Its a GIRL!!!

A few weeks ago we had our anatomy scan and we found out we were having a girl. Dreycin's intuition, psychic abilities were right all along! He knew without a doubt he was having a sister, and kept telling me "Its a girl!" Derek was shocked when the ultrasound lady told us, he was like are you 100% sure? She said Ive been doing this for 30 years, im sure! He really thought we were having another boy! Im so happy, to have a little mini me to have fun and shop with/for! ive already begun shopping sales! Its pinks, purples, and more pink invading this house full of blue and boys! Everything looked great on the ultrasound, Baby I weighed 6ozs @ almost 17weeks! Havent felt her a whole lot, but she is laying sideways across my tummy! The gas I had been feeling was probably her the ultrasound tech said, because she is so high. I am carrying her higher than my boys, and I can definitely tell with my clothes. Im officially in maternity clothes especially pants! We have had some other great news, Derek just officially received his promotion to SSGT! Lots of good news to look forward to over the next few months, especially our move to Texas at the end of this month and trip to Disney next weekend!

15weeks

I'm almost 16weeks, and in just 1 week we will find out what baby #3 is! Up until this point I have just gained a few pounds, maybe 5. I can still fit in my size 8 & 10 jeans with the hair tie trick. My workouts are still non existent, but I have more energy and doing more around the house and with kids. I have a fetal Doppler at home and baby heart rate is between 152-158, sometimes a little higher. My nausea comes and go, but I really don't have to take meds anymore, most of the time I'll pop a ginger candy in my mouth and that helps. I get overheated easily, and can't lay on my tummy anymore! We had an excellent 4th bday weekend for Dreycin, we went camping at Stone Mountain. I did have a heater blanket and air mattress, and we ate out most meals except breakfast! Dreycin and B loved it all the marshmallow roasting, camp fire, playing in the leaves, sky ride, but for Dreycin it was the hike up stone mountain with his daddy! We got off to a very rough start, but it got better as we adapted to our environment! I'm loving to eat my @ home chipotle copy cat bowls with avocado, fried eggs with toast and turkey bacon, turkey bacon sandwiches, chicken anything, ramen noodles, baked potatoes, home made refried beans in tortillas. I like to drink water again, but love whole food brand lemon lime drinks. I've cut back on the candy since Halloween, and dont really crave chocolate,  but will eat some trader joe's cookie butter! So we have dates for Dallas now that we have bought our first home! We will be in Dallas close to the new year! Very excited to be close to home again! Pic is us the night of USMC ball Nov 8, 2013(14weeks)!

Baby #3

We are 10 weeks today, size of a prune. Which I may need to buy some prune juice because this nausea has gotten the better part of me this week and I have been popping zofran a lot! Nausea and fatigue, this constant tiredness is for the birds. I try to sneak in naps when Derek is home for lunch or in afternoons when he gets home, but it is seriously kicking my butt! My workouts cease to exist, but until week 7 I was doing t25 4-5days a week, now I'm lucky if I get in 2-3 days of 20 min workouts with weights. I'm hoping this will subside soon. I've been eating a lot of baked potatoes with my vegan toppings, pasta with vegan Alfredo, vegan ramen, rice and lentils with avocado slices, chicken a few times a week, and lots of sandwiches with miracle whip and tomatoes! Today I woke up from my nap dreaming about eating a slice of cake with a buttercream icing! I'm dying to eat sweets but they make me sick, more nauseated! I did sneak in some Oreos today with some rice milk! I also love fruit Popsicles,peppermints, gum, and ginger candy to help ease the nausea. So as far as #3 goes, I found out from Dreycin! About one week before I was suppose to get my cycle he told me out of the blue in the kitchen, "you're pregnant." I was speechless, I mean Derek and I had talked about #3 but in like 6months after we had made our move, and we had been very careful since I had mirena removed in June. So I took a. Pregnancy test and it was negative, I was like see he is wrong my cycle is coming, but it didn't and I took another pregnancy test the weekend after my birthday and it was positive. Dreycin has continue to talk about the baby, and says "He will show her....." Yes he says her, she all the time. I can only hope it's a girl, but all I pray for is a healthy baby. The slew of doctors appointments have begun, we have already had 3 ultrasounds, and I will start seeing the high risk dr in addition to OB. 

In other great news we have taken a duty assignment in Waco, Tx. He received selection for promotion to Staff Sgt! Which means we will be near my parents and Derek's, about 1.5 hrs away. It is truly the best blessing and best time especially with #3 on the way! We are set to move in Feb, but I will prob move in January to find housing!

I don't know exactly why, but I decided to start potty training B this week, and he is doing really well with it. We've only had a few pee accidents and 1 poop accident! And lastly, we decided to take advantage of being close to Walt Disney world and go the week prior to christmas. It will be our christmas to the boys, and maybe they will have some stocking stuff to open Christmas Day. 

So that's the latest and greatest with the Delavega family!

Flying with toddlers

So about 11 years ago I use to get panic attacks, where I would hyperventilate and puke. That's how I was feeling this morning before leaving to go to the airport with the boys. Very anxious about the travel, especially going through security. I was carrying 3 Carry ons, 2 car seats on go go babyZ wheels, and two kids. Not to mention my checked baggage 1 suitcase! My dad and Derek's dad took us to airport, after asking a million people calling airline and being told there was no assistance for a mom traveling alone the check in lady said she could print up a dummy ticket for one of my dads to go through! So I was saved, mini panic attacks stopped and it was smooth sailing! The pilot and crew helped me onto plane, installed car seat and helped me get organized and seated on plane with bags in compartment. Amazing service from American Airlines! Besides who wouldn't help a mom with two kids and shit load of crap!

I was over prepared, I had one carry on strictly for activites!
1. 2 watercolor Melissa and Doug pads
2. Triangle ring crayons found in target $1 aisle
3. 2 Mini notepads to doodle
4. Sticker pad from Melissa and Doug
5. Magnet pad of race card
6. Airplane stickers
7. Books from half price (Diego/Dora)
8. Buster buckle toy(best $20 spent)
9. DVD player w/Diego
10. Two headsets
11. iPad
12. Mommy iPhone

Al that was used was 7-10, and 12! It was 1.5 hr flight when I thought it was 2, so we lucked out! I also purposely scheduled trip around Bronson nap time, and he fell asleep last 30 min of flight and during landing until we got off plane! The buckle toy saved B from screaming entire trip, he loves buckles is kind of obsessed with his high chair buckles right now so when I found this online I had to get it! I ordered it directly from the buckle toy company! And they sent it priority so I got it Monday afternoon before our Tuesday flight! Bronson also played with 3 apps on my phone,
1. Beari happy
2. ABC alphabet
3. Tozzle
For a very short time also watched Diego with Dreycin(which is what Dreycin did most of flght) but b really isn't into tv.

Dreycin and Bronson sucked on lollipops on the way up, on the way down Dreycin did say his ears felt funny but this time we were chewing gum? He also mentioned tonight again his ear hurt so I'm gonna be a little more observant the next day or so!i put him in a night time pull up just in case, he hasn't had an accident in forever but on occasion (1-2x a month) will wake up wet in mornings in pull up. Thankfully Dreycin did not have to go to bathroom on flight! He did mention he wanted to go see it but, I said next time(with daddy)! I also put bronson in huggies night time diaper and it held him the entire flight until we got to hotel!

Prior to boarding plane we had a picnic like lunch at airport. Pappa K fed them almond butter and crackers and I went and bought bottled water and mandarin oranges and that was lunch. I didn't have to pull out snacks for them during flight, I did share my cashew butter macro bar with them though. And yes I packed way to many snacks too. Security let me pass with 4 apple juice boxes whole foods 365 brand. I had two snack bags of roasted chickpeas, sun butter bars, plaintain chips, and gummy bears(last resort!).

I had a change of clothes for each boy, 1 blanket, we all dressed in layers so had sweaters but did not wear them bc we were hot! I also bought hylands calms forte to give boys for nervousness, which I probably needed more!!!

I could not have asked for this day to turn out better, 1 day closer to seeing the love of my life!

I can see the light....

Well we are super close to Derek's arrival and I have been spring cleaning getting things done, marked off my list. I want to make sure that when Derek is home we have lots of fun, free time vs taking care of business. My dad has been here almost a week helping me with house stuff, the boys, and that means extra workouts for me! My dad put some blinds up for me, fixed the kids table, tightened Bronson's crib, and even broke into my lockbox which i seemed to have misplaced the keys too in the last 6 months! im convinced one of the kids threw them away? or something, who knows im just glad it took him less than a minute to break it open! and sad you spend money on a lockbox and it only takes seconds to break into! I also took an exam to obtain my social work license here in Texas....took me two hours so no way I could have done it without my Dad helping with the boys! Dreycin and I got to spend some quality time yesterday went and walked around the mall bought daddy some stuff, got a snack, and it was nice just the two of us! We have been spending alot of time outside in this beautiful spring Texas weather! Has been nice to get boys worn out and in bed by 8!
Everyday we wake up Dreycin asks me Mommy is today the day we are getting on the plane? Soon baby, soon! Bags are mostly packed, and we are almost there! i can finally see the light at the end of this deployment! Can not wait until we see Derek!

Anticipation.....

It's getting closer, the end of the deployment is near! I couldn't be happier yet more confused on where the future is leading us. Many options have been visited and revisited, and for now the boys and I will stay in Texas until Derek receives orders, or decides in less than 1 year when contract is up to get out. For me it feels a relief that Derek will no longer be in a combat zone, but also feels like this deployment will be lasting a little longer until our family is permanently reunited. I am actively working on transferring my social work license from Kentucky to Texas and would like to find some type of part time/PRN work. I'm anxious to get back into the field just in case Derek does decide to end career with Marine Corps. The crazy thing is I found a lot of job opportunities, guess being a social worker in the medical field is a good thing! I'm starting to pack, get activities for kids on plane ride (say a prayer for me!) and have made all our arrangements so almost ready to head to Georgia!

30days of yoga

Back on Jan 15 I signed a commitment to do 30days of yoga, it was hard but I only missed 6 days and most of those were due to children who didn't nap that day or children who were sick. During this time i also had some type of lower back injury so yoga was perfect! I DoNT know how single moms do it, but I found that I can at least try to find 20-30min a day to get some type of physical activity in. Working out is definitely easier when you have a full time husband and now I see how much more ill be able to work out when he is around! It made me feel better and I'm at 154-155 most days. I also started a barbell strength class, and spin both 1x a week. My body is changing but the scale isn't moving which I'm ok with.

In deployment news we are in our final stretch, only 6 more weeks and we will be heading to Georgia to pick up Derek and bring home to Texas for 3 or so weeks. No special trips planned, just Texas stuff. Derek mentioned maybe a visit to the beach when he comes in. Sea world, zoos, aquariums, and lots of r&r for this tired mama.
Cannot wait to sleep in some :)

Valentines was great for the kids I figured we would so some extra fun things that day!

Schooling at home

Recently I went touring a few of the Mother's Day out program and liked a few but with Derek coming home soon it's just not in our budget. So I decided to start looking for free teaching resources online, mainly Pinterest. Here are a few things we have done! Most of the stuff I already had here at home!

Pom Pom fun
Shapes with Popsicle sticks
Rubber band board (I made two and spent $1.99 at goodwill for the wood)
Made a frosty out of cotton balls
Made daddy valentine cards & decorated inside of box(pics later)

We are also subscribed (thanks to papa joe) to Turtle magazine for preschoolers! And I use a book from teaching store called totally twos!

Up until this point it was so hard to yeah Dreycin anything because of Bronson but he is getting older now and able to play on his own, and sometimes naps longer in the afternoon and we will do "homework"

We also started going back to library class, and gymnastics on Tuesday mornings! Each boy is in their own class!
They love it! And Abuela is generously paying their tuition! Helps that we get out more too!

Letting go

In oct '11 Bronson was 6 weeks old and began having blood in his stool, I went on a crazy dairy/soy free, hypoallergenic diet to continue breastfeeding. Every doctor we saw said I needed to put Bronson on formula and I refused, I knew what was best for my son. So finally at 5mos old they allergy tested him by blood and prick tests(meanwhile blood still occurring on and off, almost daily) and it came back that he was allergic to dairy,eggs,chicken, pork, and shellfish. His official diagnosis was food protein induced entercolitis(FPIE) in which for some reason young children can not properly digest food proteins, more commonly dairy.
This is where I'll add if you haven't seen forks over knives you need to, dairy is bad for humans! So after the testing I cut out chicken and eggs, (i was already not eating pork and fish) and decided vegan was the way to go not just for me but the entire family. Looking back at all the sacrifices I made and just can't believe that I had the strength to continue to fight all those doctors for what I believed in. I believed I could help my son heal with giving him the best through me. During all this in march '12 Dreycin began having breathholding spells, which mimics a seizure & tonic like movements....scariest event of my life to see my baby boy go through that. And in April '12 while we were at home and ate at Gloria's I accidentally had cheese which was in the beans and Bronson had a relapse of blood in his stools. My emotions for my both of my son's health have been a roller coaster since Oct '11. In June Dreycin had another episode, and we were finally referred to a neurologist. In July we saw her she ordered an MRI and an EEG. The EEG was normal, but the MRI wasn't scheduled until 2 weeks before Derek deployed, oh yeah my husband found out he was deploying at the end of July. The MRI was a brutal 1hr for Derek and I when Dreycin was put under anesthesia, and then a few days later the drs told us that we would have to put him under again for an MRA due to the absent flow of blood in the right vertebral artery. At this point I knew I would get a 2nd opinion in dallas. So basically Derek was like we are done, we aren't doing anything else and we hoped that he would outgrow the spells as the drs told us that is commonly what happens. I think he just didn't want me to have to go through anything by myself in dallas. Well I got to dallas, got referrals for both boys to allergy and neurology(in October, I knew it would take months to see specialists) Allergy came sooner, and our plan was to test Bronson mid January. Neurology was a wait, our appt was for jan 8th. So I had the boys Pappa k and Abuela come with us to the appointment to help me, so that I could focus on what the doctor said! The doctor was a godsend, he was thorough, kind, funny, caring, and also had a daughter with breathholding spells! He took the time to look at all 837 MRI images with my mom and I! He explained to us that Dreycin was born without a right vertebral artery due to a genetic malformation, prob runs on Derek or my side of the family. At this point the left vertebral artery is compensating the brain with enough blood and If it were not we would be seeing developmental delays or regress in Dreycin. So that was some great news that in some ways I wasn't expecting while Derek was gone. One less sorry I have to worry about :) and then came the allergy appointment Bronson was retested and the only thing that was positive was dog hair and dairy! Double yayyyyyyyyy!!!! And Dreycin isn't allergic to penicillin! So even if the move to dallas was hard, not paid for by the military, I got the absolute best news in January '13 that both my boys despite health issues were going to be fine. The relief my heart has overcome, and the amount of tears I have cried for joy and my own strength through all this is overwhelming. I wish my husband was here to share my emotions with, but instead I did it in spin class! Only 9 more weeks until my love, the father of my beautiful miracle healthy children will be home and we will be a family again.

On my mind

I have a few topics on my mind lately, and they just probably won't go away until I write about them!
1st is the war, last week NpR wrote an article about this last year the war in Afghanistan has had less casualties compared to the amount of veterans who committed suicide. If you know anything about me, you know that I'm an advocate for mental health, and have volunteered for 1800suicide for over a year in Dallas. When I read the article I was saddened deeply, that veterans aren't being given adequate mental health services after serving for our country. I don't know where to even begin about the gap of services, maybe I'll have more to say after my own husband comes home. I will say that after our last deployment there was a period where Derek just seemed angry, and I wasn't going to put up with it. So we went to couples counseling, and he went to an individual counselor for a while. The beauty of our counseling is that his command never found out, we went through a resource for active duty members called Military OneSource, they found us providers and an appointment within 3 days! But when I come into contact with new military families they rarely know about that resource. It's also how we do our taxes free every year! But anyways, I think a lot of military are afraid to go to their boss and say look I'm having problems for fear that it will go on their record, or I know the other problem is that some veterans get out of military and want no contact with the VA system. It took Derek's grandpa 60 years after fighting Korean War to go obtain services. These people fight for us, and we in the US of A continue to stigmatize mental health, and seeking help for it. This also goes for the recent school shooting at Sandy Hook. There is no doubt about it, mental health needs to be looked at closer in our society. Along with gun control, I myself own a gun(which 10years ago I swore off but I healed) but feel there is no need for assault rifles in the hands of ordinary people in society. My other theory is to use our military to guard every school, bring God back in our schools, send my kids to only schools on a military post, or home school. I hate to think of my precious children I brought into this world seeing these violent acts of evil happen year after year, causes me a lot of anxiety thinking about that soon my kids will be in school soon.
And lastly, breastfeeding. Today their was a nationwide nurse in, I'm in the car or I would have made every effort to be there! I love breastfeeding and cannot stand when people make a big deal about nursing in public. It's a baby eating. This year at the state fair I got see a camel nursing her baby. I also saw a kangaroo carrying her baby in a pouch nursing! It's natural not just for humans, but for all mammals!
I hope that Bronson and I continue as long as possible breastfeeding even if he is 3 years old!
Sorry for the all over the place rant, but it helps me sleep better at night!

2012 lookback

We had a really great year as a family, took lots of trips (mainly to get away from Agony, Ga) but overall spent alot of quality time together! We had a lot of firsts, Disneyworld, blackberry farm, first steps & bday of Bronson, first experience cleaning up our diet, first deployment. The first 3 months of this deployment has really flown by, and cant believe we only have 3 more months! I believe the hard part is over aka the holidays! it was truly not the same with Derek gone.A few updates with my beautiful, mischievious boys!Bronson says down, oh yeah, all done, milk, yeah(yes), NO(all the time, Aqua(water), uno(one), hola(hello), peppa(pepper), duggy(doggie)! Im sure im forgetting some, but he definitely understands so much of what we say! we have definitely already started seeing the benefit of having a spanish speaking nanny!He loves music and dancing, I can always see him in my rearview mirror bopping that head or swaying back and forth in his car seat! The one song he can sing along with is "If all of the raindrops" and its the Aah aah aah part! He is so happy with music. He loves trucks, playing basketball & kickball, blocks, and anything to do with animals. Earlier this year Bronson couldnt sit still to even be read 1 book, now he loves to be read to all the time. He is also a very good eater, loves rice and beans and will eat all his veggies and fruits. We are also still breastfeeding, going strong at 16months(longer than I did Dreycin!)Dreycin, well he is now 3 and talks all day everyday! He is fascinated with monster trucks(we see them everywhere in Texas), hauling/working trucks, playing in the dirt or anything to do with being outside, he loves playdoh, definitely still loves books and has even started to listen to books on cd, he is all boy! Loves to try and rough play with his baby brother which usually ends with Bronson on the floor biting his hand out of frustration with Dreycin! But they mostly have fun! He is really wanting to take naps, but I still need them so he will continue :) and getting him to sleep at night in his own bed....well that has only been an issue since we have been in Texas! He usually crawls into bed with me at some point in the night!
We are really looking forward to 2013, to see what the future holds for us and for Daddy to come home!!!!
My New Years resolution is to be even healthier than last year, that means more gym time, continuing our primarily plant-based diet, and loose more weight! I have maintained/struggled 155-158 ever since Derek left, resorted to quick meals from whole foods, sweets, and inconsistent workouts which is to be expected as a single/ish parent. And with these winter months it just seems like the boys catch anything going around, which means they can't go to gym daycare center :( or go outside because its to dang cold for even a walk! But anyways, things will be better in 2013. In just 1 week we finally see neurology specialists to follow up for Dreycin's MRI he had in September, and Bronson will undergo allergy testing to see if he still has same or less allergies to food. Praying for some really good news for my boys!!! We are ready for 2013!