I am so far behind on here!! Parker is two weeks old today and just
an absolute doll. Both boys are down right now (though I’ve heard Parker
stirring), so I’m going to try and type this quick!!

We
only had to stay in the hospital for less than 48 hours – such a
difference than the 5 day stay we had with Nathan!! It went so well – I
was feeling so much better than I did with Nathan’s birth.

Parker in his little coming home outfit!! He was so sweet and snuggly!

Jon
actually spent the second night that we were in the hospital with
Nathan at home and I think it was so good for Nathan. He came up to see
me in the hospital lobby the next day because I was just missing my big
boy so much and the maternity wards had a “no visitors 15 and under”
rule. He took one look at my stomach and said, “Mom! Where is baby Parker??!” Ha! We were so ready that afternoon to leave and go introduce Nathan to his little brother!

We are coming, Nathan! 🙂

First look. My heart just melted. He was so cute and anxious right before he saw Parker.

Love this!!

He just kept telling us how cute baby Parker was and how he was now the big brother. 😉

First time holding him. 🙂 People warned me but I never figured exactly how much bigger Parker would make Nathan seem. He’s gigantic now!

Oh how I love my boys!!

Sweet baby smiles – I just love them!

First picture as a family of four. 🙂

Precious boys. I was choked up all night.

Love.
We have transitioned better than I ever could have imagined or prayed
for. So thankful for this precious addition to our family!

What a wonderful, wonderful, WONDERFUL week!! My heart is so full I feel like I might burst into a million pieces at any moment. This post has been a lot longer coming than I hoped, but I’m having a hard time dragging myself away from soaking in every second of Parker’s already going-by-too-fast life.

So today being my due date and our little one’s sixth day with us, I figured I should introduce you all to my precious little Parker. 🙂

Last Saturday (our sixth anniversary!!), I started having more regular contractions off and on and some of them got pretty painful. Early, early Sunday morning – March 16th – I woke up with the contractions and some major nausea. By ten o’clock that morning I called my doctor, he was on call and he told me to come on to hospital.

I was contracting every two to four minutes when we got to the hospital and they were only speeding up and getting harder. But Parker still hadn’t engaged and I hadn’t dilated at all – so basically the same story as Nathan. And since we’d been having weekly ultrasounds with Parker, we all knew his head wasn’t going to be fitting through my pelvic bone. So, my doctor decided to go ahead and do our c-section that day.

We waited in triage for what seemed like forever because several emergency c-sections came through and even though I was in regular labor, Parker wasn’t going anywhere and his heart rate was perfect. Such a blessing!!

My mom and sister came up to the hospital to wait with us and it was so nice to have some distractions to the time passing and the increasing contractions. Then finally around eight o’clock, we were told it was time! I walked (such a surreal walk!) to the OR, climbed up on the bed and got my spinal. It was so much better than my epidural with Nathan! I felt absolutely nothing. It was just the strangest experience as they draped the blue sheets and Jon showed up in his mask and hat. I had to keep taking deep breaths because I kept thinking he’s almost here! In just a few minutes, I get to meet the one we’ve been praying for for so long!!

The biggest thing I had wanted in having another c-section was to have the opposite experience as Nathan’s birth. With Nathan, he had been in distress and they whisked him away before I even really had the chance to see him.

It was SO wonderfully different with Parker! Jon got to watch his entire birth and then I heard everyone start yelling, “Look up, Erynn!” and my doctor was holding Parker over the sheet for me to see. I started bawling – he was so beautiful!

They wiped him down and did his Apgar testing and then brought him right over to me. They pushed all the blankets and my gown out of the way and we got to do skin to skin contact for the rest of the time we were in the OR. It was amazing. He was crying while they were wiping him down and when they put him on my chest, I started talking to him and he immediately stopped crying, just kept looking me in the eyes and rubbing my face with his hand. I just cried and cried.

 Since we had been there all day and kept getting pushed back, our nurses and anesthesiologist were so sweet to us – they even let Mom and Cayce come in the recovery room with us. In there, I tried nursing for the first time and Parker latched on perfectly right away – yet another HUGE fear I had since nursing was so difficult in the beginning with Nathan.

God was just so good to us through everything – we had the absolute BEST possible experience we could have had!

We didn’t even stay at the hospital for 48 hours – I was able to walk that night and by Tuesday, I was walking all the way across the Mother and Baby floor without any problems at all. So thankful for the quick healing – especially since coming home to my active firstborn!

Parker has just been the sweetest addition to our family. He is SO snuggly and so precious. I just love watching his little face and hearing his sweet little noises and smelling his soft head and there has been so much kissing of those chunky cheeks that I’m kind of amazed he still has them. 😉

We are so blessed, friends. Thank you oh so much for all of your prayers for us over these last few years as we have waited and prayed for this precious little boy. He is so loved. It still is so surreal to me. I wake up for nighttime nursings and in the morning and it’s always this double take of we have a baby! He’s really here!!

It is with so much joy that we announce the birth of our precious son!

Parker Douglas O’Brien was born today – March 16th, 2014 at 8:26pm weighing 8 pounds, 9 ounces and is 20.5 inches long. Precious chubby boy!

We are so, so in love!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for praying for us and for this sweet boy!


“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!”

My sweet, precious Nathan,

Oh sweet boy, how much I love you. I love your passionate love for life, I love your uncontrollable giggling fits, I love your crazy jokes, I love your nonstop chatter… I just love you. I love that you gave me one of my most cherished names – Mama.

And I love that many months ago, you started praying for a baby “brubber-sister”. I love that you would remind me that you were praying on the days when I needed to hear that the most – days when it seemed like we would never get pregnant, days right after our miscarriage when I wondered if you were meant to be my only one, days during long and semi-painful fertility treatments, days when Dad and I finally fully put our desire to have another in Jesus’ hands. You kept telling me. Randomly in the car. Right before bed. In the middle of “helping” me make dinner. You’d say it. “I prayed and asked Jesus for a brother-sister, Mama.”

I love that you knew before anyone else that your little brother was coming to join our family. I love, love that Jesus gave you that knowledge before anyone else. You started patting my stomach and telling me there was a baby in there for an entire week before I tested. You knew and I will never stop being amazed at how much you already hear His voice!!

You have been such a helper to me! You’ve been a trooper coming to every doctor’s visit, every ultrasound. You’ve helped me lift heavy things, you’ve been understanding about me not being able to pick you up anymore and when my ankles were swelling so much, you were constantly following me around all day while Daddy was at work, dragging the ottoman with you, telling me to sit down and put my feet up. 😉

Sweet boy, this week marks the beginning of a brand new life for us.

I will admit it, I’m nervous. I worry about taking care of you and a tiny newborn while also recovering from a c-section. I worry about nursing being as difficult as the last time while also trying to entertain a big boy at the same time. I worry that our special bond that we have as just you and me will change and then I worry that I won’t have the same bond with your little brother that I have with you.

Starting this week, we have a new, wonderful addition to our family of three and we become a family of four. This week, we will finally be able to see your sweet baby brother’s face and what has been so untouchable for the last nine months will become oh so real for you and us.

This week, you will stop being our only child and you will become one of two. You will have the burden and inexplicable joy of being the older sibling – and oh, sweet Nathan, how much your brother will love you!

You see, all those times you prayed and asked Jesus for a baby brother-sister, He was crafting this one – this precious, precious boy – just for you. Just for me. Just for Daddy. Jesus knew then that what you needed more than anything else was a brother. A built-in best friend. A buddy for the rest of your life. There are things that only you will teach him, Nathan – and most of that will be good. I’m sure some will be not so good. 🙂

You have such ideas of what having a brother will be like. And I can’t wait for you to mesh imagination with reality. I tear up constantly thinking of you seeing him for the first time, holding him for the first time, kissing his sweet cheeks for the first time. As much as I waited and ached and anxiously counted down before you were born, I am even more excited this time around. Because now, not only do I get to experience it, but I get to watch you experience it too.

Oh, how I love you, sweet boy. And oh, how much I love your precious brother. The years of longing are about to be swept away and we are about to receive a most amazing gift! You are a blessing, Nathan. Your brother is a blessing.

I am blessed.

So so so blessed.

And so as we play, as we sing songs and make lunch and read books and go about our normal-ness for these last few moments, if I need more hugs or kisses than usual or if I cry when I tell you goodnight, it’s only because I’m looking at this life that God has given me and I can’t even breathe from drowning in His abundant blessings.

I love you, Nathan James O’Brien – so soooo so much. Let’s go meet your brother!

– Mama

Welcome to our vintage football nursery! 🙂

I had so much frustration aggravation fun planning his room. 😉 Ha! I had the idea for vintage football theme from before we found out he was a boy (I totally stole it from my cousin!) and very specific colors in mind. Mostly because eventually, our hope is for Baby P to join Nathan in his bunk bed, so we wanted to do decorations that could easily be added to Nathan’s vintage baseball room.

But apparently, we are the only people on earth who want navy blue, red and cream as a nursery color scheme. 😉

I absolutely love how it turned out though!! It’s so sweet and cozy – I just adore it. I’m hiding a few details so that I don’t give away the name but I promise that I will show them SOON because I’ve been dying to share them!!

Some favorites:

This is the jersey Jon received as a graduating senior from the Lobo football team and it was really the first thing in here that kind of shaped how the rest of the room would look. Love it.

I love, love my new diaper bag!! I’m so excited to use it that I’ve almost started carrying it about eighty times now. 😉 It’s all packed and ready to go to the hospital! Just a VERY FEW more days!

Baby P’s coming home outfit. I know. I die every time I look at it and imagine his little face in that extra soft little jacket!

Now we are just waiting and praying and getting extra excited and nervous for him to be here.
🙂 I cannot wait!!

We are in serious countdown mode. Baby P’s birth is SO close I get butterflies just thinking about it. 🙂

On Sunday, Jon was helping my brother clean the windows at his work and ended up spraining his ankle pretty badly. Poor guy – it looks TERRIBLE and the bruising is much, much worse today. Nathan tried to help a little yesterday:

Ha! So our past few evenings have included a lot of ice packs and propping his leg up. He’s also been super sweet to help me finish the last few things for Baby P’s room.

He and Nathan hung up the letters spelling out his name and I think we’re officially done!! I’m hoping to have a post up tomorrow or Thursday with the baby’s room pictures. 🙂

Our dear friend Sarah came over this afternoon and took some maternity pictures for us. I can’t wait to see them!! Nathan had so much fun with her that I’m fairly certain he was about three seconds away from asking her to move in. 😉

And guess what arrived on my front porch yesterday??!

Stay tuned because I think that signals the need for a contest! 🙂 So many exciting things happening this spring!

I have been so distracted lately, it’s not even funny. All I can
think about is how much time we have until this little guy joins our
family.

Not much. 🙂 🙂 🙂

Nathan
has TOTALLY gotten into the Boxcar Children. He has pretended to be
Henry and asked me to be Jessie all week. And when he hasn’t been the
Boxcar Children, he’s been Peter Pan who, sadly, lost his shadow to that
“codfish Captain Hook”. Love, love his imagination!!

We’ve
been washing blankets and tiny clothes all week!! Love the smell of
fresh baby laundry and love my “helper” who mostly just was wanting to
snuggle in the warm blankets. 😉

We
gave Nathan this Big Brother Bear for Christmas and we just received
the other bear for Baby P this week. I’m going to try and have it
embroidered with a little brother saying. Love seeing the two brother
bears together.

Jon
had class one night last week and I told Nathan he could pick something
extra special for us to do for dinner. So he picked a Mommy/Son movie
picnic dinner date. Love my little buddy.

Last
night, one my dearest, dearest childhood friends, Shannon, threw the
cutest family and close friends diaper shower for me. It was SO
wonderful and such a fantastic girls night!! This little boy is spoiled
completely rotten already! I love these women so much – they were the
ones who were completely by my side for everything we went through in
getting to this point today and they’ve been keeping me focused on Jesus
the whole way. Love my friends and family!

We’ve
been doing errands and odds and ends today. This little guy decided to
help me out by doing the dishes. I’m pretty sure more water got on him
and the counter than it did in the actual sink, but it’s the thought
that counts, right? Love his helpful heart. 🙂

I was 37 weeks as of Saturday!! With Nathan, I did a little post when I reached full-term with all the stats from his pregnancy and it was one of my favorite things to look back on to compare these two boys in the womb. 😉 So I thought it would be fun to do one for Baby P.

Total Weight Gain (thus far
anyway): 30 pounds. I’m six pounds over where I was with Nathan at this point – and I can SO see the difference sticking right out in front. However, I haven’t gained hardly any weight in about four weeks now – it’s a modern miracle with all the snacks and desserts and chocolate milk I’ve been downing. 😉

Baby Stats:
According to the books, he weighs a little over six pounds and is at
his birth length now. BUT at our ultrasound this morning, he was estimated to weigh seven pounds, two ounces. We have another ultrasound Thursday to check up on some fluid issues we found today, so praying that he continues to grow on schedule! Nathan weighed seven pounds fifteen ounces at birth and I was 41 weeks when I delivered him, so Baby P is already bigger than Nathan was at this point gestationally, I bet.

Movement:
He finally started moving more around 25 or so weeks but NOTHING like Nathan used to move!! I’ve been worried this whole pregnancy because I was so used to my crazy active firstborn. 😉 Baby P tends more toward slow rolls, big stretches or little wiggles and mostly after I sit down or lay down – particularly late at night. It’s so fun to guess what all the little lumps might be!

Swelling: I’ve had so much swelling this pregnancy!! My rings stopped fitting well in the mornings by about 28 weeks and I’ve had to ice my ankles often. I hardly swelled at all with Nathan so I wonder how much of it is that I’m always on my feet messing around with a three year-old these days?

Cravings: Again, I didn’t really crave very much with this pregnancy. Occasionally something will sound REALLY good to me, but I’ve never been so consumed by it that I had to have it. I’ve very much enjoyed chocolate milkshakes and chocolate milk again. And now that it’s getting warmer, I have been loving ice water and lots of cold fruits.

Aversions: I don’t think I had any aversions this time around either. Sometimes things didn’t sound very good but there wasn’t a strict “I hate chicken and eggs” like I had with Nathan. I’ve loved chicken and I’ve loved eggs. The only thing that doesn’t really sound good is oatmeal, but I think it’s because that’s all I ate for the first 15 weeks during the terrible, terrible morning sickness because it was the easiest thing to throw up.

Sleeping:
I haven’t been sleeping very good at all lately. It’s a three-point turn to roll over and I’ve been having a lot of contractions at night that will wake me up. Nothing that has stuck around (same with the daytime) but it’s enough to drag me out of a deep sleep. Plus the pregnancy-stuffiness has come back just in time to mesh with my allergies so I’ve been having some trouble breathing at night while I’m sleeping.

Maternity Clothes:
I started wearing maternity clothes full time around 10 weeks this time. WAY earlier!! And I’m down to about three shirts that are long enough to cover this gigantic belly I’ve got now. I just rotate them out. 😉 I am still wearing my non-maternity yoga pants though – love those.

Baby’s Room: Just about done!! I will post pictures this week!!

Mood Swings:
I don’t think I’ve been too terrible but I have noticed days when I am obviously pretty crabby and emotional. I think a lot of it has to do with the amount of sleep I’ve gotten the night before. I’m missing my sleeping eighteen hours a day like I did most of the time I was pregnant with Nathan.

Workouts:
I worked out almost every day I was pregnant with Nathan and I have barely worked out at ALL with Baby P. I was so sick the first trimester that I didn’t feel like doing anything and I was so tired the second trimester and it was so cold outside that I had trouble getting myself motivated. We’ve been doing pretty good with regular walks lately and I’ve been trying to do a few exercises just to try and up my chances of a VBAC, but I’m ready for a good, brisk walk and some actual cardio routines.

Birth Plans: Nathan was an emergency c-section after 18 hours of labor and his birth scared me to death. So my biggest hope and prayer is that we can avoid that same scenario this time around!! At this point, I’m still hoping for a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) but we are also planning for a repeat c-section. If I go into labor again before the date we’ve picked then I will get to try to deliver naturally. If I don’t, then the odds are pretty good that we’re going to have the same situation we had with Nathan and this little guy’s head (or big guy’s head, as it has been!!) isn’t going to fit through. So we’re doing our best to trust God’s plan for this baby’s birth and not think about all the what-ifs. My biggest prayer is a baby who isn’t in distress and can actually be put straight on my chest, since I missed out on that with Nathan (which is part of our birth plan whether it’s a VBAC or cesarean). Although, things might change if this fluid issue is still an issue on Thursday, so we will just have to see!

Nathan: I think he’s starting to realize that something pretty life changing is going to happen soon. He’s become extra clingy, extra whiny and extra freaked out about everything – he has even been having trouble being in a different room of the house than me sometimes. I have very much been soaking in the last few weeks of it just being us – I’m hoping to plan a few outings here pretty soon for us to just enjoy some time doing things we won’t be able to do as easily once Baby P is with us. I have lots of fun Mom/Son date ideas in mind. 🙂

Me: I’m feeling good most of the time!! I’m extra tired and extra slow moving these days but I remember being this way with Nathan too. We are slowly crossing everything off of our “Before Baby” list and it’s making me much more relaxed about everything. I’m so so so so excited for this little one to get here and I’m also so so so so so nervous the closer it gets about everything – birth, having a newborn again, nursing again (last time I had a lot of trouble getting started – it worked out perfect but the beginning was rough!), and I’m extra nervous just about what it will be like to have two children. I’m sure every mother of two worries about this, but I just get scared sometimes thinking that maybe I won’t have enough for both boys – energy, love, focus, grocery money…you name it and I get nervous. I’m worried that I’ll end up neglecting one while the other needs my attention. So I’ve been praying for a lot of peace about that too. Mostly, I’m so excited for a warm, good-smelling little snuggle bug to hold and cuddle and I’m very excited to be able to pick up my big boy again and have a lap for him to sit on again soon!

So thankful for all of the sweet notes I’ve gotten from so many of you and extra thankful for your prayers. We will definitely update on this blog once our little miracle is here! For sooner updates, be sure to follow me on Instagram, Facebook and/or Twitter – I tend to be a little quicker with those. 🙂

First off, guess what releases a month from tomorrow and now is officially available for autographed pre-order in my bookstore??! 😉 So excited for you guys to read the conclusion of Paige’s story!!

I am officially 37 weeks tomorrow!

Jon and I were talking about how crazy it is that we are already full-term! It seems like it was just a few weeks ago that we were celebrating that we’d made it beyond the point when we’d had our miscarriage last time. God has been so good. Baby P is doing a lot of full-term baby wiggles in there – no more kicks but lots of stretches and movements that hurt me most of the time because there is officially no more room in the inn.

I cannot, cannot, CANNOT wait to meet him!!

My big boy!! We’ve been doing a lot of this – bouncing, walking, attempting to make up for almost nine months of very little activity. 😉 The ball has actually helped my back feel so much better – I wish I’d started sitting on it a long time ago! I’ve been having contractions every day still – sometimes every 10-20 minutes for several hours but nothing every comes of them. We’re attempting to talk Baby P out and reassuring him that it’s now officially okay to come but he hasn’t listened very well yet. 😉

Jon’s been reading up on his labor coaching duties in case they are needed this time around. I loved this. 🙂

On Wednesday, my BSF class gave me a surprise baby shower! I was so overwhelmed by their generosity – they went completely overboard. Such a wonderful time!! I’m so blessed and honored to be in this class with these women. Each one has become very dear to me and I’ve learned so much from all of them!

Thursday, I walked into the kitchen after doing some of my little workouts in the morning and decided my entire kitchen was disgusting. So next thing I knew, my “big helper guy” and I were scrubbing my stove under the burners with toothbrushes and baking soda. Nathan was SUCH a help yesterday – he cleaned, he took out the trash, he helped me wash down the walls and baseboards. We were both exhausted when we were done! At one point I said, “Nathan, you’re such a great helper!” and he said, “Well, you’re such a great mom.” And then I teared up. Which is when I realized I was standing in my kitchen, barefoot, holding a toothbrush covered in a baking soda paste and crying.

There isn’t too much more than screams “NINE MONTHS PREGNANT” than that. 😉 So I treated us both to Keva Juice just to make it even more apparent.

Nathan was so excited to show Jon our “brand new kitchen” and decided we should keep it a surprise for him. Jon told Nathan that he was very excited to see the surprise we had and Nathan said, “Well, I’m not excited because I already know what it is.” Ha! Once we got into the kitchen, he kept asking Jon if he “recognized the place”. 😉

I’m working on Baby P’s name sign and his crib sheet this weekend and hoping our gorgeous weather holds up for more fun family walks!! What do you guys have planned??

We are officially off the medicine and off the bed rest!! YAY!! So so so thankful to be up moving around again. And very thankful that it was the medicine making my ankles swell so much – I was starting to wonder if this was how the rest of the last few weeks were going to be. 😉

So we are all cleared for Baby P’s delivery – now I’m just anxious to know when he will come. (And yes, it’s your official hint as to what the baby’s name will be!!) 🙂

On Saturday, we made a little family trip to Costco. If you were there, you would definitely have heard us if not seen us. Nathan was ridiculously giggly/crazy. At one point, he was standing on one of the benches in the food court with his hands on his hips, dancing and singing at full volume.

Oh that boy. I didn’t know whether to laugh, quiet him down or pretend he wasn’t mine, so I just took pictures instead. 😉 Ha!

Sunday afternoon, the weather was absolutely gorgeous so we took a family walk over to a park a little ways away. My parents got us an amazing stroller that will eventually seat both kids (thanks so much, Mom and Dad!!) and I’ve been anxious to try it out, so we brought that with us since the park we were going to is a long way from the house – just in case Nathan needed a ride home.

He, Jon and Kody ran most of the way home, so I think the only who actually needed the stroller was me. 😉 Ha! I was exhausted by the time we got back!

This is why God gives boys dads – to give them someone to spit into the arroyo with. Blegh. It was totally a highlight for Nathan though. I will never understand males. 😉

This is our real life boy – hair all messy, nose skinned up from face planting while racing Jon last night (thankfully he was wearing his baseball helmet. Ha!), Batman shirt and eating a cookie. Jon told me this was exactly what he pictured when he used to think about having kids. 😉

I love these sweet moments. He was basically asleep on me while we were reading books last night but he was completely out by the time we finished praying with him. Love when he’s in a snuggly, sleepy mood!

We have an appointment to check on Baby P this afternoon – not too much longer until there are two messy, stinky, scraped up boys in this house!! We are so blessed, friends. Continuing to pray for you all!