32 weeks

Kind of sloppy this Friday night.

How Far Along 32 weeks 3 days
How Big is Baby over 3.5 lbs and about 16" long
Total Weight Gain 23 lbs.
Sleep Sleep has been better since I started taking Benadryl at bedtime. I have been waking up uncomfortable more often this week, but I'm sleeping very well in between those wake ups. Also, I'm having tons of odd dreams.
Best Moment this Week I thought Rodgers would make me wait until delivery to decide Baby Brother's name, but we had the talk this week, and we have a name! It's still a secret, but at least I know who this is now that's poking me with his tiny pointy elbows and knees.
Movement His movements are as frequent as always, but slower now. He can't stretch out all the way anymore. He has had his head in the lower left part of my belly. Then one day it was lower right. The next day it was upper right. Then, all in a matter of minutes I felt him flip and squirm and wiggle back to having his head on the lower left. He's filling up his space, but apparently still has room to explore.
Food Cravings I haven't had any really strong cravings lately.
Belly Button More out than in, but not quite an outtie
What I Miss Climbing the stairs without being out of breath
Weekly Wisdom If it's over 100 outside, it will not be under 80 in our apartment, even with the a/c running constantly. So drink more water!
Milestones I'm starting the 8th month, that's pretty significant! This month, the c-section will be put on the calendar. I'm about 7 weeks away from having 2 under 2.

Bonus pic of my #1 son:

18 months!!

Nate has now been out in the world twice as long as he was in my belly. He is so old!! His 18 month appointment was this week, and here's what he's up to:

He is getting the hang of simple puzzles and the shape sorter. Last week, he could only put the circle in the shape sorter without help; the other shapes, he needed someone to show him which spot to put them in. This week, he's doing it all on his own. He has finally realized that the pictures in the puzzles match the pictures on the pieces, so he can tell where each piece should go. The hardest part is getting them turned straight. After each piece he gets in (even with some help turning), he claps and yells "YAY!!!!"

He has found a love for tickling his Mama and Baby Brother (and sometimes Baba). He gives his Baby Brother lots of hugs and kisses, but only after tickling him. We have been working on "gentle," and he seems to understand what it means.

Nate's really interested in body parts these days. He can point to seven, and he asks about all the rest. He points to something and asks, "What's that?" Then I name the body part. We play this game a lot. His favorite body parts to ask about are Rodgers' nipples, my belly button, and his own penis.

We have been planning to get rid of the paci soon. Then, his daycare teacher told me today she hasn't given him his paci for naps this week, and he's still napping great! These days he's chewing on it more than sucking anyway. His Dr confirmed that he is working on his next set of molars. To which I say: bring them on! Let's get those last teeth in before Baby Brother is born!

Nate's Dr is very satisfied with the way he's meeting milestones. She is impressed that she has only ever seen him for well-child visits. He's had lots of sniffles and a couple of low-grade fevers since going back to daycare, but his little immune system fights those germs very well! He always gets better before we feel like he needs to see his Dr. He only had one shot this time - Hep A - and he's basically done with the shots on the US schedule. At 24 months, he will probably be getting typhoid and yellow fever in preparation for moving to Kenya.

His size stayed in the same percentiles between his last appointment and this one. Basically, he's average height (32.5"), a little bit skinny (23 lbs 15 oz), with a big head (19.75"). He's wearing mostly 18 month clothes. He has a few longer, button up 12 month shirts he can still wear (most of the 12 month shirts wouldn't go over his head anymore before they got too short). He is in size 6 shoes and size 4 diapers.

a week in the lives of the Ken-Tex family

No two weeks are the same for us. And this week, it seems no two days have the same schedule. This is why my Saturday weekly planning time is so important! With pregnant brain + mama brain I can't remember anything at all. I may have mentioned this before...

Sunday
We'll eat leftover sausage, biscuits, and gravy for breakfast, with coffee of course. Then, we have Bible study at 9:30 and worship service at church at 10:45. We will come home for lunch and reheat whatever I decide to cook tonight (options include lasagna, something with chicken, and something Tex-Mex; or we can have leftover beef ribs that we ate today). Then, it's Nate's naptime. Rodgers would normally leave for work at 2:30, however, tomorrow is different, so we'll actually have some afternoon family time! Late afternoon, Rodgers will drive down to the airport to pick up Mwangome, one of our dear friends from Kenya. He works for an international aid/relief organization and has been in Haiti for the past few months. He's on his way back to Kenya for some time off, and is stopping by to see us for a very short visit. I will probably cook something new for dinner so that Rodgers and Mwangome can eat when they get here. Then, the two of them will do whatever they want and probably stay up really late, but it's normal bedtimes for Nate and me.

Monday
Rodgers will take Mwangome back to the airport right after an early breakfast. I will be taking Nate to the Dr for his 18 month checkup! We have a 9 am report time, but they usually take a very long time in this clinic, so probably we won't leave there until after 10. Nate will be dropped at daycare just in time for lunch, and I will go to work until 5. Rodgers works 3-11. So I'll pick up Nate, we'll come home, eat supper (heating up something I cooked this weekend), play for an hour or so, then he goes to bed, and I put my feet up for a few minutes before doing some chores (clean up the kitchen from our supper and tidy/dust the living areas). Finally it will be my own bedtime.

Tuesday
Rodgers has a Dr appt in the morning, so I will probably drop Nate off at daycare on my way to work. I work 8:30-5, my usual hours. Rodgers works 3-11, his usual hours. He could get Nate after his appt, but this would interrupt both lunchtime and naptime, which tends to be more trouble than it's worth. I will pick Nate up after work, and we will have a usual evening. Chore for Tuesday is vacuuming and Swiffering. Rodgers will get home after everyone goes to bed.

Wednesday
Rodgers would normally be off, but he is working all day long. I think he will probably be at work by 7 or 8. And I don't know when he'll be home. That means another full day at daycare for Nate. I will pick him up after work, and we'll go to church for supper and to hang out with our friends for a while. Then, home, bed, etc. No chores today.

Thursday
Normal work day for me. Rodgers will be off. Nate will probably be at daycare for lunch through naptime, which gives Rodgers time to work on orphanage planning stuff. Maybe Rodgers will cook some new food for us for supper. He will probably get the laundry done, too. This is our one night for the week to be home together as a family. We'll eat supper together, play, read books, give Nate a bubble bath. Nate goes to bed, and Rodgers and I have our first chance since Sunday to actually talk to each other.

Friday
Should be a normal day, with Rodgers and me both working our usual hours. Nate hangs out at home with Rodgers in the morning and with me in the evening, he'll be at daycare for the afternoon. We'll eat leftovers from Friday for supper. I will look at HEB's sale paper and start menu planning and grocery list for the following week. Friday's chore will be washing sheets and towels.

Saturday
I try to cook breakfast on Saturdays because it's my only leisurely morning. After breakfast is grocery shopping. Then lunch, Nate's naptime, Mama's rest time, Rodgers leaves for work. When Nate gets up we may go play in the mall (indoor, air conditioned playground) or run errands if we need to. In the evening I'll cook a couple of meals for the next week. I'll make sure that our weekly marker-board schedule is up-to-date. Nate and I will eat dinner together and have a normal evening. Rodgers again will be home after we've gone to bed.

And hopefully by this time next week, I'll know what the following week will entail!

working mommy wednesday

How important to you, as a working mom, is a schedule/routine for your kids?

This prompt is from last week. I really wanted to write about it, but ran out of time for blogging! So, I'm doing this one instead of the prompts for this week. :)

A schedule or routine isn't just important for Nate but also for ME!

If Nate gets off his schedule, he is grumpy because it usually means he's missing a nap or getting a nap at the wrong time causing all sorts of other issues. This would be the case even if I weren't working. He's 18 months old; he needs to stick to his routine. We've been having some issues with this lately because of switching back to daycare. The class he's in right now at daycare takes a morning nap and an afternoon nap. Except on rare occasions, Nate's a 1 nap kind of guy. He goes down for nap right after lunch. With Rodgers' work schedule, Nate usually gets to daycare as the kids are getting up from morning nap, but when Rodgers works in the morning, as he did yesterday (gotta give the guy props - he worked a double shift) Nate has to take morning nap with the other kids. Then, he sleeps for 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour in the afternoon, and he never really gets the good naptime rest he needs during the day. Even when he doesn't have morning nap it is hard on him because afternoon nap is a couple of hours after lunch. Even though he's been doing this for 6 weeks, he can't really adjust to the schedule 100% because of weekends and those few days when Rodgers has to take him early. It's tough for the poor little guy.

As for me, if I get off my schedule, things don't get done.

Saturday, Nate and I got to go out of town and see some of my family. It was a great day, but it meant that I didn't do my usual Saturday cooking. Usually, I meal plan on Saturdays, too. We'll have 3 meals cooked, usually 2 on Saturday and 1 on Thursday when Rodgers is off, and eat leftovers the rest of the week. Rodgers eats his meals at lunch because he works 2nd shift, and Nate and I eat at supper.

I realized late Sunday night that we didn't have any food cooked for this week. Nate and I eat supper as soon as we get home from work. It's not like I could just cook on Monday after work, we needed to eat before that would happen. Besides that, Rodgers needed lunch for Monday (yes, he does cook, but I like to have his lunch ready for him to heat up). So I ended up staying up late Sunday cooking 1 meal for this week. I made enough to last through Tuesday. We eat supper at church Wednesdays so at least we had something different to eat today. Rodgers will cook something new tomorrow. :) We are, at this very moment, discussing what that will be.

Remember when I used to clean house on a schedule? That went out the window when I started working again. I kept up with it last year while I was working, but then, I wasn't pregnant last year. I kept up with it when I was pregnant and not working. I still have the chores in our online calendar, and this week, I've started trying to get back into the habit. (Today is laundry day, BTW, and Rodgers already did it! He makes my life so much easier.) Our house hasn't been going uncleaned, it's just been a bit more ad hoc lately, rather than staying clean like it used to.

So the moral of the story is: if Nate gets off his schedule, naps are messed up, and he is a fussy grumpy kid who throws a tantrum every 90 seconds. If Mama gets off her schedule, we have to figure out what we're going to eat on the fly and clean house only when it becomes too awful to live in, and Rodgers has to do a lot more of these tasks, even though he worked 16 hours in a row yesterday. He never complains and really doesn't seem to care. But, schedules greatly reduce my stress.

Nate's chores

Nate has discovered the joy of helping. He has a few "chores."

He loves putting things in the trash can. If I have something that's not too messy (like paper), I give it to him and tell him to put it in the trash. He runs to the trash can, puts it in, then says, "OH! WOW!" and claps for himself. If we're not careful, he looks for more things to put in the trash.

His second favorite is putting things in the sink. After Nate eats, I let him put his plate, fork, and spoon in the sink. He can just barely reach. Once his dirty dishes are in, if I have more dirty dishes that aren't breakable, he can put those in, too. Otherwise, he starts pulling magnets off the fridge and putting them in sink. Afterwards, he celebrates.

Nate has always been fascinated by the dishwasher. He has often tried to climb into it, and he's always taking things out or putting things in it. When I'm unloading, he gets to put the clean silverwear in the drawer. (We wash our knives by hand, but I still make sure there's nothing in there that will cut him before I let him go.) When I'm loading, I give him the plastic cups to put in. He often gets distracted, though. Nate will grab anything from the dishwasher and take off running! But he's so proud of himself when I tell him did a good job helping.

pregnancy update

How Far Along 28 weeks 3 days
How Big is Baby over 2 lbs and almost 15 inches long
Total Weight Gain 18 lbs
Sleep I have had some trouble sleeping - waking up in the middle of the night super hungry, waking up just to be alert, getting charlie horses in my legs. It doesn't happen every night, but enough. Dr said I should start taking Benadryl.
Best Moment this Week Sorted through and washed NB and 0-3 clothes. I chose outfits to take to the hospital with us. The 0-3 outfit is the one Nate wore in his announcement pictures, but since he was born in January, that's really the only time it was worn. The NB is a new onesie we bought that has Sesame Street characters on it. We thought Nate would love to see Baby Brother in an Elmo shirt.

Movement This kid is active. It's starting to hurt now. He also gets the hiccups several times a day.
Food Cravings I craved sweets this week, then had my glucose test on Thursday and failed. Ooops. I have the 3 hour glucose test on Tuesday, and I'm trying to be good this weekend.
Belly Button It's huge and fairly flat
Labor Signs I have about 5 contractions per day, not painful, and not in sequence. Dr says that actually even though I drink water all day long, I'm probably dehydrated because it's been so freaking hot.
What I Miss I am preemptively missing having a carefree diet, bracing myself for being put on a gestational diabetes diet.
What I'm Looking Forward To Seeing Nate with Baby Brother
Weekly Wisdom I should always tell Rodgers when I'm feeling irrationally emotional. He's very good at making me feel better. He has the gift of encouragement, you know.
Milestones I am now in the third trimester. Wahoo! Now I have Dr appts every 2 weeks instead of every 4. Plus the extra glucose test, plus Nate's 18 month checkup = I actually have appts every week in July.