So far, so good.

So I've been home from the hospital for 4 days now.  No more bleeding.  Thank you God!  I went to go visit a high risk pregnancy doctor yesterday.  I made sure to ask all the questions I could think of while I was there.  I'm bad at forgetting stuff and then kicking myself later when I didn't ask. 
Here's the low down:
The Dr.'s suggested I should expect to have another bleeding episode because it doesn't look like the placenta is moving.  If I do, I'll need to stay in the hospital longer.  And if I have a 3rd bleed, well, plan on staying in the hospital for the rest of the pregnancy. 
Assuming the placenta doesn't move, I will have to have a scheduled C-section.  This, I knew.  If that happens, they will schedule it for 36-37 weeks.  This I didn't know.  I'm now wrapping my head around having an early November baby instead of an early December baby and 1 less month to prepare for this new arrival.  When I asked why, I was told the risk to me is much higher if we wait than the small chance the baby might not have fully matured and need more time in the hospital.
Baby weighs about 2 lbs. 1 oz. which is in the 60th percentile for his gestational age.  That's better than I was expecting so I'm happy about that. 
As far as bed rest goes, they want me laying down as much as possible, but not confined to the bed because if I'm not moving I risk have a blood clot.  So lay down as much as you can, but get up every once in a while to move around and then lay back down again. 


That's pretty much it.  It was nice to be reassured on some things but also scary when they mention things that can go wrong, even if the risk is low, it's just not fun to hear about hemorrhaging and all that fun stuff.

In other news, last night was Farrah's back to school night at preschool.  So cute!  Her teachers are just wonderful and I couldn't be happier with the place we've chosen to send our big girl a few mornings a week.  She seems to be right on track which is great.  The teacher did mention that she can be very soft spoken and get quiet when in a large group setting but a much different kid one-on-one.  I noticed something like that but couldn't put words to it until she put it that way.  It's funny because both my husband and I are the same way.  A little quiet until you get to know us and then we're totally loud and talkative.  Guess that's one of our traits that rubbed off on her :)  My favorite thing was seeing their "self portraits."  All the other kids pictures looked like they were somewhat attempting to draw a figure or had a purpose behind their painting, with 1 or 2 colors.... and then there was Farrah's.  A huge blob taking up the whole page with every color imaginable.  I just love her so much.  She really is incredible. 

So that's that ya'll.  Thanks for checking in on me.  I feel like God is at work in our lives stronger than ever.  And for that, I am so grateful. 


Sales ends today!

Scariness

Yikes... where to begin.  The past 30ish hours have been a whirlwind.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I was diagnosed with placenta previa which basically means the placenta implanted too low, and in my case is completely covering the cervix.  I was told there is a chance it might move and I'll be able to deliver normally, but if not I would need to have a c-section.  I was also told there was a possibility I would start bleeding.  Fast forward to yesterday morning.  My alarm went off, I laid in bed for a while saying my prayers like I always do, got up and walked to the shower and then I felt it.  I was bleeding.  A lot.  I yelled at my hubby who was still asleep to get up because I was bleeding.  He jumped out of bed and calmly called labor and delivery.  He had them on speaker phone and while of course I was on edge, when I heard the tone in the nurses voice I got really nervous.  She asked how far we were from the hospital and we said 5 minutes and she said ok good then you don't need an ambulance just get here as fast as you can.  An ambulance?  The notion of an ambulance is what made my nervousness spike.  So we called one of my best friends at 6:30 in the morning and asked if she could come stay at the house with Farrah while we went to the hospital.  Did I mention I have 2 of my best friends that live on my street?  God is good.
We arrived at the hospital.  They checked me out and said that the placenta was still very low and that was what was causing the bleeding.  Then they proceeded to mention that if the bleeding didn't stop, they would need to get the baby out.  Ummmm.... I'm only 26 weeks.  That can't happen.  This baby needs to cook for another 14 weeks.  So all I could do was lay there and pray the bleeding stopped.  They had me to an ultrasound to see how big baby was, wouldn't let me eat anything in case of a c-section, mentioned if they had to they would give me something that would help to mature the baby's lungs.  All things I didn't want to hear.
They kept check me and it seemed the bleeding had stopped.  But they wanted me to stay all day to monitor me.  They were in touch with high risk obgyn's at another hospital that wanted me to stay overnight, but since I live 5 mins away they were ok with me going home as long as the bleeding had subsided for at least 12 hrs.  In the meantime I still couldn't eat.  I hadn't eaten anything since 9pm the night before and when I was finally given the go ahead to go home we went straight to the nearest In-n-out and I had a cheeseburger fries and a shake because this mama was hungry!  :)
I am now on modified bed rest.  Not an easy thing for me to wrap my head around when I've got a 2 1/2 year old and a business to run but I know I can't do it all.  So me and my bed and my dvr will get to know each other very well over the next few months.  Just pray for no more bleeding!

So this mama is going to be homebound for a while but I still need to keep my business running so I'm running a Mary Kay sale!  If you do not currently have a Mary Kay consultant you are eligible for 20% off all products!  Check out my website www.marykay.com/kristanaldjian and help support a laid up mama!

Things I've learned from being a Stay at home mom and a Working mom

I'm in a very interesting position of being both at SAHM and a WM all wrapped up into one.  I realized the other day that I have learned so much by being on both sides of the fence.  Here are some nuggets... take it or leave it, but it's been what I've seen from my experience.
From the SAHM side:
-Hardest.Job.Ever.  Hands down.  There is no paying job out there that could live up to the amount of energy, dedication, time, and stress that staying home with children does.
-Most rewarding job ever.  Worth every second.  You get to experience all of the firsts, watch them grow and learn, be there to scoop them up when they fall and get all the love and cuddles you could want. 
-Most SAHM's I meet carry some kind of guilt about not "providing" for their family.  While they know how valuable what they do at home is, they're still a part of them that feels the need to ask their husbands about any purchase that's for themselves. 
-We do not sit at home watching TV and eating bon bons all day contrary to popular belief.  The to-do list never ends.... never.  Cooking, cleaning and raising smart, self-sufficient children is no easy feat. And the next day, you have to wake up and do it all again.  Whoever wants to invent something that keeps the house clean after you clean it once can go ahead and do that now. 
- We appreciate our husbands.  I can't speak for all marriages but most SAHM's I meet all carry the same sense of love and admiration for our husbands.  While we do work hard at home, we know that our husbands take on the financial strain when we choose to stay home. 
- Time out of the house with friends is vital.  Even if we have to bring the kiddos with us, it's better than being cooped up in the house all day with nothing to listen to but Dora and Elmo.  We don't have coworkers that we get to have conversations with.  No lunch breaks.  Nothing to recharge.  My friends are the reason I'm sane (most days.)

WM side:
-The option to stay home full time isn't there for most of us.  Bills, bills, bills!
-The guilt when you leave never leaves you.  While I'm fortunate to not have to leave too often, it's still hard when I do and she gets upset.  I always remind myself why I'm doing this.  It's for my kids.  Nothing else.
-The last thing you want to do when you come home from work is clean and cook, but someone's gotta do it!
- We miss out on a lot of the fun daytime activities you can do with kiddos while you're working.  Park playdates, zoos, etc are more difficult to do in the evening hours. 
-It's easy to feel like you're being pulled in a million different directions.  You leave one thing and you have to be "on" at the next thing. 

From both sides:
-We're way to hard on each other as moms.  Formula vs. Breastfeeding, cloth diapers vs. disposable, co-sleeping vs. crib, working mom vs. stay-at-home mom.  When you're a new mom and you're already feeling incredibly insecure, the last thing you need is for other mom's to be judging your decisions.  Be kind to one another.
- I find myself playing the blame game when I get frustrated... on both sides.  Yes, I too am guilty of this.  "Ughhh my SAHM friends just don't understand that I can't make it to everything all the time." "My WM friends treat me like I'm some silly little housewife."  It comes back to being kind to one another. 
-We all just want our kids to be happy and healthy.  And we go about that the best way we know how.
-We all are insecure with our decisions.  I have yet to meet one mom that is 100% confident in her decision to either work or stay home and never questions herself.
- As someone who's on both sides of the fence my realization boils down to this:  The grass is not green on the other side.  The grass is green where you water it.

Make the best of your situation!  And be an advocate for the moms of the world.  We need each other more than you know.

Me, Myself and I

I realize that this blog began as a way for my family and friends that don't live nearby to keep in touch with what was going on in our lives, and that the star of my blog is Miss Farrah.  However I also know there are people that read my blog that don't know us personally and might like to know who this chick is that's writing all these posts.  Here are some fun facts about myself that even people who know me may not know.

• I am a diet soda addict.  Although, because we're on a budget, I don't buy it for the house, but when we go out, it's hard for me to resist a diet coke.  I used to drink about 3 a day.... it was bad.
• I'm semi-claustrophobic.  Not really to the extent of breaking out into a sweat in an elevator, but more so when my personal space is being cramped.  My poor husband knows I'm ok to cuddle for a minute or two, but then I've reached my limit because I start feeling anxious with the crowded feeling.  I'm a weirdo.
• Music was a huge part of my childhood.  I was in multiple choirs, one from the age of 6-18, and took piano lessons from the age of 6-18.  I was also in some musicals in high school.  I wish I had more to show for it.  Once I got to college, I pretty much stopped cold turkey and have lost a lot of my musical abilities.  It's really important to me that my kids learn about music because it made such an impact on my life and I want them to experience those same things.
• I lived in Spain for a semester.  My junior year of college, my friend and I did the abroad thing.  We chose Alcala, Spain which is about 40 mins outside of Madrid because we didn't want to live with a family and this one allowed us to live in student housing.  It was one of the most defining experiences of my life.  When I left there, I could confidently say I was fluent in Spanish in a way that my 7 prior years of taking it and a Spanish minor could never really equate to.  Not only that, but I navigated Europe pretty much on my own and turned out fine :)  I was pretty darn proud of myself. 
• When I was a little kid, I want to say maybe 4 or 5 yrs old, my parents took my sister and I to an animal place called Marine World and when we were in the petting zoo I got trampled by 2 llamas that were chasing each other bc they were in heat.  I'm still traumatized by llamas to this day.  I don't trust them.  My parents should have sued! 
• I am not a naturally ambitious person, contrary to what people think about me being that I run my own business and am constantly setting goals for my business.  Because I'm not a naturally ambitious person, it works out perfectly for me to be in business because it forces me to be.  If I worked a clock in, clock out kind of job, I would do just that, clock in and clock out.  I know I wouldn't be living to my full potential. 
• I don't know how people can be atheists and have kids.  I'm sorry if this offends anyone but I don't see how after experiencing the miracle of the birth of a child and watching them grow, that you don't believe that there's any higher being out there, even if you're not religious.  I just don't get it. 
• I usually stay pretty level headed although I can be easily irritated (thanks for that dad), but when I get mad... you better watch out!  You don't want to mess with this chick when she's really mad.  
• Summer is overrated in my opinion.  I actually am not a fan of summer at all.  Don't know why people love it so much.  Maybe it's because of the heat waves we have where we live.  We are forced to spend most of the summer in above 100 degree temps. and we don't really take summer vacations so that pretty much takes the fun out of most of summer. 
• That being said, Fall is the best season ever!  How can you not love the crisp air, pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin anything really?  I look forward to it every year and it always seems to go by way too quickly!
• In the past, I've been quick to want to achieve whatever the next step is.  As soon as I got some place, I felt like I needed to start working on the next place.  College, engagement, buying a house, marriage, babies, etc.  I never realized I was doing that all so quickly.  All of those things I mentioned we did by the time I was 25.  I'm starting to realize it's ok to stop and enjoy where we're at.  
• When I'm feeling frustrated and/or things aren't going the way I hoped, you can typically find me cleaning and/or organizing.  It's the thing I do to take control over something and getting in the zone helps me forget about what's frustrating me.  
• When I'm procrastinating, you can also find me doing the same thing.... cleaning or organizing.  
• I'm a big dreamer.  Always have been.  I never doubted that I would be successful in life.  Not in a cocky way, but I just never had any reason to think anything but great things for my future.  I'm still not quite where I want to be, but I'm well on my way.  And yet still trying to enjoy where I'm at :)

So that's me!  Take it or leave it!  Questions?  Comments?  Just ask!

Adventures in Preschool

I got the worst night of sleep last night since Farrah was a newborn.  I'm currently running on about 4 hours of sleep and a decaf coffee.  Today is not looking promising.  But since I'm up and have some time, I may as well update you on a huge step we've taken.... Preschool.
I'm sure many of you might be thinking Farrah's too young for preschool.  She won't even be 3 until December and that still leaves her with 3 years of schooling before Kindergarten because she's a December baby.  I would have agreed with you up until about a month ago when a series of events made it clear we made the right choice. 
It started when I picked Farrah up from her weekly daycare visit.  Her daycare provider said her daughter would be starting preschool and asked if we could switch Farrah's day that she attends daycare.  I went home and thought about possibly switching her day and our schedule that we have worked out, and then switching it again when preschool rolled around and that combined with a new baby made me worried it would be too much change for Farrah and I didn't want her associating the new baby with her being "shipped off" to school.  So with that, I told my husband what my thoughts were and asked him if we could start looking into preschool. 
The next couple of weeks, it was like God was trying to show me that this was the right direction for us.  Farrah really started expanding intellectually with new vocabulary and started saying things that indicated she needed more stimulation than I was able to give her at home.  I know every parent says this, but she really is very intelligent.  I'm shocked sometimes at how much she's learned at such a young age, how much she comprehends, and the empathy that such a little person can have.  Maybe that's why she can also be so challenging.  She's too smart for her own good! :)
I already knew exactly where I wanted Farrah to go to preschool.  You see in the MOMs club that I'm in, there's a mom that owns her own preschool and she's given a presentation on kindergarten readiness and hosted a kid's fair at her preschool.  She is what sold me on her school before I even stepped foot in the school.  It's not exactly in our backyard.  It's about a 15-20 min drive.  And it's not exactly the cheapest, although honestly I didn't do much shopping around because I wanted Farrah to go there so bad, but all I know is after we factor in what we were paying for once a week daycare, it's going to be an extra $200/month so guess who gets to come up with that.... me!  :)  Unfortunately my husband doesn't have the ability to give himself a raise anytime he needs it and I do, so looks like I'll be holding an extra party per month to cover it.  Which I am more than happy to do!
So anyways, back to the owner of the daycare.  She is amazing... moral of the story.  When she talks about children and education, passion just exudes from her and you can tell she genuinely loves what she does.  I love it when I see this.  I wish more people were like this.  But I guess unfortunately not everyone loves what they do. I wanted my child at a place where the teachers were actually enthusiastic about being there, and not burnt out, watching the clock teachers that make it more of a glorified daycare.  She explained the process of kindergarten and what schools are looking for children to be doing before they enter, ways we can work with them at home and ways preschool can help.  I appreciated she wasn't a preschool pusher and she said some kids won't need much preschool but at least one year would be great so they're more prepared for kindergarten.  Some kids, she said, might need a lot of preschool because of their energy, abilities, etc.  And for a while I thought Farrah was in the first group and then it was like over night she became this much older kid.  I don't know how to explain it.
So we scheduled a tour with the preschool for myself, my husband and Farrah to go check it out.  It's not one of those mega preschool centers with tons of kids but it was just right for us.  She was there to give us a tour so I was glad my husband was able to meet her and hear for himself about this awesome lady I had told him about.  That and he has a masters in Education so I wanted his honest feedback being that I can make quick decisions once I have my mind made up about something and he reigns me back in a bit.  So after the tour we left and in the car Farrah kept asking to go back to preschool.  Sigh of relief from her parents.  And my husband said he could see why I loved her so much and he is willing to pay a little extra to make sure Farrah gets a great education and that he felt that would be the best place for Farrah.  After a little number crunching to make sure we could really do it, he was the one to tell me to hurry up and call her because there was only one more spot for the MWF mornings which is what we wanted so I did and Farrah was quickly enrolled in preschool.  She had her first day Monday, today is her 2nd day.  I'll fill you in on that later since this post is getting a bit lengthy but I'll leave you with the picture I took in the car 60 seconds after picking her up from preschool her first day.  I would say it was a success!

Dallas

This past week Abe and I went to Dallas for my annual Mary Kay seminar.  This was my 6th time going and we always have such a good time, but this one was especially great because I know this will most likely be our last chance to get away with just the 2 of us before baby #2 comes along so I definitely cherished every moment.  Farrah stayed with my sister and parents while we were gone.  They are definitely saints!  So grateful to have family that is willing to help, especially when Farrah has been going through her "challenging phase." 
The best way I can describe seminar is a few days of training, fun and a Miss America pageant rolled into one. It's always fun and always inspiring. Plus it gives me an excuse to dress up. Here are some picture highlights.

 Being silly on the bus on the way to the Mary Kay headquarters building for a tour.

 I won $100 in Amex gift cards!  I was stoked!  You'd think I just won the lottery or something :)

 Us and our good friends posing in front of Mary Kay's office.  She's no longer with us but her office is still as it was when she was here.  Gorgeous!

 Dressing up for awards night.  Rockin' my prom dress from 10 years ago... this time with a baby bump. 

 The cheesy photo session begins.  This is our standard prom pic... with a baby bump.

 They told him to kneel down and kiss my belly... I couldn't handle it... too cheesy even for me :)

 Love him!

The husbands got to go across stage for some recognition.  You can see Abe in the bright blue shirt with his hand up.  He was loving the recognition.  Going across stage in front of 10,000 people can be pretty addicting :)