{Macy Amelia 12.12.11}

Monday, December 12th was my first day of maternity leave and I was 39 weeks 2 days pregnant.  I woke up early so that I could make it to the hospital by 7:30 am for a BPP and NST.  Before I left the house I was sitting at the kitchen table eating some cereal when I heard Kara open her bedroom door and she came and joined me for breakfast.  I told her that as soon as I was done eating she would have to go snuggle up in bed with daddy cause I had to go to the hospital to check on baby.  At that point Kara told me that the baby was going to be born today and asked who would pick her up from daycare.  I told her that grandma would pick her up, but only if the baby was born, if the baby wasn't born mommy would be picking her up... she told me that grandma would be there to pick her up, she also told Beth, our daycare provider, that grandma would be picking her up today cause the baby was going to be born.  I think she has some psychic abilities.

7:30 am - Arrived at hospital.  Started with the BPP, which is the ultrasound that they do to check on the baby.  I told the ultrasound tech that my 3 year old had predicted that the baby would be born today, she said she didn't like to hear that.  During the ultrasound she found barely any amniotic fluid, in the end the total measurement was just under 2cm, but the baby also had a full bladder and belly, so there was some additional fluid.  Then I had to move on to the NST where they monitor the baby's heart rate and my contractions, while I was having this done the doctor was reviewing the ultrasound and determined that today was the day!  So I had to call Joe and let him know not to start working cause he had to come to the hospital!  I didn't get to leave to go home and get my things, I got to go straight to labor and delivery.  Of course my doctor was on vacation, so the nurse had to try to figure out who was on call and let them know that I was being admitted.

9:00 am - admitted to labor and delivery.  I was brought straight back to a delivery room to have an induction started.  The plan was to get me on cervidil which softens your cervix and makes it more favorable for an induction.  I was about 2 cm dilated at this point, and when the nurse hooked me up to the monitors she discovered that I was contracting every 1-2 minutes, and I wasn't feeling anything!  This changed the plan, because they won't use cervidil if you are having regular contractions, so I got to wait while they figured out what they were going to do with me.

10:30 am - An IV and pitocin were started, and Joe finally arrived at the hospital.  He had to do lots of running around and pick up all of our hospital bags, get Kara's stuff packed up, etc... but he was finally at the hospital with me.

11:30 am - The only thing in the world that I could think about at this point was food.  I had only had a small bowl of cereal before I went in for my appointment, and I wasn't allowed to eat anything.  I could drink water up until I decided to have an epidural, but that was it.   I wanted a Davanni's hoagie incredibly bad.  I tweeted "I sure hope my baby is born before Davanni's closes.  I want a hoagie after I give birth." and guess what.. they responded and ended up sending me out 2 coupons for free hoagies and a Davanni's baby bib!!  Oh the power of social media!

1:30 pm - A doctor came in and broke my water and they inserted an internal monitor to better monitor the contractions, this gives a much more accurate reading of the strength of the contractions.  It was around this point that I started getting really uncomfortable and the contractions were getting pretty painful, but I wasn't sure that I was ready for an epidural yet.

2:45pm  - 3 cm dilated and ready for my epidural!  Getting the epidural hurt like hell - I don't remember feeling pain when I had an epidural with Kara, but this was baaaaad.  I don't know if it was cause I was having contractions while I was getting the epidural or what, but it was a burning, stinging, sharp pain... I don't ever want to deal with that again!  I did learn that when men get epidurals they get morphine prior to the epidural to help with the pain, women just get a small bit of numbing medicine.. WTF, not fair!  Anyway, the epidural hurt like hell, but of course ended up being a life saver!

4:00 pm - 4 cm dilated, feeling much happier now that the epidural is working like a charm.  Between checks from the nurse I was trying to sleep.  It had already been a long day, and I was feeling pretty worn out.

6:00 pm - 5 cm dilated.  Not much else to report at this time.... other than I was getting sick of only progressing 1 cm every two hours, I really thought things would move quicker.  Thank God they had cable in the hospital.. I got to watch all the crappy reality tv shows that I no longer get to watch at home!

8:00 pm - STILL 5 cm dilated.  At this point I was pretty sure that I was not going to be having my baby on 12/12.  The doctor who was going to be delivering Macy came in at this point and decided to stop the pitocin for a while and see what my body would do on it's own.  She also decided to have me sit up in bed for a while to hopefully help the baby move down, as she was still quite high.  The doctor decided to head home because she didn't think that I would be ready to push anytime soon.

8:30 pm - Extreme nausea.  Joe was trying to find something for me to puke in, and trying to call the nurse.  The nurse came in and I told her that I felt really sick so she had me lay back down on my side.  She said sometimes sitting up with all those meds can make you feel like that, so back to laying down I went.

9:00 pm - The contractions started to become extremely painful again, it almost felt like the epidural wasn't working at all.  I called the nurse again, she came in and I told her what was going on, so she checked me and guess what... I was fully dilated and effaced and ready to push!  So in one hour I went from 5cm with the baby still high to completely dilated and ready to push, no wonder I felt to sick!  The nurse called the doctor and told her to head back to the hospital cause it was time!

9:43 pm - I started pushing.  With Kara I pushed for 3.5 hours, so I was hoping for a much shorter time this time around!  At this point in the day I was so worn out and didn't want to push at all, let alone for 3 hours! I pushed and pushed and pushed... it felt like I wasn't doing anything, even though the doctor and nurse said I was.  It was a lot harder to push this time around and I think it was cause I could feel the pain, I have no idea how or why women decide to give birth without pain meds... maybe I just have a super low tolerance for pain, but man, I couldn't imagine going all that time without any pain meds.

10:09  pm - 26 minutes of pushing and Macy made her screaming entrance into the world!  She looked so tiny to me, and exactly like her big sister!  She was very covered in vernix (the white slimy stuff), she was so covered cause my amniotic fluid was so low, but she was my tiny, slimy, beautiful, perfect baby girl!   She weighed 7 pounds 1 ounce and was 21 inches long.  This may be TMI, but it's a part of the birth story... so I had an episiotomy (if you don't know what that is, don't google it - you don't want to know) anyway - I am glad that they allow you to hold your new baby and ooh and aah over the baby while they stitch you back up, it's a good distraction from the pain...and  that's all I'm going to say about that. 

Holding my sweet new baby girl.

 

Screaming baby on the scale

 

Proud Daddy

 Proud Mommy

Big sister Kara meeting Macy for the first time

Our first family picture

And another of the proud big sister

So there is the birth story and a few pictures for ya.  Macy is now 10 days old.. so I will start a new post on how the last week and a half has gone, it's been pretty hectic and the time is just flying by!  We are loving our sweet little Macy and trying to settle in to what it's like to be a family of four! 

I'm trying so hard to enjoy these last few (hopefully) days of pregnancy, but it's just so hard.  This last 2 weeks have been insanely stressful, so on top of all of the third trimester discomforts of pregnancy, I am also completely stressed out.


It all started the weekend after Thanksgiving, I could barely stay out of bed on Saturday and Sunday, I chalked this up to being 37 weeks pregnant and exhausted.  I was literally out of bed for 2 hours, in bed for 2 hours all weekend long.  I woke up Sunday night/Monday morning with a bit of a scratchy throat, went to work on Monday and felt like crap the whole day.  I ended up going to After Hours care after work and found out that I had strep throat - so I stayed home Tuesday to take meds, be non-contagious and try to get some rest. 


Wednesday I had my weekly Dr. appointment to check on baby.  At the checkup Macy's heart rate was 175 and going as high as 195 - my doctor had been concerned with her fast heart rate the previous few visits, but it was always within the normal range, so she didn't take any further action, but 175-195 was definitely fast.  My doctor said "I am going to make a few phone calls, you are going to go to the hospital tonight to have the baby monitored.  Bring your bags with, if things aren't looking good you will be induced tonight.  If things are ok you will be going in for a Biophysical profile and Non-Stress Test tomorrow.  Either way you are not going to work tomorrow." So now I had Thursday off work too.  I sent Joe a text while I was waiting for the doctor to make calls - I said pack a bag for Kara, we are going to the hospital tonight.  Once I got home I frantically threw together a bag for me and a bag for Macy, luckily I had started to accumulate piles of things for our hospital bags, so I at least had a general idea of what to pack and where it was. 


We sat at the hospital to be monitored for about 2 - 2.5 hours.  Macy's heart rate was fast the whole time, it got up to about 210 for a period of time.  While I was hooked up to the monitors they also did some labs, I'm not 100% sure what they were checking for with the labs, but they all came back negative.. so that's good...  They also gave me a liter of fluid, I think mostly in preparation of possibly inducing me.  In the end we were sent home and the constant appointments began. 


Thursday, December 1st I had my first Biophysical Profile and Non-Stress Test, which I had to go back to the hospital for, because of course there were no appointments available at the clinic down the road from my house (with free parking).  At the BPP it was discovered that my amniotic fluid level was low (more stress...). My level was at 5.9cm - I later discovered that 5cm to 25cm is considered normal, and if you get to 5cm they will induce you immediately.  Other than the low fluid the BPP went perfectly, they have 30 mins to do the ultrasound and check for certain things, they saw everything they needed within the first 3 mins, so baby seemed fine!  The NST went fine as well.  Baby's heart rate was still high, but they were seeing the accelerations and decelerations that they wanted to see and everything else seemed perfectly fine, and I got sent home once again.


Over the weekend I developed this horrible itch all over my body, no rash or anything, just insanely itchy.  It got worse overnight, to the point that I couldn't sleep - the palms of my hands and the bottoms of my feet itched like crazy, it was not cool, and of course nothing that I tried did anything to help.  Put in a call to the on-call doctor, and they suggested I see my doctor first thing Monday morning.  So I rescheduled my Wednesday evening appt for an early morning appt on Monday.  On Monday I went in, my blood pressure was high, baby's heart rate was still high, I was still itchy, but the doctor explained that they were not concerned with the BPP and NSTs other than the low fluid.. so they would now be monitoring my fluid levels very closely.  My doctor also told me she wanted me to be done working, mostly cause of the stress level I was feeling, but I told her I couldn't be off work until I was closer to my due date.  I couldn't afford to take off two weeks before my due date and have the possibility of going overdue.  At that time she told me that she can't see me making it to my due date, that she thought that I would have to be induced within the next week and a half due to the fluid levels, but of course she couldn't make any guarantees...  Oh yeah, and she also told me that she would be out of state from Thursday thru Tuesday.... She missed Kara's birth because she was on vacation!


Tuesday, December 6th I got to go back to the hospital for another BPP and NST.  Fluid level was at 7.4 and the NST was fine again, so once again, I was sent home. 


Thursday, December 8th I was back to the hospital again.  During the BPP they couldn't find much fluid at first, like 3.5cm at most.  The lady doing the ultrasound asked if I had brought my bags with me and said that it wasn't looking very promising that I would be leaving the hospital.  Well, guess what, she found another pocket of fluid that measured about 3.5cm, so that put me at 7cm...ugh!  The NST went fine, baby did what they needed her to do right away, and once again I was sent home. 


As you can imagine all of these extra appointments have been very draining on me, psychically, mentally, they have me very stressed out.  It's very hard to try to work full time and manage these appointments in the middle of the day.  I ended up having to use quite a bit of sick time, which also stressed me out cause it was cutting into my paid time that I would get for maternity leave.  But I decided that Friday, December 9th would be my last day of work - I needed to take something off my plate.  I am hoping that Macy decides to arrive in the next week so that I don't have to take more than a week off work before she's here.  


I get to go back to the hospital bright and early tomorrow morning for another BPP and NST - I am SO hoping that they will just keep me this time and let me have my dang baby!  If things are fine, I see my doctor on Wednesday evening... at which point I will beg, cry, do whatever I need to do to make her induce me!!!!  


When I was pregnant with Kara I didn't mind being overdue, I worked past my due date, and I was for the most part pretty happy - at least approachable ;)  This time around things are very, very different.  I cannot wait to be done, and hopefully we don't have to wait too much longer!  

And a few pictures...

I finally got around to adding Macy's name to the quilt that I made for her (and I also recently discovered that my husband doesn't care for Mae as a middle name...so yeah, we are trying to find a new middle name!)

Kara went to see Santa yesterday!  I was pretty shocked when she decided that she wanted to wear her dress and picked out a cute little clip to put in her hair!  When we got to the mall to see Santa we had to wait in line for about 45 mins.  Of course the two kids in front of us threw huge fits and were screaming and crying, so I thought we were doomed... but Kara still sat on Santa's lap and even told him that she wanted a firetruck with glitter on it!  She let us take a few different pictures, sat there and talked to him, it was adorable!

One last thing - my amazing sister in law took some maternity pics for us when I was 36 weeks along.  I wasn't sure that I wanted maternity pics, but I figure this will be my last time being pregnant, and at some point in my life I will miss it and I should probably have some pics.  Here is the link to the full album, and below are a few of my favs!

The Countdown Has Begun!!

29 days and counting until baby Macy is due!!  These last fifteen seven months feel like they have gone by really fast, but it also feels like I have been pregnant FOREVER!  Only 4 more weeks to go though.. I can do it!

This pregnancy has been pretty non-eventful.  My last couple of visits Macy's heart rate has been kind of fast, but it's still within the normal range, so nothing to worry about.  I have started to prepare Kara's room to be a room for two.  Kara wants to play with everything that we get or take out though - she likes to be a mommy to all her little stuffed animals, so all the tiny stuff for Macy has become accessories for Kara's babies.  Which is totally ok with me at this point, I just hope we don't have a struggle when Macy is born and we need to take all these things back from Kara... 

Like we don't have enough on our plates trying to get ready for a new baby in our house right around the busiest time of year.... we now get to do a total remodel of our downstairs bathroom!  Joe had noticed that the toilet was leaking water, he thought it just needed a new seal at the base of the toilet - well guess what, he was wrong... water had leaked under the tiles, so he had to pull up all the tiles and take out the vanity.  Our bathroom looks a little like this:

Pretty, huh?  Joe took the day off work today to deal with this.. lucky him!  He bought new tile last night, so hopefully we will have a nice, new, unleaky bathroom soon!

A few other random thoughts:

Kara was Scooby Doo for Halloween - isn't she adorable??

MY child picked out a DRESS to wear for pictures.... willingly.. it was actually her idea!!

Now the challenge is to get her to wear it for pictures and have her cooperate

for pictures.  I think she can do it!

And, how cute are these matching I <3 Santa shirts I got for the girls??

I have to hope that Macy doesn't come too late, otherwise she may not be here in time for Christmas, but I'm still planning on having her early, so it's all good.

I really truly cannot wait to be done being pregnant.  I can't wait to stop having crazy cravings, I'm totally over the hip and sciatic nerve pain, I want to see Macy, I want to start running again, I want to do the 30 day Shred again, and I want to have a dang beer already!!

Oh My Growing Belly! continued...

I have all these pictures on my phone that I never do anything with, so how bout a quick blog post! 

First is this collage that I already shared weeks 10 - 20...

 

And now weeks 25 - 31... 

As of Saturday, October 22nd I am 32 weeks pregnant!  How crazy is that?  Can't believe little Macy will be here in approximately 54 days!  Which also means that Christmas is in 62 days - are you ready??

One more pic... here is Macy from an ultrasound that my sister gave me last Friday.  She is getting so big!  Look at her cute lil profile!  <3 her

I have reached the point in my pregnancy where I CANNOT sleep. no. matter. what.  I'm not a fan of this, as I really enjoy sleeping.  The other day I had a new record of non-sleep - I slept a whole 3 hours and then was wide awake.  Really?  3 hours?  What person, pregnant or not, can function off 3 hours of sleep?  I'm also pretty much exhausted all day every day.  I try cleaning or organizing the house and after a few hours I am just too sore to do anything else.  I'm ready to get my non-pregnant body back.  I keep thinking I want to go exercise or go for a run or something, and then I walk a block, or up a flight of stairs and I am reminded why I haven't been exercising.. I am out of breath and tired instantly!  So yeah, I'm over this being pregnant thing!


Kara loves her baby sister and is ready for her to be born any day now.  She keeps saying things like "the baby told me she wants to come out and play now".  It's pretty cute, I hope Kara is this enthusiastic about her sister once she is actually born :)

A Big Week In The Lien Household

 This past week has been pretty serious business in our house, but all good, positive things.

1st - Kara has been sucky (pacifier) free for 3 full days/nights now!  So freakin proud of her - this has been a huge, huge, huge battle in our house!  We have been working at getting rid of it since she was about 18 months old, but we've never been successful. 

Finally on Tuesday she threw a major fit over wanting her sucky right after dinner, and when I say major fit, I mean MAJOR fit.  She got put on time out and after 10 minutes of her still kicking, screaming, etc I set my timer for 2 minutes and told her that she had 2 minutes to calm down or her sucky was going away forever.  During the 2 minutes I reminded her a few times that she was making a choice, and if she didn't calm down her sucky was going away....  The 2 minutes passed and she was still throwing a massive fit, so I brought her to her room to put her to bed, even though it was at least an hour before bedtime.  Once we got to her room the tantrum got even worse.  She started throwing everything she could find, hitting, pushing, screaming, you get the picture.... We left her room for awhile and let her just do her thing, once she started kicking her door incredibly hard I decided it was time to go back in.  I went in and tried talking to her, all she wanted to do was leave her room.  So, I set the timer again and told her she had 2 minutes to calm down and then she could go out in the living room with us.  I finally got her to settle down a bit and give Joe and I hugs and tell us that she was sorry for behaving that way, so I let her come out in the living room with us. 

While we were out there I reminded her that she had made a choice and her sucky was gone, she did the little thing where her bottom lip sticks out and kind of quivers, but she seemed to understand that the sucky was gone and was not coming back.. It broke my heart a little, but I knew that we needed to stay strong and NOT GIVE IT BACK (and we had also lost 2 suckys that night somehow, so even if we wanted to give her one, we couldn't have... )  Kara asked if the Sucky Fairy had come to take her sucky - The Sucky Fairy is someone we made up awhile ago while talking about the Tooth Fairy.  I told Kara that the Sucky Fairy comes to visit when she has decided that you are a big girl and don't need your sucky any longer, she then takes the suckys and brings them to babies who need them.  Kara seemed to really buy into this idea, so I told her that the Sucky Fairy did come to take her suckys. 

We sat up and read some books and then we were off to bed.  I got Kara ready for bed, read her a couple more books and layed her down.  She didn't once ask for her sucky!  She did so good that first night, I was so, so proud!  To encourage her to continue to do well on the second night, I stopped at Target and bought her a little gift from the Sucky Fairy - this is also something that we had previously talked about, the Sucky Fairy leaves a gift in exchange for your suckys.  I left the gift hanging on her door knob to her room with a little card from the Sucky Fairy congratulating her on being such a big girl.  Night #2 was also a success with no crying or asking for the sucky.  We have now made it 3 full nights without ANY crying or asking for her sucky - THIS IS HUGE!!  Granted bedtime has been extended by about 2.5 hours of stall tactics, but ya know, I will deal with this for a few weeks as long as the sucky is gone!

Now that I wrote a novel about that, lets move on to thing #2...

Thing #2 - At 3 years, 2 months and 12 days old Kara got her first haircut!!  I started talking to her about getting her hair cut about a week before we actually got it done. I told her all about the hair salon and how they would have cool chairs, and she got to wear a cape and they had a tv for her to watch while she got her haircut.  I tried to psych her up for it as much as I could.  I told her that we would only get a few inches cut off, so that it wouldn't be that different, and she told me that she wanted to have short hair like daddy... of course, that's what she wants!  Too bad I'm the mommy and I decide how much hair will be cut off :)  I was really scared that if we got too much cut off that we would lose all of her curls, and I don't think I could handle that.  So it was just a little trim and some long layers to help keep the curls.  Kara did so good, she cried when we first got there, but after a couple of minutes she was smiling and really enjoying herself. 

Here is a before pic:  Look how long her hair was!!

And a during pic - once she finally started to enjoy herself!

 Here is the after pic - not very good since you can't see the length in the back, I'll work on getting a better pic!

Thing #3 - I had my monthly doctor visit on Wednesday night.  Everything looks good and little Macy seems to be growing right on track.  This appointment marks my last monthly appointment.  I will now go in every 2 weeks!  AHHH!!  How did that happen?  Even though I found out I was pregnant at 4 weeks along, time really seems to be moving fast!  Before I know it the weekly appointments will start and then Macy will be here and it will be Christmas - this is your reminder that Christmas is just over 2 months away! 

I really hope time can slow down a bit so that we can have some time to prepare our house for the new baby... we still have a long way to go! 

Getting My Sh*t Together

Pinterest has inspired me to organize my house.  If you don't know what Pinterest is, I highly suggest you check it out, if you like being inspired then Pinterest is for you!  Let me know if you need an invite!

Our house is so cluttered with crap that it is never clean.  Everywhere you look there is a pile of clothes, toys, mail, craft supplies, tools, you name it - we probably have a pile for it, and I'm not proud of this.  We don't have a big house by any means, but we do have lots of closet space.  Closet space that is currently not used very wisely.  But Pinterest has shown me smart ways to organize my closets, like using an over the door shoe holder to store things like gloves, umbrellas, hats, etc... use a clear one so that you can easily see what's in each pouch.

I think that Kara and Macy's room will be the first to get the organization overhaul.  We just moved a twin sized bed into their room, which basically took away all floor space...the dresser is now in the closet. 

I'll be sure to post some before and after pics of what I am doing.  And I AM COMMITTED TO DOING THIS!!! I'm hoping my crazy need for nesting kicks in soon, then I'll be really motivated!

My Pinterest - Follow Me!

Three Things

#1 - Pumpkin season is my favorite season of the year.  Ya know, the one where you can find pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin lattes everywhere you look?  Being pregnant this time of year has intensified my need for pumpkin flavored products!  I finally found one of my favorite pumpkin products yesterday, now if I only had a nice slice of pumpkin pie to go along with it...

#2 - We have been trying to decide if we want to move Kara into a toddler bed or just make the jump to a twin bed.  We figure if we put her in a toddler bed that she will outgrow it in a year or so, so we have started looking for a twin bed.  I happened to come across this twin sized quilt in the clearance aisle of Target, originally $64 marked down to $16!!  Score!

#3 - I am the world's best mom.  Why?  Because Kara has been asking for light-up Dora shoes for weeks and weeks, and I found some last night!  I forgot to snap a picture of them, but I still wanted to let you all know that I am the world's best mom.

The Naming Dilemma

Many, many moons before Joe and I had really even talked about having kids we decided on the names Kara and Cameron for our future children.  Yet, while I was pregnant with Kara we couldn't agree on a name and finally decided on her name a month before my due date.

FF to the present day.  Pregnant with baby girl #2 and our girl name has already been taken.  I always preferred Cameron for a girl though, so that has been a top contender for baby girl #2's name.  This whole pregnancy I have been trying to find different ways to spell Cameron so it's more feminine (I didn't want her to grow up and start a job and get emails addressed to Mr. Cameron)...there's Kameryn, Kamryn, Camryn, Cameryn...but I really couldn't fall in love with any of these spellings, and we couldn't find a middle name that we loved.

I LOVED the name Macy while I was pregnant with Kara, but Joe wasn't so fond of it.  I don't want to say that I have been harassing Joe with the name Macy over the past few months, but I have kind of been harassing him with the name Macy over the past few months.  I just love it so much.  If I saw other people were going to use that name for their baby, or just saw it online or written somewhere I got a little sad that I would never be able to name my child Macy.  I'm not sure what happened, but something changed in Joe and he was coming around to the name Macy.  Now that Joe was coming around to Macy, I was set on Cameron... afterall, we had had the names Kara and Cameron picked for years and years, and they just sounded perfect together, so it was hard to think of using any other name to go with Kara.

I am happy to announce that we no longer need to refer to baby girl #2 as baby girl #2, she has a name!!!  And it's......drumroll, please......





Macy Mae!!!



Yay!!  So glad that we have finally picked a name, and we can start calling her Macy instead of baby girl #2!!

Summer Wrap Up

We have had record high temps this summer.  I'm pretty sure that spring never happened.  We went from -32 and 15 feet of snow to 106 degrees overnight, it's true, that's how it happened.  After a weekend of highs in the 90s again we are finally headed back down in temperature with a high of 65-70 tomorrow and a high of 55-60 on Wednesday!  FINALLY!!!  This pregnant lady can't handle anymore 90 - 100 degree days.  I want to have the windows open and not have it be hot and sticky in our house, I want to wear sweatshirts, I want to be coooooooooold and have a nice cup of hot chocolate(with whipped cream, of course!)!  I'm hoping that we have a nice long fall and we don't go straight into winter, I know Kara still wants to spend a lot of time playing outside and at the park! 

It is kind of sad to think that summer is over now though.  I never went to the zoo this summer, or the pool (obviously I am not about to get into a swimsuit right now), only went fishing once.  I think summer seems a lot longer and less enjoyable when you can't enjoy a nice cold beer.. can't wait for next summer!

Things we did do:  Joe turned 29, Kara turned 3, weekend at the lake, weekend in Bemidji, lots of time spent swimming at Grandma Julie's house, Rock the Garden, parades, Minnehaha Falls, went to Woodbury Days where I won a sweet bike, celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary, went to the state fair (watch for a full post on that with all the food we ate!).  We made 4 or 5 trips to the Surly brewery this spring/summer, which was horribly difficult for me... have you ever been in a brewery and smelled the delicious aroma of hops and other people's full pints of beer and not been able to have on for yourself?  It's not easy, and it's not fun.

Kara at the lake:

I brought Kara to her first rap show, and we got to take our pic with Sims! 

 

Kara's birthday party

Things I am excited for in the fall:  Having the windows open, going to the apple orchard, carving pumpkins, eating pumpkins, drinking pumpkin beer, the leaves changing colors, fall colors, fall smells, apple cider, Grey's Anatomy!  I love fall, it's one of my favorite times of the year.

As far as my pregnancy goes...I finally felt the baby move from the outside at 23 weeks.  Now I'm feeling her and seeing her move on a daily basis, but I would still like to say that having an anterior placenta sucks!!!  Kara will snuggle with me and lay her head on my belly and say "oh, the baby is kicking my head".. haha, I'm pretty sure that Kara has never really felt the baby kick, but it's pretty funny.  Baby name = Penelope!  Not really, but I'm about 98% sure that we have a first name picked out.. but I'm not going to tell you what it is! :) As of today I have 96 days until I can have a beer my due date, not that I'm counting or anything.  I am totally set on not going past my due date this time around, so I really hope this baby doesn't have her own plans...  We have been majorly slacking on preparing our house for the arrival of baby girl #2.  With only 3 months to go, we should really start working on that.  We have to find a way to fit both girls, a crib and a bed, and 2 full wardrobes into one rather small room.  Joe, Kara and I also brewed up some beer that should be ready right around my due date.  It's an Imperial Espresso Stout that we plan on calling Up All Night Stout!  I can't wait for it to be ready and to try it, it smelled ridiculously good while we were brewing!  After we were done brewing Kara said "The baby is going to be sooooo happy that you made her beer!"  haha, how cute is that?

Ooooh... I found the most amazing onesie at Target, how perfect is this!?  And it was on clearance for $1.12!!

I sewed this blanket/quilt for the baby, I love it and I want one for myself! 

Hopefully Joe and I can get motivated to get the house ready for the baby soon.  We did switch our computer room into a toy room, that should help keep the clutter of toys around the rest of the house to a minimum, I hope!  Next I think I need to go through all of Kara's old clothes and decide what we can reuse and what we need to get rid of! 

One last thing.. we have tickets to go see Yo Gabba Gabba live on Thursday night!  I think it will be lots of fun and Kara will absolutely love it!  I'll be sure to take lots of pictures! 

Feeling Uncomfortable In My Own Skin

A little back story on my weight loss journey...  My weight has fluctuated a lot my whole life, constant ups and downs, but mostly ups... I was overweight when I got pregnant with Kara, gained about 30 pounds during my pregnancy, lost 28 pounds within 6 weeks after her delivery and then put 20 pounds back on my first month back to work... at that point I realized I had to make some changes, lose weight, be active and be healthy!

Me at my heaviest - Christmas 2008

I changed my eating habits and started counting calories and the pounds starting falling off! 

On my way to being skinny! 

Over the course of the next year I lost about 70 pounds by eating healthy, counting calories and starting daily workouts, sometimes even waking up at 4:30 am to workout!!  I was doing things that I never imagined I could do.. like completing the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred and I started running.. me?... running? who would have ever thought!?!?  I was really proud of my accomplishments!

Over the next year I maintained my weight loss and fluctuated + or - 10 pounds, but I was at about 80 pounds weight loss and feeling great!  By no means was I skinny, I was still about 20-30 pounds away from where I wanted to be but I was comfortable with my weight, confident, liked the way that clothes fit me and just overall felt good about myself. 

Fast forward to April 2011 - I was suddenly having problems breathing while I was running, having weird cravings, exhausted all the time and just generally feeling crappy.  Why this sudden change in how I was feeling?? 

That's a pretty good reason to feel like shit, right?  Being pregnant has pretty much put a halt on exercising and eating healthy.  I have severe food cravings and aversions, constant nausea and heartburn and zero energy.  Every time I  try getting back on a workout schedule I survive a day of working out and then am too sore to workout for the next week... so that's not going so well.  I've been packing on the pounds over the last few months, and quite frankly I am terrified to know how much I will gain this pregnancy!! I am really hoping that I am just gaining really fast at the beginning and it will slow down and I won't have much weight gain between now and the end of my pregnancy.

And a shot from last weekend @ 22 weeks pregnant ...bleh...

I am back to feeling uncomfortable in my own skin, which is really hard to deal with after so recently being so proud of my accomplishments and weight loss.  I guess the moral of my story is that this is just a chapter of my life, I am growing what will soon be my beautiful daughter and a little bit TON of weight gain is totally acceptable right now.  I know that I can get back to where I want to be, it will just take lots and lots of work after this little baby comes! 

Oh My Growing Belly!

I've been a horrible blogger.  Here are some horrible pics of my growing belly with baby #2, hopefully this makes up for my horrible blogging skills... 

And here is a picture of baby #2 from our 20 week ultrasound!   Isn't she pretty?  Yes, it's another girl!!  Kara was right all along!  

That's all that I've got for now!  I've been trying to get back into sewing, and want to sew some things for the new baby... I'll be sure to post pics if I get around to making anything!

Watermelon!

Today's obsession is watermelon, sweet, juicy, wonderful, delicious watermelon.

My mom makes this sauce that she drizzles over fresh fruit (don't know where she got the recipe) but it's absolutely amazing, and that is specifically what I was craving today.  So here is how you do it:

Start with fresh fruit - I used watermelon and red grapes.  It's also delicious with strawberries, blueberries and cantaloupe, and probably any other fruit!  Cut fruit and place in bowl:

Mix equal parts of lime juice and honey:

Pour mixture over fruit, and enjoy!  I especially like it after it has sat for awhile and all the flavors soak together, I also prefer it chilled. 

I am going to let it sit overnight, and let all the flavors soak together... then I am going to put the watermelon chunks and grapes on skewers and try freezing them, I'm pretty sure it's going to be delicious!  I'll let you know how it turns out!

Here is a recipe from Bon Apetit that I really want to try too! 

Surprise!!

I have been working on multiple blog posts about our surprise for over a month, but I just don't feel like finishing any of them, none of them seemed quite right... so here it is: 

We're having another baby! 

Here is the timeline of events:

• April 13th - Positive pregnancy test
• April 14th - 2nd Positive pregnancy test.. had to make sure the first one was right :)
• April 27th - First ultrasound to determine my due date, I found out I was 6 weeks 4 days pregnant with a due date of December 17th.  A Christmas baby!?!?!  I have always said how badly I don't want a Christmas baby, but I have gotten more used to the idea over the last couple months, so I think it will be just fine!
• June 1st - Second doctor appointment, at 11 weeks 4 days.  The doctor couldn't find the heartbeat, so she sent me on to the hospital to have another ultrasound... you could say I was freaking out a bit at this point.  Got to the hospital, had the ultrasound and saw the baby right away, moving, kicking, heart beating.. it was great!  Baby measured right at 12 weeks!

So, we found out I was pregnant at 4 weeks 4 days, and kept it a secret from most people until after the June 1st ultrasound... that was a long 7 weeks!  Especially since I feel like I look 6 months pregnant...

We told Kara right away, and she is super excited!  We bought Kara a 'Big Sister' t-shirt and she loves it, she wants to wear it constantly!  She is also obsessed with looking at pictures of the baby on my phone via the babycenter app.. which are obviously not pictures of our baby, but she thinks they are!  Last week she put her hand on my belly and said "The baby kicked my hand" haha, she is too funny!  Kara is 100% convinced that we are having a baby girl, and so far I am too... only a few more weeks and we will be able to find out!

Anyway, that is our big exciting surprise!  Now that it's out there expect lots of posts about cravings, mood swings, etc..... 

Here is baby at 6 weeks 4 days, heartrate 114, pretty much just a blob!

And here is baby at 11 weeks, 4 days, heartrate 167 - I tried to outline the baby because it is very hard to see in this picture, but on the ultrasound I could see the baby's head, body, arms, legs.. such a difference 5 weeks can make!