The Princess and her Froggie.

** I have a very specific Prayer Request.  There is a very sweet couple from SWKS that needs a ton of prayers right now.  I have known the Janee and Chuy since high school. (Before they were married.) I met them though a ton of church events in in Dodge City Diocese. TEC, NCYC, Youth Rallys pretty much everything.  They are a year or two older then me and have a son about Cor's age.  Long story short.  Chuy suffered a heart attack while they were up in Topeka this last weekend. He is suffering from some very serious complications and is in the ICU.  If you could say a prayer for this family I would be grateful.  I can tell you they are very deserving of a few minutes of your time to say a quick prayer on Chuy's behalf. **

Its been a few days weeks since my last post.  Mostly because after seeing Dr. Risky* I had an internal struggle with what I want to blog about and what I want to keep under wraps.  I never want it to seem like I don't appreciate being pregnant, or that I hate it. Though, thus far are I have really posted about is what makes this pregnancy hard for me. Its a catch 22.  I want to keep my friends and family updated.  The reason it two fold.  First, I have a HUGE family and I believe in the power of prayer. (And you can believe my HUGE family uses it.)  Second, I know if I put it here everyone has equal access to the information.  If you want to know what's going on in our lives you know where to find it. If you don't want to know I assume that you are not here and your not reading and thats cool too. But, I also know when it comes to family I want to know what's going on too. (Maybe because I am nosey...but, hey, we are family we are supposed to be nosey to some degree right?)  The part that gets tricky is that I don't have any privacy filters on my blog. I do this because I want people to be able to pop in and read and I want it to be easy.  Plus. I doubt that there are any creepers on my blog mostly because my life isn't all that interesting. However, you just don't know. I just am not a someone that fears the WWW.

The thing is... it isn't all sunshine and rainbows over here right now. So, when it is (in roughly six months ;) I will blog about that too. In the mean time you get the nitty gritty. I don't blame you if you tune out  in the mean time. :-)

Since, my last blog I have had two doctors appointments.  One with Dr. Risky and one with Dr. A.  (Obviously, I'm not using my Dr's real names but that is because I don't want someone to find my blog by goggling them.) The end of the story is that I am good. Froggie Pistachio is good. We are just in a holding pattern right now. (I hate reading/listening to a whole story trying to figure out if someone is going to end it by telling me something horrific at the end.)  So, the appointment with Dr. Risky was supposed to be meeting with a genetic counselor, a sono, and a short meeting with Dr. Risky telling me keep up the Lovenox and I'll see you in 5ish months.  I am technically high risk but I honestly didn't consider myself as such because I have friends who are for much more significant reasons.  I say supposed to because nothing is ever that easy for me. The genetic counselor does think that I have a blood clotting issue. This was expected as I have been told this for the last two years. The way this works is that if I do have a genetic blood clotting issue it came from one or both of my parents.  They can either be carriers of the genetic disorder or have it them selves.  Either way we need to find out because if I do have it, Corah and Pistachio could to...but as could other members of my family. If mom and dad are carriers there is a chance my brothers and sister could either have it or be passing it forward.  So, in order to know just how much I have an increase risk of throwing another clot we have to know what is going on. It would also be nice to help prevent blood clots in my family members. The ideal time for these uber expensive tests are when I am not on blood thinners, not pregnant, and do not have an IUD. This has not really happened since I had the PE two years ago. Thus, no test yet.

After that I went in for a sono. It was sweet to see a fully formed tiny little being hanging out in there. Another spoiler alert...no gender announcement yet.  Everything on tiny Pistachio seems to be developing well.  They did mention something about the head circumference ratio being a little off. Though, the doctor did not seem to think this was a real issue as it is a very early gestational age.  I also don't think its an issue because we make big headed babies. (*Corah's noggin is in the 99.99 percentile. and has been since she was nine months old. We've been told she comes by it naturally...from her daddy.) No reason to assume Pistachio wouldn't have an above average noggin too. The biggest 'reveal' in our sonogram was an issue with the placenta.  It is considered Placenta Previa: Posterior Complete. Basically the placenta completely covers the cervix. Giving baby no way out.  So the good, bad and ugly about this. The good is that it is very early.  Both Dr. Risky and Dr. A think there is a good chance  it will move.  Its very early and they earlier they are detected the better the odds are for movement.  The bad is the previa grade that is least likely to move is complete posterior. The ugly is that previas tend to cause bleeds. This  could be an exacerbated issue because the lovenox makes me bleed easier and more. Bleeds also lead to bed rest. Super ugly a previa that doesn't move or doesn't move enough lead to c-sections which are a bit tricky for blood thinners and something we would really like to avoid. Back to the good. Bleeds do not typically happen until past 22 weeks. The super good is that we have our next sono at 20 weeks so we will know if the previa has moved before it should be an issue.  We will discuss at that time, if it hasn't moved, what the course of action is. Until that point I have some pretty specific orders on what I can and can't do and what to watch for. Our prayer is that by June 3rd it has completely moved and we are back to a reasonably low risk pregnancy.  Either way, I am going to do my best not to worry about it.  There is literally nothing that can be done to make the previa move and nothing that we could have done to prevented it.  It is what it is.  On the up side... yay for more Sono's and sneek peeks at Pistachio.

Now, onto more fun and interesting things. When I brought home the sono pictures Corah right away said 'Oh Baby!' And wanted to study every little bit of every picture.  When we flipped to another picture she exclaimed 'FROGGIE...ribbit...ribbit!'  Anytime she sees this specific picture she gets so excited about seeing the FROGGIE! It should be noted that I have no idea where she gets this from and why the one picture looks like the frog.  I honestly didn't know she knew what a frog was. But, I guess it is God's way of reminding me that he's got this. As I have a frog collection from high school and I collected them because f.r.o.g stands for Fully Rely On God. Not an acronym that I've thought much of in the last 11 years. But, one that I am gladly reminded of.

This is the infamous Froggie. 

Not a food item or reptile. 

-Tonya

Pistachio ... officially 2nd Trimester!

I never know how to start a blog post.  It always seems awkward.

Its been a few days since I have updated.  We are officially into our SECOND TRIMESTER!  Let me just say I love the second trimester.  Its when you have more energy, you can start feeling the baby move, *hopefully* less morning, the big ultrasound.  Lots of fun stuff!  Since my last post I have seen my OB.  I am going to call her Dr. A ... for Awesome.  I freaking love her.  Dr. A first she looks like she is about 12.  (Though she mentioned when she was prego being old and having been at a higher risk of DS...I had previously thought she was younger than me. Anywho.)  Part of the reason I like her so much is that she never thinks I am crazy even when I think I am.  She asked me how I was feeling and we talked a bit about the morning sickness and she called in two new RX for it. (Making it the fourth and fifth scripts to combat the dreaded nausea.) One is actually for reflux and heartburn BUT I think we are making progress with it.  My intense gag reflex seems to be mostly controlled by it.  The second makes me sleep.  I have no clue as to the effect it has on nausea because I just sleep. Either way...I'm happy. 

She also made the decision to refer me to a high risk/fetal and maternal health doctor.  I will finalize my appointment with him tomorrow.  By my understanding it is kinda a consult appointment.  He will go over the complications I had during, and after my pregnancy with Corah.  Based off of that he will access the risks with this pregnancy.  Based off that he will decide if I need to see him durning the whole pregnancy.  I am going to call him Dr.  Risky.  I have mixed feelings about seeing Dr. Risky.  On one hand I feel like its silly I know a two other women who see him currently and they have what I  feel like are serious risks while I don't necessarily feel like I do.  On the other hand my doctor likes to remind me that I have a PE...and nearly freaking died...how much more serious does it come? I have always said all the complications I had with Cor were so minor when you consider the big picture.  We are both alive and healthy what more can I ask for.

This is also why I love Dr. A.  She said she is a bit concerned with my weight loss, but said it is typical for me.  She is going to give me a little time in the second trimester and with the new prescriptions before getting to worried. She is however going to see me every two weeks rather than just monthly.  At least until I see Dr. Risky and I stop losing weight.  She said we will both feel better knowing I am being watched closely.  Not only does she remember my pregnancy with Cor but she remembers why I have a bit of anxiety surounding pregnancy.  Which isn't something that would just be in my file. All in all after my Appointment with Dr. A I feel like I can finally relax a little bit. I don't think I am going to shake the waiting for the other shoe to drop feeling.  However, I do feel like no matter what maybe, might could happen I am doing everything I can to stop it.

For the first time since the positive HPT I am actually starting to think/dream about what life will be like with a new little person. I am starting to get excited.

In other Sholar family news.  We have recently learned that living with a two-year-old is similar to living with a stand up comedian. The things she comes up with crack me up. Like fake sneezing while sounding british. Or her passion for praying. When we say our prayers before meals or a night we hold hands.  (This is mostly to combat wondering hands distracting her.) Prayer time consists of Someone saying God Bless ______ (insert friend or family member name.)  Corah repeats us.  We have started adding Pistachio to our prayers.  At first she dutifully prayed for 'stachio. Lately I think she is started to connect 'stachio with baby...and changes to her life.  So when someone says 'God Bless Pistachio.' Corah replies with 'No! No 'stachio! yucky!' I guess we have officially started sibling rivalry. So you might say a quick prayer for Corah that she starts to love the idea of 'stachio.

A second bit of comedy comes from life with a toddler too. For her birthday Corah got an adorable little bear from my parents. It is the new recordable type.  When squeezed you hear my parents say...
Together: Who loves Corah?
Papa: Papa Does!
Gramma: Gramma Does!
Together: Hug Me Bear Does!
The recording goes on a bit after that. However, I had the holy living daylights scared out of me last night by 'Hug Me Bear.' Corah rolled on to the bear and through our Monitor I suddenly her my parents talking. In my groggy rx induced already sleeping state I couldn't make out the words that they were saying. Until the second or third round I was convinced I was in some sort of coma and coming to after who knows how long.

-Tonya

By the way!  Shout out to Aunt Dinky!  Thank you for reading my blog too! You and Aunt Nancy are my motivation to try and remember to update!

Pistachio

You are undoubtably here because you saw our recent Facebook update. (Not like I regularly post here or anything.)  The first thing I want to say is Thank You for taking time to wonder over here from FB. The second thing I want to say is Hi Aunt Nancy!  (I think you might be my one and only blog reader.) The third thing I want to say is that this is where I am going to attempt to keep people updated on Pistachio (the temporary name given to the unborn.)  For several reasons I feel like FB just isn't the right place right now for Pistachio updates. We did make the announcement there because well, with our big family I feel like it is the best way to tell everyone at one time. Its how we did it with Cor too. If you are a first time reader here...welcome. Also, please know I am a terrible speller and my grammar is horrific. (I also LOVE to use parenthesis...and...ellipses.) I reserve the right to over use them.  I also never know when a , is approprate... I over and under use it as well.  I assume. Terrible grammar people...terrible. 

 Now on to Pistachio deets. (Assuming you are still reading this.)

1.) I am about 11.5 weeks and I am technically due end of October.  Though my doctor will not likely allow me to make it to my due date. (More on that in a bit.) We are over the moon excited! We feel sooo lucky that God has blessed us with a second baby! I know some people will read the rest of this and think I am being a whiney hiney. I am not complaining.  I just want to document things and keep family up to date.  This is sorta my Pistachio FAQ page. (Plus, its my blog and I can cry if I want to?)

2.) Why Pistachio?  Stupid story. Matthew and I were discussing this pregnancy and I hate referring to unborn unnamed babies as it. I was munching on some salt and pepper pistachios at the time.  And voila the unborn received a temp name.  I know, I know clever right?  I told you it was a stupid story. 

3.) Wait! I am not even in the second trimester and my doctor is talking about induction?  I know...intense.  This was actually discussed with my doctor shortly after Corah's birth.  To rewind a bit and fill in the blanks if you happen to not be Aunt Nancy. ;-) After I had Corah...8 days later specifically... I had a pulmonary embolism. I spent a week in the hospital recovering and six months on blood thinners.  Because, I had a blood clot once it increases my odds of having another. During pregnancy the weight gain and blood volume increase can cause blood clots.  As such I have been on blood thinners since the we found out (Feb 6th) and will continue them post birth for a short while.  Blood thinners simply mean the labor and delivery process needs to be monitored a bit closer making induction likely.

4.) Blood thinners are not fun.  It basically feels like I am shooting straight electricity into my belly. (Thank goodness for my 'inch+ of pinch.') However,  we were blessed a second time to find out that my insurance (through the job I love to hate) actually covers Lovenox.  Well, to a degree that the copay is reasonable.  I know that the full cost of Lovenox is over $1200 for one month of shots. I know people who's insurance covers hardly any of the cost making it unaffordable. The alternative is the more afforable injectable Heprin.  Lovenox comes as a pre-filled syringe while Heprin you have to draw on your own before injecting.  Lovenox is only once a day as it actually stays in your system much longer than Heprin which needs to be injected twice a day.  All of this boring talk to say I am EXTREMELY thankful that Lovenox is covered by our insurance. (*I will switch to Heprin at the end of the pregnancy.)

4b.) A sweet side story.  Corah has watched me give myself the shot most nights.  Usually, she watches quietly and likes to hand me the alcohol prep wipe. I have always thought if she saw me get shots and not be afraid of them then she might be a little more relaxed about getting all the shots babies/toddlers are subjected to.  Turns out she might not be afraid of shots enough.  One evening I found Corah sitting on the bed holding her shirt up. When I looked a bit closer she was wiping her belly with a kleenex and using an oral med type syringe to give herself a shot. She now always asks for a shot when she see's me do mine.  We will see how this holds out when she is subjected to a real shot later this month during her two year check up. 

5.) FACT: Morning sickness is not just in the morning.  For me it is a super sensitive gag reflex and 24-7 nausea. I am on my third anti-nausea medicine. They worked wonders when I was pregnant with Corah... this time they just kinda take the edge off. This means I have lost nearly twenty pounds in two months.  It also means I can't wear t-shirts. (They touch my neck and make me get sick. Insane...I know.) I recently had an evening in the ER after I vomited blood.  It turned out to be nothing serious... just a small tear in my esophagus. Apparently, this is super normal for people who puke a lot.  People like to remind me that once I get into the second trimester it will go away and be smooth sailing.  I am crossing my fingers this is the case. (It wasn't with Cor though.)  My doctor is watching me closely for dehydration.  She is also wanting me to gain some lbs before my appointment next week. So if ya'll can say some quick prayers that I gain a lb or two that would be fantastic.  I have always equated morning sickness with a growing baby.  Every time I get sick its Pistachio's way of saying hey mom...I'm okay!  Until he/she is big enough to make their movements more pronounced I will take this form of communication. (I know vomiting does not = healthy baby and I need to be careful. It is just a mind trick I use to get through it.)  I am also very careful about watching my calorie intake and accounting for the fact that I puke a whole lot.  I am not trying to lose wight I promise.

6.) Its not twins. I promise.

7.) Matt will swear up and down Pistachio is a girl. This pregnancy has been soooooo different I was initially thinking boy. But the heart rate was at a whopping 170 and the old wives tale says thats a girl.  It held true for Corah.  Stay tuned. If I have my way we will be surprised in October.  If the hubs has his way we will find out ASAP. 

8.) Corah's feelings.  I don't think she understands much.  (As can be expected from an almost two year  old.)  However, she loves to show off the sonogram picture that we have.  When my MIL asked Corah if the baby in the picture was going to live with her she frowned, said no, and promptly crumpled the sono picture up. (Poor thing...has no personality at all.) (<---Sarcasm.) 

9.) Because of #5 we are having an impossible time with potty training right now.  It makes Mommy sick, and Corah is confused by what the potty is really for. Awesomesauce. 

10.) MY BABY IS TWO ON SATURDAY!!! (More details later...but geeze batman time flies!)

If you are still reading this Thanks! I know this is boring and ridiculously TMI to most people.  But, this is life for the Sholar Family right now.  I wish I had documented things somewhere with Corah a little better.  This is my honest to goodness attempt to resurrect my long dead blog. No promises Aunt Nancy! 

My oh My!

My little LADY turned the big 1 on Friday! I uploaded her 1st Birthday Photo Shoot onto FB.  I thought I would post my absolute FAVORITES here. 

She LOVES cake!

She loves her Momma.

How can you NOT love this face!?!

P.S. You can also follow us at

 http://deargrammalovecorah.blogspot.com/ 

This is a blog full of short little love letters to my Gramma.

Catch Up on Corah's life!

I am a horrible Mommy Blogger.  I am aware :). I would like to say that I am going to start blogging more. I hope that I am going to start blogging more. I am just really terrible at time management. I get distracted by the tiny wayyyyy to much.

Lets catch you up ... on Corah's entire life? :-D

JUNE.
June was a really rough month for us.   I spent the month on maternity leave and spent most of the month soaking up as much time as possible snuggled with Corah Beans on the couch. Up until June 25. I remember every second of that day.  The day was meant to celebrate RWH at the Royals vs. Cubs in Kansas City.  On our way out of town I called my dad for an update of my Grandpa.  Daddy said that he was doing better the last he had heard but it had been a day or two since he had talked to anyone. I told him to keep me updated and we headed to KC.  Matt and I talked about my Grandpa on the way to KC. We talked about how happy I was that I had gotten to introduce Corah to my Grandpa.  This was something that for the last 8 years I thought a lot about.  It was something I feared would never happen.  I told Matt that even though I was thankful for that. I couldn't even talk about the idea of losing my Grandpa. The conversation ended and we met up with all of our friends for a day of tailgating.  I laid Corah down in the pack-in-play for a nap. I checked my phone and noticed that I had missed a call from my Daddy. I stepped a way and listened to the voicemail that said...'hey, Tonya this is your Dad give me a call.' I knew. I don't to this day have any idea how I did. But I called him back and my mom answered in tears.  My knees hit the asphalt and my tears immediately started flowing. Mom told me that there wasn't much time left that she didn't think I could make it home in time.  I turned around and saw the baseball stadium and knew Grandpa would want me to be there. Matt and I made the decision to stay. Mom sent me updates through out the day.  Until my little brother called to tell me he was gone. Our friends were amazing that day and held me up.  The next day I went to Spearville, KS to spend the week with my family.  Saying goodbye was unbelievably hard.  But I got to spend time with my HUGE family and I got to know cousins on a whole new level. That week is exactly what my Grandpa would have wanted.  The whole family together and lots of drinking and laughing.  I'm going to be honest. I cried through this whole paragraph.

JULY.
July was a whole different kind of hard.  I went back to work.  I made Matt swear to me a million times over that if it was to hard to work we would figure out how to afford for me to stay home.  It was soooooo hard to leave baby.  Thankfully God blessed us with the best Nanny! (Or should I say Nana?) We arranged our schedules so I would work closing and my MIL would work early so she could take Corah in the afternoon.  I threw myself into my work and my sales shot through the roof.  (Which is telling because I have always been one of the top sales people in our market.)   I was blessed and I mean BLESSED with FOURTEEN weeks of Maternity leave. I do home to be a full time Mommy someday. In the meantime I really do love what I do. I don't really remember the last time that I dreaded going to work.

AUGUST.
August brought an end of Colic for Corah and our fussy baby became the sweetest girl.  A lot of August was adjusting to a new routine. August brought an end to the quickest and hottest summer in a long time. I wasn't really sad to see it go.  Our tight group of friends experienced a lot of loss all spring and summer long August was one of the worst months for it.

SEPTEMBER.
In September we took Corah to the State Fair. Because it was the same weekend as my cousins wedding we stayed in a hotel with my parents and younger brother.  It was nice to see my Grandma, Aunts, Uncles, and a few cousins too. My parents celebrated their 30th Anniversary this month as well!  Corah capped the month off by growing her first two teeth.  The bottom two...at the same time.

OCTOBER.
October brought Corah's six month birthday! We celebrated by getting our first family pictures taken.  I love how they turned out.  Corah wore Pink (of course) while Matt and I wore black. We also went to my Cousin Briana's wedding in Dodge City.  It was an awesome time. Corah had so much she skipped her afternoon nap and stayed up until 2AM! Corah continued to grow like a weed and her head took off.  Her head circumference shot up to the 87.98 percentile. I was just thankful she was born with a 'normal sized' head. Daddy also started a new career at Burlington Northern Santa Fe! We are excited for this opportunity!

NOVEMBER.
November was busy and painful.  I was soooooo happy to have taken my last dose of my blood thinners that last day of October and November I was FREE of the work.  Coumadin therapy meant that for the previous six months I had been to have my blood checked 3 times a week.  My PT/INR was never at the same level no matter what I did. I was beyond excited to be free from it. I continued to have the recurrent chest pain I had for six months.  In November the pain increased from every few weeks to every few days. My doctor was concerned but I had passed an Echocardiogram and a million and a half tests on my lungs. She sent me for an upper GI scope. Two words...not fun.  I passed that test and I am sure at that point my doctor diagnosed me with Hypochondria. On the fun side of the month my parents came up for a shopping weekend and we spent some money in Kansas City. Corah really started becoming so much more interactive in November.  She started jumping in her jumparoo and they became fast friends.  She loved the independence of being upright on her own.

DECEMBER.
December was all about Family! In December I went took myself to urgent care.  The doctor there gave me an exasperated look.  She said that she looked at my chart and commented how I had every test in the book thrown at me.  She found nothing odd with any of them. She told me that there was really nothing she could do. She had me lay back so she could do a basic check up on me. She placed her hand over my Gallbladder and I flew off the table screaming in pain. She in two seconds discovered an answer to my pain that had been missed by the 3 primary care physicians in my Doctors office. 3 ER doctors and a boatload of specialist.  I had a sonogram done that confirmed my Gallbladder was so full of stones that is was about to rupture. We scheduled surgery for a few days before Christmas. 2011 was defiantly about bankrolling Saint Francis hospital.  We celebrated Corah's first Christmas with My Mom's side. She had soooo much fun being toted around by my youngest cousins.  We spent NYE celebrating Christmas with the Stein side. It was great fun as well. I went home from the Stein family Christmas feeling like something was missing.  Which is strange considering that there were several dozen of us in a small hotel banquet room.  It was several days later that I realized how much my Grandpa was missed. It is really not the same without him.  I miss him greatly. Corah celebrated the holidays by adding FOUR top teeth to her bottom two.

JANUARY.
January was a new month. My resolution was to stay away doctors office.  I had enough of them in 2011.  Apparently I wasn't specific enough.  We took Corks in for her 9 month appointment and her noggin grew again.  Her head growth had turned into a straight line up instead of a slow arc.  The doctor looked at Matt's head and told us she didn't think we had much to worry about and we would just monitor it. A week later I got a voicemail from Corks Peds office and they wanted to send us in for a CT to be sure. We were given vague answers and referred to a Neurosurgeon at Children's Mercy in Kansas City. It took around a month to get in.  Corah took it all in stride and started crawling like crazy and pulling herself up on everything!  She also decided while she was at it she would learn to cruz around everything in the house that could support her pulling up. :) We watched our baby start the move into being a little girl in January.

FEBRUARY.
February was fast. Mommy turned 28 and it (thankfully) went by unnoticed. We had Corah's appointment with her Neurosurgeon. She was diagnosed with Mildly Benign External Hydrocephalus. The doctor thinks it will fix itself and scheduled a fallow up appointment in May for an MRI to be sure it is.  He measured Matt's head...and needed a second tape measure. He didn't give us a percentile for Daddy but he kept saying very big head, biggest head I've seen, and chuckling. Corah clearly comes by her noggin innocently enough.  We left the appointment thankful for the news and glad it was a very mild diagnosis.

MARCH.
Ahhhh...what would our lives be without doctors? Just when we thought doctors were behind us Corah gave us another tail spin.  She has ALWAYS tucked her right leg behind her left knee.  We have always talked about how she must have been stuck that way in the womb.  Until she started interrupting her crawling to do it. Corah has crawled the last two months and never did it. About two weeks ago she started and its increased in frequency since then. Matt and I felt this might be the sort of spasm that her Neurosurgeon instructed us to watch for. When we showed a clip to her Pedi she thought it might be a seizure. Long story short the video clip was sent to Children's Mercy and was seen by her Neurosurgeon and a Neurologist.  They've decided that its probably a good idea that she is seen by a Neurologist. They have since said they do not think its a seizure.  It does, however, seem to be something that Corah does not do voluntarily. When we try to uncross her legs so she can crawl they snap back into that position. So. For the whole three of you who read this. If you could say a quick prayer that the Neuro give us the all clear that this is just a Corah-ism that would be fantastic! I am sick of doctors! There are about five million things I would rather spend my money on. Don't get me wrong! I will take Corah to every single doctor at Children's Mercy and pay every single penny I make to insure she is okay.  I would just rather spend the money spoiling her! We are still of the philosophy that Corah has a big noggin because she is a baby GENIUS! Seriously. She is.  :) Right now we are planning Corah's first birthday party extravaganza!

Well. I think that about brings us up to date! I promise to try and update more than every 9 or 10 months...

I SAID TRY! :-D

Tonya

Read this book.

Seriously. Do it. Heaven is for Real is an easy read book. I read the book in its entirety in two 45 minute settings. I am not generally one to read 'religious' books however this book was passed to my mom and then to me. There are a few things note worthy here.

1.) While I don't know this family specifically it references Ulysses, KS several times and that's my home town.
2.) Other Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado towns are ones I have been to or know of.
3.) It is written in a way that seems conversational. It feels like a story about people I know.

I feel like these three things paint such a clear image of Heaven. I also feel like this combined with the experiences I have had in the last 10 months I identify with heaven in such new way.

http://www.thomasnelson.com/consumer/product_detail.asp?sku=0849946158&title=Heaven_is_for_Real&authors=Todd_Burpo_Sonja_Burpo_Colton_Burpo_and_Lynn_Vincent%20&%20

Birthday!

The old man turned 27 and I helped him celebrate! I was super pumped because he got baby cupcakes! I figure that this would mean I would get one for sure. Baby cupcakes...Baby Corah...it seems obvious to me. But can you believe I didn't get one tiny taste? How rude!

Corah

Lessons I've learned.

• Babies grow ridiculously fast. 
• One can function with less than 12 hours of sleep. I actually love waking up with my baby anytime of the day or night. I still enjoy a nap when the babe sleeps in the afternoon. BUT! I can live without it. WHO KNEW?
• Summer Swaddle Blankets rock! Its a combination between a baby straight jacket and a sleeping bag. All  I know is that Corah falls asleep with in minutes of being in this! Seriously, if you are an expectant mommy or new mommy this is my Baby MUST HAVE.

• People have intense feelings about babies wearing headbands.  I don't care. I put one on Corks in the morning and she wears it until I take it off as I put her to bed. (They are not all as obnoxious as this one.

• There is no point in planning anything. About the point that you make a plan you spend a week in the hospital with a Pulmonary Embolism. Or less dramatically baby has a diaper blow out.
• In respect the the PE...If you literally feel like you are about to die go to the Hospital. Sleeping it out isn't going to fix anything. 
• Also in respect to the PE...Mommies (specifically mine) can fix anything.
• Taking a baby out in Public will give any new mommy an ego about how a-freakng-dorable her baby is.  I am just saying. People tend to complement Corah on her perfectly shaped head. I have no clue what this means. 
• Babies don't break as easily as new mommies think. 
• I could totally be a SAHM.  While this isn't an option for us now.  I love spending every second possible with my babe and will be soaking up my LOA like its nobodies business. 

Tonya

Corah @ 1 month!

Holy moley my baby is a whole month old! I can't hardly believe its been an entire month since the best day of my life. I also can't believe that I haven't posted her birth story, or pictures of the day. I also haven't don't her birth announcements or the newspaper announcements. I also need to send thank you notes and about a million other things! In all fairness I am a bit preoccupied by hospital stays and a princess (and not just the Royal Wedding!) The moral of this windy tale is to look for some big updates soon!

Holding on.

Corah has learned a new trick. She grabs on to things and holds on. I don't think she's actually reaching for something she sees. Just when something grazes her had she grips on with all her might. She started with my hair Sunday and has since been holding on to shirts, blankets, hair, fingers, and her hair bows.

Today is also her four week birthday. Even more insane is that Friday she is officially a month old. I can't believe she is getting so big.

This picture is from Orange Leaf today and is proof that her grip is firm.

Tonya