Sunday pictures

We had a fun weekend.....I went to a super fun baby shower on Saturday morning for my friend Jennifer, then I got a much-needed haircut and did some other errands in the afternoon.  Dean watched the boys a lot that day by himself, which is always a nice break for me! 


Yesterday after their naps, the boys swam in the pool for a while.  They won't go in the pool without Buzz and Woody or their little rocket diving sticks.  Whatever Grant does (sticking his head in the water, doing a belly flop), Drew of course does the same.  He tries to be a carbon copy of his big brother in every way.

Dean took a belly picture (I'm 28 weeks today).  And by the way, this is a non-maternity shirt from Express that I bought about a year ago.  I have two others, and they still fit perfectly (even though I haven't been able to wear any other regular clothes in weeks).  It wouldn't surprise me if they fit until I deliver the baby.....they still seem to have a lot of space to expand.  Crazy! 

Mommy and her sweet boys.....I almost didn't post this because my face is looking really chubby!  This happened with Drew too (I can't remember if it did with Grant or not).  As of my appointment last Friday, I've gained 25 pounds.  My doctor says this is a little high but nothing to worry about.  I guess I'm on track to gain 40 pounds again this time.  Oh well!

Drew was being super silly later last night.  He stuffed Kitty and Brownie into his school bus, then ran and pushed them around the house.  He and Grant do this all the time; Grant usually pushes his dump truck and Drew pushes his school bus.  Now they've started crashing into each other a lot.  Drew has suddenly become a fast runner and he keeps up with Grant a lot better than he did a few months ago.

Checking to make sure Kitty is okay.  "Tee?  Tee?"  He is becoming so silly and fun to watch!

Grant has said some funny things today.....but I will have to share later because I am needed by my little guys!

Eye-opening for a mommy to hear....

One of my favorite Christian speakers is Nancy Leigh DeMoss....she comes on at 9:30am here in Houston every weekday.  I only get a chance to listen once or twice a week, but it seems like she's always talking about something that I want to learn about (or need to hear).  Yesterday I tuned in while the boys and I were driving up into town.

They were re-playing a speech given by a woman named Rachel Barkey in spring 2009 at her church in Vancouver.  Rachel had been fighting breast cancer for the previous five years (since she was 32), and had recently been told that her cancer had become terminal and she only had a few months to live.  She was diagnosed when her son was two and her daughter was 7 months old.  So at this point (a year ago, shortly before her death), her son was 7 and her daughter was 5.  The point of her message was to explain her faith in God and her perspective as a Christian nearing the end of her life.....wanting desperately to live longer but coming to realize that God's plan is perfect (even when we don't understand it).

Yesterday they only played the first part of her speech, and today they played more (I wasn't able to hear it but will listen to the podcast later).  But wow.....it was such an eye-opener for me.  I completely take my health for granted, never really appreciating that I have (as far as I know) years and years ahead of me to spend with my husband and kids.  She was describing how at that point, she could only spend a few hours out of her bed every day.  And her daughter would lift her arms and ask her to pick her up, but she was unable to do it because the cancer had spread into her back.  It made her so sad not being able to do simple things like this, and just knowing that her days with them were numbered.

It was a much-needed reminder to me....so many days I feel so bored or frustrated with my boys and I just want the hours to pass as quickly as possible.  I certainly don't usually just stop and thank God for this time I have with them, or appreciate the fact that I have countless hours to spend with them (and Dean) in the future. 

Literally one or two minutes after the show ended, Grant told me from the backseat that he had to go pee-pee.  My first reaction was to be frustrated.....we had just left the house 20 minutes earlier, and we were not in a part of town that would be easy to find a place to stop.  But then it hit me: wait!  What did I just hear on the radio five minutes ago?   This is not a big deal at all!   And it was on my mind throughout the day.....not to say that I didn't get frustrated, but I was more aware of the gifts I have been given. 

Click here to go to Rachel Barkey's website.  Or you can also go to the Revive Our Hearts website to listen to her speech (July 22 and 23....not sure if it will be continued next week since I didn't hear it today).  I don't mean to be a downer, but for me this was an incredible reminder of God's sovereignty and how blessed I am.

27 weeks....I can't believe it....

I can't believe that I'm already almost into my third trimester.  It feels like I should still be 15 weeks pregnant.  On Sunday, I realized that it was the 18th and I was exactly three months away from my due date.  Completely hard to believe..... 

Baby's size: Apparently the size of a cauliflower (what?!).  She weighs a little over 2 pounds and her lungs are developed enough that she'd be able to survive if she was born now (I am always relieved when I get to this point in my pregnancies....knowing that if something were to happen, the baby could survive outside the womb).

How I feel: BIG!  All of a sudden I'm feeling like a big pregnant woman (reminding me that I'm getting closer to the end, as hard as it is to believe).  Painting my toenails and picking something up off the floor are much harder than they used to be.  The boys don't fit on my lap as easily as they used to.  Also, getting up from the floor is harder....if I try to sit up too fast, sometimes I'll strain the muscles in my belly and it hurts like crazy for a minute or two.

Movement: All the time!  I love it!  It's so much fun feeling those kicks and nudges.  In the past couple of weeks she's gotten big enough that I can feel her kicking on both sides of my belly at the same time.  She seems to be less active in late morning/early afternoon, but I notice her moving a lot in the evenings (or maybe I just notice it more then because that's when I have time to actually sit still). 

What I miss the most: I am SO tired of wearing the same clothes!  I have about five t-shirts that I wear over and over and over again (also a few dressy shirts and some tank tops).  And I have two pairs of shorts and a denim skirt.  A few weeks ago I considered buying some new maternity clothes, but for what?  This is most likely my last pregnancy, so it seems like a bit of waste of money.

What the boys think: They really don't talk about the baby unless I bring it up.  If Grant is jumping on the couch, he'll sometimes jump over me and say, "I didn't jump on the baby." (He knows it's a big no-no to jump on me right now).  A few days ago Drew pointed to my stomach and I couldn't tell if he said "baby" or "bee-bo" (meaning belly button).  I really don't think he has any clue about the baby. 

Something interesting: Last week at Home Depot, I walked by the cash registers where two ladies were standing there with no customers.  I said hello as I walked by.  When I walked back, one of them stopped me and asked if I was having a girl.  I said yes, and she said that they assumed so because I was carrying the baby so low.  It's so strange, because when I was pregnant with the boys, nobody ever guessed I was having a girl.  And people used the same rationale: that I was carrying low!  I think I'm carrying the baby just about the same as before, but it's interesting to be that nobody has ever gotten the baby's sex wrong, between all three pregnancies!

Biggest frustration: I am still so tired SO much of the time.  The summer is flying by fast, and I'm thankful for that.  But the boys are really testing my patience and fighting a lot these days.  It's so frustrating and embarrassing taking them in public....it seems to be getting worse.  And at home, I just can't ever seem to sit down for more than two minutes before one of them needs something or I'm having to break up a fight.  The days are VERY long, and sometimes I resent that I can't rest more or do more planning for this baby.  I guess that's just reality when you are pregnant with your third and there's no family around to help!

I hosted a fun baby shower this past weekend at our house with some friends, so hopefully I will post some pictures of that later this week.  And tomorrow, Drew will be 22 months old.  Grant turned 22 months old four days before Drew was born.  I'm so glad I have a few more months this time! 




   

Haircuts, etc.

Just a few pictures, because I know I haven't posted any in a while.  Grant didn't nap today; he came out of his room twice and I finally gave up and just told him to stay in there and play until his CD was finished.  Now he's just playing around upstairs while I try to get a few things done.  Some days he naps great, but every once in a while he'll totally skip it, like today.  I guess he's closer to four now, so I should have expected this to happen around now.....

The boys got haircuts about two weeks ago.   They desperately needed them.  It's funny.....I always get used to their longer hair while they have it, but then after their haircuts I look back at pictures taken just a few days before and I'm a little embarrassed that I let it grow so long! 

 The boys are always coming up with silly games (especially when Daddy's around).  Here they stood on top of the guest bed, holding hands, and Dean would pull the quilt out from underneath them.  Sounds extremely safe, I know!  But they had a blast and nobody got hurt. 

I took a couple of pics of Drew after getting home from the hospital last Tuesday.  He's wearing his hospital pajamas and not in the happiest of moods.  He took Kitty and Brownie with him to the hospital and didn't want to go anywhere without them while he was there.

Feeling much better the next morning!  Buzz Lightyear is almost another one of his "lovey" toys right now....not as much as the other two, but he likes to tote Buzz around with him a lot.

Grant found this old Mardi Gras necklace that entertained the boys for a few days.  Drew came into the baby's room on Saturday wearing the necklace and his new Alabama cap (Nana and Papa brought one for both boys when they visited).  Dean turned his cap around and he looked like a little rapper! 

 By the way, here you can also see a little bit of the baby's bedding and the wall color, which we just painted this weekend.  I wanted to steer away from a Pepto Bismol pink (it's so hard to tell what it's going to look like from those little cards), and I couldn't decide for about a day whether I liked this pink or not.  It's called "Rosy Outlook" and was much more muted than some truer pinks that we were comparing it with.  Now I've decided that I like it....it's definitely pink but not extremely bright.  We have brown curtains in the room already, so I think it looks nice.  I'll post some more pictures of it later.....we still need a dresser and I need to hang some things on the wall, so the room is far from finished!

An update- finally!

Whew!  We got in late Tuesday night after Drew's operation and the past couple of days have been busy with Dean home.  His last day at his old job was Tuesday, and he starts his new job on Monday.  So we're spending these few days trying to squeeze in dentist appointments, car repairs and house projects that we don't normally do on days that he's working.  Yesterday was spent almost entirely trying to figure out how to refinance our house.  What a mess!  It's crazy trying to make sense of these statements you get from mortgage companies.  You want to make the right decision and get the best deal, but trying to understand those forms is like trying to teach yourself Latin in one afternoon.  And you want to make a decision fast, knowing that rates change from day to day, which puts you under even more pressure.

Anyway, Drew's surgery on Tuesday went just fine.  We got to the hospital at 11am and Drew and I were going back to the holding room by 12:30.  This was the only time I cried, when they took us back and gave me these tiny little hospital pajamas to put on Drew.  We waited there for 45 minutes until we met with anyone.....but they had lots of toys, and Drew insisted on riding one of the cozy coupe cars around the room over and over again.  He stowed Brownie (his blanky) and Kitty in the back and had a blast while I wheeled him around probably a dozen times.

By the time we met with our anesthesiologist (Dr. Power) and surgeon (Dr. Brandt), I felt a lot more reassured.  They gave Drew some versed (sp?) to make him loopy, so he wouldn't care so much when they took him out of my arms.  And it worked within just a couple of minutes.  He was so funny, just staring into space and nodding his little head no matter what question someone asked him.  When they took him from me and went back into surgery (at 1:45), he had no clue what was going on!

At around 3pm, Dr. Brandt came out and told us that everything went well...it was a very standard hernia repair.  I went back and saw him right away, just as he was waking up (siblings weren't allowed in the holding room or the recovery room, so Dean and Grant stayed in the waiting area both of these times).  He wasn't in the best mood at first, and tried relentlessly to tear his IV out of his hand.  But I got him to go back to sleep in my arms, and he woke up in a much better mood.  He ate a popsicle with gusto (even though he was still half asleep!), and immediately asked for more afterward.  We were about to leave for the car at 5pm when Drew started coughing (he had a really croupy cough from the breathing tube), then threw up his entire popsicle.  Poor little guy....

We went to Star Pizza up in town for dinner (we didn't want to fight rush hour traffic heading home), and Drew was groggy/sleepy through most of it.  But he did eat some goldfish towards the end.  He slept in bed with me that night, and by Wednesday was almost back to normal.  He was maybe a little more fussy/whiny than usual, but for the most part he was playing as if his surgery had never happened.

And Grant did very well at the hospital too....he ate an entire 8-pack of chicken nuggets in the food court with Dean, and he had fun running around in the hallways.  While Drew was in surgery, the three of us went to see the amazing miniature train exhibit.....it is definitely worth a visit to Texas Children's even if you don't have a medical reason to be there!

Thanks to all of you who commented or emailed to ask about him.  I'm glad it's over, but it wasn't a bad experience at all (thankfully it was just a simple hernia repair and nothing like what some of those patients are going through).  I think it's hard to leave a place like Texas Children's (or any hospital that's just taken very good care of your child!) without being overwhelmed by the skill of the doctors and staff there.  I hope we never have to go again, but I'm very thankful that we have access to such excellent care basically in our backyard!

Drew- hernia update

We saw a pediatric surgeon last Friday at Texas Children's about Drew's hernia.  Dean was working, so my parents met us there at the hospital to help out with Grant.  My dad ended up coming into the appointment with Drew and me, and Drew's hernia wasn't apparent at first.  The doctor tried tickling him to get it to "pop" out, but it didn't work.  He just stood there with a straight face!  So she told me to leave the room, hoping he'd cry.  Of course normally he freaks out when he thinks I might leave him, but nope!  Not this time.  So she had my dad leave the room.  After about 30 seconds he did start to get a little worried.  Then the doctor sent out the resident and med student who were in the room....and he immediately started crying!  I got a kick out of that.

Anyway, the crying did cause the hernia to pop out.  So she recommended surgery, as I expected.  She happened to have an opening for tomorrow, so that's what we're doing.  Unfortunately, it's scheduled for 1pm, instead of early AM like I was hoping.  He can't have any food tomorrow, and no clear liquids after 9am.  We have to be at the hospital at 11am.  As a mom, of course I'm worried, even though I know it's a very common and routine surgery (the doctor told us that 1 in 40 boys is born with an inguinal hernia).  And it's just an outpatient surgery, so we should be leaving by 3:30 or 4pm.  But neither of my babies have ever had surgery (except for circumcision!), so I'm just a little nervous about it.  And I'm wondering how in the world Drew is going to handle not having any food in the morning!  Hopefully we can just skip breakfast altogether and neither of the boys will notice....

I'll write tomorrow night with an update..... 

His best friend

- Today the boys were playing loudly upstairs today while my parents were here visiting.  We walked to the bottom of the stairs and called to Grant, asking whether he's being nice to Drew.  He said, "yeah, I am.  Cause Drew's my best friend."

- Tonight we had been sitting down at dinner for just a few minutes when Grant got up from his seat, saying that he was full (he's been trying to do this a lot lately).  We told him he needed to come sit while we finished eating, even though he wasn't hungry anymore.  Trying to sound more upset than he actually was, he said, "I shouldn't have to put up with this.  This is ridiculous."  (I have no idea who he learned this from.  Surely not me....)  Dean told him, "even though it might be a little funny, you are not allowed to talk to me like that."   Again with a straight face he answered, "well, this is ridiculous.  And it's funny."