Gareth Alan Schille 11-24-10

Hi folks! Finally getting around to posting about the arrival of Gareth! I went into labor on H's 2nd birthday 11-23. I noticed that I was having contractions at about 3pm. I knew Derek was planning on stopping off at the store after work so I called him at 3:30, about the time he was walking into Target. I told him he should pick up food for dinner but that he should get home quick! By 4 pm my contractions were 6 minutes apart and by 5pm I was on the phone with the on call doctor telling her I was on my way! Melissa came to pick up H and we hurried to get to the hospital. I hadn't decided if was going un-medicated this time like I did with H but in the car I declared "I am soooo getting the epidural!" Anyway a few hours later I was medicated, happy, and luckily my water hadn't broken. We told the doctors that it was our son's birthday and we really wanted to wait until the next day to have this little guy. They agreed to let me wait it out (unless nature had other plans) and then right before midnight they broke my water. I pushed for 2 1/2 hours! Just like I did with H! UGH! Then all of sudden he decided to come out and there I was holding my precious little guy! I don't think I have ever cried that hard in my life.

I stayed the next day at the hospital but I really wanted to be home for Thanksgiving. I couldn't stand the thought of being alone in the hospital eating cafeteria food. YUCK! So we brought Gareth home on Thanksgiving.
Here is our complete family! So much has happened of course in the last 7 months. Here is a picture I think sums him up pretty well.
He is a much more serious little guy than Harrison is. I could tell that in the womb though! He does laugh and smile(I swear!) but you have to work for it. I think he is smart, don't wear your heart in your sleeve Gareth. From my experience it just brings you pain. I enjoy his more skeptical nature! We had a rough couple of months at first. Having a two year old certainly made this harder on all of us. I don't know how I managed on ZERO sleep but I got through it. Gareth had to go to the dermatologist for bad eczema/cradle cap. You will notice he still gets spots on his face. This has cleared up a lot though, he must have been so uncomfortable!! He also grew a ton in the beginning (3 inches and 4 lbs in the first month, ouch!) so I think he was in a lot pain. We seem to be over the hump though. I hope I did enough to comfort him in his first months.

The new house is coming along. I have lots of ideas in my head and absolutely no money. So for now we try to pay our bills and are thankful we have food on our table. Times are lean around here but I know i will be thankful for everyday with Gareth. Harrison has grown up so fast and treasure the memories I have of him and I when he was a baby. I want those same memories with my Gareth!

Harrison is doing very well! He loves bugs, playing pretend, and he got potty trained about 4 months ago. He loves his brother (I know this cuz he tells him so) and loves to play with him. Here is a picture of the first Schille belly

That is all for now. Look for more posts to come!

Love,

Mama Panda

Sprinkle

Hey all,

I am a bit late but I wanted to say a big THANKS! to my sister Shannon for hosting my "sprinkle" (get it? cuz it isn't a shower) on October 30th. Here is a pic of H and I enjoying our cupcake.

It was great fun! The next day day Jeremy and Beth brought Chloe over to be H's horse for his cowboy costume...

I had wanted to dress H up as a cowboy and have Chloe as his horse for a YEAR and it was great fun to see it all come together. It is also a good example of what motherhood is like. You work and plan for a long time for these brief moments in time that make it all worth while!

Later we went out trick or treating which H got the hang of pretty quickly! It was a great weekend!

That is all for now. I am hoping this will be my last post before #2 arrives. I am getting some definite signs of labor so we will see when he wants to come, hopefully it won't interfere with H's 2nd b-day party, EEEP!

thanks for reading my blog,

Mama Panda

5 more weeks!

Well, I am 35 weeks and considering H came the day before his due date I would say that five weeks from today I will be holding my new little baby! We have gotten settled enough in the new house that I was able to finish H's room and get the nursery set up.

nursery/big boy room

Here are pics for your viewing pleasure! Notice the Nintendo curtain in H's room and the frame Nintendo fabric on the nursery. Thanks to Uncle Dustin for that!! And NO there is no initial on the wall yet! No hints this time guys!!

H is doing well, considering that he has been in the terrible two's since he was 18 months. He fell out of bed twice the second night he had his race car bed with the twin size mattress(we moved him up from the crib size mattress which also fits in the bed) but hasn't since. We also introduced a toilet seat that goes over the regular toilet. H promptly took it and put it over his head. It got stuck around his neck and I had to wrestle it off of him while he panicked and started flailing his arms about! It was REALLY funny and I laughed the whole time!! I didn't take a picture because he was REALLY upset and that would have seemed cruel, but damn it was funny.

Next weekend is Halloween and we dressing him up like a Cowboy. Chloe the English Mastiff will be his horse. I am excited! I am also having my "sprinkle" next weekend and am looking forward to a nice get together with friends and family!

Thanks for looking at my blog!

Love,

Mama Panda

Big Boy Bed

When we moved in we put H in the nursery so I would be able to paint his room. Well, I got the room painted and we moved him in Saturday night! I was a bit nervous because the first night we spent in the new house I had to sleep with him on the fold out couch. I was hoping he would be adjusted enough that switching rooms wouldn't be as hard on him as moving houses and he did really well! We even switched beds to his "big boy bed" the same night. What a trooper! So here is his new room, almost complete. Missing some toy storage, a rug, and couple posters on the wall but it is almost there.

So now it is time to start on the nursery! I came across a Super Mario Bros sheet that my brother sent to Derek at some point and we decided to make that the curtain for our new baby. I want to make sure this baby has special things that have a story and meaning just like H did. So far we have a few items that are going to be especially his and I love that!

H is speaking really well, saying lots of sentences and he knows a lot people's names now. In particular he asks for his grandparents, Jeremy and Beth, and his BFF Connor! He also said "I love you" (well really he said ah wuv ooh) to me when I was putting him down for a nap this afternoon. Yipee!!

I'll post more pics when the nursery is done. My plan is to buy paint this week so by the weekend I should have a lot of it set up!!

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Mama Panda

We are home!

We moved into our house this weekend! Yippee!! After everything we went through with this housing crisis I wasn't sure we would ever be in our own home, but here we are! Big thanks to my parents for helping us move and to Grammie and Grampa for watching H! We are in our forever home and we LOVE IT!

I was waiting until we had everything all signed and official before writing a blog about it so that would explain my absence for a while. I guess I can be a bit superstitious. I have been wanting to post though because I have so many wonderful things to share!

Another bit of happy news is that our family is welcoming a little girl! My cousin Erin and her husband Eric are expecting in January. Hopefully these second cousins will get to spend some time together as they grow up. As my sister Jen put, it was really great getting to grow up with cousins Erin and Sheri and it would be great for our kids to get to have that too! They live in Colorado though so we will have to see how soon the babies can have a play date. Either way I am sure of two things

1. This baby will be gorgeous and 2. This baby is very, very lucky!

Congrats to your and your whole family!

So what else has been going on? Well, the summer heat kicked my butt hard and I am sick of being pregnant! I was looking at pictures of H when he was first born trying to remember what it was like. Even though it feels like yesterday I can't really remember the details. Oh well, hopefully it will all came back to me! I am getting so excited to meet this new little one. I wonder what he looks like and what he will be like...

Otherwise I have been working, napping, and eating! I saw Lady GaGa with Beth and that was fun. Sheri came to visit and I got to spend a few hours with her, yay! That is about it . Here is a picture of the house. We are going to decorate H's room then the nursery. I will post pics as they are completed.
Thanks for reading!

Love,

Mama Panda

P.S. I almost forget. Melissa Mom gave me a very sweet present. It is a "first aid kit" for motherhood. It brought tears to my eyes. I didn't get to thank you properly.

Thank you for your thoughtfulness and I love you.

Harrison has a baby BROTHER!

Hey all,

We found out today that we are having another boy! I was thinking girl (as was pretty much everyone else) so I am still in a bit of a shock! He was kicking up a storm and twisting all over the place during the ultrasound. We didn't get a good profile shot of him to put in the blog. Most of the pictures of his face are straight on and to tell you the truth at this stage he has a bit a of Skeletor thing happening. I won't subject you to that! Here is the most recent shot of my belly instead.


He does have Derek's lips just like H got. Lucky boys.

As soon as the tech said, "my goodness. look at what just poked up!" we knew H would have a little brother to play with! Right after he showed us the goods he preceded to grab it with his hand. Yup. That's our boy!

Then I looked at Derek and said, "crap now we need a boys name". He looked a bit sheepish and said "Damn!" So we will be brainstorming. We had a great girls name and could never come up with a boys name. When we do decide on one I will NOT let you know what it is, HA! You will just have to wait like you did with Harrison.

All right, there is the big news. I am the proud mom of two boys. I can't believe it!!

Love,

Mama Panda

Schille Belly Part Deux

Hello Everyone,

I have been a bit behind in my posts but I am returning with a bang! We are expecting baby #2 on November 27Th! Yup three days after Harrison's 2ND birthday he will officially be a big brother, give or take a few days of course;-)

Does this mean I don't have to bring a gift to the party?

Anyway if you are surprised imagine how I felt, YIKES! My tummy is a bit larger this time around so we decided to start telling. Once I pulled out my maternity clothes I figured the jig is up!

On a completely unrelated topic Derek and I have decided to start taking separate vacations in March. Yeah, about nine months before November is a dangerous time for us!

We have an ultrasound scheduled 6/30 but are unsure at this point is we are going to find out the gender. We are maybe going with the SURPRISE! theme...

Harrison turned 18 months on Sunday 5/23 and wore a button to let his family know about the exciting news.

Here are some pics of him a couple days after I took the pregnancy tests. I put them in my bedside drawer(which is a conundrum because what do you do with those? seriously you want to keep them because if is the only visual proof you have of your little munchkin but it is also kinda weird to keep things that I peed on in a drawer...)and H was playing upstairs. Next thing I know he has the pregnancy tests and is running around with them. I thought it was cute. Sorry the pics are blurry, I only had my cell phone available to take pics with....

I call this one "wait...you I am going to have a baby brother or sister?"


and this one is "WAIT! You mean I am going to get a little brother or sister!!!?"

So if you want to keep updated on this next adventure then I will post more than I have in the past five months. (sorry about that but what was there to say in the winter? "It is cold. We stay inside. We are sick. This sucks." )

But you can follow along with our new adventure if you would like. I will be here, gestating and trying to prepare myself for life with a newborn and a two year old.

What have I gotten myself into?
Here are some cut pics of H we took for his 18 month birthday...

Love,

Mama Panda

P.S. in the spirit of being honest I kept my pregnancy tests from Harrison in my bed side table drawer until after he was born. I did not throw them out until we moved when he was four months old. Is that weird? You know what, never mind, pretend you didn't read that.