25 weeks

The little guy is the size of a cauliflower this week.  Eww, I think cauliflower is pretty gross.  Another website I look at compared the baby's weight to a rutabaga.  All these food comparison are pretty funny.  So the baby is growing like a week and pretty soon he will be here.
As time goes on, I'm getting more excited, but more scared too.  But that is perfectly normal, so I just have to roll with the punches.  I've been reading a lot about how to make sure James gets enough attention, doing a little research always helps.  Really I am most worried about James and the new baby at daycare, since James is used to having a lot of Rhonda's attention. He got used to Landon fairly quickly, but was able to come home and be the center of attention still.  We will figure something out, but I still worry about the big brother.

Ultrasound Update

On Tuesday, my mom and I went for our fetal echo cardiogram and growth ultrasound.  It was fun to see my little guy again, he is growing like a weed.  His heart looked great during the echo portion, although the doctor later explained to us that as much as they can tell from the echo, there is even more that they won't be able to sort out until after the baby comes.  For now, everything looks good.  James' tiny hole hasn't been a concern yet, so even if the new baby did have a VSD, it wouldn't be the end of world.  Of course, its nice to hear that everything looks good.
Speaking of looking good...  the ultrasound checked again to make sure that the baby is a boy.  And is he ever.  He was more than happy to show us his boy parts and we got to take home a funny picture to prove it.  I would put them up here, but I'd hate to see what my Google searches would look like then.  The baby is measuring about 1 pound and 11 ounces.  I was worried that was a little bit big, but I do tend to grow large babies.  The doctor didn't seem to concerned as he is growing on track with his previous measurements.  Also, his tummy wasn't the big part, it was mostly his head, which is standard for 24 weeks.  If his stomach was getting very large, there would be concern.
My weight was briefly discussed again, but when I told Dr. Cootauco (who is very sweet and also the doctor who followed me with James) that Dr. Rossiter (a. k. a. The Enforcer) had already "talked" to me, she knew she didn't need to say anything else.  She did mention that I do not actively need to try to lose weight, just maintain where I am.  If weight comes off because I am eating well, that's okay.
I'm glad my mom was able to come with me and see her next grandson.  These visits can get a little boring, so its always nice to have someone to talk to.  It looks like from here on out, I will be going to the doctor every 2 weeks.  I have a routine appointment on October 10th and another routine appointment with growth ultrasound on October 24th.  We will have a baby in no time!

Holy Baboon Butt

One of the things that has struck me about being a parent is the amount of knowledge I have about my kid's bodily functions.
Sidebar:  How's that for a start on Monday morning?
I knew being parent involved changing diapers, wiping noses, and clipping nails, but wow.  Two years into it, I am still amazed at what is "normal" for me to talk about to Adam, my mom, or the daycare lady.
Over the weekend, James and I had some stomach issues.  Mine came on Saturday evening, after a lovely dinner with my mom, and James' started on Sunday morning.  He went through 4 pairs of shorts on Sunday. Yes, shorts, not the diapers under them, but shorts that were victims to severe diaper blow outs.
After we thought this "event" was over, we ventured out to our local park.  We didn't even think to bring a diaper bag (for an hour or less, we generally don't bring one).  So of course, James had another blow out, on the play ground.  I drove home and back quickly and we changed him there rather than make him cut his play time short.  Then I realized another pair of shorts was a mess, so James played for awhile in just his diaper and shirt (until the wind kicked up and it got too cold to run around pantless).
As a result, my little man's tush is a mess.  There is crazy baboon action going on in this guy's pants.  We gave him a bath and let him run around diaperless for almost an hour, but his poor butt is not happy.  Every diaper change has been a fight, because it hurts to get wiped and it hurts to put more diaper cream on.
But Adam and I chatted about his butt.  When Adam left for the Ravens game, I texted him about the state of James' butt.  This morning, Rhonda and I had a chuckle at poor James' expense, because his butt is so red.  Who knew this would be my life?
James is feeling better, he never seemed sick really, just the stomach problem.  Two rounds of probiotics in his juice yesterday and this morning have helped.  The butt is much less red than it was last evening.  I can't wait until he's potty trained.

24 weeks

Baby Boy is now the size of a cantaloupe.  He has been kicking away lately!  Yesterday, Adam even felt a kick!  It seems like it was around this time that he felt James also, but I am amazed at how quickly time is flying.
Lately, I have been sleeping well.  Sometimes I wake up to pee and sometimes I wake up with sore hips, but overall it hasn't been too bad.  I know that soon I won't be sleeping at all, so I have been trying to take advantage while I can.  When James nap on the weekends I sneak in a little rest and Adam has been good about making sure I go lay down when I have the chance.
In other news, I managed to shed 2 pounds since I started tracking my calories, so that is a good thing.  I am not quite sure how that will go for the duration of the pregnancy, but tracking calories has helped with my blood sugars too.  Sugary snacks are high in calories, so I haven't been having a lot of them!  My sugars have been looking good, I faxed some numbers in yesterday and no adjustments were made to my dosages (which is kind of a miracle at this stage).
Next week we have the baby's fetal echo cardiogram and  growth ultrasounds to look forward to.  My mom is going to go with me, so I'm excited for her to see the little guy.  Adam is taking a few days off work, due to the crazy Ravens schedule (night home games on Sunday and Thursday?!  Who makes the schedule?), but it will be nice to have him around more.
James transitioned into his big boy bed this week.  We actually just took the crib rail down and left him in his room for now.  I am hoping that the transition into a twin bed, in his new room, will go as smoothly, but we will see.  We still need to buy a bed rail, as well as new linens for the twin beds, so we'll probably make the move into his new room sometime next month.  I am always amazed at how James tends to go with the flow.  He never took a pacifier, gave up his bottle with no issue, and now is out of his crib.  I hope that he can continue to go with the flow when his little brother arrives.  Almost everyday he rubs my tummy and gives his baby brother kisses, yesterday he even tried to give his sippy to my stomach.  I held onto it and told him little brother wasn't thirsty, but he was sweet for sharing.  That made both of us smile!

An update

The rooms are painted!  And they look beautiful.  Unfortunately, I did have to take yesterday off work.  Well I switched my work from home day, so at least I didn't have to actually take time off.  Everything looks nice and new and sparkling!  I love the color of the kitchen and as soon as we get pictures up and everything finished I will post before and after pictures.  I like the color for James' room too, I think we could have gone a bit darker, but overall I am happy.  Also, the bathroom looks so much more complete now that the ceiling is painted.  We ended up getting almost 50% off the paint by using the contractors account, so that worked out well, even if it did take an extra hour.
So my nesting is almost complete.  In a couple of weeks we will buy the new bedding and rug for James' room and get the pictures and dishwasher cover for the kitchen.  The only other project I want to complete before the baby makes his debut is replacing the faucet in the bathroom, so fingers crossed!

Morning excitement

Maybe the title of this post should actually be "Morning annoyance" but I will go with excitement for the time being.  I wrote on Friday about the painters coming to the house today.  I've been so excited about getting the rooms painted, especially our kitchen.  If you've ever seen my poor, ugly, incomplete kitchen, you would probably understand.
The painters were scheduled to come between 8 and 10 this morning.  Adam scheduled a day at home so that I wouldn't have to deal with anything.  Around 9:30, the painter's office calls Adam to tell him they need to reschedule, the painter is sick.  Adam tells them this is unacceptable, etc. and that he's very frustrated, rescheduling isn't that easy, we prepped the rooms all day Sunday, etc.  So after calling me, they call him back and ask if someone can come in the afternoon.  Adam said that was not okay, someone needed to come in the morning.  Its agreed that someone will come to the house at 10:45 AM.
The new, not sick painter comes to the house.
He has no paint with him.
We'd previously called and given our paint numbers so that the paint could be purchased with the company discount.  This was agreed on at the time of the estimate and confirmed when I called a few days after.  The painter leaves to get the paint.  It takes almost an hour.  Then he comes back to the house, reads the work order, tells us that it says he's only painting one wall in the kitchen.  No, the estimate was for all the walls, no ceiling, no trim, no door.  There is much back and forth and the guy finally gets a hold of the main office, who confirm that the whole kitchen is to be painted.  During that time, Adam asked me to come home for work to help deal with the situation, as he was getting more and more frustrated.  When I left the house at 12:15 PM, painting had started.  As of this writing at 2 PM, Adam has texted me that the painter is still in the kitchen and has not touched the bathroom ceiling or the bedroom.  I suppose if I have to, I will be taking a day off work tomorrow to get this work completed, but it is so frustrating!

23 weeks

My little grapefruit is kicking up a storm lately.  The voices he likes to hear the most are his dad and my boss, Karen.  Kind of funny, but he really does start to kick every time I'm in her office.
Not much to report after my rant yesterday, but we are looking forward to the weekend.  I'm the designated driver for a group of my friends going to the Maryland Wine Festival, so that should be fun!.  Sunday is not so fun, as we have to clean and prep the kitchen, James' big boy bedroom and bathroom to be painted on Monday.  But there will be a big payoff afterwards, so it will be worth the effort!

Stress

Yesterday was a stressful day for me.  I went to my OB check up and I wasn't really expecting anything out of the ordinary...  And then I stepped on the scale.  I've managed to gain 22 lbs. in 22 weeks.  To say this is an oops is kind of an understatement.  Upon seeing this, my OB (who is rather nice usually, but is very tough when she needs to be) laid into me a bit.  I know that she needed to tell the risks associated (blood clots, pulmonary embolism, inability to heal, problems with spinal/epidural anesthesia) with too much weight gain, especially since I am already at a high BMI, but sometimes I want to kick medical professionals in the head.  I was pretty upset, but I managed not to cry at the doctor's office (I made up for that later!).  Anyway, long story short, I should not gain more weight this pregnancy.  In fact, if I was a lose a few pounds, no one would be upset.  So that's where I am right now.  I'm tracking my calories and will be working to not go over 1700 a day.  I will not eat fast food and we will be planning our meals to include less processed foods and more vegetables.  I am going to make an effort to walk more.  Realistically, these are things I should be doing regardless, but now I have even more reason.
The whole issue is frustrating to me on a number of levels.  I feel like I've been working my entire adult life  to lose weight, maintain weight, be skinny, etc. and while I know I shouldn't have gained quite so much weight to start with (its just kind of snuck up on me, I suppose), pregnancy is the one time where that whole focus on weight lose can be relaxed.  But now its not.  In the long run, watching my food intake is not a bad thing and I know that, but really just feel like a fat kid right about now.
I think my other frustration is that I know for these 9 months I am solely responsible for the health of my baby.  Part of me feels like I did a crappy job with that when I was pregnant with James because he showed up so early and because of his heart defect.  Both of those issues may not even be directly related to me, but I can't help but feel like it was my fault.  Usually, I don't feel that way, but sometimes those doubts creep into my mind.  I want to do everything that I possible can for this baby and I did everything that I could for James, but I'm not perfect.  I won't ever be perfect, but that is still the goal.  In general, I have felt a ton more stressed with this pregnancy than I did with James.  I think that's because I've seen what happens when you have medical issues that lead to the NICU and also because I now know what its like to be a mom.  I know how much I love my little boy and I couldn't have known that as a first time mom.
Anyhow, other than the fact that I'm a fatty, our little baby is doing fine.  His heart rate was in the 140's after he stopped dancing around my belly and my blood sugars have been good.  We go back on the 25th for a fetal echo cardiogram and growth ultra sound and from here on out I will be going to the doctor at least every 2 weeks.  This pregnancy is speeding along and I can't wait to meet our son!

I've said it before...

...and I'll say it again.  Two year olds are crazy.  

For the life of me, I can't remember that I ever had this much energy.  James can run and run and run, for hours on end, and not even appear to be tired.  He will chase the dog around the middle level of our house, which admittedly is not very large, but they will go in circles for hours.  We have a 3 level duplex, with a total of 1500 square feet, divided evenly between floors.  So James and Mac will go around the living room coffee table, pass the stairs and then around the dining room table.  Without the gate blocking the kitchen, I'm sure they would make their rounds in there too.

When we play outside, it is more of the same.  Running around and around.  Up the hills in the backyard and down.  He's a crazy boy who plays hard.  

Adam keeps reminding me that one day we'll have two boys running around this much.  He actually takes a certain amount of glee in my agony over keeping up with two active little boys.

But energy aside, I really can't complain.  James is a smart and well behaved child.  We work on his manners all the time, not only saying please and thank you, but greeting people and table manners.  He will sit for quiet activities in between tearing through the house.  He is very loving towards his dog and is learning to be more gentle and quiet with the cats (who generally run from him).  Reading books and having iPad time are high on his list of things to do.  While he definitely has tantrums when he doesn't get his way, he's learning to say "night-night" to the "Mickey Book" when iPad time is over and to help clean up toys when play time is over.  Most days, I still have a hard time believing I get to be his mom.

Anyway, enough bragging on my boy.  I do have to say that when people tell you two year olds repeat everything they hear, they are telling the truth.  I definitely have the worse potty mouth between Adam and I, but James hasn't repeated anything too naughty yet.  Last night, Adam said something a bit off color (I can't even remember what, honestly) and I said, "Don't teach him that!" and James looked at Adam and said, "Yea Dad, no teach me that!"

22 weeks

The baby is growing a ton and this week is the size of a papaya.  Other than my cold, I have little to write about.  This week was nice and short due to the labor day holiday on Monday and Adam has been spoiling me with sleeping in some in the mornings.  Usually, we switch off who wakes up with the dog, but he's been walking Mac most days.  Part of this is Adam being nice, part of it is because Mac likes to take advantage of a pregnant mommy.  He somehow senses that my center of gravity is off and makes an extra effort to pull on the leash if I'm walking him.  I love my dog, but sometimes he's a brat.  Its amazing how much force a 26 pound dog can have.
We have a quiet weekend planned and I am looking forward to some down time with my boys.  The only thing we really need to do, aside from the usual weekend cleaning, is picking out our paint colors for the rooms we're getting painted.  The kitchen, James' big boy room, and the bathroom ceiling will be getting painted on the 17th and I am so excited!  The kitchen will be a light, almost ice blue and we've been going back and forth for James' room.  We are thinking either a yellow or a pear green.  I will let you know what we decide after our visit to the Sherwin Williams store!

I have a cold

Or maybe its allergies.  I am stuffy and have a runny nose and want to nap more than usual.  I am grumpy and sleepy and want to go home.  Having a cold while pregnant is not fun and I'm going to complain about it.
Probably a lot.
Okay, I think I might have the complaining out of my system.  James and I have been fighting a little bit of a cold.  Although Adam is convinced its allergies.  Actually, James' might really be allergies, because we started his daily Claritin back up a few days ago and he seems to be doing better.  Claritin isn't helping me at all.
I'm sure I will survive either way, but since I'm trying to save up my sick leave, I am at work today.