16 weeks

According to BabyCenter.com, little PIP-2 is the size of an avocado today. :) It's hard to believe that next month at this time, I will already be halfway through this pregnancy. It has gone so fast so far. With Ayla, being pregnant was all-consuming...I thought about it every second of every day, thus making it seem like the longest 9+ months of my life. This time around, I almost have to remind myself that I'm pregnant...especially because I don't have very many symptoms, besides my expanding belly, of course. My next check-up is this Friday morning...I'll update again then.

Dean took this picture of Ayla and Makayla last night at my parents' house. Ayla adores her baby cousin. She calls her "Baby Key-ah". When they are both at Yeh-Yeh and Nai-Nai's house, she loves to help feed her and change her and while she's napping, Ayla will drag a little step stool to the pack n play and watch her sleep. She's going to be such a good big sister. :)

I think I kiss these cheeks a hundred times a day...

Blankie search

While I was pregnant with Ayla, I registered for this little blankie...we received it in the mail from her Great Aunt Laurie and loved it so much that we ordered an extra one as back up. For the past almost two years, it has worked out perfectly. When one is in the wash, I give her the other one. She has yet to realize that there are two of them. I thought I was being so smart...until I managed to lose one of them. I haven't seen it in about two months. No idea where it is. I finally decided to just order another one and if the missing one shows up (which I'm sure it will, eventually) we'll have three. Even better.

Well, turns out, this particular blankie is discontinued. I have scoured the Internet for one and have had absolutely no luck. There are newer colors and styles out now, but she'll know right away that it's different. I finally found a site that still carried them for $17...not awesome when they're originally $10, but I was desperate. After I clicked on the shipping button, the total came to a whopping $39! I don't know if it's being shipped from Egypt or what but nearly 40 bucks for a blanket the size of a notebook is a little much for me. Looks like I'm going to keep searching every nook and cranny of our house for the missing one.

When we go to pick out a blankie for our new baby, I'm buying a dozen of them.

Play-Doh

I've been trying to come up with new things to keep Ayla (and myself) busy. She's getting to the point where she can sit still for just a smidge longer than she could before. She likes to color and paint but just like anything else, it can get old after a while. I tried Play-Doh a couple months ago but she didn't want to have anything to do with it. She's a bit of a freak about getting her hands dirty...the smallest little speck of anything will send her into a frenzy of "uh-oh's" until I wipe them clean.

Earlier in the week, I had a day off so we spent part of our time over at Ping and Surina's so she could play with her cousins. Surina took out a bin of Play-Doh and various accessories and she loved it. I think it helped that she had someone to play with and show her what to do. :)

The next day, I dug out our Play-Doh at home and she still thought it was pretty cool. She wanted to keep the two colors separated though--funny because I was the same way as a kid. I used to hate when my brother would mix everything together and we'd end up with all brown Play-Doh.

Butterflies

I think I've been feeling the baby move the past few days. I just feel little flutters and taps here and there...I'm not completely sure if that's what it is or if it's my belly digesting the seven pickles I had just eaten, but if it's not, it should be happening pretty soon. :)

"I go poo-poo!"

That's Ayla's quote...not mine. I just wanted to mark this on the calendar--she told us twice today that she had to use the potty! The second time, her diaper was completely dry! We are so proud of her! We've been telling her for a while now to let us know when she needs to go and today it must have clicked. She won't say "pee-pee" or "potty" though...it's "I go poo-poo." Whatever works, I guess.:)

Pickles, please

I always thought craving pickles while pregnant was just one of those myths...turns out, I crave pickles. All. The. Time. Dill, bread & butter, I don't care what flavor...they're all awesome. I'm pretty sure I could live off of them right now. With Ayla, I didn't necessarily crave anything in particular; I just wanted more of what I already liked--sweets. This time around, I'm not too interested in chocolate or ice cream...very weird thing for me to say, I know. Maybe it's a boy?

Coloring and feeding ducks

Ayla loves to color right now...it's fun to sit there and scribble along with her sometimes. :)

This afternoon, after her nap, we met our friends, Molly and Piper to feed ducks. I've been wanting to take Ayla for a long time but just didn't know where to go. We arrived with two huge loaves of bread and figured it would be a nice, leisurely stroll around the lake while we threw pieces of bread at cute little ducks. Didn't exactly happen that way. There were way more geese than ducks. Those suckers are big. We were a little afraid of them so we'd throw a few pieces out and when the geese would get too close, we'd freak out and run while pushing our strollers. This went on for a good 20-30 minutes. I'm positive we were a ridiculous sight. Two grown women screaming and running away from a bunch of birds while flinging chunks of bread. After a while, we found a good spot where we didn't have to bail every couple minutes. Good times. :)

14-week belly

I can't believe I'm posting these. Little PIP #2 (Peterson-In-Progress), this is all for you. :)

Last night, Ayla sat next to me on the couch and flipped through every page of all three blog books that I had printed. It was so fun to look at all of her old pictures and eventhough she doesn't quite understand it all, I think she enjoyed it. It further proved that I need to continue to blog and post all these pictures. Someday, our kids will appreciate it.

9.12.10

This weekend, our favorite people from Des Moines came to visit! Dustin took Jayce to the Husker football game (he is almost 9-years old...the last time he went to a game, he was only 2! I think he had a blast with his dad) and Jamie stayed here and watched the game with our family. That night, Grandma and Grandpa took Ayla (THANK YOU!) and Jayce went to his grandparents' as well so the four of us could go out to dinner. We went to Cheeseburger in Paradise...it was sooo good. And I had the best virgin strawberry daiquiri...who needs rum anyways? We had a fun night...it's been a while since Dean and I have been out to eat with friends. :)

Preggo-wise, things are still going well...I'm still waiting for my energy to return, but there are some days here and there when I don't feel like a complete waste. My appetite is great for breakfast and lunch but come dinnertime, most of the time, I don't feel like eating much of anything. Maybe it's because I eat way too much for the other two meals. :) I'm so so so anxious to feel the baby move. I felt Ayla at 16 weeks...I'll be 14 weeks tomorrow, so it should be soon. I'm posting a "belly" picture at 12 weeks. These photos aren't as fun as when my belly gets nice and round later on, but I wanted to be sure to include them in the blog because I know I'll continue to make books out of my entries and I want to have them in there. Just like last time, I'm planning on taking a picture every two weeks. It's already difficult to get dressed. I don't want to wear anything tight because it just looks like I've been eating too many french fries...but I'm not quite ready for maternity clothes either. I have a fight with my closet every morning. Sigh.

12 weeks

I took these pictures of Ayla as a gift for my mom's birthday...we cropped them and put them in a 3-picture frame. It turned out really cute!

Go Big Red!

This evening is the Huskers' first game of the season and we're excited! I couldn't wait to put Ayla's new Husker jersey on...I realize it's HUGE (it's a girls' size 10/12...she'll probably be wearing it for the next decade) but it's super cute on her and it was only $2.50, so I couldn't not get it. I need to find better shoes to match though...the only ones that even came close to being okay were her sparkly black shoes. Oh well...better than nothing.

She has been practicing her game-time cheers: "Go Big Red!", "Touchdown!" and "Go Huskers!" which comes out sounding more like "Go Oscars!" Close enough for now. :)

Guess what?

Turns out, we came home from St. John with more than a tan and a suitcase full of sand.

I'm pregnant!!!

I went to my 12-week appointment this afternoon and was able to hear the baby's heartbeat. I forgot what an amazing sound that is...and reassuring too. My doctor said the baby was moving all over the place and kicking away. "A very active baby" were her exact words. She said that with Ayla and turns out, it's still true. I'm due March 15th...very exciting because I wanted a spring baby. :)

We were really surprised it happened so quickly having JUST gone off the pill before going to St. John. With Ayla, it took us several months. I kind of, sort of suspected that I might be...but I didn't know if I was just looking for symptoms and willing them to be present. The major thing is how incredibly tired I have been. In the afternoons while I'm driving home, I can barely keep my eyes open. And once Ayla and I get home, all I want to do is sleep...too bad that's not an option. Maybe I feel more exhausted because this time around, I'm chasing around a toddler and not just sitting on the couch with my bowl of ice cream and Ellen. Other than that though, I'm feeling great.

To backtrack a bit, here's how and when I found out--my cycles are totally wacky if I'm not on the pill so I figured I'd wait a few extra days to take a pregnancy test. Dean was in Des Moines for work on Tuesday July 13...before I went to bed, I thought, "What the heck...I'm just going to take one and see." I took it and briefly saw it creep over the test window and didn't see anything so I thought it was going to be negative. It's supposed to take 2-3 minutes so I set it on the ground and waited. I glanced down at it and did a double-take. There was a plus sign! I couldn't believe it. It was too late to call Dean and I knew I wanted to tell him in person when he came home the next day. Just to make sure, I took another one the next morning...still positive. In the picture below, the bottom test is more faint, but it's still there.
The next morning, I had to tell someone...so I told Ayla. :) I asked her if she wanted to have a new baby in our family. She said no. I know she doesn't understand it but hopefully in the next several months, we can talk to her about it more. Since then, she will now pat my belly when I ask her where the baby is and she has even kissed "the baby" a couple of times without prompting. Very cute. I couldn't figure out how I wanted to tell Dean. I ended up wrapping the positive pregnancy test in a gift bag. When he got home, he was still on a work-call so I had to wait until he was done. I held out the bag and said Ayla and I had a present for him. He was really confused. He opened it and it took a few seconds for it to register. He said he thought it was going to be something random that Ayla decided to wrap up for fun...like a carrot. Weird.

We went out to dinner and a crazy storm blew through...by the time we got home, it was starting to clear up and when we stepped outside, we saw the biggest, brightest double-rainbow we've ever seen. The picture does not do it justice. I think it's a sign of good luck.
A few days later, I had Ayla show my mom the pregnancy test. It took her several seconds to figure out what it was and then she kept saying "ohmigod" over and over again before she ran upstairs to tell my dad. We told Dean's family the first night we were up at the cabin. I made Ayla a t-shirt that says BIG Sister--we changed her into it before dinner and just sat her down and waited for someone to notice. Marla saw it almost immediately and then everyone else kind of figured it out. :) Apparently I drink too much wine because I passed on it at dinner one night right after we found out and Marla immediately asked if I was pregnant. I felt my entire face turn red while I shook my head "no." It was a relief to tell both of our families...it was hard keeping it in!We are so so so excited. A lot of things are going to change and it'll all happen before we know it. I do know this for sure though--I already can't wait to hold him/her.