Bumpdate | 16 Weeks

I was never very good at posting updates about my pregnancy with Claire and I really wished I would have looking back. To add, I've posted a general family update and a 13 month update for Claire so why not throw another update in there so we'll be all up to speed? It feels like the right thing to do.

Baby Development

I'm not sure what size he or she is in terms of a fruit or vegetable (my app updates tomorrow), but the baby is weighing 3-5 ounces and is 4-5 inches long at this point. Last week we were at the size of a naval orange, so think a little bigger. He or she can hear us now, is developing facial muscles and visual perception. Isn't it amazing?

Baby Got Bump

"So I guess I'm really pregnant." That's what I told Joey when the bump finally started to look more bump-like. He said "The three ultrasounds you've had showing a moving baby haven't been convincing enough?" Well of course! The first time you hear that heart beat and see that little baby bouncing around on the screen it hits you that you have a tiny human growing inside you (By the way, how crazy is that?). But you know what I mean, once you start to get that round belly it gets real. And the belly is here. It still could be mistaken for a beer belly, but at least it's a more defined beer belly. I think I'm showing earlier than I did with Claire.

I'm wearing both maternity and regular clothes, but I can see that a full transition is on the nearing horizon as in tomorrow...or after meals.

Symptoms

I'm through the first trimester so I'm also for the most part over the nausea and extreme fatigue. I regressed a little this past week, but I'm hoping I've hit another upswing. The nausea and fatigue were both worse than I remember with Claire, although it could just be that I'm chasing a one year old all day so there's a little something extra thrown in there.

I'm also just getting over pregnancy related allergies. Yes, this does exist. Fun fact of the day. It has to do with fluctuations in your hormones and you can have allergy onset during puberty, pregnancy and menopause. I had horrible allergies/asthma with Claire for about a month and a half and have experienced the exact same thing with this pregnancy. I wake up several times in the night unable to catch my breath and dry cough and gasp for air for several minutes. It freaks both myself and Joey out. It can also happen in the evening such as when I had an attack during Small Group and had to reassure everyone that I did not have Ebola. For the most part it's when I'm trying to sleep. Changing positions doesn't seem to help. It's gotten a lot better the past week so I'm hoping I'm almost finished with this phase.

My moods are returning to normal as well. I had flat emotions during my first trimester with Claire and experienced the same thing with this pregnancy. It's such a weird symptom because you have everything to be excited about, but you're just blah. I don't think I'm an extremely moody person normally (Joey may disagree) and it stinks to feel that way. Meditating on truth from God's word has really helped to say, you know this may be what I'm feeling, but THIS is what is true. Anyway, it's on its way out right now and I am thankful! Hormones. Sheesh.

Cravings

I didn't have any major cravings during Claire's pregnancy, more like leanings toward certain foods. Potatoes were my food of choice with Claire and with the second pregnancy as well. I could eat a loaded baked potato for every meal and be perfectly content. During the first trimester there were a lot of foods that I didn't want such as Chinese food, meat and especially bacon (!). There was a lot that just didn't sound good to me. With the exception of meat, almost everything sounds ok now. Oh, and I like bacon again. Maybe a little too much. I didn't consider bacon in the meat category. Vegetarians can't turn down bacon, right?

Movement

I'm feeling little movements now and then, usually at night. I think I started feeling flutters around 13 weeks.

Girl or Boy

Both Joey and I feel like it's a girl, but what do we know? The only thing I have to go on is that everything is exactly how it was with Claire's pregnancy.

On the radar

This week I get tested for gestational diabetes. I was diagnosed during the last pregnancy at about 25 weeks so this time they'll start testing at 16 weeks. If I pass the 16 week test, they'll test me again at 24-25 weeks. Up until the 23-24 week mark, Claire's pregnancy had been for the most part cake. The diabetes was a game changer. Several other symptoms began to appear about a week or two prior to the diagnosis that I now know were related to the diabetes.

Gestational diabetes seems to be different for everyone. Some have to go on insulin right away and others can get away with all kinds of stuff. People also have different food triggers. I was in that hard to manage category, but I was able to stay off the insulin. I was very strict on the diet and actually had to be more strict than the recommended diabetes diet to keep my levels in an ok spot. It's also more than just a healthy eating thing. You have to eat so many carbs paired with a certain amount of protein. You have to eat meals and snacks at certain times throughout the day. You have to test for ketones once in the morning and test your blood four times a day and record all that plus everything you put in your mouth. In my case and especially toward the end, I had to walk for at least 20-30 minutes, 30 minutes following meals to keep my sugars down. This was all foreign to me and very overwhelming. Again, some can get away without following the system strictly, but I could not. Felt like a full time job and I already had one of those. And like I mentioned, there were other symptoms that came with it. Thankfully, I was able to stay off insulin and Claire was born at a normal weight ten days early without having complications or having to be induced.

So...needless to say, I don't want it again! But...the odds are high. But...not impossible that you may not have it on a subsequent pregnancy. I've heard of several people who didn't have it with their next child and I'm hoping this will be me. The silver lining is that I very well may get to have a diabetes free Thanksgiving if I pass this test and the next test may be the week following Christmas. Skirting this around the holidays would be awesome. If it does happen, well, at least I'll know what to do and hopefully it won't be as overwhelming. And of course, a positive would be that I won't gain as much weight if I'm on the diabetes diet from 16 weeks and on. I'm all the about the silver lining.

Things are definitely moving a lot faster with this pregnancy. I think this has to do with having Claire to keep us preoccupied. With Claire it felt like getting to the point of 20 weeks to find out the gender took forever. Now, we're both thinking it's only a month away! I'm hoping we get to find out the week before Christmas.

Tomorrow we get to hear our little one's heartbeat again! Yay!

One Year and Then Some

The Birthday Girl

Because I'm sure Claire wouldn't appreciate me posting her one year update during her freshman year of college, I'm finally taking care of it today. Have I told you that she is just precious? Joey and I can't get enough of her and we're both surprised her cheeks haven't become concave from the 5.2 million kisses we give her each day. If you see her walking around with concave cheeks in a few years, you'll know what happened. It was out of love.

The last update I gave was at 10 months so this will encompass from that point until today.

Eating

Eating PB&J

Up until about two weeks ago she has eaten most foods like a champ. We must be in some sort of phase. She no longer gobbles down veggies and is now more selective. If cheese is near, she's aware of it. She points at it and looks back and forth between me and the cheese. This Cheese Stand Off happens almost every day. I don't mind her eating cheese, but a girl should only eat so much of it and should definitely branch out. I can see her as a teenager stating that she's a Cheesetarian.

Despite her mother willing her to like avocados (she's a Texan for goodness sake!), they're still a no go. She also refuses to drink milk. I guess I don't blame her. I have never liked milk. Incidentally, she's not really into her bottles anymore either.

She tried her first peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She loved it, but I discovered that we have not quite grasped the concept of taking a bite. She wanted to stuff each whole triangle into her mouth. We practiced with a muffin the next morning with a similar approach.

She prefers feeding herself so she eats mainly finger foods with the exception of yogurt.

Sleeping

We have been really fortunate with her sleeping habits. She still takes two naps about 1-1.5 hours each and sleeps from 7PM to 7AM. I really thought she would have dropped the morning nap by now, but this girl needs to sleep and surrenders immediately. The time change did of course have an effect, but thankfully her wake up time had been moving closer to 8AM anyway so we were back with a 7AM wake up time within a week. She has been a little more fussy the closer we get to her old nap times and sleep time, but it's starting to even out.

Movement

Claire started taking steps about 10 months and it felt like she was running in just a few short weeks. She is like the Flash. For a while she would try to run through things and over things, but rarely around them. We had a lot of bruises during that time. Now that she's a veteran runner, she's more savvy. This girl does not like to sit still for more than 30 seconds unless she is reading a book.

She is also a climber. She pushes things around to use them to climb up to places where she is not supposed to be. I swear she has Inspector Gadget arms because her reach doesn't seem possible.

Play

Reading with Dad

During the last three months she is increasingly truly playing with her toys. She loves books, puzzles, carrying around her stuffed animals, stacking toys, putting items in and taking them out of her purse, and toys that she can manipulate. She also loves playing with empty boxes and bottles.

She's just started paying attention to the TV. It all started with Neil Diamond on the Today Show. She never watches the TV - couldn't care less. So Joey and I have it on in the morning while we're getting ready for the day and she mostly seems oblivious. Enter Neil Diamond. He played Sweet Caroline and she was mesmerized for the entire song. John Cougar Mellencamp has had a similar effect since then. Apparently she likes classic rock'n roll. My Dad would approve. She will watch a little bit of Bubble Guppies while she's eating a snack, but really it's just during the music.

She's a pretty rough and tumble girl. She loves to wrestle with Daddy. I'm also wondering if she will enjoy gymnastics. She tries to do forward rolls, although I've yet to see her flip all the way over.

She also enjoys being outside and running around in the grass. She likes to collect leaves, acorns and sticks which Mommy is constantly keeping out of her mouth.

Independent play has increased significantly and she will go into her room and sit down with her toys or books and be content for 10 minutes or so.

Growth and Development

She's tall and slim. I really thought we would go through a chunky baby stage at some point, but it never came. She's 68% for weight and 98% for height. She now has four top teeth and four bottom teeth and finally has enough hair to hold a clip-on bow.

Language

This has really come along since 10 months. She says "mama" and "dada" and mimics a lot of the sounds we use. She is constantly babbling, talking to her stuffed animals or when "alone" in her room playing. There have been times when Joey and I have thought she has said a certain word in the right context, but we're not positive. When we visited my parents a few weeks ago she seemed to say "Ba" every time the dog was near. Our dog's name is Bo so we're wondering if that's the connection.

Testing Boundaries

Waiting for cookies

Whew! We are definitely in this stage. She is aware of what she is not supposed to touch and tests Mommy and Daddy's consistency in enforcing the rules. I have tried various methods of discipline, but I think we're about to have to go to the drawing board because things are getting real if you know what I mean. Currently, I am holding her hands together in mine for about 30 seconds (which she hates) while we talk about obeying. Her response to this is now going limp on the floor. We'll see.

Affection and Humor

This has developed even more over the last few months. She will now lay her head on Joey's chest when he gets home or when we are putting her to bed. When we hold our arms out and crouch down she will run into our arms and give us a hug. She also occasionally attempts to give us a kiss. It's usually a full open mouth kiss or a lick, but we don't care. We love that we're getting snuggles!

She laughs a lot now and seems to be aware of when she's acting silly. We've noticed a few different laughs. Her belly laughs are super sweet, but what tickles us is when she does her "Hmmph!". It's eerily adult and it's like she's amused with us all.

Cognitive

Looking at birds with Dad

I really don't know how else to term this, so 'cognitive' will have to do. It's so fun to watch Claire make connections between objects, words and actions. When we read she can now point to animals or objects when we ask her where they are. She knows where her nose, ears and mouth are and points our's out as well. She tries to brush her hair with combs and hairbrushes and "talks" on anything that looks like a phone while putting it up to her ear. She knows that her mirror and bracelet go in her purse and the shape pieces go with the puzzle. She puts utensils in bowls and pretends to stir.

This all came out of the blue. She points at things and wants you to tell her what they are. If you've ever watched the old movie The Miracle Worker, the story about Helen Keller, it reminds me of when Helen first realizes that hand signs correspond to objects and runs around touching each object and asking her teacher to sign what it is because she's made the connection. I love it! Although, we are ourselves lost for words at times. Umm...yeah, that's a mark on the wall where we bumped it with a chair when we were moving. Or yes, that's some kind of electrical thing that I don't know the name of. That kind of stuff. Her favorites to identify right now are butterflies.

Cupcake for Halloween

We are having so much fun being parents to this sweet girl! She has a lot of change on the horizon both developmentally and for our family in general. The next monthly updates should contain how she reacts as Mommy gets bigger and slower (!) and we prepare for a possible move.

What We've Been Up To

Let's see, where to begin? How about we go with the order of things? I'm pregnant! We celebrated Claire's first birthday in October. I resigned from my job about three weeks ago and am now officially a full time stay-at-home mom. We're getting ready to put our house on the market. That's about it in a nutshell. The only anticipated thing was Claire's birthday.

So, these are all my excuses as to why I have not been posting to this blog. I've been stunned into paralysis for the past three months. A very active paralysis if it makes sense. If it doesn't make sense, I'm blaming it on pregnancy brain. Just go with it.

I'm about 14 weeks pregnant today. It was an early August night when Joey asked me what I wanted on my pizza to which I responded "I can't even think about that right now." and showed him a positive pregnancy test while balancing Claire on my hip. We ordered the pizza a few hours later when we both recovered from our shock.

We are super excited! It was pretty surprising news. It took three years for us to get pregnant with Claire and although we had discussed growing our family, it wasn't something on the very immediate horizon as in before Claire turned one year. Or so we thought. God of course, has had other plans all along.

I was a little nervous going to the doctor. We've had two pregnancies with two different outcomes. We've received devastating news and over the moon exciting news during that first visit. I walked into that office with peace about both, but hoping for that over the moon moment again. There are few moments in our lives that compare to the excitement and thankfulness upon seeing a little baby's heart beat on the ultrasound screen. It was another over the moon moment! We are so thankful God chose us to be parents to this sweet little one.

This brought us to the point of making a few decisions. Claire's pregnancy was roses up until I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes around 24 weeks. It took a lot of effort to manage my levels and I barely stayed off insulin. I had been working from home part time which was pretty difficult to balance with an almost one year old in the house any way. I worked during all nap times and some while Claire was awake and running around. Joey and I made the decision that it was time for me to resign. I'm thankful that it was an option and fully believe it was the right thing to do for our family. Absolutely no regrets.

The next decision came to the house. We love our house. We love our neighborhood. It's been the perfect size for our family of three. And although a little tight, it would still work with our new little one on the way. However, it just may be that this is the right time to make a move with the current market. After visiting with our realtor and getting an idea of what we're looking at, we'll be shooting for first of the year. Eek. It was so much easier buying a house when we lived in an apartment and didn't have to worry about selling a house. Anyway, if it all works out then we'll move and if not we're perfectly fine with sitting tight.

During all this, my baby turned one. I'll devote an update specifically to this Big Girl in the next few days. Watching her personality develop the last few months has been so fun. She's precious.

Who knew so many changes would be coming our way in a matter of a few months? God has given us peace about each one and we are so thankful.

And now that I'm fully a stay-at-home mom I have taken up knitting, the Real Housewives of Somewhere, wearing my pajamas until noon and am contemplating making my own bread and soap.

Claire just runs wild.

Only two of those are true. Can you guess which ones? Ok, it's the bread and soap, but that's in the Advanced Homemaking class and I have yet to take the prerequisites like Making Dinner Both Parents and One Year Old Will Enjoy and How to Get Smashed Green Bean Stains Out of Toddler Clothing.

It is also true that sometimes Claire runs wild, but now I get to run right alongside her with a little bit more freedom. Many over the moon moments to come!