point.

So that may be a measley list to some, but for a "realist" like me, it's actually pretty good. haha I've given up with the thoughts of going early... I am just gonna resign myself to having 11 days to go and try to get as much done as I can in those days.

I made a new desktop today to try and remind myself to not be so negative and to let God into my attitude a little more. I realized that my life has been a pretty good void of Spirit Fruit lately... It's got pictures of my two bigger boys in their first month of life to also remind me that I have two other "babies" that I still need to be focusing daily on. I actually really like it....

Friends

So back in May (and trust me, it already seems like they've been here a lot longer), we got a new youth minister at our church. He came toting two little girls - Abby (who was born the same year as Brayden, but is actually a lot closer in age to Tyler) and Paige (who's the cutest little baby girl in the world - and I can say that cause WE haven't produced any girls yet). So Andy and Amy have just about TOO much in common with us... And every time we hang out together we find out one more thing that is similar! The weirdest being that Amy was actually at our wedding and didn't even know us!!! She came as Nathaniel's date - which is also funny because it means that Amy & I have both dated the same guy, too.

ANYWAY...

Yesterday we were just sitting here minding our own business when it was announced that they were gonna come bring Papa John's to us for lunch and play for the afternoon. Well, first of all, NO ONE is gonna turn down free Papa John's, so they had a ringer - but I was THRILLED to have the company! It's been a while since we've had friends over... it's been a while since we've had friends... haha. But we had a FANTASTIC time with them. John and Andy got some camp stuff done, and Amy and I stayed in the house and let the kids trash the place. We got them to settle down for about 20 minutes while they watched part of 101 Dalmations, but that ended quickly and they all went back to the "let's see how many toys we can get out at once" game. But it was so much fun. My boys love those girls. And it's so great to have some people to hang out with!!! I didn't realize how friend-deprived we'd been as a couple until they moved here. And the funniest part is... they felt the same way!

One Down....

At the risk of speaking too soon, I want to document this occasion. Brayden has now been accident free for almost a week and a half!! And on top of all that, he's begun going poo in the toilet also!!! He went straight from diapers to underwear - totally skipped pull-ups. How in the world did we accomplish this unseemingly possible task?? Well - I'll just say it was peer pressure. We were in VBS two weeks ago, and Brayden & Tyler were in the preschool class with abotu 4 or 5 other boys and Abby. Pretty much everyone in the class besides my two boys (and Abby) are potty trained. SOOOOO - when the class would take the field trip to the bathroom, Brayden wanted to go to... To get to go, he had to go pee. So pee he did. And that's about the end of that!! He has even mastered getting up in the middle of the night to go if he needs to! I just can't believe it! Three weeks ago, he was telling me that he NEEDED his diaper. Guess he's a "big boy" now.

Tyler on the other hand doesn't really want to have anything to do with going potty on the toilet. Even though we pretty much had him in underwear about a month ago.... *sigh* I guess I can handle it, though... Two in diapers is SOOOOO much better than the prospect of three. And a LOT cheaper too, might I add. Brayden's diapers were getting ready to break the bank.

So all that said... BRING ON BABY NUMBER THREE!!!!!!!!!

How many?????

Okay - 9 months is just too darn many. Six or seven would've done it... But I remind myself that God has this whole wisdom thing going on, and for some odd reason NINE is the magic number that works for us. I'm of the mindset that He made it last this long because by the end of nine months, we're so ready to have this THING out of us that we actually WELCOME the pains of labor. The Braxton-Hicks, the "lightening" (which may I add, my pelvis does not agree with that term), the sore hips and, to top it all off, THE waddle that those really pregnant women get... they're all things that I would bargin away in a HEARTBEAT right now. But this is probably because it's been 2.5 years since my last delivery, and I'm a little shady on how much pain I was actually in before Tyler entered our lives. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I forgot about most of that pain the minute I saw his beautiful little face - and then Brayden's beautiful little face kissing his new little brother. It's all worth it in the end....

But seriously, can I have a baby tonight?

I Want to be John

So.... The boys are at Grandma Laura's... They've been there since Saturday!! It's been quite a pleasant and quiet week (although I am missing them a lot). I've been cleaning (aka "nesting") the bedrooms and rearranging things - trying to get ready for Logan's arrival. It's been quite a task, I assure you. First I had to decide where Logan was going to be sleeping. This was an especially hard task because Tyler is/was still sleeping in the CRIB!!! He's never even attempted a jail break, so we've just left him in there. But he is 2 1/2... probably time to start sleeping in a "real" bed. Only problem there is that the bunks aren't quite ready to be assembled yet. I had told John that he had a lot more time to get them done because I wasn't really planning on myself getting so crazy with the nesting. So we have one bunk almost done and one that hasn't even been started on yet (because it's Brayden's bed currently). SOOOOO... long story short - to make things easier on everyone involoved, we're going to put Logan in the boys' room and move Brayden to his own room. When the bunks get done, we'll assemble them and go from there. Another thing I've had a little time to do is scrapbook!! I spent a few HOURS this morning trying to perfect a layout that focuses on something I've been wanting to blog about...
Here's the video:



So this was actually the SECOND time that Brayden said this... The first time he didn't even say he wanted to be Daddy, he just said he wantd to "be John." It was just too cute to not scrap &/or video and blog!!! So on top of the video, here's my layout that I composed to go with the story:

I figured that you couldn't see the pictures of John & Brayden closely enough, so here are the pics themselves... You can click on the picture to see the larger version. It's just too uncanny - I keep giggling every time I look at them.

And in other news.... we're less than 4 weeks from Logan's arrival!! I can't belive these 9 months have gone by so quickly!!!!!!

3 Little Boys...

GRACIOUS!!! Brayden is a rollercoaster of emotions these days. He is a perfectly happy, content preschooler one minute and then crying like a baby the next. Have NO idea why. I had a theory that it had to do with lack of naps, but he's having a major meltdown right now, and he had a good nap this afternoon. So... who knows. He is, however, growing like a mad weed. He's 41.5" tall right now (1/2 inch from riding Thunderation at SDC) - which according to all the growth predictor charts means we're looking at a 6'6" 18 year old!! Wow. I can honestly imagine him being huge like that, but it's still crazy. He shot from 3t to 5t this summer. It's hard to remember that he's only three most days because he IS so big. He went with me to one of my prenatal appointments and he weighed in at 38 lbs. I can't believe how fast he's growing up. His language and imagination have just EXPLODED this summer as well. But our favorite new word that he has is "trampaboing" (trampoline). We love that he uses descriptive words to make words make sense to himself. But gone are the days of "Mall-Nart" which still saddens us.

Tyler is proving to us every day how much his personality differs from Brayden. He has his nap times, his quiet times, his play times... And he doesn't much like to differ the schedule. He LOVES watching tv (moo-ees), but also has a great time with his cars and trucks. He has just started "group play" with Brayden and wants to follow him everywhere and do everything he's doing... It makes for some hairy fights. We actually caught Brayden hitting, with FISTS last night. Of course, I would say that 80% of the time, Tyler is actually the initiator of the fights. He's one of those kids that's gonna come running to me saying, "Brayden hit me!" and of course I'll have to respond with, "Well, did you hit him first?" Howedver - he is one VERY polite little boy. Yesterday we were out at the mountains and were headed into the Holy City. A guy was on his way out and held open the gate for us... As Tyler walked through, he looked up at the man and said in his cute little Ty voice, "Gank you!" It was a very proud moment for both John & me.

As far as #3 goes... Well, I'm ready to meet him for sure!! I've gotten about as big as I want to be, but can't seem to stop eating. But at my last appointment, my doc set up an induction date for us. So we're looking at 9/9 being the latest date that we'll meet this little guy. John and I are both very curious to see what kind of kid he ends up being.

Here's my new computer monitor wallpaper for this month.... In honor of us having three VERY soon:

and again

So... I'm sitting at the lab (again) doing a gestational diabetes test. I cannot begin to tell you how much fun this is. I got up at 6 am so that I could get here early. Obviously everyone else had the same thought. When I got here there were only a handful of empty seats. It took 35 minutes for them to even call me back for the first (of four) blood draw. Then I had to drink the dreaded orange junk. Blech. I haven't eaten since 7 pm last night so all this sugar is making me kinda icky. But...I am trying to remember that all this is for a precious baby boy that we all want to be as healthy as possible. So here I sit and wait. Good thing I have a book and my iPod to keep me company. Maybe three hours will go by quickly.

a three year old's "sock on the door"

So as crass as it is, everyone's heard of the "sock on the door" and what it means to college kids who are roommates. Well, my wonderfully ingenious son is obviously way ahead of his time... Today, he snuck off into his bedroom to do his (poop) business. I tried to go in to see what he was up to (obviously this was before I had smelled what he was up to), and I got told, "Mommy, you don't come in my bedroom." A few minutes later, I turn around and this is what I find:



It's his butterfly catching net. Guess we have a new "signal" in our house for Brayden having some private diaper time.

DOUBLE DIGITS

Okay, so last week was one of my favorite pregnancy milestones (aside from going into labor)... Hiting DOUBLE DIGITS!! I made John take a "belly pic" so that I would have it to scrapbook. I have to admit, the picture is a little altered - my belly was actually a nasty pasty white color that would probably glow in the dark. But since I can't even tell you the last time my belly button got some sun time, it's not very surprising.

Logan is moving around a TON these days. He's especially active around 9 or 10 pm. He gets these little gymnastics routines going on in my belly that can last for 10-15 minutes. It's really crazy. My belly button is threatening to come out - I joke that that means the turkey is done, but in all honesty, we still have 3 months to go from TODAY!!!! Next week is officially the 3rd trimester... I'm sure that things are just going to get more amusing from here on out - the hip pain, the waddling, the having to have help to get out of bed in the morning, the heartburn, shortness of breath, and lack of leg shaving... but in 90ish days, I'll have my third little guy to cuddle with and none of this will matter. I just hope the days go by quickly. I'm not that big of a fan of being pregnant. Although I DO have some cute clothes this go around. hehe

Camp?? Already?!?!?!

I cannot for the life of me believe that it is camp season. This year has FLOWN by. We start our first official week of camp TODAY. I think we are pretty much ready, but we have an entirely new staff, so it will be a fun learning experience for all of them. I'm very grateful that John's mom is here for a few weeks to help out with the boys. I am sure I couldn't do it on my own this year and stay sane (and/or healthy). I start the third trimester very soon - and Wednesday marks our "double digits" countdown to our due date.

All in all, I am thinking it's going to be a great summer.... I'm kind of glad to have these two months filled up so that I'm distracted from the woes of later pregnancy.

Blessed

It's been a rough, rough, ROUGH couple of days for me. Soon-to-be-third-trimester horomones are kicking into full swing making me tired, cranky and very emotional. I feel like I'm ready to burst into tears at any given moment. Which is all compounded by having a terror of a three year old and a needy two year old. I've been trying to get Brayden to take a nap with me every day this week which, thus far, has ended up in him being mad at me and me giving up in tears and hysteria. If he won't sleep, I can't sleep because he is seriously unpredictable. He would totally do one or all of the following: escape the house (even if all the doors are blocked and or locked), flood the bathroom, try on ALL the pullups and proceed to pee in them all, get into the pantry and try to make himself a snack consisting of peanut butter and cheetos, start a load of laundry after mixing a special concoction of detergent and fabric softner, rearrange the living room furniture, take all the batteries out of anything and everything and hide them, wake Tyler up prematurely, try to take a bath or shower... These are only the things he HAS done - I have no idea what all he could actually come up with if left to his own means.

All that said... I have been blessed for the past few days now by a "secret pal" on my digital scrapbooking website. Today I got a hallmark card in the mail from her just giving me hugs. After the day I'd had thus far, it was like the clouds parted and I could feel sunshine. It's so nice to have someone out there who's making it their job to spoil me - if only for a couple of weeks. She also sent me a scrapbooking gift the other day - a few kits that I'd had on my wishlist! I was able to use them right away to scrap my kiddos. I really enjoyed having some new "toys" to play with. Here's what I came up with...

Deeper.

So yesterday and today have both been teaching/learning experiences for my poor little three year old. Yesterday evening John wanted all of us to come down to the (empty) pool to help sweep out the debris and bag up the leaves that were in the bottom so that he could start power washing soon. Sounds like a ton of fun for little boys, right?? Well, it probably WOULD'VE been if someone knew how to obey. Brayden thought the empty pool was like a great big playground - free to run!! Of course it's sloping ground and CONCRETE!!!! We asked him, told him, yelled at him NOT TO RUN. But boys are boys and run he did. Fall he did. Cry he did. *sigh* So we had to get out of the pool and come home. He proceeded to get bandaids on his knees (I all better now Mommy) and have a stern lecture on WHY Mommy and Daddy should be listened to. Obviously it all sunk in really deeply because today we had all the same issues again. Brayden wants to go to the park? Okay - let's do that! It sounds like fun. But before we could get there, guess who disobeys more than Jonah!!!!! Yeah, that'd be my lovely son. So we skip the park and just do errands instead. On the way home, Brayden asked why he didn't get to go to the park. The ensuing conversation included big words like "privilege" and "consequences." We tried very hard to preschool-down the conversation so that he could understand. I told John after it was all over that it wouldn't be so frustrating if I didn't have to reiterate this one million times a day (or perhaps an hour). But tonight as I sat refelcting on my frustration toward this energetic little creature that has problems listening, I realize that I am no better at all. And I should know better because I've heard the lesson for 30 years as opposed to his three. I can't even begin to imagine how frustrated God must be with me everyday... and then the next thought is obviously... how many privileges have I missed out on??? So conclusion: Not to just work on Brayden's obedience, but instead to work on obedience WITH Brayden.

Gracious.

So it's 9:55 pm. And we're trying to get the boys to go to sleep. It's not working so well. They are just in there giggling at each other... Brayden keeps crawling into Tyler's crib where they just sit and laugh. Then I put Brayden back in bed and Tyler starts whining because he wants to be in bed with Brayden. *sigh* They are quite the handful.

I had an experience in being positive tonight. I was scrapbooking a page for each boy with descriptive words for them. I asked John if he had some words for Brayden and his quote from Toy Story was, "I can't say - there are preschool toys around." But I was finally able to take even their negative traits and spin them in a positive light. Here's what I ended up with:

Scrapbooking & Pregnancy Woes

Thought I'd come post a few of the scrapbook pages I've done lately... This one was for a "love story" challenge. I don't do pages of myself very often, and more rarely of John. Most of this has to do with the fact that I don't have too many pictures of us... But I found out that one of my scrapgirls tools worked in photoshop to help fix one of our wedding pics, so I did a layout with it.



Here is one of my boys. :) I can't wait for Logan to get here and meet his big brothers.



And even better than THAT - my SILLY boys. It's always an adventure around here.



I have a few of Silver Dollar City done, but I think I'll wait and post them all at the same time... I'm trying to get pictures from my mom before I finish up.

Anyway... Guess that's all for now. I want to write more, but it's a cleaning day, and Logan is kind of dragging me down, so I'm having to rest a lot which means it's taking me about 3x as long to get things done. I wish my body handled pregnancy better. I have no idea why my first trimester is always super easy and then I get to the second half of the pregnancy and WHAM! It's like I get hit with a ton of bricks. Thankfully it's usually gone after lunch (which means it's probably diet related), so maybe after I get Tyler down for a nap and get Brayden in "rest time" I'll be able to get a lot of things ticked off my list. Wish me luck.

Welcome to Late Night Television

"And if you're new to Oklahoma, welcome to late night television." That was what Gary England said last night around 11:00 pm while we were watching all the big, scary storms work their way (slowly) across Oklahoma. At one point, there was a storm over Fletcher, Pink AND Fayeteville, AR (Gma & Gpa). Craziness that it was a family affair last night. I kept asking John when/if I should pack a small bag so we could head out to the cellar. He kept telling me to shush so he could hear the radio. But we made it through okay - nothing dramatic to report. There WAS torrential rain and a little hail... I don't want to see how wet the ground is NOW - it hasn't dried out over the last MONTH. It's insane. I feel like I'm living in Seattle. Although yesterday, the sun did come out and the boys got to play outside for a few minutes... Until I started getting attacked by mosquitoes. That's where I draw the line. So anyway... we're all safe, sound, and none the worse for the wear. I hope the sun comes out today and dries up some of the muck.

Something....Anything...

I sit here day after day doing work stuff, play stuff, nothing at all... and I sometimes think to myself, I need to blog. But I haven't gotten around to it. I'm just too lazy sometimes. I was doing a "Top 5 Things I Hate Doing" on Facebook and realized that I pretty much hate doing anything that takes any effort. I'd be a good multi-trillionaire. I would spend everything I have on other people, though. haha I really enjoy spoiling those around me. John can attest to this - he has pretty much everything he thinks he "needs." Even if we can't really afford it, I come up with ways to scrimp somewhere else to get things for him. But then there's myself... I really WANT some cute maternity clothes. I mean, I am seriously dying to buy some. I've even filled up my Old Navy cart online yesterday just to look at it and sigh. I realize, though, that I was brought up to be selfless like this - I can't remember my mom EVER spending extra on herself unless it was her birthday. So I'll just keep wearing my teeshirts and my hand-me-down maternity shirts and be happy because everyone else around me has everything they want - and that makes me happy too.

Weight & Minivans

Tyler had his two year well check this week. He is 33" tall (one inch less than Brayden was at this age) and 24 lbs light. He's in the 25th percentile across the board. But that's fine because he's pretty much been on that curve for a while. He did great for his check up - he sat still for the doctor and let him look in his ears and mouth. Doc said everything looked good and was happy that he talks so much/well at this age. He asked if he could ride a trike yet... I said, well I honestly don't know. He's never had the chance to try. Every time he gets on one, Brayden pushes him. Doc came back with: Oh, so he has a motor?? haha

Brayden has been on this, I know everything, and I'm the boss kick lately. Tonight he was telling me that he wanted the tractor. I asked him if it was the one that he had earlier (which we left in the car). He said yes. So I told him that it was in the car and I'd have to go get it. He got all mad at me and said, "It's not in the car! It's in the miniman!"
Me: Okay I'll go get it out of the minivan.
B: But it's not in the car, okay? It's in the miniman!
Me: You're right. It's in the minivan.
B: But it's not a car! It's a MINIMAN!
Me: That's right it's a minivan.
B: It's NOT a car.
(at this point I just go ahead and go outside to get the tractor)

Haircuts and Birthdays

Here are a few long overdue pictures... We got a new computer a few weeks ago, and I'm just now getting to where I'm pulling pictures off of our camera's card. We've been slacking lately on taking pictures, too, so that hasn't helped. Here's what's been happening...

Tyler's hair has been getting longer and longer (as has Brayden's, but we'll buzz his), so he's been needing a haircut. We were going to get one for him the week before this, but the wait at walmart was 1.5-2 hours!! Eek. So I went to Chickasha one Monday and met Mom there. She kept Brayden busy while I sat with Tyler. He did a great job! Here is is Before Haircut:


Here are the boys (see Ty's nice short hair??) watching TV together. Yes, Tyler has a huge bandaid on his face. He had a little zit or something and he just keeps picking at it. The only way to keep him from messing with it is to have a Nemo bandaid on his face. But aren't they the cutest little brothers you've ever seen???


Mom, Dad & Erin came down on Monday to celebrate Mom's birthday a day late, and Tyler's a week early. We had burgers, Erin's potato salad, baked beans and LOTS of birthday cake. YUM!!! Tyler got to open a few presents, too...


He got a Percy the Train!!


PaPa got the train track out with the boys and built a nice big track in the living room for Thomas, Percy and Henry.


This is Brayden's "usual" face right now. Every time he talks to us he frowns like this. I have no idea....


Playing trains with PaPa

Instrumental to Brayden

This is his second or third attempt... He got a LOT better about 10 minutes AFTER we turned off the camera. John was very impressed with the way he picked it right up and can make the right mouth positions and stuff. He plays better than Mommy does.



I am always amazed at the things Brayden can do. He doesn't really listen to instructions, he just does his own thing. But he will watch how you do something and then try to imitate it. He's very musically inclined. He plays drums, piano, trumpet and sings. He can almost sing a song pitch perfect! But music isn't his only talent. He seems to just soak up anything and everything from day to day. He knows how to make things work, take things apart, put them together...it's just amazing. He plays on the computer, too!

Last night John and I were talking about how much of a challenge it is parenting such a curious and strong-willed child and he made the comment that he thinks Bradyen is just one of those kids who longs for stimulation. When he isn't active enough, it just has to come out whatever way it can, and it's usually destructive. (See Ex. 1: The crayon marks on my coffee table.) But I'm very awed by him and his abilities. I can't wait to see what the next few years bring us with him.

Little Thing

Appointment update.

Baby's heartrate is 162, everything looked great to the doc. I lost 5 lbs since last appointment, but with last week's 12 hour date with the toilet, I understand why. We got the "big" ultrasound scheduled for 4/15 which is just a tad less than a month away!!! Too exciting.

Not Much...

I don't have much to say, but I was really trying to blog more since I've been a slacker lately.

Um... John and I had our 5 year anniversary this past week (3/13, which, yes was Friday the 13th this year). I celebrated it in the bathroom. Sick. Very. Not fun. Today is the first day that I've had any semblance of normalcy. I pretty much just had to tell myself that tired or not, I had to get back to the Mother Land. ;) We needed groceries, the boys were getting restless, and John's tired of fending for himself on all fronts. So I called for reinforcements (Mom) and went shopping in Chickasha. Of course, I forgot my money at home (isn't that the way it goes??), so I was very lucky she was along to bail me out. Phew. Funny how being sick can totally mess with your mind along with everything else important.

I have my next dr's appointment tomorrow (and John will be left with the boys alone again... poor guy). I'm hoping that we'll be scheduling the "big" ultrasound at this one. It's weird to think that I'm already into my second trimester. But honestly, the thing that's excited me the most about this pregnancy (and yes, I know this is totally weird and messed up) is labor. I didn't really have pregnancy fever - I had no desire to be all tired and big again - I had labor fever. Every time I watched A Baby Story or anything, all I could think about is how much fun it is to wait for those labor signs and then head off to the hospital and then getting ready to push... Oh!! It's just so exciting!! Of course, with both of my boys, I kind of missed out on a lot of that because I was induced with both. I'm really hoping that this time everything kind of goes according to nature's plan and I get to say those, "I think it's time!" words. Only time will tell.

We've got Brayden and Tyler in a bedroom together (again)... It's only sort of working. It's been rough to figure out how to do naps because Brayden is still only sometimes taking naps and is very hard to get down when he does. Last night was trying, too. About 3:30-4ish, I hear Brayden calling me. So I drag myself out of bed to see what, or more appropriately WHO, is up. Both of them are. So I get them both something to drink and get them all settled down again. Or so I thought. A few minutes after getting nice and comfy with my body pillow again, I hear, "Mommy! He's making NOISES. Mommy, he's making LOUD noises." *sigh* Off to figure out what's going on. Obviously Tyler figured that if they were both going to be awake, they needed to play. Good thing he's still confined to his crib (which is an amazing thing in and of itself). So I get Brayden up and take him to the guest room for the rest of the night. Back to bed... snug and slipping off to dreamland around 5 am I hear, "Mommy! I need a snack." SERIOUSLY?!?! And when Brayden gets his mind set on needing something, you may as well give in if you ever want to go back to bed or whatever else it was you were doing unless you're prepared for a few hours worth of struggle (which happens VERY often around here - one struggle to the next, I tell ya). So he got two crackers, a pat on the butt and a pillow under his head. Thankfully the boys slept until around 8:30 this morning!! I don't know what I would've done if they decided to get up for good around 6 or 7.

But speaking of... I've got Tyler in bed and it's time to go try to get Brayden settled down in there. Wish me luck.

A long week...

This has been a LONG week. Trying. Very. Both boys (mainly and mostly Brayden) tried their best to see how far Mommy had to go until she was permanently riding the crazy train. They like trains, you know. It wasn't too far, but luckily, I have a great hubby and sister who rescued me from the loading platform.

This is how I felt most of the week:


But then Erin came out from Thursday night until Saturday afternoon and, if nothing else, took us out to eat a few times so I didn't have to worry about fixing food. She also cleaned my kitchen!! :D I had to go get her and take her home - which wasn't horrible since they only live a little over an hour away... While I was at Mom & Dad's house, John called and said HIS sisters were coming to stay Saturday night with us!! MORE HELP!! Yippee!!! So last night the boys got two more aunts to entertain. And I got to go to bed early! Well... I WOULD have if it weren't for the "spring forward." But whatever. So they left today and decided to take Brayden with so they could drop him off for the week with Grandma Rhonda and cousin Nikolas. Can I just TELL you how quiet my house is?!?!?!? Wow. It's amazing how much stress and noise a three year old can emit. I sent the pullups with him... I have high hopes maybe Grandma can potty train him in a week. (Yeah, right.)

Oh, you don't even wanna know....

There has been so much stuff going on lately, I don't even know where to start. But you probably don't really want to know everything anyway. And who am I kidding, I write this stuff mainly so my wonder of a mommy brain doesn't forget the cute little things. lol

Anyway. Like I said last time, we're pregnant. Went for my first visit the other day and had the bravery to take Tyler in with me. John had Brayden, but they went to Sears during my appointment. We both kind of made the agreement that it wouldn't (or couldn't) be all or nothing for either of us, so we each took one. I have no idea how we'll split baby #3. Haha. Back to the doctor, though... Tyler and I had to sit for just a little while - it was mainly waiting on me to get all the initial paper work done and what have you. He was pretty good. I won't even venture to say that he WAS good, though. Finally we get called back. My "starting" weight is officially 128 - even though I've probably already put on a few pounds because at that appointment I was already 12 weeks. But we did the whole lovely long history thing and then the nurse let us hear the heartbeat. Tyler really liked that - he said it was a choo-choo train. :D The heart was beating at 170. I like the old wives tales right now because the faster beat means girl. But it's pretty unreliable.

The weather turned nice for a day last week - Thursday. I loaded up the boys that morning and took them to my mom's so that they could play outside all day. Which they did. They helped her plant some flowers, rode in their truck, and played in the mud. After that was supper and bath... THEN Brayden escaped the house before getting dressed. So... yeah... he played outside for a little while with nothing on but a smile. (I think the whole neighborhood probably heard his little chant, "I nakkid!!!") Fun stuff that we will forever have photo blackmail proof of.

So we come home on Friday and had a wonderfully crazy weekend of boys who had been spoiled a bit too much at Grandma's house. I'll just skip all that because I don't want to try to remember it.

A few nights ago Lord of the Rings was on TNT, and I hadn't seen it in a while, so I was watching part of it while the boys ate supper. They got done and came to join me on the couch for a few minutes... Tyler pointed excitedly at Gandolf and said, "Jesus!!" John said that we now know what Tyler's perception of Jesus is. lol

Brayden on the other hand is a bit more creative. He and I have a little thing we do while scratching each others' backs called "Desert Island." He loves it and makes me do it multiple times. I finally got him to do it for me the other night. He told me he needed to do it on my back so he pulled the back of my shirt out of the way (cause I always do his on his bare skin). As he pulled up my shirt, he let me know that I had a seat belt on (the back of my bra). I about died laughing at this. It's funny how little kids put what they know onto things they don't. Oh, by the way - to Brayden, it's called a "beat selt."

Last one, I promise... Brayden's been playing on an online letter recognizion website (starfall.com). He LOVES this thing - and he's really good with the mouse, too. It's almost scary how quickly he took to using a computer. It's worked wonders with him and his letters, too. He can click on almost any letter you ask him to if you help him by saying, click "t" for "train." Well, we were watching Super Why on PBS the other morning and they were sounding out "ladder." I paused the dvr after each letter trying to get him to tell me what the right letter for that sound was. I didn't get to L in time, but they did the short a - and he got that. He tried to tell me that "d" was actually "b"... they didn't do "e" because I think they skip vowels that are confusing?? I don't really know. But they said "e is next." I paused and asked Brayden what starts with E? I expected him to say egg or elephant... but he broke out the big guns and said, "Erin." That's my little genius. I have no idea where he learned that, but my jaw hit the ground. I think he'll be reading before too long.

Only....

I haven't been here in a little while... Need to post a LOT of stuff. I've been a slacker, though. I haven't scrapped since Christmas, which has often tied to my blogging. Maybe I need to drag out some pictures tonight and get going on that. It's tough because we got a new camera for Christmas and my laptop doesn't seem to like the sd card. So it's not easy to transfer the pictures I need to scrap. However, I need to start being careful of all the pictures and whatnot on here because I'm quickly running out of space on my hard drive. I have two external drives, but have yet to move everything over to them. Can you tell I'm in the mood to make excuses???

Anyhoo... there's some other things going on...


At the posting of this blog, it says I'm 7 weeks, 6 days pregnant... "Only" 225 to go. ONLY?!?!?! Are you kidding me???!?!? That's a lifetime. But I'm sure it will go quickly. We found out that there's a good chance that I may be able to use the same practice in Norman that we used for Brayden. There are a few hoops to jump through first, but it sounded like it was a very likely possibility. So poor Tyler will be the only baby not born in Norman. Maybe.

Other than that, not too much is going on. I'm tired and cranky most of the time. I really don't care for pregnancy horomones. But I've also been cold, appetiteless, and hermit-ish. It's a load of fun.

Well, I just wanted to get on and post something... I really need to take a shower and get some laundry done... AND do the dishes... AND clean up the living room. *sigh*

Testing this out

John just got a blackberry...So of course I'm having to try it out. I've never been a texter, either, so this isn't exactly easy. But anyhoo... I will be back later with my real computer to post some Holiday updates and talk about B's bday tomorrow and to share some other stuff going on. I really need to do this blackberry thing more so I can talk John into getting me one.