Rocking my baby

We now have the rocker in Paxton's room.  It is the same rocker we used with Ashlyn.  She has an ear infection and woke up screaming like her ears were bothering her last night.  I got her out of her crib and took her into the nursery and did something I haven't done in probably a year...I rocked her!  She feel asleep on top of me while we rocked and the memories and tears came flooding in!  Her once tiny body that nestled under my chin now stretches from my shoulder to my knees with her legs hanging off my lap.   Having my daughter snuggled up against my huge belly that houses her brother was the greatest feeling ever!  I rocked her and reminisced until my feet went numb, then tucked her into bed with Chance and me for even more snuggles!  As much as I want her to be an independent sleeper, those are moments that I will never forget and never feel guilty about!  It reminded my of a poem my mom told me when Ashlyn was first born.  So true and will be by motto with Paxton as well.  They grow up too fast!

Cleaning and scrubbing

Can wait till tomorrow...

For babies grow up 

We've learned to our sorrow...

So quiet down cobwebs

Dust go to sleep...

I'm rocking my baby

And babies don't keep!

Nesting and bed resting

The 2 don't really mix!  With a baby due to make an appearance any day now...my to do list is ever growing!  My hormones and instincts are kicking in and my maternal need to be "nesting" is in overdrive!    Very difficult to do from the couch.  Thankfully, with a wonderful husband, an awesome family and the world wide web, I have gotten many things checked off in preparation for Paxton's arrival.  Nonetheless, there is still a LOT to do before the big day.  It is pretty frustrating to see so much that needs to be done and physically not be able to do it!  Here are a few things I have managed to do from the horizontal position:  decorate the nursery (well...purchase the decor for the nursery...some assembly still required), gather the items for a prepared hospital stay (I vowed to have a few personal belongings this time around since I had literally NOTHING when I had Ashlyn), begin Ashlyn's transition to a "big girl room" complete with a full sized bed I found on Craig's List that is currently being refinished by a man I found on Craig's List and plan Ashlyn's 2nd birthday party!  We also made a very productive stop by our storage units...probably still have 2 more trips before we really have all we need...but it was a start!  And we also made a much needed trip to Target, (keep in mind, I usually stop by Target once or twice a week...I haven't been in 2 months)!  I finally gave in to the electric carts, since one of my specific instructions was NO grocery shopping.  What a humbling experience!  I got over the sympathetic stares fairly quickly, but I will never get over the embarrassment of the loud, high pitched beeping that sucker makes when you put it in reverse!  Oh well, all for the love of this child :)  

A trip to the grocery store

What a picnic?!?!

Well, where should I begin with this exciting day?  Mimi (my mom) picked me up from the doctor's office where I got my second to last injection!  We headed over to Ashlyn's school for the family picnic to wrap up the Week of the Young Child.  I packed a lunch for Ashlyn and brought a blanket and we enjoyed some fun in the sun.  Ashlyn was more interested in playing than eating.  Here are a few pictures before all of the excitement!   

Ready for lunch

Picnic lunch with Mimi and friends

Mimi and Ashlyn

Ashlyn and her buddies, Noah & Ian
These 3 have been in class together since the infant room!

I held the blanket down while Mimi chased
Ashlyn around the playground

Loves the slides!

THE dangerous sidewalk

Fast forward about 5 minutes.  The picnic was wrapping up and the kids were getting ready to head back inside for nap time.  Mimi was rounding up Ashlyn while I packed up our picnic.  What happened next is kind of a blur.  I look over in the general direction just in time to see Mimi (holding Ashlyn) collide with a little girl riding a tricycle!  Best we can figure out, Mimi and Ashlyn were stepping onto this sidewalk walking back towards our picnic spot just as a little girl came up along side of them on her tricycle.  Mimi's left leg got entangled in the trike and she and Ashlyn went DOWN!  It was like it was in slow motion, but not slow enough for me to really figure out what happened!  All I know is Ashlyn was belly down in the dirt and Mimi was clutching her knee...and the little girl sped off on her trike!  It was a hit and run!  I knew Ashlyn was ok, because she really went down pretty slowly, and missed the concrete on either side of her.  Mimi broke her fall and she slowed herself down with both arms.  Ashlyn was just startled by the experience.  Mimi on the other hand didn't fare so well.  Her left leg was pretty banged up.  We sat there for a while surveying the damage.  The staff of the school were there immediately.  We helped Mimi up to a chair (child sized) and they got her some ice.  She was in a lot of pain and was not able to move her left leg at all.  She tried to stand up and wasn't able to put any weight on it.  Ashlyn calmed down and headed inside for nap time and we tried to gather a plan.  Here's the picture...Me...almost 8 months pregnant on "bed rest" and completely useless and my mom with a gimp leg.  We are literally next door to the emergency room, but the only option they are giving us to get over there is an AMBULANCE!  Seriously???  Somehow, we finally convinced them to bring us a wheelchair...which came with a security escort over to the ER. Awesome!  So we loaded Mimi up in the wheelchair and the oh so kind (insert sarcastic font here) security officer drove us over to the ER (after a quick stop by the parking garage to move the car we temporarily parked in a reserved spot) in his unmarked car.  I am sure he had MANY more exciting and important calls that he should have been taking.  

Loaded up and ready to be "hauled in"

He dropped us off at the ER entrance and was kind enough to leave us the oversized wheelchair which definitely came in handy!  We checked-in and then were shuffled back and forth between the waiting room, admissions, triage, waiting room, triage, radiology, waiting room, triage again (to see the doctor), waiting room, check-out, waiting room, bathroom and back to the waiting room!  Thank GOODNESS for the w/c!  

Waiting to go back for an X-ray

The x-ray was negative for a fracture and the doctor felt likely that it was a knee "sprain".  General term for no fracture, too soon and not enough imaging to tell what really happened!  He sent us on our way with a knee immobilizer and a pair of crutches.  Thank goodness Mimi travels with her personal physical therapist because they just unwrapped the crutches and handed them to her!  No adjustments...no instructions...no NOTHING...just here you go!  Needless to say we had LOTS of laughs throughout this ordeal!  After all, laughter IS the BEST medicine.  

Crutch training in the waiting room

Once we were discharged, we found a shady bench outside and waited for Chance to pick us up and take us to the car.  Getting in and out of the Tahoe was another comedy of errors but somehow we got Mimi loaded up in her car and pointed her in the right direction.  Yes, we let her make the hour and a half drive home (her right leg was fine)!  Whew...what a day!  If that experience (and laughter) didn't send me into labor what will???

Bubble blowing at school

This week at school was "Week of the Young Child".  They had fun activities planned throughout the week.  Wednesday was a bubble release (I guess more Earth friendly than balloons).  Gma and Gpa showed up for the event!   Here are a few pictures inside the classroom before they headed outside for bubbles. 

Momentous occasion

Ashlyn slept the entire night in her crib last night!  From 8:30-7:00!  This used to be an every night occurrence, but since moving to the loft and sharing a bedroom this hasn't been happening!  I really hope we are moving in the right direction.  The funny thing is, I woke up all throughout the night and checked the monitor, wondering if she was ok because she hadn't woken up!!  Oh...and to go to the bathroom :)

33 weeks and 4 days

I was exactly this far along in my pregnancy with Ashlyn when I unexpectedly went into labor.  12 hours later we met our little fighter.  After 23 days in the NICU we were able to bring home our healthy, growing baby girl.  We were very blessed!  My goal since all of this pre-term labor stuff started at 27 weeks has been to make it to 37 weeks!  3 1/2 weeks to go!  I am going to lay low this weekend and try and keep our little guy cooking for a few more weeks.  Still just taking it one day at a time :)

7.5 months

I don't really have much to report since I have been trying to stay up to date as things arise.  I will say that I am HUGE!  I am so much bigger with this baby than I was with Ashlyn!  And apparently he is bigger too!  Big babies are good!  My belly button has almost reached it limits and may pop out this time if I get much bigger.  So far, no stretch marks...but I wouldn't be surprised if I end up with a few...my skin feels stretched to its limit.  I am still able to wear my wedding ring and I don't have any swelling to speak of.  Sleeping is pretty uncomfortable, between laying around all day and my hourly bathroom trips.  I am hungry ALL of the time and seem to get a lot of heart burn.  I still crave sweets more than ever!  Paxton is pretty busy, but not as busy as Ashlyn was.  He has a hand or foot underneath my ribs on the right side and gives me a good jab every now and then just to get my attention.  He gets the hiccups several times a day too!  I have ordered a lot of stuff for him and his nursery online and we pretty much have everything we need.  We still need to get a big girl bed for Ashlyn so we can move the crib into his room.  I guess that is about it.  My huge belly in all its glory!

Hopefully caught up

I have been trying to get our blog up to date!  In an effort to do so, I had to back date a lot of posts to keep everything in chronological order!  I don't even know who reads this silly thing, and I mostly do it so that I have a book to print out for Ashlyn our children (so weird saying that!) on their birthdays.  So, if you do Keep Up With The Wimberlys...scroll back a bit to see what we have been up to!  I am going to try and stay on top of it now that things have settled down a bit (its not like I have anything else to do!) and pull out our nice camera for some better photos!

Oh the guilt!

I am totally not opposed to the occasional swat or spank on the hiney as a method of discipline.  I do think there are lots of other methods, but sometimes...it just has to happen.  This morning was one of those times.  I have only swatted Ashlyn's little hiney twice.  The first time was probably a year ago when she started fighting every.single.diaper.change!  I gave her a little pop, mostly as an attention getter and to let her know that behavior was not acceptable.  It definitely got her attention...but unfortunately did not change the behavior.  And man...the guilt!  Ugh!  This time was no different.  I was trying to help Chance get her ready for school.  She ran into our closet and would not come out.  So I decided ok, we can get dressed in the closet...I can go with this.  I got her to lay down and started to try and change her diaper and she threw a FIT!  Like the almost 2 year old that she is!  Usually I ignore her (infrequent) tantrums but this one involved flailing arms, the limp noodle and kicking!  When one of the kicks landed right in my belly, I swatted her behind!  I immediately felt the sadness rush over me! Why oh why?  I am not opposed to spanking and felt this situation was appropriate for a little attention getter so why did I feel so badly???  I think it bothered me mostly because I did it without really thinking about it and out of frustration.  I don't know, but man did I feel bad.  I scooped her up and explained why I had swatted her bottom and told her that I loved her very much.  I think it got her attention, but again, didn't change the behavior.  I was still having to battle her to get dressed.  Chance took over and got her dressed because I really can't be wrestling around with her right now.  It all leaves me really confused on where I stand with spanking because it didn't change the behavior and left me feeling horribly!  Thankfully Ashlyn is a really sweet girl and these situations are few and far between!

A trial run

Well, we survived another quick stop by labor & delivery...this time we got to go home without an overnight stay!  I had a lot of cramping and a little flank pain that kept me up Monday night.  I wasn't too worried about it until I noticed blood in my urine at 3 am (on one of my hourly trips to the bathroom).  I debated and decided to call the on call doctor, because that didn't seem right!  She agreed and wanted me to go to L&D.  So we set into motion our labor plan...rudely waking Gpa and Gma from their sleep begging them to meet us at the hospital so we could handoff Ashlyn!  It all went pretty smoothly and I was at the hospital by 4:30.  The nurse was alarmed by how frequently I was having contractions.  They were coming every 2 minutes and lasting over a minute each.  She got some orders from the doctor including a shot of terbutaline, a fetal fibronectin test, a check of my cervix, an IV to start fluids and an in and out cath for a sterile urine sample!  I think she threw that last one in there as punishment for waking her up at 3 am.  It was NOT fun!  They got the contractions under control, the UA and fetal fibrinectin were both negative (except for large blood in my urine), and I was still only dilated to a 1!  Good news all around.  I hung out in L&D on the monitors while they ran lots of fluid through me hoping if there was a stone, it would help it pass.  They discharged me around 10:30 and sent me upstairs to Dr. Waldrep's office.  There they did a sono and a biophysical profile.  Paxton looked great!  And BIG!  He is measuring 35.5 weeks and is estimated to weigh over 6 lbs!  And his kidneys looked good!  Both of my kidneys showed hydronephrosis, but it is not painful at this time...and hopefully it stays that way.  She wasn't able to see any stones.  So we got to head home around 12.  Chance decided to work from home the rest of the afternoon and I took a nap!  We hadn't had much sleep that night and were both exhausted. And Chance started coming down with Ashlyn's cold.  Not good!  Gma, Gpa and Aunt Sarah brought Ashlyn home along with an awesome BBQ dinner for us!  We all hit the sack pretty early.  Thankful for another false alarm!

Spending the day with Gma & Aunt Sarah

Why are we living in an apartment in Frisco?

I guess I should clarify a little as to why we suddenly up and moved from our loft in downtown to an apartment in the burbs!  We were subletting the loft from Chance's buddy Donnie Nelson.  When he first hooked us up with his place, we told him we would probably be there about 3 months while we look for a house.  9 months later we were still there and still homeless!  We decided that we had probably overstayed our welcome (although Donnie has been nothing but accommodating and SO generous).  We also decided that we really needed a place that was a little more user friendly for 2 kids and 2 dogs.  The loft was huge and spacious, but had no doors, squeaky hardwood floors, a large bedroom that the 3 of us shared, a 1/4 mile trek to the garage and a 30 minute trip to take the dogs outside.  It just wasn't the best set-up for our situation.  I did lots of research, trying to find a place for us to move to temporarily.  I looked at rent houses, condos, townhouses and apartments in the Dallas area.  We really need a 3 bedroom place and safety and cleanliness were high on my list of priorities!  We also didn't want to spend a fortune on a short term lease.  And we needed to make the move pretty quickly so we could get somewhat settled before Pax makes his arrival!  Dallas was proving not to be a realistic option!  We have been looking at homes to buy in Frisco and decided what better way to try out the burbs than to get a short term lease.  So, here were are!  We ended up in a 1st floor, 3 bedroom apartment that backs up to a greenbelt area.  The complex has an awesome pool and a playground!  It is the perfect temporary set-up!  And we are also deciding if this is where we want to buy our next home!  The commute has turned out to be a little more than expected for Chance with him having to do drop off and pick up with Ashlyn at school.  He is in the car on average for 2.5 hours a day!  Yikes!  So we have lots of decisions to make, but are getting settled in our little apartment for the meantime!  And we all have our own rooms!  And doors!  Now my goal is to get Ashlyn sleeping through the night!

She looks like she is going to cuddle
up and drift off to sleep, right?

A diaper shower for Paxton

Jessi, Kourtny, Emily and Kristin threw an awesome diaper shower for Paxton and me!  I got approval from my doctor to attend the shower as long as I was feeling well.  I was so excited and so happy when I woke up Saturday morning feeling well enough to attend!  It was the perfect shower!  It was at Jessi's uncle's restaurant The Place at Perry's in uptown.  And it was amazing...the sweetest invitations, beautiful flower arrangements and decorations, awesome food and cake balls (and strong bottomless mimosa's from what I hear :), precious party favors and diaper cake and lots of wonderful friends and family!  We are so blessed!  And boy did we get stocked up with diapers and wipes and all of the baby essentials...and some really cute boy clothes!!  I am still getting used to all of the blue!  And Ashlyn made an appearance and was showered with "Big Sis" gifts!  So thoughtful and such a wonderful time.  Thank you Thank you Thank you!  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera :(  And for some reason, all of the pictures from my phone are blurry.

Invitation

Mimi practicing holding a newborn!
Sweet Ella

Beautiful and delicious cake balls 

Diaper Cake

Party Favors

Opening gifts 

The Awesome Hostesses

Gma and Aunt Sarah 

Ella was quite the party animal

Melanie, Kimiko & Sarah
My co-workers!

2 weeks behind!

I don't think I have ever been this far behind on our blog!  It has been a whirlwind these past couple of weeks!  Another hospital stay, tornadoes, Easter, a move...we are finally catching our breath!  I am going to do my best to catch up this weekend now that I finally have Internet again.  It was a long week!  Check back soon for some updates :)

Her latest tactic

We have been having some major sleep issues over the past few months that I really thought would resolve once Ashlyn got her her own room, with a door and without creaky hardwood floors!  The first 2 nights in the apartment went really well so I was optimistic!  But then night 3 was back to the old routine...either crying from the get go or sleeping about an hour then crying...throwing everything out of the crib, monkey, paci, blankets.  We are ok with crying it out...but after an hour or an hour and a half...it gets to be a bit much!  This girl has stamina!  We have tried everything that I can think of...crying it out, the FUBER method, starting the nighttime routine all over again, laying on the floor in her room...nothing works!  She has gotten too used to sleeping with us.  The only thing that works is bringing her to our bed.  She is out like a light and sleeps until morning.  Her latest tactic took the cake!  She was standing up, holding on to the edge of the IRON crib.  She would bang her head on the iron, turn and look DIRECTLY into the monitor and start crying and rubbing her head. I was watching her on the monitor and was totally shocked!  I was for sure she would do it once or twice and realize it hurt and wasn't worth it.  But no, she did this about 10 times before I finally went in there.  She had 10 red/purple, raised bumps on her forehead!  Ugh!  They turned to bruises by morning and she looked battered!  I am really hoping once we get her "big girl bed" we can get back to our old sleep habits!  I really need her sleeping again before her brother gets here!!

You have to look closely, but each of those
red spots turned to a bruise by morning! 

If she could sleep here every night she would be a happy camper!
Why does she always end up horizontal??

Moving on bedrest

Somehow or another I managed to coordinate a move from our loft in downtown Dallas to an apartment in Frisco...from the horizontal position!  It could not have been done without help from Mimi & PaJ, Kally, Aunt Sarah, Aunt Kristin and Gma & Gpa! AND CHANCE!  What a rock?!?!  It was a stressful 48 hours as the first apartment I rented for us (sight unseen from a hospital bed) turned out to be less than remarkable.  Chance and Kally headed up to Frisco with a U-haul full of furniture from storage Friday night and decided we would not be moving into that apartment.  It was much older than advertised, a difficult moving situation and a undesirable layout with an open stairwell...not what we were looking for (or what was advertised).  He headed back to Dallas with a full U-haul and I started calling other apartments first thing in the morning.  Somehow the stars aligned and we were able to rent another apartment, get the keys and find movers in less than 5 hours!  Mimi & PaJ started packing Friday afternoon, Sarah came Friday evening to watch Ashlyn (we put the packing on hold because we weren't sure if we were moving or not).  Sarah resumed the packing Saturday morning.  Kristin came over to help finish packing and help with the movers.  The movers finished unloading the U-Haul and their truck full of our belongings from the loft around 11 pm.  Chance had to take the U-haul back to the loft, get his car and pick up the dogs.  He got back to the apartment around 2 am!  What a day!  I was absolutely useless and it was the most frustrating feeling!  Oh well, I just accepted the fact that my job is keeping Paxton safe!  Sunday morning Kristin came over to help unpack and get somewhat settled.  Gma, Gpa and Aunt Sarah showed up with lunch and got a lot of unpacking done!  Smashburger for Easter lunch! By Sunday evening, it was still quite a mess, but it was at least livable!  We had more help throughout the week from Gma and Mimi with unpacking and settling and Chance worked every evening!  I can say as I type we have 2 boxes left to unpack and the majority of our belongings are put away.  It's been a little crazy!!

Ashlyn was a big helper with the packing!
She loved pulling out all of the baby stuff!

This is what the apartment looked
 like when we woke up Sunday morning 

Trying to dig out the couch!

The view from our back porch

Easter 2012

I have to admit...it wasn't a traditional Easter, but that is OK!  Considering the circumstances, there were plenty of eggs, candy and good food!  Mimi started the week off with an Easter basket at the hospital!  The activities continued with an Easter Celebration at school on Thursday.  I was so sad because I couldn't attend the party with my new restrictions (it was hard for the former room mom not to be involved!)  I was very happy that Gma was able to make it to the party and egg hunt!  She brought the video camera to capture it, but the battery died.  She said Ashlyn owned the egg hunt!  She had to help her get started with the first 2 eggs, but after that she was off!  She found almost all of the eggs and had to share some of the loot with her classmates.  They had an Easter snack and did a few crafts.  Karen said she had a great time!  Friday Mimi and PaJ came over with an awesome lunch of ham and au-grautin potatoes!  We took a break from packing for Ashlyn to color a few Easter eggs.  She loved plopping the eggs into the colors, but as predicted lasted about 10 minutes!  Easter Sunday was spent unpacking and lunch from Smashburger!  Aunt Sarah brought over an Easter basket for Ashlyn and she got to hunt eggs in our apartment.  I was able to find her precious Easter dress and put it on her for about an hour!  It wasn't a traditional Easter, but we were able to spend it with family and out of the hospital!

Easter at school, after the big hunt 

Taking a break from packing to color eggs 

Taking a break from UNpacking
for an Easter basket

Ashlyn and her Easter basket

Loved playing with the eggs!
Still playing with them

Barometric pressure

Seriously?  A sudden change in barometric pressure can really cause labor?  I started cramping Monday evening and they came and went all night and into the morning.  I called the doctor's office first thing in the morning and they told me to come in for monitoring.  We dropped Ashlyn off at school and headed in.  They hooked me up to the monitor and sure enough, I was having contractions.  The alarming thing was that I was 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced.  Not good at 31 weeks.  Dr. Waldrep did a fetal fibronectin test (which was negative) and sent me up to labor and delivery for more monitoring.  When we got to the 7th floor they put me in a delivery room!  After a temporary moment of panic, the nurse reassured me she was only putting me in a delivery room because all of the labor rooms were taken.  I assured her we would not be having a baby today!  In the midst of getting admitted, monitored and medications started the terrible weather blew in!  The TV in our room was not working so the only connections to the weather we had were our cell phones and the overhead announcements of "Code Grey" (tornado warning).  It was a very stressful few hours while we tried to keep up with the tornados that barely missed my dad's house (they had some damage, but nothing severe), keep up with daycare and what they were doing with the kids during the storm (evacuation procedure calls for putting the kids in cribs and going into the bathrooms) and trying not to have a baby!  I started a new oral medication that relaxes the uterine muscles, but must be taken 3-4 times a day to be effective!  I also had one shot of terbutaline to stop the contractions immediately.  My dad stopped by to check on me and then ventured home to check out the damage from the storms.  They moved me up to the antepartum unit for more monitoring and to see how I responded to the oral medication.  My mom came up and spent the night with me so Chance could go home with Ashlyn.  They monitored me on and off throughout the night and into the next day and the contractions were less frequent, but still coming!  Jessi and Emma stopped by and dropped off the best chocolate chip cookies ever!  Dr. Waldrep decided I could go home on the new medicine and complete bed rest!  I am allowed to go to the bathroom, shower and refill my water, but that is about it!  At least I get to be home with my family!  Hoping for nothing but sunshine for the next few weeks!

An early Easter basket with Mimi

Blurry pictures, but cute!

Dinner at the hospital

Night Night Mama!
My babies at home.