More plans and Changes

A lot has been happening lately! We've been forming multiple plans for this year and beyond that change our timelines for our future babies.

The first is that we're definitely moving to the South now. We have a main plan and a back up. Our goal is 2-3 years, and the plans are already in effect. Bill picked up an extra half a shift each work day so that we make an extra $100 a week to put towards student loans and then towards saving for the new house. I'm looking at work that I can do from home to bring a bit extra in and make things go even faster (I'm looking at things outside of what I already do, like my paid mod jobs and crocheting business). My father in law is most likely moving in with us this summer. It'll save him money in living conditions and add a few hundred dollars a month to our moving fund (he's coming with us down south, we're planning on getting an in law suite for him) so moving in benefits all of us.

I'd like to have one more baby up north and I don't want to get pregnant in the middle of our big move, so we're trying to change around dates to make that happen. At the same time, we're now going on a big Disney Cruise on Halloween. I don't want to be pregnant for that, as I can't be more than 4 months pregnant to go on and less than that I'll be terribly sick. So our new goal is to move our TTC date from June to start trying in November, have a baby sometime next year (a November conception would be an August baby). That baby will then be a year or two old during the move, and we'll hold off having #4 until we're settled in our new home.

Our original goal was to move in 5 years, but that just seemed like too long. We shortened it down to 3, and are currently hoping that we can do a little less than that (two years) depending on what happens in the next year or so. Meanwhile, we're fixing up our home  (repainting and such) to get it in good condition so we can list it in a year. We're also downsizing a lot, both for when we move and to fit my FIL in our finished attic (which is set up to be two bedrooms, but currently is overflowing with all of our extra stuff). We have a lot to do, which makes it exciting to me. I love planning, making lists, and having projects to constantly work on. Each step closer to moving is a cause for celebration and the fact that we're already working through our 3 year plan each day is even more exciting. I can't wait to make our big move! If everything stays the way we plan it, we should be moving at the same time as my parents and siblings are moving too. They're headed to South Carolina, and we'll be in a state boarding them - either North or South, we're not sure yet. North Carolina is our goal and Georgia is our back up currently, even though the gorgeous homes and land in Georgia that are in our current price range does make it even more tempting, so I'm not sure if it's a back up or still as much a possibility as NC is. Both states have so many pros to them! In the end, it'll probably come down to what job is open when we're ready to go, so we're leaving it up in the air. Both places we're looking at are amazing and we love, so I don't really have a favorite or pulling for one or the other - I just know I want to be in one of them asap!

New Goals, New Plans

I love when life shows us a new path, or when our hard times turn into something beautifully positive and meant to be. 

Our baby and children plans may be changing a bit, as far as timing and such. We're hoping to have all of our children born in the next 5 years, before we make our big move. 

We've been planning to move out of the area for a while now, but we weren't happy with anywhere we could find. Nothing seemed right, or where we really wanted to spend the rest of our lives. The search got put on hold though when Bill's work took him out of his old position and put him in a new place a few towns over and gave him a new job. It was hard on us - it's less money, training weeks hurt us financially and didn't allow overtime, and it was really depressing to Bill to work 6 years learning everything about his job and slowly moving up just to move to somewhere totally different. 

And then on Thursday, the light shown through. Bill found out that with his new job, we can move anywhere in the country (even Hawaii!) With his old job, it was only for this one place in PA, but this new job can have him transferred anywhere. His current partner has always wanted to live in Arizona his whole life, so he asked work to transfer him there. In two months, he'll be working at the same company but in his dream place. So we thought about it, did a bunch of research, and decided to get out of here. Neither of us like living in PA. I always wanted to move out of it.  We couldn't move out before because Bill has great insurance and didn't want to leave his job, but now both of those can come with us.

We looked at a map and picked out 4 states we would like to move, while doing research about weather, pricing, housing, etc of each. Our fantasy is Montana, but that one also scares me the most as it's so far away and different but the most beautiful place I've ever seen. Owning 20-40 acres there cost nothing and it's the most gorgeous place I've ever seen. 

More realistically though, we'll probably end up somewhere between Georgia and North Carolina. We've already found some absolutely gorgeous places with lots of land that's in our price range - in fact, some big homes with land cost as much as what we're paying for our small row home with no land right now. We can live very comfortably in a beautiful home and lovely weather and struggle much less down south than here. The laws for homeschooling are also much better there and we'd have to worry less about the government constantly getting stricter and creating more hoops to jump through by the year.

So we're taking the next five years to pay off the rest of our student loans, pay off large sums of our mortgage, create a big nest egg, and for Bill to continue moving up in his job and gaining seniority. Idealy, I'd like to finish having our babies up here so we don't have to drag all of our baby stuff (which takes up half of our house!) down with us or need a nursery in the new house. So if possible, we'd like to try to fit the rest of our kids in the 5 year mark. What that means for our family size, I'm not sure yet. If we decide to only have 4, then two more in five years is super easy. If we want more (6) we're probably not meeting the goal of having them all here and leave on time. 

Hopefully, 2020 will be an awesome year for us and bring a new home, state and place to love into our lives! It's renewed our excitement, created a goal and a new dream, and we have something real to work towards again. 

Cycle #2

Cycle #2 has arrived and it's already close to normal. I definitely ovulated, I think a few days late around day 18 or so, and it was a 31 day cycle. I'm normally pretty average with an every 28 day cycle when it evens out, but for 6-8 months after I got my cycles back, they were all over the place and were anywhere from 35- 56 days long. They stayed very sporatic and unpredictable for a long time, but she was younger (10 months) when I got them back. Maybe because they were gone for so long, they're more normalized. I was pregnant again when Katie was 15 months and they had just evened out at that point. Will is going to be 15 months in two weeks.

Not Just Me

Sounds like I'm not the only one who's getting baby fever!

Bill was telling me yesterday about how having babies is so much fun - the whole process of creating new little people and getting these bundles of joy is exciting. While he doesn't really want to TTC and try to force another to happen, he's very eager for when we stop preventing.

It's really neat to see him so happy about our kids and having more. It seems like all around me, most men have to be reluctantly and grumpily dragged into having another baby and Bill is here with me, taking my hand and just as eager as I am to start the journey again.

While I'm not yet ready to do it again (I'm still trying to control my panicky self, which is very quiet when not pregnant but flares even at the thought of pregnancy, not to mention having to be super sick all the time for a few months and super lethargic!) I'm happy that we'll both be very ready for when it is time.

Baby Blankie Project

I was on Fabric.com (such a dangerous store for me! lol) and found a must do project for when I get pregnant (who am I kidding? If it wasn't so expensive I'd be doing it by this weekend!)

As obvious, my next pregnancy is elephant themed and the gender will be a surprise at birth.

So I'm going to be getting these cuddly minky fabrics and making a baby blanket. One side will be blue and I'll be machine embroidering his name on a corner.
The other side will be all pink and have her name embroidered on a corner.

Then the first picture of our little surprise will be our baby wrapped in the blanket, with whichever color and name that's correct on the outside.

Just another special thing to do for our surprise baby!

Here are the two cuddly fabrics I'll be using:




https://www.fabric.com/buy/0284072/minky-snuggle-fleece-elephant-light-blue?cm_mmc=pinterest-_-social-_-product-_-0284072

https://www.fabric.com/buy/0284073/minky-snuggle-fleece-elephant-pink?cm_mmc=pinterest-_-social-_-product-_-0284073

Cycles Returned!

One step closer to TTC - I now have my cycles! I got them back on 2/9, 13.5 months PP. A new record! I got it back at 10 months with Katie.

Now I'll have four months to wait it out and have my cycles regulate before starting TTC.

Before getting my cycle, I knew I was either getting my period or pregnant. While I was rooting for my period, I did realize that if I was pregnant, I could probably handle it. It would still be early and not ideal, but it wouldn't be bad. It's a big mental step, possibly just as big as getting my cycle back. Last time we had a pregnancy scare, I was straight out panicked.

Bill liked the idea though of my being pregnant now, so he was a bit disappointed. But now we know we'll definitely be ready to start trying by June!

Warming up

This whole time I've been enjoying the idea of a baby, but NOT wanting a pregnancy. Or the baby...yet. Having baby fever and actually wanting to get pregnant are two VERY different things!

However, I can feel myself getting into the mindset as the weeks fall away. I decided to TTC in June, but when we decided it, I wasn't 100% sure I'd be ready even though it was MY idea. As much as I want another baby, my pregnancies are rough! And labor...ugh, I'm still not over that one yet. Will's was just pure hell.

We had a slip up when Will was 6 months old and I was hugely paranoid. There weren't many happy feelings, I was pretty concerned! I was definitely sweating it out. Nothing came of it though, luckily.

This week we had our second slip up. This time I'm not horrified, I'm not panicking. Do I want to be pregnant right now? No, ideally I'd like to wait until June. But I realize now I'm in that "if it happens, it happens" type of mind set. There's no longer fear about getting pregnant. If it happens before June, it will be met with excitement, not worry.

That's not to say I'm ready to move into TTC or even NTNP yet, but I definitely think by June I'll be in a TTC state!

(For the record, I would love to say I don't think there's a chance of pregnancy with Will still breastfeeding and my cycles yet to return. However, if I actually say that, I KNOW my body will prove me wrong, so I'll just say it after the two weeks are up. lol)