Yes we can...

do this thing. Everyone's ready, especially Mandy. This girl

can barely climb the stairs now.


Change...hope...

When Noah was born, we went from this:

to this:

back to this:

Now we're back to this:
We're hoping for more change...

I can't wait for what's next.

Less than 24 hours.......

Until Elliot is born and our first black President is sworn in. At least if there is a delay I'll have some interesting TV to watch. I am excited but have major butterflies too. Not really about the surgery or even the baby. Just Noah. I've never been away from him overnight. And unfortunately he doesn't have one consistent caregiver while I'm in the hospital for 3 days. Although, between my sister, aunt, mom and his dad, he'll be well taken care of. I'm sure he'll be fine. I keep trying to explain it all to him and he won't keep eye contact and runs off in the middle of me telling him. So I hope he is ok.

I can't wait to see Elliot though! And see how big he is! I bet he's a chunker like Noah. I wonder if he'll be even bigger. I put some newborn dipes in the diaper caddy downstairs and they are SO small - especially next to Noah's size 6's. I only have bought size 1's and 2's, but had a few people give me some leftover newborns their babies grew out of too fast. I wonder if Elliot's buns will even fit in them? Can't wait to see.

And I have to say as my due date draws closer, Dr. P is my hero. He has the power to UN-impregnate me and for that I seriously love him. Haha. I'm pretty fond of the anesthesiologists too. And nurses. I guess Paul is ok, but sheesh, he's the one who got me in this condition in the first place.

Noah & Charlie and Aunt RaRa are going to the bouncehouse place tomorrow while I'm being prepped for surgery. By the time they are done I'll be getting CLOSE to having Elliot but not yet. I was SO out of it for hours after Noah was born. Unable to even hold him up myself to nurse. The nurse had to support him for me. But, that was after a long labor all day. I am hoping this time I'll be wide awake and alert.

Well this is a pretty random post of my thoughts.......... maybe a little procrastination too since I still have to pack my bag and vacuum downstairs. If you read this please pray for me and Elliot tomorrow! And Noah too.

Cravings

I was totally unprepared for pregnancy with our first baby. Being presented with the pregnancy test was only the beginning. Ask Mandy about the stupid look on my face as she handed me a test when I came home from work, and then sat back with a cat-ate-the-canary grin on her face as she waited for the news to sink in. I was dumber than most, probably, as she kept waiting as I looked from the test, to her, to the test, to her, to the test, to her...I just didn’t get what she was saying. I thought she just wanted to take one, to see if she was pregnant, and totally didn’t get the ‘stupid’ look on her face.

Anyway, once that part sunk in, I immediately had to deal with the giant hormonal imbalance that sets in soon afterwards as her body got ready for Noah’s arrival. At first it was fun enough. Kind of interesting to see what she would want next, and amusing to see how fast it changed.

Week 1: “This salad tastes good.” Pretty soon, it was salad three meals a day. “Salad, salad, salad, Salad, SALAD, SAAALLLAAADD!!!!”

Week 2: “DAMMIT I NEED MCDONALDS CHICKEN NUGGETS!!!!!!!!!!! I hate salad! I never want to see salad again!!!!” After a few days of buying Chicken McNuggets, I did the prudent thing and bought a 50 lb. bag of frozen chicken nuggets from Costco to save a few bucks. I don’t think we cooked a single chicken nugget out of that bag before Mandy decided chicken nuggets sucked, and were banned from the premises.

Same went for Ramen noodles, which were slurped down for days in a row until I bought a case at Costco. As soon as I brought them home, she could never look at another one again.

Trying to keep on top of these craves was futile, although it was interesting to see what would come next, and I gamely filled each request without asking why. It was all over the place. I don’t think in 10 years together we’d ever eaten at a Chinese restaurant or cooked a Chinese meal together at home, but that didn’t stop her from wanting crab Rangoon 10 minutes before the nearest Chinese restaurant closed for the evening. And for some reason, Chipotle isn’t welcome in our house anymore.

I’m sure there were many more that escape me now, but the oddest point was probably when I was directed to the grocery store to get this:

Neither of us knows where this craving came from, but she haaad to have it and I swear that by the time I got home from the grocery store, it had already passed and we now have two cans of creamed corn that have been in our pantry since sometime in 2006 (you can see by now I stopped buying the good stuff and was buying generic on the random chance that she'd lose her appetite for it even before she could consume it.)

This pregnancy has been relatively mild. There have been fleeting cravings, but for very few foods. The main one I recall are Culver’s butterburgers, which happened early on in this pregnancy, but then about halfway through, we started buying this by the gallon (grape juice, not the Totino's which was just a fleeting craving):

I can’t for the life of me figure out what nutritional value this provides. Anyone?

Last days...

It's crunch time and we're running out of days until life gets exponentially more complicated. It is two weeks until we're scheduled to welcome Elliot into the world. I know many people have managed to have two kids without going berserk, but at this point, I cant imagine how it can be done.

Any man who has been through a pregnancy knows that at this stage of the game, it is all about making her comfortable, and doing whatever she wants. So, with all the college football being played yesterday, I instead spent the night at the Celine Dion concert, worrying that the fact that Elliot was pounding on Mandy's body like a drum might mean we would be taking a trip to the hospital earlier than planned. Fortunately, he eventually went to sleep and we are still on schedule. This concert was originally scheduled more than a month ago, so we really didn't believe we would be going until the last minute.

As the show finished, Mandy got to tell Celine how amazing she thought the show was and shake her hand -- and she responded with gracious thanks. Trying to retrieve our car afterwards was almost futile, and eventually Mandy and her sister (and friend) took a cab back to the house while I waited for valet parking to come around. Unfortunately, the day's seasonably unusually high temperature of 65 degrees dropped to the 20's by that evening, and the wait seemed twice as long as it really was.

The temperatures that day were perfect for a boy that needs a certain amount of energy burnoff per day to function properly. Noah's been cooped up for quite a while, and turning him loose to ride his bike and to run around the block made us realize all over again how much he loves the outdoors. After riding his bike all over the place, he RAN around the block, and I mean completely around the block. Probably more than once considering he kept running up and down the sidewalk and ran about halfway around the block again after we went back to the house.

He has learned to appreciate the fun part of biking now that just riding it is old hat. He loves HILLS! He no longer needs a push to get momentum started going uphill. He pedals steadily and fast up hill with a serious face. And then when he gets to the top instead of just gliding down, he continues to pedal as fast as can be maniacally downhill. It is hilarious! And now we have to be sure he always wears his helmet!

After we arrived home from a joint trip around the block, we were both distracted for a minute feeding the dog and going to the bathroom. Looking up, we saw Noah had snuck out the front door and was peddling happily down the block again, by himself, grinning at us as we burst out the front door to chase him down. He was as sorry as we were to see the temperatures drop back into the 20's later that night.

This is our neighbor, Rob, that Noah just loves!

Serious business
He was getting ready to go down the big hill - pedaling as fast as he can!

A little Elliot Henry (via the womb....)

So I talk about Noah all the time, but I'm currently very occupied growing his little bro. Paul finally named the little (scratch that - BIG) guy. This pregnancy has been easy and hard both. Really overall I can't complain. My morning sickness (which was only nausea) was gone by 10 weeks. My cravings haven't been insane or hard to satisfy. I've been very active with Noah doing Little Gym and taking him to bounce houses and playing with him. And he gave up naps around his 2nd birthday. So no breaks really for me during the day.

But, the hard part has officially hit. It FEELS like he MUST be ready to be born, but I have 4 weeks (from today) before that's due to happen. And although he may be big enough, I know his lungs need that time to mature. I've had every ailment late pregnancy you can get (which I'll spare you the gory details) and Paul is just waiting for locusts to appear. It actually makes me laugh everytime something new comes up.

But, I'm trying to cherish every moment because I am pretty sure this is it. And feeling him move all the time is wonderful and something I don't ever want to forget. I remember feeling "phantom" kicks with Noah the week after he was born. It was so weird. Kind of like getting off a boat and you still feel like you are floating.

This baby is putting just as much weight on me and, like Noah, is measuring 2 weeks ahead. I think I might be in for another 9 1/2 pounder on my hands. YAY for a scheduled c-section! Here's some pregnancy progression pictures:

Starting around 19 weeks....

About 25 weeks....
29 weeks.......
33 weeks.....