30 Weeks

Baby is the Size of a Platypus

New for baby this week?  About 17 inches and 3.5 lbs, losing the lanugo

Total weight gain/loss? 18 lbs (again).  So I am guessing my weight was a little off a couple weeks ago, which makes sense since I was a little nervous I had gained 4 lbs in 2 weeks last time lol. 

Sleep? Feeling like I almost always have interrupted sleep at this point (just waking up to baby moving, or having to pee).  But I still mostly feel rested.

Best moment this week? Joe being able to see/feel so much movement finally

Miss Anything? Being able to bend down to easily tie my shoes

Movement?  Movements are getting BIG.  I can often see them from the outside now, and the baby is starting to push out in weird directions on my belly as it moves around.

Food cravings?  Oranges

Anything make you queasy or sick? We have spaghetti squash, butternut squash, and chicken to make.  I can't make myself get excited about making any of them, they just don't sound good.

Have you started to show yet? As Bran says, BELLY!!

How is mama feeling? Much improved now that I have (mostly) gotten rid of this pesky never ending cold.

Looking forward to?  Bran's birthday (how am I already going to be the Mom of a two year old?!)

I wasn't planning on taking any maternity pictures this time, but the opportunity came up to help out Brittany from Joyful Moments Photography (who took all of Bran's first year photos) model a dress in her new studio.  Although it was definitely out of my normal "cheesy smile" comfort zone, it was really fun to get dolled up and enjoy a few moments cherishing this pregnancy.  Here are a few of my favorites.

 

The vast majority of the last couple weeks has been spent getting Bran's room finished up (I think mama is nesting so this was a huge relief).  Joe painted, we put together a new bed and dresser from Ikea, and got all of the blankets and sheets put on the bed (which is quite funny since he still just sleeps on top of everything with his blanket, pillows, and stuffed animals). I haven't taken any "finished" pictures yet, but will once we get everything moved in from the nursery and decorated, that's my goal for this weekend. Then it will be time to start organizing the baby stuff and resetting the nursery to baby mode.

Sometimes you gotta strip down to your socks and diaper while doing man's work

Daddy's little helper all week.

I think Bran is in a bit of a sleep regression.  Before we moved him to his big boy room he already hadn't been sleeping great in the nursery.  He kept getting out of bed to sleep in the chair, on the floor, or just simply refused to nap only to pass out on the couch a couple hours later. 

This has made the transition to the new room a little challenging. At first it seemed like the new room and big bed were the solution we had been looking for because he was finally napping and sleeping great. But within a few days he had really started fighting going to sleep at nap and bed time again.  Joe tried the comforting lay with Bran until he fell asleep thing one night (which took 2 hours before he could actually sneak out of the room, we have never done this before!). That same night he woke up screaming for his blankie and kept me up from 2:30-5, it was terrible! And I honestly cannot tell you the last time he had done that kind of thing to us either, probably since he was a newborn.  So it's back to a little tough love (yes his "heartless" mother is a huge fan of crying it out, it's the only thing that ever works for us).  It's already working it's magic with a huge improvement the last couple days. Fingers crossed this all settles down and we can get our wonderful sleeper with no fuss back before Baby L 2.0 makes their arrival (or well before that, Mama wants as much sleep as she can get before caring for a newborn again!).

This weather has been crazy. We had another snow day, with a lot more snow this time!  I decided to get my pre-Bran pregnancy snow gear out. And we all got a good laugh because I couldn't even zip my pants at all! A few days later we were out walking the dogs in our spring jackets.

Bran insisted on taking the car out. He needed snow tires!

Proud Mommy moment of the week.  Bran and I were riding home after I picked him up from the babysitter.  He sits right behind me now since we transitioned him to forward facing (which is so much easier on my pregnant back!). There was a commercial for OSU Basketball on the radio and it ended with "Go Bucks!".  Completely unprompted by me Bran yells back "Go Bucks!!".  That's my little buckeye! See, they really do listen. 

Pregnancy wise I have officially hit the every other week appointment mark. Baby has settled in head down already, so lets hope he/she decides to stay there! Otherwise everything is still looking great. I swear my belly is bigger this time, but it probably isn't.

Photo Ops

BBQ Sauce is a favorite

Bran learned how to pull his own pants down, next step potty training?! (I wish!)

Playing a game called pile all of my stuffed animals on Mommy.

Play date with Lily.

And so it begins.  Hello baby!

28 Weeks

Baby is the Size of a Echidna

New for baby this week?  16 inches and 2.5 lbs, blinking, coughing, hiccuping, breathing, dreaming (starting to have sleep cycles), regulating body temperature

Total weight gain/loss? 18 lbs

Maternity clothes? Is it bad I am already getting to the point I can't wait to take maternity jeans off and put on pajamas when I get home?

Stretch marks? No

Sleep? Starting to wake up because I have to pee in the middle of the night. Here we go again...

Best moment this week? Bran's first snow day

Miss Anything? Not being sick

Movement?  Very frequent, although it feels much different than with Bran.  Possibly because of the anterior placenta?

Food cravings?  Pickles. Oranges.

Wedding rings on or off? On but getting tighter.  Wonder how much time I have left?

How is mama feeling? Not great, but probably more so due to the fact I am feeling so tired and run down from being sick. Fingers crossed I am finally on the mend.

Looking forward to? More snow coming this weekend.

28 weeks marks the start of my third trimester.  Only 12 more weeks to go!  I am excited and nervous at the same time. I am sad to leave the honeymoon second trimester and continuing to gain another pound a week.  It is going to get very hard to chase around a toddler, but I am sure I will survive.  I have really started to minimize how much I am picking Bran up by changing how we do things.  For example I don't carry him wrapped in a towel back to the bedroom anymore after his bath.  I just wrap him up and let him walk himself.  He finds it quite funny.  Speaking of funny, I must tell him his is funny a lot, because it has become his new favorite word! But I am getting very excited to meet this little boy or girl!  I am much more anxious this time to find out, mostly because I feel like it will change the family dynamic so much this time. We have got a short list of names ready, but we haven't committed to a final boy or girl name yet.

The weather has been sooooo cold!  A couple solid weeks of temperatures well below freezing.  And the icing on the cake is we have been passing around a cold.  Bran had it first, Joe got it second, and I have gotten it the worst of everyone on round three.  I just think it's harder on me with growing a baby and trying to fight off a cold at the same time.  I have been dragging butt the last couple weeks which has been making me feel more pregnant and uncomfortable.

With the cold temperatures we have had to get a little more creative finding things to do, we all go a little stir crazy sitting at home all of the time. The Dublin Library is closed for a massive renovation so Bran and I checked out the Northwest Library (Worthington) for the first time.  It's super close to our house, and so great!  I can't believe we haven't been there before.  They have an entire area dedicated to children/toddlers with tons of books, games, toys, and more.  It will be a great place to venture out once the new baby is here too. We also have played at the Polaris Mall play area.  Every time we go there I am so impressed by Bran's size compared to the other kids (older and younger), he is so solid! I also get nervous to have two boys, watching groups of boys play together is a lot rowdier than the girls. But I still convinced I am destined to be a boy mom... 

Bran finally had the chance to play in the snow for his first big snow day since he was born!  We had a very mild winter last year and never even got the chance to use the sled we got him for Christmas.  So we were all excited to get the chance to go out and play in the snow!  Bran loved every minute and didn't want to come back in.  He kept saying "again!". He was smiling and laughing uncontrollably.  Sheer joy.

Dada's new truck in the background!

Photo Ops

My boots don't actually look that big on him.  I wonder when his feet will be bigger than mine?

Taste testing for his birthday party.

Ornery little helper.

I knew it was only a matter of time until he climbed in himself.

Insisted on having breakfast with "Cookie!".

I love these fun updates from Jennifer (the babysitter).  He has a great time grocery shopping!

  

26 Weeks

Baby is the Size of a Slow Loris

I call this the post work/Joe call weekend/sleepy mama that was behind on taking a bump picture look :)

New for baby this week?  14 inches tall and 2 lbs, packing on fat to help start regulating body temperature, eyes are now open, boosting his/her immune system with my antibodies

Total weight gain/loss? 14 lbs

Stretch marks? No

Sleep? Definitely starting to get more tired.

Best moment this week? Christmas

Movement?  All the time, except when Daddy tries to feel it. This baby already loves giving Daddy a hard time.

Food cravings?  I feel like all I have been doing is eating with the holidays, but nothing in particular.

Have you started to show yet? I think I look really pregnant already, but know that I have a long way to go. 

Labor Signs? Still lots of Braxton Hicks, more than I ever had with Bran at this point.

Belly Button in or out?  Out

Wedding rings on or off? On

How is mama feeling? Pregnant, but not at all miserable. Getting harder to get up off the couch.
Looking forward to?  Getting Bran's room painted.

We have had a very busy last couple of weeks.  I had my glucose test at the OB (which thankfully I passed the one hour test, so nothing to worry about and I could enjoy all of the Christmas sweet treats I wanted!).  Dr. Turner got a kick out of chasing Baby L 2.0 around during the exam.  He/she was on the move and kept wiggling away every time she caught the heartbeat.  She informed me that I am going to be "very busy!".  As if I am not already busy chasing Bran around, haha!

Christmas preparation was in full swing.  I made Christmas cookies, and enlisted Bran as my helper with decoratiing them.  Needless to say, he started eating all of the profits, and we had sprinkles everywhere!

What cookie? No way I didn't shove a whole cookie in my mouth when you looked away.

Santa made a visit to the house early since he knew we were going to be traveling to see family for Christmas.  Bran wasn't nearly as excited as I expected him to be.  It probably didn't help that we tried to get him to open presents on a work evening.  I thought he would want to tear through presents this year, but it seemed to be the norm all weekend that once Bran opened something, he wanted to play with it then.  He didn't particularly enjoy getting pushed into opening the next present right away.

Our first Christmas stop was to Grandma and Grandpa Roelle's.  We spent an entire week worrying about where Bran would sleep.  We didn't want to put him in a pack n play again, but we weren't sure how he would do without having a designated bed.  We ended up setting up a sleeping bag and Bran slept great on it the entire weekend.  He is our great sleeper, sometimes I don't know why we (especially mama) overthinks things so much.

Bran stays in the computer room, and likes to take the whole room over when he isn't asleep.

Bran was very happy with all of his gifts.  (Baby L 2.0 even got a few gifts this weekend! I forgot how tiny baby clothes are!). The funniest gift was the dinosaur Grandpa picked out for him.  Bran was so scared of it, and wouldn't even take it out of the box.  We spent the rest of the evening teasing him with it.  By the next morning, Bran and the dinosaur were best friends.  He insisted on sleeping with him the rest of the trip, including in the car. 

Playing with Claire at Great Grandpas

We went to Castle Noel Christmas weekend.  It was a little boring for a toddler, but we survived.  Bran enjoyed when they sang to Frozen (and it snowed inside), and when Daddy went down the Christmas Story slide with him. That picture made it all worth it!

Like father, like son. "Again, again!"

 Our next stop Christmas weekend was at Jeremy and Nikki's for Lude Family Christmas.  Bran was already getting a little worn out and definitely enjoyed a little "Netflix and Chill" time Christmas morning.

 We had a lot of fun celebrating with family.  Bran loved the big truck Gabe got (and made sure to show Mommy and Daddy).  Also, Grandma had all of the grandkids made a very special gift, Teddy Bears made out of Grandpa's shirts.

We headed back home the day after Christmas, and enjoyed a relaxing few days at home to wind down.  We were all exhausted from all of the travels (puppies included!).  

Baby Water Yoga

Bran fell asleep on Mommy watching the Grinch.  I enjoyed the snuggles before taking him up for a nap, this never happens anymore!