Monday, March 31, 2014

Daily Owen: 3.31.2014

Brotherly love. Disregard the fact that Owen was devilishly grinning because he was trying to clock Oliver with his hammer. 

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Daily Owen: 3.30.2014

Poppy had a bike race today, so Owen and I went as moral support. You can see in picture #2 what Owen thought of that.... (Although I will say that this is not indicative of the whole experience. He slept for only 10 minutes and the rest of the time he was just enamoured with all the bikes and dogs and people around).


Saturday, March 29, 2014

Daily Owen: 3.29.2014

Took advantage of a little sun break for a family walk today. Love these boys!

Friday, March 28, 2014

Pregnancy round 2: week 15.

Another week down! A little late as I am now 17 weeks but getting caught up. Here are the glorious belly pics:


15 weeks side shot. 


15 weeks front shot.


A comparison, 14 weeks side shot. 


14 weeks front. 

How I'm feeling?
ITCHY and HUGE. Week 15 last time (with Owen) I deemed was the "pop out" week and I feel that this way this time too. As in, one time during week 15 (this time) I walked in to a room and Justin was all "oh HELLO BELLY." 

I do have to admit that I am feeling SO MUCH BETTER in terms of morning sickness (which, by the way is a complete misnomer because I had ALL DAY sickness, so I would in fact like to punch whoever deemed it "morning" sickness right in the face. Ahem. Pardon my bitterness). BUT. I might have a bit of forgiveness because I haven't been seriously sick-ish feeling in all of week 15 and actually feel NORMAL again. As in not pregnant normal. Like, I could run a marathon if I wanted! And eat salads! And actually have energy to do my job! Imagine that! It's amazing! I seriously LOVE being pregnant. Ok, that was a slight (huge) exaggeration. I still don't LOVE being pregnant but I am SO SO SO glad to be out of the first trimester and that god-awful sickness. I can't even believe how amazing it feels to actually be operating like a normal human being again. I will say that my boobs are a little sore but I'll take it. Whatever! Bring it boobies! I'll take anything as long as I'm not nauseous all day long. Well, almost anything. 

One huge complaint I have right now is that I am SO itchy. As in I could itch all of my skin off and be totally ok with it if it made the itching stop. I've always had skin that is prone to be dry and thus itches at certain times during the year but this is different. I itch everywhere. All day long, worse at night. Which, oh, yeah, eff you google for telling me I have some rare liver thing that happens in pregnancy that can result in still born babies. Why do I even look at google? I looked at my week 15 post from Owen and I guess I was super itchy with him too around this time, so I'm guessing it's normal for me. Guess I blocked that one out from last time! 

How I'm changing?
I'm just getting bigger. And have scabs on my body from itching. Oh yeah, and how did I forget about the other lovely side effect of pregnancy called "revert to your teenage years" acne. Other than that, pretty much just all the same here, just growing.  I'd love to experience some pregnancy glow, long nails and luscious hair....sometime? 

What I'm eating?
This week I pretty much craved potatoes. So I guess I'm not TOTALLY out of the weird first trimester stage where you're sick and have food cravings all over the board. I'm not totally sick but really craved potatoes all week so my love affair with carbs has not quite ended. I will say that I am eating more "normal" now. Salads are in the mix again, as are "colored" foods so this is huge progress. But there were a couple of days where I just lived on potatoes. And bread. Oh well. 

Weight I'm gaining? 
129 pounds this week. So right in line with about where I thought I was at week 14 when I guessed 128. With Owen I was 125 at week 15. So, not too crazy ahead this time around, even though I feel like a tanker truck. I'm still working out but it's not even close to where I'd like to be. This time of year with work and with Owen, it's just hard to fit it all in. Plus, I've been so sick that working out was pretty much the last thing I wanted to do. I'm starting to get in a better routine now that I'm feeling better. It feels awesome! 

How I'm sleeping? 
Again, seems like a silly question with a 19 month old. We sleep pretty great as long as Owen sleeps...which is always a crap shoot. I will say I am not peeing as much this pregnancy at night so that's been a nice reprieve. I'm sure that will change. 

What's the baby doing?

-The baby is about 4 inches long or about the size of an orange. 
-The hair on the baby's head is starting to grow in and there's fine hair around its body to protect it from amniotic fluid (he/she moves amniotic fluid through the nose and upper respiratory tract which helps the lungs begin to develop)
-The baby's legs are growing longer than his/her arms now (less like an alien baby!)
-Some babies begin to suck their thumb and the baby can sense light.
-Taste buds are beginning to form. 
-At this stage babies are easily moving around. 
- You can see at this point on an ultrasound if it's a boy or a girl.



What we are doing to prepare for the baby?
About the only thing I really did this week was dig out all my maternity clothes and go through my whole closet and chuck (uh, pack up) anything I deemed too small right now. It was sort of a depressing and liberating exercise all at once because I finally just gave up on trying to squeeze in to my "normal" clothes and accepted the fact that I am choosing comfort first and foremost. 

We also decided that we are NOT going to find out the sex of the baby. Nothing is really going to change at all by knowing this time around. Clothes we can always buy later and there's a 50-50 chance we have everything we need already. There are so few GOOD surprises in life anymore that I think waiting on this one will be so amazing... much to most people's dismay. 

Random thoughts on pregnancy (pregnancy brain?)
The second trimester really is the best trimester. It is so glorious. 

But, oh yeah: this. Pregnancy brain. And the perpetual forgetting. How did I not remember this was a real thing? Oh yeah, because I have massive pregnancy brain. 

Daily Owen: 3.28.2014

Doing dishes. Guess we've trained him well!

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Daily Owen: 3.25.2014

Second dinner...big boy style. 

Pregnancy round 2: weeks 6-14

Well, here we are again. CRAZY. Maybe even more crazy that this isn't just a "daily owen" post... the posts that have now dominated my blog space so much so that I am not even sure that it really even qualifies as a blog anymore. Eh, that's ok. To continue on in the vain of kiddos, I feel a bit compelled to document this pregnancy weekly as I did with Owen. I've had a few people ask about it, so here we go. Truthfully, I also feel a little obligated to keep things fair between kids (and so THAT starts...) but I also have one kid now and am a little skeptical to see how it's all going to pan out (IE: am I really going to have time for this weekly post). So, let's just jump right in with the dreaded belly pictures that are just humiliating. But, since I did it with Owen, I'll do it here for #2 (ignore the un-remodeled bathroom... maybe some day I will do before/after shots of the house and that whole thing.... Bathrooms are next on the list).


January 4, 2014. Had been feeling like I was getting the flu for several weeks. Haven't had a period since BEFORE Owen and my doctor told me I was probably not ovulating. Took a pregnancy test in Kansas City a few days before Christmas just to make sure and it was definitely negative. But after continuing to feel so bad, I decided to take one on a Sunday afternoon as we were watching football. Strangely enough it was two years to the DAY that I had gotten a positive test for Owen. Bizarre. And I cried. A bit of a freak out pregnancy moment. 


Decided to take a belly picture that day just to document the "start point"... possibly just so that I could feel better about the following weeks and the growing belly and have something to reference so that I can say "I will get back there..." Side shot.


Front shot. 6ish weeks.



7 weeks side shot. Not really apples to apples as this was after dinner...clearly.


7 weeks.


8 weeks side shot.


8 weeks front view.


9 weeks side shot.


9 weeks front.


10 weeks side shot.


10 weeks front.


11 weeks side shot.


11 weeks front.


12 weeks side. I think I forgot to take a front shot. Oh well.



13 weeks side shot.


13 weeks front.


14 weeks front


14 weeks side.

How I'm feeling?
MUCH better from the first trimester hell. Weeks 3-14 were HORRIBLE. I was so sick. ALL DAY. I had a brief glimpse of hope around 13 weeks which turned out to be a mean false alarm. A few days later I was sicker than ever. My food cravings were seriously all over the board (see below). I am so sick and tired of eating because for the most part NOTHING sounds good but if I don't eat, I basically want to die from feeling so sick. And there were a few weeks there where I basically lived on sticks of butter. I don't remember feeling this sick with Owen, though it's entirely possible I did.  The one positive about this pregnancy that I can say is that THANK GOD my boobs don't hurt yet. I contribute that partly to the fact that I just stopped breast feeding Owen at around 11 weeks (after a comment from the midwives that I'd be tandem nursing....are you kidding me?!... and thus I stopped nursing Owen pretty much a day later). I have felt SO much worse this time around though. I've had these weird ocular migraines that basically make you feel like you are going blind (you see bright flashy lights for about a half an hour then have a headache for the rest of the day). Never had those with Owen. The worst part though, has definitely been the all day sickness. I can't even tell you how many times this has contributed to me saying "I hate being pregnant." I don't care if it's for a good cause, it is AWFUL and such a cruel, cruel symptom of pregnancy. Pregnancy is hard enough as is! I thought I was again on the upside of it all but once again this morning I woke up extremely ill, more so than I'd been in about 5 days and spent the better part of a couple of hours in the bathroom while I forced myself to choke a banana down to make it ease up a bit (I know, it's seriously a twisted thing... you feel like barfing so you eat). Bah. Please god, MAKE IT STOP SOON.  Oh yeah, and NOTHING HELPS. No ginger, no peppermint, nothing.

How I'm changing?
Ha. Um, nothing fits. I think perhaps my body just seized the fact that I'm pregnant again and went for it with gusto. In the first couple of weeks after finding out, I swear I gained 10 pounds. I think this was partly water weight as the next time I weighed myself a week later, I was down 5 pounds from the 10 pound gain. I haven't weighed myself in a while but I am guessing I am probably 10-15 pounds heavier than I was at the beginning. I am just a horrible first trimester person because I just hate this stage of pregnancy when you just look more fat but aren't really telling people you're pregnant. And I immediately gain an instant 10 pounds, so I clearly look different. People give you odd looks and you just kind of have to ignore it. I know, it's all vain, but I just don't like it. 

What I'm eating?
I'm just going to do this week by week thus far. I took notes and have literally been all over the board. 

Week 6: Macaroni and cheese. By the box. It's the annie's organic kind so maybe that is slightly better? Also, really craving chicken this week (which usually = barf). 

Week 7: Ate honey nut cheerios by the box. Also, ate chipotle probably every day for lunch for a week (now that just sounds repulsive... in fact, any thing spicy or mexican is disgusting).

Week 8: Basically just ate loafs of bread and butter. Cheerios no longer were ok, and neither was mexican. Also, absolutely no salads. Nasty.

Week 9: Still just the toast with butter. English muffins with butter were a close second. And I ate a 3 pound costco size box of cinnamon toast crunch. Seriously. It was impressive.

Week 10: Absolutely still no Mexican. No nuts. One day I actually ate a salad this week. I had a SERIOUS craving for sushi (veggie rolls) which I satisifed a couple of times this week, including a valentines day date to one of our old favorites Japonessa in Seattle. Also, really loved split pea soup. 

Week 11: Craved salads! (what?!) 

Week 12: Was basically feeling more normal but couldn't eat any eggs or meat. Yuck. 

Week 13: Craving ranch dressing (huh?!), oatmeal and coconut oil, and ice cream. 

Week 14: Eggs are back in the picture and craving serious peanut butter. 


Weight I'm gaining? 
Haven't weighed myself in a while but I'd guess I'm at 128ish pounds or so (was 115 when this whole thing started). I looked at my 13 week post and I was 121 pounds at the same time with Owen. Oh my GOODNESS. Again, bah, round two, just BAH. Of course, I think I am less obsessed with eating this time because I am just trying to get ANYTHING in if it means I won't feel sick (even if it's totally against my nutrition 'beliefs' and it's a 3 pound box of cinnamon toast crunch). I know the weight will come off, I've proved that before, so it's ok to gain right now. 

How I'm sleeping? 
This seems like a stupid question this time around. I have an almost 19 month old. Sleep in this house has been a forbidden subject for that same amount of time. As in, WE DON'T and we haven't.... (Actually we sort of are now but we don't talk about it in the case we jinx it). So, moving on. 
 
What's the baby doing?
 
At 14 weeks:
-The baby is about 3.4 inches long, about the size of a lemon
-The baby can make facial expressions, pee and possibly suck his/her thumb
-The baby is stretching out and the body's growth continues to catch up to the head which now sits on a more distinct neck. By the end of this week the baby's arms have grown to a length proportionate to the rest of his or her body
-The liver starts to make bile and the spleen starts helping in the production of red blood cells
-Some babies have started to grow hair on the head or face (like eyebrows... we aren't talking a little mustache)


What we are doing to prepare for the baby?
We did make an official announcement (if facebook counts as that) around 12 weeks. Other than that, I can't say that we are doing much. I just don't know that I care that much this time around. I mean, all that I did to be "prepared" for Owen was basically just to occupy my time because I still made 1000000 trips to babies r us in the first month of his life for something that I realized was a necessity which I would have had  NO CLUE about before. Now I don't need anything to occupy my time as I am chasing Owen around. Anything I "need" for baby, we probably have, and I know that I'll still be lugging a newborn to babies r us hopefully a few less times, but probably just as much as I did with Owen. I guess this time around I just know that clothes don't really matter, the perfect nursery doesn't matter... when that baby pops out, you just hope and pray that you make it out of the following few months intact and with hopefully a little sleep under your belt even with the big bags under your eyes. And in the end, it all goes so fast and each stage is so fleeting. It seems so silly and trivial to me now to spend so much time preparing for that newborn baby stage when it's gone in an instant and we have better things to do with our time. Like play "jump jump" for the millionth time in an hour with Owen. 

Random thoughts on pregnancy (pregnancy brain?)
I don't know that I really have any random thoughts. Mainly I just don't like being pregnant. Don't get me wrong- end result is SO worth it, but I just really dislike being pregnant. I'm hoping that once I'm deeper in to the second trimester this will change. 

Monday, March 24, 2014

Daily Owen: 3.24.2014

It got really quiet as we were eating dinner. Then Owen grabbed my hand and tried to show me something. I walked over and found he was trying to make something with cocoa...and it was all over the ground. All.over. Then there were baby cocoa foot prints all over the house. Pretty funny. 

Daily Owen: 3.23.2014

Yeaterday we decided to do a little 8 mile hike up Mount Si.  Last time we did Si, Owen wasn't even walking. This time he grunted up the first quarter mile, then once in the pack kept hitting poppy like a horse the whole way up and down the mountain while preggo mama and poppy questioned their sanity in this venture. Owen also pointed out every dog on the trail....there were a lot. All in all a fun day! 


Daily Owen: 3.22.2014

Owen decided his second breakfast at 8.30am would be soup. Since we had already been up 3 hours and he only let us sleep 5 hours, we decided on coffee and pancakes instead. 5 hours later, he finally crashed in the car. 


Friday, March 21, 2014

Daily Owen: 3.21.2014

Owen playing on the couch and throwing all pillows on the floor while watching basketball. Amazing how little it takes to amuse him. He had a great time. 

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Monday, March 17, 2014

Daily Owen: 3.17.2014

Kinda looks like a little leprechaun...red hair out in full force today. Happy St. Patricks day!

Sunday, March 16, 2014