Friends that celebrated the day with us - Gurney, Miriam, and Mary

Well, that is better than where he said we lived a few weeks ago. I was talking about Tennessee and Jaron asked what Tennessee was. I said, "Tennessee is where we live." Jaron laughed and said, "No mommy, we don't live in Tennessee. We live in Target!" Uh...is that his subtle way of telling me we shop too much? :)

Jaron is now 3 1/2 years old. He left the baby phase and has turned into a little boy, without me even realizing it. He has become more friendly and seems to be a lot more comfortable in different situations. He loves to "read", memorizing almost every library book that we check out each month. He loves numbers and counting, which really took off when we did an advent calendar in December. He can now count to 100, which he basically taught himself to do. He has an amazing memory, which I think he got from his dad, and can recite The Lord's Prayer, Psalm 23, and the beginning of Luke 2. He and Elias are best buds right now and have fun reading together, playing with their train set, wrestling, and singing, singing, singing! They also seem to enjoy fighting, seeing that they do it so often!

Elias is my little feisty boy. He will be 21 months next week, but he seems to have already entered into the terrible twos! My mom said that the terrible twos are more like the terrible pre-twos, and always started with her kids around 18 months. So I guess Elias is right on track then! When he throws a fit there is nothing you can do to console him. He becomes totally irrational and cries so hard that he starts shaking and can hardly catch his breath. When he does this, all I can do is hold him and let him get it out of his system. But when he is done he turns immediately back into his sweet, fun self. He makes us smile all the time does and says the cutest things. He can talk up a storm too! And like Jaron, he loves to look at books and tries to quote them along with Jaron. He can count to 10 and recognizes numbers, even though he doesn't know which number he is looking at. And he loves to snack!

Jonah will be 3 months old next week. He is such a sweet baby. He still sleeps a lot during the day and has proven to be my best sleeper so far. He will wake up only once or twice a night to nurse and then will go right back to sleep. He is great at sleeping in his own bed and does well at settling back to sleep if something stirs him awake. One of his favorite things to do is to get his diaper changed. Sometimes if he is crying, Ben will lay him down and change his diaper, or even act like he is changing his diaper, just to make him happy! He smiles a lot and I love to hear him laugh, which we can make him do by tickling him or talking in funny voices to him. He is also our biggest boy yet, weighing in at 20lbs. 12 oz. 2 weeks ago!

So now you are all caught up with my little boys. Hopefully future posts won't be as long.

He is fitting into the family just fine and his brothers have gotten used to having him around. Elias struggled a little when he was first born, in that he was more whinny. But he has gotten better. And who knows if that was just an age thing or if it had to do with having a new baby brother. But he is very sweet with Jonah and loves to give him kisses and touch (more like poke) and name the different parts of his face. Jaron has been my big helper and has really grown into his role as big brother (even though he is always following Elias around and copying him, instead of it being the other way around!). And mom and dad are doing well too and have adjusted to our growing family. I love having 3 boys and hope that they are good friends throughout their lives. I am starting to get out more and actually went to a store with the boys all by myself yesterday, which I am quite proud of! Jonah sleeps really well in his carseat so he is usually not much of a problem when we go out. He is really easy going too which helps. So we are slowly getting the hang of it all, through God's help!

I couldn't help posting this picture - it makes me laugh!

It has taken me a while to finally sit down and write about my youngest son, Jonah. I feel bad about not updating my faithful readers sooner about the birth and first days of Jonah, but honestly, I AIN'T GOT THAT KINDA TIME! Well, actually, I have had the free time, but I haven't had the free HANDS! So while Jonah is napping in his carseat, I am going to try to quickly fill you in on the birth of baby Jonah. But you will have to wait another 4 weeks to read about how life has actually been since Jonah joined the family!

It was a strange labor experience for me. I began having contractions at around 10pm on Dec. 4th. They were not strong or consistent, so I went to bed not sure if I was really in labor or not. I woke up around 1:30pm with contractions that were closer together, so I got out of bed and went upstairs so that I could move around and try to relax some. The contractions were still not very strong, but they were about 3-6 minutes apart. So after an hour I called my midwife and she told me that I should probably head to the hospital. The only reason I called her was because I needed to get 2 doses of penicillin before I delivered the baby because I had tested positive for Group B Strep. But I was not feeling like the baby was coming anytime soon. Even though the contractions were close together, they were not intense at all and I just didn't have the "feeling" of being close to delivering my baby. But I called my sister and sister-in-law to come on over to watch the boys, and got ready to leave.

My contractions at this point were still not too bad and I was able to walk reasonably well into the hospital and to my room. When the nurse checked me to see how far along I was, she said that I was about 6 cm dilated. At around 3:30pm, my midwife got to the hospital and checked me and said that I was 9cm! This was quite a surprise to me because I did not feel like I was in Transition at all. My contractions were still bearable, and were very inconsistent. I would have a contraction a few minutes apart and then I wouldn't have another one for 20 minutes! It was very strange. And because I would have such long and frequent breaks in between contractions, I was able to talk and laugh and even at one point I fell asleep! So this continued for 4 hours! Four hours of`1 thinking that at any point I would get the urge to push and my baby would make his grand appearance.

Finally, at around 7:00am or so, my contractions became more intense and I could sense that it wouldn't be long. My mom, who was falling asleep in a chair, got up and said she was going to go find some coffee, thinking that we still had a long stretch ahead. But I told her not to go anywhere or she would miss her grandchild being born. So she sat back down and a couple of contractions later I was starting to push. After pushing through maybe 3 contractions, Jonah Kondwani was born! And what a relief it was to finally have it over with! There is probably no greater sense of relief and peace than there is right after giving birth to a baby.

I was not surprised that he was a boy - that is what I thought I was having. I'm not disappointed either, cuz I love my little boys and have always seen myself more as a boy mom. In terms of his name, we came up with Jonah 2 days before he was born and Kondwani is from Malawi and means "joy or happiness". All of our boys have names that have meanings that have to do with joy, so we were limited in name choices in order to meet that criteria.
By the way, God answered our prayers concerning the boys. They did great while I was in the hospital and Elias was fine being away from mom and dad. Thanks for your help, Aunt Jasiri and Aunt Katie! And thank you all for your prayers and encouragement.

Family and friends meet Jonah

Jonah at 3 weeks

The Brothers

Mother and son are doing well and will be home in a couple of days. We're all very tired, but very happy that Jonah has finally been born.

I'll post more, and better, pictures later, but here's one to give you an idea what he looks like.

I wouldn't necessarily say that I am ready for the baby to come, but I am definitely ready to not be pregnant anymore. Ready to stop having to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. Ready to not have constant pressure in my pelvis. Ready to be able to tie my own shoes again. Ready to wear clothes that are actually big enough to cover my entire belly. Ready to be able to pick up my kids without pain and have somewhere to actually hold them. And of course I am ready to meet my new little child and see how he/she will add to our family.

Please pray for a safe delivery for baby #3 and that it is a satisfying birth experience for me. And pray for the boys that they will adjust well to another sibling and that they will be happy while their parents are away at the hospital. Elias has been very clingy recently, as if he senses that a new baby is coming soon, so I have no idea how he will be being left without us for so long. So I am just praying that God would give him all that he needs to be content while we are away.

We are still undecided on a boys name so if anyone has any suggestions, we are open to anything!

No baby yet, but we do have a new car. Yeah! This was one of the things hanging over our heads that needed to be done before baby #3 arrives on the scene. We only had one car before and it could not fit 3 carseats in it, so basically we were going to be stuck at home until we got a van. But we got one. So now we will be able to leave the house as a family! It is exciting to have a van that we can actually fit things in with ease (like a double stroller), and we also have room for other people to ride with us! Wow! We basically cleared out our savings to buy the car, but at least we didn't have to go into debt to get it. It has a lot of miles on it, but if it will give us 5 good years, then we will be happy.

So now the next big thing will be finding a name for this poor little baby! We have girl names, since we haven't had to use one yet, but I am at a complete blank for boy names. Anyone have any good names? Seriously, I am up for suggestions!

In pregnancy news, I am feeling very pregnant now and ready to have my "old body" back - not that I get my old body back when the baby comes out, but at least I will be a lot closer! I am feeling achy all the time, am walking a lot slower, and seem to be having a lot of braxton hicks. I have 4 more weeks to go, but my prediction is that the baby will come early - don't know why I say that, it's just a feeling. So hopefully we will be ready!

In Jaron and Elias news, we are finally going to try to transition Elias into Jaron's room this week. I guess this would be a good time to mention that we did not sell our house. We took it off the market a few weeks ago because it was getting too close to my due date. So we will try again in the Spring to sell it. In the meantime, we are having to make do with the house we are in. So Elias will move into Jaron's crib and Jaron will sleep on the floor on a crib mattress. Since we don't have room in there for another bed, we will just put the mattress down in the middle of the floor at night and then store it away during the day. So pray that it all goes well. I'm a little anxious about it all, but hopefully they will make good roommates.

Back at home, Elias and I were able to spend some quality time together. It was interesting to see how easy it was to take care of him without his brother around. Even though Elias loves Jaron, I think that he enjoyed being able to play with toys the way he wanted to without being told he was doing it wrong, and being able to sit and read books with me and turn the pages without being yelled at for turning them before I had finished reading the page! So I think that Elias may begin to look forward to preschool days just as much as Jaron!

Jaron just had his 3rd birthday on the 9th. Happy belated birthday Jaron! He is at a fun age right now and is definitely my little helper. Of course, he has no idea how MUCH of my little helper he is going to HAVE to be in a few months from now! He is really into trains right now and so we had a Thomas the Train birthday party for him with family and his 2-day-short-of-being-life-long-friend Caleb and his family. It was a lot of people, but Jaron handled it all pretty well.

Elias is growing bigger by the day. He turned 1 back in June and we had a big birthday party for him with friends and family. It was special to see how many people already care so much for our little guy.

Sometimes he seems so grown up. He is quite the walker now and is saying a few words - truck, dog, please, more, shoe, ball, bye, dada, and mom. He is obsessed with trucks and sounds so cute when he uses his deep voice to say "truck" whenever he sees one. He and Jaron get along pretty well and found more and more things to do together. Jaron is not always patient with him though, when he doesn't play they way that Jaron thinks a game should be played. But for the most part, they enjoy being with one another.

And last, but not least, there is our yet to be named child growing bigger (and making ME bigger) each day. He/she (once again we are not finding out the sex) has not given me much trouble, which I am very thankful for. Our baby is getting more active, but still not as active as I remember Elias being. It will be interesting to see how our family dynamics change once he/she arrives in November. Here are some pictures taken last week at my 24 week appointment.

Today is Elias' 1st birthday. Man, I can't believe that he is a year old already! Elias has added so much to our little family and I don't know what we would do without him. He is such a joy to have in our lives and I know that Jaron has really enjoyed having a little brother (even if Elias tackles him and knocks down his blocks and pulls his hair). Elias is so different than Jaron and it is so fun to see different parts of our personalities come out in Elias that we don't see in Jaron. I don't know how people choose to have only one kid because they miss out so much in what another of their kids would be like. We love Elias so much and his smile and upbeat personality make life more exciting. Have a wonderful birthday our "little" boy and we pray that God has amazing and wonderful things planned for your life. We are so thankful for you!

Also, Happy Birthday to my sweet niece Hannah who shares a birthday with Elias.

When Elias was born last year we told her that Elias was her special birthday present. We love you Hannah!

The last time I posted I was asking for advice for a trip we were taking to CA. Well, the flight went well - thank you to all who gave advice. We gave Jaron Benedryl and I nursed Elias during take off and landing and they did great. Jaron enjoyed watching DVDs on his dad's laptop while I tried to keep Elias occupied with toys on my lap. While we were in CA, the boys and I got sick so I was terrified of the flight back. But we had a red eye and they fell asleep immediately and didn't wake up until we had reached ATL! This was especially amazing because we found out after taking the boys to the doctor that they both had ear infections. The doctor said that they should have been absolutely miserable on the plane. Man, God is good!

In February, we started working towards putting our house on the Market to sell. We realized that we needed a bigger house since Elias is still sleeping in our room because of lack of space anywhere else. We soon realized that this was a much bigger job than we had anticipated. The big unforeseen project that arose was the need to redo our siding. So with the help of family, we put up siding on our entire house! I mainly watched and fed everyone, playing more of the role of cheerleader! It was a job that seemed like it would never end.

But Ben put up the last piece of siding a few days ago and we can now say that it is done! So no, our house is still not on the Market yet, but we have set up an appointment with our realtor for next Friday. So we now have a week to do the finishing touches to our house and to get it CLEAN! It will be such a relief to have a For Sale sign on our lawn, but I know that even that is only the beginning of this whole moving process. We will see if we survive it!

So there is my life right now. The boys are getting bigger and are such a joy. They love playing together and no one can make Elias laugh like Jaron. It is fun to see them growing into friends. Hopefully their friendship will only get stronger. Elias turns 1 years old next week! Wow, time flies! He is not walking or talking yet, but we are working on it.

Now that I have broken blogging silence, maybe I will post more often! We'll see!