Why It's All Worth It

Two kids is a lot more work than one kid. A 19-month old and a newborn is A LOT of work. When your first child is Saku, life is very hectic:) Overall, I feel like the transition has been smooth and most days, I feel like we are doing really well. And then you have that moment when your baby doesn't fall asleep and your toddler is screaming/whining/throwing a temper tantrum and you wonder whether you should laugh/cry/scream or runaway. Fortunately, these moments pass by pretty quickly.

Here is what eating a fancy pre-Valentine's Day dinner looked like tonight. Rocking a baby with one hand because the swing doesn't have batteries and holding the other child while we are sad about something very important. Thanks to Troy's mom, we had an amazing File Mignon with cheese potatoes and asparagus.

Baby girl wore a fancy dress to church today. Thanks to Lili And Kat, she will be fashionable for the next few months.

She was a lot happier when she was snuggling next to me.

Grandma is officially her favorite person to snuggle with and sleep with.

Saku enjoyed playing in the garage while grandpa and isi finished the attic storage space.

Saku loves taking "bubbles". He also likes "tooting" in the water because of the bubbles that appear.

He looks so innocent and happy here.

I took baby girl to her 2 week check up and she had gained a pound in the last week and a half. She weights 9 lbs and 2 oz and weights a pound more than Saku did at 2 weeks. The doctor commented that my milk must be like ice cream.

I better go to bed. Tomorrow is a start of the "get rid off the flab" project. Saku pointed at my belly the other day and said "yuck". If that doesn't get me motivated to stop eating and start moving, I'm not sure what will:) Let's hope he will learn to be more sensitive or he might be in big trouble with girls.

Second Time Around

Life has been very busy since the arrival of our baby girl. One of the main reasons is the fact that I feel like I am sitting on the couch and nursing her most of the day. Saku finally got better and started to react to the fact that his place as the center of attention has been challenged.

Today was a rough day for him. He didn't take his usual morning nap before we left to go to church. After the first hour of nursery, his teachers brought him to Troy and said that he was having a "terrible day". He just kept crying and crying. He asked for milk and juice and of course, we didn't have either one of them with us. He was so out of control that Troy ended up driving to Safeway to buy some chocolate milk to calm the child down. I have to emphasize how out of control he was because we don't give in to demands or shop on Sundays, but we didn't want to disrupt the whole church nor did we feel like we should just go home in the middle of the meetings. Needless to say, he went to bed around six thirty and I was happy to get a little breather.

I had been recovering from the birth without any problems and actually contemplated on going for a jog/run last Thursday. However, that evening I started to have severe pelvic pain and I could barely walk or get up. It felt like I was in labor all over again. Fortunately, the severe pain went away, but I wonder if I pulled some kind of muscle or ligament. This makes things little more difficult because I can't carry Saku around or lift him too much. So now I have to be a good girl and wait until my doctor's appointment before I will start exercising.

We took few pictures of our precious baby girl. She is a very even tempered child. It is a great balance for our family. She really only cries when she is hungry and she likes to eat a lot. She sleeps about 3 hours in a row at night, so on most nights I am up twice. Last few nights, she has wanted to just hang out for an hour or so around 3 am. We have let her sleep in our bed because she likes to snuggle. Today Troy had been trying to get her to fall asleep for an hour while I took a nap. As soon as he brought her to me and she cuddled up next to me, she fell asleep.

She has long feet and long fingers.

Being a first time mom was so special and I am grateful for all the time and attention and love that I had been able to give to Saku when he was our one and only. However, I think I enjoy being a mom of a newborn more this time around. I don't worry about things that I worried with him. I always felt that his behavior was a reflection of my abilities as a mother. Having a second child who is very different from my first one shows to me that these little babies come to this earth with their own personality.

I do wonder how I will able to balance the needs of these two little children. If anyone has any suggestions or words of wisdom, I would love to hear them.

In case you were in need of some sweetness

I have not been this content and happy for a long time. Life just seems to be so right at the moment. I don't have words to describe my gratitude and joy as a mother of these two beautiful children.

Doesn't this picture scream pure love and joy.

She got some good cheeks and beautiful alert eyes.

I know I am biased, but she is a beautiful little girl.

Baby girl loves to snuggle. As long as someone is holding her or cuddling her, she is happy to sleep all day long and most of the night.

Saku finally wanted to hold her today and gave her kisses. Most of the time, he still seems to think that life would be OK without her:)

Is this how our baby girl will feel under her brother's tender care??

Saku demanded to wear a beanie after his evening bath. He seems like a giant to me and keeps amazing us how much he learns every day.

The Skinny of the Birth Story

Our baby girl's arrival was little more eventful than we had expected, but for now, here are the important details and a quick timeline of the labor

20:20- I had my first serious contraction

20:30-Troy came home from the store

20:50- contractions started to come every 5 minutes

21:10-I jumped into the shower

22:00 Head over to Camille's to drop of Saku

22:30 Arrive at the hospital

22:38-got to triage, water breaks and baby's head crowning

22:42- arrive in the labor room and admitted to the hospital computer as a patient

22:46-baby girl arrives

She was 8 lbs 1.4 oz and 20.5 inches.

It was crazy intense experience. Once Saku recovers from his high fevers and cough, I will give the detailed story for those who care.

No, we didn't plan on making it such a crazy event, but things turned out well. While it was a quick labor, it wasn't an easy labor. Especially since I didn't know that it was going to be so fast, the intensity completely overwhelmed me.

We are both doing really well and happy to be home.

The Glorious Belly

I felt like it was much needed to have one belly picture from baby girl's pregnancy. While I am smaller than I was with Saku, I am still very big. People cant believe when I tell them that my due date is still three weeks away.

With my first pregnancy, I hit a mental wall at 37 weeks and wanted Saku to come out. This time, I don't feel mentally anxious; however, my body is very tired of being pregnant. I worked Saturday night and I have a feeling that it might have been my last shift before she comes. I am scheduled for two more, but I am not sure my body can take it. My upper back has been hurting since Saturday night and I feel utterly exhausted even though I went to bed at 8 pm last night. I have plenty of Braxton Hicks contractions and while they don't mean anything when it comes to going into labor, they are exhausting for the body. My next check up is on Wednesday and I will see what my doctor thinks is the best. I tend to try to be a super woman and do everything, but I think the best thing for me, baby girl and my boys is for me to take it easy until she comes.

I hiked 7 miles when I was 38 weeks pregnant with Saku and now 3 miles is enough of walking for me. Does pregnancy really get harder with each one?

"that's a big belly" is Troy's favorite thing to say to me when he sees me:)

The belly has been a perfect spot for Saku to sit on when he needs some love with me.

Troy admits that he is getting anxious about her arrival as well. I cant wait to see him hold his baby girl.

Welcome 2011-Sorry it took me a while to get excited

Last week when the new year officially started, I wasn't too thrilled. I had been sick over the whole Christmas/New Year week (and I still am, but I am better) and I was tired of being sick. The combination of coughing all night long and peeing all night long is not a pretty one. And hoping that you won't pee while you cough is not too sexy either. Maybe that was too much information, but that's the reality. I felt like energy was getting sucked out of me each day. I had been looking forward to the Christmas time and relaxing with my family and I just felt like I was too exhausted to even enjoy this time with them.

Now two weeks after the start of my sickness, I am feeling better and I am getting excited about this new year. This year I will see more of Troy since he is done with school. I will get to be home at night since I will only work every now and then. I will get to wake up every few hours to nurse a newborn. I will get to potty train Saku at some point. I hope to spend more time with our dear friends. And here for the sake of having a list, I am listing some of my "hopes, dreams and goals for this fabulous year of 2011".

Things I want to DO

deliver a baby (gotta have something you can check off from your list for sure)

deliver the baby without any medications

start running as soon as possible after the delivery (and lose the baby weight)

run a half marathon and beat my last time

read more books (I'm thinking 1-2 per month)

attend the ward book club (because I have never been to one and I want get to know more people)

Take a Spanish class (because I have way too many patient's who don't speak English or Finnish)

Things I want to BE

more consistent visiting teacher

more loving wife

more spontaneous and adventurous

more service oriented

more organized

more willing to forgive and forget

more competent nurse

What I need/want to CHANGE

don't want to envy other people

the way I dress

the way I respond to spending money

the way I worry about my weight (maybe I should get rid of the scale)

Where I want to GO

more dates

Paris

Finland for an extended time in the spring

take Troy to the Alps for a ski trip

more camping trips

more family outings

This may seem like many goals, but some of them are easy to do and some of them are things that I will have to work on every day.

On another note, I am 37 weeks tomorrow. I am less uncomfortable that I have been for weeks. I am not quite ready for the baby girl to show up since I am still a sick one, but I am so excited to meet her. Just in the last few days, I have noticed that my love for her has just exploded and I haven't even met her. She is still a little nameless child. I loved Saku's name from the start and haven't fallen in love with any girl name.

Dear Saku,

Your life will change dramatically in the next few weeks when your little sister arrives. You have been the center of our little family. While I would like to think that we haven't spoiled you, you do get most of our attention and your silliness never fails to make us think that you are the funniest little creature on this earth.

When we saw your doctor for the 15 month check up, she was little worried about the fact that you weren't saying any words and wanted us to come back at 18 months to re-evaluate your speech. I was never worried since I knew you were processing and learning two languages so I wasn't really planning on going to see her. Yes, what a rebellious mom you have. In the last weeks, your vocabulary has exploded and it has added a whole new dimension to your personality.

Just for the sake of journaling, here is a list of your current words.

English

car

apple

no

monkey

ball

bye bye

please

baby

two(after I say "one")

wheredigo (where did it go)

Finnish

äiti-mom

isi-dad

tutti-pacifier

maito-milk

peitto-blanket

tähti-star

susi-wolf

kiitos-thank you

ukki-grandpa

joo joo-yeah yeah

ajaa-drive

Random words

Mickey

Elmo

Miko(referring to a finnish reindeer Niko)

Anna

Mio

Nemo-finding Nemo as well as every other fish

abc (which he signs to the tune of ABCs)

You like to make silly faces. And at the moment, your hair is way too long, but since it is so blond, it doesn't look too bad.

You enjoyed your second Christmas and the fact that we let you rip paper and make a mess without any consequences.

Ukki and Paula gave you a book about animals as well as a new high chair. You continue to love animals and love the fact that you can climb up to your own chair when you want to it. We love the fact that it is a whole lot easier to clean up this chair after you are done eating.

You are obsessed with milk. You ask it for all the time. We somehow misplaced both of your sippy cups so for the last two days, we have been drinking from a regular cup and you are doing really well.

One of your Christmas presents was a little tricycle. You aren't quite ready to pedal yet, but love to sit it in while we push you around.

You have made quite the reputation among your peers as a boy who never stops going. One of your favorite things to do is to push your umbrella stroller around or sit in it. We let you play in the backyard by yourself, which works beautifully for all of us. Yesterday, you pushed the stroller onto the grass and sat in it for 10 minutes while you talked to yourself.

It seems that a boy of your age needs a train set. We bought you one for Christmas, your grandma got one for you and aunt Regina had saved cousin Hayden's old train set for you. You really enjoy your "choo choo" and we play with the set few times a day.

We are still trying to figure out how to deal with your temper tantrums. You like to throw toys when you are done playing with them and then you say "uh oh". Time outs don't have much of an effect, but we try to be consistent with them. You are very good about saying sorry and giving us a kiss after the time outs are over.

You give great high fives and knuckles. You love to run to us and give us a big hug when we ask for one. You have even learned to give a kiss with sweet lip smacking noise.

There is part of me that is sad about the fact that you won't be our only little child anymore. I hope I can help you to understand that my love for you doesn't change even though you will have to share me with a little sister. I wish I could freeze time and keep you as my little boy (without the temper tantrums) forever, but since that is not an option, I will just enjoy the fabulous adventure that your life is.

I know I have a lot to learn about being a mom and there are days when I am far from a perfect mom, but I hope you never wonder about my love for you. My love for you is unconditional and increases each day.

Love,

Äiti