Long Time No Blog

Facebook has taken over my blogging, but I need not to let it take over my online journal aka blog.

Little Elijah is 5months old as of tomorrow. Ellie is 2yrs 3 months. Elijah is doing very well. He had a rough start because he was tongue tied and it was hard for him to nurse and even bottle feed, though he maybe got all of 2 bottles offered those first 6wks. Now all he wants to do is nurse, he refuses bottles all together. That's my boy, but it can get a little frustrating when I want a little time to myself. He wakes up every 2-3hrs still to eat at night. Blah, I want some sleep. He is so smart and very strong and has a temper. When I put him in his carseat he gets so mad that he stand up, yep, he stands up in it. When I change his diaper he doesn't do like Ellie did and just lay there relatively content, he rolls and pulls himself up. He makes it a very difficult task. Yesterday before we left for church I had Ellie put her little toys up a little doctor's kit that has a lid then put the box infront of the TV. When we got home from church I gave the kids a bath then let the watch a little video while I did dishes. I put Elijah down in the middle of the floor, about 3ft away from this box. He made his way to the box and toppled it over so he could play with the toys inside. He remembered toys were in there, figured out to go there, and he didn't even see the toys. I loved seeing him accomplish what he wanted to do. He is so different from Ellie. We never had to baby/child proof the house with her, but with him, I can already tell it will be different. He chews on everything he can get to, and he has been getting to everything for about 2wks now. It really is crazy.

Ellie is doing really well. She is a very good big sister. She's ready to be potty trained. I get her up from nap and her diaper is off and the bed is dry. She tells me when she has to go "stinky" so it'll be any day now, I know. She will repeat a lot after us. She repeats Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Act, and Romans. She "sings" a lot. Her favorite songs are Jesus Loves Me, Old McDondald, any other kiddie songs. She does some of the signs for Jesus Loves Me. I've started showing her a Your Baby Can Read DVD and it has really helped her vocabulary a lot. Her favorite color is blue. She has a Little Einstein toy that if she presses the red it says "red" same for yellow and blue. If she presses the yellow and blue at the same time it says "green" blue and red, it says "purple" and red and yellow it says "orange." When I ask her what her favorite color is she runs to get it and always presses the blue. Which leads me to her favorite past time activity, is coloring. She LOVES to color. She also loves to sort things. I took her to a gymnastic center and sure she played some, but she also took the foam blocks and lined them up. She also took the frisbies and one by one laid them out and then picked them up. Early intervention tested her because we applied for some help ih her CF related bills. They said that she is like a 3yr old or almost 3yr old in every area, except for speach which she just doesn't annunciate well enough. She says a lot we have no idea what she is saying. We all know she's very smart and she LOVES people. She seldom meets a stranger and loves playing with other kids. It's really cute watching her.

Simon has a new position with his job, making more money and home more which includes weekends which has been fun for us. I'm doing well. I wish I could keep my freakin house clean though. The living room doubles as a play room and it's small so it doesn't take much for it to look very messy. It's also the office. The kitchen doubles as a laundry room since that is where the washer and dryer is. If I really could get it all clean I would put laundry away as soon as it finished because there's no room to procrassinate. The counters are the pantry, because we really don't have much cabinet space. Ugh, I think we're outgrowing this house.

I'm sure there is more that I can talk about but if I'm going to blog more then I better leave some stuff for later. I know every single day I'm calling my mom or husband saying "guess what ____ did." It used to always be Ellie doing and saying stuff, but now Elijah is starting to do more that warrants phone calls.

I think I'm insane

Here I sit 8months pregnant and I'm wanting to take on a challange. Give it if I fail miserably it wont matter too much, considering it's for my currently 21month old. I've been thinking I'm sick and tired of doing the same thing over and over again which isn't much. I mean I'm not a very hands on parent since being pregnant. Don't get me wrong, I've had my ups, but with lack of energy and now 8 months pregnant I have many downs. I would just like to do more in the way of teaching my toddler. It may also be because she's just now at that age where I feel it's ok to do more with her as far as teaching and crafts. I think I am going to start next week. Maybe have a letter of the week, a color of the week, a number of the week, and an animal of the week. Throughout the week I will lead her and we will do activities as they become available with whatever I chose. The reason why I'm not doing different things different days is because Monday I have 2 doctor's appointments 45minutes away, Monday night I have class at the hospital, Thursday I have a doctor's appointment in town, and who knows what I have going on with the MOMS Club. Not to mention I do have a little baby boy I will be preparing for. So I'm talking just a little segment of time a few days a week, a very relaxed schedule. Of course I will start with "A" and "1." Since dogs seem to be her favorite animal, I find it only appropriate to do dogs for our animal. Our color, will be, "red" that's a nice random color. She's a lot like I was when I was young and not really showing much preference to color. She seems to love all colors as I did. I feel since I'm blogging about this and if I let more people know about it that I can't fail as much. The cool thing is, even when brother comes into the picture this will still give us some mommy/Ellie time. And if for some reason mommy really can't join in her fun and learning, I'm sure Gammy will love to take over as "teacher" and "friend." Shoot maybe I'll do the same little coloring and painting as she does. I think I'll try it out next week, maybe post some pictures and see how it works. I'm excited, but afraid I will fail miserably as I am not a very organized and structured person. I need something to help me be more structured though. If I can't accomplish this, then honestly I think I need to plan on finding a job and sending the kids to some kind of daycare/preschool. I mean Ellie is smart, don't get me wrong, but as her teacher, I feel like my ADD and lack of structure may be affecting her in a negative way. Not something I'm cool with. So while I have the house to myself I will write the "lesson plan" for next week.

Who likes to be sick?

Not I!!! Ellie got sick with a runny nose and cough. Poor baby didn't eat much at all for a week. We started getting worried and took her to the doctor, plus her cough had gotten pretty yucky. Found out she had an ear infection. Who would have thunk it?? She's so tough when it comes to pain and being sick that she had no signs of an ear infection. This was her very first ear infection too. There was one time last year they said her ears were dull (almost infected) and they gave her antibiotic. She still had a runny nose and coughing, but she's eating and keeping it down. Oh yeah when she would eat she would throw it up because it would get stuck on the plegm. Nice.

For a while I thought that I wouldn't get sick, I don't know I guess I was stupid or something. Of course I did get sick. It started last Monday with a sore throat. The wierdest thing is the sore throat kept coming back for 5 or so days. I can get pass the runny nose and sick feeling and nasty taste in my mouth, that's just all part of being sick. What has hit me hard is I woke up Thursday morning feeling like maybe I slept on my neck wrong, nothing too bad. I had Simon massage my neck some but boy was that the wrong thing. After that it got WAY worse. It was so bad I had him track down his nana who used to be a physical therapist assistant, we went to her house. I had no range of motion in my neck. Every bump, curve, turn, stop, and acceleration on the way there caused me to scream. I generally have a high pain tolerance. I seldom rank things as a 10 because of all the problems my mom has had with pain. I didn't hesitate to say this was a 10. The only help his nana was just the tlc help me calm down, but as far as helping the pain, it didn't happen. Next stop was going to be the emergency room, though I hated that. I called my oncall OB and she told me not to go because they couldn't do anything and no meds would help unless I'm put unconcious. She said go home and call a chiropractor the next morning. That night was horrible. I couldn't lay down in the bed unless Simon was supporting my neck, couldn't sit up without help either. It was a long night. But I laid on a heating pad which seemed to help tons listened to relaxing music, and took half a unisom. Simon didn't understand the concept of relaxing, but it was a lifesaver. Morning finally came and I went to visit the chiropractor who agreed my neck was very messed up. Not much improvement after one visit but later that day I went back and slowly things have gotten better. It's easy to say that during the day, but at night it's bad again (not a 10). My neck feels too weak and achey to hold my head up. Talked to my mom and learned that she's dealing with the same kind of thing, on top of her having the same cold virus. We are assuming the neck pain has something to do with the virus we have. Ugh, I can't wait till it's over.

Pregnancy is going well. We are nowhere near ready for little guy to come though. I'll be 34wks on Thursday. I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going. I'm really going to miss being pregnant as Simon is firm that this is our last one. I want one more, but if that doesn't happen I know I'll still be happy. Last week he was breech, but went to my regular OB today and she's pretty sure he flipped head down again. We hope so anyway. I'm going in every other week for ultra sound because of the high blood pressure, though it's not getting to me like it did with Ellie. I wish I wasn't considered high risk. Oh well, more opps to see the baby.

Christmas is almost here and we aren't ready. I'll tell you the one thing I hate about Christmas is the fact you have to buy for your immediately family (Simon and Ellie in my case), plus I have mother in law, nana, grandmother, father in law, 11 kids, aunts and uncles, sister and brother in laws, my mom, grandma, granddad, aunt, uncle, and cousin. I think it's just craziness!!! I feel awful if we don't buy for everybody because it seems like everybody generally buys for each other and gives at the little extended family gatherings. But goodness we have an endless list or so it seems. So I have a solution that I hope will be the cheap way out. I'm getting a case of mason jars $10 I think for all I need, a pack of sugar, flour, baking soda, M&M's and I don't remember what else. I'm going to do the cookie mix in a jar thing and for probably about $20 EVERYBODY on the list will be covered. The problem is my father in law, cousin, or granddad will not benefit from that. So a dollar tree visit is in my near future.

Considering I don't blog much I'll tell you what we have Ellie. By no means are we going overboard. I got her leapfrog junior tag reading system, which I'm guessing she wont really benefit for a few months the age is 2-4 so we'll see. We got her a little leapfrog computer. She has a toy dog that barks because she LOVES doggies. We have her a toy cleaning kit because she loves to help clean and our broom is way too big for such a little girl. She's getting a v-tech jumping turtle, she'll sit on it and jump, my aunt has one for her grandson and Ellie and all other little ones love it. I have to get a couple books to go with the reading system. She has 3 pair of pj's. It's really not a ton. Simon got me a kodak camera it has 26x optical zoom and is 14megapixels. I have had the joys of using it already and I LOVE it. For Simon, I'm pretty clueless on what to get. I know it's going to be from best buy because I have a $50 gift card, just what I'm not sure of. There's really several things he could use from there. I'll figure it out. I need to make a list of what I need and figure out my game plan in getting everything.

Time is flying

In a couple days I'll be 30wks pregnant. Where in the world has this pregnancy gone? Ellie will be 20months on the 4th, so close to turning 2yrs old. I feel like I should be pregnant with her, not her turning 2 soon. She's growing up too. She has so many words and is clearly learning a lot. She was sitting on my bed watching Max and Ruby this morning when I took my shower. I could hear her talking to the TV and saying football which sounds like botball. I didn't think much of it until I got out of the shower and noticed that Max and Ruby were throwing a football around. When she hears a dog bark she knows it's a "dogga." She has many other words that honestly I have lost count and track of. Oh, maybe the hardest word of all she is saying is Christmas. When she sees Christmas lights she'll say Cicmas. We got her a big girl bed. It's actually just a longer twin mattress and box spring. It works for now, but soon I want her to have an actual bed. She sleeps well in it when I let her. She has fallen out a couple times, I really need to dig the railing out of storage, but I'm hoping I can get Simon to do that. But it seems it's a lot easier for me to just put her in bed with me. I kinda like the company in the bed, even if it means a foot in my side or I get way less than half the bed. She insist on sleeping sideways in the bed or she'll turn upside down. The pregnancy is going GREAT. Exact opposite of what was going on when I was pregnant with Ellie. I'm still able to wear my rings with very minimum swelling. I do have heartburn, but who cares about a little heartburn. All in all I'm doing great and cherishing every little movement. I'm not too thrilled with the constant peeing with a toddler in tote. Oh and the worse of it all is my underwear are falling to my knees, don't ask me how the croch stays up but the rest fall down. Time for new undies. But it's all good though. Oh something else about Ellie, she pees and poops in the toilet. SCORE!!! She still wont tell me so I have to put her on quite often, which I'm not consistent with. But when I do, she generally goes. My mom told me to put her on after meals and before and after nap, and when she wakes up and before going to bed. That seems reasonable, hopefully soon she'll start communicating her need. Some days she will hold her poop in until I sit her on the toilet then immediately she goes. I am so blessed to have such an awesome daughter. I hope this boy is just as great as his sister.

We sure have changed

As I was thinking about our parenting style and beliefs EVERYTHING has changed. Well nearly everything has changed. Ellie and Elijah will not even be 2yrs apart, yet things will be different between them. First of all if Ellie was a boy she would have likely been circumsized. Now, Elijah will likely NOT be circumsized. There's no reason to do it. Simon shared with me his disapproval of vaccines. I have been pro vaccines, but not against delayed vaccines. The only thing is I'm not sure if Tennessee even allows that, so we'll see. We disposable diapered Ellie, up until now, but he will be cloth diapered from the beginning. I do less and less canned and jarred and frozen foods and more fresh foods. I don't buy things for convience anymore. I don't mind taking a little longer to prepare food so I don't have to get stuff with additives and preservatives in it. I am learning more vegitarian dishes, as I'm really not much of a carnivore and Ellie more often than not doesn't like meat. It amazes me just how much changes once you become a parent. Oh and yes Ellie has slept in my bed with me when she needs it. We were very against co sleeping, but honestly I'm more for doing what the child NEEDS. Ellie needed to sleep in her own room rather early on, but she's had her nights, which I have no problem with.

I'm not sure if I have revealed the name to you all. Maybe I have. Anyway in case I haven't, it's Elijah Scott. Scott is Simon's middle middle name. I want to have one back up name, a totally different style of name just in case. Right now he's Elijah, but he'll probably end up being Eli. So we will have Eli and Ellie.

I have something else to say but it's pretty much a post of it's own. Soon, very soon, promise.

Hi all

Nothing much is going around here. I'm growing bigger and BIGGER. Simon questioned if I'm having twins, but I'm not. I've always thought I would have twin boys, but I guess that will never happen. We are 95% sure this baby is our last. Ellie is doing great and having so much fun in life. I took her to the zoo a couple weekends ago, then last weekend to a pumpkin patch. This weekend we went on 2hr trip to see some of my family. Next weekend we're going to the Apple Orchard. Then after that I'm kinda out of ideas, but I'm sure I'll fnd more things. Pregnancy is going GREAT. It's unbelievable how "easy" a pregnancy can be, knock on wood. I mean with Ellie I was way beyond the normal sickness with morning sickness all day and night for months. Then my stinkin blood pressure and HORRIBLE swelling. So far so good, now that I am on medicine for the thyroid I have energy to do some things which feels amazing. I guess this was a little bit of nothingness, as there isn't anything to really blog about.

A bunch of randomness

This is a post about a little of everything. Nothing specific just where life is now. I apologize if I repeat something I said in my previous post.

My thyroid blood test led my OBGYN to do nothing. However the high risk doctor found it importnant to put me on a low dose of synthoid. I've been taking it since Friday. I also had an ultra sound of my thyroid, but haven't received the results yet. I'm not too concerned about the results.

I LOVED the high risk dr. I saw, and hope I see more of her. With Ellie I mainly saw this guy that was very shy and soft spoken. They were always wierd appointments. But with this lady who has only been with the company for a year, I felt like it was a real informative appointment. I will be seen in a few weeks and then we will schedule the amnio, unless I decide against it. I'm leaning towards finding out as the results will help me prepare mentally, but then again it's not like Ellie has a real bad case of CF, so we aren't 100% sure we'll follow through with the amnio. I loved seeing baby boy on the ultrasound again. We got a profile pic and face pic, which the face pic is kinda scary looking, but the profile is cute. He was still measuring ahead with his legs and arms, and right on for his abdomen and head. He is measuring a little ahead with his weight, but nothing concerning.

Ellie is starting to have her runny nose, much as she did last fall. I noticed a week or so ago she had a gland behind her ear that felt swollen to me, so I thought this may be coming. I hate her being one of those snot nosed kids with dry snot all over her face. It's clear so I'm not runny to the pedi, if she has a runny nose for a week they give her antibiotics, which unless the snot turns green, or she starts running a fever, I am against. I am going to be taking her to a chiropracter and they will do something to her sinus' and adjust as needed. That may and may not help, but it's a less invasive procedure and way safer than medicating her or removing adnoids. Plus it's way cheaper so it's great. Hopefully it works.

Speaking of chiropractor I will be seeing the chiropractor as well. The one I found will do adjustments on my back. I'm thrilled as maybe this will help as I get further in the pregnancy with back and hip pains and maybe it will some with my desired VBAC. I mean I don't know for sure, haven't read anything about it, but my logic would say that it may help.

Ellie is doing fantastic, other than the runny nose which doesn't slow her down. It seems like she shows me something new nearly everyday. Her vocabulary is what I would consider average for her age. She has about 12 words she will say and use correctly. Her first 2 words were "thank you" which sounds more like tonka, and "doggy" which sounds more like "doga." She says thank you when somebody gives her something or when she gives you something. It's so cute.

She knows no stranger. Seriously I had her in Kmart with my mom and her friend last week. Ellie ran to another mom holding a little boy around her age. The mom put the boy down just to be attacked by Ellie. LOL. It was amusing, as she wanted to play, and tried to hug and kiss the boy as he tried to step back with a dumpfounded look on his face. That family went on their way, and a couple minutes later another young boy came with his mom and Ellie repeated, and of course scared the 2nd boy. Poor kids, having to endure the wrath of Ellie's friendliness. She is seriously such a loving and gentle kid who loves to play with her peers. No shy bone in her body, that's for sure.

Since Ellie is NOT shy at all, and clearly 2-3 times a week being in nursery with 6-12 others her age isn't enough, I have officially joined a mom's group. I was kinda in one before at the church, but due to inactivity it went on. They are hoping to get it going again. I decided to join our local MOM'S club. I was invited to a meeting by a friend, and had already made the decision to join. I paid a $20 dues so yeah, we'll be doing stuff. I already have several things circled on the calender that I want to do with Ellie in the month of October. They have over 40 moms in the group and from what I saw there are tons of kids in all age groups. I'm just hoping that I get more and more energy as between doctor's appointments and MOM's Club activities, and church, I will be very busy.

Speaking of doctor's appointments I will officially be changing OB's this week. I discussed a VBAC with the high risk doctor and though respectful of my wishes, she was a bit apprhensive. However she was very supportive of me switching doctor's, she said if for any reason I can deliver where I had Ellie and they will do the c-section, since I will be going to a doctor in a different county. She's just thinking I wont be able to have a VBAC. My first OB appointment with the new doctor is this Wednesday however I will be seeing the physician's assistant rather than the actual doctor. That's cool with me, I'll have to see her at some point anyway.

There's other stuff, but I've written enough for now. All in all, everything is great!! Life isn't always easy but thankfully there's no drama going on right now.

Gender Announcement

It's a BOY!! I was shocked and scared when she said boy. I know nothing about boys. Oh well, I was still excited and got teary eyed. It'll be a fun experience.

I was 18w5d when we had the u/s and the boy measured 19w5d in his legs, arms, and head, but his stomach measured 16wks. I will talk to the doctor on Wed. at my 20wk appointment.

Ellie is doing great, turning into a little toddler. She's having temper tantrums, LOVES her grandma's, and has words now. She understands so much more than she can say though. She is such an amazing little girl, most of the time, just those tantrums can be so embarrassing.

I'm doing great, a bit hormonal/emotional though. I am senstive and cry easier now. Oh well, must be the pregnancy. LOL, it's kinda funny though since I'm anti showing emotion. It's almost a fun way of being, to actually cry. But then I turn around and laugh at myself because there really is no need for the crying.

I'm going to call an endocrinologist. My mom has hypothyroid hoshimotos disease or maybe it's disorder. Anyway, I've been tested for hypothyroid before but never hoshimotos. I was going to wait till after the pregnancy, BUT I have read 2 totally different things today w/out even looking for it. I wasn't fishing for thyroid problems during pregnancy, but accidently fell across it. One was in relation to labor and delivery that the baby will often times not be in position for delivery thus resulting in c-sections. I think it's important I explore this if I'm going in for a VBAC. Also apparently it also affects milk supply. YIKES!!! More so than wanting a VBAC I want to be able to breastfeed successfully meaning only breastmilk for 4-6months. So if I find out I too have thyroid problems then it may give me a better chance at a VBAC and allow me to be more successful at breastfeeding. Fingers crossed.

So, I think that's all the important stuff for now.

The news

It has been one interesting week, to say the least. Ellie, my mom, and I went to NC then GA, then back home to TN in 3 days. We drove nearly 1000miles. While we were gone, Simon was stuck at home because his truck was in the shop. Now if we knew that he wasn't going to be going out, either he would have went with us or kept Ellie, but there is simply no way we can know things like with this tucking career.
While I was gone, Simon did all the final things to make that 2006 Kia Sedona ours. So now sitting in our driver we have 4 cars, one being my nice minivan. Now we need to fill it up with kiddos. Ok, not really, just this 2nd baby. We are now faced with what 2 cars to sell. We can agree on my 2000 Saturn SL1, for whatever little bit it will sell for. However Simon is kind of sentimental about it and hesitates to get rid of it. It's easier for him to sell that one though. It was my first car I went out and bought on my own. The other 2 cars, is a 1997 Buick, it's big, leather interior 60,000miles on it, drives great, air condition needs to be checked out, but it may just need refridgerant, it needs new tires, the cruise doesn't work. It could probably sell for $3000 or a little more if we got the air working. My grandfather gave us the car. The other car is a 2003 Dodge Stratus, it's Simon's first car that he went out on his own to get. It has 170,000miles, the trunk will not stay open unless you hold it open with one hand, which you try to put a stroller or double stroller in the car w/ one hand. Little bits and pieces of the car are messed up, like the bumper is held together w/ duct tape, thanks to my MIL. The passanger's door automatic lock doesn't work, the door behind the passanger's door is messed up. When we lived in our apartment, somebody hit the car at that door, we had to get it fixed but it was no time before it was messed up and at times the door wont even open. As far as the way it runs, it runs ok however for a long time when you are stopped at a light or stop sign or in traffic it will accelerate just a tad while you are breaking so I have learned to keep a distance between my car and the car in front of me. Simon wants to keep the dodge and get rid of the buick. I think personally the buick will make a better 2nd car. I think we are going to get Simon's brother to look at both cars and advise us as far as the condition. The dodge had a rebuilt transmission put in at 100,000miles too. So which do you think we should keep and which she we get rid of?

Breast pumps

I know I'm early, but not really. I'm in the 2nd trimester now which IMO, it's a time to start thinking about things like this.

With Ellie I rented a hospital grade pump, but had very little luck. It was medela. I just got maybe 4oz total from both breast, and that was after nearly an hour of pumping. My SIL said she never got an electric pump that from her experience manual was just as good, I heard the same from somebody else. So I eventually bought a cheap manual with even less luck. I seemed to consistently have low supply despite blessed thissle and fenugreek and some kind of compound med. the dr. gave me. Who knows if my PCOS affected my milk supply. Or maybe the stress of Simon having broke his leg days after Ellie was born. I don't know which it was. Maybe even a combination. Or maybe I just didn't have what it took to breastfeed.

Now I am faced with the desire to make breastfeeding work way better than it did with DD. In fact, if ok with a lactation consultant I plan on taking fenugreek and blessed thissle to the hospital when I deliver. I would like a good breast pump, but I really hesitate to invest much over $100 since I am afraid it will be a waste of money. I mean seriously, why buy a $300+ pump when you have a history of pumps not working and supply problems? I'm really hoping things will be way different this time around, but seriously what makes me so sure it will be to go out and make that kind of major purchase.

I think maybe I can wait and see if I will be able to breastfeed successfully this time, and if so I'll buy a good pump. That would be an option, especially since I do still have the manual one I can use for the time being. I will hopefully be starting school Mon-Fri 8am-3pm when the little one is 6 months. So I will be needing a pump that will work good for me at that time.

I would love opinions and input. Hold off and don't buy anything until I know I'm going to be able to do it, then invest in a good one. Or buy a half decent one to have from the start, but may not be best.

Update to van shopping

I took the buick in for trade in but they couldn't give me near what we needed nor what we could sell it for. We decided w/out hesitation it would be best to get as much out of the buick as we can. We'll be putting it out for sale and when we sell it we will check back with the same dealer and others and even private sellers until we find a van of similar mileage and condition. This kia sedona has really raised the bar as to what I will find acceptable. At least it means we wont be jumping into anything since it does require quite a bit of looking around to find the RIGHT thing.

Van shopping

After years of no car payment it looks like we will be sucked into one. :-( But we need a van for obvious reasons. While we haven't had a car payment, we sure have been driving around a couple old beat up cars. It's time for change and a better vehicles. I've done so much looking for the right vehicle. I found the one I REALLY want. Simon isn't quite as fond of it, as he would rather buy it out right, and with the trade. I want it, even if we have to get into a small monthly payment. It's way more reliable, nice, and just perfect for my needs and wants even. He got preapproved for the loan yesterday so now it's a matter of seeing if the buick my grandfather gave us will trade for what we know it's supposed to, give them a check, and get the loan completely taken care of. Not much left, HOPEFULLY it'll happen today. Fingers are crossed. Ellie loved the rear air condition when we test drove it. She was happy as could be, pointing to the air and laughing and clapping. I've gone for the extended rear facing for saftey, but poor kid doesn't get air blowing right on her being rear facing, plus our air only works most of the time. When it doesn't we don't drive at all and cancel anything we have because lately the heat index is over 100. As you can see a new vehicle would be a very positive purchase. I think Simon's hesitation is because like I said pay it off, but I don't want to drive around in another 130,000+ mile vehicle, that's the same thing we have now. What I have found for a killer price is a 65,000 mile Kia Sedona and it nice!! I love how the back seats go down into floor, as we don't have room for storing them. It will help make transferring the huge double stroller mega easy. I also didn't know that vans these days have a special mirror that you use just to see the kiddos. Pretty nice, if I should say so myself. All in all the van is nice. If we get it I'll post pics. Oh and the reason I really want this one, is because in our price range I'm not finding multiple deals like this one. If it looked like we could find similar deals in a few months, then we would wait, but it's just not very promising. We're in TN and I found a similar deal in Florida and another in New York so what I found isn't common at all. Like I said what I'm find is 100,000miles. A lot of people get rid of their vehicle around 100,000miles because they know that the transmission is unreliable, the timing belt is iffy, and other things are likely to go out. Then you have the 130,000mile cars that the transmission will go out if it hasn't already, then you have the 190,000mile ones that the transmission has been replaced, the only concern now is the engine and the fact the car is considerably old. In "my" van it's on the newer end of what I've been looking at, with way less miles and we have a 1yr warranty. This would be the best birthday present EVERY...just a week early, lol.

FIL's joke

My FIL has this joke that he dreamt he was awake then woke up and found out he was asleep. I had a dream exactly like that recently. I could have swore I was awake, until I woke up and realized I was actually asleep. Talk about weird.

VBAC vs. repeat c-section

I see a new dr. on August 3, for a consultation to get their opinion.

My dr's reccommendation is to get a repeat c-section. His reasons are, 1. They don't do them because there are several hospitals women deliver at in the county. By law the dr. must remain on the L&D floor at all time while a woman is laboring during a VBAC. He can't promise the on call dr. can do that because somebody else may go into labor somewhere else, and it's just an inconvenience for them to have to be glued to the hospital. 2. He can send me to the university doctor's, they have residents and doctor's overseeing them at all times. I could switch and see them, however that would mean my dr. would lose a patient and money so he's not advocating that. 3. The reason he's giving for not being a fan of that option is because at 38w3d when I was induced for several days I hadn't made much progress. I wasn't even quite to 3cm yet, even after they broke my water that morning. He says my pelvic opening must be too small causing me not to progress.

My opinion, is 1. Rememeber the amniotic fluid was dwindling for about a month and it got too low, so they had to induce. I was 38w3d when we had the c-section. I was still somewhat early, especially considering a pregnancy can be up to around 42wks. I was also tracking my ovulation via fertility friend and I know based on ovulation signs CM and temps that I ovulated a week late. I just so happened to always measure right based on my LMP. I don't know, but I think my EDD was really a week later so it made me more like 37w3d and I just don't think my body and the baby was ready to come out. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe regardless of how far along you are your body should respond to the oxytocin...

That's why I'm getting a 2nd opinion. I'm living in the county beside the county we used to live in the one that has 3 different hospitals. So where we are now we have 1 hospital and I found a doctor (a female dr. yay) that takes my insurance and does VBACs and has been recommended. I will just have a consultation with her and I have tons of questions to ask her, both specific to my situation and also questions I've found online. I was going to go with a midwife but they said that a doctor has to be there at all times anyway so I might as well just go straight to the dr and especially since it hasn't been a real long time since I had my c-section. I think it's probably best anyway. I'm thinking about looking for a doula, especially if Simon is still over the road trucking because there is a chance he misses the birth if we let the baby come on his/her time schedule.

Before the appointment I need to tour the hospital I will be delivering at and make sure I like it. I also want to tour the hospital I will have a repeat c-section if I stay w/ my current doctor. It's closer to where we live and a lot nicer and newer than where we delivered Ellie at. I know I'm still in my 1st tri and its a little early to be touring hospitals. But I currently have a wonderful dr. and the office is super nice as are the staff. This new doctor's office and doctor has a lot of impressing to do. Plus the place I deliver at is really important to me. When I had Ellie since she was ok, they didn't wheel her away from me. She stayed in the operating room while they sewed me up then in the recovery room I was able to hold her and nursed her. I've heard from a lot of people that they generally take the baby to the nursery to do all the testing and bath. People complain because other family and friends get to see the baby better first before the mom sees and bonds. It's really important that whichever hospital I deliver at can grant me the same experience as long as there are no complications. So you see there is a lot for me to think about right now.

Slight change of subject...I have a friend selling their van, about the year we are probably looking for and it's a Honda so we like that. I asked how much so we'll see if we're going to follow through. I will feel so much better if we had a van or suv w/ 2 rows of back seats. Right now we have an older car that isn't perfectly reliable anymore. We'll see if this will be our van or if we will have to begin a search.

New computer

Finally we got a new computer!! Our desktop went out on us quite some time ago. My MIL got a netbook so she let us use her crappy laptop. That one went out. So we were using her netbook because her son in law always has her internet stick so she had little problem loaning out the computer. But at times she would comment and we knew we needed to get her computer back to her, I means it's the right thing. But the thought of living without my computer was just unbearable. Ok so maybe I would have survived. But we are also trying to get Simon a job working in the offices and to do that we need internet access. So we finally made the purchase. We got a Toshiba. It's pretty nice, but we didn't get a high priced one. We really don't need a high price one. I like to put pics on the computer, go to a few sites, and apply for jobs. Since my birthday is in a month, it's pretty much my Birthday present. I'm satisfied, but I know when my birthday rolls around I'll want something even if it's small. I'll probably buy a couple maternity shirts or something for myself.

Thank you

Thanks for all the congrats!!!

Ellie and me are worn out this week. We have had camp meeting at our church all week. All week we have, well I have but Ellie is my little shadow, working in the nursery. We have to be there at 6pm and work until 9:30pm. On adverage we have about 11 1yr old and 3-4 workers. It takes a toll on you physically and emotionally, especially when you have 3 hysterically crying for their mom's, 1 doing something dangerous, and 1 taking a toy or something from another kid. Last night was our last night working. Tonight I'm thinking of going to the service and taking Ellie to be in the nursery. She'll probably cry for her 2nd time ever going to nursery because I wont be w/ her. It's a really big named preacher that will be there tonight so I really want to be there. But I'm not sure if Ellie can "handle" it. She was getting sleepy, cranky, and clingy last night at 7ish.

I am trying to get a part time job. We don't need a lot of extra money. But if Simon has 2 lower weeks we really feel it. My MIL helps out, but she can't continue. She's trying to set herself up to retired next summer so she's having to put herself on a strict budget. I haven't thought much about Ellie while I'm at work. I guess I need to look into daycares. I hate putting her in daycare, but I really feel she's ready for it. After seeing her in nursery all week I think she'll be fine. Who knows it may even help her talk. She only has a few words she says, doggie, mama, dada, and thank you (kinda). Anytime she needs or wants something I just know what she's trying to get across. She has little need for talking with me around. Simon isn't thrilled with my decision, but I told him I would just see what is available, apply, and see what happens. It's possible I don't get anything if I don't I'll continue what I'm doing with staying home. We'll see where it leads.

*Surprise, Surprise*

Monday, May 24th something told me to take a HPT. I wasn't yet late, but I didn't feel AF was coming. We were also about to go to Mrytle Beach and knowing if I was pregnant or if AF was going to be ruinning parts of my vacation seemed to be vital info. Much to my surprise I got a faint BFP. We weren't even trying. Since the miscarriage we were actually preventing, by using condoms anytime I was close to ovulation or had ovulation signs such as my faithful EWCM. The only time we didn't use condoms was after I clearly ovulated and before I was due to ovulated. This time it was CD11, on mother's day. I have never o'd before CD18 so I knew sperm couldn't live for 7 days. I also didn't have any EWCM so it was an hostile environment for sperm, or so I thought. This was actually the first time not using condoms. I guess my body decided to ovulate on CD14, the first time ever in the last 10yrs I have done that. I will be 8wks on Thursday. I have seen the baby 2 times, once at 5w5d we saw the heartbeat. The 2nd time was after a spotting scare and we saw and heard the precious heartbeat at 135bpm. We haven't told many people and we are holding out as long as possible. My mom doesn't know how she will love another child as much as she loves Ellie, as Ellie really is so perfect. But my mom doesn't know yet either. I don't want to hear her negative comments. So please don't say anything on facebook.
The pregnancy is going pretty good. I have moments of nausea, but nothing a preggie pop can't help. It's a lot different than the pregnancy with Ellie. With her I was so sick I could hardly function. I think part of the ease is coming from staying at home. I have very few commitments were I have to be somewhere at a certian time. My EDD is 2/3/2011. Though this is a complete surprise, we are very happy and looking forward to Ellie being a big sister.

You know I have no idea what I wrote on the last blog entry. Sorry if I repeat.

We had a death in the family a couple weeks ago. It was my uncle, well actually my great uncle. But because of the family dinamics he was more like a regular unlce. I saw him several times a year, summers, christmas, thanksgiving, and sometimes another time. His son and I were really close growing up since we were only 2yrs apart. He seemed to be everybody's favorite unlce. It's been hard on the whole family since we all thought so much of him and it was totally unexpected.

Due to the funeral we got to see family we haven't seen in 10+yrs. Ellie got play with a couple of her little cousins on my side of the family for a change. She's usually only seeing and playing with cousins on Simon's side. The funeral has us planning a small reunion this August. We have been planning one for next August but it will be a lot bigger, with family from CA coming.

I rescheduled Ellie's GI appointment, I think I may cancel it though. Suddenly she's doing amazing with her eating. She loves chicken and carbs. She loves breads and pastas. She likes lentils but not into other beans. I'm having to feed her a meal w/out her seeing bread or pasta some during the day because she'll just eat that stuff and no veggies and meats. Chicken is really the only meat she does right now. It's really the only meat I eat too, so I guess it makes sense.

She's walking all over the place. She would rather walk than crawl now, which I actually like. I'll let her walk to the car some days. She weighs 20lbs, so she has finally gained a pound. First gained pound in 2 months. She is doing a lot of babbling and making sounds, but I don't talk that language. She does say doggie when she's around a dog. She says moma and dada, but I'm not convinced that it's just sounds she's saying vs. saying it on purpose. She will say other words once and never repeat them. For example after the grave side service my aunt Betty, (uncle who passed wife), rode with us back to her house. We were all talking, and Ellie clearly said "Betty." She never said it again. So you tell me did she know what she was saying when she Betty, or was she just experimenting w/ sounds?

I'm finished w/ my class. I made an "A" I'm so proud of myself. Now I have to take a test the college failed to tell me about. Actually they told me NOT to take it, just for me to find out that I need to take it. Oh well, that gives me more time to be home w/ Ellie. Somebody else told me there's a certain english and math you need, but I've NEVER heard that from anybody else. So this summer and next semester I will find all that out and hopefully have everything in place to start surg. tech aug. 2011.

That's all for now. Not too much else going on.

Sorry I've been MIA

Ok, I'm back. Life has been so hectic, I can't even say what's all been going, because it's been so much, but I am on facebook a lot. Just not much w/ updating my blog.
I have lost 16lbs and still going strong. I'm not doing a whole lot to lose weight, just trying alter my eating and having an active 1yr old gets me moving a little more. She isn't happy with a "lazy day" just staying at home. So we go out, somewhere everyday. She's so much fun though. I have my exam tomorrow, well actually today. Then next week I'm going to start looking for a job I can do from home to make a little extra income. If I can accomplish this, then we may TTC#2 this summer, putting the kids hopefully 2-3yrs apart. As for surgical tech, yes I still want to do that. However if I do that fall 2011, then obviously I wont get pregnant until after, but I'm still going to be going into the work force until after the 2nd child is older. So we'll probably TTC for a few months this summer. However if I can't make additional income then we are so done for now.
Ellie is doing great. She has moved up to the walkers in nursery at church. She's walking, and steady enough to be with almost 2yr olds. She loves the park, she likes the slide and swing. She still has just 4 teeth, but I'm happy with that, they are sharp. She's eating better. For a while she was gagging and throwing up everything that wasn't stage 2 baby food. Because of that her dr. wants her on formula longer. But the last week or 2, she's started doing better. Still not great, but a lot better. She can eat bread, crackers, beans, rice, and things like that. She gets 1-3 bottles a day. Soon I will try formula in a sippy and hopefully wean her from the actual bottle. She's not saying a lot of words, mama, dada, bobo and dobo, baby, boo, and maimi. Her and I are dog/house sitting for family w/ 3 dogs, one named Lobo. My mom's dog is boosi. Ellie calls her baby doll maimi. We have a GI appointment at the end of the week, but I'm wondering if we really need it. We'll go and see what happens.
I'll try to post again later this week.

Happy Birthday Ellie/Happy Easter

Yesterday was Ellie's 1st birthday. We had her party on Saturday. What a success. My MIL wanted to invite ALL the family who had babies which means almost everybody, so of course I had to invite the few families in the extended family that didn't have babies. Besides Ellie we had 3 of the babies, 2 weren't there. We had just over 40 people at her party. To offset the high number coming from DH's side I invited some family and family friends on our side. It seemed to work well. We had an easter egg hunt for the kiddos, which they all enjoyed. Ellie even hunted eggs with daddy. Daddy took her around and she picked up eggs and put them in the bag. Then later when the kids counted their eggs we sat her on the sidewalk with the others and counted 13 eggs. It was so cute, I'll have to get my SIL's pic she took of Ellie hunting eggs posted sometime.
Of course we had cake. Ellie's cake had her initial logo my mom created. You know the butterfly made out of the initials EEB. It was pretty neat. She didn't dig into the cake like other babies do, she was quite reserved, but eventually she got her hands all dirty, just not her face. Good girl, I'm raising her right, lets not get all sticky.
We were going to do a diaper derby, but no other baby can crawl yet, so obviously it wouldn't have been too fair. We did where everybody guessed how many fruit loops were in a container. My mentally challenged cousin, he's on a 7ish yr old level guessed the closes, I was shocked. The 2nd place winner was an 11yr old, again rather shocked. Ellie would have been 2nd place if my mom put what she meant to put for Ellie's guess. My mom put 1999, for some reason...all we can think is my mema died April of 1999. My mom wanted to put 2009 for the year Ellie was born. That would have won her maybe even 1st place. My cousin, put 200018..meaning 2018, but he didn't know how to write it.
She got SOOOO many gifts. I'll say it was about an equal division with the clothes, toys, and books. So far her favorite toy seems to be what I, well, DH and I got her. But I picked it out. It's basketball goal, w/ 2 little hard plastic balls, connected to it, there is baseball and has a little bat, and there's a football. It's designed so more than 1 child can play on it at once. Ellie LOVES balls, so though it may be a "boy" toy it's so her. When you score on the basketball, it cheers and lights up the score, so cool.
She's walking around now. She'll walk halfway across the room and then go back to crawling. She isn't standing up in w/out something to pull up on yet though. She still has 2 teeth on the bottom and 2 teeth on top. She says mommy, dada, mama, baby, bye, maimi, and babbles some other stuff that I can't make out yet. She waves hi and bye. She loves her baby doll which she seems to have named Maimi. Her favorite things are balls, music, her baby dolls, and dogs and cats. She shows the animals and her baby dolls so much love by hugging them, petting them, and kissing the dolls. My baby is really growing up on me. I'm so impressed with the things she's doing and saying. This past year has been the best ever. I don't remember ever smiling and laughing as much as I have since she's been in my life. I may have had a bit of wait before I got pregnant with her, but it was worth every minute and every failed cycle. For now we have got a beautiful and complete family. Eventually we may add to our family, but for now I'm just going to continue to focus on this little one.