Wow, I can't believe how much I have neglected to stay up-to-date with this! Ever since we moved into our new house, it's been totally crazy & I never seem to remember to set aside time to type on here. I know it doesn't take very long either, which is why I'm a bit ashamed. However, I know there were times I aimed to type but waited since I wanted to add new pics of Marinne & Kameron for the entries, so I waited to do that at the same time. But, that always got put aside & still isn't ready so I figured I better not use that as my waiting excuse any longer. Well, not much I can do about it now, so I'll just try my best to pick up where I left off, and get pics posted as soon as I can since I have to have Buddy help me with this website upload.
Anyway, I have tons of pics to share from each week Marinne has been with us since the only ones on this website right now are from her newborn session. Hallween was a lot of fun for Kameron, and Marinne looked cute, even though she didn't have a clue what was going on & slept for all the trick-or-treating.
So yes, we have moved into our new house & out of our temp housing (two level hotel room), which has been a big blessing. We moved in Nov. 8 & as I said, it's just been crazy since then, plus with getting ready for Thanksgiving & Christmas. Our new house is beautiful, but we are still not completely unpacked. Although I will say we've made a lot of progress in just the short time we've been here, plus with the kids & holidays, but we still have things to hang/decorate & unpack. It will get there! Our new address is:
2016 E. John Dr.
Mahomet, IL 61853
November was filled with juggling both kids & moving in, holding two Huge PC parties, decorating for Christmas and then a trip back to our hometown (which is now only 2 hours away for us) for Thanksgiving. We didn't stay very long though since we all came down w/ strep throat (except for Marinne)! Fun! Luckily we enjoyed the eating festivities first! :)
So far in December we have had a little less of that overwhelming feeling since we have had help from family & time to just relax without worrying about getting everything done all at once! Buddy had a work Christmas party & then we had a neighborhood ladies Christmas party, followed by our own subdivision/work Christmas party. It proved to be a success & really helped us get to know people here. There are lots of kids in our area for Kameron to play with, so we are looking forward to that, especially the ones he'll go to school with.
Kameron started at a different preschool since we weren't completely happy with the one he started at once we first got here in late Oct. He goes three mornings a week. He will also start a full day program for two days a week next week. He has been having a lot of fun w/ Marinne & the new house, but is still reminded to be gentle!
As I mentioned, I've had two very big PC parties & now more to come from that, and from meeting people in our neighborhood & through Buddy's job, so looking forward to those starting back up in Jan. I'm not going to do quite as much as before, but still want to keep a good pace going & aim to earn the next incentive trip to Disney! We will go to FL in May for this year's trip (I didn't go for the big one this past year w/ all the fertility things & Marinne's arrival).
Marinne...where to I begin on here updates?! I bragged at how wonderful she did at sleeping at night on my last entry, and that has proven to be even better now that she's a little older. She is now sleeping 8-9 hours at night without waking up to be fed! Just amazing! She's been doing 7 or so hours since 6 weeks or so. She likes baths, loves her hair washed, but hates to be dried off & dressed! Kind of funny. We are out of newborn diapers & clothes but she is actually still fitting into some 0-3 month clothes, which is good I guess since she's a bit bigger than Kameron was! Her 2 month appt. (which was actually done at 2.5 months) showed her to be 90% for weight & 83% for height. The Dr. wasn't concerned at all though - I was mainly I guess since I was used to Kameron being so little (he was 10-25% almost every visit). She likes her cradle swing a lot more now & is really enjoying her crib mobile. She just loves to smile at that thing! Her activity mat is still a favorite & the bouncy seat has proven to be fun at times.
Well, I have lots more to say, but I need to run so I'll aim to pick up where I left off again soon & hopefully have pics to post, too!
Monday, December 29, 2008
Friday, October 31, 2008
4 weeks old
Already 4 weeks old, but not quite a month yet...that's kind of weird how that works out. Anyway, Happy Halloween! We plan to post some pics of the kids from tonight at some point to share the first Halloween with brother & sister. We will be heading to Normal for the evening to go trick-or-treating w/ our friends that we now only live 45 minutes away from!
So, updates since the last entry...we have moved out of our house & into temporary housing here in IL while we wait for our TN house to sell! It's been a crazy past couple of weeks, with just moving here last weekend, but we made it! LOTS of craziness as movers came & packed up our entire house & we found out we had a LOT more stuff than they anticipated (they filled up an entire semi & then had to call in another moving truck!). But, we also have two businesses packed up along with everything else. Moving out of our house was a bit bittersweet. That was the house we built from square one & picked out every detail for, but it's also the house that we have made so many memories in, mainly Kameron's past few years. However, this move is such a great thing for us in so many ways, that we have to look at that part as well. We'll have many more memories here, both in our temp housing & once we finally get into our new house! Our temp housing isn't bad, it's just very crammed for space & we are still having to live out of boxes to some degree. We've already ventured out to the apple orchard for their pumpkin festival & went to the mall's Halloween kids night w/ games, etc. so Kameron really enjoyed both.
Buddy is enjoying his new research engineering job here & Kameron jumped right in to loving his new preschool. I already have a couple PC parties booked & am in the process of trying to meet new people for that & to have some new friends here! I think not having a house yet has been the hardest for my job since it's hard to make contacts living in an extended stay hotel! But, I'm trying my best when I'm out and about.
As for Marinne, she is such a wonderful baby! She's been great & we're enjoying each day w/ her. She's awake a bit more now & started to grin back this past week! Her nights have been amazing for her age really...she'll have a good 4 to 5 plus hours at least once a night where she won't wake up; well, most nights anyway! Then it's about 3 to 4 hours...except for the other night she wanted to stay awake just to be up for 3 hours! At least she wasn't screaming during those hours. She's still sporting her newborn clothes, which I'm enjoying while I can. She has started enjoying her play activity mat & gazing at all the colors & hearing the sounds everything makes. She still enjoys her cradle swing for the most part, but if she's tired, she'd rather sleep in someone's arms; go figure. That's hard to not take part in everytime though! We have her sleeping in a snuggle nest at night, just like we did w/ Kameron & that has been just fine.
Kameron is still really enjoying being around Marinne & is getting better knowing that he must be gentle when he touches her. He's really wanted to help with things as well, so that's been good for him since he wants to be part of everything. He's adjusted pretty good to the housing arrangement, and it's been a bonus for him since he has his own king bed here & didn't have that at home!
So, updates since the last entry...we have moved out of our house & into temporary housing here in IL while we wait for our TN house to sell! It's been a crazy past couple of weeks, with just moving here last weekend, but we made it! LOTS of craziness as movers came & packed up our entire house & we found out we had a LOT more stuff than they anticipated (they filled up an entire semi & then had to call in another moving truck!). But, we also have two businesses packed up along with everything else. Moving out of our house was a bit bittersweet. That was the house we built from square one & picked out every detail for, but it's also the house that we have made so many memories in, mainly Kameron's past few years. However, this move is such a great thing for us in so many ways, that we have to look at that part as well. We'll have many more memories here, both in our temp housing & once we finally get into our new house! Our temp housing isn't bad, it's just very crammed for space & we are still having to live out of boxes to some degree. We've already ventured out to the apple orchard for their pumpkin festival & went to the mall's Halloween kids night w/ games, etc. so Kameron really enjoyed both.
Buddy is enjoying his new research engineering job here & Kameron jumped right in to loving his new preschool. I already have a couple PC parties booked & am in the process of trying to meet new people for that & to have some new friends here! I think not having a house yet has been the hardest for my job since it's hard to make contacts living in an extended stay hotel! But, I'm trying my best when I'm out and about.
As for Marinne, she is such a wonderful baby! She's been great & we're enjoying each day w/ her. She's awake a bit more now & started to grin back this past week! Her nights have been amazing for her age really...she'll have a good 4 to 5 plus hours at least once a night where she won't wake up; well, most nights anyway! Then it's about 3 to 4 hours...except for the other night she wanted to stay awake just to be up for 3 hours! At least she wasn't screaming during those hours. She's still sporting her newborn clothes, which I'm enjoying while I can. She has started enjoying her play activity mat & gazing at all the colors & hearing the sounds everything makes. She still enjoys her cradle swing for the most part, but if she's tired, she'd rather sleep in someone's arms; go figure. That's hard to not take part in everytime though! We have her sleeping in a snuggle nest at night, just like we did w/ Kameron & that has been just fine.
Kameron is still really enjoying being around Marinne & is getting better knowing that he must be gentle when he touches her. He's really wanted to help with things as well, so that's been good for him since he wants to be part of everything. He's adjusted pretty good to the housing arrangement, and it's been a bonus for him since he has his own king bed here & didn't have that at home!
Friday, October 17, 2008
2 weeks old
I didn't mean to wait this long to update my blog, but as you can likely imagine, extra time has been pretty hard to come by!
Marinne (which, by the way, I have found out some aren't sure how to pronounce...see last posting for that) is two weeks old as of yesterday, and we are loving every minute of it (well, lets be honest...not really loving the missing sleep, but oh well). She has been just the sweetest baby. The first week was pretty much just sleep a lot & up just long enough to eat & back asleep she went! I know that's typical, but we rarely saw her eyes open that first week. This past week has been a bit better. She's still sleeping a lot of course as a newborn, but we are seeing her eyes open & she's awake a bit more now during the day. She's had some pretty good nights really for a newborn. A few nights ago she went 5 hours without waking to eat! Most other nights she'll go 2-4 hours for each segment. During the day it's 2-3 hours. There have been some times she's hungry after about an hour and a half, but not a lot.
We've had fun w/ Kameron & her photo session, and some pics from that session are posted under the photo galleries on the main page. Kameron is really enjoying his new baby sister...he just needs to work a little more on remembering not to use his outside voice while inside, and that Marinne is a baby so we must be gentle!
At her appt. yesterday she weighed 7 pounds 15 oz. & is 20.25 inches long. Everything is just perfect & we're thinking her cord will be off soon. She goes back at 2 months for her next appt. & more shots - I'm not looking forward to that appt.!
In other news, we move out in less than a week! Wow! The movers start on Mon. & finish on Thurs. In the meantime, we have to go room by room to pack up on our own what we will be taking w/ us since the movers will take everything we won't be using in temp housing (which could be anywhere from weeks up to four months & we don't know how long). Buddy has his big Professional Engineering test on Friday that he's been studying for months now for & while he's doing that all day, the kids & I will be finishing up Dr. appt.'s & then heading to IL. We "move in" to our temporary housing on Sunday. I'm not really looking forward to it, but honestly, I don't think it will be too bad...at least for a while. We will be at a suite in an extended stay hotel, but luckily it's a really nice one w/ two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and upstairs, loft, full kitchen, etc. So, pretty much like a townhouse. Plus, the hotel ammenties include an indoor pool, fitness center, free breakfast daily & a cocktail each evening! So, I guess it will have it's perks, but I'm sure we'll be ready for our house after a while. We have a contract in on a brand new house, but still have to sell our current one first to get the other. So, here's to hoping a seller finds us soon!
Marinne (which, by the way, I have found out some aren't sure how to pronounce...see last posting for that) is two weeks old as of yesterday, and we are loving every minute of it (well, lets be honest...not really loving the missing sleep, but oh well). She has been just the sweetest baby. The first week was pretty much just sleep a lot & up just long enough to eat & back asleep she went! I know that's typical, but we rarely saw her eyes open that first week. This past week has been a bit better. She's still sleeping a lot of course as a newborn, but we are seeing her eyes open & she's awake a bit more now during the day. She's had some pretty good nights really for a newborn. A few nights ago she went 5 hours without waking to eat! Most other nights she'll go 2-4 hours for each segment. During the day it's 2-3 hours. There have been some times she's hungry after about an hour and a half, but not a lot.
We've had fun w/ Kameron & her photo session, and some pics from that session are posted under the photo galleries on the main page. Kameron is really enjoying his new baby sister...he just needs to work a little more on remembering not to use his outside voice while inside, and that Marinne is a baby so we must be gentle!
At her appt. yesterday she weighed 7 pounds 15 oz. & is 20.25 inches long. Everything is just perfect & we're thinking her cord will be off soon. She goes back at 2 months for her next appt. & more shots - I'm not looking forward to that appt.!
In other news, we move out in less than a week! Wow! The movers start on Mon. & finish on Thurs. In the meantime, we have to go room by room to pack up on our own what we will be taking w/ us since the movers will take everything we won't be using in temp housing (which could be anywhere from weeks up to four months & we don't know how long). Buddy has his big Professional Engineering test on Friday that he's been studying for months now for & while he's doing that all day, the kids & I will be finishing up Dr. appt.'s & then heading to IL. We "move in" to our temporary housing on Sunday. I'm not really looking forward to it, but honestly, I don't think it will be too bad...at least for a while. We will be at a suite in an extended stay hotel, but luckily it's a really nice one w/ two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and upstairs, loft, full kitchen, etc. So, pretty much like a townhouse. Plus, the hotel ammenties include an indoor pool, fitness center, free breakfast daily & a cocktail each evening! So, I guess it will have it's perks, but I'm sure we'll be ready for our house after a while. We have a contract in on a brand new house, but still have to sell our current one first to get the other. So, here's to hoping a seller finds us soon!
Saturday, October 4, 2008
We are home now!
Welcome home our sweet little Marinne Grace! We named her after two things - Marinne(pronounced Muh rin)is my sister's (that was killed in the car accident) middle name & Grace came from our church, Grace Community.
We are pretty tired & in need of some much deserved rest, but are home! Everything was pretty much perfect. I thought my labor experience w/ Kameron was really lucky, and then Marinne's was even better. My last post around 8 a.m. on Thurs. was right after the Dr. broke my water. Then I just continued to move along, but they did take me off Pitocin a bit after that since I was moving along so quickly & by keeping me on it, the baby's heart rate was decreasing more with contractions. So, I just continued quickly on my own & a little after 11 a.m., I started pushing. Amazingly, I only pushed through three contractions for a little less than 10 minutes worth, and there she was! I actually decided to watch this time & it was pretty incredible. My Dr. did find a small cyst after I had Marinne, but was able to easily take care of it so it's no longer an issue. Even my epidural was even less pressure/pain than w/ Kameron - not that it was even much w/ him.
I was so looking forward to my parents bringing Kameron up to meet his sister for the first time. It was pretty exciting & caught it all on camera & video, of course! He was soooo excited to meet her & just so cute w/ his little comments about how he loved her & wanted to be her big brother & hold her. Then, he made a point to tell me, "Mommy, your belly isn't big anymore - baby is out. And, now your toes & feet aren't puffy anymore!" I thought that was pretty funny that he picked up on how I had mentioned my feet being so puffy these last few weeks!
Now it's just recovery & enjoy time! I'm having quite a bit of cramping, as to be expected, but the drugs aren't really helping as much as they did yesterday. And, I'm having some side effects. Hoping for a better day tomorrow & some rest tonight!
Until next time, here are the pics from the hospital & more to come from the studio soon:
http://www.buddybartels.com/marinne-hospital/
You are welcome to come visit us!
We are pretty tired & in need of some much deserved rest, but are home! Everything was pretty much perfect. I thought my labor experience w/ Kameron was really lucky, and then Marinne's was even better. My last post around 8 a.m. on Thurs. was right after the Dr. broke my water. Then I just continued to move along, but they did take me off Pitocin a bit after that since I was moving along so quickly & by keeping me on it, the baby's heart rate was decreasing more with contractions. So, I just continued quickly on my own & a little after 11 a.m., I started pushing. Amazingly, I only pushed through three contractions for a little less than 10 minutes worth, and there she was! I actually decided to watch this time & it was pretty incredible. My Dr. did find a small cyst after I had Marinne, but was able to easily take care of it so it's no longer an issue. Even my epidural was even less pressure/pain than w/ Kameron - not that it was even much w/ him.
I was so looking forward to my parents bringing Kameron up to meet his sister for the first time. It was pretty exciting & caught it all on camera & video, of course! He was soooo excited to meet her & just so cute w/ his little comments about how he loved her & wanted to be her big brother & hold her. Then, he made a point to tell me, "Mommy, your belly isn't big anymore - baby is out. And, now your toes & feet aren't puffy anymore!" I thought that was pretty funny that he picked up on how I had mentioned my feet being so puffy these last few weeks!
Now it's just recovery & enjoy time! I'm having quite a bit of cramping, as to be expected, but the drugs aren't really helping as much as they did yesterday. And, I'm having some side effects. Hoping for a better day tomorrow & some rest tonight!
Until next time, here are the pics from the hospital & more to come from the studio soon:
http://www.buddybartels.com/marinne-hospital/
You are welcome to come visit us!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
We are at the hospital!
The day is here! We are at the hospital and have been here for a few hours now since early this morning. I started to feel increased contractions and closer together around 9:30 last night. They were 10 minutes apart and then by the time we left they were 4-6 minutes apart. After talking to the Dr. around 11:15, we headed for Nashville around 1a.m. I got my epidural around 4 (I think) and it was better than the one I had with Kameron. I was 3 cm at that point. They put me on a little Pitocin to help things move along comfortably. The only issue right now has been my blood pressure is low and the baby's heart rate is lower during my contractions, but that is better now that they have been able to regulate it more. My contractions are about 3 minutes apart now.
It's 8:00 now and I'm at 4 cm and my Dr. just broke my water so things are going well! I'll have Buddy update when he can but she'll be here today at some point! We will be here at Baptist until Sat. and feel free to come visit us!
It's 8:00 now and I'm at 4 cm and my Dr. just broke my water so things are going well! I'll have Buddy update when he can but she'll be here today at some point! We will be here at Baptist until Sat. and feel free to come visit us!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
38 weeks
Things are moving right along! My appt. on Tues. went well, but an unexpected 'progression' I guess you could say. My Dr. stripped my membranes, which I didn't realize she was going to do until it was happening, so needless to say, it's not the most fun experience! But, I do remember it from Kameron's pregnancy & it's supposedly done to help the process towards labor. It does cause some bleeding, but isn't a lot. I am a little more than 1 cm & 50% still, but the baby is not quite as high as she was last week. She felt her head this time, but she is still sitting higher than lower. She compared my office visit details to Kameron's pregnancy & I am actually a little farther along compared to Kameron's at 38 weeks. Having said that, neither of us are really to the 'I can't wait' point of having her make her appearance & she did say she doubted it would happen over the weekend, so likely I'll be back for next week's appt. We'd both rather the baby be ready than push things along faster, unless it gets to that point to where I can't take it or something else comes up.
My belly measured at 37 cm & the baby's heart rate was 140. I actually keep forgetting to ask my Dr. about the heart rate recently, but looked back to see it was 140 the week before & was 150 the two weeks before that. I only gained one pound over the past week, so I was pretty excited about that since it was almost 4 the week before! My Dr. said all is good though and I'm not at or passing up weight gain equal to number of weeks pregnant, which I guess they use to compare.
I am continuing to experience minor contractions & actually thought one episode last week was the real deal since I felt it three times within about 20 minutes, but then it went away, which will not happen with actual labor. My Dr. did say I will likely continue to get them & more often/more intense now that she has stripped my membranes, but so far I haven't really had anything different in the two days since then.
We are enjoying some just fun play time w/ Kameron! It's kind of nice to have Buddy come home from work & neither of us really have other obligations to take care of in the evening at all since we have now officially closed the photo studio & all my PC work is now just catalog/online parties. Not that we didn't have it under control with each of those things, since I can gladly say we did & put family first, but it's nice to just have these times to take advantage of while we can! We took Kameron to the zoo on Friday while I can still make it & enjoyed likely our last trip to the Nashville Zoo. Kameron LOVES animals! Last night we installed car seats & upgraded Kameron's since he'll outgrow the one he's in once he gains another 3- 4 pounds (and Kameron made it a special point to say he loved his brand new car seat this morning we he officially got to try it out; which is good since I put a lot of research into which one to get based on ratings/crash tests & maintain the latch system as long as possible). And we started getting baby gear & toys all washed up & put together from being in storage, so things are coming together to be ready to go when baby sister arrives!
For now, we just enjoy our time, and at the same time await the soon arrival of our new addition! I will go back to the Dr. on Tues. for my 39 week appt...unless someone decides to make her appearance sooner!
My belly measured at 37 cm & the baby's heart rate was 140. I actually keep forgetting to ask my Dr. about the heart rate recently, but looked back to see it was 140 the week before & was 150 the two weeks before that. I only gained one pound over the past week, so I was pretty excited about that since it was almost 4 the week before! My Dr. said all is good though and I'm not at or passing up weight gain equal to number of weeks pregnant, which I guess they use to compare.
I am continuing to experience minor contractions & actually thought one episode last week was the real deal since I felt it three times within about 20 minutes, but then it went away, which will not happen with actual labor. My Dr. did say I will likely continue to get them & more often/more intense now that she has stripped my membranes, but so far I haven't really had anything different in the two days since then.
We are enjoying some just fun play time w/ Kameron! It's kind of nice to have Buddy come home from work & neither of us really have other obligations to take care of in the evening at all since we have now officially closed the photo studio & all my PC work is now just catalog/online parties. Not that we didn't have it under control with each of those things, since I can gladly say we did & put family first, but it's nice to just have these times to take advantage of while we can! We took Kameron to the zoo on Friday while I can still make it & enjoyed likely our last trip to the Nashville Zoo. Kameron LOVES animals! Last night we installed car seats & upgraded Kameron's since he'll outgrow the one he's in once he gains another 3- 4 pounds (and Kameron made it a special point to say he loved his brand new car seat this morning we he officially got to try it out; which is good since I put a lot of research into which one to get based on ratings/crash tests & maintain the latch system as long as possible). And we started getting baby gear & toys all washed up & put together from being in storage, so things are coming together to be ready to go when baby sister arrives!
For now, we just enjoy our time, and at the same time await the soon arrival of our new addition! I will go back to the Dr. on Tues. for my 39 week appt...unless someone decides to make her appearance sooner!
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