The Mindframe of a Pregnant Woman

I took a long walk with Allison this morning. As I was heading home, I was thinking that I couldn't wait to get there because I was so tired.

When I turned the corner on my street, I noticed two dogs in someone's backyard - I thought - hmmm I didn't realize that a house on this end of my street had two dogs. I saw some lady picking up her yard (didn't recognize her)....I kept on walking thinking I'm only a few houses away from being home. I looked up (the sun was bright and in my eyes, so I had my head down and was squinting) and was confused.

I then thought to myself "Shoot this isn't even my street. I'm on the next road over."

So I stood there and debated, do I turn around and go over to my street or continue walking around the block. I was halfway down the block, so it was debatable. Too bad I just couldn't cut through people's backyard. That would have been the quickest route.

Happy Birthday Nana!

Happy birthday to my special buddy. I love you lots, Nana. Sending you lots of kisses through the computer.

Love

Allison

22 and counting

22 weeks pregnant with Baby #2

22 weeks pregnant with Allison

I'm over half way done with the pregnancy. I feel like I should be doing something to get ready, but it is different this time. I don't have to register, pick out a stroller, or car seat. I'm not stressing about getting the nursery done.

Oh, I guess I should call the Blood Bank to get the blood cord donation kit. I almost waited too long with Allison because I forgot to call. I highly recommend that to any parents-to-be. They will store Allison's blood core and it will be available for us to use, if God forbid, we should ever need it If another person that is a match needs it, they will be able to use it. It is nice to know that by taking five minutes to make the call and remembering to put the kit in my hospital bag, I could be potentially saving a life.

We do have to decide what we are going to do on furniture soon. We have a toddler bed that we might use, but now I'm worried that she will be too young, even if we keep the baby in a bassinet for a few months. So do we decide to buy another convertible crib that Allison can use as she grows up. Choices to be made.

The baby will be moved into the nursery and Allison will move into the guest bedroom. We already have the bedding and decor purchased. We went with the lady bug line shown here http://www.kidslineinc.com/products/kids/lady_bug.php Now we just have to decide what to do with the walls. We are going to keep the base color the same, just add stripes, accent wall or something like that. My mom will be staying with us for a few days after the baby is born, so we will wait a few weeks to completely redo the room, but hopefully we can at least do the painting before the baby arrives.

I'm definitely bigger this time around, I am at where I was at around 24 or 25 weeks along with Allison. This is a good thing because I was always measuring behind with her. I had to get an ultrasound to make sure that she was growing properly. The acid reflux has been a pain to deal with. I'm looking forward to being able to drink a glass or OJ or lemon aid without paying the price. Other than that, I've been feeling pretty good.

11 is one less than 12

Eleven months....that means I only have one month left that my baby is a baby and not a toddler. How did this happen?

We only have a month left to get ready for her party. We thought we had all the time in the world to get the basement done, the garage fixed up, etc. But now we are on countdown time. Oh well, at least we have the decorations ordered and hopefully the invites will be finished this weekend.

Allison is cruising around like crazy. Her legs are getting stronger and stronger. She finally figured out how to walk with her little push cart toy. It won't be long before she figures out that she can do it without the toy.

She discovered the stairs a few weeks ago. I decided to follow her and let her climb them, while I was standing behind her. She climbed the whole staircase. I was a little worried that I might be opening the door for her wanting to climb them all the time, but she is pretty good about not trying. Occasionally I have to run over and catch her before she heads up.

Allison went on a baby food strike a few weeks ago, so we are doing all table foods. She loves grilled cheese, chicken, peaches, pears, corn, yogurt, waffles, pancakes and sliced cheese. I am trying to come up with creative and healthy ideas for her meals.

She is doing much better with strangers. She doesn't mind if people we know hold her. My friend Carrie came over the other day and Allison crawled right up to her and played toys with her. I think I found a babysitter that we can leave her with, so Brian and I can go out together some more.

Anytime I mention something about napping and sleeping, I jinx myself, so I won't go into that topic.

I think that is it for this month. A month from today, I will be posting pictures from Allison's 1st birthday party. Hard to believe huh?

What a Wonderful Weekend!

I just have to say that I had a wonderful weekend and am feeling very refreshed. This weekend my mom came to visit. Friday night after I put Allison to bed, my mom and I went to Target and we were wild and crazy gals who closed down the store. We didn't even realize that it was 10 pm until we heard the announcement that the store was about to close.

On Saturday, she and I headed out to Saugatuck for the afternoon, while Allison stayed home with dad. We stopped by the Farmers Market in Holland first and then had lunch in Douglas. We spent the rest of the afternoon looking around the shops. It felt so nice to be able to get away for a few hours and relax.

Saturday evening Allison was spoiled, I mean babysat, by her Nana while Brian and I went out to dinner and a play for my early birthday celebration. Allison really enjoyed spending some one-on-one time with her Nana. They played with her basket of toys, took a walk around the neighborhood, and then Nana put her to bed.

I think they had some special bonding time together this weekend. I really enjoyed watching the two of them together. I wish they could spend more time together - are you sure you don't want to move to Grand Rapids mom? Allison says thank you and can't wait to see you again in a few weeks!

My mini-me

This is a picture of me when I was 5 and my niece Katie who turns 3 this July. My family has always said how much Katie looks like I did when I was little. Considering I was bald until I was about three, I didn't quite believe it. When Brian and I were looking through my albums for pictures of my dad and I, he commented that he really could see Katie in the above photo of me.

In addition to looking similar, we are both the baby of the family of four children and have a lot of the same personality traits - cute, loveable, sweet, shall I go on? Maybe modesty as well.

Weekend Recap

On Friday, Allison discovered the "tupperware cupboard" while I was making dinner. I figured as long as that kept her busy and out of trouble I was fine with that.

Notice she isn't holding on to anything.

After playing in the cupboard, she tried playing with the dog food which got her banished to her walker. She wasn't too happy about that.

Since I had to work on Sunday, we celebrated Father's Day on Saturday. Brian enjoyed his round of golf. Afterwards, we tried going to the zoo, however it was way to busy, so we went to Riverside Park for a nice long walk and played on the swings.

After her nap, Allison special delivered her dad's gift.

She was very proud of the Cookie Monster Card that she gave her dad.

We then filled up her baby pool for the first time, which she loved. She got an outdoor bath. While she was playing in the bath, Brian blew up the canopy for the pool (see next post below)

Later that evening, we had really gusty winds, up to 50 mph. I heard a loud crash and figured we lost a branch. I was right.


Overall, we had a wonderful and relaxing evening (minus the storm cleanup)

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Happy Father's Day Dad!

I wanted to wish my dad a Happy Father's Day and thank him for all that he has done for me. He has always been there for me, even through REALLY REALLY bad perms. Also, thanks for being such a great papa! I am so glad that Allison has you in her life.

Happy Father's Day

To any of my readers who happen to be a dad - Happy Father's Day to you. To my fellow moms, hope you enjoy the weekend with your husbands. To my Dad and Allison's Papa. Happy Father's Day to you too!

"This blog entry is dedicated to the one we love" - Brian (aka Dad)

It has been so amazing these past 10 months watching Allison with her dad. I love watching the two of them, especially now that Allison is old enough to play. I always get a kick when I am in the basement working on the computer and I can hear them play "ball"; I can hear the ball roll back and forth and Allison giggling. She really loves it when he pretends to chase her when I am holding her, or he chases me when he is holding her. That really makes her laugh.

Walks in the Baby Bjorn are the best, especially when they end up at the ice cream shop, where dad always shares his ice cream cone with her. "Date night" with dad is pretty cool too. When I volunteer or have to work, he usually takes her to the mall where they walk around or on nice nights, they will take a long walk around the neighborhood.

Because we didn't share our news about our pregnancy until I was around 13 weeks, I was never able to brag about what a wonderful help he was during the first trimester. He really picked up the slack by doing the laundry, cleaning, and doing extra stuff with Allison. I can't thank him enough for being so supportive those first few months when all I wanted to do was curl up on the couch and sleep.

So on this Father's Day, Allison and I would like to say Thank you for all that you do. And as a special treat, we hope you enjoying golfing with your friend Jaisen on Saturday morning. We thought you deserve a special weekend that starts with a round of golf.

Love,

Maribeth and Allison (and our little banana)

P.S. Jai won't know until Friday night, so don't email him yet to set up plans

A Fan of A Big Breakfast

I guess you could say that Allison is a fan of a big breakfast. We brought her over to Woodlawn Mall yesterday for some playtime. She had fun watching the kids play.

It's A......

It's a happy and healthy baby! Well, at least the baby looked happy. And no, we didn't find out the gender of the baby. Up until last night, my interest of finding out on a scale of 1-10 was at about a 1. On the way to the ultrasound it raised up to about a 3, but that was about it.

Maybe if the ultrasound was in a few weeks, I would have wanted to find out. But at this point, I just wasn't ready to give up the "unknown" yet and the wondering - is it a boy or is it a girl. With Allison, I KNEW it was a girl. The thought never entered my mind that it was a boy. With this pregnancy, I go back and forth. I think it will be fun to speculate.

The ultrasound went well. My doctor hasn't reviewed it yet, but I figured the ultrasound tech didn't go running out of the room or looked concerned. In fact, she was having so much fun with our ultrasound that she wanted to keep scanning. Evidently our tomato was cooperating and being very photogenic. There is a heart with four chambers, two kidneys, a brain, a spine and all that other important stuff. We even counted 10 toes.

Towards the end of the ultrasound, the tomato must have had enough of the poking around, so he/she started kicking and punching me. It was so cool to watch on the screen. At my 20 week ultrasound with Allison, the tech was young and new to the job, so all she focused on was taking all the necessary pictures they are required to take, I never really got to see a profile of the baby or had any other fun shots.

Another thing that we found out is that the baby is measuring a week ahead, so no one can give me crap about being so small and that I am going to deliver a tiny baby.

We celebrated by going to dinner with Brian's cousin, Amy, who treated us to dinner. Thanks Amy! It was great seeing you.

Tomatoes and wings give me heartburn

The baby is 19 weeks along and is the size of an heirloom tomato. Evidently tomatoes must give me heartburn because it has started again. It was real bad last night, but the stress of the Detroit Red Wings game could have contributed to the problem also. Darn Wings!