Another year.

So what a year it has been!  (I always intend to be better at posting but…..life?)

Anyway, our baby girl turned one in January!!  I can’t believe it has been a whole year already!!  We are so blessed by this beautiful, crazy, light in our life.  Her great grandma made the cake.  She got her own cupcake though, no sense in was wasting an entire cake!!  I think she enjoyed it though. 

So we had a wonderful time celebrating our little girl and were incredibly blessed by the friends and family that came to bless and celebrate her too.

So in other news, lets see….Nathan got a new position within Cerner that he is LOVING.  I love seeing him really enjoy his work.    I have been thinking of trying to make and sell tutus, like the one I made Bekah. We also have decided to tape verses to our mirror to help us with Bible memorization.  We are really liking having them up as a reminder.

OHhhh….right.  The big news. 

Yeah….we are very excited to welcome a new Mayberry to our family sometime around Oct 1st.    Bekah, in honor of the occasion has even learned a new word.  “baby”

Spoiled or Blessed

So my mom is cooking at camp this week. This means….no cell service. I love talking to my mom. I mean it is probably pretty bad when your husband says to you, “You haven’t talked to your mom in 4 days?!!? You better call her!” Haha! In all seriousness though I do talk to her probably just about every day.
So I am thinking to myself, “Wow…I am pretty spoiled.” All of the sudden a new thought crosses my mind, “You are incredibly blessed!” I have to pause a moment and reflect on this. I am blessed! My mom and I have had our disagreements but we have a wonderful relationship.
The biggest thing that I realize is this…I will get to talk to her again in a few days. Now not to be morbid but it made me think of heaven. I am so incredibly grateful to know that in a couple of days my mom will be back here. (God willing) That will not always be the case but because we both have a relationship with Jesus I know that when the time does come I will see her in heaven.  What a relief!!
I know not everyone out there has their mom a phone call away. If you do….CALL HER! You may say, “but you don’t know my mom” That is not a good excuse….period. One day she won’t be there and you won’t be able to talk to her. And honestly this applies to just about anyone.  Your mom, your dad, your siblings, your step-parents for goodness sakes!

Life is too short.  Pick up the phone….

Photo courtesy of Antisdel’s Natural Light Photography

-km

5 Months

So Bekah turned 5 months old yesterday. What a crazy, awesome, learning experience it has been. From bringing home this itty bitty person to seeing the developing personality in her as she tells us (in her own way) what it is she is needing or wanting. Here are some photos.

Exactly 10 weeks after Bekah was born Nathan’s sister had a little girl.  We are so excited about the two of them getting to grow up together. 

So we have had some rough days….

I had a scare for a couple days in April that made me think I wouldn’t be able to breastfeed.  God used it to remind me that He is ever faithful to provide.

Matthew 6:26 (NIV)

²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

But we have had wonderful, amazing, love, smiles, and giggle filled days that I wouldn’t trade for anything!!

So needless to say we love this baby girl.  We are reminded over and over again how great the Father’s love for us is.  Our love doesn’t even compare….which is mind boggling!!

Most definitely in His Grip  -KM

What’s in a name??

So just in case anyone did not realize, we chose to not find out the sex of our baby. Life is full of surprises, though not all of them are as fun as this one.  So we were looking at boy names and girl names.  I am going to keep the ones we didn’t use this time secret because ya never know. 

We tossed lots of names back and forth through the entire 9 months. We had talked about using one of our parent’s middle names for a middle name. We didn’t really want to name our baby after anyone’s first name.  Too confusing. lol

So we were asleep in bed one night and I woke up to find Nathan awake too.  I asked what he was doing and he said, “What do you think of the name, Rebekah Lynn?”  I said, “I like it, but it is 2 o’clock in the morning!” I then rolled over and went back to sleep. The next morning we added it too our list but we decided that we were not going to pick any specific names until we had held our baby.

When she was born the Dr honestly didn’t tell me if it was a boy or girl.  I asked 2 or 3 times, “Is it a boy or girl!?” before my mom was able to see and tell me it was a girl.  The minute I heard that I knew what her name was supposed to be. I looked at Nathan and said, “I think it is supposed to be Rebekah Lynn”.  He asked if I was sure since neither of us had gotten to hold her yet.  I was positive.  I looked across the room at my mom and told her, “Grandma, meet Rebekah Lynn!” It was such an incredible feeling, knowing exactly what her name was supposed to be.  I truly believe God gave her daddy that name.

Rebekah – One who is bound to God
Lynn – A form of Linda, meaning one who is soft and beautiful. This is also Nathans mom’s middle name.

I pray that she will grow to be a woman who is bound to God with a soft and beautiful spirit.

Photo courtesy of Antisdel's Natural Light Photography

Rebekah Lynn Mayberry

So I have been horrible at keeping this updated since our post about us expecting. Soooo bad. Haha. I will try to do better.

Miss Rebekah Lynn Mayberry was born on January 12, 2012 at 1:20am. She was 7 pounds, 6 ounces and 20 inches long. For those who didn’t get all of the info here is some of it. Nathan is going to add his side of things later. lol

Miss Bekah wasn’t really sure she wanted to join us. All told it was about 45 hours from when I could no longer sleep more then 15-20 minutes.
I was actually in beginning stages of labor on Monday the 9th but I didn’t say anything because I wanted to be sure. After getting up 2-3 times in the night I finally was permanently up at 5am on the 10th. Nathan woke up and was helping me try to figure out where I was at. Things seemed to be fairly consistent so about 7 or 8 we called the midwife. She seemed sure that I was still early on in labor and said to try and relax and sleep some more. I was really having trouble sleeping (which makes more sense now) and things really felt like they were progressing.
My midwife was in Jeff City most of the day but she had me get in touch with her assistant that afternoon to see where things were at. We decided to go ahead and wait till 5 to go to the birth center. About 4:45 my mom got to our house and we headed to the birth center. When we got there she checked and I was only about a 5. She asked if I wanted to stay there or go home. We made the decision to go ahead and stay since I hadn’t really been any more comfortable at home.
As the night went on it just seemed like things would progress and then almost go back a bit. They had me doing different squats and lunges to try and move things along. They then checked me again about 4am and I was only a 6 or 7. Things just weren’t seeming to move. The assistant decided to try and feel where the baby was at and in the process my water broke. However, they realized that the baby was stuck on my right hip. This was why things weren’t really moving forward. (I also think this is why I was having so much trouble sleeping. My body was trying to move her into position but it just wasn’t happening. ) At that point we started discussing what needed to happen to move the baby into position. The decision was made to try and call a chiropractor. (keep in mind it is maybe 5:30 in the morning) We finally got hold of Dr Britt and he agreed to come in and adjust me. He arrived about 7am and not only adjusted me, but did some acupuncture, and talked with the midwives about what they had or hadn’t tried yet.
A little while after Dr. Britt left the midwives decided to try a technique called the “rebozo”. They take a piece of cloth and put it under my belly while I am on my hands and knees. During a contraction they stand on either side and “jiggle” my belly. Let me just say…IT HURTS!!
Finally things started to progress but I was exhausted. I had been 30 hours without good sleep at this point. Just some “cat naps”.  After lots and lots of discussion we finally made the VERY difficult decision to go to the hospital.  I knew that there was a possibility that they would immediately insist on an epidural or even something I really didn’t want…a c-section. Honestly though, I desperately needed some sleep.
We got to the hospital around 11am and the staff were fantastic! The nurse that was getting everything going asked if I wanted to try Nubain instead of an epidural. I was ecstatic!  I was able to get about an hour and a half of sleep.  I felt like a new woman.  haha
We decided to wait about an hour or so and see how things progressed before doing pitocin.  We wanted to see if my body would be able to get things going without it but we also didn’t want to get back to the point of exhaustion. In the end I ended up needing pitocin but things really started to get going at that point.  I had read that pitocin contractions are worse then without but honestly I feel like the contractions during the time she was stuck were worse then the pitocin contractions.
Honestly from there the timing of it all is a little fuzzy. All I know is that at 1:20am our beautiful baby girl was born.  Although they forgot to tell me if it was a boy or girl….my mom ended up telling me.  The minute I heard it was a girl I knew what her name was.  Rebekah Lynn Mayberry….I will put the story of how we got the name on here soon.
For now….here is a pic.  Here is my heart. 

Rebekah Lynn Mayberry  01/12/2012

Photo courtesy of Antisdel's Natural Light Photography

A New Adventure :)

So in some ways I don’t think one can completely be prepared for some things. Falling in love, friends announcing they are pregnant, parents telling you that you’re adopted, a loved one dying, or a friend announcing they are moving to another country. There are certain things that we sometimes think we are prepared for but we are still often shocked. I think surprises, good or bad are something that keep life from becoming boring, routine, or just mundane. The amazing thing in all of this is that our God is not shocked! He knew before we were even a thought of our parents that these things would happen to us. Honestly, I find that a very comforting thought. We are told that we will not be given more than we are able to handle. Now…on our own I might doubt that but my God is totally able to handle all things!! Therefore I believe that we are able to handle anything that is sent our way. So…as we begin this new journey I am definitely rejoicing. Oh….the new journey?? Wellllllll….let us just say that wonderful things come in small bundles.  Nathan and I are expecting. We will have the absolute pleasure of God entrusting us with one of those “small bundles.” 

-KM

Simple things….

Hyvee had organic strawberries on sale. If there is one fruit that I could eat like candy it is strawberries. Organic strawberries are like pure sugar to me. lol
So Monday night my love surprised me by melting chocolate for strawberries.  It was sooo good! I am so blessed by these things. I come home some days to find him doing dishes that I didn’t get done before I left for work or I find a load of laundry that he started. All I have to say is this…Nathan was SO worth the wait. God is so faithful. It is sometimes easy to say and just as easy to forget but Nathan is my daily reminder.  So thank you Lord, for chocolate strawberries.     -KM