Week 25 Update

Sorry this is a week late.  I'll just do 25 weeks then 28 weeks and get back to every 2 weeks after that!

• Baby is the size of a:  23 weeks: large mango; 24 weeks: ear of corn; 25 weeks: rutabaga 
• Total weight gain/loss: Officially done talking about this as it makes me depressed.  I may start to stand backwards on the scale at my midwife appointments so I don't even know how much I've gained.
• The bump: I'm apparently huge to many strangers.  One actually OUT LOUD asked me if I was sure it wasn't twins.  What happened to tact??
• Symptoms:  Some Braxton Hicks and some mild cramping which I went to see the midwife about today.  It was sharp stabbing pain that felt like the pain I used to get when "they" told me I got ovarian cysts.  The midwife wasn't too concerned but said to keep an eye on it and see if it went away or came with any other symptoms.
• Food cravings: Nothing really.   
• Anything making me queasy/nauseous:  I think I'm now ok on this front.  Although, I wasn't a big fan of fried food with Kayla either and I feel the same now.
• Sleep:  I'm resigned to not sleeping well for at least another year.  It's ok.  I've accepted it.
• What I miss:  My previous body shape...like previous to Kayla.
• Wedding rings:  I'm wearing them on and off.  I can still get them on for sure but sometimes it's more comfortable and easier not to bother with them.  I still love you Justin.
• Maternity clothes:  I've gotten some shorts and a few more t-shirts and tank tops for the summer.  I'm still able to wear a few normal pants and shirts (amazingly) but mostly wearing maternity stuff...it's more comfortable.
• Labor signs: Not really.
• Best Moments: Kayla being very "mommy-centric" right now.  It's a little frustrating sometimes but I love the extra loving I'm getting before this baby comes.  
• What I am looking forward to:  The third trimester...minus the increased midwife visits.
• Worries?:  Going to work on this on Friday probably.  It's going to take a while to get all my thoughts down in a semi-organized manor. 

25 week belly photo (+2 days):

Wordless Wednesday: Loves.

We had a very busy vacation (which is a word you can no longer use when you have kids by the way) so I didn't have a chance to blog.  I'm going to try to get some stuff written up today!  Sorry for the radio silence!

Leaving on a jet plane

We are heading to VA Beach and North Carolina tomorrow for the week.  I need to try to write a few posts for you all while I'm away.  I was too busy packing for a family of 3 and getting ready to leave to write today.  :)  Here's what I'm going to try to get done:

22-24 Week update
I have a 16 Month old!
Molars
What no one tells you about your second pregnancy

I'll do my best but no promises.  :)  I hope everyone has a great week!

"Kayla, do you want to go outside?"

Kayla loves going outside.  I mean, if you say outside or in the car, she's sort of like a dog in that she gets all excited and points at the sliding door to our deck.  She loves different toys and different textures with her toys, but I'm not kidding you, the kid hates all the textures outside.

While we were in Hawaii, she hated everything about that sand.  I guess I should have been happy she wasn't eating it.  But when we were having surfing lessons and my mom and dad were watching Kayla, my mom said she put her on a towel on the sand and every time a grain of sand came near her she screamed bloody murder.

Last week, when I took her out to walk around our building, I got tired and wanted to sit down.  I put her down in the grass (she had shorts on) so she was still running around.  I wanted to sit so I sat her down in the grass.  I WISH I had gotten a photo of this but honestly, I was laughing too hard.  She lifted both legs off the ground so she was doing this sort of balancing ab workout on sitting only on her butt.

Something along these lines:

Except clearly less calm and composed.  Imagine hands flailing and legs kicking.

Daddy got this photo today when he sat her in the grass:

She'll get over it eventually.  Right?!?

Wordless Thursday: Nature Walks

I know it's a day late.  Busy, busy, busy. :)

Sheer speed of bump growth.

So I actually don't think I have mentioned this yet, but my little sister is pregnant as well.  She is due 6 days before me (September 4th) so it should be a very fun fall!  I'm excited to have this little thing to share with her and for my little ones to have a cousin close in age.  Our family is already so much fun and now the fun is growing exponentially.

The thing about it is, she is teeny tiny and very active and very long waisted.  It's also her first baby, but she is almost a week ahead of me and so teeny tiny in comparison to my growing whale of a belly.  It's hard for me to grasp since I was so little when I was pregnant with Kayla.  I'm also pretty unhappy with my non pregnancy weight and looks post baby anyways.  I only have myself to blame for not getting back to working out quicker after having Kayla.  It's really quite difficult to get some sort of workout in when you are trying to save money and you really hate running.

Anyways, I'm not mad that Lauren is so much smaller than me.  I realize there are a lot of factors to this whole thing that make our situations completely different.  I'm just trying to motivate myself right now to try to find a way to make more time for me after this baby comes so I can get into a shape where I am happy with myself too.

What no one tells you is that when you are a working mom, it is HARD to find time to do something for yourself.  For me, I really want to spend my spare time with Kayla so it's hard for me to justify giving up that time to go to the gym.  Do you guys have any suggestions?  I'm thinking step #1 is giving up some t.v.

Hi.  My name is Melissa and I'm addicted to prime time television.

Obligatory Kayla photo: :)

A Day for Moms

Today was my second Mother's Day.  I never thought any holiday would be more important to me than Christmas or, generally, the holiday season, but I think Mother's Day has surpassed it.  Maybe it's because I believe that being a mother is the most important job in my life, or maybe it's because I can tell Justin tries to take over a lot of the parenting duties today, but that's not actually what I want (although I appreciate it!)  All I wanted to do all day was spend time with my daughter and my husband.  Being able to spend some time with my own mother is a huge added bonus to the day, but I guess mother's day to me isn't about getting a break from being a mom.  It's for celebrating those special little people in your life.  Plus, my little person is SO much fun to be around I would never want to be around anyone else.

Last year's first Mother's Day was a bit of a disaster.  We weren't settled, I wasn't working, we were trying to live off of one salary with my sister, and this is going to sound horribly materialistic, but Kayla (Justin :)) didn't even get me a card.  Before we got married, I read the book "The Five Languages of Love."  I highly recommend this book as it has opened my eyes to a lot of things about our relationship and made a lot of things easier to me.  But basically, my love language is giving/receiving gifts.  At first, I was embarrassed to admit this, but then after I thought about it, I realized something.  It's not that I need something huge and extravagant, it's that I just want some token to savor that shows how much I'm appreciated.  And it's not only about receiving but also giving gifts.  I have a terribly hard time picking out gifts for others because I always want to find the most perfect gift that they will love forever.  Anyways, back to the topic.  I'm learning to live with who I am, whether materialistic or not, and I'm admitting I needed a card (last year that is) especially going through everything I/we were going through.  This year, Justin & Kayla got me some really cute charms for my Pandora bracelet and a card from each of them.  Simple, but I love it.  Especially the cards.

There are so many mothers and mothers-to-be in my life that I hope got to celebrate today in whatever way THEY wanted to.  Even if you are a mother who appreciates a break from your kid(s) today, I hope you got it!  And I hope that more people take a little more time on the 364 other days of the year to let their moms know how much they appreciate them.

I love you, Mom, for always being there for me; for helping out when I need it; for making me laugh and letting me cry; for encouraging me to be who I wanted to be; and most importantly for providing a shining perfect example of what it means to be the best mother.

"You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around - and why his parents will always wave back." -William D. Tammeus

Side note:  I love the Olympics.  Like, love love love love love love love the Olympics.  My own mother posted this video a few weeks ago.  At first I thought, what do moms have to do with the Olympics?  Then I realized...

Not quite wordless today.  I've been having a rough couple of weeks, but I've been making a point to try to be the one who gets up to comfort Kayla at night (Justin is VERY helpful however), and be the one who gets her up in the morning while Justin is in the shower.  I love it because she is so happy to see me.  Even in the middle of the night, I can tell when she's been crying, as soon as I walk in the room she sits up and reaches up towards me to hold her.  Even if I can't see her, I can feel that's she wants me to hug her.  It's keeping me going right now.

Week 22 Update

Long 2 weeks...

• Baby is the size of a:  21 weeks: carrot, 22 weeks: spaghetti squash (?) 
• Total weight gain/loss: 10-15 pounds...I'm completely guessing.
• The bump: Definitely getting bigger.  I think I grew overnight last Wednesday night.
• Symptoms:  See "Sleep" below. 
• Food cravings: Smoothies...what is it about fruit and smoothies and my pregnancies?   
• Anything making me queasy/nauseous:  No problems the past 2 weeks.  Really only the smell of our laundry room occasionally when Kayla's cloth diaper laundry bag is full.
• Sleep:  I could not sleep to save my life or Kayla's life for that matter.  I think it's because I am thinking about so many things at once.  I've been dying to blog about everything but I feel so tired and overwhelmed with life right now I can't quite organize my thoughts.  I'm hoping to work on it this weekend a little bit.
• What I miss:  Can I say beer 6-8 weeks in a row?  We bought 2 6 packs of my favorite beer, mostly to save, but I might have one here or there...
• Wedding rings:  My wedding band seems to be a little bit tight in the mornings.  I think this has to do with being really warm at night, which I think is contributing to my sleep or lack there of.
• Names:  Still not really discussing this... 
• Maternity clothes:  I've progress to wearing Justin's t-shirts around the house because mine don't quite cover the bump.  I'm still on the hunt for maternity shorts...why are all maternity shorts so hideous???
• Labor signs: Nope.
• Best Moments: Starting to get a ton of small kicks and Justin even felt baby kick from the outside.  I feel like I tried for weeks with Kayla to get him to feel the kicking.  Kayla has also started "kissing and hugging the baby."  I'm not sure she really gets it but I think the sooner she sort of understands the sooner I can get over the guilt (see "worries").
• What I am looking forward to:  My second mother's day and last one with Kayla as my only baby.
• Worries?:  This is part of my problem with inability to organize my thoughts...I'm working on it. 

22 week belly photo (+1 day):

Wordless Wednesday: Independence

I love seeing Kayla play by herself.  I often try to sneak peaks at her, because if she notices I'm watching she always stops and comes to play with me.

And as a bonus today, check out this little video I took in the car on our way home from her 15 month check up yesterday.  You'll have to listen closely but she loves vocab lessons in the car.

Feeding a toddler...

I'm tired so this post is going to be short and sweet.  I'm getting an average of 4 hours of sleep a night now...fun.

To do list while feeding your toddler:
1. Take off all their clothes.
2. Place some sort of easily washable mat on the floor below them.
3. You may want to think about a baby shower cap.
4. Whatever you want them to eat, plan on eating yourself (because even if you are eating the exact same thing, they will reach for your food.)
5. When giving toast or sandwiches, expect said toddler to eat the "good stuff" in between or on top of the bread, but not the actual bread itself, or get strips of toast stuck on his/her arms.
6. If you have an active toddler, expect to be kicked if you are too close to them while eating. (or is this just my child?)
7. If the toddler is like my child, give the kid pickles if all else fails.

Unedited photos taken by daddy one night while mommy was at work.  We call the series, "Spaghetti"

She likes to wave...all. the. time.

Getting pretty good with the fork and spoon...usually upside down though.

Blurry, but I guess she dropped some :)