Tomorrow!

At 10:00 tomorrow morning I'll be at my doctor's office hoping to God they'll let me pee a little bit before they do the ultrasound. Did those of you who haven't had kids know that they make you drink 32 oz. of water an hour before your ultrasound and you have to hold it until they're done? And it usually takes about 30 minutes for the ultrasound? All while a little person is kicking your bladder, like, "Hey! Give me some room here, Ma!" and you're hoping to all things holy you don't pee yourself? It's a good thing they let you look at the baby and will even tell you the baby's sex if possible, because otherwise that whole thing would totally not be worth it.

We have no clue what we're having. No inkling. No preference either, except for a healthy baby. We'd be heros on Aaron's side of the family if it's a boy, because this is probably the last chance to carry on the family name. My side would be happy either way, as long as they get to hold the baby as much as humanly possible once it arrives. I just can't wait to go get a peek at the baby tomorrow. I'm having trouble sitting still and am guessing I won't be able to sleep tonight. It's a good thing I took tomorrow off work, because I'm sure I'd be useless the whole day.

SO EXCITED!

So what say you? What do you out there think I'm having?

Spaghetti!

So, so two

Gabbie has been eating us out of house and home lately. She's still pretty picky, but she has been constantly requesting food. More, and more, and more food. We, of course, are thrilled that she finally seems to be subsisting on more than air and crackers, and give her dish after dish of food. She's still a skinny kid, so we were wondering where it was all going. Then I took this picture yesterday morning and realized:

  

Growth spurt! Look at how tall she is getting! Those legs look about a million miles long. (As is her hair!)

Two is pretty fun and challenging at the same time these days. There are plenty (PLENTY) of tears, but nearly as many hugs and laughs. This morning we were all sitting in bed, and out of nowhere Gabbie wagged her finger at Aaron, saying, "Stop, Daddy. Just. Stop." Aaron and I busted out laughing, so of course she continued telling each of us to, "Just stop!" (Apparently that's what she is told at school when she's crying for no reason whatsoever. Two!)

One of her new habits lately is that if she's sad she walks up to me with a pout on her face and says, "Bed." This can either mean she is ready to go to her bed or that she wants to go snuggle in my bed, and Lord help you if you pick the wrong one. Every time we go upstairs she has to climb ahead of us, up on the first stair, and turn on the hallway light. Again, if you do it for her? Hell to pay. Or, she'll turn it off and then on again. Same thing with her car seat. She MUST buckle it herself, and if you do it you will be rewarded with tears. But then there's the insisting on clinking glasses together and saying cheers before you drink. There's coloring and tickling and much, much laughter.

Gabbie likes things a certain way and isn't afraid to tell us. I hope this is something she keeps doing; it's so easy to compromise and go along with others, and that's not always bad, but she speaks up for herself and I want her to keep that trait. It's so much fun seeing the person she's growing into, and it makes me excited that we get to do this all over again, because choosing her dad and making her were the two best decisions I've ever made.

Bits and Pieces

Coming off of a weekend that nice, it's hella hard to be back at work this morning. My brain hasn't quite regained the necessary focus, so I figured I'd brain-dump here and see if that helps. We shall see.

1. The baby has a new nickname. We started out calling the baby Baby J, but now he/she is known as Kicky. I'm seventeen weeks along and I'm getting some pretty strong kicks for such a small baby. It's awesome though. Kicks are my very, very favorite part of being pregnant. Oh, there it goes again! I don't remember Gabbie moving so much - she was kind of short on space in there and was a pretty calm baby. This one? I could be in for some major movement for the next 23 weeks. (I just had to do some subtraction on a calculator to figure that out. My brain? Is gone. The "pregnesia" this time is way worse than I had with Gabbie.)

2. This weekend we started to tackle potty training at home. It went pretty well - we only had one accident and one foot-stomping, wailing tantrum after her nap when she didn't want to give up the diaper (we soon found out it was because she was about to soil it and didn't want to try doing that on the potty just yet). I'm not above bribing her on this, and getting a treat every time she went on the potty seemed to work pretty well.

3. We went to see Dispicable Me on Saturday morning, and we all really enjoyed it. The sound in the theatre was a little loud and Gabbie didn't really like that part, but she really loved the minions and the music. She got down off my lap and danced a few times during the movie. Aaron laughed like crazy and I got in a few good giggles too. Ultimately, it was very sweet and it will be joining our movie collection when it comes out on DVD.

4. Our neighbors down the street celebrated the husband's 40th birthday this weekend, and his gift was a new dog that they brought home yesterday mid-day. A cute little beagle, that they haven't named yet. Last night just as True Blood was starting, the wife knocked on our door - the dog escaped and they can't find him. Aaron headed out on his bike to circle the wooded area near our house, and I kept a look out through the back yards. Neither of us spotted the dog and they were all still out looking when I went to bed. I feel so bad for them and can't get it out of my mind. I hope they will have good news by the time we get home tonight!

5. Speaking of - for those who watch it, what did you think of True Blood last night? Aaron thought it was a little too sensationalist - especially the dripping blood at the end (that shouldn't be a spoiler). My favorite part was the preview for next week which looks like it might finally move the story along a little more. I also wish they were doing more of the Alcide story - this was one of my favorite books and I'm missing the parts they're leaving out.

6. We did a lot of baking and cooking yesterday. We had a ton of eggs we needed to use, because we get a dozen every other week right now through the CSA. With more than a dozen sitting in the fridge and another dozen arriving on Wednesday, we had to come up with something that would use up some eggs. We had a baked egg dish for breakfast, I mixed up some brioche dough from the ABin5 cookbook, and Gabbie and Aaron made banana bread (Gabbie's favorite, especially when she gets to help bake it). We also made chicken taquitos and red rice for dinner last night, which was delicious. I'm sure you'll see much more about all of these things over at my other site this week. All that cooking was totally worth the three loads of dishes we had to do yesterday.

Why do short weeks always seem so long?

I am, like most, I imagine, very incredibly gleeful that today is Friday. One would think that since I only worked three days this week (and yesterday was a short day because I left an hour early due to discomfort caused by ill-fitting pants), that I wouldn't be as eager as usual to get out of here, but I'm pretty sure I'm more eager than usual to make my escape. This week has been a long one, despite the short work-week.

Be forewarned - there is grossness ahead.

It all started last Friday night. Gabbie complained that her tummy hurt, but since she was a little, um, gassy, I figured that was it and we all sat down to eat our favorite Friday night type dinner - bowls of snacks while watching a family movie. Among those bowls of snacks were two of Gabbie's favorites, fresh strawberries and Cheetos (no judgement please). So she went to town. I tried to slow her down on the strawberries, and had to eventually take them away, because she did not need to eat an entire quart of berries on her own. Then she went to town on the Cheetos.

It was shortly after this that we realized the neighbor had his teenaged kids for the weekend. His teenaged kids who spent last weekend lighting off firecrackers at all hours of the night (including one in our mailbox, and they're lucky they were back at their mom's house when I found that). Accordingly, we hightailed it out of there 12 hours earlier than planned and headed north to my parents' house. The trip was fine apart from a few wails from the backseat due to a hurting tummy.

We should have known what was coming. (I would like to stop here, and comment on all the people who have told me they've never had to deal with a vomitting kiddo. They are lucky people and should keep their mouths shut when you're at the store buying Pedialyte pops and Saltines. Next time they get to deal with my frequent puker.)

Five minutes from my parents' house, Gabbie started crying again and then, suddenly, let loose a wave of vomit across the back seat. Strawberry, Cheeto vomit. (We aren't currently in the market for either of those two foods, thanks, and I don't think we will be for quite a while.) We pulled over, cleaned her up as best as possible, and threw her in the bath as soon as we arrived. This was followed by two more puking instances, and some really gross diapers the next day. I'm kind of glad now that we are lagging behind on our potty training plans.

Saturday afternoon she started acting like herself again, so we figured we were in the clear. Fast-forward to 12:30 AM on Monday, and you'd find me curled in a ball on my parents' couch completely understanding why Gabbie was crying about her stomach ache. I had the worst stomach cramps ever! Aaron was felled at about 4:30 AM and we both spent the day sleeping and being thankful that my parents were around to watch Gabbie, because we would have been horrible parents that day.

We finally felt that we could commit to the two hour car ride home mid-day on Tuesday, and I started feeling closer to 100% yesterday. I also would like to acknowledge here that a rumbly tummy accompanied by a kicky baby makes things twice as uncomfortable, at the very least. And tricky to judge.

This weekend? We're staying put and not committing to anything. Except maybe a trip to the pool or out to the movies. Fun things, since we missed out on all the fun last weekend.

Guessing Game

I had another prenatal appointment this morning, and I got to do one of my very favorite things in the world: hear the baby's heartbeat! It took several long seconds to find it (just like the baby's big sister was, apparently, this baby is also not a fan of being pushed on with the doppler wand and moves away as soon as the pressure starts), but then the sound of a strong, quick heartrate filled the room, and it was glorious. Can I also talk about how cool my iPhone is and that I was able to record the heartbeat and then send it to Aaron so he could listen too? SO COOL!

Anyway, this appointment being over starts the countdown to the big ultrasound, now just three short weeks away. I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going! I'm feeling pretty good, and other than having no appetite, no brain, and the dreaded hip-spreading pain, I have no complaints. The no brain thing has led to several interesting situations, including the time I couldn't find my keys (that were in my hand), the fact that I keep forgetting to order decaf coffee at the coffee shop (which has led Aaron to decide to buy me a Keurig so that I can make my decaf at home and stop freaking him out about the whole caffeine thing, even though technically the doctor said I could have one regular sized caffeine drink a day), or the conversation I had with my mom about Aaron getting his haircut up their this weekend so we didn't have to wait for the local butcher shop to open.

The other two symptoms have also left their mark; I lost another pound between the last appointment and this one even though I have a reminder set to remind me to eat regularly (and I've been eating plenty of junk food as well as the good stuff). At this point in my pregnancy with Gabbie I think I was about 15 pounds up, so I guess I won't complain about this unless the doctor starts to worry. The hip pain is really only evident at night or if I sit in my office chair for too long, so I'm not getting as much sleep as I'd like, and I'm forced to get up and take a walk several times a day, so it's good and bad.

Anyway, enough about me - let's talk about the baby! I know I've seen this elsewhere, but it seemed like fun so I'll do it here too. With only three weeks until we know for (99%) certain about the sex of the baby, this topic keeps coming up in conversation pretty regularly. Everyone has a theory based on some old wives tale or another, so I thought I'd collect them here. Here are the old wives tales, plus the genders they predict for Baby J:

* Craving sour foods vs. sweet foods; I crave sour: boy
* Mom has acne means a girl: boy
* Carrying low vs. high (I'm carrying low, but only because it's so early): boy
* Morning sickness that lasts all day early in the pregnancy means girl: girl
* Chinese lunar calendar: girl (although some say boy, so I don't really know for sure. We'll count it as girl.)
* Dad gains weight along with mom means boy: girl (although last time he gained weight with me, and this time neither of us has gained a pound, so I'm not sure.)
* Breast size, which is bigger (sorry for TMI); right means boy: boy (although the right one is always slightly bigger, so...)
* Baby's activity level; more active means boy: boy (this one never seems to stop!)
* Craving spicy foods vs. sweet foods; I crave spicy: boy
* Hair on legs grows faster than normal means boy: boy (with Gabbie it pretty much stopped growing which was awesome!)
* Feet colder than normal means boy: boy
* Pillow faces north (boy) or south (girl): boy (but it faced north with Gabbie too, so...)
* Urine, bright yellow (boy) or dull yellow (girl): boy
* Mom's age at conception plus number of month, if even means boy: girl
* Heartbeat, faster means girl, slower means boy: girl (but my heart was pounding pretty hard too, so that could have had some effect, plus this has been proven inaccurate by several very scientific studies)
* Mom has a strong orange juice craving means girl: boy
* If mom refuses to eat the heal of a loaf of bread this means girl: boy
* If your breasts have increased a lot in size this means girl: boy (thank goodness; I really couldn't stand them being too much bigger than they already are)

So, to tally that up that's 13 that predict boy and 5 for girl. I'm not really hoping for either, so this is pretty much pure fun. Has anyone else heard of any fun legends to predict gender? (I'm so not doing the drano test!) I'll be counting down the days until we get to find out for sure!

Hacked

In a non-fun twist of events, my email has been hacked! So, if you get an email (or apparently a bunch of emails) from mrs.jessie.ca[at]gmail[dot]com, don't open it/them. I apologize if you're getting majorly spammed by account. I let Google know, so hopefully it will stop soon.

Just what I needed today. Grrr....