The Christensens

The beauty of Children

2009-07-22T16:12:00.002-07:00

Today was not a good day. I'll spare everyone the details, but it was not a good day. As I sat bawling about today's 'events', Nicholas walked up to me. Our conversation has changed me forever.

He said, "Mommy, are you okay? Mommy, are you sad? Mommy, are you hurt? Mommy, did I make you sad?". The look on his face I can't even describe. Heartbroken is probably the best word for it. I hadn't said anything to him since the crying started, but some how in his little 3 year old mind, this was his fault. First I felt like I had failed as a mother-that my child could see me cry and assume it was his fault, that I let my child see me so broken in the first place, that I ever let myself be in a position to BE so broken (again). All I could see was failure. What have I done that would make him think that??? What came next was gratitude. That I have been given a child who is so intuitively caring is truly a gift.
"No, sweetie, you didn't make me sad. You make mommy very happy." I said.
"Why are you crying mommy."
"Sometimes things happen that make mommy sad, but they aren't your fault."
"Can I make you happy, Mommy?!"
"Yes, sweetie, you can make mommy very happy. You can go pee in the potty, that would make mommy VERY happy!"
"Okay Mommy, c'mon I'm gonna use the potty!!!"

LOL, soooo yeah I kind of killed it by manipulating him into using the potty, but he's been the best his been in weeks the rest of the afternoon. I guess he could tell it wasn't a good day for Mommy and he was trying to be nice :)

Anyway, my life changing moment...tiny moments of weakness can have a profound and lasting impact on those around us. Yes, I know its important that kids know their parents are real people too, but I don't ever want to be the cause of that look on Nicholas's face again. My new goal-the act rather than react when the kids act up, and to make sure to tell them more how much I love them and how happy they make me just by being them.

Life-never what you think its going to be...

2009-07-22T16:10:00.002-07:00

This paragraph started as part of my 'update' post, but it really needs to be revised and to keep the dates in correct order, I decided to give it its own post...

For those that saw my 'other post', I'm sorry to have roped you all into the drama that seems to pop up just when I think things are going well. Life is what it is and its just something I have to learn to live for now. I'm trying to have faith that the Lord really is doing this for my own good and I'm going to be better off in the long run after I've faced all this, but some times it hard to have eternal perspective when you are struggling to get through the minutes each day. Thank you all for you love and support, it means more than you can ever know.

Playing catch up!

2009-07-19T08:18:00.003-07:00

Once again, I fail at blogging LOL! But since I can't give anything up until I've gotten it 'right' (with the exception of driving stick-I did give up on ever being good at that) I'm going to try AGAIN.

The biggest news-Alice LeeAnne was born May 21st at 4:47pm. I think she was trying to find balance of the worst parts of my labors with Nicholas and Drew. She took longer than Drew, but not as long Nicholas, however, she was by FAR more painful than Drew. *Someone* forgot to warn me that the crazy red-headed anesthesiologist (who we'll refer to as 'CRA') is more likely to cause me permanent spinal damage than to administer an epidural properly. So I went through getting needled in the back for AN HOUR only to end up STILL in pain.

The pain was finally ended by a miracle :) My OB was in emergency surgery so his partner had come to check on me (I think the yelling was starting to concern my nurse so she must have called him-laboring while stuck in bed with no pain relief is a little painful,just sayin.) Anyway, turns out he does his own epidurals. Now, when a doctor looks at a previous doctor's work and says "What the heck is all this?!?!?" (referring to the ROLL of medical tape CRA used on my back during my failed epidural) you know someone screwed up. So like an angel of mercy and the devil incarnate wrapped into one he ripped ALL the tape off my back, shot me in the spine with something else (yes I was in too much pain to care what he was doing to me so I didn't ask what he gave me) and like magic, THE PAIN WAS GONE!!!!! WOOHOO!!! 10 minutes later, Alice decided it wasn't any fun to stay inside if it wasn't torturing mommy, so she finally made her appearance. She was as perfect looking as the boys and weighted in at 7 pounds even and 19.5 inches long-making her the tiniest of my 3 babies.

Many times over the past 3 years Ryan and I have mused over what a female version of Nicholas would be like (since he's more dramatic than any little girl either of us have ever known). Well now we now-her name is ALICE! Don't get me wrong, she's my perfect dark-haired, blue eyed beautiful baby and I love everything about her (did I mention her DARK HAIR?!?!? WOOHOO!), but I'm more than slightly afraid of her growing up. But for now I'm just enjoying everything about her because I know before I've had a chance to catch my breath she'll be all grown up and I want to enjoy every minute of my little girl.

Nicholas is an interesting kid. For all his "me me me"-ness and his constant need to be the center of attention he is also a fantastic big brother. Never once have we had sibling rivalry issues with him and Drew or him and Alice. He and Drew really are best friends and if they are apart for any length of time, it really wears on both of them. Nicholas loves helping with the younger kids, and especially loves teaching Drew how to do things. Thankfully for right now everything he's teaching him is pretty harmless, and in some cases actually good for him. I'm sure that will change eventually LOL!

Drew, I don't even know where to start about my Drew-Drew. Drew really doesn't stand a chance in the attention department with Nicholas and Alice as siblings, but some how he doesn't seem to mind. Ryan and I make a special effort to spend one-on-one time with him every day (in addition to time spent with everyone together) so he doesn't get totally eclipsed by his much more attention-needing siblings. Drew is magic :) He's the light in my dark times when Nicholas and Alice threaten to steal my last bit of sanity. Heavenly Father definitely knew what he was doing when he sent Drew. He's an amazing kid.

Oh, and I'm happy to update that my business "Two Cheeky Monsters" is doing well and is currently stocking with these first two group and will be stocking soon at the third...

Creative Mamas
Stop, Shop, Drool
Nectar

My individual store will be stocking again in September :)

My 'other' blog...

2009-03-08T02:00:00.003-07:00

This is mostly copied from my starting post on my new blog...

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I decided while updating our family [this] blog that I really need my own space for things other than cut and dry updates on our family. I'm not making [my new blog] private, but this way people can choose if they wants 'just the facts' or if they want the full details of what's going on from my perspective :) Plus, this way I have some place to write without worrying about hurting people's feelings. We don't all have the relationships we want with our family members and that can lead to hurt feelings, so if you read [my new blog], please don't take anything negative I [may] say personally unless I actually call you out and say 'Hey so-and-so, this is for/about you!'

****

Feel free to check it out if you want at http://theedgeofcrazy.blogspot.com/ , but fair warning-it may be just rambling and complaining or knitting and cloth diapering chatter, its my new place to talk about whatever is going through my head that day :)

Poor Nicholas...

2009-03-08T00:28:00.003-07:00

We ended up coming down to Phoenix Thursday night instead of Friday night and that meant we got to see my mom one more time before she left for Germany. We figured Nicholas would take her leaving pretty hard, but I wasn't prepared for the disappointment in his face every time he mentions Grandma and we remind him she's on her way to Germany. In all likelihood he won't get to talk to her again until she gets home on the 12th which will officially be the longest time he's gone without talking to her or seeing her either in person or via video chat :( We keep trying to explain where she is and where she's going and while he repeats "Grandma's on an airplane, Grandma's going to Germany" I don't think he really understands. We decided to go over to Cabelas tonight to let the boys have some time out of the house and when we got back Nicholas came in and said, "Grandma!!! Where are you??? Grandma, are you here???" I know its mostly pregnancy hormones, but I nearly cried as I saw the look on his face and had to explain, again, that Grandma was still on the plane to Germany. Poor little guy. He stole my mom's make up bag before she left (no worries, she got the make up out of it first!) and her old work ID badge and keeps carrying them around with him. In fact, they had to come to Cabelas with us too because he couldn't leave them at the house. We've been tracking her flight progress all evening, but now the plane is out of FAA covered air space so we don't have the flight path tracker to watch anymore so he's upset about that. I just don't know what to do for him but cuddle him and tell him Grandma loves him and will be home next time we come to visit.

At the moment I think its a toss up as to who's worse though-Nicholas or my dad. Since Ryan has his own means of transportation home I'm thinking about keeping the boys down here for a couple more days so he has company in the evenings. He and my mom have NEVER been apart this long in their 26 years of marriage and he doesn't seem to know how to function properly without her here (kinda funny, but also kind of sad.) My mom won't be in contact much during the trip either so that makes him even more nervous. Who would have thought travelling could be so stressful for the people NOT actually traveling?!?!

And we have internet again!!

2009-03-03T16:09:00.003-07:00

We seem to not be very good friends with our modems up here. Not half an hour after I posted last we fried our second modem in like 6 weeks! I know it shouldn't be such a huge deal to be without internet, but I had 3 different things that NEEDED to be taken care of that couldn't be handled until today *bangs head against wall*. So cross your fingers that Jennifer can still dye my pretty yarn and Jenn still has the cloth dipes I wanted to buy from her!

As always happens, the boys are feeling great and now I'm getting sick, again. I'm not sure if its just allergies and pregnancy stuff or an actual illness, but my head is about ready to explode and my stomach isn't tolerating much other than toast, water and juice. So much for making it to RS tonight :( So Ryan gets to take my sour cream down to the building with him (he has presidency meeting at the same time) and I get to sit at home and be miserable and pray the boys behave. I think I may have to pull out Wall-E to help LOL!!

No more sick babies!!!

2009-02-26T14:37:00.004-07:00

Finally, both boys seem mostly recovered from our recent bout of the sickies! Both still have small coughs, but I can handle that LOL! Nicholas is very happy Drew is feeling better-he's missed being able to play with his little brother :) I seem to only have gotten a mild version of what they had, for which I am very grateful! Alice is still kicking around, doing her best to have me in the bathroom as often as possible and I have the icky glucose test a week from today. They only had the orange flavor not the fruit punch so we'll see if I can keep it down. I know I'll most likely fail since I did with both the boys, which means I have to do the even nastier 3 hour test in a couple more weeks. Ah the joys of pregnancy! Ryan is having fun learning to drive big rigs at work. I don't know what the long term plan is for him, but its good for him to have his CDL either way so he's not worrying about it for now.

So now that the boys are feeling better they are back to wrecking the house, which means I should get back to cleaning up after them :D A mother's job is never done!

New this week...

2009-02-11T18:24:00.005-07:00

For the first time ever, we got snowed in!!! The winter storm(s) that are coming through our area have been brutal! Monday it was so bad we had to call and cancel Drew's doctor's appointment because the van wouldn't make it down the hill from our house. Today it's mostly melted, but now everything is a muddy mess. The boys and I are headed down to Phoenix in a little bit and Ryan is coming down Friday, just in time to miss the next winter storm that's supposed to dump more snow on us. Hopefully we can get home okay on Sunday!

I also had my 25 week OB appointment today, all was well and the ultrasound tech double checked (since we didn't get a great view the first time) and Alice is definitely still a girl :D

Fun times in town...

2009-02-05T21:01:00.003-07:00

So today we FINALLY made it into town for a playdate NOT tied to a doctor's appointment!! Okay that's not really true, but the doctor's appointment got cancelled (apparently doctors take sick days too-who knew?? lol!) Nicholas had been so excited to go play with Tyler I didn't want to disappoint him, so we made arrangements to go over a little later in the morning for them to play. Nicholas had a great time and didn't want to leave! Drew was better than expected, but still a little whiney. After finally getting Nicholas back in the car, we went to have lunch with Ryan. Drew fell asleep in the car which meant picking up fast food and eating in the car, but that gave me a chance to run into the yarn store sans kids, so it worked out well :) I needed more of a yarn I bought Saturday for a project for Alice (I changed the project after buying the first yarn so I needed more than I originally bought), but what took less than 5 minutes on my own would have been more than a half an hour ordeal if I had taken the boys in. Thankfully there was enough of the dye lot I needed left and I'll be able to finish the project with no problem and may even have enough left for a hat!

Tomorrow we are heading to Flagstaff to visit some friends who are in town from Utah. Its supposed to snow Saturday so hopefully it doesn't make our trip home too bad. I'm sure we'll take lots of pics so hopefully Ryan will get those up next week. I've officially put Ryan in charge of posting pics to the blog since he's the only one that seems to manage getting them on to the computer in the first place :) He also has some cool pics of him and Nicholas out chasing cows today to post. Its kind of cool living out in the sticks and getting to see animals. Definitely not something you see living in the city!

2009-02-03T18:22:00.003-07:00

Here are a couple recent pics of Ryan and I and the boys. These were taken on 1/25/09 during our car break on our way home from Phoenix. We got stuck behind an accident on Hwy 93 and so we had to let boys out to run for a bit. They aren't the best, but at least they're recent!

Our coming addition!

2009-02-03T12:18:00.011-07:00

For those that don't know, we found out last September that we were unexpectedly expecting again. In early January we found out that we are finally adding a baby GIRL to our family! Since then we've been busy picking up thing here and there for her and reveling in all things girly for the first time :) Its been a lot of fun and we're looking forward to finally having a daughter (and evening the boy-girl ratio a little bit LOL!)

We're also happy to announce that the baby finally has her name! Alice LeeAnne Christensen will be joining our family sometime around May 25th. People so far seem to either love or hate her name, we haven't had too many that just 'like it' LOL! Most likely, we'll probably call her Ali when she's little, but we won't know until we meet her. It was quite a turn of events in naming her, but we think its the perfect name for our little girl and hope once she is here everyone will come to love her name as much as we do.

In honor of Baby Alice and Valentine's Day, we're giving the blog a girly look for a change :)

Back again!

2009-02-03T11:32:00.004-07:00

So I'm really bad at this blogging thing but with yet another baby on the way and even less time to make phone calls/send emails updating people on life with us. I'm going to make a better effort this time!

Since we moved to Kingman, life has changed a lot! Ryan's doing well at work and got his CDL permit a few weeks ago. He's also the 2nd Counselor in the Elders Quorum Presidency in our ward and tries to be as involved as possible, despite our crazy travel schedule over the holiday season. As always he has several 'projects' he's working on, but this time around he's getting Nicholas in on the action! Nicholas loves hanging our with Daddy and wrenching on toys with him :) Okay so mostly he just runs around playing with rocks or whatever else is outside, but if you ask him he's 'helping Daddy"!

Nicholas will be 3 in April and is doing great! He's finally mastered picking up his toys without help, which is great news for Mommy because boy does he know how to make a mess! He's a great big brother too! I'm always impressed with how good he is with Drew. In general, Nicholas is turning out to be a pretty sweet kid and we're very blessed that they get along so well! Now if only he would get over his weird food aversion phase we'd be great. I've had to start getting very creative in my cooking to try and get him to eat and its still a battle everyday, but hopefully with persistence it will get better eventually.

Drew turned 1 in December and is still growing like a weed. He's walking and running all over the place and in his new found independence loves to unload our cabinets and utensil drawers. Thankfully he's also learning to listen when we tell him 'No' so that helps. He's teething like crazy with makes him crabby (his teething necklace didn't make it home with us last time we were in Phoenix), but we're managing. His favorite moives are Wall-E and anything Harry Potter and when I really need to get something done around the house I've been known to use them as a distraction (hey I've got to get the dishwasher loaded somehow!) Over all, he's a pretty happy little guy with an infectious laugh. It hard to ever get mad at such a cute smile :)

As for me, pregnancy is, well pregnancy LOL! I'm glad I won't have to do it again for a LONG time! Now that the holidays are over January is gone too I really need to get everything in order for the baby (all baby related things will get their own post after this one). Ryan has been great at helping get the boxes sorted in the boys room, but I still have loads of old clothes to go through to figure out what needs to go and what can be saved for Drew. With them being born in opposite times of year we've had to buy lots of stuff for Drew but now that he's getting bigger I should be able to use some of Nicholas's 18m stuff for him. I'm hoping by this time next year we'll really be getting good use out of Nicholas's old stuff for Drew. In the mean time it's been fun buy new stuff and getting to dress them alike! On top of all that, I'm having to really buckle down and go through ALL my craft stuff and finish up old projects to get them out of boxes before the baby gets here. Its hard somedays because I really want to work on new stuff for the baby, but this stuff really needs to get done with first! I had over 10 crochet projects just in one box that were in various stages on (in)completeness. Some are going to be lost causes that end up being ripped out and the yarn used in other projects but I'm trying to finish up as much as I can.

Well I think that covers most of what's up with us. Our house was bitten by the Twilight bug in December and that's been fun reading the books, but Ryan's been too busy to read much and its hard to keep my mouth shut LOL! He's just over half way through Eclipse so hopefully he finishes soon! Stephenie Meyer's other book, The Host, is amazing and I recommend it to everyone, even those who aren't Twilight fans. If you haven't read it, definitely pick up a copy-even my dad loved it!

New Home, Renewed Blog

2008-08-24T23:13:00.004-07:00

In celebration of bringing our sadly out of date blog back to life, we have a new pic!

LOL, so that probably isn't the kind of pic you wanted, but its a start! Our first professional pics as a family of 4 will be coming soon!

One month old!

2008-01-14T11:04:00.001-07:00

Our chunky monkey is 1 month old today! I can't believe how fast it's gone! On one hand it feels like it's been ages since I was pregnant, but on the other hand it feels like we just brought Andrew home. So far things are going well, but this will be my first week with out extra day time help so we'll see how things are going by Friday :) Andrew is a great baby and we are all so in love with him. Nicholas is a great big brother and VERY protective of Andrew. Nicholas doesn't get jealous of me holding Andrew because he wants to be held, he gets jealous of me holding Andrew because HE wants to hold Andrew LOL!
We're still looking for a more permanent job for Ryan, but he does test with a local police department this Saturday so any prayers you can spare that he will pass are greatly appreciated! He hasn't had much (okay any) time to train with all the hours he's been working security and of course this is the hardest physical test of any department in the state.
We're off to take pics of the boys today (just me taking them-can't afford pro photos right now) so we should have those to share soon. I've also ventured into the world of cloth diaper making so that will probably take all of my free time not spent with the boys while we explore our options for turning my obsession into a profitable business! Thanks for checking in on us!

He's here! Andrew's Birth Story and life with 2 after 5 days...

2007-12-19T09:11:00.001-07:00

Andrew David Christensen
December 14, 2007 3:36am
7 pounds 3 ounces
20 inches long
13 ¾ inch head circumference

Andrew’s Birth Story
We got the call that a bed was available for my induction at 1:34pm on Thursday, December 13th. Ironically, this was nearly the same time and same day of the week we got a similar call for me to be induced with our first son, Nicholas, a week shy of 20 months ago. We got a few last minute things together, made sure my mom had everything ready to take Nicholas to my cousin’s house, and we were off to the hospital and got there around 3pm. We got checked in and were taken back to our room by 3:30pm. Things got off to a slow start. They didn’t have instructions from my OB as to whether to start Cervadil or go straight to the pitocin so rather than checking to see how far dilated I was, they waited for a call back from the OB and then checked me. I had made some progress since my last check, I was a full 2cm and 90% effaced, but Andrew had wasn’t engaged anymore and the resident put him at only a -3 station. They decided it was best to go ahead and start the pitocin rather than do cervadil, but because I was Group B Strep positive, they had to get a full dose of antibiotics through me before they would start the pitocin “just in case” I went quickly. So FINALLY at 5pm the nurse put my IV in and started the first bag of antibiotics. She told me they had to wait 2 hours to start the pitocin from the time the antibiotics were all through, so we should expect pitocin around 7:30pm. Bless my nurse, she actually suggested I eat dinner while we were waiting for the pitocin and with that I sent Ryan for my last preggo meal.

At 7:30pm the new nurse (Ailsie-I don’t know why but I just loved her name!) brought in the pitocin and we were on our way. At 9:50pm the resident came in and said the OB said if she could to go ahead and break my water to speed things up. I was disappointed but not surprised that I hadn’t made any progress since my initial check, but she was still able to break my water, and by the time she was finished with that I was a solid 3cm dilated. After that the contractions picked up, but Andrew’s heart rate was having decelerations that were concerning the nurse so on to my side I went. As I anticipated, once I was stuck on my side my hips and back started to hurt. I decided since I was making such slow progress and I wasn’t likely to be off my side anytime soon I should just get the epidural. I made a prediction at that time-12am epidural, 4am baby. I didn’t make it quite to midnight (the anesthesiologist was early), but at 11:30pm I got my epidural and like so many things that seem to be the same as my first delivery, we had the same anesthesiologist. We laughed about the chance of having the same doctor nearly 2 years later, and I told him he had done a great job with my first and I didn’t feel a thing and had every confidence that this one would be just good.-famous last words! So at 12:10am (now the 14th) the resident checked me and I was only 4 cm dilated-same slow progress as last time. About 1am the nurse brought in the oxygen mask-Andrew’s heart rate was staying down longer than they liked so it was time for the mask. At 2:25am the resident came in to place internal monitors to get a better idea how Andrew was really dealing with labor. I knew how this all went, all the same stuff happened the first time around so I wasn’t worried yet. It had been 2 hours since my last check and I had only progressed one more centimeter putting me up to 5cm. We had all resigned ourselves to Andrew not coming any time soon, so my mom and Amanda left so Amanda could get some sleep before the wedding she was in later that day. About 15 minutes later, I started feeling my contractions. I could feel the monitors inside every time I contracted which was different from the first time, and it kept getting worse. I had Ryan push the button to top off my epidural and it did nothing so I decided to page the nurse. I told her I was really feeling my contractions and lots of pressure so one of three things was happening-I had really bad gas, I had made super fast progress, or I was crazy. I was leaning towards gas as I'd been having issues with it all day. It was bad enough I was really having to focus and breathe to make it through my contraction so she said we would top my epidural one more time and if it didn’t help she would page the anesthesiologist to come back and dose me again. I made it another few minutes and the pressure was so bad I told her “I really think you need to check me, I feel like I need to push”. She said okay, though you could tell by the look on her face she thought I was crazy, and when she checked (now 3am) I was complete! In 35 minutes I went from 5cm to complete! I was shocked, as was the nurse, so we all frantically started making phone calls-the nurse to the resident and my OB and Ryan to my mom to tell her to get back ASAP if she wanted to make it in time. Next came the hard part-I had to spend another 30 minutes blowing through my contractions while we waited for the OB to get to the hospital. My mom got back to the hospital about 3:15am and right about 3:30am the OB arrived. Once the OB was finally there, I pushed through 4 contractions-feeling everything-and Andrew David was born at 3:36am. I always thought pushing out the baby’s head would be the most painful thing, but for me, his shoulders nearly did me in and I almost missed getting to pull him out the rest of the way because of the shock of the pain from his shoulders coming out. Thankfully, I did get to finish pulling him out and the idea that I got to be the first person to really touch my baby was just as wonderful as it was with my first. I did end up with a first degree tear, but with as quickly as I progressed I was surprised it wasn’t worse than that. Andrew had the cord around his neck which explained the heart rate issues. It really was a blessing I went fast so I didn’t end up with a c-section because of his heart rate-I knew from last time if it didn't get better that would be our next discussion. Andrew’s Apgars were 8 and 8 and I was able to breast feed him within just a few minutes of him being born. Everything afterwards went perfectly and all of the staff were fantastic. I really couldn’t have asked for a better experience this time around-even the post partum staff were great!

Life with Baby...

By 10am that morning I was ready to go home-I felt great! We didn’t get to come home until Saturday evening but everything during our stay was wonderful and it’s been the same since we got home. My back was a little sore from the epidural, but that and the worst of the after pains are gone already (5 days post partum) and aside from my 2 stitches being a little sore when I use the bathroom I feel great! Seriously, I never could have imagined things would go so well this time. Andrew is a wonderful baby and the best nurser! He’s such a content baby and for all my gender disappointment when we found out he was a “he”, I wouldn’t trade my baby boy for anything.

Andrew had his first pediatrician appointment Monday, December 17th and he was down to 6 pounds 8 ounces and his biliruben level was elevated so we had to take him in again Tuesday. Thankfully his biliruben level had already come down and his weight was up enough that they also cancelled his weight check for Friday!

Nicholas is doing great with Andrew. It seems I spend half the day letting Nicholas “hold” Andrew-it’s the sweetest thing ever. It’s amazing to me how attentive Nicholas is at only 20 months old himself (well, he’ll be 20 months in 2 days so close enough!) If I’m not standing right there when Andrew cries, Nicholas is coming to find me to tell me Andrew is crying “Drew Drew crying!” usually followed with “Nurse Drew Drew”. Oh, and did I mention Nicholas likes to pretend HE is using my breast pump? Yeah I’ve got to get a picture of that-it’s hilarious!
As always life has been a series of dramas since Andrew was born, but we’re not letting them ruin our baby moon. Everything right now is in Heavenly Father’s hands and we have faith that as we continue to push forward things will work out in time.

Finally moved!

2007-12-05T09:38:00.001-07:00

Well to say the last 6 weeks or so has been crazy would be a HUGE understatement! The good news (well, sort of good I guess) is that we are officially moved out of our house and at my parents place. The inspection is supposed to be some time this week and they technically have 2 weeks to get us our deposit back, so we are anxiously awaiting the extra $$ to pay for hospital bills which we should be incurring any time now. I wish I could say all the moving put us closer to Andrew's arrival, but as of my OB appointment last week, I hadn't made much progress from the appointment 2 weeks before. I have another appointment tomorrow so hopefully I'll have made some progress this week. We will be scheduling my induction for next week too! I've been in a ton of pain the past few days so I am MORE than ready to get this kid out. I'm hoping with the pain I've been in my OB won't wait until Thursday to schedule me, but it will really depend on the hospital and how much progress I've made. Fingers crossed that Andrew will be here sooner rather than later! I haven't taken a belly shot since the last one posted on here which is now almost 13 weeks old, oops! I'll try and get Ryan to take one tomorrow, if we can find a camera. Stay tuned for an update after my appointment tomorrow!

Making the switch to cloth diapers!

2007-10-11T17:50:00.001-07:00

We are very excited (yes, Ryan too) about finally making the switch to cloth diapers. I know, most people think we're crazy, cloth diapering is nothing like it was when we were kids (or when our parents were kids). Cloth diapers are now just as user friendly and convenient as disposable diapers with the added benefits of long term cost savings and less impact on the environment.

After finally doing the research for myself, I am finally starting to understand all of the options (which are nearly endless by the way!) cloth diapering has to offer and wanted to share some of the info I found most helpful in deciding what type of diapers I wanted to start using. By the way, we've decided that One Size Pocket style diapers are what we are going to start with. Yes, this means I will be able to use the same diapers on Nicholas AND Andrew :)

Here is the website I found most helpful:

http://www.diaperpin.com/

I recommend starting with the Dictionary Page and the How To's/FAQs Page

Diaper Swappers and Diaper Traders are also great sites for WAHM (work at home mom) made cloth diapers and buying/selling/trading cloth diapers as well as great advise from other Cloth Diapering moms.

If you ever have any questions about cloth diapering, please ask! If I don't know the answer I can definitely find out for you :)

A few really nice sites I've used for ordering new Cloth Diapers are:

http://www.wildflowerdiapers.com/
http://www.kellyscloset.com/
http://www.cottonbabies.com/

Since the question keeps coming up...

2007-10-11T17:10:00.001-07:00

I posted a list on the side bar of gift ideas for Christmas and Andrew's baby shower. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask :)

And here we go again...

2007-10-11T17:05:00.001-07:00

Things are kind of in an upheaval right now. We were hoping Ryan would be able to keep his job at Insight until Andrew was here, but that is no longer an option :( We're still hoping he will get on with Surprise PD (he's testing with them in mid-November), but in the meantime we are job hunting again. Any thoughts and prayers that we'll find a job soon and that our house will lease quickly are very appreciated.

Finally an update!

2007-09-30T23:07:00.000-07:00

So I'm already really bad at keeping this updated and it's only been a week! I had my 28 week OB appointment on Thursday and little Andrew seems to be doing well and thankfully my blood pressure is back in the normal range. I had to take the 1 hour glucose test this time and I'm really hoping I pass! I failed with Nicholas and I really, really, really don't want to take the 3 hour glucose test again. We should have the results on Thursday so I'll try and remember to post an update :)

Nicholas is being his normal cute, crazy self. He is in love with his new soccer ball and would kick the thing all day if we would let him. Today was also his first time visiting Nursery at church! He seemed to do pretty well, so we're hoping after a couple more weeks (once he's officially 18 months) he'll be ready to stay on his own the whole time. It's been so long since Ryan and I haven't had a baby to chase during the whole block that I'm not sure what we are going to do with ourselves during Sunday School and EQ/RS.

I still don't think Nicholas gets the idea that there is a baby in mommy's tummy. He FINALLY was still long enough to feel Andrew move, but he didn't even flinch when Andrew kicked him in the ear when he had his head laying on my belly this morning LOL! But he will give my belly kisses when we tell him to "give Andrew kisses" which is always very sweet. One of these days we may actually have the camera out and get a pic of him giving his brother kisses :)

Happy Tuesday!

2007-09-25T08:45:00.000-07:00

Not a lot going on in these parts today. Nicholas went down the slides at the park yesterday by himself for the first time! It's been too hot to take him to the park all summer so we finally ventured out yesterday after Ryan got home from work. It was last minute stop on our way back from getting mail so I didn't have the camera with us, but we'll go back and take some soon. Nicholas loves being outside so the cool down in the weather is a welcome change for us! I feel like we've been stuck inside since May!

I have my 28 week OB appointment on Thursday where I get to take the dreaded 1 hour glucose test. I'm hoping I pass this time, I don't want to take the 3 hour test again! Wish me luck!

Finally!

2007-09-23T18:08:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Christensen Family blog! Since we seems to be the only family with out a blog, I figured it was a good time to get started. With family and friends spread so far away we hope this will give people a chance to keep up with us and our soon to be 2 sons! It's hard to believe Andrew will be here in less than 3 months! I still don't think Nicholas understands there is a baby in mommy's tummy, but it's still cute to see him give my (ever expanding) belly kisses :)

Thanks for checking out our family blog!