I really suck at this blogging thing...

...don't I? Nothing much to report. I started my own Pampered Chef business, so that's cool. I'm hoping to do well with it this summer until I have to back to school in the fall...lol

Yeah, that went well...

So, back in July (yes, of last year), I said I was going to start using this as a weight loss journal. Obviously, that did not happen. *laugh* I'm really trying hard to figure out where "me" time and everyone else time can come together in a happy medium. I think I'll do what my cousin Jamie did and set some goals for the month...perhaps that will keep me on schedule and motivated. We'll see...I really want to do the Warrior Dash in September.

So, here are my goals :
1) Actually eat three times a day
2) Work out (at least walk somewhere) four times a week
3) Take weekly measurements to see where I am
4) Keep a daily journal of stuff I do/eat/drink (this can be on here, but hell, it'd be boring....LOL)

So begins a weight loss diary...

Unfortunately, I am no longer able to use "it's baby weight" as an excuse since Emmy is now over 8 months old. ;) And, since I don't have much to write about anyway, I might as well start back up with that. I'll post stats and everything tomorrow as a starting point and then track my progress here. I think it'll give me some accountability...or at least make me feel guilty if I don't do it. heh

Wow.

OK, so I haven't updated in about two months. I'm a slacker, what can I say?

Emily Irene Sliwka was born on November 14th, 2009. Yes, I know we were scheduled for the 16th, but she decided she wanted to come early and my water broke at about 6:30 that night. After hearing our options (pitocin or repeat c-section) she was born by c-section at 11:39 pm on the day EXACTLY two years and six months after her brother was born.

So far he really likes being a big brother...most days anyway. He's always wanting to hold her and give her kisses.

We're still adjusting, but it seems to be working out just fine at this point. I'll update more later, but she's awake and wanting to eat...lol

Oh, and...

...I really want a pedicure and a soak in a hot tub.

My last NST

I had my last NST today!! This time next week we'll have our little baby girl with us. It's a little unreal actually. At my BPP last week the ultrasound tech said that she's back to being head down, so YAY for that!!! If I go into labor on my own in the next week, we're all set. Of course, I'm not holding my breath.

The baby shower this weekend was REALLY nice. Mom did a great job putting it together (like always) and it was a lot of fun with family and friends. In fact, even the lady who was MY nanny when I was little came. She just had her first book published and she's having a book signing on Saturday (the 14th), so all things being equal I'd really like to go to that but we'll see.

I don't really feel as stressed as I have been feeling (or I'm blocking it out and replacing it with tiredness) so that's a good thing. Tom is still freaking out majorly at random times but all in all I think we're on a pretty even keel as far as the baby goes. The room is pretty much finished (just need to get the empty boxes/bags out of there, vacuum, and put up her shelf...oh, and put the valance above the window...but it's ready for her. Of course, she'll be in the bassinet in our room anyway for a while so it's not a huge rush. This does mean, however, I need to pick up our room a little. And I think we're going to have to take the baby monitor we got back because the receiver doesn't work downstairs (which is why we would need it in the first place). Luckily we bought it at Babies R Us and they'll just take it back on our registry.

T Minus 11 Days

So we only have 11 days left!! I'm getting so freakin' excited and Tom has started just freaking out in general. We still haven't decided 100% on a name but I've pretty much thrown everything out of the window and gone back to perusing the baby book. Why can't I decide??? I want to love her name, and I don't love any of them. *sigh*

Orion was sick yesterday. Poor little guy had a fever, was all stuffy, and achy (he said his leg hurt). So, just to be safe, my doc prescribed me some antivirals. I have to take one a day for 10 days but it should keep me from getting the flu if I've come in contact with anyone who's had it. Monkey seemed fine today though. He was starving. LOL

I'm really looking forward to this Saturday. Mom's having a baby shower for me and we're going to go play bingo afterward. It should be a good time! Danielle's going and we'll have some girl time...should be nice.

37 Weeks Pregnant

Another great doctor's appointment today!

We had our Thursday BPP and doctor's appointment today. Went well...nothing to report so that's always good. Seems that while I feel like this pregnancy has been dragging on forever, at least it's been uneventful! Nothing out of the ordinary which is just how I like it.

I signed the official "this is your appointment" paper for the c-section on the 16th. We have to be there at 0530...and I can't have any coffee. This is probably a bad thing, but I'll be drugged eventually and won't care I'm sure. We can't wait to meet our little girl!!!

For some reason whenever we ask Orion what his little sister's name is he says "Moo". I hope to God that she's not a fat child/teenager because I have a feeling we'll be calling her Moo for the rest of her life. It would just be cruel if she were pudgy...then we'd have to come up with a different nickname.

Tomorrow is a busy day for us (well, more for me). Orion and I have an appointment in Gladstone at 9:00 and after that I'll need to drop off Avon stuff. Works out well because the person I'm delivering to basically lives right across the street from where I'll be. At noon I have a meeting with Malissa to get her all signed up to sell Avon and tomorrow evening is Jodi and Jon's Halloween party. I was thinking about going as a pregnant beauty queen. Would be funny at least. Saturday night is *actual* Halloween and we're going trick-or-treating with Rylee, Jason, and Danielle this year. It's supposed to be super rainy, so I think we'll probably end up at the mall. Not the same as real trick-or-treating, but at least it's warm and dry. Plus, Orion probably just won't care either way. He's going to be a frog prince (though the costume I made looks more like a lizard king) and I'll have to get lots of pictures since it's the first costume I've ever made.

36 Weeks Pregnant

She's still breech...*sigh*

Well, we had our second BPP today. Little girl decided to keep sitting, so we're going to have to figure that out. We did schedule our c-section though, so unless we go into labor on our own we're set for 7:30 am on the 16th of November. Danielle is going to take Orion Sunday night and keep him during the morning and then bring him to the hospital in the afternoon. I think it'll work out well...he'll get a chance to play with Rylee and probably won't be TOO upset that Mom and Dad aren't around. He probably won't even miss us even a little.

The doc did give me some suggestions on how to get her to turn over so we'll try those and see what happens. He's not so sure she won't turn over, so that's good. And that way, if I *do* go into labor, we'll be able to hopefully progress the way we should. Of course, after my experience with Orion, I'm highly doubting that labor will come on its own. Then again, I shouldn't count on anything. heh

We had originally decided on the name Piper, but changed it to Abigail because Tom really liked that name. I was OK with it until earlier this week when I went completely hormonal and realized I didn't like it at all. We've switched it back to Piper, but we'll see what actually ends up on the birth certificate.

It's getting so much closer and I'm feeling a bit stressed out, but not too bad this minute. We did finally buy her mattress (can't beat $36!) so that's out of the way and she actually has a crib to sleep in. We moved it over a couple of nights ago and put some of her safari stickers on the wall. I have a shelf that we're going to put up in there and hang her name letters from. It'll be super cute, I think. I was worried that the room wasn't girly enough (even though I'm not the biggest fan of pink), but it turns out that Babies R Us has pink safari stuff! I've change our registry to include some of that, so hopefully we'll be able to add a little bit of pink to her room by the time she gets here.

27 Days!?!?!?!?!?

Time for extreme panic to set in.

I started my twice-weekly NST's/BPP's today. Abby is still head up (little shit), but everything is looking good. She met their requirements for heart rate increases...just barely, but still met them. After that, I had an appointment with anesthesiology over at Labor and Delivery. I'm not really sure why because it seemed like a waste of time, but at least it's done now. They basically went over my chart, saw that I've had two back surgeries, and I told them that the spinal worked with Orion but they just had to put it higher than the scar from the surgeries. They said OK, put a note in the chart, and I left. Besides, the chances of getting the doc that I met with today for anesthesiology are slim to none anyway, right?

We finally got the crib moved over into the baby's room and will spend part of tomorrow cleaning up Orion's room. It's mostly just putting toys that made it under his crib into his toy box, so it shouldn't take forever. Of course, putting me on the ground at this point is sure to make it take longer. I don't do bending over well. heh However. I did find it in my power yesterday to shave my legs. It was interesting, to say the least, but they got (mostly) shaved. It's even worse that I did it in the shower. hehehehe

Our baby shower that my mom is throwing is going to be on November 7th, and then a week after that, we'll have our little Abby here!! I need to get to the craft store and get her letters for her wall...it'll give me something to do. Of course, I still need to finish Danielle's Halloween costume, so once that's done, then *maybe* I'll get to the store. ;)

Haven't posted one of these in a while, but here is this week's :

35 Weeks Pregnant

We're SO in for it...

We had our first BPP and a doctor's appointment today. Everything looks absolutely perfect. Abby's measuring great and in the 44%...this is all great news. EXCEPT. At 34 weeks, my darling daughter apparently has decided to turn around. Instead of being head down like she has been the entire pregnancy, she thought it would be a good idea to make herself breech. What the hell!? Of course, this is MY child we're talking about, so I knew it couldn't be as easy as it's seemed to be. heh

Everything is going well on this end though. We're slowly getting things organized around the house and trying to clear things out that we don't need. We had that garage sale a while back and this weekend we're having another one...sort of. Mom and Dad have a bunch of stuff to get rid of too, so we're headed down that way for the garage sale. We've already taken everything down that was left over from the one we had here, so hopefully things will sell. I don't know what the weather is supposed to do this weekend (because I haven't checked...I'm lazy) but it'll be in the garage so it'll be dry there regardless. Hopefully people feel like coming and checking it out. I posted it on craigslist a couple of times and so I'm hoping that helped.

The doctor's appointment...

...went well. It was basically just a check-up so no ultrasound or anything. I did get to hear Abby's heartbeat though, so that's awesome. It was kind of even cooler that I got to hear her heartbeat and mine simultaneously. Turns out I don't have to start going twice a week next week, but get to wait until the week after. Actually, I'll only go once on that Thursday, have an ultrasound and a doctor's appointment, then will start the NST's the following Monday. I get to go every Monday and Thursday...yay!

Tom cut his finger pretty good last night. He was working on a part for the fish tanks and sliced his pointer finger on his left hand open. My husband really doesn't handle blood well, and handles needles even worse than the blood. He barely let me look at it, but I saw that it was bad enough that we'd need to go get him some stitches. Unfortunately, urgent care doesn't do stitches, so we had to go to the ER (which means a bigger co-pay of course). Since he cut his finger with a razor knife, they obviously wanted him to get a tetanus shot. The poor guy did not like that one little bit. And they had to use a needle to get the lidocain into the wound, so that didn't go over well either. Ten stitches later we headed home. Luckily, it was a Thursday night at 5:30 and we were only there an hour and a half. He's sore today, of course, but holding up.

Crazy?? Perhaps, Rabbit. Perhaps.

Yesterday marked 32 weeks! I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow (just a check up I'm assuming since they didn't schedule an ultrasound), and then next week will start going twice a week for the NST's and growth scans. I can't believe it's that time already! Amanda is planning a baby shower for me on Saturday, so that should be fun! I'm looking forward to it. I've also been looking a lot on craigslist for baby clothes and some other things that we still need but haven't really found anything TOO promising. Hopefully we'll get some of it knocked out and set up before she gets here!! Apparently she weighs 4 pounds this week, and I'm pretty sure at this point that I'm either having David Beckham's love child or a future member of the Rockettes...

So, with Tom laid off, I figured now would be as good a time as any to go back to school. Of course, I won't be starting fall term because then I'd be gone right in the middle to have Abby, but I'll be starting winter term. It's completely insane, I know, but I'm eligible for some awesome grants (instead of adding more student loan debt). I have a lot of classes that I need to take out of the way, but will probably start taking the rest of the pre-reqs for the nursing program. Tom says he'd be more than happy to stay home with the kids if I could be his sugar-mama, so we'll see. heh I will need to get a new laptop which may cause a bit of an issue, but hopefully we can work out a trade or something. I'm going to start checking craigslist daily to see what we can come up with. I had an awesome laptop, but it's completely toast, and I won't be able to do everything I need to do on our desktop unfortunately. It just doesn't have the stuff I'll need...and it's our only computer so Tom would probably get irritated if I was bogarting the darn thing and he couldn't play on it either.

We've been down-sizing the house a little...about six months (maybe more?) ago we got rid of Monty (the snake) and then on Saturday we got rid of all of the fish tanks that were upstairs. We have only one fish tank left, downstairs in the basement, and we're just going to concentrate on that one since it's a saltwater tank. It's prettier than the ones we had upstairs, and much more fun for us to work on and maintain. We're hoping to get rid of a couple of the cats soon (Gidget and Goldie, probably) and give them some good homes. Never in a million years could we get rid of Cisco or Guiness, but we're not *overly* attached to the other two and it would be a lot less work/mess/everything to get rid of them. Of course, I'm still heart-sick for a dog, but that will happen in time and really, with a brand new baby, now wouldn't be the time to even think about getting one anyway! That's all I'd need...a 2-year old who won't stop going even for a second, a brand new baby who needs *everything*, and a puppy who I would have to potty train. No thank you.

Toss all the homework I'll be doing on top of that, and I'd be likely to shoot someone. ;)

The weather has cooled down some and started the rainy season so Orion's allergies seem to be doing a bit better. I love that it's colder now, but Tom hates it. Then again, the man has no body fat.

32 Weeks Pregnant

Who needs sleep?

We've hit 31 weeks!!! 7 1/2 weeks to go...yay! (Or..."Holy shit! Where did the time go!!!???" as the case may be.)

This baby is sitting SO low!! I wake up every morning with sore hips...LOL Maybe that means we're more favorable for a natural birth?? Or she just likes the "Pelvic Pillow"...

The doctor's appointment went really well Friday. Our little one is measuring in the 40th percentile (so RIGHT where she should be), and I haven't gained any weight in a month. I'm stoked about that. We'll have another appointment next week (the 2nd?) and then the week after that I have to start going twice a week for the non-stress tests and the bio-physical profiles. I can't believe it's already time for those...but they're fun and I'll get to see a lot more of the little one!

Poor Orion has allergies. Normally, it's not an issue, but they hit in full-force the last couple of days. Sunday he started getting the runny nose and it all went down-hill from there. Poor little guy tried sleeping Sunday night, but with the snot running down the back of his throat he started coughing so hard he threw up. Everywhere. And Mommy doesn't handle throw-up well...at all. He ended up sleeping in our bed that night because we were worried about him. He'd wake up unable to breathe even and we wanted him close (because we're paranoid parents like that). He did OK yesterday (even got his nap in!) and last night wasn't too horrible. We were giving him some childrens' Claritin, but it doesn't seem to be helping much...other than the fact that he's not puking I guess. Otherwise, he is in great spirits until I make him blow his nose. He hates that.

31 Weeks Pregnant

Apparently our refrigerator was possessed!

We've had the refrigerator for a while. It's a side-by-side with the water and ice in the door. The water has NEVER worked, but the ice did, so we'd use it from time to time and the ice bucket is great for filling up the cooler when we go camping.

Saturday night Tom, Orion and I went down to my mom and dad's. We had a bunch of stuff to take down for the garage sale (they have a much better location than we do) and got there around 5:00-ish...which means we left here about 4:00. About 12:00 we roll in the door to home and I hear this water noise. Thinking "what the hell?" I turn on the kitchen light. The water portion of the refrigerator decided to start working. On its own. And who the heck knows how long it was on. It's not like it was just dripping. No, it was like someone was pushing a glass against the lever as hard as they could. There was water all over the kitchen floor and dripping into the laundry room under it. Luckily, it wasn't dripping through the ceiling but through the vent and light fixture, so there's hopefully no huge damage. The water *did* go under the flooring in the kitchen, but luckily we have some extra so we'll be able to replace that.

*sigh*

Only 8 1/2 Weeks Left

Well, we're in the home stretch!! I have another doctor's appointment today (with an ultrasound) to check in. Tom will get to go with me, so that's good. Then, I have an eye appointment on Monday to check everything out because of the diabetes and pregnancy. They'll have to dilate my eyes, which sucks. I hate that part...but not as much as I hate the part where they blow air into your eyes. My eyes are watering right now just thinking about it.

I've been a bit stressed lately (at least for the last week...lol) because Tom got laid off from his job. Unfortunately, there just isn't any work going on for his company. The good news is that he'll get his unemployment and he's already getting job applications in for driving and we're cutting back where we can. It's a change from what he was doing but, ultimately, I think he'll be much happier. One of our friends works as a driver for Safeway. They're currently hiring and he may be able to push Tom through with his boss to get him hired. It would be great, but the hours would suck at first and he probably wouldn't get many, but it's a great opportunity. Plus, it's union, so that rocks. He'd get awesome benefits and they wouldn't cost us an arm and a leg. Right now we're debating on how we're going to do the COBRA continuation of coverage. With the baby on the way, we can't afford not to have health insurance, so we're working that out. With his unemployment we may be able to qualify for some other options, but it's something we'll have to look into next week after he gets his first check.

Orion is doing well...getting so freakin' big! I can't believe he's almost 2 1/2!! He'll be exactly 2 years, 6 months, and 2 days when Abby gets here. Apparently I was horrendously jealous when my little brother was born, so I hope that we can work through some of those issues when the new baby is here. I really don't want Orion to think that he's been "replaced" and being a stay-at-home mom will help with some of that I think because then I'll have more time to spend with him while the baby's sleeping and whatnot.

We finished painting the baby's room, but will have to paint it again because the paint was too thick to do an even coat all over. There's some spots that aren't painted (not huge ones) so it'll take a quick once-over to get it finished. We still need to move the spare bed downstairs and put the crib in the room, but it's coming along nicely. I feel like I have a little time left to work on things, but at the same time, I feel like there's no time left at all!

30 Weeks Pregnant

29 weeks already?

Wow...

I'm going to the doc's every two weeks now, and in about five weeks I'll start going twice a week. I switched doctors to one that I like much better and that is a bit closer. My friend who is a trauma surgeon at Emanuel suggested I transfer to their Maternal-Fetal Medicine Unit which is at Emanuel (so down by Lloyd Center) instead of driving all the way out to Beaverton to go to St. Vincent's. I get to see Dr. Buckmaster again! Yay! I saw him a couple of times at St. V's, but then he got the job at Emanuel. I couldn't go to see him because of our insurance, but that changed in July. Turns out, one of the two doctor's my friend suggested was this one! It worked out beautifully.

We've decided not to try to be induced this time around. Since they tried to induce three different times with Orion, I just don't feel much confidence in the procedure. heh While it would be nice to have a natural birth, I just feel that it will make me and Tom much saner not to have to go through all of that again just to end up with another c-section. The plan right now is that we'll do a repeat c-section on November 16th UNLESS I go into labor on my own. If I go into labor on my own, then we're all set for a natural birth (assuming everything progresses as it should).

Tom, Orion, and I went camping this weekend since it was Labor Day weekend. My mom and dad (and the girls) reserved a camping space at a place called Odell Lake in Central Oregon. It was an absolutely beautiful place. The lake is huge and there are tons of trees...even huckleberry bushes! We picked huckleberries and had them in our pancakes one morning...tasty! Orion had SUCH a good time that we definitely want to go back but it's quite the trek to get there (4 hours!!) so it probably won't be any time soon. The weather was OK but not gorgeous. It would sprinkle a bit and was cloudy the first two days we were there which wouldn't have been so bad if not for the wind and freakin' freezing at night. Yesterday, however, was absolutely gorgeous (albeit still windy) and I even got a little bit of a sunburn on my cheeks! We'll have to be better prepared, of course, the next time we go because we didn't have anything we needed with us.

We've been pretty busy around here doing not much of anything...lol Of course, last week we spent time trying to get everything gathered up for the camping trip and Wednesday night I had a battalion meeting. Other than that, we haven't done a *whole* lot...but despite that we still haven't painted the baby's room. Part of it is that we just need to get some stuff moved around downstairs so that we can get the spare bed down there and have the room to paint, but neither Tom nor I have the motivation most days. Horrible, I know...we're such procrastinators!!! Plus, we need to get new paint rollers and a new paint tray (which we'll probably do this weekend) so we're using that as our excuse as well. ;) I'm going to try to make some shelves for the room (and probably for Orion's room as well) so that we have space. I was going to make the changing table, but I don't think we'll need to. My brother left his dresser here (he didn't have the room to take it with him when they left and now it's a matter of someone helping him get it...it's big and heavy) and I made a joke last week when he was here about commandeering it for the changing table/dresser if he didn't pick it up. He just shrugged and said "I'm not really emotionally attached to it" so we may just end up using that.

So, the plans, as they stand right now for the weekend, are to move the bed downstairs and paint the baby's room. Sunday afternoon I have a meeting to meet with our new recruits for the reserves, but it shouldn't take long, so we should have *plenty* of time to get everything done that we want to.

29 Weeks Pregnant

I really don't understand it.

So, I don't understand why Orion feels the need to crumble a perfectly good piece of strawberry bread on the carpet literally RIGHT after I finish vacuuming. Or why Tom feels the need to leave the empty (but not rinsed out) mayo jar in the sink. Would it have killed him to take the extra 5 seconds to rinse it out and put it in the recycle bin? At least Orion is 2 and can get better, right? ;) I do have to give Tom props though...at least he didn't put the empty mayo jar back in the fridge! ;)

We hit 27 weeks yesterday! Wow, time is sure flying. Next week I'll even get to start my kick counts and then four weeks after that I'll have to start going to the doctor's twice a week. I'm thankful that we have some sort of insurance, but it would be much nicer if it didn't suck balls. My co-pay is $50 for a specialist (which the OB is) and I'll have to start paying that twice a week. And, of course, the co-pays and prescription co-pays don't apply to our deductible or out-of-pocket max. *sigh* It really didn't cost us anything to have Orion besides what I paid for my insurance through work...and of course that was all pre-tax, so that was nice.

This last weekend we decided to have a garage sale. OK, so we decided at 8:30 pm on Thursday night to have it Fri, Sat, and Sun. Surprisingly we made a few hundred dollars, which was nice. There's still tons of stuff to get rid of and we're planning on taking it all down to Mom and Dad's for their garage sale. Whatever doesn't go after that can head to Goodwill or the Salvation Army for all I care. We haven't needed it thus far, we probably won't need it any time in the near future. And I'm tired of all the clutter!

Until the end of September, Oaks Park does pre-school/toddler mornings on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. It only costs $6 for Orion (free for Mommy!) to go on all the kiddie rides he wants! A snack and story time is included, and it's all around a good time. We went yesterday morning for the first time and had a blast. First, we warmed up with the carousel...that was fun and Orion was *really* excited about riding the giraffe. After that we hit the Lewis & Clark ride, which is actually pretty darn creepy. A lot more rides (the boat, the roller coaster, and of course the motorcycles) ensued before the last ride of our day - the choo-choo train. The morning was in constant drizzle, but it was still a lot of fun and Orion loved the train whistle so much he was saying "CHOO CHOO" all the way home. Since it was on the way and the right time of day, we stopped at Tom's work on the way back and had lunch with him (or at least spent his lunch time with him). It was a really nice day.

Friday marks the beginning of a very busy weekend, but I'm really looking forward to it...should be lots of fun!

27 Weeks Pregnant

26 Week Image

I forgot to post this in my last blog post, so here it is...I think they're interesting anyway... :)

And while reading the "this week" thingy about the baby, I started to panic again. Apparently baby is 2/3 of the way through her stay in Hotel Womb. It's OK when I think in months or weeks. But to think of it in fractions like that kind of freaks me out...yet again.

26 Weeks Pregnant

I started panicking yesterday...

So, I log in and look at my cute little pregnancy ticker at the bottom of my last post and realize "OH. MY. GOSH. We're not in triple digits anymore." Today marks 26 weeks and we only have 98 days left to go. Of course, if we do a c-section it'll be a little bit shorter amount of time. I completely freaked out.

When I was at Freddy's the other day I was looking in their paint department and one of their $5 mis-mixed gallons of paint was perfect for the base color of the baby's room. I picked it up (can't beat $5!) and we'll start painting this week. Now I just have to figure out how to get the trees and animals on the wall!

Tom took his vacation this week because they're really slow at the shop. That blows, but at least he has some vacation time he can take. It'll be nice to spend some quality time together when we're not both running or exhausted from the day. Thursday we have an ultrasound and doctor's appointment, and I'm really happy that Tom will be able to go with. Because of work he hasn't been able to make it to any, really, and Orion hasn't gotten to go either. It's too hard to wrangle a two year old when you're laying on a bed with gel all over your tummy. heh This way, they'll both get to go and see our little girl. I'm excited.

The candle party was fun. Five people showed up (which is better than last time) and we had a good time. I didn't get as many sales this time, but that was fine. It was nice just to get together with everyone. My friend Jodi started selling Pure Romance, so I promised her I'd have a show for her as well. We'll do that the weekend after Labor Day and have another reason to have everyone over to play again!