I wasn't expecting...

Well I must say I wasn't expecting to find that Anna had rolled over from her tummy to her back (at almost 8 weeks) in the crib this morning when I picked her up from her nap. I thought this was a milestone that was usually hit around 3 or 4 months? Of course I know it doesn't mean that she'll keep doing it each time I put her on her tummy, but yeesh this seems a little early....

Jack is still in his crib at 2+ years right now and has never tried to climb out of it (I'll tackle the transition to a toddler bed in a month or two when Anna is sleeping better). I'm wondering if my little girl is going to be the climber of the two of my kids...she sure seems strong!

The big 2

Jack officially has the title to match the attitude...he's a two-year old now! Although I wanted to do a bigger party, we just did a small party last weekend with our small group to keep the sanity and it turned out pretty well. I'm still pretty new to the realm of little kid's birthday parties, so the amazement has not worn off at how few presents the honorary child actually gets to open because all of the other kids "help" open the presents! It was lots of fun though and somehow I only came away with a few spots of red icing on one our kitchen chairs...the damage could have been much worse!

He's also graduated to his own Mickey Mouse Clubhouse backpack that makes him look so darn old...where has the time gone?

Anyway, here are a few pictures!
Sitting on the bike for the first time...
Getting the hang of this bike thing...kinda...
Yay, red icing....(I was thinking Mickey colors for icing, and did not consider stain potential...big mistake)The kids "helping" Jack open...Two going on 18....

At last...

Now that I've got a few minutes to actually sit down and type a blog post, I thought I would let everyone know I'm still alive and kicking. It's been so long since I've typed a post that the history in my web browser didn't even have the blog listed anymore....

Jack is upstairs sleeping and I finally managed to slowly move Anna off of me and onto the couch so that I could get up and get some things done. That's usually a three step process which involves a lot of soft, frantic praying that goes something like, "Please don't let her wake up, please don't let her wake up!!" She's decided she's not a fan of the swing or her bed and that sleeping on someone is much better than sleeping anywhere else. Needless to say, free time has become even more of an anomaly around these parts.

Unfortunately, she's also decided that she likes to take her long sleep stretches from about 6-10PM and then 10:30PM to 2:30AM or so, which leaves me struggling to get her back down to bed after the 2-3AM feeding. So, while I know she can go for four (and a few times five) hour stretches between feedings, unfortunately it doesn't coincide very well with MY sleep schedule. Such is life with an infant.

Just a few other observations from life with two kids instead of one:

• The "baby stupids", or MBS, has returned and is exponentially worse
• Sleep deprivation has left me with no short-term memory
• It IS more than twice the work-gotta divide and conquer!
  
• No matter how hard I plan, I will NOT get to eat a meal when I would like to
• Bye bye punctuality
  
• The dryer is still unmerciful when it comes to eating baby socks
• At some point during the day, one of my children WILL cry because there is only one of me and two of them
  
• In the battle of Kate versus the clutter, the clutter is winning hands down
• You MUST bring a snack or coloring book or some kind of distraction to a doctor's appointment to have any hope of maintaining quasi-control of your toddler
• Watching siblings interact is a treat (at least until they start fighting, right?)
• My husband is a wonderful father and I love my family to pieces!

I've got more to write about, but I hear Jack crying upstairs and Anna stirring on the couch...now, which one to pick up first? :)

Relaxed but still on edge

Both Bob and I agree that we've been so much more relaxed this go around with baby Anna. Of course it helps tremendously that she's been a pretty happy baby so far and only cries when she's hungry or overtired. All of those issues that seemed to be a big deal with Jack, like whether to wake him up to feed him, whether he was getting enough milk, whether it was ok to let him sleep longer than 3 hours, whether we could try putting him to sleep on his side or tummy, etc. just don't stress us out. It's more of a go-with-the-flow attitude this time around and that has made a considerable difference in our stress levels for sure.

That being said, with two now the demands are definitely at least doubled...I know friends of ours have said that you get more than double the work with two kids, and some days it feels like that for sure. Despite being more relaxed in some ways, I still feel "on edge" a lot because I'm trying to anticipate my kids' needs all the time...When will Anna need her next feeding? What will Jack eat for lunch? Should I put Anna down to nap first or Jack? Do I have something to entertain Jack if we go out to eat (which isn't very often now)? Does Anna have everything she needs in her diaper bag? Extra diapers for Jack too? You moms know the list goes on and on! Everyday I more or less run through some combination of most of those questions and countless others.

I didn't really realize this though until last night when I was driving to dinner with my mother-in-law. Bob and his dad had the kids in our van, and Cindy and I took her van out to eat. So it was just her and I and....silence. It's amazing how deafening silence becomes to a mom...I literally had a fleeting moment of panic in my head when I realized how quiet it was in the car, like I had forgotten the kids or something had happened to them. There was no crying or talking or banging on toys or pulling down the sun shades on the windows and I didn't know what to do about it!! I'm so used to being in problem-solving mode as a mom (especially with two!) that I'm not good at relaxing and enjoying those fleeting times when I don't have any problems that need solving at the moment. I gotta get better at this!

So true to form, motherhood remains a continuous learning curve. A lot of things I worried about with Jack don't concern me with Anna, but having two has brought on it's own set of new challenges to tackle! Overall though, I'm enjoying it immensely.

A few more pictures

Just a few more pictures from week number two of life with baby Anna...I've quickly found Saturday's are one of the few times when I have time to update the blog right now, so posts may be a little sparse for a while.

Getting a little tired of mom taking so many pictures...

More flashy things...

Jack sharing his number 6 with Anna...

Haley ponding whether she should try to grab a quick lick...

A little hard to see, but she's got her finger up to her mouth like she's pondering deep thoughts in her slumber...I wonder what little ones think about??

My "twins"

Greetings from the land of sleep-deprivation! I can't believe baby Anna has already been with us almost five days. She is such a precious little baby, I don't know why I was so concerned about having a girl because this child is simply wonderful. I've already had visions of fixing her hair and playing dress-up!

Labor and delivery was 110% better this time and I credit that to the many people who prayed for us during this time. I cannot thank you enough...this entire experience has been about as good as it can get. The hospital nurses were wonderful, I really liked my doctor this go around, labor and delivery overall was just easier this time, etc, etc. So far the biggest problem (and it's little in the grand scheme of things) has been some jaundice, but that's about it. Hmmm, maybe I could do this one more time :) No, I've decided to reserve judgement on any more kids until Anna is at least a year old.

I will say so far that I'm really glad we timed Jack and Anna the way we did...it's been a huge help that he can entertain himself fairly well with her at home. I think it would be difficult to have a 12-month old AND a new baby, but I know moms do this all the time.

Anyway...the "twins" crack is because of the amazing facial similarities between Jack and Anna. The first words out of my mouth when I saw Anna were "She looks just like Jack". So to prove my point, I took a picture of her right after we got home from the hospital in the same infant seat we brought Jack home in. See what you think.

T-minus 12 hours and counting....

Well, so far tomorrow is looking like a go for my induction. My doctor told me she would call this evening if things were looking like there wouldn't be a bed available, but so far I haven't heard from her as of about 7:20. We'll know for sure though tomorrow morning at 5AM when I get up to call the hospital.

I hesitate to say I'm "ready", because you're never really ready for another child (or your first), but I do feel a lot more confident this time. I got all of the laundry done, Bob mowed the grass, we hit the grocery store this evening, and my toenails are a pretty shade of pink. Hey, if the rest of me is going to be a mess tomorrow, at the least my toenails can look good, right?

We're trying to enjoy our nice quiet house one last time this evening before heading to bed and getting up early tomorrow morning to start this new journey. I hope I can manage to sleep at least some of the time!

I'll post some pictures when I can...Looking forward to meeting you miss Anna!

Who turned up the tantrums?

Wow. I think in the last week alone something has taken over my child and flipped the volume switch on his tantrum level. It used to top out in the fingernails-on-chalkboard level of annoyance, but now it's to the point sometimes where I want to poke out my eyeballs...

I'm glad I got pregnant well before this stage, because let's just say I wouldn't be too keen on it right now while witnessing the full force of a 22-month-old throwdown in timeout. Yikes.

My MOPS group was discussing the various roles moms take on this morning and which were our favorite and least favorite. I have to say that hands down, at least right now, I really don't enjoy the disciplinarian role at all. Of course I know it has to be done, but it can be mentally exhausting sometimes to fight battles constantly.

But I do love my Jack to bits, and I know this season will pass. My sister mentioned she saw a real difference in the level of tantrums in her daughter around 3 1/2 to 4 years, so the countdown is on :)

The countdown shortens

I went in for my 37 week check up and ultrasound this morning and got some good news...the countdown until baby Anna arrives has been shortened a bit!

My doctor did a few measurements during the ultrasound to estimate her weight, and the calculation came back around 8 pounds as of today. Technically I've still got a little under three weeks to go, so that would make her very close to 9 pounds (Jack's weight) if she was to come on or around her due date. Of course the ultrasound estimate can be off by half a pound, but either way, she should be a nice healthy size. My doctor even said she had chubby cheeks from the ultrasound picture, just like her brother! I'm not really sure how she could tell anything from that ultrasound image though...I could barely make anything out.

So we're looking at an induction date of Monday, November 3rd if she doesn't come on her own before then (and assuming the hospital has a free bed in the maternity ward that morning). Instead of 17 days, now we're looking at only 10!! Whohoo!

I've been procrastinating on getting my hospital bag packed, but this news is providing a much needed kick in the pants. Bob has joked around that I should at least be able to manage adding one item a day, but even that has been a struggle for me the last week. It just seemed like with Jack I brought way more than I really needed, since I spent most of the time in a hospital gown anyway. The one item I will not go with out (they were the first item in my bag) are my beloved Jolly Ranchers, which were a lifesaver when I had Jack and couldn't eat or drink anything. Hopefully I can have them at this hospital too! Anybody else have any favorite must-haves for the hospital?

Top 10 things not to say to a pregnant woman

Ok, there are many more that could be added...enjoy!

10. Any labor horror stories, especially for a first-time mom. I was pretty lucky here in that most of the women I talked with when I was pregnant with Jack were very encouraging and positive about their labor experiences, but I've had friends who have heard some doosies.

9. "Get as much sleep as you can now, it will be worse after the baby comes." Not really that bad, but it just gets a little old. I'm not intentionally depriving myself of sleep as often as possible just to see what it feels like, trust me. I love walking around like a zombie!

8. "Was she/he an accident" or "Was she/he an oopsie?"-Ok, you can maybe get away with this with a close friend (depending on the definition of "close"), but never just an acquaintance and certainly NOT a stranger. I would say "unplanned pregnancy" is a better choice of words than "oopsie" any day!

7. "Watch out, wide load ahead!"-I got this one walking down a pretty narrow hall down in our old church in Virginia. Guess I wasn't waddling fast enough for the traffic behind me....

6. Any phrase with the word "rotund" in it, even it's preceded or followed by some form of the word beautiful/lovely/glowing, etc. I assure you that any other positive comment does not even register with the pregnant woman if paired with rotund. Note: This was from the same person that made the wide load comment, and while I typically avoid gender bashing, I'll leave it to your powers of deduction to figure out which sex it came from.

5. "Please don't go into labor on us now!" I got this one back during Ike after walking into a Chick-Fil-A (and I'm sure it was well-intentioned). It was made all the worse though because I was no where near close to going into labor, which was just another unneeded reminder of how big my belly already was. And believe me, as much as I love the outstanding customer service at Chick-Fil-A, I have no intention of going into labor there.

4. "I'm beginning to see the weight gain in your face."-Ugggg is all I can say here. Again, I assure you that pregnant women are well aware of every square inch of weight they've gained.

3. "Cankles are sexy." I'm happy to say my husband has never uttered anything remotely close to this despite the days when you couldn't tell where my feet stopped and my calves started. You take your ankles for granted until a little thing called swelling hits in the second or third trimester...

2. "How far along are you? ______ weeks. Oh, you're only ______ weeks along?" One of two implications follows:

1. "Geez woman, time to cut back on the ice cream!" OR
   
2. "Geez woman, are you starving your kid?"

Neither of these options are really good, though I guess I would tend to prefer the implication of looking smaller, but I know this is really touchy too for some moms. Both imply some level of abnormality, and no pregnant woman needs any additional ammunition to feel more abnormal or unlike her usual self than she already does. Raging hormones, achy joints, sleep-deprivation, and this little person using your insides for kickboxing practice already do enough in achieving this goal.

1. As the due date approaches, any form of "Still no baby yet, eh?" or "You're still here?"-I got the "You're still here?" a number of times at the end of my pregnancy with Jack when I kept showing up at church on Sunday mornings (I wasn't even past my due date). Ok, remember when I said that a pregnant woman is well aware of how much weight she has gained and where she's gained it? Well, the only thing a pregnant woman is MORE aware of, especially by the last few weeks of pregnancy, is how much time she's got left until the due date. She, more than anyone else, is 110% aware of the fact that the baby has not been born yet. No reminders are necessary.

Getting Excited!

So I've been sitting here for the last 30 minutes with probably the biggest, goofiest grin ever on my face looking through old baby pictures and movies of Jack and getting more and more excited about meeting baby Anna here in a few weeks (or any day she wants to come). It is truly amazing how much our kids age in only a few years!

Anyway, just thought I'd post a few younger pictures of Jack...I wonder if Anna will look anything like him? I remember being excited to meet Jack too, but I had a lot more of the anxiety about labor, losing sleep, nursing, etc. than I do this time, so I feel like I've been able to really look forward to meeting this little one.


Zoolander anyone?

Future Yell Leader?

Yes, I CAN be a fair-minded momma when it comes to that other school...although I must say the look on his face in this picture says something like "You just put WHAT shirt on me?" Please don't go to that tt school though Jack (I guess I'm not as fair-minded as I thought).

I can name that tune in five words...can you?

A tale of two nurseries

So now that I'm approaching the Anna-can-come-any-time-she-wants point, my to-do list has suddenly taken on a new urgency. I had been meaning to snap a few pictures of her nursery for a while now, but after a few showers her floor was littered with diaper boxes and clothes that needed to get put away (and did thanks to my Mom).

We've also since gotten the carpet replaced in our master bedroom closet, which I mentioned a while back will be Anna's new room for a while after she gets home, mainly so I don't have to climb stairs in a groggy state a bunch of times during the night to nurse her. So the pack-n-play is now set up on one end and ready to go for her! Still need to move a glider back there though...

Anyway, it is quite the tale of two nurseries when you see the pictures...the master closet is bland and undecorated, her nursery upstairs is colorful, etc. I went with the green and purple after I bought some plain green drapery panels along with Anna's furniture and just went with a flower theme to keep things simple and not too baby-ish. Hopefully we won't have to change much for a while as she gets older going this route, but who knows!

Thanks to my sister-in-law Kate (the other Kate Looney) for helping me the right shade of green!

Pretty crib...
Not so pretty, but functional crib....

Bummed and not so bummed

I was looking forward to my last ultrasound today at about 37 weeks, but unfortunately (for me at least) my doctor had run to the hospital next door to deliver another one of her patients, so I had to settle for the regular ol' visit of a trip to the bathroom, check of blood pressure, and listening to Anna's heartbeat. It was tough for the nurse to find today because she was squirming all over the place!

So I was a little bummed that the ultrasound got bumped back until next week, but I totally understand why of course. The good news was that I had somehow dropped 2 pounds from my last weigh-in...how does that work?? I figured I must have had some extra water weight the last time I got weighed that wasn't there today. I remember yo-yo'ing back and forth with gaining and losing weight the last 4 weeks with Jack too. At least that made up for some of the disappointment of not doing the ultrasound :)

24 days and counting...unless I get scheduled for an induction earlier!!

The importance of trusting your nose

Well, we thought we got through Hurricane Ike with pretty minimal damage (and in comparison to other people on our street, we really did), but just discovered another little "present"that Ike left behind a few days ago.

Bob and my dad had finally gotten the siding put back up and the stray shingles blown off the roof nailed back down on Monday evening. We thought we were in the clear now that the house was back in order and the refrigerator/freezer were more or less restocked to their pre-Ike levels. Funny thing was, every time I would walk back in our master bathroom, something just didn't smell quite right. The trash had been emptied and the bathroom cleaned, but I still kept getting whiffs of something that was NOT there before.

Of course my immediate thought was to look upwards to check for water damage since we had had some shingles blown off...maybe there were some on the other side of the house that were missing and we didn't know it, which had allowed some water to seep down somewhere. Didn't see anything unusual though when I looked around the ceilings in our bedroom and closet, so the mystery remained, that is until Bob picked up a pair of his shoes in our master bedroom closet and discovered a nice layer of mold all over the soles and on the carpet underneath where the shoes had been sitting. Yuck!

That explained the smell for sure. I kept thinking it smelled something like mold, but because I couldn't see the mold anywhere, I wasn't sure. The nasty stuff was hiding in a very small area of our master bedroom closet along the front of the house, probably where some water had gotten blown in around the window or somewhere else. We didn't notice any damp carpet because the only area that was still somewhat damp was behind and under a large chest of drawers. Once we moved the chest and saw the faint beginnings of mold on the baseboard by the window and some green stains on the carpet where Bob's shoes had been sitting, it became quite apparent we found our smelly culprit!

The next step was to decide what to do...since it was a pretty small area, should we just bleach the baseboards and steam clean the carpet, or rip the carpet completely out? Well, it didn't take us long to realize that we would never feel 100% comfortable with Baby Anna sleeping back there if we didn't completely replace the carpet. That first sneeze or cough she utters would cause me to second guess even the best steam cleaning job!

So Bob has spent the last few days ripping up the carpet and pads, bleaching the baseboards and floor where the moldy carpet was hiding, and is now off getting quotes to have someone come replace the carpet. I wish I had been more persistent in finding the cause of the moldy smell so we could have started this process a little sooner. Bob even said he thought something had smelled funny too, but for some reason we didn't say anything to each other about it. Ahhh, the breakdown in marital communication, the subject of another post....should've trusted the ol' nose a little more!!

Got any more hidden presents, Ike?

One of those pictures

You know those times when you take pictures of your child (or children) and then when you look at the picture you think, "When did you grow up so fast?" Well, this is one of those pictures for me!

It's finally gotten a little cooler at night, so we decided to try Jack's new long-sleeved, dino pajamas on for size and they fit him pretty well! Bob grabbed the camera and snapped a few shots, and when I saw this one I kept thinking, "Where has my little boy gone?" I think he's hit a growth spurt lately, or maybe it's the nice smile he has on his face, but something about it made me proud and a little sad at the same time to see him getting bigger!

Too much pink!

My wonderful sister and mom hosted a baby shower for me this past Sunday, and let's just say the theme was pink, pink, and more pink! I guess that's what happens when you have a little girl, huh?

I am still slowly adjusting to this new world of pinks and purples after almost 2 years of looking at various shades of blues, greens, grays, and reds. It's a nice change for sure, and little girl clothes sure are a lot more fun to shop for! A few of the shower gifts included some little bows for her hair. I set them up in Jack's bathroom (or should I say the kids' bathroom) after the shower and they looked so out of place next to all of Jack's pirate toys! Of course if Anna is anything like Jack, she won't have much hair to begin with anyway...

My sister did a great job of planning some games, including one where everyone had to draw a picture of baby Anna on the back of a paper plate while the plate was perched on top of their heads. It's not as easy as it sounds to draw something that even remotely resembles a baby this way, as evidenced by many pictures with limbs detached from the trunk of the body. Let's hope baby Anna doesn't really look like that!! My 90+ year old grandmother actually did one of the best drawings...she's simply amazing :)

I've avoided taking too many pictures while pregnant for obvious reasons, but figured I should get a couple now while I still can. I tried to find one I took at about the same time with Jack for comparison, but can't seem to find it amongst all the pictures we have on the computer now. Anyway, I think my new nickname should be "The Belly", kinda like the supermodel Elle McPherson (or however you spell her name) is just known as the "The Body".

Overall, I had a lovely time, thanks again to my friends and family for making it a special time! I'm sure baby Anna would thank you too if she could break away long enough from using her mom as a punching bag :)

No Britney belly for me

Like most other women out there, I enjoy going shopping for new clothes, just not maternity clothes. It's hard for me to spend money on something I know I'm only going to wear a short time before they either get donated to a friend or put into a box to store for the next child (and we don't know which will be the case yet).

I had been doing so well in stretching my non-maternity wardrobe as long as it would last, and then when that was no longer an option, I was content to just wear my maternity clothes over and over again. Well, while we were staying in Austin after Ike came through, it quickly became apparent that I was going to need more maternity clothes...not because I was tired of what I was wearing or because I didn't pack enough clothing, but because suddenly only one of those shirts was still completely covering my belly. And frankly washing that one shirt over and over again each day was enough to motivate my tired bum to pay the mall a visit for some additional clothes. No way was I going to start imitating Britney Spears at 8 months pregnant.

Ok folks, the blog has officially hit a new low with that reference...

Anyway, I decided for the sake of comfort and anticipated belly growth that I would go ahead and buy a size larger than I usually wear with the hope that this would be my last maternity shopping spree. This worked well for the shirts, not so well for the pants. The belly band in the pair of pants that I bought feels great, but the legs themselves are so large that they rival the MC Hammer pants from the early 90's. Oh well, comfort is the name of the game at this point!

*************************************************************************************

I moved all of the clothes in our master closet to one side of the closet to start preparing to put furniture in there for Anna. And yes, it's ridiculous that I can put everything in that closet (including a chest of drawers, a file cabinet, and paper shredder) to one side and still have the whole other half of the closet free. We've also finished the nursery more or less, so I'll try to get some pictures put up this weekend of both rooms.

33 week update

I've officially hit the is-this-over-yet stage now. I'm quiet excited to meet this baby, but my feelings stem more from the fact that I can no longer sleep very well. I am keenly aware that once she comes, sleep will still be elusive, but at least when I lay down to catch some zzz's after she's born, I won't feel like someone is squeezing my hips together in a vice. All of the other pregnancy symptoms are usually pretty tolerable, but once you can't sleep very well, everything else seems magnified about a hundred times!

Just had a doctor's appointment this morning and everything continues to look and sound good. We'll do one more ultrasound in 3 weeks and hopefully she'll still be head down. My doctor said she would consider inducing me around 38 1/2 weeks, which sounds great as far as I'm concerned. That would put a potential induction date sometime around November 1st, whohoo!!!

The other wonderful thing she did today was to prescribe some Ambien to try and help me sleep a little better through the rest of this....let's hope it works because I'm running out of options (couch, glider, pillows don't seem to be helping) and walking around like a zombie each morning with a toddler just isn't that much fun!

On a more positive note, it is absolutely wonderful to have power again!

Not quite home sweet home

Well, over the last week we've now stayed at three different houses waiting for power to come back on to our house after Ike (big thanks to Elizabeth, Kami, and Lisa for taking us Ike evacuees in!). Jack enjoyed playing with his buddy Ryan (and of course, Ryan's toys) for a few days. We're slowly making progress back towards the homestead in Houston after spending over a week in Austin. Unfortunately our house remains in one of the few sections in our neighborhood that doesn't have power, so we're not back to home sweet home just yet and instead are staying in a different section with friends who do have power. At least we're back in the same zip code now! Reminds me of the phrase "baby steps" from the movie "What About Bob?"

Got to survey the damage first hand today and we were incredibly fortunate not to have more damage to our house after seeing some of our neighbor's roofs. A number of people had bright blue tarps stretched over their houses after large panels of shingles were blown off, along with large dumpsters in front of their houses with ruined carpet piled inside. We had maybe 8-10 shingles off one of the ridge lines in our roof and a piece of hardiplank siding down, but that was it.

We missed the worse of everything, including the very long gas lines about a week ago just after Ike struck. The grocery stores now appear to be back to normal for the most part, for us it's just waiting until our power comes back on to be able to re-stock the refrigerator. I'm looking forward to that as eating out has really gotten old lately, though we enjoyed getting to go to our favorite Austin restaurants while we were away (can we get Kerbey Lane and/or The Salt Lick in Houston anytime soon people?)

So at least we've got one more evening of air-conditioned, internet-connected bliss. Hopefully that will buy us enough time to get power back to our own house tomorrow, but after seeing how much worse a lot of other Houstonians have things, we're not going to complain if it's not on.

Bye Bye Ike

Being the weather weenie that I am, of course I was glued to the models yesterday projecting where Hurricane Ike will go and how strong it will become. What I didn't like to see was that the track was getting closer and closer to the Houston area. Bob and I briefly talked about whether we should evacuate last night, but decided to see how things were going this morning before making a final decision.

Unfortunately, things didn't look much better this morning. After chatting with my dad for a while about what things were like around the Houston area after Alicia (a Cat 3 hurricane) came through back in 1983 (I was 3 at the time and couldn't remember), we decided the possibility of going at least a few days without power sounded positively miserable for a 20-month-old and almost 32-week pregnant woman with the achy joints of an 80-year-old. In fact, it's pretty miserable down here for anyone without A/C for an extended period of time.

So with that in mind, I began to run (or waddle) around getting ready to head to Austin as early as possible to stay with some friends for a few days. We remembered seeing the awful traffic jams that occurred on Houston highways when Rita was threatening to move in, and certainly didn't want to find ourselves stuck on the highway for hours on end not moving anywhere. Luckily 290 traffic was moving pretty good when we left around 12:30 this afternoon, but we both remarked that we were glad we left as early as we did. I suspect rush hour traffic was downright awful as people left town once their kids got out of school.

We're not sure exactly what we'll return home to, probably a lot of downed tree limbs and hopefully not too much in the way of damage to the houses in our neighborhood. Unfortunately the current projected track takes the center of storm just about right over our house, which could mean some very strong sustained winds...not good! On the one hand I'm just the teeniest bit bummed that we left, because I do find all types of severe weather fascinating, but I think the high wind would get old in about 10 minutes as soon as our power went out, so it's best we left.

Nasty Little Critters

There aren't many things I dislike about Texas, though I could do with a little less heat and humidity (which I will take over a long cold winter), but I was reminded of one thing I sure don't like the other day: fire ants!

Bob's parents came down for a short visit this weekend. They were outside along with Bob and Jack sitting in our backyard while I was sitting inside trying to beat the heat and prevent my ankles from swelling. They set up Jack's water table and rocket (the one that gets pushed up in the air by a stream of water from your hose) and he was happily playing by himself for a while before he came running back to his grandparents whimpering a little bit.

Not too long after that I heard something to the effect of "Get the hose, he's got ants all over his feet...quick, quick...", to which I promptly rushed outside, at least as fast as a pregnant woman can waddle. Apparently there was a small mound of fire ants under the rocket and those buggers wasted no time in working up into the sandal on Jack's left foot. Luckily Bob's parents moved pretty fast too and were quickly dousing him down with the hose and stripping off clothes to get the ants off. He was crying pretty good by this time so Bob took him upstairs and put him in the bath for a while to try and ease some of the itching and stinging.

I had forgotten how mean fire ants are from my childhood days down here. They swarm out of their mounds amazingly fast and leave painful little welts (more so than your typical black ant) that eventually develop little blisters in the center over the course of a day or so. They itch and burn like crazy and can make life miserable for a few days if you get enough of them. For only getting about 10-15 bites, poor Jack's left foot looked a lot worse than it really was since the bites swell up so much. Thankfully, after an hour or two the swelling went down considerably and Jack had forgotten all about the bites. We were expecting them to bother him a lot more, but I guess since he didn't get too many he didn't seem to notice them very much that evening. I also think he was exhausted from playing with Grandma and Grandpa...

The little blisters have come up this evening, so we'll see what happens tomorrow. I know it could have been MUCH worse and that some kids can have life-threatening reactions to those ant bites. I always think about allergic reactions to things like bee stings and peanuts, but fire ants were something I had forgotten about. This was just a good reminder to us to inspect our grass a little better before we set something down for him or any other child to play with!

MBS strikes again

I wrote a post awhile back talking about symptoms of MBS, or Mommy Brain Syndrome, and how every mom comes down with this at some point in their journey through motherhood (especially the sleep-deprived months). Well, it's hitting me again big time, and it just occurred to me that this is coinciding nicely with the downhill trend in restful sleep I've had over the last few weeks as the third trimester progresses....

Yesterday we were running out the back door of our house to grab a quick bite to eat before our small group. Guess I got some wires crossed in the ol' noggin again, because I quickly became puzzled by why our van suddenly started making a fairly repetitive honking sound as Bob was putting Jack in his carseat. Then I realized I was aiming the keyless entry remote for our van at the back of our house, hoping to lock the back door. Let's just say I wore my hair color proudly yesterday, folks.

At least it made for a good laugh. Now that I think about it, perhaps it's the next million dollar idea...wouldn't it be great to have keyless entry for the back door of your house too when you have groceries on one arm and a toddler on the other arm? I'm sure someone has already done it somewhere. Oh well.

Hitting and Licking

In a way, times haven't changed much from this picture of when Jack was about 3 months old...Haley still licks him (along with anything else that moves, and even some things that don't) at every opportunity she can find. The only difference is that now Jack loves it and thinks it's a game to chase Haley hoping she'll come lick his face. I know some of you moms are cringing right about now with the thought of a dog licking your child's face, and believe me I did at first too! For those of you that know Haley though, you know this is a battle we will never win. She just loves to lick...apparently this is an OCD tendency in some dogs according to a veterinarian we spoke with!

Anyway, the problem now is that Jack is older, and hasn't learned how to be gentle with her yet. Hitting equals petting in his book, and poor Haley often runs under the bed now when she sees him coming. She's a very sweet dog and extremely tolerant of him, but we're really trying to work on the no hitting thing hard right now so that it doesn't ever provoke a stronger response from her. We attended a class led by a veterinarian at the hospital where Jack was born about how to introduce your pet to your baby, and she mentioned that if you don't already have a pet when a baby arrives, it's best to wait until that child is at least 5 years old before getting a pet. I'm beginning to understand that now! It's hard for a little kid to distinguish between being gentle and being rough. We're going to try some time-outs for hitting now since "No hitting!" obviously isn't getting through. I'm not against spanking when other discipline options have been ruled out, but it does seem a little counter-intuitive to spank him for hitting the dog...?

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On a totally unrelated note, the weather here is fantastic today. Had a weak cold front come through that dropped the humidity down to a very comfortable level, which is a rare treat in these parts. So this is how my hair would look if I lived in California...

Time Outs Take One

Well, we've officially jumped head-first into the realm of time-outs now. I just couldn't stand the whining anymore!

The two things that jumpstarted our time-out sessions were when Jack either 1)had to come inside from playing outside when he didn't want to, or 2) didn't like the fact I wouldn't pull his beloved "boddie" (the vacuum cleaner) out of the hall closet. For some reason he absolutely loves that thing and incessantly points to the closet saying "Boddie, boddie, boddie?" Or heaven forbid I put the thing away after I'm done using it....you'd think his whole world had just imploded!

Anyway, now that his protests have reached a more fevered pitch and tend to last longer, all of the sudden last week I decided it was time for a time-out. I hadn't really thought about a good location until that point, so I was carrying him around downstairs from wall to wall (as he's crying) looking for the perfect spot. I think we've found a good one for now...the wall that runs between our bedroom and the laundry room. There's nothing for him to play with and not much for him to see looking out from that location, so we'll go with it. I was even thinking of looking for a little mat to put down. Now I need to find a spot for the second floor, which will be harder because we have more toys upstairs.

The first time we did it, he sat there for about 3 seconds crying before trying to get up and come out into the family room. After a couple of times of putting him back against the wall, he realized he was not supposed to move and sat there for about a minute and a half. The second time I put him there, he cried, but didn't move (and hasn't since), so I think he's learned it's a no-no to move after mommy or daddy put him there.

I don't think the time-outs are necessarily changing his behaviors just yet, but I'm encouraged that he learned so quickly not to move from his spot and that he seems to be realizing it's not fun to be there. Hopefully he'll start equating that not-so-fun feeling with bad behavior here at some point! And I feel better at least trying to do something to curb the tantrums instead of just listening to them, or trying to redirect him to something else (which doesn't seem to be working too well anymore). I'm guessing we'll be changing discipline tactics pretty often here after age 2 and he really starts to assert more independence...too bad time-outs don't continue to work through the teenage years!

Not so ready for November 10th?

So, I'm changing my tune....a little...

In my last post, I mentioned being ok with little Anna coming a little earlier than her due date since I've been feeling so large and sore lately (and still have over 10 weeks to go). Well, I had a little bout with something last night, maybe food poisoning or an allergic reaction(?), that made me think that perhaps I'm ok with a little more time before baby comes, i.e. LABOR.

I don't really dwell on labor itself. It's just one of those unpleasant things we women have to go through, but in the end is all worth it for a precious baby (or babies). I got a reminder though of what I'm in store for again last night around 11:15. We had gone to sleep about an hour before then, and I woke up with stomach cramps that got progressively worse. You know, those oh-boy-I-ate-something-I-shouldn't-have kind of pains? Actually, these were even worse than the occasional pains I get when something doesn't agree with my stomach...within about 30 minutes I was obviously NOT going to go back to sleep and hunched over holding onto the side of the bed to steady myself. Something clearly wasn't right!

By this time I had decided that maybe some medicine was in order. As a side note, and Bob will confirm this, I rarely take medicine for anything involving the digestive track, but figured this was probably a time where some assistance might be needed. Pepto Bismol was the first thing I saw in the medicine cabinet for an upset stomach, but luckily I had enough sense to check my handy medicine list on the refrigerator for safe medicines during pregnancy, and Pepto wasn't listed (apparently it contains aspirin, which I didn't know).

Then the dizziness and clamminess started setting in. By that time, Bob was awake and scared I was having labor contractions. The bad thing was that the pain I was having was so intense that I couldn't even formulate a short "It's not labor-ate something bad" response to him when he asked what was wrong...I was just trying to breathe through the stomach cramps. And that's why I say it reminded me somewhat of labor, not because of the type of pain I was having, but because it was so intense I couldn't focus on anything else but that pain, and even tried to breathe through it like I learned in my childbirth classes! Poor Anna was kicking me like crazy too, which didn't feel particularly good at that moment...I hope she wasn't too uncomfortable herself!

Anyway, I will spare you the rest of the details, but I'm ok now. I remember having a similar reaction to something I ate back when Bob and I were dating. I had eaten a Caesar salad and within a few hours had horrible stomach cramps, dizziness, and clammy skin. Maybe an allergic reaction to something? I dunno, I'm just a meteorologist! But I have never had pain like that again until last night (and there was no Caesar salad involved).

So perhaps I'm ok with holding off a little while longer for labor since I got a little taste of it last night with the intensity of my stomach cramps :) My hats off to the women who go through childbirth naturally, because I'm looking forward to that epidural again!

The inverse relationship of hormones and rational thinking

I like to think I'm a pretty rational person, usually driven more by logic than my emotional state, but I honestly don't think I can label myself that way anymore here at almost 29 weeks. There are officially too many hormones cruising around my bloodstream now...

Case in point: I've convinced myself that I'm not going to make it to my original due date of November 10th. Here's my rationale: I look like a tub. And because I, as a pregnant, hormonal woman, think I look like a tub, I must be further along than I really am, right?

Now the logical side of me tries hard to fight this thought. After all, I specifically mentioned to my doctor that I felt I looked about 4 weeks further along than I am and she told me I was measuring right on schedule (27 1/2 inches at 27 weeks). On top of that, she mentioned that it's pretty common to "look pregnant sooner" or "look more pregnant" with a second baby because of the lack of abdominal muscle tension following a first pregnancy (which deep down I know too). And my weight gain has been right on track as well and pretty similar to what I experienced with Jack.

Yet I still have visions of large bathtubs floating through my head. I'm not sure how it's possible (maybe that lack of muscle tension thing), but it seems as if I'm carrying even higher and further out with Anna than I did with Jack, and I definitely had the she-swallowed-a-basketball look by 9 months with him. At the rate I perceive my belly to be growing, I think it may be changed to she-swallowed-a-watermelon by the time November roles around. My body just likes to carry babies way that way I guess, but I'm afraid if we were ever to have a third that my lungs would cease to have room to expand and I would not be able to sit in a booth at a restaurant anymore.

Really I think this is all wishful thinking on my part. The last trimester is where time seems to slow down and you forget what it's like to be able to roll over in bed in under 5 seconds, pick up something you've dropped on the floor without contorting your body to do it, and not wince from lower back/hip pain. Ahhh, the blessings of being pregnant :)

Thanks for letting me vent! On a positive note, I am very excited to meet this little girl, so I'd be quite content if she decided to come a little earlier (but not TOO much earlier) than November 10th!

PT Time

No, I'm not going to make my child run the mile in under 8 minutes, but I do think I should give the ol' Potty Training a go here before baby comes just to see how far we can get. I've been delaying with Jack mainly because I didn't think he was all that ready, but the more moms I talk to about this topic, the more I think I should at least give it a try!!

Ok, so everyone who has been through this before, I need some help. What's your best tip(s)?

A girlfriend of mine suggested putting the big boy underwear on Jack with a diaper over the top of it, that way he could feel the wetness, but I wouldn't have to clean the floor. Anyone tried this?

Thanks!

Third trimester already?

28 weeks is looming large....Time needs to slow down a little bit here for me to finish a few things before the baby comes...

Had my 27 week checkup last Monday where I got to gulp down a "margarita" (as my OB called it) of sugary orange drink in 5 minutes to do the glucose testing an hour later. All in all not too bad. She said no news was good news, and since I haven't heard anything from the doctor's office yet, I assume the test results looked good. I did have a little bit of scare though when it seemed to take forever for her to find the baby's heartbeat. Usually it takes just a few seconds to zero in on it, but this time it probably got closer to a minute or minute and a half, which really isn't that long but just seems that way when it's generally a much faster process! It was also way over on the right side too, I guess baby Anna must have found a comfy spot there at that moment.

My OB did mention that since Jack was a large baby at 9 pounds when he was born that she would consider inducing me early as long as everything looks good in the last 36 week ultrasound I have done. That sounded good to me since those last 4-5 weeks can be pretty miserable, so if I can shorten it without threatening the baby's health, that sounds lovely! Although, I've heard induced labors can be more intense...anyone have any experience with that? Jack came on his own, so I don't know myself.

I got to see my friend Heidi's new baby boy born last week and he is too precious. I can't believe we're about to enter back into the baby stage again here soon. And congrats again on your pregnancy news Kami if you're reading this!

30 minutes of freedom!!

Ok, you moms out there know how precious your free time becomes after having a baby. When I find myself with free time, unless I'm exhausted and need to nap, I try to get as much done as I can! It's amazing how my mood can improve if I can get just a small amount of time to myself to do a few things without interruption. Anyone else second that?

Bob took Jack out for about 30 glorious minutes this morning, and here's what I was able to do:

• Quick shower, iron a shirt and shorts, thrown on some make-up
• Swap loads of laundry
• Clean my bathroom countertops
• Pick up odds and ends off the floor, namely all the pairs of shoes Jack pulled out of our closet to try on
  
• Finished gluing some odds and ends on curtains for the baby's room (pictures coming at a later post...I'm excited!)

I think there is some rule somewhere that you should automatically assume it will take twice the time to get things done after kids as it did before them. Now that I think about it though, before kids I probably wouldn't have gotten all of those things done in 30 minutes anyway, mainly because I moved at a slower pace and didn't fully understand how valuable free time is! I tend to work better under deadlines I guess :)

It's great to have that rare feeling of accomplishing tasks with a young child in the house! Here's wishing all my mom friends out there some time of your own to get some things done around the house...

The joys of Toddlerhood

I think I've got a Daddy's boy on my hands now, at least in this stage of his life. Seems like ever since we got back from vacation, any time Bob leaves the house/room/general proximity of Jack, a chorus of elevated "Daddy....Daddy....Daddy" inevitably ensues. It's not so much the daddy thing that bothers me, it's the whiny pitch that goes along with it.

Now I love my child dearly of course, but this whining thing is TOUGH. I guess we're just at the stage for awhile now where any time something doesn't go Jack's way, the next 5 minutes (or sometimes longer) are spent in a mixture of high-pitched rambling sounds with some tears added in for good measure (or to make mommy feel guilty). The guilt thing doesn't work because he still gets told "no", but it sure does grate on my nerves to the point that I sometimes develop a knot on my back left shoulder, which often requires some assistance from Bob that evening to get loose.

That being said, it sure is fun at this stage to watch his personality continue to develop. He'll do things now and I look at him and think "When did you learn how to do that?" The other day for example I was heating some lunch up for him in the microwave, and when he got the plate in front of him, he proceeded to say "hot, hot" and then try to blow on the food to cool it down. Nothing earth-shattering of course, but it's little things like that which make me realize he's growing up pretty fast. I guess he's seen us blow on our food at some point, but I don't specifically remember teaching him to do that! I've got to be on my best behavior because he's apparently watching me closer than I realized :)

A new perspective on the master bedroom closet

Baby Anna now has some furniture for her room as of this evening. We found a great deal on a white convertible crib, changing table, and nightstand through the Woodlands Online (a nicer alternative to Craig's List in my opinion) and went to pick them up this afternoon. They look brand new, but for a fraction of the price. Can't beat that! I haven't been in a rush to find furniture though because of our sleeping arrangement "plan" for the first few months the baby is home. Of course the word plan is in quotations because all parents know the best laid plans are highly subject to change with kids.....

Let me preface by saying the one rule I will ALWAYS stick to no matter how many children we have is that I refuse to have a baby sleep in the same room with me. I know a lot of moms do this and the arrangement works out just fine for them, but I have not been blessed with the ability to sleep soundly at any point in my life, and there is absolutely no way I could catch even a wink of sleep with a new baby within 5 feet of me.

With Jack, I resolved to pull myself out of the bed and walk down to his room (which wasn't very far in our first house) for late night nursing or diaper changing sessions. On a handful of occasions I was so exhausted that Bob got up, brought him to bed so I could nurse him, and then put him back in the crib in his own room, but never has he slept in the same room with us. Plus there was no transition time as he got older from sleeping in mom and dad's room to his own room, which was nice.

Ok, so that works fine and dandy when you're in a one-tory house and the baby's room is just a few steps away. We're now in a two-story house though, and suddenly climbing up and down stairs multiple times a night to nurse baby Anna has become a dreadful thought when I remember how tired I was those first few months. I considered moving up into our guest room and sleeping there for a few months until she gets on a more regular feeding schedule, but I think we've come up with another idea: the master bedroom closet!

I admit the idea of putting my child in a closet to sleep for the first few months sounds a little odd at first, but I wish you could see the size of this space. The homebuilder obviously got the people-want-large-master-closets idea loud and clear (thanks HGTV) because I think ours borders on overkill. Seriously, I would be embarrassed if I ever had enough clothes to fill this thing out! I've seen "bedrooms" in cramped New York City apartments that are about the same size...

Bob and I plan to move all our clothes and shoes to one end and put a glider and bassinet on the other end. That way when the baby needs something, I can walk through our bathroom just a few steps to get to her, but still have the luxury of closing a door in between us so I don't hear all the little noises she's going to make. Plus, then I won't have to use a monitor (I'm not a fan of them during the night...a subject for another post). The room is ventilated and has a nice large window, so it's not some confined, musty old closet by any means.

After a few months, we'll move her up to the crib upstairs after she can go a little longer between feeding sessions. Now, to decide on a paint color for her room...

My new BFF: the swimming pool

The swimming pool has fast become my BFF this summer. Well, I suppose I shouldn't say Best Friend Forever...it should be BFWP-Best Friend While Pregnant. And it's not just because the temperature outside has been hovering in the upper nineties with humidity the last few days, although that does play a definite part. It's really because a swimming pool is the only thing that allows me to achieve a pain-free state now heading into week 25 of this pregnancy.

I'm not sure exactly what week it was that I realized my body suddenly felt like it had aged about 60 years in the span of a few days, but it was probably sometime over our vacation a few weeks ago when I had some major belly poppage. The sad thing though is that I don't remember feeling like this until about week 30 with Jack. I'm not quite to the miserable, is-this-over-yet feeling, but it's definitely a little uncomfortable now with lower back pain and sore hip joints!

Anyway, the pool is so wonderful for pregnant women because of a little thing called buoyancy, which basically means my back gets a break from holding up my belly and the water does all the rest for me. It really does almost feel like I'm not even pregnant anymore to feel the relief in my joints, and gives me hope that I will return to a pain-free state here in a few months. At least this pain is all worth it in the end!

What was your favorite way to relieve stress and/or pain during pregnancy?

Starting over

A friend of mine emailed me today asking about sleeping suggestions for her 2 week-old baby who apparently sleeps just fine when he's held, but won't sleep more than an hour if he's laid down in the crib. It made me realize just how far Jack has come in 19 months, and how much I already take for granted that he can do on his own! I'm mentally preparing myself to start this whole process all over again with the new baby come November, oh boy!

It's easy to focus on what he either can't do or can't do well yet, like eat with utensils without too much mess, walk down the stairs, dress himself, swim, or use the potty. But, when I think of my friends who have just had new little babies, I'm reminded of just how much he CAN do now, and how much easier it's made our life. The sleeping thing is huge, it's great that we can put him down around 7:30 and not hear from him until 6:30 the next morning, plus one consistent nap in the afternoon. It's nice that he can feed himself reasonably well and eat a variety of foods so that we're not constantly having to make him a separate meal of baby food. It's nice he can walk/run pretty well so that I don't have to carry him everywhere. And it's really wonderful that he can entertain himself more now and communicate better with us using the words he's learning each day.

It's really been a lot of fun to watch him grow up and it's amazing how much they learn in a short time! Now, if I could just get him potty trained by the time Anna gets here....yes I know, a girl can dream can't she?

Random Thought #7: Those inopportune ringtones

Remember back when ringtones were the cool new way to further announce our individuality to the world? I remember back when even having something like 20 different types of those mechanical ringtones on a cell phone was just all the rage, and with each new generation of cell phone came an exponential rise in the variety of tones available. We went from options like "Chimes low", "Chimes high", "Alert", "Bells", etc to a selection of just about every possible audible sound or collection of sounds a person could dream up. I hesitate to use the word music or musical ringtones here given some of the junk labeled as such...just think "Macarena" and you get my drift.

Anyway, the funny thing with ringtones is that no matter how cool, hip, or cutting-edge they are to their owner, there is nothing more embarrassing/annoying than having the ringer set to high and then having someone call the phone at an inopportune time, like in the middle of a professor's lecture or a group prayer. Or, say when you accidentally forget your phone in your kid's diaper bag and the nursery staff get to enjoy your "music" selection.

No, I was not the mom who left her phone in her child's bag, but I was one of the nursery staff in the 12-18 month class at church this morning that got to listen to what I guess is a popular tune on the radio (?) when one of the diaper bags came to life courtesy of a misplaced cell phone. The four of us adults in the room had finally gotten two very fussy little boys calmed down and all the kids in their seats for snack time. It was pleasantly and unusually quiet as the kids munched on goldfish for a while (a rare feat to manage with 10 of them), when very loudly and clear as day we heard something to the effect of, and this is a woman singing mind you, "I kissed a girl and I liked it", which repeated itself a few times as most ringtones do. Besides the fact it was totally random, I can't quite sum up our surprised reactions to that song blaring in a church nursery. I guess irony comes in there somewhere? I was just very thankful that the kids in our room were not quite to the repeat-everything-they-hear stage, or we would have had some major explaining to do to their parents, especially those of little girls! Yikes!

So just a friendly reminder that your ringtone does say a lot about you, and it might not really be the message you'd like people to get! And remember to consider your child's nursery staff in your selection of ringtones..."Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" works for me :)

Time for a change

The pregnancy hormones must be in full swing...I can't be satisfied with any of the blogger template choices at the moment! At least this one is a little easier to read...hmmm, this is probably going to change again...

The Lynn's have it...

After giving this some more thought, I think the Lynn's have it...Anna Lynn it is! Thanks for the input :)

Little Egg gets a big girl name

I mentioned back when we had our first ultrasound done for baby number two that Bob, true to his logical, software engineer roots, decided to give the baby the obvious but oh-so-bland name of "Little Egg". And no, we didn't really walk around referring to the baby that way, but it was very like Bob to come up with something so silly with a perfectly straight face...

I'm happy to announce that "Little Egg" has now graduated on to the much more appropriate name of Anna. We're still trying to decide on a middle name, probably something along the lines of Lynn, Katherine, or Elizabeth.

The usual question that follows somewhere in the name discussion are what factors did/did not go into the name selection. I admit that our choice of names (both Jack and Anna) aren't based on some noble reason like a family name passed down, though my mom's middle name is Ann. It's been our (ok, really my) attempt at lessening the fodder for the name calling games that will inevitably come during elementary school with the last name Looney.

With Jack I just wanted a simple, short, masculine boy name that wouldn't sound ridiculous at his high school graduation, but would look good on a business card someday. You know, the name Lancelot Looney just doesn't have quite the same ring as Jack Looney.

It's been harder this time with a girl name. I again wanted a nice, short name, preferably with just one syllable. Of course the name I really liked for a girl just happened to be Jill, but no way would I put my kids through Jack and Jill jokes above and beyond what they'll already hear with Looney. Then again, given the Looney moniker, people would probably cut me some slack if I had gone with Jill, right?

After ruling out Jill, I also ruled out a lot of other girl's names with the sound of "ee" on the end, like Riley, Natalie, etc., because I didn't want her first name to rhyme with her last name. I went through that in high school when I went by Katie (with a maiden name of Petree) and didn't like it much, so Katie got shortened to Kate in college. Anyway, eventually it was narrowed down to Anna, Jenna, or Paris (just kidding), and we know too many little Jenna's, so Anna began to slowly grow on us over the last month. And that's how Little Egg got her big girl name...

Too bad vacations end!

We had a great time relaxing up in the cooler weather of Bristol, VA last week with Bob's mom and dad. Very pretty country out in Tennessee and western Virginia to say the least...I was surprised at how nice northern Alabama was as well once you start to hit the foothills of the Smokies north of Birmingham. My only complaint was the stretch of I-10 just east of Beaumont that was shut down to one lane on a Friday afternoon before a holiday. And when I say one lane, I mean one lane for BOTH directions. We moved only a few miles in an hour as the traffic alternated between west and east bound over that one lane. Pure genius on someone's part...luckily that genius was not the one on duty when we came back through because the traffic flowed smoothly.

Jack held up like a trooper. 2 days of 7-9 hour car rides going there and coming back are a lot for anyone, but especially an 18-month old. It helped if one of us sat in the back passenger seat next to him for some entertainment value, as did an occasional viewing of Finding Nemo, Toy Story, and the Incredibles.

We went to Bays Mountain National Park in Tennessee one morning, which was gorgeous. They have some small animal exhibits that were great for Jack. The other highlight was the Bristol 4th of July parade (held on the 5th?). We got there 15 mins before the parade started and still got a great spot up front along the street.



Small town parades are a lot of fun because of the smaller crowds. Jack got a bird's eye view of the floats, fire trucks, and other noisy vehicles coming down the main drag through town. Trying to attend a parade in downtown Houston would be maddening...you'd have to arrive hours in advance and still probably wouldn't get a good view of the street. Plus, for a pregnant woman, it was nice to be able to locate a bathroom quickly after the parade had finished! Jack waved at everything...

Haley, our dachshund, went to the "Pet Hotel and Spa", or my parent's house as Bob likes to call it, for some R&R while we were gone....as if she doesn't get enough R&R napping all day?

The only downside to vacations is that they end and it's catch up time back in the daily grind :)

Leaving on a jet plane...I mean in a minivan....

Well, leaving on a jet plane definitely sounds more glamorous than driving a minivan, but we're taking the minivan out on it's first official roadtrip pretty soon. Plane prices were just too high this time around to fly out to Virginia to see Bob's parents for some vacation, so we've resorted to driving!

We're looking at about a 17 hour drive total, broken up over a few days. This will be a test of our patience (and Jack's!) for sure with an 18 month old in a car seat for that long. A change of scenery is always nice though, so I'm willing to do what it takes for a nice vacation to a cooler climate :) Jack thinks he was helping out in this picture by carrying his diaper pack around after sitting on top of it like a chair.

Will try to update the blog, but it may be sparse for a while until we get back!

You don't ask, you don't get

I didn't label this a "Random Thought" because it does pertain somewhat to motherhood...at least becoming a mom has caused me to learn more about the health care industry than I ever knew before, and the more I learn the more I shake my head. Of course I'm no expert in this field, preferring instead to watch the weather outside, but when you receive a bill for some medical related expense just about every day in the mail (or so it seems), you're kinda forced to sit up and take notice about why your cash flow suddenly dries up....

Backing up a little bit, when we were in Virginia, my husband worked for a large company with pretty good health insurance options. Our premium per month was reasonable but not cheap, and I had great maternity coverage when I was pregnant with Jack. In fact I think from start to finish, including all the office visits, test, ultrasounds, hospital delivery with epidural, and post-natal checkups, we paid somewhere between $2oo to $300 all thanks to our insurance, even though in some sense we were paying for more of those costs through our premium every month (of which Bob's company paid a pretty good slice).

So fast forward to this baby, and things aren't so rosy for our pocketbook this time around. Bob works for a very small company now that does not offer health insurance. They do help with a Flexible Spending Account and a certain amount per month to help us cover the cost of our own individual insurance plan, but we don't have nearly the coverage with this plan that we did with the prior insurance plan. In fact we have NO maternity coverage at all, and cannot even use maternity expenses to meet our deductible. Bob said apparently most individual insurance plans in TX don't offer maternity coverage...I guess no one figured people in Texas might want to have children without having to shell out thousands to do so?

The one good thing (and in another way not so good) is that since we don't have coverage for all of these maternity bills, we can ask for a cash discount. As our realtor reminded us when we bought our house, "You don't ask, you don't get!" I can't tell you how much we've saved by doing this. For example...if we had maternity coverage, my last ultrasound would have been billed to our insurance company for $500. We were told this was amount we owed out of pocket. Since we asked for the discount, instead of paying $500, it ended up being somewhere closer to $200! Same thing with some of the standard testing I had done at the beginning of my pregnancy...we got 50% knocked off the bill because we were paying in cash.

So the "in another way not so good part" comes in when we started thinking about the discrepancy between what we've paid in cash and what would have been billed to an insurance company. In the case of the ultrasound, about $300! Either way, there was no difference in the level of service performed whether we paid for cash or had insurance, so why is the price jacked up over 100%? If the price for us was around $200, which was probably a better reflection of the true cost of the service anyway, why isn't that the price billed to the insurance company? No wonder insurance premiums are so high! Yeesh!!!

I'd like to say I'll step down off my soapboax now, but since this problem doesn't appear likely to go away anytime soon, I might be up here awhile...