Baby Post

Lets get ready to go to the hospital and have a baby!!!

Haha, not this early! 

But I have been picking up a few things here and there for my first few days with a newborn and thinking about what things I will bring this time around, and what things I will be leaving at home. 

So, here is my list. Its pretty thorough, get ready to learn.....not really. Probably the least thorough list out there. Enjoy anyway!!

Things Im bringing this time:

These. My milk always comes in the day after I have the baby, and I always wind up engorged at the hospital. Its no fun. I am very thankful that I have a good milk supply, but I do wish my body would give me a little break. I mean, I thought I was supposed to have a couple days of just colostrum? Negative. The booby tubes will be awesome to either heat up in the microwave or freeze for some relief. Go here if you want a pair.

Milkies! My friend Emily introduced me to these after she had her little boy and I was blown away. You put it in your bra or shirt on the opposite boob you are feeding on and it collects all of the leaky milk. I can't tell you how excited I am about this. My method with the other two has been to either just waste all the liquid gold into a breast pad, or to hold a little bottle to catch the milk. Not the most effective way! You can get them here.

*Huge underwear. When I had Ryder, St. Vincents was super liberal with the mesh panties, handing them out left and right. It was awesome. Then when I went back to have Lucy I didnt find a huge stock in the bathroom like before. And when I sent George to ask the nurse where they were she whispered that she would try to sneak me a couple of pair. Um what? Why are the mesh panties on lockdown? Im not sure what the mesh situation is at Northport DCH, but I am coming prepared this time. I recently switched practices and this will be my first time having a baby in town. Im excited! PS: do not try to do an amazon search of mesh underwear. I did, and it is not pretty. 

*Bottle brush and dish soap. Even though I plan on breastfeeding, there will be plenty of things that need washing. Like breast pump parts. Pain in my ass.

Now, things I will not be bringing this time around:

*Diapers and wipes. Even though I know they provide them, I always bring a couple "just in case". Just in case of what? I can't imagine I would run out of an entire pack of newborn diapers within 3-4 days. And even if I did, Im pretty sure they would swing another pack my way. 

*Thongs. Yep. When I went to the hospital with Ryder I brought thongs. The only logical reason I can think of is that back then I wore them all the time and thought they were comfortable. I think thats when a "panty line" was a no-no. Who even talks about that anymore? these days if I am sporting a thong its because I haven't done laundry in forever and they are they only things available in the ole underwear drawer. 

anyway, thats all I can think of. Hope everyone had a great Christmas :)

Confession

In case you didn't know, I still have a little bit lot of my 14 year old self in me.

I love stupid Rom-Coms(except 27 dresses. horrid movie), am a diehard Twilight fan, I think Zac Efron is supa hot, and I love Glee.

I also love the song Oh Holy Night. It's my favorite Christmas song, so when Rachel sang it in the last episode of Glee I was beyond excited.

Whenever I talk about how amazing of a singer she is George always responds with "Auto-tune". Whatever man, I dont care if she is auto-tuned a tad, she still sounds awesome.

Also, her dress is so pretty. I want to go snatch one up as soon as I pop Finn out and wear it everyday of my life. And in case you are in need of this beautiful gown for real, and want to drop a crap load of cash, you can go here to get it. I know, Im a weirdo and searched out where to buy it. Im telling you, I love it.

So, if you want a dose of Oh Holy Night, watch the clip!

Thanks

Im a little late on a doing a thankful post I guess. But for some reason when the majority of people are on a bandwagon and doing something I just reject it. I wont even allow my brain to think about the same thing, and in this case it kind of happened with all these thankful posts that were popping up all November.

Recently though, I have been overwhelmed with a sense of thankfullness. Probably from being really frustrated. Ive been so ill about things that I think maybe God made me be still and quiet.

Ive been so frustrated with everyone in my house being sick, so so so frustrated with the lack of progress on the house, and oh about a million and one other things on my ridiculous list of complaints.

So, here is my smallish list of things I have stopped and appreciated over the past week and am glad about.

Wait, one more second. Just wanted to say if you actually read my last blog post....well, you deserve a freaking cookie. I reread over that piece of garbage last night, and let me say, I sounded drunk and as if I only completed the 8th grade. Sorry about that!

Moving along....

1. Cuddling with Lucy. There is something so sweet about being wrapped up in a blanket with my daughter. She has the most beautiful and softest hair ever. I have always been a hair twirler, and playing with her hair while she's in my lap is super therapeutic for me. 

2. My 4-Runner. Ever since I was 13 years old my dream car has been a black 4-Runner with leather and a sunroof. I remember when the girl who lived across the street from me got one for her 16th birthday. She was about 3 years older than me, and man did I think she was awesome. She's not why I wanted one, but staring at hers every single day only intensified my love. I told my dad about 15,000 times i wanted one and he always laughed at me as if it was unrealistic. Although I did drive a super sweet cougar.....which I think was a crapload more than an older model 4-Runner, but whatever. The point is, I have my dream car now. And I still love it as much as I did when I was 13. 

3. Last night I was driving alone on University Blvd headed to Publix. They had the quad lit up with luminaries, oh it was so beautiful. Those few seconds I had to stare at the lights as I drove by made me smile.

4. Starbucks Salted Caramel Mocha Frappuccino. First of all, Caramel and Mocha mixed together is one of my all time favorite flavors, but the fact that they have now added a little salt to the mix is blowing my mind. SO GOOD. But only in frap form. If you get it hot the salt just disolves and you dont get little chunks of salt to hit your tongue. That, people, is the best part of adding the salt in the first place.

Well, that completes my little list. Obviously this isnt everything I am thankful for, just a few things that have hit me over the course of the week and put my stressed out mind at ease. Sometimes it's good to count your random blessings. Even if you do have to wait until everyone is done with their thankful posts before you think about it.

 

Planning for the future

I have been sick for the past 5 days. The Flu. Not something you want to have at all, let alone while pregnant. 

Since I have been laying around in bed for the past 3 days I have had a lot of time to sleep, poke around online, and cough cough cough.....and pee on myself every single time I cough. It is one of the more annoying things in life.

Anyway, all this time to lay around and think and be halfway conscious has given me a chance to sort of asses our families routines (um, lack thereof) and annoyances and think about ways to address them.

Our closing date on our house is coming closer and closer. Sort of. Our realtor called us and said we need to pick a closing date because all thats left to do on our house is carpet and landscape. Lies. We told her December 14, and if thats not doable then December 21st. We will see. If all there is left to do is carpet and landscape then I guess they weren't planning on installing a single light in our home, because there are none to speak of. Also, no mirrors in any of the bathrooms. Also, no shelving or cabinets in the pantry or laundry room. Hmm, seems to me there is a bit more than carpet and landscaping......

Anyway, I have this dream scenario built up in my head that I am daily trying to vanquish because I know it is not reality. I picture us being the kings and queens of organization, being routine masters, and everything being incredibly spotless. Our lives will always run in such a smooth manner and in my little daydream I am sitting on the couch in a big comfy T shirt and leggings holding Finn while Ryder and Lucy happily play upstairs. Somehow I am also 50 lbs lighter....I guess I am really counting on breastfeeding to work its weightless magic this time. Im ca-razy.

Anyway, I am so so so anxious to move though because I dont feel it worth it to start a new type of routine while we are still living in the matchbox. *Disclaimer: I am not saying that my house is so freaking small and how could anyone live in only 900 square feet with one bathroom, I am simply saying that at this point in our lives we have an almost 5 year old (next month! agh!) a 2 year old, and a baby on the way. So for us, this house is too small. We've paid our dues people, we have lived here for 6 years.

We are boxing up everything, and living on bare necessities. 

Right now my family is in survival mode. Even more so since all of us have been sick. George is at the doctor right now getting checked for the Flu. We are just trying to make it by until we can move...and we are miserable. I normally dont repin a ton of "mommy" type stuff on Pinterest. Like 50 things mothers of sons should know.....blah blah. I am a mother of a son, I got this. However I did pin something yesterday that i was happy about. I was drawn to it because the picture of the pin was a planner. If you know me at all, you know I love a good planner and routine. So I had to check it out. Here is the blog it sent me to.

I loved the part where she said that when she was pregnant she feels like she was just in survival mode. Thats so comforting to hear from an established mom. When you are only pregnant with your first, its a completely different ball game than when you already have kids. And Im not here to act like I am about to have my 3rd kid so I am a book of knowledge and you silly mommies with one dont know how good you have it. Because I remember what it feels like to just be pregnant with or only have one child. So many things are uncertain and your life is changing so dramatically. Its an insane roller coaster of emotions. Never does your life change so much as when you have your first child. I dont care how many more you have, at that point you are just adding to the life you already have, not taking on something completely new. I remember crying all the time because I thought George and I would grow apart, and being so desperate for company when Ryder was born. Its a lonely first year and a half when its your first. So it's nice to know that other moms of more than one are just trying to survive. Because thats what we are doing up in here. I feel like George and I should be wearing army gear and Ryder and Lucy are the assailants. 

So, what exactly are we surviving from? Well, Ryder is super super hyper and wound up most of the time. Hello he is a boy. Who loves Karate. Why do they all love karate? So most of his life consists of punching and kicking this socker bobber punching bag we got him which has been a lifesaver. Im not exaggerating, he did his "ninja training" on that thing for over 2 hours straight yesterday. Just punching and kicking in his room. What. So now that we have given him an outlet for his ninja ways we have curbed some of the frustration that comes along with having a crazy boy. But then there is the frustration with the eating. This kid lately has been trying to eat each meal in two different time frames. He will eat half of his meal, claim he is full because he wants to go play, then come back 1-2 hours later and claim he is starving again. OR, he will tell us his belly hurts, and he cant eat anymore, but then will try to sit right beside George and stuff his hands in the Doritios bag. This happened last night. Um no. If your stomach is hurting and you cant eat your breakfast for supper then you certainly cant eat cheesy Doritos. Nice try buddy. 

Lucy. Lucy has me reaching for the parenting books....on sleep. Im not really in the loop on all these different sleep training methods. I know the phrases or words: Ferberizing, CIO, babywise, etc. But Im going to be honest, I have no idea what the hell they mean. I dont know wether to be for or against a certain method. Obviously, I know what cry it out means, and am all for it if you can stand it. And I dont mean in a "I just cant stand to hear my baby cry, it breaks my heart sort of way", I mean stand it as in your blood pressure not shooting up to the breaking point because the sound grates on your nerves. Let me tell you something. I cant stand it. I just cant. So, I have decided to buy the No Cry Sleep Solution. I read through a couple of the preview pages on Amazon and it doesnt seem too looney tunes. Granted I only got to read to page 8 in the book preview, but it got 4.5 stars in the reviews so I am willing to give it a go. This girl is 2.5 and wakes up in the middle of the night most nights and getting her to go to sleep at all is a nightmare. She used to be super awesome at it. We have never rocked and sang and stood and patted backs on any of our children, we just lay them down. I dont know what the deal is all of the sudden. 

The blog I linked above also had some good ideas for cleaning stations for children, and giving one child a thumbs up and a little prize or sticker or token towards a reward system at the end of each day. I liked that. I like positive reinforcement. 

So, we are currently just surviving. Schedules, and routines have been thrown out the window lately. But we are trying to get back on track, reassess, and come up with a new game plan. 

Thanks for letting me vent :) I realize I just wrote a novel. I guess I am making up for all the time I haven't been blogging it up. 

Now, let me go back to sleep because my head is spinning. Oh, ps: word of advice: if you are able, and they are able, dont move away from grandparents when you have children. My mom has been such an amazing help over the past few days while we have been sick. She has Ryder now, he is the only one who has gotten over this crud, and Lucy is sleeping away a fever right now. I am so thankful for my mom and mother-in-law for being so close by and helpful. 

Ok. Bye :)

Home Sweet NEW Home!!!!

Aside from my wedding day and the days my children were and are going to be born, the day I hold the keys to my brand spanking new home will be the best day of my life.

And guess what? Its so close I can almost touch it. We put a contract on the house Saturday, and got a mortgage with the builder's mortgage lender. If you go through them you get $3,000 off closing costs AND $3,000 in upgrades. Hello beautiful FREE wooden blinds and screens for all of the windows!!

In case you didnt know, we have been searching and searching and searching for well over a year for the perfect home and hoping that someone would become interested in our house...all without really putting it on the market. I know that sounds weird to say, but 4 people in a 900 square foot space and being pregnant doesnt exactly mean its easy to keep a house "show" ready all the time. Its next to impossible actually. I have just been praying and praying that God would just kind of send someone to us that would love our home, and it would all work out for us to move out into a new home before we showed this one. That's a pretty hefty thing to ask for, but HE did it. I started to think I was crazy to even ask for such a thing, sending someone to us without our house being on the market AND to let us find the perfect house all in the same time? 

Turns out I am in fact NOT crazy and, as usual, God is awesome. 

So, here is what our new house will look like when its finished, which according to the realtors we talked to Saturday is approx 60 days after sheet rock starts. That sheet rock has been sitting in that house for the past 5 days. I know this because we drive out there to look at the progress each and every day. I know that sounds kind of weird, and the neighbors might think we are creepy at this point, but we have just been waiting for this for so long we cant contain the excitement!

Isn't it beautiful! I'm not crazy about that red brick, but hey that minor thing isn't going to keep me from moving in. Really its odd to me that most all of their homes have red brick, its kind of dated 90's style to me, but whatevs.

And here is the reason why we love it so much: The floor plan.

Main level:

Upstairs (aka "kid zone"):

See that "Gameroom"? That's the best part of the entire house. Its an open room right when you walk up the stairs, perfect for a playroom. My dreams of having all of the kid crap contained in one area is going to come true. It makes me teary eyed. Also, that "Opt Bedroom"? No option, its already there, and was included in the price of the home. So now, if we do decided to have that fourth nugget as planned(we try and see how life is after we add each kid to see if we can handle our dream of 4. So far, we are on track) we will have a bedroom for him or her. Ryder's room is Bedroom 3, and *Finn's room is Bedroom 4. They will share Bath 2. Lucy will be in Bedroom 2 and will have Bath 3 all to her little girly self. Her bathroom won't be in her room like the boys' will. BUT I would rather have a bathroom to myself than have to share it with one of my brothers. Plus, her closet is way bigger than theirs, which makes 100% sense to me :) So the entire upstairs is dedicated to the kids. And that optional bedroom can be a guest/craft/music (junk) room. Although I really havent been feeling very crafty lately. I used to see things on Pinterest and Etsy and be so pumped with the "HeY! I can make that!" mentality. But ever since Ive been pregnant its been "Hey, I can just buy that". Hoping after this kid is here I will have a crafty bug again.

Here is a video George took when he and Ryder went out to measure the backyard. I was freaking out that the trampoline and swing set wouldn't fit out there. But it will.....with little room to spare, but it will fit nonetheless. They don't make these backyards very big anymore :/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTTzEG41LHA&list=UUkrXyTE-RsPqgJGHSYeG8wQ&index=1&feature=plcp

*Speaking of "this kid", its a HE! And his name is Finn! Finn _____ Edmondson. We still dont have a set in stone middle name for him, but have names we are thinking on.

So this is the most exciting thing in my life right now, new baby boy and new home! Not gonna lie, at this point Im most excited about the house. Not that I am not super excited to have this gift of a child, but the house is much closer to being here and without the house I would be stressing about the baby. So the house makes everything better. We will have a room for everyone. And the absolute 100% best part? Even better than the game room? We will have more than one bathroom!!! No more waiting on the husband......you know what I mean ladies -_-.

That's it for now, I hope to take pics and blog about the progress. And that's totally fine with me, I personally think a home build is super interesting haha!

Why I left Facebook: A reminder to myself

Yesterday at about 4:00 in the afternoon I deleted my facebook account. Well, actually I deactivated it. Not really sure how you completely delete it.

I did this for lots of reasons. Time waster, people who Im not even friends with annoying me, and the realizization that I dont even really connect on FB with people I am actually best friends with, family annoys me(and I have enough reasons to be annoyed with family in real life, we dont need to be FB buddies to exacerbate the situation).

But here is the #1 reason I left:

 It makes me HATE HATE people I wouldnt normally hate if it werent for our virtual friendship on FB. People's opinions, the things they update about, the WAY they update, the frequency of their updates, all gets on my nerves. To be fair, most everything gets on my nerves. I am told this all the time by my husband.  And these are people I never even see in real life, and probably will never see! It just made me think, if I was ever to run into someone in Bham, (or better yet, see them at church) that I am facebook friends with I would automatically have a bad taste in my mouth. And they didnt even do anything. These are fine, normal, nice people. I should be able to run into acquaintances and smile happily, have small talk, and go on about my way. After all, that's the reason we are acquaintances right? We wouldnt make stellar friends in real life, our personalities clash. So why are we accessible to one another 24/7 online? 

There's no reason for it. There's just not. Somebody has my number or my email. If they NEED to get in touch with me they can, and Vice Versa. :)

The End.

Life Update

I really don't feel like writing a blog post right now. Or anytime in the near future really. But, I know I will regret it if I dont document in some way Lucy's second birthday, so here we go.

 The Mermaid Party--that wasn't.

My Luce was born on September 1, 2010. Do you know what it was doing on September 1, 2012? Oh, it was raining, and lightening, and doing what it has been doing for the past month it feels like.

I had rented out the UA Rec Center Outdoor Pool for her party. I bought Mermaid cupcake toppers and Mermaid invitations from this Etsy shop.

I bought her a beautiful purple tutu swimsuit from Baby Gap (boom, for only $4) just for her party. I had mini beach balls as party favors in purple chevron treat bags, plastic containers that were going to be filled with cotton candy and labeled "Sea Foam".

I had someone ask me if I was "going all out" with her party. Haha! No, not by the standards of the parties on the party blogs I read!

We didnt get to have her party at the pool, obviously. So my only other option was to truck it up to my church and rent a jump house. We called Parties on the Move in Bessemer within three hours of her party and they were more than happy to swing out to the church and set one up for us. Seriously, I was so surprised at how awesome they were. Not only was it 3 hours advance notice, but it was on the night of the first Alabama game. Who wants to miss the game to blow up a jump house, especially when it is pouring down rain?! I just cant say enough about them and how kind they were.

At first I was so so disappointed that we couldnt have it at the pool. I had my heart set on it and Lucy loves the "bubble", thats what she calls any form of water. But it really all worked out great. Everyone who was coming to the party except for 2 people lived up in Bessemer/McCalla anyway, so it was a win for them not having to drive all the way down to Tuscaloosa.

I didnt get to fill my containers up with sea foam :( I was good and ordered every last thing for the party a month and a half in advance, but the one thing I was putting off until the day of were those containers of cotton candy. Hey, Im allowed to have one task left over for the day of the party! But I guess I just procrastinated on purpose when it really started storming around 2:00. Her party wasn't until 6:15. So, when we made the official decision around 3:00 to move her party I didnt see any real reason to pour efforts into doing that. And hey, now I have a ton of awesome plastic containers and labels. Hello Christmas candy gifts!

Since we didnt have it at the pool there were a few things missing from the partay. Like the fact that I didnt have table cloths for any of the tables. The tables at the pool wouldnt have needed it, so the white plastic Rubbermaid tables at the church got the chance to go natural haha. Also, at the pool I was planning on tying the 14 balloons I had to the umbrella poles on the tables. Again, no such thing at the church. So we were tacky and duck taped them down. It was awesome. I paid for those freaking polka dot balloons and my awesome friend Emily got there early and blew them up for me, so we were going to use them!!

I am really glad that I didnt try to overdo it with a ridiculous amount of "cutesy" food though, among other things that I have nixed that I used to do......like striped paper straws. Let me tell you something, when kids are this little most of the time both parents are bringing the kids, which means there are men there. I have watched and not one man gets excited over a striped paper straw. I know, you cant believe it. Also, I have always thought it ridiculous to use the straws if I am offering solo cups to drink from. Please tell me who wants to sip through a little straw when you could just gulp your drink down? Im not saying that I dont love paper straws and other cutesy foods, I have just decided that maybe those will wait until Lucy is maybe 8 and invites 6 little friends over to our house for her party. Maybe then we can "go all out". I feel like that is probably way easier to do on a smaller scale, and more practical. 

And, since we were RUSHED to switch locations I looked a mess in a T-shirt with icing all over my belly and running shorts. And I dont know that we took one picture :( I did see George filming a little and my friend Devin sent me a great pic of Lucy balling her eyes out because she was afraid of the fire on the candle. Crazy kid.