March Madness... not the basketball kind.

We've been keeping busy this month! 

I'm in full on crazy lady nesting mode and Ryan has been spending time on the weekend chipping away at his list of projects.

[[We DID carve out time for what may have been our last date night for a long while though... We ate at Fire (an artisan pizza place), squeezed in about an hour of shopping and I got to pick the movie because I'm the pregnant one ;) And of course I chose Beauty and the Beast and loved it!]]

I had a doctors appointment yesterday and all is well with baby. Good, strong heartbeat and no concerns other than that she is still head up. The doctor said only about 3% of babies are still head up after 32 weeks and I am at 34 weeks; the longer she stays breech the more unlikely she will turn on her own as there isn't much room for her to do so at this point. They did a quick ultrasound and her head is under the right side of my rib cage which is why I feel so much pressure there when I sit or bend down. I can tell its not very comfortable for either of us - when I sit for very long at a time baby starts kicking like crazy, probably wondering why her mean old mom is squeezing the crap out of her skull :P 

Annnnddd I seriously can't breathe well when I have a baby's head compressing one of my lungs so I've been sending her subliminal messages to do us both a favor and flip around now... but we will see what happens in the next few weeks.

At 38 weeks, if she is still breech we'll have 2 options:

1) If we are a candidate for the procedure (as in the baby isn't tangled in the cord, etc) the doctor can try to turn her by pushing on my stomach while watching whats going on via ultrasound....

To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of this option for a few reasons -  I hear this procedure is rather painful & only successful about 50% of the time... and also that there are a few risks involved. They can accidentally break my water, tear the placenta or bruise/stress baby, all of which would cause me to have an emergency C Section, which would be rather stressful on all of us. Some babies also flip back around into breech position even if the doctors were initially successful in turning them, so it could all be for nothing... OR it could be relatively easy/painless, baby could turn/stay head down and we could finish out this pregnancy as planned. There is just no way of knowing. And I don't usually like to make decisions unless I'm pretty sure of the outcome ahead of time... LOL

2) We can chose to forgo the attempt to turn baby and just schedule a C Section for 39 weeks, a week before my due date.

I'm not thrilled about this option either but I may be leaning toward this one if she doesn't flip on her own within the next few weeks. I'm a planner and I like the idea of just having a delivery date scheduled, with out the fuss of going into labor and dealing with all that comes along with that. Last time, I was induced at 41 weeks, in labor for 24 hours, awake for almost 48 hours and had a pretty awful recovery. Although a C Section would be a new & scary experience, with probably a longer recovery period, I do think there would be some perks to taking this route rather than going thru what we went thru with Maddie again... I wouldn't be in labor for days. I wouldn't experience the same complications as last time and I shouldn't be AS exhausted initially as I wouldn't be awake for 48+ hours right off the bat. We'd (hopefully) be prepared, rested and ready to go come D day & we'd be able to share the plan with Maddie... no disappearing in the middle of the night and having her wake up to someone else in our home, no confusion about where we are & what is happening. Plus, a planned C Section is far less scary to me than an emergency C section caused by complications of trying to turn a baby. Ryan could even let his work know a week prior as to when he would be starting his leave! So there would be a few perks...

Obviously, having never been through it before, I am naive to the pain and recovery that a C section would require but honestly I think I'm more scared of another difficult and long labor/delivery than I am of a painful surgery/recovery. If we are faced with either trying to turn the baby or just scheduling a C Section, I'm thinking we will just choose to schedule the surgery and take most of all the "what ifs" out of the equation :)

But like I said, this baby has 4 weeks to turn around and I have 4 weeks to change my mind so... I make no promises ;)  Soooo, all that being said, we could have as few as 35 days until we are holding our newborn! CRAZY!! We better get cracking on our To Do lists! Aggghhhhhh!!!!

[[Ryan was super busy January & February remodeling a bathroom in addition to working his typical 40 hour weeks. Maddie and I were sick and therefore unproductive most of February. So we are both feeling the pressure of trying to knock out some last minute things before baby arrives... Most likely, we aren't going to get done all that we had hoped so we'll have to decide which things are most important and try to not stress out about the rest.]]

My main goal is to make freezer meals and stay caught up on housework and laundry so I don't have a surplus of chores to do when recovering. I like to be overly prepared for things... it helps keep my mind at ease during times of stress and I know that going from 1 child to 2 will at times be stressful. haha!

I am also becoming increasingly obsessed with making sure I spend lots of quality and fun time with Maddie before baby sister crashes our party ;)

Ryan's main project is fixing the mud pit next to our driveway. The constant snow and rain has really done a number to where he usually parks his truck... He has to put it into 4WD to get in the driveway. I'm not kidding.... its bad... very bad. LOL.. I'm sure the neighbors don't appreciate the mud trails we leave all over the road either ;) He's going to have to borrow or rent a tractor to scrape the mud away and then lay gravel down, which will be no small task... but he is efficient and hard working so I know we won't be owners of the neighborhood mud pit for much longer :)

Hooray!!

 As for Maddie, she comes up with new toddler-isms everyday so here are some of the best ones I can remember from March:

- She's developed a bit of a british accent lately. Weird. Netflix has been flooded with British cartoons lately and she loves Peppa Pig so sometimes she'll call me "Mummy", ask me if I'd like to "have a go" at something or if i can "mend" her broken toy. It is cracking us up! And for several days, she kept referring to me as a "wise old elf". I had no idea where it came from at the time, but of course its a character from another strange British cartoon.

- She informed me that she wants to be a carrot when she grows up.

- She's mastered bedtime manipulation. Every night she comes down with a terrible stomach ache immediately after we say goodnight and shut her door. Thankfully a warm rice pack always cures it... for now...

- She loves, LOVES filters on snapchat. Part of our ritual every morning is to check for new filters and make funny videos. 

- She also discovered her love for marshmallows and "neeeeeeeds" to have one every morning with breakfast. Sigh....

- She loves having me read her favorite books "wrong" so she can correct me every time I make a mistake or say the wrong word. 

- And today she has been cackling, loudly, off and on, like "Muuuaahahahaaa!!!" and is telling me that she is an evil villain. Many days I would be inclined to agree with her but shes been pretty nice today ;)

That's all I can remember at the moment... Now for the pics off my phone:

She got fancy for church last Sunday and declared "I'm soooooo pretty!"... haha!

 Checking on baby sister:

This is what happens when you ask a 3 year old to smile for a picture:

Playing dress up:

Meme of the Month & coincidentally the story of my life: 

Well, that's all I've got for now... 

Wish me luck getting thru the sleepless nights, constant heartburn, aches and pains known as the last 4-6 weeks of pregnancy!

I'll keep you posted!!  

xoxo

Alive and... well?

February tried to take us out, for real. 

At least one of us was sick at all times this past month and we are just now getting over (hopefully) the last of it.  It started near the end of January... Ryan caught a cold. He never gets sick, maybe like once every few years, but this time it was his turn. Maddie caught the cold from him, except had much worse symptoms... The poor thing couldn't sleep or breathe well, waking up coughing every few minutes for a couple nights and then was just plain miserable for about a week. I felt so bad for her :(  Next it was my turn, a cold is never fun but its especially not fun when you're super pregnant. Can't take any medicine or even use menthol cough drops so you're pretty much left hung out to dry. It took me about a week to get through the worst of it and right around Valentines Day we all started feeling pretty good again. Soooo Maddie and I went out to pick up a Valentines day card for Ryan and some ingredients to make a good dinner and she unknowingly picked up the nasty flu virus that is going around Idaho right now... "Influenza A" aka FLU OF DEATH. Maddie got off pretty easy with this one though, thank God!!! She had a fever for a couple days and lost her appetite but other than that it wasn't too bad - didn't even require a doctor's visit! She recovered quickly and was back to her normal, inquisitive self by that Friday afternoon. 

My poor sick baby, exhausted from sickness #1:

On Saturday we went to pick up a new loveseat that was on sale at Fred Meyer that we've had our eyes on for a while. We needed more seating in our living room and it was just the right size, color and price! Literally in the 30 minutes we spent at Fred Meyer I developed the precursory cough that comes with this particular flu virus and by the time we got home I was hacking away and feeling lightheaded. I tried to ignore the symptoms and went to bed early but by Sunday morning I knew I was coming down with something... Woke up just totally uncomfortable - couldn't really pinpoint what was wrong just felt very "off". Took my temperature and it was about 100 so then I realized I was getting sick and not just feeling the normal aches of being 29 weeks pregnant. For a temperature when pregnant, you can take Tylenol so I just kept up on that all of Sunday and drank lots of fluids. But as I'd been warned before, catching the Flu when pregnant can be dangerous and just overall more severe as your immune system can have a hard time fighting it off when its working for 2. As a scare tactic to convince me to get the flu vaccine, my OBGYN told me that they've actually had several pregnant mamas die this year from the flu and being unable to fight it off - so of course I was more than happy to get the flu shot ;) I got it back in September so I should have been covered but apparently this particular strain of flu wanted a go at me despite all that... ha!

Anyway, I woke up Monday morning around 1:30am with a 102 fever (which I knew was getting a little too far up there for a pregnant lady on Tylenol) and couldn't really sleep the rest of the night. The chills/night sweats/total bodyaches were just too intense... I called my OBGYN when they opened that morning and they asked me to come in right away. Luckily, it was President's Day and Ryan was off work, so he packed me and Maddie up in the car and took us to the doctor's office. I couldn't even sit in the waiting room, just feeling like I was going to pass out so they ushered me back to an extra room with a couch so I could lay down until a doctor was available. The doctor checked me out and found that in addition to what she guessed was the Flu, the high fever had made me a little dehydrated and both mine and baby's heart rates were racing and she felt uncomfortable sending us home. She called the hospital and let the Labor & Delivery Dept know that we were on our way over for evaluation, fluids and testing.

After getting settled at the hospital, Maddie's Grandma Karmen came to pick her up; thankfully she was available, we were there all day and Maddie would've lost her marbles after about an hour. Three different nurses tried to get an IV in me a total of 5 times but each time after much poking, twisting and shoving of the needle, my vein would burst and they would to take it out & have to try again. They were never actually successful at getting an IV in me, but because I wasn't feeling nauseous I just ended up just drinking a bunch of water rather quickly instead. Then came the blood tests, flu & strep throat swabs and chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia. Once the tests showed that it was just the Flu as we all suspected, they kept me in isolation and put this big yellow sign outside my door warning anyone that entered needed to be in full paper scrubs, gloved and masked :P They were mostly monitoring our resting heart rates at this point and were wanting them to come down before letting us go home. When we got there, Baby's heart rate was going at about 190 and mine was at 160. Normal for us is 155 and mine at 85. They discharged us around 6pm; Baby's heart rate was back to normal around 160, although mine was still at 140 but they were sure it would come down once my fever broke - which it did that night and could literally feel my body start to relax as it lowered. Anyway, after a pretty rough Monday, the rest of the week I just kept feeling better with the medication the doctor prescribed and now am completely over it a week and a half later! So glad to be feeling better; Pregnancy can be pretty miserable at times but having the flu on top of the typical third trimester symptoms was by far the most miserable I have felt in a loooong time.

 

We are all currently healthy, fingers crossed it stays that way from here on out! We have barely over 2 months before we officially become a family of 4 so I'm really going to try to keep the germs to a minimum for the next short while.... And by that I mean constant handwashing, an excessive amount of handsanitizer and limiting our exposure to obviously sick people and high traffic places LOL 

Maddie and I will now run/waddle a victory lap around our freshly disinfected house to Kelly Clarkson's song "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger", take an extra dose of vitamins and hide from the dirty, germy world for the next 3 months. 

See you all in June ;)

For now, I'll end with few snaps from some of the better moments February had to offer:

28 weeks, officially in the 3rd Trimester!!

 

Ryan picked up Maddie's new favorite movie, Trolls, the day it came out. She woke up to this surprise waiting for her on the kitchen table and she immediately had to watch it... breakfast was served on the couch!  I wish I had a video of her reaction, she was SO excited.

 

I was cleaning out the desk and found this old gem... a list of words that I left for my parents when they watched Maddie for the day. She was just learning to talk, not quite understandable yet, and she'd get sooo frustrated when people couldn't figure out what she was trying to say:

  

She's developing her own style... LOL

  

Playing at the Dentist's office... she was so brave getting her teeth cleaned and x-rays done!! 

Proud of her.

Why, hello old friend.

Hi, All! 

Its been awhile.

I decided to resurrect the ol' blog after months of feeling irrationally guilty that our second child wouldn't be able to look back and read about our excitement for her arrival and survival of the first year the way Maddie can someday. Fair is fair, right? Hahahaa! Sure, my posts will likely be shorter, more sporadic and probably not as thorough but this time around I kinda have my hands full with a very "particular" 3 year old ;)

Anyway, here's an update on the 3 of us and a glimpse of what is to come:

We bought a house in Hayden, ID last December and for the past year have been fixing it up and making it our own, slowly but surely. We knew that after the first house we bought (which was WAY too big for us, but such a steal of a deal!) we wanted to downsize. Now we are in a small 3 bed/1.5 bath house. There are some things that I wish were different about it - A bigger kitchen & formal dining room would be nice so that we could host meals or holidays; a guest room and normal size garage would be ideal. But in choosing a smaller house with less space, we have cut down our utility bills immensely and have a huge backyard that we love to utilize in the summer months. Last summer I even had a garden and it actually (surprisingly) did pretty well! All things considered, we are happy & grateful for what we have :)

We are certainly feeling the effects of being cooped up this winter though... There has been snow on the ground for 2 months now, deep enough that Maddie has a hard time walking in it and doesn't want to go outside. Also its freaking freezing cold and I dislike it immensely LOL So basically this is how I feel about this winter in particular:

Ryan is still working as a residential tax appraiser for Kootenai County and I am still at home with Maddie, so not much has changed on that front. Maddie is happy, healthy & super smart; She just celebrated her 3rd birthday in January and she certainly in the midst of asserting her independence, which makes typically normal and mundane things rather... interesting ;) She talks up a storm and is basically a human jukebox. She has enough personality for multiple people and she keeps us laughing & on our toes all the time. When we found out I was pregnant in August, literally the first thing we did was crack down on potty training and she took it like a champ! We were NOT interested in having 2 kids in diapers at the same time and thankfully she obliged. She's also in a twin bed and sleeps through the night regularly unless she had a nightmare or is sick. So basically she's a tiny adult and she will be expected to earn her keep here shortly ;) 

And did I mention she is freaking beautiful?!? Seriously, she will be a tough act to follow but I'm sure baby #2 will be just as adorable :) 

 

I'm currently 26 weeks pregnant, so 10 days until the 3rd trimester and I'm starting to feel the typical uncomfortable aches and pains that come with toting a bowling ball around in your belly. Last I checked my pregnancy app, the baby is about 2 pounds and 15 inches long, which they equate to the size of a head of cauliflower. I feel lots of kick, punches and cartwheels going on in there and they are strong enough to wake me up from a dead sleep at times. Everything has been textbook normal so far, hooray! Around week 19 we found out that the baby is a girl and we are still debating on names. We have a few favorites but haven't settled on anything yet. We will probably wait to settle on a name until she is born, as we did with Madilyn.

We've been working on setting up the nursery and preparing our family for a new addition. Maddie knows a baby is coming (although I don't think it will really sink in until shes here) and is so excited to be a big sister! She said over and over how much she wanted the new baby to be a girl and we are so happy that she's getting her wish. We saved almost everything of Maddie's so there is little that we need to purchase this time around in prep for a new baby. We had fun going thru the newborn clothes and literally everything that we pulled out of the box, Maddie would hold up at say "Awww!!! This is SOOOOO cute!!!!"

Here's a belly picture from a couple weeks ago:

Thats all for now, I suppose. I'll update again in a month or so! If you want to be emailed when I post a new entry, just enter your email address on the righthand side of this page :)

- XO -

Emily

Maddie's First Birthday

Madilyn turned one yesterday! It was a day full of fun. She was allowed to watch Frozen as many times as she wanted, eat an exceptional amount of Crunchies and play on Mama's phone... She had a blast! Dad came home on lunch with flowers and balloons for his little girl.

 

Then we had a family dinner to celebrate! A spaghetti feast and pink lemonade cupcakes for dessert. She loved opening her presents and squishing the cake in her hands.

 The flash of the camera was cracking her up:

 

 She wasn't sure how she felt about the sweet frosting on her cupcake... haha:

Happy birthday, Madilyn! We love you so much!!!

Christmas Letter

Hi all! Its been a few months since our last update. I haven't forgotten about our blog, just been busy with moving & and now with a walking baby... so I haven't found the time or energy to make a post for awhile :(  Anyway, I thought I would post our Christmas letter for those who haven't received one in the mail. 

I'm looking forward to getting back to posting monthly updates in the new year, after we're done with the Holiday shenanigans  ;)   Hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas break!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Merry Christmas!

2014 brought us many new experiences, challenges and blessings - its safe to say that it has been our best year yet!

We welcomed our sweet baby girl, Madilyn Harper, on January 8^th.  So, January – April was somewhat of a blur (newborn coma) but we got into the swing of things after Maddie was a few months old and we can barely remember what life was like before her!

We celebrated our third wedding anniversary in May and around that time decided it was best for this Momma to stay home with her Baby. Learning to live off a single income has had its own special challenges but in selling our house and moving into a rental we were able to alleviate our financial burdens and start fresh. Selling our first, beloved home was tough but we are so happy with our decision!

Currently, Ryan is working for Kootenai County as a residential tax appraiser (2 years in February) and I am a stay at home mom to a very, very busy almost 1 year old. She crawls, stands, walks (a few steps at a time) and jumps; she claps & waves and says “Dada” nonstop. She gives hugs and kisses [[rarely]] and chases the cat [[constantly]]. She has 5 teeth and is working her way up to eating real food. She is feisty, determined and sweeter than we could have ever imagined. Life is SO good!

We hope you all had a wonderful year as well! We wish you a Merry Christmas and many Blessings in the New Year!

Love,

Ryan, Emily and Madilyn Rouse

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Moving time!

Well, that was FAST! We are happy to say that we have accepted an offer on our house! And it came to us only a week after we listed our home on the market! After a whirlwind of initial showings, we knew we would find someone that wanted to buy. It was perfect timing as we accepted the offer the day before we left on vacation to Oregon! Currently, we are wrapping up the paperwork and the sale will be finalized on our closing date in October. And we're so grateful that our hard work over the last 2 years will have been well worth it!

Last night we signed a lease for a rental house in CDA, not to far from our current home. Its only a mile from Ryan's work so he's talking about walking or riding his bike. We'll see how he feels about that at 5:30 in the morning though ;) heehee... so for now we are just preparing to move into a smaller home and we are needing to downsize some furniture to make it work for us. It will be interesting - packing and moving with a baby - but hopefully it will be a smooth transition. I was hoping that we would be settled in the new rental house before Maddie starts crawling, however, I'm not sure that is going to happen.... she is so so so close... She can scoot like a crazy person and the other day she practiced so much that she tore a hole in the toe of her PJs! This girl means business...

Our week in Oregon was great! We relaxed and took advantage of the free childcare. We went crabbing, shopping, camping, watched "Guardians of the Galaxy", ate out, roasted smores.... pretty much the works. We were ready to come home though since Madilyn had a hard time sleeping somewhere new. She had a good time seeing her grandparents & aunt Jenae again and visiting her uncle Joe. She just loved him instantly... usually she takes a while to warm up to people but right when we picked him up at the airport she reached her arms out for him. Super weird... But so cute!

Ryan also went salmon fishing with the Rouse guys this past weekend... they had so much fun! And brought back a TON of fish! So much that I don't know what to do with it all... Anyone out there want to take some of it off our hands??? We also have a huge amount of white fish fillets from a previous ocean charter. I'm not a huge fan of fish and I rarely cook it.... So you're all welcome to come browse my freezer :)

 Don't mind his facial hair... apparently you have to do weird things to your face when you fish... ;)

Its super hard to believe Madilyn is already almost 9 months old... thats almost a year!!! People aren't kidding when they say babies grow up fast! And seriously... if I had a dollar for every time someone said that to me I'd be rich... Just my opinion, but some of the common cliche` statements made to new parents get kinda old... lol... For example:  

1) "Cherish every moment" ... ha. I will cherish most moments, thank you very much! The pooping, puking and screaming moments are not always considered cherish-worthy in my book.

2) "Enjoy your pregnancy!" ... HA. Might have just been my experience, but there were very few things I enjoyed about pregnancy. Obviously it was worth it, but still... not always the best thing to say to a highly hormonal, sick and tired prego.

3) "Your life will totally change!" ... well, duh. 

Anyways.... back on topic! Maddie is growing so big! She's 18 pounds now and is babbling all the time. She says "Dada" on accident from time to time, which makes Ryan super happy. She isn't saying "Mama" yet but if my brainwashing technique is successful she will be shortly ;) She is a professional sitter and scooter now, well on her way to crawling. Her other talents include (but are not limited to): happy shrieking, spitting, hair pulling, fake coughing, splashing in the tub, choking on her own spit and waving.

I guess that's all for now! Here's last month's photos:

Selfie!!!

Dad did this... typical!

 At Asher's superhero party... flying above Gotham City!

 Just because....