On This Day Four Years Ago...

Four years ago today, I was 39 weeks pregnant with Sammie. I went to my 39 week check up with my doctor who informed me that although I had been having sporadic contractions for a couple of days, nothing was going on. He said he’d see me the following week for my next appointment and we would discuss induction options at that time. I was ok with that. I really wanted to go into labor on my own with her, and had such a great pregnancy that I wasn’t in a big hurry.


I came home, shared the news with Nathan, we had dinner and sat out on the deck enjoying the extremely nice weather. We were talking about her coming soon and Nathan said “I feel like this is the calm before the storm”. After a while I was tired and headed up to bed. An hour later Nathan came up to join me and surprise! My water broke, at 10:30 that night.

After a quick shower and calls to our families, we headed to the hospital. In the car my contractions were about seven minutes apart and once they got me hooked up to the monitors, they were three minutes apart. They decided to give me Pitocin as things were not progressing as they would have liked. Pitocin is the devil, for anyone who doesn’t know. It took them seven horrible attempts to get my IV started, but finally, they did, around 3 a.m. Then the party really got started, or the pain, whichever way you want to look at it.


We waited patiently…

Our parents and sisters waited patiently…

Somewhere around 7:30, I FINALLY got my epidural, which was wonderful! Within ten seconds of them giving it to me, I could sit up and open my eyes again, and the first thing I saw was complete relief on Nathan’s face. We were settled down and I was MUCH more comfortable, so I told him to head down for some food, since the nurse told us it would be a while (I was at 3 ½ before the epidural). He left and our moms came in to keep me company.


At about 8:30 the shift change had occurred and the new nurse came in to check me and asked our moms to step out. Guess what? It was baby time!!! She immediately asked me where “Dad” was, and I said we just sent him down for breakfast! So she called our moms back in and had them get a hold of Nathan while she called my doctor. Nathan thought we were playing a joke on him! But he came up anyway, just to be sure!

I’ll spare you the details of course, but I will say it went way better than I had feared, and then…

Working Out

It had really been bothering me for a while that I have gotten so out of shape and for the longest time could not figure out how to fit working out in my schedule. So at the beginning of March (just so happened to coincide with my 33rd birthday), I decided to bite the bullet and join a 24 hour gym by our house. Our friends Mike and Rachel had joined and offered to be our work-out partners, so Nathan and I decided to get started. Our plan is to commit to three days a week. I will say that I am very happy I have lost three pounds so far! My goal is, well let’s just say a lot more! ;-)


Prior to joining the gym, in February, Rachel was telling Jenny and me that she really wished we would join with her so we could go to the classes. Especially this Zumba (mix of Latin dancing and aerobics) cause she thinks she wouldn’t feel so foolish if we were there. After determining that we weren’t sure that was a compliment, I informed Rachel that I would NEVER take the Zumba class with her.

I like to do the elliptical and weights for my work out; Rachel is a runner, and loves the classes. So she finally talked me into trying one out last night. It was the “Ultimate Fitness Mix”. We walk in as the class starts, get set up, and the instructor says “Welcome to Zumba ladies!”. My reaction? Rachel is in deep sh*t! :)

Turns out for ultimate fitness mix, they let the class choose what we will do, so it wasn’t her fault after all, but it gave me a good laugh!

It was actually a really good work out, minus the parts where I felt like the most uncoordinated person in the world! I’m feeling better, sleeping better, have been inspired by the calorie counter on the elliptical to eat better, and am so completely happy to be getting some exercise in again! Thank you Rachel, you have been a great work out partner!

Flower Girl Dress Shopping

Sadly, it has been almost two months since I did my last blog. I like blogging, I really do, however, it seems to fall short (or low) on my list of priorities, and every time that I think I have found a spot to squeeze it in, another priority gets plugged into that spot. In the grand scheme of things, it is not important as the other items on my list, but I do miss it when it is absent.

There’s a lot to catch up on, but I’ll just work slowly! For one, I haven’t posted any of our Christmas pictures yet. I’m working on it, still sorting through them from my camera! We’ve been busy with a lot of things in the past month especially, which I’ll elaborate on as we catch up, but more recently, one item I’ve been busy with is preparing for my sister-in-law, Jessica’s wedding.

Jessie is Nathan’s younger sister, and is getting married this summer. She has asked our entire family to be in her wedding; and we are all honored to be a part of her special day. The girls are both getting to be her flower girls (let’s hope they make it down the isle!) and so Jessie and I took them both dress shopping last week to get their sizes and decide on a style that she liked best.

I had feared that Brenna (who hates to have her clothes changed) would throw a monster tantrum, and that we would have a hard time getting Sammie out of the store without the “princess dresses” she’d tried on all day. Boy was I wrong…

Brenna tried on one dress, ran from mirror to mirror smiling at her reflection, swishing her dress from side to side and squealing with delight!

Sammie…well, Sammie screamed and cried the entire time. She didn’t want me to put the dress on, she didn’t want me to take it off, she didn’t want to come out of the dressing room, she was pretty well miserable the entire time. I think that David’s Bridal was VERY happy to see us go…

Mommy & Sammie Night

This past week, Sammie and I had a much needed date to ourselves.  I've been wanting to take her to see "The Princess and the Frog" for a long time, however, illnesses and other obligations had kept us from going.  We finally set the date to go last Saturday, however, Sammie was running a high fever and developed a bad cough, so we didn't get to go.  I made sure she understood that we would still be going, but that we just couldn't go that day as we'd planned. 

I figured this was ok, until we went to school on Monday.  When we get there, all of her little friends start asking her how her movie with her mommy was on Saturday and with the saddest look on her face I think I've ever seen, she informed them that we did not go.  I turned to her teacher and said "I guess she told everyone we were going?" to which Miss Amanda replied "umm...yeah, it was pretty much all she talked about all week last week."  Ouch...

I'll admit it, I got really teary-eyed and felt horrible about it, especially since this week and weekend were not looking any better for us going.  I sat there all day Monday feeling really bad.  Then Nathan called me right as I was getting ready to leave and said, go get Mo-Mo (or knickname for her) and take her to the movie tonight, it will be a nice surprise for her and I know how bad you feel about this morning.  Yay!

I don't think I can properly convey how excited I was to get the chance to make it up to her, that same day!  So I left work, drove to get her at school and in spite of her disappointment in the morning, she was thrilled to see me and anxious to show me what she'd done that day as always.  As we were putting on her coat I told her where we were going and she started to squeal and jump up and down.  She gave me a big hug and said she couldn't wait. 

We left there and headed to dinner, a place complete with a little house/tunnel/slide combo for her to run around in, then headed to the mall for a ride on the carousel and then finally to the movie.  We had our obligatory popcorn and wild cherry icee, and the movie was wonderful.  Disney has such a knack for putting these things out, it never fails to amaze me.  She did pretty well sitting still, but 90 minutes is a long time for a three-year-old.  Toward the second half of the movie, the music was even more upbeat and it had Sammie out of her seat and dancing in the isle.  She was kicking her feet and shaking her toosh and having a wonderful time.  When I asked her what her favorite part of the movie was she said "the music"; just a chip off the old daddy block there!

I think the evening quite possibly meant more to me than it did to her, but that's ok.  One of my favorite childhood memories is when my mom used to take me to see Disney movies in the theater.  She would get teary-eyed and when I would ask her why she would simply say "some day when you get older you will understand".  I'm sure no mother ever gets tired of hearing these words so - MOM - you were right.  I wish I could bottle it up and save it forever, I guess that is why we have our memories...and I look forward already to many, many more Mommy and Sammie days/nights, and to having them with Brenna as well!

Sisterly Love

As the case is with most sisters, ours have little "spats" which at this age mostly involve Sammie pushing her luck with Brenna.  Let's just say that in our house, we don't leave Brenna alone with Sammie cause frankly Sammie loves Brenna just a little too hard sometimes.  We're working with her on the appropriate way to show her affection and to play with her, but for the past several months, Sammie has taken to squeezing Brenna as hard as she can, climbing on top of her to "cover her in kisses", or since Brenna has become mobile, grabbing on to her feet and legs to keep her where she wants her.  We've warned Sammie that sooner or later, Brenna is going to start fighting back...

I'm Working On It

It would appear that I have fallen behind on updating the blog...again...I am working on getting some posts ready, however as I'm sure is the case for all of you as well, we have been busy, and sick.  Sick and busy.  That seems to be the story of our lives since the end of, um...no, that covers it!

In December we had all the normal Christmas events, holiday parties, cookie backing, etc...Brenna's first birthday, and a slew of illnesses not the least of which was the stomach flu that succeeded in taking me down for about a week.  January has started off busy and is slowing down some.  We had Brenna's party this past weekend which was a great time! 

I promise to post some pictures of all of these events soon, in the mean time, happy new year and I hope we are all on our way to a healthy and warmer year!!

Brenna - One-Year

Brenna’s one-year check-up went very well! Developmentally, she is right on track with her age group, physically she is doing well also! She got two shots and this was the hardest time to calm her down from them.  She just kept looking at the nurse and screaming until she left the room.  Hope she didn't take it personally!

Her stats were:


Weight: 21 lbs. 3 oz. = 51st Percentile
Height: 28 3/4 inches = 36th Percentile
Head: 18 inches = 68th Percentile


Now, if you go back and check this post, you will see that according to these stats, she has shrunk height wise.  My guess would be that since Brenna is a very wriggly baby, and it was the end of the day, the nurse didn't ensure a good measurement, so don't be surprised when it goes back the other way for her fifteen-month check-up!

At one year, Brenna is walking about five or six step by herself at a time, she cruises furniture like a champ, has six teeth and several more trying to push through, she has learned that when Sammie is messing with her the fastest way to get out of it is to cry for mommy or daddy, she eats table food exclusively and is slowly learning to master her sippy cup, she talks constantly and trys new sounds every day, still loves to be held, and is still (more often than not) sleeping through the night - Thank GOD!