Terrible Not Quite Two's

The day after Luna turned 19 months she hit the terrible 2's. Go ahead, I know, tell me it'll get worse. lol Trust me I know it can. I babysat my little cousin. She was the worst! *I love the girl to death though!*
Luna has her own opinion about everything. She will babble, motion, and scream until she gets that opinion across to. :-p It's so funny whenever my mom & I are chatting around her. She will start to talk as fast & loud as she can. Just like she's trying to keep up with our conversation.
She has all of her teeth now, minus of course the 2 year molars.
Yes she is "STILL" breastfeeding. :-)
She is walking, running, jumping, dancing, singing, & climbing.
She says some words. Everyday she adds a new few on. Right now she is saying pizza over & over again. lol She loves her some pizza!!
She LOVES to talk on the phone.
She eats like a little piggie. I have no clue where she puts all the food she eats. I mean seriously, she can eat a 1/2lb of livermush by herself!!!
She asks "pease" for everything....... and I do mean eevvverything!
She is doing sign language along with talking. She can sign: milk, more, food, chicken, please, thank you, finished, sleep, & poop. I'm sure there are a few more that I just can't think of right now. She also says: please, cookie, boobie, dog, max, mimi, mamaw, pop pop, mama, mommy, roxie, cat, pizza, boot, blue, no & no way (her favorite thing to say). There are so many other things that she says, but those are the more obvious ones.
She is by far the sweetest baby ever. She always wants to cuddle. I love it! Right now she is rubbing my leg. She is getting sleepy :-p We got up very early today bc I have a well check up during what would normally be nap time.

A quick update on my own life: I know I mentioned the last post my separation. Some more info on that....
I caught him cheating & in the middle of a web of lies back in June last year. I was going to try & work on things, but the lies just kept coming. By August I had decided I was done. My heart wasn't in it anymore bc of the lies, cheating, emotional abuse, & controlling. I got out, & it was the best thing I could do for myself, Luna, & my sanity. September 23, 2011 my legal separation was finalized.
Flash forward to now....
I have met a wonderful guy. I met him online, I have no shame in saying that. We talked for a few months before I finally had the time to meet him. We had been, & continue to, Skype every night. That way we could see each other, & its as close to a date as you can get. lol I already knew I liked him, he had told me how much he liked me, & I knew I wanted to date him. All before we actually met in person. When we finally did meet those feelings just grew. :-D I am so happy with our relationship so far, & I hope those feelings just continue to grow. I see no reason why they wouldn't. We have a date Friday, & I couldn't be more excited!!! Oh well it's time for Luna to take a nap (mommy too). So this short update is over with.

-Peace-

                                                   Always stop to smell the flowers

                                                  This is from Luna's birthday in January

James & me

                                                                  At Riverbanks Zoo

                                                             Picture by my friend Jose

Update on Life

O_o geeees could I have waited any longer to post!? I think it's been almost exactly a yr since this last time I did. *sigh* It's not really that I forgot I just didn't want to deal w/ some stuff. Anyways!!
So update on my life, I'm separated. yeeeeeahh.... It's a long story & I'm not going to put it on blast where anyone could read it. I'll just say that I was done wrong to & I wasn't putting up w/ it any longer. I deserve better.
Now onto better things :-D Update on LUNA!!! (I mean that's what this blog is for, for the most part right!?) She has gotten sooooo big! She has 6 teeth up top & 2 on bottom. We've been dealing w/ her 1st molars coming thru the past couple of wks. She's dealing w/ it a lot better, but they are coming in so slow. She loves to feed herself. She looooves beans! She discovered ketchup & "dipping" this wk. lol She loves bread, meat, & well just about anything she can get in her mouth. She still isn't walking on her own, but she loves for you to hold her hands while she walks. I'm waiting on her to just take off one day, but I've been waiting on that for over a month hahaha. She's saying mama, bye bye, dog, meow, & a couple other things BUUUUTTT she doesn't say them a lot. She loves Adele, dancing, singing, & just going silly when any music is on. She is my little entertainer. :-D
I'll try to keep this updated more now that I have more time to get on here :-p
<3

7 Weeks Into Parenthood

So around 7 wks old I finally got Luna to start taking 1 nap during the day on weekdays. (She naps on the weekend anytime we go out.) I hate it though b/c if I'm not laying down with her, I know I know sleep when baby sleeps we'll get to that, I just have to let her fuss it out. I say fuss instead of cry not only b/c it makes me feel better about doing it but b/c she is just fussing not screaming out in pain or hunger. Ok now I don't sleep when she is b/c I always have clothes to put up or diapers to wash or something I need/want to get done. I also get PLENTY of sleep at night. I get into bed b/t 11-1 and sleep until 10-12. Luna wakes up around 4-6 to eat, and after that feeding she stays in the bed w/ me. After she gets that one good long stretch of sleep she wakes up every 2-3 hrs to eat. It's so nice BF'g b/c I can just lay in bed while she nurses, and usually I fall back to sleep. :-) (Don't worry ya'll she sleeping in the crook of my arm, and I'm extremely aware of her all night long.) I never thought that I would end up w/ her sleeping in my bed at all, but she's just that sort of baby. Some nights she's a momma's girl and won't even let my mom (Mimi) hold her. Doesn't happen too often though. Everyone asks me, "Gah how different does it feel to be a mom now?" Just in case you are also wondering how I feel.... well I feel the same! I'm still the same person, I have the same morals & values. I still feel the same about how I want to raise her, and what I expect of her when she's older. The only things that have changed are small things like me supplementing w/ formula, sposies, and letting her sleep in bed w/ me. I know I could double stuff her CD's and be fine through the night, but I'm a scardy cat haha. So needless to say I'm still using a sposie @ night since I don't change her diaper for about 12hrs. (HEY it says on the box "12hrs" so suck it lmao)
I will say her formula supplementing days are about to come to an end!! I bought a decent electric pump to replace my hand pump, and I've been able to get a lot more milk. Still not as much as I thought I would, but I am pumping later the evenings so that's why. The one time I tried to get up and pump early in the am after Luna's 1st feeding she woke up crying b/c I wasn't in bed with her. I only got 1oz out in about 5min. If I could've pumped a good amount of time then I would've gotten a lot then! lol I have about 14oz frozen now so I should be able to start giving her BM in her nightly bottle in the next few days & still have a good stash. :-D
On my CD's. Lemme tell ya I got scared to use them after we used sposies for so long. (She was too small for her CD's for the 1st 4wks.) Once I used them and washed them for the 1st time though... WHEW they were much easier than expected!! Its so nice. I don't even have that big of a stash, but I only wash diapers about twice/wk. Luna doesn't poo much so I guess that's why. Well that and since I'm using sposies @ night. One day I'll get up the guts to double stuff, and I won't be scared she'll leak pee in my bed. LOL

My Inverted Birth Story

*Disclaimer: This story isn't completely pleasant, and it will get a little gory w/ the details. The actual birth was fine, but it is what happened after that will blow your mind (for lack of a better way to say it) I'm also still fairly out of it, and I don't remember a lot of the birth. I'm sure I'll leave some minor details out.*


Sunday Jan 9 2011: I woke up around 5 or 6 am w/ horrible pain that wouldn't stop. I called Carlos through it thinking that it was just gas pains. I ended up being able to go to the bathroom, and I felt better. I got off the phone w/ Carlos, and I tried to go back to sleep. (I had only had about 2 hrs of sleep) The pains started becoming regular. I knew that I was starting to go into labor. My contractions were still fairly sporadic, 7 min then 10 min then 4 min apart. I timed them for an hr, and even though they were sporadic, they were close enough together that I felt I wasn't having false labor. I called my Doula, Brandie Mercer (who rocked!!), and she told me to wait about an hr, and she would call back to see how things were still going. I woke up my mom, by this time it was about 7-8. I sat on the couch and timed everything until Brandie called. They were still somewhat sporadic, but I could tell that it was really happening. Brandie and I decided for her to wait another hr before she came over. I took a shower and sat back on the couch until she got here.
Once Brandie got here she had me up walking around the house, it was much too cold to walk outside. The walking wasn't really helping too much. I tried to rest some knowing that I was about to go through the marathon that is called birthing. I'm not sure how long I laid in bed, but I do know that around 230 pm we headed to GWU track so I could walk better than here at home. I took a tylenol before we left b/c my back wouldn't stop hurting.
After an hr of walking at GWU my contractions became 5 min apart :-) This is what we were hoping for. To get some nourishment in me we ran by Italian Garden before going home. I ate 2 slices of pizza through contractions. We went home and waited until it had been a full hr of my contractions being 5 min apart.
Around 530 we headed to the hospital. On the way there we started calling everyone we could think of. I had to get antibiotics b/c I had tested positive for group b strep, so I was stuck in the small room where they check the babies heart beat for a little while. They checked me while I was in there and I was already at 7 cm. I was still feeling good at this point mind you.
I guess it was around 7 when I went to the labor & delivery room. There were a couple family members in the room which I didn't want, but since I was still feeling well & my contractions weren't coming more I was ok w/ them being there for a short while. Finally they kicked everyone out that I didn't want to stay there, and checked me again. I was at 9 cm. I'm not sure about the times starting at this point everything starts to mesh together.
I ended up getting stuck at 9 cm. The Dr's wanted to break my water, but I told them I didn't want that to happen. Not long after they asked to, my water broke on it's on. They had thought I was already at 10 cm, but after my water broke they could tell that I was still stuck at 9. I started getting worried that I might have to get pitocin or something to get me to 10 cm. Thankfully I got to 10 on my own. I think that this is when I went into Jan 10.

Monday Jan 10 2011: I had a hard time trying to push. I think that it had a lot to do w/ what happened later though. I believe that I pushed around 1.5 hrs, but I'm not really sure. I was finally able to get Luna's head out, and after a couple more pushes I got her all the way out. At this point my mom said that I was already starting to turn very white. I remember getting Luna in my arms. I remember pushing out the placenta, and I remember how it exploded out. I also remember the look on the Dr's face when that happened. I knew that something was wrong. I don't remember anything after this. It was about 10-15 min from the time that Luna came out until the time that I passed out. I had her at 220 am, and it was about 630 am when I left the recovery room.
Ok so here is what happened. When the placenta came out it was partially attached to my uterus. When I pushed it out it pulled my uterus w/ it and caused it to become inverted. Imagine my uterus being a circle and after the placenta came out it was a U shape instead of an O shape. I started loosing a lot of blood. My mom said they had a big trash bag under me and it was full of blood. The Dr tried to fix me in the deliver room, but he wasn't able to push it back up so they took me to surgery. I don't know any details about all of this except that the Dr told momma he would be back in an hr to tell her how I was doing and about 2 hrs passed before she found him. He told her that he thought I would be ok. They couldn't get my heart rate, and when they finally did it was 60/30. I vaguely remember being in the recovery room, and trying to talk and ask questions about Luna and myself. When I finally left the recovery room they kept me in the delivery room instead of a regular room b/c they needed to monitor me. It was good they did that b/c I had 2 more faint spells while trying to sit up in bed. I finally ended up having to get 2 blood transfusions, and I believe that the next day I still needed 2 more, but they didn't.
My blood count is normally above 12. Now it is down to 7.2 (still as I type this). I have no color to my face, and I constantly feel like crap. My hormones are going crazy, and I feel like I can't do anything. To add onto it b/c of Luna's feeding getting delayed she ended up getting Jaundice. We had to stay an extra night in the hospital so that she could stay under a bili light. We had to bring a small bili light home to keep Luna on, and it has made taking care of her a lot harder. The first night home was horrible. I hadn't had any sleep hardly since Sat night, and that was only 2 hrs before I started going into labor. Momma was nice enough to keep Luna all day Fri so that I could get some sleep. Although it still wasn't good sleep b/c I was up every hr peeing. My whole body is sore not only from birth, but from being stuck so many times and from being given so much fluid. I had 2 IV's, 1 in each hand. I got blood taken a zillion times. I almost died, and apparently it's really hard to bounce back from near death. Add on to that taking care of a newborn, and I feel like I'm going to go crazy.
Well anyway that's what all happened to me during my birth. Needless to say I'm scared to get pregnant again. Also, I know there is a lot more that I wanted to put on here, but my brain is shot all to pieces. I do want to say that I accomplished having a completely natural and drug free labor. I wouldn't have made it through everything had it not been for Brandie. She was absolutely amazing. She had me up walking, laboring on my hands and knees, and all sorts of other things that I wouldn't have done otherwise.

I hope that my pregnant friends that read this don't get freaked out about something like this happening to them. We talked to everyone at the hospital about what happened to me. One of the nurses said she had been working there for 30 yrs and had only seen an inverted uterus happen 3 times. So it's pretty uncommon. I had never heard of it, and I had been researching everything that could possibly happen.
Well I need to go shower and get clean. I might think of somethings to add to this later in a new blog when I have my brain back.

4 Weeks Left!

Yup that's right, I only have 4 weeks left!!! O_o This time has gone by much faster than I anticipated it would. Right now on one hand I'm glad it's gone by fast, but on the other hand I wish I had time to enjoy it more. Though I will admit most of it hasn't been too enjoyable. Right now I want little Luna to wait until at least the 11th so that Carlos will make it home. I don't want her to come too late though. I am ready for her to get outta there! I'm ready to be able to breathe, sleep, and move normally again. *sigh* I know the sleeping will not go back to complete normalcy, but surely it'll be more than 2hrs of sleep/day.
So Christmas is coming up, and I just can't seem to get that through my head. With all the construction (should be finished in one more day thank goodness), and baby stuff going on Christmas is the last thing on my mind. My thought process on it is, ok Happy Birthday Jesus You rock let's move on. lol We have no decorations up, maybe like 2 presents bought, and no true Christmas spirit in this house right now. We'll have a week to gain all that. Let's see how that goes haha!
Back to baby stuff: I had my 36 wk apt today and found out that I'm 2-3 cm dilated & 50% effaced. So hopefully that means she won't be a wk or more late! :-) She knows when she's ready to come out though.
<3

Cat Naps & Construction

So I feel like all I can get sleep wise right now are cat naps. I've been actually going to bed earlier (for me thats around 12-1am), but I sleep for 3 hrs and wake up. Right now I've been up for 3-4 hrs, and I'm finally starting to get sleepy again. It wouldn't bother me so much, not sleeping at night, if there weren't construction in the house right now. Hopefully after today they will be finished putting in the floors, and then I can sleep peacefully again! I swear it feels like the home make-over has been going on forever! It started with what used to be a "junk/computer/office/studio" room that is now Luna's room. Then we moved on to the kitchen where our old cabinets were ripped off the walls & replaced with new handmade wood cabinets. The old ones were compressed wood, and they were about to fall in. Now the floors are being redone. The carpet was ripped up from Luna's room, the hallway, and the living room. That quick step laminate wood flooring is whats being put down. It looks awesome! Most days I've been able to get a little sleep with all the banging, but today the guys started playing the radio. Let's just say that country music does not help me sleep at all. lol I popped in my headphones with my iPod and rocked out to Trans-Siberian Orchestra while I slept wonderfully. Luna really enjoys listening to TSO :-) (and Lady GaGa!!) I think that it's just the heavy beats in the music, but still it makes me happy that she calms down and seems to enjoy the same stuff I do. Of course give her a couple years and all she will want to hear will be The Laurie Berkner Band and others like that. Though I don't hate on Laurie Berkner. It was the one "kid band" that my little cousin loved to listen to while I kept her that I actually liked. Anyway I'm going to try to get a few more hrs of sleep before the guys come banging around the house. Here are some pictures of the progress so far (I don't have any good pictures of the nursery before):

Kitchen Before

Nursery after

Kitchen after

Floor so far

Get Outta My Ribs!

That's what I say to my little Luna nearly everyday now at least once. Amazingly, after some pushing from mommy, she usually moves out of them. Today is the first time that someone has actually noticed that I'm pregnant & said something to me about it. :-) That made me very happy. I haven't gained hardly any weight. I wasn't trying to not gain, but I haven't been going crazy eating every little thing I see either. I actually worry about not eating enough sometimes. In the 1st trimester I lost 5lbs, gained that back in the 2nd, and as of my last Dr appointment I have only gained 10lbs total. Nearly 5 of that is just Luna.

Today Carlos found out that he will be able to come home in Jan. for the birth. Though they are only giving him 10 days of maternity leave. Thank goodness he has almost 20 days built up so he can stay longer. We had been worrying that he wouldn't be able to come home b/c his unit is going to training for a month. Since his knees are messed up (thank you basic training, and Dr's that don't want to correctly diagnose) he can't go to the training. It's possible that he may not even be able to deploy w/ his unit when they go. We'll see how that one plays out though. If he doesn't deploy then I'll be moving a lot sooner than I had been planning on. :-/

I'm happy to say that finally my sick feeling nearly every time I ate has gone away. *knock on wood* I've been having some serious round ligament pain though, and that's driving me crazy! It's worse when I'm laying down on my left side. I can deal with it most of the time besides then.

I got a Doula!!! I'm helping her get 1 out of the 3 live births she has to attend to get her certification. :-D I'm meeting her on Friday. I have to get my days and nights switched by then lol. I'm naturally a night owl, and being pregnant has not helped that end at all. I can't wait to meet her though. I've talked to her on the phone & we've FB'd back & forth some. She is super sweet!

I can't wait until Jan so that I can meet Luna <3 It's going to be an awesome time indeed. Maybe she'll come on Jan 1 & be the 1st baby born in the County. HAHAHA That would rock though b/c you get all kinds of cool stuff, but I would prefer her to wait until @ least Jan 7 b/c that's exactly 1 week before her due date.
-Melissa