Zoo it up.

We have been itching to take Jordyn to the zoo since things started warming up and we finally had an open Saturday to do it.  Jordyn LOVES animals and was so excited.  It really just could not have been a more perfect day.  The weather was breezy and overcast so I was not too uncomfortable and ornery (Chad jokes that I have an incredibly low heat tolerance, but we both know it is not really a joke as much as reality.)  The zoo was not too crowded.  Most of the animals were in their exhibits and active.  Just a perfect day at the zoo!

Goats.

Bears.

Playing Drums.  These two are buddies.

 

Elephants.

Taking a break.

Nothing better than a day at the zoo for this girl.  She even picked out her zebra shirt just for the occasion.

Take it all in because this is the ONLY picture I have taken with my prego belly.  35 1/2 weeks.  I loathe taking picture of my pregnant massiveness.

I took a picture during this last visit that looked so familiar I had to compare side by side.  Same drum.  Same chubby cheeks.  Same button nose.

We bought an annual pass on our way out so zoo posts may be frequent.  Love the zoo!

Prego Update

It has been a couple months since I wrote about my pregnancy, but I just wanted to add an update so I remember details in the future.  I am currently 32 weeks.  We have decided to go ahead and schedule a C-section.  To me, the risks of forcing a VBAC are just not worth it.  If I go into labor on my own before the C-section I will for sure try the VBAC, but I am not going to go through what I did last time with hours and hours on Pitocin and labor just to have a C-section anyway.  The fact that I barely dilated last time does not give me much hope for success.  I know people have successful VBACs all the time.  This just feels right for us.  The operation is scheduled for July 8th.  My actual due date is the 13th, so this is only a few days early. 

This girl moves sooo much.  She moves so big it hurts me.  I don't remember Jordyn moving like this.  The dr. keeps telling me to track the movements.  I just laugh cause she is literally kicking me all day long.  She is also sitting a lot lower than Jordyn did.  I am altogether shaped different.  Jordyn sat really high and stretched out all across my midsection.  This one is just a little ball making my belly poke straight out.  I forget how in the way the big belly gets.  The hardest thing is sewing.  Bending over to cut and sew for hours on end used to not be a big deal.  But with the belly, things get uncomfortable quickly!  I am not sure I can keep it up for 7 more weeks, but we will see if I wuss out or not. 

There are pregnancy woes that are much more evident this time around, and some that are not.  For instance, I had leg cramps all the time with Jordyn.  I have not had a single one this time around.  I experienced a lot more insomnia with Jordyn.  This time it has been all about the heartburn.  I guess you take the good and you take the bad, and in the end you get a beautiful baby!

We are struggling with names.  Before we were even married, Chad and I had talked about that we liked the name Jordyn and we wanted to give our first girl my middle name, Jane.  And that was it; it was decided.   We have thrown a lot of names around this time but have not settled on anything.  Nothing seems to be perfect.  We have middle names narrowed down to 2.  First names, we have about 6 on the list.  I guess we will just see.

A friend in my ward had a baby girl last summer and she sold me all of her clothes.  Jordyn was born the last day of September and all her newborn/ 0-3 month clothes are warm winter jumpsuits and sweaters.  I can't do that to a baby in July!  I was very grateful for all the clothes and it has made me more and more excited to see them laying out in the spare bedroom!  My friends here are also throwing me a shower in a couple weeks.  They are so good to me!

Nonstop!

All my posts lately have been about Jordyn, but really, what else do I have to talk about?!

Jordyn talks all. the. time.  It really never stops.  She is just jabbering or singing to herself at almost all points in the day.  When she was younger I was so eager for her to talk and my oldest brother kept telling us not to push it because it would soon drive us crazy.  He was right.  I do love to sit by her door during her nap time and listen to her talk to all her toys.  I try to be patient about the chatter, cause sometimes it does push me over the edge on an already bad day.  I feel like it is worst in the car.  She has a comment about everything she sees while we are driving.  And she wants everything she says to be validated.  Here is an example from the car the other day.

JJ: Look mommy, the sun!
Me:  Yep.
JJ:  The sun is big.
Me: Yep.
JJ:  The sun is hiding in clouds.
Me: (quiet)
JJ:  Mom, the sun is hiding in the clouds.
Me: (quiet).
JJ:  Mom........Mom........ Mommy........ MANDI!
Me:  What?
JJ:  The sun is hiding in the clouds.
Me:  Yep.

The other day, we got a sitter and Chad took me to lunch for my birthday.  We were driving down the road, and the car was silent!  Amazing!  I can handle the constant singing more than the random, needy chatter.  I think her singing is about the sweetest thing on this earth!  I had to get it recorded so I can hold onto the sweetness forever!  It is kind of a long video.  Because she was cooperating, I just kept going!  Also not sure why the video is so bright!

She is big kid now!

Well, it has been a month since I have blogged, so I figured I should find something to say. 

When I think back on the past few weeks, I laugh cause my life has all centered around one thing.  Potty Training.  It is unbelievable how that took over my life but I think it is done and we can move on with more normal things.  We actually attempted potty training a few months ago, about mid February.  I was dumb and tried to do it a week Chad was out of town for work.  We tried for 3 days and had zero successes.  I basically trapped her in the kitchen where clean up on the wood floor was easiest.  Three days in only the kitchen was torture.  We built a fort for her and she was very content to just play in her "house" all day.  I was the one that struggled.  And without Chad to take over while I took a break to the grocery store, or to even sew and take packages to the post office, it was just not working out.  I gave up for the time being, but tried again the first week of April.  She was so much more ready and understood so much better it was almost miraculous.  By the evening of the first day, she had it down.  We were only in the kitchen "fort" for a day and a half before I trusted her to play in the carpeted areas of the house.  And she really has not had many accidents.  Chad asked me if potty training was harder than I thought it would be.  My answer:  Not necessarily harder, just more consuming that I had imagined.  That crap you read on pinterest where you potty train your toddler in 3 days is nothing but lies!  (at least for us).  Even though Jordyn basically got to the potty every time she needed to after the first day, I still needed to be at her beckon call to help her.  It took days before I could trust her to get her pants and panties off all by herself and climb onto the toilet herself.  It took over a week before I could trust her to go out of the house and run errands with me.  Sad and pathetic as it sounds, it just totally took over my whole life.  I guess that is what it takes though.

And now, brace yourself for the worst of potty training experiences.  I have had an issue with nap time.  Jordyn doesn't nap, she just goes to her room and plays for a couple hours.  I did not want to get her out of that habit while potty training, or to think she can just say she has to go potty and she can get out of her room.  So I put a pull up on her and told her they were "princess panties" and she should try not to pee or poop in them.  On about day 5, I put her in the pull up and sent her to her room for nap.  After about an hour she was pounding on the door and crying which is not super  unusual.  She often tries to get me to let her out.  This time she cried for about 20 minutes when I decided she was not going to give up.  Right when I opened the door, she was standing there with poop all over her hands!  Not only that, she had wiped poop all over the walls and the door.  She cried and cried as I took her to bathroom to wash her up.  In a pathetic little voice she said, "Poop on a hands is a bad choice."  She was so devastated by the whole thing, I just could not be mad at her.  After some investigation, I realized she had pooped in her diaper, and because she had not had poopy diaper in 5 days, she stuck her hand down there to take care of it.  After she got poop all over her hands, she tried to wipe it off on the walls and started banging on the door to tell me.  Super mommy moment.  But she was pretty horrified by it all and I am sure she will NEVER get poop on her hands again!

She had a potty chart she got to put a princess sticker on every time she went in the toilet.  She was so excited about it every time!

Words Her Way

Jordyn has been saying some seriously rediculous stuff lately!  I don't know where she comes up with it all.

• After we got home from church.....
• Jordyn: I want a sippy.
• Me: Ok, just a minute because I have to go change my pants.
• Jordyn: Oh, you pooped?
• After Jordyn put her shoes on.....
• Mom, I did it!  I am a genius!
• When she says her ABC's......
• H, I J, J, L, M,.... (she thinks her name is in the ABC song)
• When she wants to go do something naughty...
• Mommy, go to sleep. (with her hand out like a cop directing traffic.)
• She went through a phase where she said "D*** it", making me feel like a super terrific mom.  We worked hard to get her to say "Oh, man" instead.  Now any word that sounds like the D word, well.....
• Me:  Put that down, it is not a toy.
• Jordyn: Mom!  Don't say that word.  We say "Oh man".
• One day, Chad was telling me about some coupons we got in the mail....
• Chad: This one is for three dollars off any prescription.
• Jordyn:  Three hundred dollars!  Oh my dosh! That is so big!  (Lately everything is followed by "oh my gosh", only she says it "dosh".)
• Getting into the car one day, she was not paying attention and ran into the open door.  She did not cry, just glared at the car and said, "Stupid door".  Only in her words is sounds more like "supid doi".  It was a really funny moment!
• Using a q-tip to clean her ears....
• Jordyn:  Mommy, what are you doing?
• Me:  I am cleaning your ears. 
• Jordyn:  Oh. You getting the ear boogars?

Pregnancy

Looking back, I really don't remember much about my pregnancy with Jordyn, and I feel kind of bad about that.  So I am going to take the time to document what I remember about my 1st pregnancy and this one.  This probably won't interest anyone but me!

With Jordyn, I ate and ate and ate.  Especially in my first trimester, food always made me feel better.  Hence, I gain lots of weight!  I mostly craved cold things and fruit.  I ate a lot of popsicles and frozen yogurt.  With this pregnancy, especially in my first trimester, no food sounded good.  Eating was not ever very appealing, but at the same time if I do not eat, I definitely feel crappy.  The only things I wanted to eat were breads and fresh fruit.  Later on, I have been wanting meats.  I can tell now at 22 weeks that I want to eat a lot more food and I am really going to have to be careful!

With Jordyn I did not buy any maternity clothes until mother's day, at which point I was 22 weeks.  Even then, I did not really need to wear them.  This time, I started wearing maternity clothes, at about 18 weeks.  And I need to wear them!  The whole rubber-band in the pants thing is no longer working!  I know I am showing a lot more now than I was at this point in my first pregnancy, but I hear that is normal.

I was never too sick with Jordyn.  I only threw up a handful of times.  This time has been quite different.  Chad thinks this pregnancy has been significantly harder for me.   I went through a few days of the stomach flu in December around 12 weeks.  That was bad.  It brought on horrible, horrible heartburn.  I remember getting heartburn with Jordyn, but that was well after 20 weeks and was nothing compared to this.  No amount of tums calms this down.  I need to take the most powerful Zantac I can find to even put a dent in this.  If I don't take it before dinner, then I really don't sleep during the night due to heartburn.  I have definitely been more tired this time around as well.  Remember how we went to Cancun back in December?  I was at 11 weeks at the time, and so tired!  It was a great vacation because we were so willing to relax!  I wish I could go back!

This baby is so wiggly! Oh my! I started feeling her move at 16 weeks and it has not slowed down. I really don't think I felt Jordyn move til after 20 weeks. This little baby girl moves constantly. Any time I hold still, I can feel her. She wiggled all through the 20 week ultra sound, making things very difficult! Chad has felt her move from the outside and I don't think he felt Jordyn until I was closer to 28ish weeks. This one is just so active!

I LOVE my doctor.  I still have some angry feelings toward the doctor who delivered Jordyn.  Let me side track and give you an example....

When I was exactly 40 weeks, I was hoping, foolishly, that dr. N would induce me later that week.  I got to my appointment that afternoon, a Tuesday, with loads of questions for him.  He walked into the exam room, told me he had to run and do a delivery at the hospital, did the most quick, harsh, and painful exam I have ever endured.  He simply said, "Good.  Now I will race you to the parking lot!"  and left me in the exam room scared, full of questions, and in loads of pain.  I walked out of the room and to the front desk.  They asked when dr. N wanted to see me again and I had no answer for them.  I told them I was upset and really had a lot I wanted to talk to the dr about.  The earliest I could see him was the following Wednesday, over a week later.  On Wednesday, I was 41 weeks, and he told me he would induce me the next day.  It turned out that because Jordyn was overdue that she had passed a stool and swallowed the meconium.  As a result, she did not pass her breathing tests and spent 5 days in the nicu, costing us thousands.

I still kinda blame the dr. N for not taking the time to talk to me at 40 weeks.  He did however do well during my labor and emergency c-section.  The office I am going to this time is made up of 4 drs and they are all great.  One dr. S talked to Chad and I for nearly and hour last week about chosing a VBAC or c-section for this delivery.  It was great to be able to sit down and have things so clearly explained to me.  Dr. N never took that kind of time.  In fact, dr. S took more time to explain my first c-section than even dr. N, the one who performed the c-section, did. At my 6 week appointment after Jordyn was born, I asked my dr. N what having a c-section would mean for my future pregnancies.  His response was that I could have as many children as I wanted; that this should not slow me down.  That was the end of that conversation.  Dr. S explained to me last week the risks that come along with so many c-sections.  There is just so much more to it than was ever explained to me.  I LOVE my drs here so grateful for the time I feel like they set aside for just me.  I am still juggling the VBAC or c-section question but I know a lot more and feel so much more informed than I did a week ago and I have nearly made a decision.

There is a lot more to say about this pregnancy and Jordyn's, I just can't think of it all.  I am sure this is blog post that I will continue to add too.  (and it is already so long!)

3/8/13
I thought of another pregnancy oddity.  I am so emotional!  I cried this morning when Jordyn was watching "Land Before Time".  Back in December when I was so busy sewing, I watched all the Harry Potter movies.  I cried multiple times with every one.  I vocally wept when Dumbledore died.  I laid down by Jordyn to put her to bed one night during Christmas break in Burley, and she sang "I am a Child of God" for me.  I could not stop crying.  Books... I cry when I read books.  I remember crying when I was pregnant with Jordyn, but that was mostly because of stress from teaching and school.  I had the class from H**L that year and that made me cry a lot.  But nothing like this now.  I just walk around and start crying.  Sheesh Mandi, get a hold of yourself!

3/10/13
Pregnancy Brain!  I just read a book about a woman who is diagnosed with early onset alzheimers.  It is kind of freaking me out everytime I forget something.  Did I tell Chad that, or did I just think I needed to tell him?  Did I respond to that email?  I swear there was something I am supposed to be doing today?  Then I just have to take a few deep breaths and blame it on pregnancy brain.  No I am not crazy.  I do not have alzheimers at 27.  I am just pregnant and therefore a little more stupid than normal.

If you didn't already know....

Due date is July 13, 2013!