One Year Ago

On this day last year, I took the oh-so-important test that told me I was pregnant (the second line really IS there... it's just hard to see in the picture below!). Two days before Devin and I had been driving home from the Bedlam game in Stillwater and I did some calculating in my head to realize that I was quite possibly pregnant. I didn't mention my suspicions to Devin since we weren't actually trying to get pregnant and I thought it would be fun to surprise him with the news.

The next day I bought a test, but because I really wanted the results to be as accurate as possible, I waited until the next morning to take it. When I saw the second line appear, I immediately started shaking and couldn't stop... it made putting my makeup on nearly impossible! I couldn't wait to tell Devin, but knew I had to wait until that night when I could tell him in person. I went to work and my second graders kept saying "Mrs. C, why are you so happy today?" Finally, a bit paranoid, I said "Am I not usually happy?" And they just replied that I seemed even happier than normal. I thought it was really funny that my kids could sense my excitement.

When I got home, I hid Easter eggs all over the house containing bits of the verse at the top of my blog. "We will tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and His strength and His wondrous works that He has done." This verse is really meaningful for me because I discovered it during mine and Beth's study of Beth Moore's "Breaking Free." That study was truly life changing (I know people say that a lot, but this was the most amazing study I have ever done!) and when I read that verse I knew I wanted to adopt it as "my" verse when I became a parent.

POPS

When Devin got home, yes, I sent him on an Easter Egg hunt. I KNOW... isn't that completely cheesy?????? But it was a fun way to tell him and though I think he had figured it out long before he got to the last egg, he looked at me and asked "Are you serious?" I laughed and we hugged. We were so excited. We went to dinner at POPS (kind of funny that we went to a place called POPS to celebrate becoming parents, huh?) and just sat staring at each other with outbursts of "Can you believe we're going to have a baby?" every five seconds!

( I didn't blog through our pregnancy so expect a lot of similar posts like this as I try to relive the important moments of it!)

Weight Check!

Yesterday, I took Finley back to the pediatrician for a weight check.  He wanted to make sure that we didn't have any problems supplementing with formula and to see if her weight had increased. Finley now weighs a little over 10 pounds and is in the healthy 3rd percentile!  And yes, the 3rd percentile is healthy just in case like me, you were wondering!  

The pediatrician was really pleased with her weight gain and thought she was just perfect.  I was happy to meet with him again and discuss more in depth what happened to cause my sudden milk decrease.  I thought I would pass on what he had to say because I found it quite interesting and I know many of you who read my blog either have children and are planning to have more or don't have children, but plan to in the future.  (To be honest, this is one of the things I love most about blogging.... learning from other people's experiences and finding out that what I would have thought was abnormal is actually fairly common!) 

Anyway, he said that for some babies the bond formed from breastfeeding is so strong that they don't necessarily complain or demand more food because they are getting so "fed" with the bond.  He said that it really isn't that uncommon to have a baby come in for the four month checkup and have completely plateaued on the weight scale (just as Finley did) because even though they have grown, they haven't demanded more milk and breastfeeding is a total supply and demand process.  Though my breastfeeding classes discussed the whole supply and demand situation, they never discussed the demand not being there.  He did say that obviously a baby will only be fed by the bond for so long before they become irritable from not getting enough to eat since of course babies do NEED to be fed and WILL let you know if they aren't.  We just never hit that point with Finley since my milk supply was still maintaining her... another week and we probably would have had quite a cranky baby.

Parenting is such a wonderfully complex job!  I absolutely love learning more about how to take care of my little girl.  Though it is hard for me to not always have specific instructions on how to handle this or that, I am finding that I am much more flexible than I would've ever believed and that I am gaining more and more confidence to parent without fear of doing the wrong thing.  Who would've ever thought my intense perfectionistic side could be set aside (if only at times) just four short months after having a baby? =)  

Missing Benadryl

I have to say that I am truly missing my Benadryl these days! Because I'm breastfeeding, I am limited in what drugs I can take and this weekend I had a MAJOR allergy attack.  I was miserable.  But let me back up and relive my weekend because other than the allergy attack, it was truly a GREAT weekend.

On Friday, Beth came into town for a Women's Retreat that we had both been looking forward to for months.  (Picture to come)  It was a really good retreat... one that seems to have gotten even better as we discussed the seminars afterwards.  For the first seminar, we had Finley until Devin was able to pick her up after work.  Well, if you have seen the preview to the movie "Four Christmases", you'll know what happened next...  Finley threw up her whole bottle and then some all over herself, all over Beth, and all over the floor.  It was disgusting.  Beth and I just looked at each other and laughed.  There was nothing else to do!  

On Saturday, after the retreat, we all went to lunch and Beth offered us her parents' OSU vs. Texas basketball tickets for that night so we all headed back to Stillwater around 3.  As Beth was leaving, I admit I was really sad.  It seems like we never get to spend enough time together these days!

The basketball game was really fun (we won!) which was good because I was REALLY tired and suffering from the aforementioned allergy attack.  On the way to Stillwater, Aubrey called to see if we were going so we were really excited to sit with her and Ralph.  This was how we attended pretty much all the games when Devin and I were dating!  It was so good to catch up with them.

On Sunday, I woke up feeling worse so we decided to skip church.  Devin offered to feed Finley her morning bottle after I breastfed so that I could continue sleeping.  He and Finley then made me breakfast while I slept until 10!  I can't believe I slept so late!!!!!!  In fact, I pretty much did nothing the rest of the day.  Oh, it was so wonderful!

Blessings

It's amazing how blessed I am feeling right now.  My precious little Finley is sound asleep in her crib weighing almost a full pound more than last week with the aid of a little formula in addition to my breast milk.  This past week, a friend of a friend (you know how that goes) lost her full term baby (three days before they were set to induce) because her cord was wrapped around her throat twice.  

As many of you know, Finley was born with her cord wrapped around her throat twice as well so I immediately praised God through my tears for the gift of my sweet little girl. Obviously, I knew that it was serious when my doctor and nurses exclaimed "OH! That was the problem!" during delivery, but caught up in the emotions, I never really processed how absolutely blessed we are to have a healthy baby or just how close we were to losing her.  

I keep hearing the following from Matt Redman's song Blessed Be Your Name:

You give and take away

You give and take away
My heart will choose to say

Lord, blessed be Your name

We are truly and completely BLESSED in the good times and the bad.  Thank you, Lord for allowing me to bless you in the GOOD times and give me the heart to bless you in the bad.