I Have No Ankles

So, my ankles have disappeared. It's official. Yesterday I was looking at my swollen feet and then I noticed that my ankles are also really swollen and now just blend in with my legs! I have to just smile and laugh at the funny and amazing ways a body changes during pregnancy.

32 Weeks

(almost....on Monday) Just a pregnancy update...

1. I have definitely had lots of cravings lately, mostly chocolaty sweets. Henry and I went to Meijer today to buy a new shower curtain liner and pick up some bananas and apples and this is what we left with in our cart: the previously mentioned things, two boxes of brownie mix (turtle and chocolate chunk), a chocolate-chip muffin mix, a bag of Dove dark chocolates, a large bag of M&Ms and some double-stuff Oreos. I really didn't consciously mean to pick out so many sweets. I just walked past them and thought, hmmm, that looks really good. I've really felt like eating fresh baked sweets, but Patrick is eating healthy and not eating sweets, so I hate to make a whole batch of chocolate chip cookies or a pan of brownies because I'm the only one who will eat them!

2. This baby is getting big. I definitely can feel him at all times. He's either moving around or has himself positioned pushing up and out on my belly. I do love to feel his kicks and rolls, but I have been wondering if I'm going to run out of room for him to keep growing sometime in the next 8 weeks. I already feel so full of baby!

3. The low 80s. I love the low 80s. The weather today was overcast and in the low 80s, and it felt great to be outside. I didn't feel crabby or irritable like I've felt a lot during this summer in the heat. Henry and I went to the park twice today and it was fun being outside and playing with him.

Our Baby's Name

So that's the big question. And tonight we got Henry's answer.

Patrick: So Henry what should we name the baby?
Henry: Tractor
Patrick: What should his middle name be?
Henry: Milk
Patrick: What should his last name be?
Henry: Barney

So there's a glimpse into Henry's world. His favorite three things in that order probably.

The Big Boy Bed

Tonight is Henry's 5th night sleeping in his big bed. Honestly, it's going much better than I expected or imagined, but it's not perfect yet. After the first night (last Thursday) I was in tears. It took Henry almost 2 hours to fall asleep and then after he woke up once at 3am he didn't fall asleep again until almost 6am. It was a long and draining night; however, it was definitely mostly our faults for not knowing what to do or what we were doing. Instead of laying Henry down like we always do after reading a few books and praying, we stayed in there with him and lay next to or on the bed with him. Patrick and I were both just thinking that he would need that since he wasn't used to this new bed and new room. Instead of it being a comfort, I think Henry thought it was a blast and he played for some of those hours. Sometimes I would have to laugh because he kept lifting up the sheet and peeking down the bed and he was also loving to scratch the mesh in the bed rail. Needless to say, that was a discouraging night and I wondered if we were ever going to be able to make the transition. (I know my thinking was a little off since it was only the first night, but I wasn't really seeing the big picture!)

So the next day Patrick and I were building up what a big boy he was for sleeping in his big boy bed and we mentioned that bed any chance we could. So for his nap when we went upstairs he went straight into his new room and climbed into bed willingly ( I was sort of surprised). I decided just to try our normal routine of reading, praying and then leaving the room just to see what would happen. As soon as I left the room he started to get out of bed, but I was watching and walked right back in and tucked him in again and reminded him that we stay in our bed for nigh-night time and then I walked out again. This time he stayed and he ended up sleeping for 3 hours in there! I was so excited. So for every bedtime and nap that's what we've done and it's worked. He stays in bed when we lay him down and goes to sleep, which is so exciting. I really pictured him to be a runner and thought he'd try to escape every time we lay him down.

We're still working on it though...every night for the past 4 nights he has woken up in the middle of the night and opened his door and called to us. (We have a safety gate up across the door) Friday night he woke up at midnight and when Patrick went in there Henry looked at him and said, "I want Barney"! But really it's not funny to have to be waking up every night in the middle of the night so we're trying to figure out how to handle that next. We're both getting tired and wanting a full night's sleep---while we still can. So any suggestions with how to get him to stay in there and fall back to sleep without help from us (as I'm sure he did in his crib many times) are welcome. Other than that I'm really thankful that he's made the transition pretty easily. I feel really relieved to be doing it and not have to worry about what's going to happen anymore. At least now I know what's going to happen and we can work on that next...

Beating The Heat

Patrick showing Henry how to put his face underwater. Henry put the side of his face in!
I love Henry's face in this one...Patrick is chasing him.

It has just been HOT! The only way that I can manage to be outside is if there's water really close by that I can stand in at the very least! Here's a few pics of Henry (and Patrick) playing outside in his little pool. He was happy jumping in and out of there for almost 2 hours.

2-Year Well Visit

Today was Henry's 2-year checkup. (a little late!) He definitely understands where we're going when we talk about it, although he really preferred that we go to mommy's doctor instead. He's getting pretty fearful of the doctor and I'm starting to break a sweat taking him there! He's really happy in the waiting room, but from there he gets pretty upset. When they called us to come back (which fortunately we never have to wait, they are so prompt) he said no and I had to pick him up from the little chair he was sitting in and carry him back. Then he didn't want to stand on the big boy scale or have the measuring part come anywhere near his head. Ah! He wasn't thrilled with the doctor poking around, but I'm getting more impressed with our doctor's ability to distract him. He tells him he sees cat's and other weird things when he looks in his ears and mouth (it's weird, but works for Henry!).

So for his stats...he weighs 36 lbs and is 35 3/4 inches tall. He's off the charts for his weight and is in the upper 90% for his height. I asked the doctor is his weight was a concern (I think Patrick's 5-year old nephew weighs 36 lbs!) and he said no because of his solid build. I offered that he takes after his father's side...shorter and stocky, and the doctor said that there's nothing short about him. Can you believe a Vance is hearing that?!? He thinks if he continues to grow at this rate he will be tall! I didn't get an exact prediction, but Patrick was thrilled when I told him the doctor's words.

He's a healthy boy which is obviously the most important thing and I am so grateful for that. Really my only concern was his quite chronic ear infections. He's had 9 total in his life and most of them have been back-to-back. His ears were clear today and the doctor wants us to wait before pursuing any other options to see if the problem clears up with his age. He said that the incidence of ear infections decreases dramatically after a child turns 2. I asked him about the possible correlation to a milk allergy, but he said that he would have constant symptoms such as a runny nose and sinus infections if he did have an allergy to milk. (Holly showed me some research online where ear infections have been linked to milk allergies.) When the doctor said he was done, Henry perked up and was happy to thank the doctor and say bye-bye to him!

Henry's Big Boy Room

Before-as a guest room

Sandi was very gracious to transform our guest room into a big boy room for Henry! She offered to come and paint it for us, any way we could dream up. After lots of deliberations (including adding a red stripe to the scheme somehow), we decided on blue and white stripes around the room. She came down and did all of the measuring, taping and painting, and voila...we got this great result...I love it and Henry LOVES his new room. (She even attempted to stripe the closet! However, we have some old plaster walls still remaining in this house and when she peeled the tape from the closet walls it peeled some plaster off with it. She decided to just paint the bottom below the chair-rail in the closet blue and leave the top white. It's a cute closet!) She did a great job in the room and we're so thankful for the blessing of her help. Patrick was thrilled to have something done without him having to do it!!! (This may surprise everyone, but I don't usually step up to the handyman jobs around the house.)

Yesterday we really started putting things together in there. Patrick picked up Henry's bed and I assembled it with the spare set of sheets that we got for him. We still haven't put up the bed frame, I think we're going to leave it low for now until he gets used to sleeping on a big bed. We also ordered bedding that should be here in a week or two, and we have decorations to hang on his walls. I think we're going to get all of his clothes moved into his dresser and closet in there and get the decorations hung up tonight. We also still need to get some more boy appropriate window treatments...those were the ones we used for the guest room. I'll take some finished room pictures once everything is set up.

Henry is loving his room. Before we put the bed in there last night it was more of just a playroom for him which he thought was great. When we moved the bed in, he was even more thrilled and wanted to lay on it and play with his car/truck pillows. The next thing to do will be to get Henry sleeping in his new room on his big boy bed. I have a ton of anxiety about this, just mostly nervous about how he'll do with the transition. But I just want to do it because I think my fears about it are worse than it will actually be. Hopefully I'll be posting some pictures of him sleeping happily on his new bed soon!

30-Week Ultrasound

I just love the picture on the right-his eyes are open and I think it looks like he's wearing a superhero mask.
His darling profile, with his hand stretched next to his head.

These are his feet and legs (very obvious on the pic to the right). They're stretched straight up at my belly.
This is the baby looking at the camera.

Yesterday I had my 30-week doctor's appointment and ultrasound. It's unbelievable to me how fast this pregnancy is going. I've started going to my appointments every two weeks now, so that will make the time go faster too. Henry and Patrick came to the appointment yesterday and Henry did really well. We weren't sure if he'd want to sit through the ultrasound, but the technician gave him a lollipop and he was really content! It was really hilarious to have him in there and hear his take on things. During the ultrasound he looked at the screen and was really excited to see his brother moving, he kept shouting, "move!", then he shouted out "HAT!" and pointed right at the screen. He was convinced that his brother was wearing a hat. We had to stop for a minute because my laughing was shaking things up on the screen. He is still convinced that brother has a hat on in there. Last night when we were praying before he went to sleep I asked him if we should thank God that brother looks healthy and is doing well and he said, "okay....HAT!". So he's thankful for his hat. We also had to stop the ultrasound again so that I could sit up about halfway through because I started feeling really dizzy and queasy and sweating. I guess it's because of all of the weight on the Aorta when you lay flat on your back. I felt bad saying something, but the technician looked at me and noticed that I was sweating and she asked if I'd like to sit up. Thankfully she was able to do most of the rest of the ultrasound with me laying on my side.

She said that the baby is measuring right on track. He was weighing in at just over 3 lbs, and is in the 75% for babies at 30-weeks. Her prediction was that he would be no more than 8lbs 4oz. That would be really big for me after having little Henry at 6lbs 13 oz, but things can slow down, so we'll wait and see! I'm also tipping the scales currently at the weight I was when I delivered Henry! I'm hoping that I won't be gaining too much more, but I also feel like pregnancy is one of the only times to not have to worry about it, so I'm trying not to focus on the number on the scale. We are very grateful that this baby looks healthy and that things are measuring normal and well. That is definitely what is most important and we feel so fortunate and blessed that God has given us these 2 boys.

A Visit With The Cousins

We went to Chicago this weekend to visit Dan, Sara, Gabe and Caleb. It was the first time Henry met Caleb and he was completely fascinated with him. He calls him "baby", "Cay-Cay", and "new". He loved to touch him and would get really excited to even touch him with the tip of his finger. He also wanted him to be awake all of the time. Whenever Caleb was napping in his pack-n-play, Henry would peer over the side and just watch him. Hopefully he will be as fascinated and excited about his baby brother. He kept touching my tummy today and saying "out". He wants this little guy to come out now.

It's always been fun to watch Gabe and Henry together, but it's getting to be more and more entertaining. Before we left yesterday we were eating lunch in the kitchen and the boys had finished their lunch and were watching Mary Poppins and sitting right next to each other on the couch in the living room. Gabe told Henry (looking directly at him) that they were watching Mary Poppins, to which Henry exclaimed (looking right at Gabe)"Poppa" (his pronunciation apparently) and Gabe stared right back at him and said "Mary Poppins". This went on and on, we just watched and laughed at their little interaction with each other. It's sweet to see their personalities emerging and to see Gabe being such a helper to Henry. They had so much fun playing together, too. They tried to do somersaults, had a little dance party, played with giant bubbles that Dan made outside, played in the sandbox and rode bikes together. Also, Henry has started to say Gabe-it sounds like "Big"-and he's been talking about him since we've been home.

A Fun Haircut??

Tonight we brought Henry to a new hair-cut place in Bloomington called Cookie Cutters. Instead of chairs there are different fun things to sit in like cars, planes and even a tractor. Henry of course immediately ran to the tractor for his haircut. He also got to choose a DVD to watch during his cut-he chose Barney. And when he got fidgety the hairdresser blew bubbles for him. As you can tell from the pics, he was still not that thrilled to get his hair cut, he kept pushing the lady's hand away. It was a fun experience but I think we'll probably stick to the salon where he's gotten all of his past haircuts....granted I didn't cry after this one (!), but it cost $16 versus the $10 we usually pay. He was very proud of the balloon and lollipop that he got when his haircut was done!

Tractor Pull

(Note everyone covering their ears around us-how miserable!)

So I wish I understood this better, it would make for an easier post, but after attending I still really don't. Ok we took Henry to the McLean County Fair on Wednesday night and met our friends Brandon and Charlie at the tractor pull event. Never having been to something like this before I assumed it would be a bunch of tractors pulling things (what, I don't know!). However, I quickly learned that the tractors pull nothing. It's cars, ATV's and pick-up trucks that pull this trailor with a sliding weight on it as far as they can. Then someone comes and measures the distance of the pull and then finally come the tractors to smooth out the dirt roadway for the next puller. Really I couldn't concentrate on the details because the cars/trucks that were doing the pulling were so loud that it made my ears ring and then itch. We didn't stay long at the event mostly because of the noise...I didn't think it was the place for small developing toddler ears. We did get to visit the rest of the fair and Henry got to see the livestock-there were cows, sheep, goats and gigantic pigs. He was really fascinated with the animals, but a little leary of the huge pigs and their giant noses that protruded from their pens. It was definitely an experience to remember!

Henry's Visit To The Dairy Farm

This morning Henry and I went to a local dairy farm that I heard of through the grapevine. It turned out to be this darling family-owned business that specializes in making different varieties of cheese. The owner is a retired teacher and she was great with Henry. She gave us a tour and Henry got to see the baby cows and feed a calve her bottle. He also fed the older cows hay, and got to sit on a tractor and a riding mower which he loved. He also loved petting the cows but was mostly fascinated with a cat we found in the barn! We watched the cheese being made...that's really interesting, we saw the early stages when the curds are forming and are separating from the whey. It's weird that cheese is moldy old milk. I bought a few varieties of cheese from their store including some cheese curds that sound gross, but are really tasty. By the way, the cows that Henry is petting in these pictures are just newborns...1 and 2 weeks old. Ahh, can you even imagine having a baby that big???