Baby Boy #2 Update

I'm 24 weeks pregnant with baby boy #2 and thought I'd write some things down so that I can remember them in the future.

This pregnancy has been pretty different than with Ezra in some ways...With Ezra I only felt nauseous from week 8-16 really and even that was less severe than this time around.  This time I felt nauseous immediately until almost 5 month pregnant, and I still have evenings where I'm feeling a little nauseous.  With both pregnancies I craved fruit most of the time, desserts that I would typically like anyway (mostly chocolate things), & cinnamon.  There was a time at the beginning with both pregnancies that I craved potato chips also.  I think it's funny that my belly button has actually half popped out with this pregnancy but with Ezra it was just flat & so funny looking!  This baby's heartbeat has been a little slower (in the 150s) where Ezra's was in the 160s typically I believe.  I've had less caffeine this time that's for sure!  I still feel like I'm more tired this time around though overall.  I was even on my feet & working part time & then full time with Ezra until almost 6 weeks pregnant!  Ezra lets me get plenty of sleep at night so that is wonderful!  I think I'm tossing & turning to get comfortable more earlier on this time around though.  At my last appt. (almost 24 weeks), I was up about 18 lbs...yikes!  With Ezra I gained 42 so we'll see if I can gain a little less this time.  My doc said he wasn't concerned I had gained so much with Ezra since I was too thin to begin with since I started at 104 but funny that that's the weight I went back down to after losing weight from pregnancy!  Baby boy looks to have a similar nose & mouth to Ezra from recent sonos, but I initially thought his nose looked more like mine.  I think it's the same as E's though.  This boy kicks more often than Ezra did & I started feeling kicks the end of 14 weeks!  With Ezra I recall it being 18 weeks but I didn't really know what I was feeling for back then.

Today I told Ezra, while showing him a sono pic, that there's his baby brother in my tummy & he seemed to be taking it in but then wanted to look at his belly button since he had been pointing mine out too.  He already likes other babies so that's hopeful.  I have my glucose tolerance test next appt., so hopefully I'll pass like I did the 1st time!  :)

This pregnancy has definitely been going by faster than with Ezra, but I have more that I want to do around our new (to us) house too!

Here's a recent pic of us 4 (hehe) in San Antonio while we were visiting my brother, sis in law, & our nephews.

Baby #2!

This year we found out on my mom's birthday, so that was extra memorable!  We were just about to move into our bigger house, so the timing was pretty good except that I felt sick and tired right away this time, whereas I didn't feel that way until 8 weeks with Ezra.  Now we are moved in and I am 13 weeks pregnant and hoping to feel better soon.  I think the past week has been a little better so that's nice.  I think I started obviously showing at 10 weeks this time (pretty much at the end of each day though).

We got to see our sweet doctor 2 weeks ago who seemed happy to see us again.  Labor was very fast and easy with Ezra... haha.  :)  We also got to see the baby for a 2nd sonogram, and he/she's heart rate was 174bpm.  He/She looks healthy!  I know it's hard to tell but I already think the face looks different with this kid than Ezra's did at this sonogram.  We are excited to find out what we're having (of course) & might be able to do that next month so stay tuned!  :)  My guess is a girl just because the pregnancy has been pretty different than with Ezra, but we would be thrilled with another boy of course!

Oh it's only been over a year since I've blogged!

I will try to do better to record every day or every week events happening in our lives but we are just so busy (common excuse)!  Here's a picture of Ezra at 18 months old.  I haven't been good about getting pictures from my camera to my computer lately either...

Ezra is now almost 19 months old and a VERY busy little guy.  Super cute too...still need to get him a hair cut so people stop mistaking him for a girl.  His long dark eyelashes don't help that either though.  He is loving reading books right now...he will bring me a lot of books during the day and sit on my lap for me to read to him...so sweet!  He also loves to hug his stuffed animals right now.  He gets a big grin on his face when he hugs them.  Right now he's been carrying around his Valentine's bear, Easter bunny (both from grandma Peggy), and giraffe that plays Jesus loves me (from friend Edna).  He likes to sleep with his lovey that's a dog & blankets.  He's a big fan of running around outside but unfortunately it's hot here now so we don't do a lot of that right now.

He's still 5th or so percentile for weight and 50th for height which he's been for quite awhile now.  I'm somewhat surprised he's that tall but I'm sure he will appreciate that someday.  :)

He can say at least 14 words but understands more words than he says.  He's a lot of fun!  Lately he's been giving kisses...mostly with his tongue haha and makes a kissing sound too when giving long distance kisses.  :)

Baby's 1st Easter!

I know it's been awhile since Easter, but I'm catching up.  Natalie is not a big journaler or blogger.

Natalie's parents came to Nat and Kam's church to celebrate Easter.  We dressed Ezra in his cute duds from Nat's cousin, Kayla.  He looks so cute as always!

The next day we went to Southlake to spend more time with Nat's folks and Ezra explored the grass in the backyard...

Walking!

Family photo  :)

Looking back and so thankful!

I am in awe and so thankful when I look back to see what prayers God has answered for us!  When I took the class Equipped Disciple 2 at church, we were supposed to make note of our prayer requests in order to remember that we had specifically prayed something and then write God's answer next to it when we got an answer.  I wrote in the journal what had been a strong desire on my heart especially around that time which was to, "have enough money for kids in 2011 for me to work part time or less and to have kids by the year 2011."  My son was born on 1/2/2011!  I wrote these requests on September 10th, 2009 thinking that these just weren't going to be possible for us financially.  I was in school at the time because I felt I needed to go back and get a degree that I enjoy and one that will allow me to work part time some day even though I truly desired to not have to work at all and to spend time with kids full time some day.  I also requested that I would finish school and get an internship that would allow me to have this future career as a dietitian.  Well, despite my work experience, great grades, and volunteer experience, I did not get the internship in April of 2010 and soon after finding this out, became pregnant immediately which was such an amazing answer to prayer!  Thank you Lord for such wonderful gifts and for giving me the desires of my heart!  We also happened to pay off the rest of Kam's school loans this month before finding out we were pregnant and had enough money for me to stay home with our baby! 

God has quickly given us what we needed all along and it's fun to see that looking back.  When we first got married in December of 2007, we had only enough money for the two of us to live on and about a month later Kam got a different job that would allow us to keep moving up financially and help me to see that we could some day have kids too!  I wish I always put all of my trust in God and that he wants what is best for us and His plan, but he also wants to give us great gifts that we not only desire but will also be a part of His plan to bring Him glory!  Lately, I have really needed to be reminded of all of this and be thankful for our son and my ability to stay home with him even if it means doing laundry almost every day along with other household chores and serving my son.  It's hard work but so sweet and a huge blessing to our family!

Here's a couple pictures of our now 3 month old baby boy who is so beautiful!

Ezra's Birth Story!

A few days before Ezra made his appearance we had an appt. with Dr. Fogwell on the 30th and found that I was not dilated at all.  I was somewhat disappointed because Dr. Fogwell was going out of town about a week later.  We drove to Southlake to stay with my parents and celebrate Christmas with Reece, Cynthia and Gehrig since my parents had been in the Dominican Republic with family over Christmas.  We were glad to have made it until they returned on the 26th of December! 

On Saturday, January 1st around 6 something in the evening, I lost my mucous plug at my parents and we all decided that labor would be following the next day sometime.  However, after we went to dinner I was feeling irregular contractions and wasn't feeling like I had much of an appetite.  We returned from dinner and my contractions were short but starting to become regularly spaced out every 5-6 minutes.  We still thought that this would go on a long time and there was no need to drive to Dallas that night.  After a couple hours of regularly spaced contractions, Kam and I decided it would be better to be safe than sorry and I might be more comfortable laboring at home and sleeping in my own bed.  Right after we got home, my water broke and we decided we needed to get to the hospital right away.  We called Dr. Fogwell who was thankfully on call and the nurses at the hospital kept in touch with him. 

It was about 2:30am and I was checked and dilated to a 1 which was disappointing.  Ezra's head wasn't engaged yet and since my water had broken also, I had to stay in bed on a monitor.  I was having a lot of back pain during the entire delivery which wasn't what I had expected.  It was definitely more painful than I had expected.  I didn't get an epidural but towards the end when I was in transition, I asked for pain medication through my IV which I regret now but I had no idea how close I was to being finished.  Unfortunately this drug, Stadol, didn't even take away the pain but might have lessened it slightly and then wore off.  I told myself ahead of time that this drug wasn't without side effects too like making me loopy and affecting respirations.  Thankfully, Ezra and I didn't have problems breathing. 

Following this I was checked again at almost 6am and was a 7 or 8, and at 6am I was a 10!  I could hear the nurses asking how far Dr. Fogwell lives from the hospital since they weren't expecting me to have fully dilated by that time!  Thankfully he made it to the hospital just in time for me to push along with a lot of other staff people just in case he wasn't there yet.  I heard him when he was looking at where the pitocin would have been hooked up say, it's not hooked up!  Apparently this is not the norm!  I'm thankful my body was causing a speedy delivery on its own but boy was it painful!!!  After only a few pushes and less than a minute of pushing, Ezra was born on January 2, 2011 at 6:35 am and weighed 6 lbs 6 oz and was 19 1/2" long.  We were glad my parents could be in the delivery room for the event too.  It took a minute for me to not feel so woosie since I had been given the Stadol right before pushing, so next time I will feel confident knowing that if I am feeling desperate for a pain killer, I am probably about ready to push!

It's a BOY!

We found out on August 6th at our 2:30 appointment with our sonographer, Judy, that you are a boy! Your dad never changed his vote from the beginning, but I really thought you were a girl due to symptoms I was having and your heart rate being on the higher side. Your grandma, grandpa, and great grandpa Heaton guessed you were a girl also! When I tallied the votes for boy versus girl, girl was only ahead by two votes though! We're so excited to finally find out more about you and to know you are a boy, and we are excited to meet you in a few months!! Here is a picture of us right after the sonogram!

Here are some pictures from our 18 week sonogram:

You had the hiccups when we first saw you which was fun to see! Your heart rate was about 153 bpm and we got to see your cute face! Your belly and femur are measuring the biggest for your age which is good because you must have all of your organs and you might pass us up in height. Your femur is in the 87th percentile for length! You were 8 1/2 inches long and weighed 10 oz. at this appointment according to our sonographer.

Things I don't want to forget:

• My belly button finally started to look smaller than normal when I looked in the mirror on the night of July 31st. We had just come back from a surprise party for our friend Jeff from church. I guess you had finally gotten big enough to stretch my stomach that much!
  
• I first felt you move (it felt like little bubbles) at our community group at Jeff and Taylor's house on August 3rd. Your dad got to feel them too!
• Before we found out what you were, at the beginning of my pregnancy, I had a dream about a baby boy floating in a basket in a river towards me. Also, a few days before our sonogram, I had another dream of a baby boy who was a little older who I was giving a bath to in our bathroom. He sure was cute! I should have known you are a boy all along.