And the little man is THREE

May 7, 5:55 a.m. - Iver comes running into our bedroom.

Iver: "WHERE MY PRESENTS?!"

Me: "Buddy, it's not your birthday, and it's way too early. Your bunny's not up. Back to bed!"

He reluctantly returns to his bed for another 20 minutes, until the bunny clock turns to daytime.

May 8, 6:35 a.m. - Iver's still laying in his bed at this point, but I had been summoned with "MAMA!"

Iver: "Am I 3, Mommy?"

Me: "Tomorrow, buddy." I quickly realize that this is the last day we'll have a two year old living in this house. But I couldn't be sad because Iver was SO EXCITED TO TURN 3!! Until ...

6:45 p.m. - Iver is throwing a massive tantrum about not wanting to go to bed.

Iver: "I don't want to go to sleep! I want to stay 2! I don't want to turn 3!"

More tears, but he does fall asleep. Within about 10 seconds of his head hitting the pillow. And I offered to snuggle him, but he turned me down - insert sad face.

May 9, 6:45 a.m. - Iver comes running into our bedroom.

Iver: "Can I open my presents now?"

Me: "You bet, buddy. You're 3!! Happy birthday!!"

Presents were quickly opened and he began playing with his new cement mixer and his other big trucks at about 7:30 a.m. It was a long, fantastic day of sunshine, heat, friends, family, cake, sprinklers, paint, and laughter. We put an exhausted child to bed once again, who couldn't have been happier to be 3.

As for Iver turning 3, I'm only slightly terrified as to what the next year will bring. I remember vividly the 3-4 year for Piper. It was a hard year - our hardest year - and although Iver's personality is completely different than hers, I see a lot of the clogged ears happening already that seemed to be present for her fourth year. Fingers are crossed.

But before we get ahead of ourselves and have him turning four already, there's so much about Iver that I want to remember when we're old and grey.

We had the BEST time making his cake! He wanted a big truck cake and loved helping to decorate with dirt, logs, etc. It was such a fun cake to make with him :-) The only hard part was keeping him from playing with all the big trucks on the cake and taking all the frosting off.

Iver's favorite colors are green, red and pink.

He is obsessed with big trucks, Frozen, and anything sparkly, including Piper's dress up clothes, which he often wears while playing with his big trucks in the sand box. He sings Let it Go at the top of his lungs, although his favorite pop song is currently Bruno Mars' Uptown Funk. I find this hilarious, by the way, because when Piper was almost 2, her favorite song was Bruno Mars The Lazy song, which she called the monkey song because of the music video. who can blame them? Bruno Mars rocks.

Iver's hilarious. And has a super devilish grin - if I don't remember what that looks like, all I need to do is revisit his pre-school photo from this year...

He LOVES mud.

Iver's BFF is Cosette. His obsession with her rivals his obsession with big trucks, and it looks like the feeling is mutual. Cosette also loves mud, which is awesome.

His favorite food is currently cucumbers, and he likes them both fresh and pickled. Sometimes he eats them for breakfast, and while he loves a salad with them on them, his preferred method of consumption is by themselves.

We're excited to see what the coming year brings! I'm hoping he'll ...

1. Potty train(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
2. Learn how to swim independently
3. Have a blast playing with friends

Love you, Shmoops!

Dear Piper

Dear Piper - our new Kindergartner,

Today you're in your second full day of Kindergarten, and while you've been reluctant to embrace the excitement of all that's to come, I believe you're beginning to figure out that school is going to be a great adventure in so many ways.

On your first day, you came down to the kitchen with a blotchy, red face and my heart just about broke for you. I could tell you were scared. Really scared. You cried in my arms and then slowly got yourself ready for school. You barely ate breakfast, you put up a fight to just about everything, but once you were ready, you were so stinking cute and I'm thankful we were able to take some pictures without tears!

When we got to the bus stop, you were definitely quiet, but when the bus came, you made me so proud. I knew you were nervous, but you marched right onto the bus and sat down calmly in your seat. You couldn't look at us, and your little chin was trembling, but you held it together and went off to have a great day. It wasn't easy to let you go, especially knowing how scared you were, but you were all smiles when you got off the bus and had lots of stories to tell about your day. It was very obvious that you had fun!

After your first day, we went to the library and checked out the first two books in the Junie B. Jones series. We read half of the first one while Iver played in the play room at the library, and finished it before bed. You loved it. You loved the antics, the humor, and that Junie B. had her first day of Kindergarten also. Thankfully yours was a bit less traumatic and didn't involve rescue personnel like hers did ... :-)

So now here's a little information about YOU.

• Your favorite colors are orange and blue.
• You want to be a meteorologist, although during dinner last week you also mentioned that you and your brother are going to own Carreras and you're going to drive a cement mixer while he drives the dump trucks and front loaders. Hmm. Time will tell I guess.
• You love Legos, especially Lego Friends. You had Lego block cakes for your birthday party this summer.
• You love riding your bike and scooter.
• You love to swim and your crawl and back stroke have gotten pretty impressive over the summer. This was the first summer you could touch the bottom of the deep end and that made you really proud! You always jump right in.
• You had gym yesterday as your Special and you were proud to discover you were the only kid in your class who can tie her own shoes.
• You have a major sweet tooth!
• You have a 6 year molar coming in right now and it makes your jaw hurt.
• Your favorite ice cream flavor is Superman.
• You love to watch Doc McStuffins, Daniel Tiger (with your brother), Sofia the First, and the Treehouse show (with Daddy).
• You still love your milk warmed up and I'm shocked to say that I still warm it up for you.
• You love taking pictures with our old digital camera.
• You love math! It's one of your favorite things to do with Daddy. 
• You love playing card games, especially Uno, Crazy 8s, and you loved playing SkipBo with your cousins this summer (we should get that game).
• Sometimes you still look little when you sleep, but each and every day, you're looking like a big girl and it makes Daddy and I happy/proud (and a little bit sad) to see the big girl you're becoming!

We're so excited to see you make new friends and learn all sorts of different skills over the next nine months. We truly believe you're going to love school once you get settled into this new routine (and longer days - oh my you were so tired yesterday after your first full day!!) and we're excited to see you grow and learn. We're proud of you!

Love,

Mama and Daddy

Baby yoga

And while looking through pics of Piper, I found this one from before Christmas. For some reason, it's one of my favorites :-)

P-I-P-E-R

When I think of Piper this fall/winter, I can hear her spelling her name over and over again. "P-I-P-E-R." She loves to write it, she loves to see it, and now that she's mastered her name, she's onto Iver's and I think she has that one pretty much down also. I love to watch her learn and grow. It's unbelievable how much a kid can change in 3.5 years. And then I think of how quickly the next 3.5 years are going to go and I get all sorts of freaked out!

Piper has a great sense of humor, and whenever something ridiculous comes out of her mouth, I think to myself she is such a little Reid. Last week it was bitter cold out. So cold that the only time we spent outside was walking from the car to whatever building we were going into. And even that was done very quickly. So on one of those days, Piper comes flying down the stairs one afternoon in a tank top and PJ pants and she was "sweating from doing her HOT dancing in her room." Hot dancing! What does that even mean?! If you really want to know, just sit in my living room during quiet time and you'll hear the jumping, thumping, her doing who knows what to her music CDs. The kid just cracks me up.

And then she can be a little devil, and on those days, I count down the hours until bed time. She can get under my skin better than anyone I have met, and then I think to myself, she's a little Jen. Not because I enjoy getting under peoples' skin, but because she understands how I tick because she ticks the same way, and therefore knows exactly what to do to push my buttons. And truth be told, I'm pretty sure she enjoys pushing my buttons. I have to remind myself that she's just three, but on days when the countdown is in play, I dread when she's 13. Oh my ...

Luckily there are more good days than bad! I was just looking back through pictures and we really don't have many pictures that show her funny faces that she makes. She has incredibly expressive eyes and I'm pretty sure she'll use them to make people laugh and get what she wants for her whole life. This pic doesn't do them justice, but I want to remember how she makes funny eyes when I'm old and grey.

Piper's favorite color is still orange and she loves Disney princesses. I can't remember exactly when she became obsessed, but it was a bit before Christmas so we gave her a Disney princess story book for Christmas. This may have been a huge tactical error as we've barely read anything else for 5 weeks now. Two stories at quiet time, two at night time. Her favorite are the The Mice Save the Day (Cinderella) and The Royal Friend (another Cinderella one about a little girl named Emma -also her BFF's name). And to round out the old school stories, she also loves Falling in Love (Sleeping Beauty) because she loves to say Maleficent's name. I'm pretty sure this is because Reid had a hard time saying it one night and Piper could say it perfectly. I am SO sick of these stories and can't wait for this obsession to end, but it's also a ton of fun to hear her finish the sentences, and every once in a while, "read" those stories to Iver or one of her lovies. When she hits kindergarten and has to know 92 sight words, I hope we luck out and they show her Cinderella, Jaq, Gus and Maleficent. We'll have those four down, no problem!

Oops - way overdue Iver update!

Iver is 8 months. 8 months! And several days really. So let's do a quick catch up because I have done the worst job ever chronicling all of his stats and milestones and everything else going on in our lives. I hate to admit it, but the second one does get the short end of the stick a bit. But then again, he has all of Piper's stuff to get into and a big sister that makes him laugh like crazy and smile the biggest smiles I've ever seen. I guess it's not all bad.

Turning the clock back 4 months, Iver had his well baby visit ...

4 month stats:

Height: 26.5 inches - 88 percentile
Weight: 16 pounds, 9 ounces - 72 percentile
Head circumference: 16.5 inches - 31 percentile 

And here's what that cutie looked like back then, which clearly shows that he did not know what to think of his first meal of cereal.

On Iver's four month birthday, he rolled over the first time from his back to front (caught the picture and posted it). Two days later, he went from front to back at my parents' house. Not too long after that, he discover that he loved to sit up, and from that moment on, he basically stopped rolling and only wanted to be upright. Here he is on his 5 month bday, proudly sitting up in his room.

I don't think anything super important happened between 5 and 6 months, other than Iver stopped sleeping through the night and we all turned into zombies for a month and a half. I still can't figure out what happened, other than he went through a bit of separation anxiety or something, and we made a crucial mistake when he first started waking up: we responded immediately. Iver was the happiest baby ALL the time until this point. He only cried when he was hungry, so when he stopped sleeping through the night and started screaming, we assumed something was wrong. After a month of responding, we started waiting a bit. Two weeks later, we were back to our sleeping through the night baby. I think he was working us, because we still have no teeth (our first excuse for any negative change in routine) and he was fine in every other way.

Fast forward to 6 months! And another well baby appointment ...

6 month stats:

Height: 26.75 inches - 52 percentile
Weight: 18 pounds, 9 ounces - 52 percentile
Head circumference: 17.5 inches - 63 percentile 

I will say I don't believe the height stat at all. If he had really only grown a quarter of an inch, it would have all been in the size of his head and he wouldn't have outgrown his clothes. By 6 months, he was in 12 month clothes for the most part so I know that wasn't the case. Not that it really matters, but I think we'll see a decent size height jump at the 9 month appointment.

By 6 months, Iver wanted to stand all the time, on everything, so we would prop him up and he'd smile like a crazy man ...

I will note that his doc told us at his 6 month well baby visit that his bottom teeth would be coming any day, and I believed her. Still no teeth two months later ... He's been a great eater and we haven't found much that he doesn't like. As I type this, the only thing I can think of is store bought baby food with meat in it, and honestly, I can't blame the kid so I make most of that on my own. Our super smiley boy continued and his love for his big sister has continued to grow and grow. He LOVES to watch her, and if her being a bit rough with him didn't pull the biggest laughs out of his belly, I would have a much easier time getting her to be gentle. He loves it, and I love to watch it.

Right before Thanksgiving, Iver was finally baptized!He was a good little boy and just kind of stared at the priest as the water was poured ... he was super handsome that day, as usual.

And here's Iver at 7 months - probably my most favorite pic of him so far!

Iver started CRAWLING on Dec 23 and quickly went from crawling to pulling up on everything (on New Year's day). He's now loving the push lion that he can walk behind and has let go of whatever he's been holding onto to stand on his own now several times. Physically, he's such a different kid than Piper and is doing everything way earlier and much more quickly. That being said, the one word I've heard him say is Mama, and before today, that had happened super clearly once, or maybe twice. Then today, he clearly called me Mama a few times. I melt like a stick of butter in a hot frying pan. It's AWESOME. But I do think he's teething now because our super happy man is not always happy anymore, and the drool is ridiculous. His gums are jam packed with his two front teeth on the bottom, but they were at his 6 month appointment too. His lack of teeth doesn't seem to impact the eating, and his kisses are still the sloppiest, open-mouthed messes so the lack of teeth is kind of nice. But is that explaining his recent lack of sleeping through the night again? We will see! But here's the handsome man's 8 mo pic ...

The main update from now is that he is into everything. He can open cabinets (time to get the locks out), he loves cords and electronics, and the quieter he is, the worse he's being. He seems to be into more stuff than Piper was, but I don't know if he really is, or if my memory is poor. All I know is, there's only so mad you can get at that handsome face. He's trouble for sure.

And Piper gets an update next. She's 3.5 and I'm starting to freak out about the fact that she will be FOUR this summer. Yikes! And Colorado and Christmas need their own posts. So behind, what is wrong with me?! Busy mama of two awesome kiddos, that's what.

First day of school

Piper and her buddies today

The first roll

Success!

Iver now rolls! And stats

I was just running around like a mad woman doing laundry since Iver and Piper are actually asleep at the same time during the day and realized that so much time and activity has passed that I'm never going to remember it all now, let alone 20 years from now when I'm curious as to when Iver rolled over or when Piper first was trying to tie the ropes up on the boat dock. The one month where they were both 3 (3 months and 3 years) is done. As of yesterday, Iver is 4 months and Piper's preschool started up again today. Insane.

And because I'm sure one or both kids will wake up momentarily, I'm typing as fast as I can and will have to add pictures later. But ...

Iver rolled over yesterday for the first time! On his four month bday, he finally got from his side to his belly. Now that seems to be all that he wants to do today. And the best part was that Piper got to see him do it. She was bummed because she said he would do it while she was at school and she'd miss it, but low and behold, he appeased us and rolled while we were hanging out in the back yard.

And then stats ... first Iver's two month stats (man I am delinquent!!):

Height: 24.25 inches - 85 percentile
Weight: 13 pounds, 72 ounces - 76 percentile
Head circumference: 15.5 inches - 33 percentile

And Piper's three year stats:

Height: 38.5 inches - 80 percentile
Weight: 34 pounds, 9 ounces - 82 percentile

Iver will have more stats next week when he goes in for his four month checkup. All I can say is he feels huge to me, although I think he still has a bit of a peanut head. Really this makes him look proportionate, as if he were older, instead of having the giant baby melon, but I would think he was gorgeous with whatever sized head he had.

And just like that, Iver's awake. He still only taked cat naps. So much more to write, and so many pictures from our summer's adventures ... but those will have to wait.

Iver John!

Two weeks and a day ago (May 9, 2012), we welcomed our beautiful, perfect, amazing little boy - Iver John. He arrived at 1:57 pm, weighing 8 pounds, 1.7 ounces and measuring 20.5". As you can tell from Piper's face in our first family picture, we couldn't have been happier to welcome him into our lives!

 

But to do his birth story justice, first I need to back up a couple of days ...

For the past couple of months, Piper has loved to match me when it comes to clothes, what we're eating, etc. So instead of a traditional 39 week pregnant picture, I cuddled up on the couch with what my husband called the smaller of the ninjas, which by the way, was the only completely matching outfit we could pull together. We do have matching Hanna Andersson jammies, but the tops are different so all black plus slippers was definitely the way to go. 

 

So the day that picture was taken, I had contractions all morning. They became consistent and stronger, so after Piper's swimming lessons, I finally called the doctor's office, where they sent me to the hospital. At this point, the contractions were every 5 minutes and we assumed it was go time. Woo hoo! So we get to the hospital and I'm still 4 cm dilated so they have me walk for 90 minutes to see if that gets things going further. For a while, the contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and strong, but by the end of the 90 minutes, they were back to every 5 minutes. When the nurse checked me again, I was still 4 cm, so with the Snuggery being a super busy place, they sent me home. I was very disappointed, but I guess the silver lining is that we had one more good night's sleep and then had a great delivery the next day. It turns out, 8 babies were born at the Hospital that day, and Iver was only one of two the next day. They really were slammed.

So the next day I had my regularly scheduled doctor's appointment. The doc checked me and I was 4-5 cm and very "ready," so she asked if I would want to go to the hospital, have them break my water, and see what happened. Of course I was OK with that - it was what I absolutely wanted! So she stripped my membranes and we headed over to the hospital.

The midwife broke my water at 11:30 am, and then I was up and walking. The contractions came back immediately, and they quickly became very strong. I vacillated about whether or not to get an epidural for a while, and then it was like a switch flipped and all of a sudden the pain was super intense. I had such a good epidural experience with Piper that I decided to get another one, so the doc was called. That was just before 1. About 30 minutes later, I was super comfortable and 6 cm dilated. 30 minutes after that, I was fully dilated, pushed five times, and Iver was born at 1:57 pm. It was such an easy, amazing experience, that I couldn't believe how great I felt. I was rested, didn't throw up at all, and felt super energized. I'm so glad I made the choice to get an epidural because I really feel they allow my body to relax and dilate completely, VERY quickly. The same thing happened with Piper. If I remember correctly, I went from 6 to 10 cm with her 20 minutes after the epidural took effect. I know not everyone is for them, but I've had two great experiences and have absolutely no regrets.

After two nearly sleepless nights in the hospital, we came home! It was a beautiful day so Piper and Reid got to take Iver for his first walk around the neighborhood. Piper was very proud to push the stroller ...

 

Since then, we've had many ups and downs, particularly when it comes to the emotional health of our toddler. Luckily, the emotional roller coaster seems to be waning and she's adjusting to life as a Big Sister with a little brother who has peed on her, wakes her up at night with his crying, doesn't give her "baby hugs" on demand, and in general, doesn't give her a lot back when she puts in a ton. But she loves her little brother and someday hopefully they'll be great buddies.

And very quickly, Iver had his two week check up yesterday so we have some stats on the big guy, who is growing very quickly ...

Height: 22 inches - 89 percentile
Weight: 8 pounds, 7 ounces - 29 percentile (he was 7 pounds, 11 ounces when we were discharged)
Head circumference: 14.5 inches - 29 percentile

There's so much more to write, but that will have to wait until later. This took enough of my limited "free" time (when both kids are sleeping) and dinner has to be made!

38 weeks!

I love to laugh, and the fact that my husband makes me laugh every day is high up on the list of reasons of why he's my husband. With that in mind, I've been debating as to whether I should share my false alarm/funny diagnosis story from a few days ago ... while embarrassing to me, it is pretty funny, so if I can bring some laughter to random blog readers on an otherwise boring Monday, then why not? So here's the deal ...

When I was putting on Piper's shoes last Friday morning before school, I felt a bunch of liquid come out of me. So I sat on the toilet, peed, and more liquid came out after that. Well, I thought my water was leaking! So I called the doc, who told me to go to the hospital and get checked out. So Reid brings Piper to school to buy us a couple of hours for her, I set up her pickup with a neighbor, finish packing our bag, and then we head to the hospital, thinking we're going to have a baby. Pretty exciting, right? Yeah, not so fast.

I get there and I'm having zero contractions, which I think is weird, and apparently so does the nurse. They monitor me for a bit - baby looks great, still no contractions, so they do amniotic fluid tests to make sure it was actually a leaking water situation. Those tests are negative, which means the only logical diagnosis is incontinence.

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, my diagnosis was peeing my pants.  Awesome.

The exciting news is I'm 4 cm dilated and the head is right there so I'm hoping it won't be too much longer. Of course that being said, this little peanut has been quiet as a church mouse the last couple of days. I've gone from having several contractions a day to pretty much nothing. I guess it's the calm before the storm, but I'm ready to get this show on the road! And so is Piper. The poor thing left for school on Friday thinking she was going to see us next at the hospital, when she met her new little brother or sister, and here it is 3 days later and there's still no little person to meet. She was definitely confused on Friday and I can tell she's trying to process this whole change, but she has no idea what she's processing. She'll know soon, but in the meantime, Big Baby (what she's named her favorite baby doll) has been trying out all the baby gear that is now cluttering our house, like the swing, pack and play, etc. Based on the pushes Big Baby was getting in the swing this morning, this next kid is going to have to be one tough nut - and will likely go on to design roller coasters.

Interestingly, the nurse at the hospital was convinced that we're having a girl. She's one of the very few to make that prediction, but I would put her into the classification of "expert" so time will tell. As an FYI, her basis for this prediction was the way I'm carrying.
Happy Monday!

36 weeks!

Although there's an annoying shadow on this picture because it's dark outside, I feel like this picture is starting to do justice for just how LARGE my stomach is (at 36 weeks and 2 days). And as you can see, it hasn't come even close to dropping yet so we are well on track to make it to 37 weeks (full term) and probably then some. Woo hoo!

We had an ultrasound two days ago to make sure the peanut had flipped to head down, and it has. It's also facing down so in a good position for delivery, but a terrible position for pictures because you can't really see anything with it laying this way. No cute face profiles, no clear limbs ... but if it makes things easier later on then I'm all for it. It's the pics of this kid after it comes out that I'm the most looking forward to chronicling anyway.

Multiple times a day, Piper hugs and kisses my belly and talks about how much she loves her little brother or sister ... it's super cute and we just hope the excitement continues. She helped pack our hospital bag, which now sits in our bedroom waiting for go-time, and was excited to for the nursery to start to come together and to help pick out which sheet to put on the crib, which changing pad cover to use, etc. I had a friend with two kids tell me that having the first child make a lot of what would seem to us like meaningless decisions could actually be really important for her because it makes her feel like she's a help so I'm trying hard to include her whenever possible. Now if only she would all of a sudden become a napper so that I could take a snooze in the afternoon ... not too likely, but you can't blame me for being a dreamer! But since she is the energizer bunny, I'm headed to bed even though it's only 9pm. I may as well try and get some sleep while that's still in the cards because I fully realize that any night I go to sleep at this point could be my last as a parent of one child. Insane!

Easter 2012

I've been off bedrest for a week now, and at 35 weeks, I'm so excited that the baby hasn't tried to arrive again and that we've made it this far without too much increased stress. My house may not be as neat and tidy as I would like because I do have to take it very easily right now, but that's ok. With a newborn coming soon, it's not going to be perfect for a while anyway. Might as well get used to it now!

Easter was this past weekend, and all I can think about from the weekend is what a fun age Piper is at right now. We were in North Creek on Saturday to celebrate, where Piper fell in love with a giant bunny cake, and more specifically, red licorice ...

And then Sunday, before she was pretty much angelic in church, she had the best time exploring her Easter basket and finding eggs that the bunny had hidden around our house. She kept talking about the "silly bunny" and running back and forth to her Easter basket with chocolate filled eggs. Reid and I were laughing and enjoying every minute because she was in absolute heaven. So cute!

I can't get over how much of a little kid she is now. The baby fat has melted off, she talks and talks and talks, using ridiculous vocabulary and sentence construction, and simply put, she's always thinking about something. We never can predict what question is going to come out of her mouth at any random point in time. I think this is why she has a hard time just sitting and watching a TV show and why she doesn't love to be read to unless it's quiet time or bed time. She's so busy, so inquisitive, and I can't believe we're about to start all over with a teeny tiny one again in a matter of weeks. Looking back a year ago, she has changed so much ... last year, she couldn't say chocolate so she called it "choc-choc." Although many of her curls are now gone, and her mouse (Madison) has all but been replaced by Big Baby, her love of choc-choc remains. Here's a peak back at Piper and Easter 2011 ...

33 weeks!

Piper asked me last night why I was wearing all black. My response: "because it's slimming." Not that there's any real point in trying to appear 'slim' at this point, but most of the maternity shirts I do own are black, and let's be honest, I'm wearing yoga pants almost full time now because why bother wearing anything else when I spend most of the time on the couch with my feet up. Comfort is king!

So for today's photo session, it was another pair of yoga pants paired with yet another black maternity tank. I feel much bigger than I look in these pictures and I can't figure out what sort of magical illusion is happening with my camera, but I'll take it!

Standard belly shot ...

Uncovered belly!

And full frontal ... I wish I had 33 week pics from being pregnant with Piper, but it looks like the closest we have is from almost 35 weeks so give me a couple more weeks and the comparison will be more accurate, but I do think this belly sticks out more than with Piper.

Pink or blue? Old wives' tails revisited

When I was pregnant with Piper, we didn't know what she was until she arrived so I blogged about many of the old wive's tails I had been told throughout my pregnancy. As it turns out, many were true and we ended up with a bouncing baby girl with lots of hair.

This time around has been no different. Everyone asks what we're having, and since we don't know, they have an opinion. While with Piper the vast majority of people thought it was a girl (myself not included), this time around, most people are seeing blue in our not too distant future. So let's recap ...

• Fetal heartbeat: Fast heartbeat = girl; slower heartbeat = boy. What's fast and what's slow? I'm honestly not entirely sure, but I will say that this time around is very similar to last time. While Piper tended to be right around 155, this one was 155 multiple appointments in a row, with the lowest I've seen being 145, and our last appointment was 150. I guess that's fast? Not quite sure, but I will say that this is one ACTIVE baby in my belly and the little girl or boy is working up a faster heartbeat with all of the acrobatics it's doing.
• Linea negra - theory #1: Line on your belly? High estrogen, which means a girl. No line, better paint the nursery blue. No line this time, which would mean a boy.
• Linea negra - theory #2: If the line only goes from your pubic bone to your belly button, then it's a girl; if it goes up past your belly button up to your sternum, then it's a boy. Since I don't have a line, I guess I automatically default to theory #1, but then again, the two linea negra predictions seem totally oppposite to me so your guess is as good as mine ... Last time I had a line up to my belly button, so this time is different. Pointing at blue again?
• How you're carrying the baby - theory #1: This is kind of like the heartbeat where what denotes "fast", but apparently if you're carrying evenly across your front, onto your sides, it's a girl. Carrying what looks like a basketball on your front, with it ALL out front, it's a boy. I look entirely different this time around than with Piper. Even though I've gained about the same amount of weight this pregnancy, I can say that I carried Piper EVERYWHERE on my body. My hips, butt, face, arms. You name it, she was crammed in there somewhere. This time around, of course everything is a little bigger, but it's totally different and I'm mostly belly. Now I did start out weighing less in general with this pregnancy ... but I guess I'd put us into the boy category again, and that's what everyone tells me when they see me.
• How you're carrying the baby - theory #2: There's also the high (girl) versus low (boy)conundrum, which I didn't cover with Piper, but again is totally subjective and I would think would have a lot to do with whether or not someone is long waisted or short waisted. I will say that I carried Piper way higher than I'm carrying this one so I guess that puts us into the boy category.
• Baby's level of activity: Got a quiet baby in there? Girl. Growing a kick boxer? Boy. Piper was a super active baby and hasn't slowed down since she entered the real world. This one is also a crazy fool, but I'm going to put that on genetics and not gender. Either way, my guess is this child will be a bit wild and super active, just like his/her older sister.
• Penny and the wall: There's something about a penny and the wall and whether it sticks. We ended up doing this with Piper at my mother in law's insistence and I don't remember whether it stuck or not, but I know the verdict was boy and obviously that wasn't the case. She hasn't asked me to do it this time, and frankly I would refuse, having just had the walls painted while we were on vacation in January. No since in ruining a paint job over nothing!
• You just are ...: And then there's my final favorite - "I can just tell." I don't think a single person has told me this time around they think it's a girl.
• The ultrasound technician calls it a "he": Lastly, at our 20 week ultrasound, the technician knew we didn't want to find out the sex, but after 45 minutes of looking at the baby, she called it a he. When I asked her whether she just gave the sex away, she quickly said she calls them all "hes" when they don't know ... was she just covering? I have heard of this happening before, but I personally think she slipped.

And just to be clear, I would love to know what we're having this time around, but am giving my husband the opportunity to have one last surprise because he absolutely loves that we don't know. But part of my wanting to know has to do with the name ... we have a girl's name that we love. First, middle, everything. Boy name? Not even close. We have nothing. We don't like the name that Piper would have been so thank God she was a girl, but we're so far away from a boy's name this time that if it is a girl, I would love to just throw the whole name discussion in the trash and never look back. And if it is a boy, then we better get cracking and fall in love with something soon or else Piper's going to name the boy Peewee like she says she wants and we won't have any other good options so the poor kid will be screwed with a lifetime of heckling.

32 weeks!

I would be remiss to not account for the three whole days of winter fun we had this year. While it was cold at times, we didn't get any real snow until we had our one storm on March 1st, and I'm pretty sure we were all outside by 7:15 in the morning. Reid snow blowed the driveway while Piper checked out the white stuff that she had been asking for all winter long. We spent the morning playing with friends - building snow men, making a fort, getting pulled around in a sled, and in general, making up for the months of bare lawn that we had all winter. The next day was sledding with friends and then the weekend was upon us so Daddy was able to get in on the fun. By this time, it was back to almost 50 degrees out so it was sledding on a couple inches of snow in sweatshirts. As you can tell by the smiles though, it couldn't have been more fun!

So now here we are at 32 weeks! I tried to take a self-portrait yesterday, and while the lighting isn't great, you can see that the baby has definitely grown. I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and I'm definitely on bed rest for the next two weeks, but if I can get through these weeks without any additional signs of preterm labor, then they'll take me off bed rest at 34 weeks. So fingers and toes are crossed for a very uneventful two weeks so I can get back on my feet and back to work around here. Piper is doing great and has been such a trooper in terms of adjusting. Right now, since summer seems to have arrived 3 months early, she's at a playground with one of her favorite sitters and I'm sure she's having a blast. She's thrown a few mini tantrums about me not putting her to bed or up for quiet time, but other than that, she's been surrounded by people who she loves and who love her and is a happy camper. And with the incredibly generous help of our family and friends, our laundry is caught up, our house is clean, and we've been eating great, healthy meals. In the whole scheme of life, we are so lucky and blessed.

Next up - gender old wive's tales revisited ...

29 week bump

I'm 32 weeks tomorrow, but trying to catch up. The quality isn't great from my phone so the next one will have to be from my real camera.

We should have known it was coming ... bed rest!

I have to start by saying that I'm jealous of Piper and Reid right now because they're at our favorite diner having breakfast, which is one of our favorite things to do on Saturday/Sunday. But it's all for a good reason because a healthy baby and healthy mama are this moment's (and the next month's) top priorities. After a trip to the hospital two days ago to confirm that I was having preterm labor, I'm on bed rest. Yuck.

When I was pregnant with Piper, bed rest wasn't a huge deal. It was boring, and looking back, I'm not really sure what I did for almost four weeks, but this time around is completely different. With a super active toddler, the whole game has changed. I now have two super important goals: 1. keep the baby in, 2. keep Piper happy. Let's just say her adjustment period to this new baby is well underway. I think the plan is to keep her days filled with people she loves, while factoring in some cuddle time with me on the couch. We thought about getting a nanny for the next month, but it would have to be someone she didn't know and that's just one more big adjustment I'd rather not put her through ... I think we're asking enough of her at this point! And admittedly, I'm trying to minimize my guilt too. This is my last time to have just for Piper, and it's getting taken away to a certain extent. Pregnant with Piper, it drove me nuts that I never got to nest. This time around, my last bit of special time with Piper is getting taken away. I know what people would say: before we know it, both kids will be in college and we'll never remember this part anyway. Well, there's probably some truth to that.

There's one thing I'm sure of, though, I do not have a good baby making body! Although we've talked about the potential of bed rest and knew it was a possibility (apparently the biggest risk factor is having had it before), there was still a lot of me that was in denial about having to actually be on bed rest. Well, no denying it now. But now, I have absolutely no excuse but to blog! So while Piper's at school more of the time and hanging out with people she loves, I'll be catching up on pictures, catching up on her "baby book", and please for the sake of this next child, actually take another bump picture or two. More to come!

Fun in the sun

We just returned from an amazing vacation in the sun where we had the opportunity to see great friends, play in the sand and swim every day, and get enough fresh air and sun shine to hold us over until the weather gets nice again here. The above pic is Baby #2 at 24.5 weeks, growing like a weed. Well, either that, or the increased belly size is due to all of the great food we ate last week. For one reason or another, my belly seems to have grown quite a bit in the past couple of weeks and I notice it getting in the way more and more. And yet I know, there is so much more "largeness" to come ...

The one thing that I hope doesn't come is preterm labor. I noticed some minor cramping and some contractions while we were on vacation and brought them up at my doctor's appointment on Monday. At 25 weeks, it's early to be having any of that, and after having preterm labor and bedrest with Piper, I definitely need to take it easy and be careful. I'm no longer allowed to exercise (even slow, long walks) and am taking Piper's nap time to put my feet up or take a nap myself. The thought of going on bedrest with a toddler running around absolutely terrifies me! But the one part that bums me out is explaining to Piper why I can't carry her down the stairs or pick her up and carry her around like I would like to. She's had a virus the last couple of days and just wants some extra cuddle time, so we get it on the couch together, but I do feel a bit badly. But then again, I guess there are worse things than her having to start adjusting to not being the only little one in the house starting now. She's not going to have all my time/attention/anything in a few short months and maybe this is a good time to start adjusting to her future reality!

22 weeks!

It isn't getting any easier to take a self-portrait, but one thing is true, the little munchkin is growing like crazy and I'm starting to feel like a real pregnant lady. In the 18 week pic, I was wearing a normal shirt ... but those days are done. I finally put all of my regular shirts away and will see them again sometime this summer. Over the past four weeks, the little one is settling into a bit of a movement routine. If I sit still after eating, it moves around like crazy, but its favorite time to go wild is right as I lay down to go to sleep. The flips and wiggles are peak at about 10 pm, or whenever it is I get to bed, and since I never fall asleep right away anyway, I enjoy every minute of the acrobatics. I know that will change with time (when it's 3 am and I can't get back to sleep because of the crazy internal soccer moves), but for now, I'm just going to enjoy it.

So a very wise friend of mine passed on this link this week, http://momastery.com/blog/2012/01/04/2011-lesson-2-dont-carpe-diem, and I swear it changed my whole outlook on life as a stay at home mom. I think a lot of my growing frustration had to do with the 3 or so months of Piper not napping, being cranky, me being cranky and losing patience as a result, but quite honestly, I was feeling rather strained about motherhood. And I couldn't put my finger on why, but when I read this very well-written and honest blog, I knew what my problem was. I was too busy feeling annoyed/guilty that I wasn't happy all the time that I was missing the really incredible moments. Once I realized what I was doing, it's like a giant light bulb has gone off and I feel refreshed and rejuvenated about parenting. I'm finding it much easier to ignore most of the small stuff, and really cherish what matters. For example, the other day after a shower, Piper and I were in my room putting on lotion (one of her favorite activities). She was doing her thing, I was doing mine, and then she walked over, put a hand on my shoulder and said in an incredibly sincere and beautiful manner, "I love you, Mama." I can't tell you what else happened that day, but that's what I'm going to remember. It was awesome. And because parenthood is super hard, I'm going to choose to focus on those moments and not the ones that make me want to pull my hair out and scream, because there are enough of those too.

And maybe part of my rejuvenation comes from the fact that Piper IS napping again, and I think we've finally figured out a schedule that works well for her. Gone are the days of 1pm quiet time. If we wait until around 3, she almost always falls asleep and then will be a wonderfully behaved and pleasant 2 year old until she goes to bed at 8. This seems to be working well, and thank God, because the no naps and crankiness was a nightmare. And having her drop naps just when I became pregnant again was super crappy timing! Our house is now pleasant again in the afternoon/evening and everyone is so much better off for it. These kids aren't easy to figure out ... and I'm sure the next one will be completely different (and if that means a wonderful napper, then woo hoo!!!).

Here's a recent pic that's one of my favorites. While the smiles are pretty awesome on their own, it's made even more special by the fact that the jumper Piper is wearing was made by my Nana (my mom's mom) and I used to wear it 28 years ago. I'm sure my Nana was smiling down when she saw this too ...

18 weeks preggeroni!

First of all, it's really hard to take a decent pic of yourself in a mirror! I was shocked, but with Reid out of town and Piper not the best photog yet, I was left with little choice but to grab the camera and document this peanut's journey on the start of week 18. Number 2 is well on his/her way!

And before we get back to being very happily and excitedly pregnant again, I need to back up and post Piper's 2 year stats. This poor kid (and the next one, let's be honest) are kind of screwed in that I'm just not a baby book type of person. I don't even own one for Piper, but I do want to keep track of these things, so very belatedly, here are her stats from July ...

Height: 34.5 inches - 75 percentile
Weight: 30 pounds, 8 ounces - 50 percentile
Head circumference: 19.5 inches - 90 percentile

Okay, back to the present and my poor attempt at documentation of our children's lives. I realized the other day that we started taking pictures of Piper (in my belly of course) when I was 16 weeks pregnant with her, and from there, they were almost weekly. I think the time period became a little spread out in the third trimester, but the fact is, she now has a nice little timeline of pictures where she gets to see my belly get bigger and bigger. When I was thinking about that, I felt guilty about this time around and not having taken any pictures OR documented any sort of commentary about this pregnancy yet. Maybe this kid won't care - and maybe Piper won't care about her well-documented, and at times embarrassing, journey - but we should at least give it another shot this time around. So although I will end with our Christmas card pic in typical 'Ode to Piper' fashion, the rest of this blog gets dedicated to her little sibling and its journey so far.

We first found out we were pregnant on labor day ... and from there, the real nerves set in. To be perfectly honest, the whole process, although short, was super nerve racking. Even before we started trying, I was terrified of it being a long, difficult process (actually getting pregnant, that is). Much to our surprise, that was not the case. We got pregnant the first time out (thank you, ovulation kit!) and therefore avoided all of the stress that getting pregnant can entail. But as soon as we found out we were pregnant, the stress of staying pregnant set in. I knew I had an increased risk of miscarriage due to some anatomical changes that have taken place (thanks ligaments, for failing to do your job years before that should have been the case) and we were also at an increased of another molar pregnancy. I considered both of these facts daily and the first trimester slugged slowly by.

Our 8 week ultrasound went well. No signs of any blood pockets and the heartbeat was nice and strong. Prognosis? Who knows. Sit tight until the 12 week ultrasound. So the next month SLOWLY dragged on and the next ultrasound finally arrived, where we were met with a beautiful wave of a hand - hooray!!

All of our fears and trepidations disappeared and joy and excitement were allowed to set in. I can't describe the feelings of relief I felt. We've had happy ultrasounds and we've had nightmare ultrasounds ... but the experiences you simply can't shake when going into the unknown are those negative ones. Well, that is, until you see the little miracle happily living inside of you. It's simply amazing.

And since then, the time has absolutely flown by. I have a hard time believing that this pregnancy is almost halfway over, and I'm sure the next 22 weeks (well, hopefully a BIT less than that, but who knows) will keep going by pretty quickly. I first felt the little peanut kicking me the night of Thanksgiving. I was shocked. I was barely 15 weeks, but there was no mistaking it, and since then, pretty much daily, I can feel him/her moving around in there. It's such a wonderful feeling, and I can't wait until Reid and Piper are able to feel this one too. I know this little guy/girl has a big sister who is very anxious to feel him/her!

And yes, the annoying "it", "him/her", etc will continue because we aren't going to find out the gender until the day this one enters the world. I don't love calling it an it, but that's ok. It's all well worth the wait.

And as promised, I'll end with the picture we used on our Christmas card ... the funny part is this is the only snow we've had all year and it was almost 60 degrees when we were making the snow man. Piper's wearing her winter coat only so that we don't look negligent. Happy holidays to all!