Pregnancy Week 26

• I am tired and achy and it worries me that I'm going to go into labour early
• Chasing after Parker is getting very tiring, but at the same time I want to make the most of his last few months as an only child
• I had some days off this week.  We went to Ikea and I got a lot of stuff for the house and Parker's room.  The baby doesn't need much this time around, but there is still a lot to do to get ready!
• I want to get Parker into his real bed sooner rather than later because I don't want to be going through the transition once the baby is here.  But if you saw what his room looks like right now you would understand why I feel like it's never going to happen.  
• I wake up a few times each night and have to change positions to get comfortable and usually have to go to the bathroom too
• My next midwife appointment is next week....I'm crossing my fingers that I haven't gained another 10 pounds

Lions and Elephants and Giraffes...Oh My!

There are no tigers or bears at the African Lion Safari...hence the title change in this post.  But that didn't matter because we had a great time!

I kind of organized this work picnic at the African Lion Safari.  I thought that Parker would enjoy it, and boy was I right!  He had a blast!

We started out the day by driving through the game reserve in the bus.  I wasn't taking my own car through there, that's for sure!  Parker was totally enthralled with the animals.  He enjoyed it so much more than the zoo.  I think maybe because they weren't cooped up so they were a bit more lively and there were generally more of them.  

 My favourites were the lions.  I couldn't believe the size of the mane on the male lion!  It was really cool to see.  The baboons are always fun too though, when it's not your car that they are pulling apart that is...

 Parker had his typical expression.  "Oooh.  What's that!"

 As part of our picnic package we got a close up encounter with an elephant and a baby camel.  The elephant's name was George and the camel was Dewey.  

Parker liked them.  But he also liked to play with the pilon.

 After lunch it was splash pad time.  This kid loves the water!  I eventually had to make him get out because he was shivering and his fingers were white and looked like raisins.  He would of stayed in there all day.

 Parker was asleep about 2 minutes down the road.  And 3 hours later he's still sleeping...which is why I actually have time to blog about this!

Pregnancy Weeks 23-25

Here we are again...3 weeks behind!  

23 Weeks

• Starting to get pretty sore.  My belly feels heavy and actually got in the way while I was sleeping.  Am I already bigger than I was when I delivered Parker?
•  This baby is a mover!  I can’t believe how often I get kicked.
• I really want to make an effort to work out more but it’s getting hard because I’m so sore and tired, hopefully that eases up a bit
• I’m trying to eat healthier because I gained 10bs in the past month!  Total weight gain is at 20lbs
•  I typically only have to go to the bathroom once a night but I find I wake up a lot most nights even though Parker has been sleeping well

24 Weeks

• Feeling the urge to nest and organize, but I don’t have the time or the energy
• I’m so relieved to have made it to 24 weeks and have a viable baby growing in there.  Of course I don’t want to have this baby any time soon, but with a previous preterm labour it’s a nice feeling to know that if I were to go into labour they would do everything they can to make sure the baby was ok.  The further I go, the stronger the baby gets!
• My belly is sore
• Still hardly finding time to work out!  With going away every weekend and then being busy with Parker at night, unpacking and packing, workout time is so limited.
• Parker kisses my belly which is the cutest.  He doesn’t know why he’s kissing my belly but that’s ok.
• We bought a minivan.  Haha I’m officially a soccer mom, except I hate soccer and hope my kids never play it.  But I’m really excited to have more space for car seats and the ability to actually go away in my vehicle because we will have trunk space

25 Weeks

• We got the new van this week. So much space for baby!
• I’m still trying to work out more but I’m just so tired at the end of the day.  I went to the gym at work once on lunch and I think I should try to do that more often.  They keep cancelling my prenatal yoga classes which is very disappointing.
• I had a sharp pain below my belly that lasted for about 5 minutes and freaked me out.  I’m not quite ready to have this baby yet!  We need at least another 10 weeks!  Now I’m still sore but I think it’s how I’ve always felt, I’m just noticing it more now because I’m worried about it.
• I’m ready to start getting my house in order, but every time I try to do something Parker comes in and messes everything up, so it’s a very slow process.  I have a list of things to do before the baby.  I know what I want and how I want it, and the list doesn't seem that bad, until I realize how slowly everything happens in our house with the little Texas Tornado running around...

Boy or Girl?

Is baby O a boy a girl?  I have to admit, I'm so much more curious this time!  I want to know if I will have 2 little boys running around or if Parker will have a sweet little sister.  But I'm going to be strong and not find out!  It's always fun though to look at the old wives tales and make some predictions!

Girl            Heartbeat higher than 140 bpm
Girl            Carrying all around
Girl            Carrying high (I honestly can't really tell...)
Girl            Morning sickness in first trimester
Girl            Crave sweets
Girl            Needle test
Girl            Girls steal your beauty - My skin was much worse                   earlier in this pregnancy
Girl             Not craving protein - I actually wanted nothing to                      do with it early on!
Girl             My first instinct



So you can see why I'm fairly certain that this baby is a little lady!  We will see in a few months if I was right!  There are so many more old wives tales, but some of them I had a really hard time determining.  

Parker @ 18 months

Height: 30.5" tall
Weight: 17 lbs 5 oz

Ok I know he's the smallest 18 month old ever, but I'm really happy with this progress.  He gained just over 2 lbs in 3 months, which is basically unheard of for my little Parker Pants.  And he's noticeably taller.  He might catch up yet before he starts Kindergarten!

Development:

• Loves to wave at everyone and say bye bye.  You know if he walks away from you smiling and saying bye bye that he's up to no good.
• Can stack blocks
• Talks freaky deaky Parker - he seriously thinks he's having a conversation with you but it's gibberish.  But he does have some words that we can make out: mama, dada, Pipsi (the cat), uh oh, baby, stinky, sometimes mama means milk, please, tata, bye bye
• He loves to give hugs and kisses
• He sometimes makes a muah sound when giving a kiss
• Helps to get dressed
• Loves putting his shoes on
• When I put him into bed and tell him to get into his sleep sack he lays down on it.  He doesn't lay the right way but it's the right idea!

Firsts:

• First haircut
• First time sleeping in the bunk beds in the trailer
• First time driving the boat (ok Gramps helped)
• First bike ride - both in a bike seat and in a bike trailer - he loved them both and puts his helmet on his head when he wants to go for a ride

This kid is trouble.  He's constantly doing things he shouldn't and watching for our reactions.  But then he comes up and gives me a hug and a kiss and he says muah when he gives kisses.   He loves his milk more than anything in the world I'm pretty sure.  Trucks are pretty cool too.  

He still only eats when he wants to.  Sometimes he will eat a ridiculous amount and then I swear he eats nothing for 3 days.  But you can't force him to eat.  He clenches his mouth shut and shakes his head.

He's a dancing machine.  He gets that little booty (and it's the tiniest little bum you've ever seen) just a popping.  It's hilarious!

We love this kid so much it hurts.  I'm really scared of what bring another baby into the mix will do.  I know I will love the baby too, and I know that having a sibling will be great for Parker, but I'm also sad that our time with just us is coming to an end.  It's a very weird and conflicting feeling.  

Ok here are some pictures!

First Haircuts

I didn't have an issue with getting Parker's hair cut.  It wasn't this sentimental my baby isn't a baby anymore thing.  I just never got around to booking him an appointment.  Plus my hairdresser is on mat leave, so there was that issue.

But I finally did it.  And for a week he was oh so adorable and looked so mature!  His hair was so neat and even and he looked like a grown up little boy. (As grown up as a 17 pound kid can look).  

And then his hair grew like 2 inches in a week and the humidity hit and now it's always a mess again.  But it was nice while it lasted.

He did pretty well at the appointment.  It was a 3 person job.  We needed me and Auntie Tal to distract Parker/hold him in place.  But overall he came out without getting his ear cut, so that's pretty successful I would say.

Pregnancy Weeks 19-22

I really did mean to be blogging weekly.  But I have this problem and his name is Parker.  If I go into the office then he must follow me in and destroy everything in his path.  I was actually half way through writing this post 3 days ago and Parker crawled under my desk and turned off the power bar.  So it's just a lot easier to not go in the office.

This pregnancy is seriously flying by.  I can't believe that I'm already 23 weeks pregnant with bean #2.  I'm constantly thinking about how much time we have left, because I know how fast the past 5 months have gone and we are less than 4 months to my due date now!

19 Weeks

• I started to have round ligament pains and thought they were contractions.  Which I then remembered I did last time as well.  But when you have a preemie I guess the thought of going into labour early is extra scary because you know that it can happen
• Had retesting done this week for my ureaplasma and I still have it.  So now I'm not sure what the next step is.  I'm kind of tired of extra doctors appointments just to try to get rid of something that they aren't sure will actually change the outcome.  
• Had an extra midwife appointment because of the testing.  Baby's heartbeat was 140 and I'm up 10lbs
• Acid reflux in the afternoon and evening
• My anatomy ultrasound is next week!

 20 Weeks

• We had out anatomy scan.  It was really long because the ultrasound tech was a student, but she was really nice and was still really into babies so that was fun.  I was very uncomfortable after lying on my back for an hour and a half.  We haven't heard the results from the midwife yet.
• Baby moves a lot!
• Round ligament pain comes and goes
• Acid reflux is getting worse
• I'm starting to plan Parker's room so that baby can have the nursery and I'm really excited about it!

 21 Weeks

• Not much new to report this week
• Baby is still moving a lot
• Round ligament pains continue, especially after activity
• We were on holidays this week and started them off in Tobermory!

22 Weeks

• Holidays continued this week at the cottage and camping at Inverhuron
• Mama was tired by the end of the week, being a stay at home mom would be hard!
• Round ligament pains are much worse when I'm active, but it was nice to finally go for some bike rides and long walks since I haven't been working out as much as I would like
• I had some very vivid dreams this week, which I haven't had since early in my pregnancy