baby update

our sweet E is growing like a weed, is now about the size of your outstretched hand from head to bum, and is very, very wiggly. this morning, i woke up to a baseball-sized wiggling lump on one side of my stomach. it loves to hear it's daddy's voice, and when drew talks nearby, it wiggles and dances. i'm finally feeling better, after a VERY rough first trimester, and finally back to having a tiny bit of energy.

it also loves music, and i've been playing the new switchfoot and "the story" album with

headphones on my stomach at work and it get awfully squirmy when music plays! i've chosen nichole nordeman's "sing over me" compilation album, "the story" compilation album, and switchfoot's quieter songs to add to my birth playlist so far. i need a lot of music, so i've started playing it for the baby already. research shows that playing the birth music in utero helps stimulate their brain and will also calm them when they are outside the womb. we begin our bradley method classes in august, and have been blessed to find a state-accredited teacher who teaches two families at a time. i really like the personal care she seems to be providing. i loosely follow the bradley/brewer meal plan (heavy on protein, but with my meat aversion, i have gotten creative with the protein, and exercise 45 mins a day). don't go thinking i'm all super-mom, because i totally just cheated and ate a candy bar ;-)

we are breastfeeding and cloth diapering (i never thought i'd be a "natural" mama, but studies and research have shown these both have wonderful benefits). i have found really great deals on AIO (all in one) cloth diapers, and my lovely sis has been helping me look for prefolds and covers. i think E will have plenty by the time they come along! here is one of the first set i ordered yesterday. i found a great sale on them, so i ordered the first six.

we don't know what our squirmy little worm is (boy or girl) yet, so we are holding off on nursery decorations until we a) move and b) know the gender. we are planning on moving in november, so i will be able to decorate the nursery then. we are purchasing the Graco Snugride infant seat in August, and this beautiful crib when we move:

the last thing i've picked is this diaper bag from Petunia Picklebottom, my splurge of a purchase at a steep price, but i really love it and the gender neutral design means it will last till baby number two for sure. (photo is above). i'm waiting on a coupon/sale before i purchase it here from the little boutique that sells them.

that's pretty much all for now. writing our birth plan to go over with our doc at our next appt, but otherwise baby just keeps growing and we are thankful :)

five year plan

i think if you had asked my husband or i our "five year plan" on our wedding day, it would have looked something like this: graduate from nursing school, land dream jobs, get out of student loan debt in a year, and try for a baby in 2012. it sure sounded nice on the day we said, "i do"!

and then on the exact day we marked five months of being married, two pink lines announced our little family was growing by one, faster than we thought.

I think that having a five year plan is really important for a marriage. as the pastor who did our premarital counseling said, " a marriage with no plan, no strategy to battle sin, no plan to handle finances and children, is a ship without a rudder." i think it's also important to remember Who is steering the ship!

a few nights ago, we discussed our new five year plan. still getting out of loan debt from my schooling. still wanting that dream job. but this time, as we talked, little e was wiggling away...e likes their daddy's voice and they wiggle when he talks close my my tummy! it's funny how the Lord can tip your plans upside down and you simply can't see what He is doing. but then, you realize He worked it all out ahead of you, and when you turn and look at the past that led you to today, you see a trail of faithfulness. The Lord provided jobs for us both, a cozy home, and enough income to well exceed our bills. He provided health insurance. He also took away the dream job i thought i wanted, in His mercy, because He knew i never would have been able to handle it while pregnant. it's astonishing, really, how the Lord orchestrates every little detail.

I don't know why i don't trust Him all the time.

i woke up yesterday to a cool breeze seeping in through our curtains, in the arms of my sleeping beloved husband, and feeling E welcoming the morning with a few happy wiggles. I am blessed beyond measure.

Hamlet, the worst baby name ever.

i married a funny guy. he makes me laugh at least fifteen times a day, at minimum. this comes in handy when you are pregnant, grumpy, always feeling like passing out, and throwing up your stomach contents at least once daily. in addition to being funny, he also does the dishes, cooks, cleans, and handles my random cravings like a pro. (i know, you wish you had a husband this great...too bad i married him first! ha!) last night, as we were discussing baby names before we went to bed, he says, "OH! did you know the Beckham's (David and Victoria, who we don't know, but pretend like we can call them by their first names), had a baby yesterday! They named her something really weird...it was... HAMLET! Hamlet Seven Beckham!"

At this revelation, i started laughing uncontrollably. Who in their right mind would name their kid "Hamlet"? i laughed so hard, the baby shifted from left to right, apparently indignant that i was squashing it with my laughter. we laughed awhile longer, until i was practically crying from the thought that it was such a horrible name for a baby, until husband decided he should look it up on the iPhone to make sure. well, we made a "no iphones in bed" rule (which is a really good rule if you're married), so if you want to use your phone, you have to actually get OUT of the bed. so he crawls out and stands up to use his phone and finds the actual news story while i continue cracking up about the fact that someone would name their baby Hamlet, when he suddenly goes, "Oh. i guess it wasn't hamlet. it was Harper."

This made me laugh even harder. Harper is a pretty normal name, and sounds nothing like Hamlet, so i asked him why he got them mixed up. He said, "Well i knew it started with H and it was six letters. So there."

Harper. Not Hamlet.

first world problems

my cell phone dropping bars and not getting to use the internet.

my four hundred dollar iPhone.

being frustrated by waiting in line at the eye dr and Wells Fargo.

to deposit a large paycheck and see my world-class surgeon for free thanks to health insurance.

going over our food budget and having to tighten up this month.

we had the ability to go over by two hundred dollars. and we didn't even notice.

frustrations about a tiny apartment, a water heater that is finicky, and an old fridge.

a cozy, air conditioned apartment, blazing hot water whenever we want, and a fridge overflowing with food that we had to throw out because it went bad.

these were the things i complained about this week.

i'm not proud of this list.

i passed a homeless man on the interstate today. he had a sign that said "hungry."

i went two hundred dollars over our food budget last month.

i'm humbled.

but not hungry.

and that is truly sobering.

i have clean water. i'm not being trafficked. i'm not sleeping on the streets of ethiopia waiting for life saving surgery. i don't go to bed hungry.

humbled.

Sweet Baby E!

Yes, it's true! Emmy or Ever will, Lord willing, be joining our little family in January.

We are overjoyed and thankful to the Lord for His gracious gift.

People have already been asking some of these questions, so I figured I'd just answer them all!

-"Why those names?"

These particular names don't have family significance, we just really loved them. Our odd last name is tricky and long, so we tried to consider that in our choice. Emmersyn Grace means "embracing the grace of God", and Everett Jude means "strong and faithful one". We love those meanings. We are calling the baby "E" for now. Yes, we are finding out the gender, sometime in August.

-"How many weeks are you? You're already showing!"

Yes, it is true. Petite girls tend to show pretty fast, and at 5'2", I was showing at week 6! Appropriate weight gain for someone of my size is 25-30 pounds. So far, at week 14, I have gained 6.5 pounds, so I am right on track, hoping my appetite will pick up soon. I was really, really ill through the first 12 weeks, throwing up at least once daily, so I am very thankful for the second trimester, since the nausea is already settling down (thank you LORD!)

-"What will you do about work?"

We are praying about what to do, but confident the Lord will provide necessary work. Drew has a great job with benefits, so the main purpose of me working is supplemental income for getting out of debt. We have student loans from nursing school, so most likely I will need work part time to knock those out after E arrives. I am hoping to be home as much as I can early on, and we are praying about what that will look like. We have never wanted to do daycare, so we will work it out without daycare.

-"What is the Bradley Method?"

We have chosen the Bradley Method for our birth plan. Of course, you can never tell what will happen with a birth, so we are open to however it happens. The Bradley Method is also known as "husband coached childbirth" and is a plan centered around diet, exercise, and "signposts" of labor. There is also a 12 week class you can participate in with an accredited teacher. Unlike some "all natural" plans, I liked this approach, because the focus is on training your body just like you would for a marathon with correct exercise and diet. I also appreciated that it doesn't make you feel like a total failure if something arises and you have to have a c-section. We have chosen to give birth in a hospital. We both feel the most comfortable with this, because of my past heart/asthma/eye complications, and because it makes me feel less anxious to know the hospital is equipped to handle an emergency for me as well as baby. I am fully aware that midwives can also offer this service, but as a nurse, it just is the best plan for me. People have all sorts of opinions about what is "right" and I have to say, it is different for every woman. I don't enjoy being told that the choice we have made is "wrong", because I know it could be right or wrong for each person! This is just the choice we prayed about and feel most comfortable with. I have done significant (and unending!) research about many methods and feel they all have something good to offer. This route is right for us and precious E. It may change as we get closer, but the research-based shorter labor evidence is enough for me! :)