Matt is 2 weeks old!

I am so happy to be updating that he's 2 weeks old and I'm NOT 39+ weeks pregnant!

It's crazy to think about how much has changed in the last 2 weeks. Matt is an amazing baby and he looks so much like my baby pictures, it's crazy. As you can see... We've always thought that the kids have looked like me - until the next kid is born and that kid looks even MORE like me!

(Above, I'm on Left and Will is on Right. 

Below, I'm on top and Will is on bottom.

But don't you see Matt in these pictures?!?!)

The big question we keep getting is "How are the kids adjusting to Matt?" The simple answer is amazingly! 

Lucy is great with him. But since she has the attention span of a gnat, she doesn't pay all that much attention to him. She wants to see him when she gets home from school and right before bed, and then any time we ask her to do something else, she uses "I want to see baby Matt" as an excuse to not do that thing. Ah, children. 

Will still doesn't acknowledge him much. He mostly says, "He's so cute!" over and over. On the rare occasion, he will say "Can I hold him?" which lasts a few seconds before he's pushing Matt off. He won't acknowledge that he has a brother yet. But, he is only 3. It'll come. I can't wait to see them growing up together. I'm sure I'm gonna have my hands full!

In other news, it's still "winter" here and we're all pretty chilly. Yesterday, as I sat cuddled on the couch with both of my sleeping boys, all 3 of us covered in blankets, I looked at the weather app on my phone and it was a *chilly* 77 degrees outside. (Ha. We've become lightweights in the cold! But we can outdo all of you on the HEAT that's coming our way in a few short months - maybe weeks!) We're on our 3rd day of rain, which is very unusual for our part of the world. We're even sitting here listening to loud thunder right now! Odd.

Back to baby Matt...
- He is weighing around 9lb 6oz now. (Unofficial weight from our bathroom scale)
- We go back to see pediatrician on Sunday (Feb 21) to get his first check up since birth. (They only do an appointment 2 weeks after birth here.)
- We had his circumcision this past Sunday. It was a bit traumatizing for me. In the USA, at least in our hospital in AL, they did it before we left the hospital after he was born, but here, for some reason, they wait a few days. The surgeon happened to be on leave the week after Matt was born, so we had to wait even longer and he was 10 days old when he got his done. It's almost healed now and I'm SO ready for it to be done! I don't like seeing wounds on my babies!
- He's eating anywhere from 3-4 oz of milk at each feeding, which we do every 3 hours during the day and he's going about 4 hours between feedings at night. (Brad and I are both TIRED, as you can imagine.)
- We finally got his birth certificate today. It's super fancy and laminated and we got 2, one written in English and one in Arabic. We will go to the embassy on Tuesday to apply for his passport.
- He does not like bath time, something I'm hoping will pass. But he does like the hair washing time. He just relaxes as soon as I start rubbing his head. And then afterwards, he is awake for a bit then he is knocked out for hours. Bath time wears us all out.  (picture below is last night right after bath time)

All this to say, Matthew Thomas truly is a Gift from God. We are tired, but so blessed. 

Happy 2 weeks, Matt!

Introducing Matthew Thomas Haynes

He's here! He's 3 days old. He's so amazing. He's very chill and doesn't cry much. He is already eating up a storm and his cord is almost completely dry. We are blessed beyond measure and so grateful for the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ for giving us this gift and for the gift of an amazing labor and delivery experience! Here's how it all went down...

I had an appointment with my doctor on Wednesday, Feb 3. I was 3cm and everything for the induction was set up. I headed home, only to hear that Lucy was sick and we needed to take her to the doctor, too. We picked her up and headed back to the doctor, while Brad and Will headed to the grocery store and to pick up lunch. Everything was okay with Lucy, just a bad cough and a nice dose of anxiety over the upcoming changes to the family.

Later that day, the water heater stopped working and then that night, Lucy had a night terror. I was pretty overwhelmed with Satan's attack on us and sent out prayer requests and spent time in prayer, myself. I wasn't going to let satan rob us of the peace that God had so graciously poured out over us about the whole "having a baby in a foreign country without my mom here" situation. In God's abundant mercy, he got the repairman here and got the water heater fixed and he calmed Lucy and she was able to go back to sleep, no problem.

Our friends Katelyn & Haley came over about 9:30pm on Feb 3. They stayed with Lucy and Will while we were in the hospital and were such a huge blessing and answer to prayer! We LOVE them!

Brad and I loaded up around midnight and headed to Starcare Hospital. A far cry from the comforts of St. Vincent's in Birmingham, AL, but our best option here and only 5-10 min from our house! I will be totally honest and tell you that I cried on the way there. I put on the song "You Make Me Brave" and sang along as much as I could through my tears, all the while praying that God would indeed make me brave for the upcoming major life change that was about to happen. By the time we got to the hospital, I felt calm and ready to go. PRAISE THE LORD!

We walked up to the labor and delivery floor, gave them our paperwork and were escorted to our room. The midwife, Chia (kiy-yah), told us to get settled in and then she'd come back and check on us. Wow. First completely different experience. We were alone in the room. There wasn't really anything set up. We settled in some and just prayed before the nurse came in. 

We were told this is the VIP room! It was a lot bigger than you can even see on the picture, with another couch, coffee table, refrigerator, and of course, bathroom and closet. Please refer to us as VIPs from now on... :)

The nurse, Cinna, came in and hooked me up to a contraction monitor and the baby heart rate monitor. This was about 12:30 am on Feb 4. She told me that I'd be hooked up for a while and that I should get some sleep. I wasn't really having too many contractions at this point, so that's what we did. 

Brad slept on his bed and I slept on mine until about 3:15am when Chia came in to start the induction. She checked me and I was already at 4cm. She gave me the suppository and explained that this would start the contractions more strongly and that she was pretty sure I'd go quickly from that point on. 3:20 am. I had to lay still for 1 hour to let medicine kick in. She told me that she'd come back in 6 hrs to check me again, but that since I was already "soft" and "progressing" she thought I'd go quickly and I might miss my window for the epidural. This did not make me happy and I know she could tell, so she said that she'd check me after 3 hours to make sure we had a fighting chance for an epidural. 

The contractions started pretty soon after the insert and I was in more and more increasing pain. Honestly, I think this is the first time I've ever experienced true contractions (since with Lucy they didn't really hurt at all and with Will I was induced as well, but not with same medicine). By 4:20, when Chia came back to take me to the bathroom, I was hurting a lot and there were lots of tears, not gonna lie. I have a very low pain tolerance! She assured me she'd be back in 2 hours (at 6:30am) to check me. I was able to doze a bit, but with each contraction, I'd wake up. Brad was snoozing across the room. Around 5:30, I stopped trying to go to sleep and just texted everyone in America a lot. By 6:30, I was ready for her to come! At 6:45, I called to the nurses to see where she was. By about 7, she was there to check me. And I was still around 5cm, but I told her I was ready for the epidural! 

By this point, there was a shift change and a new midwife came in - Huda. She got me up out of the bed and wheeled me around to the labor and delivery room (another difference from St V, where you do everything in the same room). I got up on the bed and got all set up for the epidural. The anesthesiologist came in sometime around 745/8am. Cracked us up because he was in wind suit pants and a polo, like a coach! But he had the *good stuff* so I didn't care what he was wearing! 

Epidural process wasn't as smooth as I'd have liked, and between the intense contractions and needle poking, I flinched and blood got in the line and so he had to poke me a second time. The second time, Brad held me quite still and when the Dr said, "It's Done," I tell you, the relief and gratitude that flooded in was palpable! They laid me flat on my back and told me I couldn't really move to let the medicine start working. It had to be around 8:15am by that point and once I laid down flat on my back, I didn't move for the next 4 hours! Epidural meds are strong and apparently, my reaction to them is SLEEP. I was aware of Brad and our friend, Tiffany, in the room talking, the midwife coming to check me occasionally, and that's about it. I got some good sleep! 

I got the "feeling" just before 12 noon and Huda called the doctor to come in. I was 10 cm and it was time to start pushing! By about 12:05, I started pushing and Matthew Thomas joined us at 12:15! I think I pushed maybe 6-7 times. It was awesome! And I certain we were all in complete shock that it happened so fast! God is SO good! I'd been praying for months that it would be a smooth and quick delivery and boy oh boy, God delivered! Matt got put on the scale and was a nice 3.9 KG (8 lb 9 oz) and measured 51 cm (20 in) long. Praise the Lord!

Soon after he came out, Huda realized that they hadn't turned off the epidural medicine yet! Everything happened so fast that she hadn't made it over to turn it off! While Matt was being measured and weighed, my doctor was finishing up and waiting for the placenta to come. She mentioned to Huda that it wasn't coming and to start some certain kind of medicine and about that time, I coughed. (I've been fighting a sinus/cold/junk for about 2 weeks and still have a nice-sized cough.) Dr Aseel said, "well, that'll do it." And I told her coughing was no big deal. I coughed twice more and out came the placenta! Huda told me she wished that every patient was as easy as I was! WOOHOO! 

Matt had a little bit of a breathing issue and had to stay back for observation for about 45 min/1 hour. Meanwhile, I went back to the room and had something I'd been looking forward to for the past month...COCA COLA! 

They brought precious boy in after about 45 min or an hour. He's so chill and perfect!  

"Aunt" Tiffany was with us the whole time! She even got to stay in the delivery room with us. She is a nurse and one of our very best friends here, so it was such a blessing and a treat to have her with us!

Around 5pm, our friends brought Lucy and Will to meet their baby brother. Lucy was immediately in love!

Will wasn't so sure what to think. He loved his present "from Matt," a new race car. Lucy loved hers, too, a stuffed My Little Pony. So thoughtful of Matt to bring them gifts! :)

 My loves!

These are our people! They kept Lucy and Will, brought us food, and are still helping us in any and every way possible! Again, God's grace poured out through his people. We are abundantly blessed!

 First diaper change from Daddy. Brad's tradition.

 And our first picture as a family of 5! 

Brad and I are back and forth on Matt's Bible verse. Here are our two choices. He may just get them both! 

"Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand." 

Proverbs 19:21

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."

James 1:17

Matthew was such a wonderful surprise. Our plans were thrown on end when God decided to bless us with him and we couldn't be more grateful that His ways are higher and far better than ours! (That's why we chose Proverbs 19:21) And over and over again, God continues to show us that Matthew is a gift from Him alone. The name "Matthew" means "Gift of God." (That's why we chose James 1:17)

Thank you for praying for us and walking alongside us. We cannot wait for all of you to meet Matt! 

37 weeks tomorrow

Tomorrow, I hit the 37 week mark with Baby Boy. Praise the Lord! To say this has felt like a super long pregnancy is an understatement. I'm not sure what's so incredibly different about it. Honestly, it's been much easier than Lucy's and even Will's, although most of my pain from Will was after delivery, so that remains to be seen.

The overarching thing with this pregnancy has been how extremely gigantic he is! From early on, he has measured big. All 3 of my babies measured big for the bulk of the pregnancy, but this little guy, well, he's almost off the charts big! And maybe it's because I'm in a different country where they don't usually have gigantic babies and so my doctor has made a very big deal out of just how big he is that it's been on the forefront of our minds. Will was 9 lb 15 oz (4.5 kg) when he was born and the first thing out of my doctor's mouth was "Wow! If I'd have known how big he was I would never have let you push him out!" Thanks, doc. Encouraging words. Every time I tell anyone over here how big Will was, the response I get is a resounding and drawn out "Ma-sha-allah!" (Which means "what God wills/ordains." They use it basically like people use "What the heck!" or "omg")

Back to Baby Boy. He has measured...get ready for it...3-4 weeks ahead for over 2 months now! And because he's so big, my doctor here has run all kinds of tests to try to figure out just exactly why. She also does an ultrasound every single visit. (Which I like!) What she found out is that I have gestational diabetes.

**Now, I wanna throw in a disclaimer here, I did the glucose test at the normal 22 week mark and it was perfectly normal. When she had my blood tested again, it was on Dec 28. I'd like you to find any normal person whose blood sugar isn't through the roof the week after Christmas! So, she started me on the diabetic diet. And I haven't gained any weight since I started it, in fact, I've lost about 6 lb since the end of December! Talking with my nurse friends (I'm surrounded by nurses!) here and talking through my blood sugar levels, they seem to be pretty darn good to me. We bought a meter and I check it about once daily now and the only 3 things that send it sky-rocketing high are:

1. juice (it was very low one morning when I woke up and it told me to treat and retest in 15 min. I drank a tiny, kid-sized cup of OJ and it sent it WAY up and way over my suggested level within 30 min!)
2. cornbread (I made taco soup and we made whole wheat corn bread. We like sugar in our cornbread, but still, Brad didn't even use as much as we usually do and both times I've eaten the cornbread, it has gone way up!)
3. coconut beans (This is a Swahili dish that is super duper yummy and is usually eaten with rice. I only ate a tiny, minuscule amount of rice that day, but had lots of beans, thinking beans are protein, they shouldn't bother me. But low and behold, it sky-rocketed. Had to be the coconut in the beans.)

All in all, I've felt better, lost weight, and haven't had the intense swelling in my feet and hands since I drastically cut back on my sugar intake.**

Doctor still isn't happy with my numbers, which are all but directly in the range she gave me, and so Thursday she put me on meds (glucophage) and she set my induction date for this Thursday, February 4! WOOHOO! I think she's nervous about how big he already is...did I mention that he's big? Get these measurements...

At 36 weeks and some days, his head is already as big as a 41 week old baby! He is in 97% + percentile for every.single.measurement.

So there you have it. It's Sunday night and in 4 days, I should be the mother of  3 kids!

We're still praying through what Baby Boy's verse is gonna be... that will be revealed when HE is revealed! Praise God for my BIGGUN!

3rd trimester

So...last week I officially hit the 3rd trimester! YAY! Although, it sure seems like I have FOREVER to go. That's probably because I am already huge - and so is Baby Boy! Here's what my weekly baby email told me this week (29 weeks):

Your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 pounds (about the size of a butternut squash) and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel. 

This is funny because LAST week, at my 28 week appointment, my doctor told me during the ultrasound that Baby Boy is big. "There's his head. Oh, it's BIG. There's his torso, also big. And there's his arm covering his face. It's long." She said he's already weighing 1.5KG (3 lb 5 oz). This was LAST WEEK!

Needless to say, we make BIG babies. Should we make any wagers about just how big this boy is gonna be??? (Remember, his big brother Will was 1 day early and was 9 lb 15 oz.)

It should also be noted that the Barycenter email also states that the baby will TRIPLE in weight before birth. SHEESH.

3rd Annual Haynes Fall Festival

We are blessed with a nice group of American & Western friends here. A few years ago, I was upset that we weren't doing more fellowship things together and a friend of mine encouraged me to DO something about it! So, I did. And the Haynes Fall Festival (Redeeming Halloween Party) was born! This was our 3rd year doing it and it was the best year yet! We had 59 people here!

It's a night focused on the kiddos, of course! But I'm sure the adults have just as much fun as the kids do! We start the night out with pumpkin cookie decorating for the kiddos. I set out the undecorated cookies, icing in 4 colors, and lots of candy decorations and let the kids get creative!

After cookie decorating - and eating - the kids do their trick-or-treating. We do it like I did at my church growing up...each kid has to say a Bible verse to get a piece of candy! Scripture memory & candy - WIN WIN! 

After that, everyone heads outside to play games. Brad is in charge of the games. He had Pin the Tail on the Camel, a Candy Walk, Bobbing for Apples, and 2 Ball Toss games. Thankfully, the weather is finally dropping into the high 80s, so it felt wonderful outside! 

After games, we come inside and eat all the yummy goodies that everyone's brought. It's a Halloween pot-luck! Heavy appetizers and desserts, our favorites! Check out these super cute fruit treats that my friend Brooke made...

Everyone takes their time eating and kids playing outside and just fellowshipping. The past 2 years, most everyone leaves after eating, but this year, everyone hung around. It was great! The last activity of the night is for the kiddos to take over the living room and watch Room on the Broom. It's the cutest, non-annoying, non-scary Halloween show. We watch it every year! (Brad seemed to be enjoying it, too!) It's a great way to c-a-l-m d-o-w-n after a night of candy and games.

Will spent the night playing with his best friend, Emma. Both of them were a bit overwhelmed by the large number of people, so they played in Will's room mostly. And then I found them under the table! Emma is 14 and she's amazing! Will LOVES her! He says her name so sweetly!

I'm sad I didn't take more pictures. Lucy was dressed as SuperGirl, but was a bit under the weather. She ran a fever the day before and then all morning the day of the Festival. It broke and she was able to participate, but she wasn't 100% and the fever came back later that night and yesterday. 

The greatest blessing of the night was all the help I had! I was kinda dreading the whole evening, just because hosting is hard work and I remember last year I was on my feet the whole night and exhausted by the end of it all. But once again, our amazing friends, that are more like family over here, stepped up and I had SO MUCH HELP! I was basically the director of the event, but didn't have to do hardly any of the grunt work! Friends came early and helped decorate. Friends manned the cookie decorating. Friends manned the food table intake and setup. Friends & Brad did all the games. And then Friends stayed a cleaned up THE WHOLE THING! I didn't do a thing! From washing all the dishes, to taking down all the decorations and cleaning up all the trash. Wow. I was so blessed! And so relaxed! And my ankles didn't swell up to the size of elephant's feet. And my back didn't hurt. And Baby Boy was super happy! And so was Mama!

Happy Halloween! And Happy Reformation Day! :) 

Now...on to November! 

Pregnancy #3, for posterity's sake

So....It's about time I tell you a little bit about this pregnancy. And by "you," I mean, my parents and the 2 faithful readers that I have and myself :)

Baby Matt. 23 weeks yesterday. Matthew Thomas Haynes. I'm due February 22.

Matt is active and big. He's measuring 8-10 days ahead on the ultrasounds. Brad has felt him kicking. I certainly feel him kicking, multiple times a day now. I'm completely in maternity clothes - praise the Lord for maternity clothes! So comfy! I'm pretty sure he's laying with his feet towards the right side of my body because that's where I feel him the most.

This week, we changed Will over to his big boy bed to make room for Baby Matt to be in the crib. The plan is for him to stay in our room for a while in the pack-n-play. We've never kept one of our babies in our room, so this might be interesting and it might be thrown out the window after the first few nights!!

Lucy is very lovey, already, towards Matt. She hugs my belly and kisses it. She is very excited about his arrival. Will has said a handful of times that there's a baby in my tummy. And sometimes, if you ask him where the baby is, he'll say, "in Mommy's tummy." Of course, he has NO idea that his world is about to be completely rocked! (He is my shadow these days! Especially since he's not going to nursery anymore and is with me basically 12 full hours a day!)

I haven't craved anything weird. I've simply wanted things to be really COLD. We have to refill the ice trays almost daily. And I'm really into cold, sweet grapes. I guess that's a craving. And strangely enough, I've really enjoyed Arab food lately (which is good and odd at the same time - good, since we live in an Arab country, and odd, since in our 6.5 years here, I've never craved, wanted, or even enjoyed Arab food all that much!).

Now...the negative...again, for posterity's sake...and because even if a pregnant lady won't admit it, pregnancy is SUPER HARD....
- My feet and hands are already swelling quite a bit. (and have been for a few weeks) I think it has a lot to do with the heat here. (It's still over 95 every day!)
- I'm still getting sick some (throw up...blah), but it's not near like it was for the first 4 months.
- I have a LOT of sciatic pain and round ligament pain that I haven't had in the other two pregnancies. It's making it hard to walk some days and since one of the ways to satiate said pain is to walk...and when I walk my feet swell up like balloons...well, you can see my dilemma. Turns into a waddle quickly.
- I'm already having trouble sleeping. Not every night...but enough. My arms fall asleep, which I feel is because of the increased blood flow, and so I roll over and over and over and over...you get the picture.

I still can't believe we're having another baby - but at the same time, I'm now SUPER excited! I know that God has a plan for this baby and for our family! I trust Him. And I can't wait to see what God has in store for Matt and Will and Lucy!

And I haven't taken even ONE belly picture!!! It's now been requested by Bibi, so I guess that'll happen soon enough. Maybe next week when I hit 24 weeks (6 months!!).

(3 kids!!! Wow.))

Here Lately....

I've realized that I've stopped blogging on a regular basis. Could be because I chronicle everything on Instagram now, or the fact that I have 2 or 3 regular readers/commenters....Or maybe I'm just tired. Who knows. So, here goes for what's happened in the last week.

Lucy lost ANOTHER tooth. She's now got 3 holes. This makes 6 total that she's lost.

 Thursday, Brad and I went in for my in-depth ultrasound. I'm 20+ weeks now. Here, they call it the "anomaly ultrasound." Thankfully, praise God, there were no anomalies found. But what we did learn is that baby Matt is measuring 8 days ahead. Joy. Just like his big sister and big brother did. Ultrasound took about 30 minutes and the Dr looked at everything. Brad dozed off and I got a crick in my neck from watching the screen and my sciatic hurt so much by the end of it that I cried when I got up. Nice. Baby pains.

 It should also be known that I also started feeling horribly that morning, before the ultrasound. Bad Cold. I was diagnosed with the "Flu," but we laugh because they use the term "Flu" here for bad cold. No flu-like symptoms. Promise. 

Brad and I went out to eat afterwards and I was feeling TERRIBLY. I mean, I almost cried sitting at the table. But then...the very sweet waiter must've noticed and he brought us a free dessert! Brad had already left to go deal with some work stuff, so I got the whole thing to myself! WOOHOO! That helped me feel better! 

(Note: I did NOT eat the whole thing. I boxed up about ¼ of it for Brad.)

 Then we pulled up at the nursery and right as Brad walked in to get Will, the worker came out and told him that Will had a fever and had just thrown up. G-r-e-a-t. 

He continued off and on with the fever that night and the throwing up. We're pros now. Notice the "throw-up-bucket" complete with liner for easy clean up. 

 Why is it that kids always get sick over the weekend??? Is it just us? Please tell me this happens to others, too. Our weekends are Friday/Saturday. And we spent all day Friday with a coughing and feverish Will and a coughing ME. (Truth be told, Will had more flu-like symptoms than I did.) 

 And thankfully, after Thursday night, there was no more throw up! 

Praise God for our community here! We had friends take Lucy to church for us and then kept her out playing all day! THANK YOU, FRIENDS!

Saturday. Today. 

Will has had a fever off and on. We're both still coughing, but not as much. Lucy was home with us, and she came into the living room like this: 

"Mom, I made my own sandwich!" This precious girl is growing up before my eyes! Granted, it was a honey sandwich...nothing else...but still! 

I LOVE MY FAMILY.

(But I'm ready for a date night/weekend anytime!)