23 Weeks

22 weeks, 3 days

How far along? 23 Weeks

Total weight gain: My next Dr. appointment is in a couple weeks and we'll find out then. 

Maternity clothes? Or yoga pants and sweat pants.

Sleep: The past few weeks I've been sleeping pretty good. I really wish I was one of those people that says sleep is for the dead, but I love my sleep so much. 

Food cravings: I made chocolate chip cookies and probably ate half the batter before I even cooked them. Is that considered a craving? ...or just no sense of control? ha

Best moment of the week: I saw baby girl kick from the outside! They are getting stronger and stronger and a few nights ago there it was. POW! Right out of my stomach. It's hard to imagine them getting stronger, but I know it's coming.

Miss anything: Staying up past 9pm. By the time we get Caiden to sleep and eat dinner ourselves it's about 8:30. I feel bad because all I want to do is go to bed by then but Marc and I have barely seen each other. 

Movement: I think she's a real mover and shaker. I feel like she's way busier than Caiden was but maybe not. I feel like she reacts to the food I eat and I never felt like that with Caiden. Whenever I eat something sweet she's always letting me know right after. 

21 Weeks

Insert photo here -- except I haven't taken one so I'm just going to post this because it's been sitting as a 'draft' for almost a week now. I'll try to get a belly photo this week/weekend.

How far along? 21 Weeks
Gender: Girl! 

Total weight gain:  8 lbs.  Weird because with Caiden I was at +11 lbs. at this point and I'm showing so much more now this time around. 

Sleep: Good! Can't get enough :)

Best moment of the week: Finding out the gender!  I was in disbelief for a good week or so and then we got a surprise package in the mail from Nordstroms!  Marc's mom did some shopping and sent us some little baby girl outfits!  These are the first girl outfits in our house and I almost teared up looking at it and thinking of a little baby girl. Now for names! And yes -again we will be keeping it to ourselves until she arrives. Sorry everyone ;)

Miss anything: Wearing normal clothes. I feel like I live in sweat pants and yoga pants now. 

Movement: Yep! At 19 weeks I started realizing what I was feeling again. Right now the baby is breach (feet at the bottom) so I feel a lot of kicks right at my bladder and way down low. I totally remember this feeling with Caiden as well. I'm going to try to take notice when the baby turns and goes head down. I don't have memory of when this happened with Caiden. I just remember at one point Dr. Riley would just tell me at all my appointments that he was head down and probably wasn't going anywhere at this point.
Food cravings: At about 20 weeks I started wanting desserts for breakfast and dinner. Ugh, here we go again. Keep.It.Under.Control.Jessica.

Birthday party and Flower fields!

We had a busy weekend full of race cars, train rides and tractor rides. First up was Rohan's birthday party on Saturday morning, he turned three. His family lives down the street from us and we met them when we moved to the neighborhood. The birthday theme was cars so they hired Race Car Randy to come entertain the kids during the party. Caiden would join in on the entertainment every once in a while but he was still a bit young to hang the entire time.

He loved wearing Race Car Randy's helmet. I think he thought he was going on a bike ride.

By the time the party was over and we were headed home it was around 12:45. He was up bright and early Saturday morning at 6:15 so it was way past his nap time and he was so tired at this point. The two blocks home from the party he was literally going cross-eyed trying to stay awake. Thankfully he slept for three hours. He had been on a kick for about a month or so where he'd take an awesome 3 hour nap and for the past week or so it's only been an hour and a half so this was a nice surprise.

After he woke up we headed to the mall so I could run a few errands. While we were there Marc took Caiden on this cool train ride. The first time around he was doing this really loud laugh/cry thing and we weren't sure if he was going to love it or hate it. But then he got really happy and the smile didn't leave his face until it was time to get off.

On Sunday morning we went to the Carlsbad Flower Fields with the Colemans. The weather was beautiful and it was a great day to be outside. The flower fields are only in bloom and available to go to March through May. I've been wanting to go here for years but I always think about going when it's not in season and they are closed.

We took a tractor ride around the fields when we first got there and it was a big hit. The boys sat so still and barely moved the entire time. We even tried sitting Caiden between us or letting him stand and look over the side at all the flowers but he only felt comfortable sitting on Marc's lap.

Airplanes never disappoint. 

It's a GIRL!!!

I was so nervous going into this appointment. When we went through this with Caiden all I was really wondering about was the gender...but now it wasn't the gender I was anxious about. It was more on all the other stuff they look at to make sure it's a healthy baby. And it all came out perfect! We couldn't be happier and over the moon that it's healthy...AND a girl! Her heartbeat was 138 bpm and the tech measured her at 10 inches long (head to toe) and 13 ounces.

18 Weeks

Yes, I should have started this weeks ago but time is just flying so fast that a week goes by and I can't even keep track. When I was pregnant with Caiden I knew what size of fruit he was every week and what his little body was doing inside. Now I'm lucky if I even remember to open the app I downloaded on my phone to follow each week.

I'll try to do this weekly like I did with Caiden -ha, who am I kidding...bi-weekly maybe?

18 weeks, 3 days

How far along? 18 Weeks

Total weight gain: I haven't been keeping track at home like I did last time. But at my last Dr. appointment 2 weeks ago I hadn't gained any weight since my first appointment at 8 weeks -that has clearly changed in the past 2 weeks though. However I did start this pregnancy 5 pounds heavier than with Caiden. Guess I never lost that last 5 pounds.

Maternity clothes? I just broke out the bag of goodies last week. The bella band has made its appearance!

Sleep: I'm getting up two or three times to pee every night which totally sucks but I am able to fall back asleep pretty quickly. But I'm also having some serious clogged nose issues. It's always only one side -the side I'm sleeping on and it's so uncomfortable when I can't breath.

Best moment of the week: This doesn't have anything to do with being pregnant. But it was about 80 degrees on Sunday so the minute Caiden woke up at 8am (daylight savings is treating us well in this house ;) we got him dressed and headed down to PB for breakfast. Then we went to the Santoro's for a bit and let the kiddos play together. Such a good day with the fabulous weather!

Miss anything: I can tell you what I don't miss, and that's sushi...because I'm still eating it! So...yeah, yeah, you're not supposed to eat raw fish but I guess the second time you're just not as in to following the directions. I mean, seriously, you know all those women in Japan are still eating their sushi when they are pregnant.

Movement: Nothing  yet. With Caiden it happened right at 20 weeks. I thought it would happen sooner this time around but I guess not.
Food cravings: I'm doing really good this time. I'm not having cravings yet but in general I'm just trying to tone down all the desserts in hopes of not having another 9 pound baby...although not sure that even matters.

Gender: We find out next week!

Little Rascalz class

I signed Caiden up or his first "soccer" class and it started today. It's called soccer but for his age group (18 months to 2 and a half) it's more than just soccer. They incorporate hockey, ribbons, a parachute, a tunnel and a few other things since there is no way to keep a 2 year old playing only soccer for 40 minutes. The class is at the park up the street from our house which is great...but also a bit frustrating because a few minutes after we got to the class he made a beeline for the swing. It's always the first thing he wants to do when we get to the park and today was no different. He got pretty mad at me a few times when I had to pick him up and turn him the other way back to the class. I was sweating so much about 10 minutes in trying to keep him occupied on the class and distracting him from the swings. I was a bit annoyed -I'm not paying good money for this class for you to swing...ha. Hopefully next week he remembers all the fun things he did today and he'll forget about the swings.

I'm pretty sure Caiden was the youngest in the class, being only 19 months and the class starts at 18 months, there were kids in the class that were almost a year older than him and just running circles around him doing everything the coach said while Caiden just wanted to smack balls around and run to the swings. The class lasts for a couple more months so I'm hoping he gets the hang of it after a few more weeks.

Everyone was supposed to run around and try to grab the others flag out of their backs. I love this picture and it makes me think about those first years when he plays flag football. He was obviously clueless about what I put in his pants and had no desire to chase anyone around trying to get theirs.

He loved these hockey sticks but he wanted to play t-ball with it instead. Yesterday he played with a t-ball set at the Santoro's and loved it so today he wanted nothing to do with hitting the ball on the ground. He wanted to pick it up and hit it.

I would say these ribbons were his favorite. 

Here's a video of Caiden with the ribbon. He didn't want to return it when it was time and tried taking all the ribbons the coach had from her instead of giving his back.

Here it is on YouTube if you can't see it below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J6l2fYpltA

Back to Nebraska

We went back to Nebraska last week for 9 days. It was a combo trip for Marc to go hunting and for me to go to my girlfriends baby shower. I feel like whenever we go on a trip and Caiden's around new people he learns and does so many different things. When we get home and back to the daily grind it's like he's a different person.

We got in on Saturday and for the first 3 or 4 days it was in the negative degrees. It was so cold and just so annoying. I really don't mind the cold weather, and kind of weirdly look forward to it when we come back -considering I only have to deal with it a couple times a year. But this was just stupid. Having to deal with a huge coat on Caiden and getting him in and out of a car seat was so obnoxious. By mid-week it wasn't as cold (we're talking 30's now) and we met some friends and family for lunches and dinners during the week, went to the zoo on Friday and I had Mickey's baby shower on Saturday.

On a side note, when we left to go back I was 16 weeks pregnant and was just starting to feel pregnant. By the time we left 9 days later I felt huge. I swear I'm going to start taking and posting belly photos soon!

Since we've been back home Caiden hasn't stopped saying, "Lizzy" anytime we see a dog. My dad took the older dog, Bud, with him hunting but we had Liz with us all week. She's only 6 months old so still really high energy and no regard for other people's space. Her and Caiden stand about the same height but she would just barrel over him if we didn't stay on top of her. They became such good buddies by the end of the trip and now when we Skype with my parents the first thing Caiden says is, "Lizzy".

He loved the dog food bowl, so much that he tried acting like Liz.

At one point when he started to get real comfortable with Liz he just jumped on her back like he was going to ride her.

Getting in the middle of the dogs playing session.

Giving Bud a hug

He loved to touch the tongues of all the animals in my Dad's studio. The buffalo was a favorite.

Playing with the penguins at the zoo.

This is the only picture I have of Mickey's shower. This is me, Mickey and her sister in-law, Tina. Mickey is 28 weeks pregnant in this picture. She is having twins and I can't wait to meet them!

On the way home he fell asleep in the airport on our layover -about 10 minutes before our second leg. I had to pick him up out of the stroller and carry him on the plane trying to keep him asleep. I was so afraid he would wake up and think his nap was over and then be a nightmare the rest of the day. We were able to snag him a seat between us, lay him down and he slept the entire way. Best plane ride ever!