Wordless Wednesday

                                                 Fast asleep on the floor of Grandpa's boat

Y3W: Baby Number 2

Y3W: Baby Number 2!

 This is me 10 weeks pregnant with Addison. Notice anything? Ya, me neither. There was a slight bump just starting, but I was the only one who could tell. Actually, I remember Ryan complaining when I asked him to take this picture because he said there wasn't anything to take a picture of.

 This is me 19 weeks pregnant with Addison. Theres a baby belly now! At this point I was getting very sick of hearing "are you sure the baby is okay? you're awfully small for 19 weeks".

Which brings me to this picture..... this is me today, 9 weeks 2 days pregnant with monkey #2. Yep, you read that right, ONLY 9 weeks 2 days... I am actually the same size that I was pregnant at 19 weeks last time. And this is real belly, not bloat. I look like this from the minute I wake up til I go to bed now. CRAZY!!!

 I had my first check up last Friday, and although we didn't really do anything (not much to see/hear at 8 weeks) I did get some paperwork for blood tests and an ultrasound. Like last time, Ryan and I have decided to forgo the prenatal testing for Down Syndrome and Trisomy 13. Reasoning? What's the point? This baby is ours already, and we already love it despite what it looks like and despite any special needs it may have. The testing is very faulty via ultrasound, and an amnio to confirm positive results with a risk of a miscarriage are out of the question. We've talked to parents of special needs kids and have gotten the same advice over and over. "There is nothing you can read and no one you can talk to that will actually prepare you for having a child with special needs. You are better off to just enjoy the pregnancy and God forbid something comes up later, deal with it then. For now, enjoy being pregnant and the thought that your baby is perfect". I agree 100%!

Addison was a breech baby and I had a scheduled c-section for her. While the Dr. was getting her out, he discovered the reason she was breech was because I have a bicornuate (heart shaped) uterus. Which means that instead of being a nice round balloon, there is a septum separating mine somewhere down the middle. I don't have a horrible case, the septum only goes part way down, but it means that there isnt enough room for the baby to turn once it gets big enough to want to be head down. Which means that I will probably have another breech baby. The Dr. wants to know if the baby is on the right or the left side though, which means an early ultrasound! Yay! I can't wait to see the little one squirming around in there. I will be 12 weeks by then, so baby should be nice and squirmy.

Update so far...
Pregnancy Week: 9weeks 2 days
Size of Baby: 1.5 inches, about the size of a prune
Weight gain: None yet
Sleep: Depends on the night. Addison is getting up to eat every night now, so even if I was sleeping well I would still be getting up around 2am for a bottle.
Gender: ??? Not even a guess yet
Names: Addison has kept us so busy it hasn't really even been a thought yet
Feeling: The last two weeks have been pretty great. No morning sickness, and the fatigue has started to lift. Thank Goodness because I was barely making it through the day.
Movement: I swear I felt something the other day, and last night more flutters... very sporadic
Belly Button: Innie still...
Cravings: No cravings, but I have aversions to just about everything. When I think of something that doesnt repulse me, I make sure I eat it right away.
Next Appointment : Ultrasound Oct 13th, Prenatal Appt with Dr. Oct 14th.

Dear Addison, 16 months old already

Dear Addison,

You are 16 months old today. Before I had you, I used to think that people that counted their toddlers ages by months were weirdos, why couldn't they just say their kid was 1 or 2? Or if they wanted to get really specific even 1 and a half would do... but after having you and watching how fast you're growing, I get it. I don't want to let one day slip away let alone an entire month! So you have not been 16 months old until today, and tomorrow you will be 16 months and 1 day old, and you will not be 17 months old until October 20th, and not one day sooner and I don't care if that makes me a weirdo.

You have learned so much in the past few months baby girl. You are talking all the time, and you have a huge vocabulary for your age. You can say:
Mama, Daddy, duck, look, that, bubbles, baby (one of yoru favorite words by far!), uh oh, bubba, yep, quack, belly, night night, hi, bye, dog, no, Elmo, and there are a few more that I can't seem to think of right now. All these words you use appropriately too. If we ask you what a duck says, you say "quack quack quack" and if we ask you what a bear or a lion says, you say "grrr". Daddy's even taught you a pirate says "argh" and you think that is hilarious. You call your grandfathers "Gippa" and Aunt Nikki you call "Kiki".

Your favorite things to play with right now are baby dolls. You LOVE your babies. You walk them around the house in their stroller, you feed them, burp them, put them down for naps, you hug them and kiss them, and you snuggle them on the couch. You even carry your diaper bag around with you and take out your bottles and clothes when you need them. It really is the cutest thing, you are such a good little mommy. You also love stacking blocks and rings right now, and I am amazed that you almost always stack the rings in the right order, from largest to smallest. You are so smart Addison. You are fascinated by your laugh and learn kitchen, that set never gets old, you love playing with your tea set and the kitchen together. You are really starting to play well on your own now, I can usually get the kitchen cleaned after a meal while you play now, and I love that our playroom is right off the kitchen so I can watch you playing. You think it is so funny to collapse into your pile of dolls and stuffed animals, and you fit right in with them. I love being able to catch these small moments that mean so much.

Our morning routine is getting easier and easier for me. You now drink your morning bottle snuggled in with your blankey on the couch while you watch cartoons, and I can get ready knowing you are safe and happy. You really seem to be understanding what is going on in the shows now, and although you don't watch a lot of TV, you do have a preference to what you do watch.

Your personality is showing through nice and strong now. You are hilarious. You just LOVE being the center of attention to anyone who will watch you, or talk to you, and you will do anything to make people laugh. You make funny faces, do acrobatics, and play games all the time. You do have an impatient side though, and you get frusterated very easily if things don't go your way. You are becomming very good at throwing tantrums. You hit, pinch and bite, and you throw your toys and hit them when you don't get your way. You also yell and scream and do your fake cry.

Daddy and I have been joking that we are going to be sending you to kingergarten with bubbas in your backpack. Addison, you are NOT ready to give up your bottles and you are still refusing to eat any substantial amount at any meal, and are still on formula. Every time we try to wearn you from it, you stop eating and we have to start all over again. Sometimes it is because you get sick, but usually it is because you are getting a new tooth and you never eat when a tooth is coming in. Right now you have your two front teeth, and bottom teeth, and you recently cut your eye teeth and two top molars! You cut the last three teeth while you were very sick with croup, and you were our little trooper honey, you were so good about it.

I really hate that I am back to work almost full time again. We only have wednesday mornings together now, and I REALLY miss having our time together during the day to go out and about, and just to play together. Knowing that your little brother or sister is on its way is exciting because I know you are going to be such a good big sister, but I am also a little sad that you will have to give up your position of getting all of our attention all the time. I really hope you adjust well to having to share us.

In the meantime, I am just enjoying every minute we have together just you and me, and making sure that you know you are the most special and beautiful baby girl in the whole world. I still rock you to sleep for all your naps (that I am home for) and every night before bed. I still get up with you at least 3 times a week in the middle of the night because you need a snuggle, or need your blankets put back on or a middle of the night snack. And I don't care what people tell me about letting you cry it out because I love our time together snuggling and rocking like that, and I will take it any time of the day or night that I can get it. You love to be held and kissed, and you always put your hands and feet to my face while I'm rocking you to get kisses. I love it when you do that, and I hope you keep doing it for a very long time.

Addison you will never know just how much I love you, I absolutely adore you, and would do anything for you. You really are my little sunshine. Keep growing strong and healthy monkey moo.

Love your mama
xoxoxoxoxox

 What a big girl riding the 4-wheeler with Daddy at the cottage!

 You LOVE to brush your own teeth! A little too much maybe, Mama can't touch your toothbrush without you fighting for it.

 This will definitely be the last summer you can bathe in the sink at the cottage. You are growing soo fast

 Look at this face! I just love it!

You LOVE to play outside on your climber. Thank you Grammie and Grampie Knight, best present ever!

Wordless Wednesday

Four-wheeling at the cottage with Daddy. She looks like such a little kid now, what happened to my baby?

Pinterest!!

I knew I should have just put my fingers in my ears and started singing when I heard about pinterest. I KNEW it was going to be something I would love and would be a way of eating up so much time that I don't really have. But... of course I looked into it and of course I am now slightly obsessed with it. There will be a new button to link my pinterest page to the blog shortly, but for now, I am tired so click on this link instead:

Pinterest

If you haven't checked it out already, do, you will love it, I promise.

I have lumped in all the things of interest for the new baby under "nursery ideas" I will sort that out later. For now take a look and see what it's all about.

Y3W: Baby on Board!

Baby On Board!

Well it's official, baby number two is on its way!

And since I am getting all of the same questions asked by so many people, here are some answers.

Q. Why now?
A. Because Addison is going to be almost TWO (uh, I can hardly believe it myself) by the time the baby gets here and the child really needs someone to play with. Plus, since the new baby will be born a month before Addison's birthday, if it's a girl, all Addison's clothes will fit the right size for the same seasons saving us A LOT of money on new clothes. If it's a boy, yay we get to spend a lot of money on new clothes! And also, because we were ready for another baby. Addison is growing so fast, and she is getting really (dare I say it) easy to handle, the timing just works for us. We want our kids to grow up close in age so they are interested in the same things at the same times, and so they will hopefully have close relationships as they grow up.

Q. How far along are you? When is your due date?
A. 6 weeks and 2 days. Due April 25th, 2012 (this will probably change after our first ultrasound)

Q. How are you feeling?
A. Awful! Already I am so exhausted I can barely make it through the day, and I already have bad morning sickness.

Q. Is this pregnancy different from Addison?
A. Yes, so much! With Addison I had heartburn occassionally, and if it got bad enough, it would make me nauseous, but that didn't even start until 8-10 weeks and lasted only until 14 weeks. I never really had morning sickness with Addison. This one has been making me serioulsy sick since 3 weeks and it is just getting worse. One good difference is that i haven't really had any heartburn yet, and I am able to sleep every night. With Addison I could never sleep. Huge difference in the size of my belly already too. I am already almost as big as I was when I was 4 months pregnant with Addison! (Not that that says all that much, my clothes still fit and I didn't really look pregnant at 4 months, but makes we wonder what I will look like in a few more weeks!)

Q. Do you think it's a boy or a girl?
A. Honestly I think it is way too early to tell. With Addison I didn't have the feeling I knew it was a girl until about 16 weeks.

Q. Is it different having a second pregnancy after already going through it?
A. Yes, it is so different. No one was surprised this time, people don't seem as excited, and honestly, I find people were much more interested in my pregnancy with Addison, this time it seems like nothing new. For me, the anxiety isn't there, but the excitement is. I am nervous about a lot of things, like how is Addie going to feel, how do I take care of two babies when I'm sick, how are we going to afford daycare for two babies? But I am not worried at all about some of the other things like having a miscarriage, what to expect from pregnancy, how the birth is going to go and if I'm going to be a good parent. That I was nervous about with Addison.

Q. Is this going to be the last child?
A. I hope not! We would really like to have three children, but will probably wait a bit longer than two years before we add the third, we'll see how the next year or two goes!

Q. Do you hope this one is a boy or a girl?
A. Well we just hope it's not twins! That's a hard question, it would be wonderful to have another little girl, we know little girls and we just adore Addison, I would love to see all those beautiful clothes worn again and I think it would be so great for Addison to have a little sister to grow up with. But, it would also be great to have a boy. The first grandson in the family, a little boy that could take Ryan's rough housing a little better than Addir girl does, a new dynamic in the family that a little boy would bring... even if we got to choose ourselves, we would go back and forth too much to ever decide. It's a good thing God makes that choice for us!

Q. Are you going to find out the sex?
A. Yes! Sometime in November.

Q. Are you going to tell people what the sex is?
A. Yes, we suck at keeping secrets

Q. Any names picked out yet?
A. Not really. We still like our original boy name from last time, (Liam Alexander) but don't agree on anything we really love for either. The only girl name that we both like is Danielle, and we don't love it. We probably won't have a name picked out until we know the sex.

Any more questions?

I'll start the weekly posts next week!