He's smiling!!!!!!!!

The 3 hour "naps" at night aren't so bad when I see our little Toby smile!!! He smiled for the first time 2 weeks ago. It was about 5 seconds after Les took Carter and Micah to church. It was like he was going, "Finally I can relax.....the fussy boy who is always making out with me is gone, and so is the girl who gags me with my passy." He didn't smile much after that until a couple of days ago. He is smiling more and I am LOVING it!!!!

AND, I just had to show you how cute this picture is of Carter. She found this hat and actually likes to wear it!!

Here are more pictures of Toby that I've taken over the past couple of days. There is one of him in his Ipood shirt on that looks just like a picture of Micah. I'll see if I can put both of them on here.

this is the picture that looks like a Micah picture, but I can't get his on here!

I'm never surprised......

I just wanted to show y'all some of what's been happening our the Strech house in the past couple of days. To start us off, Carter has been reading my bible..........melts my heart. Now, wait, she's not really READING it, she just spells the words and asks me what she just spelled. Hey, that's a good enough start for me!!! And guess what the first word was that she spelled.......... She said, "Mama, what does this spell.......... J -" oh yes, I love when God shows off. I knew exactly which word the Lord pointed out to her.........His precious Son's name. " - E - S - U - S". When she looked up at me, she was probably like, "good grief, mama, you're scaring me with that smile. What's the deal?"

Then today Carter and Micah discovered the baby cabinet. Micah thought he was so hilarious when he walked in sucking on a pacifier. If only he knew how ironic the whole situation was. When he was an infant, I tried every pacifier under the sun, but NOOOOOOOOOOO, he thought it was a better idea to go ahead and pierce everyone's eardrums by screaming instead of sucking on a pacifier. So, now, here I am looking at a 4 yr. old and a 2 yr. old sucking on old (but clean) pacifiers. Then they found the bottles...........and yes, I did humor them and fill them with milk.

And, finally, this is just one reason why I love my husband so much.........

he can pull these off. Love him!!

Toby is 1 month!!!!

As of 2 days ago, our precious, newest, little bundle is already 1 month old!!!!!!! I can't even believe it! I think time goes faster with every baby. Mr. T is SUCH a sweet baby boy!! His favorite place to cuddle is right up in your neck (which I believe God made just for that purpose!). He'll just cuddle up in there, eyes open, and just hang out. I love it so much. He is getting bigger and his creases are getting deeper by the day. NOTHING like Micah's rolls.........I mean, we had to give Micah mid-day wipe downs. Whew!

This picture looks a lot like one of Micah's pictures. And look at those fingers!

Toby had his days and nights mixed up for a little while. He still is more awake in the evening than in the day, which doesn't surprise me since that is exactly what he did when I was pregnant with him. When he gets sleepy, we just wrap him up like a burrito, let him suck on his paci if he wants it, and just hold him. He just looks around, then he finally tries to fight sleep for a little bit, and he's out. That is until we lay him down in his pack and play. This child knows when he is NOT being held. :) Love him, love him, love him!!!!

Carter and Micah are adjusting very well. They are such good buddies.....it makes it very easy for me to take care of Toby. I don't feel like I have to entertain at the same time that I'm feeding him. Carter and Micah just take off upstairs (this is after Micah kisses and hugs Toby.......Carter just looks at him to see if his eyes are open). They play cars, run down the hallway and jump down the 2 stairs leading to our "cozy" room, or there have been times when I have found Micah dressed in bows and high heels. Oh my stars....... One night, I took all of Micah's bows out of his hair to take a bath. When he got out, he wanted to put them all back in. At that point, I told him "nope. We're done with bows for tonight. Plus, bows are for girls." He then starts crying and saying "I AM a girl, mama!!" aaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnddd, that's when Les walked in. Nice.

Carter caught in action....taking after what Sarah would do to Cicker

She was so proud!

I wonder if this is Tom James approved??

Bottom line...........we are LOVING our party of 5!!

Tobias Gage Strech!!!

Welcome home Toby!!!!!!!!!! He came to meet us on Wednesday, August 12th at 8:41pm. He was only 37 weeks, but he weighed a whopping 7lb. 13oz!!! Thank you, Lord, for bringing him early!! The night before he came, I was having contractions coming every few minutes, but they were very mild. The pain wasn't getting any worse, and I remember with the other 2 that the pain definitely gets worse! So, we just hung out at home that night, went to bed, and woke up at 3am with more mild contractions. What was weird was this.........I was in bed, shaking uncontrollably, and freezing. I kept trying to calm myself down. I didn't know what was going on. Les finally woke up, and seriously, with a touch of his hand, my shaking almost stopped. He gave me some Tylenol since I had a headache, and that seemed to do the trick. At about 7:00, I told him to go to work since my contractions weren't getting any worse. He didn't want to leave me, but I knew we would not be going to the hospital unless they got worse. They stayed that way all morning, so I took Carter and Micah to run some errands. At that point, they finally started getting more painful, but were not consistent anymore. So annoying!!! I just kept thinking "either get on with it, or stop!!" My sister and her husband had been visiting my parents in Indiana, and were flying home that day. Come to find out, they had all been praying that Toby wouldn't come until she got here. SO.........I have Sarah to thank for all my false labor that day. :) I decided to take a nap with the kids since I had been up since 3am. When we all got up........game on! They were coming every few minutes and were really starting to hurt! I knew this was it. I called my friend, Lisa, and told her I'm dropping my kids off there. I found out later that she had to go to the ER that night for a migraine!!! Oh my gosh! I felt terrible! I just hope my kiddos didn't push her over the edge. Thank you Josh, Lisa, and Christi for watching them! Ok, so this part is so great..........this was the week that all of the Strech kids were in town, so Lauren got to drive over to Lisa's, pick the kids up, and stay with them for 2 days!!!! Thank you, Jesus, for that fun surprise!

Ok, so my contractions were painful, and I knew I couldn't wait for Les to drive all the way to our house and then take us all the way to the hospital. I called him and told him to meet me at the hospital. Y'all, I just couldn't wait. I needed to get there before they got too bad. Les was a nervous wreck! We had been talking on the phone, and at one point on my way, my phone died. Les was sure I was on the side of the road having this baby. :) We both made it to the hospital safe and sound......I got in the bed a little after 5pm, and he was out at 8:41. Whew!! Sarah basically went from the airport to the hospital, and she got to be in the room when Toby was born!! Tiffany and Kristen were right outside the door, and Melissa came to visit me that night. I have such sweet friends!!

Here's the crazy part..........when they were taking all my vitals.......they realized I had a fever of 101 something. We still have no idea why, but because of that, they had to keep Toby in the NICU for the whole 48 hours. :( Bummer!! BUT, I was able to go up and hold him whenever I wanted, and they even let me nurse him. It just felt so wrong to be in our room with no baby! I'm just so thankful that he was healthy! He is such a sweet baby, loves to cuddle (thank you, Lord), and is eating like a pro. I need to feed him soon, so I'm gonna post some pictures and write more later!!

36 Week Check Up

All in all, we had a great visit!  I had such mixed emotions going in.....we get to see Toby on the ultrasound (yipee), I have to get more blood work done (thankful she is checking up on me, but getting poked with a needle is never fun), I get to see Dr. McCloskey and start talking delivery (yay)!!  Let's go through step by step.........

~ First of all, I ended up taking the kids with me because we left them 2 nights in a row, and I didn't want to do that again.  Saturday night, Les took me to see The Phantom of the Opera at the Hobby Center for my birthday!!!!!!!  I was so giddy!  I love going there to see anything (mostly Lord of the Dance).  Then Sunday night, we had a kind of last minute dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Hatton who are 2 of the Godly-est people ever.  I was so blessed by them.  We dropped off the kids at Melissa's house who happened to be having their dinner 8 there that night.  Thank you Jarret and Melissa!!!  Getting back to the point, I didn't want to leave them again and hear my little buddy ask, "Mama, where you goin'?"  Breaks my heart.  (INSERT........Friday night I left them to go see The Proposal with Tiff.  Funniest. Movie. EVER.  I thought we were going to get kicked out of the theater because I was embarrassing both of us.  That's another story.)

So, I brought both of them with me.  Les met us there, in the parking garage, and that was completely the sweet Lord's plan.  Here's why...........................  We are all walking into the hospital, and for some reason the automatic door doesn't detect us.  Les carefully opens the doors, and the kids run to the next one.  The next set of doors didn't detect them either, so Carter, playing monkey see monkey do, tries to open the door herself.  THEN, we walk up and, of course, the door detects us, and opens right up on top of her TOES!!!!!  She falls back, opens her mouth, and I'm pretty sure Megan Bell, who is in New Zealand, heard her.  I felt so bad for her, but then I also thought "oh my goodness, the drama" until I saw the blood.  Then I felt really bad.  Ended up just being a few cuts on her toes, but I know that had to hurt like a mother.  That's how our fun-filled appointment started.  Then as we were still walking to the office, I realized that I forgot to bring the portable DVD player and a movie for them to watch.  Oh joy.  Thankfully, they had some cars with them to keep them company.  

The ultrasound is first.  Yipee!!!!!!!!!!  I was so excited to see our little Toby.  We told Carter that morning that she would get to see him on a tv, and she said "What if they tell us it's a girl?!  I will scream because I will be so excited!"  Oh my poor baby girl.  She's so alone.  2 seconds on the monitor and the lady says, "I'm sorry honey, it's still very much a Toby."  So, I'm laying there on the bed, horizontal, and all I can think about it how much this hurts, and please just show me the spine because at least I know what THAT looks like!  We saw a big, round circle and I just praised Jesus because I figured he probably has a cone head at this point.  Then, I had to laugh at this question that came from the lovely ultrasound tech,  "So, how much did your other 2 weigh?"  You know what, nice lady, just tell me that I'm carrying someone the size of Goliath and get it over with.  She guessed that he weighs around 6lb. 14oz. already and he's got 4 weeks left, people.  Who's going with me to step class the minute Sarah gets back into Houston next week??   The best news though is that he looks great!!!  Squished, but great!

Next is the blood test.  If any of you don't know this, for some reason, my doctor discovered in my 3rd trimester with this little guy that my platelet levels are lower than average.  She's not too concerned, but wants to keep an eye on them.  I love this doctor.  Love her.  What that means is, if your platelet levels get too low (below 50,000) your blood doesn't want to clot itself.  Any of you that have given birth knows that there's gonna be some blood when that baby comes out.  Thankfully my levels have been at 125,000-130,000.  I don't have the results back yet from yesterday, but I'm praying that they are higher.  Please pray for high levels for me, and please pray that my thoughts don't run away to the dark side.  I need truth in my thought closet!!  By the way, this lady that takes my blood is magical.  I seriously hardly feel the needle, and I am known for freaking out when it comes to inserting needles into my body.  All mental.  I'm convinced.  

I finally get to see the sweet, tiny, little Dr. McCloskey who I love!  She delivered Micah at 2 in the morning when she was NOT on call.  So sweet!  She basically said that everything was starting, not to do anything too active until 37 weeks (which is on Monday), and that things look good!  I'm taking it easy this week, but next week, it's on like Donkey Kong.  I'm assuming he won't come until 39 or 40 weeks anyway, but I'm gonna try!  All the Strech kids are going to be here next week and I would LOVE it if they were here for that.  Can you imagine?!   It's not like I get to see Lauren, Lindsey, and Luke everyday since they live in the northwest.  I'm so excited!!  

This was supposed to be a short little post, but as always, something usually happens that is worth writing about.  Here is a picture of my 9 month pregnant belly.......

this was taken in the house across the street......we were exploring

It's Starting......

Thank you, Meem, for staying up with me last night texting away!  I started having contractions every few minutes for a little over an hour.  I was in bed trying to let Les sleep in case I'd have to wake him up to take me to the hospital......which meant I couldn't talk on the phone.  SO, I just kept texting my mom over and over.  The problem with that was that we ended up texting about something funny that happened with my dad earlier that night, and then I started laughing.  That made me really scared that the contractions were going to get worse.  They stopped around 11ish, and I tried to get some sleep.  Let me remind you that I would have been very excited that this was happening and maybe even running up and down the stairs except for the fact that I'm 35 weeks.  I think he needs to stay put for a few more weeks, at least!!  I was scared to move!  So, all my girls around me better keep their phones on and near them in case we need you to come take over!  

Moving Day!!!

It's official!!!  We are in our new house!  Are we settled?  Not even a little bit.  I have told some of you this already, but this is how I feel.......I've got a full refrigerator and pantry, my washer and dryer work, and I have toilet paper in the bathrooms........I am golden!!!  Everything else can happen when it happens.  I'm not rushing anything.  Partly because I loathe being in a rush, and partly because I don't want to go into labor just yet.  

Carter and Micah have adjusted surprisingly well to the new house, and I give all the glory to the Lord.  It is only through Him that they are handling this so well.  However, Micah did have one freak out moment.  It was July 18th, moving day, and I had brought them over to the new house to take naps.  Carter didn't take one (no surprise there), but Micah was out like a light after I laid down with him for a little bit.  When he woke up, he was crying, kind of swaying, and just couldn't get any words out.  I kept asking him what was wrong, and he kept saying "nothing".  He just couldn't put it into words.  I felt so bad for him.  I gave him extra hugs, and the Lord gave me extra patience for him that day.  Since then, he hasn't had any problems.  Carter and Micah play ALL DAY LONG here!  Don't they know that those are the same toys that we had in our other house?  Maybe they look different here.  Grampy and Hershey did get them some new "Cars Movie" cars and Tinkerbell card games.  They have been a hit.  Another huge hit...........our neighborhood pool!!!!!!!!!!!!  I have got to take some pictures and put them on here.  It's like their own little waterpark!  

We absolutely love it out here!  We feel God's peace (which we've prayed for in all of the places we have lived) every time we drive up to the house.  By the way, Les has no idea that I'm typing this blog right now and he just said, "I love our house."  Actually he said it in a much funnier way, but he'd be so embarrassed if I told y'all the goofball way he said it.  

We've met lots of young families in our neighborhood, and have started praying for the neighbors and houses that will one day surround us.  Right now, there isn't anyone on either side of us or across the street from us.  That's right.........we can actually feel the wind out here!!!  LOVE IT!!  

this is what they did while we were moving......watching movies

this is where Micah and Carter took their first naps in their rooms

Carter helping me get my kitchen in order......still in her pjs  :)