2016 - Week 6

Week 6 – this week brought us quite a mixed bag of events and activities. Another week of lame photo-taking as well. Not feeling hot, and taking a bit of a social media hiatus is leaving me quite photoless.

On Monday, we were all up and getting ready for the day. After dropping Olivia off at daycare, I was off with Amelia to her audiologist appointment. There’s always been a little bit of a concern over her hearing. She’s never really cooperated with a hearing test, and it’s been unclear if it was because she was having issues, or because she was being difficult. Now, with all of her speech issues, we thought it was best to just get it checked and make sure there aren’t any underlying issues. They hooked her up and first tested her eardrums. Overall, they reacted pretty well, but the reading showed that she does have some fluid in her ears. Which we’ve been having a lot of trouble with lately (that we know of, who knows how long it’s been going on though). The doctor suggested we come back and run that test again in 6 weeks…and that if she still has fluid issues at that point, we’ll be referred to an ENT to get her checked out. They also did a standard hearing test, which she actually did really well on. She, end result, is no actual hearing issues, which is a big relief. Now, we’ll just need to get through her next appointment and hopefully the fluid is not an issue anymore. Meanwhile, while we did that, Christian dropped Eliza off at his parents’ house, and came to the clinic to pick Amelia up, and bring her to daycare. The clinic is right near my work, so it saved me a trip back and forth back home. FINALLY, I was off to work. I had a really busy, and actually productive, day. My closer work friends were all gone, so I was actually pretty focused. Go me!! After work, I picked Elia up…which was a joy, because she was completely angry with the world because she couldn’t take ANOTHER bath. I swear, she hit the terrible-two’s weeks ago, and it’s going to be a looooooooong process of dealing with that. We finally got home, the girls ate some dinner, and we were off to gymnastics – while Christian was off to work. By the time we finish gymnastics and get home, I’m soooooo exhausted and ready for bed…but, then, we have to have a snack, get ready for bed, do our reading, and once the girls are tucked in, I finally eat some dinner and settled in myself. Whew, Mondays!

Our nights. The oldest doing her reading, the middle one cuddled up on the couch with me, the baby "watching videos" - which means clicking from one to another to another, never actually watching anything.

On Tuesday, shear panic took over the state…snowmageddon was being threaded, and people were losing their minds. I mean, seriously – they were predicting 4-8” of snow, which is NOTHING around here. Everybody at work was in a panic all day, they preemptively closed the schools early (even ours, which NEVER happens). Thankfully daycare was on the ball and already geared up to pick the girls up. This is what happens when we have these light winters, people act like a dusting of snow is the world coming to an end. Amidst the chaos, I worked the day away, as the snow started to fall around 11:30. With all of the panic, I was worried about getting to my afternoon appointment, and then home to pick the girls up, before daycare closed. So, I called the clinic and they were able to get me in a little earlier, around 3:15, so I was off to that. This was my first appointment with an OB…she was SUPER nice, really laid back and everything, but she’s just a resident (so, it’s more of a “team” thing, which I guess I’m kind of used to from working with the midwives). My blood pressure was SOOOO bad today, 179/84. By far the worst yet, and she said that is a stroke level reading, especially while pregnant. They re-checked, and it was up around 144, which isn’t TERRIBLE, but still high.  She’s still going to hold off on prescribing anything, since the reading does come down, but she does think I’m heading that way. I chatted with her about the OB’s at the clinic, and it turns out that NONE of them deliver at the hospital that I want to switch to. Such a bummer. But she did suggest a clinic not super far from work, which was promising. Until I looked into it later at home, and the ONLY OB on staff that delivers at this hospital does not have any openings at least for the next two months (I later found out that she’s retiring). So, it looks like I’m stuck delivering at the same hospital, and it’s SO frustrating. She did recommend that I have a Level II ultrasound done, to do an echo on the baby because of my heart issues. I’ve never had that done before, but they should be able to combine it with my 20-week anatomy scan. Just over a month away! Some good news is that I still haven’t gained any of the weight I lost back, so that’s promising. Hopefully I can keep the overall gain very minimal! Finally, she checked for the heartbeat…and the baby totally ran away from the Doppler, just like it does at home. So funny. I finally hit the road home…it was snowing like crazy still, but the roads weren’t too terrible and traffic was actually moving. I couldn’t believe it – it was like I was in the twilight zone! I picked the girls up from daycare – the big girls were so excited that they were able to spend so much time with their daycare friends, and we settled in at home. Christian finished plowing, the girls played downstairs for a while, and we had dinner. Christian was off to work, the girls got ready for bed, we did their reading and called it a night.

On Wednesday, I woke up from a night of epic headache battling, and my head was still pounding. It didn’t seem to be letting up at all, so I called in and took the day off. I dropped the girls off at daycare, Christian arrived home from work, plowed and was off to bed, and I laid on the couch watching some TV for a while, before eventually sleeping for a large majority of the day. Ugh, these damn headaches! I eventually was off to pick the big girls up from school, and back home to relax for a while before heading back out to pick Eliza up from daycare. I finally settled in for the night, made dinner and worked on cleaning up the kitchen/doing the dishes for a while, and Christian was off to work. The girls played downstairs for a while, before it was time for baths, reading and bedtime. Overall a pretty quiet day, totally needed. AND, Eliza went all day without her pacifier, naptime and everything, so I decided to give it a shot and try bedtime without it. She actually went right to bed, no problem. I couldn’t believe it!!! Overnight, she couldn’t care less about it. She was down to two…one is missing, and she bit a hole in the other. I swore I wouldn’t buy her anymore, so I’m thinking maybe her broken one just didn’t interest her anymore. Either way, WOOOOOOOOT! Our goal was to get her off of it by two, and if we can hold strong, we’ve beat that goal big time! Since I slept so much of the day, I wasn’t super tired. I started watching “Z Nation” on Netflix, and holy moly, that show is pretty crazy! Much different than “The Walking Dead”, but just as addicting. My new obsession, I have two seasons to catch up on!

On Thursday, I was back to work. Everybody was up, ready and off for the day. After Eliza’s full night of no-pacifier sleep, I let daycare know that we were hitting it hard. She did great, all day again. Score! However, when I dropped her off, Miss Barb wasn’t there, and she was not a happy camper! Drama queen. I had a pretty busy day at work, catching up from my day off, and getting as much done as possible before the weekend. I picked Eliza up after work, and we settled in at home for the night for the usual…dinner, Christian off to work, reading and bedtime. And, of course, I was up way too late again watching my new addiction.

Friday was my day off. Best day!!! Christian arrived home just as I finished getting the big girls ready for school, so he stayed up with Eliza while I dropped them off. Eliza and I spent the day together, having tons of fun, while Christian slept. We played with toys, watched some shows, ate some food. Fun times! I continued my “Z Nation” binge, which makes the day go way too fast. While Eliza napped, I ran the girls’ sleds to school for Olivia’s sledding day, grabbed some lunch and relaxed for a while. Unfortunately, Eliza didn’t take a very long nap, which was a bummer. Hopefully that’s just a short term downfall of not having her pacifier. Christian woke up to sit with her while I left to pick the big girls up from school, and then we had a pretty quiet night at home. We watched some gymnastics movies on Netflix, and videos on YouTube, while Eliza worked on her skills. She’s SUPER determined to get a backbend down right now, so that’s her goal. She’s really into it, gymnastics just may be her thing! After dinner and some playtime, the girls were off to bed, Christian hung out with his friend, Lorenzo, for a while, and I settled into bed with another headache – not good.

Saturday was a pretty busy day. Everybody was up and at it…the girls watched some videos and had breakfast, while I started doing a little cleaning up around the house, trying to make it not quite so “disaster zone”. We showered, everybody finished getting ready, my mom stopped over, and we were all off to swim class. After class, my mom treated us all to Applebee’s for lunch (YUM!!), and we were off to the state fairgrounds to check out the snow sculptures. “Unfortunately”, we had a bit of warm up this week, so the sculptures weren’t looking so hot, but the girls played in the giant snow piles and went down the ice slide a few times, having the time of their lives. So, it all worked out. As soon as we arrived home, my mom parted ways with us, and we all settled in for the night. We had dinner and watched some movies before the girls were off to bed, and then Christian and I settled in for a movie night…”Ride Along 2” and “Dirty Grandpa”. Of course, again, a major headache hit me, and got worse as the day went on, so I settled into bed with an ice pack and some medicine as soon as the movies ended. I seriously cannot take much more of these headaches!

On Sunday, we actually slept in a little bit, which was a relief. Christian showered and got ready for the day, got Eliza ready, and they were off to have birthday lunch with his mom. Meanwhile, I helped Olivia and Amelia write out their Valentine’s and do their homework, and worked on Eliza’s valentines for daycare. They watched some videos while I did dishes and picked up the living room, kitchen, bedrooms and bathroom. Everything is sure easier to do without a crazy toddler following behind you, messing everything up. I worked on laundry throughout the day, and also, SHOCKER, had a headache that worsened throughout the day. I finally had to take some medicine and rest on the couch for a while, trying to get rid of it. Christian dropped Eliza off at home, who REFUSED to nap, while he ran to Walmart to get some Superbowl groceries. I finally started feeling slightly better, and a few friends arrived for the game/dinner…Lorenzo, Mariano and Bella. The boys grilled, finishing up just as the game started, and the girls pretty much played downstairs all night. Mariano and Bella left after halftime, I finished up laundry and got it put away, and Christian spent the evening hanging out with Lorenzo. My headache was gone, WHEW, but apparently our brats did NOT agree with me, because my stomach was KILLING me as the night went on. I mean, seriously, it’s always something! I’m pretty sure this pregnancy is going to be the death of me…

Today, Eliza also turned 21 Months Old!! She's weighing in at 30lbs, and she's about 32.5" tall. This month’s big accomplishment….NO MORE PACIFIERS!!!!! Yup, it's true! Eliza has been our only pacifier baby, and I was seriously terrified of one day getting rid of it. S-U-C-C-E-S-S!! She turned 21 months old this month, and I can't believe how fast she's creeping up on 2. So crazy. She is talking up a storm suddenly...small sentences, names, so many words, it's unbelievable. All of her (appropriate) teeth are in, she uses a cup like a master and her utensils pretty well and she's becoming more independent with each passing day. Her latest favorite thing to do is feed the dog...it can be quite a messy task.

Until Next Week! XOXO

2016 - Week 5

It’s already the last week of January! A whole month into 2016…I can already tell this year is going to be gone in the blink of an eye! This week seriously lacks in the photo department...partly because, as you'll read, I broke my phone and lost some photos.

We had a pretty terrible start to the day today. Christian was scheduled for his follow-up and MRI, from his surgery last year, this morning…so, instead of helping me get the girls up and out the door (on the only day he’s able to), he left for his appointment while I was still struggling to get them going. I finally got everybody up and out of the door, when I realized my key to the van was missing. After running around like crazy, searching everywhere in the house, I realized that Christian had used it last night, and must still have both copies on him. I was SOOOO furious. I called him, and then he threw a fit because he had to come back and give me the key…as if it was my fault he had taken MY key, and then I was beyond furious. I ended up throwing a hormonal, pregnancy-induced tantrum and threw my phone. It was supposed to land on the couch…instead, of course, it hit the SMAAAAAAAAL strip of wood on the arm of the couch, and broke. It turned on, but there was nothing on the screen. I was SO my fault, but at this point I just wanted to cry I was so frustrated. He finally got home, ended up having to reschedule his appointments, and I was FINALLY on my way. Dropped the big girls off at daycare, dropped Eliza off at his parents’ house, the roads were icy and traffic was slow, and all I wanted to do was crawl back into bed by the time I got to work. I’ve been staying pretty well caught up at work, so at least my stress-level there has been down lately. I spent the day trying to figure out what to do about my phone…we don’t have insurance on them, and I had no idea if it could be fixed or anything. And, of course, we didn’t have any time to deal with it today. I ended up getting  a call from the school nurse in the afternoon…Amelia didn’t have to be picked up, but she was complaining that her ear hurt again and was really upset about it. The nurse said that her ears did look pretty red, and recommended that we get her seen. So, I ended up having to leave a little early to get Eliza, pick up the rest of the family, and run to the Minute Clinic before gymnastics. Luckily, she got in to be seen right away. The doctor mentioned that she definitely has some fluid in her ears, probably causing the pain, but it’s not a full on infection yet. She recommended we start her on some Children’s Sudafed to help drain them, and Ibuprofen for the inflammation and pain, and that should hopefully avoid a full on infection. Fingers crossed!!! After checking out, and picking up a few things, Christian was on his way back home to eat and get ready for work, while the girls and I were off to gymnastics. Eliza was quite rambunctious tonight, but overall did pretty well. There are a couple other little kids there that she plays with, so that seems to help (as long as they don’t all go rouge on us). We finally settled in back at home, ate a late dinner and the girls were off to bed. Christian left his work phone home with me tonight, in case of emergency, so at least we weren’t completely cut off from the world. I watched al little TV and was off to bed pretty early myself. Hoping for a better day tomorrow!

I woke up Tuesday feeling pretty exhausted. I didn’t sleep well at all, tossing and turning all night, so that definitely makes for a tired morning. I finally got everybody up, ready and out the door, running a little late of course. And, of course, we had  some snow overnight (in fact, it was still snowing a bit), so traffic was even worse than yesterday. Oy!! It was so weird to not have a phone all day at work. To be honest, it actually feels a little nice to be unreachable, but I could hear the texts and notifications going off on my phone all day, and it drive me INSANE! After work, I picked Christian and the big girls up, and we stopped into Sprint to see if we had any options. They verified that they cannot fix it – they do not fix broken screens in-store anymore because it’s too expensive and there’s too much risk. Christian of course mentioned trying to fix it himself, and they cautioned against it – that more often than not, the fix ends up frying the phone completely. Our only option was to pay off the phone ($245) and then start a plan with a new phone. UGH!!! We left, still unsure of what to do. Dang phones!!! We picked Eliza up from daycare and settled in at home, trying to figure out what to do. A friend from school ended up offering to sell me one of her S5’s…she and her husband had just recently upgraded, and they hung onto them as backups. So, I think I’ll end up taking her up on the offer, but we’ll have to work out the details. Hopefully tomorrow! We had dinner, Christian was off to work, and us girls settled in for the night. I have to share this Eliza story today…she was playing around on Christian’s phone (left for emergency again), and somehow started up Pandora. Of course, my man, Justin Bieber was on, with my new favorite song, “Love Yourself”..she was jamming out, and next thing you know, I caught her kissing the picture on the phone! I could not stop laughing, it was SOOOO hilarious. At least she has good taste!

On Wednesday, we were up and at it, but it was another rough morning. This is just NOT our week. Eliza slept horrible last night, for some reason, so I ended up bringing her into bed with me. THIS right here is my biggest fear of having another baby. I’m OK with taking on a majority of overnight duties with the baby…since I’ll likely be nursing; I’m used to it anyway. BUT, with Christian working overnights, I somehow have to deal with the other kids, particularly Eliza, if baby waking up wakes them up. That, I’m not sure how I’m going to handle. Eliza will be a little over 2, and she really doesn’t get up TOO often, so I hope it won’t end up being a problem at all. So, needless to say, it was slow going again. And traffic was terrible, again. This time for no reason at all. I HATE COMMUTING!!! I did end up leaving a little early to meet that friend from school, and bought her phone. $100 vs. $245 + starting over was a much better deal. I did have to stop into Sprint to have them activate it, but that went super quick, and I was finally up and running again! I did end up keeping it a secret for a while though…I was enjoying my freedom more than I expected! I popped into Walmart to pick up a few groceries, picked Eliza up, and finally settled in at home. Dinner, did some dishes, cleaned up around the house. Christian was off to work, and the girls and I settled in for the night. We did some reading, took baths, and they were off to bed. I recently purchased a home doppler, to hear the baby’s heartbeat. I haven’t been able to pick it up most nights, and very quietly when I do, but tonight…it was SOOOOOOOO amazing. The heart was thumping so loud, baby must have been positioned just perfectly right at the top of my belly. Seriously, SOO cool. I wanted to record it so badly, but as soon as I shifted to grab my phone, baby ran away. So sweet, the best sound ever.

Thursday, of course, theme of the week, was another rough morning. I don’t know why, but I was just feeling so completely run down. It just seems like there’s always so much to do, I get so stressed out and overwhelmed. And I just can’t shake that pregnancy exhaustion, which doesn’t help. I sure wish I could get past this phase! I dropped the girls off, and was on my way to work. I put in a little time, before I was off to my cardiologist appointment. I wasn’t really sure what they were going to do, but they ended up just chatting a lot, and doing an EKG today. The appointment went OK. My blood pressure was actually NORMAL, for a change. I haven’t seen a normal reading in a really long time. That was refreshing. The EKG came back pretty well too, except for an elevated heartrate. But, that could simply be pregnancy related, so it’s hard to know for sure. The cardiologist did end up ordering an echo, just to make sure everything is looking OK, so I’ll be heading back in a few weeks for that. He does want me to go back to an every-3-year echo schedule though, which kind of sucks, but I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry. I made my way back to work to finish out the day. I picked Eliza up from daycare, dropped her off at home with Christian, and then was off with Olivia to get her “extension” replaced…it fell out after just a couple of days, and they offered to replace it if it came out within 2-weeks. We did that, picked up some dinner, and settled in at home for the night. Christian used his last day of leave time tonight, so he was home with us. He did some cleaning up in the garage and helped get the girls bathed and ready for bed. I was not feeling well at all – having really bad stomach pains for some reason. I ended up falling asleep on the couch pretty early while trying to rest away the pain.

Friday FINALLY arrived. This week, it was MUCH needed. It started off on a bad note, again, though because even though Christian was home, I was still stuck getting the girls up, ready and off, all by myself. We ended up having a little chat about that later in the day, because I’m not going to be putting up with that nonsense! I dropped the big girls off at daycare, Eliza off at my mom’s, and finally checked into work. My mom ended up stopping into the office with Eliza for a visit, so that was a fun way to break up the day. I finished out the day, picked Eliza up, and we settled in at home. I was feeling pretty sick to my stomach again, so I’m not sure what’s going on there. Christian was off to help his friend work on his car, while the girls and I hung out at home. We had dinner, they played downstairs for a while, and were off to bed as soon as Christian got home. We watched a little TV, but I was so exhausted from not feeling well, I called it a night pretty early.

Saturday was a pretty busy day. We were up, had a quick breakfast, and I was off with the big girls to swim class. After class, we all got showered, dressed and ready for the day…we were off to meet some friends, Lorenzo, Mariano and Bella, at the “Ice Castles” for the day. The weather was GREAT, which made it bearable it be outside, however, the ice was very melty and the ground was very slushy. But, the girls had a blast. They went through tunnels, down some ice slides, ran around checking everything out, and even took pictures with Anna and Elsa, of course! After plenty of snow fun, we were off to dinner with Lorenzo. I had a headache that was getting worse as the day went on, and hit me hard core once we were home from dinner. The girls played and watched a little TV while I nursed some Tylenol and an ice back on the couch. Meanwhile, Christian and Lorenzo were hanging out, outside, with some neighbors. He did come in to get the girls to bed, but Eliza was fighting it really bad, screaming and crying. I finally had Olivia bring her out to me, and we fell asleep on the couch together. I’ve been getting a lot of little nuisance headaches lately, which I’ve had with all of my pregnancies, but today was definitely the worst.

On Sunday, we had a pretty quiet day around the house. We watched some TV, I sorted laundry and got that going, and overall we had a pretty relaxing morning. Christian made breakfast, we ate, and I worked on the computer for a bit. Eliza finally went down for a nice, long nap (after fighting it BIG time), so we watched some movies with the girls. I did take a break from relaxing to do some dishes and clean up the kitchen, and helped the girls with homework and reading while Christian made dinner, so I did feel a little accomplished. We had dinner, watched “Grease Live!” and I spent most of the night folding laundry. Fun times!! Amelia was very upset that she had to go to bed before Grease was over, but overall bedtime went much better tonight than it has been lately. Hopefully next week will be more successful for all of us!

Never a moment alone around here!

Until Next Week! XOXO

2016 - Week 4

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 2^nd 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