Tuesday's Travels

Austin and I often had a friendly banter back and forth about who had it worse in our moving arrangements: me on the plane for 6 hours with a 13 month old, 1 month old or him in the car for 4 days with a 5 year old, a dog and a cat. (My mom was with me for help, his step dad with him) Obviously we both think we have the upper hand in that argument, but let me plead my case a little bit.

Flying with kids isn't easy. First there is just the fact that you need a LOT of stuff. You need a lot for one kid, let alone 2. And when packing for a permanent move, the segregation of items between 'need immediately', 'need in Houston but can wait a week', and 'don't need until killeen' ... It becomes a daunting task to sort it and inevitably it defaults to too much being pack for the immediate trip.

Here is Yaya with our smarte (aka life saving) carte (the 'e' is necessary why??) and 2 of our carry ons. Notice the cooler in front of Yaya? Yeah...that baby was packed full of liquid gold. If you don't know what liquid gold is, ask a mom of an infant. We had 5 checked bags, or 4 plus a cooler, and 4 carry ons plus purses. 

I make traveling with 2 look stylish huh? It didn't last long, so luckily we took our pictures first thing.

I have a word of advice to anyone traveling with an infant: if it isn't too much trouble, take the baby out of the carrier before walking through the metal detector. Apparently if you have a carrier on they have to swipe your hands with some sort of wand (For what? Traces of...gun powder????) but if you just carry the baby you are free to go through as normal. Would have been good to know before I waited 15 minutes for my hand swiping.

The airport was fairly uneventful, mostly because we got to our gate 10 minutes before we lined up for boarding. You can thank our search for milk and my hand swiping for that.

Another word of advice: when coffee shops don't sell cartons of milk, ask them to warm the milk via a warm water bath rather than steaming the milk. Unless of course you already know your kid likes steamed milk, which we found out mine does not. Oops. Only way to learn that lesson is to offer said steamed milk 8 times and have it end up on every garment anyone happens to be wearing.

Our flight was scheduled to be 1 hour and 5 minutes to Vegas, then a stop but no plane change for 40 minutes, then a 3 hour flight to Houston.

What really happened was it took 1 hour 20 minutes to get to Vegas, we were then told we needed to change plans unexpectedly, an unplanned layover of 2 hours, and a 3 hour flight to Houston. No big deal.

The change of plans actually turned out to be ok. Charles wore himself out and slept almost the entirety of the second flight; he was really a dream. And of course sweet Loretta was an angel.

So - life in Texas begins! A few more key transitions to come, but we are one step closer to our new normal.

Moving Monday: Monterey

In April of 2012 I wrote a farewell to Colorado post. In my memory it was a really funny post, but I just went back and was very disappointed at my humor. So, I'm not going to link to it and I don't recommend you waste your time. Basically, I wrote about the silly things I had learned while living in Colorado and ended with the greatest lesson being that God had amazing plans for unexpected friendships. I ended the blog foreshadowing into my life a bit, wondering if I would one day be writing a similar story of our lives in California and I quoted scripture from Jeremiah when God asks, 'is anything too hard for me?'.

Man. I had noooooo idea.

So, to start, I'll just note some of the fun facts I've learned in my 3 years here which I never would have expected. In no particular order...

All of the songs about California and the images of sunny beaches with bikini bathers are very misleading. The central coast is rarely sunny, definitely not often warm, and you'll find more people in coats than bikinis.

70 degrees is warm, and 55 is cold. 

There really are republicans here. Really! I never would have thought.

But hippies definitely still exist. Like, for real.

I learned more about farming here than in 22 years in Texas. I'm a little ashamed of that actually, but I had no clue I was moving to the agricultural hub that is referred to as the 'salad bowl'.

Along those lines, I will never taste a strawberry as flavorful as at Central Coast farmers' markets.

Traffic in a slow paced smaller town can be just as frustrating as big city traffic. Either that, or I'm in for a ruuuuuuude awakening very soon.

In 3 years, I wished I had an air conditioner about 3 times. Maybe 5. And our heater was turned on even less.

But, despite the social, cultural, and climactic lessons learned here, my bigger shock of all came in the fact that I was completely accurate 3 years ago: California became my home in ways I never thought imaginable and leaving is no easier now than it was last time. 

I have been blessed beyond measure - we have been blessed beyond measure - in our lives here. We've learned about professionalism. I had a great job with some very good mentors and role models, and austin grew even more in his leadership skills as a platoon sergeant to 80 soldiers at a time . We've learned more about parenthood. And not just by having 2 more kids! We've learned more about ourselves, we've learned a ton about marriage and we've grown our family by 2 more babies. Most importantly, we have grown in our faith and love of Christ. It is through Him that the rest has been possible. I came to California thinking I would never have a home here like we did in Colorado, and in a lot of ways we didn't. But in some ways, this is more home than anywhere else has been to date. I realized there is no need to compare or try to morph a new home into the mold of an old home, all I have to do is try my best to keep my heart and mind open to what is next. I'm incredibly sad to walk away and I'm a little afraid of what's ahead. But I can confidently say we are going where God has lead us and He has things in store there which I can't even fathom. It's just not easy to leave all of this.

If ever you find yourself in Monterey, California I have some great recommendations for tourist spots. I know incredible people who can show you around and whom you'd be blessed to know. I have connections at the best accounting firm in the county. And above all else, I can point you in the direction of the most incredible, Spirit filled and life changing church.

It is with sadness, excitement, anxiety and great expectations that I say goodbye. For now. Just until we meet again. Thanks Monterey, we are truly Better Than Blessed.

William Wednesday

Man, my boy is a pretty freaking awesome big brother!

Life is about to change for this guy. A lot. He's graduating from preschool, we are moving, and he'll start kindergarten in the fall. 

He's a full-on reader. He can read anything. He's pretty solid with simple addition and subtraction. His geography knowledge surpasses mine (though that's no feat). He is incredibly smart, which is both a blessing and a curse. We aren't quite sure how we will keep him engaged when he's so ahead in certain areas. 

He may very well be the pickiest eater in the world and he may have a life goal of arguing more than any other kid in the history of ever. But man, I could not be more proud of that kid, he is incredible. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as he goes through some exciting but difficult transitions coming up.

Or maybe just keep me in mind. Let's be honest, who is the first day of kindergarten really going to be hard for?

Efficiency

In honor of my due date tomorrow, I thought it was about time I introduce Loretta Loving to the blog! 

My favorite tag line when someone comments on how my body doesn't know how to be pregnant for 40 weeks is, 'I'm just that efficient. What most women take 40 weeks to do, I can do in 37.' In reality, though, my early birthed children have gotten a little more complicated each time and I do wish Loretta had been able to last a little longer inside. Regardless, she's here now and she's just perfect.

We don't really know what happened that day or what caused her to come early. I'm still a little baffled that I've had 3 babies, all 37ish weeks, and all early for very different reasons. I'm sitting in my living room right now (in a lawn chair - more on that another day) eating take out from the best local Chinese restaurant, remembering the last time we ate there: Tuesday May 12 we ended up with an impromptu date night so we decided to go out for a quick dinner. I wasn't completely comfortable the entire time and as we got in the car after dinner I winced in pain and thought, 'I hope the next three weeks aren't like this!' I had no idea what was ahead.

Wednesday morning I woke up feeling very off. I was having fairly regular contractions and some pain, so Austin sternly instructed me to go to the hospital. It was somewhat against my will because I thought I knew what would happen - and I was right. I got there, was monitered, was given a shot to stop everything, and told to go home and rest. Waste of time, I thought. Plus, I hate the idea that I may be 'that person' going in for  no reason! So, I went home, slept a few more hours, and spent the day relaxing and doing nothing. 'Surely I can go back to work tomorrow' I thought.

Tomorrow happened to be the day austin was scheduled to fly to Texas with William, so not only was I determined to not have a baby that day, I was determined he was going on that trip. He was concerned Wednesday night (something about my pain being written all over my face every time I moved) so I promised him that if anything worsened I'd go to the hospital but otherwise it's just how the last few weeks would play out.

At 4:00 Thursday morning Austin let me know things had worsened, despite my best poker face, and told me we needed to go. I said I could call a cab (we had 2 sleeping kiddos after all, and who wants to disturb a sleeping friend to watch their kids for another useless trip to the hospital??) but Austin looked at me like a crazy person and said he wasn't sending his pregnant wife in a taxi cab anywhere. I could either call a friend to come sit at the house and let him drive, or I could be extra dramatic and take an ambulance. I took the first option.

When we got to the hospital the nurse didn't tell me much right away, she just kept monitoring me and asking me to reposition periodically. I told her all about Austin's trip and the things we had to do before Loretta could be born, and she listened so sweetly. Looking back I think she knew the likelihood of Loretta being born that day, but she entertained my controlling and stubborn notion that I had any idea what was to happen. Time kept ticking, contractions kept coming, and I kept referring to Austin's flight and what time we needed to be discharged. He left to get the boys ready and take Charles to daycare, and he came back with William around 7:30. At that point the nurse had hinted at the idea that the doctor might be coming by, and he might want me to stay later into the day. She even casually asked if the Texas trip could be rescheduled. I looked over at William's face and my heart just broke. How could I tell him that his long awaited trip with dada was going to be cancelled due to my inability to hold a baby in full term? I couldn't do it. I even told the nurse (Anne is her name) so. She just smiled.

Shortly before the doctor got there Anne let me know that my heart rate had been 'slightly' elevated since I arrived, my blood pressure was high, and Loretta's heart rate was high. Not only was it high, but her patterns didn't look great. I don't know what that means, but I know it 'isn't great'. My doctor showed up around 8:30 and let me know I was definitely in early labor and things definitely didn't look great. Did I mention it wasn't my doctor? It was his new backup who had never delivered in Monterey. I loved him, so no worries, but at the time I kept laughing at the irony that I specifically picked Dr Alexander to have Dr Alexander - but hey, what do I know?

Around this time I conceded on the Texas trip, but was still hopeful that the various ideas to calm the 2 of us down would work. Dr Feges had a few ideas up his sleeve of how to buy ourselves a week or so. I was 36.5 weeks and if we could get to 37.5 things could look a lot better.  But, right before I was going to eat some food and take a pill my heart rate unexplainably jumped up to 160 and Loretta's jumped over 200. Dr Feges came back, took away my food, and told me it was time to get her out. I had developed a fever and signs of infection, our heart rates continued to climb, my blood pressure kept getting worse - no one knew why, but they all agreed it was just time. We rushed a friend over to take a very confused William to preschool and they got me into the OR once Austin was back. Surgery went well and she was out before I even understood the risk at hand.

The rest of our time wasn't exactly smooth sailing. We took up residency in the family birth center, I had a few disappointing interactions and experiences with some nurses, Loretta had some blood sugar, eating, and jaundice issues, and I spent more time alone than I would have liked while Austin took care of the boys, the house and other arrangements. But, I also had lots of amazing friends and family come through with calls, visits, amazingly fragrant flowers, and endless prayers. I had more positive experiences with nurses than negative by far(besides a few bad stories I could share, the nurses at the hospital here are phenomenal), and though we were there 5 nights which felt like an eternity, at the end of it I got to come home with the most precious baby girl I've ever seen.

The last 3 weeks have been insane. Insane! I could write more about it but really it's about 10 posts worth of information so I'll have to leave some for another day. We've been incredibly busy adjusting and learning while also getting things in order for our move - but despite the busy busy time, we have been so blessed with a sense of peace through it all. 

God had a beautiful plan written out for this little life and He intended for it to begin exactly when it did. I can't wait to see what He has in store next!