Parenting.....

So, it has been some time since I have updated our blog. Life has accelerated and I am just now tapping the breaks. Jace is 16 months old (where has the time gone?), I am a nursing student (halfway through the program) and Dave will be starting his second year of teaching/coaching in August.

I was fortunate enough to be able to stay home with Jace for 10 months, however that was more than enough time for me. The constant day in and day out of taking care of him around the clock was miserable for me. Don't get me wrong I love being with him but sometimes children going to daycare or a babysitter is a blessing in disguise. I remember when Dave would walk in the door, I would literally jump on him the minute he walked in, I craved adult conversation and anything that didn't revolve around Jace. I felt/feel so guilty about the times that I would badger him to talk to me, and often think I would almost pay someone to take Jace away for just 2 hours, so I could stop and think.

After I received my acceptance letter to the nursing program, immediately I started counting the days until Jace would be going to the babysitter everyday. The anxiety began building. Dave and I run crazy,hetic schedules, we often disappear for weeks at a time and family barely hears from us, let alone friends. With that in mind, I was so concerned about Jace falling in the cracks and money for the additional cost we would be enduring, so we made a difficult decision to move in with my parents for the year I would be in school. This decision has paid off in great amounts, they are always willing to help with any shuttling duties, child care, and entertainment of Jace. We have been so blessed to have this opportunity.

We are often told by friends that we are near perfect parents and I always laugh and say I wish. I am nowhere near perfect and I often feel like I would be one of the finalist for Worst Mother of the Year Award. The countless times I let Jace roll off of the couch,bed, and ottoman,and I often got so frustrated to the point of crying when all I wanted was for him to take a nap. I remember one day in particular that Jace had cried what seemed like all day long and I remember speaking very loudly and begging him to be quiet for just 30 minutes. Being a high strung person to begin with, the constant worrying about SIDS, Colic, gas, feedings, sleep deprivation and growth and development really drove me to the edge of a nervous breakdown.I was constantly comparing Jace to other children his age, not being competitive but to make sure he was developing the way he should. When we were pregnant with Jace, our spina bidfa test came back with a very high ratio for my age and being the worrier I am, I have always been waiting for that to come around and bite us again. I can't help it, his development and spina bidfa will always be related in the back of mind. With all of this it took several months after Jace was born to get into a groove and then several more months to feel like myself. Without the support system that I have my family would have been a huge, disorganized, chaotic mess. Being a parent is hard, all the books, magazines and advice from family members can never really prepare you for the journey. To all my wonderful friends who think Dave and I are near perfect parents, while you flatter us, please do not think that we are. We have are flaws and a lot of help, so we look great on the outside but once you scratch the surface, we struggle just like all parents. It truly does take a village to raise a child.

Jace is a happy,healthy 16 month old toddler (ugh, where did my infant go?) he is approx. 32" tall and about 25lbs. He is one of the most coordinated 16 month olds that I have ever met, he walks, runs, climbs (on anything), spins around, balances on 1 foot, jumps/jumps of the side of the pool, and can throw a ball with the right and left hand. Ball throwing is something Dave and Jace have been working on since Jace was 10 months old. He says a wide range of words: momma, dad-o, nana, poppa, dog, uh-oh, stop, up, cup, ba-ba (bottle/drink) and I think he says love you. You can say I love you, Jace and he will utter the same phrase each time and I think it sounds like love you. We are now trying to get him to read books with us each night something we probably should have started sooner, now he likes to close the book or put his foot on the pages. Not really interested in being read to at all, but we are still trying.

I will keep you guys posted on a more regular basis since school has slowed down some.

Happy 1 month Jace!

Dave and I have had such an amazing 4 weeks with Jace. I have gotten to spend a lot more time with Jace than Dave. It is amazing how much they change in such a short period of time. He is developing his own personality and he has some characteristics of each of us.

Jace Christian Douglas

Jace Christian Douglas was born on Wednesday, February 25, 2009 at 2:23pm. He weighed 6lbs and 8oz and 18 1/2" long. He came into this world the most quiet baby ever! He barely cried and was more interested in taking in his surroundings.

I was in labor from 7:00am until 2:23pm, I had the best epiderual EVER! I was numb from about 10:00am until 11:00pm. The build up and anticipation was much worse than the actual process. I believe the IV actually hurt the most. I had requested that it was placed somewhere in my forearm so that when I was pushing or moving around there was no risk of it pulling out of my hand. The nurse took 20 minutes to place the IV in my arm and only had to stick me once!

Here are some photos of our baby boy!

Baby Jace update

As of Monday, 2/16/2009 we were 80% effaced and 1.5cm dilated! As of today, 2/20/2009 I have no idea if we are progressing or just hanging out until March 5th. The doctor was pretty shocked on Monday that I was already almost completely effaced and stated that we might have an early baby or closer to his due date.

Since, Dave and I are pretty impatient we have assumed that Baby Jace has taken up this characteristic and he is pretty well done living in "Waterworld" and ready to come visit. However, if he has timing like his father he will come when he is good and ready. We have a doctor's appointment on Monday, 2/23/2009 to see if we have progressed some. I pray that we have, I am ready to wear all of my non-tent like clothes again. :) And of course, to have a nice glass of wine when my sis-in-law comes to town!

Other news, Dave passed his Texas Teachers Certification test! Woo Hoo! He will be teaching/coaching at a local high school this fall and can't decide where to start his career.

Keep us in your prayers, because this mommy to be is ready to be just a mommy. :)

First Baby Gift

We received our first baby gift today, I was so excited that I had to put it all together. Dave proceeded to watch and record the National Geographic documentary of nesting. I was so proud that I made Dave take a photo.

Life update!

I am terrible at updating this thing. Let's see where to start....

Baby Douglas
Baby Douglas is a boy! and what a boy he is (if you get my drift).We have settled on the name Jace and have recently started changing the middle name around. We are contemplating three middle names Rhys, Marshall, and Jaxon (Jackson). Personally, I would prefer Marshall as it has some meaning, it was my great-great grandfather's name and I think that it would be nice to re-use an older name that is dying out. Dave is torn.

I am doing well in the weight gain department, I am now 30 weeks and have only gained 9 lbs! The doctor is a little concerned, hence an ultrasound in 2 weeks. So our due date can change or I could have been just a good pregnant girl! Ok, I am not going to lie, I eat Oreos, ice cream Snickers and I go through about 3 gallons of milk a week by myself! I even try to eat a huge breakfast on days I have to go to the doctor. I am just not gaining weight and I swear I am trying. Dave has had to defend my eating habits to the doctor on more than one occasion. So the good news, I will pop this baby out and go home in my pre-pregnancy clothes! WOO HOO!

The baby shower is on January 26th and will be held at my parents house. I know we have tons of out of town family and they would like to send to gifts for Baby J. We are registered at Babies R Us and Target. Our Babies R Us registry has a ton of stuff on it (have you been to that store? I could stay all day long with my scanner. Its shopping and not spending money!) Please please check the registry prior to buying something, I am at the waddling stage and I don't want to have to waddle to the store to exchange things because I got (2). Also, if there is something not on our registry and you just would have died if you didn't have when you had a newborn, I WANT IT! :)

Coach Douglas
We received some news that Dave's graduate asisstant position with UH would not be renewed. They were not generally happy with his performance. Which is fine, if you can find someone else who practically slept at the office everyday and their performance is much more satisfying... go right ahead. We will move on (which was a part of our plan anyway) to bigger and better things. The news was a bit stunning considering Dave's work ethic and how hard he had worked. God has closed this door but will open a door/window soon. We should hear something soon about a job in Louisiana like around Jan 1st, so please pray this is the job for Dave. He would appreciate all of your prayers and thoughts and positive energy!

I can't believe.......

I guess in the midst of all the blog business and baby business I forgot to tell my husband that we have a blog! After he found the link on my facebook, he was looking through our blog and after a few minutes of silence, he looked at me and said "I can't believe you put a picture of your vagina on the internet." I nearly died of laughter, as I soon realized he was refering to our ultrasounds. Men the way they think.....

Anyways, so here is another picture of our beautiful child. This picture was taken at our spina bifida ultrasound, so it wasn't a very sweet moment. After the results came back, we ohh and ahh some over the profile of our baby. I want everyone to notice the size of our baby's head, that doesn't come from my side of the family.......

October 20th, we find out the sex of the baby (if it cooperates) so we are taking estimations. We have heard from the official baby predictor, that we are having a boy. So what are your thoughts?