When dad is away...

Stephen left at 4am this morning to go to a wedding in OKC.  My doc did not clear me to do any traveling from here on out, and so Stephen is being a stickler about it.  (It's like he cares about our health or something...)  Anyway.  I'm only slightly bitter.  So while he was driving, I was laying awake in bed, unable to fall back asleep.  Luckily, my early riser was ready to start the day at 5:30 anyway, so we got up.  We shared some strawberry instant oatmeal, and made a mess of the living room and her room, all while watching the disney channel. 

She went down for a nap around 7ish, and I realized that I couldn't remember the last time I took a shower, so I figured I'd better get on that while she was sleeping if I wanted to leave the house and not clear out every room I was in.  (One of the great things about being a stay at home mom...I don't think I could ever get stinky enough to lose the approval of my daughter...) So, I took a shower and then laid down for about 30 minutes, then B was ready to get up.  So we got up, ate goldfish and put makeup on.  I love that she likes to play with my makeup, but today she finally figured out how to open some of them.  Which meant that she took a bite out of my deoderant, ate a chunk of lip balm, and stuck her finger in my mascara tube.  Sometimes she gets in just ornery moods where she is into everything.  It was also just going to be one of those days where I let her get into pretty much everything.  So she ripped up some toilet paper in my room, sampled all of my lotions (I never throw them away, so I have a lot...) tried on all of my jewelry, dumped goldfish out on the carpet at least four times and unsorted the dirty laundry that I sorted. 

We then headed to the farmers market where we have some buddies that have a breakfast booth.  so we got biscuits and gravy- YUM, and walked around and talked to all the dogs and kids.  Then we came home and found out someone was showing the house this evening, so I had to rush around to clean cause we were leaving.  I did what all good moms do, and turned on the tv and gave her a bottle.  :)  I needed to get stuff done!  Don't judge me!  I cleaned as fast as I could, and worked up a pretty good sweat.  We finally got away and headed to the hospital to visit my grandma and mom.  We stopped for some bean burritos from Taco Bueno- which Blakely ate 2 bites and I ate the rest.  She snacked on other peoples' french fries, jolly ranchers from my grandpa, m&ms from my aunt, and a cup of mandarin oranges- the only healthy thing she's had all day.  Then on the way back we stopped at the outlet mall for me to return a dress- big mistake.  There apparently was a nascar race right across the street.  It was crazy.  I was then in need of a starbucks, so we stopped for that, and Blakely saw the pastries and I felt that if I was going to indulge then I should allow her to as well.  So I got her a blueberry scone- sortof healthy, right?  So that's what she had for dinner.  She has just not been in an eating mood lately.  (except for sweets of course...)

So we got home and the people looking at the house locked my garage door- the only way for me to get in the house.  I know it's silly for me not to have a housekey, but I don't.  Luckily, a realtor lives down the street so we loaded up the red wagon and banged on his door for a good 5 minutes before he finally came.  (I had no choice!)  He thought I wanted to chit chat about the housing market, so before I could even tell him why I showed up at his door with my wagon and 1 year old, he talked my ear off for about 10 minutes.  Finally, I was able to ask him if he could use his super-power realtor key to get me into my house.  He was sweet enough to walk us home and let me in the house- I am so glad he lives just around the corner!  I have no idea what I would have done...break a window? 

I then gave Blakely a bath and got her in bed and I had the rest of my dinner: a bag of flaming hot cheetos.  That's right.  I figured if ever there was a night to be up late with heartburn, this is the night.  Stephen won't be getting in until super late, and I don't sleep if he's not here, and I looooove flaming hot cheetos, so I went for it.  Now I am trying to decide if I should just quit now, or add some other unhealthy food to my dinner.  So here's a recap:  Blakely ate instant oatmeal, candy, oranges and a scone.  I ate biscuits and gravy, bean burritos, starbucks, and flaming hot cheetos. 

I have been feeling pretty terrible about my choices today, so I am thawing some chicken breasts, and I plan to eat a healthy breakfast, and salad for lunch and dinner. No dessert, no beverage other than water and maybe milk, and nothing unhealthy. AND I'm going to work out.

giving hippo a drink

being silly after bathtime

that's how much she ate

training toothpaste tastes good!

34+3

Well my dreams of having a healthy 6 pounder were shattered today. Henry is already more than a pound heavier than B was when she was BORN. I am thankful though. He is totally caught up and measuring right at average for everything but his huge noggin- which is 89%. Yikes! The doc said their is no reason to think I won't go full term with this one, which is scary. How big will he be??? But truly, I am so thankful.

Stephen and I have been really blessed with this pregnancy. For some reason we have just never worried or felt anxious and it is so much more enjoyable that way. I guess this time around we finally figured out that it doesn't matter if we worry anyway- God will do what he will do, so I may as well trust him!

So anyway- Henry is 5lbs 10oz and is measuring more than a week ahead.

I did have a small scare a few days ago- I was feeling very dizzy and fatigued for no reason for a couple of days and my doc felt like I had some symptoms of a blood clot or a pulmonary embolism, and since I have a history of clots, docs always err on the side of caution with me. So I spent the afternoon and early evening in the hospital getting labs, ultrasounds on my legs, and scans of my lungs. It was miserable. Hospitals are no fun for babies so I convinced Stephen to stay home with B since I was pretty sure I was fine- but it was pretty boring being there alone for so long. Anyway, I'm fine and it's probably just normal pregnancy stuff!

The doc also told me I shouldn't travel, and that was enough for Stephen to completely nix all my plans for the next month. We are still "discussing" it (according to me...) so I'm still hopeful.

Here I am at 34 weeks plus 3!!!

33 weeks

I know I sound like a broken record but it is so hard to believe I am already 33 weeks pregnant with little Hank.

I am still feeling good but also feeling more pregnant every day. Today I have had the worst heartburn/reflux of my life. I can't imagine having this all the time. If I am bent over even slightly my throat is on fire and I feel like I'm about to throw up. This sure puts a damper on eating- but don't worry, it hasn't slowed me down. :)

My feet are starting to ache. This is partly because I have been on my feet more than usual throughout the day. I don't know how women work through their pregnancies! I feel like such a wuss!

Today me and Blakely did some gardening. She decided not to take her afternoon nap and outside was the only thing that kept her from a constant tantrum. I do not have a green thumb whatsoever, but luckily my mom does so I bugged her all day with my questions. Hopefully my petunias and whatever the other flower I got (haha) will live through the next couple months. I am a little embarrassed that we have been homeowners for 3 years now and today I planted my first flowers. My mom is ashamed of me, I am sure. Sorry, mom!

I had my doc appt last Thursday and was measuring behind in growth, but I still have another week until my next growth scan (ultrasound where they measure to see if he is growing properly) I do biophysical profiles each week- its an ultrasound where they watch and see if the baby breathes, measure my amniotic fluid, and see if he moves a certain amount in a certain amount of time. He gets a score and hopefully passes. It can take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. If he hasn't "preformed" after an hour he fails :(. I'm not sure what happens if he fails...
I have one of these tomorrow. I pretty much quit updating and taking pictures of my belly when I was pregnant with B at about 31 weeks and I am trying really hard not to do that!
So here are some pics of our day and my belly!

16 months and Easter

Blakely turned 16 months on Easter Sunday, and I didn't even realize it until today!  Monthly milestones are going to get harder as she gets older.  We are busy busy, and will only get busier once little brother gets here! 

Life has been crazy around the Billings household.  We are putting our house on the market tomorrow- long story short- we want to rent for a year and try to save aggressively.  So we have been working nonstop on getting our house ready to sell.  It is bittersweet.  We have done lots of renovations that I wish we would have done as soon as we moved in!  New carpet on the stairs and in the bedrooms, new paint in the bathrooms, we painted these hideous green cabinets in our basement (I am embarrassed it took us this long!) and we have been doing lots of "simplifying" and MUCH more  It is amazing how two people can accumulate so much junk over a short 4 1/2 year period.  Our shed is full and there is next to no storage space! 

All that to say, the last couple of weeks haven't been the best for Blakely.  It is so amazing how much her attitude is affected by ours.  As Stephen and I are distracted by house stuff and unable to give her the attention she is use to, she has so many more behavior issues.  When we take a break and sit down on the floor with her and give her our attention, she is a different baby.  Not to mention that we are stressed, and thus she is stressed.  I also don't think she likes that things are changing.  I think babies pick up on all the little things, and new carpet, rearranging, etc. really stresses her out.  Her behavior is also directly affected by her schedule.  Today she took two "schnoozers" as Stephen calls them (naps under an hour- meaning=worthless) and she was pretty fussy all day.  However, yesterday, she slept in a took two awesome naps, and she was GREAT all day! 

On to her update!  She is signing a ton these days.  She does food, more, and lots and lots of please.  She will do all done if we ask her.  She is trying SO hard to talk.  We will ask her what she wants, and I know she is trying her hardest to tell me what she wants, she just doesn't have the words.  (more likely, I just don't understand her words...)  But it is fun to see her try to talk, and I will ask a million questions to figure out what she is telling me and she gets SO excited if I can manage to figure it out.  But it is also so sad when I know she wants something specific, I just can't figure out what it is. 

Her hair is getting long!  I put it in pigtails for the first time yesterday.  It was so cute, but she looked SO old.  It made me sad.  I felt like she looked like a 2 year old!  She isn't a fan of having stuff in her hair, so I had to distract her to keep her from messing with it.

I doubt she has grown too much since her last update, but it sure feels like she is getting heavier by the day.  I know I am! 

This is her buddy Hudson.  We play with him at least once a week.  I can always count on his mom, Katie, for a last minute play date, lunch date, or shopping date.  We also plan ahead, some, but this picture was an impromtu trip to baby gap.  They were loving running around in their sunglasses that we did not buy.  We also took our first trip (with Blakely) to Chick-fila.  She experienced the play area for the first time.  She loved it, however, I did not.  I was a little freaked out by the germs, and the bigger kids, and one bigger kid in particular that wouldn't keep his hands off Blakely.... He was one touch away from me telling him to keep his hands to himself.  :) 

With this hot weather, we have been wearing tank tops, shorts and diapers every day.  (Blakely is the only one that runs around in a diaper...) But of course, Easter Sunday was our first cold day in a while!  I had to dig out a sweater for B so she didn't freeze.  She LOVES the church nursery.  We have snuck up a few times and she is just running around playing with all the toys and playing with all the kids.  They always tell me she is so good.  I am glad she isn't the bully.  With her personality, I think it's a good thing she is on the small side.  I think she can hold her own, and she doesn't need to be any bigger than other kids, otherwise she might pick on them.  (she might pick on them anyway...)

The next few weeks will be crazy for us!  We will be cleaning our house nonstop, this weekend we have an open house, next weekend we are going to OKC for Ray Burbank and Lauren Cook's wedding, the next weekend is our April Staff Training - which I will sadly not be able to attend thanks to Henry, and the NEXT weekend is Claire Lewis and Nathan Gertson's wedding in AR- in which Stephen is officiating, I am a bridesmaid, and B is the flower girl. :)  Here's to hoping Henry cooperates with that plan at almost 37 weeks.  HA!

Ps.  Could anyone out there help me with the look of my blog?  I am really not great with this stuff and I honestly don't even know how to change the picture or the background... sad, I know.  How did I graduate college you ask?  I am not sure either. 

Updates: sleep and tantrums

I thought I'd update on a few topics.  First of all- we have had some major success with sleep.  I can't remember what I've said on here, but a couple weeks ago I decided I had to get a grip on B getting to sleep- I'd put her in bed, and then have to go in and hold/rock her at least 1, sometimes 5 times before she'd relax and go to sleep.  I decided that there was just no way I would be able to do that when Henry gets here.  So I bit the bullet, and let her cry it out (again...) The first night was bad, and then she started crying for her naps- which she never did- and sleeping less.  I can't tell you how thankful I am that that was all it was.  The very next night she rolled around and played with her feet for 30 minutes, cried for about 30 seconds and eventually went to sleep.  It takes her much longer to get to sleep now- for naps and to get to bed (usually around 30 minutes, sometimes more), but she doesn't cry at all.  She just rolls around and plays until she finally relaxes and gets to sleep.  She is also much happier when I tell her its bedtime or naptime.  I think she enjoys her alone time.  Such a relief!

Some not so good updates are her behavior.  Oh boy.  She is really getting good at fits, and screaming, and throwing things when she is mad.  It has been nice to hear from other moms that my kid is normal.  :)  I have decided (with the help of mom advice) to pick a few things, and discipline those things as consistently as possible.  We are still not totally sure how to discipline, but we are figuring it out.  It seems like she is still too young to spank, time-out is kindof a joke, and I guess I don't pinch hard enough cause she couldn't care less.  This week she started hitting.  My worst nightmare.  I know it's something every kid probably goes through, but it is so discouraging.  It started with just me- and she has only hit me a couple of times, but just today she hit another kid- so sad.  I don't want my kid to be mean!  So we are trying REALLY hard to nip that in the rear and make that as shortlived as possible.  So as far as discipline- that gets the harshest punishment.  I'm still not entirely sure what to do about the whining- sometimes it feels like she literally whines all day...it seems like it is a little too abstract to really punish, but I haven't yet mastered ignoring it.  I want to pull my hair out.  A lot of the time she just wants to be packed around or go outside, but I am getting to where I just can't carry her like I use to.  It hurts my back too much.  And going outside is hard because we don't have a fence so I have to follow her around the yard.  But one thing is for sure- she is SO much happier outside!  I was comforted this week when we had a college student over for dinner and she told us that when she threw fits she would hold her breath until she passed out- SO glad we don't have that problem.  :)

Henry is still kicking away, mainly under my ribs.  I have a couple doc appts tomorrow so I will update more on that later.

Crazy weekend!

What a crazy couple of days we had. Friday we went to a friends to spend the night because both our hubbies were out of town.

B got her new big girl carseat.

She would NOT sleep at our friends so we came home at 1am. She literally dove for her bed and was asleep in 10.

I on the other hand was scared to death...may or may not have called 911, and didn't fall asleep until 6am.

Blakely had pop tarts for breakfast and got more than a healthy dose of cartoons because I had zero energy thanks to my 45 minutes of sleep.

We then loaded up with our friends and headed to the outlet mall in KC. We did a little shopping, ate at panera, got a little sunburned and played in the fountain.

Then we came home and Uncle Joey came over, along with Ava and Claire, and then dad got home.

Sunday we played outside while dad did yard work and house projects.

Blakely for some reason really wanted me to bring my diaper bag outside- I couldn't figure out why cause she didn't want to go anywhere she just wanted to play outside. She kept tryin to carry it herself. So I brought it. After playing in the grass for about 5minutes she came over and got out the changing pad an handed me a diaper and sat down- she had dirty pants. Guess she was planning all along to do her business outside and she was saving me the trip inside for the diaper and wipes. :)

A little later it was about nap time but she was playing well so I figured I'd give her a little longer. She came and got the changing pad again and laid it out on the driveway and laid on it. I got the hint and took her in and she was asleep in 10minutes. Funny girl.