Signs I may be getting old

Every morning I awake and conduct my normal routine which consists of bathing the boys and getting myself ready and then I sit and record any bank transactions I may have missed and pay the bills that are due for that day and then I end this morning ritual by checking emails and maybe posting a blog. I then head downstairs and make sure everyone is fed until their little hearts are content and we begin a new day of learning how to say new words and playing with firetrucks and making sure Bob and Larry have vehicles to get around the house. This is a normal day. However today was a little different.

As the boys were in the bath I went to the computer room and opened my email box to find a very familiar name but curious as to why this individual would be sending me an email. I proceeded to read the email to learn that this individual is in charge of putting our ten year high school reunion together. I just stared at the screen realizing that it has been ten years since I have been out of high school. Where has this time gone and why does it all seem to be a blur? This thought made me a little sad because only then did I realize that in a year and a half I will be 30. I have never considered 30 to be old but now I just realize that I am getting older and I notice it more and more watching my boys grow. I know you are all thinking she is crazy thinking about these little things but it is just a thought I have now in my head. I am not even sure I will be attending this reunion. Our intention was to wait to go to Texas when we move from here in December but now I am considering going home in July to attend this little reunion just to see what it is all about. Am I crazy for considering this?

As far as another sign I am getting old is that I am realizing that pregnancy the third time around isn't as easy when your body is tired. I wonder if I was younger would I feel this way? Some days I think of course I wouldn't but then I think Aleida this is your third pregnancy and your body is doing what it needs to do to grow this little baby. She is growing wonderfully by the way. This morning we had our check up with our midwife and the midwife told me she really isn't concerned anymore about the growth of our little one because she is proving to be our biggest baby yet. She also told me that I need to try to take it easy and continue to do what I am doing so we can make it another month. The baby is technically due in 2 months but she said if the baby comes next month she will be happy too because she thinks now that if I make it two more months I may end up having a nine pounder. I have no clue what to think about that. She asked if I was eating differently with this baby and I said no. I am doing the exact same thing with this baby that I have done with the other two pregnancies. Nothing makes sense. She also told me not to worry that I haven't gained much weight (I have finally put on 6 pounds as of this morning) because she delivered a baby this morning that weighed nearly nine pounds but the mom only gained seven pounds during pregnancy. I think that is crazy and I am sure that will not be my case but I must admit that I was a little worried about my low weight gain. I am actually trying to gain weight but I guess everything I am eating the baby is just taking it for herself. Two weeks ago we had a sonogram and that sono showed her to be in the 61st percentile for weight so that makes the midwife very happy. In a month if we are unable to figure out where the baby's head is we will go in again to make sure she isn't breach. We think she turned around again so it was a little difficult finding where her head was this morning. I have been given some exercises I can do to encourage baby to turn back down and for the baby's back to be against my belly as opposed to being parallel with my back.

So those are my random updates as of this morning. I hope you are all doing well. We are all doing well over here and very excited about life in general and seeing where the Lord is leading us next.

Aleida

Random thoughts on the baby

This has been a roller coaster of emotions for me and getting ready for our baby. I know I mention things about our expectation a lot but this is what is on my mind for the most part.

The beginning of the week I received the bedding (sheets) for the crib and the bassinet. We had already purchased the main bedding for the crib but it only came with one sheet so I had to order three other sheets all in different colors (pink, lilac, and sage) so I can rotate. All of these sheets match the comforter that will go in the crib. I haven't put any of this in the actual crib yet because Nathanael is still in the crib and we decided we would move him out of the crib in May when Alex's parents come visit us. They are bringing us a twin mattress which will go to Nathanael. We already have his part of the bunk beds but we do not have a mattress so we haven't put his bed together yet.

In the sheet order I also ordered some bassinet sheets to go in the bassinet we already had from when we had Isaiah. I decided to take the entire thing apart and give it a good washing and now the entire thing is put back together and has clean sheets on it and is ready for the baby to sleep in it. She will be sleeping in our bedroom for a while so now that is in order and I am so happy to have one less thing to worry about. I am happy to announce that after the bassinet was put back together, I was able to put all of the clean sheets on the bottom storage container along with a dozen cloth diapers and a pack of disposable diapers as well. We are going to attempt the cloth diaper route with this child but we have purchased a pack of regular diapers so I don't have to change the diapers in the middle of the night once we have her sleeping through the night. Everything is conveniently located in the bassinet so I don't have to move around a lot during the night to change sheets and diapers and clothes. Everything is right next to my bed and the wipes container has always been right next to my lamp on my side of the bed so the only thing I really need to do is make sure I can make baskets during the night whether it is a trash basket or dirty laundry basket. I am just kidding but if I was really lazy at that moment that is all I would need to do. And I can speak from experience that I don't really care to move around a lot at night. I usually fall asleep while nursing at night and then I place the baby back in the bassinet. We shall see how this set up works but needless to say I feel accomplished.

As we mentioned yesterday about some purchases we purchased earlier in the week some things have changed. We were excited to finally complete the toy box venture and rearranged two things in the play room and it makes a huge difference. We decided that once the kids are done with toys we are going to use this box for storage for blankets or something because it really is a nice box.

As for the glider I so desperately wanted, I am sadly disappointed. After putting in new batteries to make sure the glider worked I felt that the motor sounded like it was about to die and I just don't feel confident in having my child in a machine that will not work for long. I was very disappointed but I didn't want to go through the process of getting it cleaned up so she can use when it didn't work the way I was expecting it to work. We will be taking the glider back some time this weekend and continue to look. We decided if we can't find another one we will just use the money towards another big ticket item like our triple stroller we are planning on ordering.

Other than that we are getting very excited to meet our baby girl. I am 32 weeks now and we are down to our last 5-8 weeks. Can you believe that we are nearing the end? I can't and that is probably why I am trying to get everything I need in order like the kids room organized, our room organized, the house in general because we will need to adjust a little. I am glad that everyone in the house including the kids are not objecting too much to change. Hopefully it will stay that way when the baby comes.

Oh one last thing before I sign off. The Lord has completely blessed us with some wonderful friends who have offered to be a huge help during the going into labor phase. I was bummed because we were trying to get my sister to come up here to help out a little with these last couple of weeks and that way we had someone to take care of the kids while I was in the hospital but my brother sprained his ankle pretty bad and she ended up becoming his nurse and is staying with him for a little while. Needless to say some friends of ours that we haven't been very good at keeping in touch with on a normal basis (because of our different schedules) has offered to help. As the women (myself and my friend Lara) talk about getting together for a double date at the end of this month, she mentions that I really need to start talking to her on a weekly basis so she can be prepared and we can figure out where everyone will be. Depending on the time of day I go into labor her husband may watch the kids for a little while which should work out because her husband works with my husband and once her schedule frees up she will take the kids and so forth. I am so blessed that even when I think this is going to be a feat in itself with planning logistics around child birth the Lord places our brothers and sisters in our paths.

Hope you have a great weekend and be blessed.

Aleida

Exhausted

Another week has gone by and it just seems like it flew by. Alex worked this weekend so we started our weekend on Sunday night as opposed to Friday night. Tuesday we decided to enjoy a little breakfast at a little restaurant that we like to go to on Alex's days off named Friendly's. We try to go at least once a month. After that we decided to go to thrift shops to look around for some baby clothes and some shirts for Isaiah because he has officially outgrown all of his t-shirts. We were also looking for some new tennis shoes now that we are about to enter spring we can start thinking about putting the snow boots away. They can't be put away yet because we still have too much snow on the ground but pretty soon the boys will be able to go back to wearing other shoes so we were starting to look for some possible shoes that we can purchase. We were unsuccessful in finding any shoes though so that was a bummer. We then went home for lunch and after lunch we decided to head to Portland to return some items I purchased from Babies 'R Us. It was more of an exchange than a return but we got to go in and get the sale prices that were going on at the time. We also decided to purchase a toy box for the kids and we finally purchased a glider for Naomi. Aleida has been wanting a glider since we had Isaiah but we were unable to afford it at the time and then when Nathanael came around he was so peaceful he really didn't need it until he was about two months old and then at the time we needed it for him we couldn't afford it again so this time we deliberately put money away for this glider so we can get it for our daughter. We went to this store in January seeing that it was in the clearance aisle but they were unwilling to budge on the price which we didn't understand because the store is not selling these items anymore and they are completely sold out online. Needless to say we went to the clearance aisle again and there it was the exact one we were wanting to purchase two months ago. We decided to ask the price because like we mentioned we were not going to purchase this item for the full price because it didn't even come in a box and it was the demo version. We ended up purchasing it for $20 cheaper than what they were trying to sell it to us in January. We are very happy with this purchase and we were told that if for some reason it doesn't work we can always return it even if it wasn't in a box so that was a relief to us. After our trip to Babies 'R Us we made a trip to Sam's and then we were all exhausted and headed home to put everything away.

We started to put the toy box together last night and we almost finished it but then we remembered that orders came out last night so we stopped for a brief break which ended up being a day break. We are going to put in our hinges tonight and have the boys start clearing the play room. As far as the orders went there really was nothing that we were interested in so we decided to wait another month to see what becomes available to us then. Our fear is we will have to go back to another ship which is something we do not want to do but we will just have to wait to see what is offered in the next few months before we try to put in for anything.

Today Aleida has been up since 4 am and has been going non stop. She managed to catch up on dishes, laundry, and make breakfast all before 7 am but has been working too hard and needs to take a break. We had a WIC appointment this morning and now the boys are taking a nap and Aleida will be down soon as well. She has been napping pretty much every day now so we figure that is why she is waking up so early.

We are grateful this week is almost over and look forward to resting this weekend. This week is short for us because we just had a weekend that ended Tuesday night but now it is Thursday and our weekend starts again tomorrow night. We love short weeks. Hope you are all doing well and have a great weekend.

Benavides family

Sonogram Update

Today I went for my sonogram to check to see how our little one was growing and she is growing so big. We were amazed to learn that in just four weeks she has put on an additional pound and 10 ounces. She almost put on two pounds. She is now weighing 3 pounds 12 ounces and we still have anywhere from 7 to 10 weeks to go. I can only imagine how big she is going to be. We are happy that she is growing. Her cheeks looked fuller and she just looks absolutely beautiful to us. Of course we would say that because she is our daughter but it just amazes me to see her every time. The lady who conducted the sonogram was surprised to see her moving so much and she was excited to feel her push back at her whenever the lady got in her way. The last image we got of our little girl was her putting her hand in front of her face and her heel planted against my belly like if she was ready to give me a good push. She has now turned so she is getting ready to make her appearance in this world. We got to see her practice a little breathing as well. The lady told us that this is her getting ready to breathe outside the womb. We were amazed because we were never shown any of that with the boys. Her heartbeat was strong and she looked absolutely perfect. We can't wait to see her little face. It is hard to believe that within a few short months we will have another addition to our family and we couldn't be happier about it. Thank you for all those that keep us in prayer on a daily basis. We sense the love and the Lord just feels our hearts with joy knowing that we are cared about.

Aleida

Appointment Update

I decided to post a little update about our doctors' appointments since the boys are napping. When I posted our last update this morning we were at -1 degree so we got bundled up and just in time to make it to my appointment. We saw the midwife and the baby and I are doing well. We are up to a five pound weight gain and she is measuring at 30 weeks which is right on target. Her heartbeat was strong. For some reason the midwife never got my results from my glucose test so she is looking into that and hopefully will call me back soon to let me know that everything is good. I will see my midwife again in two weeks. She scheduled me for another sonogram so we can make sure this baby girl is growing well. We will have that appointment tomorrow afternoon.

As soon as my appointment was done we went to Isaiah's doctor's appointment a little early but they took us in right away so that was good. The doctor said that the good news is that I shouldn't worry but the bad news is that they have the flu. He went ahead and checked Nathanael as well since Nathanael was more than likely going to catch whatever Isaiah had anyway. He said that because the boys and the entire family got their flu shots that they aren't suffering as much as the other patients are. For the most part they are only displaying head cold symptoms so that is a huge relief. I told them my main concern was that Alex's coworkers have been sick and I just didn't want for something to have passed and we just overlooked it. Plus the fact that Isaiah really doesn't complain a lot about anything that I had no clue if he was in more pain than he was leading on. But the boys are doing good they just need a lot of rest and should be good to go in a week or so. Basically we have been doing everything we are supposed to be doing so the doctor said they should be good to go. He said come April all this junk will have passed. We are definitely looking forward to Spring which is supposed to be in a few weeks but we will see the change sometime in April and May.

After appointments we picked up some lunch for me because I have been craving shrimp fried rice and some nuggets for the boys but they aren't eating much so I was just glad they ate one and hopefully we can get them a little more food once they wake up from naps. Now it is 22 degrees and as I sit here and blog I am grateful I have a warm home to be in. All this warmness is making me sleepy though so I think I will take advantage of this nap time and take a nap myself.

Prayer Requests...

• As I mentioned earlier today Alex will be sitting for his first class exam tomorrow morning so pray he gets rest and makes it to his appointment on time. He is beginning to feel sick as well so he is hoping it doesn't all catch up on him tomorrow morning.
• Tomorrow afternoon we have a sonogram so we get to see our baby.
• Continued prayer for the health of everyone in the family.

Thanks for all the prayer that everyone has said for us,

Aleida

Job Update

Well yesterday we got the word that Alex will be able to remain in the military if we should choose to do so and as of yesterday we did sign papers with intentions to reenlist for a little while. We are still praying about what our next stepping stone will be after the military but in order for us to get orders to move in December we had to extend at least for an additional eight months. So next week we will get a look at what orders are available for us and we may know by the end of this month where we will be moving in December. We still aren't sure if we will get orders this month but we are grateful to know that the Lord has definitely kept his hands over our plans and we know He will show us what is next for us.

I am just so excited that we are going to be moving at the end of the year. By the time we leave here Isaiah will be four years old and we moved up here when he was two months old so that tells you how long we have been up here. So excited is the least of how I can explain how I feel.

Other prayer requests...

• Midwife appointment was cancelled yesterday due to another baby being born but I will be seen in about 2 hours so I pray everything is good.
• Isaiah is still sick and apparently there is a nasty bug going around and the other kids that are sick have some pretty bad ear infections so I am going to schedule an appointment for him so he can get looked at because he has been sick since Sunday and I think he has had enough.
• Alex sits for his first class exam tomorrow. This test if he scores high enough will give him a raise in rank but if he doesn't he can always try again in September. We aren't too worried about it but it is always nice to get a little raise. Just pray he does his best and the Lord gives him wisdom in this test.

Have a blessed day,

Aleida

Another major storm

This weekend was filled with a lot of work. Mommy and her boys cleaned around the house and stayed out of Daddy's hair so he can get his finals done. As of 4pm yesterday Alex completed all of his requirements for a Bachelors degree in Organizational Leadership and Bachelors degree in Human Resource Management. Yes, he has completed an Associates degree in Business Administration and now these two Bachelors degree in the 3 years that we have been here. We have both sacrificed a lot of time with each other in order for him to fulfill this accomplishment. It was definitely worth it. We have decided that for the remainder of the time that we are in Maine which is only until December hopefully we will just enjoy the rest of our shore duty and explore the state of Maine. Once we reach our new location we will look into what college will meet the next goal which is a graduate degree.

Isaiah has been running a fever since he woke up yesterday with a mild cough so instead of going out and about to celebrate we decided to order the 2 for $20 meal from Applebees and bring it home to celebrate. We ordered and ate and then we looked outside to see we had gotten our dinner just in time before the storm hit. We are having a major blast now and it should be snowing until tonight sometime. I am unsure of the snowfall yet but it has been a lot. It has been enough for Alex to get another day off work due to the weather. It was a blessing in disguise considering Isaiah woke up this morning with an even higher temperature.

So today we are enjoying the little energy our son has and loving on him like crazy while enjoying the fact that Alex does not have to work or have any homework anymore. We hope you are all having a good day and have a great week.

Please pray for the following:

• Aleida's appointment with the midwife will go well tomorrow. Also that the sonogram that is supposed to be scheduled tomorrow for another day this week will go well.
• Isaiah's recovery of this bug he has because it seems like this bug is beginning to pass to all the men of this house.
• We should find out some word on Alex's job situation later this week

In Christ,

Aleida