You guessed it, Livvy's first "words" were "da-da"! She has been saying it all day. It is really cute but I can't believe my little girl is all grown up!
Ellie is a little more complicated than Livvy these days.:) We woke up at 3:30am to the light on in her room. When Matt went in to see what she was doing she said "I'm just playing with blocks". She was sitting on the floor playing at 3am...what is wrong with this child?! I guess I should be happy that she loves to explore and build!
We went to Six Flags on Saturday with Uncle Pat, Aunt Sar, Gabi and Zack. Ellie LOVED all the rides! That is, until Daddy took her on the BIG boat! I can't believe they even let her on...you know the one that swings up to one side real high, drops you, then up again on the other side? The ride that I am a little hesitant to get on?! Well, Matt took her on and he said she loved it at first but then as it got higher and higher she started crying. Then she went from crying to terrified and she started trembling. Now all she talks about is "I don't like that boat!"
Until next time....
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Exciting news!
Actually two pieces of exciting news! First, Ellie is officially potty trained! Woo hoo! If you could see me now, I am doing the HAPPY dance!:) She has been doing much better lately but the final test was that she now gets up out of her bed during a nap or bedtime to go pee or poop! She even wears panties when we go to church and the gym and has no accidents!
Second, my sister Jenny was on the CBS Early Morning Show this morning with Exonmobil teachers and she got a few words in on the camera! When I showed Ellie(I recorded it) she kept making me play it over and over because she said "I want to watch my Aunt Jeenny on tb". Now we can say we know a celebrity!:) I believe you can go to www.cbs.com to watch it(Jen, please give more detailed information on this!)
I'm a proud momma and sister!
Second, my sister Jenny was on the CBS Early Morning Show this morning with Exonmobil teachers and she got a few words in on the camera! When I showed Ellie(I recorded it) she kept making me play it over and over because she said "I want to watch my Aunt Jeenny on tb". Now we can say we know a celebrity!:) I believe you can go to www.cbs.com to watch it(Jen, please give more detailed information on this!)
I'm a proud momma and sister!
Monday, July 20, 2009
Childlike Faith
I am very behind on "Ellie sayings" because I haven't had much access to a computer lately so I wanted to share one that really stuck out to me.
Every time we lay Ellie down for a nap or bedtime we sit next to her and pray together. A few of the things I always pray for is that God will give her peace, sweet dreams and let nothing awaken or disturb her. Yesterday when I went to leave her room she said "someone's in here". I stopped to talk to her about it because I thought she was saying this out of fear. But when I asked her what she meant she said "God is sitting right there" and pointed to the black bean bag chair that we always sit on to pray with her. This is how our conversation went from here:
Me: "What is God doing?"
Ellie: "God is sitting right there, in that chair"
Me: "Is he just sitting there?"
Ellie: "No, he is sleeping...for forty days"
Oh how this child never ceases to amuse me!:)
I lied, I am going to tell two Ellie stories. We went to the library on Friday morning for story time. After story time was over Ellie was hanging out on the floor where all the kids were making crafts and Olivia was in her car seat. Another little girl came over and was about to touch Livvy when Ellie stopped what she was doing and yelled "Hey, GO...don't touch my sister! That is MY baby sister!" It was too cute how she took up for her! I'm sure it is the first of many stories to come of Ellie looking out for Livvy.:)
Every time we lay Ellie down for a nap or bedtime we sit next to her and pray together. A few of the things I always pray for is that God will give her peace, sweet dreams and let nothing awaken or disturb her. Yesterday when I went to leave her room she said "someone's in here". I stopped to talk to her about it because I thought she was saying this out of fear. But when I asked her what she meant she said "God is sitting right there" and pointed to the black bean bag chair that we always sit on to pray with her. This is how our conversation went from here:
Me: "What is God doing?"
Ellie: "God is sitting right there, in that chair"
Me: "Is he just sitting there?"
Ellie: "No, he is sleeping...for forty days"
Oh how this child never ceases to amuse me!:)
I lied, I am going to tell two Ellie stories. We went to the library on Friday morning for story time. After story time was over Ellie was hanging out on the floor where all the kids were making crafts and Olivia was in her car seat. Another little girl came over and was about to touch Livvy when Ellie stopped what she was doing and yelled "Hey, GO...don't touch my sister! That is MY baby sister!" It was too cute how she took up for her! I'm sure it is the first of many stories to come of Ellie looking out for Livvy.:)
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
My VBAC story. Warning: VERY LONG!
Many of you have asked me questions about my recent VBAC(vaginal birth after ceserean) so I thought I would blog about it.:) Since this is already going to be long I will only be talking about the emotional and spiritual side of things, not the actual labor story. But if you would like to know more about my actual labor please let me know and I will post or email that to you because I do have it in writing.
Before I tell my story I want to say that I believe there is a definite time and place for c-sections. God has used c-sections to save many babies lives and I will never discredit the fact that they are necessary in some situations. However, I do feel like my c-section was unnecessary. But, as weird as this may sound, I am THANKFUL for my c-section. Was it painful physically, spiritually and emotionally? Absolutely. But now that I have healed from those pains I can say that I am thankful because without it I would not be the woman am today nor would I be sharing this wonderful story with you.
Because I would rather focus on the vbac story rather than my c-section I will not explain in great detail why I had a c-section. Let’s just say that I did not take care of my body quite like I should have with my first pregnancy, which lead to a series of events that brought me to my c-section.
After I had Ellie I began to pray immediately that God would allow me to one day have a baby vaginally. My c-section was not the end of the world, but I so wanted the pleasure of seeing my baby for the first time and not having her taken from me within minutes of birth, not to be seen for several hours and too drugged up to even remember much of her birth day.
During my process of the healing time someone gave me the book “Supernatural Childbirth”. I began to pray these prayers over my body and my future baby. When I found out I was pregnant with Olivia I knew in my heart that God WAS going to give me a vbac.
I’m not going to lie, many people would tell me not to get my hopes up because the possibility of a vbac is so slim. Fear started to set in that I would not be able to find a doctor who would even let me attempt it. But, God is good, and he led me to the wonderful Dr.Cummings, who from the beginning believed in my body’s ability to have a baby naturally. One thing Dr. C always focused on was my MIND. Most doctors want to know every detail about your body but not your emotional or physical side. This was not so with Dr.C. He told me from the start that if my mind was not in the right spot I would not have my vbac. So I began to pray that God would transform my thinking and only allow me to dwell on positive thoughts.
Once again, God was so good to protect me from all of the negative things people would say to me. Many people would remind me that there is a .01% chance of uterine rupture…how could I chance that?? I will tell you what I told them: “I would rather feel the pain of failure then the pain of not trying at all”.
To condense a VERY long story (lots of ups and downs emotionally about the vbac during my pregnancy) I will skip ahead to the delivery day. I went an entire WEEK OVER DUE! To anyone who has ever been pregnant you know this is an ETERNITY in pregnant years! Once again, I started getting remarks…”I can’t believe you aren’t being induced, that is sooo bad for your baby!” But I knew that my due date could be off so I stood strong. Dr.C wasn’t concerned so neither was I. The reason I did not want ANY medical interventions was because when God told me he was going to give me a vbac he also told me I had to do things HIS way and not take things into my own hands.
I FINALLY went into labor on the morning of February 5, 2009. Because I had been reading “Supernatural Childbirth” I was also praying for a pain FREE labor and delivery. So when the first contractions started and were a little painful I thought, “this must be it, I must be about to have this baby because I am believing for no pain”. Boy was I wrong!:) We got to the hospital and I was only dilated 2 cm. The nurse on call proceeded to tell me that I was CRAZY for attempting a vbac because she attempted one and it lead her to her hysterectomy at the age of 22. Luckily, Dr.C was at the hospital so he dismissed me and told me to come back when I was in serious labor.:) So we left for a few hours and returned only to find I was dilated to a 3…are you kidding me?! At that point, Olivia’s heart rate was questionable and Dr.C was a little concerned. I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach because I knew that if God didn’t do something NOW I would end up with another c-section. However, Dr.C agreed to let me labor for another hour to see what happened. He told me to walk around the hospital to speed things up. Before I started walking, me, my doula, Matt and my mom all gathered together and prayed that God would take control of things. Within one hour I dilated from 3cm to 6cm..thank you Jesus!
I remember as I was laboring the pain was so intense and I was questioning God “where are you? Why so much pain? I prayed for no pain!” The only thing that kept coming into my head was from a song “there’s a light at the end of this tunnel, shining bright at the end of this tunnel for you”. I also kept the Natalie Grant song playing at all times in the background “I will not be moved”.
After several hours of long, hard labor Olivia Grace Gilbert was born vaginally with no pain medications! The Lord delivered her by his grace, hence her middle name.:)
A few things I learned from my vbac experience:
Before I tell my story I want to say that I believe there is a definite time and place for c-sections. God has used c-sections to save many babies lives and I will never discredit the fact that they are necessary in some situations. However, I do feel like my c-section was unnecessary. But, as weird as this may sound, I am THANKFUL for my c-section. Was it painful physically, spiritually and emotionally? Absolutely. But now that I have healed from those pains I can say that I am thankful because without it I would not be the woman am today nor would I be sharing this wonderful story with you.
Because I would rather focus on the vbac story rather than my c-section I will not explain in great detail why I had a c-section. Let’s just say that I did not take care of my body quite like I should have with my first pregnancy, which lead to a series of events that brought me to my c-section.
After I had Ellie I began to pray immediately that God would allow me to one day have a baby vaginally. My c-section was not the end of the world, but I so wanted the pleasure of seeing my baby for the first time and not having her taken from me within minutes of birth, not to be seen for several hours and too drugged up to even remember much of her birth day.
During my process of the healing time someone gave me the book “Supernatural Childbirth”. I began to pray these prayers over my body and my future baby. When I found out I was pregnant with Olivia I knew in my heart that God WAS going to give me a vbac.
I’m not going to lie, many people would tell me not to get my hopes up because the possibility of a vbac is so slim. Fear started to set in that I would not be able to find a doctor who would even let me attempt it. But, God is good, and he led me to the wonderful Dr.Cummings, who from the beginning believed in my body’s ability to have a baby naturally. One thing Dr. C always focused on was my MIND. Most doctors want to know every detail about your body but not your emotional or physical side. This was not so with Dr.C. He told me from the start that if my mind was not in the right spot I would not have my vbac. So I began to pray that God would transform my thinking and only allow me to dwell on positive thoughts.
Once again, God was so good to protect me from all of the negative things people would say to me. Many people would remind me that there is a .01% chance of uterine rupture…how could I chance that?? I will tell you what I told them: “I would rather feel the pain of failure then the pain of not trying at all”.
To condense a VERY long story (lots of ups and downs emotionally about the vbac during my pregnancy) I will skip ahead to the delivery day. I went an entire WEEK OVER DUE! To anyone who has ever been pregnant you know this is an ETERNITY in pregnant years! Once again, I started getting remarks…”I can’t believe you aren’t being induced, that is sooo bad for your baby!” But I knew that my due date could be off so I stood strong. Dr.C wasn’t concerned so neither was I. The reason I did not want ANY medical interventions was because when God told me he was going to give me a vbac he also told me I had to do things HIS way and not take things into my own hands.
I FINALLY went into labor on the morning of February 5, 2009. Because I had been reading “Supernatural Childbirth” I was also praying for a pain FREE labor and delivery. So when the first contractions started and were a little painful I thought, “this must be it, I must be about to have this baby because I am believing for no pain”. Boy was I wrong!:) We got to the hospital and I was only dilated 2 cm. The nurse on call proceeded to tell me that I was CRAZY for attempting a vbac because she attempted one and it lead her to her hysterectomy at the age of 22. Luckily, Dr.C was at the hospital so he dismissed me and told me to come back when I was in serious labor.:) So we left for a few hours and returned only to find I was dilated to a 3…are you kidding me?! At that point, Olivia’s heart rate was questionable and Dr.C was a little concerned. I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach because I knew that if God didn’t do something NOW I would end up with another c-section. However, Dr.C agreed to let me labor for another hour to see what happened. He told me to walk around the hospital to speed things up. Before I started walking, me, my doula, Matt and my mom all gathered together and prayed that God would take control of things. Within one hour I dilated from 3cm to 6cm..thank you Jesus!
I remember as I was laboring the pain was so intense and I was questioning God “where are you? Why so much pain? I prayed for no pain!” The only thing that kept coming into my head was from a song “there’s a light at the end of this tunnel, shining bright at the end of this tunnel for you”. I also kept the Natalie Grant song playing at all times in the background “I will not be moved”.
After several hours of long, hard labor Olivia Grace Gilbert was born vaginally with no pain medications! The Lord delivered her by his grace, hence her middle name.:)
A few things I learned from my vbac experience:
- The pain of failure is much better than the pain of not trying.
- When God gives you a vision or a dream, he will bring that dream to pass in HIS timing (i.e. I had to wait an entire week past due date, patience is a virtue!)
- God never promised no pain in the midst of the storm, he just promised to be right there with you to endure it.
- There will always be someone or something that satan sends into your life to make you believe your dream is not going to come to pass (i.e. my first nurse at the hospital told me I was endangering myself and my baby and I had to sign something saying I was okay with that)
- Follow a leader who you can trust. I knew I could trust Dr.C to be honest with me because he was a believer and had a relationship with the Holy Spirit.
- Surround yourself with people who believe in you so when the “going gets tough” you can lean on them for Godly counsel. If I had not had a Christian doctor, doula and husband who believed in me I would have never had my vbac.
- BELIEVE in yourself and the abilities that God has put within you to achieve great things. Dr.C told me everytime he saw me that it was all or nothing, I either believed it could be done or I didn’t. There is no middle ground when it comes to believing in your dreams.
- There will always be an “easy” way out during a trial but that doesn’t mean it is the right way or God’s way. I was offered an epidural and a c-section(not by my doc) during labor but I knew that that was not God’s plan for me or my baby. This goes back to having a vision, if you don’t know before the storm what your vision is then you and your dream will perish.
- SUCCESS is so much sweeter when you have to work for it! If I had not experienced the pains of labor I would not be truly thankful for what I accomplished with God’s help.
- The Lord is faithful to provide everything we need to succeed as long as we turn to HIM in times of need!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
"Hey, whatcha doin' in there?"
Well, I am already behind on this blogging thing! Now I remember why I put off doing it for so long!:) Things have been very busy around here, I have been teaching a lot more classes to make some extra $$ so I'm doing my best to juggle the girls and work. I went to teach a class at the gym tonight and took Ellie and Ollie with me. Before I put them in childcare I stopped in to take Ellie to the bathroom. After Ellie got done she peaked under the stall door and said to the lady in the next stall "Hey, whatcha doin in there?" Well, the lady didn't answer(I guess she was embarrassed/shocked) so Ellie proceeds to say to me "Is she poopin' in there momma?" Needless to say, I was rushing to get us out of there before the lady came out of the stall. Everyone who overheard it couldn't help but snicker though. I must admit it was very cute.
After our "potty stop" we went to childcare where the girls had a great time. When I came to pick them up the lady working said she thinks they are both going to be singers because they both sang the whole time they were in there...even little Livvy! And Ellie pretty much performs anywhere she goes. She told the lady that "God loves me, you, Livvy, mommy, daddy, snackies, moon, stars, etc" (she didn't say etc but her list kept going and going) My favorite was that God loves snackies:)
After our "potty stop" we went to childcare where the girls had a great time. When I came to pick them up the lady working said she thinks they are both going to be singers because they both sang the whole time they were in there...even little Livvy! And Ellie pretty much performs anywhere she goes. She told the lady that "God loves me, you, Livvy, mommy, daddy, snackies, moon, stars, etc" (she didn't say etc but her list kept going and going) My favorite was that God loves snackies:)
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
One step forward..
We took one step forward and two steps back. Yes, Ellie did go "poo poo" in the potty so we took her to her favorite store...Dollar tree and told her she could pick out a "prizey".:) She proudly announced to the entire store that she gets bubbles and a baby doll because she went poo poo on the potty! However, right after we checked out she went poo in her panties...I'm not going to lie, I was very frustrated with her! I did let her keep her "prizeys" because she did earn them, but the potty training adventures do continue. Who knew it would be so hard to potty train such a smart little girl??! I have offered to make her "cupacakes" if she will go poo poo in the potty and she still hasn't claimed her prize. If cupcakes won't motivate her I don't know what will!!
Now for a cute Ellie story. Yesterday we had gone outside to play and when we came back inside I heard her talking to someone. So I asked her who she was talking to and she said "Jesus". Then she yelled out "Jesus, come back...please come outside and play with me!" It was the sweetest thing ever! This is a perfect example of "childlike faith".
But we can't forget about the adorable Olivia, or "Ollie" as Matt would say. She has turned into a thumb sucker and it is so sweet! She is my little cuddle bug!
Now for a cute Ellie story. Yesterday we had gone outside to play and when we came back inside I heard her talking to someone. So I asked her who she was talking to and she said "Jesus". Then she yelled out "Jesus, come back...please come outside and play with me!" It was the sweetest thing ever! This is a perfect example of "childlike faith".
But we can't forget about the adorable Olivia, or "Ollie" as Matt would say. She has turned into a thumb sucker and it is so sweet! She is my little cuddle bug!
Friday, June 26, 2009
Ellie went....
....poo poo on the potty!!!! She so wanted an apple juice box so I told her when she went poo poo she could have it...and of course she did! And that was the first thing she asked for! So excited!!
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