Baby #2 to be here soon!

>>Warning: text heavy with no pictures- I will post some soon promise :)<<

So I thought it would be a good time to write an update on our lives. Melody is down for a nap right now and in my nesting fury I've gotten the majority of everything done and really just awaiting Brooklyn's arrival now.

It has been crazy crazy in the Wright home. Christmas and Thanksgiving were low key, spent with family. This was a blessing, since the end of December brought us news that our baby girl Melody is hard of hearing. Hearing tests revealed moderate hearing loss, and a lot of built of fluid. Our first plan of action was to remove the fluid via placing ear tubes for her and also remove her adenoids. So in January we had that surgery completed and it was rough for poor baby girl. She was traumatized for a couple of days and didn't seem to understand who to trust. She fought off the nurses and doctor who put her under for the surgery and kicked one square in the face :-O. But it has been a week and a half since the surgery and I am finally beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel- she is sleeping better now and seems to generally be FEELING better which is so important. I have noticed an immediate change in her balance and gradual changes in her hearing. She has been a bit more vocal in the last week, but we will not test her hearing again for another couple of weeks. Today she was upset that I was teasing her and I told her "Say no mama!" and she surprised me by saying, "No mama!" :) I don't know if it was a coincidence as it sometimes is for her but it got me to chuckle quite a bit.

As far as little Miss Brooklyn, my pregnancy has been worlds different from my pregnancy with Melody. With Melody I gained no weight and with this one...yeah. Granted I had no appetite with Melody and with this one I gain 5 lbs looking at pinterest but that's another story. I have had many contractions with this one, but as my cervix of steel has been quite apparent I have not gone into labor quite yet. At 32 weeks this baby measured around 4 lbs, which is about what Melody weighed at her birth at 37 weeks. In my last trimester I have measured ahead so we are expecting a larger child this time, though who can say for sure? I have been much more uncomfortable and generally looking and feeling like a big ox. I am certainly grateful though that this baby is low risk unlike Melody. I have only been to L&D once with this one, thinking maybe my water was leaking. (Nope. No more story there. Haha..)

Also with Melody we had plans for me to be a stay at home mom when she was born. Financially that didn't work out and so when Mel was 10 weeks old I started my current job (part time) and have been there since. I get 6 weeks of maternity leave and so I had to decide if I would work up until or start at a certain time. I really weighed this out in my mind because I knew if I were to go overdue or anything and take time off earlier it would cut in to the time I had with my little Brooklyn, but in light of the surgery and all that which has recently happened I decided I would start my leave at 39 weeks and have a little break before having 2 little girls- the oldest is still very much a baby in many ways. As I am ending my first week of leave I wonder if I made the right choice but I just have to be confident that everything will be okay. Whether or not I have the baby before her due date, my contractions are always at night around 5 pmish and that's when I would be at work so for that reason I am glad I decided to wait.

(*Warning: next paragraph talks about birth, skip if you don't want to hear details)

My hope for this birth is to have a very different experience from my experience with Melody. I don't have regrets because Melody is healthy and was fine at birth but I felt like I missed out on the kind of birth I wanted to experience. With Melody I was induced early for IUGR (looking back, I am not sure this was the best choice but I won't go into that) at 37 weeks. With this one, I told the dr straight up, "No pitocin for me this time!! I don't want to be induced. I am okay if I go over...by the way, how many weeks will you let me go over before you have to induce me?" (Answer: 42, most women don't make it that far though). I honestly hated my pitocin induction. I knew going in to the whole thing that my body wasn't ready, so even though the blessed staff at St. Lukes let me try Cervadil and walking, nothing but pitocin was going to do the trick for me and even with pitocin my body fought and fought (highest drip for 19 hours) it took 15 hours for me to even move past a 1 and that was possibly because they knocked me out with my epidural. I had secretly been hoping to go without the epidural and the odds were stacked against me last time. Like I said, I don't regret my choice. In honesty the epidural probably allowed me to have a vaginal birth last time. I don't know if I would have progressed without being able to completely let go of the tension I had at the time without it. However I vowed that if I were low risk this time, I would not get induced. So here I wait at 39 weeks for little Brooklyn to arrive. Each day I am anxiously awaiting some signs but I really have no idea to what to look for either. I think I will know though when it happens :)

Dustin and I will be starting a blog as soon as this baby is born related to our combined journey to lose weight this year! Let's just say we have a great support team this time and some professionals to help and I am VERY excited to let you all in on our journey!! :) We are making it a number one priority for our lives and though we are making some sacrifices I know it will be worth it!

More to come soon...hopefully the birth story of Brooklyn Sandra Wright!!