21 Weeks

How far along: 21 weeks
Total weight gain: ?
Favourite clothes: I've been living in my pyjamas
Sleeping: Horribly, but being sick does that
Best Moment: How much time I spend reading to G. I absolutely love how much he loves being read to!
Worst Moment: Toss up between Saturday and throwing up Wednesday
Miss anything: Not really
Cravings: I have absolutely no appetite this week
New symptoms: More movement! I even felt one kick from the outside!
Looking forward to: Vacation starts in two days!
Crafting: Scarf (I was hired!) and a present for my mom

Mother's Day was a post unto itself, but it was a good day. Monday was chill. I finally finished the monster pants! Yay!!! We also met with the contractor and I worked on cleaning up our bedroom and bathroom, even though we'll be moving downstairs in August.

On Tuesday, G stayed home from school because they had a stomach bug going around and it was a difficult day; James was feeling sick and we had a window estimate scheduled right during G's nap time. He was fussy all day; maybe he wasn't feeling great. By Wednesday, I had a fever and felt horrible. G went to school because I knew I wouldn't be able to take care of him and me. I ended up throwing up and found out from the OB's nurse that there was a nasty stomach bug going around. It seems like there's always a stomach bug here; this is my second in three months after years without, and his school always seems to have one. Needless to say, Wednesday was horrible, and I wasn't able to do anything. It got worse on Saturday, and I'm really just hoping that it'll all be over by the time we leave for vacation. 

Thursday I found out G is a secret genius. At school he can make animal noises, name different animals (including rabbit) and is practicing the other kids' names and says "eat" when it's time to eat. He knows "door" and is practicing throwing away trash (he does that at home too). He also can tell his teacher that he needs a change, saying "poo" and pointing at his diaper (time to seriously start potty training!) At home, he babbles nonsensically, and though we know he understands the words and sentences we say, he doesn't say them himself. It's like he knows how to make me worry! He did however add a bunch of words this week: bye bye doggahs, beep beep, whee, yah (yes), boo (blue), bohl (bowl), peese (please) and ree (read). Not consistent, but definitely heard them. He makes vroom noises for his truck as well as saying "go go go." 

G stayed home from school Friday because he threw up Thursday evening and again Friday morning. It usually seems to be after milk. So we made an appointment with his new doctor, and we're going to try almond milk for a while to see if it might be a milk protein thing. She said overall he looks healthy and on track developmentally. So far, so good with the almond milk

It's been a really difficult week. Pregnancy is very emotionally taxing for me and being sick (especially stomach bugs) exacerbates that. As usual, any strong emotion makes me cry, and G decided that this week would be a perfect time to start preferring daddy. By preferring daddy, I mean rejecting me. When James is around he wants to be in his lap or held by him and any affection I try to give him is met by being smacked in the face or pushed away. If James leaves his sight, even just going to the kitchen, he has a total tantrum and won't accept any comfort from me. I know it's a phase and not personal, but it does feel like I'm a failure at motherhood and breaks my heart. I can't stop crying when this happens and James can't understand why I let it upset me so much. I keep trying to explain that I can't seem to help it and intellectually knowing it's not personal and emotionally feeling alright with it are completely different things. I'm doing the best I can, but this week has me stretched almost to breaking. The doctor said that its probably because he spends the most time with me and feel safest with me so he feels like he can press my buttons and push the envelope more with me than daddy. It's still difficult, but I'm really trying to just take it for what it is and enjoy the cuddles and giggles I do get (Saturday was good for this even though I couldn't do much of anything.)

21 Weeks: Baby Girl is the size of a zebra lion fish

I didn't get a picture until we left for Jamaica, so you get to see my suit!

I'm carrying her so much higher than I did with G

19 Months

Challenges: Still tantrums, caused by frustration. If something he's attempting doesn't happen perfectly the first time he gets so upset, and sometimes expresses it physically. He's also really preferring daddy right now, which is really hard on me.
Triumphs: Giving the baby kisses, crawling up a play structure's ladder on his own, going down the slide on his own and swinging on a big boy swing, "dancing" hard shoe, big boy bed (kinda), can climb onto couch
Words: "no" (a favourite right now), "ny ny" (night night), "choo choo," "feeth" (teeth), "lebbuce" (lettuce), "whoo whoo" (like choo choo), "bye bye puhpuhs" (bye bye puppies) (first phrase!)
Favourite toys: Books, books, books! His wooden train with blocks also gets a lot of use and some easter eggs, which he loves to bring you to close for him.

G is pretty much on track developmentally. His vocabulary is really good, and though they'd like him to have more phrases (he had none at our appointment), he's babbling away a storm. I swear, he's speaking in full sentences, it's just not a recognizable language.

He's still tiny, but the doctor said he'll probably grow this summer. He goes between eating well and not being interested in food. To be honest, our schedule has been crazy since we moved, and that's probably part of it. We had to switch doctors as well after we moved; we loved Gulf Shores Pediatrics but they're just too far away for my peace of mind.

He's still doing well at school. He's only bitten once this month and apparently the kid was right in his face. He does have an incredibly low frustration tolerance. If things don't immediately go right or work out, he freaks out. Sometimes it escalates into a full blown tantrum. Sometimes they turn physical. He throws things down when he's frustrated (which we then make him pick up), or he'll hit/kick/push (which always gets an immediate time out.) I don't know how to help him most of the time since holding him usually upsets him more or brings on the physical part. Plus I'm not exactly the best at dealing with frustration either. Though I do usually refrain from tantrums, haha.

There's so much going on and so many things changing that it's hard to keep him on a consistent schedule. A new house, with things constantly in flux, and we're going on vacation soon, moving to camp, changing daycares/amount of time in daycare, moving back to a remodeled home and then along comes a sibling. I think things aren't really going to settle down until we get settled back into the house with baby girl. Hopefully during camp we'll settle into more of a routine too, but I know that'll only be a month or two at most.

Other than still living with boxes and work on the house, it's been a relatively uneventful month. He fingerpainted and we discovered that G is fastidious and doesn't like "gunk" on his hands. We've struggled with the big boy bed, ending up asleep on the floor most nights and sleeping horribly with mom in the bed during storms. He came to dance with me for the first time and had fun, though he was a big distraction. He grows up and changes more and more every day. He babbles nonsensically and non-stop, dances to music and loves to be sung to. He is fussy and tantrum-prone, often for no obvious or apparent reason. He's started cuddling the giraffe I made him as he falls asleep and gets upset when he can't find it. He seems to be right on track for his age, and we're doing our best to handle the challenges and enjoy the little daily triumphs of a new word or new understanding. Cherishing every cuddle and kiss and climb into your lap with a book (Goodnight Goon parody anyone? I have it memorized!) I can't wait to see him grow into his role as big brother!

He's started smiling at the camera

And saying "hi" into remotes. Then he gets confused about why no one is talking back out of the remote

Fun with daddy!

More fun! Daddy makes funny noises when I drum on his tummy!

But I have no idea of my own strength...Poor daddy

20 Weeks

How far along: 20 weeks
Total weight gain: ?
Favourite clothes: My one pair of maternity shorts and skirts. Humidity sucks.
Sleeping: I'm waking up pretty frequently. It's kind of annoying actually
Best Moment: Lunch with a friend
Worst Moment: A pretty good week. G throws tantrums, but that's par for the course with his age
Miss anything: The usual: sushi, mixed drinks, wine, prosciutto
Cravings: Ice cream!
New symptoms: Nothing new, just same old same old symptoms. I'm still waiting for the second trimester energy to kick in, but with a toddler, I don't think it'll be coming
Looking forward to: Vacation! It's coming up soon!
Crafting: Finally finishing up the monster pants! Woohoo! Progress!

A pretty relaxing week. I've been working really hard on getting those monster pants done, and I'm so close! Just finishing up the duplicate stitches, since I finally read the instructions on my Embellish Knit machine and got 3 perfect icords for the drawstring waist. I can't wait to put them on G!

We had our new couch delivered on Tuesday; you don't sit IN this couch, it's so nice. And the ends recline, which is neat. I love the colour, which is a grayish brownish mushroom type colour. New side tables, and a media cabinet, and we're ready to get rid of the coffee table and entertainment console and mount the TV on the wall, which should free up a lot of space in the living room. The living/dining room in the house is very long, but also narrow, so when you put in a lot of furniture plus the toddler toys, it makes it very cramped. Unfortunately, we had to order longer cables, so we're waiting for those to arrive before getting the TV mounted. 

I got to have a lovely lunch with a friend on Wednesday. She's pretty close to her due date, so we followed up sushi with ice cream and a walk down to the pier, which was lovely. Down by the water, there was a nice breeze, which was welcome to counteract the humidity (which has been about 80% lately.) It was nice to have lunch and talk to another adult, a female and someone who is also pregnant with her second! I of course, forgot the entire reason for asking her to lunch and left the gnome outfit and baby name book she loaned me at home, so we had to invite them over for dinner on Friday. It was a great dinner, and their son and G got to play a bit; they'll be in the same class this summer and next year, so it'll be good for them to get more used to each other. We had steaks and asparagus and finished with some delicious cookies they brought over. It forced us to clean up the wreck of the living room, too. All of it is in Baby's room right now, but it'll be taken care of...eventually. 

Friday was busy, but not just because of the dinner. I spent most of the day grocery shopping and cooking. I gave in and bought a peeler, but I'm not going to buy another chopper--those tools have to be somewhere. I may have unwrapped everything in 8 kitchen boxes, but they have to be somewhere! I made the shepherd's pie and prepped things for that night, including buffalo chicken dip (yum!) James came home early and we ran by the cabinet place; they had come up with drawings for us and they look fantastic! They found a way to get the spice drawers next to the stove and we moved the fridge to make room for a small pantry and even used the small space in front of the air intake that makes the current pantry useless. I can't wait for it to be done! We also put down a deposit on the countertops. After spending a few hours looking at two wholesalers, we discovered that the quartz we picked was about half the price of the granites we liked, so we decided to go ahead with the quartz. With all of this going on, it made Friday a very busy day, but unfortunately it bled over into Saturday too.

G decided to wake up at 1 am on Saturday morning. James stayed with him for an hour, but he woke up when he left the room, and I ended up going in and spending the rest of the night sleeping on his twin bed. We really need to work on him being able to fall asleep alone again, but I hate finding him on the floor every night. Anyways, I didn't sleep very well, and when he decided he was good and awake (and not just dozing like before) at 7:15, I got James up so I could get a bit of a rest before going to dance. Since James was working, I took G to dance with me. Of course, he fell asleep on the car ride there, but once we arrived, he woke up. He was pretty out of it for a while, but once the music came on, he had a blast running around. He ran between our lines during the ceilidh dance, and I spent a lot of time trying to keep him out of the way, though I did end up carrying him for a step or two (I do not recommend this, especially when pregnant!) He had started trying to imitate us, and seeing him turn when we were practicing turns was adorable. When we did hard shoe, he stood up with us and stomped his feet like he was trying to do hard shoe too. It was pretty adorable. But by then, it had been almost 2 hours, and he was getting tired, so he was pretty fussy. He fell asleep on the way home, and I grabbed some lunch while he slept. He woke up when we got home, but even with an hour and a half nap in the car, it wasn't a good rest. When James got home, we ended up going appliance shopping. We decided on our appliances for the kitchen, and got a really good deal on them. I'm really excited to see the kitchen all done, and to have a gas stove to cook on again! G did as well as you could expect with little sleep and a long day: he kept wanting to crawl onto the ride on mowers. I was glad when we finally headed home after picking up our kitchen floor sample. It was a drive through kind of night, and G went down with very little fight thank goodness.

It was a pretty good week, but we definitely packed a lot into the last few days. Tomorrow marks week 20, which means that we've hit the halfway point! Yay!!!

20 weeks: Baby Girl is the size of a Moorish Idol (Gil from Nemo)

She's higher up than G was and waaaaay more in front!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day. What a holiday it's become. My own mother never really wanted to celebrate it; a combination of the commercialization it's gone through and the joke that you should appreciate your mother every day of the year. Here's a pretty good summary of the history of the holiday, which began as a religious response to the carnage of war: click here!

Fast asleep at lunch

We did make it to church, and no one threw up this time, which was wonderful. We were late, which for some reason meant that there was no room for us to sit after dropping G at the nursery. If I had been church shopping, I would've left and never come back, to be honest. As it was, I guess the usher convinced some people to scoot because after about 10 minutes and seating a group that came in after us, they found seats for us. They didn't do anything special for moms, but they had this Rite 13 graduation, which is a program that I still don't quite understand, despite James' explanation. It's not confirmation, but the graduation ended with a renewal of baptismal vows and they kept saying the children were now entering manhood and womanhood, which also makes no sense because it's for 7th and 8th graders...not exactly adults yet. Apparently that's why it was so crowded!

Fingerpainting

We went out to lunch afterward, and G was so tired that he fell asleep in the car and stayed asleep when we pulled him out. Now mind you, it sounds like G always sleeps in the car, but in reality, G usually screams; he hates being restrained and the car seat is the worst, despite us having turned it front-facing now. He stayed asleep for about half of lunch, and the restaurant gave me a rose! G was pretty fussy by the time we left because, yet again, his nap had been interrupted. We headed home and he was wide awake, so he played and I worked on some knitting. We pulled out the fingerpaints I'd gotten him and played outside for a while, but he wasn't much of a fan. I don't think he liked the paint being all over his hands. So we got one picture, and paint all over the deck and all over G, but it was worth it. He ran around outside, but got upset when we tried to make him come in, which resulted in a major tantrum. When he wasn't showing a sign of calming down, I picked him up and gave him some juice.

Naptime!

He definitely calmed down. So much so that he fell asleep for a full nap on my chest, which is a rarity these days. Baby Girl was kicking up a storm; maybe she was a bit squished. It was so nice to be cuddled up on the couch with him on my chest, and the dogs next to me, and I fell asleep too. When we woke up, I had some ramen, which made me happy (not so good without the hot sauce) and G made a mess of his toys. We actually got the shepherd's pie into the oven and had dinner by 6. G is turning into a bit of a picky eater. This time, he wouldn't eat anything except for the peas and corn kernels when they were pulled out separately. By the time James and I had finished eating, I guess he got hungry enough to try it though. He still wouldn't eat the mashed potatoes, but he ate the beef mixture, no problem.

Pippin braved his flailing for some kisses

A bath and he was ready to go down. We're weaning off the night time bottle slowly, so he's down to about 1.5 oz at night. It helps him calm down a bit, but I'm hoping we can be done soon. He seemed to go down without too much fuss, but when James got home he woke up and really started crying. After about a half hour I went back in and tried to put him down, but he woke up again, though this time he only cried for ten minutes before sleeping. Again, I checked on him before we went to bed, and had to pick him up off the floor again.

James had brought me chocolate covered strawberries, which were delicious and I spent the evening working on the duplicate stitches. Of course, I discovered the eyes weren't even, so now I've got to redo one of the eyes. Because I'm a perfectionist like that. James thinks I'm crazy, but I know it'll bug me. It was a nice night and we just got to relax together before heading to bed.

All in all, it was a perfect mother's day. G throws tantrums of course, but that's the age he's at: learning to deal with frustration and other emotions. It wasn't a very busy day, and it didn't seem like we did anything special, but I got to work on my knitting and spent the day with my family, which is exactly what I wanted.

Picasso at work

I'm actually a little sad it all washed out of the onesie

Out!

19 Weeks

How far along: 19 weeks
Total weight gain: 0
Favourite clothes: khaki maternity pants, black and white striped shirt
Sleeping: Sometimes good, sometimes bad
Best Moment: Finding out our little one is a GIRL!
Worst Moment: Sunday, all day: 3 times throwing up, a head bump, a diaper blowout, exhaustion and laundry
Miss anything: Energy
Cravings: Avocado
New symptoms: She's moving, moving moving!
Looking forward to: Seeing my parents on vacation
Crafting: Monster pants still. They'll get done eventually

What a week!! Sunday was an all around horrible day, unfortunately. We were all set to go to a 9 am church service, and were about halfway there, when he threw up all over himself and the car seat. There was absolutely no salvaging the situation, so we took him home, cleaned him up, changed him and switched cars, attempting to make a 10 am service. The same thing happened, so we had two car seats in the garage waiting to be cleaned. James went to go pick up some stuff at the hardware store while I made rice and tried to put him down for a nap. He got up on the stool in the kitchen, but it slipped out from under him and he fell, hitting his head. I went to pick him up, and he threw up all over me. So another outfit change, and a quick hop in the shower to rinse us both off (he hated it, by the way...maybe because the curtain was closed?). He had some rice and went down for a nap; he was already exhausted before the falling ordeal, but that just cemented it. James' dad arrived to help with the yardwork and I was out on the porch, cleaning out both car seats. He got up from lunch and came outside and "helped." Then he had a giant diaper blowout, which brought our outfits for the day up to five! So, washing out both car seat covers, the car seats, the harnesses, and the outfits, and all I could think was "Is it bedtime yet?" It was a very long day. I will be perfectly happy to never rinse out the car seat cover again.

Monday was a huge day! We had our midway ultrasound, and found out our little babe is a GIRL! We are so excited, and I can't wait for the ruffle butt leggings!! She's been moving around a lot, and the tech actually had trouble getting a good shot to check the sex because she was moving so much. James' dad was able to go with us, and it was great to be able to share that with him. The doctor said everything looks good, but she does have a two vessel cord, which means one of the arteries from the baby to the placenta is missing. He said that judging by the ultrasound, it looks like all that might mean is that she might have a lower birth weight, and that I'll get an extra ultrasound from the insurance. (More on this in a separate post) It was so great to see her, and to hear the heartbeat and to feel her moving more and more. (I also found out I have an anterior placenta, which means that it cushions the feeling of kicks a bit, so that's why I haven't felt her as much as I felt G)

The week was pretty chill, and on Thursday I had lunch with a woman who runs a welcome organization for the area. It was great to get more information about things in the area, and she told me about something called the Little Gym, which is like Gymboree. I went by to sign him up for a trial class and was invited to their priority registration party the next day. G had a BLAST! There was a bouncy floor, and he had so much fun running back and forth, though he didn't quite get the whole "jump" part. It definitely wore him out, which was good because James was at camp for the weekend doing staff training for the summer camp staff. We went by camp the next day for lunch and got to meet some of the counselors and ran some errands, but G's tummy was still acting up, so we tried to keep it a pretty relaxed day.

I can't believe we're only a week away from the halfway point!!!

19 weeks: Baby Girl is the size of a bat sea star

She is all out in front!

Crafting Update

It's been a while since I did a crafting update, so here are some of the things I've been working on:

-Monster Pants: These have been a true challenge. My motivation comes in spurts with long periods of inactivity between. The motivation just isn't there to finish them because they've been taking so long and because I really hate weaving in ends. I've finally finished the knitting part, and I think they'll still fit G, but I have the duplicate stitches and the i-cord to finish still. I can do this! [I hate weaving in ends from stripes and I absolutely loathe knitting ribbing because my purls are always too loose and makes the ribbing look bad]

-Crochet Turban-Inspired Earwarmer: I made one of these earlier this year and ended up giving it to my sister in law. My stitches are always so tight, but this time I really focused on keeping them loose, and I think I went the opposite direction: the headband ended up a bit too loose. I might remake another, but I've had a few other projects I want to finish

-Newborn Bunny Set: I crocheted a bunny set for a baby due around Easter. It was surprise because I wasn't sure I could get it done, but I spent a full day crocheting and finished it all, even getting it in the mail before baby arrived! I made my own hat pattern up, and used a diaper cover pattern. I made the pom pom tail removable so the diaper cover would be useful past the photos

-Newborn Gnome Set: I saw this on Ravelry, and it is too adorable! I wanted to crochet it, so I used my candy cane cocoon pattern, and made a belt (I'm proud of the buckle) and then used other patterns for the hat and beard, which is removable.

I was waiting to make our peapod's outfit til we found out the sex. James really likes the cupcake hat, so I'll try my hand at that, but I might also make a giraffe outfit, we'll see. I didn't want to do a pumpkin again, even though she's a fall baby too. I'm making myself finish the monster pants before I start on this though.

-Quick Crochets: I've done a few quick crochet projects to try to get my motivation back and start using up the stash yarn I have. I made a face scrubbie (and have plans to make more) and a potholder that I'm relatively happy with. The pattern was for just one side, but I wanted to add a pocket, and it didn't turn out quite as well as I was hoping, but it works, especially since we didn't know where our potholders had gone in the move.

 

-Maternity Calendar Shirt: Another one! I messed up the first one, and I will be using it in the first few photos, but my mom is sending another, and I'm hoping it turns out much better (less paint, more daubing, gentler). We'll see. So far, time has been spent on other things.

-Stockinette Scarf: I was actually hired by James' cousin to make him a scarf to replace one he'd lost. I can't wait! The yarn from knitpicks has arrived and my needles are ready and waiting to cast on! It'll be a long one, and probably in stockinette. Practice purling, I guess.

-Wave Blanket: I also ordered four different blues for a wave blanket (chevron) that was originally going to be for G's room, but might end up being for the whole family. That'll be crochet, but it's on the bottom of the list for right now. I might bring it on vacation if I'm close to finishing other projects so that I only bring one project with me on the plane.

-G's drawers: The beautiful bedroom set we bought for G has flowers on the top drawer of the dresser and the nightstand drawer. So we're going to be painting the drawers: the dresser will be painted ombre, and the nightstand will be either the lightest or one of the medium colours.

-Paintings for Baby Girl's Room: I'll be doing similar paintings to the ones I did for G's room, but with land animals. I have the canvases, paint and brushes, so I'll be getting started on them soon!

-Doctor Who Quiet Book: Saw this online and loved it! I've been wanting to make a quiet book for G anyways, and I'm really loving Doctor Who lately, so this is perfect. I have the felt and I'm (again) using the pictures for inspiration for it. I hope it turns out well, but this is at the bottom of my craft priority list.

There are other things I want to work on, but my craft supplies haven't been unpacked yet. Eventually we'll be all settled and it'll be easier. Hopefully the quicker crochet projects will help my motivation to finish those adorable monster pants. He'll probably be able to wear them once or twice before he outgrows them, but maybe I'll make other pairs. Without stripes.

Ultrasound

We had our midway ultrasound this past Monday! It was the big one, where you find out the sex of the baby (if you want to) and they check out all the organs to make sure everything is ok.

We did find out that our little peapod is a girl, and we couldn't be more excited! I'd been joking that I wouldn't be able to resist ruffle butt leggings this time, regardless of the sex, but I'm so excited to raise a little girl too, and I know G will be a great big brother.

I got my first "glowing" comment when I dropped G off at daycare. Probably had a great deal to do with the fact that I'd showered, put on makeup and was wearing something other than sweats. ;) We do have a name for her, but like before we're not sharing it til she gets here. It took longer than with G to pick a name, but I think we did a pretty good job.


They checked out all her organs, and everything is looking good! We got to see her swallow amniotic fluid, which was neat (never saw G do that), heard her heartbeat again and saw lots of organs: heart, stomach, diaphragm, kidneys, etc. She has five fingers on each hand and was moving around like crazy! Even the tech said she was really busy, and it took a while to figure out the sex because she wouldn't hold still! Something tells me my energy levels will be pretty low between two rambunctious bundles of movement in the coming years.

There was one thing that they said. The doctor told us that they noticed I had a two vessel cord, or a single umbilical artery (SUA). Usually the cord is made up of one vein that delivers blood from the placenta to the baby, and two arteries that carry it away again. Sometimes, (in about 1% of all pregnancies) there's only one artery, and that's what's happened here. No one knows why it happens, and the doctor was thoroughly unconcerned. He told us that I'd get an extra ultrasound to check growth because sometimes it can result in a smaller baby, though nothing else should be affected. In fact, she's perfectly on track, weighing in at about 8 oz and measuring 6 inches long.

However, I had to go and google it. I was banned from google last time because the internet is alarmist, and I thought I'd been pretty good this time, but I really should've stayed away. There are other things that a SUA can be related to, including heart and kidney problems as well as chromosomal defects. Considering that the doctor told us we didn't need any special genetic testing and that everything so far was looking good and he wasn't worried, I know I shouldn't worry, but of course I do. I got so panicked the next morning that James and my mom convinced me to call the doctor, and the nurse was very nice and reassuring, telling me that they see this quite frequently and there aren't usually any problems, especially since the doctor said everything else looks good.

Ultimately, there's nothing to be done til the next ultrasound at 28 weeks, and really nothing to do til she's born. So until then, I'll be praying that she stays healthy and safe and I'll keep looking at the pictures they sent us home with:

Toes!

There she is! They got really good profile shots this time!

I think that's part of her leg. She was lying at an odd angle for the tech

Not quite sucking her thumb, but hands up to her face.
See how fuzzy she is? She was a little ball of movement!

More profiles

She has ten fingers, five on each hand!

They'll check the cord again in the next ultrasound, as well as looking more closely at her face to check for a cleft palette. 

18 Weeks

How far along: 18 weeks
Total weight gain: 0 lb
Favourite clothes: Are blankets considered clothes?
Sleeping: Not so great, G keeps waking up
Best Moment: Watching G hunt Easter eggs was awesome
Worst Moment: No nap days are always difficult
Miss anything: Nothing in particular
Cravings: Ben and Jerry's Phish Food. All the time!
New symptoms: Still my hips
Looking forward to: The ultrasound!
Crafting: Monster. Pants. They will be the death of me

Easter Sunday was a blast, but a long day. We made it to church in time for the egg hunt, and I had an excuse to dress G up in the suit my parents got him for Christmas. Baby suits are quite possibly the most adorable things ever! He looked so grown up and handsome. He wouldn't leave his tie on, but that's ok. He had a BLAST at the egg hunt; we accidentally started early (they didn't really announce the start very well) and by then there was no stopping him! He kept walking around the flower beds looking under bushes for eggs, even after they'd all been found, and he ended up with quite a large number. We re-hid some and gave others away, because he really doesn't care about the candy, he just liked finding them and opening and closing the eggs themselves. He also loved carrying the basket, which was almost too big for him to hold. It was adorable. It was a no nap day though; he kept getting a second, then third, fourth and fifth wind. We had lunch with the whole family down at the beach, and got to take some family photos, which ended up pretty good considering we have three kids under 5 to wrangle into smiling and holding still and looking at the camera. It was a good Easter, and I got to video chat with my parents a bit too.

Monday we packed up to head home, but had lunch with almost everyone again (James' mom and brother had to go to work). G's nap was cut short, so it pretty much another no nap day (he slept two hours in the car, but those are never good naps). We made pretty good time home, and it was G's first night in the twin bed! I sat outside his door because I was worried about him falling, but within a minute, I heard him clicking his turtle light on and off, which meant he had crawled out of the bed, no problem. When I checked on him before bed, I found him against the door, so that I had to gently push him with the door to get inside. We put down some pillows to protect from a fall the next night and added a step stool to help him back into bed, but I found him asleep on the pillows the second night. He had completely covered himself with his blankie. It was a step in the right direction though. I heard him get up once in the middle of the night, so I think he might've spent quite some time asleep on the pillows, but for the past few nights he's stayed in the bed pretty consistently. I'm surprised at how quickly he's adapted.

G had his well visit on Tuesday. He still hasn't gained much weight, but the doctor isn't worried, so I'm trying not to be. He's in the 3rd percentile for weight, 10th for height and 75th for head circumference!! His development is pretty much spot on, and it seems like every day has new words, from "nye nye" (night night) to "choo choo." It's so much fun to watch him figure things out!

We're still getting settled in and unpacking is slow going. A friend came over and helped me unpack the kitchen in one day. We're storing a lot of it until the remodeling is done, but it's so great to have the stuff we use most and our food unpacked! It's made life a lot easier, that's for sure. It's been a pretty slow week though, which was kind of nice. It was a relaxing change, especially after such a fun, busy weekend.

[I added Baby Girl to the chalkboard this time because I did the chalkboard after the ultrasound. More on that in a separate post, and technically it's not in this week :)  ]

18 Weeks: Baby Girl is the size of a cuttlefish

I'm a cuttlefish, see?

Belly/Baby