Monday, February 16, 2009
Addison's Room
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Weekend Ramblings
We're so thankful everyone is well again. I started feeling a sore throat and runny nose this morning and have been eating oranges and drinking water like it's going out of style. I also take tons of vitamins daily and I'm trying to keep a positive attitude that it will NOT turn into anything serious.
We have 9 days until Addison is due, and 10 until I turn 27 (like I even ever think about that. Actually, I totally forgot until I bought wine today and the lady asked me if I was 21.) All my Braxton Hicks contractions have been for nothing says the doctor LOL. So no progress so far. But I hadn't any with Caelen a couple days before I went into labor either. I feel like I am just sitting around, twiddling my thumbs, anxious for this girl to come!
I'll be honest, I'm anxious about the delivery. What mother isn't? But mine is a little more high risk and since Caelen's birth was so traumatic, I really don't know what to think about this one. I so wish I was one of those women who just went into labor and then some odd hours later, pushed a baby out and YAY! But for some reason making babies is not my strong suit. We battled infertility, the whole world knows I'm a horribly sick pregnant mom, and birthing so far hasn't been "easy" or "normal" and now I'm all "high-risk" and stupidly special in a way I never hoped for. I think I need a break with this one ;)
I love Lucas Wharf for mulitple reasons:
1. The food is delicious and I have multiple favorites that I choose from whenever we go.
2. The drive out makes you feel like it's a mini-get-away, even though it's not far from home.
3. It's a nice restaurant but not too snooty.
4. It's on the water.
So Thomas and I went last night as a Valentine's / Babymoon / Good-job-surviving-Caelen's-sickness Dinner. We dropped Caelen off with Grandma & Grandpa and had a wonderful evening complete with and ice cream cone and Root Beer float from Screamin' Mimi's in Sebastopol. I'm finding it's getting easier and easier (for ME) to leave Caelen and go out. I used to miss her the moment I dropped her off, but now, I think she just takes SO much energy, that I need to recharge those batteries and I'm not in a desperate hurry to rush back. I think it's healthy :)
Okay, I'm serious now, does anyone want a Bloodhound?
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
A few days of peace before delivering a baby, maybe?
Caelen had a fever ranging from 101 - 105.2! from Friday to Sunday. The scariest part was when the Motrin would wear off (always about 1-2 hours too early) and her fever would begin to go up, she'd turn blue around the mouth and on her hands and feet and begin to shake. I was on the phone with the adivce nurses 3 times in 3 days. Once they told me if I couldn't get her fever down (she was refusing Motrin like a ninja) then I had to get her to ER right away.
Once the Motrin was on board she'd feel pretty good for 4 hours or so. But then I'd dread it wearing off again. By Sunday night I was so scared and tired. I prayed so hard for it to go away. That night when I knew her Motrin would have worn off I went into to check her and she was amazingly cool! In the morning her fever was only 99.9. The doctor tested for strep (she had puss on her tonsils), flu and urinary tract infection, all of which came back negative.
So after the fever broke, her nose started pouring which chapped her face and made her incredibly uncomfortable. Last night and the night before (and every nap as well) I had to listen to her wake up crying hysterically every 15 minutes for 10 minutes or so before she'd fall back asleep. Lest you think I'm a cold heartless Mom, if I went in to comfort her, she'd kick and punch at me like a caged wild animal and tell me hysterically between sobs to go away.
Yes, by this point I didn't know what was worse, the fever, or this raging lunatic sleeping in my daughter's bed.
Today she woke up peacfully and called for me kindly from her room. Her nose is not running nearly what it was yesterday. She has not been cranky, she's been playing nicely and been telling me she loves me. She fell asleep for her nap in about 2 minutes and hasn't woken up crying. I am FINALLY coming down off an adrenaline high and yes, I'm exhausted. Because all this time I have been 2 weeks away from my due date and just praying that Addison doesn't come early (quite a switch from a week ago), praying Thomas and I don't catch whatever she has (that would be a really fun labor, with a 103 fever) and praying that she just get better. My attention has been totally off being pregnant and now I realize our due date is only 12 days away!!!
Holy Cow...
Friday, February 06, 2009
A not-so-Well Check
I'm so impressed with pediatrician's abilities to get the job done despite a screaming flailing toddler. Her ears looked good, throat was a little red and had the fever. She said if it is the flu that she has, the fever will last 8 days to which I replied, "Oh MERCY!" But Caelen got her flu shot so I'm hoping it's not. She also said, "And if you have that baby, you'll have to keep her away." YEAH like that's gonna happen!
So now all my impatience for Addison's arrival has been curbed by the desire to have my children (who are not ill) meet in the hospital after Addison's arrival and not have to be quarantined from each other.
I'm also nervous about catching whatever Caelen has. It's called having a bun in the oven, but I don't really want to cook my child. And it would be pretty lousy to have the flu while I was in labor. But I too got my flu shot and blessedly have not caught anything that Caelen has had so far although I'm worried my luck might be running out soon.
Anyway Caelen is now 35.5lbs and 37 inches tall. I have no idea what percentile that is as our sweet doctor was just trying to get us the heck out of there, with last minute advice to have lots of popsicles and juice. Now THAT won't be a problem!
Personally I prefer being clean to having fresh green beans but maybe that's just me.
Last night we were playing "This Little Piggy" with all our toes and Thomas decided to test Caelen to see if she knew it. He grabbed my big toe and said, "Hey Caelen, where does this little piggy go?" She throws her hands in the air and says, "This little piggy go to TARGET!!"
Thomas has been a water nazi because he's afraid there won't be enough for his garden this year if they put us on water rations. He obsessively, multiple times a day, checks the weather and rain totals. He has cut Caelen's baths down to like 2 inches of water in the bottom of the tub and only every other day (I'm fighting this one, we'll see how it goes.) So last night she says she wants to take a bath and he tells her she can't. When she asks why (oh yeah, and that's a whole OTHER story about her "Why" phase already starting) he tells her because there's not enough water so why doesn't she ask Jesus to send some rain.
She comes running into the bathroom to me and says we have to ask Jesus to send some more water. She runs over to turn on the bath afraid that it might be broken. Then she says, "I have more water in my mouth Mommy!" and she begins spitting into the bathtub!!
So this morning, the heavens graciously unleashed quite a bit of rain and she said, "God sent more rain from the store!"
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Sweet Voice
Saturday, January 31, 2009
And in this ring we have....
So far, so good! And he said I'm an excellent candidate for a VBAC. He felt her and said she's a small one, probably won't be any bigger than Caelen's 7lb 2ozs. (Right before he delievered her he felt my belly and said she was probably going to be 7lbs, so I think he likes to play a little guessing game with himself, but he seems to be good at it!) Anyway, her small size is an advantage (he said, she'd slide right out. I have a feeling that wouldn't be how I'd describe it.) He did an ultrasound and we saw her head positioned right where it should be. He was happy with my weight gain (or lack thereof: 20lbs total) and said they would let me go to 41 weeks before they would have to preform a C-section.
So I left feeling very happy and knowing that whatever happens, it's up to the Lord anyway. But at least everything we humans can control and forsee looks good.
Then I started my weekly NSTs (non-stress tests) at Labor & Delivery which is crazy because you have to get admitted to the hospital, go into L&D and get hooked up to some monitors. They monitor her heart rate along with activity and the ultrasound to measure the amniotic fluid. If either looks bad, they deliver your baby right then & there (either through induction or, in my case, C-section.) So you're totally admitted to the hospital should they need to do anything. Of course, I knew they wouldn't. In my case (a bad APF blood result, which was what had us sent down to the city to make sure our child would survive 20 weeks ago) rarely has any bad results during a NST. So of course she looked great and away I went.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Baby Shower!

In this shot you can kind of see the crib, and the color of the wall in the background. We kind of did a reverse of the walls in the catalogue because we already have white wainscoating in the room. We had to paint over some really dark red paint but I think it's come out well.
Monday, January 19, 2009
For you Mom
Sunday, January 18, 2009
The beach and a beach ball.
After deciding it looked like another gorgeous day, we made plans to head for the coast. It was very windy, but the temperature was 76 degrees so it wasn't that bad! We made sandwiches and brought toys for Caelen to play with. She immediately took her shoes off so she could feel the sand between her toes. It was a lot of fun.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
What an imagination
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Missing one girl but so enjoying the other.
This is actually no consolation for me as I'm feeling huge anyway and impatient, so to have it confirmed that I am massive and should be giving birth any day, doesn't make me feel better! ;) The waddle is ridiculous. And today in church when I dropped my pen on the ground while sitting in the pew, I said, "Aww man!!!" a little too loudly and had to ask Thomas to do some interesting contortions to get it for me.
So 6 weeks. The thing about this stage of pregnancy is that you're kind of in a catch-22 situation. You desperately don't want to be pregnant anymore (unless you're one of those people who LOVES being pregnant, in which case I don't have any clue what planet you're from and so your opinion doesn't count) but at the same time you're dealing with the trepidation one feels before they embark upon a journey of which they have no clue how anything is going to work out. Some days I'm terrified of her coming out (not scared of her, I've done babies before, nervous about having two, I've never had a toddler AND a baby before) but that "terror" drains away the moment I realize that would mean staying pregnant and there is no way I'd sign up for that.
But mostly I just want her here, want to see her and meet her and watch her grow. See the girls together and new relationships begin. See her own little personality begin to emerge and watch how she does things completely differently (or similarly) to the rest of us. So I think that yes, the being physically huge and unwieldy is annoying, but the thing that makes this stage of pregnancy the hardest, is missing a child you've never held but know that you will hold for the rest of your life, and you just can't wait to have them in your arms.
Switching subjects to the amazing world of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: If you're not familiar with the show, you might not know that the correct way to call Santa (yes, like one would call a dog, or fairy godmother) is, "Santa Santa HO HO HO."
Caelen was saying this over and over in the car. She'd ask me or Thomas to say it occasionally. Then she says, (and I quote exactly) "Come on Mom, do it with me! Put your hands up and say, 'Santa Santa Ho Ho Ho!!'" I had tears streaming down my face, the enthusiasm over what she was saying was just hilarious. I had visions of her onstage trying to get a crowd all rallied up.
Crowd participation must be very important to her. When we picked her up from Sunday School all her teachers were telling us how during story time when they asked, "Who loved the thankful man?" Caelen looked around at her silent peers, threw her hands up in the air like a good Pentecostal and said, "Jesus!!"
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Countdown: 46 Days til due.
Caelen got a thank you note from "Tyler" (aka Tyler's mom) today for coming to his birthday party. I told her it was mail for her and read her the note. She carried it around super excitedly and would occasionally stop and "read" it to herself. I could hear her reciting some of the words from memory and speaking about the gist of the note. She was so excited to get some mail and I had to pause and just watch the adorableness unfold in front of me.
Current cravings: oranges, iced tea and Oreo cookies with milk. (Not all together LOL)
Sunday, January 04, 2009
If we're little then that makes you...???
"Come one Little Mama!" "Hold my hand Little Mama."
About 50% of the time this is what she's calling me. I think I called her Little Mama a couple times when she was feeding her baby doll or holding the true live baby Daniel really well. But the best was when she was requesting Thomas' company and (you guessed it) said, "Come on Little Papa."
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Merry Christmas!
It was so fun getting to watch her enjoy, not only getting presents, but watching others open their presents. She would stand right next to whoever was opening their present at the time asking over and over, "What is it? What is it?" and would dutifully gasp with surprise when each gift was opened. She has taken over the roll of present-passer-outter from her mother and auntie. I still remember being about 10 and passing those gifts out from under the tree on Christmas Eve and so it was a little weird to be handing them to my toddler and watching her take them to their respective recipients. She loved her job and was very good at it!
So here are some pictures from Christmas Eve and then Christmas day which we spent home by ourselves as all of Thomas' side of the family was out of town, and for various logistical reasons, my parents couldn't make it to our house for Christmas dinner. It was odd and a little bit lonely to be by ourselves completely on Christmas, but looking back I already see that it'll be probably the only time that ever happens and it was so relaxing and intimate. We had a very Merry Christmas and I hope you all did too!
Here's Caelen enjoying the usual and much-anticipated Christmas Eve spread. Her favorite was the onion dip. I seriously crave Christmas Eve food all year long and was pretty bummed that my huge pregnant belly and horribly shrunken stomach prevented me from gorging myself.
Caelen and Auntie getting in a little "Mickey Mouse Saves Santa" before we open the presents.
The new generation of "Present-Passer-Outter". Give Addison a couple years and she'll be right in there too I'm sure.
Thomas showing her her new bathtub crayons as she crumples the wrapping paper to give to Grandpa.
Helping Auntie open her gift.
My beautiful girl with her new Tinkerbell umbrella.
Putting her new Wonder Pets and stuffed elephant to sleep.
And then Santa came! She would open a present and then play with it awhile before realizing there were more.
Sleepy face opening her stocking.
Making Papa play with her Littlest Pet Shop with her.
Cozy on Christmas playing with stickers.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Picture Catch Up
Lately it's been so cold! There was snow on the mountains that you could easily see from the freeway. We've had highs in the 40's some days and we've woken up to 21 degrees. Caelen still wants to go out and play so we just bundle up like this:
Here's Caelen with Grandma and Grandpa at the Annual 'Round the Table Carol Sing that our church puts on every December. She loved the music and would close her eyes and rock out the really soulful ones. Girl after my own heart!
Saturday, December 20, 2008
More Quotes from Caelen
She also thinks it's really cool that the Nutcracker comes to life at the end and dances and sings. While watching it the last time at her Grandparent's house and holding my mom's nutcracker she looks at it and says, "The Wonder Pets' nutcracker came to life Mommy! My nutcracker come to life too???" As she breaks his arm off and it drops to the ground. LOL
On a non-nutcracker note, this afternoon while I was making lunch for everyone, Thomas said something that indicated to me that he had not been listening when I was sharing my feelings with him earlier and this irritated me. Pregnancy hormones have definitely been sucking my patience away. Without going into boring details on why, I began, in a VERY firm but escalating voice, to explain why I was frustrated and that I need him to listen when I speak and yada yada yada. After a pause, Caelen says, "What's happening Mommy?" I said, "Oh honey, Mommy's just pregnant." She replies, "You pregnant at Papa??"
Monday, December 15, 2008
How's that for fireworks
The amazing thing is that you DO adapt to the cold. Yes, even me who is cold when it's 75 degrees outside. I woke up the other morning and thought, "Hey it's not that cold in the house!" It was a whopping 60 degrees. And the cold doesn't seem to really bother Caelen. She still tries to take her clothes off and run around naked. I try to tell her she needs her clothes because it's cold, but I don't know if she believes me or just thinks I'm pulling her leg!
Anyway, we have a fire going almost 24/7 and we recently discovered you have to remove the screen to get any amount of heat out of an open hearth fireplace. Thomas also started placing a fan in front to move the hot air. He tends to build the fire up really high and I'm constantly nagging him about my fear of it falling over and going into the fan. I think he thought I was crazy until yesterday when it happened. Yes, my friends, the blazing wood all collapsed onto the hearth and the fan sucked up the pieces and sprayed them into our living room!!! I ran for the plug to the fan, got the fan stopped, Thomas ran to get the big chunks back in the fireplace (because then the house was filling with smoke) and the last task was to get the burning embers up off our (thankfully) hardwood floor. Thank the Lord it wasn't carpet and I happened to be washing all our rugs. Nothing was worse for the wear, not even my floor.
When I asked Thomas if maybe after living with me a few more years and having these "fears" of mine come true all the time he'd stop thinking I'm over reacting and crazy, he said, "Um yeah, maybe. But probably not."
LOL At least he's honest!
Saturday, December 13, 2008
I personally LOVE sleep
What's so bad about sleep?
Seriously. Are you afraid we might be having fun without you? Are there things you want to do that you just can't be bothered with a nap? Are there just too many thoughts going around in your head? That must be it because you lay in there talking and singing to yourself about everything in the whole wide world.
When you call me in saying, "Mommy, I need my _____ " I know you're just trying to get me in your room so you can start trying to convince me that you're "awake now!" but I know you never even slept.
I do appreciate that you don't try to come out of your room, but Mommy can't relax when you're in there whining and hollering. I blame your father for this. Lord knows HE didn't even take naps at this age. At least you take a few a week.
Lord have mercy!
Mommy


