38 weeks and 3 days

Well, we are on the home stretch of this pregnancy. I've been having irregular contractions for about a week but they don't last long and aren't intense at all (I can talk and drive with no problems). I feel like a ticking time bomb that a lot of people are watching (mostly the older women at Church- Dec.2 "You're still here?"... "I'm not due until the 22nd"...). I feel like time has slowed down a LOT because I can feel people watching me.

I think Chris really understands how close I really am. Yesterday, he started prepping people at work for his absence. He told me a funny story: He shares his office with a guy who's not been married very long. His office mate says he watched a video on YouTube of a woman that set something on her tummy and it was bouncing. Then he asked if our baby was moving... Chris kind of chuckled to himself as he said that I can't have my laptop on my tummy anymore because the baby will kick it so much that I can't get things done. His office mate then responded in this way (I don't remember exactly the words but here's the point): "Whoa!". Chris thought to himself "You have no idea. This baby kicks me when I get hugs." It was a funny story to hear :)

I'm sure some of you want to see what I look like at just over 38 weeks. I don't think I look different but you can be the judge of that. Here it is:

Ok; so maybe I have gotten a little bit bigger... But I'm feeling pretty good- just tired and ready to pop this little guy out. Well, until next time!

Favorite Family Photos From Shoot

Here is a sample of some of my favorite photos from our family shoot a few weeks ago:

My friend did a fantastic job (I think) and worked really well with Penelope. You can see Chris' weight loss in a couple of these pictures (which I really like because it's always hard to see the difference when losing weight). He has lost about 30 lbs during this pregnancy. He wore a shirt the other day from high school and it was too big on him! I'm so proud of him and his accomplishments so far. I can't wait for our little boy to join our family and to add him into our mix of craziness.

I hope you all enjoy these as much as I do! 

From Crib to Toddler Bed

Our little girl is growing right up. We have a friend in town for this Thanksgiving holiday to help prepare things around the house for the baby coming. One of the big things that we've done is set up the toddler bed in Penny's room. We gave it a test shot yesterday for nap time (she got to see it after it was all set up a couple hours before the nap). She did surprisingly well- she didn't realize she could just hop down if she wanted so she cried for a few minutes before falling asleep. Last night, we got in late (from our Thanksgiving feast at the family's) so she was already asleep when we put her in the bed. Again, Penny did great for her afternoon nap today in her big girl bed. We've established a "no drinks in the bed" rule to help preserve the life of the mattress (she is still in diapers but the cups we have leak a little when on their side). Tonight was the first night putting her in the big girl bed at night before she was unconscious. She started to climb on the side of the crib saying "bed, bed" but I told her we're going to be in the big girl bed now. I plopped her down in the bed and while she was still sitting up we read a bedtime story. I then laid her down, covered her with her blankets and quilts, kissed her on the head, turned off the light, and left the room. She's making tired noises but hasn't gotten up from the bed. I hope this is going to be an easy transition so she doesn't feel like the new baby will be taking her bed away from her (although, he'll be in our room for the first month or so, until we have a routine down). Here's a quick picture of Penny checking out the new bed just after it was set up:

I hope she sticks to sleeping in the toddler bed and that we won't have any issues of her wandering around the house in the middle of the night. Well, I hope you enjoy this happy picture as much as I do!

Children's Discovery Museum

A little over a week ago, Chris had a couple friends visiting the area and knew we should all get together while they were here. As a result, we went to a farmers market and the San Jose Children's Discovery Museum. Needless to say, Penny had a ball. I think this expression on her face says it all:

What a happy expression. It was funny while we were there because she didn't have a real nap all that day so as we went to the water exhibit, she got this glazed look on her face. You could tell she was hanging on by a thread. Penny climbed into a firetruck and an ambulance that they had set up.  We didn't get a chance to go to the other floors or see much else because she just stayed with the bubbles and the water exhibits. We got to watch some fun dances outside, as they were celebrating the festival of lights (Diwali) so you can imagine how packed it was at the museum. Here are some other photos of Penny taken while we were there:

 

 

 

Needless to say, she slept well that night (with no real naps all that day except 10 minutes here and there while in the car). Well, I hope you enjoy the photos and seeing Penny's joy from this trip.

Doctor Appointment and Ultrasound

Well, the ultrasound went very well. The baby's head is down like it should be and he is still a boy. He has long slender feet (about 2.5 times the width). The doctor wants us to keep an eye on the baby's kicks. He kicks enough that Chris notices when we have dinner and before we go to sleep (because he kicks Chris at night). They are not at all concerned with his weight (not that they were before)- the ultrasound shows, based on his measurements, that he's somewhere around 5 1/2 lbs, which is right on track with what his weight should be for this far along. No 9 lb baby for me! The doctor predicts that if things go on track as they have then he'll be around 8 lbs when he comes out. I am now at a 5 lb weight gain for this pregnancy, which is good. After my next appointment in two weeks, I go in every week after that. It's kind of scary to think about.

Well, short and sweet until next time (just like my doctor appointments).

34 weeks

I know it's been a couple weeks since I posted a bump picture so here it goes again:

I really do feel as big as I look. I tried to hide around the corner from Penny (with Chris looking on) and he said that I needed to step back further- that there was an area still sticking out. I guess I don't realize how big this bump is until I hear something like that. A couple weeks ago, a couple of the men at church asked me if I was due any time now and I just smiled and said "Nope. I've got about 6-7 weeks left." Penny is understanding a little bit more that I can't pick her up like she wants me to (her phrase is "mommy holding" when she wants up). Chris has been a great dad and stepped up to fill her cuddling needs when he's home.

We have an ultrasound appointment set for this coming Tuesday so I'll keep the blog informed after that appointment. I'll be sending an email out by the end of the month to see who can help watch Penny for these last sets of appointments every week (especially as the appointments get a little more involved than just question sessions).

Smiles!

Well, to prove it to myself and my husband, here are some cute smiles from our (mostly) sweet Penelope:

Hopefully, some of these smiles come out in the family photos we did today. 

The photo session was great today. Our wonderful photographer was really sweet and worked with Penny to try to get some good shots. Ironically, Penny fell asleep on the way up to the park where we had the photos taken but thankfully woke up happy. We got a sneak peek at a few of the wonderful smiles caught on camera. I hope I look as good as I feel. I was looking back at pictures taken at the end of the pregnancy with Penny and I just thought to myself how out of shape I was. It's something I don't ever want to look like again. I'm about 25lbs lighter than I was with Penny. That is crazy to think about. I feel like I can see a difference in my face when I compare photos. It gives me goals to think about for after this little guy joins us and I've got a handle on everything. 

Well, as soon as we've selected some of the photos we'll be one step closer to having our pictures!! I've got the Christmas card selected from shutterfly and have it all ready to just put a picture or three in. I want to be on top of Christmas cards this year because not only of the baby coming but also because we're not going "home" to Ohio for Christmas this year.

I had my doctor's appointment this past Thursday. I have gained another 2 pounds making it a grand total of 3 pounds gained for the pregnancy. The doctor isn't worried at all because I'm gaining like I should now and it's not abnormally low or high so she thinks the baby will be around 8 pounds (knowing that Penny was 7lb 14oz). We have an ultrasound/appointment in 10 days to see what this little guy is measuring and that all looks good. We set up my appointments for the rest of the pregnancy on Thursday. It means the end is near! I'm excited and anxious about all the things we still need to do in the house (cleaning and moving things around). I'm excited though to have one of my good friends come for a visit for Thanksgiving to help a bit and to enjoy her company.

Ideas for our Family Photo

So, I have some awesome friends who told me to pick a place before I pick a person to take the photos (which I've done both now) and to pick my outfit and then coordinate Chris' and Penny's outfit to mine. Here's the problem: I've now picked Chris' outfit and have a really good idea about what Penny will wear but I have a few options on what I could wear. I'm torn if I should wear my new boots or not. I think part of me is trying to wait to see what the weather will be like first but I know I should really pick my outfit and then have a back up if the weather doesn't cooperate.

Let me start by describing Chris and Penny's outfits: Pretty sure Chris will wear a dark grey t-shirt with some really nice jeans that (trust me) he looks GREAT in (I would use another word but for the sake of family reading I'll say "great"). Penny will be wearing (I think) this cute number with some pink tennis shoes:

My first outfit idea is this:

Cute boots, denim skirt, white shirt with a greenish tank over it. My second idea is this:

which is actually this shirt (in better lighting) with a dark denim but no idea on what shoes to go with it:

I am willing to take any and all advice about what I should wear. I feel really comfortable in both outfits and am also willing to try other combinations. If you want to see an idea of my closet, feel free to check out my other blog with my sister called http://2sisters2fashion.blogspot.com

I will also be getting a haircut in the next couple days in anticipation of family photos but also for the baby coming. I'll post before and after photos once it's done. Well, got to run (an almost 2 year old wants my attention).

31 Weeks 2 Days Photos

I look and feel pretty pregnant. Yesterday, I wore makeup for the first time in a while (who's got time when you're chasing an almost 2 year old and being pregnant) and after I took it off that night Chris says to me "You looked like a mature woman instead of a tired pregnant one".... That's his way of trying to give a compliment right now so I'll take it. Here's a front and side view of me today rocking a green shirt, jeans, and a sweater:

If you look closely at my face in the side view picture, you can see how shocked and amazed I am at how far out I stick out. Not something I would recommend doing first thing in the morning. Well, Enjoy!

Pregnancy Update

Yesterday, I had a checkup with the OB. Nothing alarming or anything, just another checkup. I have gone from losing 16lbs from my starting weight to being up 1 lb from where I started. What's significant about this 1lb you ask? Well, that's how much I gained between my two appointments that were 3 weeks apart. At this point in the pregnancy (as most of you know), I'm allowed to gain a pound a week. Thankfully, my doctor has a great outlook because she said that as long as my weight is going up or as long as I'm not loosing than we're fine.

When I was pregnant with Penelope, I was a high risk pregnancy (because I was so sick) and had an ultrasound in the third trimester. This is not typical of most pregnancies for most people. Most insurance companies want a reason to have it done or they won't approve the cost. I had asked her if we were going to have an ultrasound done this time around and she said we didn't need to but if I wanted one she could tell the insurance company that I've had a low weight gain and that she wants to check on the baby to make sure everything is looking good. In all honesty, she's not worried because the baby is actually measuring big at this point so in my mind having the ultrasound will give us a better idea of how big this little guy is going to be. People have been asking how big Penny measured when I was pregnant with her and she measured right on every time as well as she was born on time. I'm not so sure I'm actually going to make it to my due date with this one. Call it a mother's intuition if you want.

I told my doctor of my new pains (I've started having some sharp, lower back pain- which is typical because of all the weight it's carrying- and some hip pain when I sleep). She said the back pain is just something that comes with the territory of being pregnant but gave me a couple exercises I can do to help relieve it before thinking of taking tylenol, As for the hip pain, she said what I'm doing right now (I constantly flip from side to side during the night based on the pain) is exactly what I should be doing. She said that research has found that it's no better to lay on your left side than your right and that some pregnant women are even able to sleep on their back with a slight angle (although she doesn't recommend trying that for me right now to be safe).

So I see the doctor again in 2 weeks (CRAZY that it's been going fast) and an ultrasound in a month.

Just 9-10 short more weeks (or even less if you're hopeful like me that this little guy is going to come early) left! I'll be sure to keep posting bump pictures and cute outfits that I (and my sister) come up with.

A Functional Playroom for Penny!

This is so exciting for us. We've been talking about moving things around for Penny's playroom for a couple months (or so it feels like) so that we can have the living room back as a living room (without TONS of toys laying around to pick up). We have moved things around enough that she now has a functional playroom as of this past Saturday. She learned the word "playroom" very fast and was so excited to see her toys in there. We also were given a ball pit from my sister that we could now set up in there for her to enjoy. And believe me, she enjoys it SO much. That also gives us the freedom to have her bedroom door open as well as the playroom door open during the day. When she starts getting a little cranky, we tell her "go to your playroom" and she goes and then has a ball. Here's a quick picture of her enjoying her playroom on Saturday:

This was also a big weekend for Penny because I got a chance to clean the inside of the car and flip her seat around. She now just sits there and reads a book while I drive. At first, she was a little irritated when the car would stop at a stop light but we're explaining to her that the light is red so we have to stop. She's since stop complaining. She isn't asking for snacks while we're in the car as much because she's just so caught up in her books. We put "Brown Bear" and "At the Zoo" (a baby Sesame Street book) in the car and she's a happy camper. Chris is teaching Penny how to climb up into her seat now that it's forward facing. This is going to be a great thing once she's got it down so I don't have to lift her as much. Here's Penny enjoying her first car ride (just before we left) forward facing with her "Brown Bear" book:

Also, a great thing about Penny's playroom is we think we've solved her sleep problem and hope it's resolved for a while. We have cut out movie time to only one but she doesn't seem to have the attention span for even that after this weekend. On Saturday and Sunday, she didn't watch anything. We just let her play in her playroom, play outside, and then in the evening go for a walk (about 0.3 miles) around the block with her walking instead of her giving up and being carried part of the way. Here's hoping this continue to get better.

My sister and I are starting a blog to help each other with fashion. I feel limited right now with my wardrobe and am constantly asking for advice about what to wear. I'm set up on an app called "Stylebook" that has you take pictures of your clothes and then you can mix and match them into outfits and see what they'll look like instead of putting them on and deciding. I have to keep in mind that it's more about the colors/style than how they hang on the hanger because the baby fills them out just fine.

Well, I'm off to check on my quite daughter in her playroom!

Life keeps going on

Well, Penny is learning and growing like a weed. We're trying to sleep train her again (this is the third time in this house) so she'll sleep in until at least 6am. She is loving letters and numbers and playing all around. I'm slowly preparing things around the house for the new one to join us. Slow and steady wins the race, right? I hope it all turns out well in the end.

I swear, Penny is getting so big lately. I can't believe that she can look at the dining room table and see everything that is on it and can almost get to it (unless it's on the edge and then she will get to it). She's still climbing on and up everything including furniture. Thankfully, she still doesn't know how to climb out of her crib. Part of me is hoping that her toddler bed will be set up in the next couple of weeks. I'm trying to not lift her as much as possible but I can only do so much. She can climb into her high chair, which is a BIG life saver for me to not have to pick her up to put her in. Penny is very verbal and has 3 voice levels: happy, whispering, and angry. Her angry voice makes us grin but we deal with her so that she calms down. She's still at the age where she needs supervised coloring time. I don't know that we'll get out of that phase for a long while.

Well, Penny, these last couple weeks, has been getting up around 3-4 am which is not very fun for anyone of us involved. When we first moved into the house, we had to sleep train her because she was in our room before and it worked out wonderfully. The second time, we had to sleep train her out of having a sippy cup in bed to soothe her. Now, we don't know if it's that she's not eating enough during the day or not getting worn out enough during the day to sleep through the night. Yesterday, we went to the park and then later had a couple kids over and she slept just fine. We've tried cutting her one nap that was 3-4 hours long to a 2 hour nap to see if then she would be still a little tired and use that for bed time. Our neighbors also have their lights on that shine into her room until 2 or 3am so we think that's not helping. We hope to get this all fixed before daylight savings next month.

We have now finished cleaning up what was the exercise room and are now trying to finish up the office. As soon as the office is cleared enough, we can move the bookcases from the exercise room there and put all the toys in the new play room. I am looking forward to that so much. Penny has so many toys it's not funny. Then, I'll have better reigns over the living room and not be in a panic when company comes over.

Well, here are some bump pictures from this past weekend (28 weeks and 6 days on this past Friday). Some still are figuring out that I'm pregnant, which baffles me. Also, here are pictures of my new boots with cute outfits to coordinate with them!

 

 

26 weeks and 4 days

I've been feeling pretty tired lately. I don't know if it's the pregnancy, lifting Penny in and out of things, or if my cold is coming back. Penny has also been waking up at 4am the last couple mornings just wanting some cuddles for a few minutes and then goes back to bed. This morning, I explained to her that dark means bed time. She repeated "dark, bed" so I'm hoping she understands. Well, due to popular demand of "curious minds wanting to know", here are the two pictures- one front view and one side view of my baby bump. And yes, I do feel as big as I look. Oh and sorry about the flash.

Where did the time go?

I feel like so much has happened because time is going so fast. Is it because I'm getting older or because I'm chasing an almost 2 year old around?

Things have been going so much better during this pregnancy. The only times I get sick is when it's stress induced (so once or twice a month). The doctor is really happy with my progress with my weight- only down a few pounds from when I started. These are the easy appointments that I don't mind bringing Penny with me. All we do is listen to the heart beat, she measures my tummy, and asks if I have any questions or concerns. Towards the end, Penny will need to be somewhere else. My energy is kind of low towards the middle to the end of the day but that seems pretty normal.

Penny has been learning so much (my cute little sponge). She loves to sing to herself. The other day, I was putting her in her carseat and she started sining "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". Today during nursery, she was singing "Sunbeam". It's adorable. Penny is also putting phrases together from stories like "5 monkeys jumping on the bed". It's times like those that I hope I'm getting as much as I can to her to absorb. Penny loves playing outside. Her favorite thing is now to say "climb up dada" which is basically telling Chris she wants to climb up him and then he kind of plays horsey with her (but they call it "yucky apple" because he goes over to the tree and tosses the bad asian pears to the side).

Well, as time goes faster I realize how much we still need to prepare for this new little boy coming. I feel like my list grows and doesn't get done. This week, we had a bit of a set back. A pipe burst in our master vanity outside the master bathroom. The landlord came over that night to take some pictures so they would know what exactly to tell the plumber and get an idea of the carpet problem. So, the carpet of about half the master bedroom was wet and we were bound to sleep on the couches in the living room. I have to say, we have great landlords. They got a carpet guy out to the house the next day to take out the padding and lift the carpet over the bed frame and basically moved all the big furniture out of there. I felt bad that I couldn't help him move anything. I was very grateful to be able to call our home teacher to have him help Chris move the mattress out of the room the night before. Then the plumber came and looked at me after he looked at the pipe and said 'you didn't hear this burst?". See, we keep the bedroom doors closed during the day except Penny's and so it either happened while we were at the park or after we were home. The landlord came over while the plumber was here to take a look at what the carpet guy had done. I think we were all really happy and grateful that we have cement under the carpet and padding instead of wood- it only took 24 hours to dry. The carpet guy came back the next night with dry padding and then cleaned the carpet. I think that's going to be the cleanest our room will ever be for a while. We then had some friends over the next night for pizza and playing outside while the husband and Chris moved the heavy mattress and bookcase back into the room. I think the silver lining to this whole thing was the bed got to be moved over more so we can have a place for the gliding chair in our room for when the baby comes.

We're still in the process of putting things back into the master bedroom from the other rooms that they got displaced in. It's not that bad and we're really happy that we had the extra rooms to be able to put the things in in the first place. But we're SO happy to be back in our own bed instead of the couches. Speaking of which, I think the bed is calling my name. I'll be back sooner than later!

My growing bump

I haven't really gained that much (I'm still at a -5 lbs from what I lost in the beginning) but I feel HUGE! My mom says it's because Penelope did the hard work of stretching my tummy last time that this time it's a piece of cake (cake sounds good right about now...). Anyways, I knew I should take another bump photo because most of my family is far away and they don't get a chance to see me. So here it goes:

So, from the front view, it's not so bad. You can't tell too much unless you're standing right in front of me in person. But take a look at that side view.... Makes me feel SO BIG. To give you a sense of how big I am, I will tell you of my shopping experience with my sister as part of our girls day out. I just bought this shirt and top in the last few days (this past Friday in fact). The sales woman at the store said she didn't realize I was pregnant until I said something (which made me a little sad that she thought I was this big normally). Anywho, I am usually a large or extra large in shirts depending on the brand and cut. Well, this shirt isn't maternity so I was expecting to go to the extra large.... not so. I had to get an XXL for the shirt. This made me a little nervous when I was looking at their skirts that I would feel poorly about them as well. This skirt is a large... and it's WAY loose. It has an elastic-y waist so I can wear it during and after I have the baby. So there you have it: an XXL on top and a L on bottom. Talk about feeling huge. To try to make me feel better, my sister told me that the shirts run a little small because she usually wears a small and she had to get a medium so it wasn't sticking to her. So maybe it's the cut of the shirt, who knows.

Well, it's off to have some lunch for me. Enjoy these pictures.

Baby Names

I know we still have plenty of time to veto names on our list and to come up with new ones. Here are our top 6 names that have been through our vetoes (in no particular order): Matthew, William, Patrick, Nicholas, Benjamin, and Declan. Even though William is on both sides of our family, I may end up vetoing it because it's number 3 on the top 100 names for the last few years (and I personally feel like everyone is naming their baby boy "William"). Only time will tell. In Chris' family, there's a tradition of the first born to take the first name of the father as their middle name but because we had Penelope first we don't have to use his name as the middle name. We'll see if we do or not. I feel like we have a good list of names and no pressure to look at more or think about it further until the baby is about to come.

Surprisingly, there are only 2 names that were vetoed by Chris. The names we're not going to use are Timothy (because of Tim Cook) and Robert (I guess Chris new a Robert...).

The baby has been moving around a lot these last few days. Today, he was moving in ways that you could see on my belly instead of me just feeling the movement inside. I guess he's just excited that we're at the halfway point today. Plus, I was talking about cheesecake and mini eclairs to Chris and he just moved all around fast and hard. This kid must have a sweet tooth or something. I crave beef a lot more this time around (constantly wanting hamburgers or meatball subs) but I make sure to get some good stuff in too (chicken and turkey).

My OBGYN says we can finally classify my pregnancy as "normal". For those who don't know, I didn't have a "normal" pregnancy with Penny. I was a high risk for most of it. I was really quite sick the first trimester and was eventually hospitalized by week 12 with hyperemesis (I lost a total of 40lbs in a matter of 6 weeks). Thankfully, I have the same doctor this time around and we were able to get things stabilized with this pregnancy. She's thrilled that I'm starting to pick up some weight (although I'm still at a -7lbs from when I started this pregnancy) and is convinced everything is going to work out wonderfully.

Well, my meatball sub is calling my name!

Boy? or Girl?

I bet you're all on the edge of your seats to find out (if not, why are you reading this?).
We are having a.....











































BOY!!
We're pretty thrilled at the idea. Chris says he won't talk baby names until tomorrow morning when it has sunk in and he's had a night to sleep on it. We decided this time we weren't going to even look at names until we knew and time just snuck up on us. I'm feeling pretty good- just a little overwhelmed at the idea of starting at the starting line again as far as "stuff" is concerned (clothes mostly). At first, it felt like this pregnancy was going on forever but to finally be a the halfway point is amazing. Any advice for boys? Or will it be the same as having a girl? I'll post some ultrasound photos tomorrow when Chris has put them on the computer.

Cuteness in Action!

I can't help but post these three cute pictures of a daddy/daughter moment from today. Penny loves Winnie the Pooh but the only place I have found for her to watch is on youtube. So, we turned on Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore and daddy got on the couch. Penny then proceeded to climb up onto the couch and then onto daddy. Here are the cute pictures:

 

Just hanging out on Daddy watching some Pooh.

Tomorrow we go in to the doctor to find out if it's a boy or girl so stay tuned for that post tomorrow afternoon...