May

The heat is back and we've been swimming every weekend this month. For Mother's Day, we spent the morning with Nana and Tom at their place and had a delicious breakfast.
 Then we headed to Corissa and Wayne's pool in Tustin and spent time with my family eating, swimming and having fun.
 
 We also got to spend a fun afternoon in May at Papa and Grancy's house where Hunter got to play with his cousin, Braden and Grandma MaryLou got to meet Skyler for the first time.

 Ending the month we had our annual Palm Springs trip with my family over Memorial Weekend. We all had a blast swimming, eating, going to the movies, playing a baseball game, shopping at the swap meet, playing a race car game for the kids, and just being together.

Skyler is 2 1/2 months old now and smiling nonstop. I've even heard one giggle. She is still a happy and easy baby so far. She sleeps 10-7 every night and eats every 3 hours. We all love her so much, she brings so much joy to our family.

Below is a pic of my 3 best girlfriends, Brandell, Michelle and Julie (my former bridesmaids) when they came out for a girls day at the pool.

April

The past 6 weeks have been amazing, busy, stressful, wonderful. Having 2 kids is such a blessing and I feel like our family is complete in so many ways. Thank goodness Skyler is an easy, content baby because Hunter has been quite a handful since we brought her home. He decided that the potty is an unnecessary interruption to his day and that throwing anything in sight is the most fun game ever. The lack of crying from Skyler Hunter makes up for in whining and chaos. We are trying to give him plenty of attention but its just going to take a while to get used to sharing the spotlight I suppose. He sure does love his "sissy" though and is still constantly trying to hug and kiss her throughout every day.

We celebrated Easter at Papa and Grancy's this year and Hunter loved playing with his cousins; Abby, Riley and Braden. They hunted for easter eggs and played all afternoon in the beautiful weather. Skyler soaked up all the love and snuggles she could from her amazing family. The next day Oma (my mom) took the kids and me to Carlsbad for a fun overnight vacation. We went in the pool, had delicious meals, played at the beach, and shopped at the outlets. It was a great little trip and loved the time we spent together with Oma. I went back to work on the 21st and will continue to work on Saturdays only while I start building a small hair service from our home during the week. To end a great month, we had a celebration at our house for Nana (Vicki) and Tom's wedding! There was tacos, margaritas, music, and family celebrating the happy couple's big day. It turned out beautiful and so much fun, and we are so happy that Nana found someone to make her so happy. Welcome to the family, Tom :)

Skyler Dawn Ehrlich

Skyler is here! March 16, 2012. 1:28 pm. 7 lbs 1 oz, 21 inches long, grey eyes and lots of dark brown hair. We were again blessed with a healthy, beautiful, easy baby, so far. We have to wake her up for most of her feedings and rarely hear her cry. We are unbelievably blessed and so thankful for our amazing family.

Well, the verdict is in. C sections are definitely the way to go. :) At least in my experiences, I am so glad that I had this surgery. I had no labor pains, no hours of misery followed by more pain. Just an appointment, a few hours of prep, a short procedure, and a beautiful baby girl in my arms. I must admit that recovery wasn't any easier than my first birth. Different, yes. But not much less or more painful or difficult. At least from what I can remember. Although I was released from the hospital much earlier this time, which was nice.

I was lucky enough to have Chase with me the entire time we were at the hospital and one day at home together. He stepped up like the amazing Daddy he is, changing diapers, doing his "burrito wrap" swaddle, and helping me with my needs as well. We are all so lucky to have him. The following few days my wonderful mother took time off of work to stay and help me. My grandma stayed the few days after that and then Chase was home again for the weekend. So I had plenty of help and love the first week home, to say the least. All was beautiful and perfect and I was recovering so much quicker than I imagined. Then came day 10.

On Skyler's 10th day of life I woke up with chills and body aches. I had planned on being on my own with the kids that next week while Chase was out of town for work. But the symptoms came and went throughout that day and I decided that I had better pack us all up and stay at my parents house in case I needed the help. Thank goodness I did. The following 5 days ranged from awful to worse, I got in infection in my breast which is called Mastitis. The symptoms of this infection are those like a severe flu and so it took a few days for me to realize I didn't just have a bug. Once we diagnosed the problem I was put on medication and it went away after a few more sleepless days. Its taken a while to catch up on the sleep I lost and with nursing every 3 hours and occupying a 2 year old, I am still extremely tired. As is every mother in the early weeks, I suppose. Thanks to my wonderful parents and grandma for being nurses, babysitters, cooks, and maids. I don't know what I would've done without them. So beyond blessed. But I think its safe to say that we are now all finally doing well and adjusting to this new life we all are blessed to have.

Hunter absolutely loves his baby sister. He constantly gives her sweet kisses and leans close to whisper "hi, sissy". He was beyond excited to present "Raisin" to her in the hospital and still presses the bear's hand for her to tell her, "i love you, baby skyler". It warms my heart to see their bond forming and I hope they can grow to love and like each other unconditionally.

February

Hunter is 2 1/2 years old today. It's still amazing to me how God has answered our prayers so precisely... when considering adding the second (and last) addition to our family, I had prayed for a girl and hoped the kids would be 2 1/2 years apart. I would have been happy if it worked out anywhere between 2 and 3 years difference, but didn't want their birthdays to be too close together. How much closer could Skyler's birth be to what I had prayed for? Amazing.

February started out with a Superbowl party/sprinkle (small shower) for Skyler at David and Mary's house in Coto. It was just the girls in my immediate family and they had an Alice in Wonderland themed tea party set up downstairs while the boys watched football upstairs in the family room. It was so cute and very special to celebrate my soon to be daughter.

On Valentines Day, my mom, grandma and I took Hunter to Build A Bear to make a special gift to bring baby sister in the hospital when she's born. He picked out a pink bear and stuffed her, recorded his voice saying "I love you, baby Skyler", and picked out a pink onesie to dress her in. After much debate over what to name her, he decided on Raisin. :)

I've had plenty of doctors appointments lately and everything is still going fine apart from the whole placenta thing. C section is still scheduled for March 16th but now we found out that my doctor is partially retiring and has hired a new doctor to come in and take over the maternity part of her practice. She will continue to be in the office part time for gynecological services only. Starting March 1st. What my luck. Anyway, I met the new doctor yesterday and he seems fine, I guess. Young and asian, but I can understand him well, he doesn't have a thick accent (which was one of my main criteria for a doctor). He was looking through my file and asked me to confirm everything he was finding. First thing in my file... repeat c section. Oh my gosh, really? How unorganized is this office to have left something that incorrect for 9 months?! Makes me a little glad I have him now because the other doctor had left it like that all this time. He agreed that a c section would be fine, if thats what I wanted and gave me a full rundown of all the risks and recovery that goes with it. Sounds good to me. He also checked me to see if I had begun to dilate because I've had a lot of pressure and braxton hicks. Cervix is completely closed still but slightly effaced. That makes me more relaxed because I'd rather go into my C section fully rested, prepared, and organized instead of in an emergency because I'm in labor.

Anyway, I have one more appointment before the big day and 2 weeks of time to kill. Everything is completely ready for Skyler's arrival. Her room is completely ready, carseat has been in the car for 2 weeks now, hospital bag is in the back of the car, cameras are charged and packed (although I'll recharge them again just in case), clothes and toys washed, sanitized and ready to be used. Chase's work is even keeping him in town on day shifts for the next 2 weeks just in case. We're ready and waiting to meet our princess, I can't wait!

36 weeks

I had another ultrasound done on Tuesday where they were checking fetal weight, placenta position, and rechecking to make sure "she" is still a "she", along with the normal development or whatever they check for. As the results showed, she is definately still a girl, weighing about 6 lbs 5 oz, and everything is developing perfectly and measuring exactly on my due date of March 23rd. However, the low lying placenta that they assured me would move up and out of the way has not done so and is still low lying. The technician could not get a clear view of where the end of it was in relation to my cervix because the baby's head is so low into the pelvis already, and because it is posterior which means at the back of my uterus, which is also uncommon. She said the doctor would let me know if I would require a c section or not at my next appointment, which was today.

Chase was able to go with me to the appointment today. The doctor suggested more ultasounds. This seems like a waste of time and money to me because the placenta is not going to move in one week and the baby's head isn't going to be moving back up either. So we decided to go ahead with a c section delivery plan. This placenta issue is just the icing on the cake, since I wanted a c section from the beginning because of the hard birth experience I had with Hunter. Then we found out she's a pretty big baby already and still a month to go. We would prefer to be better safe than sorry and my doctor scheduled my delivery for 39 weeks which is March 16th (the day before St. Patrick's day). If I go into labor before that, it will be an emergency c section before labor can progress.

January

January has been cold and mostly uneventful compared to the past few months. Although this past weekend was pretty busy with selling and buying our cars! We really wanted to try to cut back on some monthly expenses before Skyler is born, so we traded in our 2 Tacomas for a Toyota Camry and a Honda Pilot. We brought our payments down from $800 a month to $400! Not only that, but now we have 2 cars that we can drive the kids in and have trunk space to spare; and we both love what we got! So a success overall.

My doctors appointments are 2 weeks apart now and soon will become weekly which means Skyler's delivery is coming fast! After a few discussions with my doctor, we have decided to induce at 39 weeks if I don't deliver before that. I had the option of inducing at 38 weeks with an amnio, which I decided against. Reason for an induction would be to try and deliver before she can gain too much weight so that I don't have the same delivery and recovery problems I had with Hunter. (even though he was 10 days early) It probably wont make much difference, but the planner in me likes to have some kind of control. Either way, she will be here in less than 6 weeks and we can't wait to meet her!

December

What a great Christmas season we had this year! Our elf on the shelf, "Elfis" made his annual appearance every morning in his new spot and Hunter loved waking up and looking for him around the house. Then we continued our advent calendar where we got to do a fun Christmas activity every day of the month.

We started December off with my dad's holiday concert in Newhall, and we brought Hunter for his first time. He loved the music and seeing his "Opa" conducting the orchestra up on stage. After listening to some fun carols, he yelled out "one more time!" and had half the room in laughter.



On the 10th, we went to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what we wanted for Christmas, (RC car) :) We also took Hunter to see his first movie, "Elf", at the theater but he only lasted about 45 minutes. There was some fun snow to play in and Hunter had a blast.



We had my family over for a Christmas party/ housewarming on the 11th and Hunter loved to show off his new house, bedroom, playroom and future sister's room. We knew Hunter would like having a Christmas tree in the house, but we underestimated his love for it. He would talk about it every day and point them out wherever we went. That and he loves the song, "frosty the snowman". He would sing the first part of the verse over and over again daily.





We spent Christmas Eve at Chase's grandma's house, like we do every year, and we had a very exciting surprise visit from Santa himself! Hunter sat on his lap and opened his present that Santa pulled out from his sack; an RC car! What great memories for us all.



Christmas morning, we woke up to more presents from Santa and Hunter's big gift, a radio flyer ramp!



We played and opened stockings until Nana and Tom and Grandpa Pierce came over. Then we had our Christmas breakfast and opened more great gifts. After a short nap, we headed to Oma and Opa's for more presents! Chase and my big gifts were a dining set for our kitchen, and a 42" flat screen TV!!!! We are sooooo spoiled. Thank you, Mom and Dad! Then we spent the rest of the evening at my grandma's house as we do every year with great food and lots of great family.

We ended our year with a trip up to Arrowhead with Oma and Opa and Grandma Converse for 3 days. We had found a few patches of leftover snow, but it was mostly beautiful warm weather and we had fun walking around the village, eating, playing games, and ringing in the new year together.





Now the decorations are down, and we are back to reality. Only 2 more months and we will welcome another Ehrlich to the family. We can't wait to meet her.