Pictures and Camping

I know that I have not blogged in a VERY long time. Our Internet at home was not working and it took two different phone calls to Qwest, a new modem and finally a call to our friend who is the telephone repair man to fix the problem.

I don't know if I blogged about this or not but Mikayla has stromblis. Basically when she gets tired her eyes turn out and don't work. There are also times when I know she is looking at me but I feel as if she is not looking at me by the look I get in her eyes. About a month ago we took her to the eye doctor in Grand Junction. We found out that when you cover one eye and then un-cover it, it has turned out to the side. This is like lazy eye but when her eye turns out to the side it her brain shuts that side off. The doctor recommend we put a patch on her eye 4 hours every day and see what happens. This works about 50% of the time.

On Thursday, Joe and Mikayla, went back to the doctor in Grand Junction and the patching is working and we can reduce the patch time to 2 hours a day. If the patching solves the problem then she will not need eye surgery when she is six.

After the eye doctor Joe and Mikayla headed to Moab, Utah to do camping together. They had a blast and I think the Daddy daughter weekend was a must and a huge success.


Here are a couple pictures Arches National Park.

Mikayla standing in the arch. Mikayla climbing - how cute is this little tom boy?!



Mikayla is in the back pack on Daddy's back.

Our friend Keith came along with his daughter Sienna. Keith has a jeep and they had fun taking the jeep in the river.

Here are a couple of cute pictures we took of Lily today. She is 2 1/2 months old and is doing great. I gotta say that Joe and I make cute kids!

Mikayla cannot wait until Lily is big enough to play with. She loves her little sister.

No Posting Lately - Nothing New

I am sorry for not blogging more often but I really don't have any exciting to say and work is actually keeping me busy enough that I don't have time to sit down and write a great blog entry.

Lily is doing wonderful - as I am writing this I am sitting in the back office pumping away. We have given her a few bottles of formula mixed with breastmilk because there are some days I am not pumping enough. But we are doing the best we can. I hate pumping and it is usually on a Monday morning she needs the formula because I did not pump enough milk over the weekend and Joe might give her a bottle while I sleep in a little bit or go to yoga. Lily is sleeping really good for only being 10 weeks old. Can you belive she is already 10 weeks? Where did the time go? Oh - back to the sleeping she only wakes once a night around 3:30, sometimes it is 5! If she is not going to sleep in until 6am I prefer that she wakes up at 3ish so I can go back to sleep until 6am.

Mikayla is getting so big and so smart. All the time she amazes me by telling me the next line in her book. She started a new daycare and we love it. She is learning her letters and the other day they made birdfeeders. She is also growing out of her clothes so fast I can't keep clothes on her (that is another story - she loves to run around the house naked. I ask her if she wants to put her clothes back on and she says "I want to be the naked baby for a little bit.") She is wearing 3T to 4T pants and her shirts will have to be a 4T very quickly so that her belly is not hanging out. It is getting nicer outside and now it is time to buy some shorts and short sleeve shirts. She only has a couple of short sleeve shirts.

Work is keeping me busy and I am also looking for a part time job - daycare is killing us but if I quit my job right now that won't work either. I am hoping and praying a waitressing job opens up so I can quit my full time job - stop paying for daycare and pay all of the bills which are piling up - I am really excited to get out tax rebate check in May because it is really needed. We also need to pray that the trailer sells and Joe is able to start selling some real estate now that Spring is here.

I will try to post some updated picturs very soon!

Preschool

Mikayla is all set to start preschool at the Lake School in the fall. In Gunnison there is one large preschool and it is run by the school district. There are other smaller preschools that are run by individuals and are more in line with a daycare than kindergarten. There is a very high demand to get into the Lake School because it is so cheap. I will be paying $184 for 4 - 1/2 days each week. It is so cheap because it is subsidized by the school district. It use to be first come first serve on registration day. This year they decided to do a lottery and Mikayla won! I am excited for my baby to start preschool but now I can say she is no longer my baby.

Spring in the Rockies

My husband asked me what the weather was suppose to be like today. Without even thinking about it I said it was suppose to get up to 45 and snow this afternoon. He looked at me like I was crazy - typical Spring weather in the Rockies.

On another note Lily slept from 10:30pm until 5am! It was wonderful to sleep 6 1/2 hours in one stretch. Lily and I had a great morning, playing, nursing, and just relaxing together with no other worries in the world.

Spring Has Arrived

In the mountains of Colorado the seasons do not change when the calender says they are suppose to. We get Winter much earlier than everyone else, Summer arrives much later than everyone else, and sometimes we don’t get Spring or Fall. But this year Spring is arriving on schedule.

Each Spring, there is a HUGE flock of birds that swirl around in the sky above our house. I don’t know what type of birds these are just that they are white and the fly in circles with more and more joining them. There are easily over 100 birds and they sound like turtle doves but they are too big to be turtle doves. They come from the east swirl around and eventually head west. It is a really cool sight to see all of these birds. It also marks the arrival of Spring. The days are much warmer, at night it is only getting down to about zero, and best of all the snow is melting. My driveway is a disaster - don’t come visit us right now unless you have 4-wheel drive and are very comfortable using it! So many people have gotten stuck in our driveway lately. The long part of the driveway is all mud, the river is completely open, and I love hearing the birds in the morning.

Horton Hears a Who

We took Mikayla to see Horton Hears a Who yesterday and she loved it. I was also impressed about how good she was. She sat there and watched it, of course she did talk some but no more than the other kids sitting around us. It was a very cute and funny movie - I loved it. Lily slept on my chest the whole time.

I have not been making enough breastmilk for all of the bottles Lily takes during a day. She normally takes one from Joe after I have gone to work. She snacks from 6am until I leave about 8am and then she wants more from Daddy. I send her with 4 bottles with 3 oz in each bottle to daycare. Then in the evening she snacks from me all night. (I think to her I am one big snack machine), then Joe gives her one more bottle around 8:30 to really fill her up so she won't wake up until around 3am. My friend Jen gave me some fenugreek to take. Hopefully that will help. During the work day I pump 3 times and then at home another time right before bed.

So far I have had to mix 2 bottles of formula with the breastmilk because there was not enough. Hopefully taking this fenugreek will help.

All In One Diapers For Sale

I really want to get rid of these so I having a Buy 1 Get 1 Free Sale.

Purchase one diaper for $9.00 and get the second diaper FREE!!

I have a bunch of misc All In Ones for Sale. They are all size small. None of the diapers have any staining on them.

Price includes shipping. All of the diapers come from a dog friendly, cat free and smoke free home. .

2 Little Pony Diapers with light blue inside

Dark Pink Lil Bummers with white inside.

Lily - 6 Weeks Old

I am finally sitting down to update everyone on how Lily is doing and to show you PICTURES. Lily is an excellent baby. She wakes up around 3am and then around 6am. You can't beat that. During the day she is excellent as well. As Mikayla would say she eats, sleeps, pees and poops. Mikayla loves her and loves being a big sister. Mikayla has also become a great helper.

Sometimes in the afternoon Lily will nap with me. It seems as if as soon as I get Mikayla down for her nap and I go to lay down for mine and get comfortable and I am just about ready to fall alseep, Lily wakes up. So I will pick her up and nurse her in bed with me because she will fall asleep next to me. Today I was able to nap for almost 2 hours. It was wonderful. I woke up suddenly at to hearing Mikayla yell Mommy, Mommy, Mommy from her room. I go into her room, still in a daze, and she is sitting up in bed playing with her dolly and she asks me for a diaper wipe for her baby!

This is Lily's other place to nap during the day.

Here is the happy baby.

Isn't this a cute outfit.

Here is a picture of Lily's room.

Daddy, Mikayla and Lily reading books.

Big Yawn

This is how Skylar lets me know that she wants in. She is looking into our living room.

Isn't this oneise cute!

Back to the Same Old Same Old

Today is my first day back at work and I am already bored! I managed to create enough work for me until now. This is why I hate my job - oh yeah memo to self - need to email resume to a couple of places in town.

I have missed Lily today. This morning and even now I want to hold my little girl. Mikayla was excited to go to school with Lily. Also once Mikayla got to school who two best buds, who left this daycare for a preschool, were there. They will be there all week because the preschool is closed for Spring Break. Mikayla was very happy to see them. I am sure I will here all about it tonight.

It was nice to be able to go for a 20 minute run at lunch time and not worry about the kids or what to do with them. It was also nice to run an errand without having to put two kids into the carseats, take them out and put them back in again. Being back at work has it positives and negatives.

New Baby Boy

I am so excited that I have to share this news with everyone. My sister had her first baby today. It was a boy and he weighed 7 pounds.

I thought sisters were suppose to be alike. My labors were both about 21 hours. My sister, her water broke around 4:30 this morning and she had him in less than 8 hours. As soon as she got her epidural in they checked her and she was fully dialiated and it was time to push!

Her little one did come early, she was right at 37 weeks. Can you believe she had a 7 pound baby and he was 3 weeks early?? Good thing he came early because if he had waited he would have been over 9 pounds I bet. Mom and baby are doing good. I think she is still in shock over what just happened. Because he came 3 weeks early they will have to wait until he is 48 hours old to go home.

Back to Work

I have decided to go back to work on Monday. For the next two weeks I am planning on working 3 days a week and then starting on March 24th I will go back to work full time. I am crying as I am writing this because I don't want to go back to work any earlier than I have to and I LOVE being a stay at home mom. But due to finances I am going to have to go back. I will only be bringing home about $65 a day before taxes and after childcare but it is better than what I am bringing home right now which is nothing.

I have looked for a waitress job but none are available right now. I am going to continue looking and hopefully I will find one in the next month or so when it gets busier in Gunnison.

I also wanted to go home to visit my family in April, especially since my sister's baby is due any day now. She is 37 weeks in a couple of days but she is already 3cm and 90% effaced! That trip will have to wait a few extra months but I am determined to see her before the end of the summer - hopefully sooner.

The good side of going back to work is that I have to take a lunch break every day so therefore I will be able to get a workout in! The other good side is that since I am going back to my borning job I will be able to blog much more!

So no more tears this is the way it has to be. I would love to be financially secure and be able to pay the bills every month - even if this means that I have to work full time. Right now even with a full time job all of the bills don't get paid. I am tired of this and I want to move to an area that will pay us what we deserve.

Nursing Issues - Gassy Baby

First of all I apologize for not blogging in quite awhile. As all of you with kids know it is hard to blog with an infant and a 2 1/2 year old running around. It was much easier to blog while I was at work bored out of my mind. I need to sit down and make a commitment to blog at least 3 times a week.

Lily has been a very gassy baby with lots of grunting, tooting, screaming while nursing and only pooping about once a day. Her poops are also VERY runy and sometimes they are green. I mentioned this to my friend Jen who was (I think she stopped) studing to be a certified lacation consultant. Jen said that Lily is getting too much foremilk and not enough hind milk. Which does make sense to me because in order to make sure I keeps the boobs even I switch her a lot. Lily will also do lots of snacking during the day so she is mostly getting foremilk.

Jen mentioned this to me yesterday so I have been working really hard on getting Lily to nurse much longer. It has been difficult because she will either fall asleep and not want to latch on again, fight me to latch on, or we are in public and it is not the best situation to really work with her. But I think we have been getting better.

Another thing Lily has been doing is getting up around 4am nursing for less than 10 minutes, then falling asleep and she won't latch on again. Then she will wake up an hour or so later and want to eat again. I just want a 2 hour stretch at that point. Today I have been pumping after some of the nursing sessions when I think she did not get enough hindmilk. I think I will feed her a bottle of this hindmilk when she wakes up at 4am tonight and then pump afterwards. Hopefully this will get her more of the hindmilk she needs and also get her to sleep a bit longer.

Gasy Baby

Lily has been a grunter since she was born - one month ago tomorrow (time flies!!) Lately I have noticed she is grunting more, spitting up more, and even getting a red face as she grunts. She just seems unhappy and a little too gasy. So I have decided to stop the dairy in my diet and I bought some gas drops for her. I also noticed a while back that I had a yummy smoothie with lots of milk and yogurt in it, and then when I nursed her a while later she did not seem too happy about all of the dairy in my system.

So far with the gas drops she is doing better and not as gasy. No more red faced grunts. I have only stopped eating dairy for a little more than 24 hours so not enough time to tell if it has made a difference yet. I was thinking though that all of the breast milk in the freezer has diary in it. Joe has started giving Lily a bottle at night which helps me get a little more sleep.

Update

As many of you have figured out I have no time to blog anymore. It was much easier to blog at work because I was never very busy. So here is an update on the family.

First - Mikayla did something odd the other night. She did not go to bed until almost midnight! That is very unlike her. We put to her bed like normal around 8pm and she started to throw a fit when Joe was done reading to her so I went in and read one more book and rub her back and got her a snack. Then I checked on her at 9:45pm and she was still awake so I read another book. Then Joe heard her at 11pm! So he brought her out to the couch and they watched movies. I got up at midnight to feed Lily and they were both sleeping on the couch. I put Mikayla to bed and she was up the next morning at 7:30, I thought for sure she would sleep in. We saw the eye doctor that day and they dilated her eyes - would that have kept her up? It was the only thing that was different. Mikayla did take a nap that day and slept for 3 1/2 hours but that is not different, normally she will nap anywhere from 2 to 3 hours - 3 1/2 is a little long.

About the trip to the eye doctor, Mikayla has to go see a specialist. Her eyes turn in or sometimes she has cross eyes. It is not all of the time but we do notice it. So in mid-March we are going to Grand Junction (about 3 hours from here) to see a special kids eye doctor. Hopefully Mikayla will not need eye surgery but we will see.

Lily is still doing great and sleeping great. The other night when she was up every 2 hours was because I had the monitor on too loud and I was getting up with every noise she made. Now she will sleep between 2 1/2 to 3 hours at a stretch at night. Last night Joe got up with her for the midnight feeding and gave her, her first bottle. They did great together and I got some much needed sleep. Then after her 2:30am feeding I did not turn the monitor on loud enough and Joe woke me up because Lily was screaming (or screaming as loud as a newborn can scream). I felt horrible but as soon as I picked her up she settled down. I did the same thing with Mikayla when she was Lily's age too.

That is all for now - nothing much exciting. But we do have family coming in next week. Joe's brother and sister in law will be here. I am very excited the last time they were here was when we got married.

No Sleep

Lily is almost 3 weeks and I think she is going through a growth spurt. Last night she was up at least every 2 hours and she was not a great nurser. She would nurse one side and fall asleep but once I would go to swaddle her she would wake up but not want to nurse. She would take her time falling back asleep and then not go to bed super easily - she would grunt and make noises for a little while before really falling asleep. Even today she has been up every one or two hours and then nursing just a little bit. She has been awake a lot more today which is more fun for everyone as well. I love to see those little eyes looking around and watching what is going on around her.

I am also dealing with a boob issue! The right one is smaller than the left one. I also noticed that the left one has more milk in it. I am trying to favor the right side in order to get them back to even but so far it is not working - maybe I just have to be loopsided.

Well - Lily is awake and needs to eat again - she just ate and hour ago!

Exercise

I am ready to start working on getting back into shape. So I re-started my old blog, Fitness Tiff I know it is a corney title but I don't know how to change it. Chech it out and watch me get back into shape. I would love to list a lot of goals such as run a 10 mile race, do a triathlon but I am starting slow for now. Soon enough I will be planning too many goals!!

Pictures of Snow

So I promised you pictures of the snow in Crested Butte. Here you go - enjoy!!

Snow, snow and more snow

Sorry I am not blogging as often as I use to but it is hard with a newborn and a 2 year old! Gunnison has been receiving so much snow. I have lived in this valley for 10 years and Gunnison has never seen this much snow. With the first big snowfall of the year all of the willows along the creek bent over. I was upset because we lost our privacy - I could see the main road and they could see us. But now we have huge snow piles all around the house so I can't even see the driveway! We are planning on going up to Crested Butte this weekend so hubby can go skiing. I will take pictures for you - there is so much snow up there that some houses are hidden from the street.

Yesterday we decided to drive to Salida so Mikayla and Daddy could go swimming in the hot springs. We had to go over Monarch Pass which reaches 11,000 feet. At the top we stopped real quick to go pee. There is a store up there but when we got to the top we could not see the store. It was also snowing real bad and it was hard to see anything. As we were pulling away I noticed a corner of the store sticking out of the snow. That was all you could see was the corner of the building - everything else was under snow!

We had a fun time at the pool but WOW Monarch Pass and the whole drive way tough - 4-wheel drive the whole way.

All In Two Diapers

I believe these are called an All In Two - they do need an insert. They are white with a cream colored flannel inner. There is no staining. They come from a smoke free, cat free and dog friendly home. There are 3 diapers total. I am asking $4.00 per diaper and this does include shipping. Please email me with any questions - oconnellhouse@msn.com.

Jaundice

In higher elevations you have to watch out for jaundice. Normally all you need to do to prevent this is to put the newborn in the sun for 20 or so minutes per day. Mikayla was born in May so I would take her outside, take her sleeper off and we would sit in the sun for 20 minutes every day. I would also nurse her in the sun in the early morning.

With Lily being born in January it has been much harder. First I had to find where the sun comes into the house during the day. That was hard because since she has been born we have seen the sun 2 days. It has been snowing every other day since.

I took her to the doctor on Friday and they checked her billirubin levels and she was jaundice. We put her on a billi light blanket (it wraps around her middle) for a day and the levels dropped enough in 24 hours to be done with it. Good thing because it was very ackward.

I could not have asked for a better baby. I am suprised at how well this little one sleeps. I don't mean to brag but she only wakes me up once a night. The night she had the billi blanket she woke up twice. I am waking up more to check on her than she is waking up.

Mikayla is also really good with her sister. She also knows that when I am nursing her I am limited in what I can do for her.

My mom went home today so we will see how the next week goes. I think Mikayla might go to daycare on Monday and Wednesday so I can have some time to get things done (pay bills, blog and sleep!)

Lily's Birth Story

On Thursday, January 24th I had to go to the hospital to get some blood work done. I noticed that the hospital had warning signs about enter at your own risk due to the Influenza A virus and that they had confirmed cases of it. I thought no big deal. Well Thursday night I was really tired and slept horribly. I ended up only going into work for a total of 2 hours on Friday because I was still tired and very achy sore (typical start of flu systems huh!). I slept off and on all day Friday and Friday night. Friday night I was very uncomfortable with achy legs.

Around 1am I started to notice that the contractions were involving my back and they were starting to hurt. I was up with Mikayla from 1am to about 3:30 and then I did not go back to bed until around 4am. From 4am to 7am I slept off and on waking to some contractions and probably sleeping though others.

All day on Saturday my contractions were anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes apart. I was able to get the house cleaned like I normally do on Saturday which made me feel better. I knew I would come home to a clean house after giving birth. I called my mom and she managed to get cheap airfare into Gunnison.


We picked up my mom at the airport at 6:30pm and my mom was surprised that I came into the airport as well. Mom was worried that I was not actually going to have the baby because my labor was still manageable at this point. We all headed to the hospital to get me checked in. While I checked into the hospital, Joe, Mikayla and mom headed home.


I was at the hospital about an hour by myself and at this point my contractions started to come every 5 minutes and become harder as well. The doctor came in and tried to break my water the first try was unsuccessfully but the second one worked. At the point my contractions increased to every 2 to 3 minutes. I asked for the epidural around 9ish and it took a while to get it going and stronger enough. Around 10:30pm I finally had relief. I am just not the type of person to give birth without drugs. I was also getting pretty tired by this time and was napping a bit.


I started pushing around 12:15pm and I pushed for 1 1/2 hours without getting anywhere. The doctor said she would be willing to use the manual vacuum if I wanted. I said let me try one more time. With each push I really was not getting anywhere. I had the doctor use the manual vacuum and Lily arrived two contractions later. She came out totally sideways and that is also why I was not not making any progress with each push. I did have one small tear this time and needed stitches.




Lily never left my room from the moment she was born and she is a great nurser. The family came to see her the next morning around 9am and Mikayla was soo excited to see her.

We left the hospital around 2:30pm. I was ready for my own comfy bed.

Update

So far Lily has turned into a great sleeper - I am waiting for the newborn sleep stage to wear off and her to start waking up every 2 hours. Her first night home she woke up 3 times and other than the first 2 they were spread pretty far out so I could sleep as well. Then last night she slept from 9pm to 2am! Then she woke up again at 6:30am. I would love for this scheduled to stick but I know it is not going to!

Mikayla absolutely loves her baby sister. She loves to watch her and let me know what she is doing. Mikayla has been great - even when I have to sit down and nurse Lily and I am not able to get up and do what ever Mikayla wants me to do.

Lily Has Arrived

As you know from Jen's post Lily Anne arrived on Saturday morning. I will finish her birth story can get that posted very soon. Briefly everything worked out great with Mikayla and my mom coming into town. I checked in the hospital at 7pm on Saturday night and she was born at 1:29am on Sunday morning. I checked out of the hospital at 2:30 - I wanted to get home! She is still on the great newborn sleeping schedule - she only had me up 3 times last night and she slept for a very long time in between feedings. Everyone is doing great and Mikayla is a wonderful big sister.

The Sneak Peek

This is Tiff's friend Jen posting to give all you in the blogosphere a sneak-peek of the newest member of the Colorado Mama's household. Tiff hopes to be up and out of the hospital by this evening.

Lily Anne was born at 1:29 this morning weighing 6 lbs 3 oz. Tiffany and Joe's precious second daughter is 19" and born with a head full of brown hair just like her big sister.

Isn't she the loveliest little creature? She slept the entire time we were there visiting Tiffany and her family.

Don't you love that perfect little mouth?

And just one more picture of little Lily in all her 10-hour old glory.

And here's Tiff looking as beautiful as ever. Can you believe she birthed her second child just 10 hours prior to this photo?

We are going to have a baby soon.

The contractions have started and they are coming about every 10 minutes.

They started last night in the middle of the night, some woke up me and some I slept through. Now that I am up they are coming about every 10 minute or so. I called my mom because she was going to drive out once I went into labor. Well she called the airlines and she is flying out on an emergence airfare today so we will see her at 6:30pm! Which means that probably by the time I am ready to head to the hospital she will be here! Mikayla is taken care of.


Hopefully the last pregnancy pictures you will see of me. I am 38 weeks and 1 day.

Mikayla is ready to hold her baby sister.

Baby Sitter Anyone

Well we had a great plan for when the little one decides to come. Our friend Kelly would come over and watch Mikayla. Mikayla is comfortable around Kelly and has known her for awhile. On Monday night Kelly fell and broke her knee cap and tore some ligaments in her knee as well. Poor girl!! So she can no longer help out. Another backup was our friend Shawn. Mikayla has also known Shawn for awhile and she is pretty comfortable with him. She always has to give Shawn a hug and gets upset if she doesn't get the chance. Well Shawn's grandmother is not doing well and he is headed out of town today to Illinois to spend some time with grandma before she passes. Strike 2 for us! I have a friend, Jen, in Crested Butte that can help out but due to the distance (30 miles) it may or may not work out. If this was a perfect world I would go into labor at night (during the work week) then the next morning send Mikayla to daycare as normal and Joe and I would head to the hospital, have the baby and Joe could still pick up Mikayla at 5pm as usual. Joe and Mikayla would come to the hospital so Mikayla could meet her new sister and have dinner with me. Then Joe and Mikayla would head home for the night and pick me up the next day. I can dream can't I.

Pasty White

Normally at this time of the year I am over the cold and snow and ready to move to a warmer climate and in general just move someplace else. Try something new for a while. I have been in the Gunnison Valley for over 10 years and I would love to try something new. This year though I have not had the anxious feeling to leave because I am getting ready for a big change anyway with the arrival of a new baby due any day now. One thing though I have noticed is that I have lost all of my summer tan (and I had a good one this year due to all of my runs during lunch). My arms are so pasty white it is almost scary!! I know that pasty white is healthier than a nice summer than but I love the tan!! I could use a nice trip to a beach but I don't have a swimsuit to fit into!

What do you long for in the middle of winter??

Walking

For the last week or so I have been walking on the treadmill. It has been much to cold to walk outside. I started at 10 minutes and I have worked my way up to 20 minutes. I am doing this for a couple different reasons. The first is that I feel good enough to "workout" a little bit. I am "workout" because I am walking slow enough to read a book on the treadmill. Basically I am doing just enough to move my body. Also walking no longer hurts my back. The second reason is that they say walking is a good way to make the body go into labor - so far that is not working.

My goal is to walk for 15 minutes every day. Yesterday Mikayl and I walked about 4 blocks in the super cold weather. I did not time us but it took between 10 and 15 minutes. Today I did really good. I walked for 15 minutes (to the post office and back at work and I tried to keep a nice pace (not super slow, but slow). Then at lunch today I walked on the treadmill for 20 minutes. The most I have done in a while. It felt good because I took the pace up and I was also doing punches and arm exercises. If I feel good tomorrow I plan on doing another 20 minutes at lunch time as well. Hopefully I can keep this up until the little one is born.

-35 at 7am (Updated)

I think the title says it all.

-20 at 10:30 am

Am I crazy but -15 is not too bad outside. I put gas in my car at lunch time and I stood outside for the 5 minutes or so while it filled. Not too cold! I think I might take a short walk around the block today.

Bored at Work

I am sure you have heard me complain before but today I am super bored at work. On Monday and Tuesday this week my co-worker was sick so therefore all of the work came to me - which I loved it kept me busy (not stressed busy just busy). Well she is back and now I am bored. The attorneys don't give me enough work and I have asked too many times. I also have work for two attorneys to review sitting on their desks and with these guys who knows when I will see the work. This job is perfect one 1 1/2 persons not 2.

So I have been reading blogs and catching up but that can only take so much time during the day. These slow days really make me want to have the kiddo because that is all that I can think about.

Bored at work to - send me an email - oconnellhouse@msn.com

FYI - I spoke with hubby at lunch time and he said Mikayla only required 2 hugs and kisses this morning and of course the babysitter said that once Joe walks out the door she is fine.

Feeling Much Better

Yesterday and today I feel much better than Monday. On Monday I was sure I was going to have this little one on Tuesday. But by Monday evening the contractions slowed down BIG time and yesterday I noticed that I was having them less than normal.

On another note Mikayla is giving Joe a very hard time when he drops her off at daycare. Mikayla's two best buddies have moved into a preschool in town. I would love to have her go to the same preschool but right now the preschool is full and Mikayla is holding Lily's spot for the next few months. But it breaks my heart and Joe's heart when she cries when he drops her off. It use to be that Joe would drop her off and she would run off to go play but lately she needs a ton of hugs and kisses and still cries when he leaves. Then he has to go to work with a bad feeling. Oh well, what are you going to do? In the next month or two I hope to have her in a the new school.

Other than that not much is going on in our house lately we are just trying to stay warm. A few weeks ago it was nice to see another Colorado town, Alamosa, with colder temperatures than Gunnison. But now we are back to being the coldest town in Gunnison. Yesterday we woke up to -30 and it did not get past -6 all day. We did not even hit 0 yesterday!! Today it was a little warmer, I woke up to -20. It was trying to snow a little bit this morning but not much would fall due to how cold it was. When it is -30 outside it is hard to warm the house no matter what kind of heating system you have.

It made me think, what were Joe and doing trying to have a baby last spring??? We should have waited a couple of months so that when the baby was born it would not be so cold in the middle of the night when I get up for midnight feedings. Too late to worry about that now.

Good Days and Bad Days

This title says it all. These last few weeks I will have some good days and some bad days. It does seem as if the bad days happen on a Monday after I have relaxed all weekend. I am also understanding why some women choose to take the last week or so off of work. At this point I might consider that too, especially if I do not come back to work after my maternity leave is over.

Yesterday I was experiencing a lot of main in my lower belly and back. The nurse said it was probably round ligament pain. Then yesterday evening I was having contractions about every 10 minutes, while laying down relaxing. I was good last night and I took it easy, it took too much effort to straighten up the house so I let it go. Around 7:30ish last night the contractions slowed down a lot and I am not having nearly as many as I normally do.

So far today I feel much better but I have had trouble sleeping the last couple of nights - let the games of being super uncomfortable begin!!

Daycare

Cost the daycare is something many families have to live with. Very few families can afford to live on one income and if that is you, you are very lucky. I would love to be able to stay home with Mikayla, not full time but at least 2 or 3 days a week. Instead she goes to daycare 4.5 days a week and it kills me because someone else is raising my baby. But if I were to quit my job and stay at home that loss in income is too much and we would be in bankruptcy court before I could count to 10. I am luckily in the fact that I only pay $25 per day for her. I got into a home daycare shortly after they first opened. Now they have raised their rates to $35 per day which is about average for Gunnison.

But after baby number 2 is born I will be paying at least $70 per day for 2 kids in daycare. That means I am only taking home $50 per day. Is it really worth it?? I have given some thought to finding a waitress job in the evenings. I figure if I can make $400 - $600 per week by working 3 or 4 nights a week we will be much better off than me bringing home $250 with my regular job and I will be raising my kids as well.

I am going to have to make a decision in the next couple of months but first I would have to find that waitress job - they can be hard to find in Gunnison.

After all of that here is an article that makes me thankful for where I live. This article addresses the cost of childcare in other cities. I could not image paying $10,000 - $17,000 for one child in daycare.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/HomeMortgageSavings/ChildcareCrisis.aspx?GT1=10826#pageTopAchor

Delurking Day

Yesterday was National Delurking Day. So I am a day late but who cares!!! Post those comments and let me know who all is reading this blog. Let's see how many comments I can get.

(FYI - I stole this picture from my friend the Green Mommy - so check her blog out to.)

36 Weeks - 9 Months

I am now 36 weeks or 9 months. If I am luckily (because I am over being pregnant and I am gettig very ansty to have this little one) I will have this baby anywhere from 1 1/2 to 4 weeks.

Here are some pictures of my big belly!

Good Morning America Comes to Crested Butte

Around Christmas Good Morning America came to Crested Butte and we had a special parade just for them. I finally found a link to the segment they aired on TV. Here it is:

http://abcnews.go.com/search?searchtext=Crested%20Butte&type

I moved to Gunnison 10 years ago and I lived in Crested Butte from 2000 to 2004 and I would love to be living there now but the cost of living up there is too expensive for us. Crested Butte is only 30 minutes away so we head up there to see friends, have lunch and ski at least a couple times a month.

Antsy.

I have exactly one month to go until my due date and as you know I am hoping for an early arrival. I am getting soooo antsy!! Not in a nesting type of way but ready to have this little one. Her room is pretty much ready, I am waiting on 2 things to arrive my mail and then I am set. My mom is still working on her crib sheets and dust ruffle but if they don't come in time it is no big deal. Wow - I have really calmed down with the nesting instincts. It is getting so much harder to do things I am not worrying about how dirty my kitchen cabinets are.

I am also VERY tired of all of these Braxton Hixs contractions. I get them all of the time and especially when I am laying down on the couch relaxing in the evening. Isn't that suppose to make them stop. They don't hurt like a real contraction but they are getting stronger and sometimes they take my breath away.

Right now I am 35 weeks and 4 days.

I think if I was busier at work it would really help the days pass. My job does not keep my busy enough. I have been cleaning my desk and organizing old files for the attorneys in order to stay somewhat busy. The weekends pass quickly because I do stay busy.

What do you do to stay busy at work when you are slow? What did you did during your last pregnancy to pass the last month?

Lots of Snow

We had a snow storm yesterday where we received a foot or more. I thought the storm was done until I woke up this morning. We woke up to another foot that fell overnight. Right now Joe is up on the roof shoveling it and then he has to shovel the driveway. Our neighbor has a friend that plows our long shared driveway for free. Well the plow driver got stuck and could not finish the job! Here are some pictures of our winter wonderland!

Welcome to our home!

This snow right here is really deep due to Joe shoveling the roof off from an earlier storm. You can just barely see in the lower right corner the tunnel he and Mikayla are working on

This is a picture of our backyard. The dogs have their paths and if they try to do a new path they have to swim.

Another picture of the backyard.

On Friday Joe cleaned off a section our bridge's railing. You can see where the new snow is.

Mikayla and I went for a short walk.

The best thing about this storm is that we warmed up a lot. Last week we waking up to -20 and lucky if we saw 5 or 10 outside. But today it is almost 40!! I would go outside in short sleeves if it were not so windy.

Post of Nothing Much

I have not blogged in a while because there has been nothing too exciting to tell everyone about.

On December 31st we had one couple over for dinner. I was planning on staying up later than normal, maybe not midnight but at least 11pm. Well they ended up leaving at 9pm!! The girl was saying she was not feeling well (hey we had been dealing with colds all weekend long) but this is also someone who is ALWAYS sick - in fact she called into work sick today. After they left I stayed up until 10pm and Joe did make it to midnight. He is much more of a night owl than I am.

It is a good think I did not stay up late because Mikayla woke us up at 6:30am. She has been fighting a cold and it is causing her to wake up earlier than normal and play in her room. But we hear everything from her room.

We decided to head up to Crested Butte on the 1st. We saw some friends, had lunch, Mikayla got to watch the skiers and climb a mountain. (In the base area of the ski resort they had a huge pile of snow and her and Joe climbed the mountain and then ran down!).

I started the work year off with a bang on the second. First Mikayla woke us up at 5am. Joe dealt with her until 6am when I took over and he went back to bed for an hour. We also woke up to about -30. My truck would not start because we left the Sirus plugged in from our trip to CB. We finally got my truck started at 8am and I went inside to to dry my hair really quick. As I was leaving my driveway my neighbor needed a jump start. So I started the new year off 20 minutes late to work but I helped my neighbor so I think that is a great way to start the new year.

I am now 35 weeks pregnant and only 1 week left until I hit 9 months. Lily's room is almost ready to go. Mom is working on the sheets for her bed but Mom's sewing machine broke. Joe does need to lift up the mattress on the crib but I have not had him do that yet. Honey do for this weekend. I need to order the Sleep Incline and I have already ordered the Snuggle to Sleep blanket. So if this little one were to arrive tomorrow we would be pretty darn set.

Mikayla has been a bear the past few days and it is wearing on Mom and Dad. She has been extra fussy, whiny and just bad the last couple of nights. We want to pull our hair out and get the happy little one back. She did burn herself pretty bad two nights ago on the gas fireplace. She put her hand on the glass to warm them up and instead on getting close she touched the glass. She now has a second degree burn on the back on her hand and it looks awful. She also won't let me put any antibacterial cream on it. I am going to try and do that this weekend because I don't want it to get infected.

Nothing else exciting is going on in the O'Connell house but I am counting down the days until I have this little one. I keep saying anywhere from 2 to 5 weeks left and boy would I love to be closer to the 2 week window than the 5 week window. I already have plans to visit story time at the library and the tumble room at the rec center while I am on maternity leave.