That's the way...

Everyone sing along with me now... That's the way... uh-huh, uh-huh... we like 'em... uh-huh, uh-huh... That's the way... uh-huh, uh-huh... we like 'em... uh-huh, uh-huh (sleeping that is). Okay so I changed a lyric or two, but what a blessing a sleeping baby is :)

We're all still here, learning what it means to be a family of four. We would love your prayers over the next week for Grant and I as it seems we have an abundance of doctor visits (just routine, but still...) and we're scheduling his circumcision for next week as well. It's done a little different here since most babies are not circumcised, so it will actually be an outpatient procedure that we have to go to the hospital for... so prayers not only for Grant that he'll come through everything just great, but also for the Mommy and Daddy, that we'll handle our baby having his first "surgery" well. Thank you for all your prayers that you've already lifted up for our family, the peace that we feel even amidst the craziness we're experiencing is a testimony to your faithful prayers! God bless!

Introducing...

We started off Thursday morning at 8:30 am inducing labor with Grant and Gary just couldn't help but take a picture of the big Clinica Copacabana (yes I said Copacabana :) embroidery across my prego belly :) We were really blessed in our entire experience (although it would have been even better if they had given me my epidural more than just an hour or two before actually giving birth... this laboring until you're at a 7 or 8 and then giving you your epidural (with lots of drugs inducing labor thing I might add) is highly overrated!

If you look closely you can see my face and I think it's saying... you want to wait how long before you give me drugs? (That's my OBGYN and she was a great great great Dr. We were so blessed! When your OB cancels her afternoon patients to come and labor with you... even hold your hand... now that's a great doc!)
Nathan's big brother visit the next morning! He's going to be a great big brother!
How handsome is he? Big Brother kisses... we're working on the word gentle :)
And introducing...
our newest little Bull... Grant Thomas!

He's here...

Just a quick update as my firstborn is stirring and second born is sleeping beside his daddy so peacefully :) Grant Thomas Bull arrived late Thursday night at 10:15 pm after a full day's worth of induction. We found out at my doctor's visit on Wednesday that she would be traveling this weekend to La Paz and I really didn't want to deliver with another doctor and so we decided to induce. The delivery went really well, Grant weighed in at 7 pounds and about 7 ounces and we're trying to find the piece of paper that said how long he was :) He's doing great and his big brother hasn't sat on, squished, or poked eyes out yet :) We're came home Friday afternoon about 2:00 pm and all had a pretty good night over all last night. I promise more details and pictures to come, just wanted to let everyone know! Thank you so much for covering us in prayer! There are so many ways that I can tell you they were answered... and I will... I promise, just after my nap :)

It's working :)

Okay, so on the baby update, well there isn't one :( Grant keeps getting lower and lower, but no real contractions and all is still intact, so we're playing the waiting game... I know he'll come in his time, but I just wish his time was sooner than later! This last week we had a specialized ultrasound just to make sure that the cord wasn't wrapped around his neck or in a compromised position. It really was such a blessing to see in such amazing detail my little boy's brain, heart, kidneys, lungs, I could go on and on, and then to see in doppler with all the colors in the cord and movement of fluid throughout his little body. All that to say we're in the clear, no cord wrappage and all looks great. I will say that after an hour of laying flat on my back on a table that might as well have been a two by four at 9 months pregnant I was so ready to be done with the whole thing. The doctor was great, but I think he loves all the "gadgets" of his ultrasound equipment a little too much... so he took forever (are you envisioning Squints from the the movie Sandlot?) to finish the ultrasound. We're just so glad that all looks healthy and ready to go for our second little man :)

In regards to our first little man... he pottied for the first time tonight! Now mind you, we're not potty training because until now he's shown us absolutely no signs that he's ready. Most pediatricians I've talked to have said not to push the issue with it being so close to Grant's birth since he'll probably regress after the birth even if we were fully potty trained at that point anyway. But tonight he looked at his daddy and said, Come on... so off they went running down the hall and spent the next few minutes on Nathan's potty (Nathan that is... not Daddy).

Apparently in the first few moments on the potty Nathan went #2 and then looked down into the potty and realizing what had just happened, looked up at Gary and said... It's working! Oh how I wish I had been there... I think in my fragile 9 month pregnant state I would have needed to potty too :) How funny are our kiddos? I am so blessed to be Nathan's mom and even though he's been super cranky today (sinus infection = antibiotic = upset tummy and constant crankiness) it was all redeemed in that hilarious moment :) Hope you've had a few laughs today as well and hopefully there'll be news to report soon of my second little family comedian to come into this world!

Forget Love... I'd rather fall in Chocolate :)

One of my favorite Christmas gifts to open every year is my Mary Engelbreit calendar from my mom. My mom is great at remembering that special gift every year and I love sitting by the tree looking at all the new artwork for the months to come. This February has to be one of my favorites. A sweet picture of a little girl falling into a huge vat of chocolate with the words... Forget Love... I'd rather fall in Chocolate! Now don't get me wrong I love love as much as the next girl... romance... flowers... good chick flicks and the like, but yesterday was a day when I lived out this motto.

It was one of those: I'm ready to have my body back (as in not share it with the every growing little boy inside), I'm ready to walk normal again, I'm ready to breathe normal again, I'm ready to sleep normal again, I'm ready to be able to sit on the floor gracefully again, I'm ready to wrestle Nathan again, I'm ready to not cry at the drop of a hat again, I'm not ready to go through labor again (what woman in the world truly enjoys the experience of labor I ask you?), I'm not ready to go through labor in a hospital I haven't worked in and don't know half the staff in, I'm not ready to inhabit the land of infancy all over again, I'm not ready to give up my one on one time with Nathan yet, I'm ready to shoot the water company (who bring our big jugs of purified water) who have now told me for two days they were just minutes away with my water and of which I have not yet to see a drop, I'm not ready to have Grant without my mom here, I am a little excited to have the experience of adding a little one to our family with just the three of us here (oh the contradiction of pregnancy hormones in the brain), and the list went on and on and on...

So after a meltdown with my husband first and then Katie later, who in all her precious new momminess ventured out with Jubilee and Malakai to come visit us... I did what any intelligent and good problem solving female would do... I made brownies :) And not just any brownies... when desperate times call for desperate measures there is only one recipe of brownies that will cure the problem and it's my dad's.

As I add the mounds of sugar, flour, oil, eggs (I know... such a healthy treat huh?) I am reminded that all will be well again in just 30 short minutes... they were great beater licking for Nathan, bedtime snack (and breakfast - shhh don't tell my doc!) for mommy and therapy for the soul! So love, yes, there was definitely love involved in the baking last night... but last night the remedy for my conflicted heart was falling into chocolate :)

Blocks, blocks, blocks and Mommy's place...

One of the things I knew I wanted to bring back from the states with us was a set of the blocks that are made of cardboard that have brick print on the outside of them and are in great bright primary colors. Thanks to my great sister-in-law Shelley, Nathan got a set for Christmas and since they come folded up and unassembled they were easy to pack too. There are a few that are tubes and the other day as Gary was trying to get some things done in the office and Nathan wanted to play and play with Daddy and the tube shaped blocks... this is what happened :) Needless to say the play was suspended for awhile :) the things we do for just a moments peace huh?

Then just the other night after dinner I found out where my place is in this little family... NOT in the recliner apparently. I usually take up residence on the couch and Gary in the recliner, but this particular evening Gary had moved to the floor and so I saw my chance and moved in for the kill :) And do you want to know what my sweet, caring, taking care of his pregnant mommy two year old did? He comes over from across the room, takes my hand and proceeds to tell me No Mommy, No Mommy, Daddy's chair... Daddy's chair... what? Are you telling me that after taking care of you and all your needs all day long I don't even deserve to sit in the recliner and relax? Apparently not... So I've learned that the recliner is definitely man land and I'll have to just keep looking for my special chair place in the Bull world :) Below is proof that the recliner in the Bull living room is for Daddy and Nathan :) and I can handle that they have their special space together, especially if it means naptime happens like this :)

#3

I thought of #3 to add to the backside post below :) and so here it comes, drumroll please...

3. Head injury protection for Nathan... for those who know my two year old you know that I could have named him Nathan "Dash" Bull for the amount of running that he does :) Do you remember that line in Forest Gump about wherever he went he was "ru...nning"... well that's Nathan. The problem these days comes when he's trying to run through spaces, crevices, hallways, or any other open area that I'm already occupying. Let's just suffice it to say that there have been many "run ins" between Nathan and mommy and without the Extra Padding God and Grant have so graciously given me recently, there could have been some serious head injuries to treat here at the Bull house :) So for the sake of Nathan's head, brain, and cognitive development, I guess the extra padding is worth it :)

On a side note, I'm sitting here in the apartment typing away and it's a little bizarre. There's no Rocket playing on the DVD player, no requests for sippy cup fill ups (have you ever felt like a sippy cup fill up drive-thru as a mom?), no diapers to be changed, no little fingers to keep an eye on because... Nathan had his first day at "school" today. It was definitely harder on me than him. Gary coached me all the way there... now Laura, he'll react like he sees us react, so no tears, no worries... okay? I guess the meltdown I had in bed last night about sending my baby to school got him a little worried that we would start a flood of waterworks again today, and though I did tear up as we left him (outside the door, well out of eyeshot of Nathan) I think we all did pretty well. Nathan was playing when we left, waved good-bye and turned around to keep swinging, never looking back... so that's a good sign right? We go back to pick him up in about an hour so we'll see how he did but it's been a peaceful morning around these parts.

We went to check out the clinics we could possibly deliver at here so that I could have a good visual for where Grant will be born. The way it works in Bolivia is you have many many private clinics and you and your Dr. basically decide where you'd like to go. Obviously your Dr. may have a preference, but my doc is pretty open to wherever we'd like to go. So when labor starts I call her, she calls the clinic I've chosen to see if there's an open bed and delivery room and we go from there. If there's not, then we call the next on the list until we find a bed and then head out (hopefully Grant will wait to head out until we actually make it to the clinic :). I feel pretty good about both clinics we saw this morning and so that's a comfort to my overplanning at times a little anxious self. But for now, this mommy's a little pooped from our clinic field trip this morning so I'm going to catch a power nap before Nathan comes home :) Hope everyone is having a great day!

Extra Padding :)

If I were asked to put into words a theory that I have about pregnancy one of my favorites would center around the idea that as pregnant women we gain weight on the backside just as we gain weight with the baby on the front side. For awhile I have to say this perplexed me... because as far as I can tell there's no health benefit to Grant that I gain weight in the backside... his place is up front :) But I have a few new ideas that I've come across this pregnancy that help me understand the "extra padding" in the back that comes with baby territory.

1. If we only gained baby weight up front, we as pregnant women just might fall flat on our faces when in the upright standing position due to being completely off balance :) Can you even imagine the disasters that could cause in the grocery store aisles? "Preggo down on Aisle 3..."
2. (I thought about this one alot last night while sitting on our couch) If my normal backside had to bear the weight in sitting position of the added weight that Grant has brought to the front side... oh I don't even want to think about it... pretty uncomfy thought :) The phrase bony butt that my Dad used so frequently as I was growing up somehow comes to mind :)

So anyway, I'm not planning a dissertation or new found career in human anatomy, but just thought I'd affirm our heavenly Father publicly :) ... turns out He really does know what He's doing in the process of forming Grant as He tells me in my most favorite scripture Psalm 139... not only for my little man... but for the Mama too :)