It has been way too long since I have posted our updates! I am sorry there will be no new pics, as my camera is missing the sd card since our Cali Vaca in November. (Brother of mine who has it….I want it back!!)
I found out I was pregnant the morning we left for California’s big long awaited trip. Wow it was a shocker to say the least! I had an hour to leave and just wanted to spend time with Dave celebrating our new excitement. But I had to spend the next 3 days without him, trying to focus on what I had been planning and preparing for all year. Well the vacation as you read previously was a blast, and it all went way too fast. The first part of December was a bust! At about 6 weeks along, complications arose that led Dave and I to believe the baby was not going to make it in this pregnancy. After the longest weekend of our lives and way too many tests, they found that the baby was fine and didn’t really know the cause of my symptoms other than a possible flu. Throughout the rest of my first trimester I was weak, sick, lethargic, irritable and in extreme discomfort. I find it interesting what some women go through and what others don’t. All of these weeks have been extremely different than the first time around. But I hear and read of women who make babies like a batch of cookies. You add the right ingredients and after the right baking time, you get a warm sweet and delicious result. Why is it so easy for them? Why can’t I get the easy recipe?! I like to think that I am just over reacting with my own perspective and it seems so much worse from a first person angle. But then I hear a perfect stranger rattle off how they don’t know they are pregnant accept for a fat belly, and literally feel no pain in birth just “a little pressure”. I guess it’s kind of a joke God plays on women since we are always comparing and sharing. Well when all my hope of ever being myself again was slowing dissipating, a miracle happens called the second trimester! A place of all you can eat buffets and cravings galore that you get the privilege of feeding without gaining an ounce! Energy is slowly restoring itself and irritability transforms into nothing. You get to wear baggy comfortable clothes without people looking at you thinking you are a hippee wannabe, and unbuttoning your pants for room comes with a whole new meaning. There are a lot of things different this time than last. I have to see official Dr’s now instead of the midwives that I loved so much last time. Because I was cesarean and wanting to do vbac my choices are limited. It hasn’t been that bad thus far but it is not my ideal prenatal care option. Both times I have already been in for normal visits, they have been unable to find the heart beat with the microphone and have to bring in the ultrasound to confirm I have someone in there. A tipped uterus is to thank, but last time was kinda nice. The Dr brought in a second stool for Dallen to climb on and see the baby. He showed him the heart and the head and legs. Dallen was sure amazed and pointed to my belly and said “there’s the baby”. With Dallen I had an early ultrasound to confirm I wasn’t having a multiples birth and then the 20 wk one to check the health and sex. I have already had 4 ultrasounds and am not even 20 weeks yet! Because of the “effectiveness” of the ultrasound nowadays, the baby is measuring ahead of my original due date of July 31st and is now looking like July 26th.
My Pregnancy Milestones:
Biggest craving: Canteloupe, and salad… bring on the veggies!
Foods to not eat unless I want the toilet seat: Red meat – sorry steak you’ll have to wait
Maternity Clothes Again: 12 weeks
Fetal Movement: 9 weeks
Sleeping on Sides Only: 13 weeks
Morning Sickness Gone: 14 weeks
Total weight loss: As of today 9lbs less than starting weight.
Moms Intuition: Right now I feel it’s a girl but we will see in a few weeks.
The Dallenator!!! Oh man he is a busy boy. Redecorating my walls in permanent marker and adding knife wholes to expensive barstool seats are a few of his crafts lately. He is so smart he has figured out all the perfect times to use his amazing skills, and then not take credit for it until it’s found. He is modest enough to let us just come across these new found treasures on our own. Oh how blessed we are to have such a son! He is the perfect age where he is too big to be picked up and carried everywhere so you have to play the game of all errands are fun even though none of them are for 3 year olds. He is capable of getting into anything he wants and reaching anything he wants if he has the right tools.
Short Story: David left a flat head screw driver out and somehow Dallen found it. One night Dave and I went to do stories and bed time and found that all of the electrical plates had been removed and stacked nicely behind the door. The screw driver and other unmentionables were hidden under his bed. How do you find enough entertaining things for a 3 year old to do during the day and have time for anything else? I am still working on that one. I think a couple play dates a week, a daily schedule of activities and to do’s but still there are seconds in the day where the “boyness” monster surfaces and I find myself needing a mom moment….or 20.
To help out with the destruction and mess of the house, I came up with a plan. A masterful plan indeed! I turned our massive loft from the dance room (shed some tears), into a family room! All of Dallen’s toys, a new couch and the entertainment center from my Dad’s have made a new playzone for the boy. He has his room for sleeping, quiet time and time outs. He has his bathroom for cleaning up and going potty (still working on avidly!) Then he has his playroom! This week has gone by amazingly with no messes around the house and no destruction. He comes downstairs for food, outside time and family time in the evenings. We shall see how long this lasts. But for learning play and craft time, it is a dream. I don’t know why we didn’t come up with it sooner. It will be perfect for when #2 comes too! Enough room for a swing and bouncer and plenty of floor room for the two of them to play and get to know one another.
With the idea of the playroom, I have been working on a plan to revamp rooms in the house that still have yet to be completed from when we moved in a year and a half ago. The whole house has been painted and decorated, just none of the rooms or bathrooms upstairs. We also have been short on furniture, not that Dallen minds but his room consists of clothes that are mainly folded and placed in stacks on the floor, and a twin mattress on the floor. Not ideal but it’s been what he has had since he outgrew the changing table and crib. So we have paint and furniture plans galore for the next six months before the baby comes. I am calling it my Early Nesting plan. Last weekend we were able to find an amazing deal on a 3 piece couch set. A Chocolate brown leather and microfiber, reclining couch, chair and chaise. I am already in love with them! They have made perfect additions to the rooms upstairs and came with an added feature of “foot in the wall”. K not really a feature but another whole in the wall for David to fix. :)
Well there is a ton more I could write about from the last two months. But all in all the Holidays were great, visiting with family here in Utah and then spending time in Canada catching up with the Smith brood as well. I am excited for this new year and all of the many things that will happen.
