Spring has sprung

Finally, it is feeling like spring! It was in the 70s (F) today and is supposed to get close to 80 tomorrow. We're going to work in the yard and I'm going to finish getting the closets taken care of. I've started packing away the newborn things, and once again I'm not ready to part with them. Thankfully, Brad isn't giving me grief about putting them in storage.

Someone remind me how long these growth spurts last. I'm eating myself out of house and home!

Growth spurts

I think all three girls are going through growth spurts. Elizabeth is constantly saying, "I'm hungry, Mommy!" Katherine always eats us out of house and home. And, after a month of sleeping through the night, Annie has started waking to nurse at 4a.m., again. I'd already forgotten how tired that makes me, even though I only wake enough to get her latched on before I'm asleep again (and usually so is she). She nursed for food and for comfort constantly from 3:55a.m until just a bit before 6a.m. - so I was in and out of sleep.

Now I'm sitting here longing for some "real" coffee to wake me and to help me get my butt in gear. But if I do that, it'll make poor little bitty one puke like crazy (and the Prevacid has worked wonders in that regard - I don't want to make it worse) I want to get closets cleaned out today and get the laundry done. I'm so tired of having piles of clothes in my bedroom floor. Time to get it done and get the winter clothes put away.

It's supposed to be rainy here today and since it's already overcast, seems like staying in and doing laundry is as good an idea as any.

What a difference a year makes

One year ago today I started miscarrying Chaim. I'd known I was pregnant for about 72 hours. The shock was starting to wear off, but it still seemed surreal. As soon as it started happening, I knew it was over. Called the hospital (it was after hours at my OB's clinic) to see if there was anything specific I needed to know or do - i.e. "I don't have to come in, do I?" (no). And though I didn't want them to, they paged my OB who was out of town on spring break -- but he's so sweet, he gave some specific instructions about how I was to be treated if I had to present to the E.R. and had the nurse call me back to let me know what his orders were. The days of that pregnancy were cold and rainy - literally and emotionally. As much as I mourn the loss of that baby I know I wouldn't have Annie had the miscarriage not happened; and Annie is the perfect baby for this family. My friend Hillary said, "It goes to show that the sun *will* shine again, even when we go through hard times. Annie is the perfect little sunshine after a difficult period in your life." She's right.

Annie's 3-month day picture

As promised, there is Annie's 3-month-day picture. Cracks me up. Look at that hair!!! She kind of reminds me of a baby monkey in this picture. The little toot would NOT smile at all. And, Elizabeth has finally agreed we can name the bear JACK. Finally, something besides Cubbie or whatever the other name was she had for that bear. I like Jack.

Oh, the dress Annie is wearing in this photo is the same dress Elizabeth and Katherine each wore in their three-month-day photos. I compared all three...they look nothing alike. I'm working on a layout of that very thing and I'll share it when I'm finished. I just need to do some last minute touches and it's ready to share.

Busy, busy, busy

Sometimes I wonder, "Did I say something that offended?" And then I think I'm being paranoid; Brad often tells me I am. "Well, she's busy. I'm busy. She's got kids. I've got kids. We're both in very busy phases of life. I'll just check her blog." But it's still not the same, ya know?

According to the government, she's not real

So, Annie Bannanie is 3 months old today. Happy month-day! No social security number or birth certificate in the mail today...again. I should already have both. Come inside and call the Social Security Administration. The woman I talk with is very helpful and researches to see if Annie has been assigned a number yet. No number has been assigned, no information has been received. WHAT?! So, I call the state health department to find out why they didn't send the information on to SSA as they should have. This very nice woman named Ann talks to me. She searches their records.

"What was that last name again?" [typing]
"What was your maiden name?" [more typing]
"What is the father's name?" [even more typing] You know where this is going, don't you? "What hospital?" [typing]
"What county?" Hello? I deliver at the state teaching hospital and you're asking me what county it's in? It's right here in the capital city...just down the street from you, woman!
"Ma'am, we have no record of your child's birth."
"You don't?! Isn't that a violation of state law?"
"Yes, ma'am it is. You need to call the hospital and they need to get that information to us immediately. As far as the state is concerned, your baby doesn't exist."
"Oh, don't worry. I'll be calling the hospital."

Called the hospital, threw a hissy fit on voice mail to the HIM Director (whom I used to work with at another hospital years ago). An hour later, a HIM staff person called me back and was jumping through her behind to help me out. She was really sweet. She told me she would take care of it personally as soon as we got off the phone (good damn thing since they've broken the law) and she would be contacting the hospital's contact at the SSA to enlist her help in expediting Annie's SSN.

I wish someone had told me that my c-section was a figment of my imagination! However, I know this precious little one is very real. And I love her to pieces! I'll upload her 3-month-day photo later. Blogger is being buggy.

TMI - a conversation with my husband

"Honey, I'm fertile."
"So? I don't care."

Oh. my. gosh.

Scraplifting part deux

This is a scraplift of another one of Shawn's layouts of Ainsley



















This is the photo I took of Annie on March 17, 2006 and just love! Her sweet little smile (she gives a sweet big smile sometimes, too) just captures my heart. My LO is a little different from Shawn's - of course!
Papers: Dawn Stocstill - Hopeful (SBB Newsletter)
Stitching: Holly McCaig - The Park (HollyMcCaigDesigns)
button: Dawn Stocstill - Hopeful
button stitch - The Shabby Princess - Splendid half of it erased - (Shabby Princess)
heart stitching - ibid
font: Lancastershire
the circles are extracted from the pink dotted paper

Scraplifting is a good thing

I took Elizabeth and Katherine outside on Friday to play with Carson. It was a beautiful day, a little on the cool side, but still nice. As they were playing I realized I needed my camera and I'm glad I went inside to get it. I got some great photos of them playing. Then, Friday night I got a wonderful photo of Annie and her sweet little grin. As I was reviewing the photos, I was bummed that I couldn't put all three on my desktop and then I realized - d'oh! I could do a layout sized for my desktop, save it as a jpg and make it my wallpaper. So...I did just that. Background paper is from Ashley Olson's Fit for a Princess paper pack. You'll see the photos of Elizabeth and Katherine in layouts below. I'm about to start working on the one of Annie and I'll upload it later. Gosh, I love my girls. They are so sweet!!!



I know I've mentioned how much I adore layouts by AuntiePea. Well, I finally got around to lifting one she did of her niece, Ainsely. Of course, it's no where near as awesome as Shawn's original, but I still like it.



















Papers: Fit for a Princess - Ashley Olson (Scrapbook Bytes)
grunge overlay on background: Shabby Smiles - Shabby Princess (Shabby Princess)
grunge overlays on patterned papers: Michelle Coleman (Second Mile Designs)
Flower stamp: Rakscraps March06 MegaKit Cindy Wycoff (Rakscraps)
chipboard daisy: Spring is in the Air Nikki Beaudreau (Scrapmommies)
chipboard square: Sweet Serenity - Shabby Princess (Shabby Princess)
brown zig-zag stitching: Two Soon - Shabby Princess (Shabby Princess)
straight brown stitching: Celebrate - Shabby Princess (Shabby Princess)
Flower doodle: Rakscraps May2005 MegaKit Gina Egg (Rakscraps)
monogram: Shmootzy Alpha Nancy Rowe Janitz (Scrapartist)
Font: More Enchanted Prairie Dog

And then I also got a great photo of Katherine. I scrapped it last night at the SAHM Crop at Scrapmommies. Great sketch from Traci.

Papers are from Ashley Olson's Come What May paper pack
Done in PSE4.0. Fonts are MaryHelens Hand and Century Gothic. I used Atomic Cupcake's Gel Action on Nin's initials.

Milestones

Annie rolled over today. And she's been sleeping through the night for over a week. Hooray.

I'm still having the "I'm pregnant again" dreams. Last night, my brother was taking me to the hospital for my c-section, we checked in and then went to play miniature golf. Yes, miniature golf. Don't have a clue where Brad was supposed to be. My OB was in skateboarder shorts and a t-shirt (what the heck?) and some chick I used to work with was one of the OR nurses (at least she really is a nurse in 'real' life). I woke up vividly remembering the dread of pre-op and the few uncomfortable minutes of getting a spinal then freezing while laying on the table waiting for Paul and the resident to get started.

Brad and Diane are planning Bill's 50th birthday. Brad is planning on cooking chicken fajitas for a huge crowd. He said "We'll get a keg, make margaritas - maybe it would be better to rent a margarita machine. Hey, by then you'll be able to drink, right?"
"Honey, I can drink now." I think he's used to me being pregnant more often than not here lately.
"Oh yeah. But you'll probably be pregnant again [voice trails off] ...never mind."
"Honey, Bill's birthday is in about eight weeks. If I'm pregnant again by May [voice trails off]...just [again]...never mind."

Got a cute new pair of jeans at Talbot's tonight. Yeah, cute jeans at Talbot's. And they were on sale, too. Just lucked into that! And even better? The smaller size fit. One of these days I may get back into my pre-Katherine wardrobe. I think a little bit of toning will help me get there.

Thanks to my sister, I've found what I want for Mother's Day. It is a ring that a friend of hers got for Christmas - has all four of her little girls' names on it. Sammie has already investigated how much it'll cost (the jeweler who made it is also a friend of hers) and has given me the details, which I've passed along to Brad in a not-so-subtle email with an attached CAD rendering of Sancy's ring. Not subtle at all. "Honey, this is what I want for Mother's Day, only of course I want our girls' names on it instead of Sancy's. [amount listed] including shipping. Talk to Sammie if you need help ordering it. I don't want to be pulled into this at all." (he's all about "If you want it, buy it." I hate buying my own gifts)

Found some inspiration

I should've known all I had to do was "stalk" AuntiePea (Shawn) and I'd find killer inspiration for scrapbooking. Shawn's layouts are always incredible and always inspiring to me. Check out her blog -- she's got great music on it as well.

Big girls get haircuts today. It will be Katherine's first, so of course I'm taking the camera. I'll definitely do a "before" and "after" of the Wild-Hair Woman. Poor thing - she has a double crown and horrible cow-licks (just like her daddy). She looks like Phyllis Diller when she wakes up in the morning or from a nap. Serious, serious pillow head.

Annie is getting her 3-month-old professional portraits taken today even though she's not officially three months old until next Wednesday. This was the day that my schedule and Connie's jived. I can't wait to see what she does. I still need to decide what else I want Annie to wear. She'll wear the christening gown in the first half of the sitting - I'm trying to decide between a little dress and some sweet PJs for the second half. I may take both and let Connie choose. She's never let me down before.

What happened to me?

Yesterday I was going through my hard drive and started looking at my "old" layouts - the ones I did last year. They're so much better than what I've done lately and I wonder what my deal is. Am I totally lacking creativity now? Am I just not inspired any more? Am I going the "just get the pictures on the page and journal some" route that I used to go when I paper scrapped using a certain company's philosophy?

Darned if I can figure out what the deal is, but I'd certainly like to know. I've not been happy with many of my layouts here lately. Maybe I need to go back and scraplift myself. Surely being the mother of three children surely hasn't sucked the life right out of me. I hope not.

On another note, I had a dream Sunday morning that I was pregnant again. The thought of telling my mother made me wake with a horribly sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. She would not be pleased...and trust me, I'd hear about it.

Oh, wow!

On a whim, I entered MelissaG's "Digi Pick of the Day" Valentine Contest. I entered the card I made to send to family and friends. I didn't think I had a snowball's chance in hell of being chosen as one of the Top Ten. Well, imagine my surprise to discover I was #6 of the Top Ten cards. Cool. All the cards are wonderful and I'm thrilled to have been chosen. :) Makes me feel good.

I may do something for St. Patrick's Day - just because Sam's Club 5 x 7 one-hour prints are only thirty-eight cents each (which makes no sense to me when they're over fifty cents each if you have them delivered to your home). And I'll definitely do something for Easter. And, I have to do Katherine's birthday invitations, too. I need a cheap source for vellum 5x7 envelopes. It's not Hobby Lobby or Michael's, I can tell you that much! If you've got a good source, leave me a comment!

Got a letter today from the State Employee Benefits Division - they'd cc'ed us a letter mailed to our pediatrician. He requested that Annie's Prevacid be authorized and EBD did just that. So, instead of costing us $63/month it'll only cost $25 -- if Bill can't get any from the Prevacid rep for us. And, they made it retroactive to March 6, which was the day we had Annie's script filled so the pharmacy re-ran the script through their system and we're getting a $37+ refund. Yay. Think Brad will let me spend that $37 on digital scrapbook stuff? Paper scrapbook stuff? A new pair of jeans from Talbot's?

I've got to put my big kids to bed. They're tired, they're whiney, they played outside for about three hours today (beautiful 80-degree weather - it was glorious!!!) and I've about had my fill of them. I'm pleased to report the Puke Master General has been sleeping through the night for the vast majority of the week. Now if I could just get my husband to stay home some night...

My Egg-citing Life

So, Brad and I celebrated marked our 16th wedding anniversary last Friday. He met me in the parking lot at the pediatrician's office and sat in the car with the big girls while I took the baby in for a weight check (up 13 ounces in 15 days - excellent). Then, he left to spend the day and the vast majority of the night with a bunch of sweaty women. He operated the scoreboard at the SEC Women's Basketball Tournament. Happy anniversary to me. Much less romantic than last year -- wait, thinking back to last year maybe it was just as romantic. He's got so much going on this month, we'll celebrate next month with dinner at our favorite restaurant.

Annie is now on Prevacid. It's non-formulary, insurance only pays $30 of the $93. But that's better than not paying *any* of the $93! Hopefully it will help better than Axid did. I can't tell any difference yet and my sister told me she stopped counting after Annie threw up the 13th time. My sister was only here for two hours. That should give you an idea of how she really is the Grand Dame of Puke. Poor little punkin. She pukes and then smiles like nothing happened. There are times where she's screaming her little fool head off, though. Breaks my heart because I know she's hurting. Hopefully this will get into her system and start helping, soon.

Tomorrow is Women's Club day - read: Tomorrow is a major stressor for Gina. I have to get me and all three kids ready, loaded and be backing out of my driveway by 8:40 at the latest. Then I get to FBC, park, get me and all three kids plus three diaper bags, two lunch bags and my tote into the building while trying to keep Katherine from bolting across the parking lot. The child has no fear and it scares the crap out of me. I hated parking lots when she was an infant and Elizabeth was a toddler. I hate them now that I have Annie and Katherine is a toddler. But E never wrenched away from me and took of running the way Katherine does - and seems to delight in doing. Yeah, I dread Thursday mornings.

Both big girls are staying for Mom Tyme (that's what they call it...I'm not really fond of that spelling) so I'll be headed to Diane's after our luncheon to pick up two full meals. They are a gift from my Women's Club group. Hey, any time I don't have to cook is alright with me. Wait, I rarely, if ever, cook. So, any time Brad doesn't have to cook is alright with me. I did try to prepare dinner last night and he came into the kitchen and took over. My friend Shannon is right, he *is* a Kitchen Nazi!

Twenty 'til midnight

I sit here, in the dark, at 11:40p.m. nursing Annie. I realized she's no longer the little newborn who used to lay in my arms and quietly nurse. Now, her right arm and leg are both flailing in the air - in much the same way they did when she was in utero (it's such a neat thing to have felt those movements for months and now be able to see them), she's letting me know "Mom, I'm frantic" for food, for comfort, for sleep.

And now, in the five minutes it took me to type the paragraph above, my sweet little nursling lies asleep at my breast. Comfort nursing in her sleep. Breathing in a rhythm I would recognize even if you blindfolded me. Precious little hand resting on me, occasionally kneading me like a little kitten.

Martina McBride's song "Blessed" runs through my head constantly at moments like this.
I get to hear my children laughing
down the hall through the bedroom door
Sometimes I sit on my front porch swing
just soaking up the day
I think to myself, I think to myself
this world is a wonderful place
I have been blessed
and I feel like I've found my way
I thank God for all I've been given
at the end of every day
I have been blessed
With so much more than I deserve
To be here with the ones that love me
To love them so much it hurts
I have been blessed

And today makes me think of the 2nd verse of the song - because today is the 20th anniversary of my first date with Brad. I have loved this man for literally half of my life
Across a crowded room
I know you know what I'm thinking
By the way I look at you
And when we're lying in the quiet
And no words have to be said
I think to myself, I think to myself
This love is a beautiful gift

:::sigh::: Yes, I have been blessed. Too bad I don't realize it all the time. When I whine, will someone please refer me to this post?