Family of Five

We are simply loving on this little girl every second of every day. She brings so much joy to our family. Watching the boys with her is adorable. The way they love her is so beautiful. God has blessed us beyond belief.

Annabelle Jane Eckert

She is here and she is perfect!

Born at home:

June 22, 2010

9:44 pm

8 pounds 8 ounces
20 1/4 inches long
14 inch head

First picture

Praise be to God!

41 + 1

I just met with my midwives today and Annabelle and I are both doing great. I'm of course uncomfortable and each day is getting worse, but overall, we have had an excellent several days resting and relaxing, thanks to our amazing parents who have gone above and beyond the call of duty to help out with the kids and to give me some time to rest! Praise the Lord for grandparents.

We've started to doing some natural remedies to induce labor since we're getting down to the wire and unfortunately nothing is working right now. We're going to have to step it up a notch tomorrow and see what happens.

Please continue to pray for this delivery! Even though Annabelle is doing very well inside, she obviously needs to come out very soon.

Honoring Andy Today

I knew he would be a great husband and dad, but wow, he has blown me away at his commitment to our family and his love for these children we've been given. He daily shows us we are his number one priority and not a day goes by where we all don't feel his love.

Happy Daddy's Day, Andy! We hope you have a great one... and maybe, just maybe your daughter will arrive to give you the best Daddy's Day present ever!

Hours? Days? Weeks?

Praise the LORD, I got sleep last night! I had some wine and I was o-u-t! Turns out I was just having some major 'pre-labor' contractions that have now totally gone away. It still could be days... I just don't know...

Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him. ~ Psalm 37:7

Still Waiting...

Doesn't look like Annabelle will be born today.

Things were progressing quite nicely this morning, but they have slowed down considerably. We can't get the 'good contractions' that are needed to push this labor along. I was at 5cm this morning. I've progressed some, but not getting enough contractions to make much progress. I'm going to take a nice shower and try and get some sleep.

This is exactly what happened with Samuel's birth. I had him in the hospital and ended up with a c-section because of failure to progress... I am so glad I am at home laboring this time around and not being forced to follow some next to impossible standards.

Please pray that things pick up and that my body will finish tomorrow what it started today!

What a Fabulous Day to Have a Baby!

We're in labor... Will post when she's here.

Thoughts to Ponder

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Galatians 5:22-23

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.
Philippians 4:8

Another Quilt!

I have a friend, Lora, that I met through Etsy, and we've been communicating since April of 2007! She has become such a dear friend through the years. We connected through our love of crafts and she has become quite an amazing quilter! She has joined me in my journey to send quilts to Uganda and I just got my second quilt from her yesterday!

I was so thrilled. It is absolutely beautiful. I cannot wait to send it.

Pictures from her blog:


As the boys and I were opening up the quilt we realized that her mom had made Annabelle a lovie! How thoughtful. I've never even met either of them.

The boys have decided that they do not want to send the quilts... they want to fly there and give the children the quilts in person. They want to raise the money and fly out there and they want to go next week! Anyone have a good idea of how we could raise around $5,000 in a week? I love their enthusiasm. And, I've also got to move things along in the sewing department if they find a way to raise the money :)

On the baby front: I forgot to mention yesterday that my midwives gave me about an hour massage yesterday. I can't believe how good I feel. I haven't felt this good in months! I had an incredible nights sleep last night and I even had enough energy to go on a very long walk this morning with the boys and have lots of fun adventures. What a great way to head into labor...

40 + 1

I just got checked for the first time during this pregnancy at the midwives' and things are looking great...

For those of you who know what I'm talking about, here are the stats: I am 4 cm, 0 station and my cervix is mush... all fantastic signs that she is really close to making her grand entrance!

It sure could be worse...

And as Joseph always says "Come out soon, Annabelle, we love you, bye!"

While I'm Waiting

Happy Birthday, Baby Zach!

No wonder I was so restless the whole night... My dear friend Sarah (the other preggo who was pictured with me and Audrey a few posts ago), who used the same midwives as I am was laboring through the night last night!

Zachary Christopher Davis was born this morning at 6:04am and weighed in at 8lbs 11oz. Wowzaa!

We had been praying our whole pregnancies that we did not go into labor at the same time. Here due date was the 10th.

Thank you, LORD, for being in control of ALL situations and working things out for your glory! We praise YOU for this miracle of life.

This only means one thing... Now, it's my turn!!!

EtsyKids

Yes, it's 2:39am and I'm up roaming the world wide web... Can't sleep... so here I am. I'm so thrilled at my recent find, I just couldn't keep this treasure all to myself. LOOOK! Etsy has a kids site.. EtsyKids!

They even have a blog: www.etsykids.blogspot.com

As much of an etsy lover as I am, I'm shocked I've never heard of this site... Which now that I think of it, might have been a good thing, because there would probably have been a lot more sleepless nights around here while my insanely nesting self searched the site for creative DIY ideas for the kiddos.

Thankful Friday

I am completely off in my days this week... I thought it was Thursday for half of the morning. But, I suppose it works out better because I have even more to be thankful for today than I did yesterday.

~ The biggy... our washing machine is fixed! It wasn't cheap, but it's fixed.
~ I got my sewing table all set up in our bedroom and everything fits great. Sewing is going to be so much easier for me. Hopefully I'll do it more often now.
~ Samuel's collar bone is doing great! He is in much less pain that I would have thought at this stage in the game.
~ It's been sold for awhile, but our Volvo is officially GONE.
~ Joseph got a 'big boy' car seat.
~ It's FRIDAY!!!
~ I get to spend every day with these little guys:

Per Midwives' Orders

I had an appointment with my midwife today and her orders were: to create!

She wanted me to just focus on doing some fun things that I love to do, enjoy my family, and get my mind off of all the tasks that I could be doing and off of the calendar especially.

It wasn't too hard of an assignment for me, so I took her up on it. Part of nap time I decorated a shirt that I had bought a long time ago before we even knew if it was a boy or a girl. They were cheap and I thought I could spruce them up.

Here's my first attempt:

It matches her crown:

My goal for the remainder of this pregnancy is to cherish each moment and to not wish this time away, to fill it with joy and not just accomplishing tasks!

I can honestly say, that we have had such a fantastic day today. We haven't been waiting on Annabelle to arrive, but simply living and enjoying life! The Lord has shown me through several things just today that he is working everything out in his timing... and I'm beginning to believe him.

And when Andy and the boys head out for a hike tonight I'm going to work on my next quilt for Uganda!

And for my crafting friends...I found this adorable book that I'm lusting after:

With two ideas in there I cannot wait to try:

Washing Machine Down

Seriously? Really?! I'm 4 days away from my due date, a birth in which we are praying will be at home, and if that's the case, it will produce LOTS of laundry... and a kid who's still in cloth diapers, so what decides to break...Our washing machine!!!

I'm having a hard time, friends, keeping my sense of humor in all of this...

For a label for this post, I've appropriately chosen 'prayer requests'!

Right on Time

We can now count on one hand the days until Annabelle's due date.

Samuel was supposedly late and Joseph was supposedly early. But, the Lord is continuing to work in my heart and teach me that Samuel did not 'take his sweet little time' to arrive and Joseph did not 'hurry up' and arrive... they both came exactly when the Lord determined they were to arrive... no matter what the calendar said.

My dearest friend, Audrey, who's due date was a day before mine, now is holding her baby boy in her arms.

I am trying so hard to cherish these quickly fleeting moments being a family of four, but it's been hard. My patience is thin and I just don't feel like rejoicing. It's not that I am dying for her to arrive or to make this pregnancy be over. I'm really not. I love being pregnant and when I do have energy I'm able to get a ton of things done that I've wanted to get done.

What it all comes down to is control... I'm not in control and I can't stand it!

Audrey had a very severe rash the last 3 weeks of her pregnancy so she tried to naturally induce her labor and her efforts were very successful. She took a homeopathic remedy to spur on labor and less than 24 hours later her baby was out.

The bottle of pelletes wasn't finished and it is now sitting in our kitchen.

There are several things that I am anxious about with the timing of this birth and really wanting her to come very soon. So, the past couple of days we have been weighing all of the pros and cons of taking these pellets... and doing a lot of praying. There are no health risks. If your body is not ready it will not go into labor, but if it is 'on the line' this remedy will just give your body the extra nudge it needed. Sounds perfect, doesn't it?

Well, not if the Lord isn't behind it... and that's what we're feeling. Our time has not yet come, and we need to continue to stand our post and not wish this season away. The Lord is still working and the timing is not quite right.

She will come right on time, whenever that might be.

Joe the Plumber

I don't know what it is about Joseph, but his crack is always showing! This one was just too good to pass up taking a photo.

Breakfast Prayer

I have been trying to upload this video for over a month and just got it to work... enjoy!

If you need translations let me know...

Lemonade, Anyone?

The verdict is in... Samuel has a broken left collar bone. 3-4 weeks in a sling and at least a couple visits to an orthopedic...

UGG!!!

The boys have been in their big boy beds for at least 3 weeks now and Samuel has never fallen out of it. We even took off all their rails on their cribs for practice before we moved them into these beds. But, totally randomly Wednesday night he fell out while sleeping. We ran in there to see if he was okay and he said his neck hurt. I massaged it for a few minutes and he said it was better and went to bed. That was that.

But, then in the morning he woke up screaming! He could raise it up to the side and over his head but he could not raise it up straight out in front of him without lots of pain.

Daddy saved the day and came home from work after we heard back from our pediatrician to take him to the ER to get an x-ray because he was positive it was broken.



I feel horrible! We purposely decided not to get bed rails since they were doing so well and didn't want to spend $50 if we didn't have to and we didn't think they would even work on their beds since they don't have boxsprings and the mattress sits down into the frame.

So, after a couple weeks or so, we just rigged up Joseph's bed with pillows each night but not Sam's.

And, where was I last night... yup, you guessed it... Toy's R Us buying bed rails for both boys! And that's of course after the ER visit with x-rays and before our orthopedic appointments.

Lesson learned: just buy the stupid bed rails right away! It's much cheaper and hurts a whole lot less than a broken collar bone. And if you're wondering, yes, Andy was able to figure out a way to get the rails to work on their beds.

Sweet skinny Samoo now cannot do a single thing on his own, besides sit there... kinda like a newborn... Hmmm... wasn't I already scheduled to have one of those this month? And might I add without a visit to the hospital! Ugg...

Off to make some lemonade!

In a Pickle

I'm in a pickle... NO, I did not say I'm craving a pickle, I'm just in one!

Andy had to take Sam to the ER because he fell out of his big boy bed and we think he broke his collar bone. So I'm sitting here heart racing worrying about my little Samoo... wanting to just get up and do a bunch of things to keep my mind off of my hurt little boy, but also finding myself contracting like crazy when I'm on my feet.

Yesterday we went blueberry picking and I got several things done around the house only to find my evening in utter misery wondering if this was it.

As you can clearly see, it was not.

I learned my lesson with Samuel's birth that as much as I try, I simply cannot make this baby come out any earlier than she and I am ready. With Samuel, I went on about 4 walks a day and even several runs, but nothing worked... the only thing those got me were horrible contractions, but did not actually put me into labor. So, I've resolved to not try and make this baby come out, but just simply let her come out.

I've realized that even though I wasn't even trying to get her to come, just by doing too much made my body miserable. Now, I've learned to just sit and be at peace with it. But, that is not at all easy for me. I hate to sit, especially being forced to sit while nesting is quite torture.

Well, I've found a way to do both. I research my next nesting type thing while sitting. Creative, I know! Let's see how long this lasts...

Since the boys moved into their new room awhile ago I've been brainstorming ideas of how to decorate it. This is my inspiration:

Image courtesy of Cluck. Cluck. Sew.

I've already got the letters and spray painted them blue, but I was looking for a way to do the garland and not have them two sided like in this picture.

Browsing through my favorite craft site, www.etsy.com ,I found a great solution... and it involves sewing on paper, which is something I love to do.


Images courtesy of wrenhandmade

So excited to try it out...while sitting of course.

Please pray I don't go crazy sitting/resting while I wait for labor to start. At least after Annabelle comes I'll have an adorable little sweetheart to stare at while I sit. And also pray for our sweet Samuel that he will be healed quickly of whatever they say is wrong.

Currently Craving

Mangoes.

A burrito with lots of guacomole.

A sesame bagel with turkey, provolone, avacados, sprouts, tomatoes and lettuce.

YUM!!!

Love In Action

I remember as a little girl dreaming such big dreams and having my mom encouraging me to go for them. Granted, I didn't accomplish all of them, but just knowing I had someone supporting me was sometimes all I needed to give it my best shot.

That's what moms are suppose to do when you're little, and I firmly believe that shouldn't stop when you 'grow up'. Having a fan club in life is so crucial to our souls. Whether it's parents, siblings, friends or a spouse, we need to be encouraging each other to reach for our dreams.

Recently, my mother-in-law and her friends got together to sew some blankets for my little initiative to send 50 quilts to Uganda.

There is nothing more motivating than the support of someone (in this case a mother-in-law) to keep you going as you venture out in the world and do all sorts of crazy and challenging things.

Thank you, Robbie, and friends, for not only giving me the verbal encouragement to help me reach a goal (that would be unobtainable on my own) but for actually helping me reach it!

So far we have 9 quilts completed and waiting to be sent... along with about a dozen or so being worked on by people all across the country! So far I've gotten 2 blankets in the mail from women I don't even know... How fun!

Keep sewing, we'll get to 50 together before we know it!!!

June Baby

Well, it's official... Annabelle will be born in the month of June.

Make sure to go to the poll on the side and vote when you think she'll make her grand entry!