Ice Cream

Turns out, Julie does like ice cream. I got some chocolate ice cream and peppermint Aggie Ice Cream yesterday, which is the best ice cream ever, and gave some to Julie on a spoon today. Didn't think she would eat it, but she did. She didn't like the cold at first, but then kept asking for more. So, I put some in a bowl for her and she ate it all up and asked for more. So, she now likes ice cream.

I just knew once she tried it she would like it, silly kid!

36 Weeks

I have really been trying hard to get things cleaned up and ready for this baby. I have less than a month! My diapers came in the mail the other day, so I got all the newborn prefolds washed and ready to go. Still need to order some more covers! And got all the clothes cleaned and put away!

Feeling pretty good, other than the normal aches and pains of getting to the end of pregnancy when everything is just a little sore. I still get BH contractions all the time. I really don't think I will make it to the end of this next month before this baby comes. Just saying, but who know, maybe I will! And she likes to stick her feet right out my right side and into my ribs(that isn't the most pleasant, and I have to push her feet down). I am down to my weekly appointments, kind of crazy. I always think pregnancy is so long, and never think the end is going to come, and then it is here. I don't have everything done, but I am not stressing over it. I don't know if I am nervous for labor and delivery or not. I think I am a little more nervous than with Julie, maybe just because I know more of what will happen, but I am still planning on going natural. I think I need to read up on labor and everything again. I have forgotten so much!

Julie is doing a lot better with going down to bed, she doesn't come out as much and goes down a lot faster, but still wakes up at least once during the night, which I will usually just pick her up and put her back in bed. But sometimes she will wake up at 2:30 and then every hour after that. Don't know why she is doing this, when she has slept so well since she was little. Hopefully it is just to prepare me and then she will get back to normal. It is good (slow) progress though, I don't like the idea of locking her in her bedroom and this method doesn't take too long before she will stay in bed for the night, so I am going to stick with it. We also have been telling her when we go to bed, we Stay in Bed, Close our Eyes, Be Quiet, and Go to Sleep. When I ask her what happens once we are in bed she will repeat these four things back to me. 

Julie's Birthday

We let her open the presents from us before Rob left for work, so she could have all day to play with them. This first present was the one I got from Australia. I wanted to get her the Teeny Tiny Preemie Cabbage Patch Doll, and the only place I could find them was on Ebay, and all four of them I found were from a seller in Australia, and they were in great condition, a few stains on the clothing but clean otherwise. So I ordered it, and have been very happy with my purchase. And Julie is quite fond of it as well. She loves playing with the one that her grandma and grandpa have at their house, and figured that with a baby on the way, it would be a good doll for her to have right now. She carries it around and talks to it, "Is that better?" "Are you done, are you done, Sleeping?", and it is just so cute to watch her pretend play with it. She is really into the pretend play right now! She talks to all her dolls and animals, gets them right in her face and asks them questions, feeds them food, changes their diapers. so fun to watch!

 Then we also got her a Doctors kit, since she really loves that as well. Both presents have been a hit, she loves them.

 After getting ready, we went and got her a Mylar Winnie the Pooh Happy Birthday Balloon. She loved this and then we went and visited Robert at work, and got to see his new office, instead of his cubicle he has always been in. We visited for a while and Julie had fun wandering around. She had to show Daddy her balloon when we got back into the car. After her nap, I went visiting teaching and she told my partner as we were leaving about her Pooh Balloon.
For dinner, we had a simple meal, we actually had her favorite meal the day before, Macaroni and Cheese, chicken nuggets, cooked broccoli and carrots, and cottage cheese.  Then we had a little get together with family at 7:30. Robs parents came first and Grandpa Taylor helped Julie open her gift from them, which was a stroller. She loved it and immediately started strolling her baby around the house.

She was all pink today!

Then my family came, and all my brothers and sisters were there, even my little nephew Mason. We missed my sisters husband. My mom made an outfit for Julies baby, and she likes me to change the outfit every do often. It was cute, the baby looked all comfy wearing it.

So, after her wardrobe change, we strapped her in and Julie took her for a ride.

Julie can be one stubborn child, and she doesn't show emotion that much, especially when others are around. We have found that she tries to hide her smile as well. My sister or whoever will try to get her to smile, and she will hold her lips together and really try hard to frown.

In this picture, Rob is trying to get her to blow. She knows how to blow, but she wouldn't, I think there was just a lot of people around and she just would not do it, so Rob blew the candles out for her. Since she doesn't like cake or ice cream, my sisters made her sugar cookies. My sister Trina decorated them and they were super cute(thanks Trina), there was Pooh Bear, Hunny Pots, and Bumble Bees. Julie had a couple bites and then didn't want any more. It must have been all the people and new toys to play with. Because she has since ate more of the cookie. It is funny though, because she won't pick the cookie up herself to eat it, she will say Pooh Bear or Honey Pot and want me to pick them up. And then she will bite off a piece. She will try to pick up the cookie without touching the frosting and just can't do it. Silly girl!

We busted out the ice cream for those who wanted it!

My sister took this picture from her phone and emailed it to me. The title of the picture was Basketball. Can you tell why she titled it that, I just laughed when she showed me this picture, she said it looked like I had a bowling ball under my shirt. Haha, cracks me up!

 Are these just the cutest cookies ever.

 Here is all that she ate from her cookie.

 Boys in one room and the girls were all in the kitchen, strange how that always happens.

 My sister who decorated the cookies and her son Mason, every time I see Mason he has changed so much. I sure have a cute little nephew!

 And he was loving Julie's balloon!

I think in all Julie had a great day and has enjoyed everything she got!

Julie(2 years old)

I can't believe how much Julie seems to change every day. It just seems like she is learning and picking up new things so fast that it is hard to catch them all. This winter has sure been strange, the weather has been so nice, these pictures of Julie riding her bike were around January 1, didn't expect to be doing this in January with hardly any snow on the ground, and the couple days that she rode this in a row, she has gotten so much better. She was just sitting here on her bike letting the wind blow through her hair, waiting for Daddy who was talking to a neighbor.

She was having so much fun, and I am glad she got to spend some time outside!

Lately she has been loving her sippy cups, she can drink from a glass, but right now she prefers to use her sippies. And usually all of them at the same time. She would find one somewhere or up in the cupboard and would want me to fill it up, and she got a new one for Christmas from Robs Aunt and she had to have that one as well. Make me laugh!

Here she is hiding in the closet, probably right before or after changing her diaper. Anytime I tell her we need to change her she will run straight for the closet just a giggling away trying to get in and the door closed before I can reach her.

She was admiring the pictures in this one and I got one of her smiling.

She loves her kitchen, she doesn't play with it constantly but loves it along with her other toys. Here she is getting ready to wash her hands. Now after eating, when I tell her we need to wash her hands, she goes to her play kitchen first and washes.

-We got some squash from my mom the other day and gave some to Julie, she didn't touch it. It was also when she wasn't feeling very well, so we waited until she was feeling better and then tried again. We were having homemade pizza and I gave Julie some other veggies along with her pizza, and some squash. Rob and I didn't have any. I asked her to try her squash to which she looked at each of our plates and then at the squash container and then said, "Daddy have some squash", she noticed that we didn't have any on our plates. It was so funny!
-After her nap I will ask her what she wants for snack to which she always responds with, "candy", I told her okay, you can have some candy, but what else do you want. I named off a few things like a banana, apple, banana bread, and such. She thought for a moment and then said very excitedly, "candy". Her favorites are dum dums and m&m's.
-Rob has been making a lot of popcorn lately and she loves to eat popcorn with Daddy. When the bowl is getting low, she will say,"Daddy make more poptorn". The way she says popcorn is just so cute.
-She giggles a lot, she will do something and then look at us and giggle. She really is just always so happy.
-Loves to read stories, I quite frequently find her sitting somewhere just reading and looking through her storybooks. I love this. And sometimes if she is just having a great time playing with her toys, I will grab the Ensign or something to read and sit on the couch. If she sees me reading, she will come over and take whatever I was reading and set it off to the side and then go find a book that she wants me to read and then come sit next to me. So, I read an article from the Ensign while it was open on the armrest, so that it didn't look like I was reading. They say it is good for children to see their parents reading books.
-Loves anything Pooh Bear related, we got her "The Pooh Bear" movie and she has been loving that. She also loves "Heffalump" as well. She will go around the house singing, "Lump a dump a di di" like they do in the movie, while marching with her legs straight, pretty funny. Since watching Pooh Bear, she has been kind of singing around the house. I don't know what she is singing, but it sure is cute to hear. She is always wanting to watch Pooh Bear. I try to limit her time watching it and distract her by doing something else like reading a book or something. She is definitely loving Pooh Bear right now.
-She has found that she can get up onto her counter in her bedroom using her chair. I was getting ready and came in to find her having so much fun with all the stuff she couldn't get at before, and with this hat on her head.

-She loves to watch Daddy play games on his phone, for a little while at least.

-Here is a new thing she has discovered. Rob told me to come into the room, and when I did, this is what I saw, at first I was wondering how she fit in there, but then I just started laughing. She took the sink out and climbed right in. Although she can't get herself back out without help. Always amazes me the things she comes up with.

-She was sure enjoying herself!

And then she loves to walk around in my shoes.

-She basically can tell us what she wants or needs now, or what she doesn't want. If she doesn't want me to do something, she will say, "No, Mommy". Her age is definitely showing through, we were leaving my moms the other day and she threw a fit and wouldn't even let me put her coat on. She has never done this before, and then getting her into the car was a little struggle as well. Oh, Joy!
-She likes to get in her bed, pull the covers up and say, "sleep", she loves just playing on her bed with all her stuffed animals.
-She can climb into the crib also, which is something I don't like. She hasn't fully made it in there yet, because we have caught her, she knows she is not supposed to get in there and has since pretty much left it alone.
-She loves to carry my cookbooks around and flip through the pages, I will put one away, and then find a different one.
-Usually if her hand is dirty, she will leave her fist closed until she gets it washed.
-Her favorite foods right now are, pinto beans, chili, cooked carrots and broccoli, cucumbers, peanuts, almonds, macaroni, and still raisins. She also is a fan of bananas again. And today, she discovered that she likes oranges, she would never try them before. Rob was eating some from his lunch and gave her one, she wouldn't take it at first, then decided to try it and kept asking Rob for more. So that is exciting!
-The last two days she has been playing with play-doh, she doesn't touch it much but will roll it out with my help. I think she is just not a fan of getting her hands dirty.

Ya, she is still in her pajamas, we have slow mornings around here!

She had a great birthday and seemed to enjoy everything(post later).

35 Weeks

Okay, so at my last doctors appointment, he told me if I went into labor past 35 weeks that he wouldn't stop me. And the next day I cleaned the bathroom(sinks, toilet, mirror, tub/walls, cleaned the rugs and washed the floor), I guess I was like holy moly, I don't have much longer. I got a migraine in the process of cleaning the floor(I only really get the blind spot when I get a migraine and then my head will be a little sore afterwords), so I could only see really well out of one eye, so I just scrubbed hoping I was getting everything. Today, I started getting the bags ready, one for me at the hospital, and one for Julie. I have been having a lot of BH contractions lately, like every 4 minutes this last hour. They usually are not that close together. They did not hurt, but lasted about a minute long. I am now down to my weekly appointments, although I am kind of on a odd week, so I scheduled my appointment for two weeks after my last one since everything has been pretty normal. Although with my migraines I have been getting for the last 4 days(one a day, and I never get headaches very often), I think I will have to call tomorrow to see if I should be concerned about that. 

Julie's 2nd Birthday is this week, how crazy is that! Not huge birthday planners around here, we will just have cookies(that my wonderful sister is making), and ice cream for those other than Julie. Just a small get together.

Tonight while putting Julie to bed, we only had to make 26 trips back into her bedroom during probably a 40 minutes stretch of time. And the night before that was only 9 times, although she woke up a few times during the night last night. So, I think we are making progress!

Sleep Issue

So, since Julie's cold she got a week before Christmas she has started to wake up at night. This has been going on for the past month. And now, for the last 4 nights, she has been coming out of her bedroom when we put her down for bed. The first night we didn't count how many times we kept taking her back in. The second night, we took her back into her bed a total of 34 times within an hours time before she fell asleep. The 3rd night, it was a total of 42 times within an hour. And last night it was 5 times, before we decided to try putting the childs lock on the door, to see if that would help. She just cried, then we took it off and told her she had to stay in bed. And we would keep it unlocked if she would stay in bed. She wanted to sit with me on the chair in her room, and so I did and she just snuggled into my arm for a while and then I laid her in bed and she likes her blankie laid across her face(with her head out), and then she grabbed my hand and placed it on her head and just held it there with her little hand. It was just one of those moments where I just realized she is only this age and this small for so long and I just knelt there by her bed, and just stared at her until she fell asleep. And then I just stayed a little longer and watched her sleep, how precious she is. 

I am not sure what to do at this point, she has been sleeping through the night ever since she was 2 months old and now this. It just seems odd! 

When we would take her back into her room, we made sure we didn't say anything and just put her back in bed and put her covers over her and then left, and just did that over and over. It was from a book I was reading called "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child", it gave an example of a 26 month old that had poor sleep habits in the first place, and after the third night, he didn't get up at all. Well, that hasn't worked for us, and now she does it during nap time. I hope we can figure something out before this baby comes. I really don't want to have to deal with two kids waking up at night.

34 Weeks

I am now down to my 2 week appointments! I could swear the baby has dropped already because I get so much pressure, and this kid is always moving. I don't remember feeling this many body parts sticking out of my belly with Julie. She has been on my right side for a while now, my stomach is always lopsided. Her back is just right there, and her legs are up right under my ribs. The other morning I swear I could feel her head. My belly gets hard(braxton hicks contractions) quite frequently which makes walking rather painful or uncomfortable, I could swear that she is just ready to fall out sometimes. They say you shouldn't have more than 4 BH contractions in an hour, but I am pretty sure I have a lot more than that. It was the same way with Julie, they are not painful, my belly just gets hard. I am really not that big looking but an sure feeling the muscles stretching under my belly. So as of right now, I am officially wearing my maternity pants and most of my maternity tops. Yah, kind of crazy that it takes me until 32-34 weeks before I fit into them.
At night I have such good intentions of getting a lot of things accomplished the next day, and then I get tired or whatever and end up not doing hardly anything. On a side note, my belly button is popping out this pregnancy, only slightly, but you can see the little bump. I didn't get this with Juile. Kind of funny!
Julie likes to sit next to me in a chair, and when she tries to rearrange her position or get down, she will use my stomach to push on. Sometimes it just hurts, and I have to keep grabbing her arm, so she doesn't push on my belly. 

Wednesday morning I woke up having a little pain in my bum(sciatica), and I got a little worried thinking my sciatica pain was coming back. It stayed for about half the day and then went away. I did some yoga and I think that helped. It made me realize how lucky I am that the pain from a few months ago has gone away, and I don't want it to come back. So hopefully by continuing to stretch and do some yoga, that will help.

33 Weeks

Sometimes I just love to wear black, you can tell a little in this picture(the flash makes it show), but I don't look pregnant at all from the front when wearing black. Rob thinks it is funny! Gotta love black!

I have been sooo tired lately, go to bed tired and wake up feeling just as tired, but try to still get something done during the day. If I do sit down, zonk, I just sit there and rest while Julie plays. Happens frequently throughout the day. And my last doctors appointment I got the TDap shot, the one for whooping cough. My arm has ached off and on since getting it, and at night it starts hurting and sometimes is hard to get to sleep. Hate that shot, and I am usually pretty good with shots.
Can't hold Julie any more, makes my lower back hurt. Really feeling the aches, especially under my belly.
I was looking at my side view the other day, and I really don't look as far along as I am, my last doctors appointment last week was right on at 32 cm. I just don't pop out like most people. My due date from the doctor is on the 22nd of January, but my calculations and week wise I would be due on the 27th. So, who knows.
I can sure feel the baby more this pregnancy, she is always moving and it seems like I am constantly just pushing her back in. Last night I was laying in bed on my left side and her little foot or something came protruding out, I swear I could have grabbed onto it. But, I really love feeling her all the time.
It feels like I am starting to waddle, if I am walking around and my belly gets hard, it puts so much pressure on my bladder and makes it hard for me to walk normal.
When I read stories to Julie in her bedroom she likes stand next to the chair and lay her head on my belly, while her feet are propped up on her bed rails. Kind of funny, especially when the baby starts rolling around where her head is.
And Julie's present that came from Australia came in the mail today, it had 11 stamps on it. So glad it got here! Now I don't have to worry about that gift.

But, you will have to wait until Julie's birthday to see what it is! So cute and loveable!

I got all the baby clothes out the other day, realizing that I don't have much time left. It is creeping in on me quick, and I still have so much I need to do/buy. I am a procrastinator and so usually wait til the last minute.

Sinus Infection

Well, after 4 days straight of Julie having a fever, we went in to see the Pediatrician this morning. I had called on the third day and talked to the nurse, and she told us to keep doing what we were doing rotating between Tylenol and Ibuprofen and if she still has a fever tomorrow, then we should probably bring her in. So, the fever is all she pretty much has besides being kind of stuffy. So, this morning when she woke up she had a fever and then I checked a few minutes later, and it was going down and made it down to normal. She hasn't had any medicine since 11:30 that night and her temperature stayed normal until about 10:30. It was about 99.6, so I called and made an appointment. 

I think from the last two flu shots she got, she remembers where she got them and when we drove into the parking lot of the doctors, I went to get her out and she kept saying, "no, no, no". Poor thing, and then when they called us back, she walked with me to the door, and then turned around and wouldn't go any further, I had to pick her up and she just started to cry. She was thinking she was going to get a shot probably. She was okay once in the room and started playing with the alphabet letters, and other toys. Her ears were fine. She had some nasty mucous running down the back of her throat, which the doctor said was a sinus infection, so he wrote out a prescription for her for the next 10 days. And he said her fever should be gone within the next 48 hours. Since she had a cold the week before Christmas, this is just something that followed. So glad we can now get her feeling better. And hopefully eating better, she hardly has ate anything besides pasta, milk, and raisins. Although she loves "candy" any time. And I hope it will also help her sleep better at night.
I think these last three weeks have been like we have a newborn again, because she will wake up at 11:00 and then again around 3-4:00a.m., when she has been sleeping through the night since 2 months. She likes her sleep and will go back to sleep really well. She is definitely preparing me for waking up at nights with this new baby coming. And I have realized that I can handle it, granted I will be a lot more tired. Anyways, looks like she is on the mend and she has had a low fever all day today, and this afternoon and evening has been one HAPPY kid. I let her rummage through the cupboards while I was fixing dinner, and she was having fun chowing down on peanuts, and I let her because of her crappy eating lately. She loved them.

32 Weeks

Well, it was about this time with Julie that I started really feeling the aches and pains of pregnancy. The baby must be growing quicker this week, because my under belly is quite sore. And my legs are sore when I walk and when I lift my legs up. I feel like I am sorta waddling now, mainly when my stomach gets hard and puts pressure on my bladder. I am having to go to the bathroom more often now, still not at night unless I wake up. I have started doing yoga, and exercising so that is helping me stretch my shortened muscles out.
-I think I am finally starting to like oatmeal, it is the sugared instant kind. But I figure it is a step in the right direction, I just add enough milk so that it is nice and creamy. So my morning breakfast now is oatmeal, banana, a half a bagel, and some milk. And maybe some rice crispy cereal.

-We have been having waffles and they are so good.
-The last few days, this babe has been ACTIVE, like all day long and night. It doesn't keep me up at night, but she is sure trying to stretch in there.
-We have three names so far for this baby, two are family related and the other is just one that I have liked for a while and just now remembered it. I think it might even be the one that I like the best. Not going to say what it is though.
-My maternity skirts are finally starting to fit, just a few weeks ago I tried them on and they were a bit baggy and now they are fitting quite nicely. Crazy what a few weeks can do. With Julie I started wearing maternity jeans at 30 weeks, and my first time wearing them this pregnancy was yesterday.
-8 more weeks to go(or less), and I have got to get everything ready. This week has been rather lazy, Rob has been home and that has thrown our schedule off a little. This morning Julie woke up at 6:40, which is pretty close to when she normally would get up, but since it was still so dark I just sat with her in the chair and she was falling asleep so I laid her back in her bed and went back to bed myself and we all slept til about 8:40. Needless to say, it was yet another slow morning.
-And Julie came down with a fever today, she has not had a good appetite for like two weeks, only eating pasta and bread, and dairy. Today, she hardly ate anything, she ate a lot of pasta for dinner though. She used to be so good at eating, and since she got her last cold, she has been awful. I hope this is just a little phase that will pass.
-Got released from YW yesterday as a Beehive adviser. It is kind of sad, but the new presidency is awesome and some of them have been in there before. I will miss my 4 beehives. It was two wonderful years and I am going to miss it.