Belly Comparison

Here are belly pictures to show that I really can get even bigger!

Today at 36 weeks & 6 days:


35 weeks & 2 days:


31 weeks:


And 36 weeks & 4 days with Carter (Oct '08):


I think I look about the same at 31 weeks this time around as I did with Carter at 36 1/2 weeks! I've put on weight everywhere, but I think my face doesn't look quite as fat this time around (at least not yet). All our walks with Sarah and Mary Grace and chasing after Carter is paying off!

Second Haircut

I took Carter to get his second haircut today. It's been nine weeks since his first one and his hair had started to get really crazy the last few days. The top and back were starting to curl a lot because of how long the hair was and the hair on the sides was starting to hang over his ears (giving him wings).

Before:



After:


I need a better after picture.

We went to the same barber shop as last time but I had a different lady cut Carter's hair this time. They do mainly walk-ins at this barber shop and I decided it wouldn't be bad to see how someone else did. Mistake.

It did not go well. We were going to sit up front in one of the toddler seats but as soon as the lady came up there with her stuff, Carter freaked. He did not want to let go of my neck. When I got him in the seat, he just cried so pitifully and kept reaching for me. This lady was not as good with kids as the last one. She offered him a sucker right away. He had no idea what it was and she kept trying to force it in his mouth. I asked that we try the animal crackers instead but she had already blown her chance with Carter.

We decided to let Carter sit on my lap in a regular seat while she cut his hair. He did okay then. Carter still cried and pulled away occasionally, but he generally stayed still enough. However, I don't think she did a great job. She left it way too long on the top and back. I asked her to cut more and she did a little but it still wasn't enough. She was trying to tell me it was going to stick up if she cut it any shorter. It was so long though that the front hair was still touching Carter's eyebrows and there was still a lot of curl. She got a lot of the sides though so I decided to just go with it. It cost $13 + tip (the first haircut had been free). I think we may try a cheap chain next time and see how that goes. Carter still doesn't have much hair so it doesn't seem that hard.

I ended up cutting a bunch more of Carter's hair off this evening. I think it looks better, but that was before a bath and sleeping on wet hair. We'll see how it looks in the morning. At least now it shouldn't look like it needs to be cut again in a week or two now.

Here are a couple of random videos from today. It was really hot but we managed to get outside for a little bit while the driveway was still mostly shaded this morning.

Carter's gotten much better at riding his Power Wheel (he no longer is so jerky with the button).

And here's Carter showing off some soccer skills. He watched a little of the World Cup with me today. After seeing the guys play for about 10 seconds, Carter got one of his balls and started kicking it around the room.

This is random, but a couple of days ago Carter started lining up his trucks. He doesn't do this all the time, but it seems to be something all kids do at some point. He's very proud of himself when he completes a line of trucks or his Little People animals.

Today's Fun

Carter and I went to Mother Goose this morning with Amy and Caitlyn. Carter was Mr. Independent today. He did not want to sit with me at all.

One of the moms had two of her older kids with her today. Carter was all about her son that was probably around 7 years old. He sat next to him for about a third of the class. I think Carter wants a big brother instead of being the big brother!

When Carter wasn't hanging out with his new family, he was entertaining the class. While all the other kids sat on their mom's laps, Carter was walking laps around the room. He had everyone laughing several times. There is one song where your kid sits on your lap and you progressively bounce them more as the song goes along. Carter started off just walking, then bouncing as he walked, and then finally spinning and falling down. I kept telling Amy that my kid is "that kid". It was funny but a little embarrassing at the same time.

Even though Carter had no interest in sitting on my lap, he got VERY jealous the couple of times that Caitlyn sat in my lap. Hopefully he won't be like that with the new baby!

Overall Carter had a ton of fun at Mother Goose today, even if he was a little crazy.

After the program, Amy and Caitlyn came over to go swimming. We got a lot of rain yesterday and it was still overcast this morning so the pool was pretty cold, but we got used to it soon enough. The kids had fun playing, until Carter started getting tired and hungry near the end of our time there. He started not sharing his toys and trying to hit. But up until then, he did great jumping into the pool, playing with his bucket and watering can, and watching the construction vehicles working on their big hole again at the neighboring house.

After the pool, we had a quick lunch and I got Carter down for a nap. I woke him up for my doctor's appointment, we did that, and then had dinner at Salsarita's. After playing for a little bit when we got home, Carter got a bath, read some books, and went down easily for the night. We had lots of fun today!

36 Weeks and 3 Days

Oh my, this baby is huge!

I had an ultrasound and appointment with my doctor today.

First up was the ultrasound. According to the ultrasound tech's measurements, this "little" guy is currently 8 lbs, 7 oz!!! Carter was only 7 lbs, 5 oz at birth (which was at 39 weeks and 6 days). My doctor did say that the tech is usually off in the high direction. So most likely he's not any bigger than the current estimate. But she also did say that the estimate is plus or minus 1 lb (he better not be 9 lbs, 7 oz already!!!). So even at the low end, he's probably at least 7 lbs, 7 oz right now. At my last ultrasound (3 weeks and 2 days ago), the estimate was 5 lbs, 14 oz. That means this guy is not following the trend of 0.5 lbs per week - he's closer to 0.8 lbs per week which means he's just going to be HUGE if he continues on this track.

Measuring various parts of the baby (his head, abdomen, etc) and averaging those numbers put the baby at 38 weeks and 5 days. The crazy measurement is this guy's abdomen. The ultrasound tech kept remeasuring to try to get the number down, but he's measuring 41 weeks or more there. He's going to look like a Buddha!

Everything else looked good in the ultrasound though. The amniotic fluid was measuring fine and the placenta still looks good. His heart looks fine, he's practicing breathing, and he's moving.

As far as I go, I'm up to about 160 lbs and my blood pressure was 110/62. All good numbers still.

It took a long time for me to see my doctor today because after I saw the ultrasound tech and the nurse, my doctor had to leave to go deliver a baby. Her office is at the hospital so it didn't take too long. This was her second delivery today though so she was already backed up. My appointment was at 2:30 pm and we didn't leave until 5:30 pm. Luckily Brian came to this appointment because of the ultrasound so he helped a lot with entertaining Carter.

We talked to my doctor a lot about what is likely to happen since this baby is so big already. I am still 1 cm dilated and the baby's head has not dropped (or engaged) yet. Carter's was like that too - even at my 39 week appointment his head was not in place yet. So my doctor would ideally like for me to be induced at 39 weeks. She wants to go that far because that will guarantee that the baby's lungs have fully developed. However, if I'm not dilated enough or the baby's head hasn't dropped, she's not sure she'd feel comfortable inducing (since my body wouldn't really be ready). Basically, we're going to have to wait and see what happens and then make a decision. She seemed to think that I'd still most likely be able to have a vaginal delivery but that I need to be prepared for a c-section because there is a chance a big baby won't "fit" and would get stuck.

My doctor also said that I can keep doing everything that I'm doing now - I don't need to slow down. I asked her if I'm doing anything wrong or need to do something different (such as with my diet) to make sure the baby doesn't get too big and she said I'm doing everything I right.

I am going back on Wednesday for another ultrasound and appointment. When I was making the appointment with the girl at the front desk, she made it sound like there is a good chance my doctor will want to start seeing me twice a week after that.

I think that's everything. Brian pointed out that if we induce at 39 weeks, that's only 2 1/2 weeks away. That seems so much closer than 3 1/2 weeks!

I'm getting more and more uncomfortable. My belly is huge. It's even hard to sit if I'm not reclined because my legs push up on my huge belly. And the stretch marks (the following may be too much information so don't read if you don't want to know about them). They are ridiculous. They are crisscrossed all over my belly. Even the ultrasound tech made a comment that was something like "wow, that's a lot of stretch marks" and apologized. If someone that sees pregnant bellies all day long makes a comment like that, you know they are bad! Brian asked me tonight if I've seen my belly button lately (which I haven't - it's really low on my belly). I have stretch marks radiating out from my belly button making it look like a sun. The skin is stretched so thin that my belly feels like a have a really bad sunburn all over it. It hurts a lot all the time now. But other than my belly, I've been feeling pretty good. I've had very little back pain lately and even my heart burn has improved (it's still there in the evenings some but isn't all that bad). My feet swell a lot only occasionally too. Now that I'm writing all this, I'm probably going to start suffering from all these things starting tomorrow!

Afternoon at the Pool

We went to the pool this afternoon with Sarah and Mary Grace. The kids really love the pool and so do us adults. The kids spent most of their time in the pool jumping off the side to us. One time Carter decided to jump off the side away from me before I could get to him so he went under completely and popped back up right as I got to him. He got a little water in him but was ready to go again right away. He has no fear of the water. Instead of really jumping off the side though Carter sort of just walks off the edge like he's going to walk on water. I've been catching him before he gets in very far because I keep thinking he's going to hit the side of the pool with his head. Hopefully he'll learn soon to jump out more.

Carter's favorite thing at the pool today had nothing to do with the pool at all. One of the houses close to the pool had a couple of small construction vehicles in their backyard (I think one was a backhoe and one was a bulldozer). Carter was mesmerized watching them. It looked like they were working on digging a hole for their own pool but they had just started so I'm not sure.

Here's a picture of Carter watching the digging ...


Carter also had a lot of fun sitting on the edge of the pool, eating a snack, and kicking his feet in the water. A perfect way to cool off while having a snack!

Having a pool in the neighborhood is well worth our homeowner's dues!

Carter Update

There has been a lot of stuff I've been meaning to write about regarding Carter that I just haven't gotten around to lately (or forget about when I finally sit down at the computer at night to do a post). So I'm going to try to capture most of it in one post before he changes too much and this stuff is irrelevant!

Carter has hit that age where he is starting to test his boundaries and we have to start really disciplining him. There are some days he is a perfect angel and other days where I would use the word "brat" to describe him. Carter is starting to hit both when he's mad (which I expect) and sometimes because he thinks it's funny (which is the harder one to deal with). He has been getting timeouts when he does this but timeouts don't seem to be much of a punishment to him right now. I make him stand in the corner while I count to 20 and he stands there perfectly never trying to get away or making a peep. He's usually happy during them. I'm trying to be consistent and hope they will start making a difference. Carter also has been hitting Charlotte or throwing toys at her. He used to be so gentle with her, but not anymore - poor Charlotte. And then he just does other random stuff he knows he's not supposed to do. Like dump Charlotte's water or food bowl out on the floor, throw things like his sippy or toys, or climb up on tables or the outside of the steps. The thing that's hard is he knows he's not supposed to do these things because he'll do something he's not supposed to and then look at me for a reaction. We're trying not to get mad and react. We're trying to be stern when we need to be, explain why he shouldn't do some things, and have consistent consequences.

So that's the "bad" stuff, now for all the good stuff ...

Some of Carter's newer words are bird, go, whee, baby, and boo-boo.

• He loves seeing birds almost as much as dogs and is very good at pointing them out.
• Carter likes to say "go, go, go" when we're about to leave the house or when I'm driving.
• "Whee" is said a lot when we're driving on a curvy or hilly road.
• Carter has become obsessed with babies (just in time). He likes to point them out in stores or in books and say "baby". He also will point at my belly and say "baby". I think he kind of gets that there's a baby in there.
• Carter learned "boo-boo" today. He scraped his knee on Saturday and kept pointing the spot out to me this morning. I said something about seeing his boo-boo and then he just started using that word. He kept pointing it out all day to me and saying "boo-boo". He also has kissed his knee several times. I have kissed spots he's hurt a few times, but not that often. I was surprised he had picked that up.
  

Carter also loves to kiss my belly now. And give it hugs. I'm really hoping he's sweet to his little brother and doesn't throw anything at him or hit him! Oh, and he also wants me to kiss my belly after he does it. He will stand next to me and keep trying to push my head down. He doesn't quite get that that's impossible for me to do!

Carter has become more social when we're out shopping. When someone says hi to him, I can ask him to wave and he will. Unprompted, he always waves at the cashier when we're leaving a checkout line. And he'll often also wave at random cars.

Carter is getting really good at throwing and kicking balls. He has quite an arm. Though he tends to favor using his right hand, he can throw almost as good with his left. Catching is something we're still working on. Carter's just now starting to learn how to catch but it's rare that he actually does it. He still likes when you bounce a ball off his head - it makes him laugh. Back to Carter misbehaving, we want to encourage sports but we're also trying to keep him from throwing anything other than balls right now. Discipline can be confusing!

We have a few versions of the "Five Little Monkeys" books and some other similar stories. A few times, I shook my finger during the "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!" or a similar line. Carter picked that up and now shakes his finger during that line too. He is such a copycat and we have to be really careful not to do something in front of him we don't want him doing.

And we finally stopped using Carter's bath seat about a month ago. He now has freedom during baths. He's just now starting to stand up more in the tub and we have to keep reminding him to sit. He discovered the other day that the back of the tub is sloped like a slide and he can slide down it. We're working hard to make sure he doesn't do that.

Happy Birthday, Brian!

Today is Brian's birthday. We didn't do much - we got to spend some family time hanging out around the house and Brian got some work done.

We did get to go out to dinner last night by ourselves because Sarah and Brent were generous enough to watch Carter for us. They even took him out to dinner and to a playground! It sounded like he had lots of fun and behaved himself.

We went to Cafe 4 at Market Square in downtown Knoxville. Brian's been there for lunch once before, but it was my first time there. Cafe 4 is a trendy little restaurant with a music venue called the Square Room behind the restaurant area. The food was very yummy and affordable. Plus we had a coupon for a free cupcake (they have a small bakery in the lobby area) which was perfect since we were celebrating our anniversary and Brian's birthday.

We didn't do any cooking this weekend and ended up having takeout Friday night and tonight after Carter was in bed. I bet the baby put on a pound over the weekend! I haven't weighed myself, but I probably gained way too much this week. But it was really nice eating takeout and watching the Stanley Cup Finals on the couch!

Brian and I don't tend to do presents for each other for birthdays, but I tried to make a card for Brian from Carter.

The front ...


The back ...


I used the Crayola Color Wonder markers to color Carter's hands and feet and then press them on the special paper. It worked surprisingly well. When I got the markers back out this afternoon to let Carter color again, he kept wanting me to color his hands again.

Carter was holding this basketball up to his belly this morning so I decided to stick it under his shirt. He looks just like me!

Summer Fun

Carter and I are so glad that summer is here! We've been enjoying the warm weather and spending lots of time in the water trying to stay cool.

On Thursday, we went to Books and Blooms at the UT Gardens again with Sarah and Mary Grace. It didn't seem as crowded as last week but there were still a lot of people there. Carter and Mary Grace enjoyed running around the Gardens and coloring. Neither was that into the songs or stories.

Carter got to use markers for the first time to color his "B" worksheet. His clothes survived and only his hands got colored up. He's getting a little better and scribbling (I colored the "B" and Sarah colored the "o").


After the program, we went to the pool in our neighborhood. We ate lunch and then swam for an hour or so. Carter was a bit grumpy because he didn't have a morning nap, but we all survived. He's getting better and better at jumping into the pool. So far, no fear (which may not be good!). He needs to work on waiting for me to be in the pool before he jumps in. He never actually jumped before I was ready, but he tried.

On Friday, Sarah and I walked and then went to her house for lunch and a few hours of fun with the water table, baby pool, and other toys in the yard. We got to relax while the kids played (we still have to get up a lot to help with something, but it's so much easier than playing outside by myself with Carter).

Carter LOVES Mary Grace's slide. We may have to start looking for one for our house.


He also loved her bike. It's still too big for him but he kept trying to put his feet on the pedals to make it move. We have given up on finding him a bike that's small enough for him right now. Maybe in a few months we'll look again.


Playing with the flower sprinkler ...


Carter got to have his first ice pop. He probably only ate about a third of it because a lot fell on the ground and he couldn't figure out how to get the melted juice out at the end, but he had fun eating it!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our 5th wedding anniversary!

Here are some of my favorite pictures of the "details" of our wedding ...

35 Weeks, 2 Days and Big

I had appointment with my OB today to check on the baby. I am still measuring big. I am scheduled to have another ultrasound next Thursday to determine the baby's size. I figured I'd ask my doctor after that ultrasound what my options are as far as having the baby early and if a c-section is likely. We really need to figure out a name soon!

My blood pressure was 118/68 and my weight was 159 lbs (that's 40 lbs gained so far and 2 lbs up from 2 weeks ago). I did the Group B Strep test today and my doctor checked to see if I am dilated. Which I am - 1 cm right now. The baby's heartbeat sounded good and everything is looking good still.

My due date is July 5th (a Monday) and my doctor is on call the weekend of the 4th. So that's good news if I make it that long. I'm really hoping my doctor gets to do the delivery this time.
I'm still feeling okay, though I feel like my skin cannot stretch anymore. It hurts so much and is so red. Heartburn has set in but isn't bothering me all the time at least. I'm worn out and it's getting harder to carry Carter everywhere, but that's all to be expected. One benefit of being so worn out is that I'm sleeping pretty well at night. I get up to pee 3 or 4 times a night but am able to get back to sleep quickly.I'm still able to stay pretty active. The last two mornings Sarah and I have walked. We have been walking over at West Hills and we've been doing about 4 1/4 miles each day. I don't think we've slowed down too much from our usual speed but it's hard for me to tell.Here's a belly picture from today (35 weeks, 2 days) ...


And here's one from 31 weeks ...


That black tank makes it hard to really compare, but I am definitely bigger.

Today I took Carter to the pool after my doctor's appointment. The water is so nice this year - it was pretty cold this time last year. Even though the parking lot was almost full when we got there, everyone must have driven separately because it wasn't very crowded. There were a few carloads of people that obviously didn't live in our neighborhood who tried to get into the pool until they realized the gate was locked. Luckily none of them were brave enough to ask me or other people close by to let them in. I never know what to do when I'm not sure if someone lives in the neighborhood or not. I feel like I'm being rude if I ask them who they are and where they live.

Carter got really good at jumping in today. I'm still catching him before he really hits the water, but he's getting braver. We're hoping to go back to the pool tomorrow with Sarah and Mary Grace so I'll try to catch him more in the water then if he's willing to try.