Will Charles Buente

He's here!

 

 

Will Charles Buente

Monday, May 13th, 2013

7:36 am

8 lbs. / 1 ounce

21 inches

Love at first sight.

 

 One happy Daddy.

So happy to have him in my arms.

 

Big brother is a big fan. :)

 

 

We are home.

Everything went great with the c-section and Will and I are doing well.

We are so blessed and thanking God for our beautiful, healthy son. There aren't a lot of words to express this experience. We are just so very grateful and so happy he is here with us.

 God is so good to us.

Mother's Day 2013

Chase's class hosted a Mother's Day tea on Thursday. I knew I would be emotional about it being our last little event before baby comes. Of course when I got there he brought me this little wilted flower that he had picked while outside, so sweet. I cried through the beginning of the tea when Miss Andi was sharing the kid's little questionnaires about mommy.

 

Chase's answers:

How old is Mommy: 34, and my Dad is 35.

Mommy's hair is: brown

Mommy's eyes are: brown

What do you and mommy like to do together: play dominoes

What is your favorite thing that mommy cooks: pasta

What makes mommy smile: the things I say

 

And then the placemat and poem, I could barely get through. Hormones, I tell you what. :)

 

 

 

wearing my crown on the way home from the tea

 

We had a good Mother's Day weekend. Relaxed as much as we could. Had a movie night at home, went out for breakfast and had a very nice service at church.

sleepy heads at breakfast

It is always bittersweet, this year I find myself in an odd spot. Soaking up the little boy who made me a Mommy, missing Christian so much and wishing he was here with us, and anticipating the arrival of baby #3 tomorrow. I am thankful for all three of them.

 

Wishing my Mom and mother-in-law a very Happy Mother's Day. We love you!

Your gift will be arriving tomorrow! :)

39 weeks {Baby # 3}

We are just 3 short days away from meeting baby boy. This could potentially be our last photo, which is just CRAZY to me. I have really enjoyed documenting this pregnancy, and am so glad to have had my little helper Chase along the way!

 

I am TIRED. I'll leave it at that. Just TIRED and ready to meet this little guy so much. Still praying I hold out until Monday. We have come such a long way and I really just can't believe we are so close to the birth. Thank you to all who have reached out to tell me you are praying for us. What an encouragement you are to us. Being covered in prayer has to be one of the best feelings!

 

Time to lay low, relax, and enjoy the weekend with my boys.

Looking forward to celebrating Mother's Day with Wes and the little boy who made me a Mommy!

 

38 weeks {Baby #3}

We are now one week away from baby's arrival. It's really strange typing that and I can feel so many different emotions rising up inside when I think about this time next week.

 

We are really thankful for the encouragement from friends and family. We love hearing that you are praying for us - it just means the world! I'm anxious that I'll go early, so please pray baby stays put until our scheduled date. I'm feeling good, tired - but good!

Here's one of the last bump photos!

 

 In other news, Chase is preparing for his role as big brother. He still likes to hang out in the nursery, look at board books, baby toys, and all the gear we've gotten out. This past week I got a carrier for baby and he had to try that on. Pooh bear is our stand-in brother for now.

 Chase also loves to put his stuffed animals in the baby swing, turn on the music for them and cover them up. And then he wanted me to change monkey's diaper. So we are getting really good at practicing! It's really sweet to see and I can only imagine how great he will be. When I think of the two of them together I get completely weepy and teary-eyed. What a blessing!



33 week photos

Photos taken Easter weekend courtesy of my Mom, aka Mimi Photography :)

37 weeks {and a prayer request}

It's May!

Baby brother's birth month is here!

I promise that Chase really, truly is excited for his brother's arrival. This photo was taken after church and running errands, and well, that's life. He's looking kinda like I've been feeling lately. Cranky, tired, but he doesn't have swollen feet at the end of a long day like I do! :)

 

I'm doing weekly updates as we only have TWO WEEKS LEFT!

 

We scheduled a C-section a few weeks back and it is on May 13th. I was a good candidate for a VBAC, and after lots of considering, tossing, turning and praying - we chose a repeat C-section. I think for us, many factors played a part. Mainly I think if we tried a VBAC and anything, even minor, went wrong we would immediately panic and worry and let ourselves go to a scary place. This way it is planned, Chase is taken care of and it is less stress on the baby. Not to mention at my appointment yesterday the doctor thought the baby was a bit "bigger." He measured ahead at my 32 week scan and had that big old whopper 90th percentile-sized head too, remember?!

 

Prayer requests:

- that I make it to this date so that we have family in town to help and that our fabulous doctor that we love so much can deliver this baby. God could have other plans, and I know when it comes to babies, they come when they want to come! I'm trying to roll with it...

 

- that our anxieties and fears about the birth are transformed into excitement and hope. Don't get me wrong here, we are excited, but we are nervous as can be and just want so badly for everything to go smoothly. All we want is to take our healthy baby home!!

 

- pray for the doctors, nurses and staff that they are guided by God's hands and are caring and understanding of our before mentioned nerves and worries.

 

I'm feeling good overall, but TIRED. I never felt this way with the other boys. I feel much more physically tired with this pregnancy, not to mention emotionally drained.

 

 

Thank you for praying for us! We are getting so close!

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy

Christian's 2nd birthday in photos...a family day spent together.

Remembering and honoring our son.

Butterfly Gardens

Happy birthday sweet boy, we miss you so much.

Christian's 2nd Birthday

Today is Christian's 2nd birthday, and I am finding myself at a loss for words. I've attempted writing this post so many times but there are so many emotions going on inside my heart that I am not sure how to express them.

 

It has been an emotional week for us. I had a great 37 week check up with my doctor (the one who delivered Christian) and seeing him was very nice. It is such a blessing to have a doctor that you trust so much. I know I am in great hands with him, and I know that he cares about me and my family.

Yesterday we had a tour of the hospital where both Chase and Christian were born. We also went over our birth plan with the nurse coordinator. I couldn't believe the timing being so close to his second birthday. Going into it I knew it would be hard, but it was good for us to go in once more before the birth as we had not been back since Christian was born.

I could feel my emotions bubbling up on the surface on the drive over. The labor and delivery unit has since been remodeled, which is a blessing in itself. But when we turned the corner at the start of the tour and I spotted a painting on the wall of a little child with an orange and black butterfly - I lost it. It was as if he was there with us in that moment, and it all came flooding back. Overall, the tour was so good for us, and we left feeling excited and hopeful.

 

I have found this second birthday much different than last year. It is more hopeful for us, but all of the sadness is still very much here. Grieving and missing Christian while anticipating the birth of our son is bittersweet and very, very complicated.

 

We miss him. And no amount of time will ever make that go away. The hurt and pain of those early days comes and goes, but around his birthday I'm trying to remember the time we were blessed with, the sweet memories I have of holding him and hearing him cry. He was and will always be such a blessing to our family.

 

We have a family day planned today that we are looking forward to. We want it to be a day of remembering, honoring and celebrating our special boy.

 

Thanks to all who have called, texted, sent cards and have supported us this week. You are truly a blessing to us and to know you still care and remember means the world.

 

My Little Boy

So we have about a month left in this pregnancy. I am finding myself so overcome with emotion when I look at Chase. I am so THANKFUL. Thankful that I am his Mom, thankful that he is healthy, thankful that I have been so blessed to stay home and be with him for four years. He is my heart, my little buddy - and I can't imagine life without him. He is such a gift from God.

 

 I know that I have more than enough love to go around when this new little one comes. I have no doubt I will figure out life with two (living) children. But my heart does ache a little in knowing that our time together, just he and I, is coming to an end. We sure have fun together!

 

 

I want to freeze time and just hold Chase in my arms the way I did when he was a baby. I'm sure any mother would agree that she would give anything to go back and hold her children as newborns. I have such sweet memories of those tiring days, and I wouldn't trade them for

anything.

 

 

 

I have this need to pack in all of these "one-on-one" memories with Chase. I want to take him places and do fun things and create memories with him, when really we've been doing that all along. It's only that now they seem so fleeting. We will have a new little friend to join us very soon, and I just can't wait for the adventures that await us all.

 

 

The best is yet to come!

 

Movie Time

Wes and I took Chase to his first movie this weekend.

Since he had never been to a theatre before, we tried to explain to him what it was like, but until we got there he really had no idea.

 He was so excited walking in and seeing the big screen. We watched The Croods, and it was really cute. We tend to be pretty strict with what movies we let him see (usually only letting him watch G rated ones) but for being PG it was really harmless.

 

Here are a few iphone pics from our afternoon!

 

 

Weeks 33-36 {Baby #3}

Here we are at 9 months along!

 

This pregnancy is going well but I'm starting to feel very ready. Emotionally I just want to hold him and know he is ok. I have little moments of panic when I let my mind go to a worrisome place, but I just try my best to find the happy in all of this, and enjoy these last weeks before we meet him! I know God doesn't want me to worry, so I am trying daily to give it to Him.

 

The 34 week mark was also emotional as that was how far along I was when we had Christian. Getting to that point and past it came with many emotions. It is a weird feeling to be grieving and also anticipating this new one's birth.

 

Physically I am feeling tired in the evenings. I have stopped my workouts due to stronger Braxton Hicks that started around 34 weeks when I push it too much. I am now going to the Dr. for checkups every week, which is nice to check in and get some reassurance and hear the heartbeat. We have the nursery just about ready aside from hanging a few things. Chase LOVES being in there and we have spent so much time in there recently playing with toys and re-reading all of his old board books!

 

Baby is still very active, but since he is bigger now they are less "kicky" and "punchy!" I'm feeling hands and feet, sliding and rolling a lot - and lots of on-the-bladder-dancing!

 

Here are some recent photos: