Funny

 While going through my texts I came across this gem (I am blue Andrea is grey):

Confessions of a Young Mom : \

My life can be a little bit hectic at times. I find myself doing these that would have made my former pre-mom self wrinkle my nose up in a bit of disgust. (It’s not one of those you-wouldn’t-understand-unless-you’re-a-parent kind of post. That always drove me crazy when people would say that to me before I had kids. Its just things I never saw myself doing because I never thought about it.) 

•    Sometimes I drink out of the milk carton. Usually during a morning dash out the door after I inhaled a granola bar and I need just a swig to wash it down.
  
• If I have to give a person a ride in my car, and during my quick clean up of it, I find old cheerios on the ground (or gold fish); due to a lack of better place to put them I just eat them.
  
• I drank diet coke while pregnant with child #2.
  
• I nurse while making dinner or eating it (I have become a pro).
  
• I hate nursing; I only do it because it’s so healthy for baby and me.
  
• Some days I go to bed so exhausted that I can’t even remember the last time I showered.
  
• I sometimes go to bed without brushing my teeth and I have to think, “Did I brush them this morning?”
  
  
• I am still in my work out clothes from this morning.
  
•  I saw this on pinterest and it made me laugh when I saw it because I am so guilty. I will sometimes eat candy or a cookie in the closet so I don’t have to share it.
  
•   Most Dr. Seuss books annoy me.
  
•   Sometimes I read out loud the book I am reading and count it as reading time. (B has already had Pride and Prejudice read to her twice).

Summer Through My Phone

 

Lots of park days. She loves the swings. Brad is braver than me and will push her high (and I mean high) which she LOVES and will say "pash high".

 Sydney, she really is one of the coolest dogs I know.

 The first morning she slept from 9 to 4 am, then slept again until 8 am. It was a picture worthy morning, what can I say?

 Our little family on the holiday. Baseball and fireworks, and Miss B hates fireworks and she will let you know it even if all you say is the word, "firework". She has been traumatized.

 Lots of swimming this summer.

And what is summer without parades??

2 Months!

Life continues (at a ridiculously fast rate).

This little gal is still a sweetie. 

~When she is first awake and fed she is pleasant and friendly for about 10 - 15 minutes and then she is fussy for the next hour until she falls asleep.

~She loves the swing and that is what she likes when she turns fussy.

~ She prefers nursing. Doesn't like bottles (will take it only if she has to and is starving and only the minimal amount she needs. And if it's formula don't even think about it - good thing I started stock piling my milk from day 1.)

~ She tolerates her big sister's doting, in her face, pretty well sometimes I would go so far to say I think she enjoys it.

~Sleep didn't come as natural to this one. Training her to sleep (gosh, it sounds like a dog but really that is what you do... train them) took a little bit longer and more involved but she is doing great now. Two solid 2 hour naps a day, cat naps in between, and at night sleeps from 9 pm to 4 or 5 am. 

~Eats every 3 - 4 hours - we are currently working on getting her to every 4 hours (and when I say "we" I mean me.

We have adjusted to our family's new size. I love it. It is busier and requires more stuff but I am having a blast. And I mean that I really do, I have my shortcomings, but I love being a mother.

Shoes

 

And being fancy

It's a Minnie Birthday

I forgot to post about our Miss B's second birthday.

 She loves Minnie Mouse, so we decided to do a Minnie Mouse themed birthday. 

 I won the cake at a service auction. It tasted delicious.

With her cousins and neighbor girls.

Yes, I know there is only one other little person at her party. Did I mention her only friends are all older than 8? So she thinks she is much older than 2, this I am not okay with. Time already goes so fast on it's own, she doesn't need to make it seem faster :) However, it is pretty cute when she sits with them in a circle and tries to keep up with the conversation.

A little about our Sweet B at two:

~Her main friends are the neighbor girls who are older than 8, so naturally she thinks she is older than she really is, as I mentioned.

~She loves horses.

~She loves shoes. The higher the heel, the gaudier the better. 

~She loves to wear dresses, and she loves long flowing dresses.

~ she loves to act like a lion and scare you. 

~She loves to ride her stuff animal horses around and yell, "yee-haw" 

~She loves dogs and cats

~She is starting to make more than a one word sentence, ex: Apple juice please (of course it sounds like this, "App-all zeus pwease" 

~her favorite songs are "B-I-N-G-O" and "She'll be comin' around the mountain"

~ She can recognize the letters B, O, I, N, G, R, A, C yet she won't say her name. 

~ She loves to vacuum (so I went out and bought a real vacuum that is her size, i figure instead of buying a toy one might as well get some use out of a thing she likes).

~ She loves to color

~At the moment she hates, HATES getting her hair washed. 

~ She loves to strip down to her birthday suit, all.the.time. 

~ She loves to dance

A Dog's Bark

You know those people who you try to avoid knocking or ringing their door bell because when you do you hear a stampede of dogs? and you swear there must be at a least a dozen dogs in there with the amount of chaos, so you just stand back and brace yourself when the door opens and look a little wary?

Well, we are those people and it's just 2 dogs not 12.

But our dogs are barkers, and it drives me crazy. So the other day Brad sent me this

 (I have no idea where it is from).

 

 I can't help but think that actually might be what goes through their heads.

Week One

She is a week old. 

So many differences between this recovery and the last one, except the weepy stage. 

Why do I get weepy??? I thought with a better recovery I wouldn't get weepy but it doesn't matter. I cry at the drop of hat. B likes to do these group hugs with Brad and I, she did one this morning and I bawled from her sweetness.

We got newborn pictures. A wonderful photographer who didn't have a time limit. She patiently waited for the kiddos to have happy faces. 

 This picture of my girls melts my heart.

Before Lil C was born her entire pregnancy I had one major anxiety, "how can I love another like I love my first?"  Honestly, this fear was in my mind and heart even up to the day she was born. I confided in my cousin this fear, because I didn't dare say it out loud and make me seem like a horrible mom. My cousin whose kids are 13 months apart, and let me add the second are twins told me, "You will. When you hold one your heart will want to burst and when you hold the other it will want to burst too. They are a part of you and that makes them each special." When I first held Lil C I knew exactly what she meant. Our Miss B and Lil C have different stories. Different pregnancies, different deliveries, and already at this age different personalities. And yet, they are both the most cherish gems in my heart.

As I said so many differences, one being how relaxed I am with this baby. The poor first child. With B I was a wreck. I worried about nursing, how often she had a wet or dirty diapers (really I charted and wrote everything down including which side she nursed and how long). And it turn the stress didn't help. My milk took a full week to get in. She didn't latch that well. I would cry because I couldn't nurse.  It eventually came but I never was a great milk provider. With C, I didn't worry as much. I can't really explain why, maybe the fact that I have a two year old who is still very much alive and very healthy; who asks to eat apples and bananas and for milk (Let me tell you how successful I feel when I hear, "Mommy, nana pwease." Don't worry she asks for candy just as much. I had confidence with this second child. And in turn, she latched right away. My milk came in three days. She has plenty of wet and dirty diapers. No, I am not writing anything down. I nurse her when she acts hungry. I have learned this young of baby doesn't need a schedule, not yet anyway. Yes, I was already trying to get B on a schedule at one week and that added stress to my life when it didn't work. now, I realize newborns are just learning about the world. The last thing she needs is a schedule. Just as B got on one so will she.

I have noticed since I am more relaxed so is this baby. And, let me reiterate again, poor first child.

And before I forget just a few differences between the two before I forget:

B hated being swaddled; C loves it.

B More high strung (I think this is due to me); C relaxed.

B took a bottle very well; C, I have yet to introduce it. 

 B would be up every 2 hours at night; C usually only wakes twice a night. 

Similarities

~They look like their daddy. I think C has a little more of me in her but she is still very Brad. And so, they both look a lot a like. 

~Both love the swing

~Both love to be sung to 

~The dog's barks never startle them 

 People ask how is B. She is still doing well. She still loves her sister to pieces, and doesn't quite understand giving C her personal space. She loves, LOVES to hold the "bebe". B still gives Brad and me plenty of kisses and hugs. However, and I mean a big HOWEVER. B has started throwing tantrums, and I mean they are EPIC. They have subsided since my parents have been here, and B who loves her Pop Pop, has been getting dotted on from sunrise to sunset. I am prepared for the tantrums of epic proportions when they leave. Good thing we can go up to see Grandma and Grandpa, and Grandma lets her play in the hose, which is the greatest thing in the world for this 2 year old. 

Anyway, that is the update of our life. I feel blessed, and it makes me cry (seriously, though it does). 

Thank you to everyone for the well wishes, and cards and emails. 

Also as you know our dogs are a very important part of our life. Sydney loves when the babies are small like C, (you know before they can poke and pull on her fur). She sits by her sniffs her, kisses her. Dixie, is completely aloof. She cares when the baby can finally give Dixie attention :) Honestly, if B didn't have Dixie I think things could be a lot worse.

She has Arrived!

Our sweet "Lil' C". 

Thankfully, a very uneventful delivery, except for the part that she was posterior, which left her bruised and swollen, but nothing long lasting or life threatening. It just added a little hurdle. 

It was a total of 6.5 hours from the time my water was broken to delivery. I told the doctor I will only push for an hour this time (I pushed for 3.5 hours with B). However, she came out after 10 minutes of pushing. They placed her on my chest  and I couldn't believe I had just had a baby. Everything about this experience was so different than our B's. For one, my doc was in town and he really is a wonderful doctor to work with. The medical team we had just rocked.

 In labor. 

She came to visit me. She just brightens my day. I missed her terribly while in the hospital, but I enjoyed my bonding time with my littlest gal.

 

As I said the medical team rocked.  My doctor and my nurse in the maternity ward. I got the nurse for both days. The nurses do 12 hour shifts and 3 or 4 a week, so we had her all day.

 

Her visitors. 

 

But the most important visitor of all. I love her face as she studies her new sister.

 

 

 

So far, B loves her... a bit too much. Constant kisses and constant in your faceness. But I'd rather she be like this than hate her or me. Our first night home, I did the bedtime routine with B. We read a ton of stories and sang a ton of songs. I thought after the crazy couple of days she had she may just need "Mom time" (and I did it preemptively before she starts acting out and it's too late), sometimes you just need your mom. I am trying to make the transition as painless for her as possible. I will let you know how it goes :)

Getting ready to leave.

 

PS Daddy dressed B. 

 My girls.

Waiting for Baby

After a whirlwind month, we came home and got into baby mode. But things started getting complicated. My blood pressure decided to inflate, as in 160/100 high. So careful monitoring began. Multiple doctor visits, non stress tests, and blood work each week. I was told at any of those appointments to be prepared to be admitted and induced. I had preeclampsia with B so they are trying to avoid that with this one. I had an appointment on Wednesday, and I was really really hoping they would admit me and induce me. The worrying and the multiple appointments are getting old. So we had everything ready. The child, the dogs, the bags were all ready. We even had one last family date night at the farm the night before. And guess what?? My blood pressure improved, it hasn't been that good in weeks!  But they moved up my induction date and I can handle that. 

But onto our date night:

She loves "an-ee-mulls".

Me, hoping my last photo pregnant.

 What it looks like when I look down. I actually had to stick my foot out really far, I can't see my feet when I look down.

And we ended the evening at the ice cream shop, with ice cream and french fries.

She loves all things dessert. She is my child after all.

Here is to hoping my next post is introducing our newest addition :)