Adjusting

We have really been getting out a lot this week and adjusting pretty quickly to life with 2 kids. It was definitely easier when Gran was here to watch Fin and take her do fun activities, but it's getting easier everyday and it helps that both Ben and I are home. I'm still having trouble when I'm watching both kids, especially when I'm feeding Rowan and Finley needs my attention.

Rowan is a little bit easier baby than Finley was. She cries, but not as much as Fin did and it's usually pretty obvious what she wants. Also she doesn't spit up at all, which is really surprising...Fin spit up very frequently. Rowan still isn't on a good schedule at night and is very awake sometimes most of the night. Same as Finley, but we think Rowan is having some gas pain and that might be why she is having trouble sleeping. It's been pretty easy to take Rowan along for family activities. She sleeps well in the car and is a good nurser. If she has a full belly and clean diaper, she tends to be pretty happy. 

This week we've been out to eat a few times and have done some errands including taking the dogs to the Chiropractor. Today was the longest outing so far. We went to a little kids carnival and farmers market in Brimfield. Fin got to do a pony ride and bounce house and then we took 3 dogs on a hike in Sturbridge. It worked well for Ben to carry Rowan in the Ergo carrier and I pushed the BOB stroller with Finley in it when she wasn't stomping in the giant puddles from the massive amount of rain we've been having.

We still have a lot of adjusting to do before things feel normal, but we are getting there faster than I expected.

Birth Story and first few days at home.

We got home from the hospital on Sunday afternoon. Much better experience than when I had Finley. I got there at 10 am on Wednesday morning and they started an IV (ouch! more painful than the spinal injection) with fluids and spent some time monitoring the baby with a non-stress test. We answered tons of questions about medical history. Got the results of my labs and then we waited a bit for anesthesia to get there. The anesthesiologist didn't want to do the c-section because I had a cold and was worried about respiratory issues. Luckily my Ob wasn't too worried about doing it. It's not the kind of surgery you can put off for a week or two. By around 12:30 they took me into the Operating Room and gave me the spinal block. It was just a minute or two before I was totally numb. They do a test to make sure I can't feel anything and then they start working on getting the baby out. Our baby was completely unengaged and way up high, facing up. I heard the Dr say that she wouldn't have come out vaginally, so that made me feel better about having the c-section. She was so unengaged that the Dr needed to use a vacuum to get her out. I was nauseated in the same way I was with Finley, but they were able to give me Zofran in my IV and stop me from vomiting. Other than nausea I had very little discomfort during the surgery.

Rowan Iris was born at 12:58 pm, 6 lbs 13 oz, 21" long and perfectly healthy. They took us all back to our room. We were there for a short time and I was able to hold Rowan for the first time and start breastfeeding her right away. Then we went to the recovery room, where we spent the next few days. It took several hours before I could move my legs again. We were up most of the night, mainly because we were excited and well rested. My only issue on the first day was that the Morphine PCA they gave me did absolutely nothing for my pain and I was really hungry. I was allowed to eat that night and got my catheter and IV out the next day or was it the following morning? I don't remember. Once we got a sleeping, pain medicine and eating schedule worked out....we were doing pretty well. Rowan was sleeping in the nursery all night for 3 hour chunks of time while Ben and I slept. I got up for meds and nursing and went right back to sleep. My milk came in after just 2 days and now I have way too much. I haven't started pumping yet because I despise pumping!

We were a little bit worried about Rowan having a bit of jaundice, but her bilirubin levels never went high enough to be a concern for phototherapy. We were both discharged in very good condition.

Now that we are home, we are having an adjustment period and it's tough. Rowan isn't as good of a sleeper as she was at the hospital. Or I should say, not as good at night. She is wide awake at night! An excellent sleeper during the day. We haven't worked out a schedule yet for sleeping, so we've both been getting just a few hours of sleep every night. Between watching Finley, the dogs and keeping up with the house...we haven't been able to find much time to nap.

Just got back to finish this post..It's one day later and Rowan slept last night! It was awesome. I was just up to feed her and then back to bed. Three hours at a time!

Moved to Sturbridge!

Another 3 months since I last posted and so much has happened! We moved into our new house in Sturbridge and have been in a mad rush to get the house all set up. Aside from an awkward layout, we love the house. The entry way is huge and we just changed the flooring from carpet to tile. With a backdoor leading to the fenced backyard, it couldn't be more perfect as a dog room/mud room. It also has a beautiful sunroom that we use for relaxing and for a playroom. Finley's room, the baby's room and our bedroom are mostly finished. We still need some furniture and painting, but that is going to have to wait until later this summer. We have a small living room and are waiting for a new couch to be delivered in a few weeks, so that room has been storage for all our paintings and decorations. The office has been a temporary guest room and storage for books, but we just got carpet and tile put in the walk-out basement and will be setting that up as a guest room/mother-in-law.

It's all been quite overwhelming with the time pressure of the baby coming! I worked part-time up until last week and have been trying to relax, but it's very hard with Ben still in school and taking care of Finley. We did keep Fin in daycare up until this past week, which was a huge help for me. At the moment she is in NJ with my parents and will be there until Sunday when we get home from the hospital. Hard to believe I'm going in for my csection on Wednesday. I've been cooking and freezing food like crazy. I made sausage and spinach lasagna, 4 meatloaves, macaroni and cheese, white chicken enchilada casserole, banana bread, eggplant parmesan, steel cut oats and lots of other little things like shredded chicken and easy to prepare frozen foods.

What else is going on? Finley turned 3 and is fully potty trained. She loves to do art projects and play outside. She has just recently started talking to her pretend friends and really enjoys playing with other kids. She is all set to start Montessori preschool in the fall..we just need to find a daycare for the days that we will both be working. I have no idea how long I'll be home with the baby, but I do plan to breastfeed and and I do very much hate pumping breast milk...so I'll be trying to stay home as long as possible or working short hours.  Speaking of the baby...the pregnancy has gone much better than my last. I've been totally healthy with no major body pain or medical issues. I'm just easily tired, sore and sleeping isn't easy. Oh and heartburn is pretty bad too.

I'll try to post photos and updates more this summer! I need to get back to work...lots of cleaning and preparing still to do and maybe get some rest to get rid of this cold in the next few days.

Still Waiting

Wow it's been awhile since I posted! I went to California for a week and Ben was nice enough to stay home with Finley, so I could go by myself. This was a special treat, especially since I'll be home with two kids very soon! I had lots of fun relaxing with friends and not being responsible for anyone but myself.

We are STILL waiting to find out what is going on with the house in terms of financing. To say that this process has been stressful is an extreme understatement. I am now just about 27 weeks pregnant and have no idea where we will be living when this baby is born. I don't know if I should be looking for a rental or trying to make room in this house for another child. The problem is that the guest room has a queen bed in it and the smell of that room is so gross that I can't stand to go in it. Ahhh! I just have to hope the loan goes through and not worry too much I guess. Easier said than done.

I have now been working for a few weeks. I am learning a lot about physical therapy and am lucky to have a job that I can handle and that only requires me to work a few days a week. And it's only 5 minutes from my house. I can't think of anything better for preparing myself for physical therapy school. The problems are that the pay is awful and it involves lots of standing, which causes major swollen feet by the end of the day. The overall problem is that I'm not sure what I want to do about my career and being home with kids etc. Hopefully I'll figure it all out while I'm home with our new baby girl.

Finley is doing really well and has been in full time day care lately to give me time to get stuff done and work a few days a week. It's a great place in many ways, but she isn't learning a whole lot and is watching more TV than I would like and not eating healthy food. We went to visit a new daycare/preschool that would work really well in terms of location, price and flexibility of hours. It was a little bit dumpy and some of the kids were totally out of control. I'm hoping to go visit a Montessori school soon and see how we like it. 

a little trip to reno

Fin and I are leaving tomorrow for a trip to Reno! Her Gran and Pop planned to be here for Christmas, but couldn't make it, so we decided to have a late 2nd Christmas celebration there. I am looking forward to getting a lot done while I am there and seeing Finley enjoy time with her grandparents. She is very excited about our trip. I am less excited about flying by myself with a 2 year old, but hopefully I can come up with enough stuff to take for her to stay entertained on the plane! Ben will be meeting us there next weekend and Finley is pretty sure Harold the Helicopter will be his method of transportation.

Our inspection is set for Wednesday at 1 pm. Hopefully they don't find anything major! We had a good weekend. I went to a photography workshop to learn a little bit more about my new camera. It wasn't great, but I did at least figure out how to adjust the ISO and got a little refresher about choosing F-stops. We stayed in on Saturday night and watched Ice Age. Thats the best we can do at this point for movies unless we go out and get a babysitter,  which isn't worth the money or wait until 10 pm when she is sleeping. We mostly paid attention and she loves spending time with us all together as a family. On Sunday morning we went out for breakfast, which seems to be a thing we started recently. I love going out for breakfast, so Im not complaining!

I have a lot to do today to get ready for our trip tomorrow!

quick update

We had our 20 week doctor appointment today. I'm so happy to be half way done with this pregnancy. I am not one of those people that loves being pregnant. I just like the end result! We had an anatomy scan, which is the last ultrasound and when they look at the brain, kidneys, heart etc to make sure everything is normal. It's always fun to get a little peak and see the baby. We could clearly see that it's a girl and I could also tell why Im getting punched so much! Her little arm was really waving around! We are excited to be having another girl. While it would have been fun to experience raising a boy, we love our little girl and can't wait to have another. I always wished I had a sister and love the relationship that sisters can have.

We have been negotiating for this house that we want and it's going pretty well. We finally agreed on a sale price accepted and signed by both parties and now we have to schedule an inspection and VA appraisal. It's seeming like getting this house might actually happen! Closing would be on March 8th...right around Ben's Spring break and enough time before this baby is born to get things set up in time. It would be cutting it close otherwise!

I had a hard time adjusting to living here for the first several months. I am now just counting down the days until we can get out of this gross rental house!

Looking UP

Things are starting to look up for us a little bit. We put in an offer on a house today! Who knows if we will get it...it's exciting to have found something that we like. I'll be sad if it falls through, but it gives me hope! We love it because it's in a family oriented neighborhood with a playground, tennis courts and beach on a lake. We can walk out our front door and go for a walk. There is also a state park within walking distance. The house itself is on .76 flat acres and there is plenty of space to play chuck-it, have chickens, a garden and park the trailer. There is a covered walk out basement with a hot tub and lovely deck. The downsides are that the layout is unusual, there is a sump pump in the basement, no air conditioning, eletric and oil heat, no stores within walking distance and the whole house has carpet. We are waiting to hear if our offer was accepted!

We managed to get together the funds to buy a larger vehicle for our family. Since we need space for 4+ people and 4 dogs, we decided to get a full size van. Really not a fun vehicle to buy, especially since we cant get anything cool like the Nissan NV. We are looking forward to safely transporting the dogs and children. We will get something like a Ford E series passenger van..hopefully not in white.

I've been still shadowing two PT offices and working on my GRE class, which hasn't gone too well. I also signed up for a Pre-calculus class that I haven't started yet. Definitely feeling overwhelmed with all I have to do and Im watching Finley 3 days a week, so I have two to get everything else done. One of my PT offices offered me a job as a PT aide part time! I told them I'm pregnant and have two trips coming up (one to Reno and one to San Diego). Hopefully that won't dissuade them.

Speaking of being pregnant, we find out if it's a boy or girl on Thursday! I can't believe Im already 1/2 way there. I'm feeling pretty good other than wicked heart burn and lots of the same cravings I had with Finley, which includes chocolate pudding (Trader Joes has amazing dark chocolate pudding!), spicy food, Indian/Vietnamese and Thai, gummy bears, ice cream, bagels, sweet tea and then random things like Shrimp or salad or cottage cheese. It's so funny how the cravings happen. Last time I didn't want to eat vegetables and this time I get serious cravings for vinegar-y salads, no thanks on the blue cheese dressing that I usually love.

Finley is as funny as ever. She loves talking about Thomas the Train and asking about the engines. She asks so many questions about everything "what is it's color?" "what is her last name?" "where is daddy?" "what are you doing?" "what does this do?". It's very cute. She has a new obsession with leaving her door open when she is sleeping and having alone time in her room. I really realize all the phrases I say often, because I hear her repeat them! The best is when she says "Really Mom, Oh my god", but instead of god she says dog. She also bases her friendships with the kids at school and who hits and loves the report when she doesn't hit anyone. She loves trianing the dogs and wants to go to the playground everyday.

I love Jermont

We had so much fun in Vermont (or Jermont as Finley calls it). The house was amazing. It was on a dirt road and up a steep driveway.  There was a big wraparound porch with views of the mountains and primary source of heat was a toasty wood burning stove. And of course the dogs loved having 40 acres to run.  We mostly stayed at the house in between outings to walk around a few towns and shop for groceries. We watched lots of movies, cooked, played, and just relaxed. Since the house was totally off the grid we watched snow dump down with no worries about power outages. that was a good feeling

We tried to make it a fun Christmas experience for Finley. Ben cut down a tree and we decorated it with some basic lights and ornaments. We brought tons of gifts, including everything Fin asked for: Thomas trains, A Christmas Teddy and Bandaids. She also got a doctor kit, some fake food and cooking supplies for her toy kitchen, finger paints and a sticker book. My favorite gifts for myself were a whippet statue, a pasta maker and a few gardening books that are perfect for me. Ben got a cool pocket knife and an oil lantern. We baked lemon sugar cookies that didn't come out very well, but Fin helped with the whole process and had a blast decorating them.

After Christmas we ventured out and visited the Ben & Jerry's factory tour and took a ride around Montpelier. 

We had a nice smooth drive home, got unpacked as much as possible and then headed to New Jersey the next morning. We spent the day visiting with my parents and then the next morning went to New York to visit Rachel and my friend Amy from Grad School. We went to see They Might be Giants after hanging out in the city all day. By the time we finally got home I was so tired! But somehow I managed to go out to a NYE party with some new flyball friends. Finley was so good. She socialized with the adults, played with her toys, took a nap on the dog bed, ate dinner and then decided she wanted to go to bed. She promptly passed out in our friends bed until we woke her up to leave.

We find out if we are having a boy or girl next week. Im feeling really good other than bad heart burn. I hope it keeps up. I've starting trying to come up with names. Any ideas are appreciated!