3 busy months!!

Wow, I've been meaning to update this for quite awhile now, but my time just gets away from me these days! I can't believe it's been 3 months since Elias was born, it seems like just yesterday & so much longer ago all at the same time. As far as he goes, he's a peach. I couldn't have asked for baby with a sweeter demeanor. He sleeps like a dream for the most part & seriously brings so much joy to our lives sometimes I can hardly stand it. His big open-mouthed smiles and sweet little spirit are enough to make the coldest of hearts melt. Josiah is pretty much OBSESSED with him and the feeling for Elias is mutual. They love each other to pieces and it's so cute. Daniel loves him as well, but not so much in a sweet way... at first he did, but now he sort of finds it humorous when the baby cries, so he finds a lot of ways to make him do so. I however, do not find it humorous and am having a difficult time trying to convince Daniel of that as well. I guess that might have something to do with him being 3...He definitely takes after the Cline side, because everything that I remember about my brother Rob, and all the stories of him at this age...well, let's just say Daniel seems to be him re-incarnated. :)
So what have we been up to these last couple months now that Elias has graced us with his presence? We've had guests every month since May, which has been wonderful and has kept us very busy. Josiah started kindergarten. We've been to Disneyland, California Adventure, and Legoland. And have somehow began a Sunday tradition of having a ton of people over after church & cooking delicious meals all day. It's really been a busy, yet wonderful summer. Cisco and I are so blessed by our beautiful children and also our wonderful friends, not to mention each other. It's funny looking at things in retrospect sometimes, and realizing how much different our lives turned out than we originally thought or planned. For me, it's so much different. If I'd had my way or what I thought my way was, I'd have had all girls and married someone quite different. I now have 3 amazing boys and couldn't imagine life without one of them. I am so content with them I now no longer even really desire to have a girl. At all. Seriously. Not that there's anything wrong with having girls, don't get me wrong. But I LOVE having boys and have embraced that which God has given me, completely. As far as my marriage goes, I couldn't have even dreamed it could be what it is. Not that it's perfect and not that there haven't been times of difficulty, but I know there is nothing in this life I'd want to go through without Cisco. Not even a day of it. He brings so much laughter and joy to my life and makes me feel a love and security in our relationship that I never knew was possible. All I have to say is "Thank you Lord". For not giving me what was "my own" way and what I thought I wanted. Because it's so true that Your ways are so much higher than ours. And it's SO much better!
I'm just at a place right now that I want to be thankful. I want to embrace this life the Lord has blessed me with, to it's fullest. To not take that which I've been given for granted. Not the family I've been given or the friends, for granted. Even those who are difficult to love sometimes. Because I know they've been put in my life, by God, for a reason. I'm writing this because I want to look back and read this. It's more for me than anyone else! But it's the truth. I didn't intend to write all this when I came to update my blog but this is what came out. So I hope whoever reads this, if anyone reads this, can simply enjoy what is going on in my head at this moment. :) I'm just a happy girl. Pictures to come...

Elias is here!

Ok, I know this is a little belated, the boy's almost a week old already, but hey...I am the mother of 3 boys now! Time on the computer is very limited! Cisco took Josiah and Daniel to the library, Elias is sleeping for the moment and so I figured I should update my blog now or it may not happen until his first birthday. :) Ahhh, life....
So, for those of you who care to know the whole gory details of the birth, here you go...
We got to the hospital at 8am (Tuesday, June 2nd) and after being stabbed repeatedly with IV needles (it only took 4 different tries, with 3 different nurses!!!) I was hooked up to pitocin by 10am. Cisco and I were laughing later because both of us seriously almost passed out when they were trying to find a vein. I can get through birthing a nearly 9lb. baby with no epidural and he can watch it no problem, but when it comes to needles neither one of us can handle it!
Anway, fun start to the day! The contractions didn't really start getting painful until 2pm and I got a shot of Nubane (a wonderful drug they put in your IV that makes you feel nice and warm and fuzzy and takes the edge off your pain. And puts you to sleep.) around 3. I fell asleep of course, and at one point I apparently sat up out of a sound sleep, looked at Cisco and asked, "So what do you want to do after this?" Then I laid back down and went back to sleep. He got a good kick outta that one. So, I woke up around 4:30 as the contractions were getting really painful and about 2 minutes apart at that point. My water still hadn't broken and at 5 I asked the nurse if they could break it. A doctor from my medical group was there delivering another baby and she said as soon as he finished she'd ask him to come check me and break my water. He walked in at around 5:20 ish, by which time I was losing my mind, and broke my water. I was dilated to like 9 and a half centimeters, but the second they broke my water I shot to a 10. He went to go call the office to tell them he wasn't coming back and the nurse asked him if I could start pushing with the next contraction. He gave the ok, so I started pushing and he immediately crowned. The nurse ran back out the door and yelled for the doctor to get in there cause I was going to deliver and 2 more pushes and his head was out. One more push and he was completely out, a grand total of 4 pushes!! Woo hoo!
So there's the story. As for little Elias, he stole all our hearts the moment we saw his chubby, 8lb. 14 oz., 20 in. body. At first we thought he looked exactly like Daniel, but now we're seeing a lot of similarity between him and Josiah too. He has an extremely sweet disposition, really only cries when he's hungry and is very content and mellow. At this point anyway! :) Josiah is so sweet with him, loves to kiss his head and very helpful. When we first brought him home, he was crying at one point and Josiah asked, "Should I get him one of my toys? I'll bet he'd like my toys." It was so cute! And the other morning he told me, "Mom, I just love the little guy". Daniel doesn't get it quite as much, but is very sweet with him too. He mostly just keeps his distance from him, but when he's in his seat, Daniel will nonchalantly sneak over and talk to him.
So, that's about it! Settling into life with 3 kids and looking forward to all the fun times ahead. Oh, and the arrhythmia is definitely gone, so praise the Lord!

39 Weeks

I just had my doctor's appointment and I'm now dilated to a 3 (YES!) and went from being 15% effaced last week, to 70% this week. So YAY! things are moving along!! :D I was so happy when the doctor told me that. He also dropped (I'm pretty positive on Tuesday), so praying hard that he'll be here soon...maybe this weekend!!
Cisco's parents arrive today as well, so that's one less thing to worry about and one more thing in order. :) Cisco was able to get off his boot this week as well, and he's back to wearing normal shoes and no crutches. His ankle gets a little swollen if he's on it a lot, but other than that it seems to be healing very well. They told him to just take it slow and work back up to doing what he normally does. The boys are getting very anxious for the baby to be here, asking every day if he's coming "tomorrow". When we say "maybe, we don't know", then they're like, "Is he coming the next day then?" They just don't get how we don't know what day he'll be here! :) So, that's about it and we just continue to wait...............

38 Weeks

So my doctor checked me at today's appointment and I'm dilated 2 centimeters and hardly effaced. Waaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!! I've been hoping a little too much that I'll deliver early this time, only now I'm trying to face the fact that I may not. :( The baby was really high as well, so she couldn't tell how big he is. But I'm thinkin this could be a good thing and maybe he's not as huge as we thought. Because I haven't been measuring as big lately and she thought it was due to him moving down. But if he hasn't moved down very far then maybe he's not as big as I feared. Right? I still think he'll be over 8 lb.'s, but maybe not the 10 I've been terrified of. I haven't gained any weight the last few weeks either, so maybe, just maybe he's not a moose! :)
Right now I'm just trying to trust that the Lord has a perfect timing for him to come. I've really been wanting to go a little early and not be late again, it's so hard to move and do anything!! But, at the same time, Cisco's assistant is moving to Seattle tomorrow which leaves him with no paid help for the last week of school and the Pastor's Conference. His parents come May 21st and will be here until June 6th, so just as long as he's born before June, I'm thinking that's all I care about! My doctor leaves this week for vacation as well, so I'll be seeing different doctors for the remainder of my appointments. I haven't seen any of them yet, and I'm praying they don't make me wait for weeks to have this baby. A couple days late I think I can handle, but weeks?! I'll cry. I would love for his parents to be able to spend some time with him before they have to leave. And I will really need the help! So please....PRAY! For me to be patient and trust the Lord, and that he'll be born in a somewhat convenient time...does that happen? :)

I'm so excited!!

I tested negative for the GBS (Group B Strep) test!!! Now, I know this may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but it's huge to me, considering it felt like fire running through my veins every time they would hook up the antibiotics. I seriously hated it more than the labor itself. So, I'm hoping this means a different labor experience (as in, maybe he won't be late?) this time! :) One can wish...
Other than that, I'm still measuring "big" and nothing new to report! Cisco and I were looking at my belly the other night and noticing how enormous it is. It's seriously HUGE. And it's ALL baby. There's no way this kid is gonna be under 8 pounds, for sure! I can feel almost every part of him through my belly and I never could do that with the others. It's pretty crazy. And just a little scary...

Almost 36 weeks...and counting!

Not too much to report, I had an appointment yesterday and I'm not measuring "as big as I was". I'm still measuring a little bit big but the doctor said it's really not that accurate. She doesn't seem too worried or concerned about it...which I guess makes me feel a little bit better, but then again, she's not going to be the one birthing him! At this point the anticipation is killing me, I just want to get this over with and hold him already. Ugh. It's gonna be a looong 4 weeks. Please don't go overdue!!! The boys are getting really anxious for him to be here as well, it's so sweet. They ask me EVERY day if the baby's coming today. And Daniel refers to him as "HIS baby". We'll see how long that lasts once he gets here! :) So....we wait.

Elias in 3D

We had our 3D ultrasound tonight, it was amazing! We got over 100 pictures of the little (chunky) guy and I wish I could put them all on here. But I picked out some of the clearest and best ones, so hopefully that'll suffice for now! :) It was really awesome to see him so clearly. I thought he looked a lot like Daniel, but we're gonna pull out some baby pics tonight of the boys and really see if there's some resemblances. The boys are getting anxious to see him in "real life" (as Josiah puts it) and ask me pretty much every day now if we can go to the doctor and get him out of my tummy. Don't I wish...it's really getting hard to move these days! I'm noticing more discomfort every passing day.
Oh, unfortunately they couldn't tell me how big he is. Apparently they can't do that unless they have a diagnostic order from the doctor. So, we'll just have to wait and see!

Monster Baby

I had a doctor's appointment today and I'm measuring 34 weeks!!! Seeing that I'm currently 31 weeks and 4 days, that only puts me 2 1/2 weeks ahead of schedule. Yikes! Hopefully this means I won't be going over my due date this time and maybe he'll come a little early (fingers crossed!)! Also, I'm a little afraid of birthing a 10 lb. baby, so I'm praying they won't let me go too long if he's getting huge.
As for his heartbeat, it has sounded fine the past two doctor appointments, YAY!! My doctor said that it's either resolved itelf or the arrhythmia is really sporadic. Either way, they'll be able to tell when I'm in labor, so we're assuming he doesn't have one until we hear otherwise. Other than that, he's moving fine, not super active, but he does let me know he's there! I've been having contractions pretty much every night for the last week and a half as well. Nothing too bad, but sometimes I'll get a good one here and there! Never really had that with the last two, but then again, this pregnancy has been really different all around!

Silly boys

Ok, so the other day Daniel was going to the bathroom and I went to go check on him...this is what I found. That would be a Time magazine he's reading...favorite bathroom reading material of his dad's!! Pretty funny! Josiah got a good kick out of it too and decided he needed to have a picture taken with him reading one. :)

Daniel's new thing is that he thinks if he looks in my belly button he'll be able to see the baby! A couple days ago he started doing this, lifting my shirt and looking very intently into my belly button. He'll stare for a couple seconds, but the hilarious part is that he's kind of creeped out by it. It's like he can't help looking, but he'd seriously freak out if he saw anything!! We asked Josiah how the baby got in my belly and he very confidently said, "Because you prayed for one!" I thought that was so sweet. He came up with that completely on his own. :)

The belly

Ok, so I finally got Cisco to take a picture of the growing stomach. This was taken today, at 30 weeks. Only 10 weeks to go!!! If the little guy decides to come out in a timely manner, that is....

And the verdict is...

We just got back from our appointment and there is NO arryhthmia!! The doctor said that he "couldn't be more reassured" by what he saw and that there is less than 1% chance of something being wrong, according to what the ultrasound shows. I asked what happens if Dr. Lebo hears it again, and he said they're happy to see me as many times as she wants to send me down, but there is absolutely nothing to worry about. I'll take his word for it.
So, very very happy to have a final answer and know that everything's ok. As far as little Elias's lack of movement goes, turns out he's not so little!! Yes, he's a chubby dude. He currently weighs 2lb. 14 oz. He's about 10 oz. over the "norm", so a little ahead of the game. I'm hoping this means he'll break the family tradition of being (way) overdue and actually come out near his due date! :) And hopefully he won't be too huge...
So glad to see he's healthy and happy in there and thank you Lord for easing our worries! And thanks again to all of you for your prayers!

Keepin us on our toes

Today we had a bit of a scare. Elias decided to barely move for the last two days, which ended up with us in the hospital this afternoon. I noticed last night when I got into bed that he wasn't doing his usual practice of martial arts. (I had a busy day yesterday, but when I thought about it I realized that I hadn't felt him move really at all that day.) I told Cisco but we both decided we'd see what happened through the night and the next morning. Well, I didn't sleep hardly at all, waiting for this guy to move, which he finally did somewhere around 4 in the morning. However, his movements were very faint, not the usual swift quicks he's become so good at delivering.
All morning I waited and tried different things, waiting for movement. But again, very few and very faint movements, if anything. Around 2:00 I called my OB who told me to lay on my left side for an hour after having something to eat and drinking some cold juice. I was to count the number of movements in an hour and if it was under 6 to call her back. So I did just that, and after an hour he'd moved about a total of 3 times, with only 1 of those times being really noticeable. Now, usually this kid goes nuts when I drink anything cold and he ALWAYS does when I eat. So I was pretty concerned at this point. Plus, this whole arrhythmia thing has me a little more on edge nowadays, I think more because I have no idea what's going on...he has it, he doesn't, then he has it again....WHAT?!?
So, called the doctor, who then sent us to the hospital to be monitored. Well, wouldn't you know it, the SECOND (and I mean the very second) the nurse put the monitor on my stomach Elias starts kicking like CRAZY! I felt so stupid and the nurse just started laughing. My stomach was jumping all over the place and she just looks over and says, "Please tell me you feel that". Ummm, yes, I did.
We were there for about 45 minutes, all the while my little stinker was gettin out all the wiggles he'd been holding in for the past couple days! :) He hasn't stopped moving pretty much the rest of this evening, putting his mom's mind at ease.
Glad to be home, glad to still be pregnant, and glad that everything is ok! Our appointment with the perintologist changed to Wednesday afternoon, so now we're just waiting till then to (hopefully) find out more about the arrhythmia or whatever is going on. Thank you all for your prayers, we love you all!

Argh...

So I had my regular doctor appointment today and we were discussing what happened at the peri a couple weeks back. Just as she was getting the dopplar to listen to the heartbeat, she paused and said, "It's been known to happen that they won't hear it during the echocardiogram, but then they'll come back to my office and I'll hear it again." Sure enough, the second she found the heartbeat it skipped. And kept skipping.
I have my appointment with the peri in San Diego on March 3rd, which is next week, so that's good. I have to tell them that we heard it again and luckily Cisco was there this time to hear it too. I'm going to start making a list of questions for the peri, as last time I was so dazed I couldn't think of anything to ask. But since it looks like it hasn't gone away I want to know what exactly we're looking at.
Dr. Lebo (my OB) said that it's not a problem right now and that he's fine as long as he's in the womb. I guess the problem will be when I have him and he starts breathing on his own and his circulation switches over. Hence the need to give birth where they have a NICU, as he'd have to be in an incubator for a bit. So...we'll see. Hopefully we'll know more next week and little Elias will be more willing to turn around for the camera. :) And hopefully we won't have to keep going back and forth from "he has it, he doesn't have it..."
If anyone has any suggestions for what questions would be good to ask the peri, please, suggest away!! This definitely isn't one of my strong points...

Sick kids

We've had a week of sick kids and high fevers. I think I get spoiled with having really healthy kids cause it feels like ages since we've gone through more than a day or two of sickness. Josiah's doctor was even shocked when we went in cause it's been exactly a year since we've had to take him there! Yes! He ended up having pneumonia (poor guy) and the next day Daniel came down with what we thought was the same thing. However, his has just been a pretty high fever and absolutely no other symptoms (weird). While it's been nice to have a couple of much calmer boys around here, I'm getting some serious cabin fever! Not to mention the emotions...those definitely won't be missed! :)

Good news!

We had our doctor appointment today, and praise the Lord everything looked fine! The heartbeat sounded good and from what they could tell, the structure looked great too. I say "from what they could tell" because the little stinker was facing my back and would NOT turn around for anything! She had me on the table for over an hour and he never did turn fully around. :o) Sooo, we go back in a month just to make sure and hopefully he'll be a little more cooperative this time. His heartbeat sounded great though, definitely a big difference from my last appointment. I asked the doctor about that and he said that when the heart is growing and developing a lot of times it will contract and can come out sounding like an arrhythmia if you happen to be listening to it at that moment. So it may just be that we so happened to be listening at one of those moments. While I'm reassured little Elias is fine, I'm glad we have one more appointment just to be sure! Plus, it's just so great to see him in the ultrasound!
I'll have to find a way to scan photos on here, she got a great profile shot of him today. At one point he turned his face fully to the screen and when the technician commented on it, his arm shot in front of his face so we couldn't see him anymore. Apparently, he's a shy one! We also got to see his mouth opening and closing, it was seriously amazing. One more thing, while I've been wondering for the past few weeks at why I don't feel him move that much, now I know for sure. He's a mellow one! This guy is seriously chill...

Birthday Party!

So, a week later I finally am putting up pictures and videos from the boys' birthday party (sorry for the delay!). We had a blast but now I know why I don't do this EVERY year! Whew! I was exhausted the second it was over. Of course, being preggo could have something to do with that... It was worth it all though, the boys really enjoyed it. So here's Daniel getting all Peter Pan'd up, their super cute cake (courtesy of Albertson's), the boys friend Noah, and the boys' blowing their candles out.

Appointment in San Diego

The peri's office called today (thank God!) and I have an appointment for Feb. 2 to get a fetal EKG. I guess the earliest they can do one is 23 weeks or they would have gotten me in this week. We're doing somewhat good on the "not worrying" part, although I'm sure it could be better. Actually, I was doing ok until the doctor office called and the nurse on the phone was SO nice, that it unnerved me. I'm sure it has nothing to do with anything, she could just be an extremely nice person! Right? And then when the peri's office called the nurse there proceeded to read the fax from my doctor OUT LOUD. When you hear the words "Urgent" and "please get her in as quickly as possible" it does a few things in your mind. So I just keep telling myself that maybe the office has a tendency to lag on making appointments? Ugh. This is definitely torture.
On the other hand, the Lord has been very sweet and keeps giving me just about every verse in the Bible about not worrying and trusting Him. I know no matter what happens it'll be ok. He's walked this road before me.

We decided on a name!!

Oh yes, I forgot to menton this important bit of information! The baby's name will be Elias Alexander. :) Cisco's been stuck on Elias for the last two pregnancies, so I finally gave in. I know.
I'm so nice. Just kidding. Actually, it's rather grown on me and now I pretty much love it.

Doctor Appt. 1/22

So I had another appointment today, just a routine check-up, and the doctor heard an arrhythmia in the baby's heartbeat. She's referring me to a perintologist (high-risk doctor) and they will do another ultrasound on the heart and check it out a little further to see if it's something of concern. I guess arrhthmia's are fairly common and most of them work themselves out before birth. So for now we're just waiting for the peri to call us and give us an appointment. After having two pregnancies where virtually NOTHING happened, I'll admit I'm a little nervous. I could even hear it on the dopplar, it was pretty noticeable that it wasn't a regular heartbeat. Anyway, please pray. Chances are it's nothing, but it's a little concerning nonetheless.