Wednesday, August 27, 2014

21 months


On the 21st you turned 21 months and also became a big sister.  I had to leave you for only the 3rd and 4th overnights and it was way harder on mommy then it was you.  You've taken this big sister role really good so far.  There's been a little acting out but I'm not sure if that's because of the big changes or just typical 21 month behavior.  Either way, it's been rare and you are head over heels over your real life baby doll.  Constantly wanting to hold him, must have him in the same room as you and tell me that he needs to eat when he cries.  I really hope the newness doesn't wear off and that you'll continue to be a mini mommy.


Our scale is saying you weigh 24 pounds and I haven't the slightest clue how tall you are.  You seem so much heavier after carrying around a 7lb pound baby but your still just a little thing.  Haven't been able to make the 18-24 month clothes leap yet.  You can in shirts but rompers and shorts in that size fall off you.  Guess we'll be able to finish the summer with your 12-18 month clothes.  I'm a little sick of them but we'll manage.  Size 5 shoes are getting small but 6's are too big.  Why most stores don't make 1/2 size toddler shoes I'll never know.  You just had your 4th molar pop through so now we are up to 12 teeth. I should probably schedule that first dentist appointment. 

Eating is hit or miss.  Fruit is still the first thing gone and you do pretty good with peas and corn but the main course is effy.  Unless of course it's mac and cheese, hot dogs, pizza or a cheese burger.  You eat chicken nuggets good at home (with honey) but not at restaurants.  Can't figure that one out.  You usually ask for ice in your water and can put juice down in 5 seconds flat.  Which is why you rarely get it.  Snacks are a pain in my butt.  You pretty much turn down any type of cracker besides cheez its so that limits my snack ideas.


We had about a 4 day sleeping hiatius where nap and bedtime was a crying/screamfest.  You would even wake up in the middle of the night crying.  Luckily, it was short lived and you are back to sleeping from about 8pm-7:30am.  After taking about 4 baby dolls, 3 stuffed animals and 6 books to bed with you.  I always go in and move everything after you fall asleep because that doesn't leave you much room to sleep on your toddler bed.  Naps are 1.5-2 hours although you'll play in your bed for a good 30 min. after waking up in the morning and from nap. 

Aunt Amy must be a speech teacher because she had you saying all sorts of new words when she stayed with you.  Mamie (Amy) being one of them.   You used to call babies "nana" so I was shocked when you came to the hospital saying baby. I guess you asked "where baby at?" all the way to the hospital.    I hear  "Where mamie at?" and "Where Zozo at?" on the daily.  We gave Zoe to Amy a couple weeks ago.  2 dogs and 2 kids was just more then we could handle and the dogs weren't getting the attention they needed.  Your always petting Elsie and you like to hold her leash when we go for a walk. We can't always understand you but your rambling a ton of sentences now. 

thought it was just luck at first but you always picks the D and M out of her foam letters in the bath tub.  You find the D and say daddy and say mama when you find the M.  Your imagination has really grown this month.  Apparently soap comes from under your picnic table and you make sure we all (including Elsie) stay up on our hygiene.  There's a little area at the park playground where we pretend your serving me food.  You'll bend down and act like your getting something and then hand me my pretend food.  Buckling your chest clip of the car seat is a new trick.  A meltdown is sure to occur if we don't let you do it too.  Same with getting you dressed and undressed. You can't do it completely on your own but hate having us help you so that usually ends well.  Have I mentioned how independent you are? We don't even bother with high chairs at restaurants.  You want your own chair and are just fine standing up to eat your food because you won't sit in a booster seat either.  I don't understand it since you still sit in your high chair that hooks onto our table at home.  We usually let you eat your snacks at your picnic table but meals are at the table with mom and dad.  


Sharing isn't your best quality so we are working on that.  You do pretty good sharing when it's not your toys but are more possessive at home.  Guess that's what happens when your an only child and don't go to daycare.  We have at least 1 play date a week so you get a little practice with sharing.  We need to get back into going to story time and stuff like that now that we can't go to the pool every day and we both get cabin fever very easily. 


CC bug, thank you for taking on your new big sister role like a champ.  You make us so proud and we are madly in love with you. 


Thanks to my sis for capturing all these pics! 

Monday, August 18, 2014

38 weeks


How far along: 38 weeks (8/12/14)

Size of baby: Around 6.8 pounds and over 19 1/2 inches. About the size of a leek. Again, what is a leek?

Feeling: This pregnancy flew by but these last 4 weeks? Snail speed. My patience is dwindling and I'm just ready for him to be here. Except I'm not looking forward to leaving Collins for 3 days in order to actually get him home. I had some contractions Friday morning and was getting somewhat excited but they went away and I was still only a 1 at my appt that day. My ob thinks I'll go fast once they start me on pitocin so I hope she's right. Doesn't look like he's coming before Thursday. 

Weight gain: 24 pounds. He was measuring right on track at my appointment. 

Gender: BOY!! Brooks Anthony. 

Cravings: Not a huge appetite but still eating a good amount of fruit and sweets. 

Best moment this week: Everything checked out great at my appointment on Friday and we are still set for getting induced on Thursday. We spent our last weekend as a family of 3 and went out for ice cream Friday night, out to dinner Saturday night and just enjoyed cuddling and giving Collins 100% of our attention. I only got teary eyed a couple times thinking about her no longer being the baby. 

Movement: He's pretty low key during the day and I'm constantly nudging him to make sure he is ok.  But then he's super active from about 8-10pm.  I called the doctor all worried today because I couldn't get him to move much and then of course when I am waiting for them to call back, he finally had some movement.  They said 3 kicks in 30 min or 10 in 2 hours and we hit the 3 kick mark so I didn't end up going in.  And at this moment he has the hiccups and is kicking me like crazy. 

Sleep: Back to waking up for a good  hour in the middle of the night, bathroom trips every 3 hours and I can't freaking wait to sleep on my back and stomach again.  

 Maternity clothes: Absolutely.  And even the maternity clothes are stretched to the max.   

Milestones:  He has a firm grasp which we'll be able to test when we hold his hands for the first time and his organs are matured and ready for life outside the womb.   

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Brooks' Baby-Q Shower

If you didn't know this by now, my sisters can throw some pretty great showers/birthdays.  I debated if I wanted to do a shower since this is our 2nd baby but since it's a boy and we have a lot of pink in this house, I agreed to a small and simple shower.  Amber came up with the theme and it turned out so freaking cute.  We had the baby-q at my brother's house and kept it mostly family.  There were yard games for the adults, potato sack races and a blanket with crayons and coloring books for the kids, bbq pork for dinner, buckets and buckets of adult and non adult beverages and the cutest decorations.  We are so thankful for everyone who came and showered not only Brooks, but big sister Collins got a few presents herself.  And a humongous thank you to my sisters and mom for putting on the shower.  My kids are the luckiest to have you in their lives and love you all so incredibly much. 

Here's Brooks Baby-Q:

Those buckets held chex mix





 

 
 
 

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

37 weeks




Well it's a good thing my sister gave me a peek at my maternity shoot since I slacked at taking a weekly pic. We did these Saturday at 37 weeks and 5 days. 

How far along: 37 weeks (8/5/14)

Size of baby: A bit over 19 inches and 6 1/3 pounds. About the size of a Swiss chard (whatever the heck that is).

Feeling: Some heartburn, a couple Braxton hicks, pressure, shooting pains and a lot of anxiousness for him to come out!! I'm surprised I've had the energy I've had though and feel pretty great for being so close to the end. 

Weight gain: 23 pounds. My weight fluctuates like crazy with this pregnancy. Lost a pound this week but I bet when I go in for my 38 week appt, I'll have gained 2+ pounds. 

Gender: BOY!! Brooks Anthony. 

Cravings: I'm not a cantaloupe fan but they jumped out at me at the store and I've been chowing down on it. Really, any fruit and candy satisfy this appetite. 

Best moment this week: Friday I had my 37 week appt and my doc thought he had dropped since he was measuring the same (I'm guessing at 36 weeks) and I was dilated to a 1 and 40%. Not much but she thought I would be at a 2 at my 38 week appt and a 3 by the time I go in for my induction. We shall see. Saturday, my sister did my maternity shoot and I've only seen the unedited pics but she did SO good. We did a lot of walking, sweating and trying to get Collins to cooperate so I wasn't sure how they would look but I'm so in love with them. And then later that day my sisters and mom through us a baby-q couples shower and holy cow was it cute. I'll be doing a post about that next. We did some shopping at babies r us on Sunday and now I think we are 100% ready for him. Ok maybe 90% because the car seat hasn't been installed and mine and Derek's bags aren't packed. 

Movement:  I had a big scare last week when  I was trying to go to sleep and realized he wasn't his active self that evening. After a lot of nudging and still no movement, I raced down to his nursery with the heart doppler. It took longer then I would have liked but I found his heartbeat and then got a couple kicks out of him. I think he's out of room and crammed to the max in there. 

Sleep: Occassional insomnia but usually sleeping about 10-7 with 3 bathroom trips. Haven't been taking daily naps but use nap time to kick up my feet and just relax for a couple hours. 

 Maternity clothes: Getting dressed is the worst part of the day. Hardly anything fits and I refuse to buy maternity clothes this late in the game. 

Milestones:  spending the next 2 weeks in the womb allows baby's brain and lungs to fully mature. 

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

The fourth

Let's just pretend this isn't a month late. mmkay?

 We hadn't been back to Derek's hometown for the 4th of July in awhile so we loaded up on the 3rd and made the 2.5 hour trip to Galva.  It was our last trip there before baby comes so we wanted to spend some extra time at meemo and papa's.

We got there early enough to go for a swim at aunt Jaime and uncle Bryon's. They know my love for La Fiesta so we ate there Thursday night  and then Peyton lit off some fireworks for us after dinner.  I was scared Collins wouldn't like the loud fireworks but they didn't seem to phase her.  She'd jump here and there but she sat right by her cousins and enjoyed the pre holiday show. 


We stayed up pretty late on the 3rd so we didn't wake up in time to walk the 5k on the 4th of July morning with Derek's parents.  Bryon put the race together and Jaime ran it with the little girls (she's a rockstar for pushing that double stroller). We made it up there just after they all finished but got to see the kids run the kid fun run. 


Collins practiced her fireworks with daddy after lunch and then she got a good nap in while I made my super difficult (not) dessert.  After she woke up we went over to Jaime and Bryon's for their 4th party.  We swam, played and ate the afternoon away.  Collins loves their house and all their fun outside toys (pool included).  She was in heaven getting rides on the power wheels from other kids and being pulled in the wagon.  And then she learned how to drive the power wheel herself and I didn't think we were ever getting her off it.  She couldn't steer it very well so we just turned the wheel and she went in circles 1000 times.  She also learned how to support herself and swim with a floatie in their pool.


 







The kids did a ton of fireworks in the driveway before it was dark enough to head to the big show.  We got Collins some smoke bombs and poppers but she didn't care so much about them. The big firework show didn't start till 10 (2 hours past bedtime) but Collins stayed strong and made it through the whole thing.  Granted, she was pretty restless and Derek ended up standing the whole time with her. Lucky for him, the show only lasted about 15 min. She passed out as soon as we gave her a quick bath and tucked her into bed. 
 
 
We also stayed the 5th to celebrate Derek's mom's birthday.  I think Collins slept till 9am after being up so late.  We went to the public pool with her cousins that day and she was in heaven with the zero entry pool, baby water slide and spray park.  We came home to a yummy dinner, celebrated memo's birthday and ended up driving back home that night.  Collins isn't very good on long road trips so we try to plan them around nap or bedtime.  Next Galva trip we will have Brooks' in tow as well. Let's pray he's better in the car then she is.
 

 

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

36 weeks




How far along: 36 weeks (7/29/14)

Size of baby: 18 1/2 inches and almost 6 pounds.  About the size of a head of romaine lettuce.


Feeling: Like I want this baby out! I didn't have any Braxton hicks contractions this week and I've felt decent but I am ready to meet him.  So hard to do anything with this big ole belly.

Weight gain: 24 pounds.  I have gained 3 less pounds then I did with Collins but I feel so much bigger this time around.

Gender: BOY!! Brooks Anthony. 


Cravings: I can't think of anything I was dying to have this week.  My appetite has went down but I've still been eating plenty of cookies that I made. Meat hasn't been sounding all that great again.


Best moment this week: Scheduling my induction!!  If he doesn't decide to come on his own, we will be induced on August 21st.  I'm due the 26th but I'm anxious to get him out and this date worked the best for our doctor and us.  And having both my kids born on the 21st should make birthdays easier to remember :) She also checked me and she said I might be dilated to a 1 but he's still up pretty high. His room is almost complete and the diaper bag is packed.

Movement:  They sure have been painful the past couple days.  Little guy is out of room and letting me know it.  


Sleep: Well big sister is going through a sleep regression or something so sleep hasn't been good but it's not all because of baby. Lots of bathroom trips though.

 
Maternity clothes: Nothing fits. 2 weeks and 2 days till my belly isn't hanging out the bottom of my shirts and I can button my shorts.

Milestones:  He's shedding the downy hair that covered his body, as well as the vernix caseosa- a waxy substance that protects the skin during its 9 month bath in amniotic fluid. Your baby swallows these substances , along with other secretions, and they form a tar-like black substance called meconium, which the baby passes in his first bowel movement.  At the end of the week, he will be considered "early term." Most likely head down position (yes, he is) and gaining an ounce a day.