6+ weeks!!

Scarlett is over 10 lbs now!

She seems so much bigger, and so much older. She holds her head up, likes to coo at us, smiles, and is even starting to sleep on her own, thank goodness!


Riley is also growing like crazy lately, with all the long sleeve 2T stuff I just bought being too small! (The sleeves- I guess she has my long arms poor girl!) Her personality has exploded recently and she is so outgoing with everyone who visits! She is so much fun, and really great with Scarlett. Her favorite things to play lately are doctor (for everyone), and mom to her babies- she imitates everything I do with Scarlett, even pretending to give birth every now and then... 

Pictures!
(Luckily the baby acne didn't last long at all, thanks to the miracle of breastmilk as a cure-all!)

By the way...

Scarlett is up to 8 lb, 8 ounces!!! She seems so much bigger already, which is understandable when she grew more than 30% of her birth weight already!

I want to do a post, but I don't think I'm going to have time right now... but here are some new pictures!

Scarlett's first (of many I'm sure) trips to the zoo!

 Sisters cuddling in bed...

 

 

 

 

Halloween 1: Riley won the costume contest! She's a red bird... I didn't think about the fact that there would be a lot of "Angry bird" costumes this year when choosing the fabrics... oh well!

Halloween 2: This time I dressed up too :)  I wish I would've thought to put green leaves to cover the ergo! Oh well... I did have them on my shirt to try and look more like a tree, but they are hard to see in this picture.

 

 

 

Riley playing with Scarlett on her "raft" at the "beach". We need to move back to FL I guess!

Scarlett's BIG eyes!

 

Sleeping peacefully, not a typical occurrence unless she is being held or against my skin in bed!

Halloween #3: after Trick or treating in the neighborhood. We missed one- my office party was cancelled due to the storm, so I only got the one use out of my costume!

More sister cuddle time!

10 Days Old!

Scarlett Grace is already 10 days old!

(forgot to push "publish" yesterday)

The past week and a half went by so quickly... probably because of family visiting for the first week. I had told both grandmothers that if they came right away, they needed to stay in a hotel, but then went back on my word and my mom stayed with us the whole first week. Oh well... at least Riley had a great time and was definitely not feeling any lack of attention! My brother and sister-in-law also visited for a couple of days, so Scarlett went on her first Philly sightseeing trip at five days old. Now we have short visits from friends and no houseguests for a while, which is great. My mother-in-law comes in a couple of weeks and stays with us for a whole week, so I'm happy to have some downtime before having to host again!

Things are going great so far as a family of four! Riley seems to be adjusting very well still... there has been one crying episode where she said she didn't want to be a big sister, but I think it had more to do with me telling her she wasn't a baby and needed to act like a big sister when she was being grumpy, and didn't really have anything to do with Scarlett. It was only a matter of time before she was asking to hold the baby and giving her kisses! Overall she is actually not acting much different then normal, except being much more social and talkative around other people, which is great! We've both had some alone time with her so far, with Mr. Beaver taking her to swim class and I took her to a farm's harvest festival. I don't know if she even thought anything about it, but I felt good about each making sure to spend some one-on-one time with her.



Scarlett is not doing much yet besides nursing, pooping, and sleeping a bunch. She is staying awake for longer periods of time, sometimes even a couple of hours, and is pretty alert when she is awake. She looks around a lot, and seems to really focus on our faces and the mirror reflection on her playmat. She is already holding her head up for several seconds at a time, and she flops her head and body around so we have to be careful holding her! We introduced the bottle and pacifier early this time, and she takes both pretty well and is still nursing like a champ -- in fact, she's gaining weight just as quickly as Riley did!  She was 6 # 5 oz at birth, 6 # 4.5 at four days, 6 # 7 at five days, and 7 # 1 oz today, at ten days old. I never bothered to wake her to eat, so we had a few pretty good nights of sleep where she slept from midnight until after 5, and then back to sleep until after 8! Last night was more of a feeding marathon with alert time early this morning, but I'm hoping she keeps her days and nights straight and we continue to be somewhat rested.

Scarlett is just about as cuddly as Riley was, and already seems to be smiling both in her sleep and when awake! I know it's not intentional, but she is pretty convincing :) 
She is great in the moby wrap, which makes walks and errands relatively easy with both girls (though I haven't been out alone yet!). Both girls were brave at the doctor's getting shots this past week, Riley watched hers and didn't even make a face!! The nurse seemed very surprised, but I have known for a while that she has my pain tolerance! Scarlett didn't react too much, just let out a little cry for a second before we gave her a pacifier.


Overall, things seem to be going pretty well! Mr. Beaver will go back to work full-time on Monday, but with him working from home I hope it won't be too hard to handle both girls on my own. Riley and I are both excited for Halloween and the many different events going on for it, and we're having fun taking advantage of no work- in addition to the harvest festival we're planning to do the pumpkin patch/farm, our children's museum, and the zoo. This weekend is a halloween festival with lots of events on Main street in our neighborhood, and then we have a halloween parade on Tuesday and my work's family halloween party on Wednesday, plus trick-or-treating! So it should be a very fun, even filled week!

Riley has a little sister!!!

Baby Beaver #2 was born on October 12, at 8:35 pm! I had a feeling labor was close all week (even the week before), so I may have ignored some of the signs during the day again, but we made it to the birth center in time, and all went well! Besides being super fast and overwhelming again, I don't think my birth experience could have gone any better.

Like every other morning this week, I was up and out of the house for work by 7:30 am not feeling especially different from other days. I had the occasional contraction, but nothing regular or uncomfortable. My plan was to finish and leave work by noon, and I was only about an hour delayed, leaving work a little after 1. On the way home I did notice a couple of more painful contractions, but not very close together and still not too painful to be fine driving or anything. I really wanted to get a mani-pedi with my mom like we did last time, and I had gotten a recommendation from my midwife for a place that uses reflexology that they use for natural induction. I picked her up and we got our nails done from about 1:45 until 3. I noticed about five contractions during the mani-pedi, so realized they were becoming much more frequent. I had a 3:30 phone meeting - last work before leave! - so we stopped at starbucks, and then I told my mom we'd better go get Riley from daycare and get home to prepare for the birth center. I texted Mr. Beaver and told him to get his stuff ready just in case, and that it would be time to start timing contractions when I got home. I was noticing more contractions now, still not too uncomfortable and still not too close together, but definitely more frequent.

We got home and my mom started dinner while we packed our bag and I started timing contractions. They were pretty frequent at this point and starting to get a little uncomfortable. After about 8 that were averaging five minutes apart (but ranging like last time- 3-8 minutes apart), I called the birth center to say I was coming in. This was the first of many times during delivery that I was happy about choosing the birth center-- they said okay, what time will you be here? Not a single question about the contractions or anything, they just trusted me that I needed to come in. I said we'd be there between 7:15 and 7:30 (This was at about 6:15).

We packed a ton of stuff, not really sure what we should bring, including the food my mom had been making because we didn't eat yet. We pulled in to the birth center at about 7:15 and were shown to our room. Contractions were pretty uncomfortable at this point and getting much more painful with each one, though later the nurse said I had her fooled because she did not think I was in much pain at all. We got settled in and put our food in the kitchen; I tried to eat some chicken, but at this point contractions were every 2 minutes and very hard to stand through, so I mostly just drank a lot of fluids for energy and worked through the contractions bending over a yoga ball. I felt a few small gushes a little while later- maybe around 7:45... I wasn't too sure of the time at this point.

There was another baby being born when we got there and they were waiting for another nurse and midwife to get in, so I still hadn't even been checked and we were mostly alone because we figured we still had a little while. The other baby was born at about 8pm, and that is about the time the new midwife arrived, who was the one that ended up delivering our baby. (The other mom was pretty loud- she was on the other side of the building, but we could hear her yelling/moaning and it sounded painful! Not the most relaxing thing to prepare for my own delivery :)  I was so proud of Riley that when she asked what the noise was, she was completely fine with our answer and not concerned.)

At this point I changed clothes because I was starting to feel some pressure, and I was starting to feel that, "Oh my gosh what was I thinking -- I don't want to do this!!!" feeling I remembered from last time. The new midwife was paying attention to how quickly my contractions were, and could tell I was incredibly uncomfortable by how I had to work through them, and said she thought everything is okay but that the baby is going to come fast, and she wanted to check me. While I worked through a contraction, she tested the leaked fluid and confirmed it was my water that broke, and I told her I was feeling a lot of pressure and she hurried to check me. She said I was at least at 8 cm, and again said she thought it was going to go very fast. During the next contraction I told her I had a lot of pressure, and she said to do whatever I felt I needed to and got on the phone to call the nurse in (who was still working on finishing up with the other mom). I had been getting through a lot of the contractions on my elbows and knees on the bed, with my elbows on the yoga ball, but at this point I switched to my hands and knees on the bed. I was definitely saying "Ow, this hurts!" during every contraction now, and having uncontrollable pushing reactions to them.

The nurse came in about 8:25, and I was going with the pushing feelings and pushing with each contraction, still on my hands and knees. I didn't feel like I had much control over what was going on- I think my body was really just doing everything on it's own without me thinking about anything, except the pain! Mr. Beaver said I wasn't too loud, but I remember making some noise, and saying "ow!" a lot. The midwife was very comforting, saying "I know, it's almost over though, just push when you want to and take a break if it hurts too much." I did take a few breaks where I knew it would pull the baby back in, and it was such a relief! At some point the midwife used some olive oil, and also applied counter-pressure as I was pushing, and it made it SO much less painful during the crowning stage then I remembered with Riley. I also wonder if the position made a difference- still on my hands and knees. All of a sudden I had a few contractions I just couldn't control and started pushing without being able to stop, and it felt like the pressure started building up behind the baby, until the whole body seemed to shoot right out (8:35 pm).

The midwife handed the baby to me from underneath, and I immediately saw she was a girl! I kind of sat back, and just held her while we wiped her off a little bit. I got a shot of pitocin because the birth went so fast, but didn't really notice. I realized Riley had been there the whole time, as she came up to the bed at that point and I told her she had a little sister, which got a big smile. We did a very delayed cord clamping, and then Mr. Beaver cut the cord. The midwife somehow delivered the placenta without me pushing or anything, and everything was cleaned up pretty quickly- I wasn't really paying attention but was surprised there wasn't much mess. Riley was on the bed with me by this time, and the midwife was showing her the placenta and explaining what it was, what it did, pointing things out... it was kind of gross but Riley seemed really into it. She then checked me -- no tears!!! I did not need a single stitch- such a huge relief! I remember the stitches were the most painful part of Riley's birth, and were so horrible during the week or two after the birth.

I held our new baby girl for a long time, and after about an hour she latched on and nursed for the first time. Funny memory- Riley came up to meet her sister a few minutes after she was born, and sneezed right in her face!! Oh well ...
They ended up not doing the measurements until about 1 am so that we could do skin-to-skin contact to warm her up. We also let Riley hold her sister for the first time. We left just before 2am and came home as our new family of 4!

Riley has been an amazing big sister so far. She is so gentle, except when she is a little clumsy and bumps into the baby with her own baby or part of her body. She loves to try and comfort her if she cries. I was surprised and amazed to hear that she watched the entire birth, from the scary angle! My mom was not even watching, hiding back in the bathroom, and Mr. Beaver was up by my head. Apparently Riley was watching from the bathroom and told my mom she wanted to come to me when I was pushing, and my mom said okay. Riley stood a little behind the midwife, and the midwife explained everything while Riley watched. I was worried that she would be traumatized from what she saw, but the midwife, nurse, and my mom all convinced me that she just looked amazed and smiled when the baby came out. She has been completely normal since then, so I guess it really didn't phase her at all! I wasn't sure she would even want to stay in the room, but I'm happy that she did and think it's pretty cool that she was so interested!

I think it will take a little time to adjust to our new family, but today has been pretty nice so far! The recovery is not nearly as bad as last time, but I do hate feeling like I'm on my period now and the cramps that come with it. Nursing was easy at first, but is painful again when she first latches on, like last time. I'm hoping that goes away soon!! She seems to want to eat constantly, but has finally taken a nice long break to sleep, going on 4 hours now! I feel bad we haven't taken more pictures, and that our good camera has a dead battery, but I think by tomorrow we'll be a little more caught up on sleep and able to do some family photos. Such a whirlwind birth experience, but we are so happy to have our new daughter here with us, and for everything to have gone smoothly with the birth!
(written yesterday, just posted now, oops!)

Full term!!!

 Definitely the size of a watermelon now!

In honor of the big milestone, I'll do the old survey:
How far along? 37 weeks... that's only 21 days to go!
Total weight gain/loss: Just like last time, I think I'm about 27-28 lb up. I checked my weight today at my appointment, I just don't know exactly where I started.
Sleep: sleep is okay, I usually wake up around 4-5 in the morning and have some trouble getting to sleep. I should go to bed earlier, but Riley doesn't go to sleep until about 9, and I like to relax and watch a little tv after I get things cleaned up and do any chores... before I know it, it's after 11!
Best moment this week: We had our carseats inspected this past weekend, and I was happy to get them to fit both rear-facing, with the infant seat in the middle, just like I was hoping to. Inconvenient, but I have piece of mind feeling like the seats are safe!!
Best moment this month, though (because I haven't posted in so long!) was definitely the girls' weekend with friends to celebrate the new baby, complete with a Philly+baby themed scavenger hunt!! It was made even better having one friend's baby along and the other entering her second trimester with what will be the fourth kid-dition to our group! I can't believe how quickly we seemed to go from 3 of us to 7 of us... probably 8 of us by this time next year (or close to it)! ;)
Movement: SOOO much! The baby seems really big, but my midwife only estimates it at about 5.5-6 lb right now.
Food cravings: nothing out of the ordinary with my eating habits from pre-pregnancy
Gender: I kinda think girl, mostly because the midwife estimated the size so small, and because we keep calling baby "she"... but that could be out of habit. Also, not much seems different from last time. But who knows! We'll find out soon enough!
Labor signs: Contractions all the time... but I am pretty sure at least most of them are braxton hicks. Some of them are getting pretty uncomfortable though!
Belly Button in or out? very out for a long time now. eww.
What I miss: Being comfortable! I feel like my uterus is bigger this time... I am very limited in the ways I can sit and lay down. My midwife commented that my uterus is all the way against my sternum. Not sure where else it can grow! I'm measuring about 2 cm behind, but growing weekly so no worries... but we'll see what happens over the next few weeks!
What I am looking forward to: hmm I guess just figuring out a plan for work, and getting things set for my leave. Right now I'm not really sure what is going to happen with my work- I'm afraid it's just going to stand still until I come back, but it kinda has a time limit so it's stressing me out!
Weekly wisdom: I have nothing...
Milestones: I'm full term!

Here is my belly tonight:

 Compared to last time at 37 weeks:

And compared to a couple of weeks ago:

In Riley updates, she is doing great... talking all.the.time, moving constantly day and night (she cannot sit still!) and getting more coordinated every day. Her new thing is doing sommersaults, which she is surprisingly good at when she gets her legs over, but that is only about 1/4 of the time- the other 3/4 of the time she kinda just rolls to the side. She loves doing yoga too, and is getting pretty good balance!


So sad- I have no pictures on my phone from the past month or so! Here's an older one, I'll upload some from the camera soon...
 


In cognitive growth, I think she has gone from being a "two-knower" to a "three-knower"! She has understood the concept of two for a while, but today was the first time I was confident that she understood the quantity 3! Also, she is getting better at counting into the teens and knowing numbers in the 20s! She knows sooo many songs, and makes up a lot of her own, and LOVES to dance. Now she is getting coordinated enough to play her guitar (a ukelele) and sing at the same time, and the other day she entertained company by playing it while also "playing" the tuner :)
She still wants to pretend to be a baby, but I think it may pass once the baby is here... I guess we will find out soon enough!

Some videos:
Playing the guitar- this video is kinda old, but cute... I'd say it's from about a month ago? 

First time mini-golfing (out of the house- she's got a set of plastic clubs and plays at home with Mr. Beaver)

 

Updates! 32-33 weeks!

Less than 8 weeks to go!!!! So crazy- it feels so close now. I see Halloween decorations and costumes around already, and realize the baby is due two weeks before Halloween! Riley is getting antsy- she tells me almost daily that the baby doesn't need or want to grow anymore, that it is big enough, and that it needs to come out. But at the same time, she has wanted to pretend she is a baby at home- wanting me to hold her like a baby, feed her, and pretending to cry... so I think she has some mixed emotions. Unfortunately she also says she needs diapers when she is a baby, but she still tells us when she needs to go potty and mostly stays dry, and she's diaper-free at school! She's still pretty independent at home most of the time, she opens the fridge to get snacks for herself, plays with puzzles or blocks on her own, and this morning she even picked out clothes and got dressed on her own before waking me up! Aron was impressed she even picked out a Dolphin's shirt, since they have a game tonight :) (oops- last night now!) She insisted on wearing it backwards, but I'm sure they'll convince her to turn it by the time I pick her up from school. (update- they didn't ;))

I have finally started to think about preparing for the baby- like when I should find the infant car seat, what other stuff I should find (bouncy chair, swing, etc.) and have even started going through riley's baby clothes to sort out the newborn and 0-3 month sizes. Luckily it seems like we have a ton of gender neutral stuff for those sizes, so we are good to go even if we have a boy!

I am feeling pretty good these days, I don't feel like I am/look enormous yet but I am very obviously nearing the end. I get comments about looking great every now and then which is awesome, and also funny because half the time it is from people who don't know how far along I am :)  My mentor told me that she has never seen someone look pregnant like I am- she said I look exactly the same but with a basketball stuffed under my shirt. I took it like a compliment, and a sign that I should wear that dress more often! I am measuring small but close enough on track. I was 29 cm last time, at 32 weeks and a few days, so about 3 cm small, but with a 1cm gain since the last appointment two weeks ago. My midwife wasn't worried so I'm not either! I think I am gaining weight slowly, but not very much. I'm slightly ahead of last time- at about 21 or 22 lbs, but I am hardly ever hungry and feel full super fast when I eat. I drink a ton, or at least I try to, but I have to force myself to eat three meals a day- I don't even feel like snacking! I don't know if the baby just isn't growing much these past weeks or what... but there is tons of movement, so I think he or she is very healthy. Sometimes the baby stretches out or to the side, and my muscles actually feel sore from being stretched too much! But just like riley, I don't feel kicks in my ribs yet, so maybe I'll avoid that like last time! On our ultrasound the baby was head-down in a pike position, and I think the legs stay curled up or pushed out rather than up when baby does move around. We still don't know the gender- Mr. Beaver tried to peek but couldn't see anything... we both slip and use female pronouns, but I think that's just out of habit!

We have our birth refresher class on Monday, and my mom bought her flights to come around my due date, so I feel like we are as prepared as we should be at this point! Even though it's early, we do have a plan for Riley in case anything happens in the next 7 weeks and my mom's not here yet. It was a little weird to schedule the rest of my appointments last night- I have appointments at 35 weeks, 37, 38, 39, and 40! So weird to think that I will probably only have 4-5 more appointments before our baby arrives!

Quick riley update!

I thought of something I want to remember for riley's timeline: she has not used a pacifier in three days!! She had only been allowed to have it in her room for the last 6 months or so, so really she only used it for sleeping at night and naps on the weekend. We had been planning to take it away for a while, but she gets so upset!! Finally, a few days ago, she lost it somewhere. We have no idea where it went (she only had the one she used). Since then, we have just told her we can't find it, and she has slept three nights now without it! There have been a few tears and some sadness, but not nearly as bad as previous attempts to take it away. She is also waking up earlier without it- I think she would wake up and go back to sleep when she had it, and now she doesn't go back to sleep, so wakes up between 6-7:30 instead of between 7-8:30. Now we just need to find the missing pacifier before she does- I don't know what would happen if she found it and used it again, I think it would negate the past three days of not having it.

30/31 Weeks!

I can't believe I'm already in the homestretch of pregnancy! More than 75% done... it is crazy. I started having appointments every 2 weeks now, and the midwives have started talking about all of the details about delivering at the birth center. It seems so crazy to be thinking about how it is almost time for all of the last minute stuff- packing my bag, filling out pre-registration forms, installing the car seat, etc. We haven't even begun looking for all of the baby stuff in the basement yet! Even though I'm past 30 weeks, I think I'll give myself another month before worrying about all this stuff :)

I am feeling pretty good so far... I've been noticing some braxton hicks over the past few weeks but they are pretty infrequent and not all that uncomfortable, so no biggie. Definitely no signs of early labor, so that is good! At my appointment this week I was up about 19-20 lbs, which is where I was at this point last time. Clothing-wise I'm doing pretty good with elastic waist skirts and non-maternity dresses for work, but the only shorts I wear are maternity. I haven't gotten any pregnancy comments besides asking my due date, and one kind coworker who commented that besides my belly bump I don't look pregnant at all, which has been very nice :)  I still don't have any food cravings, and actually don't feel any different hunger-wise than when I'm not pregnant. I don't even feel that tired yet, besides regular sleepiness when I don't get enough sleep at night. Sleep has gotten a little more difficult than normal, I wake up a lot and feel like I need to turn from side to side pretty often, which is hard because I sleep on a couple pillows under my head and one folded between my knees. But for being this far along, I think I'm doing pretty well! I feel TONS of movement almost constantly throughout the day (and night!) so I am enjoying that, even though sometime the baby's legs push out so hard and far it actually hurts!

We were lucky enough to get to see the baby today during a bonus ultrasound... a local medical school needed "models" for their ultrasound training, so I volunteered. It was not what I was expecting...I thought it would be a teacher and student, with the teacher guiding the student through doing an ultrasound. Instead, I walk in to a classroom with a bed and ultrasound machine up front, and a huge screen with projector! The instructor talked the class through the ultrasound while they watched the huge screen. It was a little awkward at first, but it ended up being the most interesting ultrasound I've had! It was nice to actually learn what it was they are looking at, how they find the different images they need to get, what all those letters they label with mean, etc. Everything looked great with the baby, the cord, the placenta, and my fluid levels, so that was a huge relief of course too. Everything measured pretty close to what it should be, and the estimated weight was a healthy 3 lb 8 oz!

I've already written so much I think I should put off a riley update for now, but I did take a new belly pic:

And here's 30 weeks from last time as a comparison: 
(I think I look bigger this time!!)

29 weeks!

Here's a picture from earlier this week:

Nothing too new to report, except on behalf of the toddler -- who has not worn diapers during the day for a full week now!! She is far from being potty trained, but outside of naps and nighttime we are able to keep her from having accidents as long as we stay on top of things and sit her on the potty often enough. We actually set an alarm to remind ourselves, and we may have unintentionally conditioned the alarm sound to be a potty trigger... the other day it went off and we ignored it because we were doing something and she had just gone about 30 min earlier, and she had an accident! But for not really doing much intentional potty training, I am surprised at how few accidents we have had (less than one a day). We have even had some successful poops on the potty.
I don't really have time for more update right now, but hopefully I'll think of doing it more now that I am having appointments every two weeks. 

28 Weeks already!

I can't believe it is only about 12 weeks until the second baby beaver is born! I feel like this pregnancy has just flown by, and before I know it October will be here. I am pretty similar to last pregnancy, I never really had cravings or many symptoms...and a lot of movement as time goes on! I think I am ahead a little bit on weight gain this time, but only a few pounds. I had my appointment with the midwives this week and had gained 4 lbs, and when they measured me I was up 5 cm from the previous appointment!! The midwife did think she was measuring a little foot stretching up a little bit, though, but she couldn't push it down. So things seem to be going right on track!

I am wearing mostly pre-pregnancy dresses that are not fitted around the waist, because all of my maternity clothes from last time were winter clothes. The dresses seem to be working out; luckily I've got a lot of them. I bought one pair of maternity shorts and the fit is horrible (and they are majorly mom-jeans style), so I may try to avoid buying any more clothes and just survive on pre-pregnancy dresses and tops with maternity jeans, plus the few stretch pair that still button.  If only the heat waves would stop!! I love hot weather, but I definitely feel a lot hotter pregnant! Plus, it makes it harder to stay active and walk... but lately I've been doing a lot better. I do a prenatal yoga video almost every day, and we try to take walks through the park (or at least to get ice cream down the hill ;).

I still have no feelings toward either gender, although Riley has been saying she thinks it is a sister now for a while... I think that is what she is hoping for! I really think she will be happy with either gender though, she is just so excited about being a big sister! She loves coming to my appointments with me and hearing the baby's heartbeat, and she likes helping pump the bp cuff and to take my blood pressure.

In general riley updates, she is doing fantastic, and I while I know it will be a big adjustment for her when the baby comes, I think she will do pretty well! She is doing really well with potty training, even though we aren't really working on it a whole lot. At school they said she is ready to go diaper-free outside of naps, and that is what we've been doing at home too, and so far there haven't been many accidents. We aren't brave enough to try diaper-free away from home, though, so she still wears diapers a lot-  and night/naps will probably take a while still. But for us never really doing any potty training, we are pretty happy with her progress! I think I am not in a huge rush, because from everything I've heard even if she is potty trained she will regress back to diapers when the baby comes :)

Besides being excited about the baby, her favorite things lately are jumping (randomly and for no reason), singing and doing ring-around-the-rosy, playing with water outside, and loving on "her puppy" (Lili). She and Lili have become best-buds, meaning that riley is constantly hugging and kissing her, and Lili stays for it instead of walking away, or even seeks out riley's attention. Riley talks up a storm and can sing all the words to several songs now, but is still silent almost anywhere we go or when new people are around. She will talk to her friends at school, but doesn't really talk to teachers or other adults. They are working on getting her to be more talkative, but I don't think it's a big deal- I know she can communicate exceptionally well when she wants to. I love how she communicates about emotions so much too, and always is concerned if she thinks we are not happy (which will get us a hug, kiss, and the question- "Did I make you so happy? Are you happy now?") And it was quite amusing a few weeks ago when she told me she needed to "go cool off" for a few minutes, returning to say she was better now!

She is also learning incredibly fast- She has known her alphabet, counting 1-10, and colors for quite a while now, but she is starting to recognize a lot of letters and know what letters different words start with, she can count to 20 (though still missing numbers, and sometimes counts over 20!), and she actually counts objects now and can tell me how many objects are in a small set. She seems to be finally getting the one-to-one correspondence of counting, which is exciting! She is also amazing at puzzles (for her age, of course!). She has no trouble rotating puzzle pieces to figure out how they fit, and often does it by looking at the pieces rather than trial/error. She can build a 3x7 floor puzzle almost completely independently already! She needs some help on bigger ones, but can still fit many pieces together in small clusters on her own.

Riley is also incredibly interactive when reading books. I just recently noticed this, and it is so interesting! She will point out emotions of the different characters in the book, and talk about how their emotions change in the story. She points out when things are silly, and asks if she doesn't know what something is. She recognizes letters while we are reading, and while she obviously doesn't read or anything yet, she likes to point to the words and pretend to follow along, and likes to pretend to read books to me like a teacher, while pointing to words as she talks. We are actually not great about reading to her- we mostly only read to her at bedtime when she gets anywhere from 3-6 books depending on their length and the time. I do know she spends time on her own in the "library" corner at school, and they are read to a lot, so I guess that helps!

Okay I guess this was enough rambling- I feel so sad I don't write here much, and then feel like I need to try to think of everything I might want to remember in a few years when I do! I already feel like I left stuff out of my old posts when I go back and read them. Oh well... I'm sure there will be many memories that do stick! My goal now is to just try and take a lot more pictures than I have, starting with a new belly pic- hopefully to be posted soon :)

A couple quick pictures!

Recent pictures of the belly and baby beaver:

Some belly pics!

I don't know why it's so hard for me to update here with pictures, but it is. So here are a bunch of belly pics, some that I unfortunately took by myself while Mr. Beaver has been out of town.

May 22: 19 weeks

May 31: Almost 22 weeks

June 7:  21.5

June 8:  Almost 22 weeks...

(trying on a dress for a wedding- don't know if I actually got any pictures of me at the wedding??)

I'll try to remember to take one today and post it! The pictures are pretty kind- in person the belly is huge enough to get daily comments from coworkers about how much I'm showing already, and two people have made references to me carrying twins...

As a general pregnancy update: I am feeling fine other than feeling big and sad that I'm not working out at all. I found my yoga video from last time and am hoping to make that a nightly habit! Riley is very aware of the pregnancy and is constantly hugging and kissing the baby (aka my belly), and she agrees with me about exercise I guess... she told my family over dinner one night that "Mommy needs to exercise for the baby." But she is always saying silly things :)  Sleep has been rough because I am very congested, so I am pretty tired, but not to the point that I go to bed any earlier! I have not been eating any different or more than usual, no cravings just like last time. I am feeling plenty of movement now, which is great! Mr. Beaver even got to feel some hiccups last night which was fun. I haven't tried letting Riley feel yet, because I don't want her to get frustrated if she doesn't feel anything...I'm planning to wait until it's really obvious and more frequent. As you can see in the pictures, my belly button is super-out which is not much different from pre-pregnancy, thanks to the umbilical hernia that opened up when I was pregnant with Riley. I go back and forth about getting hers fixed when I see mine every day...

I am wearing maternity jeans, I don't really have much else besides long sleeves which aren't going to get any use this summer! Mostly I stick to my numerous sun dresses. Those are getting pretty short stretched over the bump, though, so I went out and got some capri-length leggings this week. I think I can make it through the summer with dresses, so hopefully won't really need maternity clothes! Luckily the maternity jeans still fit, even though my thighs and butt are much bigger this time around.

We had our "big" ultrasound a few weeks ago, and decided to be surprised by the gender again! I don't think we could've found out anyway- baby was very uncooperative, facing in and scrunching up the whole time. Luckily we were able to get all the necessary pictures and measurements for the doctor, though it was really, really painful at times when she was shoving the ultrasound wand deep into my sides and lower abdomen. Such a relief to hear the good news that everything looks great though!

Little Beaver update!

I don't think we can call her a baby anymore...

Riley is now a "big girl". I still call her baby all the time, and she doesn't mind it, but she is no longer a baby at all. Well, except during tantrums I guess, but that isn't often. She has full conversations with us, and I can't recall the last time that we had trouble figuring out what was wrong or what she was trying to ask or tell us. Her speech isn't the clearest still, but other people don't seem to have too much trouble understanding her, and we don't have much trouble at all. Her memory is also developing really fast these days! She learns paired associations so fast, and remembers them for quite a while. For example- she can now look at the book cover of "brown bear, brown bear" and recall the animal that goes with each color! She remembers where she puts things later in the day, and she holds us to every promise/bribe we give no matter how much time passes (e.g., I will negotiate, "we have to eat dinner and clean up, and then take a bath. We can read big sister after bath time." and the second she gets out of bath- "mommy, read big sister now!")

She is getting really good at playing with big kid toys now too- we've started putting together real puzzles, and she is great at finding pieces to go together and rotating them to make them fit. She put together a 24 piece floor puzzle the other day, with only help finding the right pieces! She can stack wooden blocks so high that she finally knocks them down herself because they don't fall on their own, and she likes to build stuff with her jumbo size legos (really they are huge- like 8x4x4"! expensive, but so cool!) Her favorite toy at the moment, though, is a wooden train set. She will put it together three or four times a day, all by herself. Every time, she holds up the box to us and says, "I need more tracks! I need the tunnel! I need the house!" and point to each of the pictures of additional parts you can order. It's funny, because she almost always uses the word want and not need in other situations, but apparently the train accessories are extra important. Luckily, she is still really good at stores and will put things away and leave without throwing a fit about wanting or needing anything (knock on wood I don't jinx it!).

We are just starting to work on potty training, and are being very casual about it- just asking if she wants to sit on the potty when we think of it, and talking about it a lot. She goes on the potty a few times a week, and has told us she needed to go several times (and then actually goes!). I guess we should get on top of it... She also knows when she needs to poop, and we can tell, but she doesn't want to sit on the potty for that yet. She does like to get the diaper off immediately, though. The other day we were too late- and when I came in the room there was an empty diaper in her hand, and poop on the ground. She said she went poop on the ground, but I am thinking she emptied her diaper on the ground. Either way, it was very gross.

Riley is also super excited about becoming a big sister. She talks about it whenever she sees other babies, and she often will come up and say she wants to kiss or hug or tickle the baby, and proceed to kiss/hug/tickle my belly. She also says she is going to help take care of the baby, by changing its diapers, reading it books, and singing it baby songs (when asked what a baby song is, she usually sings rock-a-bye baby, though she says she'll sing ABCs to the baby too). She also said that she will use the potty when the baby comes, so that the baby can have her diapers. She laughed at our silly name suggestions for the baby, and gave her own suggestions- Baby Saturday and Baby Florida :)  Her favorite book right now is "I'm a Big Sister", and she has most of it memorized and insists on reading it at least once a day. It is so sweet to see her happy about the baby!!

My friend wrote about wishing she had included more stories about her toddler, and I think it is a great idea! I have two that made me smile this week. One was this morning- I got up late, and Riley was already eating breakfast when I came out. We talked and got ready together and everything, and then I said, "I'm sad- I didn't get a hug from my Riley this morning!" And she looked at me so serious, and said, "You're sad? Oh no!" and she ran over and gave me a huge hug! She is very affectionate with hugs and kisses these days, and is always giving and asking for them. It is great! Another kinda silly story: I was rushing out with her to get her to school in time for breakfast (#2-she eats so much). I somehow closed the door on my thumb and cried out, and it was obvious I was in pain. Riley said, "Oh no, mommy got a boo boo? Riley will kiss it better!" and kissed it better and gave me a hug. Then I put our stuff in the car and was tightening the belt on her carseat and my thumb still hurt a lot, and I said "Mommy really hurt my thumb!" She said, "Mommy got another boo boo? Mommy hurt her thumb AGAIN?" And she burst out laughing at me,  I guess thinking it was hilarious that I hurt the same finger twice in such a short time. It seems silly now, but at the time I could not get over how funny this was. I guess it was just funny seeing how hilarious she thought the whole situation was. I could go on and on with funny stories about her, and stories about how sweet and caring she is, but I think this post has gotten long enough!!

I need to upload some new videos and pictures from my phone and camera, but here are a couple from a month or so ago:
Visiting the farm (we get to go every week now for our vegetable share!)

Video reading brown bear:

16 weeks tomorrow!

Here's a picture for 15 weeks:

And here's one from about 10 weeks: