Lincoln's Birth

This is a survery I did on Facebook that I wanted saved so I put it in my blog!

Here you go mommies - a different kind of survey for a change - it's all about your first born! Just copy and paste it in a new note for yourself!
Let's see how much you remember!

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? Yes, we had been trying for over a year!

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? Yuppers

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? thrilled beyond anything, and nervous - we missed carried our first baby 2 years prior.

5. HOW OLD WERE YOU? 23

6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? God told me in a dream. I had a dream one night and God said - as clear as day - "Cher, you are pregnant" That morning when I woke up I was quite sick, and I remembered the dream. After being sick for a few days, I took the test.

7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? Stephen, we decided to go to the Dr. next and confirm. After that we told my family (funny story), his family, and my bffnae Ashley. Then we wanted to wait until the 12 week point to make it public. I was 9.5 weeks along when we found out I was prego's.

8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? Yes of course but the anticipation and guessing was far better, so we didn't, and actually you can't find out at most Winnipeg Hospitals.

9. DUE DATE? April 15, 2008

10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? Um yes, just a tad! For the first 17 weeks. But I figured out the cure for morning sickness, take a trip to cuba! :)u

11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? Mexican! And grapefruit! Nothing weird or weird combinations though. I just wanted to eat, pretty much anything!

12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? Probably Stephen! He was at the brunt of all my irrational emotional outburst

13. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S SEX? Boy

14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING?During my whole pregnancy we both really wanted a boy, about a month before i gave birth, i started really loving the idea of having a girl. In the moment Lincoln was born, and his sex was announced, I have to admit my heart was the tiniest bit disappointed, I thought "oh a girl would have been nice", but it passed so quickly! Everyone who has kids will tell you, once that baby comes it really doesn't matter what it is , as long as they are healthy, and it is so trued. I definitely have a huge desire to have a girl, in fact we aren't stopping until we do, but i actually would like another boy next!

15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY? This is embarrassing - 52lbs! It was ridiculous!

16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? Yes, my mom threw one after Lincoln was born, so everyone could buy gender appropriate gifts, and more importantly so everyone could meet the man of the hour! They also threw one for me at work, the day before my due date, which was a surprise!

17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? I knew, designed the invitations while I was pregnant.

18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? No, thankfully.

19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? Almost in my house, but we made it the hospital (barely) St. Boniface! (I was that girl you see in movies screaming in a wheel chair being pushed speedily to the delivery room. I remember saying, rather loudly, "I feel like i have to poop!" And my midwife was saying just don't! Hang on!) Amazing hospital and staff!

20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? 3 unexplainable hours

21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? My midwife drove the vehicle, I gave encouragement - such as when the light was yellow turning red I yelled from the back seat "GO! GO! GO!"

22. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH? Well no one watched - everyone was doing something! But the people present were: my amazing midwife Becky, some nurse, my amazing husband, and also my amazing mom!

23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? All natural baby!

24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? One breathe of the gas was all I got

25. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 7lbs 5oz
26. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN? April 15th 7:58am - on his due date, and he got here in time for work!

27. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER? Lincoln Michael John Dombowsky

28. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST? 9 months

Beanie's Face

We finally got to see our dear Beanie's face yesterday at our ultra sound. It was miraculous and incredible. The technology now a days really does amaze me! To be able to watch my baby bat at my womb like a cat, then suck its thumb, and then give a few good punches does nothing less than amaze and bond you with your baby! The ultrasound tech we had was awesome - best experience I've had so far! It took an hour, which usually it only takes 30 mins, but Beanie was so active she was having troubles getting all the proper measurements and pictures she needed! I'm not complaining too much though, besides the massive discomfort of my bladder being overly full and then having someone push and prod on my full bladder for an hour, I got to see lots of different angles and movements and parts of my dear little baby!
I was shocked at how much the baby moved! Amazing, I still barely feel anything, but I am a little scared for how much I will feel once the baby gets bigger. At one point Beanie pulled its legs right up to its chest and then WHAM right into the uterus wall! It was so cool to watch! The baby even waved at us - I remember Lincoln did that as well, its so cool! They are like "hey mom and dad, nice to finally see you!"
We didn't find out what we were having. Stephen, of course, wanted to during the middle of it, but the Hospital couldn't tell us even if we did change our minds. I was glad, I love the surprise at birth!
And according to one of the pictures - this baby has my nose! We will see when they are born if it still looks the same.
Over all our baby is 'lovely' (according to our ultra sound tech anyways) and all the right parts and pieces are there and running smoothly! Horray!!!

Lincoln's Vocabulary - 18 months

Lincolns current vocabulary:
No
Go
Woof-Woof
Please (Sounds like peas)
bed (only once though)
Mom

Lincoln currently knows where his nose, tongue, eyes and belly are.

Artistic like his Father

Stephen went to help his family on the farm for 5.5 days a few weeks ago. So I decided to help make the time go a little faster to introduce something new to Lincoln. We went off to Wal-Mart and I bought a large floor pad of paper, cool pen style crayons, finger paints and sidewalk chalk! Deciding that it was too cool for the chalk and still too young for the paints I set up the paper and the crayons on the floor and watched my little Michael Angelo go to work on his first master piece! He loved it! He loved it so much he colored for over an hour! I had to tear him away when it was nap time, and oh how he cried. But as soon as he was awake he motored downstairs, laid back down on his paper and continued his creation. For over 3 hours!!! It was incredible. And once again when it was bed time he cried and cried as I literally dragged him away from his crafts.
He still loves to color, but does not do it for the same amount of time. The one amazing thing is that he holds his crayons properly, like a pencil! Its very cute! My boy is a genius! :)

Compassionate at 18 months?

My darling little sweety pie (aka the big boy Lincoln) truly shocked me yesterday. During this pregnancy I have suffered severe horrendance, don't even wish them on my worst enemy, head aches. They come about every 2 weeks. Well last night was the night to get one. As I lay on the couch trying to shut out all sound and light, my little boy wanders over too me and gives me a hug. A hug!! I ask this little boy for hugs daily and rarely do I get one! He wanders off and returns a few minutes later and give me another hug! I was so touched. But then he blew my socks off - he wandered off again, went and found his 'choo-choo' (soother) and came and offered it too me! Like he was saying "Here Mommy, I know this makes me feel better! Would you like it?" I couldn't help but smile through the pain! I couldn't believe how perceptive he was and how sensitive he was too me. He made me feel loved beyond words!
As a mother I would not even think to ask to be loved back my the person that I love beyond comprehension, my son. Loving him fills me with more joy and fullfilment that I could ever ask for. But when he shows me that he loves me equally as much of his own free will - it is the greatest thing in the whole entire world. I could never imagine what motherhood actually felt like before children - i knew it would be good. I had no idea it would be this good.

My darling little froggingman!

Yesterday we were very blessed my one of Stephen's volunteers at Building Futures to be invited out to their 'little piece of Heaven' as they so lovingly and accurately call it. They have 40acres of woodlands and grasslands about an hour north east of the city. They have developed some of it into a beautiful garden, a quaint little cabin, and a great dug out for their kids, who are now adults, used to spend their summers swimming it. The rest is all natural forest and meadows - it really is a piece of Heaven. Lincoln, of course, had one of the best days of his life as he got to run around exploring, discovering, and just being a little boy! His favorite part of being out there were all the little frogs hopping around, waiting to be caught! Stephen and I caught and few and showed him - and then after that Stephen, Rodger and Linc went hunting frogs for a long time. The funny thing is is that Lincoln doesn't have the words "gentle' or "don't squish" in his vocabulary, so needless to say some of the frogs got a little bit of hard loving from our little 16 month old! Lincoln was able to even catch some by himself - and if they were getting away he wouldn't hesitate to try and step on them!

This one frog Stephen caught for Linc by the water, and placed it on the ground in front of Lincoln - and Lincoln proudly caught it all by himself. As we tried to tell him not to poke, squish, and manhandle this little frog - it got away into the water. But couldn't get very far as it was so exhausted and shocked at being handled so brutually it simply floated on the water. Well Linc was thrilled as he caught it AGAIN! And again this poor frog was 'loved' and discovered by Linc. We finally took it away from him and set it in the water away from Lincoln. And to my horror I watched this little frog sink to the bottom! After a few short minutes it struggled to the surface and slowly made its away as far away from my son as his little body would take him.

It was really cool to start to see the little boy in Lincoln really emerge! One of our 3-5 year goals is to buy some land in the country and settle out there. I won't be surprised if once we are out there my house is filled with creepy crawly things that my little adventure brings home. In fact, I can't wait!

Lincolns little antics

Lincoln has definately been my joy these last few weeks as he seems to have had a development explosion and doing lots of cute fun new things.

Linc now sticks his tongue out - it is so cute, because he hasn't figured out how to push it out very far yet so it sits between his lips. If you look at him and stick your tongue out at him, and gets the most glorious smile on his face and in his eyes and out pops his little tongue.

Linc now says "No" regularly and clearly. Last week we were at Stephen's parents farm and there were a lot of dogs at the farm, and so a lot of "Roxy, No." Herc, No!". As I strapped Linc into his car seat for the long ride home he points at Herc, who was sitting in the Jeep and says "No,no,no,no,no." It was priceless! Now, he says No, when he means no. He says NO, when he means yes. Its very cute.

Stephen has taught Linc to play hide and go seek. Stephen will say to Lincoln, "Lincoln, should I go hide?" or "Lincoln, want to come find me?" Which is usually followed by a, "No." which means Yes in this case. So then Stephen runs into another room, at which point Linc runs after him as fast as his little legs will carry. Stephen usually only has enough time to step into a closet or hide behind the door - but Linc always manages to find him, and is so proud of himself when he does!

One of the best things I am enjoying in this stage is Linc is finally starting to show affection of his own free will. When he climbs into my lap with a book in tow I am amazed everytime how perfectly we fit together. We were truly made for each other. When i squat down and throw my arms wide and the rare times he runs into them and gives me a big hug - I never want to let him go, or want that moment to end. Motherhood has rewards and moments that are priceless and inexplainable - and I am blessed, grateful, and humbled to have the privelege of being a mother.
My heart is over flowing with love and joy for my child. And it is over flowing knowing that I am priveleged enough to be carrying our second one.

The Lord is good.