Mothers Day? Cool.

  Fifeteen minutes ago, at 9:30pm I flopped onto the couch with an audible "oof!" (from the couch, I'm offended) and for the first time today, I began to scroll through my Facebook feed.  As is the annual custom, I saw post after post filled with wonderful Mothers Day recaps.  Breakfast in bed, flowers, sparkly adornments, giggling children skipping about their mother's apron strings with halos-a-glow.  Usually I'm a part of the sunshine parade but this year... the sunshine was, um... sparse.   First, a disclaimer.  This is not a complainy post.  Most of my days are filled with glowy wonderment.  I'm due for a crapper every now and again and I'm a tough bird, I can take it.  Today was a bit shit.  Buuut Ry and I laughed our way through it together and then I laughed all over again as I reflected on it while reading some of your Mothers Day happenings.
  Sure, I had breakfast in bed.  It was a flavorless frozen breakfast burrito served on a paper plate 10 minutes before we had to dash out to church and it was accompanied by an iced coffee served in a red Solo kegger cup.  Cool.
  Sweet treasures made my my little angels?  Check!  I got a yellow piece of construction paper with purple and blue smudges on it.  I quickly realized the smudges were supposed to be handprints since both of my children were sporting one severely stained hand, which was unfortunate seeing as how we were going to be on stage at church today in our Sunday best, doing Luca's dedication.  Cool.
I don't fault Ry though.  He hasn't had a down moment for a few weeks and threw together the attempt at breakfast and art straight from getting off his night shift.  All his efforts (including the 4, still wrapped in plastic, grocery store gerber daisies) were really sweet and a big deal because I know how very little time he has.

  Church went smoothly.  Luca looked dapper, Scarlet danced around with her darling little piggy tales and we even got a picture of everyone in the family smiling at once!  That's a day-maker in it's own right.

  Afterward we had plans to have a lovely brunch at my mother in law's house, prepared by yours truly. Fast forward to my pioneer woman french toast bake A BLAZE in the oven, smoke pouring up through the burners.  And now the scene is set....
"RYAAAAANNNNN!   RYYYYYYYAAAAAAN! FIIIIREEEEEE!  HELP! HELP!"  I scream.  He's passed out (literally from exhaustion of being up for over 24hrs) on the couch and doesn't budge.   So while he lounges oh so casually with his feet crossed no less,  the mothers and I scramble about shooing children away from the danger, removing the threat, ie: the french toast bake, and choking on smoke.  Cool.  After the excitement calmed, we poked and pecked through the edible parts and eventually headed home.  What awaited us there for the remainder of the evening?  Whining, shrieking, wailing, sobbing children that didn't nap all day long, dog poop from my mother's dog getting freaked out by the other two dogs we're watching, art messes, cooking prep messes, and two very sleepy parents.  Oh and a nagging papercut I got from my Mothers Day card.  Cool.
What's funny is, each one of these things made me giggle and as they piled on top of each other they made me straight out belly laugh.  There were good moments mixed in.  Scarlet and I fiddled in the garden (now I have a splinter and a paper cut), we played Candyland for the first time (Ryan, not knowing his own brute strength accidentally tore the brand new board game in half) and we played peek-a-boo with Luca (who laughed so hard he puked on his Sunday best).
  By the time I attempted to put the kids to bed I was crying with laughter.  I considered crying with yanno, non-laughter but it all just got too silly.  By 9pm both kids were a complete mess and wouldn't go to bed.  I dug in deep, tried to find a little zen amongst the dueling sobs, bit my lower lip and decided to just roll with it.  My arms were full of wailing little Luca (who normally goes to bed on his own, happy as a clam) which meant I couldn't read Scarlet her normal bedtime stories.  Heart broken (and exhausted) she cried "you haafffa reeeeaaaaad me stoooorrieeeeesss" while I one handedly changed her into her pj's, guided her through her routine and tucked her in.  She cried while she slipped each leg into her jammie pants.  She cried while she brushed her teeth and eventually she cried as she climbed into her bed.   Luca was swaddled tightly in my left arm and he squirmed with all his might and cried with all his fury in protest to me and solidarity with his sister.  I sat there, on the side of Scarlet's toddler bed with the ineffective calm of the twilight turtle waves playfully lapping about the ceiling and thought what the hell should I do?  They're both exhausted, they're both strong willed and both WILL NOT give in once they start crying.  They both need more from me right this moment then I have to offer either of them.  I envisioned hours of tears before me and somewhere in the back of my mind I resigned any hopes of peace, time to myself or even sleep on this Mothers Day.  I took a deep breath and started to sing..  'cause it was something to do and I was out of ideas.  I sang nonsense lyrics to a nonsense song.  Most of it didn't even rhyme.   Rhyming while children are wailing is not easily accomplished.  I sang things like

 "I don't know what to do.

You two have come unhinged.

So I'll just sing.... about anything...

Until I think of something better to do."

  As soon as Scarlet's head hit the pillow she closed her eyes, and her sobs turned to whimpers, so I just kept singing.   I rambled about things I saw around me, how my shoulder muscles were seizing from holding squirming Luca, how I couldn't believe my dumb song was working.  And it was. After about three minutes in, both kids were quiet with their eyes closed.  I sang for a few more minutes to seal the deal and not press my luck (<-- I think those are actual song lyrics I used) and sure enough they were out.  I win! I @^($#*%)$ WIN!   I felt like a heavy weight champion who just did 10 rounds in the ring and came out the victor!  I threw myself a mental parade, held my chin high and very carefully (but with swagger) transferred Luca into the cosleeper.  I walked out of the kids rooms feeling my cape flap in the wind behind me.   So here I am, on Mothers Day having what?  ME TIME!  Oh yeah!   Pay no attention to the fact that I used that time to myself to rehash what was really, a very hard day and just be happy that I blogged.  :)   Now, onto the next adventure - sleep!  Dosed out in very little increments and interrupted by a tiny shrieking pterodactyl baby.  Cool.

Anyway blog, I missed ya.  This was good.  We should do this again some time.

False Alarm 36weeks 6days

Here's how last night went down... 
9:00pm Ry and I headed to bed early. I was zonked.
9-11pm Heartburn over took me (even after zantac) and I spent most of the night trying not to throw up. No rest was had.
11pm Scarlet woke up crying for Daddy. She came down with cold and was having trouble staying asleep through her stuffy nose.
11-3am Scarlet is up and down about once an hour. Every time she wakes up I use the restroom.  In between Scarlet's cries I woke on and off with round ligament pain and my arms falling asleep.
3am-4am S came into our bed for the remainder of the night. I woke every time I have to turn or adjust my position.
4am I roll over and 30 seconds later feel a small gush.
4:05am I googled "How to tell if your water broke."  After reading a bit I called the on call nurse who suggests I come in to get checked.  While I wasn't convinced it was my water, I know that it's better to be safe than sorry.  
5am  My mother in law arrives and Ryan and I headed into L&D.  The clips you see in the video are from the triage/check in area at the birthing center.  The actual delivery room are much more luxurious to labor in.  They monitored the baby and my pulse a while due to my heart issues.  My nurse at L&D is one of the parents at the preschool I used to work for.  She updated me on how her little boy is doing and then assisted the doctor with my nether bits.   Verdict is that my cervix is soft but aside from that there aren't any other labor signs.  The amniotic sack was still intact.  The doctor said that the baby can move and release the mechanism that triggers your bladder without the mom feeling any desire to go to the bathroom.  Apparently I have joined the masses of pregnant moms who have wee'd themselves.  I'd like a badge or something please.
8am  We made it back home.  I was really moving slowly and feeling a lot of cramping from the speculum.   
10:30am till now - I'm a walking, pregnant zombie and mother of a 2 year old giggling, snot machine. That's the news!

All in all I'm very happy that today wasn't The Day.  I have plenty to get done beforehand and now I get a second chance.  Oh and if I had gone into labor then I wouldn't have gotten this shot.

A Joint Baby Sprinkle in Pictures

In my circle of friends, there are a lot of Sarahs, all with H's of course.  Years ago we assigned each of them a nickname and now it strikes me as odd if I hear one of them actually referred to as Sarah.  Well a few weeks ago, one Sarah (Bee) threw me and another Sarah (Tea) a joint baby shower.
We are both expecting our second babies and didn't register so this was more of a sprinkle than a shower.  I could have just uploaded the pictures onto facebook but I didn't want them to get lost in the ever scrolling feed.  The party was so special to me!  I left feeling filled up and refreshed instead of socially exhausted as per the norm after most events.  Everything was just cozy.

Bee decorated the entire house with these bits of fabric hanging on twine.
Every few feet there was a Bible verse about motherhood and children.  

In lieu of typical shower games we each made goodies to pamper ourselves with.  Everyone chatted as they mixed together the organic body potions.  The party smelled like pumpkin, cider and warm sugar, ya know, comfort incarnate.

Here we are, Tea and I.  The girls at the party gifted us each with piggybanks stuffed to the brim full of cash!  It was so thoughtful and a great thing to do for second time moms.  We each were able to purchase one big item that we still needed for baby using the money in the owl banks.

Scarlet and Anna, Tea's daughter, thoroughly enjoyed the time they had together at the party. They're tiny besties but we don't get to see them as much as we'd like, so they stayed attached at the hip throughout the party.  The girls harvested Auntie Bee's balcony garden (two tomatoes and some parsley) and read through all her diaries.  We found the girls upstairs in Auntie Bee's bedroom with all of her journals splayed about around them.  Little mischief makers.  ;)

Baby Reid was the only boy allowed.  

He kept up the boy antics as best he could.  

 Diddle diddle dumplin' my son John style.  (Note the toesies)

The whole party was so lovely and it was so great to spend time with my favorite people. 

  Thank you Bee for putting it all together for us!

Lovely Pocket Diaper WINNER!!!

I took all 23 applicable comments on the Lovely Pocket Diaper Giveaway and plugged the numbers into 
Random.org to choose a winner!  

The 9th comment came from Maria who writes a blog 

called The Rios Family!  

Congrats Maria!   You have 24 hours to contact me with your shipping information at bitsandclips@gmail.com 

to claim this lovely package!  

Thanks to all who participated!  

A Lovely Surprise! **GIVEAWAY CLOSED**

At the end of my last pregnancy vlog I mentioned that Melissa Frank, the founder of Lovely Pocket Diapers had sent me an A M A Z I N G surprise package filled to the brim with cloth diapering goodies.  Not only did she send me bundles of fluff but also some wet wipe cubes for making your own wet wipe solution, snappis, bamboobies, cloth safe laundry detergent and much more!  It was so unexpected incredibly generous for her to do!  If you're not familiar with Lovely Pocket Diapers I did an extensive review for the company when Scarlet was about 6 months old.  You can get a very in depth look at the ins-&-outs of the fluff there.  I've since referred every cloth diapering mama I know their direction.  They are a great affordable option and after over a year of use, we still love our LPDs!

Like I said in the video, I wanted to pay forward the generosity shown toward me.  I've donated two diapers from the package to a mother in need (that I heard about through the youtube community) and set one aside to give away to you!   

This is the One-Size Classic Pocket Diaper in the Groovy Spots print.

If you notice the waist on LPDs gets teeeny tiny with over lapping snaps, making so this a great diaper for those slim little ones and for younger cloth bums as well. The fit grows from infant to toddler with ease.  

The give away is open to US and CANADA.  

All you have to do is tell me why you'd like to try a lovely pocket diaper in the comments.   The winner will be drawn at random on Monday and announced here on the blog on Wednesday.  

This is not a sponsored give away, just sharing the love that was shown to me!  Good Luck!

psssst - Thank you for waiting on this!  Growing babies isn't for ninnies, that's fo sho!

Oi Vey

I thought if I waited until Scarlet went to bed to put my Lovely Pocket Diaper blog up then I would have uninterrupted brain time to write out the details.  I forgot that my nausea ramps up in the evening on days that I've over done it.  Today is one of those days and it's taking everything in me not to be sick.  I have the photos taken and the logistics figured out.  I just need to be well enough to write the blog.

I've erased everything on my to do list for tomorrow accept getting that blog live.  So cross your eyes, toes and nostrils that I have a manageable health day tomorrow please!  After all, it is my birthday.   That must be what's going on.  Bitty bean is just partying way too hard in there.  bleurgh.

Thanks for understanding and I'll see you tomorrow!

"Hello, this is Marie the Mac Owner"

...is how I answered the phone yesterday.  It's here and now this is what my dining table currently looks like! A MacBook Pro and a Wacom Bamboo drawing tablet.  How hipster-swish-designer-pants am I?  I need giant black rimmed glasses that over take my face and the facade will be complete.   Nevermind the fact that I don't know how to use either piece of equipment yet.

The table only stayed like that for a moment before Scarlet brought in her own design tablets:  

 No more time to blog, the Beeble and I must create!