Ian's 2 week Stats

Look how different he looks just after a week or two! Geez! I swear he gets CUTER and CUTER every day...I love him!

Ok let's get down to business. I took him in for his 2 week checkup with the pediatrician last Thursday. Apparently when they measured him after he was born, they overestimated (either that or he's shrinking) bc the nurse measured him 4 times and each time she only got 20.87"! When he was born they said he was 21.5"! Ha ha ha. The nurse was all worried about my reaction but it wasn't a big deal to me--I thought it was kind of funny. Only, now, his birth stats are off on his length, but oh well.

He weighed in at 8 lbs 10 oz, so he was able to regain his birth weight and then some (which is what they want babies to do) . I think he only weighed about 7 lbs 13 oz when we left the hospital. He's now in the 47th percentile for his weight. This "average" weight is so foreign to me since Jase always seemed to be in the 80's or 90's for his stats. Crazy!

Here's my favorite part--his head size. I just assumed I'd have another baby with a big head like the first time around (hence part of my reasoning electing a 2nd c-section). But nope, his head measures only 14.2", which lands him in the 28th percentile! Shocker to us all!

So far everything is going pretty well with Ian. He eats well, poops & pees well, sleeps fairly well...a pretty good baby overall. I could not be more grateful for this healthy, sweet little baby boy nugget face. Sometimes I just need to hold him and breathe him in...it's enough to overwhelm anyone's heart. I'll just sit there and cry and cry, just happy to have him and wonder about what the future holds for him. Sigh. He's such a beautiful tiny gift.

Big Bro, Little Bro...

Took these when Ian was about 1 week old. He doesn't look all that small sitting on Jase's lap!
Heh heh, cute. Jase kept looking over at Reuben while I was taking pics.
He started to get more "brave" and started playing with Ian's arms. However, you should have seen his face when Ian actually started crying. He scooted away from the baby really fast!
Trying to get an idea of the height difference between these two. Hee hee. I love Ian's crazy eye (looking at his dad like, "what are you doing to me?") in this pic.

A few more pics...

These are when Ian was about 1 week old. I have lots more to post, they are just still stuck on my SD card. More to come. Here he is chillin' out in his bouncer seat (which I am in love with).
Sunbathing time! He needed some sun bc of the jaundice, so I used the shadow as his "sunglasses." Hee hee.
Ian's first trip to Chick-Fil-A in the carseat. Don't cha love his homemade "headrests?"
Ooh! His eyes were finally open long enough for me to snap a pic. Roob was holding him here.

3 + 1 = 4

Checking out of the hospital on Sunday, April 11, 2010. Our first family of 4 picture :)

More Pics of Ian from the Hospital

I have so many pictures to post--sigh. But here's a start! Just a day or two old in the hospital. He finally opened his eyes and we snapped a couple pics!
Ha ha, cute face here.
Hee hee, not so happy here! I took this one right before I fed him, I think. Hence the mad face.
So sweet sleeping on his side in the hospital bassinet. If you look at the top-left of the picture, you can see his little black & white sunglasses they put on him underneath the billiruben lights.
I love how cute his little face looks in this picture, the light catching in his eyes. That's grandma Jenith holding him. She spent Saturday night in the hospital with me to give Reuben a break.
Awww, sound asleep on my chest...look at those squishy cheeks!
Another sleepy middle of the night picture. Don't I just look dashing??? Ok let's focus our attention on Ian here. :)
We started dressing him in his "going home" outfit. Here's the first part of it and it is HUGE on him. Oh well. He still looks cute anyways!
Ok here's the entire thing. It's such a cute outfit but the hat & pants are gigantic! Size 0-3 months was just too big for my little 8 pounder! My sister sent the cute loafers for him, but since they wouldn't let us remove his ankle bracelets until we left the hospital (for security reasons), they wouldn't fit!
Here's a view of the back of his pants--a little bear bottom! Hee hee.
More pics to come soon...when I get a chance to post!

do u have CAADD???

"Child Activated Attention Deficit Disorder

This is how it manifests:

I decide to do the laundry. As I start toward the basement, I notice that there are cheerios all over the floor and my car keys are in the cereal bowl. I decide to pick up the cheerios before I do the laundry. I lay my car keys down on the counter, put the cheerios in the trash can under the counter, and notice that the trash can is full. So, I decide to take out the trash. But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the trash I may as well pay the bills first. I take my checkbook off the table, and see that there is only one check left, my extra checks are in my desk in the office/playroom, so I go to my desk where I find a sippy cup full of juice. I'm going to look for my checks, but first I decide I should put the sippy cup in the refrigerator to keep it cold. As I head toward the kitchen with the sippy cup a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye - they need to be watered. I set the sippy cup on the counter, and I discover baby wipes that I've been searching for all morning. I decide I better put them back in the bathroom, but first I'm going to water the flowers. I set the wipes back down, fill a container with water and suddenly I spot the TV remote, one of the kids left it on the kitchen table. I realize that after school when they go to watch TV, I will be looking for the remote as they fight over who lost it, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers. I splash some water on the flowers, but most of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back down, get some paper towels and wipe up the spill. Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day: the laundry isn't washed, the bills aren't paid, there is a warm cup of juice sitting on the counter, the flowers aren't watered, there is still only one check in my checkbook, I can't find the remote, I can't find the wipes, and I don't remember what I did with the car keys. When I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day long, and I'm really tired. I realize this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mail." (got this off of a friend's blog who got it off of another blog, but it made me laugh bc this is so totally my problem)

Ian Christian

So we have officially named our child! Thought I'd let you know in case you don't do the Facebook thing. I've always liked the name Ian (thank goodness Reuben did, too, bc I swear we could not agree on hardly any other names), and we saw "Christian" on a list of family names my mom had sent me a while back. It comes from her mother's side of the family. Anyways, we liked that name, too, and it just so happens that the baby's initials spell "ICE." Funny, cuz Jase's initials spell "JOE," so we thought we'd continue with that "tradition" just for fun.

We left the hospital early Sunday afternoon. Ian's jaundice levels had been fairly high a day or tw earlier, so they increased his feedings and kept him under the billiruben (sp?) lights for at least 24 hrs. By Sunday morning his levels had dropped back into the low risk category, so they let me take him home (yes!). We have to take him in for a 2nd checkup tomorrow morning, though, just to make sure he's ok. I think he is. He had plenty of dirty diapers last night (always a good sign for the jaundiced thing). But I think increasing his feedings temporarily at the hospital has already increased my milk supply. He has way more than he needs--so I'm hoping that gets naturally resolved over the next couple of days.

Anyways, I should be using this time to rest, but I wanted to do a quick update for ya.

Want a kiss??

I gotta send this to America's Funniest Videos so we can win the big money! :) This was the first time Jase was meeting little Ian (yes, we have officially decided on "Ian Christian" for the name--finally) and Roob and Grandma Jenith were trying to convince him to give Ian a kiss. SO FUNNY! Hope you think it is as funny as I do!!!

Arrival of Baby #2

Wow, what a day. We had to check into the hospital at 5:30am (what?). Lame. I had to change into the lovely hospital gown and get all set up with paperwork and an IV. The nurse who set me up was very sweet, however she had a bit of trouble with the IV. Tried in right arm first, didn't work. Then tried left arm right above wrist. I wasn't looking but somehow quite a bit of blood washed over my arm (eew) during the entire process...she got it in and had to draw some blood for bloodwork, but the excess blood loss made me get all sorts of woozy. Only lasted for a few minutes and then I was ok. We just had to sit around and wait a while after that. I was hooked up to a baby monitor, so we could hear the baby's heartbeat--oh, and just so happens I was naturally having a few contractions! Ha! (But I couldn't feel a thing).

Anyways, probably about 7:30am they took me back into the operating room. It's so stark and cold in there. I started to get pretty nervous. The anesthesiologist was great, though. Very nice and calming. He had me lay on my side and gave me the local to numb up that spot on my back. That wasn't too bad. He said that was the worst part--but nope. Even though my back was technically numb, you can feel them putting in the real catheder/tube thingy. Eeks! It sort of sends an electric jolt into your back, but it's fairly quick. It made me jump, but soon afterwards my legs started getting tingly and soon went numb. Ahhh, sweet numbness. Of course my biggest fear is feeling ANY sort of pain!

The actual surgery went by pretty quickly and I was alert the entire time. The doctor said I had very little scar tissue, so it made for an easier repeat caesarian. Cool. Anyways, at first it felt like someone had a tube into my uterus and blowing bubbles. Bizarre. Lots of pulling and tugging, pulling and tugging. Next thing ya know, I hear a baby crying! OH CUTE! They held him up for me to see, all white and goopey. He was so much smaller looking than I had expected! I could hear him crying and crying while they were cleaning him up (in the same room) so that was fun. A bit more tugging and pulling sensation while they were getting me put all back together. Our little guy weighed 8 lbs, 3 oz, was born at 8:12am, and was 21.5" long. Nice!

Then they wheeled me off to the recovery room. I think I was in there for almost 2 hours (or so it felt). Roob was in the nursery with the baby. They kind of wash you off in there and wait for some feeling to come back into your legs, etc. But they leave the epidural in your back for another 24 hrs or so to deliver pain meds. It's nice, actually. Keeps you pretty comfortable without all the droggy side effects of the oral narcotics such as Percocet (which I think they'll start giving me on day #2). At one point they brought the baby to me in there so I could try nursing but he was still pretty fussy (has a nice set o' lungs) so it didn't go too well.

Eventually I was ready to go to my official post-delivery room about 10:30am. Hooray! Roob and baby joined me in there. We got lots of comments from nurses and staff about how much stuff we brought with us. It was pretty funny. We stuffed a bunch of pillows and other things into this huge "tent" carrying bag that someone here referred to as a "body bag." LOL. Yeah, we look like crazies. But hey, I have everything I could possibly want here with me. 'Specially if I'm going to be here for 3 to 4 days! Heh heh. Jase came to see his little bro for the first time and daddy snapped a cute pic of the two of them...love it! I was so nervous about how Jase would react. He seemed pretty disconnected with it all and wanted to push all the cool hospital gadget buttons. Daddy took him for a walk outside to see the ducks while my mom and I visited.
Oh, gotta love little yawns!
I finally got to stand up and walk around...pretty sore! LOL.Carrying the baby around...
This picture makes him look SO BEEFY, but it's an illusion. He's really lean and small! I need to get a naked pic of him so you can tell...
Love baby feet!
Hi there, it's me, your cute baby boy!
Oh his little cheeks...
Grandma Jenith getting in some baby lovin'...she's been housesitting and taking care of Jase for us (huuuuuge thank you for that)!
Grandpa and Grandma Erickson came to meet the new little guy after work! We had a fun visit!

Easter Egg Hunting

There was too much snow at our house, so I took Jasey to our vacant rental house to do his Easter egg hunt in the backyard there. This was his first few egg finds...
And here's him finding some more eggs after that...

Jase eating some of his loot...

Jase on the Trike

Jase learned how to pedal the bike all on his own! So cute!

Baby #2 Update 3.31.10

Had my very last doctor's appt yesterday evening. For the first time since I've seen this doctor, I had to wait longer than 10 min to get in (probably 30 or 40). She had a delivery and got a little behind. She's so fast, though, so it wasn't a bad wait. I can't complain. With my first pregnancy I saw a midwife and no joke, I'd wait an average of 1 to 3 hours (yes hours) to see her at EVERY APPOINTMENT. For that reason alone, I will be thankful for my new doc. However, sometimes I wish she were a teeny weeny bit more chatty than she is. I swear she says like 10 sentences to me and that's it. It's kind of funny. She's nice, though. What do ya do? Anyways, blah blah.

So it looks like the baby is about 8 pounds. He has one week left until his birthday. I wonder if he knows?? Heh heh. I'm getting pretty anxious about the whole thing. I asked the doctor yesterday if they do an epidural or a spinal or what--and she said they do like a "combo" of both. Huh? Then she raced on to say something like they leave the epidural in for 24 hours so I don't have to be on narcotics. Huh? I always have more questions but since she's not chatty person, I get a bit intimidated and just nod my head like I get it. Well, I don't really get it, but I'll ask more questions at the hospital. Even though I had a section with Jase, I don't remember all the details and it was a bit different, bc it wasn't scheduled and I had been induced and did the whole "laboring" thing for a few hours. Anyways--

Someone asked me to ask the doctor if they could do like a mini tummy tuck after the c-section. I didn't want to ask bc I felt soooo dumb about it. Well I should have followed my instincts bc of course I asked and my face flushed into a bright, hot red color. She rattled off something about how that's major plastic surgery and they don't do that. The only way they even trim a teeny bit of skin is if you have major scar tissue. Oh. Yeah. Ok. Mmm hmm. Sorry I asked. I felt like a real chump. Ugh. So no tummy tucks for me!

I have to be at the hospital at 6am, and they'll do the surgery (scary, right?) at 7:30am. Not sure when pictures will get posted bc I do remember being pretty out of it for a while after I had Jase. But they'll get posted eventually. :) I'll be bringing the laptop!!! Until then, I'll be taking deep breaths to calm my nerves...

I Moved!

Ok, it's not quite what you think. I moved from Century 21 (been there for the last 4 years) to Equity Real Estate. I've been thinking about switching brokerages for a while now...but I hadn't found the right fit. I had interviewed with maybe 4 or 5 other brokers over the past year or so, but so far I hadn't clicked with any of them (except one, but I wasn't thrilled with the way the paycheck system worked). Anyways, my husband's good friend, Chris, has been working with Equity for a while now and he loves it. So I decided to meet with the broker there and it was a hit! I really liked him and how everything was set up. First of all, it's a flat fee company. What that means is that with every house deal I close, I pay a pre-set amount to the company, no matter what the purchase price is on the home. Love this!

At Century 21, they had me on a percentage split--so when I closed a deal, first all the commission went to C21, then they take like 8% off the top of that to go toward the national brand, then they'd split it roughly 70/30 and I'd get the 70% of what was left. ANYWAYS--the point is, since I've had Jase I pretty much work from home. I hardly ever ever ever go into the office (so I'm not using any equipment, lights, desk space, etc) and I never make it to sales meetings either (too hard with a toddler). Yet I was still paying so much of my check to them and it just didn't make any sense. And now I mostly work off of referrals, so I'm not as busy as I was a year or so ago--so every penny I make counts! Now that I'm with Equity, I think it will just be a great fit for me. Everything is done via fax/online and I submit/enter it all myself (paperwork, etc.) which is pretty much how I've been doing it anyways. They have very little overhead so the company can survive with the agents paying so much less of their checks to the company. The broker is really friendly and easy to talk to (bonus) which is super important to me. Though I will miss my friends at C21 dearly, I'm looking forward to doing my next real estate deal with Equity! So keep me posted if y'all know anyone who needs to buy or sell!!!

Jase & The Dentist (and other tidbits)

Yes, I forgot to take my camera along. Oh well, I guess it didn't matter much anyways bc Jase refused to sit in the dentist chair. When asked, he just sweetly said "Nooooo" with his lips puckered out (it's a cute way he says no, I should try to get it on video sometime). The night before at home we played "dentist," and I put a lamp in my face, laid down, and let Jase poke around in my mouth with a toothbrush. Then we did it to him, too. I think that helped a bit. In retrospect, I think it would have been good to have him actually watch me getting my teeth cleaned so that he would have a chance to get used to the experience and the dental staff before they tried to look at his teeth.

Anyways, he did sit in the regular chair and show the hygienist (and dentist) how he brushes his teeth. He even opened up his mouth for them to look at. They said he had a bit of crowding with his teeth (whatever that means), but until the permanent teeth start coming in (around age 5-6) we wouldn't know for sure if he's going to have crooked teeth or not. Poor Roob had lots of teeth problems when he was a child, so he is worried that Jase may have inherited this from him. But for now, his teeth look great and that's good news. The dentist also felt his jaw and said that it feels like it's aligned well (phew). Then Jase got to pick a prize out of the big treasure chest they had (he chose a squishy green ball) and got a cool new toothbrush to try out! By the time Jase was done, then he wanted to play around with the equipment some more. The hygienist let him push the buttons to move the dental chair up & down, and he actually sat in it! So I think next trip will be better.

After the dentist trip, we went to Target. They have Toy Story 1 & 2 for sale in a DVD/BluRay disc combo set. Each movie also includes a free movie ticket to Toy Story 3 (coming this summer to theaters)! If you buy both 1 & 2 at Target, you get $10 off. Also, I check a website called "slickdeals.net" where I found more coupons that Disney is offering for another $10 off for each DVD. So basically you get $30 off if you buy 1 & 2. I have been wanting to get these movies for Jase bc I hear how much little boys just loooove Toy Story. I was sooo excited! So we go to the store and sure enough they only had Toy Story 1 on the shelf. Everything else was sold out. Blah blah blah of course. So we go to customer service and this poor girl spends like 30 minutes (seriously I still am not sure why this took soooo long??) calling other stores and checking to see if they had it. She called about 4 or 5 stores and one of those calls was to store about 20 min away. Whomever she spoke with there told her they had some but they were on hold. When she hung up and told us that, we said "I thought y'all couldn't hold sale items?" and she said, "Oh yes, you're right. Weird." So we just took our little selves straight to the store that was "holding" some (because ALL of the other Target stores were sold out). I walked in and explained to customer service what was going on. She said they didn't have any on hold but she'd check with electronics dept. So I went over there and a guy met me there. I relayed the info that we'd been told at the other Target store, and I said "If y'all are holding any I'd like to buy a copy of both Toy Story 1 & 2 bc you're not allowed to do that." So he opens up the bin and sure enough, there was a set that was wrapped with a note that they were holding it for someone. AH HA! So he asked me if that is what I wanted and I said, "YES." Done. He took the note off and handed them both over to me. I was soooooooo excited!! In case you didn't know, Toy Story has been NO WHERE to be found on the shelves in any stores for quite some time now. I knew that when Toy Story 3 came out they'd re-release the other videos...I didn't want to lose out on my sweet coupons either, so all in all it ended well. I got the videos for a STEAL (both for under $20, and they each come with a regular DVD-good for car-and a BluRay disc-good for the house, oh AND 2 free tickets to Toy Story 3) AND Jase now has a totally awesome Easter present. :) To infinity and beyond!

Baby #2 Update for March 18th

Had another doctor's visit today. According to the u/s measurements they think this boy already weighs 7 lbs! I have three weeks left, and at about .5 lb/week that'll put him at about 8.5 lbs when he's born! So we're taking bets as to how much bigger or smaller he'll truly be.

I am actually getting really excited about the baby coming. Finally. I feel a lot of my stress leaving and I can now focus on this little bundle of joy that is coming. I look at Jase and how much I love him and how cute he CAN be (ok, how cute he IS) and wonder what little brother's personality will be like.

The thing causing me the most anxiety is the nursing thing. Anyone who knows me knows how horrific it was for about 4 to 5 weeks my first time around...so now I am just trying to put that out of my head and tell myself if it's THAT bad again, I don't HAVE to do it. I don't have to cry and dread each and every feeding around the clock for days and days. That is what Similac is for--LOL. So we'll see. Besides that, today I am just really looking forward to meeting this little guy!

And names. Oh names. Ugh. So far it's still a toss up between Cody or Ian. Keep in mind it has to sound good with our last name as well as good with Jase's name (you know, when someone asks me "what's your boys' names?" I can say "Cody and Jase," etc. Make sense?)

Here's a few others on the list: Rowan, Lane, Drew, Liam (like it but kinda mouthy with our last name), Jack, Joey. I'm open to plenty of other suggestions, too. Hit me up in the comments.

No Energy & Too Many Things to do

I am cooking dinner for our church's missionaries tonight. Normally I get excited about cooking for people, but today I just want to crawl in bed and sleep. My ENTIRE house needs to be cleaned. Leaning over and picking things up off the floor is a 36 week pregnant lady's worst nightmare. It's miserable. I want to hire a maid. Oh and my good friend and her boyfriend are coming over, too. I feel completely overwhelmed and plain exhausted. And there's a 2 year old running around tossing things all over the place as I pick them up, dipping the broom in the toilet, spraying the water bottle all over his clothes, and taking apart the vacuum. Life.

I am doing a mostly "green" theme with the food since it's ST. Patty's Day. I should be cleaning/cooking now but I just can't do it. All my body wants me to do is SIT DOWN. I'm making green kool-aid, cheesy bread, lima beans w/ ham over rice, krista's bringing a green salad, and for dessert I'm doing individual fruit pizzas with kiwi (green), strawberries, and bananas. Sounds yummy, right? I am sure it will all be great. As long as I can get up off this chair and start cooking. They'll be here in 3 hours. ARGH!!!!

This weekend is also my birthday. Of course I have NO PLANS, what's new. I can't even narrow down what I want to do. Ideally I think I'd like to just hang out with my cute hubby (sans Jase), but that means I need a sitter. And then what will we do? I am not in the mood to plan anything, but I know if I don't then I'll be all bummed out we didn't do anything special or fun. Not to mention the next time the 2 of us get any alone time will be about 5 years from now--new baby coming soon, ya know. Sigh. Any ideas?

Wow, what a whiny post.

Winter non-Wonderland

This morning Jase woke up before me. I was up at 3 in the morning with horrible heartburn due to eating spaghetti the night before and not taking a heartburn pill. OOPS. Anyways, I heard him playing in his room so I went in there to go get him (we've taught him not to come out of his room until mom or dad comes in there to get him). When I opened the door, at first I didn't see him. He had climbed on top of the changing table and was laying there on his back playing with the powder and said, "Hey mom, can you change my poo poos?" Ha. Funny. Ok, so I did. I'm still not exactly sure how he got on top of that changing table, though. It's pretty high off the ground, so that's not good. Anyways, being as pregnant as I am, about halfway through the diaper change I had to go pee really bad. I finished him up and left for about 1 minute.

Upon returning, half of his room and everything in it was COVERED in a blanket of powder. ARGH!!!!!! He had shaken powder from up on top of the changing table and it was in EVERY nook and cranny you can imagine. GRRRREAT way to start off the day, right? I'm so pregnant that it is just uncomfy to get on my hands and knees and try to use all the mini vac attachments to suck up powder from the furniture. I was beyond irritated (but this time I tried really hard not to fuss too much at Jase like I did the other day--heh heh). Oh, and for those of you who don't know, his room has black furniture in it--so you can imagine having a white powder snowfall in there was just awesome.

At least it forced me to dust. :)

This Woman's Work.

How have I lived almost 35 years and not heard this song before? Last night on American Idol Michael Lynch sang this at the end of the show. I wasn't really sure what the song was all about, but after everyone was raving over it I had to do a bit of googling on it. Apparently, it was originally written for a movie called, "She's Having a Baby." I watched a clip (click HERE for movie clip) from the movie where the song is played, and it's basically about this young couple having their first child but the child is breeched and she ends up having surgery. The song is playing during the surgery scene (they won't let the husband come in and he panics) and the husband is reflecting back on their life, and all the things he shoulda woulda coulda done better, etc. I was crying like a hormonal pregnant woman watching it! Wait, I am! So back on AI, I really liked how Kara cried and said that she could relate since she didn't have a child (that made me sad). For some reason I really like her--she is my favorite judge. And then it was so sweet how Simon was with her (y'all know he's usually so grumpy). So overall it was a good moment on AI and I thought I'd post the link here if you wanted to see the performance. I love gospel, I love soul--so I really liked his rendition of this song. CLICK HERE for the american idol clip.

Here's the lyrics to the song, I think they can be interpreted in a few different ways--which is always cool with songwriting...

Pray God you can cope.
I stand outside this woman's work,
This woman's world.
Ooh, it's hard on the man,
Now his part is over.
Now starts the craft of the father.

I know you have a little life in you yet.
I know you have a lot of strength left.
I know you have a little life in you yet.
I know you have a lot of strength left.

I should be crying, but I just can't let it show.
I should be hoping, but I can't stop thinking

Of all the things I should've said,
That I never said.
All the things we should've done,
That we never did.
All the things I should've given,
But I didn't.

Oh, darling, make it go,
Make it go away.

Give me these moments back.
Give them back to me.
Give me that little kiss.
Give me your hand.

(I know you have a little life in you yet.
I know you have a lot of strength left.
I know you have a little life in you yet.
I know you have a lot of strength left.)

I should be crying, but I just can't let it show.
I should be hoping, but I can't stop thinking

Of all the things we should've said,
That were never said.
All the things we should've done,
That we never did.
All the things that you needed from me.
All the things that you wanted for me.
All the things that I should've given,
But I didn't.

Oh, darling, make it go away.
Just make it go away now.

Baby Belly @ 34 Weeks

Nothing like trying to take a sidewards pic of yourself in the dark in a tiny bathroom and hoping the camera doesn't fall off the shelf above the toilet and into the toilet! LOL. Didn't happen, by the way. :) But you should have seen how many pics I took that had my head cut out of them! Ha ha ha.A scary shot from the front...hello basketball!
Figured I better stay consistent and take another one (like I did at 29 weeks) standing in the living room.
Not sure my belly can stretch any farther! I am paranoid about getting even more stretch marks so I make sure to lotion up with this vitamin E stuff I found at Sam's. I have 5 more weeks to go, so I hope my skin can take it! I found these jeans online from Gap. When I first ordered them they were too big and saggy (hate that), so I took a risk and ordered a size smaller. Score! They fit MUCH better and stay up pretty good when I'm walking around. However, sitting down can be a problem bc they only have a small demi stretch panel on them, so it tends to hurt if I'm sitting for too long. Oh well, they are the best fitting pants I have at the moment!

Baby #2 update

Hi. I feel rather guilty for how LITTLE I've documented my 2nd pregnancy. For my 1st one, I had a pregnancy diary and everything! I was all over it! I guess the "novelty" has worn off or something--or maybe it's just because my life is much more hectic with a toddler in it. Yeah, I'll take that last excuse.

I have a doctor's appointment in just a little while. We are supposed to be scheduling the C-section today! I am so anxious about the entire thing! Yet at the same time, the belly is becoming a bit cumbersome, so it will be nice to get this little (or big) guy outta me. This pregnancy overall hasn't been too bad--I was less sick during my 1st trimester than I was with Jase. My 2nd trimester is what really gave me a run for my money. My sciatic joint problems were oh, so painful. From what I researched online, that is typically the time frame where it will be a problem if it's going to be. For me, it sure was! I remember days I could barely walk, much less sit on the ground, lean over, etc. It was awful. Then one day, it was gone! Woo hoo! So now really I have been feeling pretty good overall...the heartburn was getting a bit ridiculous so I finally gave in to the Zantac (hallelujah!). That has helped a TON. I try to take only one/day at the most. So far that seems to be plenty sufficient. I haven't really had any major cravings except for 2 things: cold cereal with milk, and Coke. Yes, Coke. It's nuts. I know it isn't good for the baby so I try to avoid it--but wow, is the craving ever strong. And McDonald's has the BEST fountain Coke around. So if I see those golden arches and my car starts pulling into the parking lot...well...heh heh.

Update: Ok I'm back from the doctor's appointment! Baby is growing well! According to the ultrasound he's about 5 pounds 11 oz. I still have 5 weeks to go, and they estimate the baby growing about a half pound per week...so that puts him at roughly 8 pounds when he will be born. My doctor will be scheduling the c-section for April 8th. I have to be there at 6am. This is so strange to have like a "D-day!" Ha ha ha. But it's nice, too, bc it will make it so much easier to make arrangements for Jasey. Anyways, I am all sorts of anxious and nervous--ugh. I just hope he's healthy and strong. Oh and by the way, at my previous 2 appointments I've managed to stay the same weight. However, at this one I've gained 4 lbs in just 2 weeks! Eeks! But I can't complain--throughout this pregnancy I've lost more weight than I've gained, and for that I am super thankful!

One more thing. Forgot to say a couple nights ago while laying in bed, I felt the baby hiccuping! I have never noticed that before, so it was kind of cute.