Okay, that last post was a little depressing. Or a lot depressing. Things are better now. Eleanor had a 103-104 temp for 3 days and let me tell you--it was rough. She wouldn't eat anything. Then she got a crazy rash. Then James got sick, so he couldn't help at all with the girls. BUT Eleanor is pretty much better. She's eating and the rash is going away.

And seriously, Eadie (I think this is the spelling we've decided on) is THE BEST baby ever. She is an angel. She is a good eater and hardly ever cries. And breastfeeding is much much easier this time around. Eleanor was such a piranha and I had 6 weeks of serious pain. Despite having a rough time last week, I never hit the level of "completely delirious."

I hit that point about a week and half after I had Eleanor. After getting up for what felt like the billionth time (which is no picnic post-c-section) one night to feed Eleanor (who cried every 45 minutes during the night) I looked at my sweetly sleeping husband and wanted to put the pillow over his face. I knew then that I needed to start running the following day or my husband wasn't going to make it.

It's going to kill me to go back to work in August. But I have 2 months to enjoy my girls. And luckily, I'll just go back to teach 3 classes.

Speaking of Eadie, I should properly introduce my new little lady. Edith Virginia was born on May 17th at 7:54am via c-section. She weighed 6 lbs 12 oz and was 19.75 inches long and had a ton of lovely dark hair. How I love that hair!

This one was planned and not after 22 hours of labor (i.e. Eleanor) and the recovery has been so much better. It was pretty dang nerve-racking pre-surgery, but James did relaxation stuff with me and I just focused on my breathing so I didn't FREAK OUT COMPLETELY. All in all, a much better experience. The hospital was so enjoyable. It was nice to just get to know my little Eadie. Since she was not at all planned and I was occupied with a busy toddler and working literally up until 36 hours before giving birth, it was like I had not grasped that there was a little person inside me. Hearing her cry for the 1st time was a very sweet experience. She was real. Not just 2 lines I did not expect to see on a birth control test.

Eleanor is adjusting reasonably well to a new person in the house. She will say "Hi, baby!" and then just ignore her. I can't believe I have two little girls.

 

Having kids 14 months apart is hard. Especially when one has a temp of 104 for 2 days and wont eat or drink anything (Eleanor) and the other has pink eye, jaundice, and funky breathing patterns (Edie). All the while, I have a UTI, am engorged, have a suspicious lump in my arm pit, the most heinous cold sore you have ever seen (it's consuming my chin now and my husband wont kiss me), and recovering from a c-section while my husband is so stressed and overwhelmed from work, I might as well be a single parent.

Does this sound like complaining? It should, because I am. This is hard. I am no Xena warrior princess mamma.

Re-covered Car Seat

I'm not going to lie. I'm pretty pleased with myself. Other than working full-time, keeping my child alive, not murdering my husband, and managing to cook sometimes, my accomplishments during this pregnancy have been minimal. While I was so productive during my pregnancy with E--sewing, knitting and crocheting up a storm--I've created NOTHING this entire pregnancy. "Nesting" has been replaced with practical planning. That is until this weekend.

Since E is 13 months and tiny and we are just a few weeks away from bringing little J into this world, we knew we needed another infant car seat. At 17 lbs, E is nowhere big enough to even contemplate a front-facing seat. However, we really didn't want to buy another infant seat for just 6-8 months of use considering our finances. Luckily for us, a former work colleague offered us a car seat and crib that their youngest was just out-growing. Big win!!!

As you can see, the seat was well-worn. While still perfectly functional, I wanted to clean it up--and I did. I took it all apart, and in doing so, I decided that I'd use some houndstooth fabric I bought at the thrift store a few weeks ago (4 yds for $2.99---wahoo!) to recover the seat. I knew it'd be a big undertaking, but my very dormant creative juices needed an outlet. So this weekend, amidst all three of us being sick (our new life since E has started going to daycare), I decided to make this thing happen.

Here's the before pics:

 You can see that it was pretty worn and dirty. I decided that simply washing it in the washing machine wasn't going to satisfy me.

  So all I really did was take apart each little piece of fabric with a seam ripper. That was BY FAR, the most time consuming part. At the recommendation of another blog I saw about recovering carseats, I took pictures as I did it in order to know how to put everything back together. Then, I made matching pieces in the new fabric and sewed it all back up! I sewed the original padding onto my new fabric. My friend gave it to us sans shoulder pads, but I made some because I don't want the straps rubbing into to E's skin. I also washed the straps and all the little fixtures in soapy water. In all, the conversion cost about $10 total. Not bad for a new car seat!

 ALL CLEAN!!!

Other than needing to make about 50 zillion freezer meals before my May 17th c-section, we are almost ready for another little one! Physically, that is. Emotionally and mentally ready for 2 kids 14 months apart? Not a chance.

Eleanor's 1st Birthday

Oh my heavens, it's been a while since I've blogged. And, boy howdy, has life moved along quickly since then.

1) First off, we got Netflix. We're pretty much behind everyone else when it comes to technology. Our phones don't go on the internet and our TV gets 3 channels. On a good day. So our commitment to Netflix was no small thing. So far, we're loving it and are wondering why we didn't do this sooner. Eleanor LOVES Yo Gabba Gabba, and we can get access to it 24/7. I know I vowed that my child wouldn't watch TV, but that was before I had a child. The reality is Yo Gabba Gabba has saved my life many times. It calms her down and even makes her eat food. She's almost a year and isn't even 17 lbs yet. We try anything to get her to eat. For a few weeks, she flat out refused to eat anything.

But, if DJ Lance Rock is on screen, she zones out, her jaw drops, and she'll eat whatever we give her as she stares at the screen. I kid you not.

We've also been enjoying a variety of TV shows like Freaks and Geeks, Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Twin Peaks, and 30 Rock. It's been awesome.

2) We bought a house. It's great. I park in a garage. We have a guest bathroom, a piano in the front room, and a room for my sewing and James' music equipment.  Downside: We don't know how to fix or repair anything.

3) We got pregnant again. I know. A mom in my new ward asked privately "How exactly does that happen?"after I mentioned that it was "not on purpose." My answer: Birth control doesn't always work.   So there you go. Oh man, it feels as though I've been pregnant forever. I ran into the mom of a girl I grew up with and she was like "Oh, I heard you were pregnant with your first!" I then sheepishly explained that I gave birth to my 1st and managed to get pregnant before she went onto solid foods and that this baby bump would be her little sister. I'm due end of May. They'll be just shy of 15 months apart. If I think about it too much, I start freaking out and have to focus on breathing deeply.

4) Due to number 3 (see above) and our needs as a family, I went back to work in the classroom. Teaching high school French. HUGE BLESSING. I love it. For the most part. It's hard not to be there all day with little E, but when I am with her, I can focus on her 100%. When I was teaching online from home, that wasn't the case at all. Life actually feels more balanced right now. We've got a great sitter. And I only work 6.5 hours a day, but get full benefits and all summer off. I work in the same district as J now so we have the same school breaks.

people are bad

While I really wanted to post about my new serger and the fabulous world it has opened for me, sadly, I have a tale of woe and a word of caution to pass on. Garlic cheesy biscuit in hand (needed a little comfort food given the day I've had) I'm prepared to embark on my sad journey.

The joys of serging will be forthcoming.

Money is tight for most people these days. If it's not for you, good for you cause every day must be Christmas, but for the rest of us, we need every little bit in order to pay bills, diaper our children, and eat.

If your employer was sending you a check, and you are like most people, you can be sure that you'd be looking forward to it. Standing by the mailbox, even. And I was. Trust me. I'm a teacher. Our pay has been frozen since 2008 (and it wasn't that much to begin with).

A paycheck from my employer (301 money for all you educators out there) was sent through the mail. Normally, all my checks are direct deposit, yet this particular one was a live check and my employer sent it throughout the mail rather than contact me to pick it up. It was stolen out of the mail (or out of my employers office) and cashed. A check for $923.15.

I found this out this morning from my employer as I was inquiring about the check I had been expecting for weeks now. She called her bank to find out what happened. Initially, everyone--my employer, her bank, and the bank that cashed the check--refused to take responsibility.

My employer reassured me saying "This has never happened before. None of our checks have been stolen from the mail before. There's nothing I can do about this."

Wait a minute, this sounds familiar. OH WAIT, I heard all this before when in my 3rd week teaching at said school, a student took out a whole lotta rage on Mazda3. She said the same thing. This never happens and there is nothing she can do to help me. Luckily, I'm no pushover and I was not about to let over $900 that I earned while keeping teenagers from committing felonies slip through my fingers.

After 2 visits to different banks, dealing with about 5 bankers, making about 10 phone calls, and breaking down into tears at the Bank of America and sobbing to the banker about my crying 4 month old at home, trying to buy a home, and sad story I read in the news (hormones suck), I finally got somewhere.

 I found out that the person deposited it into their own account through an ATM. The person banks with Wells Fargo---as do I---and was able to deposit it. Ironically, once we knew the check was cashed but before we knew which bank cashed it, we went to our bank, Wells Fargo, to ask about what they recommended for us to do. They spoke about how the bank that cashed it should take responsibility and by the way could we interest in you in fraud protection. Well, turns out we need protection from Wells Fargo's ineptitude.

Long story short--and trust me, it's long--I should be able to get the money. My employer has to file a claim through the bank that issued the check. They then will have to go after the money from Wells Fargo. They will then give my employer the money back and she can then re-issue the check. But that wasn't enough for me.

I filed a police report because I want the jerk to pay and I would like to stop said person from doing this again. The police officer came, took down our info and gave us some bad news. Basically, this happens ALL the time and the fraud detectives are buried under thousands of claims. People actually follow around the postal delivery workers to steal mail from unlocked mailboxes. Also, banks usually refuse to hand over any information to the police unless subpoenas (usually issued by a judge) are involved forcing them to hand it over. Wells Fargo straight up told me they know exactly who did it because they deposited my check into their account, but that the info was confidential and they would not give it to me. The officer told me that if he walked in, badge and all, they would do the same thing. Police request fraud info from banks and rarely get it without extensive legal action.

The take home for me all you folks:

1.) Banks are kind of evil. 

2.) People are bad and they can and will steal your mail.

3.) It's easy to commit fraud using ATMs. People can deposit checks using ATMS without even needing any information about the person to whom the check is actually written. They will get away with it from the banks unless you go in and freak out on them.

4.) The po-po's can't do much. Fraud is so rampant that unless it's a huge amount of money, the police's hands are tied. Banks will not actually give the police information about people THEY KNOW are thieves without a subpoena and police CAN'T get subpoenas for everything given the sheer amount of fraud. Banks would rather pay out the cost of the fraud than take more money and time to stop them.

Be careful, guys.

P90X

I've just started my 3rd week of P90X. Weight lost: ZERO POUNDS. But hey, apparently I look better. At church on Sunday, a lady in her 80s commented on how I lost all my pregnancy weight. I responded that, alas, there was 10 lbs that refused to budge. I blamed breastfeeding (but all those DQ Blizzards can't be helping). 

"Well," she said, "the rear looks just darling!!!" 

So yes, I felt pretty dang good after that, 10 lbs and all. But good grief, I've never had such a hard time losing weight! I am loving P90X, though. It's intense and awesome. I'll keep you updated. 

But having my stomach stretched like pizza dough was worth it for this little lady.

 She's turning over both ways and is SUPER active. I'm gearing up for her to be all over the place. 

 Oh my gosh, don't you love that face?