27 Weeks {Baby #2}

How far along? 27 weeks

Weight gain: Not sure.

Baby is the size of a(n): Rutabaga, still weighs 1.5-2.5 pounds 

Food cravings/aversions: Haven't been wanting coffee (the fru-fru kind) as much. Any dairy sounds good though...milk, milkshakes, cheese.

Sleeping: Good, except I have a cold this week so my nose has been stuffed up and dry/painful at the same time. My throat hurts so bad from having to breathe through an open mouth at night. So I've been getting up several times each night for water or milk (and to pee, of course). It's also making my snoring worse (I snore, apparently), so poor Adam. I told him if we had a guest bed I'd go sleep there.

Milestones: Third trimester starts today!

How I'm Feeling: Things are getting much harder to do. I'm getting out of breath so easily, and getting up and down is difficult. I've had pain in my sciatic nerve for awhile, but now it's pretty much every time I stand up from sitting down for awhile. Lots of acid reflux. Had some nausea again the past couple days...really hoping it doesn't come back in full force again! 

Interesting things that happened this past week/anticdotes: We decided on a name! Glory hallelujah. I suppose there's still a small chance that it could change, but I'm pretty sure we're set. We're going to keep it a secret again until he arrives.

Sutton wanted to join in the belly pic fun. :)

                    

                    

26 Weeks {Baby #2}

How far along? 26 weeks

Weight gain: 27ish pounds

Baby is the size of a(n): Head of lettuce, still weighs 1.5-2.5 pounds though this baby may be on the big side, read on...

Food cravings/aversions: Milk, and hot drinks like cocoa and tea have been good this week. Sweet potatoes are awesome. No aversions other than some chicken.

Sleeping: Good sleeping, lots of dreaming.

Milestones: I've been pregnant for exactly half a year! And next week will be the start of the third trimester.

How I'm Feeling: Like a giant. I think cutting down on carbs and sugar has helped me feel better though. I can tell if I don't do great with that, that I feel kinda gross. I'm also still a little stressed about the name thing, or lack thereof. And since work is so busy, I've been pretty tired still.

Interesting things that happened this past week/anticdotes: At my doctor's appointment yesterday, we found that my belly is measuring 2 weeks ahead. I generally measured ahead with Sutton too, so either my body just likes to over-achieve, or I am growing yet another big baby. We are having a sonogram on Dec. 17 to find out just how big this kid is, as well as to get more readings on his heart. Also at my appointment, the nurse once again had a really hard time finding his heartbeat because he was moving all over the place. Every time she'd put the doppler on there, he'd kick it. She finally set the doppler down and started feeling around to see how exactly he was positioned in there so that she could better estimated where his heart would be.

Putting up the Christmas Tree

Our Christmas tree is already up. Is yours?

Everyone but me seems to think it is too soon, but let me make my case for you:
  *Since Thanksgiving is so late this year, we have less days between it and Christmas than normal
  *The bending and the hanging and the stringing of lights was already a chore for my ever-growing body
  *I LOVE Christmas and having our tree up makes our home so much more cozy, especially when it's dark out and the tree lights are on!

So there. :)

In the past, the putting up of the tree has been strictly a Gina activity. Two years ago in 2011, Sutton was able to help a bit:

Then last year when he was 2, he got a bit more excited, mostly about this airplane ornament that he stole from Rachael and Matt the previous year:

This year, he was probably as excited as me to put up the tree. We talked about it for a couple days ahead of time and decided that we'd put it up Friday night after I was done at work. Well, we pulled out the $30 pre-lit Walmart special that Adam and I had bought the second year we were married and....only a tiny section of lights still worked.

Daddy to the rescue. He started untangling, untwisting, and clipping the old lights off the tree, all while telling me how grateful I needed to be that this cheap tree has lasted us this long. I made a late run to Walmart for new lights, but by the time I got home, the old lights still hadn't come all the way off (it was a big job) and it was bedtime for the kiddo.

We told Sutton he'd have to wait until Saturday morning to decorate. Poor kid was such a trooper. He kept asking to put on the "oh-ma-ments" and we kept telling him to wait. And he did. He entertained himself while I got frustrated with the whole ordeal.

After breakfast Saturday morning, it was finally time! But first, I had to string the new lights on, as well as the tinsel and the silver beads. More waiting. Then...Ornament Time!

Sutton picked out all his favorites from our ornament box: the wooden airplane, the glittery backhoe, the KrisKraft boat, the 60s truck. Our tree has a concentration of boy-themed ornaments at Sutton height. :)

Daddy lifted him up to put the star on top, but it was a little too tricky.

Just a little help from Daddy and...

Our finished tree!! I love our non-matchy tree. We have ornaments from my childhood, Adam's childhood, an ornament with a family photo of us each year since Sutton was born, "S" ornaments from each year since Sutton was born...I just love the mix.

I'm not a big decorator. I wish I was...I love the look of perfectly decorated houses. But alas, I have neither the time nor money to put into it. So I set up my few other Christmas decorations:

And that was that. Oh, and there's a wreath on the door.

Adam is probably better at decorating than me, so after the tree was up, he had the idea to rearrange our entire living room in order to put our tree right in the middle of our front window so it could be seen from outside. So we pushed around couches and moved rugs and tables and the tree, and I must say that it looks great! I plan on doing more photos of Sutton with the tree so I will maybe grab some shots of the new setup too.

25 Weeks {Baby #2}

How far along? 25 weeks

Weight gain: Haven't weighed myself this week.

Baby is the size of a(n): Head of cauliflower, weighs 1.5-2.5 pounds.

Food cravings/aversions: We cut out sugar and carbs this week and I'm craving both of those things. Been eating dark chocolate to try to help with that! Chicken can still be iffy, depending on how it's cooked, but I think I prefer chicken to steak right now.

Sleeping: Sleeping hard, lots of tossing and turning. I'm having a hard time making it to Sutton's bedtime without falling asleep on the couch. I think part of that is that I've been having a lot of photo shoots in the late afternoons, then I get home and am just wiped.

Milestones: Only 15 weeks left! I've felt him in my ribs a few times and then I get a lot of kicks lower down by my bladder. Getting up and down is a lot harder than it used to be. I'm not sure how I'm still going to make it through 2.5 more months of photo shoots! But I kept working last time until about 2 weeks before I delivered, so I'm hoping it works out the same this time too.

How I'm Feeling: Large. Uncomfortable. I have to change positions a lot when I'm sitting. Still having acid reflux, though I don't feel like it's been as bad as it was. Starting to have a little back pain, though surprisingly I think it was worse at this point when I was pregnant with Sutton. The weight of my belly is making me stick it out more, pushing my shoulders back. It feels better when I force myself to have "bad posture" and hunch my shoulders forward, lessening the curvature of my back.

Interesting things that happened this past week/anticdotes: Sutton felt the baby move this week! Baby was moving around a lot, so I put Sutton's hand on my belly and he said "Mommy, are you doing that?" I said "No! That was the baby!" And Sutton started rolling his shoulders around and said "Like this?" It was pretty cute. Now, whenever he sees my belly going up and down with my breathing, he says "Mommy!!! I see the baby move!"

24 Weeks {Baby #2}

How far along? 24 weeks

Weight gain: 23,856 pounds. I mean...who knows.

Baby is the size of a(n): Cantaloupe

Food cravings/aversions: Toast with butter and honey. Mmmm.

Sleeping: Starting to get more hip pain while I sleep. Not sure what that's about.

Milestones: Some of my update things said that Baby can hear a lot better now. I may be imagining it, but I think a couple times I've felt more movement when I sing to Sutton at bedtime. I also think I may have felt hiccups a couple times, but not for sure yet.

How I'm Feeling: Still gigantic. And starting to notice that my lung capacity is decreased. I often walk at the Y on the treadmill, but tried the elliptical this week and had some major back pain so I had to quit after 10 minutes. It's also getting harder to photograph kids because it's more and more difficult to get down on their level.

Interesting things that happened this past week/anticdotes: Movement has become much more defined as jabs and kicks. I can feel him rolling around and my belly gets all lopsided when he's off to one side. Also, Sutton and I were discussing what 'thankful' means, and he said he's thankful for Mommy, Daddy, Diesel, and the baby. Pretty cute that he remembers the baby in that list.

October

Here was a photo I posted for a Throwback Thursday of Melinda's surprise 80s themed 30th birthday party. I was 9 months pregnant with Sutton, but you luckily can't tell. :)



Bad picture of him, but one night Sutton and I had a Sonic hot dog picnic on my bed while watching a movie.

One morning, Sutton was reading to me in the bathroom while I was getting ready.

Sutton hanging out with his buddies, watching YouTube videos in his bedroom.

A pretty sunset we saw one night while driving.

We went out to the Kansas Barn Sale the first weekend in October and I scored a couple photo props.

My 10-year high school reunion was the first weekend in October too. Yikes. This is me and my friend Robin.

Blurry pic, but this was the girls soccer team. Part of it, anyway.

With my friend Kristin. We went to high school together, but didn't really become friends until college at K-State where we roomed together for a year and a half. Kristin has the three cutest little boys!

Another high school friend turned college roomie, Laura. She's a doctor now. Crazy.

The group who came to Saturday night's events.

Sutton was reading me one of his current favorite books and he said "It's okay Mommy. It's just pretend."

I took my niece Bailey's family photos early in October and me and Baby Dreher had to get one with her for Instagram.

Our fall porch decor. I couldn't keep those flowers alive...they're now in the trash.

One of Sutton's idiosyncrasies is that he always takes his socks off and says "I take my socks off because I like to get cold." This, day they made better hand-warmers apparently.

A little excited to go with Daddy on a bike ride.

One Friday morning Sutton's cousins didn't have school, so we played at the park for like 2 hours.

The city of Maize had it's annual fall festival/carnival, so we went one evening and Sutton got to ride a bunch of rides.

We went on the ferris wheel and this was our view.

Sutton's first ferris wheel ride!



Going down the big slide with Daddy was a hit.

Adam found a few of his students and went on a ride with them.

  

One day I was trying to see if Sutton could feel the baby moving in my belly. He had his hand on there and goes "Oh! I think I felt his teeth!"

Love watching these two hang out. And cuddle. Excited for there to be another handsome boy in my life. :)

After Daddy's half marathon.

Snuggling and watching a movie.

There was an epic potty-accident and temper tantrum one day in Target. Later that day, I took this photo of his smiling, happy face to help me forget the morning's events.

A cold morning walk.

Aunt Sara send Sutton a Lightning McQueen kite in the mail. And a note that Sutton thought looked like cheese. It was a windy day, so we had to try out the kite after lunch and he LOVED it.

We took Sutton to the cheap movie theater to see the movie Turbo. He did great.

Diesel has been having a tough time getting out of bed on these colder mornings. Here he was, still cuddled in our bed one morning at 10:30am.

Sutton got an invitation to his cousins' birthday party and was so excited about it that he had to carry the invite with us when we went into the grocery store.

Sometimes, Sutton does something he thinks is awesome and he asks me to take a picture. This was one of those times...sitting on a bench at his Great-Uncle Ken's house.

We finally decided to turn the heat on, so after I adjusted the thermostat, we sat down and waited by the vent for it to kick on. We were both excited.

One Friday evening, we made little pizzas for dinner.

Sorry if this is gross, but way back in November/December of 2010 when our dog Axl was getting sick right before he died, he threw up on our living room rug so many times that we finally just threw it away. We've been needing one ever since, but I could never find the perfect one that was also affordable enough. I finally found this one that I love at Walmart for I think $60! So now our living room is complete. After 3 years. :)

There was an afternoon when I was really craving pie, so Sutton and I went to Spear's and got some.

A boy and his blue pumpkin.

Riding in the car one evening, he sat like this for a good 5 minutes. Not sure what he was looking to shoot at out the window.

Tis the season of indoor fly-ins at Daddy's school (for his radio control airplanes). Our friends came along to the first one and Tara and I took the boys to a nearby park to play while the daddys flew planes.

At Adam's grandpa's funeral, the grandsons were pall bearers, which was really neat.

Being the same. Yet again.

Helping me make cookies.

I was working one day and Sutton brought a blanket into my office for a "sleepover."

After our family photos, we had to make some silly faces cause we were tired of making smiling faces.

Sutton got to attend Daddy's 5th grade class's Halloween party and eat cupcakes and candy.

My nieces and nephew from their recent family photo session.

Adam and Scott working hard and being lumberjacks, clearing out the campground where we're going to spend Thankscamping.

Sutton came to a costume shop with me to find my cheerleader costume. We also found some great glasses for him.

And then he got tired.

We didn't see much of Daddy that weekend, so we went out for a Panera date to hang out with him awhile.

Daddy teaching Sutton to drive a little RC truck.

We tried out Mooyah. I'd never been there but the boys had. Gooooood sweet potato fries. And they pretended to sleep for a picture.

Adam texted me this photo of Sutton, with the caption "Come play with me."

Sutton had a costume parade and Halloween party at his preschool. I was in charge of the party part (yikes), so I came and the first thing they did was go around to all the other classrooms to show off their costumes. Sutton asked me why I kept smiling while we were walking and I told him it was because he was so cute.

Then the other parents and I laid out all the treats and goodies and they had a little snack time. Sutton threw two embarrassing fits while I was there, and let me tell you how humbling it is to try to discipline your kid in front of his teacher and the other kids' parents when you feel like you don't know what you are doing. Hopefully I'll forget that part of the day.

Sutton's got a great teacher, Ms. Tracy.

My sweet little pup, cuddling and sleeping next to me.

Adam had to buy a trash can for an experiment in his class. Sutton got a ride out of the deal.

Daddy spoils Sutton and bought him a big Lightning McQueen tent a few months ago. We just set it up again and filled it with pillows, blankets, and toys. He loved playing and hiding in there.

Eating a sucker, watching a movie. He's got it good.