Liam's Dedication

On Sunday we had Liam dedicated at church. It was our first time to church since he was born and we were excited to go and see all our friends and be part of the dedication ceremony. I was a little nervous about how he would do with all the noise and people, but he slept almost the entire morning. It was also his first time hearing daddy play the drums, but that did not phase him at all.

We are so thankful to be part of a church that affirms the fact that children are a blessing and a heritage from the Lord. Not only that, we are thankful for the teaching and admonition we receive to raise Liam in love and discipline to fear the Lord and obey him. It was a sweet moment for us on Sunday to see the congregation rise to say they will walk with us to help us raise our son.

We also had the joy of having Rob's parents (Mimi and Boppy), Aunt Lauren and great-grandma Nan with us for the ceremony. They were so good to drive over from Cincinnati to be there for church and then lunch afterwards. It was a full day and I think we were all pretty tired by the end, but it was a good day too.

Ready to go to church! You can't see here, but Liam has the sweetest little overalls on for his first Sunday. Thanks Aunt Joan!

Dedication ceremony at church

Pastor Bayly talking to us and Liam

The family after church

Liam and Boppy

We've had a pretty good week so far. I am starting to feel a lot more "normal" and have more energy to do stuff around the house. We had one night this week where Liam slept from 1 to 5 am and that felt great. Last night though we were back to about every two hours of being awake. He is definitely changing though and becoming more of his own little person. We went to the doctor yesterday for his two week checkup and he now weighs 10 pounds, 10 ounces! The doctor said he is doing great and everything looks good so I was thankful to hear that. It is still hard to believe this is our life now and we can't just give him back to someone else -- that he really is our son -- but at the same time that is amazing and we love him so much.

Here are a few photos from this week at home too.

Sometimes we call him Capt. McChubbs. This photo explains why. The other day Rob literally had to lift the fat roll around his neck when he was buckling him into his carseat to make sure the strap fit properly.

He is having longer periods of awake time during the day which is great. His favorite things to look at are the blinds and curtains in our living room. He is totally fascinated by them.

Hey dad, that flash is too bright!

He would much rather sleep on other people than in his bed. But how sweet -- Daddy and Liam together.

Aunt Logan's Photography Studio

Over the weekend while Luke and Logan were visiting, Logan asked if she could take some photos of Liam for us. She is currently in a photography class at Indiana Wesleyan and thought it would be good chance for her to get more practice. We were thrilled at the idea of her taking some photos and I am so pleased with how they turned out. Liam was fairly cooperative, more on the second day when we took the photos outside. I think he really liked the warm sun. Enjoy!

Our First Week

Liam was officially a week old yesterday and wow, how our life has changed! I honestly cannot imagine life without him, yes, even the middle of the night crying part. He is the sweetest little guy and we are in love with him. And yes, for all of you who are wondering, he is growing like crazy. We had him at the doctor on Sunday (we thought his circumcision was infected -- it wasn't) and he weighed exactly 10 pounds! I think it was a bit of a fluke though because when he was there on Thursday he was 9 lbs., 6 oz. and I'd just fed him before he was weighed on Sunday so that might have thrown the scale off a bit. But either way, he is a big boy!

We came home on Tuesday evening and had a decent first night at home. My mom was here and thankfully so because at one point both Rob and I slept through him crying in the night. It takes a little getting used to I suppose!

Coming home from the hospital

We had plenty of people stop by to see us and meet Liam throughout the week which was great.

Mimi and great-grandma Nan came by on Thursday and spent the afternoon giving Liam lots of love.

Our good friends and neighbors the Russells brought us dinner one evening

My dear friend Chrissie came down one evening with baby Leah who is 2 months old. Chrissie and I are already playing matchmakers -- Liam and Leah? Yes, I think so. :) Liam apparently is a bit disgusted by that idea!

Aunt Logan and Uncle Luke came for the weekend and we had a great time with them. For some reason I don't have a photo of them together with Liam, but here is one of Logan. Logan also took some really sweet baby photos for us for her photography class that I will hopefully be able to post soon.

Jessie came to visit too and give Liam some baby butt slaps :)

And of course Grammy Love was here all week. What would we have done without her? She was absolutely the best. I was so sad to see her leave on Saturday and cried and cried. Thanksgiving seems so far away at times like this!

Other than visiting with people Liam spends most of his time sleeping (not enough at night for me!), eating and doing assorted other things babies do. Here are a few other favorite photos from this week.

Hoosier Daddy Liam? He clearly supports his daddy being at IU.

A personal favorite. Rob is being the most amazing daddy and I am so proud of him for jumping into this role with both feet.

Some snuggle time with mommy

Our little family

Going on our first family walk.

Overall I think it was a pretty good week. There were some rough moments and some crazy hormones, but we're surviving and the Lord has been so near and good to us. I cannot remember the last time I had to lean so much on the Lord and on others to help me and that is a very good thing. Being a mother is so sanctifying I am realizing and it absolutely forces you to pray minute by minute, hour by hour as you work to take on this awesome responsibility God has given you to fulfill. I don't think I realized how unbelievably consuming motherhood really is, but how worth it is too. When Liam is crying and I have the power to make him peaceful again and then he gives me those little involuntary smiles in his sleep, it just melts my heart and makes it worth every moment. I'm excited for more moments like that to come.

And on a less serious note to end this post, I have to share what Rob did in his sleep last night, because lets be real, any humor I can find at 3 am when I've been up with a fussy baby is really priceless. It started out when I got back into bed at one point and Rob was laying on his back patting his chest like he was burping Liam. Then later, he sat up and started using our covers to "swaddle" Liam. Another time he rolled over on his side and started saying, "sh, sh, sh," and shushing Liam like we've been doing when he cries. My favorite though was when he started giving "Liam" kisses into his pillow. He was also talking to me and Liam throughout this adventure asking me if he should put Liam back in his crib. I couldn't help but laugh and laugh at him -- this daddy stuff is clearly working if he's doing it in his sleep already!

That's all for now -- Liam is sleeping for the night so I need to get to bed and get as much sleep as I can before he wakes up again. Thank you all for your many, many prayers and love -- we feel it so much and are so thankful.

William James Bedinghaus

We are so proud and thankful to welcome William (we're going to call him Liam) James Bedinghaus into our little family. He was born just like we hoped on 10.10.10 which is such a fun birthday to have in our opinion. He was a whopping 9 pounds, 14 ounces and measured 22 inches long. We had no idea he was going to be so big! We were in labor at the hospital for 17 hours, so needless to say it was a long day for everyone. I went in with the idea that I would like to give birth without any drugs and was so proud of myself for accomplishing that goal. It was very difficult and there were many times I would have liked to given in and had an epidural, but Rob and our doula, Mary Lee, were so encouraging and supportive that I was able to make it through. It was absolutely the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, but the end result was amazing. Seeing Liam come out and rejoicing in a healthy, happy baby was truly one of the most wonderful moments of my life.

He is named after Rob's grandfather, Pop, who went to be with Jesus in April 2009. He and Rob were very close and we knew for a long time that we wanted to honor Pop's memory by naming a son we had after him. We particularly liked the name Liam too as a nickname instead of Will or Bill. We picked James as his middle name because when Rob and I were engaged, we memorized the whole book of James together. We pray that having James as a middle name will remind Liam of how precious the Scriptures are and how much we treasure them.

It is truly an overwhelming and wonderful thing to bring a baby into the world and know that God has picked us specifically to be his parents. We are excited to start this journey together as a little family. And we hope, if you haven't already, that you get the chance to meet him and love him too!

Well, my son (how crazy is that -- I have a son!) is ready to be nursed so I'll say goodnight. Enjoy these pictures of our first few days together.

I was so hyped up on natural endorphins at this point that I was shaking. Our little family is growing! Poor Rob was so tired after all his labor coaching that he crashed pretty soon after this photo

So thankful that my mom could be here for the birth!

The whole Bedinghaus family. They were amazing troopers waiting in the lobby all day for Liam to be born. What great grandparents and aunts Liam has!

Sweet baby

Rob and Liam having some daddy and son time together

Our Baby Nursery

Last weekend Rob and I watched the documentary Babies. If you haven't seen it yet, I'd definitely recommend it, even if you are skeptical. It's so funny and precious. Besides being adorable, the film also offers insight into how babies around the world are raised, and how without all the trappings of this American life, they all learn to walk and talk and become their own little people within their own culture.

The film got me thinking about how much we here in America obsess about our babies. We buy all kinds of things and have all this stuff for our babies when babies in some cultures don't even wear diapers. Do we do all this stuff for our babies out of necessity (yes I think so in most cases -- it is culturally acceptable for our babies here to wear diapers and clothes and sleep in cribs) or do we do it because our culture tells us we should? (I also think this deserves a yes answer).

Whatever the reason we do things for our babies, for me personally, I wanted to have and decorate a nursery because having a place for our baby in our home was important for me. Having a baby is an extension of Rob and I and the start of a new chapter in our lives and I wanted the place we bring our baby to be warm and welcoming.

So, all that to say, we fixed up our nursery for Baby B. It has taken us (me really) awhile to actually get everything together, but finally today, we hung the last picture and I think if the baby came I would feel good about bringing him/her here.

Thanks to my friend Erica I decided on a gray and yellow themed room because it's gender neutral, but also something different than typical baby stuff. This summer my mom made the crib skirt, the bumper, the rocker cushions, the window valance and several of the basket liners out of slightly unconventional "baby room" fabric, but they all worked together. Our crib was a gift from Rob's parents. The rocker is originally from Brazil when my parents visited there years and years ago. My mom rocked all three of us in that rocker so it is special. We did repaint it white though. The dresser/changing table we found in PA at a garage sale for $20 (mirror included) and in my mom's words it was "hideous." I however saw the potential in it and once Rob painted it and distressed it a bit and put new knobs on it it looked much better.

Months ago I said I would set aside the month of September to do some "crafty" projects in the baby's room. I wanted to use a lot of the leftover fabric from my mom's projects and incorporate some other ideas into the room as well. Here's how everything came together.

I started with a blank gray wall over the crib

I found these five old frames at a garage sale for $2. They didn't have glass and were in pretty bad shape, but once I cleaned them up they worked out. Three frames I repainted white and distressed them and then one smaller frame I painted dark gray. The blue frame I kept as it was because I liked the color and it worked in the room.

After much deliberation and many trips to Michael's craft store, I decided to make a paper collage tree in the two bigger frames and then three fabric animals in the smaller frames. I don't really have photos of the process (or the hours) all this took, but here are some photos of the finished products.

Half of a tree. I decided to collage half a tree into each frame so when the frames hung next to each other on the wall it would look like one tree. The background is foam board covered in gray scrapbook paper. I found books at Goodwill and ripped out the pages and then just started cutting to make all the branches. Everything got a coat of ModPodge to hold it down and then I just fit the finished tree into the frame.

The finished frames on the wall. The yellow pieces have the first three verses from Psalm 1 written on them. These verses describe the man who follows the Lord and meditates on his law. It then says that he is like a tree planted by streams of water. I liked the idea of our baby growing up under those verses.

I fitted the three smaller frames with foam board and covered each one with a contrasting fabric. Then, I printed off drawings of an elephant, a bird and a rabbit from the Internet and traced them onto contrasting fabric. I used a product called Wonder Under to adhere the fabric to each other.

The bird.

The elephant and the rabbit.

The whole collection above the crib. I think it looks really sweet.

The other side of the nursery with the rocker and changing table. The painting above the rocker my mom sent me for my birthday and fits the room well.

A close up of the changing table.

The rocker and basket of stuffed animals waiting to make new friends with the baby.

The other corner. It's hard to see, but up on the shelf there is a white frame my future sister-in-law Logan made (it's adorable) and then of course, the very important Royce Yoder piggy bank that very special babies receive. I think first grandchild counts as that! There are plenty of books and tiny diapers waiting for baby there too.

All in all, the room came together so nicely and really didn't cost that much to pull off. I actually really enjoyed the decorating part and finding things at garage sales. It is also really special that many things in the room are handmade or have memories already attached to them. Now all we need to add to the room is a baby!

And here's me this week, looking like a snail who accidentally put her house on her front, not her back. I feel pretty good, but definitely ready to meet this baby! Thanks for praying that he or she comes soon. We'll be posting photos here soon I hope... :)

Apple Picking

Last week we continued a tradition we started last year with our friends Bethany and Andrew and went apple picking. If you recall, last year when we went the orchard was closed and we were not allowed to actually pick our own apples. That news resulted in this photo:

Very sad boys

But this year we went earlier and were able to go into the orchard and pick a bag of apples. We had a fun time goofing around in the orchard and drinking apple cider slushies from inside the store.

Much happier this time!

This one looks good!

Successfully picked our whole bag

It's a little difficult to use a timer when there aren't any flat places in an orchard, but we attempted with the camera on a branch

Pretty tasty!

This year we added to the tradition by taking a picnic to a nearby park that has this beautiful pioneer village. Rob and I had never been there, but it is a favorite place for Bethany and Andrew. We walked around the village for awhile (which has real people dressed up and explaining pioneer life during the day) and took some fun pictures.

A pretty building in the village

Yes, that is a huge baby in there!

A flatter surface for the camera and timer here

I think we took this photo about 10 times before we got one where we were all off the ground! We kept saying the jumping would help the baby come sooner. :)

We stopped off and grilled some hot dogs later and had a lovely evening relaxing together. It was a little bittersweet thinking this was probably our last time hanging out just the four of us before the baby comes. Not that baby can't come with us when we do things, but having a baby will change days like this in some ways. Thankfully Bethany and Andrew are our neighbors now so we will still get to see them often. :)

A little football before dinner

Waiting for dinner

Rob attempted to grill carrots, but in case you were wondering, that does not work. They were all dried out and gross.

It's fun to have traditions like this with friends, especially ones that happen in the fall. Fall is such a lovely time of year and we're excited to welcome a baby in this season. Any day now!