29 Weeks

Technically I am a few days shy of 29 weeks in this picture but I'm pretty sure I haven't changed much. I'm feeling good overall and I feel great about the fact that I found out that I am 10 pounds lighter than I was at this point in my last pregnancy. Woo hoo!! I guess the exercising is working. That, and having a toddler to run around after has certainly been a factor. 


DJ and I got a huge wake-up call at my last doctor's appointment when we found out that I will now start going to my appointments every 2 weeks, as opposed to every 4 weeks. Yikes! How did that creep up so fast??


Jayden has learned that pointing at my belly when we ask where baby sister is, is the right thing to do. Whether he actually knows what the heck we are talking about is another question. I have no doubt that he has no clue. But we are working on saying Ava and it is seriously the most adorable thing ever.


I am definitely feeling overwhelmed when I think of having two kids and I'm hoping it's just because we are having such sleep issues with Jayden right now and that it will end up being no big deal. But EVERYONE says that the biggest adjustment is from 1 to 2 kids and I am the kind of person that takes to heart what people say and that they know what they are talking about. So I'm not ignoring this apparently well-known fact. 


So I know it's going to be a big adjustment but I'm also just a little worried about HOW BIG. Like manageable, just more tired at night big? Crying lots of stressed tears every night big? OR like PPD big...?? (PPD = Post partum depression) I'll admit that the fact has crossed my mind that I was "slightly" overwhelmed when I had JUST a newborn to take care of (in addition to myself) but having a newborn AND a toddler...I'm just hoping that, by that time, 21 months of motherhood will have taught me a thing or two and it will be manageable. So before I go off on a big ol' tangent (I just started doing that and deleted a whole bunch of stuff), I will just say that I have 76 days (according to my phone app) to get my head in the right place for baby #2. 


Pray for me.

Bedtime Stories with Jayden

Every night for the past 5 weeks or so we've followed the same bedtime routine in an attempt to get Jayden to quickly and easily fall asleep. Part of the routine is reading the same books every night. The routine doesn't appear to be working but he sure is cute to watch as he reads his books. DJ and Jayden are reading one of his favorite books in this video. 

Bowling Montage

As I mentioned yesterday in my post, we took Jayden bowling for the first time on Saturday night. He had so much fun and we did too because of that fact! It's much easier to enjoy yourself (as all parents know and feel I'm sure) when your children are happily occupied. We let Jayden bowl quite a few frames as you will see from these videos. You have to listen carefully since they were playing really loud music but you can hear Jayden screaming in some parts, it's so funny. He also does some dancing. He was fascinated with the bowling balls and his favorite place to stand was right by the ball stand.

Notice how the ball is barely rolling down the gutter; that is where the ball often ended up for me and Jayden that night.

At the very beginning of this video is where you can hear Jayden screaming; you probably wouldn't guess that he could make such noises so I had to point it out. Ha ha

Birthday Recap and Other Weekend Activities

As you know from my last post, it was DJ's birthday on Friday. To "celebrate" I got Jayden from day care and went to DJ's work to surprise him with balloons and a special card made out of candy. We also put a little banner up on DJ's desk, which he promptly took off as soon as we left. He said he doesn't like the attention... I meant to take a picture of everything but I completely forgot, darn it! I did get a little video of Jayden playing with the balls though. It looks like he has a mullet but I promise his hair is just staticky. I find it particularly funny when DJ tries to calm it down but to no avail.

DJ was really surprised when we showed up and I think Jayden liked the deviation from his routine. That night I made special raspberry dark chocolate brownies for dessert. Mmmm. Surprisingly there are still some left over today!

We had a really fun time on Saturday as a family. We went swimming in the morning, came home and had lunch, took a good looong nap (or at least Jayden did) and then, because Jayden took such a long nap and didn't wake up till 4:30 pm, we decided to go bowling that night! I'll post a few videos of Jayden's first bowling experience tomorrow. He had a blast and by the time we bowled two games, we were all tired and ready for bed.

On Sunday we had plans to go to church in the evening because we had signed up to help with dinner cleanup (the church hosts a dinner every Sunday night for the college students) but I think the whole day's routine was thrown off since we didn't go to church in the morning. By the time we were about ready to head to church , DJ and I decided that only he would go because Jayden had only taken about a 30 minute nap earlier that morning, had woken up at 5:45 am that day and was starting to show signs of tiredness already at 4:00 pm. I had visions of a toddler screaming his way through church, on into dinner and well into the clean-up, and knew that I would feel horrible for keeping him up so late when he hadn't even napped, so unfortunately DJ had to handle clean-up by himself. Looking back, I have no idea what we were thinking even signing up for that particular event knowing that it would fall right around Jayden's bedtime. Now we know! So Sunday was a bit off but it was still a good day and it ended with McDonalds ice cream! Yum!

11 Step Program

DJ and I laughed so hard after reading this article that I thought I'd share it with you. This was much needed after an especially trying time getting Jayden to nap this afternoon. I hope you find some humor in it as well!


11 Step Program for Those Thinking of Having Kids

By the way, for those of you with no children, this is funny, yes. But also, so, so true.

Happy Birthday to DJ!!

Today is my wonderful husband's 28th birthday! Here are 28 reasons why I love him so much!

1. Makes me laugh
2. Has a sensitive soul
3. Great daddy to Jayden
4. Watches Jayden twice a week all by himself so I can work out
5. Has great hair
6. Is a very dedicated hard working employee
7. Is a great friend
8. Thoughtful with his advice
9. Willing to try something new with me
10. Enjoys watching a good movie with me on a Saturday night
11. Has a great smile
12. Loves to teach Jayden animal noises
13. Is athletic
14. Enjoys going to sports games with me
15. Loves to spend time together as a family
16. Is willing to change diapers
17. Forgives easily
18. Is patient
19. Is a safe good driver
20. Willing to go the extra mile for his family
21. Has sweet warm eyes
22. Smells soooo good
23. Knows how to just relax
24. Loves music, which his son seems to have inherited
25. Loves chocolate cake as much as me
26. Is technologically inclined
27. Is a good brother, son, cousin, nephew, son-in-law, brother-in-law, etc
28. IS OLDER THAN ME!!

I love you babe and hope you have a great birthday!! Jayden is a lucky boy to have you as a father!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DJ!!

Solo Flight

I flew solo this weekend as DJ went on a business trip to California and boy, was it an eye-opener! I have a whole new appreciation for my military wife friends! I guess, thinking back, this was my first time for more than one night by myself with Jayden (this time was technically 3 nights but I'm going to say 4 nights since DJ didn't get in till almost 1 am Monday morning) and although I was able to spend some great quality time with my boy, it was also exhausting. Especially because DJ's presence in the house seems to really soothe Jayden so without DJ, Jayden did not sleep very well at night, waking up about every 2-3 hours. I made sure to stay busy too on Saturday and Sunday so I wouldn't go crazy bored and Jayden wouldn't get restless but that also meant that I was worn out by the end of the day. So needless to say, I am so glad that DJ is home and I have a renewed appreciation for him and what he does around the house!


Here are some pictures and videos from this weekend! Also forgive the quality of the pictures and the fact that one of the videos starts out upside down... obviously I don't have a future in filmmaking since I can never seem to get the videos going the right direction!


We got out some new Legos for Jayden to play with. At first he wasn't really sure what to do with them and just wanted to put them back in the box but once I showed him how to stack them together, we had a lot of fun playing with them!

Jayden's "thing" lately is to sit in this chair and "rock rock". He is so cute sitting there all by himself but we are working on him only sitting and not standing up in the chair. I get these visions of him landing on his head and am trying really hard to avoid that!

This was nap time on Saturday after a very long attempt at getting him to go to sleep. Those 30-60 minutes that it takes to put him to sleep at nap and bedtime are almost more exhausting than the rest of the day put together! But this time he did finally go to sleep and ended up on top of all his stuffed animals.

Jayden LOVES his books these days and the book he is reading in this video is one of his favorites (again, so sorry it starts out upside down!!). He can sit forever just looking at this book and it's very helpful especially when I shower in the morning. He just sits on the bathroom floor reading, reading, reading.

We blew up a new ball and spent some good time playing with his balls. Jayden is too funny when he plays with this ball!