Bad Bad Blogger.....

Ok Ok I know I know.....Im a bad bad blogger. With the Holidays, Birthdays, Work, Kids, Dogs, House, Shopping....well I have alot of excuses to throw your way if you need one. I have been neglecting the computer all together, its not just here.

Well, we are expecting another................BOY!! He isnt for sure, and told us not to go painting anything blue, but that is what he is thinking. The lil stink had its legs closed pretty tight so he couldnt be for sure that it was a unit he saw, and could have been the cord. I guess if we do another u/s for a weight check we will see if we can find out anything else. Im ok w/o knowing "for sure", I mean, it is #5 and well, I was sure it was a girl this time around, little boys are just as special. I am now 22 wks.....it seems to be flying by at times but then others I cant wait for the labor and the new package. This is more than likely it.....but if we could ever move to a bigger house in the country, I may consider just ONE more. Yeah......TOTALLY NUTS.....but it seems Adam was really hoping for a Zoe. Not that we could be for sure to pop one out, but, Im pretty sure this little one is it. LOL Baby is measuring around 77% for his size, so we were told once again he isnt going to be small by no means. LOVELY. Just my luck. We are still staying with a May 5-7 due date...it seems like they tell me different each appt, but i am sure its going to be a April Baby, which is good, we dont have any bdays in the family in April that I can recall.

Zach will be 1 in just a few days.....CAN YOU BELIEVE IT.......my lil boy is gonna be a big boy in the matter of days. We will be celebrating at our local Gambinos on Saturday at 630 if you havent heard already you are welcome to attend. Just a lil get together to celebrate his accomplishments. He is still having sleeping issues.......I am trying to figure that out here before the new one arrives.

The kids are all doing great, had a great Christmas got way to much stuff and is ready to head back to school, and so am I. Gezzzzzz I have never heard more complaining coming out of little mouths as I have this vacation. I dont see why they call it a vacation either.....more like punishment for the parents. LOL Ok they werent that bad.

Well that is all I can manage for right now but I will be back soon with photos and such. Thanks for hanging in there for me!!! Love Yas!!

Finally an update!

So, I know there are only a few of you that actually read this thing, and I mainly do it for some sanity for myself, so I figured I would take this quite time to jump on and do an update. Things are going well in our household, Hubby has been transfered to another store in the big city, about 45 mins from home. He is now making a few hundred more on his reg check since he is working more hrs, and his commission check has now doubled. We have talked about me quitting work so I can be home more, but I have such an wonderful job at a great hospital with awesome pay so I think I'll just tough it out and see what we can do to work around it. We dont see daddy as much as before, but, it seems to be all working out ok at the moment.

Well "buddy" (what Nate calls the new baby) or Zoe (what everyone else calls it because we are really thinking its a girl this time around) is doing well. I am expanding at a high rate of speed it seems this time, but I have only gained about 7lbs so far. I caught a glimse of myself in the Old Navy mirror while changing and BOY do I look different this time. I am carrying really basketbally, nothing like the last two, but I dont remember how I carried the girls. I am also a bit lighter on my feet starting out this pg so that could be something w/ it too. Here is a belly shot....16 weeks 4 days....



Zach is such a little stink. He is learning to pull himself up and get into trouble. He loves bananas, cheerios, rice, green beans, peas, chicken, ham and carrots. Thanksgiving should be a blast for him. He loves to walk w/ your hands, and i really think he will be walking before he gets the hang of the normal crawling. Right now he inchworms his way around, but goesnt go very far and ends up rolling the rest of the way. At least we still have him contained to one room, since he doesnt go off to get in trouble yet. I cant wait til his 1st birthday! One, just because I cant wait to see him dive into the cake, but, I want to turn him around in the suburban!!! Its so hard with him facing backwards, and his seat is soooo big, its hard to get a hand around it when your in the truck. Kinda a selfish reason, but hey, with this belly its hard to twist like I used to be able to! Here is a photo or two of the lil munchkin...


Zach eatin chinese.....YUMMY

The rest of the group is doing well.

Abbie is on the middle school show choir, so they are now touring and doing their performances. We got to see them once so far, but it was at a crowded nursing home so we really didnt get to see the full thing. Hopefully she will be doing it again around here so we can tape it and show it to you all. She will be turning 13 on Tuesday....WOW.

Molly is doing well, she will be turning 9 Dec 9th. I think we are going to have a party at the amazing pizza machine. She is growing up so fast, she walked in the door yesterday and she looked like a mini Abbie....Abbie must of dressed her. Skinny jeans, boots, and a tank top w/ a over shirt. I was shocked when I saw her, never saw her in that "light" before. GEZZZZ

Nate is well, Nate. LOL He is doing better at school and I actually got him to study his spelling words and he only missed one! He hates spelling and reading, but has straight A's in science and math. I guess that's good classes to have A's in if any. He is starting to grow up a bit, but still has all boy in him and tends to get into trouble for little things.

We are having thanksgiving this year, and then its Christmas! Its coming up so fast! We have started our shopping so at least we have that taken care of. We still have alot to do, but, we are going to try to hold back a bit this year and not go overboard. The kids have so much, they dont need alot.

Well this has turned into a longer post then expected so I will let you all go back to your lives. I will try to stay better updated especially since we are already almost half over with this pregnancy!! WOW! We will be getting our ultrasound in mid Dec so make sure you check back to hear the news!!!

LISTEN TO THAT LAUGH!

Growing by Leaps and Bounds

Zach is growing so much lately! Just lately he has learned how to stand at the playpen, pulled himself up in bed twice from a sitting position, loves his little gerber snacks and cut up nanas, and has cut a tooth! He will stare at you while you eat which most of the time is something he cannot have because of his intolerance. He is now on Nutramigen because my milk supply is gone. It was a gradual ween and he hasnt nursed now in 5 days. It was a bit sad at first, but, I figured, it would have needed to be done at about a year anyway, so I might as well get it done now before he got a bit older and then have trouble getting him to ween. He didnt really mind the switch, and has been quite the little eater now. He is sleeping much better at night, going down for a good 6 hours before waking for a bottle right around the time I get home from work and then sleeping for another 4 hrs and wakes up at 6:30 on the button to catch Blues Clues first thing in the morning.




WOW what a different point of view!

Best Buds-Starbucks Playdate

Best Buds!!

Ok so the mama's and the boys went off for their last Starbucks trip before they closed the doors. We have enjoyed our lil outtings since T was a month old and I w/o knowing it, would be having Zach that evening. Our playdates then was with carriers in tow, with little boys sleeping away, or staring at us while we drank tea and cider. And now, for one last time, we had a stroller and a crawler with us, and tried to enjoy our tea and cider between chasing the crawler, or replacing the binky when needed. The boys seemed to enjoy themselves, and so did the mama's, even if it was just for one last time. Enjoy the slideshow, its the only photos we have of them and their playdate.

Im falling apart.....

I am officially falling apart. Im not going to go into full detail of my night on Sat, but lets just say things werent just right where they are suppose to be down there, so out to the ER we went at 11:15 at night. Thanks to an extremely drunk man causing ruckus, we didnt get to the back until an hour later. Glad it wasnt much of an emergency. We finally got out of there 2 hours later, and come to find out, I have a prolapsed bladder, or so the ER doc said. He looked for the heartbeat but was unable to find it. He said not to worry, that alot of times they cant get a beat until after 12 wks with their doppler. They cannot do surgery for the prolapse while pregnant, so I am to do kegels, rest, and drink lots of water. I was to see dr. on Wed, but ER dr said to check in in a day or two. I called the office this am and they sd that was fine, they would see me on Wed. Not more than 5 mins later, they called back and said they want me to come in at 1:30 for a ultrasound. Now is that to check and make sure nothing else is falling? Because the ER didnt hear a heartbeat? If something is falling, am I going on bedrest? I cannot do bedrest. I have 4 kids, halloween, thanksgiving, christmas?? Im only 11 wks, I cannot be in bed for 28 weeks! Im sure everything is fine. We will see our little peanut, and everything else will be in place.

10 weeks!

Here we are again....going thru the wonderful weeks of pregnancy! LiL Zoe (we are really banking on it being a girl LOL) is 10 weeks! Things are progressing nicely and we head back to the dr. on Oct 15th for our checkup. I havent gained any weight yet, which is surprising by the size of my belly!



Zach is doing well w/ the whole mama and the baby belly thing. He is still nursing like a champ even though it seems my supply is dwindling. We are supplementing with Nutramigen formula for his bedtime bottle and sometimes early am after he nurses. He is still getting some from me but not enough to tide him overnight. He is talking up a storm lately, its crazy to her his chatter.

We are still working on the rooms to get them moved around for everyone to be comfortable and not squished. We are in need of bedroom doors for our room on the main floor, so if anyone knows of where I can get some 76.5 inch tall doors for my bedroom let me know! They are hard to come by since this is such an older home. Zach and Zoe needs to be moved into the old master so I can start decorating and places the cribs in there.

I really need to be focusing on a boys name just in case. LOL Just for some reason we think its a girl and have been going with that since we started thinking it. Zoe Elizabeth is what we are going with right now and just sounds right when you list all the kids; Abbie, Molly, Nathan, Zach and Zoe. Now if you throw in another name instead of Zoe it just doesnt sound right. So, if anyone has any boys names they want to throw my way to add to the list, feel free. I need to get my head in a two gender mode just in case. We always have the few I wanted last time, but im sure since I didnt sway hubby last time it isnt going to happen this time around!

Mama's New Look

Ok, so there comes to a point in a "new" mom's life where she has the urge to chop off her hair. Whether it be after delivery, early in her pregnancy or months after bringing the new bundle into the world, but in most cases it does happen, as so it did today. It came to me as I caught a glimse of myself in the mirror after getting out of the shower (after the shock of seeing a pregnant once again belly) and noticing that I look extremely old and tired. Now, some of you may say, "oh no you dont" or "your too hard on yourself" but please come on, lets jump into reality. My body is working on baby #5, I work evenings, try to take care of a house and a child during the day, play taxi from 3-5p most evenings and a Ref from 3-8pm. I have no time really in my life, or even in a day to take care of "me".

So, jump to noon today. I had it. I had once again pulled my hair back up so i could nurse Zach w/o having little fingers yank on my hair and I sd, that's it. Im getting it cut. So, a quick phone call into my most fav hair lady and an appt was set for 2:15. There was no backing out. It was done, and I was ready. Since most of you either know me from computer land and have never seen me IRL but if its straight and down its down to the middle of my back. In desperate need of some TLC, and hadnt been graced in my hair lady's hand since I was 6 wks pregnant w/ Zach. Scary.

So I count down the time for 2:00 to get here as soon as it can and off we go to the hair salon. Zachy in tow of course and Grandma on the way to rescue him from having to sit alone in a stroller while mama gets pampered. I plop down in the chair and tell her, I need you....my hair needs you. I need it layered, I need it shorter...just do whatever and do it now. So she started to cut and I close my eyes for her to work her magic. After a wonderful shampoo job, a chop, and a clip here and there, and a blow dry and its done. Just in time for me to run and get kids from school. I glance up in the mirror after she is done........

I LOVE IT! Its shorter, its layered, its soft, its fuller, its hip, its just sooo me! I wish I would have done it sooner. So, here ya go. Here is the masterpiece. Go ahead, be jelous I know you are! Hee Hee



Sorry for the crappy photo, it was taken w/ my phone, near the window, with less than perfect make-up on....ok I can make up tons of excuses cause I hate taking photos of myself, so you get what you get. Its me. LOL

Loooook What I can doooo!!

8 weeks

So here we go again with all the pregnancy updates and photos! I must say I am expanding at rapid speed this time around. Im going to have to go back and see if I have a 8 week photo from Zach's pregnancy because I surely dont remember being this big. I know I know, the body knows what to do after having multiple pregnancies, but this is crazy! We had a ultrasound already, and for clairification yes there is only ONE in there, well, unless #2 is hiding...OYE! Let's hope not! Check it out for yourself!



I am feeling quite well actually, no real nausea unless I dont eat, and the smells, is what gets me the most. Adam is boiling chicken at the moment for chicken and dumplings, and well, its the most unpleasent smell. Other than being tired, this has been a breeze so far. Check back again for more updates on the family and more photos!!

**UPDATE**
Ok so inquiring minds wanted to know (well mine so far) and I dug up a 9 week photo of when I was pregnant with Zach. OH MY. Yeahhhhh for some reason I am expanding quite "nicely" this time around! I have only gained 1 pound since getting pregnant so I know its not just weight gain that im dealing with. All Baby!!!

And then there was 5....

Ok so we had our first OB appt yesterday for lil bean #5. YES there is ONLY 1 in there. Thank goodness! I was asked by a coworker last night, well what if #2 is hiding??? Yeah not going there. Im sure there is only one. They did an u/s just to make sure everything was ok since I did have some early on spotting and im thinking to make sure there was only one, by the way the dr. was talking. Hubby & I are thinking this is a girl, and dr. sd well, right now its a 50-50 chance.... DUHHH

You can see in the photo he marked 2 X's, from 1 point to another, that is the baby. The round ball like shape (which kinda looks like a head) to the right of the body is the yolk sac (for those of you not up on the baby terms-is what baby lives off of til the placenta takes over). Heart rate was good, 125 and strong he said. Things look good, and gave us a EDD of May 5th, 2009!

Here we go, jump on for the ride!

A Baba Strike

Ok so as most of you know I have nursed Zach from the get go. Every day, 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week. Back at a few months old, Dh would occasionally give him a baba and I would pump at work. Well it got to the point where he would just end up waiting til I got off of work to want to eat so there was no reason or need to pump and give him a bottle while I was gone. Fast foward to a few days ago.

Now that we are due for another munchkin in our home I figured dh better be giving the bottle and I pumping at work to get up my supply and my stash for when its needed. SO, he wakes and I am still at work, so dh warms up a bottle. Zach was having NOTHING to do with it. NOPE. Doesnt want that, wants his mama. So, here dh comes w/ Zach in tow to work at 8:30 at night for a mama feeding. LiL Stink. Ok so we thought maybe it was just a fluke and figured we would give it a try again tomorrow. Next night was just a repeat of the previous night. There was no way this kid was taking a bottle. DH tried 2 different types of nipples and bottles, tried just mama milk and 1/2 mama 1/2 formula, nothin. So, here comes mama to the rescue, left work early to come home and feed the monster. I then took some of the mama milk from the bottle and put it in a tippy. He opened his mouth wide, grabbed on w/ his gums and yanked it and laughed a full belly laugh. Which in turn made me laugh out loud at this poor boy pulling at the cup nipple, just like he does to mama (my fellow nursing mama's know what I am talking about). He did this over and over, opened mouth, took in cup, tried to suck it out, ended up w/ mama milk all over his chin and screamed laugh in delight.

So, today I poured him some mama milk w/ his afternoon fruit and gave it to him. He couldnt seem to get much out of it, so I took off the lid and put the open big boy cup to his lips. He ended up lapping up the milk like a puppy dog, how cute can that be!! He ended up drinking 1/2 an oz like this, lapping away and milk soaking his shirt.

So, now I ask, do I just forgo the bottle all together and jump straight to tippies??? And is he going to be satisfied if Daddy gives him milk from a cup while I am gone?? Enough maybe to tide him over til I get home??

Oh the joys of nursing mamas!!!

Quick Refresher...

So since I messed up the other Blog, here is a quick update.

Abbie has made show choir at the Middle School, she is in 7th grade this year. She will get to travel and compete in a singing/dancing competition with the school. Only 30 classmates made the team. She is also still attending gymnastics, and they have just brought in a new director which we are all so happy about. Abbie will be turning 13 this year, so any birthday ideas are welcome!

Molly is having a great 3rd grade so far. She isnt in the same room as her best friend, but still is having a good time. She isnt doing gymnastics any longer but wants to find something else to try. She will get to do Cheer Chicks this year w/ the HS cheerleaders and preform at a football game. Should be neat to see!

Nate is on track so far in 2nd grade. We've had good days so far, knock on wood for that. He says he wants to try karate, not sure about that one. I dont know if I want him to know how to take down his sisters in one swipe. HMMM

Zach is just a lil angel. I think he is teething, but still in pretty good spirits. He is rolling over and grabbing for toys. Loves to try to walk w/ your hands, but has no interest in crawling. Still not too steady sittin alone, but, that's ok, each at his own pace.

And then there is the new addition. We are expecting once again in May 09. This one was quite a surprise but welcomed just the same. The kids know and are quite excited. They have named it LiL Buddy for now. We go see the Dr. Sept 16th for our first appt.

Mama is feeling well, tired, but, that's expected. Not really showing yet, belly is starting to feel a bit more firm (but hey, who doesnt love firm?? LOL) and queezy in the evenings, but that's about it.

Thanks to all who keep in touch! We love reading other's blogs, so keep us in mind if you make one so we can add you to our list!

Starting New

OK So I was playing around w/ my first Blog and totally screwed it up somehow. So, Instead of bothering Miss Julie, my guide to blogging, on a Sunday afternoon, I just made a new Blog instead. I wonder if I can link the two together? All that work, dang.

But here it is. Check it often because instead of trying to update every family member on everything, its easier for everyone to check in on their own pace. I encourage you all to make a blog, its a great way for family to keep in touch!!

Love My Family to yours!