January 8, 2017 by Stephanie

Baby 2-Eighteen Weeks

How far along: 18 weeks and 1 day

Sex of Baby W: We find out at the end of this month.

Weight gain: I am down to a total 5 pound loss. My doctor told me that I needed to start gaining weight, so it’s not for a lack of trying I promise.

Size of Baby W: A bell pepper or a sugar glider

Maternity clothes: The belly really popped out this week, and it is much more obvious that I just didn’t eat too much mac and cheese at lunch. The maternity clothes are making a regular appearance now.

Baby items: We got a few baby clothes for Christmas. I also couldn’t help myself, and I bought a couple “punny” onsies I saw on Zulily.

Stretch marks: Still stretch mark free.

Belly button in or out: It is flattening out, but it is still in.

Sleep: Sleeping has been hard this past week. I get up at least once to pee. The dogs also practically push me off the bed almost every night. I have a hard enough time getting them to move when I don’t have a belly to keep in mind, so basically they own the bed. I have been having some vivid dreams, but they’re very different than the ones that I had with George. With George, I had really violent dreams. This time they are more like movies that you would find on the Disney Channel.

Best moment the past few weeks: This seems very trivial, but Tom FINALLY brought up an old Xbox to our living room. So now we can watch DVDs and Netflix upstairs instead of on my computer. It has been life-changing! One of my close friends from grad school visited us on NYE on their way back home after the holidays. I can’t believe we hadn’t seen each other for FOUR years! It was great to see her in person and for her to meet George.

Worst moment the past few weeks: Honestly, things have been pretty low-key these past few weeks. I guess if I had to pick a moment, it would have been this particular student who pretty much said what I do for my job was worthless. It’s hard to keep your emotions in check when you are pregnant.

Miss anything: Warm weather. I. Hate. The. Cold. I am so glad my maternity leave will coincide with the summer.

Cravings: Eggs. We have been eating sunny-side-up eggs almost every day for dinner. I also really want Taco Bell because of a commercial I saw…And in case you were wondering, I am still eating almost a whole jar of marinated mushrooms every day.

Movement: I started for sure feeling movement on Christmas Eve. I feel baby more when I am laying down. I haven’t really felt much during the day.

Symptoms/how I am feeling: Overall, I have been feeling a lot better. I have had heartburn really bad this go around. I never had it with George, so this is a new experience. I get light-headed a little bit each time I stand up. Just in the last week, I started breaking out a lot more. Why are there no pleasant symptoms?

Looking forward to: We will find out the sex of the baby before my next update. This big anatomy scan will be the first time Tom has seen the baby since it was 6 weeks old, and it will have been 7 weeks since I have seen it.

You can read about George at 18 weeks here.

December 22, 2016 by Stephanie

Baby 2-15 Weeks

How far along: 15 weeks and 5 days (It is hard to get pictures when Tom is not home to help!)

Sex of Baby W: We wont find out for another month.

Weight gain: I am down to a total 4 pound loss.

Size of Baby W: A hass avocado or a yellow canary

Maternity clothes: I do wear the belly band almost every day because I can’t button most pants. I have worn a couple maternity tops this last week, but I can wear most of my winter clothes still with no problem since they are roomier. I did have one of my students ask if I was pregnant because she could tell I did not “look” the same. She said it much nicer, but basically she insinuated that I was fat.

Baby items: I didn’t buy anything this month, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some Christmas gifts coming baby’s way this weekend. I told myself I couldn’t buy anything else until we know the sex of the baby.

Stretch marks: Nothing yet. I really need to do a better job of applying my lotion though. Whoops.

Belly button in or out: Still in. I have a feeling though that this pregnancy will differ from George’s that eventually it will be out. It is flattening out a lot faster this go around!

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. I am also sleeping on all sides but my belly at this point.

Best moment the past few weeks: George went with me to our 13 week ultrasound for all the testing. First of all, he was an angel while there. Secondly, he waved to his little sibling when he saw them on the screen. I about burst into tears right there. Then he insisted on having his own picture of the baby which he then carried around ALL day that day.

Worst moment the past few weeks: This last Friday we had some really bad freezing rain, and I fell at our sitter’s. I have several bruises on my face and legs as evidence. Then it took us almost an hour to get out of her neighborhood due to all the ice accumulation. Thanks to her neighbor’s kindness we got out without getting hit! All a miracle really since I watched a Fed Ex truck take out two mailboxes as it slid too close to comfort right at me. Getting stuck in the car is one of my worst nightmares. So being an emotional wreck after falling and then making no progress on an icy street was not my best moment this month. But on the plus side, again George was an angel through this whole ordeal.

Miss anything: Blogging. I just do not have the energy to devote to it and get stuff done around the house after George is in bed. Heck, most days, I don’t have the energy to do stuff around the house.

Cravings: Still marinated mushrooms–I eat 4-5 jars a week. My appetite is all over the place. I am just hungry all the time, but things will sound good one minute and then not the next minute. My boss makes fun of me daily because every time he passes my office I am eating something different.

Movement: I think I felt some movement on Sunday at church. It’s still hard to tell if it is the little canary or just my stomach doing it’s rumbles on it’s own.

Symptoms/how I am feeling: I am just exhausted, and the holiday madness doesn’t help either. I have been having some belly pains, but every time I ask about them, they say they are normal. My doctor said that it is just my uterus growing, and it is more common when I haven’t moved in a while. I get them mostly when I am sleeping, so that make sense. I have had a little acne, but no where near what I had with George. I guess there is still time though. It’s weird to say, but here lately I honestly forget that I am pregnant for most of the day. I remember with George, I was consumed by the pregnancy. This time I think I just have so much more going on and with not having appointments every two weeks it is easy to just keep going on as usual. Hopefully here soon with this ever growing belly and some movement in there, it can be more in the forefront!

Looking forward to: This Christmas. George is at an age where he doesn’t quite understand the meaning but everything is so magical. It is fun to watch everything through his eyes. This year we are also starting some traditions for our family which I am excited about.

You can read about George at 15 weeks here.

August 21, 2014 by Stephanie

36 Week Bumpdate

Week 36

How far along: 36 weeks…He will be here in less than a month!

Sex of Baby W: He is all boy. We saw his little turtle. Also the old wives tale about little boys drying out your hands may be true. My hands have been so dry like it is the middle of winter.

Weight gain: I have gained 19 pounds. I feel gross from sitting all the time. I am packing on the pounds now, and feel like a chunky monkey. Also people are really judgy about pregnancies. Last week at one of our check ups there was a woman who mocked me for going to the bathroom several times while we waited. She said to Tom that I had no idea what it was like to be pregnant like her at 21 weeks and to just wait for what my bladder will feel like when I am farther along. First of all, I know that I am smaller, but I know that I at least look like I am 20 weeks…And secondly, I am much further along than you, and I definitely know what it feels like to be pregnant while I sit on the toilet every 45 minutes. While there are common things about pregnancies, people really need to remember that each of us will have a different experience and never say “You don’t know what it is like to be pregnant.” Do you not see this bump?

Size of Baby W: He weighs 5 lbs and 13 oz. He is closing in on how much I weighed when I was born (6 lbs and 4 oz). He should be about the size of a head of lettuce right now. We have another ultra sound this afternoon to see how much he has changed in the last week. He was in the 41% last week, which is way better than the beginning of July when he was in the 13%. If he would have been below 10%, George may have come last week…We need him to keep bulking.

Maternity clothes: Since I am no longer working, I wear yoga pants and t-shirts all the time. Also putting pants on is hard friends. I can’t really bend over nicely or I lose my balance so I have to sit on the bed to put on pants.

Baby items: We did our big discount trip with our registry last week, so we still have a few items trickling in from those shipments. We have been having fun playing with the baby monitor the past couple days. If you want to see more of our nursery you can see my posts here, here, and here. I also will have a few more things to show in the upcoming weeks so stay tuned!

Stretch marks: Nothing so far.

Belly button in or out: I have a flattie still, but it looks like it is expanding. Sometimes though it dips back down.

Sleep: I actually have been sleeping pretty well the past few weeks. I feel like I am barricaded by pillows, but I do a pretty good job of staying asleep most nights. There are only a few nights where I have to get up to pee.

Best moment the past few weeks: George passing all of his tests and getting to see how big he is during our ultrasound.

Worst moment the past few weeks: Being diagnosed with pre-eclampsia and all the hospital visits. I have been to the hospital 4 times in the last 3 weeks and had 4 separate doctor’s visits. My blood pressure is basically sky-rocketing and I have protein in my pee, which means my liver is not doing what it is supposed to be doing. Pre-eclampsia happens to many women during pregnancy, and there really is no rhyme or reason why you get it. I never had high blood pressure before in my life. The concern though is that if it is not monitored it can turn into eclampsia which causes seizures, which you can guess is super bad for baby. Luckily my blood tests are coming back normal so we are still in the just monitoring phase, but this is something that could change fast and without me noticing. The thing is I feel fine, so it is hard to know what your BP is doing. That is why it is called the silent killer. Not terrifying at all for someone who is supposed to keep her blood pressure down right? So I am on bed rest to hopefully keep things calm. However, what bed rest does is just give me time to focus on all the bad things that could happen and stress myself out! We go in twice a week for two different tests now. One test is a non-stress test where George has to move so many times in a 20 minute period and they watch his heart-rate to make sure it is reacting properly. He has passed the two we have had so far. They call him a happy baby every time, which makes me happy. The second test is with an ultrasound, and again George is being tested. They check for several different things that he does to make sure he is growing on track. The only thing he didn’t pass was the practicing breathing. The doctor said this is pretty normal since they aren’t doing this around the clock, and she has seen him hiccup in other appointments. He did enough of the activities to pass the entire test though, so that is a bonus. Because he is doing well in there, we are trying to keep him in the incubator just a little longer and will monitor my body for any other issues. We will not be making it to our due date (Sept 15th) though, and we will be induced at least by 39 weeks if it doesn’t happen naturally otherwise. It may be earlier if I keep sucking on my tests. Hopefully we can at least make it to next week because 37 weeks is more of a safe zone for a delivery. I just need to get myself under control, but it looks like he will be an early September or late August baby! The doctor is pretty hopefully that we will still be able to do everything naturally (besides the induction part to get it started), which is great because I want to avoid a c-section if I can. We have been really blessed with the amazing care we have received throughout the entire ordeal. It’s just all a little stressful to sit and wait and hope for the best.

Miss anything: Not being confined to my couch. I also miss seat belts fitting normally. The way it lays now because of the belly, it cuts off my boob and feels like it is strangling me. Also I miss my boobs not touching my belly. I don’t have big boobs at all, so this has been VERY weird and uncomfortable to get used to. Like seriously, boob sweat is awful….

Cravings: I haven’t really had any the past few weeks.

Movement: He is pretty active still. He normally perks up a little more after I eat. I can also play with him a little if I am concerned about him, so he is really reactive to people pushing him around (which is great for all these tests). It was also fun to actually see his foot that he likes to push in the same spot on my right side during the ultrasound. You never really know what body part that is that is poking you, so it was cool to see it was indeed that big foot of his. He also favors sitting on my right side more than the left, which has made for some pretty awkward belly shapes the bigger he gets. Lately, he has been getting hiccups so hard that they hurt me a little bit. He also gets hiccups a couple times a day now.

Symptoms/how I am feeling: Besides going stir crazy due to this bed rest, I have had a few other issues that are related to the pre-eclampsia. I have had some blurred vision and headaches. I also have had some upper abdominal pain, which is what has sent me to the hospital a couple times just to be safe. I have been pretty lucky that I haven’t had any swelling though.

Looking forward to: Little man making his debut! I can’t believe it is almost here! Our plan is to have everything George ready by the end of this weekend. We are almost there! We also had to move our maternity pictures since Tom had staff duty the day we were supposed to have them. Thank you last minute planning Army. I really hope we make it that long to have them on our rescheduled date!

36 weeks

Since we aren’t sure how much time we have left, this may be my last update. Depending on how much notice we have, I will try to do one last update before we deliver. But no promises friends.

Tom and I were having a conversation about whether he would come on his due date a few weeks ago before all this induction talk went down. However, I said, “Do you think he will come on his birthday?” Tom replied, “I assure you he will come on his birthday.” Apparently I was already throwing the due date out the window…

August 19, 2014 by Stephanie

Top Shelf Pick

Finding baby furniture can be somewhat depressing when you start looking at the price tags. Why does something so little need things that cost so much?

We had wanted to find a dresser that we could redo into a changing table. After going to most of the thrift stores in town and looking online at various options, we kept coming up empty. Even at thrift stores, dressers were costing up in the 300 to 400 range.

So we settled on making shelving units ourselves to fit our need, which we saved so much. We were able to spend about $200 for two full shelving units that were exactly what we wanted.

Plus then we get to have these handmade items to pass on to our kids. I still have the bookshelf my dad made for me when I was a kid, so I love the fact that we will have personal touches to add to our kid’s lives.

I am just going to let the pictures do most of the talking.

We splurged on the paint to make sure it was a little higher quality knowing it was going in a kid’s room.

We stained the tops of the shelves and then used the gloss to make them smooth and easier for cleaning (which should be a consideration for something we will be changing dirty diapers on).

These were the tops.

All of the wood.

Frame for unit one

frame for unit 2

They are pretty similar, but these legs are just one little touch that makes them different.

Tom sanded the tops to make them extra smooth. Then he used a router to make a rounded smooth edge.

I helped with the painting, but you don’t need pictures of the big ol belly struggling to reach corners.

Here is the changing table. The boxes hold everything from clothes to diapers and bath stuff. We got the solid fabric boxes off of Amazon with our registry, but they also sell them at Walmart. The elephant print box I made. I will have a tutorial here soon!

This is the extra bookshelf for all the knick knacks.

I love that Tom is so handy and can make these things happen.

The nice thing is that these can change easily to change for whatever the need is. So if we get more books for example, we can change the arrangement of things. I tried several dozen variations of things before I settled on where things are now. With the boxes you can change the patterns up easily!

We were a little nervous about all the white, but I love how clean and simple it looks.

Now we just need to hang things on the wall and put a rug down, and I think this nursery is complete! The goal is to have everything in place by this weekend, so hopefully we can make that happen considering my bed rest limitations.

Also, I am guest posting for my friend Tiffany today! Check it out here!

August 4, 2014 by Stephanie

Never Volunteer An Introvert…Unless There Is A Competition

Last week, Tom and I had our last baby class. Five weeks of class means that we are totally ready for George right?

This last class was all about infant care and what to expect after delivery and those first few days at home.

Yes we got to play with creepy infant dolls.

So we are going along in the class, and it is actually pretty beneficial. Some stuff I already know from common sense, but how my son may be circumcised was new for me. Learn something every day…

Anyway, I am feeling good about this process and not stressed at all about having to take care of a human being soon.

Then the nurse asked for 2 couples to volunteer. She didn’t say why, just that she needed volunteers.

I gave Tom a glare and mouthed, “Don’t you dare. Do NOT volunteer us.”

If there is one thing that I as an introvert hate more than anything, it is being surprised into an activity in a room full of strangers. Cue panic attack in my head.

I just keep looking at Tom pleading with him not to break the silence that has entered the room.

No one wants to volunteer here. And I especially do not want to do something in a room full of soon-to-be-new parents so they can see how un-ready we are.

My husband, the big extrovert, jumped up and said “Oh we’ll do it,” as he grinned mischievously at me. He said something quippy about being an introvert and just giggled at me. I don’t remember what he said because I was dying inside.

I was not very happy with him. I did a teenagery pout up to the front as we waited for another couple to volunteer for this mysterious task. I did not want to look at my husband. How dare he volunteer me for such random torture.

Finally another couple (well a mom-to-be and her mom) stepped up to the plate.

The nurse explained that we were going to race to properly diaper, clothe, and swaddle one of the naked baby dolls. The trick though was that we had to hold hands and could only use our outer hands to do the task. So instead of having 4 hands, we only had two. And by the way we were standing also meant that we would be using our non-dominant hands for the task-I had my left and he had his right.

Oh this random activity that my husband forced me into is a competition.

Game face on!

Tom and I are very serious when it comes to competition.

And can you believe it that the other couple tried trash talking us before-hand? The mom-to-be tried scaring us even further saying they had a ringer with Grandma being a baby expert on the team.

Bring it.

You can’t make me more nervous lady. My husband just blindly volunteered his introvert wife. Your trash talk only fuels this fire to get this thing done with.

So Tom and I joined hands for the competition of a life-time. Yes it is that serious when you are in a room full of strangers trying to prove you can be parents together. (Because this race totally means that we are going to be experts at being parents…)

We made that baby so comfy in that diaper, onsie, swaddle blanket! Everything just went so smoothly. We owned that activity. Tom and I communicated coolly and quickly to make our baby not be a creepy flasher. Then we held that baby up Lion King style. I call that a parent success.

And we killed it with time. By the time we finished, the “expert mom” and her spawn were still fumbling with the onsie.

But I am not trying to rub it in or anything…Ok I am.

Take that! We are going to rock this parent thing.

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Plus we got a goody bag with some diapers and wipes for winning the race. So maybe it was ok to be volunteered by the hubs. I can’t say no to free diapers.

But now I can sit down and calm my heart rate.

Does you partner ever volunteer you for random things? Are you competitive?