The time is here!

Well everyone, the time has arrived. After much deliberation and talking to multiple Dr's, Baby girl will be making her appearance as long as everything goes as planned tomorrow! We are set to be at the hospital at 6:15am to get ready to be induced! Yay! Mixed emotions going on right now...happy...nervous...excited...scared...relief...just to name a few! Once baby girl makes her appearance, I will post pictures and share her name!

See ya'll soon! :)

Goals

Hey! Yesterday was my 24th birthday. I actually really struggled with my birthday this year. It wasn't a matter of "I'm so old!" that I struggled with, I mean, come on, I'm 24. It was a matter of "Holy cow, time is flying by, and I haven't accomplished anything" kind of feeling. This isn't a "pity party" post. It's just that I have decided that I need to make concrete goals, so that time doesn't keep slipping by without me accomplishing the things I really want to.

First of all, before you all think "but you have a husband and daughter (and one on the way!)"...the answer to that is...I know. I have the greatest husband a girl could ask for. He is supportive of me with the things I want to do, and he doesn't question. To me that is HUGE. He is such a great Dad. Addy LOVES her Daddy. She is definitely a Daddy's girl. He works hard. He loves me.

I am also blessed with a wonderful 3 year old daughter. She is so fun and funny. There is definitely never a dull moment when she is around. She also has such a big heart. If someone isn't smiling, she always wants to know why, and what is wrong and she wants to help. She is such a light to have around, we love her to pieces. She is also so excited to be a big sister and take care of her baby sister. It will be so fun with the 2 girls!

We are also soon to be blessed with another daughter who we can't wait to meet! I hope the next couple of weeks go by fast!

I digress...

One of the first items I would like to check off my "list" is to go to school. It may not be for a bachelor's degree, but for SOMETHING. I have always wanted to have a career where I feel like I am legitimately helping others. So, it may be for something as simple as a CNA (Certified Nurses Assistant)..and maybe an RN later on. I just need to figure it out for sure.

From there, the second item on my list is to get a career that I love. I really love helping others, and I feel like I would probably thrive in the medical field. As I mentioned in the last paragraph, I think that a CNA would be a great start for me.

This next goal is a 2 part goal. a)Lose weight/get healthy b)Do a triathlon

I'll begin with part A.

I have been overweight for a long time. Too long. I have always had the desire to lose weight. But I feel like I am at the "had enough" point. I want to be healthy for my daughters. I want to be able to not be restricted by my weight in the things that I can do. And in general, I want to FEEL better. Physically, and better ABOUT myself.

Part B.

A year ago, Jason, my friend Laura and I all did a triathlon together. Jason ran, Laura biked, and I swam. It was such an exhilarating feeling to get back into the pool in more of a "competition" setting. I want to do more of that. But, my goal is to do a triathlon on my own. There are a lot of different triathlons around this area during the summer.

SO- my goal is to train to do a triathlon all on my own. Through training for that, that will help me to lose the weight I need, and to become the healthy girl/wife/Mom I want to be.

So, with these few desires I have, I need to make the concrete goals for myself so that each of these can become a reality for me. I feel if I am able to accomplish these, it will make me a better person. I will be happier with myself. I will be a better wife and mother.

I may blog here and there about each of these things as I figure out the goals exactly. So, bare with me!

I support you.

I know I have all of a sudden been posting articles lately, but I loved this one especially. I feel like there is a "divide" among a lot of women over which method they use to feed their child. I do have a strong opinion on this subject, however, it really doesn't matter what my opinion is, because, however you choose to feed your child, is your personal decision, and I support that.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/01/i-support-you-breastfeeding-_n_3685881.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

I do have a bit of a fear for when I have this baby, that I will feel pressure in the hospital to breastfeed. My last experience of attempting to breastfeed Addy was a horrible experience, and I personally feel that adding that stress to trying again is not necessary this time around, but I hope that nurses do not say "Are you sure you don't want to just try?" I hope they will just be supportive of my decision to do 100% bottle feeding.

The countdown is on...for real now!

Well time is continuing to fly by for us...when I say that, I don't necessarily mean that I am loving how pregnant and cranky I feel right now...but time is still flying by so that is a good thing. I just realized a few minutes ago that it is one month from today when Gramma Rechenmacher will be flying into town! Woohoo! I'm not sure who is more excited! Me? Because I rarely get to see my Mom and I will have help for 2 weeks...or Addy, because she has been telling EVERYONE that Gramma Rechenmacher is coming and they are going to make cookies and muffins and play with her doll.

Yesterday we had a bit of a "scare". I use that term lightly, as I know that there are plenty of couples who have scares throughout their whole pregnancy, but, for us, it was a scare.  I contracted a rash a couple of weeks ago, and when we were meeting with our midwife, Laura last Tuesday, we mentioned that I had had a rash, but that it was gone. She decided she wanted to do a blood test to see if it was still in my system and to see exactly what it was. So yesterday morning she called me, and apparantly the rash was a viral rash, specifically known as "Fifth's Disease" or "Slapcheek Syndrome". She then informed me that this specific virus can potentially be lethal to a baby, and I needed to start having Non-Stress Tests twice a week for the rest of my pregnancy...NOOOOOOOOO! Is what I thought.  I had to do those when I was pregnant with Addy and it was totally miserable. So, we went in yesterday afternoon to have the first one done, and baby girl's heart was doing great.  I guess the reason that it can be fatal, is because the virus can cause fluid to build up around the lungs, causing complications with the babies heart. Essentially what this could all mean, is that I may end up being induced early...but we are hoping not. Let the prayers begin!

Other than that, everything is going great! We have everything put together just waiting for baby's arrival!

15 Signs You're A Recovering Swimmer

If you're a swimmer-or even if you aren't, maybe it will help you to understand us more? Read the following article, it couldn't be more true.

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-10461/15-signs-youre-a-recovering-swimmer.html

PERFECT article for me today!

I think that sometimes we all come across things that we know we needed to hear or read in that exact moment. Well, that happened today. The link to this article is here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-wiens/let-me-be-the-one-who-says-it-out-loud_b_3209305.html

Here is the article:

I am in a season of my life right now where I feel bone-tired almost all of the time. Ragged, how-am-I-going-to-make-it-to-the-end-of-the-day, eyes burning exhausted.

I have three boys ages 5 and under. I'm not complaining about that. Well, maybe I am a little bit. But I know that there are people who would give anything for a house full of laughter and chaos. I was that person for years and years; the pain of infertility is stabbing and throbbing and constant. I remember allowing hope to rise and then seeing it crash all around me, month after month, for seven years. I am working on another post about infertility that will come at a later date.

But right now, in my actual life, I have three boys ages 5 and under. There are many moments where they are utterly delightful, like last week, when Isaac told my sister-in-law that, "My daddy has hair all over." Or when Elijah put a green washcloth over his chin and cheeks, and proudly declared, "Daddy! I have a beard just like you!" Or when Ben sneaks downstairs in the morning before the other boys do, smiles at me, and says, "Daddy and Ben time."

But there are also many moments when I have no idea how I'm going to make it until their bedtime. The constant demands, the needs and the fighting are fingernails across the chalkboard every single day.

One of my children is for sure going to be the next Steve Jobs. I now have immense empathy for his parents. He has a precise vision of what he wants -- exactly that way and no other way. Sometimes, it's the way his plate needs to be centered exactly to his chair, or how his socks go on, or exactly how the picture of the pink dolphin needs to look -- with brave eyes, not sad eyes, daddy! He is a laser beam, and he is not satisfied until it's exactly right.

I have to confess that sometimes, the sound of his screaming drives me to hide in the pantry. And I will neither confirm nor deny that while in there, I compulsively eat chips and/or dark chocolate.

There are people who say this to me:

"You should enjoy every moment now! They grow up so fast!"

I usually smile and give some sort of guffaw, but inside, I secretly want to hold them under water. Just for a minute or so. Just until they panic a little.

If you have friends with small children -- especially if your children are now teenagers or if they're grown -- please vow to me right now that you will never say this to them. Not because it's not true, but because it really, really doesn't help.

We know it's true that they grow up too fast. But feeling like I have to enjoy every moment doesn't feel like a gift, it feels like one more thing that is impossible to do, and right now, that list is way too long. Not every moment is enjoyable as a parent; it wasn't for you, and it isn't for me. You just have obviously forgotten. I can forgive you for that. But if you tell me to enjoy every moment one more time, I will need to break up with you.

If you are a parent of small children, you know that there are moments of spectacular delight, and you can't believe you get to be around these little people. But let me be the one who says the following things out loud:

You are not a terrible parent if you can't figure out a way for your children to eat as healthy as your friend's children do. She's obviously using a bizarre and probably illegal form of hypnotism.

You are not a terrible parent if you yell at your kids sometimes. You have little dictators living in your house. If someone else talked to you like that, they'd be put in prison.

You are not a terrible parent if you can't figure out how to calmly give them appropriate consequences in real time for every single act of terrorism that they so creatively devise.

You are not a terrible parent if you'd rather be at work.

You are not a terrible parent if you just can't wait for them to go to bed.

You are not a terrible parent if the sound of their voices sometimes makes you want to drink and never stop.

You're not a terrible parent.

You're an actual parent with limits. You cannot do it all. We all need to admit that one of the casualties specific to our information saturated culture is that we have sky-scraper standards for parenting, where we feel like we're failing horribly if we feed our children chicken nuggets and we let them watch TV in the morning.

One of the reasons we are so exhausted is that we are oversaturated with information about the kind of parents we should be.

So, maybe it's time to stop reading the blogs that tell you how to raise the next president who knows how to read when she's 3 and who cooks, not only eats, her vegetables. Maybe it's time to embrace being the kind of parent who says sorry when you yell. Who models what it's like to take time for yourself. Who asks God to help you to be a better version of the person that you actually are, not for more strength to be an ideal parent.

So, the next time you see your friends with small children with that foggy and desperate look in their eyes, order them a pizza and send it to their house that night. Volunteer to take their kids for a few hours so they can be alone in their own house and have sex when they're not so tired, for heaven's sake. Put your hand on their shoulder, look them in the eyes, and tell them that they're doing a good job. Just don't freak out if they start weeping uncontrollably. Most of the time, we feel like we're botching the whole deal and our kids will turn into horrible criminals who hate us and will never want to be around us when they're older.

You're bone-tired. I'm not sure when it's going to get better. Today might be a good day or it might be the day that you lost it in a way that surprised even yourself.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

You're not alone.

35 weeks

Well ladies and gentlemen, the countdown is on...35 weeks...or 1 month from this Sunday is our duedate! Where has the time gone? It has completely flown by, although I can feel time slowing down now. I am at the tired...hot...cranky...get this baby out of me stage. We finally decided on a name! First name that is...middle name is still TBD. We think the name is beautiful and feminine and simple. With the timeline ticker on the side of this blog, when I saw it this morning it made my heart jump a little bit when I saw we are down to 35 days!

On Tuesday I see our midwife, and then from there on out I will be seeing her every week until baby is here, I feel like that is a milestone! Helps me to know we are almost there! I can't wait to meet this little girl and to see what she looks like, if she has red hair like Addy, dark hair like Jason, or is a blondie like her uncles were when they were little. It is a mystery! We were so unprepared for Addy to be a redhead that when the nurses told me she had red hair I said "HUH?!" But we love her red hair, it suits her personality so well. I can't wait to feel her little spirit as well!

This next part I am going to write about is not very positive, but I need to document it. I have been thinking about the plan of salvation a lot lately. One of my sister in laws who was also pregnant, lost her baby at 19 weeks. It was possibly one of the most heart breaking things I have ever been through...and it wasn't my baby. But the thought made me sick. Our babies were going to be so close in age, they were both girls, it was going to be so fun. Then that all came to an end. My brother in law and sister in law who had been trying for so long to get pregnant and were so excited for this sweet little girl to join their family all of a sudden were planning a burial service for their little Lexi. I simply can't imagine. All of a sudden we were finding ourselves trying to explain the plan of salvation to our 3 year old...trying to make it make sense to her, when really, it was hard for us to even make sense of. When we were at the cemetery after the burial, we were trying to explain to Addy that little Lexi had to go back to Heavenly Father, and in Addy's sweet innocence, she asked "But, when my baby comes, who will she play with?" It broke my heart. I feel so awful for my brother in law and sister in law. For a little while, I honestly felt so guilty that our pregnancy had gone so well, I just wasn't even excited. I have been wondering if the spirit of our baby and of little Lexi have been together. I hope so. I am so glad to know that families are forever, and it doesn't end after this earth life.