...on the day you should've been born

Happy due date little Q!  Today's the day you were supposed to arrive and, I'm not going to lie, I'm sure glad you came a little early.  

Jack, on the other hand...this was him a few days before you were born...

...happy and care free.  Basically loving life.

This is him the day you came into the world...

..."are you kidding me?"

...on our yard

It is finally finished.  After almost two years living in our house, we have finally made something of our little bitty yard.  Adam and Jack love to be outside but it's kind of hard to want to play outside when your yard consists of gravel, dog poop, and concrete.  We had been talking and dreaming for a long time about how to make the most out of the space that we have.  We dragged our feet for so long because Adam didn't have the time to do the work himself and we didn't want to spend the money it would cost to have someone come and do it.

Well..we finally came to a happy agreement-hire someone to do lay the flagstone and Adam do the rest.    We are so pleased with the result and only regret that we didn't do it sooner.

So...welcome to our cozy little yard.  It's not much but we sure love it!  

...on the story of Quinn

Where to begin?  No, really....I'm at a loss.  The last few days have kind of been a whirlwind of emotions and also a bit of a blur-but in a good way.  I guess I'll just start by saying that Quinn's birth and Jackson's birth were like night and day.  I mean, what did we expect?  Jackson chose to grow in my left uterus and Quinn found it more cozy in the right so I guess we should have know, huh?

We had a visit with the perinatologist on Monday the 10th.  Everything looked great, Quinn was right on schedule and there was no sign of him coming.  I kept on asking the Dr. when he would be born and, of course, he could not give me an answer.  I know this may seem selfish (and it probably is) but at 37 weeks and 2 days, I was totally ready for him to be here.  I felt huge and uncomfortable and was two weeks more pregnant than I had ever been before.  In my mind, he was full term which meant no NICU stay and that was good enough for me!

So we head to bed and the first think I think as my head hits the pillow is "oh no, tomorrow is September 11th-what if he is born then?"  The thought came and went and I fell asleep.  I woke up about 5:15 to my water breaking.  I sat straight up in bed and said, "Baca, Baca.  My water broke...this is not a drill!".  It took him a few minutes to jump to but from what I can remember it was kind of like a scene from a movie where the man startles awake and frantically starts walking around in circles.  After a minute or two we both pulled ourselves together, called our parents, and finished packing our hospital bags.   My contractions started about ten minutes after my water broke and they were coming every two minutes.  At first I could walk and talk through them but by the time we headed out the door they were becoming a little more intense.

On our way to the hospital-I'm pretty sure this was taken in the middle of a contraction...

When we got to the hospital Adam dropped me off at the front and went to park the car.  We headed up to triage and proceeded to check in.  At this point my contractions were extremely strong and I was pretty much unable to communicate my information with the nurse.  It seemed like it took about ten minutes to get the paperwork filled out and get me into a room although I'm sure it wasn't quite that long.  Almost as soon as I got in to the room my body started telling me that I needed to push and sweet Adam kept telling me to sit up on the bed.  Finally, after a little bit of banter back and forth between me and Adam, I sat up on the bed and the nurse came in to check me.  She seemed a bit surprised and said, "wow, you are 10cm".  After that it took about two seconds for them to roll me into a delivery room.  Our friend Tanya, who is a L&D nurse, just happened to be working that morning so she spotted us in the hall and ended up being one of the nurses that helped bring little man into the world!  As they were taking me to the room I made everyone aware of the fact that I did NOT want to do this naturally and I wanted my epidural.  They all informed me that it was too late and the hard part was already over.  At this point I'm pretty sure I either said "I can't do this" or "I don't want to do this"-because I didn't!  I wanted the drugs!  That was the only thing that made me think, "ok, lets do a VBAC-as long as I have the drugs it'll all be ok."  Well, I honestly can't remember how long I pushed but if you factor in everything that happened before he came out and how quickly it all happened, I'd say it was about 30 minutes?  Maybe Adam would have a better guess.  So-at 6:51am he arrived and was placed straight on my chest.  They let him hang out there for about 30 minutes before doing anything.  I think I was in total shock.  A successful VBAC, without drugs, super fast, healthy baby, straight to me and no NICU...this was nothing like my past experience.  I mean, we went home the very next day-with our baby!!

So, welcome to the world Quinn Matthew Baca!  We are so glad you are here!

...on some teasers

 I'm sure by now all one of you are anxiously awaiting Quinn's birth story.  Well, it's coming...not to worry.  I actually have it all written out and be warned, it's long!  I'm just waiting to get some pictures ready to share.  Until then, here is one of the three of us just relaxing in the hospital before heading home.

And....our yard is FINISHED!!  Adam got it all done on Sunday before Quinn made his arrival.  Here's a little teaser of that, too!

Enjoy!

...on bargain shopping

I love to shop.  I am a very frugal shopper and really don't ever spend too much money at a time.  Don't get me wrong, I totally would but I try to be fairly money conscious.  Sometimes I get a store in my head and I think, "I should go there-I feel like there is something there waiting for me".  It's almost like the store is beckoning me to come and browse so that I can find that special item waiting just for me.  And, the crazy thing is, it seems like 99% of the time I find the perfect something for a great, great price!  I know realize that this sounds completely crazy but hey, I'm just being honest.  Does this happen to anyone else?  So the shop du jour this time was TJ Maxx-see, I told you, money conscious.  It's not like we are hitting up Neiman's or anything here.  I had been wanting to go there all week and today we finally made it.

The best part about stores like that is that everything is discounted and, crazy (cheap?) me, I always go to the clearance rack.  So there-bargain shopping at a bargain store.  Ok, so we browsed through the home goods, then walked through the kids clothes where I found the first of my treasures!

Matching outfits for my little boys!  The bodysuit was $7 and the shirt was $3!  And come on, how cute are they!?  Also, I love the brand (splendid) and the fabric is super soft and comfy!  

Now my next and last find was actually the first thing I found when I walked into the store.  I passed it up at first but kept it in the back of my mind while we perused the remainder of the store.  Usually when I do this I end up leaving without whatever the item was but this time I just couldn't resist.  This was a little bit of a splurge for me but I decided to go for it.

Don't you just love it?  This little baby was 39.99 (I told you it was a splurge!) but I feel like it just had my name written all over it!  I love the colors and the straps not to mention the fun colorful lining on the inside.  

So there you have it.

...on random photos and thoughts

On the way to the game Jack kept on saying "I wanna go see the baseball" and on the way out "I wanna go home".  He skipped his nap completely yesterday and was such a little trooper!  

Today the man and I went over to the aquarium-we hadn't been there in months and it was really fun!  We arrived pretty early so there was hardly anyone there.

So-I keep seeing commercials for these new hershey's thinks called something air.  It's basically hershey's kisses with air bubbles pumped in the middle.  I think they are advertising that they are fun to eat or something like that.  I mean, why would I want to buy something (especial chocolate!) that has air bubbles pumped in it?  All that really means is you are getting less chocolate and really, who wants that?  

...on date night and 36 weeks

Last night was date night.  Probably our last one before Quinn comes?  Now that I have written than he probably will wait until 40 weeks to make his debut.  Anyway, we dropped Jack off at his Hammy and Papa's house and went on our way.  There is a very tiny part of me that wishes Jack would actually care when we leave but a huge part of me that is so grateful he loves them and their house so much that I'm sure he hardly misses us.  So, with a simple wave from the little man, we headed off to dinner.  I got "dressed up" about as dressy as I'm willing to get these days.  (I wore wedges to church last weekend and I seriously think my feet are still trying to recover from the swelling!)  It was such an enjoyable evening!  Normally we would be at church right now but Jack is still gone and I didn't wake up until 9:00-Adam is still sleeping.  Seriously can't remember the last time that happened.  So, I'm sitting out on our newly finished patio (pictures to come) enjoying some coffee and a little quiet time.  Trying to soak it all in before everything changes.

Adam and I stink at taking pictures of the two of us so here is me from yesterday!  36 weeks exactly-the longest I have ever been pregnant!  One more week to go and I'm considered full term!  Also-I feel like my belly is gigantic and I have officially adopted the waddle as my main method of transportation.  

I hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend!