Asher's birth story. part 1

Dear Asher James,

      This is the story of your arrival into this world.

I will not lie to you, this pregnancy was difficult.  It was difficult both physically and emotionally.  We found out we were pregnant in January, right around my birthday!  It was a wonderful wonderful birthday present.  We were very excited!  Shortly after that, I began to deal with the usual morning sickness and vomiting most mornings. Of course I was expecting that and even welcomed it because I knew that morning sickness meant I was still pregnant and you were most likely doing ok in there!  At 18 weeks, we went in to have our first ultrasound and find out whether you were a boy or a girl.  We were both so excited to find out that you were you. (especially daddy, I think he was secretly hoping you would be a boy).  I was a little bit concerned when the ultrasound technician spent so much time focusing on your brain and kidneys.  Little red flags started to go off in my head and I had a bad feeling in my stomach that only grew worse as they kept us waiting for a long time before calling us in to go over the results.  It turned out that there were some small "'cysts" on your brain and your kidneys appeared to be swollen.  On their own, these two things were fairly normal but together they were "soft markers" for scary scary things like down syndrome and other chromosomal abnormalities.   It was a very very emotional appointment for both of us.
     The next day we went into Boston for an appointment for a more detailed ultrasound, we were super super nervous, but the results were good.  The ultrasound technician just said that we would be monitored throughout the pregnancy but didn't seem overly concerned.   We were very relieved (although a small part of me worried throughout the entire pregnancy about your poor swollen kidneys).
  
   Fast forward to five months into the pregnancy and mommy failed a glucose test.  No big deal though, a lot of people fail their first one.  It's the second one that you have to worry about!  Needless to say I failed the three hour one as well and received the diagnosis of gestational diabetes.  At first I was able to control it through diet and exercise (which was very very hard for mommy as I've never been on any kind of diet before in my life) but eventually I needed medication to control my numbers.  I did start to feel much better and had much more energy once I was on the diet and the medication.

For the last two months of the pregnancy because I was a high risk patient, I had to have weekly ultrasounds and twice weekly NSTs on top of my weekly midwife appointment,( that's four appointments a week!) so it was a crazy time. I couldn't wait until I got to hold you in my arms instead of seeing you on a monitor!   It felt to me like pretty much nothing had gone right this pregnancy and I was so ready to be done.  Also according to the ultrasounds you were enormous! They kept telling me you were going to be at least nine pounds, and the possibility of a C-section was brought up a few times.

top: 18 weeks

bottom: 38 weeks

For your part, you were a crazy man inside the womb, you were always on the move!  Sometimes it felt like there were two of you in there because there were so many limbs kicking me from different directions.  Once I even got to watch you kick the ultrasound monitor, and you were always kicking my NST monitors off.  We were constantly adjusting them because you moved and we couldn't hear you in there anymore.   I loved feeling all your movements, but at the end it got to be ridiculous!  You wanted to come out so badly, sometimes we could even see the outline of your toes against the outside of my stomach!  And I was so big at the end of the pregnancy, I looked as though I had swallowed a watermelon sideways (I'm not even exaggerating check out these pictures:)

34 weeks

Also notice how low you were? Ouch!  I only gained about 18 pounds but it was all belly and it was killing my back! 

36 weeks 

Emma Turns 3!

 On November 8th, Emma turned three years old! I still cannot believe that my little peanut has been on this earth for three whole years!! It blows my mind to think about it.  But at the same time, it feels like she has been with us forever.  It's hard to remember what life was like without you little girl!
 
  She has grown up so much in the past year. She has lost her baby face and definitely looks more like a little girl.  This is a picture of her from last year:

Isn't that ridiculous? I know it's a parenting cliche but seriously, they grow up so fast!  Ok, enough sentimentality, here is how her birthday went.  Since this time of the year is crazy and we were still adjusting to life with a newborn (not to mention the gross cold the whole family got last week)  we decided not to have a huge party this time.  Instead we took some of her friends (the Kreyling kiddos) and her to Mall Tots.  Mall Tots is a huge open space at the mall filled with every toddler toy you could possibly want (they've got the crawling tubes, a play kitchen, slides galore, a huge pirate ship structure, balls of every shape and size, all sorts of ride on toys and two toddler sized bouncy houses)  So it's pretty much a toddler paradise.  The kids seemed to all have a lot of fun (with the exception of one ride on toy minor accident) and so I'd call it a success!

  Then we headed back to our place, for dinner, cake and presents:

A good time was had by all.  And then later that night, Emma lost her voice and began complaining of a scratchy throat. In an unfortunate coincidence that also happened to be the first night of daylight savings.  (otherwise known as the worst possible thing to ever happen to a toddler's schedule in the history of ever)
Oh and also because we're the smartest parents in the history of the world, we decided to re start potty training.   Therefore last week was full of the longest days of my life wherein I did nothing but wipe various bodily fluids off of everything (but mostly me) and not sleep.  I'm pretty sure I only left the house three times.  Once to go to Friendly's on Emma's actual birthday, once to go to a doctor's appointment, and once to grocery shopping.

But the point of this post isn't about my whining, it's about the fact that despite all of parenting fails our little peanut has managed to survive three whole years!  And now she is a "big girl".

I love you my Peanut! You are absolutely worth all of the bad days and I cannot believe how smart and beautiful and independent you have become this year! :)

So I haven't updated since February... super fail. Since I can't possibly catch up on everything that has happened since then, I'm just going to start from the present.  Beginning with:

Asher James Roy 

Born on September 17th 2011

Weighing 8lbs and 1 ounce

I think I will save his labor story for a different post, as it is a bit on the complicated side.  Fast forward to today though, and he is already two months old, and very healthy!

His current skills include:

Sleeping through the night (mommy's personal favorite!)

Lifting his head up off the ground (and holding it upright most of the time)

and Smiling Socially! (mostly at mommy, but sometimes at Emma or Daddy)

oh, and in his spare time he commands the USS Enterprise!

(more on that in a later post )

He's also pretty proficient in drooling, spitting up, and pooping but I will spare you those pictures ;)

All in all, he's a wonderful, good-natured, happy little man!  I think we will keep him for now! 



An Update :)

Once again, I have been the biggest slacker ever when it comes to this blog!  But it was recently brought to my attention (thanks Grammy!) that people do actually read this thing.  So perhaps I should put some more (or really any) effort into it.
 
  So here goes, a brief synopsis of the last few months for our family:

• December
• lots and lots of family/friend birthdays (including Adam)
• one wedding
• Christmas and the craziness that accompanies that
• way too much baking and eating!
• stomach flu for mommy (twice!)
• trying to figure out what exactly to do with all of Emma's Christmas loot

• January
• my birthday
• 2 days later, found out we were pregnant again! (best birthday present ever)
• snow, snow, snow, snow, snoooooooow
• started watching a cute little nine month old boy twice a week
• way too much PBS/ Veggie Tales/ Shaun the Sheep
• finally passed a road test and received my drivers license at the age of 25!!! Wooo!
• morning sickness and extreme pregnancy fatigue

• February:
• more snow.
• valentines day
• more morning sickness and fatigue
• a lovely night away from the peanut in a hotel! :)
• not nearly enugh sleep
• our first prenatal appointment!

And that brings us to the present reality... which is a nasty cold virus that seems to have hit our family over the weekend.  Poor Adam got the worst of it.  His fever peaked yesterday at 102 degrees.  Nobody is sleeping well due to very stuffy noses, sore throats and the snores/restless tossing and turning of the rest of the family.    There are many many popsicles being consumed, and the house looks like it was hit by a tornado full of dirty laundry and empty tissue boxes. 

Perhaps that is why I have started blogging again (to avoid actually having to start the housework)

Also I want to be able to actually remember this pregnancy (which seems unlikely due to the lack of sleep and caffeine) so I will be writing little notes to Royling #2, starting with this one:

Dear little one,

   Mommy was so so happy to hear your heartbeat the other day.  I didn't realize how nervous I was that something would be wrong again, until the nurse announced that your heart was beating healthy and strong! I feel like I can finally exhale and start to enjoy this pregnancy.  Despite how gross I am currently feeling, it brings a smile to my face, and tears to my eyes, when I picture your little fingers and toes forming into the ones I will hold in my hands in a few short months. I refuse to believe that it has been almost three months already! September doesn't seem like that far away!  So grow strong and healthy, little Royling and know that we are all so happy you exist!

And because Emma has turned into a little chatterbox, and is contantly saying amusing things, I will share a quote from this morning.

"Mommy, these cheerios are soooo colorful!"
Me: "That's because they are fruit loops hunny"

(and yes I totally let her have fruit loops instead of a healthy alternative because we are all exhausted and I just can't fight another food related battle right now!)  At this point, I'm just happy she is eating something.  We'll try harder at lunch.... :)

Dear 4:45 am

Dear 4:45 am,

   I'm not sure if you're aware of this or not, but we are not friends.  I feel like maybe you think that we are, and I'm not sure where you got this idea, but it very very false.  I'm fairly sure that we were never friends to begin with, and I certainly have never made any effort on my part to cultivate a friendship.  What we had going there for a little while was great, (mainly I slept blissfully right through you), and I'm not sure why you would want to ruin such a beautiful thing.  Can we pretty pretty please go back to those days? 


 This morning was not pretty... and I'm sure nobody wants to repeat that.  I was having a perfectly good dream about being chosen to attend a special wizarding school taught by that guy who plays Gimley (this may be the result of watching an episode of Sliders and Adam playing Lego Harry Potter into the wee hours of the night -cause that's how we roll people!)  when all of a sudden the box of chocolates I was about to devour like a rabid wolverine, started to sound a lot like a certain screaming two year old- (which was obviously confusing to me) and when I woke up I was halfway to Peanut's room to make it stop ( does anyone else have that sleepwalking problem?)  I'm not sure why she felt the need to scream at the top of her lungs but I managed to make it stop.... for 15 whole minutes! That scene was then repeated twice more, before my well-intentioned husband decided to give it a try.  Unfortunately, he is not at his best at 5:15 either. Who knew? 
    He of course, being much more susceptible to the pleas of said screaming two year old attempts to get her up. Whereas mommy is like "Get back to bed you little gremlin, you get up when I say you get up because you're two years old and mommy only got three hours of sleep last night! And if you know what's good for you, you'll stay in that bed and think about how lucky you are to have such a fantastic, beautiful and talented mother" Suffice it to say that did not go well either, and ended with me putting her back into bed screaming at the top of her lungs and pummeling me with all her might.  (consistent parenting- epic fail)  But twenty minutes later, she was calling and cooing in a much pleasanter voice, and since I was wide awake at that point, we got up at the ripe old time of 6:15. 


By about 6:30 I was ready for coffee, but of course wasn't actually able to get out of the apartment till about 8:30.   That did not go so well either.  I will spare you details, but it ended with me in thoroughly coffee soaked, mud caked jeans eating part of the world's soggiest donut and muttering unpleasant things about a car that almost ran us over. 


I can't help but feel that this day would have gone two million times better if I was allowed to sleep in until a decent hour (like how about noon?)

Side note:  Emma keeps saying "Oh no, Daddy tooted at work!" and giggling hysterically and then running away..she may be a pain in the tookus but she does keep me laughing!


So for my birthday this year (which is in two days!) I am asking  Santa Clause for the gift of sleep. Eight hours a night is all I ask.  I go to bed at 10:00 for Pete's sake! It doesn't seem a lot to ask! 


Ok, I'm done. Rant over.  Thanks for  listening, or at least skimming to the end to see if  I've posted any cute pictures.  I haven't.  Sorry.   We've only got one pair of rechargeable batteries and they have been in our Wii remotes  for the last week because mommy may or may not have developed an addiction to Just Dance 2 and may or may not be so sore from "shaking it" that it hurts to lift this cup of coffee to my mouth.  Yay for straws! 

Wednesday Blog Hops

I've been really slacking at blog hopping lately, so here's where you can find me today!  In other news:

I've baked three lasagnas today, cleaned up the disaster of a kitchen that followed the assembly of lasagna, unclogged a toilet, changed three diapers, done two loads of laundry, made a special birthday breakfast for my husband, froze two lasagnas, unclogged a sink and saved the world. 
   
     Ok, I really didn't save the world, but it kind of feels like I did :) Maybe a little?

   Still to go: Return library books, buy stamps, make a salad, mail out christmas cards and put away laundry.  Enjoy lasagna! Then put Emma to bed and enjoy some quiet time with my 28 year old husband and a cheap bottle of wine.  Simple things, right?

Happy Birthday Adam! I love you.

 

DIY Playkitchen!

Before reading any further you should go back and read this post, so you're all caught up :)

I apologize for taking so very long to post the second installment.

But if you can remember that far back, this is what our nightstand looked like before we got a hold of it and transformed it into a playkitchen for the peanut!

And this is what it looks like now:

Ta Da!!!

A real faucet with moveable knobs!

A "sink" made out of a stainless steel bowl,

Burners made out of popscicle sticks,

and stove dials that also move!

A sweet little chalkboard on one side to write out menus,

And a shelf that I made in woodshop approximately 100 years ago, on the other side! 

And inside we have a cookie cooling rack for an oven shelf!

A clock with hands that move,

a hook for hanging potholders or utensils,

And other pretty little details! 

So what do you think?  Is it an improvement?

Peanut loves it, and has spent many hours since we've given it to her, playing hostess.  She is constantly making cookies, or soup or pizza and serving it to anyone who comes into the house!

So all in all, we're pretty please with the result, and I think it was a pretty fantastic early birthday present!