Weeks 19-21

Blurry photo from Wednesday--21 weeks, 4 days

Poor, poor second child!

Pregnancy symptoms include sciatic pain (which goes away if I don't strain myself exercising, or if I do yoga), extreme exhaustion (but that has more to do with Gabby than Artoo--see below), frequent urination, and hunger.  It's all I can do some days to get enough food in me.

We had Artoo's anatomy scan on July 2, and everything looked great.  My OB was very happy with the scan and all of the pictures we managed to get.  The first tri blood work also looked great, so we know that Artoo is as healthy as the (extensive) tests can indicate.

Here he is!!  He's looking at my bladder in the one on the bottom.

He is also a mover and shaker.  I've read that you feel more movement sooner in second (and more) pregnancies since the uterus is stretching earlier, so it could be attributed to that, but he definitely lets me know that he is in there.  I get the most movement after I eat, before bed, and at wake-up, and they are all very clearly baby.  Brian and Gabby both have been able to feel him from the outside (Gabby looked at me with big eyes when he kicked her one night and said "whoa!"--it was super cute).  He's head down right now, and most of my movements are low, so I assume he's head-butting my bladder a ton.  Even during the anatomy scan, the tech mentioned that he kept looking at my bladder.  I wish he'd get a new obsession, but I guess there really isn't that much to look at in there!

Now to Gabby

This sums up the time we've had with Gabby.  She got her very first black eye from a kid at daycare.  It was an accident, but it looked terrible!

Gabby has been having a tough time lately.  She hasn't been going down at bedtime easily at all (it often takes at least 1.5 hours to get her down instead of the 10 minutes it used to take), and has been waking up progressively earlier every day (we're now at 6:30--this from the kid who slept 12 hours straight for 2 years no problem).  We thought she might be scared of the dark, but a nightlight seems to be doing no good.  Now we suspect separation anxiety.  She has had a lot of changes lately--baby brother coming, she moved to a new daycare room with new teachers, and I work 3 nights a week--and it seems to be expressing itself when we try to get her to bed.  It's been really difficult--Brian actually stayed in her room from 10:30-3:00 one night (he did fall asleep on her floor at some point, so it probably wouldn't have been that long, but he shouldn't have to be there at all).  And another morning she woke me up at 4:30.  I brought her into bed with me, and she went back to sleep for a bit, but I sure didn't!  As you can imagine, none of us are very happy about this.  And we also have no idea what to do, except give her time to get over it.  So this is why I'm completely exhausted; and what makes it worse is working until 9:20 Monday-Wednesday.  I can nap during the day if I need to (I don't start until 2:00), but napping has always made me more tired, so I really hate doing it.  Plus, it eats into my prep/grading time (not to mention chores--our house is a mess).  I really have no idea what to do except wait for her anxiety to ease.

We have fun, too!  This is from Father's Day

Here she is driving the train at Fairytale Town.

 I assure you, she loved the zoo carousel, and asked to go again.  Despite the fear on her face during this movie!

See, I told you she liked it!

I bought her a monkey, and she insisted on getting a picture with it!  She calls the baby "monkey George" (her name for Curious George) and the mom "monkey George mommy"

 
We've been really busy over the past few weeks.  We went to our friend Charlotte's birthday party, and had a great time.  We actually got there as the party was winding down and stayed to have dinner for Chris's birthday.  Brian went a bit picture crazy.  You've been warned.

Kate floating along.

Gabby stealing some icing.

She's got nothing on icing-thief Phoebe, though!

Samantha and Charlotte swimming.

Gabby was hesitant to get into the water, but loved being splashed!

And she appreciated the noodle.

The birthday-sharing girls!

"Splashing!!!"

Phoebe showing no fear.

Gabby did eventually jump in to me.

And she had a great time.

So excited!

Going

in!

Floyd and Charlie floating along.

Gabby got tired of the pool and decided to take a drive.

The big boys had fun in the bounce house! First Chris...

then Lawrence took a turn!

They did have to stop when the kids wanted back in.

Gabby loved the bounce house!

See?

She also wanted a crack at the hoop.

Almost there!

Maybe just a little too little.

It was way more fun when the other kids came in!

The Lin/Frickeys in the pool!

No one show this picture to Justin's mom; poor Karen will never hear the end of it!

We also went to LA to visit Brian's family.  We went with his mom to the Aquarium of the Pacific, and the next day joined his sister, brother-in-law, and their kids at the beach.  We don't have many pictures from the aquarium, because Brian left his camera in Sacramento (on purpose), and cell phone cameras suck.  We did have a really great time with everyone, though!  Gabby was kind of meh on the aquarium, but she LOVED the beach!  She and Brian had a great time playing in the waves and on the sand.  We thought it would actually be the other way around (love the aquarium, be indifferent about the beach), but she really surprised us.  I think it helped that cousins Audrey and Olivia were at the beach with us, and she was able to see them having fun.  The 3 of them were a riot together, and when Audrey and Olivia stayed with us at grandma's that night it was so much fun.  Gabby loves her big cousins!

On the plane ride to LA

A rare moment not in the water (and stealing my chair!).  That was a shocker, after she hated the pool!

That's more like it!

With Uncle Joe, Audrey, and Olivia

Back at Grandma Romo's house.  The older girls played Disney Princess Yahtzee.  Gabby stole the pieces.

We didn't do anything fun for the 4th of July because we are still in the middle of prepping Gabby's new room.  The room is completely cleared out now, and Brian spent the weekend of the 4th painting the walls a really light pink, and the ceiling white.  He's going to work on getting the doors painted this weekend, and hopefully we can go and buy her furniture.  We've decided to get her a trundle bed to grow into (sleepovers!), which also means that instead of recycling Brian's old dresser and nightstand, she's going to be getting brand new ones.  That was Brian's decision, not mine!  She seems really excited about moving over (although that may be another stress adding to her separation anxiety), and OK with giving baby brother her old bedroom, but we'll see how she reacts when everything is done and she really has to move!

We've also given away all of our baby girl clothes.  We are definitely 2 and through (and would have been even if Artoo turned out to a be a girl), so we have no more use for girl clothes.  Most of the baby clothes went to one of Brian's co-workers who is due in September, but the older girl clothes went to a different co-worker and to our friends Robbie and Judy for their little girls.  I also set aside a box for a friend of mine who has a son born when Gabby was born, and is now having a little girl.  She's going to send me a box of her son's baby clothes in return.  I like this giving and receiving thing where we all help each other out!  Plus, it's really nice to know that Gabby's old clothes are going to people I know and not just to the Salvation Army to be bought by a random person.  I really wasn't sad at all to see them go to such good homes.

We have more busy times ahead, with a Yosemite trip (camping with a toddler--oh boy!), and a trip to St. Louis to see my family.  After that, we should be done with traveling until (well) after Artoo is born!

Weeks 17 and 18

Lots of movement!  Mr. Artoo is definitely a kicker and roller.  I did start feeling Gabby this early, but her movements were less consistent.  It may just be that I know what I'm looking for now, but I have the feeling Artoo is going to give us a run for our money!  I feel him when I'm lying on my back, or when I'm sitting and relaxing.  He loves when I drink juice or eat something sugary (or maybe hates it--I can't read his mind).  I haven't felt him while I've been up moving around, just when I've been quiet.  So he's either asleep, or I'm so distracted that I don't realize he's moving in there.  I have to say, it's weird not being completely anxious for the anatomy scan.  With Gabby, we had no idea what we were having, so all of my posts are impatiently counting down to when we found out.  Now we know he's a boy and is as healthy as can be, so there's no pressure!  For the record, Artoo's anatomy scan is scheduled for July 2.

As you saw last week, there is absolutely no doubt that I am pregnant!  I had the first person who didn't already know ask me this past weekend at a birthday party when I was due.  It helps when I wear maternity clothes--they tend to accent the bump--but even in non-maternity clothes (which are becoming few and far between), it's still pretty obvious, particularly from the side.

I have to say, this second trimester in the summer thing kind of sucks.  I'm really glad to not be in my third trimester right now, but with Gabby, I was in my first trimester during the summer, so I hardly noticed anything.  Now I just can't take the heat at all!  I do my best to stay hydrated when it's really hot, but it's hard to remember to drink water when you're chasing around a toddler!

Only symptoms have been some indigestion and the ever present sciatic pain.  My hips sometimes feel like they are being pulled apart, and I've had several instances of lightening crotch (the name really says it all) and round ligament pain.  The yoga and walking (overall just being active) either helps or hurts all of the pains, depending on the day and how much I push myself.  The yoga does remind me to watch my posture, which does keep things more in alignment, so I'm glad to have those DVDs.  I'm really tired, but Gabby has been getting up before 7:00, and I rarely get home before 9:30 from work, so I'm having long days.

Work is going well.  I definitely made the right decision to drop lecture.  The 4 hours of lab is plenty.  I really enjoy both of the labs, and haven't found any students who make me want to rip my hair out yet (there's always 1 or 2 by this point)!  I feel badly for the person who took over the lecture--it's her first semester teaching (she's only TA'ed before), and she's not only teaching my lecture, she's teaching another prof's lab class!  That's a ton of work for your first time, especially during the summer!  I helped her out by grading some papers for her yesterday.  She's a sweet person, and I was happy to do it for her!

We're making progress on the room switch.  Brian has the computer and desk moved over, so all that's really in there is the treadmill and a cat tree.  Those should be cleared out this weekend, and then we can prepare to paint.  We haven't made a final decision on color yet, but it will either be a light pink on all walls, or white on most walls with a dark pink accent wall.  Brian found some Brave (Disney princess:  Merida) sheets online for cheap, so we have sheets for her big girl bed, but no big girl bed!  Gabby gets to use the dresser and nightstand that used to be in the guest room, and we may move her chair over.  We're looking into art tables for her room, too, so she has a place to color in there.  I think she's going to love it!  Although I'm not sure we're ready to transition to a big girl bed!!  She's gotten better about going to sleep, but I'm sure we'll have many nights of leading her back to bed several times before she finally gets the point.

Gabby is such a cute little person now.  Since I don't see her on M-W nights, I keep her home with me until around 9:00 and then take her to daycare in time for her second breakfast.  She loves to go into our room, turn on the radio, and have a little dance party.  Sometimes she'll put on her fairy wings and dance around.  It is awesome.  She's way into both Frozen and Brave, and will also watch Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.  She still loves Yo Gabba Gabba, and won't go to sleep unless all 5 of the stuffed Gabbas we have are in bed with her.  She likes to hold her Nubby and paci when she sleeps, but she hardly ever puts them in her mouth.  She now needs a nightlight (the dinosaur one I put together when we were doing her nursery) to go to sleep, and definitely requires less sleep than before.  We used to get 12 hours out of her at night with a 2.5 hour nap.  Now, we get 11 hours at night and a 1.5 hour nap.  I guess I should feel lucky that we get a nap at all (not to mention that those are 11 straight hours with no wake-up)!  She has her share of terrible two moments (that make me wonder what the heck we're getting ourselves into by having another one), but she's really a very fun little girl, and I love her.

Weeks 15 and 16

16 weeks, please excuse the poor quality!

As you can see, I've definitely "popped" with this little guy!  I went back and read when I was pregnant with Gabby, and I thought I had popped at this point, but the pictures from then show that I very clearly hadn't!  It took until around Week 20 or so for strangers to really notice the belly with Gabby, but I was asked this morning if I was pregnant (it was one of the teachers at Gabby's daycare, so I didn't mind).  Actually, way back in Week 13 at the end of my spring class, one of my students said she knew I was pregnant because of my cute little bump!  I think she was just crazy, but now, as Brian said the other night, "It's starting to look like you have a baby in there!"  It's all still wardrobe-dependent, of course, but more often than not, it looks like I do have a baby in there, and not that I've eaten too many cheeseburgers!

No really terrible symptoms, except that the sciatica is back with a vengeance.  For those who don't know, your sciatic nerve runs from your spine down through your butt to your leg.  When it gets pinched (as is happening right now with my ever-expanding uterus and growing baby), it causes a burning pain in your rear.  I literally have a pain in my ass right now.  It's all I can do some days to sit for long enough periods of time to get anything done.  I remember this with Gabby too, and the only thing that really helps is regular exercise with yoga thrown in and sleeping with a pillow between my knees.  I do have to be careful with the exercise--if I walk without stretching (before and after), the pain is 10x worse than if I hadn't walked at all!  I usually try to walk on the treadmill and then do a yoga DVD afterwards.  It makes for long workouts, but keeps me from being in too much pain.  Fortunately, my summer schedule will allow me to keep up with this.  The only other complaints I have are the round ligament pain (from the ligaments that hold my uterus in place stretching), which is a sharp kind of stabbing pain in my sides (right more than left), and the fact that baby boy is parked on my bladder right now.

We are working on moving Gabby into what is now our office and turning her room into Artoo's room.  That means cleaning everything out of there, buying a new desk to fit in the guest room, picking out paint colors for there and Artoo's room, and eventually getting Gabby new furniture--including a big girl bed!  Brian tried to talk me into keeping Gabby in her room and putting Artoo in the office, but the office is much bigger, and Gabby is going to need a bigger room before Artoo does!  We'll deal with the jealousy over room size when the time comes.  Brian just didn't want to have to paint 2 rooms.  I don't win many arguments with him, but he let me have this one.

I start the summer semester next week, and I am so happy that I dropped the lecture!  I'll have 2 hours of downtime between labs, and I'll actually get to eat dinner and rest a bit before dealing with students again.  Plus only doing lab gives me both Thursday and Friday off every week!  At least one of those days is going to be spent grading lab reports (2/week is a lot of grading), but on the other day I can keep Gabby home and have some fun with her!  I'm not going to lie; it's been really nice not having to go to work for the past 3 weeks, but I do miss having something to do during the day.  There's only so much laundry that needs to be done, and daytime TV is terrible!

Gabby is super cute with this baby. She loves to talk about the baby inside mommy, and she lifts up my shirt to see my belly.  She gives my belly kisses sometimes, and talks about baby brother (or "baby brudder").  I know this love will change when the baby is here and taking up my attention!  She's already started transferring her loyalty to daddy instead of me.  Since birth, she's been all about mommy, but over the past few weeks, she's definitely started wanting daddy more.  I was a little hurt at first, but then I realized how much more free time I'm going to have and I got over it.  The only bad thing is that she now wants me to put her to bed.  That's been fine this week, but starting next week, I have 8 weeks of not being home at bedtime Monday-Wednesday.  It should be a very loud transition.  Poor Brian.

I'm proud of myself for posting semi-regularly, but we'll see how well I keep this up when classes start again.

Artoo's first trimester

To end my May blogfest, here's the breakdown of little Artoo's first trimester (and a bit beyond).  Future posts will have more pictures.  I will warn that this poor second child will likely not get weekly updates like Gabby did.  He's just going to have to get over it.  I'm going to aim for once a month.

We started trying to get pregnant in August, but were unsuccessful until February.  I had actually started tracking my ovulation, because the guesswork was driving me crazy.  It wasn't hard--you have to take your temperature every morning upon wake-up and enter the data into a tracking program (I used Fertility Friend).  A rise in progesterone after ovulation causing your temperature to rise, so a sustained temperature increase means you've ovulated. I also used ovulation predictor kits (OPKs) to track the surge in luetinizing hormone (LH) that happens right before ovulation.  We were finally successful!

The next part is basically just notes I made for each week of pregnancy.  It helped to keep me from feeling too overwhelmed when I was ready to tell everyone!

Week by week:

Week 4:  + HPT on Wednesday, March 5; didn't really believe it until Friday, March 7.  Symptoms:  very upset stomach/intestines (probably the hormones--I'm hungry, but pay for it when I eat), insomnia (excitement).  Made doctor's appointment for April!

Week 5:  Symptoms: still very upset intestines, exhaustion that hits around Gabby's bedtime, sore boobs.   Lines on HPT got darker.

Week 6:  Still upset intestines, and now some nausea.  No vomiting, thank goodness!  Boobs sore and definitely getting bigger, very tired, lots of allergies (but that has nothing to do with baby). 

Week 7:  More of the same symptoms.  Met with prenatal nurse this week, up 3 lbs; got all literature and made first OB appointment!

Week 8:  Terrible nausea one day--like had to go back to bed and rest.  Thank goodness it was a Sunday.  Sore boobs still--Gabby seems to always find them with her elbow nowadays.  First OB appointment.  Saw the heartbeat!  And little one is measuring right on time for a due date of November 15.  That's what Fertility Friend predicted by my ovulation date, so that was pretty cool.  Got a referral for the non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) and set appointment for May 1.  Nausea subsided later in week.

Week 9:  Nausea seems to be gone, now I'm eating everything in sight.  Otherwise, boobs are still sore, and I still have a rumbly tummy (but at least now it doesn't hurt anymore).  Spring break this week, and Brian took Thursday off so we could eat lunch at Bouchon (fancy French place) and shop in Napa!  I do miss wine.

Week 10:  Nausea is back, and it's affecting my whole GI.  Boobs are sore; allergies are terrible.  Starting to be very uncomfortable in all of my jeans (especially in the evenings), which means bump is growing.  Got my summer hours down to labs only, so I'm much happier about that (I was doing lab-lecture-lab like last summer, but that would have been 6 straight hours on my feet.  I don't think so.).  We have the NIPT on Thursday, and I can't wait to see the baby again!

Week 11:  Great appointment for ultrasound!  The nasal bone was definitely there, and the nuchal fold measured 1.45 mm (anything under 3.00 mm is good).  Both are markers for trisomies if absent/too big, so great news.  This one moved a little more than Gabby did during her NT scan!  Got my blood drawn for the NIPT (Harmony is the brand they use), and should have results in a couple of weeks.  That's when I go public, although my family, friends here in Sac, and work already know.  Symptoms, still gurgles in the intestines and sore boobs.  Otherwise, all is well.

Week 12:  Still waiting on Harmony results.  Boobs still sore, appetite is back, though.  Entering the magical second trimester, when all is right with the world.

Week 13:  Harmony results back, no Trisomy 13, 18 or 21!  And it's a boy!!  What do I do with a boy?  We're both really excited to have one of each, but would have been equally excited to have 2 girls.  It's really bothering me that people assume we were "trying" for one of each, or when they look at Brian and say "I bet you're happy" when they find out it's a boy.  We were only ever going to have 2, and the sex of this one wasn't going to affect that decision one way or the other!  It makes me wonder what they would say if this one were a girl--"better luck next time" "so sorry"???

Week 14:  Trip to Arizona!  I way overdid it and often had cramps and a backache at night.  They disappeared by the morning and were never terrible (and no bleeding at all), but I wasn't a pleasant person during them!  Congestion pretty bad (I realized it was a cold when Brian started the same thing), which made sleeping impossible (especially since Brian was up coughing a lot).  Gabby was not sleeping well either.  At any rate, I'm exhausted!  Second trimester seems to be smoother overall, though.  At least the nausea is gone, and my boobs are less sore.  I think he's having a growth spurt, though, since I'm now an eating machine.  Best of all, I've felt him move!  It's only when I'm sitting still (mostly in the evenings), and it feels like popcorn popping in there.  Very cool!

The inevitable pregnancy comparison:
I looked back at Gabby's first trimester, and it's pretty obvious that these are very different pregnancies!  With Gabby I had some GI discomfort, but never any nausea, and even the discomfort went away fairly quickly.  Artoo gave me some days of really wicked nausea that nothing but rest helped.  Gabby also decided fairly quickly that I wasn't going to eat some of my favorite things (lamb and ranch dressing come to mind), but Artoo not only doesn't seem to care what I eat, he demands that I add more types of food!  I've been really into meat, particularly salted meats (like bacon and salami), which I would never touch before getting pregnant.  I'm also eating more fatty foods than before (but trying to keep a handle on it, since I don't want to gain too much weight).  At the airport, I even finished off Gabby's macaroni and cheese with ham in it (if you know me, you know I hate all mac and cheese except Kraft, so this is big news)!  With Gabby, I was more into spicy foods and berries.  Berries don't even sound good to me at all now!  I am still the same emotional basket case that I was when I was pregnant with Gabby.

Someone has some news

Our second child, little Artoo Romo (Romo 2--R2--Artoo--Star Wars!) is due on November 15, 2014!!  More details to follow.

Arizona trip

We took a trip to Arizona the week after my spring class ended.  We had fun, but there were some challenges that we had to overcome!

The first day there (a Tuesday), we did the Grand Canyon.  I'd been when I was in grad school (and when I was 3), but Brian never had.  We ended up having a good day.

It didn't start out as a good day, though!  Gabby acted like a 2 year old for the first hour there.

It is a spectacular sight, though.

Too bad I couldn't enjoy it at first.

She finally agreed to eat something.  That really helped a lot.

Slight view of the Colorado River.  You really need to see it in person if you haven't.

Friends again.

I did make Brian give me the camera so there was photographic evidence that he was there with us!

After we spent the day at the Grand Canyon, we made the 2 hour drive to Flagstaff (Gabby thankfully slept the whole way).  It was nice when we got there, but overnight a fire broke out about 15 miles away from the city.  The whole next day looked like this:

That's not a volcano

This was in the afternoon--in the morning, the smoke/ash were at ground level, and breathing was impossible.

We decided pretty quickly that we couldn't stay in Flagstaff.  Brian was already fighting a cold, and the ash was making his breathing (and coughing) worse.  Meanwhile, I am very much allergic to smoke.  We tried to go to the Lowell Observatory during the day, but the smoke was too bad for them to pull out the telescopes.   So after lunch, we went back to the hotel and arranged to check out the next day (Thursday--2 days early).  We decided to spend the rest of the trip in Phoenix, far away from the fire!  I will say that even though our plans were disrupted, we were still very lucky--we weren't evacuated and we didn't lose any of our belongings!

On Thursday, we headed out for Phoenix.  We made a couple of stops to break up the drive.  The first was Meteor Crater, about 40 miles from Flagstaff.  It's the first confirmed site of a meteor impact and the gold standard for all other impact craters.  We space nerds loved it!  Gabby was super well-behaved; she even made it through the movie (about 10 minutes) and when it was over asked for more!  We decided to do the hour-long rim tour with her as well, and she was a trooper.  The constant snacking probably helped!

Meteor Crater

There was quite a bit of carrying--not because she was tired, but because she was slow!

Her favorite part was looking at the rocks and playing in the dirt.

She was greatly amused by the wind (43 mph gusts!)

There's the snacking!

Here we are "at the bottom."  Really just a mock-up inside the museum.  Notice the 2 year old nose-picking stage we're in.  It was hard to get a shot in which she didn't have her finger up there!  And, yes, that's a baby bump.

We ate lunch at Meteor Crater, and then took a drive during Gabby's nap to Montezuma's Castle, a prehistoric Native American site between Flagstaff and Phoenix.  The name comes from the fact that the first Europeans assumed that the site was built by the Aztecs.  It was actually built by Sinagua culture (an offshoot of the Hohokam), and was abandoned well before Europeans arrived.

It's a pretty impressive structure set into the cliffside.

Up close.

Gabby was more interested in her "laptop."

FAR more interested!

She did finally put it down and agree to walk...for a minute anyway.

We convinced her that she didn't want to be carried using the cookie method.

We spent our last day of vacation (Friday) in Phoenix, where we went to the Children's Museum (much better than Sacramento's!), and the Science Center (about the same as St. Louis's).  This was by far Gabby's favorite day!  I have no still pictures from then, but here are some videos!  First, painting at the Children's Museum:

And now playing at the Science Center.  They had a screen where she could see herself and a bunch of tiny robots.  The robots (not very visible) jump around when she moves.  She spent at least 30 minutes playing in front of it (mainly because she could see herself on TV).

So we had a good time, but a very tiring time!  My tips for traveling with a toddler:  DON'T!!  But if you have to, get a suite (we didn't have one the first night and all ended up going to bed at Gabby's bedtime), make sure you plan snacks and mealtimes around their schedule, don't overload the day with activities, and don't mess with the sleep schedule!  Gabby is one of the easiest 2 year olds I know, and even she got really fed up with all of the disruptions (see the Grand Canyon pictures)!