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