2 Years, 1 Pregnancy, and a Crunchy Rabbit Hole Later...

Anyone who's just finding this is probably wondering why my last post is from January of 2022, then immediately jumps into another traumatic birth post with no explanation. I just really enjoy inflicting my trauma on others. Just kidding. Although ironically it was a traumatic birth story both times that spurred my creation then coming back to of this blog.

Two and a half years ago we were debating on moving back to Ohio, and God did indeed bring us back to Ohio. There was never a moment in time when we sat down and decided we for sure would be moving back, it just kind of happened. One day we decided to put it into God's hands and keep an eye on the Clayton store in Ohio near family, the next he was flying home to meet the general manager there after he received a job offer. Next thing we knew we were packing up our house in Texas and looking for a house in Ohio.

When we were packing, we didn't yet have a house in Ohio. We were sorting through what we'd keep with us to have at his grandparents (where we'd be living) and what we'd be packing away in storage for when we found a house. I picked up my bulk pack of pregnancy tests and said to my mom jokingly, "we better keep these with us!" She admonished me that the last thing we needed right now was to be pregnant. I rolled my eyes and told her it would take a while to actually get pregnant anyway and she said, "tell that to the baby over there" who it took 5 weeks of marriage to conceive. I laughed and said "it won't happen that quickly twice!" Well...

Less than two weeks after being back, and still without any house prospects, I was laying in bed and heard the microchip cat feeder open. I instantly smelled the cat food across the room. I knew I shouldn't be able to smell it at all, especially that far away. The next day I went in the bathroom, took a test, and came firing out storming over to Jakob. "DOES THIS LOOK LIKE TWO F'ING PINK LINES TO YOU!?" Spoiler alert, it was indeed two pink lines.

Let's see, what else has changed since then? Well, as you may or may not have read I used to be selective vax. Now neither of my children have any vaccines. I'm still not sure I'm categorically against all of them forever, but at least for now until we start traveling to other countries where those diseases may still be prevalent.

I'm no longer nursing one baby, now I'm nursing two toddlers. So that's fun! If you enjoy having little control over your own body, being unable to take your shirt off without a complete freak out and shouts of "Nurse! Nurse! Nurse!" from one or both kids, and unable to complete a short task list without being interrupted to nurse at least once. Don't get me wrong, I have no regrets about not weaning Stella before the pregnancy ended or before now in general, but I would definitely space future pregnancies out to allow natural term weaning before bringing a second nursling along.

I don't cloth diaper anymore because I fell down the rabbit hole of "crunchiness" and can't find an all natural laundry soap that I feel cleans the cloth diapers adequately. Also the cloth diapers I have may or may not have PFA's in them. Plus, I can barely keep up with laundry as is. Luckily, Stella's fully potty trained except for naps and overnight and Elliot goes in the potty somewhere between 20% and 90% of the time depending on the day. (Another reason I can't complete a short task list, I'm either interrupted to read books to someone while they go potty, wipe someone after they poop, or clean up pee off the floor.)

I am still off my depression medication and haven't had any more mental health issues since moving home! Well, except the whole PTSD flare up thing after Elliot's birth but honestly that could have been much worse and finally having a name for and understanding my symptoms made it much easier to manage.

We still co-sleep. The kids start out in their own beds but around 1 wake up crying and we bring them into our bed. Interestingly, they never wake up at the same time but always within a half hour of each other. We did cave and get a king sized bed, a necessity when you have two toddlers, two adults, and at least one cat in the bed. Especially when that cat is more like a third child and sleeps in between the husband and child number one. Although I guess technically the cat would be child number one since he's the oldest... I digress.

I guess that about sums up what's happened between then and now. There's more I want to share, but those things warrant their own post. So, we'll try this blog thing again and maybe I'll be more consistent this time! Maybe I'll become famous and have a ton of followers! Or maybe I'll just talk, or write, to a void, laugh at my own jokes, and leave a footprint that someday my great, great grandkids will stumble on and say, "wow she was nuts."