21 weeks

#2 is half baked!! Madness! This pregnancy seems to be flying by which is both good and bad. The good - we are that much closer to seeing the next member of the Barish crew. The bad - we haven't even started getting ready for this baby. Yikes! Nick and I are taking this winter to buckle down and begin "Operation Get Ready for a Baby".

Big projects ahead include:

• remodeling the former "ebay room" in the basement into Ben's new bedroom. This involves putting in a drop ceiling, drywall, new windows and flooring. It also involves a closet project since the closet that is there now is taking up most of the room. We always pay for these projects by putting the balance on our Lowe's card since it is no interest for a year but I swear, everytime we pay off that card another project comes up that we put back on it. I think I have been paying Lowe's $100 a month for close to 3 years now. Ugh!

• Turn Ben's current room into Baby #2's nursery. I have started pulling some ideas and am loving yellow and gray! Check out my Pinterest board! I keep toying with delegating this project to my mom. She does an awesome job with designing interior spaces and I know she would love the project but it would mean I have to give up some control - not my strong suit! This also means we need to buy all new nursery furniture. Ugh! (Turns out second babies cost more than the first around here!) We didn't buy a glider for Madelyn's room but instead used one I had gotten from my parent's a few years earlier. It wasn't the most comfortable thing and as a result we hardly used it. We decided to splurge on a nice glider for #2's room. I made the mistake of sitting in one at Pottery Barn Kids and fell in love - the problem is the $1000 price tag. We won't be buying that one but I now know the style I want.

• Find a stroller. The other big purchase we need to make is a double stroller. Sometime this winter we are going to hit up some stores and play around with them. I don't want a giant, clunky thing but I also want to make sure both kids are going to fit comfortably in whatever we choose. The stroller that is leading the way right now is the City Mini Select. I love the stadium seating and all the seating options but again - that stinkin' price tag (starts at $500)

• Then there's the small matter of naming this child. Still nothing.

Madelyn's 1st Year

I started an online scrapbook for Madelyn when she was about 6 months old. I was getting overwhelmed with her baby book, photo albums, calendars, blogging, etc. I wanted something tangible that could track her entire first year complete with text and photos. I admire scrapbookers but am definitely one of those people that does 1-2 pages and then never picks up the project again. Plus, it gets so stinkin' expensive and I am not nearly creative enough.

I found Mixbook and loved that they had preset themes I could choose from and the ability to fully create pages if I wanted to. The project was a little intense when I started because I had to catch up on 6 months worth of information but after that it was easy - maybe 15 minutes a month.

And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the finished project.
Book 2 is already started as well as Baby #2's first book!

Check it out here

Madelyn's Birthday Party - part 4

Last installment of Miss. M's birthday party! I switched her outfit after the cake since I had found an adorable t shirt on clearance at Target and I needed an excuse to have her wear it.

We also took advantage of having Amy there and got some great family pictures.

All in all, it was a great party and I can't think of anything I would change!

Madelyn's Birthday Party - part 3

This will be a pretty picture heavy post (not that anyone is complaining) since I have already talked about most of the details.

We ended up getting an oversized cupcake from Kroger for Madelyn's smash cake. I could have made one but since we weren't serving cake I didn't want to deal with all the leftover cake batter. Plus, I figure I've got plenty of birthday cakes ahead of me.

At first, she was a little apprehensive because she didn't like the frosting on her hands. Then my genius baby discovered that by picking up the cake and shoving it into her face she wouldn't get frosting on her hands.

Bon Appetit!

Madelyn's 13th Month

Well we just flew by 1! Madelyn celebrated her second Thanksgiving this month and I am pretty sure she had a lot more fun this time around. She loved all the food, except the mashed potatoes. What kid doesn't like mashed potatoes? Mine. She also loves when we get together with family because she is the center of the universe and has tons of people to play with.

Still not walking, but she is using her walking toys on a regular basis now. She also likes to walk holding our fingers so it probably won't be much longer. She can stand on her own for about 5 seconds before she figures out what happened and sits down. She never voluntarily stands on her own but I've started putting her down standing where she can't hold anything. I noticed her left foot turns out slightly when she really gets going with walking but her pediatrician isn't concerned. She said it will most likely self correct in a few weeks.

Also, she is slightly anemic. I am not incredibly surprised by this since she hasn't been big on the breastfeeding and isn't a big meat eater either. For now, she is a on a daily iron supplement and we are making a concious effort to get her to eat more red meat and beans. She loves beans but I feel bad giving her the same food all the time so I am experimenting with the meat to figure out how she likes it. So far the winner is ground venison with a little bit of teriyaki sauce. The other food issue we are having is that she doesn't really like to drink the frozen breastmilk or cow's milk. I plan on calling her doctor this week to see what we can do to make sure all her nutritional needs are being met if she doesn't drink milk. I can't say I blame her, I've never been a big milk drinker either. The good news is, she loves yogurt, string cheese and cottage cheese so I'm hoping we can just increase those to hit her goals.

On the breastfeeding front, we are basically done. She occasionally needs it if she doesn't transition well from playing to bed at night but it lasts for about 3 minutes and I'm pretty sure there is nothing there. At this point she is probably breastfeeding 1-2 times a week. I thought I would be sad since she isn't much of a cuddler and that is the only time I really got to love on her. But I think she sensed this and has started just cuddling throughout the day which is awesome.

First word - she's been saying Ma ma and Da da for awhile now but I haven't counted it as her first words. Just this month she has start saying "book" - sort of. She knows what a book is and has her way of saying it - "bock" is more what it sounds like but you get the idea!

Sleep - She is a great sleeper at night but naps are nonexistent at this point. My mom said I stopped napping at one as well so I guess she gets it from her mama. I still lay her down in her crib twice a day and she usually talks to herself and just lays there for awhile. I figure even if she isn't sleeping, at least she is decompressing for awhile.

Teeth - Two more teeth this month for a grand total of 10! They are still coming in goofy though. Her top set have evened out but she has 3 on the right side of her bottom mouth and 1 on the left side. I think there's another on the way since she has been knawing on her fingers nonstop the last few days.

19 weeks

I think it's fair to say we wouldn't have made it to Christmas before revealing this pregnancy - my body is giving me away! For some reason, I am carrying really high so I am still able to wear my own jeans but they are definitely getting uncomfortable - I am just too lazy to go dig out my maternity clothes.

We had our anatomy scan last week and the baby is looking good! My placenta placement also looks good so that is one more hurdle cleared on the way to a VBAC. C-section moms have a much higher chance of developing placenta previa and although it self corrects a lot of the time, it was something I didn't want to worry about. We didn't find out the gender so that is still a surprise. The tech said she couldn't tell anyway because the baby kept tucking up his/her feet to hide the goods. I don't know if I believe her because with Madelyn's ultrasound the tech said they did have to make sure there was something there and they just mark "Yes" on the sheet rather than "male or female". It makes sense since the whole point of that ultrasound is to make sure everything is forming correctly. Oh well - point is, we still don't know.

That being said, we are having a tough time with boy names. If Madelyn had been a boy, her name would have been Jonathan Michael. I consider that name to still be Madelyn's name - she was either Jonathan or Madelyn. I don't want to use it again so we are back to the drawing board. We both have a pretty strong feeling that this is a boy so I made a deal with Nick. When (not if) we get past this baby's due date and start doing the NST's (which include an ultrasound) and we still don't have a boy name, we will find out the gender at that point to see if it is in fact a boy. At that point, we will be pulling all nighters to name this little guy. My pregnancy brain has convinced me that this baby won't want to be born until we have a name.

Other news - Nick met with my midwife and really liked her. She gave my a referral for a chiropractor and is getting it submitted with my insurance company so I should be able to start that in a few weeks. She also suggested buying a prenatal yoga dvd and doing it on a regular basis to keep myself stretched out and moving. My doula suggested reading as many VBAC success stories as I can get my hands on to help me envision how this birth can go. Fortunately The Bump has a VBAC board and a lot of the women post their success stories so I have been checking that out as well.

Around the beginning on 18 weeks, I started feeling the baby move. I forgot what an awesome feeling that is and love that I am feeling this little bean on a regular basis now.

Weight gain - I gained 4lbs. So much for trying not to gain anything between those appointments. Oh well, I have surrendered to the weight gain at this point. I could gain another 32lbs and still weigh less than I did when I had Madelyn. I don't intend to gain another 32lbs so I figure no matter what, I will be ahead of where I was with her. Thankfully, I was able to get about 10lbs below my prepregnancy weight before getting pregnant again.

Madelyn's Birthday Party - Part 2

With the theme for Madelyn's party being "1 year old in a flash", it actually made decor a pretty easy task. I just took advantage of all the free photo print offers that Rite-Aid, Target and Walgreens have this time of year and printed a ton of her pictures from the past year. My sister and I spent a day cutting them into shapes and Molly even got creative enough to cut some into the shapes of leaves (incorporating the fall theme). I also printed her monthly pictures and strung those across our doorwall to show how much she has grown. The rest of the pictures we stuck throughout the kitchen and livingroom. I put a few on the dessert table as well.

Target's dollar spot actually had a bunch of baskets, paper plates, napkins, table clothes and glitter leaves right about the time I picked her theme so I scooped up a bunch of that stuff! It worked out perfectly! After the party, I was able to throw away all the table clothes and paper products which made clean up a dream. I also put all the pictures in a little bag and Madelyn loves taking them out of the bag and looking at them all the time.

Picture time!

We used the balloons a couple days earlier at her 1 year photo session and Ben made the sign!

Nick bought Madelyn flowers when I sent him out on one last shopping trip - super cute!

I found a seller on Etsy that let me pick the colors for the tutu and included the flower headband as well!

Madelyn's Birthday Party - part 1

I have so many pictures of Madelyn's birthday party that I want to share so I decided to break it up into parts!

Part 1 - Party Food
Part 2 - Party Decor
Part 3 - Early Party and Cake
Part 4 - Late Party and Gifts

If you know Madelyn, you know she is obsessed with pictures, especially pictures of herself. She could spend hours looking through photos. Keeping this in mind, I searched online for first birthday party ideas and came across "1 Year Old in a Flash". Sold! I designed the invites based on the one I found online and had them printed.

I will get into more decor details in the next post. I also decided to hire a photographer for the party and I would say that was the best use of our budget, hands down. Amy was able to capture all the images I wanted and I could spend my time enjoying the party! Plus - it fit the theme! All the pictures are courtesy of Amy with Pure Amour Photography.

It was going to be a tight fit in our house so I needed to come up with an alternative to a sit down meal. I decided to have buffet style soup, salad and sandwiches ready to go when guests arrived. Everyone loved it! And it was super easy for me because I didn't have to worry about serving a meal. Also, I decided to forgo the birthday cake and instead created a fall desserts table. Again, it eliminated the need to serve everyone at once and guests could just choose what they wanted to eat.

Onto the pictures!

We set up several card tables in the livingroom for seating.

14 weeks!

14 weeks! Eep! I am officially out of my own version of the first trimester! (42 weeks/3 trimesters = 14 weeks)

No big news to report. The prematernity clothes are still holding and I actually just bought a size smaller jeans the other day which was exciting. I needed new jeans since every pair I owned had patches somewhere. Lovely.

Anyway, my brother called me out this week but hopefully I dodged a bullet. He said he knew I was pregnant because I was drinking a McDonald's iced tea. I drank iced tea all the time when I was pregnant with Madelyn and I am shocked he remembered this. The funny thing is tha*t I never stopped drinking the tea once she was born so it isn't really a pregnancy craving this time around, just more of a habit.

I told him I still hadn't gotten a period since Madelyn was born (which technically isn't a lie) and I think I entered TMI zone for him and he dropped it.

Still holding steady on the weight gain and I am hoping to have gained zero lbs by my next appointment. We shall see.

That's all for now, folks! Stay tuned...

*Last prewritten post! Big ultrasound is today!

12 weeks

12 weeks down - 30 to go! I am still continuing to believe that this baby will be 2 weeks late. I am also planning on a 4 day labor. I figure, I will plan for the longest possible scenario and then I can be estatic when that isn't what happens.

Well it's been awhile so let's update.

We still haven't gone public with this pregnancy. I want to let some friends soak up their glory of new babies and pregnancies before announcing. Also, we went public fairly early with Madelyn and it is a loooooong time to wait for the little one's debut so we are going to spare everyone the waiting period as much as possible. Lastly, Madelyn isn't even 1 yet and I want her to get her first year all to herself and not have to share the spotlight at all. Not that she cares but oh well. We are hoping to make it to Christmas before the big reveal but that would put me at 20 weeks and I don't know if my body can hold out. Which brings me to my next topic....

Weight gain. I've gained about 5lbs so far with this pregnancy. Not too bad but I don't remember where that is in comparison to Madelyn. I am still in my normal clothes and I think I can stay in them for a bit longer.

Birth plans - we met me with another homebirth midwife but didn't really click with her. I had high hopes because she is a VBAC mom herself but this woman is about to be all up in my jazz and if I don't feel immediately comfortable, I would rather not go that route.  I also had my first appointment with a midwife through UofM which is where I am getting my prenatal care until we make a decision. I really liked her! She had already reviewed my operative report from Madelyn's c-section and the first thing she told me when she came in was that because I was able to dialate to a 10 and ultimately the c-section was a result of fetal distress my chances of a VBAC are over 80% and my scenario tends to be her best VBAC scenario in terms of results. She also recommended another midwife through UofM that practices accupuncture and suggested I see her closer to the birth to help ensure optimal positioning and help prime my body for labor since induction is not an option in a VBAC scenario. I asked about chiropractic care and she agreed that it can help align my pelvis and again, help to ensure optimal positioning and gave me a referral. The best news for me - she "lets" her VBAC patients go to 42 weeks before scheduling a repeat c-section. One of the biggset issues women come across with providers that claim to be "VBAC friendly" is that they only "let" the mom go to 39 weeks and if you don't go into labor before then they will push scheduling a repeat c-section.

With regard to UofM and laboring as a VBAC candidate, they do require continous fetal monitoring. She did say they will let you come off the machines for short periods of time but because that is the best way to detect rupture, they do prefer you being monitored most of the time. Thankfully, UofM has telemetry monitoring available which is basically a wireless fetal monitor. This means I can labor while walking, standing or even in the tub!!  She also said their staff prefers women labor with as little intervention as possible and are trained to help women labor med free. Music to my ears!!

At this time, I am feeling very comfortable with staying at UofM in the care of the midwives and hiring Stacia as a doula. I don't want to make a final decision until Nick gets a chance to meet my midwife through UofM though. My next appointment is scheduled for December 7th with the anatomy scan right before. Nick will have a chance to meet her then.

Final thought, I am way more chill with this pregnancy than I was with Madelyn. I actually will go through the entire day and forget that I'm pregnant. I was an absolute basketcase with Madelyn and would freak out before every appointment that we wouldn't hear a heartbeat. I have faith in my body this time around and know that it is capable of growing an amazing and perfect little human and as a result it has allowed me to be much more relaxed. Madelyn also serves as a great distraction.

*almost there - one more prewritten post after this!

Monday Morning Recap

I created a pretty long todo list for myself this weekend but I am pleased to say I got a lot done. Not everything, but close!

Friday

• go to Capri
• go to Wiggle Worms
• make up nurse appointment for Madelyn
• grocery shop
• wrap Christmas Eve presents
• check out Ann Arbor's Midnight Madness (Madelyn was a little out of it from her vaccines so we skipped it)
• figure out my $10 gift for Sunday and a gift for Ben and Madelyn
• figure out if Ben and Madelyn shopping is done (if not, finish it)

Saturday

• take Bandit to the vet (turns out my cat is depressed and is now on kitty prozac. seriously?)
• check out Belleville's Winterfest (lighted parade and tree lighting) (change of plans we went to my parent's for dinner instead)
• wrap Ben and Madelyn's Christmas presents
• wrap $10 gifts for tomorrow
• task Nick to figure out what is going on with the solar Christmas lights
• figure out if Nick shopping is done (if not, finish it)
• buy $20 gift for the 17th
• Ben has friend over for playdate
• figure out the rest of Caleb's gift (and buy it)

Sunday

• Capri Bakery Christmas party
• wrap Nick's Christmas presents
• finish gluing Madelyn's quiet book pages and make a new page
• figure out Christmas baking schedule
• wrap Caleb's Christmas presents

Sunday kind of fell apart but I am pretty pleased with the way the rest of the weekend worked out. Turns out my brother is impossible to shop for so it is back on the list! I am also procrastinating like you wouldn't believe when it comes to Madelyn's quiet book. Ugh!

How did you do?

Weekend Planning Blog Hop

I tried this a couple of weeks ago and it was incredibly helpful in making sure I got everything done. With Christmas coming up, faster than I can believe that means my TODO list is getting out of control. So here I am, back to the blogosphere for some accountability - I will get all of this done this weekend!!

Friday

• go to Capri
• go to Wiggle Worms
• make up nurse appointment for Madelyn
• grocery shop
• wrap Christmas Eve presents
• check out Ann Arbor's Midnight Madness
• figure out my $10 gift for Sunday and a gift for Ben and Madelyn
• figure out if Ben and Madelyn shopping is done (if not, finish it)

Saturday

• take Bandit to the vet
• check out Belleville's Winterfest (lighted parade and tree lighting)
• wrap Ben and Madelyn's Christmas presents
• wrap $10 gifts for tomorrow
• task Nick to figure out what is going on with the solar Christmas lights
• figure out if Nick shopping is done (if not, finish it)
• buy $20 gift for the 17th
• Ben has friend over for playdate
• figure out the rest of Caleb's gift (and buy it)

Sunday

• Capri Bakery Christmas party
• wrap Nick's Christmas presents
• finish gluing Madelyn's quiet book pages and make a new page
• figure out Christmas baking schedule
• wrap Caleb's Christmas presents

Okay, so it is a little overwhelming right now but I can do this!

What are you up to this weekend?

9 weeks!

That's right folks! We've got a due date. May 9, 2012! Now, I am planning on a June baby. Not because there is anyway I would actually have this baby in June but because I drove myself nuts last time around and the little stinker decided to really make me work for it by coming a week late. This way, I will be happy when this one makes a debut in May.

I had my first ultrasound today for dating purposes and got to see the little bean's heartbeat - 167. I have to say the whole thing is even more exciting this time around because I already have a glimpse of what I get in the end of this whole process - another sweet face to squish!!

Still getting a little queasy here and there and mega tired but other than that, life is good. Per my home scale, I am actually losing weight and really would like to keep my weight gain to a minimum this time around. I gained about 30lbs with Madelyn and lost it all plus 5 more after she was born but I still have a few extra pounds I could stand to lose so if I could keep my weight gain around the 20lb mark I would be a happy mama.

Still in my regular clothes but they are getting a little tighter at the end of the night.

On the VBAC front - I am signed up with the CNM through UofM and intend to go that route until I make a decision. Nick and I are meeting with another homebirth midwife later this month for another perspective and I have my first appointment with the hospital midwife this month as well.

Financially, it is actually cheaper for me to deliver in the hospital versus home birth because Nick just enrolled in awesome insurance through work. We have $10 co pays and pay $0 for delivery. In a home birth scenario, we would be responsible for 100% which is in the $2000-$3000 range. I really don't want money to be a deciding factor in this but it is something to consider.

I also can't seem to shake the "what if" factor. What if something goes wrong? I know if I can't get over this, it will be hard for me to trust my body to do what it needs to do to get this baby here safely. I am now thinking about laboring at home as long as possible and then heading to the hospital for the actual delivery. Plus, if I'm being honest - the couple days in the hospital doing nothing but love on this new baby is a pretty nice thing. I can see me pushing myself to do too much too soon if I am at home. Still, and I know I've mentioned this before, my concern is that most ruptures occur before the pushing stage of labor. Ruptures are typically detected through fetal monitoring. If I can find a doula that is willing to do fetal monitoring as well I would feel more comfortable with this scenario. A lot of midwives are also doulas and you can hire them in either capacity but I don't know if they will mix the roles and provide some midwifery care when acting as a doula.

Ugh - so much to think about!

**only 2 more backdated posts to go!