Growing on Gettysburg

Happy 4 Months Lucy

2012-01-28T20:28:00.001-05:00

Dear Lucy,

Today you are four months old! One quarter of your first year, poof, has already gone by. This month you have changed a lot, in many different ways. In all reality this month has been pretty rough. You decided sleep was something you didn’t want to do and fuss was something you wanted to do a lot of. Your new nickname this month was Drama Mama. Here’s to hoping you turn a corner this month!

You are now rolling all.the.time! Honestly as I am lowering you to the ground you are already in the rolling process. You started doing this two days after you turned three months old. You have gotten SO strong on your belly and try so hard to crawl. You just want to play with Liam so bad. If you have any kind of support behind your feet you do crawl. Last night I had my leg behind you just enough for you to push up (hips off the ground) and shoot yourself forward.

Earlier this week I put you in the infamous doorway jumper and you loved it! Your brother was known to be a wild man in the doorway jumper but girl, he had nothing on you at this age! You were jumping like he was a month into using it your first time. You were spinning, jumping, and smiling the entire time. I am so glad we found something you like that can entertain you for a few minutes.

You love the exersaucer, your black and white blocks, and Freddie the Firefly. Your fingers are in your mouth all.day.long! Poor girl you can soak through a bib in 30 minutes! You also love to chew on your bibs and Freddie’s wings. When sitting you are always grabbing for your toes and try to “tripod sit” by yourself; hence why Dada is holding your arm in your monthly rocking chair picture, you wouldn’t stop trying to grab your piggy's!

You are on no set eating schedule, you are the ultimate “grazer” and have 3-4 ounces here and there though out the entire day; totally 28-30 ounces per day. In the last week we let you try cereal for the first time, a little early but that’s okay. You loved it! You downed a whole little bowl like you’d been eating it for months. Hopefully soon we will move onto some fruits and veggies!

You basically take a short 15 minute nap in the morning and then a two hour nap in the afternoon but that is it as far as naps go. You go up for a bath around 7 then a bottle at 7:15 and usually in bed (your own bed!) by 7:30. Around 8:30 you usually start crying and we give you a little more to eat and you are asleep until 11. I feed you at 11 and most nights again at 3 and then you wake between 5 and 7. The biggest news this month is that you are now in your crib at night, still napping downstairs in your swing. You are still swaddled for your long nap and night time, Still only like your paci when you are sleeping, you never want it while awake. You LOVE bath time but also love to jump in the infant tub, you use the other side as a spring board to push off of; makes bath time a hard one man job and such a mess however you think it is quite funny!!

You are wearing a size 2 diaper, mostly 3-6 or 6 month clothes but you have room to grow into the 6 months ones. You weight 15 pounds! (Your appointment is on Friday so I will have more stats then)

I feel like the two month and four month pictures should be swapped but I guess its because the two month picture is closer making you look a lot bigger then you actually were then.

Snow Day!

2012-01-21T13:07:00.001-05:00

You guys it finally snowed! We got a dusting of snow last week and every time we went outside Liam would yell “SNOOOOW SNOOOOW” and want to play. Well last night we got about 7 inches so he finally had something substantial to play in. Alex picked up a sled from his parents house and we got Liam bundled up to go out sledding.

To say he loved it would be an understatement. He was so excited to be out in the snow! Finally!

Going down for the first time!!

All by himself. Is that smile big enough?!

Liam Lately

2012-01-18T07:55:00.001-05:00

Liam at 27 months:

You are so sweet and kind hearted. You say “thank you Mama” for every little thing and say please whenever you ask me for something. When Lucy was learning to roll over you would stand by me and cheer “Go DeeDee Go DeeDee”. When Dada comes home from work you run and jump and yell “Dada home Dada home” and then say “Ooooh HEEEeeeey Dada” when he comes in. You also day “bye bye Dada” when he leaves in the morning. At bedtime you say “Ni Ni cars, Ni Ni trucks, Ni Ni Mama, Ni Ni Dada, Ni Ni DeeDee” (clearly we are on the backburner to cars and trucks).

You love your little sister more than words. She is your “DeeDee” and you love to show her and teach her all you know. You get her her paci if she is crying and try to soothe her by showing her all your toys. Whenever you hear her whimper you come running to find me and say “Oh no Mama DeeDee”. You often find her her toys and lay them by her (even when she is sleeping) and will bring me a bottle and day “Mama iz DeeDee’s Baba”

You love to associate what things belong to who or who likes what (very fun game at the grocery store)

For example whenever you see Gatorade you say Dada (because he wears the big G logo on his shirts everyday to work. Pots/Pans/Vacuums are Mama (LOL…isn’t it great to be me). Chocolate, coffee, cookies, pizza, and hamburgers (on his flashcards) are Dada; broccoli is Mama. He loves to point out Mama’s shoes, Dada’s boots, whose car is whose, ect. When I ask him if DeeDee can play with one of his toys he will run and get her one of her toys and say “No iz DeeDee’s” and give her something to play with.

You are insanely smart when it comes to working electronics (you are your fathers child for sure). Like at two years old you’ve taught me to play games. It is simply mind blowing to see how you know how to work both the iphone and tablet. You unlock it, scroll through the screens, find the game you want to do, open it up and then choose a game within a game to play, go back out to the games main page and select a new one (like with your flash cards) or exit the game to find a new one entirely. Your flash card games have taught you so many new words! When you are going through your flashcards you fly through them so far but once in a while you stay on one word and repeat it multiple times then move on as if you had to hear it a few times before you learned it then moved on to the next. It is amazing to watch you learn.

You are a great sleeper (7:30-7:30) and finally a great napper (1-2:30 in your room). You wear a size 2T, size shoe and size 5 diaper (absolutely no interest in going on the potty but I still keep asking and you still keeps saying “NO”…just waiting for you to take the lead). You still have a paci and I could care less, I know you won’t take it to the prom, if you need it to sleep so be it. One thing I have learned is that you will do something in your own time and it will be very easy. You LOVE to stuggle under blankets and be cozy. You sleep every night like such a big boy on your pillow and under two blankets and snuggle another blanket in your arms. I wake up to you saying “Mama, Mama, Mama, Dada, DeeDee” every morning over the monitor.

You love doing projects and coloring! You often times will run to your chalkboard draw a picture very fast and then announce who or what it is. You like to draw Dada (picture in the middle).

You LOVE to do puzzles! You can blow through your Melissa and Doug ABC puzzle in minutes and repeat all the letters, you recognize many letters now too and can spell car (shocking HA).

You also love to read both me to you and you to me; you call books “stories” which I think is adorable. “Story again Mama” is often heard in our house. You love to read me Brown Bear Brown Bear and any of your first words books.

You are a big helper in the kitchen and enjoy cooking. We got you a Melissa and Doug cutting set for Christmas and you love to cut up vegetables for all of us to eat.

You still love blocks and stacking everything you can imagine! You also love your Legos and building things. You are so good at it!

Cars are still your #1 (although all of them are “das mas” aka it’s mine). Your imaginary play with your cars it so cute. You have a whole game in your head that you play with them and we just love to sit back and watch you. You also love to go through all your cars/trucks and tell us what they are (ice cream car, truck, candy truck, race car, ect). You also like to tell us which colors each car is (geeeen car is your favorite to say). You told us your favorite color was orange.

Your favorite show is Caillou (or as you call him Go-Tee), really it is the ONLY thing you watch right now. Oh goodness Mama needs a break from Caillou! This had by far been your longest phase of liking a specific show. You are very sensitive when it comes to people getting hurt (physically or emotionally) while watching a show or movie. In the beginning of Cars when they all crash you get very upset and in a few episodes of Caillou when Caillou falls you get upset and say “Ooooh No Go-Tee…”.

You are still a picky eater and don’t try new things but, for the most part, you eat a lot of very healthy foods. You like pancakes, french toast, oatmeal cereal squares, cinnamon life cereal, yogurt melts, strawberries, bananas, oranges, blueberries, apples, grapes, french fries, grilled cheese, and then of course the junk (cookies, candy canes, and cupcakes).

You have developed some odd fears the past few months…snakes and ghosts?! We have no idea where they came from. When ever you see a shadow you yell GHOST! or hear a noise (usually a cat) in another room you yell GHOST! The snakes fear was short living, mostly around Christmas, when you thought everything long and skinny (tree lights) were snakes and feared them. Worked to our advantage to keep you out of things by saying there was snakes in there (that horrible I know).

Oatmeal!

2012-01-16T09:17:00.001-05:00

I have had so many friends contact me for the oatmeal recipe that I have been eating so I thought I’d just post it on here.

Basic Steel Cut Oats (makes three portions)

1 cup organic steel cut oats

3 cups water

1 Tablespoon organic pure cane sugar

1 teaspoon organic cinnamon

3 Tablespoon chia seeds (I got mine in the organic bulk section at Wegmans but any health food store or whole foods would carry them)

splash of vanilla

Combine the oats, water, sugar and cinnamon in a small pot, bring to a boil then turn down to a simmer and cover. Stir every few minutes until done, around 20 minutes or so. The steel cut oats remain a little “chewy” and do not get mushy like regular old fashion or quick cooking oats. Once done stir in the vanilla, and chia seeds. I put mine in small mason jars and store in the fridge.

In the morning I microwave for about one minute thirty seconds (totally depends on your microwave) then I mix it up and added about a quarter cup of almond milk. Then add in any extras you want. Today I did dried cranberries and almond butter (I get the Woodstock brand which is great, Justin’s is awesome too just hard for me to find) on top.

The basic recipe is 260 calories per serving; with my extras my entire breakfast was 330.

Ways to preserve memories

2012-01-12T21:52:00.001-05:00

So I have been trying to have this conversation with Alex for the last week but let’s be honest most men could care less about your plan of action for scrapbooking so I am using the internet to ask all of you what your thoughts are on this. I love the format of Project Life BUT I am not committing myself to doing a photo/journaling every day. I like the idea of using the Project Life format to do a monthly recap and big event recap but I am not sure if I want to do it the traditional way with printing off pictures and hand written journaling or digital.

In all honestly digital would be so much easier because my pictures have a hard time making it off my computer! but doing it digital cost a pretty penny at the end of the year to have your book printed (trust me I just did it with 2011..that goodness for a groupon). So would you …

A. Do it the old fashion way and print off pictures into a project life album knowing that it will be harder to keep up with but you will save money and have a place to put all the little extras you want to keep (this is the one thing that is kind of swaying me)

B. Do a digital version to save time, keep up, but pay more for it and not have a place to keep extras?

Here is my 2011 year in photos book that I did on mixbook, it shipped today and I can’t wait to see it!

| Learn About Mixbook Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

Thoughts on Thursday

2012-01-12T21:38:00.001-05:00

I feel like I have been struggling all week to keep my head above water, you know those days … well it seems it has just been one after another this week. No sleep, cranky kids, short naps … rinse and repeat. I am so ready for the weekend!

Liam decided to give his new Hess truck a washing earlier this week, then thought it would be funny to wear the towel on his head.

Liam showing DeeDee and Dada how to play some of his games. I swear the cold he had last week has turned him into a little couch potato. He likes to sit with his “blank” (blanket) and play his games and eat snacks…at least they are educational games and usually whole grain snacks or fruit. This is his sticker page from on of his favorite games he plays.

Ooooh I am going to take this so brother can’t get it …. remember a week ago when I said Lucy wasn’t rolling well I guess she wanted to prove me wrong (can’t imagine were she gets this stubborn/determined attitude from-that’d be me) and is now a machine! Seriously you put the girl down and 2.2 seconds later she is on her belly trying to crawl. The scary part she can move in circles and if she pushes off the floor hard enough she launches herself forward to what she wants…

I attempted some pictures of the kiddos together today and oh my goodness my heart just exploded! Half way through our little photo session Liam looks at Lucy and says “ooooh no DeeDee” then jumps down, grabs her burp cloth and ever so gently daps off some drool on her lips…so stinking sweet that boy is. He is becoming so aware of her and if she is fussing and crying he frantically tries to soothe her by showing her all his cars, trucks, and airplanes…then normally says “' oh no DeeDee bap” and runs to get her a paci.

I have been busting my rear lately with running (I signed up for my first 5k in April with a few friends!!), Bob Harper inside out dvds (for strength training), and insanity (which, oh my word, is literally insane- they say it is the hardest workout you can get on DVD and I don’t doubt it!). Here is my progress from 39 weeks, 1 week, and three months postpartum – 31 pounds later….and the little chunka munk 7 pounds (at least) heavier!

I have switched up my daily oatmeal to steel cut oats and I am loving it. This is my new staple of oats, cinnamon, dried cranberries, chia seeds and almond butter – so good!

I saw this recipe for stuffed cabbage casserole on pinterest last week and just had to make it! Seriously it was so good! I made it vegetarian and substituted the 1 pound of ground meat for a bag of morning star “meat crumbles”. I also left out the cheese just to save a few calories.

This morning Liam and I had a tea party, he made us “car tea” hahaha boys.

Thank goodness these baby things have straps, she is a wild women anymore.

Surviving 2012

2012-01-07T22:06:00.001-05:00

Oy, let’s just say starting off the New Year with colds is not fun! Thankfully Liam (and I) are starting to feel much better and Alex and Lucy with their iron immune systems somehow managed to dodge the germs.

Lucy wore the most adorable boots on New Years Eve, I just can’t get enough of dressing her up.

Mr. Liam not feeling so great, poor kiddo.

Everyday life, this is pretty much what we do the large majority of the day. Talk to Lucy and she smiles ear to ear, the girl LOOOOVES her some attention. Liam showing Lucy some toys. She tries to wiggle over to him to play so hard. Liam cracks me up because he knows which toys are his and which are hers and he is adamant about brining her her toys. One day we were sitting on the floor (Lucy on my lap) playing cars and I asked Liam if he would share a car with Lucy and he said “No, DeeDee Dog” and went over to get her her dog toy.

Someone is getting pretty strong on their belly.

So Miss Lucy has grown very fond of being carried around forward facing whenever she is awake. I figured since she liked the standing position so much maybe it was time to breakout the exersaucer and she how she did. Well, she loved it and Liam LOVED playing with her and showing her all of the neat things on the outside.

Liam doing a puzzle … then watching Caillou

Lucy “talking”

Repost–Healthy Weight Loss

2012-01-05T10:56:00.001-05:00

For last week all over facebook, blogs, and twitter the talk has been about new years resolutions, dieting and exercise. If you are a long time reader you may remember that I did a wellness series two years ago. I thought it would be beneficial for me to repost my original post from it on nutrition and weight loss. Please feel free to email me or leave questions in my comments if you want to chat!

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A short two and a half ~~months~~ years ago I became a stay at home mom to a beautiful little boy. Prior to that I graduated from Penn State with a degree in nutritional science and worked in the field of cardiovascular nutrition research. When I moved to Indiana I made a career change and started working as a health coach for a large employee wellness program. I predominantly worked with men and women who wanted to make lifestyles changes to achieve many goals such as weight loss, management of cholesterol or blood pressure, or overall improve their health with a balanced diet. During this time I also became a trained wellness coach through Wellcoaches and a licensed Am I Hungry? workshop facilitator. I am thrilled today at the opportunity to share some of my insight with you all.

The Am I Hungry? program is one that gives me such energy. I believe that it is the answer many people have been looking so hard to find for so long and yet it has been right there in front of them their whole lives. For years I have observed people struggling with their weight, trying every fad diet that came around, only to lose the weight but have it sneak back on, plus an extra 5 pounds in the end. I knew that there had to be an explanation why I had seen so many people like this yet I had also seen people who ate what they wanted and never struggle with their weight; what did they know that the other did not. For years I pondered this question to myself and when I found this program it was like a light bulb that had been in my mind for so many years finally illuminated and I had my answer.

So let’s ask ourselves one question, what do we do when diets don’t work? The answer is easy. Stop dieting! Scary thought for most people isn’t it?

Yo-yo dieting is very common. It is where we swing between a restrictive diet and overeating. What Am I Hungry? teaches us is that there is a mid point and we can actually swing like a pendulum rather than a yo-yo. We don’t either have to be on a diet or not on a diet, restricting ourselves and feeling deprived or overeating and feeling guilty but rather that we can eat what we love and love what we eat by regaining our freedom from food and once again becoming an instinctive eater.
The prime example of an instinctive eater is a baby. Each and every one of us was born with the innate wisdom to eat when we were hungry and stop when we were satisfied but through the years and through our experiences became disconnected with that wisdom and began to eat for many different reasons besides simply nourishing out bodies need for fuel.

The disconnection comes in two forms: when we start eating and when we stop eating. Let’s first talk about when we stop eating. How many of you have heard this one before “finish your plate there are starving children in (insert said country)” or “finish your dinner if you want dessert”? What is this really teaching us? It is instilling in us to stuff ourselves pass the point of satisfaction; that in order to gain a “treat” we need to eat to an uncomfortable state and then add on top of that the “treat” we had been eating towards. Remember, naturally thin people are not part of the clean plate club.
Now let’s talk about why we start to eat besides true hunger. Ask yourself, what are some of the most common reasons you eat? Do you eat when you are bored, stress, happy, sad, glad, mad, frustrated….as it turns out we eat for many reasons. When cravings trigger us to eat, food will never satisfy us and more times than not emotional or environmental triggers lead to overeating because when our bodies are not telling us we need food (with true hunger) how do we know when to stop? Usually when the bag or box is empty, when we are uncomfortably full, when the movie or TV show is over, or when someone interrupts us. When we feed our bodies food when it is not asking us to feed it it (our bodies) has nothing to do with the food except store it as fat.

Through the years we also tend to lose what it feels like to feel hungry and what satisfied is. Take the time to re-identify what it feels like to be both hungry and satisfied. What does true hunger feel like to you? You may feel a hollowness in your gut, have hunger pangs, you may get a slight headache, you may not be able to concentrate; all of these feelings are true physical feeling NOT thoughts. You don’t need to eat because it is lunch or dinner time you only need to eat when your body tells you it needs nourishment through physical feelings.

Every time you feel the urge to eat ask yourself “Am I Hungry?” if the answer if yes then eat until you are satisfied; no longer hunger but not stuffed. If the answer is no search inside to find where the urge is coming from; are you bored, stressed, did you just see a commercial for the new Big Mac Wrap, are you feeling tired? Then YOU have a CHOICE you can choose to eat anyway with the knowledge that you are eating for reasons other than hunger, you can redirect your attention (works great if you are bored or procrastinating), or choose to meet your true needs. Meeting your true needs is a process in which you identify your trigger(s), accept it without judgment, strategize ways to eliminate the trigger, and take action (no matter how small the step it will be in the right direction).
So many of us say that we can’t lose weight because we LOVE food but in reality we don’t show food that we love it at all. We often eat distracted by the TV or computer, we eat fast or on auto-pilot. Many times we finish eating feeling like we just began. If you LOVE food show it by eating mindfully. Sit down at the table, turn of all distractions, savor each bite, and notice the taste, temperature, and texture of the food. Put your fork down between each bite; doing this will allow you to focus your attention on the bite in your mouth, not the bite you are filling your fork with.
Put a sign on your refrigerator and pantry that reads “IF YOU ARE NOT HUNGRY WHAT YOU NEED ISN’T IN HERE”.

Overall Tips

Develop a wellness vision for yourself. Paint a picture of what you see yourself doing at your best self? What are the most important parts of that picture?

What is your motivation? Without being modest what are the reasons you want to achieve this goal? What makes now the time? How is this time different than before?

What are your values and how do they a line with your goals? What are your strengths and how can you use then to achieve your goals?

What are your barriers? Create strategies to overcome these barriers before you are face to face with them.

What is your support system? How can you get your support system involved from the beginning?

What is your accountability? Is it a friend, family member, a coach, a blog or a journal?

Accountability is key in the beginning for setting yourself up for success.

What is your reward? Set up small rewards for yourself along the way.

Set SMART goals. SMART goals are specific, measurable, action based (not outcome), realistic, and in a time frame. An example of a smart goal would be “This week I will walk 1 mile before dinner on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.” This goal is specific because it is to the point exactly what you will do, it is measurable because it is one mile on those three days, it is an action (walking), it is realistic, and in a time frame (this week).

Menu plan! Once a week (most people picked Sundays so they can use store flyers and coupons) sit down and plan out ALL your meals for the week, breakfast, lunch, dinners, and snacks. I suggest writing a family menu, list all the meals your make on a regular basis. To create your menu for the week you can use your family menu and cookbooks for inspiration. As an example, you can have three meals from the family menu, two new meals from a cookbook, one dinner out, and one leftover night. Do not shop when you are hungry! Shopping with a list and when you are not hungry will decrease your impulse purchases and save your money!

Watch for calories not just fat. There is a common disbelief that if I eat low fat products you will lose weight. We refer to this as snackwells syndrome. Many many many low fat products are just as high in calories as the regular product. When it comes to weight loss what it all boils down to is calories in (food) vs calories out (what our bodies burn naturally and with exercise). In order to lose one pound of fat you need to create a 3500 calorie deficit. So when selecting food at the grocery store compare based on calories.

Increase the activity in your daily life. If you have a pile of stuff to take upstairs don’t jungle it all in order to make one trip, take up one at a time; simple things like this will burn extra calories and your won’t even feel like you are exercising. If you like watching TV and hate exercising dedicate the commercial breaks to walking/running the steps in your house, running in place, going jumping jacks, or sit ups. Find activities that you enjoy. Experiment with different classes such as dance aerobics, yoga, or pilates or different workout DVD’s such as Walk Away the Pounds. If you find something you enjoy you are much more likely to stick with it.

As I come to the conclusion of this post I am still filled with so much information I want to share. Instead of cramming everything into this one post I am going to break it up into weekly installments. There are SO many nutrition myths going around and I would love to be able to clear the air on many of them.

How Liam rings in the New Year (third year in a row)

2012-01-01T09:04:00.001-05:00

New Year 2010 …. first cold

New Year 2011 …. cold, teething, feverish boy

New Year 2012 … cold, teething, feverish boy, again….

2011 a year in (photo) review

2012-01-01T08:55:00.001-05:00

Although this year flew past I am not sad to say goodbye to 2011… lots of change and lots of stressful situations made up 2011 for me and I am so ready for a quite 2012!

Happy 3 Months Lucy

2011-12-28T20:08:00.001-05:00

Dear Lucy,

Today my dear you are three months old! It has been such a fun month but also a very busy month, it really did fly by! You have changed so much this month and are truly now a baby instead of a newborn.

Lucy you are one of the happy babies I have ever seen. If you are awake you are mostly likely smiling or laughing. This month we learned that you are very ticklish and let out big belly laughs, you melt us with how adorable your laugh is. You absolutely love your Dada and cannot look at him without a huge grin on your face!

You are sleeping like a rock star! You love your sleep. You take one very short, usually 20 minute nap in the morning and then a solid 2.5-3 hour nap in the afternoon. You go to bed around 8, I dream feed you at 11 and you wake at 7, yeah like I said you are a rock star! Depending on the night I have to give you a paci to soothe you back to sleep; sometimes it is just twice a night other nights it can be a few times an hour. We swaddle you for your long nap and night time.

Girl you are one social butterfly and chatty girl! You cannot be around other people without being awake, even if it is naptime. When we go out shopping you are awake the entire time. When Mama is talking with other ladies you are always in on the conversation. On Christmas Eve you had the best little conversation with your Aunt Kerri, it was too cute.

You are 12.6 pounds (home scale, no appointment this month), wear a size 1 diaper, size 0-3 and a few 3-6 months clothes. You have almost doubled your birth weight (6 pounds 10 ounces at birth and 12.6 pounds now). You LOVE to eat, hence those adorable, kissable cheeks your have acquired.

You have rolled over once, maybe twice in the last month but are not doing it often. I can honestly say it is probably my fault. Knowing you will be my last baby (most likely) I want to keep you a baby as long as possible and just like to hold and snuggle you most of the time. You love your jungle activity mat and stuffed moose that hangs on it. You spend about 30 minutes every morning under the gym while I make and eat breakfast. You now love your swing and tend to fall asleep for both your long nap and night time in it with the white noise on. You LOVE watching Liam. You following him (with your eyes) room all day all day just watching what he is doing. When he comes to show you something, most likely a car or truck, you light up that he has acknowledged you.

Love you always,

Mama

Look at how you’ve grown (already!)

Christmas Celebrations

2011-12-28T10:34:00.001-05:00

Here comes a HUGE photo dump of all the Christmas festivities from the last week. My sister got Lucy this cheerleading outfit a few weeks ago and had been wanting a picture of her to put on her desk at her cheerleading/gymnastics gym. Here is the shot I got of my sweet girl.

Our cats pretty much spend the whole week under the tree

Liam ate a lot of candy (peppermint bark here) and cookies

Our trees, so hard to get a good shot of, I may need to do a video before we take them down

Alex got me an upgraded lens for my camera and I am just in love with it!!!

Lucy on Christmas Eve

The boys

Liam having some breakfast

Edgars grand finale, the zip line!

Liam painting on Christmas Eve

Possibly one of my favorites pictures, Liam and I cooking

Sweet Lucy

Lucy just LOVES to watch Liam so we put her in the high chair to watch us cook

Liam at my parents house on Christmas Eve when he saw his Lighting McQueen hot wheels car

My Aunt Chris, Mom and Lucy

Liam and Evan opening presents

Ooooh what is it…. CAILLOU!!!

Evan, Kerri, and Liam

Action shots

One of my favorite pictures ever! My whole family!!

Liam on Christmas morning, he wanted nothing to do with his presents he just wanted to play cars

Liam at Alex’s parents house christmas morning playing with cars instead of opening presents.

Last day opening the advent calendar

Pioneer Women cinnamon rolls for breakfast yummmm!

Lucy having her bottle on Christmas morning

Our failed attempt at a sibling picture in their matching PJs.

We hosted Christmas this year which was so much fun! Here is our table

Pop and Lucy

Matt, Alex and Liam at the kids table HAHA we ran out of room at the dining room table so instead of being squished we just sat at a different table.

Liam with his new picnic table from Aunt Debbie and Steve.

Action shot in the kitchen

It’s the holiday season….

2011-12-19T22:47:00.001-05:00

This weekend I got to work and started on our holiday baking. Liam was very excited to help me cook, he is still very into cooking which I love. Now if only he were that into helping do the dishes! He helped me made chicken pot pie soup tonight, which I thought turned out great! He loves to pick out just the right utensil to help stir.

Ripping up kale for a stir fry I made last week, he did such a good job. Then he ran and got two dump trucks to fill the back with leaves and drive them around.

Stirring my oatmeal for me. I make the same thing for breakfast everyday (rolled oats, millet, chia seeds, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, and a scoop of almond butter), the poor kiddo could probably make it for me all by himself by now.

Some of our baking…peanut butter filled chocolate cookies and vegan chocolate chip with walnuts for me, honestly SO SO SO good and the best part you can eat all the batter you want without fear of salmonella.

Yesterday we went to a 1st birthday party for our good friends daughter, Addison. Ms. Lucy was all ready to party! Ummm when did this girl get so big?!?

Last week there was a meeting of the survivors, HAHA, we had eight deer in our back yard. I was happy to see the survivors of hunting season. My Mom and nephew happen to stop by to drop something off (deco mesh because I decided to redo our family room tree 10 days before Christmas because I am crazy) and she told them it was Santa’s reindeer, it was so cute to see the look on his face.

Today we finished up our cookie baking with Liams favorite! We made pinwheel shortbread cookies with were suppose to be coated in sprinkles but it just didn’t work out BUT Liam had a fantastic time playing in the sprinkles. I am pretty sure it made his week!

…I had to laugh, didn’t his hair look mullet like today? He was channeling his inner Billy Ray Cyrus.

and of course Lucy was our supervisor. I swear this kid is one of the most happy babies I have ever seen she is constantly smiling and laughing (she has a very ticklish chin). I just cant get enough of her!

Our poor cats sleep under our living room tree all day and all night. They are going to be really depressed come January.

I am still putting on the running shoes at least six days a week. Today I ran two miles without stopping, let me just tell you for a girl that used to cheat on the presidential fitness test in high school this is a big deal! I was pretty proud of that accomplishment tonight. I didn’t start this journey with the intent to lose weight (more so to keep an organ….whacked out pregnancy hormones that gave me gallbadder disease) but let me just say that being 5 pounds under my pre-pregnancy weight at 12 weeks post partum in pretty awesome. Hard works pays off!

We are hosting Christmas this year and I am super excited! I have been planning since June so I am excited for everything to start coming together. My brother is coming in tomorrow (by train, wouldn’t Liam love that!) and will be here until well after the new year! We are so excited for “Unc” to visit for a while! It is such a joyful time of year and I have so much to be grateful for. I can’t wait to see Liam on Christmas this year, we have been doing Elf on the Shelf and an advent calendar all month so the anticipation to the big day has been building for him. We didn’t get him a ton of gifts (who knows where I am going to store anything else the kid gets since we are bursting at the seams over here) but what we did get were very thought out and I think he will be very excited for! I also have a few get togethers with friends planning. One with a few high school friends that I have not seen in years and who haven't been all together since the summer we graduated, so excited!

Life in photos

2011-12-11T19:56:00.001-05:00

Life lately has felt a lot like groundhogs day, hence the lack of blogging. Nothing very exciting going on here on our home front but of course we can recap the last few weeks with some pictures.

Miss Lucy has been all smiles and has been sleeping like a rock star, thank goodness for the concept of “dream feeding'”!

Edgar the Elf has been up to some very funny things….

Liam devoured a peppermint brownie cake pop from starbucks, he is addicted to candy canes as well.

Our train station got its own Christmas tree.

We’ve had lots of group play time. Here Liam was showing Lucy the Baby Jesus that goes to his nativity. He loves the Baby Jesus and takes it with him everywhere….in the car, bed … you name it.

Liam has been a great helper in the kitchen lately. He has developed a big interest in helping me cook. He runs to the kitchen, slides a chair over and says “I cook” multiple times a day. Many times he just gets out a lot of utensils and measuring cups and pretends. Here he was helping me make pizza, adding mushrooms to Dada’s pizza (I had to assure Alex that it would not hurt him to have mushroom reside on his pizza…ugh..picky eaters), and decorating cupcakes.

Sweet Lucy hanging out and rocking the skinny jeans and uggs.

My Moms tree, isn’t it pretty! I have some big shoes to fill when it comes to Christmas décor!

Liam got a set of Legos from Alex’s Dads work Christmas party and has been playing with them all week! He has had so much fun building.

Do we need a haircut or can we just say we are rocking the Beiber look?!

Traffic jam on the couch!

Tummy time for everyone

Oh those cheeks, don’t you just want to kiss them!

I have developed a new hobby … running has taken over blog time. I also went vegetarian (with a few exceptions like turkey on thanksgiving) (there is a whole long story behind this one). This is the fourth time in my adult life now that I am trying my hand at a vegetarian diet. Being honest, the thing that always got me off track was McDonalds (isn’t that terrible) well let’s just say McDonalds is off the table for a long, long time and this change has definitely been more of a lifestyle change than a phase. Honestly, I have never felt better!! One of the nice side effects of all these changes is being three pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight with Lucy and only two pounds to my wedding day weight! Very exciting. Only 7 pounds to my goal!

and Lucy rolled belly to back for the first time today!! Go Lucy!!

Happy 2 Months Lucy

2011-11-28T19:58:00.001-05:00

Dear Lucy,

Today you are two months old. I cannot believe how much you have changed in this last month. You seem so much older than two months old. You have gotten so big and are so strong! Very soon after you turned one month old you started smiling at us and have not stopped. We thought your brother was a smiley baby but you have nothing on him, you are such a happy girl.

goodness can you tell this was right after she turned a month old, she has filled out a lot since then

You started liking your swing this month and usually take your evening nap/fall asleep for bedtime in it with the white noise on. You love looking outside and at contrasting colors (like the dark green mirror against the light tan walls in the living room and the black and white baby book we have). You still love bath time. But most of all you love to eat! Gosh girl I feel like that is all you have done this month! You are growing like a weed! You love being under the jungle activity mat and your brother loves to show you all the animals. Would it be surprising if I told you you loved to shop, I sure hope this continues, Mama needs a shopping buddy. You are not a big fan of going on walks, I sure hope you have a change of heart come spring time, Grandma is my favorite walking buddy!

You are wearing 3 month clothes (which are already short in the arms) and size 1 diapers. You weigh (appointment tomorrow) and are (inches) long. For the last three nights you have slept 11-6, can I get an amen! The funny part is you started sleeping well almost to the day when your brother did. You take a short nap in the morning, a long afternoon nap, and sometimes a short can nap in the evening. The car is your kryptonite and puts you to sleep almost immediately.

This month you celebrated your first Halloween (you were a pumpkin) and your first Thanksgiving (we wore matching skinny jeans).

You are sometimes a fan of your paci but love sucking on your hands more, I am pretty sure once you get the hang of putting your fingers in your mouth you will be a thumb/finger sucker instead of paci.

Sweet girl we fall in love with you more each day. I can’t wait to see what the next month brings.

Love,

Mama

Meet our Elf Edgar

2011-11-27T20:49:00.001-05:00

Last night we watched The Elf on the Shelf movie with Liam and he woke up to an Elf welcome breakfast this morning.

I set up a little table in our family room and made it very special for him.

Liam was a little shy to the Elf, I am pretty sure he remembered the story from the night before.

Waiting on breakfast and playing with cars.

Eating his cinnamon roll cake for our special breakfast.

Tonight our little Elf will be busy building a small block tower.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-24T22:04:00.001-05:00

This was the first Thanksgiving in a few years that we have celebrated in Pennsylvania, it was nice to be back and get to see celebrate with everyone.

One of the things you give up when becoming a parent is getting to “lick the beaters” because your kiddo takes them both. Liam has mad skill at cleaning a beater! He is almost as good as the dish washer. The evidence….

This morning when he got up he ran over to the island and yelled “ OOOOOhhhh coook (cookie) Mmmmmmmm”

Liam and I watched the parade together this morning. This is the first year he has sat with me to watch it and he loved it. He liked the balloons and all the singing and dancing. He lasted over an hour until he started requesting Caillou …… oh Caillou how I have grown to ….. be very annoyed by you, your parents, your sister, your cat…your theme song…. (this Mama is Caillou’d out!)

Our first dinner of the day with at my parents house. My brother was in from North Carolina and we were all so excited to have him home for a few days. Liam was so excited to see “Unc”.

Liam and Evan getting ready to eat.

My Mom, Sister, Lucy and I! Love this one

Our first Thanksgiving as a family of four! This was at our next dinner at Alex’s parents house with his parents, grandmother, aunt and uncle.

Lucy and I , we had matching skinny jeans

Lucy’s first Thanksgiving, oooh how this man melts me with his little girl! So sweet!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-16T10:06:00.001-05:00

Who WE ARE….

2011-11-10T12:00:00.001-05:00

‎

May no act of ours bring shame
To one heart that loves thy name,
May our lives but swell thy fame,
Dear old State, dear old State.

Undoubtedly it was been a hard week to say I am a Nittany Lion with pride. For the first time in nine years (almost to they day when I got my acceptance letter in the mail) I did not choose to put on a PSU t-shirt at the end of the day. I am saddened that we will be known as “the school with the sex scandal” and not for all of the amazing good that our school has done. I am saddened for a legend who made a moral mistake and after 61 years will leave like this and be known for his wrong instead of all of his right. And most of all it goes without saying that I am extremely saddened and heartbroken for the victims of these acts. I pray for these children and their family's for their healing and strength. I pray that justice is served to the real monster behind all this.

"Penn State Football doesn't define us. WE ARE so much more than that. WE ARE the number one most-recruited, sought-after graduates for major corporations and Fortune 500 companies in the country. We are a leading research institution accredited by the National Science Foundation. WE ARE over 94,000 students across campuses, with alumni in every state and 87 foreign countries. We are the creators of the number one student-run philanthropy in the world, raising over $78 million for the Four Diamonds Fund since THON's creation in 1977. Don't forget how incredible this university is, and don't allow irresponsible oversight to destroy our reputation. WE ARE...going to get through this together, always acting "For The Glory" and remaining true to who WE ARE and what we stand for in the name of our alma mater. WE ARE....PENN STATE, forever."

It was hard to find the words to express how I was feeling being an alumni to a school going through so much. I had a lot of frustration yesterday reading many non-Penn Staters comments on social media sites about the posts my fellow alum were making on their feelings of the situation. But these folks just didn’t get it. Some one on facebook said “If you loved your alma mater as much as I love mine you would understand” and that is the truth. There is something that you leave Penn State with that is like no other. You leave with an immense amount of pride and enter into a very large, very passionate community. There is nothing like it! I read this this morning and could not have put it any better myself. This OSU fan (can’t believe that one) gets it, they get where we are going from, they get what we are feeling.

“Dear Penn State Fan/Alumni,

You don’t know me. Sure, we may have seen each other once or twice at a road game or a tailgate, but aside from a passing glance, and an occasional hello, we are strangers. Heck, we’re actually more like enemies. After all, I’m a fan of The Ohio State University – tOSU, or O$U as you might call it. Since you guys joined the Big Ten Conference in the early-90s we’ve built a pretty spirited rivalry, with more than its fair share of heroics, heartbreaks, and triumphs. To be sure, we’ve both crossed the line on occasion. Urine balloon barbs and incontinence jabs have clouded the fact that we’re actually not that different, you and I. We’re both proud disciples of two of the most storied programs in all of college football, and although you’d be hard pressed to get a Buckeye fan to say it to your face, we respect the hell out of you and your traditions.

I’m writing because I know how you feel right now. The actions of your beloved president, coach, and athletic director have shaken your program to the core and have threatened your own faith in humanity. You’re shocked that someone you idolized could have done something so stupid, so selfish, so infuriatingly contradictory to the values they spent decades promoting. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not comparing what happened in Columbus to what’s alleged to have happened in State College. Only Bob Ryan is stupid enough to draw that parallel. What I am saying is that I know what it feels like to have a personal hero disgraced. To watch someone you admire, who did more good in a week than most of us do in our entire lifetimes get publicly shamed, and forced out under a cover of darkness. To see a legacy irrevocably stained and treasured accomplishments tarnished. To have one person’s mistakes drag your university’s good name through the mud. To be labeled an accomplice to the crime by virtue of your fan allegiances.

As I was driving to work this morning, I heard one of your own call in to The Herd and explain that he didn’t know how he was going to unapologetically put on the Blue and White and sing “Fight On, State” this Saturday. He’s not the only one to express that sentiment. Perhaps you’re feeling a little this way.

This is what I want to say to you. You are not Joe Paterno. You are not Tim Curley. You are not Gary Schultz. You are not Graham Spanier, and you are sure as hell not Jerry Sandusky. Their alleged sins are not your own. They may be the most recognizable faces of your beloved program, but they are not Penn State. They are not a 156 year old center of higher learning. They are not a century of football tradition. Their flaws cannot eclipse the innumerable scientific, artistic, and humanitarian contributions your university, and its 44,000 students and 570,000 living alumni have made and will continue to make to the world at large.

The spirit of a program, of a university, and of a state is so much bigger than any one person.

So do yourself a favor, and stop thinking about Joe Paterno. No amount of discussion can change what happened, and his bed is made for better or worse. Recognize that only time can tell how he will be remembered. (For what it’s worth, I hope beyond hope that the facts turn out favorably.) Say a prayer for the children, and on Saturday, put on your Silas Redd jersey, brave the cold, and cheer your ass off for your team.
Not because you support the coaches, because you support the men on the field. Not because you endorse the administration, because you believe in the University as a collective whole. Penn State University has always been (and will always be) about one thing and one thing only: making life better.

It’s not just a motto, it’s a mission. And you’re still a part of that.

Pray for the children. Cheer for the team. And in two weeks, make the drive to Columbus, so you can watch us bury your Big Ten title aspirations in person.

Sincerely,

A Buckeye Fan”

Life Lately … according to my phone pictures

2011-11-08T21:17:00.001-05:00

Someone was very excited that they passed their hearing test at the audiologist office today!! Yay Lucy!!! We are going back for a follow up test in a year just to be sure but the audiologist said that the left ear probe at the hospital was found to be broken after over 20 babies failed their left year test. Looks like Lucy was one of those unlucky twenty. So relived that she is okay! She has been smiling up a storm for the last week!! Love my happy little girl!!!

Mr. Liam has had a blast reading all the toy catalogs that have come in the mail and newspaper. Someone is getting ready to Santa to come. Truth be told I am so ready to decorate for Christmas!!!

I’ve been seeing this smirk at 3am a lot this week….

Someone is worn out from this time change, none of us are adapting well yet!

Oh and yes this would be me, IN FIRST PLACE, in our fantasy football league!

Liam being a typical man and lounging watching TV which his belly hanging out.

and this one just blows my mind…. ummm when did she get big enough to do this!?

Halloween 2011

2011-11-02T20:11:00.001-04:00

Liam and Lucy posing with their striped Halloween pants. I love matching them like this. They will definitely have matching Christmas jammies.

Our little pumpkin all ready to go to Grandma and Pops house.

The puppy (Liam), the pumpkin (Lucy) and the Blue Ranger (Evan, my nephew).

Liam, Evan, and Bella.

Trick or treat!!

Dada and Liam, he has such a blast, he had to hold a pack of skittles (that he got at the first house) the entire time.

Kerri (my sister) and Evan

The boys.

Fall Wonderland

2011-10-30T13:24:00.001-04:00

Yesterday we spent the day getting snowed in…yes, in October! I can’t ever remember getting this much snow so early. It kind of makes me scared as to what our actual winter holds.

The kiddos took a nap together.

Liam and I carved a pumpkin

It was a Thomas pumpkin, I am sure you are shocked by this

A few pictures from this morning. We ended up getting a foot of snow! Luckily it has been very sunny today and a lot has already melted.

Halloween preview

Happy 1 Month Lucy

2011-10-28T20:19:00.001-04:00

Dear Lucy,

Today you are one month old. I can’t be honest and go with the cliché comment of “I can’t believe you are already a month old” because I almost can’t remember what it was like to not have you here with us, you fit into our little family so well. You are a very relaxed baby and don’t get upset about much. We have been dealing with some late evening fussiness but I know all too well that this phase will past in a blink of an eye. If there is one thing that I have learned from your first month it is that every baby is different. Although you may look a whole lot like your big brother you have been very different babies. Your Dad and I have had to relearn being parents to a newborn again to adapt to what you like and need.

You love the bouncy seat; you napped in there for the first month of your life. Starting yesterday I have tried to start getting you used to napping in your crib and you did really well. You are not a big fan of the swing, hopefully it will grow on you. You love to sleep on your side and rolled over (back to belly) at exactly one week old! You did it six times after that but have not done it again for a week or so. You don’t mind doing tummy time because I think if we let you you would choose to sleep on your belly. You are so strong! You can lift your head up for quite a while and look around. You can spin in a circle when on your belly and jump up when we give your feet support when laying on some ones chest. We’ve been saying that you are going to be an all american athlete. I am pretty sure you are going to give your brother a run for his money. You love bath time and just lounge in the warm water very contently. You like to hang your little feet over the side of the newborn hammock and submerge them in the water.

You are still wearing newborn diapers and newborn clothes. The first week of you life you wore preemie diapers and cloths because you swam in the newborn size. You fit into them perfect now. You were 6 pounds 10 ounces at birth, 6 pounds 7 ounces at discharge, and 8 pounds 2 ounces at your one month appointment. You are growing and thriving. You eat on a pretty likely schedule of three ounces every three hours, normally going two four hour stretch at night/morning (11-3 and 4-8). The past two days you have moved up to eating 4 ounces at each feeding (sometimes more). You were born with a fair amount of dark hair and still have it all. The very top and back is long (probably a good inch and a half) the rest of your head is FULL of short, thick dark hair.

Lucy, you are so lucky to have the best big brother. Liam loves you more than I can put into words. When I ask him if you wants to hold you it is the highlight of his day! He hugs and kisses you so many times a day and loves to lay by your when you are “playing” and show you everything. I look forward to how your relationship with grow and evolve and how much fun you two are going to have together.

Happy 1 Month Sweet Girl

Love,

Mama

** Thank you to my friend Bev from Indy (who I miss more than words can say) who made the adorable monthly stickers that Lucy is modeling in her picture. Thanks Bev, I love them!!!

Don’t get much better

2011-10-25T23:05:00.001-04:00

…than this!

Me: “Liam do you want to hold DD”?

Liam: “Yeeeeeas” … hops on the couch and opens his arms wide up to hold onto his little sister and give her tons of kisses while saying “Ooooooh DD”

Liam’s Birthday Party

2011-10-25T23:01:00.001-04:00

For Liam’s second birthday party we hosted a Thomas the Tank Engine party (of course) at our house with some of our immediate family members. We had a fantastic time celebrating his second year and loved having some family members at our house for the first time.

One of the gifts Alex and I got for Liam was an easel. He loves to color and do projects so the easel has been a huge hit.

Thomas galore…

The food: fall salad, fruit kabobs (which had a railroad crossing sign on the top), muddy buddies, apple pie chex mix, chicken wing dip and pizza.

Dessert!

His first of two cupcakes…

Action shot! Opening all of his wonderful gifts (which sitting on the dining room table LOL), thank you everyone for the thoughtful and generous gifts!

Happy Birthday Liam!!!!!

2011-10-22T20:51:00.001-04:00

Our little man is TWO today!!!!! We had a fantastic day celebrating with family; lots of details to come!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-19T20:37:00.001-04:00

Lucy modeling her new Halloween outfit from Aunt Kerri! Bow from Polkadot Posies (my favorite shop ever!)

Weekend Fun

2011-10-17T21:02:00.001-04:00

On Sunday Alex and I took the kiddos to an Apple Festival at a local orchard. Alex and I went to the apple festival for years before we moved to Indy so it was nice to go back this year and have all of our favorite treats again.

We got to use the new stroller for the first time, everyone (the riders and the pushers) loved it!

Yesterday was a big day for Lucy, she finally lost her umbilical cord stump and was able to take a real bath. Of course being the most chill baby ever she LOVED it. Look at those cheeks, baby girl is chunking up!

This morning I reorganized the family room/playroom to make room for some toys for Lucy. Liam and her had a good time playing together this morning. He loves to show her all of the toys, he is such a sweet boy. (…Except for when he colors on THREE of my walls while I was taking a shower and Dada was watching him….oy!)

Happy Friday

2011-10-14T20:03:00.001-04:00

A deal

2011-10-13T16:22:00.001-04:00

I LOVE deals! Groupon, eversave, very jane … you name it I probably subscribe to it! I have saved so much over the last year (especially at Christmas time) since following all these deal sites. I got a great one today and wanted to share it with you all too!

If you follow a lot of blogs I am sure that you have heard of the Erin Condren Life Planner; it has been all the rage in blogosphere over the last two months but it is $50 … for a planner and I am cheap LOL so i didn’t jump on that bandwagon fast.

Well on One Kings Lane when you sign up (it is free to do) you get a $15 credit. Erin Condren is running a deal on there for a $50 gift card for $25 and if you apply your $15 credit it ends up being $10 ….. so i am getting my life planner for $10! SCORE!! If you are not in the market for planner you can get gift labels or address labels for free (they are $12 and $15 on sale so with you credit they are free). Here is the link if you want to take advantage!

https://www.onekingslane.com/invite/sarahpawlowski9

ENJOY!!!!!!

Fall filled Sunday

2011-10-09T20:33:00.001-04:00

This afternoon my Mom and I took Liam and Lucy to a fall festival. Liam LOVED looking at all the pumpkins

and picking one out to paint this week.

Lucy had a good time getting some fresh air and taking a nap.

Before we left Liam watched the big kids ride the pony’s.

**Thank you all so much for your uplifting comments on my last post and all of your prayers for Lucy to stay cold free; I truly appreciate it so much**

Lucy – 1 Week (and a prayer request, or two)

2011-10-07T09:13:00.001-04:00

A full week as a family of four. I can say nothing but it has been one of the best weeks of my life. I told Alex the other night how heartbreaking it is to me to think of someone that suffers from the baby blues or postpartum depression because i am pretty sure I have the opposite. There have been times this week i was convinced my heart would explode spewing glitter and unicorns because of my intense love for my kids and family.

I am so grateful that the transition, so far, to being a stay at home Mom to two kids (under two for the next three weeks) has been great. Honestly, it was a lot easier for me to take care of the two of them this week than just Liam when i was pregnant. Feeling back to normal has been such a huge blessing.

Miss Lucy is doing great. She is back to her birth weight and doing all of the newborn things (sleeping, eating, and pooping) like a champ. At discharge we learned that she needed to come back to the hospital for a repeat hearing test on her left ear. Her appointment was yesterday and her left ear still came back “referable”. The audiologist assured us that it very well could be debris still left in the ear canal or fluid behind the ear drum. In a few weeks we will go to the audiologist office were they have better equipment and will be able to get a better feel for what is going on. Either way i seek comfort in knowing that her right ear is perfectly fine and she will be able to hear us, music, and life.

On the day we got discharged from the hospital I came down with a pretty nasty cold. Talk about freaking out! I have been crazy about trying to keep all the germs away from Lucy but since I am her primary caretaker I am not sure how easy it can be to do. Liam woke up with a stuffy nose this morning, so i know it is coming his way and i feel like I am barely holding my stuff together knowing what the next two weeks may bring. Some of the nurses in the hospital said that babies as young as Lucy can’t get sick (i guess it is an old wives tale, one i really want to believe is true) but her pediatrician said no she can get sick. Please, please if you are the praying kind please keep Lucy in your thoughts that she does not catch this bug. Her doctor said yesterday the real trouble would come if she came down with a fever which is a one way ticket to being admitted to the hospital with a battery of VERY scary, VERY invasive tests to rule out all possible infections. She said even if they are able to see it is an ear infection or something similar they will put them through all of the testing. Needless to say since yesterday I have been a nut case.

I feel selfish in a way to say that I thought after all we had been through with her pregnancy I anticipated things to relax, that we would finally be able to enjoy everything without the worry of something being wrong. You all know from past posts that I rushed through and didn’t savor the time I was pregnant with her and now i feel like I am going to be doing the same thing for her first month of life. I love this newborn stage so much but i just want her to get to one month, fever free and then I know we are in the clear of all the testing that would be needed if she got sick. I just don’t want to be sick anymore. I just want to be able to sit and struggle with her without worry.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-05T21:04:00.001-04:00

…….be still my heart…….

What would have been my 40 week post….

2011-10-03T21:26:00.001-04:00

so much better! Oh and I finally get to sleep on my belly and back and it is all i thought it would be :-) sleep quality has been so much better!!

We had Lucy’s 3 day follow up appointment this morning at our pediatrician and she did wonderful. She has a little bit of jaundice in her face but it isn’t to a point that they are concerned. She weighed 6 pounds 6 ounces, she is such a peanut!

Liam was being a wild man today and jumping all over the house pretending to be a bunny, he had us cracking up! Look at the air this kid can get!

Mama i’m comin home

2011-10-02T20:58:00.001-04:00

First thing Friday morning we packed up to head home with Lucy. I had been ready to go home since about four hours after she was born so it was a long time in the hospital which i totally feel is equivalent to being in jail except in jail people don’t come in your room all hours of the night to poke and prod at you.

The night before we got to leave i finally got a picture with her eyes semi open, they are much bigger but it was hard to get a shot without using he flash. She LOVES staring at her Dada, no lie she is a Daddy’s girls already. She has super long fingers which you can see in this picture too.

Ready to go home at a perfect fall day. It was in the low 60’s and very sunny.

Getting all strapped in.

We are home!!! So much better :-)

Life with two. Napping newborn and toddler playing with trains.

Liam of course saying CHEEEEEEEEEESE because the camera was out.

And “sissy” who he also called “DD” and “Woo-she”

Liam loves to pretend to be a rocket so this is him doing “blast-off”, which looks pretty similar to him saying “Mama quit it with the pictures i am playing with my cars here”

Liam is doing so well adjusting to having a little sister around. He loves her so much, it was like he had been waiting for her to come as long as we had and feels the same fulfillment in the family as we do. He gives her tons of hugs and kisses and is always bringing us her hat to put on her head. Today we had to show her his new truck and the snacks he was having. It is so funny to watch him play with his trains and then all the sudden pop up and way “oooh DD” and run over to see her. The hardest part is keeping him from loving on her too much. Luckily we worked hard on touching softly and being gentle with the cats while i was pregnant so he understands to be gentle with her but he has a hard time realizing he can bear his weight on her to get close to her. Aside from that and some paci sharing (shocking right) everything has been going really well.

**A few phone pictures from the last few days**

Going for our tradition Friday night pizza run with the two kiddos!

Liam and I went on a special date yesterday to Target and Sonic, he was enjoying his tots.

and Miss Lucy finally sleeping this morning after being up all night last night wanting to party.

He loves her

2011-09-29T16:29:00.001-04:00

I never would have expected Liam to love Lucy (or as he calls her "DD”) as much as he does. Little man can’t get enough of his little sister. He came to visit today with my parents and ran to the bed yelling “DD” and trying to climb up to look at her and touch her. We are so blessed!

Welcome Lucy Anne

2011-09-28T22:22:00.001-04:00

September 28, 2011

1:02 am

6 pounds 10.5 ounces

19.75 inches long

Lucy’s birth story is one that none of us will ever forget!

I was scheduled to come in to start my induction on Tueday night at 7:30pm. On Monday i was a “good 2-3 cm” at my office visit and after telling my doctor around 8pm that i had been having contractions all day/evening Monday he was not surprised when he checked me to find that i had dilated to a 4 since the day before. He told me that I was dilated enough that i did not need the foley catheter that they planned on putting in that evening and that he would order me a sleeping pill and they would start the pitocin induction first thing in the morning. He then sarcastically added “unless you go into labor tonight”.

By 8:30pm I started having contractions every 2-3 minutes. They were much more painful than what i had been having the last few days and by 9:30 i decided to call the nurse to ask to be put on a monitor because they were very regular and strong. After 15 minutes of monitoring it was confirmed that i was contracting regularly. At this point the contractions hurt, a lot more than i had ever experienced with Liam (i got an epidural at 4cm with him when the pain wasn’t very bad yet). I am the kind of person that doesn’t like to whine of make a fuss over being in pain because 1. it won’t make it go away and 2. incase what i was feeling wasn’t even close to the worst pain during child birth i didn’t want to come across as a wimp. Because of this and my positive attitude when i asked the nurse if she was going to check me she said “well just looking at you i would highly doubt you’d be past a 4” but she decided to check me anyway and i was “oooooh a gooood 5cm” … that's right!

At this point, around 10pm, the admitted me to the hospital and confirmed that i had gone into labor (yes, before they even started the induction i went into labor at the hospital). I knew that i wanted an epidural but the nurse said that if i get it now it may stop the contractions that i was having on my own. Because of this i decided to hold off a little while. I knew that i needed one full bag of fluids (about an hour) before i was even able to get the epidural so i put in the request to have it as soon as i could.

this is where it get foggy for me

**Note, i was positive for beta strep so they didn’t check me after the nurse confirmed i was a 5 because they didn’t want to disturb anything to make me progress faster because they wanted me to get the two full bags of antibiotics**

After 10pm the contractions got extremely painful. There was a lot of silent foul words being thrown around during those contractions, many attempts to deep breathe, and a whole lot of “when the heck am i getting that epidural”. The anesthesiologist knew that i still needed to finish my bag of fluids so he went into surgery and was not able to leave until the procedure was over. He finally came into my room at midnight. Getting the epidural was not fun, it was definitely much more uncomfortable than it was with Liam, it felt like he was shooting far to the right in my spine (yeah not fun). He finally got it in, after saying “i had a really nice back that made it easy” and i was told to lay down for it to take effect…but it didn’t and the contractions were getting a lot worse.

Around 10:30 the contractions were so bad i just started crying. I couldn’t help it. I knew that epidural was not working and no one seemed to be trying to do anything to fix it. The contractions started coming one right on top of one another (hello transition) and i just knew she was coming and coming soon…….and i knew i was going to be doing it without pain meds.

I have never been so scared in my entire life.

things get super foggy here

Contractions were bad, i was crying, i thought i had lost my mind, my water broke and my body started pushing. If they would have told me to stop there is no way i would have been able to. The nurse decided to check me and then started screaming into the hallway like you see on the movies to get the doctor. The doctor ran in, jumped on the bed, and out came Lucy. It was crazy intense and i honestly don’t have words to describe the last 10 minutes of my labor.

She was out, it was immediate relief, she looked just like Liam, she had lots of dark hair, i cried tears of shear joy.

Liam came to visit with my parents at 11am and just LOVED his baby sister. He petted her and just wanted to love on her. I could not be more happy!

Our new family of four, blessed beyond words!

39 Weeks, my final pregnancy post

2011-09-27T14:30:00.001-04:00

Total Weight Gain/Loss: i actually lost 2 pounds this week, not sure how that happened since my appetite is still in full force but my total weight gain this pregnancy was 23 pounds.

Maternity Clothes: what little still fits, everything is short

Gender: it’s a girl! Lucy Anne

Movement: her movement has slowed down so much these last two days, baby girl is ready to come out!

Sleep: I GET TO SLEEP ON MY BACK AND BELLY IN A FEW DAYS!!!!!!!

What I miss: I am so excited to see what it feels to function without being hugely pregnant. I seriously cannot wait to feel physically normal again! So ready!!! Oh and fall clothes shopping!!

Cravings: i have really been wanting Mexican food this week but that is about it

Best Moment this week: being on the finally countdown to meeting Lucy, finally!

I had a great appointment yesterday. I am already 3cm (thanks to constant irregular contraction the last three days, how she is still in there cooking is beyond me) so hopefully the induction will be fairly quick. I go in tonight to start with a foley catheter and then pitocin in the morning, so Lucy should be here sometime Wednesday afternoon. I will probably be updating on twitter (sgh131) thought the day and will post pictures on here and facebook Wednesday night.

I have been having such bittersweet feelings these last few days. There is no doubt about it that I have wished this pregnancy away (meaning I have wanted it to be October 1st for MONTHS now). It has been a LONG and very stressful 9 months. We found out we were moving to PA, I prepped a house to go on the market while battling horrible morning sickness, we sold a house, we packed a house, we bought a house (without seeing it), we moved, we unpacked a house, we didn’t know if Lucy was healthy or not and had a very scary experience, i went through the last 5 months of my pregnancy as a high risk patient. So all the while i have just wanted it to be over, i just wanted her to be here so i knew that she was okay but now i sit here knowing that i may only have a few more hours of feeling a baby kick on the inside for the rest of my life. I am not one that really enjoys being pregnant, i’d much rather just have the baby, but I am sad to think that this may very well be it. Alex and I plan on Lucy being our last. We are beyond blessed to have two children and lucky enough to have a boy and a girl and just feel like two is the right number for us (two parents, two hands, two spots for car seats, two college educations pay for, ect.). Luckily, we are young enough that if we change our mind in five years and want to add another to the bunch we will still be young enough to do so.

Weekend Randomness

2011-09-25T20:50:00.001-04:00

** Yes, i am still here and Lucy is still on the inside. I will post my 39 week (and finally pregnancy) post tomorrow (given she doesn’t decide to come tonight). I went to the doctor last Tuesday was 2cm and 50%, they let me schedule an induction for Tuesday but said “ i doubt you are going to make it until then”….well i am still here with only a few days to go (way to get my hopes up doc). I hope she is right and Lucy decides to come today or tomorrow but we will see. Either way she will be here by Wednesday. YAY!!!! **

My big boy eating a cupcake on Friday (showing me that he got icing on his hand)

Liam already likes to pick on girls. Alex has taken over bath time because it is just too hard for me to do this late in the pregnancy game so i get to sit and watch. Liam immediately says “fishie” and then gets me soaked, every.single.night. It is so funny, he squeezes that fish so hard and does his battle cry.

…and because we are absolutely insane and have lost out minds we put Liam in a ‘big boy bed’…this weekend. He has been sleeping horribly lately and normally when we go through these phases of bad sleep two or three days of “crying it out'” solves the problem. Well Liam quickly learned that he could easily throw himself over the side of the crib during this event so needless to say we needed another option. He never actually got the chance to jump out because i would sit outside his door with the video monitor making sure i got in there before he’d go over.

I didn’t think Liam would be one of those kids that got excited about being in a big boy bed, poor kid i didn’t give him a chance that he’d understand but boy oh boy does he. He LOVES his new bed, loves it! He loves having the control over climbing in and out. He was so excited and proud to show Grandma his new bed today. I could not be any happier that last night went well. He only ended up getting up and out of bed once at 2am, he started crying at his door for me to come get him. I let him go for about 2-3 minutes then went in and told him it was time to go back to sleep in his big boy bed and laid him back down. I sat on his floor but didn’t talk to him or look at him (thanks super nanny for that tip) and he went right back to sleep. He slept all the way to 6:30 this morning which is so much better than 5am!

I pulled out my camera tonight for the first time in a while and Liam would not stop saying “cheeeeeeeese’, just running around posing and screaming cheese. It was too cute!

38 weeks

2011-09-19T20:38:00.001-04:00

Total Weight Gain/Loss: somewhere around 23 pounds (my appointment is tomorrow)

Maternity Clothes: yes the few things that still fit….it is just so wrong that you outgrow maternity stuff at the end

Gender: it’s a girl! Lucy Anne

Movement: she is stretching out her legs more than anything and wiggling her head around like she is trying to get out (fun times…)

Sleep: my hips are so loose that they get very very sore when i lay on one side more more than an hour

What I miss: i feel like i have finally reached the point where i am just as mentally done as i am physically done. I am a very non-hormonal preggo but the last few days i could just cry because i want it to be over so bad. I am so ready to feel normal again and to be holding this little girl and pass her off to Daddy to hold for a while :-)

Cravings: pumpkin ice cream YUM!

Best Moment this week: We got all of the baby gear set up this weekend: swing, pack n play, bouncy seat and the newborn hammock in the little tub. Her room and 99% done (pictures to come soon) thanks to the help from my Mom this weekend on getting the finishing touches done. :-)

and I am adding: Best “got your hopes up” Moment this week: Saturday night when i was having contractions every three minutes for three hours that we were getting progressively stronger and then poof….gone….arggg!

For comparison sake here i am 37 weeks with Liam and 38 weeks with Lucy in the same shirt (limited choices when you have been pregnant all summer and suddenly fall arrives)

37 weeks, 4 days = FULL TERM!

2011-09-13T20:02:00.001-04:00

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 23 pounds

Maternity Clothes: yes and and i have outgrown many of them

Gender: it’s a girl! Lucy Anne

Movement: she is still head down, yay for no flipping in the last week! She is still moving around a lot and loves to stretch her legs out to the side.

Sleep: is just painful!

What I miss: being about to move like a normal person LOL stand up, roll over, ect without the need of a crane … I am getting so excited to shop for fall clothes!

Cravings: nothing much at all this week

Best Moment this week: reaching 37 weeks and being full term, Lucy can pretty much come at any time now because all of her organs have developed and are ready for life outside the womb. I had my last growth ultrasound with my high risk doctor on Friday and Lucy was in the 55% and weighed 6lbs 5oz (and is “right there” aka ready to come out)!! YAY!!!! It was bittersweet to have my last appointment there since the doctor I saw provided so much positive energy throughout this pregnancy, i will miss him! I had another great doctors appointment on Monday with my regular OBs(appointments have been great since i have only been going to the new doctor in the practice, love her!) I didn’t get checked this week so no updates on progress.

Alex was out of town last week and I got a lot of stuff done around the house plus a lot of projects finished for Lucy that I had started months ago. YAY, for baby girl stuff being done!

I feel like she has dropped a lot since last week, what do you think?

Long Weekend

2011-09-06T20:38:00.001-04:00

Liam and I finished up our last day on the Letter A with a great project. We stamped a picture of an apple with a half of an apple and decorated it, it was by far his favorite thing we have done. We have an apple tree in our from yard so I grabbed a small one, some leaves and mulch to do our project. I cut the apple in half and stuck a lollipop stick in it since I knew Liam wouldn’t want to touch it for fear of getting paint on his hands. It worked great and he had a good time stamping his apple and gluing on the leaves. Up next is the letter B :-)

I gave Liam his first haircut at home last week, the boy was shaggy! Since he was not a huge fan of letting someone cut his hair last time (and it looked pretty easy) I decided to give it a whirl. I put him in his bumbo chair…yes my 30 pound nearly two year old fits in a bumbo, gave him a dum dum and put on Seasme Street and cut away. Overall, I think i did a pretty good job for my first time.

Rock star Liam

Even though Alex and I went to Penn State we are big Florida Gator football fans so Alex and Liam were all dressed up for the first game on Saturday.

On Saturday my Mom and I went to lunch and then to see The Help which we both LOVED. I don’t think I have ever read a book and then saw the movie that I liked just as much. I thought they did such a wonderful job adapting it to the big screen! Liam and I before I left.

On Sunday we had our “Friends and Family” league fantasy football draft. All of us (and i do mean all of us) set up on our computers.

Liam playing on youtube watching Thomas videos.

Today I made this chicken and wild rice soup that i had pinned on pinterest and it was just too good not to share. Perfect for an easy fall/winter meal!

36 weeks (and a few days) 9 months

2011-09-06T20:14:00.001-04:00

(Did you notice a big difference in this weeks picture? NO MORE PINK BATHROOM!!! My Mom painted the bathroom last Tuesday and we just LOVE it! Thanks Mom, without you are house would have never become a home!)

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 22 pounds

Maternity Clothes: yes and and i have outgrown some that are not too short, that is just wrong!

Gender: it’s a girl! Lucy Anne

Movement: still lots of movement but at my appointment today she was head down (at least for today) so that was wonderful news

Sleep: still not great, it is just so hard to get in a position that makes is easy to breath and rolling over is just HARD!

What I miss: being about to move like a normal person LOL stand up, roll over, ect without the need of a crane … I am getting so excited to shop for fall clothes!

Cravings: everything almond….granola with almonds, almond butter, almond milk

Best Moment this week: I had a great appointment today, Lucy was head down which was great news and I was dilated to 1cm which is a start…..only a few more weeks!!! :-)

Tot School – Letter A

2011-08-27T20:59:00.001-04:00

For a few months now I have been looking into starting some kind of very relaxed and easy home school preschool activities for Liam and I to do. Although we do puzzles and read books the large majority of the day I wanted activities for us to sit down and do that will help him learn letters, numbers, shapes, colors, etc. After weeks of searching the internet every night after he went to bed I finally fell upon a program that I fell in love with, it was exactly what I had been searching for. The best part is that all of the printables are FREE!! Score! If you have a little one that you are interested in starting something like this with you have got to check out 1+1+1=1

Last week we worked on the letter Aa, the color red, object – apple, and the shape of a circle. I saved all of the printables to my computer and printed out the ones that I thought Liam would enjoy the most, one per day. Next week I plan to try a few different ones that I didn’t last week just because he did enjoy it so much I think that we could do a little bit more than I had anticipated. What I love is how they stress that each child is differant (and actually each day is different); where as one kid may sit and do a project for a half our, another may sit and do it for 3 minutes and that is okay. It is all about focused 1:1 time to develop early learning skills through “play”.

Every day when he would finish his project we would hang it on the fridge and almost every time he would walk through the kitchen he would point and either say “A” or “Apple”. It is amazing how fast they pick up on things. He also learned to draw a really great circle :-)

In addition to the printables we also came up with a fun apple game of putting fake apples that i have on my dining room table in a cupcake tin. He loved lining them up in their. (Wish i had a picture).

Our lives lately, courtesy of phone pictures

2011-08-27T20:37:00.001-04:00

Alex took a random weekday off last week (love those) and we took Liam to Barnes and Noble to look at some books and play with the trains. He must have enjoyed it because he kept his cute hat on the entire time which does not happen.

One of our local orchards harvested some of their apples last week and we got some to enjoy. Liam LOVES tart apples, the more sour the better to him!

Playing the “drums” … gotta love the mass mess that can be made in 2 seconds with a toddler. BUT having a toddler that for the most part listens when you say “ok now lets put everything back” totally rocks!

Last week Liam painted as an art project. He is so weird about getting his hands dirty so i knew traditional finger painting was not going to happen so i gave him a brush with his finger paints and he went to town. He absolutely LOVED it, i have never seen him more focused on something. We hung his canvas on the wall and he points to it so proudly multiple times per day. We will definitely be painting a lot more!

My nephew, Evan, is staying with my Mom this week while my sister and her husband are on a little vacation and Liam has had a blast hanging out with him.

On Friday they washed my Moms car together and then their bikes.

Ok….make sure you are sitting down for this one…my kid …he ate pizza! and he said “mmmmmmm” major progress!!!!

Our double stroller came yesterday and Liam was very anxious to try it out (literally hitting the box all day for me to open in so he could see it). Once Alex got home we got it all set up and Liam climbed in faster than we could put him in. He even cried when we took him out so needless to say he loved it.

and today we started to welcome Irene….we are boarding ourselves (not literally) inside the house and watching movies in our pj’s all day tomorrow!

35/35

2011-08-27T20:12:00.001-04:00

35 weeks down 35 (hopefully less) days to go!

Total Weight Gain/Loss: right around 20 pounds

Maternity Clothes: yes and and i have outgrown some that are not too short, that is just wrong!

Gender: it’s a girl! Lucy Anne

Movement: she is still flipping around between breech and head down….. oy

Sleep: still not great, it is just so hard to get in a position that makes is easy to breath and rolling over is just HARD!

What I miss: being about to move like a normal person LOL stand up, roll over, ect without the need of a crane … I am getting so excited to shop for fall clothes!

Cravings: yogurt and granola again this week and still cereal

Best Moment this week: hitting my 35 / 35 mark…she will be here soon!!! thank goodness

(almost) 34 weeks

2011-08-18T19:54:00.001-04:00

(will update with picture tomorrow)

Total Weight Gain/Loss: just under 20 pounds …i feel like i got huge this week! Alex had definitely made it clear he agrees LOL

Maternity Clothes: yes and even some of them are getting short

Gender: it’s a girl! Lucy Anne

Movement: she is a flipping machine! two weekends ago she was breech, that tuesday at an ultrasound she was head down, the next tuesday (this past) at my doctors appointment she was breech again, and now today I felt her feet sliding on my ribs/side all day so I assume she is head down again….. little lady needs to stay put in the head down position!

Sleep: yeah, i’d rather just not talk about it

What I miss: being about to move like a normal person LOL stand up, roll over, ect without the need of a crane

Cravings: cleaning LOL (major nesting going on at our house), yogurt and granola (vanilla, almond, and coconut…amazing)…i’ve eaten a lot of it this week!

Best Moment this week: ordering Lucy’s baby book, i LOVE it!! (i ended up getting one for Liam too, yes i am going to make him a baby book at the age of 2 LOL but i just loved it too much not to get him one too). I will post about the books once I get them!

Picture dump and then some

2011-08-13T21:50:00.001-04:00

My boys playing football, Liam would much rather play quarterback than catch the ball.

Score!

Summer time and the livings easy…..

Country life!

My big boy!

The best thing ever!!

Flying high!

In May Liam got a swing set from Alex’s parents but because our backyard isn’t completely level we have yet to put it up because it needs to be leveled. Alex’s Uncle is helping us out because he has lots of big fun machinery which provides great entertainment for a toddler boy! We are also digging out our front step area to put in a new step and a sidewalk. Liam was all about helping the guys out the other night. And yes, our outside basically looks like we could be filming Renovation Realities or some other DIY/HGTV show.

On Friday night we went to the St. Judes bazaar which has always been the end of the summer event in Mountaintop. It was nice to go for the first time in almost four years and have some yummy food! Liam got to play the lippie pop tree game and loved his dum dum.

This afternoon Alex, his Dad, Liam and I headed down to Bloomsburg for a car show. Liam was so good and well behaved! He LOVED looking at the cars and the “exhaust rap” (in quotes because i just asked Alex as i am writing this what that thing was called when the cars where being really loud.

Since Lucy is due just a few weeks before Liam’s birthday I have been in full on party planning mode! I would like to get done with as much as possible before she is born so that all of the decoration and such are taken care of. What is his theme you may last….. Thomas, of course!

Cheeeeese

2011-08-10T17:12:00.001-04:00

32 weeks 2 days

2011-08-10T17:03:00.001-04:00

Total Weight Gain/Loss: around 15 pounds

Maternity Clothes: yes, only a few really long non-maternity shirts still fit

Gender: it’s a girl! Lucy Anne

Movement: oh my goodness YES, she is a nut! She loves to flip around too and this weekend she was breech and I really though she was going to kick her way straight through, it was beyond painful to say the least! So happy that on Sunday night she flipped back around to head down with her feet on the right side.

Sleep: yeah, i’d rather just not talk about it

What I miss: belly and back sleeping!

Cravings: cereal and chocolate peanut butter ice cream

Best Moment this week: I had my 4 week follow up visit with my high risk doctor and everything looked great! Lucy is measuring right on track and is about 4 pounds right now. The tech also said that he thought he saw some hair on her head?!? This will be a whole new revelation if we have a child with hair before the age of one.

Randomness

2011-08-03T22:13:00.001-04:00

I really could have linked up with the What I am Loving Wednesday bunch because that is pretty much exactly what this post is going to be! So here are the things i am currently loving….

Scentsy

In all reality I should probably become a sales rep for Scentsy because i just LOVE their products and rave about them to anyone that will listen. A few months ago I saw that their month of July warmer was this adorable cupcake and hoped that I would some how be able to get it. I was so excited when Alex told me to go ahead and buy last week (he loves Scentsy as much as I do). It arrived yesterday and it is just as adorable in person! Next up, maybe for Christmas, i’d love a plug-in warmer and a Scentsy buddy for each of the kiddos rooms.

Lucy’s Room

I cannot wait to show you all Lucy’s room! I am just loving it! I am not into “themes” but if I had to describe her room it would be vintage chic and it is beautiful (it could also be called “thank goodness for pinterest nursery” because that is where so much inspiration came from! I am starting a handmade chenille blanket for her room and can’t wait to see the final product, it is going to be the perfect blanket for her room.

speaking of …. Pinterest

I am sure most of you have heard of pinterest by now and if you have not just close this window and open up pinterest and go…. (see you in a few weeks because it is addicting). I have ALWAYS been one to save ideas on my computer and “star” many, many, many posts in my google reader with ideas. Well, pinterest is a website that allows you to “pin” aka store all of you ideas and inspirations with the original links to the sites where they came from; which is awesome for recipes and tutorials!

Here are some of my favorite pins from this week…. all fall related

Outfits for fall, I am so excited/ready to be in real clothes again!

I am totally making this for our door for football season!

I am loving these planters with pumpkins for our porch this fall.

Doesn’t this salad look awesome?! Pears, cranberries, feta, bacon and chicken …yumm!

Polkadot Posies

Seriously, I have no words to describe how awesome this shop is!! I was telling my Mom that the owner of the shop probably thinks I am a nut because of how many times I have praised her shop and work via conversations on twitter but honestly it is amazing! Obviously when I was pregnant with Liam I was still working and our income was double what it is today so needless to say we had a lot of money to spend on frivolous things for him. With Lucy it is based much more on need than everything we’d want. I knew that my little girl NEEDED bows, BIG bows and lots of them but everything I was finding on etsy was at least $8 each so i held off. I made her a ton of flower clips but just could not get the boutique bow style down enough that i was happy with. A few weeks ago a fellow blogger linked to the Polkadot Posies shop stating that all the bows were under $3, i was so there!!! I got my order three days later (and it came all the way from Texas) and oh my goodness I could not believe the quality of these bows! They are amazing! Lucy now has almost every solid color bow, a big Christmas bow, and a few corkers (which may just be my favorite that I purchased). So if anyone is in the market for bows you much check out this shop! I cannot say enough about it!

Liam’s Age and Stage

I am just loving the age Liam is at and all the fun things he is doing everyday, we have so much fun together and he is just constantly cracking us up with the stuff he comes up with. He loves to play baseball by getting his ball and bat, pretending to hit the ball by throwing it, then drops his bat and runs and then slides….oh and we didn’t teach him this…so it must be genetic to be wired to play baseball! He has to gather up all of his cars before taking a nap, they don’t leave him sight. He is starting to repeat things right after we say them which is so cute but we quickly learned we have to be extra careful.

Visits

The Saturday before last my brother graduated from Ball State with his masters and moved a few days later to North Carolina where he will be a doctoral student at East Carolina State. After my parents helped move him in he came back to PA with them for a visit. We went from seeing him almost every other weekend when we lived in Indy to not seeing him since March so we were all super excited for him trip this week. Liam has just been over the moon to have Uncle Matt home. Pop, Liam and Uncle Matt all “plugged in” haha gotta love living in 2011.

Home Stretch

31 weeks….hopefully only 8ish more to go….. yeah the white flag has been thrown and if i could wake up tomorrow and make in the end of September I totally would. I will say that I am super excited that I passed my 1-hour glucose test with flying colors this time (i failed with Liam and had to do the 3-hour test). I totally owe it all to my Mom for being my walking buddy!! I have been 10 times more active this pregnancy than with Liam!

Yesterday I actually googled “can an overactive baby break your water” because I was that concerned that Lucy was going to kick her way through. Holy cow, i thought Liam was active…I think Lucy may give Liam a run for his money once she is here. I have a feeling there will MANY games of tag in our house :-)

Phone Photo Drop

2011-07-27T21:53:00.001-04:00

Since getting my new phone I have been taking so many pictures of Liam with it. At our old house I would keep my camera on my bakers rack which was right between the kitchen and living room where we spend most of our day but here in the new house I have not found a safe stop to have it handy at all times so for now the phone will do.

Doesn’t he look so comfy napping on the couch after a hot afternoon

Playing in the tub with his Sesame Street buddies, he likes to make them dive in.

He struggled using utensils for so long until I gave him a regular adult fork instead of a plastic toddler one and he is doing so good!

Lately Liam has become very into lining up his cars. The all have to face the same direction and are always neatly in line. The other day I was making lunch while Liam was playing in the living room, later in the afternoon I went in and saw what he had been working on ….. the car arch, pretty impressive if i do say so myself.

The next day we had the car “L” (L for Liam I suppose).

Now instead of solely running around the circle in the house we also ride our quad around the circle.

All of these 90-100 degree days have lead to lots of time in the pool!

Early weekend mornings with our Pooh slippers.

More lining up of the cars before they raced around the family room.

Liam and Lucy snuggling…

I will try anything to get this picky eater to eat…for lunch we tried peanut butter sandwich pops…yeah it didn’t work but at least he picked it up….that is a start.

Giving his beloved dog a ride this morning.

Summer Nights

2011-07-27T20:55:00.001-04:00

Do any iphone users know the best way to blog from their phone?

Today we finally got a break from the heat wave we (and most of the country) has been having. It was in the 70’s after we had dinner today so we took advantage and let Liam play outside and run around like a wild man for as long as he wanted.

How and when did he get so big?!?

Doing a little yoga outside.

Taking a break with Dada on the bench.

Oooh look apples!

The highlight of Alex’s night, playing baseball with his son! So much more of this in their future.

Baseball (bay-ball) is Liam’s new favorite word, i hear it no less than 30 times a day.

Then we came inside and had ice cream with extra sprinkles.

29 Weeks

2011-07-18T21:36:00.001-04:00

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 11 pounds so far

Maternity Clothes: oh yes

Gender: it’s a girl! Lucy Anne

Movement: yes lot of flipping and swift kicks to the bladder, Liam and Lucy had this first sibling fight while Liam was laying on me the other day and elbowing her and she would kick him in the back…over and over again

Sleep: oooh sleep or should i say lack there of….i miss sleep! I remember saying this to my co-workers when I was pregnant with Liam and they thought i was the most naive first time expectant Mom but i was so right…i sleep ten times better with a newborn than i do pregnant! At least with a newborn I am up doing something productive with a goal of getting them back to sleep and then when I do go to sleep I am out like a light until the next feeding where as while pregnant I am up, uncomfortable, just staring thinking about how terrible tomorrow is going to be because i will be exhausted, then when I do sleep it is just restless tossing and turning.

What I miss: sleep and physically feeling good…the back, hips, and legs are starting to get really sore.

Cravings: still cereal…two boxes of Cocoa Puffs last week

Best Moment this week: I had my 7 week follow up with my high risk doctor a week and a half ago and everything went great! The cysts have gone away and Lucy is growing right on track despite the 2 vessel cord. I have one more check up with them in four weeks and then may or may not have to go back depending on how well she is growing.

Liam Lately (almost 21 months)

2011-07-18T21:17:00.001-04:00

I have not done an update on what Liam is up to these days in quite some time and I feel like I have to to preserve the memory for me.

He loves playing with his hot wheels/matchbox cars. At least one is attached to his hand most of the day. Still loves Thomas and playing with his trains.

Our grocery store has a wall mounted train track and Liam squeals each and every time he sees is. The older men always give him a big smile and comment about how much he loves trains. He is the puzzle king! Puzzles are his new favorite thing to do and he is so good at them. He also loves to read his object picture books and points out things that I ask him to. He loves to count and spell words out (with his own “words”). He can point out colors and shapes now too.

We don’t watch nearly as much tv as we used to but some of his new favorites are Arthur, Curious George, and Clifford. He is obsessed with dogs! For Christmas he got a dog pillow pet from a co-worker of Alex’s and it is probably his favorite thing he owns right now. He loves on dog so much! My parents have a neighbor with the sweetest dog that Liam just adores going to visit.

He still loves being outside and running and has gotten so much better at staying in the backyard where we are and not running off, it makes for a much better time for everyone. He loves swimming and splashing in the pool but isn’t a big fan of sitting in a raft, he’d much rather someone he holding him and jumping/throwing him around in the water. He loves to dance, especially when he is snacking on something yummy, jump, and rough house with Dada.

Is starting to talk a lot more but still only when he wants to, he won’t repeat anything when you ask him to, he has to want to tell you something. His favorite words are: dog, car, ball, Dada, Thomas, cat, go, bizza bizza (which means yummy). He finally started calling me Mama and calls my Dad “Dad-Ooo”. There are so many words that he says every once in a while that I couldn’t list them all.

Still a very picky eater and very strong willed about it! He loves fruit and eats a ton of them, pancakes, french toast, cereal bars, once in a while he will eat bacon, all kinds of cereal, snap pea crisps, vegetable chips, gold fish, yogurt covered raisins and regular raisins, french fries, sweet potato fries, grilled cheese, and of course sprinkles, cookies, and M&Ms.

Sleeping has been rough since we’ve moved and really isn’t getting much better, I am still hanging onto hope that it is a phase. He goes to bed, by himself which is a blessing, between 8-8:30 most nights (on the rare occasion earlier or later) and gets up in the 5 o’clock hour every.single.day…. He takes one nap per day on most days (if his nap is really bad he will usually cat nap in the late afternoon. He napes in the morning, usually 9:30-11ish.

I am loving this age because he understands so much that he can be a very good helper. He will get his shoes if i ask him to, stand by the door and wait if we are getting in the car, wait at the bottom on the steps if we are going up to take a bath, hand me things if I ask him to, etc.

4th of July Party and then some

2011-07-03T22:07:00.001-04:00

Since the day we purchased our house we have been planning to have a 4th of July party. Alex and I were so excited that the weekend for our party was finally here and we were all set. Little did we know he would only be here for 30 minutes before getting called into work for the rest of the night after an incident. We all couldn’t be more bummed that he had to miss our party :-( Next party I am taking his cell phone battery and hiding it!

Of course we had to start the party with licking the beater. Liam is so funny, as soon as he hears me turn the beater on he runs over and stands at my side waiting for a lick. Yesterday he was hugging my legs as hard as his little arms could saying “Mama Mama Mama” in the sweetest little voice…he knows how to get what he wants. Mmmm whipped cream…yum!

Drink stations…we had fresh strawberry lemonade and a sangria-like iced tea in addition to the regular party beverages.

Arrangement for our food table

Food table! We had burgers, hotdogs, pineapple chicken salad (which was awesome), loaded baked potato salad, macaroni salad, coleslaw, baked beans, and grilled corn on the cob. Dessert was lemon cream cupcakes (one of which i am eating now), strawberry shortcake trifle, brownies, apple pie, fruit salad, and cake balls, oh and sugar cookies for Liam.

Devouring a cookie

Running it off

Riding his quad down the hill

Did you see the cute big boy hair cut Liam got? Let’s just saw this hair cut experience was not as easy as our first one…thank goodness my Mom was with me..we both left sweating LOL

Two weeks ago my phone had a poor run in with the trunk of the car and well…didn’t live to tell about it. I got an iphone and could not have been more excited about the little accident Alex had with my old phone. I love my new one!!! Here are some pictures from the last two weeks from my phone.

Liam LOVES wearing shoes, this was him at 6am still in his sleep sack wearing his sneakers.

This is dog, Liam’s best friend. We have to snuggle with dog to fall asleep….dog may have also went on a car ride with us to the bank…mind you dog is a 20 inch pillow pet.

Pre hair cut! It was so long!

We went to a bazaar last weekend and Liam went to town on a cotton candy!

…and passed out on the way home. Love those two boys!

We went to Cabella’s last weekend with Alex’s parents and Liam had a great time looking at all of the stuffed animals.

My handsome big boy! I am loving the instragram app!

Catching up….

2011-06-27T21:42:00.001-04:00

I have been such a blog slacker lately! I blame it on a combo of Liam going to bed late and getting up before 5:30am every.single.day … which leads this not sleeping in the first place preggo exhausted by the end of the night! So let’s catch up shall we…

First sibling picture, Liam and Lucy (this was for one of Alex’s father day presents)

Father’s Day. We had a great dinner with both of our parents at our house, it was so much fun to have everyone all together in one place. Liam LOVED it!

Nigel and Liam have become best friends and it is so adorable. Here is Liam trying to share his paci, he shoves it into his face so hard, it is sweet though.

Daily snuggles.

and the biggest news, tonight we got to swim in our pool for the first time!! YAY!!! We just about died laughing at Liam in his outfit. It was the first and last time he will be wearing that; we honestly thought we were going to have to cut him out of it at one point, it was so hard to get on and off, thank goodness it was free!

Our little fish LOVED the water!

24 Weeks

2011-06-13T15:00:00.001-04:00

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I have a doctors appointment tomorrow so i will find out then

Maternity Clothes: pants, tight maternity tops and elastic bottom non-maternity tops

Gender: it’s a girl! Lucy Anne

Movement: yes lot of flipping and swift kicks to the bladder

Sleep: it is hard, I am a back/tummy sleeper so it will only get better once she is born and I can sleep the way I was again … it would also be a bit easier if my “alarm clock” didn’t go off at 5:30am everyday…oy

What I miss: cookie dough which was quickly remedied by making some cookie dough truffles MmmMmm

Cravings: fruit bars (strawberry and pineapple), cereals, and candy

Best Moment this week: Getting Lucy’s room all cleaned out, new clothes washed and hung up, and Liam saying “Lucy” for the first time clear as day…so cute!

I posted last week that I was going to a specialist to have a fetal echocardiogram per my high risk doctors request and I am so happy to say that everything looked perfect. Modern medicine is amazing, i can’t believe how much we were able to see! My Mom drove me down to Allentown for the appointment and we got to meet up with my Aunt and Grandmother who live down that ways. It was so good to see them and catch up. We had a really nice day. And thank you to my mother in law who watched Liam for the day, he had a blast as well.

Lucy’s crib arrived this week!!! Yay!! Thanks Mom and Dad for buying Lucy her crib :-)

My Mom and I cleared our Lucy’s room last week. It was the “catch all” room for A LOT of boxes—like you could not even walk into the room stuffed with boxes and now it is just baby stuff, yay!!

We purchases this piece a few weeks ago at an estate sale and I am just loving it.

It is sanded right now and ready to be primed and painted Behr’s “poetic princess”.

Aren’t those little drawers just perfect for all of the stuff little girls come along with! I think it will be perfect in her room. Ya know… like these…we are building quite the stash of headbands, flowers, and bows…and yes it is modeled on the back of a stuffed penguin.

Yard sale jackpot and birthday party

2011-06-04T21:10:00.001-04:00

Seriously, I cannot even begin to tell you how good i made out yard sale-ing today! Alex’s Mom and I have been hitting up yard sales on Saturdays for a few weeks now and today took the cake! I, obviously, was in the market for anything functional and pink since all we have is blue in our house. The first sale we went to today was a group of families selling all baby items…i mean it literally looked like babies r us threw up on the yard, craziness! The lady who we purchased all our stuff from had three boys and her last was a girl (born in the fall) who she went WILD buying stuff for. Not only did I get a TON of clothes but also a brand new (girly) bouncy seat and a (girly) tummy time mat, AND two pairs of brand new, in the box robeez (for $1), plus a few other pairs of brand new shoes. Seriously, we made out like bandits today, I am so so happy and grateful that we came upon this sale!

Post washing girls clothes, LOTS of 0-3 month footed sleepers!

and fall stuff for Liam.

This afternoon we went to a birthday party for Alex’s cousin Maria who is turning four. I was a bad blogger and forgot my camera but snapped a few pictures of Liam running around with my phone. I think it was probably one of the most fun days of Liam’s life. He got to run around without anyone holding him back for a full two hours! He had so much fun running and playing with the other kids. I am so proud of my little guy who can hold his own around older kids. He loved running down the tumble track, i think he thought it was a race track because of like yellow line.

When we got home from the party we got a package in the mail and it was Liam’s new pair of Florida Gator crocs…he did not take them off until he went to bed, the kid has a thing for wearing sandal type shoes 24/7.

Amusement Park Fun

2011-06-01T21:14:00.001-04:00

Liam got to go to his first amusement park today and had a great time. Alex’s mom, her sister, her mom, Liam and I spend the afternoon at a park that is about 45 minutes from our house and could not have asked for a better day. It was nice and hot and not crowded at all, perfect for a little ones first time on a few rides.

His first ride was on a little car, he was not to sure about it.

Next up the ball pit which he loved “swimming” around in.

Then the mini antique cars. The big antique cars were his favorite ride that we went on but i didn’t get a picture.

Cotton candy…the highlight of his day!

On the “Thomas” aka the train :-)

Memorial Day Weekend and 22 Weeks

2011-05-31T21:25:00.001-04:00

On Sunday we went to a Memorial Day cook out at Alex’s parents house. I made chocolate chip cookie dough brownies (and a fruit pizza..yum!), which is the best thing ever because i miss eating cookie dough so much while pregnant but since it is egg less Liam and I both went to town on the beaters and bowl… he LOVED it!

Seriously not five minutes after we got there someone (ahem..Liam) decided to mud wrestle with themselves and dirtied their cute outfit so no one ended up seeing. Thank goodness for back up outfits!

My boys beating the heat in the shade.

22 Weeks and 1 day along….

Total Weight Gain/Loss: +4 total so far

Maternity Clothes: pants, tight maternity tops and elastic bottom non-maternity tops

Gender: it’s a girl! Lucy Anne

Movement: yes, lots of jabs to the bladder this week, thanks Luc (or as Alex’s calls her LuLu)

Sleep: oy….sleeping…if only i could sleep on my back i’d be fine but i spend most of the night tossing and turning trying to stay on my side

What I miss: nothing

Cravings: strawberry fruit bars…it is a serious addiction and cereal (sugary kiddy kinds)

Symptoms: lots of kicks and jabs

Best Moment this week: My Mom coming over last week and working through all of the boxes that FILLED Lucy’s room! She now has an (almost) empty room, yay!! I can’t wait to get started putting it all together!

*** I have to go for a fetal echocardiogram on Thursday just as a precautionary measure recommended by the high risk doctor, please keep Lucy (and me) in your thought and prayers if you could that everything is okay. Thank you all so much for all of your kind words and stories through this journey so far.

An emotional week

2011-05-23T13:11:00.001-04:00

Right now I am walking on a cloud, overwhelmed with pure elation, relief, and gratefulness but right behind me I see the dark wall of fog that we only walked out from a few hours ago. This, undoubtedly, had been the longest, scariest, most life changing week of our entire lives.

Last Monday we went in for our 20 week ultrasound and left only knowing we were having a baby girl. My new doctors office sends its patients to a third party for their anatomy and growth ultrasound which is then read by the radiologist and sent to the OB afterwards, so you leave not knowing if everything looked okay or not. The ultrasound definitely took a lot longer than it did when I was pregnant with Liam. We noticed the technician checking a few things over and over again but chalked it up to nothing when she said they take a lot of pictures because sometimes the baby moves and gives a better shot. Luckily I had my regular four week check up the following day and we hoped to heard that the report was good.

The next morning I went to my appointment and my OB told me that they had found two things that were “abnormal but common” and that I needed to see a high risk specialist to have it further evaluated. The two things that they found were a singly artery umbilical cord (normal cords have one vein and two arteries and she only has one vein and one artery) and a choroid plexus cysts. Thus begins the longest week of our lives. (Side story: later that afternoon I totally succumbed to the fear of all this and broke down…Liam was the sweetest little boy and walked over to me and put his paci in my mouth hoping it would help, oh how I love that sweet boy)

Thank goodness for dr. google who provided me an explanation as to what these condition were since my doctor didn’t do anything but drop the bomb and leave. It was scary looking at all of that information, oh so scary. What we found out was that both were soft markers for chromosomal abnormalities and that is what we were going to the specialist to further evaluate.

Luckily the specialist had a cancelation for Thursday afternoon and we able to get us in. If they had not had that cancellation we would not have been able to go in for FOUR WEEKS! Praise the Lord for that cancelation; I don’t think our hearts could have bared waiting that long for answers.

Well Thursday finally came. We had a very generic idea of what to look for during the ultrasound and what we wanted to see and what we did not want to see. The technician we had was AMAZING! She pointed out everything she was seeing and letting us know when things looked good and all markers of good signs. One of the most universal abnormalities we looked for structurally were in the hands and little Lucy had her perfect little hands wide open! After the ultrasound was done the doctor came in to talk to us and told us that everything looked perfect (her hands, feet, limb length, heart, kidneys, and all other markers they were specifically looking for). He pointed out the two abnormalities that they saw on Monday and said that having one or the other would have made it an isolated case and we wouldn’t have come any further but since there were two present (with he felt strongly was just a coincidence) it did increase our chances greatly (from 1:800 to 1:200) of their being a chromosome abnormality. We weighted our options and decided that we would do an amniocentesis. That way we would know that everything was okay or what we were up against and needed to prepare for. The whole ending of that appointment, through the amnio, and the rest of the evening was such a blur and I was in such a fog that I barely knew what was going on. Just as an FYI the amnio sounds way worse than it actually is. I mean having a long needle shoved though your abdomen and into your uterus to extract amniotic fluid does not sound like it would be the best time but it really wasn’t as bad as you’d think, plus I had some pretty awesome people in the room getting me through it. And then we waited….

At this point I need to give the biggest shout our to my parents and in-laws without whom I would not have gotten though the end of the week/weekend. I was unable to take care of Liam for two days after the test and he got to have two sleepovers. Thank you guys so so much for all of your help and support, I don’t know what we would have done without your love, help, and prayers!

All weekend my heart literally tried to beat out of my chest. That phone did not leave my site for a second….but it didn’t ring… Finally this morning I knew by the end of the day I would know one way or another how little Lucy was. Liam and I packed up for our normal Monday routine of grocery shopping and errand running. I needed to get out of this hour and stop staring at the blank screen on my phone. Every time the phone would ring (Alex and our realtor) my heart would drop with anticipation of seeing what number was calling. Finally, in Target, I number I didn’t know called and it was the genetic consoler. Immediately she said she had good news She said that all of the chromosome findings were normal as well as the findings for neural tube defects. Praise the Lord our sweet baby girl was healthy!!!!! I thanked her a million times for the best news I have received in my entirely life and then found it extremely hard to keep myself from falling to my knees to cry tears of joy the news I had just received.

I cannot explain how this week has changed my outlook on so many parts of my life and others lives. I will never be able to put into words how extremely grateful I feel for all I have been blessed with. For my sweet, energetic, healthy little boy and my precious little Lucy who I doubt we will ever stop holding and kissing and thanking God for.

and the newest addition will be a…

2011-05-16T13:58:00.001-04:00

We cannot be more excited to be welcoming Lucy Anne into our family this October!!!!

One more day..

2011-05-15T19:10:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow is the big day. We find out (hopefully) if the new addition to our family will be a baby sister or baby brother for Liam. So if you have not gotten your vote in yet do so by tomorrow afternoon :-) the large majority of you are saying girl, I am excited to see whose right. If you have a moment please keep us in your thoughts that everything goes well tomorrow, thank you all!

Liam Lately

2011-05-12T15:09:00.000-04:00

Mothers Day. My boys got me a keurig and Alex and I LOVE IT!!

A bunch of random pictures from playing outside last night, enjoying the heat (with popsicles of course)

Remember when I thought that Liam LOVED Sesame Street? Well, I was wrong. The stint we has with Sesame was puppy love compared to our obsession with Thomas the Train. I was laughing so hard at Liam the other day because he says “Thomas” with a strong British accent (toe-MAS) and it is just the funniest and cutest thing ever! Of course he will not do it for me when I have the camera out but hopefully soon I will catch it. We have gotten to the point that his Gordon train (and his tender) have to go to bed with him at night because his grip on them is so strong. Then we sneak in before we go to bed to retrieve them so the poor kid isn’t sleeping on top a hard wooden train all night. The one good thing is that it is the one toy he can have in the grocery cart and I know it will never hit the floor.

Handwriting Tag

2011-05-05T18:09:00.003-04:00

When my friend Stephanie tagged me in her handwritten post I could not have been more excited because i have a great love for handwriting and I am always intrigued to see the way a person writes. So without further ado here is my handwritten tag post....

I am tagging all of my fellow pregnant blogger friends that are due around the same time as me, feel free to repost if you'd like. Here are the questions:
1. name
2. your blog url
3. write “a quick brown fox jumped over a lazy dog.”
4. any quote / favorite quote
5. favorite song(s)
6. favorite musical artist
7. write anything you want
8. tag some peeps!

18 weeks 1 day

2011-05-03T19:47:00.002-04:00

I added a gender poll so make sure to vote on what you think Baby #2 is. You do not have to be logged in to vote so everyone can do it :-)

Total Weight Gain/Loss: same as last week, +0 total I am back to my starting weight now.

Maternity Clothes: Pants yes because they are so much more comfortable and some shirts that aren’t too big.

Gender: Two weeks!!

Movement: This kiddo is on the move! On Sunday I felt it moving on the outside and could see little tapping vibrations, just like with Liam, super early.

Sleep: mmm yes i’d still love more

What I miss: nothing

Cravings: lots of fruit loops this week

Symptoms: a few bout of sickness this week but nothing to bad at all. The biggest symptom this week was feeling movement, i'll take it!

Best Moment this week: Feel this little one move around all the time.

17 Weeks (and 4 days…better late then never)

2011-04-29T21:34:00.001-04:00

I kept putting off publishing this weeks update because, well, i didn’t really get “dressed up” this week because I didn’t have a car which means Liam and I didn’t go anywhere which meant I didn’t feel the need to change out of yoga pants. Anyway, I am just posting without a picture for my documenting purposes. I will note that I did add a gender voting poll on the right side so make sure to log your vote before mid-May.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: same as last week, +0 total I am back to my starting weight now.

Maternity Clothes: Pants yes because they are so much more comfortable and some shirts that aren’t too big.

Gender: Three weeks!! I added a gender poll to my sidebar so take a second to vote on what you think this kiddo is going to be!! (ahem…that means you too family members that are reading)

Movement: Yes, i am 100% positive that I am feeling this kiddo now. They are much more quite than Liam was that is for sure but I do get the reassurance a few times a day that they are in there and doing okay.

Sleep: mmm yes i’d still love more

What I miss: nothing

Cravings: food haha I have just been hungry this week!

Symptoms: heartburn (really didn’t miss that) and sciatica pain (already?!) I had a lot of sciatica pain with Liam during the last third of my pregnancy with his but it has started already with this one. Last week was the worst but I am feeling much better this week. I have not been as sick this week, still had a few bad days and very sensitive to some smells but overall better.

Best Moment this week: Spending Easter with family and not having to drive 12 hours to enjoy the holiday together! We also had beautiful weather the end of last week into this week and Liam and I are loving being outside!