Baby Girl, 33 weeks!

 here she is leaning up against my uterus with her arm up & the uterus covering the left side of her face :)

 Baby girl at almost 33wks!!!  We LOVED seeing her; she reminds us so much of Braden & Elyse with the cute button nose & adorable profile...and she loves to rest her head against my uterus & have her hand up near her face to rest!!  She's so sweet!!  It's def different seeing your sweet babe on the screen & knowing if its a boy or girl, an amazing treat with both experiences & I'm so happy to know this round due to the circumstances!!  She's measuring great, weighing about 4.5lbs and thriving!  Docs are hopeful that we can make it to 36/37 weeks, I'm rooting for 37 weeks!!  We're so excited to meet this sweetness & we continue to pray she thrives & we can hang tight until 37 weeks!!  Placenta is still very much there & hasn't budged a bit, but it's looking very healthy & not losing nutrients to the baby, which is great news!  So we are preparing for a csection & I'm just thankful we have technology that protects our baby girl & my health. It was a happy appt & we are so thankful that all is looking good!  Thx for all the prayers & love!!  

Blast from the Past...

Here is Elyse with one of her besties just after their 1st bday parties...and Braden with his girl :)  

LOVE these oldy pics!!

My Heart

 WoooooooHooooooooo!!!!!

Please Help

Please help this family, who is the sister of a friend.  They lost absolutely EVERYTHING in 

the tornado this past Monday.  

Here is the link where you can donate/learn more about how you can help.

Thank you!

Mother's Day!!

This year was an extra special Mother's Day.  Some would think that being on bed rest it would just be no fun, but leave it to my amazing husband to make it a weekend full of celebrating and making me feel the extra love & specialness of it all.

Since my Mom has been staying with us and has been helping us out for over 9 weeks now we asked my Dad if he would like to come up to celebrate Mother's Day with us so that we could see him as well as my Mom & I getting to celebrate together.

 My Dad arrived ready to HELP because that's my Dad!  Between my dad & my hubs we had such a relaxing weekend and my Mom got to catch up on rest & be pampered!  My husband is pretty much the master on the BBQ and he made a feast! We had more food than we knew what to do with and he made my absolute favorite, grilled artichokes...so delish. 

It was such a sweet time full of amazing new memories and the pics pretty much say it all!

I hope all you Mommies feel blessed to have your littles; I know I do.   
They are a gift from above!

 I am such a blessed daughter, wife & Mama!

I saw this fun questionaire on a few blogs & love this so much I wanted to start it as a tradition of our own!

From Braden; 4.75yrs:
1.) What is something that Mama always tells you? saying I love you
2.) What makes your Mama happy? If I listen to you
3.) What makes your Mama sad? If I say I don't like you
4.) How does Mama make you laugh? She makes funny faces
5.) What is Mama's favorite thing to do? To play with me
6.) What is Mama's "job"? To take care of me
7.) What is your Mama good at? She's good at baking with me
8.) What is Mama's favorite color? Baby blue
9.) What's your favorite thing to do with Mama? I like to play with you
10.) Where is Mama's favorite place to go? Go to the park with us!
11.) How does Mama show her love to you? You give hugs & kisses
       
From Elyse; 3yrs:
1.) What is something that Mama always tells you?  How I'm good at dance
2.) What makes your Mama happy? When I'm being good
3.) What makes your Mama sad? When I'm not being good
4.) How does Mama make you laugh? She says silly stuff!
5.) What is Mama's favorite thing to do?  To play with me
6.) What is Mama's "job"?  Getting up & taking care of May May & Elyse!...but, you can't get up right now
7.) What is your Mama good at? Playing
8.) What is Mama's favorite color? Pink & Blue
9.) What's your favorite thing to do with Mama? Play!
10.) Where is Mama's favorite place to go? My dance class
11.) How does Mama show her love to you? Saying I love you

Happy 30 Weeks Baby Girl!

Happy 30 weeks sweet baby girl!!

The past few weeks have been crazy and not really in a fabulous way..I'm not quite ready to post about it, but just counting our blessings and praising Jesus that our baby girl is back to good health & that we are all back to good health and able to enjoy this awesome ****HOT**** weather!!!  It has been 100 degrees the past few days, which means the littles are living in the water :)  I on other hand am living in the shade with ice cold lemon water or in the A/C house!

It's completely surreal to me that I have been on bed rest for just over 9 weeks and we only have 8 more to go!!  8 weeks seems SO DOABLE!!!  We ultimately want to get to 38 weeks, but of course baby girl is good to come around 35/36 weeks should that be what the docs decide.  And baby girl is still healthy & measuring great.  We have another ultrasound in a few weeks, which of course I'm dying to get to!!  I want to see her!!!  I want to hear how awesome she's doing and I want to be assured all is well!  My bi-weekly doc appts are just quick updates on measurements, heartbeat & all that good stuff.

Baby girl is still super active and Braden & Elyse are obsessed with loving on her!  They are going to be the best Big Bro & Big Sis ever; we cannot wait...well, we can wait as we want her to stay put & get even healthier & stronger, but you know what I mean ;)

We love you baby girl!!  

We get to meet you so very soon!

 

Please Help Save Penny {please read link}

 A fellow Mama, blogger & amazing woman with a huge heart has a heart wrenching post I think everyone should read and be praying for.  Please take the 5 minutes out of your day to read about this sad story & see how you can help.  Please be praying for these sweet babies that DESERVE love and a family.

Save Penny

Happy 28 weeks sweet baby girl

Happy 28 weeks sweet baby girl!  You sure are an active thing & you are OBSESSED with kicking up in my ribs, which for the record your big brother & big sister never did to me ;)  And yay, we have survived 7weeks/2days of bedrest!

You definitely know your siblings voices as anytime they are with me you get all crazy & then they get excited and get to feel you kick around.  They are MADLY IN LOVE WITH YOU and they haven't even met you yet!  Big brother requested a special gift order for you this week so we will have that for your arrival and your big sister told me she really wants you to like dance so you both can do dance together :) 

 You. Are. So. Lucky. 

&

So. Blessed.

This past week was the hardest, most emotional week for me yet.  Last weekend I had crazy contractions and then this past Wednesday evening I had **light** spotting, which scared the daylights out of me!  I wasn't allowed to leave the upstairs the following day, to avoid further bleeding, which was absolute & utter torture for me.  It was a beautiful sunshiny day and to not be able to sit out back with my littles so they could splash around in their pool was so difficult.  But, I followed orders (and deep down was terrified of hospital bed rest if I didn't follow orders, so I literally got up to go tinkle and that was it!) and praise the Lord there has been no more spotting since that 1 time and just very few contractions.

I need to give acknowledgement & many thanks to our incredible friends that continue to blow me away with their selfless love and kindness.  The way they pop in for visits and offer to take the littles for the morning or afternoon so they get to still see their buddies (and also to help my Mom out) has been simply amazing, offer to bring meals or run errands while they are out.  And my incredible hubby & Mama that continue to plug along...I know they are both EXHAUSTED, but they keep everything going and I do not know what I would do without either of them; they are amazing!  I am so very fortunate & blessed and will never take it for granted. 

My heart is happy today; littles are happy and our little family is ecstatic to meet this baby girl that continues to keep us on our toes!  Praying this sweet babe stays put at least another 7-10 weeks...seems so far away, but praying we get there smoothly!  We see our doc for a check up at the end of this week and another ultra sound at the end of the month!

Friday Fun in Fotos! {a day late}

This Girl

This girl has had been giving us a bit of a run for our money this past week or so...especially on this particular morning {this past Monday} she was just a little stinker.  My sweet friend came for a visit along with her daughter, which is one of Elyse's besties, but Elyse was...well, lets just say she wasn't a great hostess ;) Then after my girlfriend left Elyse decided to book it out the front door...which is a NO NO and she knows that, but did it anyway.  Needless to say she got a long time out...we don't spank in our home, so she got a very long time out and 2 serious discussions ~ one with Mommy & one with Daddy.  After time out she came and sat with me and we read a book together and then this is what happened and she slept for 2.5hrs on me.  Poor girl was under the weather last week and none of us got any sleep as it was worse at night (isn't that always the case?!), so she was clearly catching up.  No nap that afternoon, but she was in great spirits which helped.  Love moments like these, but hate having to make my baby girl sad based on the decisions she makes.  Praying that we are doing a good job raising her & pray constantly for guidance as she is definitely our free spirit child!  Love you sweet girl more than you will ever know and hope you know we do it all out of love.

Hello 27 Weeks!

 We are now 27 weeks! {a few days late} It is incredible how each week feels like such a HUGE accomplishment when you are on bed rest and at high risk of delivery well before full term.  Keep growing baby GIRL!!

This baby GIRL is an active one and is apparently determined to keep us on our toes!  This past weekend had us all a tad shaken up as I was having pretty intense contractions back to back for just over 1.5hrs.  My hubs kept refilling my water (being dehydrated can bring them on) and I just kept chugging water and laying on my side.  I think baby girl was repositioning herself (or as some girlfriends have suggested maybe that Placenta is in fact moving, which can always happen, miracles happen & I am totally staying optimistic that it can!!)  Thankfully they began to subside and there was nothing further until about the same time on Sunday...but again, thankfully those subsided and we are OK.

We are beyond ecstatic to be 8-10 weeks from a safe delivery!!!!  It feels SO doable.  I've been on bed rest for 7 weeks (tomorrow) now, so another 8-10 seems SOOOOOOOOOOOO close!  We are aware that this is an even more crucial time to be uber careful and really follow docs orders.  The placenta becomes a higher & higher risk as you get in your 3rd trimester.  You risk bleeding because of the placenta which then puts baby girl (its still so weird that I know what's in my belly!) at and myself at high risk.  I trust the Lord has us taken care of and has His perfect plan and just trying to lean on that during the difficult days. 

Blue or Pink???

Due to this pregnancy not being a traditional one we decided to go against our tradition of not finding out the gender of our babes and this time to FIND OUT!  It was really special & magical in a completely different way and we are so happy to have gotten to share this joy with our littles and I believe they will forever remember the moment; and it was extra special having my Mama getting to be a part of it. 

A sweet friend of mine is an amazing baker and so I talked with her a few weeks ago about ordering a cake that I had found that I thought was so sweet to do a reveal celebration.  And in the frosting in the middle would be blue or pink :) 

We had our ultra sound last Thursday and we had my doctor put the gender in an envelope so we could pass along to our friend that was going to bake the cake.  Some would have thought this would have killed me to not open that envelope (which my doc had sealed, so she must've known the temptation!), but I was so excited to find out by cutting into a slice of cake for the "SURPRISE" that it didn't bother me much...my hubby was open to whatever I decided to do and my Mama was OVER THE MOON excited to find out, she wanted the doctor to tell her right then & there, lol!  But of course she was supportive to wait & truly excited to find out via blue or pink frosting :) 

It turned out incredible, as always!

 We all held the knife, while my sweet Mama video'd and we all brought the first slice of cake onto the plate...along the edge of the cake my baker friend had put blue & pink frosting dots around it and as we were cutting into the piece I saw some blue frosting come onto the knife so I was like "its a boy!!!!!!", BUT then as we flipped the cake onto the plate and saw it was . . .

 P   I   N   K  ! ! ! !

We shared our joy with our family & best friends that evening and immediately they were ecstatic, but naturally ask what were the littles reactions?  Braden, being our incredibly tender hearted boy & truly the best big brother in the world who is wise beyond his years & for months was processing in his head what his little heart desired.  He was hoping for a boy; he wanted a brother to tackle with, even though he tackles with Elyse, it's quite different since there are a lot of limitations being that she's a girl and he also wanted the baby to be able to sleep with him, should we end up having them share rooms down the road...in his mind he thought if it was a girl that just meant he wouldn't be able to be as involved, we were prepared, well as much as one can prepare, for his sadness if it was a girl...and when he saw the "pink" he was in denial for a minute and he looked at me with tears in his eyes and said "Mama, I wanted the baby to be a boy!  I wanted him to be able to sleep in my room!", so I quickly recovered with encouraging him and promising him that this baby girl could absolutely sleep with him, whenever he wants her to and he could hold her and carry her whenever his little heart desired.  I even told him if he wants to share a room that badly that we could have him & his bestest friend in the universe, Elyse, share rooms together asap!  And he looked at me and said "could we get bunk beds for Elyse to be in my room??!"...and quickly the tears of sadness were turned into tears of joy as his little heart realized that he had a very special new role being the big brother of 2 princesses and he was happy as could be about it!  As for Elyse, she was ecstatic to have a little sister & would have been equally happy if it was a boy, this sweet girl just wants a live baby doll of her own...and we are prepared for our current princess to have some future meltdowns as another princess moves in ;)

This little baby girl is going to be the luckiest girl alive; she has the world's best big brother to protect her, love on her & keep her safe and she has the world's best big sister to share secrets with & play dress up with!  And of course Daddy is freaking out a tad about 3 girlies in our home and Mama & GG have already begun shopping ;) Well, in all honesty Mama started shopping once I was put on bedrest for both boy & girl stuff (I thought we were having another boy, lol!). 

Have a happy week! 

Hello World!

Hello world!!  I'm 26.5 weeks young! 

Our appt went so wonderful yesterday!!!  Mama, Dada, big bro, big sis & GG got to see me on the big screen today!!  It was INCREDIBLE!!!  I'm a healthy little babe, weighing about 2lbs/2oz and growing perfectly!!!  And I have the sweetest profile, if I do say so myself ;)

 

Mamas placenta is still completely covering her cervix and is still on bedrest & looks like she will be until I am delivered via csection.  Mama was of course sad the placenta hadn't moved, BUT with all the wonderful news of me looking so healthy & on track as well as the placenta not having any complications (a lot of complete placenta previa patients end up bleeding early which causes complications, as well as baby not developing properly & placentas have higher chance of edges tearing which can lead to complications, etc etc) far outweighed having to be on bedrest for another 10 +/- weeks!!  

Thank you for all of you who have been praying for me, your prayers are being heard & I'm optimistic that Mama & I can make it at least 10 more weeks so I can come home to my family rather than having to be in the NICU.  Please keep the prayers coming!!!

xoxo
tiny tot :)

Bedrest . . .

Exactly 6 weeks ago at our 20 week ultrasound appointment for our 3rd little bundle we were informed that I have complete placenta previa and I was immediately on bedrest...now mind you when we walked into our routine ultrasound/check up we thought everything was going perfect as our previous pregnancies had been going.  Being the extremely active family that we are this rocked our world like I never would have imagined.  I completely broke down with our amazing Ultrasound Tech Doctor and quite bluntly asked "how am I supposed to go on bedrest?  I don't have time for bedrest"  My husband is a CPA, so this was the time of year we only really see him on Sundays so my role is crucial to keep things rolling in our household, we have no family in town to help us out and we have a 4.5 & 2.5yr old to care for.  Our 4.5yr old has school 3 days a week as well as extra curricular activities to attend and our 2.5yr old has dance once a week to attend.  My head was spinning at the thought of not being able to do anything for who knows how long absolutely rocked my world and terrified me. We immediately went to our OB office to discuss what this all meant and what we really had to do; of course baby comes first and everything else will follow, we would do whatever we had to, but it just felt like a nightmare as it was so unrealistic to think of bedrest. Our OB was just as concerned and started talking in terms of a 22week/24week old baby and how very scary that would be and our goal is to keep this babe cooking for as long as we can, each week speaks volumes when in utero.  Again, I was an absolute & utter mess.  Anyone that has so much as even met me before knows my only hearts desire is to be a Wife & Mama...I love being a Mama so much I am sure it freaks my hubs out a tad as we may end up with our own army ;)  To think of the thought of if I didn't follow "the rules" (which I hate rules, always have & probably always will, lol!) that I could actually have my life threatened, which at first I hadn't even thought of as I was just thinking about the baby, the baby, the baby!!  I needed to do this FOR MY CURRENT BABIES!!!  I couldn't be foolish and just say yea ok bedrest, I'll do what I can and worse case we deliver a very pre term babe, no way my 4.5 & 2.5yr old depend on me, I would never want them to have to grow up without their Mama.  A Mama who lived & breathed for them and kept our calendar so jammed packed so they would have the worlds absolute best memories growing up.  They needed both Mama & Dada, that is the way Jesus intended it and that was now not only docs orders but my mission...to get this babe as full term as we possibly can.  We gathered our things and headed home.  I was always SO EXCITED to call my Mama & give her all the updates after each appt, but I didn't want to call after this appt.  I didn't want to talk to anyone, I wanted to crawl into bed and just pretend it was all a very bad dream.  But, Braden had school the next morning and I was told I can't take him...so I called Mom and lost it the second she answered the phone.  She was SO EXCITED waiting for our call to learn all about the updates on the babe...and little did she know we had very hard news to swallow.  Without even seconds passing by of the difficult news she without hesitation said "I can come up and help you, I will get things ready tonight and be up asap"...of course Jesse & I had talked about asking her if she could come help us out, but the thought of asking her to come up for possibly 16-17 weeks seemed harsh when she & my Dad haven't been apart for more than a few weeks at a time during their 36 years of marriage, but they are my bestest friends and I knew they wanted as much as us what was best for this precious baby.  Soon after I got off the phone with Mom I sent out a text to our best friends letting them know the news and asking for help for the following morning until Mom got into town to take over.  I am so beyond grateful for the amazing friends that the Lord has truly blessed us with up here.  We have an amazing group of friends that we all celebrate our littles bdays, each others bdays, game nights, holidays and being there for each other when we need each other most, without hesitation.  They not only jumped in to help take our son to & from school, but dinners began showing up that day as well, not just 1, but 2 meals, including one of my best friends setting up a meal calendar where meals started coming practically daily.  Mom was here by nightfall that same day with arms wide open to love on us and help where needed, constant checking in on how things were going from family & friends, my wonderful Mother in Law on her way up with a Costco run for us...I felt like a terrible person because people were calling to check in and I just couldn't handle talking to anyone besides my hubs, Mom & Dad; it was all too emotional and overwhelming and was getting me more and more anxious, which caused me to get contractions, to think about talking about it more on the phone...to keep rehashing it was just making it harder.

Here are some bump pics to break up this ridiculously long post!
 {phone pic :: 9 week bump w/ my incredible girlfriends}

 {phone pic :: 14week bump, big sis lovies}

 {phone pic :: 18week bump}

{phone pic :: 18wks & littles finally get to feel this crazy tiny tot kickin their Mama :)}

{phone pic:: 19week bump}

{phone pic :: 20wk bump; had to take a break from play with littles due to contractions}

{phone pic :: hello world!  I'm 20.5 weeks young}

{phone pic :: 22wks; survived 1st week of bedrest}

{phone pic :: 1st month of bedrest survived, WOOOOHOOO!!!  
after nap sillies w/ my lil loves}

    {phone pic :: 23week bump}

 {photo pic :: easier moments of bedrest}

 
{phone pic :: kisses from best big bro}

 {photo pic :: 26week bump, bye bye toes!}

 {phone pic :: 25week bump}

 {photo pic :: 26week bump}

  {phone pic :: on our way to our 24 week check up; littles love to love on their baby bro/sis}

 {phone pic :: 25week bump}

Fast forward to 6 weeks, 
we have all survived!  
 It is truly amazing to me how fast it really has gone.  The days go by incredibly fast, shockingly...probably since they are always off doing something, which I suspected would drag for me being left behind.  And of course there are days that do, but my Mom & I have made a list of "projects" to keep my mind busy...and things are slowly being checked off my never ending project list (thanks pinterest!)!  It is the weekly marks that do seem to drag a tad.  We are now 26weeks 6days along; WOOOOHOOO!  **If** the babe ended up coming this early I believe babe would survive, but we would be working with the NICU at this point.  We are extremely optimistic to make it as full term as we can get, which will be 36/37 weeks.  I trust the Lord has His hand covering us and protecting us.  I'm a big time planner and am learning (slowly) that His plan is ALWAYS BETTER than our plan.   Thankfully the Lord has it all under control in His perfect timing.

Until next time...

Elyse turns T H R E E!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy 3rd birthday to the most spunky, energetic, dramatic, sweet dancer, silliest girl I think we have ever met!  At 8:05AM 3yrs ago you literally flew out of me before the doc could even get to the room; from day one you have been determined and definitely have a mind of your own; our free spirit child! 

You are the absolute epitome of my dream daughter and thank you Jesus for entrusting this precious soul to us; she is truly a dream come true.  We hope you know how much your loved and always know how much your Mama, Dada & "May May" LOVE you and will forever be here for you.  Happiest of birthdays sweet girl!

Questionaire for keepsake:
How old are you?  THREE!
What makes you happy? Having a birthday party
Whats your favorite animal? baby bear
Whats your fav thing to eat? pancakes & marshmallows
Whats your favorite thing to do?  Run around & dance & tackle
Whats your fav TV show?  Angelina Ballerina 
What are you really good at? Dancing
Whats your fav movie? Peter Pan
Whats your fav color?  Pink!
Whats your fav song? You are my Sunshine
Who are your friends? Piper, Presley, Layla & Ava
What do you like to do w/ Mama?  Run around with you!
What do you like to do w/ Dada? Tackle!
Where is your fav place to go?  Zoo
What's your fav book?  Ballerina
What do you want to be when you grow up?  A Mommy   

We had a sweet & simple celebration with her besties.  She requested a "pink donut dress up party" and that is what we did.  It was the most memorable celebration yet; watching her with her sweet friends is priceless. 

 
We had a sweet family celebration that evening; the highlight for her was her 
pink ombre tutu cake :)