The Moberg Family

Category: Elliott

  • The Stork Dropped a Package on Our Doorstep Yesterday!

    The Stork Dropped a Package on Our Doorstep Yesterday!

    Unfortunately, he forgot to drop off the baby while he was here!!

    Here’s the quick baby update for all of you waiting ones…

    Simply put, he’s not here yet :). I think he needs a map towards the exit. If he’s truly his father’s child, then he needs a phone with the latest map quest app. Anything to help him find his way O-U-T.

    I’ve had contractions all night long the last 5 nights in a row, about 5-9 minutes apart. A ton of back pain, front pain, middle pain, you-name-it pain. Did I mention “all night long”? Because that’s when they happen…all night long. As soon as the sun starts to peek his head up over the horizon, they gradually come to a very slo-o-o-o-w STOP. And that’s that. 5 nights in a row. The last two nights the contractions have been quite painful, so they’ve made for some long nights. Napping is hard during the day because as soon as I lie down, the contractions pick up. Good thing I’ve had my entire pregnancy to practice not sleeping so this “up all night” thing isn’t too unfamiliar :).

    Good news at my 41 week appointment today. Yes, the appointment that I had to make last week that I was hoping to have to cancel. But alas…we took a “non-stress test” to make sure the baby is okay in there, and sure enough he’s happy as a clam. (I think that’s part of the problem.) His heart rate is great and he’s lovin’ life. I’m dilated to a 3, which everyone is excited about. I was at a 0 last week, so all this laboring is doing SOMETHING, for which I am–obviously–thankful. His head is all the way down in my pelvis, which explains why my contractions are so painful…there’s nothing to cushion him down there–just his head against my pelvis. Bone against bone. In other words, “Ouch.” We’re not sure why I’m having so much back labor…it could mean he’s facing the wrong direction, but it also could have nothing to do with that. It seems like he’s facing the correct direction (face towards my spine) so it just seems that back labor is part of my lot. Happy, happy, joy, joy :).

    I’m trying to stay in good spirits 🙂 but laboring all night every night the last 5 nights is starting to take a toll on me. I woke up this morning to an email from Baby Center, who has faithfully been sending me week-by-week pregnancy updates the last 9 months. This morning’s email was entitled, “Your 1-week old baby.” And I almost threw the phone out the window. You mean, “My 41-week pregnant body!” So that was a little sad. But other than that, I’m hanging in there. In retrospect, (advice to all pregnant moms out there) I should have had something FUN planned every day for the 2 weeks past my due date, so at least I would have something to look forward to each day, other than NOT having a baby. And somehow I can’t bring myself to start planning things NOW because it feels like I’m resigning to be 2 weeks overdue. Every night I’m so convinced we’re going to end up with a baby, and then we don’t… But don’t worry, we have been trying to do some fun things other than sitting around and staring at my belly. We’ve enjoyed having my parents here for the last week as well. It’s just so hard to get out of “Bummer…we’re so overdue! When is this going to end??!!” mode and into, “Let’s seize the day!” mode. We’re trying. 🙂

    HOWEVER, this is mostly why I was inspired to write this post. Because the stork DID bring such a wonderful package to us yesterday, and it was the first thing that boosted my spirits enough to distract me from thinking about “the real bundle of joy” that I’m waiting for the stork to bring.

    Several months back, after spending hours searching for bedding for our baby boy, I realized that not a single set out there really tickled my fancy at all. I asked my dear friend from Colorado Amy “Ruth” Wallace (who, along with her mother, is an incredible quilter) if she would be willing to make me a quilt and some wall hangings for decorations. They agreed, she helped me talk through exactly what I was looking for and wanted, and then they got to work in January.

    They finished it this past week, and the Stork dropped it on our doorstep yesterday!!

    I wish we had a video of when I opened the box…I thought I had pretty high expectations of what to look forward to, but Amy and her mom blew those expectations completely out of the water. My first thought when I opened it was, “I can’t believe they gave this up!” I mean, I know they made it FOR me, but have you ever made something–like a really cute card–for someone and then it turned out SO ADORABLE that you ended up keeping it for yourself instead of giving it away?! Anyone?? Bueller?? Well, I should probably be ashamed of myself, but I’ve TOTALLY done that. Anyhow, that was my first thought when I opened it because it IS SO INCREDIBLE. It is just BEAUTIFUL…honestly, the most beautiful quilt I’ve ever seen. And the wall hangings that go with it are just STUNNING…. On top of that, they made this ADORABLE little hooded bear towel with the same material!! Heaven!!

    I ran right upstairs to see how everything looked in our not-yet-complete nursery and, of course, they were perfect. You could literally hear the angels singing when I hung the quilt over the crib…PERFECTION.

    Anyhow, here are the photos. You’ll notice I’m very strategically NOT in any of these photos…no one needs to see pictures of a 41-week pregnant lady :).

    Ta-Da!! The Amazing Quilt!!
    The Adorable Wall Hangings!!
    The Sweetest Bear 🙂

    We started to put up the wall hangings right away but a little disagreement over where the baby monitor was going to go kept us from being able to make that decision :). (As a side note, two of my friends went into labor after getting into a big fight with their husbands, so I’ve been trying to pick little fights with Brian… As you can imagine, we just end up giggling and kissing after our ridiculous fight “attempts”. This time, when we ACTUALLY had something to argue about, I thought we might have a fight winner. But, we were both so tired after our restless nights of no real sleep that neither of us were up for a fight. We ended up just dropping it and cuddling instead. So much for that good idea…)

    All that to say, soon I hope to post pictures of his nursery COMPLETED! It was never really my goal to have it done before he arrived…I more cared about having it organized, which it is. I think we have everything we want to put up now, so it’s just a matter of time…

    And, today, we got our final piece of furniture!!! The one I have been longing for…our glider!!!!! Back in the day when we first started talking about “a nursery,” the ONLY piece of furniture I cared about was a rocker that I loved that would support my back well. I think it’s the most important piece of furniture a nursery could have. We have searched high and low for gliders over the months to find the perfect one. Unfortunately, the perfect one was also the most expensive :(. Not quite in our budget… After weeks of being torn over the decision (I wasn’t about to spend even $100 on a poor quality glider, but we really couldn’t justify paying for the one we loved), my parents told us that they would split it with us as a baby gift! Yeah!!! Thanks, Mom and Dad!!!

    And…it arrived today!! Another fun event to distract us from the fact that the baby is L-A-T-E.

    So, pictures of the nursery to come sometime in the next few weeks…hopefully after we’re able to post some pictures of our sweet baby boy!!!!

  • 3D Ultrasound of our little man!

    3D Ultrasound of our little man!

    So a couple weeks ago, we couldn’t help but shell out a bit of cash to get a second glimpse at our little baby boy. The first ultrasound was sooo amazing, and the thought of being able to peek at him again was a temptation we couldn’t resist.

    3D-4D ultrasound is just incredible. There are no other words for it…the fact that we can see a 3D image of our baby while he’s in my womb is almost more than I comprehend. At first his umbilical cord was across his lips like a big mustache, so we couldn’t see the lower half of his face. But later he moved and then it was spread across his neck so we could get a full view of his face. Here are some of our favorites:

    Well, who do YOU think he looks like???!!!

    Isn’t this CRAZY?! There he is!!!!! And no, that’s not a huge growth on his face–he’s pressed up against my placenta, which is that mass covering the right side of his face.  And that dark-ish substance around his neck is the umbilical cord. I just think this shot is so cute :). Isn’t he so sweet?!?

    He’s smiling :).
    Look at how chill he looks! Here, he’s got both his hands behind his neck and you can see his elbows kind of resting beneath his chin. Just chillin’ in Mama’s womb… 😉
    Profile view, left hand behind his neck.
    This is one of my favorites..look at him just crossing his feet like it ain’t no thang :).  (In case it’s hard to tell…this is a profile view of his legs. His knees are on the right side of the photo, and his feet are crossed on the left.)
    Front view without the placenta in his face! The umbilical cord around his neck kinda freaks me out…but the ultrasound tech assured me he’s okay and won’t choke…
    Love this! He still has his hands behind his neck, and now he’s pulled his feet up to his face! Just showing off how flexible he is! 🙂
    His little feet are crossed again…I just think it’s the cutest when he does that!! See all of his little toes on his right foot?? SOOO STINKIN’ CUTE. 

    So there he is, folks! Our adorable little man. We can’t WAIT to see him on the outside. It kind of feels like “cheating” to be able to see him so clearly while he’s still in my womb, but we’ve both discovered that waiting to be surprised when it comes to our baby is not our strong suit. 🙂

    We have 25 more pictures and a 30 minute DVD if you ever have some time to waste and want to come see more of our little man. 🙂

    We adore him…and are counting down the days!

  • Palm Springs Glory

    Palm Springs Glory

    Brian had the best idea to get away for a few days…

    The details came together so seamlessly, that we were convinced God was behind this. We got an INCREDIBLE deal on a beautiful 2 bedroom condo for 7 days, and Brian suggested that this might be the perfect week to get away, celebrate a quite belated 1st Anniversary, have un-distracted time away from normal life to get to really seek God for this next season, and, at the end of our week Lance Wallnau happened to be speaking just 30 minutes away from our condo. Perfect.

    Our 10 days away were simply glorious. I had a MUCH better flying experience this time (my only condition for going was that we scheduled an AFTERNOON flight…) and it was in the 90s every day that we were there. Our condo was beautiful, and even had black-out shades which were perfect for me, who now takes almost daily morning naps. We even ended up getting an 8th day there TOTALLY FREE–thank you, God!! There is nothing more wonderful than getting DAYS away from daily life with your husband, with the only goal being to spend time together and with God… I was in Heaven.

    Here are some fun highlights from our 10 days in Glory Springs…

    Brian took me to a Japanese Steak House dinner at the hotel connected with our Villa for our “Anniversary Dinner.” We arrived there via boat (how fun is THAT?!) and it was a delightful little restaurant. Brian had been there many times before, and was telling me that sometimes the cook will challenge you to see if you can catch a shrimp in your mouth from several feet away. He was so excited because of what a great value it is… “You can get like 10 shrimp FREE just by being willing to catch them in your mouth!!!” I just laughed, and hoped that our cook would be one of these adventurous ones to satisfy my husband’s value check-off of the day :).

    Sure enough, he was! Brian was TOTALLY the star of the restaurant…everyone was watching him! I think the chef threw him like 20 shrimp! And Brian caught a ton of them!

    Look at how determined Brian is! Free shrimp is no joking matter.
    Oh yeah! Right in his mouth, baby!
    NOW people are watching! He had the whole restaurant cheering for him!
    

     We had mentioned it was our anniversary, and the chef made this cute little design for us out of fried rice and sesame :).

    

    Our adorable, hilarious chef.

    

    On the way back to our condo we discovered…CHRISTMAS CUPS ARE OUT at Starbucks!!!

    

    Happy November, Everyone!!!!

    

    Our little man shining through in my favorite dress 🙂

    

    Another HUGE highlight were the outlet malls in Palm Springs. We stopped into a Carter’s and everything was 50-60% off!!! A new mommy’s dream!!! It’s a good thing Brian was there, or else I may have purchased every baby boy item in the entire store… It’s irresistible!!!!

    We managed to make it out with just 4 outfits…the very first outfits we’ve bought for our baby boy! It was pure delight picking these out for him…we were both smiling from ear to ear the whole time!!

    Look at this striped polo shirt!!! He will be a Mini-Brian!! 🙂

    Another fun highlight is that Baby MoBoy GREW A TON while we were there!! Look at how HUGE I am all of a sudden!! The difference between last week and this week is so noticeable! This is also the first real maternity clothing item I’ve worn…I bought this cute skirt right before we left!

    

    I LOVE HAVING A BELLY!!!!!!!

    

    

    We attended the Lance Wallnau conference over the last weekend we were there (only Brian went to the mornings and I joined him for the evenings). Brian was SO encouraged to be around so many believers who are like-hearted and like-minded again. It’s just such a unique, dynamic group of business leaders and world-changers! Both of us were blown away at the INCREDIBLE amount of love we were met with in being there. There were 10-15ish people who had also been at the Mazatlan conference, and all of them not only remembered us, but greeted us with hugs and genuine interest in how we were doing, how I was doing, how our baby was doing… We just LOVE Lance’s assistant Deborah, and she absolutely went out of her way to bless us and make us feel so welcomed and loved while we were there. What a JOY to be there, connecting with believers across the country & world, watching powerful breakthroughs occur in hearts, and watching Jesus be glorified among every word spoken…

    All in all, it was an amazing 10 days away…we had so much time together playing, praying & celebrating. We watched our wedding video again and remembered with such joy every detail of that day that has changed our lives forever. We talked to and about our baby constantly, dreaming about & anticipating his entrance into the outside world. It was a week filled with remembering, anticipating, celebrating, hoping, and dreaming. Thank you, God, for the gift of Palm Springs!!

  • The Tale of the Second Chromosome

    The Tale of the Second Chromosome

    I couldn’t sleep last night, because all I did all night long was dream and think about the fact that today we would find out such a special part of who our baby is.

    Today was our 20 week ultrasound, that would tell us if God has given us a boy or a girl.

    I was literally so excited this morning that I’m certain it was my fault that I threw up. Mornings are still quite difficult, and I’m telling you–if I breathe too quickly or say too many words or even look at someone for too long, I will throw up. Well, this morning, I woke up with the biggest smile on my face, jumped out of bed, threw a special load of laundry in (our blue & pink t-shirts!), bounded down the stairs, grabbed my bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios (you’ll all be happy to know that I’ve moved on from the Lucky Charms phase) and sat down on the couch to stare at the gorgeous water and rising sun. At that moment, Brian was walking towards our house after just coming from a run, and I began to wave frantically, bouncing up and down. And it was in that moment that the familiar feeling took over my body, and I realized that I needed to calm down fast. But, like the kid who already has cookie crumbs on his face when his mom catches him reaching into the jar for the second time, it was too late.

    But it was okay! Nothing could steal my joy! I just had to sit in time out for the remainder of the morning until it was time to leave… 🙂

    We each wore white to our appointment, and packed our matching blue and pink t-shirts with us to change into as soon as we found out…

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0C3i7XfzTM?fs=1]
    (We’re whispering, so you’ll have to turn your volume way up to hear us)

    I laid down on the table and Brian clenched my hand. You couldn’t have wiped the ridiculous grin off my face. I literally could not handle the suspense for one more second. I had to know if this baby–whom I was convinced was a boy–really was.

    The ultrasound tech had barely put the ultrasound wand on my stomach when she said,

    “You’re having a boy!”
    I gasped and cried and squeezed Brian’s hand so tightly, who also had tears in his eyes. And, ever since that moment, I have been seeing everything in blue.
    Watching Baby MoBoy (the new nickname!) on that monitor was, by far, one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had. He was just so cute…the most perfect baby I have ever seen…and the experience was just breath-taking…like watching a miracle kick and stretch and swallow right before your eyes. My eyes were glued to the screen as tears just poured down my face for those 30 minutes of glory. All I want to do for the rest of my life is stare at our son… Our son!!! 
    This was the very first position we saw him in:
    Is he not the most adorable thing you have ever seen?!?! Later he stretched his legs out straight and arched his back…which is when I exclaimed, “Ope! Yep, there it is! Definitely a boy!”
    We could see every bone in his spine, his stomach (that’s the black hole at the bottom of his tummy), his beating heart, the umbilical cord…oh, what a miracle. She counted every toe and every finger (10 and 10!), and even noticed that he had small ears for the size of his enormous head. Then she looked at Brian and said, “Oh yeah–you have small ears, too!” He is going to look just like his daddy, which pleases me beyond words :).




    Here are a few more favorites:




    All glory goes to God, who has kept our little peanut healthy and strong during the last 5 months…The ultrasound tech used the word “healthy” more times than I could count, and when we met with our midwife, she did the same…praise God he is healthy for all my body has been through!! Baby MoBoy’s head is in the 92nd percentile!! Yikes!! His abdominal circumference is 54%; femur length–78%; humerus length–>95%! He weighs 12 oz!! Our little buddy is not so little!! Long arms, long legs, a big head and a normal waist :). He is perfect. 

    The After Tale:

    We ended up going back home to change so I could eat my normal lunch of steak and mashed potatoes before beginning our journey of telling our family and friends. My parents were in Germany at the time, and I was so bummed at the fact that we may not be able to get a hold of them. WELL, I called anyway in hopes of leaving a message for the next time they turned on their phones, and my dad answered!!! It was the greatest blessing in the world…I couldn’t believe it! So my parents were the first people we told and they were in Germany!! Then, we set off in our blue shirts to tell Brian’s family and some of our good friends.

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw3WDyILaZ8?fs=1]

    Here are our matching t-shirts!

    Our first stop was seeing Brian’s mom, who we knew was in the middle of her recess time at school. We hadn’t told anyone that we were getting our ultrasound that day because we wanted to just show up on people’s doorsteps with our matching t-shirts and see if they could figure it out. We spotted Marilyn instantly, and we walked right up to her on the playground. She soon figured it out and was so excited!


    We visited the rest of Brian’s immediate family (with the exception of Angela who is in Spokane) and several of our friends. We have to give kudos to Kevin and Melisa who were, of everyone, the quickest to figure it out without us saying anything. We visited Melisa at her current work. She said, “Oh cute, guys! Matching outfits!! Wait…YOU’RE HAVING A BOY!!!!!” Others, who didn’t catch on quite as fast would say, “What are you guys up to?” To which we’d respond, “Oh, we just wanted to stop by and show you our new shirts!” Then our friends would look at us like we were out of our minds, and say, “Cool, guys………..” and be really confused until they finally figured it out… It was awesome :). We loved it. 


    Well, everyone! Thank you for reading The Tale of the Second Chromosome! We are so excited to share our news with you!!!