It Has Been Quite A While....

Gosh.... I haven't written a blog post since a month BEFORE Macy was born! I apologize. Things, as you could imagine, had gotten quite hectic at the end of the pregnancy and have not calmed down since. I have truly missed blogging, so here I am. I feel this will be a good outlet to update people on my current pregnancy and all the craziness that is now my life with a 21 month old running around.

First an update on my little princess, Macy. She has been the greatest gift to me. Everyday is such an adventure and challenge. It's amazing how motherhood changes a woman. Things that used to be so important, just aren't anymore. I can have the worst day; Macy could have been a complete beast, and at the end of the day I find myself in bed with Chuck telling him how precious she is and all the funny thing she did that day, and how I miss her now that she is asleep. It is that feeling of unconditional love that never gets old to me. I love being a mommy and feel so fortunate I get to spend every moment with her, not missing a thing (good or bad). She recently (within the past month and a half) has been refusing naps. She used to be the greatest of sleepers, for nap and bed. It got to the point where she would get so upset in her crib, that she would throw herself around and bruise her head and face. Recently, she flipped out of her crib before I could walk out the door. That was the last straw! Tonight is night 4 in her toddler bed and so far it hasn't been too bad. Only one night was horrible, so I can't complain yet. I just feel so much better that she is safer and can't significantly hurt herself anymore. She has been done with naps now completely for like the last 2 weeks or so. It took me a good while to accept this, but I am okay with it now. We have some cranky afternoons sometimes, but she goes to bed like a dream! Her usual wake up time is 8am and falls asleep around 8pm. Not too shabby :) She loves to throw all of her food on the floor (Frank is one happy pup) and loves to dump all of her toys. We call her the "Tornado." My life is crazy, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Chuck is at Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago getting his MBA degree. He began the program when Macy was about 5 and a half moths old and is half way through. He will be done completely when Macy is 3 and the new baby is 1. We felt this would be the best time for us, so he can spend the years the kids will remember completely with them. He only has class 2 nights a week, getting home around 10pm, but there are days where he will not see Macy at all. It is just a sacrifice we have to make now to offer a better life for all of us. He is really enjoying his program there and the challenges it offers. I will be happy when he is done. :)

As for our most recent news.... we are expecting again! I am 22 weeks along, so we have known this for a while as I am sure most of you reading this do as well. We tried for 7 months to get pregnant; it took a little longer than I had anticipated, but I think the timing will actually work out really well. This baby is due Early May (May 6th to be exact), but with Macy coming a week early...who knows? I feel the timing is good because Macy will have just urned 2 years old and will be a little more aware of what is actually going on (I hope), I could not even imagine our little one being here already with the craziness I live everyday with Macy. lol. This pregnancy started out really smooth.... I had hardly any morning sickness to speak of and just felt wonderful except for being cold all of the time and having no appetite what-so-ever. This is an extreme difference from my pregnancy with Macy. We had our 20 week anatomy scan on December 17th and found out we are most likely having another little GIRL :) It took me a while to grasp this only because I could not imagine calling another baby my Princess or Bug-a-Loo like I call Macy. It's hard to explain, but I almost felt as if I was replacing her, and that is the LAST thing I would ever want to do. I have finally become extremely excited that Macy is going to have a little sister and Chuck will have another little Daddy's girl. He is such a natural with little girls; melts my heart. We are NOT keeping the name a secret this time. Her name will be Adilynn (Addy) Mae. At our 20 week ultrasound we also found out that I had an extremely low amount of amniotic fluid (below the 2nd percentile) and that my placenta was partially covering my cervix. I was surprised about the partial placenta previa because I had not experienced bleeding of any kind. The low amniotic fluid didn't surprise me as much because I know I have not been drinking as much as I should with this pregnancy, but I didn't think I was THAT bad.... My doctor told me she wasn't really worried about the placenta location; that it will more than likely migrate throughout the pregnancy, but she was concerned about my low amniotic fluid level. She told me to REALLy push the liquids and get a repeat ultrasound ASAP to recheck the fluid. I did so much of my own research on low amniotic fluid which was the WORST thing I could have done... I always do that to myself. Anyways..... 6 days later my fluid had gone up from being in the 2nd percentile to the 45th-ish percentile which is awesome! It is well within the normal range. My doctor suspects that there was a measurement error during the first U/S because the change was just so great. Granted I was drinking a gallon of water every day..... Also, that ultrasound confirmed that my placenta had already migrated out of the danger zone and was no longer at risk for placenta previa! At my last appointment, the doctor said she was really pleased with the results and that she still wants me to go in for another U/S to re-check my fluid levels agin, but this time she wants me to scale back my liquid consumption to a normal range (48-64) ounces to make sure my body is doing what it needs to and it's not just all this extra fluid I am consuming. She also want to remeasure the baby because on Decemeber 17th, the baby was measuring in the 18th percentile (while is small, but not dangerously small). She again thinks there may have been some error of the technician. We are going to another ultrasound facility on the 16th of January to get all of this taken care of. I'm not sure if I will know results that day, or if it will have to wait to my next appointment on the 25th. I'm sure of there is a problem, I will know that day as I did with the low level of amniotic fluid. So, all in all, this pregnancy started out VERY smooth, but has quickly taken a turn. lol. Not that things are terribly rough, but I didn't have worries like this with Macy until I was about 34 weeks or so along with my blood pressure. I have also been getting extremely bad cramps with this pregnancy. They come and go, so I think it has to do with how the baby is positioned at that time. This little Adilynn Mae is already giving me quite the run for my money. What am I in for this May?!?!?!

This has been my recent life in a nutshell. I will keep this updated as I have some free time on my hands while Chuck is at school and whatnot. More to come soon... :)