Baby #2 Bumpdate: 17 Weeks

How Far Along: 17 Weeks

Baby's Size:  Potato

Maternity Clothes: Belly band and a lot of maternity shirts. I recently bought the softest maxi skirt at the Gap outlet. It is not maternity but it is very stretchy and so comfy. The good thing about being a SAHM is that you don't see the same people everyday so you can wear your favorite clothes over and over again, ha!

Movement: I felt the baby move for the first time on Monday - so neat! It was just teeny tiny movements down low. I haven't felt it again yet but hopefully I will start feeling it more soon. I love that feeling.

Sleep: Great. At least one bathroom trip a night though.

Symptoms: I wish I could say the nausea is gone now, but nope, still lingering. It is much better during the day. I really only start to get nauseous around 4 in the afternoon. Some evenings are not too bad but others I feel pretty nauseous. Sometimes I worry if it will last the whole pregnancy, I hope not! I still get pretty tired during the day too and occasionally lightheaded.

Food Aversions/Cravings: I am trying to eat healthier. Pickles still sound good though and I still eat milk and cereal after dinner. 

Best Moment this Week: I have several best moments this past week. One was feeling the baby move - yay! Another one was getting a pedicure. Ahh, it was wonderful. I hardly ever treat myself to this. I think my last one was when my friend Kristen treated me to one before Cambry was born. I do plan on getting another pedicure when I am close to my due date though. When you are in labor and then in the hospital feeling super beautiful (riiight), at least your feet can look good :)  Also, I got my hair trimmed and highlighted this week. It was long overdue and it always feels so good to get it done. That is another thing I recommend doing when you are close to your due date.

What I miss: Having energy, feeling good at night.

What I am Looking Forward to: No more nausea! Also, finding out the gender! I am DYING to know. I don't remember being this anxious with Cambry but maybe I was. Every day I tell Greg the countdown of how many days left before we find out. We have a little over 2 weeks. Eeek! I do not see how people have the patience to wait until the baby is born. I can barely wait another day. The birth day is already exciting enough so why not have an extra exciting day at the halfway point, right? Anyway, I can't wait to start planning the nursery, thinking about names more, and going out and buying a new tiny outfit. 

Recent Pics and Veggie Wars

I have been getting lazy about blogging lately. But here are a few random pictures recently.

She brought me 2 bows one morning and wanted to wear them both

My sweetie pie

A girl needs accessories!

Fun new game - put stickers all over mommy!

Big Sis 101: Learn how to put a diaper on a baby

Big helper sweeping the yard

Mmmm smoothie!

In other news, we have started trying to really work on getting Cambry to eat veggies. We are definitely failing so far. She will eat a few things if they are well hidden in a soup or some other type of casserole. But as far as plain veggies, she will only eat green beans...sometimes. She will not even try anything else.

So we are trying to get her to at least try ONE BITE of whatever veggie we are having that night just so her taste buds start warming up to veggies. Not a whole serving, just one bite. Once she takes a bite she can have the rest of her meal. How has this worked out for us? Well let's see, she has gone to bed 3 out of the past 4 nights without dinner. The one night she did have dinner was because we were at a restaurant with friends and we didn't want to fight the battle there.

She still gets a sippy cup of warm milk before bed so her tummy is not completely empty and she has not been waking up at night hungry or anything. But she is not budging on the veggies. Not sure what to do. I may need to start doing the same thing at lunch time. If she misses lunch then she will for sure be starving at dinner and will have to try a veggie then right? But I am a little scared that the whole afternoon would be miserable and I won't have Greg around to help. Maybe I'll do it on a Saturday, ha! Let's hope this girl starts eating soon because I don't want her to loose any of her precious baby rolls that she is still hanging on to!

Baby #2 Bumpdate: 16 Weeks

Pregnancy is a BLESSING and a JOY. I am so thankful to get to experience this...twice. However, when I look at this picture I panic a little. A LOT. Not at how I look. I like what my belly looks like now. But it is how I am going to look. This belly is going to be completely out of control at 40 weeks.

Just as a reminder, this is me at 16 weeks with Cambry.

Then this is what happened at 41 weeks. WHOA. That thing could knock someone over.

So should I just expect it to be twice that big? Oh my. Ok enough about that.

How Far Along: 16 Weeks

Baby's Size: Avocado

Maternity Clothes: Belly band and a lot of maternity shirts.

Movement: None yet. C'mon baby!

Sleep: Great. At least one bathroom trip a night though.

Symptoms: Nauseous mainly in the late afternoon/evening. The daytime nausea has gotten better. I thought my night nausea would be gone by now but I still feel pretty crummy at night. 

Food Aversions/Cravings: I am starting to try to eat healthier finally.

Best Moment this Week: Finally started working out again! It feels good to be back. And Cambry seems to be having fun in the childcare class. When I pick her up she is sitting at the little table with all the other kids and eating a snack. I can't believe they can get them to all sit there so well. She was signing "more" when I walked up. Ha, I bet she just continually does that once they pull out the graham crackers!

What I miss: Having energy, feeling good in the evening.

What I am Looking Forward to: No more nausea, feeling the baby kick, and hearing the heartbeat at my appointment tomorrow.

Baby #2 Bumpdate: 15 Weeks

Just for reference, here I am below at 15 weeks with Cambry. Yikes, definitely showing more this time!

How Far Along: 15 Weeks

Baby's Size: Apple 

Maternity Clothes: Belly band, and a lot of maternity shirts. My favorite trick is to tie something around a regular shirt to give some definition to the belly instead of looking blob-ish. I have several shirts that have those removable sash things so it makes a great maternity accessory.

Movement: None yet

Sleep: Great. At least one bathroom trip a night though.

Symptoms: Nauseous throughout the day and extremely nauseous at night, tired, easily lightheaded. I have started to see a little relief, but still nauseous. But it is very encouraging that hopefully I will continue to see improvement!

Food Aversions/Cravings: Not much change - cheesy foods, soups, pickles, hamburgers, milk and cereal. 

Best Moment this Week: Dinner with the Ramseys - felt nice to do something at night even though I still felt nausous.

What I miss: Feeling good, going on walks, doing more things during the week with other moms, working out, etc.

What I am Looking Forward to: Nausea going away, feeling the baby kick.

By the way, one of my favorite pregnancy apps is the Pampers Hello Baby app (for the ipad) because it gives you the real life size of your baby each week. It is a really neat way to visualize it. The limbs definitely start to go off the page at some point because it gets bigger than the ipad. And by 40 weeks it just looks huge. Greg and I would look at the app each week with Cambry and by the end we were thinking no way she is this huge! We said once she was born we would compare to the 40 week picture. Well we completely forgot. I guess with a newborn you have lots of other things to worry about then how accurate your pregnancy app was :) Maybe this time around we will remember. Either way, it is fun to see.

Tidbits

This past weekend we had a lot of fun. We got to go to a friend's birthday party at a park. The weather was just perfect.

We also had dinner with the Ramsey's. We haven't hung out with them in a long time so it was nice to get together. And it was the first time in what feels like FOREVER that we have done something in the evening. I was still nauseous but at least we socialized.

Cambry was being silly one night at dinner so I captured some of her expressions.

Another random thing - Cambry now likes pickles. I have been eating pickle spears like crazy and started offering Cambry bites. At first she didn't like it but now she can pretty much eat a whole one. That's my girl!

Cambry sleeps with her babies and the other night I saw this on the monitor. Fell asleep with one baby on her head, ha! She loves them so much.

Yard Work

The other weekend we did some work in the front yard. I say "we", although it was mostly Greg. I did help out some though and it was a surprisingly nice distraction from the nausea.

Cambry was also our little helper. She had fun walking around with a small container of fertilizer, or the broom, or acorns. She also loves getting in the bed of Greg's truck and just walking around.

Here is the before picture. You can see the section between the house and the walkway is all grass.

Here is the after. We tore out all the grass and put in some shrubs and flowers and some solar lights. I hope the flowers live! We are not the most knowledgeable about landscaping so we will see what happens. But for now I think it is a nice improvement.

Green Chili Chicken & Lime Soup

I tried this Green Chili Chicken & Lime Soup recipe this week.

I did what I always do now for recipes that call for shredded chicken - make it in the crockpot. It is the easiest way by far. I put in the chicken breasts while they are still frozen and pour a little broth on top. I put it on high for about 4 hours then pull it apart with forks. 

As usual, I made a couple changes to the recipe. I used mild Rotel because I didn't want it too hot and I wanted Cambry to eat it. I also used only one can of green chilies instead of 2. Instead of basmati rice I used the Uncle Bens 90 second whole grain brown rice because it is easier.

Greg and I both liked it. Cambry definitely gobbled it up. At first I wasn't sure if I would make it again. I mean, it was good, but I have other soup recipes I like better. But it grew on me and I actually liked it better the second night. So I think I would make this again. It is definitely good with avocado and crushed tortilla chips on top.