4 months

Yet again I am demonstrating my lack of ability and/or gumption to keep up a blog to a regular degree seeing as Liz is 5 months old and I'm just getting to her 4 month!! lol Liz is keeping us busy not to mention going over to Mamaw and Papaw's just about everyday. I'm not sure that I've spoken about it in previous posts, but we found out that my parents will be moving within just over a year to Charlotte NC due to my dad's job being shifted to the company's main hub there. Bummer face obviously but a total God send in more ways than we can begin to count. All of us have been bummed about being so far apart, especially with Liz (and hopefully other future grandkids) but we can't deny God's hand - downsizing opportunity which is a massive help to mom and her health for example. Plus, they'll be halfway in between us and where my sister is going to end up, Panama City Fl when she gets married this summer.

Liz is growing like a weed, though I feel like I say that sooo much but it's true! They grow so fast and develop even quicker, I can't believe what even just a month difference can make. She is gaining strength quickly, starting to try and sit up (trying to lift her head and shoulders up) and getting almost all the way turned over except fo

r her head when trying to turn over back to front. Carrying her is getting so much more convenient now that she's so stable; I have an extra hand again!! Yessss! Her reaching and grasping toys and other objects is getting much more purposeful, her favorite being hands/fingers, rattles, and rings.

We had her 4 month check up and the doc is totally pleased with where liz is at. She's a tall, strong, skinny mini with a great set of lungs :-) From day one, the doc has made mention of how alert and attentive Liz is and this visit was no different. When we got to talking about Liz and other things, Liz was in rapt attention of whatever the doc was saying. She's such a trooper too. She got more shots this time and it went about the same as the last time where she pretty much stopped crying right as the nurse was putting on the last band-aid. What a good girl! She's also discovered her feet, much to all of our delight. She can't get enough of them and is notorious for grabbing them and then drop kicking her bed while she's waiting on us to come and get her out of bed! Super funny to hear happening on the monitor!

She's been getting bored a lot easier too. While she has great attention skills, she sure figures things out in a fair amount of time and wants to move on. Her favorite past time is out shopping (where there is sooo much to see, hear and smell) and going for walks using her carrier instead of the stroller. She's giggling and getting much more ticklish which is an awesome combination for us to enjoy!! My favorite is giving her tummy a zerbert while shaking my head - always gets a great laugh!!

She's also gotten really good at mimicking us. She recently has loved figuring out how to make the "ooo" face, and she tries to get her tongue going when you make noises using your tongue. She loves music too. We'll get into the car, put the radio on and she's good to go. There's been a few times where she's even seemed to been singing along.

Billy and I talk all the time about what God might have in store for her. So many times I find myself praying for her, her tomorrows, people who will come into her life, her husband, what she might experience, etc and I get a little nervous along with the excitement. God has charged me with this little one, raising her up and I can't imagine doing this without Him. Billy and I both realize we could not do this without Him. What peace, hope, and comfort we have knowing that we don't have to have all the answers, that though we will make mistakes there is grace, thank goodness!!

We (yes we!) are so looking forward to doing some shopping at garage sales this season. Yes, even Billy is pumped for it - mostly though from the stand point of how much money it saves us! lol Really, I'm right there with him. I love to find a good deal, love to shop, but feel like I did the best I could when I find something that we need for a price that works with not only our budget but what the true cost of the item should be anyway (i.e. an outfit that probably only cost $1 to make for a dollar)!! I personally will pick up an outfit or something occasionally as needed or even just desired, but I have a hard time spending so much on something I know didn't cost 1/4 of the cost to make. Anyway, I'll get off my soap box now :-)

We are greatly enjoying watching out little one grow, being humbled and filled with joy at the reminder of the love God has for us as His children.

3 months!

My goodness! I can't believe it's here already!! Our little girl is 3 months old and growing like a weed! We are absolutely enjoying every moment as her personality shows itself more and more each day. Her smiles and the occasional laugh (yeah! she hit that this past month!!) make playing really that... playing (instead of making fools of ourselves goofing around and getting not a ton of response other than a furrowed brow). She's starting to really see things around her and is curious to all that is going on. We've been trying to hold off on purchasing a ton until garage sale season because we know we can get a ton more for our money, but we've had to go ahead and pick up a few things. One was a bumbo, which has been so much fun for her and I!! She's been pretty good at using her head for a bit now but not so much on her core strength so the bumbo has really allowed her to hang out while I do whatever needs doing but still look around.

She's also staring to show signs of

wanting to roll over back to front; not sure if it's close to happening or not, but she's been getting her hips and shoulder blade off the floor in the effort. She was notorious for moving around her crib when she was to be sleeping - so m

uch so we'd find her with her face smashed into the bars, sound asleep... a complete 180 from where we laid her down!! It was quite comical! But we had to get her to stop going that far because she was waking up in understandable discomfort, so we thought about getting one of those wedges but yes, we are cheap and didn't want to spend the money. So I got creative one day and used a couple of hand weights we had laying around and a towel and created one! All I did was take the towel and folded it in half hotdog style, then at one end put a weight and rolled it up a few times, then repeated that at the other end -

leaving a space just large enough for her to lay in. So far it's worked great!! I did put a couple of stitches around the weights so she can't push them to where they come undone.

Anyway, She's still sleeping really well at night and is doing pretty well at getting herself back so sleep when it calls for it. We feel like doing a modified Baby Wise has really helped get her there. The core of what we've done has been just getting her into a routine. Regular intervals of feeding through the day, waking her if needed even, and a steady and predictable routine to go to sleep. We made ours simple and quick because we knew we'd like to have more kids and knew we couldn't be spending a ton of time putting a kiddo down when there were others to worry about. It didn't make sense to be spending hours just getting the kids to sleep each night!! So ours just is to go in, get her into her sleep sack and rock her for a few minutes. We sing Jesus Loves Me to her while we rock and usually by the end of the song (we sing a few verses) she's droopy eyed and ready for bed! We lay her down awake but drowsy and

she's usually good to go! Asleep within 10 minutes or less.

Every night, singing that song with my baby girl in my arms has been so much more than just putting my child to sleep. I didn't expect that. Well, I expected it to be a bonding time and special, but not the change it would invoke in me. Long story short, I haven't had the highest view of myself for a long time now, always seeing flaws. Oh sure, I've been more comfortable with myself as time as gone on, but Satan has certainly used it as a foothold in my life. He's stepped it up especially after the birth, you know, stretch marks and all that jazz. I've fought it, logically knowing that my body was how it is supposed to be after giving birth, but my heart wasn't really affected. A couple of nights ago, I was singing to Liz and the words of a song that I have sung since I was a young child finally started to sink in...

Jesus loves me, this I know

for the Bible tells me so

little ones to him belong

they are weak but He is strong

Yes, Jesus loves me!, Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!

the bible tells me so!

Jesus love me this I know

As

He loved so long ago

taking children on His knee

saying "let them come to me"

Yes, Jesus loves me!, Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!

the bible tells me so!

Jesus love me still today

walking with me on my way

wanting as a friend to give

life and love to all who live

Yes, Jesus loves me!, Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!

the bible tells me so!

I finally am starting to see myself through His eyes - a creation of God, molded and formed with great thought and love, beautiful, in whom He used to bring into this family another creation, beautifully molded and formed with great thought and love and that the resulting marks and shape of my body are just the evidence

of that miracle - the fingerprints of the Master Creator. A God who is so much bigger than I can ever fathom but yet so personal and close with His creation. Not only does this begin to heal the self-inflicted scars on my heart, it also reminds me of our responsibility and wonderful gift we have been given... to impart what we've learned to Liz, and any other kiddos we have. My prayer is that she can learn from mommy, not only the basics of life but how to love herself and see herself through His eyes, not letting anyone or anything tell her otherwise. May I be transparent to her so that we both can grow, knowing and living

in the love and peace of our Saviour.

We have made that promise, to ourselves, to our daughter, to our God, and to our Church, to raise her as best we can with the guidance of God in Him. (the picture is from the dedication service at our church, Traders Point Christian Church on Sunday February 28, 2010. Both our parents attended)

2 months!

I can't believe how time flies! So soon it seems Liz is working her way to three months and meeting so many milestones!! Just yesterday something clicked and she kept rolling over from her tummy to her back - so much so I couldn't keep her on her tummy for tummy time!! Every time I'd flip her back over, within a minute or so she would be flipped back over! So that was fun, but then she pulled a funny too today by crying at a noise that startled her for the first time!! I totally didn't expect her reaction, so when I coughed and she started to to cry - all mom could do was laugh! Oye! She'll probably get me for saying that later :-)

All this growing and developing is certainly fun, but as all moms know, it comes with it's challenges as well. We are adapting the Baby Wise approach to fit our family and one of the things it talks is looking for the tired cues and then putting them down as soon as you see them. Not rocket science, as I'm sure most mom's do this anyway, but so far hers has been a yawn. Well, she went through a good growth spurt recently (5 flippin' ounces a feeling! Can we say "oink oink"?) and decided she wanted to change it up! I'm still gaging it but so far it seems she's gone to fussing when she's tired. That's obviously thrown off her naps a bit when I don't catch it at the right time, so many naps she gets a bit overly tired and fights going down or wakes up throughout the naps. It's Friday now, and this all started last Saturday or Sunday, but she and I are both adjusting. I think she's getting better at putting her self back to sleep if she does wake in the middle of a nap.

This picture is a perfect example of what we have affectionately dubbed the "milk buzz" look. Complete and utter satisfaction!! Yum!

One of the other way positive things that every mom and dad counts down the days till is the gloried sleeping through the night. I am so proud to say my little Elizabeth Sarah has figured out how to do that around 8 weeks old!! Now obviously it's not perfect but getting about 7 hours straight of sleep from her is fabulous!! We're still trying to figure out what the schedule looks like still, how feedings will look throughout the day and how that works into our bedtime routine. I'd like to get it to where she's going down at the same time each night and we're going through the same routine. The two scenarios we flex between depending on what the feedings looked like that day are 1) she eats are 7:30 or so, kept up for play time - usually bath and books/cuddle time, then put down. We go in a 10:30 and feed her but put her right back down and 2) we feed sometime between 5:30 and 6:30, putting her last feeding at around 9:30, in which we keep her up for play after then put her down. Neither one seems to click any better with her but for all of us I'd like to get it consistent if possible.

We'll get a better chance to do that now that I'm home!! I loved nannying and wouldn't trade a second of time spent with the families that I had the pleasure and honor of serving but I am going to enjoy this new chapter in our lives as I get to stay home with our kiddo. Jackson, the little one I've hung out with for the last year and a half just welcomed with his mommy and daddy his new baby sister, Ella Francis! We are so excited for them and I know J will be a great big brother. He was so tender and sweet with Liz when we were there, I'm a bit envious of Ella of the brother she's has. He would get this worried look on his face and try and offer all he

knew to help her when she was crying. He'd look at me and ask, "paci? baba (bottle)? boppie?" and then usually if she was in the room with us (not going down for a nap in another room) he'd go and gently pat her tummy or stroke her head. So sweet! He tried to share his food with her quite often, which was so cute! We'd be eating lunch and he'd hold up his fork with a hot dog piece on the end and say "Lizzie?" and I'd have to tell him "no, but thank you. Lizzie's still a baby. That's big boy food just for Jackson." I hope we get to visit them often.

Needless to say, she's loving exploring her world and is really starting to notice people and things around her. Her favorite thing to do is sit on your lap and play the staring game and the do-as-I-do game. Her smiles light up the room!! She loves her daddy and will turn as hard as she can to look for him when he comes in the door after a day at work. As someone put it, she's discovering and forming her trust with different individuals and that she recognizes that they are different. For instance, mom is soft and warm, dad is strong and a bit more rough tumble type play, etc. As her Aunt D put it last night at dinner "She's finally looking at people!"

That's all for now... pedunk is waking up!! Sometimes we feel like the dog on Over the Hedge

"Play? Play?"

One month!

So I'm a few weeks late, but in combination with my being a horrible journal-er to begin with and having a newborn around the house (not to mention Billy being sick for the last week or so)...being prompt about writing was doomed from the start!! hehehe

Anyway, Big Girl hit one month December 22 and daddy and I couldn't be happier or more proud (i suppose i should include tired and distracted here too but everyone fills those in on their own). The first month was tough, a lot of working out kinks and figuring each other out but it was an adventure that was God-guided and God-blessed!

I have one piece of advice for new mom's and dad's that I'm sure many have figured out before us - don't try to do it all!! I'm not talking about the house work or laundry, which is what most new mom's hear about. I'm talking about the sleeping!! Obviously we were a bit different than some in that we are formula feeding, so it worked out for us to do shifts, but I'm sure there are ways around the nursing as well. At first I tried to take the whole night shift during the week with the intention of letting Billy do it on the weekends. That is another option for some folks, but by the end of the second week of doing this, I was not only exhausted, but discouraged and felt so alone at that time of night. That mixed with my hormones getting back to normal made 9:30 every night a cry fest - poor Billy dealing with adjusting himself to a new baby and a hormonal and emotional wife. We talked, and decided we would do well to try shifts. So we began with my going to bed around 7:30-8ish and he taking from then until about 12 or 12:30. I would then be "on call" from then on equalling both of us getting about 6 or more hours of straight sleep. I'm not sure I can describe how much of a difference that made!

!

We've also launched into a modified version of Babywise so due to that, we are both getting at least 6 hrs if not more depending on how long she sleeps and when the feedings land. Side note- if you are interested in the Babywise approach, check out the book at your local library or borrow it from a friend to scan through first to double check to see if it might be of use to you and your family or not. Some folks don't agree with the approach or it simply doesn't fit their lifestyle which is totally fine. Another thing to check out is a blog I stumbled across which has been super helpful. It's http://babywisemom.blogspot.com

She's changing

so much everyday, it's been so amazing to watch!! We stayed in town and had Christmas wit

h my family before Aunt D left for Florida. We had so much fun playing games, watching Christmas movies, decorating cookies, and adding a new tradition - creating play-dough snowmen!! hehehe Liz got a fun kitchen from mamaw and papaw and a fun first tea set from Aunt D. We (Billy and I) decided a while ago that we would like for our kids, while they're young at least, to attend Christmas Eve Servic

e at our church and wake up at home on Christmas morning. She's too young to remember this year, but we figured we should start the tradition now to get into the groove. We attended our little one's first Christmas Eve Service and were so moved. God is amazing!! Just a note to remember, Aaron (our pastor) talked about the passage from Mark that begins with the geneology of Christ (what a thing to talk about huh?!). Let me tell you... it was so eye opening!! We have no idea in our culture today what the birth story of Jesus truly tells about and how much it meant and means!! If your curious, check it out on Itunes, just look it up on the church's website at www.tpcc.org and your should find the link and directions.

We woke up Christmas morning with our little one :-) and had another new tradition, brunch with my parents at our house! So much fun!! We left for Billy's family's get-together soon after that. Lissy did really well with the car ride and even better than expected with all the new sights and sounds (believe me there were lots of them!! So much fun!!). I thought she might be super over stimulated and freak out but she did really well!! What a great little girl! She got a fun wiggly cow toy from grandma and grandpa which I'm sure she will just love here in a few months!! She gave us some huge gifts as well - she started cooing and smiling a bit in response to a face!! Ever since then it's been so fun to hear her "talk" to herself and to try and get a smile out of her!

I also started back to work, hanging out with Jackson at his house, and I think we're adjusting pretty well. Jackson is so helpful and wonderful with Liz, I hardly need to remind him to be gentle! Whenever she cries, he says "baby?" (which is all he calls her right now) and wants to go give her passie to her and rock the stroller if she's in it. So sweet! His little sister is due in about a month and though I'm sure it will be an adjustment, I don't think it will be as big as it could be. I think he'll be a great big brother. She did get herself to sleep with out any crying today, which was great because Jackson was down for a nap. I can't say it enough, God is amazing!!

The big day has arrived!

She's finally here!! It's taken a bit to get back to posting but here we are! Elizabeth Sarah Nord was born November 24th at 8:58 pm weighing in at 8.15 and 22 inches long- big girl!

It all started around 2:30 am that Tuesday morning when Rachael woke up to minor cramping. She got up, unable to sleep, and began to notice a pattern as the morning progressed. It was still pretty far apart, but eventually began to grow closer and closer together. Billy got some good sleep and when he got up, was a great help in encouraging through the contractions and helping to time them. Such a wonderful hubby!! We waiting until about 11 am or so to head in to the hospital, wanting to make sure we were far enough along they didn't just send us home!! I wasn't too sure we would be very far but at least we had been 3 cm for a bit- that had to count for something right?! We got to the hospital and when they checked, I was at 5cm already and doing well!! Yippee!!

We were admitted, then called our parents to let them know what was going on. Mom had been having dreams that we wouldn't call her until the baby was born, stemming from the comment I made about waiting to call after making sure we would be admitted :-) Needless to say, they jumped in the car and got to the hospital as fast as they could. We played the waiting game, with Billy winning the award for best support person in the world, and eventually progressed to about 7 cm before requesting the epidural. I had wanted to wait until I was farther along in labor for fear of it slowing down the progress, but when we got it- I think it took about an hour for me to make it to 10 cm!! And folks, I am a firm believer in a women being able to do it on her own if she wants to - all the power to her, but dude, for this lady- I am a "I don't have to pay for Eve's issues now so why would I chose to?" lol Note: I always had heard stories of the epidural hurting and such so I was a little nervous... totally no need to be!! Hardly felt it at all!! I think there were parts of my tattoo that were more uncomfortable than that was! Anyway, no need to worry about progressing apparently! We were feeling great and pushed for about 2 hours.

Around that time, my epidural began to wear off- not fun! I like to think I have a pretty high pain tolerance, but whoa, dude. So we requested a re-dose. From the time I requested the dose through the time I got it and it was kicking in, the dr.s noticed her heart rate showing a little distress. I was so proud of our daughter to make it this far into labor with no signs of struggle - she's such a trooper!! After that, I started to peak a fever at 101.2 (which is crazy high for my typical 97 ish), my blood pressure was steadily rising and my heart beat had picked up at an alarming rate. The dr, Billy and I finally made the decision to go ahead with a c-section.

Billy was really concerned through the whole thing about me and bless his heart, my state just made him even more so. He was able to come into the surgery room all scrubbed up and be with me. The surgery went well and Lizzie came out crying - the best sound I think I can imagine! The folks getting her all taken care of kept talking about how alert she was, and then cracking up when we poo'ed not once on the table they were prepping her on, but twice! lol That's my girl! Meanwhile, the dr is trying to get my heart rate down (which didn't go down until about 4:30 that morning) and Billy's wanting to make sure I'm ok but also see his new daughter. Rough, but God is good and got us through.

We noticed right away she's a strong little girl. She was moving her head around a bit (albeit very clumsily) and was super alert after eating. Nursing went a bit rough, and from what I heard, that was to be expected. She was a great eater but for some reason we were tearing mommy up. We knew it was going to be difficult and sore so we continued as best we could and sought help from two consultants and all the nurses who came in.

We spent Thanksgiving in the hospital, but had great food and plenty of visitors (not to mention a lot on our minds with the newbie). Coming home was uneventful and felt so good to be out and home. The first couple nights sleep were rough, but Mawmaw (Rachael's mom) came over and stayed the night and helped us to trouble shoot some stuff. After that, sleep has been pretty good!! She had her days and nights mixed up but I think we're getting that ironed out. She's going about 4 hours in between feedings so we're getting about 3 straight hours of sleep a stretch at night - which is pretty much awesome!! Part of the problem we encountered with the sleep at first was also feeding related we think.

We continued nursing at home but Rachael was in tears each time she went to nurse. We decided to give her a break and pump, giving the breast milk to Liz via a bottle instead. In the meantime we researched formula just in case it would have to come to that, and found that Rach was not producing what Liz should have been getting. When we told the pediatrician what was going on, she thought that might be part of the issue with the nursing. We talked about it and agreed that we felt comfortable going to formula, especially since Liz had gotten all my colostrum, which meant the most to me. That standing there, her sleep has regulated and she's all but lost that fussy time in the early morning.

Now all we're trying to iron out is our nap times! She's not sleeping well during the day for some reason, and we're not really sure why. She'll sleep great when she's being held by someone (note we are limiting this because we know she'll get used to it if we let her), and we're putting her down in her crib to sleep for naps to reinforce the sleep there, but she's still waking up periodically in a crying fit. Obviously we're knocking out any of the basics, food/burp/diaper/reassure. Any thoughts - feel free to voice!!

Already a goober!

So we know she's our child (already being a goober) and we also know she takes after her grandparents to some degree (my parents) - she's running late!! Hehehe! At least we know she'll work well with our church schedule! lol (If you grew up at or just familiar with Traders Point, you'll remember we have Traders Point Time - everything consistently running anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes late)

Went to the Dr today and although there's been some progress (I'm now completely 3 cm) and she is still doing just fine, went ahead and scheduled an induction date. As of now, she could still be a November baby, but if not then she'll be a December baby. The induction date is December 1 at a bright and early 6 am. The Dr tried to help it along today by messing with my membranes, but she didn't feel any change like she usually does if it's going to help.

Other than that, not a lot of change! Personally, I would love and prefer it if she would come on her own. I'm not a person who tends to follow the natural or organic trend to a very large extent, but we do try to do what we can (i.e. if I have a headache later in the day, I'm more inclined to try and sleep it off rather than take meds for it- I'm not against meds, just like to try and let my body do what it can to fight it first before using meds if possible). In this case, we'd like to have it happen without medicinal help if possible but also recognize the merit and safety in urging her to come if she hasn't by the induction date. Prayers would be greatly appreciated, not only for her to come on her own if that's in His plan, but also again just for a labor and delivery that follows His plan whatever that looks like.

any day now!

So great news is that I don't have preeclampsia...

Bummer news is that means we're playing the waiting game until she comes.

And boy is it an interesting waiting game!! I've slept wonderfully through this whole pregnancy so far (I will totally chalk it up to the sleep number bed we have - best investment we've made!!). Two nights ago, I had probably the worst nights sleep of my short life so far. Went to bed at 11:30, awake at 12:30 (for like a minute), awake again at 2:30 for about 15 min, again at 3:45 for about 15 min, and then at 4:15ish was wide awake again - so much so I didn't go back to sleep until a nap around 12:30 that afternoon when Jackson was taking a nap!! None of this from discomfort or potty breaks mind you... just awake! Funny part is, I felt pretty good until right before the nap!! The "saga" continues through last night when we went to be around 11 and I didn't wake up until my alarm went off at 7am - not even for a potty break!! And guess what!?!?! I felt like I was in desperate need of more sleep and/or major caffeine help most of today!! How does one get hardly any sleep at all and feel totally fine one night and then a solid nights sleep the next and feel like she only got an hour!? Anyway, moving on...

Last night, a friend reminded me with a great idea that my water could break at any point (although I think it's only like 8% or something of women have that happen before they get to the hospital but whatever...) and she had heard from a friend that putting a shower curtain under your mattress pad is a great, inexpensive way to help protect your mattress. I thought that sounded easy enough and great in helping protect one of our favorite belongings so Billy and I proceed to disassemble our bed to put this brilliant plan in action. Just a tidbit for those who could use it, either now or later. I'll let you guys know if it works or not!!

So now we wait...