Imagination at work

I am hopelessly behind... having two kids is such a game changer! We are settling into more of a routine and I'm hoping to begin keeping this up more frequently especially now that I am STAYING HOME!! That's right, I quit my job last week to stay home full time and I couldn't be more excited. We feel so blessed and lucky to have this opportunity. Money will definitely be a bit tight, but when I barely made enough to cover the cost of two kids in daycare to begin with, it just made sense. Besides, they are only young for such a short time and I know how lucky I am to be home with them....but I digress.

Aidan has adjusted pretty well to having a little baby in the house and the "accidents" have greatly declined in frequency. He LOVES his sister like no other and its pretty dang cute. He is always trying to get her to smile and hug her and play with her. He is also learning to play more independently, partially because he's getting older, partially because he has to. I can't be a constant playmate when there are poopy diapers to change and a baby to be nursed!

Now, I have no idea where this came from, but he has decided that the space behind the lazy boy is his "gopher hole" SAY WHAT? Yes, a gopher hole. He must have heard a story at his old school about gophers? He loves it back there and will hid his trucks, the afghans from the couches and my decorative pillows back there to make it "comfortable." And just to humor him, I actually got in it with him yesterday. It was close quarters, but I had flash backs of making forts as a little kid. Also to enter the gopher hole, here are verbatim instructions I received yesterday "first you scamper up on the daddy chair (the la-z-boy), then you scamper on the couch, then you slide down in." * side note, what 3 1/2 yr old kid says scamper?! one that has a gopher hole instead of a fort, i guess....*

 Here, take a look:

an ordinary la-z-boy...

getting comfy

getting the blankets juuuust right

all settled in

happy boy in his gopher hole!

and i couldnt resist a picture of this doll!

I got crafty y'all!

Ok, so LM is at daycare today and I'm supposed to be spending the day grocery shopping and cleaning up our disaster zone of a house. exhibit a:

 If you look closely, you can see unpacked groceries in the background. I got home 3 hours ago and they are still sitting there *perishables are put away.* What you dont see in this picture is the living room behind me where loads (plural!) of clean laundry are all over the floor in various stages of being folded. OR the upstairs bedrooms that desperately need to be organized etc. At least I did get Avery's diapers washed and hung to dry.

Ok, enough self-flagellation. Yesterday the Little Man was home with me and Avery allllll day, and we happend to spend the majority of the weekend just the 3 of us stuck in traffic on I-95 in 109* heat. The drive was easy compared to the acting out that all 3 of us did yesterday. Let's just say I wouldnt win any mom of the year awards yesterday. Oooff it was rough. So today, I decided I'm going to indulge my need for some crafty-ness.  After reading Sam's blog at Death by Decaf and being inspired by her adorable bow holder, I went right to Michael's before the grocery store. *hooray for Michael's being located in the same shopping center as the grocery store! that's efficient, no?*

Anyway, I got my glue gun out and went to town. Check it out!

I snagged an $11 frame (they were having a big frame sale!), a $1 piece of scrap booking paper, and $5 in ribbon. I took the glass and matting out of the frame, glued the paper to the back of the frame then glued the ribbon down. The black ribbon is glued all the way down but the pink on just the ends so I could clip Avery's bows to them. I'm pretty happy how it came out!

And not to leave Aidan out, I finally finished his name for his bedroom door. Again from Michael's, wooden letters and frame that I painted and then hot glued together. 

Well, now that I got that out of my system...I think I might actually get to the kitchen, and maybe make my bed. Maybe.

Girlfriend

OH HELLO THERE! I finally got a moment...we'll see how long this lasts!... to try to frantically capture a few thoughts. I have to say, being a mom to two kids has been a great transition and I can hardly believe Avery is already 5 weeks old! 5 WEEKS! That also means I haven't slept more than 3 hrs in a row in 5 WEEKS, so forgive me if this is a little disjointed. Of course, this transition has been eased by having LM still in daycare, which was the BEST decision we've made. This is his first week scaling back to part-time, which was perfect because Dr. F was home for Memorial Day, so tomorrow is LM's first weekday day home with Avery and I. I have done two 24 hr shifts with just me and the kids already and plenty of night's of just the 3 of us while Dr. F has been on call, the first one when Avery was just barely a week old. If there is one thing I've learned being a parent, you don't stop to think about things, you just do them because they have to get done.

We've also found that having two kids has been no big deal. I mean, it is a big deal, but I think LM broke us in already with the early wake ups and dead social life, soooo...you know what I mean. Besides, all Avery wants is to eat and be carried in the Moby ALL. THE. TIME. I can bathe LM, wash dishes, make dinner AND go the bathroom with my Ladybug in Moby. Dear God, thank you for creating the inventors of the Moby. For realz.

Now, one thing that hasn't been so fab is the regression on my part to survival mode. Ok ok, I know. Taking care of a 5 week old and a 3.5 yr old and a husband who is a resident demand survival mode, and most days that means not a single lick of makeup, my hair a frizzy mess (but we don't have central AC so I'm not going near a blow dryer and its been freakin' hot!), oh and I'm in that post-baby body hell (more on that later...yay). I am so thankful for a beautiful, healthy, happy family and a husband who loves me no matter what. But y'all, I just want to be my hubby's girlfriend again and not because he puts any pressure on me. Let me explain- if I were his girlfriend, I'd never let him see me with such frizzy hair or so little make-up, or such a messy house. Now, when I go out, I settle for looking "good-enough" and it sucks. I choose between doing my make-up or hair, but not both, because who has time for that? I'm hopelessly unfashionable, and have zero idea of how to accessorize.  It's vain and petty and so #firstworldproblems, but sometimes, you just want to feel like a rockstar, but these days, I'm a rockstar if I get the bed made.

Avery's Birth Story

Whew, its been 4 weeks and what a crazy, exhausting, wonderful 4 weeks it has been! Thank you for being patient with me (as if you had a choice :) as I've taken my time to finally commit this to the internets. Avery's birth was wonderful and magical and if I could be assured giving birth would be like this every time, I'd have 10 more kids! What made it so awesome? Let's start at the beginning... (also, may be tmi...fair warning)

On the morning of April 24th I had my normal 39/40 week appointment ( I was due on April 26) and my doctor did an exam. How fun! He told me that I was about 1.5 cm and 50% effaced. I could have told him that... my Braxton Hicks had started taking my breath away over the previous few days, but weren't sustained long enough to go to the hospital.  He warned me that I might notice some discharge due to the exam. Well, by the time I got to work, I was having some strong contractions and yes, discharge. BUT, by the time you're 39 weeks preggo, sometimes it is hard to tell if youre peeing your pants or leaking fluid and with Aidan, I actually went to the hospital thinking it was the latter when it was actually the former...so I brushed it off. All afternoon at work I kept having contractions although they weren't super regular. At one point I was looking at my wall calendar and thinking that if I went into the hospital the next day (Wed.) I'd be home by Friday. I just knew something was different this time.

By the time I got home from work I just felt like I had no control over my bladder and when Dr. F walked in the door, I calmly told him that I didn't think he was going into work the next day. All through dinner we started timing my contractions and over the course of the evening they went from 20 min apart to 14-12 min, then by 10 pm they were 5 min apart. We called my parents and told them they might need to get ready to hit the road, but we were going to wait until my contractions were 5 min apart for an hour before going to the hospital. Now this is where things got complicated because they were coming from VA. We called our neighbor who agreed to come over (after I woke up a sick Mary Frances :( I'm so sorry!!), I took a shower and straightened my hair (I looked rough in Aidan's birth pictures and I sure as hell wasn't going to let that happen again!) and then we headed to the hospital around 11:30pm. After confirming with the nurses that I was staying, we told my mom and dad to hit the road and settled in for the big event. I kept complaining about the peeing and guess what?! My water had actually broken and I was leaking fluid, not peeing my pants! Hooray! I had been waiting for a big pop and gush like the first time.

We settled in and as I got comfortable, my contractions slowed down to the point that they had me start walking the halls. Dr. F slept and I walked for about 90 min. It was boring, but the contractions kept coming until I got back in the bed when they stopped again. I also was stalled at 2 cm, despite being 100% effaced. *I totally didnt mind Dr. F sleeping. I knew if this was going to be a long labor, I'd need him to have enough energy to encourage me later on). By 6am the Dr came in (NOT MY DOCTOR! :( it was his partner, whom I didn't really like) and he decided I'd need pitocin to get labor going again. My first thought was NOOOOOOO because how wonderfully that went the first time. However, I had given walking an honest shot and I did go into labor on my own, so I knew this was the next necessary step. I also knew that despite wanting a natural labor, I was not going to feel guilty if I had to get pitocin and needed the epidural. The dr. wanted my contractions to be consistently 4 min apart before the epidural. I actually made it to 7 cm over the next 6 hrs just by concentrating on my breathing and relaxation/visualization. It was hard, but I was so proud of myself. By 11:30 am I was asking for the epidural and by 12pm it was in and I was feeling pretty good. However, like the first time, it wasn't working on my whole body. However, the anesthesiologist was awesome and re positioned the catheter a few times and actually got it to work on both sides of my body! HOORAY! She explained that my anatomy caused the catheter to move and not be as effective. 2 hrs later I had taken a little cat nap and was 10 cm! And just like that, the nurses told me I was ready to push!

Now, this is where all of my reading about natural birth came in. I knew that my body would do most of the work and if I waited until I was truly ready to push, birth would be easier and I would have the best shot of minimizing tearing. One nurse was awesome, one nurse was not so great, but Anthony was such an amazing advocate for me insisting that as long as the baby's heart rate was stable, I wasn't going to push until I was ready. Although, we did agree that if after an hour, I still didnt feel the need to push, I'd try anyway just to see how it went. By 3:30, I sort of felt like pushing, but not a really strong urge. However, we agreed that I'd push 2 or 3 times to see how it went and if necessary, they'd get the doctor for delivery. I pushed 1 time and they stopped me to get the doctor. I didn't know it at the time, but Avery wasthisclose to coming out. The doctor came in, I pushed for less than 10 min (as compared to 4 hrs with LM!!) and Avery was on my belly and Dr. F and I were crying and smiling and completely in love! I delivered the placenta easily and we donated the cord blood to the public bank. Delivering the placenta was one of the worst parts of LM's delivery because they didnt wait for it to come out on its own. I actually felt the dr. (not the same one this time) rip it from my body. It is amazing I didnt hemorage or have scarring on my uterus because of it. This time, it was out and I hardly realized it. OH, and did I mention...no tearing or stiches... HELL YEAH!!

The first thing I did was look to see if she was a boy or girl. I was absolutely not surprised to see that we had a baby girl! I knew the entire time and she is so perfect. She's already got her daddy and her big brother wrapped around her finger and I've been filling her closet with tutus and ruffles. Whew, if you made it this far, I'm impressed! So as a reward...here are some pictures :)

I love this one!!

Getting ready to head to the hospital!

Daddy's little girl

she's here!!

Introducing...

Avery Anne

Avery was born on April 25th weighing in at 7lbs 9 oz and 21 inches. She is absolutely perfect and we are completely smitten.

Avery's birth story coming soon...when I've gotten a little more sleep!

And here's the part where I complain...

I've officially hit that part of the pregnancy where I'm READY to have this baby. I mean, feet swelling, waddling, enduring the most ridiculous things people let fly out of their mouths READY. Let's recap the top three DUMB things I've been told in the last few days:

1. You better be having that baby really soon- no dipshit, its fun being this enormous and I'd like to stay this way for.ever.

2. Wow, your walk has really changed. I mean REALLY changed- oh really? well, lets see how an 8lb baby sitting on your pubic bones changes your walk, ass.

3. Ohhh I can see it in your face, you are just so done (said while higher up at work wants to touch said face, but gets death stare instead)- your powers of deduction are astounding, assclown. I'm a week away from my due date and there is a full-grown newborn HUMAN INSIDE of my body. Do ya think I'm done?

Apparently, this is also the part of my pregnancy where I curse like sailor because my clothes are big enough to hoist as sails...at least, those clothes that still fit...

Happy Hump Day! (but be careful, this could be you in 9mos! ;)

Growing in every way

This week the Little Man has discovered the joy it brings me (and possibly all women) when a man (big or small) brings them flowers. He officially picked his first “flowers” from our back yard and proudly presented them to me. Of course, they were weeds that have little purple flowers on top, but they immediately went into a vase on our kitchen table. Since then he’s constantly trying to pick flowers to bring me and I love it. This is his first gift that has given of his own free will without any prompting from anyone else. That kid has the biggest heart and it’s amazing to see him growing into a person who understands that other people have feelings and that he can influence them…positively and negatively. We’re also talking a lot about not pointing at people or talking about them. Like I said, positive and negative.

LM’s love of giving me flowers has blossomed so much that last night as he and Dr. F were coming in our front door; he tried to rip out some of the flowers we have planted next to our door. Dr. F quickly stopped him reminding him how hard we all worked to make them look so nice, but our sweet sweet boy started to tear up saying he just wanted to pick flowers to give to me. Our hearts completely melted. Dr. F felt terrible, but I couldn’t blame him for not wanting our new flowers torn out and one never can tell what a 3 yr old’s true intentions are. We all snuggled and Dr. F told LM that they would find other flowers to give to Mommy. All was quickly right with the world as the boys played some basketball and I got dinner together.

Last night was also interesting because after dinner I was completely laid up on the couch with painful contractions 4 minutes apart for almost 2 hours. OH that was fun. It actually might have been “fun” if I wasn’t only 36 weeks and Dr. F didn’t have his exam this weekend. At least it gave me a lot of practice breathing and relaxing…and I didn’t do a single dish and watched American Idol guilt free. It also got me thinking about just how exciting it is that we’ll be meeting SB soon. And SB will soon have a name! And I won’t get the random comments in the elevator at work begging me not to go into labor. Seriously, yesterday some guy who works on another floor just had to check to make sure I wasn’t due any second. It’s a 20 second elevator ride, dude. Calm yourself. My co-workers also demanded that I put my Dr.’s #, my parents’ and Dr. F’s phone numbers up in my cubicle…you know, just in case I go into spontaneous labor and am rendered unable to communicate… of course, most of them haven’t had kids and are totally freaked out about the possibility that I’ll have this kid right here on the floor of my cube. And I kinda go along with it, just because I get a kick out of watching them freak out a little J     

    

Happy Thursday!