First off, I have to thank my wonderful friends for making me giggle. I was trying to come up with a new name for my blog, and one of their suggestions was "MILF on a Mission". It still makes me smile!

So it has definitely been too long. And I didn't leave on a good note. I apologize. I'm definitely going to be making up for all that lost time!

I should start with my Emery's birth story! She's 6 1/2 months old now.
     She was born on Tuesday, November 16, at 10:30 am. I was scheduled for an induction on the morning of the 17th, but throughout Monday, I had been having irregular contractions, some being quite strong. I knew that if I made it to induction, it would be quick. Monday night, we watched a movie (Alice in Wonderland) and made a quick list of what needed to be done the next day to prepare for Miss Emery. Got to bed at a decent time since Dusty had to work the next morning. I was having strong contractions through the night that I vaguely remember waking enough to count through, then falling back to sleep.
     When 4 am rolled around, I couldn't sleep between the contractions anymore, so I got up and tried several different things to get them to stop (peed, drank water, got a snack, sat on the birthing ball - life saver!), but nothing worked and the contractions were 9 minutes apart. I wanted to wait until they were closer together to wake Dusty, just in case they stopped. Now looking back, I shouldn't have second guessed how painful they were! After an hour they quickly went from 9 minutes to 7, 5, 4, 2-3:30! Dusty got up for work at 5:30 and found me still on the ball, and I told him he probably wouldn't be going to work. We called our moms so someone could come sit with Mischa. I was paranoid the whole time that the contractions would just stop and I'd be sent home. I was praying that I had made enough progress (from 3cm the Friday before) that they would have to keep me.
     We got to the hospital around 7-7:30 and I was 6cm! My nurse left the room to get paperwork for my epidural and someone came in to draw my blood, and Emery kicked me during a contraction and broke my water. Within 10 minutes of my last check, I had progressed to 8cm already. By the time I got into a delivery room (which I walked to from the observation room) and my epidural was in place, I was 9cm and evidently Emery was about to come on her own! I'm glad I got the epidural, but I'm also quite proud of myself for going through so much of labor on my own, especially the transition phase. They said I made labor look easy lol.
     After waiting in the delivery room for maybe an hour, it was time to push! Four contractions of pushing and not even 10 minutes later, Emery was born. No tearing, so no stitched, just what the doctor (my doctor wasn't on call) called a "skid mark, but nothing to stitch"! Emery got cleaned up and nursed great right away, and I got to eat. Then I walked to my recovery room and actually felt better being up moving around. I tore pretty badly with Mischa, so my recovery was quite painful. This experience was everything I hoped it would be, and better even. But now I know better for next time not to wait long at all before going to the hospital.
     My doctor was disappointed that he wasn't the one to deliver her, but he said that he'd rather someone else do it than me delivering at home! My labor with Mischa was 5 hours from my water breaking to birth, and this time it was less than 3 hours... So I can only imagine next time! (Which we're hoping to wait a couple years)

At her 2 month check up in January, her doctor heard a murmur and sent her for an EKG, ECHO, and chest x-ray. She was diagnosed with a VSD, which basically is a hole in her heart that involves all 4 chambers. Thankfully, hers is small and she should grow out of it. She still had it at her 6 month check two weeks ago, and her next check with the cardiologist is Aug 1st. Once they can't hear it anymore, they'll do another ECHO to confirm that it's closed.

2 weeks

1 month

2 months

It obviously isn't affecting her growth! She is a chunky little monkey. She weighed 15.3 lbs at her last check. And I think she'd be perfectly happy to breast feed forever, but I'd really like my boobs back eventually. At 6 1/2 months, I am still her main source of food (patting myself on the back! With Meesh, I dried up before 4 months). She loves big people food (and will look at you like you're starving her if she catches you eating!). I have to force the oatmeal issue so she gets her iron. She also LOVES mandarin oranges. So I puree that into her oatmeal, and we're golden.

3 months

4 months

5 months

I've been doing a lot of things differently this time around. I make my own baby food, still breast feed, cloth diaper (LOVE!), baby wear (when she was smaller), don't co-sleep... Oh who am I kidding? She starts off in her crib, and when I get up for one of her night time feedings, we join Mischa in her full size bed and sleep there until morning. I'm just too tired to stay awake and lay Emmy in her crib when she's done. So she nurses laying down and we both get more sleep.

My Mischa is 3 years old. This freaks me out. When Emmy is her age, she'll be almost 6. Is that even allowed?? Surely not...

<3

She's been as good of a big sister as she can. There are jealousy issues, but they also love each other whole-heartedly, and are already buddies. I love to watch them play. Mischa "reads" her stories and sings to her and shows her how to do things (like crawl, because that's her main goal right now- be mobile and follow Mischa).

This cracks me up!

She is all the way to the right.

She just finished her first year of preschool. she'll do a second year in the fall because she isn't old enough for kindergarten yet, but it'll take into account what she already knows. She can sing almost all the books of the Bible, knows her ABCs, can count into the 70s, will randomly spout or sing verses and songs, says the Pledge of Allegiance, knows half the phonics... She's a brilliant little girl! Oh! And she can spell and write her own name! She's THREE!! Now she's working on spelling family members' names, learning to ride her bike, and she wanted to learn to read and tie her shoes. Ambitious!

6 months

 I'll save an update on myself for another post when I've had a chance to think through and sort myself. It's been a roller coaster of a year already, and I'm not exactly sure where to start. But I will tell you this: pink hair, spilled ice coffee, matchy pajamas, forgiving shit starters, vacation planning, couponing, ants invasion, and my mom's birthday. And that's just the past two weeks! And here are the last of this post's pictures:

My parents got chickens.

And the ducks. Two of them are my girls' Easter presents this year. Thankfully, they live with my parents!

Mischa (and her dirty nose) with her Aunt Mary.

Playing in the pool at Bousha's house!

My Mawmaw died two weeks ago. And I'll be having my baby within the next two weeks. I am so exhausted and really don't feel much like explaining everything right now, but for those who are checking up on me, now you know the basics lol.

My last appointment was on Friday, and I'm fingertip dilated and 50% effaced, Emery is at -2 station. We'll induce at 39 weeks if I make it that far. I will be officially full term at 37 weeks in a few minutes. My next appointment is this coming Friday, and we're only taking it a week at a time because of my contractions.

I had a little Tigger today for Halloween, and taking her around trick-or-treating this weekend about put me into full labor. I'm glad for the break right now. Of course, while I cheat on my gestational diabetes diet and eat her candy. Not all of it, Dusty's bringing me Taco Bell. :)

Miss Emery had me visiting Labor & Delivery again yesterday. I didn't feel her move much at all during the morning or afternoon, so I put in a call to the on-call doctor and she wanted me to go in and get hooked up to the monitors for a while just to make sure everything was ok, especially since it was such a drastic change in my baby's activity. Well, everything was just fine! I guess she was just having a slow day, but her heartbeat was great. They even did a sonogram and measured my fluid and it looked great. Emery is finally head down! Yay for confirmation! I was pretty sure she was head down anyway, and she has definitely dropped. Today has been torture walking around her head. 

Tomorrow is Mischa's first day of preschool without me! Last Wednesday, we went and sat in on a day just to get an idea of what they did and if Mischa would enjoy it (she did!), then Friday we joined them on a field trip to the new Children's Museum. It was a great time, although not exactly easy at almost 8 1/2 months pregnant. But anyway, tomorrow is her first day without me, and Dusty is going with us to drop her off. 

Tomorrow also marks 34 weeks! Officially 8 1/2 months. And tomorrow night, Autumn is coming over to work on the rest of the "sprinkle" plans. Hopefully that goes smoothly and we can just have fun with it. Last week, we spent the afternoon in TH getting supplies, and I think all that's left is food stuff. It's going to be pretty :).

Dusty just found the dog. Evidently he snapped yet another cable and was gone, so he went out to look for him. I guess he didn't travel far! He was just glad to be loose like all his doggie friends. I guess we'll just have to let him out in the morning and see what happens. 

33 weeks with Emery

40 weeks with Mischa

Sooo... this kinda freaks me out a little. BUT 4 weeks from today and I'll be considered full term :)).

We just can't catch a break it seems. Today I got a phone call from a loan office (that we JUST got a letter from a few days ago) wanting us to pay off our loan in full. I laughed at the guy. Seriously? Who has the money just laying around to pay off a loan, and just doesn't? And this comes right when we're trying to figure out how much time we can afford Dusty to take off of work after Emery is born. After my initial freak out (inwardly, of course), I got to number crunching and a few hours later, I think I have a solution. We're going to try to consolidate a few of our loans so we just have one payment that will most likely be less than all the different payments combined, and we should be able to even get a new bed (finally!!!). Oh, and this is on the heels of my $1,000 bill for visiting L&D a few weeks back. When Dusty (tactfully, at 7:30 am) woke me to tell me about that one, my freak out wasn't so inwardly. I distinctly remember crying "Can't I just sleep and not think about money for a while?!" I had spent several hours the day before setting up next year's budget, and spent my evening "me" time trying to juggle the last few months of this year's budget. I was sick of hearing about money, I had been up until 3:30 with Mischa, I was tired, and just done.

But it looks like God's working it all out again. Go figure right? I really need to stop these freak outs and realize He's kinda got things covered, I just need to figure that out.

I went to the dentist yesterday (eeek! <-- new favorite expression), and had my teeth cleaned. After almost having a panic attack listening to the guy on the other side of the divider get a tooth pulled, the dentist got me all cleaned up in about half an hour and on my way. Boy did it hurt, and by the time dinner rolled around, it hurt to chew. Ironically, my numbers still sucked yesterday. Dang. But I'm better today. Just have to figure out these numbers...

Friday is my next OB appointment. It's also October 1st, which is crazy weird, because that means I can start saying I'm due "next month". Reality is sinking in...

My friend Autumn has been a lifesaver and has totally stepped up and is throwing me a "Baby Sprinkle". I'm helping her plan it, and buying the stuff, but she's hosting it, and she's awesome. I really hope this helps ease my anxiety. I ended up returning a few things that I ended up not needing to Walmart yesterday just so I could buy a small package of newborn diapers because I was honestly losing sleep over not having any diapers in the right size. I have a BOX of wipes, but no diapers, and I actually slept like the dead last night. Well, the dead that gets up to pee every few hours, but you get my point. Just knowing that I have some diapers, and I will hopefully get more at the Sprinkle, has already helped my anxiety. Diapers and a baby bath are the only things I really NEED (besides the car seat, but I know that's handled, so I'm mostly ok. I'll be better once that's installed.).

I found the most amazing DIY decorations on YouTube that I've tested out today. They're tissue paper puff flowers and they're so cute! I'm going to try to pick up various colors of tissue paper and make them for the Sprinkle. I tried out a few today with what I had, and they're adorable. I think I might make them as decor over the crib, maybe as a mobile of some sort. I'll try to remember to post a picture of them (they're hanging in Mischa's room now, and she's sleeping thank GOD!!).

Well, that's it for now. I'm going to go try to read in bed for a while. Hopefully I can focus!

Ughhh.... 32 weeks today. :) Is it November yet though?

Ok, I'm going to complain for a while, so feel free to skip this post. <3

I'm so excited and ready for her to be here, but we're so not ready. :( My mom told me Saturday that she won't be able to throw the baby shower because of her brain injury, and she's pretty disappointed too because she had finally decided on an I Love Lucy theme. I totally understand, and I want her to take her time healing. So now I'm freaking out more than before because we just financially can't get anything. My aunts are for sure getting the car seat, but I also need diapers. I'm going to have to make sure I get at least one box before she's born, just so I don't freak out. Although, I already am. I'm so tired of suffering financially because of other people's stupid decisions and other things that are out of my control. (Like Dusty being yanked around at work, etc.)

She's talking about throwing a party after Emery is born, which would be awesome as well... But I'm still freaking out about diapers. I just wish there was more time. I tried to start buying things early, get stocked up, and everyone told me to just hold off and wait until we got closer and see what we get from the baby/diaper shower. Well, it looks like I had the right idea and I should have ignored everyone because now I just have one box of diapers that aren't even the right size.

This week will be super tight, which might make the next couple weeks really tight, but I may try to take some grocery money and buy one thing at a time from my registry, just so I have what I need. My checklist of needs for when she's born is diapers, baby bath, nursing cover, bottles. I think I can do it..

Dusty is helping with Kairos this October (oh my goodness that starts this weekend!), so he's been going to training. I feel like he hasn't had a day off off something in weeks. He works Monday to Thursday/Friday, Kairos training on Saturday, church Sunday. He has an overnight training this weekend (Friday night), then he'll be gone again Saturday evening for "Candlelight" (whatever that really is). The next weekend he's free, but then he has more training the next weekend, and then Kairos the 21st-24th. We just realized today that he'll be missing this year's Blackbird because it's been scheduled for the 23rd, and he may be missing a doctor appointment as well. I had all my biweekly appointments scheduled, and the last one is the 15th, so I'm assuming he'll be having me come in weekly after that, which is Kairos weekend.

Ok, I'm so done thinking about all this. I'm tired. I did our 2011 budget today, and my head hurts!!

We've had a busy day! We watched the Corn Festival parade today, then we headed up to Terre Haute and joined in Lilly's first birthday party :). That girl is adorable! Mischa had a great time.

Then we went over to Babies R Us, because Dusty was in a baby mood after seeing little Lilly and another baby (only 5 weeks!). I'm so glad we did, because after checking out the car seat and stroller we registered for, they're not so great. They're cute! But not practical or as supportive as we originally thought. But we found another set that we really like that we've swapped for on our registry. They fit well together, are easy to manage (move around, install/uninstall, collapse, etc), and they're just plain awesome!

They're from the Graco Laguna Bay collection. They cost a bit more than the others we had planned to get, but hey, you get what you pay for!

I think Emery heard us talking last week, and has finally flipped. Yay!!