Baby# 2 and an update on Sterling

Wow has it really been almost a year (April of 2011) since I last posted? This last year has been a wild ride and I hate that I haven't made more updates. Our lives have changed drastically over the past year and I am not really even sure where to start. I know many are following my blog about my mom's journey, but I also wanted to make sure that I was not forgetting about my family and the wonderful things that are happening in our lives.

In early November we found out that we are expecting Maples baby number 2. We are so incredibly excited and could not be more blessed. W

Sterling has had a lot of changes lately but for the most part he is doing well. He is such a happy spirit and fun loving kiddo. He went from being with my mom every day to starting daycare full time and not seeing my mom hardly at all while she was in the hospital and now is seeing her on a much more consistent basis. I know he didn't understand all of this change and starting acting out a little but he has adjusted now and is doing great! Except for the occasional bite reports I think he has fun at daycare.

He has changed so much! He is a little bit of a late bloomer talking but the past few weeks he has not stopped jabbering and trying tosay all kinds of things. For a while he was just saying momma and daddy but now we are up to momma, daddy, gigi, hi, bye bye, and every once in a while we will get a thank you. He is trying to say light and pointing to the fans and I could have sworn I heard him say toes the other day and grabbed his foot, but Shon thinks I am making up things to make his vocabulary seem bigger :). I am sure in the next couple of weeks he will be telling me about his day :) That is a true mom's expectations right!

I will try to do a "quick" update on his growth below so that I can try to stay up with my blogs especially with baby #2 coming!

7 Months

Teeth

Sterling started to get his teeth in around 5 months. The bottom teeth were a breeze and I didn't even know he was teething. The top ones were another story. He wouldn't take any teethers except for Sophie the giraffe, which I am so excited they have made new versions of her for the new little one! As of now (almost 18 months) he has all of his teeth and we are working on the back molars as we speak! He has a full mouth and he is using it!

8 Months

Sleeping

He has been such a wonderful sleeper! We have been so spoiled with him because he has always slept through the night and he never really got attached to a pacifier. He would take it at night, but other than that he never wanted it. One day around 9 months we just stopped giving it to him and he didn't even blink an eye. From the beginning we only gave it to him when he was sleeping so I think that helped a lot. Iam very thankful that we didn't have to go through the long process of getting rid of the binky! He has been sleeping in his crib since he was 3 months and has only slept in our bed maybe 3 times when he was sick and couldn't breathe lying down. We are definitely blessed with a layed back child. I am sure we will get pay back with a high maintenance little girl!

9 Months

Sterlings Growth

I guess Sterling is taking after his Uncle Cory because he has always been off the charts for his height and around the 80th percentile for his weight. Neither Shon nor I are very tall, but we aren't complaining! Shon is already getting him ready for baseball! I heard now they can play at 2!! Craziness! He keeps up with me eating and I am pregnant! He eats so much and when people watch him I am sure they think we haven't fed him in days!

10 Months

I really have to take the time to be thankful for him and how chill of a kid he has been. Of course we are getting into the wild stages and his personality is really coming out, but I don't know how I would have made it through the news of my mother's cancer with a high maintenance little one. He made it easy those couple of week's when we didn't have child care while my mom went into the hospital. I think a different person was watching him every day and he just acted like it was a normal day. He is the joy and light of our lives and we can't wait for the next adventure with McKinley.

A baby's laughter is the greatest joy in life!

So I have two purposes for this blog; 1. to share with the world how cute Sterling laughing at our dogs is and 2. an update on my furniture that I am SO close to being finished with!

So we were sitting in our bedroom and I was playing with Rocky. We already know that Sterling LOVES watching Rocky and starts laughing even more when Rocky or Bella barks. It melts my heart when he starts laughing so hard he has to stop to breathe! He was so cute and luckily Shon had his phone right there and was able to capture this moment.

Here is the link to watch the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZCgsINbcG0

We also have a tooth! He has been drooling an enormous about lately and has an obsession with sticking out his tongue! I looked a couple of days ago and his gums were really white. Today I rubbed him gums with my finger and felt something sharp! His bottom tooth had broke through! It is so excitingto get to see the milestones and at the same time I think about how fast he is growing and how these times aren't going to last forever like I would love them too. Next milestone that we are really close to.... crawling. That I am not ready for. My house is no where near baby proofed!

As for my furniture.. I am finally finished with the painting part and all I need to do is finish putting the mirrors on the nightstands and the knobs on all of it. I ordered some clear glass knobs that look like diamonds for all the furniture. I really liked the way it turned out! I am really debating on whether or not this summer I am going to start refinishing furniture and selling it. I feel like this is a great market for it and it is something I really enjoy doing. Next on the list is my headboard so we will see how it goes!

I posted some before and after pictures below. I will posta final product picture after I get finished putting the mirrors and knobs on. Would love to hear what everyone thinks!

Sterling is 6 months!

Wow I can't believe that Sterling is already 6 months old! He has changed so much and continues to change everyday. He is laughing at things and it melts my heart when he starts giggling! He thinks our dogs are the funniest thing he has ever seen and just laughs so hard when they play and bark. I took him to his 6 month yesterday and while I was a little nervous about going to a new pediatrician, everything went great. He is in the 50th percentile for his weight and 75th percentile for his height. He was in the 95th percentile for his weight at 4 months so I guess since he doesn't sit still for longer then 2 seconds he is burning some calories!

We have been doing solids for about a month now and we have introduced cereal, sweet potatoes, zucchini, bananas, and apples. Believe it or not his favorite has been zucchini, but he is by no means a picky eater. I don't think he has spit out one bite yet! He loves his food. I keep getting excited to see what face he makes, and then he just eats it and has no reaction to it at all. He is such a funny little guy. We are amazed by him everyday and he is our joy in life.

He can definitely snore some massive logs! He has recently started snoring like a grown man and at first it was just funny but then it got a little concerning. He has always had the tracheamalacia that makes him sound worse than he is, but we took him to the ENT just to be safe. They put a little camera down his nasal cavity and looked at his voicebox and nose to make sure everything was ok, and it was a little traumatic for him, and mom. He just didn't like being held down but everything checked out ok, and they think he might have a little reflux because his voice box was swollen so we are going to try some meds for that.

We took him to the zoo for the first time over spring break and he liked the giraffes because he could see them and they came up close but then he was more interested in watching all the other kids then looking at the animals. I think is was more fun for us than him!

We are finally getting settled in in our new house and we absolutely love it. We have great neighbors and a great community that we are really enjoying. Our house is ALMOST put together. We are doing some last minute touches and finishing some rooms that were the "collect all" rooms for a while. I am currently a little obsessed with DIY projects and refinishing furniture. I made all the curtains in our house (yes I learned to sew for those of you who don't believe it!) and we recently purchased an old set of bedroom furniture from Salvation Army that I am refinishing so as soon as I finish them I will post some pics! Older furniture was just made so much better and is heavy solid wood that I think is going to turn out awesome! My next project is to upholster a headboard for our bedroom. I will post pics when I get them finished. They are taking me a little long because I am working on Saturday's so I just have Sunday to work on them but it is my stress release and I love it. It's like a challenge to me to see how cheap I can refinish something and make it beautiful. Of course I have my mom to call and say "how do you do this!" She is amazing with paint and DIY projects so I have a good teacher.

Till next time... hopefully I will be done with the furniture!

Long Over Due!

So I haven't posted since I was like 24 weeks pregnant and there is a LOT that has happened since then!! I am trying to get better at posting so that I don't have to bore everyone in a novel to catch everyone up to date. I have been so busy working and finishing up my internship hours for my masters program in counseling. I can not wait to graduate!!

So obviously Sterling joined us on September 24th which was two weeks before my actual due date. I went on bed rest at home on August 25th because I was having too many contractions (had to get a shot to stop them and they gave me steroids to make sure his lungs were developed if he came early) and was 90% effaced and dilated to a two at 34 weeks. Then all the sudden my blood pressuresky rocketed and I had to stay in the hospital on strict bed rest 7 days before I had him. That was just a little bit miserable! They induced me on the 24th of September and Sterling arrived that evening weighing in at 7.94. I wonder what he would have been if I would have made it two more weeks to my due date!

He is doing great and growing out of control! He is already 4 months old! He changes so much every week and I just can't imagine my life without him. He is our entertainment. Just to hit the high points:

He is sleeping through the night (8 hours), smiling and laughing, rolling over, started on cereal, the best baby we could ask for. We arespoiled with such a laid back chill baby.

I took him to his 4 month appointment on Thursday and he weighed 15lbs and 23.5 inches (which I think is a little off because I measured him and he was right at 25 inches). So he was in the 97th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height!! We just love him so much.

Another area of our lives that changed was we moved into our new house on December 15th in Fate. We love our neighborhood and are so excited to get to know our neighbors and start a new chapter of our lives here. We miss Keller, but love it here. Im not sure if I mentioned this in my previous blog, but Shon got a new job working as an assistant controller for Park Place so Keller was just a little too far of a drive for us, plus my mom is keeping Sterling during the day so it just worked out really well for us.

I think that caught us up in a very short way, so I will try to be better at updating! We had a major ice storm this week so school was cancelled yesterday, today, and tomorrow so I actually had time to do things I want to do! Plus I get to stay home andspoil my baby!!

See you nex time!

Sterling's newborn picture Sterling at 4 months

Our new house

Maples Family Update

Well I guess it has been a while since I last blogged so I am sorry for slacking on the updates! Since I haven't blogged since my 12 week Dr. appointment and I am now 25 weeks, there has been a lot of changes! Finally I am out for the summer and it has been so great! Although this summer will fly by because I have so much to do!

Update on little Maples:

Most of you know, but we decided to name our little son Sterling Alan Maples. It has been a family tradition on Shon's side that all of the males for the last few generations have the initials SAM so we are sticking with that tradition. It is also Shon's grandfather's name which is pretty cool as well.

Sterling is doing really well and is a very active baby! He is above average in his length so they are thinking he is going to be a pretty big baby. Lucky me! He is about 13 inches long and about 2lbs now and will just be growing like crazy from now on! We went for our 6 month check up and it was so fun to see how much he had grown and he was all over the place! He had his hands in his mouth and was playing with his feet and of course the last few months he has been sucking his thumb. It is so amazing to be able to watch him grow inside me and to finally feel him move all around.

I am doing good as well and everything is progressing right on track. I am having a lot of swelling but other than that everything else has been great! Other than of course this wonderful 100 degree weather. I am so lucky that my last three months are in the three hottest months of the summer! I have pretty much been living in our pool. I started my internship for my graduate program in May and I am loving it! I am interning at a place called the Art Station in Fort Worth and it has been such a wonderful experience so far! We provide counseling while using art in our therapy sessions. I can't wait to graduate in May of next year and be able to be a full time counselor!

As for the nursery, I finally finished painting, as you can see in the picture above! I am not sure why I always feel the need to take on these elaborate projects! Thankfully I had my super crafty mom and aunt to help me with all the measuring and chalking! The end result was worth it and I love it! Now for the fun part of filling it in with all the decorative stuff! We did an argyle print on one of the walls in gray, teal, and white and then the other three walls are all gray. I am using a bright yellow accent color with the decorative accents. We also ordered the crib and it just arrived today so as soon as we tackle putting it together then I will post some pictures! We finally attempted to tackle the wonderful task of registering so we are now registered at Babies R Us and Target.

I have also taken on a summer project of teaching myself how to sew. My wonderful husband bought me a sewing machine for my "soon to be" mothers day gift! I have made one curtain panel so far and I must say it didn't turn out too bad. As soon as I finish both of them I will post some pictures. I am also going to attempt to sew the bedding for the crib, but we will see how that works out! I get these images in my head and I can't find it anywhere so I always decide to make everything. Hopefully he will have bedding by the time he comes. I keep telling myself I have plenty of time, but these months keep flying by and now I only have 3 left!

Thats about it when it comes to Mr. Sterling. As for our family, Shon has recently taken a new job working for Park Place Dealerships in Plano so he is having a little bit of a trek to work now. It is a great opportunity for him and I am very excited and proud of him. There is a move in our future, but not much about that at the moment. With both of us driving over an hour to work now, its going to get a little old!

Well I think thats about all the updates I have for now, and I will try to keep everyone posted through these last few months. I hope everything is going well for everyone!


Here is a picture of Sterling sucking his thumb and of the nursery so far !

12 week Dr. appointment

Today was our 12 week Dr. Appointment and everything went great! It was such a surreal moment for us when the sonographer first showed the image of our little one. The difference between the 8 week sonogram and this one was unbelievable! It is starting to look like a real Baby Maples. You could see the jaw bone and nasal cavity and the nose and lips and fingers and toes! It was crazy! I am sure most of you moms have been there before but it was so exciting for us! Baby Maples was pretty chill today. He/she moved a little and gave us a little wave, but other than that he/she did not want to cooperate. I was coughing and rolling around trying to wake em up and he/she just layed there and didn't want to be bothered. This is when the strong feeling came over me and I just knew it was a girl. The stubborness gave it away! I always knew I would have a little girl and would get some payback for my stubborness. Shon is still holding strong for a boy, but I think it is a girl.



We weren't able to heat the heartbeat this time either. She (or he) was being stubborn again once we got in the Dr. office and was hiding. Hopefully next time we will get to actually hear the heart beat. I wasn't too freaked out because we already saw the heart beat on the screen and the baby moving around. The heartbeat was 159 and she/he is just over 2 inches long! Getting big! It is so crazy to think that the baby is only 2 inches long and we could see every feature defined and the hands and legs.


The sonographer told us we should be able to find out the sex in 4 weeks!! I can't believe it is all going by so fast. I am so ready to find out so I can start buying things!! Maybe its a good thing you can't find out the sex right away, otherwise I would be out of money already. Right after our appointment a good friend of mine, Laurin, had her baby on Tuesday and she was still at the hospital so we went up to her room to see the little Ella Kate. She was so prescious and it was so exciting for us to get to hold her and see her. Laurin is doing great and she was actually about to get discharged while we were there. Shon and I held Ella Kate and she was so sweet! When Shon was holding her we were all talking and I looked over and he was so engrossed in her he had no idea that we were talking. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen! He is going to be such an amazing daddy! Then we left there saying, ok we want to be there now! Ha but we have a little ways to go. I am sure it will be here before we know it.


One thing I am really curious about is how our dogs are going to react. Forever they have been our "kids" and especially Bella, she has always been the baby of the family. She is treated like a baby and they get all the attention they want. They are going to be in for a big surprise but I think both of them will be great with the baby. Bella will be a good snuggle partner and Rocky will be a good playmate!


I will keep everyone updated and soon we will have some great news to share on whether we will have a little Christy or a little Shon.

Here are some of the sonogram pictures.

Pregnancy

So being pregnant pretty much jacks up your entire body huh. I got some medicine from my doctor for the nausea so I am no longer loosing everything I eat, but now some new things have popped up! Out of respect for my readers I won't go into detail, but man my body is all sorts of wacky! The headaches are a new thing too but I have had headaches my whole life so I am used to those! As soon as this little guy/gal can read I am going to make these blogs into a book to remind them what I went through for them. Hah just kidding. I feel like I am always complaining about something but its always there and I am just waiting for this magical moment when everyone keeps telling me I will feel the best I have ever felt!

On a lighter note, I found a placement for my internship that starts in May and goes until I graduate in May of 2011. I am so excited about it and I think it is right up my alley. The place is in Fort Worth called The Art Station and it is doing therapy with all ages using art in the therapy sessions. It is combining the two things I love (art and creativity) and counseling into one thing! I can't wait to start and I feel like I have finally found the perfect place in life for me. I say that now but we will see after I have my first week. I will keep everyone updated on how that goes. I start at the end of May. This is going to be such an eventful year for us. I have one last year of grad school and we have a little one on the way. It will be tough to balance everything but it will work out somehow and there is no point in stressing about it. (I have never handled stress very well but with another life in my hands I am forcing myself to accept what life brings and not stress).

Shon and I decided that him and Cory were going to coach whatever sports team the kiddo decides they want to play. What a site that is going to be! Cory doesn't know yet but I am sure he would love the challenge. Especially if its a girl. How hilarious would it be for Cory and Shon to be coaching girls! Oh the plans we have in store for this kid. He/She has no idea what they are about to be brought into with this family!

Well until next time.. there is not much to update at the moment. We have about 9 weeks until we find out the gender so that will be exciting! Take care!