Momfriends.

i have always had good girlfriends in my life. when i was in high school, it was lynda, becky, lauren and allison. when i was in college, it was kristen and jen. they always made life more fun. we had countless sleepovers. many coffee dates. girls' nights out. and of course oodles of bus rides to track and cross country meets. 

as i grew older, those friendships changed. some of my good friends growing up went different paths. however, i am so thankful for the time we spent together and the memories we made. 

when i became a mom, my life changed. and my relationships with friends changed too. coffee dates were no longer my girlfriend and i talking about jobs, boys, and our futures. coffee dates were now entertaining a toddler with cheese sticks and rocking a fussy newborn in a carrier all while ripping open sugar packets one handed and flagging down the waitress for as many refills as we could before all heck breaks loose. 

many of my girlfriends are moms. i have been so fortunate to be able to meet with many momfriends over the past couple of weeks. and the one thing i realized is that we all pretty much feel the same exact way. we have so much in common. 

on saturday i got together with a momfriend and her family. we ordered some take out and usually the husbands pick up the food while we stay home and watch the four kids under 4. however, my friend's husband jokingly said that we could pick up the food and let me tell you... we jumped on it so fast, that he never had the chance to say he was kidding! 

jackie and i ran to the car. we drove out of the driveway in complete silence. we took deep breaths, looked at each other and chuckled at the fact that the chinese place was only three minutes away. we took the long way through the parking lot and parked the car. in front of us was the most amazing thing ever... 

this sign meant we could park here for fifteen minutes!!!  it was giving us permission to take a fifteen minute break. a mom-break! we sat, chatted, and laughed in a quiet car. no one was asking for an iPhone. no one dropped something and begging us to try and pick it up in the backseat. no one was whining about being hungry. we enjoyed our fifteen minutes, ran in the restaurant, grabbed the food and drove (slowly) back to her house. 

once we arrived home, the husbands were on the couch entertaining the four kids the best they could. some were running. some were throwing. some were crying.  but they were all alive and happy! 

we definitely loved our fifteen minute parking break... and i think there should be more of these signs hanging around for momfriends to have a mom-break...because we totally earn them!

Transition to two.

i've heard mixed reviews about what is more difficult... going from 0 children to 1 child. or 1 child to 2 children. it has been almost seven weeks since nolan has come along so i am still a rookie at this two kid thing (especially because he is not mobile!), but i can honestly say that going from 1 to 2 was a much easier transition on my life than having no children and going to 1.

now there are a few factors that may have made the transition easier to two. one of which being the age gap. landon is 3.5 and very independent. i am not kidding you when i tell you that the kid can play for HOURS at the kitchen table with play doh. it also helps that he is a good listener and sticks with me like glue if we are out and about. he is a pretty easy kid.

(Knock on wood) Landon has always been a pretty easy toddler/preschooler... but he was a very difficult newborn. he cried all day long, every day for the first three months of his life. and after switching formulas, giving him zantac for reflux, and just growing bigger, he finally became a happy baby. i think having a colic baby as your first is a very hard transition into motherhood.

nolan has been a very easy baby. tim and i joke that if nolan was our first, we wouldn't have waited so long to have another. tim and i assumed all babies scream their faces off for the first three months of life. we waited for nolan to do this. days and eventually weeks went by and we have yet to have a screaming newborn. i was so concerned about him not crying that i googled "quiet baby normal" to make sure nolan was okay! he will only cry when he is hungry and tired. i guess this is more the "norm" than what we had with landon.

so after seven weeks, transitioning to two has been great. sure, i now lug around twice as much stuff, but my life doesn't feel nearly as flipped upside down as it did transitioning to one.

Odd "Baby" Out

Numbers. i love numbers. but not just any number. the number has to be even. like 8. or divisible by five. like 15. or divisible by another number. like 21.  i also don't mind the numbers 1-9. they flow nicely.

when i was pregnant with landon, i was due may 26th. a nice even number. i remember panicking at the thought of having him on the 29th of may. or may 31st. i was hoping he would be born anywhere around those numbers. and i really didn't mind any number in the beginning of june. i hit the birthday jackpot with landon. he came on the perfect date of june 6, 2012. 6-6-12. i LOVED everything about it!! not to mention that my birthday is 6-12... it was meant to be.

when i picked the induction date of january 18th, i was thinking my labor would either be really quick and he would arrive on that date... or i would do the two day thing and he would come on the 20th of january. i was hoping we would avoid the number 19. just saying that number is difficult. it just doesn't come out of the mouth easily.

i was also banking on the 18th of january because it would be the best equation for our family. landon's birthday is the 6th. mine is the 12th. tim's is the 24th. he would have completed our perfect pattern with 18. multiples of SIX!!

as the clock neared midnight on the 18th, i knew our chance of being the perfect math family was slowly slipping away. and not only was my math dream not going to happen, he was going to be born on the 19th. an odd number. a prime number.

i have been adjusting and have accepted the 19th. how can i not, when i think of this guy every time the number leaves my mouth!

Sorry buddy...

i don't mean to toot my own horn, but i have a pretty darn good memory. if you tell me your birthday once, i will usually remember it OR get pretty close to nailing it.

this is why i am not sure how it happened. i mean, i have at least seven doctor appointments lined up in my head with different dates. and different times. different people. i have appointments all over from the ENT, audiologist, surgeon, OB, and pediatrician. i have a fancy little notebook that i write every appointment down in... but i got a little too confident in my ability to memorize dates and times.

and this is where mom of the year comes in. i completely MISSED my child's one month check up. yep. missed it. and the pediatrician couldn't squeeze me in. now the good news is that they rescheduled us. but the bad news is that it isn't until my kid is six weeks old. this means i will never have an accurate reading of his weight and height at one month. nope. i guess i could do the old home measurement and step on a scale with him. and take out a tape measure. but it isn't really "official."

so nolan, sorry buddy. sorry i missed your one month appointment. sorry your baby book won't be updated with your one month stats... oh wait........

sorry buddy... you don't even have a baby book.

Bottoms up.

well. i didn't make it. i thought if i stayed off my feet for two weeks and took REALLY good care of myself, that i would avoid surgery on those hemorrhoids. i should have known better. especially because one of the recovery nurses told me i would probably need surgery again. but i was being so optimistic and pushing pain away and hoping everything was healing. i didn't want to believe her.

i was feeling really good and pain was totally bearable. i started doing more at the three week mark when tim went back to work. i was getting up and down more. i was on the floor more both with landon and the baby. i was up and down steps all the time... i mean the washer and dryer are in the basement of my three floor home!

on valentine's day, i woke up in severe pain. i couldn't sit. i couldn't stand. i couldn't lay down. i couldn't even think. advil was no longer touching the pain. i cried myself through the day and knew i had to call the doctor in the morning.

i suffered through the night and first thing on monday morning, i called the doctor. they immediately gave me the number for surgery and felt awful that i was in so much pain. i was really hoping to get the doctor who did my previous surgery when landon was born. but, she wasn't available until FRIDAY. i told the nice secretary that i couldn't wait until then and she told me she had another appointment available the next day with another female doctor due to a cancellation. i jumped on it.

i suffered through monday and was a nervous wreck for the surgery that had to come. i knew what was going to happen. and the pain i was going to be in during and after the surgery.

on tuesday morning, i could barely function. my mom drove me to surgery while tim stayed home with the boys. the doctor was super sweet, and gently told me that things looked really bad and there is no way they would have healed on their own. no amount of tucks pads, ointments, steroids, ice, or heat would have made them go away. tears just streamed down my face. all that work for three weeks for nothing. i couldn't avoid the inevitable.

surgery was horrendous. i am glad that i am now six days out and i am finally feeling better. i think i am almost 100% recovered from delivering over a month ago. and hoping i can finally move on and enjoy everything pain free. nolan will be my last baby, and i am really hoping that i never, ever have to deal with this surgery ever again.

i want to make a mom shout out. i am so thankful for my mom who held my hand through the whole thing. she was there through the pain beforehand. she was there for the surgery. she was there for the awful recovery. she spent nights so i could sleep and recover. she kept my house clean and organized. she even let me take naps. i am so blessed to have her.

oh. and i want to make a shout out to Percocet. i was blessed to have them too.

 A month old already!! 

Hearing Test... Again.

when landon was a newborn, he failed his hearing test at birth. they told us it was VERY common for newborns to fail due to delivery and fluid. i thought nothing of it and took him home. we were required do a follow up assessment at CHOP which landon completely failed. the audiologist was greatly concerned due to the severity of loss that she saw and sent us to an ENT immediately. it was so difficult to go through that time with a newborn. it was the unknown. it was scary. you can click HERE to read about landon's hearing journey.

nolan was given his hearing test as well when he was born. the only difference this time around is that they did the test with me in the room. i watched the kind lady attach nolan to wires and a computer. after the test was completed, she told me that he failed both ears, but it is VERY common and they will reassess in the morning. instead of getting upset, i seriously just laughed. of course my second kid would fail the hearing test too.

the next day, nolan was given the hearing test again. i watched with little emotional towards the whole thing. after the test, the kind lady told me he failed his left ear and passed the right. i told her of landon's history of failing hearing tests at this age. she told me she was going to refer us to CHOP simply because of the family history.

yesterday, my mom, nolan and i headed over to CHOP for the hearing test. nolan did not pass either ear of his hearing test. the audiologist had a gut feeling that it may have been fluid so she checked for neurological issues with the hearing, which he passed. she is thinking it is just fluid in the ears. we go back for another test in two months. and if he doesn't pass, off to the ENT we go.

i've been down this road before...i am much more calmer. i have all my doctors lined up.  hoping he passes the test in two months, but until then i will not let this bother me and enjoy my little guy.

The best part of waking up.

i have been really working on this transition to two kids. mornings have been a little rough. between having to give my oldest breakfast, feed my baby, wash some bottles, and then making sure my oldest is given enough attention to start his day... and of course all on minimal sleep...it can make it really difficult to focus on my own breakfast and get that coffee pot going.

yesterday morning, i had very little sleep. baby was screaming. landon was hungry. and all i wanted was COFFEE. i just couldn't get that pot brewed fast enough.  i watched the pot slowly drip and i was DYING. there HAD to be a better way.

so smart me noticed there was a timer on my coffee pot. i took an extra five minutes last night and got it all set up. coffee will be dripping by 6:30 in the morning and be waiting for me when the craziness starts.

this morning i woke up to the smell of foldgers throughout the house. and let me tell you, the old saying holds true...

the BEST part of waking up is Foldgers in your cup!

(These two guys are also the best part of waking up!)

Baby weight.

when i started this blog YEARS ago, it was all about my weight struggles. the ups and downs. i went from writing in journals about my weight and food to blogging about it. i love food. especially junk food. and i have such little control. i love to eat.

when i found i was pregnant with nolan in may, i decided i didn't want to gain as much as i did with landon. i packed on sixty pounds with that guy. i also didn't want to get heavier than what i was with landon. those were my goals.

luckily, i didn't have cravings for mint chocolate chip ice cream every night like i did while pregnant the first time around. my only big craving i had was a coke. and a ranch dorito here and there. since i could only drink a certain amount of caffeine every day, i was able to control my coke intake to one can a day.  i think this helped with my weight gain.

in the beginning of my pregnancy, i remember going to doctors appointments and not gaining any weight. or gaining just a half pound. during the second trimester, i gained maybe a pound or two during my monthly check ups. only one appointment, i remember gaining five pounds.

i ended up putting on a total of thirty pounds with nolan. half the amount than i did while pregnant with landon. and it is hard to believe but i am two pounds away from my pre pregnancy weight. the weight i gained has easily come off with very little change to my diet. i did stop drinking coke though... for some reason, it just doesn't taste as good as when i was pregnant!