31/32 week appointment and Rylan update

I had my 31/32 week appointment this morning. I am officially 31w, 4d pregnant. The appointment went fine- bp 100/60, (another) 3 lbs gained, Miles 150 bpm, and 32 cm fondal height. So everything is right on track with where it should be. I went ahead and scheduled my next 3 appointments which will take me up to the week before Christmas and nearly 37 weeks so that might be it since Rylan was born at 37w, 2d which would be Christmas day..

I've stopped caring how much weight I gain because it is what it is and there's nothing I can really do about it now. I haven't been over indulging, granted I have my moments, but that has always been the case with me. It just seems that I gain a lot more weight with boys. And I'm trying my best to be positive and not complain about how I feel - which is completely wiped, for the record. I just keep reminding myself there are lots of women that never get to experience this and it is a small price to pay for a beautiful baby at the end. I was also reminded this morning of all I went through back in January to get to where I am now when Jake started asking questions about the baby we lost. It kind of puts it all in perspective when a 7 nearly 8 year old still is having a hard time letting go of a lost pregnancy from 10 months ago. So no matter the problem, I'm trying my best to keep positive and just focus on the end goal - Baby Miles in my arms.

In my nesting insanity I have already started getting the house ready for Christmas. I have put out some decorations and I went through all of  the ornaments so they would be ready for when we get our tree. I also have a very good start on Christmas shopping. For anyone that knows me well, this is all VERY weird for me.  I have never been the early decorator and I NEVER have my shopping even started until into December. I just feel so tired and spent that I just want everything ready so I don't have anything to do except wait. And for anyone with kids, you know that there is always SOMETHING that needs to get done so if I can have the decorating and shopping done early hopefully it will make the other stuff easier. Fingers crossed I can get it done AND that it works!

Rylan update:

A few weeks ago I had mentioned that we were trying to get Rylan toilet trained. Well, a few days in we were hit with a bit of a set back.....warning TMI coming.......She got diarrhea for 5 days. Fantastic. Luckily, it didn't set her back very much. She was ready to get back on board with going #1 immediately and #2 is slowly coming along. She is wearing underwear during the day, everyday now with no #1 accidents and a few #2 accidents. She has been VERY good about using the bathroom when we're away from home and she's been very happy to wear her underwear during the day. We're not all the way there yet, but I think the finish line is at least in sight. Time to cross those fingers again in hopes that she continues on this path and doesn't have any set backs when Miles arrives.

So that's it for us. We'll be staying home for all the holidays this year. We're not expecting any visitors, but if Miles arrives early that might change. We are hoping that Miles will make it before the new year and I'm personally hoping for before Christmas - his stocking got here a couple of days ago just in case :) And Chris is now predicting Miles will be the Apocalypse baby on 12/21/12 :)

Last, but not least - BELLY PICS! Ok, so its not that exciting, but I'm sure you can all at least get a kick out of just how lovely I'm looking these days ;)

31w, 4d - 59 days or less (I hope)

 Just for fun - 32 weeks with Rylan, the bump looks about the same, but the rest of me looks a lot better :)

29/30 Week Appointment

I had my 29/30 week appointment yesterday at 29w, 3d pregnant. Everything was just fine. Blood pressure 56/112, 5 lbs gained (YUCK), and 145 bpm for Miles. From my last appointment they had already told me that I passed the Gestational Diabetes test, but my count was low for Iron/Anemia so I would need to start Iron supplements (another YUCK). I wasn't surprised about the anemia since I was anemic with Brenden and Rylan as well.

The doctor asked how I was doing and I gave a VERY unconvincing fine. He asked if there was anything in particular, but its all the same crap that I know is just part of pregnancy. He assured me that everything looked good, but it really doesn't matter. The fact is: I'm just not the happy pregnant woman. I don't have the "Oh the joys of pregnancy....What a wonderful joy.....Blah, blah, blah, blah" attitude. I hurt constantly, I'm exhausted, and I have awful mood swings. I know this is par for the course for pregnancy, but I don't like it AT ALL. I like the end result, but if it were up to me pregnancy would last about one month. And I'm really hoping that Miles continues the trend of early births so I never have find out what the full 40 weeks (or more) is like. I've already told Chris that if I don't deliver by 38 weeks I'll likely go insane.....Hear that Miles? Momma needs another early baby! :) And now that the Holidays are truly upon us I know this is all going to get more stressful and exhausting.....Here's hoping for only 6-7 more weeks instead of 10! And don't forget to make your own guess for how much longer this misery is going to last ;)

And here are the lovely belly pictures - and its quite the belly! :)

 29w, 4d

Pumpkin Carving and Halloween

Happy Halloween! For those of you that don't know, this is not my favorite holiday, but its obviously a favorite of the kids so I put my smiley face on and do my best. Chris on the other hand loves Halloween so the kids get one truly enthusiastic parent :)

After getting pumpkins a little over a week earlier we had to hold off carving them until Sunday because of our crazy schedules. Finally, Sunday night we got the pumpkins out and went to town. For the past few years I have done the majority of the carving because the kids had too hard of a time with it so they would come up with the designs and I would carve. This year Jake was ready to join the party and I finally got a good kids carving knife - which quite frankly is the best grown up carving knife too! So after I cut open the pumpkin Jake cleaned it out and drew his design on it (cross-eyed vampire). When he thought he was ready to go I checked it over and helped smooth out a few spots and he got to carving with me only helping a little on the eyes. And the pumpkin turned out great! He was so proud of himself and I was happy to only have to do Brenden's and Rylan's pumpkins ;)

Brenden was VERY against cleaning out his pumpkin, but he wanted to draw his design on the pumpkin and help with the carving. And of course, Brenden's pumpkin was the hardest/grossest to clean out. Anyway, after we got it cleaned out he drew the EXACT same thing as Jake, little brothers do want to be just like their big brothers. Since it was exactly the same I asked Brenden if that's what he really wanted or if he just wanted to do a similar one with his own touches. So we talked about different shapes and such and came up with a similar design, but we would use more triangle shaped eyes, add a nose, and do 6 teeth instead of 5 so he would have his own unique pumpkin. He was very happy and I was glad he got to use his own imagination!

And Rylan is 2 and couldn't care less what her pumpkin looked like so I just came up with a quick and easy smiley, happy pumpkin face :)

And then came Halloween! They don't wear costumes to school here so the boys wanted to get dressed as soon as they could once Jake got home. Since the weather called for 40 and rainy we needed to do some layering before the costumes could go on. Jake and Brenden picked out new costumes this year, for the past few years they have been recycling old costumes so I was fine with buying new ones when we went to the store. Rylan is still too young to tell me if she wants to dress up and what she would want to dress up as, but she definitely knew she wanted to get candy! Jake picked out a Teenage Mutant Ninja turtle, Brenden found a Darth Maul costume, and we figured we'd dress Rylan up in some fancy clothes and put all of her jewelry on and she could be Fancy Nancy (one of her favorite books/characters). 

Before Trick or Treating we went to one of the neighbors houses for a Pre-Trick-or-Treating party and Chili cook off. It was really nice for the kids to all get together to see each others costumes, have some dinner, and just play and show off. We stayed for about an hour hoping we could make it until Chris got home from work, but we weren't able to last so we headed out in the rain for some candy.

It was awful out! Luckily I had my mom to help me and the kids didn't seem to mind the weather - at least in the beginning. And Chris was able to join us about 10-15 minutes into our trek. It was a rough start, but we plugged through and it all worked out well. Jake ran into one of his friends from his soccer team and they took off together with Brenden close behind. After 45 minutes Rylan, my mom, and I headed home to get warm. Brenden stayed out for another 30-40 minutes when I picked him and up and Chris and Jake lasted another 30 minutes on top of that. Despite the miserable weather, the kids had a great time. 

They were all VERY cold when they made it home, but not too cold to not have any candy :) The night was a success with lots of candy to show for it! Rylan ended up with 16 pieces, Brenden 87 pieces, and Jake scored 165 pieces of candy! Quite a successful Halloween if I do say so myself! :)

Fall Soccer

Soccer finished up for the boys this past weekend. Jake's team was in the playoffs, but lost their first game so they were done. Brenden's age group didn't have playoffs, just a final game which they won despite Brenden scoring a goal for the other team.....Oops :)

The season was a success for both boys. Jake got to learn a lot about being part of a team. In the past, Jake's teams have had a lot of success and this season was quite different. There were several kids that hadn't played soccer before or simply weren't very good so the teamed struggled at the beginning which was very frustrating for Jake. However, he continued to practice and learn how to not only make himself a better player, but also how to help others be better and how he can change his play to help others. Despite their final loss, it was evident that the team had grown and made a lot of improvement over the season. And I personally was happy to see how Jake dealt with what he saw as a difficult situation.

Brenden's season was a success as well. The coaches were amazed by his weekly improvement and how well he mastered the skills they worked on. Also, Brenden is definitely a defense-minded player, but learned how to play offense and became quite the scorer by the end of the season - he scored 8 goals in one game (remember, they don't use goalies). It was also fun to be able to watch him be part of a team and really enjoy what he was doing and making friends while doing it. In the past, Brenden would get mad and/or frustrated and really looked to me or Chris for help or comfort. I didn't see that at all this time. I saw him continue to try, listen, practice, and trust what his coaches had him do and really ENJOY being at practice and games :)

The league also gives out end of the season Trophies and Awards. Brenden's team met for a pizza party where he got his Trophy and was given the Sweeper Award - The award for remarkable soccer skills at any position on the soccer field. Jake's team was supposed to go to a park after their final game to get their trophies and awards, but it seems that didn't happen so we are waiting to see if we'll do something soon or just pick them up from the coach. I was told by the coach that Jake was the team's MVP. Needless to say, I am quite the proud Mamma of my boys accomplishments!

The boys are very much looking forward to playing again in the spring! Here's some pictures from through out the season.

Shaw Farms

It's Halloween time again! When we lived in Michigan we knew of plenty of places to get pumpkins, but down here in Cincinnati I needed to do a little research to find somewhere fun for the kids. So after very little research - after all, I am nearly 7 months pregnant and wasn't planning to spend a whole lot of time on this - I came across Shaw Farms in Milford. It is relatively close to us (20 minute drive) and is open 7 days a week. It is also free, apparently a lot of places around here charge an entrance fee or parking fee, weird. Anyway, it has been GREAT weather the past few days so we decided to finally head out yesterday afternoon to check it out and get us some pumpkins :)

The place was great. Very easy to find and super kid friendly. They had lots of cut outs for kids to pose around for pictures and several could be climbed on or posed on/in as well, as you'll be able to see from all of the pictures I took. The kids had a blast running around playing and were very good about me taking pictures. There was also a maze that they must have run through at least 5 times, including Rylan. They all picked out their own pumpkins and picked up some cider as well - the kids have missed cider and were VERY happy to get some :)

So all in all it was a very good experience and I imagine we will return again next year and maybe we'll have time to try the hayrides too!