Ramblings of a mom of 2

I know I have been MIA lately. Seems like I have a lot going on and not enought time to do it all. Between Aaron's t-ball, taking care of Anna, Doug's hockey and crazy work schedule and and Eric's baseball I have no time. Thank goodness for night I get to go running! Right, Angie?

Updates:

Aaron starts preschool five half days a week on September 4th. I am excited about him getting to go back and he is too. Still can't believe my baby is going to be registering for kindergarten in a few months! Why do they grow up so fast??

Anna is cute! She went to her 4 month appt last Tuesday. She is now 25 inches long and 13 lbs exactly. Apparently she has a big head too because they gave us the percentiles for each measurement and her head was 90%. No wonder all those cute baby hats are all too little! Anna is starting to get stronger too. She can almost sit up by herself and when on her tummy she can lift her head and chest up. I give her 2 more months and she'll be crawling. 

I have my own issues going on. I had a repeat pap- you all remember back when I was pregnant I had that abnormal pap that came back? Well they rechecked and the cells are progressing. They are a stage 3 now and I went for a colposcopy on Thursday. They biopsied 4 spots. It sucked. I had to just lay there while my OB was cutting on my cervix. It wasn't so much painful just that it was uncomfortable. I bled for a few days after that. I have to get the LEEP procedure done. It doesn't sound so bad. They put you to sleep and use this laser thing to get the bad stuff out. After that I'm done. Hopefully I don't have to deal with it again. It's just that I don't like the idea of lots of needles and pain afterwards. 

Hope everyone is well!

The one above is of Doug's mom and dad, Allison (Doug's brother's baby) and Anna who is in white.



the one above is Allison (on the left) and Anna. Obviously Anna is sooooooo much cuter! Hahaha


This is a recent picture of Eric and Aaron. Look how big Aaron is getting! The little stinker weighs 40 pounds now! I can't even lift him up and carry him anymore.

Hi girls! I am sorry I've been busy and haven't been here in awhile. This is whats going on around here....

1. I am training for this half-marathon which I've never done before

2. I am trying to move up in my company to a higher position making more money

3. Anna and Aaron are keeping me pretty busy between Aaron's t-ball games and her doctor appts

4. We switched daycares! Anna got scratched on the head the other week and Doug and I finally decided it was time to get her out. Neither of us felt comfortable with her in that woman's care anymore. We interviewed 3 people and it was a hard decision! After all that had happened with the other lady we were pretty cautious of each one of them. One woman was a mom of 5 and her youngest was 2. He was pretty rambunctious and wanted to climb all over Anna as soon as she was in the door. Then the woman admitted she had Magnetix in the house and that the 2 year had eaten one a few weeks back. Yikes! We thought no right away. Then the second one was a young couple with a 4 year old boy who had a neurological disabilities and he was really sweet. They lived in an apartment though and the place was a little small. The third woman was the one we picked and she is a recently separated mom of one and she only watches 2 other babies. Her house was clean and in a great neighborhood. We liked her personality and decided to go with her. So far so good! 

5. Aaron is at VBS this week with his buddies Zach and Jacob from church and he is having so much fun. Eric is with us this week too and at first he thought that VBS was going to be boring but yesterday he came home and was telling me about a project that they were doing and he sounded excited about it. I am glad he is getting a little bit of Christian education in his life. We take him to church with us but we all know the mother is not exactly setting a good Christian example for him. 

Hope everyone is well!!!

So I had a teleconference today for my dedicated account at work. We always have these meetings once a month to discuss the account and open claims and possibility for subrogation. That's fine. but at the end of the conference today the big New York people said something about the next meeting would be an in person face to face meeting in New York in July. Ack! New York! Bottom line.....I dont want to go! I dont want to leave my babies and I would have to skip my birthday gift the night before which is a ballgame between the Cards and Cubs in which my parents bought me the tickets. My dilemma is that I am afraid that if I don't go I wont get one of the higher positions they are going to offer some people here in the office and I'm almost a shoe-in for one of them. That, leaving my babies, and the fact that I am terrified of flying is all stressing me out! The promotions will increase my salary by about $8000 so its a big deal. We could use a little extra money right now with all of our bills. My supervisor doesnt think it will affect the promotions but you never know. What do you all think?

I honor of Father's Day I thought I'd post those pics. We had a good Father's Day. Gave Doug a gift card to Cabela's which is a sporting goods place here in St. Louis. He loved it! I also got him a CD he wanted. So we hwas happy. I got him a card and wrote in there about how grateful I was for him and that he is a good dad to the kids. I really am grateful to him. He treats Aaron like one of his own. Aaron calls him daddy. Sometimes I even forget that he isn't really Doug's. We were just talking about how we want to change Aaron's last name to ours so when he goes to kindergarten he can have the same last name and won't feel different. Problem is, it costs a lot of money to do anything legal! Ugh!

Today Im so tired. Anna slept great last night too! She last ate at 10:00pm and drank 4oz and then went to sleep about 10:30. She slept until 4:15am and then woke up to drink 2oz then fell asleep eating. I cant believe she slept so well! The night before she got up twice! I just wish she'd get on a schedule. 

I have pretty much given up the breastfeeding thing. Since I have been back at work, I've been pumping here as much as I can but it seems like my supply just keeps dropping. I think it's that I dont have time to pump because I am so busy here. I have a new account that I took on as well as the regular property claims Im getting and I've been so swamped that my brain is spinning by the end of the day. I figure if I have done it for almost 11 weeks it's good enough. Besides Anna seems to be doing okay with the supplements of Good Start

I took Anna to the doctor on Friday for her 2 month check up. She is 10lbs and 10oz now and doing great! She screamed while getting her shots and I couldn't look but she did fine otherwise. She was 7lbs 13oz at 3 weeks so she's grown a lot. It's funny to look at where Aaron was at this stage. At his 2 month appt he was 13lbs 2 oz!! What a big boy! What was I feeding that kid? I think that boys just tend to gain weight a little faster than girls.

We went to the lake this weekend with our friends Greg and Angie from church. It was great! We went out on the boat Saturday all afternoon and then we barbecued that night. Angie and I went to the outlet mall for awhile too. I've been trying to figure out what to get Doug for Father's Day. I wanted to make something cute and personalized from Anna but I've slacked off and now its too late. :( I did get him a pair of khakis he asked for from the Gap and I think I'm going to get him a CD he wants. What's everyone else doing for Father's Day? Any other last minute ideas for me?? A pair of pants and a CD sound so boring

It's been 9 weeks! Anna is 9 weeks today. Time is just flying by! She gets cuter everyday. She smiles now and she's such a happy baby. Unfortunately she has her first cold. She has been congested the past few days and so she's been eating less because she is all stuffed up and gets mad that she cant breathe through her nose. I have the same cold. I think it all started with her coming home from daycare with it. Aaron got it next and has been sniffling and coughing and now I have it. 

I have started looking at some other daycare people in my area. I found one lady who has a 2 year old son and she watches out of her house with her sister in law. So there is 2 of them there and they only have 4 kids right now. The woman that watches Anna right now has 9 kids and for one person thats a lot. She's a really nice person but for me thats a lot of kids. I went to pick Anna up yesterday and she was sitting in a bouncer outside on the patio while the sitter was inside helping wash another kid's hands. Anna was alone out there with 5  2-3 year olds. Thats how she got scratched the other week. I am just worried that when she starts crawling and the sitter has 8 other kids to watch that Anna will get something in her mouth and choke when the babysitter is inside. Does this sound like I'm just being overly paranoid? What do you all think? Im going to go and interview the woman and SIL I talked to yesterday.

Oh yea, and AF is back with a vengence. I had AF 2 weeks ago for like 8 days! And I finally stopped last week and now I have started again. What is going on????

My first week back at work is almost over. Thank goodness! I am ready to catch up on some sleep. With Anna still getting up at night about 2 or 3 to eat its hard. Doug helps out when he cans but getting 3 hours here and 3 hours there.

I had a babysitter issue the other day. We are having a lady who has a home daycare watch Anna and also Aaron while his preschool is out for the summer. Well when I picked Anna up Tuesday afternoon she had these 2 marks on her leg. They were on the lower part of her leg and looked like someone had dug their nails into her and removed skin. I was very upset and more upset that the sitter had lied and tried to tell me that Anna did it with her own nails. Yea right. I talked to her later and told her that I thought one of the other kids there did it when she wasnt looking. She finally said probably when she had to step over the gate to make snack or lunch. We agreed that she would take Anna's bouncer over to the kitchen area and never leave Anna on the other side with the other kids. I still feel unsettled about the whole thing and I told Doug that one more incident and we are pulling her, no notice. Why is it so hard to find good sitters???

Here's some more recent Anna pics....

Hi everyone! I'm back at work and have computer access again. I missed chatting with everyone while I was gone. I'm sure someone has posted that I had my baby girl, Anna. She was born on March 29, 2007. Birth Story below:

I was supposed to be induced the night of March 28, my due date. My Ob said that the hospital would call sometime after 8pm to have me come in to induce. She said that it depended on how busy they were. Well we waited and fell alseep watching TV. I woke up at 1am and called L&D trying to see if they forgot about me or what. They said they had been extremely busy but that they would call me in a few hours once a few people delivered. Well at 5am they finally called. We got there about 6am, checked in and got into the room. They hooked me up then tried to start an IV. they got it in the one arm and it didnt feel right to me. Sure enough within minutes my whole arm swelled up. The needle had went right through the vein. They took it out and tried the other arm. same thing happened. so the nurse went and got an anthesiologist who numbed my already sore arm and got it in!! Yey! So by the time my OB came to break my water and start contractions it was 8am. She checked me and I was 2-3cm. they also started pitocin then. i was doing ok for awhile. they increased the pitocin every hour and by early afternoon i was at a 5 and contractions were coming pretty fast and were really intense. I asked for my epidural. The lady came to put it on and she didnt do it right because i didnt get numb. One leg got numb but the rest of me down there didnt. However I started feeling the intense urge to push and burning. The nurse checked me and I was a 10 and her head was right there. I had went from 5-10 in a half hour. There was no time to fix the epidural. Anna came out in 3 pushes and weighed 7lbs 2oz and was 21inches long. She was born at exactly 2:50pm, almost 7 hours after my water broke and contractions started.

 

Well it was an interesting weekend. I spent the good part of Saturday night/Sunday morning in Labor and Delivery. No baby yet. I started having contractions about 8pm and they were 5 minutes apart. So after about 3 hours we took Eric and Aaron over to Doug's mom and dad's and went into the hospital. The contractions felt strong but manageable. When we got there we got hooked up to the monitors and they started to see what kind of pattern I was having. I was having them every 4-5 minutes and they went up into the 90's. The nurse checked me and said I was only a 1cm and 60% effaced. She told me to walk for about 45 minutes and come back . If I wasnt making any progress they would probably send me home. Well I went from a 1 to a 2cm dialated so they kept me a bit more and just let me lay down and watch the contractions. Doug went to get a krispy kreme from the cafeteria (the nerve!) and I just watched TV. An hour later the nurse checked me again and I was 75% effaced but not dialated any more. They had me walk again to see if walking would keep things going. Well after more walking we didnt make any progress so I was sent home. It was 4:30am before we got home and we were exhausted. The contractions started to fizzle down after awhile and I was able to sleep a few hours. I have been having contractions off and on yesterday and today, but nothing regular and painful. Gee, at this rate I could be pregnant forever! I've lost my plug, had my membranes stripped and still this baby is holding on in there. 

Doug's mom dropped Aaron and Eric off in the morning and Aaron acted all funny. He looked at me and wouldnt give me a hug. I think he was confused because we told him we were going to go have the baby the night before and to see me still pregnant probably threw him off. After a little while we did a puzzle together and he was his normal self. What a weekend

39 weeks today. No sign of baby yet though I'm positive she's head down. She dropped right after turning and now looks like she's in my lap. I carried really high for the whole pregnancy and now she's so low. I can tell you that after she dropped I'm feeling a lot more pressure down there as well as some shooting pains. Ouch! She has to come soon! I go tomorrow for my 39 week check-up. Maybe I've made progress

Not much else is going on. It's 76 degres here today! Yey! First day of spring and I'm loving it! Too bad Doug and I have out last Childbirth class tonight otherwise I'd be at the park with Aaron after work. My mom and dad are going to look after him. He's so smart. He went to Wal-mart with my mom the other day (its his spring break at preschool and there's no daycare either) and since she lives in a different part of town she goes to a different wal-mart to shop. Well when they get there he tells my mom, "This is not my Wal-mart" LOL! Kids say the craziest stuff. I told Doug the other day when I was hungry that Anna wanted some McDonalds. Well Aaron overheard and said, "Mommy, She's not here yet" He's too smart for his own good. Haha!

I cannot believe it! I went in for my scheduled C-section yesterday and she has turned head down! They had me in the prep room,  both sets of parents were waiting outside in the waiting area and they did one last ultrasound before getting my IV and epidural in. Well they saw her heads down! I got to cancel my C-section and they kept me there at the hopital for 2 hours because I was having contractions and they wanted to see where they went. Well they went no where so I got sent home. Good news is that I am already 50% effaced and 1 cm dialated. So now we get to have our vaginal birth! Yey!

Questions: When they checked me the nurse pulled her hand out and she had blood on her glove. Not just a few drops- looked like the ends of her fingers were covered in it. I haven't bled like that from an exam before. Since then I have had spotting and today I noticed a gooey sticky brown gob came out. Yucky! Is this a normal thing that can happen after those exams? This is the first time it's happened to me.

37 weeks and 5 days. Still here and still feeling huge! I have gained 30lbs so far which is average (gained 32 with Aaron), but for some reason I feel bigger than I did with Aaron. Maybe she's bigger??? Guess we'll find out in 3 days! Can't believe the day is almost here! I am feeling nervous still but starting to get more excited. I can't wait to see what she looks like. I have to go in Weds to pre-register for the surgery and give blood and also talk to anesthesia.

Thursday Doug and I are going to drop Aaron off at his preschool and go in to the hospital. We figured that it would be better for him to be at school and have a normal day. There wouldnt be much for him to do at the hospital anyway other than sit with the grandparents and wait, and I don't want him to see me feeling bad. He understands that the baby is coming. He asked the other day if she was here yet. I said, no this week. He must know that she's coming soon. Doug's mom and dad are supposed to go get him from school at 4 and then they are getting Eric too and coming out to the hospital so the boys can see the baby. It's Doug's night to have Eric anyway. 

If anyone wants to check out Anna's pictures they can look at the hospital website in the webnursery. She should be up by Monday and listed under Anna W- March 15. www.stjohnsmercy.org

Good morning! I'm just getting ready to go to my weekly dr appt. Doug and I are eating lunch together beforehand. I have been starving lately! I dont know if the baby is going through a growth spurt, but I usually don't snack after dinner and last night I had a granola bar and a handful of baked lays before bed. I was hungry. I woke up hungry too. Hmmmm.

Aaron made me so mad last night. He is a terrible eater and we are trying to get him to eat better. I made beef burgundy amd mashed potatoes last night. I didnt expect him to eat the beef but he usually will devour the potatoes. Well he sat at the table for an hour and a half. I told him he could not get up to play until he ate his potatoes. Finally at 7:30 I was so frustrated I got him up, bathed him and put him to bed early. It was not a good night. Anyone have any good ideas on trying to get young kids to eat healthier?

Today the weather is in the 50's. Yey! It's about time we had something other than 30's and 40's. I got so excited that Aaron and I took a walk outside. I think he enjoyed it as much as I did. It stinks to be cooped up in the house all the time. 

This weekend is our anniversary. Can't believe it's been a year! What a year! We are planning on going to this restaurant called Cheesecake Factory and seeing a movie. Since we are excatly 2 weeks away from baby day and still need to buy some supplies we decided to just exchange cards and go out. I think we are going to see that movie "Breach" with Ryan Phillippe. 

Went to the OB yesterday- baby is still breech. I'm still doing my postural exercises the doula recommended and I've looked into the acupuncture thing. Doug is totally against it though. He thinks the baby should just be left alone. I have just accepted that the C-section is going to happen. I talked with Dr. McLaughlin about it more yesterday and she answered my questions. She said they will give me an epidural, I go in and I have a sheet up so I dont have to see whats going on and they pull the baby out. Sucky thing is I dont get to hold her right away until I am all sewn up. Dr. M uses dissolveable stitches and not staples. She also said they keep the epidural in for the first 2 days for pain management and after that I can have pills by mouth. After 4 nights I will be able to go home. So I should be in Thursday- Sunday and get out Monday. I'll be ready I'm sure. I just hope Aaron doesnt get freaked out by the IV's and stuff in me at the hospital. Maybe I wont have him up until all that stuff is out.

Thanks for all your responses! I got some exercises/stretches off of spinningbabies and talked to a doula who also told me about the same exercises and I am going to try them. The stretches are laying with your pelvis in the air and supposedly the gravity will make the head of the baby rotate towards the cervix.The doula also told me that playing music down by my cervix might encourage the baby to come down to where the music is. So I guess tonight my cervix will be listening to classical music before I go to bed. LOL! Doug said its not the end of the world if I have a C-section. He said he will take off as much as I need him and my mom has offered to come over and help out as much as I need her too. Thank goodness she lives only about 20 minutes away. 

Aaron was so cute last night! We were at my mom and dads and Aaron saw my dad on the computer checking his email. Aaron begged him to let him write an email. I guess the educational computer stuff they do at his preschool and so he's inertested in the computer now. So Aaron and papa wrote up an email and sent it to me. This morning I got to work and there was an email from my dad's account that said, "hsjkhdklaewohrfjkemfbnjkuagfbuwqbfrdklwqndeiklwqnde" LOL! I was cracking up! It just made my day.

I had a doctor appt yesterday and my 35 week ultrasound to check up on Anna's size. We went into the ultrasound first and the first thing the tech says to me is "Oh, we have a breech baby." I could see all my hopes and dreams for that perfect natural childbirth going down the tubes. She is frank breech which is the most common, meaning her butt is down and legs are up by her head. She is doing fine. About 5lbs 11oz right now. So if she would go to her due date she'd be average- about high 7's low 8's. So after that ultrasound I met with my OB. She went over a game plan. She offered to try a version, but given the fact that my placenta is out front makes the success rate drop. So given that a version does not sound like it would be successful and that there are some risks involved like fetal distress, I opted not to try one. So my OB said we should schedule a C-section and we did. March 15th is the day and if by some miracle Anna flips by then we can cancel it and proceed like normal. I left the office practically crying. I cried this morning. Probably hormones but you know how you have a vision of how you want something to go and then something changes all that and suddenly your picture of perfection is gone?? That's how I feel. 

And the thought of a C-section scares me to death! I dont know what to expect or bring and I'm hearing all the stories about the pain afterwards and the longer recovery. Then there are risks for infection and heavy blood loss.  I dont know why anyone would elect to have one out of convenience! I am just so freaked out. I read something about chiropractors being able to non-invasively turn babies. What do you all think?

So Doug and I exchanged our gifts last night since tonight we have natural childbirth class from 6-9 at the hospital. I made up this gift bag with all of his favorite things in it. I put on the tag "To my favorite valentine....a few of your favorite things" and inside was a pkg of his favorite brand of golf balls, 2 cans of his favorite soda, a pkg of his favorite cookies, a 6 pack of his favorite beer (some Italian stuff called Peroni) and 2 pkgs of his favorite candy- gummy worms. He was surprised and liked everything. Doug had gotten me a balloon and the Keith Urban CD and today I had some flowers delivered to my office from him. They are red and pink roses in a ceramic red vase. Really brightens up my cube. He's so thoughtful! 

I got Aaron a little something too. At Walmart I found this heart shaped box of candy. On the box was pictures of cars and inside the box was tire shaped chocolates. I thought they were so cute. I had to take the box away from Aaron after awhile. Aaron will eat the entire thing of candy if I would let him. One time I got him some gummy bears and I turned on some cartoons for him. When I came back a few minutes later to check up on him he had eaten all except for a few bears! There went his appetite for dinner. 

I think Aaron is starting to accept that the baby is real. We set up her room this week and hes been in there with me and seen it all set up with the bedding and all. And I've let him touch the belly when shes moving. He asks me when shes coming and talks to my stomach sometimes saying, "Hi Anna" or "Aw baby" I am thinking of a good gift to get him when she's born. That way he can think if being a big brother as something special. I already got him a big brother t-shirt. Thinking maybe some toy he's been wanting.

Hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day