Baby Number 3 is on it's way!

Well I guess it is time to announce that I am currently pregnant with Baby No. 3!  I am currently a little over 10 weeks pregnant and just had my first doctor's appointment last week.  They were able to find a heartbeat which they said was rare being so early, so I thought I would finally announce it.  I've told a few people, but am always hesitant to announce it to everyone in case something goes wrong.  But I've finally decided that if something horrible like a miscarriage was to happen, I would rather have the support of people actually knowing why I am depressed and grumpy. 

This pregnancy was a bit of a shock, but we were excited.  We had planned on starting to try again around October or November, so this wasn't too much sooner, but still suprising!  I am a bit nervous about having 3 kids 3 and under.  But also excited to have them all close together and then being able to move past the baby stages for good!  I can't wait to be able to find out what it is!

I have not been feeling too good this pregnancy.  I don't have morning sickness, just like my previous pregnancies, but I am just ALWAYS TIRED.  I literally feel like I could sleep all the time.  Many nights I try to go to bed around 9ish.  Plus Kaitlyn still usually wakes up once a night or so and Brayden has been sick so much he has not been sleeping good, so as a result my sleep has been suffering.  Plus with all my Shea Homes work as well, I am just an emotinal grump.  I've been in a real funk lately, but I looked up that it is pretty normal around this time to hit your peak of hormonal emotions.  I freak out and cry multiple times a week and basically am just too tired to do anything productive. My house is a wreck b/c any free time I do have is usually spent working for Shea or else I just don't care and don't want to clean.  Oh well.  Hopefully in a few weeks I will feel more like my old self!  For now I am just counting down the time that I can find out what sex it is so we can start figuring out bedroom situations!

Halloween 2012

Halloween this year was good.  Kaitlyn is getting old enough to really understand and appreciate it.  She dressed up as Cinderella and Brayden actually got to be two different costumes thanks to friends who let us borrow their costumes.  The Saturday before Halloween we had a Church Halloween party where the kids dressed up and we had a pot luck dinner and then a Trunk or Treat. 

Cinderella and Puss and Boots

Our Little Puss and Boots

The day before Halloween we carved our pumpking.  Kaitlyn picked out a Ghost pattern and after it was over she got scared and tried to hide from it until we convinced her it wasn't a real ghost on the pumpkin.  After that all she wanted to do was stare at it.  She is a real scaredy cat of Halloween things.  She refused to go to any of the "scary" houses trick or treating.  One of the houses up the street had music and costumes on while they were handing out candy.  I carried her up there and then put her down to pick up the candy and she SCREAMED at the top of her lungs and took up running the other way! haha!  Luckily it was one of our last houses, b/c after that she was so nervous about going to more "scary" houses that she was not very into it! haha!

 



Cinderella in her winter cloak

Rooster Brayden on Halloween

Getting Ready to go out Trick or Treating with Brigham the Pirate

All Brayden got to do...not very exciting :)

 

Brayden's 1st Birthday!

My sweet Brayden is now ONE years old!  He is the sweetest, most even-tempered baby ever!  He still LOVES to eat and has actually lost weight!  He first year statistics are:

Length: 29.5 inches 25-50%

Weight: 22 lbs 11 oz, 25-50%...I think the dr. actually said it was about 40%

Head Circ. 46 cm, 25-50%

 

So he is actually below average for everything!  He still seems like a chubby little baby, but I guess he has came a long ways from his 90% weight! haha!  The first year appointment was horrible!  He had to have 4 shots and a finger prick where they squeezed out 2 viles of blood!  Suprisingly he didn't even cry the entire time during the finger prick, or while they were squeezing out the blood.  I was shocked!  But he did not like the shots AT ALL.  And I hate how I have to hold him down while they do it!  So unfair!  Unfortuantly Brayden has been sick for like 2-3 weeks as well as the rest of us on and off.  His just doesn't seem to let up.  The doctor still felt confident going through with all the shots though!  I still have mixed feelings about all these vaccines, but I ultimately think the pros outweigh the slim percentage of possible cons.  Anyway Brayden is also MAJORLY teething right now.  He is getting in several molars right now.  Which I think seems pretty early.  But that combined with his sickness has made him very grumpy lately.  I hate it for him, and for me, since I am so used to having such a happy easy going baby.  When he is sick, he is a grump.  Just like his dad! haha!  And I must say, as difficult as Kaitlyn can be, when she is sick, she is actually not too bad.  She may be grumpy the first day, but then after that she just complains about her nose and is pretty much her normal self.  I guess that just proves to me the difference in how men and women handle colds! haha! I acutally saw this picture on pinterest and thought "SO TRUE!" HAHA!

Anyway, on to Brayden's birthday!  On his actual birthday we didn't do anything special, b/c most all my family around Charlotte was gone.  Justin made some chocolate cupcakes and frosting and we put a candle in it and sang him Happy Birthday.  At first he didn't even know what to do with it.  He kept touching it and getting mad.  So after I broke it up into a few peices for him, he tasted it and then devoured it! haha!

 

 

 

The following weekend, we went to Justin's parents house for his actual Birthday party.  We had a combined party with his cousin Ellie is only 2 days younger than him!  Most all the family on Justin's side was in attendance so it was a good time for all the kids to hang out with their cousins.  We got a little mini cake for Brayden and Ellie to split and of course he loved that too!

 Opening sme of his presents

No More Naps

Around the start of October we decided to stop giving Kaitlyn her afternoon nap.  It was just becoming too much of a struggle to get her to finally fall asleep and then by the time she fell asleep it would be so late that she wouldn't be tired for bedtime and that was becoming a nightmare.  So as much as I hated the idea of not having the sacred naptime anymore, I consented that she could just stop.  We still try to give her "quiet time" where she is supposed to stay in the playroom and watch a movie or play by herself, but usually this just ends up in the playroom getting destroyed everyday.  But I still need this "break" to try and get my Shea Homes work done.  Unfortuantly I have started working quite a lot at Shea again and have been pretty busy.  It is actually stressing me out.  I'm going to give it a few more months and then I'll have to reevaluate again.  We are saving up to buy a van, so the extra money is really helping out with that.  Otherwise I really don't see how we would be able to afford one.  Anyway, back to the naps!  The other day I was working and had put on a movie for Kaitlyn.  When I went in there to check on her a bit later I found her like this!

Then about 10 minutes later, I guess her head was getting heavy so she laid back and crossed her leg! haha!  So cute!  You can also see her drool spot on her shirt from the first sleeping position! haha!

Kaitlyn turns 3!

Kaitlyn turned 3 years old on September 28th.  It was a nice day, but we didn't have a party.  Since Kaitlyn's in preschool and we have a playgroup with some friends as well, I made cupcakes for both events and we sang to her at them and she blew out her candles for her friends.  On her actual birthday we didn't have any obligations so we had a fun day of just playing together.  My dad came over with lots of presents that morning and then that night we made one of her favorite meals (stouffer's lasagna) and my mom came over and we had cake and opened presents.  It was low key, but at that point she was still having a rough transition to being around lots of kids and I just didn't think a party was something she would even enjoy.  Maybe next year she will understand more about what it is and have real friends she wants to invite over.  She love it though.  She kept saying it was her birthday and loved time with family.  Here's a few pictures of her opening her presents...

 

Disney Trip September 2012

I am a little late posting, but here are some pics from our Disney trip about a month ago.  It was a good time.  Not as much fun as the times we would go before kids, but still fun.  Vacations just aren't relaxing anymore.  The trip started out really bad.  Kaitlyn got a cold literally the day we got there.  It cleared up half-way through the week, but for those first few days she was NOT FUN!  She wouldn't eat and would just cry the entire time through our meals.  Luckily Brayden never got sick and was an angel the whole trip!  He was great at meals and napped in the stroller during the day.  He didn't really care one way or another about the rides, but once Kaitlyn was feeling better, she loved the rides.  She also liked to dress up in her Cinderella and Tinkerbell outfits.  We tried out a lot of new restaurants this time around that we hadn't been to before.  Some were hits, some we would not go again.  My favorite was O'hana.  We've been trying to eat there for 6 years and it's always been booked.  We finally got in and it was worth it!  We probably won't go back again for at least 2 years b/c we want all of the new Fantasyland to be open, plus give Kaitlyn and Brayden time to get older for some of the more fun rides.

 

Kaitlyn with the statue of Cinderella.  She refused to get near any characters or princesses! haha!

 

Brayden's favorite stroller activity.  This trip wore him out!

 

Kaitlyn and Nana on the new Dumbo ride!

Preschool and Kaitlyn update

Well Kaitlyn started preschool back around Labor day.  Life has been pretty sucky ever since.  See these pictures above from her first day?!?  She was SO excited.  She even did great the first day.  No crying and was excited to go back.  Then on the second day I get a call that she is very upset.  It is a homeschool preschool group of 6 moms and we each take turns teaching every 6 weeks.  Then everything went downhill after that.  She screams bloody murder getting dropped off at Nursery at church, as well as while she is at preschool.  It is literally driving me crazy.  I am just so frustrated.  I really don't know what to do.  If she doesn't start getting better soon at preschool, then I am going to have to drop out.  Not because I have a problem with her crying, but just b/c I don't think it's fair to the other moms to have to deal with her and try and teach the other kids at the same time.  Nursery is horrible as well.  For a while the leaders always brought her to me when she cried.  But I really feel that is making it worse.  It just teaches her that every time she cries she gets what she wants.  So I have begged them to let her stay in the whole time.  Same with preschool.  I just feel guilty.  B/c its not like I pay any of these people.  If I was paying for a real preschool then I wouldn't care in the least. 

This is definitely something she is just going to need to outgrow, but until who knows when that will be I am at my wits end.  She has also been WAY more whiny and cries all the time at home as well.  I am just at a loss.  I told Justin the other day that she is truly my greatest challenge here on earth.  I feel so guilty saying something like that about my own daughter who I love to death, but who also knows every button of mine to push.  I just don't know how to work with her.  She literally whines or cries about the littlest things ALL day long.  Most mornings her crying starts the second she wakes up.  I am just stressed out.  This semester has been super busy for Justin so once he is home from work, he is doing school projects and meetings all night so I am stuck with the kids all night as well.  I just count down the hours until bedtime every day.  I've also been super busy with Shea homes work as well so I'm sure that is not helping my sanity.  Luckily Brayden is still the most perfect baby.  He rarely cries and is the sweetest, most laid back baby ever.  If he was like she was, then I really wouldn't know what to do.  I feel bad for him though b/c I feel like he is always second in attention to her.  Although I think a lot of Kaitlyn's whining, etc at least at home is stemming from wanting more attention from seeing me with Brayden.  She has started regressing in a lot of things trying to "act more like a baby" such as wanting me to help her potty, wanting me to feed her, etc.  I really need to try and devote more one on one time with her to try and see if it will get better.  I just feel like such a horrible mom complaing like this.  She whines and cries so much that I just get so frustrated that I feel like I am always yelling at her or sending her to time out.  I just don't know what else to do.  We go to playgroup most weeks and she won't even really play with kids there either even while I'm there.  She only has one real friend and that is our friend's son Brigham who we see a few times a month.  She loves him.  Everyone else, she gets nervous around and clings to me. 

Now after my complete vent about her bad qualities, I will say that she is a very sweet child.  She really does love Brayden so much and takes such good care of him.  She is always protective of him and really watches out for him.  She is also very smart.  She picks up on things so quick and loves to learn.  Most days she begs me to study flashcards we have.  She is also a pretty good eater and sleeper so at least I don't have to deal with those battles.  Nap time, yeah, but I figure that is most any kid.  She also just truely loves her family.  She gets so excited spending time with family. 

I feel I must stress after this post that I LOVE MY DAUGHTER!  She has definitely never been the typical child, ever since she was 2 weeks old, but I am just praying for the day it gets easier.  Until then you can find me slowly losing my sanity.  Day by day.