25 weeks

Here's my 25 week shot...getting bigger! And feeling bigger too.

For the most part I'm feeling really good. I am still very tired by the end of the day but if I think back, it HAS gotten better since the 1st trimester. This little one is very active (which I'm so thankful for!). I think she must be facing out because I feel lots of detailed movements (if that makes any sense) - like little swipes of the hand or foot or whatever it is. She is already a little violent with her brother when he cuddles with me...maybe jealous already? No, just smushed. :)

We have a date for the c-section now for June 16th. Having a date makes it suddenly feel realistic that "oh, I really AM pregnant!" Just to be cautious, my doctor is giving me regular ultrasounds every 2 weeks till the end, and weekly non-stress tests starting at 28 weeks. This will make for a lot of appointments, but I'm glad she's being cautious.

Now for a few pictures of my favorite boys!

let's celebrate!

it's Jaxon's 1 1/2 birthday! :)

I might not have done this if I wasn't pregnant...I'm not quite sure :) What pregnant woman can pass up an opportunity like this to have chocolate cake!?






I think the cake made his day. He wouldn't stop "talking" about it afterwards ;)

finger painting fun

Jax and I were bored yesterday morning and decided to dig out the paint! Since Jaxon's still pretty young I didn't know what I would be getting myself into but he actually did REALLY good and we had SO MUCH FUN! I am still amazed at how much fun things are when you have a kid. Things that I never in a million years thought would be fun. Especially when it's their first time. It's exciting to see them learn and develop and have fun with things.

Anyway...here's some pictures.

And, just FYI - those tubes of "water based" acrylic paint....that paint doesn't wash out of clothes :( Unfortunately I didn't wear old clothes since I really didn't think I would get dirty. Wrong! Oh well.

Jax was amazed when I showed him that he got to put his fingers in the paint. He looked at me and said "Whoaaaa" with a half smile on his face.


he concentrated pretty hard the whole time.














...and one more picture that has nothing to do with painting but I thought was super cute. Dan's parents brought some of Dan's old dinky toys with them when they came last weekend and Jax loves them :)

Jaxon's going to have a little....

SISTER!!!!!!!!

We had our ultrasound today and found out that we're having a GIRL!!!! We're so excited. We were both really hoping for a girl, but were trying not to get our hopes up and were sort of expecting the technician to say "boy". So when she said girl....we were both so happy! Not that we wouldn't have been thrilled if it was a boy.....but you know. We were told by our doctor that "girls" sometimes hide "parts" during an ultrasound so I guess there's a TINY chance that it could still be a boy, but the tech said she was pretty certain that it was a girl.

Okay ladies....you know how you have to have a full bladder before you go in and you're supposed to drink a certain amount of water an hour and a half before your appt? Well I've learned that I don't have to go that crazy - I just don't pee for a while before the appt and I'm fine. So this morning I'm telling myself "you can't go pee......don't go to the bathroom.........you can't go pee......you can't go pee" and what did I do?????? I went PEE 45 minutes before my appt! I mindlessly went into the bathroom and went pee not even thinking until I was done. Thankfully the 2 litres of water I chugged after that filled my bladder fast enough :)

19 week belly

Well it's been 8 weeks since I've posted a belly picture so I figured it was about time to update! Here I am at 19.5 weeks.



I'm feeling pretty good, other than REALLY tired...still. I was hoping for that second trimester burst of energy but it never happened. I guess I might as well get used to a constant state of being tired since I'm not expecting much rest once the baby comes :) It's all worth it though!

I think it was my 17th week that I was SUPER hungry ALL the time and even more tired than usual - and I figured the baby must be going through a growth spurt. Well that Friday I all the sudden felt like my belly was harder, bigger, and more noticeable when bending over and stuff. So I guess something was happening!

I'm feeling LOTS of movement which is really cool. I don't remember feeling THIS much movement this early - must be an active kid. :)

gotta love those navels.

....navel oranges that is....

One of our favorite pass-times these days....sharing an orange. They're so good right now!




(this picture shows a better "after" look at his haircut than the pictures in my last post)

no more baby hair

For a few weeks now I've realized that the time has come...my sweet Jaxon's baby curls need a trim. I've been procrastinating booking an appointment, knowing that giving Jaxon his first haircut will take my sweet little baby one more step out of "babyhood" and into "boyhood". I love that he has those precious curls at the back and I didn't want to let them go - but he was starting to look like a homeless man. About half the time - the curls would behave and be curly - but at the worst of times - it was BAD.

Here's a BEFORE picture on a okay hairday:



Here's a couple BEFORE pictures on a VERY bad hair day (an hour before his haircut):





So on Saturday we went to see Cherie for a little trim :) I forgot to take pictures during the cut but Jax did VERY well...as long as he got to hold the comb Cherie let him borrow.

Here's Jaxon and Cherie after his haircut. Jax would rather be the photographer than the poser...he's not too happy.



Here are my attempts at the AFTER pictures. He obviously wasn't in the posing mood then, either (last week I made the mistake of letting him take a picture with our camera and now that's all he wants to do when he sees the camera....Oops.) These pictures actually make me laugh...even though they're all terrible.



"ghhhhhhhh!!"


"Mommmmmmmmm, let me go!"


"fine....I'm leaving!"


His shorter, "big-boy" hair-do has taken a couple days to get used to - but I do like it. Cherie did a great job - and the back still gets curly so I think I'll be okay. :)

Merry Christmas to you!

Merry Christmas friends and family!

I can't believe it's Christmas in only 2 sleeps. I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas...we are going to be spending some time with family starting on the 26th. We're looking forward to having Christmas morning here at home just the 3 of us. Now that Jaxon is older, it's so much fun watching him open presents and explore his new gifts (and the boxes they came in!).

It is our hope that this Christmas is a time that you find yourself pondering the birth of Christ - and celebrating it. It's pretty easy for me to get caught up in all the traditions and "feel-good" Christmas-y things that we do - and how that dictates whether I feel I've had a good Christmas or not. While those traditions are okay - it's important that I remember the true reason for Christmas, and that in my heart that purpose outweighs the satisfaction I look for in the Christmas traditions.

Here's a few of our latest and favorite pictures. Merry Christmas!







I found Jaxon playing with his Nativity set one day last week - it appeared that the Wiseman was kidnapping baby Jesus! LOL...

belly picture # 1

Where did the month go? I just read that the date of my last post was November 3rd. Crazy!

Here's my first belly picture for baby # 3. I can't believe I'm showing this much already. My belly actually started popping around 7 or 8 weeks (although it helps that I had some leftovers from Jaxon that came with it ;o)

Here I am at 11 weeks.



This pregnancy seems to be different from both of my last pregnancies. The other two were pretty predictable about what time in the day I would start feeling nauseous and for how long - and what kinds of foods I liked/disliked. This time my nausea is very unpredictable - and thankfully not all that bad, especially compared to what some women experience! And food-wise, it seems like it depends on the day what I crave or gag over. Surprisingly - I do have an increased desire for pickles :)

I would say my biggest struggle this trimester has been fatigue. Usually I can make it till 5pm and then it takes all I have to be able to clean up supper, get Jax ready for bed, and tidy the house. Often I'm in bed by 9:30. So I'm hoping that my energy returns sometime soon. At the same time though I'm thankful that I don't have it worse.

a few of my favorite {baby} things

I was thinking the other day about some of the baby/toddler "accessories" that we've found that have made life so much easier for us...and I thought I'd do a post about it! Here I am doing free advertising...I should get paid for this! Oh well. :) If I can help some of you out by letting you know about these things, that's pay enough for me.

Here's my list:

1. Mirrors for in the car! This is one of my FAVORITE favorites. It's SO nice to be able to see Jaxon in the back seat while I'm driving. I can tell if he's sleeping, getting into trouble, etc..and you can make faces at them :) I love it.

This one is for when the baby is rear facing.


The one below is for when they go forward facing - it attaches to your rear view mirror. We are using this one right now (I think ours might be a little bit different - I'm not sure if this one actually attaches to the rear view mirror). Jaxon often looks at me in the mirror and I'm always checking him out :)



2. Car Seat Bunting Bag - this is a MUST for the colder weather. I LOVED this thing. I didn't have to put a coat on Jaxon the entire winter because it. I just put a warm shirt on him, tuck a warm blanket inside, and zip up the cover. When you come inside and the baby is sleeping....all you have to do is unzip the cover and viola! the baby can stay asleep. And we all know how important it is to keep our babies sleeping as long as possible ;)

***if you look for one of these to buy - I would suggest that you get the kind that doesn't wrap around the bottom of the car seat. My friend had one of those and it wasn't as cozy and warm and as soon as the baby's legs got longer, it wouldn't fit anymore. The brand that I have is Gagou Tagou. ***




3. Nursing Cover! You can get these online....or I can possibly make & sell you one if you're interested. The top has boning in it so that it stays open for you to see the baby. It also has an adjustable strap to go around your neck.



4. Leather slippers. I'm sure most of you have used or at least heard of these before. They are AMAZING. They are seriously the only thing that would stay on Jaxon's feet. The most well-known brand is Robeez....but I recently found a company called Lil Jo's that makes them in Canada - and they are only $22.99. The ones pictured below are Lil Jo's.


5. Teething Tablets. These are tiny little homeopathic tablets that dissolve on the baby's tongue. They help take the edge off teething and they really seem to work well to calm Jaxon when his teeth are really bothering him. For us, they haven't necessarily replaced Motrin or Tylenol when teething is really bad, but they kick in fast and do the trick when he just needs to be distracted from the pain or to buy us time until the Motrin kicks in. You can get them at WalMart in the States (I haven't seen them in the Cdn WalMarts) or at a health food store. Jaxon loves taking them.



6. A wipeable, flexible, durable bib with a pocket that has snaps! (This brand is a Dex Dura-Bib). I didn't really use this until Jax started eating finger foods...and now it's the ONLY bib I use. And you only need 1. It's great. It catches everything, and all you have to do is wipe it off and it's ready for the next meal. And the snaps on the pocket make it very easy to get all the junk out of it - all you do is undo the snaps and the pocket unfolds, making it all flat. Thanks Amy for giving this to us!!!



...maybe this will give you an idea why I love it so much :)

It's helped me "let go" of the desire to feed Jaxon just so there would be less mess....now I don't really care (although he still gets food in his hair but oh well...) and he's actually feeding himself really well now, with way less mess.

Every time I take the tray off his highchair to clean him up, Jax loves to peek inside the pocket to see what kind of goodies are in there :o)


7. (Somewhat) Spillproof Snack Cup - This thing is one of my MAJOR favorites. It has been a life-saver for us numerous times. The lid has slits in it so that your toddler can stick his hand in, grab a few Cheerios, and pull it back out without dumping the whole cup of Cheerios everywhere. This is an essential in my purse whenever we go anywhere. Great for the car, shopping cart, church, and stroller (to name a few).

It took Jax a couple days to figure out how to get the Cheerios out, but he eventually got it and he quickly became a pro.

It IS still possible for Cheerios to go flying (like when Jax was trying to figure out how to use it and ended up holding one of the slit things open and shaking it upside-down) but really - it still gets 5 stars from me.

You can find these at WalMart for under $4.


And of course - some of the more normal things like:

• Wireless baby monitor (so you can take it outside with you while baby is napping)
• Car Seat/Stroller combo (where the car seat snaps into the stroller - very handy for transferring from the car to stroller, or for walks in the winter, or for taking a sleeping baby inside).
• Double-sided flannel blankets for swaddling (Jax slept way better swaddled from the time he was born until he started standing up in his crib).

The list could go on and on but I think I'll leave it there.....anyone have any awesome kid stuff that I don't know about??? I'd love to hear about them!