A little harder the second time around

Whew!!! Did you hear that huge sigh of relief from wherever you are reading this? I wouldn't be surprised if you did, because I let out an enormous sigh every day I wake up without a blood clot. I am over 30 weeks pregnant now which is 2 weeks past when I got the clot with Bennett. Every day leading up to my 28 week mark, I was so nervous, and I continue to be every day this pregnancy progresses because I do not want to go back to when I had that clot ever again.

However, despite how terrible everything was for the last 2 months of my first pregnancy, I am starting to realize how good I had it. The obvious downside was that I could have potentially died, but who likes to think about that anymore? I did have to be in a wheelchair for a considerable amount of time and I was in a whole lot of pain. But let's focus on the positives, shall we? I got to lay on a couch 24/7, I had the most wonderful circle of friends who signed up for meals around the clock, I never had to do anything but rest and focus on the baby. Pretty sweet despite the circumstances.

Flash forward to this pregnancy. I have been on 2 shots of blood thinner every day since I was 6 weeks pregnant. I really try not to complain too much, but those suckers hurt!. Plus I have had them for so long now that both of my sides are just black and blue and carrying Bennett on my hips is slightly nightmarish. I don't really get to lay on the couch anymore. I am constantly cooking, changing diapers, running after a one year old, and climbing two flights of stairs multiple times a day.

Last night I told Rob that I didn't remember pregnancy being this hard with Bennett. He casually reminded me that I was waited on hand and foot for 2 months and didn't have anyone to take care of. Good point.

But despite everything, I am so thankful to be healthy and now that we are hitting the homestretch I am just ready to hold my baby boy and walk up a flight of stairs holding Bennett without feeling like I am going to pass out.

Stop it, you guys....

... you're killing me. No seriously, stop it.

Happy "Easter"

Here are some pictures from "Easter." Finally. It may have taken us nearly 2 weeks to recreate our Easter Sunday, but it was worth it. And how did my Mom get in these pics? Wasn't she in Montgomery on Easter Sunday? Weird, huh? I will now go and enjoy all of your blogs and lovely pictures without any hint of jealousy.

She talks and climbs....

....CONSTANTLY!!! Now, I love the talking. What did I expect? But the funniest thing is that she makes every word have two syllables. A "cup" is a "CUP-PUH" and sock is "SSSS-OCKAH" It sounds like she is calling strangers, "sucker." It kind of makes me laugh, but I should probably teach her a few more manners. She will blow on her food now and say, "S'hot" which means, "It's hot." And she doesn't say the word, "no," but "yes" is "YESSSS-AH!" And she still tells Meg to "GO BED" every time she sees her. Between Bennett and her tail, my little Meg has become quite the traumatized dog.

However, this climbing thing has me searching for the nearest gym to see if they will take a 13 month old. Isn't that when they send their daughters off to be trained in China? She climbs out of high chairs, out of car seats, out of her pack and play, and is trying to climb out of her crib. Eating out with her is a nightmare because she can get out of every safety restraint belt known to man. And then she will spend the entire meal standing up full on in her high chair waving to every customer. I think one day some savvy owner is going to hire her to be the restaurant greeter. They would make a fortune.

Oh, and on a final note, can we say drama? Again, what did I expect? I mean her being my daughter and all, but she does not want you to touch her, look at her, or get in her face when she is riding in the van. She will push you away and say, "uh-uh." And today when Rob left for work she started bawling and then threw herself in a heap on the floor face down and cried, "Da Da Da Da."

Does anyone else think that her baby brother is in for quite a ride? I think our whole family is. But what a fun ride it will be.

Vet Schmet

I knew Meg's diagnosis was wrong. I just knew it. I mean a too long toe nail? Come on. This is a dog that will run head first into a wall and shake it off. She is impervious to pain. But, what do you do? They are the vets and I am the lowly dog owner.

But after we got home, Meg just wasn't herself. And I knew it would take a lot more than a fractured toe to keep this girl down. Rob was at a planning retreat all day and my parents are in town visiting so the three of us kept watching Meg. Then it hit me. She couldn't lift her tail. At all. I knelt down beside her and every time I worked with her tail, she began to cry.

So, thanks to the oracle otherwise known as google, I have diagnosed Meg as having "cold" or "limp" tail. It can be brought on by an unusual amount of exercise or strain and it is usually found in labs. Well, we did take Meg to a dog park on Friday night and she played and frolicked for a good 35 minutes. And I mean she played hard! Then we came home and Rob bathed her in cold water which can add to the irritation.

So, anyway, diagnosis done. This morning she still can't lift her tail and is in pain, but she can slightly swing it from side to side. After a few days rest she should be back to normal.

I knew it would take a lot more than a long nail to keep my Meg down. And you can all send me a few dollars for this diagnosis. Especially if you have labs. I have just saved you all a future vet visit.

Update

If you read the post below, you can all breathe a sigh of relief (Thanks, Amanda!) Meg is not about to face life threatening surgery. Her diagnosis: we are the world's worst dog owners. Seriously. We hadn't clipped her nails in a very long time and one of her claws (and I am using that term literally)got snagged on something outside causing a nasty break in the nail and a fracture on one of her toes.

Only me and Rob. Rob is embarrassed. I am thrilled. Our vet bill was only $10.78. Now to be fair, Meg does have an appointment to be groomed next week. She was 4 days away from having her nails trimmed. And yes, I did notice that they were way too long. I have just caused much blood shed over the years trimming them myself and decided awhile ago to never inflict that kind of pain on my poor dog again. However, I think that pain that I have now caused her may be slightly worse.

And on a happy note, Bennett got the Easter basket off of her head and no, I still don't have any pictures of her and the aforementioned basket. I have been too busy ignoring my dog's medical needs.

Almost as bad as your child hurting....

If you are not a dog lover, you won't understand this post. Our sweet golden lab, Meg, is in bad shape. We are waiting for the vet to open to see if she is okay. She woke us up early this morning crying in pain which she has never done. She can't walk and will only curl up in my lap and shake as I pet her. I finally got her in her dog bed and she is shaking and will yelp and cry if she moves.

The irony is that I finally saw, "Marley and Me" on Friday night. After crying for 10 minutes straight, I was comforted by letting Meg sleep on our bed. I would give anything if she could hop up on our bed right now.

On a lighter note, Bennett is playing with her Easter Basket in her pack and play right now. As I am writing this, she is crying because the basket is stuck on her head. Let me go now and fix the one problem that I am able to fix.

We'll keep you posted...

Why I am not reading any of your blogs this week.....

...Because based on the titles of your blogs, you are all posting great Easter pictures of your families. I have not looked, but I just know that there are pictures of beautiful children, gorgeous outfits, smiling parents, and perhaps an egg hunt or two. Call me jealous, because well, I am. We did not hunt for any eggs because of the rain and since Rob had to work all Sunday morning our only option of going to church as a family was the sunrise service.

So, we got Bennett up at the crack of dawn, went to church, went out for breakfast and planned to take family pictures when we got home and before Rob had to head back out. I envisioned Bennett laughing at her Easter basket, playing with eggs, and posing happily as a family. However, when we got home, Bennett was done and needed a N-A-P!!! So, this was the only shot we got all morning.


We tried. So then Rob went back to the church for the rest of the day, Bennett slept, and I had a fabulous quiet time in my pajamas. We plan to "recreate" Easter and when we do and get the coveted pictures, I will then enjoy all of your Easter blogs.

Economic Crisis

Everyone is being forced to cut back this year. At our house this means less eating out, fewer trips to Paris, we had to let our gardener go, and we were forced to downsize the number of bedrooms we had. Don't worry. All of the humans kept their sleeping arrangements, but the dogs had to sacrifice. Hey, they are part of this family too and they know that money is just a little tighter this year. When the market rebounds and our house in Alabama sells, then maybe they can each have their own bed again. But until then......

Too Fast

You know how when babies are first born, you notice every milestone? "Look, she's following with her eyes!" I guess it's because they don't do much for the first 4 or 5 months. It's easy to notice when they smile or roll over when that's about all that's going on.

It's almost scary now how much she changes every day. It's happening so fast that I don't have time to write it down. It seems like every day there is a new word, a new action, a new something to marvel at. When did she start climbing up on the couch on her own, when did she start saying chicken, when did she start saying "nana" when I asked her what she wanted for breakfast, how does she know exactly what to go get when I ask her to get something? It's all these little things that you don't notice until one day you are watching her and you think, "Where did my baby go?"

I guess that I should be thrilled. The more independent she is, the easier it will be when the baby gets here. And being her Mom is so much fun now, but I still think that it is just all going by a little too fast.

Bennett's big screen debut

My husband and I met filming videos for our church. In the course of our 8 years there, I think we filmed about 50 videos together. Bennett made her theatrical debut at our church when she was 12 days old. Rob and I were in a video at our new church when we had only been there for 6 weeks. So, it was only a matter of time before Bennett got in on the action. This was a video Rob did to promote our upcoming series. She got thunderous applause at every service. I am so proud of them both.

To my Kansas friends....

After a rather enlightening afternoon with the Moms in my "Building Better Moms" group, I thought I should clear up a few things. I love you all, I am so glad that I am getting to know you, but ladies, you are oh so wrong.

First of all, this is a soda, not a pop. And really, if you want to get technical, it's coke. If you ask someone what they would like to drink and they say, "Coke," you then ask, "Which kind? We have Sprite, Diet Coke, Mountain Dew, etc.." But you can say soda and people will know what you mean. But it is not pop!


Next, this is the smocked dress I have told you all so much about. I know you don't understand why we insist in making our daughters wear these until they are 5, but we do. Hey, at least I wasn't planning on dressing my son in these. Some boys in the south wear these as well. I do have some limits.


We do not all have double names. But you're right, a lot of us do. In fact, the quarterback of our beloved Crimson Tide was indeed a double namer.


And finally, I have never ever ever in my whole life called a toboggan a stocking cap. I am glad you all told me this because I would have looked like a fool next winter. And I am going to give you guys the edge on this one, because really, we didn't need these in Alabama. We only wore them when we pretended like it was cold or when we went on ski trips out west.


I will say though that I think the name stocking cap is funny. It reminds me of my grandmother who used to curl up her hair with bobby pins after washing it and then put a pair of panty hose on top of her head for the night to hold the curls in place. At least she didn't have a double name.

Fun with Utensils

Pregnancy Brain?

So, I'm talking on the phone to my Dad today. We are having a nice conversation and I hear Bennett wake up in the middle of our chat. I'm supposed to be meeting Rob for lunch so I keep talking to Dad and change Bennett, dress her, pack her diaper bag, get my shoes on, let the dogs out, get my purse, and get in the car and back out of the driveway- while still talking to my Dad. I'm pretty proud of myself. That's pretty hard to do with one hand while you're holding the phone. So, I get up the hill in our subdivision and all of a sudden I lose the call. Shoot. I figured that we must have bad cell reception so I look down at the phone to call him back. And then I realize I am using our home phone. My cell is still at the house. I am up the street holding this enormous handset that I somehow mistook for a cell phone. Can I chalk that up to being pregnant or just incredibly dumb?

Wrapping up the week

Good week this week, I must say. I had lunch with a dear friend from high school on Wednesday. I had lunch with a new friend from KC here on Thursday. And I had lunch today with an old friend from Montgomery. The first day Bennett was loud and yelled at everyone. The second day we skipped her nap so she was catatonic and zoned out. And today she waved at everyone and they thought she was so cute that the worker at Chick-Fil-A brought her a stuffed cow. She said, "Moooooo" the whole way home.

What else happened this week? Well, I heard the new little one's heart beat, was inspired by Queen Esther, and did a dance of happiness when Megan was voted off of "American Idol." Good week, indeed. Here are a few shots of where you will find us most evenings- playing in the basement with our favorite girl. Ignore the hideous paint color on the walls. It's a rental.

Sorry, Dad. You can't come inside our play house. Cool girls only. You get to stay outside and take pictures while we stay inside and yell, "SOCK!" We may be random, but we sure are cool.

Bennett loves her new chair. But deciding which farm animal she loves best is a whole other story.

Ummm.... the joke's not as funny if I have to point it out to you.