20 Weeks

Half way there!

I knew this progression photo would show a much bigger change then any of the others before it:

What can I say about 20 weeks...

I'm feeling pretty good.  In the "honeymoon phase" of this pregnancy.  No more morning sickness, belly isn't overly giant that it is in the way.  However, the belly is out there and getting used to it is not easy.

Sleeping is a trip.  I literally pass out by the end of the day I'm so tired.  Some nights I'll wake up in the middle of the night wide away.  Side sleeping is horrible, I'm a stomach sleeper.  Haven't gotten up to pee in the middle of the night as often as before, which has been nice.

Baby Update at 20 Weeks

He is now the size of a banana!

Measuring around 10.5" from head to toe and weighing about 11 oz (however, a week ago he was weighing 12 oz - so I'm sure he is even bigger now)

He is swallowing lots of amniotic fluid now, preparing for eating at birth.  He's also starting to collect muconium in his bowels.

Contractions?

Oh crap, I've over done it.

It's happened a couple of different times when I'm active.  But I really just thought it was the baby stretching.

Today, after KNOWING I've over done it.  I was walking up the stairs (for the millionth time today) and it started again.  I thought to myself, this baby is really stretching... no wait, what could this be if the baby isn't stretching??

Contraction.

It felt exactly like a braxton hicks contraction.

I'm only 20 weeks 1 day, how can this be?  I had them with Alyssa, but way after 30 weeks.  So now I worry.  I worry a lot, but this is what I'm now worrying about sitting here now:

-Is it too soon to be having contractions?  Even false contractions?

-I know I over did it, but did I REALLY over do it?

-Is my body ok?  Is the baby ok?

-Will this trigger early real contraction down the road?

-Will I be miserable in the end if now my body is more susceptible to them?

Mind you, I know these are false contractions.  I get one and it is then gone.  It is a tightening, but not a painful feeling.  But I still worry, what does this mean for me and the baby?

The Good, Bad, and the Ugly

For a day that was supposed to be filled with work - it sure was.  And not the work I was expecting (work with my business).

Instead, Steve brought home the second hand changing table that we bought.  It prompted an entire room make-over.  

Holy Moly...

Alyssa's room was beyond a disaster.  Mind you baby and Alyssa are SHARING a room.  She is a spoiled little girl that also keeps everything.  Pair that with me not having the best motivation lately due to work and 3 months of being sick from the pregnancy - the room was neglected.  We would make her "clean it," but you can't expect a whole lot out of a 6 year old.

Steve took on the task of dealing with most of it.  Two trash bags and many many trips up and down the stairs the room was pretty well cleared out.  Including our guinea pig Pongo.

We took a break to visit family for dinner.  Came back home to get the room furniture moved around.

Steve said - why don't we put the crib together... aaaa... sure, why not.

After more trips up and down the stairs, lost screws, and disinfecting everything - WE HAVE A CRIB!

So the GOOD of this:

We have an almost new changing table

The crib set up

A fairly clean bedroom/nursery for the kids

The BAD:

My basement is a DISASTER (that will be a whole other day to clean and reorganize)

The closet in the room wasn't even touched (another days worth of reorganizing)

And the UGLY:
After trying 3 or 4 different room arrangements with the crib and Alyssa's bed, none of us are happy.  It's just not working out the way we hoped. Alyssa was in tears over the fact that her bed couldn't go up in the corner of the room even.  I'm hoping it was just that she was tired and it had been a long day or cleaning and working for her. 

I'll post photos of what we are working with tomorrow.

The Name Game

Boy boy boy...

What do we name our baby boy?

Right now, it's looking like he will be:

Carter Lee

We didn't have a long list of boy names.  And Steve really didn't want to look at names at all till we knew boy or girl.  That would "cut our list in half and make it easier" he would say.

But I still kept a short list of names I'd hear or came across that stuck with me.

Carter was one I had talked with him about.

We had finally made it into the patient room for my dr. appt after the ultrasound when he said - I think we should name him Carter.  Alyssa agreed.  Carter was at the top of my boy name list at that point, and so of course I said I liked it, but wanted to sleep on it.

Middle name was the issue.  We wanted to name his after someone, but names weren't flowing so easily with Carter and our last name.  From work the next day I get a text from Steve - "How about Carter LEE."  A name I actually really liked too and seemed to flow really well.

But the name, the entire name, doesn't have a mean - what so ever.

Steve says he'd rather not name the baby after anyone.  Alyssa is not named after anyone, why start with this baby?

So after a few nights of sleeping on this name, it just seems to stick.

At the gender reveal, Steve blertted out "We want to name him Carter."  And as we were about to leave my grandma said "you take care of Carter."  Hearing the name, coming from someone else's mouth, just kind of struck me.  Kind of like - hey that name may be sticking about and you may be hearing it a lot more often soon.  That person isn't here yet, but it is a reality, that at some point he will be.  A real person, another addition to our family.

So unless something major comes up - Carter Lee it is <3        

Online Gender Reveal

We are HOCKEY fans.

Not baseball, soccer, basketball, football - but HOCKEY fans.

(And going through withdrawals right now with the lock out)

Finding out we were having a boy we knew HOCKEY would be the theme of the nursery and now the theme of our Online Gender Reveal..

 

Gender Reveal

We spent Thanksgiving with my grandmother who is widowed and home bound.

Actually, usually we spend Christmas and Thanksgiving with her since she is not able to travel the hour and a half to us.

This was the perfect time to do our gender reveal - with my immediate family, anyway.

 

Little Gender Reveal "area" - outside of our Thanksgiving dinner area

This didn't cost me a thing except for the cupcake liners and icing.  Worth the extra couple of dollars spent for the fun of it and for the surprise effect!

Our family before the big reveal

Not sure why, but this shot is hiding my belly really well

Here's the family!

They made their Team Pink or Team Blue choices

But like we said - they are ALL WINNERS :)

 My grandmother - Team Blue

My sister - Team Blue

My mom - Team Pink

My dad - Team Pink

Alyssa counted down from 3 for everyone to take their big bite of cupcake

Pink inside = Girl

Blue inside = Boy

The Big Moment!

My sister's reaction is the best - and my dad's face cracks me up!

*Don't miss my Grandma's dog, Rudy, sampling some icing for himself*

 Aunt Shae Shae's gets a NEPHEW

Gramma and Papa's first Grandson

First Great Grandson

Alyssa showing off the ultrasound photos

Everyone is very excited and couldn't be more happy!  It was a fun Thanksgiving and gender reveal.  After two days of keeping it a secret, I'd say it was worth the wait and I'd do it all over again.

IT'S A BOY!

Alyssa joined us today for our BIG ultrasound!

 She was very very excited!  So was Mommy!

 

So here's the story:

Our tech was WONDERFUL.  She was very kind and friendly. She spoke a lot to Alyssa and kept her involved.  Everything was explained, in detail to us, and she did a very thorough job.  We really had a great experience. 

 

She told us she would start at the head and make her way down.

I knew right away, when the photo below popped up on the screen, what that meant :)

It's A BOY

 

Alyssa's reaction was priceless!  LoL!  She wanted a sister very badly.  The tech said "I think she is going to be very dissapointed."  Then asked us if we knew what the arrow was pointing to was.  And we sure did. "You are going to have a baby brother!" she said.  Alyssa made the saddest faces ever, frown and everything, lol!  Then crossed her arms, and dug her head into daddy's arm.  It was too funny!

 

That was the last of her negativity though and she has since changed her mind, saying how she will now be able to "pick on him."  How she'll be the only "sister."  And is glad to know she won't be sharing toys with her baby brother.  She has said multiple times today "I'm SO GLAD I know if it's going to be a boy or a girl now!!"  And I think me and her daddy feel the same way.

 

So meet Baby BOY "C"

Now the hunt for a name is on.

To update on the baby:

HE is very healthy!  They noticed no markers that would suggest down syndrome.  The heart looks wonderful and he was very active giving the tech "pretty pictures" of everything she needed to get photos of.

 

What am I worried about:

#1) Baby is already in the 70% for it's age.  Weighing 12 oz. and running about 6 days ahead of schedule for growth.  This either means I'm going to have a big baby or my body will call it quits early before the baby out grows his home.

 

#2) Placenta Previa.  The tech did say that the placenta is attached at a point right now that is partially covering my cervix.  She doesn't seem worried about, being that as my uterus grows the placenta should move out of the way.  If for some odd reason it doesn't... that would mean a C-Section.  Something I do NOT want.

 

All in all, my appt went well with the ultrasound and the dr. visit.

My current weight: 124 lbs.

 

Next visit is set for January 8th, 2013



Time to Trim the Tree!

 I think this tree has been the BIGGEST and BEST bargain I've ever gotten - EVER.

It's a 9' high tree that is 7' wide.

I found it at a yard sale for $20.00!!!!

All I knew when I bought it was that it was a 9' tall tree - I'd never have guessed it was a WIDE tree too.  Lucky for us we have the room for it.

Alyssa is growing up so fast.  She was able to put on a lot of the bottom half of the tree branches this year.

 Daddy came in to help make sure they were in all the way

All the branches on the tree.  We skipped the bottom row last year because it was already so big around without it.  But thought, why not this year.  We wanted to see how wide this tree was since we never really knew.

 This is Alyssa and daddy measuring the bottom: 7'

 Time for lights!

Tree with 400 lights - we think we need more

It took us 3 hours to get the tree out, set it up, and clean up afterwards and that is as far as we got.

We hope to get it decorated tonight - photos from part 2 coming soon

End of the Week Grocery Shopping Total

No couponing time last week with our schedule - but I still tried to stay on a budget for groceries.

With Thanksgiving this week, I had a lot of extras to buy.

**Denotes will be used for Thanksgiving dinner(s)

I stuck with some of the basics buying meat and hitting Aldi

Aldi:

Cream of Chicken**

Cream of Mushroom**

9x Canned veggies (2 cans for **)

Kidney Beans

2x Tomato Sauce

Salami

Apple Juice

2x Stuffing**

2x Boxed potatoes

Snack Crackers**

2x Sour cream**

Chicken Broth**

Bananas

Grapes

Milk

Eggs

Orange Juice

Cereal

Vanilla Pudding**

Pasta

Chilli mix/Ranch mix/ Gravy Mix (2 of each)

Mandarin Oranges

Cake Mix**

Icing**

Aldi Total: $42.00

Then I also went to CostCo and besides trying almost EVERY sample there and making my preggo belly VERY happy - I grabbed a couple things of meat for the freezer.

Ground Beef

Pork Chops

CostoCo Total: $30.00

This week's total: $72.00

All I want for Christmas...

All I want for Christmas is...

COFFEE 

and 

MOUNTAIN DEW

and maybe a little bit of wine.  But mainly coffee and mountain dew.

I guess I'll be NEEDING coffee here shortly - so I'll enjoy my sleep that I get now which is a trade off to the coffee.  And I really really like my sleep.

19 Weeks!

This is the last stretch of this up hill climb!

Next week I'll hit 20 weeks and start the count DOWN into the 2nd half of this pregnancy.

Symptoms at 19 weeks:

Aches & Pains

Dizziness

Not sleeping well

What I'm looking forward to this week:

Gender Scan November 20th

 Thanksgiving Dinner November 22nd

Putting up the Christmas Tree

Best things about this past week:
Watching the baby kicks on my belly

BABY at 19 Weeks:

Size: 

 Mango

 

 

This photo just makes me laugh!!  The poor baby!  I don't think it's quite that squished in there.  If the baby is all smashed looking like that at our ultrasound Tuesday I am going to laugh so hard!!!

It's okay baby, you only have 21 more weeks to grow in that tiny space, lol!

Belly Photo Coming NEXT week

(Trend I've taken: 4, 8, 12, 16, and then 20 weeks)

I can't believe we'll be able to say he or she by that time, yay!

 

 

Baby's Movement

I've felt the baby move for a few weeks now, and day by day they get stronger.

Last night was pretty neat for 2 reasons

1- If I poked my belly the baby seemed to poke back.  So that was FUN!

2- I actually saw movement from the outside!  Very shallow small "bump" or "ripples" of movement, of course not a huge noticeable thing.  But watching long enough, I could see it!

We are sort of right in the middle of a huge growth spurt for this baby, so I know a lot of it has to do with the size of it and that impacts it's strength.

SO happy to have a strong baby in there to let me know everything is ok.

ONE WEEK until our Gender Scan!

This is the last week of my entire whole life that I won't know if we are having two daughters or a daughter and adding a son.

I have dreamed about this since I first got that baby fever, 2 years ago...

I kept the baby fever to myself for more then 6 months, thinking it would heal itself.  But, as you can see, it didn't go away.  Another 6 months of talking this over with hubby to see if this was the best choice for our family, 6 more months of planning it all out (when would be the best time), then when the end of that 6 months rolled around - we decided to wait another 6 months.  The last 6 months we also decided to start stocking up on all those baby items.  A month after our 2 year wait - we were pregnant.

Here we are today.

One week away from finding out how some of our future will look like.

Sports or Dance

Trucks or Dolls

Prince or Princess

Dirt or Glitter

I'm sure everyone is excited to find out the gender of their baby, whether they wait till it's born or till they go in for their gender scan.  But I'm officially READY.

I'm ready to get my brain wrapped around a boy or a girl, start shopping for clothes, making things for the baby, planning the nursery.  I'm so ready.

I hope by this time next week, we know the big news!

What we are Reusing for Baby

We didn't keep a whole lot from when our daughter was a baby.  Mainly because we didn't plan on having another baby till recently.  (That's how it always goes right, after you get rid of everything, you need it again)

So a few things we DID keep and a few things we lent out to friends and they happen to keep it and return it for us to use again.  

Here's what we kept:

The crib - only because our daughter used it till she was 4 and it converts to a full size if we so choose.

 

And the high chair

And we only kept this because it is wood and will last for forever - like we are talking grandkids if we need it to.  So why get rid of it??

That's it - that's all we kept.

A friend had these two items and returned them to us:

 

Bebe Pod- Before they had Bumbos

 

Bath tub toddler seat

So that's nice to not have those expenses to have to pay out.

 

What We've Bought New for Baby

I read just yesterday, a comment that you should buy one thing, per week for baby - even when you are TTCing.... well I did that, well before we were TTCing.  Which was good since it only took 1 month of TTCing that wouldn't have given us a whole lot of time to do this.

So I couponed and bargain hunted for a lot of things while we had the money and a little here and there.  Lucky for us, it has added up and turned into a nice little stash for baby.

Here's a rundown of what we have so far

(All things gender neutral)

 

I found this stroller - The First Years Indigo Stroller

on a One Sale A Day Site.

We had the traditional travel system with Alyssa.  A heavy duty stroller/carseat combo.  It was big and heavy and hard to get in and out of the trunk of the car.  But it was a great stroller.  When I saw this stroller I fell in love!  It was smaller and lighter.  I loved that the seat turned from forward facing to rear facing.  The seat also tilts so it can be more of a bassinet style too.

Avg Price: $135  I paid: $80

The stroller came with an infant seat adapter, so it can be used with any infant seat - but it was kind of a pain.  If you bought the coordinating brand's infant seat you didn't need the adapter and it would work with the stroller.

So... we bought this infant seat:

 This infant seat is the Lamaze Via Infant Seat

Again - gender neutral.  It's not super cute, but it is super safe.

Again - GOT IT ON SALE

Reg: $150  Paid $120

Here's a cute photo of a baby in her indigo stroller - I also have a diaper bag that hangs off the back of the stroller like the one in the photo, which saves up space for the basket underneath.  And the under basket is pretty good sized.


What I didn't like about this stroller - no cup holder for the baby in the front (when they get older)
So I bought this (with a 20% off coupon)

It holds a snack and a cup/bottle and will attach to the bumper bar in the front of the stroller.


While I was at it - I bought myself this...

 

A Cell phone holder that attaches to the handle of the stroller.

Again - used a 20% off coupon 

 

I loved the Avent bottle I got for free from Babies R Us at one point with our daughter.  It was the only one we ever had but I used it A LOT and washed it a lot for that matter.  I knew, this time around I wanted only Avent bottles.  Hope the baby likes them.  (Even though the plan is to breastfeed most of the time, there will be pumping going on when I'm working so we will need these at some point).

I got them all using coupons while there were sales going on as well.

I have 5 - 9 oz bottles and 6- 4 oz.

 

Diaper Champ Diaper Pail

Another item we used with Alyssa and liked.  It doesn't use expensive cartridges, just regular trash bags.

I got this on sale at Babies R Us - they must have been getting rid of them on the shelves because it was a pretty good deal/savings. 

Reg: $35  Paid: $20-$25

 

Exersaucer

This one was at Babies R Us clearance during their - take an additional 50% off clearance event.

Reg: $60.00  Paid: $20-$25

 

The First Years Bassinet

I do and don't like this bassinet.

 I bought it from Burlington Coat Factory with a 20% off coupon (plus it was the cheapest I could find at this store compared to all the other department stores, so a good deal there too with the coupon)

Reg: $100  Paid $80 w/coupon 

(Reg at other stores was around $120)

I do like: that the top basket comes off so i can carry it around if I need to

I don't like: that it said "bedside sleeper" and it's not.  It's a bassinet.

Alyssa's bassinet had a side bar that came down and attached to the side of the mattress.  This one does attach to the mattress, but there is no bar that comes down.

I haven't been able to find another bassinet like the one we had for Alyssa I'VE LOOK EVERYWHERE!

 

Activity Gym

I got this on Target.com from one of their One Sale A Day deals

Reg: $59.95 - I think I paid $30 w/ free shipping

 

Eddie Bauer Travel Bed

Clearance section at Target

Reg: $35ish  Paid: $7.00

 

Fisher Price Bath Tub

Another GREAT find in the Target Clearance

Reg: $30  Paid $8 

FAO Schwarz Bottle Sterilizer

Another Babies R Us clearance find

Reg: $40     Paid: UNDER $10!!!

**And my Avent bottle DO fit!

That's about all I can think of right now.  I have other small things such as:
gender neutral pacifiers, baby brush, bottle brush, baby tooth care kit, travel wet bag, other random bottles, baby food making stuff, a foam baby bath mat, and more - but not worth adding a photo for.

I am SO GLAD we did our shopping for this type of stuff early and before we were pregnant.  I was able to shop around and bargain shop.  Once I got pregnant I was so sick and didn't get out of the house much.  Now it is holiday season and I'm super busy with work and the general hustle and bustle of the season.  By the time this is all over I'll be a giant pregnant woman and probably won't be in the mood to shop a whole lot either.  I feel much more prepared at  the moment, even though I haven't really done any baby shopping lately.

Diaper Bag

I bought this diaper bag before we even got pregnant.  It's a JJ Cole bag, which I bought (with a coupon) from Babies R Us.  I'm a sucker for anything with the quartarfoil pattern on it.  What made this diaper bag even better, was that it was gender neutral.  Gray I feel like can go for a boy or a girl easily.   Of course I'll throw a pink bow on the front if baby is a girl.

What you don't see if the pink lining.  Inside the pockets and inside the zippers is a dark rose pink color... not so gender neutral.  But I figured, I'd be the only one to see that part, right?  So if it is a boy, it shouldn't be a problem.  Plus, I'll be the one carrying the bag.

Why did I bring this diaper bag up now?

Because I have this weird urge to want to pack it...  OBVIOUSLY I can't do that right now.  But it's been sitting in the basement, in a shopping bag, with all the tags on it for so long now.  I just want to know if I'll be packing it with pink or blue!!!!

Honestly I don't have anything to pack into the bag yet anyway, I just have the bag, lol!  So soon enough, I hope to have some cute clothes, burp cloths, pacifiers, diapers/wipes, all the toiletries, etc.

I'd say by 30 weeks along, I'll be making sure my bags and the baby's bags are packed.

Craziest Dream Yet!

If you haven't noticed, this blog reads more like a journal, then an informative blog.  With that being said, I have to document this crazy crazy dream I had.  

It starts with me going to my OB/GYN appointment.  They tell me I need to take part in a sleep study (weird), and I decline.  They say I don't have a choice.  I get mad, and they say they also need a brain sample... ughhh what?  They grab a styrofoam cup and think they are going to just scoop a brain sample right through my scalp.  Ha!  I freak, run away, and as I'm running off I pass the nursery where all the newborn babies are, and wonder to myself - did all those mother's have to do these sleep studies and brain samples too?  Because they are CRAZY if they did.

Now out the door I run and go to get the "hero's" of my dream - the Ghost Hunters, mainly Jason Hawes the biggest protective guy of the bunch.  They follow me back to the clinic, having to go through an obstacle course to get there.  Yeah, fun when you are pregnant, even in a dream.  Once we get to the door, it is closed.  The Ghost Hunters disappear and we move onto phase two.

The door next to the clinic is open and I go in.  It's three old ladies working away in their studio which is filled to the brim with handmade jewelry, doll clothes, and mannequins displaying their Halloween creations.

This is where I'm finally freed from my dream/nightmare by the alarm clock.  I don't know how I get any rest with all the waking up to roll over, getting up to go to the restroom, and these horrible dreams that seem to be every night now.  I need to go back to bed to get rest after my sleep :-)

Taking a Look Back - 1st Nursery

 Memories...

Looking back over 6 years ago, at my daughter's nursery.

 We purchased the theme "Classic Pooh" before we knew we were having a boy or a girl.  It's a gender neutral theme.  Of course, we through in pink accents when we found out we were having a girl.

The coordinating window treatments as we were getting the room ready

The finished new crib

(Same crib we will be using for this baby - getting our money's worth)

Some of the bedding and a womb sounds bear

Bumpers weren't a no-no back then.

And to be honest, I'll probably use them again with this baby.  It won't sleep in the crib till it's old enough to get around anyway.

Loved this mobile.

It was a cute room.  I loved that we were able to paint and decorate how we wanted.

We are now in a new home and the walls are tan, and will stay that way.  I have other ideas on how to make the room special w/o painting.  And borders are NOT happening, lol!

Now we just wait and see if this little one is a boy or a girl to see what type of theme we are going to go with.