Grace Baby

                                                         Grace Baby #2   10 weeks 6 days

Yesterday we had our 1st ultrasound of our bouncing baby #2! Watching the baby play with its fingers and hear the strong heartbeat are always the best days of pregnancy for Josh and I. Ultrasound days definitely make the rough parts of pregnancy so very worth it.

This pregnancy is very different from my first one with Jackson. I have had morning sickness, but its been no where near as excessive as it was with Jackson. I've not battled getting dehydrated this time which as been a welcome change.  I still feel pretty icky, VERY lightheaded and tired. But I'm thankful its much better than before. Honestly, pregnancy is definitely not easy for me. I don't enjoy it very much, but I LOVE expecting a baby.  Knowing that our family is growing and thriving, that I'm carrying a little life, its an experience like no other and I'm so very thankful for it. 9 months really does go by incredibly fast and before I know it, we'll be introducing Jackson to his new sibling. I really can't wait! We're hoping for 4 children, I told Josh I'd love a set of twins in the mix. A two for one deal sounds great, lol. Guess we'll see how it all happens.  Parenthood has been a wonderful experience. Jackson brings so much joy to both Josh and I. We've loved watching him discover new things and experiences. His little giggle flips my heart every time and even though he's 10 months old, I find myself watching him while he sleeps and I'm still in awe he's here and ours. I can't wait to begin the adventure all over come January when our next little one makes his or her appearance.

This past month we took Jackson to Disney World for the 1st time. It was such a fun day. It was a completely different experience watching it all through his eyes. During one of the parade's the crowd was encouraged to join in, and Jackson, on Josh's shoulders, got to dance with Woody in the parade. Toy Story is his favorite movie so it was really neat that's the character that paid attention to him. I stayed a few steps back as I was video taping it and I ended up tearing up. Watching Jackson laugh and have so much fun, brought such a fullness to my heart that I couldn't help the few tears. I'm sure pregnancy hormones had a bit to do with it as well, lol.  But seeing the day through Jackson's eyes, watching his amazement and delight in everything, it made me so very grateful. This season of walking in the dreams Josh and I always hoped for, is such a surreal and amazing season. I'm constantly in awe of God's design and so very thankful for the paths he's laid out. I can't wait for baby #2 to be here and watch our little family of four grow! :-)

And then there were 4...coming January 2015!

WE'RE PREGNANT!!!!

Words don't do justice how excited we are to be expecting our 2nd child! The step into parenthood has been amazing and we're super thankful to get the chance to add to our family.  Jackson is 9 months old and so there will be about a 17 month gap between him and his new sibling.  And so far, I'm NOT sick! Only had one afternoon of morning sickness and felt great ever since. After being horribly sick the entire pregnancy last time, I was a bit wary it might happen again, but so far so good. :-) I am SUPER emotional though this time, lol. Jackson's favorite movies are the toy story movies and even those make me teary, lol. I'm a mess at hallmark commericals, and even teared up hearing a few stories on shark tank, lol. Not sad at all, just intense emotions. So that's pretty different. Didn't have that at all last time. Josh is convinced its a girl this time, we'll see :-)

Yesterday marked our 4th year of marriage and no better way to celebrate than by becoming a family of 4! :-)

“Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?"... "It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine...” ― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

"Winter" is almost over as April gets closer everyday. Our Florida winter has been terribly mild this year, full of weeks with Mondays in the 50's  followed by Friday's in the 70's.  Despite, the lack of winter we've had, I still can't help but get excited about spring time. Strawberries, sunny days, and lots and lots of flowers.  Spring time is always a pretty time in Florida. Fresh and new, before the oppressive heat sure to come with July and August.

This past month, Josh and I undertook a big challenge. In efforts to become less wasteful, more appreciative of what we have, and refocus ourselves and spending habits, we began a fiscal fast. For the entire 31 days of March, the only thing we would use our debit cards for was gas for the car.  No shopping at Target, no ordering on Amazon, no eating out, no impulsive last minute trips to the grocery store. In fact, no stepping foot inside Publix for the entire month.  Since 2011, we've been apart of an organic food co op and get weekly boxes of fresh produce. I found myself throwing away so much food gone bad each week due to poor planning and not getting used.  Grabbing a roasted chicken and potato salad from the grocery deli was so much simpler on crazy busy days when I hadn't planned or prepped dinner. The problem is, most of our days are crazy busy days, so this simple convenience quickly became a habit and we continued to waste both food and monetary resources.  Josh and I are blessed with the ability to not only purchase the items we need, but also the items we want. And our 7 month old son has more toys than his little bedroom can even hold. We found ourselves taking this luxury for granted. So we decided to do something about it. To radically change our focus and be the example we want for our child. We decided to do a 31 one day fiscal fast.

The prep for the fast wasn't very extravagant on purpose. I bought an extra box of diapers than I typically do and an extra gallon of the coconut milk we drink. Everything else was supposed to still fit inside my normal grocery budget that I hadn't been sticking too for months. Our produce is automatically deducted from our account each week so we would continue receiving fresh produce, but not going to the grocery store would force me to get back into the habit of relying on the fresh foods again. So clean eating was jumped back into with both feet.

We are 17 days into our fast, and honestly, it hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be.  Its actually created positive pleasant results that we've enjoyed. 1st, our food has been planned, fresh, and energy giving. Our "spare" time has been more focused on quality family time since we haven't been out spending money on a distracting event. Family time has consisted on a lot of playtime with Jack in his bedroom, family walks around neighborhood, and even taking the dogs with us to the lake.  Its been wonderful. I find myself grateful we have more than what we need already. The lack of errands has freed up a bit of time in my weekly schedule which has allowed time for a few other projects I've needed to focus on.  We're also $200 ahead in our budget than we typically are at this point in the month.  We knew we'd save money during the fiscal fast and while its nice, it pales in comparison to the other positive changes we've seen. We've decided that its going to be something we do every March, in order to remind ourselves to stay focused on what's important and as a way to raise thankful kids. After our fast, going out to eat will be a 1x a month special event. More thought will go into frivolous spending and family time will remain slow paced, full of conversations and laughter.

Its been an great 17 days thus far, we'll see how the next 14 days go!  :-)

6 months! Where has my newborn gone? :-)

I can't believe that Jack is 6 months old! It still feels like it was last week that he was born. The memories of him kicking inside my belly, the first time I saw him, the first time I held him in my arms...all seem so fresh still. Its hard to believe that in another short 6 months he will be 1 years old.  Time is flying by!

Little Man is flying through his babyhood. At 2 months he started rolling over, at 3 months he started crawling, at 4 months toys became his joyful focus, at 5 months he realized he loved our dogs, at 6 months he crawls incredibly fast to every part of the house, gets into EVERYTHING, and is trying to walk.  WHERE did my newborn go? :-)  Its been so fun to watch him discover and try new things.  Trying new foods have been particularly fun.  We had decided to skip  jarred baby food puree's and rice cereal since Josh and I try to stay away from overly processed foods as we can in our normal day to day and we wanted to do the same with Jack.  So around 4 months when he started showing curiosity towards food we where eating, we decided to let him try a couple things using the "baby led solids approach".  Since he was trying foods earlier than I had originally planned, I bought a baby mesh feeder that I put pieces of whole banana or avocado in for him to try. The mesh feeder helped him hold it better and taught him to chew up the small bites he would get their the mesh.  He used that about a month before he learned how to grasp tiny objects so I started giving him small cubes of steamed fruits and veggies. He is a curious and enthusiastic eater. So far the only item he doesn't like his peaches. I gave him a slice of a peach and he didn't like it. But avocado and sweet potato's seem to be his favorites, with green beans running a close third. I'm still nursing him for his primary nutrition, but the addition of trying new foods has been a fun process for him so far.

This past month, we had his baby dedication at our church. Josh's dad performed the ceremony. It was sweet and made me so thankful for the family we have and the church family we have. Jack has a lot of people around him to speak life into him and its a precious gift I value greatly.

Last week we went on a week long vacation to Marianna to visit our family up there. Jack got to play with his cousins and loved it.  My nephew Carson is 3 and my niece Julia is 2. Spending time with all 3 of the kids together made me incredibly excited for the large family we hope to have. I loved watching the kids all play together and it made the trip such a joyful one. With all 3 kiddo's so close in age It was loud, busy, chaotic, and I loved every minute of it. We even took the kids to the park one morning and Jack got to play in the sand and swing on the swings for the first time. It was a refreshing week as we soaked up family time.

Besides delighting in our growing little boy, life has continued the same fast pace as we're working hard to get new programs and ministries started at our church this year. The friendships and community we've developed at Genesis Church are such precious relationships and I'm constantly impressed and humbled watching the commitment, determination, and love the people in our congregation show towards others. I'm so happy to be apart of it.

The past 7 weeks

The past 7 weeks have a sleepy blur of bliss. I'm enjoying the cuddles and snuggles of the newborn phase. Even the waking up during the night hasn't been awful. I'm definitely tired, but every time I'm woken up by the needs of my sweet little boy, I remind myself to be thankful. Thankful he's healthy. Thankful he is growing. Thankful I get the opportunity to be a mother.  And feelings of being tired melt away as I remember my little man won't always need me this way. This precious time is such a short season and so this mindset has made even the 2am feedings special to me.

So far, at home Jackson isn't really a crier.  He fusses when he gets hungry and thats about it. He is a major cuddler and wants to be held all the time. I don't mind one bit. It'll be soon enough that my sweet boy will be running and jumping around. So I'm soaking up this sweet phase of snuggles.  However, we've learned that Little Man does NOT like to be in the car seat with a dirty diaper. And somehow within 5-10 mins of us being in the car- a dirty diaper always seems to happen. lol. He will scream rather passionately until we pull over so I can change him. Once in a fresh diaper- my sweet Little Man appears again and is as happy as can be for the rest of the car ride. lol.  He isn't a fan of the doctor either. He definitely knows the difference between Josh and I and the doctor. He'll start fussing before she even gets to examine him, but then the second he's back in Josh or I's arms- he stops fussing. Its been really neat to see how fast the bond a baby has for his parents develops. Jackson identifies us as comfort and anytime Josh speaks- Jackson will look around for him. He'll even wake up if he hears Josh's voice. (So Josh has gotten good at whispering when he gets home late, lol).  Last Thursday night, Josh has a grad class. So he didn't get home until close to 11pm. Jackson had been nursing and was falling asleep until he heard Josh's voice when he walked in the door. Then he was wide awake and looking for Josh. It was adorable. Watching Josh cuddle and talk to our son is my favorite part of the day. Its a completely different element to marriage, watching your spouse be a parent. Those moments melt my heart.

I've also been really surprised at how fast recovery from labor and delivery is. 7 days after delivery I'd lost 27 lbs (making me 7 lbs lighter than pre-pregnancy!) and wasn't sore anymore. Pretty much since pushing him out, I've felt great. Morning sickness is finally over and I feel like a real person again.  Pregnancy was pretty hard for me, so its been really nice to finally have an easier phase. I've got energy again and am even getting more sleep now with a newborn than I did when I was pregnant. During the pregnancy I threw up so much and so often that I was pretty much in a constant state of feeling bad. So its been really wonderful to feel good again. I was shocked about the weight loss that 1st week but super thankful for it.  Since I've lost all my pregnancy weight already, I can focus on dropping weight I had gained when I broke my ankle last year. I had been so afraid that I'd end up tacking on a ton of pregnancy weight to weight I'd gained with my injury and that it'd take me forever to lose it. But thankfully that hasn't been the case. Looking forward to trying and fitting exercise into my day again.

In other news, Josh officially received his credentials to be a minister with the Assemblies of God churches.  So the transition of Josh becoming the lead pastor for our church officially is just about to happen. Our church members and board all voted yes :-)  so just waiting on the district officials to set the date for the ceremony.  Its an exciting time and we are so thankful to get the chance to come along side such great people as we grow and do life together.  Its such a wonderful opportunity.

Life's crazy busy, but the good kind of busy. So thankful for this new sweet chapter as we are walking into parenthood and leading a church.  Its a growing and stretching season, but filled with such joy.

My heart is full.

                                                      My last picture pregnant : 41 weeks

                                      Born August 11th 2013 1:54pm  10lbs even 22 1/2 inches

                                                                         Full hands

                                           16 days old, wearing 3 month old clothes. My little man.

                                                                        Daddy cuddle time

                             This is the look I get when I put him down, lol. He prefers to be held.

                                                                      Little Ham

                                                                           Happy

                                                    1st smile caught on camera (3 weeks old)

                                               

" She decided to start living the life she had imagined"

I'm a Mama.

3 little words that hold such incredible significance and have forever changed me. Its so overwhelmingly surreal.

Little man was due to arrive August 1st, but didn't show up until August 11th. So at 41 weeks 3 days, he finally made his appearance. Labor was harder than I had ever imagined. It was discovered during my labor that Jackson was in the posterior position. He was head down, but face up. Making labor a hard and slow process since he was hitting my pelvic bone instead of slipping down under it. Thankfully, I had an amazing support team with me.  My doctor worked hard with us to help get him born safely (with NO c-section, thank God!) Josh was quite literally my pillar of strength when I just didn't think I could go on. Betty, my mother in law, brought such love and security to me when all I could do was cry from exhaustion. And Michelle, our doula, brought support and techniques to help me through the contractions and back labor that I would have been lost without. She empowered both Josh and Betty to help me in ways I hadn't anticipated needing. It was this team that helped keep me going as I worked hard to meet my son.

Sunday, August 11th at 1:54pm, after 43 hours of labor and 4 hours of pushing, Jackson Steven Grace was born. Weighing 10 lbs even, and 22 1/2 inches long and completely capturing my heart. With one last push, he was suddenly here and time stood still. I was crying, Josh was crying, and Betty was crying. It was the most magical moment of my entire life. I've never before felt so strong, so feminine, so close to my husband, or so in awe of God's design. It was the most intense experience I've ever had and equally the most amazing. I'm so incredibly thankful to have had the chance to experience it and to hold a happy, healthy baby boy in my arms. I look down at him and see parts of both Josh and I and I fall in love with my husband all over again. We created a little life together and now we get the opportunity to watch him grow. Words don't do justice how amazing that is.

I saw the quote "she decided to start living the life she had imagined" some time ago and it stuck with me. I believe that God puts desires on your heart for a reason and equips you with the ability to chase after those dreams. That is how Josh and I strive to live our life. To be always enjoying today as we move towards our goals. To not wait for things to simply happen, but to live each day finding the joy in it. Its hard work and keeps our days full, but the reward is rich. We are content. We are happy. We are living the life we had imagined.

Almost there

This week I'm 38 weeks pregnant! I can't believe how fast the past 9 months have gone. As rough as some moments have been, the pregnancy really has flown by so fast and I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to experience it. Growing a little life has been harder than I had imagined, but at the same time so wonderfully amazing. Every time I see Jackson shake my belly or feel a quick kick or slow roll, it never fails to make me smile. Its so amazing how intricate the whole process is and how God designed my body to know exactly what to do.  It really is amazing.

I've got 2 weeks left until my due date, but we've reached the milestone of being "full term." Meaning Jackson could decide to come at any point now and be safe and healthy.  My doctor has told me its just a waiting game at this point. He could come tomorrow, or wait until 41 weeks.  We'll just wait and see.  Both Josh and I are ready to finally meet this little boy we've been falling in love with these past 9 months.

Aside from extreme morning sickness that I've dealt with the entire pregnancy (even still), I've been incredibly blessed that we haven't encountered a single complication throughout these 9 months.  Both Jackson and I have been super healthy and I'm so thankful for that.  Somehow, despite not keeping much food down, my body has still managed to gain a healthy weight. I've gained 17 lbs total so far and my blood pressure has been amazing the whole time.  The pregnancy cravings that I've encountered over the past few months have been : Celery, apples, pickles (this was a big one- ate like a jar a week), grapefruit, and orange juice.  Not sure if water really counts as a "craving" but I can never seem to have enough water near me, lol.  Which even shows in the food that I have craved- with throwing up so much I've battled dehydration a couple times. And so it even showed in the foods that my body wanted- celery is mostly water, pickles balance out your electrolytes, grapefruit has high water content and folic acid. So its been interesting to see my body crave exactly what it needed to keep both me and Jackson healthy.  Josh and I were both pretty healthy eaters prior to pregnancy, but since getting pregnant- that upped even higher for me. My body just didn't want a whole lot of junk.  So its been super easy to primarily stick to foods that were healthy for me.  

We're almost done with the nursery decorations. It's taken us while to have time to paint the walls since we had to wait for Josh to get a break with grad classes.  But its coming along so well. We're doing a Dr. Seuss theme and I love it.  I know its silly since babies don't care about decorations and Jackson won't even sleep in his own room until about 4 months old, but it sure is fun for the parents to set up the nursery.  Just walking in the room makes me smile. Its adorable. 

As strange as it may sound, as of right now, neither myself or Josh have any nervousness or anxiety about the upcoming birth. I mostly just feel ready.  We've done a lot to prepare while still having a flexible mindset.  We're both definitely planners and pretty hands on when it comes to our medical care, but at the end of the day- birth is unpredictable. Never know exactly how it'll go until you're there. So we both have a solid understanding of the options available and what might happen in a true emergency situation.  But mostly, we both just feel ready. Josh is crazy excited about every part of pregnancy and birth. He is impressed with  how dramatically a women's body changes so quickly to care for a little life and he is ecstatic about getting to hold Jackson soon.  I'm very ready for Jackson to be in my arms soon, as well as have morning sickness finally be over.  And be able to breathe again, lol. Right now, Jackson is taking up a good deal of space which makes its near impossible to take a full breath at once.  But I'm pretty sure the fact that labor will mean the end of morning sickness is going to be huge motivation for me during the moments I'm exhausted.  So now we just wait and see what day this little man picks to be his birthday. :-)