2014 - Week 20

Monday kicked off our first full week home with baby Eliza. The day was pretty quiet. As I mentioned last week, our friend Dawn from Indiana and her daughter are staying with us this week, so we spent the day hanging out, the girls playing (and equal amounts fighting). I escaped the house for a quick run to Target…Eliza needed some pajamas, and I needed some nursing bras. You forget all that fun stuff…engorgement, pain…OUCH! It was actually really nice to get out of the house; it was exhausting, but nice. Once home and settled in, Dawn took Eliza’s newborn pictures for us. Another wonderful benefit of her visit, and they turned out SUPER cute! The rest of the evening was pretty low key – just relaxing, nursing, nursing some more. The new norm…

Tuesday was a nice quiet day at home. After breakfast and some playtime around the house, Dawn took all of the big girls to the Mall of America for the day. They went on rides, had some lunch, and wore her out. Meanwhile, Christian and I hung out at home with baby. Later, Christian was off to have a couple beers with his friend, while Dawn made us dinner and we girls hung out until bedtime.

Amelia, rocking her "baby" to sleep

How I spend my days...

Wednesday was our first busy day since we’ve been home. After breakfast, Eliza, Amelia and I hung out around the house for the day. I actually got some cleaning and picking up done around the house (which was a DISASTER), so that was pretty awesome. Again, I was pretty exhausted and uncomfortable when I finished, but it had to be done. Meanwhile, the rest of the house off to IKEA for the day. Dawn doesn’t have one close by, so she always makes a stop there when she visits. Christian picked up a few odds and ends while he was there…I think he likes going there more than I do! They made a quick stop at the Disney Store at the Mall afterwards, and made their way home. Once home, we got ready, had a bite to east, and Christian, Olivia and I were off to her first baseball game. With the weather, and the baby coming, she only ended up having one practice prior to this game, which didn’t go well, so I was a little anxious for her. She was definitely nervous at first, but as the game went on she started warming up, running and going for every ball by the end of the game. And she is FAST! She ended up hitting the ball both  times she batted, without the tee, which was super awesome. She assistant coach is a woman and LOVES Olivia, so I think her extra attention and help really made helped Olivia feel comfortable. So fun! After the game, we made our way home, had some baths and called it a night.

Spent the day with these two!

A little playtime outside

First Baseball Game

With everything going on, I got quite behind on blogging. I have no idea what we did on Thursday. Must not have been much…I don’t have any pictures from that day either!

My throwback Thursday photo this week...8 weeks pregnant to 39 weeks. Can't believe baby is already a week old!

Friday was another pretty quiet day. Our houseguests are leaving for home tomorrow morning, so we spent most of the day hanging out, chatting and spending our last day together. We’ve kind of had a tradition of going to Wisconsin Dells with them in the spring, and their family coming out to stay with us for a week in the summer. With the baby, we weren’t able to do either of those things, so I’m so grateful she came out for this week with us. Not to mention all of her help cooking, picking up, taking care of the girls and keeping my spirits up. She and I did escape the house in the afternoon for a trip to The Cheesecake Factory. It was nice to get out, and YUM!!! The rest of the night was pretty low key.

Baby Cuddles

Saturday morning, Dawn and Brooklyn started on their way home, while we were all off to swim class. After class, we grabbed some lunch and we were off to Gerten’s to pick up this years’ flowers and veggies for planting. While it’s nice to get out and be a little active, it’s also exhausting and wears me out. But, I know it’s good for me get out though. The trip went pretty well…I did have to take a break halfway through to head back to the van and feed baby, but we survived. The place was a complete madhouse though…it was the first really nice day of the spring, so that brought everybody out of hiding. Once home, Christian took the big girls outside to play and run off some steam, and he pulled the giant bush we had in the back of the yard, and tilled the land to expand the garden this year. It’s all ready for planting, hopefully the weather stays nice so he can get that done soon.

So Tired!

Sleeping through swim class

Saying goodbye to our friends

Working on the new garden

On Sunday we had some breakfast, the girls played for a while, and after feeding Eliza all morning, I ran to Target, ALL BY MYSELF, for a quick grocery run. It felt so nice to get out and have a little quiet alone time for a while. We made a stop across the street to our friend Sara’s “diaper party”…she’s due in July with a little boy. We had some food, chatted, the big girls played for a while, Sara got some baby cuddles in, and when Eliza started getting hungry we made our way back home. Later this evening, we planted our flower pots and Christian planted most of the vegetables. Everything is starting to come along.

Until Next Week XOXO

2014 - Week 19

Well, Monday started off pretty horrible, and kicked off a pretty crazy week. I was up and at ‘em, got the girls ready for school and made my way out to drop them off. As I made my way back to the van, I lost my footing stepping off of the curb, my right foot gave out and I fell…hard, straight down to the ground. I embarrassingly hopped up, jumped in the van and made my way home. Overall I felt OK, but my foot was hurting pretty bad, and getting worse as the day went on. I decided to start doing some work, and just see how the morning went. Baby was moving well, I wasn’t cramping or bleeding or anything, so I just wanted to wait it out and see if anything changed. I called the babyline at lunchtime to see what they suggested, and they immediately told me to go to Labor & Delivery for monitoring. Of course that stressed me out a little, but I really didn’t think there would be anything wrong. So, I let Christian know, I took a quick shower and got ready, and my friend Sara drove me to Christian’s work so he could drive us to the hospital. I hobbled into Labor & Delivery, they checked me into a room, took some blood samples and got me hooked up to the monitors. We settled in for 4 looooong hours of monitoring. All of the testing came back normal, and monitoring went well. In reality, they said if anything would have happened as a result of the fall, it probably would’ve happened within the first 4 hours, but they had to err on the side of caution. They finally sent us off around 7:00. We grabbed some dinner and made our way home. My foot was still killing me pretty bad, and they did insist that I get it checked out, so I made an appointment at the clinic for tomorrow. No fun! Meanwhile, my mom had picked the girls up from school for us, got them some dinner and took them to Olivia’s first baseball practice (I was SO SO SO bummed we couldn’t be there). Apparently she was very shy and really wouldn’t participate. Hopefully she’ll warm up soon and get into it, I’m sure Christian and I not being there didn’t help. Next time will be better! What a day!

Tuesday was another pretty crazy day. I was up early to get ready, I dropped the girls off at school, foot still killing me, then headed back home to do some work before my doctor appointments. My mom ended up picking me up and bringing me to the clinic…we weren’t sure if I should really be driving with my foot. First up, I saw a family practice doctor for my foot. He took one look and sent me off for some x-rays. It was bruising pretty back already, and very swollen. He said with just a sprain or bad bruise, you wouldn’t usually see that kind of swelling, so he was afraid there was a brake. Off I went for some x-rays, and within a few minutes the doctor had the results…sure enough, there was a fracture right along my toe line.  39 weeks pregnant with a broken foot – seriously, just my luck! They got me fitted with a boot and I was off. 4-6 weeks of no driving and wearing a boot for stability…should make labor and delivery fun, that’s for sure! Next up, we were off for my weekly prenatal check up. My blood pressure was up a bit again, not super surprising with everything going on. Otherwise, we just chatted about the accident and my hospital visit, and she scheduled me to go back in on Friday for another blood pressure check. What a pain! After my appointment, I grabbed some lunch and my mom dropped me off at home. Before I finished lunch, my midwife was calling me…she had talked to the OB and they decided they wanted me back in Labor and Delivery for monitoring again. They were still worried about my fall and the stress on my body, and my blood pressure, so they wanted to play it safe. Christian made his way home, and we were off…again. More blood, more monitoring and man that bed was uncomfortable. Everything checked out OK again, and the monitors were picking up contractions this time. By the time we were discharged, the contracts were getting more and more noticeable, and picking up as the night went on.

See the complete birth story for how the rest of the evening, and Wednesday went, HERE

While we were in the hospital, my mom again picked the girls up from school and hung out with them for the night. They were very concerned about me when I got home, and kept asking me how my foot was. Poor things. They went to school for ½ the day on Wednesday, until my mom picked them up to bring them to the hospital to meet baby. She’ll be staying at the house with them and bringing them to school while we’re in the hospital.

My new accessory!

Eliza's First Close Up!

Well, after the last few day of chaos, pain and meeting a new perfect little person, I spent much of Thursday cuddling and snuggling my new baby girl as much as I could. Perfection! We had a few visotros throughout the day, mainly around lunchtime…Christian’s parents, sister and niece, my mom and the girls, my Dad and our friend Michelle. Everybody was in love with the newest little Duran, even though she slept through most of the visits. She’ll be luckily surrounded by lots of love! The girls were SOOOOOO excited to meet her, even though she wasn’t a boy. They had lots of kisses for her, Olivia couldn’t wait to hold her. It was just so sweet, I was overwhelmed with joy. Eliza has been nursing well, and she has been a pretty sleepy little newborn. She passed her hearing test and, while she was slightly jaundice, her levels weren’t too bad. While we probably could go home this evening, we have to stay in the hospital for 48 hours after birth for monitoring, because of my positive GBS, so we’ll have one more day.

Friday was another day full of newborn cuddles. In a lot of ways, it’s nice to be in the hospital…it’s quiet and relaxing (for the most part), but we were definitely getting anxious to get home. We were missing our big girls, ready to settle in at home and I had had ENOUGH of hospital beds this week to last a lifetime. Today we had visits from my coworker Brad, my BFF Kari and her baby girl and our friend Gini. Otherwise, it was a pretty quiet day. We were finally discharged at 8:00 and booked it out of the hospital as fast as we could. We were so excited to finally be on our way home, but the excitement was short lived when we arrived home to chaos. My mom was in the driveway waiting for us, clearly frustrated and immediately informing me that the girls were being obnoxious. I grabbed some of our stuff and made my way in…the house was quiet and dark, the girls were running around jumping on the couch and there was water EVERYWHERE….the carpet, the couches and from one end of the kitchen to the other, counter, kitchen table, floor. EVERYWHERE. Christian finished getting stuff in out of the car, my mom left and we had a chat with the girls. They claimed they were “eating the water because they were so hungry”. I think they were so overwhelmed with everything that has been going on, it was making them act up more than usual. And, the long, busy, frustrating week for my mom didn’t help the situation. We got them in their jammies, got them calmed own, fed them and they were off to bed. It was unfortunately far from the joyous, peaceful homecoming we were hoping for, and that was pretty upsetting. But, nonetheless, we settled in for our first night home with baby, and nothing could take that away.

Well, little night owl Eliza had me up most of the night, but it’s not the end of the world. We’ll all get adjusted, and hopefully she’ll turn out to be an easy baby in the end. We were all off to swim class, and the outing was a complete success. We were actually early for class, Eliza slept through the whole thing and everything went perfect. Crazy! We were going to make a stop at Target after class, but I wasn’t feeling too well…my bleeding had picked up and I was pretty exhausted. So, we grabbed some lunch and made our way home. My dad and stepmom stopped over for a visit, along with Olivia’s BFF Bella and her parents, Sara and Mariano. The house was pretty much a disaster, and will probably just keep getting worse, but I was too exhausted to worry about it. My friend Dawn from Indiana, who I met through an online birth board years ago (for Amelia), came to down with her almost-4-year-old to stay for a week…to meet baby, spend some time with us and help us out around the house. They arrived around 11:00, we chatted for a bit, then made our way to bed. We’re SO excited to have her here, it’s going to be great having so much time to just hang out and talk. So awesome!

Sunday was Mother’s Day, and my due date! But, instead of having baby, I spent the day cuddling and nursing a 4-day-old newborn. So dang sweet. It was so exciting being able to spend Mother’s Day with all of my babies, at home! I was not in any mood, or any shape to, but Christian guilted me into throwing a Mother’s Day BBQ. We usually do, but I was really hoping this year I could get off the hook and just be able to relax (and recover!). Instead, my mom and Christian’s parents came over, Christian grilled and we had a houseful all afternoon. The girls started acting up as the day went on, and by the time everyone started leaving, I was feeling completely overwhelmed and just wanted the day to be over. Ahhh, the post-birth emotional rollercoaster, it’s awesome.