Mama Trauma

Last week was a rough week. It became increasingly evident that my milk supply was dropping. A lot. (Thank you, pregnancy) So I began the process of weaning Ava from nursing and putting her on formula. There were many tears involved. Pretty much just on my part. Ava FINALLY decided she could drink from a bottle, for the first time since she was born. But I guess it hadn't been necessary before...I'm just glad we didn't have to fight that battle along with everything else.

Next, Cade decided to skip his nap 3 days in a row. I thought for sure he was giving up his nap for good, and with a pregnant mama, that was traumatic, to say the least. I'm happy to say, however, he's now napped 4 days in a row, so I'm hoping last week was just a fluke. Please, God. :)

And, last but not least, my baby brother was getting married. Got married. On Saturday. I wasn't really prepared for all of the emotions that were involved with that. I mean, I know I'm pregnant and hormonal, blah, blah, blah, but I just didn't think it would affect me as much as it did. Have I mentioned that I spent a lot of time crying last week? Because I did. But he's married now, and we all made it through the wedding - super-cute, ornery ringbearer and all :)

So this week, it's just the weaning. And it's still taking its toll. I'm still able to nurse once or (on a good day) twice a day, but I hate giving her formula. Hate it. HATE IT. But this too shall pass, right? And in just 5 short (Lord help me!) months, I'll be starting all over again with a new one. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this.

Second trimester

Whew. I made it to the second trimester. And not a second too soon. February was spent in a blur of nausea and force-feeding myself. Oh, and naps. Tomorrow I'll be 14weeks, and the nausea is mostly gone on most days. I still have a hard time coming up with stuff I want to eat, though, which is super-frustrating when I need to be eating constantly so I don't get nauseous. Oh, the joyous Catch-22s of pregnancy :)

Oh, and meat...there were a few weeks there when the thought of any type of meat was enough to make me gag instantly. Chicken was the first thing to return to my diet, but only specific kinds (like Taco Bueno chicken potato burritos with no sour cream and no lettuce), and I still can't cook it. Ham and turkey are pretty much okay now, too. But beef. Oh, dear. I fear it may be permanently removed from my diet. At least ground beef. And I haven't been able to eat a QuikTrip hot dog in months! I may or may not have eaten 3-4 of those a week while I was pregnant with Ava. I've managed steak in a burrito from a local restaurant, but that's it. This is particularly frustrating because I have an entire freezer full of various kinds of beef. If this lasts much longer, my friends may reap the benefits... :)

At this point, I'd say this pregnancy is more similar to Cade's than Ava's, so Ryan and I are both thinking this may be another boy. But who knows?

B3

We'll be welcoming a 3rd baby into our family this August! Certainly wasn't on my agenda yet, but God had other plans :)

Needless to say, I was completely shocked last week when I took a pregnancy test and it was positive! I was getting ready to start some antibiotics and thought I should just check, even though I knew there was really no chance that I could possibly be pregnant. Ha! Wait, it gets better.

Warning: this might be a little TMI for the male population (just in case there might be some out there...which I doubt...but the disclaimer is there, nonetheless)...

I'm still nursing baby girl. Like all the time. She doesn't really nurse much less often now than she did as a newborn. Seriously. So that decreases my chances of getting pregnant. Not only that, but I hadn't had a period since she was born, either. Another decrease. Oh, wait. And then there's that whole thing about how I had a tubal pregnancy that ruptured my left tube and it was removed. Another decrease. Oh, and we were using a method of birth control. Right. Ok, so you add that all together, and you get...a pregnancy planned by God. Not me. Oh, and I'll be 8 weeks tomorrow. Just found out. Last week. Yeah.

You will not ever hear me say that this pregnancy is a mistake or that it shouldn't have happened. God's timing and plans are perfect and I totally trust Him. Will this be stressful? Without a doubt. Will it cause me to lean more heavily on God to get me through? I'm thinking that might be a big part of His plan. Having two 2 and under is not a simple task, but it's been a little easier than I expected. And I, being me, have characteristically tried to do it my way, rather than asking for help. Having three 3 and under scares the pee out of me. So yes, I believe I will be taking God up on His offer to be in charge. Because who even knows what these children will end up like if I don't. Scary.

Also, I'll be around until August (or until it gets too hot). After that, I'll catch all y'all in approximately 2014. Give or take a month.

Only child

Ava has gotten to enjoy being an only child for the past several days. Cade has been visiting his grandparents in a neighboring state since Friday. So he's gotten to enjoy being an only child there, as well.

I've missed my buster brown, but it's been so great to have some extra one-on-one time with baby girl (and the extra sleep has been appreciated as well...Ava and I both have gotten more sleep than when Cade is here :). And I know Cade has enjoyed the time with his grandparents and great-grandparents. It's a win-win :)

But he's headed back as I type, and I am definitely ready to see him!

Here's Girlfriend this morning...she's so stinkin' cute (she was trying to peek around the phone so she could see me :)

A sitter!

My big girl (she's not big, she's not big, she's just a baby, she's just a baby!) is sitting by herself now. She's been working on it for a couple of weeks now, but just last week is when she really started being able to sit for longer periods of time without toppling over. And even sometimes catch herself when she does topple over.

There's still a crazy 2 year old who runs around and makes her fall over, but hey, what are big brothers for?

So far, it seems girlfriend is on just a little slower timeframe than Cade was (and that's totally fine by me!). He started sitting at 6.5 months, she was 8. His first 2 teeth were at 6 months, her first one was around 7.5 months and now she's working on the second one. We waited longer to start her on solids, so she nurses a lot more than he did at this age.

It's only been 2 years since we did this with Cade, but it's so amazing how differently we parent her. You learn a lot with your first. Some of the things we changed are simply out of necessity (Ava doesn't spend lots and lots of time playing on the floor because there's a rowdy 2 year old running around...Cade did). Some things are different because I've done more research and reading (waiting to start solids a little longer this time). And some things are different because we know how quickly this phase passes by (I'm not setting a date for weaning her like I did Cade...even though she won't take a bottle and therefore has to be with me constantly). Oh, and she's a girl (which means we have a tendency to snuggle her and be gentle with her more than we did with Cade).

Snuggles

The boy is at preschool today, so it's just me and baby girl. She's still fighting a little bit of a cough, and she thinks she's big, so she doesn't want to snuggle like she used to. But last night before bed, we got to snuggle for a while, and she's being pretty snuggly again right now.

I love this girl.

Pictures

One of my goals this year is to document what's going on with my kiddos a little better. We'll see how well that goes :)

Today, we've been working on a little potty training. We've done this off and on for a while, so Cade definitely knows what to do. It's now just a matter of getting him to want to. We made it from waking up this morning until naptime in underwear with no accidents, with approximately 9 trips to the potty. Seriously.

Here are my 2 babies...Cade is watching some Diego-go as a reward and Ava is playing.