Ultrasound alert!

I meant to post this last Thursday, when it was written. I was holding off because I wanted to include my 4 month pregnancy picture, but we didn't get it taken until a week later! Anyway....

Hey! Finally we have some news to report on Baby #2 besides that he/she is churning my insides. I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and here's what I found out:

-The heartbeat is still strong and beautiful. (And just as miraculous a sound as it was the first time around!)
-I'm not hurting the baby by curing my headaches with Tylenol & caffeine. (I wasn't worried about the substances themselves, just the frequency with which I need that cure!)
-My doctor wouldn't want to wait another 4 weeks for an ultrasound either so "how about next week"?! (We go in at 11:30 on Tuesday. Stay tuned for the announcement on gender!)
-I have 3 possible dates for when we can schedule this delivery. We just need to decide when we want to have this baby!

(BTW, for those who don't know or have forgotten, Benjamin was delivered via emergency c-section. He was 9 days overdue and, according to the doctor, the placenta was just too old to support him through my contractions; his heart rate was dropping with every one. This combined with the fact that I was not progressing very quickly lead the doctor to make the decision to get him out while he was still healthy. Therefore, I will be delivering via planned c-section this time. The risks associated with VBAC are not very likely, but are very scary should there be complications [as in certain death for the baby]. We are not willing to gamble, even though odds are good, when the stakes are so high.)

Meanwhile, we have decided that this baby is going to be high maintenance. How do we know? We don't, but if the random complications I have had with doctor's appointments are any indication....

I have had to re-schedule 3 out of 4 appointments so far. #1 due to me locking my keys (car and house keys) in the house as I was leaving to go, #3 due to my insurance company failing to activate me after a month and a half (it was either pay my bill in full or re-schedule the appointment), and #4 (yesterday's appointment) due to a flat tire. Yes, I got Benjamin and I up and ready to go (including an extra dirty diaper and an unusually drawn-out breakfast), and we were going to be ON TIME! Diaper bag on one shoulder, purse on the other, car-seat in one hand, Benjamin on my hip, we made it out to the driveway only to discover the back passenger-side tire was completely flat. I felt like the tire. Fortunately, they fit me in later that same day. Unfortunately, it took us ALL DAY LONG (and a couple hundred dollars) to deal with that stupid tire. And poor Seth, he has been deathly ill this week and was supposed to be taking a much needed sick day.... Ah well, such is life.

If your child is sneezing it might be...pinkeye?

Yes, Benjamin has pinkeye (conjunctivitis) this week. He started out with lots of sneezing on Friday. Saturday and Sunday he had thin, clear secretions from his eyes and nose. Classic allergy symptoms, I thought. Sunday morning he woke up with a nasty "barking" cough. We didn't like the sound of that, but looked it up and found that nasty coughs, too could be a symptom of allergies (caused by post-nasal drainage), so we weren't worried. Well, Monday morning Benjamin woke up with his eyes half glued shut with nasty goop that was definitely not clear anymore so I called the pediatrician. They wanted to see him. The doctor walked in, took one look at him and said, "Ben! You're a mess!" It didn't take long to diagnose conjunctivitis, bacterial infection, and a touch of something-something-cystitis that the doctor didn't want to explain to me. So armed with a prescription for Amoxicillin and eye drops we returned home to battle sickness once again. Poor little guy!

Spiders

Spiders. I am nauseatingly afraid of them. Before Seth left for Israel this summer I couldn't even deal with the tinest of them. They sent me into convulsions. After spending 5 weeks killing my own spiders (either in my house or my parent's [since Mom was pretty incapacitated while I was there]) I really felt I was doing better in the spider department. At least I can count to three and whack them with the fly swatter now. If they are really tiny I can even squish them with a tissue or step on them (the shoes have to have covered toes). But that was before THE BEAST.

I was on the phone with my mom and making the bed; I was barefoot. I was about to walk around the bottom end of the bed to pull up the sheet on the other side when I saw THE BEAST. This spider is probably, legs & all, about the size of a silver dollar. The body alone is the size of a small jelly bean. Maybe it's just me, but that's a big spider to be in your house! Well, I jump up on the bed, shaking from head to bare feet, and started convulsing. Mom is trying to give me suggestions from 2,000 miles away. "Drop something on it. Can you reach anything? Can you still see it? Don't let it get away!" I'm saying, "I can't. I can't. I HAVE TO! I can't!" Finally I bring myself to lean down, fairly close to the nasty thing to retrieve one of Seth's boots from the floor. "OK, I'm going to drop a shoe on it. I better have good aim, otherwise it's going to run away and I won't be able to find it! [shudder] Ready? 1-2-...." Mom is helping me count..."3!" I drop the shoe. The shoe hits the spider, but not dead on. It more jars it and injures it, well, not at all. What does happen is that a little cloud of "dust" sprays out, and starts...moving. I'm getting chills just typing it. Apparently Ms. Beast was carrying lots of tiny little baby beasts that are now covering my floor. The dropped shoe scared THE BEAST into the living room (still within my sight) so I jump down off the bed, put on shoes, and start walloping the microscopic horrors.

When the floor stops moving I again focus on the mama. She's NOT THERE. Apparently my beating on the floor scared her. I'm panicking again. "Mom, I can't see it! I don't know where it went!" And then I spotted it again. She is moving, more slowly now, out onto the open carpet in the middle of the room. I took up post on the trunk that serves as our coffee table, boot still in hand. Now Mom is instructing, "Can you put a pot over it?" "I don't want to leave. It might disappear again." "Good point. Well, you can't just drop something on it, you need to hit it with force or it might crawl out." "But I just CAN'T get that close to it." (She's still moving across the living room.) "Well, open the front door. Maybe it will go out." Good idea!

So I walk across the coffee table, balance one foot precariously on the folding chair set up in front of our computer cabinet, and test my balance by leaning as far over as I dare to open the front door. The thing starts running the other way! "No!," I'm shouting at it, "go the other way you stupid thing!" Then I start throwing toys (from Benjamin's toy bin at the end of the coffee table), hoping to scare it back in the right direction. It's not working. I am despairing. "I have to do this! It's going to get Benjamin," I'm telling Mom. "You can do it," she's telling me. Finally, I spot an umbrella in a bucket near the door. "I'm going to get the umbrella." I again take my precarious post, this time stepping all the way onto the folding chair. (Remember, my front door is open, traffic is going steadily by, and here I am, pregnant, standing on a folding chair in the middle of my living room. Just to give you a mental image.) I extend the umbrella (still folded and velcroed) so I don't have to get too close, and start pushing at THE BEAST with the end. She scurries toward the hinged side of the open door. Still, there is a crack big enough to accomodate her, so I keep shoving. And then, miracle of miracles, she goes out. Just like that! "She went out!," I'm yelling into the phone. "Well, SHUT THE DOOR," says Mom. :)

"Thanks for helping me be brave," I told Mom after it was all over, "Not that I'm suffering from any delusions that I was brave...."

Learning to balance...

Whew! What a busy weekend! We ended up being WAY too busy, and sorry for it. We are exhausted. We did many fun and profitable things (shopped two consignment sales and found lots of great maternity clothes for me, played cards with good friends, sang at 4 church services, attended a meeting regarding the "mentoring ministry" at our church, had our first small group meeting after our summer break...), but running from activity to activity is not our style. We are drained and the house is a mess (no time to clean up properly after meals, for example, and it seemed we were always rushing in to change clothes, "dump" the load from the last errand, and rush off again). What a way to start the week!

It's easy to see that your life needs to be simplified, but difficult to discipline yourself to do it. When I look at my involvements there seem to be very few I am willing to part with. And more I feel I should add for fear of neglect! We are constantly bombarded with a myriad of disciplines for a balanced life: developing a relationship with God (personal worship, public worship, service/ministry...), maintaining a healthy relationship with your spouse (communicating openly and deeply, spending time [quantity counts]...), relating to your children (teaching, exploring, enriching, thoughtfully disciplining, studying on how to do all these things...), loving others (remembering occassions, making phone calls, keeping up with email, praying for them, hospitality, drawing them out/touching hearts...), maintaining our environment (keeping a clean house, organization, systems to keep our commitments in order, filing, errands...), keeping well-maintained finances, personal enrichment/improvement, hobbies, pursuing our gifts and talents... the list goes on and on.

Where does responsibility end and excess begin? And how do you find the balance without ignoring the important?

When did all this happen?

Benjamin is nearly walking?!? When did all this happen?!? I'm asking myself the same thing. Maybe part of the reason I haven't had time to download (or even take) pictures, update the blog, or call Benjamin's grandparents as often as I should is that he has been such a busy boy lately! Journey with me through some of my favorite moments from the last month or so....

The Path to Walking
Aug. 25-You know what the biggest catalyst for new "tricks" is? An audience. Benjamin loves to show off! So the "cruising" (for those of you who may not be so "up" on the baby lingo that's the popular term for using furniture and other stationary objects to side-step from point A to point B) really started the afternoon my parents, oldest brother, and niece and nephew were in town. We had just finished an afternoon cup of coffee (Seth says, "You know it's a good day when you're having coffee in the afternoon.") and Benjamin was entertaining us by pulling up on the coffee table. Seth moved all the coffee cups to the other side, explaining, "he doesn't know how to go around the table yet." Well, I guess the tempation of the cups, combined with the thrill of an audience and the challenge from Daddy sufficiently motivated him. Sure enough, he started working his way around to the other side! Thus his world expanded by one more step, literally.

Sept. 4-Seth and I were having a "family meeting" on the floor of Benjamin's room while he played alongside. Suddenly, his activity table (a plastic toy about waist-high to a toddler that makes noise and has lots of buttons to whack) bumped into us. Surprise! There was Benjamin, pushing from behind with the most pleased expression on his face. And a fascination for getting places on your feet(!) was born. Before the night was over he had walked all the way down the hall, holding on to Seth's fingers.

Today-Pretty much anything will suffice for a "walker" now-a-days: the kitchen stool, a laundry basket, Mommy. He also has an official toy walker loaned to us by a friend. A few days ago I heard his little "heh...heh...mmm..." coming down the hall, but more slowly than if he were crawling. Interested, I waited by the kitchen door for him to appear. He came into view pushing his little walker, mouth wide open in a pleased-with-himself grin. He gave me a huge happy, "aaaa-ye!" (I think that means "hi.")

Adventures in Language














Aug 31-As mentioned, we have picked out several consistent sounds that we recognize as Benjamin's attempts at words. The first recognition on my part was one afternoon as we were finishing lunch. We have been teaching Benjamin some sign language as a means (other than whining!) to communicate his needs and wants to us. One of his signs is "all done," to be used when he is finished eating. To remind him to use his signs instead of, say, throwing the unwanted food on the floor, I say, "All done? Benjamin, say 'all done'" and show him the sign. This particular day he did (his version of) the sign and at the same time verbalized, "ah-da." It took me a minute to realize he wasn't just babbling another form of "da da." Just to make sure I tried it several more times. He was consistent. So "ah-da" became an official part of Benjamin's vocabulary.

Sept 1-Similarly, I was singing with Benjamin one afternoon. One of his favorite songs is "Zaccheus" (as in, "...was a wee little man.") When we got to the part, "And he said, 'Zaccheus, YOU COME...,'" Benjamin burst in, "DAAAAH!" Thinking, it must have been a coincidence, I tried again, this time pausing for Benjamin to fill in. Right on cue, "DAAAAH!" Have I mentioned he's brilliant?

Sept 2-Finally, the long-awaited word was uttered. For awhile we had been suspecting that Benjamin was using "Da Da" as a generic term for either Seth or I. One morning it was confirmed. Seth was in the kitchen and I was in our bedroom on the other end of the house. Benjamin was playing in the living room and crawled into the doorway where he could see me. He got a happy look of recognition on his face and squealed, "Da Da!" Laughing, I picked him up and took him in the kitchen where we proceeded to go through the ritual of putting Benjamin's hand on Daddy's shoulder and saying "Da Da," then putting his hand on Mommy's shoulder and saying "Ma Ma." "Da Da....Ma Ma....Da Da....Ma Ma...." Finally, at the end of the routine Benjamin said, haltingly, "Um Ma?" Well, at least it's not "Da Da!" (He still uses it sparingly, but the point is, he can say it!)

Other Random Milestones
Aug 25-We went on our first hot air balloon "ride." (We got in the balloon, went 40-50 feet in the air anchored by ropes, and came back down.) We thought Benjamin would like watching the world get smaller, but we underestimated the amount of noise the burner makes when you are standing in the basket directly under it! He screamed everytime the burner was fired. Poor guy! I don't think he saw much of the shrinking world, due to the fact that his head was buried in Mama the entire time.

Aug 31-Believe it or not, Benjamin had his first "tantrum." He's getting very (selectively) sensitive towards discipline. I told him, "no no, don't touch" about something, picked him up and set him on his knees elsewhere. He threw himself down, face in the carpet, and "sobbed" like I had mortally wounded him. He must not know that I know what a fake cry sounds like! To tell the truth, it was pretty hysterical. (I know I won't be saying that in a few months.)

Sept 3-4-We made it through our first official fever over the Labor Day holiday. Sunday it was a moderate 101.7 so we gave him some Tylenol before he went to bed, but Monday afternoon it hit 102.4 and then an hour after we gave him Motrin it was still climbing at 102.9. I called the after-hours number for the Pediatrician's office and learned that at 17.5 pounds he was on the borderline between two doses so they advised me to give him a higher dose. Most of Monday he acted like he felt pretty lousy. By Tuesday morning when I took him in, the fever had broken. The doc said he had a virus in his throat that was giving him a pretty bad sore throat. It took a few days to recover completely, but by the end of the week he seemed to be feeling much better.

And, to wrap things up, just a funny story/new trick. A kid can only put up with so much boredom in his crib while refusing to go to sleep. He's got to come up with something to entertain himself. How about take his pants off? That will do! Several times lately we have come to get him out of bed or check on him while he is sleeping to find him happily waving his pants around, cuddled up to them like a blankie, or just standing there pants-less. It's pretty funny. Are all babies this comedic? Ours sure makes us laugh...a lot!

2nd child syndrome...already

We are already experiencing 2nd child syndrome. By this I mean we have no pictures, I haven't written a word in a pregnancy journal, and I have no idea what is going on inside my body. (I think the baby is roughly the size of a grapefruit?) Lest #2 feel neglected and unloved, I should add that I have been equally neglecting in taking pictures of Benjamin lately and journaling his latest and greatest accomplishments. To put it simply, this pregnancy is just taking a lot out of me! So for those of you who have been wondering, "what happened to the frequent updates and myriads of pictures?," there is your answer. It's not good, but it's an answer.

Having said that, I am desperately attempting to rectify the situation. (Those annoying pests known as laundry, dishes, picking up, making dinner, and bathing keep getting in the way, darn it!)

Benjamin just started to babble happily in his bed, meaning it is time to get him fed and on to the next discovery, but briefly:

Benjamin is 11 months old today. He is crawling proficiently, "pulling up" on furniture and Mama/Daddy's legs, "cruising" from one furniture piece to the next, and walking a little while clinging to Mama or Daddy's fingers or pushing something in front. His recognizable sounds ("words") are: "Da Da", "Ma Ma", down("DAH!"), all done ("a-da") and-- as of this morning-- mouth ("maaa!")

Seth is into his semester at school and doing well keeping up with working 30 hours per week and all his homework, which mostly consists of translating portions of the Dead Sea Scrolls from Hebrew to English. (Yes, he knows they have already been translated.) His newest news is that the Bible Dictionary he contributed to (roughly 20 articles, I believe) is newly published. We received our copy this morning. For those interested, it is called Mounce's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words and is published by Zondervan. It has been highly praised by the scholarly community as the new "Vine's," for those of you who are up on Bible Study tools.

I am now 17 weeks pregnant and feeling better, but not completely healthy and energetic yet. Unfortunately I was anticipating this happy turn of events about 4 weeks ago. The good news is, a sick mama means a healthy pregnancy so I remind myself, "this is a good sign." Meanwhile I am finally feeling like I have a pretty good routine for getting the house in order and taking care of Benjamin. After 11 months, it's about time! I knew a baby would change my life, it's just that no one can predict the specific struggles each new mom will have. I feel like I'm finally coming out of the deep water... just in time to have another one :)

Well, I've taken more time for this "quick update" than I meant to and now those happy babbles are becoming more like impatient grunts. "Mama, where are you???"

Please leave us a comment or drop us an email and let us know your latest news!

Love,
Kiersten (for Seth, Benjamin, and Baby #2 too)

My Boy!

I'm pleased to announce that my son is now standing!!! I was gone to work for three hours yesterday afternoon, and within that time, he figured it out. When I got home, Kiersten and I got on the ground with him, and he came right up and "hand walked" up my lap and chest until he was upright. He then followed that amazing trick by doing it two more times in just as many minutes. Plus, Kiersten just informed me that she went in to get him after his morning nap and he was standing in his crib! What an amazing boy.

Three cheers for Benjamin! Hip-hip hurray! Hip-hip hurray! Hip-hip hurray!

Good job, Benjamin.

From,
The Proud Father