Nesting 201

Welcome to Nesting 201!  If you have enrolled in this course, you have already mastered Nesting 101 and are familiar with the intricacies of how to prepare for the arrival of a new baby.  In this advanced course, you will learn how to prepare for the arrival of a new baby (or babies, in some cases) while also continuing to care for the baby that arrived after your graduation from Nesting 101.  The end goal is the same (preparing your home and family for a new addition(s)), but achieving said goal is now only reached by mastering this higher level of skill.  So I suggest you take copious notes and begin your preparations early.
In Nesting 101, you learned all about using all of your luxurious free time in shopping, decorating, assembling, organizing, cleaning, and sanitizing.  The equation is still the same; all of the same tasks must still be done.  But you now have no free time.  You now have a toddler.
This change in the equation calls for a new variable that may or may not have been utilized during your first nesting phase:  calling in reinforcements.  It's highly recommended that you have on call a team of professionals who have at least some free time on their hands and who know how to handle toddlers:  the grandparents.
Sending your toddler to visit the grandparents for one or two (or even three, if they're feeling ambitious!) nights, will give you some much needed time to frantically accomplish all of the many items on your growing to-do list, hopefully before your growing belly seriously limits your ability to be of much use for any task.
Activities that have proven successful in entertaining the toddler include:
Chicken nuggets.

 Reading.

 Coloring.

 Going to church.

Silly sunglasses.

 Did I mention chicken nuggets?

 Swimming in their underwear.

 Frivolity and general merriment while in the bath.

When the grandparents become exhausted, you also have the option of calling on favorite babysitters to distract the toddler while you continue on your nesting mission.

Proven methods of distraction include:
The operation of heavy machinery.

 Fossil excavation. 

 The making of magnetic clouds.

And space travel.

Should any of the aforementioned be too time consuming or costly, the babysitter could also just take the toddler to a local museum.

 Oh, yeah - and chicken nuggets.

 And fries.

While your toddler is being so skillfully distracted, you must set to work immediately.  First, you must rearrange all of the bedrooms in the house in order to ensure that the baby(ies) have the most suitable room for baby.  The yoga room (or craft room, rumpus room, etc.) gets moved to the basement.  The yoga room becomes the guest room.  The guest room becomes the toddler's room, and the toddler's room becomes the baby room.  It must be this way, trust me.  You will not be satisfied until every room has changed its purpose.
Then you (and when I say "you" I really mean your sweet, hard-working hubby) must re-paint each and every room...er, well, you will probably run out of time, so just paint one room and make yourself content with the colors in the remaining rooms.  Next, you make and hang curtains for each of the rooms and move all of the contents to their new home.
Quick side-note on the guest room:  now that you will have more than one child running around your house, you're going to need lots of help, and you're probably going to need a little extra enticing to get that help to come to you.  So, I would suggest making your guest room as inviting as you possibly can.  Is that a little tricky to make your visitors think that they'll be able to relax on the comfy bed, reading magazines from the stack on the bedside table when in actuality they'll be hard at work?  Sure, but it's necessary considering the dire circumstances.

Toddler room:

Baby room:  Please note that there is a mattress missing from one of the cribs.  In addition, there is also no cute decorative item above the cribs.  This would have been grounds for failure in Nesting 101, but in Nesting 201, there's no time for that!  Hopefully, you'll take care of it after the baby arrives (at least the crib mattress!). 

Just as in Nesting 101, you will want to wash all of the baby clothes.  Then you will want to fold, hang, and organize the clothes according to size and season.  This is a non-negotiable - you won't be able to sleep until this is done. 

Lastly, you must 1) double anything you cook for a month in order to freeze half for later, 2) get out of storage and clean all of the baby gear, and 3) install the baby car seat(s). 
Once you have accomplished all of this (in a relatively short amount of time while the toddler's away or distracted), you can finally put your feet up and let the baby(ies) keep cooking until it's (they're) ready to come out of the oven!

Wren at 36 weeks - 6 lbs. 7 oz.

Judson at 36 weeks - 5 lbs. 12 oz.

Congratulations!  You've successfully navigated your way through Nesting 201!  I hope you've found this information helpful, and I look forward to seeing you in Three Under Three 101 or Advanced Relaxation Techniques for Frazzled Parents next semester!
(Thanks to the grandparents and Madison and Marlee for helping with Caleb!  We couldn't have gotten it all ready without you!)

His Eye is on the Sparrow

In just a few short weeks (or days, even!), the babies will be here.  We'll have the typical parent-of-newborn concerns:  "are they eating enough?", "why are they crying so much?", "will I ever get to sleep more than two consecutive hours again?", etc.  All of that, I'm sure, will be compounded by the fact that we have not just one but two newborns (and a two year old)!
We'll also have additional concerns to deal with that (thankfully) most parents don't have to endure.  You see, we learned several months ago that the doctors believe Judson has a heart defect called tricuspid atresia.  I'm far from a medical expert, but, in a nutshell (based on my layperson's understanding), what that means is that the right ventricle of his heart is underdeveloped and because of that not enough blood will be pumped to his lungs and his body will therefore not receive enough oxygen to survive for very long without medical intervention.  Thankfully, modern medicine has discovered a way to treat this condition, but it will not necessarily be an easy road for the first few months of his life.  The condition usually requires that the newborn undergo surgery immediately after birth, at six months, and then again at four years old.  While most people go on to live normal lives, there are some limitations that come with the condition in that there may not be as much blood being pumped to the lungs as a normal person would have. 
So...that's what we face immediately after the babies are born:  Judson will be whisked away to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Tony will go with him, and Wren and I will stay in the hospital until we can go home. 
I write this in hopes that you all will pray with us for our sweet boy.  First though, I must say that there are several things that I am thankful for: 
1)  It is only the right side of his heart that is underdeveloped.  Some babies have this condition on the left side, which is a much worse prognosis.  Some babies also have much worse birth defects than this one that have much more of an effect on their lives.
2)  We live so close to an amazing hospital that is well-equipped and experienced to deal with this condition.
3)  So many of our incredible family and friends have already offered to help and pray for us in any way that they can.
Here are some specific things that you can pray for Judson:
1)  For a miracle!  That he's born with a perfectly healthy and functioning heart, with no intervention. 
2)  That the first surgery is not required.  There are some set of circumstances where they can skip the first surgery and just have the second and third surgeries when he's older.
3)  If he has to have the first surgery, there are two possible ways for it to be done, one of which is less invasive.  Pray that he would qualify for the less invasive procedure.
4)  That the surgery would be uneventful and that he would recover quickly so he can come home!
5)  That no complications (feeding issues, infections, etc.) would arise as a result of the surgery.
6)  For his poor mama, who will be missing him until he comes home. And that he won't miss me too much.  I've taken to sleeping with this little guy beside me so that he'll have something that smells like me while he's in the hospital.

7)  For Tony who will be spending most of his time with him in the hospital.
While this is by no means a small matter, the Lord has granted us a peace that surpasses all understanding about it.  Literally the day after I found out that there was possibly something amiss with Judson, I saw the most beautiful bird (an indigo bunting for all you bird enthusiasts) at my bird feeder.  It was there nearly every time I looked at the bird feeder for three days straight. 

 Isn't that just the most amazing color?

Every time I saw it, it was a reminder to me of this verse: 
Matthew 6:25-26  “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”
Right about this time, my friend Becky also sent me the very appropriate and encouraging lyrics to the hymn “His Eye is on the Sparrow:”

1. Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,
   Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heav’n and home,
   When Jesus is my portion? My constant Friend is He:
   His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
   His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.
   • Refrain:
     I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free,
     For His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.
2. “Let not your heart be troubled,” His tender word I hear,
   And resting on His goodness, I lose my doubts and fears;
   Though by the path He leadeth, but one step I may see;
   His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
   His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.
3. Whenever I am tempted, whenever clouds arise,
   When songs give place to sighing, when hope within me dies,
   I draw the closer to Him, from care He sets me free;
   His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
   His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

I haven't seen the bird after those three days, but the sense of peace hasn't left me.  We know who made our babies, and we know who's looking after them.
Thank you for praying with us and for us!

Sprinkle Surprise

I know I'm loved and that my babies are too.  Do you want to know how I am so sure of this?  Well, this afternoon I was given a surprise "sprinkle" (like a shower but on a smaller scale when it's your second (and third) baby) by my wonderful family.  When we got home from church, they started arriving at my house, bearing food, drinks, flowers, balloons, and gifts.  They had it all covered so that I wouldn't have to worry about anything - or even leave the comfort of my own home! 

 I was clearly surprised - I'm still wearing my flip flops that I wear around the house, which obviously do not match my outfit!

 Feeling the babies move:

Before they left, they cleaned up the mess - leaving me only leftovers, gifts for our babies, happy memories, and the feeling that I am loved and cherished. 
They clearly can't wait to meet you, Wren and Judson, but I can't wait for you to meet them - this wonderful family that you are being born into.