two and a half

Tonight, at 9:30 PM, my big girl turns two and a half! Oh.my.goodness. When did this happen??!?!

Lastnight as I was folding her clothes it hit me like a ton of bricks, she's actually growing up! I was folding 3T clothing (and still some 2T :-)) and little panties when I came across one of Isabelle's newborn onesies. I have a big girl AND a baby! When did I grow up? Whoa.

Anyways, in honor of my big girl turning 2.5 I'm going to list all the smart & funny things she's doing these days so I never forget.

*She's 95% potty trained-all but naptime and night.
*She has more energy than a room full of kids her age-I'm positive.
*She's mostly happy and loves to laugh.
*She's a good big sister to her "Baby Belle" or "Isabo" and gives her lots of kisses without anyone asking her to (and this is huge-she wouldn't have anything to do with her the first week or two).
*She loves to be called a big helper and will do just about anything to earn the title of one...even if it means throwing baby sisters terrible explosive dirty diaper in the trash.
*She can count to 13.
*She can recognize every letter in the alphabet and can call them all by name.
*She can sing the ABC song from the letter Q to the little tune we all sing after the ABC's-"Now I know my ABC's, next time won't you sing with meeee". It's really cute when she does it ;-)
*She knows the colors blue, purple, orange, yellow, brown, black, pink, white and green.
*She still loves cars and will line them all up and then jump over them over and over again.
*She loves to "help" do dishes which usually consists of her soaking her clothes and causing a bigger mess.
*She's still obsessed with her kitty.
*She uses the letter T in place of a C for some reason. So instead of car she says tar. Instead of cookie she says tootie. Instead of kitty she says...well, you get the point.
*She loves to be outside, still. Especially if there is snow to play in.
*She will randomly refer to her Daddy as Sean.
*She enjoys watching videos of herself, haha!
*She's not really that affectionate but she surprises me atleast once a day with a sweet kiss or big hug.
*She doesn't really enjoy "girly things" except for her kitty...well...and spinning and doing flips which I'd consider some type of gymnastics but that's not just for girls. The way she dresses and her hairbows are quite girly at times but that's forced upon her.
*Oh, she also loves the color pink-that's girly! She insists on wearing a pink shirt atleast 4 out of 7 days of the week. I have her pink shirt stock up a little to accommodate her preferences.
*She is back to napping during the day. Thank God. It's usually around 2 and we wake her up at 3:30 and allow her to stay up until like 8 or 9. This has been working nicely. Yesterday she didn't nap so I put her to bed at 7 and she was up by 9:20 ready to party. She stayed up until almost one (in her bed & out of her bed) and then was up again at 6:30. AAHHHH! Of course I made her go back to bed and she slept until 11. So, again, today, we have a messed up schedule but I won't be putting her to bed early tonight because of it. Forget that.
*She's all things transportation. HAHA! Cars, buses, trains, airplanes, tractors, trucks. A very unique little girl I must say :-).
*She has a way about her that melts me to the very core and then there are times where I'm sooo very frustrated with her that I can't believe she's my kid. HA. I'm ready for her to understand the concept of reasoning, bargaining and rewards (and consequences).
*She enjoys dancing to a good tune.
*She LOOOOVES playing with her daddy. They have so much fun together. Daddy is good for play and discipline and mommy is good for making sure she's fed and clean. TEAMWORK!
*She likes to "type" on the computer even though she's not supposed to.
*She really enjoys "drawing" on her magnadoodle and really loves when she tells us what to draw and we do it for her. Haha.

All in all, I really enjoy and think the world of my 2.5 year old but I'm definitely ready for this age to be behind us. It's been the most difficult one yet and I'll be doing it all over again in two years!


Happy two and a half little lady. You sure are a beautiful (and hilariously funny) little girl!

...I'm not jealous anymore...

...I've had my fix...

...And so has she...
This is as close as we'd let Baby Belle get to her first snow...plus, I'm pretty sure she'd hate it. She hates to be cold.

All in all, it was a WONDERFUL post-birthday!

25!

There is no other place I'd rather be spending my birthday than snuggling with these two sweeties all day long. Goodness gracious.

The hubby took me to dinner last night to celebrate since he is spending most of today and night working. We left the little one at home with grandma and took the littlest with us. She slept the whole time and left her daddy and I to stuff ourselves. Queso and chips, a cup of potato soup, double decker club sandwich and the biggest piece of fudge cake I have ever seen with about four scoops of ice cream. Yeah, we were definitely stuffed. I even had half of my sandwich left for lunch today. Yum.

And here's the best gift I could've ever gotten....this morning I was in Anna-Kate's room picking up some toys and out of nowhere she says, "Bless you momma. Yuv you!". Talk about melting my heart into a million pieces. That definitely made my day.

Then, while I was nursing the baby I heard AK in her room singing, "Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, your love makes me sing" to her Praise Baby video. That was definitely a proud mommy moment. She's been blessing my socks off today with her sweet little self.

I'm off to relax now since both girls have decided together that they'd add to my great day by taking naps at the same time. :-)

Tonight I'll do some more relaxing-in front of the T.V.-while NeeNee takes AK to play. It's The Bachelor-Women Tell All night. EEP! Every season I tell myself I'm not going to watch it and every season I get sucked in around the 4th or 5th episode. I've gotta stop.

I'm home...

After receiving my last dose of antibiotic through my IV yesterday morning I was discharged to go home. I left with two prescriptions and strict orders to do this breathing exercise thing 10 times an hour to avoid developing pneumonia.

I woke up this morning with horrible hacking of some yucky junk. I called to schedule my post op appointment and went ahead and let them know that I was coughing up some mucus. They will inform my surgeon and she will contact me if she's concerned.

Yesterday, after I got home, was some of my most uncomfortable times yet. It doesn't help that after I got discharged we headed straight to Walgreen's, then home to get AK, then back to Walgreen's where I climbed from the front seat to the back seat because Isabelle was getting upset, then we headed on over to Chick-fil-A so Anna-Kate could get some energy out. I sat on the outside of the playroom with Isabelle while my mom was in there with her. For one, I didn't really want to hear a bunch of kids screaming and two, I didn't feel okay being enclosed in such a small space with a bunch of germs with Isabelle breathing it all in. So I sat right outside at a table half asleep while Isabelle chilled in her carseat all nice and covered up. Yeah, maybe doing all that right after being discharged was a bad idea but the world doesn't stop moving just because I've experienced a few bumps in the road.

Today I'm going to take a shower and remove these bandages that are MEGA upsetting my skin. Did I mention that I have the most sensitive skin probably known to man?? Well, I believe I do and having all this tape and such stuck to it is irritating the junk out of it. Here, just see for yourself (and excuse my little post baby stretch mark "dots"). See my arm? That's where the IV was AND all the red? Why that's from all the tape! Now check out the second bandage (counting from the top), do you see how it's turning red around the edges? Yeah, it itches like CRAZY!!!!!!!! I'm not too thrilled about peeling these things off but I'm sure my skin will be so much happier once they're off.

And just for fun, here is me and Isabelle when we got home. I'm not sure if you can tell from this picture but my eyelids are raw from having them taped shut during surgery and on the side of my face that you can't see I have a little red rash from the breathing tube being taped to my face. They sure did a doozy on me huh. Haha!

Oh well, I'll take all this redness and pain just to not experience the pain I was having the other morning before my gall bladder was taken out. Wowzers, that was bad.

Oh, and really quick, while I was receiving my last dose of antibiotic yesterday my mom ran Isabelle down the road for her two week check up. The little chunker weighs 8 lbs. 1 oz. and is 20.5 inches long! She has gained a pound and grown a whole inch in two weeks. She's in the 45th percentile for her weight, 50th for her height and 40th for her head circumference (I have the head measurement but don't feel like getting up to get it :-)) She's growing up so fast already. *tear*

I'm in the hospital...

I wanted to update you all...okay...my one reader :-), I am spending the night in the hospital. I went to the ER at 6 o'clock this morning with severe abdominal pain. I literally thought I was dying and couldn't breathe. I was turning very pale and getting hot and clammy. Sean had just gotten home from work when the pain started at 5.

When we got to the ER my sweet hubby did all the checking in and explaining. Once we got back the pain wasn't nearly as bad but I could still feel it. After all the triage stuff I was put in a room where a doctor eventually came in and saw me. He did some pressing on my stomach and I was experiencing a lot of tenderness and pain right against my right rib cage. He said it sounded like I was having issues with my gall bladder so he was going to have blood work and an ultrasound done on me.

I got the blood work done and the results revealed that I had an elevated enzyme count which points to an infection somewhere. Then the ultrasound tech came in and did an ultrasound on all of my organs. She wasn't allowed to tell me anything even though she had the ability to. Fifteen minutes later the doctor came in the some good news and bad news, according to her. The bad news was my gall bladder was severely infected and inflamed and contained gall stones and it had to come out TODAY and the good news was that her favorite surgeon was on call and would be performing the procedure. Talk about WHOA! Wasn't expecting that!

Three hours later I was receiving some medicine in my IV to knock me out. It was some niiice stuff. Literally within two minutes I was out and was waking up in post op which felt like a very quick nap later. Really it was about two hours later but who was I to know that. When I opened my eyes my vision was so blurry that I couldn't see ANYTHING. Everything was a big blur. It was so weird. AND when I woke up my nose was itching so bad from the anesthesia and when I would try to scratch it I couldn't get to it because I had an oxygen mask on. All I could remember was a nurse saying, "don't take the mask off" everytime I would try to scratch it...and then I'd fall back to sleep and try again when I woke up. It's kind of funny now when I think about it. Eventually she did take my mask off and I could scratch my nose! YAY.

THEN, everytime I'd dose off from being so medicated I guess I'd forget to breathe and my O2 stats would drop down to like 87% and my heart rate would dip to the 40's. All I'd hear from the nurse is, "take deep breaths!" Good thing she was there because I definitely needed the reminder apparently. Needless to say I never got far enough into sleep to actually relax. Actually, I guess I was relaxing a little too much.

Eventually they moved me up into an actual room and I got to see my hubby again. The poor guy had been up since 2PM yesterday afternoon. He was so tired (and just went to bed around 9).

The surgeon took pics of what was on the inside of me. Talk about some crazy stuff! She even took a pic of the gall bladder once it was taken out and THEN what was INSIDE of it once she cut it open. I'm not kidding when I tell you this, there were hundreds of gall stones in there! Insane in the membrane. I could post the pic for you to see but I really don't want to lose my few readers. HAHA.

Oh and this is crazy, I had the pains once before after I had AK. I experienced these painful episodes like two or three times within the first two weeks of her life. One time I actually had Sean take me to the ER but the pain went away once I got there so we went home. I went to see our family doctor and he had blood work done but it didn't reveal anything so we left it at that and I never had that pains again until these last three times after I delivered Isabelle. Apparently I've been living with this for a few years with no symptoms. They would only emerge after delivering the babies. They said sometimes it just happens from pregnancy and such but they have no idea why.

SO I'm spending the night at the hospital for observation. I'm getting Vicodin every 6 hours and my newbie is up here bunking with me. The surgeon told me to pump and dump two times before I continue nursing her and I've done that but I might do it one more time for good measure. I pumped twice before the operation to hold us over until tomorrow. With those two bottles I pumped I had about 5 feedings if they were mixed with half formula. And I had about 6 feedings at home in the fridge so she's been well fed while mommy has been away.

I'm a little doped up right now and beyond exhausted so excuse any grammatical errors or anything that doesn't make sense :-).

I should be going home tomorrow morning once the surgeon checks on me one more time.

I'm not allowed to lift anything over 10 lbs for the next six weeks to prevent developing a hernia so please pray for me. I do a lot of lifting of the little one and this is going to be very hard for us to get used to. Plus if I go anywhere with her I have to do lifting to get her in and out of our truck SOOOO it looks like we're going to be getting cabin fever on top of all of these changes.

Well, I'm off to feed the littlest one and then I'll try to catch some sleep. Until next time, goodnight.

already???

Two weeks old, seriously, already? Wow.
...not technically until 4:14 though :-)...

pics

I got my new camera on Friday. Since then we've taken over 300 pictures. I haven't gotten any especially mind blowing ones just yet, I've spent most of my time just playing with the different settings and functions and having fun! I'm not sure the girls are enjoying us being in their faces that much but one day I'm sure they'll appreciate all the pictures :-)


I hope you have a WONDERFUL Valentine's Day!

transition=rough

In my thankful tangent the other day I forgot to mention that I'm thankful for my new Canon EOS Rebel T1i that I'll be receiving tomorrow from my parents. Happy Valentine's Day/Birthday (on the 22nd) to me! I am SOOOO excited. If you know me well at all you know that an amazing camera has been at the top of my list for a looong time now. I'm excited to be able to scratch that off. Yay!

We're still working on a routine for our family. We are way out of whack that's for sure. Anna-Kate's bedtime has become a nuisance again. We're about to apply a different approach because it seems she's having a hard time adjusting to the change of baby and baby needing mommy and mommy having to respond to baby's needs before hers at times. Usually we are quick to spank because she is so quick to disobey but we feel at this time we need to go about it in a different manner to help her understand and realize that we still love her all the same AND we love her little sister too. Just because sister is in mommy and daddy's room doesn't mean she's more special. ANYWAYS, we'll see how it goes. If we aren't making any progress after a couple of weeks we might very well go back to being a little more tough on her. After all, kids NEED love coupled with rules, boundaries AND discipline. If one is out of sync we're all in trouble. Until then though, we'll be giving her extra lovins, special time which each of us and sweet yet firm guidance with her teenage-like attitude.

Has anyone ever gone through this before? A hard sibling transition?

Isabelle is doing well. She nurses like a champ most of the time. I'm noticing though that in the middle of the night she has a hard time staying on and completing her feeding. She will pull her head back and then shake it side to side really fast like I just took her meal away. Then she'll "reattach" and repeat it over and over again. Eventually I end up pumping and stuffing her fat full and then she sleeps for a while. I think I might start nursing during the day and bottle feeding her at night until we get her sleeping all the way through. I'm not sure yet.

Here she is doing what she does best-sleeping. She's so darn sweet.

And here is Anna-Kate getting mad because I asked her to say "cheese" and she realized that cheese it what she wanted to eat as a snack. The girl can put away some string cheese.

Well, that's all I can bring from my brain for now. Next time I return it will hopefully be with some kick butt pictures :-)

I am thankful

Today I've been thinking A LOT about how thankful I am.

I am thankful that I am alive and well, not suffering the aftermath of a devastating earthquake and stuck under bone crushing rubble with my husband and babies.

I am thankful that this injury caused by jumping on the bed didn't result in stitches for my darling child.

I am thankful that, although I do not have my own home at this time, I have a comfortable and clean place to live. And even though the water may smell terrible (sulfur water folks) it's still safe.

I am thankful that THIS beautiful, sweet girl is well fed and healthy. She hardly ever cries. And she is okay with the ear drum breaking volume that comes from her big sister...except when she's screaming excessively loud about something she's mad at.

I am thankful that all of my needs are taken care of.

I am thankful that even though my husband hasn't found a full-time job yet he has a part-time one that is getting us by.

I am thankful for my MIL who comes home after work and plays with AK until she can't play anymore.

I am thankful for easy bake pasta meals :-)

I am thankful that I've lost a little over 20 pounds since having Isabelle when I only gained 8-9 lbs while pregnant :-D!

I am just thankful today.

Isabelle's birth

Monday, February 1st, another life changing day for me.

I woke up at 4:45 AM, ate two pieces of toast and then jumped in the shower. I had packed everything the night before except for the morning essentials. After I showered and dressed I sat down in front of the video camera to tell Isabelle about our big day. I know one day she'll love having all of the "footage" her Daddy insisted on taking. What a good man.

We left the house around 5:45 to head to the hospital. The ride there was filled with excitement and anxiety. Hubby thought, for some reason, that we'd be sent home due to a scheduling conflict. He was having a hard time accepting that the time had finally come and I was just ready to get in a room so I'd know there would be no turning back. I filled out the necessary paperwork that didn't go threw online and we headed up with an escort to the labor and delivery floor.

We got to my room, I got gowned up, gave my urine sample and hopped into the bed. My nurse, who was the charge nurse for the unit so I was her only patient, came in and explained everything, asked a million questions, checked to see how dilated I was-still a 3, started my IV line and hooked me up to the necessary drips. Pitocin was started at 7:40 AM and I was feeling contractions consistently by 8.

Now it was time to wait. I was convinced she'd arrive by noon but the doctor said he'd like for me to be on the antibiotic they gave me for GBS for a good four hours before delivery and noon would be the four hour mark so I knew it'd be longer.

I was checked again around 11 and was still dilated to three centimeters. Very discouraging to say the least.

Around 1 the doctor came in, said I was dilated to a four and then broke my water. For some reason I thought I'd be able to sail through the contractions for a little while longer but close to 15 minutes after breaking my water I was asking for the epidural. It really does intensify things!

The epidural finally made it's appearance and I was feeling a little better. It wasn't exactly working on the left side so they had my laying on that side to help the medicine coast that direction. Eventually it started working but then I started feeling intense pain, also known as contractions, in my...um...bottom. I told my nurse so she checked me and I was still a four. Apparently my epidural was refusing to work there again. Thank God I had a kick butt anesthesiologist because she came in and gave me two doses of something in my epidural line. I think one was more numbing medication and the other was something to make me loopy until it kicked in. Yeah, it hurt that bad. Soon I went from hardly being able to breathe through them to saying, "Ow, that hurt"...and EVERYTHING was just funny.

Once whatever she gave me kicked in I literally couldn't feel a thing. From about mid-ribcage to my toes I was completely NUMB! I couldn't move my toes, legs or even sit up without starting to tip over a bit. It was crazy and weird.

I was ready for a nap around 3:30. As I dozed off the nurse came in to check me. It was 3:48 and I was dilated to an 8. She said the baby would be arriving within the next two hours.

Approximately 15 minutes later, literally, she walked in with "a plan" as she put it. She told me I was going to push two times and the baby was going to be out. I looked at her like she was crazy and said, "yeah okay, I'm so numb I can't even tell if I'm pushing when I try". She said just do what's instructed and all will be good. Legs up (held up because they'd fall off the table without someone holding them) and PUSH! I pushed twice, she called for the doctor to come right away, he came in and about 5 pushes later, at 4:14 PM, Isabelle Grace entered the world. I'm not kidding when I say that was super quick. That nurse was flippin awesome! In between pushing I would lay back, close my eyes and almost fall asleep. THAT'S how numb I was. It was great.

All went well and I'm so happy she's here. Her birth was completely different than that of her big sisters. Relaxed. Painless. Fever-free. Fast. And the hospital stay was really great. I loved all my nurses. I was fed well. Isabelle slept instead of crying all night. Seriously, I couldn't ask for a better experience.

She has proved to be just as good at home as she was in the hospital. She nurses well and more importantly, it's painless. She sleeps good for the most part. She doesn't mind all the noise. She's just a good little girl.

The transition from one kid to two hasn't gone like I expected. We came home to Anna-Kate sneezing, coughing and with runny nose. We couldn't allow her around the baby and we're still pretty cautious because she was diagnosed Friday with strep throat. It's so hard for me to deal with at times because I can't be with both of my babies at the same time and Anna-Kate is paying greatly. Her attitude has been terrible. She's hits me when she's upset or super frustrated because she can't explain her feelings. She's been throwing her toys and throwing some outlandish fits. I feel so bad and can't wait for everyone to be well again so we can be together as a family of four.

On a "me" note: I weighed myself today and I'm 5 pounds down from the weight I began this journey on. I am beyond thrilled. I'm only 6 days post delivery and I've already dropped 14 pounds when I only gained 8 or 9. I'm excited to weigh myself 12 days post delivery. Hopefully it brings me good numbers :-)

P.S. I'm hearing a little congestion in Isabelle's nose as she sucks on her pacifier. Please pray for her to stay healthy. All of us-Sean, AK and I-are experiencing some cruddy, under-the-weather stuff. RSV season freaks me out and I'll be so thankful to escape it untouched.

sneak peek

Isn't she PRECIOUS!!!!!!!!!!

My hubby's awesome cousin drove down from Missouri to shoot some newborn pics of Isabelle. Here is one of MANY more to come. I can't wait to see the rest of them.

I promise I'll sit down soon and tell "the story". For now I'll continue trying to function on VERY LITTLE sleep, a two year old who is mega rebelling and a newborn who believes in nursing quite frequently.

Introducing...

Isabelle Grace
born February 1st at 4:14 PM
6 lbs. 15 oz.
19.5 inches long

^^^I know, I look exhausted, I was^^^

^^^A proud Daddy Skyping his daddy to show off his girl^^^

^^^all nice and cozy-she insists that her hands be near her face at all times^^^

^^^AK holding Isabelle for the first time-she is such a sweet big sister!^^^

I'll be back in a few days with a ton more pics I'm sure :-)

AND the birth story.

the big day

I'm up bright and early to say that next time you hear from me I'll officially be a mommy of two little girls.

Pictures coming soon!

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)