Baby #2: Weeks 31 - 32

31 weeks

Dates: May 6 - May 19, 2014

Highlights: I celebrated my third Mother's Day at the end of week 31. The boys got up early and made me a gourmet breakfast of dark chocolate waffles with whip cream and strawberries. Later in the morning, we headed down to my favorite grocery store in Austin, Central Market, and picked out all the fixings for a delicious steak dinner. We also visited the park in our old neighborhood (near Central Market) and marveled at how much Nicholas has grown since he last visited the park at just eight months old. At the end of week 32, we took a day trip down to San Antonio to look at a few cars (we're in the market for a new-to-us SUV), and although we didn't end up making a purchase, we were able to meet up with my good friend Anne and her husband and son for a fun dinner out.

Symptoms: My back is still killing me, and I've had to completely stop all unnecessary physical activity. An hour spent walking through Costco was excruciating and landed me on the couch with a heating pad for the rest of the afternoon, so I've completely stopped walking or doing other types of exercise and I'm really trying to avoid lifting Nicholas as much as possible. Third trimester fatigue has also hit with full force. I feel like I have a huge list of stuff I want to accomplish before baby girl arrives, but I am struggling to find the energy or motivation to get it done.

32 weeks

What's Different: The back pain is definitely an unwelcome new symptom. I'm also starting to feel contractions multiple times every day. I can tell some of them are just Braxton Hicks, but some of them feel pretty legit. I didn't have much in the way of contractions with Nicholas before I was induced, so this is new. Hopefully this means I'll wind up making a little progress before I actually do go into labor.

What's the Same: My nesting instinct is rearing its head and I am definitely feeling the familiar pressure of a massive to-do list. This time around, it's less about baby prep and more about just getting our lives and household in order. 

What I Miss: I miss being physically active. I am getting to the stage of fantasizing about going for a run (which happened last time as well) and I've been assembling the perfect running play list in my head. It'll be a while before I hit the pavement again, especially because it will probably be about 103 by the time I'm cleared for exercise, but I'm looking forward to getting back into an exercise routine.

What I'm Looking Forward To: I'm looking forward to making our car purchase and crossing a bunch of other items off to-do list.

Baby #2: Weeks 29 - 30

29 (and a half) weeks at Fannie Mae Dees "Dragon" Park in Nashville

Dates: April 22 - May 5, 2014

Highlights: During week 30, we took a family trip to Nashville to visit one of my best friends from college and her family. This was our last hurrah before the little lady makes her debut in July-- and one of our first family trips somewhere other than home to visit our families-- and it was great to catch up with friends and explore a new city. I hadn't seen Camille since just before Nicholas was born, and hadn't seen two of her kids in even longer. Nicholas got along great with her three, and it was a nice "family moon" before our family dynamic changes again in two months.

Broadway Street in Nashville

Symptoms: Unfortunately, a new and really unpleasant symptom popped up in week 29. I have been experiencing a really strong, dull pain across my lower back that radiates out of the center of the base of my spine and wraps around my hips. I had three good workouts in week 28, so I'm not sure if I tweaked it while lifting weights, or if it's just due to overuse and lugging around a nearly 35 pound toddler on top of the weight I've gained, but it really hurts. Walking even short distances is difficult, and my lower back and hips are so stiff that I'm doing a serious pregnant lady waddle. Not fun. I'm using the heating pad and taking Tylenol, and hopefully it will clear up soon.

What's Different: This back pain is definitely new. The hip pain is also worse on my left side, and throughout my pregnancy with Nicholas, it was always on my right side. I'm still measuring two weeks ahead, but my last ultrasound confirmed she's only a little bit bigger than average.

30 weeks

What's the Same: Third trimester fatigue is starting to set in, just like last time. Happily, I once again got the all clear on the gestational diabetes front (thankfully! bring on more brownies... ), but, like last time, I've also got a case of pregnancy anemia. I'll be taking prescription iron from here on out.

What I Miss: Oh, the usual... nothing new to report here.

What I'm Looking Forward To: We've made good progress on baby girl's nursery. The paint is done, and now I'm looking forward to getting the crib touched up and reassembled (Nicholas left his mark in the form of bite marks all over the front railing), hanging the curtains, and starting on some of the fun decor.

Bluebonnets, Berries, and Bunnies

Our weather is quickly heating up, but before spring gives way to full fledged Texas summer I wanted to share some highlights from the past month. We had a good season for bluebonnets this year, so once again I participated in the grand Texas tradition of dressing my child up in nice clothes and then dropping him off on the side of the road somewhere so I could frantically chase him around with my camera. As to be expected with any two year old, I got about a hundred shots of the back of his head as he was running away from me, like so:

Fortunately, I  managed to get a couple decent ones where he was at least facing the camera.

A vast improvement over last year! Next year, a professional photographer may be in the cards.

We also made a little Saturday trek out to Sweet Berry Farms in Marble Falls to pick strawberries in mid-April. More berries probably wound up in his belly (or chucked out in the field somewhere - the boy will throw anything) than in his basket, but we had a great time. We picked enough to enjoy bowls of fresh strawberries with cream almost every night for a week, along with a grilled chicken and strawberry salad, strawberry shortcake, and strawberries in our cereal daily. And we have a big bag of washed and hulled strawberries hanging out in the freezer for some other strawberry treat whenever the mood strikes.

Quality control 

 Not so sure about that goat...

 Nope, still not interested...

Our little farmer

And, a few final pictures from Easter. Nicholas participated in an egg hunt at school and loved it. However, on Easter (after refusing to nap), he was exhausted and could not have been less interested in our little backyard egg hunt. (The lack of excitement and competition from other kids probably didn't help either.) We had to continually prompt him to go find the next egg, basically showing him where each one was "hidden." Some of the eggs contained a couple jelly beans and some contained stickers. He halfheartedly ate the jelly beans out of a few eggs, and then just dropped the stickers on the ground. 

Ready to hunt eggs at school!

With his buddies, Drew and Jack 

After Easter morning service

Eh, stickers

Oh well. He liked his Easter basket, and there's always next year for a more energetic egg hunt.

Happy spring!