Fully Cooked, 37 Weeks

Well she can come out any time now! Of course Johnny stayed in for another 4 weeks, so chances are it may still be a little bit...but she is fully cooked and will only get fatter from her on out!

We are in the last of the last stretch and we are feeling it! Momma is increasingly uncomfortable. I can no longer sleep in the bed, I have to sleep on the couch, and I am up to pee 3-6 times a night. I am almost never hungry, but always have heartburn. My back hurts, my hands and feet swell constantly and I think I could just keep going on with these complaints.

We had a midwife appointment yesterday, since they are now weekly! It was a mostly positive appointment. Lily is still doing great! She favors my right side and seems to have settled there, her heart beat was "happy" and everything is still right on track. My group B strep test came back positive. Which isn't a big deal, but I do have to have two doses of antibiotic during labor to make sure the baby gets some and won't have any problems with the bacteria after she is born. We talked a lot about labor and the midwife answered a bunch of questions I had just about what to pack and expect, I am getting more and more excited about using the labor tub! Grams and I decided that the gowns they give you at the hospital are ugly, so we are looking for a night gown to wear during labor and delivery or maybe making one.

At this point Lily's room is ready for a baby to come and live, but the rest of the house is not to my new baby clean standard yet and we aren't fully packed for the hospital. This week end we are headed to the Beach with the rest of the Dennisons for a Mother's Day mini vacation! I am really excited to see Johnny playing in the water and sand. Once we get home on Monday I can pack our Hospital bags and be all set. Though I feel confident that Lily will stay in there until our due date, still three weeks away, it is a little scary and exciting to think that any moment of any day I could go into labor!

Feeding the Ducks

Daddy took a very long week end of leave for Mother's Day and today was the start! We started off with an unplanned trip to the duck pond in Bel Air (we also had a midwife appointment, but there will be more about that tomorrow.)

We had basically an entire loaf of bread and the ducks snatched it all up! We where swamped with ducks and geese. Johnny really enjoyed so many ducks, he kept yelling "see ducks" and bouncing around waving his arms while laughing. Where we nervous about letting him near some of the ducks who where very pushy about getting the bread, he even got nipped once, but didn't care!

We found a family of ducks with "baby ducks" and Johnny became attached to them. Daddy feed the big ducks so they would leave Johnny alone to feed the baby ducks.

He followed the baby ducks around throwing as much bread at them as he could.

But any animal that would come close enough to him would get some bread. But any time the pieces of bread didn't get directly to the birds he would pick it back up and carry it to the ducks to make sure every last crumb was eaten up.

Even when we ran out of bread Johnny wanted to get close to the ducks. He would pick up anything on the ground, including leaves and sticks, and try to get the ducks to eat them. He didn't chase the birds like he does the cat at home, he walked very slowly and carefully up to every duck just to see how close he could get. I am so glad we just decided to stop last minute and let Johnny "see ducks." It was wonderful to see him so happy and excited about something so simple, I have over 60 pictures!

He has more then enough energy to spare, however he is still having bad diarrhea that he can't control. I have a hard time believing that one spoonful of milk yesterday morning can cause two days of horrible poo, my poor baby!

Lactose Intolerance MIGHT not be Temporary

Poor Johnny boy still seems to have diarrhea after three weeks! Around 11 this morning he was playing like a good boy in his Yoda underwear one moment and the next moment all Mommy heard was a splash as he stood up and there was water like poo all over the floor and him. Poor baby had no idea what to do. After getting him on toilet it just kept coming and the poor thing was bent over with tummy cramps, so we called the doctor again. Though we where in there just last week for this exact same thing, all of his tests where negative, no fever and a ton of energy, we still couldn't explain why he was still having this problem.

For the past week we have been really careful about his diet, giving him only easily digestible food and no milk or lactose to try and let his system build back up. But this morning Mommy let him have less then a spoonful of milk when he asked for a bite of my cereal and three hours later his system was in chaos again. Our doctor says he is the picture of health (and was very impressed with how intelligent he is!) So our only working theory is that he might be lactose intolerant, more then just the common after stomach flu issues. For the next three weeks we are too let him eat a normal diet, but give him lactose free milk and yogurt. He can have anything else! I truly expected to walk out of this appointment with a very strict diet in hand, but this seems simple enough. Whole 100% lactose free milk and lets see what happens. We have to take him back in a month so our doctor can check his weight, since technically he lost 9 oz this past week, aside from that being perfectly okay for a child his size, that difference could just be the difference between cloths or scales. But weight lose can be a key sign of something more serious, which our doctor was very doubtful of since up until Mommy messed him up he was doing better every day.

Yesterday I felt like the greatest Mommy ever...Johnny had only one accident (poo) and stayed dry all day, he was such a good and gentle boy at Grams and Pops house and was listening so well. And I managed to get a ton of laundry done and both kids rooms really clean. But toady has not been as good.

Another Hair Cut

So this is a picture I took of Johnny this morning and it convinced us it was time for another hair cut (that and Johnny's constant head scratching lately.)

Daddy also needed a hair cut so we all went to the Military Barber Shop on post. Momma was very nervous about this hair cut, his hair was so pretty and long and the curls where coming back. I was so scared he was going to look like a little soldier, and the hair cut made Momma very anxious. But the barber was very good and took his time, even when Johnny's patience ran out, he wanted Johnny to look as good as possible.

He left it long in the front like I asked, which makes Johnny look a little like a teenager, but still really cute.

Here I asked Johnny to blow the dandelion for Momma, but he had already learned that took too much work, so he just pulled them off.

He is a big boy! So grown up.

We spent the day shopping and preparing for Mother's Day and Johnny stayed dry all day long! So we got him this special Dinosaur Growth chart, which he didn't understand but was very excited about it.

On May 2, 2010 my baby boy is just over three feet tall! I plan on going back and putting a couple more height markers from the past two years, he has grown so fast.

USO Free Sesame Street Show

Sesame Street is a big supporter of the military and military families. Every year they offer 4 free tickets to Sesame Place for every military family and they have teamed up with the USO to create a special Sesame Street series, Talk, Listen, Connect, to helper younger kids deal with deployments and everything that comes with them.

May is the month of the Military Child and APG kicked it off with a free Sesame Street Live mini show here on post. It was only 45 mins long (which we thought was a perfect amount of time.) Cookie Monster, Grover, Rosetta, Zoe, and Elmo came and sang songs and played games for the kids. I was so nervous that they where going to do the Elmo's Daddy has to go away story line. For some reason (I blame pregnancy hormones) I was super emotional and started crying when they even mentioned it at the beginning. But thankfully it was just songs about being happy and making music.

Every kid that walked in the door was given one of these Elmo light up spiny toys, at the Sesame Street Live show they are at least $10 a piece. Johnny was very excited, especially after Mommy showed him how to make it work.

I think Daddy was excited too. Johnny is really starting to look even more like his Daddy!

We took Uncle Tommy, Aunt Natalie, Ella and Sammi. Sammi really enjoyed the show more then we thought she would. She watched the characters dance and smiled really big the entire time....and oh isn't she cute?

Ella sporting her USO bandanna and wishing that Abby Cadabby was part of the cast...sorry Ella.


As the characters came out everyone cheered for their favorite, of course we tried to get Johnny to yell and bounce for Elmo, but he tensed up, he was so excited and didn't know what to do with himself. Also it was near 90 degrees yesterday when we discovered that he has no short sleeve Elmo shirts! Aren't we bad parents!

He couldn't sit still, it was all so over whelming.

Sammi loved it when her Mommy made her dance.

Johnny loved it the most too when he was allowed to dance in the isle. But it didn't last long, since some parents started to rush the stage with their kids and where running frantically down the isles.

It was a nice experience that I think Johnny really enjoyed! I really love that Sesame Street and the USO went above and beyond to do this show here on our base. Makes you proud to be a military family.

Stomach Flu

I know it has been nearly two week since I lasted posted, but it has been a busy and yet calm couple of weeks. Johnny and Mommy both got the stomach flu last week and it was not fun. We spent days throwing up and having diarrhea and then days after that of fighting the diarrhea. I feels like it may never stop. Mommy is feeling much better, but Johnny's tummy is still bothering him. But here are a few pictures of our week.

We pulled out Johnny's tent that Grandma Sharon and GG got him for his 1st birthday and put it outside for him to crawl around in, he loves it!

We had one hot day the day before the flu hit our house so we tried out Johnny's little pool. He much more enjoyed the filling of the pool and less the playing in the water.

I just thought this was cute, playing with his little toes, my baby boy!

Recovering from a night of throwing up and and a morning of an upset stomach, watching Dinosaur Train.

Part of trying to get rid of the flu and make his tummy feel better is eating the BRAT diet...Bananas, Rice, Apples and Toast. Johnny decided to start eating his apples whole...core and all! Why wouldn't he, no one ever told him not too and why would I.

This was last night, just as we thought the flu was gone, Johnny got really sick again. This time he was bent over in pain and wanted to be held and soothed and had his worst poos ever. He didn't want to eat, he just wanted to go to bed, whimpering. After a quick trip to the doctor this morning we are gathering some samples of his poo and cutting out lactose. It appears that I gave him milk too soon after the flu and his tiny tummy wasn't ready to process it yet, but the samples are just to make sure it is nothing more serious.

Because of our flu invaded house we haven't been doing much more then recovering. Potty training was going amazingly before the flu hit and he regressed a little needing to wear a diaper on and off. But we have been trying to go back to undies and sit on the potty as much as possible. I would say he is mostly potty trained, he knows what to do and when to do it, but the diaper confuses him...but it is either that or me scrubbing poo of the couch...which did happen this week. We look forward to a calm week end and finally moving past this horrible poo flu!

35 Weeks and all is Right on Track

Just a quick Lily update. Our due date is very rapidity approaching and we are getting more excited and more nervous every day! We had our big 35 week check up today, so we all went to the midwife appointment together. After an exam we now know that Mommy is not dilated, but beginning to soften, which means we will probably get to our due date, but we are right on track. We had to have an ultrasound to make sure Lily was head down and in the right position...which she is! No more breached baby fears! So in short everything is going great!

This past week end Shawn and I went to our birthing class together. It was a wonderful experience. I felt like it brought Shawn and I closer and laid out what Shawn's roll will be during labor and helped us make plans for the event. Everything is starting to get real and it is hitting me that labor is getting closer and closer and I am really going to have to do this again, oh crap! I started freaking out again. We are planning on going more natural then we did with Johnny, avoiding induction or pitocin or any pain medication at all. Actually the hospital now has a labor tub suite that I have requested, so we plan on using hydrotherapy to help with the pain. But up until today it was all just a distant plan, today it became real and next week when I hit 37 weeks I will be considered full term! and ready for her to come out at any time. As a good labor partner and daddy to be Shawn helped me out a lot today reminding me that I handled labor and delivery just fine last time, when I had little idea of what to expect. With a second baby everything in my body knows and is prepared to do it all again. Labor is suppose to go quicker and be easier, we can do this! It is only a day or two out of a life time we will have. And after we will have our Lily girl and our family will be whole. I can't wait for Johnny to meet his little sister!