The Best Four Years!

I love being married to Nathaniel Moreira! Today is our 4-year Anniversary. I have been thinking about my last four years of married life and smiling all week. I thought being married for FOUR years would feel more settled and routine, but I feel giddy, excited, and full of anticipation (it is like I’m in love J).

My Husband does all the blogging for our family, so today I’m posting my first blog on why these four years of marriage have been “The best four years!”  I don’t want to start a ‘wonderful husband’ competition or sound cheesy but my amazing husband has been keeping up our blog since before we were married and highlighting some of his remarkable achievements is long over due. 

My “best four years” has consisted of a husband that decides he wants to learn more about car maintenance and save us a little money, so when the starter on my car goes out, he spends the day learning how to fix it, buys all the necessary parts and two hours later my Toyota runs like new!  Also, when it is my turn to sleep in, I roll out of bed in the late morning and open my bedroom door to find is barricaded with several layers of sound proofing blankets to ensure I get all the z’s I need. In the last four years Nathaniel has spent over a thousand hours studying after work, on weekends and during his ‘free time’ to take graduate level courses and earn certifications to advance his career. Both certifications he earned after taking the national exam only once.  And, his studying has always correlated with a child coming, but my amazing husband successfully manages all the duties and stresses. My ‘best four years’ are full of watching late night sports games while getting foot rubs, putting our son to bed and coming out to a clean house with the dishes and laundry all done, spontaneous dart gun fights, romantic dates and loving notes, and climbing in to a made bed every night having without every having to make it myself. 

Our four years of marriage are full of kind acts, silly stories and fun times (I really could go on and on). What really makes our marriage exceptional is the love, trust and respect we share for each other, our family and for our Heavenly Father. Nathaniel is my best friend, he takes the time to tell me how much he loves me and why he thinks I am a wonderful wife and mother. He cares about my personal goals and is willing to sacrifice to help me achieve them. He puts his family and church obligations before his own wants. With the birth of our second son, Nathaniel has been taking care of Troy 95% of the time; now my new name is ‘Dad’ because Troy has forgotten all about me and Dad is the coolest person in the world. But I can’t begrudge Troy because I 100% agree with him!  I am the luckiest girl in the world because I get four years plus eternity with my wonderful husband, I love you Nathaniel!

Lucas and Cristy Hospital Visitors

Some hospital visitors and family pictures from hospital day 2, in no particular order...

Titi Carly 

 Uncle D

 A new family of four!

Dad, Lucas, Troy, and Grammy 

 Lucas seeing is Grammy for the first time

Tiana (who also took some beautiful family pictures for us and also with Troy when he was born. Thanks so much Tiana!!) 

We'll post more pictures as we take them :)

Lucas Seaton Moreira Delivery

The morning on June 5th Cristy left for the hospital in high hopes that she would still be able to have a vaginal birth. Either way, we were both happy that we would finally get to meet Baby Lucas. 

This is our last picture as a family of three. Cristy and Nathaniel were about to become real parents.

We left Troy in the care of Vanessa and Abuela, who graciously agreed to take him for the day (and later parts of the week as Cristy recovered) even though the day before he was sick. 

We arrived at the hospital a few minutes late (10:10 AM) but the nurses were generous and didn't make us return home empty-handed.

Unfortunately our doctor informed us that Cristy was far from being dilated enough for labor and that the baby would probably not come today on it's own, meaning the safest route for Lucas was to proceed with the scheduled C-section. 

Then we waited.

A lot.

And what happens when you give a Moreira a camera and to much time? PHOTO SHOOT!

Because Nathaniel has ever intention of being in the OR during the procedure he had to get scrubbed out in his super-fly, otherwise known as "scrubs."

The scrubs in Grey's Anatomy aren't legit, according to our RN. Regrettably, neither were the scrubs the nurses gave Nathaniel to wear. which, also regrettably, did not breathe well in pants and a sweatshirt. 

It' harder to scrub out in wanna-be scrubs than it looks (as reported by Nathaniel). 

The booties were the worse, and they were slick too! Cristy was given a few hospital bracelets to wear, one of which said "Fall Risk" and was hysterical because the anesthesia Cristy was given pretty much immobilized her such that she could move too good, let alone "fall" anywhere. But trust Nathaniel, if she had those booties on then she would be a fall risk for sure, paralyzed or not. 

One of the snarkier nurses ask Nathaniel if he had two kids with twins on the way, to which he replied he did not. Gotta love those RNs who know their Math and love to put a happy Dad down...

After everyone got scrubbed out, Nathaniel had to wait about 20 minutes for Cristy to get prepped in the OR. This involved painting Cristy's back blue and her frontside orange. For real.

Everything got underway after Nathaniel was invited inside and the surgery lasted about 15 minutes. Nathaniel got brave and peeked over the barrier -- big mistake. Surgeons are amazing people. 

Lucas was born at 12:35 PM. Cristy and Nathaniel agree that there is nothing in this world like the joy you experience hearing your baby cry for the first time. 

While Cristy was being stitched up, Lucas was being suctioned, prodded, stuffed, and  invaded, all for his benefit (so strange). He had great APGAR scores (8 and 9) and loved to be cuddled from the first moments of his birth. 

Cristy commented several times how tired she was during the surgery (especially near the end). She wasn't exaggerating and went to sleep as quickly as possible. 

Lucas loves his pacifier, but he was born multi-talented and can also put himself to sleep by sucking on his fingers. 

We are now a family of four!