The baby's room

So we actually haven't started to do any work on the baby's room we do have plans for it.  We found a crib set that we love, and that my mom my surprised us with and we are using that as the basis for the room.  With Alexis we didn't really have a theme for her room, we didn't even have a crib set.  We never found one that we liked.  We had her room painted purple and when we moved we painted her new room purple.  This time around we are going, I guess you could say non traditional in the paint color we are going for in the new room.

We are hoping to find or have the store match the blue in the crib set so we can use it on the walls.  I know blue isn't traditional for girls, but it's a really nice baby blue/aqua color that I think will go really nicely in the room plus we will have pastel color accents, most pink accents so it will still be a girly room just blue walls.

My great aunt is doing a cross stitch piece for the room.  She made one for me and my sisters and then made one for Alexis.  She includes the baby's name, and all the stats of the birth.  I love what she does for us and it's just a special way to commemorate the birth.  The colors in the one she picked out will go nicely in the room.  And then I am doing to do a Pinterest inspired piece for the initials.  For Alexis we just have traditional hanging letters in her initials.  This time we will be doing buttons and frames in the letters.  Hoping it turns out as good as I think it will in my mind.

Since my mom got us the crib set I know have something to use to compare for paint colors.  I cannot wait to finish removing the moose and tree wallpaper that the previous owners had put up in the room.

Here are the 'before' pictures.

Here's to starting work on the baby's room.

Big Sister Love

So yesterday after I finished getting ready for work, Alexis came up to me and gave me a hug and said, 'I love you baby sister' to my belly.  My heart completely melted.  Then I asked if she wanted to give her baby sister a kiss and she did.  We got her to do it again for a picture.  It's kind of blurry because you have to be fast in getting a picture like that because Alexis will not hold a pose like kissing for long.  She is so excited and ready to teach her sister everything.

Here's to Alexis having many more moments like this and continuing the affection once her sister has arrived.

It's a....

Girl!

So last week I had my very first ultrasound and we were able to find out what we are having.  Not only are we having a little girl, she is very stubborn to say the least.  It took two pass overs the private area to see what you need to see to tell boy or girl.  Also it took 40 minutes to get all the measurements and even then the tech couldn't get a good look at everything so I will go back in about 8 weeks to have another ultrasound done.  They figure once the baby develops more they will get a better look at what they couldn't get a good look at before.

Let me tell you that Alexis' reaction to hearing that she was going to have a little sister was epic.  I wish I had had the video camera or at least my phone recording it because it was priceless.  From the beginning she has told me that she wants a sister and that with no doubt in her voice that the baby is a girl.  She wouldn't even entertain the thought that it could be a boy, she was certain it was a girl.  So I don't know if she just really wanted a sister or she had some kind of 'kid sense'.  I had no feeling either way this time.  Some people assumed boy because I was having a different pregnancy then I had with Alexis but I knew that different pregnancy doesn't mean opposite sex.  Casey knew it was a girl, I think he figures he will only have girls.  I joke that maybe we can try for a boy, but he said no and I think it's partly because he doesn't want three girls.  We are happy to complete our family with this little girl.

We have no names picked out yet as of now.  I have a baby name book I borrowed from a friend and we have started to throw names in the hat but nothing has made us go 'THAT'S IT'.  We have time and I am confident we will have a name picked out before she is born.  If you ask Alexis her little sisters name should be 'scooter'.  She is going to be an amazing big sister and will love her little sister to death.

Here is the picture I used to announce on Facebook.  We are looking forward to finding a name, picking out a room color, and doing some baby shopping.

Here's to a continued healthy pregnancy!

17 weeks- onion

Well I am going strong in my second trimester.  Starting to doubt I will get this surge of energy that usually comes with second trimester.  I probably would have it if this was my first child, but I am on my second and have a three and a half year old that always wants to be doing something.  I am also babysitting the most adorable 2 month old which keeps me on my toes but it's also really good practice for when the new baby arrives.

So besides when they ask me how I am feeling, people seem to like to know how this pregnancy is comparing to my last one.  Let me tell you it's very different.  I never really got sick with Alexis.  I had my moments but nothing like the first trimester with this one.  Thankfully the sickness has passed.  The other thing that is different is my dreams.  I have had very weird dreams this time around.  My dreams usually stem from the last thing I have watched on TV so if it's been something intense my dreams can get pretty weird.  I know Casey doesn't like when I have weird dreams because I am all over the bed.  Last night was my first real baby dream.  We have our first ultrasound in a week and a half and last night I had a dream about the ultrasound.  I don't believe in dreams being premonitions.  Especially this dream because I know there is no way that this is the way the ultrasound will happen.  Although when the tech told us the sex he said girl.  Now that part could possibly be true.  Granted there is a 50/50 chance of the sex of the baby part of the dream is true.  I am excited about the ultrasound.  With Alexis they did a dating ultrasound very early in my pregnancy so I got to see her more then once so it was fun to compare how much she grew and changed between ultrasounds which was about 10 weeks apart.  Now with this one, I have heard the heartbeat twice but haven't been able to see anything so it will be fun to see him/her actually looking like a baby when I first get a peek.  I am excited to see how Alexis reacts to seeing the baby on the screen.  I am unsure if she will understand what is going on , but she was impressed when she heard the baby's heartbeat at my last appointment.  I know she will be thrilled to find out if it's a boy or a girl.  She really wants a sister so if it's a girl she will probably be really excited.

I am excited to start finding a name and figuring out what color we will paint the bedroom.  I have been waiting to get my hands on that bedroom since we moved in.  The previous owners painted every room of the house except the third bedroom.  They did put a wallpaper boarder up that i couldn't wait to get down.  I got most of it down just need to finish getting the wallpaper off and paint it.

I haven't taken too many belly pictures but I did take one last week at 16 weeks 2 days.  It's just of the belly and not my face because it was looking awkward.

April Showers

I am sure everyone has heard the expression 'April showers bring May flowers'.  Well in good ol' Grand Forks, ND our April showers are SNOW showers.  We got at least six inches and it's still snowing but not so hard.  It's the thick wet packing snow.  Already took Alexis outside to play.

Lemon-14 weeks

I am now successfully into the 2nd trimester.  Thankfully my symptoms have started to lighten up.  I am still tired, but then again I have started babysitting an 8 week old on top of caring for my 3.5 year old.  It's nice getting 'practice' having two kids.  Most of my nausea has subsided.  Hoping my appetite will increase now that I don't feel sick anymore.  No real cravings yet and no other aversions expect for taco salad.

I have another appointment next Wednesday the 17th.  Just a basic routine one, and hopefully during that one we will discuss when I can have my 20 week ultrasound done.  I am excited to find out boy or girl.  I know a lot of people have various reasons to either wait until delivery or find out at an ultrasound.  I have a few reasons for wanting to find out.  If we have another girl I will know I just have to wash and reorganize all of the clothes from Alexis, and if we have a boy then I will know I have to try and sell our girl clothes and buy boy clothes.  Thankfully all of our big stuff is gender neutral because we knew that we would want another child and best to not buy gender specific big stuff so it would save us money.  Plus finding out the gender will help us pick out a name, I would rather focus on one name then trying to make two different lists.  And lastly I would rather get the room painted before hand then trying to squeeze in painting with a newborn.  Plus I think everyone else is excited to find out what we are having.  My dad has asked several times if my appointment is the one I find out boy or girl.

Not much else going on.  Still waiting for spring to arrive, just took a look outside and there is actually snow falling.  I am tired of this weather.  Here is to spring finally showing up.

'Safe' Zone

Well I have passed the twelve week mark with my pregnancy.  Hitting the twelve week mark is considered a milestone and your chance of miscarriage decreases greatly.  Now nothing is guaranteed and I am not completely in the 'clear' until I give birth to a healthy and happy little baby.  Technically I still haven't made it to the second trimester, when you use the 40 week timeline second trimester doesn't start until 13 weeks and like 3 days so I am inching ever so close.

I am excited for my second trimester to get here.  Usually in the second trimester the nausea subsides, and you get energy back.  I am looking forward to getting my energy back and thankfully my nausea has already started to decrease.  I have come across one food aversion so far.  Taco Salad.  I have had it for dinner twice and both times the outcome later in the evening was not pretty.  Of course now that we have had it, my husband keeps wanting it but I am not going to be wanting to eat it for the duration.  I really need my energy back and fast because starting tomorrow I am going to be babysitting an 8 week old.  It will be nice practice for both me and Alexis to have a baby around, I just don't want to be tired all the time, but that's something I will have to get use to.

In other news, I have officially registered Alexis for preschool for this fall.  It's kind of bittersweet.  I cannot believe she is old enough to start school, but then it will be good for the both of us.  She will be going three days a week for three hours a day in the afternoon.  It will be nice for me so I can get stuff done around the house and then once the baby is born I will get some one on one time with the baby.  I am kind of sad that my little girl has grown up so fast.  I look at her and wonder where the last 3.5 years went.  I am excited to have another baby so I can experience all the first over again with a new little one.

We had a wonderful easter.  Alexis had so much fun dying easter eggs, she woke up the morning we dyed the eggs begging to get started before we were even out of bed.  The town has an easter thing they do every year.  This year that made it over two days which was nice.  On Good Friday, at the university's football stadium(indoors) they had all sorts of inflatables set up and some other activities so we took Alexis for a couples hours during the day and then Casey took her again after dinner.  She loves bouncing on inflatables, and there were not that many people there on Friday so she practically had the place to herself.  She had to try all the inflatables at least once and then would go back to her favorites over and over again.  We did splurge and pay for her to do the bungee bounce they had set up.  It wasn't bungee jumping.  She was harnessed in and it was connected to bungee cords and she would jump in an inflated trampoline.  Once she got the hang of bouncing with the harness on she had so much fun doing it.  I have a feeling it might a thing she does every year.  On Saturday they had their annual egg scramble.  Thankfully this year they put it in a separate room from the inflatables.  It was a bigger space then in the past.  Basically all they do is have thousands of eggs just laying on the floor and when they say go the kids run out and collect as many as they can.  Because of the popularity of it we ended up getting there at least 20 minutes early to find a spot and waited.  She had so much fun collecting eggs, we actually did two different scrambles.  She did the one for the 2-3 year olds and then after realizing it was too crowded where the inflatables she wanted to do another scramble so we got her into the 4-6 year olds.  Thankfully they don't check ages.  The second one she didn't as many eggs  but that one wasn't so much about getting many eggs as it was to having fun.  Easter morning Alexis woke up early, thankfully came into our room first(as opposed to last year when she went straight downstairs and found all the eggs before we woke up).  Once she was awake all she wanted to do was go downstairs and see if the Easter Bunny had left anything and hid eggs.  Thankfully we got her ready and we all made it to church before she went egg finding crazy.  She just loves finding eggs around and we usually keep the plastic eggs out for several days because she will hid them over and over again and we will take turns 'finding' them.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.  Here is to continuing to get more energy throughout this pregnancy and to the spring that is finally arriving in Grand Forks.