i am showing enough that strangers notice now

Tim's family was in town over the weekend, and we all went out to the zoo for the day. It was hot and crowded, but we had fun. Lydia got so tired that she fell asleep about 5 minutes into the ride home. That is VERY unusual b/c I can't remember the last time she's fallen asleep in the car, especially if she's not alone in the backseat (which she wasn't this time). But anyway, while on one of the bathroom breaks at the zoo, I was standing in line, and the woman right in front of me noticed that I was pregnant and offered to let me go first b/c of that. I didn't need to all that badly, so I declined, but it was still so sweet of her to offer. :)

My pains that I was having a few weeks ago have lessened, and when I asked my care provider about them, she said that it was likely just ligament pain. I am glad that the pain is gone. However, I have already developed a slight waddle because of the loosening ligaments. I don't remembering waddling at ALL with Lydia, even at the very end, so it's a strange feeling to have it so early this time.

I have been having extremely strange pregnancy dreams as well. Last night, I dreamed that I was a young professional, and was sitting in an audience for a presentation. A bunch of my high school classmates were also in the audience. My supervisor had told me that one of my job duties was to ask a relevant question during the presentation (a microphone was being passed around). I kept missing my chance to do so, b/c someone else would ask a question before I got up the nerve to stand up. Then during a lunch break, I was in line behind two guys, and there was a tray with sandwiches w/ lettuce and tomatoes on it, and each guy grabbed two of the last four sandwiches, leaving the tray empty and me w/o a sandwich. I was about to get really upset and ask for them to give me one of their sandwiches, lol, but then I noticed an entire new covered tray full of the same sandwiches. After eating, but still during the break, I overheard one of my barely-showing classmates talking to some people about her pregnancy, and how she found out that it's a boy. This is the second "baby boy" dream that I've had, and I've only had one girl dream this time.

I had my ultrasound appointment on the 20th, and the technician was amazing. So was the equipment. We were able to see incredible detail, a lot MORE detail than we saw with Lydia. Everything looked great with the baby and its environment. It still has a ton of room in there, b/c we saw it moving all over and wiggling but I didn't feel a thing. Here's a few of the pictures we got to take home, followed by my 20-week tummy.

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toddler fun and not so fun

A brief update on the pregnancy. We had another appointment and it went well. Baby was swimming all over the place so it was hard to grab the heartbeat, and every time we did, it was tiny and faint. Finally we were able to pick it up nice and strong. It's in the 150s. I've gained 11 lbs so far, so if I keep up that rate, I'll gain less than I did w/ Lydia. It makes sense since when I was pregnant with her, I had nobody to chase around and take care of. She is "helping" me burn some extra calories. I must remember to eat more. During the appointment, Tim also got to see the baby kick. There was a big kick, enough to make a little flutter on the outside of my tummy, and he happened to be looking right in that spot. We also scheduled my ultrasound for the 20th, and we are still planning on not finding out.

As for toddler fun, I love love LOVE the cute little ways that Lydia says certain words/phrases. Here are a few of her latest ones.

"nuffin" (muffin)
"butterjelly" (peanut butter and/or jelly... i.e. in the grocery store today, I pointed to just the display of jelly, and she still calls that "butterjelly.")
"shopping groceries" (grocery shopping)
"pooghetti" (spaghetti)
"poojamas" (pajamas)
"princess hat sticker" and "princess hat jammies" (for her 2nd birthday party, one of the activities was making princess hats, so now anything that has a princess on it isn't just a "princess sticker"... it's a "princess hat sticker" even though there are usually no hats in the stickers.)
"nermaid" (mermaid)

Now for the toddler not-so-fun. I've been seriously stressing and worrying about potty training. What if I start too early, what if I start too late, what if she has trouble and it takes years, what if she never gets out of diapers, etc. I've read both Diaper Free before Three and the 3-Day Method E-book, and neither one seems like it would work for us. The methods in the former are geared for MUCH younger children, and for the 3-day method, we can't really do that b/c we don't have three consecutive days in our schedule where nothing is going on. I keep trying to just do a "waiting" method where maybe she will just eventually catch on by example, but months go by w/o her ever showing any further "signs of readiness" (or any at all, really) and the stress cycle starts again.

But anyway. Occasionally when I wake her up from her nap, her diaper is dry-ish. (If she wakes up by herself, then it's already wet 99% of the time when I go and get her.) Yesterday, I woke her up from her nap, and she was dry, so I suggested she go sit on the potty. She got excited and said "Want to go sit on Lydia's little potty??" and I said yes, so I sat her down on the floor and she walked to the bathroom and sat down on it. I sat down on the big potty (closed lid) and waited with her. After less than a minute, I heard some action. I got excited and said "Wow, Lydia, that's peepee! You are putting peepee in the potty!" She stopped briefly and got a bit of a worried look on her face, but I kept being excited for her and cheering her on and she got into it too. Then I asked her if she had any more to put in there, and I heard a little bit more go in and I cheered for that too. Then we went to get daddy and show him what she had done so he could cheer for her and hi-five her as well. I thought it was a good beginning, but then today, every single time I've mentioned her sitting on her potty w/o a diaper, she screams like the world is coming to an end, and insists I put a "new clean fresh diaper" on her. She will sit w/ no problem if she still has her diaper on. I don't know where to go from here and just want to give up on the whole thing forever. Depends aisle, here I come.

my daughter is over two years old and is still rear-facing in the car

I am by no means a child safety seat expert, but I like to think of myself as an informed consumer. I've spoken online and offline to people who ARE carseat experts, and know that the chest clip needs to be at the chest instead of at the belly (to prevent a child from slipping through the neck space in a crash and exiting the carseat that was meant to protect him). I have also learned that it is safer to have a child in a 5-point harness as long as possible before moving her to a booster seat (even NASCAR cars' seat belts are a 5-point harness).

But I think one of the most important things about a young child in a carseat is to keep them rear-facing for as long as possible. Being rear-facing is 5 times safer for a 12 to 23 month old than being front facing. And the AAP is even now recommending keeping children rear facing until age 2, (not age 1 as was the previous guideline).

A toddler's head is very heavy compared to his body, and if he is front facing in a crash, it could easily cause serious injury to his neck and spinal cord as his head is thrown forward from the force of even a moderate crash. Here is a powerful video where a grandfather tells the story of his 18 month old grandson who suffered a life-threatening neck injury JUST because he was front-facing in his carseat. If the child were rear-facing, the crash would still have happened, but the injury (and the months of therapy and healing) would have been prevented.

Here are some of the types of comments that I've heard from people who want to turn their children front facing ASAP:

"But her legs are all squished up and she doesn't have any room for her feet." A broken leg heals much easier and faster than a broken neck, and a toddler can sit quite comfortably with their legs crossed. (Or they can have fun kicking the seat, like my daughter does. :p)

"My 12 month old is already 30 lbs, what am I supposed to do?" Toddlers grow at a slower rate during their second year than during their first year, and there are several carseats out on the market that have a rear-facing weight limit of 35 lbs.

"I've already turned my child front facing. He's 15 months old and he used to cry non-stop in a car ride, but now he's SO happy. It's nice to be able to drive in peace." All I can say to this one is watch the video, please. Watch the rear-facing versus front-facing crash tests that are within that video. If you'd still like to keep your child front-facing, that is your choice. I'm only posting this to try to make people aware who might not have known there is an alternative to switching their child from rear-facing to front-facing at 12 months.

And again, I am not a carseat expert. But I do feel that this is important information that the general public all too often just doesn't know, and it could make a positive difference for someone out there.

not quite the diaper contents i expected

I just put Lydia down for a nap, and changed her diaper just beforehand. I opened it up and found.... a little car. I asked her if she put a car in her diaper and she said yes. Thankfully, the diaper was only wet and not dirty so the little car was easy to clean up.

I am 18 weeks today and have a definite belly, but in certain clothes, I can still "hide" the pregnancy a little bit. I've been having some way-down-low cramps for the past couple of weeks, and I'm afraid that it is SPD. I have an appointment later this week, so I'll definitely be asking about it. But the symptoms list in that link really describes what I'm going through right now. It hurts to walk. Sitting down and laying down are fine, but as soon as I get up, it hurts again. It's possible that it could be just round ligament pain, in which case it will go away comparatively soon, but if it's SPD then it's likely to hang around until even after the birth.

my hanging garden is showing signs of life

About a month ago, I posted about how I bought some of those hanging tomato container things from the infomercial. I've remembered to water them enough and so far they seem to be doing well. We had a light freeze about a week after they were hung, so we put them in our closet on a sturdy hanger for that night. Later on, another freeze was forecasted, but Tim didn't want to bring them in again and said they'd be OK. Turned out that it did not freeze that time. It did get cold enough, though, to make the "seed leaves" (those little round starchy areas that stick out from the stem) on the cucumber plant whither up. Tim saw them a few days later and thought that it looked bad until I told him that those are the leaves that are supposed to eventually dry up and go away.

Anyway, the plants are growing. I got some tomato plant food that I'm feeding them, to hopefully help them grow more tomatoes (or cucumbers) and fewer leaves. The tomato plant is growing more and bigger than the cucumber plant is, but both have definitely grown since I brought them home.



In other news, Tim got laid off for the second time this year last Thursday. He is seriously considering leaving the plumbing world altogether and going back into the pool business, this time cleaning pools. A friend of ours from church already does this, and Tim is out riding with him on his route today. Tim talked to the owner several days ago, and he came home excited and then I got concerned, b/c I had some unanswered questions. But since then, through conversations with various people, I feel better about this change of career. Tim and I were both even able to go talk w/ the owner yesterday and get some of my more pressing questions addressed and clarified. He will probably come home this afternoon ready to make a decision, and I'm now prepared to support him in whatever decision he wants to make.

ouchie

We were over at some friends' house last night, and on the way home, Lydia tripped on the sidewalk and did a faceplant on the corner of one of the steps, right on the line of the concrete and the grass. Poor little girl looks a lot worse than she feels, and has little scratch spots on her forehead, next to her eye, on her cheek and next to her mouth.

a surprise basket in the kitchen

So yesterday was Lydia's third actual Easter, but this was the first year we put a basket together for her. No eggs, either hidden or colored, though. Maybe next year we'll hide some for her. I think she'd be more into it then. But we "hid" the basket in plain sight on the kitchen floor, and she loved it. :) Here's the video of her exploring it.


Tim's and my 5-year anniversary is this Friday, and he went out on Saturday and got my present, which he couldn't wait to give to me. It was a new phone. :D (I've never really been the flowers/chocolate/jewelry type.) I'd had my previous phone for about 6 years, lol, so it was definitely time for an upgrade. The only thing "advanced" about my prior phone was that it had a color screen (barely) and the phone I had before THAT did not. But it didn't even have a camera or anything. My new phone is awesome and I have been playing with it all weekend. I also downloaded the 141-page manual so I could skim through it as well (it just came w/ a quick-start guide). Ok, who am I kidding, I am actually going to READ the manual, b/c I'm a little strange like that. :p

I do have to share a few funny things from the quick-start guide though. Whoever wrote it has a bit of a sense of humor. Like here's a few tips for caring for your phone (the boldings are mine, and are what made me laugh):

"Water will damage your phone and accessories - even a small amount such as water droplets from a soda in your car cup-holder, melting snowflakes, tears of joy, squirt-gun crossfire or steam from hot water in the kitchen or bathroom.

Use only batteries and accessories from the original manufacturer of your phone - Non-approved accessories can cause damage to you or your phone and shorten the phone's life. Hint: if it's being sold out of someone's car trunk, walk away."

And then here's a safety tip regarding using your phone while driving:

"Keep your phone closed. If it rings and you discover it's in the back seat, do NOT crawl over the seat to answer it while driving.

The whole manual isn't like that (it IS a manual and not a comic book, after all), but those things and a couple of others made me laugh so hard.

In pregnancy news, it's moving right along. I'm undeniably showing a tiny bit now. I have a pair of capris that I wore when I was postpartum with Lydia, and they are my "way fat" pants, lol. They are still a little too big at this point, but my other bottoms are too small. I was wearing them for our most recent appointment and she commented that I was "still fitting into my pants nicely." I had to confess that they were my fat pants, lol. The rest of the appointment went fine. She said that I felt big, but when she actually measured me, I was measuring right on. We talked about my labwork. On two of the measurements, I was very slightly below the "normal" normal range, but the level I was at was perfectly normal for pregnancy. Hematocrit was slightly low at 35.6, but hemoglobin was still in a good range at 12.5. We heard the heartbeat again and talked about my morning sickness. Hopefully THAT is on its way out. I'm trying to eat as soon as my feet hit the floor in the morning, and also eat more protein overall, to help keep it at bay. So far, it seems to be working. We'll schedule our ultrasound at our next appointment. I'm excited b/c we will actually get a DVD of it this time instead of just a few pictures like w/ Lydia. :D Yesterday and today I thought I was feeling the baby move again, but the movements still seem "too big" for the size that the baby actually is right now. Like something so tiny surely can't kick me that hard, right?

a bittersweet end of an era

I think I can partly-tearfully and partly-joyfully say that Lydia is now weaned. She's 28 months old. I met all my nursing goals, both in absolute timeframes and in "situational" things (like I wanted to have a talking nursling). I have no regrets, either for stopping right now or for going "so long," but I do kind of miss it, and am glad that I'll be able to do it again in about 6 months. I went to my first La Leche League meeting in over a year today, and as soon as I said that "Lydia WAS nursing until about a week ago," I started bawling. But I think part of that bawling just came from the pregnancy in general, because even Reader's Digest articles will make me cry at this point. :)

the incredible shrinking belly, and the feeling is gone

I've decided that what I felt the other day was just an imagined baby movement, and was just digestion instead. No worries, though. I will feel REAL baby movements in my belly soon, soon, soon.

Speaking of the belly, I'm at the point now where I "show" differently, depending on what time of day it is. I'm still small enough that if I lay flat on my back, it completely disappears. Also, first thing in the morning, I'm still somewhat smallish. But all that changes as soon as I eat anything, and then throughout the day, the belly seems to get a tiny bit bigger all the way through to bedtime. Then overnight while I'm sleeping, it shrinks again. Even with all these changing sizes, I have gone ahead and made the switch about 90% over to maternity clothes, especially for skirts. I had a few that were a little forgiving, but the forgiveness can only go so far before comfort needs to take over.

an interesting feeling... and a two-year appointment

So, I've been waking up at night several times. Sometimes I can go back to sleep if I adjust my position, but other times I need to get up and go get a drink or whatever first. During one of my wake-ups last night, at about 2:00 am, I had a strange feeling way down in my lower left middle-ish stomach area. It might have just been digestion, or mmmmaaaayyyyyyyyyybbbbeeee it could possibly have been the baby. It felt like a pea-to-dime-sized bubble that popped, and happened a few times in a row. The area I was feeling it was "correct" to be a baby, as was the size of the feeling (my normal digestive feelings are... much bigger. LOL). But I don't know for sure if I can call it the baby or not. I think I can, but I'm still so early. I didn't feel Lydia until 18 and a half weeks, and I'm 5 weeks away from that right now, but "they" do say that you feel your second baby earlier than your first. So who knows? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But it's nice to imagine that it is. :)

We also finally had Lydia's 2-year well-child appointment this morning, only 4 months late. I mentioned to her doctor that I'd be bringing her a new patient in October, and she said "Oh, ok... OH! Congratulations!" lol. Lydia is the picture of good health, and has maintained her 30% height curve and also gained in her weight curve, from 1% up to 20%. So yay, now she is proportionate. We don't have any issues with her and she wasn't due for any shots today, so her next visit won't be until she's 3. I had Lydia sing her ABCs for the doctor, and then later when she was offering Lydia a sticker, I asked Lydia if she could "ask nicely" for a sticker and she said "May I have a sticker please?" I also taught her the name of her doctor this morning, so that she could say "Hi Dr. ___" and "Bye Dr. ___" today. The doctor recommended moving Lydia from skim milk (what our family is used to) to 2%, but Lydia gets some good fats elsewhere in her diet like from olive oil and whatnot, so I think I will try out 1% instead. Her stats today were a head circumference of 18.5", height of 34" and weight of 25 lbs 8 oz.

Also, I have another "funny word" to add to Lydia's repertoire. Yesterday before church, I had her sitting on a stool in the bathroom so I could curl her hair (and then it fell down about 5 minutes later, lol). She saw Tim's toothbrush by the sink and said "I see a brush-your-teeth!" Then she noticed her toothbrush as well and said "I see Lydia's purple brush-your-teeth too!" I love her cute little words. :)