Wordless Wednesday

Every Pregnancy is Different

If you watch any type of pregnancy/baby related show, you have probably heard this saying. That is, if you haven't heard it from a friend, family member, or your doctor. My doctor gently reminded me of this when I was in her office begging for Zofran due to my extreme nausea and vomiting with Sarah. I was asking her why I had such horrible "morning" sickness when my mom had absolutely none with all 5 of her pregnancies. And she said "Well you know, every pregnancy is different."

Little did I know how true that statement could actually be. With Sarah, I had every pregnancy symptom in the book. Nausea, check. Heartburn, check. Lower back pain, check. Crazy food cravings/aversions, check. Weight gain, check. (Make that 50 checks, one for each pound.) So logically, I assumed that my second pregnancy would be more of the same. Boy, was I wrong. And I am so glad that I was wrong. Normally, I hate admitting that I'm not right. Baby #2 has been so much easier than Sarah was. (At least this far.) Basically this pregnancy has been so easy, that I forget I'm pregnant about 80% of the time. My frequent trips to the bathroom are good reminders though. My tiny baby really likes hanging out near my bladder. Or my crazy mood swings will remind me that I have something else with me. My moods are a little more unpredictable this time around.

But it's not just symptoms that make every pregnancy different. I think attitude plays a big part as well. With Sarah I was overly cautious and worried having just suffered a miscarriage. This time, I don't have the luxury of worrying over every little twinge and cramp because I have an energetic toddler to chase around. And there's not a shroud of mystery surrounding pregnancy this time. I know what to expect, and what's normal. So it's not as stressful for me. With Sarah, Ryan and I sat down and read about how our baby was developing each week and I did my best to stay away from everything on the "Not Recommended" list. 

Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm not interested in or uncaring towards this new baby. I just don't have the luxury of sitting and really thinking about the baby that's coming like I did when I was pregnant with Sarah. Your first pregnancy is a time when you're showered with attention. Everyone wants to talk about the baby, how you're feeling, if you know its gender, and so on. I was spoiled and pampered when I was pregnant with Sarah. Ryan often did things for me because I was too sick to do them myself or he would make me something to eat because it was the only thing that sounded good in days. Basically, I treated myself like some fragile object because I was so worried about the unborn baby.

This time, I'm just living my life as normally as I can. Sarah and I spend hours on the floor playing and she's not always mindful of my growing belly. I chase her around, lift her up, spin in circles with her and carry her around when she gets tired. Being pregnant is an incredibly wonderful time, but after your first pregnancy, it's not a reason to do nothing and be waited on. You have to continue to live life because you now have someone (or multiple someones) counting on you. I've struggled with feeling like I'm somehow depriving this baby of something because the excitement isn't as prominent. But we just don't have the time to really linger on it as much. I know that once this child gets here, he/she will be loved just as much. So for any of you first time mamas out there, soak up the luxury of focusing on just yourself this time around. And for all you other mamas, I'm right there with ya.

Speaking of Baby#2 we have 12 days until our big ultrasound! I am so excited to find out if this baby is a boy or girl. Feel free to vote in the poll on the lefthand side so I can see what you all think it is. I'm still not 100% sure if I think it's a boy or girl.

Wordless Wednesday (Sarah's First Year Photobook)

Click here to view this photo book larger

Monday Mind Dump

1. This weather is beautiful! I am so happy that snow will soon be a distant memory and I have warm and hot days to look forward to.
2. I need to go shop for warm weather maternity clothes. All of the ones I own are winter or too severely stretched out to be worn right now.
3. I was on the way to the park with Sarah today. We were going to go rock it out on the playground, but Little Bit had another idea. She decided to fall asleep in the car, so I did what any mama would do. I drove past the park and then turned around to head home. She needed a nap more than swinging. Hopefully when she wakes up we can resume our adventure.
4. I feel the need to purge my apartment of every unneeded item. I'm not sure if it's "spring cleaning" or "nesting".  Either way I've cleaned the kitchen, bathroom, and done two loads of laundry today.
5. I am so excited for Sarah's party which is in less than two weeks! Ryan and I bought her a play kitchen and I'm hoping she likes it as much as I think she will.
6. I'm also super excited for Easter. I think our little monkey will get a kick out of her first Easter egg hunt. She's really into picking things up and bringing them to the closest person. And while this isn't her first Easter, it's the first one she can participate in. Last year she was two days old.
7. I'm so thankful to be on the mend from this awful cold. I hope my family can manage to get and stay healthy for a good stretch of time.
8. I wish my husband got a "spring break" from work. It would be nice to have a few days with him without him having to use his vacation days that we need for when the baby is born. 
9. On a similar note, I think Ryan and I need a date night soon. It would be nice to go to dinner and be able to finish my meal without any interruptions.
10. Oh and Sarah is teething again! The child was up about every hour last night. Not fun! All I can do is give her tylenol or ibuprofen and hope she feels better.
11. And because I always feel like a post should have a picture. Enjoy!

ABC's of Me

A. Age: 24

B. Bed Size: Queen but if Baby #2 likes our bed as much as Sarah we may need a King

C. Chore you hate: Cleaning the bathroom!

D. Dogs:  Two Cocker spaniel mixes named Penny and Rowdy

E. Essential start to your day: Contacts

F. Favorite color: Green or purple

G. Gold or silver: Silver

H: Height: 5' 3"

I: Instruments that you can play: Clarinet

J: Job title: Stay at home mom

K: Kids: Sarah - 11 months and another on the way

L: Live: Two bedroom apartment with lots of living space but not much storage

M: Mom’s name: Missey

N: Nicknames: Linds

O: Overnight hospital stays: When I gave birth

P: Pet peeve: LOTS! Chewing with your mouth open, shoes on my bed, whistling, the list goes on and on.

Q: Quote from a movie: "Kiss the girl" - Little Mermaid

R: Righty or lefty: Right

S: Siblings: I have four of my own and four brothers in-law

T: Time you wake up: When ever Sarah does sometime between 8:30 and 10:00

U: Underwear: Uh Yes, what about them? I

V: Vegetables you dislike: Mushrooms

W: What makes you run late: Dirty diapers and bad planning

X: X-rays: I had a chest X-ray once

Y: Yummy food you make: Baked goods, cookies or cakes

Z: Zoo favorite animal: Elephants and chimps

Things I Wish I Had Known

So as my daughter nears her first birthday, I have been compiling a list of things I wish I would have known way back when I had a tiny newborn

• The newborn phase of sleeping all the time is a blessing in disguise. They may be boring but never again will you have the convenience of a baby that is willing/able to sleep anywhere. I used to complain because I thought Sarah was so boring and I wanted to see her eyes open. Trust me I won't be doing that with Baby #2.

• Adjusting to mommy-hood is not as easy as movies and other people like to make you think it is. All of a sudden you have much more responsibility and concerns. It's not all rainbows and giggles.
• Babies make the best facial expressions.

• It can take time to figure everything out. It's okay to not have a strict routine that has baby in bed every night by 7:00pm. You do what works for your baby and your family.
• Hair bows aren't as awful as I thought they were. Sarah looked freaking adorable in them while she wore them.

Sarah and my dad, her Gramps.

• Poop is not as big of a deal as it was pre-baby. It's even an acceptable topic of discussion and blogging.
• An immobile baby is something to be cherished as well. Sarah started moving so quickly that I sometimes feel we were cheated out of the cuddly baby days. Once she was able to move on her own, she hated being held and cuddled and would much rather have been moving along somewhere.

• Your life can change drastically once you have a baby, but it doesn't have to be in a negative way. For the first several months, Sarah just came with us when we went somewhere. And now we have a nice routine that works well for us during the week
• Teeny baby clothes are addicting. I mean they are tiny and cute. I almost always peruse the baby clothes section of the store. Unfortunately not all of them have tiny price tags. I refuse to spend more than $20 on an outfit that will most likely end up puked or pooped on.

I love this onesie! It's one of the best purchases I made.

• Everything becomes edible. Even if you never thought it could be.

• Sometimes the best thing to entertain your child is not a toy. It could be keys, aluminum foil, or remotes.

• You will make a complete fool of yourself to make your baby laugh. 
• There will come a time when it won't even phase you when you listen to the same song or CD over and over and over and over to keep said baby quiet. (Colors of the Wind and Praise Baby)
• A baby teaches you to love in a way you never thought possible.

Wordless Wednesday

Party Planning

Well, Ryan finished making the invitations last night. I just need to get them printed off and then mailed. Then the party will be officially started! Once that's done, I will feel a lot less stressed about getting things done. We are planning on keeping it as small as possible.  But we have a rather large family. So even though most of the guests are going to be family there will still be about 30 people or so there.

There's no reason to go crazy for a first birthday! I have never understood why parents will spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a baby's party. I'm all for making it a cute and well done party, but I'm not about to break the bank over it.  Ryan and I also made the decision to not go crazy with gifts. We don't want to set a precedent and have Sarah growing up thinking she will just get whatever she wants. Don't get me wrong, I love Sarah and would love to buy her everything but I don't want a spoiled kid.

I bought most of the decorations at Michael's and Hobby Lobby while they were having 40% or 50% off specials. I'm sure I've mentioned that we are going with a butterfly theme. Lucky for me, Easter and spring decorations have a lot of butterflies in them. I went with a dark purple color and a pale pink.

I'm really excited for things to start coming together. I've got a few decorations that need some assembly and I'm planning on making some butterfly shaped candies. I was able to score a couple of purple butterfly shaped candy dishes and just had to have them. So I guess I need some candy for them. Once I get a few things done I will post some pictures and there will definitely be tons of pictures of her party! It's three weeks from Saturday. My baby will be one in three weeks!!! 

Wordless Wednesday (Snow Edition)

Apartment Living

What is there to say about apartments that hasn't been said before? Obviously there are those who love and those who don't. Then there are those who are indifferent to it. I thought I fell into the last category. I don't LOVE my apartment but I don't hate it. But with the addition of babies in my life, I'm seeing how living in a single family home (as opposed to a multi-family unit) has its perks.

First the pros of living in an apartment.

• We are not responsible for any yard work.
• If something breaks we can just call a maintenance man to fix it.
• Our rent is less than what a mortgage would be.
• There are no stairs here for Sarah to fall down. We are on the first floor which means that I don't have to lug strollers and babies up flights of stairs.

Now the cons

• We have elephants living above us. Honestly they stomp around all day and vacuum at 5:00 AM. Who does that?
• No yard for the kiddos or dogs.
• If something does break the maintenance men are in my apartment for a couple of hours and I have to leave or just go about my day like they aren't here. (kind of awkward)
• When Sarah gets really worked up, I worry about the neighbors hearing her and being bothered.
• We have to pay an additional fee each month for our dogs. Pet rent??

I know owning a house is still at least a couple of years off for us, but a girl can dream right? We just renewed our lease for another year and it was probably the best decision for us. Although that doesn't mean I won't be doing my research for where we could move after our lease runs out. Our location is great and I really do like our apartment. It's nice and comfortable. Although sometimes I can't help but think that with two kids maybe we'd be better off in a house. But if people in other countries can live 8 people (or more) to one shack than I can do it with a 2 bedroom apartment, 2 babies, 2 dogs, and a husband.

11 Months (A little late)

Sarah is officially less than a month away from turning one! I say this every month, but time has gone by so fast. My little baby is not little anymore. Here's what she's up to at the moment.

• Wearing size 3 diapers
• Walking and running everywhere. I let her walk around the mall beside me for short distances or from the car to the apartment. She squeals with excitement and throws her hands in the air every time. You'd think I gave her a pony or something.
• Since she is walking and running, she wears shoes. Sarah would rather chew on them, but she's pretty successful at walking in them. She wears size 3 in those too.
• She loves yougurt, crackers, and anything I eat. Even if she's not hungry, she wants to eat whatever I eat. 
• She's now officially moved to the "walker" room at church. She holds her own pretty well there and seems to enjoy it. At least we haven't been paged to pick her up or because of an accident yet.
• Speaking of accidents, we had our first major one. Sarah managed to crawl off of my bed in the split second it took me to grab my glasses from the night stand. She has a nice little rug burn on her nose. So much for pretty pictures for her birthday invitations. We'll just use another picture.
• She "talks" all the time. Ryan and I are having a hard time figuring out what her first word is. She says mama and dada and baba. But other than that she has her own words for things. If she wants something she looks at you and points at whatever it is and says NAH. Or if she wants to know what something is she points and says DAT. Sometimes though she just goes on and on in her own little language and I have no idea what she means, but she looks up at me like "did you get all that?"
• When she gets mad, she makes this awesome little scrunchy face that is so funny! I have a hard time not cracking up at her.
• She's figured out how to work a straw and enjoys drinking out of a cup. She still doesn't like her sippy cup because she has to work for a drink.
• She brings me anything and everything she finds on the floor. It's actually useful when I'm trying to clean up. Sometimes she even puts her toys away.
• She's constantly changing and I'm sure I've forgotten something. She's discovering one thing after another and it's so hard to remember what she started when. Everyday we find something new.

In other news I am in full on party planning mode. Pink and purple butterflies. It's going to be so cute! We're trying to keep her party small but I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings by not inviting them. So who knows how big it will actually end up being. My mom and dad graciously offered us the use of their house and I'm hoping the weather is nice so maybe we can spend some of the party outside. But you never know, she was born on a rainy day. Early April is a funny time for weather here in Kansas. Stay tuned for more party news! 

Oh and here's a nice picture of her scraped up nose.

Gaining Weight

So during pregnancy, you expect to gain weight. It's a given. In fact, a lot of women find themselves wanting a "baby bump" long before it shows up just so people will know they are pregnant and not fat. I'm having a tiny problem though, I'm not putting any weight on. I've lost 6 pounds since finding out I was pregnant.

I have no need to wear my maternity clothes. The pants kind of hang off of me and shirts just look ridiculous. But I am at that point now where I expected to start showing soon and I'm not. Kind of disappointing. My doctor doesn't seem too concerned as of yet. A lot of women experience weight loss in the first trimester and I am just barely into the second trimester. Combine those things with the fact that I had the stomach flu this week and the weight loss is totally understandable. Still it has me a bit on edge.

With Sarah I gained 49 pounds. EASILY! Sure, some of it was due to blood pressure trouble and water retention, but still that's a lot of weight. My doctor did say that it takes a lot for a baby not to get what it needs. Like the mom has to just flat out refuse to eat or have a problem absorbing nutrients on her own. Everything is measuring on track with the baby so it's fine. I just don't understand how a pregnancy that has made me so hungry and given me very little nausea and food aversions can result in weight loss.

So the plan of action is to continue eating like I have been. (3 meals and snacks) If I haven't put on any weight by next appointment, then we will talk about nutritional supplements and an eating plan designed to put weight on me. So here's hoping I don't need that stress.

Everyone's Healthy Again

Boy has this been a crazy week! It's been one thing after another. Luckily, things have worked out and the end of the week is looking a little better.

First on Monday, Ryan's car wasn't working so he had to catch a ride with one of his coworkers. I'm glad one lives close by, because otherwise I would have had to miss my MOPS meeting and we all know how much I look forward to those. It turns out his battery was leaking acid and basically committing suicide. So my dad came and helped me get it to Advanced Auto while Ryan was at work. My sister watched Sarah while we ran out and got a new battery! Now his car is running better than it has in a while. It's a much smoother ride and the car starts!

Tuesday we were woken up by Sarah puking all over our bed at some un-holy hour. She got some nasty stomach bug and couldn't keep anything down. So Ryan had to bathe her and we stripped the bed and got her put down again only to have her get sick all over again. So we stripped the crib and got her cleaned up again and this time she came back to bed with me. (With a towel underneath) I called the pediatrician and while waiting on a call back from the nurse our maintenance man arrived.

I had called in a work order for some mold around a window. Well to clean it up they needed everyone to leave the apartment for at least 2 1/2 - 3 hours. This meant that I had to pack up a sick baby, wrangle two dogs, and carry a purse and diaper bag out to the car. JOY! Luckily I was able to do it without anyone losing any limbs. The dogs were dropped at my mother in-law's house and Sarah and I went to my mom's. Finally the nurse called back and told me to get Pedialyte and give it to Sarah every 5 minutes for 2 hours. Not an easy task when she refuses to drink it. Then I was told that if she didn't have a wet diaper by 7:00 we would need to go to the hospital for IV fluids. Um, no thank you. So I pushed more Pedialyte and we finally got a wet diaper at about 5:00.

Wednesday was spent trying to coax Sarah to drink some formula because it turns out that Pedialyte was pretty good tasting after all and that's all she wanted to drink. So between naps we were able to finish the rest of her Pedialyte and get some formula in her. Then the inevitable happened, I got sick. I was sick all Wednesday night into Thursday. So sick that I asked Ryan to work from home so he could help with Sarah.

He's lucky he stayed home because he got sick Thursday afternoon about the time I started feeling better. My sister came by to watch Sarah so we could nap and rest which was a lifesaver. Finally, we woke up this morning to a fully healthy family! I am so thankful that this bug was not a puke your guts out for five days kind of bug. Plus it was a dark rainy morning which makes for productive 2 1/2 hour naps! I was able to Clorox and Lysol the crap out of our place so hopefully there will be no more sicky germs here.

And last but not least. I had my regular appointment with my OB today. Baby #2 is doing well. Apparently all the puking didn't affect it very much as it had an easy to find heart rate between 140 and 150. Our anatomy scan is scheduled for April 5th at 2:00 so there's about a month left to pick a gender in the poll.

I hope this weekend is pretty low key and stays healthy for us and for you all too.

15 Weeks Today

 *How far along?: 15 Weeks

*Total weight gain: I only get weighed at the doctor and last time I got weighed I was down 5lbs. So I'm hoping I've put on something even if it's just a pound.

*How big is baby?: The size of an orange.


*Maternity clothes?: Kind of. I can wear my regular jeans but they are not that comfortable but maternity jeans kind of hang off of me.

*Sleep?:  I'm doing okay here. For a while I was stuck with just a few hours a night. But Ryan is getting up with Sarah when she wakes up and I am sleeping like a log once I finally get to sleep.

*Best moment this week?: Possibly feeling a few baby flutters last night.

*Movement?: I think so but it's just spontaneous and random. I felt Sarah around 17 1/2 weeks so I'm earlier with this one.

*Food cravings?: Fruits and veggies and Caesar salads.

*Labor signs?: Nope. Nada.

*Belly button in or out?: In

*What I miss: Not too much right now. I'm still able to do most everything I did before. 

*What I'm looking forward to:  My appointment on Friday and getting to schedule the big anatomy scan where we find out the gender.



Speaking of that feel free to vote in the poll on the left side.

After eating a good sized lunch. :)