We're Baaaaack!

Whew, the last time I wrote was the night BEFORE I had my baby. I had her 3 whole weeks early! She is now almost 15 months old (I should be ashamed I am just now finally writing in my blog again). I woke up in the middle of the night on July 13 (around 3:30am) and realized (after a couple trips to the bathroom) that my water had broken. Got up, started getting ready (of course I had not packed yet...procrastinators don't pack 3 weeks in advance...it's just not going to happen). We hadn't finalized where we were going to take Naomi yet either. Oy! And that is not the easiest thing to figure out at 3:30am when the rest of the world is sleeping.

Soooo, back to packing, getting ready, etc...Adam was kinda putzing around the house taking his dear sweet time. He tried on a new pair of shorts, "Erin, do you like these shorts, I got them yesterday." Me: "Yeah, they look nice." A couple of minutes later, "Erin, what about these shorts? Do you like them better than the other pair?" Me: "I like them both, they both look good." A couple of minutes after that, "Ok, here's the first pair again, which one do you like better?" (SERIOUSLY!?!?!?!?) Me: "Adam, I really don't care, if you don't get packed I'm going to hurt you!" Adam, "Erin, you need to calm down. We have plenty of time..." LOL!

A short while later, Adam said, "Just get your bag packed and I'll load the car once I get out of the shower, ok?"

Adam was in the shower...I was packed, and ready to go. Contractions were getting worse. I finished packing Naomi's overnight bag and diaper bag. Then, I went outside and moved the one car out of the way, backed the car we were taking out of the garage, threw both of our bags in the trunk. I went into the basement, pulled the extra (currently never-been-used) car seat out of the box and lugged it upstairs to bring with us (to leave with whoever Naomi ended up staying with). Adam got out of the shower and said, "Ok, were's your bag, I'll pack the car?" I told him I already did that right as a HUGE contraction started. I grabbed on to the fireplace mantle in pain...a lightbulb went off in Adam's head and he said, "Ok, you get in the car and sit down, I'll get Naomi."

In the car (it's was about 6:30am and we decided to take Naomi to our good friends' house on the way to the hospital, where my Aunt would pick her up later to stay at her house while we were in the hospital) I had another giant contraction and kind of moaned as I breathed through the pain. Naomi was in the back seat bouncing her head from side to side on the carseat headrest mimicking my pain noises and giggling, so I was contracting, in pain, and laughing at her all at the same time. We got to our friends' house and Adam literally RAN Naomi and her bags to the door and handed her off, then he set the carseat on their front lawn and we were on our way to the hospital!!!

I was at the hospital a little over an hour before I was ready to push. Whew!!! I had just gotten my epidural and informed the nurse that it wasn't fully working yet. She said, "Let me check you a minute first and then we can have them adjust it." That's when she told me I was at a 10 and ready to push. They brought in the doctor on call. They didn't even have time to call my own doctor. I had sweet Vivian Elise a little after 8:00am, after just 4 1/2 to 5 hours of labor. Talk about a whirlwind! It was a totally different experience from when I had Naomi. I was energized and felt really good. After I had Naomi, I felt like I'd been run over by a Mack truck. Just flattened, exhausted, shaky and weak, for DAYS. With Vivian I think it just went so fast and I had a better idea of what was coming, so my body felt far less traumatized. Vivian was just one day shy of full term, so the poor little Nugget had to get poked and prodded as though she were a preemie. She was absolutely fine and the picture of health and we were able to go home the next day. Pictures and more posts to follow...gotta catch up 15 months worth of blogging. Yowsers.

Almost There...BOY NAME PANIC

We are getting ready to meet "Baby Nugget" or "Baby H2". Both are nicknames for this little bugger, whoever he or she is. The "Baby Nugget" nickname came from ultrasound #1, where the blob on the screen reminded me of a chicken nugget. Baby H2 is because on this blog, Naomi was Baby H. So there you have it, my silly reasons for silly nicknames.

Speaking of names...

NO we are not sharing! But, we have two wonderful girl names that we both really agree on and like a lot. Boy names have been a different story, as they were when I was pregnant with Naomi. I have a much harder time finding boy names I really like. Adam, guy that he is, just isn't that worried about it. So on one end, there's me spastically googling boy name after boy name...and Adam wondering when we can quit talking about names for Pete's sake! The problem? The boy names I seem to be drawn to the most have STUPID meanings or are super super popular. Both issues are on our list of baby name no-no's. Meanings are important to me, so thus the ones that don't have such spectacular meanings get nixed or tossed into the "middle name possibilities" category. I just love the idea of blessing a child with a name of meaning, and also of giving the child a name to grow into as a person. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone else or not, but name meanings carry significant weight with me. Adam (thankfully) agrees so we have that in common to go from!

That being said, I have 2-3 names that I can actually picture myself naming a boy. Adam has 2-3 as well (I think)...but our top scoring names aren't names the other person likes that much. I guess we'll just have to wait and meet this little person and see what name fits best (plus after Adam sees all the hard work and LABOR I go through, maybe he'll defer to me, HA!). Who knows, maybe it's a girl and we won't have to worry about this whole mess again till next time!

I've been feeling a little guilty about the lack of blogging, journaling, belly photo taking, etc. I've been doing this pregnancy. Here's what I've come to conclude though. I love being pregnant. It is really such an amazing experience. With Naomi, it was all new and different. I was on a "pregnancy high" I guess you could say. With this pregnancy, it has been such a more relaxing experience. I am not freaking out about every little thing and have really just been able to rest easier in my mind. We have pretty much everything we need for this baby, no worrying about when we are going to get the nursery done, get the crib and put it together, trying to figure out what things are must-haves vs. what things are space, money, and time wasters, trying to picture what life will be like as a parent, etc. Are there still worries? For sure. Like how on EARTH am I going to handle a very demanding, energetic, entertaining, sweet spirited 18-19 month old and a newborn at the same time? What if this baby is colicky and cries all the time? What if I don't do so well juggling two kids? What if I get frustrated with Naomi and then feel terrible about it? BUT, this time I've done a lot of the "baby stuff" before. I know what to expect (within reason). I know Naomi, I know myself as a mother...so all in all, this has led to a much more relaxing 8 months.

And the countdown begins...23 days until my due date...maybe that doesn't sound like that long, but this head lodged in my pelvis, the way I remind Adam of a turtle stuck on it's back when trying to get out of bed, the way I have to pee every 27 minutes, the quadrupling in volume of acid reflux I'm having, the fact that the baby has found and loves to pinch my inner thigh nerve, the joy of feeling at least 10 degrees hotter than anyone else in a room (and the way I am constantly calling our thermostat a liar)...those things all make 23 days sound like kind of a long time. Then there's the possibility of going late (yeesh).

Of course, looking at it from another angle, 23 days is not enough time at all! Only 23 more days of a good-night's sleep. 23 more days of just our cute little family of three. In no time at all I'm going to be playing "zone defense" (as a friend put it) on days when Adam works and I'm home alone with the KIDS plural (rather than the current "man to man" tactic). I'm going to be trying to breastfeed and tend to a 19 month old at the same time. Not to mention I am about to become a human milk machine yet again, which is an every 2 1/2 - 3 hour commitment...overdue is sounding better and better (kidding!).

All in all, God knows WHEN this little one will arrive, he knows WHO he or she is. He knows WHAT he or she will be like, look like, act like, sleep like, eat like. He knows everything about this baby, and that to me is a great reason to just sit back, take a deep breath, and leave it all up to him.

Where did my baby go? Has anyone seen her...

...She's about 7lbs 1.2oz, eats a lot, sleeps a lot, poops a lot...you know, baby stuff?

She is MISSING, and in her place I have a giant toddler, babbling and running around my house!

Bed Head after a day in piggy tails.

Daddy thought Naomi should try on my sweatshirt...

The result was some kind of cross between a Harry Potter character...

And a tiny Grim Reaper (creepy?).

She looks so grown up in these pictures! I can't get over it.

Love that precious face!

Coupla Pics

October 2009 - Fun with the Giant Pumpkin and friend Molly!

My pouty little bumblebee...
Love this one - Naomi eating RaeAnn's antenna, RaeAnn eating leaf...Meltdown in stereo! (I was cracking up here)
Naomi - having her cake and eating it too.
We had a birthday party for her early (late November 2009) when family was visiting.

Chocolate Cake Mohawk - Naomi did this all on her own.

Some recent pics from this past weekend...Thank you Tia!!

P.S.

I'll post pictures soon, when I'm not running 45 minutes late for work!

Oh, I'm Terrible!

I seriously cannot believe I haven't posted since OCTOBER. That's baaad.

First of all, I am pregnant!! Yay! 19 weeks today and feeling the little flutters of a baby moving around in there. This pregnancy has gone differently so far, not majorly or anything, but differently. I wasn't NEARLY as sick in the beginning (sooo grateful for that!), I could actually EAT although selections were a little limited they were NOT confined (like last time) to saltines with peanut butter, brown sugar cinnamon poptarts, ramen, campbell's chicken noodle, peanut butter and welch's grape jelly sandwiches, and dry roasted peanuts...(which all gets very very very very very old after a solid diet of the afore mentioned for 8 weeks or so). I was, however, a lot more tired. Exhausted. Most days that I worked, around 12, 1 or 2ish I would start head bobbing right at my computer. A couple of times I pulled the "sleeping, but not sleeping" high school move where I slept for 5-10 min with my head propped up on one hand. From the back it just looked like I was sitting there (until my head would bob violently forward and the jerk back as I startled awake). Not something I'm proud of, but seriously, it did not matter how much sleep I got the night before, the mid-day narcolepsy would strike regardless.

On to Naomi...

Alright, I'm sure there is waaaay to much I have missed in those months...hmmm. Where to begin? Naomi really took off walking in November (after those tentative first little steps back in October). Now of course she's a speedy little bugger zipping around the house. She is also a CHATTER BOX. Has been since before she had words to chatter with. Her first official word was "kitty cat"...yes, that's right, "kitty cat"! Technically she was saying "dadada" before that I think...but she didn't know what it meant, she said it about everything. Kitty cat, she knew what that one meant when she said it, she LOOOOOVES her kitty! It started out "ki ki" evolved into "kiee kaa" and is now impressively understandable. She says and signs please "peas, peas", thank you (I don't know how to type her annunciation on that one...), all done "uh uh" (yes, interpreter required).

She says "what's that" while pointing at EVERYTHING ("oos ta, oos ta?"), she says mama "nana" don't know why, but I'll TAKE IT!!! She finally started saying that one the weekend of Feb 20th at nearly 14 months old! Sheesh. I had to be patient, so "nana" is just the perfect way to say mama as far as I'm concerned!! Oh, and best ever, she says "yah" to ANYTHING you ask her ("Is mommy your favorite?" "yah" "Do you love daddy?" "yah", etc. "Do you like broccoli" "yah") It's so fun. My mom also taught her to call kitty like her daddy does ("Kittykittykittykittykittykitty!!!") the weekend of Feb 20th. "Ki ki ki ki!"

She is rapidly approaching the toddler attitude phase. Testing us constantly...doing things we JUST told her not to do while looking right at us, throwing fits / tantrums, swinging her hand at us if we tell her no to something...you know, toddler stuff. It's kind of taken us by surprise...the little will of iron she has! It seemed to happen all of the sudden. My baby is turning into a little girl. She is SO much fun though, I just love this age (I just love every age so far, who am I kidding?!).

Oh, quick story. Last night Adam and I went out for his belated birthday dinner. We dropped Naomi off with our friends Wayne and Emily and their daughter Molly (5 weeks younger than Naomi). Emily was working so it was just Wayne and the two girls. Wayne told us this story when we came back to pick Naomi up.... Wayne had Molly sitting on the potty (yes, they are rockstar parents potty training their child from the get-go...something I am far to lazy to attempt!! But I swear this child will be potty trained at a year and a half...). Naomi, holding her sippy cup, walked into the doorway and declared "DAH!". To which Molly replied, "DAH!" and they both just cracked up laughing like it was the funniest joke they'd ever heard! So cute! (Here is what Wayne twittered about the event: "Watching Molly and Naomi tonight. Naomi: Dah. Molly: Dah. Both: Laugh hysterically. I don't get baby jokes. ")

Anyways...I best get on with it...I now have almost NO TIME to get ready for work. Sheesh. Priorities are such a problem with me sometimes!

One Step At A Time!

Naomi took ONE step last night (and promptly fell down)!!! She just did it again tonight!

"Go Naomi, Go! Go Naomi, Go!" (that's our encouragement chant, accompanied by enthusiastic clapping)