The Bridges Bunch: January 2010

Playing hats with daddy. Starting to learn about clothes and body parts thanks to Mr. Potato Head!! But hats is definitely a favorite.

The stomach bug going around here in Stockbridge came to our house last week. The baby and I were very lucky to miss out on that one. But I did get lots of fun snuggle time with Cman, isn't it sad how us mommies take advantage of all the good snuggles when their sick, that's our job I suppose and hey we'll take it when we can get it right?:)

My just for fun pedicure, justified by the fact that I literally cannot reach my toes anymore, notice the alternating pink and blue, which will it be?!! My mom said that's something I would have done in high school, I couldn't help it though I thought my OB and the nurses in the surgery room would get a kick out of it:)!! 11 days and counting if not before, 38 weeks today!!!!

I haven't blogged in a while because Carsten is keeping this pregnant momma very busy and literally out of breath! I finally have a moment to sit down, relax, and write a little update. Things are great, busy, but great. I am now officially 35 weeks 4 days along, feeling like I'm carrying a bowling ball in my belly or at least that's how my back feels. Being pregnant with a toddler is a WHOLE different experience this time around. You just can't avoid picking them up and having to cart them around everywhere, it's impossible. They "say" you're not supposed to lift heavy objects for 6 weeks after a C-section, yeah right, we'll see how THAT goes! We're most likely planning on a C section the 39th week (around the 8th of Feb) unless I go into labor before then I might try and give it a go. Needless to say, I am very ready to get this show on the road, but I'm also thankful that he/she is still safe and sound hopefully growing nice and plump and I try to remember that with every ache and pain and yes, episode of incontinence, LOL!

We have finally narrowed our names down to a boy and a girl choice, sorry you'll have to just wait and see!
We're getting really excited to hear, it's a BOY or a GIRL, we absolutely have NO idea. It's so funny how people love to give you their opinions on what it is, "Oh it's a girl I can tell by the way you're shaped," or "It's a boy I'm sure, you're so low." I even had a nurse with some kind of telepathic powers tell me in the elevator in Baltimore who I'd never talked to before say, "Honey I'm so sorry, I hate to tell you this, I know you want a girl but it's a boy!" It was a little creepy I have to say because how would she have known that but then she changed her mind about a week later so who knows!! But I have to say one of the worst comments I've been getting a LOT lately is "when is your due date?" after I tell them it's "Oh honey, you're SO big, do you think you're going to MAKE it THAT long!" LOL! Whatever the baby is, they (not literally "they" Lord help me if that was the case!) will be a blessing and we're so ready to meet him or her.

Other than that, just trying to keep the house somewhat organized "just in case" and I need to get a bag packed this weekend. I've been having lots and lots of Braxton Hicks so I know it's getting closer. We've enjoyed spending time with our new friends that have a son with Down Syndrome named Eli, Chad has been on some travel duties, and we did find out that we will most likely be moving to the DC area around June! I'm so excited to get up there and be closer to some military friends, get Carsten going with school, and have some stability at least for a few years.

I've been involved in a women's bible study this year at my church and we just started a new book called "Calm My Anxious Heart" by Linda Dillow. I love the book and have read it before but never done it in a group setting. It is a large group of women of all different ages and I'm excited to see how the Lord works this semester.

Well dang, he's up and it hasn't even been an hour! Gotta run but I thought I'd post this poem real quick. Quick Fact: Many people with Down Syndrome have a Simian Crease, it's a singular line that run through the palm of the hand instead of the typical three. Carsten doesn't have the Simian Crease for some reason but the poem still makes me cry everytime :)

A Line Across His Hand

by Deborah L Sardone

The day my son was born the sun shone in the sky
My life would change forever and here's the reason why
You see my son is different, things did not go as we planned
For my son was born with a line across his hand

A line across his hand
A line across his hand
Things did not go as we planned
Because of the line across his hand

They said that he would be slow to learn and never read or write
But when he took his first steps it was a special night
They said he'd never be a man and always be a burden
But he'd show them wrong, it was the one thing I was certain

A line across his hand
A line across his hand
When his hand's held in mine
I can't see that line across his hand
Oh how very hard it was to learn to tie his shoe
There were days we thought it was something he'd never ever do
But then one day he made the bow up right and neat
Oh, his life ain't always easy but his victories are sweet

A line across his hand
A line across his hand
That shoelace didn't care
There was a line across his hand

I always dreamed we'd play with a baseball and a bat
But in our life together we jog the High School track
There are many things that he can do and things that he can not
He's much more than the sum total of the syndrome that he's got

A line across his hand
A line across his hand
Don't judge who he is by
That line across his hand

If I had the power to change his life I'm not sure what I'd do
But his life has been a blessing 'tho I've shed a tear or two
I love my son more than I believed all those years ago
I guess in this life we do reap what we do sow

A line across his hand
A line across his hand
Doesn't change the love you feel inside
that line across his hand

Now my son is grown and holds a job and has a lady friend
He is proud and kind this message I will send

A line across his hand
A line across his hand
They were wrong, I know that now
This boy of mine's a man