23 Weeks and Counting

I'm now 23 weeks and a few days pregnant with Little Boy. Since the first trimester ended I am feeling pretty good. Occasionally I feel rather exhausted, but nothing too bad. My back has been pretty bad and I've been having horrible sciatica flare ups. For those that may not know, I had surgery on my left foot to correct some problems I had with the bones being in the wrong places and joints being dislocated. These problems were hereditary and I happen to have it on both sides of my family. Lucky me! Most people in my family have the problem on both feet. I only had it on one, but with a greater severity. So in high school I had it fixed with a pin and screws and 4 months of crutches. Apparently 15 years of my foot being that way affected the way I walk, my growth plates in one leg, and a number of other things.

 I am supposed to wear hard, molded inserts in my shoes to help correct my posture and gait. Only I don't. They don't fit in most shoes and I mostly just forget about them. Back pain has been an issue for years but i mostly just deal with it. I guess it's not something I ever thought would change so you just learn how to live with it. Unfortunately, pregnancy shifts everything and the pain has become unbearable at times. I limp a lot and have difficulty sleeping. So, I finally went to see a physical therapist at my Dr's recommendation. An appointment I thought would last 30 minutes ended up taking an hour and a half! I was pretty shocked and so was the Physical Therapist. Apparently I should have sought out some kind of care sooner! Ha! My spine is so out of whack and my hips are way off along with a number of other things. I left armed with homework and strict instructions to wear my inserts from now on, or at least until the end of my pregnancy. If Matt has his way, I'll wear them forever and never wear another pair of sandals or heels. We'll see about that....

Baby Boy

Yep, at 22 weeks gestation the little man is still nameless. And no, even if we had chosen his name we still wouldn't tell you! Don't take it personally, we did the same thing with Emma. Matt says that everyone already knows its a boy so we should keep his name as a surprise until he's born. I'm okay with that.

Things are going smoothly so far. First 14 weeks were rough but now I feel pretty good nausea-wise. Occasionally I feel rather exhausted but I think that's to be expected with a 2 year old :) Sciatic pain has been annoying but overall, I can't really complain.

22 weeks down, 18 to go.... more or less.... you know, cause I wouldn't mind if he decided to come a week early ;)

Birthday Girl

Emma Catherine turned 2 on Friday April 6th. She is now 34 1/2 inches tall (75%) and weighs 30lbs (85%). She enjoys playing outside, blowing bubbles, eating snacks and watching Minnie Mouse. Current dislikes include eating vegetables, coming inside when she wants to play, and leaving Mommy's side. She is starting potty training and likes to get herself dressed. She can get her own shoes on and can pull on her pants up to her thighs but cant get them on completely. It's pretty funny to watch her learn new things all the time. She's very vocal, especially when she sees one of us after we've left for a little while. It's quite a greeting!

Watching Minnie Mouse

Cheesing it up for the cameras

Helping Daddy put together her new soccer goal.

We love you so much sweet girl! We love watching you learn and grow everyday.

Who would've thought?

Who would have thought that my pearl wearing, sparkle shoe loving, squealing girly girl 

would love to play in the dirt so much? Certainly not me! Emma can't get enough of being outside. We hear "out si. out si. Shoes shoes!" All day long. Emma knows that she has to put her shoes on before going outside so she always goes to get them first. The bad news is that she can reach all of the door handles and open them because they are the pull down lever kind. The good news is that she can't reach the dead bolt.

Emma has been helping us with the garden expansion. Here she is raking up wood chips. This summer I'll have a gardening buddy! Now if only I could teach her how to pull the weeds!

Little Super Star

With the weather being so nice we are trying to get outside as often as possible. 

 We took a nice walk after dinner yesterday. There is a nice path behind our neighborhood that goes straight down the road for a little over a mile. We usually walk to the end and back. This time Emma decided that she'd rather walk than sit in her stroller. She loves to explore the outside. She picked up rocks, leaves, and pinecones and pointed out many different things. She's so much like Matt in that way.

She got some new sunglasses. She cracked us up with them. What a little super star. She went back and forth between wearing them and holding them in her hand. A young couple approached from the opposite direction and she slipped them on, looked up with her cutest smile and said "hiiiiiii". We were cracking up. Someone knows they are cute!

Pretty Winter Days

This winter has been a lot warmer than usual. We haven't had as much snow as we normally do and for that, I am very grateful. When it is sunny and warm enough to play outside Emma and I have been trying to take advantage of the day. She likes to run to the fence and see if the boys next door are playing out back. Here are some pictures of her backyard adventures.

Running to see if the boys are there

She can see them!

Asking to go play next door

Running to the gate

We hope there are many more warm days in our future!

Uh oh

In the last week I went from this

To this:

I think morning sickness is officially gone (Fingers Crossed!) I have hit a very hungry phase. I'm trying to be smart about the things I snack on, but there are so many things that DON'T sound good. I usually end up eating whatever I can stomach at the time. I don't want to blow up like a balloon, so I'll have to watch it. For some reason I don't think I'm only going to gain 14 lbs like I did with Emma.   :/    ugg