Halloween 2010 with the Stewart Family

We are not BIG on Halloween,but we do think that it can be a fun day. As Vashon gets older and understands more I get excited about his involvement and excitement. This year he was super excited to visit the pumpkin patch, but when it came to carving the pumpkins he let V$ and I do all the work.
As much as we aren't Halloween ppl, we do try to do either a family costume theme or find a super cute costume for Vashon. Since we didn't agree on dressing up as a family, I was ready to just let Vashon pick his own costume this year. When I took him to the store we got into a HUGE argument because he wanted to be an adult white and pink unicorn. As I tried hard to show him costumes in his size and gender he went off on me. I was done and we left the store. A few days later I stumbled upon a DJ Lance Rock costume (the guy from Yo Gabba Gabba) online. I showed Vashon the costume and he said he wanted to be him. I was thrilled because it was so cute. When the costume came he told me he didn't like it, didn't want to try it on and didn't want to go Halloween.

The weeks passed as Halloween got closer and Vashon showed no signs of caring about dressing up. Since it's lands on a Sunday our church and the base chose to celebrate it today and about 30 min before go time we tried to get Vashon dressed in his costume. He refused! and REFUSED! and REFUSED! finally I showed him how trick or treating went, because he LOVES candy, and his daddy told him you can't do that if you don't wear the costume. He agreed and sadly put on his costume, but once it was all on we made a big deal about how awesome he looked and gave him a lolly pop. :)

Vashon and DJ LANCE ROCK

I said I wasn't going to dress up, but at the last minute and I mean last minute, I found myself online looking up cheap easy costumes for pregnant women. I at first wanted to be "an old lady that swallowed a fly" but I'm a horrible artist and couldn't paint all the many animals on my belly that she swallowed.

I was ready to just say forget, at least our boy would be a hit, and then I remembered that I had two yo gabba gabba iron on transfers downstairs. So I quickly found and old shirt and ironed on the characters at belly level. Above it I wrote "Party in my tummy" one of their songs.

I was surprised the ppl noticed my shirt and it was a great hit, especially when I stood next to Vashon.


You know we'd never forget about Vayden, but so wish he would have been with us to trick or treat.

Vashon and his daddy, I really wanted V$ to dress up like the big version of DJ Lance Rock, but the costume was over $50.00 and we really didn't feel it was worth it.

We had a great time and Vashon was a very polite trick or treating, saying "thanks" or "thank you" to everyone that gave him candy and not asking for more than what was given to him. I was so proud of him for not only putting the outfit on but keeping the hat and glasses on the entire night. He usually hates hats and it really made the costume. We didn't see any other DJ Lance Rock costumes and Vashon was surely a hit at the places we went to. Truly a one of kind costume, made perfect for him.

We got home and Vashon asked to have candy and take off his costume, while V$ checked his candy I got him undressed but about 45 min later he asked to put the whole costume back on. :)

32 week pregnancy update

This week I decided I will do a video log to update you on my 32nd wk of pregnancy. Sorry I'm still new to video blogging. lol.

The 31 Week Bellies

I didn't take very many belly pictures while pregnant with Vashon, but I did manage to find photographs of each of my pregnancies at 31 weeks. So lets see how the bellies progress from baby to baby.

31 weeks pregnant with Vashon Jordan

31 weeks pregnant with Vayden James

(no amniotic fluid at this time)

31 weeks pregnant with VJS3

(too much amniotic fluid)

So I think we all can agree that the 3rd pregnancy has definitely caused some changes, I mean aside from the belly look at the boobies I'm rocking this time around compared to with Vashon. 3 bellies all taken at 31 wks pregnant 3 boys.

Reality Check - Sad Story - Strong Msg

I follow many blogs, with the exception of a few very close people the bulk of my blog list used to be infant loss families. When I started this blog I also started following other blogs that didn't always end with infant loss. I don't know how I stumbled upon this blog but I became a follower of this new mom with a beautiful baby boy. I'm sad to say that on Tues her sweet lil boy passed away at 4 1/2 mo old. I couldn't believe it when I read it, I don't know this mother personally and even through blogging we aren't close, but my heart aches for her and what she is dealing with right now.

As I went through her blog trying to find out if he was sick of anything like that, I noticed that she took so many pictures of her sweet baby. It seems like she posted a new pic of him every other day, most of the time without any text, just these super cute pictures of a very happy baby. As hard as this loss is for her right now I know that in the future she will look back and be so grateful for the many pictures she took of her sweet baby boy. In just 4 1/2 months I bet she has over 1,000 pictures, she also has some great video feed and all of these things are going to provide her lasting comfort and memories of her angel.

I've always been a big picture taker, everyone always "sighs" when I make them wait until I get my camera, all I say is " I'm capturing the memories". Every time someone has their 1st child I always say to them "take lots of pictures of anything and everything", but for some reason I've noticed with most when their 2nd and 3rd comes along the picture taking comes to almost a complete stop. I don't know how many years I'm going to have with my family, but I do know one thing, when it's their time or even when it's my time, I want a million pictures to provide lasting memories.

People have asked me why I have so many FB albums? or why I take so many pictures? But after seeing the amount of pictures she took of her lil one just sitting on the couch, I realized that maybe I don't take enough. I have lots of pictures that I don't post but I could always take more.

I can only imagine that having two in the house will be hard and very time consuming. I probably wont blog as often and may not make multiple fb post each day. But I'm going to do everything in my power to keep my camera close and keep that battery charged. I'm going to take more pictures of Vashon, VJS3 and Van, I'm going to take more video feed of the little things my kids do like laughing or dancing. I'm going to capture every moment and memory.

I hate that it took a loss like this to realize that time is precious and sometimes short. My heart really hurts for this family and every time someone experiences a loss it really makes me think.

What Have I Been Up To?

Ok, so I guess I've been away for a little while. I haven't really been updating on FB that much either, so all in a nutshell here goes.......


On the 6th I went to have an u/s because my midwife said I was measuring a week ahead, even though they have always had my due date set one week behind what I know is correct. I know due dates are not an exact science but I knew my LMP, I knew the dates of baby dancing and I knew that the due date that they gave me was most likely not possible. But who's going to pass up another u/s?

Baby at 30 wks (they say 29) weighed about 3 lbs 4 oz and looks great. Still very much a boy and seems to have my nose and lips. He likes to sit with his legs stretched out and ankles crossed which is why I'm always so uncomfortable.

Dr. R comes in and tells me that I have a slightly increased amount of amniotic fluid. My heart didn't sink but it did skip a beat or two, he goes on to say that he doesn't think it's anything serious but they want to watch me more closely from now on. I kind of feel like they handle me a little, they know me well and they know all I went through with Vayden I just feel like sometimes they may protect me more than other patients. I left a little blind sided and didn't ask the proper questions before leaving the office. Needless to say I went home and got on google and that is when I freaked out. I read about all the possible causes for elevated fluid and drove myself so nuts I didn't sleep that night. When I woke up I called my midwife to let her know I was freaked out but wanted more information on my u/s. She told me that my fluid levels were high but they were high normal, normal fluid ranges from 5-25 my fluid was at 24.8. She also told me that it fluctuates often and in two weeks it could be back at a mid normal level, they are going to continue to watch me closer and they want me to take the 1 hr Gluco Tolerance Test again to see if I've developed gestational diabetes later than most. I'm grateful for the caring staff and I guess grateful that they all felt I was 29 wks calling for them to issue another u/s, otherwise we'd never know this.

So as of right now I don't know much, I'm up to bi weekly apts now and will be having another u/s to see our boy on the 20th.

I've also been busy tying up the loose ends of My Very Own Angel, when I started this foundation I suppose I didn't consider that I was going to have another child and what would have been Vayden's room or a baby room turned into my home office and inventory station. That room was filled with teddy bears, t-shirts and comfort pack supplies. I've been working on a new t-shirt design after putting all my in stock shirts on sale at a low clearance rate. I've had a strong creative block and that design is still being worked out, but I've decided that before I bite off more than I can chew I'm going to put a hold on t-shirt sales and only do what is manageable with a new baby and a 3 yr old. Once I get into the swing of life with two at home I will re open the angel store. I still plan to send out CTT comfort packs and do teddy bear donations, in fact I just dropped off another donation of bears to OU Children's about 2 weeks ago.

On sat Oct 9th I went to the annual walk to remember that the hospital does every year. I wrote all about it on Vayden's blog so you can stop by there to see more pics and read how everything went. http://vaydenjamesstewart.blogspot.com/

Where was V$? He was away on a TDY and although he was supposed to be back before the walk, that's the AF for you and he didn't make it. I was blessed to have two wonderful friends attend and walk in his place to remember Vayden.

Vashon, what can't I say about Vashon? lol. He's getting to be such a cute big boy and he's learning how to push my buttons beyond belief. How can something so cute be so mean sometimes? He's getting smarter everyday and it's amazing, honestly amazing to see your child say new things and do new things. The child you once had to do everything for can now do so much on his own. It's a true blessing. That being said the more they talk, the more they talk back. Vashon seems to think we're on the same level and he's become quite bossy with me and his father, don't worry we're quick to put him in his place, but that doesn't mean he doesn't still try. We're trying really hard to get him ready for baby, so unlike the first few months of my pregnancy where we wanted to spend as much quality time with him and take him everywhere, we're now down playing that and trying to get him adjusted to playing on his own because when the baby comes we're going to be busy.

We're also trying to get him to use his inside voice, not run, jump, or throw things in the house. In return we're trying to remember that he's only 3 and that in most cases the "bad" things he does are not intentional. So for first offense things like hmm yesterday when he took his sidewalk chalk and wrote on the carpet, I didn't get upset. I let him know that what he did was wrong and I asked him to help me clean it. We don't want him to associate his new baby brother with getting in trouble for every little thing, but trust me it's hard.

About a week ago we moved our dinning room table into the dinning area of our living room and turned our dinning room into a playroom for the boys. This room is full of arts n crafts, toys and even has a tv in it. I was so tired of always seeing toys and crayons in my living room, I was tired of always having to watch Dora. Sometimes I like to sit with the tv off and read a book without Vashon throwing things all around me. I have banned all toys from the living room and my bedroom. Of course Vashon doesn't follow those rules but we're working on it and I hope that within 2 months he will understand that he has two rooms in this house that basically belong to him. Wow kids today!

So that's what is going on in my life in a nutshell. I'm 31 weeks now and I could have anywhere from 4-6 weeks left in the pregnancy or I could actually go to 40 wks, who knows. I'm shooting to make it to at least 37 wks, because if I follow in the footsteps of my last two boys 35 weeks in when they demand out.