13 weeks!

Here we go- entering that 2nd trimester. I'm hoping that it brings along all the amazing things that it did with Jeffrey, as well. One super exciting thing that happened two nights ago was that we were able to find the heartbeat with an at-home doppler! We'd tried the week previous with no success, so we were SO thrilled when we finally found that little woosh! It definitely has made coping with the gross feeling a bit more manageable since then! Speaking of that, things are way better. The gross feeling isn't nearly as gross, and I'm starting to be a bit more capable of caring for both myself and Jeffrey. The house will come later ;) I'm even having parts of the day where I feel totally normal, so I know that the end is very, very near.

I'm already starting to get the "small" comments that I did with Jeffrey, which is ridiculous. I'm only 13 weeks! I realize I don't look pregnant. At all. However, I'm also aware that I make good sized babies, so I'm not really that worried about it. Plus, my torso is typically twice as long as the people making those comments- lol!

I'm so thrilled about this little nugget and have started daydreaming of nurseries and how much fun the holidays will be with both kiddos next year. I'm sort of feeling girl, but we shall see! Next appointment is Friday.

Dark Days

Every time I come to write a post, I realize that it's just a boring age/week update. I've been so out of touch with my own feelings that it was impossible to even think about blogging them. I may or may not have mentioned this in passing, but my husband is currently working a project that takes him away Monday-Thursday every week. It's been about two months. I've been holding my head up and saying that it's all been okay, but it's a lie. If you do the math there, you may begin to realize why. It's pretty crappy timing to send your partner off for most of the week when you're in early pregnancy. So, he leaves, and life falls apart. I'm able to do enough for Jeffrey, but that takes most everything out of me. I can't do the dishes (gag), I can barely cook any food, and I sure as heck haven't been keeping up with the laundry/cleaning. It takes it's toll. Our house is disgusting, Jeffrey is watching way too much TV with not near enough mommy time, and I still feel like crap. Plus, guilty. It completely sucks. It really gives me a special heart for single moms, although the hardest part for me is knowing that Jony WOULD be doing it/helping, but he's not there. So, he can't. A friend told me tonight that "you don't realize exactly how much they do until they're not there to do it anymore." Such a true statement. I knew that he did a lot because he's the most amazing father there is. It really makes it more obvious, though. I remember how well he treated me while pregnant with Jeffrey- making me food, bringing me my vitamins, letting me sleep in and take naps all the time, doing all the cleaning, etc. I think that's why I was feeling better by this point already with him. Granted, he does all those things on the weekends, as well as cleaning up all the nasty left from the week AND spending every second with Jeffrey.

It's really hard to live your life waiting for the weekend and wishing the weeks away. After all, Jeffrey will never be this day old again. And, I missed it (obviously, I was here, but I didn't enjoy it). Thank goodness that Jony will be working remotely (from home) next week. Hopefully, it's what I need to get back on track.

12 weeks!

It's officially out in the open, as far as people can tell whomever they want to now. I haven't put anything on Facebook, but it's been mentioned on Jony's. I'm not even sure if I'll do a major announcement and may just wait and see until people start noticing in my pictures or something, lol! Things sure are different with the second kid.

I'm still moving upwards in terms of feeling better, and I'm so grateful. I've actually been able to play with my son a little today! I'm still having my moments, but moments are better than all.day.long. In sad news, we tried to find the heartbeat last night with the doppler and were unsuccessful. We'll try again in a week when Jony gets back home again (to stay home for an entire week! yay!), so hopefully the babe can get bigger and make it a bit easier to find. Jony swears he heard something, but he couldn't find it again and focus in on it. It makes me a little nervous since I've had no validation of pregnancy, but what can you do?

I'm in disbelief how close I am to the 2nd trimester. I LOVED that trimester with Jeffrey, so I'm really looking forward to it. It's a bit scary to think of it going as quickly as the 1st has, though. It's even scarier when you factor in the holidays and how quickly time goes this time of year anyways. Eek! It'll be 2012 before I know it.

23 Months!

Keep a paper bag close to me at all times because this is a lot to handle! Only ONE month until my tiny little pipsqueak turns two years old. He's the most amazing kid. Ever. His verbal skills are getting out of control and is starting to talk in two word sentences. He learns new words every hour, it seems. Plus, it's getting clearer so that people other than Jony and I can actually understand him. He rarely acts out, although he's pretty good at busting out the occasional whine. We still have not entered tantrum territory. He's HILARIOUS and will do about anything to get people to laugh- definitely going to be a class clown like his daddy. I have such a blast with him and am so proud to be his mommy.

23 Month Stats:

• still no clue, but I swear that I feel he gets taller every day. He's not super heavy, though. Tall and skinny!
• wearing primarily 2T, although we're having a major issue with pants (hello highwaters!)
• nursing 2x a day, most days. Morning is starting to fade away, it seems
• napping and sleeping is still A+; We actually don't even pat him or anything to fall asleep, but we do still sit with him
• STILL just 12 teeth. He'll never finish teething, I'm convinced. 
• talks constantly and in two word sentences. Current favorite word: pumpkin
• is obsessed with color sorting. He does it to any and everything. 
• knows when there are two of something, but two is the only number he accepts to be real
• can show you numbers and hold up on his finger the numbers 1, 2 and 5
• loves handstands, where his hands are on the ground and his feet walk up the wall
• loves his baby doll and wants to help change her poopy diaper every minute
• Favorite food: applesauce puches
• Favorite Book: any of the Llama Llama series
• Favorite Activity: sorting his blocks by color

11 weeks!

Everyone that is "in the know" in our lives now officially knows. So, word will now begin to spread (via grandparents, of course). We'll probably fill in the rest of the world (via Facebook, of course) in the next week or two. I'm so glad that we finally got around to telling all of our good friends; the worry of them finding out on accident or by someone else is just too much for me to deal with! Plus, my pants are starting to get tight, and it would be strange to show up to meet for lunch in a belly band if they didn't know ;)

I'm feeling much better and actually starting to eat a bit more. I've really buckled down on focusing on my water intake after my heat incident last week, which is probably helping a great deal, as well. Exhaustion seems to be tapering off a little, but I'm still pretty emotional and hormonal. I'm this.close to having to eliminate country from any radio in my vicinity. It's getting ridiculous, lol.

The hardest part right now is that I still can't hold Jeffrey too long without feeling gross. For a boy who's used to getting lots of snuggles and being worn a lot, it's been an adjustment. It's slowly getting better, but we've got a ways to go still.

Pretty excited to be getting close the to the end of the 1st trimester!

The Heat Got Me

I used to pass out all the time. At least once a year at minimum. It's one of the joys of having low blood pressure and low blood sugar. When I crash, I typically crash hard. As I got older, though, I learned how to handle it- when to eat what and the early warning signs that a faint was coming. If you catch them early enough, you can put a stop to it. So, I haven't fainted since high school. I almost broke my streak this morning. It's been so long that I'm not as aware of those signs as I used to be, and, being in early pregnancy, I'm clearly not eating as much or what I should be. That all, combined with the direct sunlight and heat while I took Jeffrey to enjoy some fall fun at a local farm, almost ended in disaster. I got dang close. If I hadn't caught it when I did and promptly found a "cool" place to sit down and drink water, I'd have passed out clear in the middle of the play area. Jeffrey would have loved that, I'm sure.

A good friend took over Jeffrey duties while I came back to full consciousness, we ate lunch and then headed home to be in the A/C. We had to skip the pumpkin patch, which is a bummer, but Jeffrey was already pretty tired, anyways.

I suppose I'll be staying indoors for a few more weeks. You know, until it's ACTUALLY fall weather.

10 weeks!

It is seriously ridiculous how fast this pregnancy is going, and it's freaking me out. We're entering the fetus stage already! Thankfully, with that comes feeling better! I started not totally hating all food over the weekend and have worked my way up to feeling almost normal today! Still tired and lethargic, but at least I don't feel completely gross! Emotionally, I'm doing much better, as well. That's probably because I can actually interact with my son and make him food to eat instead of just laying like a lump on the couch feeling sorry for myself. I had a bit of trouble (read: a lot) going to the restroom last week, if you get my drift, so, once that was taken care of, everything started to move uphill!

We're crossing people off the "to tell" list slowly but surely- only four more left to fill in before it can go completely public. The parents are ready, which I don't blame them, since we're already 1/4 of the way!

I've got a teeny tiny little bump that you can only see when I'm not wearing a shirt or if I hold my shirt super tight against my skin, and that's only if you know me. I'm not having too much trouble with clothes yet, although I do unbutton when I eat. For comfort, of course :) Keep growing, little baby!

Things to Remember

With verbal explosion comes a heck of a lot of cute things pouring out of my little boy's laugh. I want to record some of them since it's already hard to remember now! Forget about remembering in fifteen years!

- He says "tank you" ALL the time, even to himself when he picks up a toy
- horses are called "yee-haws"- such a good little Texan ;)
- cars are "conk-conks"
-alligators are "chomp chomp" complete with hand motion. This also extends to both elevators and escalators, lol
-If he hears something loud, he'll put his mouth into an oval shape and go "whoa!"
-whenever there's a slight bump in the car, he yells out "speed bump!"
-he likes to add an "s" to a lot of things. I think that makes it possessive to him- example: "mines" (as in, it's mine)
-his siren sound is flipping adorable
-if he actually goes poo-poo (as opposed to just saying he did for fun), he'll follow it with a "blech" and "stinky" while holding his nose
-he knows what city he lives in! Unfortunately, he also knows the city that daddy works in
-he runs around randomly or in the car yelling "cheetah! cheetah?" since he heard a little boy do that at the zoo, and the cheetah actually came out
-he calls all monkeys "lemurs"

I love hearing my little boy talk, even if he does request to go to the zoo with Aly (my niece) every five minutes.

Wordless Wednesday

9 weeks!

Holy crap, this is going by so fast, it seems! We actually remembered to look at our pregnancy books last night for the first time in three weeks, and we were shocked at how much has changed with this little one.

I'm feeling alright (the biggest issue? I have food aversions), but I'm having some struggles emotionally. I'm sure that has more to do with Jeffrey going through a difficult stage and the fact that I'm a single parent the majority of the time now, but I know that pregnancy hormones are not on my side. I've been much quicker to react with Jeffrey, and I'm seeing major consequences from that. It makes me feel awful, and I cannot wait until Jony is working back in the same city so I can get my balance under control. I think I need more me-time now that I'm pregnant, but I'm getting way, way less.

In happier news, we had our first pre-natal appointment yesterday! Mainly, it was just filling out forms and doing my risk assessment. We also put our down payment down. It's a little strange feeling to be paying for the baby already since we didn't pay for Jeffrey until a few months after he was born, but it will be SO nice to be all finished by Christmas and not have to worry about it after the baby is born. Plus, it's cheaper. Can't beat that! My homework is a book on nutrition and to decide what routine tests I want/do not want. We go back in a month!

I'm also noticing a little belly pooch that never goes back in! I still fit into all my clothes just fine, although I do have to unbutton my jeans here and there when the bloat settles in :)