Skylar is here!

Well she's three weeks old but it's been a very busy three weeks! :) She was born on Saturday February 16th at 8:35 a.m.  At about 3:00 Saturday morning Travis and I woke up to Brody screaming (very not like him to wake up during the night). We went upstairs and he seemed like he had a fever and was shaking.  We brought him back down to our room and as Travis was giving him some Tylenol I went out to the kitchen to get something and my water broke.  I couldn't believe the timing lol.  I went back into our room and told Travis and we called our parents and as soon as his mom got here to stay with Brody we headed to the hospital. It was so hard to leave Brody (especially since he wasn't feeling well) but we also couldn't wait to meet Skylar. We got to the hospital around 4:00 a.m. and they informed us that just about every pregnant woman in the area decided to have their babies that night so we wouldn't be able to get right into the OR for my c-section.  At first the nurse was telling us that we were just waiting on one woman to have her baby and then it turned into "we will try to get you into the OR by 8:00)  So, for four LONG hours I had to suffer through very painful contractions with no meds..and the whole time I kept thinking about how crazy my mother was for having me with no pain meds.  I found out after my surgery that I had made it to a 6 before they got me into the OR ... completely not how I expected this labor/birth to go but I didn't care at all once that sweet girl was in my arms :) She is absolutely perfect and sweet and gorgeous :)) 

I also need to add that my consistency was amazing.  I had Skylar at 36 weeks, 1 day- Brody was born at 36 weeks, 2 days....both of them weighed 6 lbs 9 oz and they were both born on the 16th :)

 

 

It was amazing to me how much had changed at the hospital just since we had Brody 17 months ago.  All of the things I didn't like about my first c-section experience were no longer the way it was done. This time I was not left in a recovery room by myself, they took Travis and Skylar there to wait for me and as soon as my surgery was finished we all got to be together. They even gave her her first bath right next to my bed and then she was right back into my arms. We also decided that we were not going to have tons of family come up to the hospital this time (I was SO overwhelmed/exhausted last time)  I knew it would be better if we used the time in the hospital mainly for bonding with our new baby and for me to recover.

 

 

 

 

We only ended up being in the hospital Saturday and Sunday night (amazing for the combination of a c-section and a preemie) but the Dr asked us if we wanted to go home and I was definitley ready to get home to Brody.  I had worried for a long time about how Brody would react to the new baby since he is so young and wouldn't understand a lot of the changes that were coming his way. Well, after three weeks of visitors, not feeling well and not getting all of mommy and daddy's complete attention I can tell you he has handled it SO well and I am SO proud of him and so lucky to have such an amazing, sweet little boy.  He loves his baby sister so much and talks about her and gives her kisses daily.  We are settling into being a family of four very nicely and couldn't be happier! :)

Almost there!

 

35 1/2 Weeks

 

I haven't been great at blogging in the past month- too much nesting and enjoying the last few weeks with Brody as an only child. We are SO excited to meet our little girl and I think Brody is going to be a really great big brother.  It's going to be so hard to be away from him for FOUR days while we are in the hospital but he will be in great hands :)  I had my last progesterone shot on Friday and I will stop taking the pills Thursday night -- if this goes anything like Brody we are preparing for her to be here this weekend :)  We'll see! 

 

I can't begin to describe how happy I am about our growing family and I know there are a lot of great stages of life but I'm pretty sure this is the best time of my life. Feeling baby kicks in my belly, the excitement of bringing a new baby home, watching my babies play together, going through all of this with my amazing husband and learning as we go.  These are the times I know I'm going to look back on and wish I could live all over again.

Facebook.....or Texas??

I don't usually post about stuff like this on here but this does have to do with why we are leaving so I guess it ties into our life a bit.   Lately I have been so frustrated by Facebook and all the drama that comes with it.   Facebook used to be a way for me to just relax and get away for a little bit, a nice way to keep up with people I don't see often..just a bit of mindless entertainment.  Then a few topics constantly started consuming my newsfeed.  I don't have a problem with people having different views than I do but I was overwhelmed by the amount of people that were flat out mean regarding their beliefs against what happened to be mine.  I simply did not want to know this side of the people that I used to have high opinions of....and that is Facebook.  However, I have also realized that I am in a state where I am surrounded by people that disagree with me and what I believe (on many different topics), I feel like I am constantly biting my tongue while the people around me are spewing hateful comments and disrespect to others on things that they may or may not know anything about. We have lost what we thought were friends this year and even had issues with family members just because our opinions are different than theirs and that was not something they were willing to accept.  I simply don't feel like we fit in here.  This is certainly not the only reason we are moving but I have to say we are both anxious to meet new people and be in a place where the views are not so heavily one-sided.  

 

Bedrest Round Two

So, last week I had been feeling what felt a lot like contractions but even though I had just been pregnant with Brody not long ago I wasn't 100% convinced that they were true contractions so I hadn't called the Dr.  I have also been going to see my Dr every two weeks to check for pre-term labor since I had Brody early so I wasn't super worried about going to get checked.  They started getting stronger and more frequent so Travis talked me into calling and making sure everything was okay.  After explaining to my Dr's assistant what was going on she told me she had faxed my papers over to the hospital and that I needed to go over to L&D right away.  Travis stayed home with Brody and I drove up to the hospital. I got all checked in and hooked up to the monitors and turns out I was having pretty strong contractions about 10 min apart.  SO,  at 31 weeks for both pregnancies I started pre-term labor.  At least this time it wasn't in the middle of the night at an emergency room that doesn't even have OB's on staff! 

I was there for a few hours, they gave me two shots of something that made my heart feel like it was going to jump out of my chest (didnt slow down the contractions at all).  They called my Dr and she said that since the contractions weren't really causing labor she was okay with them letting me go home.  She put me on bedrest again and prescribed me the same pills I took when I was pregnant with Brody.  She said that the weekly progesterone shots I've been doing with this pregnancy were probably what was keeping labor from starting. (good to hear I haven't been getting a shot in the butt for the past 14 weeks for nothing!) :)  

So now I'm down to weekly Dr appt's and will be off the shots and pills at 36 weeks, just like with Brody....and as soon as I stopped the pills with him my water broke so we are anticipating the same scenario this time around. :) Travis has been awesome with making sure everything gets done around the house on top of working full-time and playing with Brody. I'm lucky to have such a great hubby and our kids could not have a better daddy :)

Our baby shower is the first weekend of Feb (hopefully I'll still be pregnant!).  I've been nesting like crazy and can't wait to finish getting everything set up for her....this has been such a fast pregnancy but this time around I'm a little more ready to get my body back.  I'm SO ready to fit into my clothes again and Brody is running out of room to sit on my lap :)

Also, thought I would share this with any mommies that are reading this. I stumbled onto it on Pinterest tonight and it had me cracking up....especially the very first part about the pregnancy test.  Travis is still upset with me for doing that without him, and I did that with both pregnancies :)
http://m.xojane.com/family/what-you-wont-expect-when-youre-expecting

Back to life (and blogging)

So, not surprisingly December was absolutely crazy and I did not fit blogging into that month at all.  Every weekend of December we had (at least) one Christmas celebration with family or friends...throw in shopping, wrapping, decorating, baking and a one year old.... I barely had time to sit down. Once I have more time   I will post more about our Christmas and some pictures.

 

This Christmas was a great one with my family and I am so thankful for that.  A few weeks ago my heart broke along with the rest of the people in this country over the shooting in CT.  I still can't believe that something that horrible happened and it terrifies me as a parent that my babies share a world with people that our capable of something like that.  I already have a million things I worry about since I became a mommy and I never imagined that sending my kids to elementary school would be one of them.  I'm devastated for the families that lost their babies and I couldn't help but think of them on Christmas morning, as I was enjoying the day with Brody I knew that  those families were not as lucky. I will never take a single day forgranted. 

 

Today Travis and I celebrated our "dating anniversary", we have been together for five wonderful years :)  I am 30 weeks pregnant today and I happened to have a sonogram and Dr appt scheduled for this morning so we asked my dad and sister to come watch Brody so Travis could come with me to the appt (he usually has to stay at home because it's to hard for us to bring Brody). We got to see Skylar and hear that she is growing well and healthy. The Dr also scheduled my C-section for March 8th!  After our Dr Appt we got to enjoy a lunch date (we don't get to go on many dates these days) :)  January 4th was also the day Travis proposed to me three years ago.  It's hard for me to believe how much we have done and how much our lives have changed since that day! It just keeps getting better and better :)

 

1/4/13

 

Happy mommy here :)

Well, we finally have a fence!  Ever since Brody started crawling I have been a nervous wreck about having a pool in our backyard ....and to make things worse we have a dog door in our back door that would make very easy, quick access to the pool. Brody is all about trying to figure things out so even though we keep the back door closed and the cover on the dog door I wouldn't put it past him to figure out how to get out that door.  So, on Friday the fence finally went in and I am such a happy mommy! Huge thanks to Travis's parents for that wonderful gift and to my dad for getting us a good price. :)

On Saturday Brody got to go out and play in his backyard for the first time and he loved it! He was running around giggling the whole time :)

 

"What the heck is this, mom!?"

 

Trying to climb through it

 

 

And notice that this was the first of December and he's outside in a t-shirt and diaper....ugh, Texas.

 

Love this pic of Brody and Bailey :)

 

We also got to start our nightly Christmas book reading on Saturday.  I have them all wrapped and under the tree and we let Brody pick one each night to unwrap. He also got his first advent calendar this year so he gets his chocolate while we're reading the book.  Pretty fun little tradition we started that will get even more fun as our kids are a little older. :)

 

Choosing his book

 

Okay, got one!

 

eating his chocolate

 

reading our story

 

 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

This is my absolute favorite time of year and I get so happy when it's time to decorate! Lastnight after Brody went to bed we got out all the Christmas stuff and turned on Christmas Vacation...I think that's what we watch every year when we're putting up the tree lol. Love that movie. :) This morning when Brody woke up Travis went and turned the lights on the tree on so he would see it when I brought him down the stairs...he was mesmerized :) This is going to be such a fun Christmas with him....I just can't wait to see his excitement when he gets all of his new toys on Christmas morning :)

 

I also started a new tradition for our family this year- I've collected Christmas books for each day of December until Christmas Eve and wrapped them. I'm going to put them in a bin by the Christmas tree and each night we are going to randomly pick one and read it to Brody.  On Christmas Eve he gets to open the special one - a box with "Twas the Night Before Christmas", new jammies and slippers. Christmas time with kids is SO much more fun :)

 

Here's a few pictures of our decorations.

 

 

 

 

And here's a picture of me and my big belly.  It's crazy to me that we are only about 10 weeks away from how far along I was when I had Brody. This pregnancy is going so fast.