9 months//16 weeks

Miles turned 9 months on the 23rd. Here's what our boy is up to:

* He loves reading, he touches all the pages and is generally gentle with books.
* He sits like a champ, and will play with what's in front of him for long periods of time
* His favorite toys are plastic rings, stacking set, and the remote control
* He can stand and take 'steps' when someone holds on to his arms
* He has zero interest in moving himself, that includes crawling
* He can go from a seated position to on his stomach
* He sleeps 12-13 hours generally with 1 wake up; still takes 2 naps a day
* He babbles and can say mama and dada, though not when we prompt him
* He laughs and squeal, and has recently learned to throw 'fits'
* He is wearing size 6-9 and 9 month clothing
* We think he weighs around 18.5-19 lbs
* He can wave
* He can put his own binky back in his mouth


This week is week 16 for my pregnancy. Here's what our baby is up to
* Morning sickness is pretty much gone
* Headaches have started
* I'm starting to look pregnant, not just chubby
* I've felt the baby fluttering in the last week

Baby H2

I'm really torn blogging these days trying to track my pregnancy and Miles' awesome development. I've already accepted full on that this baby will probably not have their own blog posts often. Such is the life of the 2nd  child, right?  So here are the first glimpses we've seen of #2.

Here's numba 2 at 11 weeks. This was really our 2nd ultrasound, but it was the first one where you could actually see that the speck resembled a human. You can see it's head, one hand and a little leg. I think it looks precious here.

This is the 14 week ultrasound, my blob has turned from precious to kinda alien looking, in my opinion.  I do think it already has a cute little nose like Miles'. I think it's cool you can see the spine really clearly.  The little stinker wouldn't quit moving, so all the 3-D pictures are massive blurs. Too bad little baby.

 

As for me, I look the same as I did before I was pregnant, well except I've lost 6 pounds, between morning sickness and breastfeed Miles my calories are in high demand. I don't see myself looking pregnant for at least another month.  I started out this pregnancy 15 pounds heavier than I was when I got pregnant the first time. Such is life. 

 

Pregnancy #2 (14 weeks)

Call me old-fashioned, or a worry-wart, but I'm one of those people who likes to make sure, double-sure, triple-sure that everything is good in a pregnancy before I announce it from the hilltops. 

We've known are pregnant again since the beginning of November. (Trevor would claim he knew before I took the test, which I put off quite a while.) I told myself, I only have a 6 month old, my body is confused because I'm breastfeeding. I'm probably just tired...so on and so on, until he literally came home with a test. In my usual fashion, it was positive before any time went by. I still left it in the bathroom for him and Miles to go check on. This was Miles' reaction to the news.

 

It was nice to be able to tell our families at Thanksgiving, and then gradually tell more people as we got around to it. We told our grandparents/extended families over Christmas. We had our first ultrasound in the beginning of Dec, our 2nd one on Dec. 23, and our third one yesterday. So far everything looks really good with the baby.

 

I, on the other hand, have been a mess! I don't know if I'm carrying a girl or what, but this pregnancy has rocked my world. Horrible all-day sickness, headaches, crying at dumb things, greasy hair, and those are just the ones I'm typing for you to read! I joked that my favorite Christmas gift was my Zofran. It let me enjoy the holidays.

 

So far the reactions have been split, half the people we tell are shocked, and the other half expected it. We always wanted our kids close together, so we weren't exactly preventing a pregnancy and on the other hand we weren't actively trying to get pregnant. We are excited for our 2nd baby, who will be born when our first baby is 15 months old. We hope this will set them up for being not only siblings but good friends. Just a fun fact: Trevor and I are  15 months apart....but we won't talk about who's older :).

 

Here's to a happy, healthy, hopefully less rocky 2nd trimester! 

8 months/Christmas

Two days before Christmas Miles turned 8 months old.  Like the stellar parent I am, I'm not sure I took a picture of him on his exact 8 month 'birthday'.  We were too busy enjoying driving the 6 hours to Springfield to celebrate Christmas. This is for sure: the older Miles gets, the more difficult he is in the car. Naps he took as a wee baby are replaced by dropping toys, then crying for said toy.

But, we made it. We celebrated with my parents on Christmas Eve, like we do every year. Once again my mother came through with matching pajamas, complete with ones she made for David, Kaia, and Miles. Please ignore what a hot mess I appear to be in the picture. I was running to get in the photo while my parents and brother tried to convince David and Kaia to stay in the picture.  I can only hope that these photos get easier as the kiddos get older. :) Oh, and a quick note about my capri pj pants: my mom ran out of material, so Miles pants got made out of the bottoms of mine.

 

On Christmas day we went to Trevor's parents and Miles again enjoyed opening presents. After we had breakfast we drove to Conway to see my grandma and my mom's extended family. We came home and took naps. Miles decided to not sleep well the night before (I would soon figure out why) and we were all tired. We hung around with our parents until Saturday when we drove to KC to have Christmas with my Grandparents and Dad's side of the family.  As Miles continued to sleep bad, we found, he had his first tooth! It's the bottom left and it's impossible to take a picture of. So, you will just have to trust me that he has it.

 

 

Miles also learned to give 'kisses' over the holiday. And they give new meaning to the word. Full on, open  mouth, committed kisses. And the recipient is COVERED in baby drool by the end of it.

 

 

New Years Eve, Trevor's brother & family along with his mom came to Oklahoma to celebrate Howard Christmas. Sadly, his dad wasn't feeling well and had to stay in Missouri.  Fun was had completely covering our 900 sq foot house in wrapping paper, presents, and people.

 

It was a great holiday season, one that I hope Miles will be able to look back at pictures and be told about as he grows. One thing is for sure, there's not shortage of love and blessings in this boy's life.

 

 

(More pictures to come as soon as my mom or mother-in-law posts some...I left my camera memory card securely in the laptop, and took our  empty camera to Missouri)

When your husband is in Pharmacy school...a reprise

You can find the what I learned about pharmacy school in 2011 here. I wrote that after his first semester was finished..now to think he's only got one semester of classes left!  It's hard to believe we've made it this far! I'm so proud of you!


1. When your husband is in pharmacy school you plan dinner menus around class testing schedules
2. When your husband is in pharmacy school quizzing mechanisms of action replace cuddling in bed.
3. When your husband is in pharmacy school three ring binders are considered living room decorations
4. When your husband is in pharmacy school your son's bedtime stories consist of powerpoint slides read aloud.
5. When your husband is in pharmacy school he takes a moment to discuss medications with surgeons before appendectomies and wisdom tooth removals
6. When your husband is in pharmacy school his friends perform various reflexes and responses on your 2 day old baby and get really excited when they work.
7. When your husband is in pharmacy school you will come up with the hashtag #pharmacyschoolwidow to describe your life during finals week.
8. When your husband is in pharmacy he tells you about the uterus he saw in class, and even though he saw you give birth, you feel self-conscience.

Mama knows best

I hope you learn this lesson quickly, however if you are anything like your mama it will take years.

I know that if you stay up all night, you will be tired the next day. No matter how tired you are, I will not give you any coffee.

I know that you really want to put that hot food from my plate in your mouth. This will hurt more than you will enjoy it.

I know that you really think that if you lean forward from a sitting position you will magically get to what you want, but in reality you will just fall face first into it.

I know you think the dog is fun, but if you open your mouth when it comes near you, it will try to lick your gums. That is gross. Dogs are for petting, not kissing.

I know you think pulling your dad's arm hair is funny....okay, I admit, it is funny.


Miles, at 7 months and 3 weeks old you are a character. You are starting to show real interest in things around you. You no longer are content just sitting and watching, you want to be grabbing, moving, doing.  Your loves in life are paper, popcorn tins, fruit snack packages (closed), and pretty much anything you are not supposed to want to play with, like the nasal aspirator. You could care less about toys, except for books.  I can't wait to see you with wrapping paper on Christmas.  You still have no teeth, and we just recently found out that you can't eat eggs for the time being. (that was a messy lesson) You are still perfect and we love  you.

7 months/Thanksgiving

 

 

Before I begin this post, let me just say that I'm thankful.  Okay. So we started last Sunday in the middle of the night with a stomach virus.  Miles' outfit above should show you the dire condition of our household. Trevor and I were both down for the count. It involved two trips to Walgreens to obtain medication for him, and it had snowed. So off Miles and I went to get it, since the over the counter medication he needed at the house expired in 2011.  Yes I took Miles to Walgreens dressed as he was above.

 

Tuesday morning Trevor seemed better, I still felt a bit sluggish and Miles was good to go. Trevor went to class, I spent the day trying to muster up the energy to do the dishes, prepare to leave for our trip, and board the dogs. We left Weatherford at 4:30 pm and got to Missouri around 10 pm.

 

Wednesday morning the stomach virus resurfaced. Trevor was up all night Miles didn't sleep well, having slept 5 hours in the car right before bed. By Wednesday night we were all exhausted. My mom came home and told me not only were we having the 10 members of my immediate family over for Thanksgiving, one of my Aunt & Uncles and Grandma would be coming too. At this point, I just wanted a nap.

 

 

 

On Thanksgiving Miles tried a bite of the pumpkin pie filling and then proceeded to throw up every ten minutes for an hour.  (no this was not spit-up) We went to bed plagued once again by Trevor's stomach virus coming to call every 30 minutes. My dad makes a 3 am trip to the gas station for medicine.

 

 

 

Friday morning we woke up and Trevor was still sick, so Miles and I went to find a store open at 8 am the day after Thanksgiving in small town, Missouri. We got a different kind of settle your stomach medicine. And spent the afternoon laying around.  By Friday evening everyone was feeling good enough to rejoin the family. Miles was playing on the floor with a relative (name omitted to protect the innocent) and was laying on his back. Said relative pulled his right arm across his body in an attempt to roll him to face a toy. We knew immediately he had something wrong. He fussed right away and seemed to be more upset when we moved his arm. We noticed his shoulder was fine but below his elbow seemed to just be hanging limp. After about 10 minutes of observation, we decided to take him to the emergency room. It was 5:30 pm on black Friday.

 

 

This is Miles as he was getting checked in. He got his temp taken and they made sure his hand was still warm and had circulation. He got weighed and then we waited to for them to take us back to a room.  As soon as we saw the nurse, she knew he had 'Nurse Maid's' Elbow. She took his wrist and just popped it back in place. Miles cried a little during this but more out of annoyance than pain.  The minute after she felt the pop he had picked up his hospital bracelet and was only interested in playing with it.  The doctor came in to sign our release papers and off we went. In and out of our first ER trip in under an hour.



 

Saturday afternoon Miles played with his cousins.

 



Sunday we started the drive back early so Trevor could get home and study. After 3 hours we stopped to feed Miles and top off the gas tank.  When we went to restart the car the battery was dead.  After 30 minutes and forty dollars on a self-jumper we were back on the road. It just seemed like a fitting end to an eventful Thanksgiving week.  Here's to hoping all the excitement has passed and Christmas will be boring.