Our Every Day

Tomorrow I will be 36 weeks pregnant, to which I have to say, "It's about time." I am pretty convinced that I have had the longest pregnancy ever. Ever. I say that, but my mom seriously carried me for an additional 4 weeks after my due date. I am not even kidding. That was the day before inductions. And that set the stage for the rest of my life being a late bloomer, but that's another post for another day. Honestly I am so ready to meet this kid. I go back and forth from extreme excitement to a lot of anxiety. Will he look like Grayson like his ultrasounds suggest?? I will be able to eat what I want again! Maybe this danged heart condition will go away! How will Grayson act?? Three weeks from today, I have my scheduled C-section. I spoke at length about it with my OB this week at my appointment as she will be performing the surgery. With Grayson's C-section, it was an emergency, and I could have pretty much cared less because I had pushed for hours with no gr...

Grayson is 18 months old. Let me write that again. Grayson is 18 months old. I still can't really believe that. He is so grown up, but still an infant (to me) at the same time. The other day he was having a really rough go at it, and Mike was leaving for court. He wanted Mike to hold him, so Mike rocked him in his arms until he finally fell asleep. Only thing is Mike was in full uniform, and that Kevlar is not exactly the best thing to snuggle up to! But it didn't matter to Gray because he was in his daddy's arms - and he had not been rocked to sleep in months. Moments like that remind me that our son is still so young. This coming month will be full of drastic changes for our boy - specifically when we welcome his little brother into our family. Sometimes I think about my Uncle Tom and my Uncle Denny and the great friendship they have, and I want that for Grayson and Easton. It is my prayer that someday they will be the best of friends, though we might have many ...

And boy am I. Last year I had planned to have a Sweet Sixteen Times Two party to celebrate my birthday this year. I had the perfect little black dress and red high heels picked out from last fall, and then I got pregnant a lot faster than expected and I ended up ditching the idea all together because I knew I would be huge and at the end of my pregnancy - and who wants to have a party when you are in that state? I don't. But I had an awesome weekend despite the cancelled party plans. Mike and Grayson took me to Olive Garden, and I got to have a piece of peanut butter pie (which wasn't as great as I hyped it up to be in my memory but OH WELL.) Look how cute my dates were! I am a lucky girl :) I spent my actual birthday with my parents and Grayson. We ate at Logan's Roadhouse, and then I went shopping for clothes for my hospital bag at Old Navy, and then we went to Target. My dad and mom took Grayson so I could shop in peace, and how blissful that was! I wandered a...

Today was my third official Mother's Day! I wouldn't be a mom if it wasn't for Grayson. And now Easton. And I wouldn't be the woman/mom, I am today if it wasn't for the blessing of many awesome women in my life: my mom, mother-in-law, grandmas, great-grandmas, aunts, cousins, sisters-in-law and good friends! With that being said, as a third shift family, Mother's Day looks a little different for me than it probably does for a lot of moms. There is no breakfast in bed, no sleeping in, no time away from the kiddo so I can slip off and do something for myself. This day is pretty much just like any other day, except this year I have a pretty bad cough and a cold to go along with it! Mike and Grayson gave me  a few sweet gifts and cards yesterday, which was just really cute :) My parents and I have a yearly tradition of eating at Cap City, which is a favorite restaurant of ours near Cbus where Mike and I used to live. We have gone there every year since I was...

I decided to resume my monthly updates on Grayson, because I have missed writing them! I spent a considerable amount of time the other evening reading over the past few months, reminiscing. I read somewhere the other night - I think it was Lysa TerKeurst, and she said something along the lines of  "The days are long but the years are short." Something to keep in perspective on those days that seem to drag on forever. Because we have a lot of those days - especially lately - when I am tired and slow moving and not too keen about having a toddler crawl all over me! A few days ago, our Graybee-Baby as we often call him, turned 17 months old. Month 16 was a rough time. We battled bronchitis, an ear infection and Grayson's first experience with throwing up. The ear infection caused him to be off balance, giving him a limp for what seemed like weeks. I never thought he would feel better again - it felt like he was sick forever. Fortunately the limp HAS cleared up, de...

A few weeks ago, I was talking to a sweet lady at church, and she was asking me about my pregnancy. I was telling her how it was going and I believe I said something along the lines of, "Well I told Mike that third trimester, I am going to eat what I want and buy whatever I want and actually ENJOY this pregnancy." (Because honestly, besides the ultrasounds and hearing heart tones, this pregnancy has been full of complications.) Famous last words. You see, this week I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Any opportunity I had to eat what I wanted has now passed. With Grayson, I took the glucose test and never looked back. Never had a problem, though maybe I should have considering all the weight gain and bloating I had with that pregnancy. This pregnancy I have had a little weight gain and nearly no swelling. And I took the glucose test and failed it soundly. Every single time. I was hopeful that I had passed the three hour test because that had been the e...

I have taken a little bit of a blogging hiatus. Last night, Mike encouraged me to start writing again - he said he thought if I was open about what was going on in my life, that maybe I could help someone. But honestly I have been silent for a few reasons - mainly that I don't have much to say, the words just weren't coming to me, and I felt this blog has opened my life up to others to scrutinize and criticize. I was telling a good friend who also blogs about this over lunch the other day. I feel like if I write anything, then someone feels like they have to respond - usually in person - and tell me how sorry they are that my life is so awful. My life is not awful. Do I struggle with a lot of things? Heck yeah. And to be truthful, so do you, dear reader. You know I'm right. Maybe you don't take the path as I do and write it all out for the world to see on a blog, but your struggles are just as important and real as mine. But I am incredibly blessed too! Have...