P.S. I'm Not Awake.

Just some cuteness to start us out.

Throughout winter I watch people post pictures of their flip flops or images of the lakes because we all get to that point of missing summer.  Some people have pictures of their feet propped up in front of them with whatever summer view is their favorite as the backdrop.  As much as I love the views that show up via these pictures, I think feet are gross.  It doesn't matter how many pedicures you've had, what soap you used twenty times and how many coats of nail polish you just applied to get that picture to look 'cute'.  Feet are gross.

My point is proved once again by the MASSIVE swelling that I have going on AFTER the delivery of my child.  I know I had some minor swelling at the end of my pregnancy but this is like ham sized ballooning.  I'll of course spare y'all the picture because, well, it'd be weird and gross to make y'all see a picture of feet when I just declared how much I dislike pictures of feet.

I've hit the peak of swelling (for both pregnancy experiences) at 2-3 days post partum.  Hopefully it will go down soon and I can stop seeing crazy markings in my skin from socks.

What was your 'favorite' surprise during any of your post partum experiences?  (Or of your significant other's  experiences?)

P.S.~ I of course am lacking sleep along with the ability to sleep.  I've tried to take advantage of the nursery and even when Wyatt goes there I'm up every hour.  *sigh*

Confession Time....

I'm fessing up.  I admit it....I am totally nerve-wrackingly, panicked over the c-section--well, part of it anyways.

I hate (HATE) needles!  It has been sheer torture just getting my finger pricked once a month for this pregnancy...weird (but reasonable) policy at this new OB office I'm with now.

So, I did rather well at getting my epidural with Alyssa.  It may have been the fact that I was in enough pain that I could hardly breathe though.  How in this freaking world am I going to be able to curl into a ball to get a spinal without the pain motivating me??!  There will be NO distraction from this one this time!  I almost am hoping to go into labor on the drive to the hospital just for the contractions to distract me from a spinal....I am such a wuss, people!

I'm not really scared of the surgery itself.  I expect my doctor and hospital staff to take good care of me before, during, and after that, so really it comes down to mundane things like having a needle inserted into my back without a sufficient pain motivator.  Or things like recovering at home with a toddler running wild.  The only thing keeping me from being scared of the drive home (seatbelt and incision site are essentially the same spot I've noticed) is the fact that I'll be all drugged up still!

So yeah, there y'all have it.  Nerves.  I'll be fine and it'll all go well.  So long as I can handle that Spinal process....Now I'm off to pretend I'm not freaking out so I can have some of my birthday cake today!  *hums birthday song*

Baby #2...We Aren't Ready!!

Here we go!  We are in the last couple days before the new guy finally gets here and my physical body is the only thing actually ready for it.

The house is still in general chaos (what can I really expect having moved in roughly a week before Baby Boy joins us?).  The crib isn't even assembled!!  We don't have a crib mattress yet!  Most of the baby stuff is in storage four hours away.  The clothes that I have for him--admittedly sparse still--are still in the apartment along with the car seat (thankfully that isn't four hours away!).  We just bought the first bottles for him Wednesday night (less than a week before he gets here remember and one of the first things you need for a bottle feeding baby!)...Can we say UNPREPARED, people??

While I am mostly concerning myself with the baby prep and the related house things that will make my life easier coming home from a c-section which I'm sure I'm working up into a much more horrific recovery than I need to-hopefully...My husband is dealing with the rest of our lives.  He is basically a rock and even rocks can show cracks now and then.  Between work (he is the first and only IT guy at his company and they are hitting major renovations pretty much RIGHT NOW), school (he is going for his BA, or maybe it'd be a BS in computer stuffs..yeah, I suck at technology), moving a family, and welcoming a baby and a recovering wuss of a wife home...well, let's just say that he deserves some kind of reward!  Like something massive IMO...I figure I'm not "pushing" this time so maybe he needs the "Push Present" that I heard tales of last time.

So just to clarify...I am literally days (DAYS) away from delivery.  We are still in moving process.  My hubby is AMAZING.  Oh, and he has drill just under an hour out of town this weekend...don't we have such wonderful timing?  At least we made it past Christmas...wish us luck!  Please?

Get Ready to MOVE! (with another sneak peek!)

Folks, I'm giddy.

Yes, between the euphoric high of finally having closed on our house, the painting, the project planning, AND furniture shopping because we now have two living spaces (living room and downstairs family room--soon to be overran with toys) with only one couch to our names, well, I have been in a planning/decorating state of giddy joy!  Let's not forget that I am just eight days from having a son in the outside world rather than bouncing on my bladder on top of all this.  (Oh shit...only 8?!)

My mom and aunt came down this weekend and tore through the house with rollers and brushes in hand and what we thought would be months of us working around furniture and kids became a project in the DONE list instead!!  I had to run out and buy the paint for the other rooms when they got here because they tore through what we happened to have purchased for the two kids' rooms so FAST!  Original plan was that Chris would be painting Alyssa's room this past weekend and we would be lucky to get that much done before moving everything tomorrow (Tuesday).  In actuality, those two women showed up 3-4 hours from their homes and got Alyssa's room, Baby's room's base color, our room, dining room, hallway, and living room ALL painted!  My contribution was sadly just taping what I could reach without use of a ladder/step stool, keeping a toddler as out-of-the-way as possible, and I got to help with the dots in her room too.  So useless when you can barely catch your breath standing still!

I don't think the living room will ever photograph right...so trust me when I say I LOVE how it turned out.
Legacy   UL250-22 (Behr)

Last night we went furniture shopping for the main living room so that we have seating for the various people that are already trying to plan trips down here to meet the little guy--yay...hostessing while fresh into recovery in a new place...Gah!-- Anyways, we found a great setup that I am loving!  My husband loves that I stayed very much under budget (30-40% depending on if you consider taxes and delivery in the budget which he usually does not when he gives me a number to stick to) and still got him a recliner in the mix.

Couch

Love seat

Hubby's favorite: Coffee table with 4 stools (extra seating!)

I'll get pictures up once we get them delivered and set up in the new house (and have internet over there!).  I'd add the recliner in here but the pictures online are kind of awful and I can't find one that shows how well the 'leather' matches the other 'leathers' of these pieces...so y'all will have to wait with the baited breath I know you've got going.  (HA)

In the meantime, bear with what will likely be a very sporadic next couple of weeks.  I'll post updates as possible on the house.  I'll certainly introduce y'all to our boy next week and hopefully it will be coherent while I'm on the lovely pain meds that I'm told accompany a c-section.  Otherwise you may find a small craft post mixed in here and there from my folder of to-be-posted stuff just waiting to be shared with y'all.  The big move begins tomorrow so the next few days will be CRAZY HECTIC and hopefully super fun too!  I'll see y'all when I get internet up at the house!

*Photo credit:  Love seat and Sofa
*Photo credit:  Coffee Table

**We got all our pieces at Ashley but their site didn't have all of them pictured for me to share directly from them.  I have not been asked by anyone at any company to share their products with my audience and do so only because of my own excitement at a new home purchase and love of decorating!

"Belly Pop"

I love mysteries of medicine (okay, so only ones that are completely not harmful or painful).  Have any of you heard this one?

You're sitting there nice and quiet either trolling some Mommy blog or discussion board or Pinterest...whatever, and baby kicks.  *CLICK*  You hear a tiny noise that sounds something like a knuckle popping or a computer mouse click.  Did that seriously just come from your stomach??  Since when were there joints around there to pop?

No, you're not crazy.  Yes, that noise did just happen (it may have happened a few times in a row even).  No, there is no medical consensus currently out there to be found though plenty of Mommy boards have made various suggestions and guesses (and thrown out their midwives/OB's best guesses also).  My personal best answer is the ligament popping one (I think it meshes nicely with my "new stretch mark" theory LOL).

I had these noises a lot with my pregnancy for Alyssa and last night I got the first "belly pop" for this guy, followed directly by a second.  I love this click because it is just so bizarre and yet harmless.  It isn't my hips/pelvis like some theorize since it is the top of my stomach...it is too far out in front of me to be my ribs so the only bones involved would possibly be the foot or butt of my unborn child.  (Good try though folks.)

Anyways...I'm interested in theories just for fun but I don't require a medical opinion or answer from the internet masses.  Feel free to post your Belly Pop experiences or theories!

Baby Boy Update

I can't recall at this point if I have mentioned how freaking big this kid is that I'm carrying...have I told y'all this before??  No.  I'm serious.  This isn't one of those '7 months pregnant and there just can't be any more room in there I swear' moments.  This kid is measuring 3 weeks (count em--TWENTY-FIVE days) ahead of his due date.  He must have hit his growth spurt while still inside I guess because we have had multiple ultrasounds because of one missed measurement at our 20wk and then a fluid measurement was high and then the size watch started at that time too.

On Wednesday we had another growth ultrasound (paired with the biophysical to double check fluids which are looking great now) and he measured 25 days ahead.  Normal range is 22 days on either side before they start looking at the due date itself.  Well, we can only skew our due date by a week at most either way except that the 9wk dating ultrasound was only a single day different than my EDD (estimated due date) calculations based on last period.  The 20wk ultrasound also matched much more closely to the EDD.  This kid is aiming for an impressive entrance weight according to my doctor and the ultrasound techs.  At approx. 33 1/2wks he is estimated at 6lbs 10oz

O_O

They do say that the error cushion is fairly significant (almost 30%) but STILL!  This kid is trying his best to scare me out of my wits I think.  In related news:  he is measuring proportionately and looking very healthy development-wise so I am overall a thrilled Momma around here.

We did have to move Alyssa's EDD up once (roughly 10/11 days) but I wasn't tracking my cycles back then at all so her EDD was very much moveable.

How big was your largest baby?  Did you ever have to move an EDD?

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day Nineteen

...and today, I am thankful for insurance!  Seriously....if you've never looked at a hospital bill for delivering a baby, well, don't.  Those things are SCARY (I can't imagine bills for things that are much more serious in healthcare).  I am dreading seeing the bills for all the extra ultrasounds on top of the delivery and postpartum stay too.  However, thanks to our insurance options available to us this time around we are sitting on a much less nerve-wracking ground waiting for that final bill.

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day Eighteen

I am thankful for modern medicine.  There was some minor concern over a measurement (well, lack of a measurement) at our original 20wk ultrasound for this baby boy.  So when I had my first appointment with my new OB she ordered a quick redo at their office here.  The measurement was a little large but they struggled a bit in getting it too.  For those who are wondering, it was the left ventricle of the brain they were watching.  My OB sent me off for a level 2 ultrasound because we didn't have a number to compare to from the original biophysical.  There wasn't too much concern and after one more level 2 ultrasound it was determined that the measurement is progressing normal though on the large end of normal.  They declared this to go hand in hand with the BIG baby that I've got growing very healthy inside me.

Due to his size though I am now having weekly BPP (biophysical ultrasounds) and a couple spare growth ultrasounds to keep an eye on some things that can go hand in hand with extra big babies but all of these were suggested with smiles and relaxed attitudes now at least.  Of course I still don't have a camera-cooperative baby so no awesome ultrasound pics out of this boy either...

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day Thirteen

I am thankful for the ability to grow a human.  There is nothing I've enjoyed more than being a Momma.  As painful or frustrating as it can get in every stage, it is rewarding.  I get to feel the bizarreness of a moving fetus for months.  I get to complain about my hip nearly constantly hurting and hindering my ability to walk around the grocery.  I get to talk to my baby about how rude it is to jump on my bladder, round ligament or ribs and only look minorly psychotic.  I get to do these things and feel these things and that is a blessing that many women desperately want too, so I am grateful to be so lucky.

Swelling and Shoes

One basic thing about being pregnant is that swelling is almost guaranteed.  When and how badly is so widely varied though that I can't claim you'll be a blimp by week X.  My swelling with Alyssa was minor and only towards the end (I ended up being that most dreaded creature--the Crocs wearing person in December!)  My only excuse is that I couldn't reach my legs enough to put winter boots on instead or tie anything unless my husband was home when I needed to get ready.

To avoid that horrifying month of shoe issues I went on the hunt for some shoes that can be slipped on by a woman who can hardly bend over already without losing breath.  (Dang is this kid hanging out high up there!)  What I found has thrilled me.  Delivered just yesterday in my size and to my door are my new Dr. Scholl's shoes!  I love the free shipping that Famous Footwear offers when they don't have your size in stock....Since I tried on a couple pairs of similar shoes I was pretty confident in my size I needed for this brand/style but their return policy that includes running to the store instead of the post office made me so comfortable with this ordering process!  Here are my new black and turquoise shoes that shipped straight to me:

I love the color combo on this pair of Reni's!

And just because I have a hard time passing a sale I got a pair of shoes in the store that day too.  Aren't they cute?!?  They are a wool/poly blend so some really neat texture that most shoes don't give an outfit.  

They had these Fielding ones in stock for me so I couldn't pass on them...I love sales!

I swear I didn't used to be a shoe girl....I'm not sure what's happening to me!  Maybe this little guy in me is draining that balancing amount of testosterone and I'm only left with shoe-fever-inducing estrogen?  Yeah, I'll go with that for now....Now who has a brand suggestion for some cute boots that fit over wide feet and high arches??  HA!

Grossness Part 2 (Delivery and Recovery)

WARNING Con't:  If you are squeamish in the least or you like rose-colored glasses concerning the miracle of life, don't read this.  Pregnancy is a messy, painful and sometimes downright gross process to get a cute little baby at the end.

The grossness continues from your pregnancy to delivery and even during your recovery.  Sorry to give you all this 'bad news'.  I will tell you now, I didn't know about a couple of the worst ones and they freaked me out.  I would've loved a TMI moment to prep me for one specific event in the hospital the day after delivery. You'll know better if it happens to you.

Delivery:

1. All in all you probably know what is coming here.  Whether you go into labor naturally or are induced your water will break and it will feel odd and if you're not induced it'll likely be a little grosser than being 'popped' over the garbage at the end of your hospital bed.  If you have a c-section scheduled and nothing happens before then you get to skip this rather odd sensation.
2. You might lose control of a few bodily functions in labor.  While I will be forever grateful that I didn't poop during my pushing, I puked enough to impress my nurse thoroughly.  That was horrible as I hate HATE throwing up.  Oh, you're still stuck on the idea you might poop on the bed/table?  Yeah....that was my favorite discovery from the various research I did prior to our induction.  I was terrified that I would do that--never even thought that I might get sick instead.
3. If no one has clued you in yet, the baby that comes out of you will NOT look like a baby on most TV shows.  (I can hear the majority of you going DUH and I'm right there with you.)  If this shocks you, please turn on some TLC shows instead of prime time hits.
4. Related to #3--it is okay to think your precious new bundle looks like a purple squishball all gunked up.  Since it is entirely possible that they DO look just like that there is no shame in it.  You will still treasure the picture of that gunky squishball on your chest and show it to all those out there who have no interest in a picture of your child until after the first bath.
5. If there were any issues during delivery that required cutting or stitching you're stuck laying there afterwards while you get patched up.  Most of this gets to be done while you are too busy staring at that squishball so you have an excellent distraction.  If you allow your baby to go for the APGAR testing and other things (and depending on severity) you might be there with the doctor long after your baby has even left for the nursery with your partner.  This may not be particularly gross but it can be awkward if you didn't think ahead to that possibility.  I actually didn't really know why the doctor was still down there after my baby was run off (turns out the damage was awful on me but no one told me that day).

Post Delivery:

1. You will BLEED.  Don't think you've bled from a period until after giving birth.  I always had very heavy periods and was amazed at the amount of red that would come out monthly.  This makes you wonder if you need a transfusion rather than another ten pads or so.  I'm told there is just as much blood post c-section.  I'll find that out later and see if I can get by on less than a year's supply of pads (okay, it was more like 4 months) in 2 months this time.
2. Those gas pains during your pregnancy?  They're not gone yet!  This isn't really scary unless you've been told that you had a fourth degree tear (that would be a tear from vag to rectum and all the muscles in between).  You hear that and you become instantly fearful of all farts and poops for months.
3. Here is the one that I wish someone had told me about in advance...on par with the bleeding--I was waddling to the bathroom in my fancy new mesh undies and jumbo pad with my tucks (the joy and relief that can be found with tucks deserves a post all of its own!).  I get to the bathroom and pull down my meshies to sit and something drops.  All I felt was something fall out of me.  I look down at my meshies and here is a glob of deep red jello the size (LITERALLY) of a racquetball ball.  That would be larger than golf and smaller than tennis.  After freaking out and dumping the meshie, pad and glob into the trash I figured out from the nurse that it was a clot of blood and though quite large in size, still normal.  Brace yourselves for any clots of any size and just make sure to tell your nurse so they know that it happened.
4. If you breastfeed the leaking boobs are a godsend and I wish them on you for many many months.  If you don't, start buying up the nursing pads and feel free to double up for a couple days at least until your body gets the message that you're not using those juices right.  I leaked for a couple weeks but only mildly.

Sadly, don't think the grossness ends here.  If you are morbidly curious you can take a mirror and look at the damage but know this--it looks like a swollen red WARZONE.  Your body just did battle with itself and passing the largest thing it is capable of (until your next kid anyways).  There were casualties.  There is a reason I barely felt that clot fall even though it was large....I looked because I was told the day I left the hospital that I had a 4th degree tear and that was why I had needed so much pain meds the last couple days.  Brilliant timing right?  Hey, sign this to be released and by the way you should probably fear pooping for the next 6 or more weeks....I was already scared of the next BM because I was in pain, I just didn't know the extent of why I should fear it.

If you don't go investigating your battle scars, then you get to skip that lovely visual and move straight into diapers, spit rags and general baby messes that can almost put to shame the warzone you didn't look at.  It really is a good thing that those kids are so dang cute!

Grossness Part 1 (Pregnancy)

WARNING:  If you are squeamish in the least or you like rose-colored glasses concerning the miracle of life, don't read this.  Pregnancy is a messy, painful and sometimes downright gross process to get a cute little baby at the end.

I'd love to tell you that pregnancy is nothing but rainbows and unicorns when considering the fact that it is meant to end with a new addition to a loving family and that cherished baby is "cute", "adorable", or "awww" depending on the viewers reaction to the newborn.  I REALLY wish I could tell you that you don't remember any of the discomforts or grossness that can (and does) accompany just about any pregnancy.  Too bad I don't like to lie.

Time does fade the facts of previous pregnancies and not all of them will (thankfully) apply each time you decide to go through it.  Most of my memories of my first pregnancy are of hip pain and morning sickness lasting through more than half of the whole thing.  Of course I also remember lots of internal bullying ranging from kidney shots to rib jabs to MY BLADDER ISN'T A BOUNCY HOUSE!  All I know is that my chiropractor saved my sanity and a lot of tears of pain when it came down to my hip.  I could barely walk without tears sliding down my face by the time I found a chiro in my area.  I was well under the halfway mark of the pregnancy that time around and we coordinated our chiro appts to my prenatal appts (once a month, then every two weeks, then every week).  It was wonderful.  This time my hip has been a lot better though most of that has to do with not working on concrete floors for 8 hour shifts any day that I wasn't walking all over campus getting to and from classes (plus any short shifts after classes).  I still have my days of too-much-to-handle and need to lay down and hope my toddler will be happy with Nick or Disney Jr. shows.  I'd like to note that my morning sickness this time was practically non-existent (WIN!).  See?  There is always hope for the next pregnancy.

All right, time to make that warning work...Gross stuff that they don't tell you in advance:

• You will fart.  A Lot.
• You will leak.  You thought you just scored a break from those pads and tampons...You only get a tampon break really.  Stock up on those panty liners and you may as well be prepared for baby by getting yourself some butt cream now because I had the first "diaper" rash between Alyssa and me.
• You will leak.  Oh yes, you have too many holes to not have this one mentioned in a new and fun way.  Some of us have over-achieving body parts and the boob leaking begins randomly before baby comes.  I especially liked waking up with wet spots on my shirt and bedding too perfectly placed to be anything but boob leakage.  Fix:  get a comfy bedtime bra and buy some Nuk Nursing Pads.  (As a formula feeder I didn't know I'd need these until I woke up to that lovely sight almost a month before Alyssa came along.)
• You will leak.  Another one???  Yes!  In the form of snissing.  Do you love new words?  I sure do.  Start your Kegels now.  I was told much too late about this one.  You will possibly have a horrible feeling come over you just as you sneeze that something has gone wrong.  I really hope you are at home when you learn how to cross your legs and brace yourself (and have already started wearing those pads again!) because without those Kegels, snissing is almost a given.  Did you figure out what snissing is yet?
• You will WANT to fart...or burp.  If you've ever had gas pain before, you have a good idea where this is going.  Now put a foot long (and growing) object on top of your intestines blocking as much room as it can.  Are you holding your stomach and crying yet?  I seriously hope you never have that bad of gas pains that you cry but know that it could happen (and does for some of us).

Those are the main ones that I wasn't informed of until I started looking to see if it is normal or not.  (Kegels I luckily stumbled upon in a pregnancy chat board before I knew I needed them but the crossing legs trick and bracing helps with round ligament pains anyways so use it.)  I might share some lovely (or less than lovely) parts of delivery later...the grossness continues!