New House, New Beginnings

Lets try to get back in to this.... 

Since I discovered Instagram, that's kind of taken over as my blogging. I feel like it's redundant to post pictures there, then sometimes Facebook, and then here. Who wants that many repeats? BUT, I have at least ONE friend (ahem, Konnie) that is smart enough not to get involved with Facebook so I'll at least update her with the blog.... occasionally. Maybe. I really can't make any promises. I happened to be bored tonight. 

So, we sold our house! We listed it on a Thursday, then by a freak accident we got an offer on it on Saturday. It was amazingly fast. Ryan and I had been going back and forth on where we wanted to move. We thought we had found the perfect place in Centerville, but the realtor over those properties deserves a swift kick in the throat, so he dashed our dreams to pieces and we had to start over. We originally thought we would just move in with Ryan's parents, but then a house that we had gone to see a couple of times because we were interested in building in the neighborhood just started to make more sense. Ryan wanted new and this spec was already built. So the timing was perfect. We closed on both houses on May 8th and moved in to the new one on May 9th. 

The front lawn has grass now, but everything else is pretty much the same. We're excited about the new neighborhood and be so incredibly close to Legacy Trail. Our neighbors have chicken so maybe we can bum some fresh eggs off of them. Exciting? Yes. Everything is still a mess inside, so you won't get any lived in pictures just yet. Lets be honest, it will probably be at least a year. 

Beta Baby

Gretchen is seriously the best baby every. She rarely cries, and she is VERY easy to get smiling. She's an okay sleeper... I've compounded the problem by rocking her to sleep every time she naps. She has a hard time getting to sleep by herself, but at night she will go 5-7 hours. She's definitely a second child, because I've lost all the papers that tell you what percentile she is in.... Nice. I do remember though, that she was in the 92 percentile for height and somewhere around 50 for weight.

Wilson is still adjusting. For the most part he acts as though she's not there. He doesn't play with her or touch her, but once in a while he will ask to hold her. I tried to get some pictures of the both of them, but he wouldn't sit next to her for more than a second.

A conversation with Ryan

We got crazy tonight after finishing Harry Potter an the Deathly Hallows part one at ten-thirty.... Crazy by starting part two that late. I normally don't stay up later than 11, because I'm getting old. (it's true, my knees crackle and everything). But I haven't seen it so I was just too tempted.

Me: "I'm probably going to fall asleep in the middle."

Ryan "That's okay, that will give me a chance to act it out tomorrow for you with socks."

Socks huh? I sure do love my nerd.

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My Day

I learned a few lessons today. Thought I'd share my newfound wisdom.

1) Wilson is hard. (I really already knew that) He is as stubborn as his parents. And he can go from happy to sad just like that. (picture me snapping) Here is a picture on the way too (sad and crying) and coming home (happy and adorable) from Costco today.

2) Don't put your keys on the front seat while strapping your baby in the car. I did that last night... And then shut the door... Which means I locked Gretchen in the car... In the Target parking lot.... Right when it started to snow... And I was wearing Toms so my feet were very cold and wet... It was actually quite funny in a sad way. Gretchen was crying the whole time as I walked around and around the car waiting for my AMAZING friend to bring me my spare key. Another AMAZING friend came down too, so I had a warm car to sit while waiting for the keys. All in all it took about 20 minutes, but I felt really bad for Beta.

3) Check the weather before you leave the house (see above story). Who knew Toms actually get SMALLER when wet...

4) I really enjoy driving in the snow. I like to pretend I'm flying the Millennium Falcon into *light speed.

*I had originally put 'warp' speed there, but then asked Ryan to proof read my post. He informed me that Warp speed is a Star Trek term and Light speed is what the Millennium Falcon did. He said, and I quote, "you sound like a doofus"... 

Anger Management

My house looked like this...




After frantically looking for this...




To stop this...




The Soothie pacifiers are my favorite because they don't have any seams to collect junk in, and they supposedly help with nipple confusion.

However: they are the WORST because they have no hole to put a bink clip through, and when they fall they tend to bounce and roll away at the most inconvenient times.

So I modified it with some scissors...




Now I'm betting she gets some chafing on her chin from the ribbon. Oh well. I'm willing to risk it.

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Oh the Humanity!

Three weeks later is a good time to blog about the birth of Gretchen, right? Long enough that I look back at it with fondness rather than terror? Ummmm, no. But I should tell the story anyway. For my posterity. Sorry Gretchen, it wasn't "the most precious moment in my life."

I started having contractions around 10 at night on September fifth. That's a week past her due date. Yup... So anyway, I was having contractions... They weren't too bad and I was handling them. I thought I should probably get some sleep because I knew I'd be exhausted if I was doing this for two days like with Wilson. Only problem was, I was too anxious to sleep knowing that we would have a baby soon-ish. So I got up and walked around the house and FINALLY packed a bag. By that time the contractions were getting a little closer so I REALLY thought I should get some sleep.... But unfortunately they were also stronger and there was no way I was sleeping through them.

We left for the hospital around one or two in the morning, when we got there I was having contractions less than 5 minutes apart. The nurse looked at me skeptically when we checked in because my water hadn't broke, but I knew being a week overdue they'd admit me regardless.

I really wanted to go natural with this baby. I really, truly did... I read the book about Hypnobirthing and "practiced" the techniques. I did the breathing, I tried to relax my body... but little known fact about me (sarcasm).... I have a hard time relaxing. I knew it would be a problem, but I just hoped I could work through it. I couldn't. At all. I tried the breathing, I tried the different positions, I tried to relax my body during the horrific contractions but I definitely couldn't do that either. They were coming around 2-3 minutes apart, they felt like they were ripping my insides, and I was shaking ridiculously bad when I wasn't having contractions. When the nurse checked me again around 5 in the morning I was still only dilated to a 5. Yeah... that was when I told Ryan I NEED the epidural. He was really hesitant at first because I had made such a big deal about him being supportive about no drugs. But I knew I could never relax my body enough to let it naturally dilate any more. I was pretty much hysterical, no lie. So Ryan wanted to film me saying I wouldn't be mad at him for letting me get the epidural.... but then a contraction came and I told him I would kill him if he filmed me during one. I was getting mean. Hysterical and mean. The anesthesiologist came in... tried to get me to stay still so he could juice me. but I was shaking so bad and FREAKING out (I'm not kidding, I'm sure the people in the room thought I was going overboard... I don't have a history of that or anything...) that he was getting mad at me. He even decided to give me a spinal block because I was so out of control.

After the drugs I immediately calmed down and was pretty embarrassed about my behavior. I tried to apologize but the anesthesiologist wouldn't even respond. Oh well, I'll never see him again... After that I finally got some sleep. It was wonderful. I still hated the feeling of being drugged, but at least I could relax and I had stopped shaking. After the epidural, the nurse went to go find someone to break my water but that took two hours for some reason. Around seven they did that... a little over an hour they checked me again and I was finally at a ten. The nurse assured me that because this was my second it wouldn't take as long to push as it did with Wilson (2 hours), but she was WRONG. Why? Because Gretchen was one Big Baby. All I remember the doctor and nurse saying while pushing was that she was going to be a big one.

And at 10:12 am on September 6th, my nameless baby was born. It took us until the day we left the hospital to finally decide on Gretchen. She was 8 pounds 14 ounces and 21 inches. I'm not going to lie, I'm a little disappointed that she wasn't just 2 ounces more so I could brag about birthing my nine pounder. 

Bare Knuckled

Ryan thought he would death march the baby out of me by making me go to the zoo in the 95° heat. It didn't work. But with Wilson being incredibly whiny these days I thought it would be a good outing for him.




Hogle Zoo has a special "exhibit" that has dinosaurs placed throughout the park that move and make noise. Wilson did not like them. He would cling to Ryan for dear life any time we got close to one.

He liked the orangutans. We got the added show of one throwing up and eating it. Twice. We even splurged and rode the the little train around the park, hence Wilson's adorable happy face right before it started.



So I'm still pregnant and I never thought I'd still be. I'm getting anxious. Get her the heck out of me!




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