ER visit

Last night I was trying to put Victor to sleep and he was trying to get me to take him downstairs to watch cartoons. Did I mention it was 1am? yeah. I kept saying "no no baby, it's nighttime, everyone is sleeping, we need to sleep too." So he starts tugging on my right hand trying to pull me off the bed. He does this all the time so I really didn't think much of it... until it popped. Instantly I pulled his fingers off me and started yelling "no no dont touch me!" I thought he'd dislocated it with the way he was yanking on it and because I couldn't move my fingers.... I went digging for my wrist brace and woke Matt up because I knew I was going to have to go to the ER. We waited for a bit to see if the pain would fade, but after 30 minutes when I still couldn't even uncurl my fingers I decided to go.

Matt had to stay with Victor so I drove myself. Luckily our car is an automatic so it was not too difficult. They got me back pretty quick and right back to Xray which I was kind of freaking about, being pregnant and all. They shielded me and it was just my wrist. My midwife confirmed that Xrays are well moderated now and even if it had been a direct XRay of my abdomen it would have been minimal especially since I'm so far along and Cadie's pretty fully formed at this point. Then I sat and waited for 45 minutes. Until the doctor literally shuffled over, didn't even bother to actually look at my wrist, told me it wasn't fractured (duh) just a sprain and they'd give me a splint. Seriously he talked to me for like, 30 seconds. I freaking hate doctors. I'm sure we'll get a nice hefty bill for that 30 second conversation too.

I've sprained both my wrists before. I have braces for both wrists on standby at all times, but I've NEVER had a sprain hurt this bad. Usually if I hurt one I put the brace on and deal with it for a day or so and then we're all good. For me to say " I need to go to the ER, NOW." You know it had to be pretty bad. Talking to my midwife reminded me too that with my body getting ready to give birth I have all these great hormones running around my body, like Relaxin. All getting my joints and ligaments and stuff nice and loose for the birth process. So THAT's why Victor was so easily able to sprain my wrist so bad. So to all the pregnant mamas, Be Careful!!

I can barely even use my fingers, which is better than earlier today when I couldn't use them at all. And yes, it is my right hand and I am right handed. Even just using them a bit still hurts like hell and Tylenol isn't doing a darn thing. I'm really hoping the worst of this is over in a day or 2 like everyone says it will be. Have you ever tried changing the diaper of a wiggly 2 year old with only 1 hand? It's fun, you should try it.

Happy 32 Weeks!

Had another lovely visit from my midwives today and I got to see all 3! Usually Dorothy and Pia are stopping by in the morning on their way to Angy's office, so this time they all 3 came over in the afternoon. Victor had a great time showing off for them too! He did great while they did my BP (great) and checked out Cadie. She is actually head down and in a great position for delivery so my job is to make sure she stays there. HA! right.

I've officially gained 20 lbs :( not thrilled about that but it's WELL within normal weight gain and still WAY less than what I gained with Victor. So hopefully my gain over the next 8 weeks will stay normal and I'll weigh less after the birth than I did to start with (it's ok, you can laugh).

Can I just say for a minute here that I LOVE Old Navy yoga pants? They are seriously the most comfortable pants ever. I bought a pair while pregnant with Victor and have worn them faithfully for the past 2.5 years. Sadly, they were ready to be retired. I got my new ones today and when I slipped them on "Ahhhhhh!" instant comfort. I think I'll be living in them for the next several months.

I'm still feeling pretty good. Some pelvic/hip/sciatic pain mostly in the evenings or if I've been out walking a lot. An occasional bout of heartburn and some difficulty getting comfortable at night. You know, typical late pregnancy stuff. Mostly I feel good, still running around after Victor and getting out of the house when I can. Loving feeling my baby girl rolling around in my belly! She's still super active and while she's no longer throwing those sharp kicks and punches, there's a lot of rolling and stretching and it's soooo fun :-) I'm totally ready for another 8-10 weeks!!

Sticker Time

He got a new Cars coloring book and it had over 100 stickers. I think we played with all of them!Playing with his sister for the first time :-)
"hmmm... where should this one go?"
"Which one next?"
"Got to find an empty spot!"
Finished product
Victor getting in on the fun.
Oh yea! Covered in car stickers; Life. Is. Good.

Oh what a day!

Today (Monday) was my birthday. I've come to realize that as you get older, birthday are just not as big a deal as they are when you are younger. Now, I'm only 26 today, woo hoo! But, it's just not the same when you are 30 weeks pregnant, have a toddler to take care of, Hubby has to work all day and you are sick with a cold. And since becoming a mother myself I actually find myself enjoying more calling my mom to thank her for carrying me for 37 weeks and giving birth to me. Every one tells me Happy Birthday all day long, but hey, SHE did all the work!! So anyway, Thanks Mom!!! Love you!

So yes, back to my day. As I said, sick with a cold, strange cold though, no sinus congestion at all, just sore throat and cough. So my day began at 5:30am when I woke coughing hysterically and couldn't stop. Rather than stay upstairs and wake someone up I decided to go lay on the couch and watch a movie. Then Victor woke around 8? 8:30? I went to get him and we actually fell back to sleep for awhile. Then we came down and watched cartoons (remember, I'm sick and TV is a great way to get to lay on the couch and do nothing) and I desperately tried to avoid having to do dishes.

Eventually at some point I took a shower and Victor actually got in with me. He's never done that before, he's always been scared of the shower. It was much better than having him stand outside yelling at me though, ha! Then I finally ended up doing the dishes. I knew if I didn't I wouldn't have anything to cook dinner with. Yep, Matt had to work all day and I was making my own birthday dinner. Let me say here that I had made my funfetti cupcakes yesterday, that way I could enjoy them all day today :-)

Around 3:30 I felt a couple of braxton hicks contractions right in a row. Then felt very tight/stretching sensation in my belly. It was strong enough that I was rubbing my belly trying to get it to loosen up, it was fairly uncomfortable. I was cooking dinner at this point (enchiladas, yum!) and feeling intermittent twinges in my belly too. At one point I picked Victor up for a second and had to put him immediately down on his chair ( I keep a chair in the kitchen so he can watch what I'm doing) because I felt pain spread over my whole belly as soon as I picked him up. At this point I realize I'm still having BHCs and each time my belly gets tight I feel pain on the sides of my belly. Not like contraction type pain, sharp stabbing pain.

Side note here: the cupcakes I had left from yesterday had been in the oven to keep them from Victor's quick little fingers. A fact that I forgot until I went to put in my enchiladas and saw my sad little cupcakes burnt to hard little brown rocks. *tear* Sooo sad....

Then the enchiladas are done, I lean over to move Victor's chair from in front of the oven (nothing he could touch was hot, no worries) and the instant I just picked up the chair I had pain, like serious pain all over both sides of my belly. I got the enchiladas out and had to sit down at the table. The pain was coming intermittently about every 3-5 minutes or so. Luckily Matt at this point was just minutes from arriving home. I called my midwife because by this time the pain had been coming and going for about 3 hours and I was currently immobile. She was actually out of town and I got her voicemail. Matt got home, I explained what was going on, I managed to stand up and get myself a plate and then Matt had to help me walk to the couch where I promptly collapsed and texted the other midwife.

She was already in her car from seeing other patients with the midwife-in-training (mit) and they decided to come on over so they could check me out. In the meantime I was instructed to drink something like gatorade and to get in the bathtub to try to relax. Of course as soon as I got in the bathtub all the pain went away and I felt fine. Ridiculous. I texted her to let her know and she said she was almost there and they'd check me out anyway and make sure we were doing ok.

We were supposed to be having a prenatal appt on Wednesday morning anyway so we went ahead and made it my appt. Cadie's heartbeat is great, in the 150s like always, she is a mover, which we also knew and likely won't settle into a head down position until I go into labor (that's my prediction anyway). I'm still measuring 2 weeks ahead, have been for over 6 weeks now so as long as the trend continues we're good. My urine was nice and boring (gross, sorry, lol). and BP still nice and low. However, the pain started to come back while I was there with them.

As she was palpating my belly and we were figuring where exactly the pain was coming from and all that, I was telling them about my cold and that I'd been coughing a lot more today. Our current theory is this: coughing (great abdominal exercise) had aggravated the round ligaments on the sides of my uterus and every time I was having a contraction it was pulling on them, pulling them further out of whack. So not fun, but not serious. She went ahead and checked me, said my cervix is cone shaped at the moment, semi-soft and about 1.5cms at the front but still closed in back so at least now if the contractions keep going and they need to check me again they can tell if my cervix is changing with them or not.

Then after they left the pain came back full force while I was trying to get Victor something to eat. After laying on the couch for awhile I was feeling better. It's kind of coming and going at this point, but since we think I pulled my ligaments out of whack it's probably going to be doing that for awhile till they settle back down. I'm thinking about getting a belly support thingy to help.

I'm definitely starting to feel large (since I'm measuring at 32 weeks, probably not surprising) and Victor wanting to sit on me all the time is starting to drive me nuts. But I'm feeling Cadie move all the time still, she's had hiccups 3 times now, twice just today! I love playing Guess That Body Part! Super fun :-) I'll post a belly picture tomorrow, I know you're all dying for one *wink*

So to sum it up: sick, pregnant, cooked, destroyed cupcakes, pain, midwife visit.... great birthday!

Why, yes! We are planning a home water birth.

I've had a few people ask about it and I thought I would go ahead and put it out there.

Part of me really hates to write this. I mean, people don't go around saying "Hey guess what? I'm giving birth in a hospital!" It's normal. I think home birth should be too and I really don't want it to be a big deal. Because it isn't. It's normal.

This is not a decision that I came to superficially or over night. For 2 YEARS now I have been doing research and reading birth stories and without a shadow of a doubt I know this is the best thing for my baby and myself.

Right after Victor's birth I began reading and doing more research on birth. Honestly, it was within just a couple of months that I knew I wanted a home birth next time. The induction that shouldn't have happened in the first place, being told I was NOT allowed to get up and walk around, mandatory external and internal fetal monitors, the doc who broke my water without telling me and then proceeded to tell me I'd never be able to do it and he'd be doing a c-section, then the epidural I went ahead and got because he said I'd need it one way or the other (and totally pissed me off) THEN that epidural didn't even work during most of my labor anyway, the episiotomy that he gave me on BOTH sides because supposedly I was starting to tear (so what?) and afterwards when he admitted to me that had he known I was going to have a basically 9lb baby he never would have let me labor so long cause he would have recommended a c-section. Then afterwards when I was so swollen and engorged from all the fluid they pumped through my IV and my back hurt soooo bad from the epidural I couldn't even get off the bed by myself ( thank GOD Matt was able to stay with me, I have NO idea how I would have taken care of Victor that night without him) and could barely walk for the next several days.

I know most of you are thinking, "well, that sounds like a typical birth to me.." you know IV, in bed, monitors, pitocin..... But isn't that sad? Shouldn't we expect better than that? Shouldn't we want to be able to walk and change positions? eat and drink as we need to? His birth wasn't terrible, it was a fairly typical hospital birth and Victor was perfectly healthy. I just want something better this time. I don't want typical, I want normal, ecstatic, extraordinary...

Roughly 93-95% of women are considered low-risk in pregnancy and if left ALONE to gestate and labor normally can do so perfectly fine WITHOUT medical intervention. For 7-5% of women medical intervention is absolutely necessary and saves lives, mommas and babies. The problem is, our c-section rate in this country hovers around 30%.... WHY?

I'm gonna go ahead and throw in here: I am NOT trying to convince anybody that this way is better. I truly don't believe it is better for everybody. I simply believe this way is better for US and want to explain the information I have and how I came to this place. I think that everyone makes the best decision for their own situation and as long as you are happy with your particular situation, then I am SOOO thrilled and happy for you.

A little timeline for you. In the 1800s women were giving birth in the street rather than go to a hospital because of the fear of childbed fever. Early 1900s they finally started to recognize bacteriology and applied measures to stop spreading germs (you know, like washing your hands?). In 1914 "twilight" sleep was introduced in America. This is where they would sedate you will your cervix dilated, then give you more ether while "pushing", cut a huge episiotomy and use forceps to extract baby. Sounds nice, huh?

In 1920 Dr. Joseph DeLee became the proponent of this movement in maternity care and made it his mission to save women from the "evils" of childbirth. In 1935 a mere 37% of all births occurred in hospitals. By 1940, only about 50% of women were birthing in hospitals. It wasn't until 1950 that the majority of births (about 88%) were occurring in hospitals.

It's only been the past 60 or so years that most births even took place in hospitals!! And did you know that the CDC says that the maternal death rate is the highest now that it's been in decades? Wow. Connection? Maybe, more research is really needed to find out why. They speculate that the rising number of c-sections may have something to do with it, plus poor nutrition, the high rate of obesity as well. I personally believe that there is TOO MUCH medical intervention and not enough believing in our own ability to birth babies the way God or nature (however you believe) intended.

Oh boy this is getting waaay longer than I thought.....Kudos if you're still with me!

Anyway, I have the most amazing team of midwives. From the very first time I met with them I felt like I'd known them for years. They hugged me and we talked and they shared my outrage at the things the other doc had said to me at Victor's birth about not being able to do it. The lead midwife has a Master's degree in nursing and worked in a hospital based practice for years before deciding she couldn't take it anymore and switched to her private home based care practice. Since then she has attended more than 200 births. The second midwife is a certified professional midwife and there is also a midwife-in-training working with them. All are certified in neonatal resuscitation and CPR. I feel incredibly safe with these women and I KNOW without a shadow of a doubt that this is the BEST decision for us. And yes, for those that worry, she maintains a collaborative agreement with a local OB/GYN in case the need for medical care arises. The hospital is only 7 minutes away and their "decision to incision" time (should the need truly arise) is less than or the same as if I were actually in a hospital already.

I remember with my OB I'd see the nurse for a few minutes and then wait for the doc who I'd see for, like, 5-10 minutes, and then leave. My appts with my midwives usually last about an hour or more. And they've come to my home several times already. We talk and laugh and tell stories and they really spend time with me and know me and I know them. I could NOT ask for better care from anyone. Any time I've had a question or concern I call and talk directly to one of the midwives, no nurse or any go-between. It's lovely. It also helps that I'm super healthy. Better even than with Victor. I've only gained about 14lbs, my blood sugar is great, my blood pressure is nice and low. We walk every day. I attribute a lot of this to being in such great hands with my care givers.

Some serious Pros to home birth:

1. I'm in my own home. Total comfort. I dont' have to go anywhere, or worry about when to leave. The midwife comes to me.

2. I can eat or drink as I need to

3. No IV, No stuck in bed, no monitors

4. I can move around, walk, change positions however my body tells me I need to.

5. I'm gonna have a big birthing pool set up in the dining room and I can get in the nice hot water when I want and even give birth in there (which i intend to do).

6. Victor doesn't have to leave me. My mom will be here the week or so before my due date and will be able to take care of him while I'm in labor. My next door neighbor (who is an angel) will be able to take them in her home if Victor needs to be somewhere else. I figure the most he'll be away from us is a couple of hours. He and my mom can meet little Cadie within minutes of her being born.

6. The midwives handle all the newborn care, just as if we were in a hospital. They handle APGAR scores, any tests, bathing etc. Granted there are several procedures we will be declining but still, anything a hospital can do for a newborn (besides actual NICU) they can provide in my home.

7. The midwives carry oxygen, pitocin, IVs, saline all kinds of medical supplies. Basically they carry a portable birth center with them so they can manage anything that may arise.

One thing I noticed people say about natural childbirth "just get the epidural, it's not like you're gonna get a medal afterwards..." It's not about that. Or anywhere close. I believe in the power of my body to do this. I want to fully experience the birth of my baby as it was intended, as women have been doing for thousands of years. I want the joy of feeling my baby moving through my body and being an active participant, not just a passive observer while someone else takes charge. No. I will be in charge. My baby and my body, we will do this together.

Someone out there is still thinking "holy crap, she's crazy." That's ok. You don't have to agree with me. You do what's best for you and I'll do what's best for me, that's all we can do.

my little artist.

Yes that is my leg (ha!) And that is the person that Victor drew on me. Body, arms, legs, circle (head), eyes, nose, mouth and a squiggle up top for hair. He started doing this months ago and they are already significantly better than they started out. Within the past 9 months they went from big blob bodies to this more streamlined version you see here. He's done better ones on paper but this was just the only one I had a picture of! My sister-in-law was telling me how advanced that was, but I didn't really think anything of it till I looked it up myself. Apparently at 2 most kids are just starting to draw circles and blobby people don't typically emerge till 3ish. So right now his skills on this level are between 3-4 year age range. He also knows most of his colors and shapes. He can count things up to 10. This morning I was pouring pancakes on the griddle and he counts, "1,2,3,4,5 cakes! cirks mom cirks! (circles)" He will count the stairs as he goes up "1,2,3.." up to 10, then come back down "10,9,8..." back down to 1. He pretty much amazes me on a daily basis.

Oh and funny thing!! He's been doing "flips" (somersaults) for awhile, but he would put his head down and kind of fall over sideways (hilarious, btw). But within the past couple of weeks he has actually started to roll head over heels and he can do it at will now. We tell him "do a flip!" and he puts his head down and flips right over, then stands up and claps for himself, so cute! The other day he started doing flips, and was counting while he did it. Flip (1!) flip (2!) flip ("3! 3 flips! yay!!")

I love this age, he learns something new every day and basically blows me away. I'd love to get him into a Montessori preschool program next year, but unfortunately we can't afford nearly $3000 a year for that!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Matt and Slappy say "Hi!" Happy Thanksgiving to all, I hope everyone has a wonderful day!!

My little boy

almost a year ago, last January... still so much a baby! And now...

He's really my little boy!! Look how much he's changed....

I feel bad that I don't post many pictures of him anymore, but our camera was broken. Every time we tried to turn it on it would say Lens Error and shut back off :-/ pretty sure that was my fault for letting Victor play with it.... So I figured since it was already broken there was no harm in letting him still play with it. Apparently he fixed it!! He handed it to me last night and said, "mommy mommy! CHEESE!!" I went to take his picture and Whoa! It actually worked!! Cool! So expect more pictures from now on :-)

Love his "Cheese!" face! I think I have the most beautiful little boy... but doesn't everyone? *wink*
**edited to add** I meant, doesn't everyone think their OWN kids are the most beautiful, lol, not that you all think my kid is :-P

There are 50 states...

See how West Virginia is NEXT to Virginia? Yes, it really is its own separate state!

I can't tell you how many people I've seen, back home or just out-of-state that say

"oh how do you like Virginia?"

and I say "Well, Virginia is ok, but I live in WEST Virginia."

"Oh... Isn't that just western Virginia?"

"No. No it's not."

It's a state people. I promise.

26 week midwife appointment

There is the obligatory belly shot. 26 weeks and I'm actually measuring at 28 weeks. Of course I've also gained 8 lbs in the past 5 weeks since my last appt, so my midwife was not surprised, she said a mid-late 2nd trimester growth spurt is very common. Plus it brings my total weight gain up to 12 lbs so far, so really it's not that bad. I figure even if I gain 1 lb a week for the next 14 weeks it puts me up to 26lbs, which is normal. Granted it's more than I'd like, but still only HALF of what I gained with Victor, so I'll be thrilled.

They also checked my blood sugar at this visit. One of the great things about midwives is that I don't have to drink that nasty sugar stuff and have them draw a billion vials of blood. I just fasted for 8 hours before the appt and she pricked my finger to check it on a monitor. They like it to be below 95 and mine was 97, so just slightly elevated. They are checking me again in 2 weeks (they would be checking me again no matter what) this time 2 hours after I eat. If still just slightly elevated they'll probably just give me a monitor so I can check it on a regular basis to get a better baseline of what's really going on but I wouldn't be sent to a specialist or labeled GD or anything.

Cadie was actually head down this time, which I knew from where she was kicking me, and I certainly don't expect her to stay that way yet. She's still my little hurricane! Did I mention that this was a home visit? Yes, my midwives came to see me :-) I love them. So I was afraid that Victor was going to freak out with them touching me, he doesn't really like that. When they checked our iron at our WIC appt 2 weeks ago, he was more upset about them pricking my finger than he was about them sticking his. So yes, I was afraid he wouldn't handle it well and had my neighbor on stand by in case I needed her to watch him. Thanks to a fluke where Victor was up for an hour and a half in the middle of the night, he actually slept through most of the appt. He woke up just while she was measuring my belly. He came down with Matt just as she was starting to find Cadie's heartbeat. For just a second we thought he was going to cry, but then we were telling him that "it's Cadie's heartbeat, it's your sister! Doesn't it sound like a train?" and he just sat there watching with a slightly perplexed look on his face. So cute though, I had to look away from him because I kept laughing!

I see them every 2 weeks now! Crazy!

And so I shall leave you with these:

Victor was watching Toy Story, so he lined up his cars and told them "Sit! watch!"

Yep. that's Victor wearing my red heels. He walks pretty well in them. Love him :-)

Hear me roar!

This. A thousand times this.

I remember getting my first three little stripes with Victor. I was putting lotion on in front of the mirror and happened to see them on the underside of my belly. I cried. I had stretch marks just from going through puberty so I knew I was probably going to get them, but still... I cried. Eventually I ended up with them pretty much everywhere. One day I had 3, the next the were everywhere, or so it seemed.

This time, I don't care. First of all, they are already there. For 2 years now we've gotten to know each other, they are simply a part of me. Secondly, I've come to see them as evidence of what my body is capable of. I grew a HUMAN BEING in my womb! How cool is that?!?

So bring 'em on!!

Trick or Treat!

Victor had soo much fun! Until he got cold anyway. Then he was a screaming tantrum throwing little stinker (though I can't blame him, he hadn't had a nap either). But I digress. I originally wanted to make him a costume like this:

The main component of this costume is an oversize red sweatshirt with it's arms cut off. BUT, did you know that it's apparently IMPOSSIBLE to find a plain, red sweatshirt anywhere?!?! I mean seriously, it's such a basic thing I honestly did not think it would be an issue. yea, it was. So i kind of had to go a different direction:

He's my "Handsome Lil' Devil". Red turtleneck, red sweater vest, red boots, tail (that you can't see, but I think that was my favorite part), horns ("hat!") and scepter ("stick!"). I still think he looked adorable, but still wish I could have made the other one work. Maybe next year when I have a 3 year old and 8 month old (*faint!*) I'll try to plan a little better in advance.

Once I finally got him dressed and handed him his bucket, I tried to explain what was going to happen. He was really excited and dying to go outside. Even though we were waiting for the neighbors we went ahead outside for him to run around a bit. He kept yelling "Tri! Tree!" and running up and down the sidewalk. One of the neighbors tried to give him some candy but he freaked and ran back to me, haha! At least he knows he shouldn't take candy from strangers! I tried to explain to him that it was ok this time because it was Halloween. Once the neighbors came out and we were all ready, he got to watch Andrew (almost 4 y/o) and picked up on the idea real quick.

He had SOO much fun running from house to house!! It was kind of cold, and once it got dark it got much colder pretty quick. We were out for about an hour and a half and only made it around 3ish blocks? He was pooped and so cold by the time we called it quits and headed back. He climbed up in the stroller and I pulled his sweater over his head. That made him soo mad!! But he was so cold he wasn't moving his hands anymore :-) so I made the executive decision that he was going to wear the darn sweater for the 3 blocks it took us to get home.

He threw a tantrum of course, he wanted me to carry him, partly because I could help keep him warm, but I just can't carry him like that now. Once we got him home and he sat on the couch and warmed up, he was fine. We'd had dinner before going out so he got to eat a few pieces of candy and Matt and I freely pillaged his candy as well, Ha! Shortly thereafter we did bath and then he pretty well passed out for the night. I wish we could trick or treat every night so he'll always sleep that well, HA!

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you all had great nights!

P.S. I didn't think that trick or treating for 3 blocks would be that physically tiring, but I am sore this morning! I guess I'm just THAT out of shape right now, ugh!

belly comparison

24 weeks with Victor
24 weeks today with Cadie

i think I look closer to my 27 week pic with Victor.

What do you think?

I've been feeling great up to this point so I really can't complain too much. I finally hit that spot where I'm really feeling pregnant. I can no longer work around my belly as if it's not there, she's definitely in the way!! Or to feel her kick me every time I bend over, apparently I'm in HER way! I've started having some sciatic pain this past week. I've also noticed it's worse at the end of the day, especially if I've been holding Victor a lot. Unfortunately I'm trying to cut back on that, which I hate, but my body doesn't need an extra 33 lbs sitting on one hip, ya know? We're trying to do lots of lap hugs and cuddling on the couch while mommy rests.

What ways did you find to help your toddler through this transition? Any ideas for me?!

Hurricane Cadie

Victor wanted to get in on the action :-) He stood there yelling "CHEESE!!" Why couldn't he have done that when we took family pictures last week?!

23 weeks now! I still feel great, although just realized tonight that I'm starting to feel a bit..um.. heavy? awkward? not sure what the right adjective is here, but all you mommies now what I mean :-) But I really do feel good, other than the occasional ligament pains and some back pain when I've been holding Victor too long, it's been a great pregnancy so far. As my midwives and I like to say, "I'm boringly normal." And can I just say, I freaking LOVE my midwives. They are amazing and I could not ask for any one better to help us birth.

Cadie (Cadence Marie) is a maniac! I had an anterior placenta with Victor and never really felt regular movement until my 3rd trimester. This time my placenta is placed properly in back and she's just crazy! I felt her for the first time at 14 weeks, started feeling her regular daily little taps at 16 weeks, felt her on the outside of my belly at 18 weeks and a few days later at barely 19 weeks she was kicking hard enough that Matt got to feel her. She moves SOOO much. At my 20 week ultrasound the tech was hilarious, she kept laughing because every time she'd get a shot of something she needed, Cadie would move on her. it took her a good 15-20 minutes to get the right shots of the heart because Cadie was moving soo much. She completely flipped position at least twice while we were there.

At my last midwife appt it took about 5-10 mintues to find her heartbeat because she was moving around so much. The midwife-in-training said that it sounded like a storm in my belly and I said "oh yes, Hurricane Cadie is coming!" and I've been calling her that ever since. I've never once had a moment where I wondered if she was ok, because I seriously feel her moving ALL. THE. TIME. And I just LOVE it. Although a little part of me is scared because, what's it going to feel like in 5 or 6 weeks when she's even bigger?! But I can't wait, I'm so excited. I sooo love being pregnant this time around. Bring on the babies!!!

2 Years Old!

It just doesn't seem like it's been 2 years! He's still my baby, my sweet lil angel.... It's hard to believe that he's really growing up, I mean, in just 4 months he's going to be a big brother! *sigh* So strange...

But these 2 years have been wonderful. I wouldn't change them, not one minute, for anything in this world. The awful nights with his reflux at first, then the ear infections, the tubes surgery, finding the lump in his hand, the MRI, then surgery on his hand, HFM now twice.... All the hugs and kisses, cuddles, giggles, tickles, falling asleep next to him and waking up with him cuddled up next to me, all those hours spent nursing and just holding him in my arms....

Oh I love my little boy so much, he's so sweet, so funny and he's going to be such a great big brother!

Argh, Packing!!

I hate packing. I've been making lists for weeks now of what to take, what goes in each bag, what goes in the carry on, last minute things to pack, things to make sure we do to the house before we leave...etc.. I swear all the stuff you have to bring for kids makes it twice as much. I think Victor is bringing more stuff than Matt and I combined, lol. Most of that is stuff to try and keep him entertained on the planes!

Yes. PlaneSSSS. We have a 1 hour flight to Atlanta, then a 4HOUR flight to Salt Lake City, then another 45min-1hour flight into Idaho Falls. The little ones I'm not worried about at all. I know he'll get to run around the airport some between flights too. It's the 4 hour one that makes me sweat a little. He doesn't even do well during the 4 hour drive to Cincinnati. Actually he did ok the last time, but we stopped every hour to let him out and run around. We have crayons and paper and a few toys and snacks and the DVD player of course... I'm hoping if the seat belt sign is off some he can maybe run up and down the aisles a bit.... as long as he's not obstructive of course. I just keep telling myself that it's only 4 hours and worse case scenario he screams the whole time... it'll be over eventually, right? We get in about 12:30 local ID time, so that should be perfect for him to get there and pass out for a nice long nap. Because you know my child, who won't even sleep in the car, will NOT be sleeping at any point during this trip. Hopefully we will have a minimum of melt downs!!

Everyone wish us luck!! And I'm hoping to visit with people so let me know if you want a visit!! I shouldn't even be typing right now! I have to finish PACKING!!!!

The results are in!

Thanks to everyone who voted! As I mentioned before, everyone who guessed correctly wins a prize. The best prize a person can get. You are safe in the knowledge that you guessed correctly. What person doesn't like to be RIGHT (all the time)? So, who won?

Well, as the ultrasound progressed we were thinking more and more that it was a boy cause we kept seeing a flash of something between the legs. Problem is, baby was being very stubborn with its legs crossed and pulled up over the tummy. Baby was moving around lots and this was making it hard too because every time the tech got a glimpse, baby would move away. BUT, we did get a couple of shots. Like I said, Matt and I both saw something and we were thinking boy, however the tech said she knew what we were seeing and actually she was pretty sure it was a GIRL!!!

She showed us the 3 white lines that indicate the labia and the vaginal canal, plus there was nothing that looked like testes or a penis. Also, another shot from the side showed between the hip bones and you could see the hollow spot between them where with a boy it is solid. But like I said, little girl was being stubborn (or as Matt said "she's being a good girl") and had her legs tucked up so the tech couldn't get a good shot from the front. She told us she was sure baby was a girl, but since she couldn't get a better shot from the front she wouldn't tell us 100%.

So, 95% it is a little GIRL, but we have another appointment after we get back from Idaho, on Sept 9, to check again and see if she can get a better look. The really nice thing is that they didn't charge us for today's appointment since we are coming back. How's that for service? I highly recommend all in the Charleston area to go see them, they are great!

Last Chance!

We have our ultrasound tomorrow at 8:30am and the poll closes tonight at midnight! If you would like to officially cast a vote as to whether you think Baby Meyers #2 will be a boy or girl, better do it fast!!

All who win will receive the immense satisfaction of being RIGHT.

Coming to visit next week!

Ok all my Idaho friends! We are coming next week for our visit! We get in on Tuesday the 30th and don't leave till Wednesday the 8th. I really would love to try and visit with as many people as we can so please let me know if you want to try and get together.

I'm really looking forward to this trip. I haven't been back since Christmas of '06, my senior year in college, Matt has never been near the area and Victor hasn't either, of course. I read about and see pictures of all my old friends families and am just dying to finally meet all these beautiful people I read about! We are going to be going to the Chukar's game on Thursday night and then we are going to the fair at some point too.. although I don't know when yet. Kind of sad we won't be there for Spud Day, cause you know I'm just DYING for Matt to see it!

Cheese!!!

Gotta love spaghetti for dinner!

belly belly

So I'm really starting to feel pregnant now. I mean, I don't "feel" it, meaning, I don't feel like I'm carrying any extra weight, I'm not terribly achy yet and (sadly) I'm not feeling any movement yet, so I just have this little baby belly that I'm carrying around with none of the (not so?) fabulous side effects. I did discover something interesting though.

This picture is of me pregnant with Victor at 19 weeks.
This picture is of me pregnant with Victor at 21 weeks.
This is me today, pregnant with mystery child, at 14 weeks.
I'm huge. lol. Is it just me or am I carrying much lower than last time? Oh well, only 14 weeks, still plenty of time to move up.

But I'm totally in The Zone. I still get a little tired and can easily nap with Victor in the afternoons, but no sickness, no real aches or anything. For the most part I feel completely normal, just a little more awkward in some ways, lol. Of course, Victor doesn't notice anything different and still jumps on me, climbs on me and generally still tries to treat me like a jungle gym. We've been doing our best to deflect those games to daddy, but he still thinks I'm great fun. Hopefully as I get bigger he will understand a little better!! I'm soooo grateful that I'm going to be spending my hugely pregnant months in the middle of winter when I don't have to chase him down the road to the park!

Babies

Every Thursday and Friday I babysit for a friend and watch their little girl, Ellie. Usually when she goes down to take her nap she takes a little pink teddy bear with her. Well, after seeing Ellie with it for a while, Victor decided he liked it too. After my ultrasound 3 weeks ago I'd been talking with him about the baby in my belly and showing him the pictures and explaining where the baby was. He decided that the teddy bear was his baby.

Then at Christina's house (my next door neighbor who is totally fabulous) Victor and her boys, Andrew and Bryce, were playing with their dolls. She also has a daughter who is 7 so there were several dolls and stroller and things, and these boys were just having a blast!

So, back at home, he'd been carrying around the bear and helping it go "ni-ni" (night night) and it was really just the cutest freaking thing.

Then this week Ellie brings an actual baby doll with her... and Victor just goes crazy, he LOVES that thing! He played with it way more than Ellie did, it's a good thing she was more than happy to play with the teddy bears because I'm not sure I could have pried that thing out of his hands.

We went to Wal*Mart last night to get a couple things, nothing major, mostly I just needed stamps and wanted to get out of the house. I told Matt I wanted to get Victor a baby and Matt just groaned and (totally joking) says "No, no dolls in the house, ever!" I laugh and ask him what he's going to do if we have a girl who is super into dolls and he just sighed and said he guessed he'd allow it. LOL. I'm fairly determined that Victor is going to get a baby, maybe not that night, but sometime soon. We walked down the toy aisle and there was this bin of little $4 dolls. I picked one up and showed it to Victor. It was a

ll over. He snatched it out of my hands and cries, "BABY!!!" and squeezed it so tight... There was no way I was putting it back. Matt sees it and says "oh great." then he laughs and comments how cute it was especially when Victor was upset cause he couldn't get the baby's hat back on. I just told him that Victor is practicing to be a good daddy (or mommy I guess, should he decide to go that route.. LOL) and that he's learning from the best <3

All night last night he was not far from his baby and even took it to bed with him. This is how he fell asleep

I just LOVE to watch him with the baby and to see him play with Ellie or any kids really... It just makes me that much more anxious for him to have a sibling cause I know what a good big brother he is going to be!!

Haircut

We have never given Victor a real haircut. Unless you count the 2 or 3 times that I've chased him around the house with a pair of scissors trying to cut off his little rat tail. His hair was so long it was getting knotted when he was sleeping and was starting to curl a bit when it got wet. I was driving me CRAZY! We talked about cutting his hair all the time, but anytime we got near him with scissors or the clippers he would flip out.

Every time Matt cut his hair, we would have Victor watch and let him hold the clippers if he wanted, while on or off. and still, freak outs. Finally, we decided that it was just time and we needed to do it.

Matt ended up holding him down cause I couldn't hold him tight enough (that's how much he was fighting us!) and I used the clippers. We did go back and forth a little though. I think it was just the noise from the clippers that was scaring him the most. But as soon as it was over he was fine and dandy! He got in the bath tub and had a nice bubble bath and then he got a couple of graham crackers while he got to watch his favorite cartoon.

Finished product! I didn't take a before pic, but you can kind of see in some of his other pics how long his hair was. We took off about 2 inches! It looks soooooo much better!!!

A couple of pictures

I found my camera the other day and took the battery out, charged it and was so proud of myself for remembering to do so. Of course it was actually Matt who made me do it "right now!" otherwise I probably would have forgotten, but whatever (hee hee..). So then it's all charged and ready to go and I turn it on and go to check what pictures are on it from forever ago and.... it doesn't work. It keeps whirring like it's trying to work the lens and then says "Lens Error" and promptly shuts back off. So.... now we are going to have to get a new camera....

In the meantime we figured out that I can send pictures on my phone to the online album and I can get them on the verizon website. Yes, I've had the phone for over a year and a half now and we JUST figured this out. So, here are a few pictures that are from my phone in no particular order. As you can imagine they are not the best quality, but it's better than nothing!!!

me at 12.5 weeks. fully in maternity clothes and loving them! I may truly be one of the few that honestly LOVES maternity clothes. they are sooo comfortable!

Little baby at 11 weeks. If you are good at reading ultrasound pics, you can see its little hands and feet and on his/her head where the eye, nose and mouth are. I can not wait to see little baby again in a few weeks!

Victor was helping me make chocolate chip cookies. I got a new recipe from my next door neighbor Christina (best neighbor EVER btw..) and they were freaking AMAZING!!!

This is how Victor would prefer to spend all his time. Naked except for socks and shoes. yes, he loves his socks and shoes.
We go for walks at LEAST once a day and every time we walk past this lady's house Victor stops and gets down to look at the frog statue she has. he says "Frog!!" after this we got him some froggie pajamas and now whenever he wears them it is impossible to get him out of them the next morning and he ends up wearing them all day until his bath, lol.

Hopefully I'll have some more pics soon!!

oh and... we are coming to Idaho! We get in August 30 and leave Sept 8. Matt has never been that far west and I haven't been home in about 6 years so this is going to be AWESOME! I can't wait to see everyone!