Happy Days

A few pics from Carter's birthday party:

Watching Thomas drive on the track.

And I'll huff and I'll puff...

Very happy birthday boy

His prized present, James (another Thomas character)

Checking out the bug barn Grandpa Don made (it now houses a moth).

Apparently Carter's decided he likes birthdays. Here's our conversation on the way home from preschool the day after:

Carter: I can’t wait to have another birthday!

Mom: Really? Why? Did you have fun on your birthday?

Carter: Yeah. How much days until I have another birthday?

Mom: It’s a whole year before you have another birthday.

Carter: How much days is that?

Mom: 364 days

Carter: Whatever.

Baby update:

I went back to Dr. Richey on Friday and got a report that's about as good as it could have been.

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Placenta: Although the placenta still has that "fold over", baby has squished it up against the side of the uterus, which is good (less prone to tear away). Baby has tugged on his cord at some point and caused a little area of bleeding, but in Dr. Richey's words, "it hasnt' bothered him" and I saw no signs of bleeding. She also said that because he's already head down and will start to move less and less as he gets bigger, the likelihood of him pulling on his cord and causing additional bleeding will continue to decrease. She also said that the cord attachment looked MUCH BETTER than previously; it had been attached very closely to the edge, which isn't good if those edges had started to peel away. Now it has migrated away from the edge as the placenta has gotten larger. There's also good blood flow between the placenta and uterus. She told me she doesn't see placentas like this improve with time; they either stay the same or usually get worse.

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Heart: Here was another finding that Dr. Richey wasn't expecting. That "extra wall" that was stretching across a majority of one of the atriums has almost entirely disappeared. She was hoping to find that it just had not attached to the other side, but there's only a small portion of it left along the side, which will not affect his heart function in any way. I got to see the pulmonary veins and the aorta, both of which Dr. Richey described as "perfect" and "beautiful."

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Prognosis: I still have my lifting restrictions, etc. but I don't have to see Dr. Richey again unless some bleeding or other complication arises. She said I'm still a good candidate for a VBAC as long as my status doesn't change. As I said, baby's already vertex (Logan turned head down a week before he was born; Carter never did) and my cervix has started to thin, but not dangerously so. It's not thin enough to worry about pre-term labor or anything. She said it's probably thinning out because his head is "VERY DOWN THERE." He currently weighs 2 lbs, 11 oz, which puts him on track to be an 8-8 1/2 pound baby.

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Personality: Apparently, he's a bit shy. He snuggles his little face into the placenta, hugs a part of his umbilical cord under his chin with one hand and hides one side of his face with the other. It was pretty hard to get enough fluid in front of his face to get a good picture, but this is the best one I got.

For those that have trouble figuring out what's what, I'll try to describe it. The white structure on the far right is the placenta. The next white structure is part of his arm and hand, covering up his left cheek and eye. The largest white structure (on the far left) is the right side of his face with some curled up cord under his chin.

So, I went shopping afterwards and got a little Yankees cap and thanksgiving day bib. We are definitely planning on a Thanksgiving baby! Thank you, God, for being so good to me when I have not been so good to you.

A day in the life of one who doesn't work

First day of school today, which means the new routine began. Here’s a rundown of our first day:

5:00 Wake up to Ryan’s alarm going off. Hmmmph. Could’ve slept another half hour; elected to settle for staying in bed, even if not sleeping.

5:30 Time to get vertical, shower, etc.

6:15 Make the boys’ lunches

6:30 Rise and shine for our boys. I wonder why they slept this late today when they’re up by 6:00 every other day??? Carter’s soaked…and considering he slept with Logan last night, Logan’s soaked too…along with a book, a stuffed dog, 4 blankets, 2 pillow and several toy trains. Add several loads of laundry to the day’s “to do” list.

7:00 Time’s up for breakfast. Onto getting dressed and brushing teeth.

7:10 Remind Carter AGAIN to brush his teeth.

7:15 Count to 10 before telling Carter to brush his teeth ONE MORE TIME.

7:20 Shoes on, out the door.

7:50 Arrive at Carter’s school and walk him in. He freezes as soon as I open the door, but a gentle shove and he’s crossed the threshold. No tears, but a little apprehension.

8:00 Head to the grocery store with Logan to get a few last minute things for Carter’s birthday party tomorrow night.

8:45 Off to Logan’s school and walk him in. A quick hug and he’s off…with his classmates…which means I’m off to fill in for a short shift at work.

9:10 Arrive at work in Soldotna.

12:00 Leave work in Soldotna

12:20 Pick up Carter from Daddy, get the mail and head home.

1:10 Try to convince a sleepy Carter that he does indeed have to take a nap. Carry in groceries.

1:30 Preheat oven and begin making M & M treats for Carter to bring to school tomorrow.

2:15 Decide to let a napless Carter get up; I guess the smell of cake and cookies is a bit much to resist for him.

2:20 Make birthday cake (from a box, like any good mother would do) with Carter. Let him lick the beaters, but tell him he can’t have any cake today.

2:30 Tell Carter he can’t sample his school treats either.

2:40 Deny Carter his request to open his birthday presents before Daddy and Logan get home.

3:00 Dig out coffee, lemonade, etc. for birthday party tomorrow (received our coffee maker as a wedding gift 11 years ago; it only gets used at birthday parties).

3:10 Once again, inform Carter he cannot sample his school treats or birthday cake and it’s NOT yet time to open his presents. Continue to work on cake, treats, lemonade, jello, etc. for party.

4:30 Daddy and Logan arrive home.

4:31 Carter begins to open presents from Mommy, Daddy and Logan.

5:30 Attempt to convince boys to eat dinner. DENIED!!! Decide to wait and let them have a late dinner with a short movie before bed.

6:30 Bedtime routine...brushing teeth, jammies on, late dinner while watching new "Thomas and Friends" movie.

7:05 Boys in bed (AKA "clean up time").

8:00 Go into boys' room for the 4th time and tell them they have to get into separate beds.

8:02 Boys asleep; funny how that happens so much more quickly when they don't attempt to sleep together.

Throw in about 4 loads of laundry, an occassional meal, approximately 47 potty breaks for this Mommy and 13 times of letting the mutt outside and back in. Maybe I should go back to working full time just so I can have a little less running around. Aaaaaaah, the day is complete. What's on the dish tonight?

At Lowe's on Saturday. Logan showing off his school bus he made. We LOVE these projects (and you can't beat "free")

Carter hammering the completed project.

Onto the Peninsula State Fair. Since Logan saw this rock climbing wall at LAST YEAR'S FAIR, he's looked forward to giving it a try. This was as far as we got...

Carter showing off his backpack for the first day of preschool.

After the present opening. Daddy gets the pieces and the instructions while Mommy grabs a bite to eat.

Three boys, all VERY unique

So now that the news is starting to spread that we are having a boy, I have to deal with a few of the pathetic faces that seem to think we're disappointed in not having a girl. I have a hard time understanding those that don't grasp our genuinely wanting another baby, regardless of gender. I guess we live in a world where everything is supposed to be "even" and "fair". Of course, I expect people to ASK if we were wanting a girl, but I didn't expect them to not believe me when I tell them "not necessarily." Anyway...

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I have been assured by MANY people that boys are much easier than girls, especially as teenagers. I guess we'll compare our boys with our nieces (or rather, their parents) when the time comes, though I admit I cannot fathom my children ever being that old (yup, still livin' in a fantasy world where my babies will always be babies and they'll always think their momma is smart!).

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This being my third boy pregnancy, I've come to one conclusion about all of the wives' tales about heartrate, cravings and how you're carrying in order to predict gender. THEY'RE ALL HOGWASH! All three pregnancies have been entirely different. I think my intuition has told me I was having a boy with all three of them, but with Carter and this baby, I almost convinced myself "it must be a girl" just because the pregnancy was so different. Some may find this boring, but I find it amusing...so you can humor me and read this or skip it if you find it dull...

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How they're carried:

Logan at 24 weeks

Carter at 26 weeks
This baby at 25 weeks

Sickness:

Logan: every morning only for 3 months with one week of all day every day feeling quite ill. Other than that, I felt great.
Carter: barely at all…but when it did occur, it was without warning. I had to excuse myself very suddenly from a couple of conversations.
This baby: Definitely the most ill of the three. I would have bouts of 2-3 days of not being able to keep anything down. Then I’d feel better for a few days and begin to think “the worst is over”…and then it would start up again. Thankfully, I’ve been feeling great since the end of May.
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Preparation:
Logan: We had only moved into our house a month before he was born and I became sick the week before we moved in, so it took the fun out of setting up the nursery that I had hoped for. We had a crib with a white sheet and a carseat. No clothes, no diapers, not a single burp cloth. The kid came into the world naked and would’ve stayed that way for a while if the hospital didn’t furnish things while we were there. The family celebrated Christmas while we were in the hospital and my shower was 10 days after he was born. By the time he was a month old, he had more clothes than he could wear.
Carter: Not much preparing to do. Logan was still in the crib when Carter was born, we already had carseats and plenty of boy clothes. Logan moved out of the crib and Carter moved right in.
This baby: We don’t have any newborn stuff left; it’s been given away, sold or needed to be destroyed. It’s been fun to get the nursery ready (not that it’s totally ready yet).
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Personality in:
Logan: I felt him move about a month earlier than the books said. He definitely moved more after I ate and as soon as I laid down at night.
Carter: He NEVER moved. Poor kid was folded in half…but it definitely made me nervous more than once. It was also difficult to hear his heartbeat with my stethoscope because my placenta was in the front, so I felt like I couldn’t check up on him.
This baby: This baby moves a bunch and has a definite routine (so far). This baby also hurts me already. Powerful little bugger.
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Personality out:
Logan: came into the world pretty lifeless. It took them almost 2 minutes to get him breathing and he was taken away. When I got to see him 3 hours later, he didn’t hardly squirm. We barely have any pictures of him with his eyes open until well after a month old. It took him 45 minutes to eat one ounce in the hospital. He livened up eventually. He loved to be held, nursed, swaddled and rocked.
Carter: came out screaming and swinging. Pediatrician even had a hard time examining his head and face, he was fighting so hard. They had warned me ahead of time that he might not kick a lot from being breech. NOT THE CASE! This kid could overpower me from the start. Couldn’t keep him swaddled. This little guy screamed and fussed until he could get his arms free. I spent many nights pacing the hallway, trying to console him, only to find out he calmed down when I put him down!!! He still is a wreck trying to sit on my lap. The kid can’t contain himself.

This baby: to be announced...
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Weight (mine and theirs):
Logan: I didn’t start gaining weight until 20 weeks and ended up gaining 12 pounds total. Logan was 6 lbs, 7 oz at birth, which I didn’t think was too bad for 4 weeks early. He was developed like a 34-week baby but he had his sucking and rooting reflexes, which is a big reason he didn't have to go to Anchorage. They think he would’ve been around 8 pounds if he had been full term.
Carter: I started gaining at 24 weeks and gained 14 pounds total. Carter was only 5 pounds, 11 oz at birth (37 weeks), but they think he was malnourished due to one of the cord vessels being almost completely blocked. Despite his small size, he was actually developed like a 38 week baby.
This baby: I actually lost a pound at first, but then have gained 7 pounds so far. Plus, I started gaining weight at 16 weeks, so maybe this baby will be HEFTY!

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Update: Baby checkup this week was good. Had to see the midwife because the OB was out of town. She was a little concerned about the amount of contractions I have and the "pressure" I told her I'd been feeling, but we were reassured that nothing is happening. She did comment that baby is sitting VERY LOW, which explains the pressure I'm feeling. Apparently he likes to snuggle in, nice and cozy.

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The summer is winding down. Hard to believe both of my babies will be in school this year. I've actually committed to working the mornings Carter's in preschool through the end of September. So, hopefully baby won't make an early appearance and "spoil" my much-anticipated time-to-myself in the mornings beginning in October. Maybe I'll get a few things done around here (before our lives are happily turned upside-down again, that is).

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We put the boys in swimming lessons. Logan's been before, but it was a first for Carter. He spent the entire first hour crying...but this tapered off with each lesson. He finally quit looking terrified by lesson #5 and after lesson # 8, he told me "Mommy, I love swimming lessons." Much progress made. Logan's actually able to swim about 10 feet completely on his own (though he will tell you he can swim half of the pool. Apparently he estimates distance about as well as his mother).

Logan "rescuing" his buddy, Petie.

Carter prepping to "rescue" Logan.

Carter giving a terrified wave to his teacher from the diving board (he didn't actually have to jump...this time)Logan clearing his eyes after his big jump.

Lastly, we took the boys to a kids' magic show a week or so ago. It was almost 2 1/2 hours long, which means Carter was lost after about 5 minutes. But, they had mats set up on the floor and it was held in a local school's gymnasium, so he could kind of run around with his little buddy without disturbing anyone. Logan, however, was captivated the entire time.

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Logan watching intently.


Carter NOT watching intently.

Carter with his buddy, Ethan, bonding over popcorn.