The waiting game....:(

So I started maternity leave today, finally!  I'm due a week from today and I'm happy to be able to relax a little before this baby gets here although I'm not sure how I'm going to keep kellylynn busy all day.  Anyway, here's hoping baby knows how to read a calendar and comes out I his due date.  None of this ridiculous waiting another week and a half.

A little of this, a little of that...

I'm not really sure where to start with this post.  Not a whole lot has changed since my last post.  I'm still working, getting ready for my mat leave that I get to start in October...possibly September, I haven't really decided yet.

Olivia just turned 4, which means she will be in school this fall which is why I'm considering going on mat leave early.  She is a sweetheart most days, also really annoying other days.  She's busy growing out of her clothes and trying to convince us she needs to go shopping every day!  She loves ponies, horses, unicorns, and now just recently has decided she loves Barbie!  Yup...Barbie!

Kellylynn is busy not growing out of her clothing...lol...she's still wearing some of her 18 month stuff so hopefully I can get away with not too much shopping for her this fall.  She always gets jipped with the hand-me-downs but she doesn't seem to mind.  She's trying her best to learn what she can get away with and where mommy and daddy draw the line!  Crying at the top of the stairs just because she wants mommy to get her and not daddy, even going so far as to climb back up the stairs after daddy has already brought her down still crying she wants mommy.  Sometimes I just throw her back in bed hoping she will go back to sleep.

Baby number 3 if you haven't heard is a boy!  His name is will be Zerin Patrick Bird.  He is set to arrive sometime the second half of October...I hope...but we will see what his plan is.  Right now he is busy growing and kicking and rolling around without a care in the world.  I feel so unprepared for his arrival, not that there is a lot to do but I want to paint his room and the girls room and get it all set up for him even though he won't use his room for a while.  I want to get those little projects I've been putting off done before he comes otherwise they will never happen.

Anyway, that's what's happening with me!

Been a while!

So, it's been a long time I posted but I thought hey, why not!! Olivia is in her living room tent

watching "the incredibles" and kellylynn is sleeping, and Bryce I think is at an elders quorum meeting at church..I think. So what the heck, I have a few minutes.

My sister, who possibly knows everything since she is the first person i ask when i have any questions at all no matter what the subject, is about to have a baby, my mom just got there today to stay with her a month, she and her kids are overjoyed, me and my kids are horrified at the thought of being grandma-less for a whole month!! We did it last year though, so I guess we can do it again.

On another note, I've been dying to announce this and for the number of people that read this I think I'm safe in announcing, I am pregnant with baby #3!! We are so hoping its a boy I can't stand that I have to wait till 18-20 weeks to find out which it is! I am only 5 weeks so I can't tell everyone yet! But I'm dying to tell everyone!

We are all good, Olivia is all registered for school in the fall Which seems absolutely insane to me...but exciting too.

I guess I should be getting her to bed now since its past her bedtime so, goodnight!

What a Riot!

I think we have children for the entertainment value! Or at least the entertainment value is what get's us through the hard parts of having kids.
So a couple funny stories.

Olivia is now in dance class, it's every wednesday night only 30 minutes but any longer and the kids would lose interest. She talks all week about going to dance class, and gets so excited when it's finally time to get ready to go. The first time she really participated she did so well! Tonight they started learning a new routine to a new song and she just stood there the whole time...just smiling at everyone who was watching like she was totally oblivious to the fact that she was supposed to be doing something...anything...JUST MOVE! lol..it was great!

Kellylynn wakes up pretty happy these days. SHe goes to bed at 6:30pm, wakes up at 11:30pm and then again at 4:30am and gets up for the day at 7:30am. Last night though she decided she didn't want to sleep so Bryce and I were downstairs not really making fun of her but trying to make the best of the situation. So we were imagining what she would be saying if she could talk and this is what we came up with:
"mommy, mom...HEY MOOOOOOOM....ARE YOU AWAKE?? CAN YOU HEAR ME?? I THINK I DROPPED MY SOOTHER, YEAH YEAH, I CAN SEE IT...I CAN'T REACH IT...HELLO?? DADDY??" (and she always cries for a minute after I go in, so then she is saying) "NEVERMIND DAD, MOM IS HERE!" lol..it was funnier last night i guess.

Nothing better to do?

Okay, imagine your husband is off playing with friends tonight and your children have been in bed for 4 hours...yes both of them went to bed so early tonight...6:30 and 6:45...what would you do with your time??
All I can think of to do is watch random episodes of old tv shows I used to watch and fold laundry...i am so sad sometimes...not that I have actually folded any laundry (I HATE folding laundry, actually it's not so much the folding as it is the putting away!). Just thought about it :) lol!
That's all for today!

Daddy's Little Girl (nightmare)!

So, everyone who knows my family knows that Olivia is a daddy's girl! Daddy is her favourite person in the whole world, he is better than everyone! In fact, he is probably better than everyone else combined and multiplied by 100! Usually it's not a big deal, when he's home she is happy, when he is not home, she deals with it and finds something else to occupy her until he comes home but today...today was different!

Today, Olivia had a terrible cold! She was up a lot through the night (bryce got up with her every time, I never even heard her), and when she woke up in the morning she went straight for daddy again. But when daddy left for work...I have never seen a sadder child! She went from being sick but dealing with it to a complete and utter meltdown. It was insane!! But that's not all, first he left to take the van in for service, then he came back by the shuttle to get his work van so he could leave for work and Olivia noticed he was home, so when he left again she had another meltdown. Eventually she fell asleep on the couch for more than an hour, which was really good, I think she felt a little better (cold wise, not the missing daddy part) when she woke up.

I couldn't do anything for her, i asked her "olivia, are you hungry" and she said "no uh, uh, I want daaaaaaddy" (imagine that being said in the most annoying, "i'm about to have another meltdown" voice you can think of) over and over and over again!

Thankfully Bryce made a big sale at work and decided he was done for the day at 2pm, so he came home and saved me from our 2 year old!

She was still whiney but nothing like she was before he came home!! Then she went to bed at 6:30pm...2 hours early!!

Sleep Baby...SLEEP!

Okay so Kellylynn has never been the best sleeper...at least not in comparison to her sister...actually not in comparison to any baby! I realize that part of that is my fault, I think when Olivia started showing such strong preferences for Bryce that I felt like I needed to make my second one love me best! Which happened so far, but meant that she is having a very hard time going to sleep without me since that was our main bonding time.

Anyway, she is almost 9 months old now and still not sleeping through the night. In fact, for the past week or 2 she has been going to bed at 7-7:30pm and waking up again at 10:30pm. For a few nights it worked to just go in and lay her back down on the bed with her soother, it took a couple times but she would go back to sleep. Then last night, everything CHANGED!

She woke up at 10:30, I went to lay her back down and she was up again before i could get out of the room. So I tried again, nope, not the second time, third time, fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh time either. Really, what the heck do I do now?? So I picked her up and fed her till she went back to sleep, but to my digust/discouragement/devestation, as soon as she finished eating she opened her eyes and started SMILING at me! Smiling, playing with my hair, the buttons on my shirt!! Never a good sign when you are wanting your child to go to sleep. So, hoping for the best, I just put her back in bed...yeah, that was not a good move..talk about an angry child. The rest of the night consisted of Bryce and I taking turns rocking with her till she started to dose off, attempting to put her down and having her scream at us all over again.

I think saying we got 3 hours of sleep is an exageration of how much sleep we actually got. It was awful! You know that point when you start to have thoughts and feelings that you feel guilty about, even though you would NEVER EVER act on them EVER? Yeah those feelings were the ones going through my mind. It was terrible! I was actually afraid for my childs life for a minute.

At 5:30am I finally got her back to sleep and she was up at 8am. Morning nap time came and went, afternoon nap time came...I tried to put her down but was so frustrated with her that I just could not make it work. Bryce took her and rocked her for a good half an hour before she finally went to sleep...the whole time they rocked she screamed herself to sleep. Right then we decided that tonight would be night she would learn to put herself to sleep...AGAIN! I feel like I have taught her this before, but then she was sick, and then she had a nasty cough etc etc etc etc!

It's been an hour and a half, she is starting to taper off with the crying, I want to go check on her but at the same time I know if she sees me it will just start all over again. So we are occupying ourselves watching Dispicable Me, bryce is playing WOW and we are just waiting. Thankfully Olivia is a very heavy, sound sleeper! She has slept through the whole thing!

Sick Baby

Okay so remember my last post? The one where I said that Kellylynn had somehow managed to not get sick at all. Well, that did not last!
On Sunday night we had a family Christmas gathering at my Aunt Shelly's house. Bryce did not come because I put him on bedrest for the day so he could finally start feeling better. Anywa, while we were there I noticed that K started feeling a little warm...then a little warmer...and a a little warmer still over the couple hours we were there. She started acting a little cranky and very very tired too. So we came home. I gave her some baby advil and she went to bed...it was not a terrible night, but it wasn't a great night either.
In the morning she seemed a little better, but still running a little hot so we just layed low and did not do much. In the early afternoon I took her temp and she was at 102F. Yeah, that's a little hot for an 8 month old. More baby advil. A couple hours later, fever was back. More baby advil right before bed. She woke up a couple hours later with a fever again.
So, off to the hospital we went (just the two of us). She ran a fever of about 101F for the next few hours at the hospital. They gave her tylenol and we waited...and waited....and waited...talked to some other people in the ER...and waited. Kellylynn refused to go to sleep and I couldn't put her down on the waiting room floor (gross), so she nursed, cried, nursed, smiled at the other patients...cried.
Finally we got called in to the see the dr. after her fever had broken. The only reason I was still there was really to find out for sure why the inside of her mouth was white...Thrush...viral...nothing they can do...bull! Anyway, her fever stayed down until we were leaving the hospital. By the time we got home she was back up at 101F. Baby Advil, at 6:30am (yup that's when we got home).
So today, Bryce took Olivia to mom and dads to spend the day and then took K out for a few hours (they really just drove around...she wasn't out inthe cold) so I could rest. They came back and I fed her and put her back down to sleep. It was a day of rest since the night was not restful at all!

We'll see what happens tomorrow!

The Worst Build Up To Christmas EVER!

For the past two weeks Bryce has been fighting a cold. For the past week and a half, I have been fighting a cold and, for the past couple days Olivia has been fighting a cold. It's this nasty, coughing up gross stuff and dealing with a major headach all day long type of a cold. Where you can't sleep because you can't breathe properly when you lay down. You know the type I'm sure.

Add the "not sleeping because of a cold" to the fact that Olivia has been waking up and getting out of bed and Kellylynn has been sleeping restlessly for the past few nights and you have not one, but TWO very exahusted, annoyed parents!! So annoyed by everything that I actually yelled at Bryce today because he didn't know where the tape was!

Kellylynn checking up on me while I was sleeping on the couch. Sunday was a bad day!

Thankfully, Olivia did not get the same cold we got so she is really only dealing with a runny nose. And even more thankfully, Kellylynn has managed somehow to avoid getting sick at all!

Anyway, Bryce and I were talking today and we decided that this will be the christmas build up we will try to forget...but probably never will forget just because it is soooo bad! If people didn't keep reminding me that christmas was on saturday, I would probably forget. Maybe wrapping some presents will get me in the spirit.

This is how I got through the days without going crazy! Baths seem to be pretty well the only place i can put both girls and they will both be happy and safe for at least 30 minutes probably more!

On a good note though, we got the girls christmas pictures back yesterday and they are super cute! I don't have a scanner so I can't show you yet...hopefully I will remember to bring them to my moms house so I can scan them in tomorrow.

Olivia and her Baby!

Okay so this is not the greatest picture to show you what she is doing but she is feeding her baby...out of her bellybutton!! She sees me nursing all the time and I guess this is what she thinks I am doing. That is fine with me!!

It is just very recently she has become interested in baby dolls, now if she drops it she picks it up saying "okay? oaky? oh owie..." and kisses it on the hand or the head or wherever it is hurt. I am hoping this new interest in baby dolls will spark her interest in her little sister. Up till now I think we could have given K away and Olivia would not have even noticed!

Thanksgiving

Well I don't have any pictures yet but I will get to that later!



My thanksgiving consisted of waking up at 6:30am, driving to Niagara, picking up a double stroller that was purchased for us by my MIL (thankyou), having dinner with the family, dessert with the WHOLE family, and playing Pit and Uno hearts with some of the cousins!



It was an uneventful trip to Niagara, kellylynn was a very patient passenger. So we got there and found out that the guy who runs the mailbox place left the day we tried to get the stroller because his dog died!!! I felt so terrible for being annoyed! But he was really nice and even let us pick up our package without paying the small charge he usually asks for to pay his costs. But we are supposed to tell everyone about him so it's called "Canam Mailbox Rental". Like I said it's right over the border on Whirlpool St., you can rent the mailbox for just one time or if you have things shipped regularly and don't want to pay shipping into canada (and you are willing to drive over the border to get your stuff) you can rent for a period of time (1 month 2 months etc for a set rate) he's great!!


Dinner was tastey, Turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnip, gravy and Garlic Cheese Biscuits from Red Lobster, yup thats right, red lobster biscuits!


I think the most fun thing about getting the family together right now is to compare babies! Alexis was born March 12, Kellylynn was born April 16 and Terrah was April 18, so really close. Kellylynn was the biggest at birth but is now a midget in comparison to the other two.


All in all it was a really good day, I am very thankful for family and all the love we feel when we are together.


Pit is a really fun game, if you have played I strongly suggest you go out and find a copy and play it with 8 people! It gets crazy! Uno hearts is really fun too but can get frustrating.

Two Topics

There are two topics that I have noticed coming up more and more often...bullying and homosexuality. I just finished reading a thread on a friends facebook page where she was called a bigot and a homophobe for disagreeing with the statement that some people are "born gay"! I just happened to read this interview the other day
http://beta-newsroom.lds.org/official-statement/same-gender-attraction

Same Gender Attraction did not exist in the premortal life, neither will it exist in the post earth life!! SO HOW ON EARTH CAN SOMEONE BE BORN GAY?? I like the statements made but I love the point that yes, some people are born more likely to be gay, just as there are people who are born more likely to become alcoholics or drug addicts. But it doesn't mean that our agency to choose who we will be and what we will do about our feelings are predetermind! Really, it means that those people need to be even more careful about the choices they make.

That's my view on that subject but really the thing that made me so angry was the fact that a person can't voice an oppinion without being torn to shreds for her beliefs! As a Latter Day Saint I have been told all my life to allow people to believe who and what they will believe even if it is not in accordance with the things I know to be true. It is not our place to judge them, nor is our place to call them names for thinking differently than we do. You know, I just had this thought...all this judging and name calling is a form of bullying, even over facebook. It happened to me just a couple weeks ago for trying to defend an innocent comment that was taken the wrong way.

We need to grow up and be a little more willing to let the things people say slide off our shoulders sometimes!

New Words

Well, I just typed this posting and than accidently erased it before I could post it! BOOO!! So here I go again!

Olivia has recently been trying some new words. Up until now she has used her favourite sound "E-B" and point at something and we were supposed to know what she wanted. But just today she learned how to say "ett" which means egg, and "papa" which means grandpa (we are working on breaking that, dad wants to be called grandpa, not papa). She enjoys listing the names of everyone in the car/room etc. "mommy, daddy, baby, MEEEE!" She loves to eat "apples" and says "pop-o" which could mean popcorn, popsicle or pickle depending on what she is pointing at.

Olivia also recently discovered her love of chocolate cake. She saw a picture today of herself eating a slice of cake and got really sad until we went to the store and picked up a cake for her to have a piece of.

She is a sweet, wonderful little girl, until we try to tell her "no" for something. She then screams and slaps you in the face which lands her time out, which results in her crying out for whoever put her there. There are days where she seems to never leave the time-out chair!

Kellylynn of course is wonderful and beautiful and perfect (for now). She is so wonderful she went for 7 days without pooping, i worried at first until I read that it's pretty common. Then on day 8 she pooped twice to make up for it. Just in case you were wondering. She sleeps pretty well, we still sleep together on the couch. But we get a total of 8 hours most nights.

I think that's all for now!

A visit from the In-Laws

Well, after 2 and 1/2 years of being in Canada my in-laws finally had the time, finances and guts to come and visit us. It was wonderful to have Tammy (mil) and Kelly (fil) here with us.

We went bowling, out to eat and just enjoyed the time together. Tammy took the time to plant my veggies outside, do laundry, make dinner, make several meals to put in the freezer for later, as well as freeze cookie dough in little balls so all we have to do is put them in the oven when we want cookies. She took Liv and Kelly out on walks so I could sew curtains and just have some time alone. She mopped my floor, convinced my husband it was time to put the legs on the table top so we would have a kitchen table (finally), and bought a table cloth, as well as getting us a shelving unit for the kitchen so our microwave is no longer on the floor and our counters are not as cluttered. The whole time she was working she would say ask if it was okay with me that she was taking over doing these things. YES! It was wonderful.

The funny thing is though, I think the best part of them being around was watching them sit and talk with their newest granddaughter (they did not meet Liv until she was a few months old). Kellylynn is a very responsive baby, and she would smile so big for her grandma and grandpa. Olivia decided they were pretty fun to have around too, every time they have seen her she has been miserable being in a strange place with people she didn't know and having to travel to get there. But, she was all over the place with them while they were here. It was awesome to see her take to them like that.

Kelly was only here for a few days, but Tammy stayed the week and just left this morning. And I find myself already wishing they were around more. Not for my sake, it's not the fact that I can skip cleaning the kitchen because Tammy will do it, or laundry or the extra little bit of time I had to myself while she was here. No, I find myself felling sad for my girls...who will not likely get to see their grandparents more than once a year, possibly twice depending on finances. The next time we see them Olivia may remember who they are, but it'll be like starting from scratch with Kellylynn.

So I guess the only way to sum up what I am feeling right now is, I love my in-laws. I hope my children get the opportunity to get to know them and spend more time with them.

Kellylynn Grace Bird

Kellylynn is the most recent addition to our little Bird family. We are so excited to have her here and look forward to the time we will be able to spend teaching and playing with her.

This is my birth story;

on April 15, 2010 at about 2:10pm I was sitting at the computer when I realized that my water was in the process of breaking. I quickly called my sister first, yes my sister because she knows everything (no really I think she does actually know everything) to ask her if it can break slowly. She told me to call my dr and see what he said to do. I was told to go up to the hospital and get everything checked out.

Bryce came home and we drove Olivia to my mom and dad's house to spend however long we were going to be gone.

We got to the hospital around 3pm where they confirmed that yes, my water was broken and they had to admit me and get me set up to be induced since I had not felt any contractions. The induction did not get started till about 7pm that night. At around 11pm, I was still not in active labour and the maternity ward was so busy that I was taken off the oxytocin drip because they could not spare a nurse to sit with me. BUMMER! I cried for a minute, I just wanted it to be over!

So, Bryce, my mom and I spent the night trying to sleep (and mostly failing). Until at 6am on April 16 when my new nurse came in to get everything started again! HURRAY! I was so happy! So at 6:30am the drip was restarted and it did not take long to start feeling contractions again. They were mild to start with and I was not in a great deal of pain. So, I was talking and laughing through contractions and I thought it was going to take a long time. Little did I know that around 9:30 that would change.

The anesthesiologist was scheduled to be present at a c-section from 9:30-10:00am, so my nurse (thinking there was time) made sure he knew to come straight to my room after the c-section to give me my epidural. At 9:00, it seemed that this would be timing would be perfect. Unfortunatly, by the time 9:30 came around I was in a heck of a lot of pain. To make it worse I didn't actually get my epidural until after 10am. My nurse decided that she was not going to check for dilation because if she told the anesthesiologist I was 8 or more, he would not do it and she figured with the amount of pain I showing, I was definately more than an 8.

So, he came in and did the "spinal block" which is a more effective, faster acting type of drug than an epidural. So, sitting there on the edge of the bed, I went from "holy crap I don't think I can do this" kind of pain to "oh wow, that's amazing, I could do this all night" kind of comfort in about 3 seconds flat. It was wonderful, but...

Kellylynn and I relaxed so quickly that both of our heart rates plumetted! I had just found my comfort so I really didn't know what was happening when like 10 people filtered into the room and my Dr. said "okay we need to get this baby out fast so I am going to give her a little help with the forceps". Turns out that her heart rate had dropped from 120 to 60 for about 8 minutes and Dr. Shannon was worried the cord was around her neck because when they checked me right after my epidural I was fully dilated but babys head was still up a little bit, then seconds later she was crowning.

Dr. Shannon gave her a little tug with the forceps and then had me push a lot during the next contraction. She was born at 10:53am and she wailed! The cord was not wrapped around her neck and her heartbeat started to rise again as she was being born.

She was still covered in vernix which is strange if she was actually late.

Anyway, she was 9lbs 3ozs, 21 1/2 inches long (same as Liv) and very red.

I am so glad that is over! It makes me respect those women who go without pain meds all the way. Because I went right up to delivery without meds and thought I was going to die! With my face buried my husbands chest trying to breath through words like "I can't do this", "make it stop" and "where the hell is my epidural" (okay I don't think I actually said that, but I thought it).

That's it I think. It was an experience I don't want to have again, but it was worth it.

Day 6

Well, it's day #6 of being overdue. At this point with Olivia I was crying every day so I guess I am doing better with this one. I thought she was coming last night, I was having some regular, pretty strong contractions...but after about an hour and a trip to the bathroom they stopped cold. So annoying!

Oh well, hopefully soon, tomorrow will be a week!

Bedtime Conversation

Okay, so Olivia is 20 months old so maybe conversation is not really the right word, but that is what it felt like at bed time tonight.

Olivia has a rocking chair in her bedroom, it has been there since before she was born and I used it the whole time she was nursing and to rock her to sleep etc. Since we moved into this house though it has sat mainly unused.

Tonight when Bryce and I took Liv upstairs for bed she decided she wanted to sit with me in the rocking chair for a few minutes before going to bed. How do you say no to a little baby girl who wants to cuddle with you?

So I sat down, put her blanket on my chest, gave her a soother and sat her up on my lap where she laid her head down and was just quiet.

We then talked for a few minutes and I said "I love you" and kissed her on the head. She looked up at me and smiled and I then listed all of the people I could think of that loved her after each name she smiled and said "yeah", we ended with the fact that Heavenly Father and Jesus love her more than anyone else! She seemed pleased by that.

I asked her if we should say night time prayer (a habit we need to make more regular), she nodded and sat up, folded her arms and was quiet for the short prayer.

I asked her if she was ready to go to bed, she nodded yes, gave me a kiss, climbed down off my lap, crawled into bed, gave her puppy and pillow (the pillow case has tinkerbell on it) kisses and laid down. No objections.

I love my daughter...what a sweet sweet girl!

So, we're gonna try this again!

So, the last time I tried to create a blog I got bored with it and it ended up getting deleted because I left it for soooo long! So, we are going to try it again and see if I can keep it going this time!

I am not really sure what I am supposed to be writing here so I am just going to say what's happening right now.

Today is day 5 of being overdue with this baby! I am starting to get really irritated by it but I think everyone else is even more irritated than I am. My mom calls to check in at least once a day, my sister asks on facebook at least once a day and Debbie (friend/Livi's babysitter) is getting anxious too. We still have not settled on a name for this new little girl...maybe that's why she doesn't want to come out! She's afraid of what we will call her! A few thoughts though; Sophie Michele, Sophia Louise and Kellylynn Grace. But who knows, those names may not suit her when we finally see her. My indecision choosing a name is driving my husband nuts!

Olivia is not really sure what's going on, and has decided that everything and everyone has a baby in his/her/it's belly. This includes, grandma, grandpa, daddy, uncle Bryan, her teddy bears, herself and everyone she met at the Dr.'s office including the Dr.! She is a nut, we love her!