Wordless Wednesday 5.9.12

Wordless Wednesday

36w Update

How far along: 36w1d…Last week, at my MFM ultrasound, Dr. Sunderji officially moved my estimated due date to May 31.  So, now my weeks roll over on Thursday instead of Saturday.  4 days wouldn’t make that big of a difference, you’d think, but it will indeed come into play….

Total weight gain: Um….yeah.  It’s not pretty.  And even though I know it is so much water due to the BP issues and hypertension, man, it’s hard to type 21 lbs.  Ugh.  Ugh, ugh, ugh.

General disposition:  Not too bad, I guess.  I mean, there are a lot of changes coming in the next few days, and there has been a lot to process in the last few, but, I’m good.

Sleep:  I was reunited with the wonder that is Ambien when I was admitted to the hospital this week.  I’m still in love.  And I’m asking Dr. Gibbs for a script tomorrow.

Best moment this week: This is vain…..random people at the hospital telling me how small I am for being 9 months pregnant.  I feel like an elephant, so, yeah, I kind of liked the compliment.

Movement:  S/he never stops.  Ever.  EVER.  I literally have bruises from the kicks.   

Labor Signs/Body Changes of Note:  Sure…..I’ll spare you the details (they’re gross), but yes, there are things a’changin’ with my body.  And, according to the fetal monitors, I’m having some pretty strong contractions (not too comforted by the fact that I can’t feel them).  But none of that really matters because we are having a c-section.  I mean, I guess it’ll matter if my water breaks, but….anyways.  Labor…..I’m glad I don’t have to do it.  It can stay far, far away, as far as I’m concerned.

What I miss:  Being able to move easily.  My body aches.  My hips feel geriatric.  My hemorrhoids are atrocious.  My center of gravity is so off….I’m very ready to get my body back. 

What I am looking forward to:  Well, I’m still looking forward to maternity pictures.  Yes, the ones we were supposed to have taken 2 weeks ago.  Those didn’t happen.  Not only did the weather turn on us (we were supposed to do an outdoor shoot down by the river, but it was 41 degrees and raining), but I spent the day in a Vicodin haze.  You see, those hemorrhoids I mentioned?  Yeah….we’re talking emergency-room type pain and a visit to a colorectal surgeon and lots of awfulness.  So, no pictures.  BUT.  Wonderful Lisa Feather Photography is still willing to work out a date with us in the next few days, so….keep your fingers crossed that baby holds off just a little longer so I can get at least a couple nice shots of this magnificent belly.

Additional updates:  I alluded in an earlier answer that I was admitted to the hospital earlier this week.  On Monday, my BP readings prompted Dr. Gibbs to admit me for observation, labs, and a 24 hour urine.  By Wednesday, I was stable, but it was obvious that I needed to be on bedrest to maintain that stability.  So, I’ve been allowed to come home, but I’m pretty much on my butt.

We’ve had wonderful friends and family step up the last few days to care for Seth and Erin, and in about 48 hours, my mom will be flying in from Florida to stay for a few weeks.  (YEA!!!!!)  Without revealing too much, because there are still so many details up in the air, I can tell y’all that I have a couple more NSTs, and then an amnio, and we should be meeting our little one soon.  All along, I’ve merely wanted this guy/gal to come after Erin’s birthday and before Duncan’s, and it looks like I will get my wish.  So, this might be my last pregnancy update.  Squeeee!

What’s in a name:  We have not discussed names for this little one until the last few days, and I think both Jim and I are surprised at which have emerged as our front runners.  I’m excited to share them, after we see this little person, and see what fits.

There is one more thing about this week and my visit to the hospital that I want to share, but it’s own-post worthy, so, I’ll close for now.  I can’t wait to see if my next update has baby pictures included!

My denial notwithstanding….my daughter is TWO

And I’m a slacker mommy for not having her birthday post written and ready to publish.

I’m working on it.

Erin, bean, I promise, it is not a reflection of my love.  If anything, it shows it, because I pretty much always walk away from the computer when you tug at me. ;)

Sit tight, lovely….your tribute is coming.

BLTN: Easter Sunday 2012

This is about as good as it got for a posed picture….lol!

I’ll follow up soon with a post about our at –home egg hunt.  Little Miss kept up with Brother like a rock star!

The love of a good man

This is the face I see pop up on my screen every time my cell phone rings.

 
This is the man who has held my hand through the birth of three, soon to be four, incredible little people – little people who are blessed to carry his name.

 
This is the guy that brought into my life some of the best friends a girl could ask to inherit.

This is the guy who knows how to have fun with his kids (and other people’s kids, too!).

This is the guy who is my partner, in every sense of the word.

This is the guy who still makes my heart skip when he winks at me.

Happy birthday, Jim.
You are everything the sappy, cliched Hallmark card
that I didn’t get you says you are.
I hope I’m by your side for every moment
of the next 32 (plus) years.

BLTN: Happy Valentine’s Day (from TN)

I know, more sappiness about Tennessee and how much we miss our friends and blah blah blah.
But seriously, how cute is this?

We got a valentine from Aylin Pearl….and for weeks, it was up on our (magnetic) laundry room door, so we would see it every day.
It is nice to be missed.  I can appreciate it that we are, and my grown up heart could handle it if we weren’t (which, thankfully isn’t the case).  But it does my mommy-heart good to see the joy it brings Seth and Erin to know that their friends miss them as much as they miss their friends.

Shaping up

This week has been dichotomous, to say the least.

Monday and Tuesday were rough days for this stay-at-home momma.  While many of my friends were reveling in the fact that they were, for a change, home with their spring break-ing little ones, for me….it was just another start to another week.

Tuesday night found me angrily flipping off the stove dial and walking away from a cooking dinner to sequester myself in my closet.

Seriously.

Nothing profound was bad about the start to the week, despite Seth’s first drawing-on-the-wall-with-markers experience, and Jim being gone from home both Monday and Tuesday nights, and Erin mastering her temper tantrum throwing skills….

But….

I’m pregnant.  VERY pregnant.  And uncomfortable.  And not sleeping well.  And yadda yadda yadda and by 6 pm Tuesday, I’d just had it.

However, miracle of miracles…Wednesday morning came, and although it came in the form of Erin screaming her head off at 5:40 AM, we had a peaceful morning of cartoons and waffles with Rediwhip and sprinkles, followed by grocery shopping, well-behaved and unsupervised (I KNOW!!!) play time in the basement, and then….Erin napped while Seth played across the street at Lucas’ house for 3+ hours, and I baked brownies as a thank you gesture, and the next thing I knew, it was after 4 PM, and that means home stretch til Jim comes home.

Not to mention that Wednesday night, we joined another family for 1/2 price pizza night at a local restaurant followed by ice cream; Thursday will hold storytime and then some mommy-time watching American Idol  with girlfriends (sans my kiddos!); Friday night, Jim scored free tickets to a comedy show, so we get a date night (thank you to my awesome mother-in-law for babysitting!); and then Saturday, we are going out again with two other couples to celebrate Jim’s birthday.  Yipee!!!

So.  What’s the point?

None, really, other than a reminder to me that this sweet life I’m living is ever changing, ever shifting, and as bad as a week can start, it can wrap up pretty darn good. =)

To Honor our Miss Tiff’ny

She is a babysitter, little sister, best friend, co-pilot, packing buddy, confidant all rolled into one.

I wasn’t looking for her, and I’m pretty sure she wasn’t looking for me, but from an initial fist bump in the church sanctuary (that she doesn’t remember) to an early spring afternoon sitting at a neighborhood playground, a friendship sprung and blossomed and thrived.

One dreary day in late January, only a few weeks after we returned to Ohio, I expected Jim to bring home a pizza for dinner.  Which, to his credit, he did.  He also brought home our Tiffany!

Oh, they had plotted and schemed and kept me in the dark to plan a surprise visit.  And I was so thrilled to see her standing in my box-strewn house (boxes, I may add, that she helped pack just two short months before), that I didn’t even care that I hadn’t showered that day.

We had the best, albeit short, visit, showing off our “hometown” via Handel’s Ice Cream, Frisch’s hot fudge cake, and Tony Packo’s chili dogs.  (And yes, in her own words, there are times when it rocks to have a pregnant friend!)

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(Erin was way more excited to be with Tiff than she was to try Hungarian pickles….!)

We shopped, played Phase 10 and Candyland, went to Bible study and MOPS, watched American Idol auditions, and basically, just did the “everyday life” that we’d been doing together for months, and it was heaven, and I sobbed like a baby when I had to shut my front door behind her and send her back to Tennessee…

And although I got to see her again in March when we went to Tennessee for spring break, part of that visit was sending her off again….this time, for longer and further away…

Now, we are surviving a months-long separation with only letters to hold us over.  We are used to talking every day, sharing coffee and meals and shopping trips, seamlessly co-caring for my little ones, and now….she is hundreds of miles away at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina, training and learning and growing and serving her country in the National Guard.

I’m so very proud of her.

But I miss her so.

Her car is sitting in my driveway.   An antique skeleton key on my memo board reminds me to pray for her health and safety.  A hundred times a day, I think, I need to put this in my next letter to Tiff….  Her voice, lovingly recorded, fills the darkness of Erin’s nursery as the lullabies she wrote my children play on repeat.  She is never far from my mind or heart.

And today, she turns 21.

So far from home.  Not surrounded by family and friends and cake and well-wishes.  But she is being remembered and celebrated nonetheless.

Tiffany, you are a joy.  A virtuous woman beyond your years.  You are a treasure to all who know you.  You are a blessing beyond measure to our family.  And I’m counting the number of sleeps til you’re back in Ohio with us.  (It’s 102, by the way!)

Happy birthday, darling girl!  You are going to own 21!

Better Late Than Never debut: Spring Break 2012

There are SO many posts that I am behind on.  SO many.  So, rather than just move forward, I am, again, going to attempt to get caught up, so, you’ll start to see another category in the “looking for?” cloud and in my titles, which is Better Late Than Never (which I’m going to shorten to BLTN), and try my darndest to get the blog back up to speed before little Miss or Mister makes an appearance.  Wish me luck!

First up, Spring Break 2012!

While the Ohio schools we are surrounded by are just now this week on spring break, our Tennessee friends enjoyed an earlier respite the first week of March.  It happened to coincide with a trip we needed to make anyways to tie up some loose ends in White House, so….off we went, in the midst of really, really severe tornadic weather.

Yeah, we’re smart like that.

Thankfully, we made it to Tennessee safe and sound (though late, as we stopped in Elizabethtown, KY, for the night after too many hours of traffic and weather).  Needless to say, as the following pictures will speak for themselves, but Seth and his BFF Gage were thrilled to be reunited.

  

We didn’t actually DO much while we were back in Tennessee.  We had lunch at Las Maracas with the Knacks, and hung out with our small group for Andrea’s birthday, and spent Sunday morning worship with our dear WHFBC family, but other than that…. it was just shopping at Target….

Hanging out at the house……

Playdates at Moss Wright State Park….

 

Lunch at Chick-fil-A…..

     

A morning at Monkey Joe’s….

  And quality time with friends we miss so very much…

The drive home was fairly uneventful, if wet.  Jim had left Tennessee Sunday after church, driving the Mazda home (as we are storing it for Tiffany while she is at basic training, but that’s a whole ‘nother post), so it was just me and the kiddos the following Thursday.

It rained the ENTIRE way from White House to Dayton, but there weren’t too many issues along the way.  Most people took compassion on the very pregnant momma trying to herd two toddlers into gas stations and McDonald’s in the pouring rain, so, there was that perk, lol.

And Twizzlers.  It’s how I roll when I’m taxi cabbing-it solo. =)

It’s hard to comprehend that we have already been in Ohio for 3.5 months, and that by the time we return to Tennessee for our next visit, our family will be one member greater.  Watching pictures pop up in my Facebook and Google reader feeds of baseball season kicking off, and birthday shirts being embroidered, and Easter celebrations being hosted, all hundreds of miles away, is bittersweet.  I’m SO thankful for the routes of social media that keep us all connected….

But I’d trade all the Kit-Kats in Seth and Erin’s easter baskets for a hug from Aylin Pearl right about now….

32w Update

How far along: 32w2d

Total weight gain: only 7 lbs!  I know there is no reason to celebrate that, really, and that weight gain in pregnancy is expected and healthy, but still….having had so much success using Weight Watchers Online last summer, it’s nice to know that I’m not going to have a ridiculous amount of extra work to do this summer to get the baby weight off.

General disposition:  Well, let’s see.  I had a complete and utter meltdown Easter moring when we had 10 minutes until we were supposed to leave, and my hair was wet and I hadn’t found something to wear and Jim and both kids were still in pajamas and Erin had pooped and I hadn’t had a chance to drink my (decaf) coffee and I was snapping at Jim and it just wasn’t pretty at all…. 

Not to mention that I spent my 31st week of pregnancy sicker than I’ve been in a looooong time.   We were never able to find the  source or cause, but for 6 days, I couldn’t keep anything in my system.  It was awful.  Thankfully, I was able to avoid needing a hospital IV, but it was close.  I was never so happy to get my appetite back!

So, in general, I’ve been a little bit cranky.  I’m uncomfortable and tired and eager to meet this little one, and most days, I’m okay (thank you, Prozac!), but some days….I’m not super fun to be around….just keepin’ it real!

Sleep:  I gave in and bought Unisom.  It didn’t work. =(  And made me feel all jittery.  Boo.  So, now I’m just back to not sleeping well at all.  I can’t get comfy, the baby likes to kickbox at night, and I have to pee (or at least my bladder thinks it needs to pee) all. night. long.  So….sleep.  Coming maybe in August?  I’m hopeful. 

Best moment this week: Not really pregnancy related, but, probably slicing into a wonderfully ripe watermelon (the first of the season for us) and eating pretty much the whole thing in one setting.  (Granted, it was a little watermelon – like, the size of a cantaloupe), but still….so yummy.

Movement:  S/he never stops.  Ever.  EVER.  I literally have bruises from the kicks.   

Labor Signs/Body Changes of Note:  Not really.  I have more contractions with this pregnancy than I remember from the others, but I’m attributing that to not being on bedrest.  I would imagine that still being so active brings on the contractions.  I’m had really bad leg cramps at night, sometimes, so powerful that I wake Jim with my crying (and that is saying something – he is a SOUND sleeper).  My heartburn/indigestion has been pretty intense, and, while this is embarrassing, I’ll document it here – I have had the WORST gas with this pregnancy – like, clear a city block noxious.  I’m beyond ready for that to resolve!

What I miss:  Being able to be more active with Seth and Erin.  Recently, Seth asked me to pull him and Erin in the wagon, and while I knew it was the right answer, telling him that, no, I couldn’t, until the baby came out, was still sad for me.  I also miss sleeping through the night and being able to drink coffee or eat chocolate without wanting to rip out my esophagus, but, I’ll deal. 

What I am looking forward to:  Um, Jim, this will be news to you, but….we’re having family/maternity pictures done in 2 weeks, and I am SO excited!  Lisa Feather Photography is our photog of choice, and I can’t wait to work with her…  Until then, here are a couple inspiration shots I’m looking forward to imitating:

Happy Easter!

May your day be filled with celebration, remembrance, and a little sunshine!

Wordless Wednesday 3.21.12

I miss my girls

We ventured back to Tennessee a few weeks ago for spring break, and while we were there, we had the opportunity for a night out on the town to celebrate Andrea’s birthday. (She’s the cutie in the jean jacket behind me.)

Seven couples gathered downtown Nashville at Puckett’s for dinner, and then we began to brainstorm what after-dinner activity we should do to celebrate Andrea.  She deferred to Jim and me, since we were now the “out of towners,” but yet…no one was on board when I said “let’s just go back to someone’s house to play cards or visit,” because all the girls thought they had too much laundry strewn about!

Instead, we opted for cosmic bowling….which wasn’t necessarily a BAD idea, other than there was a three hour wait for a lane at Dave and Buster’s, and because, at this point, the remaining 5 couples were in 3 separate cars, and didn’t do so great a job at communicating which alley to meet up at…..let’s just say by the time we all ended up in the same place at the same time, it was late, no one really wanted to bowl, and my suggestion of “let’s just go home” was sounding better and better. ;)

But.

We gathered.  We (minus pregnant me) bowled.  We just hung out.  And I loved every single minute of it.

I miss these girls so very much.

I don’t doubt that our friendships will survive the miles and months, but….to be able to see them every week,  and have them love on my children, and to know that they’ll be the ones to welcome my new baby in May….most days, happy as I am to be back “home in Ohio,” I’d give anything to have that for a while longer.

Wordless Wednesday 3.6.12