Whoda Thought?!

So, I'm sure that most of you are aware of this little fact that I am about to confess "officially" on here.... but for those of you that aren't aware.... I am going to be the proudest ever mother of 2 in August. I am currently 10 weeks pregnant with baby number 2. I can't even believe it! (Alright, I'm about to do that TMI business that I so frequently like to do) I only had 2 periods since having Addie Marie. And I had only weaned her a week before I ovulated... and bada bing- positive pregnancy test. Turns out, I might be a little fertile. Joey told me that I tricked him. LOL. I promise I didn't. I really thought that I was semi infertile. But, it turns out that Jesus had this little plan all along. That Jesus, he is quite a guy. :)
I feel obligated to speak about how I am feeling... as if you care. I feel pretty fair. Nothing to complain about that is for sure. I absolutely feel much much more tired this time around. But it is very hard to know if it is because of pregnancy or because of Adrianna. In regards to my irritable bowel- it is wonderful! I have had NO ISSUES! Yay!! I have to admit, nearly pooping my pants daily was a bit exhausting. Plus the uncontrollable bearing down during the cramping episodes really worried me that I was going to push out my baby. I even spoke to one of the doctors about it...she thought I was crazy. But she didn't know how bad I would bear down. I mean honestly, now that I have attempted to push out a baby- I know what kind of bearing down is required. And let me tell you, the bearing down that was accompanying my irritable bowel attacks could have pushed out a baby in one push- YIKES! So luckily I do not have that this time. (Side note: I would ABSOLUTELY take it if it meant I would have a healthy baby. I don't care. I'm willing to endure whatever is required to make a healthy baby!) Nausea wise, I have a small constant underlying sick feeling. It isn't too bad, its a little worse than with Addie... but I have never thrown up. There have only been 2 times where I thought I was going to, but I never did. I also wonder if I'm a little more nauseous because I am depleting my body's resources much more due to less sleep. I am not as hungry as the first time. I'm hungry, but not CONSTANTLY. I'm appropriately hungry. I don't have a meat aversion, I sometimes will be grossed out by chicken or something... but that is kind of normal for me. So there are things that are the same as with Addie, but some things that are different.
I am super excited to find out what this baby is going to be. I did get to see his/her amazing picture at 8 weeks. This beanie is much less willing to show its cute little limb buds. LOL. Only 9 more weeks until I get to see him/her again! I can't wait!! My sister just found out she is having a boy. She is 10 weeks ahead of me. So we will have daughters that are 4 months apart, and our next kids will be 10 weeks apart. I promise, this wasn't even planned. That Jesus works in mysterious ways!

All Grown Up

Wow. I haven't written since March. I am very very sorry. In my defense though, I have been way mega out of control busy. Busier than I can even describe. So busy, in fact, that Joey and I are thinking about hiring a cleaning lady. Can you even imagine a couple frugal fannies like us hiring a cleaning lady?! You guys, we need it so desperately. My house is a disaster! It doesn't help that Addie Marie is a little Tasmanian devil! She will leave a room and we have to do a double check that it wasn't a TORNADO! She is crazy.. and I mean that in the most positive, loving, sweetest way possible. She has more energy than I could ever dream of having, she climbs, stands and pushes anything and everything she can get her tiny adorable hands on.... She is a tiny tornado. And, everyone, this tiny tornado is the greatest blessing Jesus has ever given me. She is so funny. She is stubborn, but so sweet. I am so in love. It is just crazy to believe that she is mine- Thank you Jesus!

Addie Marie is going to be turning one on Tuesday. Can you believe it?! It feels like I just found out I was pregnant with her... and now she is turning one! I am so excited for her birthday party (even though I have SO MUCH TO DO before Sunday!). I know she is going to tear up her cake! This sweet baby girl loves sweets. She doesn't get them too often, but sometimes I let her have bites of ice cream and she goes crazy! She also started walking a little before she turned 11 months. She is a pro now! She nearly runs. I can tell she wants to run, she just isn't quite there. This baby is always on the go! I was excited that she started walking so early because I knew she would be a pro by her birthday party... and she is. I don't mean to toot her horn too much, but TOOT TOOT! HaHa. With this upcoming birthday comes the end to breastfeeding. I made it a whole year without formula, just breast milk! Whoo hoo! And, I absolutely loved it. Addie loved it. It was an amazing experience and I am so glad that everything worked out! I was so worried that Addie wouldn't want to stop.. she loved the boob... but that girl loves people food too. She did such a good job weaning herself. I think I just need to wean myself now. :/ It is just so weird to know that she doesn't need me anymore. I mean, I know she still needs me... but she doesn't need me. You know? I get anxious just talking about this. Yikes. Is there a breast feeders anonymous group? Maybe I should join. Hi, I'm MaryBeth and I'm addicted to breastfeeding. ;)

Side note: Have any of you breastfed for a year and then when your periods resumed.. where they abnormal? I JUST started mine a month ago and am wondering if I should expect to have super long cycles. I'm not used to going into day 33 with no period (especially when I know I ovulated on day 14-16). Any suggestions or comments would be welcomed! Thanks!

I will try and upload pics really soon, I don't have any pics on the computer Im using right now. Sorry.

Better

I have now been a mommy for 4 months. I always knew that I would love being a mom... and I was right. I feel like my life is better as a mommy. My heart is fuller and my smile is a bit brighter because of Addie. She is absolutely everything I prayed for! I still feel like my love grows deeper everyday! I am borderline obsessive about her. I kiss her probably 200 times a day and tell her I love her just as much. When I have to work I will cuddle with her all day. I just give her the boobie buffet so that I can rest for a little bit. Side note: the boobie buffet naps are going to stop once I start weekend option- I really need to get her back to her good nap schedule. When she got sick a month ago her nap schedule got all messed up and since I have returned to work I haven't had the patience or time to fix it.
It is wonderful being Addie's mommy and I hope that I feel this much happiness with my future babies. I feel pretty strongly that my future pregnancies won't be nearly as much fun as Addie's was. All the feelings that I had during my pregnancy with Addie were so brand new. My only true worry was that Addie wouldn't be healthy and I was somewhat worried about the changes that would be coming to Joey and I's relationship. But, man I sure loved being pregnant! I worry that with my next pregnancy I will be so worried about how Addie will do that I won't enjoy it as much... I guess I will just have to make sure that that doesn't happen. ;) Right now I am just enjoying watching Addie get bigger and reach new milestones (more about that in a future blog entry).
Here is a list of everything that I loved about pregnancy:
*Watching my belly get bigger every week
*Being able to feel Addie kick- I could be sitting at work and she would just be kicking away. No one else would know that I had this adorable little life kicking the crap out of my uterus- and I loved it!
*Reading about my babies development every week.. and sometimes reading the next weeks development because I would get so excited.
*Talking to people about the baby I was growing. I loved it when people would ask me questions regarding my pregnancy. i.e. How far along I was, Boy or Girl, How I was feeling...
*Knowing that no matter where I went.. Addie was always with me.
*I loved having this amazing baby growing in my belly... but since she wasn't outside of my body, I could sleep whenever I wanted. LOL

I could pretty much continue this list forever. I loved every single moment of growing Addie... and I am enjoying every single moment of raising her.

Addies Beautiful Cousin

I became the proud aunt, and Addie became the proud cousin of Mahayla Sue Goodwillie on Friday (March 5th). She weighed 7lbs 4oz and was 19.5 inches long. She is absolutely perfect! Becky (my older sister) had a c-section because Haley (that's what we call her for short) was breech...well we thought at least. They last checked the Friday before and Haley was still head up, butt down. The nurse and doctor didn't check before the section because... they didn't think it was necessary. But then once Dr.Adams (yep, he is her doctor too...he is just great!) cut her open, he found Haley head down.

I feel like this is a good place to mention that Haley is going to be sassy! She caused Becky so much trouble when she was pregnant! Haley was known to stop moving for a little bit just to cause Becky some worry. Then starting around 32 weeks Becky started having contractions that she ended up having to go to the hospital for. She would get a few doses of Terbutaline and head home.. and then they ended up giving her some pills to start taking for the contractions. Then when we found out that this little sas-a-frass was breech.. just icing on the cake. And then to find out that she flipped at the last possible minute- are you kidding me! HaHa! But I'm sure Becky forgot about all the trouble Haley caused the minute she held her. :)

She is absolutely adorable! I am soo excited that Becky and I had our girls so close together! I feel like this was Gods way of bringing Becky and I close again. It has been really nice to share pregnancy and motherhood with my sister. She was always the person that I looked up to when I was little- I would always want to hang out with her and her friends, do what she would do and dress like she would dress (Becky was always the better dresser). We are really excited about taking the girls photos together and dressing them alike. I can tell that this is going to be SO MUCH FUN! Addie is already so cute around her. She will just look at her, she is so curious. She also wants to eat every time that Haley eats. Which P.S. Haley is already a boobie baby- Addie must have told her how awesome the boob is. haha.

Oxyclean Nightmare

Who knew that a little bit too much oxyclean could cause so much discomfort, pain and itchiness... I certainly didn't. My husband is determined that I was trying to kill him. I promise you that I wasn't. I was only trying to get his work clothes clean. The only problem with that is that when I wash his work clothes, I also wash his boxers, comfy pants and shorts... and anything else that he puts on his body.

On Monday, Joey started to develop these little bumps on his legs and arm and stomach. By Tuesday the bumps started to get a little bit bigger and widespread. We initially thought that they were just flea bites that he got at a foreclosure property that he had went to. I know that it is a bit cold outside for fleas.. but the house that he went to hadn't been vacant for very long... so we were just guessing that it was fleas. Well by Wednesday they were a little bit worse and spreading out more... but we were still sticking to our initial diagnosis of flea bites. When I went to work on Wednesday night Joey was complaining that his red bumps were much more itchy, widespread and super uncomfortable. I continued to think that it wasn't that big of a deal and that he was fine and we would just have to wait for the bites to fade away. Joey had a horrible night on Wednesday due to the discomfort of the rash and having difficulty falling asleep due to taking care of Addie. He didn't want to take Benadryl since he was with Addie by himself. So I come home Thursday morning (to Joey singing "Boobie buffet" to Addie) and I catch a glimpse of Joeys legs. Holy Cow! I immediately knew something was wrong. This was much much more that just flea bites. It was the worst rash I had ever seen! It was red, crazy inflamed and even more uncomfortable. His rash by this time was everywhere (and I mean everywhere), it was even on the palms of his hands. The only place he didn't have a spot was his face. I told Joey he had to go to the doctor! Luckily he was able to work his schedule out to be able to make it to the minute clinic at CVS by 3:00. The nurse at the Minute Clinic couldn't have been more delightful. She was super sweet! Joey had done a little investigation and read that oxyclean has been known to cause rashes on people all of a sudden who have previously had no issues with it. Then when he found out that ALL of his clothes had been washed in extra oxyclean... a new diagnosis was born. The nurse practitioner agreed that it was just contact dermatitis and wrote a script for prednisone and steroid cream. As a side note... the scripts were super cheap! The prednisone was only 79 cents and the steriod cream was only 49 cents. Crazy huh! Luckily the prednisone started kicking this yucky rashes butt pretty fast. I went home and washed all of Joeys clothes multiple times to make sure that all the oxyclean was rinsed out and then I put the loads on the extra rinse cycle. Hopefully we don't have any of these issues again.


Now just picture this everywhere. Maybe a little uncomfortable... I also don't think this pic does his rash any justice. This was taken when it was already healing.

I feel like it is also important to note that I don't think this is all my fault. I have always used oxyclean on my hubbys clothes (although I did use extra this time...). I think that he reacted the way he did because his poor body is wiped out. He hasn't been getting much sleep since I went back to work, he is crazy stressed with his work and on Tuesday he was sick from paint fumes and denatured alcohol from stripping paint in a room. Last week was not his week! So I feel like his immune system is not at its top potential!

My Sick Baby

On February 8th my beautiful sweets started running a fever in the middle of the night. :( She wasn't sleeping great and when she woke to feed she just acted like she was miserable. It broke my heart. She had just recently started sleeping pretty good again and it was really out of the ordinary how she was acting. Joey had to work the next day so I was trying my hardest not to wake him up. Unfortunately we did not succeed.. Joey woke up. I had taken Addie to her room to attempt to calm her down and Joey came in to check on us. He ended up getting a bath ready for us. Addie loves her baths and we thought it would help her start feeling a little better. So we took a bath and then snuggled on the recliner together. Although I absolutely hated her feeling so yucky, it was so great getting to snuggle so much! Her temp remained low grade at 99 degrees but maxed out at 101.2. On the 9th (Addies 3 month birthday) we ended up taking her to the doctor because she continued to run fevers and she was just miserable. Due to her lack of other symptoms the doctor decided we needed to cath her to check for a UTI. The nurse (or aid lady) came in to catheterize her. She did a terrible job! She missed her urethra multiple times and didn't use sterile technique at all. It really ticked me off, although I completely understand that it is really hard to cath such a little baby... but it didn't make me feel any less angry at this dang nurse/aid. The verdict: she had a UTI. :( I felt horrible! Dr.Grahm reassured me that it was not my fault, but I couldn't help but feel responsible. He gave me a script for Bactrim and one for Zantac(per my request) and sent me out the door. I also got a coupon for Culturelle, I know how aweful antibiotics can be to your stomach! For the next couple days Addie fought the fevers off and on, pretty much couldn't nap unless she was being held or breastfed and we took many baths.. middle of the day or night- she didn't care. My poor baby made me so sad! Then the nurse called a few days later and said that E-Coli had grown out of the culture and Dr.Grahm wanted to have a renal ultrasound and a VCUG done to rule out any anatomical abnormalities or urniary reflux. Joey and I discussed it and finally decided we didn't want to put Addie through that unneccessarily, so we are not going to do it unless she has another UTI. I am so excited to be done with these dang antibiotics! I think they are bothering her stomach (even with the Culturelle) and I just hate giving her that much medicine. I haven't started the Zantac because I didn't want to put too much medicine on her tiny belly. Unfortunately Addie has not napped well or slept very long through the night since this UTI business. She had previously been sleeping 6-8 hours before waking up.. now we are lucky if we get 3 hours. I am hoping all of this will improve once the antibiotics are done (which will be tomorrow- YAY!).
Even though my baby girl felt yucky she still was able to give me some smiles. It seemed that she would always perk up in the 3rd hour after receiving Tylenol. My goodness I sure love this pretty girl!

The Dreaded...

I started maternity leave exactly one week before I had Addie. I was originally only going to take 12 weeks off of work.. but as the days went on Joey and I decided that just wasn't going to be long enough. I continued to push back my return date until I simply couldn't put it off any longer. I wasn't sure how long I would be able to stay off work and continue having insurance. Darn you insurance!! So.. unfortunately that brought me to the dreaded day of returning to work. I could literally feel part of my heart tearing! I knew Addie would be fine without me, but I was pretty uncertain on whether I would be fine without her. For 14 weeks I was the primary caregiver. I changed her diaper, fed her and was with her 24-7. I absolutely loved it! Jesus put me on this earth to be a mommy and I was taking my job very seriously and enjoying every minute of it! So due to my impending return to work Joey had to buckle down. We had to make sure that Addie and Daddy could survive without me. Joey had yet to change a diaper and now it was time to learn. So, starting on Friday the 12Th, he changed his first diaper, bathed her and did his best to give her a bottle. He did fantastic with the diaper change! Adrianna even gave him a poopy one and he did awesome.
Next came the bath. He put on his swim trunks and jumped in with her. She was really fidgety and didn't do as well as she normally does. I think she could sense that things were about to be changing. :( Joey still did really good with her and didn't let her fussiness get him down. Then... he attempted the bottle. After Christmas we started giving her a bottle every night and she got to the point where she did AWESOME! I quit giving her the bottle at night because she had been doing so well, but Addie showed me how big of a mistake it was. She hated this bottle business. She cried and cried until she finally cried herself to sleep. Talk about heartbroken! I hate seeing Addie crying for the boob and I can't give it to her! She only slept for about 45 minutes and then started the crying again. We decided we just didn't think she was feeling well because while Joey was holding her and trying to calm her down she threw up on him (yummy). After she cried for a while longer we finally decided that she just wasn't feeling well and I should just go ahead and breastfeed her (thank goodness!). I try to stay calm and let Joey do his thing when she is getting really upset about the bottle, but I am always secretly hoping Joey just tells me I can go ahead and feed her and hold her. My heart breathes a sigh of relief when he tells me to go ahead and do my mommy thing with her. :)That night she woke up every 1.5-2 hours (yikes!) The next night, Saturday the 13Th, Addie did phenomenal! She took the bottle great and slept fairly well. Then on Sunday, the 14Th she did fair.. not great.. but not horrible. That brings us to Monday the 15Th.... I literally felt sick to my stomach I was so sad about coming back! I was excited to see everyone at work.. and I love my job. But come on.. I love my job as a mommy much much more! I felt like a cat being put into water and trying to claw my way out. It was such a helpless feeling! But I couldn't just sit and feel sorry myself. So I made sure everything was ready to go for Joey and I cuddled with my sweets as long as I could. When it was finally time to head to work I couldn't help but shed a few tears. I didn't want to, but they just flowed out when I was trying to kiss her goodbye. I might be a little over dramatic.. But I love my daughter more than I could ever put into words and it hurt so bad leaving. With that being said I feel so extremely blessed that I don't have to leave Addie in daycare- she gets to stay home with her daddy. Hopefully soon she will start sleeping better and it will make it easier on him!
Here are a couple pictures of us before my first night back to work:



P.S. Everyone at work was so super great and once I got there I didn't cry again. Also Addie did good with Daddy and didn't give him too much trouble with taking a bottle.. she didn't sleep the greatest, but she hasn't really slept great ever since being sick (that's another blog entry...)