In honor of 10 years...

...and the fact that I actually spent $5 on a really cool collage app for my computer...

....AND the fact that I am the worst slug in the world when it comes to ever doing anything with my pictures other than uploading them to my computer....

...I actually did a super awesome picture thing recently.  And I think there may be more of it in my future.  Actually, I know there will be because I've already made two others, and am currently working on a fourth project, and GOSH DARN I will get my $5 worth out of that app.

Oh, and when I say I'm a terrible slug dealing with pictures, I mean it.  Like I almost have a fear of doing anything other than pulling up a file on my computer and looking at them again.  I've never scrap booked; made a couple failed attempts at keeping just a photo album of prints; lost many a hard copies I've been given; rarely printed off digital pics I've taken; have no baby book for my son; no wedding album of me and the hubs; no pictures on my walls except what I've been given (and my husband has hung), and pretty much an immortal fear of all picture projects.  See, told you.

So anyway I thought I'd share with you what is, I think, the first thing I have ever done with pictures.  Okay I take that back.  When I was post partum with a screaming Charlie who wouldn't nurse, and wouldn't sleep and cried all the time, and forced me to stay constantly attached to a pump, I appeased my husband by making one photo book of Charlie, which was also mostly a desperate attempt to do anything that didn't have to do with holding my baby.  


I'm pretty crazy proud of myself that I finally undertook a picture project, and even more proud of myself that when I finally got through with it, I immediately started on another one.

This is a good sign folks.  Maybe at least one of my children will actually get some sort of baby book.

Or maybe I'll at least get some pictures on my walls.

So this project?

BLAMMO!!

10 years of knowing our good buddies, the Hodges.  :-D

It's been a good decade guys.  Here's to 10 more decades.


There was no blood, sweat or tears in the making of this photo.  Okay, a bit of sweat, but I was making this during the 100 degree days, and in spite of the thermostat claiming it was 77, I claim otherwise.

23 weeks!

Looky looky peeps!  Two posts in one day.  But that's because posting weekly belly pics is much easier (wait, why was I five weeks behind then until this morning?) than posting pics about food or other bits of life.

23 weeks

Again - love seeing the repeat clothes in the pictures and seeing the size difference.  This was taken a week ago.  As I'm sitting here, baby brother is pretty intently kicking my left side.  But seriously, I don't mind at all.  Not even at 2am.  (Not yet anyways.)  Even in the last stages of my pregnancy with Charlie, with all the violent forceful kicking, that was still one of my favorite parts.  And one of those things that I missed for probably a good year postpartum, knowing that any rumblings I felt in my tummy were no longer sweet baby kicks, but some process of digestion.  Yea, digestion is good and necessary and all, but baby kicks are much cooler.

So now that I have actually done two blog posts in one day, it's time to get to that bathroom sink cleaning that I was talking about being perpetually behind in, in my last post.  

Yay for clean sinks!  Yay for baby kicks!

Love you baby boy.

18-22 weeks!

About the only thing I have kept up with this pregnancy is weekly pictures.  And sometimes even then they run several days late.  Maybe the guilt of only have 5 or so weekly pictures from Charlie's pregnancy drives to make sure these pictures get taken.  But whether it's scrubbing the sink or blogging, the rest seems to run perpetually behind.  So here are 5 weeks worth of photos.  I have last weeks' photos still on my phone and need to take this week's today.

18 weeks

19 weeks

20 weeks

21 weeks

22 weeks

Pregnancy update in 10 things:

1. I find it particularly interesting to compare photos that are taken in the same item of clothing.  So far two of these pictures are the same shirt as previous posts.  I never think I've grown that much, but the clothes do fit differently.  Last week is a copy of the first blue striped dress picture, and there is a little difference.  Maybe I can get that one posted today too, from my phone??

2. Have I mentioned that I'm 24 weeks today and can't even believe it?!?  I have 3 more appointments before I hit 36 weeks and start going weekly till my due date.  Craziness.

3.  We finally tracked down our doula!  Yay!  We thought she'd fallen off the planet after discovering our email address for her was out of date, and the birth center didn't have updated contact info.  Thankfully, we finally got in touch with her.  She's available for us - yay!  And she's due herself early August - yay!

4. Back pain, trouble sleeping and braxton hicks are all present and accounted for.  Yay!  (Sort of.....)

5. I've been trying to get Charlie to feel when the baby moves.  It's really hard to coordinate two little boys doing the right thing and the same time.

6.  I have in fact used the phrase "the boys" twice now, and not in reference to William and Charlie.  That is also craziness.

7. If you missed the facebook post, we are in fact having a second little boy.  Maybe I'll get to post an ultrasound picture soon.  Hah, who am I kidding.  We are very excited about having a second little guy.  Charlie and I make sure to talk about 'baby brudder' every day.  I think he's excited, but it's hard to tell with a 2 year old.

8. I have gained more weight up to this point that I had anticipated, but not anything that is out of the realm of recommended.  After 2 hard years of working on squelching cravings for all the food that I knew I didn't want to eat and wasn't good for my body, pregnancy hormones have definitely done some undoing there.  I have eaten things I wish I hadn't.  I think I can still call my self control good, it's just not the unmoving rock it was 6 months ago.  Of course I can't blame it all on pregnancy hormones (cause I hate when people do that), and I have purposefully eaten some more calorie heavy foods in order to consume more iron in my diet.  Okay, 8. is much too long and food should really be discussed in a separate post.

9. I will end up stopping teaching piano lessons earlier than I had originally planned, due to tiredness.  I'd like to be able to spend some outside park and pool time with my kiddo this summer before the baby, without nodding off to sleep on my students.  (JK, haven't done that yet....yet.)

10. We have not settled on a name yet, so it's no use asking.  :)  We have several possibilities we are batting around, one we really like but has very recently been used, and no, we do not discuss names until we have settled on the name for sure.  :)  Patience...

And that's about it folks.

Mama loves you baby.

17 weeks!

So I realized I haven't talked about food cravings or aversions yet.  I ought to given my how I've lived the last 2 years of my life dietary wise.

So my first pregnancy I gagged probably about 5 times and that was the extent of my pregnancy woes (other than the typical being tired).  This pregnancy I've had a lot more subtle food aversions.  I say subtle in that I probably could suffer through and eat most things I'm averse to without throwing up, but it would be a great trial and very unpleasant experience with much gagging.  I even had one day where a green smoothie - green smoothie of all things - ended up being disgusting by the time I was done drinking it.  I gave up on smoothies for several days since then and have just been eating veggies separately and blending up spinach juice for an iron punch!

As for cravings, I've noticed my desire for carbs/grains go up, which is funny because I'm actually not all that into grains usually.  I mean, by the time you take out yummy (unhealthy) white breads and pastas (which I wasn't really eating for the last 2 years anyways), all the cooked grains and healthy breads left, I don't really enjoy all that much.  Give me beans and greens, baby.  And really, I generally (pre-pregnancy) don't mind too much avoiding the pasta, white bread, chips, and other refined grains.  But I've noticed crazy insane cravings for all the grains/carbs that I'd pretty much given up for the last 2 years - and don't even get me started on chips and dip.  Eeesh, have I got to get back to eating veggies and bean dip again, and not chips and bean dip.  But oh man, those chips taste amazing like I've never tasted them before.  But seriously, I recognize the unhealthy chip thing I have going on and need to nip it in the bud.

I think later on I'll do a post more about eating and weight gain, but that's for another day.

*-/

17 Weeks!

I had my second prenatal appointment today and was so glad to hear little Nubbin's heart beat again.  I'm grateful for the 6 weeks spacing due to the 45 minute drive, but I miss hearing the little heart beat more often.  But everything looked good today!  :-)

Love you baby.

16 weeks!

16 weeks saw the return of more energy and God's abundant grace.  (Not that God's grace was lacking before, but it was very clear this past week.) We've been doing a lot of "home improvement" things in the house now that William is home in the evenings, we have a paycheck again, and it's long overdue stuff that desperately needs to be done before the baby comes. And amazingly enough, I keep plugging away at it day after day and I haven't crashed yet. Even with some heavier lifting that truthfully my midwife would probably scowl at, I've managed to avoid a bad, exhausted, lay on the couch kind of day.  Which is really cool given my week 15 saw 2 of those days.  Today was the exception I mentioned in my last post about waking up great, and wanting to go to bed by 10am.

I've given up trying to decide if I actually look bigger each week.  Some days I feel huge and some days not.  Some days I look big and some days not.  (Big being relative at this point people.)  And some weeks I swear I look smaller than weeks before, but who really knows....

I keep waiting and hoping to feel the baby move soon, but no such luck.  Of course maybe that's cause I actually forget to pay attention at night when it's likely to happen, and at this stage, I think you still have to pay close attention to feel any movements.  So far any movement is just me gurgling around in there. :-P

Mama loves you baby.  :-)

15 weeks!

So week 15 was a continuum of the good days and bad days.  I had several good days (probably too good where I pushed too much) and then collapsed on the couch for nearly two days and could do nothing.  <sigh>  You never know what to expect when you wake up in the morning.  Like today when I woke up (week 16) I felt fine and almost bounded out of bed, and then by 10am I was ready to go to bed for the day.  

That shirt is a non-maternity shirt, which still fits just fine, but I could see a bit of stretch in the belly when I took the shirt off that evening.  Since I actually bought new clothes when I lost all the weight, I am paranoid about stretching anything out, so all non-maternity clothes cared about have been officially retired.  Which is a shame cause I'm sadly lacking in some warm weather maternity items still.  I wish I knew how long I could wear an item without permanently stretching it any.  Most of my non-maternity clothes easily still fit, but have been retired because they are a bit stretched at the end of the day.  Thank goodness for some freecycle maternity clothes, even if there were no summer shorts. :-)

14 Weeks!

So I seem to be good at posting pictures about two weeks late.

I can't remember much about week 14 at this point now since I'm two weeks late posting.  But I do remember having several good days in a row, and then being completely thrown off by another bad day or two appearing.  The ringing in the ears was gone, but the bad days did have fatigue and a little bit of nausea in the morning.  Oh well.  Growing a person.  What can I say.

Oh oh!  I did manage to get 2 bodyrock workouts in this week which was awesome and made me feel great.  (See me in my workout clothes.)  Hey....maybe that's why the tiredness returned...  :-/