Wow, three months...

I knew it had been awhile, but didn't realize it had been this long. The past month or so has been super crazy getting ready for Birthdaypalooza 2012, and now we've started "A Very Pinterest Christmas." I'll post quick updates on the girls and us, and I promise to be back with the good and not so good Pinterest ideas we've tried!

Cadence:
She's doing ok. We have an appointment on December 4 with a psychiatrist to see if she has ADHD, impulse control issues, a processing disorder or something else altogether. I'm not opposed to medication if the doctor thinks that is what she needs, but I also won't object at all if they suggest behavior therapy or something else. I love her to pieces, but she's still having outburst over very tiny things, *can not* sit still AT ALL, and has started pulling her hair out resulting in bald spots. She's so bright and funny and creative, and it breaks my heart to see her so angry and frustrated all the time. I'm really hoping this will help and give us some answers.

Amelia:
She's two. And definitely acts like a two year old! I hear a lot of "No, Mommy! Mine! You a mean mommy! No Sissy! No touch! DON'T!!!" and my favorites, "go bed, Mommy!" and "EAT SOUP, MOMMY!!!" She is absolutely hilarious most of the time, and is much much much better with Maddie. She loves to hold her, kiss her, and thinks it's so funny when she makes faces or talks and Maddie laughs at her. She loves "meme mouf", "Jake Ho Ho" and "Sissy YaYa" (Minnie Mouse, Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Cinderella for those of you that can't speak toddler), and gets so excited whenever a Disney World commercial comes on. I can't wait utnil we can take her. She's a handful, but she's MY handful, and I wouldn't change her for anything.

Maddie:
She'll be six months old next week! She's still very tiny - in 0-3 month clothes still - and I'm going to talk to them next week about her weight in relation to how much she eats (a ton!) and spits up (also a ton!) She is rolling over, and has figured out how to roll/scoot/wiggle herself pretty much wherever she wants. She's still not quite sitting up on her own, but wants to so bad! I'm really excited about Thanksgiving tomorrow, because she's now eating whatever mushy things we are, and I know she's going to lose it with all the food we'll have tomorrow. She's usually happy (unless I put her down or pass her off), and smiles all the time. She's also set a bedtime for herself. She goes to bed about 8 or 8:30 every night, and will sleep until 4ish the next morning. I had one 10 hour night, but it was the exception. Usually she sleeps about 8 hours or so straight, and it's so nice. She's such a good baby, an we've been so lucky.

Mike and me:
Well, we're both still at jobs we're not completely thrilled with, and still not making quite enough for me to be at home full time. However, there are some things in the works, so maybe something will change for one or both of us soon.

It's been crazy having three little ones around the house, and even though Maddie has been here six months, I think we're all still adjusting to everything. It's so weird to look around and see 5 stockings on the mantle (yes, I've already decorated for Christmas!), and have three kids crammed in the back of my Jeep, and have three to check up on before I go to sleep. And I've ran into another problem I didn't have with Cadence and Amelia: I'm getting Amelia and Maddie's babyhoods mixed up! Cadence and Amelia were so far apart that it hasn't been that hard to remember which of them did what. But with Amelia and Maddie only being 19 months apart, it's all becoming a babyhood blur. And of course it doesn't help that my children all look alike!

I have tons of pictures from the mega Birthdaypalooza 2012, and of all the Christmas gifts and holiday foods we've been making. I'll definitely be back shortly to upload some of those!

In case I don't get back tomorrow, I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving!

One Month Old

I can't believe it. Saturday my tiny little baby turned a month old! I took her in for a weight check, and she's now up to 8lbs 13oz (she gained over a pound in two weeks.) She's starting to stay awake more, and smiling at us (mainly the girls, but I've gotten one or two!) She's such a good baby, and it's hard to believe she's been in our life for a month already!

I love you sweet Maddie Pearl, and can't imagine our life without you!

Madeline Pearl

I can't believe my newest little one is 3 weeks old today. She arrived at 2:30 on May 30, weighed 7lbs 6oz and was 20 inches long. At her two week checkup last week, she was up to 7lbs 9oz, and was 20.5 inches. She's now staying away more often, and is starting to get a decent schedule going at night. It's so hard to believe that she's here and as perfect as she is!

Newborn Maddie



 1 Week


 2 Weeks
 

3 Weeks

Last few days as a family of 4

I turned 38 weeks on Friday, and they let me pick a day for the induction. On Wednesday, May 30 (barring any complications or unseen events) we will go from a family of 4 to a family of 5. I was told to be at the hospital at 6:00 pm on Tuesday night, and they'll start the induction Wednesday morning. If it goes like Amelia's did, she'll be here before noon.

Knowing that this time next weekend we'll have a newborn around here has made me want to spend way more time with the two I have. As of Wednesday, everything will be different. It will never be just the 4 of us again. And as excited as I am about the baby, that makes me sad. I feel like I just got used to having the 4 of us, to having Amelia around, and just got our routine down pat. And now it's all going to be different.

I am excited - I'm looking forward to nursing again and the sweet newborn cuddles, and watching Amelia adapt to being a big sister. To having a baby again, and the sweet tiny clothes, and definitely the 2 months off during the summer where my only job during the day will be to take care of and pay attention to her. But I'm worried - about Amelia adapting to having a baby taking over some of my time, that something will go wrong with the delivery or something will be "wrong" with her, and about being able to be a mom to three. I worry about finances and no sleep and our overcrowded little house. And I worry if I'm ready for this or not.

Mike and Cadence went and spent all day yesterday together, and Amelia and I went shopping. Today we're going to church, then hanging out, and we'll spend today and tomorrow cleaning last minute things to make sure it's all ready for me leaving. I'll go grocery shopping, make sure the bed and everything is ready, and try to make sure my house is decent enough for company since I know there will be tons of it the next week or so. 

I'm scared and nervous and excited and just overwhelmed. I'm not sure what to expect or what this baby will be like, or how my little family will react to me having to give so much attention to this new little one at the house. It's scary, but exciting. And I just hope I'm up for it.

Can I blame it on the baby?

It was brought to my attention that it's been 2.5 months since I updated anything, and I am so sorry! There have been a ton of things going on, so I'll give a quick rundown on our lives since February.

• I'm now 33 weeks, and can't believe it's this close. I go in for my 34 week checkup next Wednesday, and will also get an ultrasound then. My blood pressure has been great, I haven't gained a ton, and so far, still not sick. It's been surprisingly good!
• We have some name ideas, but nothing set in stone yet. More than likely, though, she will either be a Julie, Madeline, Cara or Hannah. Mike and I both like them all, so we're talking about waiting until she gets here and seeing which we think she looks like.
• Still not much closer on the room, but hoping to get that settled this weekend. I'm going today to buy stain for the dressers, and Mike promises me that we'll work on moving computers and getting the rest of the stuff cleaned out of Amelia's room. All we'll have to do then is paint, then set it all up for her. I can't wait until we can move her in!
• My husband now owns a gun. He's been talking about it for awhile, and decided the other day to use some of his bonus money to go purchase one. It's a Smith & Wesson M&P 15-22, and honestly, it's one scary looking gun. I was expecting something like a .22 rifle, but this looks more like a military machine gun. It's going to take some getting used to, seeing it in my house. He hasn't bought ammo yet, but already has plans to go down to Brookhaven to shoot soon.
• Cadence is loving Girl Scouts, and we're in the process of swapping troops since she'll be a Brownie next year. She went to the 100th anniversary thing last weekend, earned another patch on Monday night, and has another event on Saturday. She's really enjoying it, and REALLY looking forward to camp this summer!
• Cadence also got her report card yesterday - two 100s and a 98. :) She's getting to go today to visit the school she'll be at next year, and is really excited. It's closer to our house, too, so if I can (keeping my fingers crossed) be a stay at home mom after the baby gets here, I could walk her to school every day.
• Amelia is growing like a weed! She's now talking non-stop (and getting clearer and clearer every day), is in love with "Kitty-Kitty" (her stuffed Marie doll), and tries to climb on anything she can get near. She's also entered a screaming phase, which is oh-so-much-fun. EVERYTHING makes her shriek at the top of her lungs, and it's the one thing she does that's going to drive me insane! She almost sickening cute, though, and I love that little thing to pieces!

Things have been going well around here, and I'll try to get pictures up soon and post more often!

It's cookie time!

Girl Scout cookies officially went on sale here on Saturday, and we already have 25 boxes ordered, and I know more are on the way (including about 10 from Mike and I.) Cadence has decided that she wants to sell 1500 boxes so she can get ALL the prizes, but I've convinced her to please knock her goal down to something smaller. We decided on 500 (which is still an awful lot of boxes!), and at that point it will give her the first electronic prize in the list - a portable dvd player. I don't know that we'll hit 500 (and don't know that I want to see 500 boxes of cookies at my house), but I guess we'll be trying.

No new news on the baby front. Still no name, and even more have been vetoed off the list (Violet, Mary James, Eliza Jean, Sophia/Sophie and Hannah.) The only name combos that I've actually gotten a maybe on are Alice Miranda and Mary Alice. Abigail, Madeline, Marissa and Felicity are also now on the maybe list, but with no middle names. She'll have a name eventually. I hope.

I've also hit the halfway point, and have gained a total of 6 lbs. Most days, if you didn't know me, you wouldn't know I was pregnant. I'm getting a little round in the middle, but my stomach seems to be stretched out really long. It's definitely not the "beach ball" look I had with Amelia. I've had three people since Friday comment on how small I am, and my response has been that she's apparently hiding and doesn't want anyone to know she's here. Heck, she didn't even want ME knowing for the first 14 weeks! Still not a lot of movement, but I feel her enough that I'm sure she's still ok. Right now we're just waiting.

Not much else is going on around here. I feel like all I do is cook, clean and start over again the other day. But, boring is good, and I'll take that any day.

A photo comparison

Here I am today, at 19 weeks, 5 days:



And this is me at 20 weeks with Amelia.


I think I look more pregnant with Amelia, and still look slightly fat with this one. Amelia was also more out in front, and I had gained less weight in my face, arms, boobs and hips than I have this time around. It's crazy how different each pregnancy can be.

Poor Mike

We found out this week that Baby Girl #3 is on the way! Cadence was at the appointment with me, and is so excited about having another sister. I'm excited because it means that the only thing we need to buy baby girl is clothes since the seasons are different. We're also going to be spending money on furniture for Amelia's new room (and will be the baby's room, too, in the future), but we don't really need any baby things. That's a huge weight lifted off of me.

The name discussion is well underway, and we have a few things that haven't been vetoed completely. Of course, I suggested Vivian and Genevieve right off the bat, but he shot them down. I'm hoping to at least get Genevieve in the middle, but it's looking doubtful. Other suggestions that are still on the table are:

Madeline
Alice
Miranda
Marissa
Abigail
Clara
Elizabeth
Beth
Lucia

None are perfect - I'm scared Madeline will get turned into Maddie,  Alice and Abigail are really close to Amelia, Clara is close to Amelia's middle name, and Lucia doesn't sound that great with our last name. However, all are names that we are liking at the moment. Maybe we'll come to a conclusion soon.

17 weeks

And I've "popped." I'm now starting to look a little less like I've gained some weight, and a little more like I'm actually pregnant. Every muscle in my abdomen hates me at the moment, and sneezing is the worst. I feel like I completely rip out the muscle along my hips every time I do. Babycenter says Stealth Ninja Baby is about the size of a turnip, and I totally believe it. There are times I feel like someone has shoved a rock or something in my belly.

Symptoms are still pretty boring - slightly queasy all the time, crazy dreams, want to sleep a lot, have a cold. Other than that, we're just cruising on, waiting for the ultrasound on Tuesday. Can't wait to see if we're going to have a boy, or add another sparkly princess to the mix!

This is still bizarre to me

I know this is my third time to go through a pregnancy long enough to endure symptoms, but they are still crazy to me. And come February, I will have been either pregnant or nursing for 2 years straight, so that's throwing things off even more. I'm beginning to forget what MY normal is, instead of pregnancy/nursing normal!

The most bizarre to me is the food. It still seems so weird to me that one day something can be perfectly fine, my favorite food ever, then the very next day, just the thought of said food makes me want to make a beeline for the bathroom. That on some days, smells and tastes and textures don't faze me at all, but on others, the act of getting to close to something, or even the idea of putting it in my mouth and actually EATING it, makes me want to gag (and I do, on occasion.) I'm also full of snot (thank you, awesome Mississippi weather!),  and that's definitely not helping with the gagging problem. Thankfully, though, the "puking every time I change a diaper" seems to have slacked up some. It's not gone completely, but is getting better.

So far I haven't had any weird cravings this time. With Cadence it was mac and cheese, chocolate milk and grilled cheese sandwiches. I went through a brief bbq phase, but it was mainly cheese and milk. I think I was needing more calcium. With Amelia it was watermelon. OMG, I ate so much of it that summer, and was going through one to two a week for awhile there. It was like someone laced it with crack! I also had a brief "peach milkshake from Chick-fil-a" craving that ended with me crying in the drive-thru because they had stopped selling them. Not my finest pregnancy moment. This time the closest I've come to a craving is salad. I liked them before, but it's like every salad tastes even better now. It hasn't been an all consuming craving like with the others, but it's the only thing that's come close.

As of tomorrow I'll be 17 weeks, and so far things are pretty boring. I'm between sizes in clothes - can't wear a lot of my regular jeans because they feel too tight, but the maternity jeans I have are still slightly too big. My stomach isn't *quite* big enough yet to keep them up, and in most of my clothes you can't tell I'm pregnant. I look like I've put on a few pounds, but that's about it. I still haven't really felt movement - a few flutters here and there, but nothing like with the other two. "Ninja baby" really seems to fit this one, because there are lots of times that I forget that I'm even pregnant. I hope it starts moving a little more soon, though, because the girls both moved a ton. I'm going to be a nervous wreck if I'm not getting punched all the time! Heartburn hasn't started yet (even though I'm sure it will within the next few weeks), I'm still slightly queasy a lot of the time, and I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the hormonal headaches don't make an appearance any time soon. I go Tuesday for my 18 week appointment, and we will do an ultrasound then. Cadence is going with me, and we hope to be able to tell what the sex is. I can't wait!

Slowly adjusting

It's been a few days, so now we're slowly starting to adjust to the idea of not only am I pregnant, but we're going to have another little one 19 months younger than Amelia, we need to figure out a car situation, and something's gonna hafta give as far as rooms are concerned! We've had quite a few practical discussions over the weekend, and think we at least have a plan in place for most of it.

I've also discovered that there were a lot of little things, but no major, glaring red flags. If I had stopped long enough to put the pieces together, I'm sure I would have figured it out much sooner than 14 weeks, but hey, who has time for anything with a 7 year old and 1 year old at Christmas?? I'm still not showing, which is so bizarre to me since it was getting obvious by this point with Amelia, and beyond obvious with Cadence, and still have on regular clothes. I went back and looked, and I've gained a little more weight than I had at this point with A, but not much. I'm also slightly queasy all the time. I thought it was the stomach bug from hell that we've been cursed with, but seems it was something else! But if this means no headaches like the last two times, I'll deal with the queasiness!

So much change in such a short amount of time. I can't think about it too much, though, or it becomes a little overwhelming!

Well that's not what I expected

I went in for my yearly check up yesterday, and found out that not only am I pregnant, I'm 14 weeks pregnant!

A pregnancy test was done as part of the normal procedure, and the nurse came back telling me that I was, indeed, knocked up. I didn't believe her, she insisted, then felt of my stomach and said since she really couldn't feel my uterus, I probably wasn't that far along. She said she'd do my physical first, then we'd do a vaginal ultrasound to see if we could find a heartbeat and see how far along I was. Well, when she did the ultrasound, this is what we saw:



Not a blob, not a little butterbean baby, a real live actual baby! With fingers and toes and everything! The nurse and I both just stared at the screen, and I think she was as shocked as I was. My official due date is June 8, and I go back on Dec 20 (about a week and a half) for my first actual OB appoint.

Wow. Another baby!