June & July....Fiona is 3 Months!

Summer is flying by and my super happy, oh-so-good, smiley baby is 3 months old today!  I'm going to do my best to recap June and July since our summer has been nothing short of CRAZY BUSY, I'm not finding the time to update the blog as much as I'd like.

Fiona got her first round of shots at her 2 month check up, of course I felt just awful for her, poor little thing cried like crazy and I absolutely melt every time she sticks that little bottom lip out and her eyes tear up....it's ridiculously adorable yet heartbreaking all at the same time!!  Johnny met me at the appointment to watch Jack who immediately started crying and shaking his head and saying no with his hand up in the air because he suddenly realized where we were and thought we were there for him.  I swear after his last visit when he had croup doctor visits may never be the same for that kid!  We calmed him down and explained that we were here for the baby and then he became very interested in everything happening to her.  Little Miss weighed 12lbs 4oz and 22 inches long.  She's in the 50th percentile for height and the 80th for weight!!!  I'm really loving her little rolls, her little legs and cheeks kill me, I could just kiss those chubby baby cheeks all day!  She is so far the exact opposite of Jack, he was always in the 50th percentile for weight and way above average for height.

 

Speaking of Jack, he had his 2 year check up, is 36 inches tall and 30lbs.  I of course had both kids at the doctor by myself this time which I thought would be a breeze until I found out that he would be getting shots.  As soon as he heard his name called in the waiting room he started to freak out and get really upset.  I was carrying him on one arm and her car seat with the other (talk about a workout).  We got through the nurse, and just as I got him distracted the doctor came in.  Had to hold him on my lap as she checked him over.  She left and it felt like an eternity waiting for the nurse to come back and do the shots.  He calmed down and was doing better, Fiona on the other hand was screaming at this point because she wanted out of the car seat and was hungry.  Finally the nurse came and I found myself holding an extremely strong 2 year old who was writhing in my arms to get free.  Shots were quick but so scary for my little baby.  I just felt so bad and there was nothing I could do other than tell him it was going to be OK and promise him ice cream.
 
Jack is still so in-love with his sister and jumps at the chance to snuggle her any chance he gets :)
Fiona finally got to meet her great grandfather, he'd been in the hospital recovering from leg surgery.  I didn't want to take her anywhere near a hospital and risk her catching anything, so we just waited for him to come home.

 
 I tried putting a headband on her but realized it was leaving a dent in her head so won't be putting this one back on.  I need to find some not-so-snug ones.
As you can see in her pictures she is becoming quite the little chunk.  She's still wearing 3 months mostly but is starting to fit into 6 months already!!  She's wearing  6 month sleepers at night now.  She is smiling up a storm and she has THE BEST smile ever.  She really pays attention to me when I look at her and talk to her.  She breaks into the biggest smile so easily, sometimes I don't even have to say anything, just look at her.  There really isn't a better feeling that when that happens!


Her eyes are still a darker shade of blue, I'm still hoping they turn green like mine OR at least stay blue.  She follows my voice and watches me walk around the room.  She's really starting to be attached to me specifically.  At night she seems to really only want to be around me.  I usually hand her over to Johnny and try to get the kitchen cleaned up or something done before bed, and she ALWAYS starts to fuss and then cry and as soon as I pick her up and bring her over by me she quiets right down.
We had my mom watch the kids at night a couple times and she's pulled the same thing with her.  She takes a bottle all night long until it's her last feeding before bed and she refuses the bottle and only wants to nurse.  So she fusses and/or cries until I come home.  in fact I'm supposed to be at a wedding right now but decided it was better to stay home seeing as it is an hour away and I wouldn't be able to race right home if need be.
  She is gnawing on her little hands a lot lately, so much that I actually checked her for teeth the other day.  I think she's just discovering her hands and using them to soothe herself.  So cute to watch though, her little mouth and tiny fingers, I could seriously stare at her all day, she amazes me at how much she develops and grows so quickly.  
 
 
 
Jack has his own camera and I caught him snapping some pics of his sister.  This looks like its a close-up!  He's such a character!

Father's Day Weekend

So having TWO kids makes it extremely hard to find any time to actually sit down do some blogging.  I'm really not sure how all of these mothers of two and three that I follow seem to do it and so well!  I usually think about blogging while laying in bed at night WAY too exhausted to even write a post from my phone.  So it's just going to be when I have the time and hopefully as Fiona gets older I will have a little bit more freedom. 

Father's Day weekend was nice since we really don't ever get much of a weekend, owning your own business will do that!  Friday ended up setting a record for us at the restaurant, we were busier than we've ever been.  Johnny went down to build some shelves and get them up and running in the morning and ended up staying until close at night because people just kept coming in all day long!  Can't complain and super happy we are doing so well :)  There was a dance recital at the theater next door this past weekend and so Saturday ended up being crazy busy as well which proved to be another record breaking day (for a Saturday)!!  So when Sunday rolled around (we are closed Sunday's) we were both very happy to not have the day planned out for us.  We went to brunch in the morning with my parents and brother for both my dad and Johnny.  The baby pretty much slept through everything and Jack was such a little gentlemen being oh so neat while sorting and mixing jello and orange juice! It was really nice to have just our immediate family together even if it was just for a couple of hours. 

After brunch Johnny decided he wanted to head to the beach (our friend's have a lake house on a sandy beach in Canada) and let Jack play in the water.  So we headed home, loaded up the car and we were off, hoping that there wouldn't be much of a wait at the border.  Thankfully Fiona slept through the whole process of waiting and going through customs.  She is usually screaming her head off making a 15 minute wait seem like 2 hours.  We had great weather with not a cloud in the sky, we did our best to catch minnows with our net (we were unsuccessful though), and enjoyed a beverage while catching some much needed sun!  All in all I'd say it was a great afternoon spent.  We headed home and ordered pizza because there was no way I was cooking and messing up the kitchen at that point.

 

Our little Fiona is here!

Our little Fiona has made her arrival at last.  You probably assumed so since in my last post I was 38 weeks pregnant.  She came about 10 days early on April 26, my water breaking while out to dinner of all places!  A strange experience since it never broke with Jack.  Luckily I was able to make it to the car with Jack while Johnny grabbed dinner "to go" and we were on our way home to get ready for the hospital.  The doctor said that I should head in within the hour just because we didn't know how fast things would progress once I started having contractions.  Well, thankfully we did what we were told because I started having contractions almost immediately and things progressed REALLY fast.  Once at the hospital we were moved right into a delivery room and started prepping for delivery.  Just like Jack I was 6cm dilated when they first checked and I barely had the epidural in me 30 minutes before it was time to push.  All in all I was in labor for pretty much exactly 3 hours when our little girl was born after just 3 pushes!!  I couldn't believe how fast she came.....after all of the waiting and wondering when this moment would happen.  Once again it was one of the most magical, intense, and emotional experience of my life.  There is NOTHING more special than child birth, and to share that with my husband makes it all that more special.

At just 6lbs 6oz. 19.5 inches long, little Fiona was SUPER tiny and I seriously felt like I was going to break her the first time I changed her tiny diaper!  She was so much smaller at birth than Jack (and I thought he was small!!).  

This time around I developed a super intense headache as a result of the epidural.  I guess it's fairly common and the only way to treat it is to have what's called a blood patch done....basically another epidural without the drugs and your blood instead.  They take a small amount of your own blood out of your arm and put it in your back to clot the leak that was created from the original epidural.  The thing is,  I get sinus headaches fairly (mostly when the pressure in the air changes) often and so I just thought this was a really bad sinus headache.  The air in the hospital is SO dry and I couldn't tell the difference other than the fact that constant alternating of large doses of Motrin and Tylenol were NOT helping one bit!!  I felt like I just kept pumping my body full of drugs for absolutely no reason.  So after going home and 4 days of being in excruciating pain, I called my doctor who said she's 90% sure my headache was from the epidural and I should go to the ER and get it taken care of.  This headache was so intense when sitting or standing up that it hurt to open my eyes.  Once laying down it felt a million times better.  So imagine having to hold & nurse a baby, change diapers, and take care of a high energy 21 month old all at the same time, all while my head was throbbing so much I couldn't believe I was even able to function!!!  That's why I gave in and called the doctor.  So after spending an entire day waiting around in the ER they finally did the blood patch and my headache went away pretty much immediately.  I couldn't believe it and I felt like myself again.  Now I could go home and finally enjoy being a new mom again.

So far Fiona is a really great baby and literally just sleeps all day and has never gotten up more than twice during the night to feed.  And even then she goes right back to sleep.  I just remember Jack crying a lot more, she only fusses when hungry and cries in the car seat which she doesn't seem to like very much.  She LOVES her bath, hasn't gotten upset or cried at all during bath time yet.  She's super good and I hope things stay that way :)  She is starting to stay awake a little bit more during the day and for longer periods of time than when she was first born.  She really likes the 4moms MamaRoo swing which I'm pretty happy about.

                                                       Mother's Day with my babes!

Jack is embracing being a big brother with everything he has, he LOVES his little sister so much.  We let Jack come and visit me at the hospital on the day that I was going home, that way he could just go home with us and not have to leave me again.  I really was not prepared for how much I would miss him.  I really had no idea until I saw him that day at the hospital and I just burst into tears.  I missed that little guy so much and really just wanted this whole experience to go well with him accepting his new sister.  Luckily I didn't have to worry too much because he did and is still doing really well.  When it was time to leave the hospital he got down on the ground and got the car seat all ready then looked up at my mom (who was holding the baby) and reached up for her as if my mom was going to hand her to him so that he could put her in the car seat to go home.  It was SO cute and I was so proud of him.  Still to this day he is obsessed with giving her kisses and hugs and looks for her first thing in the morning.  Yesterday when he woke up from his nap he came to the top of the stairs and was all upset with his arms out saying baby? baby? baby? because he didn't know where she was.  I told him she was downstairs and as soon as we got to the bottom of the stairs he ran right over and said "hi" and gave her a big kiss.  He seriously melts my heart over and over again all day long! 

  He fell asleep next to her and they stayed that way holding hands, one of the sweetest pictures I have of them :)

38 Weeks & Easter 2014

Finally at 38 weeks, I swear these last few drag on and on and you feel like there is no end in sight!  At this point we are pretty much playing the waiting game.  Nothing more i can do other than enjoy these last couple weeks with the family we are before it changes forever.  That and drive myself crazy thinking every day could be "it" therefore making sure every bit of laundry is done, every dish is cleaned, crumbs vacuumed, etc....  I just keep thinking that if nothing else I will have a clean house to come home from the hospital to.  That and I've come to the realization that I now and for a VERY long time will live in a world of crumbs!  Seriously they are everywhere.  Cleaning crumbs at my house is a full time job!  Doesn't matter how many times a day I sweep/swifter/vacuum, there are always more as soon as I turn around.  2 dogs and a toddler will do that I guess! 

Easter 2014 was really nice this year. We went to my parent's house where my mother went all out and had games, prizes, easter baskets for us kids (yep that would be me) and lots of good food. The weather was gorgeous and Jack took his first ride around the yard on the riding lawn mower.  More pics to come from Easter, I still need to upload from my camera.  

36 & 37 weeks combined

 37 weeks yesterday, hospital bag is packed despite a few necessities that I'm still using, and besides just praying that this baby plans her arrival around good timing for the business....I think we are ready to go!  Oh and if she could just hold off until at least Thursday so I can make my hair appointment that would be great :) Maybe next week would actually be better seeing as this weekend is Easter and I'd really like to spend it with the fam and have fun watching Jack go through his Easter basket.  

Today I had my final sonogram and it was a 3D one, which I never had with Jack for whatever reason.  The whole experience was weird and I almost wish I never had it done.  Her positioning was not good so they couldn't get a very good picture.  To make matters worse mshe had a ton if stuff blocking her face which made for a very scary looking pic of my baby girl's face.  The placenta was super close to her mouth and touching her lips so that ruined any chance of seeing her mouth and tiny lips.  The cord was lying right across her face, on her eyes to be exact so all we really saw was her nose!! I'm really hoping her little nose was being squished by all of the crap that was surrounding her because it looked HUGE!  My first thought was oh crap she got her fathers nose HAHA.  I'm sure she will be just as adorable and perfect as Jack, but seriously, for being my first 3D sonogram experience it really could have gone a lot better.  I found the whole thing to be a bit creepy!  

Good news is we seem to have a very healthy baby on our hands, she is weighing in at about 6.8lbs and everything looks great.  At this point I think they start to gain about a half of a pound a week so she's right on target as to where she should be. 

         Eating ribs like a champ!

36 weeks last week and a daily nap seemed to be a common occurrence.  I'm doing better this week so far and not running as low on energy as I was last week.  For some reason 36 weeks just sort of hit me like a ton of bricks.  I seemed super tired, I had absolutely NO patience for anything, super irritable, and really felt my weight that week.  Maybe it's because I started back to work 3 days a week which completely exhausts me these days.  We have an employee out on jury duty which is why I said earlier that this baby had better plan her arrival on a day that I have full coverage and don't need either Johnny or myself to be there.  Thankfully my mom has been super helpful in watching Jack, her spring break couldn't have fallen at a better time that's for sure.  Just one more example of how everything always seems to fall into place when you really need it to!  

          A little frozen yogurt for dessert

So Easter is just days away and I'm super excited for Jack to get his basket and just see how much fun he has with everything this year.  I've had so much fun picking things up here and there to put in his basket.  Not a ton of candy, in fact I only got him a little thing of malted eggs and the rest being books, bubbles, play dough, bunny ears I found in the Target $1 section.....things like that.  He's REALLY into bubbles lately and would literally play with them all day long if I let him.  Over the weekend we had 77 degree weather both days and it was glorious!!  We played outside as much as we could seeing as how today it was 36 and snowed all day!!!!  Mother Nature could you possibly mess with my sinuses  any more??!!  Anyway, there were definitely a few tantrums thrown when trying to pry the bubble machine out of his hands on more than one occasion.  I had to change the batteries in it twice in one day!  Hoping for some more of that glorious weather soon, it felt SO good to grill out and sleep with the windows open at night!  The only thing missing, and I definitely missed it....was a nice cold beer!  Can't wait to be able to enjoy that again :)

 

This Week's TOP 5:

1. Getting to see our little girl one last time despite it being a little strange and creepy, I was happy to hear she's healthy and can't wait to meet her.  

2. At my 36 week doctors appointment I was told that I'm ready and good to go, the doctor said it wouldn't surprise her if I went this week but it also wouldn't be a surprise if I didn't deliver for another 3 weeks!  I took this as good news, I really think she's going to come a little early.  

3.  Happy to have my hospital bag packed and ready to go, I've been putting it off and finally just made myself today.

4.  Our new nightstands came in today and just in time! They are more of a chest with lots of drawers so I can keep all baby stuff that I may need close by (like my breast pump) hidden and out of sight. Jack thinks they are great and I keep finding little presents in my drawers, like socks from the baskets of laundry I've yet to fold and toys.  

5.  As always, looking forward to meeting our little girl, and enjoying whatever amount of time I have left with it just being the three of is.