The past month

So where do I start? Carson is now officially 3 months old!!!! He is now rolling over from his stomach to his back. He is getting a flat head from laying on his back, so his awake time consists of bumbo to stomach, to holding, to bumbo and so on and so forth. ;-) I don't know if it's helping but his muscles are strong now and hopefully his head won't continue to get too flat. He is starting to squirm too in his crib and will be in a new position when I go into check on him. :-) He is entering the really fun stage, where he interacts with us a little, is developing his personality, and is a joy to watch. (And unfortunately not the laid back easy going personalitiy of his cousin Daniel, he already is showing he is a lot like his mother :-))

He really is such a joy to our little family. when he smiles his face just lights up so huge, and he does smile and laugh a lot. :-) It is the best in the world to see. He does have his moments of screaming and not going to sleep or waking up when it's not time but he is learning. Mom and dad (richard and I) seem to always do something that throws his schedule off. We thought that we wouldn't do anything once he came into the world, but we still continue to live our lives almost like we did before, visiting friends, leaving the house spur of the moment to do something fun, etc, so he is learning to be very flexible. But for the most part Richard and I try to be as consistent as possible.

I have started work now :-( I can work 16 hours from home and that is working out great. Then I just started doing 4 hrs on weds in the office at work. I found a babysitter and really God worked everything out that I was looking for in a babysitter. I had my first day back at the office last week and everything seemed to go well. I hope it continues to go like that.

This summer is just flying by so fast. We just got done a very busy week of a 5 day VBS at our church every evening. Richard and I did the 3rd and 4th graders together and had a blast. It was really the first "ministry" thing that we have done together and we found that we work together so well. We had a blast doing it and in my opinion made a great pair. :-) God answered so many prayers of our church for the VBS and it was a fun week, unfortunately I don't have any pictures of that week.

Richard is working a ton which is normal for the summer. Doing lots of over time to hopefully save up for our trips and for school.

This weekend for the 4th we are going to VA beach to visit our best friends from College!!! I can't tell you how excited I get every time I think about it. It will be a fast and long trip, but we are expecting to just enjoy ourselves the entire time we are there! I cannot wait!! I just hope Carson will enjoy it as much as us, and it will be a whole new adventure to do a big trip like this with him. Should be fun. :-)

Then in August we are taking a long trip to CO. I am in Rachel Pettit's wedding (for those of you that know her) and then we are going to capitalize on being in the great CO and visit all of Richard's family out there. Oh, do I miss living there and we both are looking forward to seeing those awesome mountains again, breathing the dry fresh air, and enjoying the culture of the west again. Richard's mom was diagnosed with breast cancer at the beginning of the summer and has already gone through 2 Chemo-treatments. She is doing well through it all, but because of that has not seen Carson yet, so we are excited for him to meet them, and for them to enjoy his smiles in person. :-)

Beginning of September I am going to Helaine Rozelle's wedding (for those of you who know her too) probably by myself with Carson. I can't wait to see her again, but am nervous about going with Carson. He will be a traveling pro by the end of the summer. :-)

Jerelyn is having her baby in the middle of July and I will make a trip down to see her also. My parents will be in the states for that too, and my dad will meet Carson too for the first time.

I am trying to start running again - in hopes to loose this weight that nursing apparently doesn't help with. I was running a lot last summer before I got pregnant, and hope to get back into that, and possibly run in my first race this fall. We will see. (its one of my lifetime goals)

We have a wonderful summer ahead of us and love spending the time with Carson and I should have a lot to post and tell you about in the future. ;-) Have a great summer everyone.

Month 2 of Carson's Life

Carson is now officially 2 months old. He does good sleeping for the most part. He smiles a lot now and is starting to laugh and make baby talking noices. Sometimes Richard and him will carry on converstations in a different language. Mostly Carson is trying to imitate the sounds that Richard makes. It's so cute.

My grandparents on my dad's side of the family came here to visit us for about 4 nights. We had a great time. Although we didn't do too much, we still had a great time relaxing and playing with the baby. He enjoyed being spoiled and being held all the time. I think that my grandparents loved being able to bond with their Great Grandson. It was a lot of fun. Juli and Scott we able to make it for 2 nights. They were in NYC for a wedding and stopped by here for a little to see our new place and to meet their nephew. They had never visited us here in Scranton, so that was fun to spend with them. We had a houseful, but us mayfields are so flexible about that and we had a great time. I love when I get to spend time with my sisters.

Then for Memorial Day weekend we decided last minute to drive to Altoona PA to see Jerelyn and her family. Jeffrey is living there for the summer too so we all got to see eachother and we had a great time. They all got to meet Carson too. Jerelyn is about 33 weeks pregnant and really feeling it, so we didn't do too much last weekend either, but us girls can just sit and talk for hours about anything. Her son Daniel is so cute too. It's so nice that we were able to see so much family in a short amount of time. My dad now is the only one that hasn't met Carson on my side of my immediate family, hopefully he will later this summer.

About a month ago we found out that Richard's mother has breast cancer. They have already done surgery and were optomistic about how that went, and this past weekend she had her first treatment of Chemo. Things are going as well as they can for her. WE just continue to pray for her and for strength. They are planning on coming out next week to see Carson and I really hope that it works out.

We have been so thankful for skype lately. Technology really is so nice to have every once in a while. Since the grandparents are both very far away, we have been using skype so they can see Carson growing etc. It has been very fun.

Today I started work too. So far it has been going good. I think it will be ok. It's not too hard of work, it will just be tricky to work out Carson's schedule around work. (what I'm doing can't be felixble time wise). So I just will take each day at a time and hope it works out ok. I"m just so thankful that I can work from home and still help out with our budget and paying for school, while taking care of Carson. Its neat to look back and see how God worked everything out - from the first time I saw this job posting on the internet when we first moved here, to drivnig far for work every day, to offering me another job but then making me pregnant so I couldn't take that job, and then my work being willing to move me to a closer office and then letting me work from home. I didn't know it as I was going through all those decisions but God was just working all things out for me to be able to work from home, and providing for us financially. So So Cool!!!

Well I hope everyone is doing good this week. Enjoy the week!

Smiles Smiles Smiles

I can't but help post this very cute pic of Carson smiling. Just this week he has started to smile a lot in the mornings. I'm sure there will be so many more to come, but I just love this smile. I know there is red eye, but he is still so cute.
I have a couple that I caught on my phone but I can't put those on my computer until I get a card for it. So for now until I get more, here is the cutest smile I've ever seen. :-)

Then I added a couple more because I just think he is so cute!!!!!!!!!! :-)

Frugalness

So I've been wanting to post this for a while, and have just now got around to it. I cannot take any credit for this because someone gave this to me at a baby shower. I think it is so great, and am proud of myself for doing this now. (You see this whole frugalness was not bred in me, I'm trying to learn it all, and I blame that on living in a third world where sales, coupons, garage sales, consignments shopes and clearances don't exist. So my married life I have really been trying to work on this, and learn and get better.)
I hope that all the mothers that don't know about this can find this beneficial.

It's HOMEMADE BABY WIPES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
here is the recipe.

1/2 Roll of BOUNTY (yes invest in the best and it pays off) paper towels w/0 the cardboard insert.
2 cups of water
2 Tbsp Baby Wash
2 Tbsp of Baby oil

Mix water, wash, and oil in Container.
Place paper towels in mixture.
Turn Container upside down to allow towels to absorb mixture.

They are great and last a while.

One Month

We survived one month today!!!!!! Carson is officially one month old and he is growing so much. I had an appointment today but they had to call and reschedule so now I won't know how much he weighs or has grown until Monday, but he is fitting into newborn stuff now perfectly and soon will be wearing all 0-3 months stuff. I think he is starting to focus more on me now, and sometimes I think he actually is smiling purposefully at me. It is so cute. And definitely this week he has been more alert and awake without crying, which is nice too.

This month did come with some challenges. My mom was here for almost all of it, and I know that is a long time but it was perfect for us. The 3rd week of Carson's life I got pretty sick with an infection and then a side effect of the antibiotics, it was terrible and I almost gave up nursing every day. But I pushed through it, and only got through it because I still had my mom here. She was so so helpful with everything. I really believe that God knew I was going to get sick and perfectly worked out the timing of her stay here. She is a godly woman who always sacrifices so much for her children. I really hope I can show my kids that sacrificial love like she always does to us. She was away from her husband for over 3 weeks (which I was hard for her, and I don't know if I could do that) and she helped financially and time wise with so many things while she was here. God thank you for a wonderful mother.

My best friend from College (kristen lownes (steinmentz)) came that week too. I was pretty emotional and did not plan on spending our time together as sick and crying as I was, but she was such an encouragement to me and helped me through it. I loved spending so much time with her since we are so far apart now. She is truly my best girl friend and we have so man memories together. She really is a good example to me of a christlike wife and homemaker, and I am so thankful that God put her in my life to challenge me to be more like Christ. I can see her desire to be a godly woman and she always challenges me, even if she doesn't know that.

SO I survived through the worst of nursing I hope and came out on the other end still nursing. ( I won't go into too much detail in case there are male readers).
Now we just have to make it through one more week of school. The end of the semester is always pretty terrible, and I think it's mostly because throughout the rest of the semester school is always what gets put off first, so then we pay for it in the end. But this week has been pretty hard on Richard, and then I am hard on him too. I hope that one day I will not be selfiish about things. It really is so so hard and sometimes I think impossible to not be selfish about his time, but I know that God can help me through it.

My mom left on tuesday this week and so far I've been good. :-) I am still really enjoying being home all the time.

The month of May will be pretty busy and at the end of the month I go back to work, so I have much to accomplish in May. My grandparents and my sister Juli are coming that month too which I'm really looking forward to.

We just can't wait until the summer. We have high expectations of enjoying this little boy together as a family without school work. :-) I hope it doesn't go by too fast.

Carson William Gardner

So as all of you already know (because facebook is so much easier to notify quicker), I am no longer pregnant and have a BEAUTIFUL baby boy in my arms.
I started having contractions on sunday 3/22 about 4 or 5pm. They didn't hurt so I was basically convinced that they would just stop, so I didn't get excited because I didn't want to get my hopes up. Then about 9 or 10 pm Richard said (because they were coming so rythmically, although painless, just tightening) " Maybe you should go get some things together for the hospital just in case". We were going back and forth about what we should do. But at about 10:30 or 11 we figured, well it will probably continue like this for at least a day if not more so let's just try to get a good night's sleep and went to bed. Once I layed down the contractions started becoming slightly painful, and then I got up to use the bathroom and then my water broke. Oh Boy!!!! WE just looked at eachother (it was unmistakeably that my water had broke) and were like, "ok, lets do something now":-) So I called the hospital and they said to go in. So we got the bag that we had just gotten ready and drove to the hospital. (and by the way, once your water breaks, it just keeps flowing, it's not just one gush, it will flow for a while, I didn't know that).

So we were in for a long night and day. I was in labor for a while and once the pitocin started things progressed great, and I got an epidural, and then I was feeling good. Up until the epidural (at about 5-6 cent.) I thought I was going to die. It was not very fun. But after that point, thing went great!. I was feeling good, and got to the pushing stage. WE were so so so excited that it was almost here. So I started pushing through a few contractions and felt great and was doing a good job. Then all of the sudden the doctor and a whole slew of people rushed into the room and said no questions asked, we had to go to a c-section. I was very very disappointed but trusted teh doctor. (throughout most of the contractions once the pitocin was started Carson's heart rate had been dropping a lot, and I had to keep moving posistions to try to help it, and I guess the pushing was making it drop way to much and he was under way too much stress). I really was looking forward to it being over soon, but instead was rushed to a c-section which was not fun, and now have had quite a longer recovery.
But he was born on Monday 3/23 @ 4:22pm. He was 6lbs and 13 oz. and 19 inches long. He has quite a bit of blonde blonde hair and was the talk of the hospital that day. Every nurse that came into our room said, oh this is the blonde baby that everyone is talking about. :-) I felt so proud.
For a day or so every nurse that walked into our room and said how cute he was I got so teary eyed. I have never thought that anything was so precious and cute as when they brought him over to my head after he was cleaned up (see pics on fb).

So we left the hospital on thursday afternoon and were so thankful to be home. Jerelyn was here for that day and the next until my mom got here. Richard went and picked her up from Newark airport on Friday night, and she has been the biggest help with everything.
So this week has been a process of learning about nursing, and enjoying my beautiful baby. Richard had all last week off of school and work, but this week has jumped right back into everything. It's going to be a long 5 weeks until the end of the semester for him, but I know he can do it. I sorta feel like I can't ask him to help me with anything so he can rest, and do homework and work, but at the same time, all he wants to do is hold his son and help me take care of him. So we will just all be glad when this semester is over, and we have the whole summer together!!!
I'll add a few pics, but for a lot more just look on facebook. :)

Lots going on

So I have a lot going on in my life, but nothing really that exciting to write about. Although I figure I do need to update since who knows when this baby will be here, and when I will be tired and busy with my baby boy. :-) So yes, I am 37 weeks pregnant, and would be fine with the baby coming any day now. (I think all pregnant people say that). Although I sort of am hoping and praying that he will come on March 28th. (My last day of work is the 27th and my mom flies in that night, so it would be perfect)

I haven't really slowed down on anything or stopped doing anything yet, and that is getting pretty hard for me to keep up. I still go to work every day, and still help with the weds night program at church, still doing lots of things throughout the whole week after work, and staying on top of my seminary wives fellowship duties. Between all of that I feel very busy every night after work and on the weekends. But I guess it helps the time go by faster. I also have been preoccupied with getting the nursery ready. I would not say it's "nesting" because it's my nature to make sure my house is clean, things are getting accomplished, and that things are ready and planned for anyways, so I just am staying on top of everything that I need to plan for. In no way do I feel like I'm "nesting".

I did have a shower given to me by my fellow friends here at our wonderful new church. They did an amazing job, and I had so much fun. My twin, Jerelyn, was able to come up (she is 20 weeks pregnant) and we had a wonderful time. it was a fast trip for her and her little boy, but I loved spending every minute with her. It was special for me to have her here for my shower too. They also did a great job of involving my mother, and she had written a beautiful letter to read to me and frame for the baby's room, and my mom also gave me the bedding that I really wanted for our crib. (My mom is so amazing at always making things special for us, even though she lives overseas.) Thank you friend for knowing how much it means to my mother and I to have that special time too.

Richard and I have been so overwhelmed by God's goodness to us. Whether its been through showers, gifts, money, jobs etc. God lets us have things that are so nice even though we realize that we don't need all of these things. He still give us these nice commodities. We both need to remember this time when we are going through hard times financially (which will probably be here after this baby is born, and other ones come on the way). People throughout this whole pregnancy have been so generous to us. A couple times I have been down to the old office I used to work in, and they always take me out to eat, and give me money for the baby, and other people from the office have given us gift cards. The showers that I have had have given us so many of the things that we "wanted". We can truly say that we have everything we need, and everything that will just be nice to have. Through gift cards we were able to also get a really nice travel system (car seat/stroller combo).

I could go on and on about all the things that people have given us, or how things have worked out financially for us through our jobs and taxes etc. But I really just want to get across the fact that we are truly truly grateful for how God provides through circumstances and people, and how he takes care of his children. We hope that the rest of our lives, Richard and I can also be as generous and giving as people have been to us. We are so humbled by everything.

Another thing - My job has approved me to work from home after the baby is born. I will have about 8 weeks off, and then I will work about 16 hrs a week from home, and after maternity leave status is through (4 months) I will go to about 20 hrs a week. And most of those hours will be from home!!! and if I do have to come into the office, my manager is gracious enough to let me bring the baby with me. :-) God truly has worked through this whole job, and we are so grateful.

So now all that is left is to pack my hospital bag and for the contractions to start. I am definitely ready. As impatient of a person that I naturally am, you can all imagine how I'm getting. :-) I'm always ready for the next phase a while before it actually comes. "Enough thinking and planning for all of this, I'm ready to just do it" !!! That's what I say. :-)