Feeling Fragile

This is a JOKE.  Only a joke!

I'm asking for prayers, y'all!  After nearly three years of careful consideration, Chris and I have decided to shut down the baby factory.  I got my Mirena IUD removed on Tuesday afternoon in anticipation of making things permanent with the Essure procedure.  While I truly believe that many of the issues I've been dealing with since Hannah's birth (depression, headaches, mood swings, etc.) will go away soon enough, my body seems to be going through an adjustment.  I guess that's normal...I mean, I've had an artificial device implanted in my uterus for nearly three years, and its been regularly sending out doses of hormones into my system.  When that is suddenly brought to a halt, there's bound to be consequences.  I currently feel very TIRED and moody.  The headaches are back with a vengeance, so I'm basically living on Excedrin Migraine.
My poor husband is basically trying to stay out of my way and let me do my thing.  I got to nap both days this weekend (which was wonderful!  Naps are totally my BFF.) but between my allergies kicking in and the roller coaster I'm on...I seriously don't know why he hasn't taken the kids on a little trip to his mom's, but then they'd miss school.  Betcha 20 bucks he takes them as soon as they get out, though!
So anyway...I haven't blogged in awhile just because I've kinda been in a daze this week between the CRCT (our state testing) going on at school and then dealing my own personal hormonal trip.  Hopefully I'll be feeling better and back to my normal self in no time. :)

Shutting Down the Baby Factory

This has been a decision that has been a long time coming.

During my entire pregnancy, while carrying Hannah, I kept telling Chris, "This is it. I am done.  I am shutting down the baby factory after this girl comes out."  He blew me off, thinking it was hormones or something...and at that point, it very well might have been.

During my very difficult labor w/Hannah (and eventual c-section), the thought crossed my mind that, while they were digging around in my midsection, removing my uterus and all, they might as well go ahead and tie my tubes...but since Chris and I had not had a serious conversation about that kind of thing, I didn't push it.

Hannah has been a difficult crazy intense child and nearly three years later, here we are having the discussion...and we're ready.  I've set my appointment. I'm having my Mirena IUD removed on Tuesday and having my consultation about the Essure procedure afterwards.  If all goes as I expect it will, I'll be setting an appointment to get the procedure done ASAP.  (In the meantime, of course, we're not stupid.  We will take precautions in order to prevent a "surprise" from happening.)

Why now, you ask?  Hannah is less than three years old...the Mirena lasts five years.  Why not keep that bad boy in there until it has to come out and then do something.  My answer?  The Mirena has some side effects.  I am not positive that some of the changes I've noticed in myself over the past few years can positively be attributed to the Mirena, but my intuition tells me its a big possibility.  The constant headaches, the absentmindedness (its almost like I have Attention Deficit Disorder, y'all!), and the total lack of desire for...you know...all of it is listed as a possible side effect of have the Mirena.  Yes, I do love that my periods are way shorter and lighter, but its so not worth it when you factor in all the rest.  Chris has been complaining explaining that he feels like an afterthought most of the time, and for the first year or two after Hannah was born I just thought he was jealous of the kids 'cause they were taking up so much of my time and attention...or maybe he was just being a big ol' baby and needed to "man up" and see that this is just LIFE.  Kids need their moms and sometimes the dad just has to wait for his turn to be babied.

While maybe a tiny part of that might have been the case, for the most part he was right. I see it more clearly now than ever before, but I see now that he is SO RIGHT.  (Yes, Chris, you might want to print this out...Here I am, writing it out in black and white...YOU ARE RIGHT.)  With the way my hormones are so whacked out, I totally think my brain has gone haywire and my priorities have been really screwed up.  I can't wait to get this thing removed so I can (hopefully) purge these hormones from my system and feel more like myself again.  Hormonal birth control is not for me...pregnancy is not for me...my life is full and happy and COMPLETE.  There is nothing more I want from my life.  I am ready to shut down this part of my life and move on.  I'm actually kind of excited.

Wheeeeeee!

I'm just a barrel of laughs lately.  I'm not sure if its the stress from being home all week for Spring Break (I am *so* not made to be a stay-at-home mom!), the fact that Maggie finally had her kittens three days ago, the fact that the CRCT is coming up in a little over a week, or perhaps a smidgen of PMS, but my mood swings are getting a bit out of control.  I know its driving Chris crazy and he is ready for me to get my butt back to work for sure!


Yep, that's right, folks...Spring Break is over.  I actually got a lot accomplished.  Not as much as I'd hoped, but still...a lot more than I'd expected.  I managed to clean and organize the entire downstairs as well as our master bedroom and bathroom upstairs.  Yes, there are still boxes to be sifted through and organized for Chris' home business of selling online (he's awesome at his Amazon/eBay business when he has the time for it), but other than that, things are looking so much better.  I went through our bathroom cabinets and drawers and organized/cleaned up the chaos and things look and feel so much better now.  I would like to have been able to do more, but its so hard with two little ones.  I'm just lucky I got as much done as I did!


Maggie surprised us by having her kittens on Thursday afternoon/evening!  Her labor began around 5 pm, and the first kitten showed up around 7 pm.  By 9 pm we had five little kittens in our closet!  Maggie is a fantastic mommy and everyone is doing very well.  Andrew & Hannah absolutely LOVE them and insist on checking on them several times a day.  Maggie is very patient with us and allows us to pet them and gently hold them for a short time here and there.  We're so excited!


Only six more weeks until summer break.  I still have to get through our state testing (the CRCT down here in Georgia) but after that we'll be previewing 7th grade math so maybe these kiddos will have a head start when they get to school in the fall.  We'll see!  Six more weeks...I can do it!

Kitten Watch 2011

Can you tell I'm on Spring Break?  Can you?  Huh?  I'm blogging, like, every day!  So, since I have all this time, its either clean the house of blog while the kids are napping, so...obviously, I'm blogging. I mean, DUH.

Anyway, remember Maggie, the new kitty, the one that showed up around Feb. 1st on our doorstep, starving and sweet and so very cute?  Well, she stuck around, got named by Andrew, got taken to the vet to get checked out and get shots, and promptly got knocked up before she could get spayed.  We noticed it around late February when she started gaining weight all of a sudden and eating like ca-RAY-zee and all that weight was only in her tummy.  She had all the signs of pregnancy.  Sigh.  So, here we are, officially on "Kitten Watch 2011."

Every night Maggie wakes me up @ 4 am snuggling and nuzzling and purring like crazy.  When I pet her, I can lay my hand on her belly and feel the kittens kicking.  Its insane. (A good friend of ours who is a vet says that this is a sign that she could deliver any day now!)  She is so very affectionate, which I guess is a sign of her nurturing instinct kicking in, or perhaps she is starting to feel some labor pains and needs some comforting to get through the pain?  Who knows...Its all so fascinating to me, though.

In a way, this whole cat pregnancy thing is kinda pacifying weird baby fever I didn't even know I had!  I am so d-o-n-e with pregnancy (I even have my mind set on getting the Essure procedure done as soon as school is out for summer), but I will always miss that feeling of a little life moving and kicking inside me.  That's the one and only thing I will *ever* miss about being pregnant.

I've never owned a pet that wasn't neutered or spayed, so this will be a brand-new experience for me and I am sooooo stinkin' excited.  Yes, I know kittens are the very last thing we need to deal with right now, but honestly, I just don't care.  We're not keeping them.  We already have our feelers out, and have several people saying they want a kitty, so I have faith that we will find very good homes for them.  I am just so excited and the kids wake up every morning asking if Maggie's babies have arrived.  Its so cute.  I can't wait to see the looks on their faces when they're finally born...I think my face will have as much awe and wonder as theirs!

Spring Break, Spring Cleaning

I'm supposed to be cleaning right now.  I actually have been (I have one room done), but I'm tired and I want to take a break.  I've been so busy and tired and really, really wanting to blog so doggone it, I'm gonna stop and do it!  So there!  (Imagine me sticking out my tongue at...well, no one, really.  Hmm.  Kinda loses its "oomph" when I think about it that way.)

So anyway.  Where was I?  Oh, yes.  Spring cleaning.  This is Spring Break here in my particular county here in the heart of Georgia!  I get a week off of school!  Hip hip hooray!  Oh, and we have no plans to travel anywhere, which for some people would get a big BOO!, but for me?  MAKES.ME.SO.HAPPY.  I am thrilled that there's no pressure to get anywhere at any certain time, no long car ride with two cranky kids, no car ride with a cranky husband (sorry honey), no restless nights because I can't really sleep well when I'm not in my own darn bed...I can hang out here, enjoy my kids, play outside in the dirt, do stuff around town, and generally just enjoy a BREAK.  Ahhhh.

Today I started my break with t-ball practice for Andrew (remember when he started?  how he cried the.entire.time? well now he LOVES it!!  WOOHOO!), then we came home and I planted flowers in my flower boxes out front, dug up two dead shrubs and replaced them with two new pretty (and living) ones. While I was doing that, the kids were generally running around enjoying the sunshine, playing on their playset, walking in the woods, and "helping" mommy.  Chris was helping me dig up the dead shrubs, prepping the ground to plant more grass seed, then planting and watering said grass seed.  When we finished the yardwork, we came inside and while the kids ate lunch, I started cleaning up the indoors.  Chris came in and put the kids down for a nap.  Now, I have one room cleaned up, but I needed a break, so here I am.  Now I need to get up off my rear end and get back in gear.

I need to get the whole house clean so the heath department doesn't come and take us all away from the house before school is out for summer (just kidding!!  its not THAT bad!), so wish me luck.  I'd like to get this done and still have maybe one or two days to enjoy my spring break. :)