Baby #2 & Life

As promised, I have a scruffy photo update of my belly. It was 95+ degrees outside and we just came in from playing outside so don't judge me. 

39 weeks and 2 days 

I cant believe I made it this long. I thought for sure I would have had little guy already. 

I am to excited to have him and have my body back so I am getting antsy. 

The main thing that I really miss is playing with Emma. Not being able to get on the floor and roll around, constantly saying "watch out for mamas belly" or just sleeping comfortably. 

At my last doctors appointment I was 2 1/2 cm dilated and this Monday I will be checked again. 

It was almost better that I haven't had him yet. The friend that is going to be watching Emma was on vacation last week so that would have been a little stressful. I had a backup plan but my mind wouldn't have been at total peace. 

So, the plan is...I go into labor and we head to the hospital (I am once again Group B positive) Mike will drop me off and head back home with Emma. In till I am ready to push, he will be with her and then drop her off at my friends house. He will then pick her back up (hoping that it was only 3-4 hours) and then they will come drive to me or go home depending on what time it is. He will be with her the rest of the time that I am needing to stay in the hospital. 

So, yea, that's the plan.

Probably wont go like that at all but I can hope. 

Moving on to what Life has been up to. 

 Cami has been really keeping us busy! 

I truly forgot what it was like to have a puppy again. 

Bolo was 6ish when he started to calm down, and he was really sick for about 2 years before he passed when he was 11. With Cami being 2 years old, she has been really keeping us on our toes. She has a couple things that I have been trying to break her of. I need to keep in mind that she still has only been with us for 2 weeks so everything comes with time. 

She seems to be scared of men. Barking hysterically when we pass one on our walks. 

She doesn't seem to know the "walk on the leash" manners. She tends to walk in front of us which causes a lot of tripping over her. I have yet to see if she likes other dogs. When we pass by one she is barking and trying to get to them. I don't think she would bite them once she gets to them but it sure seems she wants to when we walk by. She tends to be very mouthy. Never biting but I don't like my arm constantly in her mouth when we are playing. She is a herding dog so that's how they work.  We have been putting her in her kennel every time we leave the house. The first time we left her I stood outside to listen to see if she was destroying the house...and she was. Scratching at the door and trying to get in front of the blinds to look out the window, so we kennel her for now. She has a very loud, high pitched bark when she plays. Like ear piercing. With the new baby this needs to stop! 

Other then all that she has been great!

She now knows sit and shake already. 

She is a very loving girl. Loves to be pet and cuddled with. 

 We spend a lot of time outside in our back yard. Emma loves her pool and sprinkler. Cami chews her bones and plays fetch. Its nice to have a fenced yard so I don't have to worry about anyone running away. I just wish it was a PRIVACY FENCE! 

I have been really annoyed lately and I feel bad about it but I am so tired of always feeling like I am being watched. 

Our neighbors are just so close to us. 

The older couple is very nice but always in our business! 

There is not one day that goes by that she does not open her window or come out to talk to me. 

I just want to sit outside with my kids and not have to dread a 30 minute conversation.

The woman has come out and actually told me that she enjoys watching us. 

I don't want to be watched!

That feeling is horrible. 

Now that we have Cami, it reminds her of her dog. 

Oh geeze! 

Now its even more coming outside to give her treats. 

And as of now we don't let Cami stay outside alone because the neighbors fence is too low and she can jump over it so its even more talking.

 I am hoping that I am just hormonal and this feeling will go away after I give birth. I feel bad that I dread her so much but I really don't want to talk to her multiple times a day. 

 

We have new renters that just signed a lease for our house in Ohio.

Our last disaster renters made me so nervous with anyone moving in now so we are keeping our hopes high that these people are normal. So, when the property management company told us that were would be 5 people living in the home it made me kind wary. It is a married couple, both her parents and her grandmother....and 3 small dogs :/

I think to myself that the carpet is already shot. It needs to be torn out anyways so the dogs cant do much more damage. 

They wanted to consolidate their living expenses and help grandma out so they decided to sign a 2 year lease at the house. 

I am just happy that there will be females in the house because maybe they will clean a little. 

Our fingers are crossed. 

 That's really about it for now. 

Hopefully there will be a baby update coming in the near future! 

Furever Home

Meet Cami. 

(shelter name Betsy)

She found her forever home...with us. 

 I don't know who I was fooling thinking that I could volunteer at the Human Society and not fall in love.

I had taken her "out for the day" a couple times and she just seemed to fall in love with us just as we were falling in love with her. When she finally met Mike this past Saturday, she was a keeper. 

I went to the shelter at the end of the day and filled out the adoption paperwork. They let me know that she was not able to actually go home with me in till she was spayed. That appointment was going to be on Monday. (they don't let any pets go without being fixed first) So, Sunday we picked her up again to spend the day with her...and to get her out of "jail" for the day. 

When I brought her back after our day of hiking, there was another dog in her kennel, and all of her paperwork was taken down. 

(because her paperwork said "adopted")

I informed one of the workers that there was a dog in her spot and he moved the other dog.

I didn't really think anything of it in till I was driving away. 

I just hope because her paperwork wasn't there, will they remember she still has the appointment? 

The shelter isn't open on Mondays so I couldn't call and make sure.
 We will see if she actually is able to come home finally on Tuesday. 

I would think everything was written down in the computer system, but I'm not gonna lie... 

it is a little disorganized there. 

We decided to name her Cami. 

 Mike always seems to bring it back to military life. 

I liked the name Kiwi, but that reference is towards "New Zealand, and she is a Australian Cattle Dog. 

Blue Heeler to be exact. 

They have her down as being a stray.

She is about 2 years old. 

Her tail has been docked so I am figuring that she has been on a farm. 

(people dock these dogs tails if they are working dogs) 

She is HIGH ENERGY! 

She is definitely a chaser.  

squirrel, bird, rabbit, cat...anything

She has a couple things that she needs to learn, but that all comes with time. 

Mike is really excited to have a dog that he can run with. Bolo, being a American Bulldog wasn't able to run long distances. Because of his snub nose they don't do well with breathing and heat. 

Cattle dogs are herding dogs, so very smart and active.  

I am really excited to have a dog to go hiking with. 

She is going to be the perfect companion.

-written on Tuesday-
Everything worked out and we have our Cami home. :)

Maternity Photos - 37 weeks

I finally took my maternity photos. 

I'm at the end of the road so I am glad I got them out of the way so I can have this baby.

I would have like to have had Emma and Mike in my photos also but I have to say, I think I made the right choice with them not. Things would have been so crazy and we probably wouldn't have been to take as many. 

Taken at 37 weeks.

I'm sorry, but I am picking my favorite....and that just happens to about 15

(I am still not sure why I picked the color pink to wear...when I am having a BOY???) 

There ya have it. 

Comeon Baby! 

Room Tours

Who doesn't love to see into other peoples houses?

I know I am nosey and love when people open up their living quarters so I can check it all out. 

So, here are the kids rooms as of now. 

Ill start with lil mans room just because its totally new. 

It used to be our guest bedroom.

Mike has been really excited that little one is a boy ever since we found out. Of course when I asked him about his opinion on the new room, there was no hesitation on a sports theme. I probably would have went with a outdoors, nature, wild animal theme, but I didn't want to burst his bubble. He also had the idea to do gray and red colors. If you guessed it.... The Ohio State University colors are gray and red....yea. OSU football is that big in our house. 

 Thanks to Pintrest, most of these ideas are from there. 

 I made every decoration in his room. 

For me, buying something on Etsy that cost $40 or more, plus shipping doesn't always sit well with my "stay at home mom" pocket. 

 I would estimate that all the decorations on the walls and shelves cost me about $40 altogether.

 I'm still not loving this corner. It has that built-in that I just don't know how to work around. As of now, it will just continue being something that I put random stuff on.  

On to the little girls room. 

 I would love to change Emma's room. Her first room was butterfly theme with lots of yellow. When we moved, I really wanted to do a mermaid, under the sea type room but that didn't happen, so I used a lot of her old room decor.  Now she actually has a say in the way her room is and let me tell you... it is all princesses or the color blue. There hasn't been a ton of progress except for her bed with that new request.

 Besides my Beanie Baby collection, I also grew up collecting Breyer horses. It is my absolute favorite animal and because I could never actually have one, I settled for collecting models. I usually got one for Christmas or my birthday. I looked forward to it each year...give or take a few years. I love them so much and am excited to continue it with Emma. She likes to point them and say "neigh". She also has received her first two. The two on the bottom right are hers. 

I am so thankful to my mother for saving all of my childhood books. Some of these books have a date from 1950s... pretty funny, but classics! 

So there ya have it. 

A little look into my kids spaces. 

They will probably slowly change the next two years that we are in this home, but as of now this is how they stay.  

The Name

Naming a human is HARD!

I'm not sure if I ever went into where we got Emma's name...so just a little back story on that. 

We were really having trouble naming her. I think we didn't even know in till a hour before she was born.  I associate people's names a little too much with the person that they are. 

Believe it or not, I did not no any Emma's....even with it being in the top 5 since 2002 (thanks to Ross and Rachel's baby on Friends) . I know she will probably have 12 Emma's in her class once she hits school, like I did when I went to school (katie was very popular too) but that didn't really matter to me. 

We were also looking into the origin a little. 

Mike is Italian and German and I am pretty much fully German with a tiny touch of Irish. 

With her being born in Hawaii, we also wanted a little touch of that also. 

So we ended up picking Emma, not just because we thought that name was sweet and simple but also because it is German and because there was a queen in Hawaii named Queen Emma. 

There are statues, street names, hospitals and castles named after her around the island.   

Looking back at it now, I don't think any other name would fit her as well as Emma fits her. 

Her middle name was pretty much a no brainier. Mikes beautiful mama was named Michele. I know she would have been such a wonderful grandma so it was only fitting to give Emma the special memory of the angle looking down on her. 

This little boys name was suppose to be a lot easier. 

 If baby # 2 was a boy, it was always going to be Michael. 

When we found out it actually was a boy, Mike had second thoughts. So we were off to struggle thinking of one again. 

Once again the origin came into play.

 Mike came up with Charlie. 

There are a couple reasons why. 

First Reason- There are 4 "names" in the military alphabet. One of them being Charlie.

Second Reason- Mike was in Charlie Company twice. 

Third Reason- We live in the Capital of West Virginia which is Charleston where he will be born. 

Fourth Reason- Mike had a best friend growing up that had tragically passed away. We are still close with his family.

Fifth Reason- It is derived from a Germanic word.

Sixth Reason- It means 'warrior" and who doesn't love that? 

With all that, we have decided to name him Charles David. 

David being named after my father. 

It feels good to have the name ready and not have to think about that any longer. 

I also feel like the names, Emma and Charlie go well together. One isn't too simple or complex from the other.  

They both are traditional and common. 

So there ya have it. 

Everyone has a opinion on a baby's name. I learned my lesson when trying to think of names for Emma (before we came up with Emma) that people will trash names you like so quickly. I was going to keep baby #2 name a secret because of this reason but I really don't care anymore if someone doesn't like it. 

My baby...not yours :) 

Just to have this written if I ever forget. We did have alternate names for both kids. 

I really liked the name Maci when I was pregnant with Emma. 

That was shot down quite a few times from a couple people. With our last name starting with a M, and her middle name was a M, people didn't like the MMM. I also got the Macy's department store thing a lot.  If she was a boy it probably would have been Michael David. 

If baby # 2 was a girl, we both really liked the name Tess or Tessa. We never got far enough to come up with a middle name. 

Peek a boo

I did a elective ultrasound with this pregnancy like I did with Emma's. Emma's ultrasound was at 33 weeks and didn't really go so well. I had to go back twice because she was not cooperating with having her pictures taken.  

This little boy was no different.  

There is only one place semi close (hour away) to my house that does it. Mike hadn't heard the heart beat of this little boy yet so he was able to leave work early and come with me. We got there and spent a good while trying to get some good pictures of him but he was just not having it. His hands were just not moving from his face know matter what we tried. 

I know that these ultrasounds have the best results around 28-30 weeks. I was at 34. 

They rescheduled a appointment for me so we could try again. It is so nice that they give you that option to do that. 

At 34 weeks and 6 days I had my second appointment. I was expecting the same results just because I was so far along and he doesn't have much room in there. 

It was to my surprise that we got some pretty good face shots this time. 

I was also surprised when I went to look at the CD that the place gave us that I had 86 photos of the little guy. She also (on the down low) measured him and told me he weighs a little over 5 lbs.

It is so amazing what technology can do. 

I am now at 36 weeks and 4 days...coming down to the wire.

Besides this one, I haven't taken a updated belly photo yet, so I will have to do that soon. I also have a maternity shoot coming up and then I will pretty much be ready for this baby to come. 

It is crazy to think that in just one week from now will be the time that I had Emma. 

She was right at 38 weeks.

I am still a little up in the air with who will be watching Emma while I have her brother. I have a good friend that would love to watch her but she will be on vacation in till the a week before his due date. I have another friend that Em could stay with for a couple hours but she is on vacation in till his actual due date. Soooo...I really have to get on what we are going to with her for a couple hours. I guess there is always my neighbor but that would be my last option. 

I still have been feeling really really big and uncomfortable. This past week I have started to get the feeling of charlie horses coming on. I have only really had one during the night with this pregnancy but I get the feeling a couple time through the day. 

I had my Group B test at my last appointment. I was positive with Emma's pregnancy so I am expecting the same results. She also checked me and I was just 1 cm dialed but she said I was thinning out. 

I need to register to the hospital still that I am going to decided to go to. I am still up in the air with that one. My doctors office is at newer hospital that seems a lot more up to date and "cleaner" but doesn't have a NICU. I would really like to deliver there but the other hospital is closer to my house and has a NICU. I feel like it is stupid not to deliver there God forbid something happens. I will have to stop going back and forth and pick one. 

Other then all that, I am ready to have this little guy already. My uncomfortable level is pretty sky high. I know it would be better if he would marinate a little longer but I wish I could just speed up the weeks and it be August already.  

Amusement Park Time

Emma and I went to her first amusement park recently with some friends. She really wasn't loving it in the beginning. It took her about an hour to warm up to all the rides. 

This was her very first ride and this was the face the whole time. 

Camden Park is a really old amusement park. It almost looks like a traveling fair type place but it doesn't move. It has only one roller coaster and a couple of rides. There is only one place to get a hot dog, one place for funnel cakes, one place for lemonade and one place for ice cream. That's it...so really small. 

Being hugely pregnant I wasn't able to go on a lot of the rides. The bar that comes down to lock you in to the rides just don't fit, so we had to sit out on quite a few things. I also got a little nervous about her getting sick. She gets terrible car sickness, and all of these rides are circle rides. 

Her absolute favorite was the merry go round. 

We went on that one 4 times. 

The train ride was also a big hit with her. And I didn't mind because I could sit down for a minute. 

OK, so who has seen this before. It was a first for me. Paying to go to the bathroom?

Puppy Love

Loosing Bolo in April was and has been hard. I felt like I needed something but wasn't really ready to start with a new fur baby yet. Having a pet in our family has been a trying sometimes. I have never boarded any of my dogs before so whenever we travel we are always thinking, who is going to be able to stay at our home to watch them, or is it a pet friendly place so we can bring them along. This is something that I know we will have to get over with our next dog. We need to have vacations! Bolo also took a huge toll on our finances the last 2 years of his life. Not that I would not have payed it or double if need be, but bringing another dog into our life at the moment (plus a new baby on the way) I don't think would be the best. 

I say this now.......

I started volunteering at the animal shelter in my town. 

Not really "volunteering" in my eyes. Maybe down the road I will actually be able to spend a few hours there and really help out with the run of the place, but as of now I am doing it for my love of puppies and hopefully brighten the day for dog. 

I go in the morning and sign out a dog for the day. I can take them wherever I would like as long as I am back a hour before closing. 

I have a special place in my heart for older dogs, especially when they are in a shelter. They have such a hard time getting adopted because of their age. Especially when they are in the "puppy room" because they are a a smaller breed. I also have a love for Beagles. My very first dog was a Beagle and was the best thing that had ever happened to me. 

When I went for my "walk through" at the shelter before a was a real volunteer, I saw this guy in a small cage in the puppy room wagging his tail like crazy. 

I knew I would be coming back for him for some one on one. 

Justin is a 7 year old Beagle that was a stray. 

I took him out and we went to the park for a hike. Then we walked around a pond. After getting sweaty we went home and I gave him a bath and alot a few of treats. He had a chance to relax a little without a ton of barking at all times which I think he needed. We had him for 6 hours and within those 6 hours I fell in love.
He was amazing with Emma! 

He is such a sweet dog. He truly had such a connection with Mike. Very loving and just wanted to be a part of the family. It was pretty difficult for me to take him back. I am heading back to the shelter to do this all again tomorrow.
Going into the kennels are pretty scary. There are a ton of dogs barking their heads off at you as you walk threw. I know these dogs are way different once they are outside of their cages, but when I have Emma's safety that comes first I have to make smart decisions who I take out for the day.

I have been back a couple more times to take a pup out for the day...and each and every time I have come back to Justin.

(his lip is stuck)

I told Mike that when we get home from fixing our house in Ohio, and Justin is still there we are going to make him part of our family and give him a forever home.

I was so upset when I found out he had been adopted when we got home. Its more like I am so happy for him...but I am being selfish because I wanted him. I just have to keep telling myself that it was just not meant to be. I hope he went to a loving home and they are going to make his senior days happy.
I will continue to go to the shelter and try to give joy to another dog for the day.