Where does the time go?

I keep feeling like I need to update my blog, but today's one of those days where I feel incredibly picked on, so this might not be super perky....

Since our great waterfall experience we've had 2 more pipes break. I told Loren, you might not enjoy fixing all these, but just think! In a couple weeks we'll have totally new pipes in the whole house. :)

I've been faithfully going to zumba twice week, eating considerably more fruits and veggies, and just being more active and despite not seeing any change on the scale, I do notice that I feel happier during the day. I feel better about myself when I look in the mirror, although my clothes don't fit any better. I just overall have a little better attitude.

Aly's hitting the terrible twos hard this week. Temper-tantrums are the worst and make me very tired. She spends a lot of time on time-out for hitting Mommy, or not obeying. This morning she had to go back to bed for a while until she could come out and be happy. She just cried over anything and was wrecking my Sunday morning! She's at a fun age tho for all the summer activities. We're hoping for more sunshine this week so that we can go to the zoo and the swimming pool more.

Evy is getting more and more active and awake. Her cute little smiles are so sweet. We're working on laughing and trying to roll back over onto her tummy again. She can roll front to back tho. :) She's learning so much so fast. She's a little babbler, so we might be in for another big talker. Then we'll never have a moment of peace. ;)

We're looking forward to many summer trips this year. Yellowstone, SLC, Manti, etc...Should keep us entertained.

When it rains it pours....

LITERALLY.


So yesterday Loren and I were having a conversation. We have gotten two of the medical bills from Evelyn's birth and one of them we paid right away because it was so manageable and the other isn't scary either. Although it's the exact same bill (my epidural) that we got when Alysha was born, the amount didn't worry us like it did last time. With Alysha's arrival came the stress of money and collections and a huge learning experience for us about paying bills. I hated to check the mail because of the scary things I'd find in there. We struggled with keeping all the places straight that we owed money and it took almost 18 months for us to finally get it all sorted out and Alysha 2 years old by the time we got everybody paid out. So yesterday after receiving this bill in the mail we talked about how much more relaxed we were. How it didn't seem so high anymore and how much better prepared we are this time around. How we knew where to expect our money to go and how we had money to send there! Mistake #1.

As I left for Zumba last night, I noticed that the sprinklers were on in the front yard and I remember thinking to myself, "I'd better remember to check those when I get home and if they're still on, turn them off." I didn't. So Loren woke up this morning and was leaving for work when he saw that they had been left on all night. Oops. He turned them off and thought about how high our water bill will be and how green our grass will be :).

Tonight we went downstairs and were about to play our new Wii game when Loren thought the carpet seemed a little damp by the couch. He asked me why, and I couldn't think of anything that I'd spilled there this afternoon so I walked over to see if maybe it was just cold over there and he thought it was wet? It was wet. So we pulled the couch away from the wall and it was VERY wet. The carpet was soaked. Loren started pulling away the carpet and the baseboards and we discovered everything VERY wet for a space about 2x10 feet. We still can't be sure how it got in, just that it is. The wall isn't affected so it can't have come down from the window well, but who knows. Anyway, Loren called a clean-up company here in town and the guy on-call, out of the goodness of his heart, came over for a free consult. (Probably hoping for some business, little did he know that Loren's worked for a clean-up company and just wanted a second opinion) The guy said that he'd charge $150 to take care of it all. But that if we dried it out really well with fans and replaced that portion of the pad we'd be good to go. So now we had a plan.

While we're downstairs looking at it after the guy left, we hear flowing water. Dismissed it at first, because the washing machine was running, but quickly realized that we shouldn't hear the washing machine draining, turned on the light, and found water flowing from the ceiling in our laundry room. I had left Aly upstairs in the bathtub while I cleaned the living room up and she had been dumping cups of water out of the bathtub and it was draining through the wall behind the toilet.

Luckily the laundry room downstairs isn't finished so the water drained nicely into a drain and there was so messy sheet-rock on the ceiling. But still. The previous owners had failed to mention that they'd also had this problem because upon pulling away the insulation...well let's just say that the ceiling is quite a mess. But it's also not something that we can need to do anything about right away.

I'm ready for bed.

Loren went to the store to get a box fan and he said he fully expected a freak hail storm in the house while he was gone. I think he's ready to throw me away, even though he says he doesn't blame me for any of it.

Teaches us to talk about being comfortable...

Evelyn's Entrance

So with all the hip and back pain I'd had this pregnancy I think everyone's aware of how ready to be done with pregnancy I was. I think Loren's even questioning having any more kids because of how I was the last couple weeks of this one. Let's just say that my hormones were fairly out of wack and he worried for my mental state. But then the DR decided to play with me again and he set an induction date...and then changed it. I spent the last 5 days of my pregnancy very angry and ornery and spent most of my time crying and trying to tell the baby to vacate the premises. But nevertheless she stayed in and I ended up getting induced March 25th, 4 days before my due date.

After a late start (because it took so much longer to get us all up and ready to go than I thought) we finally dropped Aly off at my aunt and uncle's house for the day and got to the hospital about 5:45 AM. I got checked into my room and got all the monitors on me. And I was having contractions already! (I could have told them that everyday for the past week). But they weren't regular or strong so they started the PIT and we settled in for the day. The baby was just like Alysha was- it wouldn't leave the monitor alone, so we saw A LOT of the nurse as she had to frequently come hold the monitor on my belly so the computer would stop freaking out. Loren and I tried to get some sleep as we hadn't gone to bed til very late the night before trying to get last minute things done.

I kept getting checked and I wasn't progressing as quickly as I wanted to, especially about 10 when the contractions started coming much stronger. They were coming about on top of each other, without a break, but my water still hadn't broken and the nurse said I was only at a 3cm. So finally about 11 I convinced her to get the anesthesiologist for my epidural.

After getting my epidural I was magically at a 6cm and about 10 minutes later my water broke on it's own. So when the DR came to check me at 12:30 and he said it wouldn't be much longer I rejoiced!

About 2 o'clock the nurse checked me and sent someone to call the Dr as I was very ready to deliver. He got there and coached Loren a little bit and at 3:03 PM Loren delivered our little Evelyn Joy.  She had the cord wrapped around her neck, but she starting crying right away and was JUST FINE!

I made sure the nurse knew that I wanted to breastfeed right away so as soon as the Dr was out and she was cleaned up I fed her, hoping to establish that good habit early. I really wanted breastfeeding to work for me this time. So far so good! It's been 6 weeks and Evelyn is growing really well and hasn't had any formula.

Anyway, we visited with a little family that night and then settled down to just be with the baby. Luckily Loren's parents were willing to come up and watch Aly so he could spend that night with me in the hospital. Not that he wakes up at night ;) but it was nice to have him there. The next day we got the ok from both my and Evelyn's drs to go home, but they both wrote in their notes to discharge Wednesday, so when we tried to leave later Tuesday afternoon, we got met with a little resistance from the nurse. Finally they got ahold of both drs to make sure we were good to go and to get me a Rx for pain meds (:)) and we took our little family home!

The past few weeks have definitely taken some adjustments, but we've grown so much together learning about this new little girl that's come into our lives. She's definitely different from Alysha, but that's what makes it fun :). And we feel so much more relaxed this time around too.

Yesterday we had the opportunity to have our family over and blessed Evy at church. It was such a wonderful experience and we're so grateful for all the support that we received and for everyone that traveled to be with us. (Which was basically everybody :))

Back-Blogging

Moving weekend


We were so blessed by all the people that came to help us this weekend! We closed on our house early Friday morning, the 1st of March. It really didn't take that long and then we were just waiting for it to finish getting processed. We thought about going out to celebrate, but we really just wanted to be out of the apartment so we went back there to finish packing. In the afternoon we got the keys and starting taking loads over ourselfs in the back of our van. We got a good lot packed in there and made a couple trips. Then some friends from the ward (and Alysha's favorite baby-sitters) came over to help and we made a couple good trips in their suburban, while Alysha stayed at their house with their kids. Then I got left at the house while Loren went back to the apartment to help the Elder's Quorum load up. They put it all in a couple trucks and only made 2 trips! There were SOOO many of them, including most of the Young Men from the ward too. One Brother even stayed afterwards and set up a bed for us. Then we went and picked up Aly and CRASHED. We were exhausted.
The next morning we celebrated moving at IHOP and headed to the apartment for what we thought would be 3 hours of cleaning. Over 10 hours later we were glad for the relief society, angry with our landlord, thankful to be out of there, and just happy to be home-owners! 
Making the adjustment to the new ward has been slow-going. We encountered the same kind of mentality from some people that we had at our last ward- mainly that they thought we'd moved into the apartments across the street from our house and therefore weren't all that apt to getting to know us. But since we've pushed that rumor away, people are getting a little bit more friendly and we're slowly starting to make friends.

Ready

Had our final walk-through of the house yesterday. I'm just ready to be moved in! Friday can't come fast enough. We met the sellers too. They seemed nice enough. Luckily all the repairs are done and they're finished moving out so now we're just waiting to sign paperwork so we can get the keys. I have the feeling it's going to be a long night Friday.

Had another DR appointment today. As it gets closer I start to feel like I'm living there. 50% effaced and the baby's in the perfect position. So now we just need to keep her there for a few more weeks. I don't think that's problem. She doesn't really have much room to move so I can't see her presenting breach. She has a nice heartbeat of 165 and the PA says she thinks she's doing just perfectly.

Last night was SO weird. Loren and I were hooked on a couple intense episodes of Grey's Anatomy so we were awake a lot longer than usual and Alysha started crying about 1:30 and instead of letting her cry back to sleep we got up to see what the problem was. She started crying that she needed to go potty, so I took her to sit on it. She didn't do anything and I led her back to bed where she told me she wanted to watch "Ellen". We watch the Ellen show every day. I told her it wasn't on so she told me to turn on Elmo's World. Obviously I wasn't going to let her up to sit on the couch and watch Elmo's world in the middle of the night, so she started crying uncontrollably for Elmo's World. It was so bizarre! We finally got her back to sleep after a drink of milk and a drink of water and letting her cry for a few more minutes. I don't think she was actually awake for any of that. It was just so unlike her! Usually if she wakes up in the middle of the night she's back to sleep super quickly. But I wonder if all this moving stress and the coming baby is starting to wear off on her a little bit. Cuz the night before that she tried to move into our bed for the first time in a long time and Loren just led her back to bed and she fell right back asleep. But anyway we didn't get to sleep until 2:30 and now I'm SO exhausted. Less than 5 hours of sleep is really not enough for me whether I'm pregnant or not!

I'm trying to remember a few more of the hilarious things she's doing lately. She's got such a personality and talks NONSTOP. But I've got pregnancy brain and if I don't write it down immediately I am not remembering it for longer than a few minutes. Sorry Aly!

Follow-Up

So got my hips adjusted and I was impressed. It was super easy. And it made me feel better simply because the DR confirmed that something was wrong! My left hip was up higher than my right and my L4 vertebrae and sacrum were twisted in opposite directions and stuck there. I feel immediate relief when I sat up after getting it fixed, although I did feel a bit of muscle soreness for a little bit afterwards. But I knew the true test was going to come the next morning when I woke up and tried to get out of bed. I slept so much better last night. It was WAY easier to roll over and I didn't feel like crying once an hour. Getting out of bed was much easier this morning. I still feel lots of stretching and soreness in my upper belly after walking around, but I think I just need a support belt. Anybody used one? Is it worth it to buy one for 5 remaining weeks, or not worth the money?

Been spending the afternoons each day packing and I'm starting to make a dent...I think...I've got most of my clothes all packed and all our books. Loren's got most of his clothes packed too and our pots and pans, etc. I think next I'm going to start tackling Alysha's room. She doesn't play with half her toys anyway and heaven knows she has way more 2T clothes than she's going to wear in the next week. Saturday's going to be the biggest packing day for us. Moving most our stuff to the garage so it's out of the way and then it's just waiting for our closing day to get here. Less than a week!

Relief

So as I said in the last post, I've been having horrible hip pain. Walking, sitting, rolling, they're all painful. So I brought it up at my last DR appointment and I was worried that she'd say, that's normal for pregnancy, get over it. But luckily she didn't! Instead I'm going into the DR today to have my hips adjusted and hopefully put back into alignment. She said that the ladies that she's known having this done have walked out of the DR office feeling like doing cartwheels! So hopefully that's me :).


We also heard back from the sellers finally about the repairs. They should all be done by the end of this week! Which means we're on track to close and move early next week. So it's been moving and cleaning for us this week. Hopefully we'll be set to have everything ready to go by the end of Saturday night. Loren's been such an amazing help. I feel like garbage, literally every day. I have a hard time standing up long enough to take a shower without feeling like taking a nap afterwards. So he's been doing the majority of the packing so far, which truth be told, he's much better at it than I am anyway.