Our Crazy Life

I'm sure many of you have noticed that I'm not as good about keeping up the blog but you will soon find out why I haven't been as diligent about blogging.

The second pregnancy has gone by really quickly. I can't believe that in less than a week we will be the parents of two little girls, both under 2. What were we thinking ;) We are so relieved that our Baby Girl has cooperated and we have made it full term, which we were very uneasy if we could make it this long. It was a good thing my Doctor put me on bedrest for 2 weeks and then made me promise to reduce my workload for the last month. This has been rather difficult given our schedules in the Richards' household.

Mitch and I sometimes wonder how we manage to do everything. Summer time is the busiest time of year for me at work. I do about 85% of my client load from May through October and typically have to work at least 55 hours a week to get everything done. Fortunately, I have some great co-workers who have stepped up and helped me. However, even though I was on bedrest I was still working full-time on various clients just from home. On top of that, I have continued to study for the CPA exam a couple hours a night and have successfully passed two sections while pregnant this summer. Mitch has been super busy during this time as well.

He is currently doing his administration internship and continues to teach in the classroom full-time. Most weeks he is putting in about 65 hours a week trying to get in all the hours he needs for his internship and trying to get ahead before the second baby comes. Due to his schedule, I have been the main one responsible for picking Clare up from daycare and trying to spend quality time with her before this second baby comes. We are at least lucky enough to have Daddy come home and have dinner with us but most nights he either has to go back for meetings or spends a couple of hours working on various projects. The weekends he spends a good portion of them doing work. Last weekend was the first weekend since August that Clare and I actually were able to spend a full weekend with Daddy. Mitch and I are actually looking forward to having the Baby so that we can spend some quality time together as a family.

I'm planning on working up until the morning of my C-section on October 8, which is planned around noon. At my Doctor's appointment on Wednesday, I received some very disappointing news. Currently, there have been some cases of Swine Flu in Yakima and as a result a decision was made to lockdown the OB floor at the hospital. Each laboring mother is only allowed to have one support accompany them, which means that Clare isn't going to be able to vist at all. It is so hard being told that you can't see your child. I'm having a very hard time dealing with the fact that when we drop Clare off on Thursday morning we won't see her for at least a couple of days. If things go well my Doctor may release us on Saturday as long as the baby and I are doing okay. They may open the OB floor up partially but would still only permit each laboring mother to have only two visitors at a time up on the OB floor. Each visitor would have to check-in and if a mother already had visitors, they would have to wait until the other visitors leave. I'm not too upset about not being able to see others but I really wish that I could at least see Clare. She will be in good hands with Grandma and more than likely she won't even notice that I'm gone. This is harder on Mommy I think (as I sit here trying to hold back tears).

We are looking forward to holding our Baby Girl and becoming a family of four. Mitch is taking two weeks off and then we will have to rely on our Mother's to come help out until I'm back on my feet. Until then, Mitch and I have lots to get done this weekend for the upcoming arrival of our little one. I think we may try to take Clare to the Pumpkin Patch. We have been trying to spend quality time together as a family and do special things with Clare on the weekends, which we hope to continue this once the new baby comes. Please keep us in your thoughts and prays this upcoming week.