The beginning of another week.**

It is Monday once again. We had a nice weekend. My mom came on Saturday and left on Sunday, so it was nice to spend time with her. I couldn't imagine living any further away from each other than we do now. If we still lived in Killeen, I would go crazy! That's just so far. Next weekend will be fun too, since McKaleigh will finally get to meet her daddy's parents:). And then Saturday is our anniversary, yay!

So I've started what's called attachment parenting, and I absolutely love it. It's hard to explain, so if you really want to know you can check out this site. One of the things included in attachment parenting is "babywearing." I keep McKaleigh in a sling with me as I do things around the house. It's nice because she's right there all the time! So when she gets fussy I'm pretty much as close as I can be to tend to her needs, which in the long run makes her less fussy in general. Another thing I love is that instead of just staring at whatever is in front of her bouncy seat she gets to see everything I see and learn more in result:) Right now I'm just using a sheet rigged into a sling to wear her but I'm planning on buying some material this weekend to make a nicer wrap.

Well... that's all I can think of to ramble on about;)

~Tara

Now for a blog about life.**

It's the end of the week already!!! Wow! I can't believe how fast the days go by. McKaleigh is three weeks old and I'm feeding her as I type this one-handedly lol. I cannot believe October is almost over! In eight days Michael and I will have been married for an entire year... talk about time flyin' by, haha. It's been an amazing year so far. It's funny how my life has turned out so differenty than I once thought it would be... but I would not change a thing, not one single thing. I absolutely love my husband, my daughter, my home... and I love thinking about where our lives together are heading. It's funny how no matter how stressed I get and frustrated with my lack of sleep I get, when I sit down to blog, only the good things come to mind, lol.

~Tara

Dave Ramsey on the election...**

If you don't know who Dave Ramsey is, you should definitely look him up... Here's a link to his site. He's pretty much changing our lives, haha... I really agree with what he said in the following statement. I can not wait til Election Day has passed lol.

Dave's Thoughts About the Election

Dave, which bozo should I vote for in this election? Who's going to fix the economy? Who's going to give me the most money?

Well, I'm here to remind you that you're going to fix the economy because your personal economy is up to you. It's not Washington's job to fix what's going on with you. If you are waiting on Washington to change something, you've got a long wait!

You're going to give yourself money as a result of your hard work and persistence. Waiting for money to be taken from others and given to you is a spirit of envy, and it's wrong.

I'm not here to tell you who to vote for. But I am here to tell you that the government doesn't have the capacity to fix your problems. Washington is full of bozos, and I am doing my part to send a lot of them home!

This economic mess is a reality, but we can each only control one thing—our reactions. Does this stuff define you? Only if you let it. The weird thing about the economy is that YOU are the economy! I learned this the hard way. I got my real estate license when I was 18 years old. By the time I was 21, interest rates had risen to 17% fixed-rate … and I still sold houses. How? Because I worked hard.

As bad as USA Today meant a recent article to be about what we think of the suffering economy and upcoming election, I think it's rather encouraging that no one thinks that President Bush or Barack Obama or John McCain can fix the economy!

This may be the beginning of the biggest level of prosperity this nation has ever known if we don't look to a candidate to fix our lives. How about we say, "I'm going to vote for the candidate who's going to fix the nation. I'm going to fix my life, so leave me alone and let me do my own thing."

Don't react based on fear or panic. Don't look to Washington to fix your problems. Why would you do that? At what point did Bill Clinton fix any of your problems? At what point did he cause you to prosper? At what point did George Bush end your career or cause you to prosper? When did Ronald Reagan fix your problems? Guess what? I liked Reagan the most, and while he was in office, I hit rock bottom and filed bankruptcy—but it wasn't Reagan's fault. It was mine.

So when you go to the polls in a few days to cast your vote, don't get caught up in following a political party or candidate without knowing the issues they support. Do your research so you can make educated decisions.

Isn’t life great?**

So things have been going awesomely! I just can't imagine what my life without McKaleigh would be like, she's so amazing!

We had our two week appointment this past Thursday and she's perfect. She'd already gained 5 ounces at that appointment, which was great to hear. It's hard to know if she's eating enough, since I'm breastfeeding and can't really see how much she's getting, but it's been going really well.

Today was our first day with Michael back at work completely. McKaleigh and I stayed in bed until he came home from lunch, hehe... It was nice catching up on much needed sleep. McKaleigh's gone through a little growth spurt where she wanted to eat every 1-2 hours, it was exhausting! I think she's back to her normal schedule again... until she hits the next growth spurt. She was also getting pretty fussy lately. We're pretty sure it's just gas, but she's so hard to burp, so we ran out and got Mylicon drops last night. The look on her face is so cute when I give them to her, they smell like they would have a weird sweet/sour taste to them. The drops seem to be working, though.

Well I better go give McKaleigh her before bed feeding, and hopefully get a few hours of sleep before the middle of the night feeding! My mom came weekend before last and took some pictures, check them out and comment them if you haven't already! Also, we just got a new camera! So expect plenty more pictures of my beautiful baby girl, hehe...

~Tara~

McKaleigh is a week old!**

I can't believe she's already been alive for a whole week! Today we took her out for the first time. We just made a quick trip to the commissary, but boy was it nice to get out of the house, haha. She was a little angel and slept the whole time, in her little carrier that I wore on my chest, lol.

McKaleigh has been pretty much awesome. For the last two night in a row she's only woken up twice to be fed and then gone right back to sleep. That means we've been getting way more rest than we ever imagined we would get.

So exciting news for me... I pretty much lost 20 pounds in a week(about 10 of it in the delivery room, haha) and now I'm only 5 lbs up from my pre-pregnancy weight! My actual goal is to weigh less than I did before I got pregnant though, and I have quite the little tummy and love handles, which is really weird for me, haha! I fit in my jeans and everything, they're a little snug, but it's hard to get into most of my tops seeing that I'm at least 2 cup sizes bigger than I was before.

I'm trying to think if there is any other news... I took a few pictures today, so I'll post those. My mom is coming this weekend, with her really nice camera, so I'm sure there will be plenty more pictures by the end of the weekend!

Overall the three of us are all doing great:)

~Tara~

The story of McKaleigh’s birth:)**

My birth story...

Thursday @ appt- Had membranes stripped.

Thursday afternoon/evening: Had irregural contractions all night.

Friday 4AM- Woke up and couldn't sleep through contractions anymore.

7AM- Decided it was time to go to the hospital because the contractions felt so strong... I was only a loose 1cm!!! I was so upset. I got sent home and they told me that it could be false labor and could stop in 24 hours. I was sooo upset!

Getting home that morning- My contractions only got much much much worse. They were so strong that all I could do to make it feel any better was to scream and cry, and I like to think that I have a decent pain tolerance!

1230PM- Michael said we should go in because he could tell how much pain I was in. When we got there I was only 2cm!!! I thought I was going to hurt someone I was so upset... Well shortly after that I got a shot of morphine for the pain. They told me that it would make the contractions stop if it was false labor, but if it was real labor it would give me time to rest. I could still feel the contractions but they were sooo much easier to deal with, and I could actually control my breathing, unlike before.

They checked me about an hour later and I was 3-4cm, better news, a lot better than hearing that I had only progressed 1cm in 4 hours like they had told me that morning. The nurse told me that she was going to ask the ob whether or not they should actually admit me.

She came back about another hour later, maybe less, and I was already 7cm! At this point I was feeling the contractions quite a bit more. At 9cm, which didn't take too long, they got me the epidural, I was scared that they wouldn't get it to me in time, lol. I could barely feel anything. My nurse did a cervical check and my water broke, she didn't mean for it to. Well it was green, which means the baby had a bowel movement in utero, so they called in a pediatrician to be on hand just in case there was anything wrong.

It only took like 5 sets of pushing to deliver her and they had to wisk her away and suction her to make sure she hadn't ingested any of the meconium. She was 7.5 pounds and 20.5 inches, she's beautiful.

I should've known that having such an amazing delivery would mean that something had to be difficult afterward. Since it was so quick my uterus didn't really do what it was supposed to right away, so I had horrible clots, the ob had to come in and get them all out and it was probably the grossest part of the whole thing!

She's an absolute angel:) We got home a few hours ago and couldn't be happier!

~Tara~

Had an appointment today:)**

So we had an appointment today. They were backed up and it took forever to get in. When we finally did get into the exam room it was short and sweet. She did an internal exam, I'm 1cm dilated, and 50% effaced. She also stripped my membranes... so here's to hoping I'll go into labor soon! I'm going to try a few of the other tricks to push labor too, hehe. I'm already starting to get kind of crampy and whatnot, so I'm crossing my fingers!

I have an appointment for next Wednesday and I'm really hoping that I won't need it! If I don't go into labor this weekend I'm hoping for Monday, because if she comes on Monday I'll actually get to have my midwife deliver her. At labor and delivery you just get whoever is on call at the time, so there's no telling who will deliver my little girl!

I'm getting so anxious! Ahhhh... the excitement is too much to contain, lol.

~Tara~

Having trouble sleeping...**

Ugh, I can't sleep again, but I'm exhausted, so I know I'll be in bed earlier tonight than I was last night. I'm planning on staying up for twenty minutes or so and then trying to go to bed again. I know when the baby is here I won't be sleeping through the night either, but at least I won't have this big ol' belly in my way anymore when I'm trying to sleep! I cannot wait to sleep on my back and on my stomach!!! I also cannot wait for my bladder to be at full capacity again so that I don't have to pee ALL THE TIME! I just have to keep reminding myself... not much longer, lol. One more thing I can't wait for... actually having the baby here! I love being in the nursery and just picturing her in her crib, hehe:).

We have an appointment tomorrow(today I guess), so you can expect there to be another blog soon. Hopefully I will be dilated enough that she can strip my membranes. If I'm not... then this could be a long wait, ugh. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Oh and thanks to the people who commented on some of our pictures:) ...if you haven't, then you should because they make me happy and being happy can produce oxytocin, which can induce labor. So you will be helping my baby arrive by putting a smile on my face! Hehe...

~Tara~