A moment to brag...

Ok..I just have to post about some awesomeness I've stumbled upon lately.

I mentioned the video monitor we got such a great deal on ($70 to be exact) in my last post, well I got the extra camera, that will go in the nursery for $20.50! I couldn't hardly believe it. Not only was the price amazing, but it's brand new and comes with a warranty.

I got the double curtain rod I needed for the nursery earlier in the week. I got it on sale for $35.00 and thought that was a great price. Well, I get an ad in the mail from another store (the day after I bought it) and they have the exact same rod on clearance and the ad included a $5 off coupon. So I returned the original one I bought and purchased the other one for $15.00! Cha-ching!! :)

Ok, so off we go to my favorite hardware store to get the paint for the nursery. I am doing two different colors and then because I'm a tight wad and don't want to pay the $120 for the wall mural I fell in love with, I'm just going to paint it by hand myself. Which means we had to get an additional color of paint. My husband was not at all excited about having to purchase 3 gallons of paint when there was no way all of it would get used...but he was supportive. I had put in my order for the 2 colors I knew I wanted and was still up in the air about the mural color (thinking maybe I should get a color that could be used for something else, just so I wasn't wasting all that paint). As I was standing at the counter contemplating, my husband is roaming the area to not bare witness to my madness. I catch him waving his arms in the air from across the counter, trying to get my attention. I walk over and he points to a discounted gallon of paint and says, "Isn't this the color you were talking about the other day?" Oh. My. Gosh. there it was in all it's glory...the paint color I wanted already mixed in a $37.00 gallon of paint...marked down to $10.00! Check please!!

So, we get home tonight and start working on dinner. I had found what looked to be yummy recipe on Pinterest the other day so we decided to give it a whirl tonight. It's called Firehouse Chicken Cordon Bleu Pasta and here's the link to the recipe. It was so good! I'm hoping to get it digested before bed so I can have more. lol. My husband has had a lot of dishes in his days and can be hard to impress but he hasn't hardly stopped talking about how good it is. It's that good. ;)

After dinner was done, I checked my email to learn that I "won" a pair of shoes I had bid on for Ethan. According to the description they were only worn a few times and are in EUC. $9.00 for basically brand new Nike Reax is crazy!! Especially since they run +$50.00 brand new.

I feel like I should go buy a lottery ticket! :)

We're having a....BOY!!

We are over the moon with excitement with expecting another boy. He was being a little booger and we were beginning to think we weren't going to get to find out. He is so active and moving non stop and had his legs crossed almost the entire time. The tech was quick and noticed they were separated and went in for a peek and was able to confirm his male parts. At first I wasn't 100% sure because it was so easy to tell with Ethan but not this time. However when they handed us our pictures, there was a shot of it and it is very obvious. This one is already showing signs of being like his momma. :)  The ultrasound showed everything was great and baby was right on track, with a heart beat of 148bpm and weighing in at 13 oz.

20 weeks 4 days

 

We decided on names back during our trying to conceive process. Our boy name was easy, we knew we wanted to name him after some pretty amazing people. We came up with the perfect name, Elliott Levon. I get teared up every time my husband says his name during prayers. The name Elliott is my husband's late father's middle name and is also his grandmother's maiden name. The name Levon is my late grandfather's middle name (which was the name he went by).

Cute as a bug

I had been looking at bedding ideas for almost two weeks and I was so excited when my hubby looked at the 'options' today and said, "Lets get that one...and go ahead and order it". I couldn't believe it, since he is usually the "there's no hurry" type. He said, if we know what we want, we might as well just get it. He knows me so well. :) I love it!! The walls will be light blue and I will be painting a mural on the wall. I can't wait to get started.

Since I can't leave Ethan out we are also upgrading his room into a 'big boy' room. He is so excited, especially since it will be a baseball theme. Ever since we talked about it and he decided on what he wanted to do, he has asked if 'today' is when we are putting baseball bats in his room.

Speaking of his room...we found an amazing deal on a video monitor and since it was on my wish list we went ahead a bought it. I wanted one specifically for his room so I can tell when he's out of bed (I had several times mistaken his kicks against the wall as being up playing and went in only to discover he was still in bed...DOH!!!). Well, we got the monitor today and I love it. Better yet, we can add a camera in the nursery and use the same monitor for both rooms. Winning!!! :)

20 wks

I will finish off this post with my 20 week belly pic. I'm feeling great and couldn't ask for more. I gained more weight this month then I would have really liked but the doctor didn't seem concerned about it so I guess I won't be either. We did go have breakfast right before my appointment but I didn't eat THAT much. lol. Oh yea...and we scheduled our family/maternity pictures. I told the hubby, these moments need to be captured by a professional and not by the timer. So excited!

Busy busy busy!

Busy is the only word  I know to describe the past few weeks. Busy with photography sessions, trips out of town, doctor's appointments, a remodeling project in our kitchen, and just life in general. It's so hard to believe it's already October.

We received a free standing stove/oven so that is what got the remodeling project rolling. We had a 30+ year old built in stove/oven so we had to cut out cabinets to be able to fit our "new" stove in. Since we had tile laid when we moved in that meant there was no tile under the stove now. So, since we would hire the tile guys again to come in we figured we might as well do the other project in the same area so they could tile everything at the same time. The stove part was easy...the other project has been quite the undertaking. Our utility/laundry "closet" was in the kitchen/dining area so we decided to open up space we would move the laundry to the basement. We had to knock out walls, rerun electrical, plumbing and venting. My husband made a trip up into the attic to determine where the new lighting would be mounted and quickly discovered a LOT of spiders. So all work stopped until we could get pest control out to take care of our 'friends'. Work begins again tomorrow to finish up lighting and then the sheet rocker comes Tuesday...and will come everyday for 4 days. UGH!! Then time for the tilers to come in. It will be so worth it when it's done. The best part...I get to repaint the dining/kitchen. :)

We are hoping to get everything done in the next week and a half because once we find out the sex of the baby at our appointment on the 18th it's go time for the nursery. When I was picking out paint for the kitchen, I went ahead and picked out the paint for the nursery. I can't wait to see the ideas I have come to life. Eeeeekkkk...so excited just thinking about it.

I've really been struggling with the care for Ethan when baby gets here but after an unexpected long talk, I'm relieved to know that I can trust our wishes and requests will be respected...and he will only be a few minutes from the hospital. It is such an answered prayer and I'm so thankful I can finally relax and enjoy this pregnancy without that worry. Since I'm so OCD and like everything planned out, I'm confident that between plan A, B, C, D and E we've covered everything. ;)

On a very exciting note, papa bear got to feel baby the other night. I was so shocked, as was he. I had mentioned to him earlier in the week that I was surprised I hadn't felt the baby anymore often then I had been. I'm guessing it's just because I'm so busy and don't have a ton of time to just sit and pay attention to every little quick and quiver. After my dessert the other night, which consisted of a butterfinger fun size candy bar, baby was going crazy so I put my hand on my belly and couldn't believe I could feel it on the outside too. I told papa bear so he had to get in on the fun. Within a few short seconds he looked at me and said, "Oh my gosh, I felt that...oh and again...etc". This went on for a couple minutes. I love his excitement and desire to be a part of my pregnancies.

On a sad note, Ethan has decided he is to big to call us "Momma or Dada", he only calls us "Mommy or Daddy" and corrects us if we say the other. :( It makes me so sad that he is growing up so fast. No matter what he calls us, I will always call him my baby!!

Time is flying...

Wow 4 months already. :( I can't wait to hold our precious baby in my arms but since this will be my last pregnancy I'm sad that it's going by so fast. I love being pregnant, even on the bad days. I love doing what my body was meant to do.

I have been feeling great, other then the never ending pain in my back. After having a massage and it not helping I went to the chiropractor. It wasn't until then that I realized that there was a cause of concern for my pain. I was shocked when the chiro informed me the pain was due to the fact that my right scapula (aka shoulder blade) was turned outward, causing it to stick out almost and inch farther then my left. How does that happen?? I know your body adjust, muscles relax, tendons stretch all while pregnant but what in the world causes this. Thankfully I know a PT and she recommended getting a referral from my doctor to be treated. After discussing the situation with my OB and explaining the different things I had already tried, she agreed PT was definitely the next step. She was not happy that I didn't call her earlier to talk with her about it and explained that some things don't need to wait for my appointment. Oops...lesson learned. lol. I'm looking forward to starting treatment next week and finally getting some relief.

Also during our appointment we scheduled our "big" ultrasound, where we get to see our sweet 'baby boo' for 45 minutes, and hopefully find out if we are expecting a girl or a boy. Since we drive over an hour to our appointments I was begging to be able to have both (the ultrasound and our 20 week appointment) done on the same day. They must really love me, because they made it happen. ;) So we get to have our ultrasound done first thing in the morning. Which is super exciting because we had to wait till 3:00 in the afternoon to find out with Ethan. That was like the longest day ever. lol. The clinic doesn't allow minor children to be there so we are thinking of some fun ways to tell Ethan and then some exciting things to do that day as well.

I finally knew without a doubt on Sunday (exactly 16 weeks) that I was feeling quickening. I had wondered for a few days but was 100% certain on Sunday. I'm so excited for this phase and looking forward to seeing my hubby's face when he feels it for the first time. When the nurse was listening to the HB on the Doppler at our appointment, baby was going crazy. I love it!!

I'm slowly getting Ethan's "Big Brother" hospital bag filled with all his goodies. He's gonna make out like a bandit...with Christmas in December, his birthday in February and then his hospital bag in late February/early March. Now to start working on Daddy's bag...squee...this is so much fun!!

Some days I get very over whelmed and stressed thinking of all sorts of different things. When I get down and feel like I'm loosing control I'm reminded of a hymn my Papa Shuler use to sing to me when I was a kid. This is a more modern version of the old hymn I grew up on but I enjoy the contemporary twist. Enjoy!

Anxiety Building...

As each day passes I'm flooded with an array of emotions. First and foremost, excitement. Not one day has gone by where excitement hasn't described a part of me. I'm almost giddy at thinking about all the fun things yet to come. Yet, that excitement is dampened by fear and anxiety. Fear of the things I can't control. How early could I be this time? How will I handle it if my water breaks at home? (It wasn't until my water was broke last time that I was in tremendous pain.) How would I deal with that pain during the hour drive to the hospital? How soon would we be able to leave if it happened over night (like it did with Ethan)? How would Ethan react if he woke up and we weren't home? What would I do if it happens when my husband is working and on a call and can't get home or even answer his phone to know what's going on?

Then there's the anxiety of being in the hospital, away from Ethan. How do I make it possible to keep our promise as parents that one of us would always be home to do bedtime routine and tuck him in. I can't imagine my husband driving an hour one way to come home to do the routine and then return to the hospital, another hour drive, to be with me and the baby. I don't want to be at the hospital without him but our promise to Ethan is so much more important then that. Do we just have him at the hospital till bedtime and brush his teeth, read stories, say prayers and then have my mom bring him home and put him to bed? The hospital will allow him to stay over night with us but I don't think that's fair to him. There would be no way he would get good sleep. I want him to be at the hospital as much as possible and I know that's unreasonable for a what will be 3 year old. I know it's selfish to want him up there the whole time but I want us to be a family and for him to feel included from the beginning.

I thought this pregnancy would have less anxiety then the first but I was wrong. It's a whole new level of anxiety. I thought it would be easier since we don't have to move - twice. Yet instead I find myself worrying over silly things like: Should we be buying more diapers then we are...Nursery colors...my clothes don't fit...am I doing enough to prepare Ethan. I know it's doing no good and there's the saying, "Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do but doesn't get you anywhere". Easier said then done.

Then as if all those emotions weren't enough I'm dealing with sadness. Sadness because this will be my last pregnancy. I know in my heart that I don't want more then 2 kids but there's a sadness in the fact that this is it. I love being pregnant. The highs and lows are so worth it. We have discussed the ways we will prevent pregnancy, without taking birth control for the rest of my fertile days. Even though I'm in agreeance I'm scared because, what if God forbid, something happen to either of my kids. What if we would want another? I know it's not permanent but it feels that way...especially with all the struggles we had with getting pregnant this time. How impossible would it be then?

I've spent lots of time praying with God and I know He will take care of everything and it will work out just as it's supposed to. I ask that you pray for me...for peace. Thank you!!

As 1st Trimester comes to a close...

It's hard to believe that next week is moving week...moving as in, onto 2nd Trimester. I can already tell by the signs though...increased energy and A LOT less bloat. The headaches are fewer and farther between too. Phew!!

We had our 12 week appointment today and everything is great. Measuring right on track and baby boo has a strong heartbeat of 165 bpm. When we listen at home on our Doppler not only are we enjoying the sounds of the heartbeat but also all the rolls and wiggles going on inside. We decided not to have the NT Scan. I have talked with two different ladies that had two different experiences with it. One was told her results showed an increase/likely risk for DS (down syndrome), which caused increase stress and worry for 6 months only to deliver a perfectly healthy baby. The other was told her results showed a 1 in 3000+, which she was told by her doctor basically meant a negative result, only to deliver a handsome baby boy with DS. Neither opted for the amino due to the risk of miscarriage. For myself to know 2 people personally with drastically different outcomes from the same test it was a no brainer for us. Totally not worth the risk. We will love the baby that God gives us and we will have the 20 week scan that will test for the same thing so we are confident that if it shows something at that point we will have plenty of time to adjust and educate ourselves prior to our little bundles arrival. Either way we are the most blessed people on earth to be baby boo's parents!!

After getting the stomach bug last week and losing more weight then I should have because of it, my weight is exactly the same as it was last month. I guess that's a good thing. ;)  Speaking of stomach bug, we think we picked it up at Jump Mania (an indoor bouncy house type place). We went because that is where we were wanting to have Ethan's 3rd birthday but after picking up the lovely germs there's no way we are having a party there. Not only do I not want to risk my own child getting sick again but I would feel so bad if the other kids that come to the party ended up getting sick too because of it. No thanks...not worth the risk!! So back to the drawing board on deciding on the birthday party location. I'm wanting to have it some place other then home because I know if I have it at home then it will be over the top. Whereas, if we have it in public I'm limited to what I can do. lol.

My last post was all about our big boy. Well he is officially a BIG BOY!! He tinkles and poos in the potty without any issues or accidents. I couldn't be more proud of him. When we all got sick last week with that darn stomach bug, we had to take him to urgent care for dehydration. Poor guy couldn't keep anything down. :( All the nurses and doctors were shocked that he's only 2.5 years old and already potty trained. I was so proud. For tinkling in the potty he got his fish and fishing pole which is so fun to watch. It's a tub/pool toy with an electronic fish that has a magnet in his mouth and a real working fishing pole that has a magnetic lure and/or worm to fish with. The fish swims around the water and once he 'bites' the 'bait' he flails around as he is being reeled in. It's so cute! Then for poo'n on the potty he wanted a tractor. Well just any ole Walmart cheap tractor wouldn't do so we took an hour drive time round trip to a farm and home supply store to make sure we got the best tractor money could buy. :) He picked out the package that had (2) different John Deere tractors and (1) truck.

I received the shirts I had made for Ethan and 'Dada' to wear at the hospital. They are so cute!! I originally was going to surprise Dada with his but I suck at keeping secrets from him so once it came in the mail I knew there was no way I was going to keep it on the down low for 6 months. So I had to show him right away and of course he loved it. :) We also purchased our first 'baby #2' purchase which is only making the urge to shop that much worse. lol.

Life is great!!

Big boy in the house...

Since finding out we were expecting we have included Ethan in the news. Most conversations have revolved around topics about him being a big brother. We have purchased books regarding a new baby/being a big brother, all the ways that he can help as a big brother and then the discussion about how big brothers don't wear diapers and that diapers are for babies. Originally when we started the diaper conversation his response was, "No, E-ne (which is how he says his name...and I have no idea any other way to spell it...lol) has big diapers". In fact the rare occasions of him actually going on the potty had become nonexistent. Asking if he needed to go tinkle on the potty only brought on tantrums. OY! So I had completely just stopped asking, which in turn meant there no longer were any potty trips. I was beginning to loose all hope. Then on a whim, I searched for blogs regarding the potty training boys topic (stubborn boys specifically) and came across this one blog that actually was a craft blog but had a potty training experience entry. It was awesome! Her ideas and tips were amazing so I discussed with my hubby about how I wanted to try, as she put it, having a 'pee pee party'. I explained her experience and success with it but he was super skeptic. I can't really blame him since everything we had tried before can only be defined as failure.  One of the suggestions in the blog was to hid all his diapers but get newborn or size 1 diapers and when your child gets up the morning of the surprise 'pee pee party' you go to change their diaper, trying to put on the small one. With shock in your voice and action you explain they must have grown over night and are too big for their diapers now so now they will have to wear undies. lol. Genius!! I was so ready to dig out the size 1 diapers and give it a whirl.

Then on Monday, everything changed!! Ethan was helping me put laundry in the washing machine and of course it was a load that had mine and papa bear's undies in it. As he was putting everything in the washer he said, "Wash E-ne's undies?". Without giving it a second thought, I just said, "Nope, since you wear diapers, your undies are always clean...once you wear undies then we can wash yours with momma's and dada's". Maybe 30 minutes later he, out of nowhere, says, "Tinkle Tinkle" and takes off for the bathroom. Papa bear and I just looked at each other, as to say, "Whaaaa??". After he was done I told him, to go into the living room so I could put a diaper on him. His reply was, "No, momma, E-ne a a big boy, no diapers, get undies". I almost fell over.

He has worn undies ever sense. I still can't hardly believe it. Of course we have had a few accidents but just little tinkles where he just doesn't make it quick enough, but no soaking through, leaking on the carpet sort of accidents. I'm so proud of him. I think him "making the decision all on his own" was our secret. He sort of comes by that trait naturally...lol!! We are still putting him in pull ups over night...well to be honest...I enjoy my sleep. I know it's horrible to say but if he gets up at 7:30 and wants to play quietly until 8, I am ok with that but I can't expect him to hold his bladder until I get up. Baby steps for this momma. :)  It did however, feel AWESOME to pull all diapers out of the diaper bag and replace them with undies and extra clothes.

On another note...I can tell 2nd trimester is nearing because I'm feeling really good. My only complaint (because, we all know I always have to have one...lol) is some muscle pain in my back. It's almost impossible to sit in a dinner room table type chair. Unless I can sorta recline, I'm miserable. I don't know if it's just from bending over a lot with Ethan or what but it sucks. It's just on my right side right about where my bra strap is across my back. I finally decided I was going to get my heating pad out and put it to work, only to discover it no longer works. Ugh...just my luck. It's on my list of things to purchase ASAP! I've been battling a darn headache at the base of my neck too but I'm almost 100% positive it's from lack of sleep. Who knows...the two may be connected. I may have a massage in the near future.

Baby boo seems to be doing great. We rented a Doppler and it was delivered Monday. Of course we had to put it to use right away. Heartbeat was detected and going strong at 156. :) There is no denying sweet baby boo is growing like a weed. Here's a little belly series shot.

10 weeks on 8.5.12