Long time since I posted

I'm just so busy! Nursing school is super time consuming. The other night I was sitting on the couch and my husband looked at me and asked "where is your book?". I did get it out a few minutes later. :) He's very used to watching tv and asking me a question about it and me being like, "huh?" because I'm really not watching. But, we're spending time together, right? ;) I'm passing both classes and am looking forward to Thanksgiving break. A whole four days with no classes, woohoo! Actually, five for me, since I don't have classes on Wednesdays anyways. :)

The kids are all doing great!


Nora is in Kindergarten and learning so much. She suddenly seems very old to me.

Josh also seems much older to me, I still think of him as like an 18 month old. The other day he was walking away from me and I realized that he's BIG.





Charlotte is almost nine months old and a sweetie!

I'm still avoiding dairy, soy, corn, wheat, peanuts and all artificial stuffs (sugars/colors/flavors). She does well on this diet, and I do too! I'm down almost 90 pounds and am about to say adios to Lane Bryant! :)

Sean's still loving his new job. :) He seems to be doing well at it, which is a big plus. His company is having a party in December. They provide hotel rooms too, sounds swanky, though we'll be skipping the hotel room on account of the nursling. ;)

I took my IBCLC exam over the summer and results just came out last week. I'm proud to now call myself and IBCLC.

Random pics of the kids and some of me currently and before.

More weight loss pics

So, I'm down a bit more, official weigh in will be Friday, but tentatively, it looks like 60 pounds down. The pink shirt that I'm wearing today is loose and baggy, it used to be tight and very unflattering. The arms used to cut into my arms and leave marks, due to the elastic in them. I'm not sure that it looks like that much of a difference in the photos, but I notice that my pants are getting looser. Obviously, I'm wearing jeans in the first photo and pants in the second, I probably should have worn the same thing. ;)

Weight loss

Due to some allergies that Charlotte has, I've eliminated a lot of food from my diet. It started with just dairy and soy, expanded to wheat and finally to peanuts. And then the big whammy - the TED (total elimination diet) - where I ate chicken, veggies (minus peas) and fruit (minus berries). I did dairy/soy from about the time Charlie was about a month. I did the TED for about three weeks, and last week added beef and tomatoes back. It has been challenging. The upside is that the weight just falls right off. I'm 52 pounds down since I delivered. Here are a few photos I've pulled together.

I wasn't pregnant here, this was summer 2009, at my top weight. I was, however, one pound from this weight while pregnant.


Then in the spring of 2010, I went and lost some weight. I think it was roughly about 10-15 pounds more than today.


Around Christmas, please remember I was pregnant - due 2/2, so pretty far along. But, I put it in so you can see my legs and my arms on the other picture, the sleeves kept bunching up as they'd gotten too tight on my arms.


Wednesday:

Bedroom progress

In an effort to get Josh and Nora into the front bedroom, we are doing some freshening up. The room needs new curtains as we've never had more than sheers up (and they've since pulled them down). There are two twin beds, but no headboards for them. So, we went to Home Depot yesterday and bought the wood for these beds, designed by Ana White:
http://www.ana-white.com/2010/07/furniture-plans-twin-storage-headboard.html We're not doing the headboards for now, just the base of the bed. The plain is to paint them white.

In addition to curtains, I'm thinking new bedding is in order. I wanted some stripes for each of them, like this: http://www.potterybarnkids.com/room/rom/romsha/romshabsb/?cm_type=lnav, but can't find exactly what I want that isn't super expensive. So, now I'm thinking perhaps a solid color with some throw pillows and different sheets to differentiate between the two. For instance, Josh loves Mickey and Nora is still very much a Dora gal. But, she's also outgrowing Dora, so I wouldn't want to get her Dora bedding (though, she does have some handed down from a cousin). I like to buy bedding that can be used again and again, simply by changing things up. Sort of like this: http://www.potterybarnkids.com/room/rom/romsha/romshaicn/?cm_type=lnav So, any cute bedrooms that you've seen lately that is for siblings of different genders?

Busy, busy over here!

Charlotte is growing quickly, she'll be 8 weeks tomorrow! She has had some issues with things in my milk, so I'm off dairy, soy and wheat. Because she is still having issues, I'm thinking that a TED is in my future. On the bright side, I've lost a bunch of weight since the birth and am now wearing jeans that I bought last spring when I was losing weight and never quite fit into. That said, I eat a lot of eggs and eggs are a no-go on the TED, so I'm going to have to make up some meal plans for things that I can eat! It's all worth it though - to see her not breaking out in rashes and having other issues.

Josh is like a little man now! He just looks so big. He's still my happy guy. :) He has an appointment with a neurologist this month, as his speech therapist says he has signs of apraxia. And he does, as I've researched it and can totally see where she's coming from. Since we started with Help Me Grow, he's gone from three words to 11 (in a year). While to some that might not seem like a lot, Apraxia is where the neurons in the brain misfire to the mouth and his words come out jumbled. Thankfully, we've always used signs with out kiddos from a young age (milk is always the first sign) and thus, even with his limited words, he's still able to communicate fairly well with us. I am pleased to note that he's attempting words more and doing less pointing and grunting. Josh will start preschool in the fall. Our district contracts with a preschool that is able to deal with kids that have special needs. I'm hopeful that Josh makes great strides, so that he can eventually not have to worry about extra help, but for now am thankful that it exists!

Nora has kindergarten screening next week! My little baby is ready to start school! She is going to be attending our parish school, which is where she's at now for preschool. We chose this for a few reasons. One is that she misses our districts cut off, by nine days and they're cheap and won't let anyone in, one person (whom I trust) told me her daughter missed the cutoff by a week and was not let in because she wasn't tall enough. The other reason is that even if they would let her in, I hate their kindergarten schedule. It's either M, W and every other Friday or T, TH and every other Friday. Now, it's all day, but I know that I'd be all sorts of lost every Friday, lol. We need a lot of consistency (because of the next update) and thus, the parish school is perfect for us. Plus, the parish school ranks two grade levels above their peers in the state. In addition, she knows everyone there.

So, why do we need consistency? I've officially been offered a seat in the fall nursing program! I'm super excited, but a bit nervous as well. I know that it's going to be a very intense two years. To that end, if you have a way that you keep track of the entire family and all the events going on in a way that will be easy for everyone to access - please post and let me know! We have Dr appts, schooling (three different schools next year), the sitter, DHs work, my clinicals, lab and lecture, plus running the house, my volunteering, birthday parties, holiday parties, family obligations, etc, etc! Clearly, we need something that will organize us! I'd love for it to have a digital component - an email to both DH and I every single day on the activities that day would be awesome. But, part of me also thinks we need something colorful for the fridge (where we are both likely to see it daily). Maybe a combination of both. Maybe a monthly fridge calendar AND daily reminders? If there's an app for the daily emails, let me know! I'm sitting for my IBCLC Boards in July this year! :)

Sean just got a raise (well, it is effective April 1, so we'll see it next pay)! Woot! I'm so happy for him and proud of his success!

Next up...a project :).

party of five....

It's been awhile, like the end of December of 2010. I suppose I should start my 2011 posting, ahem.

For starters, our family became a party of five...


And for the birth story....
On Saturday, February 5th I woke up with contractions. They became as close as 7 minutes apart. Sean, I fear, called his sister too early and when she arrived, they sort of fizzled out to every 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, etc. Completely random and not at all in any pattern at that point. Totally not her fault, it just stalled me out. She stayed the night thinking it would happen overnight. But, alas, it didn't. She went home the next morning and we putzed around the house. Contractions were about 15-20 minutes apart all day. It was cold that day, so we just stayed in. We even skipped mass on account of the contractions.

So, that Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday. Pittsburgh Steelers versus Greenbay Packers. We're Cleveland Browns fans, so we naturally turned in to cheer for the Packers. ;) Around 9:30 pm, I noticed that my contractions were starting to pick back up. When the game ended, my contractions were about every 8-10 minutes apart. I decided to take a shower, knowing that if it was the real deal, the shower would not slow these contractions down. So, I hopped in the shower and the shower did not slow my contractions down. The shower felt great though! After showering, I decided I would go to bed - thinking I'd be awake early in the morning. When I laid down, I noticed the contractions were coming every five minutes. After three contractions, I jumped out of bed because it was too much to be laying down. I continued timing my contractions and around 11:45 I called the midwives answering service to page the midwife on call. The person who answered the call told me that Erin would be calling me back shortly. The contractions were coming even quicker at this point and Sean asked me if he should call his sister, I told him yes. By midnight, contractions were one on top of another. Sean called his sister who said she was on her way. Despite the fact that my midwife still hadn't returned my call, I went outside to be ready for his sister. She arrived around 12:10 am. I would say that I jumped into the truck, but between contractions and being hugely pregnant, I'm sure it actually took me a few minutes just to get into the truck. Sean drove quickly to the hospital, briefly stopping at the two red lights before running them (one was a right turn, so not as bad as the left turn he ran). I could not sit in the truck so instead I sort of kneeled. Sean said if the window would have been down, I'd have probably jumped out.

Thankfully, the hospital installed an entrance with an elevator directly to the OB unit when they remodeled, so we went directly to the OB unit and didn't have to make our way through the ER or any other part of the hospital - which was a very good thing. We made our way to the third floor and we started walking towards the nursing desk. But, every time I had a contraction, we'd stop and I'd hang on to the rail on the wall. We got halfway to the desk when a nurse came and found us. And then another nurse, Marianne, came out of triage to see who was in labor in the hall. She left a stable, only 4 cm dilated patient in triage and came to help Hannah (who was in her first week of night shift!). Marianne sort of took the lead, getting me in a gown and on the bed to be checked. I was 8 cm dilated. Marianne asked what I was feeling. Between loud groans, I told her pain from the contractions and pressure. Boy, did that get some movement. Right away, she was on the phone with the midwife, Erin (who was on her way due to the patient in triage). Erin informed her that I was a VBAC, which seemed to freak out both Marianne and Hannah until I informed them that I'd already had two VBACs since my c/s. One of them went to the OR to find out how soon the c/s would be over to see if the house Dr would be available to catch the baby.

And then, despite Marianne's urging me to blow through the pushes and my best efforts to do so(haha!), 18 minutes after I arrived at the hospital, at 12:38 am, our baby girl, Charlotte Jane (nn Charlie) arrived after just a few pushes. Marianne got to catch her first baby and Hannah got to see exactly what happens when you're short staffed, the house Dr is doing a surgery and no other person is around to handle an imminent delivery. At that point, Marianne and Hannah began to do things like start an IV (just in case of a hemorrhage to push pit), draw blood and ask general intake questions.

Erin, the midwife, arrived about ten minutes later, just in time to deliver the placenta. She also ordered the pit for me at that point because I was losing too much blood. I had a second degree tear (right on that old, unneeded episiotomy site), so she stitched me up. Erin had never returned my page, but I learned that she got a blank page and called back the patient in triage thinking it was her again. They had problems the next morning with the answering service when they called every midwife but the one that was on call (they do 7am to 7pm). Erin felt horrible because she felt like she could have prevented me from tearing. She said that she hardly ever has to do any repairs because she prevents nearly all of them.

Here's the proud papa, who started calling people to let them know Charlie was here.
When he called his sister, she thought he was calling just to let her know that we had arrived. She was shocked that he was calling to say we'd had a GIRL!

She was 8 pounds, 2 ounces at birth. She dropped five ounces after 24 hours, but rebounded by an ounce in the next 24 hours. My milk came in quickly, I've nursed long enough now that my body remembers exactly what to do. ;) Here's Charlie, all cleaned up and sleeping:



As of breastfeeding support group Wednesday night, she was 9 pounds, 6 ounces - at 16 days old. Yes, she met and way exceeded the goal of back to birth weight by two weeks old. She's a nursing champ! So far, she has a sweet disposition, just like her older brother Josh. :)