Baby update at 17 weeks

It’s so different with the second pregnancy. We’re so much busier this time around. . .which is funny because I’m pretty sure I thought I was really busy the first time around! 

Some things that are different with this pregnancy than my first . . .

• I just looked back at some pics and I was so much bigger at 17 weeks with Stratton. My nose had already spread considerably and I had already gained 7+ lbs! I’m getting bigger, but not anything major. It’s all right in my stomach making it hard and uncomfortable to wear regular pants. Especially since my colon surgery scar is right on my belly button, it’s really hard to wear tight pants! But I thought everyone said you “popped” out faster with the 2nd one- so far, I think I’m smaller this time around. My hips and rear end haven’t gotten any bigger at all- which is a change from when I was pregnant with S. I completely filled out those maternity pants at 16 weeks with him!
• I was so tired! I remember having to take naps when I got home from work! I don’t know if I just have more energy this time, or if it’s because I don’t have the option to take a nap so my body doesn’t think about it?? I have been going to bed early- 9ish most nights if I can get away with it! There were a couple of days last week when I was on my feet all day long and I had to come home and put my feet up. My legs feel like jello when I stand all day. So far no swelling ankles though!
• I had already picked out bedding and we had started setting up the baby’s room.(We are no where near that point yet!) I think we will use the same bedding that we had for Stratton. I like it and it’s gender neutral, plus we have so many other home projects and things coming up that are going to cost us a lot of money, so I can’t really justify spending $$ on bedding and décor when we already have stuff that is in perfect condition. Plus I don’t foresee us staying in this house for much longer, so I’d rather wait and do he/she a nice new room in our new house in a year or two.
• I was obsessed with finding a name(s). . .now I’m not going to worry about it too much till we at least know what we’re having. I’m still actively looking, but not nearly as consumed as I was the first time!
• I read pregnancy books all the time and was looking on the internet at my symptoms. This time, I don’t have any books- I let a friend borrow them- and I really don’t look up anything. I get a weekly newsletter from “TheBump.com” and that’s about as far as I have read about anything.
• I didn’t feel Stratton kicking till I was over 20 weeks. Maybe it’s because I know what it feels like this time? But I have been feeling flutters and thumps for a good 2 weeks or more.
• I was SOOOOO good when I was preggers with S. No caffeine, very little tylenol and other drugs, I didn’t eat anything that was on the “potentially unsafe list”- including lunch meat and Caesar dressing. . .this time around. . .Haha. All I can say is poor baby. I am letting my self have one caffeinated drink a day- it’s usually a tea or coke- and I’m not giving myself a hard time for taking tylenol for my splitting headaches and benedryl and zyrtec for my allergies and I’m also taking pepcid twice a day for the awful heartburn!! The way I look at it is, I did just about everything right with S and look at all the problems we had. I think of those people on tv who never knew they were pregnant and still had healthy babies! It’s too much to think about and worry about! So I am just trying use my head and do everything in moderation and not get too crazy about the rules!! Plus trying to keep up with a 2 year old without caffeine is impossible!

I have a whole lot more on my plate with work and Stratton now, I guess I just don’t have the time and or energy to keep up with things the way I did with my first pregnancy. To tell you the truth, other than being tired and hungry I don’t feel much different. I haven’t gained much weight at all, or at least not that I can tell. And my energy level has increased in the last couple of weeks!  I started the progesterone shots last week, I will be taking them weekly till 37 weeks. Brandye came over last Tuesday night and gave the first one to me. It wasn’t bad at all. One down, 20 more to go hopefully!

Pregnancy Stats:

How Far Along: 17 weeks

Size of baby: About the size of an onion around 5 inches long and weighs about 6 oz.

Maternity Clothes: Just starting to need pants. There is a problem however, I can’t fit into my regular pants (or at least not comfortably) but my old maternity pants are way too big?? I’ve had to buy a few new things in the last week.

Gender: We get to find out in less than 3 weeks. . .or 20 days!

Movement: He/she is a hyper little thing, I can feel flutters and thumps pretty much all day but especially after lunch and in the evenings.

Sleep: I‘m not sleeping through the night, I have to get up at least once to go to the bathroom. And lately it’s just hard to get comfortable, I toss and turn a lot.

Cravings: Food. . .basically any food in general. But I want REAL food all the time, not sweets and snacks. I had a cheeseburger for breakfast one day last week and it really hit the spot! And Tea- I like mine 1/2 sweet 1/2 unsweet and I want it all the time!

Symptoms: Starting have those round ligament pains and OUCH they hurt! I’ve always got horrible heartburn, frequent headaches and I am already gettting SO forgetful!

Best Moment This Week: Getting my first progesterone shot and watching Stratton watching me get it! He smiled and laughed! Little stinker!! Then he told my mom and dad that I cried!

Gender Test!

I did this with Stratton, three weeks before we found out the gender and I was so WRONG!! So let’s see about it this time around. . .

The Real Deal guide to pregnancy (which just happens to be my FAVORITE book on pregnancy) has this check list. . .

It's a boy if. . . .    

1. When you add your age at the time of conception and the number of the month you conceived, the sum is an even number.(Otherwise known as the Chinese predictor, which was right with Stratton!) ~ Yes
2. The dad-to-be is packing on the sympathy weight.~No
3. You skipped morning sickness.~ Yes
4. Headaches are a regular occurrence.~ YES
5. You've never looked better!~ Baahaa. Definitely a NO
6. You look like you stuffed a basketball up your shirt.~No, I really just look a little bloated
7. Your nose is getting wider.~ Not yet, I don’t think?
8. Your leg hairs are growing like weeds!~ Yes
9. Your pee is easter-egg yellow.~ Yes
10. You crave salty or sour foods or proteins.~ Yes! All the time! Especially pickles!! (just like with Stratton!)
11. Your baby's heart rate doesn't exceed 140 bpm.~ Yes
12. Your tooties are chillier than usual.~No
13. Your hands are as dry as the desert.~ Yes, and elbows and knees. . .
14. Your bump rides low.~ Yes, the “bloat”
15. A ring swings back and forth when dangled from a string over your belly. ~ No, it goes in a circle

So that's 8 Yes and 6 No and 1 not sure!

It's a girl if. . . .

1. When you add your age at the time of conception and the number of the month you conceived the sum is an odd number.~ No
2. Your age when you conceived and the year you conceived are both even or odd numbers.~ No
3. Your Junk is in the trunk and your hips rather than your tummy area.~ No, in fact the only thing that is getting larger is my stomach
4. You got intimate with morning sickness during your first trimester.~No
5. PMS is nothing compared to your pregnancy moods.~ No, I don’t think I’ve been moody. . .but Jarrod might have a different opinion.
6. Pregnancy doesn't become you.~ Yes, I feel fat and icky all the time
7. You look like you stuffed a watermelon under your shirt.~ No, I'm not big enough to tell
8. You look like you got a boob job.~ Yes
9. Your left breast could beat your right if both were in a wet t-shirt contest where size mattered.~ No
10. Your hair turned slightly redhead.~ Not sure?? My roots are grey, not red!?
11. Your pee is a dull yellow color.~ No
12. Sweets are your craving of choice~ No, currently I am addicted to pickles and oranges with lots of salt!
13. Your baby's heart rate is at least 140 bpm.~Yes
14. Your face reminisces the breakouts of your teen years.~ No, it’s actually not been too bad
15. You are carrying high.~ No
16. A ring swings in a circular motion when dangled from a string over your belly. ~ Yes

So that's 4 Yes and 10 No and 2 not sure!

The jury is still out for me. I felt like it’s a boy from the start- but then again I thought S was going to be a girl?? I honesty don’t care. Once you’ve had a little boy, it’s hard to imagine having a girl though!! I have bought something for this baby already and it was for a boy- So I probably jinxed that and it will be a girl for sure!! Haha! Stratton says it’s a baby brother, and he used to waiver back and forth- but he hasn’t said anything about a sister in over a month! I hope he doesn’t get disappointed! We will try and take him to our next appointment since the next time they should be able to see the parts better! Plus he did so good and seemed to have fun. They make it special for him, so it’s worth it. 

I have consulted a professional baby namer for her help! She is a good friend of Kristen’s and she is just a person that is super interested in names and does it in her spare time for free. She has her own facebook page called “Namefreak” if you want to look her up! She sent me a questionnaire to fill out and it was fun! Then she sent lots of interesting ideas based on the information she got! She didn’t just send a list of names- each name she recommends has a meaning that is associated with some of the personal information we provided her with- super neat!! If you are in the market for a baby name I highly recommend her and I can give you her email address if you want it!

Livy’s Birthday Party

Last night we went to Livy’s 3rd birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese! Stratton loves CEC but hates the actual character! Anytime Chuck E came around Stratton ran away or grabbed on to one of us!

Livy & Stratton

Haha! I think he’s already scared of girls!

Riding the carousel with Livy and Carson

It’s hard to see, but in this pic Jarrod is carrying around baby Parker (Carson and Livy’s 3 week old brother), and taking care of Stratton- He’s a natural! I’m glad someone is!! I was eating. . .haha.

An Egg-stra special Saturday

Saturday was a busy day for Stratton and myself! Jarrod went back to the farm, so Stratton and I went to the Easter Egg hunt at church that morning!

While we were trying to get ready for the Easter Egg hunt, Stratton built an island!

Then he built a mountain- which he would climb to the top of and then roll off! Who knew a pile of pillows would be so fun!?

Haha! He wasn’t a fan of the teddy bear backdrop!

It was really warm outside!

He got 15 eggs all by himself! I didn’t even have to point them out!

Yay! The eggs had candy in them!!

After the egg hunt, we went home and took a long nap! Then Aunt Brandye came and picked him up and they went to the movies to see the Lorax! She said he was so good the whole time! He barely even budged throughout the movie. I guess it didn’t hurt that she let him eat lots of popcorn and drink diet coke! I ran some errands and did some birthday shopping while they were at the movie. After the movie I met them at Dixie Café (Stratton’s pick) for supper. Then Stratton and I went home, got a bath and got ready for bed. Jarrod got home just a little before 9pm and Stratton wanted to wait up to see him. He went to bed shortly after.

Friday fun

Wow! What a LOOOOOONNGG week!! I am happy to finally be done with a huge project at work! But where in the world did the month of March go??

Friday afternoon I had a dentist appointment. I took Stratton with me thinking he might let them look at his teeth. . .wrong! He actually bit his lip so that Brooke couldn’t see anything!

After we left the dentist we headed to Hickory Ridge to catch up with Jarrod. He was off so he spent the day helping on the farm. We got to ride the tractor with him for a little while and Stratton always loves that. By the way it’s impossible to take pictures on a cramped tractor when it’s really bumpy!!

Time to go home. . .well to Gigi’s house. . .for supper!

Driving the truck. . on the gravel road.

Playing in the dirt!!

Stratton’s Spring Pictures

The gallery can be view at http://lturnerphotography.com

Click on the picture of the baby where it says {enter}

From the menu on the right click on “Client Proofing”

Our password is staggs2012

The newest pics are in “Stratton12 ”

I think they are pretty good considering he was mad and not cooperating AT ALL!

The name game

With Stratton, we thought about and talked about names a lot more than we have with this pregnancy. I guess it being our first, we were excited and it was fun. This time, however it seems a little more daunting! I’d love to stick with another “S” name, and have that alliteration in his/her name but “S” names we like are few and far between. We’d like to include a family name this time like we did with Stratton. This time from my side of the family, which really doesn’t leave a whole lot of options. It will probably be a middle name.  There is just so much to think about- it’s easy for me to get overwhelmed! Here is some of my criteria to help me stay focused!!

1. I try to be practical, thinking about how this is not just a name for a baby, but one day will be a name of an adult. I try to think of the name in question on a baby, child, teen, college student (graduation), young adult (looking for a job), married adult (what it will look like on wedding invites), and older person. . .if it doesn’t seem to fit all those categories I throw it out!  A name has to stand the test of time.  Example: Poppy for a girl, super cute and really popular. . .but can you picture a 80 year old lady named Poppy?

2. No funny spellings. It should be spelled the way it sounds! And be easy to pronounce. And I don’t like names that have a ton of different spellings. I feel bad for Jarrod- his name is NEVER spelled right. Even family members frequently get it wrong. There are just so many ways to spell Jarrod, the most common being Jared, which is how it is spelled on our wedding picture dvd! My name is sometimes hard, but I can usually tell people that it’s Christina with a “C” and they get it right.

3. It needs to have a flow. Like Stratton (2 syllables ) Staggs (1 syllable). It usually has to have one more or less syllable than the last name, to have a flow. Most guys have a good point in naming their boys. They think about how it’s going to sound being called out by the announcer at a football game or baseball game. . . . “Stratton Staggs on the tackle!” As silly as that seems, having a good flow with the first and last name and sounding good when said aloud is a big deal. I mean the kid is going to hear it said like that from the time they are in daycare to college graduation and beyond! Roll call!

4. It has to go with “Stratton”.  Example: “Happy Birthday, from Stratton and Joe.” Doesn’t really sound that great- no offense to any Joe’s out there.

5. It has to look good written out. This is a hard one for me, since I am so visual and drawn to names that look great in print. Example: I love the way the name “Thatcher” looks, but alas. . . it’s sort of hard to say and spell. Especially to a toddler.

6. Another bummer is the fact that our name begins with an “S” sound, which makes it hard for names like Hayes, Myles and names that end in “son”- like Anderson but are really hard to say with Staggs. There are so many names that end in “son” out there right now that I like so I’m not totally knocking them out if they end in the “S” sound but they’ll definitely lose a point or two!

Ok, so I might be OCD about it, but it’s a big deal! It’s a lot of pressure naming another person! Please let me know if you have any good names you’d like to submit as a contender! We have a list of some names we like (see poll on the right), but you know Stratton wasn’t even on our radar until after we found out it was a boy and I saw it two places in a week (once on Nymbler and then on a invoice that came across my desk from Stratton Seed Co. in Stuttgart), and it just seemed right and fit most of the criteria! So if you have some suggestions, please share we are very open to ideas!

Here is a fun website that I like for baby names.

2nd Dr. Appointment

Friday was an interesting day- and didn’t go as expected (as if anything does these days!). Stratton was so good for the most part. We picked him up at Jarrod’s mom and dad’s house around 9ish and he was ready to go! He was ready to go to see the baby! He told us that “the baby isn’t ready to come out”. We had bought him the Muppets movie, just in case he wasn’t wanting to leave but he was surprisingly happy. And once he saw the new movie he could care less where he was or who was around! He just wanted to watch it!!

We had to wait about 15 minutes at the Dr. office, and luckily I had remembered to bring the ipad! So it wasn’t bad at all! Stratton played some games and was great. We got into our room and Stratton was really quiet. The staff is so great and talked to him directly- which is always nice. The nurse we had today was really chatty and tried to get S to talk to her, but he wasn’t giving it! She got my stats and everything looked good. I was actually down a pound! I don’t know how that is possible with everything I am eating!!

When Dr. Smith came in and tried to get the ultra sound machine working- just like last time, she couldn’t get the printer to print! So they took us in the big U/S room where there was a big screen tv that displays the monitor larger than what is on that little screen! I was excited! It was good for Stratton, too. It was much easer for him to see. Well the tech worked and worked and jiggled and pushed, but she couldn’t get the little stinker to move where she could see what the gender was! He actually had his legs like he was sitting indian style! The Dr and the tech were both leaning towards a boy, but they said don’t get anything monogrammed yet, as they weren’t 100% positive! Ugh!! The tech said that she saw something’s that were suspiciously pointing towards a boy, but it’s hard to tell whether it was a boy part or just part of the cord! So, now we have to wait another 5 weeks before my next appointment to be sure! I knew it was a possibility, but was still disappointed! It’s going to be a long 5 weeks!

Here are the videos of the ultrasound. And since the baby looks kinda like an alien right now, it’s a little scary! But it’s neat that they put the entire thing on a dvd to take home. Especially since Stratton has carried around the hard copy pictures and messed them up! You can see when the tech is jiggling and pushing around trying to get him to move around! The last video has more of his face and the 4d part.

 

 

Baby Staggs-1 March 23, 2012

Baby Staggs-2 March 23, 2012

Baby Staggs-3 March 23, 2012

Baby Staggs-4 March 23, 2012

 

After my appointment we went to Loca Luna for lunch. Stratton fell asleep in the car on the way so I carried him in and he slept through most of lunch! He did wake up in time to sample some cheese dip and tomato dip (as he refers to salsa) and he ate some of Jarrod’s fish and fries. Healthy lunch, I know. It was so good! I love that place!! After lunch we stopped by Gene Lockwood’s and Stratton got a new pair of Toms. Then we headed to the zoo! The weather was awesome, so I was really looking forward to it. But things changed when we got up close to the zoo. There were cars parked everywhere! It was crazy! There were about 100 people standing in line to get tickets and no where to park! We decided to try and come back another time- as it would have been frustrating for Stratton since he wouldn’t be able to see anything and also there were so many people I’m not sure we could have used the stroller and S is too heavy to carry him around the whole time, and we sure weren’t letting him walk on his own!! He was so MAD!! So we took him to Learning Express Toy Store and he got to pick out a new toy and then we got yogurt! Not the same, but it helped a little. We ran by Fort Thompson before heading home. We thought about stopping in Searcy, but S was taking such a good nap we kept on going. He woke up about Cash, so he got a pretty good nap! We rested at home for a bit then decided we didn’t want to cook so we went to Fat City for supper.

It was a long day, and was a little disappointing. But I’m glad we took Stratton. He has been talking about seeing the baby and how they put jelly on my tummy! We will probably take him next time, which is April 27th- 5 days before we leave for the beach! So at least we’ll hopefully know before we go on vacation! He also took the pictures to church and showed his class pictures of his “baby brother”- which is usually what he says when referring to the baby. Every once in awhile he’ll say sister, but more often it’s brother. Maybe he knows something we don’t? Haha!