Full term?! Random Updates

As a reminder, I have gotten a handful of due dates, since we have to go off the baby's size, which varies from practitioner to practitioner and ultrasound machine to ultrasound machine. The earliest I have gotten is March 20, and the latest is March 26. If you go toward the earlier end of that spectrum, I am FULL TERM! Thirty seven weeks and a few days! If you go by the later date, I think I'll be full term on Tuesday. I have been hoping all along for an Easter baby (March 31), but I know she'll come when she's ready. I'm just hoping it's not April 1, since I'm afraid people will think I'm pulling an April Fools joke!

I went to the doctor last Tuesday (going weekly now!) and had gained like a pound and a half since my previous appointment. Looks like I'm on track to gain less than 30, which was the goal! My belly is measuring exactly on schedule and baby's heartbeat is consistently between 120 and 160 bpm. I've gotten a little bit of my nesting mojo back since I last posted, so I've been getting some of the practical stuff together for baby's arrival... Buying extra toilet paper and paper towels, diapers and wipes, cleaning and organizing closets (I have done every single closet in our house in the span of just a couple of days!), and putting some finishing touches on the nursery.

I will do a separate post with pictures of the nursery soon. I was really fortunate to have a totally blank slate when "designing" Ford's room... I was able to think of how to make it function as the best NURSERY ever, putting furniture wherever I wanted, leaving lots of room for playing, having TWO WHOLE CLOSETS for one tiny baby... and this room has posed some challenges. For one thing, I have had less time to focus on it. I can't even really get in there to work while Ford's sleeping, since his room is adjacent and he's a pretty light sleeper. So I don't really even know how things are getting done. Mostly it's just when Brad's home to distract the man-cub and I can sneak in 30 minutes to hang pictures or fold blankets or what have you. But the room also still has to function as an office storage space and guest room, in addition to baby room. I'm not willing to spend much money at all on the space, since it may be a full-on office again in a few months, or we may move... so I'm pretty much just using what I have and repurposing it, or making things (crib skirt, canopy, pom poms, art, etc.). Here are a few sneak peeks:

Some hand-me-down dressers to hold baby's clothes. I have two of them. Left: before, Right: after. The after is a high gloss elephant gray with capiz shell knobs. They are pretty deep drawers, so they offer a surprising amount of storage for their petite size!

Outtake from my photo shoot... :) He is such a little muskrat. Love him!

Can't remember if I have posted this here. This is from six weeks ago or so... I made the canopy and the pom poms. I've since added two pom poms to help fill it out.

I think I have posted this before? A big pouf I sewed before I even really knew what I wanted the nursery to look like.

Bad lighting, but here's a window shade I modified (it's just a straight roller shade from IKEA, and I added coral trim and took out the roller so it would have a scallop shape). In the middle is a "wreath" I made from the pom pom fabric scraps. I want to put baby's monogram in the middle once we're sure about the name.

I've also been really focused on preparing activities for Ford when the baby comes. It's funny, I'll be driving somewhere and I have a thought like, "THERE SHOULD BE BALLOONS IN THE HOSPITAL ROOM WHEN FORD MEETS HIS SISTER. THEN HE WON'T BE SCARED." Or, "WE SHOULD GET FORD SOME MATCHBOX CARS AND TELL THEM THEY'RE FROM HIS SISTER. HE WOULD LIKE THAT." I'm just trying to think of things to help with the transition, plus ways to keep him occupied while we're having to care for a newborn. I did a busy bag swap with some fellow moms at church and went home with six great activities, like stringing yarn through foam shapes, fishing with a magnetized rod and play fish, velcro sticks, and the like. Below is my contribution, a laminated color wheel with clothespins. I drew a number wheel on the back of ours, where you match up wedges with dots and their numerals. I also created some separate activities for Ford, like sorting colored beads into a small, six-cup muffin tin, sticker books, a couple of DVDs (Curious George and Happy Feet), some new books about being a new brother, as well as some Sesame Street books, watercolors, finger paints, little wooden puzzles... We'll pull out one new activity every few days and rotate them.

More soon! I have the house to myself for about 20 more minutes (Ford's asleep and Brad's working out), so I may watch the end of Project Runway and eat a sweet treat (I still have a few leftover honey buns from Sam's! Ha!). Thanks for reading.

(ALMOST!) 36 week update

Just under 36 weeks in this photo. Apparently I wear this sweater a lot!

How big is baby? Y'all! Baby is only about a week away from being FULL TERM! As my doctor reminded me at my 34-week appointment, if I go into labor now, they aren't going to try to stop it. Whhaaaat? BabyCenter says baby is about 6 lbs and more than 18.5 inches long. Cra-to-the-zy. I do not know how the weeks have flown by like this!

Weight gain/loss: At my last doctor's appointment, I had put on a little over two pounds in two weeks, which I know is right on track for this stage of pregnancy. So I believe I'm JUST under 20 pounds total gained during this pregnancy. My goal at the outset was to keep it below 30, so with just four to six weeks left, I think (?!?!) I should be okay!  

Sleep: Oh, goodness. Well. In short, it's fine. I am taking a sleeping pill (just Benadryl) every night now, otherwise I wake up at 3 a.m. and am unable to go back to sleep. Even though Benadryl is supposed to be harmless and non-habit-forming, I don't like having to to take medicine while pregnant, especially not nightly. And Benadryl can decrease milk supply after the baby is here, so I made sure with my doctor that it wouldn't affect anything now, even though I'm taking it in late pregnancy. So I'm sleeping without waking from about 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. every day, which is soooo nice. But since we're on the topic of sleep, I have to share a Ford story. I was able to find a reasonably priced hotel room less than 24 hours before Brad's big marathon in Austin last weekend... Brad had planned to stay with my brother since hotel rooms had been $400+ per night, due to the long weekend, Valentine's Day and the marathon... but we lucked out, and Ford and I packed and piled into the car with only about an hour to go before Brad was leaving! SUPER last-minute. I was conscious of Brad having to get a really good night of sleep before his race, and Ford is a very noisy sleeper. I asked the front desk when we checked in if they had any suites available. The answer, predictably, was "no," so we resigned ourselves to a night of sleeping in the same room as Ford. He does fine sleeping in new places, but he's just noisy! The hotel put a real crib in our room, not a pack n play, and Ford was NOT a fan. He saw it and just started saying, "No. No no. No no no." That was our first clue that this was going to be an interesting night. We all went to bed at the same time, about 8:30 p.m., and Ford just kept popping his head up in the dark room and saying "Mama! Dada!" very gleefully and playfully. He knew we were there even though we were completely silent! After about 30 minutes of that, we heard a giant "THUD!" then wailing. We scrambled to flip on the lights and saw Ford splayed out on his belly, about four feet away from the crib (which was on the lowest-to-the-floor setting!!!), narrowly missing a couch and a coffee table. I can only assume that he somehow perched himself atop the rail and flying-squirreled his little body out of the crib. Wild man. He was totally fine and happy once I picked him up off the floor, thank God. So he slept in our bed the rest of the night, which hasn't happened since he was probably four weeks old (and even then, he was in a co-sleeper attached to our bed, not in the bed itself). Somehow he managed to kick me and Brad BOTH all night long. I must have slept a couple of hours, but I don't know when or how. Poor Brad hardly slept at all, yet he still managed to get a super fast time in his half marathon, placing in about the top 8 percent of runners! But ohhhh my Fordly. Such a wildebeest. 

Movement: Feeling like it's late in the game... Movements are less dramatic. Rather than kicks and punches, it's lots of nudges and little tiny squirms. She likes to push downward really hard... Yeeowch!

Symptoms: Nothing very interesting or new. Feeling pretty good for ~36 weeks.

Belly button: Top part is still out!And I'm not even trying to tape it down anymore. Haha.

Food cravings: Oh goodness, no real cravings, but I have lost my nesting urge to the point where I would eat out for every meal if I could, rather than fix something myself. And when I do make food, which is actually fairly often since I've been helping Brad eat well for his race, I just don't want it for some reason. I'd rather eat Chicken McNuggets than homemade beef brisket or flounder in Cajun veggie sauce. Maybe it's a weird aversion because I've seen the protein raw? I really can't put my finger on it. I am just eating a lot of fruit, crackers and cheese, almond butter and jelly sandwiches, and frozen packaged food. 

Gender: Sweet Baby Girl! Still no name. Honest.
What I miss? I feel like I have definitely reached the HUGE stage of pregnancy. I am getting a little self conscious about how big I am. Mostly it's frustrating to have to squeeze when walking between a chair and a wall at a restaurant, for example, and picking toys up off the floor has become more cumbersome. Not much longer before I start to shrink, though. Yay!   

What I'm looking forward to? So much! I mentioned I have lost the nesting urge, which is unfortunate since the nursery is only about halfway done, and the half that is done is purely aesthetic. Closet still needs to get in order, which will be interesting. I'm looking forward to having all of that stuff ready. I mentioned in my last update that I'm looking forward to the wedding of my BFF, Michelle. She is officially married off now! I had so much fun at her wedding... it was such a joyful, Spirit-filled night. Here are a few photos from the reception.

Big Brother: My sweet boy, so entertaining and curious. He's turning into a really big ham. He loves to smile for pictures, dance in public whenever he hears music, wave and say "hi" to everyone he sees... He's also struggling with processing frustration well. Lots of screaming and throwing toys or flailing limbs when something doesn't go as he wishes. We've also had a handful of very public meltdowns over the last couple of weeks. I'm wrestling with how to discipline him well and keep my pride in check. That is, not getting frustrated because he's embarrassing me, but instead working on training him because God demands that he obeys his parents, and that the state of his heart is more important than the raised eyebrow of the grandmother down the grocery aisle from us. One little mom-brag, if you'll indulge me: today he "read" most of Hop on Pop to me! Not the whole thing (he didn't say stuff like "Will is up hill still" or "I sent him out of the tent"), but he would say "Pup Cup," "House Mouse," "Wet Get" and everything on the right pages! Yay for literacy! ;)

(Almost) 33 week update

How big is baby? According to BabyCenter.com, a little over 4 pounds and more than 17 inches long!

Weight gain/loss: Had a doctor's appointment this morning! I have managed to gain 5.4 pounds in the last four weeks. Yeeps! Considering I had gained 12 pounds total at my last appointment, that 5+ pound gain is a 45 percent increase in my total weight gain, now that I'm up to 17+ pounds. Double yeeps! My doctor was standing right next to the scale when the nurse weighed me, and like a child, the first words out of my mouth when I saw the number on the scale were, "I don't like that!" (P.S. What is wrong with me??) So he laughed and said I was right on track. I said, "It doesn't bother you that I've increased my total weight gain almost 50 percent in the span of four weeks?" to which he replied that I was due for a growth spurt. Then I joked, "Maybe I need to give up my daily whole milk yogurt indulgence," and he sort of balked and said, "Oh yeah! There's a lot of butterfat in that!" Ha. So I guess it's back to reduced fat for me. Whoops. 

Sleep: All over the place! Some nights are fine, other nights are inexplicably restless. I had my worst night of this pregnancy on Saturday. No barfing or sickness or anything, I just could not get to sleep. I finally took a sleeping pill at 3 a.m. and fell asleep a little after 6 a.m. Brad took over Ford duty in the morning, and I slept until 9:30 a.m., which was nice, but still only about three hours of sleep. 

Movement: Getting really predictable in her movement patterns. Busy during the wee hours of the morning, for a few hours in the middle of the day, and again around 7 - 10 p.m. I'm guessing she's sleeping the rest of the time.

Symptoms: Nothing new! No more contractions since my last update, thank goodness. I'm hungrier in the mornings now, if that's a symptom!

Belly button: Top part is still out! No stretch marks or linea nigra this go around. I still have seven (or more!) weeks though! 

Food cravings: Nothing in particular! Brad's training for a race in mid-February, so we've been eating pretty healthy, including a lot of high protein meals. The Gaultneys are big-time carnivores these days.

Gender: Sweet Baby Girl! No progress on the name front. My doctor asked me this morning if we had one yet (he asks me that at every appointment), and I told him no. He suggested, very seriously, Maxine, saying we could call her Maxi. Now, no offense to those of you with loved ones named Maxine, but Maxi is not on my shortlist of names. So I laughed and told him to keep thinking, and he said it's a great Latin name, not too common, sounds good with our last name... Then he checked the baby's heartrate, which was at 120 and on the low end of normal, which the old wives say means the baby is a boy. Dr. N said, "Nevermind, sounds more like a Maximus than a Maxine!"
What I miss? Not much! Again, just trying to exercise a lot of gratitude for our blessings, and remembering that all we have is just on loan from the Lord. Many friends are going through hardships, including illness and loss, and it's pretty-perspective changing to see those around you dealing with those kinds of valleys.  

What I'm looking forward to? Picking a name?? No, there's lots to look forward to! Getting the nursery together, the wedding of my best friend in less than two weeks (!!!), Tuesday date nights... All good things.

Big Brother: Just a love! He's really into ABCs right now... flash cards, foam bath letters, ABC books, his Sesame Street "Letter of the Month Club" video, but most of all his Leap Frog Fridge Phonics toy. I swear, he is teaching himself the letters and sounds of the alphabet through it. And he's 17 months old! So far he has nailed M, B, O, X, and J, and he gets other letters right occasionally (A, C, I...). I'm not pushing this at all, by the way. He'll point excitedly to signs and say the letter, run up to me with one of the letter fridge magnets and say, "M!" or whatever... It's just so sweet to see his enthusiasm for learning! He is still definitely testing boundaries... for example, one of the "no nos" in our house is climbing on the fireplace. So he'll put one foot up on the fireplace, check to see if we're watching, smile and say, "No no!" It's hard to know how to respond to that. I usually say, "That's right, Ford, climbing on the fireplace is a no no. Take your foot off the fireplace, please." And 60 percent of the time, he'll obey. But then there's about 40 percent of the time that he either keeps his foot there, or adds a hand to the fireplace as well, which necessitates parental intervention (most often, a hand spanking). I know these are very small "battles," but it's all part of the process of shepherding his heart toward a God-orientation! Just so much fun to be able to interact with him right now and know he's engaged and understanding what I'm saying.

Forgot to mention!

I forgot to share some news in my last post! Not really news, but an update worth sharing, I guess. I am an official "ultrasound volunteer" at a community college downtown, and I've gone in a couple of times to get scanned by ultrasound techs-in-training. So I went when I was 30 weeks + 5 days and got a peek at the sweetest little baby! When I say peek, I really mean peek... She was covering her face with BOTH HANDS, as if she were playing peek-a-boo. It was frustrating for all of us, because we were using the 4D technology, and everyone wanted to see her face, but she was being COMPLETELY camera shy! Ford was born with a sucking blister on his wrist... He had literally sucked on his wrist so often and furiously in utero that he gave himself a blister. I wonder if baby girl will end up sucking on her hands or wrist too, since she clearly likes them in front of her face!

So the two pieces of info that I gleaned from the last ultrasound were this:

• She has hair! I could clearly see wisps of hair on the back of her head. Hooray! 
• She is measuring more or less right on track, but her head is about a week ahead of her body. Ha! This should be no surprise, as anyone who followed my pregnancy with Ford may remember he has had a giant head from the start. And he still has a bulbous (95th percentile +) head. And Brad and I have huge heads.

That's it for tonight! Guess we'll know what she looks like soon enough... Less than two months, if she decides to come on/before her due date. Ahhh! 

32 Week Update

How big is baby? According to BabyCenter.com, almost 4 pounds and 17 inches! That is probably more than half her birth weight, and just 2 or 3 inches to go until she's at her likely length. Crazytown.

Weight gain/loss: My next doctor's appointment is a week from tomorrow, but I'm guessing I'm up a couple of pounds since I last weighed. So maybe 14 or 15 total pounds gained?  

Sleep: As with the last time I updated, sleep is still unpredictable! I've been taking diphenhydramine HCl (Benadryl) if I can tell it's going to be a rough night. I've had a few nights recently when I'll wake up at 3 a.m. and just not be able to turn my brain off and go back to sleep (miserable). I should be grateful that it's not discomfort that's keeping me up, but I still chalk it up to pregnancy, because my mind is racing with things I need/want to do, projects I want to take on, thinking of meals I should make/freeze, etc. Then I'll have a random night like last night, where I fell asleep at 10:30 and slept like a ROCK until 6:30, no Benadryl required. That was nice! 

Movement: Still kicking and punching often. Earlier I think I had written that she was just as busy as Ford in utero, but I take that back. She's chilled out a ton. Ford was like a wildcat in a potato sack the whole time he was incubating. This one has strong, frequent movements, but not constant. 

Symptoms: Oh, you know. Still leg discomfort due to the weird circulation issues. Then here's something weird. I don't think I have ever felt a Braxton Hicks contraction (lucky me!), but I'm pretty sure I had some REAL contractions yesterday. I was one contraction away from calling my doctor on the way to the hospital! We go on family walks as often as we can -- daily when the weather is nice. We were taking advantage of the gorgeous weekend weather, walking around our neighborhood with Ford in the stroller. Then in an uncanny series of events, we found ourselves with a runaway stroller, and Ford (who was tightly strapped in, praise the Lord!), ended up hitting the curb HARD with his forehead, with the weight of the stroller crashing down on him. It was just a wild accident, and HORRIFYING to watch. He is fine now, but has a little goose egg on his forehead. About 10 minutes after the accident, back at the house, I felt a really strong, super painful (couldn't talk through it) contraction that lasted at least a minute. It was enough to really worry Brad, though in the moment I was thinking it must just be my first BH contraction. Google, however, assured me that BH contractions aren't supposed to be that painful, so I went to lie down just in case. Then, about 10 minutes later, another REALLY strong and painful contraction. And then another one 10 minutes after that! Brad was trying to convince me to go to Baylor to get checked out, so I told him if I had one more contraction before 5:30, I'd at least call my doctor's office. Fortunately, I haven't had another contraction. I think it ended up being just triggered by the stress of seeing Ford fall like that. I'm honestly not worried about it at this point and just planning to take it easy and low-stress until Baby Girl is fully baked!

Belly button: Top part is out, bottom part is in. Such a weird little belly button. I realized this week that I don't have linea nigra like I did with Ford. Wonder why?? Pregnancy is so weird and random.

Food cravings: Nothing to speak of this week. I am trying to stay away from diet soda after the Diet Pepsi Wild Cherry bender, so I'm drinking lots of sparkling water with lemon or a splash of orange juice. In one sitting, I ate a bunch of Texas Trash that my grandmother made for me. I think I'm preferring salty stuff lately, though a recent visit by MeeMee (my mom) means I have lots of delicious sweets to enjoy! And enjoying them I am! 

Gender: Sweet Baby Girl! Still stumped on the name. I actually thought we had one nailed, but Brad told me yesterday he's rethinking it. Ahhh. She will eventually have a name! Sidenote, there are a LOT of initials that are pretty horrible with the last initial G. I was liking one name and realized the initials would spell VAG! Nooooooooooo.
What I miss? Not much! Just focusing on being grateful. 

What I'm looking forward to? Knowing what will happen with our house. We've had a TON of showings over the last nine weeks that it's been on the market, but still no contracts. We've even had lots of second showings, and a couple of people say our house is at the top of their list, but they want to keep looking. I want to be able to start organizing Ford and Baby Girl's shared closet, really getting going on the nursery (sewing some bedding, moving the printer, scanner and router into the closet, and the like), and even rearranging or replacing some of the furniture in our den. There's just no point until I know if the house is selling or not. Listing ends Jan. 31, so we'll see!

Big Brother: Such a sweetheart these days. He definitely has his dramatic toddler moments, but ohhh, how I am just cherishing him at this sweet, brief stage of his childhood. He is loving playing with his cars and stuffed animals (really using his imagination!!!), reading books, ABC-related activities (ABC magnets, bath toys, books, flash cards, the ABC song) and he's fanatical over anything Elmo. He is crazy friendly, waving and saying "hi" to every other person we see in the grocery store. He's showing lots of signs of being ready for potty training, but at 17 months, I think he's just too young. And his world is about to change with a new sibling, so I don't want to rock the boat. I love how verbal he's becoming, so I can start to understand how he sees the world. One morning last week, he was following me around the house as I was getting ready for the day, and he stopped cold in his tracks right outside our hall bath. He held his hands up and started clutching at the air, saying his word for "stars," which sounds a lot like "taws." I was stumped for a minute, trying to figure out what he was doing... then I realized that the light streaming through the bathroom window was illuminating the multitude of little dust particles floating in the air. My sweet baby boy was looking at the dust and thinking they were little stars! OH, how I wanted to scoop that precious little life up and hold him tight! Still don't think he has any idea that we're going to add to our family in a couple of months, but he is starting to respond a little more when we talk to him about it. If we say, "Ford, do you want a little sister?" he'll say, "Baby?" and if Brad says, "Mommy has a baby in her tummy!" Ford will squeal, "Belly button!" and try to lift up my shirt (ha).

Doctor's appointment a week from tomorrow. Every two weeks from now on!!!!

Random Updates

Me at 29 weeks and some change. Now I think I'm 30 weeks.

Random updates tonight! Thanks to friends like SIL Brittney and Alicia for reminding me to blog! I need you guys to keep the encouragement coming or it will never happen. 

Health
I wasn't able to update after my doctor's appointment last Thursday! Baby seems to be doing great, based on the measurements and her heartbeat. Just a very quick appointment. My weight gain for this pregnancy is 12 pounds (a gain of four pounds since my previous appointment in November), which is SO much less than it was with Ford at this point, but somehow I still feel bigger. And slower. I think Baby Girl must be lying funny inside. At church tonight, whatever she was doing was HURTING me! My legs are really killing me these days too. Well, most days, anyway. Besides the big spider vein on my right calf, I now have what I think are the beginnings of a tiny varicose vein on the back of my left knee. BOOOO. Ugly and painful. And this is despite wearing compression stockings every single day.

I hope I don't sound too negative! I'm grateful to be in very good health, and especially grateful that baby seems to be growing well. There's just some weird circulation things going on, with ugly and painful results that will keep me out of skirts and dresses for longer than I want. But in the scheme of things, if that's what it takes to grow a healthy girl, then so be it! 

Nursery
When we found out we were expecting, the nursery thing all seemed so simple. We'd transition Ford to a bed, use his crib for new baby, then have new baby and Ford share a room. Then it became abundantly clear that Ford's crib is as much a necessary cage as it is a place to sleep. Homeboy would never sleep if we didn't have a crib. He literally piles all of his blankets and lovies into a corner of his crib and tries to MacGuyver his way out. And I just can't handle him getting out of bed 10 times a night when we have a newborn. Plus, 19 months (the age he will be when baby is due) is on the young side for sleeping in a "big boy bed," although it has certainly been done!

So then I thought, "Okay, two cribs in one nursery. That will actually be really cute." Then Brad reminded me of how Ford was up literally every hour for the first couple of months of his life, then every two or three hours, and finally sleep trained by seven months. And despite the occasional night terrors, Ford is actually a pretty amazing night sleeper now. We don't really want to rock the boat by making him share a room with a screaming newbie. Soooo... I'm converting our guest room/office/craft room into a nursery. While I hate to lose such a multipurpose space, there are only so many rooms in our house, and she will need her own space -- at least for a while.

I'm approaching this so much differently than I did with Ford -- for whom I did moodboards, went furniture shopping, tested paint colors, brought home fabric swatches -- I want it to be a nice room for her, and something I can love and be proud of, but I don't want to spend much money or time (refinishing furniture, etc.) on a space that may be an office/craft room again in six to 12 months. So I'm not painting (although I think a large-scale wallpapered or stenciled wall would be amazeballs), and I'm not even really changing around the stuff on the walls. I am changing out the curtain, moving the desk out (we have a built-in in the living room that will work for a laptop desk), moving the printer, scanner, router, etc. into the closet, and adding a crib with some cute/sweet linens. But that's more or less all I'm going to do. I'm even leaving our futon in there, since I figure it may actually come in handy for me. She and Ford will have to share a closet (since the current office closet is full of necessary office supplies and linens), but fortunately the closets in this house are HUGE, so I'm not tooooo worried about it (famous last words??).

Weirdly lit picture of Baby Girl's curtain, a jury-rigged IKEA Emmie roll shade with coral ribbon trim added and new ties.

Full disclosure, our house is actually on the market now -- since mid-November -- but our listing only goes until January 31 (exactly 2.5 months). We have had a TON of showings, and 100% of the feedback we are getting is enormously positive and along the lines of, "Buyers loved the home!" "This is currently our #1 choice," and "Clients are very interested," yet we haven't had a single offer. My guess is that we're just priced out of the neighborhood. It's easily the most updated home in our neighborhood, so most people have the option of buying our updated, move-in-ready home, or spending $30k less and buying one that has 1960s shag carpet and wallpaper, then updating it as they choose (if they wish). Brad and I are completely at peace with the house NOT selling, if it goes that way. We've just been praying that God will give us confidence in whatever happens. There are a ton of reasons to love staying here, and this house has been a tremendous blessing to us!

Nesting
I don't want to go on and on about how superwomany I feel right now, but I am on a "creating" bender right now. Sewing, cooking, cleaning, baking... Pregnancy turns me CRAZY when it comes to Martha Stewart-esque enterprises. In just the last week I have made a large pouf from scratch, a baby girl headband, hemmed and patched clothes that have been waiting for hems and patches for a good year, made homemade yogurt and granola, made coconut cream pie "Lara balls," made freezer meals and paleo/primal-friendly meals almost every night, made a curtain for baby girl's room, cooked homemade play dough, cleaned and organized closets, boxed up more toys and books for our toy rotation, cleaned the house every single day (part of that has to do with the house being on the market), taken Ford on lots of fun outings... and that's not even all of it. And I'm still working part-time, albeit not a ton. When I'm in my third trimester, I'm basically the person I WANT to be every single day of my life, productivity-wise.

Pouf in Baby Girl's nursery colors, gray and coral

Milestones
I put on my first maternity jeans of this pregnancy yesterday! I just reached a point where I was getting tired of all my low-rise jeans and thought I was starting to look dumpy. I was getting ready and realized, "You know what? You will look more put-together in your maternity jeans." And so I put them on and there was much rejoicing. But the belly band thing keeps rolling down and causing my pants to drop, so that's an unfortunate look. I just have to keep hiking them up. I will say this: American Apparel leggings have become my best friend.

After my next doctor's appointment, I will start going every other week! It's hard to believe. Everything is flying by so fast. And there's a lot to look forward to between now and then, including the wedding of my best friend, visits to Dallas by dear family, a half marathon (BRAD, not me!), Valentine's Day... and then so much to anticipate around Baby Girl's "birthday" too, including my brother Brett's birthday (March 23), my grandmother's birthday (March 26), our "meet-iversary" (March 21) and our "engage-iversary" (March 24).

That's it for tonight! Thanks for hanging on with such a random bunch of updates!

Poor baby Ford unknowingly trying on his sister's homemade headband, which he called "hat."

29 week update

Whoops! Has it really been three weeks since I posted? I expected to have lots of down time in Boerne over the holidays, but with desserts to be made, friends and family to be visited, and babies to be chased -- not to mention a wee one with a stomach bug that delayed our travel plans -- it has been Crazytown over here. Apologies for the delay!

 

How big is baby? My weekly BabyCenter.com email tells me Baby Girl is 15 inches long and 2.5 pounds! I also learned this week that her head is "growing rapidly" at this stage of pregnancy. Super news. We Gaultneys have large-headed babies as it is, so I will thank her to just take her time on that head growth thing! Ford's head circumference has been 95 percentile or above from the start!

Weight gain/loss: Okay, not so fun answering this question this week! I don't know the answer -- it has been more than five weeks since my last doctor visit (doc took a little time off for the holidays) -- but it can't be good. I ate so much over Christmas. The perils of staying at Nancy Thorne's house! I had one day where literally all I ate was chocolate and cheese. My bump is very bumpy lately! I will try to get a pic tonight or tomorrow and post it.  

Sleep: Totally unpredictable. Some nights I sleep like a rock, and other nights Baby Girl's kicking keeps me up for hours and hours. If I take a Benadryl I sleep pretty hard, but I don't want to make a habit of that. I do think I'm getting sleepier now that I'm in the third trimester. Not like "Omigosh, I have to take a nap RIGHT NOW," but like, "I could see myself going to bed at 9:30 tonight." Haha. 

Movement: Busy as can be! She's getting strong. I love feeling her kicks and punches and spazzes, even though sometimes they interfere with my ability to sleep. I remember missing feeling Ford's kicks once he was born. Is that weird? It's just a sweet part of pregnancy, I think.

Symptoms: Still soreness in my ugly, veiny right leg, but compression stockings (hot mom alert!) help. Dry skin for the last couple of weeks, although that may be due as much to the weather as to my hormones. And I'm just moving slower now that the belly is getting LARGE. But overall, I have VERY LITTLE to complain about! 

Belly button: The top little nub part is OUT! It's been an outtie since I was, I don't know, 15 weeks? Before I was even really showing. It popped way early with Ford too. I have had to tape it down a couple of times when I've worn tighter shirts. It's so distracting!

Food cravings: Nothing really strange. I did overindulge in my share of sweets/fatty foods over the holidays (see above re: 24 hours o' chocolate and cheese), so I'm trying to break that cycle. I'm certainly not always successful, but I made my own yogurt (!!!) the other day, and it is DELICIOUS with a little swizzle of honey and some homemade Paleo Apple Pie Granola, so that has become my go-to sweet treat. We did get In-N-Out the other day because the Animal Style fries were calling my name. Not sure I can file that under cravings, since I will never ever ever turn down an Animal Style fry. Just don't talk to me about the calories.

Gender: Sweet Baby Girl! Name TBD, for those of you who were wondering. We were going to name her Kathleen Elizabeth, which is a huge family name on my side (there are four or five women with that name over the last few generations), then come up with a nickname off of Elizabeth, but we are totally stumped. Any time we'd find a nickname we liked, we made the mistake of telling someone who made no attempts to conceal how much they did not care for that name, or knew a person who got teased because of that name, etc. As much as I hate to admit how impressionable I am, those comments made ME like the name less. So we are back to the drawing board. We may end up with Kathleen Elizabeth as her name, or we may choose something totally different. But Brad and I have agreed to keep our cards close to the vest from here on out.
What I miss? Clothes shopping this week. I'm not a big shopper anyway, but ever since my non-maternity clothes got stolen out of our storage unit (did I tell you all about that?), I have wanted to start replenishing my wardrobe. It just doesn't make sense until I'm back to my normal size. I did get a bunch of gift cards for Christmas, and I look forward to shopping in late spring or summer!

What I'm looking forward to? Somehow this week the fact that we are going to be parents to a little GIRL became more real. My friend Katy had her second baby, Khloe, last week, and holding that angel at the hospital just made me so eager to hold my own little sweetheart! I'm also wanting to work on the nursery, although that will have to wait until our house sells and we buy another one, or we take our house off the market (we have a short term listing -- only until the end of this month). 

Big Brother: He has cooled down on the tantrums a bit since the last time I posted. He still has his moments, but he is my Number One Fan these days, which makes us synch up a little better right now. I love running errands with him or taking him on mommy/Ford dates, because he charms the heck out of everyone he sees. Seriously, his toothy, goofy smiles, his giant waves and enthusiastic exclamations of "HI!" to random strangers seem to make him very popular. And of course that makes me SO proud. He is also saying an insane number of words -- I have lost count. All in all, Brad and I are endlessly entertained by the little nugget. We're really trying to help him understand that there's going to be a baby at our house, we're going to get to keep the baby, he's going to be a big brother and that's an important job... We read books about babies, being a big brother, we point out babies when we are running errands and ask if he would like a baby... but I am pretty sure it's all lost on him. He does love babies, but I just don't think that there's a great way to prepare a 17-month-old for this type of gigantic life change. If you have any suggestions, I am open to them!

Doctor's appointment tomorrow... Hopefully I will be able to update then!

26 week update

Belly at 25 weeks, 1 day(ish), photo taken last Thursday

How big is baby? My weekly BabyCenter.com email tells me Baby Girl is 14 inches long and almost two pounds.

Weight gain/loss: My guess is that I'm up about 10 pounds since my pre-pregnancy weight. I've had a rough week with Ford... lots of tantrums and whining on his part... and I swear I've been "emotionally eating" because of it. I told Brad that yesterday, any time I had a moment to myself (during Ford's short nap, or a rare moment of him playing quietly, or after he went to bed), I had the urge to eat a Honey Bun! And the bad thing is, I had a box of Honey Buns from Sam's! So yes, I ate three Honey Buns yesterday. WHAT?! I didn't even really want them, I was just like, "NEED CARBS, NEED PEACE." Maybe I should try memorizing Bible verses in those brief "me" times, unless I want to end up gaining 60 pounds by March. 

Sleep: Not so good in the last week or so. I don't know what's going on... I'm not uncomfortable, and I'm falling asleep pretty easily now that we've overcome the flu and chest congestion. But four nights in a row, like clockwork, I've awoken at 3 a.m. on the dot and not been able to fall asleep till 5 or 6 a.m. I really can't explain it! It's just two or three hours out of my night, but it ends up making me feel like I haven't slept at all. Maybe it's just the busyness of this time of year. My mind starts racing when I wake up and I end up going over my to-do list.

Movement: She's an active little lady, no doubt. I mostly feel kicks, not a lot of punches, but they are so frequent! Ford had this patented move of running his knee cap or fist or foot across the length of the inner front of my belly really slowly and firmly. It made my skin crawl! Such a strange sensation. Baby girl has only done that a couple of times, whereas Ford did it almost daily at this point. She also hasn't hiccuped yet, while Ford would get hiccups a couple of times a day beginning around this time. Just interesting to start noting the differences between their fetal movement. 

Symptoms: The leg soreness I mentioned last time as subsided some. Not sure what symptoms to report... there's not a lot happening! I was at a Christmas party last Thursday and it felt like she was trying to bust through my right side. SO much pressure. But that was kind of a one-off thing.

Belly button: The top little nub part is OUT! It's been an outtie since I was, I don't know, 15 weeks? Before I was even really showing. It popped way early with Ford too. With him I had to tape it down with masking tape so it wasn't a huge distraction through my clothes, and I'm close to that point with baby girl. I guess I have a shallow belly button! 

Food cravings: Okay, last time I waxed philosophical about what a craving really is, blah blah. But over the past two weeks, I think I understand! I was at CVS picking up some medicine for Ford, and I saw a 12-pack of Diet Pepsi Wild Cherry, and it sounded SO GOOD at that moment, so I bought it! Weird! I don't think I had ever had one before, so there's no reason that I should have thought that sounded good. And I was driving around with Ford running errands the other day when I realized I had only had a few apple slices for breakfast, and I thought a Burger King Croissanwich would really hit the spot. How weird is that?! So we found a nearby BK and I ate the sandwich and Ford ate the hash browns. Ha. Obviously between the Wild Cherry Diet Pepsi and the sausage Croissanwich, I have really classy cravings. 

Gender: Sweet Baby Girl!
What I miss? Update on my answer from two weeks ago... I got to have a few sips of cider! We went to Flying Saucer to celebrate Brad running the Spartan Beast race, and our server brought me a tasting glass of cider. It honestly was not that good, but I think it scratched my itch for cider. So there's not much I miss this week. Maybe feeling cute in my clothes? I love cold weather clothes, but it's just not the same when I don't have a waist!

What I'm looking forward to? Seeing friends and family over the holidays. We'll be heading to Austin on Friday to watch my younger brother's band play their last show ever. We've got a packed schedule for the days we'll be in the Hill Country area, but I can't wait! 

Big Brother: There was a nursery rhyme my parents read to me when I was little, and I feel like it applies to Ford (just switch the girl references for boy references): 

There was a little girl.

She had a little curl.

When she was good she was very good, 

But when she was bad she was horrid!

We've had a week of horrid days around these parts. Not totally terrible... he has some truly heart-melting moments that seriously fill me up to my tippy top with joy and warm fuzzies... but oh man. Lots of toddler angst. And I do not know what to do about it, other than continue to give him lots of love, try to help him process through his difficult moments, quote Scripture to him about patience, gentleness, obedience, and say lots of prayers for wisdom and discernment! I have found "quiet time" to be really effective for Ford over the last week. If he's really just beside himself and nothing I do will help, I put him in his crib, turn one lamp on, and turn on some piano music for him, then leave the room. He has a moment with his blankies and puppy, calms down, and after a few minutes starts chirping, "Mama? Mama. Mama!" That's usually enough to reset him for a little while, and we can play peacefully again. For a little while. 

Update: 24 weeks

I stole this weekly questionnaire from my dear friend Katy, due with baby girl Khloe Margaret in January. I love reading hers, so I may start doing these on a weekly basis!

 

How big is baby? My weekly BabyCenter.com email tells me Baby Girl is 12.5 inches long and just over a pound (about a pound and a quarter). Still a scrawny little thing!

Weight gain/loss: Up eight pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. I'm pretty happy with that number! I was shocked to learn how little I had gained at my doctor's appointment this morning, for several reasons: 1) I weighed less when I started this second pregnancy than I did with my first, so I thought I would gain weight a little faster. 2) I don't feel like I've been taking awesome care of myself. I have been working out regularly, but I end up eating meals on the road more often, and I've been eating more packaged meals at home, just because it's hard to find a solid chunk of time to make a healthy, fresh dinner every day. Ford is a demanding little dude and seems to get very upset when I'm cooking (??). I have wondered if a Learning Tower would help so he could at least see what I'm doing. But then again that seems like a really expensive stepping stool. 3) I just feel bigger in this pregnancy! Maybe it's mental, but I swear baby girl has popped out sooner and more obviously than Ford did. Maybe it's because she's so high, it's just more apparent?

Sleep: Decent! I've been battling the flu and a gnarly upper respiratory infection for the last week or so, which means I sometimes wake up coughing violently. Also Ford's night terrors have picked up again. :-/ But I can't blame any lack of sleep on the pregnancy, so that's certainly something to be grateful for.

Movement: She's just so busy! Ford was a wild man in the womb, and this little one is living up to her brother's legacy! I noticed the other day that I hadn't felt a kick for about an hour and got worried. Then I realized that an hour is no big deal, but I've just become accustomed to CONSTANT movement! This morning at the doctor's office she was making my shirt move with all her kicks.

Symptoms: Y'all. Ugh. LEG VEINS. OMG!!!!!! I knew this could happen, but I was hoping I was just gifted in the vascular department. But alas, I have two nasty looking veins on the backs of both of my knees. Big ones. I asked Dr. Norwood what I could do, and he told me I need to get compression stockings! Ahhhhh! He also said this was super common, and I insisted that I didn't have anything like this with my first pregnancy. He said it's a lot more common with second pregnancies and that it will get worse with every pregnancy after this one. Guess I've got to say goodbye to cute skirts for the next several years until my childbearing days are over. Then I'm getting total reconstructive surgery on my legs. Mark my words (kidding... sort of... but not really).

Belly button: So out. It's been an outtie since I was, I don't know, 15 weeks? Before I was even really showing. It popped way early with Ford too. With him I had to tape it down with masking tape so it wasn't a huge distraction through my clothes, and I'm close to that point with baby girl. I guess I have a shallow belly button! 

Food cravings: I don't know. What makes a craving a craving, anyway? Sometimes certain things sound good, but that's true whether I'm pregnant or not. I haven't had anything that makes me want to stop what I'm doing and procure said food item. Some foods I've been enjoying a lot lately are apples and peanut butter (I LOVE apples this time of year), roasted Brussels sprouts, oatmeal with raisins and honey, boiled eggs (I end up eating a lot to try to get up to the right amount of daily protein I need), avocado toast... I also was really excited to find the LAST pint of Ben & Jerry's Cannoli ice cream at Central Market! This is a limited batch that has been highly hyped but very hard to find. And it did not disappoint. SO GOOD!

Gender: Sweet Baby Girl!
What I miss? Randomly -- and maybe THIS should go under cravings -- but cider! Not like a big gallon of apple cider with cinnamon, but like the 4-5% alcohol kind served in a cold bottle! Kind of embarrassing that I miss an alcoholic beverage, but mmmm, I do. Just keeping it real.

What I'm looking forward to? Spending time with family over the holidays. Looks like we will be spending a good 10+ days in San Antonio/Boerne. I'll enjoy the slower, more leisurely pace, and the help with Ford! 

Big Brother: At almost 16 months, he's just the cutest hot mess I ever saw. From minute to minute he alternates between incessant whining and the biggest belly laughs. A toddler in every way! He has so much personality, saying TONS of words (including please and thank you, unprompted!), and loves running as fast as he can, especially if someone is "chasing" him. He's actually getting hard to keep up with when he's really running! Maybe I'm just getting slower (ha ha). He LOVES babies, often pointing them out while we run errands or read books ("Bay! Beeeee!"), but I don't think he understands that he is going to be a big brother.

I can't believe how quickly the weeks are flying by!

Bump Watch

Partly because I don't have as much time, or patience, and partly because my tummy is not as cute after having carried a baby to term plus one week, I'm not going to be doing the same type of belly shots I did last time (always in the same outfit, against the same wall, with my skin showing, etc.). But here are a couple of shots of The Bump this go-around!

 

Almost 21 weeks -- I HATE the way I look in this picture (!), but for the sake of humility, here you go.

23 weeks -- Working out at the gym during Thanksgiving week to offset the extra calories in advance!

Anatomy Ultrasound

Today’s anatomy ultrasound was a little bit anticlimactic, given that we got the Baby Girl Gaultney news last week, but it was still such a treat for Brad and I to get to peek at the little lady together! We kept our cards close to the vest and didn’t tell the technician that we already knew the baby’s sex. We weren’t dishonest about it, but we didn’t volunteer the info. I figure my doctor and the ultrasound tech must have a little bit of fun getting to have a part in the “surprise,” so why take the wind out of their sails?

Still, I can never hear, “The baby looks great!” enough, so it was so much fun. They saw all of the good things they wanted to see – four chambers of the heart, three vessels in the umbilical cord, a high posterior placenta (the ideal placement), two halves of the brain… all of that good stuff. I will try to post the ultrasound video later (we got a DVD at no cost, hooray!).

Brad had to leave right after the ultrasound, so the doctor-patient part of my visit, I did solo. I used the opportunity to have a little heart to heart with Dr. Norwood. First of all, I love love love my doctor. From everything I can tell, and I’m a pretty good judge of character, he is a good man. And he likes me a lot. He says I’m his favorite patient (I’m sure he tells a lot of his patients that, but still), we have wonderful conversations, we both love art, we both live in East Dallas, we’re both July babies… I know all of this sounds silly, but I genuinely like him as a person.

But I really needed to clear the air. When I hit the 40-week mark with Ford, I started to feel a lot of pressure from Dr. Norwood to induce, even though the baby and I were healthy and everything was going fine. And you may remember, he felt quite sure that I would need a C-section anyway (praise God, I didn’t). He didn’t deliver Ford because he wasn’t on call, but the day after Ford was born, Dr. Norwood told me he would have been “sharpening the knives” pretty early on. Just altogether very discouraging and frustrating to hear. I had “interviewed” Dr. N when I was 8 weeks pregnant with Ford to make sure we were on the same page about birth – avoiding C-section unless really necessary, and not inducing until 42 weeks… and even then, not just shooting me up with Pitocin…

Since this is the halfway point of my pregnancy, I am starting to think more about what the birth of baby numero dos will be like. And I can’t stand the idea of ending this pregnancy the way the last one did – with fear, frustration, discouragement and sadness. Even though my birth experience the first time around was wonderful, the week before was tough. Toward the end of my appointment today, I shared my concerns with Dr. Norwood. To paraphrase a line from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, he couldn’t have been more surprised if he woke up with his head stapled to the carpet. He said we must have had a serious misunderstanding because he never would want to make a mother feel pressured to induce unless there were a good medical reason. I reminded him that he scheduled my induction date, and I just happened to go into labor the day before I was to be induced. He apologized and said we must have just gotten our wires crossed, and that usually it’s the other way around… Around 38 weeks, women come in with a gun to his head demanding that he induce them, and he has to tell them “no.” I said, “Good, because I really trust my body and I don’t want to put myself at a greater risk of having a C-section,” and he said, “Yes, I think that’s about the sixth time you’ve said that… I think I understand.” Haha.

So I feel better about things. I’m still not sure what happened last time, but I am more confident that Dr. N and I are on the same page. And if I need to, I do feel like I could switch to his partner, Dr. McCants, who delivered Ford and was extremely patient with me. After today, though, I don’t think it will come to that.

Ultrasound video and pictures soon!

Profile comparison

This is from my gender reveal ultrasound at El Centro - Ford is on the top at 20 weeks, baby girl is on the bottom at 19 weeks and some change. So fun to compare their profiles!

The Gender Reveal

The verdict is in! Baby Gaultney No. 2 is a GIRL!

But wait – our anatomy ultrasound isn’t until November 1. So how do I know the sex, you ask? Well why don’t I just tell you!

Our five-year anniversary was on Saturday, October 27. We had big plans for celebrating in San Antonio, the city where we got married. I had won a two-night stay with valet parking at the Westin Riverwalk, and Brad made us a bunch of reservations at really fun and yummy and occasionally shi-shi restaurants. Yay!

I wanted to get Brad a really good gift, but he doesn’t particularly love/need “stuff.” He likes experiences. So after I tried to get him a couple of anniversary “experience” gifts that fell through (a pack of Crossfit training sessions was one, but I won’t tell you the other in case I try to resurrect it later), I thought, “Hey, he’s so eager to know the sex of the baby – what if there’s a way we can find out early?” I contacted El Centro Community College, which has an ultrasound school, and after a few emails, I had an appointment to come see the clinical director for an ultrasound! Since it didn’t work with my timeframe to do one in the classroom for instruction purposes (I wanted to do the appointment before October 27, but they didn’t have an ultrasound class until October 29), I had to pay $35. But all of that money goes toward student enrichment programs, and it is a very reasonable price compared to an ultrasound at a doctor’s office or at a vanity ultrasound place. So on Tuesday, October 23, I secretly went to El Centro for my appointment. Brad watched Ford while I “ran an errand.” The technician could not have been sweeter, and she spent TONS of time with me! She showed me the baby’s face in 3D, the heart, the cord, bloodflow, kidneys, bladder, hands, feet… everything! It was such a beautiful moment. Then when it got to the gender part, I looked away and she wrote the sex in a greeting card I had brought. She also sealed up all of the pictures inside.

In the interest of full disclosure, at the beginning of the ultrasound she was calling the baby “he, him,” etc. I asked if she was hinting at something and she said, “Oh no, I always call babies ‘he.’” Then after the part where she identified the sex, she started saying “she, her” and so forth. So I had an inkling, but I didn’t want to start thinking a certain way.

I had planned to wait until October 27 before telling Brad about the card. I had these visions of us walking along the San Antonio Riverwalk or sitting at a fun restaurant, and I would just pop out the card and say, “Here’s your gift!” But within about 20 minutes of me getting home that afternoon following my visit to El Centro, I couldn’t stand not knowing. I asked Brad if he wanted his anniversary present early. He said, “sure.” So I asked him if he knew what it was, and he said he thought so. So I asked him if it was a big present or a small present. He said “medium.” Then I asked him, “If you could know RIGHT NOW if we’re having a boy or a girl, would you want to know?” That caught him totally off guard! He said yes, so I handed him the card. He peeked inside, we saw the words “Sweet Baby Girl!” and started jumping up and down and cheering. Of course, that totally freaked Ford out, so the celebration calmed down pretty quickly.

It was so fun to find out together like that. And we are so excited to welcome a sweet baby GIRL in March! Bring on the ruffles and bows!