23 Weeks

Friday marked the end of week 23! Going by quickly, huh? Everything has been going great for our little family, and I think Tyler is getting more excited for his little sister to arrive. I taught him to say "sis" and he likes to lift up my shirt and give her stuff.... sometimes a sip of his drink (through my belly button, of course), a snack, a stick, and more often than not, a ball (still his favorite word and toy haha).

I've been feeling pretty good, just getting a little random nausea every now and then but I can deal. My hips seem to be less sore now that I've been regularly doing yoga (Jordon got me a pregnancy yoga DVD... Love that sweet man). I've been walk/running (okay, definitely more walking with a few 1-2 minutes bouts of light jogging) about 6 days a week and that's helping me keep my energy up. Jordon taught at a basketball camp at Ferrum this past week and Tyler and I had a nice routine of a longggg morning walk pointing out all the cars and their colors, which was great. Jordon's teaching at Wintergreen this week, so Tyler and I plan on keeping up the same routine. We actually walked FOREVER this morning, but we did stop at the playground, so that may be why we didn't get home until 2 hours after we started.

I've been so hungry recently, so I guess baby is growing away. Unfortunately, I'm craving cookies, ice cream, and all that sweet stuff. Baby girl's got a sweet tooth! I'm trying not to indulge toooo much, but chunky chips ahoy cookies have their way of calling my name at all hours of the day haha. I'm also getting bigger and bigger so it is getting very difficult to sleep. Lots of tossing and turning in my bed at night. Thankfully I have the faithful old Boppy pillow! I did, however, leave it at home this week, so I'm dying here at Wintergreen and trying to situate three pillows into a makeshift Boppy.

On the toddler front, Tyler is saying more and more! Jordon taught him to say "honk, honk" and squeeze your nose, so he's been doing that all the time. He also learned the word "swim" and it is PRECIOUS to hear him say it. Additionally, he's learned to demand "gum," which means fruit snacks, or gummies in toddler-speak, as I DO NOT give my child gum (and will not for several years... just think of the mess). Anyway, his vocabulary is just growing and growing! He's loving swimming since the weather got hot, and is always able to get completely soaked outside if there is any source of water around (baby pool, watering can, puddle, water bottle). Today we were splashing in puddles with our feet and he decided to sit down in one to play... got his whole butt soaking wet haha. But he was having so much fun and I love to see him happy, so what's a little water?

I think we have unofficially set the big move for the first weekend in July. I'm excited to move into a new house but I've been getting very nostalgic as we pack up. Tyler has spent his entire life from about 2 weeks old in that house! But we are moving onto bigger and better things and I'm excited to see what the future has to hold for us.

22 Weeks

I'm more than halfway through and it still hasn't really sunk in that we are going to have TWO children before Christmas rolls around. Crazy, huh? Baby girl is kicking and squirming away like crazy though, so she's making it harder and harder for momma to forget haha. I've been feeling pretty good other than my body aching. It's just so difficult to get in a comfortable position, but I guess that's to be expected. I haven't really been having any real crazy cravings, but I have had the taste for ramen noodles all the time recently. Which is kind of a tragedy because they have about zero nutritional content, but I guess this girl just loves salt haha.

My belly is definitely growing and it's getting much harder to squeeze into my non-maternity pants. By looking back at my belly pictures from my pregnancy with Tyler, it looks like I'm carrying this little one lower, so maybe that's why my pants are more uncomfortable. Regardless, I'm very happy my mom treated me to some maternity shopping and I have two new pairs of elastic band shorts (blue and yellow). Maternity pants are awesome.

Jordon and I have been wracking our brains trying to decide what to name this little one, but we haven't quite figured it out. We are leaning towards one name, and I'm sure it will probably be what we pick, but we're too indecisive as a couple to make anything official. So no buying anything personalized yet! Plus I'm still the tiniest bit nervous that "she" is actually a "he" who was hiding his goods at our ultrasound and has butt cheeks that disguise themselves as the elusive "three bright lines" that point to a little girl (yeah, I'm super paranoid, I know). I'm hoping we'll have another ultrasound sometime this pregnancy so I can harass the ultrasound tech and ask them to check umpteen times for little girl parts to confirm. As much as I HATED our scare with Tyler (and as much as I hated how it scarred me for all future pregnancies), I did enjoy having so many ultrasounds! I had six, I think, when we were pregnant with him and this time I'm only anticipating the two we've had (one being super early so it barely counts haha). But, we'll probably pay to get a 3d one though in the third trimester just to see our little one again!

On the toddler front, Tyler has been an awesome little boy. He seems to be growing out of the terribly obnoxious toddler phase and into the rambunctious, full of energy (but seemingly well-behaved) toddler phase. This I can deal with. Jordon and I spend our days trying to fill his day with fun and adventure and he usually is worn out enough to eat well and go down for naps and bed easily (*usually* being the key word there... we still have the occasional dining room meltdown or restless evening). He still lovesssss to mow. In fact, he rode along with Jordon today! It was funny because he was down for a nap when Jordon started mowing the front yard (planning to save the backyard until Tyler woke so he could ride along), and Tyler woke up just before Jordon finished the front. I went upstairs for something and all I hear from the bedroom is "mow..... mow...... mowmow." No crying or anything, just standing up in bed chanting "mow" because I guess he knew Daddy was mowing! He is also saying a lot more now which is so cute and hilarious. His new phrase he says ALL the time is "Idunknow!" .... translated from toddler-speak, "I don't know!" You can ask him anything, even something he knows the answer to, and he usually responds with "Idunknow!" He also asks "atsdis?" about everything ("What's this?"). It's hilarious to take him to the store or on a walk because I hear that every five seconds. He's also saying things we've yet to translate. For example last night I was trying to get him to sleep and he was restless (he had taken the dreaded late-day nap) and he kept saying something that sounded like "I'm wet" over and over again. I have no clue why he'd be saying that, so I'm assuming I have yet to figure out what he was trying to tell me.

We're also thinking a lot about the potty training front. I'd LOVE to NOT have two children in diapers, so my goal is to potty train by October. Of course, I know a lot has to do with how ready HE is for the potty, but he seems interested and knows when he has a dirty diaper (one day he came up to me, fanned behind his butt and went "ssssss" which means "stinky" in Tyler-speak). Also this evening he was running around naked before his bath and started to pee on our bedroom floor (tragedy!) so we told him to hurry to the potty and he knew right where to go... of course once he sat on it and tried to pee nothing was left, but hey, good effort! So I think if we really invest some time and energy into it in the next few months, he SHOULD do okay with it.

That's it for now. We have a couple busy weeks ahead... Jordon is helping teach a basketball camp at Ferrum next week then we'll be heading to Wintergreen for a week then to Woodstock for a tennis tournament. I have a feeling I'm going to be one tired momma come July!

20/21 Weeks

We've been out of town so I'm combining the last two weeks, but I have plenty to update on! On the pregnancy front, I'm now 21 weeks along and it's sure gone by quickly. I've been feeling pretty good recently. Since my Synthroid dose was adjusted my energy has definitely been up, although I won't be running any marathons anytime soon haha. I've definitely been achey and having a hard time sleeping because my bump is getting in the way of my belly sleeping preference. I'm about to cut a hole in my mattress for my bump so I can continue to sleep on my belly. I also have to pee ALL the time now. I didn't really remember how annoying that could be from last time, but boy is it obnoxious!

We had our anatomy ultrasound and 20 week appointment on Tuesday. What we saw was a appropriately growing and apparently healthy little GIRL. I had sworn up and down during my first trimester that baby was a girl but as we got closer to finding out I started to doubt myself, so I was actually pretty surprised when the tech showed us those little girl parts. In fact, part of me still doesn't believe it... I asked the tech a few times if she was SURE and even though she said she didn't have any doubts I'm still not buying any girls clothes. I guess it will take a little while for it to sink in since I am so used to being the mom of a little boy. As for Jordon.... well, let's just say we went to Dick's after the ultrasound and he went straight for the hunting section to research shotguns haha! We have a name that we are leaning towards, but we're not ready to make it "official" yet, so we'll still take suggestions :-)

On the toddler front, well, we have a crazy child. We went and visited my family in MD which was great since we hadn't been since Christmas. My mom had gotten Tyler a little push mower and he was OBSESSED. I heard the word "mow" at least 100 times in the 3 days we were there and he played with it at least a good 2 hours a day. We went to Clark's Farm and Tyler loved seeing the animals there. It seems that the busier we keep him during the day, the better he behaves. Which is unfortunate on days like today when it rains ALL DAY LONG and my bored little toddler throws hissy fits left and right. Sigh. Parenting is hard work! But on a good note, Tyler has been eating great. I've been trying to feed him healthier foods (I admit, since I got pregnant I've been going for the easy, more processed foods) and he's been eating turkey, tomatoes, bananas, that fancy pasta that has 1/2 a serving of veggies in it (haha), yogurt and other fruits often. I've also been trying to steer myself away from the typical pregnancy craving foods (which are usually some sort of processed carb) and snack on healthier options (like carrots and dressing, fruits, and eating more eggs). Of course, that doesn't mean I don't indulge my french fries and milkshake craving every once in awhile.

As for our family, the news has gotten out to all the appropriate parties, so I suppose I can let the cat out of the bag so to speak... we are moving back to the valley this summer. I was offered a teaching position at JMU (which actually will include maternity time off for me) that offered a generous salary, so we decided we couldn't pass up the offer. As hard as it is for Jordon to leave his job and for us to leave the home Tyler has essentially grown up in, I think this will be the best situation for us. Plus I have been planning on using my midwives in Harrisonburg, which would be quite inconvenient if we were still living in Ferrum come "labor" day. And it will be great to be closer to both of our families when we will really be needing the help! So big news for us!