Saturday, September 28, 2013

Perspective for the "me of two years ago".

Perspective. Am I right, second time parents?

I just keep thinking, "If I knew then what I know now, I think this would have been much easier the first time around." But as I have had this thought, I also have this thought; "There is NO WAY I could have this perspective if I didn't experience this parenthood thing the first time" - and I think its good that way so when you come home with the second one, it's a bit easier!

So, what would I let my first time parent self know, you may wonder? or not. you may not wonder at all. If you do, read on...If you don't care...stop reading now.


Sarah,
For most people, when you have your first baby, the husband sleeps at the hospital each night on the worlds most uncomfortable "sofa" where they are woken up at least every 3 hours when the woman has to feed the baby. A lot of people choose to keep the baby in their room with them, which means that there is even less sleep happening. So by the time that you head home from the hospital, you are both already totally wiped...and then you get to take the baby home. Why they let a new parent take a baby home will be beyond you!

When you come home from the hospital with a baby, the amount of responsibility you feel for this new life is absolutely overwhelming. I had this thought that there was no one that could care for this little life like I could (when, really, what did I know about being a mom). I remember Andrews mom MAKING me and Andrew take a nap after we brought Foster home from the hospital before she would leave to go back to KC. She had to make us because I kept refusing. I felt like I was totally neglecting my baby if I were to (Gasp) take a nap while he was sleeping!!!
You will search the diaper for any amt. of pee or poop, praying that they are getting enough food. In the night, each noise that they make could be a sign of them choking, or stopping their breath patterns. Their sneezing could mean they are sick, their little breath intakes that are so sweet could mean they aren't breathing well...Worry. Worry. Worry...and why wouldn't you, you have NEVER done this before!!!!
With Foster, the first time you left the house without him was almost a month later when Andrew took you out for a sushi anniversary dinner, and trust me, we ran out and ran back as soon as we could.

I am not saying that any of this is bad or wrong at all, it is the way it is...Im just saying that now I have a totally different perspective...and that changes everything.

So, what would I suggest to my previous self. I would first say, "do what you gotta do" or "do what you think is best", but here are a few things I may offer in a gentle tone to two year ago Sarah.

1. The hospital is stocked with health care professionals who are paid to care for you and for your baby the few days after it is born. It is okay to send your sweet willing husband home for at least one of the nights in order to get some sleep so that the both of you are not well on your way to zombie land when it comes time to go home. This time, I sent Andrew home to be with Fos, and I sent Keating to the nursery, and for those 3 hour intervals, I SLEPT SO HARD! I recuperated and used those nurses for what they are paid for...delivering pain meds, checking my vitals, and bringing me Keating so that I could nurse him...and then taking him back and cuddling him...and whatever else you precious nurses do.

2. Your mom and mom-in-law, may actually know how to keep a baby alive while you sleep. And, it's actually a good thing to put the baby down and let it fall asleep so that it knows that it can...even though all you want to do is cuddle the heck out if baby and pass it around for all to hold...RIGHT AFTER THEY WASH AND SANITIZE their hands.

3. After this first baby, your world is upside down - 100% different...but it is actually still pretty restful when you get a new born baby in your house during the day. They eat, you try and keep them awake, they sleep, and they poop and pee - sometimes on you and sometimes on your furniture...and that is what they are supposed to do. Sleep when they sleep (which you know you have heard a million people tell you that and you think, "how can I? What if they stop breathing?"). But 2 year ago me, listen, its all good. Sleep when they sleep - watch your favorite shows (or start something new) when they are sleeping, I was gonna say awake...but lets face it, they are only awake a few hours a day.

These are probably the 3 things that I would tell myself, but I may also say to her,
"With your next one (which is gonna be way sooner than you think), you will venture out of the house on your own, without either child on day 5 and on day 6 of its life. You will be surprised how natural it feels to have a baby around. You will love this baby as much as the first one, so don't worry about that. AND believe it or not, grandma has got this-let her help you!"






Friday, September 27, 2013

How is Foster coping?

My biggest fear with having a second baby was how Foster was going to react. 
He has been doing awesome. As you may be able to tell from the photos below, he loves to show his brother off. He understands that when we say "brother", we mean this little baby. 
He loves to give him kisses and he loves to point to his nose, and whenever anyone comes to the house,  he grabs their hand, walks them to wherever Keating is and points to him.

He is doing great and we are super proud of him. 
Fos kissing Keatings head.

the Beard boys, minus Brian - UNCLE BRIAN COME SOON!  

Sharing Grandpa's lap

Sharing Grandma's lap

seriously, how could they get any cuter?

This is in the hospital - Fos visiting me and Keating.

This is also from his hospital visit.

Thanks for stopping by and for caring about my kids!

Thursday, September 26, 2013

What's in a name...Take 2

So, we named our second child 
Keating Elijah Beard
We get two responses. 
1. How do you spell that? KEATING
2. Is that a family name like Foster?

Why yes, yes it is. 
Keating is named after Mary Keating. 
Mary Keating was Fosters Grandpa McGoldrick's great grandma.
She would have been Keating and Foster's great, great, great, great grandma.
We found out the day that Keating was born that Mary's Daughter was born on Sept 20th too...and she would have been 116!

So, that is the story of why we named him Keating.

Elijah means "the Lord is my God" and since we did a family name and then a Bible name with a meaning that we love for Foster, we decided to repeat the pattern for baby number 2.

and thats the way it is.

Thanks for stoping by.

Sarah

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Foster's first birthday party

I cannot believe I have not posted anything from Fos' actual party! 
So here is the quick version and the story in pics.

It was surfer themed. I made cupcakes with fish and sand.
We had "Surfs Up" playing in the background. There were a ton of Fos's friends here - which are mostly our adult friends. 
He got lots of gifts. 
He ate his cupcake while holding a balloon. 
I think he liked the cupcake.

And also. If you pay the extra $.16/balloon for that chemical that helps hold the helium, they will last for like more than a week!! INSANE! 





Thursday, September 19, 2013

It's the final countdown! like for realz.

About 6 months ago, I thought, "well, I have 6 months with Fos before another baby comes." While that seems like a long time ago, the fact is that there will be another baby tomorrow.

It is official. If I don't go into labor today, I am being induced at 6:00am tomorrow morning. 
Get ready for the Beards to be a family of 4!

I woke up this morning (Foster had made his way into bed with us), and I looked at my boys in bed with me and thought..."Wow. This is it. Our last day as a family of 3." What do you do with that? I will tell you what! We make plans to head to Klyde Warren Park for a food truck lunch and let Fos play in all the water while we eat!

We are so blessed. I have wanted to complain so much throughout this pregnancy - because it has been sooooo hard - but I fear I will seem ungrateful. That is just not the case! I cannot believe that after all the years of thinking that we were unable to have kids, the Lord is blessing us with two! TWO! Andrew and I are so excited and so grateful!

as we count down the hours we have remained busy.

Last night was youth group, where Andrew leads worship. Since there is always a chance this close to the due date that Andrew would be gone, he had to have a contingency plan. The plan was that he would just do an acoustic set, and then if he had to be gone, they just wouldn't do music. We obviously didn't have a baby yesterday, so we were at youth...and then Andrew asked if I would lead with him. Of course I said yes...but then you know, Foster couldn't let us do it without him joining in. Sorry for the quality of these...

So here is a video of just Andrew sound checking...and Foster thinking he was a part of the show. I am not sure if you can see him "singing" along...but that is def. happening.

Then when I agreed to sing - this is how that ended up...There is a shortened version of this on
Instagram...but here is the full clip.




Well, friends, I would appreciate your prayers for tomorrow and cannot wait to introduce you to the newest Beard...and find out if its a girl or a boy!

Also, the Dieke's set up a care calendar for us so we have some meals, if you have asked me about that, here is the info.

http://www.carecalendar.org/logon/160095
and enter
the following information in the appropriate spaces:

CALENDAR ID : 160095
SECURITY CODE : 8680


Love you all!
Have a great day!

Also, Here is a pic from this summer of the all the boys! They look like a bunch of Swedish
kids...being superman. I wonder if we will have another Superman or a Wonder Woman!?
Foster, Charlie, Eden, and Fred.