Friday Five

I have been so distracted this week and so not into blogging but it's Friday and I need to do my 5!!

This week's five...Top TODDLER items.

Last week we did baby..

My favorite toddler items

1. Nuby Cups; these are the only cups that I have found that do not leak all over my house. We have playtex, straw ones, random cheap ones and these work best for us.
2. Melissa and Doug Puzzles; we have several different types of wooden puzzles and my kids love these most. They love the chunky ones as well as the ones that make noise. They are also educational. win, win!
3. Children's place denim; I am a huge fan of The Children's place. I love their jammies for younger babies (until they won't wear the 'zip it ups' anymore) and their jeans fit my boys best. I especially love that they always have coupons.
4. Divided plates; My kids think that each spot needs a different food so it works and they eat varieties of things (sort of).
5. Flatware; it has to be the ones w/plastic handles and metal tops. I think it makes them feel grown up, I don't know. Target will get some that look like this (obviously not Thomas) and put them in the dollar spot.

What are your top 5 toddler items?

Specialist...

I spent my afternoon at the specialist. It was a quick appointment, which was a nice surprise. They told me to anticipate an hour and a half; I guess they were not running behind schedule today. They took my weight/bp (we will not be discussing that ever) and sent me back to the waiting room for a little while. The technician called us back and she started the ultrasound. If you've been pregnant before, you know that they don't really tell you anything. I could see her measuring different parts of his body and I could see what the measurements were. She looked at everything, brain, heart, limbs, fingers, toes, everything. Then she went to get the dr. He starts by saying her remembers my name from the past and he's glad he gets to see me again (whatever, like he really does). He tells me that the baby looks great and has all of his fingers/toes/limbs....things like that. He says that he is fairly certain (again not 100%) that we are not dealing with amniotic banding but scar tissue from the dnc that I had prior to having any children. He said that as the baby grows, the scar tissue will just get pushed out of the way. The only thing that I think is really concerning is that 5 weeks ago, the baby measured 12w1 day. Today, the measurements were 15w3d and 16w, depending on which bone the tech measured. So, in 5 weeks, this baby has grown equivalent to 3.5w, and now I'm basically 2 weeks behind where I should be and think I am? I am really confused. I asked the technician if she thought that I should be concerned and she made a snarky comment on how the first ultrasound should not have been the reason my due date was moved. (I have always had the first ultrasound date my pregnancies and they have always been accurate) She said that they can not make any growth calls until they have done 2 subsequent scans. I wish I could sit here and say that I feel better and am relieved. Part of me is very relived; it's not banding and scar tissue should not bother the baby BUT then I have this growth issue and maybe I'm over reacting, I don't know. I do not feel at peace and still have inner turmoil. I just want to go to sleep and wake up in March with a baby.

I came back to add that I am thrilled that we don't have the banding issue and that is a huge, huge blessing and it IS a relief. I just wish that I didn't have anything else to worry about.

So What Wednesday

 It's Wednesday and I'm linking up with Shannon again.

So what...
 I have not fully processed all of the ifs of this pregnancy. I can spit out info like the best of them but I haven't processed it at all.

I let Parker have fit after fit because I refuse to fight w/a 2 year old. I am the mommy, I win. have your fit. enjoy that.

I didn't take the kids to chilk-fil-a even though it would have been way easier than making lunch. Conner was mean to Parker and again, I'm the mommy. it was kind of a punishment for me too but whatever.

I had the kids' school pics taken together. Maybe I'll buy them.

I want a door w/a lock for the kitchen. I'm so sick of the kids making a mess in every room of my house.

I look forward to school days every week. I love the break that I get. I need it.

I baked a cake and have eaten most of it; it's almost gone (and I wonder why I've gained so much weight already!)

What are you saying so what to?

Tummy Time

I keep thinking I should move the 'belly' days to a different day. Last week, my appt was on Thursday and I see the specialist this Thursday. I wish I could give some sort of update but I don't really have one. I have not gotten on a scale again so I have no idea how much weight I have gained (although I know it's more than what I had gained by this point for my other 2). I started cleaning out Parker's room to get it ready for another baby. It's a huge work in progress. All of his clothes are still in there because I just don't have the space I need yet in Conner's closet, well their closet. We still need a dresser. It's working just fine and I'm sure I can continue to make it work when I have to put teeny tiny baby clothes in there. I can just hang up lots of stuff.
We are all still very excited. Conner doesn't know that there could be any problems with this baby and we will never tell him (unless it turns fatal). He's BEYOND excited! He tells everyone he meets that we are getting a  new baby. It's really sweet.

17w belly

Fitness?

really, fitness? did I just write that? YES, I did. I forgot to mention that my ob said for me to GO WORK OUT. No heavy lifting but I can do everything I was doing before (since the blighted twin thing wasn't what's going on in my uterus). I won't lie, I'm nervous about it. I did pick up a Pregnancy Fitness DVD today from Target. The creator of this series is a mom and has 3 small kids. If she can do it, I can too! I'm excited to try it out and am planning on getting up early tomorrow to get it in before I take Conner to school. I'm hoping it will help me get into my routine again.

I notice that days when I eat crap, crap, crap, my headaches are worse. I've been pretty lazy so I haven't been meal planning but then I found The Gracious Pantry. This site has clean eating crock pot meals. What?! Sign me up! They have a subscribe button and I totally put my email address in that box and clicked subscribe!! I am pretty excited to have not only crock pot meals but other easy options. The only "problem" that the clean eating recipes have is that they have (what some would say) a lot of ingredients. My start up (again) to clean eating's grocery list will be long but in the end it's worth it and maybe just maybe my headaches will get better.

Festival

One of the reasons I love Fall is because of all of the festivals that we go to. Of course today, I left my camera home but whatever. We rode a train, the kids jumped in every kind of bounce house, pet animals, held chickens, chased chickens, ate ice cream, looked at stuff to buy that we'd never buy, entered contests/drawings...it was a fun family day. Everyone was happy, the weather was great for being outside (overcast so not hot and light breeze). Right before we left, we decided we would let Conner do one of those jumpy things that have the harness on them. He LOVED it.

"What are you having?"

This will be a rant. If you don't like rants, you should leave and not read this. I know that people are excited to find out genders of babies and that's the norm w/normal pregnancies. I do not have a normal pregnancy and do NOT care one single bit what we are having. Would a girl be nice? Sure, great change of pace, something new/different. A boy would be equally nice. I have boy clothes, toys and 2 other boys! That is NOT what I even think about with this pregnancy.

I am worried that this banding is in fact cutting this baby's body in half (there was one time during the 45min ultrasound where it looked like the banding was going diagonal across the baby's body). If that is the case, people, that is FATAL. The organs would only half way develop, all organs, including the heart. That means that I will have to tell 2 little boys, one who is very excited about a new baby, that we will not be getting a new baby in our house. how the hell am I supposed to break his heart like that? How would I even find the words? So gender, yea, it doesn't matter. What matters is that this baby is FINE, that this banding is not a bother. What matters is that at the end of this pregnancy we get a HEALTHY baby, not a baby boy or girl. I really hate how our society is more focused on gender than health. Actually, I think that health is taken for granted. Until you have to worry about an unborn baby's health, you don't know what that's like and it sucks. There's no easy way to say that but it does. Trying to not worry is hard. I was doing really great with not worrying but I saw Josh's face at the appointment. We have reasons to worry.

I feel like my whole pregnancy has been rid of excitement for me. Josh's brother told everyone that I was pregnant and I didn't even get to announce it; I had not even told my friends/family yet and he had gone off and blabbed his mouth. we know the gender. I'm not revealing until I WANT to. I wanted to do something cute. It's our last one and I thought it would be fun. My mil called Josh after my appt and he told her about the ultrasound. He did NOT use he or she but it and the baby. She called back later and asked why he used a specific pronoun. He did NOT use any pronouns and he fell for her trick. There goes my chance to do something fun to reveal. It really upsets me. She wanted to know why it had to be a 'big secret'. Josh told her I wanted to do something cute to announce it. His grandmother already knows what we're having and I'm sure so many other people already do too. I wanted the chance to announce a pregnancy as well as the gender and I hate that all of the 'fun' was taken out of it for me. I did take pics of my boys and post of fb. Maybe I'll do something cute anyway for gender? Idk. Probably not.That's my bitch fest for today. I feel better getting that off of my shoulders.

Friday Five

It's Friday!!

Five top BABY (not newborn) items.

1. Jumperoo. Hands down! We have the Rainforest jumperoo and both of my kids loved it. bounce, bounce, sleep, sleep!!

2. Play Mat. I LOVED this mat. The light up star was like baby crack and if either of my kids were crying and I turned that on, they stopped and were mesmerized. The sad thing is I don't have all of the pieces and the company will not let me buy replacement parts...I already tried. annoying, YES.

3. Bumbo FLOOR seat. I know these are recalled but I never put my kids on the counter in this and walked away. My babies love to be able to sit up and look around and I loved being able to let them do that.

4. Laugh and Learn Table. I loved this for the simple fact that it's a floor toy while babies are laying/sitting and then 'turns into' a table and they still love it and play w/it bc they can stand and bang on it. brilliant!

5. Jeep Liberty Sport. Before I was the proud (and I mean PROUD) owner of a double BOB, I have this bad boy and it was awesome. It had 2 cup holders, a cool toy AND a place for me to hook up my ipod for some tunes. This stroller was fabulous for running or walking. the seat laid back, which is great for that sleepy baby/nap time run. I don't know that I will get this one again; I'm thinking I'm going to go for the BOB but for the budget friendly jogging stroller, this one is awesome!

What are your five? Link up and let me know.

16w Appt Update

I had my 16w appt today, along with an ultrasound to check out that banding. It's all so confusing so please bear w/me as I rattle through all of this.

The ultrasound started out fine; the baby looked great and the tech was checking out all limbs/extremities just to make sure that they were all there and independent to any bands (no entanglement/adhering). She checked the HR (145), checked the brain out, we got so see a little hand waving, the face, legs....all independent of banding. Then the tech says, "let me go get Dr. Leezer and have her look". My heart sank. Josh decided that he wanted the low down of what banding means so he got the 45sec version. It LOOKED like the band was crossing the baby's body and that freaked me out. The ob came in a they discussed a possible septum, turned on the color to check blood flow and quickly determined that it was not a septum b/c no blood flow continued through the banding. It looks like the baby is behind where the banding is since there is no entanglement. BUT, this is rare and the u/s tech has seen ONE case in 10 years and between the 2 of them, they were more comfortable sending me to a specialist. I should be getting a phone call from the specialist in the next day (or maybe Monday) to schedule my appt. I *think* the primary concern is basically as the baby grows, what happens to that banding? Does it get pushed out of the way? Is it stronger than the baby? I have no idea. Right NOW, the baby is fine and looks great. praying it stays that way. I'm sure there's more that I'm not remembering right now. I have a headache and it's been a long day (we were at the dr for over 2 hours).

So What Wednesday

It's Wednesday. Head over to Shannon's blog and link up!




This week I'm saying so what to...

So what if I let my kids trash my house. it's so much easier than fighting all day (as if I don't fight w/them enough)

So what if I had a beer yesterday. Seriously it was one of THOSE days and I needed a drink...I wanted like 4 or 5 but...

So what if I don't care when Josh gets mad at me. It's always for something stupid and I know he will get over it.

So what if I think I'm a crappy house wife. Maybe when I don't have little boys trashing my house all the time, I'll be better at it.

So what if I hate maternity clothes.

So what if I gave my kids a hair cut. it's not botched and it saved us $30. We went to chick-fil-a instead of great clips and they needed hair cuts.

So what that my kids had 2 baths yesterday. One after the hair cut and another after they 'bathed' in liquid soap.

So what if I get school girl giddy when I find out a client refers a new client to me. I get so stupid excited. I'm so proud of my work and love when others are proud of it too.

So what that I've sworn off being a wedding photographer because I didn't want to deal with THAT...I frigging LOVED it and can't wait to second shoot again. I don't mind eating those words at all.

What are you saying SO WHAT to?