Crazy Crazy Moments!

It has been a crazy few months! Elijah has grown sooo much! On Christmas morning he discovered his fists. He loves to stare at them still. He has also started "talking" and laughing! It is absolutely amazing to watch him. As I am writing this, he is happily "talking" to the toys on his bouncy seat. I LOVE watching him. I'll post some pix so you can see just how much he has grown! As of last Friday he weighs 10lbs 5oz! He's just gotten so big and is starting to develop his own personality.  I am so in love with this little man (as if you couldn't tell, lol).

In December we had him into the ER cuz he had a virus (thankfully not the flu). After several days of pedialyte and slowly reintroducing his formula, he finally made it back to normal.

We also had to switch him to a soy formula cuz the regular formulas (even the gentle ones) just hurt his little tummy so bad. He would scream and scream and scream for hours. We switched to soy and like a miracle, he's the happiest baby on the block!

Here's to hoping that the next 2 months are a little less crazy than the last 2!

(pix go in reverse chronological order)

Elijah laughing with his Daddy:

Elijah in his Bumbo:

Staring at those fists:

This was the first day he smiled a lot:

LOVE this pic: looks like he spotted a UFO!

Watching Veggie Tales:

One-Week Pictures

At one-week old, my BFF Sarah came and took pictures of Mr. Elijah. He wasn't a big fan of the whole idea (ie cried pretty much the whole time), but we did get some really great pictures! Here's a few... hope to post more later!

So Many Changes!

The past week has been a whirlwind! I woke up early Saturday (1:15am) to find myself in labor. Before the morning was over (11:38am), I became a mommy. He weighed 7lbs 3.2oz and was 21" long.

I can not even begin to express the emotions and thoughts that went through my head throughout that day. Awe, wonder, shock, just to name a few. We were released from the hospital about 9:00 Sunday night and spent our first night home as a family; me, Patrick, and Elijah.
The next day we took a trip across town to my parents house to introduce Elijah to Princess (our dog), because my parents had been gracious enough to dogsit for us while we were in the hospital. Well, Princess really wasn't sure what to think, but is now doing well, although at times I can still tell she gets kinda wierded out when he screams or jealous when she thinks she's not getting enough attention.
Tuesday night was one for the books... Elijah had his first tummy ache. After 3 solid hours of him screaming I called my mom in tears and she made the trek across town to help us out. I am eternally thankful to her (and gas drops) for getting us through that night.


Yesterday (Wednesday) was E's first doctor's appointment...It went great! After his "cone" went away, he is now 19 3/4" long and is 6lbs 12.6oz. The doc said she thinks he's already hit his low weight and is starting to climb (since he was less than an ounce less than when we were discharged on Sunday). We go back to the hospital on Sunday for one final weight check, just to make sure.
That has been my whirlwind of a week! It's had crazy ups and downs, but I wouldn't trade this life for any other.

Exciting News From The Doctor Today!

I went in for my weekly appointment this morning... I'll be 38 weeks on Friday.
First she measured my belly like normal, but he measured a week behind where he was last week (last time he measured at 36 wks and this time only 35). The doc said she was going to schedule a 3rd ultrasound just to make sure his weight was good and he was still growing ok. Yeah, so at this point I'm trying to remain calm when my doc just told me that my baby isn't quite the right size. Then she checks his heart beat and it's at 130, which is fine. So then she asks if I want her to check for dilation, and I was like sure, let's see if anything's happening... Well, she checks and gets this weird look on her face and says, "you haven't been having contractions??" well, no, nothing serious, just one or two every now and then and nothing even remotely painful. Apparently I'm dilated to a 3 and the reason he measured smaller this week is because he's dropped so low that she joked he may fall out! No ultrasound needed now and she isn't sure i'll make it another week before this little guy makes his debut!
I'm so excited! Let's get this party started!!!!!

Kids on Love

I found these and they made me laugh, maybe they'll help your day too.  :-)

Kids on Love
     Love & Marriage:
"If falling in love is anything like learning how to spell, I don't want to do it. It takes too long." -- Glenn, age 7
"Once I'm done with kindergarten, I'm going to find me a wife." -- Tom, age 5
"Love will find you, even if you are trying to hide from it. I been trying to hide from it since I was five, but the girls keep finding me." -- Dave, age 8

     Kissing:
"When a person gets kissed for the first time, they fall down, and they don't get up for at least an hour." -- Wendy, age 8
"The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with that." -- Curt, age 7

     Deciding Who To Marry:
"No person really decides before they grow up who they're going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you're stuck with." -- Kirsten, age 10

     Strategies For Making People Fall In Love With You:
"Shake your hips and hope for the best." -- Camille, age 9
"Tell them that you own a whole bunch of candy stores." -- Del, age 6

     Good Advice About Love:
"Tell your wife that she looks pretty even if she looks like a truck!" -- Ricky, age 7
"Don't forget your wife's name. That will mess up the love." -- Erin, age 8
"Be a good kisser. It might make your wife forget that you never take out the trash." -- Erin, age 8

     What to Do When a First Date Turns Sour:
"I'd run home and play dead. The next day I would call all the newspapers and make sure they wrote about me in all the dead columns." -- Craig, age 9

     Why People In Love Often Hold Hands:
"They want to make sure their rings don't fall off, because they paid good money for them." -- Gavin, age 8
"They are just practicing for when they might have to walk down the aisle someday and do the holy matchimony thing." -- John, age 9

WHAT???!!!

Sometimes I really think my husband's boss doesn't think more than 2 seconds past the end of his nose (yes, i do know that may not make sense)...
Remember, I'm almost 38 weeks pregnant and what does he do??? Sends my husband out of town. He's 3 hours away until tomorrow night or Tuesday morning... Yes, that's right... I could go into labor at any time and my husband is 3 hours away...
The last time my husband had to work farther away than the normal 70 miles, I wound up in the ER, then surgery, having my appendix out!
Needless to say I'm hoping that nothing crazy like that happens this time!

Last night I went on a 3-hour cleaning spree in my house. I just started throwing things away. Perfectly good stuff that I was just sick of having and didn't want to hold onto until the church's garage sale in June... yeah, a whole trashbag of just stuff... gone. Beats me, I usually hold onto everything (just a bit of a packrat, lol). That freaked my husband out becuz normally I HATE cleaning... with a passion... and he knows "nesting" is a sign that labor is nearing... and now he's out of town. Kept telling me "PLEASE don't go into labor while I'm gone". Well dear, rest assured that I'm trying... not that it really makes a difference.  :-)

Hope you have fun and come home soon, I miss you!!!

Homecoming Fun Part 1 - WalkAround & My Awesome Mechanic

Whoever let me go to WalkAround last night at 37 weeks pregnant wasn't very smart... oh wait, I insisted that I'd be okay to go...
I had an absolute blast walking around looking at all the house decks and seeing the hard work all the freshman pledges had to put in to get these things ready... they are MASSIVE!!! If you've never been, here's an example of a house deck from a few years ago...


Impressive huh? Chicken wire and crepe paper... These kids are definitely talented to pull off these giant works of art year after year after year.
We saw many friends and family while we were there and only a few times had to keep Princess (below) from trying to eat the other pooches.

The trouble started after we got home and my poor muscles decided to revolt! I was in so much pain!!! Good thing I didn't wind up in L&D... I don't think I coulda made it!!!

Oh, and my wonderful husband is the best mechanic in the world (at least that's what he keeps saying after my car trouble yesterday)... When it came time to leave my parents house last night to go home, I drove his work truck and he drove my car so he could see if he could figure out what the hissing/scraping sound was coming from... Well when we got home he got out of the car with a big frown on his face... "sounds like something with your brakes or suspension... either way not good."  So he spent the next 20 minutes under my car on cardboard on the wet ground (remember it had rained all day) with a flashlight trying to figure out what was the problem with my car... AND.... he comes walking in the house carrying a stick... yes, a stick... that was the culprit... it'd gotten lodged up by the brakes and was dragging against them while I was driving... you couldn't see it just from looking under the car (which I'd done earlier) cuz it was wedged WAAAY up in there.... I felt like a genius but am SO glad it was only a stick and not some expensive car part that we really don't have the money for right now!

Thank you honey!!!!

Here's your tidbit for this time:
"When a wife has a good husband it is easily seen in her face."  -  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe