Terrible Twos

Well, it's been a while. Life with 2 little darlings is a whole new world. We're adjusting, though. Baby girl is almost 3 months old...I'm not really sure how that happened, but I'm actually okay with it. She's sleeping much better. Still has some off nights (like last night when she didn't go to sleep until a little after 10:30, then woke up at 4:30 and 7:30 wanting to eat), but overall, definitely better. I don't really understand people who just LOVE newborns. They don't sleep. At least, not when you want them to. Give me a baby who's a little bit older and sleeps through the night, and I'd be more than happy to have several more. :) She also eats. A lot. And it shows. She's got the chunkiest thighs ever. And more chins and neck rolls than you can count :)

Mr. Cade, on the other hand, is having a rough time. We changed his bed from a crib to a toddler bed one week ago. It hasn't been nearly as hard as I had prepared myself for, but I wouldn't say it's been super-easy, either. He's had several days where he's refused to take a nap at all (and it is only by the grace of God that he and I both survive those days...it's looking like today is going to be another one). Adding his lack of sleep to his already two-year-old-temper-tantrum-throwing-self, and you've got the potential for disaster. These days, it takes the simplest things to set him off into a full-blown hysterical crying fit. And I am simply not the most compassionate person (shocking, I know). Pretty sure that yesterday, he got as many spankings as I am old. If not more.

But I wouldn't trade any of it. I am so blessed to be able to stay home with them and see all of the new things they learn as they learn them. I just have to remind myself of that when there's a screaming 2 year old in the middle of my living room floor. :)

Baby girl

She's here! OK, she's been here for 5 weeks as of about 3 and a half hours ago. Life has been pretty busy since then, and I think this is the 3rd time I've been able to get on the computer at all since she was born.

Here's what happened...

Early in the morning on May 1st, about 3 am, I woke up to go pee (shocking, I know). I realized I was having what I thought were contractions, but since I didn't actually go into labor with Cade, I wasn't completely sure. After 3 more contractions that were about 4 minutes apart, I woke Ryan up. We stood around for a few minutes trying to decide what to do. It was so weird...I didn't think I could really be going into labor (Cade was a day late, and we were only at 37 weeks, 5 days with this one!) and the contractions were already so close together. We called my mom for her to come stay with Cade so we could head to the hospital to have everything checked out. By the time we got there and got to a room, it was about 4:15. I was praying the whole way there that I wouldn't have the baby in the car because the contractions were getting closer together and definitely stronger.

They got me hooked up to an IV (yuck) and checked me (which was equally as painful as those contractions!!!), and I was just at a 3. At that point, the plan was that I would be admitted for a 23 hour observation, and see what happened.

The contractions kept coming. They weren't super consistent, but they were definitely painful. The nurse kept asking if I wanted anything for the pain, but I toughed it out. The dr on call for the group I see made it in to check on me around 11. I think. He also checked me (seriously, that was one of the worst parts of my labor experience!), and said that I was almost a 4, but he could feel the bag of waters (what a weird name for something) bulging and he felt sure that it would break soon, so we needed to go ahead and have this baby.

I met the anesthesiologist, who explained everything (which was nice since we didn't get that last time), and off we headed to surgery. Pretty sure it was the same room I had Cade in. They did my spinal (during that whole process I decided that it was not worth it to have any more children) and got me laid down on the table with oxygen on and the drape up. Ryan finally got to come in, and they started.

At 12:22, Ava made her debut into the world. They brought her over for me to see her (she looked like a squishy-faced little bitty Cade, and I decided maybe I could do this again. If I had to :) and then got her a little cleaned up. Ryan took her up to the nursery while they closed me up (it is absolutely AMAZING what drugs can do...seriously...I was CUT OPEN and didn't feel a thing! Until later :)

Ryan was waiting for me in the recovery room, and after we had been there a little bit, they brought Ava to me to try to nurse. We didn't get to do that with Cade. Have you ever tried sitting up while you can't feel anything below the top of your ribcage? No? Well, it feels like you're going to slide right off the end of the bed because you can't do anything to brace yourself! Ava latched right on...much easier than Cade. We hung out there for a while, and then got to go up to my new home for the next 4 days.

The end.

Well, not really. :) Here we are, 5 weeks later. We're finally feeling slightly less sleep-deprived because Ava is sleeping for a little bit longer at a time. But only SLIGHTLY less sleep-deprived. Pretty sure that I could sleep for about 24 hours straight if given the chance. And if my boobs wouldn't have busted open by the end of that :)

She is absolutely precious. She looked JUST LIKE CADE for a while. She's now starting to be her own person, but there is definitely still a resemblance. We love her very much. And her big brother cannot stop giving her kisses. And telling us, "A-va cwying." :)

Uncomfortable, but thankful

I am 37 weeks and 1 day pregnant right now. In spite of the fact that I managed (due in great part to a LOT of nausea and throwing up at the beginning of this pregnancy) to only gain about 4 pounds in the first half, I have made up for lost time recently, and am currently sitting at about 40ish pounds gained. Yikes. Of course, I gained over 50 with Cade, so I guess this is just par for the course. Hopefully it comes off as easily this time as it did last time. No comments from the peanut gallery on that, please. :)

I am most definitely uncomfortable. Nothing fits right. I don't really have a lap to share with Cade. I have heartburn constantly when I'm laying down. I can't sleep longer than about 2 hours at a time. My side hurts when I lay down. My back hurts when I lay down. Baby girl likes to push really hard on my bladder. I'm tired all the time.

But.

Next week, I will have a baby girl in my arms. A baby girl who is an absolute miracle. And because of that, you haven't heard me complaining about any of the things above. Sure, if you ask me how I'm feeling, I'll be glad to tell you. But I am so incredibly thankful for this pregnancy that it's easy to put up with all of those temporary annoyances. I have several friends who would do anything to be able go through those things, and in spite of what we went through not even a year ago, I get to experience the joy of having my own baby for the second time.

So if you whine about being uncomfortable while pregnant, or hating being pregnant, or any of those annoying things, please don't expect me to sympathize. Remember what a miracle being pregnant is.

(Please note: this is not actually directed at someone...these are just my general thoughts...which have even less of a filter than usual :)

Counting down

Between now and when baby girl is scheduled to arrive via c-section, there is/are only:

3 Wednesdays

2 Dr visits

1 2nd birthday

1 Mom to Mom

Um, yikes!

Minivan mom

That's me. Officially. I guess that makes me old. Not to mention that my 30th birthday is this year.

I've been an SUV mom for almost 2 years now. I loved my SUV. Loved. Loved. Loved. (I may have mentioned that in my previous post :) But for practical reasons, it was time to upgrade. I wasn't planning to be a minivan mom. I wasn't completely against it, but I just didn't see any reason to get one. Oh, but there are many reasons. And I think of more every time I get into it.

Minivan makers had moms of infants in mind when they created the sliding door. I remember when Cade was little bitty, there were several times that I had to go around to the other side of the car and pull him and his carseat out (or put him and his carseat in) through that door because of someone parking too close to get the door open wide enough. That happened sometimes even in our garage. So adding an infant carseat back into the mix while juggling a toddler just makes it more logical to not have to worry about things like that.

The space. Oh, the space. There is so much room!! I feel like we can have a party in our van! Cade also really likes sitting up a little higher because he can see out better and see everything going on (not to mention there are buttons everywhere! He can't reach most of them yet, but they sure are fun to look at and talk about! :).

I was afraid I would feel like I was driving a tank, but it's been great. Granted, I haven't had to park it in the Walmart parking lot yet, but so far, it doesn't feel like this huge, unwieldy beast. I feel pretty comfortable driving it.

I believe firmly that this minivan was another God thing. It's an awesome van, and we have a full year of bumper-to-bumper warranty on it. It had sat on the car lot for 60 days, so they had lowered the price on it a couple of times, and it was actually getting ready to go to auction because they don't like vehicles to sit there for that long. We were able to get it for about $7,000 under retail value. I mean, utterly ridiculous. Especially since it's in almost perfect condition (there have definitely NOT been any kids in this van before :), and has been well taken care of. There's just no reason that it hadn't sold (did I mention that it's a Toyota Sienna?). The only reason possible is that God had it there waiting for us. I just love how He takes care of us like that.

Look both ways: a cautionary tale

On Saturday evening, Ryan, Cade, and I were headed to eat dinner and go to the grocery store. Ryan was driving *my* car. I was talking on the phone to my MIL. Ryan stopped at a 4-way stop (one that we drive through frequently), then proceeded through the intersection. I glanced over towards him and noticed that there was a car coming straight at us that did not look like it was going to stop as it should have. I screamed, the car hit us, the phone flew out of my hand, and then there was smoke coming out of the front of our car.

As I was trying to find my phone (why this was such a priority, I have no idea...other than I could hear my MIL yelling things like "What is going on? What happened? Hello?"), Ryan asks me if I'm ok, then starts pushing me out of the car, climbing over to the passenger side to get out after I did. He got Cade out of the backseat, and we stood there in shock for a minute. The lady who hit us got out of her car (on her phone) and asked if we were ok. I have no idea what I said to her (but I'm pretty sure I was glaring), but I know I asked if she was on the phone with 911. Her response almost made me punch her (as if I didn't want to already)..."No, I'm on the phone with my friend. I was trying to figure out how to get to his house and didn't even see that stop sign." So I called 911. After being transferred at least once, maybe twice, I finally got someone and told them what happened. The girl asked me if we needed medical or just police, and I told her that I'm pregnant, so yes, we needed medical.

I then called my brother, who headed over, and my mom, who was just a few minutes behind him. The ambulance got there, and I climbed in to be evaluated. They thought everything was fine, and let me go. After giving some information to one of the 10 police officers who were there (seriously...there actually might have been more than that), I went with my mom and Cade to sit in her car. A few minutes later, Ryan sent us on back to our house (at some point, he had moved the car seat to mom's car), and then he and my brother came after my car was towed away, and picked up dinner on their way, and witnessed another accident, way worse than ours...same street, one mile north.

While we were eating, it was decided that I should probably call my OB and let her know what happened. When one of the doctors in her practice called me back (I was still not done eating), she informed me that they recommend after any kind of vehicle accident while pregnant, you go to the hospital to be monitored for 4 hours. Lovely. It was already 7:30 pm. Ryan packed some stuff for Cade, and he went to spend the night with Ma-ga (grandma), and we headed to our friendly neighborhood hospital (not the same one that I had the terrible experience with last year...we went to the one that is, ironically, about half a mile away from where the wreck happened).

They sent me to the labor and delivery floor, where they monitored baby girl's heartrate for about 2 hours. Everything checked out fine, and we went back to the ER to have my knee and neck checked out, because they had started hurting. Everything was fine there, and the ER doc wanted to do an ultrasound just to be sure (I think he just wanted to play with the machine :), so we got to see baby girl, too!

(Amusing side note: apparently our wreck made several of the nurses late for their shifts at the hospital...so everyone we talked to had heard about the wreck before we got there)

Fast forward: we're all fine, Ryan and I were a little sore on Sunday, but pretty much back to normal by Monday. They have unofficially totaled my car. :( That car was my first real grown-up purchase. I researched what I wanted after I graduated from college, I went looking by myself, and I bought it all by myself. (OK, so I got opinions from some other people, and my mom went with me to co-sign, but I made the decision and paid for it all by myself!!) Ryan and I paid it off not too long after we got married, and I was not ever in any kind of accident in my car (well, obviously, until this one) (which was a miracle, because prior to me getting that car, I had been in 4 wrecks in 4 years, all of which were my fault). I LOVED that car. I had it for 7 years and 3 and half months. Ryan has been wanting me to get a new car for about a year now, and I just couldn't bring myself to get rid of my Escape. But now she's gone. She was a good car. I miss her already. I have this shiny, new Toyota Sienna that is super-fancy sitting in my garage right now (just a rental), and I would rather have my 10 year old Escape.

And can I just say that car shopping SUCKS??? Especially when you're on a timeframe...can't just sit around and wait on a good deal...I need to find a car. Ugh.

So in conclusion: remember how in driver's ed they told you to stop at the 4-way stop, look both ways, then proceed through the intersection? Yeah. It's a good idea. You never know when a blonde 44 year old bimbo on her phone is going to be coming through the same intersection you are.

Snow, snow, and, you guessed it, more snow!

Wow! What an amazing week and a half it's been! I have never seen so much snow in my life! I don't know the exact amount, but since last Tuesday, we've gotten AT LEAST 30 inches of snow! Um, that's a lot. And it's not going away very fast, either.

It's been pretty entertaining around our house, though. Last week, Ryan stayed home with us 3 days, which Cade and I always enjoy. So while Daddy was home, Cade got to go out and play in the snow a little bit (Mommy even went out one day). He loves it! He walked right up to the giant snow drift on our front porch and kept going! It was pretty funny when he sunk down into it and looked back at us like, um, help? :) When he's playing in the snow, he says "touch" a lot, and when we're inside, he looks out at it and says "snow" about a million times a day. Except for his "snow" sounds more like "no" but cuter than when he's actually saying "no." I'm pretty sure he would stay outside and play in it for hours if we'd let him, but it's just been way too cold for that.

Normally, I like to be able to get out and go do stuff during the day, but I've kind of enjoyed this time at home. Cade is at such a fun age right now, and sometimes I feel like I miss out on stuff because we're hanging out with friends or just out running errands. Now don't get me wrong, it's nice to get out of the house, but he's been in (mostly) a good mood during this time and he's just hilarious! He also knows how to play by himself, so I'm not his sole source of entertainment when it's just the two of us.

We're working on transitioning his room into a completely toddler-proof area that he can be in by himself to play. It's mostly done right now...just a few things to take care of...all things that he can damage more so than they can damage him :) And he seems to enjoy playing in there, so that's good. Now when we add a baby into the mix and Mommy can't play with him because she's busy with her...that might be another story. But we'll get there soon enough.

Oh! And in other news, we may have a name! (Which is probably mean to announce because you already know we're not sharing it until she's born, but tough :) We had semi-agreed on a name a while back, but then I started having second thoughts about it. I have had another name that I like a lot that Ryan has not been sold on, but he's coming around (this is what happened last time, too :)

I'm 26 weeks and 2 days today, which means that she will be here in less than 13 weeks! At my next appointment, we will possibly schedule my c-section, and then we'll have a date for sure!! It's getting a little bit more real...