2016 - Week 13

Week 13…not-so-lucky number 13. While we did mark Mr. Duran’s birthday this week, and Easter,…the week was plagued with illness and injury.

Monday started off after a rough, ROUGH night. And the roughness continued right on through the day. Amelia woke up in the middle of the night, and I heard her rush into the bathroom and throw up. I rushed in to help her, check on her and get her back into bed when she was done. Poor thing, just broke my heart. We all settled back into bed, and I was hopeful it was just some weird fluke thing. I woke up with my alarm, and started to get ready for the day. Just before I hopped into the shower, I could hear Amelia running into the bathroom again, and, again, she threw up. I asked her if it was just her tummy bothering her and she said that no, her tummy didn’t hurt at all, just her head. She’s been complaining of headaches more and more as she gets older, and after this incident, I’m starting to think she just may be following in my migraine footsteps. I got her some medicine, put an ice patch on her forehead, and tucked her into our bed. I ended up calling into work, and decided to work from home for the day. The other two would be gone for the day, and she would just be sleeping/resting, so there was no sense in using an entire day of leave time. While Christian was home, and he could possibly watch her, he also needed to get some sleep before work, so I didn’t think it was fair for him. He did get up while I got the other two ready, and then dropped them off….Olivia to daycare (she and Amelia are on Spring Break this week, so they’re spending the entire week at daycare) and Eliza to his parents’. He hung out with his parents for a while, and Amelia slept until 10:00, so it was a very quiet, productive morning. He arrived home just as she was waking up. She didn’t have much of an appetite, and was still pretty exhausted, but clearly feeling MUCH better. She watched some videos, rested, and ate little bits throughout the day. Nothing too exciting. Christian went down for “bed” right around lunchtime, and slept the afternoon away. I finished out my day of work, “logging out” a little early so that I could get ready for Amelia’s doctor appointment. She had her follow-up with the audiologist today, and since she seemed to be feeling much better, we kept the appointment. Once we were both ready, we loaded into the van, leaving a tad early, because I had grand plans of stopping by the Target Center box office really quick, before rush-hour and crazy after-work traffic kicked in, to buy tickets for Christian’s birthday. He wants to go to this “Comedy Get Down Tour” next weekend, so I decided to surprise him. Well, I went online and there were plenty of tickets left, but they’re an extra $14 per ticket to buy online. That’s insane!! Well, my attempt at getting to the Target Center did not work out. At all. Between traffic, lack of parking, roads closed down and general chaos, it was impossible to park anywhere. To top it off, my gas light was on, and the clock was ticking, so I had to give up on my attempt. It was beyond frustrating. So, instead, we were off to Amelia’s appointment, which went OK. Her testing still showed limited eardrum mobility, which is odd and a tad concerning, BUT, she passed her actual hearing test with flying colors again. The doctor decided to hold off on an ENT appointment for now, but recommended that next time she has an earache/infection, to just bring her right to an ENT for it and have her checked out. After her appointment, we stopped at my in-laws to pick Eliza up, stopped at Daycare to pick Olivia up, and stopped at Walmart for a few groceries. After picking Olivia up, she started complaining that her stomach hurt. As the night went on, she continued complaining about it, moaning and whining and grimacing in pain more and more, and it was clear something was going on. She didn’t seem “sick”, just seemed to be in a lot of pain. Then it hit me…she was acting just like she used to, before we removed milk from her diet a couple years ago. As I thought more, I realized that she did have a bit of milk this weekend…Chocolate milk, and some cream in the fun drinks we made at our friends party Saturday. I knew it just had to be that. She watched videos for a while, while I made dinner and played with the other girls, but spent the rest of the night on the couch. She dozed off for a while, but I the pain became too much. I finally convinced her to go to the bathroom and try to throw up, which she did immediately, and felt a ton better. I set her up on the couch with the heating pad, and I could tell she was already feeling a ton better. She fell asleep on the couch shortly after, and I eventually brought her into bed with me for the night, to keep an eye on he (carrying a 7 year old to bed, at almost-6-months-pregnant, not so fun). She didn’t eat dinner, Amelia didn’t want to eat, and Eliza was her usual crazy stuff. So much so, that it led to the last of our days incident. Just before Christian left for work, she was spinning and jumping around, acting goofy…then lost her balance, and fell face first onto the foot of an upside down stool. She just about impaled herself right through the eye. Other than Olivia’s face-to-the-table incident last fall, I’ve never been so scared in my life. Eliza was screaming and crying, in so much pain. I jumped up, scooped her up, and sat with her for a while. She’s so tough, she perked back up very quickly, but it was seriously terrifying. I loaded her up with some Tylenol before bed, just to relieve some of the pain (it instantly bruised and swelled up). Christian left for work, and I was pretty much on pins and needles for the rest of the night, wondering what else could possibly go wrong. Thankfully, it was indeed the last of our incidents. I mean, what a day?!

My Sick Little BFF

Netflix and the Healing Cat

The terrible day in a nutshell

On Tuesday, we were again up and at it, making an attempt at another day. Eliza was a little crabby, and it seemed like her injury was bothering her quite a bit, Amelia was tired – and randomly complaining that her stomach hurt (but, had absolutely no actual symptoms whatsoever), and, while Olivia still didn’t seem to be 100%, she really wasn’t “sick” and seemed to be doing a million times better. Under normal circumstances, I probably would’ve just stayed home with her, just to be on the safe side….but, I had a mandatory office meeting at work later this morning that I had to attend. I decided to see how things went, and let the daycare know that if any of them started showing any negative signs, to just let me know and I’d pick them up as soon as my meeting ended. So, I dropped them off, and settled into work. Just to find out that the person in our office who is “sick” constantly…as in, at least 1-2 days EVERY week, had called in. So I spent the rest of the day in a complete rage over the fact that “mandatory” only appears to be “mandatory” for certain people. Seriously ya’ll, I have not been that upset in a long, LONG time, and it took everything in me to bite my tongue and not flip out. Thankfully, all of the girls were doing REALLY well, and ended up having a great day. Whew! Well, except for the fact that when I picked them up, Amelia informed me that the little boy who had punched Olivia in the face a couple of weeks ago, slapped her in the face TWICE today (and, he was still there when I picked them up, so clearly he had not been sent home for it, which I was under the impression would happen). That, I was not too happy about. I ended up taking a long lunch, and (again) ran to the Target Center in another attempt to park, and get the tickets for Christian. Thankfully, today was much more successful. I was able to get to, and park in, the ramp right behind the center, popped into the completely empty box office, grabbed my tickets and left. It was a nice break…but then I was right back to my crabby self when I settled back into work. Aside from the “mandatory” meeting nonsense, I was exhausted and overwhelmed and had SOOOOOO much work to do, I just wanted to call it a day. The only plus side is that since I did have so much to do, the rest of the day went quickly and I was on my way home. After picking the girls up from daycare, we arrived home…to my next enraging event…finding Christian still passed out in bed. At 5:30PM. Not a single “chore” done around the house, no dinner started, no “getting ready for work” done. I was seriously done. Like last week’s similar event, I refused to make diner, and sat my crabby, exhausted butt on the couch in protest, playing and reading with Eliza. Christian woke up just in time to shower and rush off to work, of course, so the girls and I had “breakfast for diner”, which thankfully they thought was amazing. Once they were off to bed, I watched a couple of shows before passing out myself. This week was not going well. Not at all.

CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTE alert. Got a box of baby clothes today,

Wednesday continued the week of doom, following another LONG night. Eliza woke up screaming and crying, and would not go back to sleep for anything. I finally had to bring her into bed with me so the other girls could sleep, and we could hopefully get back to sleep ourselves. Sure enough, she passed right now. However, attempting to sleep with an almost-2-year-old in bed is not an easy task. I woke up so exhausted, and barely functioning. But, once the girls were all up and ready, they all seemed to really be back to 100%, so hopefully all of the issues with them have passed. I was off to work for another busy day. We ended up with a spring snowstorm hitting right around lunch time, and of course, my home/area ended up getting the worst of the storm. I finished out the day, and then hit the road, sure it would take FOREVER to get home. Sure enough, 90 minutes later I arrived at daycare (it’s a 20-25 minute commute). Oy!! And, came to find out that ALL THREE GIRLS had incident reports for the day. I MEAN, SERIOUSLY?!?!? Eliza had tripped over another child’s coat, fell, and bit through her bottom lip (you guys, she is literally the clumsiest person that I have EVER met), Olivia had fallen off the outdoor play structure when they were playing (thankfully, no significant injury) and Amelia was “fighting” with another kid, and pushed them off the couch (which somehow resulted in them having a bloody nose). One day, I just need one day of peace this week. We finally arrived home, had some dinner, and a quick bath for the girls. Christian was off to work, and the girls were off to bed a little early. One actual fun thing from today…Eliza has FINALLY learned her name. She has been calling herself “sissy” or “baby” for quite some time now, but tonight when I asked her what her name is, she actually said “Eliza”. AHHHHHH, I got the cutest video of her. She’s such a sweetie!

22 Weeks, 5 Days. Whoa!

When the clumsiest person you've ever met learns how to climb onto the dining room chairs.

On Thursday, we were up and at it, and thankfully it ended up being a MUCH better day. Apparently the plows in our neighborhood had called it quits for the year, because they had NOT plowed our streets at all (after about a foot of snow). Christian didn’t have time to do our driveway last night either (since he had to leave early to battle traffic), so it was fun getting out of the neighborhood. Thankfully, traffic in general was fairly light, so even with the snow, I was actually on time for work!!! What?!?! Work was pretty quiet and standard, and I stopped into Walmart before picking the girls up to get some groceries and Easter Basket goodies. Finally, we arrived home for dinner, Christian was off to work, we watched a little TV, and were off to bed. Just the uneventful day I needed!

Friday FINALLY arrived, and not a moment too soon!!!I dropped the girls off, settled into work, and was feeling completely drained. It was a busy day, including a long, painful meeting, and the day was brought WAY down by attempting to update my budget planning through the next year. Seriously, daycare for 4 kids, is NO JOKE! That pretty much made my head explode, and threw me back into that “how the hell are we going to do this” frame of mind. STRESS!!!! I was very excited to finish out the day, pack it in, and be on my way. I picked Eliza up from my mom’s, the other two up from daycare, and we settled in at home for the night. Christian picked up some dinner, we watched some movies, and had a quiet, lazy night to end this crazy week.

FAAAAAST asleep when it's time to get up. But can't sleep through the night or sleep in on the weekends. Seriously.

First and foremost, Saturday marked Christian’s 32^nd birthday. WOOT, we’re finally the same age, for 2.5 months anyway. Unfortunately, the day was pretty much ruined, as I was laid up in bed sicker than a damn dog! I woke up in the middle of the night so completely sick to my stomach. My stomach was turning, cramping, feeling absolutely terrible, and I finally threw up in the weeeeee hours of the morning. I didn’t feel any better after, and I could not really sleep. I attempted to get up with the rest of the family in the morning…sat with them, watched some TV, helped the girls give Christian his cards/gift, but after a little while, I threw up again, and had to settle back into bed and relax. We initially planned on having my mom over to have an early Easter celebration, and celebrate Christian’s birthday, but I ended up canceling…she tends to catch just about anything, and whatever was going on with me did not seem pregnancy related, it seemed much more like a stomach flu-bug kind of thing. I basically spent the rest of the day in bed, watched some shows here and there, slept on and off, pretty much in misery. Christian’s parents ended up stopping over, since our other plans were canceled, to bring Christian his birthday gifts and spend a little time with him, while I quarantined myself in the bedroom. I finally got up just before they left, to be present for birthday cake singing/cutting with everybody else. His parents left right after, Christian got the girls to bed, and he was off with his friend, Lorenzo, to actually get out and celebrate his birthday for a little while. I felt terrible that he had to be on total dad-duty the entire day, but luckily he took it like a champ! I finally ate a TINY bit right before bed, and managed to drink some Gatorade, but I was not going to risk anything or push it too far. Seriously rough day! I watched a little TV before settling into bed myself, hoping for a SERIOUSLY better day tomorrow.

Happy Birthday, Papa Duran!

Sunday brought us Easter Day. And quite an extra blessed one this year with no illnesses running through the house. Now, I was FAR from 100%, but I was night and day from yesterday. The girls were up bright and early, and already rummaging through their Easter baskets by the time I heard them. They played with their new stuff for a while, and I ran to the store quick to get a few groceries. Once home, I hid the Easter eggs around the (VERY wet) yard quick, before heading back inside. Then, after a day out of commission, it was time to get to work. I got the kitchen cleaned up, did some dishes and made the girls some breakfast. I still wasn’t ready to try eating anything at that point, but was able to keep water and stuff down. After a little resting, we got the girls dressed, and made our way outside for the big Easter egg hunt. It’s so funny to watch them run around and get so into it…even little Eliza started to get the hang of it after we pointed a couple out to her, and she saw the other two hard at work. We relaxed in the house for a while, before starting to shower, and one by one get ready for the day. We snapped some pictures, loaded into the van, and were off to my sister-in-law, Karina’s, house for Easter dinner. She started hosting last year, but she does a joint thing with us (and Christian’s parents) and her husbands’ family (which is quite a lot of people). It’s a little uncomfortable, but I get that when you host, you want to include both sides of your family. But, her in-laws didn’t appear to bring anything to contribute, and didn’t help prepare, cook, set up or anything. That didn’t end up sitting too well with Christian and his mom, and things got a little dramatic for a while. But, really, what’s a Holiday without a little drama?! Things eventually cooled down, everybody ate, they set up a big Easter egg hunt for all of the kids, and fun was had by all. Unfortunately our nieces weren’t there with us this year, and the girls were NOT happy about that, so that was the real downer of the day. Karina did send home a bunch of baby stuff for us though…including a TON of super cute clothes. We’re definitely set on clothes for quite a while, which is such a huge relief. So awesome!! After loading up the van, we made our way home and settled in for the night. We watched a little TV, I watched “The Walking Dead”, and the girls were off to bed. After the busy day, and Christian’s LATE night partying it up last night, he wasn’t far behind the girls on the bedtime clock. The girls were not too happy about having to head back to school tomorrow, so they went to bed angry with the world. At bedtime, I realized that after yesterday’s illness, I hadn’t really been feeling the baby move too much. I decided to try out the Doppler and check in, and sure enough, picked up the nice, strong heartbeat right away. Whew! I feel like I’m so far along (23 weeks), that I should be feeling him way more than I do, but I guess every pregnancy is different. Just have to keep reminding myself of that.

Easter Baskets, Easter Egg Hunt, Easter Beauties.

Until Next Week! XOXO

2016 - Week 12

This week brought us an overall pretty quiet, week. No appointments, no catastrophes and fairly minor illnesses. And, we kicked off some Easter festivities this weekend. Easter really sneaks up on your when it’s so early in the year!

On Monday, we were up and it, kicking off another week. I did “accidentally” oversleep a little, but with one less kid to get up, ready and dropped off, I made some pretty decent time into work. Woot! After dropping the big girls off at daycare, I settled into work for a long, boring day. I’m back into the total lack of motivation frame of mind, which sure makes the day drag on. I did get notice that Children’s Place is having a big sale right now, plus doing their Place Dollars promotion, so I took advantage and ordered some clothes for the baby. Seriously, the CUTEST stuff! I can’t wait to see it all. And, I’m excited for the Place Dollars – the big girls need some summer “play” dresses, so I’ll be able to save a bunch on those. After work, I picked Eliza up, and I was SOOOOO excited to see her after her night away. My baby!! We settled in at home, where Christian was back to his super lazy ways, just laying around. So, I went on strike and refused to cook anything. This has been a HUGE battle we’ve had since he started working overnights…the rest of the weeks, I understand his exhaustion, but he doesn’t work on Sunday’s, so he literally sits around the house all day long, doing nothing, so Monday nights I just will not stand for it. The big girls ended up going across the street to play with Olivia’s BFF, Bella, for a while, so once Christian was ready and off to work, it was just Eliza and me for a bit. I called the girls home, heated up some leftovers for dinner, and it was basically time for bed. I was so exhausted, I wasn’t far behind. I just can’t seem to catch any energy at all this pregnancy.

Happy to snuggle my baby again.

On Tuesday, I woke up just completely drained after a horrible night of sleep. On top of that, I had a headache, my stomach was turning, and things just were not looking good. I ended up calling in, and taking the day off to rest and hopefully feel better. I did go back to sleep, but ended up REALLY oversleeping, and had to rush to get the girls up and ready and off to daycare. Oy! After that chaos, I relaxed on the couch pretty much all day long. I did some Hulu watching between dozing off, and managed to fold a little bit of laundry, but that was really about it. I ended up picking the big girls up from school (usually Christian’s job), and we stopped at Target to pick up some groceries and a few things for the house. We finally picked Eliza up and settled in at home. The girls did their homework while I got dinner started and put everything away and Christian got ready for work. We ate, watched a little TV, and had a lazy night. The girls went to bed a tad early tonight, so I had a nice, quiet evening to myself. This lazy day was seriously just what the doctor ordered!

Got this bad boy on sale for 1/2 off!! Been getting some great deals on the baby stuff we need!

This face. She asks me "mommy, you wanna play?!" OF COURSE!!!

On Wednesday, I was back to work. No fun! But, I had a TON of stuff to catch up on after being out, so the day really flew by. I’ve been doing a pretty good job of staying on top of everything, but of course everything seems to suddenly hit the one day I’m gone. There’s specifically a ton of chaos around this program that I’m working on, that HAS to be put in place before I go on maternity leave, so that’s causing me a ton of anxiety (which of course is great for pregnancy). We had a taco potluck lunch at work today, which was super delicious, but of course I felt like complete death afterwards. Ugh, I just cannot really each much of anything. I guess it’s not a terrible issue, but hopefully I’m at least getting some nutrition that baby needs. After work, I picked Eliza and hung out at home for a bit, before picking up some drive-thru for the rest of the family for dinner…I just couldn’t stomach the thought of eating anything after the big lunch. Christian was off to work, and we girls had a quiet night before bed.

21 Weeks, 5 Days. Cruising right along!

Thursday was FINALLY my Friday, and another crazy busy day. My supervisor offered up my services a couple of weeks ago to help out another office who is “too swamped” to keep up on their contracts. While the contracts are actually pretty easy and quick, compared to a lot of what we do in our office, it’s still a lot of work to take on. Well, today, they asked if we’d do some more for them. Again, not a big deal, but I mentioned to my supervisor that I could see this happening and that she had to keep in mind that I’m going to be going on leave “soon” and it might not be a precedent that she wants to set. I guess that will be their issue to deal with when that time comes though. On top of that extra work, trying to keep on top of my work workload, and a long afternoon meeting to end the day, it was an exhausting one. After work, I picked Eliza up, and as soon as we arrived home, she threw the biggest, most massive tantrum that I’ve ever seen. For no apparent reason. I feel like the terrible-two’s are definitely setting in! I had a bit of a rough night…I was exhausted and having terrible leg cramps. I’ve had them with every pregnancy, but this time it’s so much worse, and seems to be happening a lot sooner. I’ve been getting them literally from my toes up to my knees – the worst in my ankles. Which, makes it really hard to “walk them out” like I would usually do. I ended up resting on the couch most of the night, while the girls played and Christian made some dinner and got ready for work. I managed to get the girls bathed and off to bed, and relaxed with some Hulu before passing out for the night. I have a pretty long 4 months ahead of me at this rate…although, this entire pregnancy has been pretty rough really.

Ready for some St. Patrick's Day!

I can't believe how much older they all look in just one years time!

Eliza was snuggling with the baby tonight.

Friday was my day off, which is always the best thing ever. I got up with the girls, got them ready, and we were off to daycare. It was picture day, so I had to get Eliza ready and in for her pictures. She is getting WAY better about taking pictures, but is still leery of actual photographers…but, she did pretty well. Then, she threw a massive fit about having to leave with me and go home. I seriously debated going back in to find out how much it would cost to leave her there for the day. I finally got her out to the van and buckled in, and she continued to sit at the door crying for a good 30 minutes once home. She eventually calmed down…we had some breakfast, played with some toys and had a fun morning. Christian ended up helping his friend, Lorenzo, fix something on his car before going to bed for the day. Eliza took a nice long nap, so I watched some shows, paid bills and played on the computer for a while. Some much needed, quiet, alone time! I eventually left to pick the big girls up from school…who came out with massive piles of paper and artwork from doing their “spring break” clean up. My Lord, the paper!!! We settled in at home for a while, while Christian showered and got ready, then were off to Old Chicago for dinner. It was a complete madhouse, we were seated next to a table with a young child, maybe 18 months or so, who was just SCREAMING the entire time they were there, and I was beyond annoyed with the entire experience. The girls were off to bed shortly after we arrived home, until Eliza woke up screaming and crying around 11:00. She does still wake up here and there, so I’m trying really hard to let her get herself back to sleep (so hopefully it doesn’t happen as often once the baby is here), but she just would not. Christian finally went in to check on her, and she had thrown up all over her crib. Ugh, guilt trip city!!!! He got the crib stripped, and we got her in the bath to clean up. We sat with her on the couch for a while…she seemed perfectly fine, content as can be, and wanted to go back to bed, so Christian started to bring her back to bed when, sure enough, she threw up again. I don’t get it…she seemed totally normal otherwise, so I have no idea what could be bothering her. After cleaning her up again, she laid on the couch with me, and finally fell asleep. We finally brought her to bed around 1:00AM, and had a rough night waiting on edge to see if she made it through. Poor baby, it’s so heartbreaking to see them not feeling so well.

Late night cuddles, poor thing.

On Saturday, we were up and at it pretty early. I was busy doing some cleaning and picking up around the house, while the girls played and entertained themselves. Eliza did have one more throw-up incident, but otherwise seemed perfectly fine. She was happy, playing, running around, totally normal. It’s so strange! I had the girls clean their room, while I cleaned up the kitchen and living room, and Christian cleaned the entryway. It’s so nice when we can get the house back into halfway decent living conditions! After some breakfast and getting ready, we were off to the mall for our Easter Bunny visit. Our timing was perfect…the bunny was on his short break, so we were first in line waiting for him to return. The girls were so excited to see him….Eliza went running up to him first to give him a big hug. It was so dang sweet! After our photo op, Christian took the girls back to the van, while I stopped into Build a Bear quick and grabbed a snack. Build a Bear just started doing a line of Care Bears, and I thought it would be super cute to “collect” those for Eliza…so, I wanted to get her one for her Easter basket. They ended up being on sale, 2 for $35 (vs. $25 each), so I got a second one to give her for her birthday in May. Woot! I finally met back up with the family, and we made our way home. We had lunch and relaxed for a while, before packing up and heading to our friends’, John and Michelle, house for the night. They invited us over for a “make your own pizza” night and some time to hang out and catch up. The big girls watched some movies and took over their basement, while Eliza and our other friends’ little one, Britney, made fast friends and played the night away, and the adults had a blast catching up. Such a fun night! We finally packed it up and left around 10:00…all of the girls passed out immediately, and were straight off to bed once home. I watched a little TV, but was off to bed shortly after myself. Hoping for an uneventful night, and that that our late night would result in a late morning!

We're off to see the bunny...

Pizza making fun!

Sunday was a pretty busy day for us. We did indeed sleep in, but I had to jump out of bed around 9:00 to shower and start getting ready for the day. The girls were up shortly after, so I got them settled in with some breakfast while I finished getting ready and packing up for the day. First up, we were all off to my mom’s house to make a little Easter snack together. After decorating, some nail painting and playing, we were all off to have lunch together. All of the girls were acting up at lunch, and I was getting so overwhelmed. They usually do really well when we’re out to eat, but they were all just getting on each other’s nerves, and not listening to anything we said. Once the good came, they finally calmed down a little, but it was still a completely frustrating event. After lunch, we dropped my mom off back at home, and were on our way. Olivia and I ran to the store quick for a few things, while the rest of the house settled in at home. I got some laundry going, we watched some movies, and we spent some time dying our Easter eggs. Eliza got in on the action a little more this year; she’s still completely untrustworthy though. I did some cleaning and continued laundry throughout the night, and we watched some movies, relaxing while doing our eggs. We had leftovers for dinner and the girls played for a while, while I watched “The Walking Dead”. The girls were off to bed, and we were saying goodbye to another weekend. The girls are heading into spring break this week, and will be at daycare all week long. It makes me really nervous after the recent issues they’ve been having with the other kids there, but I’m hoping we can just survive this week with little to no incident.

Until Next Week! XOXO

2016 - Week 11

This week was the BIIIIIIIIG week…finally having our big anatomy scan, and finding out if surprise little Duran is a boy or girl! And, nothing could even touch the excitement of that.

Right away Monday, it was the big day. Ultrasound day!!! We were up and at it, as usual, and I dropped the big girls off at daycare on my way to work. I got a little work done, while Christian got ready and dropped Eliza off at his parents’ house for the day, and picked me up for the appointment. Off we went, so very anxious. We checked in, and when the tech came back to get us, I was quite surprised to realize that I knew her…we went to school together! What a small world. So, she made the scan extra fun – she explained everything she was doing and looking at very thoroughly and it was just a little extra comforting. The scan went great…baby was SUPER active, moving non-stop, which I think was actually helpful because she got shots of everything she needed. Everything looked perfect, baby was growing great, and they didn’t have any concerns. I don’t feel the baby move very strongly yet, but there’s kind of a constant “swimming” feeling going on, and after seeing it for myself, I’m thinking the level of activity plays into my constant nausea. Once the officially scan was over, she turned the screen away from us to search for baby’s sex. We felt pretty confident because she appeared to have found it pretty much right away, which was a relief. She snuck off to put the information in an envelope for us, while the OB came in to go over the scan and let us know exactly how everything was looking. We got the all clear, got our secret envelope, and we were off.

Christian dropped me off back at work, but I could barely concentrate the rest of the day. I was SOOOOO anxious to get home for our little reveal with the kids. Our friend Gini stopped by my work to grab our reveal box and the envelope, and stopped to fill it up at the party store for us. I FINALLY left work a tad early to pick Eliza up…who was sleeping, and very angry that I woke her up. By the time we arrived home, Gini was there, ready to go, and Christian had picked the big girls up from school. We set everything up, and got right to it…and…

I couldn’t believe it!!! When I saw those blue balloons pop out of the box, I was in complete shock. Amelia was so upset that there wasn’t actually a baby in the box, which was quite hilarious, and Eliza was pretty much only interested in getting ahold of some balloons. Olivia was the first to finally realize that the blue balloons meant we were having a boy, and then she was ecstatic! It was so sweet. Christian, of course, is OVER THE MOON, so excited to finally have his boy. I’m in shock, and not quite sure what the heck we’re going to do with a boy, but it’s going to be an amazing adventure. AHHHHH, so exciting!!! We let our parents know right away, and they were all just giddy with excitement, and then shortly after posted the big announcement on Facebook. I was going to wait until tomorrow, but much to our surprise, our family and friends were all just DYING to know what the baby was, which seriously warms my heart, and they were all so happy and excited. My biggest fear when we found out about this little hitchhiker was that we would get a lot of negative comments from people about having 4 kids, but it hasn’t been that way at all. Seriously makes life much easier when the people around you truly support you. Shortly after the big reveal, my mom arrived, with some pizza for dinner, so we ate and chatted and hung out. Our friend/neighbor Sara stopped over with her kids to visit for a bit and congratulate us on the big news, so it was pretty much pure chaos all evening. Gini made her way home, Christian was off to work, and the girls and I, with my mom following behind, were off to gymnastics. It was their last class of the session, which they are NOT happy about, at all, and the place was a madhouse! Their class is at a high school, and the school had some kind of concert going on, and parking was insane. Eliza was seriously a handful, and quite frustrating, so it was helpful to have my mom there with us this week. My mom left for home after class, and we finally settled in back at home. The girls watched their videos for a few minutes before bed, and I worked on editing some pictures from the big reveal. I was seriously still in shock, even looking at the pictures. A BOY!!!!!!

On Tuesday, we were all up and at it, still pretty much on Cloud 9. It seems so crazy to be over the halfway mark of this pregnancy, to know what we’re having…just to even be going through all of this again. It’s just insane. You really never know for sure where your life journey is going to take you. I dropped the girls off at daycare, and settled into work. One of my co-workers made a yummy reveal cake for us to have this morning, so the rest of the office could find out what baby Duran was. We cut right into it around 8:30AM…I mean, cake for breakfast, why not?! Everybody was so excited, it was really sweet. I started working at my job almost 15 years ago…and my mom worked there before me, so I’ve known some of my co-workers since before I even started here. I’ve always been like the “baby” of the office, so I knew everybody would be really excited about the news. It was pretty awesome! My mom also brought in some onesies she picked up at the store the other day, “just in case”. Seriously…the baby, the only boy, this guy is going to be SPOILED! After Eliza grew out of it, I sold our infant car seat to my coworker, for her grandkids, but she never ended up using it. So, I bought it back from her, and she brought that in for me today too. It was quite a baby day. I wasn’t feeling too well in the afternoon….feeling overheated, had a headache, and just exhausted. I went down to our “quiet room” to take a rest, but it was in use, so I decided to see how the weather was outside. It’s been really nice out, but thankfully there was a nice cool breeze, which felt amazing. After sitting outside, cooling off and resting for my afternoon break, I made my way back to my desk to finish out the long, slow afternoon. After work, I picked Eliza up, and we settled in at home. Olivia and her BFF Bella were playing downstairs, so Eliza made her way right down to play with them. Christian was getting ready for work, Amelia was watching some Netflix, and I cuddled up next to her for a while. It was a pretty quiet night…reading, dinner, relaxing, and bedtime. After yesterday’s chaos, it was a good thing.

Some onesies my mom picked up for baby!

The reveal cake at work. YUM!

On Wednesday, we were all off on our day, as usual. Most of my office was away today (and tomorrow) at our annual conference, so it’s that time of year again, when I have to turn my customer service switch on. NO FUN, but I do enjoy the overall quietness and being able to get really caught up on my work. Which was exactly what I did. I did leave a tad early to run some errands….I had to stop at Walmart for a few groceries, at school to pick up the girls’ fundraiser stuff, and then finally at daycare to pick up Eliza. Finally, I unloaded the van (including the car seat from yesterday and some other random stuff that had been piling up), and hit the couch. Christian made dinner, we all ate together, and he was off to work. I played with the girls for a while and we had a pretty quiet night before bed.

I also finally remembered to snap Eliza's monthly photo. As of 3/7/16, she's 22 months old, 29lbs and 3" tall. She's such a busy little bee, and getting SOOOOO close to TWO! She is talking up a storm these days, picking up new words and phrases every day. And, seeming to really understand just about anything we say to her, or ask her to do. She's no baby anymore ya'll! She never, ever, EVER stops moving, never stops talking and is pure entertainment. She's remained pacifier free, for well over a month now, and she's almost off of sippy cups completely. She's still in 24 month (and some 2T) clothing, so she doesn't seem to be growing quite as rapidly these last couple of months. She's so funny (and she'll tell you so), super picky, and by far the boss of this house. She's now responsible for feeding the dog, which is quite an entertaining process.

On Thursday we had a really slow-going morning. This whole week has just been a nightmare trying to get up in the morning. Just feeling so exhausted for some reason. With everybody still off at the conference, it was another quiet and productive day. Well, quiet with the exception of our resident all-day, every-day cougher, who drive me absolutely insane, and seriously tries my ability to control my pregnancy hormones. But, I really made a ton of headway on my inbox, and even caught up on a lot of that random crap that I put off for as long as possible. Success! Christian had to work early tonight, so he was pretty much off to work as soon as Eliza and I arrived home. So, we girls watched some movies, and American Idol, had dinner, relaxed and we were all off to bed early. Need to catch up on some sleep!!!

Friday FINALLY arrived, and it could not have happened any sooner. The big girls didn’t have school today, so they spent the entire day at daycare. After last week’s incident, I was pretty nervous about this all day long, but they ended up having a great day. And, I was able to hear more about the behavior system they’ve put in place, which makes me feel a lot better. The weather today was AMAZING!!!!!!!!, so I think they spent a ton of time running around outside, which probably helps. At work, everybody was back, and the office was back to the usual hustle and bustle and chaos. The day went pretty fast, and I’m seriously the most caught up that I’ve been in probably YEARS, so I’m feeling quite successful right now. After work, I picked Eliza up from my mom’s, picked the big girls up from daycare, and we settled in at home. Christian was just getting up for the day, so he hopped in the shower right away, and we debated what to do for dinner for quite a while. We finally decided to head to Buffalo Wild Wings, so we loaded up the van and were on our way. It was crazy busy, and it took FOREVER to get our food. Like, people who had come in after us were getting there food well before us. After our food finally came, Christian “complained” to the manager (not about our server or anything specific, just about the overall slow service). I HATE complaining at restaurants and it seriously mortifies me, but they ended up taking off about ½ our bill, so I guess it was worth it. After dinner, we settled in at home and watched some TV before the girls were off to bed. Christian hung out in the garage with his friend, Lorenzo, for a while, so I caught up on some Hulu before passing out myself. Today I turned “21 weeks”, and I seriously can’t believe how fast this is going. I’ve been feeling baby more and more every day this week…still very “fluttery”, not a ton of power kids yet, BUT, I actually felt my first kick from the outside today! I can tell that this guy is definitely going to be quite active, that’s for sure.

On Saturday, we were up and at it early. We hung out, had some breakfast, and I did some cleaning up around the house. Christian showered, while I got the girls ready to go, and we were off to swim class. This week also marks the last class of their swim session, and while I LOVE watching them do their activities, I’m really looking forward to taking a few weeks off and getting a break. This pregnant mama is EXHAUSTED! The girls did really well, and both ended the class working on some diving. Both of the girls ended up passing their session…but, I’m not comfortable moving Amelia up yet, so she’ll be staying in the same level, unless they choose to move her once class starts up in a few weeks. She’s getting better every week, but still seriously lacks endurance. After class, the girls showered, got dressed, and we made our way home. We played outside for a while, and Christian spent pretty much the rest of the day cleaning up the garage and getting things moved around and tidied up. My mom arrived around 1:30 to pick the big girls up for an overnight, so it was a pretty quiet night with just little Eliza in the house. While Eliza napped, Christian took a break from garage—duty and took the car in for an oil change. While he was in the area, he stopped to get the tires rotated at our tire place, and sure enough, just our luck, they said the van needs two new tires. UGH!!!! Not what I was in the mood for, at all. Eliza had a tough time napping today, she woke up yelling a few times, so my alone time was quite limited. The evening was pretty lazy though…we played outside some more and watched some shows before Eliza went down to bed, and I really wasn’t too far behind her. Of course, the dreaded daylight savings time is tomorrow, and we’ll unfortunately be springing forward, so I figured I better not stay up too late.

Swimmers!!!

She was walking around with little balloons all day, looking just like mommy. LOL

Sure enough, Eliza was up BRIGHT AND EARLY on Sunday. Damn it, daylight savings! So, we did some cleaning up around the house, I started some laundry, and we had a super lazy morning. Christian and I watched a movie before the big girls arrived home around noon. My mom would’ve kept them later, but they both had a bit of homework to do, and of course, we’re procrastinators and didn’t do any of it Friday or Saturday. Amelia and I were off to Walmart to grab some crafting supplies for the “leprechaun trap” she needed to make for school. We got right to work when we arrived home, while Christian showered and was off to the store with Lorenzo to get some grilling supplies. Olivia had 3 worksheets to do for class, so we let her spread them throughout the evening. My in-laws arrived around 2:30 to grill and hang out for the late afternoon. The weather wasn’t as nice today, but still quite survivable. The girls rode their bikes and scooters and got in a lot of outside time before we ate and settled in for the night. My in-laws ended up taking Eliza for an overnight (they watch her on Monday’s, so it works out), and I was seriously on the verge of tears all night long. My sweet baby, and her first night away from me. So hard. Christian was off to watch the soccer game at a friend’s house, while I got the big girls off to bed, finished up some laundry, and watched “The Walking Dead”. When I settled into bed, I used my doppler to check in on baby, and he seriously did not like that. He runs away from the doppler every time, and it cracks me up. But, it definitely woke him up big time, because he was kicking like crazy. I could actually see the kicks, one after another. So cool!! He’s getting so strong, so fast!

Working on Amelia's leprechaun trap. I hate crafting...

All done!!

Until Next Week! XOXO