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!