2nd Pregnancy-38.5 Weeks

One week ago I was finally dilated 1cm, 80% which gave me a little hope. Later today my doc will be stripping my membranes just to make sure things get moving along. So far I've had no real contractions, or at least the ones I've had are not the real labor I remember. And the few that are pretty uncomfortable are spaced so far apart I don't get my hopes up. I'm pretty sure the baby dropped a few days ago. My balance shifted and different muscles are hurting. Otherwise not much to report. When I got my membranes stripped during Kaleb's pregnancy, he was born less than 48 hours later so I'm really keeping my fingers crossed!

Kaleb-2.25 Years

Such a big helper! Everything for Kaleb is an "I do it" moment nowadays. Most of the time, he spends abou ten seconds trying to do whatever it is, and then it's "Momma do it" (or Daddy). Ammon convinced Kaleb to vacuum half the living room the other day. SO AWESOME!

I have reached that point when I should stop counting Kaleb's age in months. He is getting so big and is racing past the toddler stage into the 'preschool' stage. He LOVES to learn! Right now he pretty much only likes doing puzzles and playing 'match games'. I put that in quotes because we don't flip the cards over. Just the basics "Find the fish. Find the yellow tractor." He is learning colors. Orange is the only one he really knows (and even then that can mean yellow or red), but he is so eager to talk about other colors. Red is usually called Elmo before it's called Red. Counting has become a new interest as well. We will have him repeat us for 1 thru 10, but when he counts on his own it usually sounds like, "One, two, four, eight, nine... four, eight, six." We get such a kick out of that!!! Kaleb has the occasional language barriers, like not being able to pronounce "OPEN" properly. We are really working to get him to say "SEVEN" but it ALWAYS comes out FENZEN.

Letters have opened up a new world to him. We have an alphabet puzzle with pictures for each letter (Fish under the F, Tie under the T; see the video below) and now he relates a lot of the letters with that picture. I can draw an H and he will say "House" and so on. He makes me so excited! Ammon's mom has expressed concerns since Ammon had a hard time with language when he was younger, but thankfully Kaleb doesn't seem to have any delays.



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

We are SOOOO looking forward to Kaleb becoming a big brother, and he is showing so many signs of being the helpful little man that every parent hopes for in an older sibling!

2nd Pregnancy-37.5 Weeks

I have reached that point:

*When my arms go numb all the time
*When I can't fit my feet in my crocs due to swelling
*When I wonder if not-cranky-Lindsey will ever come back
*When I can't remember not having a belly
*When even maternity clothes are getting a little snug
*When I have to take naps or chug down a diet coke to function.
*When I'm wondering, "Why isn't this baby coming?"
*When I'm wondering, "Am I even ready to have another kid?"
*When I'm wondering, "Will I love her as much as Kaleb?"
*When one of my first thoughts of the day is, "What can I do to put myself in labor today?"
*When EVERYONE is asking how much longer I have.
*When this baby stretches to the point I fear a scene from Aliens will be reenacted
*When... this whole pregnancy thing... is no longer fun!


As of 6 days ago (my last doc appointment), still no signs of labor, and I'm kind of disappointed. Everybody keeps wondering what's my big hurry, and primarily my biggest fear is having to get enduced (because my body just doesn't do what it's supposed to) or having a C-Section (cuz we wait till the baby is too big to push out.) Another worry is that Ammon's brother Rylan is coming home from his mission on the 14th, and I really want to have us all go to the airport to welcome him. Since Kaleb was a week early, I got my hopes up that this one would be just a little earlier, and that would give me some time to recoup. Now it's hard to imagine that this is even a possibility. Leave it me to worry about things I can't really change.

We had a little photo shoot with Kaleb and the belly last week, and this is my favorite. Our little boy loves babies so much, and we are SO excited for him to be a big brother!!

2nd Pregnancy- 34 Weeks

Well I had a little family baby shower the other day. It was fun to celebrate this moment with those whom will be closest to this little flowery bundle of joy. I've had a few of those "I'm having a baby... I'm having a girl... WEIRD" moments over the last week. It's still hard for me to believe I have less than 6 weeks till I meet her! So far the most surreal was on Saturday when we finally made a few steps to make the baby's room live-in-able and we put that lavender and pink bumper around the crib. I stood back and just said to Ammon, "It's just so girly!" I don't know why, but that's harder for me to accept than just having a new baby. I decided to include a photo from my pregnancy with Kaleb (at 35 weeks) and me below at 34 weeks. I feel a lot smaller in the belly than I did then, but since I started out 20 pounds heavier with this pregnancy it's really hard to tell. What do you think?

I feel a lot more comfortable this time around too! I don't have half the numbness in my arms and it takes awhile for me to get to that "IGOTTASITDOWN" point when walking around. My feet are now to MALLOW status, all kinds of puffy, but I can still wear my crocs, something I couldn't do the last few weeks my first time around. This little girl never ceases to surprise me with how much she can push. I had a little scare last week when she almost stopped moving for two straight days. All is well, though. So now I want to hear predictions of when this baby is coming. Either post a comment here or leave a comment on Facebook. I always love to hear what people might say. Here's my guess: 9/3/11 round noon. 7 lbs, 15 oz.; 18 inches. Although 9/10/11 would be really cool and easy to remember!

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."