I had Keira on 7/10/10 at 5:24 PM.  She is 7 pounds, 4 oz and 21 inches long.  Here’s our story…

As of Thursday, 7/8, my OB visit revealed no progress…no dilation, no effacement.  My c-section was scheduled for 7/16 (my hospital does not allow induced VBAC’s due to an increased risk of uterine rupture).  On Friday, 7/9 DH and I decide to finally get our act together and start to get our rooms ready for the baby and to pack our bags (yes, we waited until 3 days before the due date hahaha).  I started getting some contractions at 10 PM that night.  But I wasn’t really sure if they were real or not since I had done a lot of heavy lifting and walking around that day. 

Surprisingly, the contraction were regular right from the get go starting around 6 minutes apart.  But they were really short contractions, so I didn’t really pay attention to them.  They continued until around midnight when they started to get more painful and I began to feel them in my back.  That’s when I realized this might be the real deal.  Unfortunately, my parents were the ones who would watch Tyler while we were in the hospital and they live 3+ hrs away in Queens.  I didn’t want them driving in the middle of the night if it wasn’t the real thing.  I waited another hour and the contractions were still painful and about 6-7 minutes apart.  I considered waiting until early morning to call them, but I wasn’t sure if I would make it.  I told my parents the situation and asked them what they wanted to do.  Our backup was to call PB’s parents who live closer by.  My parents still wanted to come.  They had their bags packed for weeks, so they were ready to go.

I decided to try to sleep, which was impossible.  The contractions were never farther than 9 minutes apart, so I felt like I had to keep track.  So I labored all night, taking down the times (which by the way SUCKED)…and by 7AM the next morning, they were 5 minutes apart, 1 minute each for 1 hour.  I called my OB and this just happened to be his weekend off!!!  (I chose this OB because he’s still one of those old school OB’s who meets you at the hospital and delivers you personally so you never have a random person). But the OB covering him was my other top choice….the one that is known in the area to be the most supportive of VBAC’s.

I was told to head to the hospital.  Tyler woke up right as we were ready to leave, so we got to see him before taking off for the hospital.  I was put in a room and labored until the doctor arrived to see if they would keep me or send me home.  At that point, my contractions were 1-2 minutes apart.  I was like, I am NOT going home even if I’m not dilated.  Luckily, my exam came back with me being 3 cm dilated and 50% effaced (which was amazing since I was closed 2 days ago).  I was a keeper.

The OB came to talk to me about the risks of a VBAC.  He highly recommended that I get an epidural since that would allow me quick access to the OR in case anything happened and they needed to rush me in.  That was totally fine with me.  He did say that he did not like using pitocin at all during a VBAC delivery (some practitioners will allow the use of pitocin to aid in the labor as long as you go into labor naturally).  So that meant I had to make it to 10 cm all on my own, or no VBAC.  Considering it took 40 hours to reach 10 cm WITH pitocin with Tyler’s birth, I was a little worried.  He recommended that I wait until I reached the active labor phase at around 5-6 cm before getting the epidural so that it wouldn’t impede labor progress.  After all of that, he asked me if I was still on board.  I sure was!

Since I was a no pitocin patient, my nurse had a pretty easy job in the beginning since she didn’t really have to do much.  I was allowed to labor for a few hours and was rechecked.  I had reached 4 cm and 100% effaced.  My water was still intact, so the OB broke my water to see if my labor would progress faster.  It sure did.  All of a sudden, the contractions were coming one on top of another.  I decided to get the epidural at the point since I wasn’t sure if I could sit perfectly still if it got worse.  The anesthesiologist finally got there like half hour later…put the epidural in and I waited for it to kick in.  My legs got tingly and my butt went numb, but I felt none of the pain relief in my stomach or back.  I still felt every single contraction.  My RN told me to give it some time to kick in.  I gave it some time…still felt the same.  She had me push the bolus button on the PCA pump and waited.  Still felt the same.  It was pretty uncomfortable at that point and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could just breathe through them.  Finally, the RN paged the anesthesiologist to come up.  Another 45 minutes later, he arrived.  He gave me the biggest bolus I’ve ever seen, jacked up the rate of the epidural and pushed the bolus button on the PCA (so that’s an increased basal rate, plus 2 big boluses).

The pain was finally starting to subside.  The OB came in to check me and I was at 8 cm already..the epidural didn’t fully kick in until 10 cm….which made it pretty much pointless since I wanted some sensation during pushing, but now I felt nothing at all.  At 9 cm he told me I would be pushing within an hour and I was like uh oh…since I was starting to feel myself go numb.  When it came time to push, I couldn’t feel when the contractions started, I couldn’t feel the pressure in my butt (which was helpful for me the first time around to know where I was supposed to push).  And I couldn’t change positions without the RN and PB hoisting me around.

We started to push.  I couldn’t even tell if I was pushing or not.  Apparently, I was pushing okay, but i couldn’t tell.  The OB said the baby was face up, which would make things harder for me.  Great.  He said he would give me 1.5 hours before taking me to the OR.  I kept on pushing and at 1.5 hours, no baby.  The OB said the baby was now in the transverse position (the head turned sideways)…also a difficult position to push out.  He said my coccyx bone protrude forward into my pelvic space, which is why Tyler got stuck.  The pelvic shape basically become oval and forces the baby’s head sideways as she tries to descend.  In order to get out, the baby has to get over and past the coccyx bone.  At that point, I pretty much thought the VBAC was out of the question. 

He decided to give me an extra half an hour of pushing just to see what would happen since the baby was holding up well and my uterus was also holding up well.  After half an hour, nothing.  He kept tacking on half and hour until i had pushed for 2 hrs, 45 minutes.  She was still stuck behind that coccyx bone.  He said 15 more minutes and he would have to operate since her heart rate was starting to drop a little.  I was exhausted by that point.  I hadn’t slept at all the night before and had been up for almost 36 hours.  I kept dozing off in between contractions. 

Finally with 5 minutes to go, I knew I only had 2 or 3 contraction left before my time was up.  The OB was hesitant at first to use the vacuum because she wasn’t far down enough in the canal and he didn’t want to injure her head by pulling too hard.  But since the vacuums pop off if too much pressure is applied, he decided to just try it and give one test pull to see how much pressure would need to be applied.  He said if it popped off, then he would not proceed with the vacuum and we would have to c-section.  It didn’t pop off.   So with 2 contractions to go, he applied just a little pressure with the vacuum to hold her head in place between my pushes (before, she kept sliding back behind the coccyx bone) and with 3 pushes, her head had slid past the coccyx bone and cleared my pelvis!  With the next set of contractions, out she came!!!  I could not believe that it had worked!  She tore me pretty good coming out and he had to perform an episiostomy on top of that, but I had my VBAC!!!  It was the most amazing feeling especially since I had been told multiple times that I was not an ideal candidate for a VBAC (although I didn’t  have any of the absolute contraindications, which is why I was allowed to try for one).

The recovery has been a little tough with all the tearing.  I had to have a foley catheter put in because I was too swollen and too cut up to pee on my own.  That came out today and I was able to pee (and therefore go home tomorrow).  It is really really hard to sit down.  But my c-section recovery was much tougher.  I wasn’t able to do anything the next day or even for the next few days.  You don’t realize how important your ab muscles are until  they’re sliced open.  My main reason for wanting a VBAC is so that I could still take care of and play with Tyler.  He came to visit and the first thing he did was climb on the bed and throw his head on my stomach while laying down on the bed.  I don’t even want to think about how much pain that would have caused me had I been recovering from a c-section.

I can’t wait to see what life with 2 under 2 will be like.  I anticipate very little sleep and lots of running around!
 

I had to stop and think about exactly how many months he is.  I guess that’s when you start saying, “almost 2.”

The little booger remembers everything now.  We can’t play the out of sight, out of mind game at all anymore.  There are things that he remembers that we don’t even remember.  We must have hidden something train related on our fireplace mantle at some point in time.  That is our hiding spot for everything since we are 100% sure that he can’t reach up there.  Every day, he points at the mantle and asks for Choo Choo.  Thinking back, I think we used to hide his Thomas the Train book up there, but we gave him full access now.  He must thing there are other things up there.  Or if he’s playing with something (non-toy like your keys) and you need it back, he will continue asking for it.

He understands the concept of possession.  He knows which shoes are mama’s and which are papa’s.  Every time we go to put on our shoes, he points to my shoes and says, “mama” and points to PB’s shoes and says “papa”.  The only pair he gets confused with is my black flip flops since PB has a pair also that he wears much more than I wear mine.  We can hand him our bowl of keys and he knows which set are mine.

He can put on his own shoes.  YAY!  That has helped this pregnant mama out so much.  It was getting hard to bend down to put his shoes on for him. Granted, he can only put on his faux-Crocs by himself, but I’ll take that.  He’ll grab his pair and put them side by side and slip his feet in.  Sometimes he gets them on the wrong foot, but for the most part, he gets it right.

We let him play with all his trains now since he figured out how to correctly line up the polarity of the magnets so that they all stick.  So if he tries to add on another train and it repels, he’ll turn it around.  He is also starting to be able to put the track together by himself.  The train set is a lesser source of frustration now.  He spends quite a lot of time with it now.  Although I kind of dread it when he drags me over to play trains with him because I don’t get the appeal and I think it’s so boring. hahaha.

He is starting to get a teeny bit better at following directions.  He’s still a runner when we go out though.  We can’t take him out of the shopping cart ever, even if he’s fighting it like crazy. 

He knows the direction to and from the school playground (just a few blocks away) and to the house around the corner with the amazing garden.  There’s a big statue in the middle of the garden that he loves to talk to.  He loves to sit on other people’s lawns and it’s quite a challenge to get him off.  It’s even better for him if there’s a hill involved.

He is still picking up more and more words every day.  He put two words together the other day. He had a few phrases (all done, read a book), but I don’t really count that as putting words together since we say it that way all the time.  At Target the other day, I gave him a cookie to munch on while we shopped.  I turned away for a second to look at something and he said, “mama, um um” (his word for eat) and held out his cookie for me to eat.

It seems as if his favorite color is blue.  That’s the only color he will identify correctly 100% of the time.

He knows most of his numbers, but not in order.  10 is his favorite and he will scream it whenever we get to it.

He doesn’t seem as tired anymore at night at his normal bedtime.  He used to bury his face in his pillow and yawn around 6:30 or 7 and would be out by 8.  Now I don’t see any yawns by 8.  But we refuse to push back his bedtime routine too late since we need that time in the evenings to do stuff like cook, eat, and clean up.  So we put him in bed by 8:30 and leave the projector part of his white noise machine on (it projects a rotating theme depending on the disk you put in).  Sometimes he’s up as late as an hour later, but he doesn’t cry.  He just lays there looking at the ceiling and talking to whatever’s up there and then when he’s tired he’ll just go to sleep.  The nice part is that he’ll also sleep in a little bit in the mornings now…between 7 and 8. yay.

He still eats like crap. Ugh, it’s so frustrating.  I know the pedi says it’s normal for his age for them to be picky, but it seems like he barely eats anything.  He will LOVE a certain food for a few days and then all of a sudden totally refuse it.  We were on an egg kick for a few weeks.  That was fantastic.  Now he won’t touch it.  Same with cheese.  The only thing he eats consistently is fruit, pasta and edamame.

Baby should be coming in a few days.  I think he will either be insanely jealous or insanely overprotective of her or both.  Either way, I think it’s going to be a rough transition for us since he’s so sensitive and emotional.  I feel like he knows something is going to happen because he has become extremely clingy to me the past few weeks, especially when I’m alone with him.  When PB is around, he does it less.  I guess I should cherish the last snuggle moments alone with him.

1) Frog – pronounced “f*ck”

2) Truck – pronounced “c*ck”

Unfortunately “truck” is said very very often and very very loudly.

No progess still…no dilation, no effacement. Sigh. What is going on here? I feel like the baby is sitting RIGHT there. This is not looking good for my VBAC attempt. I need to go into labor naturally by 40 weeks otherwise they’re scheduling a repeat c-section. And I would like to be somewhat dilated if I do go into labor since most doctors will avoid using pitocin at all during a VBAC if they can (can increase the risk of uterine rupture) and who knows how long it will take me to dilate all the way on my own.

With Tyler, I went into labor being fingertip dilated and it took 40 hours of labor for me to reach 10 cm (they turned off the pitocin during half of it since Tyler was having cardiac decelerations from the pitocin induced contractions). I really would like to avoid another 40 hour labor if I can. That was no fun…I did the first 24 hours or so without the epidural, but then I knew I would be too exhausted to push if I didn’t get some sleep. Anyhow, thank goodness for the epidural (even though it only worked on one side) since they didn’t have to knock me out completely with general anesthesia when I had the few medical concerns during the pushing stage (meconium in the fluid, I spiked a fever, Tyler was have pretty major decelerations at that point).

Someone asked me afterwards if I had prayed for a quick labor. I did not. The only the we prayed for on the way there was a healthy baby, which we got despite everything that happened. Somehow Tyler made it out without aspirating any meconium (he came out crying, which they prefer NOT to see when there’s meconium since the baby can suck in the poop) and he didn’t seem to suffer from any oxygen deprivation.

Hopefully things will not be as dramatic this time. If I end up needing a c-section, then that’s how it’s going to be. We’ll pray for a healthy baby again

My growth ultrasound got pushed back to the end of next week since my OB had to deliver a baby when I was supposed to have my last appointment and it threw all the future appointments off.

I finally started nesting…albeit forced nesting. I have no desire to wash the baby’s clothes or get the room ready (since it entails moving furniture around) or wash the bottles and other stuff. We did two loads of laundry this week and the last load left is the baby’s clothes, which looks very unappealing after having done the previous 2 loads. I have even less desire to fold them and put them away hahaha. How different things are the second time around. Laundry is just laundry now. But hey, at least the clothes are next to the washing machine for when we feel motivated to do it.

We finally took BB in for his 18 month visit. tee hee.  With all of my own doctor’s visits, it was hard to find time to fit him in.  We had the most unfriendliest nurse ever.  She had no patience whatsoever and I think his measurements aren’t accurate at all.  First of all, he knows the doctor’s office now, so he flipped out as soon as we walked in.  Getting him on the scale? Yeah right.  So he was basically half hanging off trying to get to me and she was just like, oh I’ll just use that weight.  I was like uh…what?  Half of his weight isn’t centered on the scale, so he’s going to measure lighter than he is.  She didn’t care.  So he weighed in at 23 pounds, 12 oz…only 12 oz more than 3 months ago.  The for the length, he was basically flipping back and forth and squirming like crazy and she just took like a random measurement.  Then she complained that he wrinkled the paper underneath.  So she said he was just under 33″…I was like, he was 33″ last time…did he shrink?  Anyway…so this visit’s height and weight will be a mystery.

He met all of his milestone requirements. I love our pedi.  She’s a mom of SIX, so she doesn’t really freak out over much.  haha.  She doctors and advises a lot from experience.  So when we voiced our concern about his picky eating…she was like eh…it’s okay.  She was like out of 21 meals a week, if he eats 3-4 tremendous meals and basically picks at everything else, it’s pretty normal.  She said this usually lasts from about 18 months to 3 years.  I was like 3 YEARS?! ugh.  Usually when he doesn’t eat well, we’ll try again in a half hour, or we’ll feed him little bits as he plays.  She told us not to do that since it’ll develop a “grazing” habit where he’ll just nibble here and there throughout the day.  I’ve read that before too, but I always feel like I have to get the calories in him.  She said to not feed him again until the next meal time…he’ll make up for it if he’s really hungry.  I guess we’ll try that…and we should probably cut out his snacks…i think he eats more snacks than meals!

He can handle eating a whole fruit if it’s ripe enough.  So we can just hand him an entire apple, pear, peach, slice of watermelon, etc and he can hold it and bite into it and eat it just like we do.  For some reason, he eats more of it that way.  I wonder if this is one of those choking hazard things.  Now that made me paranoid about what I give him.

She said that if we wanted to, we could start disciplining him.  She said time outs worked best for her kids, but whatever we decide, we just have to be consistent.  She warned us that it will get harder once the baby arrives.  And if both him and the baby are crying, to tend to him first.  Otherwise, he’ll remember that I turned him down to take care of the baby….the baby won’t remember.

He is picking up a lot of words.  He has maybe 50? or more words and will readily repeat words after we say it.  He has 3-4 phrases, oh no, all done, read a book and uh oh.  He knows what to call each relative: A-ma, A-gong (my parents), Pau-pau, gong-gong (PB’s parents) and auntie and uncle.  We didn’t teach him the formal names for each aunt and uncle because…well, we don’t really know them ourselves.  He responds to commands in english and some canto.  But for some reason, he thinks mandarin is funny and he will always start doing the gong chi fah tzai hand motion when I speak to him in mandarin.

He is still sleeping well.  He’ll sleep from 8PM ish until 6:30-7 AM and take a 2-3 hour nap around noon.  He’ll play in his crib for a little bit before starting to fuss.  Our bedtime routine is so smooth now. After his bath, we just let him finish his water while watching the projector thing on our sound machine.  That usually take about a minute, sometimes less…then we dump him in the crib and that’s it.  He is awake for a little bit and then drifts off to sleep on his own.  Same with naps…although sometimes he’ll cry for naps because we’ll interrupt his playtime.

He is less shy now and will wave to people and will go up to certain women to play with them (only women…and only certain women…usually attractive!)

We had to put our dining room gate back up since he can climb on the dining room chairs now.  We don’t let him on there without us being nearby since he will attempt to climb from chair to chair.  ugh.

WE took him to Sesame Place last month and he had a blast. We bought a 2 day pass since it was the same price as a single day.  We’ll probably go back in the fall.  We went in late May on a weekday and the place was pretty empty.  It was great.  Very short lines, easy parking, no crowds, great spot for the parade.  I can’t imagine being there during peak season.  I wish we lived a little closer, then would could get the season pass, which is a great deal.  It is technically about 45 minutes away, but with traffic, it took us an hour.

I also found out about an indoor water park in Mount Laurel, NJ (south jersey…right across the bridge from Philly) which sounds awesome.  It’s attached to a Marriott hotel and you can buy a special package that lets you stay 1 night and gives you passes for 1 day to the water park and 1 day to the Camden Aquarium (which is close by).  I think that will be great for next summer…Tyler is still a little too small for most of the rides.

We spend most of the nice days outside where Tyler is the happiest.  Even with the sunscreen, Tyler is one dark little boy now.  I am dreading the winter already!  He loves his water table and toys and being sprayed with the hose.  He’ll usually drag the hose over to us and tell us, “more.”

He loves picking his nose and thinks it’s the funniest thing in the world.  I guess I don’t do much to discourage it because I can’t help laughing when he does it.  PB gets mad at me because I’m encouraging it, but it’s so funny!

He loves his train set.  All day, all we hear is, “choo choo.”  We only allow him 1 train at a time since he gets SO mad when he lines up the magnets with the same polarity and they repel each other.  Sometimes we let him have 2 haha.

I am now 36 weeks!  1 month to go.  I went in for my first internal exam today.  I am no where near ready to have this baby yet…but I know that can change overnight.  There’s no dilation, no effacement, but the head is down.  If I don’t go into labor on my own by 40 weeks, I’m going to have to schedule a c-section because they will not induce a VBAC since it increases the chances of uterine rupture.  We still have nothing done for baby #2. haha. oh well.

The America Association of Pediatrics now wants the FDA to put warning labels on certain foods as a choking hazard.  Some of the big no no’s are hot dogs, raw carrots, whole grapes, peanuts, popcorn and raisins.  You are not supposed to attempt them until after the of 4, which is when a child develops the ability to chew and swallow correctly.   I read a few mama forums and most mom’s think it’s common sense to not give your little one these things.  But is it?  I have to admit that I am one of those no common sense moms then.  We’ve been giving Tyler raisins/craisins and whole grapes since his molars grew in…raw carrots and hot dogs are more recent.  The popcorn is more of an inhalation risk…since it breaks up into tiny airborn pieces and they can inhale it.  I didn’t know that….but Tyler has eaten bowls full at a time, although I have stopped giving him it since reading that.  Although, if it’s really that harmful for the tiny bits to be airborn…wouldn’t it be dangerous in adults too if too much is eaten at one time?  It’s not like we have built in popcorn filters in our lungs that prevent the bits from entering.

But really? FOUR?  Tyler is a great chewer…that’s actually why it takes him like an hour to eat each meal.  It takes him forever to chew each bite (he gets that from me…I’m the same way).  He’s not a food wolfer-downer.  Everything he puts in his mouth gets chewed down very well before he swallows it.  And I know because he thinks it’s funny to chew with his mouth wide open…so I can see everything in there.  I’m not sure what more he can to do “correctly” chew his food.  We do take the skins off of the hotdogs and slice them before giving it to him (same with apples and harder fruits), but only because he doesn’t like the texture of the skins and will spit them out after he’s chewed the flesh off.

What exactly are we allowed to give our toddlers to eat in terms of solids then?  I mean, can’t anything be classified as a choking hazard if it’s not chewed well?  There aren’t that many super soft, dissolve in your mouth foods for toddlers.  I find that he has a harder time eating meats than he does these no-no foods, but that isn’t mentioned at all other than the hot dogs.  Aren’t hot dogs easier to chew than lets say chicken meat?

So after much thought…I have decided to return to work after Baby #2 part time still.  As nice as the extra income from the full time position would be, I know I would be absolutely exhausted.  I’m already pretty pooped now working part time with just T, especially on the days that PB works since he’s gone all day.

I’m actually thinking about dropping down to 3 days a week…we’re kind of crunching the numbers now to see how feasible that is.  It’s a pretty big cut to our income…but we’re fairly practical and frugal, so I think we’ll be okay.  I guess that gives me incentive to get back into my pre-preg clothes (I never made it back into my pants after Tyler) since that will mean no new clothes for mama (unless, of course, it’s an amazing deal…right? right?)

I’m happy with my decision.  I took last week off just to spend some time with Tyler before the baby came and I would totally miss the kiddos if I worked full time.

*see protected for the other reason*

We are getting pretty darn close now.  We still have nothing for baby #2.  We really need to find a dresser for her.  We decided to use the pack-n-play as her crib for the time being since Tyler is sleeping so well in the crib now.  He hasn’t yet attempted to climb out (which is weird since he climbs everything else), so we are good for now.  We’re going to put the PNP and dresser in our room until it’s time to transition Tyler into the new room.

I’ve also decided to try for a VBAC.  I can still change my mind, but at least this way, I have the option of changing my mind.  Because of the 4th of July holiday, they would have to deliver me at around 38-38.5 weeks if I were to have a scheduled c-section.  I would like the baby as close to fully baked as possible.  So now I will be allowed to go until 41 weeks before they do a scheduled c-section (they will not induce for VBAC’s since it increases the risk of uterine rupture).  And if I do go into labor, I can decide at any point if I want the c-section instead.

I’ve switched OB’s and I really like the new guy.  He doesn’t follow the laborist model (which is where you show up at the hospital and anyone from a rotating team can deliver you) which is what they had at HUP.   I had never met the woman who performed my c-section, and I had only met the attending who did the shift before one time.  Basically if I deliver during the day/evening, my OB will come in and deliver me. His office is at the hospital, so he’s close by. At night, they do have a rotating team of 6 doctors, but that’s understandable…they do have to sleep sometime!

I was impressed by the level of attention he paid to certain details.  Since I”m allergic to amoxicillin and have never tried any other penicillin/beta-lactam antibiotic, he is going to run a cultures and sensitivities panel on me to check what antibiotics would work the best on me.  I ended up needing antibiotics with Tyler because I spiked a fever and they just ran whatever the second line antibiotic was (first line antibiotic is a beta-lactam).  They had no idea whether or not I could have been resisitant to those two.  He also is going to schedule me for a 38 week ultrasound, which is not normally done. But he wants to make sure I’m not harboring a 15 pound baby and trying for a VBAC.

I have gained about 20 pounds so far, which is MUCH less than what I gained with Tyler.  I think at this point with Tyler, I was close to +40 pounds.  I did nothing but eat and sleep when I was pregnant with him.  Chasing after a super active toddler really keeps that weight down.  I think by 40 weeks, I should be at the normal 25 pound weight gain.

I guess I should start thinking about packing my hospital bag.  I remember I brought soooo much stuff last time and didn’t use anything.

I’ve been reading a couple of disciplining books to get an idea of what might work with BB.   I read 1-2-3 Magic, which a lot of people recommended.  It’s the whole thing where you count to 3 and if they don’t obey by 3, then they get time out (or whatever form of punishment you decide on).  The exception is that if it’s something that would be dangerous, you skip automatically to 3…they don’t get second chances.   They recommend starting this at 2 years…and today I’ve realized why.  At 19 months,  BB totally does not get the whole counting thing.  Usually, we just tell him not to do something and if he continues, we’ll take it away or physically force him to do the correct thing.  Today, I tried to go for the more advanced technique.

We’ve been teaching him numbers and we show him how to count on his fingers.  He only knows 1 and 2…and everything after that is 2.

So today, he stands up on the dining room chair, which we don’t allow.  So I decided to try the 1-2-3 thing.  I told him to sit down..and then counted to 2.  Before I could do anything further, he looks straight at me (while still standing) and announces in his cute, little baby voice, “ONE…..TWO….” all the while showing me the corresponding fingers.

PB and I had to run into another room to crack up.  I guess we just have to skip to 3 for everything hahaha. 

I’m about a week early with this, but I won’t have time next weekend to do it or for the few weeks afterwards since all my free time will be spent on my stupid gardens.

He can climb onto our dining room chairs now.  Which means, we can’t keep anything on the dining room table (where we used to keep our phone and mail and random stuff).  He also hates his high chair now that he can sit on the adult dining room chairs.  He usually just kneels to reach the table.  The bad thing is that we don’t have much control over him when he sits there. He gets down when he wants to…and he doesn’t always pay attention to where the chair ends.  We usually have to force him into the high chair –> tantrum.

He is VERY opinionated now.  He has a sense of what is his and is very territorial.  We went to the pet store and he wouldn’t let me look into the same fish tank as him.  I had to look into the next one over like a loser.  Same with the benches at the park. Once he climbs onto one, I can’t sit on the same bench…I have to sit on the one next to his.  He is very tantrum prone now…it’s drama drama drama in the house.

He does NOT sit well in the shopping cart at all anymore.  He used to be fantastic in the shopping cart.  Would sit there and be entertained by whatever groceries I hand him to look at.  A little snack would get us through any fussiness.  Now it’s a constant battle.  He takes of his shoes and throws them, he can reach into the back and will take stuff out, he never keeps his legs in the leg holes…it’s always up on the seat, and whine whine whine the entire time.

He is finally sleeping better.  We had a week or two of perfect, no crying sleep.  But these past few days, he started crying again when we put him down.  Gah.  But it’s not for nearly as long as it used to be. Last night was just under 10 minutes and tonight was maybe 1-2 minutes.  I’m guessing it’s probably the weather since it’s been HOT these past few days.  We turned his ceiling fan on, but he prefers it to be cool when he sleeps.  I’m hoping it’s just the weather.

He is finally talking.  He has about 30 something words now (compared with 8 or so at last month’s update).  Most of the words probably would not be recognizable to anyone else but PB and I, but they still count!  He has two 2-word combo’s: “oh no” and “all done”.    It’s the best when he has these “conversations” with me, but I have no idea what he’s saying.  He even gestures with his hands and everything.

He is starting to get a little bit less shy.  He will wave to strangers readily and sometimes even blow kisses (only to females).  He likes to give other moms sand at the playground and stand one foot away from them and stare at them for extended periods of time.  Strange men are still a no-no for him.

He dances hill billy style…with only one foot stomping on the ground.  Our sitter listens to country (as does most of suburban PA, which I was surprised to learn when I first moved here) so that’s what they do during their dance parties.

He loves our gardens (what little of it I planted).  He will walk to each plant and lean over to smell it (even the ones that don’t have flowers).  I taught him how to softly feel the leaves, which he does most of the time…until he can’t fight the urge to bash the flowers together.  He’s pretty good at not pulling off stuff.  He loves our spirea bush, which looks like this:

Our is bigger and bushier because we didn’t know we were suppose to prune it (and apparently neither did the previous owners).  But Tyler will take any random objects he finds and stick it into the bush and far as his little arm will allow.  We must have at least 10 random items stuck in there now.  He’ll also throw himself into it and let himself be submerged in the branches.  Luckily, it’s a pretty tough shrub, so no harm done.  I’m thinking about planing a long row of it along our garage since he likes it so much.

He will finally eat with a fork.  He could always do it before, but never wanted to.  Now he willingly eats with it.  We’re still working on the spoon.  He likes to turn the spoon upside down when he puts it in his mouth so that he can lick it…which means everything falls out of it.

Baby #2 is doing well.  I’m finally gaining consistent weight.  I think as of my 29 week appointment, I’ve gained 15 pounds, which isn’t a lot…but it took me 3 months to start gaining weight at all.  I think by the end, I will probably be at around +25 pounds, which is normal.  I was supposed to have my first visit with my new OB today.  I drove there only to find out that I was supposed to bring my old medical records with me, but no one told me to do so.  So he didn’t want to officially see me without knowing any of my medical history or any of the results and notes from this pregnancy.  I guess that’s fair enough.  It was just annoying.  Good thing it’s only 5 minutes away.

She is less active than Tyler was in utero.  Only a few violent rolls per day (although it may still be early).  Tyler was constant…and he hiccup’ed all day (he still does).  Usually it’s just gentle flutters.