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.

My Breastfeeding Toddler

I didn't see myself initially breastfeeding much beyond a year. Honestly it wasn't something I thought much about until I started seeing articles and research (and some horror stories of what strangers actually have the gall to stay to people they don't know). With my exposure to breastfeeding growing up, I knew it was something I was going to do and I wasn't weirded out by nursing toddlers as I had seen many of them through the years. So my initial goals changed as I did research, especially research regarding history of food allergies in the immediate family, and I wanted to at least BF exclusively for a year if I could, and would go longer after that if Joey wanted to. I knew that some toddlers can completely forget about nursing once introduced to solid foods, especially yummy table food off Mommy/Daddy's plate, so I was prepared mentally for Joey to wean once we started solids. Not only did Joey not wean himself, he continued to request to nurse any time of the day or night! He loves food, has several favorites that change by the week or by the day, but his nom-noms (nursing) have remained a constant and I can actually say that it does make me happy. Don't get me wrong, I love not being his sole food source at this point. Not having to worry about my supply or pumping for a while has been great, especially since I know I'll be back on that horse in a few months for another year or so. But with working full time, I love coming home and having Joey hug me and want nom-noms. It's our quiet time together where can "check in" with each other and reconnect after having been apart for hours. Even when I'm home on the weekends, Joey still asks to nurse. We've gone back to nursing at night when it's my turn to get him, so not really night-weaned anymore, but he doesn't get up nearly as often AND when I do nurse him, I can usually un-latch him and get him back to bed fairly quickly. Nights are getting much better, and just in time too!

Joey cut 3 teeth a week or so ago. At once. I knew something was up because he basically wanted to nurse pretty much as long as I was around. It's hard to stay annoyed with that many requests when he looks at you with his toothy grin and signs the word "please" (well, his version). It's also nice because now that he's bigger, some positions are actually more comfortable than they were when he was small. Our favorite is me semi-reclined on the couch with him snuggled up next to me and we can either both see the TV (Curious George is a favorite) or I can slip into a light doze while he watches TV. Some days this is the closest to a nap that I can get and I will take it! Joey is not super affectionate, sometimes he will give hugs when you ask, but kisses rarely happen (we haven't really asked for any, so I'll have to see what happens when I do), and after reading Nursing The Older Child today, I definitely think that his main form of showing me affection is through nursing. The affection through nursing is definitely two way, I snuggle him and kiss him lots while he's in my lap (or sitting next to me, lol), and I love it. I'm glad he decided he wasn't ready to quit, I would have been ok if he had, but the extra snuggles definitely help my long days at work not seem so bad. It also explains why he gets so upset if I have to stop a nursing session (especially in the early morning to get ready for work), it's like breaking a hug with someone you don't want to leave. You want to hug them and hold onto them for a long as you possibly can, and when I have to stop nursing either to do things around the house or to leave for work, we're both sad that our favorite form of affection has to stop.

I definitely jinxed sleep last night by starting this post then going to bed. I think Joey's got a bit of a stuffy nose (possibly from the weather changing) and he had a difficult time staying in his flat crib. I brought him back to bed when he woke up, and usually after an hour or more of nursing/sleeping I can put him back into his crib with no problems. Not this time! As soon as he felt that crib mattress he was instantly awake and upset! I tried going back to bed with him but that was it, it was too close to my alarm going off AND Joey never fully settled back down. He was constantly moving his legs or hands (I need to trim his fingernails, they're sharp and he kept scratching me!) and I could tell even in the darkness that he was opening his eyes and looking around. Eventually, after two straight hours, and 30 minutes until my alarm, I woke Dan up and had him take Joey. Joey cried for a minute or two but not nearly for as long as he has in the past when I have to give him to Dan, and I was glad for that. I needed that 30 min not just to have some time for myself and doze a little, but also for Dan and Joey to get settled before I started getting ready for work. If I got ready while Joey was still awake enough to realize I was out and moving around, he wouldn't go to sleep for Dan. The plan worked, I dozed lightly and they were both asleep when I got up, time for another week at work.