Happy 31!

I celebrated my 31st birthday on Saturday with these cuties! (Also, happy 30th birthday to my sister Martha!! WOOP!!)  Josh and the kids took me to breakfast. Then we ran some errands and cleaned the house.  Then some friends watched the kids and Josh and I went to see Skyfall and ate at Shane's Rib Shack (think Famous Dave's) then we went to DQ.  And then we came home and watched the Huskers get smashed in the Big Ten Championship Game.  Not what we would have hoped, but a good birthday nonetheless!
 

Saturday also marked 7 weeks for this peanut.  Can you believe it!?

Jack dropped his second nap so now we have 2 kids up all morning!  This is actually great because I have a MUCH wider window for running errands.  However it makes some mornings seem really long without a out-of-the-house trip. 

These next few weeks are filled with birthdays, last minute shopping, and trip preparations.  We also have a LOT of friends who's husbands are deploying this week.  Around 1400 soldiers are joining those who left in August.  In our circle of friends we have 6 guys who are deploying.  All having to leave brand new babies or younger than age 2 children.  Please be praying for their safety and be praying for the families.  Separation is hard enough, but adding teeny kids, and single parenting to an already emotional situation, AND just in time for Christmas---they need prayer!  This is by far one of the most difficult and emotionally tough parts of the military.  :(  Be praying for us to have opportunities to fill the gaps for these families and to help them persevere!

New Favorites

This is my new favorite picture.

And this one is just hilarious.  :)

 

Thankful Anyway!

Well starting Wednesday the 14th, we have all (except Josh lucky guy) had our turn with a mysterious yuckiness.  Jack got it first.  ((PS this miiiiight have been bad parenting to have him sleeping so close to Noah, but it was the very early stages and I didn't really think he was that sick- not smart I know))
 

So what happens is you get this horrible giant sized headache, body temperature issues (which strange enough never did much on the thermometer), and are COMPLETELY unable to stay awake.  Which you don't really want to do anyway with the headache. 

 

 

 

I thankfully only had it for about a day and a half, and it happened on a Friday night to Saturday so Josh was home so I could sleep it off.  I don't think I ever when from sweaty to freezing and back so fast before.  It was miserable (reminded me of when I had pneumonia).

But side note for Renae that when she sweats in her sleep her hair gets super curly and looks beautiful :).  Mine just looked gross.  hahaha.

Poor guy.  He only had a very mild version like I did, but he was pretty sleepy and sweaty and clammy and goosebumpy for a day.

Renae is the only one with a little cough remaining but both kids had VICKS on their chests to sleep for a week.  And none of our kids have ever fell asleep at the table before and I can't even imagine another scenario where that would be the case with Jack, but it happened and I documented it. :)

All that to say, Thanksgiving was whatever leftovers we had in the fridge, lots of juice, and laying around.  But we were thankful it wasn't worse, involved no trips to the ER, and got us out of cooking an extravagant amount of food we would have had to eat for weeks!  And now even more thankful to all be back to normal!

I am going to blog more often, I promise :)  We're back on our feet now!

Update!

Can you even believe that this little man is 4 weeks old tomorrow!?  I can't talk about time flying by!  Noah is so stinking cute.  :)  Oh and he's growing at warp speed.... he gained 2 lbs in 12 days!  And that was a week and a half ago.  I would put money on his weight being over 10lbs now.

Can you tell who had spaghetti for supper?  He's so cute :)

And I am super excited that I can once again 'fit' into MY Husker gear :)

Hahaha

Also just funny

She can't get enough of him.  She introduces him to EVERYONE.  "This is my Noah."  :) 

:)

Well, this was the blanket we used when Renae was born, we have a picture of Jack in it because all his were dirty, so why not keep up the tradition :)

Sigh....he's so sweet. 

:)  Can't get enough

This is just hilarious....poor Noah.

Everytime Jack gets a change to hold Noah he says "Awwww" long and drawn out...and then hands him back.  Hahahaha.  Hold "Awwwww" Hang back.  Repeat 30 minutes later.  So I have no pictures of that.  Its over in less than 5 seconds.

We are all doing well and loving the fall weather!  It's finally down in the 65-75 degree range--very nice outside! The kids and I are doing much better than I anticipated with Josh back at work. I was more than a bit anxious for the first couple days. It's not as emotionally rough as I was thinking, it's just a little more crazy. I don't know why I was thinking it would be like when you're first trying to figure out parenting and there's lots of tears because you're so tired and the learning curve is insane. Don't get me wrong I'm tired, but not nearly as exhausted as I thought I'd be. Thank you Jesus! :) And I'm not naive...I know there are emotional days in the future, but I'm feeling much better now that I know we can do it!

A Boy!!!!

Noah William Barricklow was born October 13, 2012 at 3:56am! 
He weighed 7 lbs 9 oz and was 21 1/4 inches long!
 

The Story:
Wednesday night I lay down to go to sleep the usual exhausted from the day and what do you know...contractions!  6 minutes apart and painful for about 15-20 seconds.  Just enough to make sleeping impossible.  So I roamed the house, took a bath, tried to sleep on the couch/recliner/in bed.  No dice.  Finally about 6:30am exhaustion won out and I fell asleep for an hour...then the kiddos woke up.  About 30 minutes into breakfast/diaper changes/getting kids dressed I realized--no contractions.  ((forgot to mention, at some point during the night I had called my Dr and she told me that unless things progressed they would just send me home if I went in to the hospital)).
Zombie through the day Thursday took a 30 min nap while the kids were sleeping. SLEEP TOTAL: 90 minutes in 2 days.  Thursday night, go to sleep about 9:30 after putting the kids down and getting a few things done.  Sleep till 12....and you guessed it contractions.  Every 6 minutes 25-30 seconds of painful.  All night.  Kiddos wake up at 7:30am...contractions stop by 8.  SLEEP TOTAL: 4 hrs in 3 days.
Friday--Now I'm really the walking dead...shaky, no balance, can't keep my eyes open.  Running errands because baby day is tomorrow and things still need to be done.  Contractions actually came on and off all day.  Got an hour nap during kids nap time. SLEEP TOTAL: 5 hours
So now it's Friday night...just have to make it through till we leave at 7:30 for the hospital.  Lay down around 11:30 (contractions already going strong).  At 12:30 I called the hospital and begged them to let me come in early.  I was beyond crazy tired.  They said yes.  I think they could hear my desperation.  So by 1:00am we were leaving for the hospital.
Saturday:  We get to the hospital, they check me and tell me I'm in labor and progressing.  They check my contraction monitor and tell me that I could have come in much sooner. WOW.  Could have cried.  But they are going to check with the Dr. working that night and see if I could get in the OR for the C-section or just wait till my 9:30am scheduled OR time.  They decided I was a go.  By 2:45am I was in the OR and at 3:56am Noah was born!!! (But he didn't have a name for awhile).
We didn't have a name for Noah for awhile because by the time we got to our room I had been awake  72+ hours (minus my 5 hours).  And we hadn't had names solidified before we got to the hospital.  So by the time I woke up enough for us to have that conversation it was quite a bit later :)

We are so thankful for a safe delivery and for a healthy baby!  Little Noah is so precious.  Renae and Jack love him, too.  We are really enjoying our new family of 5.  I will say that after 2 1/2 days in the hospital (toddler free) with a sleepy newborn and a nursery down the hall I got LOTS and LOTS of sleep.  I feel wonderful!  We are all doing very well, and having lots of great family time.

Thanks for your prayers!  God is SO good!!!

One last one...

This is it! Prayerfully this is the last post while we are a family of 4! Here's a little glimpse from each of us: Josh: Still lovin' 3rd ID. He seriously is really enjoying this position. Which has turned him back into the man we all know and love :) For so so so many reasons! He's gearing up to run his first 1/2 marathon since his knee surgery last winter here in a month. And he is loving time with the kiddos--He and Renae have a bunch of games that are just the two of them and they all have names: Elevator...Floppy Fish...Superman...Crash in the Ocean super cute. Erin: 1 day shy of 39 weeks pregnant. Feeling every day of it. I've actually had a few reality check moments that in no longer than 2 days and a wake up we'll have another child! It's weird not knowing the gender...makes it exciting, but also kinda takes away the reality of it...kinda of because you can't spend all the time planning details--we don't have a name...we don't have clothes ready (well, we have about 3 outfits of each washed and ready to go) but we don't have the room ready, I haven't made any baby crafts with B3s name on it...all things that built reality before. But I'm glad we are being surprised, it is pretty fun! I am still pretty uncomfortable, been really sore for a couple months now. I'm very excited to just be tired and not tired and hurting. AND I really really am excited to have my huge tummy gone. It's hard not being able to give hugs and carry kids comfortably. Especially when kids are crying or hurt (which happens alot at 2 and 1). Renae: She is a professional dresser. She puts all her own clothes on everyday and has been for awhile...couple months maybe. She's probably nearly as fast as I would be putting clothes on her. She can even put things inside out and the other day we were pulling out some clothes from last 'winter' (hahaha- winter in GA) and she tried on clothes for a good 30 minutes and kept up. She's learning new words every day and really likes playing with Jack. She wants to do EVERYTHING herself, so we are working on asking permission to do it herself instead of taking liberties. Favorite activities: puzzles, tea parties, side walk chalk, hopping/dancing/running, and Jack. Jack: Silverware required. He wants to eat everything himself. And for the most part he does ok. He can use a fork like a pro. Way beyond Renae with that one. And he stays clean, it's insane. He still snaps all the time, dances, and TALKS a mile and minute. He does better about switching from screaming to trying to use words. He is learning animal noises especially cows, dogs, bears, and cats. And he knows how to find his tummy, belly button, ears, nose, eyes, mouth, and hair. Favorite activities: Playing with beads, cars, following Renae, animals, books. And soon +1 makes 5!!! Eeek!!! WHOO HOO!

Military Police Ball 2012!

A week or so ago Josh and I went to the MP Ball and had a great time!  Here are some pictures of our night out :)
 

4 days and a wake up till B3 is here!