Lyle the Crocidile

We took the big girls to see Lyle the Crocodile at the Arvada Center on Saturday.  It was so well done, and the girls really enjoyed it.  Lyly was one of Jon's favorite books as a child, and we read the Lyle books regularly at home.  The story was done in a musical and it totally kept the girls attention.  It was only an hour long and had a short intermission.  It was so fun to take them on a "date" too.  We will definitely be looking at going to the theater more with them in the future.  Especially at the Arvada Center, because their children's shows are so reasonably priced, and well worth the money.

Due Date

It is really truly official.  I am pregnant.  There is a tiny human growing in my womb.  A teeny tiny human right now.  We had an ultrasound done today, and met with the midwife.  The due date is November 5th.  So really, we should just say November 19th, knowing my history.  I am just 6 weeks, 5 days pregnant.  We could still see the yolk sack on the ultrasound, and a tiny little heartbeat.  Just ONE heartbeat- thank God!

I know its real, I know this is happening, and I am totally ok and not ok with it at the same time.  I am really trying to be excited about this baby, and not just ok with it.  I am honestly overwhelmed, and it is easy to forget about it, except for the whole exhausted and nauseous thing.

Nora is 6 months

My sweet Nora Lou is 6 months old, already.  She is growing so fast!  She is getting more and more mobile everyday.  Crawling is coming very very soon.  We started solid foods, and she seems to like them.  Her little personality is starting to really show too.  She likes to snuggle, but not toooo much,  She has to see whats going on.  She loves to play with in my hair, and she loves to play with her sisters.  Her hair is getting so long.  I can't bring myself to cut it yet.  Fortunately, she keeps little clips and ties in her hair, so that will be our solution for a while.  At her 6 month appointment she was measured and is still tiny!  For my largest baby at birth, she has some catching up to do!

Weight: 13 lbs, 3.2 oz: 4th Percentile!
Height: 26.75 inches: 76th Percentile

Decision Made

After lots of prayer, and thinking, we have decided we are MOVING!  I am relived to have this decision made.  There is a lot to do.  We've talked to our realtor and our mortgage lady and got the ball rolling.  We have a long list of things to do.  The goal is to list the house by May 15th.  It is really not a lot of time, but we are excited for the future and what we will find.

Basement Ceiling

On to the next project: the basement ceiling.  This project has been on the books for a while, and it is time for it to get done.  Especially in light of our recent news, we could quite possibly be moving, and the basement ceiling needs to get finished.  The previous owners had put ceiling tiles in, and we had torn down several of them to do the plumbing.  So we have packed up the majority of the basement including all the toys and most of my office.  No telling when we might see these things again.  Jon started taking tiles down, and we plan to hire out the drywall portion of it.  There just isn't enough time for Jon to do it, and he does not want to do this project.  I don't blame him at all :)

Gymnastics

The big girls have been doing gymnastics again.  They really are so cute.  I love that they are so different.  Cecilia has no fear, and also very little desire for doing things right.  She would rather just have fun and throw her body up and over and into the pit, or around the bar without much regard for pointed toes, feet together, sticking a landing, etc.  Lilly Jeanne, on the other hand, is very cautious and purposeful.  She will not try a new skill unless she is 90% confident that she can do it.  Her toes are always pointed, and she is more likely to crawl over an obstacle than to jump off it.  It has also been fun because some of our friends have been in the same class with the girls.  Its nice for the girls to have a friend in the class, and for me to get to visit with a friend too.

Decisions

I feel like we have major decisions to make before this little one arrives.  Like, are we going to move, or stay in our current home.  These are big decisions financially and emotionally that we weren't planning on making right now.  I also feel like we have to make these decisions RIGHT NOW, or we are going to be out of time.  If we do decide to move, then we have a lot of work to do on the house to get it ready to sell.  The basement ceiling needs drywalled, the house needs painted, a bunch of miscellaneous projects, and we have to pack everything up.

We have to weigh how much it will cost to prep the house to sell with how much time we have.  Is it worth it to take out a loan just to sell the house?  Or should we stay and try to move this time next year?  With four little ones?  I am leaning towards moving now, not next year.  Ideally wed like to be moved into our new house by the end of July so that we have time to settle in before school starts and the baby comes.  The market is crazy right now, and there is really no way that we can make an offer on a new house before we sell our house, which means that we will be lucky to find our new house in the right timing to sell and buy without having to live somewhere else temporarily.  

The other part of this is that we haven't even had an ultrasound or seen the midwife yet to officially confirm this pregnancy.  God forbid that we miscarry, or there is something wrong.  Are we being hasty? This is all moving so fast.  But we feel like this would be the right time of year to sell the house and move.  More praying, more discerning, more thinking.  Not a lot of sleeping...

A Surprise Filled and Eventful Weekend...

Where to start???...  How about I start with the phrase of "God has a sense of humor".  Then, I'll start at the beginning.  This last weekend, some good friends invited us to join them at a town home in Silverthorne for the weekend.  We planned to join them for Friday night and Saturday but had plans on Saturday evening with our small group from church, so we planned to go to see the Ice Castles in Breckenridge and then head down the mountain from there.  It was very impromptu as we were invited up on Thursday for the next day, but we made it work.

Now, this is where it gets interesting.  I have to back up to January though, and I'll warn you, this might be too personal for some of you, but this is my blog and I want to remember these details.  So, my fertility has returned at 4 months to the day with both Cecilia and Lilly.  So I knew that I was going to start my period close to the end of December or early January.  January 1, like clockwork, I started.  We started tracking again right away with our trusty NFP tools, I ovulated on January 15th, my temperature dropped like it was supposed to and all was good.  I stopped tracking after my temperature dropped because that meant that we weren't pregnant, and I waited for my period to start again.

I woke up on February 4th, and thought it was a bit strange that I hadn't started yet, so I took a pregnancy test just to be sure.  It was negative.  OK, no big deal.  I'm nursing, I'm sure my hormones are just messing with my cycle.  On February 14th, the girls and I were driving past the building where the midwives are and Cecilia pointed out the "baby doctors".  Then Lilly Jeanne pipped up and said "Ya!  Mommy have baby boy in her tummy next week!".  This was totally cute, totally prophetic, and totally freaked me out because my period still had not started.  I took another pregnancy test on Sunday, the 16th.  It was negative.

Now, on Tuesday the 25th of February, I was folding the mountain of laundry like I do on every Tuesday afternoon and watching a show.  I felt this incredible peace and quiet come over me and I heard God tell me, "Trust me.  I want you to have a large family.  It is going to be ok."  It totally took me by surprise.  It was a very powerful moment, one that I will never forget.  I was thinking, Ok, God, I trust you, but I don't need to decide this right now.  I told Jon about it, and we both agreed that it was something that we didn't have to decide at that moment.

I had heartburn at bedtime on the 26th and 27th of February.  I never have heartburn, unless I'm you know what.  So on the 28th as we were preparing to go to the mountains with our friends, I had Jon stop at Target for a few items and a pregnancy test.  I wasn't going to take it until we got home the next day, but Jon told me I couldn't have him pick it up and then not take it right then.  So I took it just before we left.  The girls were loaded in the car, and I was peeing on a stick.  It was POSITIVE.  I was pretty much non-verbal for at least 10 minutes.  All I could say was "ahhh, AHHHHH, AH, UHHH, ummmmmm, UM!" or something like that. 

{On a side note, after discussing this with my midwives and two NFP teaching couples, the conclusion is that this was part of the 2% method failure rate of NFP.  NFP is 98% effective, higher than or equal to the effectiveness rate of all other form of birth control.}

My mind was spinning.  I couldn't speak.  My thoughts were all over the place: How did this happen?  I never had a period!?  We didn't get pregnant in January, but I never had a period??  I never had a period, but I ovulated in Februray, what??  February, March, April, May June, July, August, September, October, November... October/ November... that makes Nora just 14 months old.  14 MONTHS!!!  Are you crazy GOD?!?!  Trust you.  Yes, trust God.  You are soooo funny, God.  Ok, this is going to be ok.  Oh man, 4 kids, 5 and under.  Breathe Beth, just take a breath.  4 kids, two in cribs.  Two cribs, do we have room for two cribs.  We need to move.  We have to move, like, yesterday.  Can we stay in our house??  Can Cecilia move to the basement?  No, that won't work.  I can't trust her down there, it's not safe.  Those windows don't open, the stairs are so far away.  We are cramped as it is...  Cecilia. maybe she should go to full day kindergarten instead of just half day.  Another baby.  I just had a baby.  Will my body hold up?  I'm still nursing.  Will I be able to nurse Nora till she's one?  I really want to be able to nurse my baby Nora like I did Cecilia and Lilly, I might not be able too.  November.  That is this year.  We didn't budget for a baby this year.  Can we adjust our HSA contribution?  We just paid off our medical bills.  TRUST GOD, Beth!  Remember, His timing is always perfect...

Good thing Jon could function still so we could start heading up the hill.  In fact, he was almost too excited about the news.  We made it safely to Silverthorne and met up with our friends.  After the kids went to bed we shared our news with them, only because their #4 was also quite the surprise, and we knew they would be able to relate and be sympathetic.

On Saturday morning, we packed up and headed out to see the Ice Castles in Breckenridge.  It had snowed quite a bit the night before, and our Minnie Van is need of new tires.  We said a little prayer and headed out.  We didn't even make it out of the Town Home complex before a snow plow slid into us and hit the drivers side fender.  Fortunately it was just cosmetic damage and no one was hurt.  Minnie was shoved deep into a snow bank, and we had to be pulled out.

It put a big damper on our plans and delayed us for about two hours. We eventually made it to the castles and enjoyed our time with our friends.  The kids had so much fun!  There were tunnels and hide outs, caves, and lots of beauty.  Nora slept in her sling cozy in my jacket the whole time.

The highway was so backed up when we tried to head home that we ultimately decided that we should stay one more night.  The weather was not in our favor.  But fortunately, we made it home quickly and safely on Sunday morning with out anymore surprises.