50/50

Being in my 19th week today means I am half way through my pregnancy! Normally at 20 you would count that as half way but knowing I will be delivering at 38 or 39 weeks means I'm half way there now! I am feeling pretty good for the most part. I haven't gained much weight, but my belly is getting big for sure!! I'm under tons of stress with my stupid medical insurance. But I'm hoping to get through that and stop stressing about it. I'm really trying to be thankful that I have insurance, but at this point I would rather not so I could go get on some state insurance that wouldn't cost me nearly as much! That out of the way everything is going pretty smoothly now!
I went back to the OBGYN I had when I was pregnant with Alana and that was the best move for me! I remember how much I like him!
My patience with kids these last few weeks is horrible. Alana is one of the best kids ever and I am still not being as patient with her as I'd like to be. I teach 2 and 3 year olds at church on Sunday's and my patience has for sure left the building there. Having 8 toddlers to deal with even if just for an hour isn't as fun as it was! Soon enough I'll take a break from that as well. I have to remember I'm pregnant and just get irritated pretty easily and try to keep myself in check!
Maternity clothes suck at this point. I try to pick up a few things here and there when I see a good deal, but I really hate spending money on clothes I'll only wear for a few months!! Having to get dressed for work everyday sucks these days and will only get worse before it gets better. But trying to deal with it for now!

My good news this week?!? Hubby had a good job offer so he'll be going back to work! YAY!
Ultrasound on Thursday to find out the sex of the baby! Some think I'm crazy, but I thought I'd do something fun this time with it! We are going to have the doctor write down on a paper, boy or girl and then seal it in an envelope so we don't know. I'm going to take that envelope to the bakery by our house and they are going to bake Victor a Birthday cake for our dinner Friday night. The inside of the cake will either be pink or blue! But none of us will know until we cut into it! We are having our families and some friends over to celebrate with us! It's part Victor's birthday/new job celebration/gender reveal party, all in one! Pictures coming soon!

Team Boy, wear your blue, team girl, wear your pink!

Cravings

I used to not be a big sweets person until I became pregnant with Alana. That's when it all went downhill. I used to be able to bake my heart out and not touch anything I would bake! With Alana I craved Ice Cream and my cake cookies all the time!

This pregnancy has been ok, but lately in the last month I've been craving so many different things it's weird. Last night for a 9pm snack I took out some thin mints that I have tucked away and put some peanut butter on them and they were just the perfect snack for me!

Strawberry Milk is number one on my list until today when I really wanted some Red Vines. But I wanted the soft ones, and the gas station by work only had a package of them and they were not soft. Some how they worked for breakfast anyway! (of course I did have some grits after my red vines). Talk about being pregnant...

I am still trying to eat healthy and some what normal, but when I get a craving that's all I can think about until I have it! Strawberries seem to be on the top of my list. I must be having a really sweet baby!

Another weird one for me has been McDonalds french fries! I want them often, although I only limit myself to once every few weeks. Never in my life have I been a big fan of McDonalds in general but lately their fries have made me happy :)

2012 Concerts

I love going to concerts and so far this year we've had a good line up of concerts!

In May we saw Coldplay which was the best show EVER!!

August is a big month of concerts including: Sublime with Rome

Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw

And we even snuck in an Aerosmith concert... which was pretty disappointing might I add. Steven Tyler is getting old and needed to take lots of breaks apparently. The cool thing about it was that Johnny Depp came out and played a song or two with them which was really awesome to see!

Next month: Boyz II Men, Babyface AND En Vouge ALL IN ONE concert! So amazing!! I can't wait! I've never seen Boyz II Men and I just want to hear my favorites live!!! Happy Summer Concerts!!

Flashback Friday

This picture was 3 days after my baby girl was born. After reading my friend Sarah's blog and her birth story it made me think so much about the day Alana was born and how crazy and unreal it was. Sarah wrote such an amazing story about her 2nd daughter's birth, it made me even that much more excited for our baby #2. But for now I will just re-read about Alana and love how awesome and crazy that experience was and how awesome she is and continues to be. It helps me with the little patience I have with her right now.

17 weeks

Today I am 17 weeks pregnant! We've entered a big ol ugly turnip stage.

Once I hit 14 weeks my sickness went away, yes, just like it was supposed to. CRAZY how that works!! Don't get me wrong, I'm still tired and am out of breath walking up stairs but having the sickness go away has been amazing! The day I did dishes and laundry on the same day and felt fine afterwards was a big milestone for me! Man I am so lucky to have Victor home right now, as stressful as it is, it's been just as amazing. Having the house clean and not having to do dishes for almost 3 months while I felt so horrible was a Godsend! Thank you hubby for carrying me through my first 3 months of craziness!

The day before I hit 16 weeks I was sitting at my desk talking to a co-working and all of a sudden I felt something in my stomach! I had to stop talking and just wait for it. It was just as amazing as the first time I felt Alana! I forget how cool it feels to feel a baby inside of you! Weird, crazy but amazing!! Since then I've felt the baby a few more times. I have to love this and enjoy it while it's so small and tiny. I do remember how it feels to have a stomach FULL of kicking me in the ribs! That will be here before I know it!

Emotions have been crazy lately. Stress has been the same craziness. This pregnancy is 100% different than it was with Alana so I'm trying to not kill anyone, run anyone over, or be too mean to anyone because I'm pregnant. Trying to keep it all in check! Putting all of my emotions and stress into God's hands and all will be just fine! In just a few short weeks I'll be half way through my pregnancy! YAY!!

Beauty in my garden

If you recall a few years ago when we moved into our house, I was so excited about the beautiful Plumeria flowers that grow in our yard. They have always been my favorite flower! I had no idea what to do with them and honestly Alana and I only pick them to put one in our hair every now and then. They bloom so beautiful every year and I had yet to do a thing with them! A few weeks ago one of the girls from church let her daughter pick a bunch and she said she was going to make a lei. She never did, but it made me think maybe I could make one?

I came home one day and remembered it was my walking buddy's birthday, who is my neighbor. Alana and I decided that we were going to pick her some roses from our front yard and bring them over to her. Little did I know that when I got home the gardener would have trimmed them ALL OFF. We were bummed. Then Alana reminded me of the flowers in the back yard. My neighbor Sharon always says how much she loves our plumeria's so I decided it was the day I was going to make a lei! Alana helped me pick all of the flowers from the 3 different kinds and I took some thread and a sewing needle and stung them together! I was amazed at how EASY it was and it smelled amazing!! We took it over to Sharon and she loved it! She wore it all night and it stayed together, despite the tiny sewing thread it was strung with! I was so proud of my little beauties!!

That Saturday we were celebrating Donovan's birthday. A boy from Hawaii would really appreciate a Lei so I made one for him! He wore it that day at the beach and it was so beautiful and the smell of them are just unreal! They start to bloom in mid-June and go for a few months, come by and get some and make something fun, I have 5 trees and not nearly enough time on my hands to use them all!

Fun Friday afternoon!

Last Friday morning I'm working away at my desk and I get a call on my cell that I didn't recognize. I pick it up and it's the Director at the Preschool Alana goes to. After I realize who it is he tries saying something and it's hard to understand what he's saying. So I say, I'm sorry I can't understand you. He says, I'm sorry, I'm really nervous to tell you this. At that point, I'm thinking my daughter's dead or something crazy has happened and tell him that he better get to the point. Already I've picked up my purse and am heading out to my car. He finally spits out that Alana slammed her finger in the gate at school and he thinks I need to take her to the hospital. WHAT?!?! So as I run out the door to my car, I call Victor and tell him to meet me at the school. Again, he can't even understand me, I was in a panic. I had no idea how bad it was, but we've never taken Alana to the ER before so this was going to be a new experience for us!

I flew down to the school and got there faster than Victor (who is closer). Grabbed Alana, hugged her, put her in the car and drove to St. Joe's. The whole time she is screaming how badly her finger hurts. I was trying to hold back my tears but reached back and grabbed her other hand to hold and told her it was ok. The finger was bandaged up from the school so I couldn't even see how bad it was. I of course imagined her finger was hanging off or something.

We finally got to the hospital and Victor meet us there. The ER wasn't busy so they were able to take us back pretty fast. Knowing from the last 40 minutes that Alana wasn't going to let anyone near her finger, the staff decided to put her in what I call their straight jacket. It was no joke. It held her down from neck to toe with one arm out so they could look at it. She was laying on the table in the ER screaming her head off about being in it. I don't blame her. Screaming at Victor and I, please help me, mommy help me, I can't breathe. I knew she was ok but she sure didn't. I started balling my eyes out as I was trying to comfort her, I had to let Victor take over while I sat down. I was going to pass out and Victor knew it. I sat in the room and cried, it was horrible!!! Finally when they were done giving her a shot to numb it they let her out of it and we were able to calm her down. She was as happy as a clam at that point, she wasn't in pain anymore and she was out of that horrible straight jacket. She sat and watched Cartoons.


15 minutes later it was time for an Xray which was easy. Her finger nail had been ripped off and her fingertip was broken. Poor girl. Then they had to stitch up and bandage her finger. Here we go again, back into the straight jacket. I had to leave the room this time and walk as far down the hall as I could with the door closed I could still hear her screams. It was torture for her and for us. They stitched her finger up and then for some crazy reason stitched her finger nail back on, which still makes no sense to me. After all of the screaming, crying and begging to get out of that thing, it was finally done. We both (Alana and I) stopped crying and tried to pull ourselves together. My poor baby girl was so scared and in so much pain and there was nothing I could do to help, even though the doctor's were helping her, she couldn't see that.

Alana's finger one day later.


The next few days of changing her bandage were HELL! She wouldn't let us near it so not having a straight jacket at home, Victor and I pretty much had to flip coins to see who would hold her down and who would clean it and change it. Talk about added stress for all 3 of us. She didn't like us holding her down, but wouldn't let us touch it. We didn't like holding her down but we HAD to change it.
One day after it happened we were supposed to go to the beach for Ellie and Donovan's birthday. Icky beach water, sand and a brand new open wound was not sounding so great for us. But we managed to put a rubber glove on her hand and tape it up so no water would get in. She did a great job of keeping it at her chest the whole day and it stayed dry and clean. She was a total trooper! If I were here I would have crawled up in my moms lap and cried all day, but she went out and played in the sand with the girls and had a really fun day! We all needed the break.


Sunday and Monday were tough changing of the bandage days and then by Tuesday she just handed me her hand and let me change it. The only tears that were cried that day were my happy ones! Finally the stress of holding her down was lifted. Talk about dramatic... for her and for Victor and I. She told me, mom, I don't want you to hold me down... I told her I didn't want to hold her down either. I didn't like doing it. She agreed it was just easier for her to give me her hand!
She gets her stitches out on Friday and her finger is healing really well. No infection, her bruises are going away pretty fast. Thank God her little body heals really fast! I'm so happy that in 4 years this is the first trip to the ER. I'm sure her fingernail will grow back just fine and hopefully her poor little broken finger will heal straight and fast! One day at a time!!

Just Sayin...

For so many reason these last couple weeks, but even just in the year we've been going to North Orange Christian Church. It's full of really great people and I'm so happy to have gotten the chance to get close to some of them! They are very supportive in so many ways!