Halfway through the year already, how is that possible?!

We’ve kept busy as usual, though we didn’t have a whole lot on the agenda.

Taz celebrated her 11th birthday with us.

Little Man had two weeks of swimming lessons and passed! He would have been able to go to the next level, but since he was too short to touch the bottom, we’ll have to wait for next year.

Then he had his 5th birthday party. He had 3 classmates attend and thoroughly enjoyed the bounce house we rented for the day.

Sadly, my parents headed home after Little Man’s birthday. It’s been a rough couple of weeks getting used to our new routine without the help. Trying to haul both kids to Little Man’s speech appointments on time while not technically being able to drive/lift more than 10lbs was a challenge. Thankfully, I had healed enough to handle it…barely. Ha.

The following week, the Mister officially started his paternity/terminal leave for retirement.

We’re still processing the latest major change, but it’s been nice having the Mister home without interruption. Especially since we need to start focusing on what comes next for our little clan — moving!

Later that week, Baby Girl had her spinal ultrasound at Children’s at Vanderbilt. Everything came back normal, so we don’t have to worry about her sacral dimple. Thank goodness.

We also saw an audiologist in Clarksville, but she wanted to send her to Children’s for a better screening. Honestly, it felt like this doctor didn’t want to take the time to try to get the reading and was just passing us along. Needless to say, it’s been a cause for a lot of extra stress on this mama. We are still trying to get her appointment scheduled with Vanderbilt, which is incredibly frustrating. They need a doctor’s order in addition to the authorization…which I can’t seem to get from post in a timely manner. Hopefully, we can get that scheduled soon.

We finally got our newborn photos back from Bri and they’re so precious!

We finished off the month with my 6 week postpartum appointment. How Baby Girl is already 6 weeks old is beyond me. It’s been such a haze of sleep deprivation, feeding, crying…on top of everything else, it sure doesn’t seem possible that almost 2 whole months have passed…or that I’ve recovered from my 2nd c-section.

July is going to be interesting. We have so much to accomplish in such little time. The Mister has scheduled movers to come pack/ship our household goods, Baby Girl has her 2 month vaccines/check up, Little Man will be wrapping up his last speech sessions in Tennessee, I scheduled an appointment with my PCM to renew my blood pressure medication, plus the 4th and Jack’s 15th birthday…it’s all very overwhelming.

My mom is flying down to help when we drive to Nebraska. I’m still not sure how we’re going to manage everything… I’ll be honest: I’m worried about how all our plans will shake out.

On one hand, I am so excited to be going back to the Midwest and closer to family. It will be amazing having them in the same area. I’m looking forward to being able to hang out with some of my oldest friends whenever I’d like and not have to worry about trying to fit in too short visits that are never enough.

On the other…I hate the uncertainty we’re facing. For the first time since we’ve been married, we don’t know what comes next. We don’t have our next place secured, we don’t have our healthcare sorted, and the Mister won’t have a job waiting for him or even any potential leads.

I’m sad to leave our first house behind — there’s so many memories here. Nevermind actually getting it sold. Our annual adventures will be sorely missed (the Highland Games, Dia de Los Muertos, Great  Spring Art Hop, Zoolumination); lord knows we’ll never find a better Santa for Christmas pictures or a better photographer. And I will miss all the wonderful friends I’ve made, even if I didn’t make enough time to spend with them while I was here.

While I know we’ll be fine, it’s a weird (albeit kind of scary) situation. Up-ending my whole family’s routine/life with no tangible plan is terrifying!  In the end, it’ll all be worth the stress. Putting down roots is going to be the next big adventure.

Until then,

Oh boy, what a month!

May is always so busy, even without the excitement of adding a new baby to the family.

We started the month with the Home Depot workshop and the chaos continued from there.

I had several high-risk appointments and regular OB appointments during the first week of the month. Ah, the perks of being at the end of pregnancy.

At the OB appointment, we discussed the next steps. After doing the calculations based on my stats, my doctor came to the conclusion that trying to have a VBAC only had a 25% chance of being successful. That was disappointing news, but not entirely surprising as the high-risk provider measured Baby Girl likely to be 8lbs 2oz at birth.

So we opted to schedule another c section to avoid the complications and be a more controlled birth. It took a couple days to come around to the idea, but ultimately, it was a great relief. We scheduled for May 21.

The following weekend, we got to attend a Savannah Bananas baseball game in Nashville. It was such a fun experience, but there were entirely too many people (70,000 at Nissan Stadium) for my entirely too pregnant body. We had nosebleed seats so I was sure I’d go into labor just climbing all the stairs/ramps.

The next week was the last week of preschool.

We got Little Man’s birthday invites handed out and managed to make it through graduation.

Shortly after graduation wrapped up, I had an OB appointment on post. Unfortunately, my blood pressure was up so I needed to go for some monitoring and testing to check for sudden onset of pre-eclampsia.

The testing showed that my urine was just past the threshold for having too much protein in it (another worrying sign for pre-eclampsia to develop). It wasn’t enough to necessitate an immediate need for action, but…we had to move the c section date up to the following morning.

With a stroke of pure luck, the same surgeon and anesthesiologist who did Little Man’s c section were the ones to do Baby Girl’s as well. It made the whole thing a lot more comfortable for me for sure.

So May 16 at 9:12am, during a nasty thunderstorm, Baby Girl came screaming into this world – literally! She wailed the second the doctor pulled her out and has rarely been quiet since.

While the doctor was stitching me back up, the power went out in the OR. Thankfully, it didn’t take too long for the generator to kick on and the power was restored quickly. Still not as traumatic at Little Man’s birth.

With the surgery falling on a Friday and having to stay until Sunday, the Mister and I had to miss out on Little Man’s Lowes project.

Luckily, Grandad was able to help him build.

What should have been a nice memory was somewhat ruined by another little boy being rude to him. Apparently, the boy thought Little Man was being too loud and got in his face asking why he was being so loud. My poor, tender-hearted boy took that personally and clammed up. From what Nana tells me, the other boy wasn’t reprimanded by his grown-up, which sadly doesn’t surprise me. My mama bear heart still doesn’t appreciate that. But, Little Man is resilient and got over it quickly. Nothing some Chick Fil A couldn’t fix and a trip to the hospital to meet his new sister didn’t hurt either.

The following weeks were a whirlwind of appointments and very little sleep for me. The Mister had to tote us around since I couldn’t lift the car seat (nothing over 10lbs is tough when your newborn is 8lbs worth!). Nana had to take Little Man to speech since I was also restricted from driving.

Baby Girl needed a referral for an ultrasound to check her sacral dimple (didn’t know that was a thing!) and since the nurses couldn’t get a good read on her hearing test, we also needed one for an audiologist. With the ultrasound, we’re running into issues with the doctor’s order, so it’s been a nightmare to get scheduled. The audiologist is able to get us in much sooner, so at least one thing can be checked off my to-do list.

As far as recovery is going, we’re both doing great. My incision has healed nicely and I’m back under my pre-pregnancy weight. Baby Girl has gotten back to and exceeded her birth weight. She has also mastered her latch so we were able to ditch the formula by day 2 (though it has come in handy for those many cluster feeds when I needed a break). At her 2 week check up, she weighed 8lbs 11oz which is a huge jump from the 7lbs 9oz she weighed when she left the hospital.

Establishing a routine has been a challenge and will be even harder when Mom heads home after Little Man’s birthday party. I know we’ll manage, it’s just been a tough transition. Plus, we are still trying to go 1000mph and pack in everything we can, so adjusting to two little people is going to be extra fun.

We managed to get to the Montgomery county fair one night so Little Man could do something special. He enjoyed himself and I was glad to be out of the house even though I am exhausted (and was hurting big time!).

We also snuck in some newborn photos. I’m so anxious to see them – Bri knocked the sets out of the park. They were just perfect! And Baby Girl is a champ for sessions.

June is going to be a bit more low-key. Apart from Little Man’s birthday, I have nothing planned or scheduled other than my 6 week postpartum appointment and Indie’s vet appointment. Oh, and Little Man has swimming lessons the first 2 weeks.

I’m hopeful the weather cooperates for Little Man’s birthday party. We are renting a special bounce house and a handful of his classmates are coming. I really want him to be reminded how special he is since it feels like he’s feeling left out (maybe that’s just me being hard on myself – he’s getting a ton of Nana and Daddy time and doesn’t seem too bothered by his lack of Mommy time).

I’m also hoping to be able to get some of my house in order so we can start packing for our move in July, but that seems so far away and with Baby Girl’s feeding schedule, I’m more than happy just to soak in all the newborn goodness. We’ll see how that pans out…

Until then,