"Da Works, Mom Shops"

Maternity leave is over. I had 13 wonderful weeks off, but I had to go back. My main motivation was to get Will to quit saying "Da works, Mom shops"! Will, you are hilarious! By shopping, he clearly meant grocery shopping. I can't believe my 2 year old is already trying to get me in trouble!

I noticed that JT has left after me this first week. He says it is to help, but I assume he was making sure that I didn't need to be pushed out of the house! JT has been a great help taking care of Will in the morning so I can get ready. I always hope that Evie will wake up before I leave, but that doesn't always happen. Hope has done great with managing both kiddos! JT is doing great a night with them, although I know Evie is giving him a tough time.

NeeNee and JT took care of Will and Evie together for my first Saturday and Sunday. They learned together how to get through a day with Evie - loud noise! She can be silenced with the noise of a vacuum cleaner or hum of the dryer which they finally learned.I came home to a clean house and JT was cooking dinner. He better stop showing off how great he is at this or I will make him a stay-at-home Dad!

It was nice for me to be back at work. I'm very lucky to have a job that I love! I have missed my customers. I spend a lot of my day telling them all about Evie and how Will has adjusted to big brotherhood. Talking about them and getting pictures from Hope always gets me through the day.

Evie - 3 Months

Happy 3 Months Old Evie!

Evie is starting to show a little personality, but it is coming on slowly. She smiles a lot now when we talk to her. She likes to see lights and shiny things. A few times she has focused on TV cartoons that Will is watching. She is starting to coo a little and has a little sound that sounds like a sweet "hi".

She got her first wubbanub. It is a sweet pink elephant. She likes it better than a regular pacifier, but her interest is still low. Not that I really want her to be attached too it, but it would be nice if I could use it as a calming tool every once in a while. I'm starting to give it to her at bedtime, so maybe she'll associate it with her sleep times.

She is finally wearing 0-3 month clothes. We didn't have a doctor's appointment is month, so I am not exactly sure of her weight. She is probably around 12 pounds. Her cheeks get bigger by the day! She is losing more of her hair, especially around the back where her head lays when she sleeps. She is going to have a mullet. I put the headband bows on her every once in a while for some added cuteness.

She is sleeping 10-11 hours at night. I have tried putting her to bed around 7:30-8:00 so that we can get Will to bed with her already asleep, but the times aren't always consistent yet. She is sleeping until at least 7:00 AM (if not later), so I can not complain!

She is becoming more content alone but still loves to cuddle. I can finally get her to sit in chair, swing, or propped up on boppy pillow for a little while. Sometimes she wants to be picked back up right away and other times she'll hang out for 45 minutes. She sometimes looks at the stuffed animals on play mat. She prefers to grab the elephant and have a staring contest with it.

JT and I went to Gatlidnburg and Evie had her first sleepover at Gram and Gramps house. She did great and they enjoyed getting to spend time with her.

 A few more pics from the month:

Hanging out with Will

Is picture time over yet?!?!

Thanksgiving 2013

Happy Thanksgiving from our littlest turkey! Will isn't still long enough to be in pictures.

This was a busy holiday for us this year! We managed to see 3 out of 4 families in 1 day. We ate a lot and traveled some.

On Wednesday we went to Gram and Gramps house because some family would be there that had not yet met Evie. We had dinner with Gram, Gramps, Mama, Poppa, Aunt Cricket, Uncle Jimmy, Brandon, Monica, Kyle, and Leslie. Aunt Cricket had Evie almost laughing. Evie loved being held by Monica and Leslie. Will decided Poppa was his new playmate and we heard Will yelling "Watch Poppa!" for about 2 hours straight.

Thursday morning we started the day early with NeeNee and Jon at our house for breakfast. NeeNee then went to Aunt Julia's, so Jon tagged along with us for the big lunch at Gram's.

Gram's house had a crowd as usual.

Evie was passed around and loved on by so many people. Her favorite was sweet Hannah. Will was extremely social! I don't think there was anyone there that avoided interaction with him. He played football, ran around outside, and showed off his counting skills. I enjoyed my time in the kitchen teaching my "sisters" how to make Mama's rolls.

Leslie, Monica, and I make a great team!

After a big lunch and yummy desserts, it was time to head to Chattanooga. Evie and Will both slept the entire ride to Pop's house. Jon met us there and we got to see the whole crew. Evie met her aunts and uncles for the first time. This was our first meeting with Savannah. Big announcement - Traci Jo and Jimmy are having a baby! Yay for another cousin! This family has grown a lot just this past year and we are so excited that it is continuing to grow.

We stayed at Pop's for the weekend. Kristen brought Tripp and Savannah over on Friday. Will and Tripp played together a little bit. They liked chasing each other. Nonna had a cute idea for the kiddos for Christmas, so we made Santa ornaments from all of their hand prints. Evie was the easiest because she was asleep and didn't have any idea what we were doing. Will took longer and lots of convincing to create 5 hand prints. We had to tell him silly things like "this is for Dixie" and "show Woof Woof how to make a hand print". We got it done though and they turned out so cute! Will spent a lot of Friday hanging out with Pops, Jon, and JT. They were out in the yard cutting bushes and trees, and Will wanted to "help". He stayed out with them for a while and had a blast!

After all of that work, Uncle Jon and Pops had some quality time with Evie.

A rare pic of Jon because he is usually the one taking the pictures.

Pops and Evie

We are so thankful for all of our family and all of our many blessings!

Sleeping Beauty

What can I say...my babies are good sleepers! They may not look like me, but they take after me when it comes to sleeping!

Evie slept through the night the day after she was 2 months old. She had seemed capable of it for a while, but her startle reflex would wake her up more than it should have. I tried the SwaddleMe wraps (looks like a straight jacket), but she would scream like she was in pain. She wanted her hands free. I put her in a sleep sack thinking that might help keep her warm, but her hands were free so she would wake up a few times. Finally I decided that we were going to use the SwaddleMe wrap again. She wasn't happy about it at first, but she slept through the night. She has been put in it at night ever since. Sleeping baby = happy household!

I play music and dance/rock her to sleep at night. Her pediatrician told me that by 4 months she should be able to fall asleep on her own. So we are going to work on putting her down drowsy but not sleeping. I am enjoying our little night time routine right now, so maybe I'll start working on this a little to closer to when I have to go back to work.

Evie - 2 months

Happy 2 Months Old Evie!

Stats:
Height - 23 inches
Weight - 11 pounds  **I bet at least 1 pound of this is in those cheeks!**

Evie has become more alert this past month, but still sleeps a lot. When she is awake, she looks around and seems to take in every detail of the world. She isn't very content alone for very long and still wants to be held all of the time. Don't get me wrong, I am loving the cuddle time, but it would be nice to be able to put her down so I can get some stuff done around the house.

She loves noise! My best ways to calm her down are to turn on my hair dryer or vacuum cleaner. I've even walked past the washing machine when it was on and she instantly fell asleep. Maggie's barking and Will's running around don't seem to phase her at all. A car ride is another way to calm her down. The car must be moving though - red lights and traffic are not on my side!

We still haven't gotten on a true schedule, but we are working on it. She gets up once or twice at night and usually is really sleepy until around noon. I take advantage of this and run errands in the morning so she sleeps through it all. She sleeps 5-6 hour stretches at night. She really is a good sleeper, but it is hard to get her in her crib at night. She usually falls asleep with me holding her or after she eats. As soon as she feels me put her down in the crib, her eyes pop wide open and we have to start the process all over again.

She is losing her hair. It is dark in the back and on sides but lighter on the top. Hope and I think we see some strawberry blonde in there.

This has been a big month for her. She went on vacation to the beach. She also got to do some fun fall activities - Lucky Ladd Farms, Fall Festival at Mother's Day Out, and Halloween.

This is my favorite picture from this month. I kept trying to get her to smile for me, but she wouldn't. Will walked up to her chair and her face just lit up. It looks like they have been having a fun conversation.

We love you so much sweet girl!

Evie - 1 Month

Happy 1 Month Old Evie!

Stats: (at 2 weeks)
Weight - 7 lb 7 oz
Length - 20 inches

Well this has been a fast month! Time is flying by faster and faster each day. I have enjoyed every minute of it with this baby girl, even the crying times.

The first few weeks she has spent sleeping away! Will was a good sleeper, but did not sleep the 20 hours that the baby books said he would. Evie on the other hand has done just that up until this past week. She is a little more alert now and has more awake times during the day. Her normal routine is eating about every 2 hours during the day, and then going 3-4 hours at night. Last night she slept 6 hours! I doubt this is going to happen again because it is too early for her to be sleeping through the night, but JT and I really appreciated the long stretch of sleep. It was however a rough 2 hours before she fell asleep. She seems to be starting to have the "witching hour" beginning when JT gets home until we can finally get her down for the night. She won't take a pacifier usually so it is a little rough, but we survived it with Will and know that it will pass. Now that we are at the 1 month mark, I'm going to try to start getting her on more of a routine. It will be a very flexible routine though probably until she is at least 2 months old.

Sweet sleeping Evie

She has been moved into her room. She slept in the bassinet beside our bed for about 2 weeks, then we decided to move her to her room. She is a noisy sleeper (always grunting and squeaking), so it was to our benefit! Instead of putting her in the bassinet in her room like I did with Will, I went ahead and put her in her crib. She has done great!

She is slowly starting to lose her hair. It isn't really that noticeable yet. Her eyes have become a beautiful blue (smoky grey when born). I'm not one to think a baby looks like a parent at birth because they change so much over the first few weeks, but I think now she is starting to like Will. (MAO loves to tell me how much she looks like me, but if you compare pictures, she is identical to Will who doesn't look anything like me!)

We have been out and about a few times. Gram drove us around to get some things for her nursery. I put Evie in my sling/wrap and she loved it - she falls right to sleep as soon as she gets all snuggled up. This is how she and I go to the grocery store and it has been so easy so far. Evie attended her first party - 2nd birthday for the Eller twins. She cried the entire time. The next day we went to a City Auto company picnic where she met tons of people and was passed around for hours. She slept through the entire thing so now everyone thinks she is the easiest baby ever!

Will and Maggie have adjusted well to her. Will loves her! He kisses her and wants to "hold baby" about once a day. He gets tired of holding her after about 5 seconds so I have to be close to catch her when he decides to "no hold baby". It wouldn't surprise me if he just tossed her off of the couch when he was done. He tries to comfort her sometimes when she is crying. He rocks her vibrating seat (a little too hard) and I've seen him grab her hand and "shh" her when she is crying. Maggie just lays around beside her and sleeps in her room at night.

Getting Will ready for bed

Will's "hold baby" time. She actually fell asleep with him like this.
He felt it was necessary to wear his bike helmet. She is the one that is going to need a helmet!

She is so cuddly and wants to be held as much as possible. I know it isn't spoiling her yet, so I'm all for holding her any chance I get! JT usually gets some nap time with her at night, or she'll sleep on his chest while he watches TV.

We love you so much sweet Evie! I don't think either JT or I ever realized how much we needed a little girl to complete our family!

Second Pregnancy

They say every pregnancy is different. Overall, I would have to agree. I had a post about my pregnancy with Will, so I feel like I need to write about this one too so I don't forget. There were plenty of similarities, but enough differences that I thought the baby would be a girl.

Sickness:
I was much sicker this time. I had morning, noon, and night sickness from week 7 up until 6 months. JT actually started preparing himself to have a girl after the sickness continued into the second trimester. Sweets made me sick with Will, but this time there was no certain food that triggered it. I ate sweets this time, but I didn't necessarily crave them. I actually didn't crave anything. Just like last time, my diet consisted of lots of ginger ale, bagels, and apples.

Looks/Weight Gain:
I had gotten up to 21 pounds, but started losing weight toward the end. I ended up with 19 pounds above pre-pregnancy weight. I gained 30 pounds with Will.
I was "all belly" again! This is the one thing that made me think we were having another boy. Back to girl thoughts, my "bump" was definitely higher this time though. When I looked in a mirror, I thought I had gained weight nowhere but my belly. I see it in my face and arms though when I look at pictures.
I had some swelling like last time. It was mainly my right hand and right leg though. It actually hurt in my fingers because of all of the extra fluid. I expected more swelling since I went through some summer months, but it really wasn't too bad. Thank goodness this was a mild summer!

Gestational Diabetes:
At 28 weeks I failed my first glucose tolerance test. I was expecting that since it happened with Will. I had to go through the 4 hour glucose test and failed the fasting portion of that which was an automatic indicator for gestational diabetes. I argued with the nurse about this though because I had taken my blood sugar that morning 2 hours before I went for the test and it was within goal. I have no idea how it jumped up for the lab test. I demanded a retest, but honestly I really didn't want to go through all of that again. (What should have been 4 needle sticks ended up being 7. I hate needles - and my veins refused to cooperate during this entire pregnancy.) The nurse said I had to go to diabetes nutrition and education class, but I told her that I actually teach that class at Publix so she let me skip it if I promised to check my blood sugar 4 times a day and follow a low-carb diet. Since I was still convinced that the lab was wrong, I checked my blood sugars for 2 weeks and couldn't wait to show off my awesome results - and I didn't even change my diet really! When I went for my 32 week appointment, I showed Dr. Crowe my blood sugar readings and told her that her lab was wrong.  She looked them over and told me they were excellent blood sugars for a diabetic, but not a pregnant diabetic. What?!?! The goals are so much stricter for gestational diabetes, and I was not aware of this. My goodness I felt like a fool! I begged her to let me change my diet to control it because I did not want to be on medicine, especially insulin shots! She told me to fax my readings over each week and I could stay off medicine if I could stay at goal. I worked so hard at this (aka starved myself) and was able to keep it managed by myself throughout the rest of the pregnancy. Dr. Crowe taught me a trick that we both feel is absolutely ridiculous, but it works - eat a bedtime snack with carbs. I didn't do this at first because I just couldn't understand why I would do that when the whole point was to cut out carbs. But it worked! Before bed I would eat an apple or peanut butter toast or a small bowl of ice cream. My fasting blood sugar the next morning would be 70-80. If I didn't have that snack, it would be high 80s. Makes no sense, but it was the one time of day that I actually enjoyed eating!
**I think I probably had this with Will too. I was just exercising several times per week with him which I know helped me, and I didn't exercise at all this time.

The night my water broke (before I actually realized what happened), I had a really good time with Will. JT had been asleep since dinner and Will and I just hung out. We had a little dance party together and then I put him to bed. I didn't get to tell him bye before we left for the hospital, so I am so thankful for this fun memory.

This pregnancy went by so fast! I really enjoyed being pregnant both times, even though this second one was definitely not so easy.