Pregnancy Diary: 30 Weeks + A word about big brother

 

This week the three of us toured the birthing Center. We are in the 30's, I have been organizing EVERYTHING, and I'm now seeing Doc every two weeks. It's getting real that this is happening, and soon. When I stop to think about that awesome moment when I finally get to see him for the first time I just want it to happen that much sooner. But in the meantime, here's the 411 on what's happening with Mom and little man:

 

- He is as active as Logan was. My right side gets tiny feet action all day. I imagine him in there doing little wall-flips against the side of my uterus. ;)
- We've gained 19 pounds. Must be those root beer floats...
- Dad came up with his first name early on and I liked it right away. It has stuck and feels so right. But we can't seem to land on a middle name?
- He seems to be settling in pretty low so unlike Logan- I've had some back pain and sciatica.

And as for the big brother-to-be:

- It's been hard to tell just how much Logan really understands about what's about to happen, but just last week as we passed baby's ultrasound pic on the fridge, he pointed to it, smiled and said "BRUDDER!" It was pretty cute.
- Recently when I told Logan the baby was kicking, he looked at my belly and told it to "be nice".
- He has felt baby's hiccups and I've loved when he rests his little hand on my tummy while we read stories at bedtime.
- Logan and I have been spending two days a week at a friend's house watching her two girls while she works. Reese is 3 and Emery was 2 months old when we started. He has been so perfect with her and it has been such a blessing to be part of their family and get Logan used to the idea of having another little person occupy some of Mommy's time. Forget getting him a doll- he's had the real thing.

 At Two and-a-half, Logan:

- Is a sports enthusiast. This apartment floor is constantly scattered with hockey sticks and pucks, tennis rackets, footballs, anything that can be used as "tees"- and these are always being played with in a diaper and his "fast shoes"- some white adidas shoes that are his absolute favorite. I haven't seen more wonder and admiration on his face than when he is watching a big kid at the park shoot hoops. He is such a good sport and joyfully exclaims MITHED IT! (missed it) or MAY IT! (made it) when he or others he is observing do so. He loves the Hockey Thunderbirds games and especially coobiirr (Cool Bird, the mascot). We often look up his pictures and youtube videos of sports.
- Is very concerned with everyone being "nice". Whenever we ask about how nursery went, he gets a big smile and says "niiice", as if to tell us how nice everyone was. When we meet a new person at the grocery store or talk about Cool Bird or see a dog or drive by his friend's house, he looks into our faces, smiles and says "niiiice!"
-Is mastering two-word sentences and bigger words everyday. The biggest word the other day- HELICOPTER! Woop. Way to go, buddy. :)
- Says bye-bye Daddy when Jeff leaves for "wort" in the mornings. Tonight he put on his Lightening McQueen backpack and said he was going to "teach tenn-iss"...
- Is very sweet. He rarely harms other kids and is mostly passive, moving on to something else if another kid gets aggressive.
- Oh boy...can throw a fit, with every part of is body. Yep.
-Loves curious George, chocolate and fruit snacks.
-Loves cars, says "CHOW" (kachow) like Lightening McQueen... and loves when Ariel jumps into the water at the Little Mermaid menu.
- Has a sweet habit of running locks of my hair through his hands whenever I hold him. And he recently started patting my back at bedtime and asking to sit up for hugs before falling asleep. My favorite.
- Everything is going to his mouth lately. Nervous habit? It is cute though... (except when it is the steering wheel at the park or the bottom of his shoe.)

We are anxious to meet Baby baby R and watch these two interact. We have a house of fun ready for him. I love my boys.

xoxo

-Mama

The baby in the belly-Pregnancy diary: 20 weeks

We are half way there!

Half way to the awesome experience of labor and childbirth.

Half way to snuggling and nursing a newborn,

and I can't wait!

Mornings are still a bit yucky but nothing like before.

I am carrying much higher and BIGGER than with Logan.

This morning Jeff, Logan and I had a date with our baby.

We set out early for our gender ultrasound at the hospital.

Logan did pretty good. Ate lots of trail mix M&Ms, played with cars, tried to talk on the hospital phone a million times and took lots of walks with Daddy. 

But we made sure the whole fam was together to find out if we had a boy or girl:

(Click on picture to watch video)

I had fully expected to be told we were expecting a little girl.

Little Ramona Lou.

Not so.

I was shocked, but I will love boy #2 just the same!

Logan has said "Brubber" many times today.
I think he is starting to get it. :)

Baby boy was quite shy and very squirmy.
Tough to get pictures of, but here he is: introducing our little yoga baby...

See you in about 20 more weeks sweetheart!
Mommy, Daddy and Brubber sure love you.
xoxo

#2

Dearest friends and family,

we're having a baby!

Yep, Logan is going to be a big brother. Oh, boy.

A couple months ago we decided it was time for Logan to have a sibling, then soon found out we already had one cooking. :)

Finding out...

Near the end of September I couldn't ignore the fact that I was ridiculously tired no matter how much sleep I got. Also, I was getting nauseous when my stomach was empty.
Now, I have convinced myself I was pregnant several times before only to get a negative result, so when I snuck into the bathroom while Jeff was home on a break I was expecting that same old routine. 

Those two lines appeared in record time. 

Is there any rush quite like staring at a positive pregnancy test?! 

All I could do was shoot a quick text to a friend saying something awesome like 

"holy crap, are you seeing what I am seeing? That's positive, right?!" 

I pulled myself together, decided to tell Jeff in some clever way later, and went back to my boys. 

But I couldn't hide it. Jeff knew something was up. I wondered outloud if i should tell him right then, and then he guessed. Then we both started laughing. 

And just like that- baby on the way! 

My body has been quite off since Logan was born so I really had no idea how far along I was. A few weeks after the test, mom came with me to a dating ultrasound where we were surprised to see little arms and legs moving around already. 

10 weeks!

Logan waved at the baby on the screen and we got to pretend-ultrasound his tummy before we left. Big step for that doctor-hater!

The scoop...

At 14 weeks, this pregnancy has been a lot like Logan's, except totally different.

Same symptoms, totally different timing. 

I have once again had to resort to anti-nausea meds to keep me away from the toilet. 

After Logan's birth, I knew I wanted to do prenatal care a little different the next time. I felt like nothing but a number with the last office, nothing special. So I am using UW midwives and I am very happy. They are caring, personal, and I will still deliver at a hospital where emergency care is available if needed. 

Holy moly, my belly has popped already! 

I don't really have a ton of cravings, but plenty of aversions and I can't get enough to drink.

I have been a bit more anxious this pregnancy but I'm doing great.

I want a girl so bad. Jeff wants another boy. 

We will see...

...somewhere around May 19th! 

Grow baby, grow! 

Love you all.

xoxo

-Jeff, Linds and Logan

Childhood absence epilipsy

Around March Jeff and I started to notice something strange happening with Logan. Several times a day he would have little "episodes" as we called them. He would stop mid-activity, his top half would go slightly limp and his eyeballs and muscles around his eyes would bounce a little for about 3-4 seconds. It sounds more intense than it actually looked, but it made us worry. We soon took him to his primary care doc, who did the basic checkup and sent us home telling us to journal it and try to get it on video tape. 

We'd been prayerful from the start- that we would know what to do, that we would have good doctors and for Logan's health. 

We never got it on tape but as I kept a journal we quickly realized it wasn't going away, but was happening more often. So with the help of the doctor's office we started contacting neurologists.

The first available appointments were a few months out, and the thought of waiting that long made us a little nervous. 

 But Logan's doctor's office gave us the name of a neurologist that takes patients on a case-by-case basis, and we soon had an appointment for the next week. (Tender mercy #1)

They wanted Logan to have an EEG the day before the appointment. It was a little sad. Logan is the kind of baby that doesn't want you to wash his hair, brush his teeth, and for a while- even change his diaper. In short- he doesn't liked to be messed with. 

I had to hold him down for a half hour while they put 28 things on his head. Poor guy cried so much he was falling asleep in between the last few attachments.

Going into the EEG my personal prayer was that he would have an episode while he was hooked up so that the doctors could see them on the EEG. 

As soon as the tech hooked up the last ones, Logan had a couple episodes before falling asleep.

(Tender mercy #2...)

The tech called the neurologist before the test was over asking if he wanted to see us sooner than our scheduled appointment the next day. I asked him about it and he said he saw something that worried him and we'd talk about it with the neurologist the next day. 

He was a little dramatic.

I honestly expected this to turn out to be nothing, so that was a little hard to hear.

After he woke up I told the tech not to worry about cleaning him off. He'd been messed with enough. Besides, check out that hair! (The red is from markers.)

Ice cream sandwich and balloons after!

.

My mom came to spend the night to go with me to the neurologist the next day.

Daddy loves Logan so much. So much. He opted to keep his mind busy at work and to talk about findings after we came home. 

Come to find out, Logan was indeed having absence seizures, and more than we were aware of. I saw the couple he had at the test but he actually had 10-12. 

Logan was diagnosed with childhood absence epilepsy.

We talked with the doc for a couple hours..about treatment, precautions, programs to get Logan into, genetic testing, scheduled an MRI...lots of stuff.

The Doc was awesome. 

When we first got there I didn't know what to think. He had a heavy funny accent, spit a little when he spoke and had a crazy funny laugh at odd times. 

But by the time we left I had total confidence in him. And when I lost it, feeling overwhelmed, he made sure all was well, taking even more time with us. (#3...)

He had a blood draw at Swedish to start checking for possible causes and one at home for genetic testing.

Last week Jeff and I took him to Swedish for his MRI (just because his head has always been a little large and considering everything)...

 Yesterday the Doc called and said his MRI was normal. YAY! And we are going to redo 3 of his labs that were borderline.

I'm not surprised. 

He is pretty perfect.

SO...when we saw the neurologist that day, he started Logan on medicine and we haven't seen a seizure since. The diagnosis doesn't worry me nearly as much as does all the stuff he's had to go through in the past few months. And apparently 70% of kids with these cases outgrow it. So we are thinking the worst is past us. 

I am so grateful for the sweet experience of drawing nearer to our Savior during times of trial. 

My heart is full.

The day after his MRI Logan got to model for Nik's Confidence Photography Workshop...

Seriously...perfect!

Planes and Boats

I remember bring-your-kid-to-work day at BOEING with Dad. 

I remember eating donuts, feeling special, and Dad being nervous that the other guys at work would watch their language. Haha.

On a rainy day recently, Logan and I met Grandpa Woodhouse at Boeing field for lunch and to watch planes fly overhead.

There is always fun to be had at Nonie and Grandpa's. 

(Even though she is gone it will always be Nonie and Grandpa's to us.)

On this particular day, we brought Grandpa some chocolate peanut butter ice cream, talked to a giant seal, watched a bald eagle and her baby fly by, played with the coo-coo clock and watched the barges go by with Aunt Wendy.

"Practically perfect in every way"...

This Monday all three of us found ourselves sitting on the couch in our underwear watching The Jungle Book, and I was happy. Super happy.

I gave Jeff The Jungle book the day before as a Father's Day gift for him and Logan to enjoy together- since it was one of Jeff's favorites growing up. 

Our family moments are pretty precious these days, since Jeff is usually off working his tail off providing for us.

And since I'm thinking of family moments, here are a few others worth mentioning:

Last Halloween, Logan and I dressed up as Mary Poppins and a little Chimney sweep. 

You bet I already have the Daddy-sized Bert costume ready for this year.

We trunk-or-treated with Grandma Woodhouse, Grammy Rice and the Klumpers, and helped Nonie and Grandpa Rice hand out candy on Halloween...

(Someone kept disappearing to the candy basket. Nonie always gave you suckers, Logan... )

 And a couple months later we had a merry Christmas...

  

 The end.