Ahhhh . . . Life

Today is one of those days you're so glad you stay home. Georgia and I had a picnic outside for lunch. After we ate I put on my bikini top and have been sitting outside enjoying the sun on my stretch marks. Georgia is running around shirtless getting some good vitamin D.

This morning I asked her what we should name the baby. She said yogurt, puppy, donkey and zebra.

Georgia ate one piece of broccoli last night. That was HUGE for us.

She dipped a strawberry in ketchup at lunch and ate it. I just about puked.

We are planning a big Walmart trip tomorrow evening after dinner since it's payday. How great would it be if my water broke in Walmart?

The REAL 38 week update

"Whoa! Girl!" was my doctors reaction when he checked me today. He asked me if I had started experiencing any signs of labor and I told him no and that I didn't think this was happening any time soon. Then he checked me. I'm dilated to a 4 and 75% effaced. We all laughed that I was so far along and had no clue. I knew I was dilated but not that much. I was hoping for a two.

He said as soon as I have a contraction or my water breaks he wants me to get on the road. He also said if at my appointment next week I'm at a 6 he'll go ahead and keep me because that's just so far along and my labor with Georgia went so quickly. Basically, if you've volunteered to keep Georgia get ready cause we'll be dropping her off quickly.

Is it weird that I don't want to go into labor until Friday? Weekends are just so much more convenient for having kids. Everyone's off work and can come visit. Marc will have gotten his next paycheck. Just good.

38 week update

It's official. I have pregnancy brain. I showed up for my 38 week appointment today only to find out it's tomorrow. Glad I drove 30 minutes to find out I have to drive it again tomorrow.

Middle of the night post

It's 4:32 a.m. and I am awake. Just a part of pregnancy. Can I tell you how thankful I am that I don't have to go to a job tomorrow morning?? If I am too tired to go anywhere all I have to do is hang on till 1:30 p.m. and then I can take at least a 2 hour nap. That alone right there is worth being a stay at home mom!

Here are a few thoughts I'd like to share since it's the middle of the night and we're up talking.

Georgia went to Awanas at our church last night for the first time. When did my baby get so big that she's able to do this stuff? It is a little frustrating that she's not big enough yet to tell me every detail of what she did while she was there. Don't know if you've realized it yet but I'm into details. When I drop her off at the nursery during church I normally don't tell her goodbye or anything because I don't want her to get upset. I did the same thing with Awanas. I need to re-think this. She pretty much runs to the room because she thrives on socializing, learning and the yummy snacks they provide.

I think I am going to start kissing her goodbye for two reasons:

1. I'm pretty sure she can handle it.
2. I need a goodbye kiss.

When I went to pick her up from Awanas she was sitting at a table with some other kids eating Pirates Booty. If you don't know what it is, pick up a bag at your local Central Market, Whole Foods or some Tom Thumbs and enjoy. I recommend the one with spinach and kale but that's beside the point. When I called her name, she looked up at me, smiled and waved and went right back to what she was doing. I kept calling her name and telling her it was time to go but she didn't want anything to do with it. I guess that's what I get for not keeping all those chip and cracker type snacks in my house. Ask anyone in Stroller Strides, Georgia is a mooch and loves any snack anyone will give her.

It took a good 10 minutes to get her to leave. She didn't get upset, she just didn't come to me. I had fun visiting with her leaders and I was one of the first ones there so we weren't in a hurry to leave and they weren't in a hurry to get rid of us.

Next subject: When #2 comes.

Marc and I have been preparing ourselves as much as we can to do natural childbirth using the Bradley Method. We've been reading up and have been practicing a few things. We didn't take the class because we're cheap/broke . . . but happy.

The main thing we are getting from what we're learning is relaxation. I feel like there are a few things I won't be able to prepare for like what position will be most comfortable and what type of music I'll really want to listen to if any at all. But there are a few things I do know we'll do.

The first is that both our cell phones will either be off or totally on silence once we're in the hospital and settled in. If you try to call one of us be prepared to go straight to voice mail until #2 is here and we're all smiling. No text messaging either.

The second thing I know we'll do is head straight to the hospital as soon as we know it's for sure happening. This isn't typical for natural childbirth from everything I've read and from my friends who've shared their natural stories with me. The reason we'll go right away is two fold:
I'm planning on delivering almost 30 minutes away from my house because I loved my OB with Georgia and am using him again and I won't be able to relax until all the details of "home" are dealt with.

Since we're going to be driving we'll have to get Georgia taken care of with a properly packed bag, call my mom to get on the road, get my bag finished, get Marc packed, drive to Waxahachie safely and slowly (no speeding tickets) all while I'm trying to relax and let the contractions work their muscular magic. Can you see where I'd want to get all this over with as soon as possible? I feel like the sooner I'm in the hospital, the sooner I can let all those details go and just focus on the task at hand. The delivery rooms at Baylor in Waxahachie are gorgeous, much prettier than my house so why not go there quickly? Gorgeous hard wood floors, beautiful lighting and a better stereo system than what we have.

My doctor is really great. He said I don't have to be in the bed until the end and prefers for me to be up and moving . . . if that's what I want at the moment. I actually wrote out a birth plan for this kid and he said everything on there was great.

When I had Georgia, my water broke at home and I didn't feel a contraction until I was totally checked into the hospital and sitting in the bed. I was already dilated to a 4 and moving quickly. The rumor is that the second kid goes even faster. That's what I'm betting on. I was only in labor 6 1/2 hours with Georgia. I wouldn't complain if this one is quicker. My dream is to get to the hospital and already be at a 6 but that is just a dream. I've given this whole process to the Lord and am resting on His wisdom. This child is a gift from Him so I'm going to listen to Him and trust His plan for this delivery.

On a different note, I saw a sign today that read, "I buy houses!" on the first line. The second line read, "Datmonkey.com". My first thought was, "Is he like a funny Vietnamese guy?". Don't know if you'll laugh at that but I did.

I hope this blog finds you well. If you've read this far, thank you. You're a better friend than I am. If a blog doesn't have pictures and isn't a heart wrenching true story, I normally don't read it. Please don't let that deter you from blogging. If you read mine I promise to make a good effort at reading yours.

At what point of insomnia do you just bite the bullet and start reading Twilight again?

Too Two

Just in case you didn't know, Georgia is 2. Last night she had Marc help her put on her tutu and she put her purse over her shoulder and looked so adorable. When I went to take a picture of her, she remembered that she's two and decided to get upset and lay on the floor and cry. What's funny about her doing this (and it happens a few times a day around here) is that I know she doesn't really know why she's upset. When this happens she very slowly lays down on the floor on her face and lays there and cries. I normally walk off so that she knows this doesn't phase me at all but I had to take a picture of it last night. Yes, that's how ugly my kitchen floor is. Why do I even bother mopping it? I guess so that a two year old can throw a fit and not come up with a dirty nose.

The past three days Georgia has been a huge Daddy's girl but her fit carried over to Daddy's arms last night. Marc looks way more intense than he really was. I have a feeling when #2 gets here that intensity will be for real.

SHHS Teacher Talent Show with Medium Wayne

Marc got to show off his musical/comedic talent last night when he preformed a Piano Compilation at the Teacher Talent Show. He walked out on stage up to the grand piano, sat down, put on a red baseball cap he borrowed from one of his football players named 'Waco', put on a gold chain and sunglasses and proceeded to play a medley of Lil Wayne songs. It was HILARIOUS!! Georgia and I got there early and snuck in before any of the kids were allowed in so that we could get the perfect seats to film Marc. Marc and I decided I should film it with our new Cannon camera instead of our awesome video camera because it would be easier to upload and put on youtube right away.

As he was ending his performance the camera went black which was weird because I knew the battery was charged. When I pressed the record button again to get it to come back on I saw that the record light did not come on. I quickly realized I had it in camera mode rather than video mode and missed filming everything!! You, our loyal friends and family, have been deprived of one of Marc's greatest moments . . . and he's had some pretty great moments.

Here's a re-cap of other great Marc moments that have been captured on film that I need to put on this blog: Micah and Ashley Anderson's wedding when Marc went up to the stage balcony and preformed Yeah by Usher. I laughed so hard then that I ended up on my knees in a dress beating the ground with my hand. When I watched it months later on DVD, I fell off the couch laughing. Next is Marc's competition for Mr. Red Oak when he was a jr. high teacher. He preformed feats of strength, agility, an amazing magic trick and an unforgettable evening wear spectacle all while wearing a loin cloth and an Afro wig. He of course won. Then there's him and Coach Westerberg doing the Superman dance thing at the Bay City pep rally last year. This video is on youtube. Just search for coachbindel and you'll find it. How did I get so lucky to marry "That Guy"?

A kid in the crowd told me last night that they'll have DVD's of the talent show for sale. As soon as I get my hands on one we'll put Marc's part on youtube for everyone to see.

Grandpa the Tatoo Artist

Since Grandpa's job brings him to Dallas sometimes, he gets to stop by and see Georgia every once in a while. A few months ago he drew a face on Georgia's hand and she has not forgotten it. He stopped by last night and after Georgia warmed up to him she crawled into his lap, pulled out a pen from his overalls and showed him that she wanted him to draw on her hand again. All while wearing a purple tutu.

Georgia's Buddy

Georgia's friend, Olive, came over for lunch today with her mom, Kelly. Olive is one day older than Georgia and they are too cute together. They are finally at the age where they interact with each other when they play. Of course much of their interaction involves one person taking the toy the other is playing with and the other one getting upset. They really were sweet together. They're reading in Kelly's lap after I tried to explain that my lap isn't the most comfortable to sit in right now.

Some of you may remember before Georgia could walk she would hold on to something and shake her hiney while I sang our little Shake Your Booty song. Now she can dance dance dance all the time. I hadn't sang that song in a while so I sang it today and she loved it. When I would finish she would say, "More booty! More booty!" For real. It was too cute.

Georgia and Olive had a blast dancing together. How cute is Olive??

The Life of Georgia

Georgia avoids vegetables at all costs. She is still served them at every meal but somehow knows that she should follow the stereo type and not eat them. Solution: give her some of my smoothie that has spinach, cucumber and celery not to mention lots of good fruit. She loves smoothies.

Maybe one of Marc's proudest moments. Georgia ate her pancake in such a way to reveal the Bat Symbol. Was she really calling for help?

Georgia with a mouth full of pancake. She has no clue how excited Marc was when he was taking this picture.

Georgia loves Christy and her daughter Adrianna. Christy is one of the instructors for Stroller Strides and has been a great friend to me and Georgia. This was taken at the Luna Mom's Club Valentine's Party where I ate a million tiny quiches.

Georgia and I escorted Marc to his football banquet. It really was fun. Marc made three videos that were shown and we were really proud of him. He made a season highlight video, a really cool video of all the kids that signed with colleges and then a great video tribute to one of their players that passed away.

Life Lately

Here are a few pictures of the Bindel family lately. Enjoy

Look closely for the little hands that are reaching up to play Marc's piano. I just thought this was too precious! Marc has learned to play the theme song to Doogie Houser, MD.

Here it is, a belly shot. I don't like belly shots and I think I only did one with Georgia at about 30 weeks. I'm 36 weeks and trust me this is a better picture than the one with Georgia. With this kid at 36 weeks I'm sitting right on the edge of the 150's at 159 and with Georgia at 36 weeks I was 185 already. Yeah. That's a big difference. No wonder I feel better! My goal was to stay in the 150's but I think I'm going to miss that unless this kid comes in the next hour. Oh well, I'm not far off!

Just another Friday night in the Bindel house. Laundry on the floor, Georgia running everywhere and Marc playing a musical instrument. In this picture he's playing Tush by ZZ Top, practicing for the Sam Houston High School talent show. Georgia loved loved loved Marc playing the bass. She danced beside him most of the time except when I was taking a picture.



Our little weirdo loves to feed herself either with her eyes closed or with a napkin on her head. This is an almost every meal thing. My favorite is when she reaches for her drink and has to feel around the table to find it. She always brings it to her mouth and then lifts the napkin up to take a drink. I'd say this is the Marc part of her personality coming out. I think she would do this even if I wasn't sitting there laughing at her.

Update

Potty Training is on hold for a little while. My sweet friend Megan texted me Tuesday afternoon to see how potty training was going. She got a whole other world of news from me. Georgia got very spoiled to all of Nommie's attention while I was gone. I think it just hit her this morning that I had been gone. Other than that, she had no idea because Nommie spoiled her so much.

Finally feeling better. The worst part of it all was having to stay in bed so much and then getting so bloated everywhere from constant IV meds. The morphine ended up giving me a horrible horrible head ache. I haven't had many hangovers in my life but this certainly felt like one.

I read on Webmd about kidney stones and it said over and over again that you have to drink a ton of water to prevent them and to pass them. I'm going to be drinking more water from now on to keep this from happening again, at least to keep it from happening before #2 gets here. Marc said he's going to start drinking more water, too.

Back to normal life. Laundry calls and I'm thankful I feel like doing it. Thank you all for your prayers, sweet calls and emails and offers for food. I love each of you and will be the first in line to help when you need it. Thanks! - C

Day 4 ended with the Stones and not the Rolling kind

Day 4 was insane! Georgia started the day with a pretty big accident in the kitchen that again devastated her. We went on to Stroller Strides and she did great!! Held it the whole time. When we got home I didn't put her on the potty right away and she had another big accident. I felt guilty because I didn't take care of her and give her the chance to be successful. And then after that we had our first #2 accident. We're not giving up because I know she can do it. Honestly, I'd rather wash panties and pants than diapers any day.

So then . . . . . I had joked around with my Stroller Strides girls that I had to be dilated and that a foot had to be sitting right on my cervix. When Georgia went down for a nap and I was really really really uncomfortable. I ordered Prince Caspian on PPV, got my Becky Bag (Bindels know what that is) and laid down. I kept getting more uncomfortable and my back starting hurting more and more. I finally got to the point where I called Marc, told him to come get me because we were going to Dr. Brown, called my new SUPER FRIEND Joann to come sit with Georgia and then called Dr. Brown to let him know I was coming in. A few miles outside of Waxahachie my back starting hurting worse than any pain I've ever known and I threw up. We got to Dr. Brown's office in 28 minutes, a record time trust me.

Dr. Brown examined me (I'm 1 cm dilated by the way, nothing big but just 9 more to go in 5 weeks) and when he touched my back on the left side he knew what was going on. I clued into it, too, and knew it was kidney stones and nothing to do with labor. They wheeled me over to the hospital (his office is right next door) and by this time I was crying and in terrible pain. They took me up to L&D so that they could monitor the baby who was doing just fine and still moving a ton. I threw up again in triage and after a few minutes finally got my first round of pain medication.

From there I'm not really sure what all went on. I know I had a sonogram of my kidneys and got checked into a room. During that time my pain medication wore off and we were back to what Marc is calling 'Vietnam Pain'. At some point a urologist came to see me and told Marc I had kidney stones in both kidneys but it was my left kidney that had a ureter that was being blocked by a stone. He also said I had one about 5 cm big in there. WHOA! My mom came and kept Georgia and Marc went home to get a few things for himself and relieve Betsy who had come to relieve Joann. While he was gone my IV pain meds had worn off and I had been asleep for 2 hours so I hadn't been pushing my little pain medicine button for myself. 'Vietnam Pains' were back. The crappy thing about getting kidney stones when you're 35 weeks pregnant is that they can only give you a few kinds of pain medicine and they can only give you so much. I had all of my allotted doses of Stadol, Delotted and then another one that started with and F that's not Finegrin.

I passed some stones at either 2 a.m. or 4 a.m. Marc and I can't remember. I could actually see one of the stones. You always hear that kidney stones are as painful as labor and that's totally true. If you know anyone that's had them give them a huge hug the next time you see them and then pray that you never get them. My OB just came in and said I'm staying another night just so they can monitor things and because there was a bacteria in the stone I passed.

- Carlye Jo

P.S. If you came to see me in the hospital when Georgia was born I'm in the exact same room! Kind of cool huh?

Day Three aka Living on a Prayer

Day Three is over and it was great! One little accident before church. I know the normal thing is to just stay home while you're potty training but I made the mistake of starting this the weekend that we were joining our church which meant we were getting introduced. Kind of had to go. She went on the potty in her nursery room because it's literally a little toilet. The nursery workers told me that most kids love going on that potty because it's so little. She had one more little accident toward the end of church and that was it for the day!! She went 4 times this evening because she got the connection between using the potty and getting an M&M. She eventually started asking me for M&M's and I'd tell her she'd have to tee tee. She'd go straight to the potty and squeeze out a few drops. Seriously like 2 drops but that's good enough for me. No #2 at all today. I think she's holding it in. Thanks for keeping up with Georgia's bathroom progress!!

Here's your bonus for reading this: Georgia prayed for the first time tonight and it was hilarious!! Marc and I pray with her every night. We each hold one of her hands (when he's not there she holds bears hand) and I pray. Tonight before I could even start praying she started. It went something like this, "Mommy, Daddy, Doree, Doree, Nemo, Nemo, Nemo, puppies and a boy. Night Night." At first we didn't know what she was doing. She just said her favorite things. How sweet is that????? I've been praying about how I can truly show her Christ in our everyday lives. I don't want to just color pictures of Jesus or read books about Jesus. I guess God is drawing her to Himself by putting it on her heart to pray for her favorite things. Our prayer for her is that she'll, "know You, love You, love Your Word and that others would come to know You because of her love for them." It's just so wonderful to see God working and know that it's His work. She's so beautiful! - C

Day Two

Day two is complete and she had a victory!! She let out just a few drops but we celebrated like no other. She got one M&M and a special Berre Hooray for Georgia Porgia song. She had three accidents and they were devastating to her. For real, I think her hear broke each time. I'd clean her up and then she'd just want to be held and cry. I wish she understood what we're saying when we tell her it's all right and that she's doing good. Surely she knows by our tone that she's not in trouble. It's going to take a while but Marc and I are committed. I know she can do this. - C