The End.

From way back before I was even pregnant with Jeffrey, I knew that I wanted to breastfeed. It was super important to me. My mom is a pretty big advocate and faced a lot of adversity for choosing that method, so I suppose that influenced me. Once the baby was actually on the way, I was on a mission to learn as much as I could. I truly believe that knowledge is power, and I figured that knowing what to do (both in a normal and exceptional cases) would be my best friend. I started attending LLL meetings at six months pregnant, which was such a tremendous and wonderful influence on me. It really allowed me to see other babies nursing!

When Jeffrey was born, nursing came easily to us. We had our share of issues and hard patches, but we overcame them all. I had the common goal of "one year" set in my head. Once we started nearing that, I knew that neither of us were in no shape to be ending so soon. So, I adjusted my thinking. With the AAP's recommendation of at least two years helping me explain my decision, I allowed myself to become an extended breastfeeder. I don't think there's many choices that I rank above that one in my life. I hoped to make it to two, but I knew that pregnancy could affect things. I hadn't made a decision either way on tandem nursing.

As usual, Jeffrey made the decision for me. He started slowly losing interest and dropping nursing session after nursing session. I have no doubts that this baby inside of me was a huge force in this, as I dried up about 10-12 weeks. I made my goal, though. Jeffrey last nursed the evening of his 2nd birthday. It's a beautiful moment that I will treasure forever, and I think it makes it so much more special that it was on such a momentous day. Since then, life has continued on- just no nursing. He's never asked for it, although he did say that it was his milk when we were reading a Big Brother book. We'll work on that :) I'm so happy that I was able to meet his needs as long as he needed them, and I'm happy to place this accomplishment on the list of things I am most proud of. I am very at peace with how it happened, and I'm sure it helps to know that I'll be starting all over again in six precious months. Here's to another happy journey!

17 weeks!

I cannot believe I'm so far along already! It's shocking since I'm still having bouts of nausea and weakness, so I always think I'm earlier than I am. Every Monday brings about a little bit of a shock. Apparently, all the issues and nastiness from last week were the result of a growth spurt. There is no doubt that this kid is bigger. I'm actually feeling rolls and can even SEE them from the outside. Ridiculously early, I know. There's no doubt, though. Gas can't make your belly button do the wave! I don't feel it all the time yet, usually only when I'm leaning back a little bit. Every so often, it'll make itself known in other times, though.

Eating is really starting to normalize, and my appetite is picking up. That has really made it easier to fend off the nasty that this baby keeps sending my way. I'm starting to get round ligament pain this time, which is lovely. Sleeping is still going pretty good, though! I'm barely even waking up to go to the bathroom. Even so, I still get tired really easily and can overdo it super quickly (to a ridiculous amount). My pants are just now starting to bother me to the point where I'm considering busting out the belly band. I definitely have a little bump, so I think it's pretty safe to say that I'm carrying much higher this time.

As it gets closer, it's getting harder and harder to wait for our ultrasound! I'm so anxious to (finally!) see our little baby and be able to envision our future with either two boys or boy/girl. Feel free to vote in my little poll. Until then, we've got lots of Holiday activities and an appointment with the midwife next Sunday.

Bathroom Update!

It's been awhile, no? Yeah, we started in April. It's finally (mainly) finished, as of last weekend- right before Jeffrey's party. We like to cut it close, apparently! The good news, though, is that it turned out just how we wanted it to. It's SO much nicer than it was before, it's bright, fun, and it should be really useful for two little kiddos. Plus, Jeffrey likes it. We still have a bit of work to do to the bathtub (seal the grout, install the faucet/drain, and reglaze the bathtub), but it's practically done! I'm so excited that people can come to our house again now that they have a bathroom to use! Without further ado, our bathroom...

Before:

After!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I cannot believe that this is my baby's 3rd Thanksgiving. Every year, I'm swarmed over with how much I have to be thankful for. It's so easy to get down on the little things, like wanting a new dining table or still feeling pretty gross, but I love that there is a holiday just for the reasoning of spending quality time with family and being thankful for all that you do have. When I truly think about it, I have so much more than I need.

1. an amazing and supportive family, including a patient and 100% giving husband and the most amazing son I could have ever dreamed possible
2.  this wonderful new child growing inside of me that will further enrich our lives
3. a wonderful, family friendly job for Jony that provides more than enough to support our family on it's own, allowing me to be able to stay home and give our children the foundation we always dreamed we could
4. the financial means to be able to place Jeffrey in MDO next year and sign him up for classes like The Little Gym and swim lessons
5. Similarly, the financial means to be able to pay out of pocket for the pregnancy and birth experience we crave, as well as having the choice and opportunity to utilize it
6. a house that provides warmth, security and a place to grow our memories- as well as providing the location for our new little one's arrival into the world
7. reliable cars (2 of them, at least, lol) that take us to get necessities, for fun adventures and even on vacation
8. the ability to travel and see the world/country and expose our children to other cultures
9. our health and the fact that choosing our new health insurance plan (another thing to be thankful for) is such an easy decision due to the minimal risks our family faces
10. friends, both near and far, that we know are here to stay

Finally, to go back to some of the thanksgivings of the very first Thanksgiving, I'm so proud to live in a time that so accepting of different ideas, cultures and opinions. Sure, we still have a ways to go, but we get closer every day. That's the kind of world I'm thankful to raise my children in.

I hope all of you are enjoying your blessings today, along with some good food, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Wordless Wednesday: Birthday Edition

Fitting that this would fall on his EDD 2 years ago, but this was taken at his birth minute on his birthday: 9:37pm

The Stats

Just got back from Jeffrey's 2 year appointment, and all looks fabulous. He's exceeding (by a lot) the developmental milestones and is super healthy. We're apparently doing an awesome job :) He even answered some of the development questions himself. Example: Does he respond to you when you ask him questions? Jeffrey- "yes". Does he jump? Cue Jeffrey jumping in a circle around the floor and then doing his version of the moonwalk. She skipped a few of the mobility questions after that, lol! He was such a ham with the pedi and gave her the side eye when she tried to convince him the bear was the doctor. So, she treated him like a kid instead of a baby! So crazy. He even did the scale where he stands on it himself to get weighed. Gosh, he's old.

Jeffrey is now 27lbs, 35.75 inches- about the height of a 3 year old! I was surprised that he only grew a little over an inch. He seems SO much taller than six months ago. It's a good thing, though, I suppose, because pants are already a problem.

He had one shot and was NOT a fan, but he recovered quickly. Daddy was there since I'm still feeling a little faint today (probably from not really eating yesterday), so that was helpful. We even brought a leftover juice from his party which is quite a treat for him! So, he was over it. He's to report back in one year. When he's 3. Holy moly.

16 Weeks

Hello 4 months! Too bad I'm celebrating with a lovely stomach virus. Ugh. I feel SO disgusting. At first, I thought I was just rundown from the busy weekend. Then, the pain and discomfort came. It sure is cool to walk around with a trashcan, though (although I haven't used it yet, thankfully, although maybe it would make me feel better?). To be honest, I'm not really even walking. Lots of bumming on the couch in a futile effort to try and get somewhat comfortable. Jony put a call into the midwife, and I'm taking some slippery elm bark in hopes that it makes me feel better. We'll be getting a follow-up call alter this evening. Hopefully, I'll have good news to report. Jony feels terrible because he just went through this, but he can take the good stuff. Plus, it's easier for him to poop in general. TMI, perhaps, but all pregnant/formerly pregnant know what I'm talking about.

In happier news, I feel the little baby at least once a day. Also, a little pooch is starting to show itself. I'm not making any promises that I'll be able to feel up to taking a belly picture today, though. Less than four weeks until the big ultrasound!

The Party

After all the stress of getting the house cleaned, ready and decorated for Jeffrey's big bash, it was an amazing time. He loved having his closest friends all in one place, and the weather worked out perfectly for some good outside play. I deem it a successful party.

2 Years Old.

2 years ago, I was given the most amazing gift a person can receive. In that time, I have learned so much more about myself, life and love then I could have ever done without him. I have never had a better teacher. As easy as it is to get caught up in the sadness that two years have already gone by, it is hard to not be completely overwhelmed with the massive amounts of joy that he has brought to me in his short life. No doubt, they have been the most amazing years of my life, and I am so glad to have all of these amazing years to look forward to. I know that I am going to love having a little two year old, and I cannot wait for all of the fun, experiences and life we'll experience together in the next year. He is so perfect, and I am so thankful to have such a wonderful, loving, energetic and happy little boy. I am constantly in awe of all that he can do, and I cannot help but be such a proud mother.

At this exact moment two years ago, I was finally eating the lunch that I had begged so hard for in the hospital (chick fil A nuggets, just as we had today for your party) and anticipating what was to come. Little did I understand in that eight hours, my world would be forever changed in the most spectacular way.

2 Year Stats:

• he'll be weighed and measured next Tuesday at his 2 year appointment!
• wearing 2T clothes, primarily
• only nursing at night, and I can feel it slipping away
• sleeping amazingly (after overcoming the obstacle of the time change, of course)
• 15 teeth! The canines are finally coming through; #16 will be here any day
• starting to talk in full sentences and use possessive (specifically 'my' and 'mine')
• knows all the colors
• starting to do a beginner "stride" on his strider bicycle
• is starting to show a big interest in letters and can correctly identify at least 10 of them
• good at listening and following directions (most of the time)
• can balance on one foot
• Favorite food: cupcakes/cookies
• Favorite book: Truckery Rhymes (also known as "big trucks book")
• Favorite activity: cars, trains and airplanes!

Prehistoric Chaos

Between finishing the bathroom (or, at least, getting it into acceptable conditions for people to see/use it), completely cleaning the house, organizing the monster amount of toys this kid owns, and general party preparations, I am in a whirlwind. Normally, I would own this. I thrive under pressure and being busy. However, I'm too dang tired for all that this year, so it's a bit stressful. It's working out, and it'll be a great party. In the meantime, though, there's a bunch of living room crap in our kitchen so we can start cleaning the carpet asap in the AM and there is no counter space for any sort of cookie/cupcake baking to occur. So, tomorrow should be pretty busy. Add to that going to Little Gym and a Thanksgiving potluck for Jony's work in the morning AND a birthday party in the afternoon (Jony will stay home for this one), and time is not on our side. On the plus side, his birthday banner looks amazing and is all hung up, and the favor bags are fully complete. I'm surrounded by dinosaurs and loving it, even if I'm super stressed on the inside, because a certain little boy is SO excited about his big party! He's going to have a blast.

After all this, it's for certain that his party will be outside of the house next year. All of this with a six month old baby? No, thanks.

Pop Pop Pop

Right on track with Big Brother (maybe even a day or so earlier? yikes), I'm beginning to feel this little one move.  I was a bit confused at first since I seemed to be feeling it pretty regularly from the get-go, but I've only felt it a few times since then. So, I'm assuming that it was just a little hyper on Monday :) I love it. It's my absolute favorite part of being pregnant. It allows me a full on connection with the little baby. It makes it so much easier to deal with still not feeling 100% or having trouble eating. In fact, it's made it easier to force myself to eat something. It's that little reminder that there is in fact a little human growing and developing in there- just what I needed.

This is just the tiny little beginning of something so exciting. I know that, in just a few short weeks, I'll be sharing this feeling with others (namely Jony and Jeffrey). So, I'm wrapping myself in these short moments of just me and the baby to really solidify our connection. Only a few weeks until I can stop calling it "it"!

15 weeks!

I swore that I was turning 14 weeks this week- oops, lol! I'm getting eerily close to the halfway point, which I know will be here super fast. This weekend kicks off the holidays for us- beginning with Jeffrey turning 2! That'll make the weeks fly by, no doubt. For the most part, I'm feeling pretty good now. I had a rough day yesterday, but I think that was from overdoing it over the weekend plus not eating enough. It was about this time with Jeffrey that I fainted from my low blood pressure, so I'm assuming that the baby is just big enough now where it needs me to eat more. So, I'll start working harder at forcing myself. Unfortunately, I'm still having issues eating. It is getting better, though, thank goodness.

Every so often, my belly pops out where it looks like I'm pregnant. Most of the time, though, it's still fairly normal. No bump picture this week since it's significantly smaller than last week. Maybe I'll do a full belly post next week to celebrate being 4 months. Even with no bump, though, my back is ridiculous. It hurts so bad. I'm going to have to bring it up to my midwife at the next appointment to see what she suggests. If it gets worse, I may even need to e-mail her.

In exciting news, we have the date for our ultrasound! December 17th! Right before Christmas :) I've added a little poll to the right if you have an inclination on what's hanging around in my uterus. 33 more days!

Here's to hoping for starting to feel movement soon!

How I Live

My biggest and most constant battle in life is my urge to be ridiculously lazy. It's by far by biggest downfall, but at least I know and own it. Most of the time, realizing it and dealing with it means that I'm able to actually get stuff done. It's a big reason why I do much better when I'm stressed and have a ton of stuff to do. If it's just one thing, I slack. It's why I did so well in college :)

Anyways, add that in with pregnancy exhaustion? Not a great combination, and I don't even have the minimal effort to fight the urge. So, I choose how to use my limited energy carefully: taking care of Jeffrey's needs (some of his wants, now that I'm feeling better, thank goodness), dealing with food and saving energy to get up and go pee about twice an hour (blech). Where does that leave cleaning, organizing and planning on the list? Nowhere. It's just not there. I try here and there, but not too hard. Mix in the fact that Jony works out of town during the week, and you can just imagine what this house looks like. Now, it's no hoarders and there's no reason CPS would need to be involved, but it is not the optimum living environment, haha. There's at least one toy in every square foot of this house (proving that our kid is ridiculously spoiled, and he has a birthday and Christmas coming up....), sweaters strewn about, the counter tops and table are covered in craziness, and the sink is majorly full. Fun realization? I can get through the four days that Jony is gone by using pretty much every dish we have- no need to do the dishes!

I can't say that I enjoy living in such a dirty house, but I just haven't been able to muster the energy to do anything about it (dirty dishes? gag.) I do feel bad for Jony, though, who walks in to disaster every Thursday night. Eventually, things will normalize. I'll be able to stand up and actually do some manual activity without feeling gross for more than 10 minutes, and my energy will (hopefully) give me some slack. Until then, Jeffrey and I live in ease waiting for the "maid" to come home every weekend.

Wordless Wednesday

14 Weeks!

Officially in 2nd tri! It's exciting to be here, knowing what it has in store for me. I loved the second trimester with Jeffrey; it really was that "honeymoon" phase. Between feeling good again, starting to feel kicks, and the emergence of a belly, there's not really all that bad stuff.

I can tell that I'm getting close to that point. I'm feeling normal 75% of the time now, and food is not quite as repulsive to me as it has been. Most of the time. Sleep is still going relatively well, even though I usually wake up with back pain and have to visit the restroom at least twice each night. I guess since the ickies are staying around a little longer this time, I get to sleep a bit longer, too. Seems like a fair trade. I'm hoping to be able to remain in bed the entire pregnancy this time, especially since we've gotten rid of the recliner that I slept in the last two months with Jeffrey. I'm still in completely normal clothes. It's strange to me, but I seem to be carrying higher this time (not too difficult since Jeffrey was practically halfway out the whole time).

I already updated with my appointment that all went well. Heartbeat of 156! The next appointment is at almost 17 weeks, and I'm currently waiting for a call back about scheduling our ultrasound! I'm hoping to have it before Christmas, but we'll see. I'm still feeling major girl vibes, so I'm itching to find out.

Lastly, I actually have a belly pic this week! Bonus- you get to see my new haircut. However, it should be noted that I take these pictures right before we go to sleep each Sunday. Not exactly my prime time for photos, but it's the only time it gets done. We decided to go with taking the pictures in the same outfit each week to really see the different (eventually, lol)

Starting to Brainstorm

Christmas is next month which means that it's time to really start narrowing down our ideas for Christmas cards. I love everything about Christmas, and making/sending/receiving cards is no exception. There's something special about having real mail all month long! I think we've narrowed down our ideas to what type of pictures we want to take and have on our card, but we're still deciding between whimsy and vintage. We'll probably make the final decision after we take the pictures and can play around with the Christmas cards (We use Shutterfly; always have and always will). I know that we can trust them to deliver good quality and timely shipping since, let's face it, we're always a bit behind in actually getting the ball rolling on these. This year, especially, since we're hoping to wait to find out the gender of little babe before ordering. We just ordered Jeffrey's birthday cards from there and were extremely happy with them, and all of his photo books are from there, as well. Well, the ones that I've actually finished, at least.

I'm super excited to actually start acting on our ideas and see our card come to reality! AH! I know it's only early November, but I just can't help but get excited about Christmastime. I love it :)

A Big Check

Yesterday, we signed and handed off the final payment for the little baby's arrival into the world! All we have left to do is wait 27ish weeks of pregnancy now ;) It feels quite strange to have it paid so early, especially since we didn't pay for Jeffrey until afterwards. I'm loving it, though. It was so stressful to have hospital bills come pouring in during Christmastime. Bah humbug on that. Plus, we're paying substantially less this time. Majorly. Even more if we get reimbursed at all, which we're not counting on. Would be pretty amazing, though! I loved having a set amount that I knew in total beforehand, so we were able to completely budget it into our holiday spending. Now, it's done! We'll still have to pay for our ultrasound when we have that done, but we did for Jeffrey, as well.

As a reward, the little baby let our midwife find the heartbeat immediately at a beautiful 156 bpm! So, now I'm feeling better, know the little baby is healthy and thriving and can just enjoy the pregnancy until little one decides to slide on out. Love it.

Such a Happy Halloween!

Jeffrey is such a blast now, so I was really looking forward to all of the Holiday experiences this year. Halloween did not disappoint. He jumped right into the thick of it and loved Trick-or-Treating. He did so great at walking up to each house (even past scary decorations, except one big inflatable cat...I had to pick him up at that one, lol), holding out his bag, saying "tick teet" and then "thank you!" Then he's skip down the sidewalk to do it again! Most of the houses on my parent's street participated, so he'd get all upset and confused on why we were skipping a sidewalk. He'd start going up it, look back at us and say "come on!" So adorable. My niece was there, as well, which he loved. I had a huge smile on my face the entire night. Then, he put on his Halloween pajamas that have a ghost on them and started jumping around yelling BOO. It's all just too much. I cannot wait for what the rest of the holidays have in store for us!