A Must Read

As I browsing through blogs this morning I stumbled upon Hello! Happiness and the amazing Natasha. I read this blog post, that she has referenced from another article. It quite literally brought tears to my eyes.

As we prepare to welcome our second baby and raise our rambunctious daughter it speaks to both my husband and I. I hope we are able to raise our daughter and baby (boy or girl) in a way that they know they are loved, understood, listened too, guided, confident, loving and full of Grace.I pray that our actions will always speak louder than our words, but that our words will be what they need to grow into compassionate adults. I hope they (still seems odd to me to say they instead of her) will always come home to their parents for guidance, reassurance, and love but will know they can go out in the world on their own. We pray they will be confident in who they are and where they came from and do things that make them happy and the world a better place!

Here are the twenty-five things daughters want their daddies to know (though I feel that this applies to sons as well):

1. How you love me is how I will love myself.
2. Ask how I am feeling and listen to my answer, I need to know you value me before I can understand my true value.
3. I learn how I should be treated by how you treat my mom, whether you are married to her or not.
4. If you are angry with me, I feel it even if I don’t understand it, so talk to me.
5. Every time you show grace to me or someone else, I learn to trust God a little more.
6. I need to experience your nurturing physical strength, so I learn to trust the physicality of men.
7. Please don’t talk about sex like a teenage boy, or I think it’s something dirty.
8. When your tone is gentle, I understand what you are saying much better.
9. How you talk about female bodies when you’re “just joking” is what I believe about my own.
10. How you handle my heart, is how I will allow it to be handled by others.
11. If you encourage me to find what brings joy, I will always seek it.
12. If you teach me what safe feels like when I’m with you, I will know better how to guard myself from men who are not.
13. Teach me a love of art, science, and nature, and I will learn that intellect matters more than dress size.
14. Let me say exactly what I want even if it’s wrong or silly, because I need to know having a strong voice is acceptable to you.
15. When I get older, if you seem afraid of my changing body, I will believe something is wrong with it.
16. If you understand contentment for yourself, so will I.
17. When I ask you to let go, please remain available; I will always come back and need you if you do.
18. If you demonstrate tenderness, I learn to embrace my own vulnerability rather than fear it.
19. When you let me help fix the car and paint the house, I will believe I can do anything a boy can do.
20. When you protect my femininity, I learn everything about me is worthy of protecting.
21. How you treat our dog when you think I’m not watching tells me more about you than does just about anything else.
22. Don’t let money be everything, or I learn not to respect it or you.
23. Hug, hold, and kiss me in all the ways a daddy does that are right & good & pure. I need it so much to understand healthy touch.
24. Please don’t lie, because I believe what you say.
25. Don’t avoid hard conversations, because it makes me believe I’m not worth fighting for.

 

 

Weeks 35 and 36

I am still here, pregnant. How the doctors are unsure but I am and I am thankful for a healthy babe!

Weeks 35 and 36 brought more doctor appointments. Measuring, checking and assessing. Baby seems to be growing - though still measuring smaller. I find this odd still as my belly seems more rounded out this pregnancy. I have officially been pregnant longer than I was with our daughter. She made her debut at 36 weeks 3 days (in a matter for an hour or two).  The doctors worry about me making it to the hospital on time. GREAT. For some reason this fear does not worry me. Am I niave? Maybe.

Still 100% effaced and 4.5cm dialated. They will bring me to the hospital at 5cm and break my water OR at 39 weeks (St. Patrick's Day) to ensure both baby and I arrive to the hospital safely.

I will try and update a picture of the bump soon!

But I am here, waiting, impatiently. Scared of leaving my daughter overnight, but excited to meet our second sweet babe.

a little update on the big sister

{21 Months}

Eating: She is pretty good at trying new things and will generally eat one meal plus breakfast really well, either lunch or dinner. She has allergies so ingredient lists are always read. She currently cannot eat nuts, grains (wheat, barley, oats, or rye) and no seafood. So this limits us some however there are lots of options due to gluten intolerance. Of course she LOVES pizza so we have to always have a frozen (gluten free) pizza in the freezer. She also eats alot of Amy's Wheat Free Mac and Cheese which she also loves. She will eat most all veggies and fruits. Her favorite foods currently are: sausage, cheese, oranges, bananas, apples or applesauce, greens (as in collard greens, mixed greens and spinach), cream of spinach, broccoli and banana cream greek yogurt.

Talking: She is talking up a storm. She easily says 100+ words and often strings words together. No bath, I want to nurse, go downstairs, go mommy go, Cede is at the house, Come on Chubbi (Virgil or Cede), I played with Maddie (Addie, Lucas, Lin, Mia, etc). She always tells me about her day and what the big happenings were at "school". It is amazing how fast she picks things up. She always looks to me when she hears a new word and waits for my reaction. Such as she knows she is not allowed to say "damn it" even though her father tries all the time. :) She also says "I'm mommy's girl!" unless being prompted by Daddy then she will occassionally say Daddy's girl (but only if prompted). LOL

Nursing: We are still nursing first thing in the AM (limited to 2-5 minutes), at nap time and before bed. Occassionally I will allow her to nurse once in the middle of the night but normally I try to get her back to sleep on her own.

School: She does to daycare full time 6:30-4:15 Mon-Thur. I get compliments from all of her teachers with how intelligent she is. She can identify all of her colors and shapes, tell you the letter her name starts with, count to ten, sing about five or six different songs along with sign them all the way through, sing the ABCs, name probably 100 animals and know all of the corresponding animal sounds and probably so much more. She'll color and paint for hours (it seems), can completely work the iPad and mommy's phone (woops) and tell you exactly what she wants and when she wants it.

 

Milestones: We have moved out of mommy and daddy's bed into her own big girl bed (twin sized). She goes to sleep amazingly well - lays down nurses for 5-10 minutes and then falls asleep on her own normally. She will wake up one to two times through out the night or early morning calling for mommy. I go in and lay down with her until she goes back to sleep. Sometimes I let her come back to our bed if she is having a reaction to something she ate or a bad night of sleep or I am super tired. She definately sleeps much deeper in our bed but I am so happy she moved to her big girl bed without issue. I am so proud of her.

Stats: (my peanut)

                   Weight: 18 lbs 12 ounces
                   Height: 30 inches
                   Head: I dont remember the actual measurement but it was like 5%

The doctors are happy with her curve and she is thriving obviously with all of her learning and growth.

Her father and I love her more than life itself and are so grateful we were chosen to be her parents. We love you to the moon and back times infinity baby big girl!