Surprise news

I'm pregnant! I can't believe it. It's a bit of a shock. On the one hand, I don't really believe it. On the other hand, I'm thinking of all the things I need to do before the first trimester FATIGUE hits! Can you even be fatigued when you already have two kids? How does that work? Do they let you?

I've been wanting to document (at least write down somewhere) the birth stories of my kids before the details get foggy as time passes. It's always been something I thought I'd get around to doing but hadn't yet. Even now, I feel like I might need to rely on my husband's memory for some of the details. So, I thought I would take a few moments now to document the "finding out" stories for each of my kids:

ME (3.75) - It took us a full year to get pregnant with ME (3.75). We bought our house in June 2004. In July, Hubby was doing his ER rotation so he was working different shifts and was able to have a few days off. At the end of those days off, we decided to get a dog. We always knew we wanted one and now that we owned our own home, we could do it! On our anniversary, we went to the animal shelter and looked at the dogs. There was a very cute 12 week old puppy there that we were very interested in. There were already two other people interested in him but we were added to the "waiting list" (both people needed to get approval from their landlord first). So we left and went back home. (I know this story is supposed to be about my son, not my dog, but the two are related - the stories I mean, not the boy and the dog!) Also that day, I took a pregnancy test. I was only one day late but I thought I would take it anyway. I decided to take it right AFTER I had used the bathroom so instead of just waiting until I needed to go again, I drank tons and tons of liquid so that I could go. So I took the test. And although there was a very, very faint line, it was so incredibly faint that I didn't think it was positive. We went out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary and received a message from the SPCA that the dog was available after all and we could come in the next day. Later that night, I was reading the instructions of the pregnancy test (it's always a good idea to read them afterward!) and I realized that I had done it all wrong. Morning is the best time to take it (although it doesn't have to be) and you shouldn't drink an excessive amount beforehand like I did! I also learned that any sign of a second line is a positive test! I didn't want to get my hopes up (I had had other negative tests before this), but I did want to take another test! We went to the grocery store the next day and decided to go home and test again before going to the SPCA - we just couldn't wait. This time the second line was clearly there! I was pregnant! We were going to have a baby! It seemed unreal and I wasn't really sure what to think. The truth was that although I always envisioned myself having children, it was really more theoretical than a deep longing. I wasn't one of those women who desperately wanted to have a baby. I just pictured Hubby and I with a family someday. So it was both exciting and sobering? daunting? grounding? (not sure what the best word is) to finally be pregnant!

MG (8.5 mos) - It took us ten months to get pregnant with MG (8.5). With her, we fluctuated between "not preventing" and actually "trying" and it was emotionally tumultuous. A friend of mine, who started trying after we did, got pregnant before me. That was crushing. I remember trying to note symptoms every month but realizing that the early signs of pregnancy could also be premenstrual symptoms. Because I typically had shorter cycles at that time, I think it was the morning of Day 28 that I tested. I didn't necessarily think that I was pregnant, but since it was Day 28 and I decided to take a pregnancy test. The only kind I had was from the dollar store. It was positive, but I doubted it simply because the test only cost me a dollar! Hubby had already left for work and was in conference but I called his cell anyway. I told him about the test, but I also told him it was a dollar store test. I remember him whispering into the phone "You're pregnant!" Later that day, I went to the grocery store and bought an expensive pregnancy test just to find out that I really was pregnant! I took a picture of the positive test and emailed it to Matt with a subject line that said: Open this in private. (How suggestive is that?)

Baby #3 ( 4 weeks prego) - We were kind of on the fence about whether or not we were going to have a third child. We did say, however, that if we were going to have a third child, we wouldn't even consider getting pregnant until January so that I wasn't close to delivering at the time of our move in June. Since we hadn't made that decision, we were preventing. Mostly. And its that "mostly" that has resulted in Baby #3! "Mostly" was really just once, but obviously I knew there was a chance I could be pregnant. So last night this was my brief conversation with Hubby about it:

Hubby: So I guess you're not pregnant.

Me: How do you know?

Hubby: You said you'd test in two weeks.

Me: Well, I'll test if I'm late. (And I didn't think that was until this coming weekend).

So today I was thinking about it and decided to actually check the calendar and realized that I was already at Day 30. Now, it's not unusual for me to have a 30 day cycle so I didn't necessarily think that I was definitely pregnant but since there was a "mostly," I knew it was a possibility. Hubby was able to come home early today so I went to the grocery store for a number of things, including a pregnancy test. I came home and we had dinner before needing to go out to church tonight. Hubby just kept saying, "You're not pregnant. You're not pregnant." So I said, "Well, do you want to confirm that before we leave or after we get home." I took the test then and right after I laid it down, Hubby picked it up. I started to tell him to put it back down and he said, "Goober!" and showed me the positive test! We were so shocked we were laughing. ME (3.75) wanted to know what we were laughing at, but we couldn't tell him. So, it looks like we're having another baby! I'm due the end of September!

One of the funny things about this is that MG (8.5 mos) has been slowly weaning herself. I wouldn't mind being done with nursing but I didn't want to wean her completely because I wasn't sure if we were going to have any more children. I didn't mind being done if I knew I would one day nurse another baby! Well, looks like I'll be nursing again someday! I still don't think I'll fully wean her yet though just in case something happens.

I also have a funny story that relates to this pregnancy, living in a small town, and my favorite cashier at the grocery store but I'll have to write that one another day. It's getting late.

Lesson learned today....

If I want to get any sort of valuable workout, I must be ready to go before MG (6 mos) wakes up. Wake time is only so long (now about 2 hours) but if I need to get myself ready, drive to the gym, and get the kids settled in the nursery (and vote today! My voting location is the community center), that leaves very little time for the actual workout. MG (6 mos) was happy in the nursery but I knew that even though she was tired, she wouldn't fall asleep there (or take a good nap if she did) and she wouldn't nap as well if she was overtired when I finally got her down for her nap. So I voted and used the treadmill for 25 minutes. Hey, some is better than none! I'm glad I didn't do too much though. My body is aching from yesterday's workout! My MIL will be here tomorrow so I can go without the kiddos.

I never thought the day would come when I could drop ME (3.5) off somewhere wearing underwear and not have to come back in 30-60 minutes to take him to the potty or worry about him having an accident. It's wonderful! He's come so far. I still bring a change of clothes for him but I haven't had to use them! It was a tough journey (more so for me than for him) but we made it! I had reserved two weeks out of our schedule in June to do potty training bootcamp and in reality it took more like four months. But in retrospect, what's four months?? It's done and I'm so proud of him! I just wish I had known in the beginning that although it would take a lot longer than I thought, we would see success. And yes, people did tell me that and I did read things like that ("I've never seen a kid go to kindergarten in a diaper!"), but I just didn't believe it would be true for us. And now, I will join the ranks of mothers who's only piece of advice for potty-training mothers is to just keep going and eventually he'll get it.

Blogging and old babies

Even though I had my old blog for quite a while, I feel like a newbie when it comes to blogging on here. I struggled to blog over there because I always second guessed whether or not my readers would even care to know what I did with my day. (The funny thing though is that one of my favorite blogs to read is one where the author documents just about every aspect of her day every day.) So I wouldn't blog if I didn't think it was worthy of my blog and that resulted in not meeting one of my goals for blogging - documenting the realities of my days.

MG (6 mos) had her six month check up today. Her pediatrician is this older grandfatherly gentleman who is great but so incredibly laid back about everything. On the one hand that's good but on the other hand, sometimes it would be nice to be given a but more specific instruction about things. Like for example, feeding solid foods to babies. I remember a little bit about what I did for ME (3.5), but not specifically. Last night, which was the first night I started her on rice cereal, I googled all kinds of info about what food babies could eat at what ages. Truthfully, a lot of it probably really doesn't matter anyway. Her doctor's only concern when it comes to feeding babies is that they not get anything that could be a choking hazard. Anything else is up to me I guess. So, since I prefer a little more guidance and direction, I will probably refer to my google search material and use that to decide what foods she gets when.

I can't believe my baby girl is already six months old. I was away for the weekend with a few friends for a quilting weekend. (MG (6 mos) was with me of course but ME (3.5) was at his granparents' house because Hubby was at a conference.) I had decided to wait until she was six months to start her on solids. She turned six months while we were away so I figured I'd do it soon after we got back. Based on my research, I really didn't think she needed to begin solid foods before this and selfishly I really didn't look forward to doing it because I already feel like I have too many things to do in a day. I'm behind on what feels like 1,001 things and I knew that entering the world of solid foods would only detract from the little time I do have to get to those 1,001 things. Don't get me wrong, I knew I would do it when she needed me to but I didn't think she needed it before now and I was certainly not wanting to rush anything along. However, when I got home last night, I was really excited about the idea of feeding her cereal and seeing what she did with it. She did so well! I think the fact that we waited as long as we did helped a lot. With ME (3.5) I started rice cereal and then stopped for a few weeks because he was just spitting it out. Two weeks later we started again and he got the hang of it. Anyway, she ate more than I thought she would and afterwards, I cleaned her up a bit and put her in her exersaucer. At one point I looked at her and I just couldn't believe it - all of a sudden she was an old baby. I know, I know - she's still young and she's still a baby but now my baby is eating solid foods and playing independently in an exersaucer. Not to mention the fact that she's also begun sitting up in the past week. She's so OLD! How did it happen? I'm enjoying her babyhood so much. It's exciting to see her personality emerge and it makes me excited to see who she'll become in the future. But on the other hand, I could just keep her like this forever! I've heard some people say that when they were done having kids they just "knew it." But I can't imagine the day when I wouldn't want a baby in my home. Maybe it will happen eventually but I just can't imagine it.

Hubby's across the street at our neighbor's house watching the world series with some coworkers. We were up really late last night and I'm tired! I intended to go to bed early, curl up with a book, and actually read for a while. (Can't say when I last did that! Reading these days is at most a magazine article or a page or two at a time of whatever book I keep in the bathroom!) But here I am at the computer and I keep having to tend to my boy who was put to bed an hour and a half ago! It's a good thing he has an early bedtime! Alright, I'm off to go read. Eventually.

Legos and TV

After MG (5 mos) was born, I got into the bad habit of letting my son watch too much television. It's been something that I've been working on decreasing but some days, when there seems like there's just too much to do and not enough time to do it, the televsion buys me some much needed time. I've been brainstorming different activities and things that ME (3.5) can do instead of watch TV while I am doing other things but those things take planning, organizing, and being prepared. Really, I'm letting my all-or-nothing perfectionism get in the way of implementing these activities for now but that's another story. Anyway, I've discovered the secret to keeping the TV off in our home - keep the living floor messy with legos overnight. Usually, ME (3.5) needs to clean up all of his toys in the living room before he goes to bed at night. Well recently he wasn't able to so the legos just stayed out. The next morning, when he wanted to watch TV I told him he could as soon as the legos were cleaned up. Well, he played for HOURS before he asked to watch TV again! Wonderful! And so far today, the TV has been off all day and ME (3.5) is cleaning up his legos playing all by himself in the living room. So that's my new trick! Keep the living room a mess at night (which goes against every thing in me!) to keep the TV off in the morning! That and have a construction crew in front of your house repaving the road for a few days - that will provide hours of entertainment for a three-year-old boy!

Family update

I've been realizing that the only times I'm really drawn to blogging are when I'm upset or stressed or frustrated about something and need to process everything. My blog has two purposes. The first is as a kind of journal where I can process things - purpose met. But the second purpose is to document the everyday details of my life. Since I blog so irregularly, this purpose is not being met! So here is my first attempt to blog more regularly and document life (the good and the bad) more accurately!

We got back from vacation (a week at the beach then a trip to the zoo!) five days ago and I am just now feeling "recovered." Vacations with little kids are just not real vacations. As fun as it was and as nice as it was to be at the beach and be with my husband's family, I felt that when it was all over, I needed a vacation! I seriously was daydreaming of a weekend alone in a hotel room! I no longer feel that way but I'm happy to be home and back in the swing of our regular routine. I have finally unpacked and tidied the house. The laundry is even mostly done. I even did laundry while we were on vacation and somehow we still came home with what seemed like a ton of laundry. The good thing was that since I had done laundry there we had some clothes to wear when we came back and I didn't have to do the laundry until yesterday.

Before our vacation, MG (3 mos) was sleeping anywhere from 5-9 hours at a stretch at night. She didn't quite sleep as well on vacation (usually a stretch of 3-4 hours but it was 5 hours one night!), but she is now back to some good long stretches! The past two nights she's gone to bed in the eight o'clock hour and has slept until six or seven in the morning with a dream feed before I go to bed. Woo hoo! I am well rested again. (Kind of!)

My plan of a two-week potty training "boot camp" has turned into a summer of potty training "boot camp." It's taken A LOT longer than I ever thought it would but I think we're on the upswing now. I hope! We weren't able to do too much potty training on vacation so we decided to just let it go and resume when we got back. Well we started up again yesterday and it's going very well! ME (3) went all of yesterday and all of this morning without any accidents!!! Yesterday he did not initiate using the potty on his own but he went every time Hubby or I told him to. Today, he has gone whenever I told him to and has initiated it twice. Yes! Okay, as I was typing this he had an accident in the basement. Oh well! Still, one accident in a day and half is awesome!

Now that the summer is winding down, Hubby and I have begun the process of getting ready to sell our house. We'll be moving in June when Hubby finishes his residency and plan to "put our house on the market" (really we're doing For Sale By Owner - it's very common among the residents here) in January. We've made a master list of all the projects and cleaning that need to be done between now and then and hope to tackle it one by one over the next four months.
We're also job searching. Hubby has several job possibilities at this time. The hospital he's at now has offered him a position at the sister hospital where he moonlights. I'm not sure we're very interested in that option but it's still a possibility. Then there's a group between here and where his parents live that is actively recruiting him. We went down there several weeks ago for a "meet and greet" kind of thing. The group reserved a private room at a really nice restaurant and most of the physicians and their wives all came. It was crazy to realize that they were all there to meet us! We really liked everything we learned about this practice. Hubby will be going there later this month to see the office, the hospital, etc. Then today, Hubby left his cell phone at home (I hate that!) and got a call that I answered. It was a physician from a local ortho practice that is interested in Hubby. We talked for a bit and then I passed the message along to Hubby. Those are the practices that are pursuing him (and boy is it nice to be pursued!) but he has several other options/contacts to consider as well. The funny is that Hubby will be doing a fellowship from August 2009 until July 2010 so this job search is really for two years from now. It feels funny to be "planning" so far ahead for the future. But on the flip side, we found out our fellowship location last summer and now a year has passed and it's only a year away. Not only that but we're already making plans (e.g. selling the house, researching rental property options, etc.) for that time in our lives. So, although it feels far away, I know the time will pass quickly.

Lastly, we've made several big purchases lately and have upgraded our technology, some of which were planned and others were not! Hubby's had some good moonlighting weekends recently so we've been able to do this. First of all, we bought a new laptop which should be here soon hopefully! Our current one isn't all that old technically but computers become obsolete almost as soon as you buy them! So we got one that can replace our desktop and still handle all of our photo and video editing programs. That was a planned purchase. The next one, however, was not. On Sunday, ME (3) was playing in the living room and decided to (toy) hammer the television and broke it. So out we went shopping for a new tv. We actually ended up ordering one online and its on its way! Along with the purchase of the new tv, came the decision to upgrade our cable service. We've had bare bones cable since we moved here which worked fine for us. Then our cable company went ahead and changed the channels on us and we no longer get two of our favorite channels! So for many reasons, including a discussion and demonstration of the many uses and benefits of DVR, we've upgraded and the cable guy will be here next week. Lastly (well hopefully last!), we've bought a new heat pump. That was also an unplanned purchase. Well, it wasn't planned to be a purchase right now but we knew when we bought the house that we would most likely have to replace it (it's 21 years old) and saved for it. That will happen next week as well. So there are major technological upgrades happening around here in the next two weeks.

That's all for now! I'll try to blog again soon - maybe!