My little man is THREE!

Happy Birthday, Owen! Sunday was my little man's third birthday. I can't believe he's three! We had a pretty low-key day, since we had his birthday party last weekend (which will be a separate post), but it was pretty good day, I'd say.

He came into our bed at 7:30 - a little earlier than I was hoping for, but he just snuggled with me and played with my hair while playing games on my phone and iPad for awhile. When I finally decided to get my butt out of bed, I made some blueberry muffins for breakfast (which took too long, so he had a "go-la (granola) bar") while he continued to play on the iPad in his room. I'm pretty sure he uses that thing more than Ryan and I get to! But I was trying to keep him out of the living room for a while, because his presents were in there and Ryan worked the night before and I wanted him to be able to sleep in for a while before Owen opened his gifts. It worked! The iPad is an awesome distraction for kids, plus all the apps Owen uses on it are educational. (Well, that's what I tell myself, anyway!)

Anyway, when I let him into the living room, it took him about 5 minutes to even notice his presents on the floor! And of course, in true little kid fashion, he went for the biggest present first.

Pirate Ship

Monster Truck

Reindeer shirt with googly eyes

Dinosaurs

After presents, we made a big mess in the living room getting them all out of the packages and he played for a while before we headed off to Independence to meet my mom at Pizza Ranch. We got there early, so we stopped at a park and checked out the tank and threw rocks in the water. I don't know what it is about throwing things into water, but Owen just loves to do it!

After lunch, we headed back to Cedar Falls. The Vikings were playing, but weren't on regular TV, so we went to Zsavooz to watch the second half. They kicked butt! Yay!

While we were there, Ron, Tammy and Emma came to give Owen a present. Ron and Tammy are friends of ours that love to watch Owen for us on weekends and let him spend the night. Emma is their daughter. Anyway, he got some nerf-like guns and bow and arrow, so when we got home, we had ourselves a little gun fight! I'm pretty sure Ryan and I were having just as much fun as Owen, and Ryan's pretty good with that bow and arrow!

And that was about it! After that it was time to relax for a little bit and then head to bed!

Owen's new gun and reindeer shirt with googly eyes! : )

Happy birthday to the coolest, cutest, smartest three year old I know!

32 Week Bump

I'm so good at keeping up with my blog. NOT!

There's not a lot new going on with my pregnancy. It's going almost the same as it went with Owen - I had to take the 3 hour diabetes test (which I passed), I have a low platelet count, and low iron. Same as with Owen.

I'm not sleeping well, between my back hurting, having to pee a lot, and leg cramps. Same as with Owen.

I feel pretty good otherwise - I get on the What To Expect When You're Expecting website and read though the January 2013 message board (where people due in January post problems, questions, funny stories, etc) and I think I have it pretty good. Ugh, the things some of these poor women have to deal with! It's pretty gross and horrifying, actually. But anyway, I'm not dealing with about 99.7% of what some people are, so I consider myself lucky. Easy pregnancy for the most part - same as with Owen.

I am gaining weight faster this time around. I'm almost to my "limit" of 30 pounds, and have 7 weeks to go! (I'm 33 weeks at the time of writing this, but eventually you will see my 32 week bump comparison pictures.) My weight started a few pounds lower than with Owen, but I gained 30 with him and that was my goal for this time and also the recommended weight gain for people of my size. I sit all day at my job, so I'm getting very little exercise. Plus, I love food and it's the holidays. But I'm trying to eat a little better because I really don't think pregnancy is an excuse to get fat and lazy. That's not good for anyone.

Anyway, I took a picture of myself at 32 weeks along because I knew I had one from last time and wanted to compare. I was shocked, actually. I'm a whale.

32 weeks, some days with Owen

32 weeks, some days with Oriana

Ok, maybe not a whale, but my bump is definitely bigger this time. After I took the picture, I was looking at it for a while before I went back and found the picture from Owen. When I saw the Owen picture, I think my jaw dropped to the floor. I couldn't believe the difference.

I went to the doctor last week and when I got back to work, one of my co-workers asked me how much longer I had. I told her two months and I think her jaw dropped to the floor! : ) "TWO MONTHS!" she said. Yeah, I'm huge. To my credit, though, she's never been pregnant, so she can suck it. ; )

I've also been measuring about a week ahead for awhile now, so hopefully that means she will make her appearance a little sooner than my due date. I actually really enjoy being pregnant, even though it can be a pain sometimes. There's just something about feeling the baby doing gymnastics inside your belly that is just too cool. And this is my last pregnancy, so I'm trying to enjoy it as much as I can, but it's flying by. The holiday season is making time go faster, too, so I guess I'll just have to try my best to enjoy the sleepless (yet quiet) nights and the big, big belly!

25 Weeks

I'm 25 weeks along this week, and I thought I start with a bump comparison:

             

Me today

Me at 25 weeks with Owen

It's a little hard to compare because I'm farther away in the new picture, but I think the bumps are about the same size. A different shape,though - this time I'm more round and maybe a bit higher? I don't know, maybe it's also hard to tell because my shirts are different lengths. I should have been wearing a longer shirt in the older picture.

Anyway, I'm feeling pretty good. My last doctor's appointment was Monday and everything looks good. She measured my belly (my uterus, actually) and she said I'm actually measuring about a week big. I also got my flu shot, which was fine, my arm was just sore for a few days. I have to go in next week and do the first round of testing for gestational diabetes and they will also check my blood platelets and antibodies. With Owen, I failed the diabetes test and had to go back for the 3 hour test, which I passed, and my blood platelets were low and had to go to a blood disorder clinic and get blood drawn every couple of weeks. Yuck. I'm hoping this time goes better. The 3 hour diabetes test was awful - I literally felt high on sugar. And then felt like crap. You can't drink anything during it and all I wanted to do was curl up in bed with a gallon of water. And it's boring. I took a book and school things to work on during the 3 hours I was there, but I got so high on sugar that I couldn't focus on stuff. So I just had to sit there feeling sick and thirsty, and they draw blood once an hour, so my arm was pretty sore. Just yuck.

In a couple of weeks I start my third trimester. It's happening too fast! I want to just enjoy this pregnancy (it will be my last!!!) but I feel likes it's just flying by. She moves around quite a bit, which I LOVE, but Owen refuses to feel her. I'm determined to get him to by the end, though. Every time I put his hand on my belly, he pulls it away really fast. I try to do it while he's concentrating on something (like Sesame Street or Dinosaur Train), but he always figures it out before she moves for him. Little stinker.

I'll end the post with some pictures (not good ones) of Owen playing in our bazillion kajillion leaves. So. Many. Leaves. But he loved it! He even helped us rake and bag them!

This is an action shot -  he ran from the fence by the truck all the way to the pile and jumped. This happened about 3 thousand times. ; )

Tangled

We have not seen the movie Tangled yet, and everyone talks about what a cute movie it is, so I borrowed it from a friend. Owen was all pumped to watch it, even though he knew nothing about what this movie was, and the Vikings were on, so I just put it on for him in our room to watch, thinking he'll watch it again with us (or at least me) some other time. So Ryan and I are watching the Vikings in the living room for about 20 minutes, when Owen comes running out of the room.

Owen: "Mom! I don't wike this movie!"
Me: "What?! Why?"
Owen: "They are hitting!"
Me: (laughing) "They are?! Well, that's not very nice, is it? Is there a horse on the movie?"
Owen: "Yeah. And there's mean guys. I don't wike mean guys!" (said with his face all scrunched up.)
Me: "You don't?"
Owen: "NO. They're mean."

So he ended up in the living room with us, watching the Vikings lose after an awesome first quarter. I'm still going to try to make him watch it again with me, though!

Potty Training, Part IV

We now have a full-time big boy underwear wearer - even at night! Yay! He had been waking up dry for a while now, and a few times he would even wake up during the night and yell, "Mom! I gotta pee pee! MOM!"

So about a week ago, I decided to make the switch to underwear at night. He was so proud of himself, and has kept his bed dry ever since!

Of course, there have been a few (4 so far) accidents (one was right after he caught his fish at the campground. He must have been excited!), but he is doing so awesome. A couple of times, he's actually been able to stop himself long enough to tell me and for me to get him to the bathroom so he can finish! It's sad, but a little cute, that he gets so upset when he has one. He cries. The last time it happened, he came running up to me crying and said, "Mommy! I pee peed in my underpants!"

"It's ok, Owen. Do you have to pee more?"

"But I got pee pee on my underpants!"

I have to reassure him for a while that it happens sometimes. I guess it's good that he gets upset - makes him more motivated NOT to do it.

Johnna said that the other day he got like 2 dribbles on his underpants and had tears in his eyes. Poor guy, just wants to keep his underpants dry! : )

Owen caught an 8" bass in the kid's fishing tournament at the campground over Labor Day. He lost the title for Smallest Fish by 1", but he was so proud and excited that he caught one!

Pooping on the potty has gone awesome since that first night he went. He prefers to use his Elmo potty for pooping, but has gone many times without, too, when we are out and about. He also will normally stand when he pees, but for some reason he makes me shake it : ) He tells me he has to pee and I tell him to go, and then he'll yell at me, "Waggle my pee pee!" all mad, like how dare I assume he could shake his own. It's kind of strange, because any other time, "pee pee" is pee and "wee wee" is his weiner. Haha, I just said weiner. Maybe he says it that way because I'm shaking the pee off of it. Anyway, he also informed me that he would help potty train the baby. He said, "I'm going to waggle her pee pee and wipe her butt!" I told him girls don't have wee wees, and then he told me, "Daddy doesn't have a wee wee!" I told him I was going to tell Daddy he said that and he just laughed. What a silly billy.

I had my regular doctor appointment today and everything is looking good. She didn't say anything about my ultrasound results, so I asked her what the deal was. She said no news is good news, but she looked it up on the computer (thank goodness everything is computerized and fast these days!) and said everything looked normal. Yay!

20 Weeks

Holy moly, I'm halfway through this pregnancy! I'm not really sure how I feel about that. I think I'm ready for time to sloooow down a bit. So much to do in the next few months!

First off, here is a picture of my baby bump at 20 weeks, 2 days:

Cute, huh? ; )

I'm bigger at this point than I was with Owen, but that's normal for baby #2. Weight gain is around 5-6 lbs, depending on what time of day I weigh myself. : ) I felt baby kicks earlier this time around, too, which is awesome. With Owen it was around 20 weeks, this time around it was about 18 weeks. They feel stronger this time, too, which I think is also normal because everything has been stretched out once already (which is why you show sooner, too). The kicks can already be felt from the outside, but they are still pretty unpredictable, so no one but me has felt them yet.

On Monday, I had my 20 week ultrasound. I was so excited/nervous/anxious for it! Baby's health is #1 concern, of course, but I was also excited to find out what I've got cooking in there. I was hoping baby would be in a position that we would be able to see the all important "potty shot", and luckily, SHE was in the perfect position. That's right, I'm cooking up a GIRL! I had the feeling early in pregnancy that it was a girl. I don't know why, it's just what my heart felt. Pregnancy has been a little different this time around, so maybe that's why. Owen has been an easy child since conception. This time around I've dealt with:

-Nausea, almost every day of my first trimester
-Dizziness, to the point where I've almost passed out about a dozen times
-Sensitivity to heat from the sun. There have been multiple times that I've had to go lay down inside because the sun was just zapping all my energy and making me feel sick.
-Heightened sense of smell. If I had this with Owen, I didn't notice it. This time around, I definitely notice it, and I don't really like it.

But I guess that's about it. Otherwise, things are going very well. So anyway, at the beginning of pregnancy, I was convinced it was a girl and kept having dreams that it was, but in the last month or so, my dreams switched over and it was a boy every time. So when Monday rolled around, I was very undecided as to what I thought it was. I think deep down I thought it was a boy, but I wanted it to be a girl. I knew Ryan thought it was a boy, so when we went in for the ultrasound and the lady asked if we had a feeling, I said girl because Ryan said boy, and Owen said boy, even though that morning he had said girl. And when she found the right angle, even I could tell by looking at it that I was RIGHT! (Dear Lord, let it be right! I plan on getting rid of all of Owen's old clothes!) When the tech said it looks like a girl, I told Owen that and he argued with the tech! "No, it's a boy baby!" And he later told my mom on the phone that it was a boy. Little stinker. He's coming around, though!

The tech then went about her business, trying to find the right spots to get pictures of everything she needs. The only bummer is that the tech really can't tell you anything concrete about the baby's health. Everything has to be looked at by the radiologist. So we left there knowing (hopefully!) that the baby's a girl, but not knowing if she's actually healthy or not. On the bright side, it has been four days since then, and I haven't gotten any phone calls or messages, so hopefully that is good news. I do have a doctor's appointment on Monday, but I'm hoping that if there was anything wrong, they would let us know ASAP.

We took Owen with us the the ultrasound, which I thought was going to be a good idea, but looking back, I sort of wish we hadn't. I thought he'd be more interested in the baby, but he just wanted to play and eat and be sort of distracting for Ryan. Luckily, the tech and the student that was with her were really nice and didn't mind the little boy making noises and running in circles in the room, but I'm pretty sure Ryan was too distracted to really get to enjoy it (but on the other hand, I don't know how interested he was in the first place. Not because he's not excited or whatever, but it's just different for Dad's until baby is actually here). I also forgot how long it takes. We were in there for around an hour, and I think we were all getting a little restless. It's not very comfortable for me to lie on my back like that for so long.

We didn't get many good pictures because her back was towards my belly button, but here are a few shots from the ultrasound:

This shows her nose, lips, cheek and shoulder. The rest of her face is in shadow. Can you see it? Her nose is straight up from the yellow word "LIPS" and her lips are to the right of that. Remember, she is face down. This was to check for cleft palate.

3D pictures are CREEPY looking! Little "Skeletor" looks even extra creepy because of the angle the tech had to go at to get her profile. There's lots of fluid and stuff kind of distorting the picture a little more than normal. As you can see, it appears as if she's about to suck her thumb : )

That's about it for pictures. There are a few more of the 3D ones, but they are even more creepy and distorted than this one, so they aren't really worth showing.

So now I'm looking forward to Monday's regular doctor appointment to hopefully find out that everything looks A-OK! Wish us luck!

Potty Training, Part III: He Did It!

Owen pooped on the potty! I'm a few days behind, it actually happened on Thursday night. He had gone to daycare in undies (still to this day he has only had one accident in undies, and that was very early on!) and when we got home, he wanted a diaper on. Dead giveaway that he needed to poop. I had said that I wasn't going to push him to go poop, but I definitely wanted to wait an hour or two before giving in. I reminded him about the dump truck and convinced him to try. We got as far as putting his Elmo seat on the potty ("So I don't fall in!" he says) and getting his shorts and underwear off before he told me he didn't have to go. So he played in the living room for awhile, and after about 20 minutes came up to me and said, "Mom, I got to go poop!"

"Let's try sitting on the potty, then!"

"LET'S GO, MOMMY!"

Ryan and I exchanged looks like, 'Is this happening?!' and I crossed my fingers at him. Owen and I ran back to the potty, and luckily I hadn't put his undies or shorts back on, because I barely got him on there and there was poop in the potty! I did my little potty dance for him and told him I was so happy. He said, "And Daddy will be so happy, and Nana will be so happy!"

So Owen got his big dump truck, a box of M&Ms (to share with Mommy and Daddy), and got to call Nana and tell her the big news. I am so proud of my BIG BOY!

That night I went out to supper to celebrate a friend's birthday and I got this picture text from Ryan

with the message: Poop on the potty like a big boy for the second time tonight!!!!

So for going poop again, he got to pick something out of his prize box. To my delight, he picket alphabet magnets to put on the fridge, and when I got home, he was excited to show me that he had them up already.

I'm a nerd and made him spell out his name for the picture!

He sometimes gets upset that he has to wear a diaper to bed, so I may have to try buying Pull-Ups and convincing him that they are underwear for nighttime. My mom did appease him by putting undies over his diaper one night, so maybe I can just do that, too. He wakes up dry most of the time, but I'm not ready to send him to bed in just undies yet. He is doing an AWESOME job, though.

Underwear!

Today is the first day that Owen went to daycare in underwear! (He was a little cranky yesterday morning and said he didn't want to wear underwear, so I didn't push it.) He was so proud of himself, too!

He picked his Spiderman underwear to wear today.

And we have been using underwear around the house in the evenings after daycare, so here he is last night.

I'm surprised he posed so nicely for this picture, because I interrupted him watching cartoons to take it. ;)

He told me last night that we wouldn't pee on Spiderman today because then Spiderman would get him! I played along and said, "Oh yeah, you wouldn't want that!" and he looked at me like I was crazy. He said, "No, Mommy, he won't get me! He's just on my underwear!" (Imagine his brow furrowed like he's mad I would think such a thing.) Can't get much passed him!


UPDATE 8/23/12: Owen went ALL DAY in his undies, kept them dry and clean! Way to go, Owen! Johnna says he doesn't pee as often as her son does, but I guess that makes it easier on us! No poops yet, though.

Potty Training, Part II

My little monkey is doing such a good job with potty training! I'm so proud of him! Last week went awesome, I think he peed in his diaper 2x the whole week! And one time was during the night! Otherwise he has woken up completely dry. Yay! He even told me in the car on the way out to eat that he had to pee, and I asked if he could hold it until we got to the restaurant. He told me yes, and when we got there, he peed on the potty there!

But still no poops on the potty. I was so sure the dump truck was going to be enough motivation, but he just isn't ready for that step yet. Every day he says that he will poop on the potty, but when it comes down to it, he still refuses. I have been getting him naked when we get home from daycare, and a few times he has cried for me to put his diaper on him because he wants to poop in it. I don't put it back on until bedtime, so he has sat on the potty multiple times to "try", but he just won't do it and then ends up with a belly ache because he's holding it in. Poor kid.

A forward step, though, is that even if he has a diaper on, he almost will ask for permission to poop in it. Out of nowhere he will say, "I don't want to poop in the potty!" So I'll ask if he needs to poop, he will say yes, I'll try to persuade him for a few minutes to try on the potty, he will refuse, and I'll tell him he can poop in his diaper. "I can poop in my diaper?" he'll ask. After I tell him yes again, he'll go find somewhere private to poop. This weekend we were camping, so he asked me to open the door to the camper for him because, "I want to poop on Daddy's bed." : ) So he was in there a good 15 minutes, pooping on our bed. I checked on him once, to make sure it was going ok (he hadn't pooped the day before, so I was worried he was constipated), and he said he was fine and for me to "go away". Then a few minutes later he opened the door to the camper and yelled out to me, "Leave me alone!" and then just went back in to go about his business.

All in all, though, he's doing such an awesome job. Johanna (daycare provider) told me on Friday that he is doing so awesome and that if he did well over the weekend, she would be ok with him coming to her house in underwear this week. I sent him in a diaper today, because the weekend kind of threw us off a routine and it was hard to get him to try when he was playing with his friends at the campground. He still did awesome this weekend, though, and if he does his usual great job today, I'll send him in undies tomorrow if he tells me its ok with him. : )

I also went to the doctor today. I'm 17 weeks and everything is looking as it should. Blood pressure and blood sugar were normal, uterus growing at the right speed, baby's heart rate was 148. The only thing she mentioned was my weight gain - only 5 lbs so far - but that as long as I'm eating and feeling ok, she expects my weight will catch up later! I remember with Owen, they also mentioned my weight gain was slow, but I ended up gaining the 30 lbs they recommended, so I'm not too worried. They also scheduled my big ultrasound for September 10 (3 weeks away), so we are very excited for that and then I go back for my regular appointment the next week. Something to look forward to after Labor Day and summer ending.

Potty Training, Part I

**Long post all about pee and poop : )

Every morning for the past week, Owen has been going pee pee on the potty. He has gone on the potty before, but now it is much more regular. It started one night when Owen and I had just gotten out of the shower and he was in my room with me still naked. We were talking and he suddenly turned and left and ran into the bathroom. He even got ON the potty all by himself and just started going! I was so happy and as a reward, Owen got LOTS of Reeses Pieces (or as he just calls them, M&Ms). That was a bit of a mistake, because the rule quickly changed to just 2 M&Ms for pee pee and 4 for poopy, but he wasn't very happy the first few times when he only got 2 - "I want wots of M&Ms, Mommy!"

So Ryan and I have been VERY happy that he is making progress going pee pee, but he was very against going poop on the potty. He always announces that he has to poop, so every time I will ask him/try to convince him to go on the potty, but he tells me NO! every time. So I haven't pushed it. And when we would talk about it, he would tell me that it's hard to go poop on the potty, but the word of the week for us has been TRY! I give him examples of things he has learned now that he has tried to do them a few times, like opening the front door from the outside. For the longest time, he would REFUSE to even try to open the door to get back in, which I will be honest, was very annoying. But after lots of tears and frustration, he finally tried it, and lo and behold found out that he actually could do it, and now he does it all the time and he is still proud of himself for doing it. So Ryan and I keep telling him he just needs to try going poop on the potty. And now, we have a new system.

Instead of 4 M&Ms for poop, we decided on prizes. So we told Owen that if he went poopoo on the potty, we would get him a new toy. We thought it was a good idea, but soon found out that the idea of a new toy is not motivational for a 2 and a half year old. So, we hit up Walmart Sunday night and bought him a big CAT dump truck, plus a prize box and various other prizes.

And we showed him all the goodies.

And we set them on a table where he can see them.

But, he has to poop on the potty to get them!

That kicked motivation into high gear. He wants that dump truck pretty bad! And bless his little heart, he tried 3 times Sunday night and once Monday morning to go. He just didn't have to, poor kid. After the first poop, he gets to pick a goody from the prize box, which includes cars, temporary tattoos, treats, and a Clifford movie.  The prize box is also see through, for some added motivation. : )

Monday morning started the same way the last few mornings have. I got Owen up, took off his diaper (which was almost completely dry, maybe one little pee during the night), and asked if he wanted to pee on the potty. And he did and got 2 M&Ms for his reward. Every morning I write in Owen's daycare book (what time he got up, if he ate any breakfast, when I changed him, etc), so I wrote, again, that he peed on the potty and got a treat. Johnna (the daycare lady) has a son that is just 2 weeks older than Owen, and since she knew that Owen was starting to go on the potty, she told me that she was starting to potty train her son and asked if I wanted her to train Owen during the day. Of course! So at daycare, the boys get 1 M&M for trying (she must set a timer and has them sit on the potty when it goes off), 2 M&Ms for pee and 3 M&Ms for poop. I got a text after lunch that he had a dry diaper ALL morning! I was so happy! And when I picked him up at 5, she said he had on the same diaper that he came with! He peed on the potty ALL DAY! Whoo hoo! She writes in his notebook all day, so she wrote down every time he tried, every time he went, what he ate, when he napped, etc. He did such a good job! And Johnna and I both agreed that it's probably easier for both the boys to have a potty buddy. It's more fun with a friend!

So after that, I was even more certain that last night was the night for pooping on the potty. Plus, it was Ryan's birthday, so I had even more to bribe Owen with if necessary - birthday brownies.

But unfortunately, Owen had a big mood swing and was very uncooperative and stubborn last night. As soon as we got home I asked him if he had to go potty and he just flat out refused to even try to go pee. And right before supper, he put his shoes on to go outside (he really likes to poop outside. I think it's because of the dogs, I'm not kidding. Or maybe he just likes the fresh air, but he prefers to poop by one of the trees in our yard.) and I quick grabbed him and tried to remind him of the dump truck, but he was SO mad at me. Kicking, hitting, crying. Finally we calmed him down, and even took the dump truck out of it's package to show him. Then we sweetened the deal by getting out a package of M&Ms from his prize box, PLUS let him pick 2 tattoos, AND told him we could call Nana if he went on the potty (he LOVES talking on the phone). He wanted the truck and all the goodies, but just didn't want to go on the potty. And maybe it was all the kicking and screaming, but he managed to poop in his diaper at some point without us realizing it anyway. Bummer.

But after we cleaned him up, we put him in some Captain America underwear and he kept those clean and dry for the rest of the night, and peed on the potty right before bed. This morning, his diaper was pretty wet, but again, pee on the potty. I hope the day and night go the same.

13 Weeks

I had my first "fun" doctor appointment today. She had to do a full exam, but that went really fast and then came an ultrasound! Yay! Baby was MOVING so much, that we really didn't get great pics, but here are the best two.

Measuring baby from butt to top of head - 7.06cm. Looking at baby's back.

3D pic - the body parts are listed at the height of the actual body part. So go from the word to the left and there is the part. The hand is covering its eyes and forehead, bump of nose right under wrist.

If you were looking very closely at the first picture, you may have noticed that at the top it says 7.7cm and I listed the baby at 7.06. I don't know exactly what the 7.7cm is, but this picture cut off the bottom right of the actual picture which lists the CRL (crown to rump length) as 7.06 cm and GA (gestational age) at 13 weeks 2 days. BUT, she takes the average of three measurements to come up with how far along I am, and it came to 13 weeks and 1 day. Which changes my due date from February 8 to January 27! They first determine your due date from the last time you have your period, but mine didn't like to keep a very good schedule, so that's why I was off by more than a week. Better to think you are behind schedule than to think you are ahead of schedule!

Another thing I learned is that this baby is from my left ovary! Owen was from my right one. They can tell because your ovary grows a cyst on it every time it releases an egg, and the cyst acts like a placenta until the real one grows and takes over.

All in all everything looked good and I go back in another month. The only bummer was that Ryan wasn't able to go with me because of work, but the appointment went great and I'm happy that I'm farther than I thought. Also, seeing the baby makes it more real! The first trimester is always so boring because you don't look pregnant and can't feel any movement. The only signs of pregnancy are bad ones! Nausea, fatigue, lots of peeing (especially at night!), being crabby and OUCHIE boobs!

Owen looked at the pictures of the baby and I think he is a little confused. First he asked if that was him, and then he just kept asking, "Who is that?" Maybe when I start to get a big belly, he'll start to really understand. He keeps saying he wants a baby sister. Last night he told me he thinks there is an Isabel in there (a baby from daycare). So cute. And I hope he's right!!

4th of July

This year, Independence Day fell on a Wednesday. It's very strange to get one day off in the middle of the week. Wednesday night felt like a Sunday night and Thursday felt like a Monday to me. Luckily, they weren't!

A friend of ours had some people over to her house to grill and play games outside, so we went over. It was HOT! So hot that when we were loading up our truck with our grill, I had to go inside twice because I was getting light headed. Luckily, our friend had a baby pool, we brought a beach ball that sprays water, another friend brought a sprinkler and we had a few tarps to put down as a slip n slide! And honestly, I don't know who had more fun on the slip n slide - the adults or Owen. He was the only kid there, but had a BLAST!! But so did all the adults, pretending to be kids again : ) Of course, I was unable to participate in the slip n slide since falling to the ground and sliding on my belly would be very frowned upon right now, but I got to take some pictures and spray everybody with the hose.

Owen's maiden voyage on the Slip n Slide. Had to have Daddy go with him : )

Another time. Daddy goes down much faster! And Owen mostly just ran all the way down and slid the last few feet.

Going solo

He was always last : )

The adults that participated were all very sore the next day (and probably today and will be for awhile!).

We also played bags, beerbee (a frisbee game), grilled burgers and dogs and had some yummy dips. If you like Pickle Rolls and have never had Pickle Roll DIP, here is the recipe. Make it, enjoy it, and thank me later. YUM!

1 (8oz) container sour cream
1 (8oz) block of cream cheese, softened
Ham or corned beef, diced
Dill pickles, diced

I just combined the sour cream and cream cheese and cut up some Oscar Meyer ham into little squares and dill pickles into little chunks and just kept adding until I felt it was a good combo. I also added some of the pickle juice. Make it and refrigerate it for awhile before serving so the flavors settle into it. It's so good. Serve with crackers or chunks of plain bagels. I might just have to make another batch. "Pregnancy craving".

Anyway, there are fireworks in town tonight and tomorrow night, and I told Owen we could go tonight and he's so excited. He loves fireworks and if you ask him, he'll tell you he likes the green ones. : )

Owen Has Something He Wants To Say...

That's right! Owen is going to be a BIG BROTHER! I'm only about 9 weeks right now, so we are looking at an early February baby. Things are going pretty well - some nausea and lots of fatigue, but that's to be expected. I went to the doctor about a week ago, but nothing fun or exciting to share yet. Hopefully at my next appointment (July 23) they will do an ultrasound.

Owen changes his mind just about every time that you ask him if he wants a girl or boy baby, and I do too! A boy would be nice because we already have the clothes and toys, but a girl would round out the "perfect" little family! So I guess we will just pray for HEALTHY!! (I'm still really anxious to find out, so I know if I can get rid of all Owen's old clothes or not!)

As for an update on Owen: we made it about a week and a half in the big boy bed before deciding it wasn't worth the nightly fight. He did GREAT for about a 5 or 6 nights, and then for whatever reason decided that he wanted to sleep with us. NO, THANK YOU! I finally asked him if he wanted his crib back and he told me yes, so we put the side back on and he said, "Thank you, Mommy!" and went right to sleep. Must have been a security thing. But now that we have Baby Burke #2 on the way, I'm getting nervous about how the switch is going to go the next time around. We are going to have to get a whole new bed, since we will use the crib for #2. 


Otherwise, Owen has been learning so much and LOVES to be outside, to camp, to swim, to play cars and everything else a little boy would like to do! He talks up a storm, is awesome at counting (and the ABC's, but he's been good at that for awhile now), and loves to sing and dance. His favorite song is DJ Has Us Falling in Love by Usher. He just can't help but dance to it! :) He also really likes Rumor Has It by Adele. He's a silly little punkin.


His daycare took a little fieldtrip to Hansen's Dairy Farm in Hudson last Friday and he had so much fun. He got to pet baby calves, milk a fake cow, and feed grass and flowers to a wallaby! (Wallabies are like kangaroos, only smaller.) Johnna said he thought the wallabies were big rabbits! He's been talking about the cows and wallabies ever since the trip. I just wish I could've gone, too! It's so fun and funny to see how excited he gets. The same goes for going to the pool in town. Ryan said he was going to tell me that I should take Owen to the pool after work one day when he had a meeting, but he didn't because he wanted to go, too, because he loves how excited Owen gets and how much fun he has. What a sweet Daddy!


And last, but not least, Owen finally sat still long enough for me to cut his hair. It was getting pretty long, but I bribed him with a brownie last night. You can see in the video that it's cut, but here's a cute picture, too!

Big Boy Bed

Last week, Ryan and I did a little bit of an overhaul on Owen's room - got rid of some stuff, moved things around, put his toy boxes in there, and biggest of all, converted his crib into a big boy bed! I had told myself (and had been told by other parents) that I wouldn't change his bed to a big boy one until he finally tried climbing out of his crib. He has made a couple of attempts when he was really mad about going to bed, but almost fell one of those times and I think it scared him enough that he never made a good attempt. BUT, Owen has slept in a regular bed a few times before - in hotels and in our new camper - and did a GREAT job. So Ryan and I decided we would try it out at home.

Owen sleeping in a regular bed at the hotel a few months ago. He started out under the covers with his head on the pillow, in the middle of the night was like this, and then woke up laying "normal" again. 

The nice thing about his crib is that we just take out a few screws, pop off the front rail, and voila - instant big boy daybed. So I knew that if it wasn't working out, we could always revert to the crib by screwing the rail back on in a few minutes. But thankfully, we haven't had to!

Owen was so excited about his new big boy bed. After we had switched it, we were all in the living room watching TV and Owen comes up to me and says, "Thank you my big boy bed, Mommy!" and gives me a kiss on the cheek. Stuff like that just melts my heart! It was so genuine. I told him, "Your welcome, but Daddy did most of the work!" So he wandered over to Ryan and said, "Dad! Thank you my big boy bed!" and gave him a kiss on the cheek, too. What a sweetie!!

So at bed time I tucked him in under the covers and sat on the floor next to him and read him a story. After the story, he was ready to get back up! Oh, NO! I thought he was going to be so excited about his bed that he would have no problem. Turns out he just needed to give Daddy a hug and kiss. After that, he snuggled back in bed and I went to get ready for bed. I was walking back and forth down the hallway a few times and would peek in his room. Once, he was standing on his bed, getting a monkey down from the changing table and then snuggled back under the covers. Another time he was just sitting up, playing with his stuffed animals. When I finally got into bed, I could hear him singing to himself and talking about Daddy's "big twuck!" (He LOVES Ryan's truck. LOVES!) And after a while, he was quiet, so I went to check on him again, and I couldn't resist taking a picture.

Sleeping like an angel!

Slept all night, no problems! The next morning I went in to wake him up and asked him if he had a good nigh-night in his big boy bed. "YEAH! My wuv my big boy bed!"

We've had really good luck with this little boy since the day he was born, but I'm surprised at how well this transition has gone...so far. (Knocking on wood!) We had one night where he woke up at 3 am and I had to put him back in bed and read him a few stories and then pretend to sleep with him. That didn't work, but after about an hour - hour and a half, he let me go back to my bed and stayed in his. Otherwise, he stays in bed until he wakes up!

Actually, I can tell that he sometimes gets out of bed and plays with his toys for a little while, just by the music that is playing in his room, but as long as he stays in his room, I'm not going to worry about that. Once, though, while he was supposed to be laying down for a nap, Ryan was walking by his room and he was out of bed. Owen could hear Ryan coming down the hall so he quick ran back to his bed and looked at Ryan like, "What? I've been in my bed the whole time!" and then when Ryan walked away, Owen got back out of bed and shut his door! I thought that was pretty funny. He ended up falling asleep in his bed and took a great nap!

Monday night. I just can't stop myself from taking pictures of him sleeping! It's so cute!

And this was later that night! He doesn't remember sleeping on the floor. When he got up in the morning, he was back in bed. We didn't move him.

I asked him on Tuesday afternoon if he slept on the floor. He said, "At Ron's house?" (Ron and Tammy are our overnight babysitters in town, and he had gone to their house last Friday night and had slept on the floor in the living room.) I said, "No, at Mommy's house." He gave me a look like I was crazy and said, "NO!" I told him he did and showed him the picture. He didn't really know what to say!

This morning, Ryan told me he was on the floor again, and he ended up waking up on the floor. He got up before I did and came into my room and I asked him if he slept on the floor and he said, "Yeah." "Did you fall out of bed?" "Yeah." I don't know if that's actually what happens or not, because I never hear anything on the monitor, but somehow he ends up on the floor sometimes! Apparently it doesn't bother him, though!

I'm going to keep praying that the big boy bed thing keeps going as well as it has so far, so you can add that to your prayer list, too! Thanks! : )

Omaha Weekend

A few weekends ago, Owen got to go to Omaha to visit my brother, sister in law and their kids with Nana and Boppa. Ryan and I had some stuff going on at home, so we didn't go, but my family took lots of great pictures! They might not be in order - like I said, I wasn't there. I just picked some of my favorites.

Playing in the sandbox, waiting for his cousins to get home

Driving around

On the tank with Ian

Time to slide!

Aunt Colleen helping them seesaw!

SO much fun!

Candy Land with Ian and Nana

Dressing up the superhero

Snuggle time with Annaliese - so adorable!

Snuggle time with Boppa

Going for a ride!

Playing frisbee

Resting

I think this spins??

Boppa helping Owen and Annaliese seesaw

My little boy on Cloud 9 (I would be willing to bet, anyway) - trucks in the sand

Sand in the toes!

It looks like he had lots of fun! Hopefully we can all get back out there this summer and hit up the zoo and Children's museum again!