John Birth Story

So I have a few minutes by myself (Janae is watching all three kids!), so I'm going to try to whip this out as quickly as I can. I'm doing voice texting, so pardon the misspellings and potentially weird words! as is typical, Johnny is the third child, and so his birth story will not be as detailed and he's almost 6 months old so I've probably forgotten some of that already. But I'm going to do the best I can and give the basics. I know it was a Sunday and I woke up that morning feeling pretty much the same as I had every morning. I did feel pretty uncomfortable and huge as usual though. I definitely felt bigger and this pregnancy and was very ready to be done by the end. Although overall I felt great and worked out until the very end, which I'm sure helped a lot. But I definitely felt like it was my hardest pregnancy, being 37 years old – knowing it was my last, my body was just ready to be done having a big bowling ball on the front of it! I did have to go to the chiropractor quite a bit for adjustments the last probably three months of pregnancy, as I was having some pretty bad pain that was keeping me from working out, which made me pretty depressed. But the chiropractor really helped and once I got through that I was able to continue to work out. But he really didn't bother me at all. That day I think we went to church like normal, and I was hanging out at my moms house after that and Jeanae was there. Jeanae had a seven week old, Meris, and so she was fairly limited as to what she could do, but we really wanted to go get a pedicure. I had a gift card and thought it would be fun to get one before the baby came so I have pretty toes. So we were trying to figure out a time when me and Jeanae and my mom could go, or just Jeanae and I saw that my mom could watch Marris. She was very dependent on Janae, obviously, at that age! There was a lot of back-and-forth about who was going to stay and watch Morris and her was going to go get the pedicures, because I believe the husbands were also there and off, and we needed to time it to where Marist was hopefully napping the whole time we were gone. Anyway, it ended up just being me and Jeanae and we took Leoney and Greta as well and we drove there. But when we parked my mom had texted that Maris was crying, and wondered if she could be hungry. So Janelle got stressed out at that point and we just decided to go back home to my moms house. We had planned to try to possibly get the pedicures the next day. Sometime in the mid afternoon I started feeling went out like could potential he be contractions. They varied extremely though, as far as time between them. I believe some of them were as much as 30 minutes and maybe even an hour apart, and some of them were much closer together. So I wasn't really sure if that was at the sense they vary so much. But they did feel like light contractions so I was starting to prepare myself for the possibility. What clued me in that this was probably labor, is that they just never really stopped. So after a few hours my mom and sister were pretty sure that I was in labor, and I was fairly sure also. But I didn't know when to call my midwife since they were so inconsistent in their timing. I'm trying to remember, but I think that we just sort of made plans for the kids to stay the night there at my moms house, which worked so good because it was a Sunday night and we kind of had all afternoon to plan out what would happen over the next few hours. We went on a walk around my mom's neighborhood to see what would happen with My contractions, and I definitely had to stop to catch my breath throughout the lock, and moved very slowly. I was pretty sure after that that this was it. So I think that George and I eventually went home and just kind of finished packing up my stuff for the hospital. I called Ruthann and told her about the inconsistency of the contractions and ask her if I should go in or just wait it out until the timing between them evened out. I can't really remember what she said, but eventually we headed to the hospital. I knew I really wanted an epidural, and I didn't want it to snowball like Georgie's labor, so I figured getting there sooner than later was probably a good idea, especially since I was pretty sure I was in labor. I think we were just kind of keeping in touch with my mom and Jeanae, and the plan was that I was going to tell Ruthann that I'd really like to need to be in my labor, but she had a nursing baby and so we probably need to bring her. George and I were fine with that, so as long as she was OK with that then we were hoping it would be OK. Which it was fine she said. So I think we just got all checked in – I can't believe how much of this I really have forgotten already! Oh yeah – I remember I got there and the nurse checked me and I was dilated to a five. Which is funny because I really wasn't in that much pain at all yet, and Jeanae was surprised I was that dilated with how little pain I seems to be in. The contractions themselves were starting to get a little bit more intense, but really didn't last any more than I think like 30 seconds if that. But I told them I wanted an epidural as soon as possible, and with the history of my snowballing labors I would love it sooner than later. Ruthann was there by that point and said that was fine. The nurse was pretty young – younger than me for sure and really nice. She had used Ruthann as her midwife too. So I got the epidural which was good, because the contractions are starting to feel a little bit stronger and I'm just in time. If I remember right, it seems like maybe the epidural took a little bit longer to set in this time than it did with Greta's labor. I could be wrong, but it does seem like that was the case. So then it was just a very uneventful and fairly boring actually. Jeanae had put Marist to bed and the plan was for Kevin to bring her to Jeanae during her first waking, to the hospital. I'm trying to remember where the kids stay the night, because I think that they were all together so that Ted could be home with all of them when Kevin had to leave. I can't remember if they stayed at Jenny's house or at my moms house. But it worked out, and it was very low-key – Ruthann just came in every so often and would check me. I could not feel anything at all, even more so than with Greta's labor that I felt completely numb. I think I was sort of hoping to labor in a similar position as I did with Greta, more sitting up and using the birthing bar, but since I was so numb and this was my third baby, and I wasn't nearly as particular, I think I just decided to go ahead and buy them laying down on my back traditionally. Ruthann said that I could probably start pushing whenever – which was a little weird because I don't know that I was even dilated fully yet. But I really couldn't feel any urge to push so we would ask her to come in a couple times just to see if I was getting close to I 10 yet. I really don't remember when I got the epidural, but something in me is telling me it was around 10 PM or sometime in that hour. It was very uneventful and Kevin did bring Morris and Jeanae was able to feed her and just wear her during the rest of my birth. Eventually route then came in and checked me and said that I could probably start questioning, so I did. I remembered from Greta's birth, that it was very weird to push when you couldn't feel anything, and I was even more numb in this birth, and I didn't want to take long, so I just remember thinking to push as hard as I possibly could be down in that area, even if it felt weird or like I wasn't doing anything. So I just pushed as hard as I possibly could down there, even though I couldn't really even feel wet down there meant! But it worked – he was out in three pushes and I think Ruthann even seem surprised at how fast I got him out since with Greta's birth I had a hard time pushing because I couldn't feel anything. But I also attribute it to my strength from working out so much Moore for the last two years before that. Jenny loved it – and everything was so calm and I was so wide open that everything was very visible. It was a pretty textbook labor and so I can't complain at all! Something that was a lot different about this birth from grandmas though, was that this epidural took much much longer to wear off then with Greta us. I was pretty surprised because it was so different, and my legs felt numb for quite a bit longer afterwards then they did with Greta. I felt like it took me longer to be able to actually walk and get up, and even the next morning I felt like I could still feel slight numbness in my legs. Oh – he was born at 1:08 AM and weighed 7 lbs. 13 oz. – a full pound heavier than my heaviest baby – Greta. It's funny though because I was in the best shape during this pregnancy, and I gained the least amount of weight – only 15 pounds. I had actually lost 5 pounds at one point, which is the only common during pregnancy when the mother is very sick and throwing up a lot. Which wasn't the case for me. So it's ironic that this was my largest baby, but I sure couldn't tell! When he came out I thought he looked so much like Greta – squished face and just so much like a Gatseos! Again, he looked so much like George's dad! I don't even remember who cut the umbilical cord. But I don't really want to save my placenta this time, just in case I wanted it. So I did, and I actually still have it in my freezer! It was funny to discover it when we moved into our new house! Eventually after a few hours we moved upstairs to the recovery for, and we got a room on the side that I liked, with a good view, as per my request when I had called the hospital the night before. I was so excited, as I love the view from up there! The couple nights in the hospital were pretty rough – he really seemed to have his days and nights mixed up, and he was up so much during the night. It was so hard because we were just so exhausted from laboring through part of that first night and yet we couldn't just let him cry next to us. I don't remember it being that way with Georgie and Greta. I remember with Greta they actually let me sleep as long as I wanted to until she would wake up to feed. With Georgie, the nurses would actually come wake me up to nurse him every three hours in the night. But with Johnny, he never let us get long stretches at all – in fact I had to ask the nurses to please take him a few times so that George and I could just get some sleep. I felt like it was physically dangerous for me to be holding him because I was so exhausted and couldn't hold my eyes open. It was really pretty rough! It was one of the tiredest I had ever been! My friend Sandy Prindle from MOPS was able to be my nurse for part of the time, which was really awesome! The nursing went fairly normal, although there was one point where he was crying uncontrollably and he just would not latch on, and we try to get the lactation nurse in but she was busy, and so my nurse ended up giving him a teeny bit of milk in a syringe, just to get him to calm down and suck. I could tell that nurse thought that I wasn't nursing him often enough. I think the only visitor I remember having was Mindy Towner. It seems like maybe there was someone else but I can't remember who it was! It's funny how about your third kid, people don't think it's that big of a deal to come visit you anymore! But it was totally fine – I understand! I don't really remember too much more from that hospital stay than that, except that I remember my bum getting really really sore from sitting on it for so long and so much – which I really don't remember happening with my other two kids. And I don't feel like I was sitting more than with them. I would try to get up and walk around a little bit as much as I could. I'm sure I remember more stuff later, but that is when I can remember about that. When we got home, the first couple nights are really rough – he was up so much during the night, and I was terrified that it was going to take weeks for us to get him on a better schedule. I was so so so exhausted! Definitely harder than my other two have been. But after about three or four nights, he finally started sleeping a little bit more through the night. I was so grateful! I will try to do a separate post soon, of just what kind of baby he's been for the last six months – I'm sure I will forget a lot but I can try to remember as much as I can, which will be more now than in a year or five years from now! Johnny – if you're reading this someday – I love you just as much as the other two – it just gets a lot harder to get stuff done – like documenting births and babies lives – the more babies you have! But I love you fiercely – and it's so interesting how you can love every single one of them so equally and so much, yet differently. I'll try to post again soon!

Third Pregnancy!!!

I am driving by myself for a little while, so thought I would try to get some record of my third pregnancy so far, before I forget and get too busy. It definitely is different on your third pregnancy! Not that I will love this child any less at all – I know I will Love him fiercely! So I am about 23 weeks now. I got pregnant at the beginning of January. Some of this post is going to be too much information, probably especially for my future son! But I want to have it down somewhere so I might edit it later to be not so much TMI.! So Jeanae got pregnant unexpectedly in November, and both of us really wanted a third child, and it was our dream to be pregnant together. But when she got pregnant earlier than we had thought that we were going to try to start convincing our husbands to get on board, which was around January 2016 or sometime in the spring, it came as quite a shock to us! Janae and I were both really excited for her but also very sad because I was not pregnant with her, and George really was not on board at all to have a third, especially because we were in the process of starting to build a house, and all the stress and financial strain that comes with that. So the timing really was not good for us, and I don't know that I would've ever really convinced him to have a third for sure if Jeanae hadn't gotten pregnant so soon. So in December we were having sex one night, and it was the night of the MOPS Christmas party, and George just randomly didn't pull out because he just said he felt like he shouldn't. I was shocked and astonished! I looked at my ovulation calendar, and supposedly I had ovulated that very day! I wasn't tracking my ovulation at that time because we weren't trying to get pregnant, but I did track my periods regularly. So I thought for sure with our track record that we would get pregnant that day. I held off on telling Janae about the possiblity, Because I knew that I would find out if I was pregnant right around Christmas time, and I thought it would be a fun Christmas gift to surprise her. I knew that she would be so completely elated and completely shocked, as I was! So I kept it in secret and waited those long two weeks to see if we were pregnant. But I did remember that I had felt like I had ovulated a couple days before my calendar said that I did, so I wasn't entirely sure if we would get pregnant because it seemed I ovulated early randomly that month. So sure enough my period came right on Christmas Eve, and it was a hard and sad Christmas eve, but I still couldn't tell Jeanae, because I knew that we might possibly try again the next month, and I still wanted to surprise her. Since George and I thought that we might be pregnant for those whole two weeks, it made him come around to the idea, and it definitely got my hopes up a lot! I think George knew at that point that it would be hard to go back and tell me that he decided he doesn't want a third, especially after we had thought maybe we were pregnant for two weeks and I was so excited! So in January, when we were in Phoenix, around my next ovulation time, I was definitely more aware of my ovulation schedule, and he knew my thoughts and my heart and my desire to have a third. But he was still not convinced that he wanted this, especially with the fact that we had so much going on around the time the baby would be due, including building our house, moving, and Georgie starting kindergarten. And I totally understood that, and so even though I was sad, and prayed about it a lot, I submitted to him as my husband, as I knew was the godly thing to do, and I just prayed about it and didn't pressure him at all either way. I completely understood his point of view and where he was coming from. But we did have sex a few times around the time I ovulated, and sometimes he pulled out and sometimes he didn't. He was just so on The fence about it, and especially the timing. And I actually purposely didn't analyze my ovulation day, because I really wanted to be surprised on the gender and not be influenced in my thoughts about what I thought it might be based on our timing. So there was about two times that he didn't pull out around the time I ovulated and so I was pretty darn sure that there was no way we were not going to get pregnant this time. I am so fertile! And this next two weeks, while we were in Arizona, went very slowly also, and I definitely felt different than I had in December. I could just tell that I was pregnant, even though I don't really have any symptoms normally. I could feel slight cramping which I knew was implantation, and I was going to be very very surprised if I wasn't pregnant. I bought and took some pregnancy tests a couple times, that were supposed to be early detection pregnancy tests, and they actually came up negative. I was really really sad, but I still really thought I was pregnant even though those tests came up negative. So I really tried to be patient and wait until the day I was actually supposed to start my period, and took another test. And finally there was a line – although it was very very faint, unlike my other two pregnancies, so I was a little bit worried that it wasn't a super viable pregnancy by the fact that the line wasn't very dark, even on the first day I missed my period. So I waited a couple more days, even though Jeanae and Kevin and their family had gotten to Arizona to join us, literally I think the first day of my missed period. It was a hard day or two to not say anything to her, but I wanted to get a darker line before I surprised her. So I took another test on the third day of my missed period. And it was definitely darker, but still not super dark but I want to head and decided I would tell her. So we were at a vacation rental house, and I was trying to think of a creative way to tell her, but I was just SOOOOO excited, so I decided I'd have Gretta tell her that she was going to be a big sister. 😃😃😃😃😃😃 My phone didn't have any photo or video storage left on it, and I wanted to make sure I got it all on video, so I used George's iPad to video it (which I've never done before, and later when I played it, for some reason there is no sound, which was frustrating, but atleast I got the video and her reaction and facial expression!) it's absolutely hilarious when Gretta told her - she was completely shocked and almost angry - she paced out of the room and kept saying "No!" "Whaaaat?!" (Like she just couldn't believe it!!!) She wasn't unhappy in any way, just completely in shock!!! It was sooooo fun and funny!!! And Kevin was just cracking up laughing. And all the kids just look afraid and like "What's happening?!" Anyway, for the rest of the trip we had so much fun basking in the excitement of getting to be pregnant together, our DREAM!! But that wasn't our only reason for wanting a third child - regardless of Janae or her plans, I really wanted a big family (even 4 if George would've let me!) But I was thrilled to be blessed with a third child, and couldn't be happier! And I honestly didn't care about the gender - I already had one of each! And same with Janae, on all accounts. We talked about doing our baby shower together, since we are only seven weeks apart, as well as possibly finding out the gender together, because I knew that I could get a blood test since I'm considered high-risk after 35, that would tell me the gender. And I just had to be 10 weeks along to get my blood test. We thought our insurance would cover it because usually when you're considered high-risk which I was by age, they do cover it. But it turned out our insurance didn't cover it, but we decided to get it anyway because it could count towards our deductible and would be a wash by the end of the year. So a little after 10 weeks I got the blood test and Jeanae found out the gender in her anatomy scan. We knew we wanted to do something fun to reveal the gender together, so she had the ultrasound tech put the gender in an envelope and seal it. And she had to wait for me for about a week before I got my results back, and I had them put the results in an envelope as well. Then I took the two envelopes to our friend Heidi Williams who makes delicious cakes, and we add her make two cakes, one for each of us. Jeanae wanted a white cake, so for her cake Heidi would either put pink or blue food coloring in it. And I wanted chocolate cake, so for my cake she would either put pink or blue candies on the inside of the cake. So that following Sunday, April 10th (?), we had our gender reveal party. We decided to just keep it small, because it was hard to draw the line of who to invite. So we just had our immediate family – Mom And Ted, and George and Janet, and our two families. We could hardly wait to cut those cakes open, so we did it right at the beginning of the party before we ate or anything. We have a few videos of it, and it was so fun, even though I had so much anxiety right before that! It was such a life-changing piece of information to find out, and I knew I would be overjoyed and kind of sad and no matter what The outcome. I totally called it though! I guessed that we were having a boy and Jeanae was having a girl – just based on a few things. Janae's ultrasound tech double checked the gender at the end of her appointment, and so I sort of thought it could be a girl because they are not always so obvious. And also, Heidi made sure that janae and I knew who's cake was whose, so I had a feeling that we were having different genders. It was really fun to find out with our close family around, and we were excited to find out that the number of boys and girls would stay even among the cousins. George's whole family was thinking that we would probably have a girl since George comes from a boy and two girls and his dad does as well. But God had different plans for us, and I have to say I am so so so excited to have another boy. Greta will definitely be protected with a big and little brother, we just need to make sure she's not spoiled too much! It's also really cool the gender order of siblings, for both Janae and I because our oldest boy will always be the oldest and our youngest boy will always be the baby, and our middle child always be the only girl. And the same holds true with the opposite gender, with Jeanae's kids and birth order. So we really could not be happier :-) as far as symptoms with this pregnancy, I did feel just very slightly nauseous between weeks six and eight, but after that it pretty much subsided and I didn't really have any symptoms, just like my other pregnancies. Jeanae and I have been very blessed to not have hardly any side effects from pregnancy. It did catch me offguard a little bit to have slightly more nausea than I had with the other two kids. For those couple weeks though, it definitely made me have more sympathy for women who have any morning sickness, and especially severe sickness during pregnancy. I never threw up or anything – just definitely did feel fairly nauseous, and the thing that seems to help was eating food. So when the nausea stopped around eight weeks, it gave me a little reason to worry about the health of the baby and the pregnancy, but I had my first doctors appointment right around that time, and everything looked normal. And they confirmed that there was only one baby in there, which I had slightly wondered if there was more just because of the nausea I had had. And also because of my older age. But I'm pretty sure George would've had a heart attack if they told us we were having twins! But something that did bother me slightly was the fact that they couldn't pick up the heartbeat with the normal Doppler instrument they use in the midwife office, and I'm pretty sure they were able to pick up the heartbeat with my other two kids, even that early on. So that worried me a little, but she could see the heartbeat in the ultrasound, so I didn't worry too much. Of course, as always, I was relieved to make it through my first trimester, and then I had my anatomy ultrasound around 21 weeks, which was slightly anticlimactic since we already knew the gender, but it was really comforting to find out that the baby looked very very healthy and normal, and even was in the 79th percentile! I was thrilled, as my other two kids have been pretty small. Something different about this pregnancy too, was the fact that I actually lost weight for the two appointments after my first appointment, and then I had only gained a few pounds at this last appointment. They did say that that can be normal if you have a lot of sickness and are vomiting a lot, but I didn't, so it was a little bit worrying, but I've been very consistent with working out during this pregnancy, and also my theory is that at my first appointment, I had just gotten back from Arizona, where I had eaten quite a bit and unhealthily, and also I have been eating more at the beginning of the pregnancy because that's what helped me with the nausea. So I think that once that leveled out, and I was back home and eating normal, I just naturally lost some weight. Another different thing in this pregnancy but I found out at the ultrasound, was that my placenta was anterior, which means it was in front of my belly, like right behind my bellybutton. This is fairly unusual, though not at all unheard of. I asked my midwife if that would explain why I didn't feel a lot of movement on the baby earlier on, and she said that yes totally that would explain that. That made me feel a lot better, because Jeanae felt movement very early this time, being her third pregnancy, at around 14 or 15 weeks I think. And I didn't start feeling movement until right around 18 weeks, and that was just very faint movement. I didn't really substantial movement tell around 20 or 21 weeks, and she said that that is very common in women with anterior placenta because they have a cushion. So that gave me a lot of relief because I was slightly worried about the health and vitality of the baby. So right now we are in California on a trip that we all took to San Diego and Anaheim, where we went to Legoland, the zoo, and Disneyland. It has been a super super fun trip so far, but ever since the drive here, I started getting a little bit worried about A couple symptoms I've been having. I wasn't super worried about it until I started doing more reading on our drive, and it has left me feeling terribly worried the whole time. I am so excited to go to the doctor as soon as we get home. The first symptom I've had that is weird is probably about a month ago I was driving in town, and I had less sharp, excruciating pain that sort of felt like a really bad stitch on my upper right-hand side of my stomach, and it just put me out. I actually couldn't drive for a few minutes and had to have Janet drive my car home so that I could stretch out on my back, because it felt better if I stood up or if I stretched out on my back. I literally thought I was dying, and it really really scared me, even though it only lasted severely for about two minutes. When I got home I tried to go on a walk with the kids but it was flaring up again, though not quite as excruciating so I finally just lay down on my back for a while and then after a while I got down on all fours, and after that it pretty suddenly went away as fast as it came. Since then, I've had that same pain, so probably not as excruciating as that very first time, a few times. But now I know that if I lay down on my back and or get on all fours, it usually makes it go away pretty quickly. When I researched it at that time I kind of concluded that it was probably gas, with appendicitis and all stones being a slight possibility, but probably not. So I just kind of let it go. But then another symptom I have been having for a couple months was this the holing feeling in my stomach right behind my bellybutton that I would randomly get when doing different kinds of physical activity. I have had it in my workout classes a couple times, as well as when I picked up the kids and held them a couple times. It is just this very sudden fairly sharp calling feeling that only lasts a split second and then it's gone. I never really associated to two symptoms with each other, but when I started reading on the strife, I of course I resorted to thinking it was the worst possible scenario, and I learned about a thing called placental abruption, and I was convinced that I have it. I have been on the fence the whole trip about calling the doctor, as I did feel like the babies movement had slowed down a little bit for a few days, but I still have been feeling him move a fair bit in the last couple days, so I keep putting off calling the doctor. I'm just really trying to hold out until we get home, and as long as I'm feeling him move, I just have to pray and trust everything is OK. So I don't really know if there's anything wrong, but I will update when I go to the doctor next week. From what I've gathered, you can have a partial placental abruption, that is monitored is OK as long as the baby is still getting enough nutrients and being nursed. The worst case scenario is if it were to detach completely from my uterine wall, which would definitely kill The baby, and can actually kill the mother too. But I'm trying not to think about that. I'm really hoping everything is OK, because I really haven't had any of the symptoms that come along with placental abruption. Although sometimes, and rare cases there is not very many symptoms. But as long as I am feeling him move, I feel better. It's definitely making me not want to work out as hard anymore, and I probably won't work out until The doctor confirms that there's nothing abnormal happening. I am now 25 weeks pregnant tomorrow, on my birthday, and I am so relieved that the baby is viable, as of 24 weeks. This pregnancy is, of course, going so so fast, especially with having two kids already, and building our house. In some ways I wish I could slow down time, because I would love for our house to be done before the baby comes, but it's really not looking that way. But that's OK – it's all in gods timing and I know will get to move when we are supposed to. So this baby will probably be born in our current house, but will probably only lived there for a month or two. I felt movement of the baby from the outside, around 21 weeks I think. And it totally caught me off guard because it was kind of an accident. For some reason I was thinking that since I haven't found him move very much for very long inside, and it would still be a while before anyone could feel him moving from the outside. But once I did feel him I would try to let George feel it, with no success. The first person to actually feel the movement from the outside was Audrey sorrow. But then George felt it a few days later. And Jeanae has felt a sense and two. It's pretty fun! I am trying to savor every minute of it, because it's probably my last pregnancy, and I just want to remember this feeling forever. It's been a little hard being on this trip with Jeanae, because I find myself comparing my pregnancy to hers, and she's feeling so so much movement from her baby right now, so it sometimes makes me worry a little bit. Then I just have to remind myself that I'm still seven whole weeks behind her, and that is a big difference. As far as how we told our parents that we were expecting, as soon as we got home from Arizona, we planned a dinner at dos hombres with Mom And Ted and George and Janet and Jeanae's family. I decided to take a picture of my mom and Georgie, and instead of saying "say cheese!", I said "say Tara's pregnant!" It took a minute for my mom to absorb what I said, and I think George and Janet didn't really get it at first. I think everyone was pretty shocked and felt it came out of the blue! (Which it kind of did – we weren't even expecting to be trying again that soon, if at all.) They were all pretty shocked! They almost seem shocked in a negative way, but I'm trying not to read into it too much, and now they are all very happy for us and excited for us. I tried to only tell my close friends for a while, and I think I was around 12 weeks when I announced at the mops meeting, and that was super fun because I had kept it a secret from a lot of my acquaintances there. I waited to announce it on Facebook, because I wanted to announce the pregnancy and the gender at the same time. So as my Facebook announcement, I posted the video of our gender reveal party. It was super fun to get all surprising and excited reactions. Especially because Janae and I were pregnant together. That's all I can think of regarding this pregnancy so far, right now. If I think of other things I will try to block more later. And I will definitely talk about my birth story once that happens. Tara Gatseos

Gretta Updates and New Pregnancy

Well, once again, I feel very overwhelmed with how long it's been since I've written here. But I still think you're better occasionally than never. I will really try to remember a lot of things, although I know I will forget. It's been several months since I've written. I'll just dive right in. We went to Arizona last month and Grant I was getting out of her pack and play daily, and we thought that it would be fine once we got home and got her in her larger crib, but nope. She started getting out of her crib every night, or rather morning I should say, so we decided it was probably time to move her into her toddler bed. So we transitioned her crib into a toddler bed. Ironically, she got sick that same day, and so it was a little bit of a rough few nights and George had to lay in there next to her for a couple nights because she was throwing up and just really not feeling good. But once she got over her sickness, she's been doing absolutely great. She never tries to get out at night, although she does get out in the morning quite a bit and come in our room, which is fine, except that it's always really really early. I was going to ease her out of her sleep suit to, but we just ended up taking it away right when we put her in the toddler bed, so that she could actually walk when she got out of bed. It didn't seem to faze her at all. And then she didn't have a sleep suit, we also had to put blankets on her bed and teacher to stay under her covers and keep her head on the right end. She's done really great with all that change at once – and she's never fallen out of bed or anything. I think she feels really grown up and it's really cute. She is just such a complete character, and we are absolutely loving this age. It is such a fun age. She has so many words and talks so well, and says the cutest things she also says the wrong words for some things like garage. It's really cute whenever we drive by the indoor soccer tennis courts on 25 1/2 Road, she often squeals there's the beach or there's the ocean! I have no idea why she calls it that, but is it is so cute and so I just haven't corrected it. Her hair is getting quite long and I'm able to do quite a bit with it although I don't really find the time to do that much with that usually. She took a really bad fall from our couch to the coffee table in early December, and had to get six or seven stitches on a very deep wound on her cheek. It was awful. And it left a really pretty decent scar, but it looks better and better every day, and the doctor told us that it will move as her face grows. I am very faithful with putting on the derma several times a day, as well as this product that Kathy Rosman gave us called Asea. It stinks that it's so prevalent on her face, but she is still beautiful despite it. She is very addicted to her Binky right now, and the time is eminent for us to start thinking about taking it from her. I am a little nervous because even though this was the age that George he was, and he did fine, she seems to be even a little bit more addicted to them than he was. We told her that when we lose all of them were going to be done, but we still have four and I'm not sure how fast we will lose them. So that's our next hurdle. She definitely has shown interest in potty training, so we will tackle that as soon as the weather gets warmer. I will try to do a separate post about this, but I am expecting our third child, which is a huge blessing and we are so excited, and so I'd really like to get her potty trained before the new baby comes in September. We have a chronic really frustrating issue in that both kids wake up early in the morning, and we have tried everything to get them to sleep later to no avail. We finally set up Georgie's alarm clock to change colors at 6 AM, and have enforced him staying in bed until it changes colors even if he wakes up sooner. He has been amazingly good at doing that. And granny used to get up before him sometimes and come in our room, but now she pretty consistently wait for her brother to get up and then comes in with him. 6 AM is actually a pretty good improvement, as they were waking up as early as 5 AM, 515, 530. It's been really hard on us with my sleep issues and with George not going to bed till a little bit later. And we do feel guilty daily but we let them watch videos and cartoons so we can go back to bed for a while. Credit is really obsessed with videos now and the iPad, because of Georgie, and of course she wants to be like him. It's frustrating because they never seem to want to watch cartoons – they just want to watch videos. And videos are harder to monitor what they're watching, and cartoons are. I finally threw my hands up in the air with the sleeping, and said we're just going to start putting them to bed late at night like everybody else does, whose kids sleep in later in the morning. And we are not even asking them to sleep super late – even like 6:30 would be very doable. Because of the early wake time, I have been having to go to bed so so early, like sometimes I go to bed as early as 730. I just get tired that early. And so it really affects our life in a pretty major way, and we don't have a lot of nights. And if I do go to something at night, I really struggle to catch up on my sleep for a few days. But I know it's a season, and it will improve so much in our new house. We are so so so so so ready for having our master bedroom downstairs so we can have some more privacy, and having our own bathroom that isn't right next to a kids bedroom. And having the kitchen be far away from their bedrooms. And having them have their own room, so they won't wake each other up. And having a garage so our car is iced over and freezing every morning in the winter, making us late everywhere. Anyway – not trying to sound negative – I am just so completely excited for our new house. We definitely would have a very difficult time having a third baby here, so God's timing is perfect in that we should be moving into our house right before we have a new baby. We know it's going to be a trying time, trying to unpack and set up a new house and having a newborn, and having Georgie be starting school, but it will be short-lived and in a couple years everything will be more routine. I really want to have a slightly larger family, and so I am so grateful to George that he is leading us to have a third baby. I am content now though, and I am simply in love with both of our children. Our life isn't easy by any means, but it is so hard and dirty and print happen our biggest blessings, other than each other and ourselves in. As far as eating, Greta is getting a little less picky, and we've noticed that if she is sad, she will eat it easier than if we expect her to feed it to herself. Which is not a good habit for us to get into having to do with her, but at least she will eat the food, so it's not so much a issue of picking us as it is that she just gets distracted and board, and I don't think she has a super big appetite. I need to go now, but I will write another post soon. One more thing to add because I copied and pasted this (issues with phone blog app) - Gretta is SOOOOOO expressive in her voice inflection - it's soooooo cute how much her inflection goes up and down! It KILLS me the cuteness! Definitely could be a little actress!!! In love! <3

Few Things from Spring 2015

Goodness gracious there is so many things that I know I could never get totally caught up, but Greta is just so completely fine with so much personality and littleness independent. She's been saying quite a few three and four and even five or sentences. She likes to copy her brother and therefore has really been quite advanced by watching him. The other day when we were in bed we just heard her singing the ABCs and she got all the way to Q and she was even singing into! Of course she wasn't enough enunciating great, but it was definitely the ABC song. And then a few days ago I asked her if she could count to 10, and she totally did! Of course it wasn't enunciated very good, but she totally did! So I'm trying to start working with her on her colors, even though it's still pretty early. Sometimes I really wish that she would have some sort of interest in the TV, but she just really doesn't seem too. Which is okay I guess. We're not really supposed to start letting them watch TV until their two years old anyway. That's something she does not copy her brother :-) dirty watch is probably too much cartoons and videos, but it sure helps us out. I feel guilt about it every single day, but hopefully it's not ruining him too much. Georgie just had his four year appointment, and I did his questionnaire, and there was only like ONE question on the whol thing that he was a 'sometimes' - not a 'yes'. I was so happy - he's right on track and maybe even a little advanced. Of course I try not to take credit for anything bc we've been blessed by God to have smart kids! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone Tara Gatseos

Spring/Summer 2015

Once again, as usual, I have so much that I could talk about that it overwhelms me and so I keep putting it off. But as usual also, I think you're at least documenting some information rather than none is still worth it. Greta is a super Great talker, and now says up to 10 word sentences at times. She strings thoughts together like any two or three-year-old. She is very cute, and definitely has us wrapped around her finger at times, although we try not to do that. Her hair is getting Longer so it's been fun to do it differently's. We just finally had bangs cut for her for the first time a couple weeks ago. Georgie is no longer a little toddler at all, he is all boy, and a very handsome very smart boy, at that. he is definitely learning all about feelings and motivations and proper social behavior. He is very self-sustaining, which helps me out a lot. He is very good at getting dressed by himself and both kids help me around the house with chores, which is really nice. We just started to casually implement chores for him, and have trained been trying to have him make his bed in the mornings, and they both often help me set the table for breakfast. Feel like helping transfer laundry for me and putting it in the laundry basket. Georgie is way way way too into watching videos, and George and I feel guilty about it often, but sometimes we just really need him to do that so that we can get things done or sleep in a little. He still wakes up pretty early – usually anytime between 615 and 645. I've pretty much let go of the hope that I can get him to sleep later. But we've really been pretty consistent about making him stay in his bed until 7 o'clock and read books, and then he can watch videos after 7 o'clock. He still takes a nap usually, though some days he really doesn't seem that tired. There was a period of time A couple months ago where I decided to not push his nap, and give him the option of quiet time for. He fell asleep every single day for like two weeks during his quiet time! And then he basically just started saying that he would like to nap instead of quiet time. But some days he just doesn't go down that easily. It depends on our life and what's going on, And how much we are staying up later at night, which is really hard during the summer because it stays light so late. So when he gets to bed later I usually do make him do a nap, and I adjust his week time based on how long nights sleep he got. I do the same thing with Greta. She usually stays awake about 4 1/2 to 5 hours before going down for her nap. There have been a couple chunks of time where I got her to be doing a 2 to 2 1/2 hour nap, but being the summer and staying up later than I would prefer, she just frequently is overtired, and so therefore only does about an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and a half nap. It frustrates the heck out of me that I can't seem to ever get her caught up and haven't been able to get her to go back to her longer naps and probably like a month now. It's really hard during the summer though, and generally both can't act fine even when they are a little bit overtired, so I really really try to let it go. I'm definitely more anal about it then most of my friends, I'm finding. It's actually quite deal in my life and takes up a lot of my thoughts – their sleep! It's kind of sad I know. Right now, Greta usually goes down anytime between 630 and 730 at night – usually closer to 730. And Georgie goes down around eight or 830. I have definitely thought several times about forcing him to stay awake all day, so that he would go down easier at bedtime, because a lot of times it takes up to an hour to fall asleep. But sometimes it's just so nice to have that time alone during the day when their naps overlap, and he really does like his nap, so I haven't made him give it up yet. So that's their sleep right now. As far as eating, Greta is still pretty picky. We never cater to her though, and always offer her what we're having for dinner. Often times she'll just end up picking at it, and a large majority of her diet consists of fruit. She loves all fruit. She does like cucumbers fairly well, and carrots somewhat, that is as long as they are dipped in ranch. :) she likes cheese a lot and loves all things sweet. She is always asking about dessert and candy and cookies and cake. It's really sad :(. it's frustrating because she will eat chicken if we make her, and I find myself half having to feed her dinner to her with a spoon or fork, rather than her eating at herself, to make her eat it. She likes cereal and sort of will eat toast although she usually licks the jelly off. :) she asks to drink my coffee, and when I have given her drinks of it she really does seem to like it. And I do put cream and sugar, but not a ton of it, so it's kind of funny that she still likes it. Georgie is a really pretty good eater. He eats most things we give him, and we have found bribery to be very useful with both kids when we want them to eat something or more of something. It's kind of sad, but we will sometimes bribe them with dessert and it will help them to eat more. They were both getting in the habit of not eating very much of their meals, and then snacking too much in between meals because they would be hungry. Greta still asks for a banana first thing almost every morning, so we go through so many bananas. And I do think she really is hungry when she wakes up because she doesn't usually eat a ton of dinner. we do still try to eat generally healthy as a family though, and I buy all whole-wheat things and I try to keep lots of fruits and vegetables on hand, and we always offer those as a snack first, or string cheese, which the kids love to. We've been doing frozen bananas and frozen grapes as well, and they really like those. They also like smoothies when I think to make them. It's made me much more conscious of what I'm eating, and how much dessert I really do crave and eat. I am really trying to get a handle on it so I can be a better example for them. Georgie just memorized the Pledge of Allegiance because of a program enstroms was doing where they would get free ice cream if they recited the Pledge of Allegiance. With all the repeating we were doing, Greta actually memorized a fair chunk of it too. It's amazing! Her cute little squeaky crackly whiny voice, which is just her normal voice and really cute and hilarious, saying the Pledge of Allegiance. I've been trying to get it on video but it's really hard to pin her down and say all of it. Especially for the camera :-) Georgie is definitely starting to show more of an interest in reading, and he's been asking how to spell words and sometimes he'll write letters and then ask me what that word is. If it's a word that is phonetic and follows the general rules, I will have him sounded out and we will spell it together. I am slightly wondering if he might have dyslexia slightly, because George did, and sometimes Georgie will put letters that are supposed to be at beginning at the end of words – only a couple times, and it seems like there was something else he did that made me suspicious. So it's definitely on my radar, but I'm not worried about it because it's very treatable and will get through it if he does have it. But I think you definitely will start reading and writing words in this next year. I think that he is very socially smart. Sometimes I see other kids around his age that are kind of unaware of their social situation, and Georgie is always very aware. He's sensitive to peoples thoughts and feelings, and it is just really fun and exciting to see him learning about the world in this way. I love him so much! I just don't want him to grow anymore, because he is my sweet handsome smart dashing funny little boy. he is learning about the fruits of the spirit, and is definitely more aware about sharing and taking turns, which leads me to my next absolute joy – Georgie and Greta have been playing together! just in the last couple months, now that Greta is talking well, and understands everything we say, and is very mobile and runs around just like Georgie, they have realized that they can play with one another, and it is so so so adorable! I'll just start playing tag or hide and seek together, and I think Greta is just getting much more fun for Georgie, because she's more on his level now. they'll write on their hot wheels car together, and Georgie will push her down the roller coaster in the backyard. And they'll play drive-through in their little play car in the backyard. And the other morning when Greta came into the family room where Georgy was watching videos she said "I love you georgie" and he said (slightly annoyed, but atleast he still said it!) "I love you too Gretta"! I died! I melted! We really try to instill in them a love for one another, and how they need to protect each other and watch over each other and love each other. I so hope that this will continue throughout their life. I definitely think that Georgie will be a very protective loving big brother. The other day George and I were talking about something in the front seat, and sometimes Gretta will just say "what you talking bout?" And the other day when I walked in the backyard at my moms house, I heard her get up at her little kiddie table and shout to the other three kids in the sandbox "hey evybody - look at me!" So cute! Teeth. Greta has been getting quite a few more, and now has at least three of her incisors. She might even have her fourth one coming through now. You kind of just stopped keeping track at some point. I can definitely still tell when she's teething, and her insides hurt or rough, just like they were for Georgie. But she actually has a pretty full mouth of teeth now, and I think all that she will need after that is her molars. I am so so so glad to be finished with the worst of the teething. Greta definitely can get really angry and threw temper tantrum sometimes. It seems like she doesn't maybe more little more than Georgie dad. She's just kind of a drama queen sometimes, and definitely likes being the center of attention sometimes. She also is a physical touch girl, and really likes to be held by mommy a lot. So I really try to give in and hold her a fair bit because I think it's one of her love languages. she is pretty independent, and definitely likes to do everything that big brother likes to do. She always wants to sit in his car seat, and buy our own car seat, and lots of things like that, that George he never asked to do – but probably because he didn't have a bigger sibling that he was watching do it. So it's definitely a second child thing. They been going back-and-forth about doing preschool for Georgie next year, but it's hard for me to justify it when I just really don't think he needs it. He is very on track, if not advanced, and I do preschool like activities with him at home. And he is very socialized between church and mopped and play dates and small group. I'm thinking we may just do some preschool with him one semester before heel start school, so next spring of 2016. We're starting to think about schooling too. We were kind of wanting to do the dual immersion academy, but now that we're moving, scenic elementary is in our neighborhood and would be his school, and it has a very good reputation for being One of the best public schools in town. So we really need to start putting a lot of thought into that and researching some of the schools. Georgie is still in gymnastics and loves it. He has also been taking a sports class this summer through parks and rack, where he learns a few different sports. In June he learned about baseball soccer kickball and football. And in July it's all open soccer. It's been fun to for him to learn about sports. he seems to be a decent soccer player. We also did a little cooking class that was a one time thing, and we made some little snacks and that was fun for him. He does still like to help me cook and bake, when I'll let him :-) Since credit will be too soon, I'd like to get her involved in a dance class, and probably will do that this fall. She enjoys watching George he do his sports and gymnastics though. :-) I'm really excited that the kids are going to get to see their house being built. I think I will be really fun and learning experience for them, especially Georgie. I'm sure there is so much that I am forgetting, but I will try to be better about doing shorter blog posts when I have thoughts. Hopefully this is a good account though of our lives for the last few months. :-) - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone Tara Gatseos

Facial Expressions While Eating

This was a post that never got published a long time ago (obviously)!

They're SO SO cute! He's so focused and his lips are so cute (breast AND bottle). And when he's breast feeding his little arms move all about slowly, grasping everything around him. And then he'll rub his little eye with the back of his hand if he's tired. Sooooo cute! I will miss this.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

SO MUCH STUFF!!!

Okay – there is so much that I could blog about that I could probably stay here for two hours, but I'm feeling very overwhelmed and behind so I just thought I would go ahead and try to start somewhere. I will probably forget a bunch of things. Greta has just been so so so completely adorable lately – she is just Miss Independent and so so so Soso Soso incredibly smart. She said a five word sentence probably about a month ago. She said Grammy and Poppy coming over dinner? I couldn't believe it! Most kids are barely staying to word sentences, if that around when they turn two years old. she has been saying to word sentences for several months, and says three word sentences and even forward sentences often now. She's stringing words together crazily. And completely understanding every single thing we say and ask her to do. She has gotten a little bit better about not being a morning person, although she still is not The happiest morning girl. :-) A lot of times I do think it's due to teething, but it abs and flows. I can definitely tell when she's teething a lot more than I could tell with Georgie. She's very textbook and just get very cranky. She's kind of cranky in general fairly often, but she so Smart and cute and outgoing and :-) that it totally makes up for it. George and I were just talking about how she is just becoming such a little drama queen, for lack of a better term and just such a little character. She has wrapped right around her fingers and she knows it :-) she Who gets hurt all. The. Time. She pretty much cries once every two minutes due to tripping on the narrow or just running into something randomly. :-) But I definitely think it's because she has a big brother who she wants to keep up with. She is extremely active. When we went to Sherwood Park the other day, I was setting up our picnic and I looked over and she had walked up the stairs on one end of the equipment and went all the way through all the tunnels all the way up to the top of the very tallest slide on the other side of the equipment, and went right down it with no hesitation.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone