The First Glimpse

written on June 17*

I have been so excited for today ever since we saw those two pink lines, because this morning we had my pregnancy confirmation appointment at with the doctor.  Up until this morning, we had absolutely no concept of how far along I was, so I was really excited for them to determine a due date.  Plus, we got an ultrasound.  Things are finally starting to feel real.

The nurse practitioner at my practice got married and moved, which I was a little sad about because I liked her…until I discovered that the nurse who is taking over her role is my favorite nurse in the whole office.  I consider that a sign that this is going to be a fabulous pregnancy and there will be no high blood pressure (My BP is fine at every other doctor I go to except the OB.  I have serious white coat syndrome from the last pregnancy.  But today, luckily, it was A-OK.  We’re off to a good start, folks.).

I think I mentioned before that I wasn’t sure Dan would care about going with me to the doctor this time around, but he has informed me that he at least wants to be there for ultrasounds (which doesn't surprise me in the least, as those are the fun appointments), so off we went.  There was a lot of paperwork and just going over general pregnancy-related things.  They went ahead and gave me a sample of a pre-natal vitamin with all kinds of fiber (and stool softeners) to try since I had so much trouble with constipation last time (ugh), so we’ll see how that goes.  I also mentioned that I have been nauseated already, so the NP gave me a sample of an all natural anti-nausea pill that she said all of the women have been raving about.  Fingers crossed I won’t have to use it too much!

A quick ultrasound determined that I am REALLY early in the pregnancy.  As of today, I am 5 weeks, 6 days.  I have NO idea when my last period was because it’s never normal / "on time," but it turns out that my “best guess” as to when I had it last was way off, ha!  I did warn them of that, because when I started to try to think back to events that were happening when I last had my cycle, everything ran together.  Anyway, that puts my current due date at February 11, which I find to be hilarious since Lilly’s was February 13^th.  I verified with the NP that they will monitor baby’s weight closely since Lilly was 3+ weeks early and pretty hefty to have been that early.  She told me that second babies tend to be bigger (great) and that they’ll for sure keep an eye on it.  I’m holding them to it.  Anyway, there wasn’t much to see on the ultrasound, and since I’m not quite 6 weeks they didn’t even attempt to hear a heartbeat.  Baby just looks like a little sack attached to the uterine wall at this point, and it appears that the right ovary did all of the heavy lifting (can’t remember which one was the culprit last time).  Dan asked if she could tell whether there was only one, and she said, and I quote, “it’s too early to tell, this sack could still split into two identical parts.”  Let’s not even put that one in the atmosphere, ok lady?  

Anyway, because there was nothing to really see today, we didn’t get any pictures, BUT we get to go back next week just for another ultrasound.  Score!  Fingers crossed for a strong, healthy heartbeat.  And some photos for show and tell!

Sarah

Pregnancy Musings

written on June 10, 2013*

I was writing these posts in blogger and saving them for later instead of publishing, but I am scared to death that I am going to accidentally hit "publish" before we're ready to spill the beans, so I moved them to a Word document for safe keeping until our secret is out.  Sneaky sneaky.

Life has been keeping us so busy.  Just in the past two weeks alone I helped to throw a baby shower for my middle sister, Katy, and then our youngest sister, Sydney, graduated from high school.  How’s that for making me feel OLD?  On top of it all, work has been insanely busy, so there hasn’t been a lot of time to really think about anything other than getting through the day.

This pregnancy somehow still doesn’t quite seem “real” to me yet.   I keep wondering if it’s because the timing was surprising, or maybe it could be because I have no idea how far along I am (hence the lack of “update” posts) combined with the fact that I don’t go to the doctor until next week (hurry up June 17^th!).  I am so excited to meet our little babe, see him/her for the first time, hear his/her heartbeat, and get a due date.  Let’s do this thing.

I can’t wait to tell our family and friends the news.  I keep wondering if anyone will be surprised, or if they’ve all been expecting it (or in my family’s case, suspecting it, since we’ve seen them a good amount recently).   In keeping with the theme of my last pregnancy, we have already told Chris and Andrea (last time, Andrea helped me decipher the pregnancy test).  This time, there was no mistaking the outcome of the test, but we dropped by for a visit a few weekends ago when we were in the area and I couldn’t eat anything for fear of barfing.  Hilariously, the resulting conversation ensued:

Chris (jokingly): We have other stuff if you don’t like what I made, but tell me, how old will Lilly be when her sibling arrives?

Dan (or Sarah, I can’t remember):  I am not exactly sure of the timing, but I am betting they will be right at 24 months apart.

Chris:  Seriously?  Wellllllll that joke went horribly wrong.

Ha!  My plan at this moment in time, unless I come up with something better, is to have a shirt made for Lilly that says “I’m going to be a big sister!” and let her wear it around family (or while FaceTiming) and see how long it takes them to notice.  My goal is to wait until after July 13^th to tell, if possible.  My sister is due 7/5 and I am helping to host a baby shower for Meredith (Dan's sister) on 7/13, so if I can celebrate those two special events before spilling the beans, I’ll be happy.  Birthing babies and baby showers should be all about celebrating the mommy-to-be!  Although, if I’m being honest, considering we’ve been with my family for the past three weekends, two of which I’ve known I was pregnant, I am shocked that no one has asked why I haven't been drinking wine. 

So far, I haven’t really felt very differently, other than constant nausea.  Luckily, I have only actually thrown up a handful of times, but the feeling is not pleasant all the same.  I’m also generally tired, but honestly not as exhausted as I thought I’d be (or as I remember being the last time around).  Maybe that part is yet to come.  I just remember when I was pregnant with Lilly falling asleep on the couch every night at approximately 7:30 pm and sleeping through the night with no problems.  So far, this time around, I have actually had trouble sleeping as opposed to falling asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.  I’m not sure whether I’m subconsciously worrying about what the heck I’m going to do with two kids (house space and daycare to name a few worries!), or whether it just hasn’t hit me yet.  Anyway, aforementioned weird sleep issues are making me miss Diet Coke that much more.  I may have to take up drinking coffee or tea for a caffeine boost!  I have also noticed a few headaches so far, but I am praying that they are a result of normal pregnancy in conjunction with quitting Diet Coke cold turkey.  Lord knows we do not need bed rest this time around.

Anyway, so far so good.  More updates to come!

Sarah

Soooooooo this happened.

originally written on May 30*

Yup.  I am starting all over with the super secret blog posts...at least for a few weeks until I can publish them.  

I'm sure we will get this question a lot, so I'll just go ahead and address the elephant in the "room": no, it was not "planned," per se.  I say "per se" because it wasn't really not planned either, if that makes sense.  Obviously, we knew it was a possibility, I just mean that this timing was not what we thought it would be.  Let me back up.

It seems like once your oldest child turns one, the only way people can think to start a conversation is, "So, are you ready for number 2?"  It's crazy because we always said we thought we wanted our kids to be pretty close together, and we thought we'd start "trying" again when Lilly turned one.  But then Lilly turned one, and we changed our minds.  She was such a good, easy (for the most part) baby, and she was becoming so. much. fun.  Don't get me wrong, she's normally fun and I've enjoyed every stage with her, but right around the time she turned one (maybe a little before), it's like she grew up overnight and was able to start interacting with us and we have just been having a blast.  In addition to that, since I didn't stop nursing until L was almost 13 months old, I wanted my body to myself for at least a few months.  I was just telling some girlfriends last week that due to all of the above, for the first time in my life I didn't really have a "plan" (those of you who know me will understand that this is extremely abnormal) in place related to timing for Baby Baum number two.  In recent weeks, Dan and I had just started having the conversation of "when” (literally, we’d maybe discussed it twice), and decided that maybe we'd start trying somewhere in the fall/early winter and shoot for a late summer/early fall 2014 baby (at the earliest).  I am here to tell y'all that the Lord had different plans for the Baum Squad, and we are so excited!

I didn't really have much of a reason to take a test this morning other than the fact that I have just been feeling weird - that's the best way I can describe it.  TMI alert here - I am late for my period, but by only a few days, and honestly that is totally normal for me - my cycle is so crazy that sometimes I'm “late” by 2-3 (and sometimes many more) weeks.  For whatever reason, though, something told me to take a test this morning.  I assumed I was overreacting as usual, until those two lines showed up mid-stream.  Seriously, hadn't even finished peeing on the stick before it was positive.  I think I was in a state of shock for the rest of the day.  Things were crazy at work, so I was distracted, but I still can't believe I kept it to myself all day.  I was so desperate to tell SOMEONE and was tempted all day to text Dan the photo of the test, but I stayed strong (secrets are SO HARD!!!).  

Speaking of announcing the news to my Baby Daddy (he was already at work when I took the test), I wanted so badly to do something cute to let him know that I'm once again, as he says, “knocked up.”  My original plan was to try to keep it a secret until Father's Day, which I thought was only two weeks away.  Then reality hit...he would for sure notice me not drinking wine (oh, how I will miss wine again).  Additionally, I thought he may want to go to my first doctor appointment since I'll have an ultrasound, and that is currently scheduled for June 12 (before Father's Day).  Plan B was to have Lilly in a "big sister" shirt when he got home from work tonight and see how long it took him to notice (I know for a fact that it wouldn’t have taken long because my husband is extremely observant.).  I left work an hour early (didn't take a lunch) and went to four baby stores, and no one had any shirts like that (Why do stores not keep these in stock?!  All of the sales associates told me that on the rare occasion that they do have shirts like that, the shirts fly off the shelves, so you would think they’d keep them in stock.  Nope.).  Soooooo I had to improvise and be boring.  We came to Charlotte tonight for the weekend because Katy has two baby showers, so I just put the positive test stick in Dan's suitcase and he found it when was packing.  His reaction was priceless.  I heard a lot of exclamations coming from upstairs...he was very surprised, of course, and came flying down the stairs for a hug and a kiss and to tell me how excited he is.  So sweet, that man.

I am already wrestling with a tad bit of anxiety/Mommy guilt.  Don't get me wrong, I am ecstatic about this pregnancy.  I know that we are so blessed, and I cannot wait to get my hands on Baby Baum 2.0, but I found myself worrying today about whether we've had enough time with just Lilly.  Poor Baby Baum 2.0 (Knowing my husband like I do, I'm sure there will be a better nickname before too long!) won't get any alone time, and plenty of people have children much closer together than 24 months, but still.  Not to mention, what are we going to do with two kids?  And where are we going to put them?!  What can I say?  Worrying is my thing.

Anyway, that's all for now.  I wanted to write everything while it was fresh, for "baby book" purposes.  I will try my hardest to be diligent about pregnancy updates like I was with L (Finding the time will be another issue all together, oy!).  I can't wait to see what is in store for our little family!

Sarah

Rut

I have been in a serious rut for the past few months.  I was going to title this post "blog rut" because my rut has mainly been blog-related, but then I realized that my rut extended to a few other random areas as well, so this post will probably turn out to be quite miscellaneous.  

Re: the blog, I am not sure how I let it become so neglected.  Actually that's a lie, I know the exact reason: life.  For a long time I did such a good job of posting at least two times a week, and doing that helped me keep it in my routine.  The "monthly" posts were actually a big part of holding myself accountable when it came to blogging, because one of the reasons I started this whole thing was to keep track of Lilly since I am clearly terrible at baby-booking.  But as things (work, life, hello 18-month-old) started getting crazier, it became easier to put it off and continue to do so until now, when it is more rare for me to blog than not blog.  I'm going to attempt to fix that!

Other ruts that come to mind relate to FOOD.  This rut is actually two-fold: Lilly food and food in general.  

My "Lilly food" rut is that I feel like she eats the same things all. the. time.  I tried really hard to diversify what I was feeding her starting at a very young age to avoid this very problem, and when she was younger she was so good about eating whatever I put in front of her.  Now, much to my disdain, she has developed opinions about what she likes and what she doesn't.  I've read and been told (by other Moms, books, blogs, our pediatrician, etc.) that this is totally normal for most toddlers and she will not eat well again until she is at least 3.  Joy.  Lilly at least does not seem to be phased by the fact that she always eats the same things, but I get so bored preparing food for her that I can't imagine that she isn't bored with eating it.  I do make her try new things, and it normally results in her spitting whatever I made her try out, but I feel pretty good that at least I'm trying.  She does have a decent variety of foods that she likes, but still. Especially since she's starting preschool in a few weeks (three half-days a week, and I don't know why but I am feeling so weepy about it!), I want to see if I can diversify her taste buds a little.  Does anyone have any good resources?  I recently discovered Weelicious and am planning to delve deeper into that site as I have time.  And of course there is always Pinterest, but I find that it can be so overwhelming.  So, what are your favorite meals and/or meal resources for picky toddlers?  Any help here is greatly appreciated!

My "food in general" rut is not really too much different than the "Lily food" rut.  Since January, Dan's work schedule has been crazy, which means he has not been home a lot - maybe two week nights each week.  This has made me beyond lazy in the kitchen, because I am not cooking for just myself, especially since Lilly is limited in what she'll eat.  Even on the rare occasions that Dan has been at home, though, I feel like we eat the same things all of the time.  Since we both work full-time, it is hard to find the time to get everything done, and our days are so busy that meals mostly fall to the back burner in terms of planning.  I am lucky if I even think about what I'm going to feed Lilly for dinner in the car on my way home from work every day.  I think the most important thing I need to add to my routine is meal planning.  I know myself, and if I do not plan meals and grocery shop for aforementioned meals at the beginning of each week, said meals are not happening - at least not from the Baum kitchen.  So that is change #1 that needs to be made.  The second part of this is that I am just totally lacking in inspiration.  I know that there are a TON of resources between Pinterest and the world wide web in general, but I often find that I just get so overwhelmed even looking through those things that I lose interest and new meals don't get planned.  Unless I have a very specific idea of what I'm looking for (which I typically don't), those sites (to me anyway) can be pretty overwhelming and semi hard to navigate.  Additionally, it's not like I have hours to spend on meal planning each week, so I need some quick go-to resources with good recipe ideas.  A few sites that I have perused recently in addition to Weelicious are Skinnytaste and Peace Love & Good Food (written by my friend Nina, you'll love her!), and I like all of those.  I recently read a post by Megan at Hello Newlywed Life where she  mentioned her weekly meal planning and that her goal is to try 1-2 new recipes a week.  I think that is a fantastic idea, and one that I'd love to implement in my own home.  So, my second question of the day is this: what are your favorite recipes/resources for recipes to try?  

The only other rut I can think of is a clothing rut.  I literally cannot remember the last time I bought myself something new.  My, how times have changed!  This is partially due to the fact that I have a closet that is way too full of clothes that I never wear (don't tell Dan I admitted that), and partially due to the fact that I keep saying I want to lose weight before buying anything new, and partly due to the fact that I would rather spend way too much money on Lilly's sweet wardrobe.  Sometimes, though, I want to feel like I am still semi-trendy and not have only mom clothes, ha!  I am hoping to at least partially rectify the clothing situation this weekend by embarking on a massive closet cleanout.  My sister is coming to visit, and I promised her first dibs on giveaways in exchange for helping me.  Woohoo!  Speaking of my sister, I can't believe I have yet to post about the birth of my sweet nephew, Mason, back in July.  I'll add it to my "to do" list!

I think that's all of my random musings for the day.  I'll leave you with a few photos of my girl from the past week.  

First time trying corn on the cob.  Won't touch it off the cob, but on the cob was a BIG hit.

Daddy was traveling for work, so we had a Bojangles picnic in the den and watched Elmo.  Mama had a long day!

"Swimming" in the backyard baby pool with cousin Mason.

Enjoying the Durham Bulls game, thanks Raymond!

"Helping" Daddy power wash the house.

Drink thief!

Hope your weekend was great, too!

Sarah