Natalie Grace

Natalie Grace arrived on Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 4:58 p.m. weighing 7 lbs 4 oz and was 20 in long.


God is faithful. He got me through 21 hours of labor and natural childbirth and blessed us with this amazing little life! I find myself crying tears of joy and gratitude as I think about good He is to have chosen to give us this gift. I am overjoyed to spend my days as her mama and can't get enough snuggles and kisses from this precious little bundle. Praise the Lord, our daughter is here! Thank you, God for Natalie Grace!






We came home late Friday night and have been going, going, going ever since. Christmas Eve was spent going back to the hospital for a repeat bilirubin test, which came back with a good report. Then we went to my in-laws' to open gifts with Alex's side of the family. Natalie managed to sleep through the excited banter of her four older cousins and received an adorable rocking horse 1st Christmas ornament from her Memere and Pepere.

Christmas Day was spent at home with my parents, brother, sister, brother-in-law and niece. Bella was more than a little excited to hold her baby cousin!


We plan to stay home and relax tomorrow, which sounds amazing. I'm loving every minute of Alex being home on vacation and do not look forward to him returning to work in a few weeks. He took to being a daddy so naturally. He even sneaked Natalie out of her bassinet at the hospital (she stayed in the room with us, just to clarify. He didn't break her out of the nursery!) and cuddled with her in bed for a few hours the first night. He calms her down when she cries and has even succeeded at changing a couple dirty diapers. Nursing has been our greatest challenge, but Alex has been an amazing source of support. I wouldn't have survived the first three days of nursing without him. This has been the most fantastic adventure of my life thus far, but is already so rewarding. I can't imagine life without Natalie in it. Here's a couple more pictures for good measure! This is one of my favorites:


Layla has been really great with her. She lays at my feet when I feed the baby and looks for her when she comes in the nursery or when she's in her pack-n-play.

The Waiting Game

Today I'm so ready to meet my baby girl. I get asked at least 10 times a day how I'm feeling, if I'm ready, am I having contractions yet, etc. I'm feeling great and am having probably one mild contraction a day. Nothing exciting. Three days ago I would have answered that I wasn't quite ready, but now that my due date is just 12 days away, I'm just excited to see what Natalie looks like, to cuddle her close, to watch Alex hold his daughter in his arms and see his expression as she steals his heart. It's so surreal to think that this life-long dream of becoming a mother is about to come true. I can't help but hope that she comes sooner rather than later, even though I don't want to wish away these last moments as a family of two. With my sister and niece arriving for Christmas next Thursday, it would be really cool if Natalie chose to make her appearance in time to be back home on Christmas Day. My prayer is for her to be healthy and born with no complications, so whenever the nerves set in and fear and worry try to take over, I just pray and give it to the Lord because He is in control. Thank you, Lord, for this miracle of life!

37 Weeks, Wherein the Pregnancy Hormones Kick In

Today begins my 37th week of pregnancy. Gosh, that sounds like an eternity, but it has kind of flown by in a way. Until this past weekend, I'd pretty much felt like my same old self in the emotions department. No crazy mood swings, no crying fits, not even a craving (well, one day I craved nachos and french bread pizza, but other than that one day, I haven't craved anything!). Then on Saturday I started feeling overwhelmed about my pending motherhood. I tried to cross a few things off my "to-do before the baby comes" list and didn't get very far. Our hospital bags needed to be packed, but when I tried to pack Natalie's bag, I didn't know what to put in it for her. What if I left out something important? How many outfits did she need? Would the hospital supply diapers? So, feeling overwhelmed and like a horrible parent, I gave up and moved on to pack my bag.

Things didn't go any better there. So much laundry needed to be washed that I decided it would be better to wait to pack. In the middle of watching tv later that night, I looked at my growing belly and thought, "There's a baby in there, and she's getting ready to come out and I don't know what I'm going to do when she's here and I have to take care of her! I can't do this! It's too late to turn back now, but WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH A BABY!? I'M NOT READY FOR THIS!!!" I'd had my longest bout of Braxton Hicks earlier that afternoon after Christmas and grocery shopping for 3 hours. I think that experience kind of scared me a little because of the fear of the unknowns of labor.

Today, the emotions ran high again as I worried over a situation that I have no control over and stressed out about how and why I'd committed myself to so many crafting projects for other people that needed to be done before Christmas. After a few crying spells, lots of prayer, talks with friends and un-committing myself to one project, the day got better and now here I am. Layla is cuddled up with me on the couch and I'm relaxing to the sound of the dryer running. Alex was kind enough to play photographer for me once again so that we could capture this week's baby bump shot:



Our doula, Mattie, measured me at 33 weeks at my 36 week appointment, but she said that was nothing to worry about. Natalie's heart rate was 144 bpm, which is a little slower than average for a girl, but maybe that means she has her daddy's laid back personality. She's moving around a lot still and likes to kick her feet out against my right side. Maybe she'll enjoy playing soccer like I did. I'm not at all anxious to get this over with. I want her to stay in there and grow healthy and strong for a few more weeks, but hopefully no longer than three! I couldn't have asked for a better pregnancy. God has blessed us so abundantly; I refuse to take His blessings for granted by wishing this time away. Before I know it, my life will never be the same and there will be no going back to being a family of two. I want to enjoy these last few weeks and put aside the worries that tried to bog me down the past couple of days. God is bigger than all of that stuff anyway.

Mantle Makeover

A few months back, a friend posted pictures of her baby nursery on Facebook. She had incorporated an old fireplace mantle into the design and positioned the changing table in front of it and put a cute lamp and picture frames on top. I thought it was a really unique idea and added a lot of interest to the room. So, naturally, I wanted to find a mantle for Natalie's room, but I wanted it be turned into a bookcase. One of my mom's friends happened to have one that she was selling, so we snagged it and hauled it home.


My father-in-law is quite handy and was looking for a project to work on, so he offered to work on the transformation for us. He stripped off three layers of old paint and sanded it smooth until voila!


At my request, he also added some shelves in the back on both sides for extra storage to make use of every possible nook and cranny:



I love to just go into the nursery and stare at it. Is that weird? Natalie has quite a nice book collection already and I've been looking forward to rocking her and reading the Bearenstain Bears and Clifford. The "It's a Girl" banner was made by a friend for our baby shower and looks perfect hanging there. Stay tuned for the final "Man Cave Makeover" post with more nursery pictures (they're already on Facebook, if you want to peek)!

Thankful for Answered Prayers

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that you all enjoyed precious time with family and friends! I have so many things to be thankful for. Just yesterday, I saw the hand of God at work in our lives and it feels so amazing (more about that in a sec)! God cares about the little things. He loves the details. Why else would He have created a world with such a beautiful array of colors and creatures? He could have made everything in black and white, you know? Or He could have just made maple trees. Instead, He made about 100,000 different types of trees (just a random fact I Googled).

I've been listening to a sermon about why God created America and our history as a Christian nation. Some of the names were familiar from history class, but I had so quickly forgotten the details. The Pilgrims literally risked everything to gain religious freedom, but I'm too afraid to tell my family about Christ for fear of rejection and "feeling uncomfortable". I have so far to grow.

Despite my shortcomings, God loved me enough to save me and be in a personal relationship with me. He heard my prayers and recently brought Alex the opportunity to start a new position at work. My prayer had been that Alex would enjoy his work and would find favor with management. He has had favor in several situations over the four and a half years that he has worked for his company, but had become burned out from his current responsibilities. After growing up watching my dad work at jobs that he hated, that exhausted him physically, mentally and emotionally, I didn't want that for my husband or our family. My dad is an incredible man for sticking with it through the hard times and doing whatever it took to provide for us and I am so thankful for his sacrifice. He is a wonderful example to me. I was concerned for Alex because, #1: I wanted him to enjoy work and not dread going in every day and #2: I knew that the added pressure of being the sole financial supporter of our family once Natalie is born would only be magnified if he wasn't happy at work. Thank God that He provided this new opportunity! I'm so excited for Alex and can already see that he is happier.

Our second answered prayer was regarding me leaving my job at the bank to stay at home after Natalie is born. Some policy changes were recently made that would prevent me for getting paid for time that I've earned this year. I was anticipating the extra income to put into our emergency fund to give us some more financial security, but was told that the money wouldn't be coming after all. I prayed that God would work in my favor, but the decision was made and I had to live with it. Ok, no big deal. It would all work out. God would provide for our finances. Then, yesterday my boss told me that something else had worked out and that I would get paid after all! What a blessing! Thank you, Lord, for providing for us in Your perfect timing and for hearing our prayers! Finding our that we would be parents this year was an amazing gift and now my due date is less than five weeks away. What a blessing it is to anticipate her arrival and know that God is working out all the details so that it comes together just like He planned :)

A Homemade Recipe Book

This past week I was busy working on a lot of craft projects. I sewed a shirt and skirt for our niece's 6th birthday, embroidered a jacket for a friend to wear on her honeymoon and made two wedding gifts. One of the gifts was a recipe book because every time we hang out with this couple, the guy asks me for recipes to help his fiance out in the kitchen. I hadn't actually ever given them anything, so I thought they'd appreciate this idea.





I bought the photo album from Walmart and the Retro Aprons recipe cards from Christian Book Distributors. The cards are actually double-sided, so there's plenty of room for lengthy recipes. I cut out the frames around each section label "appetizers", "desserts", "main courses", etc using my Cricut and found a cut out for the tab dividers, too. I forgot that they make laminated tabs, which would hold up a lot longer than the ones I cut out of card stock. I hope that some of our favorite family recipes become the happy couple's favorites, too.

Now that I've finished these projects, I have to start on some burp cloths for a baby shower. I'd like to get around to making some for Natalie, too! Add that to my ever-growing to-do list....at least one items is going to get checked off the list later this week though, because our crib came in!!! We're going to pick it up on Thursday after our 30-week doctor appointment. I can't wait! I'm also going to have to add another little project to my list, because I thought this was too cute:

The bride bought this on Etsy and they put their cards in it on the gift table. Our current mailbox is the shape of a barn and is looking a little sun-baked. it's time for a modern makeover.

Well, Alex has started a movie for us to watch, so I'll leave you with a picture of us from the wedding today:

3rd Anniversary

Alex and I will have been married for 3 years tomorrow! I don't know where the time has gone because it really does just seem like yesterday. Neither one of us ever wanted to lose that "newlywed-ness" and I think most days I can honestly say that the we've been successful at keeping it alive. I truly cannot imagine sharing my life with anyone else. It's been so exciting preparing for the birth of our first child, a blessing from God to be sure. I can't wait to see Alex as a father.

We didn't make any elaborate plans to celebrate this last anniversary sans kids, but we did schedule in some quality time throughout the weekend. Yesterday we saw Courageous at the movie theater. I highly recommend it to everyone. The message was clear and strong: men, stand up and be bold enough to be the spiritual leader of your family. Teach your children the ways of the Lord and set an example for them. Encourage them to be who God made them to be. Don't wait for someone else to be an influence in your child's life. It's YOUR job as a father. I think that Alex really liked the movie. The whole topic was one that we've discussed numerous times, but I didn't think he fully understood the importance of. I hope that hearing that message in a different way helped it make sense to him and planted seeds on fertile soil.

Today is a banking holiday (thank you, Christopher Columbus!), but Alex took the day off, too, so that we could spend time together for our anniversary. We're going to lunch at Red Lobster and doing some shopping for the nursery. I don't need fancy gifts or an elaborate getaway (although those are nice, too!). I just want some quality time with my man and that's what we're gonna do! I've got my coupons to Hobby Lobby and Petsmart ready to go (shopping for dog food is soooo romantic, don't you think? LOL). Now I need to go get ready because somehow I don't think that Alex would want to be seen in public with a pajama-clad wife ;)