One Day More

Only one more day of looking like this:

Technically, I am 38 weeks in this picture (taken yesterday), but today I am now at the 39 week mark and ONE day away from my c-section.  I've been switching back and forth between emotions: one minute I'm really excited and the next I'm bawling in fear.  I feel a little manic today with the anticipation.  I know that everything will be okay and that a beautiful baby girl will join the world soon enough, but the anticipation is hard.  I think we have everything pretty much set to go: mom is here to be with Ruby, pre-op work done, baby clothes washed, sorted, thank you cookies baked, bags packed.  

Tomorrow morning we will meet our newest little girl for the first time.  

Wow.

Instagram: Days of Three

It's only days now that our little family of three will become a family of four.  You'd think that I'd be kicking back with my feet up knowing that things will get pretty crazy when we have a new little one here.  But, instead I am trying to prepare as best I can, chase my toddler around, and keep the house clean and organized.  Still, I'm trying to savor the things that we do together, especially with Ruby.  I know that we'll still get to do these things after baby girl is here, but I also know that some of the activities may change or I'll be a more preoccupied to really savor the experiences.  So, I thought I'd post a few of our recent activities straight from my Instagram feed.  Some of the pics I didn't end up posting to Instagram, but I still edited them with the filters.

Hanging with friends with singlets: I will become the mom of two before many of my friends. Guess I'll need to learn how to hold both of them at the same time.  Love these mamas and their littles!

Cooking with Ruby: she loves to help in the kitchen.  She'll wear her apron and insist that I wear mine. We're make nachos here and she only ate a couple tomatoes in the process.

Playing in the rain with daddy: This was a super fun activity for daddy and Ruby.  It was cold and raining, but Ruby asked Noa if he would take her outside.  They bundled up and were outside for about 30 minutes.  Ruby jumped in puddles and looked at worms with dad.  Oh, and see those rain boots?  They have frogs on the toes and she is very proud of them.

Bathroom preggo pic: 38 weeks!

Playing at the park: how will I keep up with two kiddos??  Thankfully the second one won't walk for awhile.  Blondie here did try to do an olympic maneuver by going head first down the slide.  You've never seen a 9-months-pregnant girl run so fast in her life in order to catch her at the bottom.  I'm sure it was an amusing site for the few people also there.  One guy even said to me, "nice catch."

Cookies: when will I have time to make them?  I'm thinking late at night or during naps, although I foresee mama (me) needing to nap then too - if, I can get the kiddos on the same napping schedule (fingers crossed!).  These are for the nurses' station.  They are now individually wrapped and in a basket ready to go (see, I'm trying to be prepared).

Maternity Photos: Baby Two

Since Jess was in town this past weekend, we thought it would be a great idea to get in some maternity photos.  We did, however, forget to account for Murphy's Law, which translates to: the one day you have set aside for maternity photos, it will be rainy, cold, and gloomy outside (while the rest of the non-avilable days are beautiful).  So, we had to get creative.  We couldn't go outside, but the natural lighting is best even if it wasn't ideal.  We couldn't really just do inside pics since the lighting in our house, natural or otherwise, is not very good.  So we improvised by opening the slider door and attempting to get a few pictures with whatever natural light we could (thankfully it wasn't actively raining then).  It was a pretty random set up, but Jess, being the creative one that she is, was able to get some great pics.  It was also nice that we were able to get these around the 36 week mark, which was when I wanted to get a belly shot anyway. 

Here are some of my favorites, in no particular order:

34 Weeks!

I'm hanging in there at 34 weeks pregnant.  Thankfully, I am able to plug through most of the day without annoying pregnancy ailments, although the evenings are still pretty uncomfortable.  Ruby has recently started to have sleeping issues and sometimes I wonder if she realizes that changes are ahead for our family.  Or, it could just be a stage.  Not sure, but we'll see.  It was wonderful to have family in town recently to give me a bit of a break from picking her up and chasing her around (more about that soon) and give this pregnant lady some time to just rest.  Yes, I still have to take daily naps in order to function, so my energy level continues to be low, but doable since I typically sleep when Ruby does.  I feel HUGE, although I know I'm not.  This baby is a mover and she loves to dance when I'm trying to sleep.  Thanks, baby.  Guess I won't be getting any sleep after she's here if this is an indication of her energy level.

Anyway, here I am with baby girl at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma.

Super Weekend

It really was a super weekend.  First, some of my local friends threw me a sweet little "sprinkle" for the upcoming baby.  It was held at a local coffee shop and we had the most amazing strawberry cake, fancy coffees, and laughing about name ideas.  The ladies even voted on their favorite name as a group (shhh…I'm not telling yet…since we are still undecided).  Baby girl and I received some very thoughtful gifts and I felt so loved by my friends. This little one is lucky to be born into such a welcoming community of people!

Oh, and if you are wondering what we are all holding, they are chocolate bar favors that say "she."  They were super cute and lately I'll take as much chocolate as I can.

The next day was Sunday, but not just any Sunday….SUPERBOWL Sunday and the hometown heroes, the Seattle Seahawks, were playing the Denver Broncos in NY.  We hosted some (and by "some" I mean around 25) of our friends at our house.  Everyone arrived decked out in Seahawks gear…the 12th man* was in our living room for sure.  This wasn't a typical Sunday, for sure.

I didn't get a ton of photos, since I was watching the game and wrangling Ruby, but here are a few I collected throughout the event.

We had a halftime football game outside:

Ruby got into the spirit, even if she isn't smiling for the camera.

There was a surprise birthday cake at halftime too.  Mmmm..cake….

Most, but not all, of the crowd represented here:

Sorry for the blur on some of these photos…they are iPhone pics, so the quality isn't great, but you get the idea.  The Hawks ended up winning by a landslide, which kept everyone's spirits high throughout the day.  I'm glad we got to share the momentous occasion with some of our local besties. Oh, and no, we aren't forgetting our Patriots (who are still #1 for Team Juloa), but the hometown team comes second in our books.  What a treat to be here when they won and won big.  Go Hawks!

*for those of you unfamiliar with this term, read all about it here

32 Weeks

Both baby and I are healthy and doing well.  She is still quite the mover and kicks me all day.  I'm still really tired, but the 3rd trimester nausea is gone.  I'm feeling pretty bonded with this baby.  Ruby and I talk about her a lot, we read our baby books, go for walks and tell her what we see.  It's a pretty fun stage, even if it is uncomfortable.  We are still discussing a name - hopefully we'll decide soon, as we are running out of time.  Noa took my pic today before we both had to leave, so I thought his suggestion of standing in front of the door was appropriate.  :)  

Pregnancy, Round 2

I'm going to give you fair warning before reading the post: it may come off as a whiny, hormonally-driven pregnancy post. In some ways, it probably is, but it's reality and it's kind of refreshing to write about what life is like for us, bad or good.

I haven't blogged a lot about this pregnancy, but it's time that I do.  When I found out that I was pregnant, I was really excited.  It was something Noa and I had talked about and we were hoping to get pregnant before moving overseas.  It was fun to experience this excitement this time around since I was more shocked/surprised/nervous when I found out I was pregnant with Ruby.  This should have been my first red flag: this time around would be different.  Vastly different. 

Early ultrasound pic of baby Hammer, number two!

First, there was the morning sickness.  I definitely had morning sickness with Ruby, but it wasn't consistent.  I had good days and bad days.  I was pretty active then, running and exercising (ironically, I remember that I didn't want to get fat while Noa was deployed so I tried to stay very active), but the morning sickness often put a kink in my workout plans since I would get sick mid-workout.  This time morning sickness looked completely different.  I felt sick EVERY EVENING for weeks.  It was kind of annoying because I could function pretty well during the day, but as soon as it was evening, I was basically a worthless heap on the couch.  It was frustrating for me because I was not being my usual productive self.  

Thankfully this only lasted for just over a month.  I still got nauseated here and there, but overall I was able to begin to function in the evenings.  But, then the next new phase began…the dreaded pregnancy pudge.  Many of my second-time-around mommy friends told me to expect to show early on with any subsequent pregnancies, but I think I secretly expected to be the exception to the rule.  With Ruby, it took forever to "pop" so I figured that with me being a smaller person, the same would be true again.  Those thoughts went out the window when I started wearing maternity clothes right as I entered my second trimester.  Those elastic waist pants were a godsend!  The evenings started to get difficult again, not because of morning sickness, but because it seemed like I was so bloated and huge.  My yoga pants also became a solid staple.  And then, the belly became pretty evident and I had to wear looser clothing since I hadn't made the official pregnancy announcement.  This pregnancy is definitely playing out differently - look at how my 30 week belly pics compare!

 

Photo on the left: 30 weeks pregnant with Ruby (such a little bump!), photo on the right: 30 weeks pregnant with baby number two (whoa there, major bump alert!)

I'm within the normal range for weight gain, although I really feel BIG.  It's definitely harder for me to get around as the extra weight/belly seems to make things harder and slightly more painful.  Plus, this time around I'm chasing a toddler, who enjoys climbing all over me, requests that I sit on the floor with her, and insists on me carrying her whenever possible.  So - I've been dealing with pregnancy pains that I just didn't have before, like a sore back, hurting neck, legs falling asleep, etc.  Some days I feel like I'm 80 years old.

Preparations for baby number two have been easier, since we have a lot of things saved from Ruby.  The bonus to having another girl is that I can reuse many of the clothes that Ruby wore (minus the stuff that has mystery stains that never came out or out of season things).  This baby will only be living in Washington for a few months, so we aren't even setting up a nursery in this house for her.  She'll sleep in a Pack N'Play in our room and I've purchased some cheap Ikea furniture to hold her clothes and other necessities until we move and give her a proper room.  It's a little sad, since I really enjoyed putting Ruby's room together, but it just doesn't make sense for our situation.  So, I am mentally making plans for a future nursery and scanning Pinterest for ideas.  I'm hoping for a basic (maybe even white) room in our future home in Spain for this one so that I can do a "white with brights" style nursery.  I guess we'll wait and see.

And then there's other preparations: explaining this to our firstborn.  Obviously, she doesn't quite understand all that involved with gaining a sibling, but we try to talk about it a lot.  Ruby has baby dolls that she loves, so I use that as a way to talk about the soon-to-be baby sister.  Since she also loves books, I found one that she seems to understand.  It's quickly become a favorite in our house.  We read this at least three times a day, so I pretty much have it memorized by now.  I hope to get her some more big sister books that are age-appropriate in the very near future.

A positive side to this whole second pregnancy is being more relaxed in general.  I pretty much know what to expect, although I still ask Noa (and Google) questions to make sure I'm not too relaxed ("hey, it's cool if I eat this, right?  Wait, what am I allowed to take for a headache again?").  I'm not as nervous about the doctor's appointments and I've decided to undergo a repeat c-section, so at least I know what's involved this time (plus I won't be as exhausted from labor this time around!).  For a planning girl like me, a scheduled c-section is huge blessing. Now, I know how long I have to complete my to-do list, pending this little one doesn't decide to make a showing on her own time.  Yikes - that would throw me for a loop!

This third trimester has probably been the most challenging.  Beside the adjustment of working outside the home to working as a stay-at-home mom, it's been a physical struggle of sorts.  There are the new aches and pains as mentioned earlier from toddler wrangling, but worse is the overall loss of energy.  I'll admit that I've always been a sleeper, but these past few weeks (especially with the holidays) have sapped my energy levels dry.  I nap every day because I. have. to.  Seriously, I cannot keep my eyes open.  I wish I could use that time to accomplish things, especially since Ruby is sleeping.  It would be the perfect time to check off some house projects/to-dos or practice Spanish or sort baby clothes, but no, instead I'm snoozing away trying to ready myself for round two of the day.  This little baby is very active - kicking, dancing, swimming throughout the day - so I'm pretty sure that's why I'm so tired.  If it's any indicator what her temperament will be like, I guess I should stock up on sleep now.

Oh, and don't get me started on third trimester nausea.  That was a total surprise.  Definitely not cool.

Basically this pregnancy has totally thrown me for a loop.  It's not at all what I expected or how I expected my body to adjust.  I'm told (again, by my wise mom friends) that it's normal to have vastly different pregnancies, which means I'm not a total weirdo.  I am trying to adjust my expectations and enjoy the moments that are fleeting.  Even now as I type this up, I'm feeling lots of kicks.  I know those won't last much longer, so I'll just take a moment to enjoy them….even if that means I need to sleep in a few more minutes in the morning.  Ruby won't mind waiting, right?

Halloween 2013

We continued our tradition of hosting our Halloween open house this year with our Care Group friends and kids.  We had almost 30 people at our house this year.  It's always pretty crazy, but oh so fun to see everyone dressed up and having fun.  I tried to get photos of every family, but Ruby was being Clingy-McClingerson with all the excitement and flurry of people.  She was not really a huge fan of the crowds and even less of a fan of some of the teens coming to trick-or-treat at our house with scary masks.  We did take her next door to visit with our sweet neighbors for a little, but mostly she stayed inside and hung out with me (Julie).

This year I wanted to go all out and use as many of the decorations that I could.  I was pretty happy with the results.  Here's the mantle:

Living room wall...it came out blurry.  Bummer.

Yes, I made use of Ruby's recent artwork from daycare.

I turned Ruby's train table into a little area for the kiddos to color.  I had purchased a few mylar balloons and they were pretty popular with the kiddos.

A few little Halloween touches on the bookshelf.  There's still some candy left over from last night, so every time I walk by here, I tend to grab some.  Hey, I'm pregnant - it's for the baby, of course.

Again, this is not a great photo (thanks to Clingy McCingerson), but here was the food table.

This year we decided to go with a family costume theme.  We picked Ruby's favorite book, "Goodnight, Gorilla" by Peggy Rathman.  Ruby was the gorilla (obviously), Noa was Joe, the Zookeeper, and I was the wife.  We even included a few other little props from the story, like the mouse with the banana and the keys.  Overall, Ruby did well with her costume, although she only kept her hat on for about an hour.  Oh well, I thought it came out pretty cute overall.

And here's some of our friends (I love that all the adults dressed up too!!) - can you guess who they are?

There was one other big event on Halloween and that was our big gender reveal.  I wore this shirt to work to let everyone know that we are having another GIRL!  We are so excited!!

I am 20 weeks and baby girl is doing great!  Our recent ultrasound showed a healthy baby girl who was really active!