21 Weeks

How far along?  21 Weeks

• Total weight gain:  6 lbs

• Maternity clothes?  I've started wearing the long and lean tops from Target. Other then that, I wear all regular clothes. I can still (cannot believe) wear my work pants..I have to wear the bella band with them if I want to be comfortable the whole day, but I can still button them up! All my regular jeans fit.

• Stretch marks? None

• Sleep: Starting to sleep on my side. This little girl likes to kick a lot when I'm on my stomach!

• Best moment this week:  seeing baby on the big screen for about an hour at the anatomy scan. She's doing very well measuring in at 13oz.

• Miss Anything? right now, nothing.

• Movement: Movement gets more frequent.

• Food cravings: Nothing

• Food aversions: Coffee still once in awhile

• Gender: GIRL!

• Labor Signs: Nothing

• Symptoms: Back pain..it's getting a little worse as I workout, too.

• Belly Button in or out? out.

• Wedding rings on or off? On.

• Looking forward to:  starting the nursery! We are having the wainscotting put in the nursery next week. We still don't know what furniture we're purchasing, but have decided to slowly start on the room since we can.
• Feelings: Still feeling really great this pregnancy. It's definitely going by much quicker then the last and I'm actually enjoying it this time around! I can finally say that I'm one of those people who like pregnancy....and we'll see how my tune changes as I get closer to 30 week:)
• Working out: I've still kept up my regular workouts - roughly 20-30 mins of cardio and 20 minutes of weights. On vacation I worked out to some of the Pinterest workouts 5 of the days I was there... which were nice...but  I REALLY love doing my full 40-50 minute workouts. I actually couldn't wait to get back home to get to the gym!

Grayson and I are having visitors this morning - Christina, Zach and Vince! They wanted to get out of their house, so we should have a ton of fun before lunch today.

I also order the Maya Wrap Sling and am hoping to try it out on baby Vince:)

 

Hope everyone has a great weeekend!

 

 

 

Tybee Part 2

And on to the 2nd part of our vacay!

Wednesday we (Dan, Grayson and I) had a day to ourselves going to the beach, relaxing and then out to dinner. The parents went back into Savannah to spend the day (lucky them!)

Thursday we made plans to take a small hike around the Oatland Island Wildlife Center - I believe it was about 2 miles around - it took us about 2 hours to walk through since we were stopping and looking at all the animals/wildlife. Grayson seemed to have a good time here...he definitely liked the turtles! I, on the other hand, was a bit grossed out. The mosquitos pretty much ate me alive and I was NOT a happy camper. WAH.

Thursday evening was the one night Dan and I had to ourselves and it was soooo nice. We took our time going out to dinner savoring the peace and quiet of not having a wiggly toddler with us!

Friday was our last day - and we spent the whole morning at the beach. It was a little bittersweet seeing as Grayson seemed to FINALLY warm up to being in the water! If we had a couple more days, he probably would've been great!

The trip home was less then fabulous. It took us about 13 hours since we ended up hitting a TON of traffix. AHEM. Virginia. We stopped twice to eat and that was it - in the car the rest of the way. Grayson did pretty well considering everything.

I have to say, finally going on a week long  vacation was SO nice. We haven't gone on vacation for a full week since our Honeymoon 6 years ago - and it was worth it. I know for sure we will be spending our vacation on the beach next year...whether we go back to Tybee Island or pick another sunny, beachy destination.

On a completely different note, upon our arrival back home we decided to transition Grayson over to his toddler bed. He's been giving us a hard time at night for the past month and half and decided at this point, it really wouldn't hurt anything to transition. We wanted to have him transition before baby sister came along anyway...so we figured we'd just bite the bullett and get it over with.

He ended up doing pretty good. He was up until around 10:00 and finally fell asleep...woke up around 3:00am on the floor and pretty much just wanted one of us to put him back in bed for him.

We'll see if he continues to be good..or relatively good. I feel like he may be "OK" until he really realizes what he can do!

No belly updates, although, I had a couple people comment today that I "finally" popped out a bit. So I'm guessing you can tell I'm pregnant now.



Tybee Island Part 1

Since Grayson is napping (finally!) I thought I'd  start our vacation post and do it in two posts...since I'm taking so many pictures.

We started our drive Friday morning around 11ish..and drove to Charlotte which was around 7 hours away. We got in early enough for dinner, playtime and then bed. Bedtime at a hotel is never easy since Grayson thinks that he should be sleeping with us...so it took a couple hours to finally get him to settle down in his pack and play and SLEEP.

Since we couldn't check into our house on Tybee Island until around 4pm Saturday, we decided to try to be slow in the morning which isn't always easy with a toddler who's up and ready to go for the day by 7am. We tried to drag breakfast out as long as we could...and left for Tybee around 10am.

Traffic was a little slow getting onto the island, but once we were there it was SO nice.

We unpacked, ate and just relaxed for the rest of the day.

Sunday morning we got up and gave the dad's big hugs/kisses and made our way to the beach. Since Grayson is slightly terrified of water (which is kind of annoying seeing as how he's already taken TWO swim classes and frequents the pool in our development) we weren't sure how he'd take the beach.

He is REALLY scared of the waves which is KIND of hilarious. Like...says "bye bye water" and runs from it! HAA! So cute. BUT, he enjoys playing in the sand and chasing seagulls!! NO FREAKING JOKE. This is kid is all about the birds...and chasing them.

After a couple hours on the beach, it was time to nap. OR NOT. Grayson totally didn't nap Sunday...and totally didn't nap Saturday either, even in the car. This is not Grayson-like. The kid lurves his naps.

So after a couple non-nap hours, Dan and I took Grayson for a walk to the Pier and to grab some ice cream.

Monday morning decided to attempt a bike ride! This was another first for us  - and Grayson did pretty well. It was HOT. So we made sure to keep moving most of the time. We did end up stopping at a children's park halfway through to get G out and about playing.

The bike ride took about two hours (with the playground stop) so nothing very long and intensive...and we had back-up plans in case he decided he was done with the whole ordeal. At one point Dan had to yell at him to STOP TOUCHING THE TIRES. really.

After we attempted a nap which clearly wasn't going to happen, we took a trip to the beach for a couple hours. This seemed to finally do the trick since we were able to get G down for about an hour afterwards!

Today we went into Savannah for our own "walking" tour. Map in hands ready to go...we took a couple mile tour around the Historic District of Savannah, which is quite adorable. They had tons of really cute parks, shops, and little restaurants. Dan and I will be dining at one of the restaurants on the water Thursday (all alone.yey) and it was nice to check it out beforehand. Grayson did O.K. He's not really thrilled about being in the stroller, so it was a couple minutes IN the stroller and then a couple minutes out of it (we tried to get him out at every park) the parks had nice benches and a couple had little water fountains which were cute.

We got back a couple hours ago, had lunch, and put Grayson down for a nap and he finally stayed down for his usual nap schedule! I can't believe it. I am so excited.

Sorry for all the pictures, but they should mostly coincide with the timeline above!

Friends and Stroller Decisions

Trying to get this post in quick!

Dan's friend Russ came into town this past weekend - and it really flew by. The boys went to the Cincinnat Reds game friday night and ended up attending the one game the Reds actually won!

Saturday morning we all decided a trip to the aquarium would be the perfect indoor activity since the heat was a bit unbearable. The aquarium has a strict stroller policy (they have dates when your NOT allowed to bring strollers in since they get so packed) This past Saturday strollers were allowed, but carriers were highly recommended. Since bringing a stroller didn't pan out for us so well at the Zoo, we throught bringing the Kelty would be a much better decision.

It ended working out REALLY well- and Grayson totally loved the aquarium! He spent almost half the visit in the carrier until he decided "All Done". Which was fine, since it's just a backpack and there's not an empty stroller we're pushing around! We will definitely be looking into othe aquariums to visit since this one was such a hit. (we did go to the aquarium in Gatlinburg when G was 6 months old, so it'll be fun to go back)

Lately Grayson is not tolerating the stroller...which is starting to change our minds on the whole "double stroller" purchase. We have time before we need to make the decision, but if anyone has suggestions, I'd love to hear them!! My top choices are the City Select, Britax B-Ready and the Joovy Caboose Ultralight (but am open to any and all other suggestions!) Grayson will be 27 months when this next little one is born and right now either he's in the stroller or I'm holding him. He doesn't really listen to me yet, and takes off a lot if he's walking on his own. BUT, like I said before, he's tolerating the stroller less and less. It's the reason why I'm leaning towards the inline strollers that can be used as a single...so I can just pop off a seat and not have to be pushing around a double all the time.

Sooo back to our weekend..

Sunday the boys went frisbee golfing while G and I stayed at the house. Afterwards, I got out of the house to run some errands and relax back at the house.

OH YEA. I forgot to update about my facial/massage. It was awesome. I'm pretty sure I have other coupons and am planning to go back after we get back from vacation. I seriously lOVE Becoming Mom. Ah.

HA. total picture fail.

This is where you open the door for me and let me OUT

18 weeks!

I can sum this week up in one word: Exhausting. 


I honestly still can't believe it's already friday - I'm trying to get this post in while G eats breakfast. In about 45 minture I'll be enjoying a facial/massage at Becoming Mom...I've racked up a couple gift certificates there and am totally looking to put them to good use. SOOO worth it. Last pregnancy Dan mentioned that if it helped me feel that much better, I could totally do it more often with the next. Well. You don't have to tell me twice! 


The back pain has started which I was really surprised about. I've always had a certain spot in my lower back that would give me problems even after G was born, but it was never a big issue....so I should've seen this coming. Either way, it's not terrible, just a little funny when I lay down at night with G and literally can't get up off the floor. 


So Grayson realllllyyyyy (get it? really?) likes his gymnastics class. It's so adorable. The class is parent + child until the child turns 3. Grayson monkey-man'd himself to me for the first 5-10 minutes of class, but afterwards had a ton of fun. They start the class singing a couple of songs and then jump into  "playing" in the sectioned area they are in. There were multiple ladders, a mini trampoline, slides, balance beams, rings, a bar, and a "forward roll" area. Grayson's favorite in the toddler section were the rings. He loves to just hang and swing. 


After the kids played in their sectioned area, they were allowed to go out to the "running trampoline" I'm pretty sure Grayson would've stayed there the whole day if we let him. He thought it was the coolest thing ever. At the end of the long trampoline, the kids are encouraged to jump into a pit of soft balls. G wasn't so sure about jumping in at first, but after he got in the pit, he was definitely up for moving around in it. 


After THAT, the kids went back to their section, they played with bubbles....and THEN played with the parachute. My GOD, my child was so delighted by that parachute! I wish I had video of his excitement. Since I wasn't sure about pictures/videos, I didn't bring my camera/phone into the class...I will next time since a bunch of the parents in the class were taking pics. 


All in all, it was a really great class...especially for G. I loved seeing him get so excited at all the different activities...totally worth the expense! 


And now for my weekly update:

• How far along?  18 weeks

• Total weight gain:  my official weight check-in was 4lbs - not bad! (total side note, I thought I had gained 10 lbs this week when I weighed myself at work...apparently the scale was tipped a couple pds...I got back on it later on in the day and it was exactly what the doctors scale said!) 

• Maternity clothes?  None.

• Stretch marks? None  

• Sleep:  Starting to sleep on my side. This little girl likes to kick a lot when I'm on my stomach!

• Best moment this week:  Finding out we're having a girl and receiving awesome packages of clothes from 2 friends who clearly want to spoil this little one! 

• Miss Anything? right now, nothing.

• Movement: Movement is getting more frequent. Every night both Dan and I can sit on the couch and feel her move around

• Food cravings: Nothing

• Food aversions: Coffee still once in awhile

• Gender: GIRL!

• Labor Signs: Nothing

• Symptoms: Getting uncomfortable to sleep on my stomach

• Belly Button in or out? meh. It's pretty much out.

• Wedding rings on or off? On.

• Looking forward to:  my massage and leaving for vacation NEXT weekend! GAH! 
• Feelings: Ok, so the reason why I was exhausted...not because of being pregnant..but because my Hard Drive on my work laptop WENT. I was having issues with not being able to log-in to certain things, so IT advised me to re-start...when I did, NOTHING came back up. Everything was lost. This happened Tuesday and finally...IT called me Thursday to let me know they retrieved the ONE file that I was having I mild heart attack over. I was honestly worrying myself to death...until I got that beautiful phone call. HA! 

Other then my computer issues, I still feel really awesome this pregnancy. I hope to never have the hormonal issues I did with Grayson ever again. I love not being a crazy pregnant lady! I haven't had any random meltdowns (other then possible crying a tear or two about my work laptop..but who wouldn't?) and seriously still feel so much calmer and together this pregnancy. I don't get annoyed easily with people. if anything, I'm a bit more patient. Weird. 

Anyway, hope everyone has a great weekend! 

My Girl...:)

We're having a GIRL!! 


My intuition was correct - it only took the ultrasound tech 2 minutes to tell us we had a baby girl in my belly...and I literally let out a scream. I was totally wishing for a girl. I say this knowing the teenage years are ahead of me. yikes. I am so so sooo excited - I almost forgot how much adorable girl stuff is out there. Dan's even found some Met's outfits he wants to buy her :)


Now that we know that Baby #2 is a girl, we can work on a new nursery. Our plan is to keep Grayson in his room and convert the guest bedroom into baby girls nursery. The guest room is bigger, has more light, and is already painted a light color, so painting over it won't be hard. 


I've started pinning ideas on Pinterest, but am pretty glad we found out early...I'm having a hard time deciding on what I want her room to look like. I like a lot of pale pink, grey, light blue's, etc. We'd like to keep the room very similar to Grayson's in that there won't be a "theme". I love that with Grayson's room, if we want to change it up, all we have to do is put up a couple different pictures in the room. I'm not really into a room screaming "nursery". We kept his room VERY simple and I really LOVE it. We won't have time to do anything for a couple of weeks anyway, so it'll give us time to just think about what we want the room to look like.


Since Grayson is keeping his bedroom, we have to purchase a whole new nursery. I know we shouldn't complain...my mom was VERY gracious and bought us Grayson's crib AND dresser, so it's not like we've had to buy two nurseries! We also decided we need a nicer/more comfy rocker for this baby. Again, we didn't spend much money on the first one, and both agree that it will be worth the investment to buy a decent one. We would love to buy something we can put in our living room/family room when it's done being used in the nursery (if that's an option)



I'm also looking to invest in a couple baby carriers this time since I'm assuming I'm going to want to be as hands-free as possible with a toddler and newborn around. A couple ones that I'm looking at are the: Moby, K'tan, Sling Rings, Ergo...I will almost definitely invest in the Ergo, but would like a soft wrap/sling carrier for when the baby is tiny. If anyone has suggestions for a good wrap - send them my way! 



And for some random updates: 


*Gone with the old* Yesterday we went through ALL of Grayson's clothing and have given most of it away. There has been a baby boy boom in our neighborhood! Along with going through all of the baby clothes, Dan FINALLY went through all his BOOKS and sold a ton of them to Half Price Books. I'm still in shock he finally did it...He gave away well over about 150 books, while keeping a couple boxes he couldn't bear to giveaway. I was really proud of him. That's a lot of space we just freed up! 


Russ is coming to visit this weekend! The weather is looking pretty awesome, so I'm thinking a potential BBQ is in order. 


NEXT weekend we leave for OUR family vacation to Savannah, GA. We'll be staying on Tybee Island and taking day trips to the city. We are SO excited to get Grayson on a beach this summer. Which reminds me....we need a beach umbrella! 


I have to REALLY get on planning G's 2nd Bday party. I have the invites and date set...that's about it. I know I have almost 2 months (since his party is the last Sat in July)..but I swear time has been flying away these past couple of weeks! 


Oh....and guess who turns 30 this year!!! Not me. Ha. Dan. I've started some ideas on what I want to do for his birthday...no party since it's not really his style...but maybe a trip somewhere or nice dinner out with close friends. Since Dan's Bday is October 26th and I'm due Nov 9th, I'll probably plan it for the end of Sept or very early October. The end of September would work nice if I want to keep any of it a surprise...

Week 16 and 17 double post!

And we still don't know what we're having! I went to the ultrasound last week filled up on a ton of orange juice and the baby was certainly moving around...except the ultrasound tech needed ONE more shot to confirm the sex and just couldn't get it. The umbilical cord was blocking the good view...hopefully when we go back today, we'll find out what we're having.



****
We had family come into town for my father-in-law's 60th birthday celebration and it ended up being a really good, HOT, weekend. Grayson and his cousin Felix got to hang out a lot together and they seemed to be on a pretty similar schedule with bedtime/naps which was nice! 


****

And the weekly Quiz!

                                                 

• How far along?  16 weeks 

• Total weight gain:  2-3lbs. I think this past weekend was a jump starter in the weight gain department. Next friday's Doc appt should show a decent gain. 

• Maternity clothes?  None

• Stretch marks? None

• Sleep: Fine

• Best moment this week:  Getting to see the baby even though he/she wouldn't show us the goods! 

• Miss Anything? Just an alcoholic beverage once in awhile

• Movement: Kicks!

• Food cravings: Meh, nothing.

• Food aversions: I'm able to drink coffee again, although I don't really feel like it and still order iced when we go out. 

• Gender: Not sure - maybe we'll find out this week! 

• Labor Signs: None

• Symptoms: nothing much. 

• Belly Button in or out? hmmm, I wouldn't say ALL the way out, but it's pretty "out". It hasn't officially "popped" yet. 

• Wedding rings on or off? On

• Looking forward to:  Finding out the gender! 

I definitely had a big growth spurt this week and am DEFINITELY starting to feel pregnant.
Below is my 17 week quiz

• How far along?  17 weeks

• Total weight gain:  I'm getting between 3-5lbs. I'll get a good "official" weight gain at my 18 week appt next week. 

• Maternity clothes?  None. Although I didn't wear any pants to work this week. I wore sundresses since they are WAY more comfortable. 

• Stretch marks? None

• Sleep: Still good. Although it's getting harder to sleep comfortably on my stomach. I'll sleep on my stomach as long as possible since I have a super hard time sleeping in any other position. 

• Best moment this week:  Hearing Grayson say "More" at the dinner table. Definitely feeling much stronger kicks. Dan started giving me lower back massages..yes, he is awesome

• Miss Anything? Just an alcoholic beverage once in awhile

• Movement: Kicks - and they seem to be pretty strong!

• Food cravings: Meh, nothing.

• Food aversions: I'm able to drink coffee again, although I don't really feel like it and still order iced when we go out. 

• Gender: Not sure - hopefully we'll find out today!

• Labor Signs: None

• Symptoms: definitely feeling "heavier" down there. It's a very odd explanation, but I remember the feeling when I was pg with Grayson. 

• Belly Button in or out? hmmm, I wouldn't say ALL the way out, but it's pretty "out". It hasn't officially "popped" yet. 

• Wedding rings on or off? On

• Looking forward to:  Finding out the gender! 

On another note, I've been looking into a gym for Grayson to take some type of "Sports Class" at. I finally found one, the Kids First Sports Center, and since it was raining yesterday, decided to check it out. 

The great thing about this center is that it offers multiple levels of Gymnastics, Soccer, Trampolining, Swimming, Dance, AND karate. When we found out we were having a little boy, Dan was super excited to do some sort of Karate or TaeKwonDo with him - total win-win. 

Grayson can start the Karate and Soccer program at 2...so since he won't officially be 2 until the end of July, he'll be allowed to sign up for either Gymnastics or Swimming. We will be signing him up for the gymnastics! 

The gym was BEAUTIFUL. The picture below doesn't do the center justice because that is only a SMALL section of the massive Gymnastics arena they have. It was honestly unbelievable. I've been to a handful of cheer/gymnastics gyms in my time, and this one FAR outdid any of the ones I've been to. 

When mentioning this to the women at the front desk she mentioned that is actually WAS THE biggest Gymnastics Center in the U.S. And...a SUPER plus...they have a Cafe in the parent waiting area. So while your child is taking classes, you can relax with coffee, salad, or sandwich. Nice. 

Another huge plus - They have a pre-school program. I'm hoping to drag Dan in this weekend (summer session for Gymnastics starts next week) and hopefully we can enroll the little dude in a fun activity this summer!