To Our Second Baby Girl

To our sweet second baby girl,

Tomorrow is the day!  We are heading to the hospital to meet you and to kiss your precious face for the first time.  In some ways, I feel like we have been waiting FOREVER for this day and in others, it feels like we just found out that you would be joining our family!  We have loved you since the moment we knew about you and we are so thankful for the blessing that we know that you will be to our family.  This time around is so different than with Alexis...in lots of ways, it is easier because we have a pretty good idea of what to expect and we learned so much from doing it once already.  I am so looking forward to hopefully being a little more relaxed with you and enjoying the daylights out of the newborn days with you.  In some ways, though, this time is different.  Now, we have your sister to be concerned about and, truthfully, that has been hard for your mama.  We have no idea how she is going to react to you, but we pray that you two will be the very best of friends.  (As I am writing this, you are thumping away at my belly.  Being pregnant might be tough sometimes, but I absolutely LOVE every time I get to feel you kick and roll around!)  I am looking forward to experiencing the way that everyone says your heart just grows to love your second baby just as much as your first.  You are a precious gift to us and we are so grateful to God for granting us the privilege of being your parents.  We will love you forever, darling girl!

Love,

Mama and Dada:)

Baby #2: 39 Weeks!

Here we are at 39 weeks!  This will officially be my last weekly post!  Woohoo!:)

How Far Along: 39 Weeks

 

Size of baby: The baby weighs a bit over 7 pounds (probably more, realistically!) and is about 20 inches long, about the size of a mini-watermelon.  (Yikes!!!)

Gender: It's a GIRL!

Maternity Clothes: Wearing maternity pants and any shirt that is long enough to cover me up!

Weight gain: 52 pounds...haven't weighed in again since last week.  I'm sure I've probably gone up a pound or two!

Belly button: It's pretty much an outie now!

Movement: She is getting big enough that she doesn't move tons, but she still moves quite a bit at night especially. 

Sleep: Sleeping just isn't great.:)  I am snoring SO loud that poor Bry is having trouble sleeping, too.  Almost done!:)

Symptoms: Varicose veins, quite a bit of acid reflux, swelling (predominantly in my left ankle), snoring, numbness and tingling in my arms when I sleep and other random extremities during the day...I think that's it.:)  My acid reflux was so bad the other night that it caused me to have a sore throat for 2-3 days afterward.  Not super fun!

Cravings: Nothing in particular lately.

Best Moment This Week: Dr. Kennedy checked me again and said that I was 1-2 cm dilated and 50% effaced.  She was agreeable to doing an induction so we scheduled for Sunday, November 24th!  We are SOOOOOO excited to meet our baby girl!:)

Catching Up

Time to do a little picture dump before this baby is born!

We had a stretch of about a week and a half where Alexis decided that she was going to try some new foods!  It.was.awesome!  She ate peas, carrots, broccoli, corn, green beans, and mashed potatoes, along with her usual foods.  What a nice change from WW3 that meal time had become.:)

Lex has gotten very good at putting our shoes on and walking around in them!  She even does pretty well in her daddy's huge shoes!

Stylin' girl in bracelets and Mommy's shoes.:)

One morning, I took the sheets off of our bed to wash them while Lex was watching her morning Mickey Mouse.  I made her a little nest with our pillows and comforter and she seemed pretty darn happy!:)

She loves playing on the floor with Daddy!

We got the bouncy seat out for the baby and Lex has decided that she thinks it's pretty comfy!  I had to do a little comparison from when she first came home to now...it's just crazy how much and how quickly she has grown!

Lex loved these Colts Mickey Mouse blankets at Target!  She would have taken all of them home if we would have let her.

We broke out my very old Mother Goose VHS tape from when I was a kid and watched it together.  She loved it and so did I!:)

Daddy and Lex reading her current favorite book...Peekaboo Baby!  We read this a LOT.:) 

Deer Camp 2013

Another opening weekend of shotgun season has come and gone!  I am happy to report that our little missy stayed put long enough for her daddy to enjoy one of his favorite things of the year!:)  It was a pretty quiet weekend, hunting-wise.  Out of 50ish hunters in the big buck contest, only 2 brought deer to be weighed in!  Eric Ruppert got a decent buck, too.  No one even hunted Sunday afternoon because we had very unusual severe thunderstorm weather for the month of November! 

Alexis had tons of fun tromping around "deer camp" at Grandpa's house! 

This girl loves to be outside!

Just checking out the woods.:)

I'm not sure what she's going to think when she has to share the spotlight!  All eyes are on her right now!:)

Lex loves her daddy SO much!

My two camo-clad loves!

How things change in a year...2012 and 2013!  I wonder what this photo will look like in 10 or 20 years?:)

Baby #2: 38 Weeks!

Here we are!  38 weeks and counting!  Belly is B-I-G!!!:)

How Far Along: 38 Weeks

 

Size of baby: The baby weighs about 6.8 pounds (probably more, realistically!) and is over 19.5 inches long, about the size of a leek.

Gender: It's a GIRL!

Maternity Clothes: Wearing maternity pants and any shirt that is long enough to cover me up!

Weight gain: 52 pounds...haven't weighed in again since last week.  I'm sure I've probably gone up a pound or two!

Belly button: It's pretty much an outie now!

Movement: She is getting big enough that she doesn't move tons, but she still moves quite a bit at night especially.  The other night, Alexis and I were sitting in the chair together and the baby kicked SO hard!  I had been having some pain in my upper and lower tummy and I thought for sure she was going to break my water and send me into labor.  Alas, this did not happen.:)

Sleep: Sleeping is not on my list of favorite things to do these days.:)  I pretty much sleep enough to recharge a little bit and get back to the grind!  I'm just not very comfortable.  At least in a week or so, I will have a sweet baby to snuggle with while I'm not sleeping! Ha!

Symptoms: Varicose veins, quite a bit of acid reflux, swelling (predominantly in my left ankle), snoring, numbness and tingling in my arms when I sleep and other random extremities during the day...I think that's it.:)

Cravings: Nothing in particular lately.

Best Moment This Week: Dr. Kennedy checked me last week and said that I am 1 cm dilated!  I go back tomorrow to find out if I have progressed any more.  Hoping to maybe schedule an induction...I cannot wait to hold my girl!!!:)

Bathroom Makeover

Well, this is a 'better-late-than-never' kind of post!:)  Earlier this year, we noticed that a very small patch of the Spanish lace on our bathroom ceiling was starting to peel off.  We knew that this needed to be fixed and that started quite the project!  We ended up having Duane Naab come and put all new drywall on the walls and ceiling of our bathroom.  We repainted, replaced the outdated mirror/light fixture combo, restained the cabinet, hung new shelves, and replaced other random accessories like the shower curtain and the towel bars.  It looks so much better!

This is what it looked like after new drywall, but before we painted.

Our little "helper" was always around!:)

Our cabinet was in fine condition, but was just in the old oak style.

Bry is quite the handy man!:)

I decided to try my hand at refinishing the cabinet.  I used this tutorial that I found on Pinterest and got some advice from Michele who was doing the same thing! 

Honestly, I had lots of doubts when I first started.  The stain did not seem to cover as well as the tutorial showed. 

I ended up being a little more generous with the stain than I was at first and it finally seemed to start covering better.

It took me three coats of stain and two coats of poly, LOTS of drying time, and a healthy amount of patience to get it all done.

I am very happy with how it turned out!  We've been using the bathroom for a few months now and the finish seems to be holding up very well, even with a rambunctious toddler in the house! 

Here's the finished product!  It looks quite a bit more modern and it functions very well for us.  I love the neutral color of the walls so that I can change out my shower curtain and accessories as I feel like it. 

We don't plan to do much of anything else to this bathroom as long as we live in this house!  Yay for completed projects!:)

Baby #2: 36/37 Weeks!

Well, as you can see, we did not get a 36 week photo!:(  For some reason, it is tricky getting Bryan and I both in the same room with me looking even halfway decent during daylight hours to get a photo!  Here's my 37 week photo, though.  Bryan's words when I turned to the side..."whoa!"  It's true, Mama is just about to pop!:)

How Far Along: 37 Weeks

 

Size of baby: The baby weighs about 6 1/3 pounds (probably more, realistically!) and is over 19 inches long, about the size of a swiss chard.

Gender: It's a GIRL!

Maternity Clothes: Wearing maternity pants and any shirt that is long enough to cover me up!

Weight gain: 52 pounds...this is exactly how much I had gained when I had Alexis! 

Belly button: It's pretty much an outie now!

Movement: She can be relatively calm for most of the day and then at night she will flip and flop like crazy!  During church today, she seemed like she turned completely sideways!  My belly looked like I had a dumbbell in it!  Ha!  Thankfully, that didn't last long.

Sleep: I've been sleeping okay.  I usually get up at least twice a night to go to the bathroom.  My hips can hurt like crazy after a night of sleep!  I snore loudly and a lot these days...Bry has had to start wearing ear plugs, poor guy!  I've been getting up pretty early lately. 

Symptoms: Varicose veins, quite a bit of acid reflux, swelling (predominantly in my left ankle), snoring, numbness and tingling in my arms when I sleep and other random extremities during the day...I think that's it.:)

Cravings: Nothing in particular lately. 

Best Moment This Week: At my 36 week appointment, Dr. Kennedy checked me and said that I was starting to thin out!  No dilation yet and she didn't check me at my 37 week appointment.  I was extremely happy to find out that I don't have a blood clot in my leg!  I had to go for an ultrasound on my leg last week to check because I am having quite a bit of swelling in predominantly my left leg and my varicose veins are pretty large-ish.  Really hoping that those go away significantly after I give birth.:)

Lex's First X-Rays/Nursemaid's Elbow

Our wild child had her first real "injury" last week!  On Halloween, Lex and I had planned to go with Mom to FW to do some shopping.  She got up like usual that morning and watched Mickey Mouse with me before we got ready for the day.  She seemed a little bit fussier than usual, but not so much that I thought much of it.

We went to the mall and Mom commented that Lex seemed to be keeping her right arm down in her stroller.  It definitely seemed unusual so we started keeping an eye on it.  We stopped at the fountain to throw some pennies in and it became very evident that something was wrong with it.  She just let her arm dangle at her side and wouldn't use it at all.

This is what we saw most of the time that we were shopping...a little right arm tucked in her stroller!  She would fuss any time we would pick her up or try to move her arm around.

We stopped at Grandpa's new work to check it out and eat lunch with him.  She acted mostly happy, but just wouldn't do anything with that arm!

We went home and Bryan and I were starting to discuss whether or not we should take her in to the doctor.  I laid her down for a nap and thankfully she slept just fine!  At about 4:00, I decided to call the doctor's office and they immediately said to bring her in.  I woke her up from her nap, we picked Daddy up at work, and headed back to FW!

They seemed to think that she might have nursemaid's elbow, which is basically a dislocated elbow. 

Dr. Landrigan's husband is who we saw and he tried a reduction procedure twice on her arm to try to put it back in place.  She screamed bloody murder the whole time!  I'm not sure if it was more because it hurt or because she didn't want a strange guy messing around with her arm.:)  Probably both!  He had us let her play for a while to see if she showed signs of improvement.  It didn't really seem like it was any better while we were there so he told us to take her home and watch her until the next morning. 

The next morning we got her up and her arm seemed a little better, but definitely not normal.  She was at least able to pick things up with her right hand, but she couldn't bend her arm with something in her hand.  Bryan was feeding her Fruit Loops to try to get her feed herself and she just couldn't.  We decided that we needed to go ahead and take her in for an x-ray to check for a break.  Luckily, Bryan was able to go with us since we had the x-rays done at PHH. 

This room is where she had her x-ray done.  Poor baby did NOT like getting the x-rays...I didn't get to go in since I am pregnant so Daddy had to hold her down on the table while they took the pictures.  They had to do them a couple of times because she just wouldn't hold still.  It took her quite a while to calm down after they were all finished.:(  It turned out that she did not have a break so we were very happy!  Dr. Landrigan decided to refer her to an orthopedic doctor because he just wasn't sure what the problem was.  We went ahead and scheduled an appointment for later that afternoon.

After the x-ray, we went home so Alexis could get a nap.  By this time, she started to show some signs of improvement in her arm!  We began to wonder if a trip to the orthopedic doctor was really necessary.  I went ahead and put her down for a nap and waited until she got up.  When she got up, there was a marked improvement in her ability to use her arm!  We decided to wait until Monday to go to ONE, hoping that her arm would continue to get better on its own.

It took until about Saturday afternoon before she seemed like she was back to normal!  We were so happy to see the continued improvement and we were so thankful for answered prayers.  We think it probably was the nursemaid's elbow and that it just took longer than the doctor expected for the inflammation and pain to completely subside.  Unfortunately, if it was that, it will probably happen again at some point.  But, at least now we know what needs to be done and we can act quickly! 

Neither Bryan or I have ever had to have x-rays for a possible broken bone...I have a sneaking suspicion that it might not be the last time we have to have them done for our sweet, spunky girl!:)

Lex's 18 Month Check

We had Lex's 18 month well check this week!  We were in the same exam room as we were for her very first doctor's appointment so I thought it would be sweet to take a similar picture as we did then...

...and this is what I got.:)  She certainly moves quite a bit more now than when she was a week old!  Ha! 

She loves to play with the doctor's stool.  She does this at my OB check ups, too!

 

She had a great checkup!  She was 32 1/2 inches tall, which puts her in the 75th percentile for height.  She weighed 24 pounds, 15 ounces, which puts her in the 60th percentile for weight.  Her head circumference was 46.5 centimeters, which was in the 50th percentile.  Dr. Landrigan was pleased with her development and was able to give her a decent check even though Alexis was screaming her head off!  It only got "better" when the nurse came in to give Lex her shots...4 of them!  Poor baby girl!  We're glad to have that fun event checked off the calendar!;)

VeggieTales Live!

On Saturday, we got the pleasure of seeing VeggieTales Live!  Tammy offered us free tickets and we decided that we would try it out with Lex.  She loved it!  I am so glad that we went.  She hasn't been a huge VeggieTales fan, but we started watching it more in the couple of weeks leading up to the performance so she recognized the characters pretty well.

Me and my girl before the show started!  I had a moment when the show began where I was just overwhelmed with gratitude for the privilege of being a mama.  These kinds of fun things are exactly what I pictured when I wanted a baby so badly.  God has been so faithful to us!

We were lucky that Lynne Ford was hosting the show for WBCL!  We got to talk to her at their table for a little bit and I got to introduce Bry and Lex to her.  She was surprised to see that baby #2 is due very soon!:) 

Lex looks scared here, but she wasn't.:)  She had her eyes glued to the stage for the first several minutes of the show!

The characters were nice and big and so stinkin' cute!

This is how Alexis sat through a lot of the show.  Little sister provided the perfect seat for big sister!:)

We were lucky enough to sit in a short pew by ourselves.  It was so nice for Alexis to be able to have some room to move around during the show!

She loved clapping when everyone else did!

Our little family after the show!  We ended up leaving a few minutes early because Alexis was getting a little restless and we wanted to beat the crowd.  It was such a fun experience and a memory that I am so glad to have!:)