Family Update {PIC HEAVY} - Happy Thanksgiving

This picture won me a $500 gift card! 

Sometimes I can’t even believe it; I now have a 2 year old and a 2 month old! The last few months have been busy, busy but have been great. With today being Thanksgiving, I of course have to be cliché and post what I’m thankful for, and the #1 thing on my list is my little family! G and I have been adjusting well as a family of four and are so thankful for a happy, healthy family!

 

We celebrated EM’s 2^nd birthday just over a week ago! Unlike last year, where we had a huge party for her, we decided to just do a small family party on Saturday. She got some great toys but the three big ones were a trampoline, an art Easel (which may be her favorite toy ever now!), and a little quad ride-on. Oh yea, and Minnie Mouse couch (that was from us and given to her on her actual Birthday on Sunday) – she seems to really like that too! We spent her actual Birthday morning (Sunday) at Epcot. We want to make it a tradition to bring each of the girls (by themselves) on their birthday, as a special day with just Mommy and Daddy. Since she’s so young, we just went for a few hours and took her to see the characters, on the Finding Nemo ride and looked at fishes in the Living Seas. She wasn’t comfortable walking up the characters on her own (maybe because she wasn’t feeling well) or maybe she was a little scared but with being in my arms she loved seeing them and giving them 5! Of course we couldn’t leave without getting a Mickey Bar (which she didn’t eat any of – more for Mommy!).  Unfortunately EM had a fever most of the weekend and wasn’t feeling 100% but it didn’t stop her from having a good time. 

 

unwrapping presents, one small piece of paper at a time!

her new trampoline and bracelets

ELMO was on her cake!!

her favorite!

Hi Minnie!

all the fishes!

getting the hang of driving this thing!

Mickey bars!

 

Sunday afternoon, we took a ride to my parents as EM and her Paca share a birthday and we spent the rest of the day (and a few extra since I was still on maternity leave then). My dad got to spend his birthday with all 6 of his grandkids (it’s not very often that they are ALL together at the same time) where we had a nice dinner and cake. EM loves getting to spend time with her cousins. Trying to get a decent picture of them all was so hilarious.

 

playing with cousin Mason

sharing her special day with Paca

 

 



gotta love the faces!

unrelated to her birthday, but thought this one was cute of her playing with her other cousins a few weeks ago at the playground

AB turned 2 months this week, where has the time gone? I’m now officially back at work full time as of last week. My maternity leave went SO fast. With EM, I was completely ready to go back to work by the time it was over, this time around, not so much. I think I stayed much busier this time, so I didn’t have many (if any) boring days. I mean, I didn’t even get to finish Breaking Bad. (I have now though, woah, great ending!) AB is definitely not as “easy” of a baby compared to how EM was. She doesn’t love the swing, whereas with EM, it worked instantly to calm her down and put her to sleep. She doesn’t sleep through the night yet either. EM started the week I went back to work, which I know is abnormally young to start so I wasn’t expecting it with AB, and sure enough, it didn’t happen yet. Luckily, she usually only gets up once to eat and goes right back to sleep, but still sucks to have interrupted sleep. Hoping once she starts daycare in January it’ll help exhaust her more and get her to sleep longer. At least that is our theory as to why EM started sleeping through the night so young as she started day care right when I went back to work. Anyways, even though AB is a little more difficult compared to EM, she’s really a pretty good baby, not very needy or fussy. She started smiling a week or so ago and rolls over from her tummy to her back since 2 weeks old. (Although doesn’t do it often). She loves her play mat too! She’s already grown so much, she weighs around 9.5 lbs based on my unofficial weighing (we haven’t had her 2 month appointment yet - it’ on Monday) and her features are really starting to change! Here are some of her pictures over the last two months.

 

7 days new

 

7 days new

 

 

smiles!

 

 

2 Months Old!

 

 

EM is doing extremely well adjusting to being a big sister. She checks on her every morning and looks for her as soon as she gets home from daycare each day. She doesn’t want to hold her often and when she does it’s for like 5 seconds before she’s pushing her away but she has asked for AB to be next to her on a few occasions. She’s also helped feed her a few times and even brought her a blanket once. She loves to pull the frog/music maker on the bouncy seat when AB is laying in there too. I couldn’t be happier with how she’s been with the baby. I was a little worried since she’s quite the Momma’s girl but I think including her in all the baby activities (fetching the bottle, helping with diaper changes, etc) has really helped her adjust well.

helping feed Sister



such a big helper!



shatring her Minnie Couch in their Eagles gear, watching the game

 

 

This one just cracks me up!

 

Now off to go stuff my face with some awesome Thanksgiving Day goodies at my in-laws! Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you get to spend it with some of your family and friends!

 

 

 

 

Halloween Festivities

Just wanted to share some pictures of the girls from Halloween. EM looked so darn cute in her bumble bee costume, and she surprisingly kept on her antenna headband the majority of the time. 

she loves her sunglasses!

They had a parade at her daycare but the teacher said it was too hard with the toddlers so they just watched and then they had a little halloween party for the kids. Since it was after nap time they had already changed them out of their costumes so I was a little disappointed when I went to pick her up and be there for the party that they were already in normal clothes. Her teacher said she took pics of the kids in their costumes too so I'm waiting to see those!

 After school, EM painted a pumpkin (and some paper and her feet too!) By the way Crayola washable paint is awesome! I highly recommend it, comes out of clothes completely! 

We then took her to the local Publix where she Trick or Treated between the different departments to kind of show her what it was like. She seemed to really enjoy that, so I was excited to take her out once we got home.

EM absolutely LOVED trick or treating. I thought she'd only be into it for a few houses so I went with some neighbor friends while G stayed at our house with his parents (since we live down the street from each other we decided to pass out candy together to make it more fun) and passed out candy to the kids and drinks to the parents.  Well, had I known she was going to want to do like 20+ houses I would have brought her stroller, I thought for sure she would have been over it by like the 5th house, but NOPE, she LOVED it. She probably would have kept going but she was a little slow walking between houses so I'd pick her up and "fly" her to the next house to keep up with the other, older, faster, kids in our group. After about half our neighborhood loop, my arms were getting tired and her bucket was full so I brought her home - she probably walked a good half mile! She said thank you to almost every treat giver and kind of said "trick or treat" to a few of them. When there was a line of kids at some of the houses, she stood in line and waited her turn. It was so, so, so cute how she got so into it!

walking with her Nanny before we met up with friends

EM and her buddy Charlie

AB stayed home and helped pass out candy (aka - slept during the festivities). She went as a "newborn" in her "First Halloween" onesie - so unique I know ;) 

working hard passing out candy

night time bottle with her adorable ghost hat from one of our neighbors

Hope everyone had a safe and happy halloween, I know we sure did!

A Birth Story (a little TMI)

I've already introduced our newest addition, but figured I'd share the story leading up to her arrival as well (and also so I have it documented somewhere, something I don't have for EM - boo!). PS. some of this post might be a little TMI, warning you in advance. As I've mentioned before, G travels for work most weeks (Monday through Thursday) and with the baby on her way, his last day for travel was going to be September 25th, almost 3 weeks before my due date. Even though we had EM at 37 weeks, 2 days, we figured we should be fine, at my appointment on the 19th, my cervix was still completely closed and I was showing no signs of labor. 

On Monday, September 22nd, I had an ultrasound which confirmed what we already knew (I had been feeling her head in my ribs for the past month), AB was breech. My next OB appt was on Thursday (he doesn't do ultrasounds in his office, so I didn't see him on Monday), so figured I'd save all my questions about what our next steps were in regards to scheduling a c-section, what would happen if I went into labor before said c-section, what if my water broke, etc.  

Moving on to Tuesday, I was sitting in a training class at work and was having some pretty bad cramping. I had texted G about it (and my mom and sister) and was pretty much second guessing myself. Kept chalking it up to paranoia. I was exactly 37 weeks, which was the gestation in which my water broke with EM and was paranoid about G being out of town. I even was feeling like I had no idea if these were small contractions or just cramps, or maybe even just gas. And because I was sitting in a training class, I was like chugging water to stay alert (for some reason I always drink a TON of water during training classes) and I swear I was getting up to pee every 30ish minutes and thought maybe that was making the cramping worse. I kept saying, I feel like with this being my 2nd pregnancy, I should know if these are contractions or what was going on and that I felt so clueless not knowing, but what "they" say is true, every pregnancy is different so I'm still not sure what I was feeling on Tuesday. I even joked with coworkers as I saw them that day and they asked how much longer I had, and I said 3 weeks but maybe tonight, last time my water broke tonight.  I even called my mom on the way home from work and she thought for sure it was going to be me calling her to tell her I was in labor and she needed to come to Orlando (my parents are about 1.5 hours away). I told her it wasn't but that if anything happened, she's be the 1st person I called after calling G. Most Tuesdays, my father in law picks EM up from day care and takes her out to dinner for Taco Tuesday. This Tuesday was no different except I was just more exhausted than usual (I figured staying up a little late the night before finishing the nursery was the reason), I couldn't wait for him to bring her home so I could go to bed when she went to bed. I put EM to bed, texted G that I think all the cramping wore me out and was probably asleep by 8pm. (which wasn't THAT unusual for me this pregnancy). 

Wednesday morning, I woke up about 4 am with a pounding headache on one of my many nighttime bathroom breaks so I took some tylenol and went back to sleep. About 5:20 am, I woke up to a gush of water (in bed, gross!) and somewhere in my half asleep mind, thought it would be a good idea to get up during this and trek to the bathroom which resulted in lots of dripping all over the bedroom and bathroom floor (once again, gross!). My water continued to break once I reached the toilet and from there I called G and told him to get on the next flight from Kansas City.  I then called my Mom and told her so that she and my Dad could get on their way and then called my mother in law who lives down the street. My in laws have been my back up plan for the last few weeks of G's traveling, just in case it happened while he was away, never thought we'd actually have to use the plan though! We had a plan set up in in case it happened while I was at work (My MIL works about 1 mile away so she'd pick me up) and if it happened at home (My MIL would take me to hospital and my FIL would take care of getting EM to day care/watching her - depending on the time of day). I also called my sister to let her know, she lives a little further away than my parents and I knew she'd want to come as well. I started gathering my things, finishing up packing my suitcase when my in laws showed up. My wonderful MIL helped clean my mess and wash my sheets for me and I took my time getting ready to leave (even put on make up and did my hair nice), figured the more time I wasted before getting to the hospital the better chance G had to make it for the delivery.

 I assumed that as soon as I got admitted at the hospital they would do the c-section right away. Since I hadn't talked to my OB about any of the c-sectin options yet (ya know, since my appt was the next day) I really had no idea what they were going to do/say when I arrived at the hospital. When talking about the possibility of this happening on the phone with my mom the night before, she said she believed they would just put me into surgery relatively quickly once I arrived at the hospital. I called my OB and he said that it would definitely be a c-section and to head into the hospital but not to eat or drink anything, which was tough b/c I always wake up super thirsty and hungry and hadn't eaten since 7pm the night before so my tummy was already growling. Luckily, I still felt fine otherwise. No contractions, minor cramping (less than the day before) and the 4am headache was gone.

When my MIL and I were almost to hospital, I realized I didn't bring my purse which meant I didn't have my ID, my pre-registration information, my insurance card, my OB records (which were given to me at my appt the previous friday), nothing. Luckily, because I had pre-registered it wasn't a huge deal and my FIL dropped off my purse to me after taking EM to school. I got checked into triage and my OB showed up and confirmed my water had indeed ruptured. I explained to him the situation about G being on a plane (he was on a plane about to take off within 45 minutes of my call, impressive!!) and the doc said that my cervix was still closed and since I wasn't contracting and baby was doing well, that we could wait for G to get there before doing the c-section. I was sooo happy to hear that. Of course still nervous that things could change at any time with myself or baby and they'd have to rush me in, but relieved that G even had the option to try and make it. He told me to call into his office when G was taking off from Atlanta (he was on a connecting flight) and then he'd schedule me in the OR since it's about a 45 minute flight and then would take him about 30 mins to get to hospital from airport. My parents arrived shortly after the doctor checked me while I was still in triage. I was in triage for quite a while (or so it felt) just hanging out and waiting. They had started me on an IV (after missing my vein on my hand twice, ouch! I had such a huge bruise on my hand for a few days). My sister had arrived during this time and they were moving me to another room to hang out and wait until I was ready to be prepped for the OR. We had decided it would help expedite G getting here to have someone pick him up at the airport, take their car and then let that person take the shuttle to the off-site parking and get G's car, so that's what we had G's dad do, which probably saved him a good 20ish minutes. 

hanging out in Triage

G arrived at the hospital right around 12:05 (he made it!) and within a half hour they were getting ready to take me back to be prepped for surgery. I elected to have an epidural vs. a spinal and once that was put in place, we were ready to go. I suffered a little bit of headaches and nausea from the epidural but the anesthesiologist took care of those right away. I was wheeled back into the OR and they started. I was surprised to see so many people were involved, there was at least 10 people. They all introduced themselves with name and function before they actually did anything. At some point I started throwing up, I can't remember if it was before they actually started or what but it was very awkward to not be able to do more than just turn my head to vomit. Luckily I had followed the doctor's orders and didn't eat or drink so it didn't last long and not much came out. The actual opening me up was pretty quick, although I do recall smelling something burning that reminded me of when I got my lasik which I wasn't expecting. My OB was telling jokes with the nurses, and I told him if he's going to tell jokes he needs to tell them louder so I could hear too which he did although now I don't remember the jokes but do recall them being corny. I didn't feel anything, not even too much pressure and soon enough they were commenting about Dad to get camera ready that baby was coming out (and I remember them saying she came out pooping lol). She didn't cry for the longest time and of course I was asking what was going on and they said some babies don't transition well from uterus to the world and they were giving her a little oxygen to help clear her lungs. EM had the same issue but didn't take as long to cry (from what I remember). G later told me that they administered oxygen to her for a lot longer than they had to EM and it was very scary to watch. 

Eventually, after they got all her stats and cleaned her up, they brought her over to me and I got to hold her for a few minutes. They told me they were going to bring her to the transition nursery for a little while just to monitor her (EM had been in the transition nursery for 24 hours after birth). G went with her and was able to show her to our family and the team finished stitching me up. I was also getting a tubal (yes, we both put a lot of thought into and decided two children was all we wanted), so it took a little longer than just a regular close-up but I was completely "with in" and was texting with people the whole time. Kind of crazy to think there are people's hands inside of my stomach and here I am sending pictures of my new daughter at the same time. 

After all of that was done, they wheeled me to recovery and I was just hanging out as I waited for my room to be ready for me. They told me AB was doing really good and that she'd be brought down to me shortly. This was completely shocking as I was expecting her to be up in the transition nursery MUCH longer considering how long EM was in there last time. G had come back to me at this point and they were ready to wheel my up before AB was ready to be brought down so they brought me up to my room and shortly after I was reunited with AB and the family was able to come and meet her! We stayed 3 nights at the hospital and my parents stayed at our house and took care of EM (and our dogs) during this time. AB struggled with latching (still is) so I'm pumping and bottle feeding her. Other than lack of sleep, we are all doing great at 12 days postpartum, but I will tell you, a c-section recovery is MUCH worse than a vaginal recovery. I'm feeling pretty good with only minor soreness at my incision and completely off the pain meds but the first few days were rough in the hospital so I took it really easy once we got home (slept on the couch so I didn't have to deal with the stairs or getting in and out of a really high bed) and I think that made a huge difference in my recovery. I can't wait for all the soreness to finally be gone so I can start going for daily walks and start exercising again (I know more than walking is still quite a few weeks away though). 

In conclusion, both my girls were born at 37 weeks and 2 days. Who would have thought my body would do the same exact thing at the same time of pregnancy? All I can say is, I'm happy to have two healthy little girls to complete our family!

Introducing the completion to our family: Abigail Brooke

On Wednesday, September 24th at 2:18 pm, Miss Abigail Brooke entered into the world weighing 6 lbs 14.1 oz and was 18.25 inches. Birth story to follow in a few days but for now, here are a few pictures from her first few days in the hospital.

right after delivery, still in the OR

her going home outfit, GO KNIGHTS!

loved this little hat 

our first family of four picture