18 Weeks.

So I'm 18 weeks today! +12 lbs. UGH. Overall enjoying this phase of pregnancy...

I *finally* got a day with my husband... we woke up this morning and decided to skip church. (I know... bad.) But we all got ready and went downtown for a LONG walk... we walked around the pineapple fountain area and down our favorite pier where Jay proposed... we walked across downtown Charleston to our favorite little BBQ place, Jim N Nicks... then we walked all the way back to where we parked - probably a couple of miles or so all together. It was so great just to spend some time with him. He works so much lately that Liz and I feel like we never see him, so it was a special morning. We just got home and put Liz to bed, (she's in there talking to herself right now, counting her blankies.... "One B... Two B... Twee B... " ) Too cute.

Anyway, I found my camera (under the sofa) and finally got around to another belly shot... so here you go! :)

That's all for now... I'm off to take a nap. :)

O.M.Goodness

As if yesterday wasn't bad enough... I was just in the kitchen making dinner and my daughter struck AGAIN. UGH this kid is too smart for her own good...

First... she opens the (hard to open) door to our room.
Second... she goes to my nightstand and opens the top drawer.
Third... she pulls out my curling iron, plugs it in and....

Yep. You guessed it.

She burned her hand. UGH UGH UGH. Not bad... just a red mark... but there I am pulling something out of the fridge, thinking she's still sitting on the couch watching a movie, when I hear her scream... *sigh* A little ice and the redness went down - fortunately she grabbed it before it was all the way heated up.

What am I going to do with this girl? I try to keep things out of her reach/sight/close the doors behind me... and now she can get into ALL OF IT.

*siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh* I guess now I need to put those kid proof door thingies on the rooms she's not supposed to be in now. Good Lord, raising kids can be tough. LOL

Mission: Bandaid.

UGH I just typed up a long post and added a link and it messed up the whole thing and deleted it.

Annnyway.


Not much new to update on the baby - no new symptoms, other than I feel fat. No new cravings, unless you count anything that's not good for me.

But, there is some new news on the Liz front. Seems my little monkey reached new heights last night. While I was talking to Jay as he was getting ready in our room, Liz decided to play acrobat in the bathroom.

(*warning* If blood bothers you... don't read ahead.)

She climbed up on the toilet, reached the 5 foot shelf and grabbed daddy's razor. Proceeded to get down, take a chunk out of her middle finger with it, and then smear blood all over the bathtub. Who needs bath crayons when you have your own blood? So daddy walks in, and there she is, nice dress covered in blood, bathtub covered in blood - no tears. Not so much as a peep out of her. (Typical behavior when she knows she's doing something she shouldn't... she'll stay quiet even if she's hurt.) Jay calls to me and says "Hey Jess, come here... but don't freak out, lizzy got a little cut but I don't think it's that bad since she's not crying." I'm glad he was there b/c I definately would have freaked out at the sight of my 2 year old with blood dripping down her arm, smeared all over the tub and her holding the razor as evidence to her crime. My heart pounding I realized, little cuts can bleed bad and if she's not crying, it really musn't be that bad... I turned on the water and rinsed her hands off and that's when we saw the gaping hole in my childs middle finger. Not even stitches would help this mess... there was nothing to stitch back... it was just... a hole! Seriously, all the padding from her middle finger was gone. And once the peroxide hit it, well then the tears started. We had the hardest time getting it to stop bleeding... she kept soaking through the towel we were using to apply pressure. (At this point she stopped crying through, juice and cartoons distracted her while we were busy working to stop the blood.) After 15 minutes I braved a bandaid, only to see blood dripping out of both sides of the bandaid and down her wrist 10 seconds later... so back to the pressure... another 15 minutes later it finally subsided enough that we were able to keep a bandaid on it without soaking through.

Aside from not using her hand much today (only b/c the bandaid is too busy being shown to everyone we meet... princess bandaid anyone?) she's fine. Changing the bandaid is only difficult due to the fact that it takes her 10 minutes to choose which princess she wants to wear next. She could careless about the cut... it's clean, but definately a hole. Who knows how long this will take to heal. Neosporin and bandaids will have to do the trick unless it get's infected... I'm not going to take her in and have a doctor poke and prod it if it's not necessary.

Anyway, she might have a small scar from this when it's all said and done. Crazy kiddo. Just when i think my house is completely kid proof she goes and get's ahold of something 5 feet in the air. *sigh* She is a handful these days...

New Adventures

So I started helping a friend of mine this week, she runs an at home daycare and just found out she's pregnant, so she needs someone to come in once a week and watch the kids for her while she goes to the doctor... she's high risk due to previous pregnancy issues so she'll be going biweekly from the begining, and then on the off week she can go get groceries and what not. She's paying me $30 a week for 2 hours. Works for me. That'll cover my gas and lunch for kiddo and I for the week! :)

I went over to her house to meet the kids today, she watches a 2 year old little girl named Sasha, a 3 year old little boy named Caleb and a 8 week old baby boy named Chandlon. I'll have Liz with me so that makes 4 kids to keep up with for 2 hours... think I can handle it? LOL I'm glad to help and fortunately she schedules her appts early so the kids will be pretty mellow as she keeps the Disney Channel on in the mornings while everyone's waking up. Chandlon is absolutely adorable, he's short and tiny. 8 weeks old seems so tiny still, but I know Madeline will be even smaller than this when she arrives! WOW. Chandlon still has the baby curl... where every time you pick him up he arches his back and curls his legs up tight. Soooooo precious. I think that's one of my favorite baby things I'm looking forward to again.

The other kids are laid back and quiet. So I think it'll all work out fine. :)

Anyway, in other news, my car broke down on the way home... (yes, the one we just got fixed for another problem) UGH. It's an '01 but has a ton of miles on it... if it's not an easy fix we might just go get something small and new this weekend. We really don't want the extra bill right now, but this is getting ridiculous. I've got to have a reliable car to drive. UGH.

Fortunately it broke down right outside my mom's neighborhood so she was able to take me to Liz's school so we weren't late to pick her up. It all worked out, b/c I wanted my mom to meet Lizzy's teachers and the preschool director since she might be picking Liz up occassionally. We picked up some chicken nuggets on the way home... kiddo and I split them and now my stomach is upset. Gross. I hate eating junk like that... but I need groceries and now that my car is broke down, I knew it was drive through or empty belly's for lunch today.

So that's it for today, I think. LOL It's only 12:30 - I suppose the day could get more exciting, but I really hope it doesn't. ;)

Reflections.

I woke up this morning and found myself wishing that the next few months would pass quickly so we could meet this little one. Some days I think I'm ready, and other's I know I'm not... but something about seeing her on that ultrasound has made me really want to meet her and see her tiny little face again. We're at a crossroads with so many things in life right now. We're trying something new with our business, which is scary but exciting. We're thinking of moving, which is terrifying and thrilling all in one. So many new things in the next couple of years... and yet I'm ready to settle into a groove and just enjoy our little family too. All things considered we're so young to have 2 kids. By the time I'm 26 I'll already have two babies and have been married for 5 years. That's so crazy to me. Definately not how I envisioned my life growing up, but now I couldn't imagine my life any different. So looking foward I know that everything I'm envisioning for the next 5 years will probably be completely different from what will actually happen. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. But it's life. So I'll take it.

I woke up with a smile on my face this morning... knowing that in just a few months I'll be getting very little sleep - but will still wake up smiling at my angel lying in her cradle next to me. Lizzy came in and climbed in bed with us this morning... I can just picture mornings like this with one baby girl cuddled next to me, looking over the cradle at our new baby girl saying "Hi baby!" It's so hard to imagine loving another baby as much as I do Lizzy... but over the last few days my heart has been stretching and adjusting and this new little one has firmly planted herself deep within my heart. I find myself thinking of who she'll look like, if she'll be like Lizzy or the complete opposite. If she'll love her sister as much as I always loved mine. It's so neat letting all the possibilities roam around in my head. Knowing she's already a big part of our family.

Anyway... I'm staring out the window looking at the beautiful day outside... and I know I should go get Liz and enjoy these last few months of just her and I time. The problem is I already feel like it's not just her and I anymore... somehow knowing what's baking in there has changed my outlook. We're now a family of 4. Even if we haven't yet met this tiny one. She's captured our hearts and is always on our minds. Not that that will stop us from enjoying Liz to the fullest the next few months before she has to share our attention... but it was both a little sad and exciting knowing how much this new baby is already a part of our home.

Anniversary.

So in all the craziness I didn't even mention why we chose to do the ultrasound yesterday... Yesterday was our 4 year wedding anniversary! :D We actually went on our first date 7 years ago on September 17... so it was great to be married so close to a monumental day for us.

We decided that this year our gifts to each other would be the ultrasound, and it truely was a perfect day. We didn't do anything special other than the u/s. We took Liz to Wild Wing for dinner last night. Not exactly a romantic setting but it suits our current lifestyle and they have great food. Although... they have this super spicy appetizer that I LOVE and last night it made me incredibly ill. I was so bummed... last pregnancy I was the same way about half way through - no more spicy food at all. Soooo sad. I'm not huge on spicy stuff, but I love their Hot Shots. However, I spent the majority of the evening with a very very upset stomach so it was early to bed for all.

Oh well... looking back all of our anniversaries so far have been rather interesting. Our first anniversary we went to the Hard Rock Hotel in Universal and thought we'd give them a chance - we had a miserable time and swore we'd never return. (However we had a great anniversary choosing to ignore the nasty management and 3 mile walk to the parks.) We had an amazing dinner at the Palm Grill and made the most of it while talking about how fast our first year had gone by.

Our second anniversary was 3 weeks after Lizzy was born. We went out on our first date since her birth and were back to the house in 40 minutes. LOL Too funny. Looking back I remember gobbling up dinner and calling every 10 minutes to make sure everything was ok. When we got back to my parents house Lizzy was sleeping on my daddy's chest - dead to the world. Other than that, I was to tired to remember anything else from that anniversary. ;)

Our third anniversary we were seperated and both struggled through the whole day...

While this, our fourth anniversary we found out the gender of our new baby and went on a date with our daughter. LOL We clearly don't make a big deal of anniversaries but they're special to think back on our wedding day and remember why we got married.

So here's to hoping the next 4 are a little less exciting. LOL I'd prefer a boring old life for a few years. ;) 4 years and counting! Crazy how fast it's flown.

It's A GIRL!!!

Yep that's right! Lizzy's going to have a little sister in about 5 months! Soooo exciting! I didn't know what to expect this morning, I was so nervous I woke up at 3 am and couldn't get back to sleep, I kept wondering if she'd be healthy, if all the right pieces and parts would be in place... if there'd be some terrible news I'd get announcing something awful was going on inside. But nope, little miss was sound asleep and had to be jostled around so she'd wake up and play with us! LOL After bouncing my tummy around like it was a trampoline Maddy woke up and started kicking and stretching... she keeps her hands up by her face so we might have a thumb sucker with this one... and she'd stretch her little legs out and put a foot right in perfect view. She looked like such a sweet sweet angel. I can't wait to meet her!

Right after we found out Jay went to work and I went straight to Target to swap out my BLUE sleeper that I'd gotten on Monday. (My dad swore it was a boy and he was right with liz, so I figured I'd go buy one little blue thing.) Well I switched it out for an adorable lavender stripe sleeper and found a baby blanket onsale marked down from $20 to $3!!! Love those deals! I then walked over to Babies R Us to see if they had any deals when I realized. I really don't need anything else! We're going to keep the girls (*giggle* I love that... "the girls") together in one room and keep the other room open for the playroom. (At least that's the plan for now.) Since Maddy will be in with us in her bassinett until about 2 or 3 months when she starts sleeping through the night, I figure there's no point in her having her own room when we've already got tons of room in Lizzy's bedroom. Right now I've got the toddler bed on one wall and the crib opposite of it and there's still plenty of room for 2 dressers and a hope chest. (One dresser and the hope chest are already in there) So it won't be too much of a stretch for the girls to share a room. But I'll definately wait until baby girl is sleeping through the night before inflicting that on Lizzy. ;)

Wow I just cannot describe how excited I am. Seriously. I've been jittery all day long. (Of course that might have something to do with the Mt. Dew I drank prior to the ultra sound - I wasn't taking any risks... they're booked up all day so I knew if we were going to find out today, I'd better have her awake when we arrive! Turns out she was still sleeping... but easier to wake up than lizzy was... hope that's not a sign. LOL) It's just so great to know. Now I feel like it's real, I've seen her, she's growing and beautiful already. (Of course she's rather alien like at this point but you know, mom's love them all the same.) It's great calling her... HER! :D YAY! Ah I can't even begin to say how long I've looked forward to finding out!!!! And now I can start doing a little shopping. (Oh I know, I have plenty of stuff for her already, but one thing I don't like to reuse is PJ's and special outfits. Day to day stuff is one thing, but PJ"s wear out so quick... I want her to have her own soft and new PJ's. - Yes, I realize. I'm weird.) LOL

So that's that... on to some pictures!

Profile Shot!

For some reason this next one looks

like she has about a dozen toes on one foot.

But the u/s girl assured us she counted

5 on each foot. So I guess I'll trust her.

Would kinda be cool though. :P 12 toes on each foot.

LOL

I have some more, but these were the best one's... Hopefully I'll get some more at the 21 week u/s. (I'm not sure if I'll have another one or not... depends on if the doctor recommends one. This was done off site as my doc won't do them until 21 weeks at least... and I wanted to know NOW! LOL We shall see...)

Anyway, Madeline Grace (Maddy) or Annagrace (not sure on the middle name but we'd call her Gracey) will be her name! That is unless something else peaks our interest. LOL But for now these are our favorites! :D