Life after Thanksgiving

Whew! The turkey has been stripped, the pies have been eaten, the stuffing is gone...
And, of course, we don't want to think about how much weight has been gained!
We had a good Thanksgiving. We gathered at Uncle Doug's house with some of Aunt Joan's family. It was a great dinner, and everyone got to see our new baby. She's doing somewhat better now, sleeping about 3-4 hours at a stretch.
Sadly, that is partly due to the fact that she's on straight formula now. My body simply refuses to produce enough milk for her, so I've stopped breastfeeding. I may have better luck next time, I don't know, but I have all the indicators for a genetic condition called "hypoplastic", which means that I don't have enough milk glands. That being the likely cause, I may never be able to nurse properly.
Well, I tried. For a week and a half, I tried so hard, and my supply just dwindled. I'll just have to leave it in the Lord's hands from here. Esther was more or less the same situation, and she's healthy.
On a brighter note, Christmas is coming. Time to pull out the tree! Esther loves lights, it's going to be fun to see her watching them glitter. We have lights that race around, some that play music, and some with bi-colored bulbs. Gift shopping will be a bit sparse this year, due to financial concerns, but we'll do our best to make sure no one is forgotten.
Esther is getting into mischief again. She's getting a bit bolder about her sister, a few days ago she bit her on the toe. I'm not sure why, she probably thought it was a game since we pretend to nibble toes and stuff. It's so hard to tell her "no" when she's just trying to play. I don't want to turn her off completely from playing with her sister, but I can't just give her free rein, either. It's all a balancing act, and I definitely have more respect for moms with lots of kids. I am not the most patient person in the world, I guess this is supposed to teach me otherwise, eh?
I think that's all for now, sleep deprivation is making my brain fuzzy.

Welcome Home Taemarin!

Gotta make this post quick, baby just woke up!
My newest bundle of joy, Taemarin Lily Calkin, was born on November 8, at 10:30 am, after a mere 2 1/2 hours of induced labor. (She has since made up for the short labor by keeping me awake most of the night!) It turns out I was already 5 cm/80% effaced when I went in, so it likely would have happened soon anyway!
She was 7 lbs 13 oz, 20 inches long, and looks a lot like her sister, except for a fine layer of dark hair. What color it will turn later, we have no idea! Could be red, like Jeff's family, or it could go blond and then dark when she's older, like my family.
Mom and baby are doing well, aside from some exhaustion. Esther is...well, mildly curious and occasionally jealous, but she's handling it well, and so far hasn't tried to hurt the baby or even touch her beyond a few light pats on the head.
I'll post more later as/if time permits.

Almost there!

I look at the calendar, I look again, and I can't believe it's November. As of tomorrow, it will be one week till my due date.

It's not like we're not ready. We're just not quite "ready". We have her clothes arranged in the drawers and hung up on the rack, we have a bassinet in our room, we still have to dig the car seat out of its box and get the base strapped into the van, but it's at least accessible. The "ready" part, however, doesn't account for emotional readiness. I already have one baby to care for, and she's quite a handful! Jeff is busy with school and work...still, we knew it was right at the time, and it's still right. This little girl is coming to our family, ready or not!
At the moment, however, we're not sure when the blessed event will arrive. Yeah, I know, nobody ever is. Except when you're induced, of course. That's the confusing part, here. My doctor gave me a list of dates. The 5th, 8th, and 15th of November. Initially I took the 5th, (hey, five days early ain't gonna hurt!), but doing it on a Monday would interfere too much with Jeff's work and school schedule. So I set it for the 15th, a Thursday, which means he would probably miss class but not miss work since I'd be in the hospital all day Friday anyway.
However, for the last week I've been noticing more and more contractions, not to mention the fact that the baby's head has been dropped into position for almost a month. She is clearly ready, it's just my body that's not doing its job.
So, I called the office again to see if there were any openings for the 8th instead. Just my luck, the doctor wasn't in today, and the nurses can't find her schedule book.
Drat.
So now I'm waiting until Monday to see if the date can be moved. If not, well, , what's an extra week?
And there's nothing that says she won't kick hard enough to break my water before then. In which case I'll be in the hospital muy pronto! We keep joking about the most embarrassing place for it to happen. At the store? Yes, that's embarrassing. But I think the worst would be right in the middle of sacrament meeting. Sitting in church, and suddenly my water breaks all over the pew.
THAT would be embarrassment!
Well, I think that's all for the moment. Short, I know, but Numb3rs will be on shortly and I don't wanna miss it.
Yes, I'll post again as soon as I know more about the date, and of course I'll post full details when Taemarin makes her debut in the world.

Hey, what happened to fall??

Okay, so who flipped the switch two months early here??? Saturday afternoon, Jeff's sitting at the computer working, Esther is napping, and I'm puttering around trying not to wake her up. I look out the window.
Guess what I see?
SNOW!
It has been fall for less than a week, and it's snowing! Shiminy, people, what happened to fall?
Okay, yes, it is much warmer today, so the snow has all melted off, but it was weird. I'm used to not seeing snow until November at the earliest, maybe Halloween. So does this mean we're going to be up to our eyeballs in snow when Taemarin is born?
Not a pleasant thought.
Still, we can definitely use the water. Our water year was way low, about 65%. Blessing in disguise, dunno. We'll take what we get.
Jeff is well into school now, working on his second project for computer class, and getting royally sick of Greek mythology in Humanities. For some reason, in his high school, they didn't study greek myths so he's having trouble with the "who's who" part of it. The Greeks generally didn't bother to explain all that much since it was their history. They knew who was who! But he'll survive. Work is going well, his company recently did computer support for a fundraiser for Mitt Romney's campaign, so they're getting some name recognition out there. His jaw has been giving him issues, probably grinding at night like I used to, but we're working on it with a rubber guard at night.
Esther is growing up so darn fast! Getting into everything, learning more words, she finally called me Mama a few days ago. Hasn't since, but she generally has the idea of who is who when we name names. She's getting better around strangers too, not quite so freaked out. We went out to eat Saturday because...well, see below for that whole story...and she was charming all the servers, grinning and chattering at them. I look through our old pics, and she is looking more and more like a little girl instead of a baby. More like "herself" instead of either Jeff or me. She's a willful, stubborn little stink at times, but hey, all little kids go through the phases of learning their boundaries, and she is no exception.
And as for the Mommy? Well, this was not a good week. I had a jaw infection that sent me to bed on pain meds for two days while poor Jeff picked up the slack and tried to do school and work as well. Man, I love that guy! Mom was out of town so she couldn't help. My brother's daughter had a seizure at school, so she was freaked about that too, and then for the cherry on top, I fell flat on my face spread-eagle on the sidewalk on Saturday when I went out to get the mail. I felt like the world's clumsiest walrus. Fortunately, I landed on my hands and knees first before continuing down to my right side, so the baby didn't take the brunt of the impact. Other than a twisted leg, there doesn't seem to be any lasting effect.
I can't wait to have this baby!
I know, all you moms out there are saying "just you wait till she's out, then you'll wish she was back in again!" Taking care of two babies at once will be quite a challenge. But hey, at least I'll have my body back to do it!
Life otherwise is...well, life. We've just about got things organized in the nursery, though Taemarin will be sleeping in our room until Esther gets used to her "big girl" bed. She's taken to peeling the decorative stickers off the wall, I have to keep getting after her about that. Someday, maybe, she'll prefer putting stickers ON the wall as opposed to ripping them OFF.
I suppose that's our news for now. I'll attempt to post a bit more often. Especially when Taea is born. Can't wait, 40 more days.....!!!

Fall is coming!

As anyone in Utah could tell you, fall is finally attempting to make an appearance. Already, the foliage in the upper mountains is changing color. Apparently, the hotter the summer, the earlier this happens. In fact, we could have snow on the peaks by Tuesday.
From what the weatherman says, we could have a very wet, snowy winter.
Most people are probably groaning in dismay. Me, I say "YIPPEE!"
No, I'm not a skier or snowboarder, I just happen to like colder weather. Driving in it is a pain, and keeping my girls warm will probably be a bit of a challenge, but hey. BUGS ARE DYING BY THE MILLIONS! I hate bugs. Anything in our house with more than four legs gets slaughtered on sight. There are two exceptions. Ladybugs and Daddy Long-legs spiders. They eat other bugs, so I just catch them and throw them out the door.
I love the colors of fall, and I'm looking forward to our first decent sized leaf pile to throw Esther into. She loves being outside. All you have to do is say the word "outside" and she runs for the front door. I got her up from a nap yesterday and said "Outside?" She practically tried to run straight through the bars of her crib!
Weeds will also be dying, which is a boon to this part of the state. The city council has decided to crack down on people with messy yards, only they're taking it a bit far. If you have weeds more than six inches high in your yard, or anything laying around that shouldn't be, like unused construction material, they will give you a warning, then start fining you $50 a day.
Yup, we got a warning. We haven't been able to afford grass for the backyard yet, so the weeds get out of hand pretty quickly. We'll have to do something this spring, unless a last-ditch attempt at seeding this fall actually works. The soil out here is so poor, it's hard for any seeds to take root unless you amend the soil half to death.
Well, that's my take on fall in a nutshell. Watch, three months from now I'll be posting my latest whine about how cold it is. Oh well, at least I won't be pregnant anymore!

Introducing our Family

Well, it's been a while since I've last posted. For anyone out there that was actually following the Aathea saga, I'm still working on it. I cancelled most of my blogs while working/moving/having major upheavals in my life, and I do not know that they will ever return. Still, if anyone is interested to see how the world of Aathea has grown, send me an email.
Yes, my screen names etc have changed. This blog, of course, will be focusing on my real-life family rather than the imaginary world I used to inhabit. If I ever do get back into posting my stories, it will be under a different blog.
So, what am I up to now? Well, I am married now, I have one daughter and another on the way. My second daughter will actually be named Taemarin, so eventually, I'll have to surrender my email names.
Oh well. Life goes on.
I'm living in Utah now, and as the title of this blog suggests, I am a Stay-at-Home mom. It's fun, frustrating, exhausting, and rewarding all at the same time. I think any Stay-at-Home mom would tell you the same. As we go more posts, if there's any working moms that would like some reasons to quit and stay home, I think I can provide them.
This one will be short as it's rather late (for a preggie, that is!), but I will try to make an effort to keep this reasonably well updated.