8 Months - 32 Weeks!

Another month down! We are getting there! 

Ugh, not that I've had a lot of energy to begin with the entire pregnancy, but third tri fatigue has hit me hard. I'm so freaking tired all the time. More than once I've fallen asleep on the couch while Lexi watched Frozen. She's such a sweet girl. She puts a blanket on me, whispers "night-night mommy", and kisses me on the cheek. 

30 weeks

Another awesome thing I've been dealing with is being insanely warm all the time. It's 20 degrees outside and I'm wearing a tank top! Mornings are the worst. I get out of the shower, get dressed, and I can't cool off for the life of me. I usually have to stand out side for a minuet to feel better. I also can't drink hot tea, coffee, or hot chocolate because it makes me too hot. For once I've been really grateful for the cold weather!

The third tri aches and pains have set in. My belly gets sore a lot. It's uncomfortable to lay, sit, stand, everything. I'm so, so grateful for this healthy baby boy, but I'm looking forward to being done. Truthfully, I'm looking forward to be done with TTC, trying to stay pregnant, and the aches and pains of pregnancy. I'm looking forward to completing our family. I'm looking forward to closing this chapter of my life and moving on and just enjoying our little family of four. 

My apps have been going well. I'm going every two weeks now. Nothing really exciting to report. Baby boy seems to be doing well. I haven't been doing actual kick counts, but he moves a lot throughout the day. Some days are slower than others, but I always feel him here and there. My only concern is that at my past couple apps his heart rate has been around 130. I feel like that's low. Lexi always stayed around 150. On my Doppler at home some days he's 130 and other he's 150.

32 week comparison - Lexi in pink and baby boy in blue

How far along? 32 weeks

Total weight gain: 28lbs... I don't want to talk about it...

Maternity clothes? Yes. I still hate my pants. And now my favorite yoga pants are getting tight...

Stretch marks? Nope

Sleep: Most nights are ok, but I'm still dealing with the once or twice a week insomnia. Either I can't fall asleep to begin with, or I wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep.

Best moment this month: Feeling lots of movement. Baby boy is definitely a mover!

Miss Anything? Not having heartburn every night.

Movement: Most days he moves a lot, but every couple days he'll have a quiet day and it'll freak me out.

Food cravings: Fruit and yogurt Special K cereal

Anything making you queasy or sick: Not really

Gender prediction: Still boy :)

Labor Signs: none

Symptoms: heart burn, swelling, 

Belly Button in or out? Out. Way, way out.

Wedding rings on or off? Off. I made it to 31weeks and then my fingers started to swell a lot. They're just not comfortable any more. I broke out my fake ring I wore last time, but it turns my finger green.

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy, but tired

Looking forward to:  Being done

Next app: November 21 and December 1

Lots of Love,

KJsbabe

Adventures In Potty Training - Round 1

I'm doing the "Oh Crap" potty training method with Lexi

Day 1 10/13

It's the end of day one and I'm exhausted. Lexi peed 10 times today. One was a complete miss because she ran away from me, two were completely in the potty because I made her sit, and seven were caught mid stream and most of it got in the potty. She likes to help me dump her pee in the big potty and flush. Then we wave and say "bye bye pee pee!". She didn't like the couple times I told her to sit on the potty. She got mad and said "no I not sit on the potty at all!" She is a crotch grabber. 8 out of 10 times she peed today she grabbed herself and then peed any where from a couple seconds to a few minuets later. She did good at nap time, no peeing. I put her to bed without a diaper. She peed about an hour before bed, but didn't right before. She was willing to sit on the potty (improvement from earlier in the day) and sat for about 10 mins and didn't pee. I'm going to try to have her go around 10:30... If I can stay up for another hour. I'm seriously so tired. No poop today.

I couldn't find a potty chart that I liked, so I made one up myself with her favorite characters. She gets a sticker every time she gets some pee in the potty, sits on the potty, or helps her toys "go to the potty"

Day 2 10/14

Last night Lexi peed somewhere between 12 and 3. I tried to have her go at 12 and she didn't. I checked her at 3 and she was wet (changed just her pants, not the sheets). She had almost dried by 7 when she got up for the day, so she only peed the one time. I'm going to have her try at 1 tonight. 

I wish I saw some definitive progress today, but it was pretty much the same if not worse than yesterday. We started off the day with a 99% miss. I waited and waited for her to pee, finally I had to pee myself. So we went up stairs, I peed, then sat her on the big potty with her Ariel seat. She sat for a minuet and then said "I want off!! I all done!" So I let her off. She ran into mine and KJ's bedroom and peed yelling "I leaking mommy!" I ran and tried to get her back to the potty, but all that really happened was we just spread the pee everywhere. She did poop on the potty this morning, one tiny nugget. She was really proud of making poo poo in the potty. She finally did really poop in the afternoon, but it ended up on the floor. She had just peed, we flushed it, and then I thought I would have a couple minuets to start some laundry (bed sheets from last night). When I came back up stairs she ran to me and said "mommy! My big poo poo fell on the floor!" I was huge, poor girl! Lol I had her help me clean it up and flush it. While I was finishing up she pooped again. "Mommy, I have another tiny poo poo!" Well, at least she's getting used to not pooping in a diaper. 

She peed eight times today, two complete misses, two completely in the potty, and four mid streams. She was willing to sit on the potty when I told her to, which is an improvement from yesterday. I know was over prompting her, though. She kept faking me out by itching herself. I need to get better about reading her signs. I tried to take her outside to play because it was beautiful out today. She had peed not long before, so I put pants on her (commando), and we went out. Not five minuets later she peed her pants. One step forward, one steep back. I'm feeling discouraged. I don't know if we're ever going to get out of "block one".

Day 3 10/15

Day three did not go well. In fact momma's pregnancy hormones took over and I cried most of the day. Not good. I posted on a mommy's group I'm in. A lot of the moms have already gone though PT or are training now. It went a little something like this: 

Day 3 of potty training (ocpt) and I'm so, so discouraged. I feel like we've made zero progress. I've done nothing but stare at her, play with her, and follow her around the house with the potty for the past 3 days and I'm still only catching pees mid stream. I've missed a couple completely. She never gives the same signal twice. One time she'll grab herself, the next she'll run away from me, the next she'll look down as she starts to pee. I truly suck at this. I feel so bad because it's not her, it's me. She's willing to sit on the potty when I tell her and she's excited when she gets some in the potty. I'm a mess, though. I actually cried twice today when I didn't catch her in time she 90% of the pee went on the floor. I'm sure that's sending her the worst message ever, "peeing on the potty makes mommy cry". I just can't keep it together. :(

The general consensus is that she's just not ready. I really thought she was because she's been showing a lot of the readiness signs. But most everyone said that it shouldn't be this hard. She should be catching on more by now. If she's not getting it, she's just not getting. She's still on the young side and there are a lot of changes on the horizon. If I'm getting stressed out to the point of tears I'm not going to be an effective teacher. 

I hate to just up and put her back in diapers, though. We've been focusing so much on potty things and I don't want to confuse her. I also really hate to give up after all the work we've done in the last three days. I think we're going to try pull ups for a while and just take it one dat at a time. 

Day 4 10/16

Well today was much less stressful. We still worked on potty things, but it was much less pressure. Lexi and I even ventured out of the house in a pull up! First time we've been out of the house since Sunday! No real improvements today. I tried putting her in underwear and pants to play in the back yard and told her to keep Elsa clean and dry (Frozen undies), just to see what happened. She pooped, and now she keeps saying "I pooped on Elsa". I guess I won't do that again. I don't want her to get into the habit of going in her undies. 

Day 7 10/20

Well, I guess I didn't realize pull ups would be so much like diapers. When Lexi wears them she treats them just like a diaper. She still tells me when she starts peeing, which I guess is a good sign, but they aren't really helping us a long by any means. I put her back in a regular pocket diaper today and she wasn't phased at all.  *sigh* I guess attempt #1 is over. I'm bummed. I might try again in a month, or just wait until after baby boy is here.

Lots of Love,
KJsbabe

Hello Third Tri! 28 Weeks

Woo hoo! Hello third tri! 12 weeks to go! 

We're getting there! Sometimes it seems like the pregnancy is flying by, and sometimes it feels like I'm right where I should be. 

Well, I made it running as far as 25 weeks. Not quite my goal, but considering I didn't run at all with Lexi, it's better than nothing. I wanted to make it to 30 weeks, or until the weather got too bad, but truthfully I just couldn't hack it any more. Lexi and I would go to the park in the mornings, I would make it though my run (I cut back to 3.2), Lexi would play for a while at the play ground, we'd go home for lunch, and then I would completely crash. I got to the point where I was too tired to even function. I had no energy to play with Lexi, or make dinner, or really do anything more than sit on the couch. This baby loves to suck my energy! I also was getting really bad stitches under my belly every time I ran. Normally I only get them once in a blue moon. I usually clench my abs and they go away in a couple minuets, but my "abs" disappeared around 12 week, so it didn't really help any more. So, I had to quit running for now. Don't worry, I'll be back at it as soon as I'm cleared to exercise again after my c-section. 

My belly button is officially an outie. 26 weeks and there it is! Yikes! It never popped with Lexi. I don't know why it popped this time and so early. 

Another fun thing I've been dealing lately are hot flashes and dizzy spells. I've had three of them in the past month. Once in the morning before I ate breakfast, once in the middle of the night, and once in the morning while eating breakfast. Each time I got really, really warm, the time at night I woke up sweating. I got dizzy, my eyes went fuzzy, and I was nauseous. Really, really fun. I talked to my doctor about it at my 26w4d app. He said it sounds like low blood sugar. So to prevent it I'm supposed to have snacks throughout the day, especially right before bed and first thing in the morning.  

Also at my 26w4d app, my belly was measuring big at 28w, so my doctor had me go for an u/s. I hadn't seen baby boy since our a/s, so it was nice to see his face again :) And he's still a boy :) The tech said "yup, I see some boy stuff down there." He was measuring ahead at  27w5d. Lexi always measured right on, so I think he's going to be a bigger baby than she was. KJ thinks he's going to come early on his own since he's so far ahead. We'll see, I guess!

I also did my GTT at 26w and passed :) We are also in double digit days to go! 

How far along? 28 weeks

Total weight gain: 24lbs... Again I don't even want to talk about it... Since I stopped running I'm still eating like normal, but I'm obviously not burning the calories I was. I lost the weight before, I will do it again. 

Maternity clothes? Yes. Tops and bottoms. My yoga pants are getting tight :(

Stretch marks? Nope

Sleep: Ok. At least once a week I wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep. I'm either hungry, or baby boy is kicking the crap out of me, or I just can't get comfortable. FYI There's nothing on tv at 4am. 

Best moment this month: Getting to see baby boy again on the u/s :)

Miss Anything? Being able to wear my cute jeans.

Movement: Tons! Oh man this boy is active! Anterior placenta?? What's that??

Food cravings: cinnamon toast crunch, pumpkin spice decaf coffee

Anything making you queasy or sick: Lots of heart burn already. Anything the tiniest bit greasy or spicy and I'm popping tums all night. 

Gender prediction: Still boy :)

Labor Signs: none

Symptoms: Heartburn, fatigue

Belly Button in or out? Out! Yikes!

Wedding rings on or off? On, but getting tighter.

Happy or Moody most of the time: Tired, but happy.

Looking forward to: Getting bigger, because that means baby boy is getting bigger, which means he'll be here soon! 

Next app: Oct 20, I'm at every two weeks now! 

Lots of Love,

KJsbabe

Lexi-Pie - My Little Toddler

I'm going to start doing quarterly updates on Lexi. Since she's getting older she's not hitting a new milestone every month like when she was a baby. We're in toddler land now! 

Summer obsession: bubbles... seriously, this kid wants to blow bubbles for freaking hours...

 

Helping unload the dishwasher
 

So, since Lexi turned two in June she has been a busy little girl (not a big girl because as she says, "I still little"). We've been going to the park a lot to jog and play. Social situations have actually taken a huge step back this summer. She had been doing pretty well, still shy, but she was ok with being around and playing with other kids. But then we had a couple play ground incidents where some random little kid ran up to Lexi and screamed in her face for no reason. It happened once with KJ and once with me. I seriously hate other kids sometimes. When it happened with me it scared her so badly the poor girl just clung to me for dear life and balled her eyes out. Since then she's literally been terrified when she sees another kid at the play ground. I think she expects every kid to be scary now like those two little a-holes were. I've talked to her so many times about how it's ok to be nervous, but that most kids are really nice. And that I know she got scared, but mommy and daddy were there and she always safe with us. I feel so bad for her and I really don't know what to do. I know avoiding social situations is not going to make it better, but it's always such a disaster when we go out and try to play. She's fine with adults and older kids, but with kids her age or size she just looses it. It make me sad. :(

A new love: parades! She loves, loves parades and asks to go to one at least once a week!

Running beside the stroller because she wants to "run like mommy does" :D Love that!!

For her birthday Lexi got the movie Frozen... We are officially Frozen obsessed! She seriously can't get enough of this movie. She "sings" all the songs and acts out different parts. She loves to knock on the door and does the whole "do you want to build a snowman" bit. It's freaking adorable!! I got her a set of plush Anna and Elsa dolls and she's in love with them. They sleep with her every night. When we play she's always Anna and I'm Elsa.

Looking at herself in the mirror with her Anna doll

For Lexi's Halloween costume, I asked her a bunch of times what she wanted to dress up as. I didn't want her to say one thing, I make her costume, and then have her decide she wanted to be something else. So first she wanted to be Daniel, then Katerina, then she finally settled on Anna. I really like how her costume turned out! I spent about $13 on the material and trim, so less than it would have been to buy one, and this way when every other girl is dressed up like Anna or Elsa she'll look a little different. :) 

First French braids!

She's really gotten into playing dress up in the past couple weeks. She has a Tinkerbelle shirt and I got her a green tutu to wear with it, so she says she looks like Tink. She also loves her Ariel shirts. I found one at a yard sale that she calls her sparkle Ariel shirt and asks to wear it just about every day. That was $2 well spent! 

The Tinkerbelle outfit


My little tree hugger in her sparkle Ariel shirt. This shirt gets a lot of wear!

Lexi continues to love books. I've read some to her so many times that she has them memorized. She'll sit and "read" them to herself now and recite them pretty close to word for word! I love that she loves to read. I'm really trying to nurture that love so it continues when she gets into school. (Not this year, probably next fall we'll start her in preschool a couple days a week)

Lexi got this doll house for her 1st birthday, but only really started playing with it recently. She loves it now!

Other things, she learned how to pick her nose shortly after her birthday. So, now I'm constantly saying "don't pick your nose" and "get your finger out of your nose". She's a little parrot and repeats pretty much everything I say. Her favorite phrase right now is "don't worry, I promise". She also imitates Daniel Tiger a lot. She pretends to be mad and grrr, or wants to "twirl like Katareina does", or wants to rub noses and say "ugga mugga". She's working on dressing and undressing herself. She can take her jacket and shoes off, sort of pull her pants up, and put her shirt on and off. 

We're heading towards potty training. Lexi is starting to show a lot of the readiness signs, so I think it's time we get more serious about it. Right now we talk a lot about using the potty and practice when she asks to. We have a couple potty books. Princess of the Potty is a good one. It explains step by step how to use the potty, which some of the other books just kind of glaze over it, which isn't terribly helpful. She has yet to actually pee on the potty and doesn't always want to sit on it when I suggest it. So, I'm reading up about it and trying to come up with a game plan. The more I think about it the more I think it will be easier to PT before baby boy comes and deal with possible regression, than to wait and PT after he gets here.

Singing "The Elsa song" (Let it Go) on her "stage" with her "microphone" (the top of my turkey baster lol)


Lexi has been asking for weeks to go to the zoo (thanks DT!) so we all went to the Pittsburgh Zoo on mine and KJ's anniversary. The carousel was the highlight of the trip!


A very tired momma and a happy Lexi :)
 

Lexi is bigger than a 3 month old rhinoceros! 
 

Lots of Love,
KJsbabe

24 weeks! It's V-day!

Baby boy is 24 weeks! We have reach viability day! It feels really good to reach such an important milestone. :) 

6 Months baby!

 

My app on the 8th went well... That is, when I remembered to go to it. I sort of forgot about it! Oops! The 8th was a Monday and the weekend before some good friends of ours got married. KJ was a groomsman so all that week leading up to it I was thinking wedding, wedding, wedding. In the back of my mind I knew I had an app on Monday, but I woke up that morning and thought, "It's a beautiful day, we have nothing to do, let's go to the park to jog and play!" So that's what Lexi and I did! We had just finished jogging and I was pushing Lexi on the swings, and my phone rang.... It was of course the doctor's office calling to see if I had forgotten about my app. Oops! I felt terrible! I was hoping they would have me come in that afternoon instead or maybe the next day, but nope! They wanted me to come in right then! Ugh, the park is only a couple minuets away, so Lexi and I went to my app. Me sweaty, unshowered, and in my workout clothes, and Lexi in her dingy play clothes. Not my best moment... I feel like I need to dress extra nice at my next app to make up for it! But other than that, baby boy's HB sounded good and my fundal height was on track.

The aches and pains of pregnancy are starting to set in. It was right around 24w with Lexi that they started, so not surprising. Things are just going to get more uncomfortable from here! Joy! My belly is heavy. It's hard to get comfortable to sleep. I'm constantly warm. My feet and hands are starting to swell. I hate all pants except yoga pants. I get out of breath walking up and down the stairs. Oy.

But, baby boy seems to be doing good. He kicks and moves around a lot. Last week he kind of gave me a scare. He's usually very active in the evening after Lexi is in bed. Well, last Wednesday I barely felt him move all evening and the morning and afternoon were about the same. I still felt a little kicks here and there, but nothing like it had been. Friday morning I woke up really early because I just couldn't sleep, so I had some breakfast and laid down to see if I could feel him. I felt 10 kicks in 10 minuets, no problem, so that really put my mind more at ease. I have anterior placenta, so I know that can make it harder to feel him in certain positions. I've checked on him with the Doppler a few times and he's still chugging along at 149. 

22w2d at the wedding

How far along? 24 weeks

Total weight gain: 16lbs *le sigh*

Maternity clothes? Shirts yes. Pants depend. I mostly wear yoga pants, but if I feel like I need to look "dressed" I do jeans. If I know I'm going to be sitting a lot I wear maternity jeans because they're more comfortable. The thing I hate about them is that they sag which bugs the crap out of me and I constantly have to pull them up. If I'm going to be walking or standing a lot I wear my "fat jeans" with a belly band because they stay up better. They are pretty uncomfortable to sit in, though. I can't win.

Stretch marks? Nope

Sleep: I'm sleeping ok, but some nights it's hard to get comfortable. Sometimes I wake up laying on my back, which makes me nervous. I don't want to cut off his circulation accidentally.

Best moment this month: Every moment with my healthy little boy is the best :)

Miss Anything? My figure 

Movement: Lots! Baby boy loves to kick! He's a wild man some nights!

Food cravings: Cheese, chocolate

Anything making you queasy or sick: My prenatal when I don't eat enough with them.

Gender prediction: Still boy :)

Labor Signs: none

Symptoms: Lots of movement, my growing belly

Belly Button in or out? In, but getting flatter

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy but tired

Looking forward to: The 3rd tri :)

Next app: Oct 6

Lots of Love,

KJsbabe

20 Weeks! Half Baked!!

We are half way there already! This is going so fast!! I'm feeling good physically and I'm happy to have reached thesis milestone. My belly has grown exponentially. I look like I'm 6 or 7 months, instead of 5. Because of all the growth my belly has been sore a lot in the evenings. It's starting to get hard to bend over already. I've stated to ever so attractive pregnancy squat to pick things up off the floor. I wasn't expecting to have to do that for a while still. I'm much bigger already than I was last time. 

5 months!

Comparison pic: 20w with Lexi (pink) vs 20w with baby boy... I'm huge! Lol

Maternity clothes are a struggle right now. Nothing fits right. I found some small jeans on eBay for a good price and they fit well when I tried them on. But the first time I wore them out I hated them. I'm disappointed. They were hard to move in and they cut into my belly at the bottom while still sagging down in the back. I joked about it before, but I think I'm really just going to wear yoga pants for the rest of this pregnancy! 

18w in my new mat jeans... Too bad I hate them!

KJ and I have been doing more work on the nursery. The room is all cleaned out now. I primed the dresser and painted the book shelf. I need to get some feet for the shelf and new hard wear for the dresser. I need to get KJ priming the walls. I really want to get all the painting done while the weather is warm so I can do the small things outside and we can air things out when he paints inside. 

How far along? 20 weeks

Total weight gain: I don't even want to admit to this one. I'm up 13lbs *hides head in shame* My original goal was to be at 6lbs at 20w so I would be free to gain a pound a week for the rest of the pregnancy and I'd end up right at my end goal of 25lbs. Well, the best laid plans... Granted, my belly really grew a lot this month, but 9lbs in 4 weeks! Ugh. Not what I wanted to see :( I know this gain is for the best reason there is, but it's really hard watching the scale go up. I was over weight all though school up until I graduated college, and I worked really hard to get to where I am/was. But I keep telling myself I lost all 47lbs after Lexi, I can and will do it again.

Maternity clothes? I don't even want to talk about clothes right now. I'm so over them!

Stretch marks? Nope

Sleep: Sleeping well most nights. I can't lay on my back any more, so every night I try to focus on laying on my side. I usually wake up at least once on my back, though :/

Best moment this month: Finding out that we're having a boy!!! I'm so excited!

Miss Anything? Sleeping on my back and clothes that fit.

Movement: Yes! I finally started feeling little kicks around 17 weeks. I found out at our a/s that I have an anterior placenta this time, so that explains it a little. I mostly feel kicks on the sides and bottom. Baby boy still loves to kick my bladder.

Food cravings: Soy milk, tomato sauce 

Anything making you queasy or sick: Cereal and milk. This is Lexi breakfast of choice right now and it's better if I eat the same thing she does or else she wants whatever I have and not her own. Blah

Gender prediction: I was right! Boy!!

Labor Signs: none

Symptoms: My ever growing belly, shortness of breath. I'm starting to really slow down, I get really tired after I run.

Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy most of the time. I gave into my no caffeine rule and now I feel like a whole new person! Lol

Looking forward to: Reaching v-day next month!

Next app: Sept 8 for a check up

Lots of Love,

KJsbabe

And a cute Lexi pic :)

We're Having A...

We had our anatomy scan today and everything went really well! Baby looked great! We got to see the heart, arteries, kidneys, spine, brain, head, abdomen, arms, legs, placenta, cord, nose, lips, face, and everything looked just as it should. HB was 157 and baby was even measuring 6 whole days ahead at 19w3d! I was really surprised because everything, arms, legs, head, abdomen, and spine were measuring ahead. Baby also weighted 10oz. They were wiggling around and sucking their fingers :) All in all, we have a healthy LO! 

I'm so happy and so relieved that everything is going well! Also at our scan we were able to find out the gender! :) When the tech zoomed in on the area it was pretty obvious. With Lexi we were 90% sure she was a girl and there was nothing indicating boy, but there was always a little doubt. Well this time there is no doubt about it! Lol

We're having a BOY!!

I'm so excited!! I've always wanted one of each :) I feel like everything has come full circle now. I always felt like one or both of my losses were boys, so finally having and getting to meet our boy feels really good. It feels right. This baby will complete our family! 

And now on the planning!! Now that we know what the sex will be we can start on the nursery and I can start yard saleing for baby boy clothes! First thing is to clean the room out. It's been our guest room/ storage room/ cat room/ catch all room since we bought our house five years ago. There's a lot of stuff that will need a new home. Then KJ will need to do lots of priming. There's a beach mural on one of the walls from the previous owners. We never had a reason to redo the room before, so we never painted over it. So much to do and we're almost half way there already! January will be here before we know it!

I found a great announcement idea on Pintrest and I made scratch off cards to send to our families. They were easy to make and turned out well!

Lots of Love, 

KJsbabe