32 weeks...

one week of bedrest down...two and a half more to go! things were a little rough for the first part of the week, but i'm so happy to say everything is much calmer now :) i'm only having contrac.tions for the most part when i stand up, so as long as i'm lying down or reclining, everything's good. except for my back...ouch! i can handle that much better than contrac.tions, though :)

this is pretty cool (not at the time--it was scary as crap) but now it's pretty cool. here's a pic of the contrac.tion monitor from my L&D trip tuesday. the bottom waves are contrac.tions and the flat line toward the end of the strip is where they gave me terb.utaline to stop them. it's kinda freaky to feel them just stop all of a sudden!


anyway, this pro.cardia has been a blessing since we figured out that i needed it every 4 hours instead of every 6 to keep everything calm. seriously...miracle drug! friday was the first day i thought i might actually make it to term :)

i've been doing alot of online browsing for Chase's new room. i decided the easiest thing would be to go ahead and give the new baby the current nursery and make a new little boy's room with bunk beds for Chase. we're going to do a woodland owl theme--so cute! here are some pics of the bedding and decor:




and just because i'm not sure how many of these i'm going to be able to take, i wanted to remember what my belly looked like with my second sweet boy cuddled up :)

please excuse the bedrest attire. that's about as good as it gets lately, lol.

my, how things change...

i was cruising along just a week ago, running all over the place and caring for my energetic almost two year old. after weekend trip to visit my friend's new baby last sunday, i started having contractions. so i spent a couple hours of trying to ride it out with rest and forcing fluids, but finally decided it was time to go to L&D. wish i could say things have gotten better since then, but after four terb.utaline shots, a prescription for a drug that is supposed to stop contractions (pro.cardia), steroid shots for baby's lungs, and home bed rest, things are really not too much better. well, today anyway.

the good news is that my cervix is holding steady at 3.5, so even though the contractions are sometimes coming every 5 minutes, they don't seem to be strong enough to cause me to dilate yet. thank God! we really need this little guy to bake another 8 weeks (i'll take any time i can get, though!) as of yesterday, he was estimated to weigh 4 lbs. 1 oz. (61%), so that's a great weight for 31.5 weeks...5 days ahead of schedule, even! it's reassurring to know that even if he was born today, he would had a very good chance of survival and maybe no long-term effects from prematurity. every day i keep him baking is three days less he'll have to spend in he NICU, so it is well worth it.

i do miss so much holding and taking care of Chase, though. he's been with family all weekend, and i have missed him terribly. i've also been kicking myself a bit about not doing more to prepare for the new baby's arrival. i just thought i had so much time left to get it done! and i'm determined to take a belly pic as soon as i can tolerate getting dressed and standing for it.

anyway, i'm hoping this is just a little blip in the radar and will pass soon. meanwhile here is a cute pic of a sweet sleeping baby:


and our last trip to Tar.get for awhile:

goodbye 2011...

i will miss it, though. i'll miss my sweet baby's last year before the challenging 2's fully hit. how much i loved watching with bated breath as he learned how to crawl, to pull up, to walk, and to run. and now he does so many things daily that amaze me...from busting out a random word i've never heard before to kissing my belly, whispering "hi, bay-bee" :::melt:::

i'm not sure he truly knows what's coming (nor do we, lol), but i feel sure that 2012's gonna get a whole lot more interesting up in here!


this is what happens when you leave him unsupervised near the diaper bag...oops!
that would be about 30 diapers and a pack of 72 wipes individually pulled out and scattered across the room ;)

this child loves him some books!

before i post Christmas pics, just wanted to give a shout out to my IF chica's who blew the roof off this week with a confirmed pregnancy and heartbeat (gotta keep the deets in for a bit), a delivery of a baby girl for one of my BFF's who has waited a VERY long time for this moment. and not about kicking IF butt, but just as special, was Baby T's 1st birthday!!!




it seems like a lifetime ago that he made his early arrival. and the past year has been a long string of continuous miracles. all you could really do was sit back and watch while God took him under his wing

is there anything cuter than bathtub pics? love.


a little update i've forgotten to mention is that Chase is in weekly speech.therapy now for a very mild delay. the therapist noticed at 18 months that he only had 5 words (they wanted 20+). he has made such great progress since starting, though, and is now up to 25+ words at almost 21 months and still signs like crazy!

Christmas pics!


here's a video of him opening his big present (a workbench) but it makes me a little sad to add it, though, because we lost my precious aunt this week and one of her favorite things to do was watch Chase's videos on the blog. she was always asking me to add more videos. this one is for you Aunt Gail. i wish so much you could have met him. you were deeply loved and will be greatly missed :)



hope all of you have a wonderful 2012!

gen.der reveal!!...

and so it came together...all of the cutting and pasting and decorating and planning...for the one very special moment when we lifted the top to a box that held our little secret. i think it was even more fun than it would have been to hear those words in the delivery room :)






we ate, and talked, and laughed while our family and friends picked sides and offered up names:

TEAM PINK:
TEAM BLUE:
chase was like...wait a minute here. that new baby ain't moving into my spot yet, is he? slow your roll, dude, this is Baby T!

it was pretty funny to realize that mom and dad were on different teams, lol ;)


picking names from the suggestion box:


THE BOX:
my friend pulled a little prank on us and wrapped up both stockings to make us wait a little longer. hiding underneath were some super cute outfits :) for a minute there R started to panic--thinking it was twins, ha ha!

what the??



IT'S A....................BOY!!!


We are so excited to be welcoming a second little boy into our family! i can't wait to see how much Chase loves having a baby brother. i feel blessed to be able to celebrate this new life with family as we came together to celebrate the most special life of all. wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

this and that...

thought i'd catch up on some photos and end with a surprise :)

Thanksgiving weekend pics:



one of his favorite things to do these days is show his belly off :)



all the cousins:


checking out Christmas lights in the park with the fam:






and a couple sweet videos:





jellybean update:

we've reached VIABILITY!! as of 24 weeks (almost 2 weeks ago), the little one was 1.5 lbs (54%) and looking beautiful as always on ultrasound. not sure i can even explain what an awesome feeling it is to hop up on the exam table expecting good news :) the bean is turning out to be an easy baby already!


little hard to tell, but that's the side-view of a foot/leg

so, i'm officially declaring "uncle" on team green. i thought we could hold out...and well, we did for a long time! but i'm ready to decorate a nursery and have been feeling a bit guilty that Chase had everything immaculately prepared for his arrival, from a hand-painted mural to blue m&m favors with his initials. and poor jellybean wouldn't even be coming home with a monogrammed blanket, lol. so this weekend will be our gender reveal party!!



we'll be unwrapping either a pink or a blue stocking to hang on the mantle. i'm so excited to find out what's kicking in there!!



for some fun, i thought i'd do a gender poll and give out some hints (or old wives tales, really) and see if you could guess what we're having.

exhibit a: ok, i know this is a total waste of money, but whatev ;) Intelli.gender at 15 weeks: (i could really go either way, depending on how you held it--but the company said it was clearly a BOY result)



exhibit b: chinese gender calendar says GIRL

exhibit c: cravings: salty (BOY) and sweet (GIRL).

exhibit d: heartrate: always above 150 (GIRL)

and finally, i think i'm carrying exactly same way as i did with Chase (plus a few extra pounds, ha ha), if that tells you anything.


i guess we'll find out on Saturday!!