Life Lately...

I have had quite a few people ask me what life is like now with two kids under 2. I usually just give the generic response of crazy, but fun. This is very true, but there is so much more to it. So, here it goes, me attempting to sum up what life is like now.

Most weeks are pretty much the same. David works Monday-Friday. I work Wednesdays and the weekends. We rotate working and kid duty with some help from my amazing Mom on Wednesdays. We get up, put a cartoon on for Brady (don't judge) so we can let the dogs out, open the blinds, and make breakfast. We give Brady breakfast and the majority is fed to the dogs. At this point, we pray that the dogs will not get sick. We go over to the pack and play or bouncer and see Ella give us the biggest baby grin. We fall in love with that little girl all over again. We play with Brady, try to read books to him (if we can get him to sit still long enough) while holding a very content Ella, and run around the house and have the occassional dance party. Then we do lunch, most of which gets fed to the dogs, have a nap, get up, play, have dinner, tackle some chores, bath time, and bed time. It's exhausting just typing this!

But in the midst of the every day, God does open our eyes to so much that we do not even have the ability to see on our own. When I am changing my 100th diaper of the day, God gently reminds me of how blessed I am to have the opportunity to be home with my kids so much and to be the one that changes that cute little tushy. When I balance our checkbook and worry about how we will ever pay for college, God reminds me that David and I have chosen to be in careers that we love and that have far better rewards than a large paycheck. When I hear my child scream and cry, God reminds me of all the children out there who do not have anyone who hears their cries. And I am humbled. When my toddler just won't sit still, God reminds me of the amazing grace He has shown us by giving us two healthy kids. When I look in the mirror and am quite unhappy with what I have staring back at me, God reminds me that my body got me through two complicated pregnancies and held in there to have two beautiful children.

I remember Labor Day weekend 2007 when David and I were at Lake Lemon, sitting on the deck with four friends. We were talking about life and I said that I wanted to have two kids. A boy, then a girl. I wanted their names to be Brady and Ella. And 2 1/2 years later, than dream is a reality. We don't know what God has in store for us still. He may have decided that we would be best as a family of four. He may want us to have more children biologically. He may want us to foster or adopt. He may even want us to be the parents who always have an open door to all of their kids' friends so that they feel loved at our home. We truly have no clue what God still wants for us. But we do know that we are excited for this journey and want to be open to His plans for us as a family.

Happy 4th of July...

Today is a big day at the Long house, I am going back to work after being off for three months. I will say this is very bittersweet. I love my job and I am actually excited to go back and see everyone and get back into the swing of things. At the same time, I will really miss weekends with my family. David and I are so blessed to work opposite schedules so that our kids are almost always with one of us, however, it does make it hard to have any family days with all four of us. But...we will be grateful for the time off that I had and work very hard on making the most of the weekend hours that I am off.

We are grilling out at my parents' house tomorrow to celebrate the 4th. I suggested sparklers (for the kids to look at not play with!), but immediately realized that was a horrible idea and suggested we bring bubbles for the kids instead.

Brady and Ella are still doing great and I am constantly in awe of the fact that God blessed us so abundantly with two beautiful children.

Have a great weekend!

Summer Begins...

I know it has been forever since I have posted, but I think we are finally getting back on track here at the Long house. My goal is to post once a week, so let's see if I can do that :)

We are all doing pretty well. Brady loves swimming in Mimi and Papa's pool, so we spend a lot of time over there. He is such a good big brother. He is always hugging and kissing Ella. Let's hope he stays that fond of her.

Ella is so sweet. She is sleeping in her bassinett at night and only wakes up to eat. She is really struggling with some belly issues, so I have cut dairy out of my diet and we are trying different formulas for when we supplement. Our biggest prayer right now is that we find a solution so she will not continue to have gas pain.

This is my last weekend off of work. It is bittersweet. I have loved having weekends with my family, but I feel so called to my job that I am anxious to go back. Being a Mom means there will just always be people pulling you in multiple directions. I am just thankful that I have a support system that makes this easy for me.

Here are some new pictures. By the way, Ella looks just like me at that age. My Mom broke out the baby book this week and I could not believe the resemblance. It looks like David and I each have a mini me :)

She's Here...

Ella Ave Long was born on Wednesday, May 19th at 8:15 a.m. She weighed 9 pounds, 4 ounces and was 20 inches long.

Ella was supposed to be born on May 21st with a scheduled c-section. However, I woke up on Wednesday morning to the sound of my water breaking. Fortunately, I jumped out of bed quickly and managed to completely miss our mattress! David called my parents' house to have my Mom come over to watch Brady. They had just arrived back in town 8 hours prior to my water breaking. Thank God they were home! David and I came into triage at the hospital around 6:15 am and I was scheduled for a 7:30 c-section. They were only running a few minutes late and I was happy that we were able to get in so soon because my contractions were horrible. When the doctor went to pull Ella out, he saw that she was breech. Thank goodness I did not attempt a VBAC. I was able to see them pull her out which was pretty amazing. The nurses had to sunction her pretty good because she had swallowed some meconium in the womb. Fortunately, God had his hand on her and she was healthy.

We were still trying to decide her name in the OR. We had it narrowed down to Lyla, Claire, Brooke, Reese, or Ella. We got it down to Reese or Ella. David and I knew that she was an Ella and we decided that as we were being rolled into the recovery room.

My Mom spent all three nights with me in the hospital so that David could be home with Brady at night. It was fun having all three generations of Whitson girls in the hospital, but David and I both missed our whole family being together.

God took care of us and I did not contract c-diff this time. I am sore from the c-section, but other than that, things are going great.

Ella is a sleepy little girl, but a great eater. We can't wait to see her and Brady play together at home.

I'll update with pictures in a few days!

Here We Go Again...

This week turned out to be an exciting week, but not in the way I had planned. When I was driving to work on Sunday morning, I thought I was having contractions. I only felt 2 or 3, so I just let it go. While I was working on Sunday, I felt some more here and there, but there was no pattern so I just assumed they were Braxton Hicks. I decided to call the doctor, just to be on the safe side. He told me to call back if they were 10 minutes apart or less. Within an hour, they started to be 5-8 minutes apart. So, he sent me up to triage. Triage has to be my least favorite place in the world. I was checked out at triage and they determined that I was contractions, but not dialating, so I could go home on some medications. I HATE taking medicine anytime, but really hate it when I am pregnant. But, I did not want anything bad to happen to baby girl, so I took the smooth muscle relaxers.

They sent me to the doctor on Tuesday afternoon and things went well there. I was still contracting and not dialating. The doctor told me that there is not proof that the meds work, so I did not have to take them. I was happy to be off of the pills. He mentioned the horrible BR word and I was not thrilled. He told me that I was on modified bedrest and that I only could do things that I had to do. He never mentioned work, so I thought I could still go in. On Tuesday night my contractions were 2 minutes apart. David suggested that we go to the hospital, but I asked if we could wait to see if they got any worse. They did not, so I went to sleep. I figured if they got bad enough, I would wake up. I know this sounds irresponsible, but let's remember how many times I was in triage with Brady for absolutely no reason.

So, I went to work on Wednesday and things were going well. I was still contracting, so I thought I should call the doctor's office before they closed so that I would not end up in triage. Sure enough, when they called back they sent me immediately to the hospital. I was less than thrilled because it is Easter week and I have a million things to do to get ready. And I really did not think the hospital was necessary. Like a good little patient, I went up to the dreaded triage and had two of the rudest nurses ever. I won't post all of their rudeness, but trust me...it was bad. The on call doctor put me back on the pills and on stricter bedrest, including no work.

I called the doctor's office today to have them update my papers for the HR department at work and apparently the bedrest the nurse told me to be on might have been extreme. She was very dramatic. I have an appointment tomorrow morning, so hopefully it will all be cleared up then.

I was so hoping not to be on bedrest this time, but I am trusting God to take care of us. I am so thankful for so many friends and family who have already offered to help out. I am so incredibly sad that I have to miss so much work. I absolutely love my job and all the people I work with. I am grateful for the time I have with Brady, but it seems like cheap time since I can not really do anything with him or take him anywhere. Please pray that baby girl stays healthy and does not come to meet us until she is completely ready. And pray for David as he had to take on all the household responsibilities.

Hopefully we will have good news tomorrow.

We Are Ready For Spring...

Sorry it has been so long since we have posted. Things have been really crazy with our family lately and now we are getting back into our "new normal".

Brady is talking so much now! I love being able to communicate with him. He is such a happy baby, we are so blessed. This week he started saying "moo" when he plays with his cows from his farm and it cracks me up.

Baby girl should be here in about 13 weeks. We are pretty sure we have landed on a name. The middle name is definite, it's the first name I go back and forth on. Last night I had a dream that I had to be put completely under during my c-section and when I woke up, David had named her Snow White. I really hope he has better taste than that.

It's been about two weeks since the accident. Uncle Greg's service was really nice and I hope he was able to watch it from Heaven. I am going to see my Great Uncle How tonight for the first time since the accident. He is in Cincinnati now, so we should be able to visit more often. I once heard that when someone close to you dies, you never go back to normal. You have to find a new normal and I think that is where we are right now.

Mom went to Tulsa to have scans done. Everything looks good so far. Lilli's MRI came back clear on Friday and that is always a reason to rejoice.

David, Brady, myself, and all three dogs had to spend the night at my parents last week. Mom was actually in Tulsa that night, so she missed out on the fun :) We came home and our carbon monoxide alarm was going off. The fire department came over and they confirmed that we had carbon monoxide in our house. So, we packed everyone up and headed over to Mimi and Papa's. It turns out that I had been starting the car in the garage too soon before I opened the garage door. So we let everything air out and now we are in good shape again.

We started putting the nursery together and Brady helped. He is definitely all boy. I tried to put the pictures of him helping down here, but blogger is apparently mad at me.

That's about it for now, we'll post again soon!

Naming A Baby...

We are yet to officially determine baby girl's name. There are two reasons for this. Number one, there are a lot of really cute girl names out there. Number two, we do not want her to have a name that is very popular, but I do really like some of the names in the top ten. I hated having five other Jennifer's in every class I was in, so I am pretty strict about this rule. I did notice today that Brady is a very East Coast name (thank you Mr. Tom Brady, and no we did not name our son after him) and the girl name that is in the lead so far is a Southern name. Apparently we are not fond of our midwestern roots.


On another note, we had a strange turn of events happen and we are having someone look at our house on Sunday. It is not on the market, which is why it's so strange. We found a house we love, thanks to our realtor, Julie Hubert. We asked her to call their realtor to see if they would take contingency bids. It turns out that their realtor is one of the owners of the house. The house had been purchased from a foreclosure and was flipped. So...this guy wants to look at our house and he might buy it to flip it. We have been preapproved already, so that is one step down. The next thing we need to do is have them offer us something that we can financially afford. After that, we have to make them an offer that they will take. So, there is only about a 10% chance anything will happen, but it could turn out to be a cool thing.


Baby girl is moving and kicking a lot. Brady is still being cute.

Cute....

We started to buy clothes for baby girl (she does not have a name yet). Apparently, I think a lot of the clothes are cute. Brady has started carrying them around the house saying "cute, cute". He's one smart cookie.

It's A Girl...

We just found out that baby #2 is a little girl! Everything looked great at the ultrasound. We are very excited to have one of each!

2010...

I can not believe that this year we will have another baby, quite similar to this one :) David and I were working on baby names again today (and no we have not landed 100% on anything yet), so we just decided to see what other name Brady could pull off. This may not have been the best theory since #2 could look nothing like him, but it was all we had. I still think Brady looked more like a Henry when he was a newborn. A very cute Henry, but a Henry none the less. If we end up having a girl this time, we will not be naming her Henry~don't worry.

Lately I have had multiple people tell me Brady looks like my Dad. I find this funny because for so long everyone kept saying he looked like David's twin. I will say that if you look at my baby pictures you can definitely see how he is my kid. I can't let David take all the credit :)

I ordered some more maternity clothes (compliments of Christmas money from my parents) and I am quite pleased with them. I am pretty sure I will not fit in the medium size by spring, but that's okay, I'll have to order some spring clothes then anyway. And since I'm shy about weight gain (I gained 70 pounds with Brady), I'll let everyone know I am up 11 pounds with this one so far. Hopefully I will not take that number up to much more!

We have our ultrasound one week from today and we should know if #2 is a boy or girl! We are still planning on keeping the gender a secret, but we may reveal the gender and not the name. We'll see!