The Sharpstene Family

Did I Just Pee on Myself?!?!

2011-11-18T11:18:00.000-08:00

Let me just start off this post by saying that Sophia needs a spanking already. She did not cooperate with the game plan/time line we were going by. I'm just kidding.

I am going to take it from the top. Off we go...

Wednesday evening I am walking around Target with my Mom. It had been a normal day, nothing had felt off or anything. All of the sudden I felt a little "moisture". Mt first thought was "Holy crow did I just pee on myself?!?". It wasn't much fluid, so I decided that I would finish what I was doing and head home. A little while later I am loading my groceries into the car and I felt, again, what I thought was pee. This time I told my Mom and she confirmed what I was afraid of, that I had probably just peed on myself. Awesome, thanks Sophia for making Mommy need diapers! I get home, go to the bathroom and realize that it does not look or smell like pee. But hey, what do I know. I clean up and head to the kitchen to unload my groceries. A bigger gush of fluid comes out. At this point I inform Matthew that "I'm leaking" and I call the dr. My doctor tells me, again, that it is probably just pee but just to be safe why don't you come on in and we'll check. It is after 9pm at this point so off to the hospital we go. Before we leave Matt asks "do you need to take anything?". "No" says I, "We will only be there a few hours". HAHAHA, little did I know! I will wrap this part up by saying that by then time the Dr sees me I am gushing and am immediately informed that I will not be leaving the hospital until my baby has been delivered because my water is in fact broken. Talk about being hit with a dose of reality. My water broke at 32weeks and 3 days. That is 7 weeks and 4 days too soon. My tiny little baby girl is not ready to be in this big bad world. I am not ready to share her yet. She is supposed to be mine for AT LEAST another 5-6 weeks. I am terrified. All I can think is that it's too soon and she is not ready. I am not ready. The nursery is not ready. They gave me medication to stop my labor and some to help Sophia's lungs mature faster. The first night was tough. Tough on me, tough on Matt. I am glad it is past us...
Fast forward to today and I have been in bed for 9 days. 9...long...days. With the exception of yesterday, which was really rough, I have been pretty good. I think I have been in as good a mood as you can be. Sophia has done beautifully with her movements size/weight gain and heart rate. She looks perfect and the Drs do not think she will have to spend much time in the NICU, Thank God! I am being induced on Monday morning, so our little girls birthday will be, hopefully, 11/21/11. The funny thing about that date is that I have thought for a while now, several weeks at least, that her birthday would be the 21st. I just thought it would be of December and not November.
I am VERY nervous about being induced. Originally I had wanted a natural birth. No drugs, no pain meds or piton. Just Matthew, myself, hot showers, a birthing ball and lots of walking. Instead I will be hooked up to pit and other ivs I'm sure, not allowed to shower or probably walk and praying that my body decides to react to the drugs quickly and that I don't spend 36 hours in labor. Awesome!
I am also incredibly excited and yet terrified to have her here. I wonder if I will be a good Mommy and if I'll be able to meet all of her needs. If I will be able to find the balance between loving and firm. God is giving us this precious gift that is also a HUGE responsibility and I just don't want to mess it up or let Him or her down.

Ok, the last ting I would like to include I. This never ending post is an enormous THANK YOU to all of the friends and family who have been so loving and supportive during this time. All of the prayers, phone calls, visits, Facebook messages and gifts have been so very appreciated. We are blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives,a and I know Sophia's life will be blessed because of you too. So Thank You!

A crazy beautiful chapter in our life and marriage is about to begin. Check back for updates and pictures soon my friends as Sophia Elizabeth Sharpstene makes her grand entrance into this lovely little world!

Ok, ok.... Sorry Folks!

2011-09-26T06:43:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am a slacker. Sorry about that people. In day-to-day life, I don't feel like that much is going on. Then I look back and realize how long it has been since I have looked at this thing. Crazy... time does fly by doesn't it?!? So, where to start....

Let's talk about the fact that I am now 26 weeks pregnant. Seriously..... 26 weeks.... wow! She is going to be here before we know it... and that quite honestly terrifies me a little bit. I'm excited, don't get me wrong, but in roughly 14 weeks I go from just being a wife (not that that is a small thing either) to being a Mommy. M.o.m.m.y. Sophia is going to rely on me for EVERYTHING. I will not be dashing off to meet a friend for coffee or lunch randomly anymore. It will be about feedings, changings, nap time, bed time...my daughter. Everything will be about my daughter. And that's how it should be, that's how I want it to be, but man it's crazy isn't it? I find myself fast-forwarding already to when she is here. This past weekend was very laid back for us, Saturday night we had a Chinese and movies on the sofa night. It was great. And I kept thinking that very soon it will be the two of us snuggled up with her in between us for movies at night. Walking into church yesterday there was a family walking ahead of us who had a little girl with a huge bow on her head and I could help but smile and think about all the family outings we will have. How handsome Matt will look when he walks around proudly carrying our little Sophia. It makes my heart melt just thinking about it. Ok... enough gushy stuff. My pregnancy is still going very well. Once my body finally decided to look pregnant I blew up. I swear I go to bed and I wake up bigger :( But, the Dr's say my weight is just fine so I will try not to let it bother me. I feel her move all the time. I was laying down watching TV the other night and it looked like an alien in there moving around. If I could sleep at night everything would be perfect. I have a really hard time getting/staying comfy. Poor Matt, he feels me toss and turn all night.

Other than pregnancy, not a lot is different around here. I am still working for our company from home, which is nice though hard sometimes to actually focus on the fact that it IS work. But, when I am not on the phone or computer I have the chance to do laundry, vacuum, dust, start dinner early... I am hopeful that by starting the habit of doing a little everyday instead of everything on Saturday I will be better able to manage working from home, keeping house, and Sophie. We'll see.

Ok... I think that's all I got. Lame, I know. Anyone actually enjoy reading this? I think once she's here and this thing is full of funny, stupid sleep deprived post and pictures of Sophie it might get better. No...? Meh, we'll see.

Take it easy! Oh, and HAPPY FALL!!

Grace for the Moment

2011-08-11T10:25:00.000-07:00

Matthew and I enjoy reading either a little of the Bible or a devotion everyday/night, we try to do it every day at least. We have been reading Max Lucado's Grace for the Moment. It is a great book, and we have really been enjoying it. There is a passage at the beginning of the book that we have read over and over again, it is just so encouraging. I'd like to share it with you all now...

Each day....

     It is quiet. My coffee is hot. The sky is still black. The world is still asleep. The day is coming.
     In a few moments the day will arrive. It will roar down the track with the rising of the sun. The stillness of the dawn will be exchanged for the noise of the day. The calm of solitude will be replaced by the pounding pace of the human race. The refuge of the early morning will be invaded by decisions to be made and deadlines to be met.
     For the next twelve hours I will be exposed to the day's demands. It is now that I must make a choice. Because of Calvary, I am free to choose. And so I choose.

I CHOOSE LOVE . . .

No occasion justifies hatred;

no injustice warrants bitterness. I choose love.

Today I will love God and what God loves.

I CHOOSE JOY . . .

I will invite my God to be the God of circumstance.

I will refuse the temptation to be cynical . . .

the tool of the lazy thinker. I will refuse to see

people as anything less than human beings,

created by God. I will refuse to see any problem as

anything less than an opportunity to see God.

I CHOOSE PEACE . . .

I will live forgiven. I will forgive so that I may live.

I CHOOSE PATIENCE . . .

I will overlook the inconveniences of the world. Instead of cursing

the one who takes my place, I'll invite him to do so. Rather than

complain that the wait is too long, I will thank God for a

moment to pray. Instead of clinching my fist at new assignments,

I will face them with joy and courage.

I CHOOSE KINDNESS . . .

I will be kind to the poor, for they are alone.

Kind to the rich, for they are afraid. And kind to

the unkind, for such is how God has treated me.

I CHOOSE GOODNESS . . .

I will go without a dollar

before I take a dishonest one. I will be overlooked

before I will boast. I will confess before I will

accuse. I choose goodness.

I CHOOSE FAITHFULNESS . . .

Today I will keep my promises.

My debtors will not regret their trust. My associates

will not question my word. My wife will not

question my love. And my children will never fear

that their father will not come home.

I CHOOSE GENTLENESS . . .

Nothing is won by force. I choose to be gentle.

If I raise my voice, may it be only in praise.

If I clench my fist, may it be only in prayer.

If I make a demand, may it be only of myself.

I CHOOSE SELF-CONTROL . . .

I am a spiritual being . . .

After this body is dead, my spirit will soar.

I refuse to let what will rot, rule the eternal.

I choose self-control. I will be drunk only by joy.

I will be impassioned only by my faith.

I will be influenced only by God.

I will be taught only by Christ.

I choose self-control.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

To these I commit my day.

If I succeed, I will give thanks.

If I fail, I will seek his grace.

And then, when the day is done,

I will place my head on my pillow

and rest.

Max Lucado

In My Daughter's Eyes

2011-07-29T13:16:00.000-07:00

Hello Blog Readers!

What an exciting past 24 hours we Sharpstene's have had!! We had our sonogram yesterday and found out that we are having a LITTLE GIRL!!! Don't get me wrong, I would have been thrilled to find out we were going to have a son, but I, we, have thought all along that it was a girl and we could not be more excited about her! Let's take a look at the goods :)

There is NO pee-pee there!!!

She didn't cooperate at first, the lady couldn't get a good view. At the end of the apt however, she gave us a nice clear shot of her girl parts! Everything else looked great! Her head, heart, spine, brain, arms, legs, face...everything looks perfect! It is the most amazing thing to watch a screen and see your baby moving around inside of you. I was just in awe. It's so funny because I can't feel any of those movements yet but she sure is active! Oh, and by the way, her name is Sophia Elizabeth Sharpstene. Elizabeth is my middle name, well it was, and Sophia is just a name that we both love. We will call her Sophie :) As you can tell by the pink letters I used for her name, she will be the girliest girl EVER...at least until she tells me she hates pink, which hopefully will not happen. My Mom, who could not be happier about a Granddaughter, and I went out to Target last night. We didn't go crazy or anything, but between the 2 of us, we did buy this:

Too cute! And, not ALL pink!

Three newborn outfits, two 3-Month outfits, and one 0-9 month sleep bag that says "Daddy's Girl" on it...sniff sniff. Also, I have to include this picture. This is something I bought when I was 6 or 7 weeks pregnant. Like I said, we both had a feeling from the beginning we were having a girl....

This, ladies and gentlemen, is Sophie's FIRST tutu :)

I plan on having her 6 month photo's taken wearing this tutu. Gah, I just love it! You can't tell, but it's actually yellow and white. The only pink is the flowers. I am ready to start looking at bedding soon I think. I had originally wanted to do neutral, but A- I'm not finding much I like and B- Again, I love pink and all things girly. So we will see. There will not be pink walls, strollers, car seats, highchairs, or any of that. That stuff is too dang expensive to do all pink when the next one may be a little boy.

For those of you interested, here is what I am looking like these days. This was taken last night.

This Sunday will mark 18 weeks...possibly the half way point. All I can say is that this pregnancy is flying by. I need it to slow down a little. However, I have been very blessed to have had a great pregnancy so far. I can only hope I am following in the footsteps of my mother, who had easy pregnancy's and FAST natural deliveries with all 3 of us. Alrighty folks, I guess that about wraps up this blog. OH, the title of this post is a song by Martina McBride. If you've never heard it, I encourage you to listen to it. It makes me want to cry. ALSO, if anyone reads this thing, will you please leave a comment so I know I'm not typing this to myself. Okay, thanks!

Wow... someone should update this thing.

2011-07-20T10:34:00.000-07:00

Holy Crow guys! I can't believe it has been over a month since I have updated this thing! Let's see, over the past month I have been trying to get more into our business, trying to help Hubby more. Hubby is now 35(!!!) years old- his birthday was July 16th. Everything has really been going very well. Baby is doing well! Today was our 16 week apt and, as I just said, everything is good! I was terrified to get in the scale because, well... I enjoy food. That in addition to it being SO STINKING hot outside that I have not been going for walks or anything had me very nervous about my weight gain. To my delight, I've only gained half a pound since my last visit! Go Me!!! I will take a new belly picture to put on here, perhaps I will take one this evening so I can post it tomorrow...hmmm. BIG NEWS- We find out in 8 days if we are having a little boy or girl!! We are so stinking excited! So you will want to check back then, if not before, because I will be posting pictures! Once we know what we are having it will be time to start SHOPPING! Not going to lie.. I'm pretty dang excited to start that :)

Ok, lame or not, that's it for now. But at least the blog has been updated! As I said, check back soon for a bump pic as well as to see what we are having:) Take Care!

Skin!!

2011-06-09T11:53:00.000-07:00

I am 10 weeks along now (minus 1 day!) and I just thought I'd share how much my skin seems to enjoy being pregnant! Sure, my face is a little more oily that it used to be, but my skin looks so good! Matt made the comment the other day that I almost looked a little burnt because my cheeks are so rosy! I just look like I have a nice natural tan going on. I've never, well maybe when I was younger, worn a ton of make-up, but now all I do is put some mascara on my lashes and I'm done. I love it! From driving around my arms are already nice and brown also, this is great! I'm greatly looking forward to my friends pool being ready this weekend because that is going to be my new fav spot! Baby needs some Vitamin D, and what kind of Mommy (not going to lie, it still is a little weird to say that) would I be to deny my little love sun light and Vitamin D?!?!

So, that is my fav thing so far about being pregnant. Let's get to a thing...or 10, that I am NOT such a huge fan of...

Sleep. For the love of God, how am I already not sleeping well? I was a stomach sleeper for a loooong time, and now that's a no no. I feel like I flip side to side all night long- it's not cool.

Potty Breaks. Seriously? This baby is about an inch long or so, WHY DO I HAVE TO PEE ALL THE TIME?!?! And this is also part of my not sleeping- I can no longer sleep through the night with out having to wake up to pee.

Bloated. Wow. This one is killing me. My normal pants, a lot of them at least, are not comfortable anymore. I look and feel like I just left an all you can eat chinese buffet ALL THE TIME.

Ok, that's my rant. I'm done now. Don't get me wrong, I totally LOVE being pregnant. I am just ready to look pregnant and not like I eat too much. The sleep, I guess I will adapt. I think I might get one of those pregnancy pillows. As for the bathroom breaks...Depends? JK! I will just deal with that as well, because I keep hearing/reading it gets a lot worse. Bring it on baby! This little one is worth it all and soooo much more!

Crib

2011-06-09T11:29:00.000-07:00

Hey There Blog Reader(s)! I know it has been a little while, but hey, at least I warned you! As you can probably tell by the title of this post, Matthew and I have purchased our nursery furniture! Well, my Mom helped and the people that sold it to us are actually letting us do a 6 month plan, but we are in posession of it! It us currently being kept in our storage unit, because we are NOT ready for it yet. On a side note, to anyone who likes neat/different high end furniture you should really go check out Hunt & Gather. They have some amazing stuff in there and the owners are awesome people who really think highly of my hubby and his company! Matt is the only mover they will recomend and they go out of their way to make sure everyone who walks into their store knows about A Few Good Men Moving & Storage. Again, they are just awesome! They really gave us a great deal on this funiture!

Anyway, here are some not so great pictures of our beautiful furniture for out little butter bean :)

I know, I know it's a drop down. But hey, I'm SHORT and once the baby can pull on it and possibly "drop" it, it will be fixed so that it no longer can go down. But for now, I will save my back!

Dont' mind the box, but look at how pretty the ends are!

I LOVE this dresser! Plus, the changing station goes on top of here.

Pretty right?!?! I love it! I know, it's dark. But to be honest I wanted dark and I think once the walls are painted and the room is ready it will look amazing :) As for bedding... well, let's say I am not having any luck there EXCEPT at Pottery Barn Kids. Boy could I kick myself for going on their website because there are two neutral sets I like on there and they are both $$$$$! Oh well, hopefully I will find something I love somewhere else but if not... maybe the nursery fairy will come see me. No? There's no fairy? Well, that's disapointing... All of you Mommas out there, that is assuming that anyone other than Kacy and my Mom read this, please feel free to suggest places I can look for bedding other than Kohls, Target, Babies R Us, o.co, and amazon.

Ok people, that's it for this post! Take Care!

Hello There!!

2011-05-24T11:08:00.000-07:00

Well hello there! Welcome to our blog! I am not entirely sure what I am going to do with this thing, or what I will discuss, but with recent changes in our lives (we will get to that in a bit) I thought it would be a good idea to start one of these suckers.

I, Rachel, am undoubtedly the only person who will post anything on here but I will be nice and make sure everything has Matthew's name on it as well. So let's get to Matthew and I.

We're cute right?!?! Lets look at another one...

This is the first picture of us...ever :)

Matthew and I met in March 2007. Sparks flew, and by November we were engaged. Matthew took me to Tokyo House, where we had our first date, to pop the question. It was very sweet and I, clearly, said yes! The following November, November 1st to be exact, we were married.

I love this one!

Our Wedding Party

That's me!

My Matthew!

Matthew and I live in Wake Forest, NC. Oddly enough, in the same neighborhood as my Mom and Tom, as well as his Mom and Dad. Even more odd, it is the same neighborhood I grew up in...I kind of love that!

Matthew owns his own company, A Few Good Men Moving & Storage. It is a small, family owned and operated moving company. As for me... well, we will get to that shortly!

Matthew and I found out on May 1, 2011 that WE ARE EXPECTING OUR FIRST BABY! I honestly can't even begin to describe how excited and happy we are about this! Here is our little butter bean at 6w5d:

Man, I tear up just looking at that little booger! Sniff...Sniff...

We have definitely learned that things happen on God's terms and not our own. I, well we but more me for sure, have wanted a baby for a while. It definitely did not happen quickly, but it happened and that is all that matters! We found out about this little one 1 week after I had started a new job...oops! Let's just say that I am now going to be staying at home helping run our family business because it has become way more work than Matt can handle on his own. Plus, once our little love is here it will be nice to work from home. So, again, God has a plan and it does not always match yours- but his way is ALWAYS the right way.

So far my pregnancy has been pretty great! Other than being tired ALL THE TIME I have felt pretty good. I usually have a time every day that I don't feel well, but I have not thrown up or anything so I am very grateful for that! This is the first grandchild/great-grandchild for my side so everyone is so stinkin' excited! Of course, Matt's side of the family is pretty dang excited as well. I think they are hoping for a girl since my sister-in-law and her husband have 3 boys!

Well, I think that's all I have for now. Again, I am not sure how often I will be on here, what I will discuss, or how many people will even read it. Hopefully, I will update it often with new baby/pregnancy info or just other things going on in our lives.

Take Care Folks, and stop back by later!