1 Week Later...

So we've reached our 1 week mark with having Gwen and I have to say this week has been SO much better than my first week with Cara. I honestly didn't realize how much of a hard time I had with Cara. I just thought I was a little extra anxious and figured it was due to the big life change we were going through. Now that I've gone through another first week with a newborn I can see it isn't as hard as I was making it out to be.

So here's my experience of our first week with Gwen

• The biggest thing that helped me with this time around was a friend who had her second baby earlier this year told me that going from 0 to 1 was much more difficult for her and that the second baby was easier because you just make them fit your regular routine. They just kind of fall into it with you. That was the best thing I could hear as that's exactly what we've done. Granted figuring out some things there's a bit of a curve (bedtime with 2 kids when we both helped with Cara's has been an adjustment for example), but for the most part I still read a story at 7 for Cara (with Gwen next to me so she's hearing it too).

• The hardest thing for me with having a second baby is that towards the end of my pregnancy I had a hard time keeping up with Cara at all so I kept saying I couldn't wait to have the baby out of me so I could play with her again. Unfortunately, a newborn takes up a bunch of time so I still hardly have time to play with Cara and that's made me a little sad. In fact, the only times I've cried during this post partum is when I've been in pain or when I just really miss having any time to play with Cara. Luckily as the week has gone on I've found little moments to have with just me and her while I leave Gwen with Larry and that's really made a difference.

Putting up Christmas together :)

• I had to have a C-section this time around and the recovery for that has been REALLY hard! Sure, there are things that are more simple (TMI but the first poop is MUCH more difficult with a vaginal birth), but oh man does the pain feel so much worst this time around. At one point I was feeding Gwen and Cara went to jump onto the couch, but also on me and so I had to put my arm out to protect Gwen and it made Cara fall to the floor (queue the ultimate mom guilt and heart break when she started to cry), but just that exertion made me feel like I had ripped open some stitches. I also have the split ab muscles again and since I had the surgery I have to wait to start fixing those and that can be a bit frustrating since I wanted to start on those right away. I had a goal to have it as corrected as possible by the time I go back to work. So I have to really hope my 6 week checkup goes really well so I can start them up then and really crush that split!

Much less swelling this time around at least!

• I have been able to breastfeed this time around and holy moly is it one of the most amazing things ever! I told Larry one night about how my bond with Gwen seemed to kick in quicker than with Cara (to be clear I absolutely loved both of them from the second I saw them, but feeling loving feelings and feeling bonded to them are two separate things). Larry's response: "well yeah, they say when you breastfeed it creates a bond with the baby" and I was so shocked I didn't think of that before! It seems to be so true. Even though this means I'm the one getting up during the night, I still absolutely love being able to nurse her. And I love just putting something on Netflix and just kind of relax while she feeds at night.

• Speaking of night feedings, Gwen has been a great sleeper. She only gets up once or twice a night, which is SO nice!  She also hasn't been losing weight (as of a weight check she had on Saturday she was still only down 5-6%). I've been surprised the night feedings haven't bothered me, but I honestly still feel pretty well rested by the time the morning comes. I can't tell if I'm just used to not having as much sleep because of having Cara or if I genuinely am having a better time with it this time around (since she only gets up twice at most I get quite a few hours of sleep between each feeding and the morning so I feel great). She does make quite a bit of noise throughout the night, but it's nice. I don't feel as anxious about if she's breathing at night so if we don't get the owlet working I don't mind as much if we just turn it off. The only issue we have is that she doesn't like being cold, but I have to have a fan on to sleep so we make sure the fan is facing a different way and keep the heat up for her.

Sleeping babies are just the cutest!

• Gwen's cry is so different than Cara's. She screeches like a pterodactyl which is like the least fun sound of all time haha. Luckily she's freaking adorable so it's not hard to want to keep her happy. She also is becoming quite the twin of Cara. She's not exactly the same physically speaking, but there are quite a few similarities that I'm really looking forward to see how she's progresses as she grows up.

Thanksgiving 2018

Thanksgiving this year was a tad different than usual years. I mean we started the week out in the hospital having our little Gwen. Even though we were released from the hospital in time for Thanksgiving, having a new baby in the house leaves little time for actually cooking without losing your mind. I mean they are boring and sleep a lot in the beginning, but she also had absolutely no routine so there was nothing to let us know when we'd have a free moment to cook a decent dinner (especially when it takes all day long).

Luckily, I had the right mind set before she was born to schedule a pickup dinner from Harmon's for today. When we thought we were being induced on Tuesday we figured we'd be lucky to be home on Thursday so to be safe we'd plan dinner for Friday. This did push all our normal holiday plans back a day (I usually spend Black Friday decorating for Christmas) but sometimes you have to compromise and be okay with changes like that. I'm so glad there are places out there that will take care of the meal for you, the one we ordered included everything we'd normally have (aside from whole olives and eggnog, but we made sure to get those ahead of time as well) and so it made it so much easier for us which is nice in a home with a newborn.

Thanksgiving Dinner has been delivered :)

Since we got home Wednesday we really lucked out and Marie offered to bring us some of the left over food they had from their dinner (including some really yummy apple pie). They ended up bringing us quite a bit and it was SO nice to have a real Thanksgiving-type meal on the actual day. It felt so weird to see everyone post on social media about their dinners while we were just acting like it was a normal Thursday. Although I did make sure to watch the parade in the morning - that was an easy one to make sure we did.

However, with how much Marie brought over and everything we got today I will say we are going to have leftovers for days...maybe even weeks at this rate. Luckily Cara seems to like all the food so that helps us get rid of it haha.

My dinner plate pic - just to feel included haha

Anyways, Happy Thanksgiving out there from the four (FOUR!!) of us. It's going to be an interesting holiday season in this Bradsby house this year :)

The closest thing I have to a family pic from this year

Presenting our little Gwen Harper

So bringing Gwen into this world was a completely different (and way crazier) experience than having Cara. Warning, this one is going to be long as well so be prepared for all the fun details!



First family photo together!

Let me start with my second to last midwife appointment. It was on the 12th with Mandi. I went into it wanting to officially see if we could schedule an induction. Even though I REALLY wanted to wait until I went into labor naturally, I decided it would be best if we had a date for our work and Marie (who was watching Cara for us) again and at the ultrasound the week before "minion" was measuring a full 40 weeks and already a whopping 8 lbs! I was told by the ultrasound tech that if I said I was done that they might do something for me. I felt like I was in enough pain that I had earned the right to at least see if I could be induced.

So right as Mandi walked in and asked how I was doing I told her I was achy, sore, and feeling pretty much done. I swear to you, it was like magic when she responded with "yeah...how do you feel with being done next Monday, the 19th?" That was the exact date I was thinking because that way Larry could start his 2 week leave on a Monday (rather than middle of the week) and we would have a last weekend to get things done. I left that appointment feeling so giddy and excited. I was feeling a little nervous having an exact date, but I was mostly giddy and excited. We made our last minute plans, got the week starting out right, everything was going great! Then I get a call on Thursday night from Mandi saying that Monday was actually really full and I was put on the list for Tuesday (we'd get a call Monday saying when we needed to go in). I was bummed it got moved back, but it gave us another day to get things done so it was okay in the long run. The only thing I kind of stressed out about is if we'd be in the hospital on Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) or be out in time to have our feast(which we were planning on ordering from Harmon's since we had NO intentions of going out with a newborn). I decided to plan to pick it up on Friday instead of Thursday to avoid any stress when dealing with a newborn. My big goal was to keep a positive attitude and see what we could do to help us (but mostly me because of hormones and all) calm and stress free during the 100 days of hell you have with a newborn so that meal was a big one to help with that.

So Monday (the 19th) I had an appointment with Stevie, who was on call for Tuesday so she'd be the one at least starting our labor with us. Her and I talked about keeping the baby head down and making sure everything was looking good for delivery. She checked my measurements, the heartbeat, and did a mini ultrasound to confirm baby was definitely head down. I left the appointment feeling good about going into the hospital the next day. Fast forward like 10 minutes later when I got a call from the midwife on call (Erika - this was Monday still, remember that) saying they actually had an opening that day at 2 and wanted to know if I wanted to come in. I was FREAKING out! I wasn't ready - we had some cleaning to do, some packing to do, a movie to watch, we were planning on going out to get dessert once Cara got up from her nap. Then I started thinking Cara naps until 2:30. If we went in at 2 I wouldn't get to say good bye to her one last time and it made me tear up thinking she'd go down for a nap and wake up without us. I just felt this wasn't right and was planning on calling them back to say no, but then decided I really needed to talk to Larry first.

When I got home to tell him, he was pretty excited. He really wanted to get it started and kept telling me to ignore everything telling me it wasn't right and let's just go in (he was almost bouncy about it). So I called the midwife and told her we'd take it at 2 and to let's plan with that. Here's where the REALLY stressful part came in: Larry had to contact his mom about coming to watch Cara and suddenly her phone didn't work at all! She wasn't getting texts, calls were going straight to voicemail, and we had no way of getting a hold of her. She told Larry to call Jim's (her husband) phone, but we didn't have his number. We tried contacting Larry's brother's to see if they had the number, but neither of them were answering. I was FREAKING out trying to get a whole day's worth of stuff done in an hour with NO plans on what was going on with Cara. We finally decided she was going to need to come to the hospital with us while we continued to try and get a hold of Marie. Luckily, Larry's older brother finally answered and his mom was able to call us from his phone. I realized it was kind of lucky we got the 2 o'clock slot since the hospital had called me earlier that day (back when we were supposed to be induced on Tuesday) saying they'd call us Tuesday sometime (could be as early as 5 AM could be later than that and if we didn't hear by noon we should call in) to let us know when they had an opening and obviously at 5 AM this would have been a worst situation.

So we go into the hospital, get set up, get Larry's mom to meet us there and take Cara and get this show on the road. Larry gave his phone to his mom so that we had a way to keep in touch with her so we at least had that solution. It was a really rough start that I wish we could've prevented, but it worked out. We even found out we were at the bottom of the list for Tuesday so if there were enough random labors that day we could've possibly been moved to Wednesday (which would have been even more annoying since we were both wasting valuable maternity/paternity leave on these days) so it worked out well we went in early.

So Erika and the nurses come in and tell me they want to start the Pitocin, let the labor start, and check on me. Once she was in a good position they'd break my water and REALLY get the show on the road. Every time she checked me she kept saying the head wasn't quite low enough so she wasn't comfortable breaking my water and they'd continue on with the Pitocin to get her into the birth canal more. Well then we waited a little too long and she started to move more transverse. So now the midwives were stressing that we may need to turn her and put on a belly girdle to keep her in place, but she wasn't turned enough to really say that was necessary just yet and that hopefully the Pitocin would help get her in a good position. After two hours of the contractions I had decided I wanted my epidural (I was trying to go as long as possible but after a couple hours Erika made me think that we could be breaking my water soon and things would be going REALLY quickly after that so we shouldn't wait much longer). So after the epidural they check me (this was 4 1/2 hours into labor now) and I'm only 4 cm dilated, 80% effaced, and she's still a tiny bit to the side (she was trying to come down shoulder first for some reason). This was frustrating, but they were determined that once she got more into the birth canal she'd be in the right position and we'd be okay.

This was taken right after Larry left and about 45 minutes
Before my water broke. Just watching Hallmark and chillin'

So at this point it's almost 7 o'clock at night. We were talking about how Larry should run home to help put Cara down to bed, maybe eat some dinner, get a shower, etc. etc. He had quite a few things on his list that he'd like to do and since I wasn't dilating very far we figured it was as good a time as any to get going. I had been watching Hallmark Christmas movies this whole time on the TV so he was happy to get going (we figured he'd text me from his phone - that his mom still had - when he left the house to come back to the hospital so we weren't totally in the dark about it), but left saying "don't have a baby without me!" I joked that there's no way I'd progress that quickly so he was good to go. So there I am, watching Christmas movies, relaxing through my contractions when at 7:30 I hear the absolute weirdest popping sound and then felt water immediately gushing all in the bed. It HAD to have been my water breaking (or maybe my catheter falling out?). I call the nurses and tell them that they may need to check because I think my water just broke. I'm tempted to text Larry's phone to let him know, but decided not to since I wasn't fully sure what was going on. At this point I had a new midwife that was on call - Catherine - who was still coming to check on me, but the nurses decided to check my cervix and found out I was measuring a 7 in dilation - SEVEN! Like what? I was a 4 for hours and now I'm a seven? They asked where dad was and when I told them he left they told me to text him to say he might want to turn around soon because this was happening. This labor started out slow going and I wondered if it would be as long as it was with Cara, but then this happened and we were only 5 1/2 hours into it so I was pretty shocked. Ten minutes later Catherine shows up and checks me and says I'm now measuring at a 9. WHAT??? So I text Larry's phone to say "hey if Larry's there, tell him to turn around now! This is happening!"

Just like with Cara I got SO exhausted, I'm not sure what it is, but even with an epidural the contractions just seem to take it out of me to the point that keeping my eyes open just doesn't happen. So I'm exhausted, feeling short on air, my body just ran through the ringer and they tell me that this poor baby isn't fully in the birth canal yet so they want me to try and push to get her in it. I do what I feel is pushing (even though it really felt like nothing) and they tell me that pushed her down, but still not far enough. I go to push a second time and they are just worried that she's not coming down the right way still. Then all of a sudden her heartrate plummets. Like going from 130 to 60 plummet and they do NOT like that. They tell me they want to take me to an operating room and see if the heartrate won't go back up. They don't say we're doing a c-section, just that they want to watch it in an operating room "just in case". So they tell Larry to stay in the room and they'd come back for him as they wheel me all around the hospital (later Larry told me he had this dream one of the nights before this where something went wrong with me and he was stuck with two babies on his own and he didn't want to tell me because he didn't want to put that out there and so when they left him in the room he didn't like how it felt like he was in there for so long and was a tiny bit worried his dream might have possibly been happening). All I remember at this point is looking around and seeing everyone moving very quickly to clean themselves, get scrubs on, get me on some other bed, get a spinal put in my epidural line, and they are just rushing around. I was trying to look around for Larry, but I wasn't really sure what was going on so I just looked all around at so many new faces everywhere. Finally I asked them if my husband was coming and they said he would be there shortly and I heard him click his tongue and looked over and saw him dressed in white and was just so glad he was there. I was waiting to hear if I was actually going to have a C-section or not, but it seemed like they were just going to do that rather than tell me what was happening (guess that's what happens when it's more of an emergency situation rather than scheduled). They put this sheet up that was like RIGHT in my face and I could see things being thrown at/on that sheet, but I had no idea what was happening. So Larry comes to my head and looks over the sheet and I ask him what they are doing. He tells me that they are cutting me open. I thought he was being a smart ass so I was about to say that I knew I was getting a C-section at that point, but like what were they doing at that second and then I realized they could very well be cutting me open so all I said was "like right now? They are cutting me right this second?" and he said yeah - it was SO weird how I felt absolutely none of it. I had heard you normally feel pressure or movement, but I felt nothing. I was worried because I didn't tell him to grab my phone to take pictures or anything and his mom had his phone so I was sad thinking we were going to miss having pictures of all these moments. After maybe 5 minutes I could hear a tiny little cry and realized that was my baby. It was the craziest thing to hear it, but not see her (and to be honest I was SO loopy once I got into this room so all of it felt like a really weird experience. Almost unreal to the fullest extent). Larry walked away from me (to go see her and help them with whatever) and finally came back and I saw he had my phone in his hand. I was SO happy he got pictures of her first moments that I could've cried...but, again, I was really loopy and couldn't really even keep my eyes open let alone ask questions.

After what felt like so long they finally brought her over to me so I could see her face. When I spoke she looked right at me. She totally knew I was her mom. She had this cute little round face and big eyes and looked almost nothing like Cara to me. I expected her to look a little like her, but I felt like this was a whole different person entirely (yeah, I know she is, but it felt weird to really see that and feel it). My arms were SO shaky from the spinal (they shook the entire time I was on the table) so I was scared to touch her and accidentally scratch her or anything so I just stared at her staring at me...when my eyes would actually open that is haha. The nurse lady took a few pics of the 3 of us as I tried my best to smile AND open my eyes at the same time haha.

They finally sewed me up, moved me to a new bed, and wheeled me to my labor room (I had to stay there for an hour and a half before they could move me to my recovery room). I felt so bad because they put Gwen in my arms as they wheeled me to the room, but I was shaking SO much I kept asking if I was shaking her too much. They kept assuring me they'd take her away if that was the case, but it literally felt like I was an earthquake to her.

So at this point it was past 9:30, I wanted to sleep and focus on getting ourselves (and this new baby) on a good routine, but they kept asking me questions and going over things until they could move me over. Finally they moved me to the recovery room and it was too late to order food so we just passed out. They left Gwen in the room with us (which we normally send her to the nursery, but we were so tired it just didn't matter) and that's when we learned that she has the loudest voice and some seriously powerful lungs on her! There were a lot of crying moments from her that Larry (the best husband ever) would check on and make sure she was okay. I am also determined to figure out the whole breast feeding thing so we tried that a couple times. We were more successful this time than we were with Cara so I was feeling pretty good about that.

Today has been a lot of resting, recovering, and watching Hallmark Christmas movies haha. Larry went home in the morning to get Cara up and bring her in to meet her sister (we didn't want to burden Marie too much with her or have Cara go through a huge change in routine right before a bigger change of having a new baby in the house) so Gwen and I got some good bonding time. Still working on figuring out the breastfeeding thing and how often to do it and how to get her to wake up to eat, but it was mostly cuddle sessions (skin-to-skin is just my absolute favorite thing to do with a newborn). We made sure when Larry came in with Cara that Gwen was in her hospital "bassinet" and I got to say hi to Cara before anything else happened. She was so excited to see me and seeing her smile made my morning! We hung out with her and Marie for a bit and then when it was time for her lunch and nap time Larry took her home and we sent Gwen to the nursery so I could get a good nap (I barely got any sleep during the night because I have these stupid compression things on my leg to avoid getting blood clots, but it makes a noise every couple of minutes and then the machine my IV is hooked up to started making noise so I probably only got like 2 hours last night). That little 2 hour nap I got was so amazing and perked me right up. It also has kept me energized enough to make it to bedtime tonight. Unfortunately, Gwen gets some spit ups that are scary and since Larry will be taking Cara home tonight (we let Marie go home, back to her bed, after they came in with Cara this morning so Larry is on Cara duty while I'm here) and I can't really get up very quickly at all we're going to have Gwen sleep in the nursery and have them bring her to me when she's hungry so that I can get some good sleep between feedings and she'll be watched closely enough.

I absolutely love doing Skin to Skin with new babies!

Cara meeting her sister!

I missed my little girl!

Love the tiny hands!

Such a cute, peaceful little girl!

So overall, the birthing experience this time was SO much more different and way crazier! I can tell recovery is going to be really rough, I'm not super happy to have all these stitches and new pains to get through, but honestly - I'd go through it all over again in an instant for this little girl! I'm absolutely smitten with her and I'm so excited to see how we function as a new family of 4. Luckily I should be getting out of here tomorrow so we can get started right away :)

9 Months (weeks 36 - 40)



Can you see the exhaustion already kicking in yet?? Haha

Compare/Contrast: Oh man the aches and pains this time!! I've developed PGP (pelvic girdle pain) this time around, which is saying my ligaments are loosening up and getting ready for birth (guess I never really went through that with Cara because I sure don't remember this). Basically the spots where my legs meet my body (on the inside - near the groin area) hurt pretty bad. It hurts to get out of bed, it hurts to get in the car, it can hurt to walk up stairs, and it can hurt to put clothes on. So if I have to stand on one leg I end up feeling this awful pain. Pregnancy can sure take a toll on your body huh? Glad I'm in my last month!

She's still pretty active, quite a bit more than I remember with Cara. I'm just barely starting to get some swelling in my legs. I only notice because I have a pretty big sock indent in my legs at the end of the day haha. I also think I'm starting to get some stretch marks on my left thigh...I really hope not though. I can see the marks, but I can't get close enough to see if they are stretch marks or something with my veins.

It's funny because ever since the time change I can see how there is going to be a big difference between my post partum with Cara and then with this one. It's dark by dinner time and, while I'm not scared of the dark, I do get a little anxious when night time comes and thinking of having a newborn at that time. I don't know how best to explain it, but it just feels...different. But I know we'll be able to figure it out. I'm just glad to have a very helpful partner in Larry that makes me feel better when I'm feeling anxious.

The funniest similarity with both babies is the pregnancies are ending in inductions...apparently I really am impatient (or just THAT much of a planner).

Best Moments This Month: Oh man is it nice to say I'm in the home stretch of this pregnancy! That's definitely a great moment to know.

Going to my 36 week appointment and finding out the placenta has moved so it's no longer too close to the cervix was pretty great. Little minion is definitely squished in there, but doesn't show too many signs of coming out anytime soon. She also has the chunkiest cheeks ever! I also got to make all the rest of my appointments so we have all of that scheduled for now. They did say I was dilated to a 1 and 60-70% effaced, but I know that doesn't necessarily mean anything. They also said she was 6 lbs 15 oz at that point, but I know they are usually of by about a pound there so she was probably just barely 6 lbs.

Then we got to my 37 week appointment, where I was suddenly measuring 6 weeks ahead (whoa!), so the midwife wanted me to get another ultrasound that week to check my fluid measurements. I went the next day and turns out she was measuring a full 40 weeks already (they measured her head, belly, and leg a few times and all came out to 40 weeks) and was now over 8 lbs!!

After that appointment I mentioned to Larry that I think I wanted to see if we could be done at my next appointment. He requested that if we did schedule to be induced either make it a Friday after his work or a Monday. So I went into my 38 week appointment with the request that we get induced on Monday (the 19th) so that I could use that last week as a good cleaning/packing/getting things ready week and then we could have another weekend to have a date night, get last minute things done, and just enjoy being a family of 3. Luckily the second I told that midwife I was feeling very achy and done she said "what do you think about being done on Monday?" I told her she read my mind and we got that scheduled! Unfortunately, it ended up getting moved to Tuesday (the 20th), but I like the idea of her being born on the 20th. It means all girls in our family (so far) have their birthday on an even number (I'm 18th, Cara is the 2nd, and Minion is the 20th...as long as she doesn't take too long to get here)

Really all of week 38 was great. I got the good news about being induced on Monday. Tuesday morning Cara woke up crying at 6:30 and part of me wanted to just ignore her until it was time to get her up while another part of me realized I should just go get her and call it an early morning. Then I realized she doesn't know it's morning so I just picked her up, rubbed her back, and put her back down and she actually went back to sleep for another hour! I've never done that before and it worked like a charm and I was so excited. Wednesday we decided to finally let Cara sleep with a blanket we got when we found out we were having a girl (with her) and I hadn't opened it yet so I felt bad so when I gave it to her and she loved it so much we decided it would be a good night time blanket and it has helped her sleep so much better at night! Thursday was when I got the call about moving my induction date, which wasn't great, but we were able to make it work and I had a feeling she would be born on the 20th anyways. Friday was Friday, it was our last work day (we decided to keep our leave starting on Monday still) so how can you complain about that? It was a great week.

Doesn't she just look so comfortable??

Now that we have a scheduled date I'm feeling much better about being in so much pain and knowing it is definitely coming to an end. I also am happy that we can, again, tell work and family and stuff when to expect us to be out so that they can prepare as best as possible. Especially to let Marie know when we'll need her to watch Cara.

Oh and our last family date night on the 17th to Wallaby's was a great night/day as well! Getting the massage at the pedicure place during Cara's nap was great and to follow it up with a yummy dinner was even better. It was our last weekend as a family of 3 and even though I'm feeling anxious about the big change coming (I don't do well with change), I'm very excited to see this girlie!!

What I'm Looking Forward To: The fact that December will be a recoup/Watch Christmas movies/get on a good schedule month and then I get to start getting back into the swing of things in January. So basically a fresh start of a new year mixed with getting used to having a new baby all at once. Might sound overwhelming, but I'm glad it's lining up together like that and I look forward to that time.

Obviously, I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing this little girl!! We don't have any 3D ultrasound pics of her so we get to be more surprised than we were with Cara. I did get to see her face a couple of times on the ultrasounds I got towards the end, but all I could put together was she has the same nose as Cara and super chunky cheeks so I'm REALLY excited to see what she'll look like with just those in my head.

I also look forward to trying to handle two kids all on my own. Larry is only taking 2 weeks off for paternity leave when she's born (he'll take his other 2 weeks off in February when I go back to work to adjust to having the 2 on his own), so I'm hoping in January to take Cara and Minion out on my own to feel like a super mom (or get super stressed out...we'll see what ends up happening) haha.


******** So that's it. My last monthly update for this pregnancy. I wish I could say this one went by quickly, but it didn't feel like it. I feel like I've been pregnant for 2 years with no break in between. While this next phase is going to be a very big adventure for us (2 under 2!!) I'm so looking forward to getting into it and getting into a routine with the newest little addition to our family. I can't believe I'll be saying we're a family of 4 and I'm a mom to two kids pretty soon! Wish us luck with delivery and that she's as healthy as she's been so far. ********

Last Family Date Night

So just like we did before Cara made her grand appearance, I decided we needed to do one last family date night. Yes, we have a family date night each month anyways, but this one would be the weekend before we were going to have another member in our lives and since I wasn't sure when I'd feel comfortable going out with the new baby (in the height of flu season) I figured we should go somewhere that might be a little crowded rather than low-key.

They opened a new Wallaby's restaurant near us and I figured that would be perfect! We could try a new food place, get into the crowds, and get it all out of our system. Let me tell you, the food did not disappoint either!

AWFUL angle on me...but it was all I got to commemorate the night

Really the whole day today was good. We went to Costco to get some eggnog (they have the absolute best kind and we had run out) and some flannel sheets for our bed (I figured some new sheets with a new baby will feel good. Especially warm ones for the winter). I ended up finding a couple outlet "extenders" that give us more outlets to plug in all the new monitors we're going to need in our room (with alarm clocks, phones, etc.) and some socks for Larry (who really needs them). Then, during Cara's nap I went and got my pedicure I was in desperate need of. Getting the massage from the chair and the leg massage from the lady was amazing! I didn't realize how bad my back hurt and it was worth the "you having 1 or 2 babies?" questions and comments haha.

After Cara woke up we drove to visit Uncle Andy and Rachel for a bit. I think having a baby in their house was a little overwhelming for them, but overall it was fun to visit them once before this new baby comes. We headed straight to dinner after that visit and luckily the place wasn't TOO crowded for a Saturday night. Tons of families there too so we weren't disturbing too many date nights haha. We ended up getting the sampler with 3 meats, a 1/2 rack of ribs, 4 sides, and 3 rolls and it was so yummy and perfect for all 3 of us. Cara seemed to especially like the mac n cheese and the roll with the cinnamon sugar spread.

I did start to get a little emotional during the dinner realizing soon we'd have two kids and Cara would no longer be getting all of our attention. I've heard of so many people going through that and I honestly hadn't even felt an inkling of it before, in fact I didn't even really understand how you could feel that way when all I could focus on was how awesome it was that Cara would finally have a little playmate. But it hit me hard at dinner that she's been so used to both of us feeding her, changing her, reading to her, all of those things and soon we'd have to split that attention and I really really hope she can adjust well. I mean I'm still in that "gosh I love this child of mine so much I could just explode...could I really feel that all over again?". It's surprising how quickly these feelings can hit.

Luckily, I've been assured several times that all that is possible and all of it is completely justified and will go away/make sense after #2 is born and I honestly can't wait for that. Yes, I'm nervous for the newborn days and being exhausted, but I'm happy to see these two girlies become friends, even if they only love each other because they have to some days :)