Life as a Wife

Little baby Ben is one week old today.  So far he has been a very easy baby.  We did have two rough nights with him when we got home from the hospital but overall he’s a great sleeper for me.  Christopher and I are so delighted with Ben and the boys seem to like him, too.  Alex does get a little jealous and I’m praying I can find away to give all these boys the love and attention they need from me.

Ben was born Tuesday, December 20th at 3:24 PM.  I was one day shy of being 40 weeks along.  That’s the longest I’ve ever been pregnant.  My entire third trimester was really tough for me.  My body was in nearly constant pain and I was so tired all the time.  On top of that we were trying to get our apartment packed up and get us moved and settled before Ben arrived.  By 38 weeks along, my doctor seemed to want to get Ben out as much as I did.  We tried a few little tricks that worked with my other two boys and my doctor felt confident that Ben would be born before the weekend was out.  I felt the same way.  But just in case, we scheduled an induction for Wednesday the 21st.  All they would do is break my water and my doctor believed that would be all it took.  I agreed as I knew I’d be 40 weeks along by then and I really wanted to be home with all of my boys on Christmas.  The day before my scheduled induction, Ben still had not arrived.  I was getting anxious about having to be at the hospital at 5:30 the next morning.  My doctor called at around 10:30 that morning asking if I wanted to be induced that day instead of the next.  Christopher and I agreed so we headed to the hospital.  The doctor broke my water at about 12:30 and immediately the contractions started coming.  I knew I was definitely in labor but it wasn’t bad yet and I figured I’d have lots of time so I sent Christopher to get some lunch.  Not 5 minutes after he left I was have to stop and breathe through the contractions and I called Christopher and told him to hurry.  He got back and we walked the hall for a bit and then watched a tv show.  The contractions kept picking up until I finally asked for an epi at around 3:00.  The nurse said that it was too late and 15 minutes later I was pushing.  Ben was born nice and calm.  He just laid on my chest looking around, taking everything in.  Of course he looked just like his brothers. We seem to be pretty consistent in that department.

I had joked around that since my labor with Robert was only 9.5 hours long and my labor with Alex was only 6.5 hours long that my labor with Ben would probably be 3.5 hours.  I never really believed that that would be true, but Ben was born after only 3 hours in labor.  We are so blessed to have our newest son here.  God has been good to our family.

For the past month Robert has been saying, “Want it to be your birthday.  Want to be tree years old.” (He doesn’t quite have his pronouns down yet.) And tomorrow my little boy will finally get his wish.  It will be his birthday and he will be three years old.

I feel like Robert is our miracle child in so many different ways.  We tried for two years to have a baby before finally getting pregnant with him.  Then I was at a risk for miscarriage and had to take medication throughout my first trimester to help prevent that.  Then he was born with a heart defect and had to have a balloon procedure done at five days old.  At this point last year, I had no idea if my child would live to see his third birthday.  He was in heart failure and we were told that it was important that he have open heart surgery within three months.  My family learned a few years ago that life on this earth is not guaranteed and all I could think was that I only had three more months with my child.  Robert had open heart surgery in January and praise God he is alive and well today.  I am so grateful to have this little boy in my life.  He has changed our lives so much and has brought so much joy.  He is a feisty, rambunctious, sensitive little fellow who is full of energy and personality.  Such a drastic change from just a year ago when Robert was sleeping around 18 hours out of 24 in a day, and when he was awake he only had energy to sit on the couch and watch a movie.  God has been so good to us and to our little boy.  I am so grateful to have had another year with our Robert-Boy, and I hope and pray for many many more.

Happy Birthday, Robert.  I love you so very much.

Lately each Sunday morning Robert has a meltdown just before we leave for church. He looks forward to church all week long and then Sunday morning comes and he decides he doesn’t really want to go. He’s always fine once we actually get to church and he enjoys the service and remembers an amazing amount of stuff, but it’s a challenge getting him there. This morning was no different. Robert was screaming “No worship God! No worship God!” over and over and over on the way to church this morning and it absolutely broke my heart. What do I do in this situation? How do I teach him that worshiping God is something we do (or should do) each day, all day and that God is so worthy of it? I looked back at him in his car seat and told him, “Robert, did you know that God made everything in our world? God made you and Alex. He made mommy and daddy. God made the grass, and the flowers, and the sticks, and the leaves, and the trees. God made everything!” Robert listened quietly for a minute and when I finished he said, “No worship God!” I turned around feeling defeated and we went to church and, as always, despite his ardent protests on the way to church, he DID worship God when we arrived and I think he had a good time. We got home, ate lunch, and put the boys to bed. When Robert got up from his nap I asked if he wanted to help me open his curtains. He said yes so we opened them together and then stood looking outside. Suddenly, Robert said, “God made the dirt. God made the flowers. God made the leaves. God made the trees.” I could have cried. I rushed out into the living room and repeated to Christopher what Robert had said and Robert looked at me and said, “That was very good Mama.” I thank God for this little boy.

*Christopher and Me

*Robert

Our Father Who art in Heaven

Hallowed be Thy Name

Thy Kingdom Kingdom come

Thy will be done

On earth as it is in Heaven

Give us this day our daily bread

and forgive us our debts

as we forgive our debtors

and lead us not into tentation

but deliver us from mevil

for Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the gory foeva.  Amen.

Yesterday we celebrated Alex’s first birthday.  It’s hard to think of him as being a year old already.  He’s still very much a baby, of course, and Christopher and I tend to “baby” him a lot instead of encourage him to learn as much as we did with Robert.  But he is a smart baby and we can tell that he is picking up on things properly.  Alex says dada and uh-oh.  He can clap his hands and he knows what it means when I tell him to clap his hands.  He knows his name, both his nickname and his proper name.  And he is learning what we mean when we same “Come here, Alex.”  I can hold out my hand and say, “Alex, take out your paci” and he obeys.  He loves to throw his arms around me and give me a great big hug, and he loves to follow his big brother around the house imitating him in everything.  Alex adores his daddy and crawls to Christopher as quickly as his fat little legs and arms will carry him as soon as Christopher walks in the door in the evenings.  It is a precious sight.

Alex’s birthday party will be tomorrow.  We are having a very small get-together with family and a couple of friends.  I look forward to seeing Alex dig into his cupcake and see if he can grasp the concept of opening presents.

I am a very blessed momma.  I have two very beautiful and special boys who I absolutely adore.  They are sweet and happy and obedient (for the most part), and I couldn’t ask for better children.  I love them!

And a bit of extra silliness: