burrito is 9!

i know i say this every year (and i'll keep on saying it!), but i can't believe how fast my little men are growing up!

burrito you are my first born.  you made me a momma and i will always treasure that!  Some of my favorite things about you right now are you're love for listening to a good book (harry potter is your current favorite) and you're ability to do many things at once without missing a beat.  you love your friends at school but not so much the homework.  you amaze me with your memory of bible stories and it makes my heart so full to hear all that you've learned about Jesus and His Word.  you have endless stores of energy and you love all sports.  i love watching you pitch in your baseball games and shooting hoops in the driveway.  you still LOVE drinks and your favorite right now is coke. 

we celebrated your birthday this year with a family fun day spaced out over 3 days!  with baseball games on your actual birthday, we had to get creative in fitting in all of our fun activities.  your first choice was donuts at school to celebrate your birthday with your class.

next up was a fun family trip to it'z, a pizza buffet and video game place.  we had fun rock climbing, playing games and driving bumper cars.

we celebrated with mimi, poppy, stacey and sutton with a dinner at chili's, presents and chocolate pie.

we will conclude our weekend of fun with lunch with friends and red velvet cake!

burrito we love you so much and are so proud of the little man you are becoming!

please pray for our baby boy

To be completely honest, we've had a tough week at our house.  I had my anatomy ultrasound performed last Friday and received a call on Monday with some unfortunate news.   Our baby boy's abdominal organs are flipped, meaning his stomach is on the right side instead of the left, etc.  We were immediately referred to a maternal/fetal specialist and we had that appointment yesterday afternoon.  He performed another ultrasound to take a closer look and give us an idea of what we may be facing. 

He confirmed that the stomach and all associated abdominal organs are flipped.  The heart is not flipped and looks good with no sign of a congenital heart defect (a huge praise!).  The blood flow going in and out of the heart was going in the correct direction.  His brain looks good with no signs of any problems there.  He also looked at his kidneys, intestines, brain stem and maybe some other things that I can't remember now.  The only other concern was that his intestines looked "whiter" than normal on ultrasound, but he said that could mean nothing or it could mean something that we would check again later.

We went into the appointment fully expecting that this one appointment would be the first of many but the doctor felt like we should have a normal pregnancy with a normal delivery.  We've been seeing a midwife and the doctor said we could still have a birth center birth as long as we planned on having the baby evaluated by a neonatologist within 24 hours of birth.  He recommended that we see him again at 32 weeks (I'm 21 weeks now) for another ultrasound to take a look again once he's a little bigger.  If nothing is suspicious, then the baby will be examined after birth to check on things that we cannot see in utero.  With this organ flipping syndrome, there is usually an issue with whether the spleen forms or not.  The spleen is the body's organ to fight infection so if he does not have one, we would be looking at a daily antibiotic for the rest of his life.  This is something that we won't know until after he his born and the baby has an ultrasound.

So here are our specific requests at this point:
1.  An uncomplicated pregnancy and delivery.
2.  That although the abdominal organs are flipped, everything is "hooked up" correctly and will not require surgery
3.  That he has a spleen!

4.  That the ultrasound at 32 weeks will not reveal any further problems

4.  Wisdom in deciding where to give birth
5.  Wisdom in financial matters...this is REALLY overwhelming to me
6.  That we would be faithful in trusting the Lord in ALL things

So we are proceeding with hope that all goes well until we have the next ultrasound at 32 weeks.  At that point, decisions will be made about how best to proceed.  We are praising God for a good appointment yesterday.  We covet your prayers!

halfway there...20 weeks and the diagnostic ultrasound

i am 20w 4d today!  halfway there until we meet this newest little man! 

i've had so many emotions go through my head today.  it's good friday so we've done a good deal of talking and thinking about Christ and how he chose to die on a cross so that our sins can be forgiven and we can spend eternity with him.  while He conquered death and sin when He rose three days later, my melancholy self really feels the death part of it every good friday. 

and on the flip side, today was my 20 week diagnostic ultrasound.  we were able to watch this little guy growing in my belly for almost an hour.

death and life.  His death so that we could have life.

Jesus died so that all who call upon him and believe in him will have eternal life.  what a joy and privilege it is to raise up three men who i hope and pray will love and serve Jesus all their days.  i am so in love with my little growing family and the Jesus we love and serve.

the ultrasound to me is always fascinating and miraculous!  i really love the lady we've used for the ultrasounds this time around too.  she is a believer and really loves her job.  she always does a very thorough job and i always feel like she goes the extra mile to make it extra special for us.  she even gave us a disk of some the images she captured today.

 

can you tell what he is doing in this last picture?  he is sucking his thumb!  you could see his mouth and jaw move as he sucked.  it was amazing!

his heart rate was 148bpm and he was constantly moving!  on more than one occasion, she had a hard time getting a good measurement because he would not be still!  i've got another little wild man  baking in the oven.  i don't think he appreciated all the poking and prodding because there were a few really strong kicks from him that i had not yet experienced.  his gender was confirmed multiple times...he is definitely a boy, no doubt about it!  there was a point that she had to reload the paper so that she could print out some pictures for us so she had me hold the probe.  for a few minutes, i got to pretend that i was a sonographer.  it was so fun!  it makes me a little sad to think that if all goes well, this will be our last peek at him until he is born.  

i was thankful that we all were able to go again together as a family to do this.  the boys enjoyed making their own comments and diagnoses and asking lots of questions.  20 more weeks to go!

19 weeks and 3rd prenatal visit

this baby boy is g r o w i n g !!!  i am 19 weeks and feeling good.  i am not sleeping well but i keep telling myself that will only get worse so i better not complain now!

i am definitely showing now....see?

i am loving it because burrito and noodle regularly come up and talk to my belly now.  they love to talk to their little brother inside there.  i am eager for the baby to big enough that they will be able to feel him move.

i've said it before and i'll say it again, it is SO fun to be pregnant with two older children.  it has been downright hysterical explaining how things work and hearing their ideas about birth and breastfeeding!  my boys were so close together that they have no memory of seeing me breastfeed, and they've never been around anyone doing that either.  i wanted to have this "talk" before this baby is born so we launched into it one day at dinner.  john has been reading out loud from the book of genesis and he read the story about noah and his sons (chapter 9:18-29):

The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.)  These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth.
Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard.  When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.  Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside.  But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.
When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, he said,

“Cursed be Canaan!
    The lowest of slaves
    will he be to his brothers.”

He also said,

“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Shem!
    May Canaan be the slave of Shem.

May God extend Japheth’s territory;
    may Japheth live in the tents of Shem,
    and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.”

After the flood Noah lived 350 years.  Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.

after this story, we thought it might be the perfect time to talk about breastfeeding and how the boys need to be mature when they witness how God made moms to feed their babies.

well, in hindsight, i wish we had the video recorder going.  the conversation was downright hysterical!  we started the conversation with reminding the boys of the ways that they have seen animals feed their babies.  they love wildlife shows so we thought this would be an easy way to explain things.  here's how the conversation went:

jenn:  think about how animals feed their babies.  how do the babies get their food?
burrito and noodle:  blank stares.....
jenn:  okay, think specifically about cows...how do cows feed their babies?
burrito: [with a sheepish grin] oh, i know with those things that hang down, what are those called?
jenn:  that's right, they're called udders.
burrito:  [incredulously] you have udders on your belly!?!?
jenn: no!!!  you've seen my belly! i do not have udders!
burrito: [thinking hard] oh, i know, they're right here. [pointing at his chest with another sheepish smile on his face].  girls have bigger ones.
jenn: yes, that's right.  God made women differently than men so that they could feed their babies.
burrito: you mean you have a portal right there?
all: [laughing hysterically]
jenn: a portal??? how do you even know that word? no i don't have a portal! 
burrito and noodle:  i am so glad i am not a girl!!!  

we felt like the conversation went well. :)

in other news, i had my third prenatal visit yesterday and was able to hear sweet baby boy's heartbeat. i love that sound and it never gets old.  his heart rate was 140 and he's getting big, about 6.5 inches long now.  my belly is pooching out and this is probably my most favorite part of pregnancy...where you look pregnant and not just bloated but not huge just yet either.  my parents gifted us a new baby crib and mattress last week while we are on spring break so we indulged and put it together.  we love it and can't wait to meet this little guy!

speech meet

i think i mentioned in a previous post that noodle won a competition in his class for the speech meet.  every student in grades 1-6 select a bible verse, poem, or fable to memorize and recite before their class and a few adult judges.  noodle selected psalm 23 this year.  because he was selected to advance to the regional meet, i was able to accompany him to a christian school in arlington and spend the day with him.  he was one of the first groups to go back and recite their passage (and the parents could not go with them), so we spent the rest of the day hanging out with other students from our school until 1:00 when they held the awards ceremony.  each student could receive a good, excellent or superior ribbon and of those that received superiors, they could qualify to win a gold, silver or bronze medal.  noodle won an excellent ribbon and i was so proud!  this is a picture of him before we left that morning.

isn't he SOOOOOOOOOO cute and handsome????

and this is him the following wednesday when all the participants were to bring their ribbons and/or medals to school to be recognized in chapel.

we are so proud of you noodle!  great job!

first time mom

i feel a little like a first time mom because it has been SO long since i've been pregnant!  but in some ways i feel like a seasoned mom because i am able to fully appreciate every little step of this journey because i know how fleeting it is.  i felt baby boy for the first time from the outside of my stomach last night.  i've been feeling him move and kick ever so often for weeks now, and i am so anxious to be able to share that with john and the boys.  last night there was a small, hard bump that felt like a foot or fist, but by the time john tried to feel it, baby boy had moved.  this is one of the most amazing things about being pregnant!

we started our spring break on friday and we are loving the slower-paced schedule around here.  we went to the fort worth museum of science and history on friday.  i was gifted a family membership for christmas and we wanted to see the special exhibit that they have on the titanic before it ends at the end of this month.  it was really interesting and really sad...they had so many warnings of icebergs and it really showed the destructive nature of pride.  they were convinced that the ship was unsinkable and not even an iceberg would stop it.  sadly, they were grossly incorrect.  i think burrito and noodle enjoyed it, even though there was a lot of reading involved.  then we did the regular museum stuff until our bellies were growling for lunch!

noodle building his bridge

the finished product!

looking through the bridge

burrito inside a dinosaur footprint

yesterday we made the trek to ikea to buy a dresser for the nursery.  i am SO ready to start nesting.  my mom and dad ordered our crib and mattress yesterday too (thanks guys!) so maybe by the end of the week we will have some baby furniture!  john and i have had fun looking at pinterest for decorating ideas.  i am so glad we have the same taste (mostly)! 

i have to work monday through wednesday of this week so the boys have lots of "boy activities" planned and we are hoping to get some yard work and gardening done too.  we are ready for spring and some warmer temperatures!

the big reveal! it's a...

so i mentioned in my last post that we were trying to decide if we wanted to do an ultrasound to determine gender now or wait until my 20 weeks ultrasound.  i was leaning towards waiting but john was so ready to find out and i figured, everything else in this pregnancy is about me so he deserved his wishes with this!

we had the first appointment at the ultrasound center at 8:30 saturday morning.  we were a little nervous when we arrived and no one was there yet, but she soon came and we were totally impressed with the facility there.  we were in a private room with plenty of seating for john and the boys and the ultrasound image was projected onto a huge flat screen tv.  it was so fun experiencing this with our boys because they have never seen one of these before.  the ultrasound lady was so kind and because she had been a little late, she spent more time showing us things on the ultrasound than she was obligated.

as soon as the image appeared on the screen, i saw it.  she said to me in a whisper, "are you looking at what i'm looking at?"  yes, just like my previous ultrasounds, there was no denying that this baby is a BOY!!!

she went on to show us his heart, brain, spinal cord, stomach, and bladder.  baby boy was moving all around with his hand up near his head.  she even showed us a 4d image of what he looks like which looked so crazy!  there's just something about watching your baby on a screen that makes this pregnancy so real and so sweet!  i could watch it all day long!

but we had baseball games and a birthday party to get to, so off we went with our day.  john took burrito to his baseball game while noodle and i stayed home to make a cake.  we had decided to make a gender reveal cake and share with our families on sunday as a fun way to break the news that this baby is a boy!  so noodle and i baked up a blue cake for the big reveal.  i love his face here...it's almost like he's being sneaky!

 

and after a little drama with the cake (which one day will make for a funny story but not yet!), this is how it turned out!

we had a celebration on my parent's house.  my sister and nephew came and we had john's family on facetime so they could witness the big reveal at the same time.  my mom cut the cake to reveal the blue insides!

now that we know we are having our third son, we are on to the monumental task of deciding on a name.  we have a front runner for now but we are not completely ready to commit to it just yet.  because i like to maintain a little privacy on my blog, i will keep with the trend of using nicknames for the boys.  so we have burrito and noodle...what name should we use for baby boy???