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:

Catching Up (February)

Since I last blogged, we've had guests here at the Hammer house, including Noa's mom and Anya, his sister.  It was wonderful to have them here to help with Ruby (now that I'm super pregnant and need lots of breaks!) and allow me to rest a little more than I typically get to.  Plus, it's always nice to have family be a part of our every day lives here.  Being far away from family is probably one of the hardest parts of living the military lifestyle.  I love our life and the adventures that come with it, but it's always refreshing to spend time with family members.  

Ruby loved having her "ama" (Grandma) and "auntie" Anya around.  She didn't show much reserve or shyness at all when they first arrived, which is a big milestone from her, since this happens with most people, family or not.

Ruby loved playing games with Anya.  Auntie Anya taught her how to build bigger, taller block houses and other fun structures. 

I took the ladies downtown for lunch and shopping one freeeeeezing day.

 Of course, Ruby had to push the stroller for part of the time - it's one of her favorite things to do.  Her eyes now just barely peek over the top!

Checking out Ama's new light-up sneakers.  Fancy!

Anya bought Ruby this really cute wooden cookie set for her play kitchen, but Ruby didn't quite understand the difference between the "frosting" and the "cookie" pieces.  So, we decided to make real cookies and practice frosting them.  Ruby was a natural and loved using the sprinkles.

Okay, I'll admit it - I might have frosted a few of these.

We visited the glass museum in Tacoma (yes, we are crazy for bringing a toddler to a glass museum).  Apparently the displays were so thrilling for Ruby that she ended up falling asleep in Ama's arms.  This was just too precious!

Anya and Noa were able to get away and check out the city one day.  The two of them hit many of the local landmarks, including the Space Needle where the obligatory tourist photo was a must.

Soon after grandma and Anya left we had a brief day of snow.  It really was brief…it lasted only several hours before it all melted away.  

We have some wonderful friends here in WA who will soon be adding to their family through adoption.  Their two boys will be coming here all the way from Ethiopia!  Our Care Group wanted to celebrate and support them, so we dedicated one of our meetings to them.  I made the cookies and we also had Ethiopian coffee, decorations, and a fruit try in the shape of the country's flag.  We played games and shared updates on our lives.  It was a fun, low-key night and the cookies were a hit!

Our dogs, who now play second fiddle to Ruby and baby-to-be recently had surgery (dentals) and did great!  I was looking over the paperwork and noticed under Sadie's name that something was listed as a "geriatric" test.  Wow, how fast time flies.  She's already ten years old and will be eleven in May (Gunnar will be turning nine this year).  These dogs have been through so much and continue to be a delight in my life, even on the days that I can't give them all the attention they deserve.  I'm so glad they made it through the procedures smoothly and are back to their normal selves.  Oh, and Ruby was super excited to pick them up at the end of the day.  When the vet tech brought them out, she (Ruby) squealed in delight.  It melted my heart.

We celebrated Valentine's weekend with our dear Apostles.  Spending time with them is always a breath of fresh air and it was awesome to have the whole family here.

The kids did great together - you never know how it's going to be with a couple of toddlers, but overall, they played really well.

Puddle jumping!  They had such a blast, but were soaked up to their knees afterwards!

We had to turn their seats forward facing in the rental and it was pretty fun to watch them enjoy this new point of view.  When the middle seat was up, you could see their little eyes peeking up over the top.  Adorable!

Also, you can kind of tell how wet they got by looking at Ruby's pants and sneakers.  We stripped them down as soon as we got home and put them in dry clothes.

I'll have more pics to share of their visit in the next post, but these were the ones I was able to quickly download off my phone.  Anyway, as you can see, things have been busy here, in spite of baby-to-be only weeks away from arrival.  I'm trying to slow down, especially since I've had more aches and pains, but I also want to try to get in all the fun stuff before I really need to slow down with a newborn at home!

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?

My January Cure

One of the websites/blogs I follow pretty regularly, Apartment Therapy, does this yearly "event" in January, called The January Cure.  Basically it's a plan to help organize and clean out your home in order to start the new year off right.  I've always wanted to participate in the Cure, but with work and other commitments, it just seemed unrealistic.  This year, I'm doing my own form of The January Cure, but I think part of my ambition is really just pregnant-lady nesting, in addition to wanting to clean and organize my home.  I'm not following the AT schedule, but getting tips and ideas from them.  I did make a master list, as suggested on their site.  It's a ridiculous list - about two pages long.

My goal is to try to get most of these items done before the end of the month, but with a toddler running around and my 3rd-trimester energy being pretty much depleted on some days, that will be a challenge. Still, I want to prep the house as much as possible before baby girl arrives.  Technically I still have two months before she should be here, but just in case…I want to be ready.  Well, as ready as I can be.