35 Weeks

Ben was trying to get Annie to stand the same way I was by saying - "Face mommy's butt." - so thus, here is Annie, staring at my butt, with one sock off, and mardi gras beads on. The tiki torches were for a party Ben hosted on Saturday that had the theme "summer in winter" - so a bunch of guys hung out outside (it was like 10 degrees and windy) drinking and playing yard games. Literally nothing sounds worse to me. Men are very strange creatures.

Compare to 35 weeks, 4 days pregnant with Annie.

Due Date: February 27, 2012. 35 weeks and 35 days to go! I now am telling people I'm due "in a month" - crazy.

Weight Gain: 30 pounds. So that's 5lbs in 2 weeks. I will partially blame that on me wearing my snow boots to my appointment instead of a lighter shoe choice. Apparently last time at this point I was up 27lbs so I guess there's really not much difference. I think my belly size is pretty comparable as well.

Symptoms: Just really tired all the time. Irritable with everyone around me, pretty much. Sorry coworkers!

What's different this time: Not as anxious for the end this time. I don't know if I really was last time either, but while I'm uncomfortable, I'm savoring the calm before the storm much more.

Cravings/Aversions: I really eat far too many sweets. It's kind of disgusting.

Sleep: Do I sleep? Sometimes it seems like I don't at all between bathroom breaks and changing positions. I manage to get through the days, so whatever.

I am loving: This last month as a family of 3. Going out to eat and running errands as a family and knowing pretty much what to expect. Having 12 hours "off duty" (while Annie sleeps) every day.

I miss: Having a lap for Annie to sit on. It's pretty much gone now. I miss hugging her so tight without a huge belly in the way.

I am looking forward to: Annie's birthday! A low key celebration but I know she'll love it, and her dress is SUPER ADORABLE (thanks Mom!)

I'm spazzing about: I've been spending far too much mental energy thinking about things that can go wrong at this stage in the game, due to a few stories that recently popped up. I need to visualize positive outcomes and read all the good stories, because obviously there are many. There were a few times this week I heard about people due near me or much later that had their babies too soon and have to be in the NICU. Then stories of late term pregnancy loss. Just not fun topics to consider at all. I wouldn't say I'm spazzing about it, but my mind wanders and then I find myself near tears in a company meeting. Not good.

Best thing about this week: A few great moments! The biggest was at my midwife appointment where I found out baby boy is now head down, and I was measuring right on (I had the same fundal measurement 2 appts in a row - 31cm - now I was up to 34m) - so that was a huge relief!

 Had a nice dinner out with some of my mom friends - I really don't think we've gotten together without our kids..... ever? So it was fun to.... uh, talk about our kids..... without them around for once :) Toddlers/babies sure do get in the way of conversation sometimes!

Also had a baby shower for my friend Allison, who is due one month after me! (Please note the size difference in our bellies. Sigh. I have too many very small friends :) We played pin the sperm on the egg and I was the winner - ha!

Milestones: 35 days left. OMG. Still get panicky when I think about actually having this baby. I really don't think that will ever change.

Movement: Okay, I know I sound like a broken record. But this kid? Is nuts. Seriously insane. From the moment I got out of bed this morning, until right now (1pm), I have felt him moving - literally all day. Sometimes it's less violent than others, but he's always shifting, rolling, kicking, moving moving moving. I wrote last time about Annie being similar and she's not some crazy mover, so we'll see - but wow. It's to the point where if I even went 15 minutes without feeling anything I'd probably drive myself to the doctor's office to make sure he was okay.

It's a...: Boy - and yet ANOTHER friend just found out on Friday that she's having a boy too! So that brings the count to 9 boys, 2 girls, 1 unknown (not finding out) and 1 too early to find out among my pregnant "real life" friends. 2012 will be the year of the boy around these parts!

Exercise: Registered for prenatal yoga at 8:30am on Sunday, but unfortunately Ben had a LITTLE too much fun at his little "summer in winter" party on Saturday night and didn't make it back in time for me to go... so yeah. No real exercise although I'm going to try to take more skyway walks now.

I was trying to just crouch down and hug Annie while she stood, but she's my little copycat :)

Funny Girl

Annie is so entertaining lately - and challenging too, of course, but even in her meltdown moments, which are usually over something like the "wrong" shoes, or Ben using a blanket that OBVIOUSLY SHOULD NOT BE USED, you really just can't help but laugh. I've taken quite a few videos in the past few weeks, and I find them mostly hilarious so I wanted to share a few here.

We had tacos one night - previously we've just given Annie the taco filling in a bowl with cheese, but after she saw us eating with tortillas, she demanded that - and we realized that she will apparently eat ANYTHING wrapped in a tortilla. Amazing discovery! She was so hilarious taking bites of her taco and demanding it be re-wrapped.

The other day, Annie was singing to her baby - she had been doing this for at least 5 minutes before I even started recording, of course, but I luckily got in some good "songs" - she usually has only a few recognizable words and every song seems to have the same melody, but pretty cute nonetheless! I especially love how she claps for herself at the end of the songs.

The other day it was Adelaide's 3rd birthday - so we had to send her a little birthday greeting. After saying happy birthday to Adelaide, apparently it was also important to wish a happy birthday to her cup and fork as well :)

EVERY time I go to put in my contacts and Annie is in the bathroom with me, she does this (well usually she just "puts in her contacts" with no random chatting), so I had Ben come in and record her tonight - so crazy what they are observing! 

Last but CERTAINLY not least is Annie's hilarious reaction to eating mustard - she did this at least 20 times tonight, and would have the same dramatic reaction each time... and then go back for more. Ha!

34 Weeks

From our family session yesterday with Kate! Oh my, wrangling a 2 year old with a mind of her own for a photo shoot is a struggle. We got some cute ones, but gone are the days when you can just walk to the park for like 30 minutes and get exactly what you want! Now we just hope that some of her yelling or crying faces look like smiles in photos ;) ha!

Compare to 34 weeks, 4 days pregnant with Annie.

Due Date: February 27, 2012

Weight Gain: Yes

Symptoms: Starting to feel like each day is a workout - and all I'm doing is sitting on an office chair. It's pathetic, I know. Simple tasks feel very overwhelming - things like wrangling Annie and all her craft projects (2 per day, every day!) out of daycare and into her carseat - especially if it's snowing or freezing and she needs to be carried too. I'm getting up sometimes more than once a night now to go to the bathroom which is annoying. Once is fine and I've done that pretty much this whole pregnancy, but twice gets old. Definitely starting to feel just really sore and uncomfortable and gross... and yes, I know it gets worse. Yay!

What's different this time: The feeling of being over it has come far too soon. I am not TRULY over it, but just how blah I already feel is sad. I'm sick of nearly all my clothes and that doesn't help. Also, didn't ever need to think about trying to turn Annie - she was head down from pretty early on. Continuing on with the cat/cow poses and the daily inversions. Annie thinks they are ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS and when I get down she says "Annie do it!" and gets right to work (with a little assistance).

Cravings/Aversions: Eating normally still.

Sleep: Not good this week - was still kind of sick, and so was Ben so he was making annoying noises all night too. Plus the aforementioned peeing twice a night - which also includes at least 20 minutes of debating with myself if I REALLY have to go... or can I just wait...

I am loving: how smoothly the transition to Annie's toddler bed has gone so far. Really a non-issue - naps and night sleep have been exactly the same. Yup, it's only been a few days but I love that at least this part was easy! I am also LOVING that I have today off - after a long stretch of short weeks, a full 5 day work week was killer.

I miss: being able to pick up Annie without any struggle - it's not so bad but the up and down gets tiring especially if I also have to carry a bag or anything else.

I am looking forward to: an extra day off, midwife appointment on Friday to find out if this kid has moved his head down yet, baby shower for my friend Allison, and a dinner out with a few of my favorite ladies, without our kids for once!

I'm spazzing about: Nothing at the moment - LOTS got done on our list this week - I just needed to MAKE a list and start cranking through items.

You already saw that Annie moved to the toddler bed, and I mentioned that the closet is now cleaned out, and so is the dresser, making room for baby boy's clothes. In doing this, I went through all Annie's clothes returned from Becca and picked out all the gender neutral items (and she discovered my psychosis for remembering every single outfit she's ever worn and asking about missing items... despite not even having a 2nd girl - ha! Sorry Becca ;). I also have all the hand-me-downs I got for Annie ready to return to their owners and and have Annie's stuff nearly ready to pass down to Laura. Phew! Annie has a blast "helping" me sort through clothes - which consists of mostly her attempting to put everything on herself.

Ohh how I loved this onesie - one of my favorite photos of Annie ever was her wearing it so it just always makes me smile!

Seriously. That tiny tuft of hair on the top of her head... gets me every time!

I sorted through all the clothes we have for baby boy and wow - we are seriously completely set. I counted nearly 30 (THIRTY) newborn or 0-3 month sleepers. Seriously.  Also, ~30 short sleeved onesies in newborn or 0-3 month sizes - which I'm sure my child born in the middle of winter will make good use out of ;) So big shout out to Becca and Jen for their hand-me-downs! And of course to my mom and Liz for getting baby boy a FEW cute new outfits of his own :) Again, Annie loved this process.

What a mess!

Best thing about this week: Getting so much done! I feel much more relaxed now with a few bigger items checked off.

Milestones: Outgrowing some of my maternity clothes. Always a sad day.

Movement: Yup - and now when Annie sees me kind of push my belly and make a face, she says "baby moving?" Ha! Sometimes it seems like she actually is getting the concept that there is a baby in there, but I'm doubtful. Probably more that she just repeats what other people say to me.

It's a...: boy

Exercise/Diet: Nothing good happened this week. Well, diet was fine, but no formal exercise. Going to yoga tomorrow at least.

Damn, I was going for thoughtful. Name that movie! :)

Such a big girl...

This has already been a huge weekend for Annie! Last night when we got home from work, we showed her the changes that had occurred in her room...

This is the best "before" I could find:

And this is now - I need to take a better one, but her bed is where her crib was, and her (well, now her brother's) crib is where the glider was... the glider is now in front of the window between her closet and her crib, for those of you who are familiar with her room. Ben took off the closet door and I organized the closet so her clothes hamper could fit in there. Still needs some work!

Annie was immediately excited, and said "what happened???" - she saw her bed being assembled the night before so she had at least seen it already. I had also tried to tell her a few times during the week that she'd be sleeping in her new!!! bed!!! on Friday. We told her that the crib was now for the baby (to which she did once say "No mine!!" and got an angry look on her face while sort of hugging the crib) and that the bed was for Annie - after telling her that a few times she seemed to get it - she'd point at the crib and say baby, or her brother's name (or sometimes Lexie, the baby at daycare's name), and then at the bed and say Annie's bed. She played on her bed for quite awhile last night, putting everything on there, climbing up and down. Ben got busy bolting the dresser to the wall (the bookshelf was already secured) JUST IN CASE. She's not a climber or really one to get into anything, but you never know!

She picked these sheets. They don't really "match" but they are her favorites so whatever :)

She was really excited to go to bed - after a meltdown about taking a bath, she seemed to want to rush through the rest of our routine to just get to her bed. We put her in there and covered her up and hoped for the best! This is yet another time when a video monitor is seriously the best investment ever - obviously I know you can survive without it, but it was so nice to see that she never even tried to get out or even sat up. It seemed to take her a bit longer to fall asleep, but once she was asleep, she literally barely moved at all until morning... at 8am! 

We had already checked her a few times by then, but that's when she was sitting up - she laid back down a few times and was silent... so we went in there and she played some more on her bed and did get down on her own. I'm very curious to see when she decides to actually get down on her own when we aren't in the room. Thankfully, she can't open her door yet so she can't have free reign of the house just yet! I'm sure that the first night she'll go crazy with her new freedom will be right around the first night we are home with her brother - ha! Oh fun...

After all that excitement, we bundled Annie up to go finally do something about her hair situation :) Which really ended up being not much - just a trim, because I don't want to deal with bangs and still wanted the ponytail/pigtails option, but at least now it's all one length! We went to Kid's Hair, and they did a good job - they are clearly very experienced with this - little TVs at each station, and suckers at the ready when kids start to fuss, which Annie did as soon as she sat down. The lollipop went in her mouth and then she was pretty much sedated - seriously she barely made an expression or movement the entire time (which was maybe 10 minutes) - the best part is that they put a little braid in after each cut - so cute! So that also went really smoothly, but they warned us that the 2nd haircut for some reason is usually worse.

Raw fear in her eyes

Still nervous

She looks like such a big girl here... makes me almost sad!

hahahaha - she didn't break this face until we got to the coffee shop and gave her a muffin to entice her to give up the lollipop. At least she had a spinach fruit smoothie before we left!

St. Croix Falls January 6 - 8

When I was pregnant with Annie, we took a trip during my pregnancy to Portland (don't call it a babymoon or Ben will slap your face!) - I wanted to do something again this time, but since we both traveled quite a bit this summer and fall, I knew it couldn't be anything too far away or expensive. After talking to a few friends (Molly and Kate) who had both stayed at St. Croix River Inn, we decided to book that for a weekend in January. I knew it wouldn't be as picturesque then, but we were pretty busy in the fall so that's what worked! As a bonus, at least we got off-season rates. Thankfully, Annie was well enough on Friday for us to leave her with my parents - a little later than we had planned (we wanted to leave right away in the morning but didn't go until late afternoon).

Our B&B

We chose the Osceola room based primarily on the separate sitting area and fireplace and I was very glad we did. It also had a beautiful view of the river and a patio, but we didn't use that at all. The huge tub was a nice bonus as well. The only thing that would have been nice was a king size bed, but we made do with a queen. We've stayed at a number of B&Bs in the past, and have had excellent experiences at all of them. This was the first one where there wasn't even the option of eating breakfast in the dining room - it was always just served to the individual rooms at a time you specified. This was pretty nice, but meant you were in your room pretty much all the time. I think of the B&Bs we've been to, I liked the breakfasts in Duluth the best, then here, then London and Bruges. We have been very lucky to never have a bad breakfast at all at a B&B! (Not so much LUCK, as my penchant for obsessively researching things and reading hundreds of Trip Advisor reviews, I suppose :)

At the time we booked this trip, I thought I'd want to do a spa day or something, but I'm glad I didn't book anything. We both ended up being kind of sick, so we just hung out, went out to eat to Tangled Up In Blue and Grecco's (where we had a 50% off LivingSocial.Groupon/Crowdcut/whatever deal - bonus! Review up soon), went to a movie and took long baths. It was exactly the weekend I needed! The photos tell the rest of the story here...

Bedtime snack at the B&B - too bad I had already gotten ice cream and couldn't eat it ALL :)

Coffee and pastries, delivered 30 minutes prior to the hot breakfast - we elected to have it delivered at 8:30 and managed to stay in bed until almost that time - a miracle for us who can't sleep in anymore! Yeah, I had been awake since at least 7, but oh well.

Took a walk into "downtown" Osceola - pretty boring in January, it turns out :)

A bonus of it being deserted is that you don't feel dumb taking timer photos

My lunch at a coffee shop

and Ben's

Ha - yup, I brought my teddy bear, since I need to use all available pillows to support myself and still wanted something besides Ben to hold onto :)

The view from our room

At this point, I was taking an epic 2 hour snoring nap - it was awesome. Ben enjoyed his "happy hour" snack alone (but saved half the fruit/crackers/cheese for me!)

Ready to go out to our 6 course dinner that ended up being 3 hours long!

Breakfast on Sunday

2nd course - yummmm this was delicious

And that's all! We packed up right after breakfast so we could get back to our Annie - we may have stayed longer, but even though we were getting good reports of her health, I wanted to see with my own eyes that she was feeling better! It was great to return to this face instead of what we saw last Thursday...

33 Weeks

Near our B&B along the St. Croix River in Osceola, WI - so yes, we did go! Annie got much better on Friday and seems to just have a lingering cold now.

Compare to 33 weeks, 4 days pregnant with Annie.

Due Date: February 27, 2012

Weight Gain: Up another 3 pounds at the midwife last Friday, so now I'm at about 25 pounds. Might eclipse my weight gain with Annie (31 lbs) a bit, but probably won't go over the recommended 25-35 pounds at least. Just looking at my pic, I feel I'm looking pretty..... large. But I comparing it to last time I guess it's probably about the same. That shirt is just particularly accentuating of the bump.

Symptoms: I wasn't aware that this was a symptom, but looking at Laura's bumpdates from around the same time shows she also had very itchy palms - definitely has been happening to me, mostly at night. Super annoying but not anything that bad. Other than that, just the usual (for me) - out of breath, some back pain but nothing debilitating. Overall still feeling good.

What's different this time: Still easily wearing both wedding rings, they were off this week last time. Not even a hint of a linea negra (I had Ben check, because the underside of my belly is not something I am able to see anymore :). I have been sick a lot more this pregnancy. THANKS GERM-FACTORY TODDLER, for that one :)

Cravings/Aversions: Well, as predicted, I caught Annie's cold last week, so just wanting lots of water, soups, and food that doesn't require much chewing since I can't breathe :) We did go out to 2 really nice dinners this weekend, which was fun, but it was hard to truly enjoy it since tasting things isn't really happening right now.

Sleep: Eh, pretty crappy with the cold. This cold doesn't seem AS bad as the last one I had, thankfully. I took lots of naps this weekend which were awesome.

I am loving: that Annie is feeling better! It is such a relief. Now if Ben and I could follow suit... Also, just continuing to love that our families are so willing to watch Annie for us, even if she is sick. She had a fun weekend with the grandparents - was a perfect angel! Rewarded us for leaving by having about 400 epic meltdowns in the span of a few hours yesterday afternoon though, so clearly she had just been barely holding it together or something :)

I miss: breathing through my nose.

I am looking forward to:We are doing a family/maternity session with Kate this weekend - excited for that! I'm also planning on getting Annie's first hair cut (SOB/exciting!) on Saturday. Should be a relatively low key weekend which will be nice.

I'm spazzing about: Kind of a lot now. People are actually starting to... have their babies. Yowza. Sooo there is a sort of long list of things that need to get done before this kid comes. We have ~7 more weeks so I know that's plenty of time, I just need to get organized and make some lists.

I also am a bit sad each time I see a semi-elaborate 2nd birthday party for a kid because Annie's will be pretty tame this year. Pizza and cake with the family only.... which she will love and that is all that matters. Her 3rd birthday can be a blowout of epic proportions. Because I'm sure I'll be up for that with a 3 and 1 year old, right?!

Last, but CERTAINLY not least, baby boy is still transverse. So I'm starting to do the spinning babies techniques, working on my posture, and trying to remember to do cat/cow yoga poses as per the recommendations from Laura. If he's still not head down by the next appointment, more drastic measures will be taken (chiropractor/acupuncture, etc). I feel like he's still all over the place though. I DEFINITELY am feeling some sort of limbs up in my ribs at times, but also will feel movement out both sides of my belly as well. Because he was head down and is now transverse, I'm still measuring 31cm, which I was at my last appointment - this is explained by his position so hopefully the belly grows by next appointment. It sure seems like it's growing to me though...

Best thing about this week: Our weekend away - it was a delight to be able to just relax, take multiple naps that don't align perfectly with Annie's nap, go to a movie, and enjoy some nice dinners. I'll share more about that in a few days.

Milestones: First baby hiccups, earlier this week! That was a fun one, even if it was at about 4am after a particularly crazy dance party in my uterus.

Also, I got more stranger comments this weekend than the entire rest of this pregnancy or last combined. Ben gets really offended by these which I find hilarious :) "Why are they even TALKING to you? Ugh!" Some of them were super weird. For example - at one of our dinners, I got coffee - the bartender brought it over with a little ceramic container shaped like a bunny of cream and poured it, and said "I brought you the bunny pourer for your cream. You'll see someone else doing that soon!" I just kind of smiled and said "ha, yup" and then about a minute later he came back and said "I meant your child!" Um, yeah dude. That STILL doesn't make sense. WHAT?!? People are so strange. Maybe he was referring to nursing? Or spitting up? I doubt I (or he) will ever know.

Movement: Still crazy, still constant, and still all over the place!

It's a...: boy

Exercise: Just walks through the skyways and a little walk this weekend. Prenatal yoga hasn't been working well with my schedule lately - too many weekend activities going on, and I really do not like going after work because I'm kind of headachy by that point and I miss out on my only time with Annie.

This is my alternative belly pic for the week. Sort of psychotically, I have noticed that I have yet to repeat an outfit for my belly pics this pregnancy. I DID repeat ONE tank top, early on, but wasn't wearing the same bottom part of the outfit, so it wasn't a true repeat :) So now I feel compelled to make it to the end without a repeat. Since this outfit would be a repeat, I used the one above instead. Am I the only one this crazy? Probably :)

Sad Bunk

I mentioned in my last weekly post that Annie was getting a cold on Monday - she was randomly drooling so much that she needed a bib, and had a runny nose - no other symptoms so I figured it was just a standard cold. Annie has been very healthy, but definitely had her share of colds last winter, and one so far this winter - no big deal.

It got worse as the week went on - she went to daycare fine (with bib!) on Tuesday, but on Tuesday night had a temp of 102, and it remained on Wednesday morning - I think maybe even was up to 103 by then (we have an instant read ear thermometer so I never know exactly how accurate that is). We split the day taking care of her and working half days. Temp went up and down throughout the day, but never was below 100. I gave her some tylenol before her nap after Ben talked to a nurse, and we gave her ibuprofen before bed. Ben went out and got a bunch of sick supplies at Target later because all our meds were from my baby showers and were expired... and he even took Annie! We probably shouldn't have taken her out but this was clearly the highlight of her day. Don't worry - anything she touched after being out and about was wiped down :)

Today was more of the same, still a fever in the morning but went down with drugs and was in relatively good spirits this morning. Less drool, and now with a worse cough - so pretty much normal "cold" progression. I made a preemptive appointment for tomorrow morning, since the nurse said to bring her in if the fever remained for 72 hours... but she felt so hot after her nap today I decided to just move it up to this afternoon instead - turned out to be a good decision!

Nice bib choice by Ben, huh? At least she ate most of this.

This was her first "real" sick visit - I did take her in once right before her 1st birthday because she was waking up like 10x a night and I wanted to rule out an ear infection. She's had a few random fevers, but that's it. We saw a resident, Annie was upset at most of the visit - the resident said it was just a bad cold and that her ears looked "perfect" - but when the doctor came in to check, she was like "Um, you said her ears were good? Maybe you should look again" - yup, double ear infection.

When we got back from the doctor, after giving her the first dose of amoxicillin... We were watching "Wonder Pets" (never seen that one before) and apparently Annie wasn't too much of a fan because she didn't even make it through one 20 minute episode. This has NEVERRRRR happened before, by the way.

So, at least there is SOMETHING we can do to help her - we'll give her the antibiotics, although the doc did say that won't help the fever or anything else, but will help her sleeping and appetite. Although her sleeping has been ok - waking up crying a few times, but nothing major. Of course she hates them so it's a 2 person job to try to get her to actually ingest the correct dosage (so far at least... maybe a few days in she'll learn to love it....??)

I mean really. I know there ARE sadder sights than this, but wow. This is more than I can handle!

Oh, and lets not forget that this is the weekend Ben and I are supposed to go to a nearby B&B for 2 nights... so yeah. It's non-refundable. I decided I can't leave her if she's still like she was tonight - just would be too sad - so I really hope the medicine works in addition to her fever breaking tomorrow! She'll be with my parents, so I know they will take good care of her, but dang... she's just so sad. Which in turn makes me so sad.  We put her to bed tonight at like 6:15, after another harrowing dose of ibuprofen and basically no dinner (not like she wanted any anyway). That's about all - just wanted to record Annie's first illness for posterity. Fun for everyone!!