Night Terrors {Hanley}

One day last week I was busy all day helping out my mother in law so Hanley had to stay at my sister in laws house. She was practically there the entire day and had no nap. That night I put her to bed just like any other night. We went through our routine of brushing teeth, going potty, jammies, reading books, then laying down. About an hour or 2 into her being asleep, she woke up crying. She was laying on her back with her hands up toward the ceiling saying "hold me mom" with her eyes closed. I went to her like I normally would if she wakes up and isn't  soothing herself back to sleep. I tried putting her pacifier back in her mouth and she was refusing it which never ever happens, which should've been my first clue.

So I pick her up and sit down in the glider in her room and she just keeps yelling "no mom, no mom, no mom" over and over and over. Nothing would break her from saying that nonstop. I noticed her eyes were still mostly closed so I turned on her lamp and her eyes opened but she got mad. She slid off of my lap, onto the floor and started screaming at the top of her lungs at me. She's never even done that on a bad day so I had no clue what was going on. I was so confused, I just kept saying "what?? Hanley, what is wrong?" My only thought while this is all happening was that she was in pain for some reason.

So Michael comes in her room because he heard her screaming at me and then she just started saying "no dad, no dad, no dad!" And screamed a couple more times... We kept asking her if she was in pain and what was wrong but she just kept saying "no".

Then all of the sudden, like the flip of a switch, she was her sweet normal self and said "hold me mom" and so I picked her up and cradled her while sitting in the glider and she drifted back to sleep almost instantly.

So strange and confusing. I put her back to bed and researched it some and according to Baby Center "Night terrors are sleep disturbances in which a child may suddenly bolt upright in bed, cry, scream, moan, mumble, and thrash about with her eyes wide open, but without being truly awake. Because she's caught in a sort of a twilight zone between being asleep and being awake, she's unaware of your presence and isn't likely to respond to anything you say or do. They commonly have night terror in the first few hours of the night, during deep non-dream (non-REM) sleep. An episode can last anywhere from five to 45 minutes, and when it's over your child falls back to sleep abruptly with no memory of the incident. Don't try to wake her. And expect that your efforts to comfort her will be rebuffed — a child having a night terror really can't be calmed down, and if you try to hold her it may make her wilder."

After reading all of that, it was very clear what Hanley was going through was a night terror. It was pretty much exactly how the website explained it, to a T. Now that she's had one and I am aware, I will react differently and know how to better handle the situation (or lack thereof).

Gender Reveal {baby #2}

And our newest little baby Nemitz is a ... BOY!!

We easily settled on the name Conrad River Nemitz! We had a fairly difficult time coming up with some good boy names over the years (we are always discussing names!)

I had no idea what to think because my dreams were all over the place with different genders of babies and I had no feelings or intuition like I did when I was pregnant with Hanley!

When I was around 14 weeks pregnant, I had an ultrasound and the tech asked if we were finding out the gender and said she was thinking it was a boy but obviously at 14 weeks, couldn't be positive. We were having our anatomy ultrasound at 18 weeks so we decided not to get hung up on 'boy' just yet in case it was a misread.

We both kind of wanted another girl; familiar territory, we have another killer girl name and I saved ALL of Hanleys clothes. No big deal, I'm even more happy to know I will at least have one of each boy and girl if this is where we stop! I feel like its the perfect family!

While I've been starting to go through and sell 90% of Hanleys old clothes I saved, our car seat, stroller and a lot of 'gear' is gender neutral. So far I've sold a large basket of Hanleys old clothes and replaced those with new boy clothes for Conrad! I do have to say boy clothes just aren't as cute as girl clothes! lol

When we found out Hanley was a girl, I couldn't find any 'theme' I wanted for her nursery so I went with a color theme that would easily transition from baby to toddler and up. But with Conrads room, I was pretty set on a (vintage) aviation theme pretty early on. If it wouldn't have been aviation, I would've went with another color theme. The aviation theme I am going with won't be 'babyish' so it will easily be transitional. I have so many great ideas, I can't wait to get it going!!

Hanley is getting excited, I do think. Sometimes she comes up to me and says "I wanna hug brother!" And she will start pulling up my shirt and give my belly a hug; its soooo cute!!!

Halloween 2014

Halloween was so much fun this year! Hanley loved every minute of it. She dressed as Cheer Bear - her favorite care bear!

Funny story- when Hanley was around a year old, maybe a year and a half, we all were at a children's consignment shop and Michael found this pink care bear for $1 and wanted it for Hanley. I, on the other hand, was against the stuffed bear. She already had a ton of stuffed toys and doesn't really care about many of them and they take up so much space. He insisted and so I told him to go ahead. Well what do ya know, she loves that silly bear! It's her favorite and she sleeps with it every night.

Not long after that trip to the store, I was going through some things I had stored away for Hanley, like clothing for upcoming seasons. I spotted a pink Care Bear costume someone must've handed down to us and much to my surprise, it had the exact same rainbow design on the belly! I got excited for Hanley and checked the size on the tag, which was a 2T. Perfect!

Halloween where we live is typically pretty cold. Her costume was so warm, especially if she had on sweats underneath. Hanley actually got to go trick or treating 3 times this season! We took her to Boo at the Zoo and then Michael and I took her out trick or treating in a relatives neighborhood the week before Halloween. It was actually a fairly warmer evening and she got half a bucket full of candy. It was cute watching her up at the doors, she would say "trick or treat". Most of the time the kids got to pick their own pieces of candy and Hanley would always go for suckers if they were available, which are her favorite. 9 out of 10 times she would say "thanks" on her own.

My mother in law and brother in law came with us trick or treating again the night before Halloween. It was much chillier and again, got about half a bucket full of candy.

She never fussed, never refused to go and was always happy. It might've helped that we were either pushing her in her car or pulling her in her wagon, sometimes right up to the door. She still talks about going trick or treating some days!

Although she wouldn't wear the hat/head of the bear, I didn't see any other Care Bears while out trick or treating! I already can't wait until next year!!

Hanleys 2 Year Check Up

Hanley had her 2 year check up well  appointment yesterday.

She's a hefty girl weighing in at 31lbs (90th percentile) and 34 in tall (74%). It was a good checkup - nothing out of the ordinary. She was very excited to have the doctor check her ears, eyes, and heartbeat since she constantly plays with her own pretend doctor bag.

When the nurse came back in to give her the flu mist and her hepatitis shot I got a little nervous. She did so well with the flu mist, she kept sniffing in and didn't object to it at all. They actually had to prick her finger for a lead test checkup and collect a sample of blood. She didn't even flinch with the finger prick or try to pull away as he collected all the blood. She did so well, the nurse kept commenting on her demeanor on all of it. Then time came for her hepatitis shot in her thigh - and I even said "well don't speak too soon, she might not like this one very much..." but he warned her, squeezed her thigh and poked her with that needle and she barely flinched and never teared up even a little bit. It almost made me sad because she's such a big girl and seriously so easy going and sweet spirited. She was so excited after it was all done because I was telling her how proud I was of her and she got bandages so that's always a plus to her. She was telling people in the waiting room and then the grocery store that she got a shot "but it's ok" is what she would say haha silly girl!

Also, her doctor said "how is she already 2!?!?" Right!!! She said there's certain children she always remembers, especially their names and that Hanley has always been up there as one she remembers and has always been very beautiful. She said she remembers when she first came in as a newborn and I thought that was very sweet.

1st Trimester Update {baby #2}

I'm closely approaching the 2nd trimester of my second pregnancy. It seems so crazy to me that we are here again - we chose this but it's a little surreal.

I found out very early, 3 weeks to be exact. It seemed a little too early to take a test but I had a very strong intuition and the test very quickly confirmed that!

One thing that tipped me off, I was waking up in the middle of the night to pee and I have been sleeping through the night since Hanleys been sleeping through the night so that was a little odd to me. Another thing, I was getting up in the morning and not feeling like I could wake up. I was so fatigued and that wasn't normal for me.

So I stuck Hanley in her wagon and walked up the street to the drugstore and purchased a pack of tests. A "pack of tests" thinking I would need more than one because it was very early. Wrong...

Hanleys 2nd birthday party was around 8 weeks away and I had told Michael before getting pregnant I thought it might be fun to announce it then!

So I had my first doctor appointment at 8 weeks. Nothing special, just the routine check up, blood work, and questions. My next doctor appointment was around 3 weeks later, the day before Hanleys 2nd birthday party and it was an ultrasound. It was nice to have an ultrasound picture to have for her birthday party. The baby was itty bitty but there, actually must've been sleeping because it never moved, not once, during the ultrasound. The heartbeat measured at 164bpm.

I had another ultrasound last week, at 12 weeks, for the down syndrome testing. I opted to do the testing only because I knew it included another ultrasound and posed no threat to the baby. The tech ultimately wasn't able to get a good enough picture but I never rescheduled because the outcome of the test won't change anything. It was just nice to see the baby again. The baby was a complete wiggle worm this time and flipped, flopped, and hiccupped all over my belly. The heartbeat then was 160bpm.

I have another doctor appointment, just the regular monthly checkup, at 17 weeks (4 weeks away). And then we do the anatomy scan just a week and 2 days after that, at mid 18 weeks!

I'm thankful for (so far) an easy going 2nd pregnancy. Hanleys was a breeze, except for sciatica for a few weeks at the tail end. Never any morning sickness, heartburn, or anything else. I gained exactly 30 with Hanley, which is what was recommended and so far this time I haven't gained any just yet. (Which never makes any sense to me because I clearly have more of a belly than I normally have not pregnant yet the scale hasn't moved?????)

Kids can be so Cruel

We are in Chicago on vacation visiting my brother and his family. It's pretty cold today and the kids were itching to get out of the house. We took them to the mall to play in this big tree house play area and some boy around Hanleys age squeezed Hanleys face as hard as he could, TWICE, with his nails too, and made her bleed.

It took everything in me not to punt him and I made him take me to his mom.

I brought Hanley with me to his mom and I told and showed her what happened and she said "He's normally a pretty good kid" and I said "Well he obviously is going to need watched a little better" and she said "Well I can't watch him every second since I have him" (because she had a smaller baby on her lap) and I said " She's bleeding!! If you can't watch him better then maybe he shouldn't be here at all!" And then they left.

I cried and cried and cried. I couldn't stop because I was so angry. Plus, I'm sure I'm a little hormonal haha

She did apologize and made the boy apologize (not that he knew why, I'm sure) but it wasn't enough for me at the time, not much would've been enough because I was so upset. Then I started to feel guilty later after I calmed down that they left because I'm sure it's tough with a little little one and then a toddler that wants to run and play. I might not have reacted so strongly but when Hanley was a little younger, she was playing at another mall play area and some boy just came up to her and bit her chin and left perfect teeth marks on her and I watched the whole thing and Hanley never provoked anything. You can actually read about the first biting incident here . She's such a sweet spirited girl, it makes me so mad these kids do this to her. That first time we just left and I didn't say anything to his parents, even tho I should have.

And apparently while I was gone shopping in a store nearby for 15 minutes before this incident, Hanley was trying to walk up or down the stairs and some girl basically put her in a choke hold and threw her down. So then, when I got back Michael said "I gotta go walk around for a couple minutes" because he was getting overwhelmed. There was tons of older kids running around and climbing up the slides, which is so annoying, when it was definitely for younger kids. It was chaotic since it was a Saturday and pretty chilly outside.

And I totally get that she might get knocked down or run into by bigger kids because she's small, dainty and young but I shouldn't have to worry about kids being cruel to her.

Happy 2nd Birthday Hanley Monroe

It's shocking to me how the second year of Hanleys life went even faster than the first! Who thought that was possible?? I certainly didn't!

So I originally was planning for a Daniel the Tiger 2nd birthday party. Then I slowly started to realize everything was Dora. She stopped asking for Daniel the Tiger and constantly started asking for Dora everything.

New plan : Ah-DORA-ble Fiesta birthday party!!

I planned to have her birthday party in our backyard with mostly family and closest friends. I personally never really wanted Hanley to like Dora the Explorer but oh well. One of the good things about having Dora as the theme of the party, pretty much any bright colors will be good to decorate with, and thats exactly what I used!

 

 Her party was a huge success in my book and I enjoyed making all of her decorations!

Also at her party, we announced that we are expecting our 2nd baby!! I had a box for her to open after all other presents were opened that contained a few books and a movie about being a big sister, a tee shirt that says "Big Sister" and also one of the ultrasound pictures from our doctor appointment we had just the day before. 

It was a huge surprise and we had been keeping this secret for nearly 8 weeks! I'm currently 11 weeks and it was so incredibly hard to keep quiet!

We hadn't even told Hanley about her going to be a big sister until her birthday surprise because she is so bright and talkative that we were afraid she would have spoiled it! Good thing we didn't tell her too, because after her party I was telling her all about how mommy has a baby in her belly and what that means, a few hours later I was going through her bedtime routine and reading her a few books before laying her down. I wasn't reading any books about baby's or anything relating to the topic and all the sudden, she cut me off saying "baby in da belly!!!" HAHA so she definitely would've slipped at some point, I believe! It was a great day and she had so much fun playing with all her little friends and cousins!

On the day of her actual birthday, I took her to the zoo in the morning and then later we took her to Chuck E Cheese!

 Happy Birthday beautiful girl!!