Life Since Noah

My boys at Thanksgiving dinner.

I can't believe that Noah is one month old already! Time has gone by so fast, even faster than it felt when Joey was this little. My whole maternity leave has felt like one long weekend, what with not going to work. Dan's been back to work since the week after Noah was born, and we don't always have someone over visiting so frequently it is just me and the boys. I love saying that, "the boys". Plural because I have more than one, such a blessing! I don't get nearly as much done around the house as I did before, even while 40 weeks pregnant I still managed to do some things. The only chores that get done on any kind of a regular basis are laundry (for what should be obvious reasons) and dishes because we don't have that many place settings to begin with. Other than that, I'm lucky if I get to vacuum once a month. Luckily, Noah likes being worn and I can put him in the sling and actually not be stuck on the couch the entire time Dan is at work. Some days. Other days I am stuck on the couch with the exception of going to the bathroom or getting food for Joey.

I wouldn't have it any other way though. They're close enough in age that they will (hopefully) get along most of the time as they grow up. Joey is already a fantastic big brother, he tries to share his toys and likes to come over and "talk" to Noah. Joey has also been spotted attempting to give Noah fist bumps, so sweet! This isn't to say that Joey has been an absolute angel since we brought Noah home, he is still a toddler and just because we brought him a brother doesn't make him any less of a toddler. We still deal with crying fits on a daily basis, thankfully though they happen at home *most* of the time, but overall he is still a great kid (as if I could say anything else about my own child). Today I caught him spitting milk on the carpet (something that happens more frequently than I'd like to admit, we can't figure out why he does it) and took his milk cup away from him and told him for the millionth time not to do it. I couldn't get to the soggy milk carpet puddle right away, but before I could do anything, Joey comes over with a burp cloth and starts wiping the carpet himself! He got hugs and kisses and a high five from me for doing such a good job (he actually missed the puddle completely, but we hadn't even asked him to clean it up so the thought totally counts!). This wasn't the first incident of cleaning either, he's actually pretty helpful when it's something easy. The other day, he had pulled all of the wipes out of the case and they were all over the living room. While I was putting them back (seriously, they go on butts, they don't need to be sterile), Joey ran around and brought me each and every one to put back in the case, without me asking him to! He's also helped my grandmother sweep her patio, I may have to invest in toddler-size cleaning tools...

Noah is doing fabulously! He was 9lbs 12oz at his 1 month checkup, which is 2lbs 11oz above his birth weight! He's still wearing NB-sized clothes, though some of the 0-3mo stuff is starting to fit, 3mo is too big but probably not for much longer. He pretty much nurses and sleeps all day long, but his awake periods are getting longer and we've started to get hints of social smiles from him, but nothing caught on camera so far! I love love love gummy, baby smiles and it looks like Noah is going to have dimples like his brother and daddy *heart melting*. He's also a champion pooper like his brother, nearly every single diaper I change is a poopy one, good grief! It was several months before Joey switched to his every-few-days schedule, in the beginning it was just like this. I would like at least a few changes in a row to require only one wipe, that would be nice. I do have to say that Noah's diapers are considerably better in the smell department than Joey's are (thank you solid foods, /sarcasm). I keep meaning to pull out my cloth diapers and see if Noah fits them yet so we don't have to buy quite as many, since we're now buying for two kids. I get big boxes at BJ's where they're cheaper, but it's still pricey. I am thankful that we're not buying formula, both for financial reasons and health reasons. Joey only just recently had his first cold--the first time ever that he was sick! Going over a year without being sick once is pretty amazing and I'd like to keep that trend going with Noah and hoping to get through this cold/flu seasons without any more illnesses for Joey too.

Christmas is in a few days and I'm so excited! This is the first year that Joey will have some idea of what's going on. He doesn't really know who Santa is yet or what the deal with the presents is, but he loves seeing the decorations everywhere we go and he especially loves Christmas trees. Also pulling ornaments off the trees, we have to watch him with that. He likes opening presents, he still doesn't care so much about what's inside, he just looks for more paper to tear. Christmas morning will be fun :) Maybe next Christmas I'll have finished knitting stockings for ALL of us, I'm super slacking, only Dan and Joey have stockings right now. Even then, Joey's doesn't have his name on it yet and Dan doesn't know where his is. We're super on top of this haha. I'm almost done with gifts, just a few finishing touches on a couple and I'll be done. Yesterday we braved the crowd and the late bedtime and took both boys to a friend's "End of The World Party" (supposedly the world was going to end yesterday according to some ancient civilization's calendar) and we had a blast! Joey was exceptionally good about not pulling their ornaments off their tree and entertained himself by eating chips and climbing up and down their stairs. Noah slept almost the whole time, only woke up to eat once and I took that opportunity to change him as well. I loved getting out of the house and talking to other adults, it would have been nice to stay longer but we opted to head home prior to any major meltdowns from Joey (who was slightly upset to leave, but not as bad as he could have been had we waited longer). Our plan was mostly a success, Joey fell asleep in the car on the way home but woke up a bit later. I'll have to talk about our night time routine a little later, but Noah is asleep right now and I'd like to take advantage of that and knit with this awesome yarn Lyndsay loaned me to see if I like it :)

Knitting Bucket List

As I sit here and rock Noah to sleep (eventually please??), I'm looking at pictures of my past knitting projects and wondering if there's any kind of "bucket list" out there for knitters of things every knitter "should" learn or do. I'm finding diddly squat other than Pinterest boards and blog posts. So, here's another blog post with my personal knitting bucket list:

1. Knit a sweater

2. Knit a sweater that I'll actually wear more than twice - cardigan in progress, that's a sweater!

3. Knit a scarf

4. Knit myself a scarf - need to just suck it up and finish one

5. Learn how to do cables

6. Learn how to do lace











 7. Knit a shawl














8. Knit a pair of mittens

9. Knit a pair of socks - I knit two Christmas stockings, that's a pair!

10. Knit myself a pair of socks

11. Actually finish knitting something for my kids

12.Knit a blanket


































13.Knit a hat


























14. Learn how to do stripes - see previous pictures, I love stripes!

15. Finish a colorwork project

16. Quit my job and open a yarn store - I wish!

17. Learn how to double-knit

 
More later, the baby's finally sleepy and so am I!

Noah's Arrival - Part 2

After Noah was born, I did have to get out of the tub to get cleaned up. Of course at that point, I was holding my new baby so I didn't care where I was. With the help of the midwives and Dan and my doula, while holding Noah, I got out of the tub, was toweled off, given a blanket for Noah and walked over to the bed. Walking was not fun, but I was soon given ice packs and things started to feel a little better once they were numb ;) Noah and I stayed skin-to-skin for a long time after we got out of the tub, a standard practice at the birthing center and one that I loved. When I had Joey at the hospital, first I had to tell the nurses that I wanted to do skin-to-skin after he was born and we only got to do it for what felt like a really short time before he was whisked away to get cleaned up and checked out. Noah came out pretty clean, thanks to being born in the water I'm sure, but the midwives were not in any hurry to take him away from me. We even started breastfeeding when he made fussy noises, he latched on and sucked like a champ, everyone was very pleased to see it :) I even still held him while getting stitched up, I almost didn't need the stitches but I would have healed up funky without them, so I got 2 haha.

We stayed the minimum of four hours, where my postpartum nurse did final checks on us (made sure I used the bathroom and that Noah didn't have any respiratory issues), and then we headed home for some much needed rest! I tried taking a nap at the birth center, but it wasn't my bed and I was still too wound up from the delivery. We ended up getting home just after midnight and Joey stayed at my parents' so that we only had to worry about getting up for Noah that first night. Noah slept better than Joey did his first night and for that I was grateful, we still have nights where I wake Noah up to eat because he enjoys sleeping so much. That happens less now that he's two weeks old and loves the boob, but sometimes.

Recovery this time around has been SOOOO much different. Between staying at home, not being pumped full of drugs, and knowing what to expect, I've had a much easier time recovering than I did with Joey. If you had asked me the day Noah was born what I would do for the next baby (hospital with epidural, or no drugs and go home early) I wouldn't have known for sure what I would pick, but now that I'm a couple weeks into recovery and feel almost 100%, hands down I'm going back to the birth center! Joey has been amazing with Noah. We're still working on how to be gentle, but for the most part he is wonderful! When the home visit nurse came over a few days after Noah was born, Joey was extremely protective of Noah when she pulled out the stethoscope and was listening to the baby breathing. Joey did not like the strange lady putting something on his baby! Joey also likes to show off Noah whenever someone comes into the house, just like he likes to show off some of his toys ;) He's even better about seeing Noah nurse than I expected. The first couple of times he was jealous, but now he knows he needs to share and even waits patiently for it to be his turn! Sometimes Joey is in full-on toddler-mode and needs some nom-noms right then and there, and we're working on making tandem nursing more comfortable for me since the boys are two different sizes, but for the most part having both of them nursing isn't as difficult as I thought it might be.

Noah's first couple pediatrician appointments went well. His first was a few days after he was born since the birth center doesn't have a pediatrician on staff and there were a few things he needed to have done. Then our pedi likes to see babies a week after they're born for a weight check, where we found that Noah was not only back to his birth weight but had surpassed it! At that point, his cord stump had fallen off but still looked a bit funky so the doctor used silver nitrate to help cauterize it and seal it off. We went back today for a second treatment of the nitrate because his bellybutton is deep and there was one tiny spot that needed just a bit extra. At today's appointment, Noah weighed in at over 8lbs! That means he gained more than one pound in 17 days, which is awesome for a breastfed baby (usually they will gain weight slower than babies who are given formula).

Noah's Arrival - Part 1

Never pictured having a water birth until that moment!

I first noticed the contractions Sunday night when some reflux woke me up coughing. I had a contraction while still in that half-awake, half-asleep state and it was not comfortable and woke me up all the way I decided to use the bathroom since I was awake and ended up having like 2 more contractions in the process (it takes so long to do anything at 40 weeks pregnant). Joey was asleep but Dan was watching TV so I stayed up for a bit with him to see what happened. I kept having random, uncomfortable contractions but nothing I couldn’t talk through or sit through, and they didn’t really get any more regular or intense, so after an hour or so I went back to bed. Managed to sleep pretty well considering the contractions, woke up once or twice but overall I got some decent sleep. Monday morning I get up with Joey and let Dan sleep. I make us some breakfast, while still having random, uncomfortable contractions. Some of them are getting intense, while others are just like “meh, here I am”. Dan calls work and says he’s not going to be in at all this week and I let my mom know that she’s probably going to get Joey from us some time later.

Daddy finally gets to hold his new baby!

Mid-afternoon, Dan takes Joey outside to play so I can get a few things done around the house (mostly baby-related!) and lie down for an attempted nap. I lie down with my iPod and try to listen to my relaxation tracks which usually knock me right out, but every time I’m close to falling asleep, a really intense contraction hits that forces me to get up and move through it. For the next hour or so, these intense contractions come every fifteen minutes. Eventually, I decide to get up and see if moving around and eating dinner to anything (either make them stop or get stronger) and since the timing worked out well with her getting off work, I asked my mom to come get Joey. From there the whole thing is a blur! I had started timing the contractions when I went to lie down for my nap, they started were regular but far apart. Around 3:30 they started getting closer together, but only closer by a minute or two (15, then 13, then 11 minutes apart, etc), that was still enough for me to ask my mom to come get Joey since it seemed like things were progressing well. She came and got him a little after 4:30, at which point the contractions had started to come less than 7 minutes apart. I tracked for another half hour, then called the midwives because they didn’t go back up to more than 7 minutes apart and this was baby #2 so things could go much faster. Plus the contractions were VERY intense, even more so than I remembered having with Joey. David, the midwife on duty, said I better head on down to the birth center because it sounded like I was ready! Dan and I got our last minute stuff together and hit the road!

Happy family getting ready to go home!

I had at least 5 major contractions in the car on our way there, all very intense like the others. I remember telling Dan that if I was only dilated to 4cm when we got there, then we were going to the hospital and I was getting an epidural! We arrive around 6 and as soon as I walk in I ask David (my extremely awesome, male midwife) when I can get in the tub. He says that he needs to check me first but he can start the tub and get it filled while we do that. We head into my room and I get onto the wonderfully normal bed (not hospital bed) for my check. 7cm, holy cow! I was exceptionally happy to hear that, with Joey I was only 4cm after more than an hour of regular contractions. The crazy intense contractions I was having this time were certainly doing their job! The nurse comes up to help with the tub and make sure everything is in place, meanwhile I change into my bathing suit (which consisted of a normal bathing suit top and an old knit skirt I didn’t care about, I didn’t know how long I was going to be in the tub but I’m not one to just walk around without anything on at all).

Buckled and checked!

The tub is finally ready and I’m excited to get in! The water is warm and there are a few jets to circulate the water and they feel good on my sore back. I ended up getting in the tub around 6:15 (I could see the clock in my room from my position in the tub). I have one contraction that’s not so bad, but I quickly realize the water only takes a small edge off the pain and it’s mostly just keeping me relaxed between contractions. The next contraction I was sitting where I could apply counter-pressure on myself and that felt better than nothing. When that contraction subsided, I sat up and showed Dan how to apply counter-pressure on both sides, we didn’t have long to wait before another intense contraction came. I looked up after it was over and saw David and the nurse had come back into the room, I had apparently made enough noise for them to realize that it wasn’t going be long before I was pushing. David checked me again and I was at 9.5cm!! He said that if I felt like it I could start pushing with the next contraction! I asked if I had to get out of the tub and he said I could push wherever I wanted, yay! The next couple of contractions I push but they’re not intense like some of the other ones so I save my strength. Then the big contractions hit and I start pushing for real, and it HURTS! The contractions aren’t right on top of each other like I had been afraid of, so I am able to catch my breath in between, but they all stayed intense so when they came they came HARD. I was able to deliver his head in the next couple pushes, though to keep from tearing and delivering too fast I had to stop pushing so hard and wait through a contraction or two which was not easy. When his head finally came out there was sweet relief from most of the pain, and his body came out easily and within minutes he was up on my chest wailing away!

Family of Four finally together.

Perfectly Poe

The Stats

Pattern: Umaro

Designer: Jared Flood

Yarn: Cascade Lana Grande

Colorway: Wild Orchid

Yardage: 13 balls = 1,131yds = 3,393ft

Needles: US 15 

CO: 127sts

Start Date: June 29, 2012

Finish Date: Sept 30, 2012

Made For: Matt and Jenny's wedding present

I think I've given the newlyweds enough time to open presents and see it, so here's a post I've been hanging onto since September! Say hello to my largest knitting project to date, both in yardage and actual finished size! I am so immensely pleased with the way it turned out and with the fact that I was able to be finished a whole month before the wedding! The pattern was a lot of fun to work, despite the mind-blowing amount of seed stitch! I will admit to being pretty tired of the pattern after 6 repeats PLUS another 1-14 rows worked of the chart before finishing (I actually worked 1-12 then only had enough yarn left for 3 rows of seed stitch border and had to BO). Initially I had planned to modify the pattern to fit two other presents for people for Christmas, but now I'm only using it for one person's present and chose something different for person #2. I will definitely be knitting the pattern again, it's simple and gorgeous, just after I take a little break and knit some smaller, instant-gratification projects first.

The most complicated part of the pattern (besides keeping track of where you are in a row) is the cables. There aren't many of them in the chart, but the two rows they do show up on are more tedious than the others because they take a bit longer to work through. You have to slip the first two stitches onto a cable needle, then slip a third stitch and keep it separate, knit the next two, grab the single stitch that was slipped and purl it, then finally bring back the first two slipped stitches and knit those. On one row you only do one cable per horizontal repeat and on the other row where you do this, there's an extra cable before the horizontal repeats. That's only 2 rows out of the 28 in the chart, so not too bad, the rest of the chart is pretty basic (K, P, SSK, YO, and K2TOG). I did use stitch markers to keep track of my horizontal repeats and I definitely would have been lost without them!

40 Weeks Today!

Joey liked the pretend turtles in the kid's area.

I hit all of my goal dates! First was Nov 1 because that pay day was the final check I needed to have enough for savings while I'm on maternity leave. Second was Nov 10, Matt and Jenny's wedding! The wedding was amazing and beautiful and I loved being able to spend the night with Dan and friends from school! I even had a glass of wine and got up and danced for Cupid Shuffle ;) Next was Nov 12, we had plans with Diana to go to the National Aquarium since it was Veteran's Day and I had off work. Last was Nov 16 since that was both the end of a week and a day into a new pay period. I got to finish out a pay period which means my next check will be normal, then I'll get to spread my PTO out over the next several weeks so that every pay period I'll be getting something. The extra day, yesterday, is 8 less hours from PTO I'll have to use in this pay period, yay!

This week at work has been hard though not because I've been feeling bad. I've been tired, but that's about it and pretty typical for my pregnancies apparently. I was looking forward to going on maternity leave and being able to take mid-day naps! I can never predict if I'm going to sleep well at night, so the fact that I can now take naps when I need to makes me feel a whole lot better when I wake up at 0300. I was a little sad leaving work yesterday because I love all my co-workers and I am going to miss them! I'm definitely glad to finally be on leave though, and I think with the next baby I won't wait so long to go on leave. I've had no indications of labor being close so far, but with a second baby that means nothing. I could go into labor 10 minutes from now or a week from now regardless of what "symptoms" pop up, so I'm trying to relax as much as possible. Though now that I'm off work, I keep making lists of things that need to be done and I'm not sure if it's nesting or my perfectionist-self that wants everything to be done before the baby gets here so that all we have to do when we bring him home is snuggle :)

Carrying BOTH my boys on our Aquarium trip!

I'm officially 1 week and 1 day farther along than I was when I had Joey. On the one hand, it doesn't really feel different because I was so large and uncomfortable with Joey (because of Mega Cyst) that this time around everything has seemed easy in comparison. I'm more sick of comments from other people than anything else. Not that I mind when people ask "When are you due?" in the store or at work (I had a lot of fun telling people "Saturday" all this week and watching their eyes get big!), it's more the stuff like people trying to be subtle when I know all they really want to know is if I'm in labor yet ("Oh just calling to check in"). At least I've had some people who are honest about it, "Think today's the day?". I love you all, I really do, I appreciate the support and prayers from our friends/family, and it may seem harmless enough to say "how are you doing?" but when you're the 5th person to ask me the same (or similar) question in a day, it gets a little tedious. I know I'm still pregnant, I know I'm not in labor yet, reminders really aren't terribly helpful at this point ;)

The thing I'm most excited about right now though is the fact that I have a "birth companion" lined up! Johns Hopkins has this amazing, FREE, program within the nursing program where they provide birth companions for as many moms who ask for one. It gives the nursing students the ability to attend many more deliveries than they normally might AND it gives laboring moms a knowledgeable person to help give them comfort or even advocate for them in hospital settings. The people who run the program make every attempt to accommodate all the moms who call, but sometimes if you call late in your pregnancy (like me) you might end up having your baby before they can get back to you. I didn't have high expectations when I called, because the voice mail message said "Please give us up to a week to return your call", but I figured with a free program I wasn't losing anything. I got a call from a leader last Sunday evening, who sounded amazing, and she said that if I didn't hear from a student before going into labor then to just call her and she'd come to my delivery. I did hear from a student and we met with her today to go over plans and paperwork and just to meet. She's really nice and I'm excited to have somebody lined up to help since I will likely not be getting the good drugs at the birth center. The midwives and nurses will be there for me medically, a "birth companion" is more for comfort and coaching (she can give Dan ideas of things to do for me). My companion is also excited because all the deliveries she's attended so far have been in hospitals and mine will be her first in a birth center. She was really interested to hear about the center and how the midwives did things (like encouraging eating/drinking during labor, full kitchen, big tubs, etc.). I'm glad she's excited and open minded because it really is a wonderful center and, who knows, maybe she could end up working there one day!

Midwife appointment this week was good, probably the quickest ones I've had so far (usually we end up talking for the majority of the appointment) since I've run out of questions to ask and we're just playing the waiting game. Blood pressure, baby's heart rate, and my weight are all good. My next scheduled appointment is on Wednesday, but I'm hoping not to make it ;) Even if I do make it, and I have to schedule an appointment after that, I'm on leave now so I can go in pretty much whenever they have openings (the last several appointments I made more than a month ago so I could get them for the evening slots after work). I'm not going to try to predict when I think I'll go into labor or when I think the baby will be born (my one and only guess was yesterday because it was my last day at work and Joey started labor on my last day of work at the school!), but I'll be happy as long as I go before 42 weeks. That's when the midwives aren't allowed to handle my delivery anymore and I have to start seeing the OB, who delivers at the hospital. Ultimate Goal #1 is a healthy baby, so if it takes 42+ weeks and a hospital stay that's totally fine, because Ultimate Goal #2 is a regular delivery regardless of location (if a c-section becomes medically necessary see #1). My secondary goal is to stay at the birth center so I can eat/drink freely, hang out in the nice big tub (with water jets!), and recover in my own bed and have the midwives come to ME a couple days later for followup. The bed thing is very important. The quality of rest I will get will be much better in my own bed than in a hospital bed, I don't care how expensive those beds are, nothing is the same as my bed!

Baby Summit!

I love my face in this picture lol

 So the last time that Brittany, Lara, and I all tried to get ourselves and the babies together, the planned date ended up being after the super bad thunderstorm we got over the summer and Lara's house (the designated meeting place) had intermittent power. The time before that was when we planned to go to Ocean City and Hurricane Irene breezed through and caused the city to evacuate the day before we wanted to go (we had already decided to stay home). This time, our date ended up being the day before Hurricane Sandy was supposed to start making things difficult in Maryland. We all looked at the the weather projections and decided that since nothing was really supposed to happen until mid-to-late afternoon Monday, we'd still hang out and play. I was so glad we did, the boys all had so much fun and I know we (moms) enjoyed finally being all together again (something that hasn't happened since my baby shower with Joey!). The ages for the boys are: Joey 17mo, Desmond 12mo, Anders 9mo. They're not at the "play interactively" stage yet, that's a toddler thing that comes later, it's more "parallel play" where they play around each other. I know for Joey he liked playing with "new" toys that weren't his same old ones he sees every day. Anders and Des were more into looking at each other and seeing what the other one was doing, even if it was bugging a daddy trying to have personal time in the next room ;)

We survived the hurricane with very little damage, if any. Mostly just a lot of water everywhere, we didn't even have any leaks (although Dan hasn't been up in the attic to look for any there). We lost power for about ten minutes or so on Monday but that was it. We were very blessed and lucky because I know there are countless others who were not so fortunate. I also, thankfully, did not go into labor during the storm, which was a minor fear I had. I'm still pregnant, so yay for that. Initially, I had to come to terms with the fact that I'd have to use vacation time to make up for the work time missed caused by Sandy (half of Monday and all of Tuesday) because it was the end of the pay period, but I got a call from HR yesterday saying that we have all of next week to make up the time. After that, whatever time isn't made up will be replaced by PTO. SO HAPPY because that was 10.5 hours of leave I didn't want to use until after I had the baby, so I'll be working some 10-hour days to make up next week and pray the baby comes AFTER I've made up my time. Also praying the baby comes AFTER Matt and Jenny's wedding on Saturday because I very desperately want to be there :)

Hunkering Down for the Hurricane

According to local media, we're currently in the throws of Hurricane Sandy. Last night when I checked the weather line for work, the message reported that they would be under "normal operating conditions" for Monday but those who had leave saved up had approval to use it. Since I'm saving up as much of my leave time as possible for when I go out on maternity, I went in. Got up early, packed my lunch, rocked Joey back to sleep (he woke up again before I left so Daddy had to cuddle him while I finished getting ready), headed to work. Not surprisingly, the parking lot was bare. Several co-workers called in and said they'd be using their leave, I didn't blame them, I would be too if I had any to spare. Thankfully that early in the day, it was just rain and no wind. Eventually, the decision was made for everyone to leave no later than noon and not to worry about coming in tomorrow (Tuesday). Since I got some hours in this morning, I may not have to use leave for tomorrow if I can make up the remaining hours and hit 40 by Friday.

I got home around 11:30 and Joey was happy to see me. He pretty much spent the whole day with me or as much as he possibly could. For the rest of the morning and early afternoon, the weather stayed mostly just rainy. I took advantage of still having power and got through as many dirty dishes as I could and two loads of laundry. If we do lose power, at least we'll have clean underwear ;) I also took the opportunity to go through the diaper bag and clean it out, a desperately needed task. Once it was clean and re-stocked, I added a change of clothes for Joey and some pajamas, just in case. Tomorrow I'll pack a bag for me just to be ready. We wouldn't go anywhere if we lose power, but I've seen some pictures already from facebook friends of fallen trees in their neighborhoods and if, God forbid, that happens to us, we will be finding shelter elsewhere. My labor bag is also packed and (nearly) ready to go; it has been for a couple of weeks now. It would totally be like one of my kids to decide to come while the weather is absolutely atrocious and the governor of the state ordered everybody to stay off the roads. It's not like an ambo would be much safer in these high winds either.

Keeping Joey (and Dan) entertained is going to be interesting. When the weather is good, they play outside a lot while I'm at work. They also play inside a lot, but even when it's cold or slightly rainy, they will at least get to run errands to get out of the house. Today and tomorrow, that option won't be there, and nobody knows about Wednesday. Thankfully, while we still have power and internet, I got some ideas off Pinterest and from some of the moms in my due date club. I want to have enough ideas as backups for if/when the power goes out and I can't put on Curious George to have 20 minutes of quiet time. Hmm, maybe we should invest in a few episodes of George from iTunes that we can put on the iPod...

My feet are slightly swollen for the first time this entire pregnancy. I could tell certain shoes were feeling a little tight but no obvious signs of swelling beyond that. I've felt it a little bit in my fingers but nothing you can look at and go "your hands are swollen". Today my right foot was obviously slightly swollen. Probably because of how much I was doing today and how little water I drank in comparison. I passed Joey off to Dan, grabbed my water bottle and a snack and am now sitting in bed with my feet up. I started to get some Braxton Hicks contractions, not regular or in any kind of pattern but enough close enough together to remind me that I'm still pregnant and should be taking it easy.

Pin-possible

 As a recent addict of Pinterest.com, I find myself with loads and loads of pins on my boards and grand plans to try them one day. I've actually been a member for a while, but wasn't until the nesting bug kicked in more recently that I actually started spending larger amounts of time browsing through pins. I have to say that nesting via Pinterest is much cheaper and easier than shopping or cleaning, it could help explain why I haven't had swelling quite as bad as I did with Joey since I've been sitting so much ;)

So far most of the pins I've actually tried have been recipes, however there have been a couple things that I've managed to do that are unrelated to food. The first was simple: finger paint in a Ziploc bag which was then taped to a hard, flat surface. Joey liked it, but as per usual, is more interested in running around the kitchen because he's not always allowed in there. He did go back to the paint a couple of times, but this one might be a rainy day activity rather than an every day activity to keep him occupied while contained.

The next pin was a way of doing your own manicure with designs. I'd never thought of using Scotch tape to do nail polish designs but it totally works--IF you let the polish dry completely first! My biggest mistake was attempting to do this while Joey was awake and not being patient enough waiting for the nails to dry completely. The other trick I learned was that you can paint a strip of polish on a plastic baggy, then peel the strip off and stick it to your nails (shown in green here)! My strips were pretty fat so I folded them in half and they were much more proportional once I did that (except the stripes on my thumbs I left wide). I think next time I won't be in such a hurry and will let the nails sit for a couple hours between each step to ensure they dry all the way (you finish by topping the whole nail with a coat of clear).

I have also finished a couple other pins but have not taken my own pictures yet, so those will be coming later. In other news...

Joey is a pretty hilarious kid. His personality shows through so well now and he's totally a mix of me and Dan! He's crazy active, loves to play, especially outside with sticks and dirt, but we can usually get him to sit quietly for 20min or so with an episode of Curious George. The words he does say only we really can tell what they are, but that's ok because he's not really supposed to be comprehend-able yet ;) He says "Cheese", "Please", "George", and "Ball" consistently, and then other words that sound very similar to those but we generally aren't sure what he means. He still signs "Please", "More", and "Light" on a daily basis and while I'm trying to introduce more signing vocab as consistently as I can, he's determined not to learn any more than those haha. He also refers to anything that's round as a "ball" whether it's even remotely close to a ball or not. When we went to the pumpkin patch last week, he was super excited to see so many "balls". Food is still an adventure, not surprisingly (if you know us) he likes cheeses, meats, and breads. We're working on fruits and veggies but thankfully toddler nutrition is looked at over the course of a week and not day by day, *phew*. He loooooves mac & cheese. Yesterday Dan made some for lunch and put extra in my bowl so I could share with Joey. I had to stop feeding Joey and send him over to Dan (who had extra in his bowl too) because otherwise I was only going to have a few bites left, he ate a BUNCH! He also started sharing my bagels with me in the mornings when I'm home, especially since he tried my pumpkin spice bagel. I need to go back to BJs and get more, they're sooo good!

Gotta go get ready for work now, already spent way too much time online ;) In the meantime, enjoy these pictures of Joey playing outside with a stick!

Pumpkin Patch

Today Aunt Cheryl came over for a visit! We haven't seen her in a couple months because she's been away working on a cruise ship! Today she came over and we went to the pumpkin patch! We didn't get anything because I have no desire to carve a pumpkin and also the line for the cash register was long. But we got some super cute pictures of Joey, who was very interested in trying to pick up the "balls" (pumpkins). We used to go to this pumpkin patch when I was little and I hadn't been in years. It definitely felt smaller than I remember, but we didn't go for a hay ride or anything so that could have been part of it, but I doubt it. Joey liked running around and trying to lift the pumpkins, he was generally unsuccessful (until we found the much smaller ones in a box closer to the barn) but that still didn't stop him from trying!

Baby G 2.0

Tuesday we had a 3D ultrasound back at That's My Baby. Since I went there for the gender deal, the second visit was discounted, I love that even though we're on a budget, we can still sneak a peak at #2's face! Dan and Joey were able to make it, as the appointment was right after work I drove straight there and met them. It took a while to get these pictures because #2 kept putting his foot in his eye! You can sort of tell it's up there in the first set of pictures, he had moved it just enough for us to see his face. Below you can see in a couple pictures below, we also caught him sticking out his tongue!

Joey was entertained for a few minutes by the ultrasound, he recognized that there was a baby on the screen. Then he was more interested in climbing the little step stool to get onto the bed where I was. He didn't want to be on the bed with me, he wanted to go up and down the steps. We have some B&W and 2D pictures too, but I still need to scan them so they'll come later.

Joey at 32w on the left and #2 at 33w on the right, definitely brothers!

There is now a Little Tykes slide in the waiting room and Joey LOVED it!

Thrift Shop Haul!

So originally Joey and I were going to go to my favorite local consignment shop (it's literally down the street from my house!) but they were closed due to a family emergency so that will have to wait. I dropped some stuff off to consign a while back and wanted to see if there was anything on my account and how much (I also have more to drop off!) in addition to getting more fall clothes for Joey. Plan B became traveling a bit farther to my favorite thrift store where you have to do more digging (nothing is arranged by size, just by type of item and who wears it) but you can usually score some good finds. Today's haul included 2 sweaters for me, one maternity and one that is technically not maternity but can totally be worn anyway (the blue one). For Joey I found 3 shirts and 3 pants, and they're all Carter's, Old Navy, Children's Place, and even a pair of pants is by Nike and still had the original tags on them! I got 8 items for $29.60, pretty stoked about that deal! We have some 24mo/2T fall clothes for Joey already, as well as 18mo/24mo/2T sweatshirts, but we didn't have much in the way of pants that would fit him now if the weather got drastically colder. He's currently wearing 18mo separates and 24mo one-pieces, the 24mo long pants are way too long and even rolled up he still trips over them. I didn't want to get many 18mo long pants because I do see him growing out of them before winter is over, but he does need something that fits when it starts getting cold out. Judging by the way he's been growing and by the way the 18mo pants fit now, I'm pretty comfortable with what we have for him now.

In baby news, I had a midwife appointment this week. Everything is looking good and I officially passed my 1hr glucose test! I had suspected as much since I didn't receive a phone call about my bloodwork after the test had been done, but it was nice to hear that my numbers were good! I'm very glad that I won't have to sit through another 3hr glucose test, the last one was bad enough. It also is a distinct possibility that I will hit 200lbs with this pregnancy. I was hoping not to, considering how much I had lost post-Joey, but that is probably not in the cards for me. Pre-pregnancy weight this time was 165 (conservative guess, I was close to 20lbs below pre-pregnancy with Joey weight which would have been 159) and I'm now up to 189. With roughly 8 weeks left to go, and baby gaining 1/2 a pound a week, I would definitely bet money on hitting 200. Granted, at my highest with Joey, I was 220lbs, so being right around or just over 200 is not bad at all. I decided that if I do hit 200, I'm going to celebrate at 5 Guys with a nice, juicy bacon cheeseburger ;) A lot of the weight with Joey was water-weight, especially towards the end. This time, I haven't even started swelling in the ankles/feet yet (knock on wood!) and while I haven't tried in a while, I'm pretty sure I can still get my wedding/engagement rings on (a month and a half later than last time!). Since I'm mostly belly this time around, I'm not sure how quickly the weight will come off, though I have no doubt that it will between breastfeeding and as much walking as I do at work. Thankfully, no new stretch marks have shown up, there's still plenty of skin left from last time apparently, I need to post some progression pictures...

So after getting distracted on Facebook for like 20minutes, here are belly scar progression pictures:

10 days post-op, 3 weeks postpartum

6 months postpartum

1 year and 1 month post-op, 22 weeks pregnant.

1 year and 3.5 months post-op, 32 weeks pregnant.

I know it looks like the baby is attempting to show himself through my stomach or that I have a 2nd belly button, but it's neither of those things. I think it's where my belly button used to be prior to the surgery because I can push it and it bounces back like my belly button used to (still does actually) and the placement is right for that as well.