Little Monsters

**Be warned. I'm sure this will just turn into a pregnant lady rant ... **

Lately I feel like I have been living with two little monsters. Not the cute, clean, smiley ones straight out of the bath, but the ones you want to strangle before the night is over and eat lots of chocolate once they finally are asleep kind. Honestly, I don't know if it seems worse because I'm 24 weeks pregnant with extra estrogen flowing through my body, or if it is that combined with my kids are just going bonkers.

Ethan ... has been Ethan. He's so stubborn and hard headed and it just seems like he wants to battle it out with me every chance he gets. I hate having that kind of relationship with him. I feel like all we do is fight. Lincoln has always been a Mama's boy and is way easier for me to deal with most of the time. Although, he has been having his moments too. He has entered this screaming/crying phase and just cries non-stop for no reason at all. It's driving me completely crazy.

Mart hasn't had a lot of hours since November and we have been scraping by, which just adds to our stress, but thankfully (and not thankfully) they finally have enough work that he has been working lots of hours. It will be nice to finally be able to play catch up, but it's hard having him gone all day long every day when I am exhausted and my boys are missing him like crazy. By the time he gets home, the last thing he wants to deal with is screaming/crying Lincoln and defiant stubborn Ethan. I'm not sure what to do, I just keep trying to hang in there and be as patient as possible. (Not always possible).

I'm sure there are lots of things that are helping Ethan act the way he's been acting. New baby on the way, getting ready to move, remodeling, sick Mama, turning 5, Ber moving to California, Dad working a lot, etc. Hopefully once we finish the other house and move and get settled, things will start to calm down soon.

Phew. I guess that's all for my pregnant lady rant for now. I'm sure there's plenty more brewing around in my head. As for what's been going on lately, I guess I should update about that.

As I mentioned above (and most people know by now) that we are preparing to move. We are moving into my Mom's old house that my brother had been living in for the last several years. It honestly isn't going to give us a more room, it's just spaced out differently. At my house now, both my boys live upstairs which are basically attic type rooms. Their ceilings are slanted making it so there isn't really room to share a room once the baby arrives. The rooms are bigger and have normal ceilings at the other house so they will be able to share a room. The other perk is that there are two bathrooms. It's been a little obnoxious having only one bathroom. I'm feeling a little bad for my dogs, they are used to a fully enclosed backyard that they are the bosses of and can do what they like, but at the other house, it's not fully fenced in and when we first get there, they will have to be tied up until we can figure something out. Most likely, they will have to be in a kennel until we get a new house.
Before we could move in, the house needed quite a bit of work. It was built in the 70's and has only a handful of updates since. We removed all the linoleum flooring from the bathrooms, tore out some of the floor and had to replace it because of mold. Tiled both bathrooms. (Tiling is finished, just need to seal them now). We ripped out all the counters in the kitchen and both bathrooms and Mart has been working on new granite for the entire house in his free time at work (which hasn't been a lot the last week). We will rip out the entry at the very end and tile it (it's currently a wood pattern). We pulled off all the wood on an accent wood wall in the kitchen and are just updating it to a new wood wall. It used to be two large diamonds, but it will now be a pallet wall all going one direction. It looks much better already! After the counters go in, two new appliances will be delivered (which will be totally awesome!). I have had to paint the entire house (I'm nearly finished), remove wallpaper from one bathroom (that wasn't as bad as I pictured) and scrub the carpets. It's just been a lot of work, and we are slowly coming along. It's starting to look much better and it'll be fun to see it when it's all finished. It's the house I was born in and grew up in, so I keep thinking that it'll be weird to have my family move in and live there for a while. It will give us a much needed  cut to our expenses, which will help us catch up where we are behind, save for a new home, and help pay for this baby! (My insurance deductible is outrageous!) I'm extremely grateful my mom has this home and we have the option to move in. It took a huge weight off both of our shoulders, and my mom's as well. She's been stressing about finding renters that she trusts living there. And, like every remodeling project, we've had our fair share of problems. The most recent was when Mart was working on the pallet wall, he shot a nail into the electrical wiring and we lost all power to the kitchen ... after flipping the breaker a few times and watching sparks fly ... we realized what had happened and pulled the nail out. We haven't fixed that problem yet, but it shouldn't be too bad of a fix. As the days go on, I am becoming more pregnant and am realizing that we need to get finished and moved before I get much further along.

As for being pregnant, I am now 24 weeks! The baby is the size of a cantaloupe. (That seems a little big to me at this point, but maybe so?) She has been moving a lot, but in awkward areas. She only kicks up high around my belly button like once a week. Otherwise, she kicks extremely low, right around where my pants sit. I joke with Mart and tell him that once she starts moving often enough that people can actually feel her, someone is going to ask and I'll have to reply "sure, just stick your hand down my pants .. that's where she's sitting". Hopefully she flips around soon ... :)

I still think I'm a little in shock that we are actually having a girl. We went to the store to buy some clothes for her, and I was so overwhelmed. I'm used to two rows of boy clothes and very few options, but there was row after row after row after row after row after row ... after row of girl clothes! It was hard to look through because there were so many!  We are excited to have a girl! Mart jokes around with Lincoln and tells him when I have the baby and forget all about him, he'll be there for him. Then he told Kace one night that I'll have my own new toy to dress up and play with. It'll be fun.

We think we have decided on a name for her. Jade Careen. Since I was pregnant with Ethan, our girl name choice has been Autumn Careen, but Autumn seems to have been getting a little more popular, and over the last few years I really started to like the name Jade so I think we may have switched over. Careen is in memory of Mart's mom who passed away when he was very young. Her name was Karen, and we wanted to name a girl after her, but didn't want the actual name Karen ... so we did an off version and decided to do Careen instead.

I have been feeling alright. I'm not nauseated anymore which has been super nice, but I'm getting to the point where I'm hitting the "I'm starting to hurt" wall. I don't think it helps that she only kicks super low either. I am starting to have a little more trouble sleeping, and the last few days I've been feeling just weird and getting dizzy. Last night I was so dizzy I could barely function. I think it might be due to lack of water, so I have been trying to step it up and drink water more often. I'm still wearing my normal pants (just with the help of a rubber band) and some of my regular shirts. I'm generally more comfortable in a maternity shirt because they are a little longer.

I think that's it for now. This has turned into quite a novel, but I guess I had some catching up to do. I haven't been taking photos lately, and I really need to start taking more. We just stay home all day and hang out so there isn't a whole lot to be taking pictures of. Maybe now that it's warmer I will start to get more.