Late 2 month update!

Realized I never posted this 2 month update on Maribel that I had written... :)

As I'm sure other mothers can attest to... having two children keeps you on your toes and you don't have much down time to do things like blog! So my Happy 2 Month Maribel blog is coming a bit late. :)

My beautiful Maribel is already now 2 months old and growing so quickly! Right around the 2 month mark she has started to really be much more social. She gives big cheesy grins to me all the time and I've gotten a faint giggle once or twice! It's so rewarding when your sweet baby starts responding back to you! You know you must be doing something right. She LOVES her bouncer and "talks" to the little monkey and lizard that go up and down. She wasn't doing this right at 2 months, but this past week (10 weeks) she can now hold her head up on her belly for short bits of time. Go Maribel! I love my sweet baby girl and treasure every single moment that I have with her.

After her 2 month check-up, I started putting her on her belly in her crib for naps because napping had become very difficult for her. She has been sleeping SO much better for naps since I did that. I have the monitor in her crib right next to her so I can hear her breathing over the monitor. She takes about 4 naps a day - sometimes 3. Her middle of the day nap is usually the longest one. We are mostly on the eat/wake/sleep cycle except for evening time. She seems to be MUCH hungrier in the evening hours between her last 2 bottles - about 2 hours between. The other periods of the day are usually between 3-4 hours.

I had been doing the babywise format - waking her in the morning at the same time, feeding her at the same intervals (every 3 hours) but it just didn't seem to work well for her and she is more varied during the day of when she needs to eat. So even though she's on a routine - it's not a strict every 3 hours. She has fallen in to her own pattern really well. She marches to the beat of her own drum unlike Lily did at that age. :) Lily was already going every 4 hours predictably and eating a lot more. Maribel usually drinks between 3-4 ounces.

She goes to bed now at about 8:30 each night. I lay her on her back for nighttime sleep and swaddle her. She sleeps really well. I wake her at 11 to feed her before I go to bed and then she is still eating one more time in the night - usually around 4am. Hoping we'll get through the whole night soon though!

lily-isms

I also forgot to post this blog I had been updating about little Lily-isms... some recent, some a few months old. :)

"it's okay, it was just fudge."

"i'm not going to get a treat" - to ms. phyllis about pooping

uses the phrase "if you say so" a lot

loves watching fraggle rock, busytown (richard scarry)

in reference to thanking God for our daily bread she said "no not daily bread, we're having macaroni and cheese!"

Me to Lily: "don't put your spit on your sister"

A recent prayer "Dear Jesus, Thank you for a good day and help me to be patient while daddy watches the news and i pray for maribel and help me to listen and obey. Amen."

"It's okay mommy, accidents happen."

"I spy something horsey" - her thing for me to guess when playing I spy... she obviously didn't quite get the concept of the game yet.. I guessed the horse pretty quick. :)

lily things

I feel like this past month has been a real turning point for Lily. She seems to have "grown up" and changed so much! I've been trying to jot down things that I want to remember at this point in her life. Might be disjointed for reading but the whole purpose of this blog is to have our memories recorded... so here goes:

Lily recently got her first board game - Candy Land! A classic and one of my favorites. She actually does pretty well with it although doesn't quite have the patience yet if it takes too long.

Most times when she is singing ring around the rosy she sings the chorus like this "lettuce lettuce we all fall down." I have no clue where she picked that up from but it's hilarious!

Lily can draw really good circles and lines now and is attempting to draw other things like a stick person. She can recognize a lot of letters now including L, Y, O, A, B, and S.

She will "read" books to me now and it's so cute hearing her turn the pages and make up the story as she goes. She actually is pretty right on with books that we read a lot.

Lily loves to pretend to play ghosts or as she calls it "ghosted." I'm pretty sure she has picked up on wanting to play this from her cousin Aaron. Her imagination has really taken off and she is pretending/imagining lots of things now.

She LOVES to dance and put on shows for us! Most times she likes using this backyardigans radio player thing to dance to. She will name her dances that she comes up with too - my favorites are the pointy dance and the princess dance!

After we have family Bible and prayer time in the evening, Lily likes to play woodpecker. It's not really a game but she came up with pretending that there is woodpeckers in the room and we point to them and describe what they look like. She also just likes to shout the word woodpecker together. Crazy, I know! :)

One night during prayer time, Matt asked her what she wanted Jesus to help her with. Her response: my hello kitty puzzle. :) Most times she wants to pray for her sister, too sweet! At mealtimes she has started saying her own prayer versus the traditional "God is great" prayer. One night she prayed "dear Jesus, thank you for my family and my food, amen."

Still working on potty training. Never thought it would take this long! She has good and bad days in that department but we'll get there eventually.

Can't believe my first baby girl is starting preschool at our church in just a little over a week! She'll be going 2 mornings a week so it's not a lot but still bittersweet for me. I know she is going to love it though because she loves going to sunday school. And she is going to have a wonderful teacher too!

Finally... got Lily's haircut this past week and it's ADORABLE!!! It desperately needed it because the top layer was getting out of control and longer than the underneath so it was weighing everything down. We went to this cute kids haircut place called Pigtails and Crewcuts. She loved it! Here's a picture of my sweet girl:

one month of maribel

Dear Maribel,

You turned one month on Saturday and I can hardly believe it! I always worried when I was pregnant with you about having enough love for two children instead of just one. Boy was I wrong. I can't imagine our family without you. I have fallen head over heals in love with you! The past month has been a whirlwind and you're already growing so much!

There are so many things that I love about you but here are a few. I love how you smile as a reflex when I kiss your cheek. I love your sweet face as your asleep on my chest. I love that you have your dad's hairline right now. :) I love your adorable cute perfect nose. I love when you stare at me and move your mouth like you just want a noise to come out of it. I love how your head bobbles when I'm holding you up. I love how you squeak in your sleep sometimes. I love your little feet. I love how you smell.

Most of all... I just love YOU Maribel! I'm so thankful that God has blessed me with such a sweet little baby girl as you.

Love,
Mommy

Maribel's 2 week check-up and Lily-isms

We took Maribel to the doctor for her 2 week check-up on Wednesday. I am happy to report we have a healthy beautiful little girl! She weighed in at 7 pounds 4 ounces (25%), length was 20 3/4 inches (70%), and head was 36.5 cm (60%). Everything the doctor checked was great. Maribel is drinking about 3 ounces every 3 hours right now. I think she's hitting her 2 week growth spurt though because last night and once today she actually drank 4 ounces. She still sleeps most of the time but usually has a good awake spell at least once during the day and then for awhile at night. And in other Maribel news, her umbilical stump finally came off this evening! Yay!! Now she has a cute little belly button.

Lily loves helping to take care of Maribel- it's so sweet to watch! She's a great big sister! Lily has definitely started to learn sassiness now. We've been having to crack down on her tone of voice now and how she says things to us. We've been talking with her about the word disrespect and what that means. She seems to understand and will correct how she says things when we tell her that it is disrespectful. Lily has also been using these big words that I'm sure she's heard us say - like the word "apparently." It's so funny to hear my 2 year old use such complex words!

And a cute conversation between Lily and her daddy at dinner the other night:
Lily - "Ewww, there's a mushroom right there!"
Daddy - "You don't even know what a mushroom is."
Lily - "Haha. What's a mushroom?"

Matt is an incredible father and husband. I just have to say that he has been so supportive and helpful during this time of adjustment for us. He's been right by my side and I even awoke the other morning to the smell of bacon! He had made a big breakfast for us, including my coffee! What an amazing husband and daddy!

I am so incredibly blessed with this wonderful family of mine! I love my husband and my two sweet girls!

Maribel Jane Bruns is here!

So before I forget Maribel's birth story, I want to write it down (although this one might be hard to forget!).

I called in early Wednesday morning for my scheduled induction as I was 5 days past due. The hospital said they didn't have room yet and would call me when I could come in. It was nice because I could spend some time with Lily before heading off to the hospital. They called about 10:30 and said to make my way in. So we dropped Lily of at Nana's house to play/spend the night there, said goodbye very tearfully, and headed to the hospital. We got to the hospital about 11:30, got registered and all hooked up in the room.

Dr. Wilkes (my OB) came in at 12:30 and broke my water. During that process the baby's heartrate dropped so I had to lay on my side, have oxygen, get extra iv fluids to bring it back up. Then I waited for about an hour to make sure the heartrate was good and after that they let me get up to walk to try and get contractions going.

By 3:30 I hadn't had many so we made the call to go ahead and start pitocin. I started having contractions at that point and at 6:00pm I knew I needed an epidural. I was in unbearable extreme pain. At that point I was 6 cm dilated. And of course the anesthesiologist was in the OR at the moment so it took a half hour before he got there. They were getting me all set up on the side of the bed to do the epidural but right before he gave it to me the baby's heartrate dropped drastically again and it wasn't coming back up with just laying on my side. At that point there was a bunch of people in the room and it was chaotic and scary! A nurse had me get on all 4's in the bed (while in extreme pain!), was stimulating the baby's head with her hand, oxygen, and more fluids. Then I was already at 8cm. They finally got the heartrate up but because my blood pressure runs so low and was even lower at that point they were concerned about doing an epidural. So the doctor checked me again and I was already 10cm and ready to push - AHH! I just kept saying/screaming "I can't do this without an epidural!" The anesthesiologist was able to quickly give me a shot in the spinal fluid for the pain (I think it's called a spinal block) but because I immediately started having to push the pain medicine really didn't have that much time to kick in. Thankfully it only took about 4 contractions of pushing and she was out at 7:09pm! I still can't even believe I did childbirth with no epidural. And let me tell you if we have another one at some point, I will be asking sooner for the epidural.

They told me after the birth that Maribel's heartrate dropped so much at the end because I probably had a rapid descent. That meant that the baby came down really quickly and I dilated really quickly (thus the quick jump from 6cm to 10cm). No one can describe that awful pain that you have near the end of labor. I didn't think I was going to be able to push - the pain and extreme pressure seemed unbearable.

When they laid her up on my chest after she came out it felt so incredibly wonderful. That feeling of seeing your new little baby for the first time is so beautiful. And knowing that I had just pushed her out with no epidural made it even more incredible I guess because of the relief I felt!

Maribel Jane Bruns weighed in at 6 pounds 13 ounces on July 14th at 7:09 pm. She was 20 inches long and so beautiful with wonderful dark hair just like her sister's. We're so happy that she is a part of our family!

crazy 4th of July and 40 weeks

Let's just say that Sunday, 4th of July, was a chaotic stressful day for our little family. Matt's side has been bothering him and he had been to the doctor about it before. They said it was something he probably pulled possibly playing golf. Sunday morning at church one of the teens basically threw his whole body in to Matt right where it had been hurting. It sent Matt into having severe pain there, especially when he breathed. So off he went to Patient First. They took an x-ray and everything came back good so it was just a reaggravation of the initial injury. He's been taking prescription ibuprofen which has helped.

We headed off to Matt's parents for a pool/bbq party that afternoon. Matt drove to the NC border to get a whole bunch of fireworks for us. Lily and Aaron were playing in the backyard around the corner and all of a sudden I hear a blood curdling scream. I run around to the side and after getting Aaron to try and explain to us what happened we figured out that Lily had gotten stung by a wasp. I saw the place on her face. There was an air vent coming out of the house and I'm guessing Lily looked up in to there and got stung. Matt's dad found a small nest starting with them up in there. Poor little girl was SOOO upset and acted like she was in so much pain - it was pitiful. :( I called the ped's after hours nurse line and they told me what to do for it and a baking powder paste initially helped the pain subside. It's looking much better now and all you can see is just the place where she got stung.

Then that evening I started feeling AWFUL! The day before my throat had started to feel scratchy. Well the sickness hit and I ached all over and had the chills really bad. I was a mess because in my mind I was thinking, I can't go in to labor right now I'll never make it! We came home, I got some tylenol in me, and then went straight to bed. I slept for 12 hours that night and the next day was feeling better. Now I just have cold stuff - stuffy nose/drainage. Hoping it goes away completely before this baby gets here!

Tomorrow I will be 40 weeks - yes 40 weeks! I can't believe it's already here even though it's been one of the longest weeks ever! I had an appointment today. Everything was good. Measured 38 weeks and weight was still the same, 136. Cervix was 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced. Baby's head was at 0 station now so she's all ready to come down the birth canal when it's time! Dr. Wilkes gave me his personal cell phone number to call when I go in to labor. If he feels like he won't step on the doc-on-call's toes, then he said he would come in to do labor/delivery for me! And even if he can't, he said he can at least stop by and check on me. The next day he is on call is next Wednesday, the 14th. So if I haven't had the baby by then, he has scheduled me for an induction that day. I go for an appointment on Tuesday to see how I'm progressing. Here's hoping baby decides to come on her own before then!

Book Recommendation

I love to read but find that it's hard for me to fit reading in to my life now a days. Lately I've been reading a chapter or so before I go to bed of a book. Matt is gradually building a good library of stuff that I find really interesting. I just finished up "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" by Donald Miller. It was a good interesting read and I would highly recommend it.

After finishing this up though, I moved on to a book by Mark Driscoll called "Religion Saves: And Nine Other Misconceptions." One of the first chapters or "answers" that I read from him was about the emerging church movement. VERY INTERESTING! If you are at all familiar (or not) with the missional or emerging church concepts than I highly recommend this. I knew of the "emergent church" and I had also heard of the missional church movement but I found out I didn't know much and what I did know was incorrect. It brought in to light a very interesting perspective on the "emergent liberal church" and some of its main leaders. I knew that there was faults with this movement/belief system but I didn't know what they were and to what extent they were until I read this chapter. I'm grateful for a better perspective on this now and also the un-Biblical traps they are falling in to.

Well.. that's my rant on my reading as of late. If you have any good book recommendations, pass them on!

38 weeks and the girls rooms

I had my weekly check-up today. Everything was great. I weighed in at 136 and blood pressure was good. My cervix is 1.5 cm dilated, 80% effaced, and baby's head is at -1 station. My belly measured 37 weeks. Dr. Wilkes is still thinking I'll have a shorter labor... hoping that's true!
Since week 38 hit, I feel like time has drastically slowed down. The entire pregnancy has gone by really fast until now. In some ways I'm ready to just get this show on the road but other times I feel like I'm not ready yet! I've been praying that God would make this adjustment a smooth one for our family.

The girls rooms are finally done, well almost. :) I am still waiting on the other curtain rod to be delivered for Lily's room and then her room will be complete. Feel so good to finally have their rooms just the way I wanted them! Here's a few pics I took:

lily things

Lily says the cutest things now. Sure wish I could remember a lot of them! One of the most adorable things she's been saying to me now is when we're laying down together she says "mommy, we're best friends." Melts my heart! Of course, I have to cherish it now because I'm sure several years down the road she's NOT going to be saying that!

Don't know if I said this in the last post or not, but we took Lily to see Toy Story 3 last week. She loved it and loved the popcorn even more I think! During the summer, AMC theaters show kids movies at 10am on certain days for FREE! And in the 100 degree heat we had today, it definitely called for an indoors activity. Lily and I went with Nana and Aaron to go see Curious George. Cute movie! Then we had lunch together at Panera Bread.

Lily is also already so sweet with her little sister in my belly. She loves to give my belly hugs and will talk in this really sweet voice to her. Usually the one sided conversation goes something like this "I love you baby. It's okay baby, I will take care of you." Here's hoping that she loves her just as much when she finally arrives!

hodge podge

Today I went for my 37 week check-up. Everything was great. Dilated 1 cm., 70% effaced, -1 station. I had gained 1 pound since last week so I'm at a total of 134.5. I had to see another doctor today since Dr. Wilkes didn't have any appointments for this week but she was really nice.

This morning Matt left with the youth group for missions trip. They are going to Hillsville, VA to do some work at Joy Ranch. Having him leave while I'm not pregnant is hard enough but it's been much harder being 37 weeks pregnant! I'm trying to stay busy so I don't get lonely or worried. I'm praying that the trip goes really smoothly since this will be Matt's first time being THE leader of a missions trip. I'm sure he's going to do a GREAT job!

Yesterday was father's day and I was going to post pics but Matt has the camera with him. We had a great day despite the many things he had to do to get ready to leave. Lily made his day by telling him that he was a "really great daddy" while putting her to bed. What a sweetheart! I have to agree that he is the most incredible amazing loving caring dad to our little girl. The love he has for Lily makes me so happy! We had church in the morning and then later on in the day was able to go out to dinner for father's day.

We've been spending lots of days at the pool lately because it's been so hot! Storytime for a short summer session started again today and Lily was very excited. She loves that so much! I've also been busy getting things finished up at the house and ready for baby. The girls rooms look great - I love the paint colors and my mom is now working on the final touches, the curtains. I'll post pictures once they're finally completed.

Saturday was our baby shower for #2 hosted by our friends. It was nice and relaxing - a pool party/bbq at Matt's parents house. We got a few things that we needed including some diapers! Now just have to pick up a few more things at the store this week that I still need. I really want a moby wrap this time but I hate that you can't buy it in an actual store so I'm trying to decide whether to spend the money or not.

35 week check, painting, funny lily

Went back again today for a weekly baby belly check up. Seems like I'm there all the time now that I'm going every week! Things looked great. Heartrate was 142 and belly measured 33 weeks. I weighed 132.5 (gain of a pound) and blood pressure was good.

They did the swab test for Group B strep today. I didn't have it with Lily so chances are it should be negative again. I was about a fingertip dilated (less than 1 cm) and the baby's head has come down and is low in my pelvis. All in preparation for D-Day! It's coming very quickly now and I'm starting to get the freak out moments that I think all parents get before they have a baby!

I'm still trying to finalize my choice for a paint shade for Lily's room and baby girl's room. I know I'm doing a green in Lily's room and a coral/peach in baby's room but have had a hard time determining the right shade I want. Want to paint by the beginning of next week though. Then I still also have to order blinds for both of their rooms (doing room darkening roller shades) and have my mom make curtains. All of this which I'm hoping to get done in the next week or two.

I don't know if any of you have seen the SNL skits with the character "gilly" in them. But Papa has taught Lily how to do the "Gilly..., Sorry" thing in almost the exact tones that they use. It's hilarious! If you haven't seen the skits you should look them up on the web.

Having a good week. Monday (our family day) was lots of fun. We took Lily to the zoo, went to Macarthur mall for lunch, played putt putt that afternoon, and got slurpees. Yesterday we met Mary and her girls for a playdate at the children's garden/water play area at Botanical Gardens. Lily had a blast and wore herself out!

34 weeks

Went for my 34 week check up on Tuesday and had an ultrasound. This pregnancy is flying by, now I'm already 35 weeks! I feel like we still have so much to get together before baby girl gets here.

The ultrasound showed everything was great. They did some more 3-d shots and she looks like she has really chubby cheeks and even gave us a smile! She is in the 35th percentile for weight, a smaller baby like Lily was. And she was measuring mostly around 33 weeks for all her limbs/parts, etc. They estimated that she weighs about 5 pounds right now.

I'm actually only measuring 31 weeks (belly size) but Dr. said that was fine too since I'm a smaller person. The baby is growing good which is what matters. I weighed in at 131.5 pounds (only a half pound gain from 2 weeks ago).

And here are a few ultrasound pics and my preggo belly at 31 weeks:

my belly and lily's foot

Went for my 34 week check up today and had an ultrasound.

The ultrasound showed everything was great. They did some more 3-d shots. She looks like she has really chubby cheeks and even gave us a smile! She is in the 35th percentile for weight which is fine, just a smaller baby. And she was measuring mostly around 33 weeks for all her limbs/parts, etc. They estimated that she weighs about 5 pounds right now.

I'm actually only measuring 31 weeks (belly size) but Dr. said that was fine too since I'm a smaller person. The baby is growing good which is what matters. I weighed in at 131.5 pounds (only a half pound gain from 2 weeks ago)!

Then, I had to take Lily to the doctor this afternoon too. We noticed Monday that she was walking on her left foot funny - curving it towards the outside with her toes under like something's wrong. Dr. Fink had her go to get an x-ray yesterday afternoon and I'm still waiting to hear back the results.

2.5 years old!

I'm going to take Lily's half birthday as a jump start to me faithfully blogging again... hopefully...

Dear Lily,

You are now our 2.5 year old bubbling little girl! You continue to amaze us in everything you do and say. Having conversations with you is so much fun now. You have such a huge vocabulary and can talk with me and daddy about anything you want to! You can count to 12, attempt to color in objects, draw fairly straight lines, say the whole alphabet. You recognize a lot of things without us telling you what they are - Target, Mt. Trashmore park, the mall, chick-fil-a.Some of your favorite books include the belly button book, the little red hen, and anything we check out from the library! Storytime at the library is one of your favorite things to do - we sing songs, use a parachute, and listen to a story. Some of your favorite songs include the lion sleeps tonight, the b-i-b-l-e, skinamarinkidinkidink, and zaccheus. You love listening to music and dancing.

You LOVE going to sunday school! Your teachers are Ms. Lisa and Ms. Allison and they do such a great job teaching you all about Jesus. You always bring your money for Jesus in your purse too.

Abby and Aaron are your favorite friends and we usually have playdates with them each week. Some of your favorite outings include the beach, the pool, the zoo, and the park.We do lots of fun things at home together - playdough, read books, play dress up, have tea parties, bake, play hide-n-seek, puzzles, fingerpaint, color, blocks.

You get up now at about 7:30 in the morning and go to bed at 8 at night. Naptime is 1 in the afternoon and has been shorter lately - only about an hour. You love having us make up stories for bedtime either about you and your day or sometimes silly ones. You also sleep in your new big girl bed now too. You love your new room and sleep well up on the pillows. One night you did fall out of bed but you were okay! You sleep with your minnie mouse, baby, and little blankie at night.

2 year molars are gradually coming in. You have 2 that are fully in and another 2 that are working on coming through. Potty training is still a work in progress! You do really well with poop and always tell me when you need to go. But a lot of times when you get playing you start to pee in your underwear before you realize you need to go. We're so proud of the progress you are making though! And most times you stay dry all night long!

You are already very protective of your little sister in my belly. You sing to her, give her kisses, pretend to feel her kick, and give her big hugs. She's gonna be a tough little kiddo with you elbowing her all the time! :)

You are still a great eater and will eat most anything we put in front of you. Some of your favorite foods are macaroni-n-cheese, strawberries, green beans, corn, grapes, and mini pancakes.

Hello Kitty has taken over our house. You somehow fell in love with all things hello kitty and now have a nightgown, shoes, socks, beach towel, and shirt.

I am so proud and honored to be able to be your mommy. God blessed me and your dad with such an amazing little girl to raise! You continue to astound us and make us laugh every single day. Above all that we pray for, our biggest prayer is that you would grow up to love God with all your heart and desire to serve Him. We love you Lily and are so glad you are our bubbling 2.5 year old little girl!

Love always and forever,Mommy (and Daddy too!)