25 Weeks

How Far Along: 25 Weeks

Size of baby: About the size of a rutabaga, or 1.5 lbs and 12.5 in.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained 8 lbs.

Maternity Clothes: I mostly wear maternity pants now, but can still fit into normal things with a bella band.  I switch back and forth.  I always wear normal tops still.

Gender: Girl! We can't wait to meet our sweet Baby Grace!

Movement: Movement is consistent and strong! I definitely underestimated her strength at the beginning.  As she is growing she is becoming a VERY strong kicker. We can now see her move from the outside! I feel like it's early to see this. She is still very active between 8 and 9 and night.

Sleep: No complaints. 

What I miss: Nothing really, things are going really well. I have hit a really easy stretch :o) and time is just flying by!

Cravings: Umm everything? Does that count? I eat a lot, and I think Grace loves pizza. This is not how things went with Joey and I'm afraid I'll regret it at the end of pregnancy.

Symptoms: Lots of strong kicks! Sometimes they really hurt. I get very hungry easily and feel myself getting winded when I know I shouldn't be.  Sometimes I feel like I might have high blood pressure.. my cheeks get flushed and I feel light headed.  I'm not sure if it's anything or not.

Best Moment this week: We had family pictures done this week and Joe and I went for a 4-D ultrasound for Grace at the same place we went for Joey.  Grace was very stubborn and didn't want to show her face at all. She acted shy for the nearly the whole first hour we were there but we did eventually get to see her face a little. 

Jabber Jaw Update

1. Done
2. Down
3. Mama
4. Dada
5. Jake
6. Granpa
7. Papa
8. Linda
9. Sasha
10. Sister
11. Din Din
12. No
13. Yeah
14. Sure
15. Boom
16. Tissue
17. Waffle
18. Spoon
19. Shoe
20. Sock
21. Balloon
22. Ball
23. Bubble
24. Chair
25. I
26. Share
27. Night Night
28. Banana
29. Please
30. Elmo
31. Book
32. Fishies
33. Purple
34. Door
35. Wall
36. Pizza
37. Thank You
38. Apple
39. Up
40. Uh Oh
41. Oh No
42. Choo CHOO
43. Six
44. My
45. Hi
46. I'm
47. Pot
48. Bowl
49. Block
50. Hat
51. Hot
52. Hush
53. Lina
54. Miss Jeana
55. Jean
56. More
57. Sit
58. Eat
59. Normal
60. Two
61. Out
62. Mommy
63. Daddy
64. Grammy
65. Alison
66. Aubrey
67. Landon
68. Baby
69. Upstairs
70. Outside
71. Inside
72. Row
73. Someday
74. Waterfall
75. Need
76. Blue
77. Orange
78. Brown
79. Black
80. Shush
81. Sun
82. Stairs
83. Open
84. Eight
85. Above
86. Sissy 
87. Eye 
88. Boot 
89. Bye 
90. WaWa
91. Ice Pop 
92. Joe
93. Fall
94. Bee

At 19.5 months Joey has a minimum of around 90 words he uses.  It's getting hard to keep track because there are so many.  J has been using little phrases of two or three words for a while now, but just in the last or so has really shown a preference for sentences over singular words.  For example, he now says something like "It's a ball" versus simply "Ball!" when naming something he sees a good percentage of the time.  Other popular phrases include things like "I need more", "Ready to Go!" (not articulated properly), "It fall! Boom!," "It's all done", "I'm all done," and "Need more ...".

Sesame Street Live

 We took this little monster to see these big monsters.

This is how Joey felt about getting to meet Elmo.

 He's very serious about coloring these days.

 He's also pretty generous.

This is Joey's thinking face.  He's picking out what prize he wants.  We ended up with the giant Elmo.

 This was still before the show, right before we were informed that the program lasted one and half hours! We quietly agreed that intermission was a good goal.  One an half hours is a long time for a one and a half year old.

We also quickly realized that we could have just taken our kid to the arena and let him walk around holding his father's hand.  His feet are never allowed to hit the floor anywhere.  I'm not sure he even realized it was possible until today.  It absolutely THRILLED him!

 You can't make this stuff up.

 He did enjoy watching the show though. And everything else around him.  Note the giant Elmo head. Ha!

It was cute and we make it to intermission and decided to call it quits.  We were way past bedtime.

 Of course, his Dippin Dots were just as exciting as the show.  This should not surprise you if you know Joey.  He thoroughly enjoyed them :o).

 So did Gracie Girl.

And Mommy.

21 Weeks

21 weeks, 2 days

I'm definitely showing, but I don't think I'm growing quickly yet. I kind of feel like I pretty much look the same week to week right now.


How Far Along: 21 Weeks

Size of baby: About the size of a banana, or 13 oz and 10.5 in.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained 8 lbs.

Maternity Clothes: I wear maternity jeans and pants sometimes, I've switched back to my regular jeans with a belly band.  The maternity are just a little too loose and stretchy still and I got annoyed with constantly pulling them up.  My regular jeans no longer fit! Everything else is regular.

Gender: Girl! We can't wait to meet our sweet Baby Grace!.

Movement: Movement is consistent.  Grace always bops around night after we put J to bed.  She is very active between 8 and 9 and night. Joe can now feel her from the outside.

Sleep: My sleep is getting much better!

What I miss: Nothing really.  I have hit a really easy stretch :o) and time is just flying by!

Cravings: Umm everything? Does that count? I eat a lot, and I think Grace loves pizza.  This is not how things went with Joey and I'm afraid I'll regret it at the end of pregnancy.

Symptoms: I've been feeling lots of bopping around and I still get sick every morning. I get very hungry easily and feel myself getting winded when I know I shouldn't be.

Best Moment this week: We spent the weekend shopping for girl things as a family! This has been a favorite pass-time lately, but Joe has not been along for the ride :o).  We went to the crossings along with my mother and had so much fun! I'm grateful for a patient husband who is willing to entertain our 18month old while I spend way too much time making decisions! :o)

For comparison sake, here we are at 21 weeks and 5 days with our Baby J.

Sweet Baby Trying To Spell His Name

Joey was right!!

Our big ultrasound for our newest little one happened on 2/17/11. I was 19 weeks and 3 days along.

Joe met me at 3:40 while my mom watched the baby.  We contemplated bringing him along, but ultimately decided he was a little too young to really get it and it might be better to keep him home.

Our ultrasound was fantastic! The baby was developing perfectly, was moving all around, and was very cooperative so we were able to see everything we needed to see. We decided to have the ultrasound tech write down the gender on a piece of paper which we delivered to a local bakeshop.  Joe and I never looked at the piece of paper and we asked the bakery to make a cake with the interior dyed either pink or blue to indicate the gender.  The intention was to find out along with our family at a party the next day.  My mom was nice enough to watch Joey so that Joe and I could go out to dinner after our appointment.  The baby was craving Chinese :o).  We have gone to eat after all our ultrasounds and I love this time together.  It's a time to talk and dream, and reminisce and hope, and bask in the reality of pregnancy.

 Joe's mom allowed us to have our little party at her house. We are so lucky that our children's grandparents are so helpful and love to have them around. Immediately after I got home from work on Friday, our little familty went to pick up balloons, decorations, and pizza. My mom had already picked up the cake and still nobody had peeked.

We let everyone take one final guess as to what the baby would be as we ate dinner.

My Aunt Ann did the gender test with the needle and it revealed boy and then switched to girl.  We agreed that the boy must mean Joey and the girl must be this baby ... we were sure I'm not having twins!

 We snapped a few pictures of the cake after we opened the box.  We were relieved that the bakery had followed our plans and there was no way to tell the gender until we cut the cake.  I wish we were able to get better pictures this night but my camera was not happy and neither was Joey.

 Our family took pictures to text to our family who was not able to be there that night. 

 One last family picture before finding out what we would be having, with Joey clearly demonstrating this was not his best night.

 And then we cut the cake and we could not have been happier! I love this picture of Joe's mom capturing our reaction as Joe leaned in to give me a kiss.  It captures the moment perfectly.

We will be meeting our Grace Genevieve in July (unless she has other plans).

 Everyone enjoyed the cake and talked of all things baby girl. The cake was fantastic and fantastically pink!

  My mom gave us our first baby girl outfit, and a big brother shirt for Joey.I hope to find the coordinating one for Grace :o). She came equipped with both boy and girl presents to be prepared for either case.  

 We were so happy we decided to find out this way!

It was so nice to be able to share the experience with family and give this pregnancy its own special something!

We can't wait to meet you, our sweet Baby Grace!