Slow And Steady

It's important to remember that the small successes in life can add up to one BIG triumph. So I try to take the time to do just that every Thursday along with many other moms over at Faith and Family Live!

1. I'm set with gifts and cards for the upcoming events in our life. These include 2 weddings, a bridal shower, a baby shower (for twins), a bachelorette party, Mother's Day, and a high school graduation party. It's going to be a busy month!

2. We're planning on beginning "the move" this weekend. I know that isn't really a success for this week....but getting the phone call saying the rental house will be ready on Saturday seems like a dream (especially since we started a week by week waiting period back in mid-February).

3. A great friend arrived in town yesterday! We don't have any big plans scheduled as of yet, but we're happy just to have Melissa in town to visit. She'll be busy with a conference a few days and we'll be at a wedding on Saturday, but we're just excited to have her here....

Stop Signs Mean STOP!

What a day! John woke up early this morning so we took advantage of it and headed out to get our errands finished before lunch. We were at the chiropractor's office at 9am when it opened. We went to the grocery store and restocked the fridge with essentials such as milk, eggs, and toaster waffles. We stopped by Maryville Elementary to drop toothpicks off to John's grandma so her kindergarten class could do an art project this afternoon. Then we headed to Border's bookstore for story time at 11am. (That's a busy morning for a pregnant mom with toddler in tow!)

John enjoyed story time today. They read 3 Winnie the Pooh stories and colored pictures of Tigger. The cafe even brought all the kids little sample cups of a strawberry smoothie...which John gulped down in about 30 seconds.

We headed out a few minutes before noon so that we could get home in time to eat some lunch before nap time. However, that plan was apparently flawed. As we were departing the shopping center a Ford Focus broadsided our Trailblazer at a four way stop. Now, one would assume that the Trailblazer would fare far better than a Focus in a fight...but you would be wrong in this case! Instead, the Focus had a dented license plate and a small scratch on the front bumper. Our car on the other hand has about $2500 worth of damage according to the adjuster who looked at it this afternoon.

Luckily, no one was hurt. The other driver jumped out of her car to check on us. I'm sure she was pleased to see pregnant woman with a toddler get out of our car. The impact was at the front passenger door, so even though John sits on that side of the car, he was completely unscathed. In fact, he was more upset that mom wouldn't let him out of his car seat during the next hour while we waited for police reports and information exchange than anything else.

By the time we left the scene and drove home, John had fallen asleep - without lunch. He slept until 3:30pm and finally ate a banana around 4:15pm which we are calling lunch. The best laid plans......

The good news in all this...the other gal accepted liability for the accident. Her insurance company already contacted us to arrange for repairs and a rental car. So aside from the nuisance of being in an accident and having to get the repairs completed - all is well. Mom, baby and toddler are fine. The car will be fixed. It won't impact our bank account since her insurance is covering it.

Check John's first car accident off the to-do list....

Sweating The Small Stuff

It's important for moms to recognize that all the small successes in our days add up to one big triumph. So on Thursday of each week Faith and Family Live! encourages us to do just that!

1. We've had a busy week with lots of appointments and things to do - but we haven't missed or been late for any of them. :)

2. Despite being pregnant and feeling as though I might be out of place, I made it to my Lindsay's bachelorrette party. I've known her since 1st grade and she promised me she didn't mind a pregnant woman tagging along.... Turns out that I wasn't the only preggo there (although I was definitely the farthest along). But I had a great time! We all enjoyed dinner at Bugatti's, went across the way to see That 80's Band at the blues bar - but really ended up watching the last 4 innings of the Cardinal's 20-inning loss, and then I even let Lizzy put $40 in various slot machines at the casino before deciding that my body needed to get to bed.

3. It's now 8:30am and little man is still sleeping! Not really my success...but nonetheless, it warranted sharing. My success should be that I have resisted the urge to do 9,000 chores and instead I've enjoyed the quiet, drank my coffee, watched Good Morning America (not Mickey Mouse Playhouse), and had a chance to say some morning prayers. We're going to have a GOOD day today!

Enjoy this wonderful Earth Day! The sun is shining, the weather is beautiful and we're going to enjoy some time at the park later this morning - we know you're jealous!

Check out other mom's successes over at Faith and Family Live! There are some seriously inspiring women over there!

Eviction Notice: 60 Days

I'm officially delivering an eviction notice to this little bundle of joy. Little tasks are getting harder. Simply picking up John feels like hoisting an elephant over my head. Walking up the stairs from the basement makes me breathless like I've just finished a half-marathon. Cleaning up toys from the floor requires me to do full squats since bending at my non-existent waist just isn't happening any more.

We're 60 days from our due date. With that - I find myself mixed between excitement, anxiety, fear, hope, and happiness. Part of me can't wait to meet our little addition. I'm excited to have a newborn in the house again (even with the sleepless night that come with it). Both Matt and I are really looking forward to seeing John interact with his sibling. I'm also looking forward to not carrying around a bowling ball in front of me....(but that's a little selfish)

At the same time - I worry about being able to handle two little ones at the same time. I know Matt will take a week off to help with the adjustment, my mom and sister will be out of school for the summer and willing to assist, and my mother-in-law is planning on spending as much time as possible up here - just like she did when John was born (although I think we're going to ask her to come up at the beginning of August when I lose my mom and sister to school).

Additionally, we're still not settled in our rental house. We should be moving in at the first of the month. I'm worried about getting things put in place, John getting used to a new setting, and filling the freezer with some meals - all while being 8 months pregnant.

Perhaps the thing that has surprised me most is that I have recently been thinking a LOT about John's delivery/birth. My head tells me that every pregnancy/delivery is very different. I know this! Yet, I find myself worried about all the complications we faced with John's delivery. Frankly, I didn't handle the contractions well. Then again, neither did John as was evident by his decreasing heart rate. He was delivered with forceps resulting in a very, very long and painful healing process. John wasn't breathing at birth and received an initial APGAR score of 1. We spent 4 months getting blood transfusions and meeting hematologists to later find out that my breast milk was culprit and was attacking his red blood cells. These are things I NEVER want to go through again... I'm scared.

I'm hopeful these fears will pass. I've got an appointment with my midwife on Monday. I'll bring these things up then. But I also have to talk to her about the past week because I've had some bleeding. The doctor has examined me, saw nothing to worry about and I'll be getting an ultrasound tomorrow to check on the internal things. Nonetheless, my stress levels are a little high. THIS TOO SHALL PASS!

Insomnia & Other Loveable Side Effects of Pregnancy

So, it's about 3:30 am....the body and brain are both exhausted, but they both refuse to give up and go back to sleep. The middle of the night bathroom runs have been in full force for a while now (this baby seems to like sitting on my bladder more than John did). However, the insomnia that follows the trip to the bathroom has just recently kicked in. So - I find myself updating the blog at the crack of dawn. Really, let's be honest, it's the middle of the night.

John has taken to sleeping through the night again. Let's hope this is a trend that sticks this time since in about 2 months we'll have a little one who isn't the least bit interested in sleeping at night. We've been putting him down between 8:30 and 9....he's been sleeping until 6:45 or 7. We consider this a success. I personally think he'll sleep even better if we get past allergy season and he can actually breathe at night. Right now he sounds like he's drowning in snot all night long.

We're still waiting to sell the house in NC. No real prospects recently. We call our real estate agent regularly but she claims the market is just slow. Unfortunately, squeezing 4 family members into one bedroom in my parents already crowded house isn't going to work - So we are planning on moving into a rental house at the end of the month. It's not the ideal situation (we'll be paying a mortgage and rent) but it will work until the house sells and give us enough room for our expanding family. Luckily, we're renting from some friends of the family so they are sympathetic to our situation.

Well, time to try to fall back asleep. More updates later!

I'm Back!

Well, once again it's been a while since I posted anything. I have several updates for our friends and family who follow the blog.

First, Easter was wonderful and we snapped some cute pictures of John hunting eggs in the backyard. He found the egg hunt entertaining for about 6 eggs - then decided it was more fun just to step on the eggs. Nonetheless, he looked just dapper in his pale blue sweater vest and he enjoyed every one of is 6 Easter baskets.

Second - I spent the evening of Easter Sunday at the hospital getting fluids. While John enjoyed all the candy and goodies that Easter brought, Mom spent the vast majority of the day either in bed or hanging my head over the toilet. So around 7pm Matt packed me up and took me to the hospital to get 2 bags of fluids and some nausea medicine. Good news is that baby is fine, mom is fine, and the stomach bug has now passed (after 5 days of vomiting).

Third, John has started speech therapy. Right now they are working on some new sign language with him and a LOT of repetition of sounds. He did well with his therapist - playing on the floor, even inviting her to sit a little closer at one point. Since his ear tubes have been put in place he's definitely become more vocal, so we're hopeful that a little speech therapy will have him talking our ears off.

Fourth, John has become an outdoor boy. Given his options, there is nothing he would prefer more than playing on the swing set. He loves to swing and go down the slide. No amount of outdoor time satisfies his need for swing set time - resulting in crying every single time we leave the swing set. I suppose when you find something you like - stick with it.

:)

Well, that's our update for now. More to come and pictures to follow. (PS-I typed this whole post without a "t" key on my keyboard. It fell off and broke last week. And of course, my computer is out of warranty so I have to pay Dell to mail me a new letter "t")