Baby update

We had our 2nd sonogram on Friday, February 18th at 21 weeks, 1 day. It's a boy!! Poor Kadence...she really wanted us to have "Princess Sparkle," not "Jack Black." (Those were the names she had picked out for the baby.) When she called Grandma Patsy to tell her that she was having a little brother, she told Grandma that "It's Jack Black, but I'm sorry it's Jack Black."

I looked at the sonogram picture of Kadence from the same time...and compared the two. Looks like he has a bigger head.

Kadence alternates between being upset about "Jack Black" and being happy about him. Not too long after we found out, Patrick was carrying her up to bed and she yelled back downstairs "Goodnight Mommy! Goodnight Jack Black!"

For an entire day she kept telling me "I'm so sorry I have a brother." I told her that it was OK, Jesus really wanted her to have a brother...to which she responded "But WHY??"

We were at Children's Place and I found this shirt...I read it to her and she kept grinning, and said she needed it. Some day's I'll be getting her dressed, and she specifically asks to wear it.

When she's happy about him, she sings to him, and talks to him...and blows raspberries on him. We were cuddling in bed one morning and he was kicking, so I put her hand on my stomach so she could feel it. He kicked her, and she pulled her hand away and told me "Don't put my hand there! Jack Black will kick me!" She also told a lady at the store that "Jack Black is in my mommy's tummy."

She was sitting in my lap earlier (which doesn't have that much room anymore) and he kicked her back. She turned around and said "Baby, stop kicking me!" Then sighed and said "OK, you can kick me."

I've been making such a big deal about her having a little brother that she's finally getting excited too...the other day we were in the car and she told me "I'm so cited to have a baby brother." She's been telling me she's going to teach him how to play, and asking him to come out. "Baby, come out! Baby, come out!" I told her he couldn't come out yet because he was still growing. So she turned back to my stomach and said "Grow baby, grow! Grow!"

I started Physical Therapy last week...specific issues being pelvic rotation, and my sacrum not moving the way it's supposed to when I walk. However, I made it longer this time before ending up in Physical Therapy than I did last time, so yay for that. :) Because my pelvis is being kept where it's supposed to go now with the appointments and exercises, it's basically made more room for "Jack Black"...and since my first appointment with the physical therapist, his activity level increased significantly. It may be unrelated, but the Braxton Hicks contractions have also gotten more frequent and more uncomfortable. 

Speaking of BH contractions, I didn't feel them until the 3rd trimester with Kadence. This time I started feeling them around 20-21 weeks. So things have continued to happen WAY earlier this time around, so I'm still hoping for earlier delivery, and shorter labor. :)

"Airman Natie"

Not a single post in February...that's just wrong. :)

The first weekend in February we went down to San Antonio for Nate's graduation from Air Force Basic Military Training. He made honors graduate, which we are all proud of.

When we were on the way down there, we stopped at Target and got her a "big girl" seat. She's been much happier in a booster seat, and being in the car with her isn't nearly as much of a headache.

 

 Kadence was thrilled to see her "Airman Natie"...but not so thrilled that he didn't have any hair.

 They were being serious...or rather, trying to. :)

Goofing off and eating Thin Mints.

Kadence: Why did you shave your hair?

Nate: I didn't. Someone else did.

Kadence: But why?

Nate: Because they said I couldn't have hair.

Kadence: I have hair!

We had a good weekend with the family...with the exception of my severe germophobia kicking in whenever we were at the hotel. Every time Kadence touched something, it bothered me more than I can say...I really could have used some Xanax...haha. Big surprise, once we got home, I washed EVERYTHING we had taken with us, including dolls, and stuffed animals. lol

We were a little concerned that Kadence wouldn't sleep in the hotel with us in the same room. It was a little rough the first night, but she settled down fairly quickly the next night and it wasn't too much of a problem. Once we were on our way home, she kept asking if we could go back to our room, or back to the hotel. When I told her we were going home, she told me she didn't want to go home, she wanted to go to another hotel.

Nate is at Tech School in Balitmore now, and hopefully we'll get to spend more time with him after he graduates Tech School before he gets sent to his first assignment.

My little gladiator/fairy...

We had some workmen at our house a few weeks ago to fix some things...most of which needed to be done before we moved in. One of the issues was a broken tile, caused by settling in the foundation. The guys of course took their shoes off at the door, so were all in their socks. While they were fixing the tile, Kadence was sitting on the couch with me watching, when she noticed that one of the guy's socks had started coming down over his heel. It bothered her. A lot. She told me "I need to go fix his sock." I told her that it was fine, and convinced her to leave him alone. A few minutes later he was walking around, and his sock was still the same way. Since I had said she couldn't fix it, and it was still bothering her, she said to him "Excuse me, your sock's amiss."

The things that come out of her mouth never cease to amaze me...we pulled into the driveway one afternoon, and she informed me "When the fire comes out of my butt, it rains." I still have no idea what that was about.

Kadence and I went to Sonic for lunch on the way to do grocery shopping. I told her that if she didn't eat all of her chicken, she couldn't have her toy. She was playing with her stuffed baby chick before bed that night, and told it "You can't have your toy if you don't eat your chicken!" Poor little chick...

When we were checking out at Sam's that day, she had been talking to the ladies in line behind us. When I had to move the cart so things could go back in it as they were scanned, she was rather unhappy about being removed from her audience. She loudly informed me "I'm angry!" I asked her "Why are you angry?" She said "Because I'm not happy!" I suppose that's a good enough reason. lol

One the Christmas gifts we got Kadence was washable finger paints. She was thrilled with them, and was very excited to use them. The first time we let her finger paint, Patrick changed her into different clothes so she wouldn't mess hers up (even though the paint is washable)...and she came back looking like a little gladiator. She was very precise about her painting though, and wasn't really into making a mess. It was actually a rather clean process.

 

Aunt Ashley got her a dress-up box of fairy clothes for Christmas. It had different accessories to go with the different outfits. She's been completely obsessed with it. The first night she had it, she had to wear ALL of the accessories...so he had on her regular earrings, AND 2 sets of plastic clip-ons. She looked more like a gypsy than a fairy.

A few nights after she first got the dress-up set, she put everything on and had nowhere to go, and nothing to do. So she went upstairs, and knocked on Ben's bathroom door.
K: It's me! I'm all dressed up. What are you doing?
B: I'm taking a bath.
K: Can I watch you?
B: No.
I was laughing for awhile.

She had her first bowling experience on New Year's Eve. Sandra, Savannah and Garrett came down for that weekend, and they, Ben, Caiden, Kadence and I went bowling. Patrick had to work. :( The kids had an awesome time though...but just in case you didn't know, bowling with 2 three year olds takes forever.

She's been periodically begging to go back for the last month. We'll go again sometime...when Daddy can go too.

Small people misunderstanding each other is rather amusing. Kadence had just woken up from her nap, and was slightly grumpy. Caiden was hyper, and about to take a nap.
C: Let's run!
K (thinking he'd asked 'What's wrong?'): I'm fine.
C: Let's run!
K: I'm FINE!
C: Let's run!
K: I'M FINE!!
By that point I'd figured out what she thought he was saying, and calmed her down...then I laughed. :)

I am still technically doing catch-up blogging on past events...so posts will probably be a little shorter for now, since I'm going to try to squeeze them in as often as possible in my free time to get everything completely up to date. :)

Happenings Part 2

The weekend after Ruth's wedding I almost didn't make it through work. I was extremely nauseous and felt horrible. I considered doing a pregnancy test, but wanted Patrick to be there when I did, so it had to wait til Tuesday morning when he didn't have class and would still be home. October 19th I once again used the most sophisticated piece of technology I will ever pee on (according to their commercials) to have it tell me this.

When I found out I was pregnant with Kadence (using the same type of sophisticated technology) I wasn't exactly thrilled. Patrick had to find out by digging through the trash to find the test to see what it said. This time it was both planned, and expected...so I was much nicer. As he put it, I woke him up holding something I'd peed on in front of his face. At that point I was 3 weeks and 5 days along.

On a side note, I find it interesting that I both times I got pregnant, it happened in the same week that I was being the Matron of Honor in someone's wedding...in that regard I'm 2 for 2. So since I think we're finished after this kid, I don't think I'll be acting as anyone's Matron of Honor again. If I do, I guess we all know what to expect. haha

The nausea got so much worse. I was barely functional most of the day...almost every day. Then there was the constant exhaustion. We had to tell Kadence relatively soon after we knew about the baby because she needed to know why we were in bed most of the day, and couldn't go play at the park etc. She was sooo excited about it. Anytime I wasn't able to do something, all I had to do was tell her that the baby in Mommy's tummy was making her sick...and she would be perfectly content lying down with me and reading or watching TV. She would talk to my stomach, and pat it, and always had to "hug" and kiss the baby before she went to bed.

I ended up having to take time off work, because I couldn't stand for the 4 hours required to do my job. Everyone told me the 2nd pregnancy was easier...which I was smart enough not to expect, considering how difficult the 1st one was. :)

We had Kadence's 3rd birthday party at home, since it was easier and less tiring for me. Sarah brought the cupcakes so that would be one less thing I had to worry about...I'm pretty sure her's tasted way better than mine would have. :)

On her actual birthday I took Kadence to eat dinner with Daddy, and then to get her nails done. She was absolutely thrilled, and has mentioned to me several times since then that she "had fun with the wadies" and wants to go back.

On the way home we stopped at Braum's for ice cream...and she picked chocolate. The end result was a sticky, happy, hyper child when we got home.


Not too long after her birthday, she was completely potty trained. In order to get her to start doing #2 in the potty, we had to pay her $1 every time she did for the first week or so...but by that point I was willing to do whatever we had to. :)


I was just over 8 weeks when we had Kadence's party...and I'd been in maternity clothes since 6 weeks.

We had already decided we wanted to have this baby at home, using a midwife. It's less invasive, more comfortable (provided you aren't planning on using medication, which I'm not), you have more control over what goes on, and you can eat and drink as you need to, rather than being loaded up on 25 lbs of fluid over the course of labor and delivery. (Yes, they actually gave me that much IV fluid when I was in labor with Kadence.) Since we are using a midwife, it will be out of network for our insurance...and the midwives don't file until after the birth. That was a problem since our insurance was changing on January 1st, and our 1st appointment had to be before then. So for our 1st appointment we did go to a doctor's office...and it completely re-enforced my decision to do a home birth...but I won't go into that. We had the appointment, and the 1st sonogram on December 2nd at exactly 10 weeks.

We all decided the baby looked like a gummy bear, and that has become it's nickname. Kadence has been very insistent (especially since the sonogram) that the baby is a girl. She won't even allow for the consideration that it MIGHT be a boy. In her mind, that's absolutely not a possibility. I asked her if she would be upset if it was a boy, and she said "No, because it's a girl baby."

At 12 weeks 2 days, on December 18th I started feeling the baby move. Patrick and I were in bed about to go to sleep when I started feeling it...he was pretty sure it wasn't the baby and thought it was just gas...but I know what gas feels like, and I know what a baby feels like...and it's been happening consistently since then. I was exactly 17 weeks when I first felt Kadence...first felt her on July 6th, 2007 to be exact. :) Everything has been happening more quickly with this pregnancy...I started getting sick at 3 weeks, had to start wearing maternity clothes at 6 weeks, and started feeling the baby at 12 weeks...5 weeks earlier than with Kadence. So I'm hoping that means the baby will come sooner, and I'll have a shorter labor too. :)

The bigger I get, the more Kadence likes to interact with the baby. I finally managed to convince her that stuffing food into my belly button wasn't feeding the baby, and it wasn't something that she needed to keep doing. The first time she did it we were eating popcorn. She pulled up my shirt and put a kernel in my belly button. I was confused, so I asked her why she did that. She said "The baby needs to eat that."

On December 22nd at 13 weeks we decided to let everyone know we were expecting. Pretty much anyone who saw me knew anyway. Kadence wasn't really big on keeping it a secret anyway. :)

I was hoping my energy would start coming back at this point, but it didn't. The nausea started improving somewhat, but frequent breaks through the day were still an absolute must when I did anything.

 I had an appointment with our midwife Kathleen at 15 weeks. When she was using the doppler to find the baby's heart beat, the baby kept kicking the doppler...so it took a minute or two to find it. Kadence was watching intently while she whispered "You're ok Mommy. It's ok baby, she's not going to hurt you." After we listened to the baby (heart rate was about 160 bpm) Kadence told us it was her turn. Kathleen put her up on the table and used the doppler to find Kadence's heartbeat. When she got off the table, Kadence had a huge grin on her face and told us "I've got a baby in my tummy too! I heard it!"

Yesterday on January 16th (16 weeks, 3 days) Patrick and I had gotten ready for bed and were lying there watching a TV show. The baby was REALLY rambunctious, and I thought I felt it from the outside. I had Patrick put his hand where I was feeling the baby just to see if he could feel it...I didn't really expect him to, but he felt the baby! He said it felt like the baby was tapping his fingers. :)

That pretty much sums up the majority of the important happenings since I last updated. I will attempt to do better at keeping up with this in the future. :D