My how 6 months flies......

I apologize to anyone that even glances at my blog because I never have time to write on here. My life is so crazy when I get home I never even think about updating my blog. What's worse is that I can't believe it is almost the middle of November! That means that football season is almost over :( I love, love, love football season. I could sit and watch college football every Saturday the entire year. Unfortunately it is a lot harder to watch football with Adelyn, but we make sure to give her a good nap during the Tech game! Adelyn  made her first road trip to College Station for the Aggie/LSU game. She was wearing her purple and gold to support our Tigers, which did come out with the win by the way. I was pretty nervous because I knew it was going to be loud and she wouldn't be able to take a nap (she is a very light sleeper). Lucky for her during the game, no one was at the tailgate so she took a good two hour nap in her stroller. She even napped in the RV while the frat party next to use blarred their music as loud as it could go for about 30 minutes. The same day as the Aggie game Adelyn turned 6 months. I truly cannot believe that she was not even in this world 6 months ago (now almost 7 months ago since I'm so behind on updating). I honestly could not imagine my life without her anymore! I am so ridicuously in love with her. I'm sure every mom is, and I know why: your baby is just the best thing ever. If you've had a bad day, you can look at that grin and you pretty much forget everything else that happened that day. If you know that your husband keeps telling you to stay in budget and you keep telling him that it was your baby's fault then you just know she is well taken care of. I mean she grows like a weed!
At her 6 month appointment, she weighed in at 17.4 lbs and 25 1/2 inches long. She is 70% in the weight and 35% in height. This was shocking to us because Rene and I are both fairly tall people and I'm pretty sure niether of us were ever below the 70% range when we were babies. Adelyn's Mimi (Rene's mom is rather short), so if Adeliou is a shrimp we know where she got it from! She is still going to physical therapy twice a month. She went today and they said that she was looking good, but still needs to keep seeing the PT.

In her 6th month, her sitter took her to a fall festival and she had so much fun! I just love that she is so curious about everything! She tried to eat the pumpkins since she thinks everything is for her mouth! She doesn't have any teeth yet thank goodness because I'm not sure I'm ready for the teething stage.
I tried to stop nuring her when she turned 6 months, but I just couldn't do it. I just love nursing her and giving her the best of what i've got. I've told myself I won't go too much longer because it's a lot of work. I am so glad I have nursed this long because I have enjoyed the whole experience plus I have lost all my baby weight plus more!!! We did finally start her on baby food with the help of a great cook friend of mine, I was able to make her food and freeze it. So far we have tried peas, which she hated, she loved the sweet potato, and we just recently tried broccoli (only because I defrosted the wrong one) and she liked it the first day but then said "no thank you" the second day. We will keep working on that! Next up is carrots. She is also still taking prevacid for her reflux but it has gotten tremenduously better!

I think the absolute best thing about her turning 6 months is.................................................................................she is finally sleeping through the night and..............she is sleeping in her crib! She slept through the night for 2 straight weeks then got a massive cold and could barely breathe so we moved her back to the rocker for about a week to help clear the congestion. She finally made it back to the crib last night and only had one coughing spell at 1:40 am, though this whole time change thing is not for babies. It would be my luck that she prefers to sleep on her stomach, so I have to get up around midnight to check on her, but I am so glad to finally be getting some much needed sleep! Video monitors are truly a great thing. If you have debated about getting one, I highly recommend it.

Now that I'm getting some much needed rest, I feel like I'm actually doing much better at my job. I have been giving it all i've got since the beginning but at least now I don't feel like my fuel tank is running on empty. My class is progressing so well and I have fallen in love with all of the sweet kids in my room. Sometimes they can be crazy, but they are so kind hearted and are always asking about me and Adelyn, so I know how much they care!

Well it's an early game day, so we are headed to our friends house to watch the Red Raiders!

Sleep deprived....

The past month has been one of the hardest months I've ever had to endure. Working full time, trying to breastfeed and pump and be a mom is probably the most exhausting thing I've ever done.
I have a brand new class this year with lots of new opportunities! I have never had a class quite like this one before and though it is taking us longer to get to where we need to be, I know we will get there :) Trying to pump while work is taking quite a toll on my daily to do list. I pump right before I leave my house, I pump during my lunch break, and then right after school. When you add all the time up it's almost an hour out of my busy day that I could have spent planning/preparing things for my classroom. While I'm not complaining, I will just be glad when I am finished with it. I really thought I would stop nursing all together this past week, but for some reason I have decided to keep going until Adelyn is 6 months old. This is only another month and like two weeks so I know it's doable. By the time I get home, cook dinner, give Adelyn a bath, feed her and play with her I'm absolutely exhausted. (I don't know how those with more than one do it!) I then have to pull out my laptop and finish all of the things I didn't get to during the day. Unfortunately for Rene and I, Adelyn is still not sleeping through the night. She wakes up sometime around 12, 1, 2, or 3 for a feeding and then around 5. Though sometimes like last night, we were up from midnight until 2:30 with some major reflux and then she was hungry again at 4:00. So I basically got like 2 hours of sleep at night. When you work with five year olds all day it is so hard to be tired because they just keep going and going. And yes people constantly tell me "put her on formula, swaddle her, read her books, blah blah blah" YES....I DO ALL OF THESE THINGS. Her last two feedings before bed include formula and rice cereal. Her problem is that because of her reflux she is just not a big eater. She rarely takes more than 3-4 ounces in one feeding, when at this age she should be taking 6-7. So she gets hungrier often. I keep hoping that one day I'm going to wake up and realize I slept 8 hours! As soon as this happen, trust me, I will announce it to the world!
On another note, Adelyn has started physical therapy to hopefully fix her torticolus. She has a 10 degree tilt in the right side of her neck. Because of this she has to go to one hour of physical therapy once a week for 4-6 months. One hour is a very long time for a little one such as herself. The worst part is we are supposed to do lots of stretches with her and make her do one hour of tummy time everyday. She is not a big fan of tummy time and does NOT like her stretches at all. I keep telling her that it's for her own good and she will thank me later!
She is also rolling over from her back to tummy and vice versa. She first learned how to roll from tummy to back and then two days ago she rolled from her back to tummy. It's so cute when she does it because she has such chunky arms and legs that her arms get like stuck under her belly and she can't figure out how to move them!
I know I have said it a thousand times but she has grown so much and her little laugh is my absolute favorite part of my day! Every time I make myself and after school to do list and check everything off as soon as I can so I can go and pick her up. I love teaching kindergarten and being able to guide them but I also love being a mommy! Now if I could just find the perfect balance between the two then I would be a much happier, wiser, and well rested teacher and mom!

She's getting too big!!

So my little Adelyn is four months old today. We had a full day of shopping planned, but little missy has not been a happy camper. Friday she went to the doctor for her four month check up. She weighs 15.3 lbs and is 24 1/2 inches long, and she had to get four shots. Saturday she woke up with crusty junk all over her nose and then her nose was runny all day long. Then today she woke up again sneezing and was fussy all day. Her neck ended up locking on her again and my shopping adventure was cut short so that I could go home and basically rock her while she slept all afternoon. After two go rounds of tylenol she woke up around 5:30 feeling much better!!! She was laughing and talking up a storm!
At her doctor's appointment we found out that Adelyn needs to have a little bit of physical therapy to help her neck situation. She severly leans her head to her right side pretty much of the time. The doctor thinks she will grow out of it eventually but recommended we do a couple of therapy sessions to be sure. Thankfully, her Bella will be able to take her to PT.
The doctor also told us to start her on rice cereal since she still isn't sleeping through the night. I'm clueless about this stuff and of course my husband didn't ask any questions. I mean I don't know how to give the cereal and when and how much. So a call to the doctor is in order for Monday!
Adelyn is a super big girl except that she's still kind of on the short side. She can still wear most of her three month clothes but we are having an issue with the 6th month clothes. In the 6 month clothes she is close to the end of the weight limit, yet she is at the very bottom for the length. So things are kind of tight around her chest, yet like 5 inches too long! The clothes that fit her best are the ones labeled 3-6 months! So we have been in search of those clothes this past weekend!
She is getting so much better at tummy time finally! She loves to grab things and puts pretty much everything in her mouth. She prefers our fingers to her pacifier now, though she always takes her paci when it is bed time. We are still sleeping in the swing.....I can't let go just yet.
I had to go back to work this past Thursday and it was awful. I told myself that I wasn't going to cry, but I cried the entire way there and then for about another two hours after I dropped her off :( The first day I picked her up she wouldn't even look at me....she was looking at her sitter with big smiles. I won't lie, I was super sad. But the next day I picked her up she was crying and as soon as I grabbed her she stopped, so that made me feel much better!!!!! I was also able to successfully nurse while at work. Our schedule is going to work out perfect in order for me to able to nurse for the 6 months that I want to!!
Though I am sad about not getting to see her all day long, I'm glad for some normal adult interaction in my life again. I will be making the most out of my weekends that is for sure!

Now that school is about to start we are getting ready for football season and we will make sure Adelyn knows which teams to root for!!! GEAUX TECH!!!

What a crazy week

This has been the craziest week for Miss Adelyn and I and it is only Wednesday! So about a month ago I started having these severe pains in both of my wrists when I would pick Adelyn up. I experienced these pains in college and they were not able to figure out what was wrong. I just told myself to ignore them and they would go away. Unfortunately they did not go away and I started having trouble picking her up because it was too painful. So I had to make an appointment to see the orthopedic. Well turns out I had a severe case of tendinitis in both of my wrists. I had to have a cortisone shot in both wrist and I now have to wear a brace on my right wrist because it is pretty tight. The shots weren't too bad. I am still nursing so to be safe I pumped and dumped for about 6 hours after the shots. I think I almost cried watching the milk go down the drain. That breast milk is so precious I hated to waste it. On top of all of that going on, we waited at the orthopedic office for almost 3 hours. My little Adelyn was such a trooper and did great the entire time!
Well we made it to Tuesday and things took a turn for the worse......we had our first trip to the ER :(
I was taking Adelyn out of the car at my mom's house and she started screaming. The only thing I could see visibly wrong was that she was kind of pulling her leg up and squishing her body to one side. I brought her inside and tried to calm her down by feeding her. This did not work and the screaming escalated. I started to notice that everytime I picked her up a certain way she would throw her arms out like she was falling. Something just wasnt right. I called her pediatrician and he said to come on in. By the time we got to his office Adelyn was holding her head to her left side and she could barely move her should or her neck. Of course I was in panic mode and I think she was too. Dr. Radimecky looked at her and sent us to the ER at Cook's right away. Rene met us at the hospital. When we took her back for paperwork and they started moving her around to take her blood pressure Adelyn freaked out. She started screaming the loudest I have ever heard her scream and cried so much she produced tears, which has never happened. You could just tell she was in pain. As she sat there crying I started crying and just held her and rocked her. They put us in room #71 where we waited for the doctor. She finally fell asleep and calmed down. Once she fell asleep her body relaxed quite a bit and her head kind of shifted. They came and took X-rays on her and thankfully nothing was broken. They ended up diagnosing her with "torticollis." The doctor said because of the way she holds her head (that is also the way she spits up) her muscles were overused on one side causing them to spasm in her neck and her shoulder. They kind of locked on her and she tensed up not allowing the muscles to relax. They told us to start stretching her neck out everyday so it doesn't get locked on one side and they also recommended we check for a hip alignment as sometimes this can be caused by one hip not being connected properly. After a long day of tears and then a long night of sleep she is feeling SOOOO much better today. I actually got several smiles from her this morning. Hopefully that will be our first and last trip to the ER for awhile because I'm not sure my blood pressure can take another one!!!

Such a brave girl

Finally fell asleep

So here we are on Wednesday with more appointments to come so hopefully we survive them all with smiles and class!!!

3 months already....

I absolutely cannot believe Adelyn is 3 months and 5 days old. Time is flying by so fast and what's worse is it's almost time for me to go back to work. Don't get me wrong, I love my job and I'm so excited for another year, but how in the world am I going to be able to leave Adelyn. I haven't spent a day without her since she was born. It might be a little easier if I was going back to work six weeks after she was born, but I will have gotten to spend 4 months with her and it's going to be so hard to say goodbye the first day I go back. (I cry on the first day every year because I have to put the dogs up all day....I know I'm a weenie). I do feel much better knowing that she will only be a block from my school and I will get to see her everyday when Mrs. Cameron comes to pick up her son! I know she will have fun with her sitter as well as my mom on Mondays!
Adelyn is becoming such a little character. Now that we have finally got the spitting up/screaming under control she is so much happier! Now when she spits up all over herself she smiles and laughs at you instead of crying in pain. In fact we have only gone through one outfit the past two days!
She also finally started lifting her head up during tummy time. I haven't done it that much because everytime I would put her down she would throw up and cry, but then out of no where I put her down and she held her head upright. I could just see it in her eyes....."mommy-I can see the world"
The same day she also found her feet! She lifted them up and wouldn't put them down. This has made for very difficult diaper changing, but she loves those little feet. She is still figuring out what they are and hasn't touched them yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.
She still LOVES mirrors. Everytime you put her infront of one, even if she is crying, that frown turns upside down!
She FINALLY started sleeping through the night about a week ago!!!!! It took 3 months for her to do it which was pretty exhausting, but I very much enjoyed getting to look at her beautiful face at 1 am, 3 am and 5 am for three months! She did wake up once in the past week for a midnight feeding but when right back to sleep! So hopefully she keeps it up!
Adelyn is wearing 3 month clothes. Her jammies are all still pretty long on her. When we first put her in pjs I dryed them all on extra hot because they were too long on her, well now she has outgrown them and all of the 6 months pjs are 5 inches too long. So I had to go and buy some 3 months pjs and this time I just won't dry them so hopefully they will fit for a little while before we slide into those 3 months!
I've also decided to attempt to breast feed her until she is 6 months old. I've been storing up milk in the freezer for when I go back to work and if my schedule works out then I should be able to pump twice during the day. I know it may not work out, but I am going to at least give it a shot. Wish me luck!!

Well Adelyn is calling ( actually I should say that Rene is calling.....men....they can only take so much)!

My amazing class!

So I know my blog has been all about my sweet Adelyn lately but something else in my life this past school year needs mentioning! I was so incredibly blessed to have such an amazing group of kids this past year. I had 20 kiddos in my kindergarten class for the 2011-2012 school year. I had all but one student pretty much the entire year. Way back in August of last year I got to meet some of my students for the next year and I was immediately excited! I was lucky enough to have three students who were siblings of former students, and three other students who were best friends with those students. When my class came together on the first day of school I was in love. I mean I cannot even begin to tell you how amazing these kids were. I had some of the brightest group of kids as a whole that I have had in my three years at my school. I had some incredibly high readers and some students who I could actually have meaningful converstaions with. My kids this past year had spunk and personality. I was so excited, yet a little sad when I found out I would be missing the end of the year with these kids. Lucky for me, I got constant updates and pictures from their parents and my long-term sub.

The above picture is with three of awesome girls, Kaya, Sofia, and Mia!


Not only were my kids fantastic, the parents were the best! The parents of my students actually cared about their kids well being and my own. They were always checking in on their child's progress and always making sure there wasn't something that I needed. Because of these parents, the kids and I had a fantastic year together. I am 100% sure that these children will have many great adventures and are in for many exciting things in their futures! Thanks to the help of some great parents, I was able to put together an end of year picnic (after school was out) at the park. All but 5 students and their parents came out to the park for a picnic lunch. All of my kids got to meet Adelyn and I got to talk with them one last time before they become first graders. I know I will see many of these kids, as I have become close friends with their parents, but I needed to see them one last time before summer started. I will also be fortunate to hopefully have many of their siblings in my future. It killed me not to put the picture of the kids I took at the park on here, but I am putting up the picture of the three parents who will be okay with my post. Thank you to the parents and my class for making my year such an amazing one!

6 weeks already

I cannot believe it has been almost 6 weeks since Adelyn was born. She will be six weeks old on Thursday. Things have gotten so much better at our house, though I have no idea how people go back to work in 6 weeks because I'm not ready. I am still only getting a couple of hours of sleep at night and I'm still in pain (down there if you know what I mean). I can't imagine going back to work in a week. I think I will have to try really hard to plan to have the rest of my babies in April, May or June because 6 weeks just isn't long enough.
We finally had to take Adelyn in for an acid reflux sonogram because she has been spitting up after every meal and she cries in pain because her tummy is hurting her so badly. We haven't gotten the results back but we should hear from them today. Hopefully they can give us something to help her digest her milk because right now it's all coming back up. She did great at the sonogram by the way. I was so worried because she wasn't going to be able to eat for 3 hours prior to the test, and lets just say my child eats like every two hours. I just knew that last hour was going to be awful. But lucky for me, she slept all the way until the time of the test and just started to cry when we got there. More importantly, they got us right in so she could eat!
This past weekend we also went to our first pool party. We have a super cute swimsuit, but it doesn't fit yet so I bought Adelyn and her cousin Leighton matching Memorial Day outfits to wear. We had so much fun at the cookout, but we couldn't stay outside very long because it was just too hot outside. I guess I won't be getting my much needed tan this summer because I don't think Addy can take the heat. At the cookout, we also got our first real smile from Adelyn. My dad was talking to her in his different voices and she started beaming and I thought she was going to start laughing, but she just smiled. I wished I had got it on camera, but I wasn't fast enough.
She also almost crawled right off of her lamb mat. We put her down and she was not happy. She went from position A to right off the mat in a matter of seconds by moving her feet. (We also did not get this on camera). So I'm sure that crawling and lots of smiles are just around the corner!

Oh and if you are a facebook friend of mine I wanted to apologize for my oh so many pictures on facebook. I just can't help sharing her with my friends and family. So I won't be offended if anyone needs to block my status's from showing because I probably won't be able to stop posting pictures of my sweet girl!

Adelyn is one month old!

I can't believe Adelyn is already one month old! For her one month birthday she had quite the celebration. We spent the past weekend in San Antonio for Rene's cousin, Megan's, wedding! The wedding was so beautiful and Adelyn got so much attention. Her grandpa Paul was on baby duty as Rene and I were both in the wedding. I think Grandpa was in heaven. He spent the pre wedding hour watching Spurs and watching Adelyn sleep. Then he held her and fed her during the ceremony. Thank goodness she was super quiet because I would have been so embarrassed had she been screaming. During the reception she was grandpa's little angel. We think she likes loud noises because she either is wide-eyed the whole time or sleeps the entire time. Her grandpa took her around to every person he knew at the reception to show her off, though he was a baby hog and wouldn't let anyone hold her. He told them they could look at her but couldn't hold her because she was all his. I secretly was glad for this because I didn't want her to get too many germs on her!
During the wedding weekend we finally had our first night of almost, and I mean almost full sleep. We purchased this rock'n sleep bed for her. It is basically a little bed that is on an incline and you can rock it back and forth with your hand. She loves this and finally sleeps so well in. She was either sleeping in her swing or on my chest. She just refuses to sleep on her back or in the pack'n play so this is proving to be a good solution since we can't swaddle her. On Friday night Rene and I actually got to sleep in the same bed. Adelyn slept from 1:00-5:00, then I fed her and she slept again from 5:30-8:00. Mommy and daddy got some much needed sleep. Though she still makes so many noises when she sleeps because she is so stopped up. We are running the humidifier every night, but so far it hasn't been much help.
Adelyn is also taking to the bottle well. We are only giving it to her once a day and will move to three times a day next week! Her favorite thing to do is make these hilarious grunting noises when she is eating or trying to go the restroom. I feel so bad because her poor tummy hurts, but the noise is so funny that Rene and I can't help but laugh.
She also loves the tv. In the hotel, we laid her on the bed with all of the lights off except for the television and I think she watched the tv for almost an hour without making a peep. I know this is a bad habit already, but we had to get things done for the wedding!

 The above picture is Adelyn at the bridesmaids luncheon! She was so alert and pretty in pink!

The above picture is Adelyn on her one month birthday at the wedding!

I can't believe how much she has grown already. I let her lay on my chest and she just feels so much longer. I know what people mean when they say that the little ones grow so fast. I'm a little sad, but I can't wait to see how beautiful and active she becomes as she grows! I am just so in love with her and I am so thankful I get to spend the entire summer with her before I have to go back to work!

She's got me wrapped around her little finger

My how quickly my life has changed in 2 weeks! Adelyn is 2 weeks old today! She has already gained 2 pounds and 7 ounces! She really likes to eat. For almost a year I prepared myself for what I thought it was going to be like to be a mommy, but I'm starting to realize it's much more complicated than that.
I am REALLY not a night person, which has been rather difficult for me because Adelyn likes to eat and stay up all night long. We have tried and tried to put her in the crib, or even the pack n' play, but so far she either screams until you pick her up or will only sleep for about an hour. This makes for one very tired mommy. I know everyone says to sleep when she sleeps, but when your such a day person this is very difficult. I try to sleep when she does, but every noise she makes I startle and I have to force myself to not get up and go check on her. She also eats every 1-2 hours, making actually falling asleep almost impossible. It feels like right when I just fall asleep, she is hungry again. We finally had to introduce her to the pacifier. This is helping a little bit, though she already knows the difference between that and the real things. :)

Another thing I wasn't completely prepared for was driving with her in the car. I am so terrified to even drive on the street because I'm afraid someone will hit me. For now, I am driving Rene's truck so we can save money to purchase a crossover this summer, and his truck is soooo large that it scares me. I have to park like a mile away from anywhere because it's so hard to manuever that vehicle. Adelyn's car seat is so heavy that it makes walking that far quite painful on my arms. Though I should have some amazing biceps here pretty soon!

For everyone that knows me I absolutely LOVE my dogs and spoil them so much. I was so worried about how they would react to her. But so far, they have been great. Sadie likes to give her head baths and every time we fall asleep on the couch, Sadie is right there sleeping with us. Chloe is still a little unsure about her. Chloe will come and sniff her and as soon as she makes a move Chloe will jump backwards. The most important thing is that they have not been aggressive towards her. They seem very interested and very calm. This has made things so much easier for me because I hate to see my dogs suffering from lack of attention. Rene and I make sure to walk them twice a day and always let them sniff her when we are holding her.

Adelyn had her first doctor's appointment and it went much better than I expected. We didn't have to wait at all and they were so patient with her while she was crying. (She hadn't eaten in 4 hours due to some blood work at the hospital and was very hungry). They said she looks fantastic and is very healthy! What more could a mom ask for! Though I told Rene he was taking her to her two month appointment because I don't want to watch them give her the shots. I know it probably won't bother me, but she's just so little that I don't want her to be in pain.

I think my favorite thing about being her mom is just looking at her. I love watching her sleep. She makes all of these cute noises as she is dreaming. Then when she wakes up she stretches her body out just like her dad and gives you that look like why are you waking me up. It is so cute. When she is awake she is such a little squirmer. She holds her head up high and moves her arms and legs all around. You really have to hold her tight or she will try to jump out of your arms. She also has these beautiful blue eyes. They may decide to turn green, but for now they are just so big and beautiful and I love looking at them!

Now that we are at two weeks, I'm hoping that the nightly feedings will start to get better here pretty soon. The doctor says I can start pumping at 3 weeks, so hopefully then I can get some real sleep! Until next time.....

I couldn't be any happier!

A little over a week ago a perfect little angel entered my world! Adelyn Michelle Aelvoet decided to grace us with her presence on her actual due date, April 19th! I have wanted a baby for such a long time and I am so blessed to have her. I wanted to share her delivery story since she was not expected to come on time!
On Monday April 16th, I went for my weekly appointment and I was still not dilated or having any contractions. My doctor and I decided to set her induction date for Wednesday April 25th, almost a week after her due date. Little did I know, Adelyn had other plans!
Well on Wednesday the 18th around 10:45 I was having a little come to Jesus meeting with one of my students when all of a sudden a severe pain shot through my back. I told the student to go sit down and I would talk to him a minute. Well that back pain came and went for the rest of the day. It wasn't unbearable, just uncomfortable. Well I called my doctor that afternoon just to let her know what was going on. She told me to go to Labor and Delivery to get it checked out. So that is what I did. After 2 hours, I learned that I was having contractions every 2-4 minutes in my back, but I wasn't dilated, so they sent me home. Rene and I went and got something small to eat and headed home. The nurses had told me to take some Tylenol and take a hot bath. Well 11 pm rolled around and I had taken the medication and taken 3 baths and the back pain was almost unbearable. Everytime I would have a contraction I had to sit down and rock myself because it hurt so bad. I told Rene we had to go back to the hospital cause I was in so much pain. We loaded the car and returned around 11:30.
They hooked me up to the machines and once again told me I wasn't dilated. All they could do for me was give me some phengren (sp?) and some pain meds. This made me a little woosy, but it didn't take away the pain. All night long Rene had to listen to me moan everytime I had another contration. The medication helped to slow them down, but didn't make them any less painful.
The next morning, the 19th, around 5:30 am my doctor came in to see me. She told before even checking me that even though I was contracting every 2-4 minutes all night long I still wasn't dilated and therefore they had to send me home. I was about to start screaming because there was no way I was going home in this much pain. She decided to go ahead and check my cervix one more time and guess what: I had dilated to a 3. The doctor looked at me and said forget everything I just said because your staying here. I breathed the biggest sigh of relief. She told me I could have the epidural within the hour. Our only problem was that little Adelyn was facing the wrong way inside my stomach. She was still head down, but she was face up. They said the only solution was to turn my over and move my body as much as possible during the day so that hopefully she would turn over. Her position was the reason for this awful back labor I was experiencing.

So once I got the epidural I felt tons better!!! My awesome nurse, Kathie, helped to turn me over and move my body around for pretty much most of the day. My parents and Rene sat and watched me basically all day long. Around 3:30 p.m. they checked me and I was dilated to a 10! So the pushing began. I pushed a couple of times and Adelyn's heart rate dropped too low so we had to stop for awhile. They turned me over several more times and then about 30 minutes later I began pushing again! Thanks to Kathie and Rene she finally made her way out (still turned the wrong direction) at 4:32 p.m. She was 6 lb. 15 oz and 19 inches long!
I was so happy and so relieved that she looked absolutely normal and she was just perfect. Most people know about my chromosome problems as well as Adelyn's and when Rene brought her over to me I knew that everything was absolutely perfect and she couldn't be anymore perfect! I was and still am in heaven!
Now we have been home for a week and we are just in love with her! We are still working on some kind of a schedule but we are getting there! This week would have been chaotic if it weren't for Rene's mom, who has been here cleaning and cooking our every meal. We are so thankful for her and are going to be sad when she leaves tomorrow.
Adelyn is already so loved and I am so glad that God gave me a second chance! Now it's breakfast time for Adelyn.....stay tuned!

God can be pretty humorous sometimes.....

So everyone that knows me, is well aware that I am an anal planner. I can't help it. I try not to plan things, but it just happens. I planned out my entire spring break day by day. I had so many things that I wanted to get done. The most important thing I wanted to start and finish was the nursery. I had all of the furniture delivered the Friday spring break started so that I would have all week to work my magic. Well sometimes plans can play a funny trick on you. The Wednesday before spring break a pipe decided to bust in our hallway, which led to basically a flood. At first I wasn't that upset because it was just on the wood, the bathroom and the laundry room. This was no big deal because I knew we could just dry it up. Well as I proceeded to move stuff around in the baby room for the furniture I noticed that the carpet was all wet. I yelled at Rene to come quickly. We then figured out that the water had leaked into the baby room and guest bedroom basically destroying the carpet. I instantly became a person that I am not proud of. I took all my anger out on my husband (I'm sorry Rene) and started yelling and talking about how unsafe this was and it had to be fixed. I finally calmed down and went to bed.
My husband arranged for the people to come out and fix it the next day. Lucky for me I did not have to take off of work for this. That night I had open house, well my husband called to say that the entire floor was ruined and the insurance adjuster would be coming the Wednesday of spring break to see if we could get any money for the damages. Once again my heart started racing and I'm sure my blood pressure hit the roof for a little while. My entire spring break plans were falling apart. Now not only could I not fix up the room, but I had to wait almost 5 days to see if this mess could actually be fixed. I looked up to the ceiling and I knew then and there that God was laughing down at me. I am in the worst cleaning phase I have ever been in, and when your house is a disaster and you REALLY really want to clean it, but you can't, your nerves go insane.......
So once again I had to calm myself down and tell myself over and over that this would be okay.
Rene and I went to look at carpet and tile samples just in case we would actually get new flooring. We are on a time crunch here people.
I picked out a beautiful carpet and a perfect tile to match.....now I just had to wait for the adjuster.
The adjuster was supposed to come over between 12-2 on Wednesday. I get a call on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. saying that he can't make it because he had a sick child. Well this pregnant woman could not handle that. I stayed very calm (because I know this is the person who determines if I get money) and I explained to him that this wasn't going to work. I needed him to find a replacement. Then I pulled the pregnancy card and said I am on a time crunch here and I really need this done. I think he could sense my frustration on the phone and he asked if he could come when his wife got off work. I said great!!
Well the guy came over, I should mention that his name is Greg, and he is a very nice man. He had me explain exactly what happened over a voice recorder. I told him everything and then he got to work. Within 10 minutes, he informed me that our entire wood floor would need to be replaced due to damages. I started panicking again, but I didn't say anything. I let him do all of the measurements and waited until he was finished. Rene was afraid that I might say something and make them not give us money. Rene should really learn to trust me more. When it was all said and done, Greg informed me that the insurance will pay to have all of the wood floor replaced, new carpet in the two bedrooms, tile in the guest bathroom and laundry room, and to patch the four holes that were dug into our walls to fix the broken pipe. I let out a HUGE sigh of relief. Though I am still not sure of how much we will get, I immediately went over to the carpet place and signed up for the carpet to be installed. I am waiting on the tile to see how much we get from the insurance.
So here I am today 35 weeks pregnant and not a thing in my house is ready. Though I am getting new carpet installed on Tuesday I am still freaking out about my house not being ready. I have had nightly talks with this little girl inside my tummy telling her that I can't wait to meet her, but she is just going to have to stay put until I get this taken care. So as you can see my spring break did not go as planned. I spent the majority of the time stressing about carpet and tile and the rest of the time making long-term sub plans, which I never want to do again (those are not fun). Hopefully I can spend the last three days enjoying the sun, resting, and attending two of the baby showers that some very special people are throwing for me.
In conclusion to my spring break adventure, God really can be humorous. I know he laughs at me everytime I make plans, yet I still make them. One of these days I am going to let go and let God take control......one of these days!

I'm so blessed

Two nights ago I had the craziest dream I've had in a while. I dreamed that my teeth got really brittle and all fell out. Then in the same dream only like shots later I was left behind for my sisters wedding and stole my next door neighbors car and sped like crazy to the church. I was so scared about my teeth falling out that I woke up and ran to the mirror to make sure they were all still there. I also had to check with my husband, who assured, me that they were also all still there. I haven't had any crazy pregnancy dreams that I can remember, but this one was so vivid. I could just feel my teeth falling out. So that next morning I looked up what it means if you dream that your teeth are falling out. Apparently this is a common dream because I found several websites with meanings for this dream. Most of the websites wrote that if you dream that all of your teeth fall out, you are having insecurities about changes in your future. Well what do you know that sounds like pretty much everything going on in my life.....
I have not been scared or nervous one bit about having a baby, but the last couple of weeks I have become terrified. I know this is a common fear for new moms, but it is just starting to set in me. I am not really even scared about the whole birthing process, I'm more scared about the after process and that everything will be all right with this little girl that is going to be entering this world. I know all the tests say that she will be perfectly healthy, but I am still scared that something is going to go wrong or turn out wrong, not that I would love her any less.
I guess since I'm to the 32 week mark my fears are just now starting to hit me. My doctor says it will be 8 weeks or less and that is not a long time. We don't even have the bedroom finished because we won't receive the furniture until like 3 weeks before my due date. Though the room doesn't have to be finished, it would just help relieve my stress. Knocking things off the ever growing to do list is also a plus. We have almost completely finished the study! I am so lucky to have such wonderful parents to help put shelves up and surprise me with new organizational tools!
So now it's just two birthing classes, a nursery to finish, and showers thrown by friends and family! I can handle that right :)
Hopefully I don't have anymore dreams about losing my teeth or any part of my body because what little sleep I am getting needs to be good sleep!
I will try to post pictures of the nursery as it comes together for those that have been asking!

My speech

My goal was to post my speech for my sister's wedding last Sunday, but as usual time slipped away from me and I'm a week late.
My sister's wedding went off without a hitch! It was short and sweet, just like I like for weddings to be. She looked beautiful and didn't even faint! Sarah is terrified to be in front of an audience and she kept saying she was going to faint, but luckily she did great.
I almost didn't get to give my speech because the restaurant where the reception was held was so loud. We had the reception at Las Vaqueros in the Stockyards, and if you've never been there this place is huge. We were in a back room, but because it was Saturday night it was incredibly packed and that had a Mariachi band that was quite loud. I didn't want to give my speech because it was so loud that no one would be able to hear me anyway.
My mom convinced me to put on my loud teacher voice, which I won't lie projects quite well, and give my speech. Here is my speech for those who have asked to hear it:
I started off telling the people that one of my favorite books was Tuesday's with Morrie by Mitch Albom and then I read this section of the book.
" I've learned this much about marriage," he said now. "You get tested. You find out who you are, who the other person is, and how you accommodate or don't."
Is there some kind of rule to know if a marriage is going to work?
Morrie smiled. "Things are not that simple, Mitch" I know.
"Still," he said, " there are a few rules I know to be true about love and marriage: If you don't respect the other person, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you don't know how to compromise, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you can't talk openly about what goes on between you, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. And if you don't have a common set of values in life, you're going to have a lot of trouble. Your values must be alike.
" And the biggest one of those values, Mitch?"
Yes?
"Your belief in the importance of your marriage."

With that being said, I want Robert and Sarah to know that marriage isn't just a ceremony, its a journey you get to go on with your soul mate. And I know this to be true because in my short 3 1/2 years of marriage life has thrown many curveballs and without my soul mate, I may not have survived. Now Robert, I know Sarah is a very emotional and passionate person, but she is never dull and always entertaining. So I'm sure your journey will be one with lots of fun. Now I can't say she won't be any trouble because trouble is her middle name, but Sarah won't ever be boring and you will never know what she's going to do next, which will make the ride that much more exciting.
To my sister and her new husband: enjoy the journey and remember we love you.

I think the words I was able to come up with pretty much sum up my sister because you never know what to expect with her, but that is what makes life more fun! I wish my sister and Robert the best and I know that their lives together will be full of joy and love.

Thanks Tuesday's with Morrie

Wow....I cannot believe that I have not written since December 30th. This past month has slipped right by me. I will mention that I have done a great job of keeping my kitchen clean every single night! I'm still working on letting the little things go, but hopefully it is improving.
So I've been given the task of writing a speech for my sister's wedding this upcoming weekend. I love to speak in front of people and I love to write, but for some reason I have not had a clue what to write about in this speech. Things have been kind of different in my life lately and there hasn't been much that I can do about it. There is so much change going on in my life and my sister's life that our lives are kind of crashing against each other. I don't mean to put this in a negative light, but I know that she will agree with me: we just aren't on the same page right now. She is doing her thing, and I am attempting to do my thing, and we just haven't had time for each other and our relationship has kind of slipped through the cracks. So I started to think about what I should say in her speech that would have meaning and that would show her that I care.
I gave a call to my cousin, Jess, who sent me lots of great quotes to start off with! If it wasn't for her, then I wouldn't have been reminded of my Tuesday's with Morrie book. If you have never read this book, by Mitch Albom, I highly recommend it.
There are so many great lessons to be learned in this book! Well I started looking through the book, and of course I ended up re-reading the entire thing. I can barely get through the book without crying because it relates to my life so much. But I was reminded of some very important things in this book.
The first thing is about family and love: Morrie said "The fact is, there is no foundation, no secure ground, upon which people may stand today if it isn't the family. It's become quite clear to me as I've been sick. If you don't have the support and love and caring and concern that you get from a family, you don't have much at all. Love is so supremely important. As our great poet Auden said, 'Love each other or perish.'"
Goodness, just writing it makes the tears flow. I am so grateful to have such a caring and supportive family. There are not many of us, but we are all that we have. I have not been the most supportive sister lately, and I have to do my best to be the best sister I can be. I have already lost one sister, and I couldn't bear to lose another one. I know that once my sister and I have our babies, then things will settle down and we will fall back into a groove. For now, I need to be supportive, friendly, and caring to her and her new family, just like she has been to my family. Thanks Morrie for reminding me of this oh so important thing.
I also stumbled across this quote " So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning"
Oh I just love that quote. I do not think this describes me very well, but I do think it serves as a great reminder to have a purpose, or many purposes in your life. I have so many things that I am focused on right now that my mind is constantly on a roller coaster. I have devoted my every weekend to shopping, planning, and redoing the rooms in our house for our new arrival! I have devoted every single day of the week to the 20 amazing kids in my class this year. They are so awesome and I love them to peices. I have also devoted my energy to this little person growing inside me. I have been trying to eat healthy, take all my medications, and workout and let me tell you it is a lot of work. I am constantly worrying that something is wrong or that something will go wrong and it is taking all of my energy. But no matter what, no one can say that I didn't do my very best and devote myself to those things that are important to me this past month.

So I know I started this post out about my sister's wedding speech. To make a full circle, I have found a perfect quote in my Tuesday's with Morrie book and I can't wait to read it at my sister's wedding. I think it has so much meaning and hopefully my sister and her new husband will like it as much as I do. I will be sure to post my speech after the wedding this weekend!