Pregnancy Differences

I would love to hear some of the differences between your first and second pregnancies. I wouldn't say mine have been drastically different but I also feel like my list of little differences is long.

The worst difference is that my eczema in this pregnancy has been about 10, 000 times worse. To the extent that the itching/pain wakes me up in the middle of the night.

With Molly I only threw up 6 times, with this one 10.

I also had nausea/gagging that lasted until about week 17 with this one, week 13 with Molly.

I think my leg hair growth has slowed down.

I feel like my baby brain kicked in full force. I am forgetting EVERYTHING!

Speaking of, I feel like there are more differences but I sure can't remember them!
What are y'all experiencing?!

almost time for the first second baby!

Joe and I are heading into the hospital this evening to induce, so we are anticipating a September 1st birthday if everything goes as expected. We decided to induce for a number of reasons (my doctor is going to be out of town around my due date, the baby has been a little ahead of schedule size-wise for most of my pregnancy, our family is all out of town, etc.). Honestly, though, one of the main reasons is how ready I was to have a solid END date for this pregnancy. It has been hard to be the mother and wife and person I want to be as I have gotten more and more uncomfortable and HUGE. My round ligament pain has been pretty constant and severe again and my back pain has been worse (I blame this one my current little one... she just gets heavier and heavier while I get more and more pregnant!). There is also, of course, the element of control you gain over the experience when you decide to induce. Pregnancy is such an out-of-control state to be in for an organized, plan-obsessed, Type A kind of person like myself that by the end of 40 weeks I am just ready to reclaim my body! I have a felt a little judgment around my decision to induce this time around though... I guess most people just don't see why I would want to induce if I had the option to wait. I hate feeling like I have to defend and rationalize my decision as a parent before I even have another actual baby! Have any of you experienced ambivalence and anxiety about decisions you make during pregnancy because of other people's reactions?

Baby #2

So far, everything is going smoothly with Baby #2. I was a little sicker and much more tired this time--probably due to the fact that I am chasing around a 18-month old all the time now. I am also STARVING all the time! I am really eating us out of house and home. I don't remember being this hungry last time.

I had to switch doctors and hospitals when we moved. I toured the hospital a few weeks ago, and I have my first appointment with the new doctor in about a week and a half. I got spoiled being in Atlanta where they have a plethora of good hospitals to choose from--all within 10 miles or so of our house. Where we live now, there are two community hospitals, each about 20 miles away. Neither of those really have NICU units, and I'm not sure if they have an anesthesiologist there 24 hours a day (important to me because I don't plan to even try going natural since I only lasted about 10 minutes without an epidural last time). I also want the NICU in the hospital just in case things don't go smoothly with the baby. So I have chosen a hospital that is about 45 minutes away. If I end up having to be induced, it won't be a problem. And my old doctor said that I would most likely have plenty of time. If I start getting close and they predict snow around here, however, we will be getting a hotel closer to the hospital. The hospital itself actually has a hotel in the top of it, so hopefully we can get one of those rooms if needed and just be an elevator ride away from where I need to be. This hospital also has an anesthesiologist dedicated to the maternity ward and actually at the hospital (not just on call) 24 hrs. a day.

How are the rest of you doing?

--Amanda

Big Changes for a Big Girl!

Well, it has been a while since I have posted an update on our family. For the past month or so I have been preoccupied with trying to work everything out for our big move! As you may know, we recently moved to Indiana for my husband to take a job there. We all had a lot of uncertainty during the first half of this year with trying to figure out whether to make the move, whether we could work out the move financially, what was going to happen to my job, what we would do about childcare, etc. All I can say now is that we have truly been blessed over the past few months, because things could not have worked out better than they did! We decided to make the move because it is a really, really good career opportunity for Tom. We found a great house in the country (I mean really in the country--i.e., our "subdivision" is on a dirt road and the neighbors across the street have chickens). I have always been more of a city girl, so I never imagined I would be living in the country like this, but I actually like it (at least for now). It is very quiet here, and we have a huge yard to play in! I technically quit my job, and thought I would be staying home full-time for a while, but my prior employer actually decided they wanted me to continue working with them from home as an independent contractor. So now, I work from home and set my own hours. Can't complain about that! I usually do an hour or two of work before Hadley gets up and then do some more during nap time, and when I am busy, I can do a little work after she goes to bed. All this means NO MORE DAYCARE!!!

I really liked the daycare Hadley was in, as it was a really good daycare (and it should have been since it cost almost as much as our mortgage). I did not mind leaving her because for the most part I trusted her teachers and she seemed to enjoy it. However, she was ALWAYS sick. The everyday exposure to the germs was just immune system overload for her. The last week she was there, she had a virus that caused her to run a fever of 104.6 for about two days. I had no idea you could run a fever that high with a virus. I had her tested for every bacterial infection there was, but it was just a virus. It really started to make it seem pointless to work because numerous times I had to take an entire week off of work (which actually just meant I worked double time at home taking care of her during the day and then working all night). If I sent her back to daycare too early, she would catch something else before she fully got over the first sickness and then we would start the cycle all over again. Talk about exhausting--and especially not easy while also battling morning sickness and first trimester fatigue with Baby #2!

So needless to say, I am glad she will not have to go to daycare for the time being. We found a good church preschool here that she will go to twice a week starting in August, and she is really excited about it. Every time I say the word "preschool", she says "Yea!".

Hadley is growing up fast! She is speaking in two to three word sentences/phrases now and can usually communicate to us pretty easily what she wants--which is ultra nice! When she is done eating she says "all done", "unbuckle", "get down". She is also really good at puzzles! We had to get her some more challenging ones because she had figured out all the puzzles we had--even if we mixed all the pieces up together, she could still figure out which puzzle they went in. And she is about to have the new puzzles figured out too. She likes to try to imitate the rooster that lives across the street too. Every time the rooster crows, she says "Neh!" as loud as she can. We keep trying to teach her that it is "cock-a-doodle-doo", but she insists on making the horse sound in response to the rooster.

We aren't planning on moving her to the big girl bed until November or early December, but we did get a potty recently. She really likes to sit on it, but at first she would only sit on it for about half a second, and then she would say "all done" and get up to go play more. In the past couple of days, however, she has gone pee pee in it twice, and yesterday she pooped in it!!! So with all luck we will at least be using less diapers for Hadley once the new baby gets here.

Post on the Baby #2 coming soon!

Beware Nursemaid's elbow!

Just a quick warning about something we didn't really think would happen to us.  We ended up at the urgent care clinic this weekend with Isaac because of something called nursemaid's elbow.  In short, it's when the a baby's elbow becomes dislocated after being twirled, or pulled by the wrists or arms.  Isaac LOVES (loved now,) to have daddy or mommy spin him in the backyard, or swing him up when we're both holding his hands, etc.  But this weekend, we learned the hard way that we really shouldn't be doing that.  He's totally fine now, but the doctor had to pop the bone back into place and he was pretty crabby the rest of the afternoon.  A dose of motrin later, and he's totally back to normal, but I just wanted to let you guys know about it.  We can still swing and twirl him, but it has to be with us holding him under his armpits.  Hope everyone is doing well!  http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/bones/nursemaid.html

transitions

We have officially made the transition from crib to "big girl bed"! I am pleasantly (surprised and) pleased to say that it was almost entirely drama-free. We got Laine an Elmo book called "Big Enough for a Bed" which we read a lot in the days leading up to the big change, and we made sure to talk a lot about her sleeping in her big bed that day. We had already moved all of her toys, her table, and pretty much everything else into her new room (we are keeping the nursery the same and Laine gets a new girly room!), so she already identified the room as "hers". We decided to let her try her first time in the bed at night rather than nap time. I had her get her important night time stuff out of her crib and bring it to her new bed (she sleeps with a blankie, a pacifier, and her special bear) and then we followed all of the same bedtime routines, just in the different room. She was up singing and talking to herself for a while, but stayed in bed and slept until 8 the next morning! She took her nap in bed the next day and then slept another full night last night. So far it has been easy and seamless and I could not be more relieved or thankful.

Next big step... more aggressive potty training. We have a potty in the bathroom and she has used it a few times, but it has in no way been consistent and we haven't pushed her to do it. A lot of times she just wants to sit on it but not take off her diaper. Anyone else looking at starting any potty routines? I think it's kind of an intimidating process, but after having an easy time with the bed move (so far) my confidence is a little bit boosted.

How are all of your "big kids" doing???

Greer

How do you spoil your baby?

We all spoil our babies in one way or another. Obviously I do, because, as you can tell from the heading, I still call Hadley a baby even though she is 1 1/2 years old now! I also have to admit that I still rock her and listen to a few lullabies before putting her down for the night. It is my absolute favorite part of the day! So I am spoiling her a little bit with that--but the good part is I rarely ever have trouble getting her to go to sleep at night. How do ya'll spoil your babies?