30 Weeks Today!

Since I haven't been posting belly shots much this pregnancy, I figured I'd give a little photo update.




Abigail wanted to be apart too! :-)

Baby Update:

She's approximately 3 lbs. and 15.7 inches long. (About the weight of a cabbage, if you're wondering.)

She is pretty much all formed and ready to meet us, she mainly just needs to gain a few more pounds and strengthen her little lungs some more.

There have been a couple times now that I've noticed her having hiccups. Abigail used to get those ALL the time in the womb and got them frequently as a newborn. So cute!

We are slowly getting things ready for her to arrive. We ordered and received her crib in the mail this past week and Kyle set it up in our bedroom for her (I'm not quite ready for her and Abigail to share a room yet! Haha). Pictures to come once we get the bedding. :-) I also went to Target this week to work on my registry for her. Some sweet friends from church are throwing us a little diaper shower in a few weeks. So excited to celebrate this new life! :-)

A few weeks ago there was a $1 sale at our local children's consignment shop and I was so excited to find a bunch of summer outfits for Baby Girl!







We have also had friends lend us some summery outfits. Sadly, most of Abigail's clothes will not work for Baby Girl since they are completely different seasons. It is so much fun seeing little summertime newborn clothes though! I can't wait to see her wearing them!

We have also been given a new double stroller and are so incredibly thankful for it! We are already making use of it when Abigail and a friend go out on a playdate together!




It's a Combi Twin Sport and I love it!



It folds up so nicely to fit in our trunk.



Here Abigail and her buddy Laedin are taking a stroll in it. :-)
We are so grateful for the Lord's provisions so far for this baby! It's amazing how much stuff you need for a second child when they are close in age! I am so very happy though that Abigail and Baby Girl will be so close (17 months apart, if you're wondering.). I hope they will be best friends for many years to come!

A Little Update

Today has been a day of much rest and relaxing for this Mama. Last night I hardly slept as I tossed and turned in bed; back aching, stomach aching miserably, cramps, etc... We're still not exactly sure what all has been going on but think it is the mix of either food poisoning or a little bug upsetting my tummy and making me sick, plus overdoing it this past week and weekend.
When you have an energetic toddler (and you babysit a 5 month old baby full time), it's hard to get in the rest that a pregnant mother's body is screaming for. However, after this weekend of increased cramping and soreness, Kyle and I have realized that I need to take a few steps back, cut out a few things from my schedule, and focus on keeping this baby warm and cozy in my belly for the next 11 weeks.

With that bring said, I'm looking forward to scheduling in some lazy mornings at the park with Abigail, once the weather warms up again, and lots of relaxing mommy/daughter time before our family's world is rocked (especially Abigail's!) with the addition of sweet baby girl #2! I want to really savor these last few weeks of being able to devote most of my time and attention to Abigail and yet also try to help her cultivate an excitement for baby sister and the changes she will bring. I know that her little 14 month old mind cannot grasp baby sister's arrival but she does LOVE her baby dolls, walking around holding them on her shoulder, patting their backs, and saying "day-dee" with a big grin. So I think I will start to let her put her babies into the bouncer, crib, etc... to hopefully help her begin to grasp the concept of a baby in the house.

I have been so thankful for the last couple of months when I've had the opportunity to babysit a friend's little boy full time! I believe it has really helped Abigail get used to having a baby around as well as helped me see what life with two children is like. :-) Our friends are moving in a couple of weeks to take a pastoring job in another state though, so I will no longer be caring for their baby. He has been such a sweet little guy and we've loved getting to know him!
Abigail especially enjoys having him around! She loves to sit on his playmat next to him and hand him toys, his paci, etc... The first day she ever saw him blow raspberries was priceless! She looked up at me with a huge grin, as if to say "Did you see that, Mommy? That's so cool!!!" haha... She's in for a fun experience of being an older sister. I think she will do great and be this Mommy's little helper! I'm so grateful that we had a little girl first. :-)

Well, I better get to bed. I'm so very grateful for my sweet, caring hubby who took today off work so that he could help me while feeling sick! He is amazing and so loving! I could not be more blessed by the husband that God sovereignly chose to give me! I love you, Baby!!

Baby Update

So, with Abigail I updated my blog basically every single week while pregnant. Ha! :-) With this sweet, precious girl, I think this may only be my second or third post. Now I totally understand why my parents have way more photos of my older brother when he was a child than they have of me... good 'ol second borns! :-)

For the record, we are 27 weeks, 5 days along.

This pregnancy is not only flying by, but by God's grace, it has been a fairly easy/textbook few months. I had morning/day sickness up through 12 weeks, felt great during my second trimester, and now as we're about to enter our third trimester on Saturday, my only struggles are my exhaustion levels (which have shot up in the last 2-3 weeks) and my daily hip pain. I am so, so thankful for how much God has poured out His grace upon me during this time!

Our baby girl definitely moves around daily but I wouldn't say she is an excessive mover. In fact, her heartbeat has been consistently much lower than Abigail's ever was at our appointments (which made us think prior to our ultrasound that she just had to be a boy! haha). I am very interested to see what her personality is like and if she is more laid back than Abigail. :-)

Our next appointment, on Valentine's Day, will be when I take my glucose test and it will also mark our transition in appointments to when I start seeing our midwives every 2 weeks, versus every month. This is a big appointment because it just shows how much closer we are to her birth! Yay! The thought of having a second little girl is so exciting for both Kyle and I!

I know Abigail is going to be a great big sister and just love her baby sister so much! It's fun to watch her interact with the little 5 month old boy that I nanny in our home. She just loves to sit next to him and read a book or bring him a toy or try to give him his paci. It's just adorable! Today, she saw him blow raspberries for the first time ever and she looked up at me with a huge grin. She thought he was doing something so cool! Haha... Of course, I have to keep a sharp eye on her around little babies because he zeal to love and nurture them as a little mommy sometimes gets the best of her! I was with a friend a few days ago and she had placed her little 4 month old baby girl on the couch while we were working on something. A minute later, we glanced over just in time to see Abigail pulling the baby down on the couch and about to try and pick her up around her waist and carry her like her baby doll! As we rushed to rectify the situation, both of us moms just burst out laughing! Abigail just loves those "da-dees"! It makes my heart melt!

Sorry I don't have any recent baby bump pictures to show you. I need to take some soon and post them. However, for now, I hope this updates finds you each doing well. Have a great day!

Preparing for Baby Girl #2

It's amazing how much more laid back we have been about baby girl number two coming! With Abigail, we had her crib within the first trimester, her room painted and had started decorating at the very beginning of the third trimester, and were taking birthing classes, watching videos/documentaries on labor, reading natural birthing articles, etc...

What have I done for baby #2? I've washed and put away a few clothing items that we have for her and started a registry.  :-) Oh... and should I mention that we are in our last week of our second trimester? haha!!!


So, today I decided that it is high time for me to begin pulling my thoughts together for the arrival of this little one and for this next labor and delivery! Sure, I've been brainstorming off and on... but it's time to take action!

One blog that is a continual blessing in my life is Passionate Homemaking! No matter what season I am going through, it seems that in just about every one, Lindsey, the author of the blog, has biblical words of wisdom for me. Childbirth is no different. So as I begin delving into my preparation, I have been, once again, gleaning from her wisdom. Enjoy these following links from her site:


Scriptural Encouragement For Preparing & Giving Birth
Embracing The Pain & Letting Go Of Fear In Childbirth
Homemade Natural Postpartum Care Kit
Practical Preparation for Postpartum
Preparing My Heart For Motherhood
Adjusting To Life With Two
Entertaining Littles With A New Baby - The comments offer great tips too!

It's fun to look back at our old family blog and see posts that I was writing while being pregnant with Abigail and even prior, as a new wife. Here is a link to a Pregnancy Resource blog I did in preparation for Abigail. Now, if I could just find that labor notebook I made last time, I'd be one step ahead! ;-)