Shower Power!

Saturday was my westside shower giving by my dear friend Sheena. It was so amazing to be supported by all my loving friends both new and old.

Sunday was my eastside/Sandy shower with many of my mom's friends and family. My sweet sister prepared the cutest decorations, fun games and a delightful experience. Check out the diaper cake – outrageously fabulous! Meg – you’re the best friend and sister I could ever ask for! Thanks Brand and Ton for coming to encourage me as I prepare to enter into this new season of life. You are both such special, dear friends!

The weekend delivered some of the nicest memories, sweetest clothes, most practical items and overall such a special blessed experience I could hardly contain myself. I feel so richly spoiled and supported. I am still glowing from the blessings!

Thoughts from Mike on America

Hi blog readers. Mike asked me to post this to the blog. It is a change of pace from my normal posts. Enjoy. Mike highly recommends this book "American Heroes" and this letter is to the author.
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Dear Col. North,

I feel compelled to express my most sincere thanks for your book "American Heroes". I am tremendously grateful for the risk and effort that it required as well as the sacrifice that you and your family made in order for you to be able to record the experiences that you share in your book. Please forward my thoughts and thanks to your family.

I am a conservative and a Christian who had always felt a strong sense of patriotism. Regrettably, for the past few years, the Islamic propaganda as well as the persistent sensationalism from the liberals had effectively compromised my integrity and my patriotism. I confess that in my heart and in my conversation I turned on our president, our troops and our country. I began to believe the hype, that we were there for oil rather than delivering a helpless people from a despot and planting seeds of democracy and liberty in the Arab world. I wanted nothing more than for us to give up and bring our troops home, but I understand now that we have been telling our troops that we have no faith in them and that their sacrifices are all for nothing. Thank God for my mom who recently attended one of your speaking engagements. When I joined her for Christmas she gifted to me a signed copy of your book. I commute on a train to and from work everyday. Everyday, it has been a struggle to fight back tears when I read the stories of our heroes. I'm ashamed that I ever doubted the heroism of our troops and the great mission of this country. The thoughts and stories that you share in your book have renewed my patriotism. It has redeemed me from cynicism and a loss of faith in our country. Our president and our troops certainly have not been perfect, but they deserved nothing less than our undying support and devotion. As a country, we have failed them. I'm glad that my grandfather, a decorated war hero and retired colonel from the US Army, never heard an antipatriotic word coming from me. It is my prayer that the sacrifices that our soldiers have made for the Arabs, for us, and for each other will not have been in vain. I pray that God will take what they have done and bless that land with liberty and hearts that are free to worship Him for who he really is. Pray God, that we Americans will bless the American soldier "no worse enemy, no better friend."

Gratefully,

Mike Jacobs

Changes in the plan.

I feel like the biggest fickle pregnant women right now. I can’t make up my mind on anything and with as many decisions as I feel I have to be making…that can be a problem. I could not put to rest the idea of a midwife so I meet with one last week at OHSU. I was greatly influenced by the fact that instead of delivering at St Vincent’s, by going with this midwife I could deliver at OHSU with the help of doula nurses and a certified midwife. Facts that I learned about OHSU that are worth passing along.

1) They have a 9-11% c-section rate, (plus they deal with many high risk pregnancies and they are still able to keep it that low) compared to 1 in 3 at St V’s.
2) They do water births and also have Jacuzzi tubs for laboring (I’m a big time bath person so this is a draw)
3) Since OHSU is a hospital and a University their 2nd year midwife students do rounds on the labor and delivery floor and most are doulas (all with natural birthing philosophies) so they add extra support for laboring mom’s who want natural birth.
4) They do not pressure their patience to do constant fetal heart monitoring (if it is a low risk pregnancy), they don’t force IV’s and they don’t adhere to the 24 hour rule (for low risk pregnancies after the waters have broken)
5) However, they do provide constant care to laboring women and have OB/Gyn’s on call if any emergencies do come up and of course can provide all modern drugs like Epidurals if requested.
6) For anyone who’s interested, they do vaginal births after c-sections.

I am totally excited and at peace once again about the decision to switch my plan. (Thanks everyone for your encouragement!) Mike will go with me to my transfer OB appointment in a couple of weeks where we will get a tour, go over all my medical records so far and talk about our birth plan.

Since by belly is now getting huge I seem to get stopped everywhere I go by grandma’s wanting to touch the belly and tell me about their grandkids. And women I hardly know at work who want to spend 30 minutes in the hall telling me all about their birth stories. And I love it all. All welcomed encouragement!

Names & Nesting

31 week photo

Being pregnant has definately been the most physically adventurous experience of my life. This little photo grid shows just how MUCH my boy has grown and of course me too. Today I had my 31 week appointment with my Dr (Karen). I have pretty much decided to stay with her even though she is due with her 1st baby just 2 weeks after me. I feel it is actually a special bond that we share and I am going to have a back up Dr in my office just in case.

Mike went to our last visit and we had a long talk about her perspective on labor and birth. She really goes with whatever you decide on in your birth plan. I know that friends of mine have used both midwifes and dr. but as this point I am really struggling to justify switching to a midwife who I only have a 20% chance of having during the birth. But if I had it to do over again I might change my mind. I can honestly say that I have found much needed peace about the whole thing. Mike and I start our 4 week Bradley birthing class on Wednesday which focuses on the husband being the coach and support person during labor especially if you are aiming for a natural birth. I am excited to say that it should be a bonding experience for us and I know he is the right man for the job!

I have now been experiencing kicking not to be confussed with movement or quickening. My boy loves to kick, kick, kick all the time and stretch out where I can feel his head on one side and feet/legs on the other. Very fun!! I think he will be getting a little cramped in there soon.

I have been told I am nesting. Big smile! I decided to go with baby blue and brown with bears and hopefully I'll be adding some jungle animals like lions, tigers and "black" bears.

Please vote on the baby name poll and let me know if you think we are crazy for considering naming our boy BEAR. I have a bet going with Mike on this. Seriously though, picking a boy name is particularly difficult. We are still on the fence.

Happy New Year!

Photos from our festivities with our good friends on New Years Eve!

And finally...our favorite photos from our Florida trip.

We started our travels in Atlanta where we visited Mike's long time buddy AJ and his wife Stephanie and there new baby boy Ryan. Some highlight moments were our trip to the Aquarium where we took our group photo with Nemo and the guys rock band practice, thanks to Guitar Hero!

From Atlanta we drove 8 hours to Tampa Florida where were we found the sun. We visited Mike's friend Solly from South Africa and his wife Michelle. We had a blast in their sail boat but the highlight moment was the Christmas light parade. Can you imagine decorating a sail boat with lights and then parading with a bunch of ski boats through narrow canals? Well, that was us. And we have lots of tales from our time on that boat that will remain a secret between us.

Our next stop was Mike Gran's house in Clear Water, FL. We were lucky enough to have some friends of the family take us out for snorkeling with the manatees. That big blob of an animal picture above is a manatees. I fit into a wet suit, with help! We got some sun while we introduced our soon to be baby boy to one of our favorite vacation adventures...underwater life. That's Mike mom Jennifer in the mask and snorkel, what a hoot.

Christmas was spent at Gran's house. Mike cooked some wild new dishes including the whole roasted pig you see here. It was a little medieval to have a pig's head on the table but oh so good and everyone was good sports about it. Christmas included (from left to right) Mike's mom, uncle Kurt, Aunt Laura, her husband Uncle Carl and Carl Jr and us.


We ended the Christmas season by spending the days after New Years with my family out in Sandy. My sisters hushand has returned from his deloyment, yahh! And our celebration together was spendid.

It's been a while since I've had my computer handy and I am so happy to post a giant WARM WISHES AND BLESSINGS IN THE NEW YEAR to all my blog readers.

Cheers!