!!! Answers !!!

!!! Answers !!!

(A response to my earlier post from exactly one month ago called ??? Questions ???

Here are the answers to the questions Dominic and I were pondering ONE MONTH ago today:

? - What time will baby come? Morning? Noon? Night?

I started having contractions around 6am Friday morning. After getting the go-ahead from my OB, Dominic and I got in the van to head to St. Luke's hospital at 1:23pm and were in the ER by 1:45. After passing through triage, I was checked into a room at about 3:30. We got room 336, the pink room, so I knew then that it was definitely going to be a boy. Plus we think it was the exact same room we had William in! They started petocin at 4pm to speed up the labor because I had been leaking fluid for quite a while and was already having regular contractions. It was certain that this baby was going to arrive on Friday the 13th. Landon Dean Krupp was born at 9:03pm after about 3-4 minutes of pushing!

Taken Within 12 Hours of Landon's Birth

Pink Room! Again!

? - Will baby be born on a weekend or weekday? - Pulling for the weekend!!!

Friday night counts as the weekend, doesn't it?

? - Will baby be a June or a July baby? - Aka what birthstone will he or she have?

Rubies all the way! Landon not only made it to his due date of July 7th, he actually flew past it by five days!

? - Will I make it past the 4th of July? - I sure hope so!

Affirmative.

? - Will I make it to my due date? - I'm actually the weirdo who is still pulling for going LATE! Fingers crossed that this baby will be a Sunday baby just like his or her big brother, Mama, and Daddy. :) Or better YET - a Sunday the 15th baby like his or her big brother AND Mama!

Well I definitely made it to my due date, but I didn't get to have a Sunday the 15th baby, despite the fact that my induction was scheduled for 7:30 that morning. (I picked that day bc that was the day I originally wanted, but also to give baby enough time to go on his own.... Which he did! Just like with William, Landon didn't quite make it to his induction date.)

? - Will Dominic be at work 80 miles away when baby comes? - When we had William, he worked in Perrysburg. Even better, he wasn't even working! We went to the hospital over the weekend!

Dominic had decided on Thursday that he was going to take Friday off, so thankfully he was at home all day. I remember there was a moment around 6:30pm when I was experiencing severe contractions that I said to him, "If you would have gone into work today, you would just now be getting home!" Needless to say, I'm so thankful he had the intuition to take that day off.

? - Who will handle William when baby comes? - I know this will just fall together when the time comes.

My Mom was VERY helpful. She came up Friday afternoon around 12:30 and stayed with Will when we left for the hospital. Plus she stayed at our house that night. The second night Dominic came home to stay with Will and she went back home.

? - How long will I be in the hospital? - Fingers crossed that it won't be as long as last time!

It definitely was much shorter! Like I said before, we got there Friday at 1:45 and we were checked out almost exactly 48 hours later. What a whirlwind!

Our New Family of Four

? - Will baby be a boy or a girl? - We have to buy clothes either way, since William's will be the wrong size for the season. Or perhaps baby #2 will just be in a onesie and diaper all summer.

It's a boy! So far, Landon has pretty much been in a side snap shirt and pants. However, thanks to a few new outfits, I think we are pretty good with clothes sizes NB-3 months. Although I'd like to find some 0-3 month shorts! Do they even sell those?


? - What will baby's name be? (especially if it is a boy since we still haven't officially finalized one!)

We named him Landon Dean Krupp and it wasn't even for sure until the night before his birth. Even then we talked about our other options. And even when he was born I still asked Dominic if he was certain on the name! Now I can't imagine it as anything else.

? - How much will baby weigh? - My prediction is that this baby will not be as big as William was.

I was right about him not being as big as Will, but Landon was still a good sized baby at 8lbs 5oz. He left the hospital at 7lbs 12oz and was back to 8lbs 1oz by his first Peds check last Wednesday.

? - How long will he or she be? - See above prediction.

Yep- He was a little shorter than Will at 21 inches exactly.

? - Will this baby be tongue-tied like William was? - Man I sure HOPE not...

One of the nurses from his actual birth originally thought he might be SLIGHTLY tongue tied, and that was probably only because we asked. Since then, no one has thought he is (not even the pediatrician) and I certainly have noticed a difference in his ability to eat. It'll probably take until his Pediatric Dentist appointment to find out for sure, but it doesn't seem to be an issue at all.

William serving as BIG BROTHER!

? - Will this baby be on the bilirubin blanket like William was? - See above statement.

Nope! Praise God! He wasn't even significantly jaundice. He has been a great eater, pee-er, and pooper from the start!

? - Will I be finished with all of my work stuff before baby comes? - Uh, I better!

I feel good about where I left work. I was able to finish cleaning and organizing my room and I was able to meet with my sub and give her all of the necessary materials. I have a few small tasks to accomplish before the kids go back, but I'll probably wait until August to handle that. I'd also like to go to school to go through my orders if possible. That will take until our babysitter is back from vacation so she can watch William, which won't be until early August.

? - Will we have the baby before or after we move? - Preferably AFTER we move, but that's not likely.

We WERE able to move before baby! Thank GOD we were! I can't imagine life if we were just now moving. Originally we thought we'd move last weekend (the weekend of July 20-22) but thankfully Dominic is a doer and decided to get this done over the 4th-6th. We still had about four van loads of stuff to move after we got home from the hospital, but the major items had been moved in a Penske truck during the 100+ heat index over the 4th-6th. We slept here Friday, July the 6th after our BIG furniture move.

Our Moving Truck - GO PENSKE!

I loaded this carload up on my own a couple days over due and a couple of days before I went into labor... in upper 90s heat!

Exploring the New House!

? - When will we paint the bedrooms in our new house? Currently the plan is for Dom to paint sometime around July 4-6. But will we be having a baby then?

Dom's parents painted all day on the 4th of July while his brothers and Kasey helped us move and unpack. My in-laws did an awesome job taping, priming, trimming, and painting the three small rooms in one day. Cathy came back up the morning of the 5th and she and Dom finished touching up, a few final coats, and even did a fresh coat in the Master that we were originally not going to touch at all. I'm glad they did a fresh coat in our room though, because it looks a LOT better!

Painting the Nursery

? - When should I schedule to get the carpets cleaned? - As long as the paint is done this will probably be the weekend of the 7th, but that is my due date... So.... who knows!

The carpets were cleaned the afternoon of the 5th after the rooms had been painted, but before our furniture was moved in.

? - What washer and dryer will we buy? - Leaning towards the top-loaders now that the front-loaders have had so many negative "Mom Reviews".  We're also sort of waiting until we get a nice Lowes coupon in the "change of address" package because we were told by the Lowes worker that you can get that discount ON TOP OF the sale they are currently having (10% off appliances). Not bad, especially once we use our Discover reward gift cards!

After a couple conversations with Lowes employees and reading reviews online, we ended up getting the Whirlpool Cabrio Platinum top loading washer with a glass lid and the same dryer without the glass front JUST in case a kid was to smash and break the glass accidentally. We used Discover reward gift cards, a 10% off Lowes coupon plus a sale price, and then bought the rest of our gift cards at Kroger and Giant Eagle for fuel perks (we got $1.30 off a gallon at Kroger and $2.30 off at Giant Eagle because of this!) I am still figuring out all of its many features, but I've had plenty of time for this bc I have to do laundry about every day!

Day of Installation

? - Will we have our master furniture ordered and delivered early on or put it off until later? - I sure hope it's the former and not the latter. I don't feel like dealing with this once we have a baby.

Yay! We decided on a set and ordered it through a direct company in Michigan that Dominic leases trucks to. Originally we were told it would be delivered Sunday the 29th, but we found out yesterday that it'll be here THURSDAY! I'm so excited bc our master bedroom looks like junk with random piles on the floor and boxes still in the closet and master bathroom.

? - Will William be ok in his big boy bed? - We may find out tonight!  Dom and William are currently on their way to get the new mattress and we are transitioning him tonight in order to to slowly start all of his many changes.

William has done an amazing job with all of his transitions, especially this one. He sleeps very well in his bed; I think he realizes that it is much more comfortable than the toddler mattress. He curls up in the corner of his bed between two walls, which we call his "nook", so I haven't even been worried that he will fall out. I was a little nervous that he'd get upset about the fact that the nursery looks the same (just set up differently due to the room shape) yet it's not HIS room anymore, but he has been FINE with every bit of the bed and room transitions. Thank God!

First night in his big boy room in our new house.

? - How long will it take us to move? We have until early August to move out of our home on Mapleway, so we know we will be fine but we are hoping we can move all of our big stuff in a day or two.  The tentative plan is to move our big stuff the weekend of July 15-17.  Of course that depends on when the baby comes!

Well, like I already mentioned we moved in about three main days and then picked away at small loads for another week and a half. Although we had the keys until early August, we gave ourselves a deadline and the new owner an advantage by getting him the keys last Saturday (the 21st) so he could move in before his family vacation this week.

Cheers-ing at Bob Evans to Our Last Night at Mapleway

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Our Old House, Pretty Much Emptied Out

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Ultimately, the days since our closing date (June 30th) have flown by and have been packed full of craziness. We got the keys to our new home July 2nd, painted all of the bedrooms and cleaned the carpets by the 5th, moved in and slept here by the 6th, had a baby the 13th, came back from the hospital the 15th, and handed our keys over to Mapleway on the 21st. This may sound virtually impossible, but I have learned that anything is possible when you're married to Dominic and with our friends and family. A special thank you goes out to Matt McClure for being a furniture-moving beast on one of the hottest days in our area's history. Productivity and hard work is synonymous with the last name Krupp. William would even agree to this and say he can't talk long bc he has "work to do!" Now I am trying to train him that he has PLAY to do. After all, it IS summertime!

Weeding - Both WORK and FUN!

What I Wonder: Is Honesty Truly the BEST Policy? If so, why don't we use it more?

Honesty IS the Best Policy . . . or so "they" say!

Last Friday after we closed on both of our houses and had a delicious lunch, Dom and I took a quick 1.5 hour shopping trip.  We needed to pick up William's box springs from the mattress store and look at some furniture for our master bedroom.  Before we did either of those things, he jumped into a new store called "5 Below" and I ran into Old Navy to look for some post-baby tops.  He found a car charger for his phone (he's lost two or three now) for FIVE bucks!  I found three shirts that I am hoping will fit me after I have the baby.  After I had paid for the shirts and was about to leave, the cashier did the typical smile and "Have a great day" phrase.  In my head, I responded, "I am having a great day!  I didn't simply buy these three cute tops at a discounted price, I just went through two closings and now I own a beautiful home in Perrysburg!"  But instead I just smiled back and said, "Thanks.  You too."

Don't you wonder why people don't share more?  I know the response is to be polite and just say thanks, but why don't we share our good news with complete strangers?  And if we did, what would they say in response?  The opposite is also true.  There are times when I am having a terrible day and a cashier says, "Have a great day!" and I want to respond, "You know what?  I am not sure that's going to happen, because I'm dealing with __________________ today."  Instead, I still try to smile and say thanks.  Such is typical American culture, but it makes me wonder what life would be like if everyone was simply honest about their lives at that exact moment.  Do you ever wonder that?

I think I'll try this out over the course if the next week and let you know how it goes. Feel free to join me on this honest journey!

Sunday Summary - June 11th-17th

What a Week!!!

For the first time since school got out, I finally felt like it I was "sort of" on VACATION!!

Monday, June 11th

• It rained today.  That was the first in a while.  We've had a pretty dry past few weeks.
• William went to his babysitter's house today, while I ran a couple of errands before going to work.  I needed to go to Hobby Lobby and Michaels in order to prepare for a craft project for William's big boy room.  I am going to do some wall art that I was inspired by from a Pinterest picture (below).  I am basically going to use this artwork as inspiration, but my final project will not be like this.  Since I am using a Cricut machine to cut the vehicles out, it will be like the opposite of this.  I probably won't use a map either, but this does look really cool!
• At work I got a good amount accomplished.  I did every single one of my POs for my seven classes (six of which are ones I have never taught before.)  That took a while, since I didn't really have any clear direction.  I hit a wall of exhaustion in the afternoon and actually contemplated lying down and taking a nap in the back corner of my room.  However, one thought of how gross my classroom pillows are really shook that thought out of my head and kept me plugging away.

 

Tuesday, June 12th

• Today I was NOT alone at work - hip, hip, HOORAY!  Two of my friends came to school to craft, so I took a break from my classwork to craft with them.  I worked on William's big boy bedroom project.  (By the way, I am not sure if I have ever told the Blog this but William's room will be done in trucks, trains, planes, and boats.)
• So, what did I accomplish during our craft time?  Well, not TOO much because I am not 100% sure what wall space I will be working with at our new house.  It all depends on where the furniture is going to fit and what furniture he will have in his room... In fact, we aren't even entirely sure which room William will have - although I am fairly certain it will be the pink and orange polka dot one (sans the pink and orange polka dots of course!)  I did, however, decide what size the vehicles I wanted to use in my frames and cut samples out to maneuver.  I went from originally thinking I would do four frames like the one above to just three.  I chose a truck, a plane, and a tractor since there wasn't a sailboat design. Plus I am going to spell his name out with the Choo-Choo train letters.  It was nice to chat with my friends and watch them be super productive making t-shirt quilts, and I feel excited about the project I have for William.  I just wish we could be in our house to get it STARTED!

Wednesday, June 13th

• Today I took William to the lake for the day.  It was VERY nice to have a day away from Toledo and WORK! Cathy had called me a couple of weeks ago to let me know that two of Dominic's cousins were going to be bringing their kids up for the day today.  That's a pretty big deal because we don't get to see them much and therefore William doesn't get to see/know their kids much either.  Unfortunately my sister-in-law could not come and then at the last minute Cathy couldn't come (Dom's Grandpa is having surgery tomorrow so she was busy preparing for helping him with that) but it was fun to see the girls and their kids and to hang out with Dom's Aunt Sharon for the afternoon.  
• When we first got to the lake, William was sad because of course he expected to see Grandma and Grandpa Krupp, but they were not there!  He got over it quickly once he dug out the toys from their shed.  He doesn't forget a thing, so he marched right over there and started pulling them out.  There are new lake toys that I didn't even know about since this was my first trip up there this year, but he remembered them from his trip with Dominic over Memorial Day.
• Later, when the kids starting arriving, William and his cousin Mitchell became instant friends.  It was adorable how quickly they connected.  I have a picture of the two boys holding hands that just makes my heart melt.  I will post it below.
• I will admit that today was a bit challenging being 9 months pregnant, running around chasing a toddler who is all-too-bold about going right into the lake.  I think I over-estimated my strength.  It was much harder to handle him today than it would have been if Dom or Cathy would have been there.  We still had a good time, but I was worried a lot about watching him. 
• William and I decided to come back to Toledo for dinner in hopes that we would see Daddy, but Daddy was out golfing so we had dinner alone.  We decided to get Chipotle (William's favorite) but he had a bit of a meltdown when we got home.  He was PERFECT at the lake, but the lack of nap did him in by dinnertime. All-in-all it was a wonderful day! 

Protecting his head while playing trucks at the lake

"Mommy, I got binoculars!"

Mitch and Will - My Favorite Picture of the Day!

 Big Day in the Sun + No Nap = Meltdown!!!

Thursday, June 14th

Playing in the river at the Zoo.

•  Today William went to the ZOO with his babysitter, her husband, her kids, and one of her son's girlfriends! He had two exciting days in a ROW!  Plus he was just at the Zoo last Saturday. He loved the Polar Bear again. The first picture below is a picture of him eating a "graham snack" on the way to the sitter's.  He said he was a camper and campers eat graham snacks.  I told him this yesterday and he remembered. LOL!

William is saying, "No pictures!"

• I had a good day as well.  First thing this morning I attended the first of our weekly staff brunches that we are holding over summer vacation for anyone interested in creating a more positive learning environment for our school.  I felt as though the meeting was incredibly upbeat and people brought a lot of great ideas to the breakfast table.  (There was also really good food.)  I am hoping that all of this work we will be doing over the summer will truly pay off.  I'm keeping an open mind and a positive attitude.  Perhaps we will even DOUBLE the size of this committee by the end of the summer!!!
• After brunch I had to run home because the couple buying our house was getting it inspected.  After that, I went to the Waterville garage sales.  I didn't buy nearly as much as I did last year, but then again I bought most of my stuff in Perrysburg last year.  This year I was mainly looking for stuff for William's big boy room since I don't know if this baby is a boy or a girl.  I did find him a Radio Flyer tricycle, which was another one of my main goals, and I was able to talk them down from $10 to $8.  I am going to save this for when we move so William will have something exciting at our new house.  Plus the driveway there is paved smoothly, which will provide a much better surface to practice riding around on.  I also found him a bookshelf for his room.  I got that for $8 as well, even though it was marked $10.  
• I headed over to my cousin Dawn's house toward the end of my time in Waterville and got to catch up with her for a while, so that was very nice!  She is always so generous in what she gives us for William.  Whenever he is wearing something nice, odds are it came from her.  Will gets all of his finest hand-me-downs from his cousin Zachary (Dawn's son).
• I ended the day at my 36 Week check.  You probably read all about that in Thursday's blog though!
• In the evening, Dom was able to get home early enough for us to check out some furniture for William's new room.  We grabbed Wendy's for dinner (and made the mistake of feeding a toddler some Frosty) before went to Value City Furniture to search for twin mattresses.  My favorite part of the trip was when I had William lie down on the mattress and he sprawled out his arms and legs, reaching way up high over his head, and exclaimed, "Mommy, I don't fit in here!"  Precious!  After that William's sugar-buzz kicked in and he was sprinting all over the furniture store.  It was time for us to leave.  We weren't planning on buying anything that night, just getting ideas.  So we left.

Friday, June 15th

• Well, since I hadn't been as productive at work this week as I had planned on being I went to work this day.  I did get a good amount done, but it seems as though these projects I am working on are never-ending!  I am just glad that this baby is providing me with a relatively clear finish-date.  Usually I spend the entire summer working at couple days a week.  This year I am going to be going in until the end of this month and then possibly a couple of days during the first week of July if baby is not here yet.  Then I am going to be FINISHED until October 1st when I come back from my maternity leave!
• This evening we went to a pool-party at our friend's house in Perrysburg.  I brought a tomato/avocado/corn dip that my friend made for our Home Group session a week ago.  I think it was a hit!  A picture is attached.
• William always LOVES going to this house and he had SO MUCH FUN tonight!  It was great to see him be so bold in the water.  I think part of this goes back to our trip to the lake this week and part is just him still being fearless.  He was leaning into the water on his tip-toes and then sort of falling into our arms.  He kept calling it "jumping" into the pool.  The only time he jumped was toward the very end.  His feet actually left the ground!  I am so proud of how good of a swimmer he is.  I really need to enroll him in some swim classes.  Once we move to Perrysburg and things calm down a bit, Dom and I want to get a Y membership.  Then we can do some classes with William.
• The evening ended with William's first S'more ever.  It was a hit!  The other day I told him that campers eat graham snacks, so he was alllllll over graham snacks again.