November in Review

Another month has come and gone but this month will always, always stand out as one of the best months ever. The highlight of course being that we welcomed our little Evie into our arms and into this world.

This post will reflect on 3 main memories from this November: Evie's birth story, the couple of following weeks and then Thanksgiving.

Birth Story
Let's start with babies. So Evie's due date was the 3rd of November. I NEVER in a million years thought I'd make it to her due date, much less past it. I was dilated, constantly having contractions and all bets even by the doctors was to go early. By the time I finished with work (the Wednesday before Halloween) I had a time set to have a procedure done which would hopefully induce labor. Well clearly it didn't do anything so I had an induction set for the day after my due date. I also never thought I'd be Ok with an induction, WRONG. I was so uncomfortable and so oddly anxious to see this baby. Also my OB was on call that weekend and I really was hoping she could deliver this baby too. We tried to go on Friday morning for my induction (we dropped Ellie off at John's parents the night before) but when I called for the final OK, it turns out the inn was full. No open rooms. Hmmm...OK. I was actually really upset. John took the day off still and we ended up just spending it together which was really nice and needed. Saturday morning roll around, phone call #2 to the hospital. This time its a go!

Fast forward to getting checked in and seeing that I was 2-3 cm already. Oh and as I was being admitted, my water broke. In the end it seems like I would have been coming regardless! HA! My nurse kept asking if I was ready for an epidural. My contractions at that point were still irregular and I had been juuuust given the lowest dose of Pitocin. I wanted to walk to get things started. Side note: Don't forget second labors can go much faster that the first-which was really, really long. I never got to walk. The contractions picked up fast and furious and I was asking, and then pleading for a working epidural. Longish story short the first epidural didn't work and I dilated to 10 cm without pain relief. Now let me say that women all the world round do this and its OK, no problem to them. I wasn't expecting this to be a basically medication free labor so it was needless to say a rough few hours. I screamed, cried and pleaded. The second epidural worked(!!)  plus a fine dose of Stadol before that so I was pretty out of it and super drowsy for about an hour? before the baby was delivered. There were a few other things which happened but the important thing is that a healthy, beautiful baby girl was born just 6 hours or so after my water broke! I was so much more alert during this delivery than with Ellie's. With hers, I had been awake for about 2 days straight so things were kinda blurry but I woke up enough for Evie's to be very aware. But Evie was born quickly, was very alert and nursing well right away.

I said it before and I'll say it again, deliveries while so, so beautiful and sweet are also just as scary and situations are poised to change at any moment. The 20 minutes or so we waited to get Evie out were a little frightening but we were in good hands, well cared for the whole time. I'm so thankful she is here and we are both well! What a blessing.

We went home the next day after a quiet and very nice stay at the hospital. Ahh, now we begin that wonderful postpartum time!

The same bonnet Ellie wore home

John mercifully took a week off so I had help for a few days but then he worked from home part of that week so I was pretty much on my own for the end of his vacation. A nice reality check. JK, it was all fine but for real it's amazing the time split just by adding in a newborn and still recovering a bit.  My parents came for a week the Friday after Evie was born and stayed for a week to spend time with grandbabies and to help me out as well. THANKS! By the time my parents got here, I basically had a laundry list of some little "to-dos". Hey, I mean, ready and willing? Sure I'll put you to work! The biggest thing on my list was this large, wooden hap hazard playset in our backyard which needed to be torn down. Once I realized this playset was beyond repair back in April, I had it on my hit list. My dad had a plan to get rid of it and he and my mom set to work over a day and a half. The end result? IT'S GONE!! yay!! (That's a lot of work! chainsaw to pieces, drag to trailer-must be acquired first- and haul to dump which is 20 minutes away in 2 trips-whew).  Also per my request, my dad made a beautiful chalkboard to hang in our dining area, so that was fixed up and then there was lots of cooking, shopping and entertaining children during this time. We were really thankful, esp. since I was still feeling pretty bad for most of that week. It was nice to have the help.

 

As close as Ellie would get to holding Evie lol

John's sister Holly got married to Jonathan on the weekend of the 19th! It was a beautiful, intimate ceremony. We walked into it right on time, which was nice you know since John had to walk his mom down the aisle! The kids were great-Ellie danced the entire night-, the food was awesome and the couple beautiful and happy.

The following Thursday on Thanksgiving, we left for our first road trip as a family of 4 to NC. We left quite early and the trip was not bad at all. A couple of extra stops to nurse a baby and for everyone to go to the restroom and done! Ellie is a great car rider and entertains herself well plus a few toys/activities I bring, snacks and books. Though she is banned from crayons in the carseat for a while...We had of course a wonderful meal with my family (I was honestly sad when it was over! I could eat that food all year round.) and we got to see lots of family which was the best part. Little Evie and Ellie were loved on by many! We stayed through Sunday and took a 10 hour trip home to SC (craziness!) but importantly we made it back safely.

 And some DIY newborn photos just for fun...

Hope you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!

That's about all for now! See you next month ; )

Our Summer ( 1 post, 3 months!)

Happy end of Labor Day weekend everyone! Hope you weren't laboring too hard. I worked this weekend myself but thankfully had today off and so did John! So it was all weekend crammed into a day...but more on that later. I shouldn't get ahead of myself considering this post is a quick catch up of the past 3 months of summer and a admission that most likely from now on, this will be how I run the ye ole blog. Let's face it, even though I plan to work part time for a year or so, we will adding a new family member shortly and I won't pretend like dropping one shift a week will open many doors of blogging possibility! This blog is meant to be a place of keeping up, sharing some thoughts and ideas to family, friends etc. No pressure ; )

Ok so I'll get on with it. This summer...hmmm let's see.

We left off in May after we returned from Alabama. We came back thoroughly anticipating seeing our baby on ultrasound and hearing about their health and of course the gender.

JUNE

And we know...GIRL!! I knew when I saw the ultrasound. Some silent tears of joy and excitement came from me while John stared at the wall. JK. I told him its just because he is a good girl dad which he definitely is. So there you go. See you in November little baby!

Before that, we immediately jumped into redoing Ellie's nursery to a "big girl room" the weekend we got back. It was a success! We painted, put together furniture, and I decorated until it was right. Ellie loves it and her bunk beds. I'll share completed pictures when I FINALLY post a home tour of our new house.

We took Ellie to Blowing Rock, NC to see Thomas the Train at Tweetsie Railroad amusement park. It was so fun and the weather was perfect and Ellie was so excited. She loves some Thomas so we had to go while he was there.

JULY

July 4th weekend my parents came to visit and we had a little home incident from an air conditioning unit that was placed and not connected correctly.

The ceiling partly fell their first night here but we didn't let it damper the whole weekend. We were definitely extremely aggravated and all the what-ifs circled my mind from paying to repairing but I can say now it all worked out. While my parents were here we celebrated their birthdays and grilled out. On July 3rd we went to Table Rock State Park to swim and picnic. On the 4th my parents had to leave and I worked that night some so that was our holiday weekend. A fine time had by all.

Next we celebrated the upcoming 

wedding of John's sister Holly and her fiancé Jonathan. We had a big cookout dinner at our home with appetizers, a meal and a dessert bar! It was a wonderful night and we were so happy to host our family finally! Oh... and John and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary that day. Cheers!

The next day we got to see my cousins Ashley and Drew and their daughter Joelle as well as my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jim. It was wonderful to catch up and have a quick brunch at our house. It was as entertaining as ever to see our daughters together. They are about 6 months apart, just like Ashley and I!

Drinking buddies 😉

The next weekend we left for summer vacation to Edisto Island, SC. We spent a week with John's family relaxing, beaching, eating, napping and having quiet morning drinking coffee on the porch with a book (me). Ellie loved the water (we got a pool membership that week at a nearby resort) and we had a good time. By the time we got home it was already...

AUGUST

We got our ceiling fixed from last month and a fresh coat of paint on the ceiling! It took 2 days, a bad attitude from yours truly, lots of cleaning afterwards but a beautiful finished product as a result. Ellie and I went to the Children's Museum and Library to try and help stay out of the way during construction...

We went to a Greenville Drive baseball game courtesy of John's company! I had been wanting to go, you know stadium food, and he finally scored some tickets. We thought it was going to get rained out but alas it only started about 30 minutes late for the delay. We made it through 3 or 4 innings which was enough. It was late and I felt like I was just getting hotter the longer we were there lol.

We spent the next day starting on the nursery. We painted, put together the crib and arranged the furniture. I also ended up washing some clothes, blankets, etc and started to organize the closet.
This had been a goal of mine to set-up/redo the kid rooms this summer so it was nice to just about be there. Besides, once I'm heading towards the end of a pregnancy, I don't really want to be worried about finishing xyz if possible. I just want it all done and sit back to enjoy the time before there are big changes and new baby is here!

Ellie and I went to our 1st tea party...

At the end of this month, we went to NC to visit my family. We hadn't been since February when we celebrated Ellie's birthday so we were overdue for a trip. We had a nice weekend with family and got to meet the newest member of our family: Baby Solomon! 

By the time we got back, it was practically September. The summer went by pretty quickly and was a good one but a HOT one. Not that I need to tell anyone that but for real. HOT. We spent some days inside, some days in the little pool and sometimes just staying out for entertainment. Oh! We also *pretty much* potty trained Ellie in August after vacation and while its not perfect, it is much better than what I kinda expected. I'd say most days she is 95% there. But we still have our regression days that just about drive me crazy. 

She is changing so much now it seems. This is just one more step to make a her "big girl". She is pretty incredible that little Ellie. She is going to be such a good big sister. I don't know about the transition at first but after we all adjust, she will be so good. Anyway! Signing off for now and expecting to write a September post before a home tour but it's coming in October! I should think...

Hope you all had a beautiful summer and great farewell weekend to the unofficial end of it!