Labor?

I guess we'll never know as long as I sit on the couch and do nothing about it!

I woke up this morning having contractions. I thought if I just stayed in bed and drank water that they'd go away. Three hours later and no such luck. I'm still having non-painful-contractions about every 5-10 minutes and they're lasting about 45-ish seconds. They were feeling like menstrual cramps earlier, and when they were like that they were lasting about 1-1.5 minutes each and were 8-10 minutes apart. I was able to capture his heart rate on our monitor that we have and his heart rate is 140, about his normal, and he's still moving around.

Part of me is yelling at me to go to the doctor, but there's another part of me saying that it isn't a big deal. The intensity of them has gone down and so has the duration of each contraction. The fact that I didn't get out of bed and I drank water and that didn't stop them is what's telling me I should go. I'm just not ready.

There's this sweet little girl playing out in my back yard who is my everything and I don't want to leave her behind. I don't want her to not be the center of my world. I don't want to have to share my time for her. I don't want her to grow up by 1,000,000 times by bringing home a baby. All that being said, I would be beside myself to meet Baby Boy if the time was right. If this actually is labor and he is on his way, I know I will be astounded by the amount of love that I have for him in addition to my ever-growing love for Eden!

So, for now, I'm just going to sit on the couch and drink water and continue to pay attention to my body and what it's telling me about Baby Boy.

Motherhood Is...{4}

Rewarding

And not just rewarding in the fact that I'm one of the funniest people that Eden knows and that she can make me smile just as quickly as she can make me rip my hair out. The medicine cabinet {that I will be ripping out of the wall sooner than later} in our downstairs bathroom is stocked full of potty rewards for Eden when she uses the potty. I find it funny that if people open the door, they find stickers and stamps.

Another Week Down

January 21 - Eden has found a new love...Nemo! She loves to watch Finding Nemo, which on a Mommy is tired day is perfect for sitting on the couch relaxing.

January 22 - Baby Boy's ultrasound picture from last week. My phone died, so I had to wait to take the picture to send to family, so it's a few days late, but here it is none-the-less.

January 23 - Eden after dinner. She's starting to eat like her old self again. She had been going on food strikes every now and then, but she's eating like a teenage boy again!

January 24 - On our way to the doctor. Listening to the book on CD and looking at the pages takes a lot of concentration  evidently. When she wants to "read" this book in the car she asks for "duckie book pease?"

January 25 - Being told that if I go into labor "we'll meet the baby" made me go home and put together hospital bags and get out most of our baby stuff. This is Baby Boy's bag and coming home outfit {that Parker wore home} and blanket {that I frantically had to finish} along with his diaper bag for the hospital.

January 26 - Some of our friends from Florida and Texas moved out here this past week and while they signed closing paperwork on their house we got to hang with the boys! The family stayed with us 2 nights and we loved having them here, but are more excited that they live just a mile away!!!!

January 27 - Eden is loving the Southern California weather! I caught her lounging in the chair, but of course when I started coming towards her with the camera she got up!

January 27 - Eden loves helping Mommy and Daddy make pizza. We made the dough from scratch this time and Eden had to make sure it was good before it went into the oven {ew}. You can see where she pinched it off the crust. She also dipped her pepperonis into the sauce/cheese and ate them before we cooked it. I need to find a way to teach her that just because it looks like cookie dough or cake batter doesn't mean it's going to taste as good!

How To:

Eden was in the mood for a diaper change this week. She wanted to change her own diaper though. No help from Mommy! I knew as soon as she said "no, Eden change self" that I had to get the camera and document how she changed her own diaper. For the most part she did a very good job. She included her baby and made sure to wipe "baby privates" before wiping her own. {She knows that after she wipes her privates the wipe is trash, so she wiped the baby before wiping herself! Very smart if I do say so myself.}

Here's her how to change your own diaper:

Gather your supplies

Lay down with your supplies ready.

Take off your diaper.

Discard the old diaper. She made sure to tell me that this one was "heavy."

Take a break to talk or text someone.

Get distracted and get another baby who needs a diaper change. She kept telling me that it was Baby Boy.

Wipe your bottom.

Put diaper on.

Get up and play...without the diaper on. Maybe next time!

Potty Training

Going potty is a big deal in our house no matter who you are. If Eden knows you're going, she's going to want to be a part of it. She may just want to clap for you, she might want to peek in the bowl to see what you've produced, but she also might want to sit on her potty while you're on the "big potty" and make conversation while you both go. No matter how you cut it, going potty is no longer a private event in the Daigle home. She's wearing big girl panties when she wants, but also has the opportunity to wear a diaper {or go commando} if she isn't feeling up to the big girl panties. We're making strides, but there are days that end up like this...

Panties randomly placed on the table {by none other than Little Miss Priss...}

While she plays and does her own thing!

Love

February is the month of love! We don't really celebrate Valentine's Day as a couple since my birthday is just a few days after, but that won't stop us from loving on Eden and celebrating with her! We made Valentine's to send to grandparents early so we could get one out to Parker too. He's graduating from boot camp on February 10, so I wanted him to get some love before moving to Florida since he's having it rough right now. My hope was to get one to our siblings and their families too, but Eden had other plans. She liked me to paint her hands because it was cold and it tickled...but it was only funny the first time. Trying to get the other 3 done that we made wasn't as funny to her. {I had to make one to keep since it was made with her hand print.}

January 22

Painting away. 

She's concentrating!

Smile!

Curtains

As I've taken on more and more sewing projects recently, I've begun overestimating what I'm capable of! I recently got fabric to make curtains for my room and for Baby Boy's room. In the long run it is financially more sound than buying the curtains that I like, however, it is more time consuming than just buying curtains and putting them up! I've enjoyed teaching myself what I've learned about the projects I've started, no matter how stressful it's been.

I have one of two panels completed for Baby Boy's room, and the second one is pinned and ready to be sewn. I am only waiting to be able to buy the lining for the second curtain panel. The curtains ended up being a little more challenging than I originally planned. I thought in the beginning that I would be able to just add a hem around the edges of the fabric and end up with 2 floor-length panels to cover the windows. Nope! Not this time. I realized I didn't have enough fabric to make floor length curtains {in addition to having enough to cover the rocking chair pad} so I had to alter my plans to make curtains that just went to the bottom of the window. Well, I didn't have the length I needed for that either, so I had to alter my plans again.

In the end, I love what I was able to come up with {with input from my parents and Lane} and when the second curtain is sewn and hung I know I will have great pride in the curtains in Baby Boy's room. Most of his room is homemade and I'm very proud of that. I had most of Eden's nursery made for me, with a few homemade touches to make it personalized for her. As Eden has grown and I've trusted myself more and more with the sewing machine, I've started doing more and more myself. Now both children have a homemade touch to their rooms, but not too much.

The drawing of the curtain to make sure what was in my head would be possible for the curtains.

Panel number one pinned and tacked on the window to make sure the measurements were correct. I also needed to make sure that it would work with what I had in the room already. Needless to say, I loved it and it was time to get the lining and sew my heart out.

The curtain with the crib/growth tracker/plane. Ugh, you can see the ceiling in this picture. We didn't realize until we were painting that the ceiling was the same color as the walls were. Another project to add to the "eventually" list!

The stripes on the fabric were the inspiration for the stripes on the growth tracker.

All pinned up and ready to be finished. I couldn't have asked for it to turn out any better for my first curtain project.

The details of the stripe and the transition to the "minky" fabric.

The tabs at the top of the curtain.

Oh Baby!

Don't get too excited. I am still the sole carrier and caretaker of Baby Boy for now. I did, however, have a doctors appointment where she made a comment that sent me into a momentary panic attack. We did the whole measure my belly and listen to his heart rate. No big deal. Everything was great. He has a strong heart beat. I've gained 32 pounds since the beginning of pregnancy {up 2 pounds from what I gained with Eden, but I started 10 pounds lighter, so its all good}. My belly is measuring right on track. My blood pressure and other vitals look good.

Well, everything was great until I told her that I was having some Braxton Hix contractions, but that they weren't too bad and they always subsided over time. I told her that I had them with Eden and they just kind of come and go. The scary part wasn't that she said it was ok to have them as long as they came and went. The scary part was her response was, "well, if you have a baby then you have a baby at this point." Wait, what?! I could have a baby any day now? No, no, no, that's not what we've been planning!

She does not think that I am going to be going into labor any time soon. All she meant by her comment was that if I do go into labor that they won't take many precautions to prevent Baby Boy from making his appearance. I remember being so excited when I got to this point with Eden, but this time it really scared me! My house is a disaster. Grandparents won't be getting here until mid-march {which they weren't planning on being here when I had the baby anyways, but still}. I still have a shelf I want to hang in his room. And lastly, I'm not sure I'm emotionally ready for Eden to not be my only child. Too late for that, I know, but the emotions are hitting hard. She's my baby. She's going to grow up by leaps and bounds when Baby Boy gets here and I know there's no preventing it. Oh wow...here comes the emotional roller coaster called life!

OK Mommy!

We have been battling with a stubborn almost-two-year-old recently! She's been saying "not yours, mine!" to no one in particular and she's been saying "no" more and more. For example, "Eden, do you want to color?" and most times {even when yes is the correct answer in her head} "no" is the response. Then this is followed by me saying ok and walking away and Eden pitching a fit. I know, hard to believe that my perfect little angel of a child says no and pitches fits, but she does!

Because of the ever growing occasions to which Eden is saying no, pitching fits and saying mine we are trying to nip it in the bud. One way we're trying to battle this is to remind her that "saying 'mine' isn't polite" and that the proper thing to do is to share. We also have the conversation often that no isn't a good response to give Mommy and Daddy and the better one is to say, "ok, Mommy/Daddy" and do as instructed. As you can imagine, this is a very slow process and is very often met with resistance from our stubborn child {who did she get that from?!}

This morning I was making breakfast for us and tripping over a lot of Eden's toys in the process. While trying to keep my cool, I just slid them out of my way, closer and closer to the living room where they belong. Eden at one point came up and wanted to play with her picnic basket {this toy had been slid out of my way at least 14 times at this point} and I told her that she needed to play with the picnic basket in the living room if she wanted to play with it. Lucky for me, I got my first ever, "ok, Mommy!" followed by Eden taking it into the living room to play!

How excited was I that she did what I asked her to do?! Excited enough to share the event with everyone else! I know that this isn't the end of hearing "no" or "mine" or having tantrums, but it's the beginning and to get to the end of anything, you have to start at the beginning, right?

Big Trucks

Saturday night we took Eden to see the monster truck show down in San Diego. Lane and I used to go when we were in Atlanta and we loved going. It was so much fun, no matter how red-neck it sounds.

At the beginning of the show they started it with singing the National Anthem and having different groups of people stand to be recognized. Of course they had military stand to be recognized, but they also had family of military stand. This is something that always makes me smile because I'm proud to be the wife of a Marine, but last night I had a very emotional response to this action. I am no longer only the wife of a Marine, but the sister of a soon-to-be-Sailor. {There are many people in our family who are active duty or retired, but this was different.} Realizing that Parker now falls into the category of people who are serving our country and protecting our freedoms brought tears to my eyes. I was happy to be a proud sister standing to recognize the sacrifices that Parker has committed to making for the first time!

Anyways, on to the big trucks. Eden loved the idea of seeing "big trucks" and then when we told her that they were going to jump, she was beyond excited! The trucks didn't let her down, they jumped, fell over, and did a lot of spinning.

January 21

Eden and Daddy as the show started.

One of the races as the trucks came across the finish line. We waited SO long to see 2 trucks jump to finish at the same time!

Grave Digger on the right is celebrating 30 years of monster truck racing/competing.

El Toro Loco

I guess he took that corner a little too sharp trying to take the W in his race. He was ok to come back for freestyle, so all was good!

Mommy and Eden watching the big trucks.

Again, the finish line of the races.

Sharp corners and big trucks to mix well sometimes. He was able to recover and finish out his race without falling over.

As he came down from being vertical over the jump be busted the back axle of the truck and lost part of his shocks.

This was as Lane was telling me, "This is no good. White smoke means oil." In the next second the truck caught fire and Lane missed it! The flames were HUGE and I can't believe he missed the only fire of the night when he practically knew it was going to happen!

One of the many jumps during free style.

Riding on 2 wheels.

Catching some air.

Oops...

Someone FINALLY went up the side of the biggest mound!

The reason you stay for freestyle...to see trucks flip, break, and/or catch on fire!

Excited about her Grave Digger shirt that Daddy got her!

Another flip, this time it was El Toro Loco.

Daddy got Baby Boy a truck and Eden a shirt. You can see in the big screen above us that El Toro Loco {Baby Boy's truck} just flipped and gave a great show! Daddy is a little excited!

He's got some mad ups!

Going up the mound...

...and coming down from the mound...

...and he's over! We thought he might flip right side up, but no luck.

Grave Digger at the beginning of his free style. He's always going to put on a good show. The man has no fear and he always leaves it all out on the track.

Take note: Grave Digger is driving on the side of the mound while his tire is to the left of him! He lost a tire and still finished out his run. Like I said...he leaves it all out on the track, literally.

A great view of Grave Digger driving on just 3 tires.

And jumping with just 3 tires. His 4th tire is still on the top of the mound.

HUGE jump...3 tires...WOW!

Standing on top of his truck. Proud of his accomplishment! The crowd loved it, but the judges didn't give him a great score. He finished second, but he was, by far, the best of the free style drivers.