Thursday, May 28, 2015

2 more weeks

I'm writing early because we have a lot of things to get done in the next two weeks before Eve arrives.

Here we go, two more weeks left, and strong Braxton-Hicks contractions have been with me ever since Monday. I officially stopped lifting this week. Today was my last day of work before I go on maternity leave. It hasn't really been too bad since I have been preparing for it for some time now; having already said goodbye to my teams and the coaches has spread out the "hit" a little more. In addition, I am somewhat consumed by getting down to our new home again so that I will be with Gus and at the place we are going to deliver.

Sierra and I have been staying with Auntie for the past 3 days while we wrap things up here before I am officially down at our new home. It has been fun and stress-free for all three of us girls. Sierra has been asking to wake-up Auntie in the morning after she gets up. She has been helping me out by picking her up from daycare at the end of the day this week too. We met up one last time with Sophia, Eric and Ariana before we left. It's so hard to say goodbye. They were some of the closest friends we had here.

We moved over Memorial Day weekend with the enormous amount of help we received from our friend Eric, and Auntie here in Davis. We received more help from Grandpa, Grammy and Auntie unloading and watching Sierra once we arrived to our new home too. Sierra spent lots of time with Auntie and Grammy as Gus, Jerry and I unloaded and unpacked.


On Saturday Sierra went down to Fairwinds and saw Great Grandma and Uncle Nic who was visiting, and met Uncle Angelo the following day for a BBQ at Grammy's and Jer Bear's. She really enjoyed her uncles. I know because she has been talking about Uncle Angelo and his high fives this week to me. 
Gus shaved his face before the move so it wouldn't be too hot during the move. He kept the mustache... for a few minutes. 
 Ariana and Sophia came over before work last week to have a play date before I had to go to work. We love seeing the girls play together. Ariana is truly Sierra's closest friend here in Davis.

Sierra's tooth did get pulled and her pink eye, virus, and ear infection have subsided. It was a very difficult task to watch her go through that. Strapping your child to a papoose board, hooked up to nitrous, with a clamp in her mouth screaming for mommy sure does elicit some pretty strong maternal and paternal instincts. Gus and I agreed that we both felt that if anyone was ever really hurting out daughter we'd ... well let's just say it wouldn't be a good outcome for them.  

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

22 months

May 12, 2015

As I'm writing this entry, Eve is squirming around inside of me trying to get comfortable. Unfortunately, there isn't much room left in there. At times I feel her in the head down position "lightening" as they call it, which is reassuring to me. I'm not 100% sure though.

Running around after a toddler with abundant energy sure does change the game when it comes to this second pregnancy. It's not really a bad thing, it just requires you to always be on the move, and capable of picking up an awkward 35 pound squirming kiddo up at a moments notice. There definitely isn't as much time for napping and I don't feel "pampered" as much as the first time around. There's really no room for it on either end.







The Tour of California came right past our house on Sunday (Mother's Day) and we were all pretty excited to cheer everyone on! Anne, Lyn, Gus, Sierra, and I were all making as much noise as possible (and in return we were "given" three water bottles - they were discarded in front of us). We had a blast though, and it seemed like a nice way to spend Mother's Day. Gus gave my a sweet card, a piece of delicious cake, and a necklace he bought from a vendor the day before.
Unfortunately, on Sunday Sierra developed pink eye, and an ear infection. She already had a virus (head cold) on top of that. I stayed home with her the past two days, which worked out in my favor because we all had picked up the virus after Sunday so I actually took naps while she did.



We all walked to Davis Hippie Fest 2015 (I mean Earth Festival) from Lyndsey's house on Saturday and enjoyed the music, people, and vendors. It was really fun. We ran into some friends we knew and Sierra and her friend Arianna started a game of ring around the rosie with two other kids that they met (we would like to think there wasn't any prompting, but I'm pretty sure the oldest boy started it).

 Before work and before I drop Sierra off at daycare we try to hit up parks for two reasons, she wakes up so early now we run out of things to do at our house, and she really should burn some of her boundless energy before going to daycare (plus it's routine now).
 Gus loves hanging outside with Sierra after work. She really likes this art easel we picked up off of free cycle for her (she is under it in this picture).


We have been saying our "goodbyes" to our Davis friends the past few weeks, we have officially told everyone we'll be moving at the end of the month. We had a get-together at one of our absolute favorite places in the area Berryessa Brewing Co. They even had hay stacks for the kids to climb and play on. It was nice to see my cousin and her family again, and a bunch of families we have become close with during our time here the past four years.
 We've also been trying to hit up our favorite places with Sierra again before we move. The arboretum is definitely one of them. We saw a lot of baby ducklings there.
 Sierra went to the Sacramento Zoo with Auntie while Gus and I cleaned the house (all of the deep-cleaning you have to do before you move out of a rental). Julia and Chris came over later in the afternoon to say goodbye too.

                                                                                                                                                                                               
I took a series of photos of Sierra the other morning before we went to daycare. I love the lighting in all of them.

Sierra is always up for a selfie with mom in her work clothes. Speaking of work it was quite difficult telling all of my teams. Harder than I expected. I have become quite attached to all of the coaches and athletes over the past four years, and will really miss all of them. Three of the teams that I work with have given me really sweet gifts, with notes and pictures in them. I cried multiple times last week (seeing as it is the last official training session I will have with them before I leave).
We went on a little hike at a local preserve along Putah Creek a few weekends ago.  Sierra will rarely let us hold her any more. She has too much fun exploring, and running on her own. Sometimes it severely hinders our forward progress, seeing as she stops every 30 feet and points at something and says, "What's that?!" or "Bug!" as she proceeds to smush it. She is curious and loves her adventures with mom and dad!
 Eve is doing well... with only a month to go! The placenta has "moved up" away from the cervix so there is no longer any worry about having to do a C-section unless she doesn't flip or ends up positioned weird etc. It looks like she is growing well and will probably be a lot like her big sister in terms of size and length (I'm thinking). It's crazy to think Sierra is going to be a big sister and we're about to embark on the infant era again. Seeing small babies reminds me how big Sierra is now and how small Eve will be. It's hard to say that I'm trying to absorb my time with Sierra any more than I would be anyhow, because I feel like we both (Gus and I) try to be as much in the moment with her as possible. I just want her to know that no matter how many kids we have she will always be special to me. I want her to know that it was her that made me a mommy to begin with. I know I will have room to share all of my love, but I just hope that Sierra doesn't get too jealous of her new baby sister. It's hard for toddlers to understand these big concepts.
 On another note, Sierra knocked her tooth loose at daycare the other day and it looks like we will have to extract it. I was honestly hoping that it would somehow move back up, for many reasons... mostly because I will just hate to see her go through the pain of the extraction!!!




 As we've been packing up our stuff, we are storing things in the garage. Sierra has enjoyed opening up boxes and taking out her favorite items. Like this egg crate. She loves her "special treats" like homemade cookies!
And so I bring this month's updates to a close, with a lot of changes and a lot more to look forward to next month.