Our Christmas News!

Third time is the charm.

It's what I've been told lately, that the third time is the charm. The third pregnancy is what they are referring to. I'm official outing myself and my pregnancy:)

The reason for the "charm" is that the first two were brought with challenging circumstances and more anxiety than I could imagine. My first child was born with multiple heart defects and had heart surgery when she was only 7 days old. With second baby my water bag tore at 28 weeks and I was on bed rest for 3 weeks until we finally had to deliver her early.

I'm so blessed that they are both with us today and are doing very well! So the third time is hopefully the charm, right?

After the first, I was convinced that number two had to go as planned. How could a momma be thrown into this kind of circumstance twice? I was very wrong. So for this one, I'm very cautious and apprehensive.

My very first prenatal visit was a long one. An hour and a half talking with the doctor, explaining each previous pregnancy in detail so she could understand. Then we had to discuss what came after the pregnancies... the thing that most women don't want to admit or even talk about..... Postpartum Depression. Doctors always monitor this closely and there tends to be an extra eye on your emotional well being throughout and after the process. Normally I would have lied to avoid this stigma but I knew I might need help again after this one. It's easier to be asked "how are feeling" rather than having to choke it out yourself and admit to the doctor that you are not okay.

I was then educated on all the extra procedures, shots, and screenings I would need to do with my high risk pregnancy. The doubt started to set in. I could feel the anxiety building in the pit of my stomach. Fetal echo cardiogram. Progesterone shots. Special monitoring....

I was feeling excited until this visit. Now I'm just slightly nervous. I am excited, however, to announce to all of you about the pregnancy as I have been almost bursting trying to keep it a secret from everyone this long. I'm not very good with secrets and when I have news this exciting it is sooo hard to keep it to myself.

I wish you all a very merry Christmas!

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A Third Child?

I don't know if I'm ready for it and I'm not sure about it in general. After your second child, with two girls, people ask you "are you going to try for a boy?" I used to think I wanted a big family, with lots of kids and lots of love. I equated the amount of children you had with how fulfilled you would feel. The NUMBER started at 5, than crept down to 4. After my second, the hubby and I finally agreed upon 3... maybe.

Our first child was easy. We had it made. Despite the fact that at 7 days old she had heart surgery and we experience a tremendous amount of unexpected stress, which I'm still in therapy for today, we had it pretty dang good once the dust settled. She slept through the night at almost a month old. She never had any feeding problems, was in good health otherwise. She grew up to be the sweetest little girl, only occasionally testing her parent's limits. She followed directions and hardly threw tantrums....

That's when number two came along. That is when all hell broke loose, including my water bag at 28 weeks. I was on bed rest for 4 weeks while we held off the labor and she came at 32 weeks. Ryleigh was a preemie but didn't look like it since she was a large baby, 5lbs! We thought, since again we experienced tremendous unexpected stress, that GOD was granting us with another easy baby. We were terribly wrong.

Don't get me wrong, I love my children so much, but number Two has been more of a challenge than we expected. In addition to a new baby my oldest started having more tantrums. I remember looking at my husband, with two screaming/crying children and thinking what the hell happened to us. I have learned to laugh through the tantrums and the outbreaks, although I'm not sure it's helpful on the children but it keeps my sanity. I know that this too is a season and will pass.

So here we are, 2 and a half years later, confronted with the idea of having another. Ryleigh still drinks a sippy cup of almond milk before bed (it's the substitute for bottle we were supposed to wean her off of at 12 months) but we are trying. We have done everything wrong with our second and I feel insecure with our parenting decisions. I am sweating through answering another question about the third.

So do we shoot for a third? I don't know anymore. It changes on a day to day basis. It doesn't necessarily have to do with the kid's behavior.
I think about how we could be done with diapers soon.
I think about not needing a minivan, although it would be nice.
I think about just being over that baby stage.

But then I think about how warm and wonderful it felt to have a little someone inside of me and how wonderful it would be for Bella and Ryleigh to have a little brother or sister.

I will just have to wait until I know. Do you ever really know, though? Can someone please let me know how they knew when enough was enough?

They are so precious together!

Healthy Weight Loss Update

I wanted to give an update on how The Fast Metabolism Diet: Eat More Food and Lose More Weight
is going... extremely well! The first couple of days were hard to kick my caffeine addiction but this week has been really enjoyable.

I had amazing results last week that I am almost intimidated to post because most people will say it's too much for one week. I promise I did nothing but eat healthy and according to Haylie's plan. I lost 10 pounds in the first week!! I really couldn't believe it myself.

Read the book for yourself and see if this is something for you. Find the book here...

I'm still a little insecure to post full on pictures of the progress but I'm working myself up to that:).


*This post contains my affiliate link that helps support my family. The opinions and experiences expressed are entirely my own.

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