9/15/10

Ok, well a lot has been going on. No baby yet though :(

I'll just kind of go over the last week. Last Tuesday, 9/7, I had my 37 week appointment. I felt so AWFUL the next day - so bad that I went into Labor and Delivery to be checked/monitored. Well of course there was nothing worth keeping me there for so they sent me home. I was literally on the couch through Friday. Good thing I have a laptop to work on!! I was just in a lot of pain and running a fever and had constant headaches. I was completely miserable! I finally started feeling better on Saturday - well enough to walk around Peach Days in Brigham City. I had to go S-L-O-W and it was H-O-T, but it was good to get out.

Shane has been great - work has been slow this week so he has helped me out a lot. He cleaned the house a couple of weeks ago while I was gone and then cleaned the upstairs for me on Friday. Then he left to go to his brother's house for a "surprise." He wouldn't tell me what he was going for but this is what he brought home:

 

Obviously it wasn't painted at all when he brought it home and my swollen, un-pedicured foot is just there to show size (it's HUGE), but when he was cleaning, he decided that Chloe has too many toys and not enough places to put them, so he built a toy chest. He's stenciling little pictures all over it and it's just adorable. I'm very excited to get it in her room and fill it with STUFF. 

Let's see.... I got the baby's room "done" - as done as it's going to get I guess. We don't do themes or specific decor so it's just basic and homey.

 

This is the blanket that Shane's mom crocheted for the baby and the little outfit we will bring him home in. Next is the diaper bag I got (Chloe's was pink and brown...)

 

Shane made the little nightstand next to the crib           I need to find a better cover for the chair, but it's a very comfy rocker!

 

The cabinet he made :) It's also HUGE so we decided to make the top a changing table.

Finally, the bathroom. I begged Shane for weeks to let me paint it and I finally got most of it masked off and he just came in and took over because he knew I would totally screw it up! And I am OK with that!  He wouldn't let me paint this color in the baby's room so it's in the bathroom instead and I love it. It just made the bathroom so clean and crisp. There just seemed to be irreparable damage from the renters so this was perfect.

  

And this, my friends, is the best you will get for a 38 week picture!

Oh, and I can't forget the internet. Shane wanted to make sure I could work anywhere in the house if need be so he hard-wired the internet upstairs and added lines downstairs too. This is the new "docking station" in our utility closet. It works AMAZINGLY!! 

Anyway, sorry for the overload, but that's what's been going on. We should hopefully have a baby in the next two weeks and then Shane's little sister is getting married right after that so I'll be nice and fat in the pictures :) 

What a day....

I would so love to forget that yesterday even happened.... But of course it did so I need to write about it. I'm sure that other people have experienced worse, and blah blah blah, but this was bad for me.

So, on Tuesday, 9/7, I had my 37 week appt. No big news there -- just that if the baby isn't born by 40 weeks then I'll have to have another c-sec anyway. I was pretty disappointed about that. I just don't feel like this kid is coming any time soon so if I'm going to have one anyway, why not just schedule it ahead of time and be done?! Oh --- and did I mention that my blood pressure was super high for me? 143/86. I'm usually 120ish(or less)/60ish.

Anyway, I was feeling pretty blue on Tuesday and of course got no sleep that night and woke up Wednesday with a throbbing headache. After not very long of working (less than an hour) I started having irregular contractions and around 8-8:30 they started regulating and they hurt. Enough that I couldn't work through them. At 10:30 I took the second half of the day as sick and I literally just laid on the couch. Thank GOODNESS that Chloe and the dogs were being so good yesterday. Chloe just sat and watched movies and the dogs just laid around. Chloe can even let them in and out to go potty now :) {such a good little helper for Mommy}. She kept asking me if I was ok and giving me kisses where it hurt.

Anyway, at 10:30 I called the doctor's office to see if I needed to be making arrangements or anything. Of course, no.... Wait until they are regular for 3-4 hours then go in. Fine....whatever.... So back to "napping". After laying on the couch for not too long, the contractions seemed to stop, but I still just hurt all over. I got up at about 2 something and just went upstairs and turned a movie on up there for Chloe. I was just feeling worse and worse - really achy and hot and I just wanted to curl up and go to sleep.

At about 4 I called my sister (who is a Labor and Delivery nurse) and got her take on the situation. Well, between the fever (101 F), headache, contractions, and high BP reading the day before, she practically yelled at me to go in to the hospital. And I apparently had my membranes stripped at my DR. appt too..... Shane wanted me to call my dr's office too - just to be sure that's really what I should be doing. The nurse I talked to there said I should go in too. So.... I hurried and put a little bag together, JUST IN CASE. I so did not want to get my hopes up because, let's face it... I am just not that lucky.

After getting checked in and everything, I got hooked up to the monitors. And guess what.... my fever was gone, contractions were very irregular, BP was WAY down (lower than it has been this whole time), and I hadn't dialated or anything. So I basically looked like a big whiny baby for  going in. I am not one of those people who goes to the doctor for just anything - there needs to be LOTS of blood or death coming for me to feel justified in going. I was really irritated. They sent me home after an hour of monitoring, but I was still just in so much pain everywhere. We got home around 8 and got Chloe into bed. I was hurting so so so so bad still. I couldn't even muster the energy to sit in a hot bath. I got some ice water and got in bed. I checked my temp because I felt hot again and GUESS WHAT.... 101.3 F. Anyway, I kept falling asleep and would wake up every hour just sweating and aching and everything but I wasn't about to go to any dr for it this time.

I was finally able to pretty much stay asleep from about 1:30 to 5:30 - when I have to get up for work. And I feel ok today. Still a little headache, but what else is new.... Anyway, the day was a lot worse than I am making it out to be. I was laying down for probably 12 hours throughout the day and let's just say that it's a good thing they have epidurals. If that pain wasn't labor.... I won't be able to handle it.

8-25-10

Just posting an update.... Not a whole lot has been going on in the Shane Peavler house. We're getting "baby brother"'s room ready - he still does not have a name and will not until he's born. Shane made some ADORABLE cabinets (with the help of his older brother, Jeremy) for the room and he spent the first 3 days of this week sanding and painting. They are so cute and will be ready to put in the room probably this Friday or Saturday. I just need to get baskets to put in them. After that, his room will be mostly ready - just need to buy the rest of the supplies for him. I'm getting more and more anxious by the day. I start my weekly dr. visits next week.

Chloe has been good. I make her take "quiet time" in the afternoon in the hopes that she'll fall asleep. She usually does. This was how she fell asleep last week - she was watching me in the kitchen. This position so does not look comfortable. 

Um, our garden has exploded. This picture does not do it justice. My camera was dying so I only got this one pic. The tomatoes are all kind of falling to one side and the squash is all over the place. I can't even describe how big the watermelon vine has gotten. We pick a bucketful of vegetables atleast twice a week. Too much if you ask me -- but only because I don't like the veggies. I can't wait for my watermelon and cantaloupe to be ready! It just looks like a big pile of weeds though, huh?

Oh, our camping trailer got tagged last week too :) My neighbor knocked on my door and said, "did you know that someone graffit'd your trailer?" UH... NO!!! Anyway, after some internet research, a combination of nail polish remover and Mr Clean Magic Eraser, you can't even tell that it ever happened. Stupid neighborhood kids. I won't even go into my feelings about the group of people I know is responsible. Everyone knows how I feel about them...

I've been getting fatter and fatter and more and more swollen. Shane grabbed my wrist yesterday and said it felt like hamburger :( More reasons why I want this baby to come early. 

I need to get the nooks and crannies of my house clean so I guess that can distract me until he comes. But it's really hard to deep clean things when you have a ginormous fat belly in front of you - and your hands are so swollen that you can barely grip the rag. Oh well. less than 5 weeks until I'm due. Let's hope the doc won't let me go late!

Updates 8/11/10

I'm almost at 34 weeks. I am SO ready to be done being pregnant. Not so much for obvious reasons, but I am so ready to lose some weight. I am more determined than ever to get thin after this pregnancy. I have completely let myself go and every time I step on the scale at the dr. office I want to cry. *sigh* I am hoping that this baby will breast feed (Chloe did not do well at all with any type of feeding!) and I'm hoping that I get at least as lucky as I did last time. I lost all of my pregnancy weight from Chloe within weeks. I didn't LOOK good, but it was gone. I will have a wedding to be a part of literally days after the baby is born and it's bad enough that I'm going to be white ---- I can't still be a cow! So, does anyone have any good detox tips for me??

This kid moves around a LOT. I get really bad heartburn at night, just like with Chloe - so I'm not worried about a full head of hair. I like my babies bald :) He's head down now so I should be able to have a v-bac with no problem too. But we shall see.....

His room is not done yet, but much closer than it was. We have put up the crib and painted the walls. Shane is going to build a couple of cabinets and some box/baskets to put in them. We are putting off buying the last essentials until a little later but I can't wait to get everything put together. I am so not into the typical boy stuff of sports and car decor. I prefer just nice colors and simple accessories. Once we get some more done in there I'll take some pictures.

Speaking of pictures, my sister just got a new snazzy camera and she helped me take some pictures of Chloe last weekend. We haven't done any updated shoots for a while and we absolutely refuse to pay people to take pictures of us (no offense to photographers, it is just a waste of our money since we're on a budget!). So, we went up to Gardner Village and found some cute spots. Here are just a few that we took. She's starting to pose more than just be natural so we were having to fight with that a lot! Oh well.... she's still beautiful :)

She always makes this adorable scrunched up face, but I can never catch it on camera. This was the closest I could get!

Note to self: Remember this

We have been experiencing major thunder storms the past 24 hours. Chloe slept in really late this morning and I went up to check on her. I found her sitting up in her bed in the dark and she said, in a timid little voice, "There's a bear in the window". It was so precious.

I knew if I didn't write that somewhere that I would never remember....

Grey's River 2010 --- and other

So we had our annual camping trip to Grey's River, Wyoming last week. It was fun and mostly relaxing. We didn't go up until early early Wednesday morning so I was operating on about 3 hours of sleep. I haven't done that in a LONG time.... We had fun though.

My brother graciously let us borrow his 4-wheeler and it was a good thing too! Shane wanted to camp about 40 yards from the rest of the family and me, being the lazy bum I am (and the mass amounts of weeds) used the 4-wheeler to go to and from the camp sites! I took Chloe on a ride one day too.... And this is what happened. It was too cute. I really want a 4x4 but Shane is bound and determined to get a Ranger some time. We shall see if EITHER of those happen!

I was worried this year that I would get left a lot since there are usually 2 Rangers (basically big 4-wheelers that fit up to 6 people) and another 4-wheeler and everyone goes on rides. Well, unless I was driving, the bumps are WAY too much for my right now. Unfortunately, my brother-in-laws shocks - or something - broke so he could barely drive his around at all. So, I wasn't ditched! We didn't get as much game-playing done as usual but all in all, it was just nice and relaxing ---- AND HOT!!! There was lots of cloud cover so it was fairly humid too. It rained most of the last day we were there so Chloe and I just hung out in the trailer and watch Bedknobs and Broomsticks for a long long time....

Oh, and I realize that I am a paranoid mother, and I don't care. Chloe decided that she would chase after the bigger girls one day and fell. She got a tiny scrape on her face and stained her pant leg pretty good. I didn't fall as a kid - I'm not one of those that thinks kids need to fall and get banged up. She has plenty of bruises on her knees and that's more than enough for me! It's just too sad. Anyway, below is the pic of her little scrape. When it happened, it really looked like it would turn into a nice black eye. Thank goodness it didn't!

And her cute little backpack that we got for her to carry her "arts and crafts" in. She loves it :) Shane picked it out too!

(btw, did I mention that I LOVE that I can make my pictures big and they can actually be seen on blogger. I love that I figured out the new layout thing....)

In other news, I'm still a fat cow and getting fatter by the second. I can sleep all the time, and my house is a complete wreck. I got it kind of straightened up before leaving on our trip, but things never go as planned! We are finally going to tackle the baby's room this week. We've compromised on colors - which was our biggest issue. I'll take pictures when it's done - which will probably be about 7 1/2 weeks from now, right before I go to the hospital.... Did I mention that I'm 8 weeks from my due date :)

Reader Discretion is Advised

Ok - I have an issue I just have to get out there. For those of you who are sensitive to "racist" remarks, don't bother reading any more.

Why can't Mexicans watch or discipline their kids? In the last month, there have probably been at least 6 stories on the news where a Mexican toddler has been hit by a car. The sad thing is, another Mexican is usually the one that hit them. In my neighborhood, there are at least 10 Mexican kids under the age of 12 and they just run around the streets. The toddlers (3 and under...) literally run around barefoot and pants-less after dark - AFTER DARK.

Today, in the Walmart parking lot, there was a little Mexican boy running around screaming. People were trying to help and console him but he couldn't understand what they were saying because, surprise surprise, he didn't understand English. And guess what- THIS IS AMERICA AND WE SPEAK ENGLISH IN THIS COUNTRY. Sorry if that offends anyone, but that's how it is.

Don't get me wrong, American people (not just white, but people who have resided in this country for more than one generation and/or are legal) lose their kids too. But in my experience, they usually find them quite quickly.

I don't need to hear everyone else's opinion, I just have to let everyone know what I think about that situation. Have a great week :)

Our Garden(s) :)

Ok, so these were taken over a week ago and the plants have literally probably doubled in size and production since. We planted too much.... We also have our lilies that survived the year without any maintenance! They are about 3 feet or more tall :) We're going to transplant a bunch of the bulbs next year.

The tomatoes - these are actually about to the top of the fence line now and falling over because they're so heavy.

 

The green peppers --- each plant now probably has at least eight 3-inch or bigger peppers on. I used the one that was ready (above) in my dinner tonight :)

The watermelon and cantaloupe - The watermelon is now about 4 feet long and the cantaloupe is not far behind.

A close-up of my little peppers that are now ginormous! 

And the LILIES! Each of the buds you see below have since popped open and it was so pretty! The petals are starting to fall off though :( But there are still plenty to enjoy! We've also got 4 day-lily plants that are very pretty as well. 

We didn't really get to do much with our flower beds this year since Shane really wanted to focus on our first ever vegetable garden. Even though I don't like tomatoes, squash, or cucumber - I am very proud of our work. Yes, OUR work. I have helped plenty with that garden! I even weeded it while he was gone this weekend. I can't wait until next year when we can re-work our flower beds and try adding another food garden (with more things for me to eat!). So, hopefully many of you would like some of our tomatoes and squash and cucumbers and watermelon and green peppers and red and yellow and Anaheim peppers..... 

Fourth of July - uneventful :) We went to my nephew's baptism on Saturday afternoon. Chloe slept in the car while Shane drove her around. I've decided that it's best to not wake her up right before family functions. She gets extremely clingy and grumpy now.... She used to be so cheerful!! Oh well. Anyway, she woke up and was happy. It was a nice afternoon - very hot!

On the actual fourth, we just did some small fireworks that night. Chloe wasn't too fond of the loud noise and bright lights, but she LOVED the poppers. She even had her first very own ice cream cone!

Shane went fishing with his brother on Monday and me and Chloe just watched TV all day. I made 4 loaves of banana bread and some cinnamon rolls. My mom finally gave me the recipe and I was so excited. It actually wasn't too hard, but very time-consuming. I'll be making them a lot more! 

Um, Chloe has been spending a lot of afternoons out in her little pool. She doesn't get dressed anymore - it is getting so hard for me to do the little things that are so important these days. She's lucky if I brush her hair and get her dressed. She always takes off her pajamas so she can play dress up with whatever clothes she can reach! 

We've also started to try potty training. Not going so well. She doesn't like this little "portable" toilet. She goes on the toilet occasionally but we're just taking it slowly. Oh well :(

Lastly.... Shane has been freaking out about our wood floors. They were looking dingy and he was afraid we'd have to refinish them or something. Then he noticed something one day and started doing to internet searching. Anyway, we found out that the product we had been using - Orange Glo - leaves a yucky waxy build-up on the floor. Well, an entire bottle had been used on this floor and the renters didn't sweep or anything before they used it so everything was just really gross. I don't know if you can see the difference in the picture below, but one side is the yucky, waxy side and the other is how it looked after hours of working on hands and knees, scrubbing and ammonia. Ugh, but after days and days of working, Shane finally finished! Even when the floor is dirty, it still looks light years better than it did.

Tantrums and swimming

It is summer time and that means swimsuits and water! Well our swimming pool was still at Shane's parent's house so we were forced to improvise.....

Then Shane brought the pool home for us and I repaired the small holes and Chloe LOVES it!! She still loves that ice cream bucket too though.

This video is awesome. I was laughing so hard while recording. Chloe has this doll that came with her baby stuff - the stroller and stuff she got for Christmas. It's pretty crappy and not near as cool as George - the Cabbage Patch Kid. But she loves it and got .... well you can see - when I took it to wash. It was filthy. This was the tail end of the tantrum. She was upstairs banging on doors and just screaming for about 30 minutes. I got her to calm down by looking at pictures on Facebook. I guess I'm getting what I deserve. I think I may have thrown a temper tantrum or two in my day :)