I. HATE. THIS.

Just when I think we are finally getting our lives back to normal, a new "challenge" gets thrown our way. I am beyond fed up. This past year has been THE. MOST. STRESSFUL. year of my entire life. It has been one thing after another, after another. I have been waiting for a year to have my life back... but maybe that will never happen.

I'M DONE. no... I'm BEYOND done.

Our basement is flooding again... worse than ever. Now it has DESTROYED Adelyn's new room that we worked so stinkin' hard on. My heart aches for my kids right now. Adelyn has been forced back upstairs into what was supposed to be Jaxen's room (that we also nearly killed ourselves trying to get done in time for my little man's arrival)... And Jaxen is stuck sharing a room with us forever.

So.... Adelyn has no bedroom. And now neither does Jax... and on top of it all, Jaxen had his 2 month shots today and instead of cuddling my hurting little man, I am stuck it this stupid basement sucking water through shop vacs, dumping 7 gallon pails of water down the laundry sink, and wringing out nasty towels. Poop.

I'm officially declaring it.... I HATE THIS HOUSE. It seems every time I find a new love for this house, something happens to make me dislike it all over again. Grrr....

Jaxen Kael - Our Journey So Far

From the moment I found out I was pregnant I dreamed of the first moment I would get to hold this precious little life in my arms, the smell of a newborns skin, and late night cuddles. I imagined snuggling this perfect, healthy little babe and falling so madly in love. I dreamed of seeing Shaun hold his new son or daughter, providing the comfort and security that only daddy's arms can provide. I pictured the moment when my little girl would become a big sister, and those first moments as they meet each other for the first time.

Every time I heard this song, all of these things came flooding back to my mind. I am beyond blessed to have been able to have every single one of these moments turn out just the way I envisioned them, and now I would like to share them with you. Enjoy!

(Sorry it is so tiny on blogger. You might be able to see it better here)

Jaxen's Birth Story

It's true... I'm attempting to write Jaxen's birth story down before I forget! Yay me! :o) As with all birth stories, read with caution and please forgive my sleep deprived brain for any grammar/spelling mistakes. LOL.


JAXEN'S BIRTH STORY

Well, for starters... my pregnancy with Jaxen was quite a bit different from my pregnancy with Adelyn. Both were good ... Jaxen's just had a lot more adventures (17 weeks of morning sickness and throwing up, a no-heartbeat scare, and 3 bouts of the flu running through our home ... yikes!). Despite all of that, it really was a good healthy pregnancy and it went by very quickly ... almost too quickly at times!

I was about 2cm dilated for the last month of the pregnancy, and he wasn't really dropping (which is somewhat normal for 2nd babies). Despite 3 membrane strips/sweeps we still ended up going a week overdue and were induced on Saturday, April 17th. I had only slept for a total of 2 hours the night before, because I was so anxious and nervous about what was in store for me in the morning. When we got to the hospital that morning I was about 3cm, so they started with a round of the cervical gel. I wasn't expecting it to do anything, because with Adelyn's labor I didn't feel anything from the gel. WELL ... I was wrong. I started having contractions right away. They were 2 minutes apart and lasting nearly a minute. After an hour of walking around the maternity floor, the nurse suggested that I get into the shower because my doctor wouldn't be there for another two hours ... I thought "2 more hours until my doctor even comes to check on me?!! Yikes!" Just then, my doctor walks into the room and says she wants to break my water. I was so excited because I knew that it wouldn't be long after that until this baby was born!! Yay! (Adelyn was born within 3 hours of my water being broken).

So, she broke the water and right away the contractions were INTENSE! I have bad back pain during labor, so I got into the shower to help relieve it. Once again, the shower was my friend during labor!!! I wish I could have my babies in the shower instead of the bed. It is so relaxing and so much easier to stay on top of the contractions when the warm water is on you. I'm not exactly sure how long I was in there when the nurse came and wanted to check me. I had to go back to the bed (which I HATE!!!). I was only 4cm. Boo. I was starting to get a bit discouraged.

I had to stay on the bed to be monitored for a bit, which totally sucked because the contractions were like a minute apart and where lasting nearly that long. I was starting to feel a little urge to push, so the nurse checked and I was only at 5cm. Sigh. However, given my history of going from 4-10cm in 15 minutes, the nurse decided it was time to get my doctor there and quickly. At the time, I thought she was nuts ... I thought for sure this labor was going to take forever because it felt like I wasn't making any dilation progress at all.

My doctor got there a few minutes later. I was at 7cm. Again, I was discouraged because it felt like I needed to push. At this point I had lost complete control over the contractions. They were so INTENSE!!!! Way more painful and strong than with Adelyn's labor! Yikes. I started yelling at the top of my lungs "I need to push, I need to push!!" and they kept telling me I was only at 7cm. BIG FAT BOO! Next thing I know, my doctor says "Ok, give it a try." Pushing with Adelyn had been a wonderful thing. I felt lots of relief to push with Adelyn ... this time, not so much. It burned so badly. I felt every single thing and it hurt! However, a couple pushes later and my beautiful baby boy, Jaxen Kael, was born! He was so perfect!!!

They put him on my tummy right away (which they never did with Adelyn), and it was so precious to be the first person to hold my little guy!!! They took him to check him out, etc. while I got stitched up.... 2nd degree tear this time around.... still bad, but a lot better than my 3rd-4th degree tear with Adelyn. I didn't have to go to the O.R. to be stitched up, and it was so nice to be able to stay in the room with my hubby and my new little man! I even got to feed him and shower this time!! LOL. Jaxen was born at 12:27pm after 3 hours of labor.

We had a great first night at the hospital. Jaxen slept wonderfully and we were all able to get some rest. We were able to go home at noon the next day ... less than 24 hours after his birth. Overall, it was a really great experience. I was able to experience everything that I felt I had missed out on from Adelyn's birth. God really answered prayers about that.

We are home, healthy, and doing well! Jaxen is such a good baby and we are beyond blessed to have him in our lives!!!!!!

Baby's Room!!!!

Now that Adelyn is in her new bedroom, we were so excited to get working on the baby's room. To be honest I was stressing about this BIG TIME! When we were pregnant with Adelyn we had the room set up and ready to go by the 4th month of pregnancy (at least)... so being 8 months pregnant and not having anything in this room accomplished REALLY freaked me out. I am so happy to say that this room turned out exactly the way I wanted it too. I could not be happier to be bringing my baby home to this wonderful space!

Here was the room the day we moved in. The previous owner used this as a dinning room (hence the old school chandelier).

I actually kinda liked it, and would have loved to refinish or paint it, but that would have only worked if our baby is a girl (which we have no idea about!)... so we played it safe and decided to change out the light.
AND for the record, like I just said... we don't know if this baby is a boy or girl. Everyone thinks that because the walls are a blue-ish/turquoise color, it means we are having a boy. We may or may not be.... you know as much as we do. :o)

If this baby is a girl, we will be adding some soft pink accents around the room. It will look so fantastic with the turquoise walls!!!

Change table.

Comfy chair. We actually had a different chair that we were going to use, but the slip cover got wrecked in the laundry (boo!)... so this chair was plan B. It's not totally my ideal nursery chair (as far as looks go), but it is really comfy and any breastfeeding mom knows that is really your #1 concern for a chair!

These are the curtains I made for the room. I really wasn't sure at first, but once we hung them up I was so happy with the way they turned out. They match the crib bedding (which I also made).

Here is the crib bedding. I finished this project way back in November and was so happy to finally see it set up in the crib!! I love it.

We will be putting to black and white photos of the baby in the frames above the crib, and the baby's name will go into the frame on the white shelf.

Lamp, monitor and clock.

New light up close.

We will also be putting a picture of the baby in this frame.

The baby's name will go into this frame. 1 letter per section. This is my favorite part of the entire room!

Box shelves. The baby's first initial will go into the middle box.

New door knobs. We are slowly replacing all the door knobs in the house (as each room gets painted). They were old, gold ones... but these one's make the house look so much more modern.

So that is the baby's room! Let me know what you think... I would love to hear comments on this one!!!

36 weeks

We are now 36 weeks! Can you believe how fast this pregnancy has gone by!!! They consider 37 weeks "full term," so we could have a baby as early as next week. Eeek!!! This baby has definitely grown in the last 4 weeks, and I am certainly feeling it. I'm officially a waddling pregnant lady. Yikes. :o) We have a doc. appointment next week and I'm hoping that I will be at 2cm... I've been feeling a lot more pressure there lately and some braxton hicks... so hopefully they are being productive... like i said last time, I love having progress without actually being in labor!!!!


According to babycenter.ca, here is what is going on with our munchkin this week:Baby is still gaining weight -- about an ounce/ 28 grams a day. He/she weighs nearly 6 pounds and is about 19 inches long from head to toe. You may begin to feel an increased pressure in your lower abdomen and notice that your baby is gradually dropping. However, walking may become increasingly uncomfortable -- some women say it feels as if the baby is going to fall out.

The good news is that by the end of this week, your pregnancy will be full-term and you could give birth any day now. (Babies between 37 and 42 weeks are considered full-term -- a baby born before 37 weeks is premature and after 42 is post-term.)

Big Girl Room!!!

Yay! Adelyn is finally in her new room. This has been a project that we started last summer, so it's been a long time coming! It feels so good to have finished it up, and now we are free to move on to other rooms in the house. She has been sleeping in there for a week and a half and has done extremely well. She has never slept so good! Yay! She loves the room and the colors, and she is always excited to show people who come over "Ananyn's room" (that's how she says her name... it's so cute!)

So, here it is.... FINALLY!

This is the basement when we first moved in. We split this big long room into 2 sections... the back half became Adelyn's new room and the front half became a nicer family room (pictures of that are coming soon!)

This is the back half of the room, that became Adelyn's room.
Framing. We are so lucky to have my handy father help us out with stuff like this. So much better than having to hire someone to do it!
Drywall. This was our first time doing drywall, and I must admit that it is more work than it appears to be. It was pretty fun never the less.
This is the wall heater that was in the basement. We got a new furnace put in the house and had them run extra heat to the basement, so we didn't need this anymore.... not to mention that is was full of asbestos... blah! This is after the heater was ripped out (by my wonderful father).
This was an awkward space in our laundry room that became Adelyn's closet. It had no purpose and we aren't too sure why they developed the basement this way... but it worked great for Adelyn's closet.
This is the awkward laundry room corner from the other side. We took out the middle stud and re-enforced the rest of the studs.
So, here is the room design. It was so much fun to come up with a girly room!! The room turned out pretty similar to the design, and I couldn't be happier with the results. The only thing missing is her toy chest... but Shaun will be refinishing it this summer, so stay tuned for that! Here is the room all painted up and ready for carpet.
:o) Adelyn wondering what the heck we are doing to the basement. LOL. Adelyn "helping" The new carpet and baseboards... we saved so much money by doing it ourselves! Apparently my dad once worked at a place that installed carpets.... I had no idea. :o) The closet almost done. Finally!! Here is the finished product. Adelyn's bed is so tiny in this huge bedroom. :o) Here is her bed with the Ikea wall flower lights above it. I painted petals on the wall to make the cords look a little cuter. She LOVES these lights!!!
This is the other side of the room. Adelyn's name framed on the wall.
The closet finished! We were going to add a curtain or door of some sort, but we are still undecided.
Adelyn LOVES to paint and draw, so we framed some of her artwork. I just love having them displayed... she is quite the little artist!
More Adelyn artwork!

Shelves with the artwork on them and dresser with change pad. We decided to put a change pad in her room even though she will be potty trained soon. That way we can still change the new baby downstairs without having to go very far for supplies, etc. There is a diaper genie on the other side of the dresser that we got for free off of facebook (can't beat getting something for free!) We also have a monitor in her room so that we can hear every little wiggle she makes, etc.

So that is Adelyn's new room. Sorry for the ridiculously long blog post. I'm so happy with the way it turned out, and I'm even more happy that she LOVES it!

34.5 weeks

I had an appointment today to check on the baby. It was the first time Shaun has been able to come in a long time, so it was kinda fun to have him there..... although we waited for 30 min. in the waiting room and an extra 10 in the actual doctors room (which is not exactly fun when you brought your 2 year old with you). Everytime I go by myself, I am in and out in 15 min.

It was a good appointment. They did the group B test thing (which I wasn't expecting, because it seems a bit early for that). She also checked that the baby was indeed head down (thank the Lord, because I thought I had felt it flipping around last week)...... while she was there she checked the cervix for the first time this pregnancy and low and behold, I was already at 1cm!!!! I love having progress without having to do anything for it. :o)

The heartbeat was 140 and sounded good. It is always in the 140's somewhere (which makes me think it's a boy because Adelyn's was always in the 150's). My favorite part of the whole appointment was when she said "it's definitely not a tiny baby!" :o)

Adelyn

On Feb. 8, we celebrated Adelyn's 2nd birthday! It's a very bittersweet thought... happy because we've made it through the past 2 years with a very happy, healthy, beautiful little girl and have many more years to come.... but slightly sad because my little munchkin is growing up so fast!

I could never have asked for a better kid. She is absolutely fantastic in every way! We are so blessed to have her in our lives and I am especially blessed to be her mom. It has been dawning on me lately that I won't have this one on one time with her for very much longer, and that makes me a little bit sad.

Adelyn,

I love you more than life.
You make me laugh. You make me smile.
I am proud to be your mom. Never loose your joy.
You are beautiful, smart and creative... don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise.
You can do ANYTHING through Christ.

I love you miles and miles forever!

32 weeks!

Here is my 32 week picture! Sorry it's so blurry... my bathroom mirror needs a good cleaning. :o)
I can't believe that we are only 8 weeks away from having this little munchkin in our arms! It's hard to imagine my belly getting any bigger... but I know it will happen. I'm still feeling pretty good, but starting to get puffy in the face and hands (which is certainly NOT my favorite part of pregnancy! With Adelyn, my face was so puffy I couldn't hardly smile. LOL.)


Here is some info about what's going on inside there this week:
Your baby now weighs approximately 3.75 pounds/ 1.7 kilograms and is about 17 inches / 42 centimetres long from head to toe. Although his lungs won't be fully developed until just before birth, your little one is inhaling amniotic fluid to exercise his lungs and practise breathing.

Adelyn's Birth Story

I've been inspired lately to write down Adelyn's birth story before I completely forget the details of that day, AND before I have another birth to write about in just a few short months. Yes, this post is about 2 years past due... but I figured it is better late than never. :o)
*WARNING: There are some details that some readers might not want to know about.... read at your own discretion. LOL.



ADELYN'S BIRTH STORY
I had a fantastic pregnancy with Adelyn. I was never really that uncomfortable, slept pretty well, and felt pretty good overall right up until 41 weeks!!!

At about 27-28 weeks I was told that the baby was really low in the pelvis already and that I will "probably have the baby early, but hopefully not too early!" At 35-36 weeks I was already 2cm dilated and baby was still down nice and low, so doctors still told me there was no way I was gonna be overdue. I didn't really care when the baby came, as long as it was after the 37 "full-term" mark. At about 38 weeks I was about 3cm and the doc could feel the baby's head "right there" and the bag of waters was bulging.... she assured us once again that there was no way we would be overdue and it would probably happen within the next week.

At 41 weeks I was 3.5 cm, with the baby's head "right there", waters bulging, and no contractions. Not even uncomfortable. I didn't mind one bit... I was enjoying my time alone at home. Our doctor was shocked that I had gotten to 41 weeks and still no baby, so she set up an induction for us at 41 weeks 1 day pregnant on Feb. 8th.

We got to the hospital around 7:15 that morning. They admitted us, went through all the details with us and checked my cervix. I was at 4cm (without contractions!!! I was so happy to have gotten nearly half way there without even noticing!). They inserted some gel to soften the cervix and hopefully bring on some contractions, then sent us to walk around the hospital for a few hours. Nothing happened. So, we went and had some lunch in the cafeteria and went back upstairs to labor and delivery.

We waited around until 1pm for my doctor to come and decide what to do next. When she got there, she decided to break my water (since it was still "bulging" lol.) Then they sent us to do some more walking around. In the hallway we passed a nurse that made a joke about how I wasn't going to have a baby anytime soon because I was still smiling and talking. Well, after walking for about 1o minutes up and down the halls, I had my first contraction. It totally caught me by surprise and stopped me in my tracks! I had to stop and lean against the wall to get through it. Once it was over, I thought "ok, that was interesting" and we kept walking down the hall. I had another little about a minute later, and then at the end of the hall way I had another strong one. I was kinda getting nervous because they were so strong and coming so quickly. Then all of a sudden I felt super nauseous. I told Shaun that I wasn't feeling well and about 2 seconds later I threw up all over the hallway... twice. Right at that exact moment the same nurse that made a joke not even 5 minutes earlier, entered the hallway to see me throwing up. LOL. I think she was as surprised as we were. She ran to get the labor and delivery nurses, they came and cleaned up the mess and rushed me back to labor and delivery.

We were finally given a birthing room (we had been in the fetal assessment are up until this point), and they rushed me in the shower. I was so happy to be in there! I was having very regular contractions at this point and it was all in my back, so the water felt wonderful! I stayed in there for about an hour, until they wanted me to come out and be checked. That is when all hell broke loose! The minute I got on the bed, the contractions were instantly stronger and unbearable. They checked me and told me that I was still at 4cm. I was so disappointed to hear that! To make matters worse, they wanted to start me on pitocin to get things "going".... I didn't know what to think of that because as far as I was concerned, things were already "going." I was also disappointed because that meant I had to stay on the bed instead of going back into the shower.

The contractions were getting stronger and stronger and I was barely able to stay on top of them because there was no break in between. I also had a terrible nurse that made me feel insanely stupid, so that wasn't helping. We had a student nurse that was trying to put an IV in my wrist for the pitocin, but she was having trouble (I'm not sure why... I wasn't really paying attention). Then the grumpy old nurse took over and by the time they got it in my wrist I felt like I needed to push. I didn't want to say anything at first, because they had just told me that I was at 4cm and they hadn't even started the pitocin yet... but I told them anyway.

They all looked at me kinda funny, but agreed to check and sure enough I was at 10cm and ready to push. I'm not sure how you can go from 4cm to 10cm in 15 minutes, but it happened. They quickly rushed to get everything set up and get my doctor there.... then I pushed just a couple times and Adelyn was born at 4:01pm after only 3 hours of labor!!!! She was perfect and healthy, with plump little cheeks! Everyone was shocked that she came so fast... one of the nurses even told me that she didn't expect us to have a baby on her shift (she wasn't off until 7pm).

I had a really bad tear that needed to be repaired in the OR instead of just in the room, so I only got to see Adelyn for a few short minutes and then I was rushed away. They had told us that I would only be in the OR for about 15-20 minutes and then back to the room, but it was more like 2 hours later until I finally got to go to our room on the maternity floor. I was so out of it for a long time and didn't really know what was going on. Plus I had a bunch of IV's and a catheter, which made it nearly impossible to take care of Adelyn since I couldn't get out of the bed. I didn't even get to shower until 2 days later... yuck. So, all of that kinda ruined the experience for us.

Adelyn was born on Friday, Feb. 8th at 4:01pm weighing 8lbs exactly. We finally got to take her home on Sunday late afternoon. We were so excited to have a healthy, beautiful little girl! We both secretly where hoping for a girl the entire pregnancy. :o)

Belly Pic

I just wanted to share this belly pic with you. My wonderful hubby took it after a recent photo shoot with some clients. The baby has had another growth spurt since then... so I will have to take a new one soon.

27+ weeks!

Just wanted to give a quick pregnancy update...

We are now 27 weeks 2 days! Yipee! The end is within' reach... which is starting to freak me out a little bit! By this point in the pregnancy with Adelyn we had everything ready to go and in it's place... with this one... not so much. We have to work on getting Adelyn down to her new bedroom and then we will be able to start painting the baby's room and getting it decorated. We also have to get our room painted and decorated somewhere in there too... sigh.

ANYWAYS.... Here is what is going on in there this week:
At 27 weeks baby weighs almost 2 pounds and is about 14 1/2 inches long. She's sleeping and waking at regular intervals, opening and closing her eyes, and perhaps even sucking her fingers. With more brain tissue developing, your baby's brain is very active now. While her lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with a lot of medical help — if she were to be born now. Chalk up any tiny rhythmic movements you may be feeling to a case of baby hiccups, which may be common from now on.


This is what s/he looks like in there:
This is a picture of a baby born at 27 weeks... just to give you an idea of what our little muchkin looks like now: