Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy New Year!

I am headed to bed at 10pm! Josh and I enjoyed a quiet evening at home with the girls.

A real good-bye to 2011 post soon to come.

Friday, December 30, 2011

Running Late

Does anyone have an OB/GYN that doesn't run behind schedule with their appointments? I am currently sitting in my OB's office now and my appointment for my one week post partum check up. They are running an hour behind and they are typically run an hour behind. No big deal to me anymore. I always bring my cell phone and Kindle to keep me busy.

One woman scheduled ahead of me won't stop sighing.

Another woman wanted a full explanation for why they're running behind (the doctor is on call today and had to run to the hospital for an emergency).

I understand that people are busy but it really is not the end of the world!

After appointment updates:

I've lost 18 pounds so far! Only 27 to go!

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Random Updates

~Annabel slept like a champ last night. I fed her at 9pm, 1pm, 5pm and then we got up when she wanted to eat again at 8am. Not bad at all to me. Annika was always ever 2 hours until almost 8 weeks old.

~Can you believe that Annabel is already a week old???



~Annika really loves her sister. It's so cute. She gets very concerned if she cries and she helps with ever diaper change by bringing me wipes and a diaper and then she throws the dirty diaper away.



~Thanks for the comments about Annika eating badly. I guess I didn't realize that ALL toddlers are picky eaters. I know I was always a picky eater. We only hope that Annika starts eating better as she gets older. Today I did buy her some organic granola bars that she seems to like and some different organic fruit snacks (she calls her other fruit snacks "gummies").



~I'm working on a post with comparison pictures of Annika and Annabel. Josh and I looked at Annika's baby book and couldn't believe how much Annabel looks just like her just with lighter hair! Their faces are pretty much the same.

~We went to Target today (our first time out in public was also Target on Monday) and had a lot of the cashiers that saw me pregnant come up to see Annabel. It seems we really caught everyone by surprise since they remembered we weren't due until January 15th! It's so crazy to think that I should actually still be pregnant now but yet here I am sitting with Annabel right next to me at one week old!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Do toddlers eat healthy?

I hate that Annika refuses to eat healthy and that I never push her to eat better.

How can I get her to eat fruits and vegetables? It seems like if I try to give her either she will just plain out refuse and throw a temper tantrum!

I'm open to all suggestions and ideas! I'm so tired of feeding her chicken nuggets, mac & cheese and fruit snacks!

Annabel is doing well. She seems to sleep in stretches anywhere from 2-4 hours at a time. We looked back at Annika's baby pictures and Annabel really does look just like her just with lighter hair!

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Ouch!!

Once again I ran into breastfeeding issues from the start. Annabel was born with low blood sugar and had to be given formula in recovery. Then since she was early she couldn't suck so it got lower and she ended up spending the first 6 hours in the nursery receiving formula feedings.

I tried to feed her around 8am Friday morning and between Friday and Saturday evening I got her to latch twice. I was stressed and again realized like last time that this was not going to be enjoyable at all for me. While I know breastmilk is best I am fine with being happy with less stress and giving Annabel formula.

Now my issue is engorgment. My milk came in Sunday and I swear my boobs are rock hard triple D's. The pain is horrible!! I'm actually only still taking my painkillers for my boobs!! Oh how I hope this goes away soon!!

Monday, December 26, 2011

Annabel's Arrival

I went to work on Thursday, December 22nd with some contractions that were feeling pretty bad. Since I was sent home about 2 weeks earlier from the hospital I wanted to be 100% sure that if I went there the doctor wouldn't send me home.

The doctor told me that I needed to have 6 contractions an hour and needed to be dilating for him to do the c-section.

Around 9am at work I realized that I probably should write down the times for my contractions because it seemed like I was having a lot.

Between 9am-10am I had 12. Then between 10am-11am I had another 12.

I called my doctor at noon, they told me to go to the L&D for monitoring and my co-worker/friend drove me to the hospital in my car. I told her to just drop me off because I didn't want her missing work, plus we were getting out of work at 2pm so I asked to her swing by then to see if I was going home or staying.

I was hooked up to the monitors and the nurse checked me. I was still 1 centimeter dilated! I told her when she called the doctor to remind him I never dilated past like a 1 1/2 last time.

Then the nurse realized I was having contractions every 2 minutes.

After an hour she checked me, still 1 centimeter. I again told her to remind the doctor that my cervix hates me.

I waited....and waited....and then it was 2pm and my friend came to sit with me. The doctor said he wanted to wrap things up at his office quickly and then he'd be there to see me. So I started to get excited, but not too excited, because I still was thinking he might send me home.

So I called Josh and he called his work to let them know he may either be late or not in at all.

Finally at 4pm my doctor comes, checks me and gives me my two options.

#1: Have the c-section now. He warns me that according to his calculations I'm only 36 weeks and 4 days so Annabel will be considered premature. He tells me that the NICU nurses will be there in the operating room in case she has breathing issues and that there's a possibility we wouldn't be realised from the hospital for like 4 or 5 days.

#2: I can go home, continue to contract and come into the office next week when I'm considered term to see what we want to do. BUT this option he tells me I have a risk of uterine rupture since I had a c-section last time.

Ummm..was option #2 even a real option with the whole "uterine rupture" risk????

So I picked option #1! Then he tells me he's doing it in an hour!! In rush hour traffic we live and hour away. Josh called my aunt and she was out running errands and wouldn't be at our house for almost an hour! So I sent my friend to my house to watch Annika so Josh could come and then my aunt would take over once she was ready.

Then I had to stall everything. I answered questions slowly. I asked to pee. I was a brat during my IV. Then I started reminding everyone that my husband was racing to get her in rush hour traffic!! Please tell the doctor we have to wait for him.

Luckily there was so much information they needed from me to enter in the system that it took a while. Josh ran in just as they were having me walk into the OR!

I had a spinal again which wasn't bad at all. When they laid me back though I felt like not only my lower body was going numb but that my brain was too! So I semi-freaked out and the anesthesiologist told me it was normal and then started talking to me about Annika to take my mind off of everything.

Then the doctor came in and was telling me how he was going to cut my old scar completely out since it didn't heal well last time. So I yelled over the curtain "please no staples this time!!" Thank goodness he agreed and I have the glue closing my incision this time, I really hated the staples.

Josh came in then and took my picture. It was the first time we had even seen each other since the previous afternoon when I picked up Annika from his work.



Everything happened so quickly and I heard them say it was a beautiful baby girl and that she had RED HAIR!!



Josh ran over to see her and quickly came back to tell me that she looked like a miniature twin of Annika!



Then we heard her weight and for someone who was only supposed to be 36 weeks and 4 days she was pretty healthy:



Annabel Alicia arrived at 6:03pm weighing in at 7 pounds 3 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long!

I got to finally meet her:



Daddy got to give her kisses:



Annabel posed just like her sister, I have to find the picture of Annika because they look so much alike:



Friday morning Josh brought in Annika to meet her sister. At first she wanted to just see me and didn't even realize there was a baby in the room. Then she pointed out the "baby" and we told her it was her sister and then she sat on my bed with me and ate half my lunch totally ignoring Annabel.

But she did give her a kiss:



Saturday morning on Christmas Eve Josh's original plan was to come in the late afternoon since they said they might allow us to go home around 6pm. I got really upset over breastfeeding (again, it's just not for me so we're doing formula again) and that I was spending Christmas Eve alone in the hospital without any family. I could hear visitors for other rooms coming and going all morning. So Josh woke up early and came with Annika.

My doctor came in and agreed to discharge me since I was doing so well. Then Annabel's doctor came in while Josh and Annika were there and said she could go home too!

So by noon on Saturday we were all home together for Christmas Eve.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas!

I know for sure that I will be looking back at Christmas of 2011 years from now because without a doubt this is going to be the best one ever.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Saturday, December 24, 2011

We're Home!

We were incredibilly blessed to have such a healthy baby that was able to be discharged before 48 hours which is the typical minimum time for c-section mommas and babies!

And we just enjoyed our Christmas Eve dinner of Papa Johns pizza!

Friday, December 23, 2011

She's Here!!

Quick bullet points!

Annabel Alicia

Born December 22nd at 6:03pm

7 pounds 3 ounces

19 1/2 inches long

Beautiful red hair!!

We're having some blood sugar and sucking issues so she's in the nursery now. I did get to hold her a few times but not nearly enough!

More updates and pictures soon to come!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

To make you laugh....

I found a few pages on Facebook that post funny little pictures and these are some of my favorites that I've found recently:

This one totally reminds me of myself, especially in high school!



This one is too funny because it reminds me of how women act at my work:







This one I find funny because I really hate those stickers on the back of people's cars with the families on them!



Yep, I agree with this one, do I really need more of a reason than this to delete someone??







This is just cute, even though I'm a cat hater:



And this one is just too funny:

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

The Blue Bath Water

I had officially given up bath time with Annika due to my largeness. I guess yesterday I was in a nice mood so I decided to let Annika come in the shower with me. My plan was that after we showered we sit in the tub together a little and play with her rubber duckies.

My cousin gave Annika some little bath bombs from Lush, it was actually this one. I thought the nice lavender and chamomile would relax us both (and maybe make me dilate more, very wishful thinking!).

So after we showered I started to fill up the bath tub. Once it was about half way full I sat down with her and her rubber ducks and then showed her the Baby Botto which she responded "wow".

Then I put it in the water and it starting fizzing a little and made our bath water blue.

Well, then the MOTHER FUCKING WORLD ENDED!!!! Annika freaked out like she's never freaked out before. She quickly threw her three rubber ducks out of the bath tub on to the bathroom floor (clearly because blue bath water would have KILLED them immediately!!!), she stood up and looked at me with pure horror on her face!!

Then she made a blood curdling scream that I'm pretty sure was heard around the world.

After that I tried to calm her down and told her it was all okay but it wasn't, the world was ending because the bath water was turning blue!! BLUE!! How on earth could it be turning blue????

Annika has short legs for her age but that child jumped out of the bathtub on to the bath mat, ran out of the bathroom and into my bedroom butt ass naked and soaking wet. I have never seen her jump out of the bath tub like that ever, usually I have to ask her 100 times to please get out of the tub before she actually does it.

Why???

Because I put one little bath bomb in the water to turn it blue.

I didn't even catch up with her till like 10 minutes later because I had to stand up, rinse off in the shower again, dry off because it was freezing in my bedroom, get dressed and then I found her naked in my bedroom with her face all red and tears coming down her face still.

I guess blue bath water is a scary thing.

And all of this made her so tired that she went to bed at 7:20pm compared to her new usual of 9:30pm.

So lesson learned, Annika does not like blue bath water....good thing I had already used the other bath bomb on myself over the weekend without her! I LOVED it!

But I guess I could say that the whole lavender and chamomile did put her to sleep earlier than usual, just not in the way it was intended to.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Doctor's Appointment Update

I am now 36 weeks and moved up to weekly appointments (they typically don't start weekly appointments until after the 37th week but I'm special this time I guess).

I weighed the same as last week, which is good since I ate a lot of crap this weekend.

I'm now 1 centimeter dilated and I'm still only 50% effaced!

I cried the entire way back to work.

I was soooo hoping for more progression. I told him that last night I woke up twice with contractions but, of course, they aren't consistant. I need to have 6 painful contractions an hour for two hours straight before I can come to the hospital and then I need to have the same amount of contractions before he'll do my c-section. He did promise that my labor will not be stopped. What I'm worried about is not getting my doctor at the hospital (especially with Christmas this weekend, I didn't even ask who was on call) and having that doctor fight with me since I swear they have my due date wrong!! I'm 37 weeks THIS Thursday, not Sunday or next Wednesday like they have written down in places. I had the same argument with the nurse at the hospital when I went a week and half ago about how I know when my due date is and no one else does.

So the doctor again said "it could be anytime now". Whatever. I don't believe you!! He said it could be tonight, tomorrow, or more than a week from now. I'm pretty sure though with the amount of pain and discomfort I have if I make it till my appointment next Tuesday and there's still no progression I might not be able to go back to work because I may kill someone for asking me when I'm going to just have this baby!!

Monday, December 19, 2011

Nesting, Parties, Trees, Oh My!

I am officially in my nesting stage. I guess I've sort of had my little bursts of energy here and there but today when I got home from work it was on. I even cleaned some of the walls (that's because we rent and we have some cheap paint on the walls that seem to collect dirt like crazy). My new thing is that every evening I like to clean up the kitchen, dining room and living room like I won't be coming back home for 4 days. I don't want my aunt to have to worry about cleaning up a big mess the day she watches Annika or for Annika to get into things she shouldn't be getting into that my aunt isn't aware that she shouldn't be getting into! You know? :-) Annika is pretty sneaky with what she tries to get away with when we aren't around or watching.

We had our annual holiday party at work. I hate when people say "Happy Holidays", I perfect "Merry Christmas". Now I do realize I need to be careful since not everyone celebrates Christmas (there is only one person on my floor that doesn't and everyone knows it and respects it). Anyway our holiday party was nice but the best part was having them tell us at 1pm that we could leave for the day and not go back to the office!! We were originally told we'd have to go back at 2:30pm (the actual end time of the party) and work till 3:30pm....sure.....all stuffed with food and sleepy, wasn't going to happen!

Also have you ever seen a pink Christmas tree??? Like a REAL pink Christmas tree. Head over to Prudent Baby to see her pink tree! Now I do not like the fake pink trees I've seen in stores but this one I would actually consider especially since we'll have two girls next year (hell, we might have two girls this year if this one in my belly decides to come out!). I think Josh will say "hell no" to it but I think he's getting used to the idea that his entire world is going to be pink forever.

A word of advice for anyone who is pregnant. Do not ignore phone calls from grandmothers. I have apparently almost given my grandmother a heart attack because she called and left me a voicemail Saturday evening and I was napping so I didn't answer and totally forgot to call her back. My aunt texted last night to see if we were all okay since grandma hadn't heard back from me. Luckily I have the world's best husband and I had him call my grandma and aunt back to let them know I was still alive but really, really not feeling well at all. I'm so close to the end it's not even funny and I feel exhausted and I'm in pain and well, I cannot wait till my doctor appointment tomorrow!! I will be sure to update once it's all over!

This weekend we also decided to teach Annika how to drive, because you know, it's time and all:



She is 2 years old now after all!

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Christmas Cards

Do you send Christmas cards?

Do you buy them from the store or order online?

Do you use a picture of yourself/family on the cards?

How many cards do you typcially receive each year?

How many cards do you send?


I send Christmas cards and I usually order them from Shutterfly, Walgreens or Kodak. The one I sent out this year had a picture of the 3 of us and said "Merry Christmas" on it.

What makes me sad is that while I send out at least 40 cards to family and friends we've only received 2 so far!! One card is from my friend that I met while working at a grocery store 9 years ago and the other is from my ex's parents! Talk about random!

I send cards to everyone in Josh's family and not a single one of them sends any! So weird! From my family we usually get a few but since we see a lot of them on Christmas Day I know we'll probably get some then.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Hands on Daddy

I see so many posts on message boards, Facebook and even blog posts about dads that don't do certain things with their children.

One I saw on Facebook recently said that their husband recently gave their 15 month old daughter a bath for the first time ever, what???? What the hell has he been doing the past 15 months that he hasn't ever participated in a bath before? She said he offered to give her one so that she could relax. So the past 15 months you've been waiting around for him to "offer" to bathe the child you made together?? I don't get it!

I know a few people that have boyfriends or husband who have never, ever changed a diaper.

Other people who have significant others that don't know how to mix formula or who never sit down to give their children a bottle or feed them.

First of all, where do these guys get off not doing this stuff?? Secondly who are these women who are allowing it????

I guess I'm lucky that Josh has always wanted to participate and do everything that I do. Sure, there were times were I'd say I was going to give Annika a bath and he said he'd rather relax on the couch instead. But there were times were I'd say I was tired and wanted to relax and he'd go in and give her a bath for me instead.

Josh changed Annika's first diaper in the hospital and gave her a bath. When he went back with the nurses to the nursery and told them he wanted to do everything they said they rarely even get fathers that come into the nursery at all. Who wouldn't want to give their child their first bath especially if the mother isn't able to (since I had a c-section I didn't get to do it)??

I did have to teach Josh how to make formula when Annika was a few months old just because I had a method to it and always pre-prepared it for the day every evening but it wasn't rocket science.

When Annika has dirty diapers and we're home together we take turns changing her (or we yell "not it" and make the other person do it!) and when it's time to fix her a snack or a meal both of us are capable of doing it. It's never one person doing it more than the other.

Josh knows where Annika's clothes are in the closet and can pick out her outfits. He also knows where extra diapers/wipes/diaper cream/etc are kept in case I'm not home and he needs them. If he can't find them he texts me while I'm at work.

When we're out in public Josh has taken Annika to change her diaper (which made us notice that not very many men's restrooms have changing tables) or we use a family restroom so that we can get the job done faster with both of us in there!

A lot of times while we're grocery shopping Josh occupies Annika and pushes the cart while I shop and throw things in the cart. I've seen so many mother's either by themselves with their children (which I have done too when our work schedules didn't allow us to go together) or pushing, shopping and doing everything while the husband just kind of stands around.

And the cutest thing, Josh likes watching "Olivia" with Annika and children's movies with her. They are just the cutest when they're sitting together on the couch with their snacks watching "Olivia" together :-)

So after seeing so many posts, hearing people's stories and seeing people in real life I guess I'm really lucky to have such a hands on husband and for our girls to have such a hands on daddy!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Baby Update

~I had my 35 week check up Tuesday.

~I was up 5 pounds, damn Christmas cookies! I've gained 45 so far total, whatever!

~Still not dilated.

~50% effaced! And Annabel is head down, -3 station. Annika's head was never at a station last time, she was always in my hip bone to the side!

~So here's the deal, my doctor canceled my January 9th c-section because "we aren't going to make it till then, or even January".

~If I have contractions again we're just going to do the c-section. I need to have 6 in one hour.

~If I'm dilated at all next appointment or 100% effaced we'll do the c-section.

~I wasn't supposed to start weekly appointments yet but I am now!

~The doctor thinks she's close to 8 pounds already!!! Eekkk!!!

~Even though I'm 35 weeks I measure at 39.

~The doctor's biggest fear is that since I am a repeat c-section and my last c-section was barely 2 years ago he doesn't want me getting too big or having too many contractions.

~My theory, even though next week I'm 36 weeks (just a few days shy of 37) he's going to do my c-section either after his appointments for the day on Tuesday or Wednesday morning in order to get me home for Christmas or to prevent me being an emergency c-section on Christmas Day. He told me he'd rather I not be an emergency situation.

~So it looks like we may be having a December baby!! He wouldn't even allow me to schedule any appointments further ahead than December 27th and usually they allow you schedule them all advance when you're this close.

~I'm only have Braxton Hicks contractions lately. I do feel pressure though, lots of it, so I'm curious to see where we are on Tuesday.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Random Stuff

~I had cookies for dinner the other night. Good for dinner, not good for the restroom at work the next morning....

~Annika seems to go to bed easily for everyone but me! For my aunt she laid right down, for Josh she goes right down too and if she doesn't and he goes to the door she runs back into bed and goes back to sleep. For me, she knocks on her bedroom door (we lock it from the outside since our bedrooms are on the 2nd floor and I don't want the crazy nut to fall down the stairs or try to escape out the front door) or throws her entire body against the door! Sometimes from my room I can hear her going "mommmmmyyyyyyyy......mommmmmyyyyyy". Uggghhh...child, I'm tired too! The other night I opened the door 3 times to tell her to stop knocking on it and finally she got the hint and stopped. It wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't totally exhausted!

~I made chicken enchiladas the other night for the first time. I did the chicken in my crock pot during the day. If I weren't so lazy right now I'd type out the recipe or try to find it but I cannot move right now except to type, so later, I promise. They were really good and I'm super picky about chicken. Josh even liked them. Annika wouldn't even look at them, instead she ate graham crackers and peanut butter...

~I cannot believe in less than 4 weeks we will have 2 daughters. It just doesn't seem possible. I have seriously had the fastest pregnancy ever this time around and all the "OMG you're so big" comments have slowed down. I'm really not THAT big, of course, for almost 9 months pregnant almost anyone would be big now!

~We still have not decorated for Christmas. I feel bad but I don't think we're going to bother. On the weekends both Josh and I find ourselves too exhausted to do much of anything. I cannot get into the closet under our staircase where all the decorations are anyway and even if I could I have a feeling I'd be telling Annika to leave the tree alone 24/7. It's only a little 3 foot tall tree. Next year we'll do a big, huge real tree or invest in a pre-lit fake one. I swear next year we will! In 2009 we did the 3 foot tree because Annika was only a few weeks old, I was on leave and Josh's hours at work were cut back so we couldn't afford anything else. Last year in 2010 my parents had just died, Josh was laid off and Annika was just a little over a year so we did our little 3 foot tall tree again. So I swear in 2012 we will have a tree over 5 feet tall!!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Belly Comparison 35 Weeks

Here I am on Saturday evening at 35 weeks:




And here I am at 35 weeks with Annika:



OMG, I was HUGE with Annika!!

But can I just say that Jessica Simpson makes me feel soooo much better about the way I looked with Annika??? She is so swollen already! I'm curious to see when her actual due date is because I swear she doesn't look that far off from me but since it seems that she doesn't know the sex of her baby yet that she must be right around 20 weeks or so! So clearly she's "eating for two".

I tend to blog ahead of schedule so I haven't mentioned my little "scare" on Friday. All Thursday evening and night I had a lot of intense contractions. I really didn't have many contractions prior to Annika being born and since she was born via c-section I have no clue what labor feels like. Friday morning I drove to work, with contractions (dumb, dumb, dumb) and ended up having my good friend/co-worker drive me to the hospital after two hours at work when I had a panic attack thinking I was about to give birth!

Well, I'm a tiny bit dramatic. I'm not dilated, at all. I was having contractions though so they gave me a shot of Terbutaline. I was having Braxton Hicks a lot in the past week and thanks to that shot all of my contractions have stopped! If it happens again they continue to either try that shot again or something via IV to stop labor until at least 37 weeks as long as I'm not dilating.

The best news was since I'm not dilated I didn't get put on bed rest or anything like that! I'm not the type of person to just lay around in bed and honestly with our work schedules I can't lay around because I have to watch Annika! I am going to take it more easy in the evenings now though until Annabel is born. I'm going to relax on my obsession with not allowing any dirty dishes to sit in the kitchen sink overnight and I'm making more "weekly to-do lists" for Josh to do to help me out. He really has been helping out a ton lately which is helpful!

Monday, December 12, 2011

Future Sister Love?

Let's hope she wants to cuddle (nicely) with her sister when she's on the outside too!



At least she'll teach her to be fashionable. She requested to try on this hat at Target:



And my favorite, she wanted me to put this scarf on her head. It was my mom's scarf and I used to do the same thing when I was little. I always wanted to look like a gypsy!

Sunday, December 11, 2011

The party and our good girl

First off last night we took my 35 week picture:



The we posed with Annika before we left her with my aunt:



Annika was busy trying to watch Olivia while we were leaving.

Then we did a picture together:



The party was fun. I got to meet everyone that Josh works with, many for the first time. The whole set up was very nice but the food was a bit unorganized. Food is important when you're 35 weeks pregnant and having to wait in line for 30 minutes is not fun!! Other than that we had a great time and stayed about 3 hours.

Annika had a good time with my aunt. My aunt said that it was so much easier than she could have imagined. Annika has a routine and she knows it well and she "directs" people not familiar with the routine. When she was getting ready to go to bed and my aunt hadn't changed her diaper yet Annika brought her diaper caddy to her room, laid down on the floor and pointed to her diaper! Afterwards she got right into bed and went right to sleep.

It was a good night overall!

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Babysitter for an evening

Today Annika will have a babysitter. My aunt will be coming over to watch her this evening. This marks the first time someone in my family will be watching Annika. (I do believe one time I left Annika with my dad for like 10 minutes while my mom and I ran to Subway to get sandwiches but I don't really count that because he asked me to put her in the middle of the living room floor so he wouldn't have to move her, I think she was like 3 months old so he technically only had to "watch" her.)

Josh and I are a bit....ummm...overprotective.

One of Josh's old co-workers who had a son in Annika's daycare was the first person to watch Annika for us ever. She watched her one day for a few hours while we went to visit my dad in the hospital together last year. Then she watched her overnight when I had my first half marathon last November.

My friend from work watched Annika in May when we had our first ever "date night". We went to dinner and a movie and were only gone about 3 hours.

So it's a big deal to actually get out, just the two of us.

But honestly it kind of stresses me out a little.

After reading the book "Parentless Parents"I learned that this is very typical of someone who has lost their parents. It's even more so for Josh and I since we both don't have parents. What would happen to Annika (and soon Annabel) if something happened to us both while they were young? It makes me never want the two of us to leave them to do anything! I know this isn't healthy and that we do need an occasional date night but it's so hard to just do it!

In reading this book I learned that a lot of parentless parents don't go on date nights and totally never ever take vacations without their children (we've talked about this and we would NEVER do it). We live a different life than most people our age and so will our girls without having grandparents like most kids have.

I do want to quickly say that I was disappointed in the book overall. I should do a full review but in my honest opinion I felt like the author was a bit of a, well, whiner.....I'll just do a full review soon to explain myself better.

Anyway so today is a big deal! I'm so glad that my aunt is coming over to watch Annika. She loves Annika and Annika loves her. Annika always runs to her and gives her a hug and kiss when we see her! I just know they're going to have fun together.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Cute Pictures and Party!

Here is my crazy girl vacuuming my bed. Notice the backwards zip up pajamas since she is Houdini and can undress herself in 10 seconds.



She's in love with this vacuuming. It even makes an annoying vacuum sound. Clearly we did not buy it for her but my co-worker/friend did.



And here she is ignoring me and not looking at the camera because that's how she is...



Tomorrow is Josh's work's Holiday Party. I typically LOVE going to holiday parties because it gives me a chance to dress up all prom like. At 35 weeks pregnant there isn't much I can wear. I bought a plain black dress from Old Navy and a red sparkly scarf from Target and Josh gets to wear his suit (which he hasn't tried on yet but I'm pretty sure it won't be buttoning!). This is the first party I'm going to where I get to meet the people Josh works with so I'm looking forward to it but not the comments of "OMG YOU'RE GOING TO POP"....

My work has a holiday party on the 19th, during work hours. We used to have fancy parties at the Ritz Carlton Hotel but then the economy starting sucking. Still it should be nice since it's here.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Being Crude

I recently picked up a special issue of Glamour magazine. It happened to have the Kardashian sisters on it. Either you're a person that loves them or you hate them, I'm sort of in the middle. I will say that Josh likes them and their shows. He'll deny it but he wanted to watch Kim's wedding, seriously, he did. Usually he has a fit when I buy girly magazines too but I noticed he didn't seem to care at all when I put this one in our cart.

One article in it (I'm mad that it's not in it's entirety on their website) is about women being crude. Well, it's really celebrities being crude but whatever.

It's funny because Josh read the article (while looking for the Kardashian article), looked at me and said how funny it is that I've been talking crude for the past 6 years and now it's like some sort of new "fad". I have to say that I don't typically talk crudely to strangers, mostly Josh and my friends. I have been known to speak about penis, vagina or poop in public places within hearing range of total strangers though which I probably need to control.

My co-worker and I recently ate pizza at a local place down the street from work and talked about our dislike for giving blow jobs the entire 30 minutes not even thinking twice about the guys sitting two tables away that were probably listening to every single word. I think she brings out the crudeness in me the most, she's really bad too with things that she says.

My best friend and I have been in a restaurant with Josh before and she's announced that she had to shit and then come back to the table to report what it looked like. Again, another friend that really brings out the crude!

And don't think that it's just women, Josh the other day was drinking a Starbucks frappuccino (which we have nicknamed a "crappuccino") and while walking through Target announced to me and Annika that he thought he could only handle about 3 more sips before he'd have to "blow up the restroom with his poops". An older woman walked past us when he said it and I'm pretty sure he almost gave her a heart attack.

I am probably the most guilty though with my mouth. I'm not sure where it has come from. Pregnancy makes it 100 times worse. Also while in Target (we live there part time, at least I'm pretty sure the store employees think so) I told Josh that my vagina hurt. I've also told my co-worker I'm friends with on our daily walk around downtown to "slow down because my fucking vagina is killing me". I attribute it all to the fact that Annabel has to be head down (Annika never was so this vagina pain is new) and that my hormones have removed the filter from my mouth.

So in honor of being crude tell me something crude that you've said recently! Come on, I'm sure everyone has said something!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The Diet Plan

Josh and I plan on going on a diet and exercise program together once Annabel is born. My diet will include losing the baby weight, toning up and getting back into running. Josh's simply with include toning up, building muscle and starting to run since we want to make it a thing we do together (with the girls in their jogging stroller!).

I've been looking into the Paleo Diet. I actually purchased three books to look at on my Kindle while I'm in the hospital with Annabel and during those late night feedings (I get easily bored and cannot just sit there starring off into space, reading is going to be perfect!). I bought The Paleo Diet Cookbook, The Paleo Diet, and Everyday Paleo.

I can see Josh easily being able to follow this diet EXCEPT for cutting out carbs (maybe, he's pretty hooked on tortillas with his burritos right now). I see myself having the same issue and that I don't eat meat, at all. I will occasionally eat chicken if it's perfect and cooked a certain way and doesn't smell or taste even slightly off (yes I am a bit picky...). I see myself eating more seafood than anything. The thing I do like about this diet is incorporating more fresh veggies and fruits into our diet. Right now I do eat some fruit like apples, grapes and oranges but that's pretty much it!

I also plan on attempting to breastfeed again. Last time I totally dried up (even with pumping every 2 hours) at 3 weeks. I'm hoping by eating right (instead of starving myself to lose the weight quickly) and exercising I will be able to keep up my supply and hopeful successfully breastfeed while following a healthier diet plan.

Josh is pretty much on board for anything. I'd like to get Annika eating eating healthier too since right now her diet consist of goldfish, fruit snacks, Fig Newtons, scrambled eggs, chicken nuggets and mac & cheese. I do know that her picky eating is just that toddler phase and I hope that we can convince her to eat more like mommy and daddy!

Has anyone else followed the Paleo Diet with any success or known anyone else that has?? I'd love to know!

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Funny Stories

First I have to say I'm super excited that I'm getting this for Christmas!! I sent Josh the link yesterday since he wanted more ideas of what to get me and he told me to order it! I've been looking up more slow cooker recipes since I know with a new baby and a toddler that it'll be hard to make good meals for us and most are pretty simple. Plus this slow cooker has a timer which is even more perfect.

Now for my funny stories of the weekend.

#1: Josh and I always weigh ourselves after shopping at the Publix grocery store. They have one of those huge scales in the front that is supposed to be super accurate.

A little back story, I'm typically right around 120 pounds which is normal for someone who is 5'2. Josh is 5'11 and used to weigh only about 135 which is totally underweight for someone his height. During this pregnancy he has steadily gained weight which is a very, very good thing!

I got on the scale first and I weigh now 163 (whatever, blah). So Josh is behind me watching and joking around saying "oh big momma, hahaha, blah, blah, blah".

Then Josh gets on and I had to take a double take because the little dial on the scale went up and over the 163 to 165!!!

I almost lost it in the store. I was laughing so hard I was sure I was going to pee myself.

Last pregnancy I passed Josh in weight around the 20 week mark. This time I'm 34 weeks and still weigh less!!

Yes!!! It makes me very happy!! Plus he looks so much healthier with his new weight, I told him he's not allowed to lose while I'm losing after Annabel is born, he can tone up but that's it!

#2: Annika was walking around the kitchen playing when suddenly she looked at me with panic. She squatted and started grunting.

Neither is ever a good sign.

Then she got up, ran over to me and laughed as she said "I just went poo poo momma!!"

Oh, if only she'd do it on the potty!!!

And here is our little diva with her sun glasses on:



She insisted on wearing them into Best Buy on Sunday. She was so funny. The guy that helped us asked if she knew how to give a "high five". I told him that she can do that and "fist bump" too. When she did it he said she was by far the coolest kid he's ever seen. Yep, we think so too!

Monday, December 5, 2011

Christmas Spending

One of my Facebook friends posted a status asking how much people spend on their children for Christmas. Now I'm curious as to how much all of you spend or have spent in the past! What did you buy? Why did you buy what you did?

For us we like to live clutter free. When we were married and had friends with children we would be shocked at the overload of toys that can take over someones home. I can understand having a designated area for toys, like a playroom but to have toys scattered about your entire home is just too much for either one of us. Not saying it's bad if you do this, just saying that we don't want this for our home.

Another thing is that we are firm believers that Annika (and soon Annabel) need to use their imagination while playing. Annika loves to color so I buy her crayons and paper, a lot! She also has some blocks and a lot of stuffed animals and TONS of books. We restricted TV for Annika until about 18 months old (our original plan was 2 years old but we started to allow a few TV shows on Nick Jr at 18 months and a few movies) and we plan on not allowing Annabel to watch TV or movies till at least 18 months old too which means Annika probably won't be watching anything for a while again which is fine, she's not too interested anyway.

Anyway, back to Christmas. For us we don't like spoiling with gifts. I am constantly told by people that know us how wonderful it is that Annika is spoiled with love and not material objects (totally not saying that it's wrong to do this, we just don't). For Christmas Eve this year she will get some Christmas pajamas and an Olivia Christmas DVD to watch with us before she goes to bed. On Christmas morning she will get 3 Olivia books that I bought her and a tricycle. That's all and honestly I feel like that's all she needs. We'll open the books first, probably read all three of them, then let her go out and ride around on her tricycle until we go to my aunt's house. I can't even figure out what I could spend $300-500 on for her for Christmas like some people do (so please leave a comment letting me know what you plan to buy, I'm really curious!)! I buy her clothes all year long so I don't plan on giving that as a gift and my family will probably buy her more clothes and maybe a toy or two so I don't really have anything else I could buy her.

I know that a lot of people do electronics for their kids when they're older too and that's another think that Josh and I both agree on not buying. We are both firm believers that if we survived childhood without something that our girls can too. We never owned video games or had our own TVs in our room (I got my first TV in my bedroom at my parents' house when I was 19 and bought it myself with my own money!). Again for us it's the whole imagination thing. Now once the girls start school I will be open to getting them a laptop if they do actually need one (our nephew is only 7 and actually needs one for school already!).

I'm totally not saying it's wrong to spend hundreds of dollars on your children. I'm also not saying that we aren't able to, I could easily go to Target right now and pick out a cart full of things for Annika and blow $500 but I just won't, it's not how we are. I guess we're just more simple than most!

I am curious though as to how other people are so please put let me know your input! I also plan to take some pictures this week of our house, which I've never done and been meaning to do since we moved in back in January, so you can see how clutter free we live and how our home isn't overrun with toys!

Sunday, December 4, 2011

One Year Ago

The last time I saw my dad alive was at the hospital. The nurse called me early in the morning and told me to come say good-bye but that I could take my time but that it would be today. I took my time and about two hours later she called to tell me to come now.

I hung out just talking to him as he laid there loaded with morphine with a machine breathing for him for about 2 more hours. Finally I left because I knew what he was doing. He was refusing to die in front of me.

I was right. It took me about 45 minutes to get home from the hospital and the second I walked in the door his doctor called me to tell me they did everything they could but he was gone.

Having two parents die 7 weeks apart is tough. You do things that you never thought you'd have to do. I had to call a funeral home, get them cremated, pick up their ashes in simple cardboard boxes since I couldn't afford anything else (they're still in those boxes, in my closet), then I had to plan their funeral, a joint funeral for my parents...

Me and dad at Disneyland in CA:



Me and dad about 4 or 5 years ago (this is at our first apartment):



Me and dad, I'm about 2 here:



Dad first meeting Annika:



Dad reading to Annika:

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Random Stuff

~We have lots of baking and fun to do today!!

~Plus I'm 34 weeks now!! Belly picture soon to come! Can't believe we only have 5 more weeks!!!

~We also have our new bedroom set being delivered, pictures of that soon to come too! I'm so excited to get to sleep in our new bed tonight.

~I think it's kind of funny that the nurse at my OB's warned me that on my next visit the doctor would be checking to see if I'm dilated. I'm pretty sure the do that so that us huge pregnant women can prepare ourselves "down there". I am currently unpresentable so I have a little over a week to clean up! It's hard to shave areas you cannot see and have not seen a long while!!

~Annika is a terror lately. I swear she drops things on the floor just to watch me have to pick them up. It's like a little switch went off in her head that said "now you are 2, be a huge pain in the ass especially if your momma is pregnant with baby #2".

~Luckily for her she's super cute:




~My back is killing me.

~There's a commerical on TV, I think for Tide, where the lady says she wears yoga pants because she's too lazy for real pants. Yep, I wear maternity yoga pants every single day. I own 3 pair and I've been attempting to pull them off as normal dress pants at work. So far so good. No one has said anything. They don't fit very tight and I always have a longer shirt on. At least I'm not wearing flip flops this time around!

~Speaking of flip flops I'm super excited to not have swelling this pregnancy!! Last time my feet blew up like little fat sausages around 20 weeks. I still have skinny feet!! My face isn't fat either like last time!!

~I'm already playing out in my head the whole IV thing the day of my c-section. When we had Annika the nurse told me "the worse part of today will be getting in your IV". After 2 tries, me yelling at the nurse to get me a new nurse and having to get the stupid IV in my RIGHT hand she was right. Seriously, I'm telling them the second I get there that IVs are very difficult to get in me so #1 lets get it right the first time on my left side and #2 if you fail on the left side you will not stick it in my hand!! It was so difficult to hold Annika's head still while trying to breastfeed!!

Friday, December 2, 2011

Weekend Plans

First of all I found this recipe on a blog I've been reading. OMG, I must make them tomorrow and eat the whole roll!!

Tomorrow we're taking my Scion to get the oil change and that will finish off the vehicle maintenance until I go back to work from maternity leave. We've been trying to get everything done so our weekends with the 2 girls will be more relaxing that usual. It seems like lately we're always running around trying to get things done!

Josh also decided he wanted to get Christmas gifts for some of his friends at work. I replied that it's kind of dumb because we don't even buy gifts for any of our family!! Well, I made gifts for mine but that's about it. So this weekend, with his help, we'll be making these cookies and fudge! I'm making an extra batch of both so we can sample. I made the cookies last year and everyone loved them!! They are soooo good!! I haven't made fudge in ages so I'm hoping that turns out.

Sunday will mark the one year anniversary of my dad's death. We don't have any plans but I might suggest going to one of his favorite restaurants or something for it. Not sure how I'll feel yet.

Saturday actually marks one year since Annika has been out of daycare! I'm glad that she gets to spend her days with Josh and me and that we aren't spending that $700 a month for someone else to take care of her!

And today marks the one year anniversary of my last conversation with my dad. I got off work early to see him at the hospital because of of his regular nurses told me he was doing really well and was asking where I was. I met him in the pre-surgery waiting area as I had approved for them to put back his feeding tube in that had gotten infected. We talked about how at the time Josh didn't have a job, how Annika wasn't going to be in daycare anymore, how dad wanted me to withdrawl all his money from his bank account and use his money for our bills. As they wheeled him back to surgery he told me it wasn't going to work. He was right. I'm so glad we did get the chance to talk once last time though...

Thursday, December 1, 2011

December 1st????

How did it already get to be December???? More importantly how do I only have like 40 days till Annabel is born???

Tuesday I had my 33 week check up. I'm measuring perfect which according to my doctor means "I AM NOT ABOUT TO POP!!" He told me to tell people that he can confirm that I am not about to pop. I am perfect :-)

Last time at 33 weeks I measured at 36 so I am smaller this time around.

Here is my belly picture from Sunday:



Here I am 33 weeks pregnant with Annika:



At my next appointment in 2 weeks he'll check to see if I'm dilated. Since I'm only having about a handful of Braxton Hicks contractions a day he doubts I'll be dilated at all.

My friend at work bought Annika some crayons for 25 cents a pack during her Black Friday shopping. Annika was very excited to have new "colors" but refused to look at me when I took a picture!



On our evening walks Annika always asks me "where da moon?" and we look up to see if we can find it. On evenings we can't see it she's very concerned with where it could be!



After our walk she decided to put her head through her chair and she got stuck. My first reaction "where is my phone so I can take a picture?" At least she's learned her lesson now since it took a minute before I got her out!



I'm excited that I'm done with Christmas shopping with only 24 days left anyway!! All I have left to do is make some cookies and fudge for Josh's co-workers and my family. All of the gifts we did for family were homemade. So excited to share what I made, after Christmas anyway! :)