Weekend Mom

I sometimes refer to myself as a weekend mom. I'm very lucky (considering my profession) that I get to spend Friday at 4 - Tuesday morning with my little girl...but with that said I don't see her after I drop her off at daycare around 8:00 am Tuesday until Thursday night..Sometimes even Friday afternoon, depending on if I can sneak out of work a little early on Thursday. I work long days during the week and leave before she wakes up and after she's in bed. This is becoming more and more difficult for me as Everly is getting older. I'm so sad that I've missed so many of Everly's milestones and now she is starting to be so goofy and fun to just hang out with. I just hope that sometime soon I can stay home with her. She's almost 2 and we have just a couple more years before she starts kindergarten, and I may never have this chance again. 

It's been a long time since I last updated, and I'm feeling the urge to write lately. I'm not sure if it's the fact that Everly is almost 9 months old and she is nearing her 1st Birthday!!... or the fact that the weather has been so beautiful and I've been really inspired latley. Either way here it goes...

As I'm typing this I can hear her sweet breathing through the monitor.....

The last time I updated this we had just found out that we were having a girl! Oh my gosh that was over a year ago!!! Well yep we had a beautiful little girl name Everly and she has changed our world!! After struggling to become pregnant, I had a very easy pregnancy- only 2 or 3 days with morning sickness and only one early labor/contraction scare at 27 weeks..we have been blessed with a happy, healthy and overall very easy baby!

Everly was born July 8th 2011 via c-section (she was "frank" breech)

It really saddens me to say though, that I am realizing that each day, I'm forgeting more and more our first days together...Although I have recorded all of her milestones so far...I'm struggleing to remember the little things....It' almost feels like she wasn't even in the hospital with me..  :( ... This is one of my biggest negatives of having a c-section. Although I was not put under, I believe that because of all the drugs they had me on I'm not able to remember that time as clearly.

But from the time we got home with our new beautiful bundle, Everly has been such an amazing baby! Tim and I were able to agree on a pretty decent schedule for the 1st week while he was home with us. At 10 o'clock Tim would go to sleep until 2 or 3 the I would get to sleep until 7 or so. Everly was on the typical newborn sleeping/eating schedule.. she would sleep for 3 hours then be awake for 3 hours...this continued for the first 2-3 weeks.... After that we started working on a sleep routine, and as I remember we would put her in her bassinet around 9 pm and she would wake up around 2 am, then 4 am then up for the morning around 6 am....During this time I was still pumping every 2-3 hrs...needless to say I got almost no sleep. After 1 month of pumping, and rarley being able to get Everly to latch on long enough to eat enough...We began supplementing with formula...and to this day it is one of my biggest regrets of my LIFE!!  Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against feeding your child formula, but for me I still remember that bond I felt when I was breast feeding her and even when I was pumping, just knowing that I AM THE ONE that is keeping this baby full, growing and healthy was one of the greatest feelings in the world!! And I am still very dissapointed in myself that I let my selfishness of being exhausted end that form of bonding between me and my daughter. It is something I will never get back..I can't have a do over...and I just wish i had realized that then.But I am proud to say that since Everly has started eating baby food, I have made it all myself! And try to be organic as often as I can! This has helped me cope with the fact that I stopped breast feeding so early...This is something that I know is the best option for her and I will do it as long as she is eating baby food.

But back to the sleeping habits: At 8 weeks old I had returned to work part-time and we had tried unsucessfully to transition Everly to her crib. At that time she was in her bassinet but for the most part we were co-sleeping ( i don't want to hear any negatives comments about this, I don't regret that for a second)...But at 10 weeks we decided to give the crib another shot... and from that day on, Everly has been a 10-12 hour night time crib-sleeper!!!! We've had a handful of rough nights in the last 6 months, and 2 of those nights were because of teething.
Around the time when Everly was 6 months old (January) we had a couple of rough nights (2-3 wake ups) it just happens that one of my clients is a pediatrican and she reccomended the book "Healthy Sleep Habits - Happy Child" and that night we began using the cry-out method...we put Everly to be between 6:30 & 7:30 when she starts showing us her "sleep signals" and she fusses/crys for usually 5-10 min, then sleeps until around 5 am...We know that we are so blessed to have such a great sleeper!!

Everly's Milestones: So far I believe Everly has been on  the earlier end of average..not positive though...
First "true" smile: 3 weeks 6days
First Laugh: 8 weeks
First held her head up: 10 weeks
Rolled over: 3 1/2 months
Sat up un-assisted: 5 1/2 months
Held her bottle: 5 1/2 months
Crawled: 5 months
Pulled herself to standing: 7 months
Cruising furniture/pushing walker: 8 months

Her favorite foods are Pears, Yogurt and Puffs.- she also loves to feed the puffs to the dog ;) Every day she does something new and amaze's us all over again and again..And as we begin to plan her 1st Birthday party, I've really enjoyed reflecting on the past (almost) 9 months and can't wait to see her grow, learn and discover everyday!

IT'S A GIRL!!!

YAY! It's a little girl!!! And she's already so loved!!

17 weeks pregnant

Cravings this week have been: trix cereal

16 weeks pregnant

Cravings this week have been : Pickles, Choc. Chip Cookies and Apples

14 weeks pregnant

Cravings for weeks 12-14: Buttery Club Crackers, Mac & Cheese,  and Nachos with melted Cheese

I also felt the baby for the first time this week :)

13 weeks Pregnant

We're Having a BABY!!!!!!

AHHH!!!! Can you believe it!? There's a baby in MY belly!!! So after only our 2nd month at our new doctor (Dr. Chow at Diamond Womens Center in Edina)- we're pregnant!!!!  We had our second IUI ( Interuterine Insemination) on October 22nd. Two nights before, when Tim was giving me my Ovidrel Shot (hormone to trigger ovulation) I said "I have a really good feeling about this month" and he said "me too!"..... This time I decided not to take the day off of work... The previous month I had taken the day off and instead of relaxing all I did was sit at home and stress about it wether it was working...So I just went back to work, so that way I was to busy to think about it! And 9 days later, on Halloween morning I took a test and I got the FAINTEST positive!!!!! I couldn't believe it!! After almost 2 years of trying I was actually pregnant!! Over the next 2 weeks I become obsessed with taking 30+ tests to make sure the line kept getting darker...and one digital! (yeah I know, I'm crazy!)

On November 24th we had our first ultrasound and the baby was measuring 3 days ahead with a strong healthy heartbeat!!! So today I am 7 weeks and 3 days pregnant and the baby is the size of a blueberry!!!!! Ahh its so crazy! We are SOOOOO HAPPY!!! But it's still early and we are very nervous too....but until something bad happens (which I pray multiple times a day that nothing will)...we are going to enjoy every single day of my pregnancy. So far I really have no complaints a little nausea and very tired....but it's all worth it!

And for a little extra....here's some of our christmas decorating we've done so far..

Positive Thoughts

...is what I keep repeating to myself! Yesterday Tim and I had our first appointment with our new reproductive endocrinologist, Dr. Chow. And he is SOOO great!! And nothing is better then when one of the first things he says is " I'm almost 100% sure I can get you pregnant." Ahhh those few words mean everything to us right now! Seriously I'm getting butterflies in my stomach just typing this! Dr. Chow is also VERY informative, I didn't leave his office with even one question unanswered. He's being aggressive with my treatment for this cycle and has given us a reference for a second opinion on Tim's semen analysis because he believes the one we had done was not accurate. It's frusterating to hear that he believes I'm ovulating but not until way later then normal....(average 28 day cycle you will likely ovulate on day 14) well since my cylces last from anywhere between 28-90 days I can ovulate anywhere between day 14-76. Which is just crazy to me, when I've been told by supposedly one of the top fertility doctors in the midwest that I was not ovulating at all. ARGG!! I'm so excited for this cycle, but of course there is a chance that this medication wont work and we'll be waiting another month. We are getting closer to the 2 year mark of TTC and I'm not sure how I will feel if we actually hit that mark. But I'm just going to think on the positive side! I'm doing alot of relaxing! Breathing exercises, bubble baths, naps, going for walks. And Tim is being the best husband ever!

So time will tell if Dr. Chow is one of our angels, and I'm sorry if this post is super boring, but I'm just SOO excited and hopefull!! I just had to share. Thanks for listening!

CUPCAKES!

I'm so happy that I finally have found the time to bake again! Baking is one of my true passions and I've found a great love for baking cupcakes! I've had so much fun experimenting with decorating them. And Tim has been nothing but supportive! I would love to someday open a little cupcake store/bakery.

Pictures

My laptop wasn't letting me upload pictures for the longest time so here are a bunch of pictures from the last couple of months!

Bringing Murphy home! (6 weeks)

6 weeks

7 weeks

8 weeks

9 weeks

10 weeks

Murphy and Me

So Tim is working overnights this week and I HATE IT! It is now the third night this week without him here, so it's just Murphy and me. I'm probably the most paranoid person. I am constantly thinking someone is going to break into our house and murder me! It's a fear I've had for as long as I can remember. When I was really little (around 5) I would sit out in the hallway of our upstairs at this little yellow plastic table we had, and just sit and listen for any little noise and then go wake up my parents and tell them someone was in our house. Then I went through a stage when I was about 8 or 9 where I would make one of my parents sit outside my bedroom door until I fell asleep to make sure nobody would kidnap me. And until I was in high school, if I was ever home alone I would lock all the doors and sit with my back against a wall. And now that we have our own home if I'm home alone I find myself checking every room, in the shower, in the closets, under the bed, everywhere! Making sure nobody is in our house before I go to bed. I have no reason to feel unsafe. It's just a terrible curse or something that I have. And last night didn't make it any better.....

So I was already nervous because Murphy and I were home alone, but just as I was falling asleep I heard Murphy growling, so I switched on the light and he was laying at the end of our bed staring down the hallway. The hair on his back was sticking up and he was just staring at nothing. I tried to ask him to show me what it was, but he wouldn't budge.... He just kept staring past me and wouldn't move....It deffinately creeped me out so much that I had to sleep with the light on...

Maybe we should get a security system, but it seems like money wasted since we don't have a home that anyone would want to break into...but would it ease my mind?? I don't know....
Does anyone else have this problem? Any solutions for helping me get over this fear?

MURPHY

So he is here!! Our beautiful brown puppy! MURPHY! We went and picked him up Saturday as soon as I got off of work. When we walked in to see all the puppies I saw a brown and white one and thought "agh, he's not as cute as he was 2 weeks ago" ... then I saw ANOTHER brown and white one walk out from behind his momma and he was SOOOO cute! There he was OUR puppy!! I can't believe I even confused him with the other not so cute pup. After we got settled in the car we headed straight to Tim's parents house for a belated Mother's day celebration..everyone wanted to hold Murphy so we passed him around and he was completley content. After a couple of hours there, we headed to our friends Paul and Chelsea's house for a bonfire and Murphy was so good! He slept most of the time we were there too. We were home around midnight and we all crawled into bed :) I don't care what anyone says we like to cuddle with our puppy...we may regret it someday but it's just another reason to get a bigger bed :) yesterday all three of us hung out at home and played in the yard! We also went to petco, but it was adoption day and Murphy didn't know quite what to think about all the barking dogs.

So far Murphy's been doing really good with house training, he's only had 2 accidents...otherwise he lets us know when he needs to go out. We usually go to bed at 11..he wakes up around 2:30 and 5:30 to go potty then sleeps until 7.We left Murphy alone for the first time today for a couple of hours while Tim and I ran some errands. When we came home he didn't chew anything, he was just playing with his toys! He's such a great pup so far and we already LOVE him SOOOOOO much!! We also had our first Vet appointment today. He slept through the whole thing! Even his first shot! The vet thought it was so funny, and he couldn't stop petting him and telling us how cute Murphy is :) at 6 weeks Murphy weighs 5.8 pounds.

Tomorrow is my first day back to work and I am so sad to be leaving Murphy. But he will only be alone for 2 hours and then I get to spend all day Wednesday with him. He's just waking up right now so its time to take him out to go potty again......

 

Puppy Gibson

So today was my 23rd birthday! As funny as it sounds I actually feel older than yesterday. I'm not sure if its the age or just the fact that I'm 23, I'm a wife, a homeowner and a mother. YES I finally got a puppy!! I've been begging Tim for a puppy for 2 years now and his response was "not until we get a house." Well we've been in our house for 2 1/2 weeks now and everyday I've been asking "can we go get a puppy today?!" Well I woke up this morning to Tim bringing me a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch and the laptop. And as he handed me the laptop he said the magical words of "Let get our puppy today!" So we looked at SO MANY puppies that were for sale and we finally agreed on a lab/collie mix that was just put up for sale yesterday. So we called the seller and set up a time to go visit the pups. We drove an hour to the family farm the puppies live at (they had really pretty horses too) and met all 7 pups! We took our time picking up and playing with all of them.Ahhh they were all so tiny and cute. They are only 4 weeks right now so we have to wait 2 more weeks to bring our pup home. It was such a hard decision but I wanted to reserve our pup so when we went back I wouldn't be heart broken that the one I was thinking about had been sold. So we first had the decision of Boy or Girl- Boy was an easy one for us...we had both wanted a boy dog. The it was Black and White or Brown and White-That one was a little harder, we narrowed it down to one black and white and one brown and white...the final decision was made by the length of the coat... We chose the brown one because he had a nice smooth short coat..And we are so happy with our decision! He is so sweet and cuddly!! So we told the lady to hold onto that pup for us and that we would be back on the 16th to pick up our little guy! So on the way home Tim and I stopped at Famous Daves for my Birthday dinner then headed to Petco. We just got a couple of basic things for now..a collar, leash, bed, food and water dish and carpet/floor cleaner ;) and a squeaky toy of course! So now I'm counting down the days until we can be a family!!

Sip of Wine

Is it sad that I've been enjoying alcohol for a good number of years now but I still have a "new" drinkers taste buds? As I sit out on our patio I'm enjoying a glass of Arbor Mist :) I can't help it, it just tastes so good. Maybe some day my taste buds will grow up...

HAPPY HOMEOWNERS!

Well almost... After 3 months of looking at close to 200 homes, and bidding on 4 homes we finally have one! Just when we were about to give up and rent for another year we came across this cute house in Chaska that had just reduced its price into our price range! We went and looked at it yesterday and we both fell in love as soon as we stepped foot inside the door! And a plus is that my best friend and her husband will only be a few minutes down the road! :) I'm so excited! I keep looking at the pictures thinking "okay I'm going to put this kind of flower here, and this kind of plant here...and paint this room this color!" My sister called me this evening and said that her and my mom are coming down this weekend to help us start to pack....We don't close until April 14th, but it will be nice to get a head start on things!

Well here it is!! I just love the birch trees in the front yard too!!

Melancholy Megan

Aghhh... Today was a really downer day.. :( Actually it started yesterday with our doctor appointment. Actually now that I think about it, it started with my work meeting yesterday morning then was made worse with our dr. apt. My workplace has turned into a very negative place as of the last month, I'm not sure if it's the weather and the fact that salons get really slow in Feb. but I'm hoping that's what the problem is and it will get better soon. After our monthly meeting that was full of people complaining was finished, Tim and I headed to our doctor appointment and I had probably my tenth ultrasound in the last 30 days. Then I was told since the medication didn't work last month we will be taking 100 mg of chlomid this month along with the shot in the belly....and we also got the bad news of my husband sperm analysis, telling us that his mobility is a little low and the morphology was very low. And that we should start preparing ourselves for IVF. This month will be our first attempt with IUI if the chlomid works. FINGERS CROSSED!!

On a better note at my weekly weigh-in today I've lost another 4 pounds! Only 13 more pounds until I reach my goal weight!!! Tim and I went to the grocery store last night and got a bunch of healthy options for lunch and dinner this week. So I am hoping I will be down another 4 next week! :)

I also LOVE watching the olympics! And I have the biggest crush on Apollo Ohno! I've thought he was super handsome ever since I watched him on dancing with the stars a few years ago. Tim thinks it's so funny!

Valentines Day

Well today is Valentines Day! My husband is at work for another hour and I can't wait for him to get home. Yesterday Tim had an edible bouqet delivered to my work and it was SO good! And healthy :) Tim is so great! Every Saturday he drives me to work and we have coffee together before I start my workday. So yesterday when he came to pick me up and started driving across the street to southdale, when I asked why were going there he said "well you have to have something to wear to dinner tonight!" Ahh so he took my shopping then he suprised me by taking me to dinner, the little itallian restarant where we had our first date :) After dinner we went to the movie "valentines day", the movie was good but not quite what I expected...it was more about being dissapointed in your realationship then being madly in love.

So at the end of this month Tim and I will be married 6 months! I know it's not that long but I can't believe it's already been 6 months! But on that note we have not gotten more then 10 pictures back from the photographer! It really makes me mad... I mean 6 months thats a little crazy! I wish that we could've gone with the photographer I wanted but when you aren't the one paying the bill I guess you don't have much say right? Oh well I guess...Tim and I decided that when we reach our goal weight we are going to have my dress taken in and rent him another suit and retake some wedding pics..haha! Our closest friends and family know of the struggles Tim and I have been having with acheiving one of our biggest dreams in life and going through this struggle together has brought us closer together then I could ever imagine, and made me realize how much I really do love Tim. Don't get me wrong I have loved Tim since a month after we started dating but the love of a new relationship, and love you have once you move in together, once you get engaged, once you get married and once you go through this, LOVE is constantly going to another level and it feels so great to know that I am married to the man I am meant to be with for the rest of my life!! This past week I have realized that even though I heard it a million times I am fully understanding that the decisions, struggles and heartbreak you go through in your whole life really do affect you later on...I'm so grateful that my husband has been there to hold my hand and stood by my side waiting for me to break down all the walls I had built up mostly over the past few years. All in all I am so IN LOVE with my husband!

So I haven't been home since Christmas and its really starting to wear me down...I miss being home so much and somedays wish Tim and I could just pick up and move there! Last night Tim and I were walking through the garage at our condo and the smell of dust and grease made me miss home so much! Tim just laughed at me... But we both agreed we need to make a trip to the farm sooner then later. On that note I got a phone call from my beautiful niece yesterday to tell me Happy Valentine's Day and that she was "going the movie theater" then we had a almost 5 min conversation...I can't believe she getting to be such a big girl! I miss her more then anything and I promised her that I would come home Wednesday morning, and she said we can play barbies at GG's (Grandmas) house.

Tim and I are also waiting to hear if our offer on a house in Savage was accepted! This house hunt is becoming so stressful! This is our 4th home we've put an offer in on and we seen easily more the 150 homes! Every home ends up being a bidding war... someday we will have a home and a puppy :) But I'm starting to think we might have to rent for another year...our lease actually ends today, but the owner of our condo agreed to let us rent month to month but only until May...so we will see if we can find a house and close on it before then otherwise we may be renting for another year.

5-28

Hello Everyone!

Just a quick update before I take off for work...

Yesterday Tim & and I had the day off together and we decided to take a break on the painting project, so we went and picked out our wedding bands!! We're so excited!! We are also going back to my hometown this weekend to celebrate my dad's birthday, and finish addressing the wedding invites! Sorry this is such a short update...

Happy Thursday!

Tim & Megan

P.S. Happy Birthday Dad!!

5-26

Hello Everyone!!!

It's late tuesday night.. today was the first day back to work after the nice long holiday weekend! This weekend Tim and I started working on the kitchen. In two days we have gotten all the wallpaper down and have put the primer on...tomorrow we hope to get one coat of the 'pretty paint' on the walls..(we both have wednesdays off!) The main color is -truly olive- and the accent wall is going to be -olivewood- We are very excited to be doing our first home improvment project together!!

Wedding Plans:

We have reached our 3 month mark! Plans are going great! We are just working on some of the small details... Getting invitatons filled out, Getting wedding party gifts, putting favor boxes together! We still need to get our engagment phots taken (SOON!) And we need to book our honeymoon (Hawaii-Costa Rica-Mexico/San Diego) we can't decide... we were thinking of maybe going to San Diego for 3 days - then we would go to Mexico for the last 3 days. We'll see where this Swine Flu epidemic is at in about a month... Hmm... big decision! HELP US DECIDE BY VOTING --POLL IS ON THE SIDEBAR! :) Within the next week we will also be picking out Tim's wedding band!! And I also have my first dress fitting on June 7th! Exciting!

Well thats all for today! Hope everyone had a fun and safe holiday weekend and are doing well! :)