November 29, 2016 by Stephanie

Baby 2-Twelve Weeks

How far along: 12 weeks

Sex of Baby W: No clue

Weight gain: I’ve lost 3 lbs, however there is a bump coming.

Size of Baby W: A lime or a Roborovski hamster. (I downloaded a new app that does the size in weird-but-cute animals.)

Maternity clothes: I do wear the belly band almost every day because I can’t button most pants. I wore maternity pants over Thanksgiving, but I am in that weird stage where they don’t really fit but neither do my normal pants. I don’t wear any maternity tops yet, but I am all about the baggy shirts and big chunky cardigans these days.

Baby items: I bought a crib sheet that was the exact color that I want for their room. Green and navy. Then I went wild saving stuff to my Amazon wishlist.

Stretch marks: Nothing yet. I am doing a really bad job putting on my belly cream though, so hopefully this doesn’t change.

Belly button in or out: Still in.

Sleep: My sleep is going pretty well. I do usually have to wake up at least once to pee, but I generally don’t have any issues getting back to sleep.

Best moment the past few weeks: Work has been going exceptionally well for me lately. I have a post coming soon (I think…when I can find the time.).

Worst moment the past few weeks: At my last doctor’s appointment, they didn’t check me at all. This is sooooo weird for me. I am so used to having sonograms and heartbeat readings or at least checking my lady parts at every appointment. I didn’t have one appointment with George where they didn’t check something else besides my blood pressure. I was just in shock that she just asked me three questions and then sent me on my way. In my head I was screaming, “How do I know that this little bean is still alive?” This is the part of a normal pregnancy I do not like! But I have to remember this is all a good thing.

Miss anything: Being able to hold George for extended periods of time. He doesn’t understand why Mama can’t hold him all the time. It breaks my heart. Working out-between the nausea and the exhaustion, I am lucky if I can get all my steps in a day never mind actually exercising.

Cravings: Still marinated mushrooms, but I have also been craving burgers something fierce. I have been able to tolerate salads a little more, but they still aren’t my favorite. I dislike most vegetables to be honest. Salty things (besides french fries) are also a big turn off. And no bacon for me!

Movement: I haven’t felt anything yet.

Symptoms/how I am feeling: I am not as exhausted as I was (meaning I am not consistently falling asleep on the couch at 7pm), but I am still fairly nauseous. I have started getting charlie horses in my calves-just awful.

Looking forward to: We have an ultrasound next week to check for any abnormalities. While there is some anxiety with what they are looking for, I am excited to see this little nugget again. It’s been 6 weeks!!!

Here is George at 12 weeks.

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November 10, 2016 by Stephanie

Baby 2-Nine Weeks

This was the week that we found out about George. So the last 5 weeks have been so drastically different this go around. I loved having the documentation of George’s time in my belly, so I definitely want to do this all again. I just hope I can keep up with it this time.

How far along: 9 weeks

Sex of Baby W: No clue

Weight gain: None so far

Size of Baby W: A grape

Maternity clothes: While there may not be any weight gain, I am already starting to show. This is a big change since I lost 10 lbs during the first trimester in my first pregnancy, and I didn’t start to show until much later on. I am already at the point where I can’t button pants (and have been for a few weeks), and I am wearing the belly bands out of comfort. I am not holding out this time, and I perfectly fine with being in bigger/looser clothes. Plus I will admit that while I lost all the baby weight, I never quite lost the baby ring around my belly, so it is only fitting that it’s popping out much quicker. I can’t quite fit into maternity pants yet, but I think that is coming around Thanksgiving. (Which I can’t be mad about) I told Tom a few weeks ago that this may be a big pregnancy…

Baby items: I bought a onsie from my alma mater while we were there for Homecoming. I have also bought two items for their room to get us started on the theme which is going to be sea creatures.

Stretch marks: Nothing yet.

Belly button in or out: Still in.

Sleep: Fairly good, but I generally have to wake up in the middle of the night to pee. Most of that is due to the fact that I drink a cup of water right before bed now to make up for my missed water intake, so I only imagine this will get worse. But once I am asleep, I get really good sleep.

Best moment the past few weeks: Seeing baby on the ultrasound. George kissing “babee” goodnight every night.

Worst moment the past few weeks: Trip to the ER, but that did get us to see baby on it’s first ultrasound.

Miss anything: Being able to eat deli meat. Having an ultrasound every couple weeks. It is really hard to go from having an appointment every two weeks like we did with George, and now only going every four weeks. This is torture not knowing if everything is ok.

Cravings: Marinated mushrooms. I could eat a jar of them all day every day. This is really the only thing I am wanting honestly. I tolerate the rest of the food I eat just for nourishment. I am not really wanting much salty foods, and salads make me want to gag.

Movement: My little grape is too small for this yet.

Symptoms/how I am feeling: I can’t eat because of nausea, and I am nauseous because I can’t eat. It is an awful cycle that makes me eat maybe a fourth of what I normally eat at each meal. With George, my hormones weren’t on board with the pregnancy so I was having cramps and dizzyness enough where I had to stay home some days. However, I was still able to eat meals. This time I am nauseous pretty much all day. I am also so exhausted. I feel like an awful mom right now because most days I fall asleep on the couch while George plays with trains. Growing a baby is tiring, but doing it with a baby on the outside as well is like something more exhausting than just exhausted. (I am too tired to think of quippy things.)

Looking forward to: Thanksgiving. Hopefully my nausea goes away so I can fully take part in all the food and take advantage of being pregnant over the holidays.

The biggest difference is for sure having George around while growing another human. It is making me cherish our moments alone so much more. The other big difference is my hormones actually reading this pregnancy. It will be interesting to now compare my updates from here on out with what we documented for George.

November 7, 2016 by Stephanie

Start Spreading the News

The last time we were pregnant, we were far away from all family so we told everyone just as soon as we found out over the phone.

This time being near family, I really wanted to do something to pop the news on them.

I created a video for George’s first year with all the pictures I took with my fancy camera. You can see that here. This is something I want to keep doing each year since I am not into scrapbooks.

So I decided I could make his year two video also the announcement video.

I didn’t think I would raise any suspicions when I brought it over for them to watch at one of our regular family gatherings. I may have been a bit eager to show it, but they didn’t raise any eyebrows to that until after they saw it. (My brother-in-law however called what was going on by my aggressive request to watch this before our normal family dinner.)

I was really happy that Tom’s grandma could be there to see it too. All of my grandmas are gone, so that was really special for us that she was able to be part of this.

There was no way I could wait until we were in person to tell my family, and they would have known something was up if I said to Skype because we never do that. However, my mom guessed it before I could tell her when I called with the news. She is a smart one, that lady!

Next up is my first bumpdate this go around!

November 4, 2016 by Stephanie

How We Found Out

When we decided to start trying for the baby number two, I had a lot of anxiety. Since we never tested positive as pregnant with George until I was in my second trimester, I worried that we would have a similar process. However, this time we wouldn’t have a happenstance meeting with a sonogram to find out about this baby. (You can read more about how we found out about George here.)

We had been trying since August so when on October 1st I started bleeding, I just thought my period had come a week early. Being off birth control means that my period had no rhyme or reason to when it started.

That same day, I was running a 10K with my sister-in-law. I thought, perfect, what a day to start the worst week of the month when I have planned to run 6 miles. I had trained fairly consistently for this run, so I was really mad at my body when starting on mile four I was really lightheaded and had to walk most of the last two miles. I have gotten sick and endured cramps on runs before, but I had never been so lightheaded that I thought I might pass out.

Obviously I pushed through it, and finished the race not really thinking anything of the lightheadedness and just blamed it on it being “that time of the month.”

Then I didn’t bleed for the next two days.

On that Monday, I woke up thinking maybe I should just take a pregnancy test. I can’t really explain it but I just thought maybe this is why my body was weird all weekend.

So I peed on a stick and got ready for my shower.

And there it was. A faint blue line telling me it was positive.

I was in shock because I had prepared myself to never ever see the blue line after our experience with George.

I re-read the instructions to double check that a “faint” line was still positive.

Then I took another test from a different brand just to make sure.

Same result.

I am pregnant.

(I took another one a few days later before I met with my doctor, just to make sure too. There were definitely no faint lines that time!)

I hid the tests so Tom wouldn’t stumble on them since he was off that day. I knew I had to wait until after work to tell him.

It was all I could do to be productive that day. I was a nervous wreck with this secret in my belly.

Luckily, Tom had George that day, so I could run to the store to pick up a card for Tom.

In my head I always envisioned doing something elaborate to tell him, but I was just ready to tell him and there wasn’t time to plan something out. So he just got a “Congrats” card with two people high-fiving, which fit us perfectly anyway.

Tom cried when I told him, and then he proceeded to beg to tell everyone we know.

Since I had no idea how far along I was, I panicked and freaked out about telling anyone before we had anything confirmed.

We found out about George when we were 9 weeks pregnant and told the world when we were 11 weeks. So this was a huge difference for us.

I immediately started thinking about the worst case scenario, and wanted to keep this a secret until our second trimester.

Then I remembered an article that I read a while back that talked about why we as women have this idea that we have to keep this wonderful thing a secret and basically isolate ourselves until we are 12/13 weeks pregnant. There shouldn’t be this stigma that we can’t tell people this news that we are pregnant on the off-chance that something were to go wrong. Here is the article that does a much better job articulating my thoughts. I don’t want to have to pretend this isn’t happening.

Plus trying to have my husband keep a secret for any amount of time is a struggle and an insane request.

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But I still wanted to wait a little bit before we shared, so we compromised that we would share as soon as we saw the baby on a sonogram to confirm that everything was moving as it should. (And he could tell our Parents as Teacher facilitator who was coming over that same night.)

Because of some complications (blood clot and severe bleeding), we had an emergency visit where we were able to see the baby and it’s little heart beating at 6 weeks. I then saw it again with a specialist the next week. Everything was confirmed to be looking good and normal even with my history of issues. And here we are a week later, 8 weeks pregnant.

While this story is definitely not as dramatic as George’s story, nor did it take as long to get pregnant, we are over the moon excited about this transition in our family.

Up Next: How we told our family!

August 26, 2016 by Stephanie

George-Two Years

Yesterday, I sat at our pinning convocation and watched parents say goodbye to their college students.

I had some tears rolling down my own face as I watched and thought about the fact that George was turning two today. It felt like he would be in those stands next week with all my students. Emotional wreck-party of mom.

How has two years gone by since this little nugget came into our lives?

George has no time for me to be sentimental…

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Weight: 30 lbs? He is definitely starting to lean out and is getting much taller. We don’t have to lean over to hold his hand and walk anymore.

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Health: We haven’t had too many issues. We still think that he is working on his molars, so there have been some rough days of drool, and one day of a fever for no reason. But mostly these have been the healthiest two months we have had with George in a long time!

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Diet: His diet is so unpredictable. There are days where he will barely eat anything, and then other days where he tries to eat everything in the fridge. He loves his cheerios, yogurt, raisins, and clementines (but not oranges). He loves jelly, and he will open a PB & J just to lick off the jelly. He does not like eating with kid silverware or eating with a tray on his seat. He needs to be doing everything that Tom and I are. Most of the time he will eat any spaghetti type of food or anything chicken. He has actually slowed down with his fervor for the food packets which is terrifying because that is the only way to get him to eat veggies. Although he will put some veggies on his fork…and then feed them to the dogs. That’s also how we know he is done because he starts feeding everything to Grace and Crosby and then throws his plate on the ground to share. Unfortunately he will do this even when the dogs aren’t around…

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Clothes: George is in 2T clothing mostly, but we are starting to get out 3T shirts. He is going to have a long torso like his mommy. He is still in size 5 diapers, but we do size 6 at night. He is in a size 7 shoe.

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Sleeping: He sleeps at night from 8pm-about 7:00 am. He sleeps through the night pretty regularly still. He goes down really easy at night. Naps are a little tricky. To be honest, we reverted back to using the pacy. One, he knows the word “pacy” so it is hard to say no to his manners when he asks for them. Also Tom and I made an agreement that we would cut him off once his molars came in. If he has a pacy at nap he goes to sleep within seconds, without it takes almost an hour. I will let him have the pacy for just a little longer, and he does put it away once he is done sleeping so I guess that is a win. He has yet to climb out of his crib, however I did catch him straddling the railing a couple weeks ago. He hasn’t done it since, but he may be in shock by my scream I let out when I walked in on him. Not.Ready.

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Likes: He loves the outdoors. He likes to ride his scooters (yes plural). He loves watching Daddy mow the lawn. He loves any big truck or tractor. He is obsessed with legos and his fire truck. He loves taking his shoes and socks off in the car. He loves his chores of dishes, laundry, and getting the dog food. Really the only one he actually does is the dog food. The other two he is working against me, but I am encouraging the help he believes he is giving. He LOVES Mickey. He gets so excited when he comes on with his clubhouse. George also loves watching Doug with Tom. He loves to wave to Tom in the window when he goes to work, mostly because I let him stand on his bookcase..

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Dislikes: Mornings. Other people playing with trucks and tractors. Eating at the table. Forcing him to stay still (example above).

Milestones: His speech is getting more recognizable. His word bank exploded these last two months, so it was hard to keep up with all the words he knows. He learned how to say tractor, and by golly it is the cutest thing. He also has a few sentences like I go and I do it. We think that he has no understanding of what “no” actually means because he says it after everything. He can point to most of his body parts, and he likes to pick our noses when we ask were the nose is. He can put on his clothes by himself now. It doesn’t look pretty but he can do it. We finished swim lessons, and it ended much better than it started. The last few classes George was jumping into the pool by himself!

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Quirks: He is still super shy and doesn’t like big crowds. However, when he warms up to you, he loves really hard. When he is really investigating something, he lays flat on the floor to get a really close-up look. He is a very hands-on guy who loves to see every detail. He has started lining things up-crayons, cars, puzzle pieces. He just puts them all in a row. He is so sweet at our sitter’s house, he has to say goodbye to all the other little boys (who are all younger than him) and he gives them hugs. It makes me want to cry every day watching this sweetness come out. However he is an awkward hugger and keeps them in his embrace for a very long time. His run is the best. He hunches over and swings his whole body. Absolutely adorable.

Nicknames: Boogie, Booger, Gdubs, Gman, Little man, Georgie, Georgieman, and Boogs. Tom calls him Lawson a lot, which is his middle name.

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We parents are: doing really well. The past few months have been fairly stress free, and we actually went out on a date…by ourselves. George loves us both hard in very different ways so that is cool to see how that is developing.

The dogs are: loving George with the extra food they get. He still tries to ride them. He also says goodnight to them and gives them kisses before we go to bed.

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