36 Weeks

I'm not good at putting these out on time, but these are my 36 week photos taken with our new Olympus Pen... we recently used some Christmas money given to us to buy ourselves this nifty new camera, we are still learning, but definitely love our new camera!

As you know this has been sort of a busy week, last Thursday my sister in law Cherie gave birth to her little baby boy Judah, what a good experience it was to be there for that... for more details you can read the blog below  :). 
When I got back from helping with the labor and birth my baby Ava was sick and had a high fever, which I thought would only last a couple days, but she has held on to that fever up until today, which every day till now has been Ava spending most of her time just laying on the couch, taking double the naps, and eating the minimum (but still drinking a lot, so that was good).  I think it came to a climax last night.  The first time she woke up we gave her a piece of toast and some (almond) milk,  an hour later she woke up crying about 3 am, next thing we know she's throwing up every where... which she ended up doing again.  TJ went to get some pedialite, bless his heart at 4 in the morning, then stayed with her in and out of sleep on the couch till 6:30, then put her into bed, and she slept till about 8:30.  She now has a normal temperature, is desiring to eat and drink, and is actually voluntarily climbing off the couch to walk around which she hasn't done once in the past 4 days.  She's taking a nap as we speak (write?) and I would say we are on the uphill swing, which is SOOO good, because I really hate it when my baby is sick!

So as for me and this stage of pregnancy, I am feeling very pregnant, lots of braxton hicks, and my belly is just feeling quite heavy.  It's getting harder to breath as this baby is crowding my space, but more than all that the ribs in my back have really been hurting, which also contributes to the difficulty of taking deep breaths, so I'm feeling sort of worried about that combined with being in labor, but hopefully I'll be seeing someone about that very soon.  This is kind of an odd stage for me because I gave birth to Ava at 37 weeks... that would be THIS THURSDAY with this baby, I don't quite feel ready for that!  I think that I'm going to go farther in gestation with this baby... I don't know why I just do, but I guess only God knows, so just be praying for me if you would I am a little nervous to do this whole labor thing again, it was so much work last time, but I know God is faithful, and I need to continually put my trust in Him.

Cherie's Labor

I just wanted to stop and write out my experience and perspective of my dear friend and sister in law's labor.

Cherie has been feeling like going into labor for weeks now.  For some reason, her body wants to give her extra trouble, between feeling incredibly sick throughout her pregnancy to an irritable uterus, I wouldn't call it a "happy go lucky" 9 months.  After weeks of thinking it might be labor, February 1st came... true labor!  Yay... we were all so grateful that the time was here for "baby next" to enter the world.  Cherie and her husband Kyle got to the birth center around 9:00 am on Wednesday.  Lori (my mother in law) and I arrived early afternoon to hopefully be of service.  We massaged her some, then drove her across town to buy her some much desired Jack fruit  from an Asian market, but to our dismay they were out  :(  so we decided to stop and have some Vietnamese lunch... mmmmmm!  From there we drove to the mall, to walk and get this labor going.  We walked around for a couple hours, somewhere in there more sister in laws showed up to be apart of this labor process.  After sufficient walking we all headed back to the birth center.  Cherie, Lori, Lily, Leah, Harmony, baby Django, Ann Marie, and Kelly... I know what your thinking, that's quite the crew, and it was.  Jenny, the midwife was feeling concerned that all of these people were going to take a toll on Cherie's labor process and that she probably wasn't going to have the baby till the next day, so... Leah, Harmony, and baby Django decided to go home, that left Lori, myself, Kelly and Ann Marie,  if Cherie didn't progress more as the evening went on, some of us were going to head home to give them some more freedom to just "BE".  She did progress more as the night went on, and because I myself am 36 weeks pregnant, I didn't want to do too much, but more than that, I wanted to be there for Cherie and do what I could to help her, she requested my "magic massaging fingers" to be there. 
She might not realize this, but some of my most treasured hours of her labor was in the middle of the night, we were laying on the bed side to side facing each other, every time she woke up to a contraction, she held my hand as I walked her through relaxing different parts of her body.  I think getting the opportunity to love someone like that doesn't come every day... and so for some reason, I will always cherish that.
  She got up to pee roughly every 15 minutes through out the night poor girl!  Cherie's contractions had decreased in frequency throughout the night, so the rest of us decided to go to breakfast and let them be for a while.  We got coffee and breakfast and then went to Target to walk around for a little while.  Cherie was soon asking us to come back, so we came back.  Jennie had broken her bag of waters at 10 am and  so until the baby was born, I had the privilege of relieving a bit of pain by pushing on Cherie's hips during contractions, which eventually were getting very strong and close together, soon she was pushing, and then she was really pushing... you know freaking out, not knowing what to do with herself, and all of this intense amount of pain waving through her body without relent. 
Kyle and I held her legs, as she pushed that baby out at 12:04 pm, and when the baby actually came, I couldn't hold the tears back... for a couple reasons.  One of them being that this whole thing for Cherie was finally over, it came to a complete climax, and she now had that sweet baby Judah crying in her arms, at the same time, I knew I would be doing this very soon, and all of the sudden felt the inevitability that this would soon be me.  I am so thankful that I was able to be there with Cherie and actually be of some help in such a difficult process both physically and emotionally, I am so proud of her, she did so well in relaxing during contraction, and just bucking down to do the job.  There is no way that you can't be closer bonded with a person after going through something like this with them, I would say it's pretty personal... and so, HONORED I am!  Thank you Cherie... I love you so much!  :)  And Congratulations to Kyle and Cherie on their beautiful new baby Judah Bernard Shropshire weighing in at 9lbs 3 1/2 ounces, 23 inches long.  And don't forget to tell Judah that his aunt Lily was the first one to change his diaper  ;)

Judah Bernard Shropshire 9 llbs 31/2 ounces 23 inches long

35 weeks

So, I'm sort of late with this post, it is my 35 week picture from last week, but I thought I should document it anyways. 
TJ and I have been preparing for this little adventure #2, we have been gathering items for the birth and delivery, and thing we need after the baby is born.  Sunday, we put the bassinet up in our room, which is fun to see it there, our new baby will actually be sleeping there!  :)  I feel slightly ill-prepared in the area of clothing for my baby because if it's a boy, I literally only have a couple things... but I'm sure it will all work our out in the end.

33 Weeks and a new addition

33 Weeks pregnant

I'm feeling more and more pregnant, this baby is getting bigger, and my tummy just feels like it's starting to weigh me down, but I am feeling pretty good.  I'm not having any swelling, not that I am noticing anyway, so that's good. 

Something exciting:  My brother and sister in law Barry and Helen had their sweet little baby boy Joshua David Griffith yesterday... she had a quick labor and delivery, Healthy mother and baby.  I'm so grateful to God for such a wonderful little blessings!  :)  Congratulations Barry and Helen!

Baby Joshua

Joshua, and his big sister Bella

32 Weeks and burning of the Christmas Trees

Fresh and clean

She LOVES her daddy!

32 Weeks

 So... as of today I'm 33 weeks pregnant, but here in these pictures I'm 32 weeks, my baby is growing and moving.  I have been having a little more back pain than I used to, and am just feeling more pregnant these days, holding Ava any long period of time can be challenging.  Ava seems to understand pretty well that there is a baby in my tummy, any time she sees my bare belly she makes a smacking sound with her lips to let me know she wants to kiss the baby, she then says "beEbe" in her high pitched voice several times until she makes it to my belly to kiss the baby... it's sweet in my opinion, she always seems to think of the baby, and kisses it whenever she feels it's necessary to do so, I hope she continues to be a sweet big sister AFTER the baby comes out.  :)

Playing with Fire

 For Youth Group on Sunday TJ had collected some Christmas trees to burn for our activity... it has become a yearly tradition.  This year he made it into more of a game as to who could get their tree burnt to a crisp first.  They had to first retrieve their fire from these locations here on your right, and then go over to their tree to light it on fire.  It was entertaining as usual, and the flames always go higher than we would expect, but I guess that's part of what makes it so exciting. 

Friends and Enchiladas

Little Helper  :)

Saturday we had some good friends over for dinner, Steve, Betsy and Andrew Page, they attend church with us, and live near by... we cherish our friendship with them.  Anyway, there's not much to share about the evening except for the fact that I tried out this new White Chicken Enchilada recipe that I had never tried before, and they turned out amazing.  I must not have had my head on straight, because I forgot to chop up the cilantro, AND I forgot to get the Picante Sauce out for the top... oh well, it was still very tasty. 

Some of Ava's favorite people  :)

Christmas Day

Christmas Eve

Christmas morning opening stockings

Love my girl!

Christmas morning Breakfast

I know it's been a while since Christmas, but I thought I should post these pictures anyway since I had them.  This year was the first year that we haven't spent Christmas with my side of the family.  I really enjoyed having Christmas in our own house with our little family.  We went to TJ's parents house around noon, and opened presents with them, had a nice dinner in the afternoon, and then desert later at Mummum and Granddad's house (TJ's grandparents).  I'm very thankful for my little family, and that no matter where we go in the world, we will have each other.  :)