Weekend Rewind?

So I'm not going to do a weekend rewind for last weekend.  It was rainy.  Matt was out of town.  It doesn't feel like the weekend if we don't get to pal around with Matt.  Weekend errands aren't as fun without Matt to talk to... I run errands without him all during the week.  Don't get me wrong, the weekend was fine.  It had it's long/lonely moments (like waiting 1 hour and 20 minutes for our pizza to be delivered?), but he made it to Baltimore and back just fine.  We even got to all go to church together on Sunday because Matt got home late Saturday night.

What have we been up to this week?  What thoughts are rolling around in my head?

• I am 33+ weeks pregnant today.  I feel like Anna Reaghan is definitely growing!  My stomach is getting harder and harder as she fills out more and more space.  Knock on wood, I'm still not feel digging into ribs or anything like you usually hear.  She hopefully will follow Asa's lead and have plenty of room inside my 6 ft. tall frame. ;)
• I am still wearing pre-pregnancy jeans.  I'm not sure if this speaks more of how much too big they were before I got pregnant (Asa was still nursing, my weight fluctuated a bit as a result, and I didn't want to buy new pants until he was done nursing and I could see what size I settled at), Anna Reaghan riding higher than Asa did (I think I had switched to jeans the next size up with him at this point).  I mean, I'm sitting crossed legged on the couch, and I have the top button of my jeans undone for comfort, but that's it!  It kind of boggles my mind, because I KNOW she's growing and I look pregnant.  The doctor even thinks Anna Reaghan might end up a few ounces bigger than Asa was (although, who knows!).
• Further proof that the pants thing is really weird:  Today for the first time in this pregnancy I noticed new little stretch mark extensions.  There are 2-3 places stretch marks (which I didn't get until the verrrrry end of Asa's pregnancy) from my first pregnancy have grown by the tiniest margin (think 1 cm).  Anyway, I know some women really worry about stretch marks.  Honestly, I'm not planning on ever wearing a bikini or anything that would show the stretch marks, so it doesn't bother me too much.  I just find it interesting in light of how many of my maternity clothes are still too big.  Again, maybe I'm carrying ARK higher, and so the skin is stretching (earlier) in different places than it did with Asa?  Beats me!
• I CAN WASH DISHES AGAIN!!  The disposal up and quit working a few days ago.  Matt used the handy-dandy hex key to free the motor, but it bound right back up with just WATER running through it.  Our landlord agreed to let us pick one up and Matt installed it tonight.  We were at the point where the kitchen sink was not draining well if we ran any water down it, so I have a HUGE stack of dishes, pots, and pans to wash.  I have to pat myself on the back that when nesting is really, really hitting (I cleaned the laundry room floor on my hands and knees this week b/c it just bothered me suddenly), I have stayed really calm and relaxed about piles of dirty dishes mounting in the dishwasher, on the counters, and slowly running out of clean pots and pans to use.  I am really excited to run the dishwasher tomorrow (we thought it was connected to the disposal, but during the installation tonight Matt determined it is not after all) and let my pots and pans soak before scrubbing them clean and washing everything away!  Woo hoo!!!
• Asa has said some funny things lately.  Matt carpools with a coworker named Simon most days.  Several times early in the arrangement Asa would become rather confused that Matt's car was still in the garage (on days Simon drove) but Matt was not home.  I just told him Daddy was at work but he rode with Mr. Simon.  Now every morning Asa tells me, "Dada work... Simon."  Tonight Matt ran to get the disposal and I was putting Asa to bed while he was still at the store.  Asa told me, "Dada... bye... Simon."  Apparently, Matt & Simon go EVERYWHERE together. :)  As I mentioned, I ordered pizza for dinner last Friday when Matt was gone so we could have an easy dinner and even have left overs later in the weekend.  I ordered it online, and I do believe Asa was sitting next to me on the couch when I did that.  This afternoon I was checking weather radar online to see if it was clear to run to the grocery store (we could hear lightning), and Asa told/asked me, "Order pizza."  He only saw me do that once!  He kept insisting that we order pizza while we were online.
• Asa recently noted that on a set of magnets he has, you can see men operating construction vehicles.  He now checks pictures of trucks for "men," puts all sorts of little figures into his cars and trucks so they have "men," and he even took a sticker of a "man" (it was a knight), stuck it right over the cab of a bulldozer sticker, and told me the "dozer" now had a "man."  Loooove all the connections he's making and how his play (LOOOVE imaginative play!) is becoming more and more elaborate.  He is changing and learning and growing at lightning speed right now.  It's amazing, oh so fun, and it keeps us giggling a LOT of the time to see how he sees the world and pieces things together. :)
• Anna Reaghan was RIDICULOUSLY active for about 1-1.5 hours straight this evening.  Nonstop, LARGE movements (some borderline painful as, well, she can't just bust out through my stomach... as much as she was trying).  The constant movement was wild.  It was followed by a short time of hiccups, and then she must have gone to sleep.  It's interesting to me to note her patterns.  Asa's evening active times in the womb definitely correlated with his active/awake times as a newborn.
• Lastly I'll close with the news that we checked on our little robin family tonight, and the baby birds have hatched!  It rained a bit yesterday (the first day in the window of expected hatching), so I didn't check then.  Tonight we saw three little birdies with necks outstretched and beaks uplifted when their mom hopped away as we approached.  Asa's eyes got SO big when he realized the nest had tiny birds in it, and he asked where the eggs went.  We will try to get a picture tomorrow.  I'm so glad all the birds hatached!  We have about 2 weeks they'll live here before they learn to fly and take off!

Anna Reaghan's Room

Anna Reaghan's room is still lacking the wall art we have planned, but we finally moved the glider into her room and rearranged the furniture.  I figured enough of her room was in place that we ought to give you a sneak peek. :)

This is your view to the left as you walk through the doorway.  You are seeing the changing table immediately on your left, past that is the glider, then the new table, closet door, and the curtains we made (going counter-clockwise)

Straight in front of you as you walk through the doorway:  crib and curtains.  A bookcase will be going in the "blank" wall space between these two.

A better view of the reading/rocking/nursing area :)

Better view of the changing table wall

Standing in front of the window looking back at the doorway

This is the basket I found on clearance at JoAnn's and made a liner for which matches the curtains

Anna Reaghan's crib

Another view

Dresser drawers:  sleepers, onesies, and swaddling blankets

bibs, shoes, socks, tights, and hair bows, oh my!

A peek in Anna Reaghan's closet

Asa checking out Anna Reaghan's bed

He's dancing with her owls

Showing Anna Reaghan how to lay down in bed :)

;)

Pregnancy Update: 29 weeks

I can't believe we're just a week away from the "30s."  It is unbelievable!  With Asa, hitting a 3 in the tens place really felt like we were on the home stretch.  I can't quite wrap my head around already being that far with Anna Reaghan, but I can feel that we're getting closer. ;)  It also makes me tear up just to peer into her room and imagine a tiny baby in our home, hearts, and lives again.  What a gift!!

Here's the down on how things are going...

How Far Along: 29 weeks

Maternity Clothes: I can wear some of my smaller maternity clothes without looking like I have a tent on, but I don't *have* to wear them.  I'm using the rubber band trick on my regular jeans (as of 2 weeks ago)... it makes them a smidge too big when I'm standing and walking around but just right for sitting. :)  Regular shirts.  I was the same way with Asa. :) (I wear maternity shirts/dresses when I want to accentuate Anna Reaghan's presence, like at her baby shower last weekend). 

Movement: Anna Reaghan is moving more and more.  She made me eat my words and gets hiccups frequently--I had previously commented that Asa had them all the time (at least twice/day at this point) and she never had them.  Ha ha.  She continues to be shy and stops moving the minute I put my hand on my stomach to feel her acrobatics from the outside.  But she is moving aplenty!
Position:  judging by the hiccups, I THINK she is head down, but I'm not sure.  If she is, hopefully she'll stay that way! :)

We heard the heartbeat again at our appointment on Friday.  It thump-thumped loud and strong at 145 bpm.  I get the impression our doctor does not think she'll be bigger than Asa (especially since he "cooked" 2 extra weeks).  So the current guess is that Anna Reaghan will weigh in the mid- to high 7s.

Heartburn has been present since earlier on than with Asa and it has taken up residence full time. :)  How fun if she has as much hair as Asa did--hairbows from the very start!  But we have some stretchy handbands to clip bows to if she doesn't have enough/much hair. ;)  We're bringing the Southern bows to NE Ohio either way!  I can now occasionally eat spaghetti (I never know ahead of time if it will sound good, but if it does sound palatable it's yummy)--Matt has rejoiced about that.  I am loving seeing Anna Reaghan's room coming together and can't wait to post pics to share with you.

We're all doing fine and praising God for no complications--easy and smooth so far, just like Asa.  I'm starting to slow down a smidge and trying to listen to my body's nudges to sit down when I need to and get back to taking a short nap while Asa naps.

Thank you for your excitement and prayers as we prepare to welcome Anna Reaghan into our arms and family.  We can't tell you how much we appreciate it!

Anna Reaghan's Room

We are starting to piece together decisions about Anna Reaghan's room.  At this point, I USUALLY change Asa's diaper on the floor.  It's easier than hoisting him up onto the changing table, and he's really pretty long for the changing table now that he's 20 months old (eek!).  Anna Reaghan, on the other hand, will be much lighter and smaller and fit on the changing table just right. ;)  So we decided that our current changing table AND crib will be in Anna Reaghan's room.  They are a matching set that was passed down to us from one of my mom's friends, and it's not just that they're the same wood stain or something.  They are an antique white with beadboard ends and some stars and moons carved in the end of the crib and drawers of the changing table/dresser.

That meant we needed to decide where Asa would sleep.  As I mentioned on Friday, he loves his bed!  I have several friends having babies about 2 years apart, and I think the majority of them are moving their firstborn to a bigger bed.  I just didn't want to add that transition to Asa's life in addition to moving and adding a baby to the family.  And I didn't want to take a crib from him when he's so happy there AND safe--if I am nursing Anna Reaghan in the morning or after a nap when Asa wakes up, I know he'll enjoy playing in his crib with his sound machine and lovies until I can get to him.  We decided to get another crib.  Then there is NO pressure to get Asa switched and acclimated, no battles about staying in bed when I'm either 1) tired from being pregnant or 2) tired from being up with a newborn.  I found several options I thought looked nice and showed them to Matt.  This is the crib he liked the best.

It has been ordered, and Asa will go ahead and start sleeping in it when we move into the new house.  It's shaped and styled very similarly to Asa's crib, but in a wood finish instead of antique white.  I love having solid ends on his current crib and really wanted them again.  It makes it easier to sneak it and check on resting little ones without being spotted. ;)

We also decided on bedding for Anna Reaghan's room.  Back when we were deciding what to do with Asa's room, we liked working around a theme that included birds whether we had a boy or a girl.  We chose woodland forest animals for Asa's room, as you know. :)  We are continuing with more birds and trees by using this bedding for Anna Reaghan's room.

I plan/hope to recreate the tree mural I made in Asa's nursery in Florida, but on a piece of cloth this time.  We can hang it nicely on the wall or "frame" it with wooden moldings, but that way it can move with us/we don't have to repaint since we don't own the house we're moving to. ;)  Anna Reaghan can have some bird houses like Asa did, and I'm sure we'll find some soft, feminine touches to finish off her room as well.

Our glider will start in Asa's room when we move in but slide down the hall to Anna Reaghan's room before she comes.  In the meantime, we're looking for a comfy upholstered chair for Asa's room so we'll still have a nice little reading nook--he LOVES to read!  We need to find another little side table, touch lamp, and maybe another small bookcase as well, but we might be able to arrange the our other bookshelves such that we can move one we already have to one of the kids' rooms.

There's a snippet for you!  I'm excited to see what other decor we come across for Anna Reaghan's room like we did for Asa's.  I'm debating making curtains for her room like I did for Asa's.  We'll see how the unpacking and settling in goes--i.e. how far along I am when I have time to get to it. :)  And it would be fun to find a beanbag animal or something like that for her room like Asa has his raccoon.  We'll be sure to post pictures when we really have the room coming together!

The Background

We obviously announced here on the blog that we are expecting another baby, but we didn't give you any background or "how we told so-and-so" stories.  Here you go. ;)  Somewhat for those who might be curious, more for the sake of recording such stories for our children, showing how God works and moves and provides. :)

I have to admit I stressed a LOT about when the "right" time to try to have another baby was.  For whatever reason--mostly pressure I put on myself I'm sure--I felt like people expect young families to have children 2 years apart.  Ever since we moved to Ohio I have been asked, "Do you like being a mom?  Do you want more?"  And the way the, "Do you want more?" is asked kind of comes across more-often-than-not with a tone of "if you don't want more soon, you must not really like kids.... or at least the baby-stage."  At least that's the way hyper-sensitive me received it. ;)  At the same time, I seemed to run into a lot what *I* felt like was glorification/martyrdom of having "two under two."  I knew that was not something I wanted to try for, but it seemed like all the cool kids were doing it and patting themselves on the back for signing up for such a hard job. ;)  On top of alllll that, we had Asa's health to consider as he was FINALLY on track with his growth.  He's on the picky side of little eaters, and he was still nursing.  I loved knowing that even on his pickier days, he was getting well-rounded nutrition from nursing.  And even though it's not a guarantee, it's not uncommon for a mom's milk supply to decrease with the hormonal changes that accompany pregnancy.  I felt very strongly about not jeopardizing that while Asa's palate was less adventurous.

Early in the fall, Asa started branching out and trying LOTS of new foods.  It was so exciting and gave me such peace that whenever nursing came to a close, he was getting lots of healthy variety from his diet regardless of mama's milk.  At that point we still were not trying to get pregnant, but it wasn't something I was so terribly concerned about the repercussions of should it happen.  Matt and I talked a lot about when we wanted to start trying, and I have to laugh now about a couple of comments I made.  #1  I said I realllllly didn't want to try in a timing that would give us "2 under 2."  We have little support system here since we just moved and that sounded overwhelming.  If God did it, we'd figure it out.  But it wasn't something I wanted to try for when I don't have any close friends here... pretty much acquaintances at this point.  #2  I felt overwhelmed by the "decision" in general.  When we talked about trying to get pregnant with Asa, it mostly affected Matt and me.  This time we were making a decision that would HUGELY impact someone's life who had no say in the matter--Asa.  I agonized over that.  At one point I told Matt, "I wish we would just get pregnant without really trying.  Then I would know it was all God's doing and no influence of my own."  Cue God listening verrrrrry closely to what I mused about aloud. ;)

I thought right away that we were pregnant.  Within a day or two of when we got pregnant I just had this feeling.  I just knew deep, deep down that a positive pregnancy test was in my very  near future.  Because of the method we choose to use for "family planning," I knew that most of the time we would both be aware of whether or not to expect I could be pregnant.  Everything happened a little "off schedule" the month I got pregnant, so Matt was CLUELESS that it was even in the realm of possibilities, and so was I until after everything already happened.  I figured this might be my only chance to ever COMPLETELY surprise him with a pregnancy announcement.  I didn't tell him that things happened earlier than usual and I could be pregnant.  I wondered to myself and tried not to reveal anything to Matt for almost 2 weeks.  It was soooo hard not to say anything!!  When I started having pregnancy symptoms, they only further confirmed my suspicions.  Then I took a pregnancy test.  Now comes the fun part. ;)

It was positive, of course.  I tried to decide how I wanted to tell Matt.  He called me out of the blue and said he wanted to go out to dinner to celebrate.  WHAT?  How did he know??  I asked him what we were celebrating, and he told me about a big milestone at work.  Whew!  I gladly agreed we should go out to dinner.  I set the positive pregnancy test on my dresser near one of Asa's matchbox cars, then I went downstairs to wait for Matt to get home.  When he got home, Matt was ready to go out right away.  I asked him to run up and grab Asa's car off my dresser so we'd have something to entertain him while we waited for our food.  He took Asa with him, and it became verrrrry, verrrry quiet upstairs.  Suddenly I heard him call from our bedroom, "What's this pregnancy test?"  I answered, "What do you think?"  He responded, "Well, you're not pregnant."  I said, "How do you know?"  At that point he told me he was really confused and coming back downstairs.  I was taping the whole exchange on video, although it's not a funny as I hoped since Matt was so confused. ;)  Apparently he thought I had pulled a positive test out from when I was pregnant with Asa for nostalgia's sake (?!?!).  It was pretty funny to see everything finally click and Matt realize this was a new test for a different baby! :)

Of course our little table of 3 +1 stowaway was abuzz over dinner with, "Oh my goodness!  Can you believe this?!  We're really having another baby!!"  Lots of shocked smiles for both of us.  In reality, it came only a couple of months before we talked about "trying," so I'm not sure why it was so shocking, but it was! :)

Let's review for just a moment:
#1 Becca says, "I don't to try for 2 under 2."  God's plan:  This baby is due a week and a half after Asa's 2nd birthday--ha!
#2 Becca says, "I wish we would get pregnant without actually trying."  God's plan:  got that covered, too. ;)

As surprising as it was, we are so thankful for this little life!  God has provided a patient and understanding husband as I've felt much more sick this time around and for much longer, despite that I've had more energy overall than I did with Asa.. which is sure helpful for keeping up with him!  We had a referral for a doctor we feel comfortable with.  I grieved not getting to deliver with my midwife in Florida again, but God has reminded me that everything is for a season.  And while we might not be getting the complete experience we loved with the midwives, the care we are getting from our very friendly and super well-educated, not c-section-happy OB who comes so highly recommended it's unbelievable is everything that's MOST important to us about prenatal care and delivery.  God has provided for our NEEDS (another recurring theme of this move.... wants vs. needs).  And just when the reality of living here 7+ months, still having only acquaintances, and being stuck inside most days during a frigid winter settled in, we found a Sunday school class to visit that seemed like a WONDERFUL fit last week.  Again--God provides.

Stay tuned for "How we told our families" :)

A Little Hello

We had two favorite moments yesterday at our doctor appointment. :)

1. First was seeing the baby moving all around.  My first ultrasound with Asa was at 20 weeks.  By that point, I could feel Asa moving regularly and knew there was a live baby kicking and jabbing.  I knew that even if there were an issue with the baby's development, it was alive inside me.  I have to admit, I was jealous of my friends with early ultrasounds.  To have that confirmation so early that the baby was alive and growing, whereas I waited weeks and months longer to feel Asa and know he was inside.  I thought my friends had it made.  I decided this time around, after we knew we were going to have an earlier ultrasound, that it's pretty scary to face an ultrasound when you DON'T know how the baby is!  I had no confirmation that we would see a live and moving baby on the screen.  It made me very anxious.  VERY anxious.  I had to keep reminding myself I could not change anything we would see and Who was ultimately in control.  The relief of seeing Matt's eyes light up (the screen was facing him but not me at first) the second the baby, moving all around, popped up on the screen was incredible.  We are so, very thankful.

2.  Something else happened the minute the baby was visible on the screen.  Asa excitedly said, "HIIIIIIII!!!" the minute he looked up and saw his little brother or sister.  It was absolutely precious and a moment neither Matt nor I will ever forget (and that we'll probably remind our children of later on down the road when they are less-than-fond of each other). :)  We already feel our love multiplying and can't believe Asa will be stepping into big brother shoes in 6 months!  I love my big brothers and I'm thankful to know our littlest one will have such a great big brother in Asa. :)  This is one blessed baby. :)

Wordless Wednesday

 

Lucious Lashes

This baby boy of ours

has long, dark




amazing lashes




that make this mommy's heart skip a beat


look out ladies...