To Save A Life

My mom was with us for the past few days helping me out with the kids (ahhh heaven) so the devoted Mr. Garland and I got to have a date night. Between me being 8.5 months pregnant (aka "huge") and Jeff being sick and having back pain recently, it was so great to have a night off (thanks Mom!).

We had a lovely dinner and went to see the movie To Save A Life - go see it if you can. We've been to the movie theaters two times in the last 2 years, so we're pretty picky about dropping $10 for a ticket, but this one was worth it. Great message to teens (and adults) about pursuing what matters: God and people. The movie was produced by a great local church where I used to attend MOPS. Jeff and I recognized many of the local scenes.

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G4 update: 1cm dilated, mild contractions but nothing serious yet. 2 weeks before due date still, but oh so ready. Will keep you posted...

Wordless Wednesday

Praying for Haiti

So many hearts have been heavy ever since the massive earthquake in Haiti over 2 weeks ago. We've been praying, and God has put so many people into action. But so much more help is needed.

My girlfriend Tricia works as a Physician's Assistant in the Bay Area (northern CA) and left today for a 9-day trip to Haiti to be part of the relief effort. I'm praying that she and her team are safe and that they bring some much needed aid to the suffering people down there.

Here's a local new story about their upcoming trip:

http://www.ktvu.com/video/22360785/index.html

Trish is on at about 1:28 into the video.

3 Kiddos

Baghead

Peek-a-

Boo!

Boys, books, baking and PBJs.

J age 4: "Wow, I'm sure going to be full!"

I recently made a bunch of PBJ's, bagged them and tossed them in the freezer for future use. Our son loves PBJs with a passion and would eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner if given the chance.

(Please excuse my shirtless boy, it was a wonderful warm day and he was playing in the water bucket in the backyard. Check out those muscles, by the way!)

A recent "work in the garage with Daddy" project.

Eat your heart out ladies... boys that bake!

I need to do a girl post next!

Splash

Wow.

This is not me.

All I do at the gym these days is walk 15 minutes and stretch.

And I'm tired and sore afterwards.

I am clearly an under-achiever, compared to crazy super mom pictured above.

This week, I signed up for a race (13.1 miles) that I hope to run in August 2010, about 7 months after G4's delivery. It's good to have a goal to strive for, right?

Who am I kidding? Signing up to run a half marathon when I'm 8 months pregnant just feels wrong.

(G4 countdown: 4 weeks to go...)

36 Weeks

Only 4 weeks to go. Maybe (and hopefully) less. This heartburn stuff is killin' me!

Here's TMI (too much information) about my previous deliveries, as well as thoughts on how our upcoming delivery will hopefully procure. We've always used numerical code names for our our babies in the hopper. People often use such sweet names like peanut, cutie, thumper, etc. Nope, not us. We're both engineers. We assign numbers, except for our first child. We didn't call her G1 because that was simply too presumptuous.

Kid: gender, number of days delivered before due date, hours of labor, weight, length, time delivered

Baby G: female, 1 day, 24 hours, 8lb 9oz, 21", 7:40am

G2: male, 7 days, 9 hours, 8lb 13oz, 22", 5am

G3: male, 2 days, 7 hours, 9lbs, 22", 4:50am

G4: female, tbd

Yes, I had a detailed birthing plan with Baby G but have since learned that number one priority with any delivery should be to simply "Be flexible." I had hoped to go without medication on my deliveries, but alas, I've had 3 epidurals so far and am planning on it (more like "looking forward to it") now for G4. Epidurals are great, except we'll make sure the devoted Mr. Garland is not in the room when I get it. He doesn't like watching big needles being inserted into his wife's back. After the epidural is in effect, oh the wonderful peace and relief for both of us. I've been blessed to have had 3 relatively uneventful deliveries.

One change I'd love to make for G4 (you know, as if I was in control of any of this) would be to deliver her right at bedtime, say sometime between 8-10pm. That way I can labor during daylight hours and we'd have a night to recover and regroup before the next day. Having early morning deliveries with my existing 3 was tough, because the devoted Mr. Garland and I were basically awake the entire night, walking the halls and, well, you know, having contractions. We were exhausted by the morning hours after all the delivery excitement was over. Everyone else (aka family) would wake up refreshed, ready to come and meet their new relative.

The hospital where we will deliver (as well as most hospitals I'd imagine) has basically said no to visitors because of the H1N1 virus. This may apply only to visitors 12 years old and under, and things may change between now and our delivery, but I think the whole thing is a major bummer. We'd love for our 3 children to come meet their new sibling in the hospital, but sadly that might not happen. Argh.

So that's the scoop from here, for now. For Baby G, G2, G3, G4, and the devoted Mr. Garland, this is MamaG signing out.

Legoland, again.

One moment

Brothers. One moment you love him...

... the next moment you're whacking him with a bat.

*Sigh*

The older, 4-year old brother being pummeled here (on the right) can certainly hold his own, he just chooses to be semi-nice to his younger 2-year old brother in front of the camera. Our 2 year old has a knack for stirring up trouble for no apparent reason.

Chops

Lambchop.

Sans-lambchop.

I love my handsome, (currently) clean-cut hubs.

Stories and Secrets.

Red Tricycle.

This sweet red tricycle has been getting a lot of use in our front driveway recently.

(Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa Garland!)

Belly Shelf

Around the Garland home, you're not "big" until you can balance a cup on your pregnant belly.

It's official. I'm really, really,

...really big.

(5 weeks to go!)

I wonder what else I could balance on my belly? Might as well make the extra "shelf space" useful...