36 weeks

PEEK-

Well we've had a laid back week with both Kincaid and I fighting a cold and cough.  I am just praying that I'll be healthy by the time baby makes his/her way into the world.  As it is, my lung capacity is diminished with less breathing room in the oven, but this cough has made it even worse!  I feel like I'm on the mend and my sinus headache that's made most of this week less than enjoyable, not to mention much more difficult to sleep, seems to have subsided as of last night.  Caid also seems to be coughing less and the runny nose is about gone.  Prayers we both heal up in the next week or so! 

Caid finally has been both eating and sleeping better!  Since his procedure at the end of January, we've been working hard to reestablish a good sleeping routine and working to get him to sleep through the night again.  He mastered climbing over the baby gate we kept at his door, so we've resorted to closing his door at night.  I'm happy to report that he no longer scrambles out of bed when we leave each night and he is sleeping straight through the night again.  So, those short spurts of tears and cries for momma were worth enduring for us all to get better rest!  

Kincaid has also become a master sharer this week. He has become much more willing to share bites of his food with Grace.  Perhaps that's because he's decided that it's okay to have a few bites here and there of Grace's food!  GROSS!!! When he ate her food the other day I wanted to throw up!  Ick!  So, we've been trying to prevent repeat attempts.  However, tonight we got home a little later than usual and I look over to see him munching on something knowing full well that neither Jon nor I had given him anything to eat since we were 5 minutes away from dinner time!  What could it be?? Yep, dog food AGAIN!   I suppose it could be worse, but seriously!

Now on to this 36 week visit!  We are so excited to have Baby VK join our family, BUT we also are cherishing our time together as we count down!  I'd really like to go full term because of work reasons, but we will just have to wait and see! I'm at the end of my 36th week, with Monday being the start of my 37th!   At my dr appointment today, baby's heart rate was 140 and I measured at 37 weeks.  So, growth seems to have evened out for now, which I'm great with since people seem to have no reservations about reminding me about just how pronounced by baby bump has become these last couple of weeks!  The other news to report is that dr said I'm dilated to 2, not quite 3.  So, progress and at an early pace than with Kincaid which I suppose isn't surprising since this is the second time around.  It does however make us a bit nervous, and we'll be stepping into high gear this weekend getting some of our final baby prep wrapped up!  

So, with 3 weeks to go, we are going to make the most of these last days with Kincaid as an only child!  We also put in his 2 week notice with child care today since Jon will be on spring break after that and then I'll be on maternity leave!  We'll miss having him play with all of the great kids there and learning from the awesome providers, but I'm excited to be home for a couple months with my two sweet kiddos (please remind of this when I'm sleep deprived and grumpy!)

-A-BOO!

35 Weeks!

Today I had my 35 week check up, and baby looks great!  Heart rate was 148 today, measuring at 36 weeks, I've gained 30 lbs, head is down, and I'm dilated to 1!  They did the Group Strep B test today, and that's about it!

I was curious how similar this visit was to when I was expecting Kincaid, so I did a little look back through our posts, and here is an excerpt from my 35 week appointment with Kincaid: 
    
             So, after the usual start to the appointment - blood pressure check, listening to the heart beat                     and measuring, here is where we're at:

• Heart rate - 128: an all-time low :)
• measured 36 weeks

                    Then we had the convo with the doc that I already mentioned followed by the exam. They                     did the Group B Strep test and the doc confirmed that the baby has started to drop and that                     I'm 1 cm dilated.

So, aside from a faster heart rate, things seem to be pretty similar!  Word on the street is that Kincaid told somebody he was having a sister!  So...we shall soon see!

Bad news is that my Dr. is off the same week Jon is on Spring Break which happens to be the week before I'm due!  That makes me a little nervous, but it will all work out in the end :) 

So, that's the quick update for now on Baby VK!  He/She is doing great, moving a ton, and will be making entry into this world before we know it! 

ABC

We finally grabbed the ipod to record Kincaid saying his ABCs.  I often go through the alphabet with him while changing his diaper.  It isn't a reliable distraction 100% of the time, but often enough and he is doing great with his letters!  He is starting to say the letter that follows what I say as you'll hear with the letters K & L.  I say "K" and he says "L" instead of repeating the K :) Love this guy and he is growing way too fast!

Six weeks and counting!

I've been so caught up in every day life that I've neglected to take the time to capture regular shots of my growing bump.  I've had more than one person tell me in the last couple of weeks how pregnant I look, and I sure would think so now that there are only six weeks to go before we meet this new little one!! We are so excited, even though it hardly seems as if there is time to even process the new addition that will be arriving so soon!  At my 32 week visit, babe's heart rate was 140, up from 135 at 30 weeks, and I measured at 34 weeks (consistent with what I've been measuring).  

A shot at around 32 weeks:

The little one continues to poke and prod my innards throughout the day, and thankfully gives me respite at night (now if only my bladder would cooperate in the late night hours!!).  I have been feeling really well, but very tired!  I'm so thankful for all that Jon does because other wise we'd have a mound of dirty dishes and no food to eat most days :) 

34 weeks:

Again, we are so grateful to have a healthy baby on the way and for a mostly uneventful pregnancy!  I think I've really enjoyed...perhaps some might say craved...jalapeno kettle chips, power balls, and granola.  I'm sure I'm missing something from earlier in the pregnancy but the absentmindedness has kicked in and I can't recall!

Here's to a great final 6 weeks of pregnancy #2!

Family Valentine's Date

Let me start by asking that you forgive the poor photo quality!  Hubs forgot the camera, so the grainy Ipod photos will just have to do :) 

Since Jon and I have some mega cleaning plans on the books for V-day weekend, we decided to have a Family Date Day!  It was so much fun!! We started out by taking Kincaid to the Sternberg Museum.  It was very cool, and fun to see him take it all in!  Kincaid loved looking at all the live snakes and at the mounted animals.  He was more than a little creeped out by the giant T-Rex, especially when it started to move!!  

He's already been once, but it was our first time! After our afternoon at the museum, we had a great dinner at Gella's followed by a night at home watching Land Before Time.  It was the perfect date with my two favorite guys!!

No more Sand Man

About a week ago, we finally had Kincaid's procedure to open up his left tear duct.  While it is a very minor procedure, it was still stressful and we're glad to have it done!  

After visiting with an eye specialist a few months ago, we agreed it was okay to wait awhile longer to see if the duct would open up on it's own like his right eye had.  However, in the weeks leading up to the procedure, his eye was getting visibly goopier and Kincaid was starting to complain about it.  We made the call and had him scheduled within two weeks.  

The procedure itself takes less than a minute to perform.  Kincaid and I had an early start to the morning, leave home about 6am on a cold and snowy morning.  We arrived just in time to check in at 7am, and by about 7:20 we were busy watching Mickey Mouse, talking with the nurses/drs, and getting ready to go.  They took Kincaid kicking and screaming back into the OR about 7:45am, and brought him back very groggy and screaming by about 8:15am.  He was a champ and his eye has looked amazing ever since!  Here are some shots of our morning.  

Ride to the hospital:

All settled in and happily watching Mickey Mouse Club House...not aware of what is about to happen:

Groggy from being put under, and glad to finally be snuggling each other again!

All ready to head home.  Look at those sweet baby blues:

Thank the Lord for His provision, for helping the procedure to go smoothly, and for Kincaid's quick recovery this past week!!  No more Sand Man for this little guy....at least not on a daily basis!

Playing & Creating

Here are a few more shots that I didn't have time to get added to the previous post.  Kincaid loves, I mean LOVES, to read.  Seriously, we read every morning, at every family meal, for fun, at night.  His favorite books right now are Hop on Pop, Go Dogs Go, The Wheels on the Bus, The Itsy Bitsy Spider Rhyme book, Green Eggs and Ham, and the Animalia (spelling??) search and find book.  These are the go-to books as of late!  Like I mentioned before, Kincaid is also likely to wake up and start looking at his books in the middle of the night or in the mornings...it's super cute :)

 

This was a fun activity we came across this week on our snow days!  Kincaid....or should I say the spaghetti noodle, lasted 10-15 minutes, but he did great with it, and you can see by his face that he was focused!  This is an easy-peasy activity that requires: cheerios, play dough and spaghetti noodle.  Stick the noodle into the play dough and give kiddo cheerios to put on the noodle (and to snack on!)

Painting is a ton of fun!  Caid loved exploring the different brushes and colors (even tasted tested some...ick!!)

Potty Training - it is pretty far off yet for this guy!  He loves his chair, but hates to sit on it!  This was a rare shot, and it almost never occurs when he is nakey and would actually be able to use it!  Mostly he likes to "flush" it because it makes the sound of a crowd cheering!  It's super cute (can you tell it's a baseball potty chair??), but for now, we're just working on introducing Kincaid to the potty chair and trying to walk him through the process.  While it would be NICE to have only one kiddo in diapers, it's definitely not an area we are going to push him in before he is ready!  He sure does look cute though, don't you think?