Good times :-)

We went to a John Mayer concert at Verizon for our 7th anniversary. It was great. :-) I think Josh and I might have been the only sober ones there, but still...lots of fun. Who says you can't have some fun when you are eight months pregnant!? :-)

34 weeks and other stuff

Nothing big to report. The only thing of note is that I haven't gained any weight in the last six weeks. My OB hadn't brought it up, so I decided to ask if she was ok with that and she asked me if I was eating...ha ha....I said yes and she said..."Great, you'll have less weight to loose!" Ok :-) I was hoping to get an extra ultrasound or something to check measurements/growth. Oh well. My blood pressure continues to look good (yay!) and my sugars are also well under control. I'm pretty happy because all of this means less interventions from my OB and definitely less pressure to induce. (although I was given the paperwork on induction at this visit...and I smiled an evil smile and told reminded my OB that I'd be avoiding induction like the plague this time around! She just laughed at me! he he :-)) So, I go back in two weeks and then I start going every week. Crazy, craziness.

On non-related baby news....soccer is going really well and I'm loving being busy going to games again. Josh's high school team is 2-0 right now....and we spent the weekend at a tournament in Cincinnati for his U-13's (13 year old boys) club team and they did pretty well too. Although watching junior high soccer is much different than high school soccer :-) We also started back to a consistent schedule with youth group. We are senior class sponsors this year...so that is fun!

Other than that...I am in my final countdown with work. With about 6.5 weeks until my due date I am definitely counting down the days until I am done. I will miss my work, but being done is the right decision. I've almost hit my goal of having 10 piano students (I have 7) so teaching will truly take over as my part time job. I'm good with that :-)

Owen is happy and smart and sweet and CRAZY! Three is harder than two FOR SURE! We somehow JUST came to the conclusion that we just have to be super consistent about asking for obedience. He just has to start obeying the first time, every time ALL the time! No more 5-6 warnings! He knows better! Unfortunately discipline is no more fun for me than it is for him and I end up crying with him after spankings! UGH! I have to continually tell myself that this will pay off! Anyways. Prayers. Please. He really is a GOOD boy with such a tender heart, but he's old enough to be continually held accountable for obedience. We can't miss our window of opportunity or I'm really going to want to cry when he's pushing it and I'm sleep deprived because we have a newborn!

Well, time to go! The kitchen won't clean itself! (though I really wish it would!)

Happy Monday! :-)

The thing about pictures

Here is the thing:

Uploading and organizing pictures on blogger is a bit of a pain. Facebook though.....its super easy. I don't think I know a single person who doesn't have a facebook or at least access their spouses facebook :-) (even my sweet Grandma's are on facebook for crying out loud! :-))So....guys...the pictures...they are on facebook. And I have 112 of them from this summer. So...go...enjoy....be happy....and don't hate me because I'm not posting them on blogger :-)

www.facebook.com/kimberlybrown5

Eight Weeks and counting.....

That's right. I hit 32 weeks this week. Unbelievable! My last check up was good. I had lost a pound (don't ask, I really have no idea), my blood pressure was GREAT (yay!) and I had spent the last two weeks checking my sugars on a glucometer because I hit the cutoff number for passing the one hour glucose test, but didn't want to do the three hour test...for a few reasons. I'll explain. (briefly....maybe :-))

Because I have a few reasons to think that I'm at risk for developing diabetes (the number one reason being that my mother was a type I diabetic and her brother-my uncle-is also a type 1 diabetic....so its in the genes), I wanted to take this opportunity to not just take another three hour glucose test (that I passed easily with my pregnancy with Owen)...but to really take a look at how my body was dealing with sugars. I knew that my ketones had looked good. Every time I visit the OB I leave a urine sample and they test it to see if I'm passing any sugar....and I hadn't been. That was a good sign. So, the cut off for the one hour glucose test was 140...and my number was...yep...140. I told my OB that I'd rather "pretend" for the time being that I was a gestational diabetic and check my blood sugar four times a day. "Lucky" for me, a co-worker had an extra glucometer and I've been able to easily check and record my sugars for the past two weeks. This is what I've found: I'm not diabetic. :-) My sugars (both fasting and after meals) have almost ALWAYS been waaaaay below the cutoff (fasting is 90---I'm usually at 68-72 and post meal cut off is 120...I'm usually between 99-109). I took this log to my last OB appointment and she happily agreed with me that I'm not at risk. Personally, this was a good decision for me. I wanted to know how borderline I really was...and for now, it looks good. I'll continue to check my sugars on my own 3-4 times a week to make sure nothing is going crazy wrong...but I'm relieved to know where I'm at and move on from here :-)

So, I have bittersweet feelings about this pregnancy coming to a close. I LOVE being pregnant. Even though this pregnancy has been much more difficult than Owen's I love every little movement (and every BIG kick too :-)) and just LOVE knowing that our baby is growing in my belly. I even love maternity clothes and HAVING a belly. Weird. Its also very hard for me to think about this possibly being my last pregnancy. Josh and I haven't decided for sure, but we think that two might be the right number of kiddos for our family....of course we can't exactly know what GOD thinks about all that...so we'll see. I refuse to take drastic measures until I'm at the age where they consider you high risk (which is 35) so we'll spend the next couple of years trying to figure out if we are done adding to our family (or not). I'm NOT going to miss waking up multiple times during the night trying to decide if I really have to pee bad enough to get out of bed...or to just wait it out until morning :-) I also won't miss waddling, heart burn, CRAZY lower back pain....and gagging. Yep. I'm still gagging. It just won't leave me. I weigh all of this against the sweet time that pregnancy truly is and its definitely worth it. Just some days are harder than others. I can't really fit behind my desk at work without my belly being scrunched...and I'm about to make a declaration that if ONE MORE THING falls on the floor...that's it. Its over for me. I'm NOT picking it up. Still...I will MISS THIS.

All that being said....I just cannot wait to meet this little person. Sometimes I wonder if there is any way that I can love another child as much as I love Owen. I admit, it hurts my brain. Sometimes I think....this baby is for him. So he can have a sibling and not be alone. I already have the love of my life and there is no way I'll feel the same about another baby....but I know that my heart will grow and God will give me grace to feel the same amount of good feelings for this one as I do for my sweet, love-y first-born.

Owen is doing great. I'm not sure how much he gets that his life really is about to change...but I know he will be happy to stuff pacifiers in the baby's mouth, and bring me diapers, and...he really wants to give the baby a bath. Like right away. He says that will be the best thing he can do. Ha! We've been talking about how our baby will be born at a hospital and that mommy will have to be gone for a few days...but he can come and visit me while I'm there. We've also addressed the concept of breastfeeding :-) ha ha...I think he'll do fine with it, but he's used to seeing MOSTLY bottle fed babies around here and I didn't want to freak him out by not giving him an introduction at all about how some babies are fed by their mommies bodies.... He seemed ok with the overall idea :-) We'll see!

So, Josh's first official day with students was TODAY. Craziness. His first soccer game is next Monday, and his travel team has their first tournament the weekend of Aug. 21. Yesterday I made a spreadsheet schedule and...wow. Its a bit overwhelming. :-) We could definitely use prayers as we navigate this crazy time.

I have a few new pictures to put up, so I'll get back on and do that soon. Know that we are doing well...keeping busy and looking forward to meeting our new baby! Soon enough I'll be putting pictures up of that! We are blessed :-) Enjoy what is left of your summer....I know that I am ready for FALL!

Some summer-ish pictures...for your viewing pleasure :-)

Summer is a magical sort of time for kids....I appreciate it, but we all know I'm a fall-ish kind of girl :-). Seeing it through the eyes of my child makes me savor it so much more. Playing at the park, playing in the sprinkler/pool, popsicles, bike rides, hot dogs :-).......its all pretty great...especially in the eyes of a three year old. We've been pretty negligent in taking pictures this summer....but here are some of the best so far. Enjoy!

Late Post: 26 Week Check Up and what I have learned

BB2 and I are doing just fine. We had a check up on Monday, June 28 and I am happy to report that all is well. My blood pressure still looks good (which is great because this is the point in my pregnancy with Owen where I had to go on procardia to help lower my blood pressure) and I've put on a total of three lbs so far. I'm so, so happy that I've been able to gain slowly like I did with Owen. Since this is "probably" our last baby (don't ask me, ask Josh!) I was hoping that I wouldn't be faced with a gigantic amount of weight to loose. It came off easily enough after Owen was born thanks to breastfeeding...and honestly, I'm really looking forward to getting that jump start again and being healthier all around now that my thyroid is under control! YAY! Anyways, nothing real exciting to report on that end...just everything is good and my next visit is my glucose test. Oh...please, please keep your fingers crossed that I will pass. :-) Thanks!

I've been thinking a lot about natural childbirth and how I can have a less interventions with the birth of this baby than I did with Owen. Obviously, a healthy baby and a healthy Momma are the most important thing, so I'm not willing to compromise on that, but I do think there are some ways to avoid the snowball of interventions that I had to have with Owen. I've come to the conclusion that it all starts with induction. If I can get my body into labor on its own, I THINK I can avoid a lot of other interventions that became necessary at Owen's birth. Praying that because this is my second baby my body will get into the groove easier and I won't need to use any drugs for induction. Josh and I took a natural child birth class last week and it was pretty entertaining. I DID get my back rubbed for about a half an hour (nice!) and learned some interesting things about breathing and moving around that will help labor progress.

Ah. :-) So. We will see. P.S. A friend asked me for some natural induction advice a few days ago because she had passed her due date on Friday, she tried some of the things I had read up on...her water broke that night and her baby was born the next evening! There is SOME truth to these remedies FOR SURE! :-)

Because before we know it, Josh will be back at soccer practice and school again, we got all of our baby stuff out of the attic today. The cradle is down, infant car seat, papasan seat, etc. All in all, our stuff is in pretty good shape. I'm thankful for that! We decided to toss our old diaper genie---because really---who wants to clean THAT?! :-) Owen has been having fun playing around with all the stuff we got down and is asking me if the baby is coming out soon. Well. No. Soon enough, but not really SOON. :-)

Lastly, I've been thinking about a whole bunch of stuff...life...mothering...relationships....my expectations on what my life will look like and God has really been showing me how little control I have over anything! Shocking, yes?! We were talking in small groups last night about what kind of things God uses in our lives to rebuke us and reform us...and I have to say that I've learned a lot about being obedient because God has removed things from my life. More than anything, I've learned that happiness doesn't come from my fulfilled expectations. I am not entitled to anything, nor I am I promised a single thing. God HAS promised to give me everything I need to live a life of godliness, but this does not always include giving me exactly what I think I want. Thank goodness, because I am a selfish wretch! :-) Sometimes I feel like we are rocking the boat....asking God to give us another healthy child....but I come back to the knowledge that these babies are not mine, they belong to God and He will use them and do what He wants with our lives in spite of my wants and expectations. Although it is a sobering thought, I find a lot of grace and comfort in knowing that the lives of my babies are completely dependent on God's perfect plan for our lives. I'm so thankful that I don't have to stress and worry about what is best for me (for us), because God already knows and has known the number of our days before we even took our first breath. I'm praying for contentment, because so many things take my eyes off the prize of knowing Jesus and being complete in him---there is always something to have and be had: better cars, bigger/nicer houses, stuff for the house, clothes, etc, etc! I made it my goal long ago to live simply and to love well....and I'm praying that God will show me how to do this...not easy in this world! Sorry for the rambling run on sentences and thoughts. Its one of those days. I've been way too introspective!

Owen and I are going to go play in the sprinkler...so I'll catch up with some pictures on blogspot later. Happy July everyone!

Seven Years

May 17, 2003

Ok, so this is a little late...like over a month late, but worth mentioning anyways. Josh and I celebrated seven years of marriage last month. Wow. I'm starting to feel like a grown up (I guess a mortgage, car payments, two kids and GRAY HAIR will do that to you!) God has brought us to and THROUGH a lot. Loosing Josh to Mexico (on a missions trip) for eight days put a lot in perspective for me...I'm so glad that I don't have to do life alone! We've seen each other at our worst, and counted on one another for strength when one of us couldn't stand alone. We've both made our share of mistakes (and many more to come, I'm sure) and I'm hopeful that we are learning and growing from each one of them. So...happy seven years to us! Eight years will bring the birth of our second child and almost as equally exciting....the end of college and graduate school loans! WHOO HOO! Thankful to God for His grace to make it thus far....and counting on His mercy to continue on the journey.... loving Him, each other and our family!

May, 2010