Our Kroeger Family

Stationery card

2012-11-23T13:10:00.005-06:00

Flourished Elegance Christmas Card

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Stationery card

2012-11-23T13:10:00.003-06:00

Flourished Elegance Christmas Card

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Stationery card

2012-11-23T13:10:00.001-06:00

Flourished Elegance Christmas Card

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Ivy's half birthday

2012-02-20T17:54:00.004-06:00

Our sweet little girl is 6 months old! How did that happen?
2 years ago we celebrated Harrison's first half birthday so we thought Ivy deserved the same.

To keep our tradition alive, I baked another half cake. Everyone kept asking me what I did with the other half.. so here's what I did. I used this recipe and only made half. You could always make the entire recipe and but we don't need that much cake at our house! I baked it in a round cake pan and once it was baked and cooled, I cut it down the middle to make two layers. Then I stacked them and decorated. Ivy got dolled up and we took pictures. Of course the baby doesn't get any cake (or even icing) but Harrison thought the whole thing was super fun. He sang happy birthday over and over to her. It was pretty cute!

6 months is a pretty fun age. Ivy's projectile vomiting is slowly decreasing which is really helping with the laundry. She is super ticklish and thinks Harrison is the funniest person on Earth.
We finally kicked her out of our bed and she now sleeps in her crib. Even in the middle of the night, she won't go back to sleep in our bed. That means I have to actually wake up when she's hungry, feed her and lay her back down. I'm sure this is something most nursing moms always do but I'm lazy and always laid my babies next to me in bed and let them eat while I go back to sleep. It was a pretty sweet set-up that I'm missing.

She had her 6 month check-up and she's perfectly healthy. Even with all that throwing-up, she has managed to gain 2 lbs since December. She's up to 15 lbs (30%) and 27 1/2 inches (98%)... tall and skinny! The doctor also recommended having Ivy cry it out and sleep through the night. The idea just makes me so sad... I guess we have to do it sometime, but I'm not ready yet.

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Can't wait for our little girl to start using our fabric high chair!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/littleoneslove?section_id=10230312

Curtain-raising

2012-02-20T13:59:00.000-06:00

My household projects have been few and far between since Ivy was born. But today when I was cleaning the kitchen windows and blinds, I realized how much light is blocked by the curtains.

Super dark...

I discovered that the easiest way to clean blinds is by taking them all the way down, and giving them a good wash in the tub. That's why the curtains come down too. So with Ivy in the exersaucer and Harrison yelling at me to get down, I quickly moved up the brackets that hold the curtain rod.

please ignore the paint on the cabinets... but I moved the bracket about 12 inches higher

When I hung the curtains back up, it's amazing how much brighter the kitchen is... and it's not even sunny today!

Whoa! Hiatus much?

2012-01-22T16:42:00.000-06:00

So, I kind of fell off the blogging train. Sorry about that!

Starting back to work full-time, two children, a household to run, the holidays, and finally starting to sell things on Etsy, I haven't had a ton of free time.

Here's a quick summary of the past 2 months:

We had our first Thanksgiving with Ivy Mae. I made her a festive fall outfit. I think she liked it. :)
I still work part time at a local hotel (its where Adam and I met!) and Thanksgiving is the busiest day of the year. So for the first time in 7 years, I volunteered to work Thanksgiving. This meant that we had to cancel our plans to visit my family on Thanksgiving. Adam and the kids went to his parents house while I bar-tended and we took a quick trip to St. Louis the next day.

December FLEW by. I was working 2-3 shifts a week at the hotel on top of full-time teaching and tons of sewing projects/Christmas presents to finish. It was crazy busy. Finally Christmas came and everything was awesome. Harrison is two now and finally was able to get into the whole Santa thing. He actually is terrified of Santa... refused to sit on his lap for a photo or even be in the same room as him. We talked about Santa a lot and how he was going to bring toys on Christmas. Harrison would tell us he liked Santa but when asked if Santa could come to his house, he would always answer with a "nu-uh." (He still doesn't use the word no!)
We celebrated Christmas with my family a week early. We decided to make it an ugly sweater theme. Some of my siblings were too cool but most of us dressed terrible.

Adam and his Christmas tie :)

Chad, Jessika and Lane

Bryce, Jeanette, Reagan and Avery.... Reagan didn't want to wear her sweater because she thought it was ugly. Jeanette had to reassure her that everyone was wearing ugly sweaters. She probably thinks we are super weird!

My candy cane turtleneck was a huge hit!

My mom and Dave

the big kids were going crazy waiting for us to open presents!

Tom, Katie and Jada

On "real" Christmas, we set out cookies for Santa (Harrison screamed for those cookies all the way to bed) and he woke up extra early, 6:00 am to be exact. It took a few presents for him to get excited about opening them but he quickly got the hang of it. Now for the photo bomb!

Some videos for the family :)

New obsession

2011-11-06T16:49:00.000-06:00

It's official. My maternity leave is over.... I'm super sad about leaving my babies all day but kind of excited to meet my students. Since Ivy was born on the first day of school, I have yet to meet a lot of my kiddos.

Anyways, this also means I have a very limited work wardrobe since I still have 15ish pounds to lose and my clothes don't fit. Here comes in our healthy eating again. We usually eat pretty well but my addiction to ice cream isn't helping out my weight loss and since I don't work out (or even want to) I need to start eating better. We already eliminated most boxed foods in our house years ago and I cook a lot of our foods from scratch. I recently discovered Larabars. They have several flavors and only 3-7 ingredients. Our whole family likes them.

Here's where my new favorite blog comes in. Katie from chocolatecoveredkatie.com makes the most delicious vegan recipes. Note: I am not a vegan or even a vegetarian. I love ice cream and bacon WAY too much for that to happen. This is why I like her... she has recipes for homemade Larabars! They are SUPER easy to make and so delicious!

Today we made the cookie dough balls and with only 4 ingredients I think we will be making them a lot. I have made several of her recipes now and they are all super delicious and HEALTHY!

cookie dough dip

cookie dough babies (Larabars)

cookie pie

coconut banana butter

I hope you too can try some healthy deserts and maybe break your bad dessert habit. Let's loose some lbs and still eat yummy food! Anyone with me?

Twick or Tweat!

2011-11-06T01:32:00.000-05:00

Ivy really enjoyed her first Halloween. Isn't she an adorable pea?

This was Harrison's third Halloween and by far the most fun for him! His costume was "Sully" from Monsters, Inc. and he is terrified of it. We have been trying to get him to warm up to it for the past month or so. A few times we even got him to put it on but he still didn't like it. Luckily on Halloween, after pinning him down and forcing it on (sorry kiddo!) he was excited to go get candy. We just couldn't leave the house fast enough for him and all my pictures are of him crying because we weren't leaving yet! It does make him look a bit tougher though :)

Adam was in a hurry since the Chiefs were playing in Monday night football so we only went to about 10 houses in our neighborhood. Harrison was so excited even though he didn't know what we were doing but quickly got the hang of it. He would thrust his bucket at anyone who would open the door. Sometimes he would say "tweat" but mostly it was just bucket thrusting! At one house he signed "thank you" to the guy and we could hear him as he was closing the door "that boy just signed thank you." I love it when other people know that he's not blowing kisses! :)

Here's a quick reminder of our past Halloweens with our little guy.

Our little dinosaur who was just learning how to walk - Age 1

Rubble family: Barnie, Bettie, and baby Dino- 3 weeks old :)

My adventure without shampoo

2011-10-25T22:43:00.003-05:00

This is by far the most "crunchiest" thing I have done! I think our family and friends have gotten use to not having paper towels at our house, reusing baggies, composting, homemade everything and even cloth diapers, but no shampoo is a different story! 3 of my sisters are hair dressers! My mom even asked me if I am going to quit shaving my armpits! Umm, no.

First off, why am I doing this?

This is a huge info page of all the reasons behind no 'poo and why it works but I will give a few highlights:

Basically going without shampoo puts your hair in its natural state. It will be healthier, prettier, shinier, and easier to manage.

Shampoo is a detergent, just like laundry detergent, dishwashing powder and the stuff you use to clean your bathroom. It cleans out the dirt in your hair, but is very harsh and also takes the natural oils that make your hair shiny, soft and strong so then you need conditioner to cover up the damage in your hair and make it manageable again.

Most shampoos contain mineral oil. A byproduct of the distillation of gasoline from crude oil, mineral oil is what's left over. It's so abundant that it costs more to dispose of it then it does to package and sell it, so it ends up everywhere. It's added to shampoos and conditioners to give hair an artificial shine caused by coating it with a thick oil. Mineral oil cannot absorb into your skin like other oils do, so it sits on top and forms a barrier preventing oils and toxins from being released as a normal part of your skin's lifecycle. This is one of the reasons you'll find that the more shampoo you use, the more often you need to use it. In the long run, coating your hair with mineral oil makes it weaker, and more prone to damage.

Shampoos also include SLS and SLFS (sodium lauryl sulfate, sodium laureth sulfate) which are skin and eye irritants that also acts as a foaming agent in soaps, shampoos, toothpastes, dishwashing liquid... and just about anything that produces a foamy lather. The Materials Safety Data Sheet cautions to avoid body contact with SLS, it also puts infants and children (whose eye are developing at a more rapid rate) at risk for improper eye development when it's absorbed through the skin and accumulates in eye tissues.

Hmmm... this is scary stuff! So I am going to quit slathering those chemicals on our bodies each day.

So how do I wash my hair now?

Well I "shampooed" with 1 TBSP of baking soda mixed with 1 cup of water. I mix this in an empty ketchup container but you can use any squeeze bottle. Squirt on scalp, scrub in, and rinse after 1 minute. Then I "condition" with 1 TBSP of vinegar mixed in 1 cup of water. Same application. Make sure you rinse really well or else you may smell like vinegar! :)

The first time I did it, I was really worried that I would never be able to comb through my hair to fix it and was very surprised when it was super easy to comb. My hair was super soft and manageable. When you first start, there is a detox period where your hair tries to figure out what to do! By day 3 I was a super grease ball. Good thing I'm still on maternity leave and can hide out in my house. I gave in and washed my hair again with the baking soda and vinegar. I am now on day 9 and have "no-pooed" 3 times. I am hoping this detox thing is almost over. My hair looks really good and although I haven't really tried to fix it (thanks to a certain little girl who throws up on me all day long) I think it would still curl and look nice. I am hoping to eventually only wash my hair once a week (I will shower and shave mom, I promise!).

Now if only I can figure out how to keep coloring my hair... henna maybe?

Worlds of Fun!

2011-10-24T00:06:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we took our kids on their first trip to Worlds of Fun here in Kansas City.
Every year Adam's company hosts their company picnic there and its all FREE (Those are the best kind of trips)!

We arrived as the park opened and immediately went to the main carousel. Adam stayed with Ivy and Harrison and I climbed on. He was terrified and clung to me for dear life! There was no way he was going to sit on a horse so we sat on the bench. You know about the bench? Its the part on the carousel where the grandmas sit. Yeah, that's it. Well, half way through our ride, Harrison decided he loved the carousel and wanted to ride the horse. Too late, buddy. He was so excited when he got off and told Daddy all about the horses. We ended up riding the carousel two more times that day, and Harrison rode a horse both times :)

Ivy enjoyed her "ride" in the stroller!

riding a REAL steam train complete with a conductor and a whistle!

Once he checked out those horses, Harrison was ready for a ride

Mommy and Harrison rode this ride. At two years old, he was definitely the youngest rider but had sooo much fun!

This party has been brought to you by the letter H and the number 2

2011-10-08T21:44:00.001-05:00

Our party for Mr. Harrison was a huge success! We were even able to get him to take a nap before the festivities began :)

Our day was filled with swinging, an Elmo pinata, singing, yummy pumpkin spice cake and ice cream, and lots of fun presents! Thanks to all our family and friends for celebrating with us.

Ivy with her grandmas

cookie monster beanbag toss with cookie beanbags was a big hit

My adorable husband and his less adorable hat :)

the kids LOVED the bubbles in the pinata

Birthday party plans

2011-10-06T13:21:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow marks the big t-w-o for Mr. Harrison. We are planning a Sesame Street party for him on Saturday and I just wanted to share some of the awesome ideas I am ~~stealing~~ borrowing from pinterest.

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I can't wait to share our version of the party! Only 2 more days, off to bake cupcakes!!!

starting to talk!

2011-10-06T13:03:00.000-05:00

When Harrison was a baby, we started using baby sign language with him. We only used very basic signs although some parents go as far as teaching 100+ signs, we were closer to 10: more, eat, drink, milk, hi, bye, help, movie, bed, and diaper. It took him FOREVER to actually sign back. He was over a year before he started with a few signs regularly and didn't talk much other than jibber-jabber. We always joke that he spoke fluent Japanese because he would talk forever with tons of different sounds but no words.

At one year of age, he said "d" words: dad, dog, down, and done. In fact, he didn't say mommy until 15 months! I had to wait that long to be called by name. But this week (the week of his second birthday!) he just started talking! Even people who aren't related to us, can understand him! That's real talking :)

We were playing with a whistle and whenever he would try to blow on it, would say "don't work." Ha!
Other new words this week: two, gross, Thomas, car, and truck. He's getting so big!

Prayers are answered!

2011-09-23T18:28:00.001-05:00

Early this morning, Ivy's doctor came to tell us that all Ivy's cultures were negative for bacteria. They are going to watch them for another 24 hours and if they are still negative we will be going home. We were pretty pleased. I even left for an hour to go home and shower.

A few hours later, the doctor came back in to tell us that one of Ivy's cultures tested positive for Parechovirus. This is what is causing her fever. Hurray for an answer!! Since it was just a virus, we can stop the antibiotics and were free to go home today! The doctor said she would call us with the test results tomorrow but the chance of her having a bacterial infection on top of this is very rare.

Shortly later, the nurses unhooked Ivy from all of her tubes and wires and we were on our way home. Pretty awesome.

Ivy is still super crabby. Her fever is lower (99ish) but I think her back is very sore (she had 4 needles in her spine yesterday). Every time I move her, she cries. It breaks my heart. Hopefully she'll be back to her happy self soon!

Scary, scary stuff...

2011-09-22T18:41:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, Ivy had a very routine one month check-up. She has gained so much weight and is up to 10 lbs. 3 oz!!! Considering she was only weighing 7 lbs. 6 oz three weeks before, I was super excited! After a quick exam, the doctor gave her his stamp of approval, she got her second Hep. B vaccine, and we were on our way.
That afternoon, Ivy was a bit more fussy than usual and I just shrugged it off thinking her leg was sore from the injection. That night she continued to be super fussy and right before bedtime she felt a bit warm. I took her temp (99.6) and decided to call the after-hours nurse to see if I should do anything. The nurse reassured us that most babies don't have reactions to Hep. B shots and since her fever was below 100.2, we shouldn't worry.
Well, Ivy did not sleep well at all that night. She cried and cried. She wasn't even interested in nursing which is usually the cure-all for everything. Finally around 4 am, I took her temp again. I was interrupted at 101.1 due to being pooped on! Oh the joys of motherhood and nurses insisting on rectal temps! Yuck! I knew I needed to take her in. Adam decided to stay at home and get a few more hours of sleep so he could go to work on Thursday. After all, wouldn't they just give us antibiotics and send us home?
Within 5 minutes of our arrival at Children's Mercy, I was informed that because she is only 5 weeks old, we would be admitted and staying for at least 48 hours. She would have a full work-up done: blood, urine, chest x-ray and spinal tap. A spinal tap for a newborn! Not what I wanted to hear at all. I tried to call Adam but he was sleeping and not answering his phone. Frustrating.
The nurses worked fast! Just a few minutes later she had a her blood drawn and a catheter to get a urine sample. Ivy was not enjoying this so far. Then it came time for the IV to be put in. The nurse tried so hard to find her little veins. After a few tries and enough digging in her arm, they decided to put her IV in her head. Ugh. Poor thing. Next came the spinal tap. The doctor numbed up her back and when she inserted the needle, hit a blood vessel. Blood was everywhere! I'm really not sure how I was holding up so well watching my baby being tortured. She was screaming so loud. The doctor tried again twice more and quit. Ivy was done. They would try again later.
We were moved upstairs and admitted to the hospital. Around this time, Adam arrived...nice and rested. Once upstairs, we met the doctor assigned to our case and she took Ivy to a procedure room to retry the spinal tap. It was super quick and successful! Yes! Then she took Adam and I to view the x-ray from earlier. She explained everything in the picture: face, ribs, lungs, heart, and then she pointed to another blob that was the thymus. The doctor explained that it was much bigger than most babies. Most babies are usually half the size of Ivy's. She thought that there was a tumor in it. We would need to go for a CT Scan to find out more.
Less that an hour later, we were taken to radiology. I helped while they swaddled my little girl and strapped her to the table. Ivy was totally zonked out and slept thru the entire thing. I, of course, was totally freaking out thinking my daughter has cancer. The tech told us it would take an hour to find out the results. This was 9:10 am. The waiting game begins. 10:10 am comes and goes. 11:00 am comes and goes. The longer we waited, the worse my fears became. Finally around 2:00 pm, the doctor comes in to tell us that there is NO mass! NO tumor. NO cancer! She couldn't believe it. She said in 20 years of practicing medicine she has never seen a thymus this large. We are so lucky.
Other good news is her blood, urine, and spinal fluid are all clear of bacteria. Yeah!
Ivy's not completely out of the woods yet. She still has a high fever (102ish) that we are managing with tylenol and she is on two different antibiotics to fight off any viruses that may be lurking in her body. We will be staying until Saturday so they can observe her cultures and rule out other scary diagnoses like meningitis.
It's been a pretty eventful and terrifying day. I made a list of firsts that Ivy encountered on our adventure. (Hopefully a lot of these will be a first and ONLY)

1. first fever

2. first hospital visit

3. first hospital stay

4. first IV

5. first antibiotic

6. first x-ray

7. first spinal tap

8. first cat scan

We are thankful for all the prayers Ivy received today. We are so grateful to have such great friends and family.

Finally!

2011-09-13T14:42:00.003-05:00

Harrison has slept in his toddler bed for the past 5 nights!!!

We finally purchased this baby gate for his doorway so he can't escape and fight us all night to get out of his room. This is why we have given up in the past. The first few nights were a bit rough but last night was perfect. We tucked him in, said "good night" and he went to sleep! I have to remind you he is only 23 months old, its going too fast! :( Kind of bitter sweet for me. Good thing I have another baby!

We continued to use the baby crib for naps this week but today Harrison told me he wanted to sleep in the "robot bed" so I let him. I checked on him a few minutes after I laid him down and he was sitting in his room reading books (proud mama here!) but I told him to lay back down and he went to sleep! I may have had to fight back a few tears but am so proud of my little guy! Way to go Harrison!!!

40 bags in 40 days

2011-09-12T14:08:00.001-05:00

I have decided to clear out our house!

I feel like we accumulate so much stuff! Even though I think I do a pretty good job of hiding our junk, I know its still there... Its hiding in closets, under beds, inside pretty decorative boxes, etc. Well, I'm on the hunt to find it all and get rid of all the stuff we no longer need or want. The goal is to stop bringing excess stuff into our house and reducing our waste. Seriously, I am embarrassed by our trash can sitting on the curb each week!

I recently read about the Johnson family. They have a blog teaching about their zero-waste life. This family is remarkable (and way more extreme that I will ever be!) but they are very inspiring.The have so many tips to go "no-waste" but I love their moto: Refuse, Refuse, Refuse. Then reduce, reuse, recycle (and only in that order). You should read about them, okay?

Anyways, back to clearing out our nooks and crannys. I made a list of 40 areas I want to clean, organize and purge and my goal is 40 days. I figure we could probably get rid of 40 bags of stuff. Hopefully most of it will go the Catholic charities thrift store but I'm sure some of it is just trash that needs to be thrown away. How embarrassing, right?

Here is the list:

1. Junk drawer in kitchen

2. Under kitchen sink

3. Kitchen drawers/ towels/ baggies

4. Silverware drawers

5. Mudroom shelves

6. Shoes

7. Pantry and entry bench

8. Refrigerator

9. Spice cabinet

10. Cabinet above fridge

11. hutch

12. Office desk

13. Hallway closet upstairs

14. Hallway closet downstairs

15. Magazines

16. My closet

17. My closet again!

18. Adams closet

19. My dresser and underwear drawer

20. Adam’s dressers and underwear

21. Maternity clothes

22. Under our bed

23. Dvds and video games

24. Jewelry

25. Makeup bag

~~26.~~ ~~Bathroom cabinet/drawers~~

27. Medicine cabinet

28. Harrison’s clothes

29. Harrison’s toy boxes

30. Harrison’s closet

31. Ivy’s closet

32. Playroom shelves and dvds

33. Sewing materials

34. crafting/scrapbook materials

35. Garage (general)

36. Garage (shelves)

37. Car

38. Truck

39. Laundry room

40. recipe books

Have you spent any time purging lately?

Perpetual calendar project

2011-08-30T22:47:00.002-05:00

As i have mentioned before, I am addicted to pinterest. This results in tons of wonderful projects I want to tackle. This was my project of the day!

I have tried journaling in the past with poor results. By the time I lay down at night, I don't feel like journaling. Then I found this idea on pinterest!

She used index cards with a date stamp to "jot journal" for each day every year then continues for the following years. The idea is very simple — flip to the current date and at the end of the day, write down something that happened. Some days it is big things like "Harrison took his first trip to the zoo.” Other days it is small, like “needed a nap today.” I love that you can look back to see what happened on previous years and it is super quick to keep up with!

I made some modifications on my version. First, I knew that the chances of those cards staying in that cute little box all the time was slim to none so I hole-punched my cards and attached them to a book ring. The rings were actually left over from Harrison's nursery curtain on his closet seen here. Walgreens had 100 index cards on sale this week for $1 so I picked up 4. Finally we borrowed Adam's date stamp from work. That took the longest! 365 turns on the dial later and it was ready. :)

I used already-owned scrapbook paper for a cover

and more scrapbook paper for dividers... I didn't own any vintage postcards. Maybe next time?

date stamped and ready to "quick write"

I love how the dividers look!

As long as I keep up with this, it will be fun to read as the years go by! Hopefully my kids will enjoy it too!

2011-08-29T15:05:00.000-05:00

Our first 13 days with Miss Ivy have gone pretty well. She is such a perfect baby. She basically just sleeps, eats every 2 hours, and occasionally is awake enough to check us out!

We were lucky enough to be allowed an early discharge from the hospital after 24 hours since we were both doing well. We had a doctors appt the next day and found out her bilirubian levels had gone from 6 to 14. This meant she was jaundice and she had also lost 10% of her body weight. Boo. Luckily our pediatrician wasn't too worried and just wanted me to supplement one bottle of formula a day until my milk fully came in and also give her some sun time. The next day, her bilirubian was at 15 (meaning she had reached her peak) and she had gained 2 oz!!! 6 days later, her coloring looked much better and she was up another 9 oz. The doctor says she is perfectly healthy and we don't have to go back until her one month check-up.

Our little girl is a champ at eating! Just like her brother, she knew exactly how to latch on and is an express eater. Seriously, she is done eating in less than 10 minutes at each feeding. Sweet! I learned my lesson with Harrison that I needed to start pumping while I am on maternity leave so I can have a stockpile in the freezer. I hated pumping day to day and stressing out when I didn't have enough while at work, which meant we were giving Harrison formula occasionally when I didn't have enough. This time, I starting pumping the day my milk came in and am storing 6-15 ounces of milk a day!! It's pretty awesome!

Harrison is loving his little sister and doesn't seem to be jealous at all. He is so sweet and gives her kisses all day. Every time he gives her a kiss he says "aww!" Apparently, we must have been saying that too!

Last week, we had our newborn photo shoot with http://www.stephaniesmithphoto.com/ Here are a few of my favorites!

Aren't they adorable?!

My babies are definitely related!

2011-08-26T09:23:00.000-05:00


Ivy on left, Harrison on right

Crazy, right?!?

Introducing Ivy Mae!

2011-08-20T06:15:00.001-05:00

Our little girl is here!

After a few weeks of "fake" labor and two days of "early" labor, my doctor finally said okay to giving me a tad bit of pitocin to kick things into high gear.

We arrived at the hospital on Tuesday morning at 7 am. I loved my nurse so much when I delivered Harrison that I asked if she was working that day and she was! So I was lucky enough to have Ann again! I was dilated to 3.5 and as soon as they started my pitocin on the lowest possible dose, my contractions became much more regular. My doctor broke my water around 9:30 am and then I started to become much more uncomfortable. I received my epidural a little after 10:30 and was dilated to a 5. I was excited that it was moving so fast because when I was in labor with Harrison I went from 5-10 in an hour and a half. I kept telling my Dr. Magee and Ann that I was aiming for a baby at noon. So imagine my disappointment when Ann checked me at 11:30 and I was still a 5. My cervix was very posterior and it was taking a long time for it to move forward. At 12:30, I was finally a 6. During this time, I was having a lot of back pressure so Ann kept having the anesthesiologist come back to try different medicines in my epidural. I was finally feeling normal again (although frustrated that I missed my original deadline). Still stuck at 6 and feeling like I was going to be pregnant forever, I decided to try to take a nap for a bit around 2:30. A few minutes before 3, I was suddenly in extreme pain with every contraction. Since I had been completely numb, I knew something was up. Ann told me I was complete, went to call the doctor, and we were pushing just a few minutes later! Ivy was born at 3:15 after only pushing 3 times!

She is absolutely perfect! Since she was born so fast, she had no bruising or funny shaped head. She did have her cord around her neck but it was loose and didn't cause any problems. We think she resembles Harrison but with different coloring.

Lauren was the only family member in the room and she took pictures and a short video. Once Ivy was born it was just me and Adam. We spent about 45 minutes with just the three of us, staring at our little girl and nursing. It was such a nice time to have together. Shortly after that the room was full of visitors ready to welcome her to the world.

She is a champ at nursing, sleeps almost all the time, and enjoys throwing up! Ha!

Last belly picture: 39 weeks, 5 days

And here is the SWEETEST video ever of Harrison and Ivy meeting :)

The countdown continues

2011-08-09T13:33:00.000-05:00

9 more days until we meet our little girl! Single digits means its close.
The carseat is installed in the car, bags are packed and I am HUGE! Can't wait until next week :)

Our last kid-free weekend (for awhile!)

2011-08-08T13:47:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, Harrison took a trip to the lake with his Nana and Pap, and Aunt Lauren. Adam and I were alone, praying that I would go into labor! Ha!
Well I didn't go into labor, but we did have some nice adult time. Saturday night we reminisced our childless days of living in the city. First we ate dinner at Grinders. Yummy! Then we redeemed a groupon for the screenland theater. We saw the new Woody Allen movie, Midnight in Paris. It was pretty good... had a good message.
Since Lauren moved in with us, Adam and I have had a date night each week. Sweet!
The first week we went to Adam's boss' house for a work party. We planned to see a movie afterwards but ended up staying too long and missing our show! We went to dinner instead. Last week, we were driving to the movie theater, but decided in the theater parking lot that we were more hungry than interested in a movie so went to dinner instead and ended our "date" with a trip to Trader Joe's!
When we told Lauren we were going to see a movie this weekend, I don't think she really believed it! But we made it! Our only movie of 2011. I don't know if we will see another one :)
Sunday we slept in and I was having a lot of contractions. They weren't super painful so we decided to run errands and walk a few laps at the mall. Of course we hit up some sale racks and my contractions were continuing but not changing or getting stronger. Bummer. I guess we just have to wait all 11 days until she gets here.
I did also squeeze in a few sewing projects and finished a tiny dress for our little girl. I am planning on her wearing it home from the hospital and also in her newborn pictures for her birth announcement.

I've joined etsy!

2011-08-03T08:57:00.001-05:00

Well friends,

I finally did it. I joined etsy.com and opened a shop. After only a year or so of actually feeling confident enough to try making more than a simple curtain or pillowcase, enough people like my sewing projects that I've decided to sell them!

www.littleoneslove.etsy.com

I first started posting baby sleep sacks made from old t-shirts and then my bibs that everyone asks for for baby showers, b-days, and Christmas. I wanted to make myself a nursing cover when the baby arrives so I whipped up a few extras and actually sold one!!!! My first sale!!! Pretty sweet. :)

My latest projects have been baby dresses but the pattern I have been using is for 2-3T or 6-12 months. Neither size do I have a model close-by so I've mailed them to my sisters to model, take pictures, and mail back! Still waiting to post them but they are super cute!

I guess my shop will just evolve as my children grow. Each project I make for us will result in a few extras for etsy. So far its pretty fun. I really enjoy sewing and its a great way to pass the time while I'm waiting for our little lady to make her appearance. 15 more days!!!

Harrison Goes To School

2011-07-28T16:40:00.000-05:00

Back in May, we enrolled Harrison in a Parent's Day Out program at a local church. He goes on Tuesdays from 9:30- 2:30. My goal was to:

1) have a day to run errands, go to the doctor, and get things done without Harrison this summer
2) help Harrison learn how to play with others his age

His first day was my last day of school so his sitter dropped him off and picked him up. He walked in, started playing with toys and never looked back.

The second week, I brought him and he started SCREAMING as soon as he saw his classroom! The teachers recommended I just leave instead of trying to soothe him so I did. When I came back at the end of the school day, I was informed that she had to hold him and he cried himself to sleep on her shoulder! Then he didn't nap at naptime. Oh the heartbreak. Adam and I questioned whether this was a good idea or if he was too young. 19 months old isn't that old really....

The third and fourth week were slightly better but he would still cry when I dropped him off and always needed to be held by a teacher so I could sneak out. He was beginning to nap at naptime and played well with the other kids.

Now we are finishing week 9 and Harrison LOVES going to school. He starts babbling as soon as we pull in the parking lot and wants to walk into his class by himself. He doesn't even have time to give me a kiss or hug before he begins playing with the toys. A part of me gets sad when he just waves at me and says "bye ma!" He's getting so big!

My little guy use to attack/smoother any child that was his age or smaller. It really was embarrassing and would freak the other child out. Surprisingly, he doesn't do that anymore!!! It's so wonderful! He also sings songs and does actions now! My favorite is the 5 monkeys hanging for the tree, along comes Mr. Alligator.... he cracks up every time the alligator snaps a monkey. I really need to video tape him doing that song!