Cupid and Haircuts

Valentine's Day...oh how I love thee! I love Valentine's Day because Chris and I are "simple" people. We really don't require much, but each other and of course our sweet E. For all of the Valentine's Days since 2005 (when I was in school, busy studying my life away) (dang that seems FOREVER ago!) we have always done take-out. Usually Chinese. This year we decided to make it a hot date with the three of us. Originally the menu was steak, E threw a gargantious fit before we left and we settled for Olive Garden. We didn't want to go anywhere too fancy with a raging one year old. We should've just stuck with the good ole take out. Never fails us. But prego right here wanted to "go out." Dinner ended up being great, but by the time we got home I was exhausted. Luckily, E decided one fit for the day was sufficient. Cupid made a special landing for a sweet (despite the fits) one year old. E has a new love for animal crackers and puzzles :)

The day before Valentine's Day I ran ALL over town looking for a stupid Valentine's Day shirt. Let me go ahead and tell you, there is no such thing that exists for little boys. Yes, I should've planned better. My excuse- I'm pregnant. Yes, I can use that excuse for the next seven months. My excuse after those seven months- I have two kids! hehe. Since there were no Valentine's Day shirts, this is what E settled for. I still think he's the cutest thing ever, real Valentine's Day shirt or not. But I am extremely biased. 

Jumping forward to today.....Today was a BIG day. First haircut! And my mommy instincts were correct- E was going to absolutely, positively hate this. The child hates Santa and the doctor. There is no way in hell he was going to like a haircut. My poor child is so sheltered, but I'm okay with that. We went to Sports Clips, somewhere where making a scene wouldn't be too big of a deal. I'm sure all the twenty something, childless men loved having a screaming infant sitting next to them. Hate it for them. But this mama was desperate to rid her sweet child of the mullet. E was originally in my lap and as soon as the lady attempted to put the "batman cape" on E went ballistic! My child literally turned into the exorcist. Screaming, body throwing, the whole shabang. Ten minutes later and in Nonnie's lap, pretty much in a headlock the shears were broken out. About fifteen minutes later and pouring a sweat from dancing around like a monkey, my child had his first haircut. I thought this moment would be extremely emotional (especially with my wacked out hormones), wrong! Instead, I was drenched with a headache that I would've sworn my head was about to launch off my shoulders at any minute. But E turned out super handsome and so grown up. Goal achieved. My mother got great pleasure in this haircut, because I acted just like him when I was little. So much determination in that little body. I can't wait to see how the Easter Bunny and dentist goes. NOT! The things we do for our children.

E semi-entertained.

By this point I'm sure you are thinking "Dang that kid's a little turd!" But he really is such a sweet boy. He has his flare ups, but overall he is so funny, and caring, and loving, and playful. I love him to pieces, even his fits. They kind of make me laugh, because I see so much of myself in there. My take on it right now is it's a phase. My plan of execution to rid them is to ignore them. I figure if I don't pay attention to them, he'll stop throwing them. I know he will grow out of the fit phase, but until then I will pretend they don't exist. 

Things not to be missed in the first tri

I do believe the first trimester is by far the hardest trimester. When I was pregnant with E I literally just laid around all day. I was tired constantly and nauseated ALL the time. I had no such thing as "morning sickness". I had all day sickness. Well, not much has changed with baby number two, except I chase after a one year old all day. No laying around all day feeling woe is me. By the time I put E down for bed this mama is tired, better yet exhausted! Yet, I am still forever grateful for this sweet baby in my belly. I would take a whole nine months of tiredness and nausea to have a healthy baby in the end. 

Here is my list of things that I will not miss about the first trimester: 

1.  The fear of miscarrying. Never had one. But I am a worrier, and it's always in the back of my mind.

2. Lack of energy. I'm so ready for that second trimester burst of energy! Chasing a wild one year old around while already running on zero cylinders can be trying at times. I find it especially difficult after working all day. Luckily, I have the most amazing husband EVER, and he lets me sneak in hour long naps every now and then. I feel like a different person after those naps.

3. The relentless waves of nausea. This week I learned if I just eat all day I feel less nauseated. That worked for about three days and just when I thought I was over the nausea hump.....BAMMMMM! Yesterday I felt "blah" for the most part of the day. I would keep snacking throughout the day in hopes it would make me feel better. Never really saw any improvement. As a last ditch effort to curve my nausea I decided I had to eat dinner. Leftover red beans and rice. Four bites in and it was all coming back up. Thankfully little man was enjoying his supper in his high chair so mommy could enjoy her volatile hurling all by herself. 

4. The appearance of a fat roll/possibly baby belly. This is always the awkward phase for pregnant women. It's that phase where you kind of start showing, but not really. People easily mistake "it" for gained weight, specifically excess flubber around the mid section. Luckily, I'm not an obsessive weight watcher so this one doesn't bother me too much. I just wear looser shirts. 

5. Sleep intruders. For some strange reason, in the early weeks of my pregnancies I have crazy dreams! Dreams about people dying who I haven't seen, or thought about,  in years. This was one of the first reasons I knew I was pregnant. I'm blaming this on hormone changes.

6. The acne that has decided to pop up ALL over my body. Face, back, neck. You name it it's there. I look like a thirteen year old boy making his flight through puberty. Shooooooot me!

So there it is....three more weeks. And hopefully at least the first three will be gone :) On a more positive note, I'm  going to live it up and enjoy sleeping on my belly while I can!!! Before too long it's going to be too large for tall that jazz. 

My sweet friend Christie got me the most perfect gift. A pregnancy MayBook! I'm a MayBook aholic.

Sorry for the crappy quality- too lazy to bust out the "real" camera. 

Next blog post (hopefully in the next couple of days!) a Valentine's Day recap.

Baby Mo

It's official like a referee with a whistle....there is a baby in there!!! And just ONE! Thank you Jesus. He knows how much I can handle- and I do believe that is not twins. 

Baby Mo's sweet little heart was fluttering away at 155 beats per minute. 

Mo was two days behind on growth for age, which isn't anything to freak out over. As long as baby keeps growing. September 22 is the due date, but considering that is a Sunday, and the fact that I had a c-section with E, baby Mo will probably be born that next week. Unless Baby Mo has a plan of his/her own. Which, being my child, I don't doubt. 

Here are some early fetus photos.

Just a little bean bouncing around in there. :)

I changed physicians with this pregnancy. I was/am still a little bitter about having a c-section, that I felt was possibly unwarranted. But I have a healthy little boy so I'm not too bitter. And I was not pleased with my hospital experience. So it was time  to try something different this go round. I have heard wonderful things about my NEW doctor. I've actually been around her once when my friend had her baby and I loved her bedside manner. I think working in the medical field I hold physicians to a different level and know what I expect out of them. I think Chris and I were in awwww when we walked up to the office. It was a smaller office in a clinic with two doctors and a nurse practitioner in it. There were only two other ladies sitting in the waiting room. At our last doctor's office there were at least 25-30 women in the waiting room at all times, granted there are like five doctors in that office. I felt this office was more quaint and personal. My ultrasound was on time, as well as my appointment. At E's first fetus appointment we had an ultrasound and were told the doctor wouldn't be back for three hours, so we could go run around town and come back. Which is what we did. We knew no better. I understand OBGYN doctors deliver babies and babies come on their own schedule, but goodness! Three hours later?! When Dr. New came in the room I felt like I'd known her forever. 1/4 of the time we talked about baby and the other 3/4 we talked about anything and everything. She was amazing! I am so pleased I took a leap of faith and made a change. This doctor is notorious for delivering all of her babies- which I really admire. I can tell she really loves her profession. And to make everything  even better, she delivers at a hospital other than where E was born. All plusses and no minuses.

On another note, poor E isn't feeling so hot. Not sure if it's teething or virus or an ear infection or what. But he was pretty pitiful today. He perked up after a dose of Ibuprofen. So I'm hoping he sleeps okay through the night and wakes up a new boy. If not, this mommy will be tracking it to the peds office in the morning. I have a feeling the next year will be spent in doctors offices, between E and I. Mid as well get used to it now, I'll probably have an assigned chair at the peds office once numero dos gets here. Stay tuned: next blog post- what I won't miss about the first trimester. 

HUGE HUGE HUGE news

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about some really exciting things coming up for my family and me. Well (drumroll, please) here it is :) 

E'S GOING TO BE A BIG BROTHER!!!!

Very unexpected, but nonetheless we are thrilled and thankful. With E it took us a year and a half of trying to finally have a swimmer worthy to be our E. This time it took one time, yes I said one. God works in a very funny way. The good man upstairs obviously shares my sense of humor, or maybe it's me that shares his sense of humor. I guess you could say we weren't technically trying, but we weren't preventing. I had a sneaky feeling with my crazy dreams, broken out back (yuck), and upset tummy that I could possibly be prego. Not wanting to freak out my worrisome husband, I took a pregnancy test bright and early one morning- 4:45 to be exact- before work. After seeing that bright positive sign, partly out of complete shock, I ran over to Chris who was peacefully asleep and began shaking him and telling him to wake up I need him to look at something. Chris had to get validation from the box. Validation confirmed. Chris's next response, "What are we going to do?" Typical worry wart Chris. I mean what are our options? lol. I'm going to blame his unclear head on his early morning wake up call. My response, "I know what I'm going to do, what are you going to do?!" As you can tell Chris was completely shocked.  A twenty-two month old and a newborn- our life is fixing to get very interesting. What an adventure! From the girl who never wanted kids. What was I thinking?! Life has been so much more fun with a kid, I can't imagine the fun to be had with two. 

Our great reveal was with E in this shirt. Nobody even read the shirt because they were so excited to see E. We had to point out to read his shirt. Jennifer- my SIL- just thought it was a Valentine's Day shirt. That's the effect E has on this family. Center of attention. Hopefully he's willing to share a little of that attention. I know he's going to be a great Big Brother. 

Our first doctors appointment is Thursday. Fingers crossed and prayers answered that there's a sweet little heartbeat fluttering away. I've already noticed many symptoms already setting in. The tiredness has swept over me. My energy level is chilling at a big fat zero. Sleeping isn't as easy as I thought it would be. For some reason I toss and turn all night, possibly hormone changes? Nausea is a frequent lingering feeling that comes and goes. But I know in the end every single bit of it will be well worth it. Just a small price we pay as mommies. 

So the age old question arises, "What do you want, what do you want?" And the 100% honest answer is we don't care. A healthy baby is our only request. Another boy means less $$$ spent (we already have tons of boys stuff) and E will always have a best friend chasing after him. And as Chris calls it, he will have his own camando squad. A little girl means we have one of each and E will always be there to look out for his little sister. 

I can't wait to see zygote Mo on Thursday. Please say a little prayer for us, that all is well.