2 Months Old

It's been a long time since we have posted on our blog, but things have been so busy.  At some point we want to sit down and write out the whole story of Will's birth because it is so crazy!  (It involved Lindsey's water breaking while David was leading worship at church!)  Our precious little boy turns 2 months old today and we can hardly believe it.  It seems like it was just yesterday that he was born, but some of his newborn clothes are already starting to fit snugly on him.

We have posted several of these on Facebook already, but we wanted to share some beautiful pictures of our son.  Some of these pictures were taken by a friend of our family, Amanda Gipson, who did an amazing job.  If you live in the DFW area and need a photographer, we highly recommend her!

3rd Trimester

So, it has been awhile since I last posted anything here, so here is an update.

 

I am officially in my 3rd Trimester and have been for a few weeks now. When I saw the count down calendar roll over to “3rd trimester” it was a little weird because I was not anticipating that.  I’ve always know there were three trimesters but during the first one it’s all about getting past that point so you feel better and can enjoy the pregnancy.  When I saw “3rd Trimester” it became a little more real that David and I will be bringing a little boy home in a few short weeks.  The count down is now at 8 weeks and 5 days until his expected arrival.  However he has been measuring about a week larger ever since our 13 week appointment.  So he could come early (cross your fingers) or I’ll have a huge baby. :)

 

So far I have had a wonderful pregnancy!!! Praise the Lord!!!  I do have little issues with breathing and sudden heart rate increases, but the docs are keeping an eye on that and so far everything seems fine.  Other annoying things are having to potty 20 times a day (which is hard when you’re a teacher) and back pains after sitting too long.  So far, no swelling and hopefully it will stay that way.  I have been experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions,  maybe once or twice a day but they don’t hurt (not yet.)  The coolest thing is feeling Will move ALL the time.  I wonder if this poor boy ever gets to sleep.  I am constantly around music and much of that is loud and can be pretty obnoxious to a baby.  (I’m an elementary music teacher in case you forgot.  Currently I am teaching mallet instruments such as drums, and xylophones to my younger kids and Recorders to my older kids.  You get the picture.)  Although, it is really neat when he’s moving at school and my kids get to see it or even feel it for themselves.  My kids are so sweet.  It never crossed my mind how much knowledge they would have about pregnant women and how they might feel and what they can and cannot do.  Then I realized many of them have younger siblings and went through the same things with their momma’s.  I love how they are all constantly looking out for me, from the kinder kids to my 5th graders.  It’s great!!!  The hard part about being around kids is when they want to ask me the hard questions: How do you get pregnant? How does the baby come out? I hate to avoid their questions, but it is easy for me to say “You need to talk to your mommy about that!” Then I quickly move on to the music. :)  I guess I’ll have to be thinking about how to share that with Will and other future kids. Thankfully I have a little while.

 

Let’s see…what else…well, we started our Prepared Child Birth classes a few weeks ago.  This week will be week 4 out of 6.  The first week was good.  Lots of information, much I had known and heard but a lot of new stuff for David.  He enjoyed most of the class.  I’m not sure his complete thoughts during the relaxation part, but he made it through.  The second week we watched some video of three different ladies giving birth and going through the labor process.  That kind of freaked me out.  It made me very uncomfortable.  Not the giving birth part, but the length of the process and the pain that accompanies it.  Although, none of these ladies had medicine.  I am more sure now that I will be getting that Epidural! Although that makes me a little nervous because once you are numb you cannot get up to walk around or do anything to help things progress.  And…Last week, week 3, we got to visit with a pediatrician and he happens to be one out of Keller, Heritage to be exact.  This doctor had a good first impression with David and me.  I’d like to ask a few other questions and look at or talk to a couple of others but it’s nice to know there is someone who works out of our hospital and in Keller! We also got to tour the hospital.  That was neat.  It’s becoming more and more real!  I know Will needs a few more weeks to grow big and strong, and we need more time to get his room ready, but I cannot wait to meet him!!!

And He Shall Be Called...

After a lot of prayer, discussion, disagreement, dare I say...argument...we have a name for our son.

Meet William David Toledo!

William is David's father's Middle Name (and his grandfather's as well). We are so excited to welcome Will into our family. He will be here before we know it.

Here are some pictures from our latest sonogram taken right after Christmas.

It’s a Boy! Probably!

Last Monday Lindsey had her second scheduled doctor’s appointment.  She had the first semester screening sonogram which tested for Down’s Syndrome and other scary sounding conditions.  Everything looks normal and our baby seems to be perfectly healthy!  Praise God!
During our first sonogram, the doctor indicated that she might be able to determine the gender of the baby during this visit.  Well…she is pretty sure that we are having a boy! It’s not definite, but she said she was 90% sure that it was boy.
Now we aren’t going to start buying boy clothes or painting the nursery blue just yet, but it will help us to focus a little more on boy names.  Here are some new sonogram pictures.


Click here to hear an audio file of Baby Toledo's heartbeat.

So…my first official blog.

I have been wanting to to do this for quite awhile now but I don’t fancy myself much of a writer.  However I have heard that down the line I will be thankful that I can look back and retrace all the memories from my pregnancy and parenthood.  So…here it is…

On Friday, Sept. 11, 2009 I woke up at 5 am and took my first pregnancy test.  I was so excited when I saw the two pink stripes appear which indicates that I am pregnant.  I wanted to shout from the rooftop but my precious husband was still sleeping (and would be until I woke him shortly before I left for work.)  It was very hard, but I did not tell him the news.  I wanted to find a little gift to give him, like a #1 Dad item, or world’s best dad shirt, so I waited.  Well, about half way through the teaching day I felt very ill, fever, chills very sore throat.  I went to our school nurse and she told me I had a low grade fever and possibly strep throat.  So I left school early, went to the doc and sure enough I also had strep.  What a great way to start a pregnancy.   I wasn’t feeling very well so I decided just to see what kind of Daddy gifts I could find at Wal-Mart.  All I could find was an “I Love My Daddy” bib.  This wasn’t my first choice seeing as I wanted something David could wear or carry with him, but this would get the point across. (And no I didn’t make him wear it!)  So I wrapped that and the test in a little box and gave it to David when he came home.  He open it and asked, “Are we pregnant?!”  I politely said, “No, I’m pregnant and yes we’re having a baby!”  He was, I think shocked, but very excited.  He asked if I really had strep or was this a ploy.  No, I really had strep and let me tell you it was not fun, especially being a vocalist.

Well, also that weekend my parents (dad and Lisa – stepmom) went out of town, so David and I packed up some things and our dog and went to dog sit for a few days.  So I didn’t tell me parents until after they got home, almost a week later.  I made my dad a “World’s Best Grandpa” t-shirt and gave Lisa and my mom “I Love Grandma” bibs also.  I bought the bibs first because that’s all I could find and think of and when I couldn’t find a grandpa bib I decided to make something.  All of our parents we very excited, Lisa even screamed and jumped up and down.  It was kind of fun to see!!!  It took me awhile but I also finally got with all my sisters and brother, grandmas, and close girl friends and told them all the great news and everyone has been so excited and very supported.  I know this baby is going to have a wonderful extended family to love and to lean on.  The weekend after we told the family we decided to share the news with our Christian brothers and sisters at church.  Seeing reactions from people at church has been so much fun!  I know many of them have been waiting for probably a few years to hear this news.  :) I am so grateful to have such a wonderful group of Godly people around me.  I have my family, my great K-town girl friends whom I’ve been friends with since high school and some since middle school, and all of my friends from church many of whom I’ve known since I was in middle school, 15 years ago.  I love you all and sometimes can’t believe God has given me so much for so long. He is so gracious!

Well, here are a couple of belly shots.  The first is from almost 5 weeks (the day after I found out.)  And the second one is from 12 weeks.


My face is kind of blurry here…sorry















I think I had just finished lunch and might have been a little bloated.  :)

By the way, I feel great most of the time.  I’m still tired but not as tired as I was in the first several weeks.  I am much more hungry and find myself eating and craving fresh fruit.  I love spicy things and fortunately have not had much if any heartburn.  There are only a few smells that really make me want to gag but they are smells that most people can’t stand to begin with like sticky bathrooms and sticky trash.  Other than that I feel like the same person except bigger and hungrier! :)
Love to you all!
Lindsey <><

Christ Through A Musician's Eyes

Warning: This post will contain some pretty nerdy musical references, but some hopefully good spiritual references.  :)  Stick with it to the end.  It will be worth I hope!

One of the seminars that I (David) am taking this semester as part of my Ph.D. studies is a music theory course in which we are studying the 9 Beethoven symphonies.  At the beginning of the semester I was a bit apprehensive in approaching these works because I am a vocalist and an orchestral score can be cumbersome and difficult to read if you aren't used to it.  Not to mention that fact that it was a doctoral level seminar!

Part of the requirements for the course has been to listen to each of the symphonies three times during the semester.  This has been quite the journey.  The more I listen, the more I am amazed.  It is incredible that God gifted this flawed man with the insight, ability, and emotional capacity to write such music.

Music up until Beethoven's time largely followed a closely regulated system of compositional rules, customs, and traditions.  There were musical geniuses that preceded him (Bach, Mozart, Haydn) but none revolutionized music the way in which Beethoven did.  His groundbreaking 3rd symphony announced to the world that from the first performance onward, music would never be the same.

This got me thinking about Christ and the way that he transformed the lives of those in Israel when he was on earth and how he continues to revolutionize the way in which his followers live.

Following his baptism and temptation in the wilderness, Christ inaugurated his ministry by preaching at the synagogue in his home town of Nazareth.  He was invited to speak and, as was the custom, was handed the scroll and opened it to the appointed place for the day's readings.  Then he read words that were familiar to all of the Jews present in the synagogue - a prophecy concerning the coming Messiah.

  18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

  19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."

The scriptures then say that he slowly rolled up the scroll and took his seat (in those days the rabbi sat and preached while the congregation stood!)  Everyone's eyes were fixed upon him, waiting to hear what this promising young teacher would have to say about this familiar text.

His family, childhood friends, and community had no idea what he was about say.  "Today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."  From that moment on, his earthly life and those with whom he came into contact would never be the same.  He perfectly fulfilled this prophecy by demonstrating the new Kingdom of Heaven on earth through incredible signs and miracles.  More importantly, he made provision for humanity's ultimate problem - spiritual death through sin - by his death on the cross.

The same person who shook Nazareth to its core with his first proclamation is the same one who in the book of Revelation proclaims "Behold, I am making all things new."  True to his word, he is making all things new, one transformed believer at a time.  As we are conformed into the image of the Son through the power of the Spirit, we regain our true identity as the image of the Creator and ultimately bring glory to God.

Each day our lives have the opportunity to proclaim to the world and those around us that, like Christ in Nazareth and Beethoven through his symphonies, there is more to this life than what they see, think, or could imagine.  There are greater possibilities and newer heights to experience.  The transforming power of Christ displayed in our lives reflects God's nature and speaks volumes more than the greatest of Beethoven's symphonies.

Big News! We’re Expecting!

After 5 wonderful years of marriage, our family is finally expanding. Yes, that’s right! We’re having a baby!

Our beautiful baby boy or girl has a due date of May 16, 2010. Although we have told lots of people at church already, we wanted to wait until our first doctor’s visit to let everyone online know.

Our first appointment was today, and obviously we were very excited!

Lindsey had a sonogram and we were able to see the first pictures of our baby. We heard the fast swish of a heartbeat and saw him/her move a leg and wave an arm at us. It was a moment that we will never forget! Here are a few pictures of our baby!

Our lives will never be the same! We plan to update our blog frequently to let everyone know how Lindsey’s pregnancy is going. Please pray for the safety and health of both Lindsey and Baby Toledo. God is good!