2014 - Week 2

Monday morning was ROUGH, to put it nicely. It was freezing, literally. -26 actual temp, -48 with windchill. The schools are closed statewide, the roads were empty, the parking lot was empty. Throughout the day, they started canceling schools for Tuesday as well, because it’s not expected to be much better tomorrow. I will say, I had myself pretty much convinced I was going to die walking into work this morning – but, the cold wasn’t nearly as horrible as I prepared myself for. So, that was a plus. And, thank the Lord, my car started right up after work, which I spent the day panicking about . Work itself was OK, the day went faster than expected, so that was a plus. Christian’s friend from work’s car wouldn’t start this morning, so he picked him up, and brought him home, so he was pretty late getting home. I stopped quick at Walmart (also DEAD!) for a few groceries, picked up the girls, and we bunkered down for the night. They played for a while, but Amelia was having a pretty rough day. She was acting up pretty bad in school all day, and that carried right on through to home tonight, so that made for a bit of a long evening. I managed to get dinner made and they ate, finishing up just as Christian arrived home. We spent some time playing with the girls, trying to distract them from fighting and acting up, and it was finally time for Amelia to head to bed. I wasn’t feeling too hot at this point, so I decided to retire to bed early, with intentions of resting, watching some Sons of Anarchy and fighting off the stomach ache I was developing. Olivia had other plans for me, as she followed me into the room and curled up next to me with the iPad; eventually deciding that she needed to sleep with me tonight. I couldn’t turn her away, I love my kid cuddles!

The temp I noticed as I was getting ready for work. Ouch.

my "relaxing" mate

Tuesday was another cooooold day. Slightly better than yesterday, but still cold. There were sheets of black ice everywhere throughout the city, so there were a ton of accidents this morning, including two pretty big ones on my route to work. So, while schools were closed again, and traffic was light, it was a tough drive anyway. I’m not sure what’s going on – if it’s just pregnancy related, or something else, but I’ve been exhausted the last couple of days, today being the worst yet. I was honestly struggling to keep my eyes open all day at work. Needless to say, I gave Christian a heads up that I’d pretty much be heading right to bed as soon as he got home tonight! After work, I picked the girls up and we made our way home. Amelia’s pre-school teacher was gone for the day already, so one of the floaters was in the room with them. The room was in complete shambles…there were papers, crayons and markers all over the room, the kids were loud and chaotic and I could tell the poor teacher was reaching her limit with the kids. I’ve never seen it like that before, and my heart kind of ached for her. Of course, she was great with the kids and doing her best to wrangle them up and clean up, but I could just imagine the HUGE sigh of relief she was going to be letting out when she got home for the night. I honestly don’t know how people do that – how you can handle teaching and taking care of a room full of 2-3 year olds all day. It has got to be one of the most stressful jobs on the planet. Once the girls and I were home, I put in Smurfs 2, for the millionth time, and rested while the girls watched that. We had a pretty simple, sandwich/oranges/chips dinner because I did not have the energy to cook anything. Christian arrived home pretty late, and I was in my jammies, tucked into bed with Netflix at 7:30. Tonight, both girls decided they needed to join me, so they watched the iPad for a while. I finally coaxed Amelia into her room for bed, but Olivia decided that she again had to sleep with me. It was another early night; hopefully I’ll get some energy back tomorrow!

Double-Trouble Tonight!

Wednesday I was feeling a little better. I had a little more energy, the weather was picking up a little bit and I was in a better mood. Work went well…we had a little afternoon party for one of our co-workers, so I got to enjoy some cake! I picked up the girls after work, and things seemed much better at the center. I’ve been seeing a lot of new faces lately, so they must have had an influx of new applications recently. We arrived home and I got dinner started and did some cleaning up in the kitchen while the girls played, and eventually threw Smurfs 2 in….AGAIN! Seriously, I think that movie is going to mysteriously disappear soon. Christian arrived home, we ate and we all just cuddled up on the couch for a while. Amelia was off to bed, and Olivia immediately asked me to go into our room with her…she had already decided she was sleeping in there, again. I keep asking her why she wants to sleep with me, worrying that she’s afraid of something, or something is going on. She just says “because I love you”. Hopefully it’s just a phase. So, she and I were off to cuddle up in bed again…I continued my tradition of watching some Sons of Anarchy, while she passed out.

Thursday was a pretty low key day. The weather is making its way back to normal, school has been going well, Christian is still busy at work and today was my Friday! YES! We had a quiet night at home…dinner, baths, a little TV together. Just what we needed! I was sitting with the girls, and they were both laying on my belly, seeing if they could hear the baby, which was really cute. Once Amelia was in bed, I suddenly REALLY felt some kicks, and realized you could see them. I quick grabbed Olivia, put her hand on my belly, and she got to feel the baby kick a couple times. Her reaction was priceless, it was SO awesome. She was too young to care what was going on when I was pregnant with Amelia, so it’s fun to see what she thinks this time around. Hopefully Amelia will be able to feel them soon too. I’m excited to be in that stage – nothing like REALLY feeling those kicks and strengthening that bond. Next up, alien-like crazy movement – which Christian loves. So fun!

Listening to Baby

Friday was my day off work. YAY!!!!!!!!!!! My favorite day of the pay period! Originally, Olivia had a check-up scheduled for this afternoon. It was at an awkward time though, so I ended up rescheduling it for a couple weeks, right away in the morning. So, I had the entire day to myself. I had intentions of getting a ton of stuff done…I dropped the girls off at school, and found myself right back in bed. Watching Sons of Anarchy all day. Oops. I did finally get up in the afternoon to get some cleaning done. Got the bedrooms, bathroom, living room and kitchen cleaned up and organized. So, the day wasn’t a complete loss! I picked the girls up, we made some dinner, Christian arrived home, and we had a pretty low key night. Bella and Mariano stopped over briefly around bedtime to play for a bit. Then, we were all pretty much off to bed. We had an early morning in store, and we were all pretty exhausted.

Saturday was a pretty busy day. We were up and getting ready pretty early. I scored some movie screening passes earlier this week, to see “The Nut Job”, and we decided to take the girls, for Amelia’s first trip to the theater. You never know how packed these screenings will be, so we decided to get there nice and early, and not take any changes. So, I was up showering and getting ready bright and early, followed by Christian and the girls. Once at the mall, Christian got in line while the girls and I grabbed some breakfast. The movie was pretty funny, and the girls seemed to like it…it was in 3D, which I’m not a huge fan of, but the girls handled it alright. Amelia was actually pretty into the movie…she sat there well the entire time, watching pretty intently. It was cute. After the movie, I dropped them off at home for lunch and naps, and made my way out to do some maternity clothes shopping. Most of my clothes are from Olivia – so they’re getting pretty old, used and I’m just plain sick of them! And, I’m carrying this baby much lower and different, so some stuff just doesn’t fit right this time around. My BFF told me about a maternity consignment shop in Savage, so I took my Christmas money and made my way there. I found a ton of cute stuff to revamp my wardrobe, so I’m super excited! I stopped at Target for a few essentials on my way home, and finally got to sit on my butt and watch some football with Christian for a while. Once the girls were up, and we were moving again, we were off to Champps for dinner. I’ve been craving their Buffalo Chicken Wrap and Waffle Fries FOREVER, so we finally went. YUM!!! The girls were pretty much right off to bed once we were home. Christian and I watched “This is the End” (which was OK – not the best), and I pretty much passed out right away after. Long day for this old, pregnant lady!

Sunday was another pretty busy – but productive and fun – day. I was at it right away this morning (well, the girls actually slept in a bit today, which was nice). I threw a load of laundry in right away, and proceeded to wash, fold and put everything away throughout the day. I finally got our MOUNDS of dishes washed, dried and put away, and the kitchen cleaned up. The house (well, the upstairs) was still fairly organized, so I just did a little picking up. We took a mid-day break to head out for some fun. It was near 40° today – so, in a weeks’ time, we’ve basically gone up 90° - isn’t that crazy?!? So, we took advantage of the heat wave, and took the girls sledding. I found a good hill in Burnsville, not far from the house. We met Olivia’s BFF Bella, and her dad, there and the girls had a blast. And, Amelia’s little BFFF Jaiwen, from school happened to be there! What a coincidence. They were SOOOOOO excited to see each other, it was really cute. The kids had a blast going down the hill over and over…by themselves, together, with dad…racing, laughing and having the time of their lives. It was so fun to watch them. The hill was pretty busy, but we only had one incident while there – Olivia was at the bottom of the hill when somebody lost control of their sled, and took her out. I think she was more shocked than anything, but she was pretty upset about it. We were out for well over an hour, and decided to call it a day. We all stopped at Burger King on the way home for lunch, and so the girls could play in the playland for a while, before heading home. The girls watched videos and played house (they are now obsessed with playing house – which should be a phase that lasts quite some time according to my childhood) while I finished my chores. Christian did some driveway scraping thanks to the melting ice, and made dinner. It was a pretty quiet night. I did notice Olivia wasn’t acting quite herself…she was getting very warm, her eyes were watering and she was pretty quiet – all very sudden. We finally took her temperature, and it was in the 102.5 range. So, we gave her some medicine, a fever patch and sent her to bed for the night. She eventually woke up, pretty upset, so I brought her into our bed when Amelia went to bed – and, I at that point I knew I was in for a longer weekend than anticipated. Throughout the night, Olivia got worse – she got up to 103.3 for her temp, was sweating and overheating like crazy, she was talking almost deliriously, and I was getting pretty worried. I gave her some more medicine and that seemed to help her sleep, but I barely got a wink. I don’t know what’s up with all of these random, sudden fevers. So strange!

In other news, I turned 23 weeks this week. Baby is now a large mango. LOL. I’m feeling pretty good, especially now that I have a new wardrobe to cheer me up! I am up 18lbs, which I’m not taking too well (I know a lot of it this time around is water retention, but still). I think, oh, that’s not too horrible. Until I realize I have 17ish weeks to go! But, trying my best to keep my head up! And, nothing can beat the fact that we can now feel baby on the outside, and I can see the kicks now. Such an amazing feeling, I can’t wait until it’s more frequent! We still haven’t had any name talks or really thought about getting anything ready, and we haven’t had any discussions at work yet. Christians’ parents let us know they’re going to buy us a new infant carseat as our baby gift, and it sounds like that will be happening soon, so that’s kind of exciting. Even though I’m not in a rush to “get ready”, I’ve been fighting the urge to bring the bassinet up out of storage. I’m just getting so excited!! Getting closer and closer!

Until next week! XOXO