So I am very excited. I have my next sono on Wednesday and those are always great to help my calm down a bit because I will get to see my little miracle and make sure she is still a she. I am hoping that she will cooperate, unlike her brother, and do the 3d sono for us. Stephen put his hands and later feet infront of his face and would not move em for us to get the 3d shot. Oh well. We will be checking the position of the placenta which was low in that last sono. The Doctor said that 99% or more of the time the placenta moves up as the pregnancy progresses and that at this point she is not overly concerned. We will be getting a better shot of the heart and the spine because in that last sono she felt that the shots that she got were not great. She is not concerned though because the pregnancy has been progressing well. I did the glucose test at the last apt and I do not have gestational diabetes which is great news. They did find that my iron was low so I am not taking a thyroid pill in the morning with my claritin, prenatal and magnesium at lunch, and an iron tablet in the evening. I feel like that is a lot of pills but I know for a fact that others are having to take more and they aren't having to take em for preggo reasons. I am really grateful that I am remaining healthy and that thus far Mahalia has been doing well.
Stephen continues to do well. We are working on potty training which when he is in the mood he is a champ at it but when he is not wanting to mess with it he well doesn't bother. We did big boy underwear last night because he does know when he needs to go plus it does not wick away wetness and he can feel it better. But he was not in the mood to mess with going to the potty so he started by pooping in the underwear and we took him and showed him how to put it in the toilet and put on new underwear, then he came and told me he peed and I had to clean up a really small puddle in the kitchen, I changed him into his third and final pair (I really need to stock up on more underwear for him) and he peed a little bit in the living room. Needless to say we cleaned it up and put on a pullup. we were done for the night both due to not having any more big boy underwear but also because Stephen was not interested in doing it last night and I am not going to force it at this point.
Currently I am trying to nest but am not able to because as most people know a lot of nesting is done greatly through the preggo's hubby because we can't move heavy things etc. We are moving Stephen to the front room and making Stephen's nursery into Mahalia's room. Right now the current things that I am waiting for is for the filing cabinet to be moved out of the front room and Stephen's bed to be moved into its place. I already have the safety knob covers in place in front room and can get the other stuff moved once the two big things are moved.
So I guess my obsessive tracking of my time left has made some people think I am crazy but you know it makes me feel better as I see the numbers decreasing and increasing as they should since it helps me remember that this fatigue and HB will not last forever. Yay for the end and the new beginning. (Mahalia is currently kicking up a storm on one of my ribs which is good since maybe that means she has flipped out of breach.
Stephen is a champ at this potty training gig so far. Man he is the easiest little boy by far! He asks to go to the potty and he even goes into his room where his potty is takes off his dipe and then lets up know that he went potty every once and awhile. I mean we still have a little way to go on the whole bit and it won't be just this the whole time, but so far he is getting it. He knows that he needs to go and he asks to go. It is an adjustment for me to take him to the potty but it is a welcome adjustment because it means less dipes and eventually none. I am sooo proud of him. He is doing really well. He enjoys the praise and the M&M reward when he is successful. He is such a cutie.
Stephen had his first bigger boo boo on friday but he is fine. he fell at Daycare and hit his head on a cabinet. It looked terrible. He had a big goose egg, bruise, and red line that looked like a scrape but wasn't. I was afraid that he would fall and his his head all weekend because I knew if he hit the same spot he would bust it open and need stitches. I could feel where it almost busted anyway. Thankfully he did not fall again. It looks better daily and looks much better today. He had two blackish eyes on Saturday and a little left today. I was a little nervous about him being in the daycare at church because of it and that weird mommy guilt feeling that it happened. But all is good and we have moved past the bigger boo boo. He is actually getting tired of the attention to his boo boo if you belive that. But he has been a great sport all along and Daddy enjoyed their Friday night bonding time (while mommy was out for Girl's Night Out) when Stephen would ask for Daddy to kiss his "fworehead".
I had my OB apt on Wednesday last week and Mahalia was doing well. HB in the 150's. I went over my list of unhappy symptoms and got some feedback and a list of OTC's to try to help the current situation. later my OB called and told me that there were some issues in the Sono I did around 16 weeks that she thought I should know about and that she forgot to mention in the appointment. They did not get a good shot of her heart which this was at 16 weeks so most of the shots I rememeber were difficult because so far anytime anyone tries to get Mahalia to cooperate with scans has had to work at it. And there was also not a good shot of the spine. The OB is not worried about it at this point but they will do another sono soon to look at those things. Also my placenta was low and that worries them since up to this point had I called about spotting and bleeding they would have dismissed it a bit as long as it was not heavy and accompanied with cramping/pain but with a low placenta it could be a lot more serious. That is also something that will be looked at in the next sono. Soooo I will have another sono at some point soon which is either 2 - 4 wks. I have my next apt on the 10th which is 2 wks from my last so I am not sure if it will happen then or not. I know that my dreaded sugar test will be at my next apt. Drinking the yucky glucose stuff waiting for an hour and then testing the sugar levels. FYI to self no excessive sugar that morning at breakfast or lunch. I am hoping for another sono sooner rather than later to know all is well but I also hope that this sono does not take the place of the sono that is generally later in the pregnancy. Oh well.
Girl's Night Out AKA GNO is my one night out away from home with friends to relax watch a movie and not worry about responsibility as much. I get GNO every Friday night unless something happens and we arrange ahead of time for a different night. Which is rare. So this is the one night for Stephen and Brad to have bonding time together and they love it generally. There used to be a Boys Night Out on Thursday but some changes in social groups for Brad has changed it to not as standard of a night. It is okay by me. The rule of thumb is that we have to be respectful of one another and return at a decent time unless otherwise discussed. I try to be home at the latest by 11 pm unless we go out to a movie and then I will let Brad know that I will return as soon as the movie lets out. I just think it is nice to be able to show respect to one another when neither one of us sleeps as well when the other is out.
Hello 23 weeks 4 days with 114 days to go. There is a lot of confusion for a little one when another baby is on the way. Alot of this is due to just the intangible nature of pregnancy. If you are on the outside you don't feel the movement and sickness and you don't have the constant awareness of another life growing. For Stephen being told about his "Baby Sister" or 'Baby Mahalia" who is on the way it is a constant reminder and attempt to bring him into the fun of the new life being created.
We started out telling him that baby sister was growing in Mommy's belly and showing him the sonogram pictures of his baby sister and trying to make her more tangible even though all we had was the pictures. That ended up confusing prro Stephen who thought baby sister was the picture on the screen. He knew that is was a baby and that it was somehow related to him but he was not sure about where the baby was. We told him about the baby growing in mommy's tummy. He seemed to understand that and would go to the computer screen and would talk about baby sister growing. We had him put his hand on my belly and said that baby sister was in mommy's belly and could not hear him so he needed to say Hi Mahalia or Hi Baby Sister. He would then remove his hand and walk over and say it to the computer screen. The other day there was a slight break through although he is still a little confused. He was looking at the computer screen and said Hi Mahalia and then pulled his shirt up and came up to me and said Baby sister in my tummy. We gently told him that Mahalia was not in his tummy but in mommy's tummy. I think he is getting it slowing but surly.
Stephen has started stuttering when he is thinking really hard and when he is excited. Experts and those I trust agree that this is okay and that he is just learning so fast that his brain is having trouble keeping up and that it will pass. No worries. It can be cute and sometimes it sounds painful when he is trying really hard to say something. I am working hard just to let it come out on its own.
I have been having fun playing with my registry for Mahalia and was excited to find that Amazon now has a universal registry where you can register for things not on their site so it keeps it all very simple. I love Amazon. The registry is a good checklist of the things I still need to gather along the way.
Mahalia is breech. I know this right now because her favorite thing to do is tap dance on my bladder/cervix or jump on it like a trampoline. It is rather uncomfortable and I keep telling her she needs to flip now while there is still room. But she jsut loves dancing on my bladder. Oh well we shall see how it all unfolds. I am trying not to nest to badly but not working on the nursery is killing me. Oh well I will try and resist a little longer.
SO this is a little belated because I had this sono done at 16/17 weeks and I am now currently 21 weeks. Soooo we have known for some time what little joy we are expecting. Mahalia Dawn is the name that we have chosen. Dawn after my sister, my best friend, and my father in law "Don" so I think I have covered a few bases with the choice. We are sooo excited to be having a little girl along with Stephen who will be, no doubt, the best big brother ever! He is such a sweet giving little boy that he will def have no problems "sharing" his life and home with a little girl. He calls her "Baby Sister" right now. We have had discussions with him about the baby in mommy's belly who is "gwowing" and is his baby sister. We have talked about Mahalia in way such as when we buy an outfit to put away for her etc that it is Mahalia's. He has looked at the sonogram pictures and we have said that it is baby sister. There is actually the sono pic of her sucking her thumb up on the computer as the desktop background and when he sees it he points out that it is baby sister and sometimes if we are doing something on the computer he asks where baby sister is.
Stephen has been having regular craft time recently. We have been working on crafts for the Mahalia's room. It is great and fun and they are turning out wonderful. The pictures def show Stephen having a blast. I have a great time well. It is good time for bonding with Stephen. We also went to Michael's and did craft time there. Stephen made a bag with Fish on it that he now uses as his Daily here and there diaper bag. He loves it because he is able to carry it himself.
Brad got to feel Mahalai move the other day. It was great. He got a goofy grin on his face and started talking to her. It was really cute. I can't wait until Stephen gets to feel Mahalia move. That will be great for him. Well hopefully I can update more later.
Some preggo women have no symptoms... I on the other hand range the gammet from increased emotions to morning sickness. So yes with my 24/7 m/s I still have cravings. There are the common cravings which are chicken friend rice, that I love anyway but I crave it now. Then there is bread & butter pickes which I am devouring like a mad woman. To the point that last night I dreamed of Whoppers and so on my way to work I stopped and picked up whoppers to sooth the craving. It is not so bad but cravings are so random at times that you can't catch em. Like philly cheese steak sandwiches and then when faced with getting one the craving is gone. But I guess that is how it goes.
We are at 12 weeks. So two more weeks and we are out of the first trimester which I must say is the scariest and possibly most miserable part of pregnancy for me. I am one that has the 24 hour morning sickness variety with aversion to any strong odor. During this time I have had to run to the bathroom for both good and bad odors the strangest being the baby powder smell that Stephen's pampers have. It is by far worse in the evening when I am not always able to eat and if I do I am prepared for anything to happen. During the morning I feel at my peak and sometimes in the early afternoon depending on the day. It has started as early as noon when I quietly exited a training I was in and as late as 5pm. Generally I get sick around 4, or better said nausea sets in. Thankfully I have been able to maintian and gain appropraitely according to the doctor meaning that the days I keep everything down are helping the days I worship the toilet bowl (whichever it might be). I read a funny article a woman who had terrible morning sickness throughout her pregnancy wrote where her bi-line was "I just enjoy vomiting." At times when hubby doesn't understand and tells me I think about it to much and if I would just think about something else I would be fine. That is when I think about the article and laugh to myself about enjoying vomiting, which no woman does. I have hope that the morning sickness will fade away with the transition of the first trimester or at least get to the point it was with Stephen where I felt a little nauseated if I needed to eat. at the same time my heartburn has offically started but it pretty mild at this point and also get increasingly annoying toward the evening. I am so very excited about the journey I am embarking on with #2.
The news is being shared now and not before because we were a little nervous about who knew because of the dangers in the first trimester. Hearing the heartbeat yesterday was amazing and it was a breath of fresh air that caused me to relax a little bit. I will feel a lot more relaxed when I feel regular movement in a couple of months but for now I live off of that little heart going within me in the 170's range which is healthy and wonderful at this point. We have our second sono in a month, we had our first because of not being able to easily find the heart beat a month ago and it had changed the due date that we originally had. So we will see the baby in month. We might know the sex in a month. And I will get another sigh of relief in a month. Until then... I might look into investing into a personal doppler from babys-r-us. From what I have heard from family and friends it works well and helped them through their anxious moments.
Not long after we were married. We moved into a cute little home. We found out soon after that we were expecting. After morning sickness and craving Stephen was born on June 21st 2007. He spent some time in the NICU but is doing great. Stephen continues to change and grow and learn. All of this is happening while Brad and I are learning as well from him.
Brad and I met on January 28th 2004 officially. We had been emailing and chatting via yahoo personals and messanger for about a month and we finally met. We went out to Westerville Bowl with a college friend of mine and bowled. We hit it off, even though I was trying to let my friend and Brad talk more. We were goners at that point. Over the next three years we lived and loved and after my graduation in June 2006 we moved to Amarillo and were married on July 28th, 2006 on our 2 1/2 year anni.
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