1039 Days/23w3d

Just a short recap of the last week :)

The girls had a dentist appointment!Lucy did great! She let the dentist look at all of her teeth and sat perfectly still during her cleaning! I'm very impressed with this office. Unfortunately, she also had three cavities in the teeth that she chipped several months ago. Thankfully, it was a quick and painless fix and they shouldn't cause her any problems before they fall out in a few years.

Arianna checked out perfectly with no cavities!






Throwing a fit because she couldn't sit on Ari's lap during her cleaning.




Both girls left with a balloon and a toy. Great visit to the dentist!

Jon went to Camp David for the first time.

We spent a few hours at the mall on a rainy day (apparently it storms ALL THE TIME in the summer in VA).






I got my hair cut and colored! You honestly can't tell much of a difference other than it's shorter and the ends are no longer blonde. It's a little bight shorter and not as thick so I'm ok with it. I think I've come to the sad realization that there are no really great salons in VA unless you want to pay $200. Which I might just do next time, but this works for now.






Jon made a really good spaghetti dinner!


The girls enjoyed cupcakes!






Arianna completed her last week of Preschool Level 3 swimming lessons and will be moving on to Swimming Level 1!!!




Mad again because she couldn't do what sister was doing.




Arianna started her first week of Ballet/Tap, but unfortunately there was only one other girl signed up for that class and they need a minimum of 3 in order to continue a class. Since nobody else signed up, both of the girls were moved to Tumbling which Arianna also enjoys (plus she's done Ballet/Tap before so it's not like she was missing out on anything new).


I can't wait until next summer! Lucy will be old enough for classes so she will finally get to do something that big sister does!




23 weeks pregnant with the little one :)

I promise better pictures are coming! We've been on the go so much lately that I've just been taking the phone and the ipad everywhere and leaving my camera at home because unless we go somewhere special that we don't go often, I don't even think to take the camera out.

1029 Days/22 Weeks

22 Weeks!

I'm 22 weeks pregnant today! I think I can pretty safely say I'm more than halfway through (unless I go to 44 weeks which I highly highly doubt I will) and Little One will be here in about 18-ish weeks!

This pregnancy has most definitely been my easiest morning sickness wise. I went for 27 weeks with Arianna before I finally felt some relief (and that was largely due to medication) and it lasted a good 25 weeks with Lucy. This time it tapered off around 13-14 weeks and never came back! My energy also returned around that time and while I do occasionally get a bit achy and winded, overall I feel fabulous. I've been able to keep up with a pretty busy schedule and do more things with the girls that I was ever able to do in my previous two pregnancies.

Things with my midwife have been going wonderfully. I currently see her every four weeks and I have my 24/25 week appointment at the end of the month. I believe after that, I have one more monthly appointment before I start seeing her every two weeks until 36 weeks. Everything is going by so quickly! I love going to my appointments. They each last an hour and I never leave feeling anxious or uncertain. She answers all of my questions and I have absolutely no reservations about this birth. I know we are in good hands. At my last appointment, she lent me the Hypnobirthing cd which is full of positive birthing affirmation and relaxation techniques. I downloaded them to my phone and have been setting time aside daily just for meditation and relaxation. These techniques along with some essential oils have helped me immensely in dealing with every day stress and anxiety.

When I was pregnant with Lucy, my doula contacted several of my friends and women in my family and asked them to send me a bead and a letter of encouragement for Lucy's birth. The beads were to be used to create a birthing necklace. This is traditionally part of a Mother Blessing or Blessingway. I wasn't able to have one in person because we had just moved to the area and didn't really know enough people to have such a gathering and unfortunately, my doula didn't make it to my birth in time so I didn't receive the beads until after Lucy was born. Receiving them at all and knowing that so many women were thinking of us still meant the world to me and I hung on to everything. I pulled it out the other day, re-read all of the letters, and felt all of the love and support that I had the first time around. I intend to use the beads to make the necklace so that I can wear it while I labor and give birth to Little One.

I'm way ahead of the game and already ordered my birth pool, my birth kit, and a few other supplies including a fetoscope! A fetoscope is similar to a stethoscope except it's used specifically for listening to fetal heart tones. It's basically the safe, risk free (and much cheaper) version of a doppler and it's what my midwife uses at my appointments. Since you generally can't pick up heart tone on a fetoscope before 20 weeks, I waited until not to order it. It also has a bit more of a learning curve than a doppler so I was very surprised when I was able to pick up the baby's heartbeat on my third try! I calculated 148 beats per minute. Jon was able to hear it the following day which is awesome. Due to his schedule he hasn't been able to come to any of my midwife appointments so I like that we have something here for him to listen in on the baby if he wants to.

Helping mama listen in on the baby

La Bassine birth pool

This thing is so deep! I can't wait to use it!

Now for some fun news! We had our 20 week ultrasound at the beginning of the month! This was our first time seeing Little One and everything looked great! The only thing that they weren't able to get a good look at was the heart. The technician jiggled my belly around and had me move into several different positions to try and get Little One to flip over so we could look and it just wasn't happening. She said in order to see the heart clearly, I would need to come back for another ultrasound. This kind of threw a wrench in things because from the very start of this pregnancy I have been adamant that I would only be having one. I make no judgments whatsoever toward anyone who chooses to have multiple ultrasounds throughout their pregnancy, I'm just personally not comfortable with excessive ultrasound exposure (and my pregnancy is low risk so there is no NEED for it). However, the heart is something that I really wanted to check out and get a good look at. The entire point of this ultrasound was to look at the brain and all of the major organs to make sure that everything was developing properly and there was nothing going on that would contraindicate a homebirth. So we weighed the options. Jon told me that he trusted me to make the decision that I felt was best. My midwife doesn't even require one ultrasound so I know she will be perfectly ok with me forgoing a second. All of the other organs looked great and although we didn't get to see the heart, we took a quick listen. It was good a strong with no murmurs or anything worrisome. I spoke with my doula who is extremely knowledgeable and she reminded me that as far as homebirth safety goes, the brain and the placenta are the main concerns and both of those things looked great. So with all of that in mind, we decided to stick with our original decision to only have one ultrasound. I have not felt any uncertainty about this decision which assures me that it's the right one.

20w6d

Hand, foot, and face

So no second ultrasound. I know what you're all thinking, "No second ultrasound means we won't find out the sex of the baby until the birth!" Heh, wrong. We already know if Little One is a boy or a girl! Surprise! We also (and this shocks even me after how long it took to come up with Lucy's name) have a name picked out! Both the sex of the baby and the name will be announced in our maternity photos which are scheduled for August 11th. So you're just going to have to be patient a little while longer! I promise it will be worth the wait. Our photographer is amazing and I have some adorable ideas that I know she will capture beautifully. The kids are going to be involved and it's going to be a fun photoshoot! Stay tuned.... ;)

Growth throughout the weeks

My 20 week ultrasound with Lucy (top) and Little One (bottom). What do you think? Boy? Girl?

Since we still have another month before we announce the big news, you can still put in a guess about Little One's sex, size and birthday! This link should take you directly to our game, but if it asks for the game name, it's BabyBush3.

http://www.expectnet.com/games/BabyBush3

1028 Days/21w6d

I am still wayyyy behind on pictures and posting. We experienced three power outages in the span of a little over a week and it's amazing to me how much that's thrown me off of our normal routine. I also still haven't gotten my Macbook charger fixed because I haven't had time to drive out to the Apple store and have them swap it out. I'm going to try and get that done either tomorrow or next week. I still haven't even gotten our 4th of July pictures uploaded, but before I get any further behind, I'm going to do a quick post of Instagram photos just to try and catch up a bit!

What has Ari been up to?

Completing Level 1 swimming lessons!




Doing schoolwork to keep on track over the summer. She also helped create our Learning Corner!




Taking summer dance classes! Her last day of Jazz/Acro was today and next week she's moving on to Ballet Tap! This photo was actually from a photoshoot that she did at the dance studio to help promote productes made by Atutudes Handmade Tutus and Tina Dean Designs.


Photo by Karen Presecan Photography


Photo by Karen Presecan Photography


Checking out books at the library


Teaching her sister to read


Having fun on the 4th of July






Enjoying an ice cream cone




Helping me make homemade whipped cream


Having fun with dad




Moving on to Level 2 swimming lessons!








What has Lucy been up to?

Coloring on her face


Sleeping on mama




Playing and picking books at the library




Eating lots of ice cream






Swimming on the 4th of July


Playing with toys at Uncle Bob and Aunt JoAnn's house during one of our power outages


Tasting some homemade whipped cream


Having fun at the park






Teething :(





What have I been up to?

Growing a baby!

18 weeks


19 weeks


20w6d


Decorating our downstairs bathroom with a (randomly inspired) London theme


Attempting to relax among lots of stress and chaos


Loving on my babies

I still have 4th of July pictures to post, but after this, that should be about it!