And So It Begins...

I'm sad.

My baby (the big one) started Pre-K yesterday.  He's been enrolled since April, so I knew this day was close, but I wasn't ready for it.  We counted down to the first day, and Michael and I prepared him by talking about proper school behavior and doing what the teacher asks of you.  Two weeks ago, Michael took Jericho to Oklahoma City to find a backpack - he had found one he wanted at Toys R Us, but the closest store is in the big city an hour away - and to enjoy some father/son time before Michael goes back to working long days. 

Jericho's school only does Pre-K and Head Start, so it's a small building with a playground attached.  There is a separate building in the back for additional classrooms.  The class days are divided into morning sessions and afternoon sessions, and Jericho goes to the afternoon sessions from 12:15-2:50.  Those 2.5 hours go by fast!  On his first day, we explored his classroom, which is filled with Elgin's school mascot, the owl.  His teacher, Ms. Kelly, has a Smart board that Jericho found "really cool."  I only stayed about 10 minutes before I headed home to do some cleaning and put Juliana down for a short nap. 

Today Jericho didn't have class because the students are divided by last name.  He was in the group that had their first day on Wednesday, and the second half has their first day today.  Regular classes resume tomorrow, and hopefully Jericho will come to love it.

My little man is growing up!

Wordless Wednesday

Going Green, One Diaper at a Time

Ever wish you'd done things differently with your first born?

When Jericho was born, I did most things the easy way.  I was living in a foreign country with a husband away in Afghanistan.  First-time mom, overwhelmed, nervous and scared.  But I got through it just fine, and I have a happy, healthy 4-year-old to show for it.  Then during my pregnancy with Juliana, I thought about all the things I'd do with her that I did with Jericho:  breastfeeding, making her baby food once she started solids, wearing her as much as she'd tolerate it.  Only this time, I decided I'd give cloth diapering a try.  There are so many super cute prints and patterns to choose from, and after the initial investment, it's a huge money saver.  I planned to build my stash slowly, trying out different types and figuring out which kinds worked best for us.

Now, two months after my initial purchase, we've got the ball rolling and we're doing well!  Shopping for cloth diapers is too much fun!  Sometimes the choices are overwhelming and make my head spin, but I'm learning the ropes and gradually moving away from disposables.  I am already seeing a big reduction in how many diapers end up in our trash bin on pick-up day, and I'm at the point now where I can stretch out a pack of disposables over two weeks.  My goal is to only need to buy disposables (for travel) no more than once a month.  The only downside is the amount of time I spend hand-washing the diapers because I often don't have enough for a washing machine load.  I'm ok with that.  Eventually, as I buy more, I'll have enough to get me through a couple of days and washing time will go down.  Slowly but surely, I'll get there.

Some days, I think about Jericho's first year and wish I'd done cloth diapering with him as well.  I think about the money I could have saved.  I just didn't know anything about them, and I remember thinking they must be too much work.  I don't regret using disposables with Jericho, though.  Parenthood is a learning process!

Things on Tuesday

Loathing:

• the fact that Juliana won't fall asleep without her pacifier
• 4-year-old tantrums in the movie section of the PX
•  Drill Sgt work hours
• having to comb the knots out of my hair after being outside for 5 minutes
• postpartum hair shed

Loving:

• long baby naps
• Juliana's belches after feeding
• Jericho's excitement about pre-K
• the sand and water table that Grandma and Grandpa brought for Jericho
• Grandma and Grandpa's visits 

Wordless Wednesday

Remember Me?

My goodness, we've been busy!

Juliana will officially be 3 months old tomorrow, May 17th.  WHERE has this time gone?!  She is babbling like crazy, and she laughed for the first time on Mother's Day. I've failed to get another one out of her since.

Best Mother's Day gift EVER.

Jericho is signed up for Pre-K here in Elgin, and he's so ready for it!  He's excited to pick out a new backpack but he doesn't start til August.  Until then, we're "practicing" for preschool by writing his name, reading lots of books, and learning how to be a good student by listening to the teacher when she's talking.  This morning we went to Story Time at the town library for the first time, and I think I'm in love!  Jericho was shy at first and wouldn't sit with the other kids.  He quickly warmed up to it, sitting in front of me and listening to a book about the zoo and zoo animals.  When Story Time was over, he played for a few minutes while I got us a library card - I knew I'd need one because on the way in, I spotted Mockingjay, the last book in the Hunger Games trilogy and for me, impossible to find.  I'm excited to finish the series.  These books really keep you drawn in because they're so fast-paced.  Jericho picked out a couple of books for himself - Mama's grown weary of reading Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich every stinkin' night - so hopefully this is a sign of a growing love of the library as well.  It also gets Juliana out and about for that ever-so-important baby stimulation, and I need the practice of getting out of the house at a certain time.

Last weekend, Elgin had its annual town carnival.

 This boy loves - loves - a carousel.

 The "Fun Slide" was so much fun, he went down it four times!

Juliana was happy to hang out with me and chew on Lenny while big bro had fun on the rides.

The weather left us unsure of whether we'd be able to go to the carnival, but on the last day, the sun came out just long enough for us to enjoy being out of the house and shake off our cabin fever.

Media Debut!

So I'm feeling a lot less nervous about posting Juliana's photos on the Internet, but not so much that I'm ready for it to be shown everywhere.  Part of me is extremely protective of my own privacy and that of my children, and part is wary about the photos being shared without my permission.  I promise, it's not me being selfish.  I'm just a bit of a "mama bear" when it comes to things that belong to me. 

With that said, I wanted to share a photo I took last weekend - granted, it's from my phone, so it's not a perfect photo - when my mom came to visit.  She helped me give Juliana a bath, and the baby was wide awake and loving every minute of it!

Happy Birthday Juliana!

It's about time, right?  So many people have asked me about the day I went into labor, so I guess a week and a half is enough time to wait to post the story of Juliana's birth.  Times mentioned are my best guess; contractions can really mess with your mind that early in the morning!

I should probably start with the night before I went into labor.  Our tiny little town has a new Chinese restaurant that just opened, so we decided to try it out for dinner Thursday night, February 16th.  I'd had some light cramping off and on all afternoon after my midwife appointment that day, but it wasn't painful so I ignored it.  We went to bed at our usual time, and around 2:30 a.m. I woke up with a pretty strong contraction.  For the next couple of hours, I had more strong ones but they weren't regular, so I decided I probably wasn't going to get anymore sleep and got up to walk around the house and put some things together for my hospital bag just in case.  I had installed a contraction timer app on my phone that ended up being pretty useful.

At 5:30 the contractions started coming at regular intervals, so I woke Michael up to let him know I was getting in the shower to get ready and to possibly help deal with the pain, and I was packing a bag for a trip to the hospital.  I guess he didn't realize how quickly things were happening, because he got up and went to the living room for a game of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.  I was ok with it, though....my plan was to labor at home for as long as I could before going in, and I wasn't ready to wake Jericho up just yet.  FYI, a hot shower really helps with labor pains.  I stayed in that shower until the hot water ran out, leaning on the warm tile and rocking my hips.  I think those movements and the hot water helped the most.

At 7:30, Michael caught me leaning on the kitchen counter and breathing heavily, so he turned the game off and woke up Jericho to get him dressed and ready to go.  He called Dawn, our go-to care for Jericho, to let her know we were headed to Post.  I was taking forever to get myself ready - it was impossible to breathe or move during a contraction, so when each one was over I hurried to finish getting dressed.  Around 8:00 we were walking out the door.

Once we got to L&D, a nurse whisked me away to an exam room to see how far I had dilated while Michael and Jericho hung out in the waiting room nearby.  I was at a 6, so we hurried to a delivery room to get set up and changed.  After asking for an epidural, I was told that the anesthesiologist was busy with a c-section patient but would be there "shortly."  That never happened.  By the time the OB on call arrived, I was at 9.5 cm. dilated, which is considered too late for pain medication.  Because that day was a training holiday, the hospital wasn't prepared for us because we only had the number for the OB/GYN office, which was closed.  Things were happening so fast, and  we were all trying to catch up.

What happened after that point is kind of a blur.  The nurses had trouble getting my IV in for fluids and it seemed like forever until they were finally successful.  Michael still wasn't in the room yet, and it'd been an hour and a half since getting to the hospital.  One of the nurses finally asked me where my husband was, and when I told her he came in with me, she sent for him.  We got Jericho set up in a corner chair with the PSP to wait for Dawn to pick him up, and Michael coached me through labor for the next hour.  I honestly believe I could not have gotten through it without him there.

Once Dawn showed up to take Jericho on a few elevator rides through the hospital, we were ready to get down to business.  Dr. Hierigs was good to go, and I was, too.  At that point, I just let my body take over and listened to Michael when it was time to take a breath and push again.  It seemed to take forever to get her out, but in reality, she was born faster than Jericho at a rapid 15 minutes!

At 11:30 a.m., Juliana Marie was born with her mouth wide open and crying already!  She wasn't given to me immediately like Jericho was - that's the only disappointment I have with this delivery.  I wanted a few moments to ourselves, to make eye contact with her, to study her, to talk to her and count her fingers and toes.  Instead, she was lifted briefly so I could see her, then taken to be cleaned up and examined, and I only had to wait a few minutes before she was handed to me in a blanket and hat.  Dr. Heirigs had expressed an eager interest in her weight - he'd guessed 10 lbs. when she first came out, which surprised me.  He was close - she weighed in at 9 lbs. 6 oz., 20.7 in. long.  Everyone kept saying, "That's a big baby!" but I don't see it.  Nine pounds is a little on the big side for a newborn, but she doesn't look like a 9-lb. baby.  I don't know where she puts it!

We got to come home on Sunday afternoon, and so far things are going really well.  I'm getting a little more sleep at night than I expected to, and breastfeeding has been a breeze.  According to Michael, I'm the "talk of the company" because of my natural delivery of a 9-lb. baby.  It's not something I readily talk about, though.  I actually needed convincing that I should be proud of myself, because I felt like it wasn't my plan all along.  But then I realized that I was faced with a mountain of a hurdle, and I dug in my heels and got through it with flying colors.  I found a strength I didn't know I had.  But I also have the best support I could ever ask for.  Michael has exceeded my expectations by far and has taken such good care of me and Jericho and Juliana while I took time to recover.  And I have to say it - she's already got her Daddy wrapped around her finger!  The three of us are so in love!

I'm not quite ready to post photos of her just yet; I've e-mailed some to friends and family and a few that requested one.  I really just don't want them to be shared beyond the folks I send photos to myself.  My camera has just come back from repair, so once I get a new memory card and can take a few good shots, I will post some before long.  If I haven't sent you a photo and you'd like to see her, just let me know.  I'll gladly e-mail them, but for now they're staying off the Internet.

Big Four!

My big boy is FOUR!  All week long we'd been talking about our plans for the big day, so his excitement was building up.  We'd head to IHOP for funny face pancakes, then we'd go on the hunt for more Spyro video game characters while Daddy secretly purchased a Power Wheels 4-wheeler for the "big gift."  I baked a cake that I left in the oven too long (in my defense, dinner was delicious and distracting), so I'm having a birthday cake do-over today.  You have to have birthday cake!  We had also originally planned a few hours at Laugh Out Loud, an entertainment/arcade/bowling place in Lawton, but by the time we had our Spyro loot in hand, Jericho was ready to head home and play and open gifts he'd gotten in the mail from family.  This morning he's still celebrating, putting together his Thomas the Train expansion pack.

I'd post pictures, but my camera is still being repaired.  I'm hoping to hear from the Geek Squad any day now, hopefully before the baby comes!

Things on Tuesday

Loving:

• Oklahoma rain
• watching the home building progress across the street, wondering what our new neighbors will be like
• hearing Jericho read his books to me and Daddy

Loathing:

• cabin fever
• Michael having CQ (24-hour duty) twice in one week
• pregnancy-induced carpal tunnel syndrome
• not being able to settle on a name for this baby