One Year Later: How We Told

I know most of you won’t read this until at least tomorrow, which will be December 23, 2012.  Just one year ago, our worlds totally changed.

Aaron and I had been earnestly praying and yearning for a baby.  We endured eight months of seeing each other every other weekend due to Aaron’s out of town work that kept him away for 11 days in each trip.  He only got to come home for 3 days at a time in between the 11 day stretches.  That separation was incredibly difficult, and we were beyond thrilled when he got the news one week before Thanksgiving that he would get to come home for good!  On December 22, I dared to take a pregnancy test in the afternoon after we got home from work.  I knew that pregnancy test results were the most accurate in the morning, but I couldn’t wait!  I took the test and was beside myself with joy when the word “Pregnant” appeared.  I tried to maintain a “normal” face as I returned to the Man Room (the room in our home that’s painted in Detroit Red Wings colors and has Aaron’s RC cars and dome hockey table in it) to continue our game of dome hockey.  Aaron was going to be off of work the next day, and I planned to leave work a little early to go get a doctor’s confirmation on the pregnancy before I told anyone—this is the way Aaron and I planned it.  We wanted doctor confirmation before anyone knew—even Aaron!  That evening, we went to “the neighborhood” (the place my parents and his mom and Randy live) to eat dinner.  On the drive over there, I wrote a special note on my phone’s “Notepad.”  Here is what I said:

“I’ve been wondering if I am, and today I took a test that settled some of my questions. …I’m going to the doctor’s tomorrow and get it confirmed :) 

Dear God,

Thank you for this miracle!  Please keep us safe on this journey. 

Love, Reba

 

Dear Baby,

How we’ve prayed for you so! I am so excited to carry you near my heart.  I am going to strive to be the best mommy possible.  After you & I go to the doctors tomorrow, we will tell your daddy and he will be so thrilled!  I love you so much!  My soul doth magnify the Lord!

Love, your mommy”

So, when we returned to our home, Aaron decided he was going to stay up all night and play xbox online with friends.  I went ahead to bed.  When I woke up in the middle of the night, I took another pregnancy test (well, they come in 2 packs, so I figured I might as well use both to be sure!) :)  This test said “Pregnant” as well!  I was so so thrilled and I could hardly go back to sleep.  At work, I was chomping at the bit to leave early so I could go to the doctor’s office.

 When I got to the doctor’s office, I took their pregnancy test and waited as patiently as I could for the results.  The nurse looked at the little test stick and said “Yep, you’re pregnant. Yay!!!”  I was so excited and couldn’t wait to get home and tell Aaron.  I knew that my little brother would be coming over later that day to play some video games before we went back over to the neighborhood for dinner (we go there a lot… it’s fun!) :) I made it home before my brother got there and I raced down the hallway to prepare how I was going to tell Aaron the big news.  You see, several months prior, I bought a teeny tiney onesie that said “I’m told I’m a Red Wings fan.”  So, I pulled it out of its hiding place in my nightstand drawer, and called out to Aaron (who was in the living room)  “Hey, can you come here and look at my new outfit?”  When he walked in the room, I held up the onesie.  A huge grin lit up his face and he said “We’re pregnant?”  I nodded and he began to cry.  We hugged and kissed and thanked God.  We quickly thought of a couple different ways to tell our families.  When Bryan arrived to play video games, I ran to the grocery store and bought 2 yellow pacifiers.  Back at my house, I put each one in a little gift bag with tissue paper. 

At dinnertime, we began our trek to the neighborhood.  We stopped down the hill at my parents’ house first since we’d be eating dinner with Aaron’s mom and Randy just a few minutes later.  So, we had my mom and dad sit on the couch and handed my dad the gift bag.  We said “This is an early Christmas gift—something for you to have for your home.”  Dad reached in the bag, pulled out the pacifier, gasped and started crying, and looked at Mom.  Mom then nodded back at him and began crying too.  So, I think we were all crying at this point, but managed to get out some sentimental words. :)  Dad prayed for us and for “this new little life growing inside” of me.  Aaron and I made our way up to his mom’s house with the other gift bag. 

We had his mom, Randy, and Randy’s mom, sit on the couch and we handed his mom the gift bag.  She pulls out the pacifier and says “Really?”  Aaron nods and then everyone started crying and hugging. Randy’s mom took a picture of Claudia holding the pacifier with Aaron, myself, and Randy standing with her.  She still has the picture displayed in a curio cabinet in the piano room at her home.  I like to walk into the room and look at that picture and then think of Michael and how fast time goes by!  :)

 On our way to pick up pizza that night, Aaron and I called his dad to share the news with him.  We then called my older brother and his wife.  Once Aaron and I got home later that night, we called his uncle, aunt, and cousins.  The next morning—yep, Christmas Eve—we called our grandparents to tell them they’d be “Great-Grandparents.”  All of them laughed with joy.  We called some of my Aunts that day to tell them, they laughed for joy as well.  It was so nice to be enveloped in such joy!!!

 

I think back to those days often, with fond memories of how fun it was to plan out how to tell Aaron, and our parents that we were going to have a baby!  It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since that time.  I’m sure in 15 minutes, I’ll be posting again and it will be December 22, 2013!  Time surely has a way of slipping by very quickly when there’s a baby to gaze at and love on! :)

 

Shortly after I told Aaron that we were going to be parents, he hung up the onesie in the Man Room. 

When I was in my last few weeks of pregnancy, I held up the onesie along with the Auburn beanie and soccer-ball patterned socks to show the outfit Michael would come home from the hospital in.

 

 

And, of course, we have a picture of our sweet “little” babe wearing the onesie and the other outfit items, on the day we came home from the hospital.



It’s so fun to see how little he looks!

 

*** Present Day ***

:)

Today, finally, we got a Christmas craft done!  Yay yay yay! 

This morning, we did some "fun shopping" to get craft supplies.  Michael was so tuckered out, that he fell asleep on the way home.  We brought him inside in his carrier, and decided to do one of the craft projects while he was sleeping.  Aaron quickly grabbed the paint, sponge brush, paper towels, canvas board, and Johnson's Hand and Face Wipes. 

We slid off Michael's socks and booties.  I sponged green paint on his left foot and Aaron held the canvas on it.  Of course, Michael curled his toes, so we have a partial left footprint.  So, I wiped off the paint with the Johnson's Hand and Face Wipes, before it had time to stain his foot.  After all, I don't want him to have little Grinch-y green feet on Christmas! :)  With the left foot clean, we got started on the right foot.  I sponged paint on it, and Aaron held the canvas on it.  Michael started squirming and slid his foot while we were trying to take his foot off of the canvas.  So, the right footprint is a little messy.  But, these things don't bother me in the least because it shows that Michael is an active little guy even when he sleeps! :)

Here is a picture of our finished product:

 

 

I drew the heart and wrote the words with paint pens.  I am very happy with how it turned out! :)

Here's the star of the show with his masterpiece:

 

 

We will be attempting to do hand-print ornaments sometime soon.  I already know they'll probably look like smudges since Michael is bound to curl his fingers into a fist or slide them around once his hand is on the ornament.  But, it's the thought that counts, right?  And I'm sure, years from now, I'll look back on these First Christmas items with pure joy and remember my precious squirmy son whom I absolutely love to pieces. 

 

Well, our home is all decorated for Christmas!!!  Although, I have to say, that I was eyeing some super cute Christmas decor at Hobby Lobby today, and will definitely be making a trip back there to partake of the after-Christmas sales and clearances! :) 

 

Here is our awesome tree (yes, it leans, but I think it's kinda great):

 

 

Here's the glitzy glamorous lit up version:

 

Cozy, right?

 

Here are two of Michael's ornaments:

 

This one is from Grandma Chips.

 

This one is from Grandma Dana and Grampa Bill.

 

And of course, as promised, here are some Christmas pictures of Michael:

 

 

 

Here are some family pictures:

 

 

Michael is a doll.  I mean, how can you not love this face:

My heart is so full of love for this little chunky sweetness that I can't contain myself:  I am so blessed to be a mommy.  Michael is an awesome baby and if you were to ask me to pick a favorite day with him, I'll say "everyday."  Everyday is my favorite.  Everyday is better than the day before.  The love grows everyday.  The milestones come everyday.  The joy seeps out more and more everyday.  Every. Single. Day.  I love this little kid.  I'm blessed that he (without words) calls me Mommy.  :)  

Until next time! Much love, Reba

3 Months: Quirks and Perks

On November 28, Michael turned 3 months old!  Time flies when you're having fun!

Every day gets easier and easier to care for this sweet little babe.  We are learning more about his personality and patterns every single day.   He is a happy happy baby and it's so fun to be his Mommy! 

This month, I’m throwing in some “quirks” (things we’re not fond of) and “perks” (things that make the quirks a little better) we’ve experienced as of late.

 

Michael:

-the teething process has begun

·         Quirk: random sessions of scream cries

·         Perk: Michael still isn’t sleeping through the night, so we might as well battle both of these issues at once—teething discomfort, and incomplete nights of sleep.  Overall, Michael is still a super sweet baby, and that is the ultimate perk.

-Photo Book

·         Perk!  No quirks here!  I received a coupon for a free photo book from Shutterfly.  This sight is totally cool, and the discounts you can get are great!  Three years ago, I made a free book documenting our wedding day and it turned out fabulously!  So, I was super excited to receive another coupon so I could make Michael a book.  What made it even easier?  The fact that our baby is so photogenic!  I used about 50 pictures to document Michael’s life (to include 2 ultrasound pictures, and 2 pictures of me carrying our little boy during pregnancy).  I added in special Bible verses and captions.  There is even a “Grandparent page” where I compiled a photo of each of Michael’s grandparents holding him.  This book will be a great momento for Michael to treasure as he grows.

 

Me:

-Super tired

·         Quirk, obviously.  The 1:00 hour rolls around in the afternoon and I catch myself nodding off.  At work, being drowsy is not ideal.  So, what’s the perk?

·         Perk:  S’mores coffee creamer!  My husband is the bomb.com for finding this gem in the grocery store.  With the addition of this chocolate-y marshmallow-y goodness, I have begun to have a cup of coffee in the mornings.  Just a tad (and by tad, I mean a few several generous swirls around the cup) of this creamer in the morning cup-o-joe fuels me up!  Now I feel like the perky (no pun intended) Mommy I’m supposed to be!

 

Aaron:

-Working late

·         Quirk:  It’s never fun to be apart from Aaron.  He is such an amazing hard worker with a work ethic that puts the Energizer bunny to shame—he keeps going and going, and giving it 100% throughout it all.  His job has caused there to be some late nights, and Aaron gives it his all every day. 

·         Perk:  Overtime pay!  Although having a husband who is an outstanding employee to his company is satisfaction to me in and of itself, I must admit that it’s nice for him to see a little financial reward for his efforts.  Another perk?  The long days are currently behind us and we get to ride to work together again!

 

Family Activities:

·         The Christmas Tree is Up and Decorated!!! Aaron and I picked some of our favorite ornaments from our collection (if we were to put every ornament on, our poor little tree would tumble over) and adorned our tree.  Michael seems to like to look at the lights if you hold him and walk over to the tree.  However, one day he was sitting in his swing, looking at the tree and the lights were unplugged.  We went over to plug in the lights, and he burst into tears!  He takes after his mommy and doesn’t do change well. 

·         Instead of purchasing a vehicle, Aaron and I decided that our Christmas gift to each other would be a new mattress.  Getting another vehicle was not a necessity, but a new mattress quickly became a need. Our old mattress was really doing a number on Aaron’s back, so we invested in a new mattress guaranteed to relieve back pain.  We are able to each adjust our own sides of the bed to our liking, so he chose a setting that was a little firmer than he had been used to.  Last night was our first night to try it out, and he woke up without back pain!  I chose a setting that was softer than the mattress we had before.  It took me a while to get used to the feeling of a different kind of mattress. I kinda felt like I was sleeping in a weird hammock/water bed.  It’ll take me a little while to get used to it.  Of course, I know I can change the setting, but I’m waiting a couple nights (as the representative suggested) to get used to the current setting.

 

I keep promising a post full of Christmas creativeness, and it’s still coming, I promise!  Aaron and I get home around 3:30 on most days, and Michael’s bedtime is at 6:00pm.  So, we roughly get two and a half hours with our little guy before it’s off to Baby Dreamland for him.  Therefore, our afternoons are very precious and protected in order to spend time with our little man.  That means that our weekends become our running around days.  So, any shopping trips to pick up some crafty supplies must wait until Saturday.  Hopefully, this Saturday, Michael and I will make it out to Hobby Lobby to get our supplies.

 

My next post will include a picture of our Christmas tree, and hopefully some Christmas pictures of Michael and Akuna.  I plan to do an array of photos of Michael in Christmas outfits or in a Christmas-like setting for our photo Christmas card this year.  

 

The Christmas season thus far has been so much fun!  After Michael is all snuggled in bed, Aaron and I cozy up on our couch and watch Christmas movies while we eat our dinner.  It’s such a blessing to be able to spend quality time with my spouse in the evenings. 

 

In the next post, expect to see:

·         A photo of our Christmas tree

·         Some more pictures of Michael (of course)

·         Christmas crafts (fingers crossed!)

 

 

Until next time, enjoy these pictures of Michael that I took on the day he turned 3 Months Old:   

 

Much love, Reba