A Few More Days for the Kids

So I had my 24 week appointment today and got confirmation for something I had heard - no kids to visit the baby in the hospital UNLESS they have had the Flu shot. And the Flu shot is not an option for our family. I don't need to get into all of  my reasons, all you need to know is that it is the decision of both Chris and me to not do flu shots. Period. I can see the point of the hospital during flu season to try to protect other patients, but it still sucks to not be able to have our other kids meet their brother when he's born.

Having Jake meet Brenden and Jake and Brenden meet Rylan at the hospital were very special moments for all of us. I can remember Jake walking in to meet Brenden and realizing for the first time that my baby (Jake) was no longer a baby, but a full-fledged big boy toddler. And seeing the boys after having my first girl really made it hit home that things truly would be different. And Rylan is being completely robbed of having her own experience at the hospital being the older sister meeting her baby brother. I know we'll still have a special moment, but it will be delayed which does make me sad.

And I can't imagine how the kids are going to react when I tell them they can't come to the hospital. Brenden is already upset that I won't let him be there for the actual delivery - no joke, he very clearly told me he wanted to see the baby come out and was VERY mad when I told him no. Anyway, I know that they are very excited to meet their brother and having to tell them they'll have to wait an extra day or two is probably going to be very hard for them to accept.

As for the actual appointment today, it was Ok. My blood pressure was on the high side, which is odd since its usually low, but they didn't say anything more about it. I only gained 3 lbs this time instead of my usual 7-8 lbs. And then I had a complete breakdown. I haven't been able to sleep, mainly because of back/hip/joint pain and I have tried ALL of their suggestions and nothing has worked. When I finally started sobbing and telling the Dr that Chris is traveling a LOT and I NEED sleep he agreed to prescribe me some Ambien. He had said they don't like to prescribe them because of their addictive nature, but I need sleep and the prescription is for only a handful for when I really need it instead of daily use, which is all I wanted anyway. So hopefully this will help because I haven't had anywhere near a full night of sleep in at least a week and its just going to get worse as I get bigger and more uncomfortable.

I go back in 3 weeks for a check up and the gestational diabetes sugar drink test. At that point I'll be officially in my 3rd trimester and if Miles is like his sibling it could be a short trimester - Fingers crossed! :)

We have a Name!

So I know I just said we didn't have a name, but the kids have made it known that they have picked the name :) And the winner is....

Miles Oliver Eby

Miles is a name that I liked a lot when I was pregnant with Rylan and we didn't know if she was a boy or girl yet, but Chris was never very keen on it. I hadn't mentioned the name at all this time and then my brother was visiting and took our name book to scour. He came back with Miles Oliver, amongst others. And this time Chris liked it, go figure :) But, as much as both of us liked it we weren't sure it was THE name. So we kept throwing out names. LOTS of names. We kept coming back around to it and even asked the kids what they thought and they liked it. So last week Chris asks the boys again and they simply said it was decided, #4 will be Miles. Without me knowing this, I asked the kids as well and they started chanting Miles. And so it is Miles.

Now the Oliver was not as easy for the kids. We had actually asked about Miles Dominic a few weeks ago when we were trying a different middle name. So we did have to convince the boys that it would be Oliver not Dominic with the final selling point being that his initials will be MOE. For those of you that don't know, this is also the name of one of Chris's favorite bands and we also like it as a possible nickname - yes, we are dorks :) And Jake has said he would like to call him MoJo and Rylan pronounces Miles like Mouse and has insisted he is Mouse :) Brenden is still unsure, but seems to be on board.

So anyway, it is done. At least I hope. Miles Oliver Eby (MOE) will be the name of #4. Now if only we knew exactly when he would make his arrival we'd be all set!

Baby News

It has been a few weeks since I've done any baby updates so I thought maybe I should do that. I mentioned in an earlier post that I had started getting the babies room ready. This is one of many things that have been happening as a result of my crazy nesitng instincts. I can't explain why nesting happens, but it does and it hits me earlier with each kid and it always hits hard. I've been going nuts around the house moving things, rearranging rooms, cooking, cleaning, etc. And if the other pregnancies have been any sort of indicator, its only going to get worse....At least I'll have a clean house! :)

I'm not the only one busy, #4 has been kicking up quite a storm. He's rivaling Jake right now for the most active baby I've had to date. And there's no rhyme or reason, he moves morning, noon, and night. I've been able to see him move plenty and Chris has had lot of opportunities to feel him squirm as well. Sometimes I do get a little nervous though when I haven't felt him in a while, but its usually just moments after I have this that he starts kicking up again. Little boy seems to want to keep his mom at ease when anxiety strikes :)

I have had some problems over the past few weeks. About 2 weeks ago my Sciatica was off the charts. The smallest move would send awful, sharp, stabbing pains through my back, hip, and legs. I actually had to use a cane off and on for a few days to be able to walk. I had had problems in other pregnancies, but never this bad and never this early. It seems the little guy was just situated in a bad spot because I couldn't find relief anywhere and then one day it was just gone. I'm still having a lot of pain and aches, but the debilitating sharp pains are gone. Unfortunately the aches and pains that are still around are keeping me from sleeping, I actually feel myself turn over all night to get comfortable - which I never really am. I'm going to try asking/pleading with my doctors again next week to see if there is anything they can prescribe to help, I need sleep!

I've also noticed that this guy is hanging out quite low. Jake, Brenden, and Rylan were all low riders too, but I'm noticing discomfort and pressure low much earlier. I'm sure this is just because its #4, but I swear the pressure I feel now I never felt before at least 30 weeks with the others. Sometimes I feel like he's pressing straight down on my crotch! (Sorry if TMI) I also feel kicks BELOW my waist line and often lower than my underpants line as well. He's really down there and I'm thinking he has no intentions of going anywhere near his due date....only time will tell! (Don't forget you can make a pick over to the right of when you think he'll come)

You may have noticed that I keep referring to him as #4, that's because we don't have a name yet. We've had a lot of names that we like a lot, but we just aren't sure they fit him. I'd like to use a not too common name, but I find that boys names are a little harder to come up with than girls. Chris says he can't get a feel for his personality yet and might want to wait until he arrives, but I'm not sure I can wait that long. I really liked having a name early with the others. We keep looking everywhere and throwing out just about anything we can think of, but nothing has stuck so far. If you have any suggestions I'll gladly hear them!

And of course some lovely belly pictures. I don't feel like I've gotten much bigger in front, it feels/looks like to me that my bump has started to widen, you can be the judge for yourself:

22w, 2d

23w, 1d

And just for laughs, this was me at about 26 weeks with Rylan:

My First Pinterest Project

Here's another one you can chalk up to early nesting: My mudroom/laundry room project.

When we first bought the house we had visions of something like this for our mudroom/laundry room:

We had the project bid on at our initial inspection in hopes that it would be one of our first projects. Well, as we got all moved in and settled it became clear that we had more pressing needs than built in lockers. The project would have to be put on hold for the time being. Until one day I was looking around on Pinterest and came across this idea:

Simple. It would take care of our needs for now and it was something I could do easily and cheaply. I didn't end up with the exact same outcome, but here's my Before and After product:

Before:

After:

As you can see I went with a dry erase board and one bulletin board instead of individual boards. I also put smaller hooks between the big hooks and added shoe racks beneath. I'm still planning to get letters of the kids first initial to put over the big hooks, but I haven't had time to make it to Michael's or another craft store just yet. This whole project cost me less than $50.

I also have some ideas for the opposite wall in the room, which currently looks like this:

I'm hoping soon to be able to find tall shelves to go on either side of the window for additional storage and put a bench with cubbies under the window. I've found some things at Lowes, Target, and Ikea that might work, I just need to find the time to get to all of the places to see what I like best and what will fit my budget.

The Eby Shuffle

Call it early nesting, but last week I decided it was time to start moving kids and getting the babies room started. After a lot of hemming and hawing we decided that putting the boys back together would be the best solution, at least for now. Rylan has been on the difficult side and we thought if we put her with Brenden it might totally screw her up or she might mess Brenden up. When we went to Cleveland she was staying up until almost 10pm when she shared a room with the boys and that's not fair to Brenden when he has to go to school in the morning. We also thought about putting Jake in the basement, but the room is tiny, has no windows, and is open to the rest of the basement. This might be an option when Jake is older when we could close the room off and do some other things to "add" space, but for now it didn't seem right for a 7 year old.

So after we talked with the boys about our plan they were ready to get things going, and so I did. We had moved Jake into a queen sized bed when we moved here and he was quite attached to the extra space. So to keep Jake in the bigger bed I took out the bottom twin bed and put in a queen bed. I used the bed that was in Jake's old room and used the metal bed frame from our guest bed in the basement. I then (with help from Chris) moved the queen guest bed from the basement up to Jake's old room so we would still have an extra bed in what would become the babies room. With Jake, Brenden, and Rylan we had a bed in their baby room that we used on the extra difficult nights and found it to be very helpful. I then switched Jake and Brenden's dressers so that the larger one was with the two boys and the other one would be in Jake's old room as dresser and changing table for the new baby. I also brought Jake's bookshelf from his old room to Brenden's room since there was room for it in the corner by the bunk bed.

The boys room now looks a little like a dorm room to me, but so far its working great. They have a desk for homework, lots of full bookshelves, 2 dressers, and of course the bunk bed. They have been together now for about a week and have been doing great. There have been a few nights of shenanigans, but that's what you get with boys :) Chris and I have also noticed that they seem to be getting a long better when they are playing. Hopefully this will keep up for the next couple of years when we plan to revisit sleeping arrangements - probably give Jake his own room again and have #4 and Brenden share a room with Brenden moving to the queen bed and #4 heading up to the top bunk.

Before:

After:

     

So with Jake moved it was time to get things going with the babies room. I put up the crib and have been slowly moving in other things. I put on all the bedding a put a couple of stuffed animals in it. The dresser is very slowly getting clothes put in it - I don't have much now, but soon I'll be getting more from my Sister-in-law. I need to buy a lamp for the room and move one of the extra dressers from Rylan's room into the closet for extra storage - we have HUGE closets that will never be filled with hanging clothes. And we have a desk in the basement storage that we will move into Rylan's room once I move the extra dresser.

Before:

   

After:

Since getting the baby room ready Rylan has been very obsessed with the room. The first couple of days she really wanted to play in the crib and was insisting that the blanket I bought was for her, most certainly NOT for the baby. As the days have passed she's been less insistent on spending time in there and now just talks about the baby crib and the baby blanket. The way she initially reacted made me happy I decided to do all of this so early. It'll give us more time to talk and prepare her for the new baby. Nothing will ever make it totally easy for her (the current baby) to adjust to the new baby, but its obvious that getting Rylan moved to a twin bed earlier this summer and getting the babies room ready now will help with this transition - at least I hope :)

Brenden Loses a Tooth (sort of)

So when we took Brenden to the dentist a couple weeks ago they saw an infection and/or abscess on his x-ray that needed to be taken care of before it potentially damaged his permanent tooth still up in his gums. Today was the day to have it fixed, which meant having it pulled out. The Dentist suggested having him under Nitrous Oxide to relax him for the procedure. And he came through like a champ and the whole staff was very impressed with how he did.

So now Brenden has "lost" his first tooth. Jake lost his first tooth at almost 5 1/2, but it looks like he was an odd ball. From the looks of Brenden's tooth and the typical time to lose the first tooth is between 6 & 7 years old he could have that space for quite a while. The Dentist said it would likely take at least a year before the permanent tooth comes in. It makes me a little sad that his first lost tooth came at the hands of the dentist instead of the natural process of loose tooth to tooth falling out on its own, but at least we can do all the other stuff with him tonight. We'll talk about the tooth fairly and start his tooth chart like we did with Jake and I'm sure the Tooth Fairly will leave him a nice treat for doing so good today! :)

His first "lost" tooth - you can see that  there was a lot of the root
left so it was unlikely to fall out anytime soon

The Dentist said that this all happened likely because of a trauma, and most likely it could have been any number of times that he smashed his face so far in his young life. They also said the tooth next to the one removed is also likely dead due to a trauma, but there is no infection or abscess there so we should be fine leaving it until it falls out naturally.

We also had a trip to the Orthodontist for Jake today. One of his permanent teeth came in behind his baby tooth and by the time the baby tooth was pulled out the permanent tooth was too far down to move forward. So now when Jake bites down that tooth is "stuck" behind his bottom teeth, or for the more technical term he has a cross bite with that tooth. The Orthodontist explained today that if they don't treat that early he could have complications arise in the future that could even result with the permanent tooth falling out or being damaged in other ways. So it was his recommendation that we put braces on his front 4 teeth for 4-6 months to pull the tooth forward. And if we like we can also do a retainer after the braces to keep his overly spaced teeth together. None of this will guarantee that he won't need braces or other work again, but it should diminish the possibility and if we do the retainer it will likely mean he won't need anything for cosmetic reasons.

So next week Jake will have his x-rays done and spacers put in the back teeth. He seemed excited about the process once they explained everything and showed him some examples of what it would all look like. He is also excited that he will be able to pick the color of the bands that go around the braces. He was telling the assistant what colors he was going to pick and the order they would be put on since he wanted 3 colors :)

Going through all of this today I'm realizing how fast they are growing up. My Brenden has lost his first tooth and My Jake is getting braces and Rylan keeps telling me she's 6....I have to admit, I'm tearing up a lot more often over these milestones. At least I will have one more baby in a few months since there doesn't seem to be any more in sight around here - sniff, sniff......

Look Who Got Her Ears Pierced!

So I had mentioned in an earlier post that I was pretty sure I would get Rylan her ears pierced for her birthday. Well, Saturday afternoon we did it!

She did great, too! We met our neighbors, Stephanie and Annie, at the mall after nap so that Rylan and Annie could get their ears pierced. Annie said she would go first to show Rylan how to be brave and not be scared - Too cute, right? Anyway, Annie did great, not a tear in sight. Rylan went right after. She didn't like having her ears cleaned with alcohol, but once we got through that she sat tight and was ready. I stood behind her and held her hands. I could feel her jump a little as they pierced both ears at the same time. And once it was done there were some tears, but they were gone quickly with the offer of a lollipop :)

She has been quite proud of her new earings. She points to her ears and says "My ears pierced!" She sometimes follows that with an "Ow" as well, but mostly she's all smiles. She has been very good about having me clean them twice a day and I have been putting Neosporin on them 1-2 times a day as well. Overall I think it has been a very good experience and I'm glad we decided to do it :)