16 weeks

Figured I would start keeping track of this pregnancy.  I did a lot of pregnancy updates with Emily, not very much with Griffin (regrettably, 2nd child syndrome I guess?) and now after pregnancy being the only part I got with him, I’m determined to make sure I’m making the most of this one.

 

How far along? 16 weeks.  We don’t have an LMP to base this pregnancy on, so this is based on the 6 week ultrasound.  The two most recent ultrasounds have put me a week ahead of this, but I’m keeping my current due date (October 8th) for now.

Total weight gain: If I weigh myself in the morning, I’m down a couple of pounds still, but by the end of the day I’m sitting right at pre-pregnancy weight.  Not really abnormal for me. With Em I was down 10lbs at this point and with Griffin I was down a couple pounds. 

Maternity clothes? Since I’m down on the floor with Emily a lot, I’m wearing my smallest maternity pants when I’m not still in yoga pants.  I’ve got a short torso, so I’ll be in non-maternity shirts until at least 7 months.

Sleep: Fine.  Unless the toddler doesn’t sleep. lol.  Actually, normally I’m getting pins and needles on my outer thighs when I’m lying on my sides by this point, but it hasn’t happened at all this pregnancy. 

Best moment this week: Learning the gender at our ultrasound!

Movement: I’ve felt a couple of wiggles, but nothing consistent.  We were feeling Griffin from the outside at 18 weeks, so it shouldn’t be long now!

Gender: Boy!

Labor Signs: Nope.  No braxton hicks yet this pregnancy either.

Belly Button in or out? In. I don’t think it ever became an official outie with either of my previous pregnancies!

What I miss: Wine. I would say sushi, but the kind I always get is spicy shrimp tempura, so it’s not raw anyways!

Weekly Wisdom: Once your toddler has seen you pregnant and post partum, they will ask at EVERY appointment if they baby is coming out.  We’ve told her repeatedly that it won’t happen until after her birthday and camping season, but she just can’t wait!

Milestones: Now that we know the gender I can start unpacking all of those by clothes again! Although since we have a fully finished nursery, if I get too much done now, I won’t have anything left to do by the third trimester!

Big Sister:  Emily is so in love with the idea of another sibling.  She talks all the time about what she’ll do for the baby (“I’ll read the baby my stories, I’ll rock the baby, I tell my baby it’s bedtime”), and tells everyone that she’s “being a big sister” (as opposed to ‘going to be a big sister’ since she already is one!  She’s got things right figured out.).

Pregnancy After Loss: I’ll post soon about everything that goes on when I’m pregnant now.  It’s been a big learning curve for me after two low key pregnancies and deliveries.  I will say that overall I am doing pretty well.  Not a lot of anxiety (at least not relating to losing Griffin), but maybe that will be coming towards then end when my body stopped being a safe place for him. 

Prayer Requests: I know a lot of people are wondering how they can be praying for us.  Pray for the health and safety of this baby and that the blood thinners I am on do their job and keep the blood flowing to the baby.  Pray that my blood pressure goes down;  so far this has been more life-related than pregnancy-related, but too much high blood pressure could lead to pre-eclampsia (which I am already pre-disposed for apparently), and there’s some stuff coming up in our lives that will just add more stress for me.  Pray for Craig.  It was torturous for him that he couldn’t do anything to save Griffin and I think he feels kind of helpless in this pregnancy too; there’s not much he can do to ensure the safety of this little boy while he is still inside of me.

reveal time!

Yesterday we had our early anatomy scan (also known as ultrasound number 3), and the tech asked if we wanted to find out the gender!  Luckily, baby was VERY willing to show us the goods, especially considering I’m only 15 weeks right now.

Overall we had really good news at the appointment, with baby measuring ahead of schedule and everything looking perfectly formed.  The only downside was that I’ve currently got a diagnosis of placenta previa, however it is still really early in the pregnancy and things could change, so I’m not going to start worrying about that now!

Anyways, I’ll stop teasing you and get on with the reveal!  Emily posed while I snapped photos.

Emily and Griffin have a brother.

(another) new beginning

So it looks like I'm back here again, apologizing for falling of the face of the blogging earth, again. I don't know what it is with me and blogging the past year or so. We clearly have a love/hate relationship at the moment.

I think October really did me in. I thought posting everyday about our lives without Griffin would be easy because I could post what I was doing, thinking, feeling daily since it was our total reality. But it was too private. And too much focus on the loss without perspective of the blessing he provided to our lives, and to the good that remained.

But here, 8 months out, I'm still that girl. Heartbroken over losing a son and struggling with knowing the next steps. And trying, daily, to remember hope and joy.

We truly have a lot to be joyful over these days too. Our marriage is great, our daughter is flourishing, and spring finally seems to be arriving. I noticed that the tulips and daffodils in Griffin's garden are pushing up through the soil now, trying to live even though winter won't seem to let go.

And so are we. Pushing onward even though our winter is not over. Welcoming spring in the midst of it all.

Arriving September 2013!

the child whisperer vs. the terrible twos

The Child Whisperer is available TODAY on Amazon! And this week ONLY, if you purchase the book on Amazon, you get an extra $317 in bonuses!

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve loved getting to know Emily better.  Just tonight, I was watching her dance along as we watched Dancing With The Stars and we spent a long time on the floor playing airplane and doing ‘yoga’, and I realized that I often ask her to go play by herself because I have important things to do, and she comes right back to me asking me to play with her or to sit on my lap and ‘help’ me.  Why am I fighting the fact that she wants to spend time with me? And more importantly, why am I passing on the message that having fun isn’t appropriate all the time, when I hated hearing that myself growing up?

But I digress.  Back to that terrible twos part!  Maybe the reason she sometimes screams and throws things around when she’s mad isn’t just because she’s ‘that age’, but more because although she has a lot of words now, she still can’t completely express her needs when she’s getting frustrated? Wouldn’t it be neat if in the mean time I had a way to understand the reasoning behind the way she wants to play, or potty train (or not!), and why she seems to HATE the grocery store, so I can maybe know what the answer to her problem is, even if she doesn’t?

This book is totally it guys. My life has gotten 10 times easier since I’ve acknowledged the fact that she just wants to be happy and having fun all the time.  Most of the time I’m making an extra effort to make even the mundane parts of our day fun, and the rest of the time I’m extending her a little extra patience when I know she’s frustrated that what we’re doing isn’t fun enough (or we’ve been doing it too long and it’s gotten boring – I TOTALLY get it!).

We do a dance when she needs to pee, and another one after she’s been successful (and often, we’re dancing even if she hasn’t!).  We make up games to get in more bites of dinner, we cover everything in glittery stickers, and start up crafts randomly in the middle of the afternoon.

And life is better, even with a little more mess!

So that’s been our so-far cure for our little Type 1 jumping bean, but what about some of the other Types?

Type 2’s just seem to need comfort, so maybe you’ve been pushing them too much to be more outgoing, or you’re saying ‘Come on! This is so fun!’ when they really need you to be saying ‘I just want you to be comfortable, is there anything I can do to make you feel safer?’.

Type 3’s? I was having a conversation with a friend a few weeks ago about when little kids start being bossy and pushing or telling other kids what to do.  Obviously hitting and pushing isn’t ok, but more often than not, parents probably try and discipline the bossiness right out of their kids, instead of seeing it for what it truly is. Maybe your child has a natural gift for leading people and working in groups, and they need your help in positively developing it instead of wounding them by telling them it’s not OK!

Here’s the links to the videos again, which have a bit more description of each of the Types!

1: The Fun-Loving Child!
2: The Sensitive Child
3: The Determined Child
4: The More Serious Child

So what type do you think your kids are?  Make sure you get a copy of the book so you can find out everything there is to know about them!