Hmmm

I know it's awful... I went off and had another baby and then decided to just clam up. In all honesty I keep coming up with great things to write, but writing with Peanut in my arms is a challenge. She likes to cuddle. She's doing well - though we (meaning her and I) have thrush which means we're both on medicine which sucks. I had pneumonia to ring in the new year with and that meant I ended up on antibiotics which in turn meant Peanut ended up with thrush. Ick ick ick. No fun for all parties involved. She is growing like a little weed.

Squeaker on the other hand is a ball of energy. He still is in love with her and says "Peanut loves me" all dramatically. He also wants to hold her all the time. One day I had her in the exersaucer and he was watching a movie... I was in the kitchen. When I came out of the kitchen no Peanut in the exersaucer... she was in his arms in the chair. When asked how this happened he said "I picked her up." and I told him that he isn't supposed to do that. His response - "She not crying" with a shrug of the shoulders. We then got into a debate about his little sister not narcing on him and that if Nana catches him his tail feathers will be on fire.

Christmas was great fun around here - in Squeaker's words "holy smokes" when he walked out Christmas morning... however with the holidays also comes the in laws... and with the in laws comes Squeaker acting like a royal pita. Nana finally got to see it in action. Part of it is because he doesn't see them that often, but it also is them... they don't say no. There is no discipline from them so Squeaker thinks he can run roughshod all over them and he does. It's like my sweet son becomes a caveman when they're here. D says it's because they encourage it and truthfully they do... I have yet to figure out how to tackle this problem with them. It's frustrating for everyone and it doesn't help Squeaker. They want to be "THE GRANDPARENTS!!!!!" not just Papa and Grandma. They went over the top for presents for him - yet Nana got him clothes and every time he opened a present from Nana he said "A sweatshirt! Thank you Nana!" I just don't think they get it... and I don't know how to help them to. :S

Life is good... I'll try to post more. I promise. Below are two pictures - one of Squeaker in all his suspender glory - which a friend gave him a tool kit which included real tools, suspenders, and a hard hat. D says her daughter will be getting a drum set marked for 7-12 year olds. Also Peanut is pictured saying hi guys!

Squeaker and a Peanut

Wow has time flown by or what? It seems like yesterday was the day Peanut came into our world, however it has been 16 weeks.

Squeaker is still in love with her, but he is finally getting a bit gentler with her. She's going to grow up to be a tough girl I'm sure with all the LOVE her brother gives her. She's a fairly happy baby which makes things easier for everyone. She eats better than her brother ever did. Which means - breastfeeding once we got in the swing of things was monumentally easier with her than it was with her brother. However - she threw us into a panic right before I went to work with her sudden dislike of a bottle... I ended up buying $60 worth of bottles and finally we were able to find one that she would take... My mom was in a panic and kept repeating over and over - I never knew a baby who wouldn't take a bottle. After we got that issue resolved my mom spoke with her P.A. about it and he told her his daughter was the same way - which was nice to have it validated by someone else because good lord knows I know nothing :)

In other news - Nana has become obsessed with Peanut's pooping or lack there of... I on the other hand don't worry about it. D has told my mom that she worries if Peanut's not pooping and worries if she is, so would she just leave his little girl alone about her pooping habits - she's fine. He also told her that if she spent as much time worrying about herself as she does about everyone else she'd be in great condition. Although my mom is a closet hypochondriac so she worries about everyone and herself.

Things here have finally gotten easier... by easier I mean, I am finally human... after Peanut was born and while D was home for 3 weeks things were rough... D and Squeaker were at each other's throats and I was finding myself biting my tongue from yelling at them as well as my mother. This was not normal for me... at about the 6 week mark I knew it wasn't normal for me. So I called my OB and their response was to see a counselor. I did... and then at my 7 week follow up appt I spoke with my OB about it and he said "Did we start you on something?" I told him no, the nurse told me you wanted me to see a counselor... he apologized profusely and said that he was not the one spoken to about it, and here is your prescription... but to continue seeing the counselor. So I did all the free appts that my employee health thing gave me and then she cut me loose because she felt I was doing well and I am. So, I'm no longer seeing the counselor, but you would love how the last appt went... D went with me and thought he was going to be sitting in the playroom with Peanut... nope - he ended up in the appt with me. It was a little weird... the counselor was way too close to D's personal space... D's a cop - he doesn't like people invading his space. She gave us her thoughts that we're a fairly balanced couple and that we seem to communicate really well. It was nice to have someone acknowledge that :) D's parents don't know anything about my PPD or that we/I went to a counselor... I'm not sure D's parents would want to know about that last appt because it focused mainly on them and our relationship with them... and how that makes D feel and how I feel that his family undervalues him. They truly do not realize all they are missing out on with him and with us. Which is sad...

All in all life is good... Nana is good, Squeaker is good, Peanut is good, D is good and so am I... what more could a girl ask for? A clean house - that would be nice, but I'll have to settle for a lived in look.

The above picture was taken Oct 29th... now that I have the images I really need to get on actually making a picture card up for my Christmas cards... fun fun fun!

Shutterfly part 2

Hi there,

Those of you who commented - please let me know if you received your code. DinoD that means you :) and carebear - I need your email address otherwise I can't send a code. Melissa yours should be in your inbox as well!

Honest there will be another post soon... I promise. With pictures - stay tuned!

Shutterfly - Christmas Cards, etc

So... I know I know I'll put up a really good post shortly, but for the moment I need to write about Shutterfly. Primarily because they're being very generous and giving me 50 free cards.

I've used shutterfly for about 6 years now and have made our <a href="http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards">Christmas cards with them for quite a few as well. I generally come up with 3 or 4 designs and then have D help to choose which one to go with. Every year I have been pleased with the results. Shutterfly's customer service is great as well. A few years ago - must have been 2007 because it was a mug for Papa as a Christmas gift - it was delivered, but it was broken. I called and they immediately sent a replacement. I've also had problems with printing on a mug and they sent a new one without questions.

When Peanut was born I knew I would go ahead and do her http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/birth-announcements">birth announcements by shutterfly and I did. I was again pleased with the results - there were a variety of options from expensive to not so expensive. I ended up going with the not so expensive, but I will admit to being tempted by the more expensive options.

Over the years I've also made a number of tp://www.shutterfly.com/photo-books">photo books including one with all the pictures from Peanut's first two weeks and the photo shoot from that. I've got probably 4 photo books that I've kept and I've tried to do a photo book for the grandparents at least once a year. They love it. I have found that Squeaker oddly enough loves photo books of his family. He sits and looks at the pictures probably once or twice a week if not more frequently.

The gist of all this is that I love shutterfly and use them regularly and store my pictures online there as well. This post was sponsored by shutterfly and I have 3 gifts to give to the first 3 commenters on this post :)

Baby Girl Has arrived

At 1:04 pm I became the mother to a beautiful baby girl. Cecelia Elise was born at 1:04 pm and is 6 lbs 11 oz and 19 inches long. So far she's nursing like a champ and is doing great. I am doing well as well. I've been up walking once so far. Biggest challenge of the second c-section was getting her out - she didn't want to come out so there was quite a bit of tugging/pushing. They delayed cord clamped and got her to me to nurse pretty quickly. Overall a great experience. The nurses were wonderful and I have a great room which is really nice.

Stay Tuned...

Sometime today - most likely tonight there will be an announcement with pictures. I'm going to leave it to your imagination as to what that is, but it'll be up.

Wow...

I have two night shifts left before I start my maternity leave... tonight and tomorrow night. Now to get through them. I've been pretty fortunate to be able to tolerate the 12 hour shifts without too much pain, exhaustion, etc so I'm hopeful the last two should be fine. In theory of course :)

I will be 38 weeks on Wednesday. I'm still in awe that I'm pregnant still this has been a blessing as D has come up with project after project to complete. The current one is that he'd like me to wait to have baby girl until after they complete a deck off the back patio door in the next two days. Gee no pressure. Did I not tell all of you that D is a comedian?

I'm still trying to get things around and make sure I have all items completed, but to be honest while the spirit is willing the motivation is lacking.

So nothing to see here... will keep you posted though.

36 weeks 2 days

I now have been pregnant 4 days longer than I was with Squeaker... I made it through 6 nights of work (with one night off in there so it was 3 on, one off, 3 on) and am now happy to say that I can hopefully get a few things accomplished like packing that pesky bag for the hospital in case something happens. My placenta has officially been classified as low lying but still on the border so it's a wait and see kind of game as to what's going to go on with that. We've chosen after a lot of considerable thought, consideration and listening to what my physician has to say that a VBAC is probably not the best option for me at this time. I'm okay with that. D is as well so that is where we stand.

I am still trying to plug away at my list of things to accomplish before baby girl arrives... that would include packing a bag. The car seat is installed so that's at least taken care of and Squeaker's swing set that has been sitting in our garage since April when we bought it is now completely put up (only 57 steps, 3 people and 4 days). I'm going blueberry picking today and hope to freeze some of my bounty and take some blueberry trifle to a blessingway for another momma on a natural parenting board I'm on. I also hope to stop at work and work for an hour to get a few things done there so I can not worry about them kind of thing.

Tonight I couldn't sleep so this could be interesting to say the least. My goal of 37 weeks is just around the corner... Watch I make it to the scheduled c-section date :) It'd be a new thing for me.