update: 23 weeks

i'm twenty-three weeks.

weight? i have no clue how much weight i've gained. my scale shot craps so i'm flying in the dark over here.  i wish i did know so i could tell if i need to reign in all the cookies i've been eating. i feel like i've gained a lot - - my bump had definitely popped out.

cravings?  i had some caffeine-free pepsi over the weekend and it was like christmas.  delicious. i'm still loving cereal and anything chocolate.  on the flip side, i cannot get enough of carrots with ranch dip.  i'm hoping that balances out all the junk.  right?  right.

side effects? by this time during my pregnancy with brette i was dying of back pain.  i can thankfully say that this time has been completely different. i do get some pain, but i'm so hyper aware of it, i can catch it before it gets out of control. she is kicking A LOT, which i hate.  i know it sounds weird, but i really hate the flips and punches.  its uncomfortable and it feels like you can't get off the roller coaster.  i have also had some swelling of my left leg on the days i work.  i don't know if it's the way i'm sitting or what, but its the same leg i had trouble with when i had brette. once i get home and relax it goes away.

baby? according to my baby books, the baby will have broken the 1 pound mark by now. wahoo!  i can officially blame a pound of my weight on her.  and she is about 8 inches long - butt to brain. she also has eyebrows, eyelashes and some hair. i hope this little one comes out with as much hair as brette did because i love how much hair brette already has.  makes her that much more adorable.

preparations? i made a list of the things i need for baby two.  a lot of stuff i already have, but we need a crib, mattress, another monitor - - stuff like that.  we haven't started the nursery or anything but i'm dying to get started.  i hope i can talk ronnie into starting that real soon.  i have some really cute ideas.

the best thing? i can still fit in my dresses and people insist that i'm still small, even though i don't feel like it.

the worst thing?  i'm already tired of being pregnant.  i'm such a whiner, i know. but seriously, i have to do this until the end of july.  that seems so far away. i'm ready to have my body back.

 

 

 

me at 22 weeks with brette.



daycare

we've had a little schedule change in the

last month that's effected ronnie and brette's day together.

for almost a year ronnie has been working 4 - 10 hour days

and he spent his fridays off with b while i work.

recently, his schedule changed back to a regular 5 day work week.

i was sad to lose his free day.

it gave him a chance to have some one on one time with brette

and he always had a three day weekend to get stuff done.

i wasn't willing to have my mom watch her two days a week.

her and my dad always have her on mondays,

then my mom watches brian's girls on tuesdays,

so it felt like she would have no life outside her granddaughters

if i had her come up on fridays too

and i didn't think that was fair.

so i did the unthinkable.

i put brette in an at-home daycare one day a week.

you guys,

i know she's going on two,

but it was still hard for me.

i don't like it.

the first day we took her was only a half day,

and the next week she spent a full nine hours there.

when ronnie picked her up he said she was in the best mood ever.

he thinks she needed a little bit of a social life.

say what?

i am super fun, so don't know what he's talking about.

but that did make me feel better about leaving her there.

plus our lady that watches her sends me pics,

which of course totally helps.

brette talks about her little friend there

and their dog, so

i know she likes it,

but it feels weird to leave her with someone i don't really know.

i guess this is just something i'm going to have to get used to

and honestly, its probably good for both of us.

 

can you imagine me working full-time?

i'd be a mess.

 

here's a few pics i've gotten while she's there

 

 

bumpdate

 

i'm growing over here

and i finally busted out a pair of maternity jeans.

i was only wearing leggings, yoga pants or dresses

and my choices of outfits were limited.

 

i guess its time to step into maternity-wear.

 

week 21

 

week 22

both shirts via ronnie's closet.

i'm only sporting maternity clothes on bottom,

for now.

127 days to go...

st patty's weekend

i've had a good couple of weekends

with my girlfriends.

this last weekend marge (my college roommate)

came down to visit shannon and i

with her two boys, crosby and cohen.

we met for lunch and took all the kids

to the st. patrick's day parade.

this time next year,

we will have added two more babies to the group so

i doubt we'll be going anywhere.

 

 

 

we followed up the parade with a fun

afternoon and evening at my house.

ronnie was busy doing yard work,

which suited the kids just fine.

they each took multiple rides on

his lap around the yard on our mower.

big. hit.

and i think ronnie dug it too.

and they did a wonderful job

of de-piling ronnie's leaf pile.

poor brette wasn't feeling very well

so by the time everyone left after dinner,

she passed out for the rest of the night.

 

 

i miss margie.

wish st. louis was a little bit closer.

 

 

the girls

my mom watches madeline and eden on tuesdays

and since i'm back in lee's summit,

we normally spend a few hours together so brette can play with her cousins.

we've gone to chik-fil-a,

they've come here,

i've gone there.

it's fun, it keeps us busy

and it keeps the girls entertained.

this last tuesday mom dressed all the girls

in matching outfits she bought them for christmas and

i tried my hardest to get a good picture.

its like herding cats.

i don't think i ever got a great shot of all three

but i did manage to get some great ones individually.

our blue-eyed beauties.

 madeline

eden

brette

and this was as good as it gets:

it helped to offer chocolate cadbury eggs, fyi.

her own team

my friend shannon is working on building her own team.

with two adorable kids already

and one on the way,

she will have a five person basketball team ready this spring.

our girlfriends met at my house on saturday

to throw her a surprise sprinkle.

she isn't finding out the sex,

so she got a lot of diapers and wipes,

which anyone knows,

is super helpful.

this was also a playdate of sorts

because we had six kids under six here.

can you imagine this fall when we have eight?

we will officially be out numbered.

it was loud and crazy, but surprisingly stress-free.

we ordered in food which made it easy on everyone.

and even though everyone showed up around 11:30,

the last few didn't leave until 5:30.

all day baby showers.

it's just the way we roll.

 

congrats, shannie,

can't wait to meet another glover!

 

(kiddos eating lunch)

 

(the adult table)

 

(present time)

 

(brette and charlotte w dana) 

 

 (the boys)

(our gross [inherited] sandbox.

add it to the list of projects)

 

 (outdoor playtime was a little muddy)

 

(brette is obsessed with reese)

 

potty training

if you remember,

we started putting brette on a potty at 10 months.

we pretty much had her pooped trained,

but nowhere near full-on diaper free.

i would like to start stock-piling diapers for our next little one,

but my goal is to only buy diapers for one child at a time.
so brette's diaper days needed to be over.

my friend shannon,

who is going on her third kid,

and therefor an expert,

potty trained her kids using the

3 day training method by Lora Jensen.

when she sent it to me,

it said the ideal age is 21 months.

so i waited until march and decided to give it a shot.

lucky for me i have off every tuesday, wednesday, thursday,

and since my schedule was pretty clear last week,

we started it up.

my plan:

stay downstairs where there is no carpet.

pee = a sticker

poop = a piece of chocolate

 

day one:

morning was awful.

i bought a ton of little panties and by

lunch we had gone through a dozen of them.

i'm not kidding.

12 accidents.

i felt like she was peeing every 3 minutes and

it was nowhere near the potty.

i hated life and pretty much spent the morning

with my eyes glued to her,

on my hands and knees cloroxing the floors.

then she peed her bed at nap.

so i started my first (of many) loads of laundry.

after nap was much better.

she would actually tell me if she had to go and

she only had three accidents.

that helped me not want to kill myself.

ps- she peed the bed that night.

 

 

 

day two:

we started it off with more laundry from the night before,

but only ONE accident all morning.

it was while she was in her highchair eating breakfast

and i think she was distracted...

or hungry.

plus i felt like she could go longer.

we weren't rushing to the toilet all. the. time.

we had my ultrasound that afternoon

so i cheated and put her in a diaper.

(don't tell)

by the time we got home she was asleep so

she also napped in her diaper.

at least it gave me a break from cleaning sheets.

and again, only one accident that afternoon/evening.

night two, she peed the bed.

more laundry.

 

day three:

one accident in the morning.

she shit her pants.

dang it.

it was her first time pooping in her pants,

and i didn't think it was going to be an issue for us

because of all the prior potty training she had done.

but with only one accident,

i can't complain.

AND she didn't pee the bed at nap.

i felt like i had won.

no accidents the rest of the day.

but she peed her bed that night.

 

ps- day four no accidents at all.

day five one accident but we had a playdate

with five other kids, so i don't blame her.

day six no accidents

day seven no accidents.

day eight one accident.

 

side notes:

for bedtime i ended up not giving her anything to drink

for two hours before we put her down.

i also make sure she has gone to the potty at least 2-3

times before i lay her down.

in the end,

i got frustrated and started putting diapers on her

(just for bedtime, not for nap)

and she actually woke up completely dry yesterday,

but not today.

i think i'll continue to use diapers/pull-ups at night

until she can consistently stay dry.

as for nap,

we have not had any accidents since the first day.

she can sleep three hours and still not pee.

its pretty impressive.

but once again,

she doesn't get anything to drink an hour before nap

and she goes potty at least twice beforehand.

as for outings,

brette does pretty well.

i try to make sure not to load her with liquids

beforehand and i always put her on the potty right

before we leave.

i also always pack the potty ring,

so if we're at the store and she needs to go,

i can still take her.

ps- she totally peed at target.

knock on wood, but we have had no accidents

in her carseat or when we're out.

 

my newest problem is she doesn't really want to use the potty anymore.

i think she's over it.

in fact,

we had TWO accidents this morning. (day nine)

more than we've had since day one.

i'm going to try switching up from stickers to something else.

maybe M&Ms. 

 

to wrap up,

i did like this method.

if you can get past the first day,

it does get easier.

whatever you decide to do,

potty training is constant and tiring.

but i am so happy not to buy diapers anymore.


scratch that.
i'm happy that i'm not buying double the diapers.
back to newborn sizes.
 

not just my kids, but my girls.

the news is in.

we're having another little girl.

that's four for four on the turner side

and three for four on the cox side.

lots and lots of girls.

 

of course this means that this little one

is doomed to a life of hand-me-downs

and trying to keep up with her older sister.
i've heard sister fights can be pretty brutal too.

(but speaking from experience,
she would have fought with her brother just as much.)

it also means that she will have a big sister to talk

to about boys, make-up, clothes and in case of emergency,

borrow a tampon or a pair of shoes.

and who knows,

they might even trade secrets and be best friends.

a mom can dream, right?

 

i'm really excited to give these two girls a
lifelong buddy.

a forever playmate.
an accomplice.
a listening ear.
a partner in crime.
a helping hand.
a sister.

 

it should be awesome.

 

 

 

gender neutral

i've been thinking a lot about the sex of this little baby.

will it be a boy or a girl?

of course last time, i tried my best to be open to having a girl,

especially because in my dreams it was always a girl.

and low and behold,

that's what i got.

i haven't had a dream about this baby yet,

so i don't have any clues,

but its no secret i always envisioned myself with boys.

don't get me wrong.

brette is the sweetest, happiest best little girl i could have asked for.

but i'm not worried about 1 year old brette,

i'm worried about 15 year old brette.

teenage girls are scary.

but with that said,

i'm kind of hoping this next little one is a girl too.

say what?

i know. i know.

i still love the thought of having a little boy,

but i think it will be easier to have another girl.

we have all the clothes, toys, blankets... e v e r y t h i n g  girl.

lots of pink.

not to mention that this one will have brette,

eden and madeline as playmates.

can you imagine if its a boy?

this kid will be doomed to a life of princess parties and dress up clothes.

of course i think throwing a boy into the mix would be cool too.

and i have a weird feeling that it is a boy,

so who knows. 

luckily we find out SOON, as in tomorrow,

so stay tuned! 

anyone have a guess?

 

 

brette moments

everyday she does something that makes me laugh.

weird little things.

weird little sayings.

or songs.

dances.

something.

and its too much to remember it all

or document,

but here is a moment last week:

brette is smelling her feet and then dying laughing.

she thought she was pretty funny.

and the other night we were eating pizza

and she was having the best time.

loving her food and apparently,

johnny cash too.
 

(ignore ronald in the background.

we're still not quite used to having cable around here.

we relied on music for so long, now its kind of a habit.)

 

 

 

 

hope you enjoy my baby girl

as much as we do!

 



another trip to the hospital

as of two years ago i had never been in the hospital.

no injuries.

no broken bones.

then i went to the hospital to have brette,

and all of a sudden i've been visiting,

what seems like, pretty regularly.

here's the story of our latest trip to the ER:

 

around 3am i woke up with pains in my back and stomach.

i thought i had to go to the bathroom (tmi? sorry.)

but it just got worse and worse.

i literally rolled around my bathroom for an hour and a half.

then i puked.

so i finally woke up ronnie around 4:30 and told him

i was in crazy pain and i was sick.

since we didn't know if it was baby related,

we decided not to take any chances and head to the ER.

i was seriously nervous that they were going to tell me

it was just gas pains or something stupid,

but the pain was intense i felt like i had no choice.

luckily, my mom had spent the night because she had

to watch brain's girls the next day so we put

her in charge of B and headed out the door.

i got right in, no long wait in the waiting room, thank god.

they immediately diagnosed me with kidney stones.

not able to pee.

huge pain that goes from my back to my stomach.

tenderness in my back.

but the bad news is,

you just have to let stones pass.

and normally they give you some crazy good pain meds.

but since i'm pregnant they were nervous about what to give me.

so while they tried different concoctions i laid there in pain.

they did an ultersound and checked the fetal heart rate,

all which looked good.

since they couldn't get my pain under control,

they admitted me and sent me up to a room.

they hooked me up to a morphine machine and kept it

pumping until i couldn't feel much of anything anymore.

and they decided to keep me overnight.

i was finally able to pee around 3pm and

even though the pain wasn't better,

they said it was a good sign.

i met with a urologist a couple times and two different OBs.

everyone had a different opinion about what was actually wrong,

but in the end,

i stopped the morphine around 2am and relied on tylenol.

they released me the next morning with two different diagnosis:

the urologist thinks i had kidney stones which i passed.

the OB thinks my uterus had expanded cutting off my urethra

not allowing my urine to go from my kidneys to my bladder.

in which case, i would have the same symptoms as kidney stones.

so who knows.

i don't really care as long as the pain stays away.

so i lost a couple days sleeping in the hospital and

then sleeping at home,

but i feel back to myself now.

my sister-n-law stopped by with a balloon and magazine

and my sister-cousin (a new breed we've discovered in our family)
 brought over homemade soup,

bread, reese's peanut butter cups and flowers.

 

um, thank you.

 

i feel much better and hopefully i won't

be visiting the hospital again until i'm going into labor.
it's my new goal.