Peter Playing

Pete curled his arm around the bear when I put it next to him. Though he really didn't acknowledge that it was there. His pants have a hard time staying on him, unless he is wearing a thicker cloth diaper. They kept wanting to come down.



* to see the full size video (the sides are cut off) click on it, and it will open in a new window.

Pete and his toys

Last night, I was doing some moving in Pete's room, and one of things I rearranged was his stuffed animal collection. We introduced Pete to 2 of his toys the bear and monkey. I loved his expression as he came in to contact with the little monkey.

If we get more snow today, we may get some more pictures with Pete and I outside. We'll see (and yes I will bundle him up really well!!).

Pictures from Peter's Dedication

Peter's Dedication

This is the video from Carol's camera. Once we get the DVD, I'll post it-will be better quality.

Welcome to our World...

One week ago, our little precious bundle made his way, screaming and caterwauling into the world. Peter Alec was born September 17, 2009 @10:45 pm, weighing in at 8 lbs 1 oz and 19 3/4 inches long.

He is a week old today. It is hard to believe that he has that old. Time sure flies! We have been adjusting to life with a newborn. Things are going well so far and are starting to settle into a routine. Last night Josh and I were able to get to sleep before midnight-a first since last Thursday!

Why we are cloth diapering

When people hear we are going to use cloth diapers instead of disposable diapers, most of the reactions we get are positive, but there are some ewww gross reactions! We have one friend that is giving us 2 weeks before we change our minds.

So, why are we cloth diapering? Well, the biggest factor is cost. Over the life of diapering, it costs between $2,000-$3,000 for disposable diapers. Going cloth, we will spend between $500-$1,000, and if we have another child, will be able to use the diapers for them as well. That is a big savings.

Second, cloth diapers are better for our little one's bottom. Diaper rash is less of an issue, and I have heard that potty training is easier, because the baby feels the wetness more.

Third, we will be doing our part to help the environment. The average diaper takes up to 500 years to decompose. We will be creating less waste (and less smell in our garbage cans).

There will be a little more work-with the washing, but hanging the diapers on the line will get me outside a couple days a week. It will be about 10-15 minutes of work per load of diapers (done every 2-3 days as needed).

We will be trying out different brands of cloth diapers, then complete our stash. As you can tell in the picture- the diapers are really colorful!

Scriptural Encouragement for Preparing & Giving Birth

As I start to prepare for the end of my pregnancy (you know the part where baby says "Hi"). Like most first time moms, I am a bit nervous about the labor part. A few weeks ago, I came across this web post from a blog that I follow. It really encouraged me and got my thinking back towards where it should be. As you pray for the delivery of Peter, would you also pray that as Josh and I go through labor and delivery that we will take comfort in God and meditate on Him?

Here are a few snippets from that post:

From Passionate Homemaking

Preparing for Birth

I find more often than not, that many mothers experience fear about going through labor. We may fear the pain, or we may fear complications. It is extremely beneficial to mediate on these Scriptures to help conquer those fears. Truth be told, where fear exists there is more risk of complications. Fear tenses our bodies and makes it very difficult to relax…an important detail in allowing our baby to progress down the birth channel. I encourage you to take any fear directly to the Lord and cast it at His feet.

Philippians 4:6-7 – “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” (NLT)

2 Cor. 12:9 - “My grace is enough; it is all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become!” (NLT)

Further meditation: 1 Peter 5:7, Isaiah 26:3 as written below.

I found the NLT spoke to me powerfully about the reality of God’s grace. It is enough for me! Rather than worrying, reflect on all those things you are thankful for. He has blessed you with a child! A true gift from God! When we fully give up our own will and strength, that is when Christ’s grace and sustaining grace will truly be evident and powerfully effect us.

“Birth is God’s time. It can’t be rushed or programmed to suit anyone’s clock. It is a time to simply be there, respecting the woman’s space and the natural rhythms of her body. Think of how time ceases to have relevance when you are caught up in the presence of God worshipping Him or when you are in love and spending time with your beloved. Time flies by and you barely notice. Birth time is the timing of nature. Who knows when spring will come? Can a budding flower be found open? Yet in time, these things unfold. So does birth. I sometimes suggest to my clients that they visit the ocean and see the rhythm of the waves on the shore. That right there teaches you, deep within, so much about the patterns, rhythms and power of labor.” – Julie Bell

Giving Birth

Isaiah 26:3 – “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you: because he trusts in you.” Keep your mind on Jesus and the peace that passes all understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:7). Focus your mind during your labor…do not let it stray to focus on the pain and process, but rather on Jesus and His sustaining grace. This verse really spoke to me while preparing for my birth. I memorized it and quoted it to myself throughout the most challenging moments of my delivery. It was such a blessing.

1 Peter 5:7 – “Cast all your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.”

Faith and Perseverance

Hebrews 11:1 “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen, it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”

Proverbs 3:34 “The Lord mocks the mockers but is gracious to the humble.” The Lord blesses those who put their trust in Him, not depending upon their own strength, but humbly acknowledging their Source!

Hebrews 10:35-36 - “So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! [A baby!] Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that He has promised.” (NLT)

I am walking in God’s will when I demonstrate patience! It brings great reward! My little one is coming!

James 1:3-4 “For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” (NLT)

This birth is one means of God working to grow me in maturity and endurance. I will be stronger in my faith if I rely completely upon Him to accomplish His good work.

Psalm 40:1 – “I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and He turned to me and heard my cry.”

Psalm 119:165 - “Those who love Your law have great peace and do not stumble.” Store up the truth!

This final poem was a blessing to read as I prepared and welcomed my new little one!

Gift from God

I give thanks to You alone
Who sits on the throne
To loan me this precious gift
And to call it my own.

May I always see, Lord
In every waking hour,
Your majesty and grace
In this delicate flower.

Help me, O God,
To guide and preserve,
This wonderful blessing
to love and to serve.

-Doran Richards

For the full post click here: Scriptural Encouragement for Preparing & Giving Birth

Full Moons & 5 weeks

It is hard to believe that we are down to 5 weeks to Pete's due date. On Friday, we were at 35 weeks pregnant and 35 days left to the due date. I thought that was kind of cool. For some reason 35 days left seems so much shorted compared to 5 weeks left.

We went in for our 3rd trimester ultrasound a couple of weeks ago. Pete was so scrunched up, his big open space of long ago has gotten smaller. The sonographer had a hard time getting all his measurements. But, he did estimate that Pete was 5 1/2 (at that time), and his head and abdomen was measuring a week ahead, while his legs were measuring right on schedule. Because Pete was so bunched up, these are the only pictures we were able to get.


We have finished our child birth classes and all the hospital paper work is filled out. So, when Pete does decide to come, we don't have to think about filling out all the paperwork!

One of my closest friends brought up the full moon effect. So, to my calendar I went and found that the next full moon is Sept. 5, which happens to be week 37 (for those who don't know, doctors consider any time after week 37 to be full-term). It is possible that Pete may come that early! Josh has threaten to put me on bed rest that day...though I am not sure how much being on bed rest would stop gravitational pull! It is all mystery as to when Pete will make his entrance.

The nursery is all set up, though not fully decorated. At this point, that is just fine-I doubt Pete will care. We are slowly adding to our baby items, a little at a time. This coming Sunday, our ABF (Sunday School class) is throwing a diaper shower for us. Hopefully, we will be able to add to cloth diaper stash. We do have some disposable diapers to help fill in the gaps, and till we know which diaper we really like. Once we know, then we will buy the rest of our diapers.

Here some pics that we took yesterday at church. We didn't have much time, as I forgot to bring extra batteries, and we were racing against dying batteries!

Week 33...only 7 more to go (or so)

So, tomorrow marks week 33. It is hard to believe things are getting closer, but boy do I feel it. Peter has decided he likes to sit on my left side, and put pressure on that side. Today, he did something new-kicked me in the ribs-multiple times! Ouch! He has been moving a lot, and I am feeling him more and more. Things are getting harder to do-like bending over to get things off the floor, oh and switching from side to side-wow the pressure.

Now, while it is hard to believe that the due date is quickly coming, I am ready for him to come. I have really enjoyed being pregnant, and blessed that it has been an easy pregnancy for the most part.

Here is my view of my belly. As you can see, the left side juts out more than the right. That's Pete hanging out.

10 weeks to go!

Wow! Time sure has flown, and I can't believe we are in the final 10 weeks of pregnancy. Though Pete can come as early as 6 weeks from now and be considered full term. I am still growing and have finally had strangers ask when I was due.

I have started to "nest"-trying to get things organized and done so that the last few weeks I can relax. Also, it is helping to know what other stuff we need get. We were blessed this week with a big tub of clothes from a friend. I spent a little time yesterday going through and separating the sizes out. I put the bigger sizes in a small bin and kept the smaller sizes out.

I also got my trial diapers from Jillian's Drawers yesterday. This is the place where I can use the diapers for around 21 days to see which ones I like. I can return the whole stash or keep what I like and only get charged for the diapers I keep. I got them early because I have been dying to see what they are like, and to go ahead and get them washed. There are not very many of them, so I guess the first few weeks, we'll use both cloth and disposable.

The dresser is put together, though the nursery is still in chaos, as I need to figure out the configuration of where I really want the items. Once the furniture is where it needs to be, I can start putting away the clothes and shower gifts.

I thought you would like to know what is going on with Pete's development this week (taken from the American Pregnancy Association website):

How big is our baby?

Pete has now grown to be about 15.15 inches long (CHL) and weighs about 3 pounds.*

What is happening with our baby?

Our baby’s eyes are becoming more mature, and now he can tell the difference between light and dark. Babies at 30 weeks can even follow a light source with his eyes. Once he is born, he will spend a great deal of time with his eyes closed. This is completely normal. Newborns only have the ability to focus on objects a few inches from their faces. While “normal” adult vision is 20/20, a newborn’s vision is 20/400.*

*these are approximate

Week 28 Update

I went in for my 28 week appointment on Monday. Had all my vitals checked and was weighed (grr arg!). I have gained more than I wanted to with the pregnancy, but my doctor is fine with the weight gain.

I got to hear Peter's heartbeat. He kept moving around and turning off the doppler. The doctor will do one more ultrasound to check growth rate-he thinks he'll do it between week 32 and 34-which would be my next appointment.

It is hard to believe that at the end of this week, I enter my 29th week! I have just a little over 11 weeks to go!

The nursery is still getting set up. Grandma Lynda came and helped out by painting the room. The crib has been up since Memorial Day. Right now the room is back to being a mess after painting and all the goodies from the shower. My goal is next week to work on the curtains and get things organized in there. I am hoping to use my old dresser (currently residing in the guest room), but we have to get it moved into the room. The glider still needs to be recovered. My sewing machine will be busy the next few weeks.

I'll post pictures of the nursery in the next couple of weeks.

Week 25 Picture

15 Weeks to go...

...but who is counting? 15 weeks seems a lot shorter than 105 days, right? Our little guy is growing and a moving everyday. We have settled on a name (as some of you know) Peter Alec, and you will see that we refer to him as Pete.

Libby has taken it upon herself this week to be my shadow (again, after many months of ignoring me). Even after last week's kicking episode, she still likes to lay on my tummy. Pep will settle down on me, now that my stomach is almost level with the rest of my torso. They start purring, and Pete starts moving (most of the time). Though it may just be the pressure of something on my tummy that makes him move.

Tonight he was a kickin' and movin' about. Part of the reason I am up so late. As much as I really want to sleep, it is alluding me, thanks to an active baby and heartburn. Josh got to feel him last night, which was really neat. For a while there, everytime Josh put his hand on my stomach, Pete would stop moving.

We survived our last bout of severe weather (and our fence is still up much to our chargrin). Last night we were at Bible study, and the weather was so bad we had to move to the basement of the church. There were a lot of trees damaged in the area around the church.

As I am sitting here writing, Libby is on the armrest leaning against my arm. I wonder if she is going to do this for midnight feedings as well? She experienced a toddler for the first time in a very long time the other day. Her reaction was pretty much the same, glare, glare harder, feel threatened, hide, growl and repeat. I am hoping that with Pete, she get used to him as he grows and we have no problem. Otherwise, we may have to find her a new home, and I really don't want that.

As I go into week 25, here is what is happening with the baby (according the American Pregnacy Association site):

How big is the baby?

Your baby is now 13 inches long and weighs anywhere from 1½ to 1¾ pounds. (this is funny to me as when I was at one of my last appointments, the doctor estimated that the baby was 1 1/2 lbs then, and that was 3 weeks ago.)

What is happening with the baby?

While it does not appear that your baby is that big, he or she is slowly gaining some baby fat, making his/her appearance less wrinkled. If your baby has hair, the color and texture could be seen at this point. However, it can change after the baby is born.

Our New Family Blog

Welcome to our new blog. Because my other blog is more public, I wanted to create one just for family and friends where we can post things that happen with the family. Especially with our little one on the way, I figured you all would like to have a place to go to see developments, pictures and videos as our little guy grows up.

I don't know how often we will post here at the present time, but we'll try to keep things up-to-date.