Okay Kid...

Mommy's tired, daddy's not going to be home for a while, it's been a long day, and tomorrow is going to be awful.  Please. Just. Fall. Asleep!  You've eaten twice your weight today, and there's nothing more to give. Walking Zombie I am.   But since daddy isn't here, and I'm attached to a machine, you get to cry it out for a while.  Sorry kid.

In other news, I forgot to bring cars, crayons, his tablet, or anything at all for Ares to play with.  So when he entertained himself and behaved VERY well today at the rehearsal dinner, I was amazed.  Thank you Ares for turning a potentially horrible mistake made by me into a rather pleasant evening. Mommy loves you!

UPDATE:  The goober decided that after the 4 hours of HELL he put me through before falling asleep tonight, that he was going to sleep from 1:45- (it's 8:40 and he's still sleeping) with only getting up once for a very short 1oz feed and a diaper change.  Thanks kid, mommy needed that.

Part Deux...

My mom had taken Ares, gone through the drive-thru at McDonalds, and took him home to get him dressed.  They were about a half hour to 45 minutes behind us.  We had always planned for my mom to be at the birth, but she missed it completely.  We did ask for Ares to stay outside while the placenta was still in me, because of all of the blood.  Wouldn't you know, when they finally came back into the room, he started searching around.  "Where's the blood?" he asks.  Afraid of absolutely NOTHING.

Aside from my mom and Ares, Justice and Kate were up to visit almost right away and my dad came after his half day of work. Adam's mom came up not long after that, and Grandma Walters (G.G.) and Aunt Diane came up in the afternoon and Aunt Cindy came up a little later that evening.

The one thing I hated about the hospital was that the nurse would come in during the middle of the night and wake me up to tell me that they're going to wake us up in 20 minutes to take the baby to ____.  Just wake me in 20 minutes, I don't need a warning, thank you!

OKAY, PICTURE DUMP!!!

First sponge bath!  NOT a fan of the water at this point. 

Not A Surprise - But OMG it WAS! Birth Story

So... IT'S A BOY!  That's the 'Not a Surprise' (although, I did have some dreams that 'Surprise, it's a Girl!').
I remember A LOT about the birth of my little Atlas Konrad, but I remember very little at the same time.   The thing I remember the most is yelling at Adam to 'slow down' as he drove to the hospital (good thing he didn't) and as they wheeled me into L & D, me saying 'Please call an Anesthesiologist NOW!'. FYI, you need a lot of IV fluids before they'll call the nurse anesthetist.

It all started around 5 when I woke up for the 120th time to go to the bathroom and I decided to go downstairs so Adam didn't wake up again.  I fell asleep on the couch from about 5 until 6AM.   I woke up a little uncomfortable. I figured I was laying in the wrong direction or something - it wasn't contractions or anything, just uncomfortable.  I play around on Facebook for a few minutes and Adam comes down around 6:25, I say "Well, this is probably going to be a bad weekend, but a GREAT Monday for you, because I feel different."  (Because Adam REALLY didn't want to go to work on Monday, so he wanted the baby soon.)  As I was getting off the couch to go to the bathroom (again, time # 121 for the night), BAM! Monster contraction, so he looks at me, and asks if he has time to take a shower.  I say "Of course" thinking this birth would be more like our experience with Ares.  Oh. How wrong I could be.

He jumps in the shower, I use the bathroom, and head upstairs to change.  I get two contractions while he's in the shower.  They're both pretty intense. Ares wakes up on his own and comes into the room, I tell him to put shoes on and we're going to grandma's as I yell to Adam to hurry up (at this point it's only 6:40).  I call my mom a minute later,  (Call logged at 6:41 am) telling her that we're heading to the hospital. "Mom, can we drop Ares off now, because ow, ow, ow, ow ow ow ow ow...  we're going to the hospital now."  She asks if we want to meet her at her house, the hospital or at McDonalds off the exit.  I turn to ask Adam. "Do you want to just drop him off or meet mom at... ow ow ow ow ow ow"  Mom decides to meet us at McDonalds
We drop him off quickly and get back on the road.  I called my mom about 10 minutes into the trip (call logged at 7:11) to see where we need to park once we're there. I believe we were near Chagrin Rd at that point, about 10 minutes from the hospital.  I have a contraction while on the phone, it's my FOURTH since dropping Ares off.  Once at the hospital, we got a great parking spot and I started walking to the maternity area while Adam grabs the things out of the car and quickly catches up to me (I've had 3 contractions while walking the 150 feet, where some nurses waiting to get off of their shift get me a wheelchair and wheel me the rest of the way.  At this point, it's probably 7:25.  I give my name, SS#, Adam gives my DOB and doctors name and they decide to skip admitting me and take me straight to a L and D room (The entire way I'm asking for an anesthesiologist.)

Apparently, the BAM! Massive contraction I had was actually my water breaking, but no gush.  The doctor checks me - 4 cm.  I have a handful more contractions while they are putting the IV into my arm, ask me a bunch of questions, of which I'm sure I only hear/answer 10% as I'm crying in pain.  Since I was at 4cm, the doctor gives the OK to call the anesthesiologists in.  I hear that they're down the hallway and on their way.  Once they get there (less than 10 minutes) the doctor checks me again -  I'm 7-8 cm.  There's a slight disagreement as to who has - something needed,  the L&D room or the anesthesiologist, and in the minute they figured that out, they checked me again, 9 CM.  I cried.  I should have known things were progressing fast, I really only had contractions that were less than 2 minutes apart, AND, the doctor that first checked me, NEVER left the room.  With Ares, the doctors came in and out often, and were mostly out until the delivery.
Apparently this is when the room (not me) realized that there would be no epidural.  Let's pause now, for a moment of silence for my sanity.   They told me I had the option of sitting up (still) for 10 minutes to get the epidural or to just start pushing.  I was afraid that I'd be in labor for another hour, so I chose epidural.  (This is when the nurse behind me turned to Adam and mouthed "There's no way.")   I tried to sit up so they can put it in, and that's when I realized that this baby was coming NOW.  I laid down and they had me start pushing when I was contracting.  4 or 5 contractions later (maybe 10 minutes - probably less than that) we had our little Atlas Konrad.
Of course, I wish my placenta wanted to come out that quickly/easily.   That part was traumatizing - and almost landed me in the O-R.
Ares is a very proud big brother.  He calls Atlas "My baby" and is VERY protective of him.  Once, a doctor came by, and Atlas was crying, Ares yelled at her for not being gentle.

Things I've learned:

• Your water can break without having any type of contraction first.
• Any plans you may have made can be thrown out the window. (If I were at work when this happened, I planned on driving home, meeting Adam at home and driving to the hospital together.  I laugh at that plan now, I'd have had a kid in the parking lot or an ambulance, haha)
• Epidurals really are the worlds greatest things.  Not over-rated at all, and I'd tell people who wanted to do a natural child birth on purpose that they need some serious help. 
• You think you're done after delivering the baby, but there's that damned placenta that's sometimes too attached.  There's only one way for the doctor to find out where it's at and how attached it is, and it.is.painful!
• The most satisfying feeling EVER is that first shower.  OMG-HEAVEN
• I hope there really is a thing called 'baby-nesia' and that I forget how painful this experience was. 

A Good Laugh

OK, so I got those hotwings that I talked about last post - and all it did was clear my system out, nothing with a baby though =(  boooo.  

I did go to the doctor again today, I'm at 2cm now, so a little closer, and was completely manhandled to try and push the process along, but all in all, I have another dr appt on Monday morning, and an induction will be scheduled for Tuesday, so Tuesday night the baby will come.  That's OK, if that happens, then my doctor will likely be the one delivering him (Adam and I really like my doc.) and it'll be an odd # day (23rd). 

Ares is still very excited, and told me he'll change every diaper for us.  Adam is more ready than I am.  Especially since he's been working late again and plans on having a late night tonight.  He was excited that he was finally able to tell his boss's boss "NO" for once yesterday.  Adam feels like the b*tch of his department.  He never says 'no' and gets run around all over the place.  He's GREAT at his job, and everyone knows it, so he feels taken advantage of a lot.  I'm sure many others in his area feel the same way, they are very low staffed - with no plans on hiring anyone new - there's lots of stress, way more than a claims adjuster should feel.  So when Jan asked him if he would work early next Friday (to make up for poor staffing decisions), he got to tell her 'No', because he'll FOR SURE be on FMLA for the baby.  =)

I finally got a picture of Ares holding a sign in front of the door.  I would LOVE to do this every year, and then put on it what he wants to be when he grows up.  Today I took the picture (as it's his 2nd day of 4/5 year old pre-school) and found out that he wants to be "A Police Driver - A Police".  I think he wants to be a Police Man?  Quite frightening, but whatever floats his boat.   I'll add the words via a paint program, turn the photo to B&W and put it into a frame with slots for 13 more years. 

I know I took a similar picture back last year when he first started 3 year old pre-school,

 I believe when I asked him last year what he wanted to be he told me "Captain America", but I'm not positive.   Maybe a racecar driver.   I'll have to look back through previous posts when I have the chance.

Pre-K 4!

Today I signed the form to allow Ares into the 4 year old classroom.  Ares was so excited to hear that news, that he came over (in front of his teachers and classmates) and gave me roughly 50 kisses while I filled the form out.   It was awesome - and cute - and I didn't want to go to work. 

He's in Ms.Kristin's classroom with Eve and Mikayla and Kenny.  I'm not sure what other kids are in there, but he's pretty excited to be moving up.  He's now in the LAST classroom in the hallway.  The biggest one, that's not before/after school care (Kindergarten - plus.) 

Tonight is the last day of walking stick sticker club.  He's excited about it (or excited about "We're going to go to Buffalo Wild Wings too, right?  We always go there after hiking club!!)  I think I'm going to send the boys to hiking club today and I'll hang back and grab a table at the bar for everyone.  It's supposed to be near 90* again, and the park they're going to is all in the sun.   I'm going to get a lemonade and some HOT wings!

I feel good today.   Yesterday was really rough.  I was tired, hot-hot-hot and just all around uncomfortable.  Maybe it was the jeans I wore?  Today I'm wearing a light weight skirt and light weight shirt.  I feel a million times better.  Maybe it's a mental thing, whatever it is, I'm prepared to wait another week for this child to make an appearance.

I'm an Addict

It's terrible.  I have a new addiction, and it's terrible!  It's nice to leave the office with co-workers, but awful in that I have some enablers in the office.  Can't.Get.Enough!  At least once the baby is here, I won't have time to run out and grab any of these, due to using the lactation room at work, and hopefully the gym occasionally.   I'm willing to bet that I can attributed 5 lbs to these white chocolate mocha frappachino low fat milk, no whip. 

Just in case anyone is wondering, we still love the new car, and are BOTH very happy with the purchase!  (Even though it hasn't left the garage since Sunday morning.)

Ima Complainer - Now!

39.5 weeks.  People say the second baby is supposed to come before your due date.  I'm not feeling it.  (Well, aside from the very sharp jabs and the super-sweat marks!) I'm at that miserable stage.  It hurts to get up after sitting for a long time (like, an hour), it hurts to stand for long periods of time, although, not too bad, it's hot (90*+) and thank goodness for air conditioning!  I don't think our parents had A/C when we were born.  Justice and I were winter babies, Leah and Adam, for the most part too, but my poor grandmothers had multiple summer babies.  A few in July, August, September, June....  

The doctor said that we'll talk inducing at our next appointment on Friday.  The induction would likely be on Tuesday of next week (that is the 23rd) - an odd number.  (Random fact- I like odd #'s way better than even - I always have. It's why we got married on 9/25 and why I was so happy that Ares was a 3/23 baby.)  Of course, if this child decided to make an appearance sooner - say 7/16, I'd be more than happy with that too - odd # or not! 

We had a pretty fun weekend this week.  Adam, Ares and I hit up a couple of garage sales and bought some polo shirts for Ares and some baby outfits for Atlas.  Ares even picked out a 'super-cute' outfit.  I told him that it wasn't an outfit for him, just to make sure he knew, and he says 'I know, it's for my baby brother'.

We picked up Adam's new car after that (and had to re-negotiate, because they added another $500 to the price of the vehicle).  I have to say, Adam totally messed up when first negotiating the price of the car (weeks ago) and completely redeemed himself this time.   He was a rock star - even pulling out the "you've already got the car on your lot, it's a wagon that's a manual transmission.  Good luck finding someone else looking for that."   Yeah, he totally said that to the sales guy and his manager - and guess what - it worked.    (BY THE WAY, never go to Great Lakes Hyundai!  The people are nice, but they'll change the price of the vehicle 3 or 4 times, NEVER in your favor.)

Ares and I left the 'party' early to meet Davis and Eve at the water park  This was fabulous, mid 80* day and lots of sun and the water was beautiful.  We both had a great time, and although I felt like I couldn't walk after that, I was grateful we went.  Ares went on the biggest water slides he's allowed on, ran and dove under the water and 'swam' and just did awesome - he was also on his best behavior.  My good kid!  

He's obsessed with his bicycle and with golf right now.
Daddy promises to take him golfing once the baby comes.



Adam's 'Baby' is Gone

Adam's baby is gone.  Everyone who knows Adam should be sad for him, I mean, he had coveted the Del Sol while it was still in his grandmother's possession, and then he took GREAT care of it and loved it when it was in his possession. 

Fortunately, it went to a good family.  The dad knows a lot about cars, and works on them himself (just like Adam) and his 16 year old son, who the vehicle is for, has a lot of ideas on what he wants to do with the vehicle, just like Adam wanted (carbon fiber hood, more bass/sound systems, etc) so it's a good match. 

The hard part is now him getting rid of the Jeep.  He is ready for it to go, has been for a while now, but he also loves that toy.  It is his intention to get one again in the future (far, far, far future), maybe when the boys' college tuition is paid for?  (errrr-  maybe that's MY dream.)

Ares is at the Indians game, right now. He was SOOO excited last night and this morning.   I wish I were there too.   I'm glad my mom got to take him twice this year, because the one game / year we go to (through Adam's work) is the weekend that my in laws are coming up to take him to Cincinnati for the week.  I'm sure he's more excited about going to Grandma's house than the Indians game.  That game, will be Atlas' first game though!  Exciting stuff!  Ares was 1 month old for his first Indians game (April 23, 2009 - I think it snowed that day), Atlas will be about 3 weeks old for his first game (August 10, 2013 - Hopefully we don't melt that day). 

He's Pretty Comfortable...

... I wish I were too!  Hahaha.  Went to the Dr's office yesterday.  This baby isn't going anywhere soon.  Doctor is fairly certain he'll see me next week for my next appointment, which is a bummer, although, I'm not due until next week, so it's not a surprise, really.  I was just hoping this baby would be a little bit early.  We're all eagerly awaiting his arrival!

(Posted 3 times today because I couldn't post from the office this week for some reason.) 39 weeks on Thursday!!

A Good Car Day

So the story behind the car.  We decided before we went looking for used Civics (my #1 choice once we learned that wagons were too small) we went to the Hyundai dealership.   We looked at the row of Elantra sedans before we saw a wagon at the end of the row.  We played around with the buttons and doors and such and realized that the size Just.Might.Work for us.  I looked at the price, and it was too low.  No way that it was correct.  So we looked closer at the car, turns out, it was the Accent, not the Elantra.

Insert me getting excited.  If we thought the Accent might fit the whole family, the larger Elantra certainly will - right?   Yes!!! It's about the same size as the Focus, but SOOOO much bigger inside.   I looked at Adam, and said, "I think this is the one, it fits everything in my requirements, hopefully you like the way it drives", because physically it hit everything in his requirement list too.

We drove it, drove last year's model (which was horrible!) and got ready to talk price - kind of.  The sales guy gave Adam the price of the vehicle, and he exclaims "Wow, that's better than I thought! Impressive!"  aaaand out goes any negotiating power I have.  Thanks babydoll, make my job difficult.    We ended up getting a roof rack, some tire rotations and a few hundred dollars off (in addition to a $2k rebate).

Then the dealership called this evening.  We have to finance through them to get the rebate (which was 1.5% higher than I could get through my credit union).  They want to raise the price $2K, so instead, we said we'd finance through them if they lowered the price another $500 (to make up for the higher interest rate) or we were walking.  So that is what we did, everyone is happy, although, I still know that they made a lot of $$ off of us.   Ah well, next time, Adam drives, then leaves while I negotiate.

He picks the car up on Thursday =)   Oh, and he ALSO sold his beloved Del Sol tonight too.  I know he's SUPER sad about that, but it's what was best.  It has 220,000 miles on it (still runs really well), has a small oil leak, a cracked windshield and only 3 rust spots.  Right now he can take Ares around in it, but with two kids, he couldn't take the kids to school or pick them up.  I had only ridden in the vehicle 3 times since we've had Ares, because usually one of us has  him with us, so it just wasn't functional for our family.  It worked well right now, but at 20 years old, we weren't sure how much longer it would last.  Adam had someone test drive it tonight, and put a deposit down on it.  He was super sad when he was driving it to the meeting place, but smiling when he got home.  He still has another day with his beloved car, AND got the satisfaction of knowing that he sold his to a nice family (who's mom is also 9 months pregnant!) They have a 16 year old, and it's going to be his car.  I think Adam said his plans for the vehicle reminds him of himself.  He's excited for this kid - a new generation to enjoy this fabulous vehicle.  (THAT, for those of you don't know, Adam's grandmother bought brand new!  She took such great care of the car, and Adam worked on all of the maintenance things himself once we got it, that it's one of the few great looking & working 1993 del sol's out there!)

Adam posted the vehicle on Craigslist.  Within 4 minutes, he had an offer on the vehicle, within 8 minutes he had 4 more offers.  10 more people called or texted or emailed within 12 hours.   24  hours later, the vehicle has been sold - for a few hundred dollars more than we had originally thought we'd get.   That certainly helps with the down payment for the vehicle.  Now we just need to sell the Jeep and our payments will be much closer to what the Jeep was when we first bought it.  Not bad for a brand new 2013 vehicle!  (I'm going to need a new car in 2 years, hopefully we can have this one paid off and have a decent down payment for me!)

That's a lot of writing for a post, but we're both very excited about what this new chapter in life is bringing us.

A Car? Maybe? Who Knows?

Up until about 5 minutes ago, we think this is the car we're getting. 
Unfortunately, the dealer just called and renigged on the price. 

We Bought a Car!

OMG, I thought Adam and I would  never agree on a car.  A sporty wagon, small, good gas mileage for him, and a family friendly with storage for me.  Did we find it? After researching, and test driving MANY vehicles, we finally agreed on one.  He loved it, I actually was SUPER impressed with it.  We bought one right there on the spot.

This Kid Loves Water!!

We have so much fun every year at Koa's pool party, this year was no exception.  The boys get along great, us parents love to get together, this is easily one of our favorite parties of the year.  The weather was beautiful.  Well worth the drive a couple times a year to Pittsburgh.  

Sure I'll jump off the diving board alone, without anyone there to catch me!

Slides? No problem!

The Answer is..... Drum Roll Please.....

..... something that we weren't originally looking at!  *Sound the trumpets!*  I'm excited! 

We drove the Focus again Monday.  It worked MUCH better than what it did the first time.   The guy still blamed Adam on not knowing how to drive stick right, but I was there, Adam drove it exactly the same way the second time, AND he ALWAYS drives a manual, so he knows what he's doing. Aside from being cramped as Hell, it's a very nice ride.  That being said, I have no desire to ride in a car with my knees in my chest.  (They did not hit the dashboard when Adam configured the car-seat differently, but were about 1/4" away, and when Adam slammed on the brakes for a quick changing red light, I hit the dash.) I like the car - really like it for two, maybe three people, but it's not family friendly.

I realized that the only reason we're getting another car is so that the four of us can go on trips together without always  using my vehicle.  He doesn't need one to go to work and back (for now he uses a work vehicle), he doesn't need one to hold all 4 of us, because he has the Jeep if he really  needs to take both kids somewhere without me being around, and if I'm around we have my car, although it's not ideal to only drive my car around, all of the vehicles work just fine.  

Now, Adam has finally come to the realization that's he's being extremely unrealistic.  Thank goodness.  I understanding him wanting a specific type of vehicle because it's cool, but at this point in our life, it's just not going to happen - we have kids, and they are the reason for the new vehicle, after all. 

Here's his opinions of any results that may come up in vehicle searches:

Versa - Ugly
Matrix - Cheaply made
Focus hatch - Too small
Fit - Too small
3 hatch- Too small
5 hatch- Too big
Accord hatch- Too big
Ford C - Ugly/$$
Elantra hatch - Ugly - but will test drive
Soul - Ugly
Fiesta - Too Small
Mini- Too Small/$$
Fiat - Won't consider
Scions - Ugly/Small, varies
GMC - Won't consider
Chevy - Won't consider
Subaru - Bad gas mileage/$$
BMW/Audi- Maintenance issues
Anything else - no, no, no, no

So now, he's considering a Honda Civic.  It's still (fairly) small, but not ridiculous, it's reliable, good gas mileage, four doors and should* fit all 4 of us.  Goodness, I sure hope it does, because it's what I've been pushing him towards for months now.  He'd ALWAYS liked the Civic, until the hatch's came out, and that's what he's wanted since then.  So off we go to search AutoTrader for an affordable Civic.  Wish us luck!

Out of Order

The posts, that is. 

Friday night we took Ares to see Monsters University.  The movie was pretty good, we all enjoyed it (and the ice cream afterwards).  The best sound ever is hearing your child laugh, and I must say, the movie did that.

Adam and I enjoyed it.  It wasn't as good as the first one, we were expecting some more adult humor, seeing as they are in a fraternity, but it was still entertaining enough for us to recommend it to others and to keep our attention. 

Saturday we went to Cristal, Paul, Koa and Kanani's house for their annual swim party.  We had a great time, another post to follow with pictures of fearless Ares KW Miller.

Sunday was a really nice and relaxing-ish day.  We knew we wanted to look at some cars at noon, but were up and moving well before that.  So we took our showers, watched some cartoons, went outside and played football and golf, ate lunch and then headed out.   

Look at that form!



Eat my knees.

Uncomfortable (and ugly).

The car search was a bust.  The car I liked didn't fit all 4 of us comfortably in the car (read: my knees hit the dash) and the car Adam liked fit us all, (fit is relative, it was awful) but was BY FAR the most uncomfortable seat I've ever sat in.  I think I'd rather be eating my knees than sit in that seat for a half hour.   Adam just doesn't seem to understand "family car" very well.   Naturally, he doesn't want to buy a car that he doesn't like, which makes perfect sense, but he doesn't seem to want to buy a car that works for the whole family either - which is the ONLY reason he's buying a car - since the other two run fine.   Right now, the only thing he likes are wagons, and vehicles with 30+ MPG.  There's two he'll consider - he drove both.  Neither work.  He doesn't need a car to go to work in (right now) since he drives a company car, this vehicle will strictly be driven on weekends and to Cinci to save my car a few more years - essentially, will ONLY be used when the family is with him. 

 

(Can you tell I don't follow/understand him at all? hahaha, I am, and will always be the practical one, and him - well, he's not and never has been (I knew this when I married him - so it's not a surprise to me) but I just don't understand how not to be practical in this scenario and my not understanding is frustrating me, in turn frustrating him.  A giant cycle of me not understanding and him getting frustrated. )

(both of these pictures are stock photos from google:search - i think automobilemag).