Pregnant with Micah

It's been awhile since I've been on here...a long long while!  Time to catch up alittle bit!.... 
In April 2019 we found out we were having a baby!  After our miscarriage in October 2018, it took longer to get pregnant than I expected and was hoping.  I was seriously almost to the point of 'giving up' and thinking we would just be content with the three kids that we have - I probably would have given it maybe one more month of trying.  Luckily I wasn't faced with making that decision!  God answered our prayers one more time.  The due date is December 29th, 2019 (Same day as Ashley's birthday!)

The 1st trimester was pretty rough for me.  With any of my pregnancies, I never felt the best and this one was following right on track.  I never throw up but feel pretty nauseous.  The worst part for me though is how exhausted I always feel.  From morning to bedtime, I am so tired and need naps to get me through the day.  In May, to make the tired feeling even worse, we decided to sell our house and build a new construction house in New Germany.  So the end of April and beginning of May was consumed with getting the house cleaned, packed and staged to sell and get it on the market; along with the end of school year activities for the big kids.  The rest of that summer I was feeling better but still so busy with the moving process.

Facebook Announcement done in July.

The 2nd trimester was much better but the exhausted feeling was still there.  We moved at the end of August and then school started for Bennett and Ashley right after that.  So, needless to say, things didn't slow down at all.

20 Week Ultrasound

Dr. Ford on duty.  Jonah had been going to many appointments with me and one day he got the doctor kit out and knew exactly what to do to check on the baby.  He did this many times, along with 'taking my blood pressure' throughout the pregnancy.

The 3rd trimester started out good.  By the last month of pregnancy though, we had a few minor concerns and things to keep watch for.  #1 - my blood pressure was alittle elevated.  It was not too high that we needed to do anything immediate, but it was higher than my normal so my doctor was having me do weekly blood pressure and urine checks.  Luckily, it stayed in my new normal range and didn't climb any higher during those last weeks.  #2 - my weight.  I was not gaining any weight at all towards the end and my belly was measuring smaller.  This too, wasn't a huge concern but just something we were keeping watch of.  During the whole pregnancy, I only gained maybe 10 pounds - if that.  We figure I was on the run so much during the 1st and 2nd trimesters that I was burning more calories than I was putting on so even though the baby was gaining weight and growing, I was losing pounds.  I also had a hard time with heartburn again this pregnancy.  It wasn't as bad as it was when I was pregnant with Jonah, but still bad enough that I needed to watch what I'd eat or I'd feel miserable all night long.  Tums were my friend until the end.

37 Week Pregnant Belly

By the end of December, I was soooo ready to be done being pregnant.  With all the Christmas related things and business of December, I was tired, and just ready to be done.  On December 19th I was dilated to 3cm so hoping baby was gonna decide to quick just come out yet before Christmas.  But then on December 23rd I had another checkup and was at 4cm.  We considered going to the hospital right then and there to get induced - just to be done and then not have to worry about the chance of having a 24th or 25th baby, but a 24 hour hospital stay is needed.  So because of that, the chances of me and baby being out of the hospital and able to make it to Christmas Eve church and have Santa come to our house like normal, were slim - I probably would have been stuck in the hospital all of Christmas Eve.  So the plan is that if baby hadn't come by December 27th, I'd be going in that morning to have the baby!

Grandma's Belongings

Laue Family,

I'm helping Brenda and Mary out with this...  They have gone through Grandma's belongings and taken pictures of many of her things.  Take a look at the following pictures.  If there is anything that you want because of sentimental value or something practical that you simply could use, 

Comment with

YOUR NAME

THE PICTURE NUMBER 

and WHAT YOU WANT.

If there are any items that multiple people want, Grandma's wishes were for us to draw straws. 

Deadline to Comment for any of these items is MARCH 10TH. 

(Click on a picture to enlarge it.)

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Jonah - 3 Months

My little boy is 3 months old already (September 20th).  Time flies when you're having fun right?  He has been such a good baby and fits into our family just perfectly.  He's been pretty decent with the 'go with the flow' thank goodness cause we are definitely on the run. 

Jonah loves napping (hands up - thank you Jesus!)  He has since day 1.  He's a daytime tummy napper.  I know it's not the "right" way but that's how he naps the best.  (Bedtime he's on his back.)  He naps from about 9am-11am and then again from about 12:30-2:30pm.  He'll occasionally have a quick catnap around our supper time which is sometimes helpful.  He's usually in bed for the night by 8:00pm.  His whole 2 month he was sleeping the night which was wonderful.  But the past few weeks he's been waking up once or twice a night.  He can get over this hump any time now, seriously, I want my full night sleep again. 

He's such a smiley little guy but of course every time I get the camera out, his smile is instantly gone.  He's started the little baby giggles which is the most wonderful noise. 

Jonah's last weight check was at his 2 month appointment and he was 12 lb. 12 oz.  I'm sure he's well past this now since he loves his bottles.  He's having a 5 oz bottle about 5-6 times during the day.  Most of this is formula but I am still pumping and trying to get him a few bottles a day.  Pumping was going way better this time than it did with Bennett and Ashley.  But, the week of Kristen's wedding, which was also the first week of school, my supply cut in half :-(  I've been trying to build it back up again since then but not having much luck at it.  I was at around 90-100 oz per week and now I'm only at 50-60. 

We are dealing with cradle cap and eczema, neither of which have been fun.  For his head I've tried oils, lotions, baby shampoo, combing it all the time.  None of it has helped so my doctor said we could use Head and Shoulders and just to be sure we didn't get it in his eyes.  This has helped with the big scales but his head is still just so dry so then he scratches it all the time.  And the eczema has not gotten any better, but luckily, it hasn't gotten really any worse either.  I've been using Eucerin Cream before bedtime.  Hopefully at our 4 month appointment in a few weeks our doctor can give us alittle more direction if she thinks it's a problem.

Bennett and Ashley love their brother.  They are excited to see him in the morning and Jonah gives them the biggest smiles from the crib.  They are really liking that he's starting to interact with them more.  I still find it so hard to fathom that I have a 3rd grader, 1st grader and a newborn!  The other day we figured it out that Bennett will either be an 8th grader (or freshman) when Jonah is in Kindergarten!!!!  I can't even wrap my brain around what that will be like. 

Out with me for a walk one chilly fall morning.  

He fell asleep in the bath tub.  It was the sweetest thing watching him be so relaxed that he just drifted off to sleep.  I left him like that for about 10 minutes and felt bad having to wake him.

Jonah Michael

Yep, I'm 2 months late with this post.... Let's get Jonah's birth on here!

Tuesday, June 20th, 2017.  We got to the hospital and I had not really progressed much overnight from my doctor stripping the membranes the day before.  They got the pitocin going shortly after we got there.  By around 10:00am I was starting to feel some small contractions so they ordered the epidural to get that started.  My doctor came in and checked me and both her and the nurses assumed that this would go fast since it was my third baby etc...."maybe we'll see a baby by noon!"...  Around 12:30 I was at 6 cm so obviously, not a noon baby.  The epidural definitely numbed up my lower half, I couldn't feel my legs.  But, I don't think it was quite right because I could still feel contractions - just not as intense but I could still definitely feel every single one of them.  I tried to up the dosage a few times but it didn't help - probably just made my legs more numb.  They came in to check me at 2:00pm and I was only at a 7 cm.  After that it progressed a bit quicker though.  Alittle before 4:00pm is when I was ready to start pushing.  I assume a few pushes and I'd see my baby.   Wrong.  After a few sets of pushing with nothing really happening, my doctor realized that baby was face up, meaning it'd be harder to push out.  Because of this they wanted to try to get baby's head to turn.  For me this meant them having me roll on my side, putting me sitting up, laying flat, sitting up, laying flat over and over again.  Because of the terrible heartburn I had the whole pregnancy, every time they would make me lay flat I immediately felt terrible.  One time I did end up throwing up from it.  After a good hour of pushing at this point, my doctors wanted me to get on my hands and knees as a way to get baby to turn.  Gosh, not a fun thing to try to do between contractions and when you have a big belly and a completely numb lower half.  My gosh.  They literally had to roll my legs over for me.  Miserable 10 minutes.  When they got me back to normal position though, they did think the baby had turned for us - thank God!  After this I was so tired and determined to get this baby out!  It didn't take much longer after that for us to hear the awesome words "It's a boy!"

Jonah Michael Ford was born at 6:15pm and weighed a whopping 9 lbs 5 oz and was 21.5 inches long.  Holy moly.  Way bigger than expected.  He was about 2 lbs and 2 inches more than Ashley and Bennett.  What a beautiful baby.  I honestly was not expecting a boy though - I was thinking girl pretty much the whole pregnancy.  Mike was guessing boy though and obviously Bennett was hoping for a brother too.

After he was born, Mike called my mom and told her to bring Bennett and Ashley to the hospital.  He didn't tell her on the phone what the baby was so they had to wait until they got there to find out they had a brother.  Ashley was alittle disappointed it was a boy but that only lasted a minute.

A little info about how we picked his name.  We had been trying for months to find the perfect boy and girl name.  I had a girl name we liked but the boy name was giving us lots of trouble.  A few weeks before he was born Mike told me just to pick what I wanted.  So...I picked Joey.  Well of course, he didn't like that!  (Then don't tell me to just pick what I want!)  For a week we were still trying to find one we could agree on and I was still determined to get Joey somehow.  So when I was looking in the Jo names I ran across Jonah and asked Mike if he liked that one and surprisingly we both agreed.  We still waited a short bit after he was born before we were 100% sure but I'm so in love with his name now and glad we agreed on it.  AND, I can still call him Joe/Joey if I want :-)

Look at his squished little cone-head.

So long.