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I don't post on here enough.  I always say/think I will post way more often but then I don't.  Maybe I will make this one of my new year's resolutions?  I never make new year's resolutions but this year I already have 3.  I just hope everybody else doesn't make the 'work out more' resolution because then the gym will be clogged up for a month or so after the new year.  Working out more is not one of my resolutions though; I already go consistently!

Lola told Santa what she wants for Christmas - A Choo Choo train with tracks!  She was so excited to see Santa, and then froze when she sat on his lap.  She started chewing on her hand, and then her thumb, and then the pom pom's on her dress. 

Girls Trip 2011!

Tis the (almost) season!  I can’t believe Thanksgiving is just over 2 weeks away and Christmas is next month.  I just got back from a wonderful girls weekend in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  This is our 6^th year of having a girl’s weekend with (mostly) the same group of girls.  We have all moved around, but right now there are 3 girls living in Chicago, 1 in Michigan, and I'm in Kansas City.  One of the Chicago girls couldn't go this year.  We really have to force ourselves to meet up each year now that we are all having kids…it’s just much more difficult to coordinate.  Some day we will travel outside of the US again, but probably not until everyone is finished having kids and the kids are a bit older.  Our last international trip to Croatia in 2006 seems so long ago… Here are some pictures from this past weekend.  

Spa day at 10,000 Waves Spa! 



Enjoying a drink at our hotel bar




Beer tasting in our hotel lobby



Hiking...we spent like 45 minutes in the car to drive to
our hiking destination only to realize we only had
15 minutes to actually hike before we had to get back
for lunch and the spa. 

past sicknesses and the holidays

Everyone is over their sicknesses for now… In the past 2.75 months Lola has had 2 ear infections and pink eye, and Luca has had a urinary tract infection. They both have sniffles/snotty noses right now but that is very normal! Actually, it is more normal than not normal. We missed Luca’s 6 month shots because she had a fever at the time, so I still need to get her in for those. It’s just a pain to schedule because I have to take off work to take her in first thing in the morning, and then take her to school. Basically I’m just lazy and haven’t gotten around to it yet! I know some people delay vaccines, but this is the first time I have not taken a kid in right on time for vaccines and it feels odd.

I can’t believe the holidays are coming up so quickly. Next week is November! Finances are a bit tight right now which is stressing me out. We thought the finances would work out better for us to switch the girls to full-time instead of part-time, but it’s turning out to be the opposite. And with the holiday’s approaching that stresses me out even more. I hate money (or lack there of) sometimes…There are things that I (we) do that we don’t need to and it’s getting to the point where we are going to start having to be annoying about it. For example: We only go out to eat once per week and don’t spend more than XX amount; we only spend XX at the grocery store each week; no buying anything that isn’t totally necessary, etc… I’m going on my annual girl’s trip next week and I will have to evaluate it for next year because it’s a chunk of money that we (I) don’t need to spend every year. What sucks is that we have been getting together yearly since 2006 and it’s the only time we see each other. I know people say that having lots of money can cause problems, but I feel like it would be the opposite for us and make us so much less stressed!  At least I can fit into all of my old clothing so I don’t need to buy anything new! Unfortunately that means that I’m wearing some pants that are seriously 8-10 years old. They are looking pretty ratty…oh well.

We are having family pictures taken next month (yes, I know, after my last paragraph I know this isn’t a necessity). The goal is to give out pictures as Christmas gifts and use for Christmas cards. I’m hoping everyone is healthy and we get at least one good family picture and one good picture of the girls. Getting 2 good pictures isn’t asking too much is it?

Luca is getting so big! She started crawling just after she turned 6 months (on October 13th to be exact). She is trying to pull up on everything she can get a hold of. Apparently she was trying to pull up on this chair at school…she tried and tried, and the next thing they knew she was asleep! She apparently wore herself out!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

cute pic!

One more cute pic... this is Luca napping yesterday.  Check out her jeggings!  Adorable - baby got back!

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I really need to get better about writing on here.  I really think of posting probably every other day, but just don't get the chance to actually type out what I am thinking...therefore it doesn't get written down or posted. 

What is new?  It's October already!?  Really?  I know they say time goes faster as you age but this is getting crazy.  It seems like a few weeks ago that it was October and I was pregnant with Luca and trying to figure out what clothes fit and what didn't.   Now it's a year later.  Lola is going to be a princess for Halloween.  The costume I ordered is really pretty, but when I opened it I realized there is GLITTER all over the main part of the tulle skirt.  If I would have known that I wouldn't have ordered it.  I hate glitter.  It gets everywhere, then everywhere again, then in the places you didn't even realize anything could accumulate.  It doesn't go away either.  It stays for months, years even.  Ugh.  I took the dress outside and shook it as hard as I could.  I might make Lola wait to put it on until she is outside ready to trick-or-treat!  Luca is going to be a monkey - the same costume Lola wore 2 years ago.  Reduce, reuse, recycle! 

I'm in Toronto right now for a conference.  Luca got a fever right before I left.  Go figure. Her first fever happens the day I leave to go out of town for 5 days.  And she can't go to school with a fever.  Ryan has already arranged his schedule to accommodate me being gone, so he couldn't take any time off during the day.  So my parents saved the day (again).  Thank goodness they live close, and thank goodness my dad is retired.  He is going to watch her until she has been fever-free for 24 hours. 

Since I left on a Sunday to come to Toronto, Ryan took yesterday (Saturday) off.  This is unheard of.  He only takes Saturday's off when I have babies (both girls were born on Saturday mornings between 9:14 to 9:25am), or when we are out of town (which isn't that often).  He is trying to rearrange his schedule so he and his 2 assistant managers each get one Saturday off per month.  We'll see...he has already said it may not happen next month, which is November, which I understand because November and December are the busiest months he has.  But come January he had better keep his promise!  Anyway, back to yesterday...we went to the pumpkin patch.  Lola had a blast.  It was so much fun!  Then we met my parents and aunt and uncle out for dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, and then we topped it off by getting ice cream.  It was a really nice 'normal' Saturday.  For those of you with spouses who normally work on Saturday's you know what I mean.  We don't have 'normal' weekends.  Sunday is the only day we are both together with the girls, so we end up trying to squeeze everything into that day - gym, mowing lawn, laundry, cleaning.  So the day starts to feel like one big chore.  It would be nice to have 2 days to divide everything up, but alas, I know what I signed up for...a hubby who owns his own business!  I will cherish the few Saturdays we have together instead of complaining.   :)

I saw leaves falling from trees yesterday.  Ugh.  This means leaves will fall for the next 3 months and I will be raking and leave blowing/sucking every Sunday until it snows.  I really love my huge trees, they provide beauty and shade, but boy do they throw down some leaves come fall. 

Some pics from the pumpin patch




They had 10 or so of these 'cut out' things for pictures




I think we will go every year
and it will be fun to have Lola
stand next to this each year!




They had an awesome petting zoo!  Tons of baby animals. 



Went back to the allergy doctor on Wednesday because my ears were still full, and I was afraid I was going to get another ear infection. I am just surprised that even with all the meds I was taking that my ears were still full. My nasal congestion was much better, but not my ears. So the allergy doc gave me some prednisone (steroids), which I really don’t want to take, but have no choice. She said they should clear me out and hopefully last until the first freeze. I am hoping the allergy shots start to kick in later this winter or early spring when all the good stuff in the air starts to come back. I just keep getting new and more severe symptoms every season. Ugh.

On another note, Luca is 5 months old today! I can’t believe how time flies. She is such a great baby that it makes me want another one! Actually, it’s the adorable interaction between both girls that makes me want another one. I must be crazy right!? I haven’t even mentioned this to my husband, so we’ll see if he reads this.  :) 

Ryan and Lola are going to the Circus on Sunday. It’s a Ringling Brothers show so it should be good, and they are sitting in the front row which should be even better! I’m sad I’m not going, but I get to hang out with Luca one-on-one (which hasn’t happened since I was maternity leave) so I’m excited about that.

I’m 33 years old and I got an ear infection! What the heck!? My allergies have been so bad that my ears were plugged up for almost 5 days, and apparently my ear canals couldn’t handle it. It was horribly painful.

I am trying new medications for my allergies, while I wait for my allergy shots to start working. My allergy doc said I should start to see a big improvement by the time I hit 1 year of treatment, which will be in May 2012. I had better start to see improvements by then or I am going to be broke and not happy. They just prescribed 4 meds, totaling $260/month (with insurance). I picked the one that worked the best and bought it for $75 and I’m just going to have to get by without the others. I have pretty much tried most meds at this point, and these 4 meds are fairly new on the market which is why they are so darn expensive.

Luca is almost 5 months old now, and she is seriously the best and easiest baby ever. She never cries and always smiles. Always smiles. It is wonderful! I’m afraid that she is getting close to crawling though… check out this video. She is waaaaaaayyyyy to young to crawl!

It's a mess!

I used to live in filth…back when I lived by myself and even before that.  I would leave dishes all over the place; clean laundry was mixed with dirty laundry in piles on the floor.  It didn’t bother me at all.  Fast forward to today… living like this really bothers me now.  It makes me uptight, grumpy, and frustrated.  But the difference is that years ago I had plenty of time to clean up I just chose not to.  Now I really want to have a clean and un-cluttered house but I just don’t have the time.  The girls were part time (3 days/week) at school up until 3 weeks ago, but now they are full-time.  I now realize that on my day home and Ryan’s day home we at least got a few things done, and it made way more of a difference than I realized!  I would usually do several loads of laundry, pick-up, vacuum, and swiffer just so the 1^st floor looked decent.  I would do this during the girls’ afternoon nap.  There are just not enough hours in the day now!  And don’t even get me started on all the things that need to be done outside…

4 month stats!

Luca is 4 months old today (8-9-11)! 

Weight: 14lbs 9oz

Height: 24.5"

Sleep: 2 naps/day (when at home), varies at school...Nightime: goes to bed between 7:30-7:45pm, wakes up around 6:30am.  Started rolling over around 3.5 months, and now typically rolls over and sleeps on her tummy. 

Luca is an EASY baby.  She is always smiling.  She is happy being held, she is happy laying on the floor, she is happy in her bouncy seat. 

Luca school pic - 3 months

trained!

Just realized I never followed up with the last potty training post.  Lola has been trained since my last post and is doing very well.  We put her in pull-ups at night.  Some mornings she wakes up dry, some mornings she is wet.  She wears underwear during naps and is generally okay - at school she is 100% and at home she is more like 90%.  Don't know why there is a difference. 

Got to hang with my college roommate Jen this morning.  It had been WAY too long since I saw her last.  It was great to catch up. 

Both girls are napping right now, but I didn't even dare to try and take a nap.  I know if I tried then someone would have woken up!  Plus it takes me so darn long to fall asleep that it is never worth it unless Ryan is home.  I have never been a good napper. 

Potty training…ugh. I don’t think we are doing it like most people do it. I think you are supposed to take a weekend and try it, but we have been half-assing it now for a while. Basically she goes on the toilet at school fairly consistently. But her diapers are not usually dry. For the past few weeks (actually almost a month) when she runs around naked (or without a diaper but with a shirt on), she goes on the toilet every time, and has only had a few accidents. And when I say ‘accidents’ I mean little dribbles as she runs to the toilet because she got to the point where she had to go badly and she just couldn’t hold it all in. So a month ago I bought some underwear and tried those but for some reason she had a few accidents where she actually pottied full on in her underwear, so I just stopped using them because she seemed to do fine when she was naked. Last Friday she woke up DRY in the morning! She usually wakes up SUPER wet… so I thought that maybe it was time. So this past Saturday I pulled the underwear back out and she did great for 2 days! But Lola is so extreme...I would put a diaper on her when we had to go places and she would potty or poop in her diaper and not care at all. She would go all day in a poopy or wet diaper. But she is obviously capable of going in the toilet and understanding when she has to go and capable of holding it in.

So this morning when Ryan took her to school, he asked her lead teacher Sharrita what we should do. I hate to put her in diapers because I know she will just go in them and not care. But I know it will be a lot of work for the teachers to deal with her in underwear. I think trying underwear at school might be both easier and more difficult at the same time. Easier because a lot of the other kiddos are potty trained (she is in 2-3 year old room) and they go, and she sees them go. This is why she is good about consistently going at school even though her diapers are not usually dry. But more difficult because she gets distracted at school because there is so much going on. I don’t know if she will want to go inside to go potty (or even realize she needs to go potty) when she is right in the middle of playing outside. Anywhoo, much to my surprise, Sharrita was super excited and said she would put Lola in her underwear and see how she did! So I guess we will see when I pick her up today! :)



This is Lola yesterday in her Dora underwear
listening to Daddy's i-pod.  



Back to work!

So today is my first day back to work!  And what am I doing?  Obviously not working...  ha ha!  This return to work is bittersweet.  I think because this is (most likely) our last child so I really tried to enjoy my leave as much as I could.  I really enjoyed the days when Lola was at school and I could hang out with Luca by myself.  I truly enojyed spending time with Luca, and I felt so much more relaxed and comfortable this time.  I don't think I really savored every minute with Lola, but this time around was totally different in a good way!

We had an awesome 4th of July.  We went down to my parents' house and relaxed for a few days.  I went and bought Lola some fireworks.  It was the first time I had bought fireworks since college!  I only bought the 'boring' kid-friendly fireworks - snap pop thingies, smoke bombs, and some parachutes.  She even stayed up to watch fireworks!  It was almost 2 hours past her bedtime, but she was able to stay awake and see them. 

The girls in their coordinating outfits! 

password

For some reason my password hasn't worked when I have tried to log-in the last few times to write, so that is my excuse for not having posted in a while.  Ha ha, lame excuse I know... 

So our driveway is complete!  Let me tell you how nice it is to come home and know that we each have a place to park and that we don't have to worry about one person parking behind the other, and then re-arranging the cars in the morning.  After parking on it for 3 weeks now, I have to say that if I had it to do over I would have made the main part of the drivway 1 foot wider.  I know there is always a lesson learned, so that is mine.  I could use just a little more room on both my side and the passenger side when getting myself and the girls in and out of the car.  We ended up doing some planting beds along the side of the driveway and we also added a berm garden just near the driveway.  I don't have any pictures yet though!  I don't really want to take pictures until the berm and beds have filled out a bit.  This is a picture of the berm my parents' and I built 2 summers ago.  It actually looked great last summer but is even more full this summer.  I'm guessing the newest berm will look good enough to photograph next year!   :)

 

We only bought a few plants in this berm. My mom divided a lot of her plants and some of her friends' plants and we used those.

 



Random

Well, the driveway is finished!  It took almost 2 weeks because of the rain, which was kind of a pain but totally worth it in the end!  But why, oh why, can't I just be satisfied with the driveway by itself?  Instead, I am now adding landscaping along the drivway and also adding a new garden berm near the driveway!  I seem to have an addiction to yard projects.  I will post pictures when it's all finished. 

I had good intentions of writing a novel, but Luca is now crying.  When she is awake she almost always wants to be held so there isn't a lot of down time for me.  Gotta run! 

a new driveway is coming soon!

We are getting a new driveway on Monday!  This may not seem very exciting to most people, but it is a big deal to us.  We have a very narrow single lane driveway, so if we both park in the driveway one person has to move their car in the morning if the other person needs out first.  We do park on the street, but our house is near a college campus so students park on our street and often when one of us gets home, there is no room on the street.  If there is room it is further down the street, which just doesn't work when you are trying to unload a car with an infant, a toddler, bags, purse, etc...  And to top it off, our teeny, narrow driveway is literally crumbling away.  The area near the street has huge chunks of concrete missing, so when you back out it feels like you are driving into a huge pothole.  The driveway was also coated with teeny rocks and epoxy probably 20 years ago.  These teeny rocks come off and we track them into the house and they scratch the floors.  We always get them in our shoes, and even though we don't wear our shoes inside, they still get tracked in. 

We are going to have the driveway re-poured to a double width so we can both park side-by-side.  No more parking on the street, no more re-arranging the cars at 6:30 in the morning in the snow, no more bottoming out in the huge potholes as we back out, and no more little annoying rocks!   Yeah!  If only it wasn't going to cost so much, blah. 

1 month in!

It has been one month today since I have Luca.  Time is going by so much faster this time around, I have been off of work for a month and it has flown by.   When I had Lola, time seemed to go by so much slower.  I am also amazed at how busy I seem to be now that I am home.  There is so much to do!  The days when Lola is at school and I am home with Luca, I find myself hardly sitting down (only to feed her).   The one time when I make sure to sit down is during Oprah!  It is the final season you know...    :)

2.5 weeks in!

It's been over 2 weeks since Luca was born.  Things have been going well.  It's crazy how different it is the second time around - not nearly as stressful.  I've been enjoying having a newborn so much more this time.  I don't know if it was the fact that my delivery was so much better and now just over 2 weeks later I feel almost back to normal, or if it is just the fact that we have 'been there, done that'.  But I have to say that Luca is a different baby than Lola.  Not only do they look different, but pretty much everything is different!  I guess that is to be expected, but I really thought that having another girl, she would be similar to Lola. 

I am loving my time at home with just Luca.  I get so much done and still have time to relax.  Lola is going to school 3 days/week so there are 2 days where she is home too.  Those days have been...um, interesting.  I know Lola is still getting used to having a sister that takes some of the attention.  She had been having lots of tantrums before Luca was born, and now there are a few more, but I guess we were just so used to her having them anyway that it doesn't seem that much worse.  I think the most difficult time has been Lola's bedtime (when Ryan isn't home).  Luca seems to want to eat right at that time, go figure... Last time it happened Lola was a very good sport, so that made me happy.  We'll just take it one day at a time! 



2 days old!



Lola kept putting one of her baby dolls next to Luca

Welcome Luca Sciara! My VBAC experience (warning, long and has a few gross details) :)

Little Luca Giani Scaira came into this world on Saturday, April 9th at 9:14am.  She was 7lbs, 19.5 inches, with dark brown hair.  I had the best birth experience, and I wrote it down so I could not only remember it but also share it with others who might be considering a VBAC (vaginal birth after Cesarean). 

Friday April 8th started out fairly normal. I had the day off of work. I went to the gym and had an awesome workout. I felt normal (‘normal’ for being almost 40 weeks pregnant). I put Lola down for a nap around 1pm and I tried to nap too. No success, which isn’t unusual for me, but I felt relaxed when I got up. Lola was up too around 3pm, and I started vacuuming and doing some cleaning with her help. Looking back, I must have been last minute nesting. I cleaned for an hour and then when I went to the bathroom I noticed a tinge of blood when I wiped. I was having a few minor contractions but I was so busy that I really didn’t notice. I went to the bathroom a few more times and saw some more blood tinged mucus. It was almost pink in color. And once I stopped to eat dinner I realized I was having some contractions. My friend Elizabeth told me to time them but that is difficult to do with a 2-year old running around when your husband is at work. She kept bugging me about it so finally around 6pm I sat down and timed them. They were 6-7 minutes apart, not painful at all, and there were some longer and shorter periods between contractions so I just figured that meant they weren’t ‘regular’. I seriously thought that they had to be exactly so many minutes apart, no varying, otherwise they weren’t ‘real’. Honestly though I was also in denial. I didn’t want to deliver over the weekend because my doctor wasn’t on call and I really wanted her to deliver me. Ryan and I also had dinner plans for Saturday night (this was Friday) and I really wanted to go! Plus, Ryan’s assistant manager was out on Saturday so that would be a bad day for him to be gone. In a perfect world, I was going to go into labor on Sunday afternoon or evening so Dr. Carter could deliver me on Monday. Elizabeth told me to call the doctor and I lied and said I did, and that they told me my contractions needed to be closer. But deep down even though I was in denial, I still texted Ryan around 7pm and told him he might want to think about finding someone to work for him on Saturday.

My contractions continued that evening, and we timed them until 10pm. They were 5-6 minutes apart at that point, but still not exactly regular like I thought they should be because there were some random 4 or 8 minute apart contractions thrown in there. But I did finally realize I was probably in pre-labor. The contractions still didn’t hurt. We decided to go to bed, but I had a feeling I wasn’t going to be sleeping. While the contractions weren’t all that painful, they were uncomfortable and frequent enough that I figured if they continued I would not be able to fall asleep. I tossed and turned until 1am and then decided to go downstairs. I watched a few Tivo’ed shows and timed contractions. They were 4-5 minutes apart and starting to get a bit more intense. At 4am I wondered if I should go ahead and call my parents. But I didn’t want to wake them, and I figured I had plenty more time. Around 5:30am I went upstairs to shower. The contractions were starting to get a little painful, but the actual ‘pain’ part of them literally lasted 5 seconds so they were very tolerable. And still on a scale of 1-10, they were maybe a 3 but only for a few seconds at the beginning of each one. I wondered again if I should call my parents but I had the time of 6am (at the earliest) in the back of my mind because that seemed like a reasonable time to call someone, but before that seemed rude. As I got upstairs and started showering, the contractions seemed to get more intense. I got out of the shower and I was standing there putting lotion on my body and I had a pretty intense contraction. About halfway through it my water broke all over the bathroom rug! That makes me 2 for 2 on my water breaking at home. But unlike my first pregnancy where I didn’t have any contractions after my water broke, all of the sudden my contractions seemed to get way more powerful and closer together after my water broke. I yelled at Ryan and told him my water broke and he should call my parents. It was now just before 6am. In between contractions, I put some clothes on, we changed the sheets on the bed (my parents were going to sleep on our bed and Ryan was going to sleep on the couch), I put a few more things in my hospital bag, and we tried to deal with Lola who was grumpy and had just gotten up. My contractions were getting very intense and they were now 2-3 minutes apart. And with each contraction I was bleeding…I told Ryan we didn’t have time to wait for my parents and that we needed to get to the hospital. I was getting scared and wanted to get to the hospital, even though for some reason I didn’t think I was more than 3cm dilated. We got downstairs and I called the doctor’s number, and the Nurse Midwife (who was on call) called me back. She was asking me questions but it was during a contraction so I had a difficult time answering her. She told me to come right in, but we were already on our way out the door!

The hospital is only 5 minutes from our house, but I had 3 contractions on the drive there…you do the math. We got inside and the nurse asked me if I could pee in a cup, and I remember wondering if she was kidding…all I got was blood in the cup during a contraction. I got to the triage room and the nurse checked me, and she told me I was 8cm! Holy crap, I was not expecting that. She asked what I wanted to do for pain and I said I wanted an epidural so she called anesthesia right away. She told me that there would be a new nurse taking me to my room (it was just before 7am shift change). I didn’t realize that the nurse who would start her shift was the best thing that could have happened to me, her name was Sherri. I got to my delivery room, and Sherri helped me breathe through the contractions which I swear were less than 2 minutes apart and the pain portion of them seemed to last a lot longer! I also need to mention that Lola was still at the hospital with us because my parents were not there yet. Poor Lola; Ryan was taking care of her; she was concerned that I was in pain and wanted to come hug me. I didn’t realize this until later because I was in pain and so focused on getting through the contractions that I blocked everything else out, except for nurse Sherri. Although I know in theory I should have wanted to hug my husband and have him help me breathe through the contractions, I am not sure he could have helped me like a nurse who had been a L&D nurse for over 30 years. So instead Ryan was sitting with Lola on the couch, and I was hugging nurse Sherri and she was coaching me through the contractions. I kept telling her thank you.
The timeline between getting from the triage room to the delivery room was only a few minutes, and anesthesia pretty much got there right away. I was sitting on the side of the bed while they prepped my back, hugging Sherri during contractions. I remember feeling the intense pressure during the contraction, and after a few of them while sitting on the side of the bed, I could feel major pressure down there. I could also feel the ‘ring of fire’ which freaked me out because I knew that meant I was complete or almost completely dilated and that the baby was coming. I swear that if I hadn’t been sitting, that the baby would have started crowning, but couldn’t because I was blocking her from coming out! The anesthesiologist was having trouble getting the epidural threaded and the contractions were probably only a minute-and-a-half apart by this point. I kept asking Sherri if they would be done before the next contraction hit because I didn’t think there was any way I could hold still, and she said I should only have to go through one more and that I had to hold completely still. I was thinking there was no freaking way I was going to be able to hold still, no way…she coached me through the breathing, very fast paced, loud breathing (I’m sure I sounded ridiculous but I didn’t care in the least), and I ended up having 5 or 6 total contractions while they worked on my epidural. The anesthesiologist also told me that it takes at least 15 minutes but usually more for the epidural to take effect, and it was starting to look like I might not have enough time. The thought of delivering without pain meds terrified me so much, that I remember thinking right then that I should have just scheduled a C-Section. That was the only time I thought a c-section might be better. I think it was around this time that Ryan left to take Lola outside – Elizabeth found out that my parents weren’t there yet and she came to get Lola. I am so thankful she did this. Ryan took her out and I really don’t remember it, which makes me feel bad because I didn’t tell her bye. I know she was scared and she had been staring at my back watching them do the epidural and she just wanted to give me a hug. Ryan came back in about the time they had me lay on my side. Dr. Matile came in. He was the doctor on call, I had never met him and wasn’t too excited about someone I didn’t know delivering me, but he seemed nice enough. Nurse Sherri did warn me before he came in that he really didn’t like epidurals and if I had trouble pushing he would turn it off. She told me that she would tell me exactly what to do, how to push, and I told her I would listen to her and do exactly what she said. He checked me and said I was 10cm, complete, could feel baby’s head, and I was ready to push. He asked if I wanted to push right then, or if I wanted him to come back in 10 or 15 minutes after the epidural took effect. I told him to come back. I am so glad I did because it gave me 15 minutes to actually relax. Almost instantly the contractions felt better, manageable, and got further apart. But I could still feel the pressure. My parents arrived around this time. Even though it was only 15 minutes, it seemed like the longest and best 15 minutes I can remember for a while. I was relaxed, not in pain, lying comfortably on my side, and knew the baby was almost here. I chatted with Ryan, my parents, and nurse Sherri.

Dr. Matile came in and said it was time to push. My parents left. Dr. Matile reminded me (with a smile) that if I hadn’t have had the epidural, I would have pushed the baby out over an hour ago. Yes, I know! Sherri told me exactly what I needed to do. I did a couple of test pushes, and they said that I shouldn’t have to push too much and that the baby should come out fairly quickly based on what they could see. They left me laying with my legs wide open while they put on their gowns in prep for delivery. What I didn’t realize about the experience until later was that there were only 4 people in the room this time, versus my last delivery where there were 8 or 9, but I can’t even remember because I couldn’t see anything. The atmosphere seemed so much more serene and relaxed. Nurse Sherri told me again how to push, and as I had a contraction I pushed. They told me I was pushing great, and I did another push on the next contraction. I pushed a total of 7 times (essentially 4 sets of 2 pushes each, 2 per contraction, but only one push on the last contraction). The last contraction I pushed, and almost immediately they told me “stop, stop”! The head was out. They then glided her out…Ryan said that his eyes went immediately to her crotch where he could see she was a girl! It was so cool to get to hold her right away, although a bit weird since my legs were still up in the air. I had a 2nd degree tear but the doctor said it wasn’t bad at all and was easy to stitch up. Although I know that Ryan was maybe a bit disappointed she wasn’t a boy, he didn’t show it at all. We were surprised to see that she didn’t look at all like her sister, she had hair, which was darker, and a short forehead with a widow’s peak hairline. In the days since the birth, Ryan and his sisters think she looks like their Grandma Vita and Grandpa Dominick, very Italian gangster-like!
A couple of hours after the birth, I got to get up and go to the bathroom. Nurse Sherri helped me, my legs were a big wobbly from the epidural. Once I got wheeled to the recovery room, I was so shocked at how good I felt. It was like night and day from the last time where I didn’t even get to sit up in bed until the next day at noon, and even that was excruciatingly painful. I got to change Luca’s first poopy diaper, and I realized I didn’t get to change Lola’s first poopy diaper because I was still stuck in bed. It’s now been a couple of days, and while I have aches and pains, I have only taken a handful of motrin and that is it. I seriously feel amazing. I am so glad I tried for a VBAC. I am so happy to know that my body was actually able to labor and birth a baby, because I was really having my doubts.

right after delivery.  I got to hold her right away!

Sisters!

almost there...

38 weeks today! 2 weeks until my due date, and no more than 3 weeks until we have a new baby. As uncomfortable as I feel, I’m not ready yet and have no problem waiting a few more weeks. I am getting a bit nervous thinking about the whole labor process. My water broke with Lola so I knew when to go to the hospital, but water breaking is not all that common so it most likely won’t happen to me again until I’m already in the hospital. So how the heck do I know when to go to the hospital!? I don’t know why this makes me so nervous but it does. I think maybe I don’t want to go to the hospital thinking I’m in labor and get sent home, and be embarrassed I showed up and really wasn’t in labor. I’m also anxious about having to be induced. My doctor will let me go to 41 weeks, but not longer than that. Hopefully it won’t be an issue, but I really want a VBAC (vaginal birth after Caesarian) and if I have to be induced I just have a feeling that my body won’t respond well. Pitocin is what sent Lola into distress and forced me to get a c-section last time so I want to avoid that stuff like the plague…but if I have to be induced I know they will try with all their might to give it to me because it helps contractions become more regular. I guess I will know the answer to these questions in a few weeks!

Last night I told Lola that we are going to bring a baby home and he/she will be living in our house. Her response: “No, Lola’s house”. So I said, “this will be the baby’s house too”, and she replied, “no, Lola’s house”. Hmmmm….



She really loves this darn swimsuit...
She insisted she needed to wear it, so I made her put it on over
her clothes because it was cold. 



warm!

It was 80 degrees on Monday!  I was not happy when I got home and it was 79 upstairs in our house... I prefer being pregnant in the winter and cooler months.  I honestly don't think I would cut it as a 9 month pregnant gal in the summer, I just don't have it in me.  Thankfully it has cooled off since!  I'm less than 3 weeks away from my due date! 

Lola got a new swimsuit a few weeks ago (per her request).  She has now worn it to bed twice (hey, why not?) and she also wanted to wear it on Monday after school.  I figured why not since it was so warm.  I got some cute pics in the back yard. 

Sick part 2

Lola got sent home from school yesterday with a fever.  Thankfully, Ryan was able to go pick her up so I didn't have to get out.  I think he was just embarrassed for me to be seen after not showering or changing my clothes for almost 3 days!  Ha ha.  When he walked in the door with her I thought she looked weird but I couldn't put my finger on it, but a couple minutes later I realized her jaw and under her ear were super swollen.  One side was worse than the other, but she looked really puffy.  Ryan took her to the doctor and he said some glands were swollen and to bring her back if they got any worse.  She still has a fever but hopefully she gets better by tomorrow so she can go to school on Friday.  These pictures won't mean much if you don't know what she normally looks like, but she normally has a fairly thin face!  If you look under her ear you can see how swollen she is!   She also doesn't normally have more than one chin!   :)

sick...

I knew it was only a matter of time before I caught something.  Thankfully it wasn't the 'throw-up' flu!  My parents had Lola for the weekend, so we went to Lawrence Saturday night for dinner with friends.  I had a tight and sore feeling in my chest, but I was hoping at the time that it was because I was out much later than normal!  No such luck... I felt crappy on Sunday, coughing, joints aching, very congested.  I got a fever yesterday and felt horrible.  I laid in the entire day!  Thank goodness Lola was still with my parents.  My dad brought her back last night, and Ryan was able to come home.  I literally saw her for 10 minutes before I went back to bed.  My fever broke early this morning, and I feel much better, but still don't feel great.  Ugh, I really think everything is 10x worse when you are pregnant.  I forced myself eat and drink lots of fluids only because I am pregnant, otherwise I don't think I would have tried as hard...

I'm 34 weeks now, so only 6 weeks until my due date of April 12!

Lola's school and other transitions...

Well, we started Lola’s transition to a ‘big bed’ (aka, twin bed) a week ago today. I honestly thought it would go much smoother than it has. She really did love her crib, and I wouldn’t be in any hurry to move her out of it if I weren’t pregnant. It seems to slowly be getting better and now I’m glad we started when we did because I want her to be completely settled in her new room by the time the new baby arrives. Naps seem to be more challenging than nights. I feel like we have a new infant already with all the interrupted sleep we are getting!

Lola has also permanently moved into the 2-3 year old room at her school. It was a bit sad for us at first because we really liked the teachers in her infant and toddler rooms. She adjusted right away though, like literally the first day she ‘visited’ Room 10 she LOVED it. Some kids take several weeks, even a month to transition, but Lola seemed ready the first day she visited. So her transition took only a week. It kind of happened before we were ready, but I guess it’s better if she is ready right!? When I picked her up on Monday, she looked so happy. Not happy to see me specifically, but just happy being in the room with the other kids and interacting with them. The nice thing about her school is that around 1/3 of the kiddos in Room 10 were also with her in Room 6, so she knows several of them (and was really good friends with one of them who just moved a month ago). One of her good friends is still in Room 6 and won’t be 2 until May, so she has to wait a few months to see her again which makes me sad…

Happy 2nd Birthday Lola

I can't believe my little baby turned 2 a few weeks ago.  It's weird because it seems like she was just born, yet it seems like a LONG time ago.  I think it's seemed like longer lately since she hit her terrible 2's...  Her actual birthday was on Monday, January 24th.  We celebrated that day at her school with her friends, then at home that night with a few presents and cupcakes.  We then had a party on Saturday the 29th.  She got to stretch her birthday out for almost a week! 

As for the cake...this year I thought it should either be Yo Gabba Gabba or Knuffle Bunny.  Neither one has a shaped cake pan (go figure) so I planned on just decorating the top of a rectangular cake instead.  Once I decided on Knuffle Bunny, I Googled 'Knuffle Bunny Cake' to see what others had made but only came up with one cake!  I was so disappointed because I wanted more ideas, so I am going to post cake progress photos in the next post so if someone Googles it they will at least have another idea to get them started. 



Lola eating her cupcake at school.  Every single kid ate the

frosting off first, then ate the cupcake!



Room 6 (toddlers, 1-2).  She will be moving into Room 10
with the 2-3 year olds now. 

I should remember his name but I'm drawing a blank. 
He won the prize for the messiest face!

Lola was really good at blowing out the candle, she kept
wanting us to light it over and over so she could keep
blowing it out. 

She was excited to see her Knuffle Bunny Cake!  When
I asked her who was on her cake, she said "Bubble Mummy"
very softly, like she was embarrassed!  It was cute. 

She is great at blowing out candles (and blowing her nose). 
Not so great at smelling (inhaling). 

When Ryan told her to thank Uncle Craig (his brother)
for the gift, she ran up to him and gave him a hug!  It
was adorable. 

She wasn't too messy with the cake, although we did
give her ice cream too and she picked it up with
her hands...

Julia, Lola, and Frankie eating pizza. 
Julia was also born on January 24th, and
Frankie was born on January 8th. 

Knuffle Bunny Birthday Cake

Here is the Knuffle Bunny Cake I made for Lola's 2nd birthday.  I hope that someone finds this helpful... when I googled Knuffle Bunny Cake I only got one hit, so at least this adds another option to the world wide web!  I sketched out a version of Knuffle that I liked, made a copy and blew it up, cut it out, and traced around it on the cake with a toothpick.  Then I traced over the outline with icing. 

I started with a plain Chocolate Sheet cake.
If you look closely at the top, you can see the
cut out of Knuffle I refer to below. 

I cut out the image of Knuffle, laid it on the cake
and traced around it lightly with a toothpick. 

I piped the outline around the areas I traced
with the toothpick.  I outlined with Wilton tip #5,
and the bigger outline of the hands and feet was
done with Wilton tip #7

For colors, the main body was tinted with Americolor
#162 Electric Green.  The purple was a mix of Americolor
#130 Regal Purple with a little Wilton Cornflower Blue
mixed in.  The nose and outline of the hands and feet
are just Wilton Cornflower Blue.  I bought all the colors
at Hobby Lobby. 

I filled everything in with Wilton Star tip #16, although
I did consider using tip #233 which is a 'fur' tip

Finally finished! 

I haven’t posted in a while…sorry!  I have things to say every day, but I can’t access my blog from work and by the time I get home I either forget what I was going to say or I don’t feel like typing it out.   I vow to write in here more often. 

I ‘broke up’ with my gym last night, after 5.5 good, long years together.  It was so hard and I almost started crying!  So did the manager!  Ryan and I decided a few months ago that we were going to add me to his membership at his gym.  They have a childcare facility, which means I can go on my days off and on Saturday’s, and we can go together on Sundays and not take up half of the day with him going to the gym first, and then me going the second he gets home.  He is usually off on Wednesday’s, and he typically takes her.  She really likes the childcare room there so that helps a lot!  I am just not good with change, so this is tough.  I don’t know where anything is at my new gym, so I walk around looking like I have no clue what I’m doing. Plus I’m pregnant and I can feel people staring at me.  These types of changes give me anxiety, but I’m really trying to make an effort to like my new gym.  The bonus is they have a lap pool!  When I was pregnant with Lola, I went as Ryan’s guest on several occasions to swim laps.  It was the only exercise where I felt great; because I was weightless and couldn’t feel the extra 50+lbs I was carrying around on my body.  So we’ll see how things go…

Otherwise I’m moving right along in my pregnancy.  I feel really good still, but I know that can and will end at some point.  I’m 28 weeks so I hopefully only have 12 more to go.  I’m up around 15-16lbs so far which I’m very happy with.  Compared to last pregnancy that is…   J  

28 weeks!