Christmas Decor

Everyone has their own personal preference on when they want to begin celebrating the Christmas season. My sister and I discussed and agreed that we think it's best to put our decorations up on the first of December. I feel like many people just forget about thanksgiving. Let me rephrase that. Many big corporations drive through the Thanksgiving festivities to get ahead in the materialism of Christmas. Recently my husband has made me see that Christmas is only for a short month ( not even the full month) and for the people who love Christmas, that is way too short for a season that comes once a year.

This year I am giving in a little and started to listen to Christmas music and watch Christmas movies a day after Thanksgiving. We also wanted to start some traditions for our family such as reading scripture pertaining to Jesus' birth and doing advent. I never heard of advent before and I am so excited to start it. I have been looking on Pinterest for inspiration and attained some ideas to work off of. Most people listed fun activities to do with their families. They are nice, but don't really touch any spiritual aspects. There is one person who listed scripture for each day of advent which is awesome. Somehow I want to put little bit of everything together and tweak it as our kids grow older.
I love the holiday season (when treated correctly) and spending time with family, but most of all it reminds me how much God has blessed me.

An attitude of gratitude

Thanksgiving is the time to be thankful and I certainly have a lot to be thankful for this year. A beautiful baby, a wonderful husband, and good family and friends...what more could I ask for?  I've been trying to catch up with my devotional app and went back a couple months for a devotion that is actually quite perfect for the season. I was taken to Psalms 100 and was reminded that there are many things that we can complain about on a daily basis such as long lines and bad traffic. What we need to remember is that we need to be thankful for the little things and carry that spirit around with us instead of the spirit of complaining. Instead of being upset of the traffic be thankful for the vehicle that you have to help you get from point A to B. Also when praying, we should thank God for the little things too. Things such as being able to wake up that day or being able to get ready for work.

I am thankful for a husband that is doing work and school to better himself and the family. I am also thankful for a beautiful baby boy that we have been blessed with. On top of that, I am thankful for the abundance of family and friends that have been a big helping hand at every life milestone David and I have been through. It makes me ponder about the many others that don't have friends and family or that have lost a loved one. I am blessed beyond measure and give God praise!

Time Is Going By Fast!

I can't believe its already been a month since Julien came into the world. In my head I keep singing the song "Sunrise, Sunset". "...wasn't it yesterday when they ..were.. small...". I love that movie! Seriously though! My little man is getting so big. I can literally see changes happening over night.  For instance, his fingers keep getting fuller and bigger every time I look at them. On thursday night he actually started interacting with David and was smiling at the game they were playing together. His first (real) smile! Things are actually getting better now with feedings and sleeping. Last night was one of the best nights we've had. I didn't have to struggle at all to get Julien fed, changed, burped, and then back to bed in about half an hour. He did so well. We still have a hard time understanding some of his cries sometimes. David and I interpret some of his cries differently and that makes for a frustrating time for everyone, especially for Julien. Despite the struggle things are getting better.
We had our first outing with Julien last week on Sunday and a lot of people got to see him. Of course, for our first outing I forget the diaper bag. Luckily, Julien slept through the whole service and we got to go straight home afterwards. We took cute family pictures when we got home and had nice family time. Life is good and God has blessed us so much!

Welcome to a whole new world!

Having a baby is not all its cracked up to be. Don't get me wrong. I love Julien with all my heart. I just didn't see all the other things attached to having babies coming.Sleepless nights, crying, dirty, diapers, and even a little paranoia (worried that the baby will stop breathing). I think I remember encountering these topics before baby maybe a couple times from others, but it never really hit me until I was in the middle of it.  Even though its been hard I am learning a few things for now and the future. Through this I am learning to have more patience. Patience through feeding, making sure he is for sure asleep before putting him in the crib, waking up every couple hours, and especially in burping him. It will definitely resonate to handling patience with different things in the future. Everything listed here is normally what u. but when you are sleep deprived its seems more intense.  David has been a trooper. He has been willing to get up and help out with Julien. I feel bad though cause it is a struggle for him to do this while he still required to go to work and school. He sacrifices so much for us and I am really thankful.

We Had A Baby!

We are ecstatic! It started Monday night. We woke up to twinges of pain that got us excited. Of course it was really early, according to our due date, to be anticipating real contractions. These twinges of pain continued to get closer together and we had to call the midwife to make sure. We were told to take it easy, rest, and see if things die down.The twinges of pain indeed died down by morning and we were a little disappointed. Luckily we had an appointment the next day and were looking forward to finding out the next steps to take. Hours before our appointment the twinges of pains were now understood to be real contractions due to the fact they had not stopped coming even though they were irregular. I was checked at my appointment and I actually had progressed to 90% and 1-2 cm. dilated. We

were elated. We returned home to get as much rest as possible before it was time. We went to bed early and started to watch the movie Puss n Boots that lulled us to sleep. Shortly after, I began to experience more intense contractions as the night began to turn from Tuesday to Wednesday. By midnight my contractions had grown more severe and closer together. David and I knew it was time. We called our moms, got into the car, and drove to the birthing center where our midwife was waiting for us. We entered the room where I would eventually birth my baby and it was being warmed up by a heater, the bed was soft and inviting, and the tub was yet to be filled.  I never had the chance to truly envision how I wanted the birth to go, but I was open to anything. I first tried the tub. It started off great. The water was warm and comforting to my body and the pain...for a while. Despite the heater, I eventually started to get cold and could not have the bath any hotter  for fear of harming baby. I soon had to abandon the tub and retreat to walking around. I paced the room and nearby rooms as contractions continued to progress. David's mom, JoAnne, got to the birth center first and immediately started to encourage me. I then had to move to the bed. I was tired and my midwife encouraged me to take rests in between contractions. The small chunks of sleep were constantly followed by contractions that woke me and got me on all fours. David was constantly by my side for every contraction rubbing my back despite his exhaustion. He definitely had less sleep than I did due to excitement and I was so appreciative of him being there the whole time ready for anything that I asked. In due time my mother finally made it to the birthing center, but by then I had to really concentrate on the contractions and I couldn't even say hello. Not too long after I felt done with just enduring contractions. I wanted to know if it was time to push. The midwife checked me and told me that I had not quite made it. I was only 9 cm dilated. I felt a little frustrated. It seemed like it already had been forever going through contractions and I still was not ready to push. I started to cry. It was a little more than I expected, but I was constantly being encouraged to keep going and that I was doing a great job. Finally, it came time for me to start pushing. Of course I never did this before and didn't know what I was doing. I kept pushing as much as I could and my water finally broke. David was standing behind me and got some of the spillage too. From there I started to feel the contractions becoming more intense while had to push. It was very difficult to push through each contraction and even more difficult to push the proper way. My mom constantly was correcting my method and giving me a nice cold cloth to my forehead. At one point during the pushing a lost consciousness for a second and had to be put on oxygen. After that mishap I began to be fearful of what was going on. I kept pushing but felt no progress of the baby coming down which in turn made me feel like time was passing by with no progress. I then voiced how I felt defeated and couldn't go on anymore. Despite my plea to stop, everyone kept on encouraging me to press on and not give up. I took to heart what they said. I was already so far into this, I had to keep going. The sun was rising and I kept pushing. I eventually made it to the point where the midwife encouraged me to touch the vaginal area, to feel the baby's head. I couldn't believe I had finally got this far. I was almost there and I had to keep going for this to be over. So I pushed. I pushed so hard and as much as I could that as soon as the head came out it was hard to stop and the whole body came immediately after.

They quickly placed the baby on my chest and  a few seconds later announced that it was a boy! A boy! Not only was I wonderfully surprised by the sex, but also by the color. My baby was lighter than I expected him to be. What was even more a surprise was the color of his eyes. They ended up being a gray color which means its going to change later...another surprise. By the way we love surprises! David and I were so happy to have him out and with us. We love that he is here!

Baby coming soon...

I've been complaining about being tired and wanting to rest that I haven't thought about what was going on with my belly. David and I went to see the midwife today and found out that the baby has dropped. It's engaged! With that news I am forced into the reality that this baby is going to make it's appearance soon. I am excited yet nervous for what's ahead. This baby is coming soon. Hopefully baby fergy will wait just a little longer and be on time. Not too early and not too late. Is that too much to ask for?

1 month left

One more month left and I am dying. I am so tired lately and I am fighting it hard to keep up with everything that I have to do for class and working on top of that. I really want to just sit down or sleep for one whole day. I am fighting to keep up. I am also fighting to sleep through the night. Sleep is progressively getting harder to maintain through the night. Last night I actually woke up coughing and had to use the bathroom a few times. I don't how much longer I can take it, but at the same time I only have a couple weeks left of school. When school is done I can breathe a little better. For now I pray that God will get me through.

Psalm 23

So this week has been the hardest ever. First of all I school has started on top of work. I love school, but this semester is a little different because I am trying to finish half way through the semester in all my class. In essence, I am trying to learn everything twice as fast as the average student. On top of that my school schedule is screwing up my work schedule. The past two weeks I've been going up to my boss change something else in my schedule. I feel like its not totally my fault for all the schedule changes since I did give them my schedule before school started, but there were a couple class meetings that could not be scheduled until after school started which I had no control over. Adding to this, my body is continuing to change and it is a very big thing to adjust to. I can't sleep through the night like I used to and I can't move and do things like I used to and I get tired more easily. I am also getting a bit more clumsy and forgetful which does not help with anything.
All of this seemed not so bad until I got my permanent schedule from work. I was looking forward to working a couple days and focusing on school other days, but that was not the case. I was caught off guard when I saw I was working everyday except for one. Some days were just a couple hours, but I was on closing shift every night. Closing according to where I work is not a specific time. We could close our doors at 6pm, but if someone comes in at 5:59 we have to take them in which can mean I could be there for another hour and half to two hours. Having to close at work on top of having a full day of classes is not the ideal schedule for me and it took me over the edge. I thought seriously about quitting my job when I got that schedule. It felt kind of unfair, but at the same time I know they need extra hands at work because we already are short handed. I had felt tired coming home and just imagining that feeling every night coupled with my other tasks and frustration made me feel like everything was getting too much. My wonderful husband was there to put his arms around me and tell me that everything will be okay which helped a bit.
That night I woke up, after a few hours of sleep, wide awake thinking of quitting my job and what I do instead. I knew the best thing to do is go to God. So I clicked open the bible app on my phone and looked up a devotional. I feel like God showed me exactly what I needed. It said that sometime we ask God to make a way out of something when we just need to ask him to go through it with us. It definitely something that anybody would love to hear that are in a situation like mine, but I knew that's what I needed and tried to put it into practice and pray for God to lead me through this.
I talked to my mom with tears the next day with tears explaining my situation. She opened my eyes to see that it wasn't going to be forever. When the baby comes I won't have work or school to worry about. It'll all be about baby in a less than two months. My mom also gave me some stories about her experience too and reminded me that its not always easy, but I have to focus on the positive to get through day by day. First of all, I am thankful that God spoke to me that night letting me know that I am not alone in this. He is walking me through. Next, I am thankful to my mom for listening to my frustrations and encouraging me to keep going. I also am thankful for my wonderful husband who is always there to put his arm around me when I am feeling frustrated and also always helping with everything that I need. Without my husband, I don't know what I would do. He is always reminding me of the things I have forgotten (which are a lot). I am so glad God brought us together.

31 weeks pregnant

Pineapples are so yummy and delicious. Baby Fergy is getting bigger and moving around still. I still love being pregnant, but it is also a little different than I expected. My pregnant body is starting to adjust a lot more and make it difficult for me to do what I normally do. Its harder to bend over and sometimes I end up limping around. Its kind of funny when I think about, but at the moment it is pretty embarrassing. There are only two months left and school feels like it just started. I pray that the baby doesn't decide to come early so I am able to finish my classes like I plan.

Another fun tidbit is... my belly button! It has officially popped...kind of. I think its on the beginnings of coming fully out.

Back to school!

Finally school is back in session.  I really was nervous about starting school again and I didn't want the summer to end.  First day of classes opened my eyes to how everything was going to be just fine.
Being pregnant and taking classes is not the easiest thing, but I know it is possible. My mom was able to do it with three other kids at home already. She has inspired me to know that being in school while pregnant is possible. I just have to work hard and pray that the baby doesn't decide to come early.

Couponing success

I have recently been so frustrated with couponing. I couldn't find the right coupons to do the deals I would find online. Coupons.com was (and still is) not working on my laptop so I can't print out any coupons. The worst thing about the coupons.com dilemma was that when I would try to find coupons elsewhere online the sites would always take me back to coupons.com or would be powered by coupons.com. 
I finally realized through a conversation with my mom, that I was purchasing the wrong paper!
This whole time I was getting coupons from the Daily Sun newspaper and she was getting coupons from the Arizona Republic. My mom helped me out and gave me coupons the last two weeks and I was able to get the things I needed. I felt satisfied to be able to go shopping with coupons and succeed. I was so happy I had to post it on Facebook. 

all these for 73 cents!

There were so many times I just wanted to give up, but at the same time I strove harder to make it work and I am happy that I did. I can now save more money on this side of the budget and be able to be better prepared for baby!