Ultrasound

I had the anatomy ultrasound this afternoon for the new baby. Everything looked great! His heart rate was a strong 164 bpm. He measured well everywhere. He's a tad larger than he should be for our due date of July 5th. His measurements put him at a due date of June 29th, but my official due date hasn't changed. He has all his limbs and essential organs. He was jerking around as he should. I haven't felt him much yet and the ultrasound tech said it would take longer to feel him because the placenta is on the front side.

Here are the ultrasound pictures the tech gave us today. They aren't great, but at least they are something. I was disappointed that she didn't flip on the 3D ultrasound like she did at every ultrasound she did of Carter. Seems like they are getting a little more stingy with that at my doctor's office. Oh well.





That last one is of the baby's leg and foot. Random.

I go back next week for a regular appointment with my doctor.

Both Brian and Carter came to my appointment today. As usual, we had to wait an hour before we got to go back. When setting up my next appointment I asked for a time that would hopefully require the shortest wait because we've been in the waiting room over an hour with all my appointments so far with this pregnancy and Carter can only be good for so long.

After my appointment we met Sarah and Mary Grace for dinner at Pimento's. Mary Grace did awesome but Carter started melting down near the end of dinner. He only had one nap today and was exhausted after an hour of running around the mostly empty waiting room at my doctor's office (it was completely empty the last 30 minutes).

Little Monkey

Carter has started climbing absolutely everything the last few weeks. Here are just a few examples. (Note: None of the pictures include Carter actually standing on the items because instead of taking a picture, I've been quickly getting him down and telling him not to climb up on the item again.)

My box of maternity clothes in our closet.


Diapers that I've been storing in the dormer of Carter's bathroom.


The outside of Carter's crib.


A kitchen chair.


The ottoman that goes with the glider in his nursery. I don't know how he was able to get to a standing position because the ottoman glides as well.


The outside of the steps.


And the best ... Carter will stand on the seat of his Power Wheel and stand up straight with no hands.


There have been no major injuries YET.

18 Weeks

I'm 18 weeks along today with "new baby" (that's his name for now - we're going to be last minute on making a name decision again). I've been feeling pretty good lately. I'm not as tired and haven't had any nausea in awhile. My back is starting to hurt, but it's manageable. Carter has been really clingy lately and wants to be picked up a lot so that's just wearing me out. I can occasionally feel new baby move a little, but it's nothing significant or consistent yet.

Here's a belly picture from today as well as the picture from 16 weeks:

18 weeks ...


16 weeks ...


Brian and I picked up paint for Carter's new room yesterday. I was able to get it all taped during Carter's nap this afternoon and will probably start painting the edging tomorrow. The colors we picked out are Glidden colors, but we had Lowe's match them with Olympic paint since it has no VOCs and is very low odor. I helped paint Carter's current nursery with Olympic paint when I was pregnant with him and it seemed plenty safe.



We finally got Carter eating some meat other than ham this past week. He ate a hot dog, Chick-fil-A nuggets, and some of my cheeseburger from Five Guys. I've been resisting offering him this type of food because I don't think it's really that healthy for him, but I know he also needs more protein in his diet. Carter always had a vegetable before these so he's still eating some healthy food with each meal. I know having this stuff once in a while isn't bad, I just don't want him to only like this sort of food and it become a fight to eat healthier stuff.

I can't believe it, but I'm still nursing Carter too. He just refuses to drink milk and I refuse to let him get dehydrated so end up giving him water and nursing him. Hopefully we'll have a breakthrough soon!

Snow Day

We didn't necessarily get the snow that was predicted, but we definitely got some. It started snowing at our house around 3:30 pm yesterday. It snowed for a few hours and then we got freezing rain starting around 6:30 pm. We seemed to get a mix of both overnight because there was probably a couple of inches of snow on the ground when we got up, but it was also very icy on top. We got a mix of everything throughout the day - often times it was rain. Then this afternoon we got some steady snow for a few hours.

I decided around 5 pm that we should try taking Carter out for a little bit. It took about as long to dress us all as we spent outside. Carter doesn't have any waterproof pants so he got to wear 2 regular pairs of pants. He also had a onesie, sweater, fleece, and jacket on. He was still able to move though :)

Carter was pretty excited when I first put him down to stand in the snow.


I love this cute face ...


Carter lost his balance and fell on his butt - he did not like having a cold bottom!


I had to pull out an old jacket from our Goodwill pile that was big enough to zip and long enough to cover the snow pants I was wearing that I couldn't zipper! My belly has really expanded these last few weeks!


Brian and Carter ...


Trying out standing in the snow again ...


Another cute face ...


Giving the Carter-sized snowman Brian and I rolled a pat ...


My lame attempt at giving the snowman some character ...


We were only outside probably 15 minutes, but at least we finally got Carter out in the snow!

Carter's New Room Layout?

Here's a potential layout for Carter's new room if we use the furniture from the last post. It's pretty much to scale. If you click on the drawing, you should get a bigger version that you can actually see.

Carter's New Furniture?

I spent last night trying to figure out what to do for furniture for Carter's new room. I want to get him a crib that converts to a toddler bed, but I see us only using it for a year or year and a half. We could then convert the toddler bed into a full bed, but the room we're moving Carter into is long and I think a twin bed would fit better in the room. Besides, I can't imagine such a little kid in a big full bed. I just like twin beds better for when kids are young. So, I basically don't want to spend a lot on a crib and crib mattress.

So, if I get a cheaper crib, should I buy other "cheap" furniture to finish the room? Or go ahead and get a good dresser and bookcase that we can then match a twin bed frame to when we're ready? I think I'm leaning towards getting a "long-term" dresser and bookcase. I also need a place to still change Carter's diapers and store all that stuff. So I either need a basic changing table or a dresser that's low enough and long enough for a changing pad and a basket for diapers, wipes, etc.

This is the furniture I'm currently thinking of buying ...

Graco Lauren Classic Convertible Crib in Espresso:


(This crib is no longer sold with the dropside so it's safe!) Target has this crib on sale for $139.99 and they are throwing in a free mattress if you buy it online (a Kolcraft Pediatric 1000 Crib Mattress). And they have free shipping. The mattress isn't amazing (it only costs $40.99) but it has good reviews. I checked it out at Target yesterday and it is softer than Carter's current mattress, but we're not worried about a soft mattress and SIDS anymore. And I don't really want to spend $100-$150 on a mattress that we're not going to use for long. Besides, if Carter hates it, it's free and we can always get a new mattress without feeling like we wasted money. When I was at Babies R Us yesterday getting diapers, I checked out the crib and I like how it looks. It's not as heavy looking as a lot of their cribs (but a lot of their cribs cost $400+), but it doesn't look too basic or cheap either. The crib is made in other colors, but it costs about $20 more and doesn't come with a free mattress. I think I like the dark color and I think it looks good with the paint we picked out for Carter's room. I'm finding this deal hard to pass up!

Target makes the bookcase that we currently have in Carter's room in an espresso stain as well. It's held up well so far (we actually have a few more of the same style of bookcase in other rooms in the house and they all still look great too). Here's a picture of it:


It costs $69.99, but Target always puts these bookcases on sale so if we wait, we should be able to get it for about $54.99.

Now, my big dilemma ... the dresser. Right now, I'm leaning towards this Canopy dresser from Walmart (it also has wood knobs you can use instead of the silver):


I'm usually not a fan of Walmart furniture, but we have the console table from this collection in our office and it is really well made. The drawers are all wood instead of having those flimsy particle board bottoms. I also think the style matches the crib well. And it's big enough. We could use the extra drawers for blankets and other storage. This would be our "splurge" as it costs $299.96. I've seen some other dressers that aren't bad and in the $200-$300 range, but most are either too tall and/or too narrow to use as a changing table. I'm going to continue looking at dressers a little more before buying this one, but it's my favorite so far.

Does anyone see any flaws in my logic here? Any suggestions on what's best to do? I've looked a little and think we'll be able to find a twin bed frame in the espresso color to match the other furniture when we need it. I'm going to try to draw out the room and layout of the furniture in Visio today to make sure everything will fit as I think it should. I'll try to post that later if I'm able to do it.

Playing with Cars

Carter has been enjoying playing with his MegaBloks car set this week. Here's a video I took of him today ...

He's getting better and better and putting the cars on the tracks.

Carter must of slept on his hands during his morning nap today because this is what he looked like when I went to get him ...


It took forever for those finger marks to fade!

Carter and I have had water issues the last few days. I gave Carter a bath yesterday morning because we ran out of time the night before. Carter and I went into the bathroom to see if the water was high enough and test the temperature. Carter likes to lean over to reach into the tub for his toys before he gets in. I had my hand on him as I was turned towards the faucet to turn off the water. Carter got his weight a little too far forward and I apparently didn't have a good enough hold on him because he dove right into the water in his pajamas. It scared both of us pretty good, but he was completely fine (other than being soaked).

Today's water issue was with Charlotte's water bowl. I was letting Charlotte in from outside and Carter decided to pick up Charlotte's full water bowl, dump it out, walk through the puddle, and do a painful looking split and fall onto the tile floor. I had a soaked and screaming kid again.

We are going to try to stay away from water tomorrow.

We have a winter storm warning for tomorrow and Saturday. The predictions are still changing, but the latest I've read on weather.com is 5 to 9 inches of snow. It'd be fun to get that much, but if we do, I hope it melts fast because Carter and I have spent a lot of time at home this week and might go crazy if we're stuck at home for too long!

I Love Target

I got another amazing toy deal at Target today. They had Radio Flyer Tricycles for 75% off. I got this really cool tricycle for only $14.37!


This may be a toy for Carter for Summer 2011, but I don't mind holding on to it for awhile when I got this good of a deal.

I haven't decided on bedding for the boys yet, but I got some Dwell Studio bumpers and crib skirts for 75% as well a couple weeks ago. Hopefully we'll decide on final colors this weekend and I can return any of it that won't work. But I couldn't pass up bumpers for $8.74 and crib skirts for $5.49. Carter's current bedding is Dwell Studio and it's super soft and has held up amazing well - no stains at all.

I also found beautiful silver frames for Carter's new room that were 50% off. And I got some really nice cardigans for 75% off which are great right now because I'm still too small for most maternity shirts but the only regular tops that fit me seem to be tanks. So cardigans are my best friends right now.

Target has been having some really great sales this month. I feel like I go there almost everyday because different departments put stuff on sale different days of the week. I think the employees may start recognizing me soon!

Silly Boy, Again

I was getting Carter changed for bed tonight and this is what he wanted to wear.




It's been a low key week for us with just some shopping and getting stuff done around the house. We made it to Baby Bookworms today at the library (first time in about a month). Carter did okay - no embarrassing tantrums, though I had to let him have his freedom. He sat in my lap for almost half the songs which is better than the last few times.

Our Little Man