Locks Of Love

I did it.  The hair is gone.  It will soon be on its way to Locks of Love. Until then, it is just sitting on my bathroom counter… ready and waiting to disconcert me every time I walk in the bathroom.

Nick helped to cut my hair, this was a first for him. He did not enjoy it. But did it because he loves me, and I couldn’t very well cut the back of my hair myself! I cut the front, and attempted some layers.

I realized that having little extra cash around the house lately doesn’t mean I have to ignore charities. There are plenty of ways to give, even if you don’t have the money. And with a brand new baby and 2 toddlers, sometimes volunteering time isn’t always an option either. But Locks of Love is easy for anyone who has 10 inches (or more) of hair to cut off! I love that they have directions on their website so you can participate without even going to a hair stylist.

What are some ways to give without even leaving your home? This mom-of-three would like some ideas!

Irina’s Birth Story

I have never written a birth story before, but there is a first for everything!  I know this post won’t interest everyone, but I also know there are a few ladies who read my blog who really want to know how everything went.  I promise not to get too detailed, and not to share too much information.  I wouldn’t want to gross anyone out!

Irina was due July 6th, but decided that she needed some extra time cooking.  Quite a bit of extra time as it turns out.  My Dr. was very lax about inducing (I have seen other Doctors who schedule the induction right away if you don’t give birth by your due date).  I just had to keep going in and being monitored, which meant having the non-stress test and ultra sound done a couple of times.  Everything always looked great, so we just kept waiting.  And waiting.  And waiting.  As we were approaching the 2 weeks overdue mark, my Dr. decided it was time to at least schedule an induction.  And honestly?  At this point, you weren’t going to hear any arguments from me!  I know it’s best if labor starts on it’s own, but COME ON BABY, 2 weeks?  And at that point you start risking other complications.  So yes, I was on board with an induction.

July 20th was the day!  I could finally relax.  It seemed like such perfect timing.  Nick would finish his summer course that very morning.  He would head home where I would be ready with the kids, we would all hop in the car and get to the hospital at noon for the induction appointment.  What a weird feeling knowing when your baby is going to come!  Time to clean the house, and get everything ready, and have everything just so for the baby.

Ah, but it turns out I did not know when my baby was going to come.  I got a call at 10am (right when I was supposed to call them to remind them I was coming).  I listened to the message.  Then I cried.  And cried.  The hospital was full and there was no way they could induce me.  I wasn’t crying because I was worried, I was crying because it had been such an emotional rollercoaster waiting for Irina to come.  I had already been to the hospital a week before with false labor, now this.  Ugh.  But God has a plan, right?

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Stop Making Me Look Bad!

There are 2 things Elijah says quite often, which I have a feeling he will say for years to come.  And then at that point, he will be old enough to make it into a running joke (along with the help of his Daddy).  And then at that point, I will never hear the end of it.  I just know.

1)     When I am cleaning up, Elijah will come over, see what I am doing, and promptly ask “Oh!  Who is coming over Mom?”

2)     When I ask Elijah to go pick out some clothes to wear, or to go put on his underwear, he responds with “Why?  Who is coming over Mom?”

I will admit that there was a time (when Elena was a little baby and I was getting used to having 2 kids) that I completely dropped the ball on cleaning and making sure Elijah was actually wearing clothes.

Having admitted that though, now that Elena is coming up on 2 years old, I really am getting tired of Elijah making me look so bad!  I mean, I clean up some part of the house every single day.  But the kid acts like he never sees me doing it!  I don’t only clean up for company!  He also gets dressed every single day.  So when in the world are these questions going to stop?

My guess?  Never.  My oldest child is only 3 1/2, and already there are things that have happened that I may never, ever, live down.

Turn About

Elena is a good little girl.  She usually asks permission before she does something, or eats something.  She runs up, says what she wants to do, and then runs away happily when I tell her yes.

Recently however, she has been turning things around on me.  Our conversations go something like this:

Elena: Haz cookie?

Me: A cookie?

So far, so good.  But, because I ask a question in return in order to confirm what she is asking (because she is still hard to understand), Elena takes that as me asking her  if she would like a cookie.  This is how things end:

Elena: OK!  Thanks!  (As she runs away to get the cookie).

And I end up feeling tricked.

Mommy and Irina

This time around I finally remembered to specifically ask Nick to take some pictures of me and the baby not 10 minutes post delivery. The post delivery pictures are great, and I love them, but I also like some pictures of me with the baby when I am looking a tad more normal. So here are a few pictures of me and Irina!

Irina Anne

Welcome to the world Irina Anne!

After having my induction canceled and rescheduling it for the next afternoon, Irina decided to come on her own and contractions started that night after dinner.  It was an all night labor, and she came out at 7:21am, on 7/21!  (Also, 21 1/2 inches long… she likes the number 21 I guess).  You all know by know how chubby she is, weighing in at 9 pounds 13 ounces.  Oh, also, the nurse was so kind to tell me “Usually we say 35cm for the head is large, your baby measures at 37 1/2cm”.  Yeah, thanks for letting me know… I could definitely feel the difference there.

She is (of course) lovely and absolutely adorable.  We are all in love.  Elijah and Elena couldn’t be happier, and want to see her all the time.  So much so, that Elena woke up in the middle of the night last night asking to snuggle with Mommy and Baby.  She has yet to try and say Irina, but Elijah loves the name and actually likes to call her Irina Anne.  He is so proud of her!

We are settling in back at home nicely, hopefully tonight everyone sleeps well and we wake feeling more back to normal.

Maybe at some point I will write out my “Birth Story”, because of course this birth was completely different than the other 2.  We are so thankful everything went well, and that Irina came out so very healthy and happy!  Thank you all for your prayers!

Baby Update

I went to the Dr.’s again today, to make sure baby and I are doing well.  They did a non-stress test and an ultrasound to check the fluid levels, and everything is fine and dandy!  Which means I don’t have to be induced yet.

And honestly, I have mixed feelings about that. Part of me wants so badly just to be induced and have her out! But, the other part of me knows that if it’s possible, it is better for things to start all on their own. So, we scheduled the induction for the last possible day they would let us- Tuesday. At that point she will be 2 weeks late, and that’s as far as my Dr. feels comfortable going.

Who knows though, maybe she will still come on her own sometime this weekend?

Parenting Tag Team

You know what I am very thankful for?  My wonderful husband who has been taking care of things while I had the stomach flu.  I can’t imagine being sick, with two toddlers, 10 days away from my due date, and having him gone at work even.  Funny how you can be thankful for things like unemployment!

I am also thankful that there are 2 of us around here.  We can take turns with things when need be.  Since I was able to sleep most of the day (yesterday AND today- spoiled!) and recuperate, I am now feeling pretty good.  JUST in time for Nick to go and get sick.  And while I am sad he got what I had, I am very thankful we didn’t have it at the same time.  Because now I am well enough to take care of him!

Now I just hope that all of this sickness passes before the baby decides to come.  I doubt she will be this early, if she is early at all.  So now we will just concentrate on getting healthy so once she does decide to come everyone is feeling great!

P.S. Contractions + Stomach Flu is a weird feeling… so confusing to the body! Sit through the contraction? Or head to the bathroom? Uhhh…?

Beach

Nick is not much of a beach person, but since he loves his wife and children so very much he went with us to the beach yesterday.

It was gorgeous out!

Elijah is obsessed with footprints:

Elena would like to live at the beach:

This is how much Nick likes the beach:

Watching the waves:

Rescuing someone from the waves who turns out didn’t WANT to be rescued:

San Francisco Zoo

A couple months ago I won some tickets to the SF Zoo through their Twitter account.  Yes, laugh all you want that I tweet my thoughts to the world, but I have already won a couple of contests by using it.  And I never win ANYTHING.

Anyhow, back to the Zoo.  We have been telling Elijah for about a month now that we will go, but had to wait until Daddy was done with the school quarter.  Nick finished finals up last week, so yesterday we headed up to SF.  Elijah couldn’t have been more excited.  Elena knew we were going to see animals, but didn’t get the whole concept of the Zoo until we were there.  Once there, the both of them were unstoppable.  All focus was gone, Mom and Dad’s words were inaudible.  There were animals to be found!

Unbeknownst to me, Giraffes are Elena’s favorite animal.  I had no idea she even knew what they were.  But once we saw them, she said “hih-raff!” and didn’t want to move on.

The Gorillas were awesome, Hasani (the baby) was being quite the show off. Doing somersaults and all sorts of tricks for everyone.

(Side note: Ask Elena to say Gorilla. She gets a little stuck and it comes out “gor-ill-ill-ill-ill-a”. Super cute.)

Their Grizzly exhibit has to be one of their best. Or maybe it is just because the Grizzlies are so friendly. But every time I have gone, they will swim right up to the window to visit with you.

Elena WAS standing right up against the glass until the bear surprised her but popping up RIGHT THERE. Taking a step back made her all comfortable again.

This is me pouting because my children were refusing to take a picture with me. (Re: lack of focus)

This was the closest it came, and it only came after me grabbing them and begging them to stay with me.

Elena decided this was a better spot than her stroller:

(Side note: Notice the sagging pants? Yeah, I noticed that too. Once we got there. Now that she is in underwear her clothes don’t quite fit the same…oh well!)

My FAVORITE picture of the day. It perfectly speaks to the excitement the kids had.

My other favorite. Just look at that happiness!

They loved the petting zoo, that’s where ALL focus was completely lost. Such that Mommy and Daddy got very frustrated and that was the end of the Zoo trip.

But, the compromise was we would go look at the Giraffes just ONE MORE TIME before completely leaving: