Dr. Visit @ 35 weeks

Today just about wore me out: took Reece to the doc at 9:30am, went to Babies R Us to get a boy and girl going home from hospital outfit, went to Meijer to get Benadryl for Reece and a few other things, home for lunch which Reece was too tired to eat, put Reece down for a nap, tried to nap myself but too many things are going on in my head, barely had fallen asleep then woke to a grumpy hungry child that had to be whisked into the car to go to my doc appointment downtown, home to do dishes, fix dinner for myself and child, whisk child off to Bible study, home at 9:15pm to put child straight to bed....I will be following shortly!

Nurse Susan said baby's heartbeat is great. Measured me at 36 weeks, but after feeling around on my belly and the position changed, she said I would probably measure closer to 34/35 weeks. She said baby is head down pretty low and asked if I was feeling any pressure...define pressure. I am feeling some sharp sensations on my cervix when baby moves a lot, so I assume that's the head pushing down on it. I weigh 171 lbs. I can't remember exactly, but I think I only got up to 173 with Reece. I hope to not gain much more, but baby is at least going to gain another 2-3lbs before I have baby. So that means I'll gain at least another 2-3 lbs and then some! Ethan is already asking when I shall be joining him for P90X workouts postpartum....hmmm....let me get back to you on that one, honey!!!

Pregnancy Symptoms

Because this blog is partially my own personal pregnancy journal, I'll just mention a few things that I'll probably forget about years down the road. I have been sleeping with a pillow between my knees since probably 28 weeks. At that time it eased some hip pain that I was starting to experience. The past couple of days, despite the pillow, my hips have felt almost arthritic...must be prepping for the birth and spreading. My mom said it won't be long now! Baby is still VERY active...must still be enough room in there to exercise! Baby seems surprised when it's feet get up under my ribs. I'll feel the first kick, then...kick! kick! kick! as if it's trying to figure out...what IS that? Also been having some very taut Braxton Hicks contractions. My belly gets SO hard! And some movements are painful, which I don't remember having painful baby movements with Reece. All in all, this baby seems a bit more hyper than Reece, which may tell us a lot about the future in differences of temperaments between the two. Reece is so laid back, this one might be a bit more active and bouncing off the walls! Who knows!

I have another check up tomorrow with the nurse practitioner Susan. So then I will update weight and other things. I also take Reece to the doc in the AM...he has had a fever for a week straight! I think it's time to take him!

34 Weeks...and Counting

33 Weeks

Baby Belly Update:

As I am typing this, baby is moving about very vigorously! I have had some very painful movements, and I don't remember those with Reece the first time. All of his movements were painless. The heartburn gave me a rest for about a week, and then started up again today. I woke this morning with a foot kicking me under my rib cage, so I'm assuming the position of the baby changed, and therefore caused the heartburn. Ethan took a look at my belly tonight, and said, "I think you're going to have that baby soon! How do you hold that up?" Referring to my heavy belly. It's hard, I said. It really is. It gets heavy as the day wears on. Reece has been sick the past couple of days, and it's been hard dealing with him as he wants to be held, carried and snuggled more. Ethan also suggested last night that I pack my bag for the hospital. "I'm only 34 weeks!" I said. He countered that you just never know, and we should at least start getting things around! I started thinking about all the things I need to pack: bag for Ethan, bag for me, bag for baby, bag for Reece because who knows what the situation will be...will he go to someone's house? Or will someone come to our house?? All great questions!! Ethan said he can handle packing his own bag...to which I rolled my eyes I'm sure and said, that's a relief! One less thing to worry about.

Reece's Never-ending 2nd Birthday

What a lucky little boy Reece is...he has family and people in his life that love him SO much! We just finished Christmas, then came back from traveling and got gifts from people at church, then we celebrated his birthday with Grandma and Grandpa Walker, and this past weekend Grammy and Papa (AND Meow-Meow kitty!), Auntie Em and Uncle Jeff and Nolen came to stay with us to celebrate his birthday again! And then he got Valentine's gifts on top of that!! Wowee! Reece thinks it's great!

He just loved having everyone in the house this weekend. We opened gifts and he had to take breaks in between opening because he was just so excited about each one, and wanted it "open please." He got an ABC puzzle, food for his kitchen, a remote control dump truck, a backpack, a Hot Wheels semi-truck, Cars underwear, a rug for his room with a road and town on it, a black corduroy suit and tie set, an Elmo outfit, Hot Wheels plate and bowl, Cars plate/bowl/cup set, Cars crayons, and a Mustang tshirt.We made a cake for Reece, and put the candles on and he blew out the candles all by himself! He sat with Auntie Em...he liked that :)

On Saturday, Ethan signed Reece and Nolen up for a Valentine project at Lowe's. They helped build a heart music box for their mommies. Here is the one Reece made for me!

Grammy and Papa brought Meow-Meow kitty with them to stay with us while they are traveling. Reece has been loving having her around. If she's not in the room, he's got to go find her. He loves feeding her treats, and loves playing with her. Today he has been playing with a bouncy ball and tennis ball with her, and tossing them on the stairs. Meow-Meow likes to play with the string on the balloon that Reece got for Valentine's day too. Nolen spends a lot of time with Meow-Meow, so when she would meow, Nolen would too. So Reece joined in the meowing as well. Reece talks to the cat and wants to show her things. When he woke from nap the other day he had his Cars underwear on his bed with him looking at the pictures. He said he wanted to show kitty the Tow Mater underwear. So he went over and held up his underwear for her to see in her face, and said, "Look kitty, Tow Mater!"

I'm cracking up at the tiny undies! Reece loves Tow Mater!

Coloring Cars

They thought it was a novel idea to color on the floor...so much more fun than on the table!

Boy has Reece gotten into the Disney/Pixar Cars characters lately! We do not own the movie, nor has Reece seen the movie, but somehow, someway, he has discovered Lightning McQueen, Tow Mater, Chick Hicks, etc. We got him a Cars coloring book for Christmas, and he loves that, but so far has not colored in it. He just likes to look at the pictures, and it came with stickers that he sticks to everything until they won't stick anymore! He wants to watch Cars movie trailers and music videos on YouTube, and I have printed out some coloring pages with characters on them. I also printed a small version of the movie poster and put it by his bed. He goes through and names all of the characters that he knows and talks about them. He thinks Lightning McQueen looks like "daddy's car." (We have a red Grand Prix that Ethan drives to work.)

Today I got a glimpse of my postpartum future. Reece has gotten into asking me to play with him. He has probably noticed a downturn in my physical activity as far as playing with Reece goes. I do housework, and get tired and have to rest. Reece notices this and asks me to come play. "Momma try driving the car on the floor." "Momma drive the choo choo train down the hill." So he's trying to get me to engage in play, but I'm just so much more tired now than I used to be. I think he will be doing this a lot once the baby is here and I'm trying to recuperate, and even after I physically feel better he may continue this...perhaps asking me to play while the baby is nursing or something. We'll see how things go! Poor guy. He just wants someone to play with!

Reece's 2 Year Checkup

Reece had his 2 year check up today with Dr. Vik. He didn't go to sleep until 2pm, and I had to wake him at 3:15pm for his appointment. He was not very happy, but his version of not being happy is just saying, "No." when I told him we were going to the doctor. We got to the docs office and Reece flirted with the nurses, but when the nurse called him back to walk down the hallway, he got cold feet and wanted to "get in the car." So I had to carry him back to the room. They wanted to weigh him and get his height right away, and he wasn't ready. He barely stayed on the scale long enough to get the weight, and was trying to squirrel away from the nurse as she tried to get his height. She initially said he was only 34 inches, but after he got comfortable in the room he ventured out to the scale again and I took his height and he was 36 inches standing up straight, and 28.8 lbs. He just talked the doctors ear off when she came in, and she said he is way ahead on his language. After she left, the nurse came in to give his shots. As soon as she came in the door, he said, "I want to go out that door!" I think he saw the needles in her hands! Poor guy. He knew what was coming. He boo-hooed when she gave the shots and wanted his pants back on so he couldn't get anymore shots. But all was well after I gave him the fruit snacks I brought for him.

As for the baby belly, I have figured out why the movements are so different than when I was preggo with Reece. It dawned on me that Reece was posterior, so his limbs were towards my back and I felt mostly big rolling movements of his back and behind against the front of my stomach. This baby is anterior facing, so I feel all of the feet and knees and elbows and hands poking the front of my stomach! This makes for a bit more of an uncomfortable experience, but fun to watch all of these sharp little extremities moving across my abdomen!

Potty Time

I am one proud Momma...last night Reece pee-peed on the potty for the first time! We have had a little potty for some time now, and just had it in the bathroom downstairs. Anytime I would go potty, Reece would come in and sit on it and pretend, fully clothed. I have only put him on there diaper-less maybe 2 other times, and he seemed rather uncomfortable with the situation, so I didn't push it. Last night he needed a diaper change before bed anyway, so I asked him if he wanted to sit on the potty whilst I was in the bathroom going potty. He said, "I sit on the potty." So I took off his pants/diaper and he said he needed help sitting, so I sat him on there. I said, "Okay, now, can you put your pee pees in the potty?" He looked down. I said, "Can you make your pee pees come out?" And there it went! Of course, all over the floor and none in the potty because he's a boy, but he got the idea! He was able to do it pretty much on command so he knows how to work that body function for sure! I was so excited! He smiled because I was making a big deal. We cleaned up the floor and Reece said, "I wash hands in da sink." So we washed hands and he said, "I need a diaper on." So we put his diaper back on. I gave him some chocolate chips because that was the only "treat" I had in the house. We will have to figure out what the next step is. We're not sure how to proceed now that this has happened! With the baby coming, do we start hard core potty training, or just be relaxed about it and not push it? We'll figure it out along the way, I guess!

Taking Inventory and Nesting

I have REALLY been nesting this week! Ethan has been home a few days because of the weather (Ice Storm, 2011) and has been playing with Reece, so I have been able to get things done! I went through the 2 boxes of girl clothes that I had been given to take inventory. I got out a clipboard and paper and pen, and wrote down all the sizes and description of each thing. Most things are 0-3 months, but there are things for both seasons - spring/summer, fall/winter. I did this mostly because I wanted to have an inventory of things in case I do have a girl to know what I need to look for at garage sales, store sales, etc. for the future. There were SO many sleeper outfits in the boxes, and none bigger than 3 months. In addition to the already huge number of "neutral" sleepers I have (probably between gowns and sleepers there are at least 20 (and this isn't counting the boy sleepers!) I am overwhelmed!! I think the overwhelmed feeling is because of the suspense and not knowing. I have both boy and girl clothes and just want to get them in drawers and out of boxes. With Reece, I just didn't even look at the girl clothes in those boxes, and all I had were neutral outfits and that was that and I would just get the rest later. Well, now, the frugal person in me wants to be prepared in case I see a sale or be ready when the garage sales start (which will be soon after baby arrives) to know what sizes I need to get and types of clothing. I also went through all of Reece's clothes that I have either picked up at stores/garage sales last year and hand-me-downs and made an inventory list of those items too. He is going to need a few more things than baby will for summer and next fall/winter, but not many. I have a feeling he will be outgrowing his current shoe size for spring as well. So moving on from 7 to 8!

In addition to taking clothing inventory, I also sanitized bottles, pacifiers, aspirators, etc. for when baby arrives. Reece and I hung some things in his room (a clock and a cork board). I think tomorrow I will have him paint on a canvas that I have and hang that in his room. I was going to paint a truck or car on it, but I think it would be cooler to have something that he painted himself on the wall.

Reece has been so funny lately! He just gets funnier every day. He has a car puzzle that he switches the pieces and thinks it's so funny. We have also found that we are able to reason with him a lot more at meal times when he doesn't want to eat something by asking him to take 2 more bites or saying that he has to eat such-and-such before he can get down and play. He usually complies. His latest songs that he knows or are learning are: "Sanctuary" "Psalm 118:24 (This is the Day)" "God is so Good" "The Song that I Sing" "ABC's" He really is a little song bird. He can hit every note, and he learns songs SO fast! He just asks to sing it again about 4 times, and he knows half the words and the tune!

Heartburn has been getting to me lately. I can't eat anything without having to take a TUMS or suffer the consequences. Right now I am hungry, but I can feel I'm on the verge of heartburn so I don't want to eat anything and make it worse. So I guess I'll go to bed hungry!