It's been 5 months baby?!

Well, little John is 5 months old today! I was thinking yesterday how crazy it is that he is that old already. He has changed so much, and he acts more like a toddler than a baby most days. He is full of energy, has such a sweet smile, and is so fun. He also is starting to teethe so he has been wearing his fussy pants a lot. I feel bad for the little guy. He just fell asleep in his bouncy seat. He took a nap an hour ago, but he woke up, so I'm going to keep him asleep in his bouncy if he is comfy there!

I wanted to keep a blog so our kids could look back at it one day and read about themselves. Also, family should stay up to date too, since they are all so far away from us. So here are some recent milestones if you so wish to read about them!

This is one of the first pictures I got of him smiling. His daddy got him to smile here. At first he would mostly smile at daddy, but now he smiles at mommy a lot! But, he still laughs harder at daddy, but I understand, he is the goofy one in this family.

His first trip to an Amish restaurant, and not his last! We got to go to Columbus for less than 2 days at the beginning of June to get our anniversary cake from the man who made our wedding cake. This is at the Der Dutchman restaurant. He got to see grandma Connie and grandpa Dean, and his great grandparents too! He is hoping to visit grandpa Mark soon!

First baseball game! Mommy was excited about this one. We were blessed by free tickets to a Louisville Bats game and we took John. It was not fun for him at first, but as you can see he warmed up to it. He didn't watch much of the game, but he did sport his cute Yankees jersey and a sideways ballcap.

This is what happened when we let crazy kicky boy be unbuckled (yet supervised) in his bouncy seat. He is a mover for sure! Look at him trying to stand....kind of...

This was June 24th, we had just moved into our new apartment where John finally got his own room and a big sliding glass window to look out of. He loves the view from 'his' recliner.

On his 4 month birthday. Looking all cute!

. Not long after he turned 4 months, he just suddenly starting rolling over from his back to stomach. He looks happy here, but he still gets frustrated sometimes, especially when he rolls over at night and wakes up. Notice that him sleeping through the night is not a milestone he has reached, and no, I don't want to talk about it....

At around 4 and a half months we introduced him to rice cereal. He does a great job with it. Some people might think we started him too early on that, but the pediatrician recommended it and so far he has done great with it.

Mommy tortured him and dressed him like a cow so she could get free food at Chick-fil-A's cow appreciaton day. How cute. He has such pointy ears for a cow...

John discovered that he likes to suck on his toes....

John endured a sunny day to let us get some family photos done. A woman at church was sweet enough to do them for us. I really like them!

Well that is all for now. I am sure there will be even bigger milestones coming up. I need to blog about them more frequently though, because this post took me a long time to write!

The first long awaited Mother's Day

I was so thankful to finally get to celebrate Mother's Day as a mom this year. I think a lot about people who have trouble getting pregnant, and my heart mourns with them. I almost feel bad sometimes because I got pregnant two months after Steven and I got married. Some couples go years trying to start a family, but God blessed us with a little one very early on. On the other hand, I know what it means to long to be a mother.

Growing up, my mom used to babysit in our home full time. I was around babies and kids a lot when I was younger, and I liked babies a lot. Once I hit the teen years, the influence of feminism got to me. For some reason, I really started to disklike kids and always thought they were annoying. I used to tell my grandma, "I'm never having kids!" I think she knew I would though. That whole period of my life where I disliked kids is so crazy to me now. I love kids. I light up by the cuteness of what kids say so easily. I am easily amused by their sweetness and innocence. After I became a Christian and learned what the Bible says about biblical womanhood, I felt more of a burden to become a wife and mother. I wanted to have kids someday. I think I confused my poor grandma.

My early and mid twenties were spent praying for a husband, but also praying for children. I so desperately wanted to be a mom, even though I was not yet married. I wanted a family of my own. The past few years it got more difficult as I got older. Many people around me were getting married and having babies. My brother and his wife have two sweet kids and I started to feel left out, not because of anything they did though! Most of my cousins were having kids, and I started to feel socially awkward sometimes. I was getting older, and there was no man in site, let alone children that I could call my own. I would actually get sad walking by the baby department in stores. The burden to be a wife and mother got heavier, and much to my surprise, within two short years, God gave me an amazing husband and an amazing son.

So yes, Steven and I got engaged and married pretty fast. Ironically I used to wrongly mock those people sometimes. But we knew God brought us together, and the decision was not made lightly. We prayed over it and got counsel from good people. And yes, we had a baby pretty early on, but we were thrilled. We did not want to wait to start our family. It sounds like I'm defending how our life turned out, but I just love to sit back and see how God has written and continues to write our life story.

So for my first Mother's Day Steven and I went to dinner on Saturday night while our friends watched John and then on Monday Steven took us to pick strawberries and eat at Huber's Farm. It was a nice family day, and I look forward to many many more of those, and to many more children, Lord willing. I love my family and am so thankful to God for them!

On the wagon going to the strawberry patch. John did not like the hat I had on him.

Me and my sweet boy on Mother's Day 2012.

Steven John Dresen III

As I write this a sweet little baby is kicking me. He is not kicking me in the womb though, he is sitting by me on the couch and is 10 weeks old now! Anybody who has been a new parent knows that the first few months with a newborn are certainly life changing. The first few weeks are a blur. Everything, and I mean every thing is different when you add another human to your family. It's a great yet challenging time. No more than two hours of sleep at a time seems impossible, yet somehow I survived.

Our baby boy, Steven John Dresen the third, or John, arrived on February 26th at 6:05 pm.

After 37 hours of labor, no sleep, 3.5 hours of pushing, and almost 24 hours at the hospital he finally arrived. Notice his little fist up by his head. That is how he was when he was coming out, and it explains the terrible back labor I endured. The labor and delivery in itself were enough to turn my world upside down, let alone the fact I was given this awesome job of caring for a new baby. Words can not describe how I felt when I saw John for the first time. Not only is it nice to be done with labor, but it is amazing to see God's grace in the life of a child. He was our baby. We were still in shock for a few weeks that we made this sweet baby, and we were his parents.

Let me add here that Steven was such an awesome labor coach. The whole thing really brought us closer and was an amazing experience.

John was 8 pounds and 5.3 ounces and 21.5 inches long. He was actually a couple of ounces smaller than I was at birth. He was very healthy and still is so far. Steven and I are so thankful for him and are constantly amazed at how cute and sweet he is. We love being parents.

John has grown soooo much in 10 weeks. At his 2 month appointment he was 24 inches which is in the 95th percentile. He weighed 12 pounds and 2.5 ounces which puts him in the 50th percentile for weight. He is cooing more and being silly every day. He is a good eater and an average sleeper. He slept through the night for the first time the night before last, on May 6th.

Look at this cutie boy now!

I'm smiling now!

I love to stretch out!

37 weeks and a new blog

Well, today I am 37 weeks pregnant!!! I feel like I have so little time yet still so much time left before my sweet little boy enters the world. That probably just means he will be 'late', or as I like to say 'on time'. Due dates are estimates for the most part, and I believe a baby will come when they are ready to enter the world. So if I am over 40 weeks and there is no baby yet, I don't think I'll be saying he is late.

Since the baby is almost here, I thought it would be good to finally get our family blog up and running. I will try to update it with lots of pictures and updates. I'm sure with John being our first kid I will overdo it, but that is allowed right? :)

Please pray for us as we get things ready for the baby, and for me as I prepare for labor and delivery. I have heard that big babies run in our family, and Steven's too, so I may be in for a big boy. On the other hand, you never know how big a baby will be. Also, continue to pray for Steven as he is looking for a more stable job with benefits.

Much love,
Heather