5 Months (Weeks 18 - 22)

 

Compare/Contrast: I cry so much easier this time, just like the last time around. One of our fish died, it was one of my favorites. While I don't feel that attached to them I bawled when we realized he was dead.  

Also, I realized this month I haven't had my sore knuckles like with Cara, which has been a relief! And not having as sore of a back when I walk around a lot makes me think this baby must be more forward or being only on the couch with Cara must have been the cause of that.

Sleeping is so much worse this time around. I have to get up to switch sides a bunch throughout the night. I sleep deeply when I do sleep, but I feel I get up a lot more often. Waking up at 6:15 for work is getting more difficult, and I have to be in bed by 9:30/10:00 at the latest. 

The movements though...man are they even different. I swear this little baby moves so much more than Cara did. And not even just at this time during the her pregnancy, but just overall. I absolutely love it and Larry has been able to feel and see it on many different occasions. 

Best Moments This Month: Taking Cara to Cowabunga Bay at the beginning of the month was pretty awesome! She loved the water and it makes me excited for next summer when we'll have two kids to play around in the water with. We also take Cara to the pool as often as possible so that's been fun (and nice that I can move around anyway I want in the water).

I actually saw some good kicks on week 19 and it was so amazing. At 19 weeks with Cara I was just barely feeling "for sure" movements, but this time to see real movements was so awesome and crazy! Movement has been a lot lately, although I don't always have a predicted time when this one will move like with Cara (I could set my clock to her that at 3 AM I would get a bunch of movements from her).

Also, some real talk here: when we first found out we were pregnant I was excited...and then the sickness hit and I was traveling and trying to help out with a toddler and it really took it's toll. I was just SO ready to be done being pregnant and I felt bad thinking I wasn't enjoying it as much as I had with Cara. I just wanted to be at the hospital part and have this baby and not feel all the dang symptoms. Last month I decided that I think the issue is I don't talk to this baby on my drives like I did with Cara so I started doing that and it really helped me emotionally with this. And now I'm REALLY excited about all the fun things we have planned, but also just really being pregnant and feeling the movements. I'm happy to be out from under that dark cloud!

Finding out we're having another little GIRL has also been awesome. We've been talking a lot about Cara having a little sister and how happy I am to raise sisters (I didn't grow up with any). Larry just likes the idea that Cara won't know a time before having a sibling so hopefully she won't have any unhappy feelings about having a sister.

What I'm Looking Forward To: Getting the glucose test done with (I didn't really like how sleepy Cara got after hers so I'm nervous about this one as well), more movements, shopping for the new babies stuff we need (new crib, new bedding, etc.), picking out names....oh just everything that comes with knowing the gender now. I've already bought a couple outfits...I'm out of control! Haha.

We're Having A Girl!

So we had our official anatomy scan today! My new office makes you wait until 21 weeks, rather than 20...so I was DYING to know what we were having to not only know that everything was healthy, but to finally announce to everyone we are pregnant!

I got this shirt specifically for the announcement.
It might be one of my favorite maternity shirts!

Knowing this appointment was coming up, I wondered if we should think of another way to do a gender reveal for us, but decided against it. I thought it might be fun to actually find out at the appointment like normal people (or at least the old normal haha). I was nervous that if we found out we were having a girl we'd not act as excited as if we found out she was a boy (I had my suspicions that we were having a girl, I still partially felt like we were having a boy too), but I had to go in with an open mind either way.

When she scanned across the bum and pointed to the obvious - She's a girlie - I looked at Larry, he looked happy just to know, but he was preoccupied with Cara to really react. We left the appointment joking about how outnumbered Larry would be and thinking about raising sisters that would be so close in age...and then I started to get REALLY excited about having another little girl. I mean we don't HAVE to get a ton of new clothes, mostly just cold clothes for the first 3 months, but the rest we can just add sweaters to. The only other thing we needed to get was the crib, a double stroller, and diapers - and that would have been true no matter what we were having.

Thinking of raising sisters who will fight over clothes and pull each other's hair, but will be best friends and will be so close in age that they are practically twins, seriously makes me so giddy! Even though Cara has NO idea what having another baby even means right now, we both are happy that she probably won't remember a time without a sibling growing up so it works so well for us!



Cara's feelings about having a sister haha

The only downside? We had Cara's name always on our mind for if we had a daughter, so even though we had a pool of names for when she was born, we always kind of knew we'd go with Cara. This baby? Oh man, picking another girl name we both just absolutely love is SO hard. And thinking of picking out a middle name again? That was the hardest part with Cara haha. So wish us luck with not only finding a name, but raising two girls and guiding them through the minefield that is surely yet to come!

Summer Toys Makes Summer More Fun

Oh boy, have I mentioned how crazy I've gotten with buying toys for Cara? If not, well let's say I need to stop, but I've seen so many fun things to get to make this summer more fun (because I've mentioned how Cara wants to be outside a lot and keeps us busy, right?). So here's what we've gotten to make sure our summers are fun for us:

Water Activity Table: So we saw this at Costco one time on our random weekend run and we both thought it was cool, but didn't get it. Then my company had a Costco night and my friend Jeni mentioned she got one for her daughter and she loved it. The age on the box said 1 1/2 and up so I figured Cara would probably be old enough for it, why not get it? We got that with some beach toys and she's had a blast with it!

Trampoline: So backstory here - Larry had a big, rectangle trampoline growing up, but I only had a small exercise one. I always wanted one and felt like only rich kids got big trampolines. I knew it was something I wanted to have for my kids so when Larry found a good deal on one and got it I was SO excited! Granted we have to dig a hole to put it in the ground (since our area is way too windy to keep it above ground) and that will take a while, but it's still so exciting to have it up and let Cara get used to it for now...she'll love it when she's older. I'm just mostly bummed I don't get to jump on it for a while.

Mini Pool: Okay, Larry and I both agree you never want to own the pool, you just want one to play with. Well our neighborhood pool took FOREVER to open so we figured why not get a small one to get Cara used to playing in the water? We'd like to put her in swimming lessons, but we're thinking this summer could just be about getting used to a pool and next summer we can actually start the lessons. This little pool has been awesome! Sure, hose water is freezing cold! BUT if you inflate it and fill it one day and let it sit overnight and through the next day it really isn't bad! It's been a nice addition to our yard (in my opinion - I think Larry gets sick of inflating and filling it just to empty it after a day or so since bugs are always dying in it if you leave it out too long).

Bubbles: Yeah, this one is an easy and cheap one, but Cara freaking loses it over bubbles! They are definitely the best kid-friendly outdoor activity ever! I've found not all bubbles are made the same though so it'll be sad when the good ones we have will be out...I need to find the perfect recipe for them or something!



Big pool: This one isn't one we own or anything, but our neighborhood pool FINALLY opened up a couple weekends ago so we have decided we are taking advantage of it and as many nights a week as we can to make up for the missed first half of the summer. So far it hasn't been too busy when we've gone to the pool, people have been respectful with the space, and it's been fun letting Cara splash around in it. She only likes to stay for a little bit, then she prefers to run around the edges of it, but I think we'll be able to get a lot of use out of our pool - especially when it comes to practicing swimming when she's in classes!

So yeah, our summer should be filled with lots of fun this year! Hopefully next year we'll be able to add in hikes since Cara will be older and I won't be as pregnant :)

Independence Day

Independence Day is slowly getting to be more significant to me. Unfortunately, I still hate the idea of fireworks going off while Cara is sleeping (even though she sleeps through SO much at night, I still panic they'll wake her up). This year was a great year though!

Festive nails :)

For one, I've officially started watching my Christmas in July movies that I recorded off the Hallmark Channel and I realized that I seem to love the ones that have good traditions in them (the best one is Let It Snow with Candace Cameron Bure, but I also love Matchmaker Santa with Lacey Chabert and A Perfect Christmas with Susie Abromeit), but this definitely has me thinking of what traditions I want to start doing with my family, not just for Christmas, but for all the holidays. I'm probably getting out of control, but I just get excited to have yearly traditions with my kiddos!

Matching Mommy & Me red, white, & blue outfits
(Normally I'd get 4th of July shirts for us, but
I'm not spending money on a maternity one)
And also, Cara had JUST woken up, hence the hair haha

We decided to let Cara stay up on the 3rd past her bedtime to see if she'd want to play with some sparklers. We were going to wait until it got dark, but around 9 it got to be late enough so we decided to check then. She was not happy with it. You could tell she was tired and being forced to sit and watch a sparkler that she couldn't touch just wasn't happening. Maybe next year she'll be able to adjust a bit better.

The next morning Larry was a saint and woke up early and took Cara downstairs and let me sleep in until 9. That felt AMAZING! I always tell him how I miss being able to sleep in that late and how I wouldn't want to sleep past 9 in the morning, but I never get that chance anymore. Finally getting the chance to was great, but I can see I don't need that anymore, but once in a while is so nice!

During the morning hours we played outside since it was still semi cool in our backyard. We still have a little grass so it makes it easy for Cara to walk around in and get used to different levels as she walks. After outdoor time we came inside and watched Aladdin with Cara. She seemed pretty interested in it. I really wanted to put on Sandlot, but it turns out we don't have that one just yet...it just got added to our Amazon Wish List :) I'd love to turn this time into playing baseball outside eventually or watching a baseball game or something, but we'll see if we can make that work. After the movie we "grilled" up some burgers and hot dogs for lunch (on the George Foreman) and Cara gobbled those down!

Baby feet in sandals melt my heart!

After lunch and playing in the yard, we put Cara down for a nap so I put on Independence Day while Larry worked out and showered. After she got up we played in the house and part of the front yard until dinner time. After that we played with sparklers again to see if Cara would like them more now that she wasn't tired...yeah, she didn't. She just walked away from them. We're really going to have to wait till next year to make fireworks fun.

Still not even a little interested in the Sparkler

After all that we put Cara down to bed where she surprisingly slept through all the fireworks going on (I'm so thankful for a deep sleeper child). And even though they went way too late for my liking, it was still really pretty and I do get excited to take the kids out to see them one day!

So that was our 4th celebration. I can't wait to get some good traditions going for future years. Even if it means keeping them out past bedtime :)

Larry's Dirty Thirty

That's right, Larry is officially an old man...as old as me now! I will say his 30th birthday was a good day, but I think I had a better one ;) haha

The biggest point for this year is I wanted to make sure it was better than last year (I didn't do a post on it because his last birthday was kind of sad...we went to Home Depot to get the garden boxes and then he got his gun, but he couldn't do much more because I was feeling overwhelmed with a new baby and...well I just felt bad). This year, was similar, but much better:

• First we hit up Home Depot and Costco. Larry LOVES walking Costco to check our their new monthly deals...It's almost become a weekly tradition - on the weekends go check out Costco. It's kind of addicting haha. At Home Depot he just bought some grass seed with a gift card he got so we could help our front yard look a little better.
• We stopped off at Get Some (the gun shop...see how this was similar to last year?). Larry wanted to get a concealed gun since we both now have our concealed permits (finally!). He ended up getting a S&W gun with some bullets. He wanted to get a holster, but the only ones they had were too big for him so he'll have to order one online. He also got a free shooting range pass that expires next year so I told him he'll have to take a weekend or two in the next year to go try out his new gun. Cara LOVED walking the shop (we joked we were just getting her used to guns early...can't go wrong with that haha). She found this mini stair area that she loved going up and down the stairs on...which is when I discovered she can go down stairs all on her own! She also found the drinking fountain and played a game with pushing the button. It was pretty cute.

• After Get Some we then went to Leatherby's for lunch and ice cream. We got Cara some friend mac n cheese bites that I was a little hesitant about, but she ended up loving and ate so well! We also gave her bites of our ice cream (Larry's usual bubble gum and me with my play doh...so yummy!) and she really loved that! It was so cute to watch her open her mouth as she sat on Larry's lap and he'd bring a spoonful of a bit up to his mouth, but she thought she was getting it. 

• After lunch we went home so Cara could nap. I tidied up some and just worked on my computer for a bit while Larry played games.
• After nap time we went to Nickel City. Cara was a tad worried at first - it was a lot of noise, lights, and people to suddenly be around, but eventually she warmed up to everything and loved riding some of the little kid rides they had. I think I spent a majority of my cash card on her riding the mini carousel. Larry got to play a lot of games and Cara found the drinking fountain again so she wanted to play with the button again. We ended up lifting her up and she got to drink from it a little bit. Sometimes she seems like she's getting so big all of a sudden!

• Next we stopped at Godfather's Pizza for some pizza and cinnamon strudel. We watched The Nut Job with Cara and then after she went to bed we watched Iron Man (we've decided to watch the Marvel series for our Saturday Movie Date Night).
• Today (which is his actual birthday) Larry got to relax. He got a nice nap, we just got groceries and I did laundry. It was a good weekend. The only reason we did the celebration yesterday is because some of the places were closed today (with it being Sunday), but I did feel like his actual birthday he should get a nice relaxer day since that's what he likes to do.

So, as I said, it wasn't a Hawaiian vacation, but he got to have a day that he wanted and it was all about him. What more could he ask for? Seeing Cara climb and go down stairs was so exciting and the fun she had a Nickel City was too adorable! She sure loved that Carousel! AND she even started giving high fives with clapping afterwards, which was so cute! I sure love this little family of mine, I'm so excited to have another one to add to the festivities next year!