It's the beginning of the end :(

Before I get into the complaining portion of this post, let me start off by saying I am grateful that Jackson has for the most part, always been a good sleeper and napper. But now everything is changing. For the last six months to a year he has randomly skipped his afternoon nap but it's not consistent so it wasn't a huge issue. In the last two weeks he has only napped three times and it's safe to say, I'm devastated! I wish I could say he's fine and he's just outgrown the nap but he's so tired the rest of the day that we now have a super cranky Jackson almost every evening. I wish he would just cut down on the length of his nap instead of dropping it all together but I know it's out of my hands at this point.

On top of not napping, we have recently removed the door knob cover from the inside of his room allowing him to open the door whenever he wants. Jackson doesn't have a bathroom in his room so we did this to allow him access to use the bathroom at night in hopes of finally potty training him at night. I know night training is totally different than daytime but I figured it was worth a shot. Unfortunately, Jackson uses this new found freedom to "escape" as much as possible and of course come and tell me about it in the middle of the night. Let's just say I've been woken up to Jackson's face in very close proximity to my own quite often lately. The bad thing is he isn't using the bathroom. He will tell me he has to go but he doesn't, he's already gone in his pull up so he just stands/sits on the toilet and pretends. It's obviously just an excuse to get up and out of his room but what can you do? I'm hoping he'll get over the excitement of the freedom SOON and then we can really work on the potty training. And I guess on the bright side I'd rather him come wake me up now multiple times a night versus when the baby is trying to sleep too.

I'm done with the self pity party, I'll keep you posted but I'm pretty sure the naps are gone for good *sigh*

Baby Update 24 Weeks

How far along: 24 weeks

Total weight gain: 7 pounds

General disposition: Feeling good

Sleep: It's ok, the back pain is starting much earlier this time. My doctor told me yesterday that's normal with the second child and I should start stretching every night for 15 minutes.

Best Moment: I think this will always be the best moment of my updates, hearing the heartbeat!

Movement: All the time! And Nick finally was able to feel it last week :)

Labor signs/Body changes of note: Much bigger and rounder now. It happened almost overnight, one day I was out and about looking like everyone else and the next day strangers were commenting on my pregnancy!

What I miss: Nothing really

What I'm looking forward to: Scheduling my cesarean section! I know it's still months away but I'm such a planner, it will be nice to have a date in mind. Unfortunately, I also have to have the glucose test at the next visit, yuck!

Jacksonisms

This is a super short post but I thought I'd share. Each time we ask Jackson to do something usually cleaning up his playroom, he responds with, "But it's going to be a really hard work." We aren't sure where he got that from but it's pretty funny.

Baby Update 20 Weeks

Since I already updated with general info a few days ago, I'll keep this short and sweet. Nick, Jackson and I finally got our sneak peak at the baby with our first and probably last ultrasound. All of the body part measurements were normal. I'm 20 weeks and 4 days today and the baby was measuring right at 20 weeks but the tech said as long as it's within 10 days, it's good. Baby Kelly is 11 ounces so he/she has to gain 6 more pounds to catch up to Jackson's birth weight :)

We have been telling Jackson we were going to see pictures of the baby and he was super excited. I wanted to make sure he knew they weren't going to look like the pictures he was used to seeing so I showed him his ultrasound pictures. After I explained the head and other visible body parts, I asked if he understood. He nodded and said, "So I was a black baby in your belly?"

And the laughs don't stop there...today as we walked in to the doctor's office with another pregnant woman, he turned around to Nick and said, "Daddy, you have to go pee in a cup now." Jackson was with me at my last appointment so he thought everyone had to do that when they came to see this doctor. While we were in the waiting room, Jackson asked us if the baby was going to be born today too, guess he's as anxious as we are to meet the little one! Here are a couple pictures from today...


A picture of the baby waving at us, Jackson was super excited about this!

Baby Update 20 Weeks

How far along: 20 weeks, 1 day

Total weight gain: 2 lbs

General disposition: Great

Sleep: Much better

Best Moment this Week: Heard the heartbeat this morning, fast and strong!

Movement: Lots and lots! Not too strong for anyone else to feel quite yet but I sure am enjoying them :)

Labor signs/Body changes of note: Nothing I can think of

What I miss: It wasn't this week but I did miss having eggs benedict for Christmas, yum!

What I am looking forward to: My ultrasound on Friday!!!!!!!!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

This truly is my favorite time of year and not just because I have two weeks vacation from work ;) We have had a great few weeks leading up to Christmas including a Secret Santa gift exchange party with Jackson's friends, a morning with Santa at St. John Neumann (Jackson's future school), an adult holiday party, and today baking cookies. Last year was my first attempt at baking cookies from scratch and I successfully made white chocolate cranberry cookies, YUM! Unfortunately, Nick doesn't really appreciate the yummy goodness of white chocolate so this year my cookie elf, Jackson, and I decided to make half milk chocolate toffee cookies...also YUM!

As soon as we got home from church we set the butter out to soften and I began measuring out all the ingredients to make it easier for my cookie elf to help. I should've started by explaining that softening butter takes ages, imagine "Are we there yet?" car rides but switch it to relate to the butter. Finally the butter was soft and we were ready to go! Jackson did a great job helping and was really into it, I think he may take after his father with his interest in the culinary field. Good news for me...maybe he'll start cooking and I can stop, ha! Here's a little peak at how happy he was in the kitchen...

Baby Update 16 Weeks

I'm stealing this idea from my sister, although my updates probably won't be weekly, I'll try to keep everyone posted as often as I remember :)

How far along: 16 weeks 5 days

Total weight gain: none

General disposition: Doing great, so far nausea seems to have disappeared this week (knock on wood)

Sleep: Hmmm between bathroom breaks, back pain and barking dogs, I don't get much but I did just get a snoogle so hopefully that will help at least one of those!

Best moment this week: Listening to the heartbeat on the doppler on Wednesday, music to my ears!

Movement: None yet, I thought I felt a teeny tiny little flutter a few days ago but haven't felt anything since. We'll find out at my next appointment if I have another anterior placenta, if so, I probably won't feel much if anything for a few more weeks.

Labor signs/Body changes of note: Today I couldn't button my favorite jeans, time to go shopping LOL.

What I miss: SUSHI!!!!!!!

What I am looking forward to: The ultrasound which thank goodness is my next appointment and will most likely coincide with my next update post so check back the first week of January.