While parenthood definitely has it's wonderful moments, it is definitely filled will worry and stress. You are constantly worrying about your children and wondering if they are learning everything they are supposed to be learning, if you are giving them each enough attention to make them feel loved, how to discipline them so they get the message and not have it borderline abuse (haha), if they are eating enough to be growing healthily...the list goes on and on. And that's just on the basic level, then you have each child's needs and wants to worry about.
Lately, my stress level seems to be through the roof. Thankfully, it doesn't seem to be affecting my body. My blood pressure is as normal as ever and my weight gain is steady too (not too happy about that one, but I guess it's important for a healthy pregnancy). But my mind is racing...it makes for some pretty depressing days.
Brandon showed me a study where they were testing how journal writing can affect your peace of mind. Not surprisingly, writing in a journal is good for you! Haha So here's hoping I get some piece of mind writing down some things going through my mind.
So first off the most obvious, having a new baby. Surprisingly, I am not worried at all about labor. After doing this three times before, I know what to expect and, fortunately my me, the epidural works wonders with no bad side affects. Part of me would like to experience the miracle of a natural childbirth, but the logical side of me says why suffer all that pain when the epidural makes for a much more pleasant experience. What is really stressing me is having a new baby when my oldest is only 4. There is so much that David still needs right now. He's old enough to do somethings by himself, but not old enough to fend for himself which I'm worried he might have to do for awhile since I will be busy tending to the needs of a helpless newborn and his younger brothers. I don't want him to feel neglected. I don't want any of them to feel neglected.
I'm also worried about being physically prepared for a baby girl. There are a lot of things you need for a baby...which we would totally be covered if this baby was another boy, but I feel like this is my first child all over again! Brandon is totally fine with putting her in her brothers' clothes, but not me! But I'm terrified to go too crazy because there is this little whisper of doubt that she is not truely a girl. I know that sounds silly after having three ultrasounds all saying a girl, but you have no idea how many people have told me stories about someone they knew, or it happening to them, where they were told girl multiple times and the baby still came out to be a boy! With our track record, it scares me silly!
Another reason for this little whisper of doubt is the fact that we can't settle on a name...I know my last post was saying how I found her name and everything, but then Brandon decided to veto it. Sigh. So for the last couple of months we have been frantically searching for a name we both agree on. It hasn't really been going well...so in the back of my mind, I'm thinking "is this a sign? Is there a reason we can't find her name? Could it be because she is really a he?"
Then there is Gabe. We have been struggling with Gabe's weight from like 5 months on. We've been going to monthly doctor visits just to check his weight and he barely is gaining anything. There have been times when he has lost weight or hasn't gained anything at all, and the times he does gain it's only a couple ounces at a time. The doctors want us to give him all these rich food to help give him the calories to gain, but he's such a picky eater that I can only get a few certain things into him. This last time we went in they did a urine test to check his protein levels and to see if he's diabetic. Sadly, he pooped as well and contaminated the urine so we'll most likely have to do that test again. So those thoughts are weighing on my mind...if he is diabetic, how are we going to handle that as well as a newborn? He doesn't look like he's low weight...he's just a petite little boy, but after all the doctor visits it begins to wear on you.
These are just a couple of things on my mind...but I'm afraid if I try to write down everything that is stressing me out you might be sitting in front of your computer for days reading through my worries and troubles, which would probably be totally boring and depressing for you. And looking back at what I've written, the things that are stressing me are normal things that any pregnant woman with only a month left would be stressing about. But for me, since I'm going through it, it feels so overwhelming! I am so done with this pregnancy!
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Friday, June 21, 2013
A Sweet Experience
I decided that I can't really wait to reveal what name we are going to give this little baby! Our ultrasound appointment is in a little less than 2 weeks to confirm whether baby really is girl.
But it's ok if baby is a boy because we've got a name picked out for that too.
But the story I want to tell is how we came upon a baby girl's name.
Brandon and I have very similar likes in boys names so finding a boy's name that we liked was fairly simple. And I still like it, so if baby turns out to be another boy, his name will be Isaac Nathaniel or Isaac Anthony. We haven't quite settled on the middle name yet.
But we have very different likes for girls names...for me, the child's name has to flow nicely together not only by itself but also with our other kids' names. So when I thought of names I would always put it with the others. You know, David, Jacob, Gabriel, and blank. If it didn't sound right with theirs then I didn't want it. I also wanted to have Lind as the middle name because it is my grandmother's maiden name and the name would die (through our family line since my grandmother was an only child) if I didn't use it. I had known I wanted to use this name since I first started picking out my children's names...which, you know, for girls is like when they are 5. Brandon was okay with this when we got married and we never had a problem with it because we kept having boys and I wanted to use the name for a girl. So now we might be having a girl and the stress of pickinga name, no the right name, began.
Since David, Jacob, and Gabe's names are all biblical we decided to start there. We went through site after site searching "biblical baby girl's names." We found a couple that we liked but it either didn't flow well with Lind as the middle name or if it did, then it just didn't sit right with me. It didn't feel like the right name.
So then we decided to switch to 18 or 19 century names since our boys fit that pattern too. No offense to those of you who actually like those names...but Mabel, Sybil, or Priscilla, aren't really names that work for us. I will admit there are some names that I do like, for example Emma, Sophia, or Sadie, but if you look up the most popular names lately, those names that we like are most likely on that list. Granted, we do have some popular names already but for some reason, we didn't want our girl to have one of them. And these are about the names that we both liked, which was maybe a list of 10 names. The "No" side of the list was about triple that size! haha
Then Brandon decided he wanted to use his late grandfather's name, which was Sonny. No offense to Brandon's family, but I didn't really see our little girl being named Sonny either. I was willing to compromise and use it as a middle name, since Lind wasn't working for us. :(
By this time, I was starting to really stress about it because every time I would think of a name or we would find a name that we liked, it just never felt like the right one. I felt like her name was on the tip of my tongue and I just couldn't get it out. It was very frustrating because I'm the type of person who likes to have a name already picked out before the baby is born...I can't go into labor still not knowing what the baby will be called!
Then one night, I was watching tv and one of the character's name was Adelaide. I immediately fell in love with it, but had to wait until the next day to see what Brandon thought because he was already asleep. Of course, he hated it! So then I went searching for names like Adelaide and I found Adeline and Adelyn. I tried those with him too saying that we would use Sonny as the middle name. He wasn't too keen on those either, which totally devastated me because I really liked those names. But Adelyn kept returning to my mind and I just couldn't shake it. So then one day, in the shower no less, I thought about using Brandon's grandmother's middle name with Adelyn instead of his grandfather's and as soon as I put the names together I burst into tears. Literally, burst into tears! I knew I had found her name! But I was nervous because Brandon's sister had already called dibs on using their grandmother's name as a middle name, and I wasn't sure how she would feel if I told her I would like to use it too. Luckily she said it was alright, and when I asked Brandon he said it was fine too! I think he just gave in because he was tired of going through names and just wanted the whole thing to be over...but I know this is her name!
So not to prolong it any more, if this baby is still a girl, her name will be Adelyn Rose (Addy for short). And I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!
But it's ok if baby is a boy because we've got a name picked out for that too.
But the story I want to tell is how we came upon a baby girl's name.
Brandon and I have very similar likes in boys names so finding a boy's name that we liked was fairly simple. And I still like it, so if baby turns out to be another boy, his name will be Isaac Nathaniel or Isaac Anthony. We haven't quite settled on the middle name yet.
But we have very different likes for girls names...for me, the child's name has to flow nicely together not only by itself but also with our other kids' names. So when I thought of names I would always put it with the others. You know, David, Jacob, Gabriel, and blank. If it didn't sound right with theirs then I didn't want it. I also wanted to have Lind as the middle name because it is my grandmother's maiden name and the name would die (through our family line since my grandmother was an only child) if I didn't use it. I had known I wanted to use this name since I first started picking out my children's names...which, you know, for girls is like when they are 5. Brandon was okay with this when we got married and we never had a problem with it because we kept having boys and I wanted to use the name for a girl. So now we might be having a girl and the stress of picking
Since David, Jacob, and Gabe's names are all biblical we decided to start there. We went through site after site searching "biblical baby girl's names." We found a couple that we liked but it either didn't flow well with Lind as the middle name or if it did, then it just didn't sit right with me. It didn't feel like the right name.
So then we decided to switch to 18 or 19 century names since our boys fit that pattern too. No offense to those of you who actually like those names...but Mabel, Sybil, or Priscilla, aren't really names that work for us. I will admit there are some names that I do like, for example Emma, Sophia, or Sadie, but if you look up the most popular names lately, those names that we like are most likely on that list. Granted, we do have some popular names already but for some reason, we didn't want our girl to have one of them. And these are about the names that we both liked, which was maybe a list of 10 names. The "No" side of the list was about triple that size! haha
Then Brandon decided he wanted to use his late grandfather's name, which was Sonny. No offense to Brandon's family, but I didn't really see our little girl being named Sonny either. I was willing to compromise and use it as a middle name, since Lind wasn't working for us. :(
By this time, I was starting to really stress about it because every time I would think of a name or we would find a name that we liked, it just never felt like the right one. I felt like her name was on the tip of my tongue and I just couldn't get it out. It was very frustrating because I'm the type of person who likes to have a name already picked out before the baby is born...I can't go into labor still not knowing what the baby will be called!
Then one night, I was watching tv and one of the character's name was Adelaide. I immediately fell in love with it, but had to wait until the next day to see what Brandon thought because he was already asleep. Of course, he hated it! So then I went searching for names like Adelaide and I found Adeline and Adelyn. I tried those with him too saying that we would use Sonny as the middle name. He wasn't too keen on those either, which totally devastated me because I really liked those names. But Adelyn kept returning to my mind and I just couldn't shake it. So then one day, in the shower no less, I thought about using Brandon's grandmother's middle name with Adelyn instead of his grandfather's and as soon as I put the names together I burst into tears. Literally, burst into tears! I knew I had found her name! But I was nervous because Brandon's sister had already called dibs on using their grandmother's name as a middle name, and I wasn't sure how she would feel if I told her I would like to use it too. Luckily she said it was alright, and when I asked Brandon he said it was fine too! I think he just gave in because he was tired of going through names and just wanted the whole thing to be over...but I know this is her name!
So not to prolong it any more, if this baby is still a girl, her name will be Adelyn Rose (Addy for short). And I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!
Thursday, June 13, 2013
It's About Time!
Wow! Never have I gone this long without blogging...it was a much needed break, I think, though. But so much has happened in 7 months I don't really know where to begin.
Let's begin with the most surprising...I'm pregnant...again! We got prenant while on birth control, apparently this baby was supposed to come now, but anyways Baby #4 is due to make its appearance September 24th. I'm 25 weeks and 2 days along now...ultrasound technician lady said at the 20 week ultrasound that baby looks like a girl, but I'm not holding my breath. Baby was sitting on its bum with its legs crossed for the majority of the time. Luckily, my doctor wants me to have another one done when I'm 28 weeks to see if baby is still sitting breech or not, so we'll have another chance to double check sex! Either way, we have a girl's name and a boy's name already picked out so we are set!
In other news, I missed all of our family's birthdays and, and we had some pretty important ones!
Gabe turned ONE in April! He is now 14 months, as of Tuesday, and finally figured out the walking thing a couple weeks ago! We now have 3 little walkers in our family! He is a small boy though...looks more like a 9 month old, but he finally hit 20 lbs! He also is boarder-line anemic so we have to give him some iron supplement everyday for a little while until they can see an improvement. We're hoping for only a month or so.
Let's begin with the most surprising...I'm pregnant...again! We got prenant while on birth control, apparently this baby was supposed to come now, but anyways Baby #4 is due to make its appearance September 24th. I'm 25 weeks and 2 days along now...ultrasound technician lady said at the 20 week ultrasound that baby looks like a girl, but I'm not holding my breath. Baby was sitting on its bum with its legs crossed for the majority of the time. Luckily, my doctor wants me to have another one done when I'm 28 weeks to see if baby is still sitting breech or not, so we'll have another chance to double check sex! Either way, we have a girl's name and a boy's name already picked out so we are set!
In other news, I missed all of our family's birthdays and, and we had some pretty important ones!
Gabe turned ONE in April! He is now 14 months, as of Tuesday, and finally figured out the walking thing a couple weeks ago! We now have 3 little walkers in our family! He is a small boy though...looks more like a 9 month old, but he finally hit 20 lbs! He also is boarder-line anemic so we have to give him some iron supplement everyday for a little while until they can see an improvement. We're hoping for only a month or so.
Not quite sure about this cupcake thing...
We love this face!
We finally had to cut those adorable curls off because it was getting so hot here (where that went I wish I knew!) and we have some sweaty boys...but I think his new hair cut definitely makes him look older!
Up and walking!
Jacob turned TWO in January...so he's almost 2 1/2 now! Crazy, I know! He's talking up a storm and has a much better grasp on the language than David did at his age! We can actually understand about 85% of what Jacob says, whereas with David it was more around 50%. He's tall for his age (88 percentile) and totally independent! If we try to do something for him, he will cry and cry and cry until we let him do it. He definitely has the temper tantums down. He's our monkey...he actually has more coordination when he's climbing then when he's on the ground running around! Weird, I know! He's also our eater, David and Gabe are so picky but we can get Jacob to eat pretty much anything we stick in front of him! His favorite songs now are Twinkle Twinkle, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Once there was a Snowman. He knows them by heart and sometimes when he wakes up from naps I can hear him singing to himself!
He loves Mickey Mouse, so I attempted a Mickey Mouse cake for his birthday...turned out better than I thought it would!
And he loved it!! A much better reaction out of him than when David turned two and I made him a Buzz Lightyear cake!
This kid also HATES to have his picture taken! I had a pretty old camera that the boys dropped one too many times so after a minute of it being on, it would automatically shut itself off. I was getting so frustrated with it and with Jacob because I couldn't get any decent pictures of him. Brandon, I think, finally got annoyed with my complaining and for Mother's Day got me a nice camera. After about 200 pictures, and chasing him around the house, we were finally able to get this picture!
Still having problems looking at the camera, but I like them anyways!
David turned FOUR in April! Four! I can't believe it! And he started Primary at church...for the first month and a half he hated it and would scream and cry when we took him in. Now, thank goodness, he seems to be getting better! I've been doing Joy School with him (joy school is a little preschool where a couple of moms get together, decide on a curriculum, and then each mom teaches a week at their home and it rotates around). David has absolutely LOVED it and has learned so much this year. He knows his whole alphabet, upper and some lower case letters, knows all the colors, can count up to 30 without help, recognizes the numbers 1-12, and can write his name! He can almost write the whole alphabet too! Brandon has actually started helping him memorize some sight words! This boy is going to be ready for Kindergarden in the next year! I'm fascinated how much he loves to learn. He has his father's mathematical brain and loves to figure out puzzles and will sit and work through a workbook until he completes every page. He has hit the stage where he will just sit and talk your ear off about anything and everything. Yesterday, I learned all about what happened in Handy Manny and all of his tools!
Tried to make a Mario cake for his birthday...didn't turn out as well as the Mickey Mouse one, but still decent I think!
Love this picture of my big, grown up boy!
Showing off his personality...
End of the year Joy School field trip to the zoo...he loved it!
Starting to give me these cheesy smiles...that's thanks to Brandon.
Again, showing off his personality...
We also went to Maryland a couple of times visiting family, which the boys LOVED, and also had the grandparents visit up here in New York a couple of time, boys also LOVED...David is constantly asking to go back to Maryland to see Grandma, or looking out the window to see if Grammy is here yet! We might just have to move closer to family just so this little boy can get his Grandma/Grammy fix whenever he needs it! ;)
And lastly, a picture of all of us...this was taken in December...sad we haven't gotten a more recent one done.
But we are doing well, enjoying this summer so far...seems like more rain than sun, but we're dealing with it! Hopefully, I'll update more often now!
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Halloween 2012!
My boys discovered the joy of Halloween this year! They loved dressing up (although Jacob's pictures don't look like it...he was still getting used to the hat), they LOVED going trick-or-treating, and they LOVED all the candy they got!
David, the cutest pirate in the world!
I tried to get him to say "Argh," but this is all I got...
Jacob, before we put his costume on...
Jacob, after we put his costume on...the saddest Mickey Mouse in the world!
The hat was too big and he didn't like it much
we found yellow socks and put them over his shoes to complete the outfit
A much happier Mickey Mouse, without any ears...
The cutest lion in the world!
They were able to get candy on three different occasions. Three! Needless to say, they got a boat load of candy! (Yay!) We went to our ward's trunk-or-treat activity, and had a blast there...went trick-or-treating Halloween night with a couple of awesome families, and then the Halloween party for Joy school just happened to land on my turn teaching, so we got to host that too...and of course, I had to have a piñata filled with even more yummy goodness! Sorry to all the other joy school moms for loading your kids up with even more candy!
It was so much fun watching David and Jacob go around to each house with their buckets saying "Trick treat" to the people. David was so excited he just couldn't wait for Mommy and Jacob, he ended up being about one house ahead of us most of the night...but luckily there was an older boy, Mason, who took him under his wing and watched out for him. It was so cute watching them cross the road because Mason would take David's hand and they woud cross hand-in-hand. Like I said, we went with some awesome families! Jacob didn't want to let go of my hand the whole night, but he wasn't any less excited! If we got to a house that had a lot of children at the door, he would push his way to the front, stick his bucket as far up as he could and said "Trick treat" as loud as he could! I wish I could have gotten it on video!
We also got some pumpkins, but instead of carving them we let the boys paint them...they had a blast! I put them outside to dry and, sadly, it rained that night and all the night day, so all the paint got washed off. That's what I get for getting washable paint, but it made it easier to get off them!
Look! I was there too!
haha it's very rare you actually see a picture of me...Brandon didn't want to look up though. :(
This last picture is something I made for the joy school lesson/party. (Thank you Pinterest!)
It's a felt pumpkin with lots of different eyes, nose, and mouth choices so the kids could make all different kinds of faces.
We were learning about all the different kinds of emotions that people can express so this worked perfectly!
I just have to say it was a good thought in theory...don't get me wrong, the kids loved them and it worked really well with the lesson, but they were a PAIN to make! I made one for each of the children and then cut out all those different sets of facial expressions for each of them too! I was up until 1 am trying to finish these...a little over-achiever? I think so!
Half way there!!
This post is a little late in coming but...
I'm still doing it!!
Gabriel Thomas Lyons is 6 months old
(actually he's almost 7 now, but bare with me...)!!
I took this picture the day of, isn't he the cutest thing that ever lived?
I'm a little biased...
I LOVE all the different faces he makes!
He makes me laugh every day!
Blowing rasberries...he is ALWAYS doing this!
I mean, come on, doesn't he just make you giggle?!
He is my sweet sweet boy, and I couldn't imagine my life without him!
Some things he is doing at 6 months:
- doing the army crawl
- Getting up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth (will be full on crawling soon!)
- Can sit up by himself
- FINALLY started to take formula (started this at 5 months but significant enough to mention now)
- Refuses baby food (HATES the stuff...wants big people food)
- Sleeping through the night!
- Loves to cuddle!
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