Bear is a mover and a shaker. And she has little patience with my bladder. She goes all Kung Fu on it whenever it gets in her way. And I’m starting to believe she actually moves MORE than Evan did, and that’s something. So, obviously I’m scared.

The week has been easy, pregnancy-wise. The one thing that really bothers me is that big network of varicose veins that is wrapped around my right thigh. DH thinks it’ll go away, but I’m not so sure. It’s just so massive! Sigh…

This bed is really going to be the end of me. I’m so sore, it feels like I was run over by a truck, 20 times, every morning. I sleep on my left side as much as I can, but my whole side goes numb, so I find myself sleeping on my right side or just on my back to get a break. But then that gets numb, so I have to move again. My shoulder and my hip feel like I’ve been lying on concrete; the shoulder pain around my neck is there all day long. I really think I’ll need a good massage after we get our bed back, because the bed we sleep in right now is downright torturous.

Here’s to 10 more days.

Evan turned one today! How did that happen? It seems so unbelievable that a whole year has gone by. It seems like it went by so fast, yet at the same time it feels like his birth day was a lifetime ago. Seeing him grow into this little kid that giggles and crawls and throws small tantrums has been amazing, and it seem impossible that just a year ago he was a little baby.

We had a great day of celebration. As soon as we were all awake, we got Evan and brought him to our bed for some giggle time. Then he had special birthday pancakes: blueberry AND strawberry pancakes. After that we opened presents and played around in his room until it was nap time.

Once he was awake, we did lunch and left for the aquarium. He loves the aquarium! We let him crawl around almost the whole time, and since there were very few people around, he had almost the whole floor for himself. We even got to see the river otters and the sharks feeding (not in the same tank), and Evan enjoyed crawling from tank to tank. When we stopped by the rays tank, the volunteers there asked how old he was, and started singing Happy Birthday for him. He got some impromptu gifts: a small stuffed turtle, a plastic dolphin and a super cute little shark. What a cute smile will get you!

From there we went to sign some home-related papers, and stopped by a furniture store. That was more to make time for dinner. We went to a latin food restaurant and Evan had a bit of steak along with his dinner.

After that we came back home and it was time for the main event: the cake! We bought a small cake for him to enjoy (a.k.a. destroy). It was so much fun! The icing was a little bit too sweet, and he actually didn’t have a lot, but he had enough to get his mouth and hands all red.

All that fun was of course followed by a bath, and then it was bedtime. it was a great day with our big boy, who is one today. Crazy stuff…

22 weeks, and it's also my birthday! Which is why I got to sneak out the door and come to an internet cafe to post tons of things for you! If you have a slow day, go back, there are about 18 new posts...

This week has been pretty normal, pregnancy-wise. Bear moves all the time and that makes me happy, and sometimes it takes my attention from Evan for a little bit. But hey, he better get used to it, right? I also show Evan my belly now and tell him his sister is in there, but since daddy also shows him his belly, I don't think he understands. Also, daddy's belly is almost as big as mine, so... you can see why he wouldn't be able to tell a difference. Soon he will.

Nights are tough, my wedding rings are starting to get tight but only at night. I think it's mostly because of the crappy bed. We shall know in 20 days when we move to our new house!!

Alright, people, I gotta run! Enjoy the updates! Sorry there are so few pics though, not enough time for everything :(

We had an exciting morning today. Evan had been backed up, no poop for a day and a half. I gave him prunes yesterday to help, but they didn’t work their magic until this morning. After breakfast, he had a pretty full diaper. When I peeked inside I knew it was going to be challenge. Poop was all the way from the end of his crack to his penis. All contained in the diaper, but everywhere!

Five wipes later, he was clean enough to carry, and we went to the bathroom to get the tub ready for an impromptu bath. I left his onesie on so he wouldn’t get too cold, and I turned the heat on in the bathroom. He likes standing next to the tub while it fills with water, and he gets excited in anticipation of touching the water and splashing it around. The difference this time: he didn’t have a diaper on, and as soon as the water started running, he peed. He was so surprised! He had never peed standing like that, without a diaper! Sure, during diaper changes he has gotten all of us covered in pee, but never standing, getting his own feet wet. He looked down, then back at me, then down again. Shocking! He then moved to the side, and as I ran to the kitchen (5 steps away) he got down on his knees and was splashing the pee with his hands! He was happy; me, not so much. But it was still fun to watch!

I dried up the floor quickly, got his wet onesie off, and into the bath tub he went. All was normal after that, but watching him discover peeing standing was fantastic. Watching him discover any little thing is just awesome.

I have been cured of my addiction to chocolate fudge cake: I gained 6 lb. in 3 weeks. Six. That’s two pounds per week. That’s insane! So I decided to not buy another chocolate cake, and instead buy granola bars with chocolate (I can’t stop eating chocolate, it’s for Bear’s health, remember?) I could use the fiber anyway, and they’re a good chocolate fix.

I was checking out my belly pics with Evan in the blog, and I posted back then that I could see Evan’s kicks right around this point. So I paid attention and sure enough, I can see Bear’s kicks too. Oh, I see videos in my future. Hey, maybe Evan finds it funny and I can get a video of him cracking up as my belly moves. That would be pretty neat…

I have a new fat vein showing up in my right thigh. I guess I’m not exercising enough (though you would think having an 11 month old would do the trick!), and the bed we’re sleeping in doesn’t help. It’s not a very comfortable bed, I always wake up with sore shoulders and sore hips, and I always end up sleeping on my back more than I think I should. But we should have our bed back in about 20 days, so that’s good. And hopefully then I can find a good spot to do my prenatal yoga, that should help as well.

We had our big ultrasound today. We woke up early, I took a shower and we had breakfast. I had my last potty trip early because the doctor’s office asked for a full bladder. What a way to torture a pregnant lady! The only good thing is that I didn’t have to drink a gallon of water, just what I had for breakfast and a sip or two more, and I was ready to explode.

We didn’t have to wait before being called in for the ultrasound. The u/s tech was a nice lady, kind of quiet. She asked if we wanted to find out the sex, and we told her the truth: we couldn’t wait to find out! But she found the head first, so she started there.

Everything looked great: head, heart, stomach, spine and liver. Bear is healthy as can be! And moving a lot, we could see it all on the screen and I could feel it too. Finally, we got to the legs. The tech took her time, making sure she was going to give us an accurate answer, she just kept saying “and that’s the area between the legs... right there”. My husband picked up on it much sooner than I did. He still remembered very clearly what Evan’s ultrasound looked like, so he knew before the tech told us. I kind of wanted to think that was it, but I refused to believe until the tech said it out loud. And she did.

Bear is a girl!

We’re very excited (picture me waving my arms and running around the room), though I’m also a little nervous. This is new territory; it should be interesting to say the least!

But more than anything, we’re happy she’s well, and she’s a girl, and we’re thinking names and paint colors. Bear is a girl… yay!

I think I’ve mentioned before I have a very busy Monkey living in my head. As soon as I turn off the lights and/or get under the covers, Monkey starts going crazy and brings all of these silly, inconsequential thoughts to the forefront of my mind.

Right now, with our growth ultrasound tomorrow morning, home inspection the day after, buying a house, moving in, etc., my Monkey mind is out of control. It takes at least a good half hour to go to sleep, and it’s the same every time I wake up to pee in the middle of the night. It also makes for very short naps, if I get any at all. I’ll be glad when we’re done with all of those things. And when we have our stuff back, I miss our bed so much.
And that’s why chocolate fudge cake is the best.

When we realized we were going to have our things in storage until we found a place, we decided to take as much as we could with us, as long as it was absolutely necessary. Sadly, our cloth diapers didn’t make the cut. We didn’t know what kind of washer/dryer we would have, and let’s face it, they are awesome but they take a lot of space. So other things had priority, and our diapers are in storage for the time being.

This whole time we’ve been using the same disposables we use at night, Pampers cruisers. I can tell you right now I have never been so convinced that I love cloth! This past month we’ve had more diaper rashes than we’ve had in 10 months, it’s crazy! I was worried before we were getting diapers rashes “too often” since they’re not that common with cloth, but right now I’m using diaper rash cream for every diaper change. Not just around his rump, but also in the front by the crotch area. It’s driving me crazy.

We will continue to use disposables at night, because honestly I can’t think of another solution for us. He’s a big wetter, cloth would have to be too bulky and I just can’t bring myself to have Evan wear a huge diaper at night, especially as much as he moves. But as soon as we get our diapers back, we’re going back to cloth for the day. And eventually we’re buying more so we have both kids covered.

Cloth really isn’t that hard. You’re going to deal with poop because your baby is going to poop, period. Washing them just takes planning, so you don’t run out while you do the two cycles needed for optimum cleaning. Other than that, it’s just as disposables, but cuter. I was a convert before, but now I’ll tell anyone who complains about diaper rashes about my experience. Cloth rocks, ladies!

I’m very glad to be typing this. I realize I might be about to jinx myself here, but teething might be changing things already, so I’ll take the chance.
Evan is sleeping through the night. Twelve hours straight. It’s bliss.
How did we get there?, you may ask. Well, easy: we moved across country, with a 3 hour time difference, and changed his bedtime to one hour later. Piece of cake!
I don’t know what it was exactly, but we did move dinner to around 5:30-6 pm (he used to go to bed at 6 pm), last bottle at 6:30 pm, bedtime at 7 pm. And he’s good until around 7 am. Unbelievable.
We’ve had a couple of not-so-great nights lately, but because molars are thinking of making an appearance. And by thinking, I mean we won’t see them for probably two months, but they’re starting to give Evan pain in advance. So Orajel is our friend right now.
I hope the move to our house won’t change this. New noises (street noises!) might be a problem, but getting his comfortable crib back might balance that. We’ll just have to wait and see. For now, we’re enjoying his twelve hours of sleep. Now, if Bear would leave my bladder alone at night, I might actually sleep through the night myself…

Evan is clapping! He usually bangs things together, or claps my hands, but he’s using his hands, fingers extended, clapping all by himself and smiling. He’s just too adorable.

So, we found a house. We’re very excited, but also anxiously awaiting the home inspection, since that’s the only thing that could get in our way right now. It’s a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom place, with an extra room which shall become my husband’s man cave, and attached garage. Also a big fenced yard (awesome for our dogs) and a swing set (awesome for our kids). We love it, we knew as soon as we walked in that we wanted it. Everything has gone very smoothly, so we’re hoping for the best. Though the negotiations were tiresome. It didn’t take long to settle on a price, but the whole going back and forward when I think we all knew what the final number was going to be… but it’s the way it works, I guess. And at least we all agreed on something.
We’re having the home inspection this Friday, we shall see.

Half way there! Actually, a bit more than halfway, since we’re having a scheduled c-section a week before the due date. Things are well, there’s really nothing new to report. Still craving chocolate (I eat a chocolate fudge cake in 3 days, by myself), still feeling tons of movement, still having tons of BH contractions.

I checked online and it turns out it’s not uncommon for second time mamas to feel more contractions, mainly because you can tell what they are much sooner. Lucky me! I will ask the doctor about it, just in case.

Bear is a 24/7 act. Sometimes s/he keeps me up after a midnight potty break, and s/he’s not that big yet! I enjoy feeling Bear move, though, so it’s all good.

I have had some weird food combinations. Something sweet immediately followed by something salty, and back. I had cheerios with bananas the other day, followed by a spicy turkey sandwich with pickles. It was all good, but belching after that was disgusting!

Evan’s upper front teeth are here! Yesterday we noticed one of them had just broken through, and this morning we felt the other one. He’s still drooling and putting his hand in his mouth all the time. I’m thinking he has some molars coming, or at least they’re starting to make their presence known. We’ll see what comes out next!

Yesterday, DH felt Belly Bear move for the first time (I told you it’d be soon). It was a sweet start to the last day of the year.

I think Bear is starting to put on some weight… or maybe it’s just me. I gained one pound in one week, and my belly is noticeable bigger (at least to me). Forty pounds, here I come! Gosh, that’s scary…

Chocolate is my craving of the week. A friend of mine said a recent study found that mothers who eat chocolate regularly during pregnancy have healthier babies. I trust her word, I don’t need to go and find it. I’m eating chocolate so Bear is healthier. That’s really the only motivation.

Bear is moving up a storm. Reminds me a lot of Evan, he would move all the time too. That could be a very good thing.