The Waiting Game...

Last Tuesday, I went to the doctor for my 37 week checkup. We found out that I was 3 cm dilated and 50% effaced. I was very surprised to hear that and started eating spicy food, pineapple, walking, etc. I had a few contractions after the appointment but nothing long enough or consistent enough to send me in.

Then the ER visit happened Thursday night so I wasn't focused on trying to get Parker to come. Then by Friday afternoon, Luke had developed a pretty bad cough. We thought it was just allergies at first because of the congestion, runny nose and sneezing. As the coughing got worse we called the on-call doctor and he called in a steroid for what possibly could be croup. If getting stitches wasn't scary enough for this pregnant mommy, the helplessness of not being able to take my baby's cough away was! Poor Luke had a rough weekend (along with Mommy and Daddy)!

Jonathan and I slept in Luke's room so when he woke up coughing in a panic, we would be right there. He stopped having the bad coughing attacks Sunday night but is still coughing a little from the congestion this morning.

When it looked like Luke was turning the corner yesterday, I began walking like crazy and bouncing on my pilates ball. So much so that I strained my round ligament muscle....darn it! That was not pleasant. I have given up on bringing Parker here with the old wives tales. I go back to the doctor tomorrow afternoon to see if I've progressed anymore.

I'm a little anxious about when Parker will come because Luke's birthday party is in 5 days!! I really don't want to be in the hospital for Luke's party or his birthday on Sunday. I can say that I know it's all going to work out and be fine, but it's hard for me to really believe it! :) Stay tuned for the update!

Our first trip to the ER

Warning: Pictures show blood! Bekah this is for you! :)

Last night Luke was running around and tripped and hit the corner of our bookshelf. He sliced right above his right eye. We got out the ice and tried to stop the bleeding. After a while it kept swelling and opening up more and more. I texted our pediatrician friend a picture to ask if he needed stitches. He decided to come over and get a better look at it. When he got there and looked at it he decided it would be better to put in a few stitches to close it up. Luke did great while Justin looked at him! What a blessing to have a great friend like that! Here's the before shot:

Once we got into the room, Luke had to put on a gown. I thought that might be a possible meltdown since he had to take off his pjs but we called it his "special shirt" and he instantly fell in love with it! :)

Then we had the special stickers on his belly (heart monitor) and special sticker with the light on his thumb (pulse maybe?). He did GREAT!!! Until it was time for the anesthesia shot... He cried like any kid would getting a shot that big and said, "Hold you Mommy!!!!" It was horrible since I couldn't pick him up with all the wires on him!

After a few minutes he was out and Justin started putting in the 2 stitches. Jonathan watched... I knew better! :) It went really smoothly and Luke was probably only out for about 45 minutes.

Right about the time Luke was coming to I started to get really light headed. I tried to tell Jonathan but couldn't get the words out. I ended up blacking out and the nurse gave me some oxygen. Poor Jonathan was trying to keep my head from falling over and make sure Luke knew we were there as he was waking up. We were again grateful Justin was there to be another familiar face for Luke. I was fine after a few minutes and think it was just the adrenaline wearing off.

He wanted to go see Dr. Justin:

Luke was pretty entertaining in his grogginess! And did great handling the coming out of the medicine. We were home by 11 and put him to bed. We checked on him a few more times before we went to bed and he was doing fine.

He woke up this morning being his normal self which was such a relief! This is what it looked like this morning.

We were so thankful that he hit where he did and not on his eye. He just might have a black eye just in time for his birthday party! :)

New Adventure!

I have recently embarked on a new adventure... opening a small business! It absolutely terrifies me and definitely pushes me out of my comfort zone. Not to mention I'm about to have a baby!

I'd love for you to check out my stuff!

http://mitchellmade.blogspot.com/

And if you're on Facebook look up Mitchell Made Creations and "like" my page!

Finishing up some projects

There have been a few things that have been on my "To Do" list before Parker's arrival.

- We've moved Luke into his big boy bed and redecorated his room

- We've set up Parker's nursery and washed his clothes

- I've made signs for both the boys rooms

- I put all of our home videos from 2010 onto DVDs to make room for videos of Parker

Today I finished the boys brother shirts. I saw some shirts on etsy that I loved but I just can't spend $20 per shirt right now (we're about to have 2 in diapers!!).

I followed a tutorial on appliqueing from Life Frosting blog. I found a package of 5" x 5" fabric squares at Hobby Lobby for $3. I picked 3 of the least girly ones. :) I got Luke's shirt from Hobby Lobby for $3 and already had the white onesie for Parker. I bought half a yard of Wonder Under for $1 (that stuff is amazing!!). I figured out what size and font I wanted the letters to be and cut them out on my cricut. Then I traced the letters on the back of the fabric. It turned out being easier to hand stitch the letters on the shirts for a little extra security than to sew them on.

Surprising, it didn't take long to finish at all! And I only ended up spending $7 on both shirts! That makes this Mommy very happy. :) Here's the finished products:

Some of the other projects that I have left to do are:

- finishing up stuff for Luke's birthday party

- making candy bar wrappers that say "It's a boy!" to take to the hospital

- taking down my craft table/station in my bedroom (tear) to make room for the bassinet

- and if there's time, I'd like to make a few more meals to put in the freezer for after Parker

It's about to get crazy for the Mitchells!!!

Boys Rooms

One of the big things that had to happen before Parker arrived was moving Luke to a big boy bed so Parker could have the crib. We talked up Luke's big boy bed a lot and he has done great! There's only been one time that Luke got out of bed a few times, but other than that he loves to climb up and snuggle under the covers!

I came across Psalm 127:3 a few months ago and wanted to make signs for each room.

"Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children are a reward from Him."

I had quite a few hiccups with these signs (as many of my projects have)!

I started with Parker's.

I spray painted it blue then got out my stencils to paint on the letters. The paint kept bleeding outside the stencil and it frustrated me to no end. So I traced all the letters from the stencils and then hand painted all of them. That required a few coats and then I painted Modge Podge over it as a sealant.

Then I moved on to Luke's sign.

I spray painted it orange and decided, after how Parker's sign went, I would cut out the letters with my cricut and Modge Podge them on. However, after I cut out all of my letters, taped them on and started to paint on the Modge Podge, the letters started to bubble beyond repair. UGH! This just happened to be the night that my Mom and sister surprised me by coming to Abilene to help out with all of my projects!!! Just in the nick of time! We scraped off the letters that had bubbled, lightly sanded the rough areas and re-spray painted it for a fresh start. I then got smart and got vinyl for my cricut to cut the letters out. That way we could just stick the letters right on!

Mom attached the hooks and wire to both signs and hung them both for me. We were so productive!

I bought new shelves for Luke's room that could handle more weight and painted them lime green to match his big boy bedding.

I will eventually take down his baby pictures and put up vintage, wooden cars and trucks that are primary colors. I found some at Pottery Barn Kids that I loved but they're not available anymore. Not that I could justify spending $25 on each car.

I'm keeping my eyes open for a cheaper version or something I can paint that would resemble the originals.

Parker's shelves are the ones I used for Luke's room, I just spray painted them to match his sign. Another project for Parker's room was his name. I ran across the idea to cover the letters with yarn on this blog.

I love how Parker's turned out but it was soooo much work!

So that's pretty much the boys rooms make overs. I feel so much better having Luke's room pulled together and the nursery ready for Parker's arrival! I also managed to recycle the sign I made for Luke's 1st birthday into a door sign for when Parker gets here!

Before:

After:

2010 Mitchell Family Recap

Last year was by far our craziest, busiest and exciting year yet!

My baby boy turned one in February and I got to plan my first real party. Jonathan continued to work diligently on his dissertation and his papers for publishing.

In March, we continued the job search and were feeling a little discouraged. Jonathan committed to teaching summer classes at Richland Community College. And we welcomed a new nephew.

April was crazy! Jonathan defended his dissertation and prepared for graduation in May. We celebrated Luke's second Easter with family. And Jonathan signed a contract with Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. We also signed a contract on a new house!

Jonathan graduated with his Doctorate in Applied Mathematics from Southern Methodist University in May. We celebrated with friends and family over lunch.

In June, we started preparing for our move to Abilene. We also found out that our family of 3 would soon be a family of 4! We had to learn how to function with Jonathan working until 10 pm all week.

July, we started moving things to Abilene. We bought a new car and tried to spend as much time with friends and family in the Dallas area.

August was quite a hectic month as well. Jonathan wrapped up his summer courses the day before we moved. We moved to Abilene and Jonathan started teaching at HSU.

In September, we started to slow down a little bit! I found a OBGYN, Jonathan continued to love his job and Luke and I found a play group to play with. We finally felt settled in our new home and new town.

October, we had our Reveal Party to share with family and friends what sex baby #2 would be. We also enjoyed showing much of our family our new home. Luke also got to participate for the first time in trick or treating. I don't know that he was fond of giving away his candy. :)

We loved getting to see all of our family in November for Thanksgiving. It was such a huge year to look back on how much the Lord had blessed us.

In December, we did a lot of traveling for all of our Christmases and were all sick on top of that. Traveling is starting to prove to be more difficult for me. Luke moved to his big boy bed and we started getting ready for Parker's arrival.

Like I said, 2010 was quite a whirlwind for the Mitchell Mob. We learned about God's grace and provision through our trials. We learned to trust Him for direction and timing. And we were reminded of how blessed we are to have encouraging and supportive friends and family. We look forward to what's to come in 2011 starting with Parker Landon's arrival!

December

December seemed to be a rough month for us with traveling and sickness. But on the bright side, Jonathan finished his first semester at Hardin-Simmons University. I am tracking through the 3rd trimester and Luke continues to grow and learn everyday.

My parents came to visit us the second weekend in December and we got to show them our favorite park and the zoo. Luke loved having an audience besides Mommy and Daddy. :)

Showing Mams and Pops the flamingos and ducks at the zoo.

Dad trying to provoke the peacock that was loose.

Playing in the fort Mams and Pops built for Luke.

Then we left our house on Wednesday, December 15th to go to Carrollton and visit Jonathan's brother and wife. Part of Jonathan's Christmas present was going to a Dallas Mavericks game and we were glad Sam and Jenn got to go with us. It was Luke's first experience at a Mavs game and he absolutely loved it!

The next day I got sick and just laid on the couch all day. It didn't help that I started having Braxton Hicks contractions too! That scared Jonathan. :) I was sick for about 48 hours so it continued when we went to the Mitchells in Fort Worth for Mitchell Christmas weekend. Luke started running a fever Friday afternoon but didn't have any other symptoms.

Saturday we opened presents with the Mitchells and had our Christmas meal together.

Opening his stocking.

Luke LOVED his baseball "glub" and baseball.

Papa and Gramma got Luke his own bike!

By that night Luke started throwing up. That was the saddest experience I've ever had (I'm sure the pregnancy hormones didn't help)! That was the first time Luke's thrown up and he was so scared, poor baby. It took everything in me to not break down when he did!

Sunday morning Luke was still a little sick but was getting over it. We decided to stay at the Mitchells and not risk going to church. By Sunday night it was Jonathan's turn. He was still feeling yucky Monday morning which was when we were scheduled to go to Palestine for Taylor Christmas. He wasn't feeling 100% so he asked me to drive to Palestine. Jonathan rested the rest of the day and was feeling better by Tuesday.

We did Taylor Christmas Wednesday night with my immediate family. Luke got a lot of fun things!

Luke's own work bench! I think Daddy was just as excited as Luke :)

Luke got his first piggy bank from Dave Ramsey aka Mams and Pops

And he got his first real guitar from Granny.

We got out my Grampa's hunting hat and Jacob and Luke modeled it for us. :) So sad Luke never got to meet his great Grampa but Luke has definitely taken over as the "ham" in the family for him.

After we opened our presents, we headed to Beaumont for extended Taylor Christmas. It was a late night and rough on my dad who got our sickness next. :(

We opened presents the next morning with the family.

We have many goofy people in our family :)

We came back to Palestine Friday afternoon and celebrated my parent's 27th anniversary with just the 8 of us. That evening we went to the Christmas Eve service at my parent's church. I even got to sing a song with Bek during the service.

Saturday morning my parents and Bek went to deliver goodies to people working on Christmas day (firemen, police, hospital, etc) then came back to the house for breakfast with the Hinson crew. The rest of the day we got ready for Christmas lunch and had great quality time with the family.

Sunday morning I woke up and couldn't walk without a lot of assistance. Probably all the traveling. I sat with a heating pad on and off all day. And by Monday morning I was a little better as we headed back to Abilene. We were so happy to be back home!

We set up all of Luke's toys he got and took down Christmas decorations. I went to the doctor for my 33 week appointment and found out that my glucose test results were elevated so I had to take the 3 hour glucose test. AWFUL!!! But I did just find out that I passed so no gestational diabetes but I do have anemia. That explains why I'm always weak and light-headed! I'll start iron pills today.

December had it's ups and downs for us, but we had a great Christmas and great family time! Luke was so fun this year with presents and Christmas decorations. He would point out Christmas lights on houses when we would be out driving and loved having a Christmas tree in his room. When I would ask who's Christmas tree that was he would say, "Uke and Pahkers!" I hope he's that willing to share with Parker after he gets here! :)

We hope you and your family had a great holiday season!