It's Ella's World Now

Zoo Day!

2012-01-27T14:52:00.000-08:00

Today Ella went to the zoo for the first time with Mason and Reese. She watched the ducks swim...

She hatched out of an egg...

She rode the carousel and the train...

And stopped for a photo op with her friends and Everett!

Do you love this one...Reese and Mason are looking at each other like, "what is this fool doing?"

8 Weeks Old

2012-01-26T16:01:00.000-08:00

Everett is 8 weeks old today (but only 2 weeks old adjusted). He's still eating 60-70ml every 2.5-3 hours during the day. At night, we feed him around 10:30 p.m., and he wakes up again around 3-4 a.m. If we could just get him to go 2-3 more hours at night, it would be perfect! He can still wear newborn sleepers, and we just started putting him in size 1 diapers, although they are huge. He loves looking at you and making eye contact, but we're still waiting for that first smile! He tracks really well, and he especially looks to find Gary or I when he hears our voices.

He likes to relax with funny hand positions. :)

Designer Bags for Sale- Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Mia Bossi

2012-01-23T21:34:00.000-08:00

I'm selling some of my bags so I thought I'd post them here in case anyone is interested! If I know you, you can come over, otherwise, I'll ship priority mail + insurance. I have some more LV that I'm selling, but I don't have photos yet, but so far...

Louis Vuitton Petit Bucket bag (Monogram Canvas)
This bag is in good condition- you can see the various minor places of wear and tear/staining in the photos. I purchased it at the Louis Vuitton store in Las Vegas so I can assure you it is authentic! This bag sells new for $1,210.00. I am selling it for $450.00 (little makeup bag not included). I have the original dustcover, which I will include with the bag, as well as the original tag (shown in photos).

Gucci Monogram GG "Jackie O" Hobo bag and/or Matching Wallet
I purchased this bag and wallet at the Gucci store at South Coast Plaza- it is authentic! It is my understanding that they no longer carry this adorable bag, but the "New Jackie" handbag sells for $1995-$2,150. I am selling the bag for $250 and the wallet for $100, however, if you purchase them both together, I will sell them both for $275!!! I have the original dustcover, which is included.

I also think I'm going to be selling my Mia Bossi Lyndsey diaper bag, which you can see HERE. I haven't taken photos of it yet, but it's in really good condition, as I hardly use it. I think I'll be selling it for $100.

Love Them...

2012-01-22T21:50:00.000-08:00

Spinach Lasagna Rolls

2012-01-20T20:08:00.000-08:00

I saw this idea on Pinterest so I made up a little recipe! Sorry if the recipe is disjointed- I'm awful at writing out recipes!

1- 12 oz. package lasagna noodles (boil or ready to bake)
1 jar marinara sauce
2 cups shredded mozarella cheese
1- 10 oz. box frozen spinach, thawed and water squeezed out
1 lb. ground turkey
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tsp. olive oil
1- 15 oz. container ricotta cheese
1 large egg
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1-2 tablespoons dried basil or 1/4 cup fresh basil
1-2 tablespoons dried parsley or 1/4 cup fresh parsley
salt & pepper

If you are using lasagna noodles that need to be boiled, start by boiling the noodles. If you use ready to bake, you need to soak them to make them soft so you can roll them...

After they are soft (maybe 1-2 hours?), make the filling. I always use this ricotta mixture or a version of it for lasagna filling to "hide" the ricotta since Gary won't eat ricotta- it's also just much tastier than plan ricotta.

Preheat oven to 375. Mix the ricotta, egg, parmesan, spinach, basil, parsley, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Set aside.

Next, saute your onions for a few minutes in olive oil. Add garlic and saute for 30 more seconds. Add ground turkey and cook until crumbly.

Next, spread some of the ricotta mixture and some of the turkey meat onto each lasagna noodle. I put the ricotta mixture into a pastry bag (really just a ziploc baggie) so I could pipe it on the noodles...

Then just roll them up and place them close together in a baking dish. Top with the entire jar of marinara and top that with the mozarella cheese. Bake at 375 for 20-30 minutes.

This is HARD!

2012-01-19T12:20:00.000-08:00

Remember I said having two kids wasn't too difficult? Well it is. It's all about having two *needy* kids at once. In the last week, Ella, the most UN-needy kid I've ever met has become super needy. I guess she is finally reacting to Everett, and instead of jealousy, she has become needy. She wants me to hold her all.the.time. while we're at home. And if I'm feeding Everett, she tries to sit on my lap with him. It's very overwhelming when Everett is crying for milk, Ella is yelling "hold me mommy!" and I'm trying to cook my quinoa fried rice for dinner all at the same time! I'm kind of loving all the extra hugs and cuddles though. :)

I'm really savoring this newborn time since it's my last, but I have to admit, I can't wait for Everett to be able to sit up and be a little more independent! Still, I can't resist this newborn face!!!

By the way, don't ever try to go to Ikea by yourself with a baby. Especially if you have 8 million things to buy. Seriously. Don't.

That's Everett behind the 12 baskets, four storage boxes, paper organizer and rug.

Craft Day!

2012-01-18T15:44:00.000-08:00

I finally had a chance today to catch up on a few projects I've been wanting to get done...

Ella's Valentine's Day shirt

These silhouettes for Ella's big girl room (the lighting didn't allow good photos, but you get the gist)

Ella's doll bed...it's THIS Ikea bed. I just covered the blah blue "mattress" and pillow that it came with with white fabric (and a bit of extra padding in the mattress to make it more mattress-like) and made a comforter with leftover pink striped fabric...

6 Week Stats & Some Firsts...

2012-01-16T12:54:00.000-08:00

Everett had his 6 week checkup today (although he's actually 6w4d). He weighs 7 lbs. 4 oz.! That sounds so huge to me, however, he is still not even on the regular growth chart for his actual age. Using his adjusted age (which would be 3 days old!), he is in the 40th percentile for weight. He is 20 inches, which is 75% percentile adjusted (of course he's going to be super tall like Ella). His head is WAY bigger than Ella's, but I can't remember the measurement. Ella was 6lb. 4oz. and 19.5 inches at 6 weeks.

He is newborn diapers and newborn clothing, although he is pretty much too long for newborn size even though they are much too wide. He is still eating 60-70 ml (about 2 oz.) of milk each bottle every 2.5-3 hours during the day (BM during the day and formula at night). Last night I fed him at 10:30 p.m. and then not again until 3 a.m. so not too shabby! We switched from regular newborn formula at night to Gentalese, and that seems to have helped with the reflux a bit.

He is still an exceptionally good baby. He really only cries when he's really hungry or gets fussy if he really wants to be held, but for the most part, he will just sit quietly and observe. He is just so precious, and the perfect baby to be the last!

Ella also went to the pediatrician to check on her double ear infection, and it's gone! She is still a wonderful big sister, and she has become a little chatterbox! Seriously, she can hold a regular conversation now, and it's kind of freaky. The things she understands, and the sentences she says completely shock me. When did my baby become a full-fledged little girl???????

We had two firsts today....

(1) Everett had his first poopy blowout- I almost forgot about those!

(2) I took the both kids out by myself today! Just to Joanns really quickly, but it's a start. I had to get out of the house because our cleaning lady is here, and it's raining so we can't go to the park...I figured I may as well get an errand out of the way. I used the stroller for Everett and let Ella walk, and it was much easier than I thought it would be. However, that is ONLY because Ella was a perfect angel in the store and stayed right with me, didn't grab things and was in a good mood. We all know that can go either way so I just got lucky!

Jute Wreath with Felt Roses

2012-01-14T22:09:00.000-08:00

I made this adorable but easy Jute wreath recently for the front door. Thanks, of course, to pinterest. ;)

Supplies for the wreath (from JoAnn or Michaels)...

I started with a thumbtack with a little glue gun at the beginning, then I just went around and around, adding a bit of glue here and there. The only thing I didn't get a photo of was how you have to go back over the Jute with more Jute (backwards) because since the front of the wreath is a smaller diameter then the back, the Jute starts to slant and slant more as you go further around the wreath so every once in a while, you have to make your Jute straight again and go over a section you already did with more Jute...I hope that makes sense!

For the felt flowers, you just cut different size squares of felt, cut them into circles and then spiral them- so they will kind of look like a swirly lollipop. Then you just roll it up into a rose! I glue gun here and there as I roll. I glued the roses onto the wreath.

Everett was Due TODAY!

2012-01-13T13:13:00.000-08:00

Today, January 13, 2012, was the day my baby boy was supposed to be born! And yet, he's 6 weeks old and doing great. In honor of his due date...one of these things is not like the other...

To keep things as normal as possible around here, we've been doing a lot of playdates (which is so weird because with Ella, I literally did not leave the house for 2 months...Everett has been to all the parks in town!). Here are some photos of Ella with her friends...

I Can't Catch a Break- PUPPS and Eye Infection

2012-01-11T21:15:00.000-08:00

I haven't really mentioned my disgusting rash very much mostly because it's embarrassing and depressing, but after getting a diagnosis and finally researching the other night, I decided I wanted to mention it in case anyone who reads this ever gets it because reading about others' experiences made me feel a ton better.

Here is how the last 8 months have gone...

I have to do an FET to get pregnant again...lots of drugs, progesterone shots for 12 weeks, prednisone for 12 weeks, etc. I once again pre-eclampsia. Get placed on hospital bedrest. Have another preemie. Another NICU stay.

One or two days after Everett is born, I start get a rash along the tape line from my c-section, and on my arm where tape and bandaids had been repeatedly placed. This rash is extremely itchy and spreads all across my entire stomach and my forearms. Sadly, the photos don't even make it look as horrible as it was, and it got much worse than these photos show (I can't believe I'm posting these photos)...

These rashes eventually started to clear up (although the scars are still there). My OB says I must go to the derm. My derm does a biopsy, which shows that I have PUPPS (pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy)! This is a rash that occurs during pregnancy (1 in 200 pregnancies), but I'm NOT pregnant! My derm says it's very strange, but she has had one other patient that got it after pregnancy. She gives me topical creams and steriods, but instead of getting better, the rash gets worse...MUCH worse. It spread over my entire body (except face)...legs, butt, arms, feet, hands, back, neck, chest...even my breasts! I start itching all day long...the itching is EXTREME. My skin starts weeping and bleeding, and eventually it feels like my entire body is on fire 24 hours a day. Like just existing is painful. Having clothes on it excruciating, but I have to wear clothes! I have talked about being exhausted, but in reality, it's not Everett's fault- I itch all.night.long. My sheets are blood stained from all the open sores I've created. I start crying at night because the itching and pain is so bad, and I feel helpless and don't know anyone else that this has happened to. It got so bad and so painful one night that I told Gary if I had a gun, I'd probably start shooting my extremities just to make the itching stop! The itching is much worse at night.

I finally go online a few nights ago and try to find other women that have gone through this and find some answers. I found THIS website with story after story of other women who have suffered. They talk about being *suicidal*, the intense pain, having had awful deliveries with 4th degree tears that don't compare to the pain of PUPPS...many of the women said they will NEVER have another child just to avoid getting PUPPS again. This may sound bad, but it made me feel SO much better that there are all these other women that understand exactly what I'm going through...many of them also said that it WILL get better, it's just a matter of time. I honestly felt like this would never go away.

Here is what I learned from this site...supposedly Dandelion Root, Milk Thistle and Flaxseed Oil all help make the symptoms diminish (they all come in capsule form at Sprouts or Whole Foods)...they are all things that cleanse your liver (the liver is linked to skin- think jaundice). I started taking all three two days ago, and I also started a 3 week round of Prednisone (I called my derm and told her I couldn't bear another day without oral medication). I'm not sure what is working, but I *FINALLY* feel like the rash is slowly getting better! I'm still itchy, but it's getting less, and I don't feel like my skin is burning off anymore. Here are a few more photos from today, which look MUCH better than it looks in person and MUCH better than it did a few days ago...

But the story doesn't end there.

First, Gary leaves at 5:30 in the morning for a business trip this morning. My dad comes to pick up Ella, who proceeds to wail as I force her in my dad's carseat. I go inside and feed Everett, who projectile vomits EVERYWHERE (oh yeah, did I mention he is now vomiting at least twice a day? yup, reflux city, part deux). So I have to give him a bath...alone. I then have to go to the doctor because...

For the past 3 days, I've been waking up with discharge in my right eye and my eyelashes stuck together. I don't think much of it until this morning when my left eye has the same issue. I get in with my opthamologist today, who tells me that I have a bacterial infection in my eyes!! I mean, really?! What am I, five? Who gets eye infections? He says it's not a big deal, I just need to take drops, and it could be from all my itching and then touching my eyes. However, I can't pick up the prescription today because I have to pick up Ella, and I can't do it with both of them since Ella will bolt.

After making dinner for Ella, I feed Everett, who once again projectile vomits all over me (which goes through my pants and my underwear!), the couch and himself.

I get him settled and get ready to bathe Ella, who pees in her potty. Good, right? Sure. Except that in trying to be a good little helper, she brings the plastic thing with pee in it to the sink to dump out and dumps half of it on the floor and IN MY RUNNING SHOES (ok so I'm not running yet, but I am trying to start!). Um, how do you clean pee out of running shoes?

Where's the wine?

It's Happened

2012-01-07T13:54:00.000-08:00

I'm doing exactly what I said I wouldn't do. Making my home the most useful and practical I can for kids rather than simply "pretty". So sad.

See my beautiful and rarely used living/dining room combo...well, that space will soon be a thing of the past. I'm tired of having such a large space be wasted. I thought about building a wall to make half the room enclosed so that it could be used for a playroom or craft room, but I think that will make the room too dark and claustrophobic feeling.

I'm also tired of having toys all over the family room and kitchen, and my kitchen island covered in crap (mail, keys, wallets, sunglasses, paperwork, bills) at all times because we have nowhere else to put it downstairs.

So, we are going to turn the LR/DR area into a family room/playroom. We will move the big couch into that room, wire that room for cable (which means Gary gets to buy another GIANT tv- great.) and hopefully find a great toy storage system so that I can *finally* stop looking at toys 24 hours a day. Seriously, does anyone else feel like vomiting when they see toys? Is it too much to ask to have a clutter free and clean home? I'm SO over living in a constant state of messy.

We will then move the dining room table (which has most recently been used as my sewing table) into what is now the family room. I think that will look cool- kind of an informal/formal dining room area attached to the kitchen. Since we will still have our fireplace and flat screen in the "old" family room (see photo below), I will move the LR couch (and maybe the two cute little LR chairs if they will fit) into this new dining area so there will be somewhere to sit besides dining room chairs.

If there is room, I also plan on putting either a couple of bookcases or storage units to house my fabric and some craft items since I will probably still use the DR table as a sewing table.

For the "new" family room, we obviously need some sort of entertainment center for the tv. I was thinking something like this...

The only issue with those is that I don't need any shelf space or bookcase...I need as much closed storage as possible. After all, the purpose of this change is to organize and HIDE all our crap.

I like low storage for the playroom part of the room like this...

I'd also like some sort of secretary desk to store all our mail and paperwork that ends up all over our kitchen island...

Soooooo, what I'd love to do is just go to Pottery Barn online and order $10,000-$15,000 worth of entertainment centers, storage, baskets, bins, etc. and have it delivered right to my front door. But alas, that is not an option. We need to keep costs way down in this little unnecessary redecorating/room change extravaganza. The next best option would be to have Gary and my dad build something exactly like what I would buy from PB, which they could do. However, between adjusting to a 2 year old and newborn and living in a house verging on a hoarders episode, my sanity can't wait for all kinds of fancy carpentry to be completed.

Therefore, my only option is to start searching for some deals! Of course, Ikea was our first stop. I actually think we can create a decent (and inexpensive!) room from there.

I'm thinking either the Billy series or the Besta series for the entertainment center. There isn't a photo of the combination we would do for either, but I have a few photos of each (except we would probably do them in white, not dark brown).

BILLY

BESTA

For the toy storage, I really like the Expedit bookcase with baskets (again probably in white, not dark brown)...

Although it's not the ideal situation, I'm still excited about getting to redecorate, and I'm going to try and make it as cute as possible. :)

Need Sleepy...

2012-01-06T06:29:00.000-08:00

May I edit my last entry? I've decided this new precious little bundle of joy may not be easier than Ella. He vomited TWICE last night. The first one was more a large spit up, the second one was a voluminous projectile vomit that I so fondly remember with Ella. No, he doesn't scream at the top of his lungs most of the night like Ella did, but what he does do is writhe in pain after every single feeding. For some reason over night, this means hours of constant VERY LOUD moaning like he's in torturous pain. For mommy and daddy, this means no sleep. Ever.

And there goes the difficulty with two kids. I would looooooove to take a nap today while Ella naps, however, I can pretty much guarantee you that Everett will be wide awake wanting to be held.

Has anyone else had a baby that does this? Terrible writhing in pain after eating? He is also EXTREMELY gassy and passes gas constantly during his feedings. I thought it was my breastmilk, but we've also tried giving him 2-3 formula bottles in a row, and he does the same thing (in fact, the two times he threw up last night were formula bottles)...maybe a cow's milk allergy? Maybe I should try soy formula?

I feel so bad for him. I want to make an appointment with a pediatric GI stat because this seems worse than Ella's reflux. He really seems like he is in terrible pain.

Life with Two...Thoughts after 1 Month & 4 Days...

2012-01-05T21:43:00.000-08:00

Alright, so while having a newborn and toddler is not as hard as I thought it would be, it is CRAZY. I think (actually, I know) it will get a bit easier once we are no longer zombies (please tell me this kid will start sleeping through the night soon?) because having two demanding little beings attached to you on top of being EXHAUSTED at all times is just ridiculous.

Here's the thing. There is NO DOWN TIME. None. Having just a newborn is hard and super time consuming as it is...constantly feeding, changing, washing (it's not like a 2 year old, who you can just throw a couple goldfish at if she gets snacky). But then you add in a toddler, who wants water, play doh, to draw, to watch Super Why, to go outside, to sit on your lap, to be held- you are always tending to someone.

Everett is easier than Ella in terms of not projectile vomiting 100 times a day and not screaming all night long, but I think he is much needier than Ella. She was perfectly content sitting in her boppy during the day. She would drink her bottle in 5 or 10 minutes. Everett gets fussy when he is alone- he is perfectly content as long as you are holding him. Seriously, if you held him all day long (which I feel like I do!), you probably wouldn't even have to feed him. He also takes much longer to eat than Ella did. Sometimes he'll pound his bottle, but he usually takes his sweet time, as half the bottle dribbles down his chin and neck, and I try to balance him, the bottle, and a burp cloth while trying to wipe up the milk before it settles in the creases of his neck.

So if you wonder why I don't answer the phone or respond to texts right away, it's probably because I'm either feeding Everett (which requires both hands and most of my concentration!), or I'm holding him while at the same time trying to load/unload the washing machine; wash dishes; get in a quick email or blog post; or paying attention to Ella. Oh, or if Ella is at school and Everett actually lets me set him down, I may be napping. :)

Anyway, along the lines of my post, this blog post from "Parenting Illustrated with Crappy Pictures" cracked me up. Especially this part: Go to bed. I can't handle one more minute of this parenting thing. I have to do this again tomorrow! How can I handle another day like this one? Nobody is listening to me! We all have those days (often?) where you put the kids to bed early because you just can't take another minute of parenting and then think how you have to do it all again tomorrow!!

So I pasted the post here for your enjoyment...

the uppers & downers of parenting (or, coffee & wine)

I am a drug addict. I use uppers and downers.
But only to make me a better parent.
I never drank coffee before I had kids. At least not in a "Fresh Pots!" sort of way. We didn't even own a coffee maker.
Back in those days, I looked down upon anyone who needed coffee in the morning. The more they required it the less I thought of them. They were weak. Slaves to the bean. Didn't they know it is a drug they are addicted to? Just stop drinking that shit and then you won't need it.
Then I had two kids.
Kids wake-up with energy. Kids wake-up with loudness.
Kids wake-up too f****** early.

No I will not play with you. Go away. I need coffee.
After coffee:

I don't need it. But they need me to have it.
I'll stop drinking it just as soon as they stop waking me up before the rooster crows.
(We don't actually have a rooster. Did you think we did when I wrote that? That would be cool. Maybe I should take this out and let you think we have a rooster.)
So that is my little helper pick-me-upper in the morning.
And then there is the evening.
Sometimes, after an especially rough day, I'm stressed out at night.
Everything sets me on edge. I'm a bundle of nervous thoughts.

Go to bed. I can't handle one more minute of this parenting thing. I have to do this again tomorrow! How can I handle another day like this one? Nobody is listening to me!
But then my husband hands me a glass of wine.
After wine:

Again, I don't need it. But they need me to have it.
So that is my occasional little calm-me-downer in the evening.
Coffee & wine. My unsung parenting tools.

One Month Old

2012-01-01T17:48:00.000-08:00

Everett is already 1 month old today! Time flies. He is such a good baby and so laid back. He is finally starting to wake up more so he is crying/being fussy more now, but it's still very rare. He sleeps a lot, but he eats every 3 hours. He wears preemie or newborn size diapers, and newborn size sleepers are still huge on him width-wise. He is just starting to make eye contact every once in a while, and he will sometimes track a rattle, but for the most part, he just looks every which way around him and stares into space!

Ella is still madly in love with him...I thought by now she'd be kind of over it, but she just adores him. When she wakes up in the morning or from her nap, the first thing she wants to do is go check on baby brother. She constantly wants to hold his hand, and she is always giving him kisses.

We took Everett out for his first real outing yesterday. Since he's still not supposed to be out unless we are outdoors, what better place then an outdoor mall?!

Funny that our first outings seem to always involve shopping! Here is the photo of our first outing with Ella to Baby Gap...

A few months ago, I met another great mama, who lives a street away from us and has a daughter the same age as Ella. Today the girls walked home from the park together...

And finally, the girls and I did a little pre-NYE girls night out, and I had my first margarita (well first alcohol drink at all) in almost a YEAR!!! It was d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s.

Baked Maple Donuts with Cinnamon Sugar

2011-12-31T13:04:00.000-08:00

(Not my photo)

I was hesitant to try these because the recipe sounds WAY too healthy for a good donut. No sugar and only a tablespoon of oil...there is no way a donut like that can taste good! Nevertheless, Gary loves donuts, and I'm pretty fond of them myself so I figured I'd try this recipe and went out and purchased THIS inexpensive donut pan.

I didn't have any real maple syrup on hand so I used Gary's light fake syrup, and I only had lowfat vanilla bean yogurt, not nonfat. They still turned out so yummy! Especially for having little oil and sugar and not being fried! They are also super quick and easy to make, which is great when you suddenly decide that you need donuts NOW on a Saturday morning.

We bought some real maple syrup this morning at Trader Joes so tomorrow I'm going to try making them with the real syrup and with either rice flower or Pamela's gluten free mix since Gary requested a gluten free version (not that the first batch being made with regular gluten-full flour prevented him from eating 4 of them at once!).

RECIPE HERE.

New Fabrics!

2011-12-29T13:45:00.000-08:00

I just purchased some adorable new fabrics! I can't wait to start sewing. I'm thinking they will look so cute in this style (or really any of the styles!)...

I like this one alone...

Or with this as a contrast...

This one alone...

And then these three alone or mix and match...

If anyone wants to pre-order before I list them on etsy, let me know!

My Three Favorite People...

2011-12-29T13:06:00.000-08:00

Christmas 2011

2011-12-27T14:04:00.000-08:00

Ella was very excited to spend Christmas Eve day with grammy and pop pop, and it was the first time they met Everett!

On Christmas morning, Ella opened her stocking...

Made sure Everett could see one of his gifts...

And played with one of her favorite gifts- this ~~obnoxious~~ beautiful pink sparkly dog purse...

However, I think her favorite gift of all was *finally* being allowed to hold her baby brother!

The dynamic duo in their matching reindeer pajamas (which I had to go to TWO stores to find and then wait in a 20 minute line to purchase)...

After opening stockings and gifts at home, we went to grandma and grandpa's house to open the million gifts that Santa left at their house and have a yummy Christmas dinner!

Siblings

2011-12-26T19:14:00.000-08:00

Everett

He had his weekly pediatrician appointment today (he is 26 days old, but I would have only been 37w3d today so really he's negative days old!). He weighs 5 lbs. 9 oz. He's gaining weight like a champ! He is 18.75 inches.

He is eating really well, still every 3 hours. He is the most laid back baby. He seriously just sleeps 90% of the time, and when he's awake, he'll just look around at everything. The *only* time he cries is when he's hungry, and even that is more of a fussiness than crying. It's so different than Ella who was screaming all night at this point.

Ella

Still in love with her baby broder. She is SO protective of him- it's adorable. She doesn't want to go anywhere without him. If he starts to fuss, she yells, "daddy check on him!!". Today at the doctor, Gary went to get her out of the car first, and she said, "no daddy, baby broder first." She also always talks about how "cute" he is. Today she looked at him and said, "cute, cute, cute." She is such a sweet big sister.

Mommy & Daddy

Are TIRED! I know we were tired with Ella (and should have been more tired since she barely slept at night for the first 8 weeks), but it seems so much worse this time. Could two years make that much of a difference? We are too old for this! I'm beyond tired 100% of the time. I can't get anything done because if I have a break from Ella, all I want to do is sleep, but no amount of cat naps help at all. I need to start cleaning, organizing and exercising, but I need an ounce of energy first! I hope this baby boy is as good of a sleeper as Ella...and SOON!

Christmas Playdate

2011-12-23T16:03:00.000-08:00

Ella was so excited for her pre-Christmas park playdate with Reese, Mason and Hannah. It's the first time she has been to the park OR hung out with her friends since Everett was born!

I finally got some more Christmas cookies finished. The problem is that the photo doesn't have the three other kinds I made (fudge, molasses cookies and Mexican wedding cakes) because we ate them all! This is why you can't make some cookies and then wait a week to make the rest. Oops.

This is what Everett and Rylee do most of the day. :)

And my sweet little Christmas angel...

Everett's First Visitor

2011-12-21T16:10:00.000-08:00

Auntie Katie came to visit Everett today, and it was his first official visitor! It was so fun having her over and getting some "boy" advice. ;) She's a good resource since she has two boys! It seems weird that he is 3 weeks old and had his first visitor today, but he's only been home for a week. He has quickly met some friends that have dropped off dinner too (btw, thank you so much Jen, Molly, Sarah & Tenille for dinners this week- it has been SO nice not having to eat cereal for dinner every night!!!).

We're still surviving over here. So far, Everett has been a much easier baby than Ella. He sleeps all.the.time. No signs of reflux yet, and he doesn't make a peep overnight (as opposed to Ella's screaming for hours) except at 3 a.m. when he wants some food- it's crazy, he's REALLY on the 3 hour schedule. We were setting our alarms to make sure we didn't skip a feed since he's still so tiny, but now he pretty much wakes up at 3 or 3.5 hours on the dot so he's our human alarm. If he remains this easygoing, I may consider having a third child...JUST KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!

Poor Ella is not doing as well as Everett. We found out she has her first ear infection! She never complains so I had no idea and felt like such a bad mommy. I have to admit, I'm happy it's a non-contagious ear infection rather than croup or something, but I do feel horrible that she feels bad. The doctor said we need to suction her nose because that is dripping into her throat and causing her cough. This poor kid. She is now on antibiotics, which I hear works really fast for ear infections so I'm expecting her to be almost 100% by tomorrow. We *finally* have a playdate planned with all her besties on Friday so I'm happy we caught this early in the week so she'll be in good spirits for her friends, who she constantly asks for. Well, she's been in good spirits anyway, but she'll also feel good. :)

Some Firsts...

2011-12-19T19:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went on our first walk...

And Everett had his first bath...

Here is Ella in the same towel for her first bath. :)

Everett had his first pediatrician appointment today. He weighs 4 lbs. 15 oz. so we are almost to 5 pounds- yay! He still looks really yellow to me so I insisted they test his bilirubin level...it was still 11, which is high. The ped said it was 13 when we left the hospital so since it's going down, he doesn't have to be under the lights, but I'm actually surprised they let him leave the NICU with such a high number- I think Ella's was like 5 or something when she was discharged. Other than that, she said he looks great, and she was surprised he did so well in the hospital and got out so soon given how early he was.

We spoke a lot about our little germ monster and her ever enduring phlegm cough that will NOT go away, but the ped said she is not contagious so while we shouldn't let her cough on him (or avoid it as much as possible since she hovers over him like a hawk), we shouldn't be overly concerned.

I'm still feeling really good and kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop. It's been so much easier than I had anticipated that I'm expecting it to get much worse very soon (easier, not easy!)...especially since it's only been 5 days! I'm trying to remember when Ella started projectile vomiting 100 times a day and screaming all night long, and Gary says it was right away so I'm PRAYING that we have escaped both things this time. We are VERY tired, but I can't complain too much since we only have to feed him once overnight (around 2 or 3 a.m.). Still, we typically go to bed early so staying up until 11 or 11:30 p.m. is tough!

Ella is still completely enthralled by him. She always wants to sit by him, touch him, kiss him- it's impossible to keep her away from him. I've heard it can take up to two weeks for the big sibling to start to get jealous though so we'll see. I think the two year age difference helps tremendously with curbing the jealously since it's still a bit young.

I can completely see how having two is much harder in terms of time and energy. I have no time to do anything but care for them. Someone always wants your attention, needs to be changed/fed/held. Especially since I feel that they both need a lot of attention right now, I'm *always* holding or playing with one of them. I'm sure it takes some practice and learning how to balance it all, but I understand what my friends of 2+ kids are talking about when they say they have no time for anything!

Still Going Good

2011-12-18T12:25:00.000-08:00

Things are still going well! Everett is starting to "wake up" a bit more and gets fussy sometimes, but for the most part he still sleeps most of the time (granted I would only have been 36 weeks on Friday!). Despite that, Gary and I don't seem to be getting much sleep, and we are TIRED. Ella is still enthralled with him and shows not a hint of jealously...YET. She is going a little bonkers from being stuck in the house 24 hours a day (throwing diapers around, taking her clothes off, hitting Rylee, etc.) so we had a little mommy/ella time this morning.

We went to Pretend City...

And made berry and kale smoothies when we got home :)

Ella Meets Her Little Brother & First Day Home

2011-12-16T11:40:00.000-08:00

Ella met her baby brother for the first time yesterday! She was a little shy at first, but then everything became about "baby broder". She wants to be around him all the time and wants to help us with everything. It's SO sweet. I hope it lasts, but we'll see how she is when I'm home alone with both of them and have to split my attention.

It's hard because she wants to be near him all the time, kiss him, hug him, touch him, and we can't let her get too close to him. The NICU doctors said to keep contact between them as limited as possible, and absolutely no other kids around him.

Everett's first day home went well. He just sleeps and eats. He is eating 45 ml every 3 hours right now. That's the best thing about the NICU- it gets them on an easy 3 hour feeding schedule. Dealing with the wee wee and circumcision is WEIRD. Baby girls are so much easier! He peed on his face, and I think some got in his mouth- oops. But we can't cover it up while we're trying to get ten tons of vaseline on it. ARGH! I'm sure it will get easier.

And OF COURSE, right before bed Ella vomited all over me, all over the couch and all over the family room rug. I don't think I've seen that much vomit come out of a human being. I mean, REALLY?! The FIRST day Everett comes home? I'm just praying it was some kind of food poisoning and not a virus. She doesn't have a fever and is acting fine, but it was the strangest thing. She was fine, and then she just looked at me and pulled an exorcist on me. Vomit EVERYWHERE! Puleez don't let the baby get sick!!!!! Our entire family room now smells like vomit, and it's disgusting...how do I get the smell out??!!

I'm SUPER tired today. He still doesn't cry at night, but he is so loud with his congested barnyard animal sounds. We only had to wake up once to feed him, but I didn't sleep most of the rest of the night either because I was either checking on him or listening to him.

Need sleepy! :)

Homecoming

2011-12-15T13:47:00.000-08:00

Baby Everett is home! I forgot how stressful the drive home is...4 pounds is waaaaaay to small for those big car seats! I kept checking to make sure he was breathing. Here is the same photo of Ella the day she came home (she looks a lot smaller, but he actually weighs less- weird)...

We had the nurse take a family photo (minus Ella) before we left the hospital...

Apparently, they had A LOT of milk left over that I had brought in over the last few days!

Good thing because I'm getting WAY less milk this time than I did with Ella. I think it's partially because my itchy nasty psoriasis rash is making me miserable and partially because my home pump is slowly losing suction (it may not make it through 4 kids Katie!!).

Cookies and Coming Home?

2011-12-14T20:33:00.000-08:00

Apparently Everett is coming home tomorrow, which makes me extremely anxious. We will know for sure tomorrow. I'm about to have a breakdown!

Oh, and I talked to the pediatrician, who did perform the circumcision today, and he said Everett did great, and everything went really well. I guess too well since clearly he didn't regress at all given that the nurse said he's coming home tomorrow!

Ella and I decided that we better make some Christmas cookies today since we may not have much time after tomorrow! My little helper...

2011-12-13T18:25:00.000-08:00

Everett is in an open crib now! He has also nippled all his feeds since yesterday at 5 p.m., which means he will be ready to come at 5 p.m. Wednesday if he doesn't have to be gavaged before then. I think this means the earliest he will come home is Thursday morning. However, he will be circumcised tomorrow morning so it is possible he will regress after that.

Isn't he so cute when he sleeps?! I could watch him all day...well I actually did do that today because I was at the nicu all day.

I'm considering making my blog private so only "invited" people can read it. Someone anonymous left an ignorant comment about how nice my priorities are for saying I want to attend a Christmas party while E stays in the nicu. Two things I can't stand are ignorance and stupidity. I sometimes forget that not only can my wonderful friends and family read this blog but so can any random crazy person. Heck yes I want him in the nicu so we can go to a party (which we deserve after all we've been through)...I'd actually be happy if he spent the entire winter in the nicu because I'm terrified of having him at home with my little germ monster. Until you've had TWO babies in the nicu, TWO preemies during winter and a preemie at the same time as a toddler, don't you DARE question my priorities. You have no idea how terrifying and stressful it is to have such a tiny baby with little immunities at home with no monitoring and no doctor nearby. I just don't like the thought of such ridiculous people having access to the blog so I will email everyone with the access information when (if?) I make it private. Plus, with my sarcastic mouth (which I do try to tone down in the blog!) It's probably better that only people that know me and my sense of humor read the blog! ;)

It was actually funny today because EC's nurse was joking with me and another nicu mama that we should leave our boys in until after new years so we can go out! Hee hee! I love the nurses there. I'm also meeting a lot of the other moms, and it's nice to commiserate!

Santa Disaster

2011-12-12T16:50:00.000-08:00

Visiting Santa was not meant to be this year. Since Everett may likely be home this week, and Ella is gone Tuesday through Thursday, today was the last day we had to visit Santa.

First of all, my mom was supposed to go with us, but she got sick and canceled, and Gary couldn't leave work so I had to take her myself even though I'm not supposed to be lifting her.

Second, of course it has to be POURING RAIN today.

Nevertheless and despite the fact that I'm still kind of sick, I get Ella all dressed up in her Christmas dress and shoes, run to the car and put her in the carseat as rain is soaking me. I get all the way to the mall, and I realize I forget my freaking camera! There is no way I'm paying the ridiculous package price and not even getting my own digital photos since their photos are always such bad quality. Sooo, we turn around and go back home. We don't have time to get back and visit Santa before I have to pump again so I promise Ella we will go see Santa after her nap.

The second I walk into her room after her nap, she says, "SANTA TAUS!" I figure that's a good sign even though I'm pretty sure she's still going to cry when she's sitting on his lap.

I AGAIN get her all dressed up in her dress and shoes, put her in the car in the pouring rain and head off to the mall. It's still pouring when we get there so I have to carry her into the mall from a far away parking spot all the while thinking, "I'm so going to pop my stitches."

We get in line for Santa, and there are only about 2 people in front of us- SCORE! I mean, what other nutjob is going to take their kid out in the pouring rain in their good clothes on a Monday afternoon?? Ella starts to act really clingy in line, and I know this is not going to end well.

As we approach Santa, he legs get tighter and tighter against my body...you all know this feeling. When I try to detach her from my side to put her on Santa's lap, she starts crying and clings on so tightly to my body that I think it would have taken a chisel to separate her from the side of me. I have no one with me to try and distract her or take photos for me so I just give up. Santa said, "this has been happening to me all day!" I was so sad because he was the cutest Santa too!

Alas, this is the the closest I could get her to Santa for a photo...

What The...?

2011-12-11T15:01:00.000-08:00

So what was it, like 2 or 3 posts ago that the nurse was telling me not to expect Everett to come home when Ella did and even called an OT to help him eat? Well, Gary went to the NICU today, and a different nurse said that they think he will go home soon? She said we may need to bring in the carseat tomorrow (they require a "carseat challenge" for nicu baby parents), and he my be circumcised tomorrow or Tuesday!

You'd think I'd be happy about this except that (a) I have come down with a cold, and I feel craptastic today; (b) I secretly like him in the NICU where I know he is safe, and a doctor is present...at least while he's still so little; and (c) since they told us he probably won't come home until after Ella (even Ella didn't come home until the equivalent of this upcoming Saturday), we made plans to attend our good friends' Christmas party, and we really want to go, which won't be possible if EC is home! I would much rather him come home the following week, which is still before Christmas, but he'll be bigger and stronger.

I'm hoping this nurse was just jumping the gun a bit because I have noticed that the nurses all tell you different things. She did say that sometimes the boys will regress after they are circumcised.

Oh, and I guess he is now nippling all but one feed per shift. He weighs 4lbs. 9oz. He weighed that much yesterday too- he only gained 10 grams since yesterday.

We took Ella and Rylee to the dog park today. Ella is obsessed with the dog park and is always asking to go.

Shopping for the Tree

2011-12-10T15:52:00.000-08:00

We finally went to get our Christmas tree this morning, which Ella picked out all by herself. The one in the first picture is what I'd really want if we had the time and energy this year to decorate and deal with a huge tree! Maybe next year...

Ella had to smell the tree to make sure it was a good one!

And this is how my little miss sassy pants stands all the time now. I keep thinking, "when did you turn 16?"

I went to spend some time with Everett while Ella was sleeping today, and I finally got some good face shots! I know I'm partial, but I think he's pretty handsome. :)

For comparison, here are a couple shots of Ella when she was in the NICU...do they look alike?

One Week Old

2011-12-09T19:34:00.000-08:00

He loves skin to skin- he is always OUT when he lays on me!

Baby

Everett was one week old yesterday (well he was born late at night so it's almost like he's a week old today). He weighed 4 lbs. 7 oz. yesterday, which means he gained another 2 ounces in a day! This kid is going to be a linebacker!

Today he was again 4lbs.7oz.- he only gained 20 grams, but that's ok. The nurse was saying that now that they are trying nippling more, he will probably gain less.

He is not doing well nippling his bottles so they had him meet with an OT (occupational therapist) today to help him eat. They all keep telling me that boys are much slower than girls, and girls do much better in the NICU so I shouldn't place the same expectations on him as Ella. I guess this means he may likely be in the NICU longer than 16 days. I'm just hoping that he will be home by Christmas so we can all be together as a family.

Me

I'm almost pain free, and I'm trying to not take percocet so that I can drive...even though I don't think you're supposed to drive for at least 3-4 weeks regardless...not going to happen...I have errands to run and holiday things to do!

I've lost 20 pounds in a week, which seems decent except that I lost 35 pounds in about 4-5 days last time.

Ella

She is still really excited about her baby brother, and I'm so sad she hasn't met him yet. I was planning on taking her this weekend, but one of the nurses said if they hear her cough, they will kick her out, and I know she'll cough- she has that cough that last months. I guess she may have to wait until he comes home.

She is being such a bully with Rylee and her friends (about sharing), and I don't know what to do about it. I don't get it because she is so sweet to Gary and I, so sweet to older kids and so gentle with babies, but when it comes to her friends, she pushes them, and she hits/kicks Rylee. I try ignoring it/doing something about it; yelling/not yelling; time-out/no time-out. Nothing works. She pushed Mason down so hard today when he tried to play with the buttons on her brother's pack n play that I cringed. Not only is it completely embarrassing, but it makes me sad and upset and I don't want her to be mean because I know that is not her nature. Not to mention, no one is going to want to play with her if she is mean to them! I actually cried after they left because I'm hormonal, and it upset me so much! We need to work on sharing.

She did crack me up this morning when we were in the car. She kept yelling, "CEE LO DADDY!". So Gary puts on "Forget You" while he and I were talking. I usually dance and sing the song with her, but since I wasn't paying attention, she goes, "MOMMY DANCE!!" She funny.

More Weight

2011-12-07T20:49:00.000-08:00

He looks ANGRY in this photo! That's because he hates the light that goes off on the camera when I shoot in manual.
I guess it's better to use flash since you get the photo before the angry face from the flash!
That tube is how he gets his food gavaged- it goes directly to his stomach.

EC weighs 4lbs. 5oz. today...back to his birth weight! Two ounces in one day is huge! I think we have a football player on our hands. ;)

I think we're going to take Ella to meet her brother this weekend. She is going to be so excited. She sleeps with her photo of him!

Still Doin Good!

2011-12-06T21:23:00.000-08:00

EC is still doing well. As of midnight last night, he weighed 4 lbs. 3 oz., which is great. I think he's growing faster than Ella because I remember her only going up in grams for a long time. He also nippled 17 of 27 ml of his bottle! Drinking out of a bottle takes A LOT of energy for a preemie so he was very tired when we got there, and his next feeding had to be gavaged, but at least he got to lay on my chest and "eat". ;)

We're hoping he keeps up the power eating so we can take him home before Christmas!!!

Coming Home

2011-12-06T09:12:00.000-08:00

I was finally allowed to come home yesterday! Before we left, while we were spending time with Everett, he had two Brady episodes. :( I HATE those. I actually forgot about them, but it's when their little heartrate drops because the coating on the nerve from the brain to the heart isn't developed. Of course this causes the alarms to set off and freak you out. It reminded my why I absolutely hate being in the NICU and how stressful it is.

I have never been so happy to be home in my life! Ella was kind of like, "who are you" for a while, but it didn't take her long to warm up. I keep showing her my incision so she understands that mommy has a boo boo and can't lift her, and why she can't jump on my stomach/lap. I think she was a little traumatized by the pumping...I've been trying to do it without her around, but last night, she just stood by the bed and stared with a "WTF?" look on her face! Then she started saying, "that off!". We're trying to explain to her that that is how we get Everett's food, but I think the whole pumping thing is a little much for her!

While I love being home, I did feel worse at home. I just didn't feel good, had more pain, etc. I think it's because I'm on less meds and doing a lot more. I should just be resting, but I keep walking up and down the stairs, playing with Ella, putting things away, etc.

I keep forgetting to post that Ella still has not met her little brother. Miss NEVER EVER gets sick started hacking up a lung on Friday. She has no fever and is acting normal so it may be nothing, but we're not taking any chances. So for now, she only gets to kiss his photo. :)

We're off to spend the morning in the NICU while Ella is at school!

Everett & Mama Update

2011-12-04T15:45:00.000-08:00

Doesn't he look like a little old man? I love it!

Everett is still doing really well. He weighs 4lbs. 1 oz. today. I think I forgot to mention in his birth story that they did initially see something that they thought may be a pneumothorax so they did two chest x-rays on him, but it seems like we were all clear there.

He is under the Bili lights today because his jaundice number was 12.1. Ella was also under the lights for several days because her numbers would go up and down.

This morning when I went to visit him, his nurse was giving him a bottle! Already! That was exciting, and I got to feed him some of his bottle. He did really well for his very first bottle. I believe he is now getting all breastmilk.

I think one of the biggest differences I've noticed between him and Ella is that Ella had *constant* apnea episodes where she would stop breathing and her machines would start beeping. It was so traumatic. I don't think Everett has had one episode any time I've been in the NICU with him- it's so refreshing and less stressful!

I'm doing well too- still very little or no pain. I do have some random blistery rash on various parts of my body that is super itchy so I'm not sure what that is about. I also started getting nose bleeds yesterday! I've never had a bloody nose so who knows what started that.

I'm still pumping every 3 hours, and sometimes even more often because I have nothing else to do! I may as well get as much milk as possible while E is in the hospital because once he comes home, all bets are off. I'm finally starting to get a good amount of milk so hopefully I can stock up.

My BP readings are STILL high so they wouldn't let me go home today even though they told me yesterday that I was going home. I cannot WAIT to go home tomorrow!

I talked to Everett's nurse today, and although she said, yes, they always say to expect them home at their due date, she would estimate E will be home between 36 and 38 weeks. He is 34w2d today so we have a quite a ways to go. We need that boy to maintain his temperatures and nipple all his feeds for 48 hours as soon as possible!

Introducing...

2011-12-03T15:02:00.000-08:00

Everett Cole

born 12.1.11 at 10:03 p.m.

4 pounds 5 ounces; 18 inches

Birth Story

2011-12-03T11:58:00.000-08:00

I hope I can remember everything! It started on Thursday (33w6d) when after I was told that I was not sick enough to deliver but too sick to go home (and probably wouldn't be having him until the following week earliest), my BP readings started to spike in the afternoon and evening. The bottom number was consistently in the 100s so my nurse said she had to call my doctor. I didn't even think twice about it because the top number was hovering in the 140s, which it had been for weeks (and I was told we needed readings in the 160/100 range to deliver)!

Next thing I know, my nurse comes back in my room and says "call your husband, you're having this baby tonight." Uh, WHAT?! At this point, I'm stunned and upset. How did it all of sudden go from you won't be having this baby any time soon to we need to deliver immediately? No one was giving me answers, I hadn't spoken with a doctor, and I was getting really upset. I couldn't understand why this was all so immediate- my numbers with Ella were MUCH worse, and even with her they waited until the next morning...why couldn't we wait until morning? I wanted *my* OB to deliver me, not some random on call OB.

My dad rushed over to our house to stay with Ella, and my mom and Gary rushed to the hospital to be with me. I finally got to meet with the on call OB, Dr. Hargrove, who I really really liked thankfully. She explained very thoroughly why they had to section me that night, and it made sense and calmed me down (even though now I don't really remember what she said!).

I was happy to find out that I didn't have to be on mag for the c/s (less happy that I would have to be on it immediately afterwards). It was all very fast. They wheeled me up, did the spinal, put up the sheet and started cutting!

The biggest differences between this time and last is that this time, I wasn't on mag so I wasn't out of it like I was last time. The other difference is that I felt CRAZY tugging and pulling this time. I did feel a bit of tugging last time, but this time, oh my gosh, I actually said, "is he stuck or something?" It didn't hurt, but it was slightly uncomfortable, and I couldn't believe I could feel it as much as I did. It turns out he WAS stuck!

At 10:03 p.m. on December 1, 2011, my adorable baby boy was born. He weighed 4 pounds 5 ounces and was 18 inches long. Ella (one day earlier) weighed 4 pounds 6 ounces and was 17.25 inches!

Preemies always take longer to cry so it seemed like FOREVER until I heard his cute little cry. After that, the nurses said, "this one is FEISTY!" I thought, "oh no, another one!"

I only got to see him for a split second as they wheeled him in the incubator to the NICU. Gary went with him, and I was wheeled into recovery. I was put on mag (boo), and I vomited FIVE times since I had eaten a huge dinner at 6:30 (there are very good reasons you are not allowed to eat before surgery!). After surgery, I saw even more why they needed to section me, as my BP results were high and were not going down.

Despite my pressures, my mag experience this time was MUCH better. I felt loopy and tired, but honestly, it wasn't that bad. I was on half the dose I was last time, which I'm sure helped, but last time I felt like I was going to die. This time, it was unpleasant and annoying, but I could deal with it.

Because when you are on mag, you are not allowed to get out of bed, they wheeled me into one of the 5th floor labor and delivery rooms until I was off mag. I don't remember much except that I could barely keep my eyes open on Friday. I just wanted to sleep. Oh, and get continuous pain meds (while on mag, they give you intravenous pain meds instead of percocet) because I was NOT going to make the same mistake I made with Ella and refuse pain meds and be miserable.

My nurse was the greatest and was so sweet and accommodating. The only thing I wasn't so fond of was that she made me start pumping within 6 hours of giving birth (apparently there is some rule about starting within 6 hours??). With Ella, I didn't start pumping until at least the next day (maybe later). However, so far it's been easy (even though I'm only getting little drops at this point) so I'll just keep up with it at the hospital...we'll see what happens at home. ;)

So all day Friday was pretty easy (besides the mag side effects), pain free (but it was the first day with Ella too), and all I was really doing was pumping and sleeping. I wasn't allowed any fluids (can you imagine?! After just having a baby!), and I wasn't hungry at all so that may have explained my yucky headache all day, although you'd think all the drugs would make it go away!

My Friday night nurse told me that they would be shutting off the mag at 11 p.m. (it has to be on for 24 hours), and I would be moving to the NICU floor. Um, is there some reason why we can't do this in the morning? Why I have to move floors in the middle of the night while exhausted, alone (Gary was at home with Ella) and scared to death of pain?

I was not happy, and I was super scared because this is where the real pain started last time- when I started moving around. I had an awful few days recovering from Ella because the pain was so bad. And this time I was alone! I was terrified to be in a room all by myself, with NO catheter and no one to help me with anything. Nonetheless, they pulled out the catheter (painless), moved me to the wheel chair (easy), wheeled me upstairs and got me situated in my new bed (no pain)! I was shocked! The worst part was coming off the mag because I was really loopy, extremely weak, and my arms and legs felt ridiculously heavy.

I thought that must have been a fluke, and the real pain would start once I had to go to the bathroom, but at 4 a.m., I called the nurse, she helped me to the bathroom, and it was easy peasy! Taking your meds on time every 4 hours makes a WORLD of difference!

My only concern now is that my BP continues to be very high. Many times higher than it was before I delivered! The doctor said they may have to put my on BP medication.

Anyway, I finally got to meet baby boy on Saturday morning. He is so cute! I think he looks a lot like Ella. The NICU nurse said he is really easy. She said he likes the pacifier (boo).

He's Here

2011-12-02T23:59:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't updated...I just got taken off mag a few minutes ago (and it's the middle of the night) so I've been pretty useless (and still am). I'll do a birth story, but quickly, he was born at 10:03 p.m. last night, December 1, 2011. He weighed 4lbs. 5oz. and is 18" long. We STILL don't have a name.

I actually haven't even seen him (other than for 1 second in the OR) because they won't let you get off the bed when you are on mag.

Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow, and I can do a proper update.

OMG!!!!!

2011-12-01T19:46:00.000-08:00

They are doing the c-section TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!! WTF?! My BPs have been bad since afternoon, but not as bad as with Ella, but they are still doing it tonight. I don't understand why they can't wait until morning?!

No Baby

2011-12-01T18:32:00.000-08:00

I'm admitted again. Probably for awhile. I don't know anything except it doesn't look like a baby tonight or tomorrow. I don't even want to talk about it.

Today is the Day I Had Ella

2011-11-30T10:18:00.000-08:00

33 weeks 5 days.

If we do the c/s on Friday, I'm hoping that those 2 extra days will make a huge difference, and we will have an easier time and shorter stay in the NICU.

This HAS to be a Record.

2011-11-29T20:13:00.000-08:00

Being admitted to the hospital 4 times in a week and a half? Three of those four times within 5 days??? That's right, I was admitted once again today.

I had my OB appointment this afternoon, and I knew my BP would be up since I was sitting in the waiting room for almost an hour by the time I got into the room. I could feel my legs swelling up as I sat there. It was 160/105.

I almost started crying in her office (and felt so stupid), and I told her how stressful it's been being on bedrest, that I'm not handling it well, that I've been so upset all the time, feel lonely, miss my time with Ella, was crying to Gary last night, etc. I just need some answers. An end date to this nonsense.

I also told her how I've been having dull headaches on and off since Friday, but I think they are sinus related (she said I don't know that, and pre-e headaches can vary in severity). I also have started to feel very fuzzy in the head, and although I haven't had visual disturbances in terms of tunnel vision, etc., I can tell something is going on with my vision, but I can't explain it- I just can't see right (same thing happened with Ella). So clearly, I'm very much on the edge.

She didn't like how I looked in general. I'm even more swollen (especially my face), and I've gained 5 lbs. in a week (which is better than the weeks I gained TEN pounds- gotta love swelling).

Sooooo, she said, "I really want to admit you." I BEGGED her not to send me to the hospital again. We went back and forth. And this is why I LOVE her so much- she is seriously the best OB in town- she tries to do everything possible to keep me happy and stress-free. She said as a doctor and knowing my history and current protein levels, she could not in good faith send me home with a BP reading of 160/105. So if I would go to the hospital today and my BP readings stabilized, she would let me go home tonight AND I could cancel my fetal monitoring appointment tomorrow...woot woot!

HOWEVER, she said if she didn't take my stress level and feelings into consideration, she would deliver me TODAY. She said she would call my peri and recommend that they section me on Friday!!!!

So back to the hospital I went. As I predicted, my readings went down and down and down. So I was permitted to go home. I have to go back on Thursday for fetal monitoring, and she said to bring my bag and be prepared for surgery that day. :( I asked the nurse what she would do if my BP and labs were still ok...would we do the c/s Friday? Or Monday as I am pushing for? She said we are really taking things one day at a time with me so she will make that determination on Thursday.

What does all this mean? I will have a preemie again, and I will likely have a preemie on Thursday or Friday. Ugh.

I Wish This For Ella...

2011-11-29T14:13:00.000-08:00

But the great part is that she WILL have this ability once she has her own daughter! It's not until then that you realize how much your parents love you, and how much they sacrificed for you. :)

The Rollercoaster Continues...

2011-11-28T14:13:00.000-08:00

They admitted me to the hospital AGAIN this morning!! COME ON! I went in for fetal monitoring, and my BPs were not good:
150/96
140/88
144/91
135/78
144/87
138/88
140/88
140/84

The even worse part is that the first one was reclining on my back, and the rest were almost completely laying down on my left side, which usually makes my numbers go way down.

Soooo, they called my OB, and she said they had to admit me again to monitor my BP for a while. Thankfully, the nice nurse told her that I *really* wanted to go home so they promised that if my BP went down and stayed stable, I could probably go home.

I was once again wheeled down to labor and delivery, and my first reading there was 155/94!! Sheesh! But the rest were:
139/77
131/77
130/81
126/86
128/81

These were all taken completely laying down on my left side. Can I just say how annoying it is to me that they keep making me take my BP like this? It lowers my readings by AT LEAST 15 points since my arm is above my heart rather than the proper way to take BP, which is in a sitting position with your arm the same level as your heart. I wasn't going to argue because all I wanted was to go home, and clearly it was working to make my numbers lower, but on the other hand, it scares me because they are really false readings so they aren't recording my true sitting BP, and I'm afraid that I'll suddenly get as sick as I did with Ella. Blah.

The nurse even said, "you're just hanging on. we're just trying to get the lowest numbers possible to keep baby in as long as possible." I wanted to say, "but they aren't real numbers!!"

In any event, after 4 hours, they called my OB again, and she said I could go home...Yippee! However, thanks to my BP's little 1.5 hour spike, I now have to do fetal monitoring at the hospital every other day! I almost said, "well then just admit me because it's more of a PITA for me to have to drive all the way to the hospital every other day".

I really have a feeling that my days at home are numbered.

Santataus

2011-11-27T19:23:00.000-08:00

better known as "Santa Claus" is Ella's new obsession, and it's pretty cute. She about freaked when she saw our neighbors who have a blow up lighted Santa and lights on their bushes...now I'm bummed we're not doing much outdoor decorating since Gary really doesn't have the time to put up all the lights and things when he has to do all the errands, cooking, taking care of ella, laundry, cleaning, etc. The first year she would really appreciate it, and we can't do it! However, we are going to take her to look at lights in this AMAZING neighborhood down the street from us- she's going to love it!

Christmas is going to be so fun this year!

Liar Liar

2011-11-26T20:05:00.000-08:00

Ella told her first real lie today! Gary went to pick up dinner, and our of nowhere she says, "daddy ripped my book". I didn't know what she was talking about, and then I saw one of her books laying on the ground with the back page completely ripped apart and the tabs all pulled out. I told her we had to put it away since she ripped it, and she said, "no daddy ripped". She has never done that before so I thought maybe Gary did accidentally rip it, and I asked him when he got home, and he said, "NO! She did it!" Then he made her apologize to me for lying...it was so funny...he goes, "say sorry to mommy for lying", and she says in that cute little quiet voice, "sowy mommy", and Gary says, "who ripped the book Ella?", and she goes, "Ella did".

But aside from the compulsive lying, does anyone else find this age the GREATEST? I'm not sure if she's growing up, or if she knows the baby is coming soon so she's being extra good, but in the past month or so, she seems more mature. She is becoming so sweet and really hilarious. She has just been so good all the time (even during the 3+ hours of hospital monitoring on Friday). It's almost like she feels bad for me and knows she needs to be really good right now since we are essentially a one parent household for the time being. Her speech has exploded, which may be helping as well because she can express herself and her needs very well. She's finally even starting to help clean up her toys, which she would never do before. She is extremely affectionate, always wanting to hug and kiss us. I am LOVING this time with her. I have a feeling this behavior won't last long after the baby comes, but at least I have a record of how fabulous it has been lately for when she throws a block at the baby's head or tries to push him off the couch. ;)

Hospital Monitoring

2011-11-25T21:36:00.000-08:00

I had my hospital monitoring today, which I thought would take about 30 minutes since they were just supposed to monitor the baby (20 mins), take my BP and take blood. It ended up being over 3 hours because they were deciding if I had to be re-admitted...I wish I would have known this since we brought Ella! They did initially have me in fetal diagnostics to do the 20 minutes of baby monitoring, BP check and an u/s to check fluid levels, but then they made me go to maternity triage to monitor me for over 2 hours and wait for lab results (which are still fine).

My BP readings were all over the place- two in the 140's over 80's, one 160/89 (very bad) and two in the low 130's over 80's, which is fine. I get MUCH lower readings if I lay on my left side (vs. sitting up in bed) so they told me to take it that way from now on.

I don't think my OB would have let me go home, but luckily the on call OB said he would let me go home...no argument from me! He said I have pre-e, it's just a matter of when it's going to hit so I can just keep monitoring myself at home. I am to come to the hospital if I get multiple readings of 140/90 over a 6 hour period OR if I have blurred vision or a headache that won't go away. I did have a dull headache all day today, but I think it was due to dehydration and not pre-e (I hope?). My BP readings the rest of the day were fine...130's over 80's except one 134/95.

I have to go back to the hospital on Monday for more monitoring, and then I have an OB appointment on Tuesday. I am SO over all this monitoring and appointments! But hey, at least I'm not working...can you imagine doing all this if you were still working?!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

2011-11-24T19:05:00.000-08:00

I got Ella this cute little "turkey" dress to wear with her knee high boots- so cute!

This is Rylee's normal position during dinner...begging...

Somehow once the pumpkin pie was served, Ella also learned how to beg...

A little silliness once the tryptophan kicked in...

And the only good part about being on strict bedrest...no cleaning duty!

I am so thankful this year for being able to celebrate turkey day with family and not in the hospital!!!!!!!!

I Think I May Be Heading Back?

2011-11-23T15:06:00.000-08:00

*EDITED*- I think it's ok...some readings are ok, and some are on the high side, but not like they were.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

My blood pressure readings keep being on the high side. :( The systolic (top number) is ranging between 131 and 155 (155 is outrageously high for me), and the diastolic (bottom number) seems to be staying really high between 90-99. The doctor said it's a problem when I get multiple readings of around 160/90 so we're almost there. It's NOT from lack of bedrest...I have not cheated at all. Not even so much as picked Ella up.

I'm still not having the headaches or visual disturbances, which indicate swelling in (or around?) the brain, and which I had really bad last time so I feel good about that.

It looks like we very well may have another preemie on our hands. NOOOO!!!! And Ella wasn't born for 7 more days!

Edited...just took it again...it was 142/86 so that's better. Still high for me, but not terrible.

YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE THIS...

2011-11-21T08:34:00.000-08:00

I'm going home today!!!!!!!!!!!! Hurray, Hurray, Hurray!!!!!!

I was shocked. It STILL was not my OB today, but her partner came in and said she she has good news...my OB, my peri and my OB's partner had a meeting and decided that because my numbers have been stable for an entire weekend, they will allow me to go home and monitor my own blood pressure (3x a day) *as long as* I do very strict bedrest at home. She said no taking care of Ella, really no nothing- I have to do just what I do here, which is lay around and be bored to tears. She made me promise that I have childcare full time.

Let's not get crazy here, it's still not going to be fun at home (especially now that I can't cheat!), and it will be a lot harder not having every meal brought to me (I guess I need a refrigerator upstairs?), but to have my OWN bed, my own tv, my DVR! Being there before Ella goes to bed and when she wakes up. Uh, heaven!

She did say the high amount of protein in my urine basically means I am on the road to getting pre-e again (it can mean other things like damaged kidneys) so it's very likely that my BP will go up, and the same thing will happen as last time so I'm definitely taking this seriously (I promise!).

It Finally Happened...

2011-11-20T06:29:00.000-08:00

After 64 hours with virtually no sleep, I finally got some sleep last night! Not as much as I'd want, but hey, I'm not complaining. It only took...64 hours of no sleep, a humidifier, my own blanket from home, my own pillow from home, an Ambien, covering the tv up with a sweatshirt (they don't turn off) and turning off the giant computer monitor. That's all. :)

I have this thing about taking drugs when I'm pregnant or breastfeeding so I'm really hesitant to take Ambien, but my nurse said you can take one a night, and it will not hurt the baby. Hmm. She said I really need to take one a night if necessary and get sleep here since after baby I can't!

It would have been nice if the lady from the lab didn't come in my room and wake me up at 5:15 A.M. to draw my blood. I mean, really? I was kind of annoyed because they came early 2 days ago to take my blood as well, but my nurse that night wouldn't let them come in because she said I needed sleep, and she did it herself when I woke up. I wish this nurse would have done that. I know they need the lab results early in case you start having issues and need an emergency-c or whatever, but sheesh.

The other issue that is NOT helping with the sleep situation (or my general discomfort) is that I have to keep track of all my pee (sorry if tmi)!! Can you imagine how irritating it is for a PREGNANT LADY, who pees at least every hour, to have to pee into that stupid little hat, measure the pee, write down the amount and time and then pour it back into the toilet?! During the day is bad enough, but over night, it wakes you up a little more each time you go...I need to talk to my doctor about this situation.

Some Positivity...

2011-11-19T17:13:00.000-08:00

Some cuddle time with my baby girl...

She loves to kiss and hug her baby brother...

My office sent me flowers! Could it be a more perfect day to receive such pretty flowers, when I've been on the verge of tears all day...it really brightened my day.

My room has a partial ocean view...

Hospital Update #5

2011-11-19T11:35:00.000-08:00

Frustration and sadness. That is how I feel.

My OB *still* didn't make rounds today, and today it wasn't even the other OB from her practice, it was one from their general large group, who said she has no way of contacting my OB. Thanks.

First of all, I AM NOT GOING HOME BEFORE BABY. Period. No matter how long. I want to cry. Given my history and the large amount of protein in my urine already, they cannot allow me to go home because I need constant monitoring. So I will be in the hospital for Thanksgiving. :(

My bp is still fine today (I think 126 over 73 or something), as I noted below, protein is high- 2,000. The OB today said that is moderate.

The OB today didn't have the wonderful bedside manner that my OB has so it just made it a bit worse. I'm already just emotional lately. I was trying to tell her I just feel really frustrated, I miss my baby, I cannot be in here for 6 weeks, but of course she basically told me what I already knew that we have to do what is best for the baby, which is keeping him in as long as possible (duh, of course I know that), and that to her, 34 weeks sounds really early so if my bp stays as is, I will be in this prison a lot longer than two weeks.

So I asked her if basically we are just waiting to see what my bp does, and we won't deliver unless/until my bp spikes, and she said no, if my labs go bad (which I know won't happen- they were good the day we delivered ella- the labs look for HELLP) OR I start having any of the pre-e symptoms (even if my bp is still ok), which are things like ongoing headache, visual disturbances, blurry vision or pain under the right breast. By this point with Ella, I was having a lot of the symptoms, but I didn't know they were symptoms of pre-e.

If it weren't for Ella, this would be 1,000 times easier. Is hospital bedrest fun for 4 or 6 weeks? Uh, no. But I could totally do it with no kid at home. I'm missing her more and more, I'm getting emotional, I'm totally bored, I don't feel like myself because I literally do NOT sleep at night (wide awake all night), and I feel bad because I know this is inconvenient for everyone. Poor Gary has to drive Ella here 1-2 times a day, which is up to two hours of drive time a day alone. He is now going to try and leave work early every Tuesday and Thursday to pick her up from school and bring her here, which obviously isn't good for his career. My mom now has to bring her here the days she has her, and we don't know what we're going to do on Mondays and Fridays from now on, especially since I don't think any of our nannies can do full days (if they can even do Mondays or Fridays at all). And don't get me started on the petty things like having basically NO tv channels...how can I survive without Real Housewives and having to watch commercials?? I'm stressed, sad and frustrated.

I'm sorry for the total pity party post. I'm just so sad today! My eyes keep watering, and I'm trying not to cry. I think it's a lot from lack of sleep. I know I'm being a total complainer, and it could be a lot worse so I just need to buck up! Maybe tomorrow.

So, I probably won't have as many updates now since nothing is going to change unless my BP spikes.

Poop

2011-11-18T21:30:00.000-08:00

Ella pooped in the potty tonight!!! This girl is going to potty train herself with no help from us...perfect for lazy parents. ;)

The only problem is that I've been promising her chocolate for weeks and weeks if she poops in the potty. Funny, because she's never even had chocolate so she doesn't know what it is, but I planned on giving her m&m's when we train her. I wasn't home tonight so Gary didn't give her chocolate, and now I feel like a liar! I just happen to have chocolate in my hospital room though so I'm going to give her a little bit tomorrow and explain that it is because she pooped in the potty...she probably won't understand, but she deserves a little treat for her accomplishment!

And yes, I understand that the fact that she pees in the potty every night and now has pooped in the potty means she is ready to be potty trained, but it's kind of hard to potty train when you are being falsely imprisoned. Plus, I don't want to officially start until after the baby comes since I feel like I'll do all this work, and then she'll regress because of the baby. I think I'll start when the baby is around 8-12 weeks old so hopefully I'll have my sanity back. :)

Hospital Update #4

2011-11-18T14:05:00.000-08:00

**UPDATE**...I'll do update #5 after my OB makes rounds tomorrow morning, but for my records, my 24 hour urine results came back at 2,000 (very high). For comparison, normal value is less than 150 milligrams within 24 hours. However, my number was 8,000 with Ella so it's still a lot lower than last time. I do not think they will be letting me leave. Hope to get more info tomorrow morning.

I'm so confused.

So as noted below, my nurse came in this morning after my OB's partner did rounds, and she said my OB and my perinatologist had discussed my situation, and no matter what the results of my 24 hour urine are, I will remain in the hospital until the baby comes. Fine.

But then about 15 minutes ago, my peri made rounds, and told me that HER recommendation is that I do strict bedrest at home and take my blood pressure twice a day. No need for daily protein dips since I'm already at +3, which is the highest the strips test.

Now I'm totally confused. So might I be going home? Or did my OB decide against the peri's recommendation and just decide to keep me here regardless?

My peri said that I officially do not have pre-e. Even if my 24 hour comes back at 8,000 like it did with Ella, it would still be considered just protein in my urine, and they will not deliver for that reason alone. She said I *must* have the high blood pressure for it to be pre-e and to justify an early delivery.

I guess that's good, but I had accepted the fact that I was probably going to have him at 34 weeks, I was happy with the date, and I could deal with being here for 2 weeks. Now I'm once again completely stressing. I don't think I can handle being here for more than 2 weeks. My peri said, "hey you may just make it to 38 weeks!" Um, NO. I refuse to be stuck in this hospital for 6 weeks. I refuse. If I didn't have a toddler at home, maybe. But I WILL NOT be away from her for 90% of the day for 6 weeks.

I just need to talk to my doctor. It sucks because she didn't do rounds today so I talked to her partner, now I've gotten conflicting information from the peri, and although they will talk to my OB after my results come back (they've already sent the urine to the lab), *I* won't get to talk to her. I wish she'd come in or call me. I need some answers. She is REALLY good about being understanding and working around my fears and concerns.

Now Gary is stressing because he really does NOT want me to do bedrest at home. He knows I cheat. And I can't deny that my swelling has gone down tremendously in the short time I've been hospitalized, and I feel better. My fingers *almost* look normal. My peri was saying that even if I'm in bed most of the day at home, even having to make meals can make a difference. Plus, at home, I'm constantly going up and down the stairs to get food, get a drink, let Rylee out to pee, whatever. So even when I think I'm doing strict bedrest, I guess I'm really not.

Someone tell me what is going on!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hospital Update #3

2011-11-18T09:15:00.000-08:00

**EDITED** My OB talked to my perinatologist, and they said no matter what the results of my 24 hour urine, I AM NOT GOING HOME before baby comes. They also agreed that pretty much no matter what my 24 hour results are, they plan on keeping the baby in until my bp and/or labs become a problem.

My OB's partner came in for rounds this morning. Sadness. It's pretty much 99.9% that I an NOT going home. :(

We won't know anything 100% until they get the 24 hour urine results (like if they are really bad I may be delivering tomorrow), but she said, "Please don't get your hopes up about going home. I really don't think you're leaving here before you have the baby." The reason is that even though my bp is still good (128 over 79 today), things change SO quickly with pre-e that you can have great results one day and start having seizures the next so they want me to be constantly monitored. My brain understands and knows that this is best for the baby (and me), but my heart just wants to be home with my family!!

They already got my lab results from this morning, and those are the same as yesterday so she is happy there has been no change there.

I told her this is killing me because I'm so Type A that I just need to know what's going on...like am I going to have this baby in the next couple days, or will I be here for 2 more weeks? Again, we won't know ANYTHING until the 24 hour results come back, but I tried to give her some scenarios. She said that even if the 24 hour results come back bad, since my bp is still low and my labs are good, they will likely keep the baby in until the bp starts to creep up and/or laps start going haywire.

She said 34 weeks is the big number so they want to keep him in until then, if possible. That will be December 2nd. At this point, I'm fine with that. I was hoping to get to 35 weeks, but knowing that I will no way make it past Christmas, I'd rather it be as far away from Christmas as possible.

She did say their goal is 36 weeks for me so we'll see.

Bottom line, she said they will keep the baby in as long as it is both healthy for me and him.

Hospital Update #2

2011-11-18T06:47:00.000-08:00

Whose body can even fight off Ambien? MINE can!

It all started last night when despite the fact I was dead tired, I couldn't even close my eyes. Finally at around 11 p.m. (which is LATE for me!), my nurse offered me Ambien, which I rejected because I have this thing about taking drugs when I'm pregnant (I did this with percocet after my c/s, and believe me, I won't be making that mistake again).

So for the next 2.5 hours, I lay wide awake. Not the awake where you are sort of sleeping, or tossing and turning, but the staring at the ceiling, watching tv, playing online, checking your phone kind of wide awake. I got so frustrated that at 1:30 a.m., I finally asked the nurse if I could have an Ambien. She is SO sweet- they are not supposed to give them out past 11 p.m., but I think she just felt so bad for me that she gave me one anyway. She also asked if I wanted to play soft music or anything, and I told what I really needed was a fan because we sleep with a fan at home...she offered to go find a fan for my room! How sweet is she?! She never did, but at least she tried.

I was so excited for the Ambien to kick in, but I don't think it ever did. I believe at most, I got two small stints of 30 minutes of sleep each from about 3:30 to 4:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. and 5:30 a.m.

I blame the hospital beds. I really don't remember them being THIS uncomfortable last time, but it's like sleeping on a slab of concrete with 2 pieces of cardboard for pillows. Really, is anyone able to sleep in the hospital??? Gary is bringing my pillow from home today so I think that will help tremendously! :)

Hospital Update

2011-11-17T19:43:00.000-08:00

It's been a crazy day! Testing, blood pressure, ultrasounds, steroid shots, moving rooms, ella visiting.

It started with my OB appointment this morning- my protein dip was +3, which is high, and the same number the dip was when I was admitted to have Ella. My OB said I could go home to get a bag, and then I had to go immediately to the hospital for labs, ultrasound and 24 hour urine testing. I got to the hospital around 11 a.m. and was told I was not allowed to eat or drink in case I needed surgery today. Once again, I was STARVING all day- I didn't get to eat until after 6 p.m., and all I had in the morning around 8:00 a.m. was a yogurt!

They won't let me leave so I have to spend the night and finish my 24 hour urine testing. Basically everything is dependent on the results of my 24 hour. My labs came back ok except for uric acid, which sounds great EXCEPT that when I had Ella, all my labs came back ok as well...except for uric acid!! My blood pressure was 128 over 70 so we're still ok there- that is actually the ONLY difference so far than when I was hospitalized to have Ella. I'm just praying that the 24 hour results come back low. I am finished with the test at 1:45 p.m. tomorrow, but I'm not sure how long it takes to get the results back. I got my first steroid shot (to mature the baby's lungs) at 12:45 today so I'll get another one tomorrow at the same time.

I'm really really hoping to be allowed to come home tomorrow, but both the nurse and my OB said based on my history, they don't think I'll be able to go home. :( The good news is that I just found out that they have FREE internet access!! Last time I was here they only had spotty pay access. Yay! This is extra good news because Gary was going to go buy a 3G ipad so I'd have internet access, and now we don't have to spend that money. ;)

We've kept in touch with our NICU nurse from when Ella was there, and she and I texted all afternoon, and then she came to visit me because she was working today. She made me feel a lot better. She said 32 weeks is not bad, and that every baby is different so even though we had a rough time with Ella for a while and she was farther along, that doesn't mean we won't have an easier time with this baby. She also promised to be in the OR with me- she used to only work 2 days a week, but she now works 5 days a week so as long as I don't deliver on a weekend, she'll be there. :)

Ella and Gary came to visit around 4 p.m., and at first, Ella wanted nothing to do with me...I think she was scared of the hospital bed, the thing attached to my belly and arm, the sounds, etc. She finally warmed up and wanted to cuddle on the bed with me. Then when they had to leave she said, "mommy come?!" When Gary said I have to stay here for the baby, she cried- it made my eyes water. I hate being away from her more than anything. We did take some photos (excuse her nasty school clothes with paint all over them- they came straight from school)...

I can't believe I'm even posting this photo, but you can sort of see how swollen my face is in this photo- huge nose, squinty eye, just gross...

This was her "pose" when I said we have to smile and pose for the camera!

This was her pouty lip when daddy took the phone to take a photo because she liked when we were taking them ourselves...

Generally I'm feeling ok- pretty much same as I have been. I'm happy because they finally let me be off monitoring, which means no blood pressure monitor that squeezes your arm off every.single.15.minutes, no heartbeat monitor on my belly, and most importantly, no leg compression machines that beep constantly all.night.long. (those were a nightmare last time). They will wake me up in the middle of the night to do one blood pressure monitoring, but I guess they won't really have to wake me up since I don't sleep for 1 second when I'm in the hospital.

My biggest fear right now is having another preemie. Aside from the traumatic NICU stay, having a preemie is just rough. The projectile vomiting 100 times a day, the developmental delays, just waiting for that smile that comes much later in a preemie is SO stressful.

Why can't my body just work right??????!!!!!!

Going to Hospital :(

2011-11-17T10:30:00.001-08:00

Protein in urine again so I have to be admitted to the hospital. I'm only going to be 32 weeks tomorrow so we need to keep this baby in!

I guess I do need Christmas gifts for baby boy...at least I started a wishlist for him!
http://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/2V11Q2CP4P9V3/ref=cm_wl_rlist_go_o

First Dentist Appointment

2011-11-15T08:04:00.000-08:00

Ella went to the dentist for the first time yesterday!

It was pointless because she wouldn't open her mouth, and they won't force them, so we basically met the dentist and left! He said we need to come back in 6 months. He better be willing to force her mouth open at that point because he clearly is unaware of my child's stubbornness! At least it was nice to meet the dentist- I really liked him. He is the dad of one of the girl's in Ella's class!

Girls' Night Out & Father of the Bride

2011-11-13T18:46:00.000-08:00

I have been feeling worse and worse everyday...not good. But I am so grateful for Jen, Molly, Tenille, Dee and Sarah who treated me to a wonderful girls' night out baby sprinkle dinner and fabulous gifts because they completely took my mind off how I'm feeling, made me laugh and I felt better than I have in days (it was another story when I got home and my feet had swollen to the size of pineapples and Gary had to rub them at 11 p.m.)!

I pretty much stayed in bed the rest of the weekend. I feel like I may be getting sick, which doesn't help, but my entire body HURTS bad. My knees, ankles, feet, hands...I can barely walk half the time. It's the weirdest feeling, but it's as if my knees cannot support my body! I can't remember if I felt this bad last time so I don't know if it's just swelling related or something else. I also feel very loopy all the time. I don't know how I'm going to make it much longer feeling like this!

The one bright spot is that Ella now loves to sit in bed with me (she's obsessed with pillows), and so we watched Father of the Bride together...her first viewing (of many)! Ok, we watched about 15 minutes, but it was so fun to cuddle with her in bed and watch one of my very favorite movies of all time. I haven't watched it since I've had her, and I was cracking up because I think George Banks is based on Gary!! That will SO be him.

Aprons, Burritos and Baby

2011-11-10T11:58:00.000-08:00

I made Ella this cute little apron to carry around all her treasures. She loves using her "purses", which can just be a reusable grocery bag, and filling them up with random toys so I think she'll love to tie this around her waist and fill it with toys. I'm trying to save it for Christmas, but I may give it to her sooner. I'm thinking of selling these in my Etsy store soon!

Breakfast Burritos
Does anyone else's husband love breakfast burritos? I think it's a guy thing. Gary loves them so I've been constantly buying those two pack of breakfast burritos at Trader Joes for him, but they are super small and around $3.00 (he can easily eat 2 at once so that adds up to $21/week if he eats them everyday!). I got the idea online to make them from scratch in bulk and freeze them yourself! Brilliant!

You can use whatever you like, but I did an entire bag of frozen breakfast potatoes mixed with about 3/4 cup chopped onions, some butter and salt and pepper. I separately cooked about 12-14 eggs, to which I added 7 pieces of crumbled bacon. Gary wanted sausage instead of bacon, but I had bacon left over from another recipe that I didn't want to waste so he'll have to wait until the next batch for sausage! Now, if these were for me, you can be sure I'd add a bunch of shredded cheese to each burrito, but Gary wouldn't let me add cheese. :(

This made NINE large burritos (it would have made 10, but I saved some of the insides for me to eat for breakfast)! Easy and cheap! After you make them, you throw them into the freezer like this to flash freeze them before you individually wrap them up.

BABY BOY
We had another perinatologist appointment today. We finally got to see baby boy in 4D (he's never been in the right position previously), but I can't remember if he looks like Ella. I'm not big on posting ultrasound photos online, but if I can find Ella's 4D u/s photos, I may post one of each to see if you think they look alike yet. :)

He weighs 3 lbs. 7 oz., which seems really big to me for 31 weeks, but she said it's the 40th percentile so I guess it's not that big. Ella was 4 lbs. 6 oz. at 33 weeks.

I'm really starting to feel like complete CRAP all.the.time., and I'm swelling like a beast (honestly, my face is like 6 times it's normal size and looks deformed), but my blood pressure was only 100 over 60 today so I'll take the swelling as long as my BP and protein in my urine stay low!!!!!! Nonetheless, based on my swelling alone, it's looking less and less likely that I'll make it anywhere near January. :(

Delicious Dinner- Beef Stroganoff and Black Magic Cake

2011-11-08T19:50:00.000-08:00

Crockpot Beef Stroganoff

Even if you hate beef stroganoff (which I though I did) and hate egg noodles (which I do), you should *still* make this recipe...it is SOOOO good! And super easy, which is my number one priority given that I'm on bedrest now. The recipe is HERE. I served it over egg noodles that I had mixed with a little bit of butter- YUM! Even Ella liked it (well, the noodles and sauce not the meat).
*I added a bit of garlic salt to the crockpot, and I used about 5 oz. of cream cheese.

Black Magic Cake

For dessert I made was said to the be the "best chocolate cake ever"- Black Magic Cake. It definitely wasn't the best chocolate cake I've ever had (although I'm not a huge fan of chocolate cake in general so I may not be the best taste-tester), but it's really really good and easy to make. Recipe HERE.

Baby Brunch

2011-11-07T12:19:00.000-08:00

Julie, Tracy, Kristyn and Jen took me out to brunch to celebrate baby boy!

Thank you so much girls for the adorable clothes and necessities and delicious brunch!!! Julie brought us each the yummiest favors ever...Sprinkles cupcakes!

It was so fun having some kid-free girl time...we need to do that more often!

Some More Craftiness

2011-11-06T08:59:00.000-08:00

Ella's Thanksgiving dress that I made with a onesie and upholstery fabric for the skirt!

Coordinating Big Sister and Lil Bro shirts...

I made this easy dress for myself, which will look much cuter on when I'm not a pregnant whale! If you'd like to make one for yourself, the tutorial is HERE. Do yourself a favor and make it with a regular cotton like she did and not a very thin, stretchy jersey knit like I did! Also, she says just to get a cheap tank, but I would still use a better quality tank because even the tops of the cheap ones don't fit right and stretch all out looking sloppy.

Bedrest Update

2011-11-02T11:44:00.000-07:00

I had my weekly OB appointment today, and it went great! I'm now on sort of modified bedrest- woo hoo!! Not really, but she said while I'm still on bedrest, I can take care of Ella when I don't have childcare...this is a huge relief to me, since as you know, my main concern was time with Ella. And now I feel like my once a week "cheat" couple hours isn't really cheating as much. ;) I do need to really not do more than that though because it's obviously been working...

BP is still low
I LOST a pound (not from lack of eating given my diet of candy bars and french fries so a definite indication of less swelling!)
She said I look less swollen

So now I only have to go every 2 weeks to the OB (still every 4 weeks to the peri). I'm also still being threatend with hospitalization if *anything* changes so trust me, I'm not going to take advantage!

The bad news is that she once again said she does not believe I will make it to January, and she is thinking I will deliver at 36 or 37 weeks (if I make it that far) even if I don't have pre-e at that point because they weigh the risks and benefits, and at that point, the risks outweigh the benefits of keeping the baby in since the baby is term, but I am so high risk and have such a great chance of getting pre-e. I'm so bummed...I really really didn't want a Christmas baby. 36 weeks would be December 16th so that's what I'm hoping for because 37 weeks is December 23rd- that would be awful...his birthday would be way too close to Christmas, and I'd be in the hospital on Christmas day!! I'm wondering if she might do the week after Christmas because obviously she doesn't want to be in the hospital then either! I'd still much rather have him December 16th, but I guess the week after Christmas will be better than the 23rd.

Our "goal" is for me to make it to at least 35 weeks, and I really think I will this time!

Elvis & The Bee

2011-11-01T12:07:00.001-07:00

I forgot to add this video to my Halloween post below, but this is how excited Ella was about Trick or Treating! Elvis is her boyfriend, Mason, and the running watermelon is Reese.

Happy Halloween Weekend!

2011-10-31T20:07:00.000-07:00

Ella had fun with her friends over Halloween weekend. She went to a Halloween party with our mommy group and actually kept her headband on for about 15 minutes.

Reese, Reagan and Ella...

This is what happens almost every time that we try to get a group shot of the kids...

Even the giant group shot of all the kids in attendance was a disaster...

Daddy took her to Pretend City's Halloween party where she got to play with Ryan...

On Halloween night, we had a little pre-party at our friends' house, and then Ella got to trick or treat with her besties...Ryan, Reese, Mason, Hannah (Logan was a little under the weather). She LOVED TOTing- it was so fun watching her run from house to house, squealing with delight! She got over it fairly quickly and wanted to be held, but I cannot wait for next year!

This is just funny...Reese is crying, Ella looks drunk, Ryan is about to fall off the stairs and we are all worried about Ryan!

There is not coffee in those coffee cups they are holding. ;)

My Halloween costume. :)

Pumpkin Cookies!

2011-10-31T12:58:00.000-07:00

My obsession with frosted sugar cookies continues...Ella and I made these for her friends. :)

Ready for friends...

Since cupcakes are kind of yesterday, is there any way that I can make sugar cookies the new cupcakes and have my very own cookie store?! ;)~

A Better Update

2011-10-27T12:38:00.000-07:00

Since I was bored on bedrest, I of course decided to do some research on preeclampsia (never a good idea), and I found out about HELLP Syndrome, which is related to but more serious than pre-e. I convinced myself that I definitely had it last time, and that I'm probably getting it this time since I have most of the symptoms already AND it doesn't require high blood pressure and protein in your urine like pre-e does. So naturally, I'm totally freaked out all day yesterday!

BUT, my OB's office called me late yesterday and said all my labs came back good! I specifically asked her if they tested for low platelet count and elevated liver enzymes (which are present with HELLP), and she said, "they look good- that is what Dr. K was most concerned with". Phew! And I so love my OB. Clearly, she was aware I'm showing symptoms of HELLP and is on top of it. Love her!

So, I think we're still on a good path to keeping this baby in past November! Yay! Now, if I can just figure out a way to get off bedrest, I'll be good to go. :)

[Not so Great] Pregnancy Update...

2011-10-25T11:47:00.000-07:00

I had an OB appointment today (I'm 28w4d), and I was put on strict bedrest because she is VERY concerned about my excessive swelling. That means I am only allowed to get up to go the bathroom and shower (she specifically said I can't even cook or do laundry!). She also said I will not make it January (she set the c/s for 1-9-12, but it is a "fake" date)...I'm SO upset. I cried on the way home.

If my swelling does not go down, I will be hospitalized. I'm not sure how long she will give it to go down, but I now have to see her every week so she'll be monitoring it closely.

I'm trying not be so upset, but (1) I absolutely CANNOT deal with having another preemie- it is way too stressful; (2) I do not want another nightmare delivery, especially one involving magnesium sulfate- the most evil drug in the world; and (3) these are the last months (weeks?) I have with just me and Ella, and *I* want to take care of her and spend every second I can with her- it makes me so sad to think that I will be stuck in bed during this time.

Don't even get me started on the fact that it is holiday time, and I want to sew, bake, have parties, etc.

To end on a positive note, I passed my gestational diabetes test- hurray! There is currently no protein in my urine and my BP was 100 over 80 (although this doesn't mean much since pre-e hits hard and very suddenly). Also, my OB did say that she has had patients with eclampsia at 25 weeks that she has hospitalized and kept the baby in for much longer. This really makes me feel better since hopefully even if I do take a turn for the worse, she may be able to keep the baby in past 33 1/2 weeks like last time.

Craft & Sewing Extravaganza!

2011-10-24T12:44:00.000-07:00

Thanks to pinterest, I've been feeling very inspired lately. Some recent projects...

This is so easy- I bought a pack of make your foam jack-o-lanterns at Joann. There were 25 or 30 in the pack. Then I bought the black foam letters, which have sticky on the back and the black ribbon, which I glue-gunned to the pumpkins. Since I had leftover, I made one for Ella's door.

I decided to try sewing with jersey knit...which is actually more difficult than you'd think, especially when you aren't using the right type of needle and you pick a VERY stretchy jersey! In any event, I think this jersey peasant dress turned out really cute...and it's SUPER soft.

Ella's Thanksgiving shirt.

Probably medium difficulty? More time consuming than difficult. I just cut out 2 circles on my Cricut to make the turkey shape in brown minky dot. I also traced that shape onto the location of the shirt where I wanted it using a sewing pen. Hand-sewed the face on (I don't have an embroidery machine). I made the each "feather" by just putting a dab of glue gun glue at the bottom and then affixed them where I wanted them on the shirt with double sided sewing tape. I then used the sticky paper to iron the turkey body on the shirt. Then used my zig zag stitch around the turkey body (again, this would be WAY easier if I had an embroidery machine- or even an embroidery stitch, which my machine doesn't have).

And finally, daddy's shirt dress. What baby girl doesn't want to wear her daddy's shirt?! Love it!

I think Gary is most excited about this dress since this was his favorite shirt, and he was SO sad when he got a big hole in it. Apparently so sad that he's been keeping it in his closet for months and months...usually he just throws them in the trash!

I'm thinking of maybe selling these for $25 (since I don't have to use my fabric), but then that would involve people sending me their shirts, and it's probably more trouble than it's worth.

Railroad and Pumpkins

2011-10-23T16:23:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the "Pumpkin Run" at Goat Hill Junction Railroad with Mason, Hannah, Logan, Gigi, and Ryan. It's a non-profit organization that has a huge area of mini railroad tracks and little trains you can ride like this:

The kids all had a great time riding the trains, but Ella especially loved picking out pumpkins- it was a really fun family day with friends!

This is how we roll at home...bunny sitting at the top of the slide on a blankie waiting to ride, no shirt, no shoes, handbags on each arm. Yup.

Ella-isms

2011-10-17T21:19:00.000-07:00

First of all, do you just love this face?! That's the smile I get when I say, "you have to smile for mommy if you want another gummy". ;)

I just wanted to post a few "ella-isms". We've been working on saying "you're welcome", but she just couldn't quite grasp that one despite her love for "please" and "thank you". However, recently when she says "thank you", she goes, "thank you mommy welcome". Ha! I think today she *finally* started to get it because a couple times when I said "thank you" to her, she actually said, "you're welcome!".

She also just started to say "ewww". Where in the world could she have gotten that one from? She saw a little pile of wet grass today that apparently she thought was dog poop, and she goes, "ewww, poop!" She also says ewww about bugs, which is not good- I need to stop saying that!

I think she is just starting to not always refer to herself in the third person...I wondered when they stop doing that. She still says "Ella house" or "Ella eat", but when she wants something, she is starting to say "I want". Since Thursday night, she has been saying, "I want daddy home". And it seems like now she'll say "I want" for anything she wants. Now we just need to teach her "my".

Finally, how about this mad face...

Two GREAT Recipes- Broccoli Cheddar Soup & Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-10-16T19:27:00.000-07:00

I made the two most fabulous recipes tonight...try them both immediately! They are both easy and delicious.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup (knockoff of Panera)
Recipe HERE.

*Notes: I certainly did not make homemade bread bowls- I don't like broccoli cheddar soup in a bread bowl, but if I did, I'd buy one! Also, I did not add nutmeg and added slightly less than 1/4 tsp. cardamom. I added more than 1/2 cup onions.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies (knockoff of Paradise Bakery)
Recipe HERE.

I don't know if you all have had Paradise Bakery's coconut chocolate chip cookies, but they are the BEST cookies in the world and by far my favorite. I wouldn't even attempt to copy them except that they closed the Paradise Bakery by us so I was forced to search the internet for a knockoff recipe. This isn't exactly like them, but they are SOOO good! I doubled the recipe and instead of making them tablespoon size, I used a 1.5 or 2" scoop so they would be really big just like Paradise Bakery. :)

Zoomars

2011-10-14T14:58:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Zoomars with Mason, Reagan and Reese. Ella is STILL afraid of the bunnies and guinea pigs! I'm so surprised because she loves animals...apparently from a distance. You'll note she was reaching for me and then sat Indian style on a log so as to ensure that no animal touched her leg. ;)

She did seem to like the llamas, which I kept telling her were from the books.

I think I mentioned how she HATES taking pictures now? Well, this is what happened when we tried to get a cute group shot...

She did love the slide...

And playing with Mason...

They rode the train...

And once I gave her food, she agreed to take a few photos. ;)

Ella is TWO! (and baby is 27 weeks)

2011-10-13T12:37:00.000-07:00

Ella at TWO

Height: 36 1/4" (95th percentile!!)
Weight: 28 lbs. (70th percentile)

Ella is in a size 6 diaper and between an 18-24month and 2T in clothes. She is a good eater, but definitely loves snacky foods (just like mommy!). Her favorite vegetables are broccoli and green beans. We still don't give her juice, but she loves water and LOVES milk. I'm not sure what her favorite food is, but she does ask for cupcakes (which she calls pancakes) often, which is pretty funny since we generally don't allow her to have sweets yet so she's only had them maybe 3 or 4 times!

She still doesn't scream or throw screaming tantrums (but does sometimes just sit down), and every time I hear a child screaming in the store, I feel SO fortunate that Ella has never once done that (yet!). She is very confident, friendly and outgoing, but she will get shy. In stores, she will say "hi" to every person that walks by, but if someone says hi to her first, she tends to get shy. She can get a little pushy with her friends and don't even think about sitting on her chair! She is definitely starting to push limits and test us, but she just laughs when you put her in time-out (this is a problem!). The most regular thing she get placed in time-out for is hitting, kicking or pulling the hair of Rylee. So far, I don't have much to complain about. She is so happy, and I LOVE being with her. She constantly makes us laugh. Our lives must have been so boring before her!

She is FINALLY becoming more of a mama's girl! It only took 2 years. ;) Of course she still adores her daddy, but she often prefers me in the mornings and late afternoons, which is a change. She is definitely more clingy and cuddly than she used to be, but she is still fiercely independent.

Her favorite toys by far are her baby dolls. They are pretty much all she plays with. She will lay them all face down on the floor and put blankets entirely covering them (it looks a bit scary in our house). She pushes them around in her shopping carts and stroller as well. She also loves books, and Llama Llama books are her favorites right now.

She is talking up a storm and understands EVERYTHING. We need to remember that more often.

When we were going through the infertility years, I would often ask why we were being punished. Why we weren't able to have a baby. What did we do to deserve this? Now I know that we were meant to wait for Ella to come into our lives. She is our everything.

Pregnancy/ Baby

I'm starting to not feel good at all. I'm swelling up all the time and generally don't feel good. It's REALLY hard taking care of toddler while pregnant and swollen. I'm getting really paranoid that I'm getting pre-e again because of the swelling, but my blood pressure is still low.

We had a perinatologist appointment today, and baby weights 1 lb. 15oz. (I'll be 27 weeks tomorrow). At first they said his abdomen was measuring small, but they thought it was due to position (i.e. they couldn't get a great measurement). The doctor measured again after the tech and got a better measurement so I think all is good, but I couldn't tell because he was saying it's nothing to worry about now...I was thinking, well when DO you worry about it?!

Happy 2nd Birthday Ella! Pink and Orange Balloon Themed Party...

2011-10-09T08:47:00.000-07:00

Ella's 2nd birthday party was yesterday (on her actual birthday), and I think it was a huge success! I didn't scale back much this year, but we did do it at our house, which made it much easier. I remembered to get some photos before the party started, but once guests arrived, I hardly got any photos of Ella or anyone else!

The invitation.

The front yard and some closeups (can you tell I became obsessed with balloon flowers? It was windy so they kept turning around- I will do centers on the back next time!)...

My mom made this balloon wreath for the front door- isn't it cute?! You can find directions here.

The backyard. I lined all the flowerbeds with balloon flowers (good thing since almost everything else in them is dead!) and hung balloons from the trees...

We have a big fountain in our backyard that is clearly not appropriate for babies so instead of water, we filled it with balloons for "Balloon Ping Pong"!

The paddles...

The sweets and snack table (the main course- make your own chicken tacos- were inside).

On the right are the white chocolate covered oreo pops that I monogrammed. They were a huge hit so I'll definitely have to make them again!

I made these cupcake toppers using pink/white baker's twine as the balloon strings...

I made these balloon cookies- some on sticks, others not.

Yes, I even color-coordinated the veggie tray (my mom asked if she could add some celery, and I said, "celery is GREEN mom!")

I had 18 of the huge 36" balloons, but they take up SO much helium and are SO difficult to blow up/tie that we only blew up 6 of them with helium- 3 for the sweets table and 3 for the bbq area...

We hung a bunch of different size paper lanterns from the patio cover...

Inside. Ella's birthday banner I made- I love how it turned out- that is pink/white baker's twine that I used to string it together and as the balloon strings. The silhouette in the center is the same one I used on the invitations.

Her ONE year birthday photos had to be decorated!

We filled the entire ceiling of the family room with balloons (Gary and I both had blisters on our fingers from tying balloons- remember I bought 518?!).

Some of the few Ella shots...

With grandma, grandpa and grammy...

Think she liked her cupcake?

I LOVE this photo of Ella and her Godsister, Sydney, because she is so happy to be "holding" her- it's the first time EVER that she's done that fake smile...she usually turns her head and yells NO! whenever I get near her with a camera. :)

The favors. I spray painted the boxes, used scrapbook paper for the orange polka dot, grosgrain ribbon, and adorable stickers from this Etsy seller.

Ella's dress that I made (and the fabric that inspired the entire color scheme!). It was supposed to have tulle around the waist, tied in a big bow in the back, but I was running so late getting everything set up that I didn't have time to put it on her before the party started!

I have to give credit to this beautiful party, which gave me so much inspiration!!

This is SO True!!

2011-09-30T15:53:00.001-07:00

The Good...and the UGLY

2011-09-30T13:29:00.000-07:00

The Good: Today, Ella said "like a diamond in the sky, twinkle, twinkle"...word for word! Didn't even miss an "a" or an "in". Pretty good, right?

The UGLY: I almost thought I was going to cry when we got home from lunch today. I know I'm lucky in that Ella is a pretty easy, well behaved kid for the most part. But that makes it even harder when she acts like a "normal" two year old. She was a NIGHTMARE at lunch today. As her friends Reese and Mason sat there well behaved, Ella was throwing cheerios on the floor, spilling pepper on the table, throwing her shoes across the restaurant, etc. Then she wouldn't sit in her high chair anymore, refused to sit on my lap and started running around the restaurant like a psycho. When I tried to pick her up, she lunged back and forth and hit me in the mouth with her head really hard. When all of us were trying to leave, instead of walking towards the parking lot, she kept running the opposite direction and laughing. She will usually listen to me, but today, she would NOT listen, and I just can't chase her around anymore like I used to. I was so embarrassed and upset that I wouldn't even look at her in the car on the way home. It put me in the worst mood and being a crazy pregnant lady, I almost cried after I put her down for her nap. Being pregnant with a toddler is the WORST!!!!!

**Can I just update this post to say that after her nap, Ella had her FOURTH and FIFTH poop. She peeled off the tape that is holding up the tiles on our hearth and stuck it all to her face. She then took all Rylee's food and put it in Rylee's water bowl. Am I being punished?????

Update-athon

2011-09-29T07:56:00.000-07:00

Ella

Only 9 days until she turns TWO, and we have her little shindig at the house. I can't believe I almost have a 2 year old!

She can say a lot of the alphabet, but she skips some letters here and there, and on 9/23/11, she counted to ten! Well, she went 1..2..3..4..5....8..9..10. I never liked 6 and 7 anyway. She can also name all 26 animals in her Baby Einstein animal book...and they have some weird ones like Newt (do you even know what that is?!) and Yak.

Her eye is essentially healed. I'm SHOCKED at how fast it has healed. Really, you can barely see it anymore.

Pregnancy

Nothing much new here. Still pregnant. Still a boy. We had a peri appointment the week before last, and he weighed 1 lb. 2 oz. He's kicking/moving a lot more, but there are still days where are rarely feel him and then days where I feel him a lot. Being off work has made me feel A LOT better, but I still have good days and bad days.

I had an OB appointment yesterday, and she said everything looks good. No protein in my urine (yet), and my BP is only 104/68. She did say I really need to start resting and taking it easy now...I'll start that after October 8th ;).

She said she is thinking my c/s will be January 6th (we set it officially at the next appointment)...but Katie, I'm going to try and set it on the 5th or 7th so we have at least one day difference between your birthdays! Who knows if I'll even make it that far...I REALLY hope I do!!!

Re-Decorating

Both our master bedroom and Ella's big girl room are *almost* done. I'm so bummed because my goal was to have both done before E's party so people could see them, but it's just not going to happen. There is just too much other stuff to do now that we are so close that the rooms need to be put on hold until after the party. At least we had our house painted so no more faded shutters and front door and peeling trim!

Party
I'm starting to get a tad stressed. Why do I let these parties stress me out?! I've finished ALL the paper goods (birthday banner, cupcake toppers, signs for the backyard, signs for the front yard, monogrammed pumpkins, balloon pong paddles, food labels, favors, etc.).

I'm only waiting for a couple RSVPs, and almost everyone is coming so it should be fun! I actually ran out of invitations and envelopes so I had to cut back our list (which I felt really bad about), but I think it will be a good number.

I'm a bit worried about the weather because although right now it says it's supposed to be partly cloudy (which would be perfect), it says it's supposed to rain the Thursday before so I'm hoping that doesn't shift to Saturday! We're setting almost everything up in the backyard.

Happy SIX Year Anniversary!

2011-09-24T11:21:00.000-07:00

I was pretty sure you'd be a good husband, but I could have never imagined what a great father you would be. It's been a crazy, fun and fulfilling six years...I love you!

A Little Eye Candy (Corn)

2011-09-20T14:45:00.000-07:00

Is this not the cutest?!!! I saw the idea on pinterest, and of course I had to make one for Ella.

I'm debating whether I want to list them on Etsy. I may just sell them to people who see it here and do a custom request...I'll probably only make this size (I made an 18-24 month for Ella) and maybe 2T. I'll also have to charge more (probably $30 or $32) than my regular pillowcase dresses because it's more labor, and I had to use an ENTIRE roll of that thick grosgrain! Totally worth it though because it looks so cute with the yellow and orange polka dot grosgrain. :) If anyone is interested, let me know because I'll need to get more fabric and more rolls of grosgrain if I sell any. I'm going to try and get a photo of Ella wearing it tonight, but (a) she tends to be on the cranky side when she gets home from school, and (b) she hates having her photo taken now so we'll see what happens.

I also did a holiday edition of my ribbon clips!

And I added a few more "regular" colors...

Ella's Eye

2011-09-20T07:51:00.000-07:00

First, thanks so much to everyone for your concern! After she woke up from her nap on Saturday, it got much worse so we did end up going to the ER.

But on Sunday it started to get a lot better...

Yesterday the swelling finally went down so it basically looks like she has A LOT of dark purple eye shadow on, or you know, got punched in the face!

The funniest part of the whole thing is that from about 10 minutes after it happened, she acted as if nothing was wrong...despite the fact that her eye was either swollen shut or half closed for 2 days! Didn't phase her at all. HOWEVER, yesterday she got a tiny cut on the top of her foot (she didn't even cry when it happened), and she spent the ENTIRE day whining and saying, "boom, boo boo [whimper whimper], boom, boo boo". She cracks me up.

At Least the Weekend Started of Well...

2011-09-17T14:37:00.000-07:00

We went to our art class on Friday morning, then had lunch with Jen and Mason, then visited Hannah, then went to dinner with grandma and grandpa...so far so good. Saturday morning we were all getting dressed for our professional family photo session. I was upstairs finishing getting dressed just 30 minutes before we needed to leave when I heard SCREAMS from downstairs. Gary runs upstairs with Ella, and all I see is blood coming out of the side of her eye and a huge bump!! (the blood was actually coming out of a tiny cut on the side of her eye). Apparently, she slipped on the dog bed and went head first into the hearth.

Fab. I had to call the photographers (who I've already paid $100 deposit!), cancel the session and decide if we need to go the ER, call the pediatrician or just wait it out. I decided to wait it out, but I'm sure you can all guess that Gary was pushing for a trip to the ER! ;)

Sadly, the bump got way more swollen- poor baby. This photo is about an hour or two later, but I still don't think the picture does how AWFUL and HUGE it looks in person justice.

We were supposed to go to Taste of Newport with a bunch of friends, but we canceled for other reasons, and I'm glad we did- there is NO way I'd take her like this! We're just doing dinner with friends- low key in case she doesn't feel well.

I swear, why does this stuff always happen to us?! First she got the bad cut near her eye when Rylee scratched her by accident. Then she fell face first off the stairs onto the concrete and split open her nose and now this?! Granted that is all her "major" injuries over 2 years, but I feel like no one else gets these crazy bloody injuries!

Disneyland

2011-09-14T20:21:00.000-07:00

We went to Disneyland for the second time with Ella today, and it was even more fun because Olivia came too! I don't think 2 is the best age for D-Land...we definitely won't go again until she is 3, but it was still really fun.

The park was decorated for Halloween...

We took Ella on the Peter Pan ride first, which was a mistake. I don't remember it being almost pitch black in there (like, you can barely even see the stuff inside) so Ella did not like it and started whimpering in the middle. Then because of that, she didn't want to go on other rides...even the carousel! She looks happy here, but trust me, she tried everything to get OFF that horse...

Since Peter Pan failed, we didn't even attempt to go on any of the other Fantasy Land rides since I know they are all kind of dark and scary-ish.

We decided for something a little more light-hearted, and the girls loved It's a Small World...

The girls also loved the little train in Fantasy Land, and had fun watching it through the gate while they were waiting...

Ella wasn't too impressed with the Jungle Cruise, but when I asked her if it was fun afterward, she said yes...

The girls drove a car in Toon Town, and we got our requisite long distance photo with Goofy (just like we did when she was 10 months old) since we pretty much refuse to stand in line to see a character (at least until Ella cares about characters)...

She actually did seem to want to meet Minnie Mouse, but you can see her hanging on to Gary for dear life when we got close!

And the best part of the day (at least for Gary and I) was lunch at Club 33! It really makes the entire day worthwhile. I say I won't get a season pass because I don't think Ella should go to D-Land more than twice a year, but let's face it, I just want the food so I'll never get a season pass! ;)

Some of the best soup I've ever eaten...

Filet mignon with mashed potatoes...

I tried to get one of every dessert from the dessert table, but they wouldn't all fit on my plate because there are so many!

I was EXHAUSTED and swollen by 4 p.m. so we headed home earlier than planned. I love Disneyland, but I don't think I have the stamina to go more than once a year, if that!!!!

My Little Dancin' Queen

2011-09-11T12:56:00.000-07:00

Ella has taken quite a liking to 80's music. This is often what I see when I look in my rearview mirror. :)

*I don't know how to make this appear portrait instead of landscape so I guess you just have to turn your computer screen!

Pregnancy Update

2011-09-08T20:49:00.000-07:00

I'll be 22 weeks tomorrow...and no, we don't have a name! I'm definitely feeling him more now, but still not a ton- of course, I never felt Ella a ton either. My doctor took me out of work as of September 1st for numerous reasons, and I think that is helping immensely. My only restriction at this point is I cannot be on my feet for more than 4 hours at a time, but that's easy to follow because I don't feel good way before 4 hours on my feet! Keep your fingers crossed that I don't get put on bedrest any time soon.

If you ask Ella where the baby is, she points to my stomach and kisses it! I don't thinks she gets it though and probably thinks I have a doll in there somewhere, but it's still cute nevertheless.

Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-06T13:55:00.000-07:00

We made our usual trip to Pretend City, but this time they had a kid's band playing...the kids enjoyed it so much that I'm thinking of hiring them for Ella's birthday party!

On Saturday, we met Olivia, Sophie, Ethan, Paige, Grace and Cami at the park where Ella rode the slide...

Played in the tubes...

Sang ring around the rosie with Olivia...

And played chase!

After her nap, we went to Fashion Island to look at the fish...

Dance to some music...

And do some shopping (lounging?) at Z Gallerie...

We had dinner again at True Food Kitchen because I have become obsessed with their Tuscan Kale Salad...has anyone had this?! I could eat it everyday!!!

On Sunday we had lunch at the Spectrum with Michelle and Logan. The girls played by the sprouting fountain and Ella took a walk with Michelle...

But apparently the most interesting thing was playing in Logan's stroller??

On Monday Ella had a great time at a bbq at Grace and Cami's grandma's house (so did we!). She loves Grace, and they had fun riding horses...

The girls with their grandmas...

Grosgrain Ribbon Flower Hair Clips...NEW!

2011-09-01T15:05:00.000-07:00

Introducing, my brand new grosgrain ribbon flower hair clips! I love them. They are the perfect size and look adorable on a headband as well.

They will be $5 each on Etsy. :) My only issue is that I cannot ever get the color right on the hot pink- it's the normal hot pink grosgrain ribbon color, but the photo always makes it look brighter and not pretty. Anyone know how to correct this?

Talking and Maybe Not Terrible Two's?

2011-08-30T12:43:00.000-07:00

Terrible Two's?

I kept saying that we weren't going to go through the terrible two's, and that we'd probably get the awful three's (which I hear is worse!). Considering that she is almost two, and really the only kid her age I know that doesn't throw tantrums, I thought we were in the clear.

But then Gary left for his guys' trip, and it was like I had a different child! She kept getting mad and sitting down in protest, whining, crying when she didn't get her way, misbehaving in the stores while we were shopping- just generally being a little pill. I thought, "well, here we go, terrible two's have begun."

This lasted for a few days after Gary got home, but now she seems to back to her old self (thank God). I'm hoping she was just acting out since Gary was gone (after all, she is completely a daddy's girl) because let me tell you, I was not built to deal with terrible two behavior!

She is as stubborn as they come (and I thought Gary and I had the market on most stubborn couple!), which has led to two showdowns between she and I over saying sorry and cleaning up her alphabet toys- I won both times, but it took 20 minutes of time outs and crying- she cried too. ;) But I have to be thankful that she doesn't seem to have my type A personality and is much more laid back than I am. Let's just hope that if this terrible two behavior returns, it is only sitting down quietly for tantrums and doesn't involve screaming- so far, we don't have a screamer!

Talking

I know that toddler talk is interesting to NO ONE except the parents of the child, but I do want to keep some record of what she's saying! It's just crazy to me the things that come out of her mouth that I know we have never said to her...where does she learn this stuff?

She says "ready, set, go!" When Rylee is barking, she says, "Rylee bark shhhhhh". She also loves, "NO Rylee!" She puts her name at the end of every sentence about herself...so rather than saying I'm all done or ella all done, she says, "all done ella". She started saying "high five". She also knows the correct usage of please, thank you, sorry, excuse me and bless you! She does mix up please and thank you sometimes, but it always shocks me when I sneeze, and she says, "bless you mommy"...adorable! Although she knows when she should say sorry, she will only say it when prompted and she won't say it to her friends when she does something bad...it's that stubborness coming out!

Potty Talk

2011-08-23T20:59:00.000-07:00

We haven't started potty training at all. Diapers don't bother me (and I think they are way easier than trying to find a potty!), and frankly, it just sounds really hard. We do, however, have one of those plastic potties in our bathroom, which Ella will sometimes sit on (but never pee in) before her bath.

Well today, with no prompting whatsoever, my little 22 month old went pee in the potty!!! This is even bigger news than the potty training aspect because peeing in the potty means for ONCE she did not pee on the floor while running around diaper-less before bathtime...yippity do dah!

I'm still not ready to potty train, but maybe we'll encourage this behavior more often. What I'm really afraid of is when she poops in that little plastic thing, and I have to clean it out. Yuck.

Another Summer Weekend...

2011-08-22T20:06:00.000-07:00

We finally went to Pretend City on Friday morning with Mason and Reese. It was great! We ended up buying a year membership, which I highly recommend! We had our music class on Friday afternoon- next week is the last class so hopefully I get a photo then.

We went to brunch and shopping with Olivia again on Saturday...two weekends in a row!

Ella got to go to dinner with Hannah on Saturday night and Logan on Sunday night so she saw almost all her besties this weekend!

We also went to the beach, made a stop at Sprinkles, shopped at Sur La Table and finished off with dinner at True Food Kitchen...yum!!!

It was another busy and fun summer weekend.

I just had to post a couple photos of my little fashionista in her peasant top and skinny jeans...

The Haps...

2011-08-16T15:41:00.000-07:00

Pregnancy

We had our anatomy scan today (I'm 18w4d). Everything looks great. Still a boy (to Gary's utter delight). They couldn't get a great view of the small little heart so we have to have a full cardio something or other next time to make sure there are no holes in the heart or anything. Baby weighs 9 oz.

I swelled up yesterday and got really dizzy (although, I was in Menifee at inspections- hot!), which the doctor was not happy about. We'll see how long she lets me work...

Daddy's Helper

Although I think we're starting to enter the terrible two's...you know, the dramatic cries anytime she doesn't get her way and sitting in the middle of the street because she's mad her friend is leaving...all of which JUST started this weekend, HOWEVER, she's still daddy's favorite little helper!

She really did help wash the car- it was great! No one ever told me about the extra benefits that come with having a child...she always gets the remote control for me when I'm too lazy to get off the couch, she throws my trash away for me, and now she washes cars?! She is well worth the thousands of dollars it took to have her! ;)~

Birthday

I'm well on my way to having E's party planned. I have purchased 518 balloons, bought the paper for various paper products I am going to make and finished making her invitations! I'll post photos after they are sent, but I really have to say that I think they turned out ADORABLE. I'm sooo happy with them! Now I need to make her dress, design my menu, design the layout for the party and food tables and make all the paper products.

Etsy

I've been sort of taking a break from Etsy since I had been feeling so awful, but for some reason, I received three orders in the last 2 days, including 2 dresses and 1 diaper cover!

I also recently made this dress as a "sample" because I am considering doing Ella's birthday dress in this style. It's supposed to be a 2T, but it's pretty big on Ella so I would say it's between a 2T and 3T. I'm not making these to sell, but if anyone wants to buy this one, it's $34 plus shipping. :)

Girls' Weekend

2011-08-14T17:40:00.000-07:00

Daddy was away for his "guys' trip" so Ella and I had a girly weekend!

We had Ava over for a playdate...she's gotten so big and so cute!

Ella had her first music class with 6 of her close friends- it was really fun, and Ella really got into it. I didn't get a photo, but there are two more classes in the session.

She had a super fun morning with Olivia, and it was really the first time they cared about and played with each other. Ella would not stop saying, "lilia! lilia! lilia!" They had brunch at Mimi's Cafe...

Then they held hands while shopping...it's so cute...Julie and I have been shopping partners for years, and now the girls can carry on the tradition! Actually, we should not encourage this behavior since J and I are dangerous together!!!

In other news, Ella seemed to have a major word explosion just over the weekend! I remember people saying it happens over night, but geez, literally. She will repeat anything and everything we say, and she's putting a lot of phrases together. She actually said, "grandma, hold this." and "daddy, where are you?"!! It's so cute to hear them talk so much...I know eventually it's not so cute so I'm trying to savor this time!

Pregnancy

2011-08-09T10:29:00.000-07:00

Since I just mentioned in passing that I'm pg with no explanation, I figured I'd elaborate in a separate post. We completely thought we were "one and done", but we had two frozen embryos left over from Ella's cycle. We never ever ever thought it would work, but we did an FET (frozen embryo transfer) at the end of April. We didn't tell a single person we were doing it because we didn't think it would work but clearly it did! I'll be 18 weeks on Friday. My due date is 1.13.12, but I won't go past 1.6.12 if I even make it that far.

The pregnancy has been generally awful and much much worse than with Ella (well to this point, obviously Ella's was awful once I started swelling). First, I had a subchorionic hematoma, which means I was bleeding in my uterus. It's stressful because it can cause the placenta to detach resulting in a miscarriage. I was put on bedrest week by week but because they didn't officially take me off work, I continued working and didn't really do bedrest except on the weekends. Luckily, the hematoma resolved itself. However, I still felt HORRIBLE the entire first trimester- I have never felt so tired in my life. Not even when Ella was a newborn. I couldn't function- I felt loopy all the time. I thought something was really wrong with me. I just felt like crap all day every day. I'm still really really tired, but at least now I can function and don't feel drugged! Completely different than with Ella when I felt great the first tri.

Due to age, IVF and my past experience with severe preeclampsia, I'm being considered extremely high risk this time, which is good. They are monitoring me very closely, and taking every precaution to *try* and prevent preeclampsia and such an early delivery. My perinatologist believes I have about a 30% chance of getting it again (much higher than normal 2nd pregnancies), but hopefully I'm in the 70% stat!!!

Oh, and it's a BOY!

Birthday and Fair Fun

2011-08-07T15:44:00.000-07:00

Ella met up with Paige again to play in the water...they held hands walking to dinner...

Then after dinner, Ella rode the carousel for the very first time! The before photo...

I thought she may not like it...clearly I was wrong. The "after" photo...

I've never ever seen her get so upset over wanting to do something...apparently she LOVED the carousel!! [Let me edit this to say that we took her to SCP to ride the carousel the day after this, and she refused to get on! So now she doesn't like the carousel??? I'm so confused.]

The next day she had a ton of fun at Cousin Brett's 3rd birthday party! She rode a motorcycle...

LOVED going down the slide (oh, btw, I think I've neglected to mention that I'M PREGNANT, which is why I have a baby belly in this photo!!!)...

Kept going down the slide and rode the "roller coaster"...

And went on the roller coaster a few more times with Cousin Brett...

There was horrific traffic on the way home, which usually means Ella won't sleep since she'll only sleep if the car is moving and for a very short time, but since she was so worn out, this is what happened at least for 30 minutes or so on the way home...

I decided that instead of buying one of those plastic playhouses, I'd love it if Gary and my dad would build her one similar to this...

So to get some photos of the structure inside and not look like a total freak taking pictures of random doorways and framing members, I made ella pose next to things I wanted photos of!

On Sunday, we went to the OC Fair with grandma and grandpa.

Just like last year, she wasn't sure about the petting zoo (see her clinging onto grandma?!)...

But eventually she got close to the animals and even fed some sheep!

She even rode the giant slide with daddy, but we're not so sure if she liked it!

That nasty thing behind them is a giant tarantula that moved...gross!!!

My lesson of the day is that it's probably not a good idea to eat a tri trip sandwich and fries, followed by cotton candy, followed by dippin dots ice cream...but the cotton candy was soooo good!

More Fun in the Sun

2011-07-31T20:49:00.000-07:00

Have I mentioned how much I love summer and busy summer weekends? Ella had two playdates on Friday, and while I didn't get any photos of the afternoon date, I did capture all the fun she had with Paige at the Spectrum in the morning!

(She kept telling Paige to "sit! sit!", and she finally listened!)

They had a blast playing in the water...Ella tends to be a bit leery of the water features, but thanks to the older and more sophisticated Paige going head first (literally) into the water, Ella followed right along!

Gary and I had an amazing time at our Javier's date night with three of our great couple friends, but I had to post what $27 buys you at Dave & Busters...

And actually, this is probably closer to $50 since we combined our tickets with another couple!!! Oh well, I'm sure the bouncy princess ball is worth far more than $50 to Ella. ;)

After our great night night out, the weekend got even better because my BFF is in town, and we got to go to breakfast together WITHOUT kids! We could actually talk and take our sweet time. We ended our weekend with dinner at grandma and grandpa's...Taco Sunday!

Finally, I wanted to post a couple photos of an easy and cute dinner idea I made last week...meatloaf pie! I got the idea from the Food Network Challenge.

Just take your favorite easy meatloaf recipe (I think I mixed up 1 lb. of ground turkey, 10 oz. frozen thawed frozen spinach, about 1/2 cup of Italian breadcrumbs, some parmesan, about 1 cup of sauted chopped onions, a couple minced garlic cloves, 1 egg, a tsp of dried oregano, some dried parsley and salt and pepper) and press it into the bottom of a pie pan and bake for about 30 minutes at 375. In the meantime, make the mashed potatoes and the roasted cherry tomatoes (I put the cherry tomatoes on a baking sheet with olive oil, 1 garlic clove and salt and pepper and baked on 400 for about 15-20 minutes- mince the baked garlic clove and put it in your potatoes!). Take the meatloaf out of the oven, top with the potatoes and the tomatoes and bake for another 15 minutes...so yummy!

More Big Girl Room Talk- Bedding

2011-07-26T12:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I found a fabric I love to make a duvet for Ella's BGR (think Ella the Elephant, even though that's not what it is)...

With this as contrasting fabric...

HOWEVER, I think I've talked myself out of making the duvet. Despite the fact I love this fabric, it doesn't come wide enough so you have to cut and sew together three panels, which is really 6 panels since there are 2 sides, and having to buy all that fabric will cost over $100 JUST for the duvet- this doesn't include any extra fabric for pillows and window seat covers. Doesn't that sound like a lot for something I'll have to spend HOURS sewing??

Now I'm kind of resigned to the idea of buying something already made that I probably won't *love*. Probably something along the lines of this from PB...

I'm not in love with it, but I like that it's roses for Ella Rose. I'd prefer if the blue was more of an aqua or Tiffany blue rather than baby blue. These are the sheets...

The other choice is from the Shabby Chic collection at Target ( http://www.target.com/dp/B003KQUQGO/ref=sc_qi_img_viewdetails?ie=UTF8&title=view%20full%20details )...the best parts about it are that it is very inexpensive, and the background color is more of an aqua-ish green, but it's hydrangeas instead of roses. :( These are the sheets, which I actually love: http://www.target.com/Simply-Shabby-Chic-Mon-Sheet/dp/B003KR6DBA/ref=sc_qi_collection_item_0?ie=UTF8&altString=Simply%20Shabby%20Chic%26%23174%3B%20Mon%20Ami%20Sheet%20Set%20-%20Pink

I'm thinking it will be worth saving all the time and money. Especially since I have to sew the very large drapery panels for our master bedroom and Ella's birthday dress with a new pattern that isn't a quick sew. Plus, the floral prints are more in line with what I thought I originally wanted to make the room very girly unlike her nursery.