Sweet Start to the Morning

After braving the heat during my run this morning, monster and I went for some yummy donuts at our favorite spot in Folsom. I did have every intention of hitting up the Farmer's Market in old town, but with how hot is was already at 9am and the fact that I would be trying to balance a bunch of fruit by myself with an extremely active toddler by my side, I decided that enjoying some delicious treats sounded like a better idea - and way easier for this pregnant lady.

A Trike with Some Style

For those who aren't in the Sacramento area, it's been crazy hot here lately. Over 100 degrees every day and will stay that way into next week. Summer is definitely here now. And while I can't totally complain because we have had a pretty mild summer thus far, I can complain because I'm having to endure it while really pregnant. Being hot and sweaty does not make carrying a baby in your belly any easier that is for sure. I've been having to get my runs in before 9am otherwise it's just too much for me to handle. This morning Mallory and I were out the door before 8am and I was still drenched in sweat by the time we were done. But even though it's insanely hot I still like to be outdoors and so does Mallory - we're two peas in a pod in that sense.

The Griffith family sent Mallory an awesome new bike so I assembled it for her yesterday morning. She was anxious the whole time I was putting it together, offering me tools and help constantly just so it would be done faster. She's a little impatient but what kid isn't when they're waiting on a fun, new toy. As soon as I gave her the green light that she could start using it she was off in a flash riding it up and down the alleyway; only stopping long enough to allow some of her other toys a ride on the back. She doesn't use the pedals, opting to shuffle her feet along like the Flintstones - "it's faster that way Mommy." She loves her new bike and I can tell that it makes her feel more grown up. Thank you Griffith family!

Lovin' on Baby Lucy

We hosted the family for dinner last weekend and there was no shortage of people to pass cousin Lucy around to for some extra attention and love. Even Mallory asked to hold her a couple of times. It's going to be really fun to see her with her little brother; makes me smile just thinking about it.

31 Weeks & Counting Down

I am 31 weeks - plus 3 days as my doctor reminded me this morning at my check up. She's right though, every day counts when you're pregnant. It's like a badge of honor to declare how long you've been carrying the baby around. I'm at 22 pounds gained - keep it up Jenkins! And with less than nine weeks to go because today at my check up we scheduled the date of my c-section. Unless baby Nolan decides to make an early appearance, my due date has changed and he will be born on August 20. Now that the date has been chosen and is in the books with Kaiser, I feel like my finish line is in plain view.

My doctor and I also talked about my birthing plan. If I make it to August 20 we'll go forward with the c-section as planned. But if Nolan comes earlier than that, then I will be trying for a VBAC. I'll still get an epidural because I'm a wimp when it comes to pain, but I'll give labor a try again. I just won't try for 23 hours this time before stopping the show to say "okay, no more of this nonsense let's get this kid out already!" I don't think any woman should have to go through a whole day worth of labor, and not just for selfish reasons but also for the safety of the baby.

Baby shower for Nolan is approaching soon so I'm in planning mode for that. And don't be surprised that I'm doing my own shower; I'm an event planner remember. I can't turn it off and I'm totally fine with it. I'm still getting help from others so it's not like I'm being a total control freak. His room is thisclose to being done. I finished painting the piece that will go above his crib with his name. I like it a lot and just need to hang it up. I finally put together the dresser/changing table; it was actually easier than I thought but still took me some time to assemble. My mom is sewing some sheets and will be here next week so we can complete his bedding ensemble. I'm looking forward to seeing everything complete and then sharing it with everyone.

Oops, chopped some of my belly off!

30 Weeks

If I had a dollar for every time someone said to me, "Are you sure you aren't due soon!?," I'd have a lot of extra cash to spend. Yes I know that my belly is big. I'm the pregnant lady that is all belly so of course it's gonna be big. Even Mallory keeps saying, "He's gonna come out soon," when she rubs on baby Nolan. I've had to be more mindful lately when I'm trying to squeeze into tight spaces; I sometimes forget that I will get squished. And Mallory is at the perfect height right now that when she runs to give me a hug, her head bumps right into the bottom of my belly. It's funny when she comes at me quickly and her head bounces back like a punching bag. It hurts me a little but it's worth the laugh that I get out of it.

Running is still my primary form of exercise however, I'm not sure for how much longer. It's definitely much easier when I don't have to push Mal in the stroller but overall, running in general is starting to become more of a challenge. It's not so much the weight of my belly that makes it uncomfortable (I wear a support belt that helps with that), it's that my legs feel heavy and picking up my feet is tiresome after a while. It's a nice reward though to know that my exercise regimen is paying off by keeping the extra pregnancy weight off. I've been hovering around 20 pounds gained and with 10 more weeks to go until the end, I might even be able to keep in line with the 30 pounds that I gained with Mallory.

Don't be alarmed when I tell you that I still deal with morning sickness. For a second there I thought the throwing up had stopped and all I had to manage was bouts of nausea that would go away after taking Zofran. But alas, I woke up this morning and the puke-free streak had ended. Bummer. But at least the heartburn hasn't been as often; pretty much only gets aggravated when I eat the foods that are known to cause it. I love to eat so I weigh my consequences and sometimes it's worth having to eat a handful of Tums later on.

Jody and I had our hospital tour last Saturday over at Kaiser Roseville. Mallory was delivered at Mercy Folsom and when comparing the two hospitals based on the rooms and amenities, they're about the same. Let's just hope the birthing process for Nolan and experience with the staff is as enjoyable as what I experienced with Mallory at Mercy. I'm confident that this time around will actually be easier because it's a planned c-section but there's always a little bit of apprehension when you're trying out a new place. As long as Nolan doesn't come earlier than his scheduled due date I'll be more at ease. I'm eager to get that date nailed down at my next doctor appointment in a couple of weeks.

30 weeks

Monster wanted a picture of her belly too!

This skirt leaves marks on my belly big time now

Gave it a Whirl

I took Mal over to the Folsom Aquatic Center this morning for their Little Dippers session - an hour and a half where they only let kids six and under in. It was the first time we had been to that section of the pool before (we did swim lessons in the main pool last summer) and I didn't realize that there wasn't really an area just designated for swimming. It was more waterfalls and shooting streams of water and slides and buckets that pour water on your head. I thought it looked like a lot of fun, and so did Mallory at first. But as soon as we got up close to the water streams and she experienced a dumping of water on her head she was totally over it. Like wanted out of the pool immediately. We then sat on our lounge chairs watching the other kids playing as she tried to gather up the courage to go back out there, but she couldn't do it. I tried coaxing her a couple of times by going just in the wading part of the pool, but she kept her distance on the sidelines. We tried; though I have to say I was a little surprised she didn't like it. She loves swimming in the pool and playing with water guns but I guess the streams of water were too much for her. I'm sure next summer she'll be all about it. We'll just stick to our community pool where it's a little calmer.

A Trip to Mamaw's

We headed up to Mamaw's house for a couple of days this week for a nice little visit. The weather was perfect for outdoor playing, which we did a lot of. Bubble time, swinging (LOTS of swinging), playing hide-and-go-seek, popsicles for dessert, decorating with stickers (Nolan included), shopping, coloring, reading, pretending, and extra time with family and friends. We snuck in some rest and relaxation, but also dealt with a few meltdowns too. Overall it was lovely to get out of town for a bit and spend time with those we love.

Beach Shorts

Mamaw came for a quick overnight visit last week, and like always came baring wonderful and very much appreciated clothes for Mallory's wardrobe. Mamaw loves to spoil monster with clothes - and I love it too! Even Nolan gets something small now, lucky boy already.

One of the outfits that Mamaw brought for Mallory is this cute little getup: coral ruffles and neon heart-shaped sunglasses. How 80's and I'm totally okay with it. Brings me back to when I loved neon and bright colors as a kid - oh wait, I still do. When Mallory saw the shorts she said that they were "shorts for the beach" and then proceeded to ask if we were going to the beach. I wish little girl. How much cooler would summer be if a nice, sandy beach were close by.

Makes me wish we were in Hawaii again...one day soon we'll go back and it will make me smile like I always remember Hawaii making me smile. Which then reminds me that I still have yet to finish posting about our trip to Maui last November. I need to get on that.

Bagels & Achievements

After my run this morning, monster and I headed over to Main Street Bagel Cafe to share a yummy breakfast sandwich and some juice. We sat outside (in the shade of course) and listened to all the sounds going on around us: garbage trucks in the alley behind us, cars zooming down the street in a hurry to get somewhere, kids shouting with excitement at the Aquatic Center across the street, blenders humming as they prepared smoothies to satisfy customers in need of a cool down. It's so nice to have mornings when we're not in a hurry to go or be anywhere so we can take these moments to just sit and enjoy our surroundings - people watching included.

I'm in full potty training mode with Mallory and she's doing really, really well with it. We have gone all day without a diaper thus far and she even had her first BM using the big girl potty today. She's been using the toilet to go pee for quite some time now, it's just been a matter of me enforcing her to not rely on wearing a diaper. We've had our share of accidents, but not very many and she does well with understanding what went wrong without getting too sad about it.

When I began the journey of potty training a couple months ago my tactic was letting her go diaper/pants-free at the house and then asking her every 20 minutes if she needed to go potty. But if I needed to go anywhere I would still put her in a diaper just so it was easier for me to run my errands. Now we're to the point where we can go places without a diaper on and she'll let me know if she needs to go potty. I wouldn't say that she's 100 percent potty trained yet but pretty darn close. My goal was to have her diaper-free by the time Nolan comes and now I'm confident that will be the case. Of course we still do diapers during naptime and bedtime as I know that type of training has more to do with her becoming older and able to hold her bladder longer.

I'm so proud of my monster who is reminding me daily that she's growing up and maturing into a little girl more and more. Whether it's potty training, reading books out loud, transitioning easily to her toddler bed, or even just her expanding vocabulary; she makes it easy to want to brag about her milestones and accomplishments. Maybe this whole parenting thing isn't so hard after all...HAHAHA, yeah right!

The Third Trimester

I am now officially 28 weeks, seven months pregnant, in my third and final trimester. With how troublesome things were in the beginning of this pregnancy I felt hitting this mark would take forever. But now that it's actually here I kind of want it to slow down again, just for different reasons than when I wanted the time to hurry by before. Partly because I just recently started feeling really good - the kind of good that I remember experiencing when I was pregnant with Mallory. Too bad it took so dang long for that feeling to come this go around.

Another reason that I want time to slow down again is because I'm a little anxious to be starting all over and I know that transitioning from one kid to two is going to take some adjusting. Those readers that have been around for a while know that Mallory was not an easy baby for us; and even though I know I survived her and feel like I could survive anything now, it's still going to be difficult at times. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally excited to meet baby Nolan and experience a little boy and see Mallory become the loving big sister that she already has shown, I'm just not in a hurry for his arrival like I was with monster. He can totally take his time in my belly and I promise not to get frustrated when I hit 40 weeks and he's still in there. I'm not sure how the whole scheduling of my c-section will work yet; at my next doctor's appointment we talk about it. But you better believe I'll be an advocate for not scheduling his arrival any sooner than necessary.

Nolan is moving and grooving with more strength; he loves to stretch out I think as there are times when I can totally feel his little body parts swoosh by, especially if I have my hands on my bare belly. I had an occasion the other day where I felt the outline of his foot against my hand and it was sorta scary - not like bad scary, just surreal scary. But I still love this part about pregnancy the most, this ability to literally feel your baby moving around in your belly. It's just so awesome to me. I received a "kick card" at my doctor's appointment last week to start tracking his movements and there's no doubt that he's not moving enough. I always count 10 movements within 10 minutes right now, and sometimes even in only five minutes. Though I know he'll start slowing down once he gets bigger and runs out of room in there.

We had our maternity pictures taken by my lovely and talented friend Katie (Platinum Photography) a little over a week ago and I am so excited to see how they turned out. I keep looking on Facebook for little teaser pictures, should be soon. Taking weekly bump pictures myself is fun and gives an idea of where I'm at, but the pros sure know how to capture the family moments that are hard to catch on your own. Besides, our little family had fun waltzing through old town Folsom before the weather got too hot, stopping for a yummy ice cream cone at Snooks to use as a prop that of course Mallory was all about devouring.