oh happy day!

For the last couple of weeks I have randomly tried on my non-maternity jeans just for fun. Well maybe not fun. More like torture because I couldn't actually get them on! HA! 

Well this past Sunday I decided to try them on again. You know just for kicks. Well low and behold I was able to get them on, zip them up, and button them. I'm not saying they weren't tight, because they were. But never the less I was so stinking excited. You don't know how tired I am of wearing maternity pants. {Real tired of them in case you didn't know.} 

I have my six week check-up today so hopefully I will get the go ahead to start "crunching" up a storm. I am looking forward to seeing my abs again one of these days!

p.s. Thanks Claire for noticing! You made my week!!

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a little update on the baby mama

Apparently LB² has no real desire to meet his little family yet. And I'm cool with that. I guess.

I had my third weekly OB appointment this afternoon and have made no further progress in the areas of dilation or effacement. At least I went into today's appointment without any expectations. My doctor asked me if I felt like I was already over due since I was past the date when LB was born. My OB knows me well apparently!

My OB will be heading out of town this Friday and will return the following Friday. So if I should go into labor in that time frame one of his colleagues will deliver baby g. I kind of hope it works out that my OB can actually deliver the baby. My OB last time did not deliver little buddy so I was kind of hoping it would work out this time. My friend goes to the colleague who would deliver me if my Dr. is out of town so really it's no big deal if I have to have him. I have heard good things about him. It would be nice to have our pediatrician come check out baby g in the hospital as well. We'll see how it plays out I guess.

We actually went ahead and scheduled a tentative induction date for March 2nd. Which is only twelve days away ya'll. And that is if I don't go into labor on my own before that.

I WILL HAVE TWO KIDS IN TWELVE DAYS OR LESS.

Holy. Moly. 

I can't wrap my brain around what it will be like. I'm still super excited but slightly anxious about the transition for me, for little buddy, and for our family in general. 

Please be praying that I handle the transition well. I know it's going to be hard. I get that. Please pray that God will give me wisdom, patience(with myself!), rest, strength, and guidance. I'm going to need all the help I can get.

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random ramblings

01. I just noticed on my live traffic feed that someone from Savannah, Georgia stopped by my blog. It had to have been Paula herself!

02. Is there such a thing as drinking too much orange juice? In the evenings I crave it like it's going out of style. I like it with a small amount of crushed ice, you know in case anyone wanted to pour me a glass...........

03. I had to re-tire my old timex sports watch today. I know, sadness. Actually it was my brothers old watch that he so kindly donated to me eons ago. It has been messing up a lot lately so Hubs got me a new one for Valentine's day.  I'm gearing up to wear it lots during "Operation lose this baby weight because I refuse to buy  "in between" clothes."

04. Yes, I just used quotes inside of quotes. Not sure that's really allowed but you know it's my blog and all.

05. I just had some peanut butter atop some cinnamon graham crackers. Only the best snack ever. Don't tell little buddy's allergist. He would literally have my hide. Don't worry I waited till LB was in bed to eat my snack and then I placed my PB jar back up on a really high shelf.

06. I wish this darn cramping I have been having would either translate into consistent contractions or stop already!!

07. My feet kind of hurt from my pedicure today. It is probably due to the fact that the pedicure man used a pumice stone on an almost healed cut my toe was sporting. Can you say ouch?!?!?! {If my friend D hadn't have been with me I might have actually cried out in pain!}

08. I'm wearing Hubs OU t-shirt because quite frankly it's been sometime since I could wear any of my own. And sometimes you just want to wear a comfy t-shirt.

09. Do I remember what it's like to take care of a newborn? Will it all come back to me? I sure hope so. Maybe I should go read up on how to care for a newborn just in case my memory fails me...........

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baby bump pictures

Friday afternoon we met up with our friend and super talented photographer Melissa Pepin to have a maternity photo session. We didn't do maternity pics the last go round so it was fun to get to have them done this time. I was super anxious about what to wear, what the boys should wear, how I should fix my hair, etc..... You would have thought my pictures were going to end up in a magazine or something. I even texted Melissa at one point and asked if she could use photoshop to decrease the size of my behind. No joke. {Thanks Melissa for not laughing at me...too much}.

Well the photo shoot ended up being really fun and the weather even cooperated. Little buddy didn't really want to sit still for any photos. For some reason I didn't see that coming. I thought he would sit there like an angel! I thought it would be an awesome idea to wait till he was standing/walking before we took any professional family pics. Great idea on my part since little buddy could just run away from us when we were trying to get him to be in a picture. {Thanks Anthony for trying to corral him!} Even though little dude was constantly running circles around Melissa's studio I think she still managed to get some good shots in of him. She's skilled, that Melissa!

Here's a little preview of one of the shots from our photo shoot. Note to self: Have a professional cut his hair next time so it doesn't look like he has bangs......or start making good use of  some bobby pins and extra hold hairspray!

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the pressure is on

Remember me writing about my SIL that was due a few days before me? We'll she went into labor last night and delivered a sweet little baby boy this morning. 

Now I feel a little bit of pressure to have baby g today so that we really can call them "The Twins." Granted I only have a max of 2.5 weeks to go so their birthdays will be really close no matter what. Still, it would be kind of fun if they had the same birthday. 

We'll I am off to eat some spicy food while I walk on the treadmill...............

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what's my problem?

Today is the day. If baby g were going to be born on the same day as little buddy it would be today. When I say " the same day" I don't mean the same exact day of the year. I mean the same day in my pregnancy. One day shy of 37 weeks. 

I think throughout my whole pregnancy I have foolishly thought that baby g would come early. Granted he could still come early but he already seems late since he hasn't come yet. I know, I'm talking crazy talk. I kind of wish that little buddy hadn't been born early. Then I would have no reason to expect baby g early.  Forty weeks seems so foreign to me and still so far away. Technically it's not far away at all. I'm just the most impatient person ever.

What is the big deal? Why do I need baby g right this minute? I know it's better for him to stay right where he is until he is ready. When I am sleep-deprived, haven't had a shower in days, and feel like a human cow I will probably look back on my pregnancy days and think, "what was all the rush about?"  I KNOW having a newborn and a toddler  will be harder than being pregnant so I really should just sit back, relax and revel in how easy my life is at the moment. 

In other news I had my second weekly OB appointment today. Apparently I am only dilated to 1cm, not two. Thanks nurse at the hospital for getting my hopes up! One improvement/progress is that I am 50% effaced. Oh and my OB thinks that baby g is already weighing around 7+ lbs. So if you are paying attention that means he could easily be 8.5-9 lbs at birth. YIKES!! See why I want him to be born early? I really have no desire to birth a nine lb baby! Seriously ya'll!!

Well I am going to have to cut this post short because my carpal tunnel has surfaced and is making typing not so much fun. Pregnancy is easier than having a newborn, pregnancy is easier than having a newborn................

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Ok, I'm ready to have the baby now

I just completed the book   novel three page list.  Our  SUPER AWESOME friend C has volunteered to kick it with little buddy while we are in the hospital having baby G. I decided to write a short little version of a typical day for little buddy to give to our friend C. She is totally capable of caring for him but I wanted her to have any info she might need at her fingertips. Little buddy has never actually been away from us for more than a few hours, let alone over night. Hopefully he will do just fine. I think I was more worried about him being alright than I was about going through labor. But with C watching him I won't have to worry about him at all. 

Now that the "list" is complete I feel a little bit better about going into labor. It was one of the major things on my "TO DO" list for January { i.e Operation Prepare for the Baby month}. I had lots of things on that list that have been crossed off but a few things I have given up on. Such as preparing and freezing meals. I had these grand plans to freeze oodles of meals. One day recently I looked in our freezer and wondered where in the heck would I put all these meals? I plan to pump some and freeze some milk so I decided I better leave what little room was left for that. I guess the only frozen meals in our freezer will be from Trader Joe's and Bertolli. And I'm cool with that.

Yesterday I had an ultrasound and found out that the baby is about 6lb 13oz's (plus or minus a lb). Who knows how accurate that weight guess really is. I saw the nurse practitioner yesterday and unfortunately she did not do an exam on me. Never thought I would be disappointed about not having a vaginal exam!! I was curious to see if I was dilated any further but I guess I will have to be patient and wait until next Tuesday. I did have a few contractions yesterday during the middle of the night. I don't really remember having braxton hicks contractions with the little buddy but Hubs swears I did.  I'll keep you posted if I have anymore contractions or go into labor. Oh and I am changing my prediction for G's birthdate from around the 25th to around the 15th. We'll see soon enough I guess!

 

p.s. LB² is still definitely a little boy!

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dress rehearsal

Wednesday afternoon we got to do an unexpected trial run at labor and delivery. I called my OB in morning with some questions/concerns about things I was experiencing and they told me I needed to go ahead and go to the hospital. I knew I wasn't in labor but they insisted that I had to still get checked out. 

About 4 p.m. we met Hubs at the hospital and headed on up to L & D. It took awhile to register and get checked in but at least we are now pre-registered for the "big day." After we completed all of our paperwork we moved on over to our L & D suite. The nurse hooked me up to a fetal monitor which baby g tried to kick off with his mad kicking skillz. The nurse did an exam on me and one other test. The test came back ok thankfully. After my exam we learned that I was dilated 2 centimeters already. At first I was thinking, "Wow, I am already dilated!" But then I remembered that I was dilated 1 centimeter at 36 weeks and then little buddy was born at 37 weeks. I am 35 weeks today so I don't really think it's that odd that I am already dilated a bit. I wouldn't be surprised if I did go into labor before my due date though. 

Although I don't particularly like to hang out at hospitals for fun we did have a very pleasant experience at L & D. Since we had little buddy in WA it was nice to "preview" the maternity services here in GA prior to the big day. The rooms are HUGE and very comfortable. I thought our room in WA was nice and a decent size but our room yesterday was easily double the size. In addition to our room being great, so was our nurse and the care we received. Our nurse was awesome. She was very kind and oh so helpful.  I felt kind of silly even being there but I didn't really have a choice since my OB made me go. She re-assured me that it is always better to be safe than sorry. 

Having a little "dress rehearsal" if you will put my mind at ease about delivering at a new (to us anyways) hospital. And it really made it a reality that, "Hey we'll be doing this again very soon." I was kind of sad that we had to leave the hospital minus LB² but I want him to come when he is ready and it is safe for him to enter this world. Until then..................

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our family

Just in case you were wondering what our little family will look like pretty darn soon.

 



Note: This is not LB², but my sweet little niece baby H. Over Christmas we got to meet her for the first time and I couldn't put her down. She was too precious and we took to each other fast. 

When I first saw this picture it was sure a reality check of what is to come soon. Am I ready for this? 

Sidenote: Notice little buddy is "petting" baby H's head. And the Dr Pepper cans.....both of our families LOVE them some Dr Pepper.

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baby mama's

Have I mentioned that my SIL is pregnant too and that we are literally due within days of each other? What are the odds of that?!?!? We were actually both pregnant at the same time with our other boys( her second and my first) but she had a four month head start on me. 

 

[caption id="attachment_2012" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="baby mama's at christmas"][/caption]

 

It will be interesting to see how close the kiddos birthdays actually end up being. We don't have any immediate family birthdays in February so it would nice if they were both born in that month.

My SIL refers to our "new" babies as the "Twins". I think if they end up with the exact same birthday we will have to really refer to them as the "twins" for the rest of their lives! Hope they don't mind!!

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six weeks and counting

Yesterday I had my first "every two week" OB check-up. Nothing new really to report. I am a really boring maternity patient I am afraid, but I guess with maternity that's a good thing. 

Baby g is growing right along. He is such an active little buddy and yesterday was no exception. When my doctor went to listen for the heartbeat LB² was all over the place. My stomach kept changing shapes as LB² moved around. I thought that little buddy was active during my last pregnancy but LB² has him beat. Plus my OB said the movements of the baby are magnified three times or so with the 2nd, 3rd,......child. That could explain why it seems he is so active. I haven't had to count fetal movement at all with this baby because he is almost constantly moving!!!

I'm really looking forward to our next appointment in two weeks. We get to do one final ultrasound. I am anxious to see "about" how big LB² is at a month out. After the ultrasound appointment I start going weekly to the OB. During my last pregnancy I so looked forward to the time when I would go to the OB weekly. Unfortunately I only go to go to one "weekly" appointment and then little buddy decided he was ready to be born. We'll see this time if make it to all of my "weekly" appointments or not! 

Anybody want to get in on some birthday predictions for LB²? Hubs guess is around the 20th of February and I say around the 25th or later.  What is your guess?

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baby love

This weekend my friends  Missy and Jessica hosted one sweet baby shower for me.



 Most all of my GA friends were able to make it so it was awesome to get to spend sometime with all my gals pals. It's not often you find yourself in a room with most all of your local friends at once. 



We had a wonderful array of all sorts of yummy "brunch" foods to snack on at the shower. You out did yourself ladies! Jessica was kind enough to honor my request subtle hint for a decaf coffee punch. This punch was served at a friends wedding shower a few years back and I remembered loving it. You would too. It has ice cream in it people. Need I say more? :)

While I opened all the sweet baby loot lovely presents people brought, the guests played a few shower games. One of the games was baby bingo. There were numbers attached to most of the gifts and when I opened one I had to holler it out so people could see if it was on their bingo card. That Missy, she's one creative little mama! The girls also put a whole heck of  a lot of one of my favorite candies in a jar and had the guests make an attempt at guessing how many fire jolly ranchers were in the jar. I am not sure exactly how many pieces of candy were in the jar but I could let you know as I eat them because I got to take the jar home.

Here are a few pics from the shower!

Claire, Missy, Myself, and Tara

 

Rachel and I

D and I

Katie, myself, and Jill

The three  amigos  preggos!! Emily, Melissa, and myself

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so I think someone is trying to steal my identity

No joke folks. We'll maybe I am over reacting just slightly. 

You see I was trying to pull up my Target baby registry and this other registry kept coming up. The chick had the exact same first name as me. And the same last name as well except she had an "er" at the end of it. AND to top it all off she is from OKLAHOMA, which you all know is my home state. Anyhoo, what are the odds of our names being so similar and her being from OK too? I was really going to be weirded out if we had registered for the same baby items. Looks like she may be having twins (a boy and a girl) though or she is one of those people who registers for dude and dudet items because she isn't finding out the sex of the baby. 

Ok now that you are all thoroughly bored out of your mind by this ridiculous post.... continue on with your evening.

And what's up with me posting after I said I might not be posting? Apparently sometimes I lie.........

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Stick a fork in me, I'm done

So I'm pretty much over being pregnant. 

Too be honest with you I don't actually enjoy being pregnant. I know some people love being pregnant but I am just not one of those people. Don't get me wrong, I am VERY thankful to have been able to conceive. I don't take it for granted that we are able to have a baby so don't get the wrong impression about what I am trying to say here. 

All that being said, is it wrong that I am daydreaming of the day when I won't be pregnant anymore? Since I haven't really ever been sick in my first trimester, for me the hard part of a pregnancy comes at the end.

I'm not sleeping well. My legs and hips ache in the middle of the night.

I'm tired of my pregnancy clothes and they are not even fitting that well anymore. 

I have indigestion like nobody's business. Come eight o'clock I am popping the Zantac like it's candy.

I  don't feel cute. Not one single bit. I have stopped looking at my backside in mirrors. Not that I was particularly fond of my backside pre-pregnancy but at the rate it's growing now........

Little buddy can't really sit in my lap to read a book because of my darn big belly. I have to crawl around on my hands and knees to pick up all of little man's toys. There is no way I am going to bend over 800 times to retrieve each little block or ball.

Now that I have complained a little lot, maybe I should voice the things I am looking forward to after my pregnancy ends. 

Getting to see baby g for the first time. Will he have red hair too?

Seeing little man meet his brother. 

Being able to say, "my sons." Being a family of "four." {Although, I might start feeling out numbered being the only girl}

Still looking five months pregnant when I leave the hospital.  

Starting a whole new chapter in our lives.  

Sleeping on my back or stomach again.

Exercising without an extra 20lbs tagging along for the ride. Fitting into my pre-pregnancy clothes the day after g is born. HA!! {Just checking to see if anyone is still reading this}

I'm down to just 7.5 weeks to go so I think I will try to enjoy these last few weeks despite all my "aches and pains."  And I am going to try to be grateful for this stage that I am at in my life because it will soon be over. Who knows? This could in fact be the last time that I am ever pregnant. 

So tell me if you are expecting currently or have had a child, do you like being pregnant? Just wondering if I am the only one out there that doesn't "love" being knocked up.

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let's get physical, physical

I have never been all that excited about exercising, but I do love me some results from exercising!

I particularly don't like working out while I am pregnant, especially in the last trimester. I hardly think it is fun going about my day carrying around all this extra weight. So you can probably guess I really don't think exercising while carrying all this extra weight is real fun either. 

 I haven't made it that much of a priority to exercise in the last few months. I prefer to go on walks outdoors with the little man in the afternoon but lately it's either been cold, windy, gloomy, or raining. What is this, Seattle??

But I really have no excuse for not working out if the weather is semi-crappy. We do happen to own a treadmill. {Sometimes I try to forget that.} Last week I kind of got motivated out of the blue to start working out again. Don't ask me why. I think part of it has to do with the fact that I have been bored out of my mind. Our weekday schedule has slowed down drastically. Like come to a screeching halt. Most of the activities that the little dude and I attend or participate in have not been going on in the month of December. My motivation for exercising may also have been enforced by my most recent weigh in at my OB appt. It wasn't pretty folks. Not. One. Little. Bit.

So I have traded in my almost daily afternoon naps for almost daily dates with the treadmill. Our treadmill resides in the sunroom and really this is the most ideal time of the year to use the treadmill. You see there are no heating vents out in the sunroom and lots of windows. This results in a cool {as in temperature} atmosphere, which I prefer when working out. 

I have to say at first I was kind of missing my nap and dragging at the end of the day. But after a few workouts I had more energy and almost forgot about my naps all together. Almost. 

Don't get me wrong, I still don't think exercising while preggo is fun. Seriously when you have to get off the treadmill to pee 1-2 times per 30-45 minute workout, it's not fun. You kind of loose your momentum. And I never really feel "more fit" from working out while pregnant. It's hard to feel like you are doing much when you are still gaining weight and your belly is protruding from your body more and more each day. And you can't exactly obtain washboard abs while you are pregnant. I guess I can just gain a piece of mind that I'll be in better shape for the labor and delivery that will occur in 2.5 months. And I'll have less to work off come next spring and already be in workout mode when my six week post labor hiatus is over.

Sidenote: Ok I just looked at the lyrics for the "Let's get physical" song and it seems to not be relevant or appropriate for my post after all.  But I have had it in my head for sometime now. Ever since Michael Scott on The Office sang his version of "Let's get ethical, ethical."

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Pregnant?

We'll then you might want to head over to The Bump! The Bump is a spin off of The Knot, which some of you might have checked out during your engagement days. The new site has things to offer for those trying to conceive, those who are knocked up and for real life after the kid is born! I got myself a hand dandy pregnancy ticker from the website. Which you can view now by scrolling all the way down to the bottom of the blog.

And while you are there you might also check out The Nest for all things home related! Including home decor ideas, recipes, real estates buying guides, entertaining tips and so much more! Happy reading!!

{I can't claim to have discovered The Bump on my own. D was it you who first gave me the heads up?}

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my thoughts

1. We finished baby registering on Saturday. Well, let me clarify that. We DID NOT register for a baby but for baby stuff. In case you were confused. I thought it wouldn't be fun to register the second time around but turns out it's quite fun. I think any time you get to point a little scanning gun thing at stuff you want you can't really go wrong. I had fun pointing and Hubs had fun clicking.

2. I completed my glucose test on Friday. I was pretty much dreading having to go and do that. It actually wasn't too bad though. The orange sugary drink wasn't as bad as I had remembered it and the bottle seemed smaller than last time. BONUS! I think the worst part was having to sit there for an hour until they could do the follow up blood work. Too bad they didn't have WiFi in the lab lobby. I passed the time by reading a magazine so I really shouldn't complain. How often do I get to sit down and read almost an entire magazine in one sitting. Like never.

3. It's really not fair that I am pregnant over most all of the major food related holidays. TEMPTATIONS GALORE people! So far we've had halloween. I think I gained five pounds alone in October due to Halloween candy. Up next we have Thanksgiving. And then Christmas. We'll be doing a drive by of my gma's house where there will no doubt be all kind of chocolate goodness in the form of fudge and bon bon's. Then it's off to our hometown where there will be more goodies at the in-laws house. Not to mention we'll be eating at all of our favorite hometown places while we are in town. And going to Braum's about fifteen times. Lydia don't hate me. Oh yeah, I WAS writing about food related holidays. So then there is Valentine's day when there is more candy around. Maybe next time I will be pregnant from March to November. Wait, did I just say next time..............

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It's over

Well I am happy to tell you the name game is officially over. We have settled on a name. I am still surprised that we decided to scrap our original names we were thinking of. All day yesterday I was trying to come up with a name but it's sort of hard to just pull a name out of the air that works. I was contemplating getting out the "name book" when a name came to me.

I thought for sure that Hubs wouldn't like it but I ran it by him anyways. He liked it and as the night grew on he liked it more and more. So I guess we are going to go with my name. Sorry but for security purposes I am not going to tell you what it is on the blog. I'm such a party pooper!

How anti-climatic of an ending to a post is that?? Sorry but you can email me or I can tell you the next time we meet in person.  Hope you'll understand.

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Any suggestions?

So the great name debate is on in our household right now. We had a few boy names picked out and for some reason or another we have decided to maybe scrap those names and keep on a lookin.

We have had several southern suggestions such as "Bubba, Cletus, and Clyde."  I am kind of leaning towards Cletus but we'll keep you posted.

As far as a blog name for the little guy I am leaning towards LB², which would stand for Little Buddy's buddy.  I don't know that I will have the time to type Little Buddy's Buddy so I figured I needed a way to shorten it. Little buddy squared seems to work. Let me know what your thought are on that.

Sidenote: Little Buddy's Buddy was suggested by the lovely Mrs. Katie. I am pretty darn sure she dubbed our son Little Buddy way back when and it has seemed to stick with our friends at church.

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D-Day

So today was the "big" ultrasound day. The one we have been waiting for since we found out I was expecting. The ultrasound tech was making her way along the body of the baby from head to toe checking things out. As soon as she got remotely near the bebe's behind/leg area I could immediately see what we were dealing with. And out of my mouth came the words, "Well it's definitely a BOY!" I don't even know if the tech had seen "the turtle" yet but she responded to my statement with something to the tune of, "Yep, it's definitely a boy."

So there you have it folks. Little buddy will have a little brother. I wonder what I will call little brother since little buddy is already taken. Maybe Dos? Or maybe little little buddy. I guess I have sometime to ponder that. And a real name of course.

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