One Mother Rambling Through Life

Okay so for the longest time I really thought that Mom's who went out to clubs or bars were a little less than cool. I am being honest. I was a little uniformed I think. With Stephen I never ever went out to clubs or went out drinking with my friends. I would have GNO weekly and we would go to dinner or make dinner and watch a movie. Simple. Fun. It was okay. But I did that weekly. After I had Mahalia I was dying to get out and do something that was not the same ole same ole thing. So I went O-U-T with the girls for my friends 21st b-day. Woot! It was a blast! I loved getting out drinking a little and dancing. (Disclaimer: I do not condone drinking and driving you should always find a DD or take a cab) So a few weeks later I went out with the girls again and man I loved it. It was not about being seen really but about seeing life and living. I love danicing with my girl friends and laughing about the interesting things that you see when you are out! What a rush! Now I am going out with my girls about once a month and at the most twice (only when there is a special occasion). So with this change I am having a blast with my girls but also getting more time with my babies and hubby. So it is a win win! Look at my fun pics in a slideshow below!

Here we go... A ton of photos of life in general from Mahalia's birth until well now. Enjoy the journey! They are not in any particular order.

To swaddle or not to swaddle that is the question.
Tis better to have arms restrained or arms out.

I am not sure. Stephen slept in a swaddle for the first 7 months of his life. There was no issue really. He started rolling over in his sleep in his swaddle at 7 months which is when we transitioned to not being swaddled. Mahalia started flipping over in her swaddle at 3 months. So here I was not ready to have her sleep unswaddled but her not being able to sleep in her bed because she had no arms to move herself out of the mattress. So we had her sleeping in her swaddle in her swing for a few weeks. But she then started rolling over in her swaddle in her swing. Grrr. Okay okay no swaddle and in the bed not swing. We transitioned this week which was difficult for me. She just started a growth spurt that has her not sleeping through the night again so I am dragging for now. What to do but ride it out. One day she will get back to sleeping through the night.

We have been successfully cloth diapering at home which is awesome. The daycare did not agree to cloth diaper, sore subject for me no matter what the reasons are. But at home we are doing the BG 3.0 and loving em. We have plenty of diapers and they are easy easy to use. We bought some new and some used on the swapping websites. You can't really understand the idea of buying used unless you have been cding because it is so foreign and sounds gross (I know I have been there). But it is perfectly safe and save a bundle when stocking a good stash. We have used two different detergents on our dipes. Sudzy Baby which I loved and now Rockin' Green. Sudzy Baby we had some issues with the stocking times and website difficulties plus the scenting they use is crystals that don't all go away when the wash is completed. It was driving Brad nuts, which I understand, so we switched to Rockin' Green which had a ton of great interviews. The first Rockin' Green experience was not what I expected because I expected quicker turn around on the order but due to new packaging, new location, new formula, and new equipment there were bugs to be worked out. The product is AWESOME! The scents are AWESOME! All of the product is natural and it all is gone after the wash. To come will be a slideshow of my Rocking a soak with Rockin' Green process.

Mahalia is close to crawling and should be really going any day now. As it is she gets up on her hands and knees and rocks LOL! Blazin to catch up to Stephen. Stephen loves his sister and often tries to comfort her when she is crying. They are an adorable pair of rascals growing more and more as the days pass. So here we are. Four person family with a lot of growing room and a lot of time to grow.

Wow things got crazy and here I am month and months later. Baby is here YAY! Mahalia was born on december 21st, 2009 exactly 2 yrs and 6 months after Stephen who was born on June 21, 2007. Strange! She is healthy and happy.

People always tell me not to worry becasye 2nd babies are generally slower to talk walk etc. LOL they are slower when the older sibling is interested int hem and will bring them things and talk for them... Stephen is so busy with his own little life that he does not try to talk for Mahalia and he is not bringing her anything. So she is driven to get to things on her own. She is almost crawling now but even without the word crawling she is definetly getting where she wants to be without any issues. LOL I would love for her to have taken some time to be still but she has places to go. She is so much fun to watch!

So I am very excited. I have my next sono on Wednesday and those are always great to help my calm down a bit because I will get to see my little miracle and make sure she is still a she. I am hoping that she will cooperate, unlike her brother, and do the 3d sono for us. Stephen put his hands and later feet infront of his face and would not move em for us to get the 3d shot. Oh well. We will be checking the position of the placenta which was low in that last sono. The Doctor said that 99% or more of the time the placenta moves up as the pregnancy progresses and that at this point she is not overly concerned. We will be getting a better shot of the heart and the spine because in that last sono she felt that the shots that she got were not great. She is not concerned though because the pregnancy has been progressing well. I did the glucose test at the last apt and I do not have gestational diabetes which is great news. They did find that my iron was low so I am not taking a thyroid pill in the morning with my claritin, prenatal and magnesium at lunch, and an iron tablet in the evening. I feel like that is a lot of pills but I know for a fact that others are having to take more and they aren't having to take em for preggo reasons. I am really grateful that I am remaining healthy and that thus far Mahalia has been doing well.

Stephen continues to do well. We are working on potty training which when he is in the mood he is a champ at it but when he is not wanting to mess with it he well doesn't bother. We did big boy underwear last night because he does know when he needs to go plus it does not wick away wetness and he can feel it better. But he was not in the mood to mess with going to the potty so he started by pooping in the underwear and we took him and showed him how to put it in the toilet and put on new underwear, then he came and told me he peed and I had to clean up a really small puddle in the kitchen, I changed him into his third and final pair (I really need to stock up on more underwear for him) and he peed a little bit in the living room. Needless to say we cleaned it up and put on a pullup. we were done for the night both due to not having any more big boy underwear but also because Stephen was not interested in doing it last night and I am not going to force it at this point.

Currently I am trying to nest but am not able to because as most people know a lot of nesting is done greatly through the preggo's hubby because we can't move heavy things etc. We are moving Stephen to the front room and making Stephen's nursery into Mahalia's room. Right now the current things that I am waiting for is for the filing cabinet to be moved out of the front room and Stephen's bed to be moved into its place. I already have the safety knob covers in place in front room and can get the other stuff moved once the two big things are moved.

So I guess my obsessive tracking of my time left has made some people think I am crazy but you know it makes me feel better as I see the numbers decreasing and increasing as they should since it helps me remember that this fatigue and HB will not last forever. Yay for the end and the new beginning. (Mahalia is currently kicking up a storm on one of my ribs which is good since maybe that means she has flipped out of breach.

Stephen is a champ at this potty training gig so far. Man he is the easiest little boy by far! He asks to go to the potty and he even goes into his room where his potty is takes off his dipe and then lets up know that he went potty every once and awhile. I mean we still have a little way to go on the whole bit and it won't be just this the whole time, but so far he is getting it. He knows that he needs to go and he asks to go. It is an adjustment for me to take him to the potty but it is a welcome adjustment because it means less dipes and eventually none. I am sooo proud of him. He is doing really well. He enjoys the praise and the M&M reward when he is successful. He is such a cutie.

Stephen had his first bigger boo boo on friday but he is fine. he fell at Daycare and hit his head on a cabinet. It looked terrible. He had a big goose egg, bruise, and red line that looked like a scrape but wasn't. I was afraid that he would fall and his his head all weekend because I knew if he hit the same spot he would bust it open and need stitches. I could feel where it almost busted anyway. Thankfully he did not fall again. It looks better daily and looks much better today. He had two blackish eyes on Saturday and a little left today. I was a little nervous about him being in the daycare at church because of it and that weird mommy guilt feeling that it happened. But all is good and we have moved past the bigger boo boo. He is actually getting tired of the attention to his boo boo if you belive that. But he has been a great sport all along and Daddy enjoyed their Friday night bonding time (while mommy was out for Girl's Night Out) when Stephen would ask for Daddy to kiss his "fworehead".

I had my OB apt on Wednesday last week and Mahalia was doing well. HB in the 150's. I went over my list of unhappy symptoms and got some feedback and a list of OTC's to try to help the current situation. later my OB called and told me that there were some issues in the Sono I did around 16 weeks that she thought I should know about and that she forgot to mention in the appointment. They did not get a good shot of her heart which this was at 16 weeks so most of the shots I rememeber were difficult because so far anytime anyone tries to get Mahalia to cooperate with scans has had to work at it. And there was also not a good shot of the spine. The OB is not worried about it at this point but they will do another sono soon to look at those things. Also my placenta was low and that worries them since up to this point had I called about spotting and bleeding they would have dismissed it a bit as long as it was not heavy and accompanied with cramping/pain but with a low placenta it could be a lot more serious. That is also something that will be looked at in the next sono. Soooo I will have another sono at some point soon which is either 2 - 4 wks. I have my next apt on the 10th which is 2 wks from my last so I am not sure if it will happen then or not. I know that my dreaded sugar test will be at my next apt. Drinking the yucky glucose stuff waiting for an hour and then testing the sugar levels. FYI to self no excessive sugar that morning at breakfast or lunch. I am hoping for another sono sooner rather than later to know all is well but I also hope that this sono does not take the place of the sono that is generally later in the pregnancy. Oh well.

Girl's Night Out AKA GNO is my one night out away from home with friends to relax watch a movie and not worry about responsibility as much. I get GNO every Friday night unless something happens and we arrange ahead of time for a different night. Which is rare. So this is the one night for Stephen and Brad to have bonding time together and they love it generally. There used to be a Boys Night Out on Thursday but some changes in social groups for Brad has changed it to not as standard of a night. It is okay by me. The rule of thumb is that we have to be respectful of one another and return at a decent time unless otherwise discussed. I try to be home at the latest by 11 pm unless we go out to a movie and then I will let Brad know that I will return as soon as the movie lets out. I just think it is nice to be able to show respect to one another when neither one of us sleeps as well when the other is out.