The blog is moving

With the latest addition to our family, we thought it was time to start a new and complete blog that encompasses the whole family and all of our activities.  Please save this new link, as it will be the only one updated.

www.crazykuhlenlife.blogspot.com

First Day Alone with Two

The help has all gone home or back to work for now, so this week it's just me and the kids.  I figured it might be a little bit of a balancing act, and there might be some crying as they learn to take turns getting what they need and want.
Yesterday was good practice as Jesse was home but working on the basement for 12 hours, and covered in dust, so he wasn't able to pop up and help when needed.  The day actually went great, and we even managed to fit in a couple of errands to run and get things Jesse needed to continue his project.
But today is a different story....someone is being good......so far.

And someone is being high maintenance since she woke up at 4:30am this morning.

Crazy Girl

I have probably mentioned this before, but Bella has been a crazy girl lately.  She is just moving all over the place.  Rolling across the room, grabbing and throwing toys, doing circles in bed (now that we have a rail up otherwise I'm sure she would be back on the floor many times a night).  She loves to grab the blanket she is laying on and pull it all over the place.

 Usually that means pulling it over her face.

And for the first time this morning, I had Bella help me open some presents for Oliver.  She had a great time pulling out the tissue paper and even some of the items inside the bags/boxes.  She then proceeded to roll around grabbing the tissue paper, tearing at the tissue paper, having a great time for 1.5 hours.

And Oliver just loves to watch his sister.  He has to be on his own blanket though, as crazy Bella is bound to kick him (not on purpose) or just roll over him.  We definitely can not leave them alone together for even a minute.

Where do the days go?

I haven't had a lot of time to post, the days seem to filled with someone's feeding schedule.  But I thought I would post a couple more pictures for you all.

Oliver's first bath at home.

 Being a good sleeper

 Bella hanging out.

Notice Bella's problem.  Her shirts never stay down.  I have a plan to make clothes for Bella that will help with her midriff bearing problem, I just need to find the time.

And just because I knew you all really wanted to see a disgusting picture.

These are my swollen feet and ankles, the picture doesn't really do it justice, but they absolutely revolt me.  I was told it was due to the fluids I was on during the delivery, and the only way to get rid of it was to sweat it out or pee it out.  Apparently this will take awhile, as we are over 1 week out and they are still swollen, but doing a little better.

4th of July Drama

Did everyone have a good 4th of July?  I didn't have high expectations for the 4th, being we had a newborn at home.  But I had hoped we could do a little something as Bella has shown enjoyment for watching fireworks in the past.
Our neighbors were having a get together, a little afternoon swimming, bbq, and then fireworks at dusk.  Jesse and Bella went over for the swimming portion and as usual Bella had a good time.  Oliver and I joined them over there for dinner.  And by 7pm, Bella was a fussy, whinny mess.  Apparently our even small plans were not going to be working out.  And this is where life with Bella gets tricky.  If she's tired or sick/teething, then there is no compromise with her.  She needs complete attention and she pretty much needs to be in her bed.  If there are evening plans there is probably only about a 25% chance we will be able to participate with Bella.   The reality is we either have to have a babysitter for her, or we have to have the activity at our house so we can put her to bed.
And yes this becomes very stressful for us.  Just last night Jesse still wanted to go back over to the party to enjoy the fireworks, and even though I was tired and my feet were swollen and needed to rest, I was tired of being left behind.  But that is pretty much the reality of our life, we can't participate in activities like everyone else, and very rarely can we attend together.  It ended up that we put Bella and Oliver to bed, and went out on our deck to watch the fireworks together, me with my very swollen feet up.  We complained a little about our predicament and hoped for better 4th of July's to come!

We're back home

Oliver Daniel Kuhlen was born June 30th at 1:30pm (sharing a birthday with his Aunt Erin).  Weighing in at 8lbs7oz and 20 inches long.  It was a fairly short delivery with only minor complications.  I'm thinking our new son might take after his dad, as the doctor told me he wasn't tolerating the pushing well at all and I needed to get him out ASAP, granted I think I only pushed for 30-40 minutes, so just like his dad he was impatient :-)  He also pooed all over the doctor when he came out, so maybe he was just in a hurry to get out so he didn't have to go inside of me.  Thanks Oliver!

 Bella got to meet her new brother later on that evening, she wasn't too impressed.  Her face cracks me up in this picture.

 We brought Oliver home on Saturday and so far he has actually been easier to care for at home.  I think he is finally able to get food from me, so he is pretty content and like most newborns is sleeping pretty much all the time.

 I'm curious to see how long it takes Bella to really pay attention to Oliver.  She will watch him sometimes out of the corner of her eyes, and if one of us is holding him she will take quick glances at him.  I'm pretty sure she has no idea what to make of him for now.

 Of course Colby is in love!

Welcome Oliver Daniel!

Hanging in there

Still no baby yet.  Not much to say unless you want to hear a bunch of complaining on my part, so we'll just leave this a short and sweet post.

D-Day

That's right, today is the big day, and no baby yet.  So instead of baby pictures I have one more project for the nursery to show you.

It started with some gray felt and a pattern I created.

 And ended up with a cute gray elephant.

 I was using them to refinish a mobile that had been part of Bella's bedding collection.

 And here is the finished project.

Dance Party

One of Bella's favorite activities is to dance.

Usually she has more fun when mom or dad is dancing with her, but it's a little hard to dance along and use the camera, so this is Bella's debut all by herself.

Children's TLC Duck Derby

Bella's former preschool is having a fundraiser this weekend down at the plaza. 

Now I hope you won't see us down there because we will either be home with a newborn, or still in the hospital.  But the rate things are going, we just might be down there enjoying all the kids activities with Bella.

See the link for more information - Duck Derby

Project Roundup

 Remember this Craigslist bust of a dresser.

Here is the new look with darker stain, spray painted hardware, and some structural modifications to make it more stabilized.

We also got the lamp spray painted gray.  I have ideas for re-doing the lamp shade but need to know if it needs to be girly or boyish before I start.  This is also the reason I don't have anything on the walls, that will be my opportunity to personalize the room.

I also finished sewing my first bag.  It's big enough to be a new diaper bag, or it could just be my everyday bag.  I guess we'll see what it really becomes here shortly.

Naughty Post

I'm going to get in trouble for this one.

I know it comes from a place of good intentions, but every day my "can't sit still, has to be doing something, list making, has one million things that HAVE to be done" husband comes home from work and asks me - "What have you DONE today"?
Translated means - "What have you done today which has helped your cause to have this baby now"?
If it were up to my husband I would be walking 4 miles every day while eating hot wings and stopping every mile to have sex, and then maybe the baby would come.
Because that's just what a very pregnant person wants to hear every night, that it's somehow her fault that this baby hasn't arrived yet, because she hasn't "done" enough.

It's all a waiting game

Yes, I feel like we are in a holding pattern around here, just waiting for the arrival of baby#2.  And nights like last night don't help.  There is nothing fun about having contractions from 9am until 3am in the morning, and then having them stop with nothing to show for them.  Except missing more than half a nights sleep.  Bella was also in a weird mood last night and stayed up giggling, yelling, and continuously moving around in her bed from 8pm until 1:30am.

This picture was taken at about 1am in the morning, it shows Bella's new PVC rail attachment that Jesse made to keep her from falling out.  I'm sure had it not been in place Bella would have fallen out of bed a minimum of three times with the amount of moving she was doing.
So needless to say no one got a lot of sleep last night.  You could call it practice, but who really needs to practice not sleeping.  We are pros around here on that one!

Happy Father's Day

Thanks for being my dad.

Sandcastle making.

Tickle Monster.

Part time stylist.

Bead wearing.

 Comforter.

Bath giver

Chauffeur.

Curl Giver.















Fun loving Father!!!!















I love you!

Memories

No baby yet.  Most people wouldn't be too upset with that if they weren't past their due date, but I was sure with the amount of procrastination going on in our house with the preparation for the new baby that it would indeed be early.
And I know that in general it's better for the baby to not come early.  But it's getting hard to take care of Bella.  And it's not even the carrying around the 33 pound dead weight of Bella (except when going up and down the stairs), it's the bending over and trying to pick her up from the floor, and the worst is trying to support her on my lap when there just isn't anyplace for her to sit.  And of course there is the general uncomfortableness of being this pregnant.
But if you want to know the real reason I am ready to have this baby, it's because I'm anxious to meet the little person growing inside of me.  I would like to know if it's a girl or a boy, being that my lovely husband wouldn't let me find out.  But most importantly I want to make sure the baby is healthy and everything will be okay this time around.
I start to remember my delivery of Bella.  Of being hooked up to a million machines and the whole labor and delivery taking forever.  Of her having a short little cry after being born, them handing her to me for all of 3 seconds and then needing to rush off and work on her.  And my first impression of Bella being in my arms was that she had such a pronounced cone head.  They worked on her in the room with us for a short while and they had to rush her down to NICU.  Jesse went with them, and the doctors and nurses had to finish up things with me.  I remember Jesse being lost and going in between my room and the NICU.  They would occasionally kick him out of the NICU to do different procedures and the doctors would tell him different things they found.  He would have to come back and report the different things to me with such a look of despair and disbelief.  They then informed us Bella would be transported to Children's Mercy downtown.  It wasn't until I had a brief time alone that I even allowed myself to cry.
This was the only picture taken of Bella and us at the hospital I delivered her at (they were in a little bit of a hurry and didn't allow us to take another one, even though my eyes were closed).

Jesse decided to stay with me in the hospital since they were going to release me the very next morning.  I was in a huge hurry to get out as I knew our new baby girl was all alone in a hospital without her mother or father.  I cried most of the way up to Children's Mercy. And of course life went on, as most of you know who read the blog.  But that is my memory of giving birth, and I'm ready to replace it with a new one....any day now would be great!

Moving all around

Apparently after almost 4 years, we don't stay where we are put anymore.  The other morning I propped Bella on the couch (she was leaning on the stripped pillow you see in the background).  I went into the kitchen to grab a drink and when I returned I was surprised to see Bella hanging off the couch. 

Of course instead of rescuing her, I ran back into the kitchen to grab the camera and take a picture.

What is funny, is that she doesn't seem to mind that she is falling off the couch.  She doesn't really make a sound, she just slowly lets herself sink to the floor.  Now it would be more exciting if she would use her legs to help hold her up in a situation like this, but that is just not Bella's style.

To accompany the rolling off the couch, she has also fallen out of bed twice.  She doesn't do it while she is asleep, but instead during the times she is awake she will move all around and eventually fall out.  We have created a contraption of sorts to keep her in the bed, it's been on for almost a week, and so far so good.

I'm hoping these things are a good sign, that Bella wants to move around more, in her own way.

Nursery Update

I posted a little while back about all the projects I had to complete in the nursery.  A lot of them were sewing projects, and I am happy to report that they are pretty much done.

 First I wanted to recover Bella's old bumper with new fabrics.  This turned out to be the most time consuming and tedious project, but it turned out good.

Next were the fabrics for curtains and crib skirts.  I ended up going with just a plain and simple gray skirt.

 And the curtains are the fun geometric print I had originally picked out.

 Now as far as the overall nursery, there might be a few projects left to go.

 And with approximately two weeks to go, someone is not amused.

Okay this might have more to do with the fact someone woke up at 5:30 this morning and at 7:30 finally got put into her chair to eat breakfast.  And instead of feeding her, mom decides to run around and take pictures. But don't feel too bad for her, I am currently feeding her as I type this up, and I personally had no intentions on waking up at 5:30am.

Happy Birthday Dad

I love you!

And your dancing!!