round 2 // 36 weeks

Another bump update for you...

It seems like forever since I've had to take photos of my belly, and yet, we're another 4 weeks down, which leaves only 4 more weeks til this baby girl will be making some kind of commotion in our house!

The good news is things are coming along quite nicely in the room that Natalie will be sleeping in (at least until she sleeps through the night and can room with her big brother).  My wonderful husband picked up cabinets to outfit the room so I was able to reorganize and get rid of lots of stuff, and make room for the crib and the few little miscellaneous items we'll use in there for Natalie.

Somehow I'm cramming all her clothes, extra diapers, etc. in Deacon's closet and dresser in his room, so the only thing we'll need in the craft room/office is the crib, changing pad, diapering supplies, a hamper and the diaper champ.  We have all that figured out, space-wise, so that makes this mama feel much better.

And the craft room/office looks AWESOME!  I'll be posting about that on my house blog soon.

So I'm up to weekly ultrasounds and weekly NSTs (twice-weekly testing, they call it).  They're keeping a close eye on me and baby girl for the duration.  She's doing great, and I think I am, too, so we just get to enjoy more photos of her...[these are from last week at 35 weeks]

potty training...

So potty training...

Hardest thing we've done to date in our parenting career.

[LOTS of big boy undies, juice & treats]

I was pretty stressed about doing this which is the reason I think I put it off so long.  Well, I didn't even KNOW what stressed was!  The stressful part is after you get into it and have to take one day, one moment at a time.

And there is NO consistency whatsoever.

We have good days and bad, good 1/2 days and bad.  But overall, if I'm honest, I think he's pretty normal, doing most of what all of our friends kids have done in their potty training experience.  We've been doing this for a week now and the accidents have been been minimal, really.

[diapers in the trash; froot loops/gummies/marshmallows/m&ms for treats]

The frustrating part has been that the accidents seem to happen mere seconds/minutes after we've just prompted him about telling us when he has to go.  Argh.

But the wonderful thing has been that from the very start, he has stayed dry all the way through naps and overnight.  Every day/night!  The boy has a bladder of steel, for sure!

So we're learning and he's learning, and just as all my sweet, encouraging friends have stated, "He'll get it."

[he was excited to show off his underwear to his bear and puppy dog]

round 2 // 32 weeks

Happy new year!  32 weeks today, which, more importantly, means ONLY 8 WEEKS TO GO.

Yiiiiiikes!

I'm in a slight panic at the thought that we have 2 months left and I really haven't done the first thing to get ready for this child, except collect a few girl clothes from sweet friends.

At least she has a name.

I've been trying to just "get past Christmas" (isn't that terrible??) before trying to tackle anything, but in the back of my mind I knew that meant I really was only leaving myself a couple months to get ready for her.

NOT in the back of my mind anymore...now it's smacking me in the forehead!

So here's the bump comparison -- I look better here, in my opinion, than in my last one.  Go figure.

I had a doctor's appt on Monday that ended up being a little more involved than I planned.  At this stage of pregnancy, and especially with one who has hypertension (ahem, that would be me), it's pretty standard to begin weekly non-stress testing at my doc appts.  They hook me up to a couple monitors that will monitor the baby's heartbeat and movements.

So on the 30 min long NST Monday, they observed "variables that are concerning".  I asked for a little more information and they said variables could be anything from cord or head compression, lack of oxygen, decreasing placental function, etc.

Due to these "concerning" variables, they sent me for an ultrasound at which they performed a BPP (biophysical profile).  Basically, they watch the baby doing several different things for a longer period of time to make sure everything is okay.  These things include breathing practice (hard to imagine babies have to "practice" their breathing), heartbeat, moving all their extremities, etc.

Natalie got an 8 out of 8.

That's my girl.  :)

So nothing of concern to report and we got a few more photos of her...

This one tripped me out -- she was looking right at us!  She opened her mouth a couple of times...it was crazy to see.  I hope you can see her face, how she's looking out...

Jeff was off on Monday and had Deacon while I was at my appt, but when they decided to send me for an ultrasound, in case there was anything to it, I told Jeff I really didn't want to go by myself.  Bless his heart, he and Deacon met me and we all went down to have my ultrasound done together.  I thought Deacon would think it was really cool to see his sister on the monitor, but he seemed more concerned with mama laying on the table with jelly all over her belly..."you okay, mama?"  Every time I looked at him, he was looking at me instead of the monitor.  It was sweet.  Love that boy!

So I'll be back at the doctor's office Monday for my weekly appt.  Praying we don't have to do the ultrasound thing again.  It's great to see our little girl, but I'd like to avoid the drive downtown to the office that has the ultrasound equipment, thankyouverymuch.

Merry Christmas! {2013}

round 2 // 30 week ultrasound

I had an OB appt on Monday and another growth ultrasound on Tuesday this week.  All is looking "spectacular", in the words of my docs!  :)  Natalie is measuring at exactly 30 weeks, right where she should be, and she weighs almost 3 lbs (2 lbs 14 oz).  They also told me that her head, though it looks huge on the ultrasound monitor when I look, is actually pretty small.

That's good news considering I'm going to try to push this one out.  (ooo, TMI -- sorry!)

The only reason I had a c-section with my boy is because the stubborn thing stayed breech, so they told me that in those cases, it is possible to attempt a VBAC as long as everything goes according to plan.  So that IS the plan.  It terrifies me but I really would like that experience, if possible.  We'll see what the Lord wills.  :)

We got a cute glimpse of Natalie's profile at the ultrasound...

[hi there!]

Thanksgiving 2013...

I'm late with this post, but what's new?  It's the season to be behind, right?

No?

Well, I am.

But I'm doing the best I can with this massive to-do list I stare at every day.

And here's another thing I can cross off -- a post on our Thanksgiving this year!

We were home this year which is very rare.  We normally go to my parents' house in Lexington for Thanksgiving, but this year, Jeff's older brother and his family planned to come visit over the Thanksgiving holiday.  So we were here, and it was great!  I cooked the meal with the exception of the turkey, which my husband TOTALLY nailed.  So guess what?  He has that job FOR.LIFE.  If we're here, he's doing the turkey.

Until Jesus comes back.

He soaked our 14 lb turkey in a brine the night before.  The next morning, he put it in the oven at 500 degrees (I didn't even know my oven would get that hot!) for 1/2 an hour, and then threw it in a oil-less fryer for a few hours.  The rest of the meal came together wonderfully.  I made (ahem) homemade mashed potatoes that were so creamy, green bean casserole (in the oven, cuz that's the way Jeff likes it :), sweet potato casserole (which Jeff's brother said was "phenomenal"), rolls and gravy.

Oh, yeah.

We rocked that Thanksgiving meal.

Everyone enjoyed the meal and just being together.  Scott and his family live in Illinois (like almost everyone else in Jeff's family :) so we don't see them often.  We're grateful that they made the trip down to NC to visit.

And I'm grateful to my sister-in-law, Jill, who took all these awesome photos!

round 2 // 28 weeks

Got another "bump" photo for y'all at 28 weeks.  I'm not digging how much my face is fattening up filling out and I never notice it until I look at photos of myself, but it is what it is.  I haven't seen a workout for your face.  So I'm just working out the rest of my body with this really great 30 min low-impact cardio workout video from Fitness Blender.  I try to get that in at least 3 times a week, and then get some walking in a couple times a week, too.  I'm definitely not in the shape I was with my first pregnancy (having been slightly obsessed with working out before getting pregnant), but I'm doing the best I can this time around with the variables differing as they are.

I had a regular OB appt on Monday, at which I took the 1 hour glucose test (drink some really sweet soda, wait an hour and let them take your blood).  They said they would call me only if the results were abnormal (i.e., I didn't pass).  5 days later, I'm still waiting on a call, so I guess that's a good sign. :)  Thank goodness I don't have to take the 3 hour glucose test (that's what happens if you don't pass the 1 hour test)!  I was a little concerned with Thanksgiving having been just last weekend.

I also got the DTaP (or TDap) vaccine for diptheria, tetanus and pertussis.  That was basically required of me since there's an outbreak of pertussis (whooping cough) in NC.  And that's why I got it.  I only get vaccines if they're required of me.  This chic is NOT a fan of needles.  The vaccine was fine but my arm was fairly sore over the next 2 days.

Dr. Hall told me that we're going to doc appts every two weeks now, whaaat??!!  I can't believe we're at that point already.  So I have my next OB appt in 2 weeks, and my next ultrasound the same week.  Hopefully they won't want to adjust my ultrasound appts to every 2 weeks too, because that is a HIKE for me to get to that office.