Labor Day Weekend

This past weekend was so much fun! I love getting those rare 3-day weekends and because I get Fridays off, it was a 4-day weekend for me!

 

Friday started with time with friends at the park. These 3 kiddos are pretty silly!

 

I love that Luke wants to hang on to the monkey bars. He isn't ready to reach out to grab the next bar, but enjoys hanging there. lol.

 

Somehow these boys worked out this situation.....

 

And then they found this puddle.... it was almost more fun to jump in the puddle then to play at the playground.

 

Chloe also had her 2-year check up on Friday. She did great! She loved that the Doctor had a "Nemo" too.

Our new Doctor has been so great! They don't make you wait long and the rooms are all fun with murals, toys and books for the down time. Chloe had to get 2 shots and she didn't even shed a tear. While we waited for the Doctor, she played with these blocks and sang, "Jesus Loves Me". So sweet!

 We spent time working on the house this weekend too and finally getting things up on the walls. That also included getting Chloe out of her crib and into a big girl bed. Of course, we got her bright pink sheets! More on her room later....

 

Saturday was my mom's birthday so we spent some time at her house. My sister, her husband and their daughter came up from Long Beach to visit too! Of course, I didn't take any pictures of our visit :( The highlight of the visit was when Chloe and my niece would lift of their shirts and bump their big baby bellies together and giggle. So cute!

 

On Sunday, my sister and her gang came over to see our house for the first time. We met at Dickey BBQ for lunch. We had never been there before. Little hint- on Sundays, kids eat free! AANNNDD, you can get a soft serve ice cream cone for free after you finish your meal! YUM!

 

 After checking out our house, we took the three of them on a walk to a few parks by our house. Chloe and my niece are only 7 months apart and we love seeing them play together.

Ha, Luke's crazy hair after the tunnel slide! 

 

Jeff, Cousin Emmy, Chloe and my sister Stacy. We had so much fun visiting and showing them around the neighborhood.

Later we got the Go Triple Slider Kids Outdoor 3-Person Water Slide with Splash Lagoon for Big-Splash-Take-Off, Orange out! Our friends Jeff, Cassie and their kiddos came over to play too! The kids didn't even wait to change into their swimsuits, they just ripped off their clothes and went in their undies!

Monday, we went back to the park with our friends. I love that we get to see them so often now (we used to live 45 minutes away from each other).  I know that our kids have really enjoyed all the fun times we have spent the last few months with their best friends.

Landon got a new Micro Mini Kick Scooter - Aqua for his birthday and he let Chloe try it out!

Sadie wanted to try out Luke's Radio Flyer Ziggle, but she couldn't reach the seat!

 

The rest of Monday was spent relaxing and playing as a family. It was a great weekend! Hope you had a nice long weekend too! What kinds of things did you do?

Throwback Thursday - Chloe's Birth Story

This has been basically a whole week about Chloe, so why not keep it going and share about her birth story. The pregnancy I had with her was very different from with Luke. With her, I was sick for about 17 weeks - after I already found out I was pregnant- so going well into 5 months of being sick and throwing up. I was teaching then, between two different campuses, and sometimes it would come on so suddenly that I had to use bags in my car! Ugh,  I am so glad that is over.

Other than being sick, it was a pretty normal pregnancy, I was watched a little extra towards the end due to how everything went down with Luke, but nothing crazy happened. I am very thankful for a safe pregnancy and a healthy baby. I was certain I wanted to try for a VBAC but was also scared about my decision. Doing what was best for the baby was the most important thing and I had to keep reminding myself of that. Her due date (August 21st) came and went and I was getting restless. The second pregnancy is so different from the first in that you know how upside down your lives will get when you have the baby. With the first, you are basically going in with no map or compass. But it is also bittersweet that your firstborn will not longer be the center of your world. There were days where I would cry for him, that it was now HIS world that was going to get turned upside down.

About 4 days after her due date, we scheduled an induction to place in 3 days (August 28th)- starting 1 week after her due date. I was getting worried that the longer she cooked, the harder it would be to get to do a VBAC. I know, First World problems. The night before the induction was so strange. Knowing it was the last time it would be just the three of us in our house. We took Luke out to a special dinner. Funny how things change- most people do one last fun date night with their husbands before the first kid, but with the second its about making it special for your firstborn, instead of the parents.

The morning of the induction seemed normal enough and we met my mom at the hospital so she could take Luke for the first 2 nights, before Aaron's mom took his the 3rd and 4th night. I was induced with Luke and knew that process could take a long time, especially when you haven't progressed one bit and have to start the labor process from the starting line. The first few hours weren't too bad, however those belly monitors sure are a pain, aren't they?

 

Hospital selfie!

Everything was going smoothly until  the middle of the night and I just couldn't bear the pain any longer. For some reason the staff wasn't too keen on giving me an epidural at that point so I was given oral pain meds. They didn't help AT ALL. It was a rough night, lots of tears and I was getting very frustrated because I didn't seem like the nurses really thought I was in pain because nothing was showing on the monitors. But man, it was rough. Finally, in the morning around 8am I got an epidural. I swear thinking about the consequences of a flinch at the wrong time during when the epidural is placed is almost as bad as the labor itself, haha, not really! Cheers to those mamas who did it without pain meds- you are amazing.

The meds worked okay, however only one side of my body really got the pain relief and numbness. And then the vomiting, OH the vomiting. "hey dad, come on in, yeah things are going great, have a seat (Barfs into bag). Oh this? It's my barf bag, don't mind me...Bleahhhh..." My poor dad was horrified. I reassured him that I was ok, over and over.

Time went on and on and finally I started progressing. It had been a long 30 hours in the hospital and I was hungry since you can't eat once you are admitted. That little button they give you to give yourself more shots of epidural is AMAZING. That is, until it completely stops working and they have to give you 2 more epidurals because nothing was keeping the pain at bay.

As it got later in the evening, I had resigned  tothe idea that I would be there another night without giving birth and I was convinced that I would end up with a C-section. I had one with Luke so the surgery wasn't scary to me, I just wanted a safe baby.  Finally around 8:45pm the nurse said the magic words,
 "It's almost time to push." WHAT, was this really happening? Because it was my second pregnancy, I didn't read the millions of books you do with the first pregnancy. I was pretty cocky that I knew what I was doing, when in fact, I had never 'pushed' in my life!

Lucky for me, it only took just over 30 minutes to push her out. Props to my husband who passed out when I got a bloody nose, but stuck it out and held my hand throug the entire birth! I felt unstoppable once she was born and she would NOT. STOP. CRYING. I was genuinely concerned that it would continue for hours. Thankfully, it didn't. Since having Luke, I had already forgotten how tiny babies are. SOO TINY! and SOO CUTE! Chloe Elizabeth Nelson was born at 10:05pm (8, almost 9 days late) weighing 7 pounds and about 20 inches long.

My dad and step-mom had popped back over to the hospital when Aaron texted everyone that I was getting close to pushing- they actually ALMOST walked in the room to me pushing. I would have DIED. Thankfully, they arrived just after the nurse left to go get the doctor so no one was exposed :) But since they were already there, they were the first ones to meet little Chloe. Sweet, Little Chloe.

Before we moved to the recovery room, she is less than an hour old here.

I was pretty apprehensive about taking care of a brand new baby- remember Luke's birth was Much different and he had to stay in the Special Care Nursery instead of with us- but she was amazing. She slept great and she loved to cuddle, just underneath my chin. The next morning I felt amazing. The recovery was So. Much. Better with the Vbac then my C-Section. When my mom brought Luke to meet his baby sister, she was amazed at how I was up, walking around and even able to pick up Luke less then 12 hours after giving birth.


 We stayed in hospital as long as they let us, to get assistance with breastfeeding and so I could recover as much as possible before going back to our 2-story house and having to care for Luke AND a newborn.

Time to go home! She was so small!

Chloe was a dream baby and all in all the delivery went pretty darn well. Our family feels complete with our two little monsters.