Valentines Babies, 2013!

[Kellen]

Dragon and Wamommy - Sounds like you two had the same bug that hit our house last week. Thankfully I was able to shake it after four days, but grandparents chipped in and let me take a couple of naps. I also doubled up on my vitamins and fruit intake! I hope you two get to feeling better.

Exciting news about the carseat! Glad that you were able to find an updated model that still works with the stroller.

The past two days Teagen has fought her naps. I think we are officially transitioning from two naps down to one. This morning instead of trying to get her to go to sleep at 10:30 I allowed her to stay up until she started becoming cranky at noon. Now she is sound asleep on the bed and I'm actually enjoying a HOT lunch. But we did do a bunch of stuff before nap such as talk to chickens, find an egg, pet some sheep, swing on her outside swing and play with rocks. We have a rare spot of sunshine so I took full advantage of the lull in the rain and played outside for as long as possible.

I doubt anyone remembers, but last year DH went through the process of getting his TWIC, MMC and passport renewed so he could try to find employment that he would enjoy upon a ship. Well, we've applied to over 60 companies and no one has even called him back... until! A friend of a friend posted a position on FB that DH qualifies for with a name and number to the head of HR for a cruiseline. DH has phone interviews with them for the next two days. Then he has another friend who is checking with his head-head hunter about a position with his shipping company. It only took a year, but things are looking up.

In other not so fantastic news my mom just found out she has to get her hip replaced. But after her two knee replacements as well as my dad's they are very well acquainted with the surgeon.

Yesterday we went to the feed store to check on prices for animal supplies. They had the most adorable baby chicks! Teagen was enthralled and signing "chicken" the entire time. I had to bodily drag her away so we could finish shopping. As we were walking through the store she starts signing dog and runs over to a bunch of dog toys. Now, no one had said the word "dog" nor was there a picture of a dog on the bin only the word. I leave you to draw your own conclusions. Signing Time shows the word, says the word and signs the word...

 

[helena]

Hi ladies! A writing from a very sunny France. 11 degrees though it feels like more and glorious sun, I just sat outside for a minute in jeans and a blouse, no jacket!!

Dragon - maybe you're not bonding more with one baby than the other it's just that your relationships wither ch are different? I know my second son doesn't always like hugging. He is happy in his own space sometimes. At bedtime my first son would keep me in their room as long as possible while second son says "mummy, turn the light off!". Different children, different relationships.

We are still on one nap a day for most days. She gets grumpy around 11 but I keep her going for an hour and the we have lunch at 12 when her brothers come home to eat, so that keeps her going another hour and then at 1 she can sleep. It makes for a nice quiet afternoon

Kellen, if your DH works on a ship will that mean him being away a lot?

Today I realized how tall kiara is getting - she reached up and grabbed the top of a bowl of weetabix on the table. Splash! All down her...I will have to remember to not leave anything by the table edge...

Appointment next Monday to discuss mastectomy ideas with surgeon. Nervous but pleased my gyno sent me on to him without any doubt. Don't think we would get the op done until 2015 but need to discuss and make plans. And speak with the health insurance!

Kiara asleep and others at school. Time for a quiet a English tea

 

[DragonflyWing]

wamommy- it sure sounds like you have what I have...it feels like someone scrubbed my throat and airways with steel wool! I don't think I've ever lost my voice for this long. My throat is worst in the mornings; by the evening I have been able to talk a little bit, but then I feel exhausted and all I can do is lie on the couch.

Kellen- it sounds like she recognized the word! That's so cool.

helena- good luck at your appointment

 

[DragonflyWing]

Gunnar has roseola! He had a high fever for 3 days (103-105 degrees, poor little guy), then it went away and he broke out in a rash all over his body. I freaked out a bit at first, but when I did some research, I found out it's extremely common in kids under 2, and the rash is harmless. Hopefully it will clear up in a day or two and he'll be good as new. Lily hasn't shown any signs of illness, so hopefully it will skip her entirely!

My laryngitis is improving now, thankfully. I was almost entirely without a voice for 6 days before it started getting better. I'm not 100% yet, but I have some of my energy back and I can finally talk on the phone at work!

How was everyone's weekend?

 

[wamommy]

Dragon, I hope Gunnar feels better! Poor little guy. It's so tough to watch a baby feel sick because you can't even explain what's going on! I hope he feels better.

Helena, good luck at your appointment! You are so incredibly brave. I hope they give you a lot of information, which is always comforting to me. I am still in awe at how you're handling it all.

Kellen, it sounds like Teagen is recognizing words! That's awesome! Definitely encourage that, if she's prone to visual learning like that. So cool.

I'm still sick and totally miserable here. As if third trimester wasn't exhausting enough (especially with 3 other kids!), being sick on top of it all is so hard. I feel like someone drugged me with a really strong relaxant. I'm completely exhausted and feel like I'm swimming through the day. Bleh. I even cut out my nightly sugary treat in an effort to bolster my immune system! Maybe I'll ask my OB tomorrow at my 31 week appointment if there's anything safe for me to take. What I want more than anything in life this week is a glass of wine, a bath, and a FULL NIGHT sleep. Haha, a girl can dream.

 

[helena]

Having had roseola a week or so back, (2?..I lose track!) Kiara is now on a new fever and virus it's been endless fora. Week - each son in turn and now Kiara. And DH has a more serious "man flu" stylee version of the same virus...

Surgeon was fine. Was happy to do the op, gave me lots to think about. He seemed to think I was pretty radical for Switzerland. Prophylactic mastectomies here aren't very common, especially for those who haven't had the brca gene test. But he understood my points and seemed to think I wasn't crazy am happy to be described as radical. I am so ok about it all. It's an easy choice for me.
The receptionist did mention Angelina Jolie which annoyed me quite frankly. I'm not just wanting to be her or do an "Angelina"... It's been on my mind for a year now.

Ok, whingey girl needs me.have a good day all x x x

 

[wamommy]

Helena, I totally understand not wanting to feel like this decision is "trendy" or made to emulate a celebrity. That would annoy me, too! I love your new avatar pic btw. So cute.

After much deliberation, we cut Max's hair! It's not perfect (we did it at home) but his hair was getting WAY too crazy, so something had to be done.

 

[helena]

Oh what a smart young man. Love it xx

 

[Kellen]

I had a lovely long post and BNB deleted it and timed me out.

The long and short of it.

Helena - Sorry your family is battling the bug, but glad the surgeon is on board with your decision.

Dragon - Glad to hear you are getting better. Poor Gunnar!

Wamommy - Force your DH to take the kids out for a couple of hours and allow yourself to nap. How are you already 32 weeks along?

DH is semi-officially hired by the cruise line. This means he will be gone for 90 days at a time. Teagen and I will manage. All he needs is 90 days before he can sit to upgrade his license to 3rd Mate and then only be gone a month at a time.

Life is super busy. Last week we were down at the California Maritime Academy (my undergrad) so DH could take a Vessel Security class he needed. Next week we are up at Pacific Maritime Institute in Seattle. I cheerfully informed my sister that we are crashing her house and she thankfully responded that he can kick my nephew out of his room.

Teagen got to play in her first mud puddle today. She is growing up so quickly. She refuses to use her fingers to eat if the adults are using utensils so she is become fairly adroit at using a fork to stab things.

 

[DragonflyWing]

Oh my gosh, the pictures of Max and Teagen are so adorable!

Poor Gunnar ended up with an ear infection last week, so he's on antibiotics now. Thursday morning I woke up with a killer sinus infection, I felt like my face was going to explode. Turned out both of my ears were infected, too, so now I'm on antibiotics as well. I'm sick of being sick!

Apparently the antibiotic I'm taking is hard on your stomach if you don't take it with food. I took it on an empty stomach yesterday morning, and then had to pull over to throw up on the side of the road. Very classy. I'm going to ask for a different antibiotic, because I've been nauseated for over 24 hours now. Blah.

Our wedding anniversary was last week, and we went out to dinner on Saturday to celebrate while my sister in law watched the twins. It was very nice to have some time to ourselves!

Kellen- congrats to your husband! I'm sure it will be difficult having him gone for so long, though

 

[wamommy]

Lucky Teagen, getting to play in the mud! Did she like it? So cute!

Dragonfly, I hope you feel better! Yikes. It sounds like the cold from Hell. Being sick is horrible. Happy anniversary, though! I'm glad you and DH had some time to yourselves.

Kellen, I can't believe I'm almost 32 weeks either. It's gone by shockingly fast, and to be honest I'm terrified! I'd estimate this baby will be born around 38 weeks like the other 3, which leaves me only 6 weeks to prepare!!

 

[Kellen]

Happy Belated Anniversary, Dragon! Glad that you and DH were able to find a moment alone. It sounds like you are getting hit up one side and down the other with all this sickness. I hope you and poor Gunnar start to feel better soon.

Wamommy - Oh wow! 6 weeks certainly isn't very far away. How are your weekly trips to the doctor going?

Teagen pretty much loved the mud. She wasn't too fond of the leaves that were in the mud and had me pick them off her tongue. LOL, silly girl! She was thoroughly drenched by the time I picked her up and carried her inside. At first I was just going to let her stomp in the puddles, but she sat down before I could stop her so I figured she might as well have fun!

It will be difficult in someways to have DH gone, but it will be easier in others. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE having him here, but it needs to be constant. The two days off thing completely throws Teagen's daytime schedule out of whack. With this job he'll get a month off in between hitches. That month will allow us to all acclimate and get schedules and sleep under control. This job also pays four times more than what he is currently making.

Teagen's sleep has been awesome! Last night she slept from 8pm - 3:30am without waking up and then went back to sleep until 6:30 when she woke up for the day. I think we finally have bedtime down to a solid routine. Now I am able to actually put her in her crib while she is semi-awake and she'll put herself to sleep as I sing. I feel like I could actually have someone else do it if absolutely needed. She is trying to cut back to one nap a day, but it depends on the level of activity in the morning. Today is rainy so we can't go outside and DH is off at an eye doctor appointment so she is taking a nap and will have one this afternoon.

We managed to get our taxes done over the weekend. DH HATES doing them so I pretty much had to tie him to the bed. He did help and all of the e-files have been accepted.

 

[DragonflyWing]

Ugh taxes!! DH owns his own business, so his taxes are pretty complicated. Last year was the first year we were filing jointly, and he had to file for an extension because he couldn't get it all done. So we still haven't done 2012's taxes, and now 2013's are going to be due!

I've done everything I can do from my end, but he hasn't been able to find time to work on his stuff. It's VERY frustrating, because we're due a large refund, and that's money we could really use right now. I keep telling him that we should just file separately, since the majority of the refund is from my withholding, and I can simply e-file mine in about 10 minutes and have the money in a week. However, he's convinced that we'll get more money if we file jointly, so I've been stuck for over a year.

 

[wamommy]

I'm not going to talk about taxes... I might explode. Let's just say DH "handles" all of that... but doesn't.

Kellen, my doctor's appointments are going pretty well. I have an ultrasound on the 14th and then non-stress tests every week after that. I've gained about 14 pounds so far, and am starting to get uncomfortable. I had a dream last night that this baby was a girl, and up until this point I've been sure it's a boy, so who knows!

I'm so glad Teagen is sleeping well!! Good girl! Max is still horrid in that department. He sleeps in his crib only if I can sneak him in there and then tip toe away when he's completely out. He lasts between one hour and 3 hours in his crib, and then he wakes up and stands there screaming bloody murder until I bring him to bed with me. At that point I'm usually too exhausted to go through the whole process again and I just let him sleep with me. At least that way I can just feed him half asleep or give him a back rub and he'll go back down without waking the whole house. I NEED to get this figured out in the next month or so. Ugh.

 

[DragonflyWing]

Sorry Max isn't sleeping well! I totally understand the temptation to bring him back to bed with you! Lily's crib is in our bedroom, and since DH usually sleeps on the couch (for some reason he suddenly became unable to sleep well in our room), it's usually just her and me sleeping in there. If she wakes up in the night, I try really hard to keep her quiet so she doesn't wake up everyone else, and it's SO tempting to just take her in the bed. I try really hard to calm her down so she'll stay in the crib, but sometimes it just can't be helped.

It backfired on me the other day, though! I was so tired, and she absolutely would not calm down, so I brought her in the bed with me. Usually, she settles right down and goes to sleep. However, this time she was wide awake. She climbed all over me, and kissed all over my face trying to get me to wake up and play with her. Then, she decided I was boring, so she got down off the bed and crawled out into the living room to wake up DH

 

[helena]

Hi all,

Glad Taegan sleeps good. Sorry Max doesn't, you must be so tired wamommy!!
I am so lucky with Kiara going to sleep at bedtime - I literally just put her in her cot, give her Duckie (she loves!) and tell her to lie down. Occasionally I will have to go in one more time.
Last week she was sleeping 13 hours in a row! She would occasionally cry but settle herself after a few seconds.
This week it's different...she wakes at 11pm and wants to sleep with mummy. We have one molar half way through and a heavy cough that almost makes her vomit so I will let her off...
Once we are out of this crappy season and with less viruses about I do feel I may get decent sleep in the summer
One of Kiara's brothers has just decided to move into her room (3 yr old). Luckily she is fine with it.

Wow, 6 weeks wamommy!!!......

Kellen, a 4x pay increase is awesome!! X
Kiara is also keen on mud and regularly tries to eat those bits of wobbly soil on the lawn after it's rained (is that worm poo!?!....). Yuk!
Kiara is becoming such a gorgeous girl - worm poo aside.. (ok, I am biased!).. https://i685.photobucket.com/albums/vv218/helena1977/th_image-3.jpg

 

[DragonflyWing]

Oh, what a cute photo, helena! She looks so grown up!

 

[SierraJourney]

Hello ladies! Your kiddos are so cute--love the pictures!

Things have been crazy around here--work has been super busy, and we are having the floor of our bathroom replaced as well as Camden's shower tiled (he's been using our bathtub since October and it's a pain because we have these shower doors we have to lean over to scrub him. . .) Hopefully within a week it'll all be over with. But in the meantime, Camden can't nap because of all of the banging going on in the house! It makes for a very long day of work for Mommy!

But, I just wanted to check in and let you all know I'm reading and I'm here. . .just a bit silent!

 

[wamommy]

What a little lady Kiara is becoming! She has such a bright and happy smile.

Sierra, I'm sorry to hear the construction is a pain, but it sounds like the result will be worth it. I wish we were able to change some things like that! We're thinking of adding a room to our house, since we already have a large covered back porch that would be pretty easy/cost effective to convert. The trick is coming up with the extra cash! It would make a GREAT bedroom or "bonus room" for the kids to make messes in so that we could re-claim the living room. In any case, I'm glad you're ok and just busy. I had been wondering if all was well!

We've been struggling with my oldest daughter this week. She's been inexplicably crying at school. The teacher called me concerned. After some questioning I think it's because she is afraid of getting in trouble for making mistakes, and as the work gets harder and harder she puts a ton of pressure on herself. I wish I knew how to help her! It's so tough to watch her get anxious and be so hard on herself. I feel like I'm doing something terribly wrong.

 

[SierraJourney]

Wamommy--we've been saving a long while for these changes! I hate how much up-front cash it takes! A bonus room sounds FABULOUS! I would love that someday! I hope you get to do it!

I'm sorry about your oldest daughter. Poor girl. I always put a lot of pressure on myself at school too. . .I'm very perfectionistic by nature, so I know that's why. . . It's not fun at all. Could you maybe "make" some mistakes at home and show her that everyone makes mistakes and it's okay? (I'm just brainstorming here, but maybe be coloring a picture with her or something and 'accidentally' go out of the lines---but then forgive yourself and say "That's okay---everyone makes mistakes sometimes!") That's got to be hard as a mom---I hope you figure it out!!