Rice cereal

Yesterday we feed Elijah some rice cereal for the first time. His facial expressions were quite funny...he wasn't too impressed at the start. He had fun feeling the texture with his tongue and working out how to swallow it. It was very cute to watch. He had some more today and thought it was OK. We'll keep going on rice cereal and see how he goes.

5 months already!

Elijah turned 5 months old on Sunday. It's hard to believe how fast he is growing and changing. He has a beautiful smile and likes to giggle! He is just starting to enjoy being tickled. He loves books and bath time. He is a pretty amazing baby and we are very blessed.

Here's some video of the last week or so. His cot and chest of drawers are still in storage so we have borrowed a table and put his changing pad on there for the moment. The curtains have been quite entertaining for him this past week!

Elijah James

Strangely (not really) my last post was in December, and just a few weeks after Elijah was born. He suprised us all, especially me.

The week before he came we went to the hospital and was told that he was still in the breech position and booked me in for Jan 5th to have a manual harmless procedure to try and turn him. Everything else was great, they did say he was going to be a huge baby. They also told me that if anything did happen because he was breeched to head to the hospital straight away. Anyways then we had Christmas and Boxing Day (in Australia) and I remember having dinner with our friends Gem & Adrian. Our babies' due dates were 8 days apart and it looked like they were going to induce her fairly soon. Then on 29th December Gem was in hospital and I decided to go visit her. Adrian was there too and Gem was in bed and we were talking about how I would be having a baby in another month and hers would be born tomorrow etc...Then I ran all the way back to my car. I was too stingy to pay for the hospital parking and being 8 months pregnant in summer I probably looked the sight running (awkwardly) back to my car. This lady said "visiting someone were you...that could be you soon." (Little did I know I would go into labour just hours later...)

Then we went out to lunch and I was feeling tired so went home for a nap. That evening I wasn't feeling the best and went to bed early. I left my phone on and received a text from Adrian that their baby Isabella was born at 9pm. I was soo excited and Brad was still up so went in to tell him. He came to bed and we prayed that our baby would be healthy and come soon and I told Brad I was a little jealous that their baby was already here cause I really wanted to meet our soon...! HA!

At 3am I woke up (very normal for this stage of my pregnancy) except that I had a headache which had not been common at all..I got up and then went onto facebook cause I couldn't sleep...then I lay there and decided I might go to the toilet cause I was going frequently at that stage. I went and about 10 minutes later realised something strange was happening. I was calling out to Brad but we had a fan on in the room and he couldn't hear me...He finally came and I said "I think something is happening" He said "like what" I said "like my water just broke." We found the number for the hospital, rang and started getting ready to go to the hospital. I went and woke my parents up. My Mum was suprised but ready to help, by Dad simply asked "What time is it?" Quite funny in our family. My Mum started timing my contractions and they were already 4 minutes apart, getting quite strong too.

We made it to the hospital. Didn't think to get a wheelchair AND they didn't offer us one either. So I walked allllll the way up into the emergency room, having contractions the whole way. Couldn't talk by the time I got up to "sign in" We went into the room and two Doctors came in, very calm. When they realised I was so out of breathe, they decided to check how far along I was...I was fully dilated...Well at that point everyone entered the room, I squeezed Brad's hand very tightly, attempted to sign some forms....and then 15 minutes later Elijah James was born on 30th December, 2009. He was 4 weeks and 2 days early.

What an amazing gift from God.

Maybe I'll start blogging again..we'll see.

Which country am I in?

One of the things about being a missionary and also married to someone from another country is that we have THREE countries in the mix. This can make it a little confusing sometimes when we swap between countries as to where we are and what the cultural do's and dont's are. Right now we are in Australia and yet I feel bad about throwing my toilet paper in the toilet because I think I am still in Mexico! Other things that are different are greetings. Sometimes I actually forget how I'm "supposed" to greet people. In Texas, guys and girls do the side hug thing, in Australia we do the big full on bear hug and sometimes the kiss on the cheek at the same time. In Mexico it's the shake hands and then kiss on the cheek. My grandma caught my brother and sister in law off guard a few years back because she likes to kiss people on the lips. They thought that this was how everyone in Australia greeted people!! HA!

Boy or girl?

What an amazing experience it was to see our baby so clearly on the ultrasound. We were pretty nervous as we knew we would find out if we were having a boy or girl. Brad and I have said all along that we would be happy with either. You should know that all of our doctor visits here are in Spanish and our doctor doesn't know ANY English. So I have been feeling very comfortable with our lady but she didn't have the equipment for us to be able to see everything so she referred us to a guy. We arrived and he was very business like (unlike our usual friendly lady doctor), but he was very professional and I told him we were there to find out what we were having. 30 minutes into the appointment he showed us something down below and I didn't understand the word he said...I looked at Brad and he was nodding his head like he understand and I said in English to Brad "what did he say" and he said "I dont know" so I asked the doctor in Spanish to explain and he said it was just the baby's bladder and it's healthy...it was amazing as we could see all of the fingers, hands, toes, feet - everything. It was such a blessing to be able to see our baby and see him healthy.

After about 45 minutes he finally showed us the information we wanted to know...and he said "and there you have it" and I was like "what is it" and he said "you cant see" and I said "please just tell me"..anyways I think he thought it was a fun game and we went back and forth until finally he said it was a boy. It was a great feeling. Just knowing what we have and being able to talk to HIM and pray for HIM. All along Brad and I have been praying for HIM and when we talk about or to him it's always been a boy. They say the maternal instinct is never wrong (but I'm sure it is) but it was amazing how sure I felt that we were having a little boy from about week 7. Praise God our baby was moving around like crazy and the doctor said he is healthy.

And now some photos.......

Let's make a sheep!

On the last team we did a bible craft from Psalms 23. We traced around their hands and from the hand cut out used cotton balls, glue and ribbon to make little sheep! The children really enjoyed it. We had a table with 8 seats and took 8 children at a time so it would be organised and personal. I think we did the activity 4 or 5 times by the end.

Enjoy!

About to start showing

I'm now 14 weeks pregnant and haven't put on any weight yet. It's a funny feeling going to the scales and hoping that the numbers go up because I want to start showing!! hehe
I starting wearing my first pair of maternity jeans yesterday, mainly just for comfort. I don't understand why people don't wear them all the time, no zipper or buttons to worry about just pull them up and down!! We are going to find out what flavour we are having in 3 weeks and our cot (crib) and pack and play are going to be arriving in 2 weeks. It's all exciting! Also we started our registry and someone already bought something (no idea who). It's www.amazingregistry.com/hewittbub This registry is for people in the States, we have 3 countries involved here so most of the bigger items will be bought here in Mexico or in Australia.


Here's the 12 weeks photo - nothing to show though...