Photos from this week

It's a GIRL!!!

Elise Mae DePew arrived on May 22nd at 2:57 am in our bathtub.  She came so fast my midwife was not even here yet!  It was an amazing experience to deliver my own baby in the bathtub myself.  I just scooped her up onto my chest and held her.  What a miracle from God!

She weighed in at 8 lbs 14 oz and 21.5 inches long.  She has been nursing like a pro from the start, I am so thankful for that!  She even sleeps well at night.  We are just loving on her and enjoying her.  I feel like such a blessed mama to have two beautiful children!  More to come later.

More blessings from others

The top photo is a changing table I just received from my neighbor Shelley.  We recently met after learning that we are both clients of the same midwives for our homebirths.  Shelley had her 2nd baby at home in February.  And they live only four houses down from us!  So it has been a huge blessing to get to know her and let our boys play together.  Her son is 9 months older than Ronnie.  She is going to be one of my backup people for Ronnie when I am in labor.  The changing table was an extra one she had that she was not using, so she said if I liked it I could have it.  I am just thrilled to have received this as we were needing one very badly.  

We are slowly working on making the office/drum room into a sort of bedroom/baby room.  We moved the bookcase out into the living room now, and we put Ronnie's books on the bottom two shelves.  That has been so neat for him.  He can just pull a book out and sit down and look at it.  Much better than the pile of books that was forming on the floor before.  So I put the changing table in the office room where the bookshelf was (see photo above).  Our next goal is to get the desk and PC out of there and probably have to put Ron's drums up for a bit so we can put the full size mattress on the floor.  That will be a place for me to crash if me and the kids are having a long night of night wakings.  That way we can sleep somewhere without worrying about waking daddy up.

And if this baby is a girl, then we will eventually be converting that room into a bedroom for her anyway.  But that is not needed immediately.  Ronnie slept in the Co-sleeper by our bed until he was 8 months old.  I am sure this baby will sleep in there for quite a while too.  It sure makes night nursings and wakings a lot easier than having to get up out of bed! :)

The second photo is the gifts I have received from my diaper shower over the weekend.  I have a good supply of disposables, and 9 newborn sized cloth diapers.  What an absolute blessing!!  I am very grateful for people's generosity when we have been expecting a baby.  It is so helpful and I appreciate it more than words can say.  It is truly humbling to see how God provides our needs through others.

Diapers more eco-friendly than cloth (joke)

Playing outside

Ronnie just LOVES to be outside.  I think he would stay out there all day if he could.  Yesterday was one of the first non-rainy days we've had in a while, so we took advantage of it.  After daddy got home from work we all took a walk at the Civil War battlefield near our home.  The tornado that came through our town on Good Friday ripped a path right through the battlefield.  It destroyed so many trees.  That was the first time I've seen the damage there, and it sure is a mess!  The forest just does not look the same anymore.  I didn't bring the camera, otherwise I would've shared some photos of it.

After we got back home we went outside and Ronnie just explored the yard.  He had a blast playing in the bird bath putting rose petals in it and taking the little bird statues off the ground and into the bath.  I just love watching him explore his world and learn things on his own!