The Parrish Post

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Sweet little Sam


On October 2nd we welcomed sweet little Sam into our family. It was such a hard,emotional, and beautiful day and we are so grateful for his life. 







Cole was very sick and unable to come to the hospital to meet Sam. He was so happy to see the baby once we gr home! 



Sam gave us a scare when he had a fever the day after we came home from the hospital. So back to the hospital we went and were admitted for a few days. It was a rough first week but we were thankful that Sam was much better after a few days. 



We are overjoyed with our new bundle and have just been at home staring and snuggling and enjoying being together. 



Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Relief

It's September and today I am 33 weeks pregnant.  whew! Relief.  
Today I feel like I can breathe. 




I've been quiet during August.  The month started with Nora's birthday.  I was dreading it for a week or two before it came.  I didn't want to talk about it.  I just wanted to have it pass.  We had a plan for celebrating her birthday as a family.  We took Cole to a movie- Planes Fire and Rescue -.  He was so happy!   We enjoyed princess cupcakes, balloons and Cole even got a little present from a friend.  He would tell everyone "I got this for Nora's birthday."
 I didn't know how I would feel on that day. It was hard. It was sad.  I ended up in the bed for a few hours crying; just mourning the loss of my daughter and the events of those days a year ago.  We received so much love that weekend from friends and family who were also remembering Nora.  That meant so much to us.




Honestly, a few days later what I felt was relief.  Relieved that I made it through a year.  Relieved that we were past August 3rd. Relieved that we had lived almost every "first" without her that we had to go through.  Every holiday, every birthday, every little moment that comes each year.   We have lived through each one once.

The month moved on and in mid-August some sweet friends hosted a baby shower for Sam.  It was hard for me to decide to have a shower because Nora died the day of my baby shower last year.  But I wanted to celebrate and embrace this pregnancy and this sweet baby boy so I went for it :)
That day I felt nervous and overwhelmed. And then I felt relief.  I made it to the shower.
And it was a beautiful rainbow fiesta dinner.  It was so fun and I felt so so loved that night. 

(and i did not do a good job taking pictures with anybody or anything so here are a few I have)











Sidenote:  Ray stayed home with 4 toddlers during the shower so that our family could attend!  He is super dad and he is awesome!!  All 4 BOYS were asleep when we got home.



At the end of August also came the gestational anniversary of my loss with Nora.  Nora died at 32 weeks and 6 days. 32 weeks was when I  gradually noticing a decrease in her movement.  This has already cause a great deal of stress and anxiety during this pregnancy but it came on huge once I hit the 32 week mark.  I had a hard, stressful week.  I ended up in the doctor's office or at triage 5 times this past week.  Sometimes for consistent contractions and sometimes for fear of the baby not moving.

My doctors are so sweet to me - they have been this entire pregnancy.  They encourage me to come in and be monitored even though we checked on the baby the day before.  They say that if I need to come into the office every day until the baby comes then that is okay with them. My sweet doctor said the other day "I know you won't be okay until you're holding this baby in your arms."  He's right and it's nice that he understands that. 


My sweet college friend, Nikki, flew here from Texas for the weekend to visit.  We'd been discussing when would be a good time to come and I knew this week would be hard.  She said, "Ok I'll come then."  It was such a blessing to have her here for 3 days.  It was the most relaxed I felt all week. She's a good bedrest companion! So thankful for the gift of good friends.




So now that it's September I am relieved.  With God's grace I've made it through.  I feel joy and I feel pain.  They seem to always co-exist these days and that's okay with me.  The pain of Nora's death will always, always be there.  But I'm seeing more and more joy in my life and for that I'm thankful.  I'm thankful for this sweet baby boy that's kicking me right now and I'm thankful for all the ways the Lord has stretched me and grown me this year.  I'm thankful for what Nora's short life has done to deepen my relationship with the Lord.  I'm thankful for friends that helped me and continue to help me make it through life. I'm hopeful for a new chapter coming this fall.  For once I'm excited and happy for a new season and glad that life is moving on.

HAPPY FALL Y'ALL!

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Update on Baby Sam

We are naming our sweet little boy Samuel Thomas. 




We are asking for prayer for our sweet baby.   I am in pre-term labor again.  While it is not surprising because this is obviously the way my body reacts to pregnancy it is again concerning.  I am on a modified bed rest trying to do my best at resting the majority of each day and not doing a lot of activities.   We have been blessed with lots of support and help from family and friends bringing us food, cleaning, and helping with Coleman. 

I have good days and bad days.  I am on some medications to help control the contractions and am being monitored closely.  We are just resting and waiting - trying to make it as long as we can. 
Learning to trust God more and more each day. 


27 weeks!

Cole looking at baby Sam



Sunday, July 27, 2014

friends

A lot of fun times with friends during the month of July! 


4th of July parade! 



Dollywood with friends!




Cookout with friends! 


A fun dinner with friends from college and their little ones!  

Cole and Hudson were made to be best buddies.  Wish we were closer.




Girls weekend with some great friends from our time in Columbia, SC 

What do four 30 something moms do after a nice dinner on a Saturday night.  
Get excited about shopping at The Container Store and discuss how to better organize our houses.  





Saturday, July 26, 2014

Happy Birthday Ray!

Ray turned 30 at the beginning of this month!  He is finally catching up to me!  I've been listening to 30 jokes for a good 17 months and now they can stop.  :)  We spent a fun day together celebrating! 

I just love this guy so much!  





Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Race Car Room

I've been working on Coleman's big boy room for months now.  
We took him out of the crib around February - yes when he was 3!  
He loved his crib and we loved it too but at 3 it was time to change.  

He got a race car bed.  a 3 year old boy's dream.  He loves it!  He talked about it for months; told strangers about his bed. 

It took me a while to work on the other decor in his room.  
I don't consider myself great at interior decorating.  There are much cuter rooms out there but this is what we came up with without spending too much on all new stuff. 
 




We have a picture of the 3 of us with Mater and Lightening McQueen from our Disney trip framed on his dresser.  A fun addition to the room!
 


These letters were in Cole's nursery.  My friend Anne had decorated his nursery and made these letters with navy/red/blue patterns.  I decided to re purpose them to match his new room.   So I just took some checkered paper from hobby lobby and used modge podge.  It was an inexpensive way to reuse his letters. 


The race track I got off of Amazon.  It was pretty easy to apply. The hardest part was making a race track and measuring to make sure it took up the entire length of the wall.  Cole loves it and I think it looks really good for wall decals. 


Monday, June 30, 2014

June Recap

I can't believe June is over already.  We've had a busy month.  We did all 3 of our summer vacations back to back.

We started off our summer with a trip to Hilton Head with the Parrish  Family. 

So fun to begin summer at the beach.  Cole loved the sand, the waves, & the pool.  He also loved playing with his cousin Brody. 



Next we headed to Fontana Lake in the mountains of NC with the whole Barnes clan.

We hiked, swam, and spent a day on the lake.  Even Coleman took a turn tubing  with his Dad.  The lake was clear and beautiful. We had beautiful weather and enjoyed spending time with all our cousins. 












Our last vacation was to St. Petersburg, FL with the Rueters. 

Even though I lived in Florida for 6 years I don't think I ever saw the gulf. It was beautiful with white sand beaches and a fun resort with lots of activities.  Cole loved the beach again and even played putt putt for the first time.  He didn't want to stop and wanted to hit everyone's balls.









It was a busy, fun June.  And now we are on to a calmer July.