Blast from the past

I was looking for a handwritten recipe amongst a stack of magazine recipe pages and scraps of paper when I ran across this picture stuck to another piece of paper. I haven't seen this in ages. It was taken 7 years, 1 month and 1 week ago. Wow. It was back when we were engaged and we had gone to Chuck E Cheese with Garrett's (and my soon to be) niece and nephews. What a fun find!

Everything is more fun in a box!

Can you see why he is sad? He accidentally kicked off a shoe.

Add a blanket and everything gets even better!

His naps have been much shorter since we got the box and he has been waking up from his naps asking to play in it. He's just too excited to sleep!  :-)

Twinkle twinkle little star...

Lately our little boy has started stalling at bedtime (as well as nap time). He wants to read every book on his bookcase and he comes up with reasons that he needs us to come back into the room. Instead of his regular easy 7:30 bedtime, its usually 8:30/9pm before he actually goes down and stays down for the night.

A few months ago we purchased a video monitor when we transitioned him to his toddler bed. It is so helpful being able to peek in on him! I wondered what he was pointing to on the wall so I went to go check on him.

(by the way, he knows we can see him because when I was in the room with him he turned to the video monitor camera, waved, and said "Hi, DaDEE!")

He had gotten his turtle night light out and was projecting stars on the wall and singing twinkle twinkle little star. I'm sure the fact that its still light out when he goes down for the night doesn't help him want to sleep.

My firm parenting resolve went out the window and I stayed to play with him for a while. Sweet little moments.

After singing him goodnight again I checked and saw a telltale green glow on the monitor...yep, not technically out of bed but not sleeping.



 More twinkle twinkle singing.

Finally after going in a third time he was laying in bed crying. He had put the night light back on the floor next to his bed but the light was in his eyes. I turned it off and he went right to sleep. Success?

It sure is fun to see things through his eyes and share in his enthusiasm. :-)

Splash pad!

This summer has been the first summer where you have not been afraid of splash pads! I have taken you out to three different splash pads over 5 different visits and so far you have only enjoyed it twice. (the first and the last time). Still I am so excited that you are starting to enjoy them! I can't wait until next summer when I am sure you will probably have even more fun!

You still like to stay near the tamer water and you prefer the least crowded splash pad that we have visited. It makes me happy to see you excited though!

Such an awesome way to have fun during the hot summer!

Quarterly Update: 30 Months!

In other words, you are now TWO and a HALF. Whoa.

You weigh 29.5 lbs and I have no clue how tall you are. Recently it seems you had a growth spurt though. Also this morning your shoes seemed tight so we are graduating you to size 7's. You are still wearing a few size 24 month but mostly size 2T. Size 2T still has some room to grow.



 At 2.5 you know your shapes, colors, and most of your body parts. You also know most of your lower case and upper case letters. You can also count from 1 to 10. You love numbers and the alphabet right now and get so excited when you see numbers and letters.



Your favorite two shapes are octagon and oval. Your favorite color at the moment is green. You also appear to be left-handed.

You are getting better at climbing. You can climb to the top of the bridge and up and down the slide at the mall play-place all by yourself  now.



You have started giving kisses as well as hugs. It's so sweet. We thought you'd never learn to give kisses!
 

You greet your Dad first thing when he walks in the door from work. Then when he comes to give me a hug you join in and give us a big hug and say "Sweet Sweet". You are such a sweet little boy.



You LOVE airplanes and rockets. You call robots "rockets" too.




Your love of rockets started when you found one of your daddy's model rockets. We didn't have to tell you anything about it. You saw it, your eyes lit up, and that was that.




Nine times out of ten you ask to see a rocket cartoon. (Wallace & Gromit "A Grand Day Out", "Wall E", or the "Incredibles". Basically if there is an episode of anything with a rocket or a robot in it you are good. You do prefer actual rockets to robots though.



When reading goodnight moon you will say goodnight to everything in the picture. I heard you say "Goodnight, See you!"

You have an incredible memory. You have memorized where the colored fish go on your fishing game and can put the puzzle pieces on top of the correct spots even though there is no picture underneath and you haven't got the fine motor skills down to put them in their place. (These are some of the last pictures of you in your nursery before we switched to your big boy room)

Your memory also covers remembering exactly what spot to resume your earlier tantrum at and dragging tantrums out for an hour or two with breaks between crying fits. You don't like to let go of things. We have to watch what we say about "later" and "next time". You remember.

You were playing with a seed pod you found outside in the car. You wanted to pick it up, look at it, and then put it back in the door handle area of the car each time you got in the car over the span of one weekend. Suddenly over a month later you decided to look in the door handle and when there was no seed pod you threw a huge sobbing fit every time you got in the car. For DAYS. Don't even get me started on your Halloween bucket. You STILL remember that back in October I filled it with popcorn.

We have been working through your massive tantrums with time-outs. You are getting better at managing them now. It's so hard on my Momma's heart though. The other day when your 2 minutes was up you came out of your room, looked at me with two huge teardrops on your cheeks and said "Thank you...". AGH! I felt that knife twisting in my heart.

You are doing a great job with identifying emotions and telling us how you feel. It's pretty cute. My favorite is when you walk around and say "Happy! Happy! Happy!"

We also hear "Sad, Whine (yes, you say 'Whine' when you are feeling whiny instead of acting whiny sometimes), and Cry" "(the ultimate fake cry....saying the word. lol.) Sometimes we also hear "Scared" but not very often.

Your catch phrases these days are: "Oh dear!", "Oh my!", "Don't worry.", and "Watch out!". Usually you tell me "Don't worry" whenever I am telling you to stop doing something. Like pouring water all down the entertainment center. You also like to lead us around the house saying "Where we going?" and when you are crying you say "Whats wrong, whats wrong..."

One day I saw you line up two Godzilla monsters facing each other really close together. I've seen you do this several times and I had no idea if they were fighting, hugging, or what. The other day you told me that they were Mommy and baby monster and that they were hugging. Melt my heart. (You also like to watch a you-tube video of a boy and girl snowman ice skating. You tell me that it is the baby and the mommy.)

You know your Delorean Hot Wheel car by name. This makes your daddy very happy. He's got grand plans of working on a project car with you one day when you are much older.



You love to tickle us and asked to be tickled by running through the house yelling "TICKLE ME!" at the top of your lungs. You have even gone up to strangers and tried to tickle them.



You are becoming more independent and imaginative in your play. It's fun to watch you and hear your dialogue. Also you have started lining up some of your toys like cars and magnets. Notice how you specifically lined up the animals so that they were standing on their heads. You played with them for a long time and had lots of dialogue as you did this. I also found your graham crackers lined up one day. Well, one remaining bite of each of your crackers. It made me smile.



Speaking of crackers, when eating a cracker you like to bite it and then tell me what it looks like. For example, the other day you showed me that you had a volcano cracker and a rocket cracker.

You are learning (and using!) your manners. You say "Thank you" unprompted anytime someone hands you something. We are working on "You're welcome" and "please". You say them but you need reminding. I love how people say such nice things about you when you are polite. You also tell people "Sorry" when its appropriate too. We accidentally bumped carts at the grocery store with someone else and you sang out "Sorry!" I love hearing you talk and appropriately use your language skills. It's sometimes hard to believe that 6 months ago you were just starting to talk!






I recently found a couple of beanie babies from my teenage years and you named them Mommy kitty, Daddy kitty, and baby. You sleep with them and carry them around. Especially baby. He's your favorite. Also lately you have been seeing pretend monkeys everywhere. We went to the park with another 2 year old and you boys would go up to trees and beat on them with sticks and look up at them for monkeys. Not sure what started this.

I know I always say this but you are at such a fun age. It seems a little surreal that you are already two and a half years old and that at the next quarterly post I write you will be a big brother. Seems like just yesterday that you were the baby!

Photo catch up! 5/26/12

Memorial day weekend we took Ethan out to the park to learn to ride his tricycle.  He did great with the pedaling but not so great with the steering because he insisted on holding a rock in one hand the entire time. :-)

I tried to do a formal photo shoot with him before taking the tricycle out of the car but he wouldn't stay still and he wasn't interested in playing with his wooden toy truck. He wanted to run! It was actually quite comical what I ended up with so I gave up after 10 minutes or so and let him play instead. I ended up getting these candid photos instead. I'm glad I had my camera with me because I think these turned out much more meaningful. Love this sweet boy!

Baby #2 pics!

My appointment at 30.5 weeks started off like all my other appointments with another ultrasound. Now that he's getting big I normally come away with one or two print out pictures of an arm or leg. (I didn't bother to scan and show those fascinating pictures). Its hard to see anything other than the random body part now that he's getting more cramped. Each time we've seen him he has been breech with his feet up by his face and his hands down by his bottom. Every other visit we alternate doing a full anatomy growth scan and doing just a quick scan to check the blood flow in his cord. He passed like always! 

2d ultrasound

This visit was a little different though because while we were doing the 2d ultrasound the ultrasound tech hit a button and switched from 2d view to 3d view. I had never seen a 3d ultrasound before (of my children) so it was quite the surprise! We hadn't planned on doing one because I wanted to be surprised by what he looked like since we already knew that he was a "he". Wanted to keep some mystery! But of course who can be disappointed in a little less mystery when you unexpectedly get to see your baby's face! (and for the record, there is no way we could have kept this baby's gender a secret. With all the extra ultrasounds we are 1,000 % certain that he is a boy and there is no hiding it!)

3d ultrasound

With as rough as this week has been pregnancy wise it was a nice end of week pick-me-up! (and how crazy is the difference between 2d and 3d!)

Pregnancy #2 details

I started this post a over two months ago (May) but then decided it sounded too whiny so I never finished it. However, I think I do want to document it even if its not exactly pleasant. So this is what I had written:

I haven't posted much about this pregnancy mostly because I haven't felt too great and I've been holding out hope that if I waited just a little bit longer then maybe I'd have something more positive to say. Not that I can really complain since to our knowledge the baby seems healthy. But I have felt rundown, sick, and exhausted for most of this pregnancy. Food aversions are too numerous to count but up until very recently they have included every meat. I've been eating beans for my protein and occasionally I can stomach eggs. Instead of sharp cheese I've switched to mild cheddar which some days doesn't seem too offensive. I'm starting to be able to eat beef again though! Mostly I've been surviving on carbs, fruit, beans, and peanut butter. Water consumption depends on the day or the week and up until recently I have had trouble drinking it without feeling nauseated. I'm sick of watered down power-aid and flavored waters though. Adding lemon to my water worked for a few days but thankfully in the last few weeks I've been able to drink water again as long as its really cold. I'm so thirsty and thankful that I can drink it without feeling miserable! I'm pretty sure this is where my craving for watermelon has come from. I craved avocados and tomatoes in the first trimester but then was repulsed by them towards the end of the first trimester and now I've been craving watermelon. Mostly I just haven't wanted food much this pregnancy but eat small meals as I start feeling bad.

Braxton Hicks contractions started at 17 weeks this time but with rest and lots of water they go away. I have had to cut my neighborhood walks down to half though because otherwise the Braxton Hicks get too uncomfortable. I was advised that it meant I needed a shorter work out and more water probably because of the heat.

Fast forward from May to June.....

Now I am 27 and a half weeks pregnant. I drink plain ice water all the time without problem and only have trouble with meat and vegetables about half of the time. Its weird. I can make a meal and eat it just fine for a day or two and then another day have it make me feel so sick that I have to lie down. Then a few days later the same offending food items will be fine again. It must have something to do with the hormones ramping up.

Due to a past dvt causing me to be classed as "high risk pregnancy" I have been on Lovenox (blood thinner) shots since I was 3.5 weeks pregnant. To date, I have given myself over 160 shots. I've gotten good at it but it still never stops being painful. In the beginning it was easier but now that my belly is getting big its getting harder to find spots on my stomach to "pinch-an-inch" and it hurts more. Oh well, nothing hurts as much as the complications that could arise if I didn't take it and something bad happened. It's worth it.



I struggle with remembering to take my calcium vitamins. I need extra because of the Lovenox. I really should take these perfectly and am frustrated that I forget. Must have something to do with eating while chasing my toddler because I usually remember when its been 2 hours since I've eaten and too late for the vitamin. I am good at taking the prenatal. Must be because I take it at dinner when half of the time Ethan is already asleep. I have to start taking iron supplements since a blood test revealed that I'm anemic. I'm sure my food aversions play a large role in this...

I usually reserve my neighborhood walks until Garrett is home in the evening so that we can walk together. Most of the time we still only go around the neighborhood once because its usually all I can handle. Now that summer is in full swing I'm getting the Braxton Hicks contractions at the end of our walks again even though they are shorter and I'm drinking more water. Coming in and resting and drinking more water gets rid of them much faster than before though so the doctor isn't worried. I have been advised to start exercising indoors though if possible.

I feel the baby move all the time now. Ethan wasn't as active or at least not from what I could tell since I had trouble feeling his kicks because of his position and his placenta's position. This time around both baby and placenta are positioned to where I can feel a lot more movement.

The biggest change in the last month is that I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes at 27 weeks. I was completely shocked when they told me I failed the 1 hour test and even more shocked when I had learned that I failed the 3 hour glucose tolerance test. It wasn't even a borderline fail either. In hindsight it answers some questions though. I had started feeling very fatigued again and it got to the point where I had trouble standing the entire length of time it would take to unload the dishwasher. Cleaning the house took me all day. I didn't suspect anything though because I knew I was nearing the end of the second trimester and I assumed the extra fatigue was due to how hot our house is during the summer and from keeping up with Ethan and eating erratically around his schedule. I also just assumed I was getting out of shape or that it was because the second pregnancy is rumored to be more tiring on your body and that the 3rd trimester fatigue sets in sooner. The GD diagnoses also explains why the baby's growth started getting off target too. At my last ultrasound at 24 weeks he was measuring an average of a week ahead with his body being 2 weeks bigger than his head. Not too big of a difference but suddenly different from the other ultrasounds so I was told that we would watch it and see if he went back on track by my next appointment at 28 weeks. Now I know that the trunk getting bigger than the head is a classic example of uncontrolled diabetes and usually GD sets in around 24 weeks of gestation.

Fast forward from June to July...

I've been on the gestational diabetes diet for about 4 weeks. The range of acceptable glucose readings I can have are a little more strict than regular diabetes and a lot more foods were crossed off the acceptable food list because of how gestational diabetes differs from type 2 so the handouts I got from the nutritionist only had about 1/4 of what they normally have on them. I eat a pretty strict variety-less diet. It's getting pretty old but up until now it was working great so I can't complain. When it works I feel a lot more like myself. 

After a week of the morning sickness returning and losing 6 lbs from throwing up we adjusted my diet to remove most animal proteins in favor of proteins from any source I can keep down. We also cut my meal plan from 3 meals + 3 snacks to 9 snack sized meals. It's a little hard to fit in all 9 meals sometimes though. The nutritionist wasn't very happy that I was losing weight or couldn't eat animal protein (not sure why this was such a big deal to her) but the doctor said it was okay since the baby is still gaining. My weight seems to have stabilized now and I'm no longer gaining or losing at the moment. I have a net gain of 8 lbs with this pregnancy. At the end of June this baby was measuring around 3.5 lbs and he's projected to be a big baby.

This baby has gotten very active at night. It's already hard to sleep at night because I can't breathe and I'm achy but each time I wake up (I usually wake at least 4x a night) he wakes up too and gets so active that it looks like an earthquake is going on in my stomach. This still amazes me. I didn't notice anything like this with Ethan!

At about 29 weeks I started getting contractions. Mostly painful Braxton Hicks contractions every time I move, bend down, walk, or do chores, but at one point they turned into regular contractions every 10-12 minutes that escalated into every 5 minutes before eventually slowing down again. That was at church with me sitting (and walking because I was uncomfortable) and I'm not sure what brought them on. I'm drinking 60-80 ounces of water a day so I'm not dehydrated. After that episode I was put on "light duty" for the rest of the week until my Friday doctors appointment but the doctor isn't worried about pre-term labor since it didn't happen again and I don't have a history of it so I'm allowed to get back to exercising since its so good for the diabetes and blood in my legs. I'm thankful. Not being allowed to exercise was making my legs pretty uncomfortable.

Part of why the doctor thinks I'm having so many painful Braxton Hicks is because I have a lot of amniotic fluid and she thinks my uterus is irritated. Also its the second baby. I'm having a lot of back pain this pregnancy too but I definitely think that's because its the second baby and I'm chasing and taking care of a toddler. And this baby is measuring two weeks ahead which I'm sure doesn't help. That coupled with the arrival of sciatic nerve pain and I'm feeling pretty uncomfortable. And did I mention that this hot Texas heat makes me queasy if I'm outside in it for too long?

As I mentioned earlier, up until now my glucose readings have been fantastic. Then all of a sudden the last three days I've had high fasting numbers. I'm feeling pretty frustrated. When I'm awake it's managed. When I'm sleeping I can't do a whole lot about my numbers. I've already changed my night time snack to later to try to help. This doesn't help my reflux and it's no longer helping my fasting numbers so I'm at a bit of a loss. At more than 3 bad numbers in a week I'm supposed to call the doctor to start meds. It's the weekend though and I'm just now at 3 bad numbers so I'm hoping I'll get a good reading tomorrow morning and be able to keep controlling it with diet for a little while longer. I realize part of it is out of my control since the diabetes is caused by the hormones from the placenta and the closer I get to delivery the more hormones and more insulin resistant I'll become. Still I was given hope that I could do this without meds and I really want to see that happen.

Baby is still breech but he's got another two weeks before the doctor is concerned about it. Right now she's insisting on an induction at 39 weeks (as long as he's no longer breech). Not what I had originally wanted but its too far off to worry about it yet. 8 more weeks to go!

If you are still reading this, I'm sorry for all the whining. Now on to something more pleasant.... next up, ultrasound pictures!