Nesting

I don't know if I have been nesting or just getting panicked that baby 2 could arrive any day. At my 36 week check up on Monday I turned out to be 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced. Basically, the doctor said she could come any day but would probably be at least 5-10 days early. I'm hoping to at least make it to 38 weeks which would be March 26th (official due date is April 9th). I ran on Monday too, before my appointment, total of only 26 min broken as 2x13 min which walking before, after and inbetween, but it is definitely getting harder and more uncomfortable. Not to mention on Sunday I carried P about 1/2 mile along with her scooter home from the park since she didn't want to walk or ride the scooter. That was probably more difficult than the running to be honest. :)

Either way, we got P's new room together and she is in there now and seems perfectly happy. We have told her there is a new baby coming but she doesn't understand at all. She does like to put all of her dolls/stuffed animals to sleep by flipping them on their bellies and covering them up with a blanket, then smacking their backs really hard saying "nigh nigh". I think this is one of my biggest fears, that she will try and do that to the baby!

Her vocabulary has gone through the roof. She talks a ton now, and I can understand most of it. Still some words I have no idea, but she does do really well with most words and putting words together. She loves to read books and look at them and play music and dance as well as color. Lots of fun at the house right now. She still though has become really picky with food. She has stopped eating bread too. She loves cheese and yogurt though as well as hot dogs (which I'm not crazy about the fact that she eats these). Some days though she eats a ton and other days not as much. She is also picky about what she will try. I cut up a piece of cantaloupe, melon and pineapple for her and she only ate the cantaloupe but wouldn't even touch the other stuff.

I have pretty much got the nursery back in order. I have washed so much clothes in the last week, all of P's baby stuff and sheets and blankets, burp clothes, ect. And I finally managed to pack a hospital bag and get the infant car seat back out and washed too (not in the car yet). In addition, I got all of P's stuff in order for who is to take her at different times provided my MIL isn't here yet. And finally, yesterday I got 5 freezer meals put together for post baby. I might get ambitious and try to do another round of perhaps 5 more come next week.

Been meaning to post this...these are from a birthday party last month at a bouncy house place. P LOVED it!! The video is absolutely priceless (if I can get it to work)! I've actually taken some more photos in the last week, hopefully I'll get those up this week/weekend.

Lazy

Wow...I've really been lazy on the posting. Even worse...I still haven't taken any pictures of P. :( I do however have a couple good videos on my phone I need to upload on here from a birthday party we went to a couple weekends ago. Maybe next week when I have some time, maybe.

I give my final exam today which is crazy. I technically don't have any more work to do after today. But I do have a lot that I would like to get done in the next month before baby 2 arrives. We'll see how productive I can be after a girls weekend and then a trip to a math conference next week. Then its get down to business with some research, 5th year review stuff for work and getting the house in order. Which entails getting P moved into her new room to get adjusted and making a bunch of freezer meals as well as some cleaning I guess.

On the exercise front, I'm hanging in there but man its getting rough. This week I finally had to slow down past 10 min miles, for that though I am super proud of myself. I am 5 1/2 weeks out and I was hitting way slower paces at this point with P. I am only running maybe 15 min at a time and then walking and over the course of the week only running maybe 45min to an hour. The rest is walking and the elliptical. But I just keep telling myself to keep going and hang in there. It is going to make it easier post baby. Plus it doesn't help that my weight is now at what I was at with P and I know I probably still have another 5 pounds perhaps and I definitely don't help myself with ice cream addiction-occasionally having two bowls at night. :) At least I have an excuse!

P is growing up fast it seems. She has much more of an attitude now and has become extremely picky when eating. She has officially learned the word no which is her answer to almost everything. Most nights, it is a struggle to get her to eat something that is not crackers. Most of the time she wont even try whatever it is we are eating, just screams no and gets upset if we put something on her plate she doesn't want. Oh well. Hopefully she'll come back around to eating well again!

Getting Better

I think we are on the mend. I ended up getting a bit sick but it was very short lived and actually don't know if it was related to what P had or to baby 2 hitting a nerve in my back that shut me down on Friday. Although P is still a bit on the cranky side, I think she is definitely feeling better. The stellar parents that we are gave our child cookies and ice cream for dinner last night since she wouldn't eat hardly anything and the medication she has to take she has to take with food. But she needs the calories too after not eating much for the last week. This morning though she took down a whole nutragrain bar plus a few bits of banana and then ate cheerios at school when she got there which is a good sign.

Still no pictures from me...but I did get a picture sent from daycare this morning as they decided to try out a ponytail in her hair (she won't keep bows in):

Getting Sick

As long as P has been around, she has been really healthy. Hardly ever getting sick, only a few times really getting high fevers, really only a few trips to the doctor for sick type things in almost 19 months. Unit this past week. Last Wednesday she had a fever at daycare so I left work to pick her up. No other symptoms for 5 days but an up and down fever. I thought she was done with this virus on Monday so I sent her to daycare hoping she would make it through the day, but no, she ran a fever and had to go get her. Luckily, I had made an appointment for the doctor in the afternoon anyway just because I wanted to double check. Lo and behold, ear infection. First one, which is apparently pretty good at 19 months old.

Monday night antibiotics and yesterday EZ stayed home with her, by the time I got home she seemed pretty good and happy. Very playful in bath and everything. Good deal I thought, maybe I would stay home half a day today with her and then take her in if things were going good. As I laid her down to sleep in her bed she threw up all over the crib. Yikes, she was a bit scared, but ok after I gave her a little water. First thought was the medicine, or just too much milk with running around and guzzling bath water.

An hour later she cried out and I looked on the monitor and she was standing there in her crib, then she roamed around and laid down on the opposite side and I pointed out to EZ it looked like she had thrown up again based on the colorings on her bed. We head up there and holy cow, she had thrown up a couple times, over the side of the crib and in the crib, walked around in it, everything. Man oh man, we got her up, cleaned her up switched the sheets and wiped down as much as we could and she went back to sleep. At 1am she cried out again and everything got repeated as she had thrown up again...clean up, new sheets, pjs, ect.

Luckily that was the last time she did and she hasn't done it again. I spend the morning disinfecting her room and doing lots of laundry. Called in to the daycare and they said there is some stomach bug going around. And I thought to myself, really...she was there for only 6 hours on Monday and somehow picked up this bug.

So after 19 months, we had our real first bout of sickness (besides common colds, ect), ear infection doubled on top with a stomach bug. I still have to remember how lucky we are that it too this long!

Must repeat again...I pray that baby #2 is as great as P! :)

9 more weeks

Wow...how did it already get to be 9 weeks until due date for baby #2. I'm not at all prepared for what is about to happen again. Not ready for the no sleeping again and breastfeeding. I am fully prepared though for baby 2 to probably not be the "angel child" that P is. I can honestly say, I feel very fortunate that P is so laid back and easy going. So cooperative and happy (98% of the time). All of this makes me think that baby #2 is probably not going to be so easy. I can always hope that we could be one of the lucky ones that get two easy kids though right??

I'm still running/jogging a few times a week and trying to walk on days I don't run. I have more pressure and uncomfrtableness than I did with P but the doctor says that is very common with the second pregnancy. P's new room is painted and we just got a dresser to put in there and ordered a few things. I plan on moving her into a new room and then having her room (since nothing has changed) be the new nursery. We also caved in a bought a minivan. Never thought I would be one to drive a minivan but they are super practical for little kids.

As for P, she is growing lots and lots. I feel like she says new words everyday. She loves crackers and hot dogs, loves to read books (or have books read to her) and color and loves to go to the park and swing and go down the slides. She also likes sitting on her own chair at the kitchen table with us so we are planning on switching to a booster seat and getting rid of the high chair until baby #2 needs it. Stills loves baths and blowing bubbles and getting water dumped on her head. I feel terrible, as I haven't taken any pictures since xmas of her....will have to change that soon!

Potty Training and Other News

At daycare P has been interested in the bathroom and for most of the month of December he sheet at school would say that she tried to use the toilet. We were super impressed by this, I guess when you see other kids doing it, you do it too right...peer pressure. After the holidays we decided we would casually introduce it at the house. Really we just have one right next to the bath tub that we started sitting her on before and after baths and then I try in the mornings to put her on it when she gets up before we get dressed. That is how most days goes.

Last week she actually used it for the first time and then since Friday has gone at least once in every day, even at school. She isn't really telling us she has to go, we just sit her on it and she will sometimes go and she gets super excited that she actually went. We still aren't pushing it at all, but it is fun to watch the progression. I have no hopes/expectations for her to be potty trained by the time baby 2 comes in a couple months.

Her language is really progressing it seems at rapid speed now. Lots of new words and constantly trying to say a word for something. I still love that she wont say horse, but just "neigh" and wont say sheep but just "baa" and typically cow is just "mmmm", and monkey is "ee-ee". Although when I ask her where a certain thing like a horse is in a picture, she points to it (and then says neigh). New words are blueberry (booberr) and cheese, hot dog, pig, fish, boots, pants, shirt, but "ta-tas" is still my favorite for cracker.

I'm still working out. Some days are better than others. I was running quite a bit a month ago, but that has slowed down. Incorporating a lot more walking into my runs and it varies on the day with how I feel. This morning I ran/walked 4 miles but ran probably 3.5 miles of it and only walked 1/2 mile. What is interesting is that I am much faster than I was at this stage of my pregnancy with Piper. I am still running sub 10 min pace, somewhere now between 9:30-9:45 which I am super thrilled with.

We still haven't picked a name for baby 2. But might be narrowing down the list...just over 10 weeks now to go. Crazy.

18 month Update

P had her 18 month check up earlier this week. We are 24 lbs (50th %) and 32 inches tall (also 50%). And I'm a bit late on uploading photos from the holidays. So here we go...

Unwrapping my gift from Great Grandma and and playing with the blocks!




My Christmas outfit and a close up:


With the nieces in NY:

Opening presents at Papa's:

Amelia reading to P:

Uncle Ethan (or E-E as P calls him) reading to the girls:


A took P for a few rides on her new jeep:






My sis and I bought matching running shirts and ran a bit while up in the cold...and here is evidence that yes I really am preggers: