21 Week Update

Size of baby: Baby Boy weighs three-quarters of a pound and is 10.5 inches long from head to toe, about the size of a Clementine Izze.

Total weight gain/loss: +11.5 pounds

Maternity clothes:  I think I am officially into maternity pants.  Lately I've either been wearing dresses or a pair of super cheap maternity shorts I found at Ross.

Gender:  Boy!  Now to figure out a name. . . .

Movement:  Yes.  :)  The other night while I was reading, Baby Boy made such a forceful movement that I was able to see it out of my peripheral vision.

Sleep:  No complaints.

What I miss:  This doesn't really have to do with what I miss about not being pregnant, but it's come to my mind a lot lately that I miss the fact that my grandparents never had the chance to meet Maddie or Baby Boy.  Two of my cousins on my dad's side are also pregnant right now and we're all due within four months of each other.  I think my grandpa would have been tickled about all of the new great-grandchildren.

Cravings:   Although I've been eating a lot of sweets, I had my first craving for something specific a couple of weeks ago.  We were grocery shopping when a bag of powdered donuts caught my eye.  I'm generally very good about only buying what's on the grocery list, but I couldn't resist those.  I ended up eating four of them in the car on the way home!

How I'm feeling: I think what I thought was a pulled muscle might actually be sciatic pain.  When I change positions it's not uncommon for me to get a shooting pain.  I need to ask my doctor about it at my next appointment.

Highlight of the week:  Maddie kissing my belly and sharing her pacifier with baby brother by holding it up against my belly.  Most of the time I don't think she understands all of this talk about a baby brother, but she did both of those things without being prompted, so who knows!

21 weeks

When we were looking to buy our house we didn't pay too much attention to the backyard other than to notice it was a nice size.  Lucy was the only one who went outside regularly and she obviously had no complaints.  :)

Last spring when Maddie was old enough to enjoy being outdoors we looked at our yard a little more closely and realized just how bad it was.  There were two small dead trees, some out of control bush-like things, and a million weeds.  Wanting Maddie to have a yard to play in, we sprayed the weeds, pulled some of them up, raked the yard, and put out grass seed.  We also dug up one of the trees and planted a new one.  A few months later we once again had a yard full of weeds and our new tree wasn't looking so great.  The super hot summer with very little rain didn't do much to help us out.

This year we decided to try again, with a little more effort on our part.  Eric cut down one of the dead trees and dug up the other.  He also cut down the bush-like things.  We sprayed the weeds, pulled some of the large ones, and then Eric tilled the entire yard a couple of times.  Some stinky compost was added, the yard was tilled some more and then we put out grass seed.  A new tree was planted along with some rose bushes.  We've been super diligent about watering and in a little less than three months our yard has gone from this:

to this:

Maddie has spent so much of her time on the patio that it's taking her a little while to warm up to the idea of actually walking on the grass, but she's beginning to venture out there more and more.  Yay for a nice lawn for Maddie and Baby Boy to play in!

"How you doing, Lucy puppy?"

When did my baby start talking in complete sentences?!

Eric got to feel Baby Boy kick for the first time last night.  As soon as it happened, he jerked his hand back and told me it freaked him out.  He said he's glad I'm the pregnant one.

Baby Boy, your Daddy was the same way when I was pregnant with Maddie.  It's not just you.  ;)

19 Week Update

Size of baby: Baby T weighs 8.5 ounces and is 6 inches long from head to bottom, about the size of a turkey sub from Subway.

Total weight gain/loss: +8.5 pounds, right on track.

Maternity clothes:  Still avoiding maternity clothes.  I don't know how he positioned himself today, but if I really wanted to I could have forgone the BeBand and buttoned my regular jeans.

Gender:  Boy!  Talk about a surprise for us.

Movement:  He's moving more and more all the time and I love it!

Sleep:  Better than it was a couple of weeks ago.  I still haven't bought a body pillow, but I am using a king-size pillow and that seems to be helping.

What I miss:  Not worrying about what I eat and how it will affect the baby, and Maddie being able to sit comfortably on my lap.

Cravings:   Still way too many sweets.  I plan to cut back on them starting tomorrow, especially after seeing my most recent sudden weight gain.  Yikes!

How I'm feeling: I've begun to occasionally feel like I have some pulled muscles, but I'm pretty sure it's just from my body making room for this little one.

Highlight of the week:  Finding out that we are going to have a little boy!

19 weeks
P.S. Ignore the fact that I'm glowing.  It was really sunny today.

*Update:  Had my 19 week appointment today.  Everything from the anatomy scan looked good.  Baby Boy is measuring on target and had a heartbeat around 160 bpm.  Maddie went to this appointment and got to hear her brother's heartbeat.  :)

On Saturday Eric and I went with my parents to the Baylor versus Arkansas baseball game.  It was hot.  Way hot.  I left after two hours to go shopping.  Baylor won.  I bought some shoes.  All was well.

No, I don't always pose with my hand on my hip. . . apparently just when I'm pregnant.  ;)

Just saw Baby Boy move from the outside of my belly.  I don't know if that even makes any sense, but it was pretty exciting.  :)

A little over two years ago we found out that Eric had a giant cell tumor in the head of his femur.  A surgery was quickly scheduled to have the tumor removed.  Eric recovered quickly, has been relatively pain free, and seems to be pretty proud of the metal collection he has in his hip.

A couple of months ago at his two year follow-up his doctor noticed that something was once again happening at the same location in his femur.  The concern was that either the giant cell tumor had returned or some of the bone had died.  Yesterday Eric had another round of x-rays done to see if there had been any growth.  They showed no change.  If it had been a giant cell tumor, the doctor would have expected to see growth.  Dr. W still hasn't completely ruled out the tumor as a possibility, but he is definitely thinking it looks more like bone death.

Something to know about bone death is that after the initial insult that causes the death, the area remains static.  Therefore there is no anticipation that this area in his femur will grow.  Sounds good, right?  BUT, the bone tissue in the damaged spot will continue to soften.  It could likely soften to the point that the head of Eric's femur collapses.  If this happens he will have to have a hip replacement which would put a limit on him physically for the rest of his life.  Plus, hip replacements don't last forever.

So Eric has a couple of options: 

1. He can continue to have the area monitored by x-rays every few months.  I believe this is mainly to watch for growth, indicating that it is the tumor and not bone death.  If at any point he experiences pain in his hip he would need to go in to see if the head has collapsed.  There is no guarantee that it will collapse, but there is not guarantee that it won't.
2. He can opt for surgery now in an effort to prevent a collapse and save his hip.  It would require removal of some of the metal and all of the bone cement that is in there from the last surgery.  You can imagine how difficult it would be to remove cement and evidently it's trickier in the top of the femur (as opposed to around the knee joint) since the area to work in is narrower.  If something does not go as planned during the surgery, Eric would be sewn up, given the opportunity to recover, and then talks would begin about a hip replacement.

As of now surgery seems like the best option.  It beats living in fear that the head could collapse.  The biggest issue for me with the surgery is that it is not routine.  You have to understand that Eric is literally "one in a million" for simply having had a giant cell tumor.  Then he's even more unique for having had it in the upper part of his femur.  It usually occurs around knee joints.  His doctor is amazing, but admits that he has concerns about the difficulty of removing the cement in this next surgery.  He says if Eric opts for surgery he will do everything he can to save his hip.

Please pray for us as we make the decision whether or not to go ahead with the surgery.  Eric's doctor is giving us all of the information he has and leaving the ultimate decision up to us.

Yesterday was the anatomy scan for Baby T #2.  On the way to the hospital I told Eric that I was happy to get to see the baby, but I wasn't experiencing the anticipation I had with Maddie's anatomy scan since I already knew this baby was a girl.

After the tech finished taking all of the necessary pictures for the doctor, she called Eric into the room.  She took her time showing us many different images of Baby T #2:  the beating heart, a variety of organs, the umbilical cord attachment and blood flow, arms, legs, etc.  Finally it was time to confirm that I was right about the baby's gender.  The tech pulled the image up on the screen and asked me to take a look and make a guess.  I could not believe what I was seeing!  Was it really a boy?!

baby boy was facing my back, so this is the best profile the tech could get

I don't know how long it took me to get over the shock that this little baby I've been carrying around isn't a girl.  I think I am still trying to get used to the idea.  It's not so much that I would I have preferred a girl, but everything about this pregnancy has seemed so much like my last one that it never crossed my mind that this could be a boy.

Later that evening Eric and I invited our parents and Carol to a local park where we released blue balloons to reveal that Baby T #2 is a boy.

Now if only I could get Maddie to stop correcting me with "sister" everytime I tell her she's going to have a baby brother.

Well 50% of you were right!  Baby T #2 is a boy!  More to come tomorrow.

This past weekend Eric, Maddie and I went to Corpus Christi for a mini vacation.  We had a great time.  Here's our trip in pictures:

Checking out the beach from our balcony on the first morning.

Telling us what she thinks she's going to see at the aquarium.

First stop?  Texas State Aquarium.

Waiting for the dolphin show to begin.

Maddie LOVED the dolphins.  We ended up buying a stuffed one to bring home with us.

The otters were probably her second favorite thing at the aquarium.

Outside Blackbeard's restaurant.

Maddie enjoyed getting splashed by the waves, even when they got her face.

Before we saw three jellyfish. . . . 

Playing in the sand.

Padre Island National Seashore

Sifting for clam shells.  She could have done this all day.

Yes, we fed the sea gulls.  Shame on us.

Completely worn out from a morning at the beach.

Outside a souvenir shop.  Did I mention Maddie has a new found love of dolphins?

We HAD to stop and get a picture of this since Maddie likes sharks.

When planning a trip I love to get advice from people I know.  It's obviously far more trustworthy than the "anonymous" and/or angry reviewers on travel websites.  So if you're considering Corpus Christi, here are my thoughts:

1. Don't stay at Villa del Sol condominiums.  Although our view was great, the complex itself was VERY dated.
2. Stay on Padre Island.  You'll be much closer to the nicer beaches and there are plenty of places to eat.  We stayed in Corpus Christi on the mainland and about the only thing we were close to were the bay beaches (see below), Texas State Aquarium, and the Lexington.
3. Skip the bay beaches of mainland Corpus Christi.  The sand is gritty, the water is murky, and there are quite a few jellyfish.
4. Do visit Padre Island National Seashore.  The sand was soft, the water was clear several feet out, and the shore is teeming with wedge clams which is great fun for little ones.
5. Also plan to visit Texas State Aquarium.  If it had been just Eric and me, we probably would have breezed through it, but with Maddie it was an all day event (with lunch and a nap squeezed in, of course.)
6. Don't eat at Blackbeard's.  It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great.  We only ate there because it was on "our side" of town.
7. Corpus Christi doesn't have a whole lot to do unless you want to spend several days at the beach, so plan a short visit of two or three days.  That's about as much sand as Eric and I could handle!