Halloween Fun

We have spread out our Halloween activities over the past weekend. Saturday we went to pick out a pumpkin. Sunday Troy and Luke carved the pumpkin. And tonight Luke and I went trick-o-treating with some of our neighbors. Unfortunately Troy is out of town and so was unable to participate in the gathering of candy (we were all bummed about this). Luke had fun with all three activities.

Finding the perfect pumpkin--Luke told us he wanted to find a tall one so we did our best to accommodate that request.

Carving the tall pumpkin--Luke requested here that we have a scary face. I think we were pretty successful with that although Luke wanted no part in helping Troy scrap out the slimy insides to get the scary face.

Request here: to get some candy--Luke and I had a great time walking around. When we got home though he was completely done with his costume because he was hot. You can see how sweaty he is in the bottom picture; however, mission accomplished. We got some candy :)

31-33 Weeks

Troy hasn't stopped taking pregnancy pictures of me I just haven't posted them the last few weeks. I think you can definitely see a difference between the 31 week pic and the 33 week pic below. I feel so much bigger lately. I really "popped" out last week I think. It's hard to believe there are only 7 weeks to go (I'm hoping for more like 5ish).

I feel overall pretty good. I'm definitely more tired the last couple of weeks and have started taking naps probably 2-3 afternoons a week. This little one is still having tons of hiccups and loves to throw some pretty big punches and kicks. My biggest complaint is the heartburn I've been having. Tums have really become my good friend :) I still get out of breath very easily and can't eat huge meals in one sitting but I'm thrilled that I get to experience this later stage of pregnancy out of the hospital. At this point with Luke I was only pregnant about a week and a half more and had been in the hospital for about a week.

The other big change is that this sweet little girl (love saying that!) has moved positions. She is now vertical with her head down rather than diagonal like she was last week. I have been hoping for this for quite a while now because diagonal wasn't so great for me; however, now that she's vertical I have to sit up very straight because her bottom is right under my rib cage but overall it is definitely more comfortable.

Picture Update

Some pictures from last weekend--the balloon bouquet for the gender reveal; a family shot and a girls shot from my baby shower (that my sweet friend Ashley had for me) and a couple from Grandma J's birthday celebration.

Monsters

So Luke is going through a monster phase. He loves to chase and be chased by them. He yells and screams and growls at them. He talks constantly about them. However, when the lights go out at night he is scared by them. Since Friday night he has called me up to his room about 45 minutes after he goes bed. Every night he has been crying by the time I get up there. He tells me he has had a bad dream about scary monsters. We sit in the rocking chair and I tell him the monsters aren't truly real and all the monsters he knows (from books, tv, and pretending) are good, fun and friendly. That seems to help for that moment. He gets back in bed and I rub his back and sing "Frere Jacques" and then Luke has no more bad dreams for the rest of the night.

I feel so bad for Luke. I can still remember some of the bad dreams I had as a child and I hope that he grows out of this phase quickly. Maybe we need to buy some monster-be-gone spray (aka water in a spray bottle with a bit of creative decorating by mom).

Gender Reveal

Okay if you do not want to know what the gender of this baby is then please don't watch the video. If you do want to know well then enjoy the show. At the beginning of the video you'll see my mom and then later Troy's parents along with my sister.

30+ Weeks

These pics were taken on Tuesday night--I was 30 weeks and 2 days pregnant. Yeah, there's definitely a baby in there. I get constant kicks, punches and wielding limbs to remind me which I love. So here's the rest of my list of preggo tidbits for now:

*I love that this baby moves so much but man oh man sometimes I just feel like a punching bag.

*I don't remember being this uncomfortable with Luke at this point (keep in mind that he was born at 34 weeks so the last 6 weeks of this one are all new territory for me).

*Leg cramps are not my friends. I'm really trying to be proactive and drink tons of water, stretch and walk more but I am still occasionally having cramps in the middle of the night. It scares Troy half to death when I sit bolt upright in pain. Hopefully I don't have 10 more weeks of cramps.

*I think I'm starting to get tired again. I find that between 3 and 4 I can hardly keep my eyes open. I know I should probably take a short nap while Luke does but I also think that I don't sleep as well when I do. And on top of not sleeping great anyways I don't want to add another reason for less sleep at night.

*Can I just say that getting out of breath from walking up the stairs is really annoying?!?! It drives me crazy especially when I've already been upstairs once and realize I forgot something. Having everything all squished up to your lungs isn't too great. Eating has also become more challenging because I don't have as much room in my tummy.

*Forgetting something isn't too uncommon these days either. I am usually very good about remembering things but definitely not right.

*My clumsiness factor has also greatly increased the last few weeks. Almost anything I touch has a 50-50 chance of being dropped. Thankfully I haven't broken anything yet. My balance is also off and I have to be more careful on the stairs.

Okay, so that just sounded like all I did was complain. Please don't interpret that as me not enjoying pregnancy because I do love being pregnant. Writing about it all helps me feel better though and everything I listed above is normal for being in your 3rd trimester. I am very anxious to meet this little one and adjust to being a family of four.

Oh, our final decision is to try to do a VBAC. Troy and I are both a bit nervous about this but know it is the right decision for me and the baby. We had our last appointment with my former OB on Tuesday and she took the news much better than we thought. We also had an ultrasound then and the tech estimated the baby to be 3 1/2 pounds and I only gained 1 pound the last 3 weeks which puts me at 18 pounds total. My first appointment with my midwife is this coming Wednesday. I am anxious to talk to her more and start creating the ideal plan for the birth of this baby.

Other Weekend Pics

Troy also took some other good pics of his and Luke's weekend together. Enjoy :)

Not sure how Troy took this while driving but I like it nonetheless.

Who doesn't love to play in the rain?!?

Luke will regret letting Dad take this one--definitely blackmail worthy!

On the Farm

Over the weekend while I was at my scrapbook retreat Troy took Luke to Topeka to visit Grandma and Grandpa. On Saturday afternoon while they went to the K-State game Troy and Luke went to Grandma's family farm. Luke loves to go to the farm and see the cows and chickens. This time though not only did he do that but he also got to ride in the tractor and the combine. Troy took video during each ride and I'll hopefully get that posted here soon but in the mean time here are a few pictures. Troy said Arlo, Neil and Marcene enjoyed having Luke there as much as Luke enjoyed his rides.

Tidbits from the Week

I have a bunch of random things floating around in my head from this week. I'm going to share them. Some are much longer than others but they are all worth sharing (from my perspective anyway).

**We've been potty training this week. I wanted to start on Sunday but it didn't happen until Monday. Luke has cried every morning this week except today when I told him we were going to put on underwear after taking off his diaper in the morning. Today he woke up with a dry diaper and saying, "Mom, I need to go potty." Hooray for progress!!! But back to the beginning.

Monday went really well. He only had one accident. The problem was he refused to poop on the potty and waited until he had his diaper on at nap time to do that. I figured with only 1 accident we were at least getting somewhere. We didn't leave the house all day and had a timer go off about every 25 minutes to remind us to go.

Tuesday was better. We still did the timer but Luke would tell me sometimes when it went off if he needed to go or not--more progress. He also waited until nap time to again go poop but we tried for over 10 minutes before he went down. Close to dinner time Luke had 2 accidents right in a row--the first of the day. I was a bit frustrated because I was trying to make dinner and he'd been doing so well. He told me he wouldn't have another accident so when the timer went off the next time I told him to sit on the potty until he went while I worked a bit on dinner. All the sudden he says, "Mom I pooped!" I was so excited that I scared him because I yelled so loud. He was proud of himself and he finally got his cars that we've had on the counter for over a month for this momentous occasion. What a great milestone!!!

Yesterday he went to school in underwear. I was concerned about this but didn't want to put him back in diapers. He only had 2 accidents at school which I thought was really good and none the rest of the day at home. I know that his teachers can't take him as often as if he were at home so I told him he did a good job and to try not to have any accidents today. I'm not holding my breath though because the firemen are bringing their fire engine today for all the kids to see; that equals major distraction.

**We had our appointment with the midwife yesterday to discuss having a VBAC. It went really, really well. It was very refreshing to have a positive reaction and encouraging answers to all of our questions. We both really liked the midwife and feel comfortable moving forward with doing a VBAC rather than another c-section. I'm still hesitant only because my pain tolerance is low and labor scares me a bit but I know it's the right thing to do for me and the baby.

So, the question is are we going to open the sealed envelope and find out if this baby is a boy or a girl? At this point I think we will. We have talked about making it a special event and we're debating between two options. Our anniversary is next week so that's one choice. The other is waiting until the weekend of the baby shower which is October 22 and opening it with most of our family here. We'll see :)

**Unfortunately Troy had to work late last night so Luke and I ate dinner without him. I absolutely love the conversation Luke started:

Luke: "Mom, how was the doctor today?"

Me: "It went really well Luke. Thanks for remembering."

Luke: "Did you have a busy day today?"

Me: "I did. I went to the doctor and Target. I had lunch and printed some pictures and I then I came to get you. Did you have a busy day?"

Luke: "I did Mom but I'll tell you about it tomorrow."

Me: "Why not today?"

Luke: "Because I'll tell you tomorrow."

I had told Luke yesterday morning that I was going to the doctor while he was at school. I'm super impressed that he remembered to ask me about it after his busy day at school and being very tired and a bit cranky because of his allergies.

**Luke asked yesterday afternoon to watch the baby movie. This is the 4D video we have from our ultrasound last week. It truly touches my heart that he is showing such an interest and concern for this baby already. While we were watching the video he pointed out the baby's nose, eyes, mouth, tongue and hands. He also asked me if that was the baby in my tummy several times. He even rested his hand on my tummy for part of the time we were watching. I can not wait to see his reaction when he meets this little one for the first time.

**This morning while waiting outside Luke's classroom for the teachers to open the door I was squatting in front of him reminding him about paying attention to his body and going potty when he needed to. He just randomly leaned over and gave me a big kiss and then a super big hug and said he loved me. I almost started crying. What a sweet, wonderful boy I have :)

Sunday in the Sandbox

Sunday morning Luke and I spent almost entirely outside. I would say for at least 45 minutes Luke played very contentedly in his sandbox. I've mentioned before how expressive Luke is but you'll see several different expressions in the pictures below; my favorites are the ones with real serious concentration looks.