Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Growing Older

I found this in my inbox today. I typically delete most forwards before even glancing to see what they are, but for some reason I opened this one and read it through. It seemed to be something good to ponder this afternoon.
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Old Age, I decided, is a gift.

I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be. Oh, not my body! I sometime despair over my body, the wrinkles, the baggy eyes, and the sagging butt. And often I am taken aback by that old person that lives in my mirror (who looks like my mother!), but I don't agonize over those things for long.

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I've aged, I've become more kind to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend.

I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need, but looks so avante garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant.

I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon?

I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60 & 70's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love ... I will.

I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set. They, too, will get old. I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things.

Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.

As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore. I've even earned the right to be wrong.

So, to answer your question, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day. (If I feel like it)

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Blog Links

I have added a few additional links to great blogs. These are blogs that I read daily. I enjoy them and I believe it is not just because they are my friends! ;o) Check em out!

Time to check in again, I suppose!

Trey is one month old!!! I can't believe how fast this month has gone. We have some exciting things on the horizon for our family so the fact that the past month has gone by this quickly makes our future look so close. We took Trey to the doctor on Friday due to several minor things we wanted checked. He has grown so much. He is now 11 1/2 pounds. Zero-Three month clothes are typically for babies up to 12 lbs. Unfortunately we have already started our "retirement" pile for outgrown clothes. It only has 3-4 items in it so far, but a couple of them he didn't even wear once. That is too sad, huh?! They will go into a tote and to the attic in hopes that a future Hayes will get use out of them.

Other news on the home front...

  • I am thrilled to be able to participate in some Mom & Tots activities once again. We had to give them up when I returned to work. Now that I am a part-timer I am jumping back into these fun activities. We will start with the new music class for kids tomorrow morning. I think we will start getting ready at about 8:00 to be there by 10:00! ;o)
  • Our home has recovered from a month of visitors! It was wonderful to have my family and my best friend here for visits. We really enjoyed all the fun times and new memories that were created during their stays with us. However, as a "new mom" I kinda ate up the fact that I didn't need to do much around the house. So by the end of this past week our house was a disaster. L.C. let me sleep way in on Saturday so when I got up I was ready to get to work. He left for basketball practice and both kids napped at the same time so I jumped in with both feet! It never felt so good to pick up and clean our home! With every bit of progress I felt life coming into order. Nice! When L.C. came home he jumped in and helped with the cleaning and by bedtime our home was spotless... well, except for the cluttered desk and bills that still need to be paid. I should get on that tomorrow. Why not tonight you ask?!?! Perhaps I will play the "day of rest" card! ;o)
  • I am so thankful for our church. The current series "obey" has really got me thinking and has challenged me in great ways. I have faith that God has great things right around the corner for me! The connections I have with friends there is so special, too. It has been hard for me to connect through the last several months due to low energy from the pregnancy and adjusting to working full time. But now that both of those are done I am looking forward to building upon the relationships we have with our friends there. On Friday night I was blessed to be a part of a White Elephant Baby Shower for several women who are expecting babies (and two of us who were blessed with ours one month ago)! It was a neat experience. I really enjoyed getting to know more women from our church. Some that I had never seen before and some that I had met, but never really got to know. It is truly a blessing to be a part of a interconnected body of believers!
  • Pheoby is about to turn 4! I can't believe how big she is getting. What a marvelous thing to watch this child grow and advance in knowledge and wisdom with such ease. She certainly makes us proud! We will be celebrating her birthday with a My Little Pony party at home. She will be getting a fabulous outdoor "toy" so I am praying that spring time weather comes early. I am hoping for dry ground and a nice carpet of grass to prevent little feet from turning orange. I am in the midst of creating our guestlist. If you fear I may forget to invite you drop me a comment and I will add your kiddos to the list. We want all our friends to share this special day with us! (Friday, Feb. 22)

Friday, January 18, 2008

Snow Day!

Yesterday we had a snow day. Snow days in the South are so much fun because they are pretty much a guarantee for the littlest bit. And there is a serious buzz all around the region. I had to get a couple items from the grocery store on Thursday and people were out in droves loading up on supplies! ;o) Anyway... here is a glimpse into the fun time we had with our snow day.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

We are well!


Just in case you are wondering... we are all well. We have pretty much been vegging out at home the last several days. We are getting a little bit of order in this home, but not working too hard! ;o)

While my parents were here we worked on clearing out some clutter in Pheoby's room, but didn't get to her closet. So tonight we went in and worked in her room. Let me tell you... it was so rewarding to hear my daughter make some choices on her own about some things that needed to be thrown away or retired to storage for later. I am so glad that we started weeding stuff out early on with her. She now evidently sees the benefit on living clutter-free! And I had some flashbacks to times when we would clean our rooms as kids. What great fun it was to clean and find toys we had forgotten about! Pheoby found many great treasures! One special thing she found was a special bracelet her Grandma got her. She found it and claimed, "Mommy!!! I have been looking for this!!!" Now... I don't recall her ever looking for it, but perhaps it was an underlying urge from deep within. Hmm?!?! Maybe tomorrow we will get enough done so that we can feel good about doing some deep cleaning. It is about time, I think! I really want to go see The Pirates That Don't Do Anything with Pheoby. Perhaps we will get out tomorrow or Friday to do that.

Trey is growing! I just weighed him on my scale (with his jammies and a blanket) and he weighed 10.9 pounds. So I wonder how much a blanket and jammies weigh?! It is wild for me to think about how much this boy would weigh if he went to term... or over! Thank goodness he came early!!! Oh... and speaking of weight... although I have a long way to go I am happy to say that I have lost 25 pounds so far! I have about 2o more to get to my pre-pregnancy weight and then about 20-30 more after that to get to my goal. So a big goal for me is to get motivated to get back to exercizing. Maybe in the next week or two I will get on track with that. I need just a tad more motivation and energy! (and perhaps a good gym friend to join me!!!) ;o)

I can't believe that I am still up at 2:15. I am sleepy, but now I am thinking it may be worthwhile to just stay up till Trey's next feeding! ;o) Although there is no telling when he will be ready. Two nights ago he was up every 2 hours. Yesterday we worked on making sure he wasn't confused about days and nights and he did better last night. He went 3 1/2 hours between feedings. Let me be the one to tell you... there is a HUGE difference between 2 hours and 3 1/2! With as great as Trey has been sleeping I am fairly confident that he will be sleeping through the night by 6 weeks! I am looking forward to that! So I will go on the record now with my guess. ;o)

I suppose I will get these pics added and get to bed! I hope to get better at posting more often.

Sunday, January 6, 2008

A Fun Transition

Well... it has been about a week and a half since we met our Baby Trey. It has been a great adjustment period of becoming a family of four. We have had lots of fun, but one of the greatest things has been watching Phoeby become a great big sister. She is so proud to be the big sister and loves her baby brother so much. You can tell in the pictures that she is proud of her new role. The other day she wanted to hold Trey and stayed on the bed with him for about 20 minutes.

Although I would love to tell more stories, I am a bit tired out! ;o) Perhaps in the coming weeks I will be a babbling brook! Until then, enjoy these pictures.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Happy New Year!!!

What a wonderful way to celebrate a New Year... spending it getting to know my new son. He is a sweet boy and pretty much only cries when he is hungry. He is a great eater and is pretty much adjusted to our 3 hour feeding schedule. Through the night he just eats enough to not be hungry anymore and then dozes right back off to sleep.

I want to give all the details, but my mind is a little fuzzy due to the pain meds I am taking. So if you think of questions leave a comment and I will fill in the details!

At our last appointment, the day after Christmas, the doctor scheduled my induction for Friday morning. It was pretty exciting to me to think of having Trey (Trey is a nickname for "the third" since his name is officially L.C. Hayes, III) on Friday since the date was the 28th and both L.C. and I were born on the 28th. L.C. was born on August 28th and my birthday is September 28th.

Anyway... I had been having contractions off and on the weeks prior and spent some time on the 26th doing some mall walking to try to get the contractions to come on stronger. We were finishing up our time at the mall while enjoying some Dippin' Dots Ice Cream and I thought for sure my water broke. I was so scared to stand up because I just knew it would go everywhere! I finally did stand and there was no waterfall. But I was still concerned.

We went to the hospital and were admitted Thursday evening at about 5:00. It was very busy at the hospital so I didn't even get started on my pitocin until about 7 or 8:00pm. Once I got started the contractions developed right away. I held off on the epidural as long as I could and finally got it about 6 am. When I started feeling the effects of the epidural the contractions really picked up because they were able to max out the pitocin.

The nurses changed shifts at 7am so it was really hard to get a nurse when I felt the need to push. I really felt Trey was on his way by about 20 till seven. When we finally got a nurse in the room at about 7:10 she called others in to prep the room. Within seconds there were 5 other people in there. I started pushing while they were breaking down the bed and by 7:15 Trey made his arrival!

It all happened so fast which is a dream! I didn't have time to get nervous or scared that I wouldn't be able to do it. Also... feeling the need to push helped a lot! I didn't feel that way with Pheoby so I just pushed because it is what I needed to do. With Trey I could tell he was on his way regardless! There was a little hesitation on getting his head out. We later were told that his cord was wrapped around his neck twice and they had to cut it in order to get it loose.

Once Trey was delivered they practically threw him up on my chest. I always wondered how I would feel about all that slime and nastiness on me. But it was GREAT!!! I was so happy that they put him up without even asking. It was so awesome! I certainly was full of emotion and definately cried because of how overwhelming it was to be holding my son!

We have wondered for a long time what our boy would look like. It turns out he looks just like his sister. By no means do they look identical, but you can certainly tell that they are brother and sister! And speaking of Big Sister, Pheoby, she is an excellent one! She really loves her brother and is concerned with his well-being at all times, but at the same time understands that she is not fully in charge. She seems to be adjusting well to the new roles we all are playing and hasn't gotten too upset at the division of attention.

Oh... perhaps you may want to know the stats on our boy.

L.C. Hayes, III "Trey"
9 Lbs, 21 inches long
December 28, 7:15 am

And now for some more pictures!