This will be our last child because I can't go through another pregnancy with this much pain (and I certainly don't want a third c-section!). I've told a couple people already that if I ever get baby hungry in the future, they need to remind me exactly why I should never get pregnant again.
We're really excited though because we'll have one boy and one girl. It'll be perfect ♥
I can't believe my sweet girl is almost 21 months old already! She's turned into a crazy little booger who loves life and has endless amounts of energy, which is hard for me to keep up with when I'm pregnant.
I know it's blurry, but she actually SMILED for the camera for once!
Here are recent facts and stories about Evelyn:
*At least once a week, she'll wake up at about 11pm and again at about 2am...and happily play in her crib! She does this for about an hour each time. It's the strangest thing, but it happens like clockwork!
*Her favorite song is If You're Happy And You Know It. She won't sing it at all but she loves the hand clapping and foot stomping and always does it at the right time. If we make the mistake of singing it once, we usually have to sing it about 10 more times before she'll (sometimes) let us stop.
*Every time I sneeze (which is a lot since my allergies become terrible during pregnancy), Evelyn says "Bess oo!" (Bless you)
*One of Evelyn's favorite games is "counting," meaning she helps us say "1, 2, 3" and then she gets thrown on our bed.
*She puts purse-like things on her arms (gift bags, buckets, etc) and then tells me bye-bye and that she's going shopping:
*She's already taking after her daddy: she loves the Star Wars ABCs book my parents got for her and she's already learned Han Solo, Wookiee, and Tie Fighter.
*She has a cute little boyfriend named Keegn (no, that's not a typo) she met at church and even though he turned 4 last week and she's not even 2, they absolutely adore each other. He's so protective of her and she thinks everything he does is amazing.
*There's a lady at church, Sherrie, that she decided looks like my mom the week after we moved in and calls her bamma (grandma). So when my mom visited last week and she suddenly had both of these "grandmas" in the same room, she was so distracted from everything else. She'd point at my mom saying "bamma" and then turn and point at Sherrie and say "bamma." She did this more than 15 times: "Bamma. Bamma." She was so happy about it.
*One day this past week I was in the bathroom blowing my nose and suddenly I see Phoebe running past at full speed. I wondered why until I saw Evelyn run past a few seconds later, chasing Phoebe with a huge mischievous grin and a purple shovel raised in the air :)
Other times she's so sweet with her dog. She throws her tennis ball around the house for her and tells her "drop it" when Phoebe brings her the ball and "good girl" when she drops it. She also goes out of her way to give Phoebe her toy bone and pet her, and she always is asking me if she can give Phoebe a treat.
She's quite the cuddlebug, but only with Daddy
*She has a favorite puppet and gets nothing but pleasure out of him gobbling up her princesses and then spitting them out.
*Did I mention she has an obsession with Disney princesses? She has Little People, regular figurines, and larger bath toys - 20 in all - and she can't do anything without them. They go to bed with her (ALL of them), she has to take a few in the car, shopping, to church, you name it. She also throws tantrums because she can't carry them all at the same time. At least twice daily, she wants to move them to a different room but won't just move a few at a time. Instead she has a meltdown and cries and yells "PINCESS! PINCESS!" over and over until someone comes and helps her carry them.
Elmo "tickling" her favorite princess, Pocahontas ("Hontas")
*She's such a little mommy. She feeds her baby dolls and princesses her food and holds bottles for them to drink. She puts diapers on her favorite stuffed dog. She makes sure they're always cozy by putting blankets on them and tucking them in. When she sees a real baby and their pacifier or bottle has fallen, she helps them put it back in their mouths. I can't wait for her to be a big sister, she's already so good about everything and loves to help.
Evelyn Renae has been such a huge blessing in our lives. She brings the most stress to our lives, but that's okay because she also brings the most happiness. We love this wild child so much.
I can't believe my little buddy is 6 months old already! She's become the happiest little girl over the past couple months, started sleeping all night long, and just got her first tooth!
She loves food (unless it's peas, then she cries) and LOOOOVES Puffs. She just figured out how to feed herself puffs and is working on crawling (she's still trying to figure out how to move her arms at the same pace as her legs so she faceplants a lot) and sitting (her longest was about 45 seconds BUT she gets distracted super easily and lunges, therefore falling).
Even if she's upset, Matt and I can kiss her tummy and she giggles at us, and her new laugh makes her sound like a velociraptor (shown in the video below) When she wakes up, she happily chatters (and yells) to the fan and the butterflies hanging over her crib for up to 30 minutes before she finally starts getting upset. She laughs at her puppies and always wants to play with them, as shown here:
It's crazy that she's growing up so fast, and I'm loving every minute I have with her. Being a mommy is the hardest thing in the world, but it's also the most rewarding and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I love my sweet girl so much.
2 months ago today, we were getting ready to go to the hospital the next morning for my scheduled C-section. I was waddling but because I'd hurt my back a few weeks before, I was also limping. I couldn't wait to get this hiccuping, wiggly, head-in-my-ribs baby girl out of me and at least get rid of the waddling and pregnancy pain.
The next 3 days in the hospital, Matt and I had to switch off who got to sleep and who had to hold the baby, because she would only sleep if she was being held. It was adorable and frustrating at the same time. I was in a ton of pain from the surgery and was on pain meds and sleeping the majority of the time, so Matt ended up holding her most of every day while he watched shows on Netflix on his laptop.
My mom came out to help after the first week and ended up staying for 3 weeks for me. The healing process was slow, and when coupled with a newborn who needs to be held to stay asleep, that's a recipe for disaster. There were several nights I fell asleep holding Evs and almost dropped her, so I'd hand her off to my mom. In the morning, I'd see them cuddled up like this:
My mom got her to start sleeping in her bassinet for the first time and had so much great advice for me that has helped a ton. I'm so lucky to have such a loving mother who was willing to come help me for so long and help me when I needed her most, even at 2am. I love you Momma.
2 months later, I couldn't be happier. Evs is beautiful and perfect in every way. She's a smart girl who wants to see the world (and usually gets overtired and cranky because she never wants to shut her eyes -- she's too busy looking at everything). She's a very happy girl who coos when she wakes up instead of crying and loves staring at fans (she also has conversations with fans -- it's pretty adorable). There have been many [almost] sleepless nights, but she's making up for it now by sleeping around 12 hours at night (even if she does think nighttime starts at 1am or later), only waking 1 or 2 times to eat. She's an absolute Daddy's girl already. Her favorite part of the day besides eating time is being with Daddy.
She was lifting her head up in the first few days of life and rolling from her tummy to her back at 4 weeks. She scoots across her entire bassinet while sleeping and I wouldn't be at all surprised if she decided to start crawling right now! I love this girl, and as tired as she makes me, I wouldn't trade it for the world.
Evelyn's umbilical cord fell off early this morning, so we gave her her first bath this afternoon before Matt went to work. She screamed for about half of it, but the other half she was pretty calm!
My itty-bitty baby in her currently huge tub
Showin' off those lungs!
She HATED having her hair washed more than anything
And finally calm! Yay!
We gave in & introduced the pacifier to her this morning -- all she ever wants to do is suck, so this pacifier's going to save us (meaning ME) and give us a happier baby!
She kept dozing off when I brushed her hair afterwards - when I stopped, she started crying!
My baby girl seemed to be going along with the plans for awhile. She was head down for a few weeks, which I could tell since she gets the hiccups at least 2x a day. Then about 1 1/2 weeks ago, I suddenly
realized she was sideways.
Sideways!
I could feel her head on one side and her bum sticking out on the other! Let me tell you, babies THIS size do not fit sideways in a belly. It's so painful! She spends the majority of each day in the transverse position (she is as I'm typing this), but sometimes she's head up. Ever since she flipped, she hasn't been head down a single time!
I can always tell from the hiccups :)
I went to the OB yesterday and asked him when he would start worrying about needing to do a c-section. He felt the baby and told me he was pretty sure she was head down, but he did a quick ultrasound to make sure. He looked at the screen, sighed, and told me "I hate it when you're right." So he talked to me about breech babies. I had 2 options:
1. Have an external version, where they try to manually flip the baby
or
2. Schedule a c-section
Guess which one I chose? I'll give you a hint: definitely not the c-section!
My OB warned me that a version is painful, and if my abdomen is sensitive (which it is), it's going to be even worse. He also said it's only a 50% chance that it will work AND she won't flip back. So who knows, I could go through a bunch of pain just to find out she's switching back to breech or transverse. And since she's been in the head down position before and apparently doesn't like it as much as her other options, I'm afraid she will be stubborn and flip back. If this doesn't work out, my OB does want me to schedule a c-section. I'll try to put it off for a bit in the off-chance that she flips on her own. Who knows what could happen in the next 3 weeks!
I have to check in at the hospital at 10am tomorrow even though the version isn't until noon. Matt's going with me & will be studying for exams while they prep me & monitor the baby, so at least I won't be alone.
One thing I have to admit I am excited for...is that they'll do an ultrasound at the hospital tomorrow. I haven't seen her on an ultrasound screen since 18/19 weeks!
Forgive my lack of caring how I look for a picture. For the first time ever, I don't care.
At all.
How bad I look in this picture pretty much sums up how I've been feeling recently.
All that matters is the belly.
34 weeks
I'm definitely in my nesting phase. Only problem is the doctor has told me I have to stop cooking, cleaning, and anything else that increases my heart rate.
My "normal" heart rate for the past few months has been between 110-120, but now it's over 120. My OB was finally worried when he found out my heart rate has been this high (I'd told him, but he just told me it was normal; he never asked HOW high it was) and sent me to my regular doctor. He did an EKG and everything's normal. They're taking me off a medicine I've been on the past few months and hoping that's what it is, but so far no change!
Who knows how long this will last, but it's already been a week. I'm going crazy, there are so many things I want to cook, so many cleaning projects I want to do (and ones I started but now can't finish), and holy cow, I want to exercise!
The only thing keeping me from doing these things is reminding myself that it could hurt Evelyn, so I need to take care of myself & take it easy (and I do...for the most part...). It's not bedrest but it certainly is
