This week brought us our latest
pregnancy stress to work through, but overall a pretty decent week. Christian
continues to pick the big girls up after school, and it’s been working out
wonderfully. And I spent some time dealing with the latest baby dilemma.
On Monday, the girls and I were all
home for the day. It was Martin Luther King Jr. day, and I didn’t want to pay
the big girls’ full day care rate when I was going to be home, so it was a big
ol’ family day. Eliza woke up pretty early, but I brought her into our bed, she
fell back asleep, and we all actually slept in for a while. Woot! We had
breakfast, and then I took Olivia and Amelia with me to run some errands.
Yesterday somebody posted an in-the-bed-co-sleeper on one of those Facebook garage
sale sites…the exact co-sleeper that I’ve been wanting to get for the baby, and
it was only $10! I never usually see sale posts until it’s too late and
somebody has already claimed what I want, but I was ALL OVER this one! So,
today we were off to pick it up. Officially our first new baby purchase! After
that errand, we stopped into Target to load up on groceries and some things for
the house (it was a BIG trip too, I’ve been slacking big time). Christian had
gotten Eliza to sleep shortly before we arrived home, and helped me unload the
van before he settled in for a nap before work. I cleaned up the van a little,
put the groceries away, and hit the couch for some relaxation. I spent most of
the rest of the day finishing up “The Affair” (thankfully, the big girls
decided to spend pretty much ALL day playing downstairs, for a change, since
the show is not very kid-friendly). I finished it up before bed, and while I
like the show and can’t wait to watch Season 2 – I don’t get it. I don’t
understand cheating or having an affair at all in general, but both of these
people involved in the affair were in pretty happy, fulfilling marriages, that
were destroyed. Seriously, I don’t get it. Eliza ended up napping until 4:30,
which was perfect because I was exhausted!! Christian woke up shortly after,
showered and got ready for work. We had dinner, he helped get the girls bathed
and was off to work for the night. After some reading and a little more
playtime, the girls were all off to bed, and after finishing up my show, I was
too. I posted about my awesome steal of a baby purchase on Facebook, and one of
my friends asked what other things I was looking for. I mentioned that the main
things we’re looking for are a swing, carseat, double-stroller and a boppy
pillow (other than clothes, of course). I’ll actually be buying Eliza’s carseat
back from my co-worker that bought it from me, along with a swing she has, for
pretty cheap, so those are covered. One of my friends messaged me to offer me
her double stroller- which looks super cute, for really cheap, and another
offered me her barely used boppy for free. Seriously, all of this brings such a
relief to me with our very limited budget! I’ve had couple people offer a
jumper (one for sure free, not sure about the other), a bumbo seat, some
clothes (depending on sex, of course) and I count my blessings for the people in
our lives! My insurance covers a large portion of a new pump, so that’s a
relief as well. Whew!!! It ended up
being quite a successful day!
Our first new baby purchase!
On Tuesday, we were all back to
reality. Work, daycare, school…the usual. We actually had a pretty successful day
getting up, ready and out the door too, which was quite a bonus. The day went
pretty quickly, and I almost don’t know what to do with myself at work these
days now that I’m not constantly drowning in a back-log of work. I stopped at
the store for a couple of forgotten groceries, picked Eliza up and we settled
in at home. Christian showered and fried up some taquitos for dinner…YUM!!!!...before
heading off to work for the night. I watched some shows while the girls all
played together, before getting everybody ready and settled into bed for the
night. A pretty low-key evening, and I’m not complaining! I did splurge and
ordered an at home fetal Doppler today. There’s this fairly cheap website you
can get them from, and for some reason I’ve been really on edge this pregnancy.
Just had a bad feeling…so, now I can’t wait for it to come!!
Wednesday was a bit of a stressful
day. We had some overnight snow, so of course the drive was terrible. I even
got the girls to daycare early (AKA, on time), and I was still late for work.
UGH! After getting a little work time in, I was off to the clinic for my latest
baby appointment. It was supposed to be two weeks ago, and mainly for a blood pressure
check, but the girls had their dentist appointments and I knew I wouldn’t get
to my appointment on time. So, I did get “in trouble” for not keeping that.
Oops! Before my appointment, as I was sitting at my desk thinking about it, worried
about how it would go, I swear I felt the baby squirming around too. Not just a
little flutter, like a roly poly. I’ve felt like I’ve had little movements here
and there the late couple weeks, but this I just know for sure was baby. My
most favorite part of pregnancy, feeling them move around. It’s just so
amazing. My appointment didn’t go too well. My blood pressure was the worst it’s
ever been, 165/85. Of course, it was much better when they checked it later,
but for them, it doesn’t really matter. Whether it’s high all of the time, or
some of the time, it’s still bad for me, and the baby. So, they are officially
labeling me as “high risk”. Because of this, I have to switch from my midwife,
who I have seen since my very first appointment with Olivia, to an OB. Which
terrifies me. OB’s are not known for being very VBAC supportive, are pretty
well-known for being intervention-happy, and I think are overall much more
critical of pregnant women…finding the right one is not going to be an easy
task, and it makes me really nervous. She also informed me that I’ll now have
to be seen every 2-3 weeks here on out to be monitored and get my blood pressure
checked. Seriously – what a pain!!! I was so frustrated, and so emotional…this
is when I go into my “this isn’t even supposed to be happening” rage, and get
so upset that I have to go through all of this. But, then I hopped on the table
and finally got to hear the baby’s heartbeat and I was instantly reminded of
the little miracle that’s happening. I just have to keep reminding myself that
everything is going to be OK, everything is going to work out, we’re going to
figure everything out. Over and over again. The heartbeat was a solid 166 bpm,
so perfect as can be. After my appointment, I settled back into work, but it
was really hard to focus on anything. Of course, I’m a Facebook addict, so I
posted about my woe’s. One bonus to having to find an OB, is that I do not want
to deliver at the same hospital I had the girls at, so it does give me the opportunity
to find a provider that delivers at a better one. I included that “silver
lining” in my post, and a few local friends actually sent me some
recommendations for clinics/hospitals that I’ll be looking into. I did a quick
online chat with my insurance company to see if one of the clinics and
hospitals I’d like to look into are covered by my insurance. It turned out that
the clinic is…and because the provider is, the hospital would be, but ONLY for
delivery/recovery. It makes me a little nervous, because of anything else were
to happen (like, last pregnancy when I broke my foot and needed monitoring in
the hospital) , I would have to go to a different hospital, and that doesn’t
sound like an ideal plan. More stress, more things to think about, more
planning to do! After work, I picked Eliza up, and we settled in at home with
the family. Christian made dinner, we ate, he was off to work and the girls and
I had a quiet night around the house. The girls were off to bed, and I tried to
just block everything out of my mind for the night.
Laughs and Smiles with my lovebug to cheer me up.
Thursday was as new day, and I was
feeling a little less stressed. We were all up, ready and off to daycare and work.
It was my Friday at work, and that always makes everything better!! I got a few
tasks done at work, and tied up some loose ends before the weekend, picked
Eliza up and settled in at home. I had messaged my midwife earlier in the day
to let her know that since I have to switch to an OB, I was thinking of
switching clinics so that I could deliver at a different hospital. When I
arrived home tonight, I had a response from her, letting me know that some of
the OB’s at my current clinic deliver at Abbott Northwestern as well. I had
heard of it, and knew it wasn’t in the best neighborhood ever, but I started to
look into it. It’s actually one of the top rated hospitals in the state for
delivering a baby, it’s one of the special “Mother Baby Centers” in the cities –
so it’s a SUPER nice birthing center, almost looks like a hotel, with nice big
rooms. It looks so new, and updated, and spacious and COMFORTABLE. And a huge
bonus, aside from the reputation and aesthetics, it’s attached to The Children’s
Hospital, which is always a really nice thing. It would also be really nice to
stay at my current clinic, since I’ve been going there my entire life, it’s
super close to work (where I’ll have to take off to go to all of my
appointments) and they already have all of my history and information readily
available. After doing some research and getting some opinions, I think I’m
pretty positive I’ll be delivering there (and, it’s covered under my insurance,
so no concerns there either). Now, I just have to find the right OB! I have an
appointment with on in a couple of weeks. Her information wasn’t available
online, so I’m not sure what she’s like, or if she delivers at Abbott, but I’m
hoping she’ll at least be able to give me information regarding who does when I’m
there. This ended up being my big task this week, so I’m feeling majorly
relieved as everything starts to come together. I did end up getting into a
fight when Christian about it during dinner, before he left for work though. I
kept trying to talk to him about it, tell him about the hospital and just get
him involved in the decision making, and he just had the WORST attitude. Just
not interested in the conversation at all, like it doesn’t even affect him. So
I’m the one dealing with the completely unplanned pregnancy, I’m the one doing
all of the preparing and planning, I’m the one dealing with the high risk situation,
looking for a new doctor, looking for a new hospital (which, PS, he doesn’t
want to deliver at our usual hospital either, so it’s not that I’m alone in
this)…yet, I’m not the only one that got myself into this mess. It’s so frustrating.
He did later text me from work, apologizing for being such a jerk. I know he’s
tired, and I know that he feels so removed from everything because I’m the one
that deals with it. I just wish he’d show a little more compassion. So, his
text was a good step in the right direction. The rest of the night was much
less eventful. We had a pretty quiet night, watching some shows, doing their
reading, and everybody was off to bed. I have to share a cute little story from
tonight. The girls earn “Bulldog Strong” tickets at school, basically for good behavior
and following the school’s rules. Once they earn enough, they get to cash them
in for special little prizes or rewards. Amelia has been counting down for the
last few days, she was getting so close to earning a reward. She’s been telling
me every day how many she needs, and that she’s going to pick “have lunch with
a friend” and then every day the friend she’s picking changes. Tonight, she was
so excited to tell me that she had earned enough tickets, and she picked Olivia
for her lunch. I mean, seriously, they fight like cats and dogs but man do they
love each other. It seriously just warmed my heart. So, Monday, she’ll be
having lunch in her classroom with her big sister. I just love these girls!
My throwback today after Amelia's story. My girls, I can't believe they aren't this small anymore!
Friday was my day off….AAAAAAND, I
officially entered the 2nd trimester of my pregnancy. I’m 14 weeks,
and time is just flying by. I just cannot believe how fast this pregnancy is
going – too fast!!! The big girls didn’t have school today, so they stayed home
with us (to save the all-day fee at daycare). Christian arrived home from work
just as we were all waking up and starting our day, so he went right off to bed
while the girls and I hung out. The girls had a pretty lazy day, which was just
fine by me. Christian needed sleep, I wasn’t really feeling too well, so the
quiet was a welcomed relief. They did play downstairs for a little while, but
overall they watched a lot of videos and played a lot of games on the tablets.Eliza
took a decent nap, and by then I had the worst headache, so I took some
medicine and laid on the couch with an icepack for a while. Christian woke up
just as Eliza was waking up, and hung out with the girls while I rested. The
girls had a late lunch/early dinner, and continued their lazy day. I received
my home Doppler today, and I was so excited to try it out. I tried it right away,
and then later before bed, and was only able to catch a couple small snippets
of the heartbeat. I can pretty easily pick up the placenta bloodflow though,
and that gives me a little relief. With the baby being so small still, and my
being overweight, I know it will take some time before the heartbeat is really
easy to pick up. I hadn’t been able to eat most of the day, and was feeling really
hungry, so Christian ran to get some Culver’s for a later dinner. The girls
weren’t listening too well this evening, and had a massive case of selective
hearing going on. Those tablets had them SUCKED in, all day long, so we informed
them that there would be NO electronics tomorrow. They were NOT happy about
this, at all, and then Olivia had the nerve to say “well then, what are we
supposed to do all day?!”. SERIOUSLY?! A basement FULL of toys, two siblings to
play with, a shelf full of board games, and you’re going to ask me what you can
do without your tablet? These kids, they’re
so ridiculous. It seriously makes me want to just get rid of all of their
stuff, spoiled little girls! Once they were off to bed, Christian and I watched
the movie “Sicario” before passing out. It was a pretty decent movie, but the
ending was pretty lame. Unless I fell asleep and didn’t realize it, it seemed
very anti-climactic.
It's official, ya'll - from a poppy seed to a lemon, the 1st trimester of this pregnancy is over!
Saturday…no-tablet Saturday at that…ended
up being a pretty busy day. And it went much better than I had anticipated. We
were all up, I got some laundry going, the girls had some breakfast, I
showered, got ready and got the big girls ready. First up, we were off to swim
class! Swimming was finally back, and the girls were SO excited. Both of the
girls are in the “big kid” classes now, in the deeper water, and Amelia did
SOOOOO well. She was listening, she was REALLY swimming, and she was so proud
of herself. Olivia of course picked right back up where she was. After class, I
got them showered and dressed, and we were on our way. We picked Christian and Eliza
up, and we were all off to Green Mill for lunch. We hadn’t been there FOREVER,
the girls had never been, and according to Amelia, it was a great place to be.
LOL. They colored, we played a million games of tic-tac-toe, and the kitchen
gave them some pizza dough to play with. Pretty awesome! I ended up getting a
pizza for lunch, and of course could barely eat any of it, so we had a lot of
leftovers to bring home. After lunch, I dropped Christian and Eliza off at
home, so Eliza could go down for a nap, and I took the big girls to get their
hair trimmed. We haven’t done anything with it since we cut it last June, and
the ends were looking a little rough. Kids Hair was having a ½ off sale, so we
decided to take advantage and get their hair cleaned up. Since the cuts were on
sale, I decided to splurge and let them each get a color extension. OMG, they
pretty much thought that was the coolest thing ever!! Such a hit. We settled in
back at home, and the girls were going to do these Orbeez that Olivia had
gotten for her birthday. Christian opened up the box and started setting it up,
but then we realized there were no actual Orbeez in the box – so, we packed it
back up, and he was off to Target to exchange it. Meanwhile, the girls started
acting up and fighting and making so much noise, they ended up waking Eliza up
WAY before she should’ve been up, and I was so angry. I sent Amelia to our
room, and Olivia to their room to lay down and “take a nap” since they couldn’t
control themselves. Christian arrived home shortly after, and after some time
to cool down, we let the girls come back out, and work on their Orbeez. It
turns out, they have to soak at least for a few hours, if not overnight, so
while they soaked we got to work on our next task…cleaning up the basement.
Christian took the girls downstairs to have them start picking up and getting
things back where they belong, and I decided to quick clean up the entry way/coat
closet and FINALLY pack up the last of the Christmas stuff. After that was
done, Christian packed away all of the Christmas totes under the stairs, and I
joined them in the basement to work on the clean-up. We ended up getting
everything back in its general area, and hopefully next week I’ll have some
time to finish the clean-up process. I worked on laundry throughout the day,
and after our cleaning duties were complete, we settled in for the night. Christian
watched the fight in the basement, while Olivia and Eliza played WAY too late
into the night. Amelia and I watched some shows upstairs, until she passed out
on the couch. The girls were finally off to bed, so I settled in with Hulu in
bed.
Back in Swim Class!
Lunch selfie with the babe - she's so silly!
These two goofs - best lunch ever!
New Hair, Totally Awesome!
Sunday was a much more relaxing day
around the house. I continued laundry, and while I still have to fold the girls’
clothes and put them away, I finished up. We had breakfast, watched some TV,
and the girls played downstairs for a while. Eliza napped, while I fought a
headache, watched some football and played with the big girls for a while. And,
while Christian ran to his friend Lorenzo’s house, to work on his car. After
Eliza’s nap, we had dinner, played some board games, the girls played
downstairs a little more, and I had them help pick up their room and make their
beds (seriously, making bunk beds is the worst!). Once Christian was home, we
did the Orbeez with the girls…that thing is a pain! But the girls sure seemed
to think it was amazing. I helped the girls with their homework, while I folded
laundry, and they were off to bed shortly after. I couldn’t believe another weekend
was ALREADY coming to an end. I swear, the longer they are, the fast they go!
The night ended on an exciting note though…I used the Doppler right before going
to sleep, and I picked up the heartrate REALLY well tonight! I even got a
reading this time, 146bpm. I was so excited to really pick it up and listen to
it – such a calming sound just before dozing off, that’s for sure. So fun!
Game Time - Eliza Cheats
Netflixing while Mom Folds Laundry - fun!
Until Next Week! XOXO
