Silent night, yeah right!!

Well, our little man will be two weeks old tomorrow. WOW!!! That seems like a long time and yet it feels like a very fast blur. Last night, Nathaniel actually had a night where he went back to sleep after each feeding. Except for the fact the one feeding lasted from 1:30 until 3:30 because I kept falling asleep it was a pretty good night. Maybe that was his Christmas present to me. Despite the fact that I realized I had a kidney infection on Christmas Eve, we had a great holiday.

Thankfully I got into the doctor this morning. Can I tell you I hate prescription medicine? The first medicine that the doctor wanted to put me on is a form of Sulpha (sp?) antibiotic which I am allergic to. So she decided on another one which I asked very specifically about breastfeeding and she left the room to check on it and came back and said it was a B drug which should be OK. But then when I got the medication, it specifically says on the side of the bottle...Don't use if breastfeeding. UGH!!! So I called the doctor's office back to check on it but the doctor was already gone for the day at 2:30...holiday hours. UGH...again. So I am taking the medication because the spasms in my kidney were just a bit too much. I am still breastfeeding because if I give Nathaniel a bottle he gets all constipated and it so uncomfortable. He can't have regular formula because it has milk products in it and has to have soy formula which totally stops him up. All my kids have been this way. And I can't have dairy or it hurts his tummy as well. And I don't just mean gas...he doesn't sleep and has awful mucousy poopies. Poor little boy. I actually had baked goods at Grandma's yesterday and it kicked in with him about 6:00 a.m. this morning. I felt so bad. NO MORE MILK or Butter...I promise. Do you know milk is in a whole lot of things? UGH!! Now I gotta have self control with what I eat.

SO I am trying to trust in Dr. Huang that she checked the right thing and it is OK for me to take this drug and get better while nursing my son. Why does this stuff seem so stressful? Probably the lack of sleep.

On a much more positive note...My dear sweet husband has totally stepped it up this past week. He really worked hard around here...doing laundry and dishes and trying to keep some order around this house. I just really struggle in the first few weeks to get my milk supply going and then with this kidney infection have just been worn out.

Typically I get up and go into the living room and nurse and then put Nathaniel back to bed in the dining room at night rather than pulling him into bed with us. I figure at least one of us should get some good sleep. On Saturday night...I was so tired and we had been to my mom's for most of the day for my neice's birthday party and I had missed my nap and my milk supply was so low...John actually slept on the couch and let me and Nathaniel have the bed. Honestly, I think this night of snuggling and nursing is what got my milk on track. I have been producing much better. Even after missing a nap yesterday I was able to keep Nathaniel satisfied. WooHoo!!!

Well...my days have been filled with nursing and napping and trying to keep up with my four kids and husband and holiday stuff...not sure when we will start school again...though my kids are begging for it.

Nathaniel's birthday!!!

Well, I wouldn't go to bed Wednesday night until I finished folding all the clean clothes in the house. I didn't get them put away but they were clean and folded. And I showed John how to use the video camera. We discussed that he need to pack a bag just in case but I told him that he would have hours to do this...little did I know.

I woke up early in the morning thinking I was just aching because I had actually slept 5 hours before having to get up and go to the restroom. Then I thought maybe that wasn't just an ache and I should see what time it was. 4:28 .am. Then at 4:31... a conatraction...at 4:34 another. JOHN, I need you!!!! We called Bon-Bon (Bonnie Moye) and asked her to come over. And John scrambled around to gather some necessities and took out the trash...I appreciated the gesture but who needs to take out the trash...we need to go to the hospital. We drove to hospital in Kissimmee. I wasn't paying attention to the speed limit so I am not sure if we broke any speed limits but I did almost told John to run a red light.

We got to the hospital at 5;10. I was so glad we pre-registered until they made us go through it all over again....huh? I think I had the gal at registration a bit nervous...with my deep breathing. They took me up to triage and actually had the gall to ask me to pee in a cup...WHAT I can hardly stand up and you want me to hold a cup and pee into it. Well, that didn't happen. So they checked me...9 cm. And then told me to get off the bed and back into the wheel chair. OK...Lord...I need your grace here.

We got into our delivery room at 5;45...our dear sweet Dr. Hartman arrived and said are you ready to push. After maybe 4 pushes and a lot of encouragement from the 4 nurses, Nathaniel True was born at 6:02 a.m. on Thursday, December 13th, weighing 8 pounds 2 ounces at a length of 2o inches.

So Nathaniel apparently decided to listen to his father's pleading to get here soon. Who would have thought it woudl have been that fast. Quite an amazing experiencing. If we have any more kids we will have to stay in an RV in the hospital parking lot for the last few weeks.

Well, Just wanted to share our exciting story of Nathaniel's arrival into this world.

Oh by the way... our girls have birthdays on the 3rd of their month while the boys have birthdays on the 13th...We may have to stop now...how can you keep up with that.

We are praising God for our little man. The kids met him today. It was so sweet.

Nathaniel is HERE!!!

here's a preview of our new little man
i will update you on the details later.

Are you having twins?

OK...so I know my belly is BIG, HUGE, ENORMOUS and any other words you can come up with for EXTREMELY GREAT WITH CHILD. But men should know not to ask..."Are you having twins?" Even extremely dense ones. Saturday night our family went to a UCF basketball game and the guy behind us asked that question as we were leaving. I just laughed and told him, no and that I was due anyday now.

I know 2 weeks until the due date shouldn't seem like forever, but it does. So to compensate, I have decided that Nathaniel is not coming. That way I don't have to be so anxious and can just be surprised when he decides to join us. If I could just get John to stop asking if we are having a baby every 10 minutes. We are all so excited. I have everything ready for Nathaniel except a clean house. That part I do have trouble keeping up with. But his bedroom is set up (translated...I put up the pack and play in the corner of the dining room). We were blessed with a new pack and play with a bassinet feature by our dear friend Beth. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. This will be Nathaniel's bed for a while until I feel comfortable moving him upstairs with Elijah. And I can move him around where ever in the house as needed.

I keep running through my mind all the things that need to be done before a baby comes. I have diapers, wetwipes, vaseline, alcohol, and q-tips by the changing table. I have washed baby boy clothes in some drawers in my dresser. My bag is packed and in the back of the suburban with the baby carrier. The video camera is charged. There are extra batteries for the digital camera. My boppy pillow and covers are washed. The only thing I can think of that I don't have is a pacifier. But I figure I won't try one of those for at least a couple of weeks. Elijah wouldn't ever take one. I remember buying one of every brand until realizing I had wasted all that money and he would only use me as a pacifier. Sometimes you do what ya' gotta do, you know. I need to boil the parts of the breast pump that need boiling and maybe some baby bottles. I keep thinking in the back of my mind that maybe I won't need them this time. If I live like I won't need them, maybe we won't have the same issues we had with Layton and Cheney and nursing and pumping. Oh...I still have to show John how to use the video camera...probably ought to do that before I am in labor. Bon-Bon is on call for kid duty...our family tradition when we deliver babies. That way my mom can come to the hospital for the delivery and not have to watch grandkids at home. I have purchased a little gift for each of the kids from Nathaniel to say thanks for being a big brother and sister and they have picked out little things for him to welcome him to the family...baby socks, slippers and tiny caps.

I had some strong encouragement to have Nathaniel yesterday...it was my mother-in-law's mother's birthday. That would have been neat. Now that we missed the 10th...the next day that has been voted for delivery is the 13th. You see...Layton and Cheney were both born on the 3rd day of their months and Elijah was born on a 13th. Wouldn't be too funny to two girls born on the 3rd and two boys born on 13ths? Or I suppose we could actually go until the 23rd of the month...so that they could all be 3 days since our ministry is called 3 degrees, inc.

So as you can tell I am being "very successful" (notice sarcastic tone) at pretending that Nathaniel isn't coming...HA, HA, HA!!!

So girls...do you see anything I haven't done yet??

A pic of Nathaniel- a sweet pudgy face

Nathaniel News

Saw the good ol' Doc today and ...No C-section necessary!!! Woohoo! Everything looks good to go whenever Nathaniel tries to head on out. I only measured 1 cm which seemed weird because with all of the other 3 by now I was either 3 cm or had the baby. I am truly learning all children are different. Dr. Hartman anticipates it happening quickly when it does happen. So hopefully it will. I lost a pound this week. He said there is an old wives tale that says you are ready to have the baby when you lose a pound. I told him even if he made that up just for me I definitely feel ready to have the baby. The sonogram technician did the measurements and calculated Nathaniel to be only 6 lbs. and 9 oz. Not that you hear that those measurements are accurate very often but that would make him a small baby for us...like Layton. Layton (3 weeks early)- 6-5...Elijah (3 weeks early) 7-7 and Cheney (1 week early) 9-6. So maybe Nathaniel does need to cook in there a little longer.

Well, Carri-friend is coming over to watch the kids for us tonight so we can finalize our Christmas shopping. It may be a last chance to hang out just the two of us. You know how it is after the baby comes. For a while you take it everywhere you go.

Thanks for your prayers in all of this. As ready as I am for the pregnancy to be over...I still am amazed that we are going to add another human to our Evans' clan. Here is a copy of one of our sonogram pics from Tuesday. I hope you can decipher his sweet kissable lips and what looks like big pudgy cheeks. I tried to attach it here but isn't working...I'll try to post later.

False Labor...another UGH!!!

We actually went to bed around 10 last night. Lately bedtime has been really late for me because it just takes me a long time to get comfortable so I can actually fall asleep. I even fell a sleep quickly. Wow...what a relief. Until I woke up with pretty intense pain in my lower back and abdomen. I just figured it was because I was trying to lay flat on my back so I didn't get too excited and didn't even check the clock. Until I had three of them and checked the time at 11:33p.m. and got up without waking John. I figured if one of us could sleep, one of us should. So I got up and did dishes and some laundry and cleaned the tub and sinks in the kitchen and bathroom. Stuff I figured I should do before I have to call Bon-Bon to come over in the middle of the night so we can go to the hospital. Typical nesting things. Well...the contractions stopped so I went and slept in the recliner around 2 a.m. But at 5 this morning I had a started with a few more that have also gone away. Now I feel like I had a charlie horse in my lower back last night.

Well, I am figuring that since Dr. Hartman said after the sonogram yesterday that he is leaning towards a natural delivery my body decided it could go ahead and start getting ready. The sonographer...I think I've made that word up... took the pics right to Dr. Hartman and he looked over them quickly and said the placenta is out of the way. I haven't sent out a BIG announcement yet because I wanted to wait until we talked to him directly tomorrow. But PRAISE GOD!!! Now we just have to wait and see when this thing is really going to go down. It feels like it is going to be soon.

Christmas SHOPPING UGH!!!! no more!!!

I have to admit that I am a terrible gift giver. I offer to you that I am not sensitive...or thoughtful. It is always a struggle for me to come up with gift ideas. "Gifts" is definitely not my love language. And on top of that...I have never ever liked shopping even for myself...unless my mom or sister are there to actually pick out the items for me at Ross to try on and then I actually come out of the store with a multitude of coordinating outfits, shoes, and even jewelry. I think the last time this happened was pre-children during my teaching days when I would make a going back to school shopping trip every year. What fun! That was back in the day when I actually intentionally bought items that were dry clean only so I didn't have to launder them. Oh, how my life has changed. Since then I only go shopping on a "need" basis.

I am the type that goes into a store with exactly what I want to buy on a list and if they don't have it I move on until I find it. Basically I am a guy when it comes to shopping. It can make for a very frustrating shopping trip.

So this year with protruding belly, I was particularly dreading going shopping. I had already checked WalMart and the relatively inexpensive items that I wanted to purchase for my kids were not there. If the "St. Cloud mall" didn't have them I figured I was up a creek. But thank goodness for Amazon.com. Tonight I went online and got the exact toy...well almost exact items that my kids wanted...one for each of them. Elijah's exact item was a bit above my price range so I got something in the same genre. And the shipping is only going to be 7 dollars. Well worth it, I think. I don't have to get out and drive in Orlando Holiday traffic or bump into people or shelves with my big belly or go to the bathroom in every store we enter or waddle around aching while searching blindly for each item.

So now the kids have one toy and a pair of shoes (which they actually tried on but have been stored away for a few weeks in hopes that they will be excited to get them at Christmas.) A couple of years ago at a ladies event hosted by Joy Chambers, I was inspired by some of the Christmas ideas to get our kids three gifts each year. I mean baby Jesus only got 3...one from each wise man. Why in the world should they get more than the birthday boy. So that would be a fun one, a practical one and a spiritual one. So we have two out of three right now. I think I can make a stop at the Christian bookstore without too much trouble and finish them up. Woohoo!!!
Or maybe even John could do that. And I guess he can fill their stockings too. What is a trip to Dollar Tree?

Now I just have to come up with something totally awesome and cool for my amazing husband...any ideas? UGH!!!!