It’s not Benedict’s most flattering picture, but he is very cute, cuddly, and snuggly. We’re home from the hospital already, and it feels so good to be back home.

Thank you for all your well-wishes, I’m off to join the sleepers.

After a seven hour labor, 15 minutes of pushing and 6 actual pushes; our beloved Benedictus has arrived! He was born at 2:44am, weighing in at 8 pounds, 5 ounces and 21 inches long (a pound heavier and 2 inches longer than Elise!). Labor and delivery was absolutely amazing and just … wow.

I don’t know about y’all; but I’m off to babymoon! Thanks be to God!

… I’m in labor! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! We’re already in the hospital (totally agree that dilation happens MUCH faster the second time around), and Little One should be here soon, God willing.

All you holy angels and Saints of God, pray for us! :> : > :>

And any prayers you readers can spare would be appreciated, as well.

I did this with Elise’s birth, and I had a lot of fun with it; so may as well do it again. As noted on the ticker to the side, I’m down to the last week before the due date. I don’t have an induction scheduled but the Feast of the Annunciation is as far as I can carry the cutie for a plethora of reasons (so an induction would be shortly after that date, but not before). That gives about 2 weeks left to make those infamous guesses – gender, weight, length, birthday.

All I’ve been having in terms of “hinting” about going into labor is cramping. No checks for progress yet, thankfully (not that it really makes that big of a difference, anyways). You can record your guesses here and when the time finally comes; we can see who all was closest. I wish I had some sort of a neat prize or whatever to offer whoever “wins”, but consider it all in good fun nonetheless.

Thanks for humoring this (very) pregnant lady.

We’ve been busy around here recently, mainly helping Elise make those next big steps in her life – sleeping sans crib. Her crib broke, so we took the opportunity to transition her to something without bars. We’ve had absolutely no problems with her new little sleeping set-up, and that’s a great blessing to be had. She’s also mastered the art of drinking from a cup – no straws or lids – after about a day or so of spills. It’s so amazing to see how much she’s accomplished in the last 18 months.

Obviously, no word on the Little One front; other than standard crampiness and me still being ready to give birth. Greg doesn’t think I’ll make it to the due date, but I’m not entirely sure on that. I’m starting to be more at peace with the fact that I am so incredibly uncomfortable but there are absolutely no substantial contractions happening or anything that would make think LO will be here soon. I know labor can get started with a bang or a whisper – Elise’s labor started very whisperlike, so perhaps Little One will be my ‘bang’ labor.

I guess I’m just ready to get onto the next leg of things – physically, mentally, spiritually. I’m ready to meet the little person that I’ve been nourishing since June of 2009, ready to see what life will be like with 2 under 2 (for a few more months, at least) or scarier to most people – two in diapers. We’re ready to greet this new little soul, to care for and protect and teach the Faith to and be frustrated and scared and stressed out all at the same time. I think Greg and I would be lying if we said we weren’t on some level scared (terrified?), but we know that God doesn’t give more than we can handle. I’m trying to find the lessons He’s telling us in this wait, this wait that has felt like geological eons despite being only months.

Regardless, there are at the most 15 days (or perhaps 16 or 17) left between the mysterious Little One and actually having our first face to face meeting. Despite my impatience and readiness, I am enjoying the time with Elise as “an only child” – our one on one time that will be treasured moreso than ever when Little One arrives. It’s bittersweet in a way – we’re ready to get going but at the same time, would like to pause time for now and keep Elise little and Little One entirely safe.

Today is the Third Monday of Lent, and I’ve had ample opportunity to reflect on how Lent has been thus far. One on hand, it’s been a harder Lent than usual, thanks to random bouts of Braxton-Hicks contractions, the effects on me physically, mentally, and spiritually that being this pregnant has had, and a few other struggles with myself. Despite that, it has been absolutely phenomenal – I can see clearer and clear the things that separate me from the love of Our Lord but rather than feel overwhelmed by it all, I feel humbled knowing that God is helping me root them out and cast them into the fire, so to speak.

Little One’s pregnancy makes this Lent extra challenging because I’m a hormonal cup of tea and often have false labor. I’m sure you can see how that alone makes for a tired, frustrated person; and it is so easy to use that as a scapegoat and just be nasty to everyone around me. Some times I feel like it’s a giant drag to be faithful to my prayer routine and my Lenten disciplines; but it is at those times particularly that I know I need to pray and do them, and it is in those times that I find the deepest blessings and reap the greatest fruit.

I’m not entirely sure what’s going to happen when Little One decides to breathe air, but I know it will be vital for me to stick with my prayer routine and Lenten disciplines. And I know that God will give me the grace (and energy) to do so, as long as I remain open to Him. He has so much to give me, beyond my imagination; as long as I stay open to Him. He has yet to lead me into error or away from Him … but like most humans, I still find it hard to be open to Him. Or at least, be fully open to Him. I still care (too much) about what other people think, and I know it’s something I need to deal with. And I know what’s keeping me from actually dealing with it – maybe I should spent the remaining part of Lent whittling it away.

Another one of those posts from the “better than I can say it” department:

Why I Am Catholic: Because He Didn’t Promise Us A Rose Garden

One of the books I’m utilizing this Lent is Lenten Meditations with Fulton J. Sheen. Each day has a short quote from Archbishop Sheen, and a verse from Sacred Scripture that reflects what he’s trying to convey. I particularly like today’s:

One of the beautiful effects of hope is that it relieves us of the morbid fear of failure…As pride grows less in us, there is an an accompanying relief from our old terror of humiliation through failure. Once God and obedience to His will have become our all-encompassing desire, fear of the hostility of others completely evaporates; we are ready to be “fools for Christ.” (p.21)

Something worth remembering; for me at least.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. I had a great birthday – McNuggets, a bubble bath, and an early bedtime. Novel concept alert: going to bed early counteracts the 50978347683758274871895 times I wake up at night for the restroom, so I actually am (slowly) starting to feel less sleep-deprived. I still am ready for Little One to arrive, don’t get me wrong!

If you could spare some prayers for Major Dad, he has a surgery on Friday. Nothing life threatening, but surgery isn’t fun (from what I’ve heard, at least). We’re also starting to get into that “stay put, Little One!” frame of mind, since Greg’s parents will be taking care of Elise when we go to the hospital. Everyone would prefer to only have Grandma take care of Major Dad post-surgery as opposed to him AND a very active little toddler.

I’m feeling more rawr about the whole ELISE IS BEHIND drama that has been brewing. In a nutshell, she’s not performing with the OTHER KIDS in terms of speaking. I’m sure some of you know, Greg was a late-talker (three years old before he said ANYTHING other than babble!), so for Elise to be following in his footsteps is not surprising to us. Greg saw a speech therapist who said that he was exceptionally bright and had nothing wrong – he just didn’t want to talk. Therefore, we’re very leery about this immediate “SHE NEEDS AN EVALUATION AT TWO” jumping to conclusions stuff. Dr. S knows about Greg’s late talking (I was on the cusp, didn’t start until 18 months) but still wants her to be evaluated “just to be sure” – unless she has more words in six months.

Personally, we don’t see the need to have an EVALUATION at two just because she doesn’t have a 15+ word vocabulary.  She is communicating, just not with words. We do keep tabs on her in terms of what she is doing/saying/mimicking – she is developing in the sense that she is starting to imitate us when we make words (she babbles in the tones we talk in, for example if I say “bye!” to Greg, she’ll say “bahh!” in the same tone I did), she can learn sounds animals make (“baa”/”moo”/”ooo ooo oo” – monkey, ). Her receptive language is extremely good, her hearing is fine and so are oral motor skills – perhaps she just doesn’t want to talk.

Our biggest fear is that if she did go to an EVALUATION at two she’d get diagnosed with something that she didn’t have, then have to deal with labels and such. A family member had a misdiagnosis of the developmental kind and holy cow; I saw first hand how much that can affect a person’s life, even 20+ years after the misdiagnosis! We’re not in any hurry to walk down that road, that’s for sure!

At any rate, we have a plan for the upcoming six months, to encourage her to talk should she be ready and wanting to but not force her. Her next appointment formal is in six months, and her ped while being very thorough has respect for parental authority and responsibility; so even if she doesn’t show “improvement” that he’s looking for, I don’t expect a lecture/tons of wank from him.

And am I an ornery pregnant lady, too.

My hide is a little chappy because once again, we’re getting into that territory of “Elise is not doing X at her age, I’d like an evaluation done when she’s 2 if she’s not doing it by then.” We don’t agree that if X isn’t happening by 2 that Elise needs to be sent for evaluation. Once I feel mentally ready to discuss it here, details forthcoming; but until then, pray for us.

In addition to it being St. David’s Day, the first of March, the beginning of Spring around here, it’s my birthday! A little shameless promotion, if I may. It’s been kind of a rough day for me, mainly thanks to the above. My plans for the day include going to McDonald’s for some chicken nuggets (I know, fast food is horrible but I’ve been craving those suckers for months now), a giant bubble bath with a good book, and going to bed early.

I sure do know how to rock, don’t I?