4-7 weeks left!

When I was pregnant with Archer I basically just breezed through it all. Yes I had the occasional heartburn and my belly certainly got in the way, but I was by no means miserable or in pain. Pregnancy the 2nd time around is no walk in the park for me. I hurt in places that shouldn't hurt, I get heartburn just thinking about food, I have shooting nerve pains down my back and walking is not possible some evenings. That said, I still want to do it again so we can have a 3rd and maybe even a 4th kid down the road. The end result is worth all the discomfort.

I am now in my 33rd week of pregnancy. Archer was born at 37 weeks, 1 day. If this baby follows suit then I could have another little boy in less than 4 weeks! That is soon. Statistically more women go into labor during a full moon or during a snow storm. April 17th is the next full moon and coincidentally I am also going to be 37 weeks, 1 day pregnant on that particular day. Only time will tell!

During this past week I feel like Fletcher has dropped a bit. Does my belly look lower in the 2nd picture or is it just me?

(32 weeks, 1 day)

(33 weeks, 1 day)

I just need to survive the next 4-7 weeks. I can do it especially now that Archer is walking a whole lot more and is very independent. He likes to do things by himself and only asks for help if he needs/wants it. He likes to pick out his own books for us to read and if he is still hungry will hand us his bowl. The only real drawback is that he likes to walk when we are out running errands and that adds a lot of time to our outings. It's very hard to shop when Archie is pushing the cart at a nonstop pace. Oh well!

Pretty soon I will be posting pictures of Archer's newly painted room! Dave finished painting yesterday and we just need to put up the wallpaper border. I am so excited to start moving stuff into his new room and getting the baby stuff back into the nursery. I started unpacking the newborn clothing and it is all so tiny and cute. I cannot wait to dress Fletcher up in them! Soon enough.

Look who's walking!

The Life of Madison

Madison ~ 2/22/03 - 3/02/11

It has been almost two weeks and I finally feel like I can write this blog post without being maudlin and depressing. On March 2nd we had to put down our sweet cat Madison after a year of battling kidney failure. She had just turned 8 in February, but was not destined for this world for much longer after that. Fortunately this 2nd onset of her kidney failure came on fast and she did not suffer very long.

I got Madison shortly after graduating college in April 2003. I wasn't supposed to have cats in the co-op but everyone on the 3rd floor of Mich House fell in love with her and I got to keep her until moving out about 2 months later. She was super sweet from the get go, not one of those cats that you fear will claw out your eyes in your sleep. She adapted well to change, loved people, and even tolerated dogs to a certain extent. She took Archie's abuse with aplomb and would bend over backwards just to get a pat on the head. She is sorely missed, but also we are lucky just to have had her for those 8 awesome years.

Her sister Ivy seems to be taking everything in stride. She definitely wants, and gets, more attention these days. She is adjusting better than I thought, but I think she gets lonely sometimes. We are definitely not going to be getting another kitten though. Ivy and Madison tolerated each other pretty well, but I think Ivy would destroy a kitten.

To honor Madison we got a beautiful wall tile of a cat and the vet's office also made clay plaque with her paw print. She was a loved part of this family and is missed.

Name Plaques

I just finished making name plaques for Archer and his brother-to-be Fletcher. I went to Hobby Lobby and got the unfinished wood plaques and letters. After sandpapering them and painting them with acrylic paint I got to start the decoupaging! I used two different papers for each plaque and a whole lot of Mod Podge. Then I painted the letters, sealed them and attached them to the boards. I still to spray them with acrylic sealer, but this is essentially the finished product. I think they are so much fun!

10 weeks to go, or less.

In a little over 2 months we will be a 2 child household. I am still feeling pretty good relatively speaking. I have the usually heartburn, difficultly getting up, putting on shoes and socks is a chore and carrying Archie upstairs makes me feel like I've run a marathon. However, I feel like I have fairly easy pregnancies compared to what I hear from other people. I am getting very excited to meet Baby F though and cannot wait to fall in love all over again when I first lay eyes on him!

(Almost 30 weeks. Ignore the fake smile.)

Archie will be 17 months old tomorrow and I cannot believe how much he has grown and changed in his short life. Every new thing he discovers and learns is such a treat as a parent to watch. Just over the last 2 days he has started walking a lot more. He will go 10 or more feet without faltering. He also chooses to walk about 1/3 of the time compared to just once or twice per day as he had been doing for a few weeks.

Another of Archie's newer developments is to point to things he wants you to see. Before he would point to things that he wanted, but now he points out things that he thinks are interesting and wants to share with you. At the airport the other day he wanted to show me how cool the luggage carousel by pointing and smiling. I love that he wants to share his world with me!

(Sleepy boy)

We spent the last week in NJ at Grandma and Grandpa R's house. It was actually quite a relaxing trip as G & G provided 2 extra sets of very helping hands. Archie did not display any sort of anxiety towards them and Dave & I were able to spend some adult time together without worrying about him crying the whole time. In fact, we were told that he didn't cry at all after we left. We got to hang out with some of Dave's friends, eat some good food, sleep in and veg out. Thank you so much Bob and Joan for giving us the gift of date night and the letting us relax while you watched Archie!

(Family picture)

(Archie with Grandma & Grandpa)

Super excited...Finally got the carrier I wanted!

The advantage of having a second child is that you already have almost everything you need/want from the first child. You have a swing, pack n' play, high chair, car seat, crib, towels, bedding, clothing, bottles, changing table, cloth diapers, toys (lots and lots of toys), hats, socks, breast pump, Boppy, rocking chair, a decorated nursery and whatever else it is a that a baby needs. However, that doesn't mean there aren't things you would like to upgrade or never got in the first place.

Here are the things I have on Baby F's wish list.

• Graco Quattro Tour Duo
• Sony Nursery Monitor (ours is a 10 year old hand me down with LOTS of interference)
• My Baby Nest Carrier (size M also shown as M/L)
• Fisher Price Ocean Wonders Aquarium
• KidCo feeding system OR Beaba Babycook
• First Years bottle warmer
• Fisher Price Rainforest mobile

This morning I was able to take one of the higher ticket items off of my wish list though! Babysteals.com is 2 deal a day website offering all different kinds of goodies for moms, babies and pregnant women. Today they had the Ergo Sport for 45% off. Ergo baby carriers are typically $105-135 and rarely go on sale. I have wanted one of these since before Archie was born but could never justify the cost. Now I have one on the way! I cannot wait to start carrying around Archie and Baby F in this carrier. Happy day for me!

Valentine's Day 2011

Valentine's Day around here always means chocolates and flowers and for me and something sweet, but not entirely necessary for Dave. He never buys those sort of things for himself so I make it a point to do so at least on this Hallmark holiday. This year, Dave did the pregnancy sized chocolates and got me two different chocolate collections from Costco! I got him a 3 cup french press with Illy coffee, biscotti and a sampler of his favorite chocolates.

Since my idea of cooking these days is anything that takes less than 10 minutes, I decided to let Whole Foods make our dinner. I did, however, make chocolate chunk bread pudding! It was surprisingly easy and there was Kahlua in the recipe so I was all over that recipe. It was from Cooking Light too so not terribly over the top in calories. RECIPE.

I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day! I am now off to enjoy my fully caffeinated cup of coffee for the week.

Bread Pudding before toppings.

Bread Pudding after toppings!