Extremely Blessed

Since about the day I found out Jacob's due date, I had been praying that my Mother's day present would be the best and most appropriate Mother's day gift...our new baby. I had a feeling throughout my pregnancy that Jacob would come early. And not only was he here in time for Mother's Day, he came early enough so that I could sit comfortably at home and hold him and feel good enough to play with our other wonderful bundle of joy. On top of that, he timed it so that I got to be with my mom on Mother's day. God has perfect timing indeed.

For my second Mother's day, I got to love on my 2 fantastic kiddos. The day started out nice and slow. Stanton, Jacob and I all slept in while Granny, Papa and Rachel entertained Chaselyn for a while in the morning. I heard there was some reading and other playing, but I know her first stop was a few trips down the slide we got from Uncle Josh and Aunt Heather.

After we got up and relaxed we went for lunch (Papa's treat). First stop: Olive Garden - 1.5 hour wait. Ummm, no thanks. Second stop: Bari's- we were there at 11:40, but they didn't open until noon. So I guess it was a 20 minute wait, but much more worth it. Despite Chaselyn being overdue for her nap, she did very good. And the minor meltdowns were handled in stride by Papa. After lunch we made a quick trip by Wal-Mart to get a few things for Jacob and some little things for Chaselyn. By the time we got back it was well past nap time for Chaselyn. Not too much later Granny, Papa and Rachel had to leave. It was sad to see them go. But they all had to get back for work on Monday (Yes, even Rachel gets to join the real worldfor her 19th birthday).

Then, there we were. Our family of 4 all by ourselves. It was a nice beginning, peaceful, both kids were asleep. Stanton and I were actually able to sit and rest and break in our new Netflix for Wii subscription. Then after nap time, we had a wonderful evening of play time, a nice dinner of yummy leftovers from the week of cooking by the grandma's, and great story time. Somewhere during playtime, Chaselyn gave me one of the most special presents. We tried to recreate the preciousness on camera, but it was a one time deal. Chaselyn and Daddy were playing a game with an empty paper towel tube. Stanton would make a noise and then Chaselyn would copy. It started out with raspberry noises, then growls, then hoots, and then it happened. Stanton said "I love Mommy!" into the tube and Chaselyn mimicked "Ah ahhh Momma!" It was the sweetest, funniest, most precious thing. A very special mother's day gift.

Stanton went a step further and got me some other prizes. I had seen an outfit at Sears a while back that said "Mommy's Snugglesaurus" on it. Jacob has already racked up quite a bit of clothing for himself, and any gaps that may be there have been filled by loaners from friends. So I passed on it at the time. But when I had Jacob in my arms and especially when we have nice cuddle time, I knew I wanted that shirt for him. And so Stanton went and got it and surprised me with not only that shirt, but another outfit set that says "Snugglesaurus". I'm sure this will embarass him like crazy when he's older, but for now it's just too darn cute.


The day ended with a movie and cookies prepared by my fantastic husband and even placed on our "Special Plate". It was truly a fantastic day! The only way it could have been better would have been to share the day with the other fantastic Moms in our lives, especially Stanton's mom.

And before you start thinking that clothes for the baby is not enough for a Mommy of two, there's more. Here's a sneak peek of my real Mother's day present.

So, a Happy Belated Mother's Day to all you mom's out there. I hope you had a blessed day!

Jacob Stanton is born!

We welcomed Jacob Stanton into the world at 2:06 pm on Sunday, May 2, 2010. Another Sunday baby that started out very similar to the one born nearly a year and a half ago, but he had his own surprises. :)

So here's the story, if you want to skip ahead, the adorable photos are below. Don't worry, I won't be offended if you skip over my writing. In the past few days I have found my calling and it is producing adorable babies (not writing).

I woke up to use the bathroom at about 3 AM. I quickly stumbled to the bathroom as I felt a gush of "water" coming out. Just as with Chaselyn there I was in the middle of the night with my water breaking. The difference - I was actually having some minor, irregular contractions and Stanton was somewhat responsive. We called the grandparents immediately and they decided to jump in their respective cars to get here as soon as possible. Stanton and I said a few prayers and tried to go back to sleep. We got up around 7:15, called our friend Laura to arrange care for Chaselyn. She told us that she and Austin had just been discussing us previously that morning and how she was "on call" for whenever we needed. We actually put the whole life group on call. We got Chaselyn up and ready for church and an afternoon with Laura. We sent them off Chaselyn crying in the backseat and I tearily went back into the house thinking of how much I was totally messing with the kid I already had. (We later found out that Chaselyn was not eternally scarred from the experience, but in fact she behaves better for Laura than she often does for us.) But then again, it was a little too late to be having doubts now.

Stanton and I got our things ready sent out mass texts and were on our way. We made it to the hospital around 9:10 and were set up in the room by 9:45. I was between 2-3 cm dilated when I was first checked and was started on pitocin to help progress. Stanton and I were alone until around 11ish when all the grandparents showed up. They all made it in plenty of time, a little tired, but super pumped by adrenaline. MaryAnn stopped by around noon with family in tow, but unfortunately Caroline wasn't allowed to come back. But we got a sweet momento note that will stay in Jacob's baby book. The Cox's were only able to stay for short while and by 12:30 they were gone and Stanton and his parents were gone to lunch. By this point I was feeling the contractions and beginning to have to concentrate through them, but feeling fine enough to talk about Arkansas baseball and anything with my parents. Things were going fine. And then the contractions started increasing in intensity and decreasing in rest time inbetween. I was breathing through them and then breathing and clinching the rail and then telling my dad to call and get Stanton back in the room. By 1:15 Stanton was back and before too long I was requesting that the room be cleared except for my mom and Stanton. Then in a matter of minutes I went from having Stanton ask for some drugs to panicking because I couldn't make it. Before the drugs got there I sent Stanton out again to tell them to come check me because I felt like pushing. By the time the nurse came in she said she would give me the drugs first (hooray for quick acting IV medication). Then she checked me and said I was over 9.5 cm dilated. I told her I needed to push and she told me not to until Dr. Wang came in. (Note to any nurses or ob/gyn's if your patient says "I need to push" don't just say "Don't push" give her some idea as to how to prevent the body's natural response.) Dr. Wang showed up shortly and so did Jacob. The whole thing went by so fast. I feel like the time between getting the drugs in my system and Jacob's birth was approximately 10 minutes. I don't really know, but it was fast and furious. My mom and Stanton did an excellent tag team job of keeping me focused. I really did freak out. Mainly because in my brain labor would last a while and I couldn't sustain the pain for that long. Had I known he was coming so quickly, I think I would have handled it better.

Jacob came at 2:06 happy and healthy. One little cry to let us know he was ok and he was perfect! Because I had gotten the drugs shortly before, I was still very loopy. I had to focus to stay awake and to take it all in. Stanton was super happy that my mom was there not only because she was able to help me calm down, but also because she was smart enough to grab the camera and start snapping photos. So this time, we got pictures of Stanton holding Jacob for the first time. (We also discovered a glitch in the hospital technology in which the operating lights are focused using a flashing blue wand which is apparently very similar to the light produced by a camera flash.)

Recovery for me has been a little worse, apparently Jacob's rapid entry into the world will leave me with quite a scar. But it's so totally worth it.

Jacob is so different from Chaselyn in size and looks. He came in at 7 lbs. 1 oz. with lots of dark brown hair and dark eyes. They say that he is the same length that Chaselyn was when she was born and the same headsize. But, we have our doubts. He just seems so much littler.

Big Sister is doing as well as can be expected. She's been off her schedule and so she's been a little rambunctious. But she touches Jacob sweetly and softly. She has shown some signs of jealousy when Jacob is being held, but for now there's enough hands on deck to distract her or hold her.

So all is well here. We're taking the gang home tomorrow. We'll see how things go from there.

A new found respect

So, I must admit, at times I can be quite elitist and very non-empathetic. I have at least realized that I'm never very far away from having my point of view totally blown out of the water. Because I grew up where I did, because I always had two parents who loved me, because I was blessed with the ability to coast through school quite easily, because I don't have a lot of natural curiosity, and for a whole host of other reasons, I have come to realize that I don't always have the most sensitive thoughts to those who are different from me. And so, if you like me before this post, please be sure you read through the entire post before you start hating me. I want you to know how I've grown. And I want to have a record for myself so that I don't forget what I've learned.

This post is going to be about being over-weight. And before any of you roll your eyes at me and say "Well you're very pregnant, of course you're overweight!" I know, and I am in no means trying to get sympathy out of this post. But I've been given a good kick in the rear by having to deal with being bigger than my usual self. So, I'll start with some self-deprication and hopefully by the end, we can all follow my craziness and understand what I'm trying to say.

So, I'm currently 37 weeks pregnant. To go along with that, I'm about 50 lbs. over my dream weight, 40 lbs. over my ideal weight, 30 lbs. over my starting weight, and 25 lbs heavier than I have ever been outside of pregnancy (I'm also beating my final weight during my first pregnancy by about 4 lbs. now.) So, needless to say, I've been feeling big. But more than feeling big (because I have the luxury of putting off judgement on myself until after Jacob comes), I am simply heavy and this is where my epiphany came from.

WARNING: This is the part where you may start hating me, please stick with me to the end.
For most of my life, I looked down on people who were overweight. As a very active person throughout my youth, I didn't even think about what I ate or dieting or anything like that. I had Dr. Pepper & chips for lunch almost every day. I had a big, full meal every night when I got home. I ate when I was hungry and even enjoyed eating a lot when I wasn't really hungry. So, it was my understanding that if people would just get up and be active, they wouldn't have weight problems. As I got into college, I became less active, but between walking up hill both ways to class (Pomfret dorms on the U of A campus it actually happens, and yes, sometimes even in the snow), finding cafeteria food about as tasty as well...there really is no comparison, it's just not great, and getting a workout while cheering on the hogs, I realized another way to not be overweight is to just eat less food when you don't exercise as much. These two philosophies served me until I was about 22.5 years old. Then something happened...I got married. And this adventure sent my body for a loop. It turns out that I can cook some decent food (comparatively speaking of course, and we're comparing to the cafeteria). So I gained the first year 15. Ok, it probably wasn't 15 in the first year, but I got there within the first few years. Fortunately, I was diagnosed with a thyroid problem after about a year and a half into our marriage. Which meant I had a scape goat for my inability to lose weight. So my point of view only marginally widened to people are overweight because they either don't exercise, eat too much, or have a glandular problem. Super I know, I'm quite the tolerant person, huh?

But now my eyes are opened. The shear amount of extra weight on my body has broken it down. I am weak. I can't walk very far or very quickly. I can't stand on my feet for very long. My body just rejects the idea of handling this extra weight. My back hurts. My thighs rub together. My arms jiggle. I don't feel like me. And even if I wanted to, I really don't think I would have the will power to get my heavy self off the couch to exercise. It just hurts. And I'm tired. And I don't want to do anything else but sit. As I said, right now, I can blame it on the pregnancy, but I know myself. And myself would be a puddle on the floor in misery despising my overweight self but not having the drive to really do anything about it. And I haven't even mentioned how things are more difficult with the belly. I have always preferred slip on shoes, mainly because you can slip them off (I am from Arkansas you know a lot of people think we don't wear shoes because we don't have them. Truth is we just don't like them.). But now slip-ons are a necessity. I can't bend far enough to tie my shoes. Shaving is an ordeal and a half. And I always have to be aware of my protruding belly. If I'm not careful I'll knock something right off the cabinet.

In addition to the weight, I find myself unable to control my eating sometimes. I crave sweets these days. I've never craved sweets. Sure I would never turn them down, but I generally didn't buy them. Yesterday I bought an 8 pack of fun-size Baby Ruth candy bars, cartoon fruit snacks, and coconut ice cream. And I will eat them this week, I'm sure of it. Even though I know I don't need them.

All that to say, I'm sorry. For the years I spent in oblivion of thinking that losing weight is simple. Just don't eat as much and go out for a walk every now and then. It's so much deeper than that. It's a strain on the body, that can quickly devolve into a strain on the mind.

And I hope that I lose a lot of the weight when Jacob is born. But I know I'll still have a long way to go to get back to my old self. And I've heard that I'm in for another rude awakening as I begin to battle against my age.

So, I hope my little confession here will remind me that it's not realistic to expect too much out of myself when I'm trying to lose the weight. It's not just as simple as eating less and working out more. It takes a lot of dedication and resolve just to approach the weight loss issue. And more importantly, I've got to stoop making assumptions about the way life is for situations I've never been exposed to in the slightest. I'm sorry to anyone who ever felt that I was judging them or felt that I tried to over-simplify their issues, when I didn't have a clue.

4 - 16, 17 and 1

Today, 4-16 marks the official day that Chaselyn is 17 months old and we are 1 month from Jacob's due date. Wow! I'm one month away from having a 1.5 year old and a newborn. What else can I say but WOW?!

Now, Chaselyn Ann is doing just great. She has fully adjusted to the Toddler room at school. This week, she walked to the door, waited for me to open it, walked in and started playing. It's fantastic to see. And she's becoming less clingy to Mommy too. But no worries, I can still get hugs and kisses pretty much any time I want. Now, unfortunately she's learning some stuff at daycare that we don't particularly care for. Namely, Chaselyn now knows how to throw a fit. She just stands there throws her head back and screams. And a couple of times she's actually collapsed on the floor with kicking and screaming. Our parental tactic is to ignore these tantrums. But often, even if we wanted to fix the problem, we're not real sure why she's throwing the fit. On the plus side, she's learning to talk more. Her actual vocabulary as far as calling things by name hasn't expanded too much, but she knows how to make more sounds and is getting very good at mimicking what people say. She can also identify more by pointing. That is we play lots of the "Where's the _______?" game. I can even ask her "Where's Jacob?" and she'll point to my belly (except for sometimes when she points to her own belly, but we've almost got that kink worked out). It's too precious! She knows where her eyes, ears, nose, hair, hands, feet and belly are. And she definitely knows what birds are. She'll point and say "brd" endlessly until they're all gone. And that's no typo, it sounds like "brd". She also has become almost overly animated with her expressions, if that's possible. Just hand her a small box of raisins and she'll show you a face that says "Oh my gosh, you love me enough to give me raisins?! What a super fantastic treat!"

We had lots of fun in the past month. We made 2 more trips to Arkansas, which meant we went 3 out of 4 weekends. We spent lots of time on Granny and Papa's farm. We played in the snow, we played with puppies, we fed the horses, but mostly, we relaxed. We were up for Easter weekend too and went to a shower for Kimberly and then went to baseball on Easter day. We also got to see the other Texans of the family for quite a bit. (Go figure we only live at most 2 hours away and yet we don't get together until we both travel all the way back to AR.) The baseball game was great. We got to see all of the immediate family and lots of friends we hadn't seen in a while. And the hogs decided to make it exciting for us by hitting a walk off grand slam homerun to win the game.

Monday after Easter Chaselyn and I made the trek back to Waco all by ourselves. Stanton got to stay in AR for a few days on business. And can I just say that Chaselyn is one of the best little travelers ever! We were able to make it back in close to regular time. We only had one extra stop than usual. She slept for about 2.5 hours of the trip and only cried for maybe a total of 15 minutes and never longer than 3 minutes at a time. A big thanks to Stanton's parents for getting her a travel size Magna-Doodle for Easter. "Doodle" as she has now learned to call it kept her quite busy during the trip as did baby, straws, and her snack cup. I couldn't have imagined things going so smoothly for the trip.

Since Easter, Chaselyn has been living in single-parent mode unfortunately. Obviously when Stanton was still in AR, she was stuck with Mommy. Then when Stanton got back on Thursday we had a nice family evening together. But then Friday and Saturday I had a stats conference. And since then Stanton has been super focused and working late nights on the Rice business plan competition which is where he is now and will be until sometime tomorrow.

So the past month has been pretty crazy around the Greer household, but Chaselyn is dealing with it like a pro. I hope she does this well in the upcoming month with the elevated craziness that is about to ensue. As stated in some of my previous posts, I'm getting worried about the dynamic shift that is about to occur in Chaselyn's world. And I just want to do so much for her now while I can focus on her alone.

Chaselyn,

This may be the last full month of your life that you are an only child. By the time you can read this, you will not even be able to imagine life without Jacob I'm sure. We know you are going to be a great big sister. The way you already care for your baby dolls and love on random objects just shows that you have a natural nurturing instinct. We want you to always know that our love for you grows every day and will continue to grow even more as you learn to express yourself and share your love in more expressive ways. It's because of how wonderful you are that made us look forward to expanding the family. You are our precious little girl and we love you more than you'll ever know.

Love,
Mommy & Daddy

Help Blogland!

I'm about to have two adorable little kiddos, and I want them to love one another immensely, or at least appear that they do. So, I'm looking for big sister/ little brother shirts and I need your help.

First, which sounds better?

1. "Chaselyn's Little Brother" and "Jacob's Big Sister"
2. "Chaselyn's Lil Bro" and "Jacob's Big Sis"
3. "Little Brother Jacob" and "Big Sister Chaselyn"
4. "Lil Bro Jacob" and "Big Sis Chaselyn"

Admittedly, I prefer 1 and 3, but Jacob will have a tiny little belly, so I'm not sure if all the letters would fit.

Next, a design:

A) First, we have monkeys: Use the same pic for both shirts and it can be personalized with any of the wording listed above.


B) Pirates – Aargh! With names around. I don’t know if I could fit in “Big Sis” or “Lil Bro”


3) Pick matching colors and font and wording from above


4) Use the layout/ wording like the one on the top, color scheme from the bottom



5) Obviously not both brothers, find gender neutral fabric for letters


So there you have it. I need your help. If you know of any other cute options, I'm very interested, these pics are all from various shops on Etsy.

Also, I have one other question what does a less than one month old boy wear to his uncle's wedding? Since Stanton and I are both in the wedding party, I'm looking at a great photo op for essentially newborn family photo. Chaselyn is covered. I have dresses for her out the wazoo, but Jacob is tougher. I don't want to go with a full on baby tux, but I want something that won't look too out of place with Stanton's tux and my bridesmaid dress. Right now, we have a plaid shirt with sweater vest and shorts that have shades of blue and a red accent line. My dress will be purple, Stanton will have a black tux. And depending on the shade of my dress Chaselyn will be wearing either purple or red or white. Is the following too casual? And if I did go with something like this, what kind of bottoms should Jacob have on.
I think it's adorable. And I could get other colors maybe to better match the rest of the family, but still not sure if it captures the dressy level I'm looking for.

So comment away, I need your help!

Are you ready?

Lately when I see people I get two questions "How are you feeling?" usually followed up by "Are you ready?" To the first question, I'm feeling good. As I hinted at before. I'm not doing as great this time around. I feel big and fat more often than I did with Chaselyn. I have a lot more heartburn. And my lower back feels like there's a vertebrae popped out of socket sometimes. But, all things considered. I'm actually doing good. I can't and won't complain too much. Concerning the second question, I can honestly say that yes I am ready. I can't wait to meet the little guy. We've got the essentials covered. There's still plenty of little things I haven't done yet, but if he came tomorrow, we would be just fine (he can't come today, Stanton is out of town - that is not OK). So everything is hunkie-doory right? Not so much.

See I'm just now starting to realize what I'm going to put Chaselyn through and I don't like it. As Stanton said in his 16 month update post, Chaselyn has had some trouble adapting to the new class at daycare. I'm happy to report that she has adjusted to the nap time issues very nicely. And today for the first time, she didn't even make her sad, crying face when I dropped her off. I also stuck around and got to see one of the other little girls in the class come over and hold Chaselyn's hand and try to lead her over to the toys. Thanks little Hayden! Chaselyn didn't budge, but I very much enjoyed to see her classmate reach out in such a sweet innocent way. Not too much after that though, another little girl came over and pushed Chaselyn. No thank you little Kate. Chaselyn just stood there for that too. Then it was breakfast time and all was well with the world. All that to say, Chaselyn has recently demonstrated that she doesn't adapt quickly to change. And her crazy parents decided to push a baby brother on her. Thanks mom & dad.

Chaselyn has also been such the little Mommy's girl lately. I love that she hugs me and gives me kisses and that I can be a comfort to her when she's afraid. But what about when Jacob comes? First, I'm going to be out of pocket for an indeterminate length of time during the actual birth. Then, I'll be in the hospital for a couple days and recovering for a few more. I won't be able to pick her up as easily or play on the floor like I do now for a while. That doesn't seem fair. Not only that but while I'm not picking her up and not playing with her, I'll be giving lots of attention to this new baby. So what do I do? I know I'll make a special effort to do as much as I can for her, but I'm afraid it won't be enough.

And none of that really even deals with the fact that there will be a new person in the house. Now, Chaselyn is very interested in babies that we see on occasion. She's very gentle with them and smiles and is just sweetly curious. But if this new, cute thing is also changing her world as she knows it, she may not think so highly of the little man. And I don't know what to do about that.

So, yes, I am ready for Jacob. But I'm not sure I'm prepared to handle the needs of two kids. But at this point, I don't really know of anything else I can do make myself feel more prepared. So, I'll just keep looking for opportunities to help smooth the transition and pray that everything works out.

If you have any tips, I'd love to hear.

Egg-static!!