Meet the new addition to our family, Gavin Michael!

Here are the answers to a few questions you may have about Gavin.

How old is Gavin?  Did you name him Gavin?

We aren’t allowed to post specific details about him online at this time, but we can tell you that he is about 11 months younger than Noelle.  He does have a Chinese name, but we will name him Gavin Michael.  This is a name we have talked about since before Ethan was born, and knew it would be the name of another boy in our family.  Ethan’s middle name (Daniel) is Jason’s middle name and my dad’s first name.  Michael is Jason’s dad’s first name.  Gavin is currently living in an orphanage in southeastern China.

What do you know about him?  Does he have a special need?

Not a whole lot, really.  These two pictures are the only ones we have.  We have requested a video, but haven’t received it after over 4 weeks.  We hope to get some updates eventually, but it’s completely up to the orphanage as to whether or not we actually get them.

Gavin has the diagnosis hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE).  It sounds pretty scary, but it is a diagnosis given to a lot of kids in China.  And it is a diagnosis that really can’t be given to an abandoned child since it is a birth related event.  Some of these kids come home and are rediagnosed as cerebral palsy, but we don’t think this will be the case with this little guy.  He is developmentally delayed, but there are lots of things in his medical file to encourage us to believe he will catch up.

To learn more about HIE, I highly recommend reading this article. 

When will you go get him?

We currently have several more steps ahead of us, so we won’t know exact travel dates for a while.  At this point if we don’t have any holdups, we are estimating we will travel in March.  Please pray for minimal bumps in the road!  We trust that we will go get him in God’s perfect timing.

How did you find out about him?

Our agency called us to review the file of a little boy.  Our agency representative told me she couldn’t leave for the day until she called us because he was just so handsome!  When she told me his birthdate, I initially thought it would be a no, because I would prefer to keep 2 years between our kids.  But after review his file and looking at his pictures, we knew the age difference was a bad reason to say no.  We requested a video to have a better idea of what he was like developmentally, but asked several close friends to pray for us, as we knew that feeling peace from God was much more important than a video would show us.  We had a limited amount of time to review his file before we had to give an answer, and at the end of that time the peace Jason and I felt about him being our son was overwhelming!  I thought that when we accepted a file I would feel overwhelmingly exciting – it was a shock for me to feel overwhelmingly peaceful.  But we know that no matter what – even if he comes with more medical issues than we anticipated – he is our son.

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:18

 

I have not done a very good job of updating on this pregnancy, but wanted to at least one more time before she arrives!  Thankfully this pregnancy has been pretty uneventful.  It has been harder but nothing out of the ordinary.  I have not been sleeping well and have been struggling with SI joint pain in my hips.  I have also had pretty terrible heartburn and general aches and pains.  The hardest part is still having to get up early and be running around all day taking care of Ethan, so I don’t get much time to rest.  My pregnancy with Ethan was just so easy!

We are very thankful that baby girl is growing consistently and moving like crazy.  I have been measuring right on every appointment and I passed my glucose tolerance test.  I have gained about the same this time as I did with Ethan, though my belly is much bigger!  Most of my maternity shirts don’t cover my belly anymore.

Since Ethan has moved into his new room we have got out all of the baby stuff and unpacked it in the nursery.  Her closet is full of pink and purple clothes!  Ethan is very aware of what is going on and every time I bring home a new outfit he says “baby sister’s shirt.”  I have no idea how he knows this, but he knows!  I am picking up things from Buy Buy Baby as I have coupons and we are almost done buying the last few things we need.  I’m getting a little nervous about how we will fit all of Ethan’s toys, plus all of the baby gear (swing, bouncy seat, car seat, pack n play, etc) AND a Christmas tree in our house.  The Christmas tree may have to come down early.  I have also had some nesting energy over the past week or so and have tackled a few projects I wanted to get done.  Thankfully we have a quiet November and December so we should have plenty of time to get ready.  We are all getting very excited to meet her!

 

 

Jason and I were very excited to find out yesterday that we are expecting a healthy little girl!  I am always anxious going into ultrasounds since I know all the problems that can be found, and it’s always reassuring to know everything looks good.  The ultrasound tech immediately knew it was a girl, but showed us from another angle that not only were there girl parts, there were not any boy parts!  We would not have been disappointed to have another boy, but we would have been surprised.  Jason and I have felt like it was a girl for a long time.  We are excited (and a little scared!) to explore the world of having a daughter.  It was also a fun experience to find out the sex this time since we did not find out with Ethan.

 

I will take her word for it, this doesn’t look like anything to me.

Tiny baby foot.

 

I planned to post at 16 weeks but life has been crazy!  My 16 week appointment was uneventful and my ultrasound is set for August 15th.  We cannot wait to find out if we’re having a boy or a girl!  I have been able to feel the baby move consistently for about a week now and Jason was even able to feel it last night.  I have had a lot of hip and lower back pain this time which makes it difficult for me to sleep.  Combined with chasing Ethan around all day I have been very tired and lazy most days!

I am already anxious for this baby to be here and have already started Christmas shopping.  It’s unusual for me to get started so early but I have a feeling I will be finished early this year.

My belly is still growing very fast but I have finally stopped gaining 5lbs every week!

Jason and I are so excited that we are expecting baby #2 on December 28th.  Ethan isn’t quite so sure, as he is not a big fan of mommy touching and holding other babies or young kids.  We have already started reading “new baby” books which he is really enjoying and he seems to be much more interested in babies lately.  We will work on this more as the arrival day approaches.

My first trimester has been much more difficult this time than it was when I was pregnant with Ethan.  I think it is just the combination of not feeling well and having to take care of a very active toddler that makes is hard.  I have been very tired and nauseous, but not actually sick.  I took a nap almost every day when Ethan did, and joked that I fell asleep before he did.  But since my 2nd trimester has started I have felt a lot better and haven’t been quite as tired and can function without taking a nap every day.  I really felt good most of my pregnancy with Ethan and hope this one will be the same way.  I know it will be more difficult to play with Ethan, especially on the floor.

We have decided that we are going to find out if we are having a boy or a girl.  We loved that it was a surprise with Ethan but this time we want to be as prepared as possible!  I might be slightly terrified of the idea of taking care of Ethan and a newborn!  Jason and I both have a feeling it is a girl, and we are anxious to find out in August.

My belly is huge already, there is no denying we are having another!  This is not a very good picture of me but you can tell how huge my belly is already.

 

Ethan Daniel Mobley was born on October 18th at 9:21 am weighing 6lbs 11oz.  Sunday night my water broke and we headed to the hospital.  I still had not dilated any so I had two doses of Cytotec, a medication used to induce labor.  At 5am I was 4cm and at 7am I was 6-7cm.  Dr. Ball came in at 7 and said they would start pitocin and we would have a baby by lunch.  I decided to get the epidural then and by 8:15 I was ready to push – before they even started the pitocin.  Dr. Ball came back and he was born at 9:21!  She held him up so we could both see that he was a boy – we were so excited!  Waiting to find out was such an amazing surprise.  Jason was an amazing labor coach – my nurse told me I had to tell all my friends how great he was!

He is perfect and we are completely in love with him.  Picking his name was easy.  We have both loved the name Ethan and even wanted to use this name since before we were married.  Daniel is my dad’s first name as well as Jason’s middle name.

Here are a few pictures of our little guy.

We are down to the final week, and baby shows no signs of wanting to leave!  He/she is quite comfortable.  I guess this is what I get for being 11 days overdue myself.  My next appointment will be next Friday (1 day after my due date) when I will have a non-stress tests to make sure the baby is healthy.  If everything looks good, we will probably schedule an induction for around 41 weeks.  We are hoping I don’t have to be induced, but at least we know this baby is going to be here in less than two weeks!

I have been having a lot of (mostly painless) contractions, usually in the evening and at night.  I’ve also started to swell quite a bit in my feet and my face (though Jason says my face is not swollen – but I think he’s just being nice).  The unfortunate part of the feet swelling is that now all my shoes are too small and rub my feet and give me blisters.  I really think I should be able to wear yoga pants and flip flops to work from now on!

Jason and I are very ready and very excited to meet this baby.  We can’t wait to find out if it is a boy or a girl and see what he/she looks like.  I can’t wait to finally put the tiny onesies, hats and socks on our baby and use all of the fun baby gear we’ve accumulated over the past few months.  But until then, we are enjoying our time together, since we know things are about to change forever!

I thought it would be fun to make an official place for everyone to guess the gender, birthday, and weight of Baby Mobley.  Click on the link below to guess!

I am now officially 38 weeks so the baby could come at any time.  I will be induced if the baby doesn’t come by 41 weeks, so the latest date will likely be October 30th.  Good luck!