We're still at the hospital but hoping to go home today.

A little more about what happened: I'm documenting this here for me more than anything. So the following may be a bit boring. :)

Originally I was scheduled for my C-section on the 20th, but Thursday the 12th was a rough day. I didn't feel well most of the day and had mild contractions and cramping all day long. About 5 o'clock that night it started getting a lot more intense. So much so that I knew we needed to just go to Labor and Delivery to check things out. When we got to the hospital I was just 1cm and 70% effaced, but I was still having regular contractions. They gave me medication that would slow down the contractions and if it wasn't true labor it would stop them. They slowed throughout the night but didn't stop completely, so my Dr. decided to go ahead and do the section.

This ended up being a very good thing because they discovered I had a uterine window, which basically mean I was getting a tear in my uterus. So I'm very thankful things played out like they did because if my uterus had of ruptured it would have been a very bad situation for the baby and for me. This does bring up concerns and precautions for any possible future pregnancies, but I'll get a chance to talk with my dr. more about it later.

I haven't downloaded any more of the pictures we've taken over the last couple days, but here's one more of Big Sister meeting Abigail.

Tuesday

Last night went much better with the new bed. I actually ended up leaving and closing the door while she was still awake. She got up crying like her little heart was broken, but within 5 minutes there was complete silence. I gave her about 30 minutes to get good and asleep and then went in to check on her. I had no idea if she'd be in the bed or on the floor. She was sound asleep under the covers in her bed. She woke up once at 4am this morning, but once I took her back to bed it only took a couple of minutes and she was back asleep. So a very big improvement from the last few nights.

Took these pictures this morning. She has such a sweet little face. In the 2nd one I asked her to show me her boo boo. She looks so pitiful, but that was a very brief moment, as I snapped the 3rd picture just seconds later.




This picture ended up really blurry and the profile of my face looks really strange! But here I am at 8 months.


And finally, my pages I did over the weekend.





Hope everyone is having a good week!

The Last Few Days..

Have been relaxing, fun, busy, stressful, and tiring all in one.

First, the toddler bed woes: These are the stressful and tiring aspects.
We put Natalie in the toddler bed last Thursday night. She absolutely wouldn't stay in it without me in there, so I figured for the first few nights I'd stay and then slowly start weening her off of needing me. It worked pretty well. She was asleep within 30 minutes. She did wake up at 2:30 am, but I took her back to bed, told her she had to go back to sleep in her big girl bed and she was out within 3 or 4 minutes. The 2nd night got skipped because she ended up going to spend the night with her Uncle and Aunt and cousins. The 3rd night she went to sleep ok, but starting around 3am we went through a cycle of: wake up, get up screaming, I'd take her back to bed, she'd go to sleep, I'd go back to bed, 5 minutes later she was up again. We did this until nearly 5am. And then last night, was almost a repeat, except the cycle started around 1am and lasted til about 3am. I'm at a bit of a loss about what to do, except just keep on in hopes that she'll adjust and stop waking up so much.

Of course one added little problem is that she didn't get her regular naps on Saturday or Sunday. Which resulted in 2 hour meltdowns on both Saturday night and Sunday night. We've NEVER had to take her out of a restaurant for acting up or to discipline her, and we eat out 2-3 times a week, but last night John had to during one of her meltdowns. She was screaming, crying, and throwing food and her sippy cup. So, now that we're back on a regular routine this week and she WILL be getting her normal naps, I'm hoping that will improve the nightime situation too.

That was the not so fun part of the weekend. Now on to the fun part.
Since Natalie stayed with family Friday night and most of Saturday, I scrapped and took it easy. John had a class he had to go to for work on Saturday, so had the house to myself. It was strangely quiet, but nice.

Then yesterday afternoon, my family threw me a little baby shower for upcoming arrival. Most of the better pics were of the kiddos. Here are a couple of pics from that.

Natalie and her cousin Julia

My Aunt and her grandbaby.

Me with my two cousins who hostessed the shower.

Two things about baby#2 I don't think I've mentioned yet: We finally decided on a name. Abigail Morgan. AND at my last doctor appointment, the C-section was scheduled for June 20th. So unless I go into labor before then, that's the day. I need to take another profile pic. I'm most definitely pregnant. LOL!

The not So Good Ones

Unedited and in true form,
In an attempt to take some 18 month pictures:

We tried to keep her happy with raisins. And so we have the shot with who knows how many in the mouth.

And this is my personal favorite, just because it's a great picture, but uh, well, the prop/raisin container seems just a tad out of place. LOL!

There are way more like the above, but we did also get this one:

And oh my, I didn't realize I was getting so big:

Every Two Weeks and Shoooes.

I had my baby check up today. Every thing is looking good. Her heart rate was 152, so it's nice and strong. At the end of my appointment, he said I'd start coming in every two weeks and I did a double take. Are we to that point already? Wow, it really has snuck up on me. He mentioned again that I can plan on a C-section in mid-June and we'll decide on the exact date as we get a little closer. We still have no clue what we are going to name her. We don't even really have many ideas. I keep thinking some name is just going to come to me out of the blue, but that hasn't happened yet.

Over the past few days Natalie has decided she likes to walk around in my shoes. She'll put them on and repeatedly say "shoes", and then look at me to confirm that I heard her call them "shoes". Except it comes out more like "shuuuus, or shooooos". In this first pic, that's what she is saying, but I don't know why she looks so perplexed about it. LOL!




And then another one of that pretty face and eyes!

Double Digits and a couple of Layouts

Today, my baby countdown moves into the double digits with 99 days to go. It's actually going to be a little less than that because since I know I'm having a C-section, I already know it will be mid-June. This 2nd time around is going so fast. With your first I guess you have a tendency to obsess over the pregnancy, because it's brand new. But this time, since it doesn't feel like it's been that long ago since I did this pregnancy thing, it's flying by. I'm slowly but surely getting things prepared, but we are gonna have to kick it up a notch in the next couple weeks to get Natalie moved to her new room, so I can then get the nursery prepared.

Here's the belly at 6 months. I just realized all the pics I have this time around don't even show my face, because I've been taking them myself and this is usually what I end up with. I've got to get John behind the camera, so baby #2 knows what I looked like at the time!

And of course I have to add a couple recent layouts. "Ms Independant" is for a challenge at DixiePieces.com We were to choose a layout from their gallery and lift it. I lifted a layout of Kim's.

Once Upon a Time

There was a little girl named Natalie who was waiting to find out if she was going to get a baby brother or baby sister. She wasn't sure what had gone on earlier that day, just that they had watched something fuzzy on a TV and mommy and daddy had gotten excited. But for now, it was lunch time.
So after finishing up lunch. Dad has a little talk with Natalie. "There's something fun we have to tell you Natalie. Soon you will have someone to play with. Now you get to tell our family and friends if your getting a brother or sister."
Natalie wasn't sure what to think when Daddy told her the news, but she was excited to tell everyone, so mommy helped her make a sign, for the announcement...
Mommy is gonna have a baby...........


"Boys are yuck!" thought Natalie. "This calls for a celebration. Bring on the ice cream."


Natalie was enjoying the ice cream, but thoughts of her new baby sister were floating around in her head. "What exactly does this mean?" She wondered. "I'm still daddy's little girl right?"

"Of course, sweet girl." Dad answered. "It just means Daddy's heart's gonna grow a lot."

**********
So much to my surprise, we are having another GIRL! After all, pink is my favorite color.

Meet Baby Wright #2

I am now officially 12 and a half weeks pregnant. While my energy level is not where I want it to be, I am beginning to feel some better. We got a great view today at the ultrasound. If you can't make it out, the baby is on it's back looking up. You should be able to make out the profile of the face on the right, and you can even see the little ear in the center. We saw two hands and two feet and everything is looking good. Even the second time around I am still just as amazed at God's handiwork.