Welcome to the Family, David

I've been too busy enjoying newborn snuggles {and fighting sleep deprivation!} to have updated my space here. It's far past time to introduce the newest love of our lives:

David Robert Perry
Born March 31, 2016
9:38 am
8 lbs 8 oz
20.5 inches

David, born at 39 weeks and 4 days

David came out in an awful hurry, and thankfully I delivered him in the natural birthing center in our hospital, but only just! That will be my next post, to share David's birth story.

Besides David's grand entrance to the world, the week of his arrival contained its fair share of drama. After keeping our family healthy all winter long, Makenna became sick with a fever on Tuesday {David was born on Thursday}. I also came down with a scratchy throat and cough on Tuesday evening. Makenna was diagnosed with croup and on Wednesday morning, Matt took Makenna to the ER for a breathing treatment since her breathing had become too labored. Matt explained to the doctors they saw about Makenna's illness coinciding with the impending arrival of our second born, and they all stressed the importance of Makenna staying away from her newborn brother until her symptoms subsided. I was extremely stressed by what was occuring! When I was at my weekly OB appointment on Tuesday, my membranes had been stripped in an effort to bring on labor, so I was very worried about the timing of all of this.

We basically needed Makenna out of our house. for the safety of our baby about to arrive. So, my mom was our hero and drove over four hours to our house Wednesday afternoon, picked up Makenna, and turned around and drove our sweet girl another four hours back to her home in Indianapolis.

The timing was perfect for Makenna to be taken away, as David was born about 18 hours after Makenna left with my mom. And by God's grace, my own symptoms were not getting worse--I mostly felt as if I had a mild cold.

In retrospect, we can see God's hand in how the week played out, with Makenna's sickness requiring her to be taken away. We had originally planned that Matt's dad would drive over to stay with Makenna once I went into labor. Matt's parents live just under 2 hours away, so we of course had local friends who were on stand-by as backup. However, with the way my labor played out, especially how quickly it went, we realized Matt's dad would not have made it in time to watch Makenna for us, and our local friends were also occupied those morning hours. Thus, we've concluded that because Matt would have needed to stay with Makenna, and David came out so quickly, that its highly likely Matt would have missed David's birth before someone arrived to watch Makenna for us. God works in mysterious ways! He was certainly watching out for us and we are so thankful.

David is such a special little guy! At 8 lbs 8 oz, David weighed almost 2.5 more than Makenna did at birth {6 lbs 2 oz}. He is stocky and super strong! Even his forearms have rolls, which makes him look a bit like Popeye. He has the best chubby cheeks that are oh-so-kissable. He LOVES to eat and in his first month of life gained nearly three pounds!

David is named after Matt's dad, Dave, and after my dad, Bob. It was a joy for me to give him the middle name Robert, especially since both my brother and sister have had sons whom they have also given the middle names Robert after my dad. So I was privileged to be given a son to complete this circle!

Makenna was well enough to meet David when he was three days old. And now, we are all adjusting really well to becoming a family of four! David has been a relatively easy-going baby and that is a huge part of it. Makenna also adores being a big sister. She just loves David and thinks he is the cutest thing ever. {We'll see how long that lasts, once he becomes mobile and starts touching all of her things!} But for now, she loves helping take care of him, kissing him, reading to him, and snuggling him. Be still my heart!

It truly feels as though David has helped to complete our little family. He has already filled our lives and hearts with more joy than we ever could have imagined! He's seven weeks old as of today and we can't believe how much he's grown and changed in these few weeks. He's mostly wearing 3 month clothing and we are about ready to move him up to size 2 diapers. He's started smiling now and is very responsive to interaction, giving us lots of coos and gurgles. We just can't get enough of this little man!

I'm so excited to watch his little personality develop. He's already such a sweetie pie and my mother's heart is just beaming with pride. Thank you, Jesus, for our incredible blessing!

39 Weeks

Happy Easter! Today I am 39 weeks pregnant with our second baby, our son.

Taken at 38.5 weeks

I really can hardly believe that we're at the end and ready to meet this little man already, although I must admit it feels like these last few weeks are creeping by slowly.

I feel quite badly that I haven't been sharing about this pregnancy regularly on this blog the way I did with Makenna. So the following is my attempt to play a bit of catch-up...

Second pregnancy remarks:

-As with Makenna, my scoliosis has provided me with a lot of pain during my second and third trimesters. However, I would say the pain has been even more severe this go around.

-I haven't struggled with acne this pregnancy the way I did with Makenna, which would be accurate with the old wives' tales concerning genders!

-I haven't struggled too much with heartburn the way many women do. I have had a bit of trouble with acid reflux at night when I sleep, but thankfully it hasn't been terrible, nor has it been a nightly occurance. 

-I've enjoyed having the luxury of time to decorate our little guy's nursery, as opposed to the scramble to prepare Makenna's in the three weeks we had between moving into our first home and her birth date. {I'll be excited to share photos here soon!}

-I've had the fun of sharing this pregnancy with another sister! Last time it was my sister Erin and sister-in-law Jennie, and this time it's my sister-in-law, Hunter. Hunter and I are only 5 weeks apart!

- As I have always heard to be the case with second pregnancies, I have been overall much more physically uncomfortable with this pregnancy. My hips and ribs are hurting so much in these last weeks, in a way I never felt with Makenna!

-Matt and I have struggled to pin down a name for our son. We believe we are decided, but have a few back-up choices on hand for when he's born in case we feel the name we're planning on doesn't fit him.

-Beginning when I started my third trimester, I started experiencing lots of Braxton Hicks contractions. In fact, on one occasion several weeks ago {when I was 34 weeks}, they had become regular enough that they landed me in the hospital overnight. I was having contractions every 3-5 minutes for several hours. Although it wasn't considered actual labor because I wasn't dilating, they didn't want to send me home with such regular contractions, even if they were painless.

-Even with a pre-term delivery scare, I have made it to full term at 39 weeks! I'm currently dilated between 2-3 cm, although there's certainly no telling when baby will make his ultimate debut. 

-These last several weeks, I have been going crazy with nesting. I didn't have this luxury with Makenna since we had only just moved into our home, and weren't even fully unpacked by the time she arrived. This time, I have been tackling projects big and small, and cleaning and organizing every nook and cranny in our home. I'm afraid my OCD-tendencies are running a bit rampant, especially because I am currently unmedicated for my anxiety disorder.

-Mostly, I am aware that being a mother of two will be a whole different ball game than being a mother of one. I am completing my to-do list as best I can so that I can focus on our new baby boy with as little distractions as possible. I am keenly aware how fast time flies with babies, but most especially the newborn stage, and I am eager to soak up every moment I can. 

-I am experiencing the common mother emotion of a bit of mourning--mourning the time of just "Makenna and me" coming to an end. I have just delighted in having these past three years to make memories with my daughter and bond with her, just the two of us. I feel a bit as though it's the end of an era! I've been taking as much time as I can to do extra special things with her, and I will always treasure these mommy-daughter dates.

We feel so excited and ready to meet our son! It's an exciting time to know he could join us any day. I'm trying to find the balance between getting things done, resting, and spending great quality time with Matt and Makenna. However, we are all very ready to become a family of four! Makenna is so very excited and will be such a great big sister. I can't wait to see her take on this new role!

We feel very blessed this Easter Sunday to celebrate our Risen Savior. He has watched over this family so very well and provided us with the wonderful gift of a healthy and normal pregnancy. It's so wonderful to think about what next year's family Easter photo will look like!

Gender Announcement

We were so anxious to learn the gender of our little one on the way. Baby was really squirmy throughout the ultrasound, so the technician had a hard time being able to see the gender. Luckily, success!

We are thrilled to announce that:

I wasn't feeling a strong intuition from the get-go with this pregnancy like I did with Makenna, when I felt nearly certain she was a girl. My first initial thought was "boy," but at times I really also felt it was a girl. It wasn't until around sixteen weeks when I started feeling our baby move daily, and then steadily grow stronger and more active with each passing day, that I started to feel certain. Matt was even able to feel our baby kick at just under twenty weeks, so by that point I was truly expecting the gender to be "boy!"

We haven't settled on a name just yet, but once we do, we'll keep it a secret until he's born. And if you can believe it, I have just turned twenty four weeks along, so it's only a few more months until we get to meet our little guy!

We had fun sharing the gender news with my family over FaceTime and sharing the news in-person with Matt's family over Thanksgiving. I baked cupcakes with a gender-specific filling, so it was a funny and very messy moment for everyone to find out!

Praise the Lord, we learned our baby boy's anatomy looks "perfect" according to the recent ultrasound. They did, however, discover that I have a low placenta. The doctor fully expects for the placenta to move as my uterus grows, as is normally the case in this scenario. But until it does move, they will watch my placenta via ultrasound at my next appointments. {Therefore, bonus peeks at our little man!} I am really hoping and praying to be able to do a vaginal delivery with our son, so I would greatly appreciate your prayers that my placenta will move soon and no longer be of any concern. Thank you!

Pure Joy

It's time to share some joy here on my blog! Given that I haven't been doing well with updating my blog lately, and as the weeks are flying by, I am far overdue in sharing our big news that we are expecting our second child!

I actually made this announcement on Facebook almost four weeks ago, and I'm thrilled to share more details here. We couldn't be more excited!

Right now, I am over 17 weeks pregnant and as you can see from the photo above, our little peanut has a due date of April 3, 2016. However, if baby decides to come early {like big sister Makenna}, then we might have a March baby!

I have gotten so many questions over the past weeks as we've shared the news with friends and family, so I thought I'd answer these main questions here, too.

• How are you feeling? Well as of right now, and given that I'm over three weeks into my second trimester, I feel quite well overall. The first trimester did hold its fair share of unpleasant symptoms. I was feeling nauseous, but not anything too horrible. The nausea has been far less with this pregnancy. I never felt constantly nauseous and I've experienced far less food aversions. I dare say I've even been having stronger cravings this time around. I can certainly tell that my hormones are running rampant, so there hasn't been any surprises really with the symptoms I've had.
• Is Makenna excited? That's a bit hard to answer because we don't think Makenna truly grasps the concept of what's happening. We've met a few newborns recently and Makenna was quite excited and interested in them. However, lately when we've asked Makenna if "there's a baby in Mommy's tummy?" she'll answer, "No." Yet she is definitely noticing that my stomach is growing, although she looks down at her own belly and exclaims, "Look! My tummy's bigger!" We expect that she will be excited about a baby at our house, but also have some real struggles with not being the only child anymore.
• Will you find out the gender? Yes! As last time, we plan to find out the gender but keep the name a secret until our little one is born. {And at this time I can tell you that we aren't settled on any names for either gender as of yet.} We are set to find out the gender at our 20 week ultrasound, the week before Thanksgiving.
• What gender do you think it is/are you hoping for? We will be completely thrilled at whatever gender God has gifted us with, although Matt and I have always said we'd love to have one of either gender. I really don't have any maternal instincts about what gender this little one is. I felt really strongly that Makenna was a girl, but this time I haven't felt that way one way or another.
• How far apart in age with Makenna and her sibling be? We are quite pleased with how the age difference will turn out. Makenna will be three in mid-February and her brother or sister should arrive about six to seven weeks later. We were hoping for very close to a three year age gap between the these two, and I'm especially pleased that there should be a good many weeks after Makenna's birthdays pass by each year for me to tackle the planning and execution for the birthday party of her sibling!

I'm really blown away by how fast this pregnancy is flying by. I started feeling baby movements before I turned 16 weeks and I can now feel him/her every day! I can scarcely believe that in about two and a half weeks, I'll hit the halfway mark with this pregnancy. There's so much to do, like choosing a name and the huge process of converting our office/guest room into a nursery and moving the office to the family room in the basement.

This season of life has brought so much joy beyond our imagining and we can't wait to have another little one to cherish and fill our hearts with love.

Happy 18 Month Birthday, Makenna!

Makenna has now officially reached a year and a half. She is so full of life, energy, giggles, silliness, and sweetness!

Here's a little update about what Makenna's like at this age:

• As most toddlers, she hardly ever sits still. She's a runner, jumper, and climber.
• This girl loves to dance. She dances on command, spins in circles, and walks on her tip-toes--clearly she'll end up in dance class!
• She still loves any and all strangers, which is very sweet, but also means we'll have to be more and more careful with her.
• She's adding new words on almost a daily basis. So far, we've got: Mama, Dada, Hi, Bye-Bye, Done, More, Up, Duck, Hot Dog {thanks to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse}, Doggie, and Amen. Then she jabbers in her own language all the time. Once she really starts talking, I have a feeling we won't be able to get her to stop.
• If you ask her about these animals, she'll tell you what they "say": Cow, Duck, Monkey, or Lion. Oh, and dinosaur, too.
• She is still a fantastic sleeper and a good eater on most days, though she has her picky toddler moments.
• She is still mostly wearing 12-month clothing. Her 18-month wellness check isn't until next week, but six weeks ago, she weighed in at 20 pounds and 3 ounces. I'm guessing she's somewhere in the 21 pound-range now.
• Makenna adores books and brings us book, after book, after book to read. I have many books of hers memorized word for word, cover to cover.
• She also loves to "sing" and sometimes when she's singing along, she will throw her hands in the air during the dramatic parts.
• She has upwards of twelve teeth now, including many molars.
• She has become more attached to the little bunny she sleeps with and her paci {actually, we call her paci the Hungarian word for it, which sounds like "Sue-mee", just because we like it!}. We want to wean her from the paci soon, but also want to make sure we don't do it in the middle of a teething episode.

And now, I would like to devote a moment to talk about her hair. 

I do love Makenna's hair and naturally, as her mother, I think it's gorgeous. Now that it's longer it has all these natural waves, too. But I also have a bit of a love/hate relationship with her hair. Most 18 month-olds do not have long hair like this. It is constantly getting messy from food and teething drool. She's too young to be patient enough to sit still for me to do her hair nicely so I always feel like it looks disheveled. Plus, although she has lots of hair, it's super-fine, which means it slides out of elastics easily. After any nap, I have to re-do the elastics in her hair because they have slid out. It's like her hair is an entity of its own. Still, I do love how unique it makes her! I am loving the blonde streaks that are appearing this summer; it almost looks like she's gotten highlights.

I might as well take this time to add in a few things I haven't mentioned before related to Makenna, though these are very belated thoughts.

• People have asked where we came up with Makenna's name and middle name. I had been holding onto the name Makenna as a favorite girl name possibility since high school. I first thought of it when watching one of my favorite movies, Somewhere In Time. {This film was incidentally filmed on Mackinac Island}. The main character in the movie is so lovely and elegant, and her name is Elise McKenna. That's when I first decided that McKenna would make a beautiful first name.
• Matt and I had differing opinions on how we should spell Makenna's name. He wanted the way that we spell it now {Makenna} and I liked McKenna. He didn't like the "Mc" because it literally means "son of." And his opinion is that the "Mc" should be for last names only. Makenna was my 2nd choice of name-spelling, and since the name Makenna was my suggestion in the first place, I agreed that we should go along with his preferred spelling and make sure he felt really good about it.
• We had the aforementioned discussion about the spelling of Makenna's name at various points during the pregnancy, but we finalized our decision in the car, on the way to the hospital in the middle of the night, after my water had broken.
• We chose "Rose" for several reasons. First of all, it's my favorite flower. We've both always liked the name "Rose" in general, but I felt especially drawn to it. We also felt that a shorter middle name sounded better with "Makenna."
• Since I was a teenager, I had also held the name "Katie" in my mind as one of my top choices for a girl's name. Then, not too long after we got married, a certain pop star made her way into the mainstream music world. {If you don't recall, our last name is Perry.} I was really hoping that her debut smash hit called "I Kissed A Girl" would be a one-hit-wonder and then she'd fade into oblivion. No such luck. She took the name I had wanted, and her real last name isn't even "Perry"!
• I never got a picture of my pregnant belly at 39 weeks. With our apartment-to-first-house move occupying so much of our time at 36 weeks pregnant, that was the last time we took a "bump" photo. It was on my "to do" list to get one last "bump" pic before Makenna's due date, but since she came early, it never happened. And honestly it just didn't cross my mind to do it at the hospital!

Makenna makes us smile and laugh constantly. What a joy she is to us! We can hardly remember life before her and we treasure her little life beyond all compare. Thank you, Jesus, for our darling little girl!

The Birth Story of Makenna Rose

I know it is customary to document and share one's birth experience soon after it's happened. But...(gasp!)...as much as I love to write and document things, I had yet to do this. At this point, I'm writing this out for the benefit of my own memory and sharing it with you in the hopes that some of you might be interested in hearing it.

That being said, I promise not to share anything too graphic! I firmly believe that some details should be left out. If you really want to know something, ask me directly.

***

On the bitterly cold Sunday of February 10th, 2013, I was five days away from Makenna's official due date. The doctor had predicted she'd be late and I was delighted. My to-do lists were endless and we hadn't even been in our new home for three weeks.

Yet that morning, I started to feel tiny trickles. They happened maybe once or twice an hour and were very minimal. I knew that it could be my water, but I kept thinking it might subside.

These continued the entire day until eventually I called my doctor to ask if I needed to go to the hospital. She wasn't too concerned and said I could come into the office first thing in the morning so she could check if it was amniotic fluid. She instructed me that if I started to have any "gushing," that I would need to go that night.

So Matt and I sat down and watched the two hour episode of Downton Abbey. All the while, I was having relatively painless, yet regular, contractions. I was really feeling that something was happening but I still felt hesitant, not having gone through this all before.

Well, not too long after getting into bed, there became no doubt that my water had broken and it was time to go. We finished gathering our things and at around 12:30 am, we began the 25 minute drive to the hospital.

Once checked in and examined, the resident quickly confirmed that my water had broken. She said the big question would be whether the doctor would consider my water as having "broken" when the trickling started Sunday morning, or when the gushing started late Sunday night. That would determine when and if I would need to be induced. And to my utter disappointment, I was only dilated one centimeter at that point.

By the time the nurses were finished and my IV port put in (which took FIVE tries and FOUR different nurses), it was after 2 am. Matt and I decided to wait until early morning to let our families know we were checked into the hospital since nothing would be happening for a while.

Matt fell asleep, but I could not. I knew how desperately I would need sleep to have strength for the next day, but the anticipation of it all kept me from getting any sleep at all. I was devastated to be going into the Big Day having gotten zero sleep.

Then it turned out my doctor was not on call that day but the other in the practice. He was very nice but, of course, I was hoping for my doctor. He determined that we would consider my water "broken" as of Sunday morning when the trickles started and since they only allow 24 hours to see if things progress on their own (and clearly they weren't), I needed to be induced. They started administering pitocin just before 8 am.

Every woman has her birth plan but we all know that we can never predict what will happen during the delivery. I was hoping to utilize my room's bath tub with jacuzzi jets during labor, but since my water had broken, submersion in water wasn't an option for me anymore. If I hadn't needed the pitocin, they would have allowed me to sit under the warm shower stream, but with the monitors and IV, that was also no longer an option.

My birth plan had been to go as natural as possible. This decision did not come out the belief that epidurals are harmful to babies or mothers; I have sound faith in modern medicine. I also did not feel swayed now that natural birth is becoming more popular. It was simply something I felt I wanted to do, but more importantly, strongly felt that I could do.

Yet I knew I likely wouldn't make it through a natural birth if I didn't equip myself with some tools. We read The Husband Coached Childbirth and Hypnobirthing (which sounds much more New Age than it actually is) and I found parts of both books extremely helpful. I practiced my birthing position, I practiced my breathing and relaxation methods every night before I fell asleep, and I even practiced pushing.

{Before you scroll to the end, I will tell you I did not have an epidural! It's a choice I am very pleased with.}

The pitocin was not working on me. After many hours of hard contractions, at around 1:30 pm, the doctor checked me again and I still was barely dilated past a one. At this point I started to panic a little. I couldn't believe the pain I was experiencing was yielding no progress below! At that moment, the epidural was quite attractive but I wasn't quite ready to ask for it.

I knew that there were pain medications that could be administered during labor. I asked the nurse what I could have and she suggested morphine. She explained that women like it because it makes one feel...well, drugged-up, and therefore relaxed enough to rest and sometimes even sleep.

SLEEP! That's all she had to say! I was so exhausted beyond what I knew could be physically possible and I was terrified I'd be too tired when it came time to push, and who knew how long that would be?

Right away she got me the morphine, had me lay down, and close my eyes. I sent Matt to visit with our parents and eat some lunch. The morphine did take the edge off of the contractions just enough that during the period of one hour, I was able to sleep some. I would drift off between contractions and wake when one started, but they were lessened enough that I could lie still and breathe through them. During that hour, my body relaxed enough that I dilated to a three.

The next three hours were intense {to say the least!} but since I was finally progressing, that gave me the confidence to endure. Matt was a great help and encourager. I needed the encouragement, too. They added a couple of internal monitors in the afternoon and that just made things all the more uncomfortable for me. Sitting on the medicine ball or rocking chair was awkward, so I basically either stood, leaned over the bed, or laid on the bed.

And then, yes! I was at an eight! And suddenly I was feeling the urge to push.

For all the reading I did, chatting with other women, and our birthing class, I never once heard it mentioned how extremely difficult it is to fight the urge to push. How did I not know about this?! The contractions now felt totally different--still painful, but seemingly ten thousand times more difficult with fighting the urge to push. And there were a few contractions where, no matter how hard I tried, I just could not fight the urge and I ended up pushing a little.

Finally, in utter exasperation, I told Matt to call the nurses and resident back. He said, "They said they'd be back to check you soon." This was this one moment I snapped at him. I said, "You call them RIGHT NOW and tell them I cannot not push anymore!!!" {Thankfully, only about ten or fifteen minutes had transpired since they last checked me, when I was dilated to eight centimeters.}

They rushed back in and as my instincts told me, I was fully dilated. It was time to push and I was very ready and excited!

Pushing was by far my favorite part of the process. It was a major pain-reliever during contractions. I also think I was an effective pusher, probably due to the practicing I did at home. With each push, I felt really encouraged as my doctor, resident, and nurses all told me how great I was doing and to continue doing it just how I was.

Once Makenna's head became visible, I will never forget my doctor exclaiming, "Whoa! She's got a lot of hair!!" He asked if I wanted to reach down and feel, but I said, "No, thanks." {I didn't use a mirror either--I just really didn't want to know what was going on down there!}

I also remember my doctor counting, "One, two," after I had pushed her head out. I later learned that the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck twice, but thankfully it wasn't tight at all causing any problems.

My doctor had told me that for a first-time mom, the average push time was 1 hour and 10 minutes. But after a little less than 30 minutes, I did my final push, using every single last ounce of energy I could muster, and our beautiful, tiny, Makenna Rose was born into this world at 7:11 pm.

I didn't make the 100% natural birth like I had hoped, but I was still happy that I chose to forgo the epidural. As much as it was the most painful thing I've ever endured, I'm actually glad I felt all that I did. And next time around, I plan to forgo the epidural again {though I am really hoping it will be a faster labor/delivery and that pitocin will not be needed}.

I do remember saying to Matt later that evening, "Well I can tell you I'm not doing that again anytime soon!"

It was all worth it, of course. And although it was far from what I had planned, I love our birth story because it is uniquely ours--the one that brought us our precious, irreplaceable Makenna Rose.

The Final Weeks before Makenna

We had the most wonderful birthday celebration for Makenna this weekend. The birthday party post will be forthcoming, but here is a sneak peak:

{all party photos courtesy of our generous, dear friend Jay Bryde, retired professional photographer. She is fabulous!}

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm taking a look back at what our life was like one year ago from now. As I've spent these last many weeks completing project after project, shopping, making party decor, and staying up late to get things done, I was reminded of how scurried I was at this same time last year, not only having just moved into our first home, but expecting the arrival of our baby girl at any moment.

On January 11, 2013, at 35 weeks pregnant, Matt and I closed on our first home. The keys were dropped into our hands and we were racing the clock to get moved in and set up before baby girl's arrival. It wasn't even until recently that I realized our closing date was exactly one month prior to Makenna's birthday on February 11th.

The weeks prior had been massively busy as well. I had been working two jobs up until Christmas. We had traveled to Matt's parents home for Christmas and my family's home in Ohio for New Year's. Then I had my two baby showers the first weekend in January, both of which were out of town, and then returned home to pack up the apartment. That Friday was our closing day.

Once we closed on our little place, we immediately started hauling loads back and forth from our apartment to the house, which was about a 30 minutes drive apart from one another. But we could only move things into the basement at that point because we had a couple of big renovations to complete before our big moving day {see this post}: re-finishing the hardwood floors and re-carpeting the upstairs level.

We hired a moving crew because we lived on the second floor of our apartment complex and our new house had three levels with some very narrow staircases. So, 10 days after closing and when I was 36 weeks pregnant, we were actually moved into our new home. What we didn't know is that exactly three weeks later from that day, we would welcome our Makenna Rose.

I had SO MUCH to do, and I was counting on our little lady arriving AFTER her due date. My to-do lists were endless. Looking back even now, I can't believe all we accomplished after we moved in:
-the entire house thoroughly cleaned {thanks to my mom!!}
-unpacking the entire first floor and the master bedroom upstairs
-walk-in closet and nursery painted
-ordering the rest of the nursery furniture and putting it all together
-prepping the nursery and washing baby clothes, etc.
-shopping for and purchasing a new area rug, loveseat, and couch for our living room
-writing all my thank you notes for the baby showers
-purchasing the rest of the baby items we needed
{and I must once again thank our family that were absolutely crucial in us accomplishing all of this; we never could have done it without them!}

These were just the major things, and didn't include all the endless little things that were completed. All this on top of my weekly OB appointments as well as nannying one day per week and I'm telling you that I rested very, very little. I remember laying down for bed those last weeks, my feet absolutely throbbing from standing on them all day. Though not swollen, I would still wake up in the night to extremely achy feet. Thankfully that was really about my worst pregnancy symptom in the final weeks.

That brings us up to when I was 39 weeks and 2 days pregnant. I was praying and hoping our baby girl would stay in past her due date {and possibly I'm the only mom ever to wish that at 39 weeks pregnant?} and I still had so many things I needed to accomplish that week. But, I could tell something was possibly starting to happen...

Baby Love Times Four

This past weekend......oh, this past weekend! It was truly one of the most joyous times of my life. Matt, Makenna, Annabelle, and I loaded up in our car and drove to Indiana to meet all of the babies.

We had three babies to meet: our nephew Noah {born Jan 17th}, our nephew Jacob {born February 21st}, and our niece Cora {born April 9th}. Noah and Jake belong to my sister, Erin, and her husband, Dan, while Cora belongs to Matt's brother, JJ, and his wife, Jennie.

Out of all of these adults, none of us had met each others' babies. And thus, none of the baby cousins had met one another. It was such a wonderful time for all of us as Aunts and Uncles.

Our first stop on Friday was at JJ and Jennie's house. Cora Jean Perry is just beautiful! I am so excited that Makenna has a girl cousin now who is only eight weeks younger. They are going to be best friends, I just know it.

I had matching outfits for Makenna and Cora--I just couldn't resist. However, we waited until pretty much the worst time {Cora was hungry} to try to take the photos. Oops!

Truly, this was the best photo in the bunch.

And, the crying begins...

Brothers with their firstborn babies. Of course, God's sense of humor would be
that brothers from a family of all-boys should start out parenthood with girls!

Now Cora's really ticked.

After several hours with JJ, Jennie, and Cora, we headed over to my sister's house.

And then one of the sweetest moments of my life happened.

Erin and I had last seen each other on January 4th at my baby shower. We were both super-pregnant, and I knew that Erin and Dan were planning to welcome their soon-to-be-born adopted son in a few weeks. We also knew that because of the timing of our due dates, we wouldn't get to meet one another's babies right away. That was so very hard for us.

So the last time we were together, we hugged and sobbed our eyes out. We were very emotional pregnant women, after all.

As Matt and I pulled into their driveway last weekend, there was Erin, Dan, and Will waiting for us on the front porch. The moment I saw Erin, I lost my ability to speak. A huge lump formed in my throat and my eyes welled up with tears. I sprang from the car, and Erin and I ran into one another's arms and cried, hugged, and cried some more. All tears of joy, of course! It was one of the happiest moments of my life.

Then we went inside to meet the boys! They are so amazing, so wonderful. I had been dreaming and dreaming of them! 

We had a little photo shoot with the three newborns:

As expected, we never really got a shot where all three had perfect expressions.

And, how tiny does Makenna look between those two boys?!

Jake's got some catching up to do with the hair-growing-thing.

One of my favorites, because it looks like Makenna is affectionately resting her
head on Noah's shoulder.

Then we tried all four cousins...

...and never got the money shot.

We decided to stop at this point.

I just have to show you a peek at Noah and Jake's nursery, to show off how wonderfully creative my sister is!

Erin saw this somewhere and replicated it. The quote says:
"An elephant went out to play
Upon a spider's web one day.
He had such enormous fun
That he called for another elephant to come!"

Absolutely adorable, huh?!?

We stopped by JJ and Jennie's house for one last Cora-fix as we headed back north towards Michigan.

Little sweetie.

One of life's cutest things: tiny baby feet.

Sleeping  beauties.

It was so hard leaving all the babies. But we truly could not have asked for a more perfect and memorable weekend. Now we're just counting the days until we can get our hands on Makenna's amazing cousins again. We are praising the Lord for these fantastic babies!

{P.S. Matt deemed this past weekend: "Babyfest 2013."}

Makenna Rose

I was just sure that our baby girl wasn't going to arrive early. Even the doctor predicted she'd arrive past her due date. But as we all know, babies come according to their own time, and on a chilly winter's eve, February 11, 2013, at 7:07 pm, Makenna Rose Perry made her grand entrance to this world.

This picture was taken by my dad when Makenna's about 14 hours old. She has absolutely stolen our hearts! She was born weighing a whopping 6 lbs 2 oz--such a shock since the doctors told me at 35 weeks she was at 6 lbs and would likely weigh around 8 lbs at birth!! We can't believe what a tiny peanut she is!

Born perfect and beautifully healthy, we went home last Wednesday. If you follow me on Facebook, you already know what happened next. Last Tuesday night I thought I felt it coming on, and by the time we were home Wednesday, there was no denying it: I was getting sick. It hit me so very hard and I'm sure it was exacerbated by the fact that I didn't sleep the entire night prior to labor {birth story will be forthcoming!}.

I became so miserably sick with a nasty, nasty cold and cough. I also felt very weak for many days. It was all I could do to nurse my new baby. And as much as it pained me, I wasn't holding her, snuggling her, or kissing her {you can't even imagine how hard that was!!!}. I was so afraid of her catching my sickness. My cold had me down and out for several days.

Fast forward until today, Makenna's two-week birthday:

I am writing this post from the hospital. We're on our fifth night here. So, as you probably guessed, Makenna caught my sickness. Only it turns out that I had a particular virus: what is really just "the common cold" in adults and older children but is called RSV for babies. And RSV is very dangerous for babies, and can even be fatal.

Matt and I took Makenna to the pediatrician at the first signs of her catching what I've had. They tested her and she came up positive for RSV, so they put her straight into the hospital. I'll be honest with you, I was a blubbering mess. I fell apart in front of the pediatrician when she said, "she's going to need to be admitted to the hospital." And I'm going to say it: I felt like a horrible mother. Because Makenna got sick from me. Yes, I know I can't help that I got sick, and can't help that my best efforts at trying to keep my distance from Makenna failed in keeping her from catching it. It's the most horrible feeling in the world, knowing your precious, tiny, baby girl is dangerously sick and has to be hospitalized. Because of YOU. I know in my head that I haven't failed as a mother, but my heart is still so heavy that all of this has happened. It certainly isn't the start to motherhood that any woman would want. In a way I feel that these first two weeks have been stolen from us, first from my sickness keeping me from enjoying Makenna, and now a five-day hospital stay where Makenna is hooked up to monitors with wires and is constantly being examined.

BUT. Makenna has been doing fabulously. In fact, after the first two days in the hospital, she was doing so brilliantly for a newborn with RSV that they sent us home. But then, as often happens with RSV around day four or so, she took a turn for the worse at night. Her breathing became more labored and we could tell the sickness was in her chest. The following morning, our pediatrician sent us straight back to the hospital. Now we're on night three of this second hospital stay.

Makenna has still been doing great this second stay. In fact, she is just being monitored. That's all. She hasn't needed breathing treatments, to be given oxygen, or an IV--three things all very common with babies hospitalized with RSV. All the doctors and nurses keep saying how great she's doing! She's nursing well, sleeping well, and has been quite content overall. We truly attribute Makenna's resliance against the RSV to all the prayers that have been said on her behalf. We know there have been lots and lots of people all over the world praying for Makenna, and it is truly evident. Matt and I are so infinitely thankful to be lifted up in prayer this way.

So, yes. All of this sucks. I can't even begin to say how much these past two weeks have sucked. Yet they have also been filled with the greatest joy of our lives because we have our beautiful Makenna Rose. She is amazing and perfect and we are so crazy in love with her. And we know just how blessed we are.

Soon, very soon, we'll be home again with our precious little Makenna and all this will be behind us.

I. CAN'T. WAIT.

Our Nephew Noah

You might remember that a few months ago, I mentioned the exciting news that my big sister, Erin, is basically pregnant simultaneously alongside me, with her due date falling a mere twelve days after my own. You also might remember that Erin and my brother-in-law, Dan, adopted little Will back in August of 2011. 

The sweet little boy that Erin's carrying now has not been born yet. BUT. Dan, Erin, and Will have just welcomed a new baby boy into their family! How can this be, you might ask??? Instead of me writing it all out here, you need to jump over to their new blog and read this...


A beautiful, amazing, touching story of love if I do say so myself!

Without further ado, here is my nephew Noah James Taylor, our newest family member!!! We are so in love with him already and he has already brought so much joy into our lives and hearts.

P.S. Please do not ask if Matt and I have met him yet. This is so hard for me...our new little Noah is in Indianapolis and of course we cannot travel to meet him at this stage in our own pregnancy. Ugh. I can't let myself think about it. I just want to hold my nephew and snuggle him and kiss those adorable cheeks!!!

36 weeks

So here we are at 36 weeks today. It seems so surreal that I only have four weeks left to go!

At my check-up a few days ago, I wasn't dilated at all, which I am utterly thankful for in light of our upcoming move. I'm still hoping this little lady won't make her appearance early and if she does, it'll only be by a few days or a week at most.

And the latest baby bump news:

• According to my last ultrasound, baby girl is estimated to be weighing slightly above average. My doctor estimated she'll weigh around 8 lbs at birth. Definitely not too scary.
• The biggest surprise for me: I am not nearly as uncomfortable as I thought I'd be at this point, especially with my crazy spine. My back pain has not been worsening, swelling is fairly minimal {so far...just recently took my wedding rings off as a precaution}, and though I move a lot more slowly and it is most definitely uncomfortable to bend over, I feel pretty darn good overall!
• Baby girl has been head-down for the last several months, and her head is starting to drop a bit. 
• I'm really enjoying the fact that during this moving process, I am unable to {read: not supposed to} lift any boxes. It's a good thing, too, because with moving from a second-floor apartment to a house with two sets of stairs, I'm getting winded quite easily these days. Baby's taking up my lung space!
• My belly button is STILL an "innie" at this point, though not by much.
• I can really tell our baby girl is running out of room in my belly. There's a lot less kicking and a lot more strong sensations of her trying to wiggle and move around in her shrinking space. And many more times when she hurts me! 
• My big accomplishment right now, especially with being a first-time-mom, is that I don't feel nervous about labor/delivery. I am actually pretty excited for it! {and yes, I have heard plenty of horror stories!}

We still aren't ready for baby yet. We have almost everything we need for her, save a few items, so we really would be fine if she made an extra-early debut, but we of course want to get her nursery all set up. I'm hoping to have it done by 38 weeks. Although I say we aren't ready yet....we really are. We are beyond excited to meet our little one. I keep having the most wonderful dreams about her! And with all the busyness of the next few weeks, she will indeed be here before we know it.

Almost Home

We are a mere few weeks away from baby's arrival and we have just closed on our new home! It's a cozy little house tucked away in one of the loveliest suburbs of Detroit. The house is full of charm and character, having been built in the late 1940's. The style of home is actually called a "bungalow," meaning the master bedroom suite is the one and only room upstairs. 

We are currently having a bit of work done to restore/replace flooring prior to moving in because it is obviously easier to do these projects sans furniture in the home.

The first project was to remove and replace the hideous blue carpet in the master suite.

Stairs going up...

Better than blue, don't you think?

And the current project is having the hardwood floors refinished. Here is {what will be} the nursery with the floors all sanded down.

The staining and finishing will be done tomorrow, and then after a few days of dry-time, we will move in this coming Monday. Hooray!!

Our days have been filled with driving back and forth from our apartment to the house, packing up our apartment, scheduling appointments, and shopping for things for the house and nursery. To say life is a little bit crazy is truly an understatement but it is all an incredible blessing. Lots more good stuff coming soon!

Shower Weekend

Last weekend, our soon-to-arrive baby girl was absolutely showered with love and generosity. I had two showers; one Saturday, one Sunday. And to say that both were just exquisite and lovely is the ultimate understatement. So much love, thought, and effort went into planning both, and boy did it show!

The Saturday shower was given by my best friend, Laura, and her mom, Diane, who was basically my "second mom" growing up through the years. The photos I have from my camera pale in comparison to the ones Laura took on her fancy Nikon. They came out so beautifully, capturing me with all the attending guests. Laura's going to give me a CD of all those photos and I promise to share them as soon as I receive them.

It was all so wonderful, and I got to reconnect with so many friends from my life growing up in St. Joseph. I miss them all so terribly much and it was so special to be showered with love by them all!

As if I didn't already feel special enough from that first shower, then I turned around and the next day and had another equally lovely and special shower in the town of Greenville, MI, where Matt grew up. There I was also reuited with so many wonderful friends who we rarely get to see now that we live on the eastern side of "the mitten." 

This shower had an owl theme, and oh my goodness, was it adorable! It was given by my dear friends Lynn, Jalene, and Aunt Joyce. These same ladies threw one of my bridal showers and let me tell you, these ladies sure know how to put on one amazing shower!!!

{Oh by the way, please don't judge me. I wore the same dress to both showers. You've gotta give a pregnant lady a break, right?!}

With soon-to-be Grandma

Well see if this little girl inherits my weakness for shoes.

She has to accessorize!

We received gift upon endless gift for our little one; the generosity was overwhelming! We really could never thank everyone involved enough for how loved you made us feel.

One very sad part is that I sent all the shower gifts from both showers home with my mom and Matt's mom for the short term while we are packing up our apartment. It was so sad to return home empty-handed! I just wanted to look through everything again and again. But it was too overwhelming to bring back so many gifts to our tiny apartment in the midst of packing up. We'll have it all again shortly, as we'll be moved into our house in approximately ten {count them, TEN!} days!!

A New Year, A Whole New Life

The web is abuzz with people talking about the New Year, resolutions, and reflection upon the great things of 2012. I was amongst these last year, blogging an overview of 2011 and writing about why I love making resolutions each year.

{I intended to insert a photo here, but blogger is being weird an not allowing me the ability to upload photos! So please excuse this boring text-only post.}

This year I will do neither since I lack the time to recap 2012 and because I simply can't begin to fathom how to make resolutions for 2013. Matt and I are starting this New Year with two HUGE life changers: moving into our first home this month, then welcoming our first child next month. We are diving in head-first without a moment to spare.

Becoming homeowners is of course a huge thing, but so seemingly insignificant next to becoming parents for the first time. Our life is about to change in the most monumental, amazing, wonderful, and blessed way as we welcome our baby girl into this world. We both are well aware that until she takes her first breaths, we can't possibly imagine how our world will suddenly be turned upside down and instantly shift to revolve around our precious gift from God.

I don't know what being a "mommy" is like. I don't know how long it will take to adjust and settle into a comfortable routine. All I know is that Matt and I are ready for this unknown, crazy adventure that is parenthood. We know our lives will never be the same. We know that we will figure it all out together, and because of our deep love and commitment to one another, we will do just fine. We know there will be challenges and tears and frustration, but we know much more than that there will be joy, laughter, special moments, and endless upon endless amounts of LOVE.

So for now, I simply accept that the near future will bring lots of craziness, excitement and so much change going on that we likely won't get a feel for a routine and a sense of normalcy until we are well into March. And I am totally at peace with that.

Since I am blogging anyway, I can tell you that one of my goals for 2013 is to give my blog a makeover. {Because of life's craziness, the makeover likely won't happen until March, unless this little lady in my belly decides to make a late appearance...then I might occupy my time with that project!} You also will be seeing a lot more of me here on this blog of mine. I really neglected my blog the second half of 2012, with being pregnant and working two jobs and all. But just you wait...my little space on the web here will have all kinds of good things to come! I know I will desperately need this creative outlet as I adjust to a whole new life as being a parent.

Thank you to those of you who read along here in 2012. I wish you all a very blessed, Happy New Year 2013!

A Very Merry Perry Christmas

A belated Merry Christmas to you all! I hope you had a lovely, memorable few days celebrating the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.

As always in the Perry household, this Christmas was delightful, fun, memorable, and a little bit crazy! It never fails that when Matt and his brothers get together, they seem to revert back to little boys. It's pretty darn entertaining, let me tell you.

Here are a few snapshots of the joyous celebrations:



These are just the gifts for Matt and myself. And there were actually more than this! See how spoiled we are? (Though next year all the spoiling will go to the baby!)

Our strange little Annabelle who loves wearing clothes.



She has no sense of how ridiculous she looks.



Perfect tee for Aaron, as he already refers to himself as "The World's Greatest Uncle."



The Perry boys plus cousins posing for a sophisticated 'stache portrait.
(And yes, Matt is showing off his tattoo sleeve)



The Perry brothers at their finest.



Me and Jennie--showing off our baby bumps. Cousins by the Christmas tree!



Our family of three...soon to be four!

Tomorrow we're off to Ohio to my parents' and then to Indiana to see Dan and Erin, having an extended Christmas and New Year's Celebration. It'll be our last trip out of state before our baby girl arrives!

And by the way, I'm 33 weeks today. Little lady is doing great and I'm so amazed at how she (and therefore my belly!) continues to grow and grow. So very thankful to feel her strong movements throughout the day. She will be here so soon!