Hailey

Just some more randoms of my Hayhe. Seems like everyday she is growing, learning, saying hilarious things, challenging me more then I ever imagined, and loving HARD! She is amazing, and keeps me on my toes. She is defiantly not what I ever imagined (not sure what kind of kids I thought I would have?? Quiet, passive, calm kids like their Mother?? Ha who am I kidding........) but I wouldn't have it any other day. We butt heads all day every day but I hope some day she uses her passion for Jesus and others!

-Hailey LOVES to sing. It's hilarious and cute. She got a special gift from her Momma and even knows songs as soon as the music comes on! It's talent people, I know your jealous what can I say!
One of her favorites is "Where I Belong" by Building 429. This song is amazing and I'm such a nerd but I tear up every time I hear it and let the words sink in. Here is the chorus;

All I know is I'm not home yet
This is not where I belong
Take this world and give me Jesus
This is not where I belong

Hearing your little 3 year old sing it out seriously moves me. I know she doesn't completely understand the lyrics, how BIG our God is, but I know in a small way I am turning her heart to Jesus and planting seeds. It seriously makes me smile and cry at the same time! So sweet! Some of her other favorites are "God's Not Dead" by Newsboys, "Revolution Song" by Phillips, Craig, And Dean, anything by Natalie Grant and Britt Nicole,  and a bunch of others they play on Klove. Love it! Love her! 


Along those same lines, I am really trying my hardest to teach her about Jesus, God, Heaven, etc. We are trying to make her aware there is a Bigger power over all of us, and he is watching and knows our every move! There are soooo many questions during the day that I don't always have answers for. "Why do bugs do that??" "Why is the sun hot?" "Why is it raining?" Etc. It gets tiring, but I usually try to answer as best I can because I know this is her way of learning. Those times I don't have an answer and wonder why myself I usually just say "Because that is how God made it/did it, etc." It's the truth and it seems to please her! So now when she wonders something instead of asking she will just say "I guess that's how God made it" even when it's totally out there. "Why these socks are so scratchy? Guess that is how God made it!" hilarious! I usually correct her, but sometimes I just let her think that! It's so cute and innocent and I love how she loves God! 


She is full on day-time potty trained! I'm sure I've blogged this before but since she was a "late potty user" in my book I am still so proud and some days amazed she wears panties! We still go through a LOT (to many in my mind but I digress) of pull-ups but the last couple days she has stayed dry at nap AND bed time so that is huge!!! If she keeps it up I will start tracking how many days in a row she stays dry at both and attempt panties during sleep times. We'll see I'm not looking forward to all the wet bedding/clothes :/ But pull ups aren't cheap and we REALLY need to save $!


She says the sillest things. She is very advanced for her language in my mind but somethings she just can't figure out. 
She calls paper towels "paper wa" noooooooo idea where she got that one! She knows it's towels and can say it properly but still calls them paper wa. It's silly and I don't correct her I know someday she will say the right thing and then I will be sad! lol
One of my other favorite (but gets OLD quick) is "what you say?" It's usually that she isn't listening, or doesn't process what your saying, but instead of just saying what or what did you say she just spits out "what you say??" or sometimes you even get "what you say to me?" Most times when she says this I ask her what I said and she can repeat it word for word, frustrating but funny the way she says it.
Her other thing she always says is "Oh Honey". I guess I say this a lot?!?!? The one time that really stands out is I eat a little bit of cashews every night before bed for extra protein during b/fing. Hailey LOVES cashews but they are super $$$ so I cherish them and try not to let her have to many. She polished off my can of them and ate quiet a lot, I got upset and asked her if she ate all of Mommy's nuts. She looks at me dead serious and says "Oh Honey it's OK you can buy more at Target!" HA! Where does she get this stuff??!?! Sooo hard to stay serious in front of her sometimes!


Some other random great things she has said lately;

I was painting our toe nails one night and I had to take the old chipped polish off. When I was done cleaning them all off she looked at them, sighed and said "Oh Momma my toes is ceepy (creepy) them naked!" ha!

We were having an extremely hard discipline/attitude day and she was getting on my last nerve, while I was making dinner I asked her to be quiet and that I was going to go crazy!!! She looks in my eyes, grabs my arm and says "Oh Honey, it will be OK. Soon it will be bed time and then you will be OK cuz my will be asleep!"

I wanted to eat out for a special treat for my Birthday lunch, when I asked Hailey what we should have she thought it would be a great idea to eat Pizza! I asked her where on earth we should get pizza from she said "Old Donalds" (McDonalds" ha!


We recently took the videos from our video camera and burned them to a disk. Sitting and watching them makes my heart ache to go back in time! I do love the stage Hailey is in now and every one of them, but if I could only go back 2 summers when she was 15-18 months I would have enjoyed it more! Her cute little sign language, the way she walked, her bald head. Oh I miss it! It seriously makes me cry. Hormonal Momma? Maybe. Good thing I have Ellie to live through it again! I am soooo going to enjoy it more. It's my most favorite time of childhood!!! We are so blessed to have such gorgeous girls who are so fun and silly! The days are long but the years are short. I love that saying and it's SO true! 

 

 

The BIG 3-0

In a couple weeks I will be 30. This is exciting, shocking, crazy, and not-really-a-big-deal all at the same time to me. I'm not one to care about the number of how old you are, more how you act, feel, and whatnot. Most days from having 2 young kids, housework, and all the running around I do I feel like I'm 80. lol. But, my mind tells me I'm not a day over 23. Seriously, I'm married?!?! Have a house?!?!? Have not 1 but 2 kids?!?!?! WHAT?!?!?! I still shop in the juniors section of stores (when do I have to stop doing this?? When my girls can shop there?), act like I'm 23, yet I am a mother, am extremely responsible (always have been) and am older then I think. Such in life.

"They" (not sure who) say that the 1st year of life is when you learn and grow the most. I'm sure this is true. But I also think that between 20 and 30 is the most changes in ones life. You can legally drink, gamble, get married (depending on the state), get huge discounts on your insurance (woohoo!), and generally should just GROW UP! (of course most men don't realize this) I was thinking the other day and wanted to do bullet style all the things that have happened/changed since I was 20.

-At age 20 I was dating my gross abusive ex and working at a tanning salon and nannying part time

-At age 21 I started my teller job at the bank. Not the funnest best job ever, but I pretty made all my friends I have now, and met my Hubby so it was a good experience! I grew in my "career" the most at that company

-At 24 I  finally moved out of my parents house into my little apt with my bestie Megan! BEST time of my life living there!

-At 24 I also got fired for the first time in my life. One of the worst experiences of my life :(

-At 25 I got my first and only waitressing job. It lasted a whole 2 days. HA

-Met and fell in love with my Hubby when I was 22

- We started dating when I was 23

-Got engaged at 24

-Got married when I was 25

-Gave Birth to my first sweet amazing baby girl Hailey at 26

-Gave Birth to my second sweet amazing baby girl Ellie at 29

-Bought 3 cars between 20-30 (one completely on my own! I was so proud to only have my name on a car title!)

-Owned 3 houses (one technically wasn't mine, was only Hubby's but since I got married and lived there the state of Nebraska viewed it as half mine!)

-Held over 6 titles at well over 15 companies (/people some were nannying/babysitting jobs)

-Grew enormous amounts in my walk with God! This is by far one of the best things to have happened to me!

-Gained, lost, and re-kindled many many friendships. I am blessed to have amazing friends who have seen me through so much!

-lost and gained a LOT of weight. (most of it was pregnancy, but some is still "fluff" hehe)

Brain Dump

Weird random things like diarrhea of the mouth coming out of me. Don't have whole blog posts for each of them so here they are all are!

-Ellie is doing my most favorite baby thing; when you put your arms out/up/down to pick her up she reaches for you. Ohhh it melts a Momma's heart! Most Mom's probably don't think about it, but it's one of those weird little things that I LOVE! Makes me feel like she loves and wants me to hold her! (even when it's annoying and I can't!)

-this is TOTALLY weird and random but I never blogged it (I don't think?? Which probably means I have blogged it 7 times already) but this morning I was thinking about my Cousin who tried out for the Olympics, she "retired" 10 years ago and has 2 boys, I can't remember how old her oldest son is (8 maybe?) but her youngest was born on the same exact day as Hailey! I love that!!! Even though we have never met him (they live in Ohio :( BOOOO) they share a special bond and hope someday they can meet and play together!

-I HATE to be cold, but a million times more then that I HATE HATE HATE to be hot. The worst thing in the world to me is to be hot. When your cold you just add layers or a blanket, when your hot you can't shave your head (well boys can which is unfair) or run around naked with no skin.

-Probably equally as much as I hate to be hot I hate to be wet. (sweat much?? SICK!) So when 99% of women LOVE to have cold washcloths on their head during labor/pushing I CAN.NOT.STAND.IT!!!! Steve made sure w/ Hailey to keep the evil things away from me when I was pushing so they got me a fan instead. (it HAS to osculate though I hate direct cold air on me. Yuck!) But when I was in labor w/ Ellie the nurse got a super cold washcloth for my head and stuck it on there w/out anybody noticing. Of course I didn't scream at the sweet lady but I think I picked it up and pitched it on the floor, the nurse was shocked and confusing and Steve just looked at her and goes "oh NOOOO washcloth she hates to be wet" ha it was funny. Before Hailey was even born I told him this was one of my wishes in the delivery room; NO WASHCLOTH! So weird

-Hailey is cracking us up daily. She is still a pain diffacult but she is hilarious too! Some funnies recently;

When she is hot (cuz ya know it's been like 100 degrees since March this year!) she says "I'm soakin hot!"

She opened the fridge, took out her sippy of juice (with cell phone in hand of course) and SAT on the inside ledge of the fridge with the door open. Looked at me dead serious and said "Mom my need to drink ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL my juice so I pee lots and lots"
Me (trying to keep a straight face): "what happenes if you pee lots and lots?"
H: "My will gets lots of energy!"
lol I don't know where she gets this stuff

She was "playing" with Ellie, after retrieving a hunk of Hailey's hair out of Ellie's hand Hailey looks at E VERY serious and says "Ellie Marie, do NOT pull my hair God made it!"

She was looking through Steve's paperwork from the hospital, she told me she wanted to go work at the hospital when she gets bigger. I asked her what she thought she wanted to do at the hospital and she said "My will make everybody wears pecial socks!"about time she narrowed down a career, and such a lucrative career. Me and Steve will for SURE be able to retire off her early! (she is talking about the socks post-op patients wear with the grippers on the bottom she is OBSESSED with those dumb socks!)

Steve was wearing a Coke Cola shirt and Hailey asked what it said. He explained to her it was pop like cherry coke that he drinks, she got all excited and started singing some song about cherry coke and told us it was on her "blue dbd" (aka her christian song dvd's she LOVES). Turns out it was "Joshua fought the battle of "cherry coke" (Jerrico)

I guess you would really have to know Steve personally, but he is extreamly laid back, un-emotional, never riled kind of person. (which you know is polar opposite of me, which is why we work so well together!) Hailey is EXACTLY her Momma in her Daddy's look alike body, so she still doesn't understand why I get so passionate and excited about things, and he doesn't bat an eyelash. Well, for about a year now Poop has had MUCH control over our house, she almost always only goes during sleeping hours (I mean honestly who wakes up to poop???), so one day she went in the middle of the afternoon and this Momma was excited! I told her to go in to Daddy's room (he was web surfing) and tell him. She walks out of the room with her head hung, I asked her if she told Daddy she pooped in the potty and she says yes, followed by;             "Him just said oh good job. :proceeded to throw both hands in the air "touchdown" style:  not OH GREAT JOB!"                                                                                                                                              LOLOL I about fell over, clearly she doesn't know that is her Momma's reaction and NOT her Daddy's!

-Hailey FINALLY after over 3 years is completely binkie free!!! I talked her into giving her last 2 (which just happened to be pink and purple) to our neighbors baby who actually uses binkies (unlike her sister who has refused them since she was 2 mo old). It was so funny taking Baby Sam, a boy the pink and purple binkies. But she was SOOO excited to share them which made me such a proud Momma! She only held them in each hand, almost never put them in her mouth, but it's been about a month and she sleeps like a pro without them!! She asked and looked for them about 3 times after getting rid of them, and we just remember her that Baby Sam was using them and she would just grin! Super sweet!

-We were also able to take the "knock lock" off her door. (the child proof door handle so she couldn't turn her handle and come into our bedroom 293802938 times a night) It happened about 3 days after getting rid of the binkies and I was quite nervous but again she has done great and stayed in her room! Lots of big girl changes in the Sessions house hold!

 

-Hubby lost his job. AGAIN. He was downsized in Jan of 2010 when Hailey was 9 mo. After 3 mo he found a really great job that he LOVES with amazing co-workers and is really good friends with his boss. Well, in May they called about 13 of them in an office and told them they are going to place their jobs at the bank headquarters in Tempe, AZ and not in Omaha anymore. For a few scary hours we thought we were going to have to go to Tempe and I was NOT happy, but God answered me and my Mom's prayers ;) and instead he is out of a job Aug 3rd. I know it is Morbid to pray for your hubby to lose his job instead of being transfered, and honestly if I felt that was God's plan I would have packed and moved without blinking an eye to support my Husband. But, leaving our families, friends, church, the only city I have ever lived in, PLUS try to sell our house was far to overwhelming to me. So God in a way answered a prayer! Obviously I wish he still had employment but God will provide and I'm not that worried about it. He has had a couple interviews, and has a very important one this week! Praying everything falls into place, and this is the job GOD wants him to have not US! I told Steve it's good we are not having anymore babies cuz I am tired of giving birth and then him losing his job. HA!

 -We had mold on about 20 ft of concrete wall back in March. It was HORRIBLE. Thank GOD for my Mother who scrubbed the walls with bleach for about 5 hours to get rid of it and make it safe for my Babies. We got it cleared up, but it was touch and go for a couple days. Not to mention stressful. Oh yeah plus when we found it, the company that built our house (that we just built and moved into 3 years ago) declared bankruptcy. Great timing right?? But, like I said we got it cleaned up and figured out for the most part. Need to call our 2/10 warranty  company and see what they can do for us. Good thing we had left it un-finshed!   

-At the beginning of June Hubby came home from work with what he called a bad stomach ache. (TMI SORRY) We just thought he was "stopped" up and that it would clear the next day. It just got worse. By Wednesday he wasn't feeling better and not able to go back to work so he made a Dr. apt. The Dr was afraid it was either his appendix, or something wrong with his large intestine. So he went to the hospital and got an emergency CT scan. (which I about DIED when we got the bill and it was $4,400 :O Holy cow!) They found his appendix to be enlarged and infected and he needed emergency surgery to remove it before it reputed. Did I mention that I have a nursing 5 mo old who refuses bottles, and this happened the day before me and 3 neighbors were holding a huge garage sale together?? Yeah great timing. OH and Steve's parents are out of town on a mission trip with his Mom's work. So I told him to call his brother and see if he could go be at the hospital with him. Luckily he did (I sooo owe his brother), because I was not going to take my 5 mo old up to the hospital and wait for hours. Nobody would have wanted that. Insert major wife guilt for not being there for my hubby. But I made him reassure me 293812 times to stay home with the girls because they needed me more and he had Scott. I know I would have wanted him to do the same thing, but still. Luckily the surgery went totally smooth, God has his hand all over the whole situation. And he got discharged the next day, so I was able to go pick him up and bring him home! After a week and a half he was even back at work! 

-So yeah major moldy basement, job loss, emergency surgery, I think God is testing us!!! Hopefully we are passing with flying colors and he will lay off us for awhile! I am waiting for a flood, fire, car to break, something but I think we are done with crazy stuff! They say bad things happen in 3's right?? 

-If you don't want to count the basement as the 3rd thing, they you could say my other disappointment was finding out our BFF's (Steve's cousin, wife, and their 2 baby girls) can't come visit for a week in August. TOTALLY understand, they both have to work and DUH we are in the same boat. You have to do what you have to do to survive and keep a roof over your head and food on the table, but I am still pouting and going to miss them so much! Hopefully we can make our trip to Michigan next year and see them then!

 -Hailey's bed/nap time routine is quite expansive. She has to turn on her fan, I turn on her ceiling fan, she turns on her night light, and I turn on a sound machine. She goes potty in her little potty that sits in her room, and then she crawls in her bed. I cover her up with her special Dora blanket (her bedspread in the winter. My gosh are my girls are HOT sleepers like their Daddy!) and sing Jesus Loves Me, Rock-A-Bye Baby (which MUST be sung with HER name, i.e. "and down will come Hayhee cradle and all". If I am being naughty I change it back to the real words and say baby or I'll say Ellie or another silly name but she makes you RE sing it to her name so honestly in order for me to hightail it out there I just sing her name to make her happy), and twinkle twinkle. We do this for every nap and every bed time. I sing those songs twice a day. 14 times a week. That is a LOT of singing!!! But that girls loves her a routine so we have to do it the SAME every.single.time

 

OK enough randoms! :) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interview with Hailey

1. What is your name? Hayhee

2. How old are you? Big (shows 3 fingers)

3. What is your mom’s name? Becky (first time she's ever gotten that right!)

4. What does your mom do during the day? Clean up

5. What is your dad’s name? Steven

6. What does your dad do during the day? Go to work (talk to people at work)

7. What is your favorite color? Purple

8. What is your favorite thing to eat? (what don’t you like to eat?) Facebook (what the??? she thinks she is hilarious and is laughing soooo hard) Fruit snacks/ What is yucky to eat?- Juice??? (she loves juice) Ellie's Baby
food

 9. Who are your friends? Eleena, Kael, Baby Sam, Cara, Abby and Zo

10. What is your favorite song?  Can you sing it for me? (something unintelligible) We'll have to work on that one....

11. What is your sister’s name? Ellie Marie (sounds like LLLLe)

12. What is your favorite place to go? Walmart

13. What is your favorite thing to do? Play in the pool and play with water balloons

14. What do you like about your Mommy? (Daddy, sister, etc.) Mommy- Play purple house with me (Little people) Daddy- Blocks Ellie- like her to smile

15. What do you want to be when you grow up?Sell cars (I had to give her multiple choice and for some reason I threw that one in there, don't ask)

16. What is your favorite book? Reading books (she has to many to pick one honestly)

17. What does (sister/brother) like to do? play

6 months of Ellie Belly Jelly

Ellie-

I'm sorry I haven't been a good Momma to document your fun little life, you and your sister keep me WAYYYY to busy! (Daddy does too!) You are such a fun girl and you make me smile and laugh everyday just like your sister. You are so silly and so full of personality, I can't imagine when your walking and talking and getting into trouble with your big sister. Oh my! You found your lungs EARLY at like 3 1/2 months and haven't stopped talking/screaming since. It's a fun sound, not mad or sad but it's still very LOUD! Heaven help me when I have to listen to you AND your sister talk my ear off all day!! Your Aunt Nat and Grandma (Ama) say that you girls are God's punishment for me being a kid! I sure hope you girls will be better as teenagers then I was! Ha.

You are a silly girl and love to laugh and smile. You have LOTS of crying time, but not as much as your sister. You have a "Zest" for life I say, you get super excited about everything! Food, people, toys, attention, it's hilarious! You stick your arms straight out at your side and stop breathing. I can't explain it, but it's the funniest thing we have ever seen! You do it hundreds of times a day but it NEVER gets old. It kind of sounds like your under water and can't breathe so we always say your drowning. lol. Our other favorite thing you do is when your laying on your belly on the floor you get excited and stick your arms out to the side off the ground, then you stick your legs straight up and out too, so just your little body is still on the ground. It's hilarious! We die laughing. You are just excited!!!!

You weighed 17 lbs 1.1 oz at the Dr on Friday. My BIGGGG girl! You are 2 lbs heavier then your petite sister was at this age. But, you are 25" long, the same exact height Hailey was! You are currently in the 70% for height and 75% for weight. Your sissy is in 30% for both. I warn her that she needs to be NICE to you because soon enough you will be mobile and wayyyy bigger then her and you will sit on her! lol
Sorry if I always compare you girls, it's just fun to Momma to see how different/same you 2 are. But I love you both as individuals and hope you both are always strong and independent! That is one main thing I hope to pass on to you!

You have not slept through the night. Since. You. Were. Born. This is VERY sad for Momma. I am NOT used to this. At 8 weeks Hailey started sleeping 11-13 hours a night. Whose Baby are you Elle?? But unlike your sister you are a GREAT napper. Our day usually goes like this;

Awake between 8:30-9:30am
Eat and play then morning nap between 11am-11:30am
I only let you sleep for 30-45 minutes (depending on how much I need to get done!) so you will nap at 2 with your sister!
Eat lunch, you just started getting soilds at lunch this weekend. You LURVEEEE food. Your zest for life defiantly includes food. Your silly!
Nap from 2pm-4pm
Up and play until dinner time at 6pm
3rd and last nap of the day at 6:30 you sleep again for 30-45 min.
Up at 7:15 or so and we play and usually go outside. You have been Ms. Grumpy pants starting every night at 8pm. This is a HARD time for Momma :( You cry and cry no matter what I do. So we either go outside and play/go for a walk, or we leave the house. You love the car and running errands like your sister. But Momma is out of places to go and $ to spend so I have to get creative! I might start bath every night at that time for you. That is what we did for Hailey!
You nurse for about 45 minutes starting at 9:30pm when Hailey goes to bed. Your amazing NEW routine is to go to sleep about 10:15-10:30pm and sleep until 4 or 5am. PLEASE Keep this up Ellie. Your record is 10:30-6am and I would love for you to go longer!!! You nurse when you wake up at 4/5am and then go back down until 8:30-9:30! YAY for schedules! I know as soon as we get a good routine/schedule you will change and that is OK. I just like things to be predictable and routine as much as possible. Not just for you but for me and especially Hailey also!

You are sitting up so well! I think you love life a little more now that you can sit up and play with your toys. You still fall down a lot but almost never cry, you just keep going! I can't wait for the next stages, crawling, walking, talking. I don't want you to grow up, but I think it's so hard for you to be trapped in that body that can't do all those fun things and you will be so much happier like Hailey was when your mobile! And honestly girl you are HEAVY and hard to carry everywhere, I am going to change out your car seat to a big girl one cuz I can't carry you in that stupid thing. So I am ready for you to crawl and walk and get around yourself so Momma doesn't have to kill myself carrying you everywhere anymore!

You are a HOT HOT HOT girl like your Daddy and big sis. At naps you sleep in nothing but a onesie or tshirt, and at night/long nap you sleep in a onesie and swaddled. No blankets for you! Poor Baby, it's gonna be a hot summer!!!

You are still an excellent nurser. I quit nursing Hailey and exclusively pumping by this time so I am so so so proud of us for continuing! Based on your size I am guessing you get plenty and Momma is giving you what you need! This makes me sooo happy since I feel like I starved Hailey and my supply was horrible. The funny thing is you only eat for 3-4 minutes at a time during the day (but MUCHHHHH longer at night/bed time). You are efficient and Mom and her friends joke that I have 1/2 and 1/2 or cream for milk!

You will not however take a bottle. I have sooooooooooooo much milk pumped and frozen for you and you have refused a bottle/sippy for about 4 months now. It makes it hard for me to get away. I pretty much have you and your sister attached to me 24/7. Momma needs a break! So maybe stop this bottle strike so I can get out for a little bit to keep myself sane OK???

I never ever let your sister cry, especially for sleep. But I'm happy and sorry to say you do my Dear! I just pop you in your crib and you used to cry for about 5-8 minutes, and then fall right to sleep. Now you know when I turn on your fans and sound machine and lay you in your crib it's time to sleep! You just lay your head right down on the mattress. It melts my heart, your so precious!

You LOVE your sister. You think she is the most amazing hilarious thing in the world. You watch her and laugh harder at her then anything else in the world. However she isn't the best with you and this breaks Momma's heart. I know she is trying to be sweet and not vicious, but she does NOT know how to be gentle and what not to do with you. Pulling you across the house by your arms is NOT OK. We are working hard on it, she has gotten LOTS of discipline over this issue. Slowly ever so slowly she is getting better. I know she LOVES you and just wants to "help" and play with you, she just has to learn how to! You 2 are funny together though and I can't WAIT to see you become best friends. That is why we had you Ellie dear, so you 2 could be best friends and always have each other and be close!

You have a lot of nick-names. (your Momma is a dork and gives everybody nick names!) We call you Jelly, Belly, Ellie Belly, Ellie Marie, Elle, Fatty (sorry but it is out of love!), Chunky, Chunk, Chunky Monkey, Jelly Fish (you LOVE water like your sister!), Sissy, my personal favorite Ju-Ju-B (nooooooo idea where it came from) and any other weird-o nick name I think of at the time :) You'll get used to me and my weird things I do.....no matter what we call you just know we LOVE you and we show our love in weird ways ;)

We love you SO MUCH and our hearts are full from you! You complete our little family and I don't know what I would do without you. I hope you grow up to be sweet, loving, have a passion for Jesus, and a heart for others. Please know Momma loves you so much, I would die for you my sweet girl and I am ALWAYS here for you!!! <3

Indianapolis

Top things about going to Indy to visit family;

1) Getting to hug my Grandma after WAYYYYY to long

2) Getting to see Cousins and meeting their kids! Such sweeties, wish I could have taken them all home!

3) Not sleeping AT ALL in a room with one 3 year old in a pack n play who had to poop all night, and one 4 mo old who wants to eat all night. I digress...........

4) Having my Grandma, Aunt, Uncle, and 2 cousins (plus their spouses) say that my children are sweet and well behaved. Honestly I am NOT trying to toot my own horn, cuz Lord KNOWS I am failing at this Mom stuff, have no idea what I am doing and spend most of the day screaming and spanking when I should be calm and patient :/ But hearing my Grandma say how sweet, lovely, kind, and well behaved Hailey is about made me cry. She wasn't even on her best behavior when we were there! She doesn't do well traveling and we had our fair share of fits and crying. But I know deep down she is a sweet hearted girl and we are trying our best! So to hear from the person whose opinion I hold higher then most REALLY made my year!

5) Losing part of my hip bones due to being squished in the backseat between 2 carseats. All in the name of keeping the crying children quiet

6) Playing at the most amazing park ever! So wish we had one like it in Omaha!

7) Grandma laughing so hard she was crying over the fact that she and Grandpa owned 22 cars in less then 18 years!

8) Surviving 20+ hours in the car with the girls! (poor Mom had to drive almost all of it!)

9) Ellie belly laughing harder then I have heard before at Uncle Dave of course. Everybody loves Uncle Dave he is hilarious!!! It was seriously precious, I soooo wish I had a video camera

10) Grandma being spit fire (some would say Grumpy) over certain things, most especially foods! Chemo reeked havoc on her poor taste buds and she was so opinionated over foods! It was hilarious to me and Mom as she was always so passive and go with the flow before, but in her older age she sure lets you have it! She argued about apples, cantaloupe, and a couple others. It was hilarious to me and I love that Grandma is outspoken and has an opinion. I've never seen this side of her! (neither have her children!)

4 generations of Girls!

Jelly actually NOT crying in the car!

Me and my favorite 3 year old! (one of my favorite pictures ever of the 2 of us!)

My girls with their Great Aunt Marilyn

I will ALWAYS treasure this picture!! Hailey LOVES Ama Dee and asks to go back to her house daily!

Put your hook on kids.......

Here are some random things about Hailey. I am not good at writing down funny/cute things she says/does so I try to post them every couple of months. So here is what has been going on in her world lately at 2 years 2 months (almost 3?!?!? :( She is getting so big so fast!)

So since Ellie has come on the scene (and wants to nurse 24/7) we have the tv on more often then we ever did.
She has since found a love of America's Funniest Home Videos. She LOVES this show and asks to watch it several times a day. We stream huluplus on our tv and they only have 2 seasons (out of 22. ARGH!) and I've already seen every episode like 45 times! AHHH! It's hilarious to watch her watch it though, and luckily I LOVE the show. Funniest part; her favorite part is when the announcer guy says TOM BERGERON. FREAKIN HILARIOUS. We have to get her saying it on video, her voice gets all low and she says it all dramatic. Hours of entertainment.

In addition to AFV (which is what she calls it; AFB) she will watch snippets of Wipeout, Dora the Explorer, and a christian song DVD, and youtube videos. The song DVD is thee single most annoying dvd I've ever seen. It's one of those things that you watch as a kid and LOVE it and think it's awesome and then you watch it as a grown up and think OMG that is horrible why did I love it so much?!? LOL. I can't wait to show it to her when she is older and see if she thinks it's as ghetto as I do! The kids are doing horrible lip syncing and it's songs I don't know and they get stuck in my head for days! But it keeps her occupied for like an hour and it's teaching her about Jesus so whatever!
She also LURVS her some kiddy youtube videos. She will sit on the desktop computer and just watch cartoon videos with songs for a long time!
We sound like horrible parents and that all we do is sit our kid in front of the tv/computer but honestly it's maybe an hour a day!


Some amazing Hailey-izms-

Special Treat-Pechal peet

Any hood on a jacket/sweatshirt-Hook

Ellie's swaddle blankets-Foddle blanket

Sweatshirt-Fetchshirt

I/Me-my. I know almost every kid does this but it's hilarious, and when she uses the proper terms I am going to be sad. Everything is "my do it" "my sad" It's super cute and one of her funny quirks


If nothing else my child is SUPER polite. She is always saying thank you and sorry for EVERYTHING wither it's appropriate or not. A couple weeks ago I re-arranged the living room and for days she would say "Tant you Momma for moving the couch and the table and the tv" LOL. Such a sweet girl!

Some random stories of silly things she has said the last couple of weeks:

We were at Aunt Nat and Uncle Binan's (Brian) last weekend and Nat had a big bag of balloons and they were picking some out and Nat would blow them up. One was a weird long crinkle balloon and Nat was attempting to blow it up, she blew it up so much it exploded and popped VERY loudly. Hailey jumped and got very scared. We assured her it was OK and she picked a different balloon and asked Nat to blow it up. As Nat started Hailey sat on the side of a big arm chair in the corner away from Nat (obviously scared the balloon was going to pop and scare her again) and said "I'll be over here" it was hilarious and soooo grown up!

Poor sweet girl, her jeans (they have hearts stitched on the back pockets and she is O B S E S S E D w/ her "heart jeans") kept falling down causing her to resemble a plumber. I knew they had those sincher things inside and figured I needed to make them smaller due to her wearing panties and not a diaper anymore. Long story short they needed fixing so I went in the kitchen and put them on the counter to figure it out. I had started dinner and had everything laid out, and chicken marinading on the counter. Hailey looked at me her eyes wide open afraid of what I was doing to her beloved heart jeans says :
"Momma you not cut my heart jeans?"
"No Baby, Mommy is fixing your jeans"
"Momma you no put my heart jeans in da dinner?"
lol I lost it. Where does she come up with this stuff??




We ate Taco Bell one day for lunch and Hailey ate 1/2 a bean burrito. (Bless her, she loves junk food just like her Momma. Poor Girl) Later that night she had horrible stinky gas and I told Steve it was from her burrito. She looked at us super seriously and said "my had beado for lunch now my stinky toot" LOL we both died! A couple days later when Natalie asked her what was stinky from her burrito and she goes " My BUTT" LOL It was awesome!


We go to my amazing MOPS group at church every other Friday. Last Friday when we went I picked her up and she had on different pants then the ones I sent her in. I was super sad and figured she peed herself. (we wore panties!) The teacher said no and that she had water dumped on her pants. I didn't ask a lot and was confused but just changed her pants and we went home and dried them. When I asked her what happened at home she told me "this one boy was tryin to get my goldfish and he spilt my water on me!" I asked her if the teacher did anything and she told me she wiped it up. I asked her what she did when he spilled the water and she told me;
"did you tell the teacher he spilled your water?"
"no"
"did you cry?"
"no"
"did you just sit there?"
"Yeah!"
Hahahaha


My little baldie who from about 3 months until the age of 2 looked like a cancer patient finally had enough hair to get her first official hair cut!! She was rockin a pretty bad mullet and she doesn't let me pull it up with a cute bow anymore so off to my friend Jenny's we went! It was so nice to go to a friends house (she has a salon in her basement!) instead of a big scary salon with people staring at my shy girl. It looks sooo cute and I kept her hair in a little baggy and put it in her baby book! A milestone more for this Momma then anything ;)

My Girl LOVES her some puzzles. She has quite a few and although some of them are far above her level she has them all memorized and can do them in a few seconds! It amazes us how smart she is, but honestly we shouldn't be she is always amazing us with her smarts ;) And with the 291093821039 questions she asks a day she better be a rocket scientist! HA!


Another HUGE milestone was that after sleeping on her crib turned big girl bed since August of 2011, we took the crib out of her room for baby sister and put the twin bed in Hailey's room! We got some adorable bedding from Wally world and she has done amazing! She loves it, we still have some trouble going to bed (she has all the sudden gone through a period of being scared of night night and screaming in her room for hours on end) but it has gotten MUCH better! PTL this Momma needs her girls to SLEEP!

When I told Hailey that our amazing friends/cousins are coming to visit again this summer from Michigan I asked her what we should do while they are here;
"ummm share our toys?" (such a sweet girl. It's a good thought but I'd be shocked if she really did.......we're learning.........)
"Yeah that's a great idea! What else?"
"ummm......go to carters!"
LOL sweet girl knows her Momma's heart and our favorite store!



So I'm not sure if I blogged it or not but I was told by a couple people that Hailey was totally ready to potty train when she was 21 months old. (first problem, never listen to others when it comes to your children, trust your gut and let your kids direct you. Momma's know better then anybody else in the world!) It was an epic fail. We tried for 5 days, she was peeing in the potty some, and staying dry at nap but once we left the house she peed all over herself. It was horrible. So I gave up and put her back in diapers. Over the next year I tried a couple more times, if we put her on the potty she cried like I was cutting off her limbs. It was horrible. And then there is the issue with poop..........she was scared to death to do it. Even in her diaper.
So of course when Ellie was like 4 weeks Hailey changed her OWN diaper like 4 times in an hour. (yes my child could change her own diaper. Um ready to potty train much?) But I had to get her over her fear of the potty. When we had gone to Ellie's 2 wk apt I talked to the pedi about it and she said to just strip her down and put the potty in the living room, she would learn quickly that going pee on the floor and herself wasn't cool and she would use the potty. The first 3 times she went (after holding it for over 4 hours!) I had to physically force her on the potty and hold her on there while she screamed and cried, she finally got over it and was happy to go! And once Daddy told her she could wear her Dora panties diapers were a thing of the past! I am so proud of her. She only had 2 accidents the whole time we potty trained! And both time she was wearing pants, and honestly I think she just forgot she didn't have a diaper on. We went about 2 weeks of just wearing panties at home and no pants. It took another 2 weeks until we could go in public w/out a pull up. I am SO SO SO proud of her! Buying pull ups still sucks but it's WAY cheaper with only 1 kid in diapers full time! :) And as of this past Friday she FINALLY pooped in the potty! Once again I took Ellie to our AMAZING pedi whom I LOVE and want to live with us and she said since Hailey would only poop while sleeping to put the potty in her room and tell her to get up and use it, wouldn't you know once I gave her the control she did it! It's been 4 poops in the potty and hopefully no going back! I am so happy, I honestly thought I would send my child to college pooping in her pull up while she slept and crying hysterically every time it happened! LOL

Photo shoot

So my bestie and neighbor Eve took these AMAZING pictures 6 days after Ellie was born. I LOVE all of them but here are just a couple! :) I haven't been as good about taking pictures of Ellie as I was Hailey (for obvious reasons) but in my defense Hay never got a newborn photo session so hopefully they are even ;)

Birthmas-take 2

So I don't know where I left off and I am too lazy to go back and read and see. But I pushed the baby girl out, they put her on my chest and I remember crying and being in horrible pain. I looked over at Steve and he was a crying mess. It was funny. He was more emotional about the girls birth's then I was! Judge me and say what you want but I am not one of those Mom's who immediately bonds with their baby and gushes over how gorgeous and in love w/ them they are. I am in a horrible immense amount of pain and I'm not really in a good mood. Maybe if I had an epidural or pain meds and was drugged and didn't feel as much as I did it would be different. Give me an hour and I am freaking over how gorgeous they are and kissing them and telling them how much I love them. But I'm just not emotional and do not react at all how I think I would. I'm just in pain and crabby. lol. It's weird.
Anywho after she came out I looked at Megan and Lydia and told them her name was ELLIE MARIE. I just LOVE her name and it was so hard to keep it secret for so long! OK so I told 2 people, my neighbor/close friend and my bff in Pittsburgh who I like never get to talk to. lol. But I knew neither of them would tell anybody and I was right :) I was excited to see how big she was, we all guessed her weighted while I was holding her up. I said 7 lbs 4 oz, Lydia said 7/11 and I don't remember if nurse Deb, Steve or Megan chimed in but I think they did. I think Steve said 6 something. So nurse Jen (Ellie's baby nurse, who did all her testing she was AMAZING and I soooo wanted her to be our night nurse when Deb left but alas was not) brought in the scale and they put her on it, Steve was holding my hand (as I was in DYING Pain from all the after birth crap torture they do to you) and was blocking my view when they put her on. Everybody gasped and freaked out and Lydia yelled at them to reset the scale because it SURELY wasn't right. I was so confused, and Lydia looked at me wide eyed and said it said she was 8# 5oz, EXCUSE ME? So they reset it and put her on but this time it said 8 POUNDS 6 OUNCES. That is exactly 2 pounds more then her sister! Holy cow! And I felt every pound of her! Ha. I was seriously in shock she was that big!

**Side note, Kate who said at my apt a couple weeks before that she was sure this baby was 8 lbs by looking at me then felt my belly and said she was wrong and she was only about 7 lbs was on call the next day and came in my room to check on me. We ended up talking for over an hour and she told me she totally lied about how big she thought the baby was. She said she thought I was going to have an anxiety attack if I knew the baby was that big. Hilarious! I love her to death she is so sweet and amazing. We laughed for a long time after that, and Lydia discharged me on Tue and I told her the story and we laughed so hard.

So everything after her birth is kind of a blur. I called Jess in Chicago, Steve called his parents in Michigan, and my parents, Nat and Hailey came up to the hospital about 2 hours after Ellie was born. Big sister was seriously overwhelmed and had a hard time. She didn't want anything to do with me but did love Ellie and held her a couple times. It was pretty sweet. I felt so bad though and wished I was "normal" and able to do more with her. Steve took her home soon after and it was just me, Meg and Ellie. Steve called me a little bit later and Hailey was freaking out screaming and crying in the car. I talked to her and calmed her down but I cried pretty hard after we hung up. It was HARD, my first night ever away from her and she was not doing well. She ended up being OK and doing great for Daddy. The 2 of them spent the next 2 days home alone together and did great. She took naps and went to bed like a champ. It was great and made me feel better.
So Ms Ellie went to the nursery to get her bath while I took one, and get all checked out. She wasn't holding her body temp very well so she was under the warmer for a little while and they wanted to watch her. FINALLY at like 10:15pm we got all settled into our post pardom room and I nursed her and chatted w/ Meg. Meg left and I tried to sleep but couldn't. We had an awful nurse Alana who was crass and grumpy and made the night not so fun. Oh well. The next day was great, the only people that visited were Mom, Nat, and Meg. It was stressful though b/c Ellie still wasn't holding her body temp and they were worried she was getting jaundace. It's a long complicated story but Kate told me the reason they were freaking out about her body temp was b/c I had strep B and it could have passed to Ellie. She was holding steady at like 96 degrees and they wanted her above 97. I of course freaked out, especially when Kate told me they would have to put her in the nicu for 7-10 days to start antibiotics if she didn't get it up soon. Oh my! Luckily later that night it shot up to 98 and held there the rest of the time. Little stinker already worrying her Momma! Ha.
Of course she ended up jaundice like her sister and had this Momma freaked out nursing as much as I could! It subsided but not until she was about 3 weeks. Her pedi wasn't too worried though and I just prayed about it lots and wasn't as hyper about it as I was with Hailey :)

Luckily everything else was great! B/c of how jaundice she was she didn't wake up much the first 2 weeks of her little life. I struggled to wake her to eat every 3 hours. It was scary! I tried everything! But the 3rd week she really "WOKE UP" so to speak, I think just life in general! She decided she hated life! She wanted to eat every hour on the hour and this Momma was tired and stressed! I think we settled now, she is super duper impatient if she is hungry and wants to eat NOW. If you make her wait 2 seconds to change her diaper she lets you know about it! :) Reminds me of a couple other people I live with in this house.........lol. She also fights sleep like her sister did but not half as bad. She is a little high maintenance but I can lay her down awake and she will fall asleep. I don't know what to do w/ that! It's glorious! We have had some long days and nights but she is a joy more then anything. God answered my prayers with this baby!

So my girl is now a month old (started this and didn't quite get to finish it. Such is my life now!) and while I LOVE my girls more then anything and they are SUCH blessings they also are a LOT of work! I broke down last night b/c Ellie had a horrible night and cried from 4:30pm-9pm. Plus Hailey finally decided she hated sitting in wet diapers and wanted to change her own diaper 4 times in an hour the other day. Not to say she wants to use the potty, but she is now forced to do so b/c this Momma can NOT afford that many diapers. So yeah we're potty training on top of having a wailing newborn, and a very demanding toddler. Oy vey! But this is life and I love it and wouldn't change it. As hard as the days are (one of my most favorite things to say is; "The days may be long but the years are short." And boy do I know that is true!) I know it's a season and soon I will want another newborn (not happening) and will miss the baby days! But I am excited for Ellie to be like 10 months, crawling, blabbing, getting into things, smiling and interacting w/ all of us. THAT age for sure I will miss and cry over! Some other random things I want to note before I post lots of pics of my gorgeous girls! (I will never ever get tired of saying "my girls!" ;)

*you totally forget how gross, yellow, and staining baby poop is
*you also forget how you change a diaper, only for them to poop in it 3 seconds later! I think one day I went through 4 diapers in a 2 minute time period. Seriously
*you ALSO forget how they shoot poop everywhere. Thank GOD for these handy changing pad things from Huggies. <3 them
*Night feedings SUCK. I can barely keep my eyes open. Soooooo hard for this Momma
*Ms Thang on the other hand thinks night feedings are great and loves to be cute and awake causing Momma to just sit and stare at her and talk to her. I'm trying to take it all in since this is the last baby an all.......
*nobody told me Hailey would be into every.single.baby.thing.in.this.house. She has destroyed Ellie's closet/changing table/carseat like 394820498 times. VERY frustrating for me.
*Hailey thinks it's her job to put all the straps on everything of Ellie's together. So when I go to put E in the swing/bouncy seat/car seat I have to first dangle E while I un-do the straps. I was warned about this but it still makes me mad and we're working on it.........
*why oh why do babies need you the most at 5:30pm when your trying to get dinner ready?? Sooo annoying!

Now on with the pictures...........

My not-so-little Christmas Blessing!!

Sister's meeting for the first time

With amazing Aunt Megan!!

Birthmas-UNO

So I've been MIA, obviously my little sweet miracle is here. I need to blog her birth story and the days before/after it will be long and boring but I want to remember every minute of everything. We'll see how long this takes me to get it all down and how many parts I break it up to. Anywho.........
MAJOR MAJOR TMI. Even worse then Hailey's birth story!!! Sorry in advance.........this is really only for me and my memory!!

So I'll start with one of the biggest parts of the story that has nothing to do with me and my pregnant self.
On Tuesday the 20th I got a frantic phone call from my Mom. That in itself is a big deal since she is always level headed and it takes a lot to get her riled up. She was saying that my brother was not feeling well the last couple weeks and went on to tell me all his weird symptoms and what was going on. I was confused and had no idea what was going on until she told me he hadn't had pop/caffeine in over 2 weeks. I thought he was just detoxing from the evil drug that is caffeine. It can do weird things to your body. The only thing that threw me off was he had a huge hard brick in his stomach. Seriously?? It was creepy. They came over to play w/ Hailey for a little bit and hang out and he was totally NOT himself and looked horrible. Long story short, the next day I got a call from my Mom and she ended up taking Andy to the DR and they ordered an ultrasound for him later that day. We were all super worried. It could have been a tumor, hernia, infection, or number of other things. I was a mess and prayed and prayed. Basically I could handle ANYTHING but a tumor. I finally got a call from my sister later that night and it turns out not only did he have a hernia but the "brick" in his stomach was a infected mass the size of a grapefruit. NOT good. He ended up going in for an emergency cat scan after the ultrasound to confirm the findings. They decided not to do anything that night and send him for outpatient surgery the next day with a specialist at a different hospital. Since he doesn't currently have a job OR health insurance this was supposed to be the better/cheaper way to go about it.
So Thursday they go to a consult with the surgeon and he says they are doing the surgery that night at 5:30 and admit him. Of course the surgery gets pushed way back and he doesn't end up going in until like 8pm. Long story short before the surgery a tech came in, and said he isn't sure how Andy is alive, much less walking and talking and no fever. He said with the mass of infection that size he should be VERY VERY sick. Crazy.
So they had to make a 10" incision, push his hernia back in, and remove the grapefruit size infected mass. They have no idea where the infection came from or how it started. They think it was there for a few weeks, and if he had left it untreated much longer it could have been VERY very bad. The surgeon who has done 1000's of these surgery's was totally perplexed. He had never seen anything like it. I guess Brother is a medical mystery!!! Weirdness runs in the family what can I say.......
So after all that drama he was admitted to the hospital and told he will NOT be leaving for awhile to make sure he stays safe from infection and heals properly. So Christmas in the hospital was NOT in the plans :( I was quite upset but knew we were lucky he didn't have tumor/cancer and it wasn't a big deal we would celebrate later. So Friday night I was finally able to go up to the hospital to see him. I was feeling great and visited for a couple hours and then went home to put Hay to bed.
Andy was stuck in the hospital until Monday when he got discharged. It was insane, my poor parents running all over the place. He is going to have a lovely hefty hospital/Dr bill but it will all get taken care of, and I am amazed by how much God's hand and protection was over the whole situation. Crazy! He is doing better now, not 100% but getting there!

So all that to say it didn't DIRECTLY effect me, my family yes. It was stressful and horrible. But we survived. It is all tangled into my birth story though. And something I will always remember and want to remember details one day!

So now onto my little princess..........starts at my 38 week apt. I saw yet another new midwife (there are 6 in the practice, 5 of which could deliver you. I eventually saw all 6 by the time I delivered but was kinda psycho about meeting them all first before delivery) Kate. While talking to her she told me based on my belly size she guessed the baby to be over 8 lbs. I freaked out. I was like no way I am not pushing out a 10 lb kid! She then felt the baby and said she changed her mind and thought it was more like low 7's. We laughed about it. My last couple of apts were depressing, nobody was very positive I would deliver before my due date and they even set up induction apts for Jan 13th. It was a blow and I was super upset every apt I left. I would call poor Steve crying.
So my 39 week apt (Friday the 23rd) I saw yet another new midwife Anita. I decided to have her check me and see if I was making any progress, and I decided to go out on a limb and ask to have my membranes swept. I was under the assumption that they wouldn't do that until I had gone past my due date. Well, I was WRONG! Thank GOD for Anita. She checked me and I was only at like a 1. She "stretched" me to a 3 and swept. OMG worst pain ever!! I was crying. I finally told her to stop. She made me bleed and said that was a good sign! When I left she asked if I was cramping and I said no and she said oh darn! Ha. She said she hoped I did soon as that would be a good sign it worked and the baby was coming soon! Boy did those cramps start. About 45 minutes after I left my apt I was having horrible period type cramps for about 3 hours.
Thank GOD Nat & Brian were off work, they were able to come stay w/ Hay during my apt since Mom was at the hospital w/ Andy. Like I said I went to the hospital that night and was feeling good, just tired from not sleeping the last couple nights and being huge and uncomfortable.

Saturday morning (Christmas Eve the 24th) I woke up feeling pretty good. Didn't sleep much that night but what else was new. Me and Hailey took a shower and I talked to my neighbor Eve about going to Target together to grab a couple things. I tried to eat some cereal for breakfast and it made me totally nauseous and I felt like I was about to puke everywhere. All the sudden I started having these HORRIBLE cramps super duper low in my pelvis. It was killer. I laid in bed on my side and they would not subside. Now mind you I don't really know what REAL contractions feel like since with Hailey I had pitocin and my body never really contracted on it own. So I had no idea what was going on, I just knew I was in horrible pain. Then I started shaking like mad. I remember that was exactly how I felt right before I had to push Hailey out. Shaking and nauseous. So I freaked. I called Eve and she said to go to the hospital. I still wasn't sure so I did what every girl does; called my Mommy. lol. She said that was exactly how she felt when I was born. Not really real contractions, shaking, and sick and I was born in an hour and half. So I freaked. I called the nurses line, it's SUPER annoying. You get a receptionist who asks you 3904832084 stupid questions. Then she sends your info off to a nurse who is on call at the hospital, they call you back and ask you the SAME 39402834 questions the other lady just asked. Really?? THEN if they deem it important enough they have one of the midwives call you back. So over an hour later Lydia finally calls me back. She was hesitant to have me come in, I don't think she thought I was in labor. Until I mentioned I was shaking uncontrollably. That is a major sign of needing to push so she told me to come in. So I called Nat and she came back over AGAIN. I felt so bad using my family when Andy was in the hospital and every one was all over the place and stressed out. But Steve's parents were in Michigan for Christmas. The only other good thing was that Megan made it from Denver so she met us up at the Hospital after we got there. I got admitted and of course by this time was feeling much better. Long story short Lydia (who was one of my FAVORITES I met at one of my earlier apts) checked me and I hadn't changed at all from my Friday apt. Seriously?? So she made me walk (NO stopping) for over an hour and drink loads of water. I did stairs like a mad woman and didn't stop moving except to get more water. And nothing. No more shaking, or cramps or anything. So after an hour of walking and stairs she checked me and no change. So I got sent home. :( I honestly never thought I would be THAT lady in labor who gets sent home. But since I was pretty much induced with Hailey and my body never got to do anything naturally on it's own I had no idea what real labor was or felt like. So it was kinda like my first pregnancy in my defense. lol.
So we hurried home and Meg went back to her Dad's. Hay was up from her nap and totally confused. We ended up going over to Nat's and then going to the hospital to eat dinner and kinda celebrate my Dad's birthday. I told him I tried to get the Baby out for his birthday but she wasn't having it ;) So we eat dinner and I start feeling like crap. Like I honestly thought I was getting the flu. Shaking and cold, my face was super bright red and I felt hot, I was super weak and nauseous again. It was horrible. Luckily for me Andy was sitting up in a chair eating his hospital food so I just laid in the hospital bed. lol. I felt bad using the bed but I couldn't sit or do anything and be comfortable. It was so bad. I've never felt so sick in my life. We opened a couple presents and I took Hailey home at like 8. I came home and had a migraine and still felt horrible. I put Hailey down for bed like 30 minutes early in hopes that I could go to bed and get some rest to feel better. Of course this is the night the child poops and wakes up 3 times crying and won't go to bed. She FINALLY is asleep and quiet and I am able to fall asleep at 10pm. So much for going to bed early. So I slept pretty good and hard until 11:30pm when I woke up with a small gush of water and soaking wet panties. I freaked out and knew my water was leaking. I didn't get any on the bed so I knew it wasn't a full on break, just a leak like it had been with Hailey. I also knew and had thought about it since I found out I was pregnant that if this happened again I wasn't going to rush off to the hospital right away like I did w/ Hailey, I wanted to stay home and start labor on my own. (I had been told by 2 different midwives in the office that they had time limits to get the baby out after your water broke. That worried me and I did NOT want a c-section or pitocin) So I went and changed my pants and woke Steve. He of course said to try to sleep more and see what happened. So off I went to bed with new panties and a pad on. Not even 2 minutes later those are soaked. I ended up going commando and using a towel between my legs. From 11:30pm-6:50am I went through 4 towels I was leaking so much. It was horrible. At about 2:30am the horrible low cramps started again. I tried to time them but it was kinda a joke. I would go 10 minutes w/out one, then have some 2 minutes apart. It was crazy. So at like 2:45 I woke Steve up again and told him I was contracting and hurting pretty bad and thought I should call and see what Lydia thought (lucky for me she was on call Christmas Day too!). He told me to wait until the morning and see what was going on then. FINE! lol. I wasn't to happy, as his little butt went back to sleep. Ha. So I called Megan. I didn't want to call my Mom and wake her up, not knowing if she was home or at the hospital and knowing she needed sleep! Meg said the same thing as Steve and to just wait until the morning. Didn't these people know I was in pain?!??! Ha. So I laid there and tried my hardest to sleep. I think I drifted in and out until like 6am at which time I couldn't wait any longer and finally caved and called the STUPID nurses line at 6:50am. I considered calling L&D and just asking for Lydia or a nurse but I decided to be proper and tell the stupid lady the answers to her 3940823948 questions that I already answered the day before. Sure enough I answered all her stupid questions only to have to wait for a stupid nurse to call me back and ask the SAME 39408234908 questions. (can you tell I hate this policy?? lol) Only this time I got a call right away back from the nurse, imagine that Christmas Day at 7am there isn't a wait. lol. So I talked to the nurse and luckily she had a brain and just put me on hold and called Lydia, she came back on the line and told me I was having a baby today and to go to the hospital! I was so excited. So I quick called Meg and told her to come over and follow us there. I woke Steve up and we made a plan for my Mom to come stay w/ Hay. Luckily she was at the hospital w/ Andy already so she was awake and dressed and like 10 minutes away. Of course then my husband decided to eat a lovely breakfast, AND take a shower. Don't even get me started. lol. Even my Mom was yelling at him to hurry up! It was funny. And I was of course doing dishes and cleaning my house. Isn't that what every woman in labor does?? So we finally got to the hospital at like 8:45am and got all checked in. So after we got settled in the room Lydia came back in and checked me and I was at a 4. I thought for sure after all the fluid I had lost and how many cramps/contractions I had I would be further along. But nope not my luck.

**Also I have to add when I went in on Christmas Eve my heart rate was like 121. Normal resting heart rate is like in the high 80's low 90's. So it was high but they weren't TOO worried. Every time she took it (4 or 5 times) it was in the 120's. I think the highest it got on the 24th was 127. On Christmas Day when they took it the first time it was like 130. Our AMAZING nurse Deb was super excited, she used to be an icu nurse and wanted to track me and put some weird probes on me and took it again. It came back even higher then the first time. Lydia came in laughing and said I was crazy and they ordered an EKG! Wow how exciting! Megan of course was totally fascinated and thought this was exciting too! Ha. Of course again since it was Christmas nobody was in the hospital so the guy was there in like 3 minutes. He hooked up different/more probes and took the test, I watched his screen and although I had no idea what I was looking at I think it topped out at 112. Why it dropped I have no idea. So funny. Again I am a medical mystery!! lol. Skipping ahead, after labor I took a bath and got dressed and sat down and the new nurse Donna took my blood pressure/heart rate and it came back at a whopping 150! LOL. It was quite exciting. I had like 6 or 7 nurses (I lost count) and they all knew I was the crazy heart rate girl and they didn't question it just went w/ it. It was funny. Such a weird thing! Mom and Dad told me Andy's was super high in the hospital every time they took it too. We must be way to anxious weird people who knows!

So after Lydia checked me and I got my EKG I got an IV. YUCK. It killed and I hated it the whole time it was in. Every time I moved my left arm it KILLED. Literally. I won't say it was as bad as the contractions but it was super duper uncomfortable and I think I would have felt a lot better had it not been in. But I digress, stupid strep B. So I got my antibiotics and went walking!! All 3 of us went to the cafeteria to get something for Meg and Steve to eat. I could have eaten but wasn't hungry at that point. So they ate and we hung out and talked and then Steve went back to the room and me and Meg did some more walking! We walked for like over an hour or 2? I forget. But we walked until it was time for my antibiotic was ready to come out. Thank heavens I didn't have iv fluids or have to be hooked to a pole this time! Soooo freeing and wonderful. So here is where things become fuzzy. I know contractions picked up a little. Oh when we were walking Meg's brother called and asked if she could come home for Christmas lunch. We told her to go ahead, it was going to be awhile since I was only at a 4-5 and if things picked up or changed we would call her and tell her to rush. So she left to go home and shower and see her family for a couple hours. Meanwhile we ordered room service and I had some chicken nuggets, fries and fruit. Oh how glorious to eat during labor and not be starving and have a dry mouth!!! So after we ate we just laid in the quiet. I couldn't sleep but just wanted to rest before things became more intense. After not sleeping at all the last 2 nights I was exhausted and I knew once the baby was here I wouldn't sleep through the night for a very long time! Oh how I wanted sleep but it wouldn't come, I was to anxious and excited to meet my princess!!
So after we rested for about 45 minutes Lydia came in again to check me. I was at a 6 and she asked if I wanted to fully break my water. I said yes.
*Must insert every time she checked me she would sweep more of my membranes. OMG the horror of that. It was horrible and painful and I would cry every time. She would always be doing it and I would have a contraction also. It was awful and sooooooo painful. I think I broke Steve's hand. He had to take his wedding ring off because I was squeezing his hand so hard. Bless him.

So Steve called Meg and told her to come sooner then later because they thought after they broke my water I would go pretty fast. This was at about 2pm. So right after she broke my water the contractions were HORRIBLE. Oh my they were soo intense, like the worst period cramps times 1000. They were less then 2 minutes apart and from start to finish they were lasting 90 seconds. So I really had about a minute to rest in between. We tried to walk the halls some more but it was far too painful. So I ended up getting in the tub. God bless nurse Deb she made is scorching hot just like I like it! They had jets so it did feel good for a little bit. But the contractions were so bad and hard nothing would help at that point.
Not long after I got out of the tub Meg came back. They got me dressed and in the rocking chair. Meg rubbed my head and back and told great stories.

**So I must tell her story she told. I told her when I found out I was prego I wanted her in the room knowing she would calm me down and make me laugh. I was in the worst part of the contractions and in transition so she asked me if I needed some comic relief. Lydia was sitting with us and trying to make me feel better and keep me calm during the contractions which was AHAMAZING. So I told Meg YES I needed something to distract me from the pain. She told me that a couple weeks ago when she and her b/f Andrew moved into their house together they went grocery shopping and did a big shopping trip together. He bought a bottle of shampoo and she yelled at him and asked why he needed ANOTHER bottle when he already had 5 in the shower. He mumbled something about needing it to wash his fruit. She was like "huh" and thought she heard him wrong. So they get home and he starts washing his GRAPES with the shampoo!! Meg freaks out and was like "what are you doing???" I guess his Mom washes fruit with shampoo so he does it too! LOL. It was hilarious me and Lydia are DYING. To funny. I told Meg to buy her own fruit and I need to email her a recipe I found online to make your own fruit wash ;) **

So the time between 2pm and about 4:30pm is one big painful blur. I was in the rocking chair for a LONG time and it was horrible. I think I got checked again at some point and was 8. So they told me to get in the tub and that it would help. I didn't really want to, it's a lot of work to get in and out and dry off and all that but they promised me I would feel better and it would take the edge off. So I did and again Meg and Lydia sat in the bathroom with me. I kept freaking out during the contractions. They were SOOO horrible, way worse then I remember them being with Hailey. The pain in my tailbone was the worst. I will never forget the pain. I was dying and in horrible pain and kept telling Lydia I couldn't do it anymore. I just wanted to be done and go to sleep and not be in pain anymore. I don't care what people tell you, when your in the middle of that kind of pain NOTHING anybody says will make it better. Not even thinking about your baby coming and being there soon. You just want to be done. N O W. It is horrible. I even joked at one point that I wanted drugs. Megan knowing I was NOT going to use anything got huge eyes and said "yes yes give her something!" totally serious. Lydia refused and I was joking and wouldn't have taken anything even if they offered. But trust me I do know and understand why people get an epidural. If I wasn't so against them and heard so many horror stories I would have been all over not feeling that pain.
When I was in the tub and dying Lydia told me if I felt like my body needed to push to do it and see how it felt. I did a couple times but it didn't feel natural and I just wanted relief. So I got out of the tub and dressed again and in the bed. They put the squatting bar on the bed like I asked and they told me to just lean on it and see how I felt and let my body push when I needed to. I think it was about 4:15pm or so by this time. So I just hung out until I had a contraction and then put my arm pits over the bar, and squatted on the bed putting all my weight on my feet. It was WAY different but felt good. It was weird, it was like my body just wanted to have a HUGE poop. Sorry for lack of a better phrase, but that is exactly what it was. It was such a great feeling to just let my body do it when it needed to and for how long it needed to! Nobody counting and making me do things that it didn't feel the need to do! So so so amazing. Again this is why I switched to a midwife instead of an OB sitting there texting on his phone the whole time!
I kept using the squatting bar for awhile, until I was so sore and couldn't use it anymore. Then I was in a weird sitting position on the bed, not laying but not really sitting. It's hard to explain. Nurse Deb had 1 leg and Meg had the other helping me. I was pushing with all my might and it was taking MUCH to long and to many pushes in my opinion. I wanted this baby out NOW! Steve asked if I wanted to tell Meg her name, if that would help but I didn't until she was out and on me. Then I would tell. How mean of me right? Ha. It was the one thing I had control of!
Finally after an hour and a half of pushing I started doing it effectively and her head was crowning. Holy moly. They call it the ring of fire for a reason. Honestly as her head started coming out I just wanted somebody to shove her back up in me and leave her there. I kept thinking that, just push her back in this is too horrible I am going to die! It sounds so weird, Hailey's birth was soooo traumatic and horrible, I think I blocked all the pain from my memory and only remember how horrible everything else was. I guess I couldn't handle remembering everything! This time though, it was amazing and wonderful but the most horrible painful thing I have ever done. Ha. It's such an oximoron but it's the truth. I couldn't have done it w/out Nurse Deb and Lydia, they were AMAZING and made it wonderful but it still sucked and I will never do it again. LOL. Sorry it's hard to explain! Too many emotions I guess.
So all that to say, her head finally came out and I was pretty sure I was never ever going to be able to go to the bathroom again. LOL. The things you think of as your baby is coming out of you, but honestly that is what I thought. It was soooo sharp and severe. I tried with all my might to listen to Deb and Lydia and stopped pushing when they said and only gave little pushes when they said. It was hard as heck but I knew they knew what they were doing/saying and I had to trust them. It was all worth it though, I didn't need stitches this time! Praise Jesus! Such an answer to prayer!!

OK so this is longer then a Harry Potter book I'm pretty sure. I'll leave off here, finish up later, tell her name and stats and post some pictures :)