I have issues

When I was pregnant with Parker I *knew* it was a boy so around 16w I bought a ton of darling boy clothes covered in tigers, alligators, and soccer balls. When the anatomy scan showed us that we were in fact having a hamburger and not a hot dog I was elated. Headbands! And tutus! And bows! And...oh wait, I have a closet full of boy clothes already. So back to the store they went in exchange for dresses and leggings.

This time around I once again have the crazy baby buying urge that can only be satisfied by itty bitty baby clothes. And while I've been feeling girl this entire time I'm now 100% convinced that it's a boy. One, we have a boy name and cannot for the life of us agree on a girl's name. Two, and I didn't even realize I was doing this until recentely, but every time I walk in what will be baby #2's room I envision it decorated up all boy. But we know how my intuition goes...

So I don't think that I should be allowed to purchase baby clothes until I know the sex unless they are gender neutral and lo and behold I have finally found some non-fugly unisex clothes compliments of Kate Quinn Organics: Oh so adorable.

Now I wait until April 30th to find out what's cooking. I could pay out of pocket and get an elective u/s in about a week at a random place but those early scans can sometimes be wrong. The anticipation is killing me. I can tell you that I will be taking the entire day of April 30th off of work to go shopping with the little miss for her new brother or sister. Squee!

14 Weeks

How far along: 14 weeks

Total weight gain: 116.4, down a little over 1lb from last week, up a total of 4lbs

Maternity Clothes: maternity shorts have been broken out!

Best moment this week: feeling a ton of movement :)

Movement: still a lot of rolling around going on in there. I bet that I would feel it more often if I sat and relaxed for a minute since I usually feel baby when I'm laying in bed trying to fall asleep.

Food Cravings: Spicy California rolls with extra spicy sauce. It pays to work right next door to a sushi restaurant. Nom nom nom.

Sleep: I like to overexert myself but I need to watch it. I've felt pretty blah the past few days from overdoing it and lack of sleep. I went to bed last night at 830pm to make up for it but still don't feel stellar.

Milestones:Baby has fingerprints that he/she created while swimming around in the amniotic fluid and is about 3.5 inches long.

Girl or boy: I've changed my mind--I feel that it's boy.

Random: I was on such a streak of feeling awesome. I'm hoping that my energy returns and that I don't feel like puking everywhere because morning/all day sickness has returned. -----

17 Months

17 months...already. How exactly did that happen again?

Miss Parker had another language explosion this month--25 new words!

-apple
-yogurt (rorurt)
-phone (shone)
-cookie
-i love you (i lululu)
-zoo
-thank you (ank ooh)
-tree
-mermaid (meh maid)
-doggie
-Sophia (friend at school)
-Elara (friend at school)
-coffee
-color
-outside
-okay
-door
-cool
-whoa
-bubbles (bubu)
-Sydney (Siznee)
-MAMA!!--the kid finally, FINALLY, realizes that I'm mama. She calls for me if I'm in the other room, points to me when I ask who mama is. She's said mama for a long time but just made the association that the lady who sings crazy songs and acts like a maniac is in fact her mother. Music to my ears.
-two, six, nine, ten

That's right, Parker showed of another wild skill this month--she's learning her numbers! Now I can't take any credit for this--this is all thanks to her teachers. Very cool the things she's already learning at school--things that I wouldn't even think to teach her yet. Parker has a book with numbers and I said "one," pointed to the next number and she said "two." My eyes fell out onto the floor. I said, "three, four, five" and she said "six" when I pointed to it. I looked at Kris and his eyes were on the floor too. Then I said "seven, eight" and Parker ends with "nine, ten." Craaaazy.

Speaking of daycare, Parker knows all of her friends names. The teacher will ask Parker where each friend is and Parker points to them. She's also very nice to babies at school. If a baby is crying and Parker is around she will walk over and caress it. Good news seeing as how it will be baby central at the S house come September. Daycare also nixed the paci. Parker doesn't have it at all, even for naps. Well, she does at home for sleeping but we're working on it. Okay, I'm not working on it because I'm scared but I WILL work on it. So yay to daycare for being awesome once again! Love em.

Parker is obsessed with ducks, Elmo (which is weird since she doesn't watch TV but there are one million Elmo toys at school and we have some too), zippering things, and saying no. She now knows the meaning of no which is pretty neat and makes communication even easier. She loves going down slides. We visit the bagillion local parks every week and we're having a hard time finding a slide that Parker can't go down herself. Hide and seek has been coined "Karker" aka Parker because whenever Parker wants to play H&S she says "Karker?" Her favorite hiding spot is behind the curtains or in the bathrooms next to the vanities. It makes it very tough to find her ;)

Another cool thing is she's able to recite books. Sandra Boynton is one of my favorite little kid book authors and Moo, Baa La la la is a hit in our house. I read the text and Parker follows with the sounds...

S: The cow goes--
P: Moo
S: The sheep goes--
P: Baa
S: Three singing pigs go--
P: La la la

What else...she strings together hi and whatever, so hi mama, hi doggie, etc. She loves blowing kisses and giving them up too. I ask her where mama's baby is and she pulls up my shirt and kisses my belly. She is a vegetarian by choice. The kid still won't touch chicken or beef. We still bed share and are still loving it. She hits the sack by 9pm, sometimes closer to 930pm, and is up for the day between 7am and 8am. The later bedtime and later AM wake call is fab. The 3rd molar is here and thankfully didn't bother her as much as the top two did.

And finally, the most important thing of all...I'm pretty confident in saying that Parker now sleeps through the night. Back story--I'm not down with crying it out and never considered it even though Parker would wake up constantly. It took her 17 months to figure it out, but she figured it out all on her own. I knew it could be done sans tears!

On to the 18th month!

See that lens cap coming to cover up my camera?

Crayons are non-toxic for a reason.

First World Problems

Natural sunscreen is going to be the death of me. Either it's gross or it requires you to take out a loan to pay for it. And unless I want Parker to look like Snooki's spawn it's a must have item.

Last year we used California Baby.

It's the best of all sunscreen I've tried. It goes on smooth, isn't greasy, and doesn't leave a white residue making Parker look like Casper. Buuuut, it's about $23 for 2.9oz. Ouch. Last year we went through three bottles just on Parker. This year she is bigger. That's a math problem that I don't want to do.

We also tried Burt's Bees last year.

Burt and I are not friends. I side eye them because (1) they claim to be natural but are owned by Clorox and (2) many of their products are around 95% natural. So what's the other 5%? But we were in a bind and it was the only thing I could find in the store. It's very thick and gives Parker the Casper look. Not a fan.

This year I was caught off guard by summer in March. I had to do some quick research and found out about Loving Naturals.

I love that it's 100% natural, cheaper than CB and vegan. I don't really know what vegan sunscreen means but it sounds hippy enough. It says non-greasy on this stock photo but ironically that wasn't listed on the label that I received and sure enough, it's super greasy. Like Crisco greasy.

I'll take any suggestions for something that will fit the sunscreen bill!

13 Weeks

Parker looks just thrilled.

How far along: 13 weeks

Total weight gain: 117.2, up a total of 4.8lbs. I blame this on Hellman's. It's not my fault that mayonnaise is both delicious and incredibly fattening.

Maternity Clothes: still in the Bella Band and I've bought some cute, belly hugging tops that I simply adore

Best moment this week: it's my last week in 1st tri. Time is flying by this pregnancy.

Movement: TONS of movement for the first time last night! Baby was rolling around like a manic for about ten minutes. Best.feeling.ever.

Food Cravings: Soft serve strawberry ice cream. It has to exist.

Sleep: Still trying to get 9 to 10 hours a night. Crazy since I typically run on 6 hours!

Milestones:Baby can make a fist, suck it's thumb and is about 3 inches long.

Girl or boy: girl! Everyone keeps telling me they think it's a girl.

Random:I think my belly is going to be a lot bigger this time around. I want to savor every minute of this pregnancy but I already feel like it's going by entirely too fast. 2nd tri on Friday? How is that even possible?!

Two words: bendy straws

I cannot begin to express my love of bendy straws and plastic restaurant kid cups. Whoever thought hey, lets put our logo and some fun designs on a cup, throw a straw in it and call it a day needs to have a day devoted entirely in their honor. That straw cup kept Parker entertained for the entire meal last week at Olive Garden.

So much so that a guy at the next table over commented on how we must take her out to eat all the time because she’s so well behaved. I practically spit my water all over that dude’s face. Obviously he wasn’t dining with us just a couple months back (pre-straw cup mind you) when Parker and her friend Lexi ran around the OG like they owned the place. Obviously he doesn’t know that we request booths whenever we dine out because it’s easier to keep Parker contained in a booth than in a chair. Obviously he doesn’t know that we dine out at 5pm in hopes to miss the crowd in the event of a meltdown.

But of course I nodded and said, oh yes, she did great tonight, while realizing that this is the one and only time that she sat through a meal. Bendy straw success!

Last night at the Macaroni Grill we were met with a normal, straight straw. Gah! And you know what? Parker acted like she slammed ten Pixy Stix right before dinner, Toddler and Tiara style, and was her regular wild woman self.

Bendy straws made it onto this week’s grocery shopping list. Lesson learned.

Hanging with Mama

What, oh what, is Parker plotting...

12 Week Belleh

Late pic, but really...am I ever on time??

And yes, there is only one baby in there.

Disney Princesses on Ice!

In a nutshell--it was awesome. Parker in a tutu, box of popcorn for me and Kris, and a million Disney characters was suhweet. Our Disney vacation isn't for a couple more years so I'll take a little Disney any time it makes a Michigan appearance.

Parker was all about it at first. Like, wouldn't-even-move-her-eyes-from-the-action all about it.







































Then she basically said screw you Disney, I'll spend my 2 hours here as I please. And that will entail bouncing from mom to dad to mom to dad, eating mom's necklace, clapping, desperately trying to grab the lady's hair in front of me, and making the occasional glance at the ice rink. We thought that seats only 10 rows back would hold her attention. Eh, noble attempt. Her favorite part was intermission, by far. We let her run around the hallways to burn off some energy and burn she did.


For the girl who hasn't sat still at one time for more than 2 1/2 minutes in her entire life she did fabulous at the show. I was picturing a disaster but it was loads of fun--for all of us.






























Bring on the next show, Disney! We're seasoned veterans.

And Three Became Four

That’s right, folks. Baby S number two is on the way! I’m due on September 25th though I’d place money on having another October pumpkin. I was nine days late with Parker so I’d be shocked if this baby arrives early/on time.

This pregnancy has been a million times different than it was with Parker. I found out super early that I was pregnant—3w2d!—which is just one day shy from the earliest you’ll get a positive preg test. From 5 to 10ish weeks I had all day, all night morning sickness. My cravings have been more intense and my belly looks now like it did at 18w with Parker. I’ve felt a lot of stretching and Braxton hicks at 11w which is like the earliest BH’s can show up. While I was miserable for weeks and sure that I was going to die, I’m feeling like a rockstar now. My energy is back, I’m able to eat something other than garbage food, and I’m able to run around like a mad woman with Parker. I’m back!

I’ve been keeping a pregnancy journal this entire time but have been waiting to share the news until I got the results of my NT scan. Baby looks fab—both the u/s and bloodwork came back with no elevated risk for chromosomal abnormalities. I’ll be updating each week. Here’s the latest on where I am now and some of my past posts. Get ready for post overload—it will take about 4 hours to read.

Yay!
How far along: 12 weeks (photo to come!)

Total weight gain: 116lbs, up 3.6lbs. Almost the exact same gain I had by 12w with Parker. I’m hoping for another 22lb weight gain for this pregnancy—it was so easy to lose!

Maternity Clothes: rocking the Bella Band. I tend not to buy maternity shirts. I buy tops in the next size up (medium) and dresses

Best moment this week: seeing baby on the u/s screen! He/she was moving all around with HB of 159bpm.

Movement: still nothing—soon though

Food Cravings: I am finally back to my normal eating self! No more pizza binges. No more greasy food. I’ve been eating a lot of grapes, mangos (YUUUM) and strawberries. I still do need to eat every two-ish hours or I start to feel nauseous

Sleep: I’m still trying to get 10 hours a night. I was finally able to drop my weekend naps. My energy is back!

Milestones: baby is about as long as my pinky and started swallowing

Girl or boy: girl!

Random: I am back to my normal, energetic self. My belly is huge and I freaking love it. April 30th is the big day when we find out if Parker is getting a brother or sister.

*****
How far along: 10 weeks 

 


Total weight gain: 114.4lbs, up a total of 2lbs.


Maternity Clothes: Still rocking the Bella Band Best moment this week: I'm still feeling a little bit better Movement: none just yet


Food Cravings: Chicken Enchilada Casserole. I had it for breakfast, 1st lunch, 2nd lunch (no joke) and dinner one day this week. It's that good.


Sleep: I'm still trying to get 10 hours a night. I still feel a million times better when I'm at home on the weekends since I can be lazy with miss Parker. Not so much when I'm at work!


Milestones: the baby has graduated to fetus status! The tail is gone and has moved up to where the spine is. Girl or boy: I'm sticking with girl for now. We will find out for sure in 8 weeks.


Random: My stomach is enormous compared to when I was pregnant with Parker. I'm still eating like a fool--pizza, McDonalds breakfast, Jimmy Johns…lord help me

*****
How far along: 8 weeks



Total weight gain: 113.6lbs, up 1.2lbs. I ate like a mad woman this past week in an attempt to curb my all day m/s.


Maternity Clothes: Not yet, but I see the Bella Band in my near future. I can barely button my work pants.


Best moment this week: Ultrasound, baby! My O date may be off a bit but according to my calculations I was 7w at the u/s appointment and baby measured 6w4d with a strong heartbeat of 118bpm. I forgot how magical it is to see the life inside of you for the first time.


Movement: Soon!


Food cravings: I don't know what I want to eat until it's time to eat so I stop at Kroger every morning on my way to work to pick up the flavor of the day. I crave unhealthy food right now--sausage gravy, Doritos, hummus (not bad unless you eat the whole container at once...not that I did that...no way). My go to meal, salads, make me gag. As does chicken. Yuck yuck yuck.


Sleep: Knock on wood, but Parker's sleep is starting to finally improve (she's been battling a cold) which means that I'm getting more sleep--around 9 hours a night which is like unheard of for me. I wake up at least three times each night to pee though--annoying.


Milestones: webbed fingers and toes sprout this week. The heart has separated into four chambers. The eyelids, ears, lips and nose are starting to form. Girl or boy: I'm still going with boy based on how lousy I feel


What are you looking forward to this week: My first midwife appointment is on Friday and I think we'll break the news to immediate family on Saturday!
Random: Second pregnancies are no joke, especially when you have a full time job, a toddler, and feel nauseous all freaking day. I need to eat at least every 2 hours or I feel worse than I already do. Dear God I hope that I don't blow up this pregnancy!

*****
How far along: 6 weeks Total weight gain: 112.4lbs--no gain Maternity Clothes: Nope, but I'm not wearing anything remotely form fitting. My bloat is out.of.control. I have no clue how I'm going to hide this until I hit 2nd tri.


Best moment this week: Looking at Parker and thinking how excited I am to do this baby thing all over again.


Movement: In due time Food cravings: I got a nasty stomach bug on Friday and that has really curbed my appetite. The smell of most food makes me nauseous and I feel sick when I don't eat and sick when I eat. Lose lose situation.


Sleep: I'm tired. This past weekend I napped with Parker for both of her naps--3 1/2 hours each. Baby knows mama needs some sleep. Damn work during the week not letting me take advantage of naptime. Boo.


Milestones: eyes, ears, and the mouth have started to form. The baby is about the size of a sprinkle :) Girl or boy: I'm feeling (1) twins or (2) boy this week


What are you looking forward to this week: Getting my betas drawn. FX that the numbers are going up like they should be! 5 weeks...that's one week closer to 40. Or more like 41w or 42w for me :) I took another pregnancy test on Friday and a super dark line popped up almost immediately so I'm feeling pretty optimistic. I haven't called my midwife yet but I know that my first appointment will be at 8 weeks which is light-years away when you are pregnant. It's silly, but I look at the pregnancy tests every morning and smile.

*****4 weeks
I'm pregnant--eek!

I love being pregnant and can't wait to experience it all over again. Well, minus the labor but let's not think about that yet. Out of sight, out of mind...

I'm so happy to be giving Parker a sibling. We're on the right track to have a house full of kids like I dream about :) (Almost) 2 down...how many more to go? At least three, maybe four :)

It's a secret right now though so shhhh. I don't know when I'll break the news but it sure won't be anytime soon!

How we found out: I took a test at 9DPO, aka super early, and it was negative. I looked an hour later (big no no) and it was positive. The same thing happened with Parker so I was feeling pretty optimistic. I tested again the next morning and boom, two lines. I gave the test to Parker and had her walk into the bathroom where Kris was getting ready for work. I was charting so I know exactly when we conceived. Well, I think that I do. Charting is hard when you can't get three straight ours of sleep thanks to my precious bambino but I still think that I have the date pinpointed.

Two babies, two years apart, two full time jobs. Crazy? I think so!

How far along: 4 weeks (pic is from 5 weeks--bloated already!)

Total weight gain: Nothing yet. I'm starting out at 111.2--my all time low weight! Usually I'm more like 112.4 so it's weird for me to be this low. Please dear God let me see that number on the scale again. It's so pretty!

Maternity Clothes: I've been eyeing them in the stores but haven't bought anything yet, though everything I do buy I make sure that it's belly friendly :) I did find out that H&M has a Mama section and can't wait spend some moola there!

Best moment this week: Finding out I was pregnant!

Movement: Can't wait for it :)

Food cravings: Meat. I'm not a meat girl, but when we went out to eat a couple days ago I ordered a nice, juicy burger. Hit.the.spot.

Sleep: I'm up a lot at night because of Parker, not because I'm pregnant :)

Milestones: the placenta and umbilical cord are developing!

Girl or boy: We eventually want a boy but I want a girl this time. I'll be thrilled to have a boy and thrilled to have a girl, so either way works. Right now I feel like it's a girl.

What are you looking forward to this week: Designing the nursery and trying to decide on a girl’s name. We've had our boy name set for years but a girl name is tough.

Things to do (not do?) with your toddler

Parker loves helping me cook. When I'm whipping up some eats I put Parker on the counter and let her help me. She scoops flour into the bowl. Puts pasta in the pot. Mixes the ingredients in the bowl. You can tell by the look on her face how happy she is to help her mama.

So I got the brilliant idea to let Parker go to town "cooking" on her own terms. I laid down a blanket and went to get the rest of the supplies. In the 10 seconds I turned my back Parker decide to be a goof and went walking around the house with the blanket on her head. The only problem was that the dishwasher was open and she walked right into it. Note to self: do not keep the dishwasher open.

I laid the blanket down again with different sized Tupperware, oats, rice, spoons, measuring cups, and other scooping tools. OMG you would have thought it was Christmas morning.

Look! I can scoop from one bowl to the next with the spoon! And with the measuring cup! And with my hands! (Syd obviously had a good time too).

And then she realized that she could chuck it across the room.




I'm no neat freak. As long as no one is getting salmonella in my house and it doesn't look like I'm staging for an episode of Hoarders I'm fine. So I sat back and let it happen. With a face like this I wasn't about to stop it.


After a good 15 minutes rice throwing lost its appeal. No big deal, I'll vacuum it up. I turn our central system vac to the hardwood floor setting. Hmmm, it's not really picking anything up. Better switch to the carpet vacuum mode. Bad idea. The force was too much. It shot rice and oats everywhere. Into the kitchen. Into the breakfast nook. Into the foyer. I couldn't help but crack up at the disaster. That made Parker laugh. Which made me laugh even more.

Eventually I got most of it vaccummed to never never land but I have a feeling that we'll be finding rice and oats around our house for a long, long time.

If you're an anal house cleaner this probably isn't your cup of tea. But if you like to kick back and let your toddler do as toddlers do, experiement, well you may want to give it a try. Have fun cleaning rice up for the next five months!

Poop and pee and things of the like

Well the time has come. It's now time to place my last ever cloth diaper order. These bad boys, the large brown prefolds, will fit up to 36 months. Now I know absolutely nothing about potty training other than it sounds like something you do with a dog, but I'm hoping that Parker will have graduated to big girl undies come 3 years and we won't have to order the next size of cloth diaps.



About $500 covered all of our cloth diapering needs--it bought us all of our prefolds, Thristies, Snappis, and a handful of FuzziBunz (that I still don't like). We can reuse all of this on future kiddos that come our way too--cha-ching! And I'm hoping that we'll be done using them on Parker very soon because the potty training has started--sort of. Right now the Disney Priness potty is set up in our half bath.

It has a jeweled handle that's supposed to be the flusher thing (which would be really cool on real toilets, right?), is pink, and has pictures of the Disney princesses on it. Apparently all of this is supposed to make it super fun to pee in. Though I think that Parker probably has the most fun shoving toliet paper between my legs when I"m peeing. So we have the potty--that's the first step. Now I just need to scour the internet to figure out how to do this and we're on our way to putting this potty training thing in full motion. I'm sure that pee won't end up all over my bathroom floor or anything like that. Wish me luck--we might need it!

You do know that I'm peeing as you take this picture, right?

Here's what I do in my free time

I go to 80s parties.

See the crimped hair?! I sort of like (love) the look.

And I visit with Bachelor Ben. IN REAL LIFE. He's doing a wine tour thing in Michigan and when I heard he was going to be right next to my work I had to check him out. I didn't want to wait in the crazy long line though to have him sign my bottle of wine so I didn't get to slap him for the inevitable Courtney pick come Monday. It was weird to see Ben both right next to me and on the cover of US Weekly.

So there you have it--a glimpse into what I do in my free time. Don't get too excited now.