He has Risen!

 As the old response goes, He has Risen indeed! 

 Don't have pictures for today, because we were late for church, but Grace was an absolute ham in her Easter dress, she kept twirling and saying, "Grace pretty, Grace pretty!" Noah did not have an outfit for today... oops! I guess I should have thought about that before ten minutes prior to leaving! Second child  I suppose :). Anyway, Grace showed off her dress and visited with all her adult friends, and we just ran after her. Both Noah and Grace went to nursery today, which is refreshing for Daniel and I! He barely sleeps and I think today was particularly stressful for the nursery workers, but all was well and he survived the hour. 

 I love our church, love the people that we have met there and become friends with. As we move into this last quarter and set our eyes toward Groton, I can't help but be a little sad about the change that is about to happen. I'm sad for me, but I'm really sad for Grace. Her whole little world is about to change and she has no idea. I'm going to be putting that off though, and not thinking about it until I absolutely have to. 

 Today we are going to join our munchkin friends and have a BBQ and Easter Egg hunt together. Should be fun! 

 Ciao Tutti! 

Getting into a Groove

Noah is almost three months old now... technically 12 weeks, but as moms know, after they're born weeks don't really count anymore, dates do. We finally are getting into some kind of groove. Noah doesn't sleep through the night yet, and Grace was close at this point. Boys are different I guess, they don't want to give up the night time feeds as easily (at least most boys I know). I don't have the energy to do a Babywise cry it out session yet either, so he pretty much gets attention when he asks. I can't say I mind too much, he's such a good smiley baby and I feel horrible when he is uncomfortable. The last three months has been Noah being uncomfortable... colic, gassiness, and fussiness has ruled our days. I tried to cut out dairy, cut down on caffeine (both of which made for a cranky mommy), but nothing seemed to work. The only thing that helped a bit was gas drops, though it could have been just timing. Everything seems to be settling down now. We've had a week or so of being able to put Noah to sleep at 730pm and he will calmly go to sleep, before it was screaming until he wore out and passed out. He wakes up between 12 and 1am, then again around 5 and isn't very comfortable after that, but then 7am rolls around and this smiley little boy is there to greet you. It's adorable, I absolutely love it.

 Grace has been a champ through the whole thing. It's taken 3 months for her to settle out too, but she loves Noah, and I think finally seems to like having him around, instead of viewing him as a barrier between me and her. She's full fledged into her terrible twos, and talks to us like a little woman, but even that is leveling itself out. She continues to learn new words, is a perpetual repeater, and loves learning about new things around her, and meeting new people. She is the world's most social two year old I have ever met. She loves all our friends, Jon and Bethany in particular, our friends and fellow worshipers from church. She's sweet on Jonathan, which makes us all laugh, however Jonathan doesn't mind and they seem to get along well. As we move toward June and having to leave here, leaving our church family will be hard for her and for us as well. How do you tell a two year old that you're not going to be living around all these wonderful people anymore? It's hard enough for me, maybe she just won't realize it. At least this time.

 So, we have a groove, at least for a couple weeks. As always, you get into a routine and it changes just as you get comfortable! Such is life I suppose!

 Ciao Tutti!

Attachment Parenting

 I'm not about attachment parenting (no offense to those who are), it's just not something that I have ever wanted to commit to. Noah, however, is determined to change that for me. It's been a month and the kid wants to sleep no where else but on someone's chest or in someone's arms. He doesn't really like the pacifier either, and would prefer to nurse to sleep. My "Babywise" mind is going nuts whenever this happens, but what makes me more nuts is trying to get him to sleep without these two crutches. I always said I'd never be a pacifier for my kid, but it's proving to be challenging! Now, he's only a month, but he doesn't sleep well without these two things and the poor kid is so tired. And poor Grace is left to fend for herself often because mommy doesn't have the hands to get up and get what she wants. He would have been a great first baby, I would have worn him everywhere, slept with him on the couch, nursed whenever (not really, I was a little crazy with Grace). I like to think I would have though!
 So, our days are spent sitting, trying hard to figure out a better way to get Noah to sleep on his own. I do keep reminding myself that this will end, that Noah will grow up too fast and soon he won't be falling asleep on us and cuddling. I remember well when Grace stopped doing that. So, though I'm frustrated at times, I'm thankful. God truly gives us a beautiful blessing when he gives us babies. At least I think so.

 Today we get to go to the farm, Grace is very excited to see all of her friend!

 Ciao Tutti!

Noah Daniel Jones

Our new family of four

Noah Daniel

Noah’s Birth Story

January 4^th: That night I didn’t feel well. Grandma and Papa had left, and Grandma Jones had arrived that evening, ending almost two weeks of having the Spinweber family for Christmas and Grace’s birthday.

Around 0530 I woke up thinking I had gas, and headed to the bathroom. I found a large amount of bloody mucus after wiping and noticed that my comfortableness was not really going away. The contractions started around 10 to 15 minutes apart. I got up, had a good breakfast, and decided to go for a walk with Daddy. We went around the neighborhood, walking, stopping every contraction and me leaning on him to breathe through it. We chatted about what was going on, how Grace and Grandma were going to get on with out us. After getting back from the walk, I was tired again, so I went to bed and tried to rest for a while. Labor in bed was hard, but I felt like it was all I could do with the energy I had. I labored on the ball for a while, trying to sit on it and relax over the bed. That got a little hard after a while as I was having to support myself with my legs and the pain was more intense when I couldn’t relax everything. So, my happy place ended up being lying over the ball, with my head and torso leaning over the ball. For some reason it was easier to relax when I did that. I spent a while there, the contractions averaging every 5 minutes. They stretched out at some point, however, making me leave the ball and get in the shower for a couple minutes. It worked. Just a couple contractions and I relaxed enough with the warm water for everything to start speeding up. I got out of the shower to contractions 5 minutes, and then 3 minutes. We thought we’d try to go for another walk, however, we only got to the mailbox (about 25 yards from the house).  I felt like they started to run together, and I couldn’t go anymore. Daniel clocked them at 2-3 minutes apart, and coming more intensely. We had been debating as to when to head to the hospital, and at that point it was completely clear that that was where we had to go. Daniel had everything packed and ready to go, so all we had to do was head back in, change, and get in the car.

We said goodbye to Grace, who was oblivious to what was going on, which made me cry and still does, just thinking of how things were going to change for our sweet girl. The car ride was by far the longest 7 minutes since starting that drive last March. Two contractions was enough to make me tear up as we made our way around bumpy corners and turns. Thankfully it was the afternoon, and there was parking very close to the entrance of the hospital! We made our way, very slowly, to the L & D floor, stopping a couple times to get through a contraction. I’m sure that I had eyes staring at me throughout that trip, but funny enough you don’t really care at that point! Looking back I have to laugh because people looked at me as if they didn’t know what was going on! Seriously?! Having a baby! Ha!

 Walking onto the floor, I was greeted by my most favorite pm shift nurse, Marci! I couldn’t have asked for a better greeter, it was like seeing family.  We headed into our room, they gave me room 10… apparently it has good vibes and successful births! Amy, our nurse, got everything ready for me, and as I was changing into my gown, my water broke.  As it did, I felt everything lower, and the contraction I was having became more intense.  That was the beginning of the hard part. More so because everything started moving fast, the contractions became incredibly intense, and because I was still in transition from home to the hospital, I felt that I never truly settled into labor again… it was hold on for dear life!

 Things started with 15 minutes of being on the monitor, getting an IV, being checked and starting the ampicillin. Poor Amy, I was squirming the whole time, trying to breathe through each contraction, which was about 2 minutes apart. Upon checking me, I was 5 cm. I’ll admit I was a little distressed to hear this! I had labored all day, the contractions were almost unmanageable at this point, and I was only half was there! Daniel was my rock though, he talked me through that moment and we refocused. Amy got the IV on the second attempt, and by that point I could get off the monitor and start moving around again. We tried hanging over the head of the bed, which didn’t work; again, having to support myself with my legs made the contractions unbearable. Of course this was when Lab came and wanted to get blood… his only saving grace was that he got it on the first stick and I didn’t even feel it, even as I was watching it, there was no pain. Everyone gave him props for that! I moved after he was finished, to the ball, leaning on the bed. Again, not comfortable at all, but this position seems to make things lower again, pushing more amniotic fluid out, opening everything up. I crawled up the bed each contraction and started feeling out of control. I remember one contraction in particular something was too much, something was moving and I all I did was cry, “Amy!” Don’t know why or what I was meaning, but she seemed to know, and asked if I wanted to get checked again. Bless the labor nurses, they have enough experience that even when I did not know what was going on, they did. Good news was coming at this point, upon recheck I was 8 cm! This was 30 minutes after the last check, and even though it was a very positive move, all I could think was, “Oh, transition and I really CAN”T do this!” I believe I just started repeating that over and over, in between yelling. Oh, that’s when the yelling really started, and interestingly enough, I started bearing down. There was a very imperceptible change in my pain, which lowered from belly, down to bottom. I remember trying to breathe through the contraction and thinking, “If I bear down, maybe it will help.” That’s what I did and at that point more people started coming into the room. Dr. Walker was called, and I just kept holding on. I was in bed, on my side, one leg up as it was more comfortable that way.  Contractions at this point were 90 seconds apart. They really just didn’t stop in my mind! My body took over at a point and without control over it, I naturally just started bearing down. Thankfully Dr Walker came in at this point… kind of lackadaisical, and apparently saw a little head because all of a sudden the bed was being torn down and I was literally being moved in bed! Pushing started right then, and what an experience! That ring of fire is FIRE! Ha! You think you can’t possibly push into that pain, but you just do. I had three pushes, between the first two I had a blessedly painless break that I actually relaxed for, and then between the second and last one, screamed bloody murder and Noah’s little head popped out. The third push had the rest of him out and our handsome little man entered the world!

 They placed him on my chest and, unlike Grace’s birth, I looked at him and saw a familiar face… Daniel’s and Grace’s! He was a chubbier version of her, but the same. And so handsome! He screamed, and pinked up nicely. I looked right at Daniel and exclaimed, “We did it!” He was such an amazing coach and even seeing me in such pain and choking up, he guided me so well through everything (even as I lost my self control and fell FAR away from the Bradley way).

 Noah Daniel calmed well and we did skin to skin time until he started rooting and squirming his way down to eat. They weighed him and measured him, 7-10 and 20 inches! Two pounds heavier than Grace was! The ladies were wonderful and helped clean me up and tuck me in, smiles all the way and lots of praises for our natural birth. I was slightly embarrassed by the screaming at the end, but know that I couldn’t have controlled it even if I wanted to! I will never feel embarrassed for a woman I hear doing that while at work again!

 The whole experience was amazing, I wouldn’t do it any other way! I was up within the hour, taking a shower and eating anything I could get my hands on! The shower was heavenly! Its like you’ve done the most intense workout you can think of and you just need to clean off.  I would have wanted to do it anyway, but another reason for the quick clean up was Grace’s visit. Since it was close to bedtime we wanted to get her over to the hospital quickly to meet Noah. Mum Jones was her ride over, which was amazing considering she had just arrived 24 hours before and was driving to the hospital without help and in the dark! They made it though and it was priceless watching Grace come into the room. She went right over to Noah and said hello. I showed her my tummy and said, “Grace, Mommy doesn’t have owie tummy anymore because Noah is here!” She repeated everything back to me, “No owie tummy, Noah HERE!” She gave him kisses and then Noah “gave” her a present for becoming a big sister. She opened a Little People’s Noah’s Ark, and was SO incredibly excited! She kept going back and forth from the present to Noah, saying, “Thank you Noah, Thank you!” It was an amazing moment to watch! I didn’t expect her to be so excited honestly. She did not like when I gave Noah over to Daddy and tried to pick her up. She told me very firmly, “Mommy, hold Noah!” Little did we know how much she enjoyed coordinating Noah’s care and day. That’s for later I suppose.

 We hung out for 24 hours in the hospital and then headed home the next night. Daniel had to go back to school on Monday, Mum Jones was still figuring everything out, and I just wanted to be in my own bed, so 24 hours was good enough. Grace was once again ecstatic that Noah was home and continually thanked us for bringing Noah here. J  We settled in nicely and it was as if I hadn’t had a baby twenty four hours before! I can’t think of a more different experience between the two births! I was on a euphoric high for about a week over it all, and then reality set in and that went away. It hasn’t been bad, but going from one to two with a toddler has proven to be challenging. Thankfully Noah is a very good baby, and even though I wear him a LOT, he’s happy and has fit into our family lovingly. We couldn’t be happier and I am thankful that everything went well, and that Noah is HERE!

 Ciao Tutti!

Thankfulness

 It's nice to see that on Facebook many of my friends are starting a daily thankfulness post. I've joined in too because I think it's a good tradition to have any time of the year, not just around Thanksgiving. It's not the easiest thing to think of every morning or evening, especially when I haven't had a good day, but really, there is always something to be thankful for; even if it's not something significant or mind-blowing. So, I'm thankful that pregnancy is only 10 months long, I'm thankful that I have an awesome job and work with great women. I'm thankful that I was put on Call last night and didn't have to work a daylight savings shift that added an hour to my night and messed with trying to computer chart. Today I'm thankful that we have found an awesome church and have been able to be so involved in the ministry there. It's a large church, which in the past has turned us off because it seems impossible to find any type of niche when you attend something so big. Shoreline is different though, we got involved right away in the music ministry and because of that, our mega-church has become similar to Il Faro; there is always a smiling face to say hello to, another function to attend, and genuine thought and care over how we are doing. I can't ask for much more, though we could do more in order to make that experience happen for someone else coming into town and trying out a new church. I can honestly say, Shoreline has been the most fulfilling and challenging church we've attended. It will be hard to leave this one, though I know that our future churches and communities will be reflective of our time at Shoreline; just as Shoreline is a reflection of our time at Il Faro.

 Halloween was a success! Grace loved her Elmo costume and took about five minutes to figure out that "tick or treat!" yielded being given food! She was on a complete sugar high by the end of the evening when we headed home and tried to put her to bed. It was all in god fun though, I remember our Halloween nights and how fun they were, not being too restricted in what we did. I want to be able to do that for Grace too. Now if we could only get all this candy out of our house! Me and baby brother are ingesting WAY too much of it! Here are some pictures from the Saturday before and the night of.

Ciao tutti!

Pumpkin Patch!

  There is nothing quite like the midwest fall cider mills, pumpkin patches, and apple picking, but we were able to find a cute alternative today. It was a farm up in Hollister, about 50 minutes away from Monterey, right next to a small local airport and in the middle of a really large corn field. Grace is a plane girl, so seeing gliders and planes throughout the day was just as fun as the pumpkin patch itself! 

  The farm was called Swank Farms and you could tell they had been doing this for a while because it had so much to do we could have spent hours there. 

  First up was the goat track, which consisted of a huge goat pen with about 15 adult goats hanging out on different ramps, barrels, and bridges. The game was to get some food, pile it into a cup on a pulley system, and then ship it over to the spot where the goats were hanging. Grace was a bit skittish around the goats... too many mouths in her face but Daddy was able to feed some of them with her. 

  Next was the Kiddie Corral and more goats, a corn husking sand box, some bouncing horses, tractors, and a baby goat roaming around... which Grace thought was a cat!

 Millions of corn kernels in a box!!

 And millions more being made by two very enthusiastic boys grinding ears of corn!

 Not so enthusiastic about the bouncing horse area, on to the next thing!

TRACTOR!! We spent a good ten minutes on this... Her Great Uncle Don would be proud!

 And back to the corn box

 "MOM WE GOT FREE PUMPKINS!!"

  After the Kiddie Corral we took a break and ate lunch, then headed into the pumpkin patch to pick out our own pumpkins. First we started with a mini person maze. Daddy let Grace try to find her own way at first, but then had to join her because she started trying to climb over the bales to get out. My smart little girl!

 "Maybe this way?"

 "UUUMM, oh no."

 "Where do we go now?"

 "Yea! We made it out!"

And then came the pumpkin picking! Have to get a wheel barrel first (you'll know why in a couple pictures). 

 "Watch out Mommy!"

 "Woa, that was fast."

 Lets go get some pumpkins!

 Grace picked out her pumpkin first, and found one for Mommy too. 

 My favorite moment of the day

 A close second... this ended up being 64 lbs!!!

 Our picks

 Daddy and Grace bringing our pumpkins to be weighed and bought. Such a good helper she is! 

 Cheese!

 Last stop was the huge bouncing pillow. Not sure how they did it, but it was a massive yellow and orange trampoline that Daddy and Grace had too much fun on :).

 SO HIGH!!

 Notice the small print... :)

One more stop at the "race track." Grace was laughing the whole time, however there was a close call or two as Daniel came whipping around the corner a couple times!

 Here we go!

 "No Daddy, that's fast enough!!"

lol!! I almost pee'd my pants when I looked at this picture up close. Best picture of the day, by far!

  Overall, a day and we loved having family time and enjoying the silliness that is Grace. Still kind of missed the hot apple cider and donuts, but the tri tip sandwich was a good alternative! 

Ciao Tutti!