The Year of Nurture

 Our winter wonderland because I don't like posts with no pictures :)

For the past few years I have picked, rather what God has given me to focus on, live and strive toward for that year. With a new year comes a new word, but last years word and the year before are still something I want to focus on. This years word is a bit different in relation to the past years. As I was thinking about the upcoming months the word that I was continually prompted on was nurture. The obvious direction this word takes me is to Micah and Jane. But to me this year it is much more, probably even more as the year progresses. I see it as nurturing Micah and Jane, to bring up, train, and protect them. It is also applies to all relationships in my life, I want to nurture, grow, support, and encourage these people and our relationship. This word can apply to me inwardly as well, to develop and foster a greater dependence on the Lord. To grow more deeply in love with Him, to know even more His strength and my weakness. To nurture a greater confidence in myself and contentment to were God has me now. This year I focus on nurturing, growing and developing all areas of my life. 

Three Months

 Another month has gone by and Jane seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. She rolls over from tummy to back, the first time she did that was December 13th. There has been a few times that it seems she was about to roll from back to tummy. Jane has really begun to and enjoy playing with toys. She especially likes rattles and toys that make noise. We have been on a fairly predictable schedule for awhile now. I wake her up at 7:30 to nurse, goes to sleep at 9/9:30, she'll sleep to about 10:30 or 11, nurse at 11, sleep at 12:30/1:00, awake to nurse at 3:00/3:30, sleep at 5:00, nurse at 6:00, we have now been keeping her up until the next feeding which we moved up to 8:00/8:30 and then we put her to sleep once she is done, sometimes it takes a little bit to settle in to sleep but once she is out she is a sleep until the next morning. What a blessing to have a full night sleep. She is such a joy. Both she and Micah are/were happy babies. Though it is even easier to get her to smile. Just look at her and talk to her and she'll smile. Her smiles fill her whole face. She is precious little girl.
 

Micah wanted to get in on the pictures too. Playing his guitar of course. :)

Asleep in the Car

Micah hasn't slept in the car for somewhere around a year and a half now. Earlier this week we were driving back to my parents house from Salem and he was asleep before we even made it to the freeway. The Farmer and I were blown away. We even voluntarily drove through Portland just to have him sleep longer. We even tried to get him to sleep on our way home that night. It took much longer but Micah did fall asleep. He even stayed asleep as a carried him to bed. Perhaps we have turned a corner?! Wishful thinking I'm sure, but one can hope.

Two Month

:: sorry this is so late, totally thought I had posted it already::

 Well what do you know a month has gone. Jane is now two months old!!

I don't know accurate physical stats on her, her doctors appointment isn't until the end of the month. But weighing her here she is about 12.5 pounds. Which explains why some of her size 3 month shirts are getting small. We are blessed by another very happy baby. She only cries when she is hungry, has a bubble or is tired. There are fluke times when she fusses a bit more but that is very atypical. Jane is doing amazing at holding up her head during tummy time! Her PT will be proud. ;) She really connects with people when you are talking with her and she smiles very easily at all of us. Tracking objects is coming along as well, she will follow toys and us (especially Micah) as we move around her. She is also blowing bubbles some and seems to like to suck on her hands. We also comment on how much she looks like Micah did as a baby. So I am thinking there will be quite a sibling resemblance as these two grow.

Days are very full for me. Not much time for anything else but taking care of the kids. But I have worked out a schedule that I will be implementing soon and hopefully that will allow me to accomplish more and blog more.

One Month

I was surprised every month as Micah grew and that has not changed. I can't believe Jane is already one month old (a week ago). It seems to have gone by quick and slow at the same time.

I'm not sure what her curtain weight is exactly. At her two week check up she was 9 pounds! She is somewhere in the 10 pound range now. I have been blessed by a few smiles from Jane. She has tracked a toy a little bit. Every now and then she talks and coos, but that is not regular yet. She has found her hands occasionally. It is amazing how quickly she is changing. She is a great baby, for the most part she only cries when she has a bubble, is hungry or is tired. She is pretty much sleeping through the night now too. Which is awesome!

With two little ones life is much busier now. Some days they do sleep at the same time which is about my only down time for the day. (Which is how I am getting this post done). I know I am not going to get posts up as much as I want but I am going to still try to document our life here.

Micah and Jane

Prior to Jane being born we had decided we wanted to have Micah come into the room to meet her first. When he came in he got up on the bed with Jane and me and one of the first things that he said was "hold". The next day when he came back to the hospital he kept saying "hold sister". He certainly loves her. He has read to her, brought many toys to her and laid down next to her.

A cute story I have to include is from the other day. Micah wanted to hold Jane so I had him sit on my lap. Jane was a little fussy because she was beginning to get hungry. Micah started to say "otay, otay". He then started to rock her and say "shhhh". It was so sweet that he was trying to comfort her. I'm sure there will be many more of these moments between these two. I hope and pray that I can remember these tender moments.

Jane Elizabeth

It has been over a week now since our little girl arrived and we have been greatly enjoying her. I certainly did not expect her to be nine days late. At one point I even thought she was going to come early.

The evening before she was born my contractions were starting to get stronger. They continued to be strong the next morning, but they were not regular at all. The day started as it usually does and I had no feelings that it was going to be "the day". After lunch and getting Micah down for nap I was taking care of things around our room and some contractions started to get much stronger. After a couple had come just as strong and somewhat close together I decide to start keeping track of the time. This was around 2:30, about 3:15 I called The Farmer to tell him I thought it was time. He came in and helped pull together the last few things to take to the hospital. At this point I was not paying attention to how close the contractions were. Later The Farmer told me they just kept getting closer and closer and were about three minutes apart when we left.

Once arriving at the hospital The Farmer thought it would be a good idea to walk a bit since I had been sitting in the car for about a half hour. We didn't want to things to slow down from the drive. Well we didn't make it far, I had a couple strong contractions and mentioned feeling lots of pressure. So The Farmer turned us around and checked us in at 4:47pm. The nurse checked me at 5:48 and I was at 6.5cm. At 5:49 my water broke and things really got going at this point. Just a few minutes later I was pushing and at 6:16pm on October 10th we welcomed Jane Elizabeth into this world. I had been praying for a shorter labor (Micah was 26 hours), I was not expecting it to be as short as it was, but I'm quite happy that it was. 

Jane has been great and we are loving having her apart of our family. Since this post is already long I will save the story about Micah meeting her for another day.