6 Months

So, I'm 6 months now..Once I hit the 20 week mark it started to go by a little quicker. I just don't do well with the first trimester. I hate not enjoying food. :) I am tired of being tired if that makes sense. I'm so tired all of the time and it's so hard with a 2 year old. I just want one day to sleep and do nothing and have zero responsibilities all day long. I can't even imagine what that's like anymore. One day! hehe. I love my boys..it's all worth it. Sleep would be nice though.

Doing good so far. I have my next apt next week where I test my blood sugar. I am a little worried because I am a sugar pheen right night. I eat a lot of candy. I will definitely limit it next week, but I think it's mainly because of Halloween and all of the candy. It's constantly around. Definitely not working out as much with this one, which sucks. I feel SO soft and out of shape It's going to take soooo long to get back in shape. I'm so used to being in decent shape and working out a lot. I haven't been this lazy in 10 years!! On one hand I think to myself that it's the only time in my life I will be able to do this, but then on the other I think of how hard it's going to be to get back in to it once the baby is here. I walk atleast a few times a week and chase Dylan around constantly, so hopefully that will be enough. I think I have gained like 10 pounds...maybe a little more. I will find out next week for sure. I gained 30 with Dylan, so I'm trying to stayaround that weight if not less. We will see. I'm definitely enjoying that aspect of this pregnancy this round...being lazy. :)

We are nowhere near ready for the nursery. We haven't bought the crib or done pretty much anything. We just know we will have guests for Thanksgiving, so I think once that passes, we will really start putting it together. We know we have time I guess, I just hope it doesn't creep up on us. We are not sure on names yet...we have one front runner. Caden John Harper. We like it and how the name flows. Mike's dad had a boy and his name Harper will be forever..so we decided to put my dad's name as the middle name. I think it works great with Caden. We will probably call him Cade. We like that name, but it didn't flow that well with John, so we made it longer to Caden..but will probably call him Cade. It's not for sure yet, but it's our front runner at this time.

Dylan is doing great! He's my little sweetheart. I never think I can love that kid more, but each day I just wake up to his sweet smile and just can't believe how much I love him. Mike and I fight over his attention, it's cute. We smother that boy in cuddles and kisses..he will either be gay or VERY in touch with his femanine side. Either are fine. :) hehe. He is definitely a 2 year old boy at the same time. He got his first spankin the other day from MIke. He yells at us and spits and things like that. That we will not tolerate. So, Mike did time out, bed time, everything and he kept doing it, so Mike popped him on the butt once. He wasn't sure what to think. We definitely won't make a habit of it, but he atleast knows there are consequences if he does things like that. He says he is sorry after and gives us big hugs and kisses, so we can't stay mad for long. I talk to him about the baby and ask him if he's going to teach his brother his abc's since he knows them so well right now..he says yes. I just hope there isn't a lot of jealousy when new baby gets here. They are less than 3 years apart, so hopefully we can shower Dylan with lots of love to show him he is loved too. Maybe we should read a book or something? hehe.

We are STILL trying to sell this house!! I feel like we are going to own it forever! We took it off the market for over a month and have since made some updates. Now, we just hope someone bites. I'm so tired of the long drive to work and just this area..it's not that bad, but just tired of it. We are ready to get back to Austin! I miss my family. It's hard having no support system here. I can't imagine how much harder with 2. I just hope everything works out how we want for once! Selling the house is the first part to that. So, keep your fingers crossed.

Mike and I are planning a vacation to Monterrey Cali next year in September. It seems sooo far away, but I want time to plan and save and do it right. We have only been on our honeymon and to Vegas in the last 10 years. We are definitely due for some fun!! I just hope we can afford it. We shall see.

We just had Halloween. Dylan did great. He was unsure at first and didn't want to wear the costume, but he warmed up evetually and had a good time. He then helped us hand out candy to all the rest of the kids. It was fun.

Work is absolutely insane right now. Just so busy and so stressful. I'm ready for a change..I am doing all the work as a manager and even more...but not getting paid for it or the title. My VP said a promotion is in the works for me, I just hope it's sooner rather than later. I would like to get to Austin with a manager title. So, I'll definitely be pushing for that in November. I think I deserve it! :)

Well, I think that's about it. Hope this was a good update. I really do want to get better about this. It's nice reading back with the first pregnancy to see everything we went through. I'll try to do this atleast a few times a week.

Love,
Jill

Half Way Mark

Well, I made it to the half way mark! It has gone by pretty fast, but not fast enough. I'm just not a good pregnant person..ready to meet the new baby in our lives. Not yet though of course. ;) I am 21 Weeks tomorrow, so tomorrow I can even say I'm over the half way mark. It's going ok..work is very stressful right now. I am at a point where it's beyond stressful, I'm working at night, weekends etc. Mike gets frustrated every now and then because he has to do a lot of work with chores, Dylan, etc becuase I'm having to work so much. I think the frustrating part is doing all of the work as manager, but not actually having the title or the pay. I plan on talking to my boss in November, my 2 year mark to see what the plan is for me. I really do feel I should be compensated for the work and as much as they are asking of me lately. We will see what happens. I get freaked out every now and then thinking about paying for 2 daycares, but I don't have to really stress about that until April/beginning of May, which is still 7 or 8 months away..so, for now I would like to focus on the baby and getting ready for him. So far, he is healthy and growing as he should. I feel SO much bigger than the first round. When I look back at pics from my first blog, I was this big at like 30 weeks! I have heard you do get bigger sooner with the second, but geez..it's ridiculous. I have my next apt tomorrow. It's just a standard apt though where I get to hear the heartbeat and make sure all is going ok. I always get excited to hear his heartbeat. But, I can start to feel him kicking. It feels like gas bubbles, but I do feel it when it's bed time. We are debating names. We know the middle name"John", but we aren't sure of a first yet. We have a few in mind, I wanted something a little different...but I think we want to be sure what we want before we tell everyone. I just want to say this is it and not have people say they don't like it or whatever. So, we are still debating and will hopefully have a name for him soon. :) As far as the nursery, we are going to keep Dylan in his room and turn the guest room into the new nursery. We will get a new crib since Dylan's is not that great and was pretty cheap the first round. I'm woking on getting both rooms set up..I think we might go with more of a sports theme in new babies room instead of cars like Dylans. I don't know. If we get an apartment and sell the house soon, we won't have to worry about it.

The house goes back on the market in a few weeks. I'm read, we have redone the bathroom floors, repainted and touched up quite a bit. I hope it's easier to sell this round. I'm just ready to be done with this entire process and this neighborhood. Not that it's that bad, but just so tired of being in the car for 3 hours a day when we could spend that with Dylan.

Anyways, all is going great here. Just a bit overwhelmed at the moment, especially not having much help. We will be great though. I know it. :) Everything always works out.

Good night new baby Harper and everyone.
Love,
Jill

15 weeks

So, I'm 15 weeks today and already tired of it. :) No, it's actually going a little quicker than the first time, but not fast enough. I'm just not a good prego person. The weeks do seem to fly by though since this time I have a job. I am feeling better lately, but still not liking food as much as usual. I know I love food, but not right now. I"m also so tired by the end of the day. I'm really trying to work out more, but it's just so hard not having as much time these days. I have been doing better lately though and atleast doing 2 miles every other day and then weights in between.

Things are going good, so busy with work. I work my butt off every day and get so tired of the stress and working on Sundays, etc. I need to get paid more for this much stress. :) I am taking on more roles and new responsibilities so it's about to get more stressful.

As far as the baby is concerned, great news. We actually get to find out what it is in less than 2 weeks. We were going to have to wait until the beginning of October, but I talked them into letting me do it on my next apt when I'm 17 weeks. I am pretty excited and nervous. I do hope it's a girl.. but will love whatever it is.. I might be disappointed for a hot second just because I can't dress the boy up in tu tu's. :) But, I guess we will see. I still do think it's a girl, I"m usually right. It's hard not to second guess myself though when the nurse was sure she saw something last time. I still think girl though. I'll keep everyone posted.

Mike is actually starting to apply for good jobs in Austin..he is going to be really picky and if one happens to come up that is awesome paying, he will take it and we will figure the rest out. Our biggest concern right now is money, we will be ok, but we want to be better than ok for once in our lives!! I am then going to bust my butt to find a great job in Austin as well after maternity leave. I think I'm at a good place in my career where I should definitely be making more money. So, I just hope this plan goes in place. We are just eager to get back to Austin and be financially ok with the new baby. We will do whatever we need to do to be ok..that's for sure.

Just wanted to post a pic of me at 15 weeks. I'm so much bigger than last time already. I wasn't even this big at 20 weeks with Dylan.

Here we are again!!!

Well,

Here we are again! Baby numero dos. I definitely am feeling mixed emotions these days about this one. We are SO excited, but also a little financially unsure about how we are going to pay this. I know in the end, we will be ok, we both make decent money and are smart about money, so I'm not too worried, but just want everything to be ok for us. We are finally at a place where we are doing really well financially, then we find out about this and we are hit with another payment. The more we think about it though and talk it through, the more we realize, everything will be fine. It will be very hard spending $1600 a month just in daycare, but it's not forever. We know that when they get a little older, all of this will be worth it. We won't be like this forever, that's the thing we are trying to keep in mind. It seems that everyone we know has someone, parents or another family member or even themselves to watch their kids, so I think we are the only ones we know, maybe a few others, that have to pay for daycare. Oh well, enough about harping on that. Now to get excited about the baby. We are pretty excited, but just waiting to find out what it is. We won't find out for another 6 weeks or something. I initially was for sure it was a girl. The dr did a sono and said she thought it was a girl too...I was sure. THEN, we went to a second appt and the nurse said she saw something and she thinks it's a boy..that was a week later from the first guess. I was pretty set on a girl and pretty excited about a girl. So, when she first said it, I actually cried a little. I felt bad if it is a boy and I was sad about it. I wasn't necessarily sad, boys are so much fun and I know what to do with a boy! :) But, I think I was just a little bummed because I had this vision in my head. No matter what, in the end, I will be excited about whatever it is. We just want a healthy baby. Plus, with a boy, I already have the bedding and lots of other boy stuff!! So, whatever God thinks we can handle, I guess we will get. I do know that after this, WE ARE DONE!!! No more..not even a question. 2 is enough for me and all that we are having.

So, I will hopefully continue the blog and keep everyone posted on everything. For now, we are having the baby in Mansfield at the same hospital. Of course, we would love to have the baby in Austin and be moved back, but it's not going to happen since I have to have a job. We are really trying to sell this house though(we just redid our bathroom floors, so I included a pic), so we can atleast be out from this thing keeping us here.

I'll be in touch!

Jill

way too long!!

Wow, I'm sorry it has taken me so long to update this. There has been so much going on with us since I last wrote, I don't even know where to begin. We are doing ok. We have had some bad luck strike us a few times, but we are a strong family and we will be ok. First off, we went on vacation recently and had a blast!! It was so great spending time with the family..Mike's and mine. Dylan was great on the plane ride, he slept the entire way back! I did ok on the plane too after a few beers. :) We got to spend time with both of our families. We had some boat time, pool time, relaxing time and crazy times. Mike and I got a few nights to ourselves which was great. One night we went out with Mike's sister and her husband and a friend. Every bar we went in to was just a really cool place. We went on a sunset cruise the next night, which was a lot of fun too. Mike's mom watched Dylan for us a few times, which was so sweet. Then my parents watched him the other night. Let's see what else? We got back and our a/c was out. We coudln't believe it. We had just spent $2300 on the ac before we left then we had to spend another 2300 when we got back. It was crazy. We honestly did not have that money because of everything else hitting us at once. It has been so hard trying to get savings back up and get back on our feet because if it's not one thing it's another. Well, to top the cake, Mike got laid off today. Yep..we couldn't believe it. We have been scramming to figure out a planon how to survive this. Mike's income is a big part of our income. I think I was in shock when we first found out but now it's setting in. I am stressing pretty bad, but slowly we are getting things figured out. We are hoping to find a daycare that will watch Dylan only the 2 or 3 days a week that we need it, instead of the full 5 days like we are doing now which is a lot of money especially because we are at the most expensive place I think there is. We love having him there though is the bad thing. Mike refinanced his truck, so that helped a little. We are also planning on selling the house. We could save about $400 a month selling, so we are going to try that. We had planned on putting it up in December anyways, so this is just a few, ok 6 months early! :) We are trying to stay positive along the way. Just another hurdle in our crazy lives.

Dylan is doing GREAT. He actually just went to his 1 year apt today. He was 25 lbs exactly and 30" I believe. He is in the 90th percentile on height. He is doing everything he should. She said he is doing great and developing great. We had to do 4 shots today! I really didn't want to do that many, but MIke seemed to think he would be fine and the risk of him getting sick definitely outweighed him getting autism or something from the shots. The dr also agreed with him, and I wouldn't forgive myself is something happend to him because I decided to go with what they recommended. Poor thing, they were bad shots. He cried so hard. But he was fine when he got his sucker afterwards. :) I am just having a BALL with him. I love him more and more everyday and get sad everyday when I have to drop him off at daycare. It makes me happy that Mike will be able to be with him more now, but it also scares me that he won't want to come to me anymore. He will be a daddy's boy and want nothing to do with mommy. I'm more happy that he gets to spend time with Mike more than anything I guess though. We had his party last weekend. We had a little white trash backyard pool party. :) It was pretty funny, but everyone was such good sports about it. The pool was a lot smaller than we though, but it was fine. Dylan loved the pool and the slip n slide. He had a blast. He wasn't too fond of his cake, but the next day he liked it. Mom was a huge help and I couldn't have pulled it all off without her, Thanks mommy!! Thanks to everyone that came, it was such a success and I'm so glad everyone came to help us celebrate D's birthday. I can't believe my baby is 1. April posted a comment on a pic of Dylan when he was first born and it made me look back at that day he was born and I get so giddy everytime. THe best day of my entire life was when he was born. I can't wait for another!! hehe. Lots to deal with in the next year first, but after that..yeah baby!! hehe

Mike is still going great in school. He has this summer then 2 more semesters to go! Geez, come on..I'm so ready for him to graduate! It's like our whole lives are on hold until he graduates. He is doing great though. He used to say all of the time though, if I just had more time for school. Well, he has a lot of time now so we will be hoping for all A's now! hehe.

I'm doing great. I'm loving my job still. It's still a littl intimidating and I feel like I still have so much to learn, but I am learning more each day. There is just so much to know in Marketing. My boss is great though and really tries to get me involved in everything. I get excited to learn more everyday.

I think that's about it for tonight. I promise I won't go as long anymore between posts. :)

Harper updates

At about 2am in the waiting room....

My poor baby...

after the austin 10K at Cynda's house.

Baby D at the sitters house.

My little naked boy hates wearing his diaper!! I had to chase him around wth it. But he doesn't mind anything on his head. Weird. :)

So cool with his bear hat and sunglasses on!!

Back to himself again!! yeah!!!! :) That's my happy boy.

Who needs to buy all of the expensive toys when you have pots!!! I think grandma got him hooked on that. hehe. Thanks Grandma! :)

Baby boy..

zooom zoomm

Dylan with Adam. (Mike's friend that came to visit.

Opening the gifts that Adam and Ali brought for Dylan.

Look at his Easter basket mommy and daddy got for him on Easter day.

Us sitting in the waiting room. :(

At the store. He loves to ride in the cart.

Adam wanted to wear a bib too!!!!!!

He loves to look in the mirror at the dr office.

awww, I wish I had two baby Dylans!!!

Well let's see what is new with us. We had a bit of a scare recently with baby D. We went to the horse races with some friends from out of town. As soon as Mike showed up with Dylan, he mentioned that he was warm. I took his temp and it was 104.3. We freaked out and called the dr. She said to get him home and in a bath. Mike stayed at the races and I rushed home and put him in a bath and gave him tylenol. It seemed to get his temp down so I gave him a bottle and put him down. I sat down to watch some tv and he started fussing about 45 mins later. I went to check on him and he felt very very hot! I checked his temp and he was 105.5!!! I freaked out and strippd him down and called Mike to come home. I immediately jumped in the tub with some of my clothes on and tried to get his temp down. He was very lathargic and would only lay his head on me. He couldn't even hold his head up. I was so terrified. His body kept jolting and I didn't know what was going on. I was just praying Mike got home soon because I had to stay calm atleast until then. I was just crying and praying he was ok. Finally Mike got home and we decided to take him to the ER. This was our first experience with this and for his temp to get so high, we just didn't know what to do. We got him in the car and I sat in the back with him. We were about 2 miles down the road and he started to have a seizure. His eyes rolled up and his whole body froze. I started screaming and crying to Mike. He pulled over and undressed him immediately. I called 911. I didn't know what else to do! I was nervous that I over reacted but I didn't care at that time. I just wanted to make sure my baby was safe! The firetruck and ambulance came and they took me and D to the hospital while Mike followed. Long story short, we waited 5 hours in the waiting room and never even registered. It was ridiculous! We decided to leave. By this point Dylan was just so tired. His fever had broke and he was just very tired. We just wanted to get him home in bed! We got home about 5am and were just so tired. We only got about 4 hours of sleep until we had to get up with our friends. We didn't want to be bad hosts. Luckily they were totally fine just hanging around the house all day. That night we got to go out to dinner then later on played cards and had some drinks. We had a great time with them!! They bought Dylan a ton of clothes. So nice. Overrall it was a great weekend!! Dylan went back to the dr on Monday and she diagnosed him with Roseola? Something like that. He is 100% back to himself today though. He feels great. His congestion is gone and he is just the happiest thing. It makes me so happy!!! Other than all of this mess, we are all doing pretty good. Mike has been busy with school but luckily work isn't all that busy. I have been swamped at work but I love it. It's great. I am learning a lot and I am so busy. I don't think I have ever had a job where I was so busy and didn't have time for personal things. :) I am just trying to learn as much as I can. We are getting so excited about Key West. We need a vacation so bad!! We only have alittle over a month to go and we can't wait. I have so much coming up that I am planning. We have Dylan's birthday, my sisters little sprinkle for the next baby, my niece and nephew will be coming up in July and then something else, I can't even remember!!! So busy! I have to find time for everything. I will manage some how. :) Oh, we just got our electricity bill and it went from $430 to $35!!! wow!! Love it!! We didn't use it a lot last month and then the new a/c unit i'm sure helped. Now I can handle that kindof bill!

Well enjoy the pics!

Hey Hey

sam watching the polar bears on tv.

Wind chimes from mom. Thanks mom, I LOVE THEM!!!

books from aunt April and nana and paw paw. Thanks guys!

From aunt Rachel, thanks aunt Rach!!!

Getting ready to have his surgery.

In the hospital about to go in.

Lets see what is going on with us. Dylan just had his surgery and did great! We had to be there at 5:30am. The surgery wasn't until 7:30 and I didn't leave the hospital until 10. It was only a 10 min surgery too! hehe. It was ALL worth it though because you can just tell he feels 100 times better. I'm so happy. He got 2 awesome goody bags from aunt Rachel and then my fam. He may not be old enough to appreciate the things, but we sure are!! hehe. Thanks again guys, we love everything!!! :) We have such great families. We also got some good news that we didn't have to end up buying the outside unit, which was going to be another 1600!! Mike's friend fixed it and saved us all that money. I gave him a big hug!! hehe. Maybe things will finally start to turn around financially for us. Hope so.

We have lots of fun things going on this weekend. It's Mike's birthday, so we are headed to dinner tomorrow night and then an Easter thing on sat and then Church and brunch on Sunday. I'm excited. Then next weekend we head to Austin for the 10K. I'm so excited to go back to Ausitn. We haven't been back since Christmas! That's a long time for us. We have to kennel Kramer this time. It's just getting so hard to travel anywhere and find a place for the dogs. We will never have 3 dogs again, it's just too much, but we love the ones we have so it's hard to get rid of any of them.

Ummm Mike finally has a graduation date, May next year. Yeah!! we are so excited.

well, I'm sorry this is short, i'm sleepy....

write more later

Jill