Hello Miss Addison!

Well, I am super behind in blogging.  It's hard to do when I have to pull out my dying laptop every time and also pull out the portable wireless mouse and it's USB thing since my laptop's mouse in broken.  It's one of the many "frictions," Kyle would say, that discourages me from blogging.

So Addison is here, born on January 24, 2012 at 10:08pm.  She weighed 7 lbs 12oz, and was 19 3/4 inches long.

7lbs 12.6oz; 19 3/4 in long

Because I have taken so long to post anything, I will just summarize all of my observations of Addison below...

Overall, she is a very happy baby...

but she does get fussy at times!

She loves to be swaddled

This little Houdini could always work
her way out of a swaddle

Until the "Swaddle Me"...

...which saved us

Swaddled for the night

She has always been so alert, even at 4 days old!

So alert!

...and again

She hated her first couple of baths,
 until we learned that she could handle
the water being a little warmer (oops!)

She always looks adorable wrapped
in her bath towel

She makes some goofy faces

Another goofy face (see the reindeer?)

She loves working those eyebrows

After she eats, she is out!

Even though she still has trouble finding it,
it's clear she is a thumb-sucker

She loves sleeping on her stomach,
but she hates tummy time

She seems to sneeze a lot

She's a cute yawner

An early morning yawn

And my favorite, she has an adorable smile

    

Oh, and...

She just started putting weight on her legs
this past week! Yay! She can actually stand now
for a pretty long time! (about 10 seconds, maybe...)

She has been SUCH a blessing and joy to us!  I absolutely love this little girl, and I am trying my best to treasure every moment with her.

Well, until next time,

Peace out!

First cloth diapers, now what???

So I ended my last post revealing that yes, we will be trying out cloth diapering (which by the way has come a long way and is actually becoming quite trendy!). So what's big shocker number two?

What if you and I had this conversation...

Me - "I am going to try running a marathon!"
You - "Oh, what are you doing to prepare for it?"
Me - "What do you mean?"
You - "Well aren't you training? Preparing? Learning what your body can handle?"
Me - "No, I'm just going to try it out and see how far I get."

What would your response be? You'd probably be shocked. You might be nice and try to hide your doubt that I'd finish, but I'd still see it in your face. You might actually laugh at me. You might say something to discourage me from doing it. All of these responses make since... because I have had no preparation for this big event!

Unfortunately, these are the exact same responses Kyle and I have gotten when we have told people we are preparing for a natural childbirth. The difference in the preparation of childbirth and the marathon situation is that we are actually preparing. We are currently taking "Bradley Method" classes. This is a 12 week class which focuses on husband-coached childbirth, preparation for a natural childbirth, and being educated on childbirth and your childbirth options. This way, when the medical professional comes in and starts telling you things you need to do, you know costs and benefits of what he's telling you and you know you know not only your choices, but that you actually have a choice!

We are not just showing up to our labor and trying to do natural. We also are not planning on doing natural, since you simply can't plan the exact birth you want. However, we are preparing for it. We are doing exercises to prepare my body for the physical challenges. We are actually practicing relaxing (I didn't even know people practiced that!). Kyle is learning how to coach me and encourage me. He's actually practicing this too, so I am able to give him feedback on what is most effective for me.

If anything, we want to be educated on our choices. We can't "plan" for a natural childbirth because we don't know what is in store for us come January. However, we can prepare for it, understanding what will happen physically and emotionally, learning my body, training my body, learning how to relax, figuring out my own weaknesses that will effect me in labor, Kyle learning how to encourage and learning what I need in labor. And just as someone who trains for a marathon may not finish the way they wanted, we may have the same experience. But even if we get thrown a curve ball, and we need to have some kind of medical intervention, we will not have failed. We have been educated through this class! We have learned our options and the costs and benefits of each. It's empowering!

That's my little plug for The Bradley Method :) We are no more crazy than someone who trains for a marathon! A woman's body is meant to give birth!

Did you know almost everything in the hospital is an option...

- If you aren't receiving meds, you don't have to get an IV.
- If you aren't receiving meds, you don't have to have electronic fetal monitoring (they can use a Doppler which is less restrictive and more comfortable!)

- If you aren't receiving meds, you don't have to give birth in the bed on your back (which may me more comfortable for some women, but it does work against gravity)

Foot prick for required state test

- You don't have to stay in the hospital for any particular length of time.

- Even the baby blood test that is "required by the state" is only required unless the parents decline it.

- If brave enough, dad can catch the baby!

- Baths and baby care can be delayed until after baby has time to be skin-to-skin with mom (this is actually now encouraged and has become standard protocol in many hospitals)

...they just don't tell you it is.

Electronic Fetal Monitoring

Kangaroo Care

Some interesting stuff...

- Dr. Bradley personally had over 90% of his couples achieve spontaneous, natural childbirth without drugs or unnatural interventions

- AAHCC records show over 86% of all Bradley-trained couples achieve natural births.  No other childbirth method has that track record.

- Hospital statistics with an unsupportive doctor indicated an 85% chance of drugs, including a 25% chance of a cesarean.

- People have the wrong idea about labor due to television and movies. We watched a video recently that said something like... more than 50% of pregnant women have seen sitcoms, movies, or reality shows with childbirth, but only 15-25% of pregnant women attend birthing classes. Eek! (I can't remember the exact statistics, but the point is that more women watch totally unrealistic, scary births than go to classes that prepare them for the real thing)

"Television shows often depict birth as a dangerous event, even though serious problems are exceedingly rare among women delivering in the United States." (http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/12/the-end-of-childbirth-101/)

30 weeks! We took this picture this morning,
and I wanted to put it somewhere,
so the blog is it.

It's a Girl!

Well, we found out a few weeks ago that we are having a little girl! I would have put a picture up, but showing sonograms can sometimes just be a little weird, so here's a picture of me and Kyle at the Doctor's office, waiting...

Both Kyle and I were anticipating it to be a little girl.  At first I had this feeling because Kyle wanted a boy so badly, so I figured we'll probably have a girl.  Obviously this isn't too much of a convincing argument.  But over the 4 plus months of being pregnant, I think every single person, except one, had guessed it would be a girl.  So Kyle and I jumped on board the little girl train quite some time ago.

It's crazy how the Lord changed both my and Kyle's hearts in leading up to finding out the sex.  All my life I thought I wanted a boy first.  I even thought I wanted a few boys and then a girl, but when we got pregnant, things started changing.  My desire for a girl grew greater and greater.  By the time we were ready to find out, I knew in my heart I wanted a girl this first time around.  Kyle had a similar story.  When he found out we were pregnant, he was hoping for a boy, and he continued to hope for a boy for quite some time.  Then he hit a neutral place.  As we heard from more and more people that it might be a girl, he began to see more girls with their dads, and his heart began to change too!

We are so grateful for the Bradners who let us borrow their Doppler, so we have actually been able to listen to the baby's heart beat at home.  This has been a blessing for a few reasons. First, it's just a joy to sit and listen to the little one inside you and marvel at the very fact that there's a little one inside you!  Second, every once in a while I have gotten concerned that something has happened because my belly isn't huge yet, so I wonder, 'Is there really a little person in there???'

Another fun thing about pregnancy is feeling certain symptoms and then getting weekly updates about the baby and my body that validate those symptoms.  For instance, recently, when I come home from work, my legs have been so achy and I just can't get comfortable.  I honestly feel desperate for a massage.  Then today I wake up to thebump.com weekly update that says this,

"Your body is changing.  Those nasty leg cramps are probably making it tough to get comfortable. One way to ease the pain: Extend your leg and flex your ankle and toes toward your knees. Or enlist your partner for a calf massage."

Finally, a professional giving complete pregnancy validity to my needs!

One Year Down, a Lifetime More to Go!

Come July 31, Kyle and I will hit our 1 year anniversary! 

God blessed us with a beautiful sunset on our wedding night!

Oh the places you will go...

The year went by so quickly.  Looking back, there were so many different feelings we had, growth God did in our lives, and places we went!

We spent our honeymoon in Punta Cana

Thanks to a wedding gift from brother Mitch, we spent Fall Break in Asheville, NC. 

(Also, thanks to a wedding gift from brother Pryor and sister Sally, we were able to take all of these beautiful pictures).

We had Thanksgiving in Chattanooga...

...and Christmas in Pittsburgh (My very first White Christmas ever, but the ironic thing is it was white in Chattanooga too...). 

We went to DC for our New Years Conference and Staff training

Then we went to Disney World, The Happiest Place on Earth :)

Kyle surprised me on my birthday with a trip to Asheville where we rode segways and visited the Biltmore Mansion!

(or some in my generation may remember it as the home of Richie Rich)

Another weekend, Kyle surprised me with a one night getaway to this gorgeous B&B, The King's Daughters Inn, in Durham, NC

We spent a couple of weekends with the family in Hilton Head, including Easter



Finally, I got a job in February and got pregnant in April.  And this summer alone, we've been to 4 weddings with 3 left to go; Kyle started Seminary and lived in a dorm a few nights a week for 5 weeks; We both went to the Summer Beach Project, which is where Kyle is now, and we will be headed to DC this weekend to celebrate the future Mr. and Mrs. JR Watkins.

What God has been doing...

I have heard that some married couples have a very easy first year; some have a very hard first year, but year 3 is hard, or year 7 is really tough.  Either way, someone always declares that there is at least 1 rough year somewhere towards the beginning.  Kyle and I had a hard engagement, so we were hoping we got our hard times over early on.  We were wrong.  We got married and pretty much right off the bat, year one started out tough.  This was our time to finally learn how to do LIFE together.  We hadn't even lived in the same state until we got married, and then we all of a sudden lived in the same tiny little apartment (which we love, by the way).  I learned a lot about Kyle, but even more about myself.  God reminded me of my continual need for the Cross and that unfortunately sin can quietly linger allowing you to believe you have completely overcome it and therefore lead to a dangerously unrepentant lifestyle.

It also wasn't until marriage that I realized I had all of these subconscious expectations for what marriage is like, the kind of wife I would be, and the feelings I would experience within marriage.  As Bill Farley says in his book Gospel Powered Parenting, we all have and live by assumptions that are like highways of unseen intellectual submarines deep in our subconscious.  We may not even see or recognize we have these assumptions, or expectations, but they are there, and "all our conclusions about life flow from these assumptions."  Kyle and I knew to talk about our expectations of marriage before the big day, and we did, to the best of our knowledge.  Little did we know that we had these little unseen submarines leading us in how we lived and responded to one another.

Within the first couple of months of marriage, we were already feeling overwhelmed with not only what we were learning about ourselves and each other, but also the unknown of what exactly was the problem and how could it be fixed?  That's when we sought help from our faithful pastor who married us, Pastor Craig.  He brought us to the Scriptures every time we met.  One of my most memorable meetings with him is when we took a look at the meanings of each word in I Corinthians 13:4-7. 

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

As I looked at the Greek word and its true meaning, I couldn't help but see how I have failed to love Kyle in every way that love is or is not.  This lead directly where God would have it lead: deep repentance.

God used those meetings with Craig, as well as time, and many conversations to grow me and Kyle more into His likeness.  About 6 months into marriage, it felt like life was changing for the better.  Kyle and I had more enjoyable times together than not.  Kyle continued to serve me, love me well and make me laugh, and in response I truly delighted in doing the same for him.

But it wasn't until a only few weekends ago when I realized, "Wow, I am absolutely loving marriage!"  I was at the beach and met a girl who was newly married.  She didn't know I was married but as I walked away from our conversation, I wished she had known because I wanted her to ask me how it was.  I would have told her, "I love it!  It's wonderful!"  As I thought through all this, I wondered, when did THAT happen?!   I remember my old response was, "It's really hard, but we're learning a lot about each other and how to do life together."  I couldn't come up with an exact time, but all I knew was at that moment on the beach, I worshipped God.  All this time he had been doing a work that I didn't even notice.  I am so grateful that because of Jesus, Kyle and I can experience true love and repentance. 

I am sure there are many more hard times ahead, but it is comforting to know through my own experience within marriage that God is present there too.  He shows up, and it is his desire and delight to reunite me and Kyle in a joyful marriage because ultimately it brings Him glory.