Friday, March 8, 2013

Bump Watch

How far long: 29w 5d

Kisses for baby M
Size of baby: Butternut Squash 17in 3.1lbs

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I think maybe 7lbs but I will find out or sure next Wednesday. 

Maternity Clothes: Definitely. I'm going to have to go shopping to get some more tops to get me through the next couple months. Darn. 

Gender: a BOY!

  Movement: Baby boy moves so much! His movements are usually pretty low, sometimes I think he is trying to make a break for it! 

Sleep: I've been sleeping pretty well lately. I started taking a nice hot relaxing bath before bed and that's helped in the sleep department.

What I miss: I still miss being able to put my socks/pants on without feeling searing pain. And being able to roll over in bed without feeling like my body is ripping in half. That's fun. 

  Cravings: I don't really have many cravings. I do however love the fruit Popsicles that Meijer sells. here is always a box in our fridge.  

Symptoms: back pain and what I am diagnosing as SPD. I went to the chiropractor this week and he asked me "what the hell I did to my pelvis". To which my answer was "Nothing! Walk?!" He popped everything back into place and it seems to be helping. I will definitely be going once a week until this baby comes though! And probably make a pit stop on the way home from the hospital to get everything realigned. 

What I'm looking forward to: Getting our maternity pictures taken next weekend! We never did pictures when I was pregnant with Ellie so I am super excited. 

Best Moment this week: There will a lot of great things this past week. My sisters and my mom threw me a "sprinkle" for baby M and we got so many adorable outfits! It was so nice spending time with family and seeing all the love that they have for baby M already. And I got my ju ju be diaper bag! My sisters and I went to buy buy baby and bought our stroller, I think Mike was more excited about that than I was. He put it together the second that Ellie went to bed. And Ellie spent the next two days playing with it in our living room. She was so excited!




What Ellie's been up to: She has been super snuggly. If I am sitting on the couch she comes over and wants to "lay on mama". She has to be sitting next to me. She has even done it a few times when Mike is home and usually she always blows me off for him! I wonder if she has a sixth sense that something is about to change?!?


Thursday, February 21, 2013

Baby #2


I guess since I am about 2/3 of the way through this pregnancy I should document some of it!

How Far Along: 27w3d

Size of baby: Head of cauliflower. 16in 2.5lbs


Total Weight Gain/Loss: I am up around 6lbs. 

Maternity Clothes: Oh yeah. Maternity jeans are my favorite. And yoga pants.

Gender: a BOY!

  Movement: He is a crazy ninja. He moves way more than Ellie ever did, and he sits SO low. He's killing me!

Sleep: For the most part I sleep ok. I wake up every time I have to roll over because it is so painful. My goal is always to make it through the night without having to get up and go to the bathroom-or pee the bed (so far so good)! 

What I miss: Being able to put my socks/pants on without feeling searing pain 

  Cravings: I don't really have many cravings. I didn't have any real cravings with Ellie either. But in the next few weeks I'm sure I will start eating ice like crazy. 

Symptoms: back pain and what I am diagnosing as SPD. 

What I'm looking forward to: Going on a hospital tour and meeting all the midwives next week. 

Best Moment this week: We went to Babies R Us and got an AMAZING deal on the video monitor. We already set it up so we can watch Ellie while she is "sleeping". Sometimes it is more frustrating being able to see what she is doing in there. I can't wait to go get our stroller and the rest of the stuff we need for baby M!!






Monday, February 4, 2013

Now This Is A Story All About How...

Mike and I met when I was a freshman in high school and he was a senior. 
Let that sink in for a minute!!!
He played on the Varsity soccer team-along with my brothers. 
When I first met him he was dating one of my friends but that didn't stop me from telling her he was cute. Long story short-they broke up and he asked me out a little bit later.

We dated for a few months then I broke up with him (I was really dumb when I was younger. And maybe a wee bit boy crazy) but we ended up getting back together that summer. Then we broke up-again.
We got back together my junior year of high school and we were still together when I went off to Tennessee for college.
We ended up breaking up again that fall but continued to keep in contact. 
When I was home for winter break from school I decided the night before I was supposed to drive back down that I was going to drive down, pack up my stuff, and move home. Nothing like last minute decisions. 

Mike and I weren't together, but we still hung out all the time and he kept asking me if we could get back together. I kept blowing him off because I was 18 and single-and pretty hot stuff if I do say so myself. Instead of gaining the freshman 15 I lost almost 60 pounds and wanted to enjoy being single. Which included a lot of girls night at da club. 
 Finally that summer we got back together and things were pretty serious. We were talking about getting married and even went and looked at some rings. In December of 2006 I moved down to North Carolina to live with my sister-in-law (who I really didn't know at the time-what were we thinking?!) while my brother went on tour in Iraq, and I was going to help watch my brand new little niece who was born on December 15th.  
Mike and I maintained our relationship and I drove home in February to surprise him for a visit. He was actually planning on driving down to NC to see me for a week but I conspired with my best friend to drive up and see him instead. On February 23, 2007 I went over to his house and he showed me a scrapbook that he made...
and on the last page he asked me to marry him. 



I wish I could say it was all smooth sailing-but it was a long hard year to make it to the altar...




Thursday, January 31, 2013

So I don't Forget...

So many people tell me that the age/stage Ellie is in is the best. Some days, when the temper tantrums are rampant, I think they are crazy. But for the majority of the time I have to agree with them. She does and says the funniest things. It's finny to listen to her talk and see the phrases that she picks up from listening to other people. And sometimes it really makes me realize the things she hears from me...good and bad!

Since I have such horrible baby brain I figured I better jot down some things I want to remember about this age. 

She knows her colors; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, white, and black.
She knows the shapes square, circle, triangle, diamond, rectangle, star, and hexagon and can point them out in every day life. We sit down and do flashcards of shapes every day. She loves it. 


 She knows that baby Michael is in my belly and always wants to see him. Which is a little embarrassing when she's trying to pull up my shirt in front of other people. I don't think she really understands what it means that "there's a baby in mommy's belly" I will ask her if she wants me to have a baby or if she wants a little brother and she tells me No. I think she's going to be in for a wake up call in 4 short months!

She speaks really well and almost everything she says is a full sentence.I'm grateful because it makes it easier to figure out what she wants when she's upset but she also displays a lot of sass.
Just today when we got home from the gym she said "Do not tell me what to do." 
Seriously?!?!? I wasn't aware I had a teenager in my house.
A lot of her phrases start with "Do not.." apparently this is something I say often. "Do not touch the kitty while he's eating, do not throw your food on the floor, etc."

She has a purple vtech puppy that she has recently become pretty attached to and she always tells me "Mama he's just a yittle baby. Awww he's so caauuuute." This phrase pretty much goes for anything. All her stuffed animals are "so caaauuute".

The other day when I was babysitting I put the gate up to trap keep them corralled into the back room and she walked over to it and said "Uh oh, we're stuck. I need to open it, where's the keys? Mama where's my keys?"

Multiple times while we've been out to eat she announces for everyone to hear "Mama I'm poopy. I pooped." And when I took her to the bathroom to change her she said "I don't wanna go on the big potty anymore" Mind you she has NEVER gone on the big potty. We've been dabbling a little bit in the potty training arena but all she wants to do is strip naked, sit down, and tell me she "needs a piece of paper." then she proceeds to "wipe" and throws it in the big potty. Rinse and repeat. 


When Ellie is throwing a temper tantrum I tell her "Ok it's time to go to bed. You must be really tired if you're crying a fussy." and she usually stops freaking out and tells me why she's upset. So the other day during dinner the devil kitty was meowing and she said "The kitty needs to go to bed because he's crying." Proof she does actually listen to me!!!

Luckily the worst thing that she has said has been "Oh my gosh." and I know it's really not that big of a deal, but I don't think it is something that needs to be coming out of a two year olds mouth. It has been shortened to "Oh my" or "Oh my goodness". 

She is such a compassionate soul. Seeing as how my crazy hormones are out of whack thanks to pregnancy there have been a few occasions where she has seen me cry and she always says "Mama what'sa wrong?" And then she comes over to me, puts her head on my shoulder, puts her arm around me and pats my back. 

 I have to admit there are a lot of times that my patience is beyond tested (let's be honest-I don't really have that much to begin with) but I can't help but look at her and be amazed at how much I can possibly love someone. She is so amazing. 

She is ob-sessed with playdoh. That's all she ever wants to do. Which really entails opening the blue, playing with it for a minute then "I want pink" playing with it for a minute then "I want yellow" etc etc. She also likes to color. Both with crayons and the color wonder markers. God bless the inventor of color wonder markers. She will climb up on the chair in the dining room and say "Mama, com p(l)ay me." And then I die. 

She is always shuffling around the house in these little baskets and says she is skiing. 

During the week she is always asking for daddy and says "Daddy's working afternoon. I miss him" She loves him so much. 

Lately everything she says (especially when she's crying) ends with yesterday. I don't know where she picked it up or why she says it. She pushed a bag down the stairs at my moms house over the weekend and when we asked her why she did that she just kept crying and saying she did it yesterday. 

As trying as some days can be, this really is an amazing stage and I am so thankful to have this little girl in my life. I just love her so much!


When she woke up from her nap today I went in to get her and when I picked her up she put her little head on my shoulder so I sat down to rock her. Usually she will only sit with me for a few minutes before she starts talking or asking where the kitty is but today she fell back asleep and I got to rock her for an ENTIRE HOUR!! I was in mama heaven, she never ever ever sleeps on us anymore. I really cherish these quiet moments with her, especially now that we have another baby coming and I know that the time of it just being her and I is almost over.
Cue alligator tears.



"The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow,
But children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep."






Thursday, January 17, 2013

Look Whoo's Two

Yes I am fully aware that Ellie has been 2 for an entire month and I am just now getting around to recapping her birthday/party. I have been so pre-occupied, but more on that another day.

Don't judge me. 

Ellie's birthday fell on a Saturday this year so we ended up having her party on the same day. 
I wanted to do an owl theme for Ellie's birthday this year. Mike wasn't really all for it, but once I showed him some of the stuff I wanted to do he came around. 
Men. 



The menu consisted of: pigs in a blanket, fried ravioli, deviled eggs, fruit pizza, veggie pizza, cupcakes, homemade hot chocolate, and pink lemonade/raspberry sorbet punch.



These were the goodies to add to the homemade hot chocolate. Marshmallows, crushed candy canes, Hershey kisses, Rolo's, and Reese's. Everyone said that the hot chocolate was amazing, but I was too buys to actually get to try some during the party. By the time everyone left it was all gone. So I guess I will have to take their word on it!!
Recipe here. I doubled it for about 15-20 people. 

(Sorry for the super good quality photos)
The cupcake toppers alternated the number 2 and these cute little owls that took me forrreverrr to make on my cricut. 

It was really fun to watch Ellie open her presents this year. She kept saying "Open presesnts" until it was actually time to sit down and get to it. She knew what was going on and after every toy she opened she said "Wanna open it" because she wanted to play with every single one right away. So we had to keep the assembly line moving so she wouldn't get distracted by all the fun stuff she got. But who doesn't want to watch a toddler open presents for hours?



Ellie had 5 of her cousins there and had absolutely no interest in sharing any of her toys with them. She got a 24 pack of playdoh and a jar of utensils to go along with it and when she opened up the jar of utensils everyone kept taking them and trying to play with them. So she shot them all a dirty look, picked them all up and put them away. I guess in her mind if she had to share her toys she didn't want to play with them. 

Unfortunately we I didn't get a picture of her in her birthday outfit so these action shots will have to do. 




It was the cutest little outfit I've ever seen. It was perfect for her owl theme. 
Here's what it actually looks like. (I wish I got this deal for it!)

Little Miss Princess was actually still asleep when every one got to our house for her party. We let her sleep until we finished up setting everything up. I had NO intention of waking her up because she can be quite the bear when she's awoken from her slumber. (I have NO idea where she gets that from.)
So needless to say she was a little shy when she woke up and saw her house was full of people.
When it came time to sing happy birthday she really wanted nothing to do with it. 


Sweet Daddy's girl


Being shy didn't stop her from eating the frosting off her cupcake though. 

And because we are amazing here is the ONLY shot we got of the three (four!!) of us all day.

Definite capturing the moment fail. 

Once everyone left Ellie spent the rest of the night in a slap-happy sugar high. She played with all her new toys and climbed all over Mike like he was a jungle gym. You can't sit on the floor without this girl climbing up your back to sit on your shoulders. 

This was the last year that we will celebrate Ellie's birthday as a family of 3. I wonder how she will do having to share EVERYTHING with her little brother in just a few short months!

I can't believe we have a 2 year old, how did the time so by so fast? 
Once our little boy comes I am never blinking again!














Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Just A Quick Announcement...

I finally logged onto blogger on my computer only to see that it has been 2 months since my last post.
Whoops!
We were so busy this holiday season and time has just flown by.
Hopefully I won't be so MIA this year but than again who knows.

I think one of the reasons that it's been hard for me to find something to write about is because every time I open a blank page there has only been one thing on my mind...


The fact that we are having a baby!!!!!!!!!

And a baby boy a that!!!!!!!!!

All I seemed to be able to type is
ohmygoshI'mpregnant. Ican'tbelievewe'regoingtohaveanotherbaby. Iamsonervous. Ihopeeverythingwillbeokthistime. Ithinkwe'regoingtohaveaboy. WhatamIgoingtodowithaboy?Idon'tknowhowtobethemomofaboy. It'saboy.Aboy? Ishegoingtobehealthy?Ican'tebelievewe'rehavinganotherbaby!!!!!

Just been a wee bit scatter-brained over here lately!

I am 21 weeks along and have an estimated due date of May 20, 2013. We couldn't be happier and are looking forward to meeting our little rainbow baby in a little over 4 months. There is a ton I need to catch up on, and since I finally got this out there maybe my mind will be able to actually formulate a post on something other than announcing my pregnancy!

I can't wait to see what 2013 has in store for us!


Thursday, November 8, 2012

The Scariest Night Of My Life

We are still alive over here. I just realized that it has been forever since I have blogged about anything! We have just been so busy lately. There is a lot to catch up on! But more on that another day.

Last Thursday was the scariest night of my life. Ever. 
Literally.
I honestly thought that I was going to die.
I promise I am not being dramatic.

It all started around 7:30 when I was giving Ellie her bath before bed. My arm was feeling kind of funny. I was getting random jolts sent through it; it felt like it was kind going numb or tingly so I just figured I just had a pinched nerve or something.
After Ellie's bath I took her into her room and put her on her changing table. I went through her usual routine- drying her off, putting on lotion (this little piggy...), and I got out a bum genius and was stuffing it with an overnight insert and my arm did it again. So I shook my arm out and told myself to concentrate on what I was doing. After I put her diaper on I sat her up to put on her jammies. Which is when I realized I couldn't move my left arm. 
I couldn't feel it. 
Something wasn't right. 
I felt like it was paralysed.
I took my phone out of my pocket and dialed Mike at work but before he could answer my face went slack. I couldn't feel it. I couldn't talk. I couldn't move. I thought "Oh my gosh I am having a stroke."

As the rest of my body was going numb/shutting down I knew that my legs were giving out and I fell to the floor. The phone dropped out of my hand and I could feel myself losing consciousness. All I kept telling myself was "Get to your phone. You have to get to your phone." And then I was out. 

Mike answered my call and could hear Ellie screaming in the background. He said my name over and over when I didn't respond he figured I had butt dialed him and hung up to call me back. When he called back and I didn't answer he knew something was wrong.

We figure I was out for around 5 minutes or so from the time I called him and when he finally got through to me. I don't remember if I called him or if I answered his call. It's all a little bit fuzzy. But he said that I was hysterical and sobbing and couldn't tell him what happened.

When I came to I looked up to see that Ellie was still sitting on her changing table happily pulling all the wipes out of the container. All I could think was thank God that she stayed put. There have been a few times when I would step away from her when she was on the changing table to get a pair of socks out of another drawer and I would always tell her "Ellie don't move. Stay there. Don't move. Good job!!" So she knew to stay put. Praise God she was ok.

 Mike raced home from work to take me to the ER and I was really weak and shaky and pretty dizzy. He was driving a little faster than the speed limit so of course we ended up getting pulled over on our way to the hospital. Mike told the cop that we were on our way to the ER and he offered to call us an ambulance so that "I could get there faster and safely." but we declined that $1,000 ride since we weren't very far from the hospital.

After taking some blood, doing an EKG, and running some other tests the Dr. told me that my potassium and sodium were low, and electrolytes were off and they thought that was why my body kind of just shut down. So they gave me an IV and two giant horse pills of potassium and sent us on our merry way.

It took me a few days to recover. I was absolutely exhausted and my amazing husband let me sleep as much as I wanted to over the weekend. Wake up at 11, nap at 1:30, sleep until 4:30....it was nice. You know how when you get a charlie horse in your calf your leg is sore for a few days after-well that is how every muscle in my body felt from Friday thru Sunday. I was so sore all weekend.

I won't lie I was terrified of the thought of Mike going back to work on Monday and I may have cried about it Sunday night, but can you really blame me? I am beyond terrified that this will happen again . Terr-i-fied.
I think Mike is a little worried too.
He constantly texts me through out the day asking me if I am ok and seeing how I am doing. It's so sweet.

I made sure that I had babysitters for myself all week so I wasn't alone and thankfully have continued to feel better and nothing has happened since. I am still pretty shook up over it and am afraid that something like this will ever happen again but I just pray every day that God will keep me safe and healthy...and eat a nice big banana with a side of Gatorade.