Showered with Love

As with everything else in my life at the moment, I am behind in writing this post. But last weekend, this sweet little girl and I were beyond blessed with a wonderful shower celebrating her soon arrival. 

I never imagined I would be one to have definite opinions on a shower thrown for me, but this time around I did. Honestly, I felt my opinions were more for the benefit of everyone else, but isn't that how most of us control freaks like to think about our "suggestions"? Haha.

Anyway... My request was for simplicity. Cake. Punch. Family and friends. I didn't want anyone to stress out or go overboard. I just wanted a place to be able to enjoy being with the people I love and celebrate this new life. And I got exactly what I wanted. It was perfect- low key and relaxing.

The cake was AMAZING and perfectly matches the quilt my parents got to go in the nursery. 

I got so many wonderful and thoughtful gifts. Our little one will definitely not be wanting for anything. 

I had so many precious people come to celebrate with me. It was such a unique blend of friends from all the different stages of my time here in Tulsa. I felt very blessed to have them all in the same place at the same time. I'm just sad that I didn't get the camera out sooner because I missed getting pictures with a lot of them!

And I cannot begin to tell you how happy I am to have this lady here with us in Oklahoma now! All of us girls have definitely been taking advantage of seeing her every chance we get.

A special thanks to all of the ladies in my life who worked so hard to have this shower for me! Krystal opened up her beautiful home and it was the perfect place for this special occasion.

And of course where would I be without these two lovely ladies! I have the most amazing mom and mother-in-law and all THREE of my girls have the most phenomenal women of God to look up to as role models. 

We were definitely showered with love (and gifts)! :)

A Broken Record

Every day is one day closer to our baby girl being here.

I'm sure I am sounding like a broken record, but I knew that after the holidays came and went I would be forced into that realization... and here I am.

My mom and I spent some 5 or 6 hours over two days working to get the girls' rooms cleaned and organized and we while we got 5/6 hours worth of work done, we barely made a dent! But can I tell you that I've NEVER been so happy to have her close! There's no way I could have even gotten things started if mom weren't around. We managed to empty out the closets in the two rooms, but we emptied them out into the living room, hallway, the girl's bedrooms themselves, as well as my room. Boxes, bins and bags and all kinds of "debris" has been filling my house. So I've spent any energy I could muster over the past two days getting things upstairs in the attic, out of the way or organized in the girls' closets.  It hasn't helped that the nausea and morning sickness that I thought I left behind in the first trimester has come back in full force, so my daily energy expenditure is even more limited than "just" being pregnant and having two toddlers. Haha.

Mom asked me the other day what I wanted as a shower gift and upon giving it a little thought, I decided that I wanted someone to come help me clean. I want some intense, deep cleaning done before this baby gets here. Seriously, could there be a better gift for a pregnant mama with little ones?? Judge me if you must, but that is a gift I will very much enjoy.

But the countdown is on!

Wednesday is three weeks left and I will be SHOCKED if I go all the way to my due date, honestly... shocked! Of course now that I'm saying that, just watch her prove me wrong.

I've said it before and I'll say it again- just let me make my Garth Brooks concert on Thursday night and our little baby shower on Sunday and then she can come whenever she wants!

For those of you who know me, know I like to be prepared and be in control... well at this point I am neither! My checklist is a MILE long and my timeframe is getting shorter and shorter.

The nursery isn't finished. Honestly, it's really not even started.
The girls have NOT mastered the art of sleeping in the same room and often have to be separated for everyone's sanity.
We haven't even finalized a name yet.

This is SO not like me.

And yet, ready or not, she will be here soon and the world will keep turning, even if my house isn't clean. She will end up with a name, even if we don't walk into the hospital knowing what it will be. And somehow each night there will be sleeping little girls filling each room (hopefully all sleeping at the same time). And before I know it these days of waiting will be a memory. The back pain, heart burn, and pregnancy exhaustion will be exchanged for nighttime feedings, dirty diapers and three little girls who I couldn't possible love any more. 

I write partially to vent these days, but mostly to remember. My days, weeks and months all blur together since R arrived 3 1/2 years ago, so while I hope you all appreciate being kept up-to-date on our lives, I know this blog will be invaluable for me to look back on and simply remember.

Cleaning Up A Crime Scene

They tell me one day I'll look back and laugh at days like these, but not today my friends... not today.

And I'll say this ahead of time- No, I did NOT take any pictures. I was doing good just to make it through this experience with all three of us in tact and no baby born out of stress.

The day started out like most have lately, this pregnant mama was still exhausted when R decided to get up at the crack of dawn and holler until her sister woke up as well. We had already settled into our morning and eaten breakfast by 7:15 which made for an incredibly long morning, by 9am I could have sworn it was time to be having lunch.

Sadly R has been a little under the weather, which means not only has she been grumpy and groggy from getting less sleep, but its been magnified by her sickness. So after yet another time of lashing out, Mama had to put her in timeout. As she sat on her bed serving out her sentence, I told Baby Girl over and over again to leave her sister alone until Mama said she could come out. I then proceeded to do some laundry and came back maybe three minutes later to find them both in R's room. I can only describe what I saw as something out of an episode of CSI. A thick deep, red substance covered both children and the entire room, and my jaw dropped to the floor. For a split second, I froze in shock. What in the world just happened!?

In my efforts to contain the chaos and control my intense emotions, both children were immediately stripped, thrown into the bathtub and threatened not to get out until Mama said so.

I then took a deep breath and again entered the crime scene. Somehow in those three short minutes, Baby Girl had managed to find four large bottles of snow cone syrup, that I did not know even still existed in our home. She managed to carry them through the kitchen and the living room and down the hall to the bedroom. She also grabbed a huge metal bowl her sister had previously been using as a drum and begin to pour the syrups in the bowl. But of course she's two, so how much of it really made it into the bowl? Yea, not much. The syrup cover much of the bedroom floor but somehow also made its way to nooks and crannies I didn't even know existed. Their room is already a disaster so I have no doubt that I will be finding stains for days or even weeks to come.

I spent the next hour cleaning up the "blood" that covered their room and trying to contain my frustration- not only for my children's sake, but because I really did not want to go into labor this way. Because if the stress of dealing with two toddlers wasn't enough, crawling on the floor on my hands and knees for an hour was really pushing my limits.

I just knew from beginning that my cleaning would be in vain and was already trying to decide in my head if we should get carpet again or just suck it up and get hardwood so  this wouldn't be an issue next time. But by some miracle 95% of the syrup came out, all that is left are a few large, pink water rings that I'm hoping a good carpet cleaner will get out. The syrups eventually came out of the rugs, blankets and clothes they were wearing. It only took me like four extra loads of laundry to get them all clean :/ But seriously, if you look in any trash can in my house, you would think the roll and a half of paper towels I had to use were all covered in blood. It's very disturbing. But needless to say, none of this put me in a very good mood.

So exhausted from pregnancy and spending an hour on my hands and knees scrubbing, I decided to "drink" my troubles away. I threw clothes on my freshly cleaned children, grabbed a pair of sunglasses and a "respectable" t-shirt to go with my sweats and slippers and we headed to the closest Starbucks drive-thru. All I wanted was caffeine and a little peace and quiet, so I gave them both a baggy of goldfish and put Daniel Tiger on the iPad. Thankfully we made it there and back with no incidents and I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

I put all of our stuff down in the house, let Baby Girl out of the car and then went to get R out. R and I got to the backdoor, it was closed. I again took in a deep breathe because I was determined NOT to go into labor today and reached out for the doorknob.

I'll give you one guess as to what I found when I went to turn it...

I then spent the next 5-10 minutes (admittedly NOT using my inside voice) telling Baby Girl that she'd better unlock that door quick. Today is one of the coldest days of the year so far. I am in a t-shirt. R has on no socks. And we are locked out of the house. To say that I am upset, would be the understatement of the century. Oh and remember, I took everything INSIDE the house before I let Baby Girl out... no keys, no phone. She locked us out not even really understanding what she did, so getting her to UNdo it, is NOT going well. Eventually, by the grace of God, and for her good fortune, she did manage to unlock the door. But I don't think she will be locking it again anytime soon, and I'm going to be coming up with another way of getting into our house- immediately.

And that was all before lunch...

God-
Please let tomorrow be better.
Sincerely,
Mom of two toddlers

Christmas... New Year... Baby

Christmas decorations are headed back to the attic and boxes of baby clothes and gear are coming back down. As sad as I always am to put Christmas away in boxes, this year it comes with a different kind of excitement and anticipation. My half-packed hospital bag is lying on the floor in my bedroom and I've started to hunt and collect for the items necessary to pack an actual diaper bag- something I haven't had to do for some time! In fact, while I know it was not THAT long ago, I am having a hard time even recalling exactly what I need to put in there. Baby Girl is only 2 1/2 years old, but the newborn stage seems like a lifetime ago.

This pregnancy has definitely been different than my first two.

With R, I was sick the entire first trimester, like REALLY sick. The back pain started pretty early on and continued until the day she was born and it was almost unbearable because it wasn't a normal ache and pain. I had a rib out of place and even if I went to the chiropractor, less than an hour later it would be popped out again. Trying to fix it was futile and that meant that sitting for any amount of time could very well reduce me to tears... and I DON'T cry. And don't even get me started on the acid reflux! Then I never had a single contraction until the day R was born.

With Baby Girl.... well I've said it before and I'll say it again- that was my FAVORITE pregnancy : ) No sickness, no weight gain, no hormones, just a beautiful baby handed to me one day.

And then there is this little miracle baby... Thankfully I was only sick a couple of times the whole pregnancy and that had more to do with what I ate than anything else. At least that was something I could somewhat control. But nothing quite prepares you for the exhaustion that comes from pregnancy combined with taking care of two toddlers. When I was pregnant with R, I worked 40-hour weeks and then left work most days to my second job as a personal trainer and that was NOTHING compared to the exhaustion of being home with my two sweet little crazy toddlers and growing a baby at the same time! Night time never seems to come soon enough and naps are infinitely too short. The indigestion has been bad but tolerable, but that dang rib is out again and causing some serious pain! At least it waited an extra ten weeks or so this time around to start causing problems. And I have been having contractions for weeks! There have been multiple times now that I was certain she would be here any time.

I don't say any of this out of complaint because I know how blessed I am to have my three girls. I am just amazed at how different each experience has been.

These past few weeks have been quite a whirlwind. I knew once Thanksgiving hit, I would look up and it would be 2015 and I was right! My due date is February 4th and I'll be surprised if she holds on that long. The doctor said that she is measuring quite large, but I know measurements can be pretty skewed at this point, so I'm not going to stress about that just yet. But at 34 weeks she was supposedly measuring 5 1/2 pounds, and every appointment my doctor continues to ask me again if I want to schedule a C-section. Nope, no plans of that here. Of course who knows what God has planned. I'm just praying for a safe and easy delivery and healthy baby and mama whenever she arrives!

Now that Christmas is put away, I can focus on this upcoming little one. Every effort I had previously made to get the new nursery in order or to get all of Baby Girl's things into the room she now shares with her big sister had always been put on the back burner. Now I've really got to get things moving!

It has been nice to have Jeff home for the past week or so. With his previous job, he had very little time off, but this year he was able to take off quite a bit and still have a week leftover at the end of the year to be able to enjoy the holidays at home with me and the girls. We've been pretty spoiled! Most of those days were spent in our pjs watching Disney Junior, which is perfect for me since even one overly strenuous day can give me days of contractions to follow. That being said, I was not nearly as productive during his time at home as I would have liked. Oh well! I'm working to balance the never-ending checklists of things that need to be accomplished before little one arrives and simply enjoying our last few weeks as a family of four.

Any way you look at it, 2015 is going to be a great year, and it's going to start with a new addition to our growing family! We can't wait to meet her!