Update: "surviving" and pictures

I know it's been a while. Yes, I'm ok. :) It's true what they say . . . having two kids is SO HARD! I have new respect for all the mothers of two or more children! As many of you know, I caught the cold on Sunday and was pretty sick for a couple of days. Luckily, Jane escaped getting sick too. I had my sister come to help this week--I wasn't going to have anyone here, but realized that was insane, so I insisted she come. I'm SO GLAD she came! She goes home tomorrow and I'm both sad and scared. :p I think I'm getting a handle on things though. I'm not sick anymore and Audrey seems a little bit more used to having a little sister around.

About Audrey, she's handling things well. I think it would be better for her if she didn't have a little cold too. That makes her extra grumpy. She goes through phases with Jane: 1) she loves her and wants to hold "the cute," which is what she calls Jane; 2) she is very resentful and whacks the baby on the head or tries to pull her off my lap; this was all anticipated and isn't really as bad as it sounds; 3) she gets mad at me, especially when I'm on the phone or feeding Jane; this one is probably the most annoying and common problem; 4) sometimes she just ignores the baby completely for the whole day; it's actually kinda funny. Anyway, we're making progress. When Daddy gets done with these few crazy weeks, she should be much better because she'll have someone to pay attention to her more. :p The little play kitchen we got her has helped a lot. She has also been watching a TON of movies. I feel bad about that, but I don't think it will ruin her if I let her watch movies and suck that stupid binkie all the time for a few weeks to keep me sane. :S (Feel free to reassure me on this.)

Right now my main concerns are helping Jane get adjusted to sleeping at NIGHT. She eats well, though she's a spitter. In fact, just this morning she spewed EVERYTHING all over our bed. Dave was holding her and had to change before he left for school, and today I had to do an extra load of laundry, which was a pain since I just did everything yesterday. Oh well. I should be glad she is eating ok (right, Joy!?). We really are truly blessed for several reasons: 1) Jane is healthy. According to her doctor, she's "the healthiest baby [he's] seen in a very long time." She's gained a good 10 ounces already and is a well mannered child. 2) I'm recovering wonderfully. I credit that to the easy short labor and that it's my second child. Besides the brief sickness, I'm feeling great. 3) I have SO MANY wonderful friends who are so willing to help me! Thank you so much to everyone who brought dinner and offered babysitting. It's hard for me to be on the receiving end of things, but I don't know what I would have done without such amazing support. :) 4) David is so supportive! Sometimes when I get up in the night with Jane, he so sweetly wakes up a little just to tell me he loves and appreciates me. Even just that little bit of appreciation helps so much. And he is so helpful in the little time that he has at home even though he has so so much to do right now. And, of course, he's so loving to both of his little girls. It's so cute to see him love and cuddle and play and care for them both. I love him so much.

Anyway, I'm hanging in there. We'll see how this next week goes. Now my anxiety comes from the upcoming drive across the country we're going to be taking and being prepared for all of that, not to mention all of those annoying things like insurance while we're gone and immunizations and etc. etc. etc.! Aaaahhhh! One day at a time . . . right?

Greenie

Jane Elizabeth Hunt being born made this the best St. Patrick's Day ever! She was 6 lbs. 8 oz. and she is SOO cute. She looks exactly like Audrey did when she was born except she has much darker hair (brown? at least auburn), and her nose is in the right place. :)

Most of us are very happy to welcome the newest member of the family.

My beautiful bride, looking radiant. We got to the hospital at 7:15 a.m. and Jane was out and crying at 4:00 p.m. Crystal (luckily) had a relatively easy and quick labor, only pushing for about 10 minutes. Still, even though that sounds short and easy, Crystal amazed me once again--bringing me to tears, once again (I think this is the second time in our whole marriage; Audrey's birth was the first) with her strength, courage, love, grace, and beauty. I love her so much more than I could ever adequately express. She is my Eve--my love, my help, and the mother of all that gives my life meaning.

I look exhausted because I have contributed so much to this day. Between watching TV in the hospital and counting to ten in the thick of the battle, I think I have truly earned all of the congratulations that are coming my way for the next few weeks.

Disappointment

I think I have just been victim to one of the meanest things that can be done to a pregnant woman. I got a call this morning from the hospital while I was in the shower. Apparently there was no longer room for me to come in and get induced . . . they rescheduled me to MONDAY!! An extra 3 DAYS of waiting is not something to look forward to. Besides, it's just not about convenience and timing, I've been mentally preparing myself for the past 24 hours. You have to deal with some pretty extreme feelings of excitment and nerves and apprehension and and relief. But in my case, it was all to no avail . . . not to mention packing my bags AGAIN, cleaning and organizing AGAIN, all just to have to do it AGAIN in a few days. Needless to say, it's frustrating.
Jeremy and Jill (our friends from Boston) were planning on making a last minute trip out here to hang out with us for the weekend and see the baby, which will probably be a little bit of a letdown if they even still decide to come. And poor Jenny, who faithfully showed up at 7:00 to babysit for us, missed the chance to sleep in. This also means that I have that many less days of "after baby help" from Dave that I'd anticipated.
There are two good things that I could say about this situation. 1) I can get some sleep. I didn't sleep very good last night because I was so anxious. I plan on taking a good long nap today, and getting plenty of sleep the next couple of nights (hopefully Sunday night too). 2) About 30 minutes after Jenny left, Audrey randomly woke up (uncharacteristically early for her) and was very upset. She is, in fact, sitting by me now watching The Swan Princess. That would have been a pain for Jenny to deal with.
There is one hope I still have left: I could still go into labor on my own before then, of course. I suppose that would be great too . . . although I hear having babies in Ithaca on the weekends aren't as "nice" as during the work week. I am a little nervous about that. Besides, everyone will be gone Sunday for stake conference! What if no one is around to help us then?! I hadn't thought of that, but if anyone will be around and available to be on call that day, let me know. Anyway, I'm supposed to get a call later today I think from the midwife for a clearer explanation/appology. So we'll see how that goes. We'll keep everyone posted.

She's coooommmiiiinnnngggg!

That's right. Tomorrow morning at about 7:30 is when we'll get this show on the road. I feel sorta like I copped out (but only barely) because I'm getting induced. Oh well. Isn't it exciting!? I had a doctor's appointment today. I went in and told another midwife (not the one I saw on Monday, but my favorite one) what had been going on and my take on things. I asked some good questions about what she thought about it. Well, first of all, she checked me out and said I'd dilated to a "loose 2," so that was good news. At least something had been done since Monday, even if it wsa only a centimeter. She swiped my membranes, which totally hurts! But she said that should help to get things going, at least help me dilate a little more before tomorrow; but it could also help me go into labor tonight, though I'm not seeing any signs at the moment.
Anyway, all this hype about the baby being "too small" is kinda paradoxical in that instead of letting her stay in there and grow, it's often times better to just have her come out and grow. Which I guess makes sense. So that's why inducing was an ok option. I also mentioned that neither of our moms were coming and that next week was spring break for Dave and that I'd hoped to have it so that Dave could be home to help me for a while afterward as much as possible. If we have it this weekend, it gives us all week at home together; as opposed to only a few days with Dave helping me then him having to get back into a very busy after-break week. I guess I never realized how hard that would be and how important it was for me to have that extra time. SO, that kinda sealed the deal, and since that particular midwife was the on-call person tomorrow anyway, and there were no other scheduled inductions for tomorrow, we just made the plans.
Dave will be home soon to help me get things in order (cleaning up, etc., etc.), I'll get lots of rest, and then later we'll kill some time with the Jones family. :) Sooo . . . unless something crazy happens in the night, look for a new post tomorrow night or so and you'll probably get a glimpse of little Jane. Yay! Wish us luck!

Pregnancy Update . . .

I think we're going backwards here. I feel great today. No pressure, no pain, not even a little discomfort. I feel 7 months pregnant again. I don't think she's going to come. She may just stay in there. :(

Pregnancy Update--Crunch Time?

Well, I've talked to tons of you about what's going on already. But let me recap anyway for posterity.

Saturday night: contractions. Thoughts--"Yay! We're going to have a baby now!" Reality--Just kidding. Contractions stop after a few hours.

Saturday morning, 4:00 am: contractions/lots of discomfort. Thoughts--"Oh my gosh! We're going to have a baby now! And I'm not ready! I'm too tired! My house is a mess! . . . I'm too tired!!" Reality--Just kidding. Contractions stop after a few hours . . . discomfort remains.

Sunday: same old stuff, discomfort, few contractions. Thoughts--"Ok, this isn't funny. But at least maybe I'm getting good and ready!" Reality-- . . . . same old stuff . . .

Sunday night: Tons of discomfort, no sleeping. Thoughts--"We're for sure going to have this baby. In fact, this is SO uncomfortable that I will probably be heading to the hospital when day breaks." Reality--no contractions, just pain. No sleep.

Monday morning: Discomfort, pep talk from Angella, doctor appointment. Thougths--"The doctor is going to tell me I'm well dilated and the baby should be coming very very soon. Or maybe she'll just say 'go on in!'" Reality--NOTHING HAS CHANGED! I haven't dilated since my appointment on Thursday when she said I was almost a 2. Althougth she did say that things were "softening up"--but after all that hard work I've been doing I'd at least like to have a solid 2 cm established at least!! She said I'm just having lots of false labor and that if I want to, I can be induced on Thursday if I last until then. Which acutally surprised me since my "due date" isn't for another 9 days supposedly. But she said they'd do it up to a week ahead if I feel like it. So that's a total mixed signal considering they were just freaking out that my baby was too small and needed to keep "cooking." Oh well. I'm almost certain I won't last that long, but at least that's somewhat a comfort, despite my discomfort. Oh and thank you Jenny and Angella for being such wonderful friends. :) I love you both.

Monday afternoon: Haircut and waiting. Thoughts--"Love the haircut, Lexi! Hope I have the baby tomorrow and that I can sleep tonight!" Reality-- . . . who the heck knows. But I do love the haircut and the person who gave it to me. :)

Flashback Friday: Little Groll Family

I always forget Flashback Friday. Oh well. Better late than never (in some cases). :)

This is one of my very favorite pictures of me, my mom, and my little brother Aaron. I think I'm about 3 in this picture. My mom hasn't changed a bit--uh, different haircut, of course, but basically the same. Aaron is now a macho stud muffin super model . . . but he'll always be just little stuttering "sunny bug" to me. ;) I love that little hat. I doubt he reads my blog, so it's ok if I say that. And then there's me . . . and I think now I'm seeing that Audrey really does look a little bit like me after all. Maybe. I was a cute kid. Isn't it tragic that we all have to grow up and become big ugly adults? :)

Oh, I'd like to add that this was taken in Missouri on the back porch of the little house my parents still own (but don't live in anymore). It's a cute little house in the middle of no where, and I'm not exaggerating at all about the no where part. Apparently Brumley has a population of 102 with 49 housing units and a land area of 0.48 sq. miles (taken from the official community profile site). And it's about an hour away from any form of civilized life in one direction, and about 3-4 hours from civilization in all other directions. It's tucked in a very very rural corner of central Missouri. That's tiny. Can we say "hick"? This place embodies that word. But it's somewhat endearing. It's the town I lived in when I was just a wee thing until about 1st grade I think. I remember having to ride the school bus an hour each way. Mom said that was the worst part for her--she worried so much that I was on the bus with big kids for two hours every day. I don't blame her now that I think about it! But it wasn't bad at all. It never occured to me that it was a long bus ride. It was just extra time to spend with my best friend, Megan (whom I'm still great friends with and who's still just as wonderful as ever). Lots of playing in the woods and in the dirt . . . Good times.

Silence, please!

I've decided to give my music player a rest. I found that I was always pausing it when I got on my blog and figured most everyone was probably doing the same. If anyone absolutely loved it, maybe I'll revive it again later. If you hated it too, please let me know and I'll just leave it off. :p

Speaking of silence, Audrey is getting more outspoken. She's learned a few more words and phrases to punctuate her playtime. She likes to shout the following in addition to loud singing about anything and everything and "naming," which is shouting the name of whatever she sees:

"I'm coming!"
"Let go (insert whatever object she's playing with here)!"
"Ruuun!"
"I seeee you!"
"Bye bye (whatever or whomever she is thinking about at that second)!"

The Weekend: Temple trip, party time, injuries, and hysteria

Temple Trip:


Mindi Martin and I decided to get out of town and go to the Palmyra temple. I hadn't been yet, and Dave was so busy with school that we were having a hard time scheduling, so . . . we just went without him. We had originally planned on going to the Friday night session, but it was full . . . so we made it to the Saturday morning session instead. The weather was MUCH better on Saturday, so the drive was nice and quick (unlike Friday night, so we heard). We made it through an endowment session then headed out for Chinese food. It was such a nice relaxing trip.

Party Time:


Saturday night Dana and Melanie threw a baby shower for me. We just had dinner and hung out. It was SO FUN. There's nothing better than just getting together with the girls to talk and get away for awhile. I loved it so much. I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends. Thank you to everyone who came!


Injuries:


I know this is a totally disgusting picutre. I'm sorry. Saturday night, in the middle of the night, I woke up abruptly thinking I had to rush to the bathroom and be sick (long story, won't go into it). I got up and, upon running toward the bathroom, I totally missed the door, crashing into the corner of the wall VERY hard. I was still asleep and didn't have my glasses on. Dave wakes up to me hopping around the room holding my arm. He finally helps me get to the bathroom (which was acutally unnecessary because I wasn't really sick; again, long story) and we look at my arm which already looked horrid. It's definately the worst bruise I've ever had in my life thus far. I couldn't even let the covers touch it during the night and it's been pretty swollen. Anyway, enough about my whining. It hurt. But I'll live.

Hysteria:

This is probably the craziest story I'll ever tell. In fact, it was probably the craziest experience I'll ever have. And when I say crazy, I literally mean crazy. Let me explain. Last night Dave and I were talking about my previous night's disaster. Of course, Dave did an amazing impression of me, which got me laughing so hard. In fact, I couldn't stop laughing, and I was laughing SO HARD. It was kinda weird, but who doesn't like to get into those giggly moods every now and then. Well, we were both kinda laughing about how much I was laughing, when Dave decided he was going to record this laughing spell . . . but when I realized that he'd deleted some videos of Audrey off the camera in order to capture me laughing, I was so sad! In fact, I was completely overcome to tears. It was ludicrus. Completely ludicrus. BUT despite the fact that I was so heartbroken to have lost the movie of Audrey, I couldn't stop laughing. I was seriously crying for real, big tears, yet laughing so hard I could hardly breathe. My body was completely confused. I was so far on both extremes at the same time that it really scared me! My hormones had completely taken over my brain and were making be act like a crazy person! And I couldn't stop it! Back in the olden days, the main definition of hysteria (which mainly happened with women) is a condition "in which the emotional and reflex excitability is exaggerated, and the will power correspondingly diminished, so that the patient loses control over the emotions, becomes the victim of imaginary sensations, and often falls into paroxysm or fits" . . .

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not a person who has a tendancy toward emotional disorders or dramatic mood swings in any stage of my female life--I consider myself a normally dramatic, generally easy-going woman (who's a bit of a scardy cat (all the time) and is impressionable when it comes to movies and books (but only when I'm pregnant)). So why, two days in a row, am I acting completely crazy!?!? My only explanation is pregnancy. But still, it was scary. And now when I read Jane Austen (and contemporaries) books about women who are in hysterics, I completely know what she means and that it's real and debilitatingly scary.

The funny part is . . . nothing was funny or sad to me after that. Even funny and sad things. When I finally shut off the torent of hormones, I was just exhausted. It had lasted for a good five minutes at least. Anyway, no cause for alarm, but if anyone ever has this happen to them, you'll have someone who understands you. :S


Audrey Update:


While I was gone on Saturday, Dave took Audrey outside to play in the snow. They went and saw the snowman that the Montgomerys had made (which she loved). I'm not sure why Dave dressed her in this particular outfit--she has a perfectly cute, normal snowsuit. This one is just so funny looking and may be getting a little too small for her. But she did look so cute waddling around in the snow. She looked like a little oompa loompa. Who says our baby is skinny? :)

Superman:
This part is for Dave. He was so so nice to take Audrey for me for the whole day on Saturday while I went and played. He didn't get that much work done, and I know Audrey can be a very big handful, but he did such a great job with her. He's such a great dad and I love him so much. :)