Make A Wish

Love!

My heart melted this morning, literally melted! I was snuggling little miss Mallory and telling her that I love her, when she looked at me and said "yove u" and snuggled her head into my neck. It was so cute and sweet I just about died!
(I think those are the moments with kids that people talk about holding onto, so that when you feel like strangling them you can quickly bring those memories forward in your mind.)

26 Weeks

This week our little BB weighs about 1.75 pounds and is around 14 inches long (that's just about the length of our Craftsman 7.2 volt cordless screw driver). BB will start to take some practice runs at the ol' breathing movements this week by inhaling and exhaling its amniotic fluid. Its little eye lids have been fused closed (up to this point) and are now starting to open now that his/her retina is completely developed. Some recent studies have been done on mental stimulation while inutero... 'they' have found that playing with your baby by pushing on your tummy and gently pushing body parts (as they roughly push into your ribs/bladder/kidneys/uterus...) actually really stimulates brain development! I was ALWAYS pushing on Mallory (so much so that mom thought that I might hurt her)... little did we know that I am the reason she is so darn smart now! :)

This is my last week before the third trimester starts! Woohoo! It's totally feeling like it too, my belly feels huge, lungs and bladder ever-shrinking, energy low (zzzzzz)... Keep on truckin' it's almost over... then I'll probably want BB back inside for some peace and quiet!

25 weeks

2/3 of the way done, time flies! I'm not sure why this pregnancy is going so much faster. Could be the fact that this time I have a toddler that I feel like most of my awake/home time is spent chasing, cleaning, entertaining, feeding, cleaning-up after.... or maybe it's some crazy space-time-warp and time is literally going faster.... yep I'm sure that's it.
Any way, at 25 weeks our little BB as grown about and inch and a half from last week and is now a startling 13 1/2 inches long (exactly the size of our Craftsman hammer) and weights about 1 1/2 pounds. Lots it going on with the little nugget this week.... The air sacs in its lungs are farming and its little nostrils are opening (though it's not ready to breath just yet). Its little vocal cords are developing and its reproductive organs are now fully formed/descended. The spinal structure is taking shape and its little hands are now totally formed and perfect. The skin is no longer transparent and is taking on more of an opaque appearance as it accumulates more and more fat.
I know that I have been SURE that little BB was a boy (just like I was for Mallory), but 2 days ago I started getting little pangs of doubt. Mainly because we have entered the hic-up stage (which cracks me up). This little one hic-ups a ton, JUST like Mallory did. Granted I have nothing else to compare BB to, so maybe all babies hic-up this much...but now the seed of doubt has been planted, so now I don't know. I guess part of the fun of not finding out the gender is this back and forth game (but right now it is feeling more like when you know someone has a secret and they wont tell you just yet, but they keep bring up how they really want to, but can't). Yeah, that's how it feels. If I think about it too much I get a little sick to my stomach and a little frustrated. I've been trying to get Mallory to tell me what gender it is (since I'm convinced they can communicate some how). She's not being much of a help (it might have to do with having no idea what the word gender is...) :)

Big Girl Room

I've been meaning to post some pictures of Mallory's big girl room for a while now, but life got away from me. You know how that goes. Any way, about a 3 months ago we turned the guest room into Mallory's new room. We painted (two cute colors... a soft yellow and a super light salmon), installed a closet system, sewed curtains and got some cute furniture from Ikea. We moved her crib in there for the time being. We didn't know how she would 'take' to her new room (since I've heard/read horror stories about kids and change) but she loved it! She still gets excited to show her room to anyone new who comes over. Then about 3 weeks ago we switched Mallory into a big girl bed! (We were hoping that she could get out of the crib in enough time for BB to more into it... Gulp). Once again I was a little hesitate, not knowing if she was 'ready' to stay in bed at nap times and bed times... but we thought, what the heck the worse that can happen is that we have a bad nights sleep and have to put the crib back in. So we tried it. And once again, just to prove me wrong she was great with it! She's by no means perfect with it and we occasionally come in after a nap to find shoes, toy or books piled on her bed 'napping' with her. But all in all she is great and actually stays in bed in the morning waiting for one of us to come and get her up... she continues to impress me! Before this final arraignment of the furniture she was actually able to climb from her bed onto her dresser and once feel asleep up there!!!! So funny and so frightening. We have a video of it... I'll see if one of these days I can post it online. So after that, we rearranged (for the 3rd time) and spread all the furniture out! :) No more climbing! This past Sunday I made her the bedspread and a pillow to match the curtains... she loves the pillow and looked so grown up sleeping on it last night.

6 Months

At 24 weeks my little one is movin' and shakin'! I'm feeling BB under my ribs and on top of my bladder all at the same time (oh the annoyances of pregnancy that we quickly forget for the joys of a baby)! The heartburn that I had with Mallory is back. Food, water, air.... it doesn't matter all seem to induce it! I hate when it happen in an exam room and I have to pretend like there isn't a fire-breathing dragon charring the heck out of my esophagus!
Our little BB is now 12 inches long, about the size of a Combination Square Tool (what's that you ask.... it's apparently a ruler, and square edge and a level all in one... wow). :) This week it has gained over 4 ounces, tipping the scales at over 1 pound (ouch, guess I cant blame all the weight gain on this little one.... yet). All the bones in its inner ears are fully developed so it can now tell which way is up and down, it is too big to do cart-wheels anymore and should be sticking to slower turns and more defined punches/kicks. The cells in the lungs that produce surfactant are forming (which will help inflate the lungs once this little baby joins the outside world. Its skin is still translucent (though not for long), oh and my uterus is about the size of a soccer ball (no wonder I can hardly see my toes). Interesting (though somewhat disturbing fact...) starting at week 23 BB had a 20% survival rate in the outside world, but EVERY day that it stays in that rate will increase by 3%. Stay baby stay... I'll endure the heartburn a few more months.

Sorry

Sorry for being such a slacker with the updates... we have lots going on, some good, some bad... but all of it taking up my time and thoughts. I promise to post some cute pictures of Mallory Rose, my weekly garage comparisons AND my 6 month giant torpedo-belly :) Every day I have had one brave client ask me 'when I'm due' or 'If I'm expecting' so I have been enjoying that! The little one is moving and really enjoying my right ribs (Mallory liked the left side, so we already have differences in what they like/don't like). Just about all my co-workers have felt the little one kick and punch, some of them LOVE it... others are way freaked out by it... which is quite funny (to me).
Quick story... we have always made sure to have baby-dolls/stuffed animals and cars/trucks for Mallory to play with. She loves playing trucks and makes a great 'vrrrrrrooooooom' sound while playing. The other day we were at our friends house and Mallory had put a few baby-dolls into a doll stroller and was pushing it around saying 'Vrrrrrrooooooommmmmm...' Like they were in some 400 horse powered stroller. It was cracking me up! Glad she's well balanced. :)

FINALLY!

FINALLY someone ask me if I'm pregnant! I have been waiting! I have been wearing cute tight maternity-ish tops, and my white dr. jacket no longer buttons so my belly is sticking out for all the world to see.... but still no one has asked. I get it though... it's always that fine line of 'did that girl just eat a big lunch?' or 'is she about to have a baby?' Well, FINALLY someone had the gumption to ask! It made me happy to know that I actually now 'look' pregnant, because I sure do feel like it! The cute part was how this person asked...
It was a client who brought in his sons sick Chinese Water Dragon (a way cool fancy lizard). After a little while he said, "I am a man.... but I have four kids... but I AM a man... uhm, are you having your own little one?" I was beaming! Not only had someone FINALLY asked, but it was in such a cute way... like he had to keep prefacing it with the fact that he may say something stupid because 'he's a man'. It cracked me up and made my day!

Nemo

Ok, I know I'm working a little backwards here (starting with Halloween and working my way back)... but I want to show you guys lots of cute 'harvest time' pictures and Mallory as Nemo is just about the cutest thing EVER so I have to start there. I actually found this costume at Salvation Army (the one on Lytton Springs Rd) back in July or August, but it was in perfect shape and only 0.25. Yup, you got it, an entire quarter! So it's been sitting in our garage since, dreaming of the day when the cutest little toddler would wear it! Mallory LOVED getting dressed up (which is good, because I LOVE dressing things up...just ask my dead dog Muffin or my younger brothers). On Saturday we took Mallory to a Harvest party at a Church near us, it was loads of fun! Chili, hay rides, bounce house... which she couldn't get enough of! She was in there with the big kids for a little while running and tumbling with the best of them. I swear she is fearless. Then Monday we too her to a Truck Or Treat at a church in Windsor. That was fun too, she just was a little cranky and more shy... plus there was no bounce house (whats up with that?) :)
Just in case you were wondering, Yes that is a 26 pound Nemo trying to eat Krush...Who managed to escape by a sheer luck. Pretty sure he gave up one of his remaining nine lives though.