The days and months before Baby 1.0, who we will refer to as
Lars from now on, arrived were filled with so many unknowns and excitement for
what was to come! We decorated his room like a catalog and had WAY more baby
stuff than any baby ever needs, because we wanted to be prepared for anything!
I had even had the pleasure of being a nanny for 2 different friends’ newborn
for the couple years before having Lars. While I knew what I thought were the
basics it was fun to have all the extras too! For the following year after Lars
was born I spent SO much time holding him, reading to him, napping with him,
feeding him, just really enjoying being a mom for the first time!
Now that Baby 4.0 is almost here and should be already (she
was due last Monday, 1/7/13)! I’m glad that she has waited a couple days at
least so we could go get her some diapers and wash a few of her hand-me-down clothes
and bottles! I guess I should get that stuff out of her crib (that is in our
bedroom) so she has somewhere to sleep when we bring her home! When she gets
here I will very much enjoy having her here, but will also be fighting off all
the “help” that is ready to feed and burp her! Petra has been practicing her
burps so she can teach her!
To those of you, who don’t have kids or are still enjoying
every moment of your first sweet baby, please don’t think that I care any less
for baby 4.0 (or 2.0 or 3.0 for that matter) totally opposite really! I love
them more each day! It’s just that with each wonderful addition I have realized
different things about myself and about kids:
1.
The more we have, the more I have to clean and
find!
2.
The kids just want to play with what their
siblings already have, so there is no need to get more stuff! (Except maybe her
own Bunny Blankie!)
3.
My time enjoying each child is really enhanced
by watching them interact with each other! Sometimes, I think Lars and Stina
were over stimulated by me trying to “entertain them” all the time. I’ll agree
it is much more entertaining to just lay there and watch the circus, which is
my life, than to read books or play with toys!
The thing that probably surprised me the most is the anticipation
of the birth of Baby 4.0. You would think, I’ve done this before, how could I
get nervous about this?! Amazingly all of my kids’ birth has been TOTALLY
different than the one before (I think every mother would probably agree)! I
went to the hospital to be induced with all 3 previous kids on or before their
due date.
Lars- I had gestational diabetes,
so I was induced on my due date. Typical induction, went to the hospital
started being induced 12-18 hours and 2.5 hours of pushing later, we had a boy!
Stina- I went in to be induced, 2
weeks early because she had stopped growing and come to find out there was a
problem with her placenta and umbilical cord, expecting the induction to be
similar to Lars’ I was very surprised that it was 3 DAYS later when she finally
arrived! Although, I was on Pitocin for 2.5 days, she thankfully only required
10 minutes of pushing!
Petra- Hoping that this was going
to be the easy induction, I checked in on her due date to the hospital and
instead of being induced ended up with an emergency C-section! Her heart rate was
so low that they wouldn’t even consider inducing me. Her heart rate had been an
issue for the last month or so, which is why I was being induced anyway.
Baby
4.0-Story yet to be told, but she is making for a dramatic entrance since we
are already 5 days past her due date! I’m thankful that my Dr.’s are allowing
me to wait for the best possible chance at a VBAC, but I do wish she would
decide to join the rest of us on the outside already! The house is not going to
get any cleaner (this is the only child that I have “nested” for), your
siblings are not going to get any quieter and they are already squishing you on
the inside! If you come out we can try to protect you a little better from the
noise and squishing, but no promises! J
As many of you know, 6 years ago Karl and I were told by our
doctor that we would never have kids! We had tried a few medical procedures, prayed
and cried a lot, but when we decided that we would just not have kids God
surprised us in a BIG way! In 2008 we had Lars! I was content to only have Lars
if that was all God was going to give us, but only 15 months later we welcomed
Stina. We should have considered ourselves warned at that point, but were
somehow still surprised to learn that only 14 months later Petra would arrive!!
YES, we know how it happens and YES, you can get pregnant while exclusively nursing
your baby! As we discussed the future of our family, to have more or not, we
decided we would have one more and not wanting them to feel too much younger
figured we should go ahead and have #4! She will be 2 years and 4-5 months
younger than Petra, which is almost the exact age spread as Lars and Petra
(with Stina in between:). Karl and I have decided we would prefer not to have any
more biological kids, but we know God’s plan is greater than ours’ and He has a
great sense of humor!!
It’s always amazing to me how God allows our life to unfold!
A friend recently described life as a puzzle, every day is another piece, we
don’t know what the finished product will look like, we try to build the framework,
the outside pieces, and then let the inside pieces fill it in. So many aspects
of my life have been very different than what I had “planned”, but I’m thankful
that I am not in control and God has the lid to the box with the final picture
already!
I am most thankful to know that God gave His one and ONLY
son to die for MY sin, so that I can live eternally with Him in heaven. I have
learned this year that having Jesus as my Savior is really the only piece of
the puzzle that really matters…more on that later!
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