And then came baby #2

Baby #2 has been around for a while now, but I have been on hiatus from this blog - I keep thinking about it and keep thinking that I need to do an update, but time and life seems to get in the way.  The good news is that on my brother's birthday in February, we were blessed with our 2nd daughter.  If I were to share names on this blog, you would love her name, it's a good one.  One that we discovered at Christmas time while visiting with my aunt and uncle about baby names.

My baby story isn't too exciting, although a memory that I'll always have.  We had been in the process since late December of finishing our basement, and earlier that week, everything in our basement had been wrapped up and it was time to do our part.  We opted to do all the finishing work ourselves, meaning caulking and filling baseboard nails, doing all the painting, and getting the carpet installed.  We decided that day to get to work on it, and spent most of the day in the basement caulking baseboards.  Around 8pm that night I had a moment where I thought that maybe my water broke, although it wasn't the splash down like everyone says it is so I disregarded it.  Matt and I were going to watch Breaking Dawn (!!!) that night, so we sat down to watch the movie at around 8:30.  Within 10 minutes of sitting down I had my first contraction.  I think I finally told Matt I was having contractions around 9 pm after I had a couple more.  We finished the movie and decided to go pack a bag in case this was the real thing and I called my cousin to let her know that this might be it - she was going to come over and watch the 2 year old while we went to the hospital.

I downloaded an app on the iPod to start keeping track of contractions.  The evening progressed and this is what I did until 1 am:

My contraction history is below :

StartTime	EndTime	Duration (mm:ss)	Freq. (mm:ss)	Intensity
Feb 11, 2012 11:17 PM	Feb 11, 2012 11:18 PM	00:42	00:00	-
Feb 11, 2012 11:19 PM	Feb 11, 2012 11:20 PM	00:35	02:00	-
Feb 11, 2012 11:22 PM	Feb 11, 2012 11:23 PM	00:56	02:50	-
Feb 11, 2012 11:26 PM	Feb 11, 2012 11:27 PM	01:03	03:48	-
Feb 11, 2012 11:29 PM	Feb 11, 2012 11:30 PM	00:44	03:13	-
Feb 11, 2012 11:31 PM	Feb 11, 2012 11:32 PM	01:00	02:14	-
Feb 11, 2012 11:37 PM	Feb 11, 2012 11:38 PM	00:58	05:22	-
Feb 11, 2012 11:38 PM	Feb 11, 2012 11:39 PM	00:35	01:34	-
Feb 11, 2012 11:40 PM	Feb 11, 2012 11:40 PM	00:36	01:12	-
Feb 11, 2012 11:42 PM	Feb 11, 2012 11:42 PM	00:40	02:02	-
Feb 11, 2012 11:43 PM	Feb 11, 2012 11:44 PM	00:26	01:52	-
Feb 11, 2012 11:45 PM	Feb 11, 2012 11:46 PM	00:32	01:32	-
Feb 11, 2012 11:47 PM	Feb 11, 2012 11:48 PM	00:42	01:50	-
Feb 11, 2012 11:49 PM	Feb 11, 2012 11:49 PM	00:30	01:41	-
Feb 11, 2012 11:55 PM	Feb 11, 2012 11:57 PM	01:13	06:53	-
Feb 12, 2012 12:01 AM	Feb 12, 2012 12:02 AM	01:05	05:53	-
Feb 12, 2012 12:06 AM	Feb 12, 2012 12:06 AM	00:50	04:11	-
Feb 12, 2012 12:09 AM	Feb 12, 2012 12:10 AM	01:03	03:39	-
Feb 12, 2012 12:14 AM	Feb 12, 2012 12:15 AM	01:04	04:22	-
Feb 12, 2012 12:16 AM	Feb 12, 2012 12:17 AM	00:54	02:29	-
Feb 12, 2012 12:19 AM	Feb 12, 2012 12:20 AM	01:00	02:39	-
Feb 12, 2012 12:23 AM	Feb 12, 2012 12:25 AM	01:19	04:33	-
Feb 12, 2012 12:28 AM	Feb 12, 2012 12:29 AM	00:51	04:41	-
Feb 12, 2012 12:30 AM	Feb 12, 2012 12:30 AM	00:35	01:51	-
Feb 12, 2012 12:33 AM	Feb 12, 2012 12:34 AM	01:03	03:26	-
Feb 12, 2012 12:38 AM	Feb 12, 2012 12:39 AM	01:00	04:38	-
Feb 12, 2012 12:40 AM	Feb 12, 2012 12:40 AM	00:36	01:37	-
Feb 12, 2012 12:44 AM	Feb 12, 2012 12:45 AM	01:13	04:36	-
Feb 12, 2012 12:49 AM	Feb 12, 2012 12:50 AM	01:00	04:54	-
Feb 12, 2012 12:53 AM	Feb 12, 2012 12:54 AM	01:00	03:30	-
Feb 12, 2012 12:54 AM	Feb 12, 2012 12:55 AM	00:42	01:32	-
Feb 12, 2012 12:56 AM	Feb 12, 2012 12:57 AM	00:53	01:35	-
Feb 12, 2012 1:02 AM	Feb 12, 2012 1:03 AM	01:08	06:37	-

Exciting yes?

At 1 am I decided to get up and call the doctor.  She called me back and assessed the situation and we decided that it was time to go to the hospital.  We called my cousin and she came over and headed to Boulder.  

When we got into Boulder around 2, I measured 4 cm (yay!), and they asked me what my pain was at, I decided that I wanted to keep going but around 3:00 I decided that I had had enough and wanted the epidural.  Around 3:30 I had the epidural, was feeling better and was at 7 cm, and the doctor broke my water which put me to 8 cm.  And then the waiting game started.  I was 9 cm around 4:30, but it took FOREVER to get to 10.  Around 7:00 there was a shift change, and I got a new nurse.  Around 8:15-8:30 she decided that I should go ahead and push a little to take the edge off some of the contractions I was having.  And that did the trick, I was finally at 10 cm.  At that point she said "don't push till I get back" and she went and got the doctor, Matt came back from inhaling some breakfast, and we were ready to go.  4 pushes later, I had my teeny purple baby girl on me.  She weighed 6lbs 13 oz, and was 19 inches long.  

She's 5 months old now, and so sweet.  She started smiling around 5 weeks, which we could hardly believe, and now can roll from back to front, and sometimes she remembers that she can roll from front to back, although she forgets that and just puts her head down and cries when she's tired of being on her tummy.  Big sister has adjusted very well, and gives her lots of kisses and wants to always say hello to her in the morning and kiss her before she goes to bed at night.  We certainly are blessed to have 2 beautiful healthy daughters!

And a baby makes...4

It doesn't appear that I've actually mentioned this yet...we've decided to have another baby.  This one is due in February.  So for me, that just means a little less than 5 months to go.

This pregnancy has been very different from my pregnancy with Miss Muffit.  It seems from the MOMENT I took that pregnancy test the nausea set in and I started in with the deep breathing - through the mouth - cause whatever it was that I smelled had the potential of making my toss my cookies at any moment.  I'm lucky that nothing ever came up, however, my 'morning/all day sickness' lasted clear until I was about 15 weeks along.  Since then I've been feeling great....tired...but anything beats that gross motion sick feeling.

Since announcing to our world that we're having another baby, we've actually gotten word that few of our family and friends are expecting now too!  Remember that wedding that I wrote of a few months ago?  Well they announced that they are expecting, along with a cousin of Matt's in MN, as well as an old friend of mine back in my home town - and they are expecting within a week of us!  It was my mom who said the nicest thing to me with this pregnancy - she said "That's really nice, I think we have room for one more".

Currently the question is: to find out, or not to find out; as far as the gender goes.  Ultrasound is in two weeks.  I have to admit, that I'm really torn with this.  Matt and I have different ideas on how many children we want.  I've always said 3, he used to say 3, but when we had Miss Muffet, his number changed to 1.5.  So, deciding to have another to him was necessary, since he didn't want Little Miss to be an only child, but still going to be a big challenge.  I kinda feel like if this is going to be my last baby, maybe I want to experience what's it's like to go the entire 9 months without knowing - having to wait until that little one decides to come out.  On the other hand, we LOVED knowing with baby-girl; it was awesome knowing a little more about that little person growing in there.  Matt would like to know - I know there's a place in him that would love to have one of each, although be perfectly happy with 2 of the same - and he's also mentioned that he doesn't want to take away from my experience of not knowing by finding out.  And he said there's no way he could keep it a secret from me (I've given him the option of knowing and not telling me!).  So we will see what we come up with.

We've also let our little girl know about the pregnancy - and although I'm sure she doesn't fully understand what it means, she's very cute and tells us that she has a baby in her tummy too.  Then she pretends to take the baby out and hand it to us.  Often the baby turns into a dragon, and then she roars.  Side note, we were driving down the road one day and she saw a school bus (which is VERY exciting), and she roared at it, "Rawwr!", I asked why she roared and she responded "Scawre kids".

Mama bed.

I've been telling people for a while that our lives seem like they're getting back to normal...we're getting lots of sleep at night, although littlest one can be trying, for the most part she's loads of fun, and generally we are doing really well.

This false sense of security came to a screeching halt the other night.  For some reason 2 nights ago, littlest one woke up at midnight, and proceeded to call for one of us...at the moment I can't remember which, and I can't even remember who went in there first (translation - must not have been me).  So Matt went her room, comforted her, laid her back down, gives her paci's, a drink of water, and then comes back to bed.  About 2 minutes later, she calls for us again.  This time I go...do the same thing, go back to bed.  5 minutes pass, Matt's back in there.  Another 5, I'm in there.  But this time, I'm tired of it, so I ask her if she'd like to go lay down in mama's bed.  "Yes."

(BTW, if any of you have heard Miss Muffet talk, she has a very distinct "yes"...)

Off to mama's bed we go, and she snuggles right up, and I think even might fall asleep for a few minutes.  But then she wakes up and proceeds to toss and turn...touch Matt..."dada home"...feel my hair..."mama bed"...."hi daddy!"..."wake up dada!"..."mama go?...there ee is!"...."dada go?...there ee is!"...then us, "ssshhh, it's night night time, go to sleep"..."mama bed"....  And this goes on for another hour.  2 am comes and goes - no one is getting any sleep.

Around 2:30 or 3 Matt decides she needs to go back to her crib.  So he takes her and the water works start, and after he puts her back to bed she cries and cries and cries until I can't stand it anymore, take my pillow and decide that she and I can sleep in the spare bedroom - at least one of will get some sleep that way.  As soon as I pick her up, she says "mama bed", and cries HARD when she realizes that we're going into the guest room.  Ugh.  Matt comes in and rescues me, and back we go to mama's bed.  Joy.

So, Little Miss flops around for another hour and a half, when I think she finally gets tired, and starts crying, cause she's not comfortable or something.  At that point, all I can think of to do is change her diaper, and give her some tylenol, just in case something hurts and she couldn't tell us what.  She FINALLY fell back asleep and slept great, while Matt and I endured toes in the back and a flopping 1.89 year old until 6:30 when the alarm went off.

It was miserable, and we were both a wreck the next day.  Matt mentioned that it reminded him of the dark days of having a new born!  Ha ha!  We decided not to wake her when we got up, and Matt stayed home with her yesterday, since she slept until 8:45 in morning.  She still doesn't seem sick or anything, so we can't pinpoint what was going on that would cause her 4 hours of insomnia in the middle of the night.  Last night she tried to pull the same "mama bed" thing, and after a tag-team bedtime routine, we finally got her to lay down in her crib and go to sleep.  She did call out for her dad at 2:36 am this morning, and I noticed that he didn't go in there...good thing she didn't call out for mama!

It's a virus.

I don't know how many times I've heard the phrase "It's a virus" this past year.  Ever since we enrolled littlest-one into day care we've been to the doctor countless times to just be told that there's nothing that can be done - it's just a virus and we have to let it run its course.  And how frustrating as a parent to think, "gosh, she's coughing a lot she sounds very congested...what if it's pneumonia again?!"  A $15 copay later, we're back in the car with nothing to show for it!

And it's been more noticeable as of late, but today I've realized that my baby girl is no longer a baby, but a full on toddler.  Little Miss Independent wants to do NOTHING that I ask of her, but will get around to doing it on her own time...so frustrating for mama who just wants her to get IN the car so we can go home after day car, or leave the exam room after seeing the doctor, or sit on mama's lap so the doctor can examine her.  Ugh....so starts the terrible-twos?  I've heard it also is the terrible 3's...we're in for a long haul.

New Baby!

We often say "seems like everybody we know are having babies", but I suppose that just has a lot to do with our age.  When we were in our early 20s, so were all of our friends.  Now, in our 30s, our siblings and friends are having babies.    On Tuesday, my sister had her baby!  A little one at that; her baby girl weighed in at 6lbs 0.5oz...  She's a couple weeks early, but since my sister was walking around 6 cm dilated, her doctor decided that they should break her water and get that baby born.  2 hours later, she had a baby to hold in her arms!  So, even though she wasn't supposed to be born until the 19th, she's a nice size! It's killing me not to fly to Montana and see the new bundle of joy...if only plane tickets weren't up 60% in price from last year!  I digress.

Welcome to the world sweet baby niece.  I can't wait to meet you!

Proud Crawler

It has finally happened.

First, a little back story.  A couple Thanksgivings ago, we were celebrating the holiday with my family in Montana.  My niece, who at the time was just a year old, was crawling and getting close to walking.  My mom's bedroom is just off the living room and has these French doors as the entrance to her room.  So my niece could go in to the room, and pull the doors shut with her little fingers, peek at us through the glass, and then come bursting out with the proudest crawl you've ever seen.  Head up, big smile and FAST.  It was adorable and hilarious.  Of course, if any of you know my family, there was lots of cheering and clapping too!

Our living room is set up with the love seat along one wall, and the couch along the wall perpendicular to that; in the corner is a rod-iron end table.  There's just enough space between the arm of the couch and the arm of the love seat for Miss Muffet to craw through and play under the table.  Just last night Miss Muffet discovered that she could crawl in there, so we put a few of her teddy bears in with her, and she managed to find an envelope that had fallen back there to play with.  When she is in her 'fort', we can't reach her very easily, so we have to bribe her to come out with her other fun toys (that we are having a ball playing with).  So last night after she had been back there playing for a while, she got to the 'entrance', waited for us to notice her and then came roaring out with the proudest crawl I've ever seen her do.  She was a spitting image of her cousin and reminded me of her so much.  I wish we could see you more often, my sweet niece, I miss you!

The push present.

I love this.

Now, just to clarify, I didn't coin the phrase nor did I come up with the idea...but I think both are fabulous.

So here's the deal.  When I was pregnant with the munch, Matt and I went to dinner with his cousins one night.  We got on the subject of baby gifts, and a gift to the mother...it was a tradition in his cousins family that her mom got a gift (like jewelery) for each of her babies.  And when Matt's cousin got married, her mom gave her said gift, as something to wear on her wedding.  I thought it was a very amazing story, and very sweet, as did Matt.

So later, when my cousins were out visiting for my birthday weekend, we were out walking around Pearl Street mall, and we decided to drop in at our jewelers store; we saw they were having a going out of business sale, so we figured we ought to get our rings buffed up before we had to find a new jeweler.  While we were waiting, Matt mentioned that he'd like to get me something, that we'd later give to Miss Muffet when she gets married!  Of course I was thrilled, and my cousins helped us pick out a beautiful set of earrings, which would have been enough, but Matt, being so very sweet and generous, splurged and got me a matching necklace.

Fast forward to last night.  My cousin's husband was here to spend the night for some business in Denver, and we were talking about the bun that is currently residing in my cousin's oven.  And the subject of Mothers day came up, and then I asked if he was going to get my cousin a present for having a baby.

He looked at me.

Squinted and glared.

And then said "YOU".

Of course I laughed.

And then he said "The Push Present"

Insert eye roll.

"That isn't even REAL - so I'm choosing to ignore it.  If there's not a hallmark card for it, then I'm not doing it!"

Turkey time!

My baby has been eating solids for a little while now, we've gone through the yellow vegetables, green vegetables (peas and greenbeans), fruits, and are now on to meat!  She has done a GREAT job so far with everything, and of course LOVED her fruits.  I've never seen her little mouth so big when eating her bananas.  And the sugar rush afterwards.  She gets so she can hardly sit still in her high chair.  It's good fun.

So, last night, we opened up the jar of turkey with turkey gravy, which I looked at the ingredients and it actually only contains pureed turkey breast, water and corn starch...I guess one uses cornstarch to make gravy.  Beings that I never make gravy, that was news to me.   Anyways, I opened it up, warmed it up a little, and I took a little taste.  I figured, if she's going to eat it then I might as well try it out too.  Well, it was NAASSTTY.  Bleh.  Talk about the driest turkey breast you've ever had, with NO SALT and pureed.  Yeckkk.  So, little baby, thinking it was FRUIT, opens her sweet little mouth WIDE open, only to have the punch in the face that was the turkey.  HA!  She gave the BIGGEST shiver more than once, and gave us a big gag.  As a side note, we have hardly gotten ANY shivers from her since we've been feeding her food.  She has been a food superstar.  She may have given a little shiver when we first gave her pears...but that's it.  So Matt and I were LOVING all of these shivers and gags...made us giggle, all the while feeling pretty sorry for the sweetie pie.  She stopped trusting me though, and wouldn't open her mouth after a while, so we got out some yummy pears and some yummy cereal for her, reassured her that we wouldn't trick her anymore, and all was well.  We'll just keep trying...although as the hubby said, "it'll take us a month to get through a jar of turkey at this rate".  He he he.