24 Weeks!

Moving right along :)  Here is what Alpha Mom says about this week:

Your Baby:

• Is just about a foot long now. I believe it is a tradition to consume a foot-long sub sandwich or hot dog in your baby’s honor at this point. I also believe I just made that up.
• Is still very skinny looking, with translucent skin, but this will all start changing soon.
• Is officially at the edge of viability, and most hospitals would automatically attempt every possible life-saving option if your baby were to be born now.

You:

• Will undergo the glucose screening test at some point between now and 30 weeks to check for gestational diabetes. It’s done at a routine prenatal visit and involves chugging down an incredibly sickly-sweet beverage. Then you wait an hour and give a blood sample. 
• Are probably noticing more aches and pains as we come to the final couple weeks of the second trimester, particularly in your lower back, hips and other joints.
• Sciatica! Eeeeeeeeeee! Stopit!

I can’t believe I’m carrying around a foot long child inside of me!  Well actually, when I look at the size of my stomach I can believe it.  My stomach still feels really heavy and tight, I can’t remember if it felt like this with Ryder or not, but looking back at pictures I’m still carrying pretty much the same as I did with him. 

I finally stopped procrastinating and got the bloodwork done to check for the blood clotting disorder and Diabetes again.  I should know something by my next appointments on Wednesday. 

Maisy has become quite the active baby!  I love feeling her move all throughout the day and in the evenings.  She’s to the point now where I can randomly push on her and she’ll kick me back.  I’m not having too many aches and pains, I think sleeping with the Wedge that Jamie bought me has saved me, for now atleast!

Here we are at 24 weeks…and just for fun, the one next to it is of me with Ryder at 24 weeks:

3 Years Ago … Today

At this very moment actually, we were dancing the night away surrounded by friends and family, celebrating our marriage.  This day for me brings back some of the best memories I have of my entire life.  It was so full of love and warmth and fun, just watching videos and looking through pictures brings back all of the feelings from that day.  The best part is that, here we are 3 years later and the love we had for each other that night  has only grown stronger, deeper, and more true. 

I thought I’d share a few of the video montages from our wedding…sit back and reminisce with me!

 

I’m sorry but I have to say this…my husband is HANDSOME!!!  Now excuse me while I go try to convince him to get a haircut ;-)  I’ll leave you with some fun stuff:

A Weekend Away

This weekend Alan & I took some time out for ourselves and enjoyed a weekend away in Kent Island to celebrate our upcoming 3 yr wedding anniversary!  We did lots of shopping at the outlets, ate so much good food, and spent some nice, quality time together.  We had a great time and I’m so glad we’re lucky enough to have family that we know Ryder is safe with so that we can go out and enjoy time together every now and then. 

Friday before we left, Ryder had an appointment to pick up his Orthotics.  They are so cute and I’m really confident that they are going to help get his feet and legs straight.  He has a UCBL for his right foot and an SMO for his left foot:

I had read on other blogs how frustrating it is to find shoes that fit around your child’s orthotics, so I kind of knew what I was prepared for…but we could have renamed our shopping trip this weekend “Mommy & Daddy on a mission to find shoes, and not get frustrated!”  I see why all the other moms had such a hard time, it’s very frustrating!  But we finally settled on two pairs that hopefully will work for a little while atleast. 

We know that Ryder’s foot fits in the Orthotic and that the Orthotic fits in the shoe (barely), so lets just hope that Ryder’s foot in the Orthotic fits in the shoe!

Another exciting purchase we made this weekend is Maisy’s bedding!!  Yaya gave us the money for the bedding as a gift, and I was so happy to be able to go buy it!  Now I’m really anxious to get her room together.

When we got to Yaya’s to pick Ryder up today it was a very sweet reunion.  He kept giving us hugs saying “hey mommy! hey daddy!” and then HAD to show us his room there, because….

He got a big boy bed at Yaya’s now too!!  My favorite part is definitely his shrine to Mommy on the headboard:

Mom said he insisted on bringing my pictures into his room, he kisses them all the time, and says “Dis when Mommy was little!”  Hahaha, oh to be that little again.

So we really enjoyed our weekend away, even though we spent most of it shopping for our children, talking about our children, calling to check on one and getting constant kicks & jabs from the other.  It’s so crazy how much life changes after kids, and we are loving every second of it.  Especially when we get to come home after a weekend away to a face like this:

23 Weeks!

Yay, another week down!  Here is what Alpha Mom has to say about this week:

Your Baby:

• Is a tad bigger than last week! Are you sensing a pattern! Goodness, I never realized how boring this stretch of pregnancy is, what with the “close to a pound, just over a pound, 11 inches long, 11 2/3 inches long” comparisons week after week.
• The pancreas is kicking into gear sometime around this week, and blood vessels continue to develop in the lungs. Lung development is a Big Thing right now, since babies born around 24 weeks gestation can often survive outside the womb. 23 weeks is pretty questionable, and 24 weeks certainly isn’t a peachy keen time to be born or anything, but still. If you’re the morbid sort who gets a tiny bit of comfort knowing that your baby has a fighting chance If Something Terrible Were To Happen, well, there you go.

You:

• “OMG, you’re so big! Are you sure it’s not twins?”
• Or, alternatively: “OMG, you barely look pregnant! Are you sure you’re 23 weeks?”
• SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP. Thank you. No woman is ever going to appreciate your boneheaded commentary on her size and/or weight. Last time I was plagued with dire predictions of hidden twins and early labor and 14-pound babies. This time I get only-sort-of affectionately called names by other women when queried about my weight gain. Which is 1) none of your business and 2) yes, everything IS okay, my baby is growing just fine, thank you for your nosy and very annoying “concern.”
• I AM ALSO CRABBY. PERHAPS YOU ARE TOO.

I love the Alpha Mom updates so much because she really tells it like it is!  And week after week she is on point.  People make the most ridiculous comments and I constantly feel like I have to explain why I’m SOOOO big.  It was the same thing with Ryder, so I don’t know why I’m surprised, but I just get tired of saying “well I guess it’s because i’m short and don’t have a very long torso so the baby has nowhere to go but out…yes, I’m sure it’s not twins!” 

On that note, my stomach has gotten HUGE this week!  It feels so heavy and tight too, like I need to put my hands under it and carry it around for myself.  To think that I still have 16 more weeks to grow is scary, so let’s just not think about that, K?!

Here we are at 23 weeks:

My view looking down :)

 

Just Some Random Stuff

Ryder has had a few visitors come over to see his new big boy room, and each time I think it’s so cute how proud he is to show it off!  He actually invited Pap-Pap over today to see it, and then told Nana to “drive him over!”.  So, Nana & Pap-Pap (this is who watches Ryder during the day) made a special trip tonight to come see the room he has been going on and on about.  He wasted no time telling Nana to get in bed with him!

  

And using his power tools (actually it’s called a Saw-Zaw, just ask Ryder!) to cut Pap-Pap’s foot off!

And he made up a new game while they were over called “Ready, Set, Go” where he jumps off the bed and you better be there to catch him before he gets to Go!  Yikes!

    

When we took the crib apart the other day to get it out of Ryder’s room, we couldn’t help but laugh when we saw the bottom of it (remember the “fort”?).  He was seriously busy under there and had lots of help, obviously!

Speaking of being artistic, Ryder loves to color in the bathtub.  When I listen to what he’s coloring, because you know how he says every single thing he’s doing out loud, it’s always either someone’s name, or a clue off of Blue’s Clues.  On Blue’s Clue’s, they always describe how they draw stuff, so even though he’s just scribbling, he is saying “we draw a boy, wif eyes, nose, mouth, some hair, and some quiggly lines on his shirt”.

Speaking of the bath (wow this post is flowing a lot better than I thought it was going to!), he has been all about the bath tablets lately.  He loves having his water a different color, and mixing the different combinations to see what he will get.

During bath time, I always pile all of his hair on his head and admire his cute little features that are all hidden by his hair.  I mean, look at this handsome face!

A few people have told us since we named Maisy that there was some cartoon character named that.  Leave it to Yaya to go out and find it! 

I love seeing her name in writing, I think it is SO adorable.  Nicki had this blanket made for Maisy and just looking at it gives me butterflies wishing she was here so I could wrap her sweet self up in it and cuddle with her!

 

Okay, that’s all the randomness I have for one post. 

First Night = Success!

Ryder’s first night in his big boy room was very successful!  He seemed a little nervous when we first laid him down, but he went through the normal routine, asked Mommy to say prayers, asked Daddy to say prayers, asked me to turn his music on…said he couldn’t hear it and asked me to turn it up, then told me “Mommy’s not comin back in da big boy room!”  Little did he know, I totally would have gone back in there if he got upset, but I just agreed and walked out.  We never heard another peep out of him, which is strange for Ryder, usually he talks to himself and his animals for atleast 20 minutes.  I don’t know if he was scared or just exhausted, but he must have fallen right asleep.  Me on the other hand, I was wide awake, listening for the smallest little clue that he was terrified, suffocating, falling off the bed, climbing on the bed, up walking around, unplugging something and sticking his finger in a socket, touching his night light that might be hot…you know how I do!  Andddd, you know by now how Ryder does too.  He always transitions so easily, but it never stops me from worrying about every possible outcome.  He did wake up crying at 3:30, I went in and he asked me to rock him, so I did for 5 minutes, then laid him down and he went right back to sleep. 

Today when I picked him up, he was so excited to come home and go play in his big boy room!  It seems like everything he has been saying this evening has been so grown up.  Daddy asked him where one of his motorcycles was and his answer was “It maybe is probably in da kitchen!”  He told me “Ryder needs some socks to keep your feet warm.”  And he has been giving Beasley & Bubba instructions about his room, they sound like “Beezaawee, don’t eat da harwey davison big boy room!”  “Bubba no jumpin on da big boy bed!”  So not only did he sleep well in his big boy room, he also grew up, over night! 

Here is the video I took from when we first showed him his room yesterday morning, I don’t think he really knew what to think!:

Let’s hope night # 2 goes just as smoothly!

It’s A Big Boy Room!!

Ever since we found out we were pregnant, Daddy & I have had this big plan to move all of the baby stuff out of Ryder’s room and give him a brand new big boy room for his Birthday!  This toy box that the Steinhauser’s got us for Ryder’s baby shower was our inspiration, and I’d say we went a little crazy from there!

Ryder loves Harley Davidson, so we knew it would be the perfect theme to go with.  For the past few months we’ve been planning this in our heads (and shopping!) so it was so awesome to finally see it all come together!

He got a big boy bed (tonight will be his first time sleeping in it…ahhhh!) and a new Home Depot work bench!  These seem to be the 2 most fascinating parts of his room to him. 

 

Of course I love all the goodies I found online, like the Harley Davidson cork board (which Ryder drew me a picture for today and asked me to hang it up!), a Born to Ride light, a Growth Chart that has a motorcycle you move up as they grow, trash can, hamper, all the fun accessories!

I really appreciate all the hard work Daddy put into making this room perfect.  He refinished a night stand we had, painted Ryder’s old letters, put together the bed and bookcase, hung everything, and even went to Poppy’s and uninstalled some of their Harley gear to transfer it to our house!

 

 

I decided not to do a dresser so Ryder would have more room to play and went with some plastic drawers in the closet instead.

Ryder fell in love with his bed immediately and has been crawling up to lay in it throughout the day.  I can’t believe he’s such a big boy now that he can have his very own bed!  

 

We absolutely love how the room turned out.  Ryder loves it so that made it all the more exciting!  Now we are just anxiously waiting to see how he does tonight!