Ada’s birthday weekend started with going to see Disney on Ice.  My parents went with us and bought everyone the tickets.

(They don’t allow professional cameras there, sad!  I utilized my trusty iPhone.)

My sister got cotton candy and it randomly came with stick on earrings.

The girls got $12 snow cones.  At least the cup and spoon straw are pretty cool.  (And dishwasher safe!)

The next day, Sunday the 21st, was Ada’s third birthday.  She was super excited.

We opened a few presents in the morning after everyone woke up.

(It was Princess Cadence, from My Little Pony. From Rosie!)

Tyler got her super heroes.  She loves Batman and Spider-Man.  A lot.

At first she said, “Hey I didn’t want these!”

So Tyler told her he could just return them and she was like, “Noooo!”

I guess she meant she didn’t specifically ask for these, not that she didn’t want them at all.

Rosie has Princess Celestia.

I got Ada sand for the turtle sandbox and a subscription to Starfall, neither of which have any pictures involved.

After brunch we told the girls we needed to run an errand, a really boring one.

No worries, we let them bring their ponies.

But alas, it was a trick!  Since we never go to the mall the girls had no idea where we were going.

When we walked up to Build-a-Bear Rosie was almost ready to cry–she’s been begging to make a

My Little Pony ever since she found out they have them there from one of her friends.

She thought only Ada was going to get to make one for her birthday.

What fun would that be?  Nothing is very fun when you don’t have someone else to play with you!

Ada insisted on carrying her box even though it was almost as big as she was.

And THEN, we met up with family at the park for some cake and a few last presents.

Except Ada only wanted to swing.

Until I swung her too high…

Ada wanted a bunny cake. She picked the pan from the clearance section at Kroger after Easter when we were grocery shopping one day.

She specifically requested it have blue ears.

(My sister made it.)

Ada also requested Batman cups and plates.

Cake!

Trying to get the candles to stay lit in the wind…

Then more swinging, before heading home!

We were all exhausted!

I can’t believe Ada is three.  Wow.

Ada is sitting next to me wrapping up her birthday weekend with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in bed while watching The Powerpuff Girls.

She had too much fun this weekend and passed out before eating supper tonight.  She just woke up hungry at 10:00.

I can’t believe she turned three today.  That seems so old!

Fresh from the womb!

Our new family, when Ada was one day old:

Ada at two days old:

One week old:

Her first birthday!

Almost two!

Three today!

I have tons of pictures to post, but I’ll have to do it tomorrow because it’s bedtime over here!

Rosie’s actual birthday is the 19th, but we decided to celebrate early before we leave for Atlanta to get T.  We’ll be driving home on the 19th, and that won’t make for a fun birthday, so early party it was!

Most people are out of town and busy this time of year, poor Rosie.  We just had family and Rosie’s friend who lives down the street over to my in-laws’ house for the party.  It was still fun though. Rosie had a blast, and she somehow got way more (expensive) gifts than we anticipated.

Waiting for guests to arrive…

This huge box was from my brother-in-law and soon to be sister-in-law.

Hi Dax!

Finally we can open the presents!  This was her big gift from us.

Much anticipated.

Kirsten!

Ada got a few little things to open too, so she would leave Rosie alone.

The really big box was filled with balloons.  Each balloon had a message on it for Rosie that SIL wrote.  The bottom of the box had SIL’s old American Girl doll clothes!

Rosie wanted butterfly cupcakes, and my sister made a delicious cheesecake for the adults.

The cupcakes came from Sam’s Club.

Ada was really into the “pupcakes” as she calls them.

And there was a final unexpected gift–

My father-in-law got Rosie a power wheels jeep.

I told Rosie she could never have one of those.  She was THRILLED.  I think she nearly had a heart attack.

All she wants to do is ride in it up and down the sidewalk.  Thankfully it runs out of batteries in our hilly neighborhood!

I think Rosie had a great sixth birthday, even though she isn’t actually six for another week.

Can you believe she will be SIX?  Gosh, that’s so old.

Today is my birthday.  I’m now the ripe old age of 26.

To be honest it wasn’t a very great birthday.  The girls have been sick with a cold and Ada hasn’t slept more than two hours in the past three days. I am totally exhausted, like to the point of being non-functional.

When I went out to check on our chicks this morning something had eaten the skin off of the head of one chick.  The poor little thing was still alive, but it had a bare skull.  The rest of its body was unharmed.  Disturbing and sad.  I held it for several hours this morning to keep it warm while it died.  I thought about putting it out of its misery but then I didn’t really know how to easily do that.  It was still peeping and trying to open its eyes and move around.

What is really creepy is that the same thing happened to another chick the night before.  There’s a serial chick killer!  It scalps my chicks!

The chicks are in the garage with two Silkie hens brooding them.  The garage door is closed, and I know the Silkies didn’t do that to their own babies because they are very protective and loving mamas.

When I called my mom to tell her about it she suggested that it could be crickets.  My garage is infested with these freaky monster crickets. They’re called camel crickets, or cave crickets.  They’re huge, the size of a man’s thumb, and they have humped backs.  They even have toes.  There are so many of them in the garage. They only come out at night.  If you go in there in the dark the floor is just solid with them.  They are on the walls too.  Chickens sleep very soundly in the dark, so it’s possible that these disgusting creepy freak monster crickets could sneak into the nest and eat a chick.

Since the broody hens have been in the garage I’ve been closing the door, thus trapping the cricket population inside without food.  Before this the door was always ajar because it doesn’t latch well.  I already knew that it’s not safe to leave crickets overnight in the lizard cage because they will eat the lizard.  I guess they eat chicks too.

My mom suggested I put up lights over the nest so that the crickets are deterred. My garage is lit up like a Christmas tree tonight.  I went in there earlier, after dark, and I didn’t see a single cricket.  Fingers crossed they don’t murder anymore of my fluffies tonight.  :(

On top of that tragedy, I must have eaten something wrong by accident because my intestines had that awful flaming sensation brewing inside of them today.

I found out that I am extremely allergic to rye–did I ever write about that?  The testing also showed I’m allergic to pistachios, which are easy to avoid.  Unfortunately it’s hard to avoid rye because of cross contamination.  Really annoying.  I must have accidentally eaten some rye hidden in bakery goods (like crumbs on it by accident or mixed in the wheat flour) because eating rye gives me liquid fire in my lower abdomen the following day, plus my mouth feels irritated and swollen, and my nose is extremely stuffy.

Awesome.

I’m glad I figured out what causes it, I just wish it was easier to avoid.  (I’m also lactose intolerant, which isn’t as big of a deal to me as the stupid rye allergy.)

Randomly I am not allergic to any other grains even though they are closely related. Just rye.  Not gluten, or wheat.  My body hates rye!

Anyway, I spent the day feeling like crap and doing nothing.  My kids were grumpy from being sick and tired.  Tyler had to be at work early.  My house is a mess. My intestines were too angry to even eat birthday cake or go to birthday dinner with my parents. How sad.

Tomorrow will be a better day, right?  Right.

I was feeling rather sorry for myself and considering a lame pity party until I went outside this afternoon to water the birds and the garden.  I heard this huge commotion and suddenly my duck June came marching out from her hidden nest way back under the chicken coop.  She quack honks so loudly when she comes out.  I think she likes to announce her presence.

She had four ducklings following her!

I couldn’t believe it.  She’s been hiding under the chicken coop on and off for months but nothing has ever happened.  I was beginning to wonder what she was doing under there.

Benny and June made adorable babies!  Squee!

She hatched ducklings ON MY BIRTHDAY!  Of all days!

All the chickens were staring at the ducklings as if they were thinking, “What the heck are those things?”

Here they are trying food and water for the first time.  Well they didn’t try it so much as just look at it.

Watching their daddy duck eat:

“Hey guys, what is this wet stuff?”

Warning me to scoot back from her babies.  Shocking, she’s usually very tame and will eat from your hand.

Don’t mess with Mama Duck, huh?

Oh, hello there!  See how tiny they are?

I love it when ducks peer upwards with one eye.  (Especially when they all do it in unison.)

Ah, they are so cute.  It’s nearly unbearable.  I just love ducks.

I’m thrilled to have surprise birthday ducklings!

They totally made my day better.

Fail Tooth removal is scheduled for Wednesday at 9:15.  The Fail Tooth is a bony extraction because it’s impacted, the other two I think were labeled simple extraction.

Want to see my teeth?  Fail Tooth is so obvious.

 

There’s actually a pocket underneath that impacted tooth on the bottom. (Right side of the picture, left side in my actual head.)

The pocket underneath has trapped infected food in it and it’s also causing a cavity on the healthy molar next to it.

Isn’t that just awesome?

This, my friends, is why when your mouth throbs you should not just ignore it for two years and pray it goes away…

Because one day it will throb so bad you’ll wake from a deep sleep sobbing and sweating, and the throbbing won’t stop until you pay someone to chop that sucker out of your head.

Thankfully (surprisingly!) our dental insurance covers the almost entire procedure except for a $50 deductible, and $49 shot of antibiotics they give during the surgery.  I also have to pay 20% of the procedure cost.  However since I’m not yet 26 (I will be in June!) I am still covered under my mom’s federal health insurance, and that covers a bit too, bringing the entire cost down to only $128 total.

I CAN AFFORD THAT!

They’re using IV sedation to knock me out.  I’m a little nervous about that.  I’ve had general anesthesia but never IV sedation.  I guess it’s like twilight sleep where you’re awake but you don’t realize it or remember it.  Kinda freaky.

I’m nervous about two things: throwing up (huge phobia!) and peeing my pants.

I mean really, what if I pee my pants while I’m in awake/asleep twilight land?  Is that even a logical fear?  I won’t be drinking 6 hours before the procedure, and Ada will have nursed all night, so I’ll certainly be dehydrated.  I guess that makes it less likely.

I can guarantee nerves will make me have to poop 10,000 times though.

Maybe I am a freak.  I have bodily function anxiety.

I don’t like loss of control.  Twilight sleep is like the biggest loss of control EVER!

I’m trying not to think about that, or the recovery afterward.  My parents are going to help me watch the girls. I think my dad is going to take me to the actual surgery.  Tyler will be asleep after work, he can’t get up to take me after just getting home.

In other less nerve inducing news, Ada’s second birthday was on the 21st.

I can’t believe she’s two years old!  That flew by.  My sweet, fat baby is growing up.  Soon I’m going to do a collage with one picture for each month of the past two years.

On her actual birthday we opened a couple of presents and just hung out.  We had her birthday party the next day (Sunday) with family.

Here are the pictures from her birthday.  I still have to upload the pictures from her party, along with the rest of the Easter pictures, and a few pictures from Christmas…haha.

Chocolate face!  (The lighting in my house was horrible on her birthday, it was so cold and gray outside.)

She spent the day playing with Duck Face.

Singing to the duck…

We will forever remember that she was wearing Dora panties on her second birthday…haha.

Oh, I love her so much!

I *love* when the duck stretches tall and flaps its teeny tiny wings.  It’s incredibly adorable.

Rosie was at my in-laws’ house, that’s why there are no pictures of her in this series, in case you were wondering.

Then Ada opened a couple birthday presents from us.  We only got her a few things because we already have so many toys, and she was getting more stuff from family the next day at her party.

She got her own cash register and a scooter.  We also got Rosie a scooter and gave it to her after Ada opened her gifts.  We told Rosie it was an early birthday present.  Her birthday isn’t until July, but we wanted her to be able to enjoy the scooter all summer and not have to wait until the end of July to get it.

Best/worst/scariest outtake EVER.

Tyler and I about died when it came up on the screen.

Hahahahahaahahaaaa!

Here’s her cake.  She wanted a choo choo train cake, she’s been talking about it for months.

My tooth was throbbing so I kept it simple. I ordered a plain sheet cake and then decorated it quickly with the train and tracks, and I wrote her name on it.

The Thomas train is actually a whistle that sounds like a real train.  The tracks are pretzels with melted chocolate shook in cocoa powder.  My stupid tooth hurt too bad to make a cake and decorate it.  :(

Ada was thrilled with it anyway!

We didn’t eat it until the next day at her party.  It’s chocolate cake with buttercream icing.  It came from Sam’s club.  Their cakes have awful ingredients, but they taste so delicious.  Artificial noms for the win.

And the girls on their scooters:

We have Rosie’s meeting with the school to plan her speech therapy in an hour.  I have to go feed my chickens, switch the laundry, and get us all ready to go! My mother-in-law is picking up the girls to watch them during the meeting.

Nervous about my wisdom teeth removal.  Blah.

 

I love these snapshots of my grandma with Ada and Rosie.

My grandparents gave Rosie a stick horse for her birthday.  I think it might be Rosie’s favorite gift.

 

(Wish Rosie would have put her legs down, silly kid.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

This time five years ago I was enduring a very painful labor, all back labor.  I was scared, nervous, and at the hospital.

My nurse was Alice, from the Brady Bunch. I promise you they were the same person, except my nurse Alice was less cheery and more brisk.  Her real name was even Alice.

I pushed for almost three hours.  My midwife was sick and in the end stages of cancer and kept having to leave the room.

Finally Rosie emerged, ever so slowly.  She came out face up. It was after 11 pm.  She just barely made it on the 19th of July.

I requested she be placed on my chest instead of the normal warmer across the room.  The hospital staff later told me Rosie had fluid in her lungs and needed deep suctioning because I selfishly asked for her to be on my chest.  They did their best to make us feel like the worst parents ever.

After Rosie was finally out of me the midwife tugged on the cord and the placenta ripped inside.  She reached inside of my uterus, her arm was in me up to her elbow, and scraped around my womb with gauze three separate times to remove chunks of placenta.  As a result I lost lots of blood.  Lots.

I refused blood transfusions and stitches because I just wanted everyone to stop touching me.

I was too weak to stand on my own for days afterward.

Then they took Rosie for mandatory nursery stays, so my first few hours after birth were spent laying in a room alone feeling dizzy and sick, and wondering if this was all a nightmare.

Thus began the hardest few months of my life.

 

Rosie right after birth.

6 pounds, 14 ounces, and 19 inches long.

Scrubbed to be disinfected from womb germs, then wrapped from head to toe so that I couldn’t smell her head or see her tiny features.

 

 

I had just turned 20 years old a few weeks before Rosie was born.  We lived with my in-laws.

I need a t-shirt commemorating my survival of the year 2006.

I knew better when I got pregnant with Ada.  I would never let the hospital bully me like that again.  I stayed home and it was wonderful, joyous, and perfect.  You all know about that.

It makes me sad that Rosie’s birthday is an anniversary of something that was scary and sad rather than wonderful.  Of course Rosie was worth it, but it angers me to know the same things are still happening to women at the same hospital, probably right now as I’m sitting here typing this.

Rosie deserved a better first few days of life.  I barely held her.  I didn’t get to hold her until she was four days old.  Not because she was sickly, she was perfectly healthy.  It was because of the mandatory nursery stays and Tyler’s family visiting non-stop.  As soon as visiting hours were over they would give the baby to the nurses, who would take her to the nursery to be observed for 3-5 hours.  Even when I begged for her back they said it was hospital policy.  I’m still so angry just thinking of it.  I was too dazed and weak to fight back, too overwhelmed with visitors who never left, too exhausted.

 

Fast forward five years and here we are.

Happy.

Can you believe it’s already been five years?

Some of you all were reading my blog way back then, when I first realized I was pregnant.  It was right after Halloween when it happened.

One day I was a carefree college student, the next day there were two pink lines on this stick and I was 19 and pregnant.

You know what though?  I don’t think I would change anything.  It was very hard, but I like where we are now.  I don’t regret dropping out of college.  I don’t regret getting pregnant.  Everything worked out in the end for me, for us.

 

Rosie at 2 weeks old and 7 pounds

 

Rosie on her 1st birthday.

 

Rosie on her 2nd birthday.

 

Rosie on her 3rd birthday.

 

Rosie on her 4th birthday.

 

Rosie on her 5th birthday.

 

 

 

 

Did you know it was my birthday the other day?

 

 

 

 

Yep. 

Somehow 25 feels considerably older than 24.

You know I’ve been waiting to turn 25 forever.  I mean I’ve been waiting to turn 25 more than I was excited about turning 21.  Guess what you can do when you’re 25?  

RENT A PONTOON BOAT! 

Yes, I have owned a house since I was what, 22?  We own two cars.  I have two children!  But we haven’t been old enough to rent a boat and hang out on the lake.  (There is a lake 30 minutes from my house.)  

I am finally 25.  I can rent a boat.  I have arrived in life.

(Ok not really arrived…I mean there are still other things I’m looking forward to, like buying a farm and adopting.  But hey, renting a boat is exciting!) 

 

 

 

 

I’ve been so busy the past couple of days.  We repainted half of our house inside, reorganized everything, and had Ada’s birthday party last night. 

This morning we went to mass for Easter at the Catholic church around the corner. 

Here are a couple of pictures.  Much more later, once I have time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At this moment last year, 6:30 pm, Rosie was holding her baby sister for the first time ever.

I can’t help but recap Ada’s first moments, copied from my blog entry last year.

---

Pushing, in our bedroom.

A baby!

The midwife examining the mom side of the placenta:

She’s showing me the sac that the baby just came out of!

After the baby was born we left the placenta attached for several hours so that every bit of the blood could go through the cord and into the baby where it belongs.  As a result Ada is very, very pink!  She’s got all of the blood in her body nature intended her to have.  I had wanted to do this with Rosie, but the hospital’s idea of “wait until the cord stops pulsing” apparently means just cut it after about five minutes…before the placenta had even detached and delivered.

With Rosie’s birth something went wrong and the placenta ripped into pieces and got stuck inside of me.  I don’t know exactly what happened, but the retained placenta and resulting gushing blood happening again were my main fears this time.  I was freaking out about it in the bathtub during the beginning of the pushing phase of Ada’s birth.

I’m so thankful that my midwife is competent, patient, trusting, and most of all knowledgeable.  This time, after the baby came out my bleeding was normal.  The placenta detached but couldn’t come out all the way, just like last time! I must make sticky placentas.

The midwife was reassuring me the whole time that everything was fine and not to worry.  I’d already taken some herbs in tincture form (you can see in the video when the assistant gives them to me on a spoon) to help with blood loss and release of the placenta, just in case.  When the placenta wasn’t coming out properly I had a shot of pitocin in my leg, also just in case.

Then the midwife was able to gently work it out.  She said there was a trailing piece of membranes that had stuck inside.  It all came out intact though!  I didn’t lose a large amount of blood this time, either.

The only downside was that the trailing membranes caused the edge of my cervix to prolapse a little.  The midwife very gently put it back where it was supposed to go, and hopefully it will be fine with a lot of pelvic floor exercises.  That was my only complication, and I’m a little freaked out by it, but because of all the patience in handling things it was minimal rather than rushed and catastrophic like with Rosie’s birth.

If you’re interested in these sorts of things, here’s a 4 minute video of the midwife examining Ada’s placenta and explaining everything about it.  Baby A was still attached at this point.

After a few hours Tyler cut the cord.

The midwife took Baby Ada’s measurements and weighed her.  She also did a thorough newborn exam.

7 pounds, 6 ounces!

This was the only sad hysterical baby moment…

Hah.

That night…Rosie was thrilled to come home and meet her baby sister!

---

I truly had such an ecstatic birth.  I’ll never, ever forget the joy.

Happy birthday sweet baby.  It’s been a wonderful year.