This Pregnancy

I've realized I haven't blogged much about this pregnancy, which is obviously a huge part of our lives right now!  The first many weeks (6-18 or so) were absolutely awful.  Worse than last time, for sure.  I think I sufficiently covered complaining about that dark time in a blog post a few months ago, so I'll move on.  Starting at about 20 weeks, I completely turned a corner!  I've felt great.  And I've appreciated every day that I've been able to eat normal food and drink water.  Strangely enough, there have been some food aversions that have stuck the entire pregnancy food: mexican food and meat in general have been a little tough for me. The latter part of the second trimester was heavenly and really couldn't have gone better.  One thing that's been especially wonderful this pregnancy is that I've had basically no indigestion or heartburn since 20 weeks; I struggled with that the whole pregnancy with Andy, so that's been wonderful!

I don't remember feeling very uncomfortable with Andy up until the last week or so; this pregnancy, I've been a lot more uncomfortable since I hit the third trimester.  Nothing horrible--just lots of pressure, lots of Braxton Hicks (some that hurt), bad quality of sleep, a lot more fatigue (probably due to chasing Andy around), ridiculous amounts of visits to the restroom (according to the ultrasound tech, this baby is sitting very low), etc.  Still, I'm doing great on the whole, enjoying my tri-weekly three mile exercise walks, though Cameron can attest my pace has gotten quite a bit slower. :)

As far as things at the doctor's office go, everything is looking great!  We had a little scare a few weeks ago, so we're feeling especially grateful for the good health of the little guy. Refresher: In my pregnancy with Andy, I started measuring 2 cm small about 30 weeks.  Ultrasounds revealed Andy was, in fact, pretty small.  The official term was "small for gestational age."  It meant we had lots of extra ultrasounds to measure his growth and had weekly non-stress tests.  Ultimately, he was induced at 39 weeks when it appeared that he'd stopped growing and it would be better for him to live outside of me.  The little guy weighed in at 6 lbs 3 oz.  The placenta turned out to be small, which was deemed the reason for his small weight.  The placenta was sent in for testing.  The results were inconclusive; the doctor said it was likely a fluke and wouldn't be an issue in future pregnancies.  Luckily, there weren't any major consequences for little Andy and he was perfectly healthy otherwise.  However, it did make breastfeeding and sleeping very difficult, as small babies tend to not do as well with either.

Fast forward to now.  The baby and I had both measured normal the whole pregnancy, and then I went to an appointment a few weeks ago about 28 weeks, when I started measuring 2 cm small again.  Eek! I was so disappointed.  It didn't necessarily mean the same thing was happening again, but I couldn't help but feel like it felt all too familiar.  I was sad to think I might have to be induced early again (I really want to go into labor naturally).  I was sad to think that this would probably be an issue for every pregnancy I have.  I was worried that nursing and the baby's sleeping would be so tough again.  Not to mention lots of extra testing.  Obviously there are much worse complications than a small baby, but I still wasn't excited about the same thing happening again.  My sweet mom organized a fast among family members, and thankfully we've now had two ultrasounds (at 28 weeks and 32 weeks) where the baby was measuring normally, above the 50% percentile!  (We also found out he has hair!  And a large head, just like Andy!) We're on track to have an 8 lb. baby.  We are so grateful that everything seems to be functioning as it should.  Third trimester ultrasounds aren't always accurate in determining weight, but we're really encouraged since we've had two of them showing him growing normally.  We are so grateful and happy!  Let's hope it continues!

Andy still has no idea what's going on.  When you ask him where Max is (yes, we're about 90% sure we'll name him Max), he points to my tummy.  But sometimes he points to his own tummy too.  He's in for the shock of his life when we have to divide our attention between two!  I'm sure the two boys will eventually be best buddies, and I'm so excited for that.  But I'm so nervous (and a bit sad) to think that my alone time with Andy is coming to a close.  Still, we are getting so excited for little Max to join us sometime around October 26!

Now for some pictures:

20 Weeks

30 Weeks

20 Week Ultrasound:

28 Weeks:

Sucking his cute thumb!

32 Weeks: (just last week!)

Andy: 26 Months

• He's a big boy!  At his well child visit, he weighed 34 lbs (96%), was almost 3 feet tall (84%), and his head is in the 98%.  
• His language and vocabulary develop and change so much daily.  It's so fun to watch!  I love that he's starting to put more and more words together.  
• I love the cute language mistakes he makes.  He calls dinosaurs "dinosaur train" because of the PBS show.  He calls grapes "cherries."  No idea why.  He calls TV "something" from me saying, "Do you want to watch something?" 
• He is absolutely loving reading lately, especially his library books.  He's liking longer books with more of a plot.  We've been checking out new books each week and sitting and reading them is one of his favorite things to do.  
• Swimming is his absolute favorite thing.  We usually go to the pool at least a few times a week, and he gets so excited.  He loves jumping in the pool, blowing bubbles, and dunking himself repeatedly.  He's a fearless little fish!  He's pretty bossy about where he wants to go and what he wants to do.  Pool trips aren't exactly relaxing, but they're so fun.  We recently got him a puddle jumper, which has been amazing.  He loves the freedom, and I love that I'm not worried about him drowning every second.  He had been jumping in spontaneously without any concept that he actually couldn't swim, so it's been really nice. 
  

• Other favorite activities: splash pads, coloring, play-doh (especially making snakes), library story time, playing with Maya and Amelia, jumping, running, playing with Dad, playing at the piano singing primary songs, puzzles, stickers (which save us during sacrament meeting!) etc. 

  

  He loves his new magnets.

  

  He loves the Elmo coloring activity on the library computers.

  

  Our fridge always has plenty of Andy artwork.

  
  
  

  

  Play-doh activity of choice: tearing it up into small pieces.

• He's definitely in the phase where he must do everything himself.  And he has a very particular way he wants to do everything.  There are plenty of tantrums thrown.  We're learning to cope with this.  Things like he must turn on the lights in the house, he must get in his car seat and booster seat without any help, he has to swipe the card at the store, etc.  He is difficult to run errands with these days: it's battle after battle.  
• He watches about 30 minutes of TV in the morning while I shower and get ready.  I usually ends up being "Super Why" or "Dinosaur Train" because they're usually on PBS.  I love listening to him when he watches Super Why. He's learning his letters, but he still gets quite a few of them wrong.  When they quiz him on the show, he misses most of them.  Does it make me a mean mom if that makes me laugh?  His absolute favorite show right now is "truck" on Netflix, which is actually "Mater's Tall Tales."  
• We took him to his first movie a couple weeks ago! We went to see "The Croods" at the dollar movies, thinking he'd last 30 minutes or so.  He loved the entire thing!  It was pretty cute.  Except he was definitely the loud kid in the movie who identified everything he recognized: "lion!" "tree!" "flower!"
• He loves nursery.  From what we hear, he's a star singer in there.  I'm not surprised; he loves to sing in general.  I love that nursery has taught him to clean up so well.  He loves to clean up and sings the clean up song while he does it.
• He says "1, 2, 3" before he jumps, throws a ball, etc.  He's great at counting in general and loves to count things.  He's counted to ten for quite a while and is now making his way through the early teens.  
• He's still a star at going to bed.  He loves his routine and won't tolerate missing a step.  He loves saying prayers.  He always wants to kneel just like his dad: if dad kneels tall, so does he.  If dad kneels shorter, so does he.  He reads to himself in bed for a while before he sleeps, both at nap time and in the evening.  It's cute to listen to, but he frequently takes 45 minutes to fall asleep.  He is very grumpy after his naps most days because he takes too long to fall asleep.  

  

  It is tough to wake up from naps!

  

  Cutest little sleeper.

• He's starting to be more aware of using the potty, although he's nowhere near ready to potty train.  He's starting to know if his diaper feels a little more full.  He either says, "I pooed" or "No poo" when I go get him in the morning and after his nap.  He's asked to sit on the toilet a couple times, too.  
• Fav Foods: Tortillas (quesadillas), Eggs, Yogurt, Grapes, Cheese Stick, Sandwiches (PB&J), Homemade Bread, Pancakes, Milk (even though he's slightly intolerant?), and Apples (which we take with us when we run errands to buy us time).  He's actually made some major strides in the eating department.  He is a much better eat and will at least try most things that are put in front of him!  I think this in large part because we started letting him have a little more freedom in feeding himself.  We are loving this!

  

  50 cent McDonald's ice cream cones have been a hit.

  

  I can even get him to eat green smoothies if I add a tiny bit of sugar!

• He loves to play with other kids, especially in large groups.  He loves large groups of people in general.  Like I mentioned before, he is especially obsessed wit his buddies Maya and Amelia.  He's starting to be a little nicer and share a bit more too, which is refreshing.  

  

  We love having Maya and Amelia over to play!

  
• I've realized that little Andy has been on an insane number of flights.  27!  And that's not counting layovers as separate flights.  That's a lot of flights for his short 26 months.  Unfortunately, I've been on every single one of them with him, and a good chunk of those I've done alone with him.  
• He gives the sweetest hugs and kisses.  
• One event of the month: Andy's foot injury.  He jumped off our ottoman (like he does 1,000x a day) and landed funny on his foot.  He wouldn't walk the rest of that day.  Basically, we had x-rays done at an urgent care, went to see a pediatric orthopedic specialist, and ultimately he was fine.  He had a limp for a couple weeks, but it gradually improved and now he's running around perfectly fine again.
  
• His favorite songs: He is mostly obsessed with the Wee Sing Sing-Along CD I checked out from the library a couple months ago.  He seriously sings along to most of the 60 tracks.  His favorite song is this gospel song he calls "Heaven."  He asks for it whenever he gets in the car.  He also sings, "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen," which is pretty hilarious.  Other favorites: the ABC song, I am a Child of God, Jesus Wants Me For a Sun "Beep", The Wheels on the Bus, and lots more.  

Andy is the light of our lives and we couldn't be more grateful he's part of our family.  He's such a vibrant little person, and we are loving watching him develop into a little person with so many thoughts, ideas, and opinions.  And some more pictures: (We've gotten better at taking pictures now that we have iphones!)

He is obsessed with these dinosaurs!  Thanks Jaymie and Matt.

Always climbing!

We need to get him one of these: he was obsessed.