Josiah's Birth Story

On Sunday morning, September 19, I woke up at 2am with some light contractions. I started timing them and they were 4-6 minutes apart. I woke Micah up, and we called the hospital, then we headed out. When we got to the hospital we went to triage and they monitored my contractions and started my penicillin IV that I needed. At 4am I was 3-4 cm dilated, so we knew we still had a ways to go. When we went to the hospital with Andrew we were already 7-8 cm dilated, and this time around I wanted to get to the hospital before that point, so I was happy that we had time to get settled in. When we got a room we dropped off our bags and started walking. We walked for about 45 minutes, and came back to the room since my contractions were getting harder. At 6am I got in the jacuzzi tub, and it was wonderful! The warm water helped with the pain of the contractions. After an hour in the tub I felt like things were progressing fast, and the contractions were at the point where I had to close my eyes and focus on breathing and relaxing through them. And at this point my midwife was done delivering another baby, and was now able to check me. I was now 8cm dilated and 90% effaced, so things were going pretty fast. At 7:30 I felt like pushing, and Josiah was born at 8am.
It only ended up being a 6 hour labor, and I couldn't have planned it any more perfect than it was. I ended up getting the midwife I was hoping for (I went to a practice that has 6 midwives who rotate call). She got off at 8am, and Josiah was born at 8:04. This time around I wanted to get to use the tub and have a more relaxing hospital experience before I went into full blown labor, and we were able to do that. God is so good! And Josiah was born exactly one month before my mom's birthday.

Our nurse Vivian was wonderful, and very helpful.
Laura, our midwife,

Our cute little bundle has arrived.

Andrew's Room Makeover

Before Pictures


In preparation for the arrival of baby, we moved some rooms around. We moved Andrew out of the nursery, and made the guest bedroom his room. Then added the guest bed in the nursery. Our friend Michael painted Andrew's room for us, so that he didn't have to have a yellow room. Now it is a nice baby blue. Andrew LOVES his big boy room. Ever since we moved him into it we have had a much easier time keeping him in his toddler bed for nap time and bed time. He loves showing off his room to friends who come to the house. Now we would like to get some rub on decals of cars, trains, tractors, etc. to put on the walls.

After Pictures

The Nursery

Here are some pictures of our nursery all put together. Of course there are a few extra things in the room right now. We are trying to sell some things on Craigslist, so they are stashed on the bed in the nursery for now. But the crib is put together with all the bedding, the closet is filled and the changing table is all ready, and even has some new cloth diapers washed and ready to go.

Weekend Getaway

Recently Micah and I were able to go away for a night while my parents watched Andrew. One of Micah's co-workers was gracious enough to offer us the use of his mother-in-law's vacation house in Clearwater, which is a little tiny town past Enumclaw on the way to Crystal Mt. On our way out of town we stopped at Trader Joe's to pick up some fun, easy things to make for dinner. We had mini crab cakes, rice with scallops, peas and mushrooms in a cheese sauce and baby lava cakes for dessert. We spent our time relaxing, talking about how our lives would change with two little boys, and going over expectations for after baby's arrival. It was a nice time to get away and have some good conversation before our life gets really hectic.

Master Bedroom Makeover

Before Pictures

Recently we changed our bedroom a bit. We had our friend Michael, who is a painter, do some work for us (watch for more posts on the other work he did around our house). One thing we had him do was to take down the wallpaper in our room, and then paint the wall a darker tan. We slightly changed the colors in our room. They were tan, cream and green and now they are tan, cream and blue. We got rid of our green comforter, and replaced it with a duvet cover that is blue, tan and cream stripped. We also got a new dresser from IKEA. It is the one that matches our bed, and I have been wanting it for a looooong time. We still want to get the matching 6 drawer upright dresser, but that will have to wait. And on the wall with our bed we want to hang 3 pictures that have a cream frame and blue matting. Another thing we still want to do is get some blue drapes to cover our lovely foil covered window. :) Our window looks like this so that Micah can sleep during the day when he is on graveyard shift.

After Pictures

Bike Ride with Daddy

A few days ago Andrew got to ride in the bike trailer and go for a ride with Daddy. He loved it. When he came home all he could talk about was the bike trailer. And it was fun for him to have some Daddy time.

Shakespeare in the Park

One of the things we did to celebrate Micah's birthday was to go to a Shakespeare in the Park play. We ended up getting some Thai food to go, and ate it at the park while we waited for the play to start. The play we saw was As You Like It. Neither one of us had read it or seen it before. It was a fun experience getting to watch it performed outdoors. Next time I think I will bring a chair though, and we hope there will be a next time since we really enjoyed it, and the best part was it was free.

Picking Berries

A few weeks ago we went in search of some yummy blackberries. We were able to pick quite a few, over 10 cups worth. We found this great little spot in the valley near a business park. One of my favorite things about summer is berries. I was sad when our marrionberry bushes didn't produce as many berries as last year, so Micah suggested we go find some free blackberries. I like to have berries in the freezer for when I feel like making some muffins, so now I have a good supply.

37 Weeks

We are now only about 3 weeks away from meeting our little one. We are getting very excited! Everything is ready for his arrival. Both Micah and I have been in "nesting" mode the last week or so. The nursery is ready, all the baby stuff is down out of the attic and cleaned and washed, the grass is mowed, the cars are washed and vacuumed, the clothes are in the dresser, and there are meals in the freezer. Now we are just waiting to see when he decides to make his debut.