I've Moved!

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A Nautical Birthday BBQ.

My Loves.

Being An Aunt.

Oh you guys! I'm a real. live. aunt. My sister Engy {more like sister in law, but they're sisters to me!}...anywho! Back to my bragging! My sister Engy had her baby girl last Thursday! She named her lil' sweet pea Ireland Grace and weighed 7lbs. 70z and was 20 inches long {which is pretty much what Saxyn was too!}. It was THE CRAZIEST birth story so if you happen to know her, ask her about it! Some quick highlights? Okay! I'll tell you!

• She was 2 weeks early!
• She had miss ireland on her daddy's birthday at 11:25pm...barely made it! Best present he ever got! :)
• Her water broke at home and had the baby within the hour and within 10 minutes of being at the hospital!
• Proud parents and sweet baby girl are all healthy, happy and at home!

Congratulations Sister! I love my niece so incredibly much I could cry! Thank you for making me an auntie and I can't wait to spoil her rotten! :)

Saxyn's First Photoshoot.

Here are some of my favorites!

Random.

Yes. I'm still alive. Barely. Here's a bullet point outline of things going on around here:

Saxyn:

• Cute as a button.
• Going on 3 weeks old Tuesday! Wow!
• On her 2 week check up she had gained over a pound, weighing in at 8lbs. 5 oz. Good golly miss molly, she's putting on some weight.
• She's having lots of troubles digesting her food. The doc switched up her formula {insert all you breastfeeding fanatics dropped jaws here} and it's helped a little, but we're still working on it. It's actually a whole new world for us cause Kingston didn't have any troubles, nor did he spit up...once. Saxyn, however, spits up constantly...projectile vomits...fusses...squirms...cries...hiccups...you name it. Feedings can be an all out disaster sometimes. Makes me sad.
• Was forgotten in the car yesterday. We all piled out to get some ice cream and suddenly heard Anne yell in front of everyone, "Wait! Where's the baby?!?!" So George did the walk of shame back to the car to get her and as he walked back up to the ice cream shop one of the bystanders intruded with, "You forget somethin'?" Yup. Sorry.

Kingston:

• Kingston is becoming a little punk slowly but surely {we still love him to death though}.
• Needs a slight haircut.
• Loves on his baby sister so much it makes us smile.
• Threw the word "mommy" out the window and has succumbed to called me "D!" Hm. Figuring out how to fix that one.
• FINALLY advanced in swim lessons. Sheesh. He was held back in his last class 3 times, but just started his new class last Wednesday with George. It's been nice for them to get to do something together.
• Loves to pray. All the time. He asks to pray probably about 3 or 4 times while we're eating. He has the whole "hold our hands, heads bowed" down pat.
• Likes for me to kiss his "boo-boo's" and I'm happy to.

George:

• Love of my life.
• His time home has come to an end {tear...sniff...}. He officially goes back to work tomorrow morning and then I'm on my own. I'm nervous, but mostly sad. His time home was a God-send, not just to have his help with the kids, but for our marriage. We've gotten so close and am so thankful for our 3 weeks together. I cried yesterday cause I don't want him to leave and I'll probably cry tonight.
• Super-husband.

Danielle:

• Getting used to being a mommy of two and a wife {still}.
• Currently listening to Saxyn cry and watching Kingston out of the corner of my eye taking my dirty laundry from my closet to who knows where so I can accomplish a blog post.
• Having the baby wasn't enough, I got a horrid pinch in my lower, left-hand side of my back about a week and half ago. Couldn't even walk. Can still barely walk. George carried me to the dr. last Friday and now anti-inflammatories are in order along with physical therapy twice a week for 6 weeks. Riiiight. And when do you think I have the time and energy for THAT with a newborn and toddler?
• I'm getting excited for Spring and Summer weather and spending more time outside with my kids!
• I'll be an aunt in about 4 weeks and can't wait to meet my niece Ireland!

Lots of things to find to complain about, but lots of blessings that trump the negatives and so much to look forward to in the next couple months!

One {Weak}.

Miss Saxyn is a week old today. Time is already flying by. This morning we had her newborn shots done and I'm hoping they turned out really good. The whole family woke up super late this morning so it was a rush to get ready, pick out outfits, etc. So I wasn't totally with it this morning and it's hard to gauge what we even did.

Kingston's very touch and go these days. He is SUPER sweet with his baby sister. He loves to hold her...wants to hold her hands and pray with her...always wants to help with feeding...However, sometimes I feel he's giving me the cold shoulder. He has become really cranky and whiney. He acts out a lot and has gotten a strong attachment to George. My poor husband can't even go to the restroom without a tantrum breaking out.

Speaking of George. He's amazing. I'm so grateful that he took off so much work to be with me and our family. He has picked up so much slack at home. He takes care of me...he takes care of Kingston and of course helps out with Saxyn so much too! Amidst all that, still makes a little time for work as much as he can and for things to be done around the home. Such a trooper.

Saxyn is your typical newborn :) She has her days and nights mixed, but hopefully that will be changing soon! Her eating is out of this world! She is the complete opposite of Kingston and eats A TON! She'll definitely be my chunky baby and can't wait to see it.

I'm hanging in there. Not sure where I would be if I didn't have the help of George right now and our families. I'm resting and sleeping as much as I can. Even though I feel like the labor and delivery was a lot faster and easier than it was with Kingston, I feel like the recuperating is rougher. I haven't felt really all that well the past week. Mainly, weak. My whole body just aches and aches with other post-partum issues to deal with {to remain nameless for the sake of disclosing too much}. :) I'm either too drugged up to know what's going on or in utter pain that I want to crawl under a rock and die. I get a little baby blues here and there too. I had a minor incident involving a dark onesie, which got mixed in with my sweet baby girl's whites in the wash. Everything turned purplish-pink. Devastation set in like none other and I bawled for a good 5 minutes.

All in all though we're doing well. Kingston and Saxyn are just two sweet children needing cuddles from their mommy and their mommy is just a wife needing cuddles from her husband.

Look-A-Like.

I found this baby photo of myself at my mom's house the other day and she scanned it for me...I'm pretty sure it looks like Kingston with blonde hair and blue eyes. The best feeling is knowing you look like your child. Saxyn on the other hand...we're still trying to figure her out. She's still pretty young to tell who she's gonna model.

Saxyn's {Birth}day.

My long awaited induction finally arrived. Most people thought this little one would come on her own, but I know my children, they need a little help. Monday the 29th was the longest day ever too. All I could think about was having my baby. I was really nervous. REALLY nervous. I preoccupied my time as much as I could.

The late evening soon rolled around and we arrived at the hospital about midnight. Walked right in...immediately got settled...did the necessary paperwork and began my IV. Ohhh, my IV. Bless my {first} nurse's heart. She was so cute and sweet, but perhaps a tad new to the labor and delivery? Just perhaps. She poked me about 3 times and kept "losing" my vein and had to call in an IV specialist to finish the job. Yikes. That really hurt. But didn't have time to really complain. It was around 1/1:30am and the pitocin and fluids have started.

Everything started off slow, but by 4:00am I was done-zo. So done I couldn't even tell you. Labor hurt like hell. Oh but Mr. Anesthesiologist is in a c-section and will be another 45 minutes. You're kidding. Another yikes. Welllllll okay, here we go. Just breathe, right? Riiiiight. I wanted to die. I'm still only maybe 3 cm. and hating life. And now, come to find out, my newbie nurse sliced her finger open and had to go to the ER for stitches. Of course.

And in comes my {second} nurse. Whoa, look out! She blew in like a tornado and rearranged the whole room and got me setup with about 15 pillows {she actually stole pillows from other peoples rooms} in a matter of minutes and was absolutely amazing. Oh good! Great news! Anesthesiologist is here! He was in and out in about 10 minutes and did a wonderful job...kinda. I got some relief but soon found out my epidural mainly numbed up my right side and left my left side hangin'. Ouch. Literally. I tried to get some sleep but that didn't work. I was drugged up and felt nauseous.

Upon 7am I was re-checked: 4cm. Great. Aren't we moving along a tad bit slow. Sheesh. BUT...I had my final nurse change and my lovely Nicole {whom I requested at the beginning of this whole thing...she was with me during Kingston's birth and goes to my church too so I was dying to have her again with me on this delivery} was finally here. She followed up with my Dr. who was on his way in to check in on me. So sweet of him. By 7:30am though I was not feeling the greatest. My pain was increasing on my left side and I threw up a couple times. Nicole decided to check me again and realized my sweet baby girl was about an inch away of coming out. Super yikes! She left the room to inform my Dr. that I was indeed ready to deliver asap. However, even though he was on his way he was still about a half hour out. So, of course, knowing I needed him there I laid on my side with my legs shut to keep this baby in. :) We were all trying to pass time.

It was a little past 8am and I couldn't hold it any longer. Nicole said, "Oh, maybe we'll just do a 'practice' push." Ha. She was putting gloves on right as I rolled over onto my back and not even a second later lil' miss saxyn started sliding on out. My mom is hovered over in the corner and points, saying, "Uh, the head is coming right out." I wasn't even pushing yet. My nurse quickly shoved her other glove on, yelled out the door for a 2nd nurse and ran over just in time to catch my baby. It took a matter of about 10 seconds for saxyn to come into the world and right as George was cutting the cord my Dr. walked in just in time to catch my placenta. Lovely. I think he was pretty bummed he missed the whole thing. As was I. And every single one of us are still shocked that everything went so incredibly fast. My daughter is finally here though. She is healthy...happy...sleepy...and hungry! She already eats way more than Kingston. Maybe I'll have a chubby baby this time around! We have her newborn photo shoot next week and I'll try to get photos of my own up as soon as I can! Life with two kiddos under the age of two is busy!

Showering Me With Love.

Beautiful flowers.

Personalized Picnic Lunch.

Adorable Table.

Sisters Having Baby Girls! {Engy is due middle of May!}

BFF and Her Sweet Daughter Nora. LOVE HER.

Thoughtful Hosts. Thanks Girls!

~And THANK YOU to all my friends and family for coming! I got spoiled with alot of great things and cute outfits for Miss Saxyn.~

Update.

Well blog readers...I'm still pregnant...George is still hard at work...Kingston is still a toddler. Team Mekhail is in that dreadful holding period...baby watching. I'm 38 weeks and as of this morning...still counting down. Not much progress has been made. My latest check up was this morning and I'm 1 cm. dilated, 50% effaced and about a -1 on the "Where's the baby's head?" scale. All the same stats as I was last Tuesday. Boo. These stats, along with good blood pressure, good fluids and baby movement, don't exactly help plead my case on getting this baby out so I had to think fast. The only things I could come up with are: horrid back pain, leg cramping, excruciating groin pain and abdominal pain. My back feels like it's breaking in half and every time George even tries to massage it, it feels bruised. My reflux is getting annoying and I feel like I'm just carrying around a 40 pound sack of potatoes. Doc didn't buy it. He proceeded to tell me he LEGALLY couldn't even do anything until 39 weeks and he himself wouldn't do anything until I'm 40, which brings us to March 30th...my due date. Lovely. And please don't say, "Oh that's only 2 weeks away!" I won't even spend the energy to respond to that one. I will roll my eyes and assume you've never been pregnant. So March 30th. Here's the thing about March 30th...what if...just what if...I have my child on April 1st?!?! An April Fool's baby? I don't think so. So I politely, but firmly said I didn't want to deliver on the 1st, to which he replied he will be skipping town the morning of the 1st to go to Great Wolf Lodge anyways AND if you're just now joining us? My doctor being out of town while I deliver? Not an option. Plain and simple. And because my doctor is amazing, he said he wouldn't let me go late and I'm signed up to go in late March 29th to be induced if baby girl doesn't come on her own. THANK THE LORD. And by late? I mean, literally...11:30pm. Which is fine by me cause I also really want my child born on a even number so it gives me a full 24 hrs to get my sweet girl out on the 30th. You see where my priorities really are? :) Sounds like a good plan, right? I wonder how it's all really gonna go...my luck, my water will break in an hour and I'll have a St. Patrick's Day baby. Ooft. All in God's timing I suppose. Sigh.

Preg{Show}.

Disclaimer: You'll need to turn off my blog music to hear the slideshow music, otherwise you'll get Casting Crowns meets Joshua Radin...it's not pretty.

{Sneak Peak}.

Missing Someone.

I sadly lost one of my good friends yesterday to a tragic, sudden brain aneurysm. Rose & I were best friends in high school and after splitting ways after graduation we still managed to keep in touch very often and find ways to even see each other. She lived in Florida with her husband Justin and when she would fly back home to Oregon, I would make it a point to drive down to see her when I could. We swapped emails OFTEN and she would even send me things in the mail just out of the goodness of her sweet heart.

This was our last photo taken together in 2008, just 3 months after I had Kingston. We were supposed to see each other this summer. She was going to meet my baby girl. I was going to meet her hubby. We were going to catch up. We were going to laugh as usual and at the end we were going to say, "See you soon!"

It's a different feeling now: missing a friend who lives across the country and now missing a friend who lives with our God. I'm heart broken and a little jealous all at the same time...I think more heart broken. Why not me? Why her? I don't understand. I JUST talked to her. I'm sad. I'm sad for me...for Justin...for her parents...for her sister. A part of me is even sad for Rose thinking she's missing out on what could have been. Chances are though she's having the time of her life and I'm the one in fact, missing out.

Life is fragile. You just never know what's going to happen.

I Think I Need A {Vent}ilator.

33 weeks and counting and today couldn't have been a worse day to start the week off. And right as I just wrote that, someone just rang the doorbell to my home that has a sweet little sign above it that says, "Please, do not ring doorbell, Thank You!". And I thought it was just FedEx that couldn't read.

And speaking of people who can't read: Walgreen's is NOT the pharmacy you can trust. They need a new slogan. I called in a prescription refill this morning to be picked up at 3pm. They call me at 2pm with their lame automated voice recorder telling me it's delayed. CRAP! I totally forgot to tell them we switched insurance. I proceed to call them back and tell them and ask if I can give them my info over the phone or if they need me to come in with my card. After pushing 1 for the pharmacy department and 0 to speak with a pharmacist, clueless Sr. Certified Pharmacy Tech. #1 gets on the line. I tell him the issue and ask my question. He tells me I need to hold on while he accesses my file first. THEN says, "Oh, it looks like the issue is your insurance denied your request for a refill." Why yes Mr. Pharmacy man that is what I just told you so thank you for repeating the obvious. THEN says, "We will need to see your new insurance." Why yes Mr. Pharmacy man I also stated that as well. THEN he says, "So all you need to do is just bring your card with you and then we can get the new information in." Yeah, ok, thanks.

Now I'm at Walgreens and clueless Sr. Certified Pharmacy Tech. #2 proceeds to "help" me. I tell her the issue and she asks to see my card. She hands it right back and says my card is only for medical and not prescriptions and to let her know when I have it figured out and walks away! Wtf. Figured out? So I call George. He tells me all the info is on the back of the card, which it is. I understand why I wouldn't know, but homegirl is supposed to be a Sr. Certified Pharmacy Tech. Can't she read insurance cards correctly? So now I wait for her to come back. She comes back. I tell her where the info is and she's like, oh. Yeah...oh. THEN {as she's holding and looking at the card} says, "So, are you the primary cardholder?" Um, no. That would be my husband. THEN she says, "Oh, what's his name?" Really Mrs. Pharmacy woman? It says RIGHT on the card, primary cardholder: George Mekhail and dependants: Danielle Mekhail.

This vaguely reminds me of when George is looking for something in the fridge and says it's not there. Oh it's there. You're just not looking hard enough. The 'ole open the fridge door, do a quick scan of the elements without attempting to look over or behind things is getting a little old.

Think people. Look a little. Perhaps, read a little.

Dear Walgreens,

Please higher your standards when hiring.

Cordially Yours,

One angry pregnant lady who almost skipped a 2nd dose of Prenatal Vitamins cause you couldn't get your shit together.

{can I swear on this blog? I think so. I mean, it's my blog and Kingston can't read yet so I'll unleash some unmotherly vocabulary on here just this once.}

Hormones, hormones, hormones! I'm constantly annoyed and so DONE. I literally bawled to my dr. for about a half hour at the end of today going on and on with my pregnancy woes. Yes. Woe is me. I won't divulge my fellow blog readers of all my mental...emotional...and physical issues, but I tried so desperately to convince the doc the baby was ok to come out at 33 weeks. I had as much luck as Martin Short. I have til' 37 weeks and I get a re-evaluation of my "current state" and may make a case for me on delivering early. Pray I make it through.

Rock-A-Bye Baby.

Here's a peek into our baby girl's nursery! Don't mind the random blue chair and the framed photo of Kingston when he was a baby...it's all I had :) Enjoy!