Surprise!!!!!

So, let's talk anatomy scan!  First, and most importantly, baby looked fabulous and perfectly healthy!  Hooray!!  Secondly.......!

Holy $h!z!!!

Did you process that?

It's a girl! 

WOW.  So.  Yea.  Let's just say I still haven't been able to process this!!

Okay, let me back up a little bit.  I'm sure (if anyone is actually reading this), you're probably rolling your eyes saying "team green, yea right".. I really, really wanted to be team green.  I truly did.  Of course there were natural things I worried about.. like, waiting to put together a nursery and painting/choosing a theme for the room, and of course the off chance (hah, off chance!) that it'd be a girl finding time to get clothes, etc.  But, what really got me thinking was actually the exact same reason why I wanted to be team green.. I'll explain.

So many Moms I know that have been team green have raved about the amazing experience in the delivery room where their significant other got to tell them the sex of their baby.  I wanted that surprise so much.  I really did.  I wanted Jason to be the one to say "here's our baby..x".. Jason and I had this conversation several times in the weeks leading up to our scan.. what I worried about was this.. I will be a repeat c/section regardless.  I don't have a choice.  2 precious c/sections and only 14 months in between deliveries here.   That's fine, and I'm okay with that.  The thing is, my experiences with c/section with Owen and Aidan were quite different.  Owen was emergency c/s.. it all happened really quickly, and I do remember being kind of sick during the procedure, but I was still awake/alert enough to remember it.  I remember seeing him after he was born, they brought him to me, I got to kiss him, someone took a picture, etc.. but, with Aidan, it was very different.  I kept experiencing blood pressure drops which would make me feel like I was passing out, so there are a lot of things I don't remember.  I don't remember him being born, or hearing him cry.. I don't actually remember getting to kiss him or see him (actually, I'm pretty sure I didn't).. I was in and out of alertness.. I remember when I sort of woke up Jason and Aidan had already gone to recovery.. I remember that so clearly because I had this tremendous fear shoot through me.. where is my baby..!  But, the nurses quickly said he was perfectly fine and him and Jas were in recovery waiting for me... all I kept thinking about is what happens if this time around turned out more like my experience with Aidan.. and then I "miss" Jason getting to be the one to tell me.. or, what if it was similar to Owen, and if (god forbid) baby has to go to the NICU?  Then I could potentially miss the birth and then miss getting to see her in the first moments..

So, after a lot of anxiety and stress over whether or not to stay team green.. Jason pointed out one very true fact.. is the possible surprise worth 4+ more months of stress and worry?  He was right.. it wasn't.  It was better that we made the decision to just find out together... that way we were able to share that moment!!

SO.. there we are.. in the ultrasound room.. tech taking all her measurements.. I was SO sure it was a boy.. seriously, I would have bet all my savings on that!  I just.. KNEW it!  And then she said.. it's a girl!! Holy crap!  LOL.  I legit was in shock.. we had her check 5 different ways.. because, seriously, I couldn't believe it!! Jason kept saying he knew it was going to be a girl when they were doing the measurements and she was measuring right on track.. and, her head size was normal LOL.  Both my boys always measured 2+ weeks ahead and their heads were ginormous!  I admit, when she was doing the measurments, I had a small flicker inside that thought, "well, that's different from my boys".. but I seriously was not prepared for her to say girl!!

I am so very excited at the thought of welcoming a daughter!  I have always had a very close relationship with my Mom, and I've dreamed of having that one day with my own daughter.  While I'm beyond in love with my boys.. it will be such a special thing to have a daughter now, too! 

I'm still processing though... if I'm totally honest here, I'd be lying if I said I don't still have my doubts!! I just.. I don't know!! It doesn't feel right!  Maybe because I'm just so used to "boys".. I just keep thinking that this has got to be wrong!!! The tech seemed pretty confident.. but, she also kept saying the baby had her legs crossed, so it was hard to get a really good view.. (initially, this is what she said.. and she said she was 90% sure, but we'd take a closer look.. and then proceeded to check 5 different angles lol).. I don't know!!!

I have a sub-optimal re-scan in 2 weeks.. she was all crunched up in a ball and they couldn't get good pictures of her spine, so I have to go back in 2 weeks to try again.. I'll be sure to ask them to re-check.. again, and again, and maybe once more ;-)

Wow.. a baby girl!! Now to start thinking about names!!! And clothes! OMG, have you seen baby girl clothes?!  Insanely adorable.  Oh man.. for my bank accounts sake, I should hope they're wrong! 

April Fun!

With Spring officially here, and in full swing OJo could not be more delighted with our time spent outdoors!  This kid absolutely loves to be outside.  Despite being 21 months, Owen's vocabulary is still pretty scarce; however, outside is a word that he has mastered without a doubt.  This boy will stand at the window, or the door, or in his crib and say "outside" repeatedly for literally hours on end.  I love that he loves the outdoors!  So now that the cat is out of the bag about me being pregnant, again, it goes without saying that this Momma is often very tired!  April has been a pretty crazy busy month, so I'll hit you with a ton of pictures to catch up.  My Dad's birthday was April 2nd, and we celebrated by having the family over to our house.  My nephews and Owen thought it was absolutely awesome to explore in our backyard.  They must have climbed fallen trees and played with sticks and leaves for over an hour!  It's amazing how much Owen idolizes them.  In addition to his brother being his best friend, he also has 2 amazing buddies as cousins.  It will be so neat to see Aidan joining in on the fun next year!

We also had a warm stretch where we had 3 days in the high 70s.. a taste of summer, if you will.  It was great to get the chance to fill the baby pool and splash around with the boys.  This was Aidan's first time in the pool.. it was a moderate success.  He very much enjoys the water, but I think the temperature threw him off a bit.  Needless to say, they had a fabulous time playing outside.  Nothing more precious than a nakey baby wrapped in a towel drinking his bottle in the sunshine.  It was such a great end of the week, and I am so looking forward to many more Thursdays & Fridays like this over the summer!  I really love my part time schedule!! Having these extra days home with the boys is so amazing.. I honestly have no clue how I'll ever go back to full time!!!

And, with every outdoor excursion, we must conclude the evening with a tubby.  How could anyone resist these cute faces?!  I know I can't!!

Moving along to Easter...

I have to say.. this picture kind of surprised me.  Likely not for the reasons you'd expect.. I assumed Owen would cry.. I mean, come on.. a giant rabbit?  I think I'd be more worried if he didn't cry!! But, what surprised me was Aidan's nonchalant reaction!  Let's just say Aidan is going through this crazy separation anxiety phase.. maybe crazy is a bad word.. EXTREME.  This boy will not go to anyone!!! Owen was always pretty good about going to different people.. Aunts, Grandparents, friends, etc.. he would give dirty looks, and not often smile, but he went without a fight.  Aidan.  Nope.  He doesn't even like it if someone gets too close to his personal space!  This boy is a trip!  He's so funny, too, because when it's both Jason adn I around, I am CHOPPED LIVER.  This kid will scream like you've never heard if Daddy is nearby but not holding him.. seriously, my neighbors probably think we beat our children LOL.  (Andrea, if you're reading this -- I swear we don't!! I promise!!).  So yea, given the major separation anxiety, I fully expected him to be the one screaming, too!  Oh, and, disregard the Winter sweaters.  The weather is so temperamental these days, and I suck and didn't buy them cutesy matching Easter outfits.  Meh, there's always next year!

Easter day itself was pretty low key.  Nothing too fancy.. dinner at my sister in law's house.. which was very yummy!  I actually found the energy to make twice baked potatoes, which were quite delish, too!  Thank goodness for 2nd trimester return of energy!  First tri was rough with exhaustion!!  The Easter bunny struggled with what to bring the boys.. I was pretty adamant on not filling their baskets with candy, so instead got some other goodies.  We did put 3 M&Ms in each egg as incentive for Owen to find the handful of ones we hid.. that was a big success, surprisingly!  Thanks to my Mom for gently encouraging (aka guilting me!!) me to do baskets and an egg hunt.  I personally am not a huge fan of Easter, so I was quite tempted to skip it, and not really do much.. figuring, Owen won't remember anyway.. but, I'm actually glad my Mom did get me to do it as he really did enjoy himself!

 Getting pictures with my boys these days is quite rare.. especially one where neither are crying.. albeit, neither are smiling here, either, but beggars can't be choosers!  I love these little dudes so very much!!

Easter dinner caused Aidan to miss his afternoon nap, so he wasn't a very happy camper.. but, Owen had a blast playing outside with his new bubble gun!  It's the little things in life that can make a kid so very happy!  The bubble gun was pretty crappy, though.. I guess that's what you can expect for a $15 toy.  Oh well.  He still enjoyed it.. on the rare occasion it actually shot out some bubbles! 

Happy Easter all!! PS.. 5 days until my anatomy scan!! Still holding strong for team green :)

A change in description :)

Munchkin mania: Capturing the adventures of raising 2 boys under 2.  Whelp, in a few more months, this will no longer be the case!  We will be graduating to capturing the adventures of 3 under 3!! Jason and I could not be more excited to make this announcement! My boys, however.. that was a different story!  Notice the picture.. thank goodness for photo shop.  No one wanted to smile.  Owen has puffy eyes from crying so much.. you'd think I was torturing him to get a picture!  In the end, I had to bribe him with a couple of snacks, but I eventually was able to get a suitable shot of them both and merge it into one! 

So.  3 babies under 3.  I'd assume baby #3 will likely join us in late August, as both my boys were born at 37weeks.  With that being said, that would give us a 25mo old, a 13mo old and a newborn!  Life sure will become quite busy, and entertaining, but at the same time absolutely blessed and full of joy!

I was actually really nervous to "announce" this on Facebook.. but, surprisingly I got only positive responses!  Not everyone understands having babies close together.  And, a lot of times people don't quite know how to respond to it.  This is a huge pet peeve of mine.. but I digress.  But, I will say, our announcement was well received and we were given lots of congratulations and best wishes, which is fantastic!

A lot of people did assume that baby #3 was also a surprise, but, actually, he/she was very much planned!   Funny side story.. once we decided we were going to try for #3, I invested in buying a batch of Wondfo pregnancy tests through amazon.  I admit, I can be a little POAS crazy.  I like to test as soon as the 2 week window ends, and continue testing until I know for sure it's a no!  So, 50 Wondfo's seemed appropriate :)  Anyway, month 2 of trying, and wham!  I got a positive.  New years day, actually.  (Actually, another side note.. I had gotten positives sooner, but had tossed them in the trash before allowing them to sit long enough!  Note to any other Wondfo users.. WAIT the allotted time before checking!  I assumed they'd be like FRERs and the line would show up almost immediately.. nope!).  Anyway, so I got a positive, YAY!  For some random reason (probably because I couldn't believe how quickly it happened!), I was googling the accuracy information of Wondfos, and I stumbled across a few comments about the batch I was using having false positives.  Instantly, my heart sank thinking I may have gotten my hopes up for nothing.. so, what does any hormonal early pregnant woman do?? I made my husband POAS =)  5 minutes later, he comes back to check asking "So, what's the verdict.. am I pregnant?"... Thankfully, he was not, and I immediately felt better!  He's such a trooper.. how many men do you know that would pee on a stick to appease their wives?? Just another reason why I love him so!

Anyway, back to our decision to go for 3U3.. After I had Owen and returned back to work full time things were tough.  I was very unhappy.  Perhaps a combination of post partum hormones going crazy (and, shortly after pregnancy hormones!!), but regardless.. it was really hard.  There were several car rides spent sitting in traffic crying.. instead of spending time with my son, I was stuck in a car for 3+ hours a day.  Sure, we could move if we wanted to.. but I love our home.. we picked this house as a place to start our family.. a place to settle down.. a job may not be forever, but a place to lay your roots could possibly be.. anyway, the 9 months I worked in between having Owen and having Aidan were really, really difficult.  After lots of conversations, we had agreed that if I wasn't able to switch to part time at work, I would step back from my career for a while, and focus on our family.  It was best for me and my mental health, and for our boys.

Part time being approved was like a blessing.. it allowed me to have the best of both worlds.. it still allows me to have the best of both worlds.  Financially, I don't feel like dead weight to my husband.. intellectually I'm still get the stimulation I need.. and as a mother, I'm home with my boys 4 days a week to nurture and love them the way that I want.  It has been SUCH a dramatic difference this time around than it was the first time.  For that reason.. we decided to do our 3rd now.  I have no idea how long part time will last.. but, what I do know is that this setup is absolutely glorious!

Plus.. there are other added bonuses to having your babies close in age.. bonuses I didn't really realize until I had Owen and Aidan.  Everyone talks about how kids close in age will be "best friends".. and, perhaps that may not be true for all siblings, but for my boys the bond they have established so far is amazing.  Aidan lights up the second Owen is in the room; he giggles and laughs and babbles at him!  Owen spends 1/4 of his day hugging and kissing on his brother.  They both absolutely adore one another.  I really think that because Owen was just a year when Aidan was born, he was too young to understand the concept of jealousy.  So bringing a new baby home wasn't much of a change for him.  It was just someone else to love and play with, which has been incredible!  I truly do hope for the same reaction when we bring #3 home!!

As for #3.. hubby and I have decided that we will not be finding out the baby's gender!  So many people have raved about how amazing being "team green" is, and I really think that we would enjoy that surprise.  There are so few surprises in life that are joyful and amazing regardless of the turnout, but this certainly is one of them.  But, if I had to take a guess.. I feel pretty confident that this baby is a boy.  I don't know why, I just.. feel it!  Which I think is why the idea of team green this time is so appealing to me.. I feel like inside I already know, and I know that I have everything I could possibly need already, so why not wait and see?  Of course, then there's the flip side.. what if I'm wrong?? But, like I keep telling hubby.. what do you *really* need in those first few weeks if it were to turn out to be a girl?? Nothing really.. we could make it work. 

We shall see!! Our anatomy is the end of the month... for now, healthy baby is all we're hoping for :)  Hooray for baby #3!!! A wild ride for sure, but GOSH we sure are so excited!!