30 Weeks

3/4's of the way done with this pregnancy! Finally! I feel like I am really over being pregnant this time around. It feels like I've been pregnant for years. But I'm down to single digits! I go back and forth between being really excited to meeting this baby and having a third running around to feeling like I'm not ready in any way to add a third. I am just really excited to be able to comfortably get down on the ground and play with my kids. And to have energy again to want to play with my kids. Here is my third quarter transformation pictures. I find it funny as I go back through my pics because I feel like I'm not just carrying high, or low. But I feel like it changes depending on the week. Sometimes I'm carrying really high, and other times I seem to be carrying really low. It's kind of weird...

It my appointment today I was measuring 2 weeks big.... I really hope this doesn't mean I'm having a monster baby again. But oh well if I am! There isn't really anything I can do about it. Other than that everything looks great! Also today we did a 3D ultrasound of the little babe! And here he/she is!!! Now here's the question..... Boy? or Girl?

Date: March 16, 2016

How far along? 30 Weeks

Total weight gain/loss: So crazy... But I actually didn't gain any weight the past 2 weeks. Which means.... I'm still up 24 pounds! My total weight is 158 pounds. So now I'm only 4 pounds more than with Jacob and Ida at 30 weeks. YAY! Ok... I'm sure having the stomach bug and not eating for a few days helped....

Maternity clothes? I just ordered some maternity hike ware and I'm so excited! I figured we do enough hiking and whatnot while I am still prego that I can totally justify buying hiking pants and a dry fit shirt for when I'm prego. And I'm really tired of going on these hikes and feeling like I have nothing to wear. Plus. They were on sale for a really cheap price so I couldn't really pass it up. I'm pretty much really excited for them to get here!

Sleep: I have still been sleeping great! Although I still feel like I'm always tired. It's like it doesn't matter how much sleep I get I still tired all the time.

Movement: So I have decided I do actually like the baby moving a lot in the mornings. Because that is when I feel the best. I still wish I could just see into my uterus and watch the little guy move. It would be so cool! In the evenings, especially if I over eat, which seems to happen almost every evening, the movements really aren't very comfortable.

Feeling sick? Besides the stomach bug I got that seems to keep randomly making my stomach feel upset, I am feeling GREAT!

Other pregnancy symptoms? The past couple weeks hasn't been so symptom free. (Hello third trimester) My indigestion, gas, heartburn, over eating feeling has come back full force. It seems like lately I start getting heartburn starting at 3 pm every day. Then it stays the rest of the night. I am really bad at disciplining myself at dinner to only eat a really small portion and that always comes back to bite me in the butt. I am good at eating only small portions the rest of the day. My pelvic pain has been feeling pretty good but I have also stopped exercising. Not really because I don't want my pelvic to hurt. More just because I lost motivation. I'm hoping to gain it back soon. I seem to be coming out of a hormonal low so emotionally I'm actually feeling pretty good!

Have you started to show yet? I seem to always have a little bump right above me belly button. I am starting to wonder if it's a foot that just sits there most of the time. I'm not feeling as huge anymore but I think it's because I feel far enough along in my pregnancy that I feel like I should start feeling big. So now I just feel normal big. I don't think I really look that much different in size as I did with Ida.... But I do think I'm carrying a lot differently. Definitely higher with this one. At least right now.

30 weeks w/ Ida                                         30 weeks now

Gender prediction: Only 10ish more weeks till we find out! But after looking at the ultrasound pics I'm kind of thinking boy even more.... I got the baby blankets done for this baby and I think they turned out so cute! I might kind of be doing a woodland theme for this baby because it's really cute.. And I got the most cute fox wub! Because this will be a citrus baby. I have decided to only tie half the quilt now so that when the baby is born I can tie the rest with either blue and pink depending on what I have. That way it wont be quite so citrusy. :)

29 Weeks

I went in for 28 week appointment today and did the glucose test. I was a little worries because the families been suffering from the stomach bug and I still feel like I'm getting over it and my stomach is still feeling kind of sensitive. So I didn't know how well drinking a 50 g container of sugar water would react. Thankfully it upset my stomach very slightly but not too bad. I passed my glucose test again with flying colors and got an 88. They want you to be under 140 so I think I'm good. I was measuring a week big today at 30 cm. Hopefully this doesn't mean we are having another Jacob sized baby....

Chiropractor update:  So for this past month I've been going to see the chiropractor twice at first and then once a week for the past couple weeks.... I was feeling pretty discouraged because I was really hoping going would make it so I could live my active lifestyle without being in so much pain. It turns out that will not be so... After going for a month and only seeing little progress Dr. Bench told me the best solution for my problem would be to do no physical activities. Basically. The more physical activity I do, the more pain I will be in. The less physical activities I do the less pain I'll be in. I'm not terribly disappointed because I didn't have much hope that the chiropractor would fix it in the first place. I already knew if I didn't do anything it hurt less. I just really wanted to be able to do a regular workout program. Or go hiking. Or go for a walk without being miserable for 4 days after.

Date: March 9, 2016

How far along? 29 Weeks

Total weight gain/loss: I am up 24 pounds. So that's not bad! I only gained 1 pound a week for the past 5 weeks!

Maternity clothes? Gotta love maternity clothes..... Whoever invented maternity pants was a genius. But that doesn't mean I like them....

Sleep: I have actually been sleeping really well the past few weeks. I don't feel like I wake up 30 times a night.

Movement: Holy cow does this baby move.... In fact... I'm wondering if it ever stops moving.... This has been my most active baby for sure. If I am not moving, it is. I pretty much feel it all day long. And honestly, sometimes I get so tired of it. I just want to sit and relax and not be constantly jabbed in the belly! Also, I'm pretty sure it's trying to escape my belly... thru my belly. Like a vampire child. The only time it's really bad is when I'm not feeling well. Cuz that just tends to make me feel a lot worse.

Feeling sick? Not sick and I love it!!!! Whoop, whoop!

Other pregnancy symptoms? Honestly from 24 to 28 weeks I actually felt pretty good! I felt like I finally got a taste of that second trimester bliss for a month. My groin/hip pain, although not pain free, does feel a lot better then it did and I do think the chiropractor is helping it feel better. Even in the evenings I have felt pretty good with no indigestion, gas and heartburn. Just the occasional heartburn. Those pesky braxton hicks started a week ago which I could have done without a bit longer.... But that's a lot later than with my other pregnancies. I think I started getting them around 24 with the others. I feel like one of the most challenging aspects of this pregnancy has been my emotional state. I feel like an emotional roller coaster. I randomly get in these hormonal lows were I just feel so unhappy and I'm crying all the time. Everything sets me off. It's really hard to deal with the kids. It's feels like Scott can't do anything right. And I don't know how many of the negative thoughts going through my head are valid. So I don't feel like I should talk about them because I don't know if I'm still going to feel the same way when I'm out of the hormonal low. But at the same time. I don't know how long the low is going to last so I just constantly have really negative thoughts going through my head all day long and I just seem to get more and more angry. It's really been a struggle for me.

Have you started to show yet? I am carrying this baby on my right side. Which is opposite from where I carried Ida. I felt like Ida lived in the left half of my uterus and this baby lives in the right. At least they are evening out the use of my uterus... Baby is heads down though (yay!!!) with it back against my right side and kicking me all over my center/right side.

Gender prediction: So I thought it would be fun to do one of the little gender prediction things so I peed in some baking powder and according to that..... It's a boy!!!! The only problem is.... My little sister, Ondrea, who is not pregnant, is also having a boy.... She was the control group and got the same results as me. So I really don't know how accurate this little gender prediction thingy is.... I guess we'll see!

Happy First Birthday Ida!!!

This pretty little lady is 1!!

Newborn

1 Month

2 Month

3 Month

4 Month

5 Month

6 Month

7 Month

8 Month

9 Month

10 Month

11 Month

1 Year!

We had a great birthday party! We got Ida balloons and she loved them! She spent the day grabbing as many of the strings as she could then she would just carry them around the house everywhere she went.

I did a ladybug theme and I think the cake turned out pretty cute! I like to try and design the cake so when you look at it as a whole the cake all fits together but then has a removable item, (in this case the ladybug) that you remove for the cake smash!

Ida enjoyed opening all her presents. When she got this little doll she immediately kissed it. It was so cute! 

Ida didn't really dig right into her cake and make a mess. She definitely enjoyed eating the cake. And ate A LOT of it. But kept fairly clean in the process. :)

All in all we had a great birthday! Thank you to all that came! Ida is still just a tiny little thing. At her 1 year appointment she was 16 lbs and 27 inches tall. Which means in her first year she gained 8 lbs 13 oz and grew 6 3/4 inches. She is still in size 2 diapers. (Probably will be for awhile) Wearing 6-9 month clothes. (Which I just switched out like a week ago) And size 2 shoes. The problem we are having with Ida's shoes right now is finding shoes that aren't too big around on her foot. Length wise they fit her but they are huge everywhere else. Ida's hair still hasn't grown much. :( Makes me sad because I just want pig tails! It is growing some but it is still so fine and baby hair like that you can't do anything with it... Someday... She does surprisingly still keep headbands in pretty well though! Which has made me happy. As long as you distract her right after putting it in she usually leaves it alone. Her eyes look like they may be blue... But they still have a lot of grey in them and a kind of light brown around the iris. So I'm not sure. I'd like if she had blue eyes like her daddy and dark brown hair!

This past month with Ida has been so fun watching her personality really start to bloom. Her favorite thing to do right now when she wants something is to point and say "eh, eh, eh" over and over until she has it. Also Jacob and Ida have been interacting so much more! Jacob actually seeks Ida out to try to play with her and Ida doesn't just scream every time he comes close to her. She still does if she isn't in a very good mood. But I've actually caught them a few times playing and Jacob is actually making her laugh. It's the cutest thing and I love it! I love when they play together and it's happening more and more every day! This little girl has quite the personality. She is seriously the biggest goof ball and LOVES making people laugh! She has also started getting into a lot more things... Like dog food...

Ida started walking about a week and a half before she turned one. She still falls a lot! And crawling is still faster. But she is getting pretty good! She has wanted to for so long and finally the ability has caught up with her desire! Which means my prediction came true. If only by 3 weeks it still came true. I had predicted that Ida would start crawling after Jacob did but would walk before he did.

Ida has fallen down the stairs more this past month then when she was actually learned how to go down the stairs! She's seriously fallen down them like 4 or 5 times! I think her problem is she's getting to comfortable on them and starts doing things she shouldn't and then falls. She really likes to climb up a few steps just turn around, sit and play. Hence the reason she may keep falling. 

Ida is a great eater and I hope it always continues! It's so much nicer to deal with a baby that eats almost everything vs a baby that eats almost nothing! She hasn't really picked up signing yet. She will do all done. Most of the time only if prompted. I'm sure she will catch on soon though! She does nod and shake her head. And it's the cutest because when she nods she doesn't just nod her head. She nods with her whole body!

Sleeping on the other hand.... Not been so great. For the past few weeks Ida has become a terrible sleeper. Ok... Maybe not so much sleeper. But going to sleeper. For some reason if I just lay her down and then leave the room she just screams and screams and screams. She just will not settle down. And believe me. I've tried to just let her cry it out. But this little girl is not the cry it out type. Most like I'll just scream louder and longer type. The only way I can get her to go to sleep is if I stand or sit by the crib until she falls asleep. Which sometimes isn't terrible when it takes her like 3 minutes to fall asleep. But gets really annoying when it takes like 30 minutes to fall asleep. The whole time I stand there waiting this internal battle is going on in my head saying, "This is the worst habit ever I need to stop." and "It's ok, it's just a phase... It's just a phase..." Just recently it has seemed to be getting a little better. She will fall asleep on her own every once in while. Usually when it's going to bed. But I hope it ends soon! Good thing she is a little cutie and we wouldn't trade her in for anything! :) Love you Ida! Happy Birthday!!!

11 Months

I can not believe in one month this little girl is going to be a year old! How does time go so fast!! She is now 16 lbs and 27 inches tall. Her hair has started growing although it's so light colored and fine you still have a hard time seeing it. She is still wearing 6 month cloths although I think before she's a year old she'll be up to 6/9 month. She is also still wearing size 2 diapers.

This girl is becoming quite the little firecracker. She hit a mental developmental jump just a few days ago and now thinks she needs to state her opinion if something isn't to her liking. Especially when it comes to Jacob. If she doesn't want him around her she gets upset and starts yelling and crying. Especially if he comes between me and her. She also has starting looking at books and
pointing to the pictures. It's the cutest! She also gets really mad if you are trying to keep her from touching something and she wants to be touching that something. She also likes to complain to you if you do something to her that she doesn't like. And her face is so cute! She scrunches up her face, closes her eyes and purses her lips. I have a hard time not laughing when she's complaining to me. She is also a little goof ball. She does the funniest things and loves getting reactions out of people. If you laugh... She keeps performing. She has also become quite the chatter box and just loves making noise all day long.

Ida is going to be walking before a year I'm pretty positive. She really wants to walk and loves standing on her own more and more every day.
She took her first step just over a week ago and now will take up to 3 steps while keeping her balance. She has even walked a few steps then stopped and remained standing. She just really has a lot of motivation to walk. As soon as she gets better with the balance she is going to be off! About 5 days ago she walked from the recliner to the couch (about 3 steps) all by herself. The first step was very controlled... The other two may have been more of a fall stepping. But she did it with no one around her which is a big step! She also loves pushing around the walker as long as she has someone to turn it around for her when she reaches the end of the room.

Ida has started signing all done, nodding and shaking her head and waving. I'm still not sure if she knows what nodding and shaking her head mean... But she likes to do it when you ask her questions. She hasn't started signing any other words yet but we keep working with her. One of Ida's favorite things to do right now is pull all the books off the shelf. She can open cupboards but isn't super interested in them so doesn't spend a lot of time pulling things out of them. She hasn't discovered that there is water in the toilet yet or how to open the lid and I'm trying to keep it that way as long as possible. Although she has discovered how much fun pulling all the toilet paper off the roll is.....

She also loves throwing all the bath toys from their bin back into the tub. A couple other things she really likes right now is playing with velcro (this means Jacob's shoes mostly) and being chased. Especially up the stairs. She is starting to catch on to not wanting to be caught. She also really loves to eat paper.... I hate it. It's like she seeks it out and it goes straight to her mouth every time. Also her word comprehension has really started to expand. She know who mom, dad, Jacob and Cricket are. As well as a bunch of other words that she shakes or nods her head to... Again... I don't really know if she understands what she is doing.....

Tiny mouth

I have officially stopped breastfeeding. I stopped shortly after Ida turned 10 months because I just wasn't producing milk anymore. The transition to formula full time was a not a smooth one. Ida was already so hit and miss with it. And shortly after I started she decided she wasn't going to drink it at all anymore. We prob threw away a whole container of formula because she wouldn't drink it. It was very frustrating. Fortunately this only lasted about a week and now she is drinking it very well. She's drinking 13-15 oz a day which I think is a little low... But we take whatever we can get. Currently I give her 4 oz in the morning and 3 oz before lunch, before dinner and then before she goes to bed. She is pretty much eating everything now. We started her on peanut butter and honey sandwiches and she is loving them. She's also been drinking whole milk here and there from Jacob's left overs. Getting her to eat veggies is pretty difficult but I keep trying.

 When dad's in charge of pajamas...

Ida does not do well with teething... Especially her sleeping. Although she currently doesn't have any more teeth, her top two teeth will soon be breaking through. They are swollen, red and bulging. Off and on she will randomly wake up during the night and not go back to sleep anywhere from 1 to 3 hours and all she wants to do is cuddle. Not ideal for me.... Other than when she is teething she is sleeping through the night and it's great! It's really cute because when she is tired or going to sleep she likes to stick or finger or thumb in her pacifier while she sucks on it. But... If you are trying to give her her pacifier when she wants something else that is not ok. She just throws it. She's done that for awhile now. Ida is going to bed around 8:30 and getting up around 7:30. She is taking two naps a day. Her first nap is at 11 am and her second nap is around 3 to 4 pm.

24 Weeks

At my 24 week appointment today I talked to Heather (my midwife) about my groin/hip pain thing. She recommended me to a chiropractor, Dr. Bench, and we are going to see if we can get this pain to go away. I would have to say I'm kind of skeptical of chiropractor's and I don't really think it's going to help.... I would LOVE for him to prove me wrong though. I guess we'll see. I went for my first appointment today and he recommended I get a hip support belt. So I will start wearing that, especially while exercising, and see if we can get this pelvic floor pain under control!

24 Weeks

Date: February 3, 2016

How far along? 24 Weeks

Total weight gain/loss: I am up 19 pounds. I'm calling this my pregnancy of weight gain. It's like it just wont stop! I'm especially noticing it in my back and love handles....

Maternity clothes? I am wearing all maternity clothes. And I don't know when it is but nothing is comfortable! I feel like my maternity clothes don't even fit right.... The only comfortable thing to wear is my yoga pants and a loose shirt. 

Sleep: As of about a week ago my groin/hip pain has decided to hit full force. I'm currently contemplating if I'm going to switch to the bean bag soon so it doesn't hurt so much when I sleep. I feel like I wake up multiple times a night just to turn over because it hurts so much and I have to turn so carefully so as to not make it hurt worse.

Movement: I'm noticing the baby movements a lot more lately! Either I've just been paying attention more or the kicks are just getting more strong so they are just more noticeable. I always find it fun to feel the baby move but something I wonder what the heck the baby is doing. Some of the movements are so fast and sporadic... It's like the baby is just spazing. I wish I could see a video into my womb at all times so I could see how the baby was moving.

Feeling sick? I am pretty much over feeling sick ever! It is the BEST thing ever! I could definitely get used to pregnancies like this....

Other pregnancy symptoms? Hip/ groin pain.... Sometimes I wonder if exercising on a regular basis is really worth it.... I feel like it just puts me in so much more pain. I am going to go to a chiropractor and maybe a physical therapist to see if they can help. I also get heart burn if I eat too much or I eat to soon before going to bed. And I can't eat very much or else I feel sooo full and it is so beyond uncomfortable.... Another symptom that I have that I had with Ida was razor burn... I get so itchy every time I shave! That's about all the symptoms I have right now. Oh ya... I also feel like I'm starting to waddle already. But I feel like it's because of the groin pain not because of my size.

Have you started to show yet? I. Feel. Huge..... I don't know why. But I just feel so big. Like I'm going to get a million stretch marks. And I'm only 24 weeks! I still have a long way to go.....

Gender prediction: I'm still saying boy although I really don't know. Maybe I'm just saying boy because I want it to be a girl so that way if it is a boy I'm not disappointed because I had mentally prepared myself for a boy. Scott said he thought it was a boy too the other day. But it's because he feels like the ultrasound tech gave it away during our 20 week ultrasound. She told us she didn't even see if it was a boy or a girl, but he doesn't believe her. So I guess we'll see...