Sunday, March 22, 2009

Baby No-Name Update (25 weeks)

Here is a little update about our other baby that is on the way. At my last appointment (March 17th), the Dr. asked me if we had names the baby. I said not yet. She said well let's see how Baby No-Name is doing. This is what we found out.

He does not like to have his heartbeat checked. He has hidden from her a couple of times. When she finally found the heartbeat, he gave the doppler a really hard kick. We both started laughing.

He appears to be small like his brother was. I measured 2 weeks behind the average. I measured at 22 CM when most people should measure 24 CM. I guess you should measure 1 CM for every week that you are pregnant. I explained that I was the same way with Chase, and that he was just a small baby when he was born. She told me that if I fell behind any more (2.5 CM) that they would have to do another Ultrasound to check on fluid levels and the baby's growth. I had to have this done with Chase at 32 weeks, and it was nervewracking. However, I am not too worried this time around because I know that we are probably just going to have a small baby. All of the Greens were on the smaller side, and thanfully those genes are coming through for us. My side of the family has ginormous babies. Yikes! If the Dr. wants to do another Ultrasound that is fine with me. It is always fun to see my baby :)

This baby moves around a lot! I love it! He gets hiccups frequently. I just figured out what was going on. I never realized that the rhythmic movements I felt with Chase were hiccups. How dumb am I!?!? Well, now I know.

I am trying to take really good care of myself. I have started to walk 5-6 times per week. I have also started to watch my food intake. When I am careful about when and how much I am eating, the quality of my food choices always gets better. It has been good for our whole family. I have gained 12 pounds so far in this pregnancy. Hopefully, I will keep my weight gain to about 25 pounds or less.

One last story. On Thursday, I went out to dinner with some friends and while waiting on a table we sat down in the bar area. The bartender walked up and asked me what I was "having." My friend spoke up and said, "she is having a baby." LOL! The poor girl was embarrassed and offered me a water or a soda. She had no idea I was pregnant! I am sure that won't be happening much longer :)

Learning Shapes

On the way to MOPS on Friday, I had to pack Chase's breakfast in the car because he slept in so late. As we are driving, he says "mama look I have a triangle." He had eaten his peanut butter sandwich into the shape of a triangle. I had no idea that he even knew what a triangle was. Apparently, he has been learning about shapes lately. We have a wooden shape puzzle that he has played with a few times, so maybe that is where he picked that up. Not really sure, but I was shocked.

He is also really into telling us what color things are. He told me that his "alligators" are brown. He likes to point out the different colors that he sees. It is amazing how much kids just pick up on their own without instruction. They pick up the good and the bad, so we are having to be a little more careful with our language and content of our conversation. He is NOT oblivious anymore.

Chase's New Shoes

Here are Chase's new shoes-Crocs. I haven't always been a fan, but these things are great for the warm Spring and Summers in Sacramento. They let the kids feet breathe, they don't get stinky, they can get wet, and they are super comfortable for the little feet.

On Friday, we went to pick up a pair of these bad boys. Chase wanted to wear them out of the store. He then proceeded to ask me to wear them during his nap. When it came time for his nap, he was so tired that I was able to take them off. My favorite part of this experience is when he asked me if he could wear his "alligators" to Grandma's house. He saw the picture of the crocodile on the side, and thought it was an alligator.

So Chase owns "alligators" and not Crocs! :)

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Chase at 19 Weeks
Baby Boy #2 at 19 Weeks

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Baby Update

On February 10th, we had the in depth Ultrasound that measures the baby and looks for all the parts. The baby looks great. He is measuring right on track. The U/S had the due date set for July 4th. This is also the time that they can determine the gender. There is very little doubt that this baby is a BOY! We have the picture to prove it :) I will post those at the end.

This baby moves alot. I started feeling movement around 17 weeks, but he is really starting to kick and roll. This is my absolute favorite part of pregnancy. He has definitely found my bladder which I could do without. On Sunday, he was moving and kicking so much that you could see it from the outside and Abe could feel it. Very funny!

We are really struggling to name this baby. There aren't too many that we agree on, so we are just waiting until we find the right one. I really like to know the name of the baby, so we can start referring to the baby by his name. I am pretty sure we will have a name by the time he is born :)
We are so grateful for the blessing of this new baby. It seems that this little one is healthy and growing right on track. What more could we ask for!



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Sunday, February 8, 2009

Chase Update

On February 8th, Chase was 2 1/4 years old. I had most of this post written on that day, but never finished it. Blogging has not been my thing lately. However, here is the update. There is very little about him that seems babyish anymore. The three things I can think of are his use of his pacifier and blanket and his need for 2 naps most of the time. Other than that he talks and moves like a big kid.



The past month or two has been rough. With me not feeling the best and a busy schedule, we saw a decline in Chase's behavior. This can also be attributed to his age. We definitely experienced what people call the terrible twos. He is a highly independent child. He thinks he knows what is best. If we cross his will, there is quite a scene. We are constantly reminding him of who is in charge. He experienced some of the worst temper tantrums. They had him and me in tears. We have been making a conscious effort of training him to obey us the first time we tell him to do something. He would wait until we would tell him the 5th time to obey and we would raise our voices. After reading a book on child training, we learned that we had "taught" him to wait to obey until we had told him 5 times and raised our voices. We are working on keeping a calm tone and making him obey after we tell him 1 time. It has been about a week and we have seen much improvement. Yay!



In general, Chase is a fun little boy. He says and does such funny things. He can talk up a storm. My days are filled with many conversations. One thing that is so helpful is that he can communicate his needs. There are very few times we are left guessing what is that he wants. He can communicate his needs almost too well :)



He has started to pretend. He talks to his stuffed animals. He tells them to open their mouths, so he can give them water out of his sippy. He is very aware of what is "pretend" and what is "real life." I am not really sure where he learned the difference, but somewhere along the line he picked that concept up.



He has also started to be interested in playing with other kids. He loves to play with Bridgie which is a huge milestone. He had almost no interest in playing with her for many months. This change has made such a huge improvement in our daily lives. Much less fighting between the two kiddos. Ahhh! As far as playing with kids closer to his age, he needs to develop in that area. He is a very possessive kid (as are 99% of 2 year olds), and has a hard time sharing. This makes playing with other 2 year olds a little sketchy. It will all come in time though.

We are slowly easing him into the idea of having a sibling. We tell him that he is going to be a big brother. Last week I was talking to him about buying the baby new pacifiers and blankets and that he needed to help me pick them out. He thought that was a good idea. If you ask Chase if he is going to have a brother or a sister, he will say "not a sister." He really wanted a sister, but the Lord had other plans. That is in the next post :)

We love our little boy so much. He is a challenge, but we can't imagine our lives without him.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

My Wonderful Husband!

Abe and I and have been married for 3 years (October 2005). During the first year we had a lot of adjustments to get used to. Living with each other and getting to know each other on a whole different level had its ups and downs. Throw pregnancy and a newborn into the mix and at some points it wasn't pretty. We have some of our best and worst memories from that first year.

As time has gone on, it has been so fun to see our marriage grow and develop. We still have our ups and downs, but honestly we are having more ups and than downs. For me, watching my husband with our son has created a whole new level of respect that I have towards Abe. He is a fabulous father. One of the best in my opinion. He comes home happy every night. He walks in the door, and greets us with an excited "hi guys!" He comes home ready to play and interact with Chase. This is probably Chase's favorite time of day. :) He never acts like playing with Chase is a bother. He does the bedtime routine most of the time. If I leave them at home, I can fully trust that Abe will take perfect care of Chase and never worry. It is just such a blessing to have such a, capable, loving and kind husband.

He has also been simply amazing the last three months with me being pregnant and feeling less than stellar. He comes home ready to help with Chase, dinner, errands, or whatever the need is at the moment. On the weekends he takes Chase to the park, so I can get a good nap. The list could go on.

Parenthood has brought about some challenges and it still is. However, I think it has helped us in our marriage to grow closer to one another and to God. You can't ask for more than that. I wanted to take the time to acknowledge the gift that God has given to me, Chase, the baby to come. God is good!