Time Lapse Carnival Ride

Update Fall 2012

Oh how I love my family!!!!  My blogging time has been taken up with my sewing blog and I keep all my up to date pictures on Facebook.  I will say that I enjoy coming back to this blog to read previous posts and recall fun memories!!!  Here are some highlights of the past few weeks/months!

June
We had a wonderful vacation to Idaho!  It was Eva Mae's first plane ride!!!
July
Christian celebrated his 3rd birthday and Nick and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary!!!  Where did the time go????
August
I started up my piano students again!  I have a wonderful group of kids!!!
September
I have been having so much fun building my sewing business and spent a good part of September competing as a sew along blogger in the Project Run and Play challenge!
October
I love the fall and we took our annual trip to Wear's Valley!  It is so beautiful at this time of year and we actually did the whole Laural Falls trail hike!  Our cabin was gorgeous and it was quality family time at it's best! :)
Halloween was fun dressing Christian and Eva Mae up!  They were a ring master and elephant from the circus!
November
We just came back from celebrating my brother's 30th birthday at mom and dad's!!!  They've put the house on the market so we are praying for a generous offer and they can move to Spring Hill with us!!!  Jen and Robbie can't wait to be a mommy and daddy in April!  And I can't wait to be an Aunt again! :)

Family Update!!!

Facebook has pretty much taken over the blog postings of every day life!!!  But having the blog is a great way to document milestones in our family!!!! 

We had a scare at the end of March with my dad falling during a hike.  It has been a long process but he'll finally go home this week.  There is a lot more that he'll need in regards to rehab but we're so glad he'll be out of the hospital!

Eva Mae is growing like a weed!!!!  Here is a list of what I've noticed in her development!!!
Mobility:
She is grabbing her feet and rolling to her side - not quite all the way over yet!
She also sits in the orbiter (exersaucer) and can push her feet to go around!!!
She LOVES to bounce while sitting in your lap!  It's so cute to see those chunky legs go go go!!!
She grabs at EVERYTHING!  Her favorite thing to grab are daddy's glasses and mommy's hair!
She also has taken her paci out of her mouth and put it back in!!!

Verbal:
I love watching her make sounds!  She loves to watch you talk and move your tongue - she will move her own while she watches you!
She has squeeling down pat!  You better hope you're not holding her next to your ears when she goes off!!!
Her babbling is still developing!  She has said "bah" once and "bee" once - most of the time it's vowel sounds! "Hee" and "Ah" is what I hear most of the time!!!
Laughing - there is NOTHING cuter than a baby laughing!!!! She loves to laugh at you when you're laughing!!  It's so adorable!

Tracking:
I've mentioned her copying talking - she has been tracking (watching and following movement) for a while now!!!  One of her favorite things to do with brother is watch Micky Mouse or Elmo!!!  She is so cute when she laughs at one of the characters!

She eats like a champ and is HUGE!  I love all those rolls and I'll miss them when she starts to grow out of that baby fat!  We were visiting dad at the hospital and one of the nurses said "Oh my lawd, that looks like a breast fed baby!" LOL!

Christian is also growing like a weed!  I looked a pictures from 6 months ago and I can't believe how much he's grown! He is such a little boy now!  His verbal skills are developing rapidly!  At 2 years old he was only saying 1 word type sentences to communicate but now he is a motor mouth!  He loves to communicate his observations - for example, the other day after I finished with my piano students Christian ran up to me and said "Mommy all done with piano lessons!"  His pronouns are still developing - we're still in 3rd person!  (Example, he isn't saying "I" or "me" etc. - everything is "Christian" this or that!)
 I've also noticed that he'll have the cute "L" difficulties that a lot of boys and kids have.  We were watching the birds from the window the other day and he said "Bird fwy away, mommy!"  And I tried to help him say "fly" and make the "l" sound.....but it always came out as a "w" and "y" sound! lol!

I can't believe that it's been almost a year that I finished my time as a music teacher!!!  My 20+ piano students have been keeping me busy and I had 6 students perform in our local guild piano auditions! (Kind of like a piano assessment) They are also preparing for our spring recital next week! :)

Nick is still really enjoying his job at Dell!!!  He is doing so well there - he's one of only three people that have been consistently hitting their number and his manager calls on him to cover when he's gone.  Nick came home yesterday and said "I don't ever want to be a manager!" LOL!  He did take a test last week to possibly move to a different department that would be kind of like a promotion - he would just have to apply when a position came available.

Thanks for reading!!!  I'll try to update again in another few months! :)

birth announcement

Here is our birth announcement! Click here to view the blog post of her birth story!
(http://gossfamily4.blogspot.com/2011/12/blog-post_18.html)

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Eva Mae's Birth Story

 

I am sitting here with my precious baby girl on my chest and I'm giving thanks again to a God who answers prayer! I was hoping to go into spontaneous labor with Eva Mae but as 41 weeks came closer and closer I began to lose hope and knew that I would be heading to the hospital on Monday night, Dec 5. I prayed that if I had to go in at a certain time, the Lord would make a way for the birth to go the same as my son's 2 years ago. http://gossfamily4.blogspot.com/2009/07/christians-birth-story.html

At 9:00am on December 5th I drank a mixture of castor oil/juice/almond butter and champagne to try to stimulate my uterus into contracting and labor. It started working around 3pm and we enjoyed a relaxing day at home getting ready to head to the hospital. My mom came over around 5:30 and we went to dinner and shopping before heading up to the hospital for the induction. I was having contractions but they were really easy to work through. Just pressure and a tightening sensation.

At 9:00pm we checked into Vanderbilt and met our nurse, Sylvia. She is a wonderful lady and I'm really glad we were put in her care!!! Melissa (the midwife) came in to check me and talk about our options. I had done a lot of progressing over the past few days and was at a good 6cm and -1 station. Effacement was only 50% but she said that subsequent pregnancies are typical to not efface as quickly as first pregnancies. She allowed us to spend a few hours walking around and using the breast pump to stimulate stronger contractions and I could tell that they were getting stronger! Whenever I was hooked up to the contraction monitor they saw some great progress - Melissa even mentioned that with the progress of the contractions there was no need to worry at all about having pitocin. My body was doing what it needed to do!!! Yay! (In fact, I was also allowed to decline a Heplock IV so I had NOTHING in my arms!!!!! I was so glad to have that freedom to move around without distraction!!!)

At around 11:30 or 12:00 Melissa came in again and asked if I wanted to be checked. I am so glad that she continued to let me labor on my own without the constant "hovering" and checking that I know some women have experienced in labor situations. I knew it wasn't time to push so I asked if we could just keep doing what we were doing and check on dilation later on. She was happy to work with me and my wishes! Throughout all this time I was in such a great place mentally. I had my CD playing my Hypnobaby tracks and when we were walking outside the room I played my tracks on my iPod. The most helpful tracks to listen to were "Easy First Stage," "Birthing Day Affirmations," and "Visualize Your Birth." I love the relaxing background music and the soothing voice of Terri, the founder of Hypnobabies!

At 2:00am Melissa came back in and between a contraction she checked on progress. I had a very bulging bag of water and progressed to a 7 but I was still 50% effaced. She asked if I wanted her to break my water and ever since I arrived at the hospital I was open to having my water broken as long as the baby's head was engaged low enough to eliminate a risk of cord prolapse. I think I was a -2 station at the time and Melissa was confident labor would be quick after breaking my water so I agreed. It was a weird sensation to feel all the water gush - Nick said Melissa's face was priceless when she saw how much water there was!!! I was really happy to hear that there was so much amniotic fluid because low fluid is a side effect of gestational diabetes at 40-41 weeks gestation.

The contractions were a lot stronger after my water broke and I had to really concentrate through them. Fortunately not many were right on top of each other so I was able to walk around and keep my mind off of the discomfort. I also spent time in and out of the shower with the hot water spraying on my back and that helped a lot! Throughout the contractions I kept myself in a deep state of hypnosis using the words "Peace" "Relax" "Release" and "Open" - all those reminders helped me keep my body loose and limp throughout a contraction so that Eva Mae could descend quicker and I would dialate faster.

At 3:30ish I had several really hard contractions that were more intense but not as long. I could also tell that they were a little different - like they were lower than the others. All of a sudden during one of the contractions I knew it was time to push!!!! Sylvia and Nick were the only ones in the room and Sylvia called her team of helpers to the room while Nick tried to find Melissa.

I jumped up on the bed and yelled "She's coming!!!" and started pushing! I couldn't wait and my body knew exactly what to do! Sylvia told Nick to put on his gloves and they were still waiting for Melissa but Eva Mae's head started coming out before Melissa got there! When she came in the room I could hear her laugh and say "I thought I was just coming in to check her!!!" She came over and guided Eva Mae's head and shoulders out and right then Eva Mae started crying and shot out! She came out so quickly that she completely slid past Sylvia's hands into Nick's hands! From the time I got on the bed to push to the time she was out was 4 minutes!!!!

Melissa helped me position myself on the bed to hold Eva Mae and I was able to bond with her for 45min to an hour before they took her to weigh and get her footprints! She latched on to breast feed quickly and has been a champion feeder ever since!!! When they took her to weigh I couldn't believe she was 10 pounds! She seemed so much lighter than Christian but she ended up being longer and only a half a pound lighter!!! (10lb 1oz, 22in)

We were able to go home after 24 hours and we've been so blessed with her sweet nature and easy disposition!!! I am so in love with my baby girl and so thankful that the Lord answered my prayer for an easy, safe and comfortable childbirth!!! Just like Christian's birth in 2009, I can't thank the Hypnobaby program enough for the education and support of natural childbirth! Nick says I'm the "poster child" for Hypnobabies!!! The Vanderbilt Midwives are so supportive and encouraging and I'm thankful that the opportunity is here in Nashville to have a hospital birth with a midwife! Melissa was amazing and my primary care under Linda was such a wonderful experience!!! I pray that the Lord will allow us to have more children in the future with awesome birth stories!

-RaeAnna and Nick Goss (Christian, 2009 and Eva Mae, 2011)

September

I feel like I've let Shutterfly and Facebook be my "blogging" outlets for our family but I would really like to get back to journaling and blogging thoughts here on Blogger. It just amazes me how fast time seems to go. I have a 2 year old that seems SO HUGE!!! He is such a big boy and oh so sweet!!!
Right now he is with Mimi and PopPop at a cabin on Tims Ford Lake - Sunday nights have become a "goin' to Grandma's" night and Mom brings him back to me after my piano students on Monday nights! He LOVES being with them and is so happy to tell us bye-bye so he can be with Mimi!

Since I didn't go back to school this August I have enjoyed all the extra time with him during the day! We go to story time at the library, play at the park, and make up fun games at home!!! During potty training his favorite activity was getting out the play-doh and making bowling pins and balls while the timer was set for potty time! SO CUTE!!! He learned really fast how to use the toilet and is pretty much accident free all the time! I am so proud of my smart boy!!!

My midwife appointment last week went well for Eva Mae! I'm measuring right on track, heartbeat is great and she is head down!!! The only thing that worries me is that I don't know 100% for sure if "she" is "she!" They won't do another ultrasound unless something is wrong. So, if we go in on the birthing day and Eva Mae is actually Andrew Allen, we'll have some new laundry to do!!! I have a strong feeling everything will be fine and our little girl will be here around Thanksgiving! :) She is doing a lot of kicks and movements now at 29 weeks! I love it!

Almost 2!!!

So it's been almost 6 months and our life is incredible! In March we learned that baby #2 is on it's way!!!! We find out the gender on Wednesday!
Christian is already saying "baby" when he sees my tummy and gives my tummy a kiss! Hopefully he'll be as sweet when the real baby is here! :)
He's talking up a storm and mimicking everything we say! However, there are a few quirks:
Thomas = Pie! For some reason he will not say Thomas or any variation of the word! To him, the blue #1 train is "Pie!"
Counting to ten = 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 10! (7 and 9 don't exist!)

I love his little voice right now!!! He even mimics singing when we sing the ABCs! Such a sweetie!

His birthday theme will be trains since he is so into Thomas right now! Elmo and Thomas are superstars in our home! :)