Friday, August 30, 2013

29 weeks - 11 weeks has never sounded longer......

I know I posted for 30 weeks today, but I just looked back and saw this one that had slipped through the cracks. So, looks like you get a double dose today ;-)

Hello folks. I should warn you that we have officially passed the pleasantries that are the first trimester where I was still wearing my own clothes and you could still see some ab definition when I took my weekly pictures. And the "cute bump" phase of the second trimester where I could still squeeze into some of my old tops and my bum still fit into my old pants, even though the odds of me getting them buttoned were a big fat NOT GONNA HAPPEN. Here we are.....smack in the middle of "when the hell did I get this pregnant" land. It's not nearly as cheery here, and it smells kind of funny all the time. I have put on approximately one million pounds and although my friends and family(God bless them) still tell me I look cute, I saw a picture of myself from behind the other day, so I can only assume they are liars, and will regard them as such.

I had my 28 week visit last week. I did the glucose testing and had another sonogram. This time I got to see Arabella's face full on for a half a second. It was the best half a second ever! She's already adorable. Not that I expected anything less. I put on another 7 lbs this month (go me!) but the doctor ASSURED me that the weight gain will slow down from this point forward. I think she's a liar too. The baby is measuring right on track with my due date. She weighed almost 3 lbs last week! They also rechecked the heart and limbs and organs and according to them, everything is good to go.  We also have confirmation number 3 that I am, in fact, carrying another female....PHEW! To my knowledge I will not get to see my baby again until she makes her grand appearance, unless, of course, she is late, in which case I will see her again in about 11 weeks. Let's pray last week was the last time. I mean that....PRAY HARD PEOPLE. My next appointment is next Thursday. That's right.....I am going every two weeks now. See, I told you I was really pregnant.

I don't think I need to go into too much detail about how I'm feeling. I have a feeling the tone of this blog pretty much sums it up. I feel enormous and the summer is no longer being nice. It has been well over 1000 degrees for at least a week. Not. Cool. It kind of feels like the skin on your face is melting off when you get into your car at the end of the work day....but not in the good kind of way (?), more like in the "I literally feel like I'm dying" kind of way. My 2 year old daughter has a new desire to be carried everywhere too, so that adds to the super awesomeness that the heat was somehow lacking. But when we leave her daycare, I have to decide if I want to A) chase my daughter across the parking lot B)hold her hand and possibly risk having to be in the heat for 15 minutes to walk 6 feet to my car, you know, so she can point out every tractor, flag, bug, car, and child that she sees between the door and "mommy caw" or the inevitable C) carry her, and her blankey and goggy and just deal with the semi-skin to skin situation that just creates more smelly awesomeness than I already have going on by that point in the day. Oprion C ALWAYS wins. I'm a sucker. I am finding myself with less and less energy at the end of the day (similar to trimester 1, except then I was skinny and should have just shut up about it), so getting in a workout (or what I consider a "workout") is getting fewer and further between. Also, we just got over a bedtime hump with Mia that totally eliminated any "mommy time" I might have had at the end of the night. I was scared to death for the last two weeks that my days of Mia going to bed at 7:30 were gone with the wind. Thankfully, I was wrong and we are back to our nightly routine of eat, bathe, mickey, books, bed. Also, I assume because of my ginormous stomach, I am starting to have a pretty constant, nagging back ache. I guess it's to be expected, but it doesnt make it less annoying.

One thing that seems to amaze me is how quickly the year has flown by. I mean, its September TOMORROW. I am due to have this baby in less than 3 months. We're hoping closer to 2, although, given the way things went with Mia, I wont hold my breath. September is shaping up to be a pretty busy month, which at least helps with time passing. And then in October, we will officially have a 2 year old. In that sense, looking back, it seems like yesterday that we were childless and I was sitting writing this blog, miserably pregnant, and BORED....waiting for my first child to get here. My how things change ;-)

Sunday, August 4, 2013

25weeks - God Doesn't Give Us More Than We Can Handle

Hello again friends and family. Today I am 25w4d preggo with our second little blessing. I have been trying to think of what was going to be included in this post. Everything seems very much the "same" as before, so it seems kind of pointless for me to recount how hot it is, or how big I'm getting....you can read about that in my first blog circa 25 weeks. Instead I thought I would share how I am coping with the new wrench that's about to be thrown into our finely grooved out routine/schedule. It's taken me 25 weeks (or rather 22 months) to realize it, but having 1 kid isn't nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be.....

At this point Mia goes to be around 7PM EVERY NIGHT. She sleeps around 12 hours. She feeds herself, walks on her own, and attempts to do everything else on her own as well. I can leave the room and not worry that she's going to roll off the couch or stick something in her mouth that shouldn't be there.....I mean most of the time, she is directly behind me (often times between my feet as I'm walking). She can sit through a full episode of Mickey Mouse and/or Sofia the First (aka - Fia). She naps regularly and without complaint. She tells me what she wants if she's whining (even if it does take some pulling on my end).......and she's HILARIOUS. I mean it, the kid cracks me up!

So, what's going to be different once #2 enters the scene? Simple answer: Everything.

To begin with, this pregnancy, while it has been similar to Mia's, has been a whole new ball game in some aspects. Firstly, I am no longer the center of attention, regardless of how huge I get so long as I have Mia with me. Honestly, most of the time that I'm with her, aka chasing her around stores trying to ensure we don't have to "buy" anything by default, I completely forget I'm pregnant.....and trust me, at this stage in the game, I should not be "forgetting" that little tidbit. But, unlike last time, I have a different focus and a different mindset. I don't have an abundance of "extra" time for relaxing and getting pedicures. In fact, I haven't had "extra" time since around 7:14 on October 19, 2011. But strangely, I don't notice it as much either. I am tired, don't get me wrong, but I'm no more tired than I was prior to having a human take up occupancy in my uterus. Also, I spend far less time worrying about how breastfeeding is going to feel or how much the baby is going to eat/sleep (well, I still worry about the sleep thing....). I'm not concerned that I won't meet my expected "due date" and I am certainly under no delusion that I'm going to try to shove this human through my lady parts al-natural....NOW the things I worry about are how I'm going to get Mia dinner and nurse Bella at the same time after work. I worry about what I'm going to do when Bella is crying and Mia's in the bath......or how I'm going to react when Mia is making noise and the baby is sleeping.....I stress about the costs of daycare and how much I'll be out of work with 2 kids sharing snot with the city of Frisco as opposed to just the one. I worry that I will lose part of my special bond with Mia or not form as strong of one with Bella. It's just different.

In the same aspect, I am not left wondering if I will have help. If there is one thing that has become abundantly apparent in the last 22 months, it's that I was blessed with an amazing partner in all of this. Dan has taken to being a daddy as though it was his calling in life. Now, don't get me wrong, we definitely have different parenting "styles" (ie, Dan would like to wrap Mia in bubble wrap before she leaves the house every day, where as I'm of the "shake it off" mindset)....but we have really come together and as far as I'm concerned, we are totally killing it when it comes to this whole parenting gig ;-)

Another huge difference that I believe will reveal itself when Bella arrives is that we WILL take advantage of going places with an infant. I feel like we were very concerned to be too far from home with Mia......Well, Bella's coming out where ever we go. Before, we had no idea how lucky we were to have a child that could and WOULD stay confined to their carseat for an extended amount of time. But compared to having our toddler running all around the place and throwing food and silverware at passing wait staff.....I'll take an infant any day of the week! I mean, for the first 3-4 months, aside from being sleep deprived and having sore nipples and a saggy tummy, it will essentially be no different than having just the one (*said the naïve, not-quite-mother-of-two....) And to be honest....I'm ready for the challenge. Now, once that 4-5 month mark hits.....I will probably come back to this day and time and want to punch myself in the face.....but for now, let's live in la-la land where having 2 kids is "no big deal" ;-)

So that's it....that's what I've been thinking about for the last couple weeks. Now you can stop wondering.

As far as I am concerned, I still feel pretty good. It's hot, but we're in Texas, and it's August, so that probably goes without saying. I am rapidly putting on weight even faster than I did the last time despite my most valiant efforts, so I'm just praying to God it's because this baby is going to be bigger or be born sooner. At my 24 week apt, I was measuring right on schedule though, so I'm probably just wishful thinking. I thought I was getting a sonogram at the last appointment, but turns out it's not until my next appointment at 28 weeks. So, hopefully I will have more pics of our Bella then.

Until then here are some pics of what we've been doing since I last sat down to spill my brain:
24 weeks
Me and my silly baby :-)
Mia's breakfast date with Joseph, what a catch ;-)
Mia "helping" me with laundry....please note two pairs of panty-necklaces and her tank top skirt. Runway ready if you ask me!