Pregnancy #2 - 31 Weeks

Well it's official... I am 7 months pregnant and in the single-digit countdown for weeks left to go. Technically it's 9 more weeks, but since we're doing the schedule c-section 1 week early, for all practical purposes it's only 8 weeks to go! We are now scheduled for the c-section for April 27th at 7:30am. So barring Abby coming early or other emergency c-sections forcing a reschedule we now have a general idea of the birth date!

Abby measures over 16 inches long and weighs about 3.3 pounds. She is heading into a growth spurt. She can turn her head from side to side, and her arms, legs, and body are beginning to plump out as needed fat accumulates underneath her skin. She's moving tons - much more than Owen did. This makes me a tad nervous - because Owen's super active, so what does that mean for Abby? Yikes! I was hoping for a mellow one. :)

I'm feeling great. The swelling I had with my first pregnancy hasn't started yet and it had by this time with Owen, so cross your fingers that we'll avoid it this time. I'm actually tracking 4lbs lighter so far this pregnancy but with a bigger belly (in my opinion). My nesting instincts are kicking in full force, manifesting in baking (I never bake and I've made pies, cookies, cupcakes, etc. in the last month or so). I'm also hitting the organizing-like-crazy stage. We've finally organized our office! I also tackled Owen's clothes and Abby's clothes/closet/drawers this past weekend. This coming weekend I'm tackling the garage.

Here come the pics...

Pregnancy #2 - 31 Weeks

Pregnancy #1 - 30 Weeks

Pregnancy #1 - 31 Weeks
Pregnancy #1 - 32 Weeks

Owen Update - 19 Months Old

Owen is 19 months old today so I thought I'd give a little update on him and try to record some of the cutest stuff of late.


At the end of December he moved up from the Teddies room (12-18 months) to the Puppies room (18-24 months) at daycare. He LOVES his new room. The room itself is bigger and the activities even more planned. They also practice even more self-help skills - for example, in this room after eating lunch the kids scrape their plates into the trashcan and then take their cups and plates to the sink. How they get all the kids to do that is a mystery to me. :)


He had is 18 month appt at the beginning of January. Height: 32 1/2in. (80%), Weight: 23lbs 11oz (50%), Head: 19in (80%). He did very well with his shots. The doctor at that appt. said that between then and 2 years of age they have a "language explosion." Since Owen already seemed to have tons of words, I was curious to see what that would look like. Well the words have definitely increased. He now tries to say everything we say.


The word of this week is "octopus" which Owen says in varying ways but seems to stick mostly with "optumus." Too cute. He's learned "please," "thank you," and "your welcome" - so adorable to hear him using these polite words in his tiny toddler voice. Cuter when he doesn't quite get them right. Sometimes he'll hand you something and say thank you (more like tee-too).


He's still hugely a daddy's-boy. Up until about a week ago it was getting stronger and stronger. To the point where he wanted absolutely nothing to do with me and would cry if I tried to "take" him from Robbie. But starting about last weekend he finally started showing interest in doing things with Mom. Melts my heart that he'll play with me and sit next to me when Robbie's in the room now. Not all the time, but I'll take anything I can get.


He is mister energy. Very Forest Gump - everywhere he goes is is "runnin'!" And now he insists on not being carried everywhere - wants to get there on his own steam. He has to hold our hands if it's outside of the house - which sometimes results in a battle of wills as to where exactly we are walking. Even in the house he'll take our hands and say "walk" and lead us all around. Every person we pass he'll say to them "walk" which basically means - please acknowledge the fact that I am awesome and walking here.


Below are some pics from his Puppies class. The group pics they're doing baby yoga. Owen's in the red shirt and black pants (the one not really participating at first - he often does his own thing). He's starting to learn the names of the teachers and his little friends. He's always so excited to go see "Kiko" - his friend Niko as well as Jack and Collin and Daniel. Quite the ladies man, we walked in to pick him up the other day and the whole class happened to be walking through the halls. They have to hold hands with other kids and Owen had three little girls all holding on to him. Too cute!


Love him more every day!

Big Week for Kristen (Lots of Stuff to Celebrate)

Last week was a very big week for me with lots of fun things to celebrate!

4 Year Anniversairy

First we had our 4 year wedding anniversairy. It was actually on Thursday (I still can't believe it's been 4 years already). I have to say that the first 4 years have been very smooth - although with lots of big milestones (moving to CA, buying a house, Owen, 2nd baby on the way). I married the love of my life and best friend and still feel that way. Marriage up to this point has been awesome!

We celebrated on Saturday. Our friends the Tribbles came over to babysit Owen. Robbie took me out to a special dinner at one of my fav local restaurants (Bidwell Street Bistro). So yummy! And we went and saw a movie (He's Just Not That Into You) which is always a special treat. The movie was really cute - very like Love Actually. Highly recommend it. It was great to get out just the two of us. That only happens about every 3 months or so.

32nd Birthday

I celebrated year 32 on Saturday. So our anniversairy dinner was a bit of a combo celebration. So far I'm really enjoying my 30's. But I have to say that I see b-days a lot differently now that I'm a parent. I see mine more from my parent's perspective. I just can't imagine Owen at 32 and married with kids. Got lots of great gifts from the family and lots of warm fuzzy b-day wishes from various friends/family all over. :)

Lamaze Mommy Lunch/Suprise Baby Shower

Per previous posts, we still love to get together with the friends we made in our lamaze class when I was pregnant with Owen. Now 3 out of the 6 of us ladies are pregnant with our 2nd. On Friday I met with all the ladies for a lunch. I always look forward to catching up with them. They suprised me with a baby shower while we were lunching. Garian made the cutest 3-tiered "cake" of baby diapers (that's in the middle of the table in the pics). And the girls chipped in for lots of fun girl-baby gifts. All but one of us had a boy for our first, so they were all as excited to buy girl stuff as I am to get it. Had a wonderful time with the ladies!!!!

3rd Trimester

I officially hit the 3rd trimester of pregnancy on Monday. So we're finally in the home stretch, so to speak. At this point Abby is pretty well developed and just working on packing on the pounds (both on herself and me). I get to look forward to just getting bigger and bigger. I'm really looking forward to meeting my baby girl in just a few more months. I go on maternity leave starting at the end of March - so it's coming up soon.

Department Award at Work

I normally wouldn't mention this - not that I'm not proud - just don't enjoy bragging. ;) But it added to my highly enjoyable week so..... I got a departmental award (given out quarterly) at work for a brown bag presentation I put together and devlivered with a co-worker on the focal processes (yearly reviews). I was really proud of that presentation, so it was really nice to be recognized for the hard work that went into it.

All in all, awesome week!!!

Pregnancy #2 - 28 Weeks

28 weeks down, only 12 more to go. We officially hit the 3rd trimester last week. Things continue to go well. Abby is definitely a mover. Especially between 8pm and 10pm . I'm really hoping that doesn't mean she won't be a good sleeper at night. :) I continue to get increasingly clumsy. I had a small fall about 2 weeks ago - nothing serious. I was backing up and tripped over a stool. Landed on my behind. Then last week I tripped over Owen's humidifier and went down on one knee (a little scarier since I was holding Owen at the time). Abby and Owen are fine. So am I - I just get super sore each time. Nothing some tylenol and a few days won't fix. But for the most part I am feeling pretty great now!

Head to heels, Abby now measures about 14.8 inches. Her weight is about a 2 1/4 lbs. She can blink her eyes, which now sport lashes (supposedly - but every newborn I've seen has no eyelashes or eyebrows). With her eyesight developing, she may be able to see the light that filters in through my womb. She's also developing billions of neurons in her brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.

Below is the latest belly pic and some comparisons from my first pregnancy. I didn't have week 28 or 29 pics from my first pregnancy, so I picked out a few for comparison. I think I'm closest to 30 weeks from the pics. You can see in the week 32 picture from the first time around that that's when the swelling really started to be obvious although weight-wise I'd been swelling for about 3 weeks by then. So I'll be interested to see if I start swelling in the next 4 weeks or so. I really hope not. 57lbs of water just from swelling last time was pretty awful.

Pregnancy #2 - 28 Weeks

Pregnancy #1 - 27 Weeks

Pregnancy #1 - 30 Weeks

Pregnancy #1 - 31 Weeks

Pregnancy #1 - 32 Weeks

Pregnancy #2 - 24 Months

I'm actually going to get this out in the right week! Hooray! So we are now 24 weeks along. After battling a brief (hopefully) stomach virus this weekend, I am starting to feel better. The 2nd trimester is when you're supposed to feel good right? Stupid viruses. :) This pregnancy seems to be moving so much faster than the first one.

Abby's growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts her at just over a pound. Since she's almost a foot long she cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, but her body is filling out proportionally and she'll soon start to plump up. Her brain is also growing quickly now, and her taste buds are continuing to develop. In the past few weeks, the top of my uterus has risen above my belly button and is now about the size of a soccer ball. That's right... a soccer ball. And I still have 16 more weeks.

Pregnancy #2 - 24 Weeks

Pregnancy #1 - 24 Weeks

Owen is 18 Months Old!

I can't believe how time flies. Owen is 18th months old! We had our 18 month checkup on his birthday (poor guy - happy 1/2 birthday - here's some shots).

Some interesting facts and figures from that...
Weight - 23lbs 11oz (50%)
Height - 32 1/2 in (80%)
Head - 19" (80%)

We learned that Owen is allergic to cold tempartures. Any exposed skin in cold weather (or in the frozen section of the grocery store) breaks out in hives. The good news is that it doesn't seem to bother him at all and that most kids grow out of this by 2. So hopefully by next winter it's not an issue. The doc has put him on Zirtac for a month to see if that clears it up. So far it's helping a lot and he's only been on a few days.

The doc also said that between 18 and 24 months kids have a language explosion. Owen's up to about 100 words or so (we've really stopped tracking for the most part). He's started using 2-3 word sentences and has definitely learned the proper use of the word "No." (By proper use I mean that is the answer to anything posed to him in the form of a question).

We plan to start him in his big boy bed in February. It still seems early to me (I think because it officially seems like he's a little boy if he's no longer in a crib). But the doctor said he's getting to an age were the crib could be dangerous because he's big enough to climb and then fall out. Plus, with baby #2 due in early May, we'd like to have him transitioned to a toddler bed well before then so that it's not too much at once for him. He sleeps on a matt at day care, so hopefully this won't be totally crazy.

Pregnancy #2 - 23 Weeks

We are now 23 weeks pregnant - officially 5 months along. The second pregnancy certainly seems to go a lot faster than the first one. :) We've also just come out of the Christmas holiday (look for a separate blog on that one).

I still feel like the belly is tracking bigger than the first time around, but weight wise (thanks to a 2 week virus) I'm behind a little bit now. We've decided on Abigail (Abby) as the name (hopefully you saw in our Christmas cards that we're having a GIRL!!!. Still debating the middle name. Abby is moving like crazy. Her favorite time of day seems to be between 8pm and 10pm at night.

Abby is now more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (we finally hit the 1 lb. mark!). Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that your baby's pick up are preparing her for entry into the outside world. Loud noises that become familiar now — such as your dog barking or the roar of the vacuum cleaner — probably won't faze her when she hears them outside the womb.

Pregnancy #2 - Week 23

Pregnancy #1 - Week 23