It’s Been Almost A Week

So, I noticed today that I haven’t written in almost a week! (Not even a lame post letting you know about free rentals-speaking of which, I will have another one of those coming!)

I was thinking today that I often feel like I don’t accomplish much during the since I am a stay at home mom with two little kids. So I decided that today I would make a list of the things I did do today. They might not all seem like much, but it shows me that I did more than just survive the day.

Played outside with Roland and Little Monkey
Ordered and picked up pictures from Walgreens
Paid and dropped off the water bill at City Hall
Ran and emptied the dishwasher
Talked to Holly on the phone (quite a bit…that’s what happens when things are going on….)
Printed my BSF lesson and coupons for Open House
Cut the coupons for Open House
Helped Little Monkey work on cutting paper with scissors
Took the trash out, brought the trashcan back
Got the mail and read the paper
Played Candyland with Little Monkey
Fed Little Monkette…many times
Sent many emails with my sister about things regarding Open House
Sewed the buttons on the coffee cozies for Open House
Attempted to make a firecracker hair tie-it did not turn out how I planned
Actually cooked dinner for myself (granted it was a freezer meal that you just put in a pan for like 10 minutes, but still)
Fixed the font on our Christmas card that was partly cut off during printing
Read a lot of blogs

I’m sure I’m missing something…..but hey at least it appears a little productive. And the night is still young. Who knows what else might get done….or not get done.

Alright—I had to update because there was more productivity.

Spent 31 minutes working out on WiiFit
Played some games on WiiSports with Little Monkey
Wrote a couple blogs
Cleaned up dinner

A Camping Weekend

This past weekend, Big Monkey, Little Monkey, GrandMom and I went camping. We went to a park that is about 30 minutes from our house. Once again, not a big trip but good to get away and get our feet wet with the use of the camper some more. We headed out around lunchtime on Friday and got set up for the weekend. Little Monkey and GrandMom went “fishing” while Big Monkey and I hung out around the campfire. It started to rain and I was tired anyhow, so I went for a nap. Once I woke up I learned that Big Monkey and GrandMom had been discussing moving the location of the camper and they were considering doing it with me inside! Thankfully they didn’t but once I was up, they did move it (without breaking everything down). I would not recommend this method even though it did work.

Little Monkey enjoying an Oreo in his camping chair.

We knew another group was also camping there the same weekend, although they were all in tents! We hung out with them some and played volleyball and hung out around the campfire making smores and talking. Little Monkey had a great time with one of the kids that was there with them too. Big Monkey and I played Scrabble Express each night (and I won every time!). We also played Battleship one day by the fire. I was sure he would win but we both won one game each.

Bacon cooking for breakfast! Yum!

Overall it was a good weekend and mostly relaxing. While we were out camping, Roland was staying with some family members and Little Monkette was with her Grammie, Pops and Mimi at the beach. Currently our next camping trip is scheduled for April and EVERYONE will be going for the first time (Me, Big Monkey, Little Monkey, Little Monkette and Roland!). It should be interesting. Big Monkey would love to take another trip before that one if we can and we are looking at February for a possible trip with Big Monkey’s family. Of course they will have to sleep in tents!

Little Monkette sporting her Halloween outfit at the beach house.

Going Camping-

Today we are packing up the camper and heading out for the weekend. Originally it was going to be just Big Monkey, Little Monkey and GrandMom, but now I am going too. I didn’t really want to go, (I was going to stay home with Roland and Little Monkette) but I do see the value in going. It will give Little Monkey some much needed time with just us (no Roland and no Little Monkette to distract us). He has been bounced around a bit since Little Monkette’s arrival and could use the individual attention. Little Monkette will go with Amy to the beach house for the weekend. The weekend should also give me some time to kind of clear my head again and just relax. No computer to use, just hanging out with family and friends in the great outdoors. I will have my phone, which means limited access to Facebook and some texting or phone calls, but for the most part, we will try and remain rather technology free.

I’m sure it will be a good weekend and it will be nice that we won’t have to worry about dealing with trick-or-treaters all night long on Saturday!

The Journey Continues-

Wednesday I got up and my Mom and I spent part of the day running some errands that she needed to get to. It was good for us to get out of the house again and try and focus on some other things. My sister was taking care of Little Monkette and my Mom had talked to her about how it was going. She might have gotten more than she bargained for but she was doing well. We decided to have Amy come over to Mom and Dad’s house with Little Monkette so that they could help out with taking care of her and I could see her. I was fine with it at first but the more we talked about it, the more anxious I got about her being there. I still decided to have them come on, knowing that if it wasn’t working out, we could have them go back home.

It was nice to see her and have her be around. I didn’t have to do anything and on Wednesday, I didn’t. I didn’t hold her, feed her, anything. I just wasn’t ready to. I was just glad to see her and know that she was being cared for. My family has done a great job of making me feel as comfortable as possible with the situation while trying to ease me back into things. Wednesday I took some medication to go to sleep again and Amy and my Mom took care of Little Monkette.

Thursday I woke up and got my stuff together. Big Monkey came over from our house and picked me up. Amy was going to stay with Little Monkette. We dropped Roland off at a friends’ house and headed over to Uncle K and Aunt S’s house for a family taco lunch. Little Monkey was there waiting for us. He was excited to see us but also just as happy to watch his movie while we ate lunch. After lunch we headed to our hotel to check in and get ready for rehearsal. We also met up with Big Monkey’s Dad at the hotel. Big Monkey and I headed over to rehearsal and met up with everyone. Little Monkey was there too. He was too cute practicing walking down the aisle. Hopefully he will do as well on Sunday. Many people were asking about Little Monkette since they haven’t met her yet but we did not have her with us. I told them that we might bring her to the wedding on Sunday for a little bit so they can see her and meet her at least. It was a little tough to be at rehearsal with people asking about her because they were all congratulating us on her birth and asking if we were doing well and such. Of course we (me at least) are not doing so well, at least not as well as everyone seems to think that I should be doing. Also, one of the wedding coordinators was there and she had her son just two days before Little Monkette was born. Her son just slept the whole time but of course everyone wanted to check him out. I didn’t go check him out or anything; it was more than I wanted to focus on at the moment. After practice we went out for the rehearsal dinner at Delano’s. It was a nice place and we had a good meal.

After we finished dinner, Big Monkey and I decided to go back to my Mom and Dad’s house for a little bit to see Little Monkette. While we were there I decided that I wanted to hold her, so I took her from Amy and held her for a bit. I even changed and fed her. It did not feel natural or normal still, but I am glad that I did it. I feel like there is a bit of disassociation between her and I. Almost as if she is not my child, even though I am fully aware that she is. I know this is part of my journey with the postpartum depression and there will be a light at the end of the tunnel but right now it is still hard. After we hung out for a bit, Big Monkey and I went to the hotel for the night. It was odd to be there with no kids but it was also nice to be close by but away. This week has been a tough week and we are just taking it day by day.

How She Got Here-

At my doctor’s appointment at 37.5 weeks, the doctor told me that she expected to see the baby within the week. Of course, that did not happen. I was quite frustrated because I was more than ready to get her out! I made it to my 38 week appointment and had only dilated a little bit more. That doctor told me that he thought that I had a 50/50 chance of making it to my 39 week appointment. And wouldn’t you know it…I made it to my 39 week appointment. After trying to stimulate labor with the stripping of my membranes and doing lots of walking, the contractions stopped. And nothing happened on Thursday or Friday.

Friday afternoon my phone rang and it was a call from my doctor’s office. I was surprised that they were calling me because my next appointment wasn’t until Wednesday. On the phone was my doctor herself! She was wondering what was going on and why I hadn’t already delivered! She thought for sure that I would have been in the hospital on Wednesday night having a baby. She told me that she was on call for the weekend and she wanted me to come down to the hospital and get checked out. She said there was no promises of me being able to stay but that if I was at least five centimeters dilated I could stay and we’d have the baby. I was a little leery to pack everybody up and get Little Monkey and Roland to my sister and then us end up being sent back home.

We decided that we would take the chance and I started running around the house getting everyone packed up. Big Monkey was up at a friend’s house in our neighborhood, so I called him and let him know what was going on. He suggested I go on a walk before we headed down to the hospital in hopes that we could get some contractions going. My sister came and got Little Monkey and Roland and I took a walk around our neighborhood. I ended up at the top of the hill where Big Monkey was. He was nice enough to drive me back home. I finished packing and we both were able to take showers and head to the hospital. We stopped for some dinner (we learned this last time…eat before you go!) and then headed for the hospital.

A Visit From the Police

Yesterday we were hanging out at the house when a Sheriff’s car pulled up in front of our house. Now this isn’t entirely unusual because since Big Monkey used to work for the city, we do know some of the police officers in our town and sometimes they come by to say hi or hang out for a few minutes. The problem was we did not know this officer.

We had the entire house open, windows and doors, enjoying the nice weather. The officer came to the door and asked if everything was okay. Big Monkey and Little Monkey both went to the door to see what was going on. She said that they had received a 911 call from our address. We had not called 911 and everything was fine. Big Monkey let her know that everything was fine and we would check our phones. We do not have a land line at our house, so I was a little surprised that they were able to figure out where the call came from as quickly as they did. The officer was satisfied that all was well and went on her way.

Things then started to come together. Earlier Little Monkey had been playing on the back porch with Roland. He heard Big Monkey’s phone ringing in the other room and went to get it for him. Apparently with Big Monkey’s phone, when it is locked you can unlock it or make an emergency call. When Little Monkey went to get the phone and bring it out, it appears that he may have pushed some buttons and made the emergency call. A few minutes after bringing the phone to Big Monkey, he got a phone call from a number that he did not recognize. Big Monkey’s policy is generally to not answer any number that he doesn’t know. So he didn’t answer the phone…it appears that may have been the reverse 911 to make sure all was well. Since we didn’t answer, they sent an officer to the house. I am a bit impressed that without a land line they were able to get the information on where we might have been within a reasonable amount of time.

I didn’t find it to be that big of a deal, but Big Monkey was not at all amused and sat Little Monkey down to explain that is why we don’t play with the cell phones. I don’t know that Little Monkey really understood and it is not like he did it on purpose. It would be one thing if he had taken the phone and dialed the numbers 9, 1, 1, and hit send. Hopefully though we will not have this issue again.

Baby Update

39 weeks, 1 day

We went to the doctor yesterday for our weekly checkup since Little Monkette has still decided not to show up. I’m not sure what she is waiting on…but we’ll just be waiting. The doctor was surprised I was still pregnant and said that we need to get me delivered. I was very hopeful that this meant we could go to the hospital and induce or something! No such luck. She said if I was at a 5 or 6 then she would go ahead and send me and we’d work on getting her out. Sadly I was only 4cm dilated. She also said that the baby is still kinda far back. She stripped my membranes and said that she stretched me to about 5cm. She suggested we head to a local lake and spend time walking around the lake and then when the contractions kicked in head over to the hospital. That seemed promising that we might actually go into labor last night.

Since I am writing this, you might realize that that did not happen. The internal and stripping of the membranes was quite painful and I did have some contractions on the ride home. We ran a couple errands and then came home to walk around the block. I think we wore Roland out. He went on all the walks with me but the boys only went on some of them. I would like to see how far we actually walked yesterday. While walking, I was having contractions about ten minutes apart. Whenever I was sitting and resting though they were about 15 minutes apart. I played soccer with Little Monkey, walked around the backyard with Roland, walked up and down the steps of our deck and went on more walks. Eventually though the contractions pretty much quit. I slept pretty well last night too. Today we will walk around some more. I’m glad for the cooler weather because otherwise I don’t think we could make it walking around during the middle of the day!

The Newest Family Member

No Little Monkette has not arrived yet…but earlier today Big Monkey and Little Monkey went down to Tampa to pick up Roland. I had posted about Roland here last week. We did not think that he would be ready to go so soon because just on Sunday he was still in Alabama. He made the flight to Tampa on Monday and much to our surprise was ready to go today! He is about 5-6 months old, neutered and microchipped. He is very sweet and Little Monkey was in love with him after spending five minutes with him. They were playing and Little Monkey said, “Okay, we can take him home now!”

Little Monkey, Big Monkey and Roland after they got back home.

He loves to play and look out the window. He even did pretty good his first night in the crate. He cried for about five minutes and then was quiet the rest of the night. Big Monkey let him out before he left for work this morning and then Roland cried for about three minutes before settling down until Little Monkey and I got up. He doesn’t seem to be very hungry but hopefully he will learn soon that when his food is down, he better eat! Roland is also enamored with our television (although a lot of guys are). I hope to catch a picture of him watching it because it is quite funny to see him so focused on it. I think he is a guy’s dog and has appeared to be looking for Big Monkey already today. So far all is well though. I do think we are a little crazy to get a puppy and have Little Monkette arriving any day now too but hopefully it will be a smooth transition all the way around. He is a sweet puppy and loves to play but then collapses for a nap!

Roland

His serious face!