What we have been up to...

Every day around here starts out the same. Somewhere between the hours of 7 and 9 am I here little noises coming from Sophie's room. I assume i get out of bed at this time and shuffle in to retreive her, however I rarely remember doing this. I climb back into bed with Sophie cuddled up next to me, I feed her and we both fall back asleep. Sometime shortly after that we are rudely awakened by marks alarm and we all begin to wake up within the following two hours. And somehow we all manage to get up change diapers, make smoothies, brush teeth and put on some form of clothes that aren't pjs and get out the door in about 20 mins. I drop mark off at work 2-3 days a week so Sophie and I can have a car for the day. Then Sophie and I come home and I make breakfast while she plays happily on her playmat. Misty whines at me the whole time. I often brew a pot of decaf coffee that I never drink because after i eat breakfast and check my Facebook, Sophie is ready to eat or do something other than her playmat. I then don't return to my coffee until approximately 1:00. And then our day is off...

The rest of our day has been filled with lots of things, here are some ideas of what the potter family has been up too...

We have happily welcomed fall and football season with our windows wide open, pizza, and football on Saturday's.

Sophie and I have had many playdates with friends and their kids although it is much more of a play date for me and Sophie just tags along.

We have gone to the Dr, what feels like a zillion times for different infections, screaming and not eating baby and a diaper rash that never goes a way.

We have done a ton of laundry because Sophie has an awesome talent of peeing and pooping on everything.

I now feel like an official mom now that i cut all my hair off, even though I said i would never do that. But really, there just isn't time in this crazy life to deal with massive quantity of long hair.

While I cut my hair off Mark is growing is hair back out from his buzz cut, this makes me happy.

We spend countless hours laughing at Sophie because even at 4 months she is one funny little girl.

We may have finally found a small group at church that we like. It is chuck full of kids and crazy parents. Way fun.

We are trying to get healthy together. One step at a time. Right now we are focusing on drinking more water, I think we are both bad at it.

We are in a stage of life where we are trying to enjoy every little thing we have even though there are some things we would change but can't. We are trying to figure out what our life with God looks like. It seems like our whole life got thrown in the air and we are catching each piece one at a time and figuring out how it fits. It's a crazy beautiful kind of thing.

Right now we are cuddled up on the couch watching football while Sophie sleeps in her crib. All is right in the world.

Fall...new seasons

I always love fall. Im not sure what it is because I love things about every seasons but fall seems to be especially exciting. Everything seems new in fall. New school year, new activities, new routine, etc. Fall is also very nostalgic. I don't know why this is but it always brings memories flowing in like crazy.

When a new season starts I am always reminded that no matter how hard or uncomfortable a season of life is a new one always comes. Life is full of good seasons and bad seasons and I love that fall always reminds me that a new season ALWAYS comes. So when you are in the midst of bad one, hold onto the hope that there is always a new day, new grace from God and a new season in life yet to come. And when you are in a really awesome season, enjoy every moment to its fullest because chances are at some point things won't be so awesome.

Having a baby has showed me how incredibly fleeting our days are. They come and go so fast. I am on a mission to enjoy each and every moment, good and bad. :-)

Being real...

When I first had Sophia I was seriously under the impression that most people loved nursing. I knew that people struggled with it but I still thought that maybe the first few weeks could be rough but then it was easy and enjoyable. After a month of non-stop nursing troubles I can remember saying to Mark in tears, "why does everyone else love nursing, while I hate it?" He looked at me like I was crazy and said, "they are all lying." Now I don't think everyone is lying but what I did learn was that people don't talk very openly. I felt so isolated in the struggles but as soon as I decided to talk about it, everyone else started sharing their struggles too. Everyone else started talking about how they didn't enjoy it all the time either. It was so much easier to know that I wasn't alone.

I am so much more the type of person to be open and talk about all that is hard, tough or embarrassing then to pretend things are fine and feel alone. In relationships I have found that to be the hardest thing. Sometimes I think I am too open for people and they don't want to know that much about me. Other times I'm not open enough and the friendship remains at a "surfacey" level. I often wonder why are we trying to act like we have it all together? I do it too, so no shame. What are we afraid of, really? What satisfaction does it bring to pretend and act like everything is fine even though we know it isn't and in all reality everyone else probably knows it too.

Mark and I have a passion for family and marriage. And as we have tried to figure out where we are going to take that passion we have talked about how important it is to get people to open up, ourselves included. It's healthy, it's healing and sometimes its even fun!

Let's all quit acting like we have it all together. Let's face it, WE DON'T. No need to pretend, everyone already knows anyways. Open up and feel the freedom in being REAL. You could even do a little dance because that's what being free makes you want to do. Tell someone today that you aren't as perfect as you would like people to think. JUST DO IT, I dare you! :-)

Being a mommy..

Being a mommy is great! Being a mommy is also very time consuming. I always am thinking of things I want to write on here but I never have the time. There are many other things on the list before blogging, such as cleaning, laundry, loving my husband, cooking dinner, playing with Sophie, spending time with God etc., (soon I will have to add school to the list! YIKES!). But its all worth it because Sophia is perfect in every way :-) I love her.

Sophia Annitza Potter

Our beautiful little girl was born three weeks ago on May 20th at 7:07am. I want to write the birth story because it was an amazing experience and while I was pregnant I loved reading people's birth stories so I thought I should share mine and Sophia's.

I had bein bon bed rest with Sophi since week 29 with preterm labor and as scary and as not fun as that was I do think it helped my body to prepare for labor before hand a little more than normal. By 36 weeks when I got off bed rest I was almost 100 percent effaced and 1 cm dilated. Mark and I began walking 2-3 miles a day to help get me back in shape and help my body to prepare even more for labor. I knew I wanted to go natural and have no drugs if at all possible, so I also wanted to be in the best shape possible because I knew it would be a lot of physical work. By 38 weeks I was over 2 cm dilated and having really hard contractions once or twice a day and while we walked. My doctor kept telling me that the baby could come any day but we kept waiting...and walking. At exactly 39 weeks I had my membranes stripped at my dr. appointment. This was the Wednesday before she was born. I had a ton of cramping and contractions for the 24 hours following this and felt pretty sick in general. Thursday morning I lost my mucus plug and could tell that things were changing but still I had no idea if that meant she would be here in two days or ten. Thursday night we went to my in-laws house to celebrate my father-in-law's birthday. We also went on one last walk before ending the night. Mark and I went to bed at 11pm andi slept a solid three hours ( which hadn't happened in months because of my over active bladder).

I woke up at 2 am Friday morning and knew immediately that our baby was coming. I hadn't yet had a contraction so I have no idea how I knew this, but something felt different. I walked around for 15 minutes just to see what would happen and I immediately started having contractions that were five minutes apart lasting about 45 seconds. They were very different than anything I had felt up to that point and they hurt! I knew it was time. I woke Mark up and we slowly got things together and decided to just go ahead and go to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital at about 3:15am and at that point the contractions were 3 to 4 minutes apart. At this point things become a little foggy for me because the pain was getting pretty bad. They put me in triage and asked a million questions that I barely remember. All I remember is focusing on each contraction and being thankful the break in between. When she checked me she said I was dilated to 4 cm. and fully effaced. She then said, "So, you will be staying to have your baby." Even though at that point I was pretty sure that would be the case I still remember feeling so excited at that moment and with my fist in the air, I was thinking FINALLY! But that excitement came in went in about 30 seconds as another contraction settled in and I realized that meant I was in for the long haul. The moved me into labor and delivery and Mark and I settled in for what I thought would be at least 6-8 hours.

The contractions were very intense at this point and I think I told Mark multiple times, "I CANNOT do this." I kept thinking there is no way. The contractions were only about 2 minutes apart and were lasting almost a minute so the break in between felt like nothing. At this point Mark started praying me through each contraction and coaching me on breathing. These two things together were what got me through. I leaned on God for strength and Mark held my hand and talked me through each one. I have never felt anything quite like labor contractions. I knew I had to focus on working with my body and not against it and that's what I did one contractions at a time. I was making it slowly but surely but then all of the sudden things changed. I had a ton of pressure and was in even more pain. I had Mark call our nurse and she came and checked me and I was at 7 cm, with a bulging bag of waters! I couldn't believe it. She immediately went to call my Dr. and tell her to hurry over. She said that if my water broke I would be ready to push. Knowing that I had progressed so fast gave me strength to keep going. It was 6am at this point, only four hours since I had woken up at home.

At 6:30 I knew I couldn't wait any longer, I had to push, but my Dr. wasn't there yet. I kept asking if she was here and saying that I needed to push, so my nurse called the resident OB to stand by just in case my Dr. didn't make it. I really, really wanted my Dr. to deliver my baby so we were so relieved when minutes later, in walked Dr. Sloop at 6:30am. She was still in her street clothes and decided that she didn't have time to change. They never broke my bed down to a delivery table, she just sat on the edge and broke my water and then coached me through pushing. It was so hard but I was so thankful at the same time that I could feel everything. At 7:07 our baby was born. It felt like an eternity as I looked from my Dr. to Mark waiting to find out if it was a boy or a girl. It was a girl, I was shocked. I thought for sure it was a boy but I was so excited.

She was 6lbs 10oz. and 21 inches long. So tiny! Which I'm sure had to do with my crazy 5 hour delivery. I never expected it to be so short! I am so thankful I was able to go without any drugs, although I have no idea if I would have made it had the delivery been a lot longer. I felt amazing afterwards. First I wanted breakfast and then I wanted to walk to our room in the family unit but they wouldn't let me.

It was all an amazing experience that I will never forget. I couldn't have done it without Mark, he was awesome and coached me through every step of the way. I am so thankful for our little Sophia.

The next post I will talk a little more about what it has been like since we came home.

**Sorry if this is more descriptive than some would have liked. I just really wanted the whole story there for those who, like me, like all the details**

Update

Well, we made it full term. In fact, I am almost 38 weeks. I am so thankful that we didn't deliver a preemie baby and am thankful that I had a Dr. who took very good care of my baby and I. The Dr. keeps saying I could have the baby any day. My body is ready to go. I am 100 percent effaced and 2cm dilated. The house is clean, the baby room is ready. Mark and I are so excited. But we wait. Which is good. I know the longer the baby stays in the better and I also know that we can't do anything to make the baby come early. I am okay waiting, however that doesn't make the excitement and apprehension any less. Its hard to keep myself busy day after day. This is what the last two weeks have looked like...

-We have been walking A LOT. Several miles a day for multiple reasons: 1.) Its good exercise and I needed after 8 weeks of bed rest. 2.) It helps get the baby in a good birthing position and can help move your body towards labor, if your body is ready. 3.) Its fun! We have gone to Eden Park, Downtown by the river, Wyoming, our neighborhood lots, Harbin Park and the mall (when it rains). Its really good time together and we like as well as our dog. 4.) The Dr. said to walk :-)
-We have gotten a ton of work done in our yard that we didn't think we would have time to do. It looks the most cleaned up and pretty that it has looked since we moved in. I am really excited about this.
-We have gotten lots of good times with friends. And I have spent many afternoons with friends that I don't always get to see.
-I have organized closets and done lots of deep cleaning that has been on my list for a year or more.
-I actually have a tan because I am able to sit outside and read.
-We have spent many quiet evenings sitting on our porch and listening to it rain or enjoying a sunset.
-And then we have spent most of our time talking, day dreaming, being excited, anxious and every other emotion about our baby. We have talked about what we think it will look like, had countless discussions on names, and have talked about what we think it will be like to be parents. Its all so exciting!

So as the days seem to drag and I get more and more excited there is still a lot to enjoy and be thankful for as we wait. I have been trying to find contentment and joy in the wait. And most of the time I am pretty successful. But every night when I go to bed I have to prep myself for another day ahead. Figure out what I will do and make sure my attitude is in check so I don't get too anxious or frustrated or bored. I think I have been in what could be called early labor or prodromal labor. I have been having a lot of inconsistent yet strong and painful contractions for almost a week now. This can be very tiring and wearing. Not to mention every time wondering if this will turn into real labor. However, my body is making progress which means less work at the actual time of labor.

Maybe next time you hear from us it will be to tell you about our little baby :-)

Thankful

Since bed rest is quickly coming to an end I thought I would make a list of all the good things that happened in the past 7 weeks and what I am thankful for!

1.) My iPad! Mark got up at 5:30 am in order to wait in line for two hours to get me this wonderful little machine. I did not by any means need it, nor did I even ask for it but he wanted to get it for me to bed rest easier and more fun. I love this thing and am very thankful for it.
2.) countless mornings of sleeping in with Mark. I normally am the type to fly out of bed the minute I wake up, but with nothing to do each day I stayed in bed most days until Mark got up. I have really enjoyed this.
3.) Learning to let things not get done. I usually am a freak about cleaning the house, especially the kitchen. I can't stand the mess and stress about it until I am able to clean. Well seven weeks of not being able to clean taught me that mess is ok. This was a much needed lesson.
4.) Misty. My dog has been such a good companion every day. She cuddled lots with me and just made me feel not quite so alone all the time.
5.) My sisters emails. Through the hardest part of bed rest Katie was able to send me emails each day, which gave me something to look forward to and again took away a little of the loneliness that came with being at home all day everyday.
6.) The three visits from my family. It was so good to have them here and we needed the help. It broke up bed rest and was fun to spend lots of time with them.
7.) being the least stressed out I have been in years. God really used this time to teach me to slow down and just be still. I feel at peace and not worried about anything. For those of you that know me well, this is nothing short of amazing.
8.) Being able to just enjoy time with Mark. We have watched movie and tv, gone on rides and spent lots of time laughing together.
9.) All our family and friends who brought us meals and did our dishes. Such simple things but they made the days so much easier. We are so thankful to have so many great people in our lives.
10.) That our little baby made it to 35 weeks (at least). I am si excited to meet our little one and so in love and thankful for him or her already.
11.) Mostly though I am thankful for Mark because I never would have made it without him. He has been amazing this whole time. He worked more than full time some weeks, took care of the house, fed us, and took care of me all with a smile. He made me laugh evryday and smile. I am so lucky to have him and he is going to be an awesome father. He is so selfless and loving, I have much to learn to from him.
12.) I sm thankful that we have a God who knew the life of our little baby and who was in control the whole time. I am thankful that. Could trust him, and that we could find peace each day in his love. Thank you God for always taking care of us and always knowing what is best.

Please excuse the typos. iPad likes to autocorrect and often it is wrong.

I am not completely off bed rest. I still have to lay down when I have contractions and be careful how much I do but the worst is over and for sure in two weeks I will be able to do whatever I want to make this baby come out.