22 Weeks with Baby #2

I realized as we headed out of town last Monday that I hadn't completed my 22 week post (pic was taken a week ago today), so please pretend that this isn't a week late. Tom has started the whole "omg, you're huge" comments which always crack me up. I have a feeling we're gonna get a whole lot more "huge"!

How Far Along: 22 weeks on 12/21

Size of baby: 11", length of a spaghetti squash. And guess who now weighs almost a full pound?! Baby is growing!

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Guessing maybe 4 lbs by now, but not exactly sure. Actually maybe 5 lbs after all the holiday food goodness this past week. 

Maternity Clothes: Yes, for church otherwise living in comfy-I-am-a-stay-at-home-mom clothes! It's a dream! Also placed an order for a maternity swimsuit...headed to the water park this weekend and we definitely want to keep it classy, not trashy. Really hoping it fits!

Gender:  I love hearing people's guesses. I'd say it's about 50/50 boy or girl so far? Actually, maybe a few more boy guesses.

Movement: Yes! I just love it! I felt the baby for the first time at 16.5 weeks and Tom felt the baby at 17 weeks. It never ceases to amaze me!

Sleep: Fabulous. Gwendolyn is sleeping better and in her crib and I have been sleeping straight through.  

What I miss: Being able to take Advil for back pain and headaches. Tylenol is so weak.

Cravings: Back to basically not craving anything, but my love of coffee has returned and it tastes wonderful!

Symptoms: The headaches went away for a short while, but they randomly returned last week. Like throbbing headaches. Could it have been the increase in sugar? I'm wondering...

Also, ligament pain is no fun. I'll spare you the details of other symptoms.

Best moment this past week: Celebrating Christmas with Gwendolyn was so awesome this year (and we have one more Christmas this coming weekend!) She gets so much more excited and can open her presents and say thank you and give hugs and loves Santa and just all of it was a blast. Next year with two will certainly be different, but if she loves Elmo so much, how much more will she love her own real-life baby doll?! I can't wait to see her as a big sister.

November in Pictures

November came and went quickly, like what seems to be the pattern in this life. We enjoyed the warmer than normal temps, music class, library time, play dates, photo shoots, and Thanksgiving with my side of the family down in Charles City.

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Gwendolyn is very funny with her cooking and organization. Ha. This was back in the day when baby doll (crazy-haired troll doll) and Elmo went every.where.with.her. Now it's typically pink "bear" (seen below) or a different baby doll and troll baby doll and Elmo stay in her crib. She likes to switch it up.

We did lots of "in studio" shoots here at our place and of course needed a model to test the lighting and such each time. She's finally more cooperative than she used to be. That's a big YAY from this photographer mommy who really wants her child to sit still and look at the camera!

 For whatever reason, she often "wears" her socks, pants, shirts, etc on her hands and arms.

 Her "curls" after a bath.

I think she gets her love of carrying as much as possible from her mommy who hates making multiple trips. But seriously, this is totally normal around here. The girl loves putting things in things and carrying them around.

We had the Schwager girls and Ceci over for a play date before both of their mommies went into labor. It was a disaster around here, but the girls had fun and were so cute together.

We didn't know what either Amanda or Margie was having, which is always so much fun. Amanda had her third girl and..............Margie had the first boy in the club! 

Here are all of us pregnant (again!) Love it!

Introducing Ashlyn Grace Schwager! Such a tiny little adorable peanut.

She barely hit her head on the couch and almost immediately got the goose egg and it turned blue. Poor girl.

We've had some super fun play dates with girls and their kiddos who I've met through either the Mommy & Me class we used to go to and library story time. It's so great having other moms with kids Gwendolyn's age in the area. We love play dates!

Lunch time with friends.

Tom took her on a little adventure to go grab the mail. Who needs their own coat when you have daddy's...

I do love that my daughter is a good little helper. Here she is cleaning up her spilled milk. She'll even throw the paper towel away and amazingly enough her work passes inspection almost every single time.

Coloring is a favorite pastime. 

Thanksgiving in CC was exciting and busy, per usual. Gwendolyn enjoyed playing with her cousins, running around, and getting lots of attention and love. The food and company was fabulous and I always leave family gatherings feeling so thankful for my mom's side of the family who are all the most loving and funny and Christ-focused people! (My dad's side is great too, but being an only child, we just didn't spend as much time with his extended family.)

Gwendolyn with Great-Aunt Vicky. 

Just a few "Stauffers"! Love it!

Cousins! 

(My cousin's daughter, Taryn, who is holding Gwendolyn was the flower girl in our wedding.)

2012 Sinclair Family Picture since we didn't get one at the cabin this year.

Notice someone new? I have a new baby sister! Well, kind of. At least until May. She's from Brazil and is living with my parents through the school year. She's super sweet and loves her new nieces and nephews.

After our Thanksgiving celebration where I ate way too many Special K bars (you rock, Kristen) and Hawaiian Sweet Rolls, we went back to hang at the hotel where the boys and their families were staying. The water was cold and my pregnant body was exhausted from going non-stop for two days so I very willingly handed my daughter off to have someone else take her swimming. Knowing she'd probably be "all done" fairly quickly, this ended up being a wise choice *smile.

Wyatt loves his Auntie Sarah!

Gwendolyn adopted a new baby that Grandpa Sinclair picked up for her.

She was NOT happy when Wyatt took her baby away.

Building tall towers (and counting as we go) is one of our favorite things to do. Making them fall down and CRASH is really awesome too!

That about sums it up! Now we're gearing up for our Christmas travels and more time with family, and I can't wait to share pics from December in January! We've been having fun with Santa and parties galore. 

Hope you've got your shopping and wrapping done! My to do list is still pretty long, but I'm looking forward to a nice, relaxing weekend at home with my favorite people and I'm so thankful I decided to take this time off before Christmas. It's been much needed!

Enjoy the day!

Gwendolyn's First Haircut

We've been talking about getting Gwendolyn's haircut for awhile now b/c it was getting pretty stringy in the back and along the sides. Seemed kind of silly when she barely has any hair, but this memory-capturing Mama decided she wanted the "first haircut" experience so I made an appointment at Kid's Hair in Woodbury for this morning and I promised Tom I'd do the hair-cutting going forward. I just needed to watch and learn this one time, ya know? *wink.

Everyone takes 81 pictures at their child's first haircut, right?! I thought so. Phew. For a second I thought I was a bit crazy!

Without further ado..................

She didn't want anything too drastic so here she is discussing her style options and how much she wanted off...

She pretty quickly wanted the cape off. Like her mama, she doesn't like things tight.

Her snack bucket was always in hand.

Lookin' pretty good! And not to mention absolutely adorable!

She loves it!

Before and after (with layers, of course!)

I could not love this girl more. 

First haircut was a success!!

20 Weeks with #2

Are we really half way done?! We had accomplished so much by this point with Gwendolyn. We don't have nearly as much to do this time around since the baby will be sleeping in the guest bedroom in the pack-n-play, but I'd still like to go through the chaos that is the guest bedroom closet (taking any tips for organization and living in small spaces!) and just in general do some de-junking around the house and deep cleaning. 
We'll make it through the holidays and then tackle it.

I told Tom last night that this is my favorite stage. You're sleeping well, can still carry and have your toddler on your lap, showing and still feeling "cute" but not uncomfortable or huge yet, and can easily put on your coat, pants, socks and boots. What a breeze! Ha.

How Far Along: 20 weeks on 12/7

Size of baby: 6.5", length of a banana

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I had my midwife appointment on Tuesday and I'm only up 2 lbs. I'm not complaining, just a bit surprised! Although having the stomach bug last week probably didn't help. It took a good 4 days to get my appetite back.

Maternity Clothes: Yes, for church otherwise living in comfy-I-am-a-stay-at-home-mom clothes! It's a dream!

Gender:  I love hearing people's guesses. I'd say it's about 50/50 boy or girl so far? Actually, maybe a few more boy guesses.

Movement: Yes! I just love it! I felt the baby for the first time at 16.5 weeks and Tom felt the baby at 17 weeks. It never ceases to amaze me!

Sleep: Gwendolyn has been sick (horrible cough/ear infection) so we've been having slumber parties in the guest bedroom. I have a love/hate relationship with slumber parties with my 20 month old. She's so stinkin' sweet and little and adorable, yet it's not fun to get headbutted and kicked. We'll try the crib again tonight, but her cough makes her very sad. 

What I miss: Being able to take Advil for back pain and headaches. Tylenol is so weak.

Cravings: Back to basically not craving anything, but my love of coffee has returned and it tastes wonderful!

Symptoms: I have a headache almost every single day and legiment aches.

Best moment this past week: Seeing the most precious gift at our u/s appointment. Talk about amazing! I had looked forward to last Friday morning with great anticipation for weeks, and it was just as special with this babe as it was with Gwendolyn. It never gets old to see first hand the work of God, right?!

Coming in a semi-close second would have to be thoroughly enjoying cheddar biscuits (three of them to be exact) and snow crab legs at Red Lobster while Gwendolyn hung out with her daycare friends until 8 pm. Miss Kathy graciously offers a parent's night out to all daycare parents, and we love her even more for it!

Here's to the next 20 weeks of baby bliss!

A message from baby #2...

Hey guys,
I'm doing awesome! In fact, the ultra sound tech said I was "very photogenic" (awwwwww) on multiple occasions and was so impressed that I was allowing her to get pictures of things that I guess are pretty rare (like veins in my heart.) Which by the way, has four healthy chambers and is "pretty". Whatever that means. The compliments were flowing and mommy was crying with joy and daddy was busy keeping my big sister entertained and I'd say that everything went exactly as prayed and hoped for.

I have a cute profile just like my sister.

Am currently breech (plenty of time to turn, thankfully.)

My spine looks beautiful.

I even showed off one of my ears! 

Had my feet up by my head at one point.

I am measuring right on track - within a day of my due date!

I weigh 12 oz - really gettin' up there.

Mommy was a bit sad to see the monitor turn off b/c it means they more than likely won't get to see me again until the end of April. (As you may remember, she's a very emotional pregnant woman.) Thankfully this appointment gave them lots of great pictures to look at in the meantime. I'm not making any promises that I'll stay this calm and be so cooperative long term.

Until my birth day, Merry Christmas and PEACE!

Love,

Baby Barntsen #2