Pictures from the first weeks (backtrack)

We hadn't graduated to the big bottles yet - Only 2 oz at a time - I can't believe how small he is.

Michael got to spend the first full week at home with us it was great to let them bond as dad & son

He slept alot during those first few weeks. I didn't know how easy I had it.

Joshua hated his first bath and as you can see slept through the second. He now loves them.

The gotee picture was taken the night we brought him home. LOL Too much fun with our new toy- just kidding.

Joshua's First Christmas

I was so excited for this Christmas since it was our first Christmas as a family. Each year we have alternated between families. Last year we were in Pittsburgh with my mom and this year we would spend Christmas with Michael's mom and family.

My family (mom, both sisters - Christi from LA, Kelly from PA, my dad and stepmom) all came in the week prior to Christmas. It was the first time the entire family was together since my wedding in 2007. It was the first time Christi had met Joshua... it was love at first sight! She flew in at about 11pm and I only let her hold him, even though she wanted to wake him up. Dad and Brenda brought us presents even through we said we weren't exchanging presents this year - due to financial issues for us all. However, everyone brought presents for Joshua. They got me the Rachel Ray cooking set - which I am in love with. They gave Michael a TomTom which he's been playing with ever since. It was so nice to have everyone at our house - it was too short but wonderful to have my whole family together.

Christmas morning we spent just as a family - and in Schindler tradition - we ate cinnamon rolls and had coffee. We went downstairs and opened presents. This year we didn't overdo it. I got Michael a second playstation controller, and a stocking full of candy. My husband LOVES candy. From Joshua I gave a pciture of Joshua's footprints. He gave me two cd's, Dave Matthews Band new one and the new John Mayer's cd. I have been enjoying them ever since. We got Joshua one present - an educational toy from Lamaze. He now has toys all over the house. For Christmas - the grandparents really had fun. He got a bumbo, a exasaucer, books and outfits galore.

After we cleaned up and Joshua had his morning nap - we headed to Michael's mom to spend Christmas with Bonnie, Angie & Mark (Michael's brother and sister-n-law) and their kids, Breckin (7 yrs.) and Samantha (6 months). We enjoyed opening presents and sharing a meal together. Later Michael fixed his mom's new computer and I watched Julie and Julia with my sister in law. It only took us almost 4 hours to watch it since we had to keep attending to the little kids. Here are some pictures from our time there.
Breckin was missing some teeth and wanted new ones for Christmas.

Here are the two newest members of the Schindler clan. They are two months apart and weigh almost the same amount. Sam is a lot longer than Joshua. They were cute together. Joshua talked Sam's ear off and she just beat up on him when she could...lol.

They even coordinated with the red and green. The best part is that Sam did not share her cold with Joshua.

It was overall painless and uneventful which is a lot for those who know my past with my mother in law. I hope everyone out there had a great holiday season and a very Merry Christmas.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was spent with family. Best of all - Michael took the day off work so we were able to be a family all day. First we had a visit from Michael's dad. It was nice to see him and we exchanged gifts and then he got on his way and returned home.

Later that night, my dad and Brenda came up and we went to church at our church, First Evangelical Free Church. I actually had a speaking part in our Christmas Eve service. I successfully got through it without forgetting anything or mispronouncing anything. It was a huge accomplishment. Brenda even said that when I spoke Joshua woke up and started looking around for me. Isn't that cute. It was wonderful worshipping as a family.

After church, we all headed to the only restaurant open, Denny's and enjoyed a meal together. It was unfortunately pouring down rain when we left the church - it didn't let up until after dinner.

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving was so wonderful. My mom and sister Kelly came in from PA to be with me, Michael, Joshua, and my dad and stepmom all celebrated Thanksgiving together in Pinckneyville. The best part was it was a mother-n-law free holiday. The first one since I've been married that I have been able to enjoy just my family. I know that sounds selfish and not nice but it's nice just to be able to be yourself with your own family and not watch everything you do and say.

My mom came in on Wednesday and stayed at my house. It was so nice to just have time with her and Kelly. I was in the end of my semester at Covenant so she was able to help out with Joshua while I was writing papers. Thursday my mom, Kelly, Michael, Joshua and I all went down to Pinckneyville and stuffed ourselves silly. Joshua sat at the table with us and was our entertainment during dinner as he smiled and drooled. Dinner was exceptional and it even included my dad's famous haystack potatoes. (Sorry Christi - we wished you had been there with us) My sister Christi was in California spending Thanksgiving with her boyfriend and his family- we missed her so much.

We came home on Thursday night, Michael had to go to work the next day and Kelly stayed behind so my mom and I were able to spend some time together. Friday - I worked on papers, my mom hung out with Joshua. We also went shopping and found Kelly a dresser for the nursery at Once Upon a Child. It was a great deal. That night we also went out to dinner with Michael's dad, his wife and their granddaughter Megan. Macaroni Grill is always great! And it was nice to catch up and spend time with family.

We went back to Pinckneyville on Saturday for my sister's baby shower. Kelly is due in February with little Iris May. The shower was fun - and it was nice to be able to show Joshua off to all the wonderful ladies who came to his baby shower just a few months ago. Unfortunately, Joshua was cranky all day and pretty much slept the entire party. I think he was a little overwhelmed.

My mom and I were talking on the way home from the shower and she let me know that she has been going to church and she for her 50th birthday wants to be baptized. To those of you who don't know. I have been praying for this for 7 years. If I wouldn't have been driving I think I might have broke down crying. My heart was just swollen with joy and excitement for the journey my mom is beginning and the now shared eternal destiny we both have as believers in Christ. God is so good!!!!!!!!!

Kelly's baby daddy - Jonathan, let us all go to see her 4-D ultrasound. It was really cool but Iris didn't participate well and the pictures weren't that clear. The funniest part was there was a point where the ultrasound tech found Iris licking her umbilical cord - she's a strange little girl already. She'll fit right in with our family. LOL.

3 Months Old

We're slowly growing bigger than Gumbo. He's finally in 0-3 month clothes. He's in size 1 diapers and gaining weight with furry. He is very vocal and loves telling stories and singing to us. He loves his activities mat and smiling at girls. The above outfit was intended as his "coming home" outfit. It's just finally fitting him.

We're finally settled on a bedtime routine and eating more at night which has resulted in sleeping all night - huge milestone which is making me feel more human. He started out the month eating 5 oz every three hours to 6 oz every 4 oz. We've also started to feed him 8 oz for his last feeding with some rice cereal in the bottle. He has stopped napping more than 1 hour. Which means he's an hour up and an hour down - it can be exhausting for me but he doesn't seem very motivated to merge any of these naps any time soon.

Went to the doctor around 12 weeks because of fear of an ear infection. He was fine but he weighed 13.4 lbs. He's growing so fast. Getting to be a chuncky monkey too. He has started the beginnings of teething - he's a drool machine. He was really good at tummy time and pushing his head up and now he's more interested in eating his hands when he is on his tummy. At this rate - he'll never role over. He has started to raise his legs up to his chest and begin to roll to the side.

We've started taking baths with only about 1 1/2 inches of water in the tub and let him just splash and kick. He loves it. He is so funny. The changing table is still his favorite place to be - it's an automatic smile when he is up there.

Joshua is growing into a very happy little man and is so fun to be around. He was even kind enough to sleep a little extra during my finals. He is so thoughtful! (lol)

Halloween

Happy Halloween

Halloween is Michael's favorite holiday. He loves it more than Christmas, which to me is just silly. But knowing he loves it so much we got 3 Halloween outfits for Joshua. He received a peas in a pod outfit that was WAY TOO BIG for him. He got a ghost and a black cat outfit. All of the costumes were provide to us by Grandma Bonnie. I unfortunately was in class the weekend of Halloween and Michael had been traveling weeks at a time but coming home for the weekend. So unfortunately I was not able to be part of the Halloween day festivities.

While I was at class all day Saturday, Michael's mom came over to help out with Joshua and let Michael get some of the leaves picked up. She also took some pictures for me of Joshua all dressed up. Because Michael had been out of town we hadn't gotten a pumpkin yet - I tried after work to bring one home for us to carve - every store was completely sold out. So no pumpkin this year but hopefully next year

Since moving to this neighborhood, we've been really excited about the prospect to handout candy to all our little neighbors and other kids in the neighborhood. We were not disappointed. We dressed up Joshua as a cat and Chewy in his angel outfit - we know better than to try and put anything on Leo (the cat). We had about 50 kids come to the door. They were so cute and Joshua slept through the whole thing - but he was a big hit as we handed out candy.

Doesn't he look so excited to hand out candy? I couldn't believe he slept through the entire thing.

Chewy is always a sport when I want to make him cute and put him in his costumes...lol

The cutest little cat I've ever seen. The outfit really did fit him well.

2 Months Old

Look how much I've grown. He's finally bigger than Gumbo. He is slowly loosing his hair on top but it's still very red. He is doing really well with gaining weight and we're almost in 0-3 months clothing - but still in newborn for now.

1 Month Old

I got this idea from a fellow blogger. In the picture with Joshua is his gator called Gumbo. Michael named him. You can see here that Gumbo and Josh are almost the same size. Man, Joshua looks so little here.

His first month was filled with lots of learning about him and him learning about us. He was getting up every 3 hours and at this point we were still trying to breastfeed but were still having to supplement. We had some issues with him gaining weight but during his 4 week appointment he had finally surpased his birth weight. He is still in newborn clothes but hopefully will be moving up to big boy clothes soon.

Pictures, pictures, pictures

Here are a few pictures from Joshua's First Days in the hospital

A little Jaundice but doing well

That was his going home outfit
He's just so little

Hanging out with his proud Nina

With his Auntie Kelly - she's going to be having his cousin really soon.

Joshua Nathaniel's Birth Story

I wanted to write this all down before I forgot. My memory is not the greatest these days.

On September 9th, 2009 I worked late (6:15pm) trying to get everything together for my boss. For the past few days I wasn't able to sleep the night before I had only gotten 2-3 hours a sleep and I was wide awake until 3 or 4am. It was happening again this night too. I was so tired but I could not sleep. I took two TylenolPM's (my best friend during pregnancy) and laid down to go to bed around 10pm. I laid their for a while but finally fell asleep. I got up around 2am to go to the bathroom, which happened many times a night at this point, and realized that when I was on my way to the bathroom that my water broke. I had asked someone previously what your water breaking felt like and all they could tell me was, "you'll definitely know when it happens." She was right. I woke Michael up and told him my water broke and I headed back for the bed. Michael asked me what I was doing and to that I told him I was going back to bed, this kid wasn't going to be here for a while I was planning on just laboring at home for a while. I wasn't in pain just grossed out by the water gushing out every so often.

Michael insisted that I call Dr. Mani. So I did. The nurses exchange said that Dr. Mani suggested that I get to the hospital as soon as possible. I wasn't in a rush. I had my bag mostly packed and Joshua's bag was packed. I made sure that Michael had a shirt with him that I didn't mind being in pictures. (Thanks Emily for that advice) I ate something knowing that I wouldn't be able to eat when I got to the hospital. I should have ate A LOT MORE.

After we packed up all our stuff, we got to the hospital and checked in around 4am. I called my family on the way to the hospital. All they kept saying was " I can't believe you are so calm." What did i have to be nervous about - I was ready to get this kid out and at this point I wasn't in any pain. They checked me when I arrived and I was barely 1 cm. They took us to our room and told us to get some sleep and they would be by to check on me later.

I had a birth plan kind of decided. I wanted to make it to 6 cm before I got an epidural and I didn't want pitocin. I got one part of the plan. At around 8 am I had not progressed at all, well very little. I was at 2 cm. Hessie (my wonderful Jewish nurse) suggested that we get started with the pitocin to get the labor started so I wouldn't be sitting around all day with nothing happening. At first I was ok, but once that pitocin kicked in the pain came. We walked up and down the halls. I sat on the birthing ball. I wanted to be mobile as long as I could so I could progress the labor. About noon, my great friend and photographer came - Emily Loveall. It was so great having her there. She knew what I was going through and was so comforting.

I made it finally to 6 cm and I was done being brave - I was in pain. I asked for the epidural. This was around 2pm. The combination of the epidural and the pitocin did not set well with Joshua. All of a sudden an alarm went off - and a gang of nurses and a doctor came in to my room in a whirlwind. Michael wasn't there at the time he had went downstairs to drop off something for his boss to pick up. I just looked at Emily and asked her how low Joshua's heart rate was.... she just looked at me and said "It's a little low." By this time, I had an oxygen mask on me, people still swirling around me, and they were putting an internal fetal monitor on him. I was scared. They decided to take me off the pitocin for a while and let things progress. His heart rate started to increase and people began to leave my room. His heart rate was steadily around 120-133 and it had dipped down to 80 bpm. Very Scary!!! And did I mention... My husband is no where around. He comes in right after it's all over.

After I got the epidural in, I felt so good. However, I was more numb on my right side than my left so I was still feeling my contractions a little. We watched the 24th season of Oprah kick off with a performance from the Black Eye Peas "I got a Feeling." Which every time I hear that song I thing of being in the labor and delivery room. While I was in labor, I took a call for a job interview. Thank goodness I didn't have a contraction while I was on the phone with this woman. We were able to set up a time after I got home to do the interview - It didn't end up working out.

The night moved on and I kept progressing. Finally at 7pm I was 10 cm. We waited a little while for him to drop a little more and for Dr. Mani together there. My epidural ran out right before pushing. They thought it was a good idea to go ahead... I thought otherwise. I had them fill that puppy back up. Not enough to completely numb me but enough to help me. I pushed for what felt like an eternity but was only an hour. I felt so weak. I couldn't not find a way to push my body up while pushing him out. I had the nurse help me by pulling my arms, then she had me pull on one side of towel while she held the other - didn't work. She finally gave me the hand rails that I was able to use to help pull me up. I had one nurse on one leg and Emily on another, with Michael behind me helping me push my torso forward. It felt like I couldn't move forward. My nurse didn't have the best bedside manner. I was getting really discouraged and felt like I wasn't progressing at all. When Dr. Mani finally got there - she helped rally me to a big finish. Grey's Anatomy was also on distracting me from the pain and burning.

He finally made his appearance at 8:35pm. I felt like I had been through a war and I looked like I had been. No one told me to put some makeup and do my hair before you take those "afterglow birth pictures with your newborn and husband" After he was out, I cried. I was so happy it was over, happy he was here. But ...I didn't hear him cry. It took them a while to clean him up and he was quiet. I kept asking Michael if he was ok, and he walked over and told me he was fine... finally a cry. The smallest cutest cry you ever heard. He was here and he was healthy. I couldn't be more happy or feel more blessed. God had given me the baby I had asked him for. It was easier than I had ever imagined it to be - Michael and I were prepared to struggle with fertility due to my previous issues - But God worked past all of that and gave me a beautiful healthy baby boy.

Joshua Nathaniel was born on September 10th, 2009 (9-10-09) at 8:35 pm and was 6 lbs 15 oz and 20.5 inches long. He had one major cone head, which really freaked Michael out. Dr. Mani insisted that it would go away within a few days. It did, so much so that he shrunk almost a full inch at his first pediatricians appointment four days later. He was born with one brown eye, one blue eye and curly red hair. I almost thought they had brought me the wrong baby when I saw him. He wasn't anything what I expected him to look like. But he was perfect. They gave him his first bath and washed him up and then they gave him to me and it was surreal. I was now staring at the person who I had already known for 9 months for the first time. I got to meet this little man who had kept me up so many nights and kicked me so hard at times that it knocked the air out of me. At that moment I couldn't imagine my life ever being without him. I was now a mom. Whoa.

After 18 long hours I got to eat. I was so excited -while Michael went down and got me a hamburger and fries, I called my family and had friends send out messages on my behalf. Emily got my password to facebook and posted pictures and the announcement of Joshua Nathaniel's arrival. My Dad and Step-mom Brenda were anxiously waiting to come in but Michael and I and Josh just took some time to be a family for a while and get used to this idea of having a son.

We let them in and they couldn't get over how perfect he was. Soon after that - they took us to our postpartum room. Unfortunately since everyone decided to have their baby the day before 9-9-9, I got stuck in one of the sucky small rooms. I was hoping for one of the bigger rooms on the wings - oh well. My mom had been driving all day and night from Pennsylvania and got there at 12am. They brought Joshua in to try and breastfeed and my mom just cried. We had never had a boy in our family - this was a whole new world for us. I didn't know if I would be able to breastfeed at all due to breast reduction surgery when I was 19. It wasn't easy and Joshua didn't have the best latch but we did have minimal success. I gave it the old college try for 2 months. I have since given up - since he was not able to get what he needed from me and I was already supplementing.

Well, this is Joshua's story. It was WAY easier than I ever thought it would be and I feel so blessed to have him in my life. I will never be the same and I am happy for that. I gladly give up my name to be called "Mom" for the rest of my life.

Not a Happy Camper - Brand New and Cold

One Proud Papa

First Family Photo

The forecast calls for SHOWERS....

I have the most wonderful family and friends. I was blessed with five showers.

The first was a surprise shower. We were told that my small group was having a game night in place of our regularly scheduled bible study. I am always on time....however, being pregnant and having to walk down 7 houses to my small group meeting place meant we were taking our time eating dinner and getting dressed to go when I got a call from my friend Kim wondering where we were. I actually got miffed about this and said I'd be there in a few minutes - what's the rush. Little did I know they were all waiting on us to throw us a co-ed surprise baby shower. It was great. They got Joshua gifts and even gifts for Michael to use with Joshua. Manly things, like sports stuff and a book for just them. It was awesome. They even decorated one of a kind oneies for Joshua... I will post the pictures of some of them later. (I don't think I have any pictures from this shower)

Second, My mom came in from PA to throw me a shower. She and my sister Kelly. All i have to say is that my mom could give any professional party planner a run for their money. It was so nice, even down to the gifts (chocolate chip banana bread mix in a mason jar) - so cute. There was of course a monkey theme - since that is how we have decorated his room. It was so nice even though only 10 people showed up. It was really nice to be able to get to talk to everyone.

( I have to find pictures from this shower)

Third, Emily Loveall and Becca Spencer, two great friends, threw me a shower at Covenant Theological Seminary's Log Cabin. I got to spend time with some of my favorite ladies who I used to work with at Covenant. It was so nice to have them be part of this shower since so many of them had been praying for Michael and I in getting pregnant. It was so much fun, we even did a survey about me and my pregnancy where I didn't even know the answers to some of the questions. I blame it on prego brain. I always feel so loved by all the ladies of Covenant.

Fourth, my "bonus" mom, Brenda threw me a shower in my hometown of Pinckneyville, IL. The women of her church really know how to throw a party and make a new mom feel loved. They loaded me up with all the essentials! They even made monkeys from diapers and baby socks - amazing and creative.

Fifth, was my most unexpected shower. While I was pregnant, I took a job at a local photography company. They were nice enough to throw me a shower even though I just had started six months prior.

So with all those showers you would have thought that I was ready for Joshua to come. Stuff wise we were set, but I was still scared to pieces. However, by the last shower I was just done with being pregnant. My discomfort finally trumped my fear.