The Boy is Healed!

Thank you, Jesus! Philip must have just had a 12-hour bug or something as today, he is perfectly normal. After dinner last night, his temp was 100.4 and we intended to give him some Tylenol before bed but forgot. I felt his forehead and cheeks with my hand before going to bed myself last night and he felt cool. This morning his temp was 99.8F rectally (equivalent to 98.8F orally). Yeah, we can go to church for dinner tonight and Bible study tomorrow morning.

Another Day to Rest

Well, I suppose God knew I needed another day to rest because He changed my plans today. I got up at 6:15am and got ready as Philip and I were headed to our MOPS meeting this morning. MOPS is a wonderful organization for Moms of PreSchools (hence the name) and I always love our meetings (the speakers, the friendships, and the food!). Plus Philip has now gotten used to being in the nursery these 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month and looks forward to seeing his MOPS friends.

Well, as I said plans changed when I went to get him up at 7:00am and he was burning up. I pray he doesn't have the flu but we sat on the couch and watched Nickelodeon all morning. He was miserable early this morning (101.2F fever at 7:30am) and just wanted me to sit beside him. Took Motrin at 9:00am and by 10:00am, he was back to his normal self. Unfortunately it only lasted until 11:00am. At 12:30pm, his fever was up to 102.9F. A dose of Tylenol at 1:00pm and asleep on Daddy's chest on the couch as Matthew had come home for lunch. Philip's sleeping now in his bed and to my bed is where I'm headed after I finish this post.


Thought it would be a good chance to recap our really nice weekend. Friday, Matthew came home and as we awaited a home-cooked meal from some friends, he and Philip enjoyed the warm "preview of spring" weather.


Saturday was a day for errands, both to-do list stuff and fun stuff. We got Philip's hair cut all the while bribing him to sit still by telling him what was coming next. We made a pit-stop at a friend's house first. I had advertised in our MOPS newsletter that I was looking to buy a double stroller. God provided and a girl emailed me saying she was looking to get rid of her's. We thought it was great and especially liked getting a really decent double stroller for only $50!


Finally we headed to Grandma's house (repeatedly reminding Philip that Grandma is at Hannah's house right now) to fly his new Backyardigans kite. He was given the kite by Mollie and Michael for his birthday. I didn't know how it would go, but Matthew is a secret master kite flyer!!

It was fun watching it soar up in the sky. Saturdays are so much fun when we spend them together as a family. I look forward to how our baby girl will add to the fun.

Thanks for praying for Philip to feel better and that Lord-willing Matthew and I will stay healthy. A quick side note... I had my 30-week baby check-up yesterday and that FFN test came back negative this time! Either it was a false positive last time or it can change. I'll still be trying to get a lot of rest and drink lots of water. No need not to enjoy this slower pace before our daughter is born and we really become sleep-deprived!

For the Star Wars fans!

Just one last video today. This was just too funny not to get on video. I don't know what started it, but Star Wars fans will understand!


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"Mommy, esercise!"

That was Philip's request on Saturday (he can't pronounce the "x" in exercise). Prior to being told to slow down, I was wanting a way to increase my energy level so I ordered the "Denise Austin Fit & Firm" pregnancy work-out video from Amazon. Philip and I exercised every day two weeks ago and he really enjoyed watching the "exercise girls" as we called them. When he asked to exercise, I couldn't refuse him and got quite a laugh out of watching him exercise! There's also a part in which Denise Austin leads a routine with "a latin flair!" That leads Philip to walk around the house saying, "Mambo, cha cha, mambo, cha cha!" I know he doesn't know what that means so he must just like saying it. Go exercise boy!


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Love to hear Philip speak...

Our little man is still learning new words almost everyday. His new thing is to just start listing off similar items or what he did earlier that day. "Football, baseball, soccer ball, golf ball..." Thinking about what he did at Bible Study, "Trucks, cars, outside, sit down, lay down, trucks, cars, animals, cars..." And the best part is that he knows I LOVE to watch him do this so he really gets into it by tilting his head and glancing sideways up at the ceiling. Too cute!!

I suppose between Sunday School and Bible study, Philip has also learned to sing "Jesus Loves Me". That will melt any mother's heart who is praying for her child to one day receive salvation in Jesus. His ability to count and recite the alphabet is also coming along rather well. Here's a little clip a normal day as Philip wanders around playing and singing.


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Welcome to our niece Madeline!

Yesterday, Matthew's brother Jonathan and wife Lori welcomed their second daughter into the world. Madeline Grace was born after a very short labor and delivery (albeit Lori was having slight contractions all Saturday night and Sunday at home). Her water broke at 1:00pm on Monday morning, they dropped 2-year-old Hannah off with their pastor and his wife, and headed to the hospital.

Madeline was born around 5:30pm after an easy delivery (5 minutes of pushing!). She is a healthy girl weighing 9 lbs. 2 oz. and 20" long! We are so excited you are here, little Madeline and can't wait to meet you. Unfortunately, I can't leave town until our baby is born so it will be a few months. Thankfully, Matthew's mom Ruth Ann is driving up to visit this Thursday to stay for a week.

You can click Lori's blog in my side bar for the complete story.

Taking it day by day

Thankfully, I'm still pregnant. This Baby Girl needs to stay with me as long as she can so I'm taking it much slower and just going from day to day. I spoke with Lesa, the mom of one of the girls in my 10th grade Sunday School class, the other night. She works in our hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit so I knew she would be able to tell me how serious this situation really is. She did say I should do everything I can to keep the baby with me for at least 6 more weeks. She said there is a huge difference in 28 weeks along and 34 weeks along. She reassured me that our daughter has a really good chance anytime past now but it would just mean a longer time for her to remain in the hospital. What broke my heart the most is when she said there are some bonding issues associated with a baby being in NICU. As apprehensive as I am about learning to love a second child under normal circumstances, I cannot imagine having to visit her for only short periods of each day and then leave her all alone in the hospital to come home. I also don't think Philip would be allowed in there so he would be so confused and that would be an extra burden on me having to split my time between them.

Yesterday, my mom spent most of the day at my house. She really helped reorganize Philip's dresser and closet. There is actually space for baby girl clothes now! I sat on Philip's bed while she worked and then I took a nap while she cleaned my kitchen. I praise the Lord for my mom. God works ALL things for the good of those who love Him, and I thank Him that she is feeling well enough to take some time now to take care of me. It's also a great way for her to get out of her own house and still feel comfortable with having my bathroom just steps away. She might come over once or twice a week which will do us both a lot of good. She was just really concerned that I wasn't taking the preterm labor report seriously enough. I thank her and everyone else who have been so concerned about me and have helped me to see that protecting my unborn daughter is definitely worth me putting my life on hold for 2-3 months.

Thank you for your prayers. I did have 7 contractions yesterday, but thankfully they were spaced out over 12 hours. It will be a little frustrating to feel this way for 12 more weeks, but I'll take it if it means bringing home our sweet baby girl straight from the hospital when I leave.

Prayer for Baby Sister to stay put!

Today I had my 28-week OB appointment. Baby Sister is looking great and growing stronger by the day. We had Philip with us today and I think he enjoyed watching her on the ultrasound monitor. The tech was scanning over her feet and Philip said, "Baby Sister running." (We've unofficially named her "Baby Sister".) However, you might have read my prior post about how they are monitoring me closely as I went into preterm labor with Philip. Well, thankfully they decided to go this route because today my FFN test came back positive.

The FFN test is done like a pap smear and looks for a certain protein. This protein is present in the early weeks of pregnancy and works as a glue to help seal off the uterus and cervix. It should not show up again until after 37 weeks. In high-risk pregnancies, this test is done because if the protein begins to show up, it can indicate that your body might be in the early stages of labor (a problem before 37 weeks as the baby is not developed completely). I have been having a few contractions here and there along with back pain and nauseau. The tough part is the nurse who called me didn't really give me any guidance other than, "Call us immediately if you have 4 contractions within an hour."

I was talking with Matthew about what things I should or shouldn't do, and he has the greatest attitude and always says, "Don't you believe that the baby will come out only when God says it's time?" I do believe God has me and our child completely in His care, but I wish I could have a check list of do's and don't. I suppose it's just an overall "Don't overdo it and get a little extra rest." I pray she'll stay with me for at least two more months. I guess I've been a little overconfident because even though I did go into labor with Philip at 32 weeks, the weekend in the hospital was actually quite relaxing and then he was still born 4 days after his due date. This time, I would like to avoid the hospital "dress rehearsal" if at all possible because we now have a 2-year-old Philip whom I love caring for each day as his mommy.

Thank you for your prayers for us. My next appointment is February 26. Lord-willing, I can just slide from appointment to appointment, staying rested, and deliver a healthy baby girl in April or May.

Philip goes to Bible Study

I am excited to announce that my 2-year-old attends his own Bible Study class! I attend Bible Study Fellowship on Thursday mornings. It is a wonderful, indepth, international (classes meeting all around the world studying the same Scripture passages) Bible Study which just happens to have a Children's Program for kids age 2-5 (there is a program for school-age children at the evening classes). One of the rules is that the child must have his 2nd birthday before enrolling so Philip turned 2 on Jan. 22 and began Bible study that Thursday, Jan. 25.

I was hesitant as to how he would do, but he LOVES it! Praise the Lord, Philip just came through a separation-anxiety phase and now is pretty content to play with new toys and kids. God also worked this out perfectly at BSF by allowing me to be an usher this year. The study starts at 9:10am, but I am required to arrive around 8:30am to help set up. This allows Philip 20 minutes to mill around the sanctuary before it's time to walk him to his classroom. This also means he is one of the first (if not the first) children to arrive. A lot of his apprehension came from us dropping him off at the last minute to a room of noisy kids. He does much better arriving to an empty room full of toys thinking they are all there just for him.

Lastly, I am so excited for him to be in this Bible Study as he is learning both spiritual truths and also how to work well on a structured schedule. BSF is quite structured (Matthew says "communist" in regard to the amount of rules and regulations!) but everything has a reason. The children's program is far from a babysitter in that these children are learning Bible stories (the Bible is passed around and each child places a finger on the Bible verse while the teacher helps him or her recite it--these are 2-year-old!) and even singing hymns! There is also inside and outside play time, snack time, quiet time (each child lays flat on a towel on the floor for 2-3 minutes), and music time. I believe if Philip continues in this program until he is 5, he will be surely ready to encounter the trials of public school from both the worldly aspects to the classroom structure.

We're excited to know his friend Emma will begin attending next week! Maybe spending time in Bible study together, those two will grow closer as friends as they are under an arranged marriage contract. (Just kidding, JEB!)

Potty Training 101

Philip has signed up for Potty Training 101 and he's doing a better good job. Although he has managed to figure out to cheat a little. As I've mentioned in previous posts, we were letting him run around with only a shirt on after changing his diaper and asking that he stay dry. He does really well at staying dry these days and is actually coming to tell me when he needs to potty after being without a diaper for some time. We run back to his bathroom and he sits on his little potty. It usually doesn't take long, a big smile comes across him face and he stands up to show me the pee-pee in his potty. I then lift the toilet lid so he can dump his little pot into it. I must have told him to be careful the first few times because now EVERY time he is dumping the pot, he does move in slow motion and whispers, "Careful, careful" to himself. It's really cute.

Well, Matthew and I became really excited when Friday evening before dinner, Philip came running into the kitchen saying, "Potty!" I walked with him to the bathroom thinking he had to go and was surprised to see pee-pee already in his little potty. He went all by himself! After he saw that I saw what he had done, he began saying, "Prize!" In this training process, we decided going pee-pee in the potty deserved two chocolate chips. He was given his prize and told to play until dinner. Not 5 minutes later, Philip runs up the hall again saying, "Prize!" Yes, he had used the potty again so I gave him 2 more chocolate chips. What do you know, 5 minutes after that he was asking for the same thing! That little stinker got 6 chocolate chips within 30 minutes. Matthew and I knew Philip was scamming the system, but we wanted to keep the reward system up thinking it was motivating. We proceeded to begin eating dinner when Philip asked to go potty. Matthew said no and asked him to hold it until after dinner was over. Matthew said he thought that was reasonable as Philip had just gone pee-pee 3 times and it definitely wasn't an emergency.

More excitement came as we headed to Sam's Club after dinner. Philip asked to go potty in the middle of the store. I told him to hold it as I carried him to the bathroom. We got to the Women's Room, into the stall and sat him on the toilet. He went pee-pee! The toilet automatically flushed behind him as I was getting him situated but it didn't scare him too much. He kept going after it quieted down. We joined Matthew in the store and told him the good news. However, 10 minutes later Philip said he needed to potty again. Same thing: went to the bathroom, sat him on the toilet and he pee'd. It was a great accomplishment in my mind, but we're just trying to figure out how to get him to let all of the urine out at one time so we won't have these repeat potty runs.

So far he hasn't asked to go potty for poopy and would rather just do it in his diaper. We're considering what our next step should be. Pull-ups? Going straight for underpants? Continuing with the hit or miss pottying until Baby Sister is born (some people say an older child might regress with the changing circumstances)? Overall, Philip is showing great improvement. Other than trying to sit on the potty as a chance for "prize" or as a stall tactic before naptime, I am very happy that he has no problem willingly sitting on the potty.

I'll keep you updated.

Philip's Funny Boy/Girl Weekend

This past weekend, Matthew, Philip and I drove up to Monroe, NC to visit some long time friends. Steve (our former youth pastor), Tracy, Vassar and Mathis have been our friends for about 7 years and we even kept the boys for a weekend several years ago. They just moved to the Charlotte area a year ago so I had been wanting to see their house and visit their church and a weekend finally arrived in which we could go.

We arrived Friday night at 8:30pm and Philip was somewhat shy and clung to Matthew for a while. That quickly passed as he realized how cool the boys' toys were. Vassar (age 10) and Mathis (age 7) were more than happy to show Philip how the remote control cars worked. Saturday morning, we enjoyed going to Mathis' Upward basketball game, breakfast at Bojangles, and then Vassar's Upward basketball game. It was funny watching Philip watching the games as he cheered, "Go boys!" He doesn't have the whole pronunciation down yet so he says, "back-et-ball." Cute.

The rest of the day was spent going for lunch (a yummy, Mexican restaurant), hanging out around the house (Philip took a good nap on his travel airmattress which he slept well on on weekend), eating great homemade chili for dinner, putting Philip to bed (Mathis read him before bed books; it was amazing watching a new reader sound out the words and even funnier when Philip would shout out the word if Mathis couldn't figure it out! Guess we're doing a good job reading to Philip!) and then watching "Facing The Giants" before going to bed at 10:30pm.

Sunday morning came early as we would be attending Sunday School with Tracy at 8:00am and service at 9:30am. I told her we could do whatever they normally do. I'm somewhat glad that's not our schedule every Sunday! Their church, First Baptist Indian Trail, is awesome and big. The people I spoke with were all so friendly but being new, I felt pretty lost the whole time. We dropped Philip off at 8:10am in his nursery class and for the next few hours, I really couldn't have told you where he was. He did look a little worn out when we picked him up at 10:45am (red, splotchy face), but after getting back to Steve and Tracy's house, he was back to his normal self. He and Matthew had fun walking around the yard with the boys and Philip learned how to climb on a rock pile and get dirty!

We left at 2:00pm as Steve was really busy and had to get back to church to begin preparations for his Junior High Superbowl fellowship. It was awesome seeing them again and so great having friends who you can pick right back up with after not having seen for some time. We'll definitely have to visit again sometime.

Switching gears... after arriving home, we headed over to our current youth pastor Jason's house as his wife and my friend Julie had invited us to watch the Superbowl. It was a good time, but I didn't get to watch much of the game or my favorite part: commercials (the ones I saw, weren't that impressive). My mind was too much on keeping up with Philip and his "girl" part of the weekend. Jason and Julie's house is just the opposite of Steve and Tracy's as they are parents to Sara Beth (age 7) and Brittany (age 5). I didn't think to bring toys for Philip so he made himself at home playing Barbie (a.k.a. lots of tiny pieces; Barbie shoes had to go on top of the dresser), baby dolls, and tea party. I wish I had brought my camera as he came running into the livingroom with a flowery headband pushed back on his head and blonde hair sticking every which way. Again, cute!

We had a great weekend with both sets of friends and I'm glad to know my son is so adaptable.

Praise The Lord!

Mom's appointment was such an answer to prayer. She did not have any urine in her bladder when the nurse took the ultrasound! Praise God. This means the medicine she was on for the last month has worked. She'll be taking Flomax for three more months to make sure the bladder continues to empty properly. I'm so thankful that God is healing her one step at a time, and this was a BIG step!

Mom's Urologist Appointment

Tomorrow at 2:00pm, Mom has a follow-up appointment with her urologist. She saw him a month ago and was told that her bladder was not emptying like it normally should. This is due to being overly stretched after her first surgery in January 2006. For this last month, Mom has been taking some medicine which should help the bladder regain proper function. I ask that you please pray that she will receive a positive test result tomorrow. We know God is able to do ALL things and that NOTHING is beyond His control. It would be a tremendous blessing for Mom's bladder to be working normally tomorrow as it would be one less thing for her to worry about. She is still dealing daily with frequent and often painful bowel movements. I try to keep encouraging her and we know that she is healing.

"For God works all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

Philip's 2 year check-up stats

Philip's check-up was on Tuesday so last night I felt bad about forgetting to post about it and giving all the details of Baby Sister's appointment. His pediatrician said he is looking great. I told her I am so blessed to have a healthy child as I have friends who have children with serious things going on with them. I do praise Jesus daily for Philip's health and just how smart, sweet and funny he continues to be.

Anyway at the appointment we found out that Philip is still proportionally petite: weight 25.1 lbs (15%) and height 32.9 inches (15%); but that he still has a big head at 19.6 inches (75%)! It's all those brains he inherited from his Daddy! I was told his vocabulary is excellent which his doctor could notice for herself. In the middle of her questions, he just shouts out "Dr. Shelly!" She thought it was great that he knew her name. He also told her who was in Mommy's belly, "Baby Sister!"

I always feel like doctors are trying to get you to say something wrong so I'm relieved when I hear "Philip looks to be right on track." She also gave me comforting advice in saying that 2 1/2 is the magical age for potty-training (it just clicks for most kids then) and for Philip that's the middle of summer (perfect time for running through the house in just a shirt!). However, we're still visiting the potty a couple times a day because I'd LOVE for him to be training before our daughter is born. Dr. Shelly also said that most people find bringing the second child home is a lot easier on the first child than expected. She did advise that we make Philip feel a big part of it (say she's his baby and ask him to get things for her and even help bathe her) and to change his life as little as possible. Thank the Lord we have our little man on a pretty regular schedule. The hard part will be in us sticking with that schedule.

Just to share his cute personality and imagination, here is what happened just before naptime today (also I never want to forget it!). Philip was lying on the livingroom floor with a throw pillow as he does a lot of times. This time the pillow was on top of him (on his back) so I put my foot on it and gave him a gentle shake. He smiled and as I walked to the couch, I heard him say something. I looked back and said, "What did you say?" "I'm a TURTLE!" he said and began crawling with the pillow on his back! It was so precious. One of those moments where I wish my house was wired with cameras like the Big Brother show so I could have everything on tape!