Too Blessed to be Stressed...

"Too blessed to be stressed..."  I heard this for the first time on (of all places..) Minute to Win it last week and it has totally stuck with me.  In the past couple months I have felt nothing but stress.. from trying to get our house ready to go on the market, a new baby on the way, Lucas' duel eye surgeries, a leaking roof, a limit pushing 2 year old, money issues, crappy weather etc etc etc.....
Since hearing this quote I am now trying to look at the "stress" in my life differently. We are blessed!! Yes, its stressful trying to get a house on the market...but at least we have a house! Its been a definite "fixer upper" but it has been a great starter home for our family and the only home Nathan has ever known. Yes, we have had our share of stress with this pregnancy, from the morning sickness, to the choroid plexus cysts, to now not knowing if Lucas will be in town for the delivery :-S but.. how blessed are we to be having another angel in our home. Yes, we have a little boy with a bit of an attitude right now...but the amount of joy and laughter he brings Lucas and I everyday, far outweighs the occasional "devil moments" ;-) 
Anyways... I will stop my rambling! but thought I should share my new motto with you. Maybe it can help you see the blessings in your life as well. :-)

Here are a few pics from the last couple of weeks in the McEwan house. Enjoy!

                                                   Nathan trying out Daddies surgery glasses... :-)

                                                                My life's #1 blessing :-)

              Nate and I baked, decorated, painted and wrapped all for Daddy for Valentines Day.

                     The little ham that jumped infront of Mommy's "bump pic" ... I LOVE IT!!! :-)

                                                       Nathan, Mommy and Baby Yay-Yo

                                                 And......new and brown hair!! Thanx Janelle :-)                           

Reminiscing 1

My baby turned 2 on Friday!! I honestly cannot believe how fast the past year went by... it makes me sad and excited all at the same time.  Nathan among many other things is the joy of my life. He is so funny and caring and wild and curious and just the most beautiful creature to watch grow and explore. He makes me want to do more and achieve more just so that he can be proud to call me his Mom. I cannot wait to see what the next year will bring and look forward to the laughs and memories ahead.
Because I cant post them all....here are my top 15 favorite photos from the year. Hope you enjoy :-)

Nothin but love

Just a short blip to say that I loved everything about today. From cuddling on the couch all morning with my beautiful little red-head to ending the day cuddling in the rocking chair. Life is beautiful :-)

Big Boy Bed Escapee

Its been over a month now since we transitioned Nate into his "big boy bed" and all and all I would have to say its gone really well. He loves the bed, it looks beautiful in his room and we have no more worries of him climbing/falling out of his crib at night.  Our only issue now is getting him to stay in bed!! In past week Nate has discovered that if he lays on the floor by his bedroom door that he can look down the hall at us and can even shout things to get our attention. Some of his favorites include "Help!" and "Hi Dadda" :-P.  Though we got a few giggles out of this new discovery (at first) we don't know how to stop it! We tried the "Super Nanny" Technique and went in each time and calmly placed him back in bed etc. This doesn't seem to work as he likes us coming in and seems to relish the attention. Tonight we tried our own technique of "Leave the monkey and see what happens". Well.... he fell asleep at his door within the hour. We then moved him (with the door), picked him up and put him back in his bed..and he stayed!! Now this technique isn't exactly a solution... we don't want to have to do it every night. So my question to all you parent friends is WHAT DO WE DO!?? any tips for handling an escapee..?

Momma McEwan

For Now in Mommy's Tummy, Forever in My Heart.

Its funny the little things that we let worry us. Last week my biggest "worry" was getting another ultrasound so that I could find out the sex of our baby. Not so funny, is how fast things can change...

I had my 25 week checkup on Friday at the High River Hospital. I was feeling good, everything was looking good, baby was measuring right, my weight was on track...Everything looked perfect. Then came the note. While looking through my chart, the intern I was seeing noticed a note on my file to discuss my 18 week ultrasound with me. This sounded scary.  The notes showed that the US tech had found 2 Choroid Plexus Cysts on the baby's brain and that this could be an indicator of Trisomy 18 (Edwards Syndrome). I had no idea what Trisomy 18 was, let alone what to say, what to ask, etc. I was speechless. She proceeded to tell me that the chart showed a very low probability of the baby actually having Trisomy 18 and that they had given me a risk ratio of 1 in 400 to 1 in 500 or that I could possibly now miscarry the baby and that there was a 1 in 200 chance of this. When I finally managed to squeeze out "what is Trisomy 18?" she grimly responded that it meant "incompatible with life" and that if the baby did have it, he or she would most likely die in utero or be born sick and die within a year.   Both the intern and the doctor that came in shortly after assured me that I shouldn't worry. That the risk was small and that they didn't even recommend having and Amniocentesis or any other further testing to rule out the Trisomy 18. They didn't even believe that a follow-up ultrasound was necessary and that I should just carry on as if nothing was wrong.

I left the office feeling so unbelievably scared and overwhelmed and barely made it to my car before I completely broke down. To me 1 in 200 for miscarriage and 1 in 500 for the Trisomy 18 was still a pretty big risk.

In the days that have followed I am starting to feel more confident that things will be ok. I have done countless hours of research and read hundreds of stories of women who have gone through the exact same thing. These cysts are far more common than I knew and the stories of healthy babies having had them is far more common than not. I am however still left wanting more information. I want another ultrasound... and I want to know where the numbers for my risk ratio came from...and I want to know why this happened. So until then I will just keep praying and thinking positive...because that is about all I can control right now.

Thank you little one, for giving your Mommy a wake-up call. I promise to never be worried by the things that just don't matter. I love you to the moon and stars and cannot wait for the day that we finally get to meet you. 

Love Mommy

- For an amazing video on Trisomy 18, please watch 99 Balloons on YouTube  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th6Njr-qkq0