Cravings

Since learning that we are expecting another little boy, I've been a tiny bit nervous about how big I will be by the time this little guy arrives. Ok, that's a lie ... I'm actually terrified of what kind of condition I will be in by the time I'm 7 or 8 months pregnant! When I was pregnant with Isabel I swelled to a normal and acceptable size. When I was pregnant with Gabe, things started out very well. It actually took quite awhile for my baby bump to show up and it stayed pretty petite for more than half of my pregnancy. I was pretty proud of my petite little baby bump! I thought that I might carry small for the entire pregnancy and was patting myself on the back for not being one of those women who can't stand up at the end!! Then I hit my 6th or 7th month and all of a sudden I was growing exponentially! My tummy got bigger overnight and people were starting to tell me I looked like I was going to pop when I was only 7 months pregnant (NOTE: I remember each of these evil people and am still holding a grudge against them). It only got worse from there and by the time my due date arrived I was pretty much holed up in my house because 1.) I was so uncomfortable I didn't want to get up off the couch and 2.) I didn't have anything but pajama pants that fit me and even then my tummy stuck out under my shirts because they didn't fit all the way around my belly. It was ugly, people! Very ugly!! Anyway, obviously I survived and even though he was a week late and 9 lbs I recovered without any lasting repercussions.

I started this pregnancy out so hormonal that I was sure that I was having a girl! I didn't have any sickness or mood swings with Gabe ... that all happened with Isabel! I just never even entertained the thought that we were having a boy. I thought "Great! I can pull out all the cute pink stuff we have and this baby will probably be smaller since it's a girl and Isabel's room is bigger so they'll be able to share" and, well, you get the drift! So, when Merrie announced to us that we were having a boy, I was in complete and total shock! It did take some getting used to. I think I've gotten used to the idea now and I've accepted it and I'm actually quite excited about it. Having another boy actually has it's advantages. This means that the two boys will be closer in age and will be able to be best friends! This means that we already have a bed for this little kiddo to sleep in since Gabe has bunk beds!

Of course, along with all the perks, I'm finding myself also somewhat terrified of the not-so-perks. My main concern is my size! I know this is vain and ridiculous and something I ultimately have very little control over, but it is a worry for me. This pregnancy is starting to look alarmingly like my pregnancy with Gabe did. My baby bump is still very petite. I am almost 19 weeks pregnant and people are only just beginning to notice that I'm pregnant. I am savoring these days of pregnancy cuteness because I have this sinking feeling that I am going to blow up like a house any day now. And to compound my fears, I am having the most unbelievable cravings for junk food with this one. I have these days where all I can think about are Doritos or ice cream or a chocolate muffin or pickles (but let's be serious, when do I NOT crave a pickle). When dinner time comes the only thing that really sounds good is pizza or a hamburger! I am doing my very best to exercise my self control (of which I have very little). I think I've done very well at not indulging in my constant junk food cravings. I might have one small bowl of ice cream at night and today I took a baggie of Doritos to work. I figured that I was away from home and I could only eat them until the baggie was empty so I couldn't go nuts, and we barely ever indulge my fast food cravings! Do you know that when I was pregnant with Isabel I craved fresh, steamed veggies???? That's right, for months I only wanted to eat brussels sprouts and green beans and squash! What I wouldn't give for a green bean craving right now!! HA! I'm just afraid that I'm going to be so big that Joel is going to have to roll me around soon and that this baby is going to be bigger than Gabe was. Again, I know I have no control over this and I do have total faith that I CAN do this, but when I project into the future of this pregnancy I am filled with fear and apprehension. I will just be so glad when it is behind me and I am holding this sweet little boy in my arms ... perfect and round and soft and under 9 lbs!!! :)

Ah well, thanks for listening to my ramblings! Something about being pregnant is making me very chatty lately! I am enjoying putting my thoughts and fears and joys into print on this blog for all you poor souls to read. I have noticed lately that I've become very bad about taking pictures. Something about being pregnant and having just moved has made me feel very unsettled in my current situation and things that I am usually so good at and on top of are starting to suffer and become harder for me to maintain. I'm hoping that this is only temporary and I am going to make a concentrated effort starting this week to take more pictures so that I can share them with all of you!

The Changing of the Background

Many of you have probably noticed that I've changed the background on this blog about 5 times in the last month or two. I pick one out thinking it is cute and I like it and then after visiting our blog a few times I decide that I hate it. That has happened again, and I was forced, once again, to search for a new background. I rather like this background and I see myself liking this one for a long time to come. However, I have a problem with the current font colors. What ever happened to blog backgrounds that came with a pre-set color scheme??? Is my blog screwed up (which is highly likely since I am the one operating it) or do they not do that anymore??? I can never decide what to set the font colors at. I am a colorful person by nature ... I like to have everything colorful .. my house is a testament to this (well it was before we started renting), every room is a different color! The problem is that when I make things all different colors it looks more like Rainbow Brite's website than the classy, family website that it is. So, this time I went all neutral and I'm not sure that I like it. It's plain and brown. So, I guess the point of this post is to attempt to explain my madness and to ask you to bare with me if you see any more changes (which you most likely will) to the background of this blog. It's a work in progress, but I WILL make it beautiful! :)

Pregnancy Update

(Warning: Long post ahead.)

It's been awhile since I've written a post specifically about Baby #3. Much has happened since the last time I updated you all. I started my second trimester a few weeks ago and I'm happy to report that my morning sickness has lessened significantly!!! I still have days and moments here and there where I have low energy or an upset stomach, but most days I feel almost normal! I have been cleaning the house regularly again and I am even cooking actual dinners these days!! WOOT!! My bump is still pretty small. I have graduated to maternity pants full time and just the other day I pulled out and washed all of my maternity shirts and packed away all the normal clothes. As I was unpacking I realized that most of my maternity clothes are for warmer weather (both of the other kids were born in the fall) so I didn't have much to wear for the deep freeze we are in now. Today the kids and I took a trip to the maternity store and bought some long sleeve t-shirts for layering. Hopefully that will allow me to get by with with I've already got so I don't have to spend the money to buy a whole new wardrobe.

I think that I've been feeling the baby move some. It is technically a little early and I've experienced some indigestion so it's hard to tell for sure if it's the baby or just gas, but I enjoy sitting still for a bit and waiting to see if I can feel anything. I'm not sleeping very well right now. I have become addicted to Gilmore Girls and usually watch a few episodes at night before bed so that might be contributing to my initial sleeplessness, but I also wake up often and have trouble staying asleep. Merrie told me to try having a snack before bed ... my blood sugar came back pretty low in my blood work from last time so she said bringing it up before bed might help me sleep better. So I'm going to try that and see how it works and I've also discovered that green tea before bed helps too. Hopefully I'll be getting a good night's sleep again soon!

We just had an appointment with Merrie yesterday and she said that if we wanted her to do an ultrasound to see what the baby was she would try to see if she could tell what we were having. She said the baby was still a little small to tell, but there was a 50/50 chance she would be able to see something. Joel really wanted to know so we went ahead and had the ultrasound. I was amazed at how much bigger the baby has gotten since our last ultrasound 3 weeks ago!!

Spine and ribs at 13 weeks.

Spine and ribs at 16 weeks.

The first thing we saw when she put the scope to my belly were the little feet. They were perfectly positioned together and the picture was so good you could count the toes!!!!

After that she started looking for the money shot! The baby was moving around so much she had a hard time getting a good image that she could look at for more than a couple of seconds at a time, but she finally found one and made the announcement ... It's a boy! (probably why she was able to tell so early) She kept looking to see if she could get a really good image to print for us, but he was so wiggly that it's only obvious to a trained eye. When all was said and done she said she was about 95% sure of her boy diagnosis, but she said we'd do another ultrasound next time to confirm. I have to say I was shocked. Completely and totally shocked! I was sure it was a girl. This pregnancy is so much more like Isabel's than like Gabe's and I just felt sure that it was a little girl in there. Joel was afraid that I would be so disappointed that I would cry. He kept studying my face and asking if I was ok. While I was a tiny bit disappointed not to get another little girl I was still happy to find that we had a healthy baby in there who was growing and moving and who would be just as precious as any little girl. I am starting to recover from my shock now and I am getting used to thinking of him as a him. I've been picturing this poor little guy with bows in his hair and in pink and purple outfits for 16 weeks!! The bow images are coming less often now and he is more often wearing blue than pink :)
Here is a cool shot of the cord (as you can see)! Merrie said that the cord looks very thick which is really good! She even put the machine on a setting where you can see the ingoing and outgoing blood flow in the cord...... pretty neat to see it working and you can really see how it twists when you see it in color!

Almost done .. for those of you who are actually still reading this :)

Joel and I are going to have some difficulty naming this little guy! We already had a name picked out for a girl, but we could never agree on anything for a boy. I think we are going to have to work very hard on the big C word ... COMPROMISE!!! It has also recently hit me that with this baby being a boy I could very well have another 9 pounder .... not something I enjoyed much the first time. Big boys run in the family so it seems as though I'm doomed! Another thing to ponder ... the last time I had a boy I started out all little and cute and then got to be the size of a house ... AND I was a week late!!! So, I'm still wrapping my head around these unpleasant indicators, but I suppose the best thing to do to avoid a panic attack is to just take it a day at a time. I'll worry about my house-ness when it happens!

IT'S DONE!!!!!

I finally finished the playhouse!!! I sewed and I sewed and I was still sewing on the last buttons on Christmas Eve after the kids were in bed, but it's finished!!!

Here is my masterpiece!

The Garden: The corn and the carrots are "pickable" .. there are pockets in the "dirt" for the carrots and the corn husks also act as pockets. The lettuce and the pumpkin have velcro so they can also come off ... the crate to the right is made to store the vegetables that have been picked. I still need to add a dragonfly and/or butterfly to this side. I'm hoping to do that in the next week or two!
The Front: The window box is a pocket made to hold flowers. I did not have time to make the flowers before Santa came. That will also come in the next week or two. The door on the mailbox is made to open so that the kids can "mail" letters .... also coming soon! Also gonna add dragon/butterflies to this side.
The Apple Tree: The window box here is also made to hold flowers in the pockets. The watering can velcros to the house so it can be removed to water any of the vegetation! The apples hang from buttons and can be removed (also hoping to make lemons eventually so the kids can switch out).
The Fishing Pond: On this side the fish in the pockets are magnetic and the kids will be able to "fish" once I finish the magnetic fishing pole! This side will also have some dragon/butterflies.

The Top

So there you have it! There are a few minor things that still need to be added, but it is ready to be played in! The kids were thrilled to get it on Christmas Day and have been playing with is every since. And I feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment from having done this! It was a lot of work, but it was also a lot of fun! Who knew I was creative????

Special thanks to Alexis for showing me her cute house and inspiring me to make my own and for cheering me on the whole time! To my sister-in-law for letting me borrow her sewing machine and to my mom for rushing over here to show me how to use it :) And to Joel for sewing on the buttons for the fish eyes and for not yelling at me every night when I was sewing and he couldn't hear his movies!

Christmas 2010

As per tradition, we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my parents. We started the celebration off with the Christmas Eve service at my parent's church. They go all out ... with lights and music and geysers and an indoor ice rink! The kids loved it last year and were looking forward to going again this year! They did not disappoint! The service was great! After that we went back to the Palma's house for a nap ... that's right, the whole house took a Christmas Eve nap!! Once nap time was over we prepared all of our favorite Christmas Eve snacks and then we opened presents!!!

New Super Hero costumes!

New Fairy costumes!

Spider-Man with his new Spider-Man car!

A Tag reader for our little reader!

Matching P.J.'s! ... it just doesn't get any cuter!

The coveted Woody from Toy Story!

The next morning we woke up early to see what Santa brought us!

Once presents had been opened .... again .... we had a very nice ham dinner. It was another Merry Christmas!!

Isabel's Christmas Program

The Kindergarteners at Isabel's school put on a great Christmas program this year! The theme was Christmas Around the World. Isabel must have mentioned to her teacher that we celebrate Chanukah with Joel's family so she had asked Isabel to hold the Israeli flag for the Chanukah portion of the program. The teacher had given me warning several weeks ahead of time so that I could prepare Isabel for this responsibility. As you might remember, our little Isabel usually cries during any and every school program. We wanted her to participate, but were afraid that the flag holding would only add to the urge to cry. So, we talked to Isabel about it before hand and I wore a hole in my pants praying that whole morning that she would do well and guess what??? SHE DID GREAT!!!!! She went up there with a smile on her face and she sang every song and did every motion and she waved at us and we were so proud of her!! She told me later that she really had fun up there! Here's hoping that this is a new trend for her :)

Her big moment!

I apologize for the photo quality ... my camera battery was dying and it would not auto focus :(