THIRD TRIMESTER!!!

WOOOOO 2/3 of the way there!!!!! Ben says he isn't sure how much more my body can stretch LOL Things are going much better (*knock on wood*). Haven't had anymore real bad contractions-a few whenever I'm tired or haven't drank enough water so I'm trying to rest more and keep lots of water down. No more bleeding or spotting-YAY!! We go for the 4D ultrasound on Monday so I'll have some really awesome pics to share:)

28 weeks-popped out some more and maybe a little bit lower???

26 wks

8 wks

26 wks

Outside Fall Fun & Silliness

Checking out the fall flowers- she loves to pick off the little baby buds!

Her "baby" acorn collection (she likes the really small ones and calls them babies), and checking out a walking stick that Daddy found

Snuggling with her baby

Excuse me!! We are trying to sleep here!

She ate a super duper dinner so she got to enjoy some "nums" with Daddy LOL

Hospital Tours

I'm going to tour both hospitals (Northwest Medical Center-Bentonville and Mercy) next week so we can decide which one we will deliver at. We keep going back and forth so we figured it would be best if we knew what we were looking at. With Bella it was easy because the doctors I saw were in the floor above L&D so everything took place there. This time I'm seeing Dr. Ford and she delivers at both hospitals (not the one I had Bella at tho).

Big Girl Bed Update

New game plan beginning tonight:

This week we will have dinner time, do Bella's meds, final diaper and then all go to her big girl bed and she can drink her milk while we read books. Then put her in her crib.

This weekend Ben will disassemble the crib so it is no longer an option at all. We were iffy about this at first since we're just gonna turn around and put it back together for Hunter but if it gets chickadee into her big girl bed then its worth it.

We're going to put a gate up outside of her door since she can (and does) get out of her bed and open the door (and chase us down the hallway). And we'll do the milk/reading routine and just leave her in the big girl bed. I'm sure we'll go thru a few crying fit nights but hopefully after a week she will be well transitioned. We'll keep ya updated:)

Silly Pics

We had quite the hectic morning at our house today. Bella's allergies started going wacky a few weeks ago when it started raining. Apparently she is super allergic to mold so she does fine on her regular allergy meds (Singulair & Zyrtec) when its dry outside but ends up super sniffling, running, stuffing and yukky when it rains. So the allergy doc switched her from Zyrtec to Allegra-NOPE! So we tried Claritin-even worse AND ended up with the beginnings of a sinus infection.

So we decided to keep her home from school today. I already had an OB appt scheduled for 8:45 so Ben stayed home this morning so I could get work done and we were able to get her an appt with the doctor-at 9:00!!! So I went to OB, Ben took her to doc, luckily I ended up getting done with my appt and over to her doc's office just in time to answer the questions that Ben wasn't sure on. So now she is BACK on Zyrtec and now an antibiotic. EXHAUSTING!!!!

Here are some pics to make it worth your while reading that novel LOL

Daddy cooked breakfast for dinner-one of our favs. Bella really enjoyed her toast with strawberry preserves LOL

Being a silly goober sticking her tongue out at Mama

We went to the Benton County Fair a few weeks ago-Bella visiting with a goat

She loved the pigs!!!!

27 weeks

WOOOOO that means only 13 wks til Christmas LOL and 12 wks til CSection date:)

Had a good appt today-it was a follow up from last week's spotting episodes. I continued to spot up until Tuesday. My body got bored of spotting and decided it would just start contractions instead. I had strong, hard, PAINFUL ones most of the day Tuesday-nothing consistent enough to call and they always subsided when I drank water and rested. Wednesday had them off and on again but not nearly as bad, and same for today. OB wasn't worried since I have a history of that in my pregnancy with Bella and its already been determined I have an irritable uterus AND cervix. I'm just listening to my body better this time and making myself rest more-kinda hard with a 2 yr old but I've gone back to "sleep while the baby sleeps" when I can:)

I got kinda down about it on Tuesday thinking "great, this 3rd trimester is gonna end up being as horrible as it was with Bella". But once the contractions subsided, I was able to relax and remind myself this is the LAST time I will ever have to go thru this so I'm just gonna soak it up and enjoy feeling my lil man play the drums inside me:)

I'm now up a total of 17 lbs (GASP) but it is SOOOO much better than I was at this point with Bella so I'm staying optimistic about my goal of keeping it under 30lbs which would be HALF of what I gained with her LOL

We had quite the morning at our house-I'll update on Bella's blog. Will try to update with pics tonight-IF I have time-all my shows are premiering tonight.... Survivor, Grey's Anatomy and ER!!! WOOOOOOOOOO

Double Digits & Update

WOOOOOO we are officially in double digits for the countdown!!! I never made it to single digits with Bella so we'll see how her brother behaves:) He has been a naughty boy this week sending mama to the OB yesterday with spotting and cramps. Turns out I had the beginnings of a polyp on my cervix which the OB had to hit with silver nitrate-NOT fun but at least she didn't have to actually go in and remove it.

Then she listened to his heartbeat which was off the charts-normally he runs 140-150 and it was 180-190!! So she put me on the monitors for about an hour and he eventually regulated. They did get to see just how active my monster is LOL The nurse actually had to come in and turn down the monitor sound because it was disturbing the rest of the office he was moving so much!!!

I go back for follow-up next week. I was having bad cramps last night and some heavier spotting this morning so I'm hoping its just the darn polyp getting rid of itself. I just want a BORING pregnancy!!!!

25 wks Pics

Excuse the super white trash look-I'm ALWAYS hot lately so I live in tank tops when I'm at home, and hair isn't fixed, no makeup:)

25 wks

22.5 wks

25 wks belly-grew a tad:)

22.5 wks

Just for laughs-this was me at 26 wks with Bella! Definitely doing MUCH better this time around (hitting my husband as I show him the pictures and he says, "Not much difference.")

25 weeks

Had my appt today and I've gained 3 more lbs. ALOT better than I thought!! I was expecting 5-6 because I've been feeling huge lately. So that was the GOOD news.

I was a genius and had coffee before my appt because I just could NOT wake up. So of course there was sugar in my urine (SMART move Danielle!!!!) and I had to sit in the vampire chair and donate 2 vials so they could check my sugars. I have my glucose test at my next appt and she said if anything came back that they would just have to do something prior to that. I haven't heard anything back yet so I'm hoping that is good.

I'll have Ben take pics and I'll post them later. Hunter is an active lil mess-definitely playing with his fingers and hands today!! His HB was 158 which is perfect!

BELLA THE POTTY QUEEN

Like we expected, as always goes with Bella, the newest milestone happened on her terms and on her timeline. I got her up after her nap this afternoon and went to change her diaper-she wasn't having anything to do with it. So cranky preggo mama said, "Fine you can run around naked." So she did and she told me when she needed to go potty!!!!! She has NEVER told us before she needed to go-always AFTER the diaper is full.

So I ran her to the bathroom, put her Dora potty seat on the toilet and "tinkle tinkle tinkle" OMG first time ever she actually peed on the potty!! She was almost as excited as I was and I had to keep her from jumping off the potty from being so excited LOL I said, "Keep going. Go some more." And she did-emptied that lil bladder. I let her put TWO stickers on her posterboard instead of just one and she was so proud of herself.

Still didn't want to put a diaper on which was fine with me-I'd much rather her potty. About 15 minutes later, she starts running to the bathroom yelling "POTTY POTTY POTTY". She peed again and when I said, "More?" She tooted and giggled LOL She normally doesn't have BMs in the afternoon so it was an easy go of it.

She ended up having a minor accident on my bed but held it until she got to the potty. Then she peed 2 more times in the potty when Daddy got home. Then she got to watching cartoons and playing and forgot about the potty so we put a diaper back on her.

Game plan is to take her to school in a diaper, bring the Dora potty seat and stickers so she can tell them if/when she needs to go but obviously she can't run around naked and since she isn't use to underwear yet I don't want it to end up being a bad experience and totally turning her off of the whole deal. Tomorrow when she wakes up from her nap we will hopefully repeat the naked time and then maybe this weekend we can work on underwear.

WOOOHOOO we were shooting for getting her to sleep in her big girl bed and she surprises us with the potty!!! I just hope she keeps it up and doesn't lose interest or end up reverting totally back after Hunter arrives. She racked it up on stickers today!

Bella's Room: COMPLETED!!!

YAAAAYYYYY!! We finished WOOOOO:) Bella LOOOOOVES it too!!!

Happy girl loves her room!

Bed now has rails on both sides, wallpaper on ALL walls, and shelves have been installed.

Just have to finish her curtains!

Daddy and Grma worked hard to get the shelves up and did a great job!

Paint and wallpaper border

Bella was pooped just from supervising LOL

Wolverine hiding amongst the zillion stuffed animals

Lil Miss Thang Bianca

ENOUGH WITH THE PICTURES MAMA!!!!

We put a few animals on her bed and she kept saying, "MORE MORE MORE!!!" LOL