Sunday Every Day

Sunday is my favorite day of the week. On Sundays my husband doesn't study, doesn't work on the house, or spend time on the hundreds of other things he could be doing. On Sundays he relaxes and plays with the kids and does any little chore I ask him to do. It is so much fun to have him around. I know Charlotte loves it too because today she didn't whine as much and she was much more fun to be around. This morning we relaxed and weeded some of the garden and helped her play in her little pool. He spent hours today just holding, talking to, and loving Greg. Right now he's doing the dishes and cleaning up the kitchen. It's when he does these things for me that I know he loves me. He wants me to be able to face the week Monday morning when I get up for the day. We both got long naps and I think he's going to start his week refreshed as well. I must remember to tell him why I love Sundays.

Just In Case (The Delivery Post)

At the end of my pregnancy and into labor I found myself asking everyone around me, "Did this happen like this last time?" Turns out I have a bad memory and that there were many similarities and a great many differences between the two events. Just in case I forget again, here's what I want to remember about round two.

• I had cramping/abdominal pain for days before actually giving birth. Its normal.
• I felt really great when I could walk around the neighborhood at the beginning of labor. Moving=good. Stationary=bad.
• I've puked during both deliveries.
• IV's make my arm cold.
• Twice now, my body has hit a point where it decides that the normal labor timing just isn't going to work for me. I must have this child now. So I start to have contractions that either don't stop or could harm the baby.
• Both of my babies have not handled delivery very well.
• I've had to be given medication to be slowed down twice now.
• That medication sucks.
• Epidurals do not suck-except when they don't cover your whole body.
• It also is the hardest thing in the world to stay still laying on your side during a really strong contraction. I did it only because they had to monitor the baby's heart beat.
• The phrase "we might have to do a c-section" scares the crap out of me.
• It also motivates me to push that thing out of me a lot quicker.
• I'm also motivated when the one little section of my abdomen that still feels every contraction stops hurting when I push. "Push the pain away" was the most helpful phrase that the nurse told me. It's true.

The physical recovery from this one was a whole lot easier than last time. I think that's because I really listened when people told me to take it easy. All in all not a terribly traumatic delivery.

My Vanity Is Gone

When I get pregnant, I mean really pregnant, my belly button disappears. It just flattens out until you can't really tell that I even had one in the first place. Most women have theirs poke out, but not me, mine just hides. Also, I get stretch marks all around my belly button. I thought I had plenty with the first one, but somehow I managed to get more this time around.

Just thought I'd give you a little background information for the following conversation that happened as I was getting out of the shower the other morning. (Why is it that my daughter has figured out that she needs privacy in the bathroom, but not that I might like it as well?)

Charlotte: Is that you belly button?

Me: Yep, it's back.

Charlotte: Did you get old?

Me: What?

Charlotte: You wrinkled.


Gee thanks.

Photos

I could post and post and post photos, but I wont. Here are a few that I think are really good.


Greg's looking for food!

Sleeping as usual.

Closest to my heart!

There are times that I am totally struck by her beauty.Our little family on a trip to Tower Grove Park.

I hope you like them!

Dear Greg,

I love you so much it makes my throat hurt. Strange, yes. Difficult, no. Each time I slow down and look at your little face I feel the love for you well up so much that it spills out my eyes and I cry. Just before the tears start, my throat hurts.

I know everyone said that your sister looked like her daddy, but to me it is you. I look at you and I see him. There is a little of me mixed in there, but overwhelmingly I see your dad. You are the most handsome little baby boy that my eyes have ever seen. I love your brown hair, and your little nose. I love the way your cheeks are so full and round. I would spend hours just memorizing your face right now if I could.

You are the type of baby that everyone wishes they could have. You are a great sleeper, a great eater, and so very mellow. You hardly ever cry. And when you do your big sister rushes to your side to try to help calm you. Which then fills me up so much with love I cry, again. I know this could just be a phase, but I'm convinced that your demeanor is a blessing sent straight to me from Heavenly Father. It's like He's telling me that I can do this. I can be a mother of two. And I'm so grateful for that. It seems that all my fears that surfaced at the end of pregnancy were for naught. You are wonderful, your sister is wonderful, your daddy is wonderful, and I am happy. I love our family and I love you.

I want you to know that you are wanted and loved immeasurably by your daddy and me. Not only do we love you, but we love each other, and we love Charlotte. Our family is one I hope will always have the hallmark of love.

Love Always,
Mom

A New Phase

Well, Charlotte has officially begun the whining phase of her life. This oh so frustrating little habit of hers is starting to wear me thin. Any ideas for how to re-direct, cope with, or stop this behavior? I'm all ears.

One Week Later

Last Sunday I went into the hospital and came out Wednesday with a baby. He's beautiful. He's gorgeous. He's SUPER easy (for now anyway). I'm in love. I'd write more, but Daniel has commandeered our computer to study for the boards in four weeks. I'll post photos and whatnot soon. I promise. But for right now I've got to get back to cuddling my sweet little Daniel Gregory.

Stats:

Born: Monday May 11, 2009 at 1:44AM
Weight: 8 lbs 8 oz
Length: 22 in
Hair: Dark Brown

1 stinking centimeter

It really isn't fair for the doctor's office to ask you to pee in a cup, when you can't even see your belly button anymore. It's like shooting in the dark.

PS. Dan's test is tomorrow morning. According to the doctor there is no risk of the baby interfering with that.

An Opportunity for Growth

Last week on my sister's Blogger to Blogger the topic of marriage came up and she talked a little about a misconception she had about marriage. Basically she said before marriage she was afraid that it would mean a loss of her strong independent nature. Turns out that she picked a wonderful man who supports her independence fully and it hasn't even been an issue for her.

This got me to thinking about how the opposite has really been true for me. I guess I must not have had much of a "strong independent nature." Before I got married I thought how nice it would be to be able to lean on someone else for a change. There were many things that I simply didn't have or do because I didn't want to go to the effort to figure it out for myself.

Then I married the most wonderful man and we had a baby. I knew he wanted to be a doctor and that would mean I would need to carry my fair share of the responsibilities, but I didn't realize it would make me solely responsible for a great many things to run smoothly in our home. He would do them if he had the time or physical resources to get them done, but he doesn't. They just landed squarely on my shoulders. That's not to say there aren't things that I truly do not even worry about because I know they're his responsibilities. I do get a chance to lean on him, it's just not in the administrative way I thought I would.

I think being married, if anything, has given me the opportunity to become more independent and confident in my abilities to figure things out. There are a great many times that I try and fail at a task that is important. If it were just about myself I'd let those things go, but now I have a husband and children depending on me. I need to get them done. We need health insurance, running water, heat, housing, cars that work (and are registered yuck), food, clothing and the myriad other tiny tasks that seem to fall in my lap. My husband knows that getting these things done isn't my favorite job and he appreciates all that I do for our family just as I appreciate all his efforts. It amazes me the things I know I can accomplish now that I never would have dared to try 5 years ago.

False Alarm

So yesterday I did approximately 12 loads of laundry (explanation for that is puking one night and then wetting the bed during the nap the next day on top of it being laundry day anyway). For each load of laundry I have to walk up and down two flights of stairs one and a half times. Also, I decided that I'd better wash all the windows and dust everything because there's absolutely no way I'm going to do that after the baby gets here. Is that nesting, realizing how lazy I've been on those tasks, or preparing for the house to be "grandma clean?" I'm not sure. On top of that my zombie like sick child wanted a whole lot of carry/cuddle me time. Plus, I decided to take bleach solution to anything and everything I thought my two year old had touched in the past 48 hours. I don't want that sort of thing hanging around my house. I bet you all wish you were me right now.

For some reason I just had a burst of energy yesterday and felt like I shouldn't waist a minute of it. I did not slow down for one second until making dinner. I was on the phone with my mom when I realized that I wasn't just achy from having done said physical labor all day long, I was having contractions. Painful contractions. I shouldn't have said anything to my mom because it got all her hopes up which in turn started my worrying. I really really did not want to drop off a sick child in the middle of the night to one of our friends houses. That just spelled disaster to me. The contractions never really went away all evening long so I decided to err on the side of caution and called a friend up just to give her a heads up in case we had to head in. So then I got her hopes up too.

Nothing happened. The pain and contractions eventually went away at around 3 AM when I had to get up to pee for the 4th time last night. Also Charlotte slept through the night without coughing so she's on the mend.

So now that my house is clean, my daughter is getting better, and I've had serious contractions I'm ready. I want this little one out. Let's get this show on the road. But I'm not telling anyone until it actually is on the road.

Anticipating

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. My awesome sister-in-law came into town last week and we were having too much of a good time for me to sit down and write something. Then I realized that some of you might be wondering if I went into labor. The answer to that one is no. Saturday I went a bit crazy cleaning the house, mopping the floors, and doing the laundry. For some reason I thought that I would go into labor today, and finally, I was OK with that idea. Then the sniffles that Charlotte got on Saturday turned into a full blown cold last night complete with coughing until she threw up. So now I'm back to thinking that I could totally wait until my due date. Because then Charlotte will probably be over the worst of this little cold. And also I'll have time to Clorox the house. I just really only want to have to deal with one ultra needy kid at a time if I can help it. (Like I can help it.)

Anyway, that's not what I was going to talk about today. Today I was going to talk about how my sister-in-law coming made me realize how blessed I am with the family that I've got. She marked the start of a two month on and off rotation of family members coming to help with the baby. I was worried at first that she would think we're really boring, but once I realized that she was here to visit us and help rather than see the sights of St. Louis I calmed down and we had a great time. I am seriously so blessed to have my family and my husband's family so willing to come and help out. Especially since my husband is kicking into high gear worrying/studying for step 1 of the boards. Or as I like to call it, the one test that will determine the rest of his carreer. Anyway, I don't know exactly how to say thank you to all of them who have come or are coming out to help because I'm overwhelmed with their kindness and generosity. Thank you to all of you!