36.5 weeks!

3.5 weeks to go… if we make it that long!  Life has been buzzing along lately at a record pace.  We’ve still got things to get for this baby, but things are slowing getting done.  We’ve been talking to Evie a lot about being a big sister and how wonderful it will be to have a baby.  We have a few books that have helped.  We were even able to work it into the movie The Lion King.  Evie loves that movie and in the beginning, when all of the animals are welcoming the new baby Simba, I really hype it up by saying things like “Look how happy everyone is about the new baby!” and “aww…isn’t that new baby cute?”.  We’ve been telling her how great it will be to be a big sister and what a good helper she will be.  She loves to be included in stuff and help out so I think hope this will work in our favor once the new baby is here.  Hopefully we have a few more weeks before we have to find out.  As uncomfortable as it can be to be pregnant when it’s hot, I’m not quite ready for Baby Marker yet.  I had a growth ultrasound today to check on the baby's size.  I'm measuring ahead by a little over a week (much better than measuring ahead by a month like I was three weeks ago!) and the baby is still pretty big.  Estimated weight is 7lbs 8 oz.  Not sure how accurate this is, but I think Baby Marker will be a whopper!  I’m still having issues with my platelet levels due to gestational thrombocytopenia (low blood platelets during pregnancy) and this time around, my levels are quite a bit lower than they were with Evie.  I’m working with my doctor to try and get them up by taking steroids.  I also have a appt. with a hematologist on Friday.  Right now, my levels are not dangerously low, but they do keep dropping which is a little concerning for me.  I am really, really hoping that the steroids will bring up my levels so that a) delivery is safer for me and the baby, b) I can get an epidural, & c) I don’t have to worry about needing a general anesthetic if I need a C-section.  We’ll see what happens.  Right now, I’m grateful to be feeling pretty good.  I know it could be a lot worse.  Some women face bed rest and hospital stays because of complications and I’m happy that I’m not in that boat.  My issues seem relatively minor compared to what some people are facing. 

Can you see my smooshed up little face?!

 All these issues aside, we have been enjoying the beginning of summer so far.  We had a low country boil over the weekend (yum!).  Evie spend most of Sunday in her bathing suit playing with her water table.  She had a blast and I can see that this is going to be a favorite activity this summer.  We need to buy a new baby pool for our little water baby soon.  We’ve been going on walks and to the park.  Evie has been adamant lately that she wants to walk, but I’m trying to keep her in the stroller.  Short walks are fine obviously, but she likes to dart around and I’m paranoid of the street.  We’re trying teach her that the street is dangerous, but she doesn’t like to listen most of the time.  We are hoping to get back to the zoo soon.  We LOVE the zoo and we are all excited about  the new Heart of Africa section.  Evie can’t wait to see giraffes!

Reading in style

I love samples...

Even sour ones!

Not too much else to report. :) 

Happy Birthday Pat / Daddy!

Today is Pat’s birthday.  He’s working a double shift at work so we’re not celebrating until later.  We actually already went to a play (Book of Mormon) and dinner last week, but we’ll probably try and have dinner this week as well.  Evie was very excited to wish Daddy a happy birthday this morning and she even sang Happy Birthday to him.  She has already mentioned having cake too. :) Happy Birthday Pat!  You are a wonderful husband and father and we love you very much!

35 weeks and counting....

+/- 5 Weeks Left!  Eek!  So not feeling ready for this new baby yet, but time is slipping away from me quickly.  We haven’t gotten out any baby stuff yet.  We still have some time (hopefully) and I don’t want Evie trying to climb in the baby swing.  I bought a few gender neutral newborn clothes and I’m cleaning out some drawer space in the dresser in Evie’s room for the baby’s clothes.  Pat started painting Evie's new room and I'm hoping to get the new furniture for Evie’s big girl room soon.  It's not that important to have it all done before the baby comes, but we do need to make room for baby stuff so Evie's stuff needs a place to go! I'd forgotten how much stuff a baby brings!  RIght now, Evie isn't very happy when we tell her that something is for the baby.  She wanted to wear the baby clothes and was upset that they didn’t fit.  When I was changing her diaper the other day, she managed to rip out a handful of baby wipes out of the box.  I asked her hand me a baby wipe.  She said “No.  Dis Evie wipe”.  That made me laugh!  Boy are we in trouble when this baby comes home.  Somebody is going to be jealous!

Outside of starting to get ready for baby, we having our house painted sometime soon.  We picked out the paint so now we just need to schedule it.  We can’t really do any yard work before that because we don’t want everything trampled.   I’d like to get the patio cleaned up so that we can sit outside and enjoy the weather, but flowers and mulch will have to wait until late May or June.  Luckily Adam said that he would come up and help Pat (thank goodness for little brothers!) since I won’t be much help at that point.  He’s also going to help Pat tear down the poor excuse for a fence that we have going on in our back yard.  It’s an eyesore and I really want it gone.  I’d love to get a new fence, but that’s not in the cards.  I’m hoping that all of the things that  we are doing to the house helps us when we go to sell, which I hope happens soon.  I want to move badly. 

Our girl loves pickles!

As for Evie, she’s her usual crazy self.  We’ve had a few weeks or so dealing with another ear infection.  I had a pretty good idea that’s what was wrong when I had to sit up half the night with her in a recliner because she cried every time she laid down.  She took a new antibiotic which will hopefully kick this infection once and for all.  If it doesn’t work, the doctor mentioned antibiotic shots (which I am not crazy about at all) and after that, a referral to an ENT to talk about getting tubes.  I am REALLY hoping that it doesn’t come to that, but I want to do what’s best for her.  She hasn't been sleeping well which has been hard on all of us.  Other than restless nights, Evie has been her usual playful, talkative self.  She literally never stops talking and it seems like the more words she learns, the less I understand.  Sounds strange to say that, but she will talk in sentences and I will only understand half of what she is trying to tell me.  I’ll ask her to repeat herself and she’ll say the same thing again and again.  Sometimes I get it, sometimes I have to tell her to show me what she wants.  She love sing and dance.  Right now, one of her favorite movies is Frozen.  Everyone kept telling us what a good movie it was so we let her watch it for the first time a few weekends ago.  Now, as soon as she hears a song from the movie, she stops whatever it is that she’s doing and just starts dancing around the room.  When she’s not singing or dancing, she’s busy being a little diva.  She loves to wear dresses now and she is obsessed with her shoes.  She loves to wear bracelets and hats, and she won’t go anywhere without her sunglasses.  She also likes ponytails more and will keep bows in her hair a lot longer than before.  I love it!  It’s sort of funny because, while she is a girly-girl, she is not dainty at all.  She is loves rough and tumble play, getting dirty and playing with her tools.  It’s so much fun (and so exhausting) to watch her these days!

As for  Baby #2, times a tickin'.  I found out last week that the baby is BIG.  After an ultrasound, my doctor estimated that the baby could be close to 7lbs already!  I'm scheduled to have another growth ultrasound when I'm 37 weeks to see how much the baby has grown.  There is also an issue as to whether or not I will allowed to have an epidural due to my low platelet counts.  They have to be around 90-100 and mine are at 77.  I had this issue (gestational thrombocytopenia) last time too, but my platelets never dipped below 100 so I was able to have the (blessed) epidural.  I'll have another blood test next Friday to see what my levels are.  If they are still low, my doctor mentioned trying a medicine to bring them up.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed the my levels are higher!  But I'm also going to watch a few Lamaze videos just in case.  I am really not prepared to have a med-free delivery, but I guess I may not have a choice.  I would like to avoid a C-section if possible.  From what I've read, if my platelets stay low, I will most likely have to have general anesthesia so I would be completely asleep when the baby is born.  I have waited 9 months to hear "it's a boy!" or "it's a girl!" - I'd like to be awake when he/she is born thank you very much!  Everyone keeps trying to reassure me that things will work out in the end so I guess that I just need to trust that they will. 

TBT... A little bit bald

These days Evie has plenty of hair, but it wasn't that long ago that she was seriously bald...

TBT... Growing up

I never do TBT, but I put some pictures side-by-side that really show how much Evie has grown up (and grown hair!).  She's getting so big!!

The second picture should say April 2014, but I can't figure out how to change it...oh well!

Tantrums and Forgetfulness

Living with two-year old can be tiresome to say the least.  Evie can alternate from being the sweetest girl in the world to a completely awful, tantrum throwing child in the blink of any eye.  Our method for dealing with these tantrums is to talk calmly to Evie, try and redirect her, or to ignore her (as long as she’s not doing anything to hurt herself or someone else) depending on the situation.  I’ve tried explaining to her that she can’t act that way, but when she’s in the middle of a screaming fit, you cannot reason with her.   She’s also been going through a little bit of separation anxiety which has been hard.  I started with this bit of information to give you an idea of how things happened yesterday. 
 

Because everything is better with a box of Cheez-Its

Yesterday started out rough, with her crying and reaching for me as I tried to leave for work.  I hate going to my job on a normal day, but having to see my little girl standing at the window with tears streaming down her face as I drove away broke me.  I cried all the way to work.  Later on, after work, I decided to take Evie on a walk and to the park.  It was gorgeous evening and I just wanted to enjoy it.  I made the mistake of mentioning the park when I picked her up from the sitter’s house.  We had to stop by our house first so that I could change and let Crosby out since Pat was working.  As soon as I stopped the car, she flipped out, saying “No Mama! We go to park!”.  I tried telling her that we were going in a minute, but she resisted me getting her out of the car and then threw herself on the ground, crying.  She refused to come inside so I basically had to drag her kicking and screaming.  Once inside, she completely stopped crying and was fine.  We headed out to the park ten minutes later to her delight.  Our walk before the park was relaxing for the most part.  Evie enjoys taking walks and we usually sing songs like ‘The Ants Go Marching” while we walk.  However, if she gets bored, she ends up tossing things out of the stroller left and right.  First one shoe, then the other.  Her sunglasses.  Her Pacifier.  Her water cup.  Next her socks came off, but instead of throwing them, she put them on her hands and waved to every person and car that went by, yelling “Hi!”.  Then she stuffed them in her mouth.  Then she threw them.  *Sigh*  She enjoyed playing in the park after our walk, went down the ‘big kid’ slide dozens of times and didn’t even put up too much of a fuss when it was time to go home.  

The trouble started when I tried to put her in the car.  She has suddenly decided that she needs to explore our van and sit in the front seat so she can push all the buttons.  I have no idea where she got the idea that she can do this, but it makes trying to wrangle her into her car seat extremely hard.  She pitched a fit, she screamed, she cried.  She also desperately needed her diaper changed which made matters worse.  I finally got her buckled, put the stroller in the car, along with all of her stuff, grabbed my keys from the top of the car (I always put them there to insure that I don’t accidently lock them in the car), and drove home, Evie crying the entire way.  After getting home, feeing Evie dinner, managing to eat a few bites of dinner myself, cleaning up the kitchen and making Evie’s lunch, I went to get my phone to take a picture of something when I realized that I couldn’t find it.  I emptied my purse, the diaper bag, checked the car, looked around downstairs.  No luck.  Then it dawned on me… I had put my phone on top of the car with my keys.  And I was pretty sure that I had only grabbed my keys in the midst of the chaos of leaving the park.  Here I was, all proud of myself for staying calm in that situation, not yelling or losing my cool, and I LEFT MY PHONE ON TOP OF THE VAN.   I have had a cell phone for years and I’ve never done that before.  Ever!  I grabbed Evie and we drove back to park, but no luck.  At this point I just had meltdown.  Obviously a phone is not reason to lose it, but it had been such a long day already and now my NEW Iphone that I had only had month was gone.  Plus it doesn’t take much these days for me to start crying.  I Facetimed my mom and probably freaked her out because I was sobbing went we connected.  Of course she told me to calm down, that a phone was not worth getting so upset, that we’ve all done stuff like that before, especially when screaming kids are involved.  Thank goodness for moms.  She suggested that I use the I Phone Locator app on my Ipad and see if my phone was anywhere nearby.  I had completely forgotten that I could do that and, sure enough, the locator said that my phone was about a mile from the park, near a busy road.  I grabbed Evie and headed out again.  We walked up and down the stretch of road where it said my phone was, but I still couldn’t find it.  A nice man even tried to help.  I’m sure he thought I was nuts.  I’m 8 months pregnant and obviously look like I’ve been crying, holding a barefoot toddler on my hip, walking up and down a street looking in the grass and on the road searching for missing phone.  At this point I finally just gave up.  I had to get Evie home, bathed and put to bed. When Pat got home from work that night, he decided to go back and see if he could find it.  Apparently after searching both sides of the road, he was crossing the street and saw something.  Yep.  My phone.  Completely destroyed.  Cue meltdown number 2.  I am not irresponsible and I'm a pretty organized person normally.  I just can't seem to keep i[ with things lately and I forgot everything.  Ironically I had read an article earlier that day saying the pregnancy brain is legitimate thing, caused by hormones or something.  I think I’ve proved a lot recently.  I forget what I’m doing in the middle of doing it!  I really wish I could have had a glass of wine last night.  I settled for a non-alcoholic beer and a Benadryl.  Needless to say, Evie and I both slept well after our exhausting evening.    Hopefully today will be a better day.
 

The remains of my phone