i am in love

here are the pictures they took while we were still in the hospital. our personal photographer andy will be taking some more soon, so stay tuned.

Elijah Holmes Froese

Elijah Holmes Froese was born on Friday, June 12th at 11:52 am. 5lb 12 ozs, 18 inches. He was born just a little over 3 weeks early--he is a little guy but he is healthy and strong! Thank you Lord!

My water broke at home around 6:00 am. Contractions started approx every 5 minutes on the way to the hospital and very quickly progressed to about every 2 minutes once we got there. I was very thankful for the epidural and Eli made his arrival just before noon. I got to hold him for a few seconds (and couldnt really see him very well because I was crying so hard--happy tears of course!) but because he was technically a preemie, he had to be checked out by the NICU people fairly quickly. He checked out great and they said he was doing very well and they didnt need to do anything else with him..yippee!! Grandma and Grandad (Haws) were there and got to hold him after he got checked out--about 30 minutes after he was born. His nose was all smooshed from being so low in my pelvis for all those weeks, but it is straightening out nicely.

I am one of the unlucky 1-2% of women who developed a spinal headache after my epidural. This is seriously the worst pain I have ever experienced. I couldnt sit up or stand without severe pain in my head and neck. From everything I read, this would last 2-4 days or maybe a week at the most, so I tried to wait it out. I essentially stayed on bedrest for another week and poor andy had to change almost every diaper. Finally after a week with no relief, I went in for a blood patch. Relief was pretty much immediate and I have felt soooooo much better. Why did I wait so long?? ugh!!

Eli had a doctor's appointment on Friday morning and since I was still out of commission at that point, Andy played single dad and took little man to the doctor. Eli has already gained all his weight back, plus one ounce! He is now 5lb 13 oz and 18 1/2 inches (i think he just stretched easier). The Dr. said he is doing great!

Andy goes back to work on Monday :( We arent looking forward to that, but thankfully my mom has agreed to come back and stay a few days to help me with that transition. We will miss Andy during the day--and I will miss the sleep I have been getting from about 6 to 9 am when Eli snuggles with Daddy.

36 weeks!

"The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy." Psalm 126:3

Well, after some really hard work on my part (by hard work I mean doing absolutely no work at all) we have made it to 36 weeks without having a baby! That is great news and we are very happy. From everything I have been told by my doctor and the real expert--the internet, haha--if Eli is born this week he would most likely do very well with very few minor problems, mostly related to temp regulation because he hasnt been able to put on a lot of fat. Of course, we would prefer to officially make it to full term (37 weeks or beyond), but we are so thankful to be where we are. When I think about the challenges we would have faced if he had been born at 30 1/2 weeks, well...ugh. I just don't like to think about that. I see my doctor tomorrow morning and we will see what my new assignment is...can i get out of the house? start going for short walks? maybe unpack a few boxes? or will i have one more week of restricted activity? who knows, but I am excited to see what she has to say tomorrow.

Again, I just want to thank everyone for your prayers, encouraging words, meals, visits, and overall support. There is no way we would have made it this far without you all! To my dear sweet husband: You are my hero! I know you are exhausted (I am watching you nap in the recliner right now) and I cannot thank you enough for all of your (extra) hard work the past month and a half. I love you!

Now after all that sappy stuff, I want to talk about something else near and dear to my heart: snowcones. This is my new obsession--well, not exactly new. I seem to go through the same thing every summer. I have my first snowcone of the summer and then I can't stop! I crave them. In previous years I have found my favorite and stuck with it fairly consistently, but I think that this year, at least for the first week or two, I will try to branch out a little. Those of you with facebook have already heard of this obsession, so bear with me. I have been told that the craving is contagious, so I am trying to share the love so that you will all crave a deliciously cool, sweet, refreshing snowcone when you finish reading this. Then you will all be hooked, I will buy a snowcone stand, and then I will be rich!!! So it all started when my sweet friend Kelli broke me out of the house last Thursday for a short errand (I just rode along) and we stopped for a snowcone on the way home. Snowcone #1 DREAMSICLE. Then Friday Andy and I went to dinner and stopped on the way home for snowcone #2 SWEET TART. Then Saturday, Andy had to drop a borrowed lawnmower off (for work) and brought home to me snowcone #3 TIGER'S BLOOD. Now it is Sunday afternoon and I am craving snowcone #4. What flavor will it be? When Andy wakes up from his nap I may try to convince him to go for a short drive to the snowcone stand. Man, thrilling stuff isn't it? Why would anyone read this blog?

A day in my life...

Just thought I would share what my typical day looks like recently...

Tucker usually sleeps at my feet on one end of the couch

Yoda sleeps (with his pillows) on the chair and a half.

Exciting huh??


And in other news....Tucker had to get all his hair shaved off because he was so matted. We are bad dog owners and we don't brush him as often as we need to. Plus Yoda always attacks Tucker's hind legs, neck, and behind his ears so Tucker's hair gets super matted there. The groomer said there wasn't anything else they could do but shave him. So here he is...looking scrawny and ridiculous.

look at those chicken legs!

35 1/2 weeks

i got dressed today in something other than a big tshirt and sweatpants so i thought i would take another belly photo.

Pregnancy

My favorite things about being pregnant:

1. Feeling this little guy move around. From flutters in the beginning, progressing to jabs, to full out kung fu kicks, to now, what I imagine as frustrated pushing due to overcrowding. While the actual sensation isn't always pleasant--hurts sometimes and other times just feels like an alien-- it is just so neat to think that i will soon get to look at and kiss and hold (in my arms) this little thing i have been feeling for several months now.

2. I always have an excuse to take a nap.

3. The unsolicited advice you receive from anyone and everyone. Whether it is helpful or not, it is nearly always entertaining.

4. Even on days when you feel like crap and look like you got hit by a truck, someone will still tell you that you look cute. There are a few people out there that think all pregnant women are cute--no matter what--and thankfully on the days I felt and looked my worst, I would run into one of those people.

5. Listening to Andy talk to the baby. I may have written about this earlier somewhere, but we read that babies in the womb can hear lower pitched voices better than higher pitched ones. Since we read that, Andy has always spoken to Eli in a really low, James Earl Jones/Barry White-esque voice, usually saying "Hello, Baby." It never fails to make me laugh.

6. Being pregnant at the same time as some wonderful friends (and family)! It has made the experience so much fun and so memorable!

My not-so-favorite things about being pregnant:

1. What the heck is going on with my skin? Did I morph into a 14 year old boy somewhere along the way?

2. I don't really think of myself as a vain person, but we have been trained to think of slender and thin as the picture of a healthy body. Through pregnancy, your body does crazy weird things and stretches/expands in freakish ways NO MATTER WHAT you do. no matter how healthy you eat or how active you are, your body is still going to grow and expand and that is what is HEALTHY and that is what it is supposed to do. It isn't that I am upset that my body changed....it is just the feeling of trying to reconcile all of that in my brain. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone else, but it makes sense in my head :)

3. The unsolicited advice. While this was also one of my favorite things about pregnancy, there were the occasional well-meaning women (mostly women, though not always) who would say rude things, or just plain ol' stupid things to me. I wish I had kept track of all the little words of wisdom I received, but sadly, I have been a very poor record keeper through this pregnancy. The baby book is totally blank and the pregnancy journal I got (for free) is also completely empty.

4. Heartburn.

5. Not being able to sleep on my back. I have not been a tummy sleeper for many many years, thankfully, but I do like to alternate between side sleeping and back sleeping. Because they discourage lying flat on your back after a certain point in pregnancy, that means no more back sleeping. So sad.

6. Bedrest. Ugh.

Just thought that would be fun, and a respectable beginning to the "record keeping" I aspire to during Eli's first years. Feel free to share your favorite and least favorite pregnancy memories with me!