Swimming Lessons

This summer Chloe was acting very afraid of the lake and pools, which is unusual for our little daredevil.  I finally got around to signing her up for swimming lessons.   She had her first lesson last Monday.  We decided that Paul would be best suited for the parent/child class since I freak out just carrying her out on the dock at the lake.  Paul is really laid back about almost everything, including holding Chloe in the water.  It was a good thing that we had him do the lesson, too, since the water was 4'8'' deep, and considering I'm only about six inches taller than that, the lesson would have been a struggle.  Here they are anxiously waiting to get into the pool.  We couldn't put her down, because she apparently forgot she was afraid of the water over the summer, and she was ready to jump right in the pool.

For the record, Chloe does actually smile and laugh.  She just refuses to smile for the camera.  This picture of her hanging on the ledge of the pool was one of the only times during the lesson that she wasn't smiling.  Chloe did so well.  At one point the instructor urged Chloe to swim to her.  Then the instructor turned Chloe to face Paul, flipped her on her belly, and dunked her right under the water as she aided her in swimming back to Paul.  Chloe didn't cry or anything, but after seeing that I was very happy that Paul was the one doing the lesson!  When the lesson was over Chloe told us that she had fun swimming.  I think she is going to enjoy the next seven weeks!

25 Week Photo... Seriously!

Okay, so here it is ladies and gentleman (singular for Jim).  I have finally gotten around to having Paul take a belly shot before managing to pour myself into mismatched pajamas for the night.  As I was looking at these photos I was SHOCKED to see how incredibly huge my belly appears.  It seriously looks like my belly at 30+ weeks with Chloe.  While I think that the sweater is a little bulky and my positioning a bit to the side make for an even larger appearance, I realized that I actually am a lot bigger a lot sooner this time around.  It is funny, because I walk around all day not even noticing my belly until I see my reflection in the mirror or in a window.  I always do a double take.  Who is that pregnant lady?!

Apple Orchard

Last weekend marked Paul's first weekend home in several weeks.  We were happy to have him back!  On Saturday morning we decided to go to the apple orchard.  I was craving some hot apple cider and pumpkin spice donuts.  The orchard we went to had goats, bunnies, and chickens.  Chloe loved the bunny and wanted to give him kisses.

 

We borrowed a wagon, but Chloe preferred to walk and pluck her own apples for eating. 

Of course, I can NEVER get a good picture of Chloe smiling.  She liked this little horse, and was very content eating her apple, though I couldn't seem to capture her feelings on camera. 

After the orchard we headed downtown to see The Calvary, last year's Art Prize winner.  If you haven't seen it yet, this was drawn in all pencil.  It was really amazing!

 Chloe especially loved running around the building and rearranging the seating. 

We also had lunch at BW3 where we watched the Central/Western game while allowing our child to crawl all over the massive booth we insisted on having.  After that we took a walk to see our friends Brian and Hillary down the street.  We hung out with them for the rest of the night.  It was a busy, fun Saturday!

A Few Pics

It has been a while since I have gotten around to posting new pictures of Chloe.  I will make a weak attempt here to update you with her whereabouts. 

Here she is busting her little head through her sand and water table umbrella.  The umbrella had a tiny hole in it that mysteriously tore into a hole big enough to fit Chloe's entire body. 

I bought this little '57 Chevy from a garage sale for $2.00.  About an hour after delivery it looked like Chloe had parked it unattended and unlocked in the ghetto for a few days.  She had ripped off the steering wheel and stripped the car of its seats.  She also took off the trunk at some point, though it appears to be re-attached here in this picture. 

Mom bought Chloe a cute Melissa & Doug puzzle at a garage sale.  Here Chloe has dumped the box of its contents and has decided to use it as a reading chair.  These are really just three examples of about a million destructive things this one does.

Paul attended a golf outing for an entire weekend, so my mom agreed to stay for the weekend to help out this pregnant Mama.  On Saturday we decided to go to the new wild animal park that opened this year.  It   It is different from the zoo in that it is more interactive and has a whole different mix of animals.  Chloe was a little sleepy in the beginning after just waking from her nap.

It only took her about 15 minutes to get up close and personal with the animals.  Here she is pointing and laughing at the goats.

A nice man gave Chloe a piece of ice cream cone to feed the goat.  She liked it so much the man gave her a second piece.  The goat only got a nibble of the second piece before Chloe tried to jam it in her mouth.

Chloe's favorite part of the whole park was this bucket full of baby chicks.  She was afraid to touch them at first, but after about five minutes she reluctantly stuck out her pointer finger to touch one.  She was mesmerized!

 We went to visit the zebras at the end of the tour.  This zebra took special interest in us.

And I do mean SPECIAL.  If you look closely here you can see what I mean.  I'm not sure, but I think he was a pedophile.  My mom decided that it is official, zebras are black with white stripes.

When Dada got home he was greeted with a sticker party!  I love how serious Chloe's face is in this picture.  This was a job for an advanced sticker sticker.

 A kiss for being such a good sport.

  

Pregnancy Update - 22 Weeks

It is only fair that I record some memories of this pregnancy as I did with my first pregnancy.  On April 30, 2011, Chloe and I wandered over to my neighbor's garage sale that she was hosting with her friend, Chelsea.  Chelsea happens to be a wonderful saleswoman and she said "Are you planning to have another child?  I have a bunch of maternity clothes for sale for $0.50 a piece."  She started holding clothes up to my body and telling me they would be cute.  Sure enough, she had some really nice stuff for just one half of a dollar!!  I had a few bucks on me so I figured, what the heck.  I picked up $3.50 worth of maternity clothes that were probably worth over $300.  When I made it home I spread my loot out on the floor to admire my good work.  It got me thinking... How long has it been since I have even had a period?  It has been just one month, right?  Not two?  No, definitely not two.  Hmm I had better take a test just to be sure. 

So Chloe accompanied me in the bathroom, because, of course I needed her help pulling all of the toilet paper out from under the sink.  I peed on the stick while stiff-arming my daughter.  Almost instantly, I got a pregnant reading.  Shit!  It can't be!  How did this happen?!?!? (Don't answer that.)  When Paul got home I instructed him to go to the bathroom to see what he did.  This is funny, because on a rare occasion he will forget to flush the toilet, and I can actually get my husband of nearly four years and partner of nearly twelve years embarrassed.  He saw the test and said "You're kidding?"  This is funny, because a few months before that I took a pregnancy test that read not-pregnant, but Paul replaced it with Chloe's old positive test that was stashed away in a drawer somewhere.  I totally freaked out when I saw it.  He thought himself a pretty funny guy that day.  But back to April 30.  Paul was super excited.  He was much calmer than I was about the prospect of a new baby.  I was just starting to get used to life with just the one! 

The doctors insisted I was three weeks further along than what I thought.  I begged and begged for an ultrasound.  I told the nurse I would probably get fired if I was due on their prospective due date of December 19, 2011.  She didn't care.  She said, "Your boss being mad is not a good enough reason for an ultrasound."  But that stupid nurse couldn't find the heartbeat after trying for over ten minutes.  When the doctor came in she said, "I'm going to look for the heartbeat, but I'm not going to look very hard." Wink, wink.  In the five seconds she looked for the heartbeat she didn't find it and ordered us an ultrasound.  She must have thought she owed us one since she practically slept through the delivery of our daughter while the nurses and resident took care of business.

The next day we had an ultrasound and found that we were only nine weeks along instead of twelve.  Momma was right.  The baby was due January 6, 2012.  I felt this would be a far less scary date to tell my boss, so good job, baby!  We ended up telling our families right away when we were only about six weeks along.  Everyone was very excited for us!  I was still freaking out.

Like my first pregnancy, I never suffered from morning sickness.  My body is great at being pregnant.  That seems like a funny thing to say about myself, but it's true.  After dealing with the backlash of quitting caffeine with Chloe I had sworn off the drippings of the delicious black bean forever, but I fell of the wagon about nine months post-partum.  I decided to quit cold-turkey again.  I suffered from severe headaches for a few days.  Even now if I have a glass of Diet Coke or a half a cup of coffee I will get a severe headache by 4:00 p.m. the next day.  That stuff is really addicting!  I have found that drinking lots of water and eating small meals throughout the day helps with the headaches, as well. 

I have also suffered from some indigestion.  For a while I was so obsessed with hot sauce that I would only view foods as a medium for my hot sauce.  Never in my life have I desired to eat a hot dog with chili slathered on the top, but it was a great hot sauce holder, so I devoured them.  Well it turns out that the hot sauce comes back out just as spicy as it goes in, and I've had to cut back on my cravings as they are really just not worth the pain.  My other craving would be Taco Bell.  Mostly because tacos are a wonderful hot sauce holder.  Probably the best.

The other weird symptom I have had this time around is that for a while there I was an emotional roller coaster.  I went from being a psycho bitch to a sobbing mess.  Usually, I am a secret cryer.  Like, if I need to cry, I will usually wait until Paul falls asleep, and I will quietly whimper in my bed.  But this one day I came home and it was just a waterfall of tears.  Once I started crying I couldn't stop. I was crying about everything, and I did this for at least two hours.  Paul didn't know what to do!  He tried his best to make things better, but every time he had a solution I would start sobbing again.  It was crazy.  Thankfully, that only happened the one time, and I have even been a lot nicer lately.  I swear.

At nine weeks the baby's heart rate was in the 180's, but every time after that the baby's heartbeat was in the 150's.  Chloe was always in the 180's.  According to old wives' tales, this points to a boy.  Our Chinese gender chart also said boy. 

So between the headaches, the indigestion, the emotions, and the lower heart rate readings everyone concluded that we would be having a boy.  While we were hoping for a boy with Chloe, we were hoping for a girl this time around.  In our minds we thought, what could be better than a little girl?  Paul said he could see himself as the Daddy to little girls.  We named our little fetus Lia Rose after my Grandma Reiber, Rosalie.  It was her name just sort of flip-flopped and using the same letters.  We couldn't wait for the ultrasound to confirm our suspicions of our little Lia Rose.

On August 18, 2011 we had our 20 week ultrasound where we found out we were having a little... BOY?  Yes, we are indeed having a little boy.  We are so excited - a little shocked still - but excited.  I hope he is a little mini-Paul.  He'll be so cute!  Baby Boy T looked very healthy and strong from what we could tell on the ultrasound.  After we found out the sex we went to Babies R Us and picked him out some outfits.  We got him the same going home outfit we got for Chloe only in blue.  We brought it home for my Mom to see.  By the end of the weekend we were both just beside ourselves thinking of what our little boy will be like.    

If you are wondering what the baby's name is going to be, we don't have a name for him yet.  We named Chloe within a day or two of learning her sex.  Boy names are so hard!  If you have any good suggestions for us please let me know.  I don't want anything too weird or girly sounding, but I don't want anything too boring, either. 

I know that all people really want to see is a picture of my growing belly.  And it is growing.  I wrote this post two weeks ago thinking I would include my 20 week photo, but that day came and passed.  I'm thinking maybe 23 weeks... or maybe I'll just wait until 25.  I haven't taken a single picture of this baby bump yet.  Paul says it is fine, though, since we are having a boy.  He won't care.  I think it is progressing similarly to my first pregnancy.  So far I have gained about ten pounds, which is right on track with the suggested weight gain. From here on out I am anticipated to gain about one pound per week, which would put me at an overall weight gain of 30 pounds.  Wouldn't that be lovely?  I think with Chloe I was gaining like five pounds a week toward the end compared to the one pound they suggest.  Oopsie.

That should bring us all up to date on pregnancy number two!

The Switch

While I am sure to steer clear of any conversation regarding politics, religion, or money, lately, you'll find me dead center in the debate on childbirth.  I've never understood how people could get so passionate about politics.  Trust me, I have always found those people to be very annoying.  So I am fully aware that I'm probably annoying the hell out of you with all of my talk about natural childbirth.  I'll try to keep it to a minimum moving forward.  I did, however, post a new article on The Mode Life about natural childbirth.  You can read it by clicking the link below, or you can completely ignore my crazy, hippie-like rant and skip to the paragraph below the link.  Your choice! 

NOTE: What I failed to express in the article is that doing research and taking classes before your birth will help you to feel confident in the decisions being made, because you will be able to be a part of the decisions. At some point everyone is faced with a decision by a doctor, and it is up to you to ask the questions to learn if the procedure should be immediate, could be postponed, or is even necessary. Sometimes your baby and your body will go against your plan, like my sister-in-law whose water broke early with no other signs of labor. She can feel empowered knowing that it was safest for her and baby to be induced further. Of the five women in my Bradley class, four of us were able to follow through with our birth plans while one required an emergency c-section. The woman who had a c-section should feel empowered knowing she saved her baby's life. Either way, being knowledgeable about the process will help you to feel happy and confident about your birth, not to mention make it less scary.

For my next birth, if I need an epidural (which, believe it or not, is always an option in my mind) or Pitocin I will feel confident in my decision. My intention was not to make anyone feel like they had a lesser experience, but simply open your mind to your options. Whether you gave birth at the ER registration desk or in the ER room, you deserve to feel great about the experience because giving birth is amazing!

Take Back Your Birth!

On that topic, I have decided to switch to a midwife.  Something I never really talk about is how horrible my doctor was during Chloe's actual birth, because we ended up waking her from her peaceful, on-call slumber.  Someone dragged her down to the delivery room when it was time for me to push.  I'm not sure if it was the resident or the doctor actually doing the delivering.  I was pushing incorrectly for the first few pushes so the doctor yawned and walked out of the room.  That pissed me off so with the next contraction I pushed as if my life depended on it.  Sure enough, that was the push!  I laughed on the inside as the doctor had to rush back in to deliver the baby.  When I was being stitched up she was barking orders over the resident's shoulders. Now connect the left falangie to the starboard side, blah blah.  No, not like that, blah. Cassie, if you would relax a little this would go a lot faster, blah.  I hated her after that birth, but for some reason I went back to that office when I found out I was pregnant again.

After our ultrasound I met with another doctor there. This was the one who told me I couldn't feel the baby kicking yet, because it was too early.  Because he has a uterus.  And it has been kicked by a baby before, I'm sure.  This time I expressed my desire for a natural birth.  He made a few jokes aimed at Paul and then said to me "What birth isn't natural, really? Har har har."  I told him one where he pumps me full of Pitocin and then ends up slicing open my stomach anyway, but our definitions are obviously different.  That was enough to get me searching.  What is a crazy, hippie birth lady like me doing with an OB/GYN anyway?

So I found this amazing midwife practice that has only two midwives who do only hospital deliveries.  This is my perfect scenario.  Between them they have delivered thousands and thousands of babies and have only a 9% c-section rate compared to nearly 28% for the area.  The midwife I met with, Gail, believes that Pitocin should only be used when something is wrong and labor really isn't progressing naturally.  She is supportive of all forms of pain reduction including medical ones like epidurals and natural ones like water, birthing balls, and massage.  She will let me eat and drink while I labor.  You wouldn't think that was too much to ask, but for most doctors it is.   I get to call her by her first name!  And chances are she will know mine without looking at my chart!  She only takes a certain number of patients so that she is sure either she or Amy, the other midwife, will be available when it comes time to deliver the baby: I don't have to spin the wheel to see which of nine doctors will come to my rescue.  Also, there is always a doctor on call in case of emergency. 

I feel more confident this time about going to the hospital when I am supposed to go at 5-6 centimeters, instead of showing up at 9 centimeters due to a lack of trust on my part.  Much safer.  I pray that the rest of this pregnancy goes smoothly, and that the labor and delivery goes as seamlessly as my first.  I also secretly hope for a small baby again.  As a friend of mine brought to my attention, it would be much easier to push out a 6.5 pound baby without an epidural than a 10 pound baby!  I couldn't agree more.

The Mode Life

In my infinite amounts of spare time I have made the logical decision to become a regular contributor on The Mode Life.  The website was started by my neighbor who lives just two houses down the street.  The concept is simple and cool.  Basically, 30-40 ladies (and counting) use the website to post articles that are honest, refreshing, and relatable.  The website is described as follows:

"TheModeLife shares honest perspectives from a diverse collection of women. We provide informative and enjoyable reading that is current and practical from our lives to yours."

 

The tag line is Real. Style.  I would say that I fall closer to the Real. side of the spectrum; though I like to think I once teetered on the side of Style.  So far I have only re-posted an old post from this blog and a new post about eyeliner (my passion for which just didn't fit within my personal blog in terms of content).  Soon I will have a post about my creepy passion for natural childbirth and a featured contributor page wherein I have answered five interview questions.  Here are the links to my existing posts and to my contributor page:

• Pumping Woes
• Effortless Eyeliner
• Contributor Page

I will keep you informed whenever I post something new.  Thanks for your support!