Two Under Two—18 Days in and my 200th post

I have survived 18 days of having two children under the age of two. How am I doing? I’m exhausted, that’s how I’m doing. That whole “sleep when the baby sleeps!” thing doesn’t work when you have a toddler running around, pulling things out of cabinets and climbing on the kitchen table. She also has learned how to open screw-top lids and open doors in the last week and a half.
****Note: both of my children are asleep right now—WHAT AM I DOING WRITING A BLOG POST INSTEAD OF NAPPING?! What’s wrong with me?*****
The first 15 days weren’t so bad—I had my mom and then my sister staying with me to help. Three days ago when my mom came to take my sister home, she was highly amused at me clinging to the hem of her skirt begging “Don’t leave me!”
And what is really sad is that yesterday was really my first real day totally alone with the girls.  I texted my husband a little after lunch and let him know that all I’d really accomplished that day was changing diapers, nursing the baby, and pumping (I’m trying to keep a breast infection at bay right now). I felt I should give the poor fellow warning before he came home to the disaster area that used to be known as our home. He graciously replied, “It’s ok, sweetheart. Are you doing ok? Do I need to pick anything up from the store for you?” I married a very smart man…

We never know what our nights will hold. Princess Tiny still has her days and nights mixed up for the most part and we are trying to help her with that, but who knows what time she’ll decided to actually go to sleep each night. Swaddle blankets and a box fan for noise are helping, though, and we are trying to establish a routine.
Princess Littles—who is capable of sleeping through the night, but rarely does—is nearly as unpredictable as her baby sister.  Bedtimes are pretty easy, when she gets tired she wants her blanket and bed (Hello Linus!) but when she wakes during the night—sometimes two or three times—we never know what kind of mood she’ll be in and how long it will take to get her back down. Part of this is  because of all of the change in her little life in the last two weeks and she is in her own room now, but she has shown us that she can sleep all night—when she wants too.
My poor husband, who is not as used to sleep deprivation as I am, has been a real champ through it all. Because he does have to get up and go to work each day, I try to only wake him to help with the girls at night if I absolutely have to. About a week ago in the young marrieds’ class at our church, our pastors’ wife said something to the effect of “And you couples who are wanting to have children in the near future—“ “DON’T DO IT!” my husband weakly called out. Everyone got quite a laugh from it. She said “And that comes from the Daddy of a toddler and a newborn!”

It has been tough the last 18 days (mostly the nights), and it has really tested me and is letting me see what my true limits are and how very, very much I need the Lord and His grace and strength.  Is it worth it? Even sitting here needing coffee, exhausted as all get out, my immediate answer is “YES! A thousand times, yes.”
The rough nights and endless messes  are (almost!) forgotten when Livie comes and gives me a kiss just because and says “Love you.’' Or when she is so sweet with her baby sister and worries when she cries. There is nothing like sweet baby snuggles and smiles.
It all makes what little sleep we do get all the more precious. This is just a season, and one day I’ll miss the chaos and craziness that is our life right now.
So Happy Valentine’s Day—I’m off to make some more coffee. My kids are waking up.

Just thankful…

Here we are, on the eve of the most thankful month of the year. I try to maintain a grateful heart year-round, but the month of November usually finds me more reflective than the rest of the year.

A few things I’m thankful for (in no particular order) in my little world:

~My Savior, Who forgives me and carries the shame and guilt away.

~My sweet husband, whose love for me amazes me every day.

~Our girls ;)

Miss Livie, who at 16 months old already has an opinion about her clothes and bats her eyelashes at her Daddy when she gets in trouble.

And tiny Miss Katelynn, who even though she isn’t due to make her appearance yet, has already stolen our hearts. Early in the pregnancy we had a few little scares and I wondered if I would ever get to meet her. Now we are only about 12 weeks away from her arrival. God is good to us!

~My Keurig coffee machine and all of the wonderful cups of coffee and tea it provides me throughout the day ;)

~Our cozy (albeit somewhat messy) home. Thanks to our toddler, there are lots of happy messes popping up everywhere.

~My new Swiffer WetJet, which makes mopping so much easier on this pregnant gal, and Murphy’s Oil Soap, which makes cleaning all of my antique knotty pine cabinets a breeze.

~My clothesline.

 

These are just a few things that immediately spring to mind,  I’m sure there will be more in the coming days.

Fall is here!!!!!! Well, sort of…

We’ve been given a glimmer of hope the last few mornings—the weather has been lovely and cool. The summer heat can’t last forever, we’ve had a promise and a taste of cooler weather and I CAN’T WAIT!!!!!!

Fall is my very most favorite time of year. Hands down. The cooler, less humid weather makes me want to clean and organize everything, sew and craft like crazy, and redecorate every room in the house. Some of that might just be a bit of early nesting starting up. The challenge for me is not getting a dozen projects strung out and unfinished before exhaustion sets in…I’m still working on keeping things balanced and knowing my limits.

I love to open all of the windows in the house and air out all of the stuffiness that has built up during the summer months. I feel like I can clean the best when the windows are open.

Ok, so fall makes me feel like Wonderwoman. I may not be her, but it makes me feel like her ;)

Another reason I love fall is that is the only time of the year I can get my favorite candle—Candied Caramel Pecan by Better Homes and Gardens. HEAVEN in a jar. It makes the house smell amazing.  The only downside to it is that it gets my husband’s hopes up and he thinks I’ve been baking.

Also in the latest breaking news for our little family:

It’s a little sister!!!!! We are being blessed with another princess and we can’t wait to meet our Katelynn Avery. I’m thrilled that the girls will be so close in age, they will always have a best friend and tea party buddy.

Well, I have to get back to the real world and laundry. I can’t prolong my break any more, lest Mt. Washmore grows any larger. I am convinced that the laundry multiplies whilst my back is turned.

Back again…

You know those days (or weeks, or months) when time seems to speed by and you forget about or are too busy for non-essential activities (like writing blog posts)? I’ve been in one of those seasons it feels for quite a while. My life has been full of lots of excitement and surprises over the last few months. But I’m back, at least for right now.

Our Livie is 14 months old now. I can’t believe our baby is becoming so grown up. She can walk, but is very choosy about when she does. She has an ever growing vocabulary and is constantly keeping us on our toes and entertained. Livie is handling being weaned much better than I thought she would and hopefully she will be completely weaned by the end of the month. It has been a very sweet time for us nursing, but it’s time move on.

Why? Because….

Yep, our little family is growing again! Peanut is expected at the end of January. At the end of this month we should find out if we are getting another Princess or if Daddy is getting his Hunting Buddy. This baby was *quite* a surprise, but we are so excited about it. I never thought I’d have two under the age of two!

Morning sickness with a tiny toddler was a challenge I wasn’t looking forward to, but I survived. In the midst of it we dealt with a nightmarish stomach virus (Jacob and I) and Livie has been battling terrible sinus drainage. Thankfully we had help and made it through. It is times like these that make me realize just how much I need the Lord’s help, and make me call out to Him even more.

Now I’m trying to get back into a routine. I didn’t cook much at all during those crazy weeks of morning sickness and everything else so I’ve been trying to cook and eat at home more. I’ve really had trouble getting back on my feet this time. Our little Tornado makes housekeeping a challenge, to say the least. Some days I’m just thankful that my husband has clean clothes for work the next day.

I’m getting there, and with the Lord’s help, things will even out soon ;)

A long overdue update!

Things have been insanely busy in my little corner of the world lately. I never knew having a baby would rearrange my time like it has.

The Lord has been so good to us this summer and I plan to share some of the things He has done for us in several posts.  Here is a quick update with pictures ;)

Our Little Princess is three and a half months old and I have no idea where the time has gone. I am finally getting back into somewhat of a normal routine and beginning to feel like my old self again.

 

Last month we celebrated my Poppa’s 72nd birthday. He is my maternal grandfather and the whole family was able to be there, which is rare considering how many of us there are now.

Livie, my Poppa and I at his 72nd birthday party last month.

Almost all of the 20-something grandchildren and 1 great-grandbaby with Nana and Poppa.

Four generations.

~~~~~~~

Over the summer in addition to having a baby I sewed for FOUR weddings. I do not know what possessed me to allow such insanity to take over. Needless to say, I found out that I am not Superwoman by any means and had it not been for my mom and sister helping me out and saving my bacon I don’t know what I would have done.  I am currently working on my last project/event for the year—a quinceanera dress—and as soon as that is completed I am going to take the rest of the year off except for my Etsy shop orders.

Well, I’m off to sew some more and do laundry from last week’s hunting trip.

Playing Dress-up

Livie and I have been playing dress-up this week. I pulled out my baby clothes from my hope chest and have been wondering how I was ever that small. I thought I’d share some of the cuteness with y’all.

This dress and the following one were made for me by my great-great Aunt Lillian. She also made the Dutch doll quilt that Livie is lying on.

The next two dresses were bought for me by my father. When my mother was expecting me, the ultrasound was misread and they thought I was a boy! They only took boy clothes to the hospital. They got the surprise of their lives and Daddy had to buy some dresses for me to go home in.

“What’s a hospital, Mama?”

“You mean all babies aren’t born at home like me?”

Olivia’s Birth Day

Six weeks later, all of the details of Livie’s birth are a little fuzzy. What all of the women say is true—you do forget how things felt and all you remember is how wonderful it was to hold your baby at last. I’m glad I wrote some things down. My favorite version of her  birth story is the one that my husband tells—he makes me sound like Superwoman. ;)

Finally, after months of waiting, and holding our breath to see if we would be able to attend a wedding shortly before the baby was due, the weekend of her due date arrived. We’d been on pins and needles as I’d been having lots of Braxton and Hicks contractions for the two preceding weeks.

Jacob and I at the wedding—38 weeks and ready to pop!

Saturday, June 15th:  Early in the morning I had a good contraction that woke me up. I made myself go back to sleep. I knew I’d need rest if this was the real deal.   Around 8 AM I was still having consistent contractions so I woke Jacob and called my midwife. She said she would come and check on me and re-verified directions to our home. I called my mom to let her know and she said to let her know what Alice said. With lots of little ones at home I didn’t want Mom to make the hour and a half drive for a false alarm.

Waiting for Alice to get there—my last pregnant photo.

My house was a wreck, and I needed to buy groceries. I had planned to take care of everything that day, but now was afraid I wouldn’t be able to. Jacob called his parents and my mother-in-law came in like a whirlwind and cleaned and my father-in-law took my list and went shopping.

Once again, my contractions followed their pattern from the previous two weeks: consistent, closer together and stronger, then suddenly stop or space way out after an hour—almost to the minute.  By the time Alice arrived at my house, they had stopped. She checked me and I was at  4cm, which was two more than I had been at my appointment earlier that week. So they weren’t in vain. Alice said that every centimeter I could dilate before I went into active labor was one less that I’d  have to work for later.

She stayed for an hour and told me to get lots of rest and that she’d probably see me soon. So we did. And I got bored.  I didn’t have another contraction (not even a little one) for hours. We rested most of the day and my in-laws came over again that afternoon. For some reason I started craving steak. We didn’t know what tomorrow (which was Father’s Day) would hold, so my father-in-law suggested we celebrate that evening and go out if I felt like it. I said that that was fine, so long as we ate steak.  Yes, a heavy steak is the ideal meal to eat when you could go into labor at any minute. What was I thinking?

We had a great time and I had about an hour’s worth of good contractions that I ignored.  We came home, played a few games of dominoes, and went to bed.  I had already said that I was not going to church the next morning, I knew I needed to rest. And what could be more embarrassing than having your water break at church, right?

Sunday, June 16th: We slept in and I woke up feeling really good. Then I remembered that I still hadn’t bought sheets for the twin size bed that my mom was going to sleep on when she stayed with us. We only had queen sized sheets. Before I started panicking about my mother having a place to sleep Jacob said we’d just go to the store and get some and pick up some things for supper. He was in the mood to cook. And we both thought the walk would do me some good.

We went to the store and made it home without anything exciting happening and I took another nap. Jacob was really hoping that the baby would be born on Father’s Day—that would have been the ultimate Father’s Day gift.

Jacob fixed an amazing supper—pork roast, green bean casserole, potatoes, carrots—another huge, heavy meal. But it was so good!

We played dominoes again and around 6PM strong contractions began again. I started timing them, but expected them to follow the pattern again and stop in an hour. They didn’t, and I began having trouble concentrating on the game when I would have one. Jacob found it highly amusing ;)

At 11PM, contractions were still happening and they were closer together and beginning to take my breathe away. I sent Alice a text and she said she was headed our way. She got to our house at 11:30 and I called Mom to let her know that Alice was coming again. Alice checked me and I had dilated any more, but my bag of waters was very bulgy and I was really in labor this time!

I called my mom again and let her know that this was the real deal and she said she was about to leave.

Alice encouraged me to try and sleep as much as I could. We all rested for a while. I didn’t sleep much, but I tried to between contractions. Jacob slept soundly.

Monday, June 17th:  At 2AM my water broke. It was the weirdest feeling ever and it actually made me jump, and that woke Jacob up. I told Alice, “My water just broke! How could anyone ‘think’ their water broke? I felt it!” We all laughed a little bit and then the next contraction hit me. It hit me so hard that after it was over I vomited. It was crazy how much of a difference there was between the contractions before my water broke and afterwards.

My mom arrived right after that.  Not too long after that I needed a bathroom break so I went. I had another awful (good) contraction and threw up everywhere again. I think all of the vomit overwhelmed my poor husband. I told him, “Don’t worry about it, Mama will take care of it.” Having her there was such a help and I was able to relax and not worry about things.

The rest of the time is pretty fuzzy in my memory. My husband was such a trooper. He literally held me through every contraction and sacrificed his hands to I could have something to hold onto. He jokingly said that he hoped we could both still play our instruments when it was all over and he had no idea I had such a strong grip.

Around 4AM I asked to get in the bathtub. I didn’t know how much longer I would be in labor and I wanted something to help me relax and rest as much as possible. The warm water felt so good! It didn’t help me much with the pain of the contractions, but it made the rests in between wonderful. Alice checked me and told me it was almost time to push. I couldn’t believe it. She went to gather up things and get things ready and told me when I felt the baby to let her know. Two contractions later I felt the baby. I couldn’t believe it—I actually FELT the baby. She told me I could push whenever I wanted to, and how to push. I tried several pushes in the tub, but I couldn’t get comfortable so she suggested I move back to the bed.

The bed was much more comfortable and  I felt like I was able to push better there.  After a few pushes Alice had me squat because the baby needed a little more help to finish being born. Once I squatted things got so intense. I just though they were intense before! One thing that is crazy to me is that in between contractions and pushing I felt like I could go to sleep. I actually asked for a break and she told me “No, the baby’s head is right there, you’re about to crown.”

Once she saw Livie’s head, she had Jacob look and he said, “She has dark hair! I can see her hair!” They looked a few couple more times and I remember thinking “Stop looking and help me get her out!” Jacob told me, “Sweetheart, she’s so close, only about another inch!”

I was getting to the point where I was exhausted and didn’t think I could go on and Alice told me to reach down and feel of my baby. When I felt and realized how close she was, that gave me the extra boost I needed to finish having her.

When they say “ring of fire” they mean it!

Her head was born and the cord was around her neck. Alice took care of it and the next push Jacob caught our little girl. She was beautiful and worth everything.

She was born at 4:50 AM after right at 3 hours of active labor, and one day before her due date.

 

Daddy cutting the cord.

Olivia Grace~7lbs 12oz, 19 3/4 inches

Livie love!!!

Our little Livie is already a month old! Time is flying by so fast. Here are a few pictures from her first month. Her homebirth story is on its way ;)

Daddy getting his first good look at his Princess.

Our new little family.

Adoring little aunts.

Me, my Daddy and Livie.