Hodge Podge

This post isn't really about anything specific, just a "what's been going on this week" type thingy.  :)

Let me start by saying I am starting a new venture tomorrow: Farmer's Market grocery shopping.  I am nervous and excited.  I started feeling very guilty earlier this week that we buy almost nothing local and (in an attempt to save money) have quit shopping at Whole Foods over the last month.  But, with some encouragement and reminders of what's important from some local moms in a Facebook group I'm in, we decided this is important.  The most important thing is making sure my family is safe, and that means taking better care of what I put into their bodies.  75% of our diet is "real food" and I make most things homemade already, but the ingredients need to be better.  So, I'm sure next week I'll post about how it goes!

I finally put together my beads from my Blessingway!  I think they are beautiful and I love them so much.  Right now, they are hanging in Isabelle's nursery and I am so looking forward to holding them and looking at them during labor to remember all the women who are supporting me and behind me and Isabelle that day (or days).  I would love to use the beads after, but I think I'll put them in Izzy's keepsake box so she can always have them.

 

My brother and niece spent a few days with us and Sher always takes control of my phone and I found these two sweet pictures on there after they left.  They're blurry, but I think they're precious.

 

Jonathan and I had a Panera date this morning!  I weigh myself every Friday (have for years) and my weight gain was really good last week, so I rewarded myself with Panera.  Yummo!  And JC naturally picked the largest thing they had, a huuuge cinnamon roll.  He ate almost all of it.  lol  I have found myself wanting to just do things with JC.  I guess it has really hit me that I don't have much time left with just him, so I am soaking up every second I can get.  So, not much housework has been accomplished this week, but boy has he had a good time lately.  He deserves it.  My son is pretty spectacular.

Earlier this week, my sweet friend Erin invited JC and I to meet her and her friend at a splash pad in Moore.  JC and Sher had a great time in the water and I had a great time catching up with my dear friend and getting to love on her precious baby K. 

 (There's baby K's big bro in the background.  hehe)

 Love it!

 

 

To my Isabelle Mae

My precious Izzy,

We are getting SO close to us welcoming you Earth side (to quote your Aunt Nikki!) and the time seems to be dragging on!  We are all beyond excited to meet you, to see your little face, and to kiss your squishy cheeks.  I have to admit, I am pretty nervous to become a mom of two also.  But, I know God has a plan for our family, and you are a BIG part of that plan. 

I am working feverishly getting everything prepared for you.  I just finished your nursery this week (not that in the grand scheme of things that even matters), Papa and I are practicing our Bradley Method relaxation every night, I am doing what seems like a thousand pelvic rocks and a thousand kegels every day to prepare my body for labor.  I think about you and pray for you what seems like constantly.  I am starting to feel like your arrival really is just around the corner and I am content.  Last week, I was nervous and excited, and now I am just....at ease.  I know you will come when God and you are ready, not when I am ready (because I am ready NOW!).  I know that you will be born in the way that you and God require, not the way I want.  Although I do think about your birth all the time and have started dreaming about it as well. 

I feel more in tune with my "mommy self" this time around (your big brother was the "experimental child" I guess, hehe) and I know what we will do and what we will not do.  I feel more sure about my decisions with you.  I am also very very blessed to have a husband like your Papa who listens to me and his final decision always ends with "What does your mommy instinct tell you, because THAT'S what we need to do.". 

I have been waiting for you my whole life.  I remember being a little girl and daydreaming about my family one day and I always had a daughter.  Now, I CAN NOT imagine my life without your brother, but I never thought I wanted a boy until I had him.  But, I always knew I wanted you.  I always knew I NEEDED you.  I didn't know if my little girl would be of my blood or be from another country, but I felt like God needed me to have a little girl. 

I have so many dreams and hopes for you already.  But, the main thing I think about right now is your safety and your health.  I have been very careful with my pregnancy (as I was with your brother) to keep you safe and out of harms way the best I can.  Am I perfect?  Absolutely not.  But, you are my first thought in everything I do and every decision I make.  I decided to have you at home instead of in a hospital, and your safety was something I thought loooong and hard about, even before I was pregnant with you.  But, I feel 100% safe having you in our home and with the wonderful team we have.  Grammy Gail and Aunt Nikki will be here to help us welcome you.  Erin will be here to document your arrival in pictures that I will cherish for the rest of my life and I hope you will too.  Aunt Stephy is coming to watch your goofy brother for us since Mommy and Papa will be working very hard to bring you here.  I know she is looking forward to loving on you so soon after your arrival.  I have a playlist of songs to play during labor and delivery and I wonder what song you'll be born to?  I know that seems like a strange thing to think about, but I wonder that all the time!

I pray that you are safe and healthy in my tummy and feeling all the love your Papa, brother, and myself are feeling for you.  Come whenever you are ready, whether that's next week or in 5 more weeks.  We are ready for you, but you are worth the wait my precious angel.

Love always,
Momma 

To my Jonathan

My little love,

I have been working on this letter to you for over a month now and it still doesn't feel complete, but I know the words I have for you will never end, so I better just go with what I got.  As my pregnancy with your sister comes to an end, I find myself feeling very sad and scared for you.  I know how silly that must sound!  But, for over two years, you have been my everything....you haven't had to share me with another little person, and I just don't know how you will handle this transition.  I know that Isabelle is as big a blessing from God as you were, and I know she is your blessing too, not just mine and Papa's.  I also know that you are a two year old who is kind of full of himself.  :) 

I pray every day that God will guide me along in this new journey.  Just like you, for the past two years I have not had to share MY time with another little person.  I pray that He will help me and show me ways to include you in everything to do with your sister.  It will be different for all of us, but it will be better. 

I am so proud of the little man you are becoming.  You are polite and sweet and just the right amount of ornery.  Every time I look at you it feels like my heart is exploding and I get the same feeling I did the first time I saw your beautiful face.  You are the best thing I have ever done and I don't even know how I felt happiness before you were mine. 

I hope that you will always know how much Papa and I love you.  I never want you to question that.  If you do, then we're doing something wrong.  I pray I pray I pray for so much for you. 

I am excited to see what each new day with you brings, but I want time to slow down also.  You are starting a Day School in the Fall and for some reason this packing a lunch thing really is hitting me hard!  Only big kids have lunches packed right???  Not my 2 and a half year old!  It will be hard for me to leave you, even if it is just for one day a week, but I know you will enjoy it so much and will grow from the experience.  You are such a social person and I feel like you need it. 

You will be such an amazing big brother.  You love "sissy" already and I know you can't wait to have a baby.  Seeing you love Isabelle will be the biggest blessing of all. 

Last night (and then again today when I was putting you down for a nap) you made my mommy heart oh so happy.  As I put you in your crib (after you had climbed out several times!), you said "momma, sing.".  So I started singing our song, You Are My Sunshine.  I have sang this song to you since you were born, and you're starting to learn the words yourself, which is just the sweetest thing.  So, as I am leaning on your crib, singing the words to you, you look up at me and smile your beautiful, big smile, put your hand on mine and squeeze it.  As I finished the song you let go of my hand, grabbed Caesar (his most prize possession, a stuffed monkey), cuddled up with him, and gave me an unsolicited "I wov" (aka I love you).  My little man, "I wov" you so very much.  I am so happy and blessed that you are mine.

Love always,
Momma

Best leftovers ever!

So I have always been a foodie and loved cooking homemade meals for my family, but it has gotten much worse since I've been pregnant, as you can imagine.  If I love a meal, I LOVE that meal.  And I loved our dinner last night, but I LOVED it as lunch today.  It is a healthy lasagna soup.  I think soups make the best leftovers because the flavors just mix together more and it becomes more flavorful overnight.  Last night I served it with a big ol' leafy green salad and garlic bread I made out of leftover hamburger buns I froze a few weeks ago with butter and garlic powder heated in the oven for about 10 minutes (sounds weird but it's delish.  my mom used to do this all the time when I was a kid.) and today I just had it with a piece of my homemade wheat bread with butter on it.  I tried to upload some pictures, but it keeps messing up my Internet Explorer, so no pictures for you!  But here is the link to the recipe Healthy Lasagna Soup.  I used chicken Italian sausage because I couldn't find turkey, dried basil because I hate buying fresh herbs for some reason, and I topped ours with more fresh parmesan cheese because...well, do I really need to explain that.  :)  I have a list of food to make and freeze for my family to have on hand after the birth of my daughter and Jason and I unanimously decided this would go to the top of the list.  I'm not sure how the noodles will be after defrosting, but we'll see!  I clearly loved this recipe, my husband loved it, and my toddler loved it.  Mommy for the win!  Bon apetite!

With love, Doni



The Pregnancy of Miss Isabelle Mae

Since I just started updating my blog again, I wanted to document what my pregnancy has been like this far.

 It has been much different than my pregnancy with Jonathan, and I feel kind of guilty about that.  With JC everything was so new and every little thing just seemed like such a miracle!  Now don't get me wrong, I believe that all babies are miracles, but I kind of feel like I have a case of the "been there, done that".  And being pregnant with a toddler is.....less than ideal.  I can't nap when I want to, I can't sleep in on the weekends, I can't just sit down when I get home from work and not move until bed time. 

But, there are a lot of "I can's".  I can feel my little girl moving all day long, I can feel my love for her grow more and more every second, I can see my son kiss my belly and say "sissy", I can imagine what her little face will look like, I can believe in myself and in my body.  The "I can's" definitely outweigh the "I cant's".

11 weeks

 

13 weeks

 

18 weeks.  The day we found out blue or pink!

20 weeks

23 weeks

25 weeks

26 weeks  (hubby and I got bored and this is what he came up with)

 

I still can't believe I am putting the last two pictures on here and that I posted them on Facebook!  I have always been overweight and never been comfortable with my body.  Then, with my lovely son's pregnancy I got stretch marks, like most women I think.  I have had a really hard time accepting them as part of me.  I lost almost 25 pounds after I had my son (in addition to all the pregnancy weight) and that helped my confidence for sure, but I still hated my stretch marks.  This pregnancy however I have become much more....zen....and hippie I guess.  My husband says hippie.  lol  But, I see all these women with beautiful bodies and their stretch marks don't bother me.  So, why do mine???  I'm learning to accept them I guess.  And I think my bump looks pretty cute right now.  Hope ya'll are having a good weekend!!!

 

With love, Doni

Hi, I'm Doni, and you are......?

     Hello!  Boy have I been gone a while!  I started this blog to document my pregnancy with my son back in 2010.  And I successfully posted two whole blog posts!  And then I quit.  I have a history of doing things like this (I also have a mommy journal I started when my son was a few months old and I only have one entry in there.).  HOPEFULLY this one will last longer.  I have much more to say this time around.

     So let me just fill you all in on who I am and what I'm about...

     I am a mother of a two year old son, I am in my late 20's (wahhhhh!), and I have been married to the love of my life since May of 2009.  They are my everything.  As I have had the difficult realization over the last year or so that my relationships with my friends are different now that we are all grown up and that some people in my life are users and not really there for me like I thought, they have been my constants.  They are always there and I know they always will be. 

     When I was pregnant with my son, my eyes were opened to the fact that my lifestyle was not the healthiest.  I thought I was eating pretty good, but boy was I wrong!  So, he changed that completely.  Then his arrival sent me into overdrive.  I became more aware of toxins that are everywhere and I just wanted to hide him from them, which in turn meant hiding myself and my husband from them.  The health of my boys is my complete inspiration for everything I do and every change I have made to our lifestyle over the last two years. 

     So now I am 5 and a half months pregnant with the little girl I have dreamed about forever, planning a homebirth this summer, and trying to be the perfect stay at home mom and wife.   It's hard.  I find navigating this new life is much more difficult than my old life.  It was so much easier to be totally unaware.  At least I think so.  Some people make it look like second nature.  Hopefully I'll get there some day.  The sooner the better. 

    I hope you all enjoy my new, revamped blog!  Be prepared to see a lot about breastfeeding, natural childbirth, homemade goodies, my love for my husband, my love for my son, cloth diapers, and essential oils.    

With love, Doni