Just a couple of photos...

Life has been busy with a new position at work, school full time, two girls to keep up with, and just life in general.  I'm so looking forward to the holidays!!

 

My little Madi bug is able to sit up! She's 6 months old and growing oh so quickly. She has the best heart melting smiles. :)

 Bayley and her outfit that centered around her pink sparkly belt. :) Those are skinny jeans, by the way, and are still not "skinny" on her. My sweet little beanpole. :)

New job, new baby

While I was on maternity leave with Madison, I was promoted at work. Pretty cool, huh?  It has been pretty strange coming back to work at a new desk with new responsibilities. Thankfully, I'm just one desk over from my old position. 

Madi is 3 months old and a happy little girl.  She loves to smile and make lots of fun noises. She's my little chunky monkey too... she has cute little fat rolls on her legs that Bayley never had. She eats every 3-4 hours during the day and then sleeps through the night. Yay! She eats 4 oz, usually, but occasionally 6.

Bayley is a FABULOUS big sissy. She loves on Madi and hasn't shown any jealousy yet. And no regression. I'm a blessed girl. Bayley is a constant source of entertainment, as she is always saying something really funny. The other morning we got to sleep in a little before we had to go to work and preschool...and she came to me, covered in marker. We normally confiscate markers but these slipped past me. Ooops. I wasn't mad, despite the look on her face; instead, I was thankful she chose herself as the canvas instead of the walls or furniture.  I got a good laugh and then let her soak in the bathtub for half an hour before it all came off. Made me late for work, but totally made my day. I get the giggles everytime I see this photo. I'm saving it for her senior yearbook. haha!

And baby makes 3 (kids, that is)

Sorry for the lack of posting. I have gotten out of blogging mainly because I'm lazy and I'm not sure if anyone reads anymore.  Then I got a few emails from people asking for updates...obviously you are not a FB friend or you'd see a TON of stuff about my kids. But hey, if you don't want to be FB buddies, I'm okay with that, too. :)
I just looked at the last photo of me at 3 weeks and HOLY COW. I was huge! I ended up gaining only 10 lbs and was 12 lbs lighter than my pre-pregnancy weight at my 6 week checkup. Pretty amazing.
Since having Madi, I am so tired. All. the. time.  What was I thinking? Having a 4 year old then starting back over with a newborn?! My advice to parents: don't let too much time pass between kids, because you get used to the semi-self-sufficient kid you already have...then starting over is a LOT harder. Mine are 4 years apart and we'd been trying since Bayley was 2. I just turned 35, so we're not planning on any more kids. I'd have loved to have had two more, but the risk for birth defects goes up significantly at 35 and I just don't feel as young as I used to. And we definitely need a bigger house. 1200 sqft with 3 bedrooms is just not enough for a boy and 2 girls.  Z is not at our house very much, but when he is, it is a tight fit. We can't afford to get a bigger house for several more years and we definitely cannot afford child care for another baby after Madi. We got lucky and a friend begged to keep Madi for us, who has agreed to watch her for significantly less than what daycare charges.  Very thankful for her. She's amazing and adores Madi. It has worked out fantastically.
Madi has blonde hair and very blue (almost purple) eyes. She's fair skinned and I can't help but wonder whose baby she is with the blonde hair.  Turns out, Joe and I both had blonde or blondish hair at birth. Whew!  She was 7lbs, 6oz and 20 inches long.  She is a little chunky monkey, compared to what Bayley was.  Madi is VERY demanding when it comes to food. She has NO patience and therefore never latched on. I'm still pumping but now she mainly gets formula.  More on that later.

I'll blab more later if anyone is interested, but here is a photo (which is what everyone wants to see anyway)...

Not sure why it's turning it sideways; sorry about that!

Z will be 10 next week. Bayley is 4. And Madison is 8 weeks as of this past Saturday, the 2nd.

36 weeks and huge

30 weeks

Not much is new with me. Just tired. Third trimester and all I want to do it sleep. I cry a lot. That's about it.

I'm in school full time (12 hours) and still working full time, so not a lot of time left in the day. I don't know if anyone even still reads this blog... so I don't really feel like I should ever update it.

If people still read, I'll take a 30 week prego shot and post.

21 weeks

I'm just over the halfway mark at 21 weeks. Not much to report, really. Just the achiness of the loosening of joints, baby girl kicks in my belly, and psiatic nerve pain that is literally a pain in my butt.

I wish I was more exciting, but I'm really not. :)

Today we found out we are....

Pain in the ass .... literally.

Today I dropped $100 at a compounding pharmacy for progesterone shots. My OB recommended that I get the once a week shots from weeks 18 to 36 to hopefully keep this baby in me full term, since I delivered Bayley at 33 weeks.

I am not wild about dropping my pants to show off my glow-in-the-dark-white butt to someone, but I'm nervous about letting my husband do it since you can hit your psiatic nerve. That would send me through the roof, so I'm letting a nurse at work do it. I realize she's a nurse and is used to seeing hineys all day...but she's used to LITTLE hineys because she's a pediatric nurse. Gyah!

Anyway. Insurance doesn't pay for this, and this vial is only for 9 shots so I'll be shelling out another $100 in 9 weeks. This baby had better be AWESOME!!

And on a positive note....we go for our big u/s on Thursday, so hopefully we'll find out what we're having. :)

Halloween 2011

Bayley had a great time trick or treating last night. She went as Princess Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty) and looked precious. Afterwards, we went to my neighbor's house for chili. She scarfed a bowl of it down and so she was Princess Chili Face. And she had a pretty tiara on, but she had just taken it off for this photo. :)

GD or not GD. :)

Halle-freakin-leujah!

My doc's office called this morning and told me that the parameters for the 3 hour GTT are set a little low and my OB thinks anything 130 or less on the last one is fine. Mine was 128. YAY!!! No nutrition class and no extra monitoring -- for now. I took this as my wakeup call and still plan on sticking with a lower carb diet.... right after I finish this chocolate cake. :) ha. Just kiddin.


One other thing that has me convinced I need to stick with lower carbs is that my OB also wants me to consider taking weekly progesterone injections. These injections are to prevent having another preterm baby. So I told her I'd think about it while I researched it. From what I've read so far, the side effects seem to be: headaches, dizziness, and higher likelihood of gestational diabetes. Well, I'm already having headaches and occasional dizziness, so that will stink. And I'd more than likely (in my oh so not professional opinion) get GD, so I'm def sticking with the low carb diet to keep things under control.

The shots are not covered by my insurance and I'll have to get them from now until 36 weeks. They're not cheap, but from what she's told me, they're do-able. I just hope I don't have to consume a bottle of Tylenol before this pregnancy is over. :)

GD

I have Gestational Diabetes. Super.

Now I need to figure out what to eat. I will be attending a nutrition class next Wednesday and will find out if the doc recommends diet changes alone or if I should take a pill. I'm thinking dietary alone except the holidays are coming up. How can a pregnant woman eat HEALTHY during the holidays? Okay, I know it's possible....but seriously...the holiday food should be consumed in obscene amounts with atrocious amounts of calories. Just my opinion.

Second pregnancy is not as easy as it should be.

Spinning.

So this pregnancy so far is kicking my butt. I went about a week or two thinking, "Oh, this 2nd trimester is going to be easy! I don't even really feel pregnant!" Then I wake up yesterday morning and this morning with the room spinning. Horrible dizziness. I have to get up really slowly and then still feel icky for hours afterward. I've had to break out the Zofran again so I don't puke my guts up. Not a good feeling.

Tomorrow I go to the OB for my checkup. I'm just over 14 weeks and so it'll probably be too early to tell the gender. But I'm SO ready to know! I need things to PLAN.

Something here.

I think we finally have a boy's name picked out. Joe LOVES the first name and I like it, but am not in love with it. Hopefully it'll grow on me. The initials are pretty cool, though.

I'm 12.5 weeks and am beyond ready for the exhaustion to GO AWAY already. I have to have a daily 2 hour nap to function well.

Tired of frozen dinners for lunch and snacks. In a food rut. Hard to make fun stuff when you're broke.

Sorry this isn't longer, but I have to leave work and get to class. Ugh.

What's in a Name?

Joe and I cannot agree on a boy's name. We have a girl's name picked out already, but even that took me letting him choose a name and I gave final approval. We arrived at a middle name by going through a list of baby names on the internet and when I read the one we ended up choosing, we both immediately said, "I've never heard of that, but I like it!"

So if this baby is a boy, we are at the drawing board. Joe vetos EVERYthing. I love Mason, Bennett, Garrett, and Xander. He hates all of them but Xander. And he says he isn't sold on Xander, but maybe as a middle name. We also sort of like Xavier for a middle name. But we don't want too many "er" names because of our last name ending in "er."

We don't want anything super common or WAY out there. Joe hates last names as first names. I thought Davis was a cute name too. Nope. Last name. So, I already know how this will end up being resolved: Joe will decide on a couple of names he really likes and I'll choose the one I like. Hopefully I'll love one of them.

So I'm open to suggestions. No biblical names, Jackson is cute but there are WAY too many already. And it's a last name. He sort of likes Conner, but it's an "er" name.

And if you know me, then you know I need a name picked out for both genders just in case. And no, I'm not having twins. Just one baby. :)

First OB Appt

My first OB appt was last Friday, the 9th. I LOVE my OB! I had only met her once -- when I was delivering Bayley -- and it wasn't a pleasant meeting because I wanted more pain meds (never got my epidural) and I ended up delivering naturally. She got soaked in the process, so she didn't stick around to say congrats. So anyway.

I finally got to really meet her and she is SO nice. I can email her and she emails back the same day. I've tried it twice. :)

My due date was moved back a few days to April 15th, as the baby measured 8 weeks and 5 days on the 9th. So now I'm 9 weeks, 3 days. And according to a prego app on my phone, the baby is 1.5 inches and the size of a prune. They measure everything according to fruit. I wonder what they'll say when I'm about to give birth: "your baby is the size of a WATERMELON!! Good luck pushing that thing out!"

Cozy pants

I have had one pregnancy craving so far and it's still going strong: Taco Bell crunchy tacos. I want two of them with mild sauce. I have only eaten them a few times, but I could honestly eat them every night for dinner. Why can I not crave broccoli or something healthy? I do eat fruit and veggies, but I don't crave them.

I've been great about limiting caffeine. I like so many other drinks that it doesn't even bother me to have only 1 cup of coffee or none at all, to not have sweet tea (although I make it decaf with Splenda at home), or any other caffeinated beverage. I've been drinking sprite with fruit punch when I go out. Fun to mix them, like when I was a kid. Except I don't have all the flavors.

Finally got maternity clothes. I'm only 8 weeks (almost 9) but I feel bloated. My pants aren't buttoning, so I got some linen maternity pants from Old Navy and they have a stretchy waist but no panel. I had to roll them down so they'd stay on, but they are OH. SO. COMFY. And I got the softest tops that will stretch when my tummy balloons out. So nice, but they are more spring/summer wear. Fine for now, but I'll be getting slacks at some point. I also got a pair of maternity leggings. They were so soft and cozy that I wore them to bed last night. Slept like a baby. It was fantastic. I didn't care that I looked dumb...I felt cozy. :) I'm so thankful that most of my pregnancy will be during the colder months. I can pile on layers and thick, cozy socks and I'm getting all excited just thinking about it!

I'm so ready for fall.

Barf.

With this pregnancy (so far) and also with Bayley, the thought of eggs made me gag. Funny how certain foods and smells make you want to barf. The other day at Target the popcorn smelled a little burnt in the snack area as I was in the check out line. I had to breathe through my nose. Waves of nausea rolled over me and I had to grip my cart before I succombed to the ickiness.

I don't remember if I was constantly nauseated with Bayley, but this pregnancy I definitely am. Bleh. I have had to take Zofran several times already. That is one miracle drug. I just hope it doesn't cause any harmful side effects. The docs I work for assure me it doesn't, but I'll ask my OB when I go for my first visit just in case. And if it's okay, I plan on asking for a TON of it.

The whole nausea thing has its upside: I don't want to eat but I eat just enough to ward off the icky feeling. Usually I eat a few saltines or a piece of bread. For lunch yesterday I had a small baked potato with a little butter. Last night I had a hard time keeping my pj pants up. I do remember losing weight in the beginning with Bayley too, so this is a good thing. Lord knows I can spare the poundage.

I just hope this pregnancy is as pleasant as with Bayley. I really enjoyed it. Now just ask me again in a few months. :)

7 Weeks

Okay, I am NOT nearly as cute as some of my friends who post their prego photos, but I decided that I want to SEE my progress and my own worst critic is me. Right? RIGHT? So, let's ignore the fact that I'm overweight and bloated; but this is where I'm starting my photographic evidence. You know, it's really hard to turn sideways and take a photo of yourself without looking totally goofy. This actually took a few tries.

6 weeks, 4 days.

Week 6 and I want the persistent nausea to go away. It's awful in the mornings and lets up for the most part throughout the day, then starts coming back a little at night. No vomiting, thankfully, but I just feel awful. I can't make myself eat crackers so I chew gum until I can eat. Then I eat something small every 2-3 hours during the day. It helps, but doesn't make it totally go away.

I work for pediatricians and they all say, "As much as it sucks, at least it means the pregnancy has a good strong, hold." Yes, I'm glad. I'm extremely fortunate to have never lost a pregnancy, so I try to remind myself of that during my most miserable moments.

I'm 6 weeks, 4 days. According to an app on my phone, the baby is now almost 0.25in long and is as big as a blueberry.

Trying to get back into the groove of writing again...

Joe insisted we get a test from a doctor's office because he doesn't believe in the validity of a home pregnancy test, despite my telling him it's very rare to have a false positive. So yesterday we went to my PCP and yes, we are indeed prego.

It took us 2 years and many failed attempts. My struggle with getting pregnant has not been as extreme as other people I know, but it has been my struggle. I never tried fertility treatments or anything, but I did try ovulation kits and finally started tracking my cycles with an iphone app called Period Tracker. Over a year into it, it has my cycles (which are VERY irregular) nailed. It's pretty amazing. My average cycle length is not the "average" 28 days. Mine is 50. So you can imagine why I was never getting pregnant. Being in school full time (for a year or so, both Joe and I were both FT students), both of us working full time, and Joe taking on several side jobs, it left little time or energy for anything else. Add two kids into the mix and it is crazy we managed our schedules the way we did.

So, he finally graduated May 2010 and a few months ago he finished his last side job. So I guess God was telling us to wait until we slowed down a bit. I'm still in school but my grades have been terrible and I lost my financial aid. This summer I took 9 hours to bring my GPA up and to become eligible to reapply for financial aid. I got two B's and an A, so I know I can do better. Now that we have a baby on the way, it has reiterated to me that I need to just get my $h!t together and crank out those classes and graduate already. If I can stay on track, I should graduate with an accounting degree May 2013. Let's cross our fingers and toes on that. Seeing as how I'll deliver sometime in the middle of Spring 2012, that may not happen.

Anyway...

with prego symptoms... I know someone is dying to hear about them. ha.
Very tender boobies, almost constant nausea (no tossing cookies, though, thankfully), and a little constipation. Isn't that fun?

Went to the store last night to get some groceries and feeling like a great grandma, I got some prunes. Bayley saw the individually wrapped ones and thought it was chocolate, so she INSISTED on getting them. I figured since she has poop issues too, why not? So last night she ate two of them. And loved them. Hope the fireworks happen at daycare. ha.

First OB appt is 9/2 so I hope to get an ultrasound that day. Then I'll have photos to post. :)