2nd Pregnancy- 32 Weeks

That's right, 8 weeks left!! I've noticed I've gotten bigger everywhere, but especially in the belly. I look and feel so much more pregnant these last few weeks. I'm sleeping better (except for Tuesday nights... no idea why it's always Tuesday nights) and eating 'better', and by better I mean a lot more! Almost twice as much as I was a few weeks ago. I've already gained 28 pounds which was basically my goal for the whole pregnancy. It wouldn't be so bad, but with Kaleb's pregnancy I gained about 15-20 pounds the last two months (45 TOTAL)... no thank you!!

I've started to swell more regularly: my wedding ring getting stuck around my knuckles, giving me a claustrophobic panicky feeling, so I've stopped wearing it. My feet are especially sensitive to the swelling since I'm not a sit-with-my-feet-up type of person. I remember being a lot more uncomfortable with my first pregnancy at this point... except for the baby itself. This little girl caused me a lot of pain over the past weekend with her random stretches and poking. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the sudden-ness of it. One time I almost peed my pants because she wacked me so hard in the bladder. Thankfully i was sitting at the time... it could have been disastrous and makes me nervous for the next 8 weeks.

As for her name, we weren't planning on deciding for sure until she was born, but Kaleb convinced us pretty strongly that we should keep the name we had been leaning toward. We've been planning for the name Sasha, but nothing was set in stone. We only mentioned it once in front of Kaleb as a baby name. The other morning as I got him up for breakfast, the first thing out of his mouth was "Sasha. Sasha" very clearly. I asked him what he said and he repeated, "Sasha Sasha." So I said "Kaleb, Sasha is the baby's name" as I pointed to my belly. He nodded and said, "Yep Sasha is the baby's name." Now some people might think of it as a weird coincidence, but we basically accepted it as confirmation that we will be naming this little girl Sasha. Kind of exciting!!

Kaleb-25.5 months

SPATIAL DOMINANCE: Over the past six weeks, Kaleb has learned to put his sandals on all by himself and has proven quite the little helper. One morning when Ammon was really tired he asked Kaleb to clean up his Legos and then proceeded to fall asleep (he admits he isn't proud of that). After a little while, Kaleb woke up Ammon with "Daddy, all done." He had cleaned the entire room, putting legos in their bucket and toys in their bucket. Kaleb also shows his organizational skills at my parents house. When it's time to clean up, he's pretty careful of which toys go into which bins and he is the expert at making sure all the bins fit properly in the cupboard (if you don't put them in just right they don't fit.)

VERBAL FUN: His words seemed to be improving and he always surprises me with the things he has learned. Like shapes and stripes and songs. He now likes us to sing the ABC, Eentsy Weentsy Spider or Twinkle Tinkle Little Star before bed, and he'll often ask us to sing the Apple sing, but we still haven't figured that one out. His favorite phrases right now are "I don't want any" or "I did it!" The hardest thing is when a few of his words sound the same like "Bider" is the word for Better, Spider and Pepper. He also loves water and will announce whenever we pass a fountain or pool or pond in the car. One thing I am particularly happy about is that Kaleb is finally calling me Momma most of the time (instead of Daddy.) He learned this about the same time as most of his cousin's names (Mia is MeeMee, Ellie is Addy, Christian is Chicken, and Mark is well, Mark), so I my head is not swelling quite yet.

HOWDY, PARTNER: A few weeks ago I took Kaleb to the temple with his favorite hat and we did a little photo shoot.

FIREWORKS: I think Kaleb had fun on 4th of July. Since he is more of an observer than a reactor in new environments it can be hard to tell. We got some of our own little light shows and things and set them off with my sister and her family. Kaleb only got a little scared with the first big one that was set off. He liked throwing the poppers and thought the flaming "Poot" (Glow-worms) were kinda freaky.

Overall, this was usually the response he gave to each of the fireworks.

HAIR: Kaleb has great, thick hair, but it is really lazy. We tried to spike it for church "just like daddy's," but his hair just kept falling down. We were finally able to get it into a faux-hawk... kinda. Maybe we will try again later when it's a little shorter again.

BEAR NECESSITIES: Kaleb has always had tons of bears surrounding him at all times, but lately he has grown very attached to the blue bear he got from Landon and Katie the day he was born. He likes to take it everywhere and we have to make sure it's in bed with him. Thankfully he hasn't thrown very many fits when we have to keep it at home, but I feel that day is soon to come. The other day, Kaleb also realized that his toothbrush handle has a bear on it, so now every night after he brushes his teeth he gives the toothbrush a hug and kiss. It gets me every time!!

FUN PICTURES

LAST BUT NOT LEAST: About a month ago, Kaleb had an incident that might have a permanent impact on his future potty training. This story is pretty graphic, so I warn you now it is not for the faint of stomach: Kaleb has pretty regular bowel movements, so I tend to take it for granted the he will have a poopy diaper a day. Well, on this infamous day, Kaleb had yet to poop. It was getting near bedtime and he was letting off some good farts, so by bath-time I figured he would have filled his diaper. No luck, but it did make me a little wary of him taking a bath. Oh, well, I thought and I put him in the bath. About five minutes into it, he starts farting again, saying "I poot" and I started to explain that farts don't make anything but poop does... and then he decided to demonstrate. He stood up and started pooping in the bathtub. Because of my awkward pregnant-ness I wasn't able to grab him in time, and as the ... um... log landed in the water I said, "Look Kaleb, you pooped!" (more to instruct than anything). When Kaleb saw the log floating in the water he started screaming and crying and scrambling out of the tub as fast as his little legs could go!! I was able to put him on the toilet to hopefully get him to finish, but his fear of the toilet made that impossible so I ended up placing him on the bathroom rug. He hadn't quite finished pooping before his little tirade, so needless to say their were streaks on the tub, toilet, his feet and the rug. It took another twenty minutes for Kaleb to calm down. It's been over a month now and Kaleb still has problems taking baths. In fact, he prefers it if we give him a shower. He is also obsessed with poop and likes to look at the contents of his stinky diapers to confirm that he did, in fact poop. A few days after the incident I was able to get a cute little video of Kaleb talking all about how he "Poot (Pooped) in the water."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4yBIevQUWs

2nd Pregnancy- 29 1/2 weeks and counting

Here I am at 24 weeks And at 28 weeks. I seriously don't see much of a difference.

Well, the last two months actually haven't been that bad. Right around week 24 is when my hips and feet started spreading and that was pretty miserable. I have had to deal with a lot of insomnia, caused by a nasty cold or a scrambled mind or just plain adrenaline last week (three nights where my body only wanted about 6 hrs each, it was annoying). Thankfully I don't seem to need as much sleep with this pregnancy as with my first, but I still really want it!! I tested normal with my glucose test, which wasn't terribly surprising. I didn't have much of an appetite until last week. Food just wasn't very appealing to me, which is good and bad. No major cravings or aversions, but spicy is now extra-spicy to my tongue.

I call this baby my Tiny Dancer (don't worry, that's not going to be her name) because she always seems to be moving. There was a week or so where she was trying to push my pelvic bones apart, but otherwise it's just distracting. In some ways it's kind of nice because she doesn't seem to be on my bladder all the time, either that or I am sweating all of my fluids out... Oh yes, the hot flashes have come on with a vengeance. I'm sure the 115 degree weather isn't helping, and now the humidity, oy I am so grateful for air conditioning and fans!!!!

I can still wear my wedding ring most of the time (my true test of puffiness), but I feel more and more swollen all over each week. Now my biggest fear is preeclampsia since I had REALLY high blood pressure when I went into labor with Kaleb. I have had plenty of BH contractions, uncomfortable but obviously not awful. Last night they went on for a good hour or so since I had spent a lot of time on my feet the last few days (my feet are extra-swollen today because of it, too.) It's hard to keep trying to get things done when your body just keeps telling you NO.

Still so much to do and get before she comes... like getting Kaleb into his big-boy bed... kinda need that crib for the baby... stuff like that. No panic has set in yet, so unfortunately I haven't gone crazy organizing and nesting like I really need to before I get much bigger! I'm still having a hard time believing I only have two more months to go (or four more paychecks as Ammon and I keep joking.)

BB

For those who care I finally finished my second semester of college. I only took two classes: Microsoft Excel 2007 and Macroeconomics. I got B's in both classes, and I'm not at all disappointed. Firstly, because I was pregnant (and therefore sick for half of the semester); secondly, because I didn't have Microsoft Excel 2007 on my computer at home till the last week of the class and thus made applying time to each project a little difficult; and lastly, because I think the study macroeconomics is one of the biggest wastes of human effort I have ever experienced. What is the point of studying something that you will never be able to predict or change? Anyway, having had to deal with these three challenges during the last three months, I am very proud of my two B's. Hopefully I will be starting classes again in October, but that depends a lot on how FAFSA works out, where we are financially, and how the new baby settles in. Let's keep our fingers crossed, shall we?

Kaleb is 2!!

I can't believe my little baby boy is actually 2 years old. He has absolutely no baby traits (and probably hasn't for awhile), but I don't remember it all happening. Pregnancy does that I guess!

Well, at his 24-month doctor visit, Kaleb weighed 34 lbs, 8 oz and measured 37.75 inches, both of which are supposedly in the 97th percentile... at least he has finally gotten as tall as he weighs. One interesting thing we discussed with the doctor is that if you double the height of a 2-year old you will get their approximate height as an adult. That would put Kaleb almost exactly equal to Ammon, just shy of 6 ft, 3 inches. It will be fun to see if it comes true!

WORD-WISE: This month, Kaleb's vocal skills have blossomed! He can pronounce the "K" and "G" sound which was impossible for him before, and it opened up a whole set of words he could never say before, like dog, bug, cake and it's become so much easier to understand him. He also puts a few words together on a regular basis like "That's a rock." Random strangers are beginning to understand him, and that makes me feel a little less worried about his future vocal skills.

SCARY WORLD OUT THERE: Kaleb had a slip in the bath-tub (nothing even worth remembering, except that he unfortunately did), and got scared of takings baths for several weeks. Swimming has really helped, but he still hesitates to sit down in two inches of water... when it's in the tub. He has loved taking swimming lessons but can get a little frustrated when he doesn't have the freedom he has with just normal swimming. Kaleb also went through a week or so of severe separation anxiety. We moved his crib into the playroom so that his old room could become the baby's room, and that seemed to set off a series of days that he just didn't want us to leave him. He almost ripped off the arm of one of the poor nursery leaders while trying to escape that Sunday, and Daddy's absence was constantly a source of tears. Everything has settled once again, but I hold a little trepidation for when we put him in big-boy bed next month.

Random other things: Kaleb has always loved fruit, but lately will not want to eat the skins of things like apples and grapes. He chews them up and then takes the skins out of his mouth with a "Eeeew." When Kaleb tuned 2, his favorite movie was The Lion King and his favorite book was You Are Special by Max Lucardo. He also has wanted us to sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star every time he goes to bed for the last few weeks. Somehow Ammon realized that's what he wanted. We don't even know where he first heard it, but hey, it's comforting so no biggy for us when he says, "Sing Sing, Star!"

Of course we had Kaleb's 2nd birthday party, which was just a family barbeque. We decided to do an Elmo Cake since it's one of the few things he would recognize. Thanks to my mother-in-law and sis for their assistance.
This was Elmo after the cake was cut. I have a sick sense of humor and there just seemed to be something seriously disturbed about the image of a massacred muppet!

Kaleb was in a great mood all night until we sat him down to be sung to. Slowly he got more and more unhappy until the blowing out the candle moment became way too much pressure! He almost cried, it was so cute but so sad.

Daddy helped him blow out his candle... twice and that was the closest we got to a smile until he actually ate a piece of cake.

Afterwards, presents were opened and Kaleb enjoyed every minute... We had taken several trips to Toys R Us to determine what Kaleb would want most.

The "Elmo Laptop" was one of his favorite toys at the store, so we figured why not? It's a little obnoxious, but at least it's educational.

He has really enjoyed ALL of the toys he got that night, so it's been a little easier for those times when we just don't wanna leave the house. Kaleb has a fresh batch of toys to look into.

Kaleb at 23 Months

As Kaleb is approaching the BIG TWO, he has been improving and growing in so many ways. He understands more complex ideas, and it seems to be getting easier and easier to communicate with him. Of course, with that understanding comes my frustration when he chooses to disobey us. I've become that counting mom, except I never get to three. Kaleb will either choose the better path or get whatever discipline comes to him by the time I get to three.

BETTER MEMORY: I've noticed Kaleb remembering things a lot more, for better or worse. He often remembers where he left toys or books that I can't seem to find. He also remembers how to get to his favorite spots. For instance, whenever we pass the mall, he starts yelling , "No, NO, NO!" because it's the best to play.

BETTER VOCABULARY: With the better memory comes a better vocabulary. Kaleb has well over 100 words, whether anybody but Ammon and me can understand is another subject. The other day he started playing peekaboo with "Here he is" after each one. He likes to 'count' now as well which is mostly just pointing at objects and saying ,"We, we, we" for each. We often just get random mumbles of run-on sentences, but Ammon was able to get Kaleb to say a few things very clearly for the camera the other day. I LOVE THIS VIDEO!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_PywuphvLw

GOOD BIG BROTHER-ISH: I can't wait for Kaleb to be a big brother!! He already shows so many signs of being patient and wanting that company that comes with a bigger family. Kind of a random picture we got with his older cousin-look-alike Christian. They could be brothers.
Kaleb shows the most potential with his cousin Evelyn who is at our house all the time. He still balks a little at sharing his favorite toys, but this picture defines how he takes everything in stride, even letting her crawl over him to get to his sippy cup. The best part is that he usually seeks her company and likes to play with her. Plus he is magnanamous enough to offer her his less favorable toys.

WHERE DID HE GO? He has this new habit of hiding his eyes and/or his mouth when he gets excited. Daddy was chasing him down the hall and he tried to hide by covering his eyes.

And this is a fun photo of his excitement at getting to wear Elmo pajamas. The absolute joy!!

ROLLING, ROLLING, ROLLING: Kaleb loves to jump all the time. When he's walking some place there must be a few jumps included, complete with the narration "Jup, jup, jup." Then there is the running. He always runs with his head a little forward and Ammon said it best when he commented, "He's like a boulder rolling down a hill." Here is a video of some running with a new-found friend at the mall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlC7WUW8BSU

NEW BEDTIME SCHEDULE: Kaleb has essentially demanded some changes in his bedtime routine. Firstly, I've been giving him more baths. With how often he was getting sick, I figure it couldn't hurt to clean him more often. Here's a great shot of him trying to get the bath to go a little longer by being a human plug.

He also has been demanding that he reads most of his stories instead of having us read them to him. We still try to stay involved, but sometimes it's hard to tell a ten-second story when he skips a lot of pages. There has also been the sudden expectation of a song every night. I used to sing to him when he was a baby, but got out of the habit. Now he begs for it, and if it's anything that doesn't sound like a church hymn or primary song he stops me. My little boy likes to have peaceful dreams I guess!

JUST KEEP SWIMMING: The high-ninety degree weather recently prompted us to beg to use a friend's pool. Once we all got used to the cold water it was a ton of fun. Kaleb seems to have a healthy fear of the water, so that makes me more comfortable with the idea of giving him swimming lessons in a few weeks.

SPECIAL KISSES: Kaleb has always been a lover, not a fighter. He loves to give hugs and kisses. Recently he started giving me some really wacky kisses. This is a photo of a normal little Kaleb kiss.

The new kisses include his grabbing the back of my head and shoving our lips together with his eyes really wide. He only gives those 'special' kisses to me, and a few people have commented that he was inspired by mommy and daddy's kissing. However, I think it's more of a payback for all of the grab-his-face-and-smooch moments I've gotten over the years.

As a side note, Kaleb's favorite movie is now "How to Train Your Dragon" and his favorite book is "The Monster at the End of the Book."

The problem with electronics...

THEY BREAK!! Yeah, that's right. It all started with our printer a few weeks ago, it ran out of color ink... no biggy. I went to Cartridge World and bought a replacement. Test page printed fine, but no good after that. The printer would just let paper go through it without a single dot of ink on it. After a few frustrating attempts over a few days, the printer finally tells me that it's out of black ink. So back to cartridge world, new black cartridge... still wouldn't print for me. The computer kept giving me prompts of "Cartridge not in right." So I took both of them out several times, but to no avail. I took both cartridges back to cartridge world, and it turns out the color cartridge was faulty... of course. So get a new color cartridge, install both cartridges. It prints twice and then quits, but I never got to attempt another printing because the computer went on the fritz...

So every time I tried to access the internet, the computer would go into this restarting loop. It would just keep restarting saying that if it stayed on, it could damage the computer. For hours it would do this until finally I just turned it off. Well, thankfully my brother had given us another computer he had built months ago. We basically never used it because we hadn't connected it to the internet and microsoft office hadn't been installed, essentially useless to us. So we turned to this previously useless computer. My brother was gracious enough to transfer the wireless router... which needed installation software we didn't have...

SOOOoooo my brother went online at his house using the router serial number and was able to get the info he needed and install it onto my computer. He had gotten the internet all working!!! YIPPEEE!!! After a week without it, I was able to access the internet. Now to just get microsoft office and the printer hooked up...

Oh no, the printer doesn't work because the cartridge isn't in right... again. Oh no, i can't install Office because this computer is missing some critical something which we thought it already had. Oh no, Ammon tried to use the computer a little later, and right when it started to set up the Windows' screen, the monitor died! That's right, the monitor is broken now. Thankfully we have the original monitor still attached to our now-dead older computer that was totally functional a week ago.

Ammon and I are placing bets on what electronic item in our house will die next. The dryer has been making funny noises, so that wouldn't be a shocker... I'm betting it's the TV though, because we have a spare one of those ;-)

2nd Pregnancy- 20 weeks

Here is my updated photo to show my belly progress. I don't feel a whole lot bigger except at the very bottom of my abdomen. My doctor said this baby is really low, and I can tell cuz my bladder is already getting a beating. I had my ultrasound last week and everything was good news. The baby looks good. In fact, because of the measurements, they predict me to be a few days 'more along' than my doctor originally thought. Since it's not a significant difference I will wait until my doctor actually tells me she is going to change my due date before I get my hopes up.

And of course the best news of all was to find out the gender, and we were right. It's a GIRL!! We are excited for a new adventure... not that any new kid isn't an adventure but it's especially different with a new gender. I've already got my mind spinning with nursery decorating ideas. At this point we are thinking purples and greens with flowers and butterflies... basically the overall theme of "GARDEN."

2nd Pregnancy 19 Weeks

I will have an updated photo next week along with the ultrasound photos I will get on Monday. I'm so excited to see this little one close up! From the beginning we have thought of this baby as a girl. This pregnancy has been so different from Kaleb's, and it's kind of a pattern of my family to have a boy then a girl. We do have a name picked for the girl, but otherwise having a boy would be way more convenient. In other words, we will be excited no matter what we're having.

Speaking of differences, here are a few: firstly, my eyes are mutinying on me. I get headaches from wearing my contacts for more than a few hours. Plus, my skin is breaking out like I'm a teenage boy. Neither of these were a problem with Kaleb. The only strong craving I've had over the last month is to eat tuna plain out of the can. I also haven't had any serious aversions to food lately which has been very nice. I have sneezed more in the past week than I think I did all last year. Plus the sneezes are uber strong; I have to brace myself to make sure I don't pee!

Of course, in general I've been feeling more changes. I have a hard time tying my shoes cuz my belly is starting to get larger and harder. I feel like this baby is smaller, but that could be proportionate... because I still have all the weight I gained with Kaleb. I've been feeling little movements occasionally since week 15, but this past week the baby has really picked it up! I'm already starting to get a little waddle in my walk, which I'm not so proud of! I am probably the most grateful that my center of gravity is still normal, but I have had some random losses of balance (like tipping over when I'm standing around doing nothing.) I think the best part about this pregnancy compared to my first is that I am WAY less emotional. Yes, I get cranky, especially when I'm really hungry or haven't gotten enough sleep, but overall doing way better this time around.

The Zoo

For two months now I've been trying to get my little family to the zoo. Between bad weather, Kaleb being sick, my migraines and Ammon's new job, it was a bit of a struggle to work anything out. Finally, on the hottest day of the year (96 degree high), we were able to go. My main motivation was of course, to give Kaleb a fun new experience. Since his pathetic mom is tired all the time or busy with school, he doesn't get to do 'new things' often. And since he freaks out whenever animals are on TV, I figured what better place than the zoo.

It took Kaleb about five minutes to realize there was something cool about this place. We pulled the stroller up to the savanna, and he immediately struggled to stand up in it to get the best view... even though there really wasn't much to see.
Because of the heat, a lot of the animals were asleep or, well, not that interesting. But we had a few fun experiences. As always the petting zoo was a little adventure in itself. Kaleb was slow to approach any of the goats, which all seemed to have taken a dose of Valium. Eventually, when we prodded, Kaleb would go up and tap one as if to say "tag" and then he would quickly walk away. It was more fun for us just to watch him!

A relatively new feature to the park are the little water-works. Not only are they great for letting the kids play, but it was so nice to cool down a little. Kaleb got pretty excited at all the spontaneous water jets... Just another reminder that we need a lawn with a sprinkler. We had invited my sis and her fam to come with us to the zoo. They ended up spending half of their time just playing in the water. To each their own ;-)

The zoo had recently opened a new orangutan exhibit that allows you to get up close and personal with the big guys. Kaleb and Ammon had a lot of fun making faces at the male until he bared his teeth (see below), and scared Kaleb for good. We think he was just yawning, but it's hard to explain that to a toddler.

Here's a great shot Ammon got of the elephant.

Our favorite part of the zoo is the monkey village. You basically have a little trail to walk around the squirrel monkey habitat. A couple of them were only a few feet from us. Kaleb liked the monkey's so much! We've had a little stuffed squirrel monkey among Kaleb's toys (something Ammn bought years ago), but Kaleb never really paid it any attention until now. It seems to be one of his favorite toys since our trip!

Our little family in front of the rhino pen. Aren't we cute!?

And of course no trip would be complete without the ever-so-short-nap on the way home. Kaleb slept for about twenty minutes. Then was wired for the rest of the day. I will take one of whatever he is having.