5lbs in 4 days?!

Ahhh! I weighed myself today and was at 125lbs!!! I even double and triple checked to make sure I was reading it right! That is +5 lbs in 4 days! Yikes! And while I'm glad I'm gaining weight I just hope that isn't the course for the rest of the pregnancy, lol! So no more chocolate cake for me, haha, I have seriously eaten 80% of an entire cake entirely by myself in the last 4 days. Jason asked me today if there was any cake left (I have been BEGGING him to eat some!!) and I told him yeah, but he couldn't laugh at me when he saw how much was already gone, haha. Well, he laughed anyways (which prompted me to go weigh myself) and when I told him I had gained 5 lbs he was happy and told me I was supposed to gain a lot of weight while pregnant!! I know things will right itself once it gets nice out again and I am finally able to walk every day (and I also plan on working out as well once I feel 100% better again), but I was just not expecting that much gain in such a short period of time!!! :)

I'm so jealous!!

It seems like EVERYONE on my online "September 2009 Moms" board already knows what they are having! How come some people get to have such early ultrasounds while I can't even schedule mine until I'm 17 weeks and who knows when I'll actually get in!

Another interesting fact on my board.... EVERYONE is having a boy even though almost everyone it seems was hoping for a girl! And almost everyone I know in real life is pregnant with or just had a boy (besides my cousin) so it looks like it is definitely the season for boys! Ahhhhh! :)

Also, I feel sick again! :( I guess I shouldn't have broken my rule about not saying that I was feeling better!

I TOTALLY think I felt the baby moving last night!!!!!!

I was laying in bed with my eyes closed and thinking about a million different pregnancy things and I am about 95% sure that I felt the baby moving!!!!!!!!! I say 95% because I know it's still pretty early to feel movement, but I HAVE done this before and am ALMOST positive!!!! It makes me SOOOOO happy- 2nd trimester is so much cooler and funner than the 1st!!!!!

I just checked and with Venily I started feeling movement at around 16 weeks and right now I am 14w, 2d and they say that 2nd time moms can usually feel it earlier so that seems about right! :)

I am FINALLY "Mommy"!!! :)

So a couple of months ago I decided that I wanted Venily to call us "Mommy" and "Daddy" instead of "Momma" and "Dada". I don't know, I just think it's cuter and sounds more grown up... Well, she took on to "Daddy" right away but still would call me "Momma". Then a couple of days ago she wanted something and I told her she had to call me "Mommy" instead of "Momma" or I wouldn't give it to her (lol, gotta love bribery!) and she did and has been calling me it ever since!!! I LOVE BEING MOMMY- it's my FAVORITE!!!!

P.S.- I have been feeling FANTASTIC the last couple of days- no sickness at all! I almost forgot how it felt to not feel sick! AND I've been able to button my pants again the last couple of days since it no longer makes me want to throw up all over the place! :)

14 Weeks!- Finally Feeling Great!

Here's my 14 week pic- officially my 1st pic of the 2nd trimester!!!! I'm starting to look more pregnant, even Jason said so!

How far along? 14 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: 120lbs (0lb total gain) -this time in Venily's pregnancy, I had gained 2 1/2 lbs so it looks like I need to get on that! I drink LOTS of whole milk and give in to every craving and force myself to eat even when I'm not hungry so I don't know really what else there is to do!
Maternity clothes? Still just using Venily's hair tie!
Stretch marks? No and I started using cocoa butter! :)
Sleep: I wake up at around 5 or 6am having to go to the bathroom and I MUST go or I will NEVER be able to fall back asleep- but other than that I am sleeping well and enjoying being able to sleep on my stomach and back since I will no longer be able to in a few weeks! There are times when I am EXTREMELY tired during the day but there is nothing I can do about it and even when Venily naps I am just go, go, going the whole time and then regret it later!

Best moment this week: IFinally having names for a boy and girl! And playing outside with the little ones whenever the weather is even remotely nice!
Movement: Phantom movement possibly, lol! There have been a few times when I am laying down and it's real calm and I think that I might feel the baby moving, but it is still way too early for me to be sure!
Food cravings: Grapes! and chocolate cake w/ chocolate frosting (I plan on making this today!)
Gender Thoughts: GIRL!! I just went through and organized ALL of Venily's clothes that she has outgrown and every time I came across something cute I'd think "Man, I really hope I get to put this on another baby" lol!
Labor Signs: None

How are you feeling on a scale 1-10? 8.5! Lots more energy during the day (though I use it all up running around getting things done so that puts me right back to square one and being exhausted) Still feeling a little sick most nights, though I definitely feel it's getting better. Also I had REALLY bad headaches for several days straight at the beginning of the week, but those seem to be getting better as well! Overall, I am LOVING the 2nd trimester though!!!
What I miss: Being able to take medicine and not feel like my baby is going to have some long-standing side affect! It's hard for me even to take Tylenol, I feel so guilty!!

What I am looking forward to: Seeing if these phantom movements become stronger so I can know for sure that I feel the baby moving around in there!!
Weekly Wisdom: Don't assume that because a mother has a particular sex of child that she just HAS to have the opposite sex in order to feel complete! I hate when people jump to that conclusion!

Milestones: Days of not feeling sick and being able to get so much done!! YAY!
Differences from 1st pregnancy: I was wrong last week when I wrote that I was moodier this time around.... when I got to think about it I can remember plenty of times I was when I was pregnant with Venily as well. Honestly, I don't feel like there are many differences from Venily's pregnancy at all!

Here's some more pics of my 2 adorable children together! Venily LOVES her little brother or sister so much already!

Baby Names!!

Well, for a girl I think we are definitely set on Haven. Jason even referred to our children as "Venily and Haven", lol, so that is a good sign.

For a boy I have found a new name that I ABSOLUTELY love- Roman, but Jason says no (I think I like it even better than I like Emmett!). But Jason is really shooting for Preston still and I really like that name too and it is the first boy's name that we have EVER agreed on, so it looks like Preston it will probably be if it is a boy! Just having a boy's name picked out, I already feel much better about having a boy, lol!

SO.... will it be Haven or Preston?! I can't wait to find out!! I want to still try and convince Jason to have it a surprise for everyone but us, but I REALLY don't think I can persuade him! :)

I always ask Venily if the baby is a boy or girl and she used to always point to my stomach and say "baby girl!" but now when I ask she shakes her head and says "NO!... (smiles)....BABY!" I have been testing out our names with her and she can say them both so that is really good! She can say "Haven" and "Pres" for Preston!

She is doing well still on the potty, she pooped on the potty 3 times today!!! (Though she also pooped in her diaper 3 times as well but she told me right away after she did). Hey, I'll take half the poopy diapers any day!!! I am exhausted though! She ALWAYS wants to go on the potty and usually she'll say "poop!" and then sit on the potty and let out a little bit of gas and then say "all done". It CRACKS me up, but then it is usually a struggle to get her diaper and pants back on her!

Also, Venily sang me the ABC's today!!!!!! I will try to get a video of it tomorrow, it is the CUTEST!!!! She'll be like "A, B, A, P, T, O, A...." lol, but she'll sing them in her little singing voice!!

PT Update!

Day 1: Venily pooped once in the potty and peed twice!

Day 2: Venily pooped twice in the potty!

Day 3: We shall see!

I must say though, I think she could do a much better job if I wasn't so tired right now. Being home with her by myself with so much of my energy going toward growing her little brother or sister already is really sucking all my energy. Yesterday she told me she had to poop and I was lying down and I'm like "really?" but I couldn't bring myself to get up with her so she pooped in her diaper (COMPLETELY my fault) and I had to get up to change her anyway.

The thing is she LOVES to sit on the toilet!! Like if it was up to her she'd be on there all day! She'll sit on there and then I'll ask her if she's all done and she'll start to get up and then say "no" and sit back down, lol! I usually have to bribe her to get out of the bathroom, haha! This morning I hurried her along too fast because I had a headache and needed to use the bathroom so while I was in the bathroom she pooped in her diaper out in the hallway! HAHA! Maybe I should wait a few more weeks to take this on when my energy level is up a bit?

GUESS WHO POOPED IN THE TOILET!!!!!!!

Venily (OF COURSE, lol)!!!!!!!!!! Ahhhhhhhh, I'm so fricken excited!!!!

Jason has been busy a lot more lately which means I've been having to change more poopy diapers and gagging horribly. Well, yesterday after she'd go I'd tell her try some more to make sure it was all out and she actually would. Then I got to thinking about it and if she can poop on command, then surely she'd be able to do it in her potty. Well, I don't want to have to clean out her potty chair either because that's probably just as bad if not worse than changing her diaper.

Then today she comes up to me and says "poop!" (which she does right before she has to go or if she already went) I checked her diaper and she hadn't gone yet and I thought, maybe I should try her on the grown up toilet with her little potty seat ring thing!!!! I asked her if she wanted to go on Mommy's toilet and she was so excited and went running and laughing into the bathroom. And she was sitting on there trying for a minute and then WENT!!!!! I couldn't believe it, she was so proud of herself too!!! I'm going to have to stock up on her favorite candy and keep it in there!!!!

Man, if I could just get her to poop in the toilet all the time, life would be pretty awesome!!!!!!!

Here is a picture of my little princess with her first poop in the potty!!! LOL!! Embarrassing? Yes, but sooooooo cute and funny!!! (Hey, Kate (Jon & Kate plus 8) did it with all of her 8 kids!)

13 WEEKS!!! 2ND TRIMESTER!!!!! YAY!!

1 down, 2 more to go!!! So I'm 1/3 of the way through this pregnancy already!! Baby #2 is going to be here before we know it!!!

So.... I stole this from a girl's blog I follow, and decided I'll start filling it out every week, lol!

How far along? 13 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: 120lbs (0lb total gain)
Maternity clothes? No! I use Venily's little hair tie around my belt loop- it works great! Occasionally I'll use my Bella Band.
Stretch marks? No! I just bought some cocoa butter to start using! I don't know if that worked last time or if I was just lucky, but it can't hurt, right?
Sleep: Ummm... pretty good. Sometimes I wake up feeling sick and it takes me a while to fall back asleep. Also I really wish I could have a nap around noon every day, but that RARELY happens! :)

Best moment this week: Hearing the baby's heartbeat!
Movement: Haven't felt any yet.... should start in a few weeks though!!
Food cravings: Chocolate covered Bavarian creme donuts and Smart Dogs!!
Gender Thoughts: GIRL, GIRL, GIRL!!! :)
Labor Signs: None

How are you feeling on a scale 1-10? Right now I'd say 9ish but I've had some REALLY sick days this week that were probably around a 2 or 3!
What I miss: Not feeling sick!!

What I am looking forward to: Taking the baby for daily walks with Venily now that it's so nice out!!!!! I'm REALLY hoping it stays!
Weekly Wisdom: Don't ever write that you are starting to feel better, the universe doesn't seem to like that and will prove to you otherwise!

Milestones: 2nd trimester starts today!!!!
Differences from 1st pregnancy: I think I might be moodier, haha. With Venily I got annoyed REALLY easily but this time around I think I'm also getting kind of mad easily too!

(Pic of baby at 13 weeks!!!)



What baby is up to at 13 weeks:
*3 inches long!!
*Has tiny fingerprints now!
*Can make a fist and suck his/her thumb!

Dr. Appt- (12w, 6d)

My doctor's appointment went well! Very short as I hope they will be from now on! My bloodwork all came back good, which is great to hear. Blood pressure and all that was good. We also got to hear the heartbeat for the first time!!!! Sweetest, cutest sound EVER!! The baby was moving around a lot so the doctor had some trouble finding it and keeping it for a while (lol, maybe I'm not getting my calm baby after all?!). It was cute to hear it softer and then louder as the baby moved closer and farther away. I'm measuring good- right on schedule and according to their scales, I've gained about 1/2 pound since my last visit.

My next appointment will be April 17th!! I'll be 17w, 2d at that time!!!! Which means we get to schedule our ULTRASOUND hopefully for not too much later than that!!! I CAN'T WAIT (even though I am still very sure of what I'm having- I mean, come on, we're not even CLOSE to finding a boy's name)!!! My next visit I'm also getting the spina bifida/ early Down's syndrome indicator blood test. I didn't get this done with Venily, but I think we will get it done this time around. Not that I would ever even consider doing anything with the information, but I do believe that knowledge is power and since there is no risk to the baby, I don't see why not!

Venily is 17 Months!

1 more and she'll be 1 1/2!!! Oh my goodness!!

She woke up this morning asking Jason: "Water?" "Dells?" HAHAHAHA! I didn't even know she knew what the Dells were! It's sad to have to explain to her that no, it would be quite some time before we are able to go back to the Dells again and we still have several more months before we can go to the beach!

This last month Venily has been sleeping AWESOMELY!!! She sleeps in her big girl bed ALL night long now and comes into our room in the morning so very happy! ( Before she'd sleep in her bed for like 75% of the night and then crawl in with us sometime in the early morning and fall back asleep.) She likes to come up with creative ways sometimes to wake me up though like putting "icks" (fuzzies and things she finds on the ground) in my mouth and laughing. Or really excitedly yelling "BELBOWS!!! BELBOWS!!!" as she grabs my elbows (it's currently her favorite body part, lol). She is taking about a 2 hour nap around noon every day too, which I hope she keeps up!!

We have been giving her more things with cheese in it the last month to try and test her lactose sensitivity (cheese is easier to digest than milk) and so far she has done pretty well, some diahhrea here and there, but it's so hard to tell what is due to the lactose and what is a virus or something since she doesn't get it all the time. She is still drinking Lactaid and sometimes Soy Milk if the store is out of Lactaid and she loves it, so there is no problem there.

I gave up on potty training the last 2 months. I am still too nauseous to deal with that right now. Whenever I go to the bathroom she wants to sit on her potty too, but I just have her do it fully clothed because I usually feel too sick to undress her and put forth the effort. I plan on trying again in like a month. I'm hoping I feel better and it will be warmer out! She tells us all the time when she needs to be changed so I'm hoping to get the whole potty-training thing under control before Baby #2 is here!!

I was looking through old pictures of Venily yesterday and crying! :) She looks almost exactly the same as she does now, but she used to be a heck of a lot chunkier and had less hair, yet I find it really hard to remember her being that little! She was just sooooo cute (and gets cuter by the day!)! I miss having a baby though, I'm not going to let my next one grow up!! :)

Next month she gets her 18m checkup and shots!

The Kalahari!!

We had an awesome time at the Dells!! Venily had a blast and I was so scared that she wouldn't really like the waterpark! She kept asking "Water? Water?" whenever we were back at the hotel room b/c she wanted to go back, lol! This coming from a girl who HATES baths and will freak out if even a drop of water trickles down her face when I'm rinsing out her hair, lol! She was walking around the kid's areas all by herself and if she went under, we'd help her back up and she wouldn't even care! She was even going down little waterslides all by herself and went down a big waterslide with Me and Aunt Lisa!! And even though she had zero expression when we got off, lol, she instantly wanted to back down again!

The Kalahari also has a whole new area that's an indoor amusement park and Venily had so much fun there too! She went on her first Ferris Wheel rides and carousel rides and there was a GIGANTIC kids' area that she absolutely loved! Her new favorite thing is definitely slides! She just wanted to keep going up and down the slides forever and ever!! :) She even went down some big ones all by herself! I have some videos and will try to put them up later!

She made friends everywhere she went and really seems to like little girls that are a couple of years older than her! She went up to so many kids and would wave and say "hi" and smile at all of them. We were walking down the hall and she even ran up to a girl and said "hand?" and held her hand and walked down the hall with her, it was so cute!! There was another little girl who asked if she could hold Venily and after saying no and that Venily was too big to be held, she put her in her lap anyway and Venily did NOT want to get up! HAHA! I'd pick her up and ask her if she wanted to go back down the slide and she'd just say "no" turn back around and sit right back in the little girl's lap again!! Then she followed her around until the little girl had to go eat! The little girl said that Venily wanted her to be her big sister, lol!

Venily also loved all the animals (real and not) all around the Kalahari. Since it's African themed it had a lot of her favorite animals everywhere she went. She absolutely loves elephants, lions, monkeys, and kangaroos!!

And it was sooooo nice to have my sister there and have 3 adults to 1 Venily b/c we really needed it, lol! I honestly believe that Venily has the energy of 10 kids her age! I don't know what we're going to do next year with another little one!! We'll have to see when the time comes if it will physically even be possible!

!!!!WEEK 12!!!!

GUESS WHAT?!! I'M PREGNANT!!!! LOL! This is when I wanted to wait to tell everyone... so much for that plan!

12 weeks- YES!!! An awesome week to get to!! Very exciting! I follow like 10 different sites and some say this is the start of your 2nd trimester, but most say 13 or 14 weeks and since I still don't feel any better (ESPECIALLY at night), I will wait until 13 weeks to say I'm in the 2nd trimester! Crossing my fingers I feel better by then! :)


Updates on baby and Mommy this week:

*Baby's reflexes are getting better and he/she will move around when poked at! The baby will be VERY used to this by the time it's born, especially with all the love Venily wants to show him/her already with millions of kisses and hugs all day!
*The baby has DOUBLED in size over the last 2 weeks and is about 2-2.5 inches long! And will just keep getting BIGGER and BIGGER and BIGGER!!!!
*This is when your uterus is typically above the pubic bone and you really start to show! I'm at that awkward.... looking bigger than usual, but not looking pregnant yet phase which made me much more self-conscious than usual at the Dells the last couple of days, but I got over it! I think it's WAY more noticeable to me than anybody else! :)
*As far as how I'm feeling.... I'd say there are moments during the day that are getting better and the good times are lasting longer. But there are still a lot of times I feel really nauseous during the day and the nights (from about 5 or 6 pm until I go to sleep) are still pretty horrible. Still dry-heaving every couple of days.

The Kalahari was really fun, I will update again later about that when I get some time and put up pictures!!

Here's my 12 week pics!! I weighed myself today and was at 121lbs (+1lb weight gain overall)




Looking forward to my next doctor's appointment next Tuesday and hearing the baby's heartbeat!!

ON VACATION!!

Gone to the Kalahari, we'll be back Tuesday night!! Yay, we can't wait! This is Venily's 2nd time at the Dells (3rd counting the time I was pregnant with her). I'm guessing it's going to be a LOT more fun than it was when she was only 5 months!!! Can't wait!!

Future American Idol?

Last night we were watching American Idol and when the girl was singing Venily started singing and dancing all around, lol. She says "do...do...do" to sing, haha. Then she'd get shy every time Jason would watch her and she'd stop so Jason had to pretend he wasn't looking at her. Finally she stopped and ran off and I'm like "I guess she's all done now". But a few seconds later she came running back in with her microphone in her hand and started singing and dancing some more! Jason and I were cracking up!

11 weeks- a lime!!

I am still feeling really sick. My stomach pain is a lot better than it was on Monday, but it's something that always seems to be there, just overshadowed by the nausea. I am really hoping I am feeling better by Sunday when we go to the Dells!

This is what my baby looks like at 11 weeks!!! Cutest thing in the world?! I think so!! :) Actually my baby was a LOT cuter than this one!!!!!!!!



My 11 week baby update:
*My baby is the size of a lime!! (A little over 1 1/2 inches)
*No more webbed fingers and toes!
*Is kicking and dancing and hiccuping! How cute!! :)
*Can touch her face and mouth!!
*My baby also has hair and fingernails and can swallow!

1st ER Visit Ever!

I've been having some stomach pains the last week or 2 and have almost gone into the doctor a few times "just to be sure" but kept talking myself out of it. Well today I had some REALLY bad pain and was just lying in bed crying because it was so bad, so Jason finally made me go to the doctor's. He called my doctor as we were on our way to the hospital and the nurse said to go right to the E.R. I kept crying all the way to the hospital because I was so scared that something was wrong. We got into a room pretty quickly and I had my blood and urine, heart rate, etc. all tested. The nurses and doctors were all really nice and brought Venily in little juices and popsicles.

Then the nurse said that they wanted to give me an ultrasound and that I had 2 options: I could either drink 3 GIANT glasses of water and then wait an hour to get an ultrasound or get a catheter put in and they would pump my bladder full of water or something. Well, I chose the 3 glasses of water! The nurse brought them in and I literally took one sip of water before another nurse came in saying it was time to get my ultrasound, lol!

I went into the room by myself and the nurse was really nice and talking with me and stuff. She was asking me about Venily and how far apart my children were going to be and things like that. Then I laid down and she immediately turned the computer screen so I couldn't see anything as she was doing the ultrasound and she became completly quiet. She looked around for 10 fricken minutes without saying ANYTHING. I was literally fighting back tears. I was just staring at her face and her eyes were kind of glassy and she looked kind of concerned. My heart was beating so fast and I wanted to scream! Then she's like "Okay, you're going to hear a sound and it's just the blood flowing through your ovaries".... and all I could think was "why are you not saying anything else and why are you not listening to my baby's heartbeat and why are you not showing me my baby?!"

After FOREVER she finally said "Can you see the screen at all?" I say "no". Then she's like "Okay, I'm not supposed to do this, but your baby just looks so cute sitting here relaxing." And she turned the screen towards me! And OH MY GOSH!!!!! GORGEOUS doesn't even describe it! Jason and I are truly blessed when it comes to making babies, let me tell you!!! The baby was SOOOOOO fricken cute!! It was completely relaxed, just laying back and then would kick it's legs a little every once in a while and move it's little arms!! And I could see the little heart beating!!! I was so relieved!!! I could have literally watched the screen forever. I couldn't believe how big the baby is either! It looked quite a bit bigger than Venily did when I got an ultrasound with her right around the same time. And it looks pretty proportional already, like a little person in there!!!



When I got back into the room the doctor came in and said everything looks good. All my tests came back good. And the ultrasound was good too! The baby is measuring at 11 weeks (and I am currently 10w, 5days today). The heartrate was 153bpm! I had my 1st ultrasound w/ Venily at 10w, 6 days and her heartrate at the time was 184bpm (then again, she was a LOT more active and moving around like crazy in there- hopefully this baby has a bit calmer of a personality?, lol). The doctor said that the pain is probably just round ligament pain, and boy does it suck, I am still in a lot of pain right now, but am just so relieved that nothing is wrong with my little baby!! It's crazy how much you can love someone who you have never even met!!!