heather

All present and accounted for

Today was the “official” ultrasound; the one where we find out how the baby’s coming along and whether all the organs are there (rather than the one where we see the baby’s face and the only organs checked are the ones that tell us what color to paint the nursery). We’re happy to say all baby’s organs are doing just fine and dandy!

The ultrasound tech slipped and reaffirmed that he’s a boy, so the pink trim on the crib is definitely on its way out.

Our little guy didn’t like the ultrasound so much. Ordinarily he does a few little kicks and rolls and then goes about his (very quiet) business, but all that poking and prodding must have gotten him really riled up. The Bump thumped and squirmed and wiggled the whole time the transducer was on my belly, and for a good while afterward. He was so excited, in fact, that the technician had a hard time measuring things because everytime she poked, he darted away.

He did stay still long enough to discover that he’s measuring two days behind, just as he was at 10 weeks. So perhaps we will have a January baby yet! It’s easy to say this now, because I’m not humongously pregnant and uncomfortable, but I hope he comes later rather than sooner so that Christmas doesn’t overshadow his birthday so much. (And, a bit selfishly, so that Chris and I are not breathing through contractions on our anniversary!)

We found out last week that there is a third mom in Maddi’s playgroup who is expecting a baby. The first baby is due in mid-November, our boy is due Jan. 1, and the latest addition is due at the end of February. With two babies his age (that we know of!) and almost a dozen Maddi’s age, it will be like two playgroups in one. That makes me happy, because it will be really difficult to go to BabyTalk classes (where Maddi’s playgroup was formed) with a toddler in tow, but I don’t want our little boy to miss out just because he’s not an “only.”

This week, it started to really sink in that we are definitely more than halfway done with the pregnancy (after all, as much as I’d likethe bun to bake thoroughly, 44 weeks of pregnancy is a bit much!!) and I am now beginning to think about getting ready to bring a baby home.

We don’t need much, since we’ve just been through this, but we’re definitely going to need a double stroller, a bassinette, and some boy clothes. I’m also not too sure about the purple Bumbo, although there’s nothing in the rule book that says purple is only for girls. Luckily the pink carseat craze had not begun when we bought Maddi’s old infant seat, so our little boy will be riding in style in silver and black. It doesn’t get more masculine than that!

And here they are — the Week 22 belly shots!

Our bouncing baby boy

For awhile, we thought this baby was the calm and contented type, but for the last several days, he’s been bouncing up a storm. So now the question is: Is he going to be as active as Maddi? Or is this just a passing phase?

Up until recently, it was no contest. Maddi was in constant motion, while The Bump, as we’re calling him for now, might poke me gently two or three times a day, as if to remind me that he was still there and not to overdo it with the caffeine. But now, he’s thumping around in there a good five to seven times a day — sometimes even more. Granted, I am not experiencing the brutal bladder kicks that his ninjalike sister practiced every time my the offending organ filled more than halfway, nor the nightly “Riverdance” performance the fetal Maddi rehearsed without fail at 2 a.m. Little guy, if you could just keep doing what you’re doing and not “amp it up” any more than you have, I would much appreciate it!

It’s not that we won’t love him as much if he’s constantly on the go like Maddi. It’s just that with two under 2, it might be nice — instead of the search-and-destroy routine we’ve become accustomed to in the eight months since Maddi began crawling — if one of those two actually took proper naps (i.e. longer than 45 minutes) and played with his toys and had absolutely no inclination to tackle and depilate the cat. Just one is all I ask!

Of course, if the little one does turn out to be another CrazyBaby (TM), his daddy and I have no one but ourselves to blame. From what we are told, neither of us slept more than five hours a night, neither of us napped, and both of our parents have many a tale of the mischievous ways in which we took years off their life expectancies. We’re just saying … if he wants to be a calm, sleepy little laid-back guy, we’re certainly not going to stop him!

And here they are: the long awaited Week 21 preggie pics!

Mad Mad Maddux

Although she’s finally settled into the new house, Maddi has a whole new set of issues. Toddler issues. Now that she has discovered how to walk and run, Maddi is all about setting her own agenda. And when bothersome adults try to interfere with that agenda, they are rewarded, Zsa-Zsa style, with slapping and screaming.

Yes, Maddi has hit the terrible twos early, it would seem. Simple mealtime slights such as giving her the food she pointed at (rather than the one she meant to point at) result in sippy-cup hurling and a very rapid and angry tray-clearing ritual that results in the total destruction of our dining area in five seconds flat. Heaven forbid that we should exit the car to run a quick errand and then re-enter the car too early for our princess’ liking. Or that we should not take her outside to play ball at 3 a.m. If such offenses occur, Maddi will make her feelings known by slapping our chest, flinging herself backward and wailing. If she happens to be on the floor, the display is of even more melodramatic proportions.

So far, her tantrums last approximately 20 seconds if she’s fed and well-rested, but if we don’t nip it in the bud, it could turn ugly. After all, this is a child who is capable of keeping herself awake from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. sans nap when she’s so inclined.

In other news, I can occasionally get her still long enough to put really poorly constructed ponytails in her hair.

It’s a …

Some people can go without finding out their child’s gender until the doctor holds it up. Not us! (Especially since our crib currently has pink trim.)

When I was pregnant with Maddi, Chris and I had to travel to California to get a 3-D ultrasound and find out the gender. This time, luckily for us, the same services were available a mere three hours away in Langley. So yesterday, we loaded Maddi and half her toys and food into the Highlander and hit the road.

Now, for a bit of background, I was convinced from the very start with this pregnancy that we were having a boy. But Chris and everyone else insisted it was another girl. In fact, by the time the appointment rolled around, I was mentally prepared to hear that we were having a girl (after all, I was convinced Maddi was male, too!).

Luckily, we didn’t have to wait long. The ultrasound technician brought up the baby’s nether regions on the screen right away, and it was obvious to all.

We are having a bouncing baby boy! And since everyone else was so adamant that he was a girl, even though I’d never thought of this baby as anything but a boy, I was still a little shocked. Funnily enough, Chris told me afterward that he’s thought all along it was a little boy, too, but told me it was going to be a girl just because someone needed to be pulling for Team Pink!

Now that the news has had a day to sink in, I’m finally beginning to imagine three kids — an imaginative grade-school girl, a spirited little girl and a slightly-younger, laid-back little guy. What kind of relationship will they have? What mischief will they get into? It’s exciting to finally have a picture of what our little family will look like in a year or two.

It was difficult to make out the features on our little boy’s face, partly because I think the tech wasn’t very experienced and partly because he is so young and has so little fat and muscle. If I had to guess which parent he looks like, I couldn’t. (Unlike Maddi, who looked just like her dad in both the regular and 3-D ultrasounds.)

However, he’s definitely a laid-back baby. Even after a Frappucino with an extra shot of caramel, his period of activity waned quickly over the course of the session. Our little boy has about three active periods a day — four on a “busy” day — and they don’t last more than 30 minutes. Unlike Maddi, who practiced Tae-Bo religiously in utero, our little boy is content to merely conduct various rolls and repositioning maneuvers, as if he is trying to get comfortable rather than burst out a la “Alien.”

So now, we have about 19 weeks to get ready to welcome our little boy into our family. Cover the pink parts of the crib, find non-pink clothing and bedding, and pick out a nice boy name or two. Even though I’ve known it was a boy for several months, it’s weirdly final to know the baby’s gender. But that’s why I like finding out early instead of in the delivery room!

And here they are, the shots you have all been waiting for:

Baby belly

Well, no doubt about it, I’m definitely starting to look and feel pregnant. I threw my back out last week and had to go to the chiropractor a few times, and, beginning with our chiropractor’s receptionist, I’ve finally been asked by a few strangers when I’m due.

In order to get Maddi used to the idea of a sibling, I’ve told her there’s a baby in Mommy’s tummy and when asked where the baby is, instead of pointing to herself, she points at my growing belly and laughs. I’m not sure whether she thinks I ate a baby or the belly is the baby, but apparently the concept (whatever it is!) amuses her.

The baby is getting more active, although it’s hard to use that word because Maddi’s activity level was so much higher. Basically, we have a very considerate fetus who lets me know he or she is there approximately three times a day (not more, not less!), but in a helpful rather than painful way. Knock on wood.

I’ve been going to the gym and so far this pregnancy has been much more comfortable in many ways than the last. I hope this is a sign of things to come and our new baby will be easy as well!

Nevertheless, there are days when I am tired and my back is sore and I just can’t wait to finally have the baby out and be comfortable again! Of course, the little one will need to stay in there for at least another 17 weeks and hopefully a bit more.

And with that said, here are the 19-week belly shots, in which I am finally beginning to look a bit pregnant (but, funnily enough, still with killer obliques for a pregnant lady since I am still doing ab work at the gym!):

Moving on

Sometimes I wonder what Maddi must think of our new house. Chris and I arranged the move so that Maddi would have her crib and her favorite toys set up on her very first night here. Her routine has been kept exactly the same (only, since we now have a fabulous backyard, with more outdoor play). But still, she knows that it’s not the same room she’s slept in for the past 15 months. She keeps a happy smile on her face, but there are cracks in the facade.

The first few nights and for the majority of her naps, she’s wailed for several minutes after being tucked in in her new room. For the first week, she resorted to her old hobby of finger painting the crib after waking up from sleep or a nap. This happened four times in two days, actually. She knows she’s not supposed to do it, and she had stopped for a few weeks before the move (as opposed to the olden times when it once occurred daily for a month running), but it seems the stress of dealing with a new house and unfamiliar bedroom made it impossible for her to control the urge to remove every single, solitary clump from her diaper after her post-nap poo.

She’s also stopped handing me all those random pieces of lint and dirt she finds on the floor. For several months, she’s been so accustomed to the words, “Give it to Mommy” that she would automatically give me anything smaller than a golf ball that she happened to pick off the floor. Even if it happened to be a Cheerio, which of course are perfectly acceptable for her to have. But in the past week, she’s not only not volunteered her finds, she’s run in the opposite direction with them.

But the thing that really made me cry (yes, I literally cried!) was when we were cleaning out the old house after everything had been moved. Maddi and I went in to get one last look at her room, which had been empty for about a week. But she recognized it nonetheless. As we walked underneath her light, she reached up to touch the ceiling fixture “goodnight” as she has done every night before bed for half her little life — something she doesn’t do in any other room. Our little girl was saying goodbye forever to her first bedroom. After she saw her old room for the last time, the poop-painting ended as quickly as it had resurfaced.

Of course, it’s not all tears and sadness. Our old backyard was difficult to access, abutted a mountainside, measured about 100 square feet and was full of weeds, rocks and pine needles. The backyard at our new place is right off the family area and is maintained weekly by someone other than me. There’s lots of room for our little one to run around, and she can do so barefoot because the turf is the softest and smoothest and most weed-free grass imaginable. There’s not a pine needle to be found, and all the rocks are neatly contained in the many not-maintained-by-yours-truly flowerbeds. In short, it’s baby heaven!

Maddi spends a sizable portion of each day playing with an assortment of rubber balls on our lush lawn. When she’s tired of bouncing balls, she has a half-dozen varieties of flora at her disposal to pick and bestow on family members — or, as is her recent wont, to shake until the petals fly off. And if that gets boring, there’s a chain-link fence that makes a satisfying clanging noise when smacked, and a golden retriever next door at which Maddi enjoys panting.

Indoors, since the new house is all on one floor, she is no longer segregated from the kitty habitat, which means Maddi can chase and pet Deva to her heart’s content. In fact, her play yard is situated about a foot from the kittie feeding and litter box pen, and yesterday I caught her standing precariously atop the seat of her little ride-on toy, hanging over the side of her play yard to tease the cat, who was sitting atop her litter box and eying the wee one suspiciously.

Of course she is still moody, so who’s to know whether she likes the new house or misses her old one (or both)? She’s got plenty of words, but none that can express feelings of homesickness or loss. The most eloquent way she’s expressed her feelings so far has been by touching her old light goodbye.

On the word front, nothing new lately. She’s still working on “butterfly.” However, she hasn’t been a lazy girl; Maddi’s really got the hang of this walking thing now. She almost never crawls, and if she’s anxious enough to get to something, she breaks into what could almost be called a run, but which I will simply for now call the “power toddle.” Walking on the grass has really steadied her gait on land, and she’s pretty much unstoppable at this point.

Coming soon: Pics of our 15-month-old playing ball in the backyard.

Once you pop, you can’t stop

Well, I’ve finally pooched out and started to look pregnant, just as you’d imagine someone in their second trimester for the second time in two years ought to. I still haven’t been approached and asked when I’m due, but neither have I been glared at for using the Stork Parking at the mall (although that could be because I also have a babe-in-arms with me when I use it!). It happened sometime just after I hit 16 weeks and I couldn’t be happier. The regulars at the gym who used to glance at me and wonder why I was getting so fat despite working out every day are finally beginning to realize that it’s not because I eat a lot of pizza and chips. I do eat a lot of pizza and chips, of course, but you’ve got to get those 300 extra calories somewhere, am I right? And really, there’s no better way than with a bag of Doritos Cool Ranch.

The baby has also started bouncing around a lot, but usually when I eat junk food. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t eat Doritos every day and most of the time I try to keep it healthy with whole grains and fruits, but let’s just say the baby likes tuxedo truffle mousse cake. If I should be worried, say, about not feeling much in the way of movement, I have only to dig into a slice of cake. Within 10 minutes, the baby will be bouncing and kicking away.

And without further ado, here are the 17-week belly shots:

Girlie girl

For a long time, I joked that Maddi was a two-year-old boy in a baby girl’s body. Her hobbies included destroying things, getting into stuff, and head-butting the other babies in her playgroup. Even her toys of choice, cars and balls, were action-oriented. But now, she is turning into a bit of a girlie girl.

I didn’t really expect her to enjoy the dress-up box we gave her and Kaija until she was 2 or 3. But surprisingly, she enjoys this new amusement even more than her sister does. When she sees the Hawaiian leis we got at the local dollar store, she points and squeals until I have no choice but to place one over her head — which is always bowed expectantly by the time the lei reaches her. She particularly loves a fuchsia satin purse encrusted with rhinestones, which I found at a post-holiday sale. She daintily places the purse on her shoulder and toddles around with her arm up so as to hold it in place while she goes about her “business.”

Another activity she enjoys is picking flowers in our front yard. Even as a colicky wee thing, she always calmed down when I pulled out the sling and took her out in the warm sunshine. Between the ribbons of the memory board on her wall are wedged the first flowers we ever picked together, when she was just a few months old. Now, when we look out the front window, Maddi will point at the front yard and I’ll ask her if she wants to go pick some flowers. The question is always answered with enthusiastic nodding and squealing, and she will point out each flower she wants me to pick for her. She usually wants to show her bouquet off to Daddy, and if Chris is lucky, she will generously bestow on him her chubby fistful of manhandled posies.

Unfortunately her girliness does not extend to hair ornamentation. No sooner do I get one ponytail in and begin work on the next, than the first ponytail is destroyed by Little Miss Grabbyhands. And when I put a barrette in her hair, heaven forbid that we should pass a mirror and she should spot the offending clip. She will proceed to claw at her head angrily until the hated barrette — hitherto unnoticed — has been removed from her bangs.

Nevertheless, I’ve been persisting with the barrettes and bobby pins and now she sits still for the most part while they’re being clipped on. Now that she’s got a bit of hair on her head, she looks less like the little round-headed man from Monopoly and more like a wee girl.

In other news, she is walking fairly well now. At first, she would only toddle around at the gym’s daycare, where there were big kids to show off for. At home, it was all about crawling. But soon, she realized that walking with something in one hand was far more efficient than crawling while clutching an object, and got a little practice in while carrying things across the room. Pretty soon, she decided this walking thing wasn’t so bad after all, and she will walk to people or things if they’re not more than five or 10 steps away. She still resorts to crawling when she’s excited or wants to get somewhere fast, but slowly and surely she’s becoming a toddler!

On the word front, she has continued with the girlie-girl theme. Her favorite new words are “fowver” (flower) and “puuhh” (purse). Other new words include “truck,” “what” and “poopoo” — the latter of which is used at some point every few days to tell me she needs to poop. I ask her if she wants to poopoo on the potty, she nods excitedly, sits on the toilet and giggles and kicks, then tries to leap off and poops two minutes later after I diaper her. But even though she hasn’t figured out exactly when that poopoo is coming, we’re still counting “poopoo” as a word. That brings us to 55 words thus far. More will doubtless follow in the coming weeks, as she has been trying lately to say “butterfly” per her fixation on her decor and the protagonist of her favorite book, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.”

And here is a snap of Maddi and Mommy at the beach last weekend, playing it safe in the shade!

Abs of steel

There are things to be said for having babies — even when you put the wonder and beauty of the actual baby aside. Before I had Maddi, I was in terrible shape. I weighed about 10 pounds more than my ideal weight and hadn’t seen the inside of a gym in at least six months. After I had Maddi, I was in even worse shape — such bad shape, in fact, that I had no option but to go to the gym so I could fit into my prepregnancy clothes without looking like link sausage. Body-conscious tops, it seems, only work if you don’t have a tummy roll.

After several months of hitting the gym three to five times a week, I ended up weighing 12 pounds less than my prepregnancy weight and having better tummy muscles than before — something that is especially evident now. At 15 weeks pregnant with Maddi, people were unafraid to ask when I was due. At 15 weeks pregnant with The Bump (not-so-aptly named thus far!), not a single query has been made as to whether or not I’m pregnant. Even now, only those ubiquitous body-conscious tops have been put in storage — I fit in every single pair of pants I own!

Sure, there is a definite pouch in my abdomen. My tummy sticks out well past my hipbones at this point. But I could still be mistaken for someone who’s simply had a bit too much Krispy Kreme. Between my near-symptomless pregnancy and the fact that I haven’t developed the slight waddle that appeared sometime around 13 weeks with Maddi, and my nearly flat stomach, it is often difficult for me to remember I’m even pregnant.

The baby hasn’t been moving around as much as Maddi did, so there’s hope yet that we won’t be living in a house of insanity. I feel him (or her) mostly in the evening when I’m resting after dinner. It’s very odd, not feeling particularly pregnant at 15 weeks. However, I must say it is nice having a variety of pants to wear without elastic or spandex in them.

Today was my OB checkup, and I have gained two and a half pounds, which doesn’t sound like much until you consider that it’s eight and a half pounds more than I gained in the first trimester with Maddi. There are things to be said for not feeling sick all the time!

My fundal height was 18 cm, which at this point means I’m measuring at 18 weeks — a bit ahead of where I am. Dr. Goncalves had to move the Doppler around a long time before he found a heartbeat. I’m not saying the old wives’ tale is true, but if it is, then we are definitely having a boy since the heart rate was a low 132. Chris is still thinking pink, of course!

And here, without further ado, are the 15 week belly pics:

Time flies when you have more than one

With Maddi, the first trimester lasted an eternity. Yes, this could be because I spent most of it trying to avoid the scent and sight of food and sleeping 18 hours a day. But it was also because I had nothing but time.

Now, I’m short on time. Instead of worrying constantly about the baby, I’m worried that I forget to worry constantly about the baby. Not only have I done this before, and am having a much more comfortable pregnancy, but I’m so busy chasing a certain nap-hating toddler around the house that it’s hard to find time to catch my breath and feel for kicks.

Somehow, I’ve entered the second trimester without really even trying. Good things do come to those who wait, although this pregnancy has been so easy (save for the bleeding and reduced activity) that I’m not sure what I’m waiting for. After we heard the heartbeat at 10 weeks, the chances of miscarriage were much slimmer than they had been, and that was a great load off my mind. As far as my personal physical comfort, I can’t imagine a pregnancy getting much better than this! There were times when I was carrying Maddi when I thought, “Boy, am I a whiny wuss!” But you know what? This is exactly what, long ago, I expected pregnancy would be like. A little barfing, a little fatigue, but nothing I couldn’t handle. I think I’ve thrown up fewer than 10 times this pregnancy and I only need an hour or two more sleep a night (and my starting requirement was a five- or six-hour sleep, so it’s not bad at all!).

As for the baby, all its parts are fully formed by now. Its chances of being carried to term are greatly improved over the period in the first few months where I was bleeding. And many people are finding out at 14 weeks along exactly what color to paint the nursery. (Unfortunately, we have to wait a bit longer for that here in B.C.)

As busy as I am with Maddi (and currently Kaija), I am still looking forward to getting the nursery ready for baby. If it’s a girl, she’s all set. Maddi’s pink and purple butterfly theme will do just fine when she moves to her big-girl room, and Daddy has even purchased the baby a pretty pastel onesie. If it’s a boy, we’ll need to cover the pink trim on the crib and gather an awful lot of non-pink clothing. Daddy is pretty convinced it’s not a boy, but I’ve been scouring the Web’s selection of baby-boy wear just to be on the safe side.

I can feel our little wiggler pretty regularly after meals and when I’m resting at night. So far as I can tell, this will be another active one like Maddi. I only hope we will still be welcome in playgroup with two crazy babies!