Four years

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. I Peter 1:3-4

As we remember Joshua this year, I've been blessed by something I forgot. I forgot that I put the above verse in the photo book I made of Joshua back in 2011. At church, Pastor James has been preaching through I Peter and preached on these verses 3-4 weeks ago. It's been really cool to think specifically how the inheritance that we will one day experience and that Joshua is already experiencing is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, (unlike the fake flower arrangement that I bought last year that went missing!) And then to look through the photo book today and surprisingly see those verses...people wonder how God speaks to us today, that's how. Four years later and God is still comforting us with His Word in our grief as He has been this whole journey. Blessed be the Lord. We have the living hope of heaven where there will be no death, no sin, and every moment will be as exhilarating as that first sweet reunion.

This year I was at a loss for what to do to celebrate Joshua.  Like last year, enough time has passed that it didn't seem to make sense to do anything big and it was again a weekday so I figured I'd just get something for the grave at Michaels and get some balloons and we'd just go to the cemetery and out to eat.  But I felt like I should do something different to make it special (other than getting all the same color balloons so the kids wouldn't fight over them).  Not coming up with anything, it was comforting to have the tradition from past years to default to.  But God (one of Martin's favorite phrases), provided me with direction and ideas just in time to make it special.    

God lead me to pick up Ellen Vaughn's book Radical Gratitude this week after having finished only about half of it this summer and was reminded of the idea to place remembrance rocks as a memorial to God's faithfulness (a la Joshua 4:1-7).  So while I was at Michaels getting the flower arrangement for this year, I also got some polished rocks and a painting pen and we all made remembrance rocks to place at Joshua's grave.  Dylan's says "Joshua," mine says I Peter 1:3-4, Lydia's says "Love," Martin's says "Hope" and we made one for Levi that has his name on it (since he doesn't have a tree on Joshua's stone).  I read the passage from Joshua at our Joshua's grave and then we put our rocks down (while narrowing escaping a mishap with the paint and Martin's bible).  

I actually couldn't do a lot of the things we did last year.  Our Michaels no longer has someone in house making arrangements nor do did they have grave arrangements pre-made.  So I just got some flowers on my own and then some orange ribbon and made bows for the flowers.  Much cheaper, so when these go the way of the wind I won't be so upset.

We actually wanted the balloons to go the way of the wind.  We sang Happy Birthday and did a balloon release and by the time we left all but one had made it through the leafless tree near Joshua's grave. We decided to go later in the afternoon than we did last year and then go out for dinner (instead of lunch as we did last year).  By the time we left the cemetery it was getting pretty dark but we had a nice sunset/moonrise time there.

We ate at Chili's again but not the same one as last year since that one went out of business.  Chili's was having a family night and I had coupons for free kids meals so that's where it seemed we should go.  Came home to find these flowers from some friends by our door.  Also got some nice texts/emails/phone calls.  It's so nice when folks remember.  

Next year Joshua's birthday will be on Thanksgiving again so things will look a little different.  I think the mantra will be doing something but not stressing over what.  God provides even that.  I just now realized that even in the passage in Joshua, God provided the way that He wanted them to remember.  Just like He did for me today.  And in His mercy and grace, God will bring things to mind and cause me to forgot things (like forgetting about that verse so that I would see it anew this year) as a way of bringing me comfort.  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.    

Dylan update, 9 years!

Baseball has been a big part of Dylan's 9th year of life.  He tried out in January for the kid-pitch division (AA little league) and made it onto the Yankees in the spring learning a lot from the older kids on his team.  In the fall, Dylan played AA again, this time being one of the older kids on the Cubs.  He got to pitch his first full inning and did a lot of catching too.  Dylan has a great attitude about playing baseball.  He really loves the game and loves playing and doesn't get too upset when he loses.  We've had a number of parents come up to us and tell us they love watching Dylan play because he is so enthusiastic and you can tell he loves playing.  This is especially true when he gets to pitch.  Someone said he was "moxie."

Now Dylan even has longer hair like the major league players.  Now that fall ball is over Dylan still
enjoys playing inside baseball/handball with Daddy in the family room.  Can't get enough.

Between baseball seasons, Dylan swam with our pool's swim team again this year.  He earned "place" ribbons (as opposed to participation ribbons) this year including a second place in breast stroke at the B meet.  This was especially noteworthy since the first two meets in which he swan the breast stroke he DQed (disqualified).

Dylan also has gotten into Pokemon this year and like to go with his friend Jonathan to the Pokemon league time at our library.  He's still more interested in collecting the cards rather than actually playing the game.

Academically, Dylan entered his first science fair this year and got some good compliments on his demonstration of static electricity using a spoon and a Cheerio.  Dylan continues to read a ton, often having 3-4 books or series going at once.  He finished all the magic tree house books and has started reading non-fiction (mostly biographies) now.  Dylan continues to do well in school although the sitting still can still be challenging.  He sat on an exercise ball in class this year to help with that.  

Musically, Dylan graduated from the Musicmakers at the keyboard program and began partner lessons this year.  Practicing as become a little less painful for mommy and more challenging as I tried to help him with more complicated things like constant tempo and correct dynamics.

Dylan has achieved a lot with scouts this year too.  He went from a Wolf to a Bear scout and earned a number of belt loops and academic pins working with Daddy to complete the achievements.  He attended scout summer camp for the first time this year - first time at camp without a parent there with him.

For his birthday, Dylan had a sleepover with 4 friends from school.  They watched a movie and built a fort to sleep in.  Most of the boys took their shirts off to be like Dylan because he doesn't sleep with a shirt.  I had to come down at 2:30 to tell them to be quiet.  Lots of fun though.

At his check up, Dylan weighed 54 lbs (12th percentile) and was 49 inches tall (7th percentile).  That's a 5 lb and inch and a half gain from last year.

Dylan continues to be very social (befriending the new kid in the class even before school started) and a leader (e.g. the no shirt thing).  He has a lot of self-confidence and can focus on the one good thing his coach says to him among 5 other corrections.  We are starting to see a lot more maturity come through (save for the weird frantic aversion to his sister's feet.)  Dylan is a great big brother and both Lydia and Levi admire him.  He's a fun kid to have to watch grow up because he's so good at so many things.  He's still our biggest challenge parenting-wise but maybe just such is the life of the first born.  Dylan amazes us with his biblical knowledge and understanding on a weekly basis and it's because of all this that we keep telling him he'd make a great campus minister.  



 

Levi Update, 15 months!

It's been a busy three months for Levi!  After taking his first steps around 12 months, it was only about three weeks later that he was walking as his major mode of transportation and had dropped crawling for the most part.  Now he is running.  In the picture above he was putting Dylan's baseball hat on and thinking it was super funny.  At 15 months, he is playing on the playground and going down the small slides by himself.  I was actually dreading the toddler years but now that we're here I'm remembering the fun parts about this age - watching Levi learn and accomplish so many new things and actually communicating back and forth with him (other than responding to his cries which of course we've done from birth).  Now he calmly tells us something that he's thinking about.  Levi learned how to say "ball" pretty quickly and loves throwing balls.  He has a pretty good arm already.  He moves his hand back and forth (like he's playing with his toy car) and says "vroom vroom" when he sees a car.  (We were at a raceway the first time he did that back in August.)  We think he has other words for things that we haven't figured out yet.  For example, we think he is saying some combination of Dylan and Lydia - Da-EE-A.  And he makes the same sound every day when he wakes up from his nap and looks out the window and points.  Maybe we'll figure that one out in the next three months.  Another thing that happens when he wakes up from his nap is that Martin or I will give him a hug and he hugs us back by tapping us on the back.  It's super cute and feels like he is returning our love.  I feel like Levi mimics us a lot.  Like more than the other kids did.  In the picture below he is taking a marker and trying to write a new event on the calendar just like Mommy had just done (October has been a busy month!)
  

Levi has seemed to instantly (right at 15 months) get into books.  He gets books from the shelf and brings them over to us for us to read to him.  If we are sitting on the floor he plops down in our laps.  His current favorite is The Little Blue Truck.  He stops on one page and does his vroom vroom sound and car motion.

At his 15 month appointment, Levi weighed 23 lbs 9 oz (40th percentile) and was 31.5 inches tall (70th percentile) and was in the 75th percentile for head circumference.

Levi is still eating a lot and eating more and more table food.  His favorite is yogurt.  Probably because he won't drink milk from a sippy cup.  He takes the sippy cup and turns it upside down and pounds it on the high chair tray.  So needless to say I'm still nursing.  The plan has been to try to wean at around 17 months which is when Dylan and Lydia quit.  But that's around Christmas and he's the baby so I'm saying 19 months is the absolute end.  I'll be going on the women's retreat then so that will be a good stopping point.

New Car!

Today we said goodbye to the car that Martin and I went on our first date in.  After 14 years, it was time to replace the Maxima.

We got a used 2015 Mazda6.  Martin (who hates spending money even on a new car) seems pretty pleased.  

I think it looks pretty slick.  I would have definitely gone out with Martin if was driving this when we started dating.

The big kids like the big trunk.

When Daddy gets home from work, they say "see ya, we're going to go read in the trunk of the Mazda."

Levi hasn't gotten to ride in it yet since we haven't put his car seat in.  (Never put his car seat in the Maxima either.)  But he likes to make the "Vroom vroom" noise when we talk about cars.  We have to teach him "zoom zoom" since we own a Mazda now.

Levi Update, 12 months!

Here's Mr. Smiley at 10 months.  He had just gotten his 8th tooth about 2 weeks earlier and then at about 11 months I notices that he had 3 molars that were already in.  He got the 4th before he turned 12 months.

Also at 10 months, Levi gave us a few nights of sleeping through the night (getting up at 5:30 instead of 3:30 or 4:30) and then at about 11 months he made that his norm.  Then he proceeded to going back to sleep after the 5:30 nursing until about 7am and even sleeping all the way through until 7am.  These were a great few weeks.  Right now at 12 months we think he has a cold or something so he's back to waking at 5:30am but he usually goes back down for a another hour or so.  It's been hard to sleep in the summer with so much daylight and so many times Dylan and Lydia are around making noise and so Levi wants to be up with them.  He's still taking a good morning nap although I think it's getting shorter but in a way that's good because then he will more likely take an afternoon nap.

Here's the 11 month picture, serious cute face!

Levi is a great crawler.  Getting around everywhere, climbing stairs, etc.  A week ago he took a first couple steps.  He's getting about 3-5 steps in before falling now.  He is very active.  Lots of people have described him as "busy."  (hmm, who does that sound like?)  He plays with a mission!

Levi says mama and dada and does the sign for more but not sure if he's using them in the correct context just yet.  He's starting to repeat sounds we make too.

We feed Levi just about anything right now.  Try to give him food off of our plates but usually we also give him a little bowl or jar of pureed stuff just because he wants so much to eat.  This is totally foreign to us.  Not sure what to do with a kid who eats!

He's got the teeth to go with all this eating.  He continues the trend of having one tooth for each month of his life.

Levi traveled to North Carolina for the first time during his 11 month of life - to see cousin Savva graduate from high school.

Finally the 12 month picture, back to Mr. Smiley.  I did it - managed to take a picture each month and I think I even did most of them on the exact date!

Levi had his check up with the pediatrician today.  He was 30.75 inches long (somewhere between the 60th and 75th percentile) and weighed 21 lbs., 3 oz (25th percentile).  That is tracking with the clothes he wears.  His 12 month shorts are just now starting to fit around the waist but we've had to move to the 18 month onesies.  The doctor said he's doing great.  I had a little concern with his right foot/leg associated with his feet rubbing that he does but the doctor didn't find anything wrong and said if he's pulling up with both legs, that's good indication that he's fine.  So fun to watch him figure out walking!  

Happy Birthday Little Man!

Our little man

 How old is Levi?

 Let the cake smashing begin

 more cake smashing

 and more cake smashing

 first time drinking cow's milk

Who's the birthday boy?

Levi Update, 9 months

The monthly pictures got a lot harder to take this quarter...

"I'm so done with these pictures Mom."

It's been a busy three months for Levi.  Levi started sitting up at 6 and a half months.  He got two more top teeth right around 7 months and another bottom one around 8 months.  Someone recently described him as fierce with the teething since he seems to desperately grab things to put in his mouth.

Also at 7 months, he was rocking back and forth and scooting around a lot on belly – getting ready to crawl and around 7 months.  He crawled right at 8 months and was pulling up shortly thereafter and has been so busy ever since.      

  

At 7 months sleeping he gave us a few 10 hour stretches (8pm-6am) but still gets up once or twice a night on most occasions.  Afternoon naps are a struggle.  Levi consistently will take a morning nap, usually 2-3 hours, but then doesn't go down for an afternoon nap, either because he doesn't get tired again until its too late to take an afternoon nap or because we are in the car running to pick the big kids up from school or taking them to lessons.  

Levi had his first big car ride at 8 months old when we went to Alabama for spring break.  Aside for the two major blowouts at non-opportune times, he was a real trooper.  He slept or was content for most of the drive.  (States seen so far in his 9 months of life - VA, MD, PA, TN, GA, AL).  Levi also has his first swing in swing at the playground!

 Levi has tried a lot of new food - rice, oatmeal, wheat cereal; peas, green beans, squash, avocado, sweet potatoes, carrots, peaches, apples, bananas, pears, prunes, beef, chicken, and turkey - all pureed.  He has also started to eat cheerios and puffs and we tried little bits of fruit but they don't seem to make it into his mouth.  I made the sweet potato, carrot, and banana puree myself and give him apple sauce but the rest I buy the Gerber baby food.  Those are the ones I feel are easy enough to make at home.  Levi hasn't been spitting up nearly as much so I can tell his digestive system has matured.  He also eats a lot more than the other kids did.  I'm still nursing and trying to pump as much as I can to mix milk with his cereal.    

His eyes are still blue but I'm seeing a lot of brown around the pupil so I think they are going to change to brown.  

Right 8 and a half months I noticed Levi was waving his arm a lot.  Just straight armed, up and down.  At first I didn't think too much of it and then I wondered if he was signing "all done" because he was often doing it after he had eaten a little bit.  He also waves his arm or bangs his hand (depending on how you look at it, usually his right arm or hand) on things he pulls up on.  Shortly after that he started clapping.  He smiles a lot when we say "yay" to his clapping or "all done" to his hand waving so maybe he's happy we are understanding him.  He will sometimes do his hand waving when we are trying to get him to wave hi or bye to someone.  
  

Levi also gives good "hugs" or at least he grabs onto you for dear life when you hold him sometimes and it feels like a hug.  I'll take it.  

Levi Update, 6 months

We can tell that Levi is a happy baby even more now that he's interacting with us more.  Here are his pictures by the month for this quarter.    

Over the past 3 months we saw Levi start to grab a lot more things, mostly cloth things.  We joke that his burp cloth is his favorite toy.  And we watched him get his first teeth starting at 4 months (November 13th to be exact).  At his 4 month appointment he weighed 15 pounds and was 25.75 inches long.  Now at 6 months he weighs 17 pounds 6 ounces and is 27 inches long.  He now has 4 teeth (the 2 top ones just came in) and isn't quite sitting up yet but he can sit with support.  

A couple weeks ago, right around the beginning of the year, he started sleeping 6 hour stretches (8pm-2am).  He now is giving us some 8 hour stretches 8pm-4am but those aren't as consistent.

We just started rice cereal with him but he has a few little tastes of other solid food like sweet potatoes on Thanksgiving.  

Lydia Update, Six Years!

Similar to her big brother, the biggest change in Lydia's life over the last year has been how much she has grown in her reading.  Here she is with the first book she read all by herself.  She is reading much more than just three letter words and is getting pretty fluent in her reading.  Lydia started Kindergarten in the fall and is doing so well.  Her teacher said she is a leader in the classroom and she often puts Lydia in charge of her little reading group when they go their centers/stations.  Lydia seems to be pretty good at math.  She's counting by 3s and starting to absorb some of Dylan's 2nd grade stuff.  Lydia is also enjoying her Friday mornings home with Mommy and Levi.    

Lydia performed in her first dance recital this year.  I was in tears watching my "shy" one ham it up on the stage as she tapped to Spider Man.  Lydia continues to do dance and choir.

This year she also played t-ball on the Red Sox.  She was the only girl but loved it and is so excited to play baseball again this year with Coach Chris on the Red Sox.

Lydia became a great little swimmer this past summer - swimming about 4+ body lengths by herself and is hoping to join the swim team this coming summer.

Lydia went to Pine Springs Grandmas Moms and Tots with my mom this past summer and had a blast playing the bubbles on the slip and slide and making lots of friends.  She won the 'social butterfly' award for talking to all the kids.  Lydia doesn't discriminate and is friendly to all kids.  

Lydia gained almost 7 lbs. and over 2 inches this last year.  Still sucking her thumb.  She won't go to college doing it right?

Lydia is so loving - she gives us hugs and kisses without being asked to and if we get hurt she gives us hug or a kiss.  She still loves to snuggle and will sometimes just ask us to snuggle with her.  She also likes to play board games and do art projects - painting is her favorite.  And like every 6 year old girl on the planet, she loves Frozen.  Her ice skating birthday party tomorrow will be Frozen-themed.  

College Graduate, again.

Three Years (Guest Post by Martin)

Today we marked the third anniversary of Joshua's birth.  This year we remembered Joshua a little differently than we did the past two years.  It being a week day, we just kept our remembrance to our family.  The big kids had the day off of school for Thanksgiving Break so first they and Heather and Levi bought a new flower arrangement for Joshua's grave and blue and orange balloons to release.  Heather kept it together even though half the balloons didn't make it the grave and the big kids fought over which color they wanted.  They all met me at the grave during my lunch hour and we had a short time of remembrance there and then went out to eat at Chili's before I returned to work.

As you may know, Joshua's grave has Psalm 71:19-21 on it:

Your righteousness, God, reaches to the heavens,
    you who have done great things.
    Who is like you, God?
Though you have made me see troubles,
    many and bitter,
    you will restore my life again;
from the depths of the earth
    you will again bring me up.

These verses have been our prayer for the past three years.  Like the psalmist, we take comfort in knowing that despite our pain, the Lord will restore us and lift us up from sadness.  We saw this fulfilled in part with Levi’s birth.  We rejoice in his life and the delight he is.  This was best shown when one night, a tearful Heather exclaimed, “It is so good to just hold a baby again!”

But Levi’s birth does not wash all the sadness of Joshua’s death away.  For many, there will be no story of another child.  For us, Levi’s birth does not help when we are confronted with the fact that our whole family will never be together in this world.  The picture on our Christmas card will always be absent a family member.  The simple question, “How many children do you have?” will continue present a dilemma: do we say we have three children which feelings dishonoring to Joshua or do say four and be have to tell someone of Joshua’s death?  It brings us pain when others do not acknowledge Joshua; or even worse, forget him.

And so the troubles, many and bitter, in this world continue.  But this passage, along with the rest of Scripture allows us to grieve, but not as those who have no hope.  At the church retreat in August, Rev. Paul Jeon reminded us that we are living in both the already and the not yet.  Christ’s kingdom has come in the person of Jesus and so we have forgiveness of sins and we live by the spirit.  But the fullness of that kingdom will not be complete until His second coming when He will put an end to all of the brokenness of this world.  We look forward to those promise where Jesus will make all things new and He will wipe away every tear; and there shall be no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

Dylan Update, 8 Years

As I was reading last year's update I thought at first that not much has changed for Dylan in his 8th year of life compared to his 7th.  He is still really much into baseball - he played Single A in the spring and is just finishing up his first fall ball season in Single A.  Dylan is still playing piano and doing very well at it but still not liking that much.  And he is still very much into his Wii, especially Skylanders.  But then I got to the part in last year's update about Dylan learning to read and the books he had gone through that summer before he turned 7, and that's when I realized how much he has grown over the past year - in his reading.  Dylan is now downing chapter books and wanting to read in his bed at night by himself.  He now listening attentively to Martin reading him Harry Potter.  He amazes us at the big words he can read, particularly when we ask him to read a bible passage and he doesn't even hesitate on words like "righteousness" or "reconciliation."

Second grade has been a bit of an adjustment in that, at least at our school, I think the teachers expect much more from the kids compared to first grade.  He has homework every night and spelling words and he's expected to actually do things that he didn't already know how to do.  It's been good for him though.

The fish that Dylan got for his birthday last year unfortunately didn't make it to this birthday.  Dylan Jr. didn't last very long, but he wasn't very strong to begin with.  Delta made it 11 months but Mommy didn't get to cleaning his tank very much since Levi was born so....

Dylan has been a great big brother to Levi.  He is helpful in entertaining Levi while I brush my teeth or some other thing I used to take for granted when there wasn't a baby that needed to be held.  He loves to hold Levi and we have to remind him that he's not allowed to carry Levi around the house as much as Dylan would like to.

I guess I hadn't realized this earlier but after reading his last update I see that Dylan hasn't lost any teeth in the last year.  He lost the first 8 before he was 7 and then no more.

Dylan gained 6 lbs. and almost 2 inches since last December.  At his recent end of season party for baseball, the coach said he would remember Dylan because of his big attitude and heart that out measured his size.  He said Dylan was like "Small? Who's small?"  That sums up a lot for Dylan.

Levi Update, 3 months

Development:

It seems like Levi has been holding his head up and lifting it up as soon as he left the womb.  I can't tell you how many people commented on his head control.

Levi rolled over from his belly to his back at 3 weeks which seems really early.  There are some other babies his age that did the same thing so maybe that's normal.  He doesn't seem near rolling over the other way.  

At 5 weeks Levi started smiling.  We can already tell that he is generally a happy and content kid because he smiles a lot.  I think God knew we needed a happy kid.  Levi helps the rest of us smile more.

At his 2 month doctors' appointment, Levi was 24 inches long and weighed 13 lbs - the same amount Dylan weighed at 6 months.

Sleep:

Up to 6 weeks, Levi really didn't sleep more than 2 hours at a time.  So glad it was the lazy days of summer at that point.  At 6 weeks, right when school started, he got up to 4-6 hours stretches at night.  At 10 weeks he had some 8 hour stretches but now at 3 months is back to mostly 4-6 hour stretches.

Likes:

Sheep, watching his brother and sister

Events:

We had Levi's baptism on October 12th.  We had actually scheduled it before he was born because the slots were filling up quickly and the baptism outfit that we use (my brother's) was size 0-3 months.  Also wanted to have it before the snowy weather hit.  It was great - my brother and his girlfriend and my aunt were all able to be there (they weren't able to come for any of the other baptisms).  Our friend Paul Brooks was the elder who prayed for Levi.  We had a small family gathering at our house after church.  My friend Lisa made the cake.

(3 of the 4 "boys" who have worn that baptism outfit - the 4th was my nephew)

Levi Andrew

We named our son Levi Andrew, after two of Jesus’ disciples.  Levi, better known as Matthew, is a sinner and tax collector who responded to Jesus’ call to “Follow me” and brings a lot of his friends to hear Jesus.  Levi is also the third son of Jacob and the progenitor of the Levite tribe and priestly order of the nation of Israel.  Andrew, a fisherman and brother of Peter, follows Jesus immediately at his call.  He is also the disciple who brings the boy with the fish and bread to Jesus which Jesus used to feed 5,000.  (It was a delight to hear Pastor James preach on this story with a focus on Andrew the first time Levi came to church).  It has been our prayer that Levi would live up to his namesakes – to respond to Jesus’ call to follow him and bring others to witness the works of Christ.

Andrew is also my great-grandfather's name and there's a Levi on Martin's side a few generation ago so we wanted to have some family connection.  

Levi goes with Dylan and Lydia because they all have Ls in their names and with Martin because they have same number of syllables in their first, middle, and last names and with my middle name (Leigh).  

Levi's birth story

Levi was born less than 30 hours after his due date but you would have thought that he was two weeks late for how impatient I was getting about this birth.  As I mentioned in my 40 week update, the longer it went on, the more it seemed like it wasn't going to happen.  At my appointment on my due date, the doctor stripped my membranes in order to induce labor, but said that if it didn't work in 24 hours it wasn't going to help.  So by Thursday evening we were preparing to wait out the weekend and then go in on Monday for the checks to see if the placenta was good enough for them to let me "stay pregnant" as they called it or induce me.  But praise God we didn't have to wait much longer.  

The contractions started at 12:30am and I tried to ignore them thinking they might not be the real thing.  I actually fell back to sleep for a while but then the contractions became more intense and frequent, and I woke Martin up around 2am.  I called my mom, who, ever ready for the call, answered on the second ring. As Martin said, "Out of all the frequent calls between Heather and her mother, this was by far the shortest they ever had."  Here’s a transcription:

• Mom: Hello?
• Heather: I’m having contractions.
• Mom: We are on our way. (Hangs up)

I'm only slightly exaggerating.  My parents had to make the four-hour drive from Pittsburgh, so our neighbor Krystal was able to come over to be with Dylan and Lydia until they could get here.  We left for the hospital around 3am.

After checking in, the nurses decided to skip the triage (I think it was just a slow night) and put us in the same Labor & Delivery room that Lydia was born in.  We remembered watching the sun rise out that same window when I was in labor with Lydia.  This was just one of the many ways that God put me at ease by recalling Lydia's birth rather than Joshua's at the time.  I normally don't want to shy away from remembering all I can about Joshua's short time on earth but in this case, remembering Lydia's birth instead was a way push back any fear that could be creeping into my mind.  

The contractions continued to grow in intensity.  I was anxious to receive the epidural (after laboring naturally with Dylan, I knew I wanted one this time), but the nurses did not see the urgency and asked a long list of questions.  After nearly an hour and a half, I finally received the epidural.

After the C-section with Joshua, I really hoped to have VBAC because it should lead to a quicker recovery. Fortunately, my OB/GYN had declared me a good candidate, and the rest of the labor proceeded without issue.  Both Martin and I noticed that this delivery seemed much more relaxed than in the past. With Dylan and Lydia we remember what seem like a rush when it was time to push and flurry of activity around the room.  With Joshua, his dropping heart rate meant the C-section was quite rushed.  But with Levi, I got to 9.5 cm and Doctor Pereira asked me if I would like to push or wait, like oh, it's up to you...whatever you want.  I definitely wanted to push - I had waited long enough!  Even when there was a break between contractions all the nurses seemed to be just waiting.

Levi took a lot more pushing, so we could tell he was going to be a bigger baby.  I had to push through three contractions (as opposed to one with both Dylan and Lydia) and out he came at 5:24am.  My first memory of seeing Levi was the nurses holding him over me and him peeing on me.  (Dylan and Lydia find this hilarious.)  They asked me if I wanted to hold him first thing and I said no, that's fine, you can clean him up first. But they also wanted to check him out right away because he came out with meconium, meaning that he had defecated in the womb.  Because of the meconium, the pediatrician had to perform gastric suctioning to remove it from his mouth and stomach.  Although not enough to warrant any antibiotics, Levi did sound weezy at first and we suspect that he failed his hearing test in his right ear twice because of all the fluid.    

Levi weighed in at 7 lbs 12 oz, measured 21.5 inches long.  He was much bigger than either Dylan (6 lbs 8 oz) or Lydia (6 lbs 5 oz).

Levi spent the first 45 minutes very alert, keeping his eyes open.  It was something that surprised us.  Because of the suctioning, I had to wait a little while before I could try nursing him. We got a good bit of time to relax and enjoy Levi and were then moved to the maternity ward. 

My parents picked up Dylan and Lydia and brought them to meet Levi for the first time.  They were both beaming with excitement.  Dylan and Lydia kept taking turns carefully holding him and giving him gentle kisses on the head.  Lydia was a little apprehensive at first, as I think she was afraid of dropping him but she did get up the courage and held him that first visit.  Then they went off to Vacation Bible School and were proud to tell their friends and teachers about their new little brother.

We stayed at the hospital from that Friday morning until Sunday afternoon.  I recovered pretty quickly.  The hospital stay was okay, room was kinda small and then of course there's the incessant stream of people coming in, but I always enjoy the food and this time even watched two movies.  We we very excited that our pediatrician was doing rounds that weekend and so he got to be the one to examine Levi and then discharge him.  When Dylan and Lydia were born he didn't have rights at our hospital.  He switched practices in 2011 and we have been looking forward since then to seeing him in the hospital.  And I was so pleased that the doctor that did Dylan circ did Levi's.  It was also good to have Dr. Pereira deliver Levi.  She delivered Joshua and was more vested in our family story.  (Oh, and Levi came at the perfect time - if he would have waited any longer, the shifts would have changed and my least favorite doctor was on next.)

God answered my prayers (see week 40 update) about the doctors and nurses (and the big kids not missing their activities).    

On Sunday, we had my parents bring the big kids to the hospital so we could all ride home together and sing our family theme song - HOME!  We got home to find balloons, welcome home signs, and friends from our Home Fellowship Group who brought lunch!    

A Gift from Above

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”   -  James 1:17

Introducing Levi Andrew Etner, born Friday, July 18th, 2014 at 5:24am after about 5 hours of labor.  He weighed 7 lbs 12 oz and measured 21 and 3/4 inches long.  We are all doing well aside from the lack of sleep.

We picked this verse for Levi after hearing our pastor preach on it a few weeks ago.  Then at my baby shower we got a number of cards with the verse in it.  Levi is such a blessing and a good and perfect (for us) gift from our never-changing, faithful God.  

Week 40 update

Having never made it to 39 weeks, I never thought I'd be drafting a 40-week update.  But here we are.  Last week I was 2 cm, 75% effaced, and -2 station.  Same this week.  I thought I was progressing more but I guess not.  I've had some contractions but they always go away if I rest.  Baby's heartbeat was in the 130s.  

I know I'm only at my due date but with the other kids coming early this wasn't the expectation so it's just hard to be patient.  BUT, huge praise that I got all my business and classwork done.  I took my final exam on Friday and have been free of schoolwork since then for the first time since quitting work.  I almost don't know what to do with myself especially since the kids are at VBS every morning this week.

I also got more baby prep things done - installed the car seat, washed the swing and bouncy seat covers, finished organizing the nursery - I have never been so ready for a baby.

After the appointment today, Martin and I got to go out for lunch - Indian buffet, of course.  So there are some perks about all this waiting.  We've also watched some movies and I started to get a jump on some of my required volunteer hours at the kids' school.

I guess the hardest part of waiting though is that the longer I wait the less real it seems that I'm actually going to get to take a baby home from the hospital.  After so many "not yet"s I'm having a hard time believing this is really going to happen.  I just seems like it will be like last time.  No reason to think that just my anxious heart I guess.  I do realize though that I keep adding on to prayer request about the timing of his birth.  First it was after I get my classwork done, now it's that I want the right doctor and nurses to be there and that Dylan and Lydia won't have to miss their activities.  So if God wants to answer all of those I guess it takes time...:)

Week 38 Update

UPDATED BELOW.

Here we are at week 38.  I've never made it to week 39 so this could be my last pregnancy update.  As you can see I got my haircut yesterday.  Short, easy to dry, won't get in the way of nursing - total Mommy do.  I got through all the dates I had to get through - baby wasn't born on my birthday or my nephew's, made it to July so I don't have to return the birthstone charm that my friends got me for my Pandora necklace, got my last meeting in with my client on Monday, and Lydia and I had our hair appointments yesterday.  Now there are just some things that I have do before baby.  Since last week, my schedule has really slowed down so I have been able to get a bunch done.  The rest could wait but I would love to have them done to be able to be more in the moment with our son.  Or maybe that's my thing that I need to just rely on God for.  I try to handle everything on my own and one thing I keep failing at is appreciating the time with my family instead of thinking of all the stuff I need to do, even now that I'm not working.  So whatever God's timing, whether he removes my "thorn" of not having things to worry about doing or if he just gives me the grace to not worry, I will be blessed.  Preaching to myself here....

I go to the doctors in about 2 hours.  We'll see what he says as far as how things are progressing but I think I am starting to feel something.  It's like a low level constant discomfort rather than distinct contractions.  Been feeling it since last night (went away while I was sleeping though) so I think I'm convinced it's something other than a gastrointestinal issue.

On Saturday we got the pack-n-play up in our room and rearranged the furniture and cleaned in there.  So nice to have that done and to have gotten rid of all the dust bunnies behind our bed.  Also got the snap and go stroller down from the attic.  My bag is mostly packed, still using some things that need to go in it.

I'll update this post after I get back from the doctors.

Back from the doctors.  Nothing happening.  He said the cramp-like discomfort is just normal at this point and since it goes away when I lie down it's nothing.  He only estimated I was 1cm dilated but that the cervix is softening and opening so things are progressing but not fast.  I made my 39 week appointment for next Wed morning but I've never made it that far.  So we're still hanging in there for a while.  More time to finish my work and class.  Baby's heartbeat going between 125 and 145 (145 when he moved which is a good thing).  I haven't gained any weight in about a month but the doctors aren't concerned.  My body just can't go to 200 and I'm fine with that.

Week 37 Update

Wow, the last four weeks really got away from me, sorry for no updates.  I'm still pregnant and we're still marching along trying to get ready for the baby and finishing up classes and projects.  Our camera broke while we were on vacation (got sand in the retractable lens) so we had to get a new one and I was without a camera for a few days so I could update then.  I didn't even bother trying to get the camera fixed since we could get a new and better one for about $200.  The other one was over 5 years old so I guess it was time but I did have that slight panic that one gets after spending a ton of money (on vacation and then the camera and lots of eating out and getting our big trees cut in our yard).  But I think I'm over that now.

My 35-week appointment went well.  Baby's heartbeat was in the 140s, head was still down, and I got the paper with the phone numbers to call if I go into labor.

If there is such a thing as "dropping" I think the baby did it.  I felt like I was starting to carry lower while we were on vacation a week and a half ago.  I think I heard that that means I have about two weeks go from that day which would be be this weekend.  Still hoping to make it to July at least though.  Tomorrow will be how far along I made it with Joshua - 37 weeks, 1 day.  

My 37-week appointment was this morning.  All went well - baby's heartbeat was 154, I didn't gain any weight over the two weeks (okay that's good in my eyes), and the big kids were well behaved.  She said I was 2 cm dilated but with this being my fourth that's pretty much my normal state.  She said the baby's head was still fairly high (pointed down but not moving down the birth canal so maybe he didn't drop).  So no signs of eminent birth but that's what we heard at my 38 week appointment with Lydia and she came 2 days later.  Not saying I'm expecting to go into labor soon, just saying that I don't see anything in the tea leaves that would indicate a baby this week.  We'll see!

I've passed a lot of dates I needed to "get through" without having the baby so much so that I should consider any more days (like my birthday and my hair appointment on Tuesday) as just icing on the cake.  First there was Dylan's last day of school and then we left on vacation to Berkley Springs, WV the next day for 3 nights.   We had a great relaxing time and got to see some sites.  We stopped at Dinosaurland in Winchester on the way and then spent some time at Cacapon State Park, Berkley Springs State Park, and the Paw Paw tunnel on the C&O tow path which I hadn't been to since my bike trip in 1992.  There was some hiking/walking involved but I made it.  There was a little lake at Cacapon which is where the sand beach was that spelled the end of our camera.  Cacapon also has a great nature center and program for the kids.  It would be a nice weekend get away that we could do even with a baby so we'll consider going back.

The next big "get through" day was Lydia's dance recital on Saturday.  She did such a great job and Grandma and Grandpap were here to see her - my shy one has no stage fright.  Then we headed to my sister's for a combined birthday party for my nephews.  Lastly, yesterday we went downtown to the WWII memorial to greet my 91 and a half year old great uncle who came to DC on an honor flight from MI.  It was great to see him and we totally surprised him.  We were also surprised as his grandson (my 2nd cousin) also showed up and we got to see him.

Monday was clean the nursery day and van day.  My parents did all the work and I just directed (well I guess I folded some cloth diapers...) and I feel so much better that we can now bring a baby home in a clean car to a clean nursery.  I still have some things to do to get ready (rearrange our bedroom to fit the pack and play in, pack my bag for the hospital, install the car seat, wash the seat on the swing and bouncy seat) but I feel like we are well on our way to being go-ready.

As far as my class and business goes, I feel like I'm caught up for now but I'm going to get behind next week.  I think I'm going to try do as much as I can for the class and take an incomplete and try to finish it later in July assuming NOVA accepts my excuse as a good one.  If the last two chapters I have to read weren't 90 and 79 pages I could probably do it but that's just too much reading to do at this point.  For a while I was feeling fearful of not getting things done and I realized the root of those feelings were 1) fear that I wasn't going to enjoy the baby because I had things hanging over my head (but when do I ever not have things hanging over my head - I just need to learn to enjoy and be in the moment more) and 2) worry over what people think of me which is something I need to get over too.  Thanks in part to the prayers of my bible study ladies, I'm feeling a lot more peaceful about God's timing.  God wants to give me the best even if I don't realize it is the best at the time.  And he will give me grace for the moment.        

Week 33 Update

I feel like I'm getting really big now.  And the little one feels like he's trying to kick or punch his way out.  I had a doctor's appointment last week and the baby's heartbeat was 145 and I was measuring right on track.  The doctor said the baby's head was down but he had a hard time finding his head.  The doctor was able to identify the baby's spine and feet though.  The next doctor's appointment is at 35 weeks and I do the group B strep test.

Starting to get really uncomfortable.  Not because of the heat.  Just really hard to bend over, roll over, get up from sitting after a while, etc.  Some days are better than others with the sciatic nerve and hips.  I had my prenatal massage last week.  It was really good.  The lady was a reflexologist too and she did something with my feet that was supposed to help those problems.  I'm tempted to get another one, especially if I make it until July because then she said she could do something to help labor along.  But then I still have to finish my class and my work so I kinda want the baby to come early but then again I kinda don't.  We are anxious to meet our little guy though.

Since my last update friends threw me a shower.  It was a ton of fun and very special.  Fun because of the crazy games (see pictures below) and very special because of the handmade blankets I got and the charm that my friends from church got me.  Before Joshua was born these friends took me out to dinner and gave me a Pandora necklace with the kids' birthstones on it.  They purposely got me something that could be added to.  So now they added to it and got me a July birthstone that matches the other charms.  Martin and I recently picked out a bible verse for the baby and I got two cards with that verse in it.  

Also since the last update, Martin and I went on our babymoon.  This time it was only one night (we dropped the kids at my sister's) but it seemed like we had all the time in the world.  It was a sweet 26 hours.  We went to Solomon's Island, MD and stayed at a B&B.  Walked around the town, had a nice dinner, went out for dessert and ran into some friends from church (crazy!), hiked the next day, went to a museum, and went on a boat ride.  It was great time.