(almost) wordless wednesday

I set out the other day determined to take a few pictures of my newly three year old little girl.

Unfortunately I picked the worst time of day (way too bright) and a less than cooperative subject for my pictures (she wanted to play, I wanted pictures). So the pictures aren't great. But I kind of love them anyway because she's in her element; playing and reading and just being who she is. The pictures are silly but so is she. So maybe they're a win?

K. Still no. But they are definitely a glimpse of who my newly three year old is.
>...and the face I see a bit too often. Clearly this means the photo shoot is over no?

toddler-tude

I gotta admit; I used to hate the term "terrible twos".

I mean seriously, what a horrible term for these sweet, sweet toddlers.

Then I got an up close view of those said terrible twos, and you know? if the shoe fits....


Baby Girl will be two next week and holy wow y'all, the tantrums? out of control.

When she has them.

Now I might jinx myself, but eight times out of ten, we can avoid her tantrums or at least keep them semi mild. Those other two times? well the devil gets in her at those times and we basically just have to hang on and try to survive.

Kidding. Sort of.

What I mean by "avoid" is, I know, if she's tired, I can't push her. If I do, she melts down (a la the middle of Macy's episode). If it's bed time, it's bed time. Not time to try and make one more stop.


When BG was a teeny, tiny babe (sigh...), her "witching hour" was around dinnertime. And y'all, history is definitely repeating itself.

As of lately, dinnertime is our biggest issue. She doesn't want to be in her chair, or doesn't want to eat, or doesn't want to basically do anything we want her to do. Fun right?

The other night (keep in mind we know about this witching hour), her Dad and I didn't feel like cooking so we went out for Mexican. You can guess what happened.

BG didn't want to be in her chair first of all. She wanted to sit with on her Daddy. She didn't want milk, she wanted juice. Then she put a chip in the hot salsa and that was all she wrote.


She was done. A trip to the bathroom for a "talking to" and a trip outside for a spanking were all for naught, the girl was done. So we took our food to go and ate at home where she was perfectly content to sit in her chair and drink her milk.

Oh toddlerhood...

But.. sort of our fault right? We knew dinner time was a sketch time. It isn't always and I don't think it will be for long, but right now, it is.

Figuring our what sets her off, and trying to avoid it, helps us a lot. Getting down to her level and calmly talking to her also helps. Ignoring her doesn't seem to help right now, neither does time out. We're figuring it out though. We're figuring her out.


I got to be honest, other than the newborn days (still hands down WORST ever), this is about the toughest thing we've dealt with with her. While all my tips above do work occasionally, there are times when not a thing helps. When she just wants to scream or cry or kick and we don't get it. When nothing makes her happy. When everything makes her mad.

I guess that's the "terrible" part. She's not terrible, not at all. But how she acts is and how helpless it makes us feel is.


But like I said, we're figuring her out. Slowly.

The good (bad?) thing is, she's not even two yet. So it seems we'll have plenty of time to experience and figure this issue out. Yay toddler-tude!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Not going to lie. We were freakin' productive this weekend and I'm pretty doggone proud of us!

I had a list of things I wanted to accomplish this weekend, and we blew that list out of the water.

On Saturday we braved the crowds and went crib shopping. We looked at 3 places before we finally found one we like. We narrowed it down to two choices and eventually we went with Mr. Perfect's first choice, my second. On the condition that if I don't just LOVE it when it comes in (it's ordered), we can go back and get the other one. Mr. Perfect didn't like the bottom on the other. He said it went down too low and he'd constantly catch his foot on it. Valid point.

After that we went and wandered around Tar*get for a while just looking at baby stuff and buying her mattress. Baby mattresses are expensive!!

We got home in time to watch the SEC Championship game (way to go Bama!) and work on Baby Girl's room. I wanted it cleaned out this weekend and Mr. Perfect certainly delivered. Remember this? Check it out now.



Oh yeah. Not only is it empty, but the nasty rug is gone and Mr. Perfect went and got her flooring last night.

Have I mentioned before how much I adore that man?!?

I think he would have kept on working if we'd picked out a paint color already. It would probably be painted. As it is, we picked that out today and he's going to get it tomorrow to paint this week.

Sunday, Mr. Perfect had to go in to work for a few hours so neither of us made it to church.

Yes, I know.. but I didn't want to go by myself.

We went and met the grandparents for Sunday lunch and then my aunt came by to take our Christmas card pictures.

Freakin' ridiculous.

The past four years, we've taken our pics just inside in front of the tree so the animals can all be involved. Well, I think this is the last year for that. One of our dogs is so uncooperative (look at the pics- you can tell who it is), and I think next year, I want really nice pictures of the three of us. So this is the last year of this type of picture.... Kind of sad. =(




I mean seriously, look at Duke?!? He's so special.

My favorite!


Sunday afternoon, Mr. Perfect and I headed to a Jack and Jill shower for our friend's, KP and her hubs. Is it just my husband, or does every guy have to be practically dragged to these things?! But we made it. Baby girl danced on my bladder the whole time we were there. Duh. It was a great time with some old friends we hadn't seen in a while and even some former friends that we haven't seen in a while. Not as awkward as it could have been though. Sweet.

KW & I. She just had her baby girl, Gabby in September and is already ridiculously small again. I kind of hate her.


KW, KP, & I

KP & her hubs

Bellies! 22 and 35 weeks


Such a fun weekend. This time of year is always busy with the holidays, but with all these babies getting ready to make an appearance, I feel like we're always on the go from some shower or shopping or something. But secretly? I love this. Of course, if my weekends weren't so busy, I might not be this tired heading back to work on Monday! Oh well.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

20 weeks!!!

* I SWEAR I didn't go out in public like this! The weather is sucking here in Coastal Town, GA so we didn't leave the house all weekend. Including these poor underfoot dogs who had a bit of cabin fever!

How Far Along? 20 weeks.. we're halfway baby!

Total Weight Gained/Loss? I'll find out tomorrow.. gulp.

Maternity Clothes: not yet. But I'm going to get some jeans tomorrow.. tear..

Sleep? I still wake up a lot, but seem to be sleeping a bit better. I just need a break from these crazy dreams I keep having.

Best Moment of the Week? Shim is moving enough now that you can occasionally feel it from the outside, and last night Mr. Perfect got to feel it once!

Movement- see above =) I think feeling Shim, might have made it a bit more real...

Food Craving- my appetite showed up this week. I am hungry about every 2 hours.

Food aversions- Still not a huge fan of meat, everything else is fair game.

Morning sickness?- nope.

Gender- TOMORROW!!! Take your last guesses as to what we're having tonight!

Labor Signs- none.

Belly Button- still in.

What I miss- not having a monster headache everyday.

What I'm looking forward to- tomorrow!

Weekly Wisdom- Talk to your husband. He doesn't know what to say when it seems his formerly perfectly rational wife is all of a sudden a constant basketcase. Tell him what you need.

Milestones- We find out tomorrow!!

Just as a fun little game, and to look back and see if they're right, I took two gender prediction quizzes to see what we were having. According to old wives' tales on two different sights, we're having a girl. According to the Chinese gender predictor, we're having a boy. I guess we'll see!!

19 weeks

How Far Along? 19 weeks

Total Weight Gained/Loss? Haven't been back to the doc. I'm not weighing myself at home. I'm an ostrich that way.

Maternity Clothes: not yet. I can still wear most of my jeans with the bella band or a rubber band instead of a button.

Sleep? right... This past week introduced me to a little darling called the Charlie Horse. Not a fan. Somehow Mr. Perfect slept right through my version of being exorcised when I thought my leg was being ripped off.

Best Moment of the Week? Shim has officially started moving!! At first I just thought I had a bad case of the bubble guts, but then realized that that butterfly sensation in my belly was Shim. Occasionally it feels like something is playing drums on my abdominal wall. Love it!

Movement- see above =) It starts any time I sit down or lay down. I'm afraid my child will never sit still..

Food Craving- chocolate. But only occasionally.

Food aversions- I still don't get along with food very well....

Morning sickness?- nope.

Gender- 1 more week. Oh give me patience...

Labor Signs- none.

Belly Button- in but more shallow and my laproscopy scar is showing up big time now.

What I miss- a good sleep!

What I'm looking forward to- next Tuesday

Weekly Wisdom- I don't have any. I'm too tired to be wise!!

Milestones- Shim's moving!!!

signs i'm growing up...

I have a bad habit of getting an item in my head that I want and not being able to think about anything else until I get it.

In college I wanted clothes, clothes, and more clothes. So I bought them.

Then I wanted shoes. I bought a new pair weekly. Every pay check yielded a new fancy to make my size 9 feet scream with joy (and sometimes pain but hey..).

It doesn't matter what it is, if I get something in my mind, I have to have it. I will find a way to get it.

Well I've got a new obsession, but this time it's not for me.


the Bumbleride Indie
Baby Shim needs this stroller. I can't stop drooling over it. Any Bumbleride fans out there? Is it as great as I believe it's going to be? How good is it for running? How portable?

Oh I lust....

the baby's (?) room.

Honestly, I can't even believe I'm about to show y'all this. This is our current office. Since I found out I was pregnant, I have not touched it. I still throw stuff in there occasionally, literally opening the door, tossing something in, and closing the door, but as for actually entering the room and cleaning it? Has not happened in months. Don't judge me! The rest of my house is immaculate. This is my *"Monica's closet".

*Friends fans you know...

I've been telling myself we're going to have to completely redo it for the nursery anyway, so I'm not worrying about it today.

Yea, apparently I'm Scarlett O'Hara.

So now I have about 4 months to make this...



into my dream nursery.

Ay yi yi.

18 weeks

How Far Along? 18 weeks

Total Weight Gained/Loss? Haven't been back to the doc. My scale at home says I'm down 1 from the docs scale. I knew that Mexican I ate before my appointment totally screwed my weight up!

Maternity Clothes: still no. But honestly if I didn't work in scrubs I think I would have had to give in by now.

Sleep? Not so great. I wake up all the time. My feet keep going numb on me. I guess I'm not doing so great at the not sleeping on my back thing or something. Mr. Perfect is going to run out of room to sleep if I keep adding in pillows to our bed!

Best Moment of the Week? ? Nothing big this week.

Movement- not yet

Food Craving- Chocolate chip cookies. There's nutrients in those right?!

Food aversions- I'm having a really hard time with food. Nothing tastes the same way it did and honestly? I don't want much of anything. I'm having to force myself to eat stuff and it's getting hard to do.

Morning sickness?- nope. But I'm super tired again.

Gender- 2 more weeks...

Labor Signs- none.

Belly Button- in.

What I miss- sleeping on my back. Oh it was nice...

What I'm looking forward to- movement. Come on little one.. your crazy mom is dying here!

Weekly Wisdom- Sleep. Whenever you can. If it's not at night, then take naps.

Milestones- We're in month 5!

17 weeks

How Far Along? 17 weeks

Total Weight Gained/Loss? I don't even want to talk about it. According to my doc, I gained 7. Just now at 2 pounds over where I started. Gah. My doc seriously looked at my weight and said "Guess we're feeling better huh?!". Yea toolbag, I am. I might be having a hard time with this weight gain thing....

Maternity Clothes: still no. But can no longer button my pants. Thank you Bella Band.

Sleep? Getting a little awkward. Stomach is poking a bit too much to sleep on my stomach, and I LOVE to sleep on my stomach. Trying to figure that one out.

Best Moment of the Week? Tuesday appointment. Heart is beating away at 151 bpm. Big difference from the 170's where it was.

Movement- not yet

Food Craving- I don't know. I'm still having a hard time finding stuff I like to eat. Sweets are slowly becoming something I must have.

Food aversions- most things that I liked before pregnancy, I'm not such a fan of now. It's getting hard to find something I want to eat.

Morning sickness?- No more and the nausea I was feeling from the migraines seems to be under control.

Gender- 3 more weeks...

Labor Signs- none.

Belly Button- in.

What I miss- sleeping on my stomach.

What I'm looking forward to- I just want to feel it move already!

Weekly Wisdom- This is for the boys.. do not blame everything on your wife's "hormones". It will piss her off more.

Milestones- Almost in the 5th month!

lazy.

Ok. I feel lazy. Before I got pregnant I was running daily, doing the gym thing, and Shredding it up. Now?

I eat.

I feel disgusting.

I get the whole I'm gaining weight for a good cause mumbo jumbo and all, and I'm ok with gaining the weight. I'm not ok with feeling lazy and gross.

I was giving very strict no running instructions at the beginning of my pregnancy. Now I've got to do something.

Moms out there, what are some exercises you did while pregnant? Walking is boring to me, but I plan on packing up the dogs and starting that soon. I just need to do something!!

the (all honesty) pregnancy post.

Now, before I write this, I just want to state for the record how incredibly blessed I feel to be pregnant. This has been something Mr. Perfect and I have waited for a very long time. I cannot wait to be a mother and cannot wait to meet this child I'm carrying. However, my first trimester sucked. I really can't say it any better than that. I love this little Shim (she/him- yea, I'm freaking creative) more than words, but our first 3 months together... not so fun.

I honestly don't know how much the 3 injections and 8 tablets a day played into my sickness. So in all fairness, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad. Do I believe that?

No. Just trying to make all you ladies that haven't been through it yet have a glimmer of hope. =)

If you're one of the lucky ones that sailed through your first trimester; well lucky you. I hate you, but lucky you.

I'm kidding. It's not hate, just supreme jealousy!

First there was the exhaustion. Come about two 'o clock every day, I was done. I would literally stagger through the rest of the day until I could finally crawl to my car for the drive home. I'd pray that I wouldn't fall asleep at the wheel and somehow I made it home safely every single day. Thank you Jesus. I would literally drag myself to the couch where I would promptly fall asleep and would remain there until the hubs woke me up for dinner and my 7 o' clock meds. Now I never actually got to enjoy dinner (don't worry, that's coming), but after we ate, it was over. I was in the bed. I think the latest I got to bed for about 6 weeks was 8 pm. Now you know why I was so behind on my blogging! Forget tv, forget going out with friends, forget cleaning... Thank God for Mr. Perfect. He literally kept our house running. It could have fallen apart at the seams and I wouldn't have cared. I probably would have slept through it!

In the morning, no matter what time I went to bed, I would still literally have to crawl to the shower in the morning. Oh wait, that might not have been from the exhaustion. That might have been from the 3 month long hangover I was suffering from. Let's talk about morning sickness. First of all, it was obviously a man that coined the term "morning sickness". Some guy that worked with women who thought if he called it "morning sickness", then miraculously at noon, all the pregnant women would feel better.

Bull.

I was literally sick from the time I woke up in the morning til the time I crawled back in bed at night. I didn't even stand to take a shower for 3 months. I would just sit there, curled up in a ball and let the water beat down on me. I actually can't even believe I just admitted that. Oh well. Brushing my teeth became a nightmare. I still can't even talk about that. Unfortunately for me, I never even (TMI alert) threw up. I was in a constant state of puke purgatory. I was constantly nauseous, constantly gagging, had the constant mouth watering (you know), and kept doing that really annoying cough that's from the inner pits of your soul that should always have something come with it, but it never did. I spent a good portion of my time staring into the porcelain god praying for sweet relief.

It never came.

I couldn't look at food. Slabs of meat (chicken, pork, beef, etc.) made my stomach flip. It's no surprise I lost 9 pounds in the first trimester. I ate nothing but saltines and water.

Then week 13 came along. Oh how I love this week! I can (almost) happily brush my teeth again, I can stand in the shower, I can stay up past 8, my belly is popping which is a constant reminder of what this is all for, and I can eat! I write this all as a reminder for me, but also just because it's funny now. And honestly? It's all already becoming a distant memory. I thought the whole time that I was going through it that I would NEVER do this again (seriously, said that once a day), but now? I'm ok with it. I survived it. That's huge, because it felt touch and go there for a while. Now.. if I could only sleep for more than 3 hours at night before having to pee...

13 weeks. Love.

and the cat finally makes its way out of the bag..

Ok. So I have been a craptastic blogger as of late. But I have a good reason for it!

Most of you have been around long enough to know of our struggle to become parents. We've have four previous miscarriages, multiple treatments, surgeries, etc. all for the eventual great end result of a little one of our own one day.

We were supposed to start trying in September. Our doctor was going to use some fertility drug with this next pregnancy trial to see if we could possibly get a better result with some help.

Remember this classic Friends' moment?


That 97% effectiveness?

So true.


Not going to lie- I freaked out. I literally had to be talked out of a panic attack by my oh so perfect husband. After some calming words from him and my friend Donner, I was almost ready to handle my little positive pee stick. I had to realize that this is what all the work was for. Everything was for this result.

Needless to say, I didn't stop panicking. We went straight to the doctor for a blood draw and I proceeded to start bawling my eyes out again. Now I wasn't upset that I was pregnant, not at all. But I didn't think we were ready. It wasn't September, our doc didn't say "Go do it now!", there were no fertility drugs. I was freaking out.

My doc told me to go home and chill out. He'd do my worrying for me.

Right.

We got started on meds right away. I started progesterone suppositories right away, but they weren't getting my numbers up where they should have been, so we switched to a nightly shot of progesterone oil in my back. Ouch. I started HCG injections twice a week, heparin injections twice a day, and a whole slew of pills.

At 6 weeks we had our first ultrasound to check our progress.

Everything looked pretty good. Baby's heart was beating away at about 115 beats per minute. Dr. O saw some movement in the placenta which he wasn't sure about and said that the yolk sac was a bit abnormal. He then upped some of my meds and said he'd see me in a week.

Two days later, I had some bleeding.

Went right back in and saw the babe again. It had grown just as much as it should have in 2 days, and the problems we saw on the previous ultrasound seemed to be clearing up. The only thing the doc could think was that possibly I was having an immune problem and my immune system was attacking the baby. So on to immuno-suppressors I went.

I went back a little after 7 weeks and was a nervous wreck. I always seem to have my problems right about this time. Not this time. There was our babe bouncing around on the screen, heart beating at around 156 bpm!!


One week later with a heartbeat around 177 bpm.


Honestly? I'm still in freakin' shock. We're almost 13 weeks pregnant. We're going to have a baby in April. This is actually happening for us.

We are over the moon. I can't quit grinning (well now that I'm done with all the nice gross stuff- don't you worry, there's an all honesty prego post coming!), Mr. Perfect can't quit rubbing my stomach. We could care less if it's a boy or a girl. We just can't quit thanking God for our baby. This is our miracle. This is what we've been praying for since it seemed it wouldn't happen for us. This baby is such a blessing and we can't believe we've been given such an amazing gift!

I just wanted to thank you ladies for your constant encouragement through all this. I know when I've been at my lowest points, that I can always come to you guys for some much needed cheering up. You've been my rocks! I honestly can't wait to go down this next road with all ya'll right along with us!

And just for grins...


My 12 week belly. It's there, though I don't know how since the first trimester about killed me and wittled 9 pounds off my body with a quickness.

To be continued.. =)