Friday, September 30, 2016

A Trip to Labor & Delivery and a BumpDate!

Wait...
Did I just...???

Why, yes.
Yes I sure did.

28 Weeks

As this sweet little baby grows bigger & bigger, the soundtrack of my life has turned to,
"Wait...did I just ______ ?"

Insert whatever word comes to mind, and it's likely happened to me over the past few months.

As most of you know, we had a surprise visit to Labor & Delivery at our hospital earlier this week.  Funny story, actually.
Well, it started out funny, then turned to terror, then was even more funny.

Sunday evening while getting ready for bed, I was standing in our bathroom when I sneezed.
I heard a splash, looked down and realized I had pee'd all over myself and the bathroom floor.  
I laughed, grabbed a towel and continued on about the evening.  
The next day, I told my Mom what had happened and in true motherly fashion, she becomes convinced that my water broke.


"How do you know it wasn't your water breaking?"
"Anne, did you smell it?"  

"No, Mom.  I didn't smell it. Who would smell it?"



As the day wore on, her 'mom' persistence began to take a toll, and I contacted my doc around 5:00.  
Mind you, I'm on the way home with a car full of groceries to make Jon his birthday dinner.

The doctor responded and shared that it's normal to not labor if your water breaks this early (I'm 31 weeks), and suggested I head to the hospital to get checked out, just to be sure.

Then, the panic sets in. 

No, she's not ready.
We're not ready.
She's going to have to be transported to a different NICU because the one at our hospital is not equipped to care for a 30 week old baby!
This isn't supposed to be happening.  
She's due in November.
NOT September.
I don't even have sheets on her crib.

And the list goes on and on....


As we arrived at the emergency room, Lara in tow, we headed up to the L&D unit.  We got checked in and waited for the results.  As I sat in the birthing suite, all hooked up to the monitors, things became very real in that moment and I felt entirely unprepared. With Lara, it was a scheduled CSection.  We knew when she was coming, bags were packed, the date was set and we had time to prepare.  For round two, I'm really hoping to have a vaginal birth (VBAC), just not at 31 weeks.  However, sitting in that massive birthing bed, stirrups and all, made me realize how totally unprepared I am for a natural child birth.
Needless to say, we'll be signing up for child birth classes ASAP.


A few minutes later, the results were in and thank the LORD they were negative!  
We waited about a half hour longer for discharge paperwork.  Lara kept herself occupied by covering us in Minnie Mouse stickers, and then we were off.



We picked up a pizza on the way home and opened gifts before we put Lara to bed.  I think we'll remember this birthday for quite some time, and are so grateful September 26th will remain Jon's birthday, and only Jon's birthday.  ;)

"CHEESE!"

Alright, moving on to my very late monthly BumpDate!


I have tried to post these monthly, but clearly I've gotten a few weeks behind.

How Far Along: 31 weeks, 2 days
(picture is from 28 weeks)

Due Date:  November 30th!

Weight Gain: 3.2 lbs.  Apparently this little girl is HUNGRY because she must be sucking up just about every calorie I eat!

Maternity Clothes: Really?  Yes.
In fact, I'm getting ready to order a few dresses from PinkBlush for our upcoming showers!

Stretch marks: Please.  I was covered in them before I got pregnant.

Symptoms: Lots of back pain and LOTS of pee'ing.  This girl is LOW.

Cravings: Cheese Fries
I'm a regular at Freddy's these days!

Gender: GIRL!!!!!! 

Mood:  Feeling more anxious every week that passes as I still feel as if we have lots to do!

Nursery: We finally picked out fabric which was most definitely the missing piece in bringing my vision to life.  I can't WAIT to see it all come together, but my poor mother has a lot of sewing to do over the next 9 weeks!!  

Here's a sneak peek!



Movement: ALL. THE. TIME.

Sleep: Outside of a sinus infection that hit me last weekend, sleep has been good!

Workouts:  That ship sailed about 6 weeks ago.  I was having lots of ligament pain due to how low i'm carrying her, so I had to say goodbye to the treadmill.  I'm pretty dang active with Miss Lara these days--so I'm counting that!


Names: #nameless

To close, let's take a look at how this belly has grown!

3 months/4 months/5 months

6 months/7 months

Monday, September 26, 2016

You're like a fine wine.

You just get better with age, babe.  


I remember taking these photos a few short months after we'd gotten engaged.  
And to think, I thought I loved you then
We were babies.  We were party animals but most of all, we were so in love.  


Now, we have a few babies of our own and partying these days consists of playing blocks, princess bubble guns & miniature plastic horses....and we're happier than we've ever been.



You know how I know I married my soul mate?

Because no one else would put on a women's turtleneck and Christmas sweater, embroidered with snowflakes and shimmery Christmas trees, for our annual holiday card. 

No one.


Or parade around a Cruise Ship in a Fred Flintstone costume on Halloween...


And I don't know another man that would put on a clown body suit, complete with wig & facepaint, because I insisted we go as matching clowns for Halloween. 


And let's just be totally honest, no other man would love my tiny chihuahua (with a full 5 lbs of attitude), the way you do.


And last, but certainly not least, you are the most amazing father to our little girl...soon to be GIRLS!


You love her in a tutu....


And you'll love her even MORE in cleats.



I wonder often, how in the world I scored a husband like you!

This evening, we'll be celebrating YOU, Mr. 32.
But to be honest, men like you deserve to be celebrated every single day.

Happy Birthday to my dreamboat.

XOXO,
Your wife

Monday, September 19, 2016

Toddler Parenting.

This morning, I bring to you an update on life in the Xenos home as of late.  I hope for some of you, this brings you comfort in knowing you are most definitely not alone.  
I hope a few can relate to the story I'm about to share, but if not, you and your sweet little angel child can just keep that to yourself.  

Later this week, I plan to have a BumpDate for y'all as I'm approaching the 30 week mark in just a few short days.  This pregnancy really has flown by

I guess chasing around a 2 year old wild hyena everyday will distract you from just about everything else.  


(Seriously, what did we do before SnapChat?  #canIgetanAMEN)

Today, I'd like to talk about my first born

Parenting a strong willed toddler is tough, y'all.  

We had lots of plans this past weekend, but instead we ended up spending the majority of it at home with tantrums, spankings (yes, we spank our kid) and lots of time spent in time out.  So much so, that on Sunday, while we were over at my parents house, Lara told my Mom that she was in time out when she wasn't.  

I have learned that quiet, relaxing trips to Hobby Lobby with my sweet, little girl, are no longer an option during this phase of life.  I'll admit it.  I totally lost it Saturday morning and actually pulled her out of the cart and swatted her bottom, likely all on tape on the Hobby Lobby cameras, mind you.  She was insisting on opening every flavor of the 20 dum dum suckers I had brought with us, licking each one a few times, then deciding to put the sticky sucker back into the bag and proceed to open another.  I told her she needed to choose one and in that moment, her world actually ended.
A total meltdown ensued

 How dare I tell her she can't open 20 different dum dums and lick each of them?!? 

I thought removing her from the cart, followed with a few swats, would demonstrate that she needed to quiet down and sit calmly in the cart while I shopped.  
 Needless to say, the opposite happened (I know, shocking). 

We promptly exited the store in hysterics.  Both of us.


When I got in the car I was shaking I was so pissed off.  In my fit of rage, I told Jon I wasn't cut out for this whole parenting thing.  He said something off handed that apparently struck a cord, because I spent the remainder of the car ride back home in tears.  Angry tears. Third trimester hormones are NO JOKE.  They are back, my friends, and in full force.  

When we got home, I jumped out of the car, ran inside and plopped myself down on the couch with Kleenexes so I could cry some more.  Because apparently the 20 minute car ride home in tears wasn't enough.

Jon and Lara came in a few minutes later, a bit startled at my behavior.  Lara found a muffin in the diaper bag, so all was good in her world.  She sat down on the ground between us to watch the show.  
Amidst the uncontrollable hormone tears (c'mon ladies, you know the ones, the tears that just keep coming like Niagara Falls, even though you know you really have zero reason to truly be crying)


I proceeded to tell Jon that he has no idea what's it's like to be pregnant, and that just because I say something, I actually mean the total opposite.  
I mean, why can't men get that?  

Lara continued to eat her muffin, totally unphased.  (It was a pumpkin cream muffin from Starbucks after all) Jon stepped outside to the garage to cool down and a little while later, the waterworks stopped and we went on about our day.


Saturday evening, we had a good laugh about the whole incident.  Between Friday night's tantrums over her refusal to eat anything we put in front of her and Saturday morning's Hobby Lobby trip, we were both emotionally spent. Jon's parents offered to watch her for us Saturday evening and we could not get out of the house fast enough.  We enjoyed an amazing date night followed by a trip to the movies.  (On another note, Sully is amazing!  If you haven't seen it, put it on your must see list.)  

We woke up Sunday morning refreshed and decided we'd keep her after all.
#kidding
#kindof


Even in the chaos that is life these days, we still find ourselves talking about how damn cute she is.  It's the cutest age by far, which is quite ironic, huh?  I believe God designed toddlers this way, so even during the rough times, we still look at them and just melt at how dang cute they actually are.  She kisses us good morning, she says the most adorable things that always make us laugh, and singing Happy Birthday to everyone is her jam these days.

Time outs, tantrums and all, we are still absolutely crazy over this girl.

Pun intended


Friday, September 2, 2016

Fri-YAY Favorites!

I'm getting CRAY-ZY over here and throwing out a post that's NOT a lame 'ol "bumpdate." Is the old blogger Anne resurfacing.....??  Maybe.  

Or, perhaps I just really love Fridays and talking about all things happy is always fun. Because let's be honest, who couldn't use a little extra celebration in their lives??  


So today, let's talk about a few things I'm YAY'ing about as of late:

>>>>>My Mom will be home from Europe on Sunday!!<<<<

My mom and her 3 sisters have been gallivanting around London, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, you name it, for 15 days and I am missing her like CRAZY!  I can't tell you how many times I've gone to pick up the phone to call her.  Thankfully, we can text, so that's been nice, but just not the same.
I need my Momma back!


I am just so excited that Lara's going to have a sister, a BFF for life.
I can't wait to take off to Europe with my daughters someday!



>>>>>I'M OFFICIALLY IN MY THIRD TRIMESTER!!!!!!!!!!!!<<<<<

Hallelujah to THAT, my friends.
This picture feels like it was taken 5 years ago.  And did I mention this was taken from a self timer on my DSLR?  We couldn't believe Lara actually sat still and looked at the camera!!



>>>>This weather has me like WHOA<<<<<  

This morning I walked outside and was literally cold, and it was glorious. And I most definitely added some pumpkin spice delight to my coffee.  
Hello, September! 

>>>>>Nursery progress!<<<<<


Y'all, we have been pumping out nursery tasks and I'm feeling SO much better about where we're at with it!  The crib is up, nursery furniture is arriving TODAY and besides ordering the glider this weekend, all that's left is decorating!  Oh, and folding adorable little nightgowns and putting them in the drawers. #NESTING
Y'all know I'm a sucker for colored cribs...


And this one was no different. It's a beautiful, rose pink and I am totally in love with it. 
 Can't wait to show y'all pics!

>>>And last, but certainly not least, I'm totally YAY'ing about how much Lara LOVES to potty!<<<

This girl is a POTTY MACHINE. Jon and I laugh all the time about how bizarre it is, because we literally have done nothing to really encourage it.  It's like she's a little pee machine. 
 She would rather pee on the potty than play with toys.  
Seriously.  

We switched her to pull ups a few weeks ago, which was definitely a good decision.  That way we can slide them back on when she's done & not waste an entire diaper.

She runs in there, slides her pull ups totally off (because why would you leave your "panties" on while you pee??) and she goes potty. 
Then she hops up, wipes and flushes the toilet.  
Ummm....who is this child?? And where is my baby???



Alright, folks.  That's all I've got for today.

Hope y'all have a WONDERFUL holiday weekend!

Signing off,
Happy FriYAY!