My baby's turning 2!!!

Macey turns 2 next week. She is growing up WAY too fast. Which means Mackinley grows up WAY too fast. It's kinda sad. She really is fun right now though. She copies everything Mackinley and I say. She calls her sister Mackie. I think that's one of my favorite things. She really loves her sister and when they play nice, it is so cute.
Macey is one of the most thoughtful and caring little ones I know. She can also throw a nasty tantrum. She's quite evenly balanced in the naughty and nice department. She is a great Mommy's helper. She loves to help with anything...the cleaning, cooking, Mommy's make up.....you name it. If I'm doing it, she wants in.
She started off as the most relaxed baby I ever met. She has always been a cuddler. I absolutely LOVE this about her. The first few months of her life I wouldn't put her down unless absolutely necessary. I love holding my babies and she loved to be held. She didn't like baby food. I tried for a couple of months to get her to eat it, but she just wouldn't. I ended up giving her whatever we ate just in small pieces because she didn't like it pureed. She started walking at 9 months. She developed into a monster shortly after this. Once she could walk around she became independent and my personal nightmare. Looking back it couldn't have been that bad because I can't remember specifics, or maybe it was that bad and I am so traumatized by it all I've blocked it from my mind. She was my birth control for a long time anyways.
It took a year for me to get pregnant with her. And after I was pregnant I didn't want to say anything about it until the first trimester was done. I had just found out that I had a blood clotting disorder that increases my chances of miscarriage and I have a hormone disorder called PCOS which doesn't really help either. We were moving a few weeks after that, so we kept it quiet until after we moved. I didn't want sympathy help. Yes I'm stubborn. Once we were moved we finally told people. I was 16 weeks pregnant.
I was always told each pregnancy feels different. I found they were exactly the same. I was tired, nauseous, had aversion to smells in the first part, but I never threw up in the first trimester. The second my sciatic would start to act up, I could eat and eat and eat, and I felt really good. The third trimester was long and uncomfortable and painful. Not only did the pregnancy feel the same the babies felt the same. They were both stretchers and they were in the exact same position. I truly felt like the same baby. They both would push their little feet under my rib cage on the right side. Macey did flip to the left once for about a day and it was so bizarre to feel her kicking somewhere else. I didn't really like it.
Macey was born on the 25th of August 2008. She was born at 7:37 in the morning. It was Monday morning. I took castor oil right after church hoping to have her that evening. Nothing worked so I went to bed thinking that I'd just have to wait. I wanted her to come sooner than later because after everything that happened with Mackinley I couldn't be induced and I didn't want to have another C-section if I didn't have to. I woke up around 12:30 with contractions. I laid there trying to switch positions in bed to see if that would stop them, but they kept coming. I called my mom to see what I should do. While we were talking my water broke. She was coming down to stay with Mackinley so we got off the phone so she could get down here and I called my friend Alita to come and stay with Mackinley until my mom could get down here. By the time we got to the hospital it was 2:00. I was indeed in labor! I had to have a nurse with me at all times to watch for any stress signals just in case I needed a c-section. I was able to get an epidural which was sooooo great! They told me around 5:30 to start pushing. I was in active labor for 2 hrs! It was awful. My doctor kept trying to get me to try pushing in different positions......lay on your side, try pulling yourself up with the bar, try turning around.....all I want to do is lie on my back! Leave me alone! I wasn't excited this time to be going through labor. I was nervous and apprehensive and scared. As I was pushing Jaron sat at the head of the bed talking to the doctor about hunting. Seriously. Hunting. Good thing I had such great nurses to help me out. She finally came after 2 long hours. She was perfect. She looked like Mackinley. I didn't bond with her the same way I did with Mackinley. It wasn't instant and I thought there was something wrong with me. We went home the next day and I thought I would be able to relax and get to know the newest member of the family. I was wrong.
The next evening Jaron was on the computer and I turned on the TV. America's Got Talent just started. As I was watching I noticed that I couldn't see the left side of people's face. Their left, my right. We have a projector so I thought maybe it had something to do with that. I looked over at Jar and his face was gone as well. I tried to stay calm. I went upstairs and looked in the mirror. I couldn't see my face either. I went and sat upstairs and I started to develop a scintillating scotoma. It was a gold ring that I could see and anything in my field of vision that was near it was swirling. It was weird. I tried to see if it was a side effect of the blood thinners I was just put on, but I couldn't read the paper. That's when I told Jar he needs to take me to the ER.
We got there and they saw me pretty quickly. I told them what was happening and they said they needed to make a few calls. It's a small ER. You hear everything that is going on. I could hear them talking about me and I heard "STARS". I started to get worried. He came in and I already knew what he was going to say. They wanted to make sure I wasn't having a stroke and they needed to fly me up to Calgary. I called Jar because he took Mackinley to go get A&W just down the road. He was on his way back and he dropped their food and booked it back to the hospital. I called my mom so she could meet us in Calgary to pick up Mackinley. We ended up having to go by ambulance because STARS was busy or something. I was okay with that. As soon as I got there they started doing tests. The CAT scan showed a blockage in an artery in my brain that was already breaking up. This meant stroke. I still had to have an MRI the next morning to see if there was damage. I had a bunch of heart tests. One was called a bubble test. They injected bubbles into my heart and it was supposed to show if there were leaky valves. It was kinda cool.
I was put in the trauma wing for the first night and part of the next day. Then they moved me to the stroke floor. I had the worst nurse in history. She gave me too much blood thinners. My levels were WAY too high. I can't remember exactly what they were, but I know there was investigation done about it afterwards. They weren't very helpful and I got put in basically a closet. There was a bed and just enough room to fit the pump. I wasn't allowed to nurse for about 36hrs because they injected me with dye for the CAT scan and MRI. It was so tiny. And boring. It was good for me though because that is when I got to start bonding a bit with Macey. We were holed up together in the tiniest of rooms and couldn't leave. We got released on the Saturday and we went up to Lacombe and got Mackinley. We drove home after that and I stayed on blood thinners for 2 months. My stomach looked pretty gross with all the bruises from sticking myself that many times.
So, that's Macey's story. Different than Mackinley's by a long shot. Both scary. People ask if we're going to have more. I am a little hesitant. Can ya blame me?
It was all worth it though. Life just wouldn't be the same without Macey. She is a special little girl that I love to pieces!