20 Weeks Pregnant

20 Weeks. Halfway there to our due date of February 14. I feel both babies move all the time now although Rory more than Patrick. And I can see lots of movement as well, which didn't happen until I was a bit further along with Elijah. I think baby movement is one of my favorite parts of pregnancy (besides the cute belly of course!).  Insomnia continues to kick my butt but I no longer have heartburn (such a blessing!) and other than feeling exhausted by 2:00PM due to lack of sleep, I feel pretty great. I still get braxton hicks contractions and sometimes they kick in when I am rocking Elijah to sleep which makes it a bit uncomfortable but hey, that's what husbands are for, right?

One of the other great things about turning 20 weeks......as far as the ER is concerned.....I have a "viable" pregnancy. Oh that just makes me so mad thinking back to my ER visit late in my first trimester and the around the same time with my pregnancy with Elijah. Viable. At 20 weeks. Really? But I won't think about that today. Today is a day of milestones and accomplishment!

I had my first appointment with my midewife/doula since our consultation and it was awesome! She actually trains doulas as well and asked if I would  mind one of her doula's in training attends our appointments and my birth. I am so excited! Another fabulous person to add to our team! And the doula that was there this time was one I had met at the birth story meeting and liked very much! Though I loved all the girls there (several of whom where doulas in training) and would be happy to have any of them at our birth! We talked about our birth preferences/plan and I am now beginning to outline and write that as well as a list of questions for my doctor at our next visit (which is Monday). I asked him a ton when I was interviewing doctors but there are many details I need to check on. Because we are having a twin VBAC, there is a limited number of doctors to choose from but I feel confident I found one of the best and I know he will accommodate what he can.  And Shannon (my doula) is AMAZING! I am so blessed to be receiving her top notch care and just to have access to her.  She lives literally 10 minutes from my house which is awesome and convenient for us both but I would totally drive hours just to see her!

I really wanted to take childbirth classes again, just to refresh but it just isn't in our budget right now so I told Chip we could have our own little class at home with the materials we have from last time and some new concepts I want to try. I decided that 20 weeks was a good time to start because the Bradley classes are broken down into 12 week sessions and that would take us up to 32 weeks. I also want to learn more about hypnobirthing. I read the book and know I want to do it so we will hopefully get a hold of that material and incorporate that into our little private classes as well. Chip is out of town tonight but I am hoping to have our first "class" on Sunday after Elijah goes to bed! I have also started doing squats and stretching and will add some more of the Bradley exercises to this little regime.  I have not started the yoga yet and I just want to kick myself. I was sick last week into this week and so my walking took a hiatus.  I finally felt a bit better to start walking again but I have realized that because I am just spent by the afternoon that my original plan for evening yoga three nights a week will just not work. I need to do it in the morning if I am going to do it at all. So the plan is to try my 30 minutes of yoga after our walk. Elijah will be up which might make it hard but we will see how it goes. I plan to check in next week with a full report on how these new endeavors pan out!   In the meantime, here are those belly shots!

20 Week Belly!

I cannot believe how fast this is going now!

I think this is my favorite size belly. Nice and round but not so big that it gets in the way. But.....we still have a long way to go!

My sweet little boys. 

Still learning how to do self portraits in focus on my DSLR. Did not succeed on the Elijah pics but i had to include one anyway. 

And some of you guys' favorite shot....the fruit! This week we are bananas! 

Elijah is 17 Months Old!

My, time flies when you are having fun! I can't believe I am one month away from having an 18 month old. I remember looking at 18 month clothes we got before Elijah was born and thinking they looked so big compared to the tiny outfits I had laid out for his first days. I look at him now and he does not look so big. Don't get me wrong, there are days when I wonder what happened to my "baby" but most days, he still looks so small to me.  I am enjoying that right now because I know as soon as Rory and Patrick are born, Elijah will look huge to me.

Elijah and I really are enjoying our days together, our last ones as a twosome during the weekday. Because of my chronic insomnia, I'm afraid I am not as active as I would like to be with him right now but we still manage to have a lot of fun together. He still loves to help and is always finding new ways to be Mama's little helper. The latest way is by flushing the toilet for me. I know, I know. It is very weird but he likes doing it and I am beginning to wonder if he might be an early potty trainer because lately, he has been waking up with dry diapers.....and this kiddo has always been a heavy overnight wetter. Part of it might be that we no longer give him a bottle.  We had started to give him bottles when he weaned because I had a couple thousand ounces of pumped breastmilk for him.  We finished the breastmilk around 15 1/2 months but so loved the cuddling bottle time before bed and I don't think either of us was ready to give that up. Lately he had been showing less interest in the bottle and I had said from the beginning that once the breast milk was finished, the bottle would be gone and it just fell into rhythm that way, with about a one month delay.  My challenge now is that I don't feel like he drinks enough of his coconut milk. He will sometimes take a little from his cup but he is a water kid through and through, which is no surprise because he has never had anything but water and coconut/almond milk to drink. He does have his smoothie and yogurt every day but I am thinking of adding some calcium to his smoothie to up his intake because that mineral is so important.

Elijah had been very cranky for this past month or so and we figured out why. His molars (FOUR OF THEM!) all came in at once! He seems to have skipped the 3rd and 4th bottom front teeth but I am sure they will come in soon. But his molars came in within days of one another.  Since then, he has been sleeping a bit better, though he still has some bad nights where he wakes up and either Mama or Daddy get no sleep. (Chip has started sleeping in Elijah's room instead of me occasionally so I can try to catch up on sleep).

Elijah's vocabulary is going strong. We determined that he is right on track (and actually a bit ahead) from where he is supposed to be at this age and that even though his words don't sound perfect, they still count. He has begun applying the word "good" to things other than food. He started to say "down" which sounds more like "dow".  He made up his soon sign for "all done" and I know we have heard him say "all done" a couple of times but not with any consistency. He also started signing "more". Now Chip and I do not focus on baby sign. I used sign more with him when he was about 6-8 months old but we really don't do it anymore so......I am not sure how he picked it up but he just started doing it when we asked him if he wanted more. So we just go with it! He continues to experiment with different sounds and seems to really like the hard "C" sound.  We are working on animals noises and he can do a dog and an elephant. Um, the elephant comes from the way my grandfather used to imitate it. I do the same with Elijah and he does it now. I can't really describe it but if you want to hear it, ask me to show you. :)

Elijah is so full of love and affection and gentle kindness. I can see empathy starting to emerge in his little personality. I was crying the other day (full of hormones....just one of those days) and walked over and gave me a hug.  A little boy was crying at Gymboree and Elijah picked up a bean bag and walked over to share it with him which actually did make him stop crying. Oh how I prayed for him to be a kind and gentle boy (and one day man) and he truly is.

I haven't done a real photo shoot with Elijah for a while and am DETERMINED to do one for his big 18 month update! But here are some shots from this past month!

Happily riding his rocking giraffe!

Helping Daddy take apart the table that we sold to make room for a new playroom!

My sweet gentle boy

Happy baby....I mean little boy!

Giddyup!

"hey there Mama"

Some Gymboree Fun!

Elijah favorite Gymboree activity....anything involving balls or bean bags!

"I have the ball, Mama!"

He looks so much like his Daddy. <3

September Trip To San Antonio

Elijah and I decided that it had been too long since we had been to San Antonio to visit Nan and my parents (since July!) so we packed up our new van and headed west! It was a fun few days full of a whirlwind of activity! We went to Sea World with Granmumsy where Elijah got to mingle with all of his favorite Sesame Street characters.  Pop took us to the zoo and on a train ride.  My parents gave Elijah his Halloween costume, ELMO!, and he tried it on for the first time. It was a big hit! And of course, Granmumsy gave Elijah several baths as she always likes to do when we visit. He loves their tub and they have no short supply of rubber ducks, his favorite bathtime toy. Because of Christmas Pageant rehearsal at church in December and the fact that I won't be traveling much after Christmas, we are going to try to visit in October and November too.  I'm not sure how long I will wait to make the San Antonio drive after the babies are born but we need our Granmumsy and Pop time while we can get it. Of course, knowing me, I'll be on the road to San Antonio with three babies by March. Afterall, we can't miss Pop's birthday!

This is a cute video of Elijah dressed as Elmo and his time with the Sesame Street Characters as Sea World

Visiting Nan

Elijah loves his Great Nan. 

I know Nan just loves our visits. She is watching Elijah play with her stuffed bunny. 

Such a sweetie. 

My sweet little redhead. 

Giving Nan a high five. 

Sweet little boy hugs are the best. 

Checking out the outdoor action. Squirrels and birds.

Bathtime at Granmumsy's and Pop's house. 

Splish splash!

Elijah and Granmumsy invented a duck game. Elijah puts the ducks on the edge of the tub and knocks them off into the water and Granmumsy shouts "Timberrrrrr!!!"

"Timberrrrr!!!!"

Sneak Peak at Halloween!

And here's Elmo!

He was so happy parading around in his Costume!

My little Elmo

Having some fun with Pop!

The backyard with Pop

San Antonio Zoo

Checking out the crocodiles with Pop!

Elijah gave the crocs raspberries. 

Loves his Pop. 

Just two dudes checking out the wildlife. 

Great photo op! We didn't get to see the real hipps cause they were eating but this one was pretty cool. 

Elijah's favorite thing was the train ride at the end I think. 

Pretty boy. 

He looks like such a big boy there!

Tired boy giving Pop some love

Sea World

Elijah is still too little for Franklin's show but he loves getting to meet the character!

I actually had a hard time tearing him away. 

He really did not want to let go. 

I love this picture! This may need to get a frame for Elijah's room!

Some love from The Count

I loved watching these guys love on my little guy!

Rosita seemed to be Elijah's favorite of the day.....other than Franklin of course. 

So cute!

Rosita really gave him a lot of attention. 

hugs :)

Cookie Monster doing a little photo bombing :)