Bumps

I'm finally starting to tell the differences in this pregnancy and my pregnancy with Nolan. When I was pregnant in 2009 I didn't have anything to compare it to, all I knew was that I was big and pretty uncomfortable throughout most of it. Little did I know that the second time around you are big, uncomfortable and exhausted from chasing after a toddler all day. 

Up until I did this side by side comparison I thought I was smaller then I was this far along in the first pregnancy, but I have been proven wrong. It doesn't help that I still have about 15 pounds of Nolan weight to drop but the bump is definitely bigger this time around. This is also around the time I started documenting the pregnancy on a scratch piece of paper I have dubbed 'Nolan's Baby Book'. I dug out this paper and thought it would be fun to do a side by side comparison of cravings, symptoms, etc to go with my side by side photos. So here we go!

Current Pregnancy:                                                              
Cravings - potato salad, licorice, and citrus juice.

Aversions - Chocolate seems to be giving me heartburn, I'm not giving it up without a fight though. Bell peppers taste really strange since getting pregnant, kind of soapy. This one is easier to avoid then the chocolate though.
              
Best Symptom - ability to fall asleep anytime, anywhere.
 
Worst Symptom(s) - I feel nauseous when I lie down, which only hinders my ability to sleep slightly. Also, my low blood pressure has been more of an issue this time around, causing me to feel lightheaded more frequently. Oh and when I wake up I feel like my hips are trying to pull apart, not fun!

Names we're considering - Levi, Henry, Oscar, Grant or Brooks

Most embarrassing pregnancy moment: I was sitting on the ground at Nolan's school and one of the dad's offered to help me up. I gladly took the assistance but I guess he underestimated my weight and instead I ended up pulling him down with me. Did I mention he's a full time firefighter? Yup, I took down a firefighter. Also swearing at my midwife when she drew my blood was pretty bad too. It really hurt though!


Nolan's Pregnancy:
Cravings - Rippled Sour Cream & Onion chips, anything sweet, and bacon.

Aversions - Onions, I couldn't stand the smell of them let alone the taste. This time they are wonderful!

Best Symptom - Getting out of grocery shopping because I felt nauseous every time I tried to go. I miss those days!

Worst Symptom(s) - Heartburn that kept me up at night and having very swollen hands and feet. (I am happy to report that I haven't had too much problem with this yet, in fact I'm still wearing my wedding rings, something I couldn't do at this point in pregnancy #1).

Names we considered: Henry, Miles, Philip or Benjamin/Bennett.

Most Embarrassing pregnancy moment: The pregnancy was pretty embarrassment free(that I can recall, if anyone has a story I have blocked out, please share) so I'm defaulting to the post pregnancy horror of having to have my wedding rings cut off when I tried to put them back on too soon after giving birth. This incident also involved...firefighters as I had to go to the fire station to have them cut it off. I'm sure there is a file on me out there with all the horrifying things I have done in their presence. Oh yes, there are more then just these 2 moments - one involving me passing out in the arms of a fireman when I was in high school. And if you're thinking how romantic this all sounds, I'll tell you it was not cute...I was mortified. A story for another time perhaps.

Back to pregnancy. I have to share this little gem of Nolan touching my belly while Pat tried to get a good pic of me. He isn't super aware of what is happening, which is fine with us. He does seem to be slightly disappointed that I can't wrestle with him like I used to and that he can't sit on my (ever shrinking) lap when we read stories. But we have adjusted and other then the occasional attempts to sit on top of the belly he has handled everything very well.

Daddy Time

Pat hates having his picture taking and hates it even more when I post pictures of him. The good news is that I don't think he reads this blog very much so hopefully he will miss it entirely. But if it suddenly disappears...you'll know why.

Nolan has always loved his Papa but he just recently discovered how fantastic he really is. I don't know if it's been their shared interests in all things sports related or that Nolan discovered Pat gets to drive a forklift at work.

Either way he thinks Pat rules the world and tells me all about how he and daddy are going to drive trucks together when he's big.

I love that they are developing shared interests and that Nolan wants to be a mini Pat. It leaves me time to sew! :)

Offloading the iPhone

A lot of these were posted on Facebook but are just too cute not to share here too.

Indoor sandbox fun!

Nolan's first Bowling game.
Nolan and Cortez enjoying the morning sun.
And quite possibly the cutest rendition on the Itsy Bitsy Spider ever. This is the lesser known second verse the Great Big Hairy Spider, sung by Nolan to the spider he found on his toy box.

Springtime

Nolan has been aching to splash in our Seattle Springtime puddles for weeks. So one cloudy Saturday when I asked Nolan what he wanted to do, he simply said splash. I threw on his boots and rain coat and off we went.

He started out a little timid...

But he figured it out.

That boy loves his water!

Potty Training Interupted

Nolan has been potty training for about the last month. He started out really well. I bought him some fun cloth training pants (I had to take a picture the first time I ran them through the laundry, it was monumental in my head somehow) and after a few days of accidents he was staying dry.

We had quite the routine down and he seemed to enjoy it. He sits on the potty.

Go potty.

Wash hands.

Gets his big boy reward, 3 chocolate chips along with lots of hugs, high fives and sometimes a phone call to daddy for some extra praise. It was fun when he started yelling "chocolate chips!" when he would go pee. Super cute when we were at home, somewhat mortifying when we were in public restrooms.

I was about ready to call Nolan potty trained when we started having slip ups last week. He started having more accidents and acting out, which is not like him at all. I don't know if it was the switch from traditional diapers to the pull up kind (that we were stilling using at nighttime) or just that he grew tired of the process. Either way, I reluctantly backed off and have let him lead the way. He is now back in diapers during the day and going once or twice on the potty. I'm struggling to keep my cool on this one as we were doing so well! Hopefully in a week or two he will want his big boy underwear back on and we can start again, sigh!

Big News! A few weeks late.

I finally got around to checking out our blog and realized that I skipped this post from our last ultrasound. So here it is, almost 4 weeks late. Just act surprised! :)

We had our big ultrasound on Monday morning (March 19th) and found out that the next little Clingman will be a boy! At first he was feeling a bit modest and had his legs crossed but he eventually woke up and showed us the goods. I made her check again (and again) just to be sure. I can verify that he is 100% boy.

We went to a new ultrasound clinic and really enjoyed it. They have super high tech equipment so we got to see each little bone and even watched his heart beating over infrared technology (or at least that is what I think she called it, you could see the blood go in and out of his heart valves). Everything looked great though and we are right on track to meet this little guy in Mid August.

Nolan came with us and did really well considering we were in a little room with lots of buttons and machines he wasn't allowed to touch. Pat kept him pretty distracted but every once in a while he would point to the screen and proclaim it was "baby sister." We broke the news to him that it is actually a baby brother but he hasn't changed his tune yet, still calling the baby "sister."

The hardest part, besides that whole pesky labor thing, will be naming this boy. We have a few front runners already but Pat and I can't seem to agree on a middle name. Pat bounces between very traditional names like Matthew to very bizarre like Buffalo, seriously that was one of his suggestions. I think it's great that after 10 years together I still can't tell when he's being sarcastic or serious. He said it was after a band or something? I chalked it up to our generation gap and DID NOT add it to the list. For the record, I want you to know that if daddy had his way you would be Grant Buffalo Clingman...you're welcome son!