Anniversary.... by the numbers

9 years

8 plane trips

7 jobs

6 sharp little elbows poking every which way in our bed in the morning

5 years, 10 months as parents

4 addresses

3 degrees

2,000 mile move

1 love of my life

3 Months

Our baby boy, Reed Alexander, is 3 months old.

The past three months have quite possibly been the craziest three months of my adult life.... Birth of beautiful healthy baby son, entire family sick (repeat over and over), Reed sick with RSV, dealing with my Dad's illness from far away, Reed sick in the hospital with pneumonia (learning he may struggle with lung issues), and finally... the death of my Dad and a two week trip halfway across the country to attempt to say goodbye and be with our family.

There is no way I can touch all of that with a blog post.... or a hundred blog posts and I don't intend to try, although I do have a few things (including Reed's birth story) that I'd like to share.

Finally, I would like to give a sincere thank you to all of you who have given kind words, prayers, encouragement, meals, memorial gifts, open ears, time for our children and other acts of love over the past three months. It means more than you will ever know.

Reed's Birth Story. Part Two: 30 Minute Parking

As I was laying down resting on the couch resting, a monster of a contraction hit and I felt a distinct pop in my sacrum as the baby changed position. That "this means business" contraction didn’t let up for a good couple of minutes and it was agony. Things were about to abruptly switch gears. Jonathan knew instantly that things were a little more serious and we tried to make a quick exit. Jonathan called the doula again to let her know we were headed out the door. As we walked outside I had another "serious" contraction. I turned to Jonathan and said, “You know, if we get there and I’m only 4 centimeters I think I might just punch someone.” I was still worried that I might go in and not see much progress. In the driveway, another hard contraction hit and I looked at our van doubtfully. I did NOT want to get in. I knew that sitting strapped down to a seat during this kind of labor would be pure torture. I opened the rear sliding door and gave serious contemplation to crawling into the back on all fours. Finally, with a great amount of reluctance I opted to stick it out in the front seat. The contractions were extremely intense, but I was still able to joke in between them, send some texts and warn Jonathan not to speed (he did anyway.) We pulled into the hospital. Unfortunately, the only spaces left in the lot we had planned to use said “30 minute parking.” We decided to risk it.

We went to the door of the hospital and I was beyond irritated to discover that the door was locked and that we had to use an intercom to page someone to open it. Jonathan paged through the intercom letting them know we needed to get to L&D immediately. The security guard took his sweet time waltzing over to open the door and I may or may not have uttered some unkind words about his lack of urgency as I clung on to Jonathan through a contraction. The slow poke security guard offered us a wheelchair, but I had absolutely no desire to take any more contractions sitting down so I declined and we walked to the green elevator and up to the third floor. We got to the L&D desk and I told them my name, but had to pause and grip the counter for another contraction. Each contraction required all of my concentration. The desk nurse simply smiled and another nurse led us to our room. When we got there, the she cheerily introduced herself and said to us, "I’ll be doing your admission, but someone else will be your assigned nurse." She gave me a gown and told me to change and then she would get me on the fetal monitor for my "admission strip." Jonathan helped me into the gown and as a contraction hit I squeezed his hands and leaned on him. I was starting to feel a little panicky with each contraction. Classic sign of transition, and by now I was realizing that things were going to move quickly.

As soon as my gown was on, our doula arrived quietly into the room during a contraction. She knew instantly that I was in transition. Having been present for Juliana's birth she also knew that things were going to move fast. She waited until the contraction was over and then said softly, “Look at you! You are doing great. You are so close to having this baby.” I told her that I was having a very hard time keeping calm and another contraction hit. I hung onto Jonathan and she quietly reminded me that my body was doing exactly what it was supposed to and then told me, “30 more seconds. That’s all that’s left of this one. You can do that.” Her presence was reassuring. I tried to stay focused. I told myself could handle anything for 60... 45...30 seconds. The nurse came back in and asked me to get on to the bed for monitoring. I told her I couldn't possibly stand laying down flat on my back at this point. The force of the contractions were much too strong to just lay there. Carissa asked about monitoring in an alternate position. The nurse seemed a little tense and insisted she needed me to get on the bed. At that point in our little dilemma I uttered the magic words… “I feel pressure.” The tenseness in the nurses’ voice went up a notch. She asked what number baby this was for me. Carissa replied for me, "Three. The last one came FAST." That didn't seem to reassure this nurse that was really only supposed to be there to do the admitting process. She said, “I have to get the baby on the monitor and then I have to check you. If you are getting close to complete I need to call Karen (the midwife) right away.” In the very slow, even voice I generally reserve for naughty children I responded, “Maybe you should just call her [i]now[/i].” She continued on in her quest for her admission process, saying things like, “The sooner you get on the bed the sooner we’ll be done with the monitor.” I honestly didn't give a hoot about the monitor. I was thinking that she would probably be able to check the actual baby on the outside quite shortly. I asked if I she could monitor while I laid on my side (rather than on my back) and the nurse agreed. Through the side of the bed I clung to Jonathan’s hand for dear life and kept constant eye contact with him. Carissa reminded me again that this was what my body was supposed to be doing. It was good to have the reminder that the overwhelming intensity was normal. The nurse finally got the monitor on and I caught a few seconds of the comforting gallop of our baby boy’s heartbeat.

The nurse did a quick check and announced that I was “complete with an anterior lip.” My body started to push. In one contraction the water bag bulged. I thought that it was quite possible I would split in two. Another contraction. The nurse was standing by the computer monitor checking the tracing strip and hurriedly entering my admission information. After all, we had just barely arrived and she was really only supposed to be doing our admittance process. Our doula looked at the distracted nurse and announced that the baby's head was out, still encased in an intact amniotic sac. In a rather impressive motion, the nurse pushed the emergency call button as she turned around and caught the baby’s body on the next contraction. Three "pushing" contractions total. People flooded into the room. I was still holding Jonathan’s hands for dear life. I took a quick peek at the healthy pink crying baby on my stomach and then looked away. It was hard for me to grasp what had just happened. I needed a few moments to process. The intensity was overwhelming. Someone announced the time of birth, 5:21. Four hours previous I was asleep in my bed. 20 minutes previous I had arrived at the hospital entrance. Less than 10 minutes previous I had reluctantly crawled into the bed for “admittance monitoring”. We didn't even use the full 30 minutes on our parking spot. "Surreal" doesn't even begin to cover it. I still had a death grip on Jonathan’s hands and I tried to catch my breath. It took me a few minutes. Finally, I grabbed the baby. He looked so much like Juliana with his soft honey blonde fuzz and wrinkly forehead. I held him on my tummy and we waited for the cord to stop pulsing before cutting it. Sweet baby boy and I snuggled together skin to skin, both trying to adjust to the reality of his life on the outside. About an hour after he was born he was weighed, measured and then snuggled for a bit by his proud Daddy. For the third time... we fell in love with an exquisite and unique little person.

Reed Alexander

1.21.2011

7lbs 3oz

19.5"

Reed's Birth Story- Part One: Is it time to go yet?

Thursday January 20th was my due date. I was still feeling quite good, sleeping well and my only real "complaint" was that I had been having regular contractions off and on for several days. At times they were as close as 4 minutes apart for a few hours at a time, but I knew that third babies are notorious for false labor and made the decision to ignore them. I knew that the real thing would demand my attention.

I went to work on my due date and had contractions off and on at work. Mostly, I kept up with my policy of ignoring them, which wasn't difficult. I did notice that a few of them were starting to feel just the tiniest bit more “serious” than the contractions that I had been having. When I got home that evening I noted that the contractions were 10-15 minutes apart, not super regular and still just “uncomfortable.” Nothing notable. In previous evenings I had had contractions that were closer than that for a longer period of time that didn't yield a baby. Yet, something about them was just a bit different and I went ahead and told Jonathan that maybe this would be the night.

I went to bed at 10pm and slept well until 1am when I had a few contractions I just couldn’t sleep through. I got up and took a long hot shower, which felt great. It seemed that the contractions were still about 10-15 minutes apart, but more intense than they had been earlier. They all but melted away in the shower and I still wasn't convinced I was really in labor. After my shower Jonathan started to get nervous. He kept asking when we should call labor and delivery. I wanted to do most of my laboring at home and was feeling quite comfortable and in no rush at all. I told him that they would probably want my contractions to be a little closer together and more consistent. We decided to distract ourselves by watching "Modern Family" on Hulu. I sat on my yoga ball and occasionally got up to walk through the contractions.

At a little after 3am things picked up enough to sufficiently convince me I was in fact in labor and we would probably need to leave soon-ish. We called the friend that would be watching our girls and then we woke the girls up and told them that baby brother was on his way. They were so sweet and excited. We pulled coats on over jammies and I gave them kisses and hugs on their way out the door. I remember sitting and hugging Juliana at the bottom of the stairs for an extra long moment, knowing that this was my last time kissing her as my "baby". I knew how big she would seem after welcoming a tiny one. While Jonathan was gone with the girls I called our doula and then called L&D. The nurse asked me how far the contractions were apart and I told her they were still a little irregular, but for the most part they were about 2-6 minutes apart. She asked what number baby this was and I told her it was number three.

“Oh, so you know what you’re talking about then,” she said.

I laughed and replied, "Well, I hope I do!" The nurse must’ve thought I sounded like I was in pretty good spirits and she casually asked when I thought I would come in. I told her we would leave in maybe 20 minutes or so and it would take another 20 to 30 to get there. She said “Sure, we’ll be ready for you whenever you arrive.” Jonathan returned from dropping the girls off and drank coppius amounts of coffee in an effort to stay awake. I decided to lay down and try to rest for a few minutes before we left.

This lovely mugshot (and final belly photo) was taken at 4:01am. Baby Reed was born 1 hour and 20 minutes later...

Conversations in this Whisler Household

Juliana: I want to go to outer space!

Gabriella: You can't.

Juliana: Why not?

Gabriella: Because then I would have to go with you and I don't want to go to outer space.

Juliana: Alright. I won't go without you.

I love my compression hose... and other tidbits from the final month of pregnancy

I thought it might be time to do a little "Baby Boy Whisler" update. What? I hadn't actually even posted that the baby is a boy on the blog? Oh dear, I really am behind.

I'll be 37 weeks tomorrow. That means I am officially "full term" and the final countdown has begun. I have to admit though, I'm still having a hard time really imagining that very, very soon we will have three children! I'm trying to envision myself taking Gabriella to school wearing my pajamas and not brushing my teeth for a couple days at a time. I think its good to try to be mentally prepared for such things.

This is probably the easiest pregnancy I have had. Zofran helped me survive the first 18 weeks and although it wasn't super fun, I barely even lost weight this time. Since then, it has been pretty much smooth sailing. I move a little slower and I get tired a whole lot quicker, but for the most part I feel pretty good. I'm even sleeping great... which is a huge blessing for an extremely pregnant mama.

I do have one lovely little gift that this pregnancy has given me... varicose veins. I noticed my first little varicose vein at 23 weeks and since then, things on my right calf have just not been pretty. I finally broke down and bought some knee high compression socks a couple weeks ago. I was amazed at how much better my legs feel since I started wearing the compression socks. They pretty much eliminate all the achey, burning pain that I was having in my legs. It has also greatly improved how they look, giving me hope that I might still actually be able to wear shorts again someday.

The girls are both still extremely excited. They love to feel the baby bump and roll in my tummy. They ask questions about him all the time and are just so in awe of the whole process. Juliana often crawls in bed with us at about 6am for some morning snuggles. One morning she sleepily curled up around my tummy. The baby shifted positions and I wondered if Juliana would even notice it. Without opening her eyes she laid her hand right on the spot on my tummy where the baby had moved and patted it gently. Moments like that are amazing and priceless.

So much of the last month has been about preparing for Christmas. Now we need to get ready for this little guy. We've crossed off a few of our big to do list items in getting a mini van and in moving the girls into the same room. The move actually went much better than I thought it would. I thought Juliana would pester Gabriella to death because she tends to be a little bit harder to get to sleep, but most nights they do pretty well (although I won't say there is never any pestering.) Now we need to do all those little things... house cleaning, baby clothes washing, hospital bag packing, getting some final baby items, etc...

I'm trying to slow down and remember to enjoy these final weeks with this little guy on the inside. This will be my last pregnancy and I want to be sure to record little details as I can and savor little baby rolls and kicks... and maybe savor a little bit of that sleeping thing that I mentioned earlier.

Pumpkin Patch

Just a few favorite photos from our October trip to the pumpkin patch...

Three skeletons, a doctor and a peacock.

Where have I been? Oh you know, making kindergarten lunches, helping with classroom parties, working, making a small human being from scratch, reading "Mama Rex and T" over and over and over to a toddler, negotiating toy disputes, going to work, running a photography business... the usual.

This year Gabriella decided to dress as a doctor for Halloween. I tried to suggest she dress as a doctor last year (knowing that she would get hours and hours of play time out of the doctor costume as she loves to play doctor.) However, if I remember correctly, I was shot down and told something along the lines of, "Thats not my cutest." This year I threw out several cutesy girly suggestions and Gabriella bounced around several of those ideas, but when we came across some cheap scrubs at Target she finally decided that it would indeed be very fun to go as "Doctor Gabriella." Add a white lab coat from the dress up box (a second hand find Aunt Amy made last year) and a photoshopped doctor ID badge and she made a pretty convincing MD. I have to admit, I was a little annoyed that we heard several, "Oh what a cute nurse!" comments while we were out and about. Nurses don't wear lab coats and I'm pretty sure that if she was a little boy in the same costume not one person would've assumed she was a nurse.

This face cracks me up. Clearly she is still not into having her picture taken... yet I have to admit that it is a very "Gabriella" expression.

At least she is smiling on her badge.

Juliana had a bit less say in her costume. Fortunately, her only real desire was to dress up as something... anything really and that made her pretty easy to please. She doesn't remember Gabriella's stint as a peacock two years ago and she was delighted with her costume. A good thing, because I really love the peacock costume. Do you think I can get away with putting their little brother in it? (Just kidding!)

I could just eat those blonde spiral pony tails for breakfast. Deliciously cute.

My costume was truly pulled together at the last minute. I needed something appropriate to wear for the kids at work on Friday so I googled for maternity costume ideas. Thursday night I took a black shirt and some cheap felt I had on hand and pulled together a darn cute "Pregnant Skeleton" in about an hour and a half. I used fabric glue to secure the tiny pieces of the baby skeleton to a piece of black felt and then very loosely basted the adult skeleton parts and the black felt square containing the baby skeleton to the black maternity tee shirt. Unfortunately, I ran out of felt and didn't get a chance to make arm bones and the adult rib cage was done very hastily (and the very loose basting started to fail me before long). Nonetheless, it was a really fun "costume" to wear.

(Yep, thats my belly in the vanity mirror of the van. You should always be sure to properly restrain your children in the car.)

And now... a whole ton more pictures...

16 weeks

Really its more like 16.5 weeks... but who is counting? (Other than me. I am totally counting.)

I finally drug Jonathan outside this evening to take a couple baby bump pictures. They are the first we've taken for this baby and I was starting to feel guilty that this poor third child was already suffering from a lack of pictures/ general documentation. Jonathan hates to be forced to take pictures and to be honest, I'm MUCH more comfortable on the other side of that lens. We both managed to make it through a few frames and I'm at least willing to post these two on the internet....

After Jonathan was finished with his official documentation he turned around and snapped this picture of the girls. They had followed us out of the house. Gabriella was brandishing a stick, and Juliana was clothed in a shirt, undies and a play silk. I love this picture. It is such a "partners in crime" picture. I'm so jealous that when Daddy is holding the camera they are evidently willing to ham it up. I guess I'll have to hand it over more often.

Summer Visits

My dad and Barb came and visited us two weeks ago. We hadn't seen them since we were last in Iowa. Miss. Juliana was just taking her first step then... the girls have changed so much. It was a good visit and the girls basked in all of the grandparental attention. Gabriella ate her body weight in spaghetti and Juliana gave away lots of free hugs. Also, Gabriella got a wedding dress, but that thing deserves its own post.


This is my favorite picture of my Dad with Juliana.

Farmers Market

Juliana: I'm off to work!

Me: "Where do you work?

Juliana: The Farmers Market

Me: Oh. What do you grow on your farm to sell at the market?

Juliana: Peaches, rice and chicken.

Me: I would like to buy some of your peaches. How much do they cost?

Juliana: All of your cents.

S'mores

Now that is my kind of summer grilling.

Let's back up a bit, shall we?

So... back to May... which seems to be where we left off.

Jonathan graduated from seminary.

(Excuse the snapshot)

I can hardly leave that entirely unblogged. We moved to Oregon for seminary. It was a four year full time endeavor. Jonathan translated countless pages of ancient greek, wrote papers, poured over counseling case studies, read approximately 5,6785,093 books and delivered sermons. Yet all of that doesn't really even begin to define the seminary experience for either of us. There were trials, some "Aha!" moments, some heavy duty reliance on God and hopefully some spiritual maturing and deepening on both of our parts. I'm really proud of Jonathan, not just for the work he did, but for the man I've watched him grow into. I won't be able to wrap everything up in a neat and tidy package so maybe I should just leave it to...

Jonathan graduated from seminary.

The inevitable question is... what next? The short answer is still... we don't really know. Our hope is that Jonathan will find a full time ministry position that is a good fit for his skills and gifts and for our family as a whole. We have some preferences (like staying in the Portland area), but really we're resting on God's assurance that he will provide for us. It might not look exactly like we hope it will/think it should and we're OK with that. I'm at a much better place of resting in God's promises than I was four years ago.

Also... we totally found out that we were expecting our third baby the exact weekend that Jonathan graduated from seminary. Good thing I had four years to learn about trusting God, eh?

New life in a poor dead blog

Two months without a single blog post. You know, there are very few good excuses for such a long blogging hiatus. I hope you'll agree that this is one of them...

This tiny babe will be joining us in January. This was our 12 week ultrasound. I'm 14 weeks now. In fact, with an estimated due date of January 20th this babe threatens to steal my very own birthday out from under me (January 23rd.)

As to the blogging hiatus... I've mostly been in survival mode. Fortunately the miracle drug zofran has spared me the horrible level of sickness that I experienced with the girls (especially Juliana... the little scamp.) However, I've been going to bed when the girls do, getting up early to make it work at 7am and working more hours in general that I do during the school year. That said, I may be able to keep most of my food down, but I'm wiped out! With going to bed at the same time as the girls and arriving home from work after nap/quiet time is over, most of my "me" time for things such as blogging has vanished. I'm officially finished with that less than fun first trimester and I'll cautiously admit that I just might be feeling a bit better, but with the girls the full on sickness lasted until 16-18 weeks (respectively) so I'll probably have a few more weeks before I'm fully functional. And then, you know... only a few weeks after that until I'm huge and don't feel like doing anything again.

Other things you may be dying to know (or not.)....

What do the girls think about it?

Gabriella is sooooo beyond excited. She has been asking/praying for a baby sibling ( a brother to be specific) for the longest time. Even though we told her that she just might not be getting any more siblings... I guess she knew better. That has been one of the funnest parts of this pregnancy so far. Gabriella is so excited to see pictures of fetal development and learn about the whole process. She will be one fabulous second time big sister.

While I'm sure that Juliana has no real clue what a new baby will actually mean for her life, the wheels have been turning in her head and she is developing her concepts of the tiny baby in Mommy's tummy. She paid super close attention during the ultrasound and afterwards she was able to point out body parts on the pictures we were given. Her preference... a little sister.

What was the heart rate?

I'll admit, I don't buy the heart rate gender guessing, but I did check out this baby's heart rate vs the girls at this stage. Baby is 160s, Gabriella was 170s and Juliana was 150s... so firmly in between the two girls.

Were you trying for a boy?

Ummmm no. We have always wanted girls (Jonathan even more so than me) and we are beyond thrilled to have two of them. We'd love to have another girl to share in all of the girly fun, but we would certainly welcome a little boy (also Gabriella would be over the roof with excitement.) However, if we do have a little boy we're going to need some name input. We can't ever seem to agree on boys names. Girls names are no problem, but boys names are tough! We might have to go with Gabriella's suggestion... Spiderman.

Are you really showing already?!?

Yeaaaah. I won't even tell you how long I've been in maternity pants AND I've already had a stranger ask when I was due (wearing a loose fitting tee shirt, not a maternity shirt.)

So there you have it. The Whislers are going from 4 to 5. (Anyone have a good minivan recommendation?)

Mothers Day Tea

Gabriella's preschool hosted a super cute Mother's Day tea today.

I was given a lovely necklace to wear...

Attended a fabulous performance...

... and afterwards Gabriella gave me a copy of a book the class had made titled, "I Love My Mom." Gabriella's page read, "I love my mom when she comes home from work." I was also given a lovely drawing of yours truly wearing pink Hello Kitty pajamas. Now that I know what I look like in pink Hello Kitty pajamas I might just have to find a pair.

Then, we all had cake and juice. Juliana even got to try on the ears.

Pretty great stuff.

April

Oops. I missed an entire month of blogging. It is just a bit crazy here right now... Jonathan will finish off his four year Masters of Divinity adventure in just a few short weeks. Except right now those "few short weeks" feel more like a few looooooooooong weeks. There are still Greek passages to translate (just looking at those pages of translation and grammar diagramming makes me a little ill), papers to write, binders to compile and the list goes on.

Not that the girls and I aren't finding ways to keep busy as well....

In over my head

Gabriella and I were discussing vowels. They are one of the tricker parts of learning the written English language. She knows what the vowels are, but still often mixes and omits them.

Me: Every word has at least one vowel and some words have more.

Gabriella: "Brrr doesn't have a vowel"

Me: (not sure I've heard correctly) "How do you spell brrr?"

Gabriella: "B-r-r. (makes a shivering gesture) See? No vowels."

Me: Yes you are right sweetie, almost every word has a vowel.

Mama needs to stick to teaching art.

Riverfront

Just a few more from the riverfront...

Riding the MAX rail across the river is always a fun time.

Making instruments at the Saturday market and dancing to live music isn't too bad either

Cherry blossoms are the icing on the cake.

***

So why the shortage of Gabriella pictures?

Gabriella simply does not want her picture taken very often these day. She flips into a full blown scowl if she even thinks I might be pointing the camera her direction. So, I don't press her very often and I try to make sure that the camera doesn't dominate our family outings. I do, however, have some fabulous pictures that Gabriella took (on our old point & shoot camera) the same day these were taken. Hmmm.... more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it? I have no idea where she would get that from.

Sunshine

Cherry Blossom