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.


Tuesday, September 11, 2012

My Sickling

On Thursday we had a sick baby. And I don't mean of the runny nose kind. 
Mike didn't have to be into work until 1:30 and I had an appointment at 10:15 so I was getting ready to head out the door at 9:40 but Ellie was being fussy and wanted up so I picked her up to give her a smooch good-bye.
First mistake.
 A few seconds after she was in my arms she projectile vomited all over me, the couch, and the floor. Twice. 
So after I stripped her down and changed my clothes I left and Mike won the prize of cleaning up the gigantic mess. She has thrown up before and then been fine so I figured it was just a fluke. ha!
Once I got home and after he left for work Ellie was being super snugly so we just sat on the couch and watched some "Micka Mouse". I wanted to keep her mellow and sitting in one place and this was the only way to do it. 


I tried to put her down for a nap around 2:00 but she didn't want me to leaver he in her crib so I told her that she could take a nap in Mommy's bed but she had to sleep. I didn't have very high hopes because she NEVER sleeps when we bring her in there but in less than 5 minutes she was O.U.T. I dozed for about 45 minutes and then I just laid in bed and played on my DS while she slept. She was out until 5:00!! This girl never sleeps that long. Her naps are usually only an hour long. 

Homegirl took OVER the bed!!


I figured once she woke up she would be feeling better so I brought her back out to watch some more "Micka Mouse" and fed her a few crackers. 2 seconds later she was fussing and threw up all over me again. Poor girl. I cleaned up the mess, put her in the bath and let her play for about a half hour or so. Once she was in bed she slept through the night and I assumed she would be a-ok in the morning. (You know you have watched too much Mickey Mouse when you are singing yourself to sleep with the hot-dog song.)
Wrong again.
I gave her some toast for breakfast on Friday and she couldn't keep that down so I made an appointment for the Dr's. While we waited for her appointment we watched a little more "Micka Mouse" and she was sitting on the couch and then just flopped over and cashed out. I don't think in her 21 months of life she has EVER fallen asleep on the couch. 
We used towels for "blankets" for obvious reasons
In the office's lobby she was saying she wanted a (s)nack so I figured that meant she was feeling better if she wanted to eat. I gave her a plum organics pouch and less than a minute later it all came back up again.The Dr. said it was just a bug and to keep an eye out for dehydration because she couldn't keep anything down. She suggested Pedialyte but we later found out that was a bad idea because Ellie would just chug it and you guessed it-couldn't keep it down. She took a short little nap and I packed to head up north for my BFFs bachelorette bash. I felt so bad leaving my little sicking but I knew that she would be fine with Mike. I called him a little after we left and she said she was doing ok but kept saying "Mommy. Where's Mommy." It broke my heart. He said she was asking for me on Saturday morning too. She's so sweet. 
We had made plans with my mom to watch Ellie on Saturday but told her that it didn't ;look like it was going to happen because it wasn't looking like she was going to get better any time soon. I felt really bad because I know how much she was looking forward to it so when Ellie woke up Saturday and was able to keep everything down she went to my moms for the afternoon...after daddy took her to Olive Garden for lunch of course! I was so happy to hear that she was doing better and it let me relax enough to enjoy the weekend. 
All better. And sporting her new converse kicks. Man she looks like her daddy here.

Seeing Ellie sick broke my heart. I just felt so bad for her. A 21 month old doesn't understand what's happening when they're throwing up and I can just imagine how much it freaked her out. I am so glad that she is feeling better and I am seriously contemplating wrapping her up in a bubble so we NEVER have to deal with that again!!

So now we I get the fun job of breaking her from thinking she gets to watch "Micka Mouse" all day. 
Oh Joy.