19, almost 20 Weeks!

Jack can now hear his family's voice, feel his umbilical chord, and even taste amniotic fluid! His body, including his limbs and all, are in the right proportions now, and he is growing hair on his head! I wonder if he will have crazy hair like his big brother, so cute! Jack weighs 8oz and is 6 inches long head to bottom, 10 inches from head to heal!

How far along? 19 and a half weeks!

Total Weight Gain: Will know at next doctor's appointment.

Symptoms: Fatigue is starting to come back! It's especially bad mid-day and in the evening after dinner. Yikes.

Stretch Marks: None yet.

Sleep: Great! Harrison is sleeping very well and so am I.

Highlight This Week: Dixie's 8th birthday party, Harrison eating from a spoon all by himself, and daddy's first baseball game!

Movement: Yep! I feel Jack a little more every day. His kicks are still so soft but they are getting stronger. When I do feel him kick or poke around, I am lying on my side or rocking Harrison to sleep. When I am rocking Harrison to sleep and I feel my other son kick from within, it is the most WONDERFUL and peaceful feeling in the world. I hope I remember it forever!

Cravings: Food in general. Ice cream, too. My hubby and I have made quite a few trips to Dairy Queen the past couple of months.  :D

What I Miss: ALL of my clothes. Waa! All of my regular pants are too tight or are about to become too tight, even with one of those button extenders (aka, hair tie looped through my buttonhole) and I'm not quite big enough for my maternity pants. I have only a few pairs of maternity pants that I even like so hopefully this week I can go out and find some cute ones! 

What am I looking forward to: Harry's 1st birthday! I am SOOOO excited!! We are having a book party this year where everyone brings their favorite book and message inside! We are having it at Peter Piper Pizza and we are so blessed that so many friends and family will be coming. My sweet little, born-yesterday-son is not ONLY turning one, not ONLY is he going to have an awesome collection of treasured books, but he will be tasting chocolate cake and MILK for the very first time!!!! I have been soooo tempted to let him have some milk early but I have resisted because I just think it will be so neat for him to have it on his 1st birthday. Not only will he love it, he will be enjoying it with chocolate cake! Talk about delicious :) I will be making cupcakes for the adults and kids, and a personal cake for Harrison to dig into with his bare hands. I better bring a towel or some sort of floor mat so we don't leave a giant chocolate slick behind

Milestones: Teaching Harrison to use spoon successfully! It has been quite the messy ride. When I first gave Harrison the spoon a while back, I already had it loaded up for him and he was learning to coordinate the spoon-to-mouth maneuver. Eventually, after a few days, he figured it out but boy was that messy! Eventually, after getting better and better about putting the food in his mouth and not on his cheek or his nose or turning the spoon upside down on the way to his mouth, we gave him the spoon and a bowl full of food and let him do the rest. It really did not take long, I'd say a day and a half, and he already had it down pat! His first time successfully eating with a spoon was last night with a bowl of applesauce. He had so much fun and loved the applesauce so much he had thirds! Harry also is learning to drink from a regular cup! He can do it all by himself but he still occasionally drowns himself in the end and launches his water-filled (whew) cup across the room! He is doing so good though. Here are a few pics of this amazing little boy eating and drinking like a gentleman.

Scooping up the applesauce...

eating the applesauce....

all gone! 

Harry was too excited to use his real cup to wait until we got home to start practicing!

How is Daddy? He is JUST awesome. He just tried out for an adult baseball team and although the tryouts were for the summer league, they wanted him immediately for the spring league! He was so proud and so were we. His parents, my parents, his two little sisters, my cousin and her daughter, and Harrison and I (and little Jack) all attended his very first game and it was so much fun. Harry even made a 1-year old friend!

How is Harry? Fantastic and just SO smart, hee hee. He is walking better and better each day and learning more and more big boy things like eating from a spoon and drinking from a regular cup. He blows our minds!

18 Weeks and CPC

18 Weeks Down!

Jack is beginning to form myelin around his little nerves, and his ears have migrated to their final position on his little head! Jack weighs 8oz and is 6 inches long!

How far along? 18 weeks down, on to the 19th!

Total Weight Gain: Finally, I had my doctor's appointment today! I have officially gained 10 pounds so far during this pregnancy. (Was 137, now 147). 

Symptoms: No symptoms other than slight cramping.

Stretch Marks: None

Sleep: So-so. Harry is sprouting about four teeth at once right now on top and bottom and is having a hard time sleeping. This makes our sleep interrupted but it is still good sleep. Not complaining considering I am not the one cutting a handful of teeth!

Highlight This Week: Jack's anatomy scan! Daddy and Harry were there, too. It was great to see Jack!

We were given great news and a bit of scary news. Great news is that Jack is structurally "perfect" from his brain to his toes, and he is growing right on target so far. The scary news was that the sonographer found a choroid plexus cyst (CPC) in his brain. It went a little something like this...

Doctor: "Anymore questions for me?"

Us: "No, I think we are good."

Doctor: "Okay, then there is one more thing to address. We did find an abnormality in the scan..."

Us: petrified and silent

Doctor: "Now, this is something very minor and does not affect the health or overall well being of your baby, and my colleague and I even disagree if something like this should even be brought up to the parents..."

Us: Still petrified. Still silent. Feeling a little bit more calm after that statement but still FREAKING OUT. Heart POUNDING. Just get to it already, doc!

Doctor: "Jack has a little cyst in his brain called a choroid plexus cyst, or CPC. Now, it really is no cause for concern because Jack is structurally "perfect", even his brain."

Us: Still silent. Feeling more freaked out now that the words "cyst" and "brain" were just spoken by our baby's doctor.

The doctor continued on, explaining CPC. Instead of trying to reiterate a mouthful of medical terms, here is the definition straight from Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choroid_plexus_cyst)

"Choroid plexus cysts (CPCs) are cysts that occur within choroid plexus of the brain. The brain contains pockets or spaces called ventricles with a spongy layer of cells and blood vessels called the choroid plexus. This is in the middle of the fetal brain. The choroid plexus has the important function of producing a fluid called cerebrospinal fluid. The fluid produced by the cells of the choroid plexus fills the ventricles and then flows around the brain and the spinal cord to provide a cushion of fluid around these structures.

CPCs can form within this structure and come from fluid trapped within this spongy layer of cells, much like a soap bubble or a blister. CPCs are often called "soft signs" or fetal ultrasound "markers" because some studies have found a weak association between CPCs and fetal chromosome abnormalities.

It is believed that many adults have one or more tiny CPCs.^[1] CPCs have no impact on an individual's health or development or learning. The fetal brain may create these cysts as a normal part of development. They are temporary and usually are gone by the 32nd week of pregnancy."

From Contemporary OB/GYN (http://contemporaryobgyn.modernmedicine.com/Isolated-fetal-choroid-plexus-cysts)

"Choroid plexus cysts are present in 30% to 50% of fetuses with trisomy 18. Trisomy 18 is characterized by major structural abnormalities and abnormal sonographic findings.³ When a fetus is affected by trisomy 18, multiple structural anomalies are almost always evident, including structural heart defects, clenched hands, talipes deformity of the feet, growth restriction, and polyhydramnios."

"In the absence of associated sonographic abnormalities, the likelihood of trisomy 18 is extremely low in otherwise low-risk pregnancies. Studies from the 1990s reported that the risk of trisomy 18 with isolated choroid plexus cysts was approximately 1 in 200 to 1 in 400."

So, there you have it. It really is nothing to worry about. The doctor said that because CPC WAS detected, he feels it is his duty to bring it up to us instead of letting it go unmentioned like many doctors today. Today, most sonographers and hospitals don't even mention when a CPC is found with no other markers present. He then went on to offer us a referral to a high risk OB, if we were uncomfortable or wanted reassurance, but he said the sonographer checked all other structural features of Jack, including his hands, feet, nose bone, brain ventricles, heart, bowels, arm and leg bones, arteries, and back of neck, and found no other markers. This is why he recommended we just wait to see if the cyst dissolves at our 28 week scan instead of seeing a high risk OB. After talking with him we decided it really was not a cause for concern, and will just wait to see his brain again at our 28 week scan!

Here are a few photos of our sweet baby Jack!

In other GREAT news, Harrison started walking! Hurray! It was so incredibly exciting and I was able to capture some of his very first footsteps on video so I am SO thrilled. He practices more and more each day and soon we are going to forget how hard it was for him. :)

Here is the video that we will cherish forever!

Movement: Yes! I still feel him every now and then when I'm rocking Harry to sleep but I don't notice any movement any other time. I'm kind of bummed considering my doctor said that because of the position of Jack's placenta I should feel him much earlier than Harry but so far it's about the same as Harry. But as long as I feel something here and there I'm not complaining!

Cravings: No cravings but still not digging broccoli. 

What I Miss: My calves! They are already starting to get bigger which is insane considering I'm not even half way there yet! I will have to do some research on how to keep swelling down. I walk over a mile every day with Harrison but I guess that is not enough!

What am I looking forward to: I was really looking forward to my appointment today, that was the biggest thing. Woo! I am also looking forward to raising our cabinets and adding shelves so I can start painting them! Well, I will paint the doors outside away from fumes and hubby will stay inside and paint the frames and the shelves. I decided on pure white for the wall cabinets and shelves. Hope it looks good!

Milestones: Keeping up with exercising! I am not one to exercise, but I should. The only time I exercise is when I am pregnant because of all of the health benefits for baby and me, and even then it's not every day. THIS time, however, I am walking over a mile, sometimes two, every day in the morning with Harrison. I'm determined to keep up with it and hopefully make it habitual and something that is just necessary, like eating, and not a chore. Walking in the morning with my sweet baby Harry kind of feels like cheating, though, because it is so enjoyable and relaxing. Love it!

How is Daddy? He is great. He has helped out so much (his family too!) with my cousin it's really awesome. He just same old easy going, fun-loving Marcus!

How is Harry? Adorable, a riot, and the light of my life (next to daddy). Harrison recently learned how to blow raspberries on my tummy and shrieks with excitement! Although I end up covered in drool it is too darn cute. I wonder what Jack is thinking? He can hear now, and I just wonder what he thinks of his brothers raspberries and high-pitched squeals. I can't wait for them to meet!!

17 Weeks!

Jack is developing finger pads and fingerprints! Next up, endochondral ossification! (bone replacing cartilage!)

How far along? 17 weeks

Total Weight Gain: Still don't know because we don't own a scale. I will know in a week at my doctor's appointment!

Symptoms: Still more cramping but it's very sporadic, infrequent, and painless. I still have not experienced the labor-calliber cramps I experienced with Harrison and I am SO thankful! I think I experienced those very early on with Harry but I will have to go back and check Harry's blog.

Stretch Marks: Still none but my skin still has a long way to go!

Sleep: Still great although sleeping on my belly is no longer an option!

Highlight This Week: Our kitchen ceiling is finally finished!! After vaulting our ceiling, my husband has had to fill, tape, sand, fill, sand, fill, sand, fill sand.......ugh! It was never ending. This weekend I stayed at my parents while my dad stayed at our house to help Marcus and they not only finished and textured our ceiling but they finished and textured the kitchen wall! They also took down our cabinets! This means next weekend we can raise them and add shelving underneath the cabinets. SO excited!!!!! I have dreamed all my adult life of coffee cups hanging from hooks in open shelving in my kitchen and it's getting closer and closer to becoming a reality! So excited! Now we can look forward to rehanging the cabinets, adding shelves and priming and painting the ceiling and walls. Woo!

Movement: Yes! I usually feel him when I'm rocking and singing Harry to sleep because it's so quiet and so calm, any little movement is very noticeable. I don't know if he likes my singing or if he's trying to kick Harry! Hee hee. Anyway, the movement is little and it's still so soft and gentle, like quick fluttering, but he's there. I can feel him. I can't wait until it's a daily, unmistakable thing!

Cravings: No cravings but still having a hard time with broccoli. We had some last night with our pasta and....still ate it. Still hate it. :( I also am having a hard time with meat which, right along with broccoli, is probably one of the best things to eat while your pregnant but I am having to force it down my own throat. I am loving dairy, espcially Kefir, and even the sourness of the plain variation! So thick and creamy mmmmmmmmm! I could drink it all day long if it wasn't 140 calories a glass.

What I Miss: Sleeping on my back. I read last week that I should now begin sleeping on my side and not my belly or back so as to not squish baby or put pressure on my heart. I still sleep great but I love love love sleeping flat on my back and I can't anymore! But that just means baby is growing and we are closer to seeing his tiny little face. 

What am I looking forward to: Adding shelving to our kitchen and moving my cousin Brittany into her new place! I am also REALLY looking forward to going to IKEA with my mom and cousin to get stuff for her new place. My husband and I are HUGE IKEA fans, we could just spend all day there like Disney Land.

Milestones: I have been tutoring my sweet little sister-in-law and just recently we began working on counting coins. Today she officially can say she can count coins! It was so wonderful. I kept piling coins in front of her and she kept counting them perfectly. We were so happy and excited we laughed and giggled the whole time. It was really awesome. I miss teaching more and more every time I tutor her. Ah, the joy of teaching. :D

How is Daddy? Feeling better about the kitchen now that the major construction is over. Also, as usual, he is loving my belly. He sure knows how to make a pregnant girl feel sexy ;)

How is Harry? Great as usual, and I think he knows Jack is in my belly! Recently at night he comes up to me and lays his head on my belly and looks at me with his sweet, inquisitive little face and just waits. Waits for what I don't know but it really seems like he knows something is up! Well he has definitely noticed my belly. I know this because he likes to pat my belly or rub it when I'm laying down like 'hey, what's this?' Ha. Anyway, here is a pick of sweet Harry and Jack. 

16 Weeks!

How far along? 16 weeks (starting the 17th!)

Total Weight Gain: Not sure because I don't own a scale. I will know at my next doctor's appointment in a few weeks.

Symptoms: Cramping here and there but nothing like I experienced with Harry

Stretch Marks: none....yet.

Sleep: Great!

Highlight This Week: Hubby cleaning the bathroom! I know. It was quite a surprise and a very awesome one at that! I have also finally set up a temporary kitchen so I can continue to cook and clean without going insane. And finally, sweet little Harry successfully transitioned back to his crib for all naps and night time! Hurray! He has been sleeping with us since he was 5 months old but we decided to transition him back to his crib before Jack gets here to make things easier. Harry is also almost completely weaned. The only time I allow him to nurse (which isn't nursing at all it's just pacifying) is if he wakes up at night from teething pains. I am officially no longer making milk and Harry has learned that all of his liquids come from his training cups. So yay Harry!

Movement: Finally I have felt Jack without needing to have my hand on my belly. I was rocking Harry to sleep and singing a lullaby and I felt Jack kick twice! He must have liked the song :D

Cravings: I am still craving sweets time to time but not as bad as last time, and I am loving strawberries. I am having some pretty strong food aversions to broccoli and tofu. I think this might be because I have been eating these foods a lot recently and I might just be sick of them! But broccoli is SO good for you and it's my husbands favorite vegetable so it's really a shame I am having a hard time getting it down! 

What I Miss: My colored skinny jeans! I have brightly colored skinny jeans that I just purchased not that long ago and they officially are too tight because of my growing belly and booty. Arg!

What am I looking forward to: Finishing our kitchen! This weekend we are actually going to take up the rest of the tile (hallelujah!) and drill a ditch in our foundation so we can run electricity to our new island. Very exciting.

Milestones: Began exercising! I have tried Pilates and our treadmill but it is just too hard with Harry so now I speed walk for a mile or two every morning with Harry happily kicking his legs in his stroller. 

How is Daddy? Stressed a little about the kitchen but excited about my belly. :D

How is Harry? Growing like a weed! And learning SO much. He loves playing peek-a-boo under blankets or any fabric, loves driving the car carts at the grocery store, loves waving hello and goodbye to everyone who waves, LOVES putting things together with his tinker toy set, has finally learned that crayons are for coloring and not eating or banging (whew), loves picking out books from his book hammocks, annnnd I could go on and on but I will save it for Harry's page. :D

15 Weeks!

Boy oh boy, it's a BOY! 

15 Weeks (Hurray for bump! Hello Jack!)

How far along? 15 weeks

Total Weight Gain: 5ish lbs (Hard to tell since my normal weight is 135 and I dipped a tad below that after having Harry).

Symptoms: None. Nausea vanished by week 13.

Stretch Marks: none....yet.

Sleep: Great!

Highlight This Week: Finding out we have a little Jack William on the way and seeing Jack in 3D up on the big screen at Stork Vision Chandler! He's an active little man! He was moving all around just like Harry and I didn't even have a drop of sugar that morning. Jack be nimble Jack be quick!

Movement: YES! None that I can feel while standing, though. If I lie down on my back and feel for the baby with my hands I can feel the baby flutter underneath my fingers. Well, I have twice so far but movement is movement!

Cravings: In the beginning I was craving milk and cauliflower and even once allowed myself to consume an entire head of RAW cauliflower. Yeah, I nixed that habit real quick for my husband's sake. I do still like milk but I always have. I also really enjoy food in general, healthy and junk alike, so it's hard for me to tell the difference between pregnancy cravings and just the daily preferences of my flavor-loving tongue. For example last night I told my hubby we should have Cup Noodles for dinner. That wasn't a pregnancy craving (at least I hope not) that was just me craving the nutrient-barren hot and soupy noodles. One major craving difference that I have noticed this time around is sugar. When I was pregnant with Harry I needed sweets. NEEDED. As soon as I walked past the bakery in Fry's or Sprouts my jaws would ache and my mouth would water the way they do before I bite into a big fat ribeye and it wouldn't stop until I was satisfied. I'm not normally a sweets person AT ALL, never have been even as a child (I would donate all of my Halloween candy to the cause of Dad) so combatting that temptation was very difficult since I wasn't used to having to resist and well, let's just say I didn't resist very well. That might be why I gained almost 50 pounds with Harry! With Jack I craved sweets in the very early weeks, along with milk and cauliflower but that's all gone now.

What I Miss: Wine. Ah! I know that sounds awful but I was just finally starting to let myself have a little wine here and there while we would cook and we found out our amazing news shortly after. But wine or baby? Baby any day!

What am I looking forward to: Finishing our kitchen! We are trying to get our kitchen done before February 23rd (Harry's 1st birthday) but I don't know if that is going to happen. Sigh. I will remain hopeful! Right now we are still trying to finish the ceiling after we vaulted it. It's taken up 3 weekends now with no end in sight.

Milestones: Starting this blog!

How is Daddy? Loves that he can call me "ol' pregnant ass" again. Sounds mean but it's an innocent tease. He just loves when I am with child so he has a grin from ear to ear every time he says it. I don't mean to use a curse word but when I look back at my baby blogs I want to remember everything! Especially this because it will make me smile.

How is Harry? Great! He is learning so much so fast I can't keep up with the accomplishments and milestones! I'm seriously sad that I have forgotten to write a few of them down. Just recently though he has begun sounding out words. So far in his learning-to-talk vocabulary he has "boo" for book, "pu pu" for puppy, and just a simple "p" sound for pig. He also hisses like a snake when he sees a snake and woofs like a dog when he sees a dog, either in a book or in real life. So sweet!

Here is my 6 week baby belly photo. I am using this as my before. In this photo I am almost 10 pounds lighter than I was in high school. Not normal for me and kind of freakish. As you can see my butt had almost left me entirely! Anyway, I haven't taken a belly shot since because not much was happening and I just wanted one good before photo.

6 weeks

Hey, Jack!

Jack William Randolph: July 13th, 2014

The moment we found out a Jack was on the way! 

Hurray! Today we found out that we will be welcoming another little boy to our family this July (or maybe June!). Jack William's due date is 7/13/14! We are so thrilled and so excited not only for ourselves but for Harry and Jack as well. They will be best buds and we can't wait to watch them play and grow together.

From the beginning of the pregnancy I thought I was having a GIRL! Or at least I just felt that way since this pregnancy has been very different from my first. I had nausea with this one and no cramping, very different from my first pregnancy when I had a LOT of cramping and no nausea. It's funny, though, because every since I was a little girl I thought that I would have a lot of boys and so far my premonition is right! Crazy.

Saturday we saw Jack up close and personal at Stork Vision Chandler. Take a peek at the photos below!

Even though we went to Stork Vision to have the gender determined, we still did not want to know because we wanted to find out by cutting into a cake with our whole family. In order to do this the sonographer had everyone leave (both grandpas an cousins) except my mom and my mother-in-law and then put a towel over my face so I couldn't see! She then went through and snapped many photos of Jack's revealing parts for the grandmas to see and that was it! My mom then went home and baked the awesome cake for our reveal party the next day (yes, we had to wait one more day!) When we cut into the cake the next day in front of all of our family and close friends blue M&M's flowed out like an awesome boy waterfall! It was so neat I want to do it again for our next baby for sure!

Here are the pictures we got from Stork Vision of Jack William at 14 weeks 6 days. So cute! He looks different from his brother but also the same. Cannot WAIT to meet him!! July can't come fast enough!!

Here is the photo revealing Jack's sex. It's a boy!! The sonographer typed a little "b" in the photo but it's hard to see.

Even though we went to Stork Vision to have the gender determined, we still did not want to know because we wanted to find out by cutting into a cake with our whole family. In order to do this the sonographer had everyone leave (both grandpas an cousins) except my mom and my mother-in-law and then put a towel over my face so I couldn't see! She then went through and snapped many photos of Jack's revealing parts for the grandmas to see and that was it! My mom then went home and baked the awesome cake that we cut into that flowed with blue M&M's when we cut into it. So fun!!!!

On the evening of November 3rd, 2013 we found out we were expecting! We were so thrilled. It was a great day for the whole family because not only did our newest niece Jillian decide to come into the world that morning, we found out the news about our own little arrival that night. How exciting! After about 7 months after Harrison's birth we had decided that another pregnancy was what we wanted soon in order to keep the boys (ah!) close in age like Marcus and his brother Jacob were, and a few weeks later we were blessed with the news.

Our dollar pregnancy test. It was a very VERY faint line, so faint that we ran to the store for another dollar pregnancy test! Even though the directions say that even the faintest of lines are positive results, we just HAD to know for sure, especially considering that the first test was sitting for over 10 minutes before we read the result and that can make for some false positives. The second test was just as faint but we knew. We waited EXACTLY two minutes and bam! Baby #2 was on his way!

I have been waiting until our gender reveal get together to begin my weekly blog posts so I'm excited to start the first! I also created a new blog to which I linked Harrison's baby blog, HarrisonGregory.blogspot.com. 

Okay, here goes!