Well folks… the best of intentions were overtaken by life.  I really did intend to blog every week of this pregnancy, or at least most of them.  But here I am basically a month from giving birth and I have done exactly 0 updates for you guys. And if future baby girl ever happens to read these blog posts, please do not interpret this lack of posting as representative of my love for you. And someday I hope you have two kids so that some small part of you will understand that it has nothing to do with levels of love and EVERYTHING to do with life and how busy life is with a toddler and a full time job. With that being said, here is an update:

Baby’s Size: a cantaloupe

Baby’s Progress: Baby is almost 5 lbs, is starting to gain more fat which helps regulate body temperature and adds those cute little chunky legs I fell in love with on Taylor.

Weight Gain: Overall I have gained about 18lbs, which is right on track for what I should have gained at this point in pregnancy.  HOWEVER, I feel like I’ve gained about 50… I keep telling Reese when I roll over in bed it feels like I’m a beached whale–he is a great husband and assures me that I’m not. I went back to look at my 34 Week Update with Taylor- and I have gained about the same amount of weight and I also mention feeling HUGE, so apparently I am nothing if not consistent.

Sleep: Sleep is actually still pretty good for me, except for the occasional trips to the potty pregnancy is not keeping me from sleeping.  Taylor however, sometimes does (although I can’t complain, even though she can be a very early riser, she is a GREAT sleeper for 2 years old… knock on wood).

Milestones: Well since the last update, we have had tons of milestones! We have finished the nursery–I’ll post pics soon–promise! We have had 2 sonograms–everything looks fine and healthy, she is right on track for growth and has a lot of hair we could see on the sono, so just like big sister! She moves a lot, so dad has gotten to see and feel her move quite a bit.

Favorite clothing item of the week: Shorts and leggings.  Comfort is key these days! Its starting to get really hot here in Kansas and we have a long week of 100 degree days ahead of us, so I’m just trying to stay inside the A/C and as comfy as possible!

Symptoms: I am actually very blessed this pregnancy that most of my negatives symptoms were stacked in the first half of the pregnancy! I do have some back pain that comes from 18 lbs of extra weight stacked in my belly… and my feet never really recovered from pregnancy #1, so I have to be careful about wearing comfier shoes! And I am still tired ALL OF THE TIME, but I’ve come to accept that as a fact of pregnancy!

Workout: I did go to my workout classes through month 6 of pregnancy, but man once summer came and I got bigger, I quit working out.  I haven’t even been swimming or walking much towards the end of this pregnancy, but I do chase Taylor around the house and still play with her quite a bit… so its not quite a sedentary life for me! I’m sure I’ll regret not working out post baby, but for now… I’m not picking up any exercise routines!

Overall life has been great these last few months, and while this pregnancy has definitely been harder than my first, we are super excited to be welcoming baby sister.  We talk to Taylor about it fairly often and she takes excellent care of her ‘baby’ at home… although her baby doll takes a few too many hits to the head when wandering through the house for us to be too comfortable with her ‘caretaking’ skills.

Since I was so neglectful in my weekly ‘bump pictures’ here are the precious few pictures I’ve taken that show off the bump over the past few months.

At a friend’s wedding in KC April 29th- about 25 weeks pregnant.

A week after that, in Dallas with my BFF and her daughter:

We took a trip to see my cousin get married in New York, so in lieu of bump updates from those weeks, here are a few pictures. The wedding reception venue was BEAUTIFUL about an hour north of NYC at the Brotherhood Winery. I’m about 32.5 weeks pregnant here:

And one photo with terrible lighting that I snapped for my mom of what I was wearing to go see Hamilton– but it does show off the bump– 32.5 weeks pregnant!

And just last week at Tanganyika- the local wild animal park where we have a membership and can go feed the giraffes whenever we want–one of Taylor’s favorite pastimes! 

And because I can’t resist a cute photo of Taylor, here is a pic from this weekend showing off her new stars and stripes swimsuit from Aunt B!

So, we announced on facebook yesterday that we are expecting baby girl #2 in our family! And even though anything resembling a routine feels like a long shot with a full blown toddler running around here, I’m going to attempt to weekly blog my pregnancy again… but no promises.

Just for fun, here is one of the MANY outtakes I had of Taylor from yesterday.  She had two bows that she wanted to put in her hair, and thought she was the CUTEST thing with both of them in her hair:

A little week 1-15 recap: Reese and I found out we were expecting about 2 days before Christmas, mostly because morning sickness hit with a VENGEANCE. We knew we were only about 5 or 6 weeks a long, so we didn’t really want to share it with family/friends yet and wanted to confirm it with a doctor before we did.  So I suffered through some pretty brutal morning sickness all day sickness through the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, trying out a few medicines before I finally found one that helped me keep food down.  It unfortunately didn’t touch the non-stop nausea, but at least I could eat.

We finally got confirmation from the Doc that everything looked good around week 9, so we began to tell our family.  Other than the morning sickness everything seems to be going really well. We intended to announce to the world around week 12 or 13, but somehow just couldn’t get our life together to snap a picture or think of something clever.  Then two weeks ago we did genetic testing (to each their own opinion on this, we decided to do it, much like we did with Taylor, because we are Type A personalities and want as much information as possible, not because it would change our love or feelings towards this child in any way) and so found out Monday of this week that she is a girl! I did at least have the nurse put the results in an envelope that Reese and I could open together instead of hearing over the phone.

So here we are, the end of week 15, so far the first trimester has simultaneously flown by and drug on and on and on.  I’m definitely ready to quit feeling nauseous, its getting better, but still not feeling totally myself. I am going to answer the same questions I did during the first pregnancy and this time I get to cheat and don’t have to look up what size baby girl is or what her progress is! Yay for cutting corners!

Baby’s Size: an avocado (or a grenade if you follow pregnant chicken’s weekly updates)

Baby’s Progress: Baby can now hear! And baby is about to double in weight and add several inches in length.  Baby is also pumping 25 quarts of blood a day… which feels like an enormous amount considering that baby is currently 4.5 inches long.

Weight Gain: a couple of lbs.  I lost about the same amount in first trimester I did with Taylor, but the pounds seem to be coming back a bit faster this time than they did with her!

Sleep: I’m sleeping pretty well.  It is funny to me how quickly I need a middle of the night trip to the potty. I feel like my body hadn’t really changed at all when I had to start resuming that nightly ritual.

Milestones: We found out that she is a she! And told the world this week! I love everyone’s sweet well wishes and I love knowing that baby girl has such a strong support group out there excited about her arrival! It also made me realize how many people we know that have two girls!

Favorite clothing item of the week: So I have been lazy and haven’t even busted out my collection of maternity wear.  So far my pants mostly fit (if a little lower than normal) and I have plenty of flowy shirts that I can wear, but pulling that container out of storage is definitely on the agenda this weekend.  Also… I’m super bummed that Gap stopped selling any of their maternity wear in store.  Now I’ll have to go online to order things! Bummer!

Symptoms: I still have some nausea that just won’t seem to go away, I also still have a killer sense of smell… which is definitely not a plus with a toddler and a dog on scene.  I also (like last time) get tired faster than I used to.  I like moving at super speed all the time, and find myself walking fast and having to slow myself down because it has made me tired or more nauseous.

Workout: I have been walking a bit and went to my workout class last week. I’m hoping to make it a few more times next week… we will see how that goes!