Roll It!

Well, Emma finally rolled over. It took four months to get to the point where she could be on her stomach without crying long enough to even try it!

Three in Six

By the time Emma is six months old she will have lived in three different states. That’s quite the stat for such a little girl. She was born in NC obviously, we’re currently spending three months living in Chicago for the summer, and about two weeks after we get back we’re moving to Pennsylvania. Sheesh! I’m trying not to think of all the details and transitions because I basically get an anxiety attack when I think about everything that’s been going on.

The past few months have been very difficult for us. We’ve been in the midst of some big decisions and weighing the sides has been rough. But we’ve finally arrived at a decision and Aaron took the assistant coaching/assistant athletic director position back at Messiah. Parts of this decision are pretty exciting because we’ll be living near some close friends again and Aaron will get to be a part of Messiah soccer again from a different vantage point. He’s pretty excited to do what he’s been doing the past six years in a smaller, more personal environment. He’s also gonna get to be on the sidelines for Brett’s senior year which is pretty stinking awesome. It also moves us closer to be able to see Ben play more as well. He’s really missed so much of their soccer careers living so far away and that’s always made him crazy. Plus, we’ll be so much closer to both our families which will be great for us and Emma! AND Emma’s going to have a cousin soon so we’ll be closer to the little Keller Baby!!!! I’m going to be an aunt and that’s pretty sweet J

While we’re excited about all of that, Charlotte has become home in the past six years and leaving really stinks. We’ve made some really close friends over the years and they’ve kind of become our family away from our families. The thought of leaving so many of those people kind of makes me sick to my stomach. But we know that those friendships run deeper than location and we’ll just have to be intentional about staying involved in each other’s lives from a greater distance. I guess every decision has some bittersweet moments.

The little lady in our lives is doing pretty well. We’re starting to have more days when she doesn’t cry all day long. So that’s nice. I think maybe she’s been overtired because she hadn’t slept much during the day. But I’ve been putting her down in her crib these days and she sleeps longer which makes for more happy moments when she’s awake. Thank goodness. Her little personality is coming out more and more which is so much fun to watch! She smiles so much more and almost plays little games with you. I think we may have a little character on our hands.

Things up here in Chicago are going pretty well. It’s quite different than last year. With the addition of Emma my role is now very different and it’s been hard to adjust to that. I spend more time at home and have to miss so much of the down time that leads to the informal ministry moments. But my first ministry is to my daughter and she seems better off with a quieter environment. So, home we stay. Thankfully God’s provided some opportunities for me to minister to the girls in different ways which has been nice. But the group is great for the most part and some really powerful ministry has been going on. It’s hard to believe there’s just a little over a month left.

Some prayer requests if you remember…
That God sends whatever is needed to continue this Chicago ministry
That our house sells (we’re actually putting it on the market before we get home)
That we can find a house near Messiah that fits our needs as well as our budget
That we will be able to juggle all the details of this transition in the midst of all our responsibilities

Chi-Town

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted any sort of update. Things in our world have been a bit crazy. We’re now up in Chicago and have been for a few weeks now. We have been abundantly blessed to have our own housing this year instead of doing the host family thing and moving to a new place every week. Not conducive to the motherhood lifestyle. So our little house here was abandoned for a year or so and the people that own it basically said we can live in it for nothing all summer. WONDERFUL!!! So we’ve already had guests which makes it even nicer to have your own space. The Faro’s came up for a long weekend and basically to see Emma. My parents just left. They came to keep me company while Aaron’s been in Brazil and again, basically to see Emma. And today, Lani comes for the weekend. It’s been really nice to have company while Aaron’s gone.

I’ve gotten two e-mails from Aaron so far and it sounds like things are going great down there. He’s loving the group of players he has and says the ministry has been good. We’re hoping to hear more now that they’ve moved from the country back into the city. One week left to go until I get my husband back! The group was here for about 4 days before they all left and it seems like it is going to be a great group. Part of me wishes I could’ve gone with them but I’m looking forward to getting back into when they get back.

Emma update…she is getting more and more of a personality every day. And what a personality it is! At 11 and a half weeks she’s smiling more now which is always a treat. She also has become more and more verbal. She will make all kinds of sounds back at you when you talk to her like she is really answering you. It makes for such good conversation J. Maybe she’ll be like her dad and have the vocabulary of a 20 year old when she’s 3! As fun as that all is, she remains a bit on the fussy side. We are learning that she has opinions already (her mother’s daughter!). She definitely knows what she wants and doesn’t want. So far she wants to be held ALWAYS. There’s no awake time when I can put her down and she’ll be calm. She needs to be held, and many times, you need to stand up while you’re holding her. She also prefers to be outside (her father’s daughter!). Makes rainy days even more depressing than they were before! She wants to be held facing out so she can look around and see everything going on. She also does better when we’re out and about than when she’s home (also like her mother). Napping… where are these babies that take 2 and 3 hour naps???? We get about 30 minutes at home…tops. Do the math…30 minute nap, 30 minutes to eat, and a lot of time to walk around and try to keep her from crying! But we keep getting to know each other and hopefully I get better and better at figuring her out!

There’s been so much going on in our lives the past few weeks I’m sure I’m leaving things out but its hard to remember all that goes on these days! I’ll be sure to update again about Aaron’s trip when he gets back as well as other life updates!

Second Wave - The Faro's

"Oh, I'm so tired from all my guests! Being a baby is hard work" Tough life.

Emma is six weeks old now and all the visitation is now over. We probably had a total of 10 days in the past six weeks when we didn't have family here to meet Emma. They were all a great help and it was wonderful to spend time with everyone. And now its time to learn how every day life is going to feel! The first Faro to meet Emma was Aaron's Dad. He was flying through for a conference and decided to make it a long layover. His visit was fast but still good. He walked in to Emma in a bit of a fit but at least he got to see her true colors :-)

The day after he left, Aaron's mom came for a few days. She helped us road trip down to FL for Aaron's triathlon. Emma was a great traveler and barely cried on the long drive down and back. We stayed over with the Faraci's and had good times with them too. Aaron's race ended up to be a bit of a bummer. The water was really rough so they cancelled the swim portion and just had them bike and run. Unfortunately for Aaron, the swim is what gives him an advantage so he was not happy. He still did well but it was a long trip for only part of a race! So I walked around florida with Emma is the Bjorn, asnwering lots of questions from people about how old she was. She's quite the crowd pleaser! And Emma got to see her dad's first race.

When we got back we traded at the airport for Amy. She was the last Faro to come. She spent a few days and was a huge help. She was great with Emma and gave me a chance to get some things done and take my last final for school. She also picked up on some tricks...like the fact that Emma stops crying if you take her outside. Really quite incredible...it works every time. Amy also threw out some great quotes. One of which has been repeated numerous times since she's left. In response to Emma whining..."Don't even. I will Bjorn your butt so fast..." Hilarious. Amy also brought a sweet present for Emma's room that I am super pumped about! Love them!

lovingly nicknamed "crankface" by amy :-)

Looking back on the pictures of the Faro's visits there appears to be a common theme (and Amy's only not pictured because my camera was MIA at the time)

And look how cute I am at six weeks!!!

Next on the agenda...pack up and leave for Chicago in less than two weeks. Just when life might get normal we go and change it up again!

First Wave

Emma is now 3 and a half weeks old...it's hard to believe we've had her that long! I haven't written for a while purposely for a few reasons. First, most days I literally didn't have a spare moment to sit down and do anything else other than try to get her to stop crying. Second, because of the first reason, I didn't have much good to say and thats not fun to read so I opted not to write anything. Thankfully, things have gotten a little easier some days. Like right now for example, she's actually sleeping....glorious!

So the first wave of visitors has come and gone. My parents came down for about a week right when she was born, went home for a few days and then came back with Jen! They had actually planned on being here last week because it was their spring break from school. They were a huge help...I didn't cook a meal, pick up a dish, do my own laundry, or clean any part of my house at all because they were doing it all. What a blessing!!! Sadly, I needed to use that time to do my homework instead of sleep but you gotta get it done sometime! Most of the time they just fought over who got to hold her. They're a little bit enthralled with her :-)

Mid-week my grandparents drove up from florida and stayed through Easter. It was so good to see them and I'm really glad they got to spend time with Emma when she was so small. They too wanted to hold her all the time. Well, at first grandpa was scared to hurt her so he just hovered and stared but once he held her he got over it. He was hilarious...anytime she cried he wanted to cry too and couldn't stop thinking of the things that we might need to fix so she wasn't upset. Adorable. So poor Aaron...with all these people fighting for her he never got much time to hold her himself! He's making up for it now :-)

We had a good time all week and there was no shortage of picture taking of course. I'll just choose a few to put on here. We actually had a friend come over that has gotten into the photography business to do a little photo shoot. Emma was a mess!!!! Seriously, screamed bloody murder the ENITRE TIME. I think maybe she didn't like only being in her diaper...maybe she was cold or something. So every picture is of her screaming. Good thing Jen was the back-up photographer all week cause she got some great pictures.

my easter outfit :-)

4 generations!

The next wave of visitors is the Faro side of the family and we're excited for them to come! They come down in waves as well...first Dad, then Mom, and finally Amy. Not sure when the uncles will get to meet her but hopefully it'll be soon! We've tried to use the web cam to have some quality time a bunch but I must admit it can be a little awkward...Emma mostly just sits there and doesn't do anything so you try to make conversation while you just stare at her doing nothing. Better than nothing I guess! While Grandma Faro is here we're actually road tripping down to Florida for a triathlon for Aaron. This may be the stupidest thing I've ever agreed to because I have no idea how traveling 9+ hours is going to go. I'm really glad Grandma will be there to help! Maybe it'll confirm whether I should fly to Chicago or drive up with Aaron...we can look at it as a test run.

So two nights ago we gave Emma her first bath. Her cord stump finally feel off so now we're allowed to put her in water. We were told that babies hate the bath at first so we were expecting a scene. So she's already been screaming for quite a while before we were planning on giving her the bath so we almost didn't do it because we didn't want the screaming to last longer than it had to...but we did it anyway. And as soon as she went in the water she stopped screaming!!! She just sat in there and looked at at us...content as ever. Apparently, Emma likes the water. I guess with two lifeguards/swimmers as parents it was likely. Then she proceeded to sleep for 6 hours after that...what a night! I believe a nightly bath will be part of the normal routine.

So I'll finish this off with my anesthesiologist story for those that asked. Let me just put my disclaimer in here saying that I'm really glad the nasty things I said we at least not directed at my husband. I've heard women say some rough things during labor but my nastiness was directed at someone that really asked for it and deserved it :-) Lets paint the picture...I'm at 24 hours of labor at this point and I've finally decided that I can't take it anymore...I need drugs. You would think that someone that administers epidurals for a living might know what state the patient is in...utter exhaustion and rediculous pain. So she comes in and rambles off her consent paragraph like I'm bothering her by asking for the needle. She's completely monotone and annoyed. Strike One. So I give consent and agree to all the risks or whatever and she gives me the epidural and then I lay back down. Now, it hasn't kicked in yet cause its been about 30 seconds and I have another contraction during which my hands and face go numb and start tingling. And in my stupor state I'm wondering why the epidural is numbing the wrong half of my body. So I'm trying to ask why I'm going numb in the middle of this stupid contraction. To which she sarcastically laughs in my face!!!! Strke Two! Thankfully I knew I wasn't overreacting because Aaron actually turned around and said, "Actually, I don't think its funny". Thats how I knew I wasn't imagining this whole story...he never confronts people like that. Then she sarcastically adds, "maybe if you'd stop hyperventilating..." As if I should be in complete control of myself and my breathing at this point. She basically acted and spoke like I was rediculous for being in so much pain and not knowing what was going on. Strike Three! So, much to my dismay, I get really upset and now add crying to everything thats already going on. And I look at Aaron and say "Get her out of here!" So the nurse tries to get her out and when I think she's gone I say "She's lucky she's not here cause I would have kicked her in the face if I could" Then we find out that she's still there, she's just standing in the doorway. Oops. Aaron said she got a sly little grin when I said that which only makes me want to do it more. Oh well. So thats my story and as much as I don't ever want to be THAT person, I'm writing a letter about her to her practice. Why? Because she's an idiot and they should know.

Welcome Emma Jennifer Faro!

Emma decided to grace us with her presence on March 23rd at 7:39am. Her due date was the 31st so she came a little over a week early. I'm not really sure how much of the labor and delivery details to share because I'm sure some readers don't want that kind of information. So for those that want more details feel free to ask and for those that think I already shared too much...sorry.

On saturday, we had a bunch of our friends over and we watched some basketball. That whole day I thought I was feeling some contractions but wasn't quite sure. Saturday night at about 1am I found out that I was having them for sure. I woke up with some serious back pain and thought I might be in labor. So Aaron and I were up most of Saturday night into Sunday morning. We called the midwife and she told us to call her back when the contractions were closer and more regular...that never actually happened. We timed them all day Sunday and they got closer and more intense but not very regular. Finally at about dinner time we called the midwife again. She told us to come in basically because she thought its what I wanted, not because she thought it was really time.

So we get to the hospital around 7:30pm on Sunday. At this point, we're at over 18 hours of labor. I wondered if they were going to send me home cause I wasn't ready but they said they thought it was real labor and told me we'd stay. They offered, and even pushed, the epidural but I told them I wanted to try and go without it. Stupid. After 6 more hours of labor (24 hours total so far) she told me I was still only 3 or 4 centimeters so I got the epidural. I REALLY should've gotten it earlier. From then on I slept off and on until 7am when they said it was almost time to push. There's a good story about my anesthesiologist but this is already long so that will have to wait...but it involves me telling her I was gonna kick her in the face...so if that interests you feel free to inquire further. :-)

The pushing part was really fast for me. I only pushed five times and she came right out. The midwife almost didn't make it into the room in time to catch her. It was really a surreal moment. They placed Emma right up on me and told me it was a girl. I was actually surprised since the whole time I thought I was gonna have a boy. Aaron got to cut the cord and went with the nurse when she cleaned her up and measured her and all that jazz. It was so sweet to watch Aaron's reaction and see him hold her for the first time. Special moments with our daughter :-)

We had lots of visitors in the hospital those two days and we've been home now about a week. Life sure is different. I do nothing I used to do, and I spend my whole day doing things I don't really know anything about. It's definitely hard. Everyone tells me the first few weeks are hard and it gets easier. Thats good cause I probably can't keep this up forever. As hard as they've been, they've been awesome too. Emma makes the cutest faces and sounds and sleeping with her laying on your chest is the best thing in the world.

I'm sure there will be more updates now that Emma is here. Although, I thought I was too busy to write earlier...now I really AM too busy to do anything so we'll see :-)

SURPRISE!!!!

My birthday weekend held quite a few surprises. All I knew was that a few friends were going to come over friday night to hang out on my birthday. Allison and Mike were going to be up from Atlanta because the boys were competing in a duathlon on saturday. So I won't go into details because this is the unfortunate part of the weekend...but Friday I ended up feeling rather sick and ended up at the doctor to make sure the baby was still ok. Quite the scary day...but all is well! So I spent most of Friday laying around trying not to be in pain so I was not ready for the company to get here, hadn't gone shopping to feed anybody, didn't clean the house...nothing. I hate that. But Mike and Allison were understanding and the company ended up bringing over whatever food we ate that night which was nice (not that I got to eat any of it). So anyway, sometime during the night Aaron gets a text message. I pick up his phone and see that it was from Jillian...hmm. So I'm suspicious of course. And then, not an hour later...she walks through my front door to join the birtday party! Or so I thought :-) But we got to meet Ian and have some time to just hang out that night which was great! Aaron and I got a little practice with the little guy too :-)

Saturday the boys went and did the race (and did well of course, despite the cold rain!) The girls had a lazy morning and planned on going out to lunch after the guys got home. So we got dressed and started to leave for lunch. We had to drop off Lauren's coat at her house cause she left it the night before (mm, hmm). So I run up to the door (yes, its still raining) and as I knock on the door, I see balloons in the window and now I understand what's going on. I open the door to a house full of people for my surprise baby shower!!! Fun stuff. Lauren, Lani, Melissa, and Betty put together a surprise shower for me and had been scheming together for a long time! The house looked great, there were tons of people there, and I had a great time! I opened wonderful gifts (some of which were home-made masterpieces!), and basically got spoiled. It was so fun to have all the Charlotte friends as well as Jillian and Allison in town to join the festivities. Talk about feeling special :-)

Sunday, I actually had another shower. Aaron's Grace soccer moms put one together for me too. I was a little nervous because I don't really know most of them but it was also a great time. They told stories and we ate good food, and once again, I got spoiled. It was so thoughtful of them to do that for me and it basically shows how much Aaron means to them and their boys.

And then, the following Sunday the YMCA threw me another shower! Three showers in two weekends...what a celebration! Now, we are really set to go and have everything we need and much more for this baby to come. Now, it just needs to get here :-)

Had my 37-week appointment today and things are moving right along. I'm right we're I'm supposed to be I guess and the baby's moving down and "dropping" as they say. The next post will probably be a birth announcement unless something rediculous happens that I need to share!