not just my kids, but my girls.

the news is in.

we're having another little girl.

that's four for four on the turner side

and three for four on the cox side.

lots and lots of girls.

 

of course this means that this little one

is doomed to a life of hand-me-downs

and trying to keep up with her older sister.
i've heard sister fights can be pretty brutal too.

(but speaking from experience,
she would have fought with her brother just as much.)

it also means that she will have a big sister to talk

to about boys, make-up, clothes and in case of emergency,

borrow a tampon or a pair of shoes.

and who knows,

they might even trade secrets and be best friends.

a mom can dream, right?

 

i'm really excited to give these two girls a
lifelong buddy.

a forever playmate.
an accomplice.
a listening ear.
a partner in crime.
a helping hand.
a sister.

 

it should be awesome.

 

 

 

gender neutral

i've been thinking a lot about the sex of this little baby.

will it be a boy or a girl?

of course last time, i tried my best to be open to having a girl,

especially because in my dreams it was always a girl.

and low and behold,

that's what i got.

i haven't had a dream about this baby yet,

so i don't have any clues,

but its no secret i always envisioned myself with boys.

don't get me wrong.

brette is the sweetest, happiest best little girl i could have asked for.

but i'm not worried about 1 year old brette,

i'm worried about 15 year old brette.

teenage girls are scary.

but with that said,

i'm kind of hoping this next little one is a girl too.

say what?

i know. i know.

i still love the thought of having a little boy,

but i think it will be easier to have another girl.

we have all the clothes, toys, blankets... e v e r y t h i n g  girl.

lots of pink.

not to mention that this one will have brette,

eden and madeline as playmates.

can you imagine if its a boy?

this kid will be doomed to a life of princess parties and dress up clothes.

of course i think throwing a boy into the mix would be cool too.

and i have a weird feeling that it is a boy,

so who knows. 

luckily we find out SOON, as in tomorrow,

so stay tuned! 

anyone have a guess?

 

 

brette moments

everyday she does something that makes me laugh.

weird little things.

weird little sayings.

or songs.

dances.

something.

and its too much to remember it all

or document,

but here is a moment last week:

brette is smelling her feet and then dying laughing.

she thought she was pretty funny.

and the other night we were eating pizza

and she was having the best time.

loving her food and apparently,

johnny cash too.
 

(ignore ronald in the background.

we're still not quite used to having cable around here.

we relied on music for so long, now its kind of a habit.)

 

 

 

 

hope you enjoy my baby girl

as much as we do!

 



another trip to the hospital

as of two years ago i had never been in the hospital.

no injuries.

no broken bones.

then i went to the hospital to have brette,

and all of a sudden i've been visiting,

what seems like, pretty regularly.

here's the story of our latest trip to the ER:

 

around 3am i woke up with pains in my back and stomach.

i thought i had to go to the bathroom (tmi? sorry.)

but it just got worse and worse.

i literally rolled around my bathroom for an hour and a half.

then i puked.

so i finally woke up ronnie around 4:30 and told him

i was in crazy pain and i was sick.

since we didn't know if it was baby related,

we decided not to take any chances and head to the ER.

i was seriously nervous that they were going to tell me

it was just gas pains or something stupid,

but the pain was intense i felt like i had no choice.

luckily, my mom had spent the night because she had

to watch brain's girls the next day so we put

her in charge of B and headed out the door.

i got right in, no long wait in the waiting room, thank god.

they immediately diagnosed me with kidney stones.

not able to pee.

huge pain that goes from my back to my stomach.

tenderness in my back.

but the bad news is,

you just have to let stones pass.

and normally they give you some crazy good pain meds.

but since i'm pregnant they were nervous about what to give me.

so while they tried different concoctions i laid there in pain.

they did an ultersound and checked the fetal heart rate,

all which looked good.

since they couldn't get my pain under control,

they admitted me and sent me up to a room.

they hooked me up to a morphine machine and kept it

pumping until i couldn't feel much of anything anymore.

and they decided to keep me overnight.

i was finally able to pee around 3pm and

even though the pain wasn't better,

they said it was a good sign.

i met with a urologist a couple times and two different OBs.

everyone had a different opinion about what was actually wrong,

but in the end,

i stopped the morphine around 2am and relied on tylenol.

they released me the next morning with two different diagnosis:

the urologist thinks i had kidney stones which i passed.

the OB thinks my uterus had expanded cutting off my urethra

not allowing my urine to go from my kidneys to my bladder.

in which case, i would have the same symptoms as kidney stones.

so who knows.

i don't really care as long as the pain stays away.

so i lost a couple days sleeping in the hospital and

then sleeping at home,

but i feel back to myself now.

my sister-n-law stopped by with a balloon and magazine

and my sister-cousin (a new breed we've discovered in our family)
 brought over homemade soup,

bread, reese's peanut butter cups and flowers.

 

um, thank you.

 

i feel much better and hopefully i won't

be visiting the hospital again until i'm going into labor.
it's my new goal.

 

spreading the news

i get really excited to tell people i'm pregnant.

like really.

but like always, i wait until i've met with my doctor and

everything has been confirmed as healthy.

since i found out later than normal that i was expecting

and i couldn't get into the doctor for a couple weeks

people found out kind of late.

even when i went to my first appointment i didn't get to meet with my doctor,

but just a nurse that showed me a video on the do's and don'ts of pregnancy.

but my blood work did show i was pregnant and since i was already

out of my first trimester,

we told immediate family.

(parents, ronnie's sister, my brother)

i had a shirt i ordered off esty for brette to wear.

a little game, so it's not so obvious,

but fun for me to watch people figure it out.

 

this is the only pic i got that wasn't blurry,

because she's always on the move.

(her shirt didn't have the last two lines shown in the sample.

it just said "im going to be a big sister")

 

 

 

my parents were shocked and super happy.

it took brian and jaime a minute to read it

because brette was running around,

which is fun.

 



but then i had to wait even longer to tell others. 

i finally saw my doctor at 15 weeks.

heard the heartbeat and had her confirm

that things were as they should be.

since it was already february,

i decided i would send out valentine's.

i wanted to get brette in a picture,

but once again, trying to get one that's not blurry is a challenge.

so i found this on paperless post and sent these out

to all our family and friends for valentine's day.

 

 

there was NO WAY for people to misunderstand

or for it to go wrong,

like it did so many times with my announcement of brette.

so i'm excited that everyone knows now,

but sometimes it still doesn't feel real.

i guess i'm in the "easy second trimester" stage

where you don't really feel or look pregnant yet.

i'm sure i will long for these days this spring.

 

 

island destination

omg.

we bought a freaking island.

i've been wanting one since we tore down

the wall in the kitchen.

we considered having one made, but all the

estimates came back at $1400.

boo.

we have a lot more important updates that

 i'd rather spend money on, so i crossed it

off my list for now.

then, my friend sent me a few awesome ideas

on how to build one ourselves.

honestly, that's probably the smartest way to go,

but ain't nobody got time for that.

and then i searched online for one to buy,

but they were either chinsey or way too expensive.

dang the luck.

until... (sound the trumpets)

we stopped in sutherlands.

have you ever been there?

it's amazing.

waaaay better than lowe's.

a friend of ours suggested it over thanksgiving

and i kind of forgot about it.

but he mentioned it again when he stopped by our house,

so when i saw one off the side of the highway

with nothing else to do, we decided to take a look.

ronnie was impressed with their beer prices,

but i loved all the furniture.

plus they had cow hides.

we're totally going back for one of those.

but when i saw this beauty,

i thought it was perfect for our space,

thankfully, ronnie agreed.

and the best part?

it was only $700 (including the two chairs).

HALF the price.

wahoo!

 

see the star?

i hate it.

ronnie is cutting it off.

but besides that,

its perfect.

now ronnie just needs to case that door frame

and hang the pendants over the bar.

badabababa - i'm lovin' it

 

 

 



eighteen weeks

i'm  eighteen weeks.

weight?  i've gained 3 lbs. not a huge deal, but i can tell my body it already changing. i don't think if i was walking down the street someone would guess i'm pregnant, but i feel fat.

cravings?  cereal, which is a reminder of my pregnancy with brette.  and not healthy adult cereal, but crap like fruit loops.  don't judge.  

side effects? there are plenty.
1. the first trimester was not good.  worse than with brette.  i was puking a lot. with brette i definitely felt sick but i never threw up.  this time, there was puking.  ronnie got so used to it, that one morning i was throwing up and he came in to ask me which socks he should wear.  what. the. hell.  how about a little sympathy.  but around 13 weeks, the nausea wore off and i feel just fine now.
2. i pee somewhere between 2:30 and 4:00 every night.
3. my boobs are bigger.  like i popped a button off my shirt the other day.
4. i'm tired.  it was worse during the first trimester.  i took A LOT of naps. it didn't help that i was fighting the flu and a cold. but even now, there is a chance that i might be in bed by 8:30.

baby?  baby is the size of an onion and is around 5 inches. he/she can also blink and swallow now, which sounds good to me.  i felt some kicking for the first time last week too.  i got annoyed with that with brette, which i'm sure i'll hate it after awhile too, but its a nice little reminder that someone is in there growing.

preparations? we haven't done really anything yet.  discussed names here and there.  we've told our family and friends. (more on that later) but the nursery is empty and we haven't even started stockpiling diapers.

the best thing? besides feeling some kicking, the thing i'm looking forward to most is my doctor appointment on march 4th.  we have on sonogram then and will find out if we're having a boy or a girl. i literally cannot wait.  any guesses?  i'm feeling boy, but who knows.

the worst thing?  my clothes have started to get tight.  i'm not in maternity wear yet, but i rock a lot of dresses and leggings.  things that don't require me to button up around my waist. ugh, i'm not looking forward to months and months of a limited wardrobe.

so there it is. 

me at eighteen weeks.