SURPRISE!

The 3 1/2 month awaited update for all you crazies that still check this :-)

My little blueberry has grown immensely. This week: about as long as an ear of corn, and weighs over a pound. Also, apparently my uterus is about the size of a soccer ball now (which means my feeling huge isn't all in my head).


We now know that my little kicker is a BOY (but anyone who reads this already knows that)!! Caleb hugs and kisses my belly almost daily. The other night he was determined to bring Brian into the living room... we thought he just wanted to play, but he brought him straight over to my belly to say hi to his 'broyr' (some of his words are quite difficult to spell out).

A milestone update on my now 21 month old: his favorite things to do at the moment involve helping me. Some days it seems he doesn't even touch his bazillion toys taking up our whole living room, but instead spends the morning helping me sweep, vacuum, and doing laundry. He's a pro at taking the clean laundry out of the dryer when he hears the buzzer-- and even always remembers to empty the lint trap! In the evenings he almost always helps me cook dinner, which usually consists of getting out a pot and a pan (he's always quite particular about which one he wants that day). He asks me to put water in one, and then he proceeds to mix it on the floor and transfer the water back and forth between pots. At some point, I always hear the 'uh oh, uh oh's after it ends up on the floor, but he prompty grabs a towel to clean it up. Whenever he's done he likes Brian and I to smell/taste his creation, and always looks so pleased when we tell him how yummy it is.

His vocabulary is expanding daily. He'll mimick almost any word we say to him, and he's starting to put the end syllables onto his words (du has turned into duck... ca into cake, etc). The one that makes me smile most has to be the new way he says mommy & daddy. We used to go by 'maaaay' and 'daaaay', but he now says 'Mamay' and 'Dayday'. One of those much cuter in person things :-)

Ok, ok, that's it for me. My apologies that it took this long. You may be in for a bit of a wait again though-- until I can convince whoever I need to convince to tack on 2 hours to each day....

Blueberry

This site I use to get my weekly updates on pregnancy always refers to the baby as a certain type of food to give a reference point to their size. Until we find out the gender and figure out a name, baby Sheats is commonly referred to as their appropriate food of the week. Hence, blueberry.
I'll be 8 weeks this Saturday, but I wanted to share what's been going on in baby Sheats' life for the past week.
-arms & legs continue to develop, while hands and feet begin to sprout!
-baby has doubled in size within the past week & is now 1/2 an inch long
-eyelid folds partially begin to cover the eyes (which already have some color)
-both hemispheres of the brain are rapidly growing
-baby's liver is producing red blood cells until bone marrow forms & takes over
-appendix & pancreas have formed
-a loop in baby's growing intestines is bulging into the umbilical cord

Other things going on in my body:
-uterus has doubled in size over the past month
-I have 10% more blood flowing through my body (will be 45% more by the end of pregnancy)

Info on that picture: that tail that you see is the tailbone, and will be getting smaller each day. By next week it'll be almost completely gone, and baby will have more of a human-like face, with an exceptionally big brain on top. 10-12 weeks is when they really start resembling more of a 'baby'. I love it though. Seeing pictures like that is helping me get through these difficult weeks! First ultrasound in T-14 days!

"Chew & swallow"

The title comes from an old family saying. I guess it comes from the need to overeat at those wonderful holiday meals. Once you're full but feel the need to keep stuffing your face, it's a chant that helps get you through those extra bites. It's rather funny... but sounds extremely odd when written down. I'll move on..

Point being, that's been my mantra the past two weeks. Pregnancy does such incredibly odd things to your body. The complete loss of wanting to eat, but the complete need to eat every twenty minutes so I won't keel over from starvation. It's a cycle. Everything I smell makes me sick, but I have to suck it up and get the food in! It's gotten increasingly difficult to make lunches for my son, because the mere sight of grilled cheese, or most anything else for that matter, makes me gag non-stop. By dinner time I'm usually curled up in the fetal position on the couch while Brian lovingly offers to make dinner. I've been so impressed with his cooking abilities this past week! So, aside from the nausea morning til night, I'm just tired. Always tired. All I ever want to do is sleep, but I never get enough.

In other news... Caleb got another haircut this week. I took my banana to the hair salon, and prayed that I didn't up-chuck on the floor the whole time, but I made it through! It's much shorter this time... which definitely makes him look more like his daddy. I can't believe he's 17 months already. Now when strangers ask me how old he is I say "almost 1 1/2". Maybe that's only a big deal to me, but it is. He's saying new words everyday.... and up to about 50 now. After 6 months of constantly learning new words, on Valentines Day I FINALLY heard one of the words I've been dying to hear. Mommy. Now he says it all the time. I just love the sounds of it. Of course it sounds more like "Maaaiiiyy" if that makes any sense, but I love it. There are going to be a lot of changes going on this summer for my little guy before his new brother or sister comes. Two being: switching to a toddler bed & the dredded 'taking away of the pacifier'.

I'm going to end this awkwardly abrupt. Hunger just struck me, and I may die if I don't eat within the next 45 seconds. To be continued...

I'm not fat, I'm...

...due in early October! Well, I can't quite get away with that excuse yet. As right now the baby is the size of a sesame seed-- but yep there's still a baby in there! And yes, an embryo is still a baby. This week the heart & circulatory system even begin to form... as we speak the heart is dividing into chambers and will begin to pump blood in the next few days. AMAZING. How can someone that small have a working heart? Furthermore, how do people still not believe in God after witnessing miracles like this? That's a story for another day I suppose...
As of now, I'm still feeling ok. I've been getting plenty of sleep, but by 11am I'm so tired again I feel like I haven't slept in days. Other than that, no morning sickness yet! ...but I am already waking up in the middle of the night to pee. I know this sounds ambitious, possibly crazy, but my goal is to have Caleb somewhat potty trained by October. As of now, he just likes to sit on his potty and read Goodnight Gorilla over and over again, and if he's there at the right time, we get lucky. Two days ago we had our first 'sign' of him somewhat realizing he had to go though. I think it was a sign at least, we ran to the potty, and he ended up going almost instantly. I figure right now I have nothing else to do but grow a baby, so why not spend some time focusing on potty training while I can and see if we get lucky. If it doesn't work out, no harm done.... it's not like I have other pressing appointments though. Heck, the boy likes reading so much we might just camp out in the bathroom with books and juice. So, that's where you can imagine me this summer. Sitting on the bathroom floor with my big baby belly. At least we just got the bathroom painted. I must admit it's much more appealing to sit in there now.
Anywho, back to Baby #2. My first appointments aren't until the first week of March. A whole month til that first ultrasound. Man, I can't wait to see those pictures. In the meantime, we're already starting to look at names (and are agreeing much more this time)! However, I'm not allowed to spill the beans this time-- hubby's orders :-) Speaking of husbands, have I mentioned how incredible mine is lately? He's been late twice for work in the past week because he was so determined to surprise me with an empty dishwasher when I came down in the morning. I'm so blessed...

Guess who's back...

I had hoped I'd never have to say this, but Caleb's MRSA has returned. It's different this time though, so different.
When this struck us 10 months ago he was sick, the abscess looked awful, and the whole dredded event went from nothing to surgery based within 72 hours. This time he's fine. Seems healthy & happy, and his infection is quite small. Still, the culture tested positive, so he's on two antibiotics to kick it before it gets worse. I'm just so surprised because Brian and I believed it would come back negative. He had two little pimples at the top of his diaper area, which just stuck around for about 5 days without getting smaller/less irriated, so I decided to be proactive and get it cultured. After they stuck the needle in to get the sample, the pimples both lost all inflammation, and started to look like nothing more than a little scab. We figured since they looked like they were healing, there was no way that awful bacteria could be lurking around in his body again. Anywho, he's sleeping soundly, medicated, and it should be gone within the week.
My poor baby. Even though he isn't hurting this time, it still hurts me. I can't stop thinking that this is something he'll have to battle with the rest of his life. I hate to think of that. I continue to pray that God will heal him permanently though. That the MRSA will leave our house forever. I know there's a purpose in all of this.... I just wish it was clear and I could see it. Sometimes I think God's purpose for hurt is just to get you on your knees though. It's working. I wish it didn't take my son's health for me to realize I need to pray without ceasing.

So, there's my update. Pray for my little boy to be healed. While you're at it, pray for someone that you haven't in a while as well :-)
My next post will be happier. Promise.

Snow!

Though it wasn't much, we were all still able to have a snowball fight!

I Earned My Stripes!

I had this deep epiphany today. One that I'll probably forget about by tomorrow, so I'm writing it down for myself in the future.
I was sitting on the floor watching Caleb play this afternoon, and my eyes started welling up with tears thinking about how amazing he is. He's grown and transformed as a person so much within the short 16 months he's been alive. It's truly amazing. He's learned countless things since he was born. The changes he's gone through are so rapid, and so monumental.
It got me thinking about change, and how life... from birth to death is nothing but change. These changes aren't necessarily gradual, but come in spurts. Growth spurts.
So, I’m watching my beautiful Caleb. I’m marveling at his milestones, growth spurts, 4 successes on the potty, mouth full of teeth, etc... and at some point, I think to myself, “If you are so happy for this rapid change, growth and transformation in your son, then why aren’t you celebrating your own as well?” Deep. I mean, here I am, I'm a mother. This boy grew inside of me, and I'm lame enough to over-worry about about silly things like stretchmarks. It dawned on me how utterly stupid that is.
I tricked myself into believing having a baby is something I would "bounce back from". Instead of seeing it as a transformation, I just kept thinking it was a "situation" and that I would return to "normal" afterwards. I remember feeling so lucky when week 38 in my pregnancy rolled around and I was still stretchmark free. I woke up that morning, looked in the mirror before my shower, and loved that big baby belly-- there was definitely some pride in that morning. The next morning, literally, I woke up and saw something funny glistening in that same mirror. I immediately started blaming everything. The preeclampsia for making me gain weight so rapidly at the end, my genes, and I remember thinking to myself, "Why couldn't he have just come a few days early". I can't believe I was so selfish. I still am though. For the past 16 months, I've refused to look at my stomach in the mirror, and felt so horrified by those lines. Until today.
I looked at my stomach in that bathroom mirror today... with the lights on! Those things definitely weren't as horrid looking as I had remembered. So, tonight I feel invigorated with a new view on this post-pregnancy body. Heck, when you go on vacation, you bring back souvenirs... so this is just one of my souvenirs from pregnancy. My body worked hard those 39 weeks. I'm proud of that. Those marks are just a symbol of a whole transformation within me.
I earned my stripes, and for once... I'm proud of them.