Friday, April 19, 2013

Letters to my second born

Dear Baby Boo, Punkin' puss, Baby 2,


Dear new baby. I am so excited to meet you. I wonder if you will be like your sister or completely different. Being the second born myself, I want to make sure there is as much fanfare and excitement for you as there was for your sister. You will have it better though. We have learned a lot from Caroline. You will be the benefactor of these lessons. I will to be a more confident and capable mother right from the start. I have gotten better at leaning on people, taking care of myself, and letting the little things go.

I am surprised at how quickly I’m showing. Already in elastic pants and barely 3 months pregnant. I sure hope this doesn’t mean I’ll be gaining more weight than with your sister!

We are not finding out if you are a boy or a girl. Its just too fun not to know. Of course Grandpa said it would “shock the hell outta him” if you were a boy. I think he’s bound to have all his direct descendants be female.

I’m starting to feel a little better, but still so very tired. I hope you are growing strong and smart in there. I can’t wait to feel you move!

Love, your momma.

Friday, April 12, 2013

Retroactive post - first trimester

FYI, this blog post was written in the past. It was written during those first three months of pregnancy that you feel like death, but haven’t told anyone your secret, so you suffer in SILENCE. I saved it for you all because, well not much about me is silent, let alone the suffering.


First Trimester is the WORST. Why oh why did I decide to do this again? All I did this weekend ( was lay around. I still haven’t told anyone, so I’m even lying to people about how productive I wasn’t.

It’s SO EARLY – I’m only 6 weeks. HOW AM I going to manage another MONTH of this? I remember telling Meg that the first trimester was the WORST, while she tried to argue that it the third trimester won the award. No, this is the worst, THE WORST!

I decided to pretend blog about it, so once I’m past this stage and telling people, I can post this and scare myself out of having a THIRD laugh at it when I’m feeling better.

Instead of knowing why you’ve suddenly become a crazy person, people just think you’re having a bad day dropping things in the driveway, forgetting your phone, going to bed at 8PM and crying while watching the evening news.

Headache – it is right behind my eyes and makes everything foggy. It makes my eyes heavy and thinking is hard. It reminds me of the beginning of a migraine.

Exhaustion – It doesn’t ever go away. Luckily Caroline sleeps 12 hours a night, because I’ve needed every hour of that time to try and sleep. I say TRY because as exhausted as I am, I’m having fits of insomnia. I wake up EVERY TWO HOURS. Last pregnancy I would sneak to my car to nap. This time it’s hovering around 15 degrees outside. That means no sneaking when you have to adorn a winter coat, hat and gloves just to hide in your CAR. Plus, have I ever mentioned how much I HATE the cold? No? Maybe you haven’t been READING MY BLOG. Sorry, hormones….

Dizzy spells – stand up too fast and see spots/black out

Nausea – OH THE NAUSEA. Even the saltines started to make me nauseous. The problem with the Nausea is that being hungry made it worse. Oh the irony. I would choke down crackers, dry bread or some candy, then belch for an hour and start the battle all over again.

Dehydration- I wake up in the middle of the night and it is like someone put a dusty vacuum attachment in my mouth to suck out all saliva and leaving a trail of rancidness. Today a friend recommended coconut water. Gonna buy some of that on the way home. I’ll try ANYTHING. (UPDATE, the coconut water was a FAIL)

Weight gain – YEP GAIN. Already 5lbs. That is probably the transition from a lean protein to a high carb, sugar laden diet. Those are the only foods that don’t make me nauseous. Oh and that extra weight? It’s not a pretty round bump either, instead lumpy rolls of belly fat that pull at my clothes, making them cling in all the wrong places. I’m so pretty.

GUILT – The last time I was doted on and pampered. But really no one noticed that I didn’t do much. This time I feel like the worst mother on the planet as I turn on the TV. I even find myself putting her to bed before her bedtime. I keep telling myself ‘this can’t last’ and I will make it up to her. I feel so bad that I don’t have the energy to play with her. She is so happy and all I want to do is lay on the couch.

Google “working through first trimester” and it says things like “shut your office door and take a nap” Office? Yeah right. How about working in a giant maze of cubes? Take naps during the day – oh sure, no one’s gonna notice me cozied up under my desk.

In the morning I wake up feeling like death. I go through the routine of getting dressed. I think there is NO WAY I’m going to make it through the day, and then I get the baby girl up. She really brightens my day. I want to give her my best, so I smile and sing to her each morning, despite internal misery.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

BIG NEWS

So I know my lovely family reads this blog. There are also a handful of friends that also visit this site regularly, thank you. From the stats, it looks like there is an occasional Facebook visitor as well.


So as a way to thank you, I’m going to go ahead and give you all The Scoop, TMZ style. You won’t read about this on Facebook, see a picture on Instagram, or even hear about it through the grapevine – unless you’ve talked to Hubs, AKA loose lips McGee. This announcement is just for you, BLOG READERS!

So with no further ado, we are excited to announce that Caroline is being promoted to BIG SISTER!

Untitled

Baby Boo, Pumpkin Puss, Baby 2 is expecting to arrive on October 30th. I hope you’ll join us in celebrating while being patient with me as I remember how HORRIBLE the first trimester is.

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Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Sneaky Easter Bunny

I woke up at around 2 AM on Easter morning to go to the bathroom and Hubs, who was still up watching TV said, “I have to show you something”. In my groggy state with a full bladder, I wasn’t really interested. He let me go to the bathroom before he led me toward the front door. I figured some crazy neighbors were at it again. Once at the front door, I peeked through the window and saw something taped to the front door.

This is what I saw:
Easter

Hubs then explained that there was an Easter Basket for Caroline sitting on the front porch that he promptly brought in. (Ya know, because of the earlier mentioned crazies). How awesome! We noticed one Easter egg that was toddler accessible, and figured the daylight would highlight others. We were grinning ear to ear and began to guess who was playing Bunny this Easter.

While Mema gets Caroline a basket every year, we eliminated her as a suspect because of the computer-generated note taped to the door. She doesn't have easy access to a printer. Our next clue was one of the treats in the basket, homemade chocolate chip cookies. One bite and we knew Momma T (Bubby) made them. Our next question was how did the Easter Bunny deliver said treats? Grandpa and Bubby live a good hour and a half away. We figured Aunt Biscuit was probably a willing accomplice.

The next morning we raced around getting ready for church. En route, I texted Aunt Biscuit asking if she was the Easter Bunny’s assistant. She replied that she had no idea what I was talking about, wink. Ok, so I had my answer. I called Grandpa and Bubby to thank them. Always the sneaky ones, they would not admit to the deed. I just got a bunch of “what are you talking about?” I know them well enough to expect their denial, so I just thanked them profusely despite their objections.

The weather was nasty on Easter, so we didn’t get around to the egg hunt until later in the day, when the rain stopped. She was a champion, and found all the eggs with only a little direction and promptly put them in the basket! Easter

Easter

Easter

There was only one egg that gave her trouble, it was on the other side of the chain link fence. Instead of going around, she tried to reach her hand through the fence and grab the egg. She did not succeed and collapsed in a frustrated fit. Once I repositioned her, she grabbed that egg with determination. Due to her mini fit, I do not have pictures of that struggle.

Easter

I hope you all had as happy an Easter as we did.