Health and Wellness!

23 Weeks. 

Holy moly 23 weeks! 

I'm reminded again that I'm over halfway through this second pregnancy. With Jack I felt like every week was so slow and it was more like a YEAR before he was here. Not so with this little one... Every week flies by! I read the little blurbs in the baby book and sometimes have to read two because I forgot the week before. Definitely a second baby. :o)

But the wonderful news is that we had another ultrasound this week and Baby is growing well and is perfectly healthy. That probably sounds weird since there's not reason to think otherwise, but to be honest, after the last ultrasound we found out that she had a possible choroidplexus cyst in her brain. (Actually, the midwife on duty that day told me she HAD one. Not possibly had one.) So that set off a wave of panic on a Friday, at work, with kids around... Yuck. But by Monday morning I'd come to terms with the fact that this little princess was totally fine, but just needed some attention! She knows her older brother is going to fight her for it, I guess. 

Anyway. At yesterday's ultrasound they checked for the cyst again. Negative. They checked for every other sign of Downs, Spina Bifida, and Trisomy 18 that they would have done if she had a cyst. Negative. I am so thankful to the tech and doctor who took the extra time out of their day to be so thorough. Our hearts and minds are completely at ease now that she's truly safe and healthy. Our little girl is a little camera shy, but we still got some really great views of her and her personality as she refused to move several times for the tech! :o) 

Little girl is dead on with her size, about 38% percentile in weight (a whopping 1 pound 3 ounces as of yesterday) and should have 10 fingers and 10 toes. (Again a weird note to make, but my oddball husband asked the tech to check...Long story.) 

As for mommy, things are fine. I'm feeling her move quite a bit and can only hope that she slows down as the room gets smaller for her. She'd better at least. Or else this blog may become a little more angry! Another development is that I can't stop eating! Apparently she's hit a growth spurt, but after most meals I feel empty and hungry. Last night I tried to drink a ton of water (a Weight Watchers trick I learned) but she was having none of it. Today at lunch I ate the lunch I brought and was still so hungry I went to the cafeteria and had a second lunch. Seriously. Two lunches. But at least I wasn't hungry when I was done! We'll keep working on the healthy eating aspect. I just need to find a happy medium between portion size and snacks now that I'm pregnant. Weight Watchers portions are no longer necessary and it's throwing me off! Just something to add to the list of things to do...

Date Nights and the Pregnant Chick

So, I need to preface this post with a HUGE thank you to Danielle Robinson who watched Jack for us last night. I gather things went well, but it did not go unappreciated! We will definitely pay you back! 

As for the date night, Mitch and I went to his company holiday party and had a blast! Sucks being sober in a brewery, but c'est la vie. We got safely home in the end thanks to preggers here. But the lesson learned is a larger one... pregnant chicks can be hot! I don't know what magic came together (perhaps my fashion consult with Megan, perhaps the fact that I'm carrying a girl so she makes me look cuter...) but I felt so cute last night and my sweet husband made sure I was aware of it the whole night too!

 

And no, these are not the new boots, but a cute pair I did already own. Heels however, are NOT comfortable for teaching in, so new boots are a necessity if I'm going to stay fashion forward at work. Ha! Me. Fashion forward. 

Only noteable baby news is she's cookin' just fine! Had an appointment on Friday and everything looks great!

The Ups and Downs of Parenthood....

Well, here we are week 18 1/2 and I'm finally feeling preggers rather than just pudgy. :o) 

We found out in the ultra sound last week that we are expecting a baby girl! Mitch and I are very excited, though my thrifty side is a little miffed since we have to go buy a new wardrobe. But my girly side is excited to buy a new wardrobe. You see my dilemma....

Either way, I've resigned myself to a life of living with a daughter. I didn't realize that diva-hood started this early, but here we are.... Living proof. Yikes. Princess behavior can manifest itself in so many ways. If I bend over a little to talk to a kid across a table at work, she'll kick or flip just to let me know this is not an optimal position for her. Sleep is fleeting. While I'm slightly rested in the morning, I've woken up several times in the night with growing pains and aches. A little boy would never put his mommy through this, right? Little brat. :o) 

Punkin Season All Around!

We're getting there!

First trimester is over and the morning sickness is (mostly) over. The nausea raises it's ugly head at random times, but usually is manageable. Last night it was caused by running through the Home Depot to get Jack to the bathroom in time. (We made it.) Too bad we're potty training a two year old while pregnant. Down the road I'm going to be VERY thankful for not changing two diapers at a time.

I've been back to the doctor and things are still looking good. Jack was there to "help" measure the belly and hear the heartbeat. God bless these ladies for loving children! The only bad news was that I need to bypass the regular glucose test and do the three hour one. Yucky. NOT looking forward to that one.

 Here's the belly at Week 16:
















Feeling especially pregnant now, but as there are five women pregnant in my building, yes, FIVE, many have said they feel bigger, faster, with the second (or third) one. Yeesh. I'm going to be the size of a barn. I'll give you time to adjust to how big that really is. 

....

Can you picture that? Yeah. Me too.

Anyway. Other exciting projects include renovating the basement bedroom (I have a knack for getting knocked up when hard labor is being planned...) and we carved pumpkins this weekend!
















This is a particularly good picture of Jack's participation. He pretty  much scooped and watched, but had a ton of fun doing it! Hopefully it's a sign of fun to come in the years ahead! The weekend was full of pumpkins, pumpkin puree for holiday pies, pumpkin seed toasting (trying an Alton Brown recipe) and peanut putter cookies. Meg came down and joined in the festivities too! Thanks Tia Meggie!

Looking ahead to Monday's glucose test (puke) and Nov. 2nd's ultrasound to find out the gender! Yay!

Baby Blog Numero Dos

So, here we are. Baby Kusek #2. I've been waiting for this first blog day to arrive because there's been a ton of funny stories already, and now that it's here? I can't remember them. Oops.

But one of the best has been Jack's reaction. When we told him that there was a baby in Mommy's tummy, he looked at me and said (very seriously), "No. Jack baby." Well, since I call him Baby on a daily basis, I guess I can't blame his logic. So I added some words, "You're right, Jack, but Mommy's going to have another baby." This seemed to make more sense. He asked, "Daddy baby too?" Well. Maybe. After that, we couldn't really tell what he thought. He ran back off to play... :o)

So now we're in Week 13 which is the boundary of first trimester and second trimester. The nausea is WAY down and the growing pains have started. Not sure how I feel about that yet, but at least I've been getting regular massages and intend to continue that as we go!

We did have our first ultrasound last week and I'll get those pics up as soon as I can scan them in. However, to tide you over, here's a picture of the (little) 13-week belly!

New Experiences

So, went to the doctor's again today. Things are well and he's cooking just nicely. However, I did finally ask for an internal exam to see how, well, the internal things are going. After being warned that it would be painful, we found out that I'm 1cm dilated and 50-60% effaced. So he's working on something in there! Not sure how long he'll decide to stay in there, but I did have a few more contractions today than normal, so hopefully we'll only have to wait another week or so! My mom's coming in a week, and while she'd love to be there to help during the birth, she's totally content to just show up and be Grandma. It's kind of funny to think about my parents being Grandma and Grandpa Mohs. Well, dad wants to be Papi, but I think we'll nix that pretty fast. :o) Just kidding!

13 Days and Counting

Of course the title refers to his due date and DEAR GOD he better at least be here by then. Today (July 7th) was a bad day for pain and discomfort. I'm still not having regular contractions, but he's got to be working on something in there with all this evilness he's wreaking inside my body. Little bugger.

On a happy note, we've installed his carseat and will have it checked tomorrow to be doubly sure our little Peanut is safe. We also bought a bunch of cloth diapers and two covers today to start our adventure in cloth. I really think that we'll be able to do this. We're doing it more for the cost aspect, and even if the daycare we choose won't do cloth, we'll save a bit of money doing cloth at home, right?

I kind of remember mom and dad trying this with Megan (Mitch does the same for when Greg was little) and I'm excited that the cloth technology is a bit better and cuter than it used to be! Here's a picture of his waterproof covers. How cute are they? My favorite is the little froggies. I'm still astounded that he's going to be so small. I stare at his clothes and now these butt huggers and can't believe that this huge belly is full of something so small. Wow.

We went back to the doc today. No internal exam (yet again!) so no news on my progress, but this time I did ask about the exam and since it's slightly painful and the results won't affect his progress at all, they deem them fairly unnecessary. Well poop. After such a reasonable reason, I can't even bring myself to ask for one now! We did get a rough estimate of his weight and we're working on a 7.5 to 8 pound little boy! Mom was 8 lbs. 1 oz. and Dad was 6 lbs. 13 oz. so right in the middle. Maybe. If he cooks too long, we'll get a little bigger. DID YOU HEAR THAT PEANUT? YOU MIGHT GET BIGGER AND THEN MOMMY WILL HAVE TO WORK HARDER!

Ahem... I mean. We're anxiously awaiting his impending arrival. :o)

Also including one more pic of me at 38 weeks: