Six months!

January 25th, 2012 . Posted in Lincoln | No Comments »

Lincoln is now six months old!  We are so very proud of him.  He grows more and more both physically and mentally each day!  We had his six month check up yesterday, and his doctor is very happy about him developmentally.  Everything we told him, the Dr. was very happy to hear!  We will be introducing rice cereal in the next days.  I am excited about that – hopefully he likes it!  I was able to find a dairy and soy free rice cereal at the grocery store, but I might just make my own – we will see!

Here is a picture we took for his “6 month photos”!

Food for your Thoughts

January 9th, 2012 . Posted in Health, Lincoln | No Comments »

In a couple of weeks, Lincoln will be 6 months old already!  I just love watching him grow and change!  We will be starting to feed him solids after his doctor appointment, and I plan to make his food myself.  That way I can watch the ingredients, save money, and hopefully give him a healthier start!  So far I have received some great advice about doing this, and I look forward to talking with other moms about best practices!

I welcome advice!

Here is a photo of Link from this weekend.  We were at the mall with Grandma Jill, and he was sitting right in his stroller (instead of in the carseat hooked to the stroller).  He looks like such a big boy!  He enjoyed sitting and looking around, but mostly enjoyed eating the strap of his stroller!

Those who can’t, Blog.

January 9th, 2012 . Posted in misc | No Comments »

I am worrying today about someone/something that I do not know well, and can do nothing about.  I think this is a character flaw that I have – wearing the weight of the world on my shoulders.  This happens all too often.  When bad things happen, I decide that there was something I could have/should have done to stop it.  I forget that the only thing that I can do, is pray.  God has this all under His control.  I try not to question why He “let” it happen, because that is not true nor does it help.  And because I can not do anything about this situation in particular, I blogged about it instead.

A Glance Back and a Look Forward

January 6th, 2012 . Posted in Family, Future, God, Lincoln | No Comments »

What an amazing year this past one has been!  I received the greatest gift that I could have ever asked for in July: a beautiful son.  Lincoln has made me the person I have always longed to be.  There is not one moment if 2011 that I would wish to change.  I am so proud of the almost 6 month old that he has become!  I love myself more than ever.  I have realized what an amazing mate my husband is.  I am completely refreshed!  More joyful, compassionate, patient than I ever have been.  I have a much greater love for our God!

My first time holding Lincoln:
He was able to leave the special care nursery about 5 hours after he was born.

Justin holding our sweet boy:

I am looking forward to this next year with such excitement!  We will pay off one of our cars this year.  We will watch our sister Amy graduate and get married.  *fingers crossed* I will be graduating from grad school this year!  Lincoln will be growing and changing every moment!

What a wonderful new year we have entered.  I am so excited!

The Irrational Thoughts of a New Mom

December 15th, 2011 . Posted in Death, God, Life, Lincoln | 1 Comment »

Someday I will die.  That is inevitable.  I have never been afraid per say of dying, I just didn’t want it to happen yet.  Now that I have Lincoln, I think I’m going to die all of the time.  Around every corner I see a new danger.  One of my biggest fears right now is that I will leave Lincoln alone in this world.  Of course he would not be alone – he would have a wonderful father and amazing grandparents to care for him.  That doesn’t make it better.  The key thing for me to do now is trust in God.

Trust in God? That has been one of the biggest challenges I have faced throughout my entire life.  People whom I love have died, gotten sick, had horrible things happen to them.  Despite this, I am told to follow Him.  Proverbs says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”  Isaiah says “Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid.”  We read in Psalms “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God… I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?”  There are countless more examples of how the Bible tells us to trust in God.

So instead of looking at all of the ways that I feel God has “let me down” I instead will look at the proof God has given to trust in Him.  That proof for me is Lincoln.  I waited (im)patiently for our amazing Lord to gift me with one of His children.  I (im)patiently trusted that someday it would be my turn.  I had a beautiful and successful first pregnancy.  We had a beautiful and scary birth.  I watched my sweet boy taken away from me not breathing, but all along trusted (without any sort of understanding) that God would carry Lincoln through.  I now have a strong, healthy, amazing child that shows the miracles God performs.  He did this for me.  Now it’s time that I trust Him with all that I am.

On the first weekend of Christmas…

December 12th, 2011 . Posted in Christmas, Family, Lincoln | 1 Comment »

Weekends in December have always been crazy, but now with a little one they are even more exciting!  This was our first fun filled weekend to start off the holidays.

Friday was normal. Grandma Pat watched Lincoln during the day while mommy and daddy worked.  Then we had dinner with Pat and Ron and spent some quality family time afterwards (which consisted of me doing laundry!)

Saturday Justin went and got the oil changed for me, which was wonderful so I could spend some time with Lincoln.  Then I went to my last class of the semester.  We then had game night with my parents!

Sunday was the packed day.  We started off the day praising the Lord – which is how we should start every day!  We went from church to downtown Macy’s to sit on Santa’s lap.  Lincoln had just woken up, but we managed to get a wonderful smiling photo:

I was a proud mama!

After Santa, we headed over to the Benson’s home for Game Day.  Justin played games with Richard and friends while Link and I spent time with Elizabeth and Liam.  It was a wonderful time!  My favorite part of this was when Lincoln would do his very high-pitched squeal (he apparently gets that from his Aunty Amy) and Liam would get scared and cry.  It was very cute.

We finished our outings for the day with dinner at Applebee’s with Pat and Ron.

Link, Justin and I then spent some time at home playing.  I figured Lincoln would be a bit cranky since he had such a busy weekend, and he started off that way.  It was time to put his pajamas on, but we had Naked Time first :)  This is where Link plays in just a diaper, which he loves.  I put him on his tummy and he was playing with some toys, and then all of a sudden HE ROLLED OVER!!  I stood up and cheered for him while both Justin and I teared up a bit (sorry honey, but you did!) Lincoln was so proud of himself and smiled and giggled!  We had been waiting for him to do this for so long, but since he had tummy problems for awhile, he just wasn’t in the mindset to do that.

This was a wonderful weekend to start off our season.  I am looking forward to many more days of wonderful family, friends, and God’s blessings.

Traveling with an Infant

December 8th, 2011 . Posted in Advice, Christmas, Family, Lincoln | No Comments »

For Christmas this year, Justin, Lincoln and I will be traveling to Nebraska to visit Justin’s family.  A handful of them have met Link already, but many have not.  I am so very excited to see them all and introduce them to the newest Gehring!

The drive normally takes 8 hours, but with Link I’m assuming 10ish.  We will need to stop and feed him every so often, and as a nursing mom, I prefer to stop somewhere comfortable where I can nurse him either in a restaurant or in the car.  This will take about a half hour each time, hopefully we can make just 2 stops.  I’m assuming sometime during the trip Lincoln will poop :)  I will not leave him sitting in that, so we will need to stop and change him.  We do hope he will nap most of the time, as the car usually puts him to sleep.

Along with the driving, traveling also entails sleeping in a hotel.  We will be bringing the pack n play along, which he is used to sleeping in.

I will provide new toys for him that he hasn’t seen before.

For me personally, I’m planning to bring foods I can eat.  I love Nebraska cooking, but I will likely not be able to eat any of it this year.

Any advice for traveling with Lincoln this year?

« Older Entries