24 Weeks

I swear I don't feel as big as the photo makes me look

I'm wearing the same shirt as two week's ago photo. Huh. Good for comparison. I really don't feel this big. I am bloated. That's it....

Yesterday's post pretty much summed up the last two weeks. Nesting. Nesting. Nesting. Going crazy not being able to actually do anything about said nesting because we're stuck in money limbo with the refinancing. Joy.

Going by that, I got nothin'. At my BP check this morning everything was good. Talked about getting a third trimester ultrasound and was told I probably wouldn't have one. This contradicts what the ultrasound tech told me at 20 weeks. Well, crap. Perhaps I'll go out and pay out of pocket for a 3D/4D ultrasound. Crazy? Yes, but maybe it will help with my paranoia that we're going to end up with a surprise "IT'S A BOY!!!" announcement in the operating room.

So it's like spit and twigs and stuff, right?

This weekend (or, more appropriately, this afternoon) I got all nesty in Todd's face. That sounds weird.

When we found out we were expecting baby #2, we knew we'd have to consolidate some of our crap and some of Jack's crap to make room for our precious new addition. So, Todd and I thinned out our dresser holdings and combined 9 drawers into 5. The plan was to empty out the dresser we keep in our closet ("Todd's" dresser), put everything into the dresser in our room ("My dresser") and then move the main dresser into the closet.

Fast forward 5.5 months and we finally managed to get rid of the closet dresser and make the swap. Took about 20 minutes. Wow. We suck at this junk ridding stuff.

That was yesterday afternoon. I promised Todd that I was done for the weekend, with the exception of bringing stuff downstairs to the newly cleared out hallways and stacking it in the entry to move stuff to storage. I told Todd that I don't just want to take one thing to storage, that I wanted to wait until we got a whole bunch of things because we'd just be bringing more stuff back, right? (Ask me about the time when my hoarder neighbor tells me "oh yeah, that's how my place looks right now" and watch me wallow in shame.) Then I went nuts. All I wanted to do was turn 3 boxes of knick knacks that I'm not willing to part with but no longer have shelf space to display into one and move the box to storage for when we have a bigger place, no small children, and shelves. I dusted cobwebs, made Todd clean the ceiling fan, threw stuff away, (the stuff! I threw all the cat toys away except for a few mice and a stuffed spider) vacuumed and got the edges, and then after begging me for a shower to help his poor red, dusty eyes recover from my rampage, I made a deal with Todd that he could shower and we could be done, but he'd have to vacuum the staircase for me this week. Sucker. Ask me how a simple task turned into a cleaning, organizing, measuring for new baby gate, trash ALL THE THINGS rampage and I won't be able to give a coherent reason. It's my process.

Anyway, we managed to clear stuff out, got three trash bags of crap out of our upstairs and it still looks like a cyclone has hit our bedroom. Our lovely, clean, organized closet has been refilled with crap that we don't want the cats to get into but that I don't have a space for right now. Jack's room was taken over for a few hours by rogue laundry baskets (oh, right, when we cleaned the closet out, we discovered about 2 loads of laundry that we've been walking on for god knows how long).

Last weekend we rearranged all of the living room furniture to unblock our return vent further. Honestly, there's quite a difference. About 2-3 degrees difference. Such a difference that we're considering possibly not getting a new furnace/a/c/heat pump this year and seeing if we can't make it through another summer with the old one. That's up in the air for now. I will go about seeing what kind of a deal we get, how much the unit will cost, and break down a monthly payment and THEN we will decide on a course of action.

Next weekend? Who knows. But until we actually get the refinancing process done there won't be any purchasing of anything. I would love blackout curtains in our room before Nina arrives (ready for this? 3 1/2 months...that's a terrifying thought). I want to organize the kids' room into a pleasant space for two kids to share. Organization takes money, people, money that we'd rather spend on food and gas so we can refinance this month and afford closing costs.

Unless the bank pushes out our closing date.

Again.

For the third time.

***

Last night, Jack spoke his first coherent sentence. As Todd was attempting to wrangle him upstairs, he turned to me and said "Come on, Mama! Go! Go!" Todd and I just looked at each other for a second and then proceeded to bounce around like floundering idiots. Jack's been having a rough couple of nights. He's been waking up crying, whimpering in his sleep, etc. I'm hoping that we're gearing up for a developmental milestone and that this one involves lots of talking. People tell me that once he starts to talk, all I'm going to want is for him to shut up. What they don't know, or perhaps don't realize, is that Jack babbles, incessantly, and sometimes I do ask him to please be quiet. He never stops trying to communicate with us. We just have no idea what he says. Everyday, the words "please, for the love of god, just speak English!" exit my and Todd's mouth. We try and explain (to a 2 year old...logically...because we're morons) that if he just spoke English that there would be no need for this whining and fit throwing when we offer the wrong cup or snack. He always responds with "okay!" and continues to whimper until we fix the problem. He understands us, he just isn't breaking through with his own words. I've noticed that he will only say a word when he's sure of what he is saying. The kid has confidence in every other area of development. Why not language?? Bah. 

Not potty training

However long into this "not" potty training stage we are in and Jack has connected gummy bears with peeing on the toilet.

He's asking to sit on the potty. Demanding, really, while doing the pee pee dance and everything.

My child is weird.

Very weird.

When Jack wants to sit on the potty, he gets two gummy bears. I bribe him only for the first sitting of the day. After that, he only gets more gummy bears when he produces something. Last week, he discovered that he gets MORE when he pees.

This morning, I turned away to get his requisite gummy bears and turned around to have him pointing in the potty at his production. I couldn't believe it. He asked to sit on the potty, asked for gummy bears, and then asked for more after he peed. This "not" potty training is going a lot smoother than I imagined potty training could go. I'm not sure if I want to push it more, or just let him make further connections on his own. 

I am really apprehensive about having him potty train so close to when Nina is due to arrive. Honestly, having two kids in diapers doesn't bother me. Jack has a fairly predictable schedule and we know what triggers diarrhea and diaper rash. I don't want to get to the point where we're potty trained, have no diapers for Jack, and have him go through regression with a newborn at home. Yes, this is a fear. A legitimate one, according to statistics and anecdotal evidence. Especially if he potty trains right before Nina arrives. I love when people confidently tell me that he won't regress. I suppose, if he does decide he's done with diapers, that we'll just have to keep a few diapers around in case of regression. 

Has anyone ever said they hate the unknowns of parenting? Or is this an idea that only I've admitted? Jack is an easy kid, in just about every sense of the word. His tantrums are annoying, yes, but I think we'd be less annoyed if he tantrumed more. That sounds weird. Jack's tantrums are communication based. And probably resulting from his own stubbornness to just TALK ALREADY. 

This week, Jack began saying star and tree. He's slowly incorporating more words into his vocabulary. Right now we're hitting 2-3 words a week. I guess this is leading up to the mythical "word explosion" that everyone talks about. He isn't really putting two words together yet. He babbles a lot. A LOT. And attempts to hold conversations while he speaks Jackenese and we speak English. Usually there's a lot of "kid, just speak English already!"

I've gone off on two separate tangents here. It's probably best if I end this here with no actual conclusion. Sometimes writing just helps, ya know?

Motion Sickness

I'm suffering with some motion sickness. Not from actually doing anything though. Nina's movements are so erratic and violent that they're making me nauseous. 

Oh, look. I'm going to compare pregnancies again. Feel free to tell me how each kid and each pregnancy is different. I'm not sure that point's been made enough yet.

With Jack, his movements were BIG, but they were also....soft? Rolling. I don't know. It didn't feel as though I had an octopus in my belly while riding a roller coaster after binge drinking for three days. I think it might have something to do with my placenta taking the brunt force of the smaller rapid movements.

Sometimes when Nina kicks me she simultaneously manages to hit my right hip bone, my bladder, and my liver all at once (I like to imagine her head on my bladder, an elbow or hand at my hip, and her feet in my liver). This is okay, and other than catching me off guard, it doesn't make me sick. But right now, and for the last hour or so, she's been beating my bladder and stomach. At least, that's what it feels like. I keep getting the feeling of going over a small hill at 40 miles per hour. My stomach is rolling with the kicks and it's having a hard time catching up with the rapid momentum of Nina's movements.

In other news, my BP check this week came back perfect. While attempting to get Nina's heartbeat the doctor had a hard time trying to chase Nina around my belly. This isn't any different from Jack. My weekly NSTs involved constant readjustment while Jack ran away from the belly monitors and kicked the crap out of the contraction monitor. My NST reports were full of jerks and jolts. He was a very active baby, he was just more considerate to mommy's feelings and his movements were gentler. 

On Saturday, our a/c quit working. The compressor up on the roof wouldn't turn on. Thankfully it was a mild day and we were able to keep the windows open and fans running. We think the unit overheated or something similar, because the air worked that night. We contacted a local HVAC company and they came out on Tuesday to look at/hopefully repair our 30 year old air conditioner/heat pump. Because of its age, they aren't able to do much. The compressor, which usually cycles freon in one direction, has some broken valves which allow the coolant to recycle back into the line. This makes the unit work at about 50% efficiency. This news wasn't too surprising to us. The thing is 30 YEARS OLD.

We were hoping that they'd tell us we need a new unit and would offer us financing. While they did offer financing, which would allow us to get a unit in as soon as we were approved, they also told us about the Mass Save program because our air conditioner is also our heat pump. If it's determined that our 30 year old unit is horribly inefficient we may qualify for up to 7 year no interest financing. However, there is a process. We discussed it, decided that since the compressor is still technically functional, we'd go through the red tape and see what we qualify for. 

We'd have to get a home energy assessment. They'll come in, evaluate our energy usage, and determine what we can do to change our energy usage. Considering we've replaced most of our appliances in the last 5 years that we've been here, I'm thinking the last one is to upgrade our broken heat pump. I'm hoping they look at it and say hmmmm....yeah, that's just not doing it for us, let's get you a new one! On average, our summer electricity bill is twice what we spend in the winter. We keep getting little things in the mail saying we're in the bottom 3% of efficient homes. Thanks for that. We know that running our broken a/c 24/7 is probably not a good thing. We're working on it!

Adventures in Potty Training

My two year old is a master manipulator.

Earlier this week (Monday, actually, because the actual day is important), Jack and I enjoyed 4 diaper free hours. By enjoyed, I mean I set a timer and did a "potty training trial run" and had my son sit on his toddler potty every 15 minutes for 4 hours. Before I began this adventure, I tried to let my son run around naked. He wouldn't have it, so I let Jack pick out a pair of Jake and the Never Land Pirate big boy underwear and he peed immediately after he put them on. No mess, just a dribble, and he didn't care that he was soaked. Hmmm. Okay then. Naked it is. For the first 2-3 times sitting on the toilet, Jack would simply bring me a clean diaper and then lay on the floor awaiting its installation. I explained that he's having naked time. I then reverted to the reward system and he would get a baby gummy bear each time he sat on the potty. The catch was that he had to sit and eat the candy ON the potty. I explained that he would get MORE gummy bears if he actually peed or pooped on the toilet. He never did produce anything, in the toilet or out and it was time to start dinner, so on went the diaper. No biggie.

I'm going to go ahead and break off here and say we're not actually potty training. I have no idea what I'm doing, I don't really care for advice right now, and Todd and I have a plan for when we decide to begin, which will likely not be until AFTER Nina comes. I'm just trying to see how he's going to respond to it. Unless he up and decides he's done with diapers one day, I'm not forcing the issue and it's not really a daily occurrence.

The best part of our adventure on the potty is that now Jack IS finally showing an interest. Prior to my bribery, Jack would use the potty as a chair, or a step stool. Now? After our 4 hour potty tryout? He uses it as a procrastination device.

Jack naps anywhere from 2-4 hours each afternoon. His nap depends on when I get him down. Sometimes he wakes up early and requires a nap around 1. He naps for 2 hours. If I get him down between 2-3, he will nap from 3-4 hours. Now that he's figured out that I will stop everything to let him sit on the potty, as soon as naptime is mentioned, he runs to the potty and signs "more" and says "adin!" I want him to be able to communicate with me if he has to use the bathroom, and at this early in the game, I don't want to do anything that makes the potty anything less than a positive experience.

Thursday afternoon, Jack didn't nap until close to 4. He asked to sit on the potty and he stayed there, bare bottomed, for over 20 minutes allowing me to read books to him. There are a couple of important things in that last sentence. 1) the kid sat on the toilet for almost 1/2 an hour to AVOID A NAP. 2) I allowed it because 3) HE LET ME READ BOOKS TO HIM.

My child hasn't let us actually read a book from front to back to him since February (and he was read to nightly since he was about a month old, so it was incredibly random that he just up and quit enjoying it). No bedtime stories, no curl up on the couch and have mommy & me time. Nothing. I was thrilled. I was possibly more excited that we read 5 different books than I was that he was sitting on the toilet. For the past three nights, Todd and I have been reading to Jack again. I bought him the Berenstain Bears New Baby book in anticipation that this moment would arrive. The first time I read it to him I recapped at the end of the story the difference in bed sizes, mommy's growing belly, where the baby is in the book, where Jack's little sister is and he seemed to understand everything I was saying. That was pretty freaking cool. We don't actually read the book now (he still prefers Bear in Underwear), but Jack goes through it and points out the pictures and points to Baby Sister Bear and my belly. He understands that the crib in his room is for the baby. I guess he understands that he is going to be a big brother? He responds by pointing to himself when I ask who is going to be a big brother.

Who knew that such an odd thing like potty training could lead to a renewed love of books? I am certainly enjoying his enthusiasm again. Maybe that's the wrong way to word it. He's always been enthusiastic about books, but hasn't been about being read to for the last couple of months. I'm glad he is learning to enjoy being read to again.

Don't put your fingers in that!

Jack has never been a mouthy baby. He's never been the kid to try and put metal objects in the power sockets. He's weird. No, really. He is. What 2 year old WANTS his clothes on?? And doesn't rip his socks and shoes off in stores? Mine.

Anyway. We've reached the putting fingers into finger sized holes in the last couple of days. Last night Jack got his finger stuck in his toy hammer. There is a hole to hang it from a peg on his workbench.

Jack has a weird quirk. Being the highly responsible parents we are, about 2/3 of our outlets are covered with the plastic plug protectors. Jack gets protective of his outlet covers. For example, we have one behind his train table that we usually keep plugged up. I like to sit in our recliner with my laptop plugged in. Jack does not like it when his outlets are not protected. He unplugs my laptop and replaces the plastic cover. It's very responsible, really, except for when I have a dying laptop. Thankfully, he hasn't yet figured out that other things fit in the outlets.

We use the Safety 1st Secure Press Plug Protectors. They have a little flap to help push them away from the wall, negating the need for nails and sharp metal instruments to remove them when you want to plug something in.

Safety 1st

The same plug that we adore has a perfect Jack thumb shaped rounded tip. Poor guy put his thumb in and got it stuck. I'm thankful that the plastic is pretty thin and I was able to push the flap the opposite direction and remove his thumb. I kissed his thumb and sent him on his merry way. I think one of the best things about Jack being 2 is that he's realized that mommy and daddy can fix everything with a kiss. 

22 weeks

Behold the belly, I just ate lunch. And weird smirky face 

(Hey, this taking photos in the mirror without getting the toilet or litter box requires special talent. You're lucky I'm not sticking out my tongue in concentration.)

21.5/22 weeks. I have no idea how pregnant I am, but I only have 4 months and 3 days at the most before this kid arrives. My blood pressure, weight, and Nina's heartbeat are all good. My weight is almost back up to where I started. Which means I can safely gain enough weight for the rest of my pregnancy without worrying too much about what I eat. Bring on the ice cream and potato chips! (Just kidding, I am really not craving either too much now.)

It's hot out. I am stating the obvious, considering it's July in New England. Regardless, I'm going to complain about it, and if you're still with me you're going to read about it. It's humid and hot and gross. We have central air in our condo but we live on the 3rd and 4th floors and our old A/C unit/furnace thingy should probably be serviced. It is on constantly. In 90*+ weather, it works really hard to maintain a comfortable 78* in our house. Warmer upstairs (you know, that whole sciencey "heat rises" conspiracy....) Since we've put up Jack's curtains (all of 2 days ago) I notice that his room stays cooler throughout the day. All the more reason to get our own light blocking curtains in our bedroom.

It's hard for me normally to expose myself to the outside world. I am so allergic to everything and being pregnant in the dead of summer makes outside time suck. I know I should get Jack outside more often, especially how much he loves it. I take slight comfort in the fact that he gets outside at daycare, but I still feel like I'm denying him that essential kid time. Also, there are three flights of stairs to contend with and Jack still demands to be carried up or down about 75% of the time. I can't help but believe that it would be a lot easier on me and Todd if we did have a house with a fenced in yard. Not saying I'd let my 2-year old out without supervision, but if we had a deck or a patio, it would require less participation on my part to get him in and out. I know this is an excuse, but it's a good one. My allergies really are that bad. 

New Words

The past week has been both joyous and stressful.

*NESTING SUCKS*

I am going nuts. I wish I had infinite funds to buy all the cute organizational things I see on Pinterest or in the stores. I have to figure out the logistics of putting two kids in one closet. Their closet is quite large, but is deep and has only one rod. Huh. I wonder if I can talk Todd into hanging a second rod. Oooooh. That's a genius idea. Go me! Just have to figure out what to do with my wedding dress, which takes up 1/2 the wall space at the back of their closet.

We bought blackout curtains for Jack's room a couple of months ago. I've been lazy pregnant so they've been sitting there "waiting for a good weekend to hang them...." Well, this was that weekend. I'm an idiot for not having hung them earlier. We also removed the second safety rail from Jack's bed because we figured he hasn't fallen out of a bed yet. Ever. Not even with me as his mommy. Anyway, we made an Ikea run to pick up a ceiling track and they didn't have the glider thingies to actually hang the curtain. I pouted and huffed, and then decided it wouldn't be so horrible if we had to hang them a few inches lower than the ceiling, because by god, the child needs to sleep in past sunup. We wandered and found an alternative to the ceiling track and went with a traditional curtain rod that could be mounted from the ceiling. (In case you're unaware, we live in a loft. The bedrooms don't actually have a 4th wall and share the light from the east facing 8 ft windows that light our condo and 108 inch blackout curtains are insanely expensive. Right now we have thermal curtains and sheer shades on the downstairs windows, but I don't want dark colored blackout curtains in our main living space.) So, we mounted dark blue curtains in Jack's room and immediately decided that we need some for our room. Todd actually woke up this morning bouncing and ready to go get the rod and hangers from Ikea. Considering the man HATES going to Ikea with me, this is monumental news. Our room is 1.5x the width of Jack's room so we have to order two sets of curtains. I got these from overstock.com and will be ordering chocolate ones for our room when they're back in stock. They're a bit shiny, but they block out 99% of the light from downstairs and the exceptionally sunny mornings, so I can deal with the shine.

Let's see, I also got a Closetmaid 15 cubby shelf for the kids' room. I love it. The cubby holes are big enough for a pair of shoes, so it's not anything huge, but I was able to roll up all of our various receiving blankets and sheets and store them in it. It's cleared up all the space underneath Jack's bed. I want to get some long rolling bins and use them as toy boxes under the bed and crib. At least these are inexpensive solutions to our toy problem. I would love to do an entire wall of built in shelves and drawers in their room but that just ain't gonna happen. Maybe when we get a bigger house one day.

Let's see, a pregnancy update is due about now (I will update the photo later.) Movement. Nina moves ALL THE TIME. Jack had very predictable hours of movement. Usually in the morning, after meals, and early evening. Never while I was sleeping. I could predict his movement nearly down to the minute. Nina is crazy. She jumps around like a monkey on crack when I rock in the recliner. When I snuggle Jack she fights him for my attention. He still has no interest/patience in holding his hand to my belly waiting for her to move again. He did feel a couple good jabs today and seemed unmoved. He does acknowledge her, at least.

Weight wise, I've been wavering between 3 pounds. This trimester I gained back the 6lbs I lost from not eating in the first trimester. I'm back at where I started, so I'm feeling pretty good. With Jack's pregnancy, I gained a respectable 20-25lbs or so. I had high fluid, so that accounted for a strange weight gain and drop in my third trimester. In the end, I weighed 20lbs more than when I started, lost 18 within two weeks (go breastfeeding!) and then lost about 5 more pounds in the last two years.

Appetite. That's back. Only now, I'm focusing on eating healthier. Trying to eat more vegetables. We're experimenting with different ways to cook them. There's only so many ways to steam vegetables. Last night for dinner we had chicken breast, asparagus, and rice. Todd sauteed the asparagus with garlic and onion and drizzled some fresh lemon juice over it. We steamed it for about 3 minutes at the end of cooking and it came out crisp and delicious. Tonight we ate pork tenderloin, roasted potatoes, squash, zucchini, and onions. The vegetables were once again sauteed and finished with a quick steam. Both meals were delicious. I'm also trying to get as much dairy as my system will allow. I have tried three different brands of Greek yogurt and just can't manage the texture. I've tried adding honey to it to thin it out a bit and it's just not there for me. I know it has extra protein, but now that I can eat meat again, I'm going back to regular yogurt. Mmmm. Meat. And peanut butter. Both are tolerable this trimester. I can't tell you how excited I was to be able to eat apples and peanut butter again. It's one of my favorite snacks and I missed peanut butter during my "anything squishy, meaty, healthy, textured" aversion of the first trimester. As far as cravings go, I haven't really had much this trimester.

This week, Jack has learned three new words. He says yuck, cloud, and eye. One day last week, I took one of Todd's socks that had a hole in it and allowed Jack to throw it in the garbage. Now, when Todd wears socks, Jack will look at his foot, sniff it and say "yuck!" and remove the sock and throw it away. At least he's creating less laundry for me, I guess? It was awfully cute, and Todd's been careful about not wearing socks around the baby anymore. Jack is starting to enjoy sharing a book with me or Todd again. He won't let us actually read the book to him, but he points out things and asks what they are. Tonight we read his favorite Toy Story 3 book and he tells us what Rex says, can point out all of the characters by name and "play" name (Evil Dr. Pork Chop, One-eye Bart), and said something that sounded a lot like "Bullseye" but wouldn't repeat it for us so we can't confirm it. I think he's been trying to say "howdy" because his Woody doll says it. He comes close, it's just a tiny bit garbled and unless I know that he is repeating it after Woody, I couldn't pick it out of the rest of the gibberish he spouts at me throughout the day.

His sound effects are developing quickly. He has a different sound for going up and down stairs. He "rawrs" at the cats (specifically Strider), he grunts, growls, roars, and choo choos. We've never given him anything that resembles a gun, and while I can't guarantee he's never seen a show or game without a gun since he's become aware of television, he is reenacting something that resembles gun behavior. I'm pretty sure this is one of those "ingrained in little boys" behaviors. He turned our curtain rod support thing into a "pew pew" weapon (the actual sound may have been perfected by mommy, but he was pretty close). He didn't aim it at cats or people, so it might have been coincidental. I just remember my nephew at about a year older would turn everything into a gun. I thought it was hilarious. I have no problem with imaginative play. We'll have the "guns are weapons, not toys" conversation when he's older and can understand about not pointing at people.

We have a little more than 4 months before miss Nina arrives. We're both excited and nervous. We are apprehensive about the whole newborn stage again, but excited to see how different she is going to be from her big brother. I'm trying not to buy anything because I know certain aunts and grandmothers have this girl thing covered for us, but I just can't help myself. We're going with a ladybug theme for her half of the room. This stemmed from my dad calling me "bug" when I was little. It's one of my most precious memories of our time together and I wanted to share it with my own daughter. Todd loves it and already calls her "Nina Bug" and so we decided to go with it. I also love the red, black, and white color scheme that goes with traditional ladybug design! Although, her bedding set is mostly pink and green, it has some bright red and black accents to it. It's the best of all worlds. Can't wait to get her stuff ordered and put together to share with you all. :)

Nesting

I'm an "early" nester. When we found out we were expecting our second baby, I immediately went into planning mode. Not much was able to be done because we didn't know that we were having a girl. However, we rearranged the kids' room to provide a better flow from crib to changing table to Jack's bed. It also allowed for a bit more space in the middle of the room.

This morning, I hit our storage unit and went through all of Jack's wee baby clothes to find some gender neutral stuff. I have no problem putting our girl in blue, so I picked out a few of my favorite Jack outfits while leaving the "baby boy" and "daddy's little slugger" outfits out. I plan on making hair bows and headbands to match the darker "boy" outfits and turn them into girly outfits. I dug out my favorite Jack pajamas and am looking forward to dressing another little one in animal footed outfits. I found Jack's coming home outfit and may have sort of whimpered at how tiny he once was. I anticipate Nina to be a bit bigger, as she will hopefully be on time and not 3 1/2 weeks early like her brother.

I stopped at our local kid's consignment shop with full intent on NOT buying anything, but they had this adorable ladybug sundress. I will have to layer it with a long sleeve onesie to make it warmer. This girl thing can potentially be mighty dangerous for our bank account! I'm not going overboard, though, because I'm still not 100% convinced we're actually having a girl. Insane, right? I know. I can just envision the c-section announcement of "it's a boy!" and Todd and I have donated all our boy stuff and then we'd be stuck with a cross dressing infant for a few months. For now, we're still keeping all of Jack's boy stuff in the event that our sneaky baby was hiding something behind the umbilical cord.

Over the next few weekends, my plan is to do some serious sorting of Jack's closet, his dresser, and his toy box. We have to create a space where two kids can be organized so mommy doesn't go completely crazy. We have the big dresser and the changing table, so we have plenty of drawer space. The closet is a very good size, it just needs to be organized. Our living room is thankfully (finally?) set up in a way that provides ample play space and the swing will fit without a problem. Our space may be small, but it is workable. I might want to rearrange the dining room to be able to make more of a play space. Honestly, we rarely use our dining room table lately. I'd like to either change that and begin eating at it or break it down and put it in storage and turn the dining room into a playroom. It's a good thing I'm having the kids close enough together that we won't have to worry about tiny Legos or bitty parts to things. Jack at 2 is still in the realm of non-choking hazard sized toys. While he has never been a mouthy baby, I have no idea how Miss Nina will be.

Active Baby Report

I think I've mentioned how active this baby is. No? Huh. Okay then. 

This baby is really, really ridiculously active. I don't know why. I don't know if it's because she's a girl or if it's because my placenta is posterior instead of anterior this time. I've been feeling movement since about 13 weeks. Todd's been feeling movement for about 3 weeks. Not the big belly rolling movement of the third trimester, but rapid, bunny bouncing on a trampoline after snorting carrot powder movement. 

I didn't feel Jack until I was about 21 weeks. His first movements were not nearly as wild as this baby. He was a calm, predictable first thing in the morning and around 7 at night active period times; with occasional after meal activity. This baby moves when I pee, moves when I move, wakes up when I roll over, moves with cold drinks, hot food, etc., I think you're getting the point. When I first started feeling her move, I felt respectable movement on one side of my belly or another. Now, it feels like there are either 3 babies in my belly, or perhaps there's a squid in there. There is movement all over the belly at the same time. I think I'm growing a spider monkey.

I'm happy the baby is moving. I am. It's reassuring knowing the baby is alive...blah, blah, blah. But sometimes, just like I enjoy Jack's nap time as much as I love him awake, I like some quiet time. This baby wakes me up in the middle of the night with movement. She just doesn't stop. If I'm upright and moving, she's like "whohoo! WATERBED!" and pounces. It's uncomfortable to be standing and feel movement because sometimes the movement is indistinguishable from Braxton Hicks contractions. Kinda freaky miss Nina. I'm already going to worry needlessly after you're born and we expose you to your brother. I don't want to constantly think that you're coming early. 

As we watched you bounce and roll during the ultrasound yesterday, we were once again reminded how different you will be from your brother. The ultrasound tech had such trouble getting basic measurements of your legs, arms, and spine. You wouldn't hold still for her to get your heartbeat and it literally took minutes to get a decent measurement. It was a bit funny. With all of the ultrasounds we've seen you in you've been a rolling little bugger. 

Despite all of this, I cannot wait to lay on the couch and watch you do your big rolls that move my belly from side to side. These were the moments I cherished with your brother and cannot wait to share them with you. At the same time, I cannot wait for you to come out. I imagine we're going to have a happy third trimester as you stretch your little body diagonally from my lungs to my appendix.

WE'RE HAVING A.....

GIRL!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, Jack, Todd and I happily introduce:

Nina Josephine Eckert

You all were almost gravely disappointed. This sweet modest little girl kept her legs closed and her feet over her lady bits. Maybe this means that Todd won't have to buy a shotgun??? :) I almost left the doctor's office in tears today. Thankfully, we had a persistent tech and she tried rolling me around in several directions to get miss Nina to move her feet and legs. In about a 2 second money shot, we were able to see a lack of penis. I don't know how else to describe it. No rocket ship. Three little lines indicating girl parts instead of boy parts.

So, 20 weeks. It took 1/2 the pregnancy, but I'm finally starting to feel good for more than a few consecutive days. I didn't have a single bout of gas, round ligament pain, migraine, or nausea on our trip. WOOT! I did throw up once, but that was more from some sinus issues than the pregnancy. I will not blame you, sweet little baby who now moves so much that I feel like I'm seizing from the inside. I get that you don't like underbelly waist bands, but it's summer and I'm not wearing full panel shorts. I'm sorry for that and hope we can compromise until fall when full panel pants will be much more comfortable for the both of us. In the meantime, I don't blame you for attacking my full bladder like a bunny on a trampoline. Enjoy. Once you come out, your big brother will thoroughly enjoy beating you with foam swords, so I imagine we'll be even. MOMMY LOVES YOU!

It appears as though I'm documenting the second pregnancy better than Jack's pregnancy. This is true. With Jack's pregnancy, I wasn't terribly comfortable with how my body adjusted to being pregnant. Which is a bit silly, because my hair, skin, and nails were gorgeous. It wasn't until I was HUGELY pregnant that I a) accepted that I was actually pregnant and a baby was coming, b) fell in love with my huge pregnant belly, and c) which has nothing to do with the actual pregnancy, but I have a blog this time around. With the second baby, I understand the reality of having two children and I know that this kid won't have a minute by minute detailing of life like Jack did. Or, perhaps I'll make the effort to ignore my children for 15 minutes a day and start updating to Facebook several times a day again. Who knows? Right now, I'm preparing for the worst.

Our trip to Disney World was a blast. It was a bit frustrating not knowing what the baby's sex was. By a "bit" I mean it drove me absolutely nuts. Every employee asked what the baby is, commented on how I was carrying, and every person I spoke with declared I was having a girl. When we stopped to take belly ear pictures, the cashier politely giggled when we explained we had didn't know what the baby's sex was. She was sweet and reminded us that we were welcome to purchase a personalized set of ears via the website once we found out.

Jack really enjoyed himself. When we booked the trip, we were undoubtedly concerned with him being only 2. But, he was free, so we decided to risk it. I must say, we have an awesome 2 year old. He was well behaved, surprisingly patient, and an absolute joy to see interact with the characters. With his favorites, like Mickey, Buzz and Woody, and Jake from Jake and the Never Land Pirates, he would shy up. He was excited to see them, but was nervous to be in the presence of the biggest stars he knew. Compared to some kids we saw, our occasionally whiny munchkin was an angel. We did have one day (the hottest day we were there) where everyone was a tiny bit miserable. Jack took a 4 hour nap that day and the next day we were all pleasant once again.



During Easter weekend, we took Jack to the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia. We attempted to take him onto the carousel and he hated it. I don't know why. Could have been that Todd wasn't with us, but he screamed and was absolutely terrified through the whole ride. We were worried that he would react in a similar fashion while at Disney World. It's amazing what three months of growing and exploring does to a toddler. Jack not only enjoyed the rides, but as the week went on, he was so excited to get on rides that we had a hard time with a toddler's patience span and we were constantly reminding him that he had to wait for the person in front of him to move first. His favorite rides were Spaceship Earth in the EPCOT ball and the Studio Tour at Hollywood Studios. We're not sure why Spaceship Earth was a favorite, but with the Studio Tour his love of all things going "BOOM!" was the reason.

We hit Animal Kingdom thinking there weren't many rides for kids. He went on the TriceraTop Spin and the Kilimanjaro Safari and walked the different trails with us. Surprisingly, the animals held little interest for him and he spent the whole ride pointing out the different plants and rocks to us. Perhaps he'll grow up to be a botanist. We also saw the bird show; during which Jack fell asleep. The best part of our Animal Kingdom outing was Jack yelling at monkeys that were HIGH UP in their tree to "GET DOWN!"...obviously this phrase is used a lot at home. Jack's vocabulary increased to include "duck, car, truck, get down, I don't know (which he said before, but now is very clear), and okay (which sounds like aye aye; perfect for a pirate!)"

Everyday we made sure to go back to the hotel for Jack's nap. He wasn't on any sort of reliable schedule, so we went back during the hottest part of the day. The first two days or so, we didn't make it to the pool. We should have. After the 3rd day or so, everyday we went swimming. Do you have any idea how much energy a 1/2 hour of swimming takes out of a kid? Enough to get loooooong naps from a certain 2 year old. He LOVED the pool. We were sure he would hate the water like he hated swim lessons. We were absolutely amazed at how much Jack enjoyed the water. He was very good about getting out of the pool, too. No tantrums. It is starting to sound redundant, but we are constantly amazed at how well behaved our "terrible" two year old son is. The Disney pools have a little ledge all around the rim of the pool that sits under about an inch of water. This ledge made the perfect diving board for curious toddlers. Jack loves jumping off the side of the pool. He also loves being tossed through the air from me to Todd.

Jack's appetite sucked on this trip. He ate a few bites of eggs and 1/2 a banana for breakfast, possibly some sort of rice at dinner, and in between we tried to shove as many sugar free fruit snacks, whole grain goldfish and Scooby Snacks, and juice in him as possible because lunch? Yeah, that wasn't happening. He would not drink water if it was warm. Considering every day started off humid and peaked over 90*, we struggled with keeping things cold. We let this kid drink so much juice this week to ensure he stayed hydrated that I'm surprised he's not an apple by now. He did mix it up a bit and partook in some frozen lemonade. The best night he ate was at the Tusker House restaurant at AK. They not only had rice, which is one of Jack's staples, but they smartly had big bowls of peanut butter and jelly with slices of bread. Man, we were happy to be able to make a normal PB&J for our son.

Note to future Todd and Molly, Uncrustables are NOT a good alternative to a regular PB&J. You are both idiots for not realizing this after 3 $5 kids meals resulted in the round abomination promptly being shoved to the side. WTF is wrong with you? Also, your kid likes the idea of chocolate pudding, but won't actually eat it. Learn this, morons.


We caught the firework show the last night we were at the resort. Jack absolutely adored them. He made buddies with a little girl and her family while we watched the show. After every firework, Jack would sign "more" and scream "Adin!" over and over. He really loved them. We tried to make it back to Massachusetts early enough to catch some local 4th of July fireworks, but by the time we were able to get unloaded, run to the grocery store, and eat dinner, it was nearly 9 o'clock and Todd and I were beat. There's always New Year's! While we're very happy to be home, as we always are when we're away, it will be hard to adjust to messy beds and empty toilet paper rolls. Sigh. I love maid service...

20 Weeks

Hello there. I have been silent lately. The truth is, not much has been happening. Actually, that is a big fat lie. We are still in Florida enjoying the heat, bugs, and pools. However, I plan on doing a big post when we return from Disney World and after we find out the sex of the baby. Right now, I offer a 19.5 week belly photo. Enjoy :)