It has been a very long time since I last blogged. I don't really check blogs anymore, and most everyone on my blog list doesn't update like me.....so I just have phased out of the blog thing. But I do have a few friends that have felt my life needs to be updated on the blog. There are a lot of friends out there that have no idea what is going on with my family. So here it goes.
Greg wanted a new job. He had worked at my Dad's CPA firm for 5 years and loved it....but he couldn't do audits there and he needed audit hours to complete his CPA exam. So Greg finally got my approval that he could apply for a job in So Cal. He has begged me every year since we've been married to move down there....but I hate LA!!! So I finally said yes knowing we needed this for a career change. So Greg applied with the "BIG 4" accounting firms in the country.
7 interviews and 3 months later with this one company....they decided they were going to hire within the company and not hire Greg. So we were strung along thinking we were moving to LA. The next week, a company here in Carson City had Greg's resume, took him out to lunch and boom.....he was hired. Best of all.....we got to stay in Reno....Greg could do audits for this company.....and it paid more! All 3 were the things I was praying for. We just needed a baby. We had been waiting a year...but no luck.
So Greg started his new job July 11th....Camden started first grade July 11th and I was happy. Even better....I found out I was pregnant 3 weeks later!
When I got a positive test result....I kind of panicked and went into hibernation/ignore everyone mode. I got sick right away and so I spent August and the entire month of September in my bed. My mom took Camden to school everyday for me in September. It was a huge blessing, because I was really struggling. Tanner hung out in my room with all his toys and would lay on my bed all day until Gramma came home from work to play with him.
The pregnancy started off completely different than my others. I could NOT sleep. I went to bed every night at 10 and then was WIDE AWAKE at 2. I never took naps during the day. I didn't need them. I was just awake and sick. So Greg slept downstairs so I could watch TV in the middle of the night and not bother him.
We found out at my first doctor's appt at 8 weeks that we didn't have maternity coverage. What!? We've always had coverage, but for some reason, with our insurance....you have to sign up for it in advance and pay for it for years and years even if your not pregnant. So we thought we would sign up for Greg's new work insurance.....but it was INSANELY expensive. So expensive that no one at the company has their coverage. It's ridiculous!
So we went with the ghetto route and I am currently being seen at the Community Pregnancy Center where I pay out of pocket for the hospital and csection and doctor. It is expensive....but half the cost if I stayed with my previous doctor. However.....I am not getting the care I would have liked to.
At my 13 week appt to listen to the heartbeat....there was no heartbeat. They tried for 5 minutes and nothing. So in came the ultrasound machine where thankfully they could see a heart beating. Relief!
4 weeks later at my next appt. I complained about bad bad back pain. I was 17 weeks. At 17 weeks....you technically could find out gender.....if you're lucky. But you definitely can hear a heartbeat on the doppler. And for a third baby....you should be showing a lot. Well, no heartbeat again. No weight gained....no showing....and yes you read that right.....no heartbeat. So after 2 minutes of trying on the doppler, in came the ultrasound machine. They found the baby's head where they could see the heart beating fast. But no body. Just a perfect round top of the head. My baby was sitting the WRONG way and stuck in my back. So far back that I wasn't pooching out and the heartbeat couldn't be detected on the doppler.
So they scheduled my big ultrasound for 21 weeks to find out gender hoping that by then the baby will have shifted forward and we would be able to see everything. At 20 weeks....I was still sleeping on my stomach, no weight had been gained....and I barely had a pooch.
At 21 weeks I went in with Greg for the big ultrasound. It was PAINFUL! The baby had not yet turned and so they were trying to turn the baby by pushing on my stomach. After an hour....I was upside down and on my side. It was like laying on an ironing board.....head down on the ground.....feet in the air. I kept telling Greg to hold my feet if I started slipping off. But.....they were able to see a body, feet, hands and a great heart. Couldn't really get a face and after 20 minutes of really hard pushing, we saw gender. A girl.
Now....here comes crazy. As if the past 3 months weren't crazy for me. Greg got a call back in October from that one company that strung him along. They wanted to interview him again. Greg thought....why not? Can't hurt? They are the ones paying to fly him everywhere. So off he went to Salt Lake for his interview. He did phone interviews again in San Jose and we thought.....blah blah blah....they have done this before to us.
Well....this time they really wanted Greg and they wanted him now. So in December, they offered him a job at their LA office. Greg accepted rather quickly....I didn't get any time to think or process this. They wanted him there January 1st. Well.....I was 25 weeks pregnant and really freaking out. I would have to find somewhere to live, take Camden out of school, find a new school find a doctor for my csection and do this all without my family in Reno!
I had everything I wanted in November. Greg had a job in Nevada, Camden had great teachers, we have so many close friends here....a baby girl! We were planning on looking for a new house....and now all these changes. I immediately freaked and went to the one person I knew could help me. I got on my knees and prayed and prayed and prayed. The next day....I didn't like my answer.....so I prayed and prayed again. But my answer came back more and more throughout the day. Turns out Greg was getting the same answer and he didn't like it either.
The answer was Greg moving to California and me and the boys stay in Reno until the baby is born. There was no way I could move with all the pain I was in. My doctor said if I moved I would just be putting myself at a high risk for bed rest or preterm labor. I have a subhematoma growing on the outside of my uterus. According to my blood tests, my blood doesn't clot. It's been this way for years. So if it were to rupture and disconnect from my placenta...I would just bleed out. Not a chance worth taking.
So Greg packed up his Jeep on Jan 1st and off he went to live in California. We knew with all his training and busy hours during the tax season....that we wouldn't see him for weeks. Well after six weeks of not seeing him.....my mom drove us down there and we stayed in a hotel to spend some quality time with him and find a place for us to live in May.
Here are the 3 men in my life. We went to dinner at Downtown Disney, got some balloon animals and watched the fireworks. As you can see....Greg could not get enough of his boys. That's 45 pounds on his shoulders and 51 pounds in his arms. When we first arrived in LA and Greg walked through the doors lots and lots of tears were shed. Tanner cried and cried as his Daddy held him for the first time in 6 weeks.
It was a quick trip. 4 days of mostly driving city to city trying to find something affordable and safe for us to live. A lot of questions were definitely answered. I did not like the cities I thought would be best for us. I had a terrible feeling in all of them. It was hard to say goodbye to Greg again. We knew we would not be seeing him again for another 6 weeks. This time...Camden understood this and cried and Tanner cried and it has just been hard.
I try to entertain them the best I can. Snow days help and my brother helps by playing and rough housing with them. But it is just hard to take care of them and be super pregnant and feel alone. I never realized just how much I rely on Greg emotionally. I can honestly say I have cried more in the past 3 months than I have in 3 years.
Well....news on the baby now. I am still in a lot of pain. I have not put on much weight. I am showing and look pregnant, but I should look more pregnant. Here is a picture at 35 weeks. I have gained 20 pounds....but I have lost a pound every day this week. Bringing me back down to 17ish pounds gained. According to past pregnancies...I should be at 30 pounds by now.
Everyone thinks this is great that I am sooo much smaller....but it is very painful! I feel like she is growing and I am not. I can hardly eat because there is just no room. Bending over is painful....turning, or leaning is just painful!!! I am very anxious to get her out!!! I have not exercised this entire pregnancy...I have not dieted, in fact I eat a lot of cookies and muffins. On Sunday I wore a dress that was not a maternity dress. Kind of nice. I guess I have magic metabolism to lose weight during pregnancy while eating cookies.
So that is what is happening here in the Free Family life. My appt tomorrow will be to discuss if we want to have the baby in March or April. We plan on moving 6 weeks after the baby is born because living away from your other half for 5 months is just ridiculous! I'm not an Army wife....I married a tax man for goodness sake!
So there you have it friends and blog stalkers. That is what is going on. Stay tuned for next month. Because I doubt I'll blog before.
Meeting the big brothers the next morning!
Camden took this one. He was the back up photographer:)
