time with Miss S

We really feel lucky that this childcare situation has worked out so perfectly! Owen and Miss S love each other and do a great job playing together. They have very similar temperaments (read: quiet and pretty mellow) and so they get along great. I think it will be a big help in getting Owen ready to share me with his sister.  Here's just a few pictures from the last few weeks of hanging out:

puzzle time!

time for lunch

yes those are peas.  and yes, she loves them.

When we were painting, we moved the play kitchen to the foyer.  They had fun making a mess!

playing with the advent calendar.  it has little books they loved

these 2 love the library!

playing before we check out with our new books!

Dear Baby Girl

My dear sweet Ellie,
I cannot even write in words how exciting I am that you are my little girl! I've been feeling you move around more inside this week and it's finally feeling more real that you will be in my arms in just 19ish weeks. The time is just flying. This weekend at church, you were already blessed with these adorable things from mommy's friends.  You're going to be one styling little girl!

I'm excited for you to have dates with your daddy just like I did when I was little.  Maybe he'll even take you to the ballet and then Steak N Shake like your Grandpa did with me. I look forward to all the girl drama you'll bring to our lives and I hope your awesome big brother Owen will do a great job watching out for you while you're at school and with the boys.  Someday I can picture us going to mommy daughter teas, shopping for prom dresses, and maybe even someday helping plan your wedding.  Ok, ok I'm getting ahead of myself.

One thing I have treasured this past week is calling you by name.  I love knowing who's in there and being able to pray for you by your name.  Ellison Jakeh.  It's a pretty speical name to us.  Your daddy's middle name is Ellis and my middle name is Jakeh.  So you have a little of both of us in your name.  Your first name means My God is the Lord.  This is something we pray everyday that you will come to know.  Your middle name is unique and I've been so excited to be able to pass it on.  It's pronounced jay-kuh and I've never met anyone else who has it.  It is found one time in the Bible in Proverbs 30:1.  Jakeh means pious, or in other terms 'devoutly religious'.  And while I don't love the word religious, my prayer is again that someday, you will come to love Jesus just as much as your mommy and daddy and other family members do.  This also means we'll have the same initials, that is unless you get married someday.

So my dear Ellie, we are just giddy with excitement and anticipation at meeting you.  It will be a whirlwind few months getting your room ready, buying cute little pink clothes, and cherishing the last few months we have with Owen as an only child. Know that you are so loved already by so many people.  I cannot wait to see what you look like and meet the little girl God planned for us to have.

I love you so much,
your momma

a few more bows

No, not for our little girl yet, but I've been working hard on a few big bow orders the last couple weeks. (Ann, yours should be getting mailed by the end of the week at the latest). Here's a few of my favorites:

cherries

made this in every color

strawberry pair

satin flower

ribbon daisy

little goldfish duo

xmas 'poinsetta'

little china doll - yes, this one took awhile!

I like this little snowman!

another strawberry

butterfly!

Go Illini!

made this one in lots of colors too

lil punkin'

taught myself how to crochet for these little guys

We are having a. . .

baby! I wasn't going to give it away in the first sentence people, come on. :) First you have to stand some pictures of our perfectly healthy little baby. He/she was moving all over the place, but all their parts are there and are in perfect working order.

creepy alien face looking at the "camera"

the foot with 5 perfect toes

their hand, moving up to the face

And the big news is. . .

Owen is having a little SISTER!!  I really am having a hard time believing it!  It's been my gut the whole time, but I also thought maybe it was just wishful thinking.  But nope.  I get to start making bows and pink hats for my own daughter.  Dang, and there I start crying again.  I am thrilled beyond measure and William was over the moon too.  We had the sono tech show us multiple times, because we were really not believing her.  But it's for real folks.  Bring on the pink, and ruffled butts, and hair accessories, and ruined budgets.  I cannot wait to share her name and the meaning behind it, but I can't give away everything in one post. 

Dear Baby

Dear Baby 2,
First, my apologies for not writing you a letter sooner. But I talk to you and pray for you everday, so hopefully you're not too offended. :)  Tomorrow we get to hear those 3 little words that I've been waiting for, "It's a boy" or "It's a girl."  I am terrible with surprises and I cannot wait another day, let along another 5 months to find out who you are!  I cannot even express to you how excited I am to find out.  Even more so than I was with Owen, if that's possible.  I think it's because I know how awesome you are going to be.  I mean, when I was pregnant with your brother, I thought I knew how much I was going to love being a mom.  But now I KNOW how much this job means to me.  I love every second of being a mom to your big brother.  Even the sleepless seconds.  He is such an amazing little person and it has been such a joy watching him grow and learn new things everyday.  Watching your dad is pretty cool too.  You're really going to like him as he's a pretty great daddy.

And now we get the privilege of getting to know you too!  How blessed are we?!  I cannot wait to start calling and praying for you by name. I can't wait to start telling Owen more about you so he can hopefully get your name mastered by the time you arrive.  I love that God already knows who you are and knows that you are the perfect little person for our family.  Boy or girl, we love you so much already and cannot wait to share a few more details about you with the rest of our friends and family who love you already too!

Love,
Your Momma

18 weeks!

I really have nothing different to report this week than last, so I will just give you a picture comparison.  I'm wearing the exact same shirt, only in different colors.  On the left is Owen, on the right is baby #2.  I'd say I'm looking almost exactly the same!  Well, except for the fact that I need a hair cut right now.  Almost to the half way mark!

i love you

3 little words that can just melt a momma's heart. And this morning, Owen uttered them for the first time. I've been waiting 17 months for those words. He was kind enough to repeat it several times for the cameras. In the first video, he also shows off his new "cheese" face in which is gives a super silly smile to the camera.

random thoughts

Deep thoughts on "bargains" by Emily:
- Why do I buy bargain toilet paper? I do this every once in awhile and then just use twice as much because it's so thin. So really, it's no money savings at all.
- Have you realized that store brand raisins are covered by sugary, crusty stuff that makes them impossible to pull apart? I'm a Sun-Maid Raisin only buyer from now on for my little man who loves the things.

And that is all.

waterbirth class

We had a really great evening last night at Carle's waterbirth class. It was taught by Ray, one of the midwives. He's a super quiet talker at appointments, but this was the first time I could hear him without leaning in. :) He started the class with a couple of videos and then did about a 45 minute presentation. He talked about the basics of what waterbirth is and what Carle offers. He also did research on the first 150 waterbirths they did at Carle and shared the really encouraging statistics from those births.

I won't share all the stats because there were a lot, but we left being totally on board that we are going to try this with baby #2. Over ice cream at Marble Slab afterwards, we also discussed that William won't be in the tub. :) I liked holding his hand, but did not want him touching me besides that for Owen's birth.

One comment Ray said during the class was "your birth stories are all unwritten as of right now." But I felt God speak very clearly to me that our birth story HAS been written, by him. I know there is no way to plan how this one is going to go. This is definitely one thing in life I have NO control over. But I am so encouraged and thankful we are at a hospital that will fully support our choice to try and do this naturally in the tub. I'll just continue to pray for these next months that God's story of this baby's birth would happen exactly as HE has planned.

Ahh, I'm so excited about doing this again!! Remind me of that when I'm screaming in pain, ok?

17 weeks!

**This post is dedicated to Julie who polietly told me last week that my baby posting was receving an 'F' this round.  Poor baby.  I've written tons of posts in my head, so it's time to get a few on the actual blog.**

How far along? 17 weeks last Friday
Baby: He/she's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone and he/she weighs 5 ounces and around 5 inches long from head to bottom.
How I'm feeling: I can finally say a little bit better!  My lovely state insurance refused to fill my prescription last week so I was kinda forced to see how I'd do without it.  While I still have moments of acute nausea and don't feel totally like myself, I made it!  No actual puking and I actually cleaned, cooked, painted 2 rooms, knit, and made hair bows last week.  So getting closer to the glory that is supposed to be 2nd trimester.
Food cravings: still not really loving food at this point.  I eat lots of fresh fruit and veggies and also am enjoying toast with cinnamon/sugar on it.  But definitely haven't hit that point where I want to eat everything in sight. 
Last appointment:  I met with Vanessa for a pretty quick appointment.  Baby's heartbeat was 159bpm, so a little lower than last time.  She was awesome and agreed to let me have our ultrasound in 2 weeks instead of 4.  So that means, next Wednesday, we find out if Owen is getting a brother or sister.  I can't believe it's time for already!  I think I am even more excited this time around to find out.  If that's even possible!
Then, Vanessa and I talked a little about the 4th floor experience.  If you've had a vaginal birth at Carle previously, you are invited this time around to give birth on the 4th floor.  You have to go to the 10th floor first to be monitored, but then once you're on the 4th floor, EVERYTHING is done in one room.  Birth, recovery and all of baby's checks and things.  I would be super excited to get to do this, but we're going to have to wait until a little closer to delivery time.  Even though my delivery was great with Owen, all the heart trauma afterwards might keep me in too "high" risk of a category to be on that floor.  Not the end of the world, but there are jacuzzi tubs in each room and they do waterbirths in those tubs and that would be awesome.  Which brings me to my next section
Birthing thoughts: I will be the first to say that I loved my epidural.  I was trying hard to have Owen without it, but I had an amazing experience with it.  Since I waited so long to get it, it didn't slow down any of my progress.  I could still lift my legs and feel everything and in general, just had a really great experience pushing.  So at first, I thought that I'd be totally ok with this experience again for baby #2.  But after everything was said and done with Owen's birth, no one was able to really tell me what happened with all the heart stuff.  There were a few ideas, but no concrete reason as to why I had to be away from my little guy for over 36 hours only getting to see him every 3 hours to eat while I was in cardiology being monitored.  In the back of my head, there's a little thought that IF the epidural had anything to do with what happened, that is one thing that I can avoid.  So this week, we're taking a waterbirth class with Ray.  I loved laboring in the tub so why not do the whole thing in there?!  Although I was a little grossed out at the idea of sitting in all the stuff that's going to come out, I'm going to want a shower no matter what right? :)  So I'm putting it out there now: granted any unforeseen circumstances (which I know there are TONS of) I'm going to do everything in my power this time around to go naturally. 
What I'm reading:  I haven't read any baby books yet. How did I not read the Mark of the Lion series when it came out and was huge years ago?  I'm almost done with the first of the 3 books and am loving it!   As for the heavier reading book on my night stand, I'm reading A Praying Life which my mom recommended. 
Stuff I've done for baby: just getting lots of ideas on the rooms.  I'll move Owen to the craft room (with the adorable built in toy chest) and let the baby have his room.  So just getting decorating ideas for his room.  I'll reuse all his stuff if this is a boy and might go just a little crazy in the room if this is a girl. 
Movement:Feeling a few little flutters, but nothing consistent yet.  Really looking forward to this, although I'd be ok if this baby didn't have hiccups quite as much as Owen had. :) 
And a pic: I'm at that stage where I can wear regular pants and just look a little pudgier or wear maternity pants and top and look really pregnant. 

a lab rat on a great day

Ok, so Owen wasn't really a lab rat last Thursday, but we did finally get our visit in to the Language Acquisition Lab at U of I.  We had scheduled to do it months ago, but Owen got sick but I called to reschedule this week after being reminded by Amy and Troy's visit.

To make the most of our Thursday without other kiddos, we spent an hour or so at the library getting new books and playing with all the toys.  Then we headed to campus and the psychology building.  When we arrived, they let him play with a bunch of new toys while I filled out paperwork on which words Owen was saying/signing and which ones he could understand.  They let me know a little about the study, but told me they'd tell me more details after he watched a short video.  I was supposed to hold him on my lap, but not watch the screen as so I wouldn't sway which way he was looking.

He fell in love with a couple of the trucks and really didn't want to go into the other room to watch the video but did great once it started.  Afterward, we went back where he could play and talked about the study.  I was really intrigued since it was something I had thought about while teaching kindergarten and first grade.  Please excuse my rough interpretation of the study.  They were studying how children understand the meanings of new words, particularly verbs.  Verbs are harder to learn because you can't point to an apple and say "apple." 

So in this study, Owen heard the verb "crad" in differingn contexts with a video or picture along with it.  For example, I heard "Mommy is cradding Daddy" and "Grandpa is going to crad the baby."  (In kindergarten, we called these nonsense words).  Then during the test phase, Owen watched 2 animations on each side of the TV screen, showing two different things (one more like a verb, one like a noun).  When the video said "He's kradding him."  They wanted to see which screen he would look at longer to see if he was figuring out what the word krad meant.  And she said he did!  Really fascinating!  When we left, he walked around as if he was the big man on campus.  He could be here as a real student in 17 years! :)

 

Then we had a special lunch date at Panera and then went to the IDEA store.  I found everything I needed for the Christmas wreath I want to make for a really small fraction of the price so I was super excited!  Owen found this great little drumset.  If it had been in a little better shape, I may have been convinced to add it to his Christmas list. :)  It was such a fun day of hanging out together!