No longer a little girl

It sort of snuck up on me, I have to admit. One day she was this little girl in my arms who couldn't walk or talk and now she is in Early Preschool and going on the potty. I seriously do not know where the past 2 years have gone. It really is amazing at how time flies!

This past week my little girl (who will always be my little girl - even when Pineapple comes into our lives) has started to reach a major milestone in a toddlers life. She is going on the potty!

We have had potty seats/stools in both our bathrooms for awhile now. We haven't pushed her. We haven't decided to one weekend not leave the house and just let her run around bare butt and let her "feel" what it's like to go to the bathroom. Just 2 weeks ago I started to panic that she was "behind" (No pun intended there) schedule and I was going to have a 4 year old in diapers (Yes, I realize she isn't three yet). But Mike and my wonderful friends assured me she would potty train on her own schedule and it was worse to push her.

Fast forward to Tuesday. She had said her tummy was hurting when I dropped her off, so I emailed the director at daycare to find out how she was doing. She was not only feeling fine and didn't complain about her stomach, but she had gone on the potty and didn't have a wet diaper. Mike and I arrive to pick her up Tuesday evening and she had not only gone once on the toilet but 3 times. The only time she had a diaper change was when she went #2 after nap time! I couldn't believe it.

When we got home from trick or treating at the local grocery store (See next week's Wordless Wednesday) and were eating dinner I told her if she needed to go to the bathroom to let me know. About 10 minutes later she said she had to go. We went into the bathroom and sure enough she went! I was so excited, she was excited and her dad was excited. Mac was wondering what the heck all the laughing and smiling was about - but what does she know she is just a dog....or as Gabby would say "My puppy".  We tried again before she went to bed and sure enough she went. All she wanted was a fist bump. I swear I can get her to eat almost anything with a fist bump, so maybe we won't need M&M's.

I plan on making up a potty chart and having her put stickers on it because she LOVES stickers! She went on the potty two more times at daycare on Wednesday and then again Thursday morning. She is telling us when she needs to go. I just don't know if Mama is ready for her to be a big girl....I know I can't stop her from growing and trust me I don't want the terrible twos for the rest of our lives, but it's so bittersweet to see her grow up. I love the new things she is doing and I know it will just get better from here.....just a little hard for this working mama to swallow.

How did you handle potty training??

Wordless Wednesday

Thats my girl....leggings, skirt, sweater, hat and playing in the dirt.

Pineapple's Nursery

We finally got Pineapple's nursery all completed. I am so excited that it's done and ready. The only thing we have to do is move up the dresser - but since I am 9 months pregnant, Mike is going to get someone else to help out with that. We decided to do the same theme as Gabby's and reuse the decals and things. But we did get her a new rug with some girlish look to it!

When she is born and we decide on a name it will go above the crib.

Pumpkin Patch

We went to a local pumpkin patch this year. Turned out it was great! It was literally a 5 minute drive there and we spent about an hour there, got some pumpkins, played a little, bought some fresh produce. We had a great time. And it was all free - well except for the pumpkins and the peppers we got.

Here are some pictures from our afternoon adventure!

36 Weeks

It's getting down to the last month! Can you believe it. It's a bit surreal for me I have to admit. But I am also getting super excited about it as well. I can't wait to hold my new baby girl in my arms and see what she looks like.

I met with a new OB at my clinic. With the diabetes my Midwife needs to manage my care with an OB and the last one that I saw a few times has left the practice. But I totally LOVE this OB. She is amazing. She fits my personality perfect and I would be TOTALLY comfortable with her delivering our little girl.

I am still measuring on and actually about 1 cm dilated already, but anyone who has been pregnant before knows that means nothing. You can walk around like that for weeks. So I am hoping this baby girl will still bake for awhile. We discussed induction or rather my concerns about inducing. And she really doesn't want to induce unless we have to. She won't let me go over 40 weeks (which my MW said the same thing), but she said there is no need (at least right now) for induction before that. She said we will just take a wait and see approach to it. I told her I wanted to stay away from a lot of meds - no pitocin if possible, no epidural and I wanted to stay away if possible from a c-section.

Overall I am feeling really good. I have another ultrasound and an appointment with my midwife on Monday so we will see how the little one is doing, but I suspect she is doing great.

Wordless Wednesday

She was very proud of herself - she picked out her clothes and dressed herself

She HAD to have 3 pony tails in her hair...Love her sense of style

35 Weeks!

Well we are at 35 weeks. I seriously can't even think about the fact that little pineapple is going to be here in 4 to 5 weeks. Really where did time go??? I know where it went, it went chasing after a toddler and dealing with our remodel. It truly is different.

Things have been going really well. As through most of the pregnancy. At 32 weeks I started weekly ultrasounds for the biophysical ultrasounds. Next week at my ultrasound they are doing a weight check to see how big this little girl is.

The cool thing about getting to see her every week is that I get to see how much she grows or can see how she is positioned. It's really amazing to see how she is positioned and then figure out her movements from there. Right now (at least as of last Monday) she is in a C position. Her legs and butt are up in my ribs on the right side and her hands and head are nestled into my left hip. So she gets to punch me and kick me all at the same time.

I am meeting with a new OB next Friday. The last one that was co-managing my care with my midwife is no longer at the practice. So we are going to meet with her and see how she wants to handle my care. Usually the protocol is induction since I am on meds, but Mike and I are going to meet with my midwife on the 22nd and talk to her more in depth about it.

I am no longer meeting with my nutritionist (which is good, one less appointment). Since my sugars are in line she didn't feel the need to meet with her again. If I have any issues with my sugars I just need to call her.

We are getting down to the wire and soon I will be holding my baby girl in my arms!

Wordy Wednesday - My Crafty Side

So when we found out we were doing this remodel and figured out Gabby's theme I searched high and low for a decal that would take up most of a wall for her room. I couldn't find  any that were cheap enough (I love etsy but man were they expensive) and were big enough. DH finally found one that we both loved.

We found it online at Popdecors.com. Hot pink and pink flowers with some birds and 71" tall. Here is the link if you are interested.
My parents were awesome and ended up getting the decal that we wanted for Gabby's birthday. Mike and I finally had time to put it up this past week.

I have to say it was a ton easier than I thought it was going to be. Thanks to my friend Aurora we got some tips before we began. Thanks Girl!! We finished the trunk in about 30 minutes.

One thing I didn't realize (But probably should have) when I ordered this was that it would come in pieces....for some reason I was thinking it would come all as one or at least the tree. So above is the trunk part and it came in 4 different pieces. The trunk, and the three branches.

After we got this up I had the task ahead of me of cutting out the gazillion flowers that needed to go up. Okay maybe I am exaggerating but still it was a lot of flowers. Then I taped them all up (or most of them) on the wall so I could make sure it all looked good before applying them to the wall.

The pieces come on contact paper. You peel off the one side, squeegee (That is a fun word isn't it??)  it onto the wall and peel off the front and you are done. It magically sticks to the wall. So Yep did that for all the flowers and birds. I would say with the taping and the peeling/sticking/squeegeeing it took me about 2 hours or so to get them up there. So all in all with the prep work (cleaning the walls, figuring out where it would go, lining up the branches etc) it took about 3 hours. So not bad. I even had a few extra flowers left over and put them by Gabby's shelves to bring the room together a bit. I have to admit I am pretty proud of myself. I mean I know it's just applying stickers to a wall but it still took some though of where things should go.

Now we just have to hang up her name and a few more things and her room will be complete. I showed it to Gabby tonight when she got home and she squealed with delight. She clapped her hands and said "flowers and birds". So glad she "noticed". I love my little one....So if you want good decals that are easy to put up and good quality check out Pop Decors.

My Baby Girl!

I am now just over 32 weeks. Really hard to believe that it's gone this fast. 2 appointments ago when I met with my OB he said that I would have to start weekly ultrasounds starting at 32 weeks, so here I am. I have had this ultrasound tech at my 20 week and with Gabby a few times, so it was nice to see a familiar face that I really liked. I have to have the weekly ultrasounds because I am on meds for my gestational diabetes. To really check the growth of the baby and make sure she isn't getting too big.

She was super sweet and explained everything to me. Since it's not just a dating ultrasound it was a little longer and was about a 1/2 hour. It was a biophysical, so they have to check for breathing, muscle tone, body movements, amniotic fluid and heartbeat. When I had it done with Gabby she passed all but the fluid test (I had it done at 41 weeks) and I was admitted and induced that night.

Pineapple did wonderful. She got the breathing out of the way right away, heartbeat was a good 144BPM (strong heartrate). Her movements took a little longer, but not much and they were BIG movements - like I figured would happen. This baby girl moves a TON all the time. The fluid also passed with flying colors at 13.4 - It has to be between 7 and 22. So we are perfect there as well. All in all it was a great ultrasound and I expect next week to be the same. I had my appointment with my midwife after that and I was measuring right on. She isn't worried at all. Blood pressure as usual was great 80/52.

The tech was super sweet and nice and gave us a 3D ultrasound picture. It will be fun to see her next week again. Look for another pic next Tuesday.

Wordless Wednesday

Mike and I had our maternity photo shoot this past weekend. I wasn't going to do it because we just couldn't afford the photographer fees and the digital fees. Thanks to my best friend who is the most amazing, creative and wonderful person in the world we were able to still do it.

We went out to the arboretum at is close to our house and we couldn't have asked for a more wonderful afternoon. The sun was shinning and just overall a beautiful day.

Check out my friends website Red Organic to see all her creative projects. Here are some of the pictures from our shoot on Sunday.

 

Thanks Aurora, You are one of my best friends and I am so glad you are in my life. I am so glad to be able to see your creativeness within you and how it touches your life and those around you. You truly inspire me to be a more creative person. MWAH! Love you!

30 Weeks

So now technically I am 31 weeks today, because I have been SUPER lazy with this blog. I apologize to all my readers out there. I looked back at my blog with Gabby when I was 30 weeks. Such a different pregnancy. At this time with Gabby I had just found out I had Gestational Diabetes and was just starting to test my blood. This time around I have been doing it for 22 weeks already and it's old hat. Not that I like it anymore this time around.

Things are going really well this pregnancy and like I have said before it's been so different than Gabby's and I am not complaining what-so-ever.

The diabetes is going well, I am now meeting with my nutritionist every 2 weeks ,but after my next appointment we might be able to go down to phone appointments. I am seeing my Midwife & OB every 2 weeks as well and starting with my appointment on the 24th I have to start having weekly Biophysical ultrasounds. I have them scheduled out until the middle of October. They want to make sure that the baby is growing well and okay. I had one with Gabby and that ended up being the day we were admitted into the hospital. So I will be spending a LOT of time at the doctor's office.

Pineapple is moving around a TON and almost all day long. She likes to move around especially at night when I am laying down to read and then to sleep. The other funny part is a lot of the time if she hears Gabby crying, yelling, giggling, she starts moving around. Its really funny to see and feel.

Gabby totally is in love with her baby sistah as she calls her. She says goodnight and tells her that she loves her before she goes to bed. Usually she whispers it, so I sometimes tell her to yell it so baby sistah can hear her.

Only 9 weeks to go!

A Gentle Reminder

This past week has been frustrating as a parent to say the least. I now have a two year old and it's amazing how whiny and crabby she has gotten just in the past week. Don't get me wrong she is still her bubbly self most of the time, but it seems like changing her diaper, getting her dressed, staying asleep or going to bed have been fights.

I don't like to fight with her, who does? Mike and I try to get her to calm down and then talk logically and rationally with her. Did I just say logically and rationally about talking with a 2 year old. Yep! We have always talked to her like an adult, we treat her like her own little person.

It was almost fitting then that I got an article in my email about "Why children need to be reminded over and over". I keep getting these emails from the Mom's Circle and keep thinking that I am going to unsubscribe and then a great article like this comes around.

It reminded me that even though she knows how to put her shoes on, and other things that she is still learning. That she still needs to be told things and I need to be patient with her.
A great couple of paragraphs from the article compare this to crawling

"A perfect example of that process is learning to crawl. The baby begins to rock back and forth. She’s thrilled; she didn’t know she could do that! She practices rocking back and forth and only that, for a day or so. Then she gets up on her knees. She repeatedly practices going from laying flat to getting up on her knees. Once mastered, she adds the rocking back and forth. The learning and mastering of each singular part before moving on continues until she masters crawling.


Parents stay by their infants to support, remind and help them. There’s no parental frustration because the parent realizes this is how babies learn. When a baby becomes a child however, parents tend to forget that process of learning. This is because it's not as visible; there’s more brain development than physical development happening. Parents think because the child is walking, talking and potty trained they should remember all the rules after being told once or twice. The problem with that line of thinking is the impact brain development has on a child. "

I need to remember that she is learning and remind MYSELF that this is new to her. It's like a new job, people might need to remind you to do something over and over again until you learn the way to do it, this is no different.

I think we all need reminding about the development phases our little ones go through.