Too Soon

Have you ever had one of those days where you feel like you messed up everyone else's day? I had one of those on Monday.

Sunday night/Monday morning was restless for me. I was up most of the night in pain and uncomfortable, due to irregular contractions. When Monday morning finally came, I was feeling pretty icky. In fact, it felt just like the morning I woke up and went into labor with Jonas. But being a mom has its duties and I pushed through it, got ready, and took Carson to school. After dropping Carson off at school, I headed on over to Target to pick up some stuff. Walking through the store didn't help me any...it just made me feel like this baby was going to fall right out of me. After purchasing what I needed, Jonas and I stopped by the restrooms on the way out of the store and that's when I noticed that I had started bleeding. I know bleeding in the third trimester isn't normally a good thing as it could mean placental abruption. When I got back out to the car, I called my OB's office and they told me that I should go to Labor & Delivery at the hospital and get checked out. About this time is when I started having regular contractions. They were two minutes apart for over an hour. I'd forgotten how much contractions can hurt!

After making a few phone calls, I picked up Carson from school early and drove the boys up to Jeff's sisters' house. At this point in time I had a million things going through my head. 33 weeks is way to early to have a baby come! Jeff was able to get off work and take me over to the hospital. By the time I was situated in the hospital bed and hooked up to monitors, my contractions and bleeding stopped. The nurse insisted on doing a urine test to see if I had a UTI as that is the most common cause of pre-term labor. But, she also insisted on using a catheter to get the sample so it "wasn't contaminated". That I could have done without! So I sat in the hospital for nearly two hours hooked up to machines and waiting for tests. Since my contractions and bleeding had stopped and my tests all came back negative they told me to go home and "take it easy" and to come back if it happened again. I was so thankful that everything had stopped, but also frustrated that they had no answer for me as to why it happened.

I felt stupid for even going up to the hospital. I felt like I ruined everyone's day...making his sisters drop what they were doing to watch my boys and making Jeff take time off of work to come be with me. I am so thankful that my baby and I are okay, and that everyone was so willing to help me. I just feel like the boy that cried wolf. On one hand, I know that bleeding and regular contractions are a serious thing, but on the other hand, I feel like I should have just "waited it out" instead of ruining everyone's day and accruing more bills that we don't need. Oh well.

On the bright side, I was able to see my baby on the ultrasound and he is breech. Not that it really matters as I have to have a c-section anyways.

Halloween FHE

There's nothing like celebrating Halloween by hanging out with your family! We had Jeff's family over for FHE on Monday for a fun night of bobbing for apples and games.

No better way to have fun than with my brave little soldier and the cutest little lion.

Carson has been begging us to have a Halloween party and on our tight budget, this is what we came up with. I think he'll be okay though, as he also had a Halloween party at school yesterday and he'll be headed to another one on Thursday.

Play Room

I have a confession to make-- we've been living in our house for almost two months now, but I've only been living in the top half of it. I hate basements. Hate, hate, hate them. Even finished basements creep me out. I just don't like being down in the ground and I don't like that they are so prone to having spiders. Don't get me started on spiders. I have an incredibly ridiculous fear of them. I'm serious, I just CAN NOT handle spiders at all. Needless to say I've been putting off organizing anything down there. This morning for some reason both of the boys kept whining about going downstairs to play. It was icky weather this morning and going outside wasn't a good option, so I finally relented and we went downstairs. I tackled cleaning up our play room. An hour later (and four dead spiders later) I finally had it all cleaned up. It probably would be more impressive if I had taken a before picture. But the most important thing about today was that I overcame my incredible fear and forced myself to go down there and work. Now, if I can only keep going down there everyday and letting the boys play...we'll see if I'm that brave tomorrow. Jeff keeps telling me that the more we are down there the more we'll see any spiders and kill them. I know right now is a bad time for spiders as they are coming in as the weather gets cooler. Plus, they didn't caulk the outsides of our basement windows and I'm sure that's where they are getting in at. Well, come payday we'll be caulking the windows and hopefully it will cut down on eight legged intruders.

Cozy

A few weeks ago we moved Jonas into the toddler bed in Carson's room, or should I say the "big boy" room. We did it mostly because he was climbing out of his crib and partly because I wanted him out of the nursery in enough time for him to adjust before our baby comes. But now I am asking myself why we even have a toddler bed, because this is how I find my boys every morning. Don't they look all cozy and happy snuggled up together in Carson's bed?

Pictures

When I was up in Idaho a few weeks ago, I had my friend Deanna take some pictures of the boys. I think they turned out great! I can't believe she was able to get some cute pictures of Jonas as he had a screaming melt down during the photot shoot. Visit Red Chair Photography to see them. Thank you so much Deanna for taking time out of your busy schedule for us.

New Look

On the 1st of October Scentsy switched us over from our old (and I must say outdated) websites and gave us new more up to date ones. Over the past few weeks I have been customizing my site when I have a little spare time. So now that I have some stuff on it I want you guys to go check it out and let me know what you think of it!

https://sbirch.scentsy.us/Home

Make sure to read "My Story" and check out the specials. And since I'm so excited about the new look of my website, I want to give you some free Scentsy. Leave a comment here saying that you visited my website and I will send you a sample of one of our newest yummy scents. Better yet, if you are one of the first four people to leave a comment, I will send you a car candle too. So to recap: leave a comment--get free Scentsy! After you leave a comment, please email me at sarajbirch@hotmail.com and give me your address so I can get your scent to you.

How do I?

How do I get my 17 month old to sleep through the night? He's never been a good sleeper--ever. This kid refuses to get a full night's sleep and then insists on waking up at 5:00 in the morning. And I'm talking about "Mommy I'm awake so you get up and make me breakfast and entertain me" awake. I'm tired of being tired...of not getting to shower in the morning...of not getting the luxury of 8 or even 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I'm growing a baby here, I need some sleep! I'm tired of being up all night trying to get him to sleep, just to have him wake up at 5.

I'm out of ideas here. I've talked to the pediatrician, I've let him cry it out, I've taken him on middle of the night drives...I have no idea what is going to get this boy to sleep a solid 8 hours. He refuses to sleep unless he is on my chest snuggled with me and even then he'll only sleep for a few hours. Believe me, I'm trying to break this habit, but when I'm running on no sleep and its the only way to make him sleep, I give in. I'm not superwoman, I can't stay up all night. Now that he's sharing a room with Carson its hard to just let him "cry it out" because then I have two children to deal with in the middle of the night...make that three as my baby likes to kick me all night. I guess he'll be joining our middle of the night scream-a-thon in 7 1/2 weeks.

How do I get my 4 year old to stop wetting the bed? I'm this close to putting him back in pull ups, but I don't want to make him feel like he has failed. At what age are they supposed to be able to go through the night dry? A year ago he was doing fine with staying dry all night and the past 9 months its just been down hill. We restrict liquids, make him use the potty right before bed, and Jeff goes in and wakes him up around 5 am (a busy hour at our house, I know) and has him use the potty. But more often than not, he's in our room at 2 am or so crying that he "soaked" his bed again. Maybe he's just going to be a chronic bedwetter and that's something we're going to have to deal with. I hear there's medication or something you can give them.

How do I function as a person without any sleep? How do I stay happy and positive with my boys when I am cranky and running on empty? How am I going to handle this when a newborn is thrown into the equation? I have no idea, but I know that I have no choice but to try to do it with a smile on my face. Motherhood is wonderful, but every once in a while you hit a rough patch, and there's nothing you can do but learn from it and get stronger.

So here's to dealing with the bedwetter and the insomniac. These precious, although frustrating, times with my little guys. Don't get me wrong, I love, love, love, my boys, but a girl's gotta get some sleep!

Coats

Since the weather has turned cooler, I've been thinking about getting the boys ready for winter. After all, I know that they are going to want to be out playing in the snow all of the time!

For the last few years, we have just gotten Carson cheap Walmart coats for winter. Each year the coat has fallen apart...you get what you pay for. So, since we chose to buy cheap coats I have no winter coats in storage for Jonas, apart from some nicer dress/peacoats I got at Old Navy. This year I decided that I was going to get good quality coats for the boys...after all I'm going to have three boys that the coats can be used by!

Two weeks ago I was in shopping at Children's Place and saw that they had just put their winter coats out. I almost bought them then, but I sure am glad I waited! I went back in today and they had their coats 30% off. I got an additional 10% off for using my Children's Place card (so a total of 40% off) and then I had a coupon for $20 off of my next purchase. If I would have paid full price it would have totalled $116.47...but I paid only $54.12!!! For two nice quality coats I think I got a killer deal. I {{heart}} Children's Place!

Now I've just got to get them snowpants and boots...which are also 30% off right now.

BTW, I think its a total rip off that all stores charge more for "big boy" clothes than toddler clothes. I've been starting to get Carson extra small clothes (in the boys section) and they cost so much more. His coat was $10 more than Jonas' and I know there isn't $10 more fabric in it than there was in the 4T. Oh well, I know they have to make money somehow. I know I shouldn't complain...wait until they are teenagers and their pants are $50-$60 (or more), right?

Bewitched

Have you ever been to Gardner Village? If you haven't go next time you are in town! We went there today (well Tuesday...I guess its past midnight now) and dragged our poor sick Daddy (who had stayed home from work) with us. When we lived in West Jordan we were only about 5 minutes from this place, and I'm sad to say we didn't visit it nearly enough. Its an enchanting little village full of the cutest shops...a girl's dream for sure. In the fall they decorate the whole village with witches. Seriously cute.

I had to laugh at this one "Witchy Poo" with the witch in the out house.
The one picture taken of the boys and I...and my eyes are closed!
I love the look Jonas is giving the witch!
I snapped a picture of Jeff trying to hurry us out of there. He was feeling nauseous again and ended up sleeping for the next two hours...I guess it was too much for him. I must say he was a good sport about it all!

9 Weeks Left

When my baby ticker turned over to 30 weeks yesterday it hit me: my pregnancy is starting to wind down. Can you believe I only have 9 weeks left? (I'm having my section at 39 weeks.) This pregnancy really has flown by! Now that I'm in my 3rd Trimester the hip/pelvic pain and aches have returned. Although I haven't had nearly the pain I had with Jonas...that boy was just sitting wrong inside of me or something! Our new little guy is projected to be here December 7th, unless there are any scheduling problems with the OR. I can only wish that I'll spontaneously go into labor and have him normally, but chances of that are really slim. Well, a slim chance they'd let me deliver, I go into labor on my own just fine .

So far with this pregnancy I have gained 12 pounds. This little man sure is a mover, just like Carson was. He is always jabbing at me or trying to stretch his legs...a lot different from Jonas who hardly moved at all. We finally decided on a name for our new little man, but you are going to have to wait until December to find out what it is. I figured since this is our third boy we might as well do something to make his birth more interesting.