Monday, May 18, 2009

Week 24

I don't have too much new to report. I have a regular appointment tomorrow. I have no idea how much weight I have gained because I haven't been keeping up with it lately. I think I'm a little scared to find out since my new found love affair with Ben and Jerry's has taken over my body!

After watching the film of Carter's birth today, I am getting really excited about bringing home our daughter. Not that I haven't been excited but it was so neat to watch all we went through giving birth and then bringing home Carter. I love the age that Carter is now (most of the time!) but I didn't realize how much I missed the newborn period until I watched Carter on film as a newborn and little infant.

I pray I will cherish every moment with all of our children, even the bad ones and difficult ones. I will never get the time back so I want to make the most of every moment we have as a family. Being a stay-at-home mom has really shown me where my priorities are. I'm so blessed to be able to stay home with Carter and our baby girl and witness their lives change before my very eyes. I don't want to blink for fear of missing something.

Friday, May 15, 2009

My New Love Affair

Shhhh, don't tell anyone. I'm in love with Ben and Jerry!



Let's hope this love affair ends with baby girl being born. Otherwise, I'll weigh 200 pounds by Christmas! On that note, I better do my yoga today while Carter is napping!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Baby Bedding

Ok, well I thought I had decided which bedding we would get for baby girl roly poly.



But then last Friday, at JCPenney's, I saw this:


They are obviously both very similar and made by the same company, Banana Fish. But which one do you like best? Please let me know. Thanks!

Monday, May 11, 2009

Week 23

The feeling that time is really flying by hit me yesterday! The first half of my pregnancy didn't seem to go by particulary fast but now, especially now that I'm feeling better, things are speeding up quickly! I am enjoying more and more everyday being pregnant. Although I can't wait to meet our beautiful daughter, I am not wishing away the days of being pregnant.

Little blueberry now has a new nickname since we are still undecided on what her actual name will be....roly poly! I'm telling you, this girl tumbles around like crazy! This morning during church, I promise I thought she was doing a handstand. I couldn't help but jerk and grab Theo's arm, praying people around me didn't notice and think I was possessed :)

According to Baby Center , this is what roly poly is up to these days...
Turn on the radio and sway to the music. With her sense of movement well developed by now, your baby can feel you dance. And now that she's more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (about as much as a large mango), you may be able to see her squirm underneath your clothes. Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that your baby's increasingly keen ears pick up are preparing her for entry into the outside world. Loud noises that become familiar now — such as your dog barking or the roar of the vacuum cleaner — probably won't faze her when she hears them outside the womb.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Life on the Inside

As I have previously posted, I absolutely love feeling baby girl move around inside of my womb. In the past couple of weeks, Theo has really been able to feel her move too. I feel like it's such a bonding experience for all three of us. I wish Carter had the patience to lay his hand on my belly for a few minutes but he's not too that point yet!

It's such a comfort to know that God is forming this baby's parts according to his will. It's such a blessing to know God ordained her life from the beginning of time. It's such a miracle to be able to create another life.

I daydream about her all the time. It's different this time because I know she's a she. With Carter, I always wondered if he was a boy or girl so my daydreams were always a little vague. And now that I know what it's like to be a mom, give birth, breastfeed, raise a toddler, my daydreams are much more specific this time. I of course picture our beautiful daughter in my arms and then later as she's a little older and can wear all of the adorable clothes I have gotten for her.

This time, I'm a lot less nervous about everything. I am anxious about finding a doctor who will take me so close to delivery. I'm anxious about having our new house ready in time for her to come home. I'm not anxious about giving birth. I'm not anxious about whether I have to get induced or not, or if I have to have a c-section. I'm not anxious about recovering after birth. I'm not anxious about waking up all hours of the night. I'm not as anxious about breastfeeding. God blessed me so much with Carter. I know I was a bit idealistic with him but I really did pray not to have to be induced or have a c-section. I prayed that I would experience my water breaking in the middle of the night and us frantically trying to get to the hospital. I know that may sound silly, but that is what I thought childbirth would be like and I wanted that experience for myself. And you know what? God answered my prayers. So this time around, I'm not wishing or hoping for anything other than a safe and on-time delivery and a healthy beautiful daughter.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Random photo

I know this is a funny picture but today as Carter and I were going for a walk, I figured I better take a picture of my newly painted toenails since I don't know how much longer I'll be seeing my feet. In fact, in order to get most of my feet in the picture, I had to bend over! Goodbye pretty pink toenails. I'll see you in October.

Monday, May 4, 2009

22 weeks

The time is really starting to fly by now. I can't believe I'm over the halfway mark. I am loving feeling my baby girl move/kick/swim around! Last night, I know I spent a good 15 minutes just staring at my belly watching her body parts make my belly jump. She must have loved all the food I ate at Omaw's house yesterday!

Things are somewhat different this pregnancy. I am more uncomfortable at this stage of my pregnancy then I was with Carter. I don't remember feeling out of breath and feeling stretched apart across my ribs this early before. I don't think I'm that much bigger judging by my belly pics with Carter (ok, maybe a little bigger but I think my new camera adds 10 pounds!) but I definitely feel a lot bigger. I think for sure my boobs are bigger :) I don't expect that to last post-breastfeeding though! I told my friend Georgette this morning that I haven't enjoyed being pregnant as much as I did the first time. But I guess the more accurate thing to say is I do enjoy being pregnant, especially knowing the outcome will be our precious daughter but the novelty is obviously not there this time. I do however, LOVE feeling her move. I will never get tired of that, no matter how many kids we have.

I also don't plan on getting back on birth control pills....ever. I know that is a drastic statement to make and Theo and I have been discussing our "options" but I don't think we're done having kids yet so it's not much of an issue at this point. Since I wasn't able to breastfeed Carter as long as I originally wanted to and because my milk supply was terribly low even from the start, I'm for sure not getting on any type of hormonal birth control until I'm done breastfeeding. I'm not sure if that contributed to my low milk supply, but I want to eliminate all potential factors. Also, my not being in full-time graduate school doing clinicals a couple of days a week will also help I'm sure. I think the main reason I didn't have enough food for little man was because of the pure stress of trying to do it all and the pressure I put on myself to be a perfect mom. I have definitely let some of that go! I will have enough stress to deal with this time (remember, we’re moving across the country about 5 weeks before my due date) so I’m not going to add any more stress by trying to be perfect. I feel God has blessed me with my mothering abilities, they are a gift from God, and although I’m far from perfect, I’m doing a pretty good job if I do say so myself. Just don’t tell anyone we let Carter pee in the front yard this weekend! Shhhh…..





Carter's belly pic. What do you think? Am I bigger now? Uh, yeah, I think I am after looking at these photos!!

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Dinner is served

I really am one of those pickles and ice cream kinds of pregnant women, although not that I ate them at the same time :) Yuck! Ironically, I spent the better half of the afternoon researching healthy eating, pregnancy fitness, organic food and organic baby food. But then like a freight train, a craving hit me around 8:00 last night. I said to Theo "I think I need to run an errand." He replied, "This late?" I in turn said "Yes, to dairy queen". He then offered to go for me but not before we spent 30 minutes looking at the DQ menu online and figuring all of the calories/fat in their various food items. Don't ask me why we did this but we ended up getting a huge kick out of it and laughing at the amount of calories they are able to cram into their foods.

So instead of a real dinner, this is what I had to eat last night:



Afterwards, I was in a sugar induced coma for the remainder of the evening. Now, today, I'm off to grocery shop for healthier foods for me/baby girl and Carter. Oh yeah, and Theo too but he already eats way more healthy than we do. I am pregnant though afterall so that must make it okay to eat 1000 calories of ice cream for dinner, right?