Lovin' the Holidays

October through the end of the year is my favorite time of year because its the start of cooler weather here in Texas, the beginning of fall, and the beginning of the holidays. Although, the trees don't really start changing color here until the beginning of November. I love getting ready for Halloween because it means that Thanksgiving and Christmas are also on their way. I mean, its three months of holidays!

This year Hubs decided we could stay home for Thanksgiving, which I was so grateful for. It meant I had days to catch up on housework, yard work, put away the fall decor, and get all of the Christmas decor up, all without a time crunch. I also got to take daily naps! Glorious!

Some exciting news, I have definitely been able to feel the baby move already. I have to say, being stretched out from already having had a baby is not such a bad thing, if you ask me. You show earlier, instead of just looking fat longer, you know what to expect, and you feel the baby sooner. I realize my body won't bounce back as well as it did after the first one, but I honestly don't care. A flabby tummy and a bunch of stretch marks are a small price to pay. Besides, this day and age, its all fixable. ;)

I had a coupe of days over the past week where the baby and I were definitely going through growth spurts. I remember having the uncomfortable stretchy tummy feeling with Little Bean, in fact, I remember the exact day and where I was the first time I experienced it. What I didn't remember was that there is no position you can get into to alleviate the stretching. Now I'm not complaining at all. Like last time, I am so grateful to be pregnant that I enjoy the uncomfortable bits. They serve as signs that everything is going well in there. All I have to say is, grow baby. Mama will stretch to make room.

One thing I don't like about this pregnancy is that maternity clothes are so fetching ugly right now! When I was pregnant with Baby Bean there was tons of adorable maternity stuff. Now its all horizontal stripes (as if we pregnant women don't look big enough without that) or shirts with ruched sides. I really hate the ruched sides. REALLY HATE IT. I've almost cried every time I've gone shopping because I am afraid I will just end up naked. I refuse to pay full price for clothes I don't like, and when was the last time you saw a sale in the maternity section? The answer is NEVER. If I have to pay full price for clothes, I damn well better like them... A LOT. I think I have only bought three new tops so far, and have completely given up on getting anymore.

Here is one of the very few cute tops I have managed to find, for this week's belly picture.

In other news, I am almost done with my Christmas shopping. I did most of it back in May when we went to Mexico, then I did a bunch last Wednesday, and now I only have a few things left to get. Yes, I tried to finish up my shopping the day before Thanksgiving. I don't do crowds. I would rather pay more and have the store to myself while shopping, than go out with the crazies and fight over what's left on the picked-over shelves.

I guess that's it for now, so I'll sign off. Later!

14 Weeks

I realized today I blogged a lot more when I was pregnant with Little Bean, and it almost makes me feel bad that I don't do it more with this pregnancy. Okay, not almost, it does make me feel bad. However, I am keeping a better written pregnancy journal with this baby, so I guess it is all 6 of one and a half dozen of the other.

Depending on which book or app you use I officially entered the second trimester either last week or today. I am 14 weeks today, although that is based on LMP and not EDC, which is funny because we know exactly what day the little one came into existence, but hey, we'll take what we're given.

I am definitely showing:

So far I am only up 3 lbs, which makes me pretty dang happy. I am trying to limit my weight gain with this pregnancy. I didn't do bad with my first one, but I'd like to do better with this one. It helps that I started out about 4 lbs smaller too.

I still can't find the heartbeat with the home doppler yet, but when I read my other blog, I apparently didn't find Little Bean until 15 weeks. I expect I will be able to find this one in the next week or so. When I listen with the doppler, I do however, hear the baby moving around. Just like Little Bean, it is not a fan, so it tries to squirm away as best it can.

One thing I forgot about from my first pregnancy is the panic attacks. The ones where you're going along and everything is just fine, and then you panic all of a sudden and wonder if the baby is okay and if you should make a doctor appointment just so you can hear the heartbeat to ease your mind. If I have to go a week without seeing or hearing the baby, I panic. I know everything is fine because I keep growing and stretching (I get the stretchy tummy feeling a lot). I also have wicked heartburn every night at bedtime. I think I'm more than half way through my first family sized bottle of Tu.ms already.

Little Bean is adamant that this baby is a girl. When you ask her why, she says, "I don't want a brother because I'm a girl, and I don't like boy things." That child cracks me up. When I ask her what we should name the baby, her latest name is, Disn.ey Princess Marie. She doesn't like any of the names mom and dad have picked out, which by the way, this baby is already named.

We have a full boy's name, and a first name for a girl. Hubs and I cannot agree on the middle name for a girl, and we are both putting our foot down about not using the middle name the other wants. He has a strict Russian nationality naming convention when it comes to naming our children, which makes it difficult for me because I like so few female names from that country. He is half Russian, so I understand his desire to get back to those roots, but man it makes it hard to name my babies!

Other than that, this pregnancy is going great. I got clearance from my doctor to go home and see my dad next month, and we just got back from Disneyland, so this child will be well traveled before it is even born. Luckily, we are going to stay home and have Thanksgiving with my aunt who lives nearby, so that cut one trip from our agenda, which was such a relief.

With that, I leave you with a picture of my babies and I in Disneyland (more on that to come still).

I look dang good for 12 weeks pregnant!

Updates

Part of the reason I haven't updated in the past couple of weeks is because I just haven't, and because we went to Disney Land last week. A lot has happened in two weeks, so I'll break it down into a couple of updates.

Dad

My dad is doing so much better. It has been an incredible blessing. Things got really scary there for about a week, and my family was so worried about him. I won't go into a ton of details, but my mom noticed over a couple of days while she was visiting him in the hospital that he would be somewhat lucid until they gave him his meds. Within half an hour of taking them, he would be completely incoherent and hallucinating. It turned out he had an infection that was not reacting well with his medication, so they backed off his dose, and the difference was night and day. Over the next few days we got more and more of my dad back. I tried so hard not to cry the first day he and I had a full conversation because I was so relieved and grateful. We talked for half an hour, and even then I didn't want to hang up, but my dad was tired.

While we've come a long way, we still have a long way to go. My dad only has a temporary knee in right now, and will have to go get a permanent knee put in in a couple of weeks. My whole family is really nervous about when that happens and whether or not we'll have to go through all of this again. And if we do, we're worried we won't get my dad back next time. Needless to say, I am enjoying every conversation we have right now.

I booked a ticket home to see him next month, which will be before the surgery so that he and I can spend some good time together. I recently scanned over 300 slides from his youth, and I get to take them back home for him to see for the first time in over 40 years. I love looking at these pictures

My dad when he was 19 or 20

So we'll look at these pictures, eat some chocolate from our favorite chocolatiers whose motto is, "Chocolate for customers with a distinctive pallet", have some good conversations, and probably take some naps while watching boring TV while he sits in his chair and I stretch out on the couch.

I love my dad. So much.

Baby Bun
I am officially in the second trimester (at least according to most books and phone apps). It feels great to be here. I've had a bit of spotting, and a lot of sonograms because of it, but the baby is doing great. I still can't feel the baby yet or even find it with my fetal doppler. I figured this baby was a mover because I could find Little Bean with the doppler at 10 weeks, and I still can't find this baby at 13 weeks. I had a check up last week before we went to Disney Land, and it made me feel better when even my OB had a hard time finding the heartbeat because the baby wouldn't sit still. She did eventually find it and the baby finally sat still for a bit. Little Bean went with me to that appointment and loved hearing the heartbeat. In fact, Little Bean saw the baby on a sonogram a couple weeks before and loved seeing it and hearing the heartbeat.

Today we had our NT scan and it is amazing how far the technology has come, even in 4 short years since we were pregnant with Little Bean. The second we saw the baby, I started to cry because I am just so happy we're here. The little bun just would not hold still. It wiggled so much through the whole appointment that the sonographer had a hard time getting measurements. She had asked if we wanted to know the sex of the baby, which we did, but the little bum wouldn't hold still enough or in the right position for her to be able to tell. This baby is definitely a mover. When the doctor came in though, she got a couple of good shots and told us what she thinks we're having.

The appointment went really well. The baby had been measuring a day behind EDC (estimated date of conception [although in our case, date of conception was not estimated]), but today it measured 2 days ahead! The doctor said everything looks perfect and she is really happy with the way everything looks. She is happy with where the placenta is placed in relation to the scar and thinks we won't have any issues there. However, she said she wants to take the baby at 37 weeks to prevent contractions. I am kind of sad that my pregnancy will be cut short by a couple of weeks, but getting my baby here safely without risking a rupture is all we care about.

One upside to being high risk is that I will get monthly sonograms just to make sure the placenta doesn't get out of line. Which means we should be able to confirm the sex of the baby at the next appointment! While they can tell with a high degree of certainty now, I don't dare start buying gender-specific color items yet.

Here is one of the best take-aways from today's appointment:

13wks 1d

I don't know if all of the patients at this office get the 3D scans, but if not, this is another perk of being high risk. They also sent us home with a video of the scan that is about 45 minutes long. Now I get to watch my baby go crazy in-utero all I want. lol

Well, it is time to snuggle Hubs and watch TV. I will update with Disney pictures soon!